RTHK: Sri Lankan leader finally quits, from Singapore

Sri Lanka's president submitted his resignation shortly after reaching Singapore on Thursday, the parliamentary speaker's office said, days after the head of state fled protests triggered by his country's worst-ever economic crisis.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa's emailed resignation would be examined before a formal announcement  expected on Friday  is made, the speaker's spokesman Indunil Yapa said.

Rajapaksa fled Sri Lanka on Wednesday, after protesters overran his palace on the weekend, heading first to the Maldives and then Singapore.

"The authenticity and the legality of the e-mail will have to be checked out" before being formally accepted, Yapa said.

Rajapaksa would be the first president to resign since Sri Lanka adopted a presidential system of government in 1978.

A small but jubilant crowd, some waving the national flag, danced and chanted in celebration outside the presidential secretariat as news of the resignation broke.

"This is a monumental victory," said protester Harinda Fonseka. "But it is only a first step."

Under Sri Lanka's constitution, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe  whose resignation is also being demanded by protesters  would automatically become acting president until parliament can appoint a successor.

Rajapaksa, his wife Ioma and their two bodyguards arrived in Singapore from Male on board a Saudia airline flight.

As president, Rajapaksa enjoyed immunity from arrest, and he is understood to have wanted to go abroad before stepping down to avoid the possibility of being detained.

The former Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed is believed to have played a behind-the-scenes role in getting him out of the country, and said Rajapaksa feared he would be killed if he remained.

"I believe the President would not have resigned if he were still in Sri Lanka, and fearful of losing his life," Nasheed tweeted. (AFP)

This story has been published on: 2022-07-15. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
By J. Keeler Johnson ("Keelerman") Twitter: @J_Keelerman

Summer is here, and so is racing at Saratoga. The beloved New York race meet kicks off on Thursday, and the first of many Grade 1 race on the agendathe $500,000 Diana S. (G1)is slated for Saturday.

The 1 1/8-mile turf test for fillies and mares has been dominated in recent years by trainer Chad Brown, who won five straight editions from 2016 through 2020. He also picked up first prize in 2011, giving Brown half a dozen Diana winners from the past 11 years.

Chances are, Brown will pick up a seventh Diana victory on Saturday. Four of the six entrants are conditioned by Brown, and they comprise a formidable quartet. All four are graded stakes winners with encouraging credentials to offer.

First off, there's #1 Technical Analysis, a gate-to-wire winner of the Gallorette S. (G3) at Pimlico two months ago. The four-year-old daughter of Kingman brings a lot of tactical speed to the table and is 2-for-2 over the Saratoga lawn, having employed pacesetting and tracking tactics to nab the Lake Placid S. (G2) and Lake George S. (G3) here last summer.

But Technical Analysis isn't the only speedy filly in the Diana field. In addition to the Al Stall trainee #5 Dalika, the pacesetting runner-up in the Mint Julep S. (G3) at Churchill Downs last month, Technical Analysis' own stablemate #6 In Italian figures to be prominent early. The improving four-year-old has carved out the pace in four of her last five starts, wiring the Honey Fox S. (G3) at Gulfstream during the winter and most recently coming home third in the one-mile Just a Game S. (G1) at Belmont.

A contested pace in the Diana could play to the strengths of Brown's #4 Rougir, who unleashed a sharp rally from behind a slow pace to win the 1 1/16-mile Beaugay S. (G3) at Belmont two starts back. Winner of the 1 1/4-mile Prix de l'Opera (G1) in France last fall, Rougir disappointed over the same trip in the New York S. (G1) at Belmont last month, finishing fifth as the odds-on favorite. But Rougir was only beaten two lengths while attempting to close into a pedestrian pace, so with quicker fractions in the Diana, she's eligible to rebound under hot jockey Flavien Prat.

But the most formidable of all the Brown trainees is surely #3 Bleecker Street. The unstoppable four-year-old is undefeated in seven starts, including four consecutive graded stakes wins. After rallying to flashy scores in the Endeavour S. (G3) and Hillsborough S. (G2) at Tampa Bay Downs, Bleecker Street produced a fierce rally between rivals to overcome a slow pace and win the Modesty S. (G3) at Churchill Downs by half a length.

These efforts preceded a sensational victory in the New York S. (G1), in which Bleecker Street trailed the slow pace for much of the journey before accelerating the final quarter-mile in a freakish :21.70 per Trakus to get up and defeat a deep field (including the above-mentioned Rougir) by half a length.

Bleecker Street doesn't know how to lose, and her brilliant turn-of-foot has gotten more impressive with every start this season. The only time she caught a quick pace this year, she obliterated the Hillsborough by 3 3/4 lengths, so I'm optimistic a quicker tempo in the Diana will help Bleecker Street deliver her most impressive victory to date. Under three-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey Irad Ortiz, I expect to see Bleecker Street visit the winner's circle again on Saturday.

Completing the field is the Godolphin homebred #2 Creative Flair, whose trainerCharlie Applebywon this race in 2021 with Althiqa. Creative Flair has already run twice in the U.S., finishing third in the 1 3/16-mile Saratoga Oaks (G3) and fourth in the 1 3/8-mile Jockey Club Oaks last fall. Both races featured modest pace fractions, and it's possible the distances were a bit farther than Creative Flair wants to run. She was a nice winner of the 1 1/8-mile Balanchine S. (G2) to kick off the year in Dubai, so if she encounters a quick pace while sticking to the same distance in the Diana, I can envision Creative Flair landing a top-four finish.

Selections

1st: Bleecker Street

2nd: Rougir

3rd: Technical Analysis

4th: Creative Flair

Now it's your turn! Who do you like in the Diana Stakes?

*****

Want to test your handicapping skills against fellow Unlocking Winners readers? Check out the Unlocking Winners contests pagethere's a new challenge every week! (Please note: older contest entries can be found here.)

J. Keeler Johnson (also known as "Keelerman") is a writer, videographer, voice actor, handicapper, and all-around horse racing enthusiast. A great fan of racing history, he considers Dr. Fager to be the greatest racehorse ever produced in America, but counts Zenyatta as his all-time favorite.
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.
The Hill

The Trump Organizations chief financial officer is coming close to reaching a plea deal in a case investigating whether he funneled off-the-books income to himself and other executives at the company, but the potential deal reportedly does not bring prosecutors any closer to their main target: former President Trump. The New York Times reported Monday,
An Independence man was sentenced Friday for the fatal shooting of a 71-year-old woman, who police believe was mistakenly targeted.

Dakkota Siders, 28, was accused of shooting and killing Barbara J. Harper in January 2019, the Jackson County Prosecutors Office said. He was convicted of second-degree murder, armed criminal action, unlawful use of a weapon and possession of a firearm.

Kansas City police responded to reports of an injured driver at 3 a.m. on Jan. 16, 2019, near Interstate 70 and the I-35 entrance ramp.

When they arrived, officers found Harper dead in her car from a gunshot wound. Holes from gunfire were in the headrest of the passengers seat. Both the drivers seat window and the passengers seat window were broken and shell casings were found near the road, according to court records.

Surveillance obtained from city cameras showed another vehicle speeding behind Harpers car. Her car was seen swerving into a guardrail and gunshots could be heard, court records said.

Shortly after, the vehicle behind her was seen exiting Interstate 70 onto Harrison Street.

Two gunshots were heard in another video of the scene obtained by police, according to court records.

Police identified the license plate number of the vehicle trailing Harpers car and traced it back to Siders home.

As police continued their investigation, they found shell casings fired at a shooting at the Shady Lady on East 12th Street shortly before the highway shooting matched casings from the homicide. Police believe Harper was mistakenly targeted by Siders following the disturbance at the Shady Lady.

At the Friday sentencing hearing, Harpers brother John Edmonds said they had planned on visiting their sick sibling in Michigan before she died.

Barbara loved to laugh, could tell a good joke and had a love of life, Edmonds said.

A Jackson County judge sentenced Siders to 30 years for the murder conviction, five years on the armed criminal action counts and 15 years on the weapons charge, to be served concurrently.

An attorney for Siders did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Paul Urey was an employee of a humanitarian organization

At the same time, the International Legion denied the Kremlin propaganda statement that the man had allegedly been a "military mercenary" and took part in hostilities.

Read also: Spanish national dies fighting in Ukraine

"We have been deeply saddened to learn about death of Mr. Urey," the press service of the International Legion told Interfax-Ukraine.

Read also: Brazilian volunteer fighter killed in Ukraine

"We would like to clarify that he was not a member of the International Legion. He did not fight for Ukraine. He was an employee of a non-profit Presidium Network."

The serviceman was captured at one of the checkpoints of the so-called "DPR" ("Donetsk People's Republic") in Zaporizhzhiya Oblast in April while helping evacuate a family of refugees.

According to Kremlin propaganda, Urey's death was allegedly caused by "disease and stress."
The funeral for Jayland Walker was held at the Akron Civic Theatre in Ohio. (Phil Masturzo / Akron Beacon Journal)

Jayland Walker, the 25-year-old Black man who died last month at the hands of police in Akron, Ohio, was shot dozens of times, with 26 bullets recovered from his body, according to a preliminary autopsy report released Friday.

Dr. Lisa Kohler, the Summit County medical examiner, said it was impossible for her office to say which bullet killed Walker or the number of shots that were fired.

Walker had very devastating injuries that would cause death, including wounds to his heart, lungs and arteries, Kohler said. She tallied 41 entry wounds and five wounds from bullets that grazed Walker.

Preliminary findings released earlier indicated Walkers body had more than 60 wounds. Greta Johnson, Summit County communications director, said Friday it was very possible that one bullet could cause multiple entrance wounds.

Walker had five wounds in his back, but its impossible to say whether those came as he ran away or turned as he was being shot, Kohler said.

The medical examiner gave a summary of the report from the inquiry into Walkers death at a news conference. The report was finalized Thursday.

The June 27 pursuit began when officers tried to pull Walker over for equipment violations. Authorities say Walker fired a gunshot from his car 40 seconds into the chase.

Kohler said that no illegal drugs or alcohol were detected in Walker.

The medical examiners findings confirm that Walker, unarmed and with no drugs or alcohol in his system, came to a brutal, senseless death, said Ken Abbarno, a lawyer representing Walkers family.

A message seeking comment on the autopsy findings was sent Friday to a spokesperson for the police department.

The update comes a day after the NAACP made a direct plea to Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland for the Justice Department to open a federal civil rights investigation into the shooting death.

Police said Walker fled an attempted traffic stop for minor equipment violations and fired a shot from his car during the vehicle chase, but he wasnt armed when officers shot him.

Story continues

Police body-camera footage shows Walker wearing a ski mask, jumping out of the front passenger door of his still-moving car and then running into the parking lot where police opened fire. The blurry footage does not clearly show what authorities say was a threatening gesture made by Walker before he was shot.

An unloaded handgun, an ammunition clip and what appeared to be a wedding band were found on the front drivers seat of Walkers car, authorities said.

The officers involved are on paid leave while the state investigates the shooting. Seven of those officers are white, and one is Black. The Police Department said none of them has a record of discipline, substantiated complaints or fatal shootings.

The local police union has said that the officers thought there was an immediate threat of serious harm and that it believes their actions and the number of shots will be found justified in line with their training and protocols.

Police in neighboring New Franklin Township had tried to stop and then chased a car matching Walker's for the same minor equipment violations less than 24 hours before the Akron chase. A supervisor there called off the pursuit when the car crossed the township's border with Akron.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Bandar Aljaloud/Saudi Royal Palace via AP

With a rap of his knuckles, President Joe Biden broke one of the most straightforward promises that he made on the presidential campaign trail: to make the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia a pariah over the state-coordinated assassination of a journalist in 2018.

Hes not sure why you think its such a big deal.

God love youwhat a silly question, Biden said in response to a reporters question about whether he could guarantee that Saudi Arabia wouldnt target another critic in the future. How could I possibly be sure of anything?

Bidens decision on Friday to fist-bump with Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince and de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia who U.S. intelligence agencies believe personally ordered the murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, outraged critics of the regime, from Khashoggis family to his former employer.

Hey @POTUS, Is this the accountability you promised for my murder? tweeted Hatice Cengiz, Khashoggis fiancee, from a Twitter account under her late partners name. The blood of MBSs next victim is on your hands.

Fred Ryan, the publisher of the Washington Post, which employed Khashoggi, called the exchange shameful, and a display of intimacy and comfort that delivers to MBS the unwarranted redemption he has been desperately seeking.

Biden laughed when informed that the fist-bumpwhich came after days of debate over whether he would shake the autocrats handhad ignited so much criticism, although he said of Cengizs remarks that Im sorry she feels that way.

Joe Biden Set to Meet Pariah Mohammed Bin Salman Personally After Saying He Wouldnt

I raised it at the top of the meeting, making it clear what I thought of it at the time, and what I thought of it now, Biden said of Khashoggis murder, pledging to always stand up for our values.

The crown princes response, Biden noted, was to deny his own personal responsibility for Khashoggis murder at the Saudi embassy in Turkey four years ago.

Story continues

He basically said that he was not personally responsible for it, Biden said, and he took action against those who were responsible.

Biden was already facing increasing criticism for his decision to meet with bin Salman at all, particularly given his longtime criticism of Saudi Arabias human rights abuses both domestically and abroad. But the global fuel crisis ignited by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February has sent oil, food and energy prices soaring, and the meeting was intended to help reengage with the region as China seeks to expand its sphere of influence.

My views on Khashoggi have been absolutely, positively clear, Biden said at the outset of his five-day trip. The reason Im going to Saudi Arabia is to promote U.S. interests in...[and] to reassert our influence in the Middle East.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.

Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now.
The Numbers Band, Kent and Akron's legendary experimental blues/rock band, will play the Venice Cafe in Kent during the Kent Blues Festival from 8:30-11:30pm.

Music fans from all over Northeast Ohio will be singing, dancing and more as the 13th annual Kent Blues Fest takes place on Saturday at venues all over Kent.

The popular festival will offer free live music by more than 30 acts at more than 20 locations in the city of Kent, including restaurants, bars, bookstores and outdoor parks.

More: Benefit to aid Kent couple burned in fire, explosion during Mother's Day camping trip

More: Bent Tree Coffee in Kent moves roasting operation to renovated factory on N. Mantua Street

Patrons can enjoy a wide variety of blues and roots music, including old-school and contemporary blues from veterans and newcomers, soulful and danceable R&B, soaring vocals, country blues, classic harmonica tunes, classic rock blues, and of course, guitars galore.

Franke Starr with Natalie Stamper will perform during the Kent Blues Festival They will play at North Water Brewing Co. from 7 to 10 p.m.

This year the blues fest is an all-day affair, said spokesman Bob Burford. It starts at 12:30 p.m. and goes till midnight.

Featured performers include:

Blues harp master Wallace Coleman, known for his many years with Robert Lockwood Jr, and widely regarded as a postwar Chicago Blues premier torchbearer, recognized for his soulful, rich-toned and innovative harmonica sound.

The Numbers Band, Akron/Kents legendary experimental blues rock band

Acclaimed Cleveland veteran bluesman Bob Frank will make his festival debut.

The Eric Clapton tribute band Evolution features hits from The Yardbirds, The Blues Breakers, Cream, Blind Faith, Derek & the Dominos and Claptons solo career.

We are thrilled to be marking the 13th anniversary of this event, thanks to the support of the Kent and Northeast Ohio community, and the city, said Mike Beder of the Crooked River Arts Council, which produces the festival. The Kent Blues Fest is our flagship event, and its the biggest music festival held here. And, as always, its all free, thank to our generous sponsors.

The complete schedule, artist bios, a venue map and much more are at the blues festival's website.

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Kent Blues Fest comes back to various city venues on Saturday
By Yiming Woo

KHARKIV, Ukraine (Reuters) - In Saltivka, a working class suburb of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, the trams are running again.

Built in the 1980s, the Soviet-era streetcars may look rickety as they rattle past war-damaged buildings, but for local people they represent a step back towards something like normal life in a district that came under heavy bombardment in the days following Russia's invasion in late February.

Igor Popov, 59, a passenger who hopped on to a tram when the service restarted on Thursday, said it cut his travel time to work from four hours by various buses to just 40 minutes.

"I live in an area in Saltivka that was intensively shelled and we had no transport," he said. "If you need to go somewhere it is very inconvenient, and with the restart of this route everything became much easier."

On Feb. 27, three days after Russia invaded, the trams' electrical power station was destroyed by heavy shelling, as was their depot shortly after.

Of Saltivka's roughly 160 trams, part of the Kharkiv city fleet, 60 were destroyed and another 60 damaged, according to district tram officials.

The remaining 40 are now returning to service, after Ukrainian forces retook the area around the country's second largest city in May.

Only a small percentage of Saltivka's pre-war population remain due to the heavy bombardment it suffered. The revived tram service is a spot of joy for the residents who are still living there, said tram driver Natalia Pavlenko.

"When public transport works, people can go to work, and they don't think so much about the war," she said.

(Reporting by Yiming Woo; Editing by Alex Richardson)
The Armed Forces are advancing in the Kherson Oblast

Read also: Another Russian ammo depot on fire near Kherson

"Most of Kherson Oblast is under temporary occupation. So far, 44 settlements have been liberated," he said.

Read also: Large column of Russian military vehicles drove towards Kherson

According to Butriy, the settlements suffer greatly because they are under constant fire from the Russian army.

"They are sustaining a lot of destruction. Infrastructure and residential buildings are being ruined. This is how the Russian world wants to destroy our state," he said.

Read also: Russian invaders said to be preparing for street fighting in occupied Kherson

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov stated on July 10 that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had ordered the military to de-occupy coastal areas in the south of the country.

On the same day, the Ukrainian Armed Forces destroyed six Russian ammunition depots in the temporarily occupied territories, as well as one military unit.

Read also: Ukrainian forces inflict two strikes on Russian military base in occupied Kherson

The Ukrainian army has struck twice at the facilities of the Russian Armed Forces in Nova Kakhovka over the past few days. The first rocket attack resulted in the destruction of about 150 Russian soldiers, including a general and five officers, Ukraine's military says.
U.S. Surgeon Gen. Vivek H. Murthy speaks in Los Angeles on Dec. 6, 2021. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

To the editor: I applaud The Times Editorial Board for recognizing that the recent Supreme Court decision overturning Roe vs. Wade threatens the public's health, and for calling on the federal government to declare a "health emergency" to give providers and pharmacists more leeway in prescribing and dispensing medication abortion.

However, this approach falls short because it does not address the information gap regarding medication abortion.

Because of misinformation and lack of information, many Americans are completely unaware that medication abortion exists, or that it can be a safe and effective method of terminating a pregnancy in the privacy of their own homes.

I believe that the current abortion access crisis demands a bold move to deal with this information gap. Specifically, I would urge the U.S. surgeon general to send a brochure to every American household explaining that abortion is healthcare, describing medication abortion and giving links to websites where it can be obtained.

Paula Tavrow, Pasadena

The writer is an adjunct professor of community health sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.

..

To the editor: Since the Supreme Court made its decision on Roe vs. Wade, we have witnessed protests in front of the justices' homes, damage to private pregnancy centers and continued demonstrations on major city streets.

Everyone understood the fragility of Roe vs. Wade nearly 50 years ago. Now, it seems the Democrats, liberal media and pro-choice groups want to blame everything on states that have placed restrictions on abortion.

However, the real blame lies with Democrats.

In 2007, when Barack Obama was running for president, he promised to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, which would have codified Roe vs. Wade. Once elected, and with Democrats in control of Congress, Obama said this wasn't a high priority.

Democrats are now outraged, yet they are the ones who kept this issue alive for political reasons.

Janet Polak, Beverly Hills





This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A person with diabetes fills a syringe with insulin as she prepares to give herself an injection. (Associated Press)

To the editor: In an op-ed article, researchers from Tufts University assert that "to strike the right balance, policymakers should look to value-based drug pricing  that is, pricing drugs according to the health benefits they deliver."

So-called value-based drug pricing is a good example of doublespeak, attaching an innocuous or positive word to a truly horrible concept.

Value-based drug pricing gave us insulin priced so high that uninsured people have a choice of controlling their diabetes or eating. Value-based drug pricing gave us the EpiPen, a drug-delivery device that saves lives, retailing for $500.

Can you imagine watching your child struggling to breathe and weighing whether you should administer $500 worth of medication into their veins, hoping that they will be able to breathe without the lifesaving but really expensive shot?

The authors' values are not mine. My values include free and very low cost medicine for everyone. My values are that no one has to factor in the cost of lifesaving or life-extending medication.

Value-based drug pricing is one of the reasons why America has the highest cost of healthcare but nearly the lowest life expectancy among developed countries.

Nancy L.C. Steele, Altadena

..

To the editor: The authors want to price drugs based on the relative health value they provide. How about favorable pricing of new drugs that were researched and developed at public and private universities and paid for by taxpayers?

The journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has noted that the National Institutes of Health funded all or part of the research that contributed to developing the 210 new drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from 2010-16.

Since we taxpayers paid for much of the research, shouldn't we be receiving the cost benefits once a drug reaches the market?

Michael N. Antonoplis, Sherman Oaks

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
In a surprise move, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Friday that she has appointed former Ald. Michael Scott Jr. to the board that oversees Chicago Public Schools.

The news comes less than two months after Scott announced in May he was stepping down from the City Council to join Cinespace Studios, where television shows such as Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D. film.

Lightfoot also said she is appointing to the seven-member board Paige Ponder, a former CPS employee and current member of the Illinois Community College Board; and lawyer Sulema Medrano Novak, who sits on the citys Human Resources Board. Lightfoot said Medrano Novak will resign from that board.

Selecting a member for the Chicago Board of Education is a decision that will impact thousands of students and must be made carefully, Lightfoot said in a press release. I am confident that Michael Scott Jr., Sulema Medrano Novak, and Paige Ponder will be great additions to the board. Their collective years of experience and dedication will be a great asset to our board and will benefit our students and teachers for years to come.

Dwayne Truss  a West Side advocate who Lightfoot appointed to the Chicago Board of Education in 2019  said he learned about a week ago he was out. He said the mayors office told him it was going in a different direction. This news came as some surprise, Truss said, because he was asked in May to continue on the board for another two years after his term ended in June.

Truss speculates his exit is tied to concerns he raised about lack of community engagement on a $120 million plan to build a new high school that would serve Chinatown, Bridgeport and the South Loop. CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said he pulled the proposal from the agenda at the June board meeting to take a little bit more time to answer questions that exist in the community.

I wanted and pushed hard to have conversations with all the stakeholders, Truss said. There was a pushback and a barrier put up by Chicago Public Schools leadership for that not to happen.

Story continues

Outgoing board members Luisiana Melendez and Lucino Sotelo, whose terms were also up in June, got to say their goodbyes at last months board meeting. The boards next monthly meeting is scheduled for July 27. Truss wont get to bid adieu.

Thats on the mayor, Truss said. She said that she wanted to do politics a different way. She said she wanted to bring the light and transparency, and apparently, I guess she changed her mind.

Truss said hes proud of the work hes done, especially helping represent the board on the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund board of trustees, which he said is now operating as close to functional as possible. Its unclear who will replace Truss there.

After several months with only six members on the Board of Education, Lightfoot last month appointed Far South Side activist Joyce Chapman.

Scott, meanwhile, worked for the Chicago Park District as a supervisor and manager before being elected in 2015 to represent the 24th Ward that includes North Lawndale. He previously led the City Councils Committee on Education and Child Development.

Lightfoot announced last month that she was replacing Scott with his sister, Monique Scott. Scotts father, Michael Scott, was a close ally to Mayor Richard M. Daley who rose to become president of the Chicago Board of Education.

Scott said Friday that he and Lightfoot had discussed the position as he was exiting his role as 24th Ward alderman.

We had conversations about continuing to serve in some kind of capacity, he said. My thought was actually at the Park District. Thats where I wanted to go for a lot of years. However, this opportunity presented itself, and because of my familys connection to CPS and the Board of Education and the role I played as chair (of City Councils Education Committee), it was something I gave a lot of consideration to.

Lightfoot tapped Scott to serve as Education Committee chair shortly after she took office in 2019. While Scott pledged more active oversight of the school district in part by holding more frequent committee meetings, a council analysis from WBEZ, Crains Chicago Business and The Daily Line found Scott had called committee meetings only seven times since taking over as chair. Though the district was facing unprecedented crises during COVID-19  including school-based outbreaks, learning loss and union-related work stoppages  most of those meetings were routine.

Scott defended his work as chair and said he worked really hard with CPS and fellow aldermen to disseminate the information given to us by CPS and the mayors office.

Part of his responsibility as chair, he said, was not to give, whether it is (the Chicago Teachers Union) or the principals union, another platform to shine their agenda on parents. I think they do a great job doing that on their own. I didnt want to use that committee to do that.

Asked how he might approach union relations while on the Board of Education, Scott said, In this role, they cant run anybody against me now if I disagree publicly with their mission. He added his focus would be on improving outcomes for CPS families and bringing more resources to the citys West Side. Three of his children attend CPS schools, he said.

Asked whether he might run for a spot on the school board when positions are up for election in 2024, Scott said that was unlikely.

One of the reasons that I stepped away as alderman is the politicizing of the job and the electoral process and all that kind of stuff, Scott said. I havent given it much thought, but as I think about it now, probably not.

tswartz@tribpub.com

aquig@chicagotribune.com
Jul. 15LIMA  NAACP Lima chapter President Ron Fails on Thursday described dashboard camera footage of the fatal shooting of Quincy Pritchett, a 43-year-old Black man killed after fleeing a traffic stop on Second Street last month, as "insufficient and incomplete."

"This is another reason why we need body cameras, and we need them now," Fails said. "It's incomplete. We cannot appropriately complete our investigation with what they've given us."

Pritchett was killed June 21 outside a Second Street home after fleeing from an attempted traffic stop, initiated by Allen County Sheriff's Deputy Izak Ackerman around 2:30 a.m.

The Allen County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday released the dashboard camera footage of the pursuit and shooting, but an apparent struggle between Pritchett and Ackerman occurs just outside of the camera's view.

Pritchett was killed, while Ackerman was reportedly hit by a bullet.

The Allen County Sheriff's Office does not equip its deputies with body worn cameras.

Sheriff Matthew Treglia has previously expressed concerns about the cost of operating equipment and "loopholes" in public record laws for body worn cameras, which he said in a 2020 letter to former Mayor David Berger "jeopardizes citizen's most basic right to privacy."

The sheriff's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

While an initial press release from the sheriff's office on June 21 said a "preliminary investigation appears to show the suspect who was armed with a firearm, and the deputy exchanged gunfire," the dashboard camera footage does not clarify whether Pritchett was armed, nor does it show who shot whom.

The sound of shots fired cannot be heard on the video either.

"This is going to do nothing but add to the distrust that already exists between the community and law enforcement," Fails said. "And the only way you're going to avoid that is to be truthful and present to the community what you have."

The sheriff's office turned its investigation over in June to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, which will report its findings to the Allen County Prosecutor's Office to determine whether to file charges.
Jul. 15A 19-year-old Albert Lea man is facing multiple charges for alleged criminal sexual conduct with four victims.

Axel Xavier Christensen has been charged with four counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct and three counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Court documents allege behavior included both inappropriate sexual touching with all of the victims and penetration with one victim.

All of the victims were reportedly sleeping or had been drinking and smoking marijuana before the sexual assaults occurred.

In an interview with an Albert Lea Police Department detective in March, Christensen reportedly admitted to touching the buttocks of one victim but denied touching two of the other victims. With the fourth victim, he said he "didn't do anything major."

The alleged incidents reportedly took place toward the end of 2020 and in 2021.

Christensen appeared in Freeborn County District Court on Thursday on the charges. He is being represented by a public defender.

He has been slated for a pre-trial Oct. 14 and a jury trial Nov. 7.
Muhammad Aziz stands outside of a New York City courthouse after his conviction in the killing of Malcolm X was thrown out on November 18, 2021. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Muhammad Aziz, 84, spent 20 years behind bars after being wrongly convicted of killing Malcolm X.

Authorities cleared him in November after finding lapses and corrupt practices in the investigation.

He's now suing New York City and former law enforcement officers for misconduct and damages.

Muhammad Aziz, a man who wrongfully spent 20 years in prison for the murder of civil rights leader Malcolm X, is suing the city of New York and officials involved in the investigation for $40 million.

Lawyers for Aziz filed the complaint in the District Court of New York's Eastern District on Thursday, calling his wrongful conviction "the product of flagrant official misconduct" by the city's authorities, according to court documents seen by Insider.

Aziz, now 84, is suing for the denial of his due process rights, malicious prosecution, and negligence by law enforcement.

It took 55 years for Aziz's name to be cleared of the 1965 murder. He was exonerated in November after authorities found "serious, unacceptable violations of the law and public trust" in his case.

Aziz was arrested in 1965 along with another man, Khalil Islam, who served 22 years in prison and died in 2009.

Islam was posthumously cleared of wrongdoing in 2021.

Aziz was a 26-year-old father of six at the time of his arrest, and the two decades he spent behind bars "should have been the prime of his life," his attorneys David Shanies and Deborah Francois wrote in the suit.

"The damage done to Mr. Aziz and his family was immense and irreparable," they wrote.

Aziz had been at home with a leg injury when three gunmen assassinated Malcolm X in the Audubon Ballroom in New York.

However, he was charged with the murder despite conflicting statements from witnesses who were intimidated by law enforcement and a lack of physical evidence, the lawyers wrote. Detectives also knowingly concealed evidence to build a successful conviction against Aziz, they added.

One of the men who confessed to the murder, Mujahid Abdul Halim  also known as Talmadge Hayer and Thomas Hagan  testified during the 1966 trial that Aziz and Islam were innocent. Both of the wrongfully accused men, who were members of the Nation of Islam, had maintained their innocence since the start of their cases.

Story continues

Aziz's lawyers wrote that his imprisonment meant he lost the chance to forge relationships with his children, who were between the ages of 1 and 10 at the time of his conviction. In addition, they wrote that one of his children was also told for 26 years that someone else was her father.

They added that Aziz was also vilified by others as "among the most hated and notorious murderers" in the US.

"Given the significant length of time between Mr. Aziz's release from prison in 1985 and his exoneration in 2021, his damages extend well beyond his decades of imprisonment," his lawsuit reads.

Read the original article on Insider
Lawyers for Muhammad Aziz, who spent two decades in prison for the 1965 murder of Malcolm X, filed a civil rights lawsuit Thursday.

Muhammad A. Aziz, who spent two decades in prison for the 1965 murder of Malcolm X filed a civil rights lawsuit Thursday against the city of New York, seeking a $40 million redress after his conviction was vacated last year, The New York Times reported.

Aziz was convicted in 1966 for the assassination of the towering civil rights icon in the Audubon Ballroom in Upper Manhattan a year after hed left the Nation of Islam. Manhattan Judge Ellen Biben granted the motion to vacate the conviction against he and co-defendant Khalil Islam in November, 55 years later, after a 22-month review of the two mens convictions.

Muhammad Aziz (center) stands outside a New York City courthouse with loved ones and lawyers after his conviction in the killing of Malcolm X was thrown out on November 18, 2021, 55 years after his 1966 guilty verdict. (Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

I do not need this court, these prosecutors or a piece of paper to tell me I am innocent, Aziz said in a stern voice after walking out of the courtroom last fall, per The New York Times. I am an 83-year-old man who was victimized by the criminal justice system.

Aziz had reportedly been in talks with the city for a settlement, but his new lawsuit signals that those negotiations have broken down. His attorneys are said to be worried that the suit could be the beginning of a long legal battle that may outlive the now 84-year-old man.

Islam died in 2009 at age 74. His estate has reportedly filed a related claim.

I hope the same system that was responsible for this travesty of justice also takes responsibility for the immeasurable harm it caused to me, Aziz said in November, contending that his conviction was part of a corrupt process that is all too familiar to Black people, even in 2021.

What I am going to begin by saying directly to Mr. Aziz and his family, and the family of Mr. Islam, and of Malcolm X is that I apologize, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said then in court. We cant restore what was taken from these men and their families, but by correcting the record, perhaps we can begin to restore that faith.

Story continues

A married 26-year-old father of six youngsters at the time, Aziz, Islam and a third man, Mujahid Abdul Halim, were all found guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of Malcolm X. Halim confessed to the crime  which was committed by gunmen  and his conviction stands. When convicted in 66, Halim said the other men were innocent.

Aziz spent 20 years, during what should have been the prime of his life, locked in prison for a crime he did not commit, his lawyers said in court documents. The damage done to Mr. Aziz and his family was immense and irreparable.

I regret that this court cannot fully undo the serious miscarriages of justice in this case and give you back the many years that were lost, said Ellen N. Biben, the State Supreme Court judge in Manhattan, who threw out the conviction in November to a round of applause in the courtroom.

In an email statement, Mayor Eric Adams said that the city was reviewing the lawsuit. As someone who has fought for a fairer criminal justice system for my entire career, he maintained, I believe the overturning of Mr. Aziz and Mr. Islams convictions was the just outcome.

The city of New York has paid tens of millions to previous victims of wrongful convictions, including the five men exonerated in the 1989 murder of a jogger in Central Park, now known as the Exonerated Five. That settlement was $1 million for each year they spent in prison. However, the case of Aziz and Islam and its historic importance may warrant a larger payout. He is seeking $2 million for each year.

The men and others called on Congress, the FBI and Vance, whos stepped down, to reopen the case into Malcolm Xs assassination. The case is now unsolved in the official record.

TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku and Android TV. Also, please download theGrio mobile apps today!

The post Man wrongly convicted of murdering Malcolm X sues NYC for $40M appeared first on TheGrio.
Nandi Howard, the erstwhile style editor of Essence, is returning to the magazine as content director, leading the magazines print issue and digital verticals. Howard, who hails from Houston, left Essence in 2019 to become editor in chief of Houstonia magazine, one of the lifestyle titles published by SagaCity Media, Inc. At Essence, shell work closely with Corey Stokes, senior vice president creative at Essence Ventures. Howard starts Monday and will work remotely from Houston, but plans to relocate to New York City later this year.

July 7, 2022

More from WWD

Willa Bennett has been named editor in chief of Highsnobiety, the culture and fashion media company in which German e-commerce giant Zalando recently acquired a majority stake.

Bennett, 27, comes to Highsnobiety from GQ, where she led the magazines social media strategy and penned culture pieces. She will oversee editorial operations from Highsnobietys New York City offices. She starts July 25 and reports to founder and chief executive officer David Fischer. Bennett succeeds Thom Bettridge, who left to join Montreal-based multibrand e-tailer Ssense.

June 23, 2022

Lisa Aiken will join Vogue as executive fashion director, Vogue.com, WWD has learned. Aiken will report directly to Anna Wintour, Conde Nasts chief content officer and global editorial director of Vogue.

Aiken comes to Vogue.com after a year at Neiman Marcus, where she was fashion and lifestyle director. Neiman Marcus confirmed last week that Aiken would leave the company to pursue other opportunities. The company announced an integration of the fashion office and buying teams.

At Vogue.com, Aiken will be tasked with the commerce strategy, working closely with Mark Pilipczuk, senior vice president of consumer revenue. She will lead the commerce team and oversee editorial strategy, responsible for driving commerce revenue growth, new ventures and innovation.
A Michigan woman accused of murdering her husband in a cold case from 2002 has been returned to the U.S. from Italy.

Beverly McCallum was arrested in February 2020 by Italian law enforcement in Rome after checking into a hotel under her name, the Eaton County Sheriff's Office announced in 2020.

On July 8, McCallum was taken into custody at an airport by Eaton County deputies after she'd been returned from abroad, the sheriff's office said in a press release. She was arraigned and charged with second-degree murder and the disinterment and mutilation of a body, according to the press release.

McCallum is the last of three defendants charged in the murder of Roberto Caraballo, referred to as the "Jack in the Box" cold case by authorities. She is being held on a $10 million bond, the sheriff's office said.

Caraballo's burned remains were discovered inside a metal footlocker on an Ottawa County blueberry farm. The remains were unidentified until 2015, when investigators used DNA testing and dental records to identify him, Eaton County Prosecutor Doug Lloyd said in a press release.

In February 2022, Dineane Ducharme, McCallum's daughter, was convicted of first-degree murder and the disinterment and mutilation of Caraballo's body. She was sentenced to life in prison without parole, according to court documents.

In 2019, Christopher McMillan, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder, and was sentenced to a minimum of 15 years in prison. McMillan, as a part of his plea deal, testified against McCallum and Ducharme, according to the Eaton County prosecutor.

McMillan testified that the murder was planned and that McCallum pushed Caraballo down the stairs, at which point he was bludgeoned, then suffocated to death by the three, the Lansing State Journal, a daily newspaper from Lansing, Michigan, reported.

McCallum, the last of the three defendants, will next appear in court on July 22, according to the Eaton County prosecutor.
RABAT, Morocco (AP)  Firefighters and the military struggled on Friday to contain three wildfires in northern Morocco that has killed at least one person as hundreds of residents evacuated their homes because of flames that ravaged large swaths of pine forests.

Efforts to extinguish the blazes have been hampered by high temperatures and strong winds in the North African country. The interior ministry said that one person has died in the fires, and more than 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres) of forest have been destroyed.

In the Laarach area, 1,100 families have had to evacuate because of two fires that have since been put out. The fire destroyed 900 hectares (more than 2,000 acres) of land and damaged many homes, according to the interior ministry.

Firefighters were still trying to put out fires in several areas of northern Morocco, including in Tetouan, Taza, and Ouzzane. They are using trucks, bulldozers and water-dumping planes, the interior ministry said.

Morocco has been in the grip of an heat wave for a week, with temperature soaring over 40 C (104 F). Strong winds are in the forecast for the coming days, complicating efforts to contain fires, according to the national meteorology agency.
By Charu Adesnik

Northampton, MA --News Direct-- Cisco Systems Inc.

NESsT supports social enterprises that provide employment and career development opportunities for underserved communitiesa vital, often missing component to humanitarian aid work. NESsT uses an engaged approach, providing tailored financing, a variety of tech-enabled assessment tools and action plans across all stages of development, one-on-one advisory services, and networking support to social entrepreneurs in emerging markets.

NESsT has benefited from Ciscos funding support for multiple initiatives, and now Cisco will provide seed funding for NESsT to establish a NESsT Refugee Employment Initiative, so they can better support and strengthen local social enterprises that create dignified jobs and wraparound services for Ukrainian refugees.

In 25 years, NESsT has built a strong foundation of supporting social entrepreneurs in emerging markets, especially in Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America. When the conflict in Ukraine began, NESsT was already in position to help the more than 4.9 million refugees that have left Ukraine. Many have sought refuge in Poland and Romania, and all of them will need displacement support. Both temporary and permanent employment will help them regain a sense of security.

Growing from seed (funding)

Back in 1997, Nicole Etchart started NESsT out of a need to help nonprofit organizations work in more sustainable ways. The founders felt that traditional companies alone couldnt create enough job opportunities to lift people out of poverty. They also knew that nonprofits were too dependent on short-term grant funding preventing them from achieving long-term impact. So they created NESsT to provide social enterprises, whether for-profit on not-for-profit, with the tools and capital needed to launch financially sustainable businesses while addressing poverty and exclusion.

Nicole shared, Although we have gone through several iterations, NESsT has always been committed to supporting social entrepreneurs to launch and grow companies committed to social impact.

Story continues

NESsTs incubation program offers customized support and flexible financing for social enterprises. But thats not all. NESsT also provides supporting resources for these entrepreneurs, like trainings and mentorship, so they can help as many people gain secure and dignified employment as possible.

NESsT Refugee Employment Initiative

For decades, NESsT has operated in the Central European region (including Hungary, Poland, and Romania). So when the current conflict in Ukraine began, NESsT responded by establishing the NESsT Refugee Employment Initiative to expand opportunities for dignified employment and income generation opportunities for Ukrainians displaced from their homes.

Nicole stated, It became very evident that we had an important role to play, because although the immediate needs were humanitarianto help refugees access shelter and foodevery refugee will also need access to a job, and thats what NESsT does. Companies in the NESsT portfolio in Poland and Romania have begun to react and expand their networks so that they could begin working with refugees.

Through the Ukrainian Refugee Fund, NESsT has initially committed to donating 3million through 15 investments. They estimate that their support will help in the creation of 2,000 jobs for refugees, impacting as many as 5,000 people.

In the months since, NESsT has been hard at work, selecting and investing in local social enterprises and cooperatives that are committed to integrating refugees into jobs and/or workforce training. NESsTs portfolio businesses have committed to helping Ukrainian refugees gain their livelihoods backone example is Future Collars.

Future Collars teaches IT skills to at-risk and low-income women. When the Ukrainian conflict began, Future Collars organized and launched a Welcome Home campaign, including outreach, to provide refugee women with job training and placement to fill skills gaps in Poland. The enterprise also plans to set up a scholarship fund to help refugees from Ukraine access career training.

Providing a foundation for long term recovery

Beyond providing food, shelter, and other basic needs to displaced people, the need to help them build the skills and resiliency they will need for long term recovery is often overlooked.

NESsTs work is a testament to the importance of empowering people with the skills to help rebuild their communities. In 25 years, NESsT has invested in over 223 companies. They have helped to create close to 77,000 quality jobs, impacting close to a million people. In their most recent employment survey, they found that 85 percent of people polled feel stable and secure in their jobs. And the income of those impacted by their portfolio was, on average, 144 percent over minimum wage.

To date, NESsT has assessed 489 social enterprises in Romania, and granted funds and business training to a selection of them. In return, these 26 businesses have influenced over 2,600 at-risk individuals through new economic opportunities.

View original content here.

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Cisco Systems Inc. on 3blmedia.com

View source version on newsdirect.com: https://newsdirect.com/news/nesst-connecting-refugees-with-sustainable-employment-102597636
North Carolinas Green Party filed suit against the North Carolina State Board of Elections on Thursday for denying the partys petition to appear on the ballot for the states Senate election.

The petition was denied by the Board in a 3-2 vote, prompting the lawsuit filed by the Green Party, Green Party Senate candidate Matthew Hoh and others in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

We are fighting for our democracy against this corrupt, lawless, and partisan decision by the State Board of Elections, said Hoh of the lawsuit. This case will determine whether the political establishment can abuse its power to stop another party from participating in elections, simply because they dont want to compete with candidates who stand for working people, our planet, peace, and real democracy.

Lead attorney Oliver Hall of Competitive Democracy filed the lawsuit along with Hoh, in addition to other plaintiffs in support of Hohs campaign for Senate.

The three Democrats on the Board of Elections voted to keep the Green Party off the ballot after controversy within the party over the issue.

We filed this case to protect the right of all North Carolina voters to vote in a free and fair election  not the Democrats attempt to win by suppressing voter choice, said Hall.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Earlier, North Korea's formally recognized two Russian-backed breakaway self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine as independent states

Read also: Only two countries might be still willing to supply Russia with weapons

Earlier North Korea's state media released a statement from the ministry after formally recognizing two Russian-backed breakaway self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine as independent states.

Read also: Putin weaponizes Russian passports in his genocidal war against Ukraine

Ukraine severed relations with North Korea after the move, calling it an attempt to undermine its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

According to Reuters, the isolated country's foreign ministry defended the decision, saying Ukraine had already aided U.S.-led actions including sanctions over the North's weapons programs.

Read also: Russia uses job search websites to recruit soldiers for war in Ukraine

North Korea has said its nuclear and missile programs are a self-defensive deterrence, and accused the United States of maintaining "hostile policy" by imposing international sanctions and holding military drills with South Korea.

"Ukraine has no the right to raise issue or dispute our legitimate exercise of sovereignty after committing an act that severely lacks fairness and justice between nations by actively joining the U.S. unjust and illegal hostile policy in the past," the ministry said.

Read also: South Korea to send non-lethal military supplies to Ukraine

"We will continue to strengthen and develop friendship and cooperation with all countries that respect our sovereignty and treat us favorably based on the principles of sovereign equality, non-interference in internal affairs and mutual respect."

Help NV continue reporting on the Russian invasion
A New York City restaurateur dubbed the Mayor of Little Tokyo has been accused of sexually assaulting an executive at his company.

Shuji Bon Yagi, the 73-year-old magnate behind several East Village Japanese restaurants, faces a $95 million lawsuit for allegedly sexually assaulting Nozomi Horikoshi, the 51-year-old vice president of operations his company, T.I.C. Restaurant Group.

Horikoshi, who filed the lawsuit at the Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday, claims Yagi had sex with her without consent while she was passed out after a night of drinking with co-workers on Dec. 10.

Yagi invited himself to a birthday celebration of one of their co-workers knowing that his wife was in Japan throughout the weekend, Horikoshi claimed. After 2 a.m., Yagi allegedly escorted the intoxicated woman into a cab and started touching and trying to kiss her.

More from NextShark: Man with 44 prior arrests charged with multiple felonies for brutal assault of Thai model on NYC subway

The restaurateur then allegedly took her to his West 58th Street apartment.

I woke up at his apartment and I wasnt wearing anything. I realized I was naked from the waist down  that was so embarrassing, Horikoshi told the New York Post. I was like what happened? I have to go home. I knew that something happened already. There was a feeling of shame.

Horikoshi, a married mother, said she took a cab home that morning. She felt that she had been penetrated, and she had a bruise on the back of her head, according to the court documents.

More from NextShark: A year after NYC brutal hate assault, daughter searches for Good Samaritan who saved her elderly mother's life

When Horikoshi confronted Yagi, he allegedly told her that he had always been interested in her and that he thought there was mutual consent. Yagi also allegedly told the mother that others would find his behavior acceptable due his role as [her] boss.

I want to move forward so he can understand my feeling that he hurt me and my family too, Horikoshi said.

Story continues

Louis Pechman, Yagis attorney, reportedly denied the allegations.

More from NextShark: NYPD looking for woman seen in video pepper-spraying four Asian women in broad daylight

The undisputed facts are that Nozomi got black out drunk, fell on a sidewalk and smashed her head, and texted a friend the next day that she had no recollection of even being in Yagis apartment, Pechman said in a statement. Now she wants 300 million dollars, claiming that a man who had his prostrate removed has raped her. There was never any sexual assault. Full stop.

However, Christoper Brennan, Horikoshis attorney, said the lawsuit is about power and accountability of Yagis actions.

Mr. Bon Yagi assumed that because he was Ms. Horikoshis boss and a prominent local business person, he was permitted to betray Ms. Horikoshis trust and violate her sexually, as described in the complaint filed today, Brennan said in a statement. Mr. Yagi underestimated Ms. Horikoshis strength of character and her willingness to take the steps necessary to hold Mr. Bon Yagi accountable for his actions.

More from NextShark: 35-mile 'Run for Chinatown' organized to honor Christina Lees life, raise awareness of anti-Asian crimes

Yagi is well-known for influencing Japanese cuisine in New York City. He has been called the unofficial mayor of New Yorks Little Tokyo in various publications, including The New York Times and The Japan Times.

Featured Image via Facebook (left), Google Maps (right)
The conservative effort to cast a story about a pregnant 10-year-old Ohio rape victim as a hoax has now fallen apart, with confirmation of the case arriving Wednesday. While some merely noted the initial report hadn't been confirmed, several conservative media figures and Republican politicians went significantly further in casting it as a dirty trick meant to make the GOP's post-Roe v. Wade laws look bad; high on that list was Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, R.

But as attention now turns to the reality of the case and what it means, something else Yost claimed Monday on Fox News looms large: that the girl didn't actually have to leave Ohio to seek the abortion in Indiana, as she reportedly did.

Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post.

"Speaking of hoaxes, though, can I correct something that everybody's reporting wrong nationally?" Yost asked the host.

He continued: "Ohio's heartbeat law has a medical emergency exception broader than just the life of the mother. This young girl, if she exists, and if this horrible thing actually happened to her - breaks my heart to think about it - she did not have to leave Ohio to find treatment."

Yost's appeared to be arguing that Ohio's law - which bans almost all abortions after a heartbeat can be detected, usually around six weeks - isn't actually so stringent that it would actually force a 10-year-old rape victim to carry a child to term. That aspect of all this is important in light of the GOP's controversial post-Roe plans, which often include not providing abortion exceptions for rape and incest. It's why the case became big news in the first place.

Yost's meaning wasn't entirely clear, and his office hasn't yet responded to a request for elaboration.

Some took his comment as claiming Ohio has a rape exception in its abortion ban; it clearly and unambiguously does not. The applicable law allows abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected:

Story continues

- "to prevent the death of the pregnant woman" or

- "to prevent a serious risk of the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman"

Yost didn't say there was a rape exception. He was apparently arguing that a 10-year old would qualify under one of the actual exceptions - probably the latter, given that it's the one that's "broader than just the life of the mother."

While his office hasn't provided clarity, some have wagered that a pregnant 10-year-old would trigger that exception. An opinion piece at the conservative Washington Examiner puts it like this:



Even if a girl gets her first period at 10 or younger, she likely has not developed a pelvis capable of safely carrying a pregnancy to term, let alone delivering a live baby. Although most conservatives may disagree with Ohio's six-week abortion ban failing to include a rape and incest exception, just about nobody of note in the pro-life movement would ever favor denying an abortion when a pregnancy seriously imperils the life and physical health of the mother.



The Examiner's editorial board went as far as to cite Yost's assurance and conclude: "So contrary to the original story, this girl was evidently not taken to Indiana because Ohio law bans such a procedure."

Apparently such certitude, even after all this, is a difficult habit to kick.

It's certainly conceivable that a prosecutor would decide or a court would rule that this case would qualify for that second exception. The World Health Organization has estimated that childbirth and complications from pregnancy are the world's leading cause of death for girls and women ages 15 to 19.

But that doesn't mean it's nearly as clear as Yost or the Examiner editorial board concluded.

Indeed, the nonpartisan Ohio Legislative Service Commission has reportedly determined that such circumstances don't automatically qualify for an exception. Chris Geidner shared a letter that Yost's 2022 Democratic opponent received from an analyst from the commission, Amy Archer. Archer in the letter addresses whether "minor victims of sexual assault are able to receive abortions within Ohio after six weeks gestation."

"No," she reportedly said, "Ohio's abortion prohibition applies regardless of the circumstances of conception or the age of the mother."

(Archer did not respond to a similar question Thursday.)

Also, what is the threshold for "serious risk?" And would any resulting impairment necessarily be "substantial" and "irreversible?" (It must be both.)

That's a crucial point. According to the Ohio law, any doctor who provides a post-fetal-heartbeat abortion that doesn't qualify under one of these exceptions is guilty of a felony and could face up to a year in prison. Abortion rights advocates and abortion-providing doctors have long warned that vague and untested post-Roe standards would cause doctors to avoid providing abortions that might even cause such questions to be asked, for fear of being prosecuted.

(Some states have substantially steeper penalties for illegal abortions - including up to 15 years in Missouri and Tennessee and up to life in prison in Texas.)

Of course, the easy solution to all of this would be for lawmakers to more explicitly delineate whether cases like this deserve an exception. But Ohio and many other red states have deliberately gone in the direction of fewer exceptions, even as exceptions like rape and incest were once a consensus political issue - and remain overwhelmingly popular with voters writ large. High-profile GOP Senate candidates including in Ohio have indicated they oppose such exceptions.

And there's little sign of the GOP truly rethinking that now that Roe has been overturned - even in light of this story and its confirmation.

- - -

Aaron Blake is senior political reporter, writing for The Fix. A Minnesota native, he has also written about politics for the Minneapolis Star Tribune and The Hill newspaper.

Related Content

What inflation? China's peppercorn purveyors are feeling the heat.

Secret Van Gogh self-portrait discovered on reverse of another painting

What I learned from 20 years photographing lightning in D.C.
Chris Hemsworth as Thor in "Thor: Love and Thunder." Marvel Studios

Warning: Major spoiler below if you haven't seen "Thor: Love and Thunder."

Taika Waititi told Insider that one of the movie's best jokes was originally in "Thor: Ragnarok."

He said Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige helped the visual gag be "five times bigger."

There's one joke in "Thor: Love and Thunder" that has been on writer-director Taika Waititi's mind for years.

In the middle of the movie when Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Jane (Natalie Portman), Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), and Korg (Waititi) travel to Omnipotence City to seek out the help of the gods against Gorr (Christian Bale), Thor finds himself in a bind when he's singled out by the biggest god of them all, Zeus (Russell Crowe).

Asked by Zeus to stand in front of him, Thor does so but is wearing a cloak to disguise himself. So Zeus uses his powers to easily flick it away, however, he flicked too hard and all of Thor's clothes come off. A shot from behind reveals that Thor has a giant back tattoo that says "RIP Loki," his brother who died at the hands of Thanos in "Avengers: Infinity War."

Waititi revealed to Insider that the Loki tattoo was a joke he wanted to work into the previous Marvel movie he directed, "Thor: Ragnarok."

(L-R) Taika Waititi and Kevin Feige. Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty

"That was supposed to be in 'Ragnarok,'" he said. "When Loki faked his death and he's reunited with Thor and Thor can't believe he's alive, he was to say, 'I mourned you, look I even got this stupid tattoo,' and Thor lifts his sleeve and it's a tattoo that says 'RIP Loki.'"

"For some reason it didn't make it into the film, but I was determined to get it into this one so I doubled down and put it on his back," Waititi added.

The joke is amplified because of the size of the tattoo. Waititi said he couldn't take credit for that. It was Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige who came up with that idea.

"Then Kevin was like, 'Can we make it five times bigger?'" Waititi said with a laugh. "So that's why it covered his entire back."

This along with the Taylor Swift-inspired screaming goats who accompany Thor and his team on his latest adventure are two of the major comedy bits in the movie.

"Thor: Love and Thunder" is currently playing in theaters.

Read the original article on Insider
Jul. 14OXFORD  A Lafayette County man has been charged with a Saturday shooting at an Oxford business.

Oxford police responded to a business in the 2200 block of Jackson Avenue for reported gunshots on July 9. The investigation led to the arrest of Jesse Dean, 22, of Lafayette County.

During his initial appearance in Lafayette County Justice Court, Dean was formally charged with drive-by shooting and the judge set his bond at $40,000.

william.moore@djournal.com
Lauren Ray, far right, smiles alongside other park rangers.

The woman who sings conservation parodies has left her post at Buffalo National River, but she's still a park ranger.

Lauren Ray has been known for adding her own twist to songs from Adele, Bruno Mars, Snoop Dogg and more. In 2018, Ray told the News-Leader that she didn't share her voice or music until finding friends to play with.

Ray has performed conservation classics like a song about planning your trip, set to the tune of "When I Was Your Man" by Bruno Mars, and an update on some of the park's items in lost and found, set to the tune of "Someone Like You" by Adele.

Ray grew up in Bentonville, Arkansas, and always loved the outdoors and wanted to do "something in the conservation field." But it wasn't until college, at University of the Ozarks in Clarksville, Arkansas, that she decided she wanted to be a park ranger, which she did so in 2016 at Buffalo National River.

More: Singing park ranger turns pop songs into conservation parodies

Lauren Ray speaks with children during a 2019 weekend program in Boxley Valley.

Ray's latest video has scored nearly 50,000 views as she shared that her time at Buffalo National River has come to an end. She is now a park ranger at Valles Caldera National Preserve in New Mexico.

"As a parting gift to you and as a love letter to my favorite river on its 50th anniversary, I thought I'd share one more song with y'all," Ray says at the beginning of the just over four-minute video.

More: 'World's biggest treasure hunt' for handblown glass marbles registration starts July 1

Lauren Ray sits in her uniform during a 50th anniversary movie night at the Kenda Drive-in this summer. Surrounding her are board members from the Buffalo National River Partners. Top row, from left: Jacque Alexander, Aletha Tetterton, Barry Martindale. Bottom row, from left: Terrie Martindale, Ginger Milan, me, Ellen Corley.

Ray sings the original melody, titled "Unbroken," while strumming her guitar. The lyrics conjure scenes of the Buffalo National River "nestled in the heartland of the Ozarks."

As she road tripped to her new park of employment with cats Gary and Screech, Ray took a few minutes to catch up with the News-Leader once again. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Buffalo National River, which is a bittersweet time to be making her departure.

Lauren Ray gives a 2017 presentation detailing the solar eclipse plus ancient folklore and interesting facts about solar eclipses.

"Do I 'jump ship,' so to speak, right in the middle of such a special year?" Ray asked before making the farewell video. "I knew I needed to do something to just give thanks to all the great folks that I've had the opportunity to work with over the years and, of course, show my love for the river itself."

Story continues

More: Gas prices got you down? Here are 5 ideas for quick day trips from Springfield this summer

Aside from paddling, the people are what she'll miss the most about her time on the Buffalo National River.

"The people who love the Buffalo River, who live there, who have been stewarding it for many generations, even long before the National Park Service showed up in the area," Ray said about the friends she's made among the different partnerships over the years. "That will be what I miss the most."

"Unbroken" A love song to Buffalo National River on its 50th anniversary, written and performed by Ranger Lauren.Video description: A uniformed park ranger with wavy blonde hair sits on a stool in the forest and plays guitar while singing. Posted by Buffalo National River on Wednesday, June 29, 2022

Reflecting back to 2016 during her first year at the Buffalo National River, Ray said she "did a silly little rap song about karst topography." That was the first song she sang as a park ranger, but she thinks she'll keep on singing.

"So many people connect with music," Ray said. "When I started doing these little music videos, I was spreading the word about important concepts on the Buffalo River in a creative way that more people were potentially going to hear and listen to, so basically, musical PSAs as a park interpreter."

Ray later added that some of the most meaningful interactions with folks were because she started making music videos.

"People have told me that these videos have helped them and their friends and families make safer and smarter decisions on the Buffalo," she said. "At the end of the day, park rangers want people to have a good time and feel inspired by their public lands while using them respectfully and responsibly."

More: A goal of banding barn owls is 'keeping common species common,' says MDC biologist

She hoped the videos will continue encouraging visitors to "practice stewardship and accountability when enjoying the outdoors."

For more info on Buffalo National River and its 50th anniversary, visit https://www.nps.gov/buff/index.htm.

Sara Karnes is an Outdoors Reporter with the Springfield News-Leader. Follow along with her adventures on Twitter and Instagram @Sara_Karnes. Got a story to tell? Email her at skarnes@springfi.gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Park ranger sings goodbye to Buffalo National River with original song
Netflixs new version of Persuasion is being called the worst Jane Austen adaptation of all time.

The film, which stars Dakota Johnson in the lead role of Anne, is set to be released on the streaming service on 15 July.

But, those who have seen the film, which is directed by Carrie Cracknell, are urging viewers to steer clear.

The PERSUASION embargo is up so I can finally say that it is the worst Austen adaptation I have ever seen, Bustles Morgan Leigh Davies wrote on Twitter. Absolutely inexcusable. Abolish Netflix. Abolish Dakota Johnson.

Meanwhile, The Independents film critic Clarisse Loughrey agreed that Johnson is woefully miscast in the film, adding that: At no point do you ever get the sense that anyones actually read Persuasion.

For those with even the slightest affinity for Austens work, its vaguely mortifying to watch  seeing one of her most beautifully moulded protagonists, a sorrowful vessel hounded by the ghosts of lost love, stripped of her poetry and reduced to an Instagram caption about the pitfalls of millennial dating.

Lourgey gave the film one star, as did The Guardians Wendy Ide, who called the film a travesty.

The Telegraph critic Tim Robey, in his two-star review, said that Cracknells adaptation comes with almost a total disregard for its supposed source material.

Dakota Johnson in Persuasion (Netflix)

Brian Viner, writing for Daily Mail, called the film torture and truly dreadful. He added that the decision to repeatedly have Johnsons Anne look to the camera to break the fourth wall shows a wilful misunderstanding of the book.

This adaptation of Persuasion was written Alice Victoria Winslow and Ron Bass. it co-stars Cosmo Jarvis, Nikki Amuka-Bird and Richard E Grant.
Miserable: Richard E Grant and Dakota Johnson in Netflixs Persuasion (Nick Wall/Netflix)

At first, everything seemed basically okay. As Netflixs new adaptation of Jane Austens Persuasion opens, the music is solemn and vaguely symphonic, suitable to both century and situation. Even if you skipped reading this particular entry in the classic literature syllabus, you quickly get the gist: 19th century, the English countryside, the greatest depths of heartbreak ever recorded.

Anne Elliot  played by Dakota Johnson with a capable English accent thats not enough to disguise the fact she comes from Hollywood royalty  fingers the grass, evoking a chaste sensuality. So far, so Georgian. Cosmo Jarviss Frederick Wentworth is all weathered skin and rugged stares and period-appropriate sideburns. Yes, at this point, adapting Austens celebrated final novel for the screen for the fifth time  and thats only counting the English language versions, such as 2007s Persuasion with Sally Hawkins and the 1995 BBC rendition  seems like its going to be just fine.

But around the 90-second mark something happens, slowly and then all at once. The sad melody gives way to a plucky, insistent cadence befitting a breezy Miss Marple mystery. Anne, moments ago exquisitely wistful, looks slyly down the camera, quipping that since breaking off her engagement to Wentworth shes single and thriving  a word that occurs exactly zero times in Austens 1817 novel.

Bemoaning Hollywoods obsession with pre-told tales is tiring at this point. My local cinema is currently showing a Marvel film (Thor), the fourth sequel to a childrens movie (Minions: The Rise of Gru), a belated sequel to a 1980s classic (the new Top Gun), and Baz Luhrmanns Elvis. Against this backdrop, a movie based on intellectual property thats actually, you know, intellectual should be an oasis. Ambitious period adaptations bring new readers to old books. The best ones remove the distance between now and the past. They show that all the suffering and joy of being human has never really changed, even as human circumstances do. Merchant & Ivorys A Room with a View remains the standard, while the excellent 1995 version of Jane Austens Sense and Sensibility  with a screenplay by Emma Thompson  is a close second.

Story continues

But when the trailer for the new Persuasion was released in June, Book Twitter let out an almighty groan. Where to begin? There are misguided anachronisms, hideous pratfalls, and smirks to camera that mostly reminded me of The Office. My personal favourite part (to hate) was the trailers billing of Jane Austen herself as the author of Emma and Pride and Prejudice  thanks for clearing that up! Instead of an oasis, this reimagining of Persuasion was shaping up to be a disconcerting mirage.

In the novel, Anne is a young Englishwoman whose family is forced by money troubles to rent out their stately home to an admiral and his wife. By coincidence, the wifes brother is Wentworth. Providence has afforded he and Anne a second chance at marriage. Persuasion is generally regarded as Austens most mature novel, and Anne her most complicated heroine. The writers signature coolness and humour offset the protagonists desolation. If Hollywood is going to return time and again to the canon of English literature, this is a book to do it for.

In updating the story for contemporary ears, though, the Netflix version trades away its own potential for cheap grabs at relevance. What if Anne Elliot was a bit more like Fleabag? the film seems to ask. Anne describes her and Wentworth, a man shes spent nearly a decade longing for, as exes  a term as ear-splittingly anachronistic as it is dreadfully casual. By making Anne sound more like Phoebe Waller-Bridges acerbic invention, the film betrays its own shallow reading of the character, who, as written by Austen, actually is a bit like Fleabag  lonely, disaffected, and out of sync with society.

Im fine with the idea that a bereft Anne Elliot, on some unwritten page of the novel, got a little boozy.

Plenty of period films and TV series have used anachronism to terrific effect. Dickinson, the Apple TV+ series about the early life of American poet Emily Dickinson, goes beyond just slapping a contemporary soundtrack on an old story. Its use of modern language is judicious; the more Emily is bristling against the confines of 19th century womanhood, the more likely she is to call something bullsh**  a word that wouldnt be invented until three decades after the poets death.

But in Persuasion, the anachronisms stir up an air of absurdity. Here are just some of the liberties taken with Austens text in the first five minutes: Anne glugs wine by herself, cries into the bathtub, and throws herself face down onto her bed. Im not suggesting that people in the 1800s didnt do these things! Im fine with the idea that a bereft Anne Elliot, on some unwritten page of the novel, got a little boozy. But its the way she does it here, like shes performing her emotions for an Instagram reel. All thats missing are crumpled tissues and Sleepless in Seattle playing on a TV in the background. In attempting to make Anne modern and relatable, shes been left twee and unserious.

It goes on like this ad nauseum. The note Wentworth passes Anne in church just says BORED! like something a high schooler might text a friend. It turns out that since breaking off their engagement, a besotted Anne has been collecting Wentworths press clippings  essentially, shes stalking his Facebook. The film is brimming with these cutesy parallels, each of which diminishes the reality of Annes sadness.

Anya Taylor-Joy and Gwyneth Paltrow as Emma (Focus Features / Miramax)

I have seen good Austen adaptations (2020s Emma with Anya Taylor-Joy is a standout) and I have seen mediocre ones (1996s Emma with Gwyneth Paltrow), but never before has an Austen adaptation left me so emotionally hollow. By insisting every aspect of modern life has a 19th century corollary, the film decentres what makes period films so reliably affecting: no matter the decade, human emotions dont evolve and love doesnt get any easier.

As thrilled as I was to learn that Netflix was revisiting Austen, I now wish theyd left her alone. Imagine the teenage girl who sees the film and picks up the novel, only to discard it when she learns Austen didnt anticipate the ins and outs of modern life. If Hollywood insists that my only choices are movies Ive seen before, Id rather take my chances on Tom Cruise. Top Gun 3, anyone?

Persuasion is streaming on Netflix now
Former Trump aide Peter Navarro is raising money for his legal fees. Alex Wong/Getty Images

Former Trump aide Peter Navarro is crowdfunding online for his legal fees.

Navarro tweeted that he was hoping to get over the $150,000 threshold with the fundraising effort.

Navarro was charged in June for defying a subpoena to turn over information to the January 6 panel.

Former Trump advisor Peter Navarro is fundraising online to pay for his impending court battle.

Navarro tweeted on Thursday that he hoped his supporters would visit his fundraising site, which he described as having a "cool new URL."

"Trying to get over the $150K threshold and you can help make that difference. This will likely be a million-dollar defense by the time it is all over," Navarro wrote.

Navarro was charged in June for contempt of Congress after he illegally defied a subpoena to turn over information to the House panel investigating the Capitol riot.

He also claimed he was put in handcuffs and "leg irons" when he was arrested at the Nashville airport in June. Navarro later went on Fox News host Tucker Carlson's show to complain, without substantiation, that he was treated like an "Al Qaeda terrorist" during the incident.

Navarro said in June that he was facing "a number of hurdles" when it came to hiring lawyers. At the time, he indicated during a court appearance that he might represent himself, saying: "I don't want to spend my retirement savings on lawyers."

At press time, Navarro's fundraising page for his legal defense fund had raised close to $150,000 and was less than $2,000 shy of the former Trump advisor's initial goal. The goal set for Navarro is now $250,000, with recommendations that people "please send $10, $25, $50 or more."

Navarro's page also indicates that he would send people who give him $100 or more a free copy of his book, "Taking Back Trump's America," which comes with a signed bookplate.

Comments left by donors on Navarro's fundraising page appeared supportive, with one donor stating that they admired his "tenacity."

Story continues

According to the page, Navarro is hoping for people to give whatever they can afford to help him "continue to stand up for the Constitution and his Commander in Chief." The page also describes him as "a brave and dedicated American patriot who deserves a medal for his distinguished White House public service."

The former Trump aide's trial date is currently set for November.

Read the original article on Business Insider
In court on Thursday, defense attorney Jack Maro read aloud letters written by family and friends of his client Stanley Atony Jensen.

The letters highlighted Jensen's good deeds, which aided the community, strangers and those who just needed a helping hand.

One of the letters was from Jensen's daughter. It states that Jensen is "genuinely a great man" who has given people suits so they could go on job interviews.

Admission: Fort McCoy man admits to possession of unregistered firearm silencer

Jury: Ocala jury finds landlord guilty of second-degree murder in 2019 shooting death of tenant

Awaiting his sentence: Ocala jury finds controversial ex-prison guard guilty of molesting girl younger than 12

In the end, the plea for leniency didn't work. Circuit Judge Anthony Tatti sentenced Jensen to a 50-year prison term, with a 25-year minimum mandatory, for the shooting death of one of his tenants.

A wonderful outlook on life

One of Jensen's neighbors was called to the podium by Maro. She told Tatti, who presided over the hearing and Jensen's trial earlier this year, that Jensen has a wonderful outlook on life.

She said when Hurricane Irma passed through Marion County, Jensen opened his home so people could eat, shower and change clothes.

Defense attorney Jack Maro

"It says something about his character," Maro told the court.

Jensen, 60, has no criminal record, Maro said. Twenty-five years in prison would be tantamount to a life sentence. Maro said Jensen has shown remorse.

Ocala defense lawyer Shane Backman assisted Maro with the trial. Bachman also was in court on Thursday for the sentencing hearing.

Assistant State Attorney Sasha Kidney said Jensen showed disregard for human life. She said that law enforcement gave Jensen a solution for his problem with the tenant, but instead he allowed his anger and frustration to take over.

Kidney said Jensen did not show remorse during the trial. She recommend a life sentence for Jensen, who served in the U.S. Air Force and had worked several jobs, including as a Marion County school bus driver.

Story continues

Assistant State Attorney Sasha Kidney

Jensen addressed the court before sentencing

When it was his turn to speak, Jensen, wearing a faded Marion County jail uniform, apologized to the victim's parents, who sat beside each other in the courtroom.

He thanked his family and friends for helping him cope with his conviction. He said he has shown remorse, and that the prosecution team doesn't know him.

"I've been a Christian most of my adult life. What happened that night should not have happen. I'm so remorseful. I'm going to live with this for the rest of my life," he said.

After listening to the lawyers and Jensen, Tatti imposed sentence. In addition to the prison time, Jensen must pay fines and court costs.

Circuit Judge Anthony Tatti

Jensen's sister, mother and other supporters were present at Thursday's hearing. They did not speak at the hearing.

Max and Della Bruss, parents of the victim, Marc Bruss, declined to give a statement.

Outside the courtroom, the Brusses told a Star-Banner reporter that they thank the State Attorney's Office's victim/witness advocates for comforting, supporting and keeping them informed.

At issue: A shooting death in October 2019

Jensen owned property in the 2800 block of Southeast 59th Street and had rented a residence to Bruss, 49.

Marion County Sheriff's deputies said Jensen had removed Bruss' belongings from the rental home. When Bruss got home, he saw his items outside and was angry.

Jensen and Bruss argued. Deputies were called to the location and Jensen was told that he could not evict Bruss without going to court and making the necessary arrangements.

According to testimony presented during Jensen's trial, he did not go to court. Instead, Jensen, who was at his home, which is next to Bruss' residence, reportedly heard a noise outside and went to investigate.

He went to Bruss' residence. There, Bruss saw him. Jensen alleged that Bruss had a machete and was threatening him. He said he told Bruss to put down the machete, but he refused and Jensen shot Bruss six times.

Four of those shots were to the victim's back and the remaining two to the side, according to testimony presented at trial.

Contact Austin L. Miller at austin.miller@starbanner.com.

This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: Ocala, Florida landlord gets 50-year prison term for killing tenant
Police arrested a dangerous fugitive Thursday night who was wanted in connection for multiple crimes in Boston and a homicide in Philadelphia.

According to Boston Police, Wagner Tejada-Pena was arrested in Lawrence just before 11:30 p.m., after authorities say Tejada-Pena had a warrant out for his arrest for murder out of Philadelphia after he allegedly shot and killed a random victim on June 21, 2022.

He was also wanted on two warrants out of West Roxbury District Court in connection with two stabbing incidents, according to police.

Lawrence Police say they conducted a traffic stop at the intersection of Broadway and Manchester Street and Tejada-Pena was taken into custody without incident.

Wagner Tejeda-Pena appeared in West Roxbury District Court for arraignment on a fugitive from justice charge, and he was also charged with two non fatal stabbings in Roslindale on February 13th.

Tejeda-Pena was allowed to stand in a hallway during his arraignment, outside of the range of our camera and pleaded not guilty to the two Boston cases.

The victim in the Philadelphia case was a 76 year old man who was out for an early morning walk when he was shot once in the head.

Police say surveillance footage revealed this was a completely unprovoked attacked.

Wagner Tejeda-Pena, according to court documents, lives in Roslindale, but he may have fled to Philadelphia to escape charges in two separate shootings on February 13th in Roslindale.

The first shooting took place outside as Dominoes pizza shop on Washington St.

The victim said in a report said the two got into an argument when Tejada-Pena accused him of being his biological father.

And things quickly escalated.

According to the report Tejeda-Pena, armed with a folding knife, tried to stab the victim twice in the chest, but instead cut him in his outer thigh.

The second attack took place hours later inside a second floor apartment in Roslindale.

The victim said he was making lunch in his aunts kitchen, when Tejada-Pena came up behind him saying, so this is where you live, and stabbed the victim in the face with a folding knife.

Story continues

Tejada-Pena is ordered held without bail until Philadelphia Police can pick him up.

In the meantime, he is due back in West Roxbury District Court for a Dangerousness Hearing on Tuesday.

Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW




A 29-year-old man who suffered a gunshot wound to the leg and was wanted for a felony warrant was arrested after police found him naked and hiding in a dumpster on Thursday afternoon.

Seattle police said at 3:30 p.m., officers were called near 27th Avenue and East Spring Street for a report of shots fired.

When police arrived, they found evidence from a collision and 20 shell casings.

Witnesses told police that multiple cars fled the scene, including a red BMW.

Minutes later, officers were called to 17th Avenue and East Madison Street for another crash involving a red BMW.

Police said the driver of the BMW told a witness someone had shot him. However, another car arrived at the scene, picked up the driver and took him to a hospital on First Hill.

The other driver involved in the crash remained at the scene and talked to officers, authorities said.

While investigators were collecting evidence at the scene, they recovered two guns and then went to the hospital to talk with the man who had been shot in his leg.

Investigators said the victim was uncooperative and lied about his name. They also discovered he had a Department of Corrections warrant for escaping community custody.

The man then ran from officers in his hospital gown but was eventually noticed by a passerby, who flagged down police. The passerby said the man ran naked down the block.

Police said they found the man naked and hiding in a dumpster.

The man was arrested and taken to Harborview Medical Center for treatment.

Police said he will be booked into jail after he is medically cleared.




A Charlotte man was arrested Friday in connection with a shooting Monday at the Ashley Forest apartments in Chapel Hill, police said in a news release.

Police responded to the 100 block of Ashley Forest Road around 9:10 p.m. Monday in response to a 911 call and found Elyjah Smith, 25, of Chapel Hill, with life-threatening gunshot wounds.

ABC11, The News & Observers media partner, spoke with a witness who said his roommate was shot after an argument in the apartment parking lot. Police said Smith was taken to UNC Hospitals, where he was listed in critical condition.

He said he got a gun, so he come back inside, Austin Drum told the news station. But then he went back outside and they started arguing again and come back inside and I close the door, opened it up again and then he stood in the doorway and thats when the shots were fired and I just seen him collapse fell on the ground. I tried to do the best I could.

The apartment complex is off Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, north of Estes Drive.

Chapel Hill Police investigators later identified a suspect, 27-year-old Kemonnie Drequan Eason, during their investigation, and charged him Friday with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling, assault by pointing a gun, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and larceny of a motor vehicle, police said.

Eason was being held in the Wake County Detention Center without bond, police said. The investigation is continuing.

Wake County records show Eason also is being held on a second charge from 2020 of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, and also on charges related to misdemeanor and felony probation violations from 2019.

State corrections records show Eason was convicted in 2017 of possession of a firearm by a felon and common-law robbery charges in Mecklenburg County. He was released to parole in May 2018 after serving 17 months in prison, the records show.

Story continues

In September 2019, he was convicted in Gaston County on charges of driving while impaired and possessing stolen goods, receiving a suspended sentence and probation.

Correction records show he stopped showing up for probation meetings at some point and was listed as an absconder from probation/parole supervision.

Anyone with information about Mondays shooting can call 911 or contact the Chapel Hill Police Department at 919-968-2760 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Callers also can leave an anonymous tip by calling Chapel Hill-Carrboro-UNC Crimestoppers at 919-942-7515.
When a Houma woman and her boyfriend were arrested Tuesday for murder in connection with the death of the womans 2-year-old son, Ezekiel Harry, local officials praised the work that was done in building the case.

But since then, the Houma Police Department has faced criticism on social media, due to allegations that they had not heeded concerns from neighbors about the couple, suggesting that the little boys life could have been saved.

"Hard to believe no one was able to do something before things led to this, Really unacceptable. This needs to be extremely investigated. On all parts," said Rick Hebert, posting on the Houma Today Facebook page.

Another poster in the same thread, Bergeron Clark, said, "Sad when kid got hit people heard it never got busted."

Police Chief Dana Coleman says the criticism presents a dilemma for him and his department.

An impromptu memorial to Ezekiel Harry, a 2-year-old who was found dead in a trash can on Daspit Street in Houma Tuesday.

The chief said he does not want to appear critical of citizens whose hearts are in the right place and who, like many other people in the area, are having trouble coping with the horror of what has occurred.

For subscribers: 'That house is going to be haunted': Neighbors shocked over the loss of Ezekiel Harry

In the beginning we were asking if any of our people were familiar with this address, Coleman said. We started doing our research and quickly developed that some of this we were being accused of is inaccurate. When people make comments and we quickly determine they are inaccurate, honestly, thats like taking a punch in the gut. We are here to provide a service and I think our law enforcement officers provide an excellent service.

The toddlers mother, Maya Jones, 28, and her boyfriend, Jermaine Robinson, 37, were booked into the Terrebonne Parish jail Tuesday on murder charges. Police allege that the two had carried the childs body for hours on Houma streets in a black duffel bag, then dumped the bag in a trash bin on Daspit Street, a block from Houma Police headquarters.

Story continues

Police were alerted

Neighbors have said they called police because of loud disputes at the house the couple rented at 145 Cadiere St. In one instance, a neighbor said, concerned about the safety of the four children living there, an anonymous complaint was made to the Louisiana Department of Children and Families.

Sean Ellis, a spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services, was contacted to verify whether any complaints concerning the address had been received by his agency.

DCFS cannot comment on, or even acknowledge the existence of, a potential investigation of abuse or neglect involving a child, Ellis said. If there is an investigation, state laws make the entire process, from report to investigation to outcome, confidential.

More: Police say mother and boyfriend seen on video carrying childs body

Coleman said there were three police responses to the location during the month or so the couple had been living there to his knowledge. One was a report of a loud dispute, and the other two were welfare checks requested by a relative.

No criminal behavior

In none of those cases, Coleman said, was any criminal behavior observed by officers.

I understand the concerns people have, Coleman said. But we cant simply force our way into someones house because there has been an argument, or if there is no evidence of a crime being committed.

Coleman said the ability of officers to look more closely into a situation is often hampered when callers dont provide a way to contact them.

We thoroughly respect the desires of people who call us to remain anonymous or not get directly involved, Coleman said. If someone tells us who they are and expresses that, we keep our word. But without a phone number for an officer to obtain further information, a call can be a dead end.

What officers can do in a given situation, Coleman said, is only as good as the information they have been given by a caller.

We can only deal with the issue based on the information we receive, Coleman said. If someone doesnt want their name attached to the call, that makes it more difficult for law enforcement. We have ways to keep people anonymous. If we have ways to contact the caller, they can give us a sense of direction.

Further cooperation needed

Experts in police procedure say that what police can do when called  especially without the help of a complainant  is limited by practicality as well as by law.

Anonymous information alone is almost never actionable without further cooperation, said Scott Couregge, a Baton Rouge consultant and police trainer who has worked for various law enforcement agencies. If an anonymous complainant says there is a dead body at 123 Main Street we could never get a warrant or take action without some physical evidence or supporting evidence. Police can effectively do nothing except go to an area and try to observe corroborating information or evidence.

Numerous calls regarding a particular residence could trigger a follow-up investigation, Courrege said. But even then, with no evidence of a crime options are limited.

They could knock on the door and look and listen and without something they can hear or see the answer is there is legally nothing they can do, Courrege said. A detective can go knock on the same door and without more thats it.

How to report a crime or suspicious activity

Provide as much information as you can even if it doesnt seem crucial at the time.

Identifying yourself to a dispatcher goes a long way toward helping officers.

If an officer calls you, cooperate as much as you can when answering questions.

This article originally appeared on The Courier: Police criticized on Facebook after arrest in Ezekiel Harrys death
Jimmy "Jay" Lee, a University of Mississippi student who went missing on July 8, 2022, according to the Oxford Police Department. Oxford Police Department

Jay Lee, a 20-year-old University of Mississippi student, has been missing for a week.

Lee's father urged anyone with information about his whereabouts to contact the police.

Police said they found Lee's car after it was towed from an apartment complex the day he went missing.

In a video posted by police on Thursday, the father of University of Mississippi student Jimmie "Jay" Lee, 20, is urging anyone with information about his son's disappearance to contact police and "help find my son."

Lee  who wears makeup and women's clothing in some photos posted on social media but uses he/him pronouns, according to his Facebook page  was last seen at 5:58 a.m. last Friday leaving the student housing Campus Walk apartments in Oxford. He was wearing a silver robe, gold sleeping cap, and slippers, according to a statement from the Oxford Police Department.

"I want everyone to know that whether you're Black, white, green, polka dotted, doesn't matter who you are, he was there to help if he saw the need," Jay's father, Jimmie Lee Sr., said in the video.

Lee is a social work major and campaigned to be the University of Mississippi homecoming king in 2021, receiving more than 45% of the initial vote and forcing a runoff with his opponent before losing the final election, according to the school's student newspaper.

His disappearance is being investigated by the Oxford Police Department and the University of Mississippi Police Department in tandem. Neither immediately responded to Insider's request for comment.

Police found Lee's car at a local towing company on Monday, according to OPD. The car was towed from the Molly Barr Trails apartment complex, about two miles from Campus Walk, the day he went missing.

Lee may have been visiting someone there, according to police.

Law enforcement officials said they sent Lee's vehicle to the Mississippi State Crime Laboratory for processing and have conducted "around a dozen" search warrants on both "physical and digital entities."

Story continues

They have also begun searching certain areas of Oxford with a K9 unit and rescue team, according to a statement.

"I'm asking that if anyone knows anything or sees anything, say something," Lee's father pleaded in the video. "Contact the law enforcement. Just tell them what you know."

Read the original article on Insider
Red-state Donald Trump voters are now more likely to say theyd be personally better off (33%) than worse off (29%) if their state seceded from the U.S. and became an independent country, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll.

Its a striking rejection of national unity that dramatizes the growing culture war between Democratic- and Republican-controlled states on core issues such as guns, abortion and democracy itself. And an even larger share of red-state Trump voters say their state as a whole would be better off (35%) rather than worse off (30%) if it left the U.S.

Former President Donald Trump at a "Save America" rally in support of Republican candidates on July 9 in Anchorage, Alaska. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)

The survey of 1,672 U.S. adults, which was conducted from July 8 to 11, comes as a series of hard-line conservative decisions by the Supreme Court  coupled with continued gridlock on Capitol Hill  have shifted Americas center of political gravity back to the states, where the parties in power are increasingly filling the federal void with far-reaching reforms of their own.

The further apart they push their states  on voting rights, on misinformation, on post-Roe regulations, on gun-safety measures  the more the country morphs into what one political analyst has described as a federated republic of two nations: Blue Nation and Red Nation.

[This] is a defining characteristic of 21st-century America, the Atlantics Ronald Brownstein recently argued. In another piece he wrote, The result through the 2020s could be a dramatic erosion of common national rights and a widening gulf  a great divergence  between the liberties of Americans in blue states and those in red states.

Regardless of where they live, most Americans are hardly ready to dissolve the union (even though, in a previous Yahoo News/YouGov poll, a majority of Republicans [52%] did predict that there will be a civil war in the United States in [their] lifetime).

Overall, just 17% of Americans actually want their state to leave the U.S. and become an independent country, a number that is remarkably consistent across party lines. Only slightly more (19%) favor the U.S. eventually becoming two countries  one consisting of blue states run by Democrats and one consisting of red states run by Republicans.

Story continues

But dig a little deeper and it becomes clear that this level of consensus is, in part, an illusion.

For the purposes of the survey, Yahoo News defined red states as those with consistent Republican control on the state level in recent years, and blue states as those with consistent Democratic control. Divided states were excluded.

Yet despite obvious and expected differences in party composition, neither red nor blue states consist of anywhere near monolithically Republican or Democratic populations. In fact, across all Yahoo News/YouGov polls conducted so far this year, more than a third of red-state respondents (34%) identify as Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents; likewise, more than a quarter of blue-state respondents (26%) identify as Republicans or Republican leaners.

In other words, there are a lot of blue-state and red-state residents who have more in common with their political brethren elsewhere than with their governors or state legislatures.

To truly gauge the gap between red states and blue states, then, it helps to set aside these mostly powerless political minorities and focus instead on the dominant voters who are actually steering state leaders to the left or the right.

Among red-state Trump voters, 92% trust their state government more than the federal government to do whats best. Almost as many (86%) say the federal government is not working well; a full two-thirds (67%) insist its not working well at all.

In contrast, nearly 8 in 10 red-state Trump voters (79%) say their state government is working well, with huge majorities approving of how state leaders are handling guns (78%), democracy (73%), COVID-19 (71%), race (69%), the economy (68%), crime (65%) and abortion (63%).

Trump supporters at a rally in Commerce, Ga., on March 26. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)

As a result, red-state Trump voters are alone in saying that its more important for individual states to make their own laws with minimal interference from the federal government (56%) than it is for the federal government to protect peoples constitutional rights when violated by state laws (33%).

And red-state Trump voters divide roughly down the middle on the question of whether things would be better (37%) or worse (40%) if the country as a whole actually split into a Blue Nation and a Red Nation. No other cohort views disunion so favorably.

Blue-state Joe Biden voters, for instance, are only slightly more inclined (27%) than Americans as a whole (21%) to say things would be better if America broke in two. Just 14% want their own state to secede, versus 29% of red-state Trump voters. And only slightly more blue-state Biden voters (21%) think they themselves would be better off in such a scenario; a full 47% say theyd be worse off.

Given that Democrats generally trust Washington, D.C., more than Republicans do  and currently control it  this may not come as a surprise. But much like red-state Trump voters, blue-state Biden voters also prefer their state government to the federal government by sizable margins.

In fact, blue-state Biden voters (75%) are actually more likely than red-state Trump voters (65%) to say America as a whole would be better off if it did things more like [their] state. Theyre also more likely to say their state government is working well (84%)  and nearly as likely to say they trust their state government (80%) over the federal government (20%) to do whats best.

Frustrated by the 60-vote threshold to defeat a filibuster, most Biden voters everywhere (53%) say the U.S. Senate has too much power; more than three-quarters (76%) say the same of the 6-3 conservative Supreme Court. Nearly half of Biden voters (48%) say theyve considered moving to a different country because of politics. And nearly 6 in 10 blue-state Trump voters say theyve considered moving to another state for the same reason.

In short, Americas great divergence isnt a one-sided phenomenon. Its happening in both red America and blue America.

Why? The new Yahoo News/YouGov poll hints at two reasons. The first is pervasive  and not particularly partisan  disillusionment with America as a whole.

Exactly two years ago, a clear plurality of Americans (46%) told Yahoo News and YouGov that the nations best days are still to come; at the time, just 25% believed the United States best days were behind us.

Now those numbers are reversed, with 37% saying our best days are behind us and just 31% saying theyre still to come. Similarly, just 19% of Americans predicted two years ago that their children would be worse off than they are; today, a full 46% believe the next generation will be worse off than their own. Thats a stunning change.

Overall, two-thirds of Americans (65%) say the federal government is not working well. Just 23% say the opposite.

Abortion rights activists march to the White House on July 9 to denounce the Supreme Court decision to end federal abortion rights protections. (Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Its no wonder, then, that blue- and red-state residents who agree with the party in power there are retreating into their respective geographic corners. Its no wonder, either, that they increasingly see each other as cautionary tales  the second factor that seems to be supercharging the great divergence.

When asked to compare red states with blue states on a host of issues, red-state Trump voters say by wide margins that blue states have more gun deaths (68%) and discrimination (56%) while red states have more economic growth (75%) and education (55%).

Blue-state Biden voters, in contrast, say it is red states that suffer more gun deaths (62%) and discrimination (75%)  and blue states that enjoy more economic growth (65%) and education (77%).

Obviously, both sides cant be right. (According to Brownstein, blue-state Biden voters are closer to the mark; other analysts might disagree.) But that isnt stopping either side from thinking the worst of the other.

_____________

The Yahoo News survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,672 U.S. adults interviewed online from July 8 to 11, 2022. This sample was weighted according to gender, age, race and education based on the American Community Survey, conducted by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, as well as 2020 presidential vote (or nonvote) and voter registration status. Respondents were selected from YouGovs opt-in panel to be representative of all U.S. adults. The margin of error is approximately 2.6%.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and former Vice Chairman Richard Clarida were cleared in an internal probe of their financial transactions, according to a memo from the Feds internal watchdog released Thursday.

The Feds inspector general (IG) office, an independent internal watchdog, investigated several financial transactions conducted by the banks top two officials in 2019 and 2020, but did not find evidence they violated laws, rules, regulations, or policies related to trading activities as investigated by our office.

The Fed board of governors asked the IG in October to investigate financial trades conducted by Clarida, former Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan and former Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren.

Clarida came under fire after disclosing  and then revising  several purchases and sales of investment funds as the Fed was plotting its initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic in February 2020. The trades raised questions of whether Clarida moved his money based on his knowledge of the Feds plans.

Both Kaplan and Rosengren invested in and traded millions of dollars in stocks and bonds throughout 2020 while the Fed was actively propping up financial markets with unprecedented support.

All three have since stepped down from their positions, though Claridas term at the Fed was to end this year regardless.

The Fed IG also looked into Powells financial trades during December 2019 after some media reports raised questions about his conduct.

In a Wednesday memo to Powell, Fed Inspector General Mark Bialek said the watchdog office had not yet completed its probe of Kaplan and Rosengren. But Bialek said the investigations into Powell and Clarida turned up no evidence of serious misconduct.

Bialek said Claridas February 2020 trades did not violate insider trading laws or Fed rules about the usage of classified information by top officials. While Clarida failed to report several financial trades via Office of Government Ethics disclosure forms required for all top government officials in 2019 and 2020, Bialek said he effectively settled the issue by filing updated disclosures with OGE and complying with the Fed IG investigation.

Story continues

We determined that these omissions do not require further investigation, Bialek said.

Bialek said a Powell family trust also made five financial transactions during the blackout period  a several-week span during which top Fed officials do not talk to the press, cannot purchase or sell securities, and are discouraged from making financial transactions  around the Feds December 2019 monetary policy meeting.

Those five financial transactions were trades meant to free up cash for charitable donations the Powell family typically made each December, Bialek wrote. He said the trades happened after Powells wife asked the trusts financial adviser to make funds available for the donations and the adviser failed to remember the terms of the Feds blackout period.

The trust financial advisor subsequently acknowledged that executing the trades during the blackout period was an oversight on the teams part. We found no evidence that you or your spouse had contemporaneous knowledge that the five transactions were executed during the blackout period. As such, we found that you did not violate the FOMC trading blackout rule, Bialek wrote.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian investors will have the right to ask foreign institutions holding their frozen securities to transfer depositary accounting rights to a Russian organisation, according to a law signed by President Vladimir Putin late on Thursday.

Around six trillion roubles ($105.1 billion) of foreign shares held by Russians have been frozen as a result of Western sanctions and Russia's own authorities and platforms restricting trading in foreign assets, the central bank has estimated.

Investors have the right to submit an application for the depositary accounting rights of its foreign-held shares to be transferred to a Russian entity within 90 days from the law's publication, the text of the law said.

Russia saw a boom in private investment in the years leading up to its decision in February to send armed forces into Ukraine, with foreign stocks such as Apple and Tesla popular among a growing army of retail investors.

Moscow's access to the international economic and global trading systems has been severely restricted as a result of the West's unprecedented sanctions.

Russia's leaders and the central bank are trying to shield the country from those restrictions, accelerating a de-dollarisation drive and encouraging Russians to store their assets domestically in roubles and through Russian securities in order to protect them from possible future sanctions.

Officials have said that the law could allows Russian holders of securities of Russian companies issued abroad, including sovereign Eurobonds, to exit from these assets.

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Alistair Bell)
Shooters Grill, the gun-themed restaurant where the servers packed heat and which helped propel its hard-line conservative owner into the halls of Congress, served its last Swiss & Wesson burger over the weekend in the small Colorado town named, appropriately enough, Rifle.

The Glenwood Springs Post Independent published a story Wednesday that said Rep. Lauren Boebert, the firebrand Republican from Colorado's 3rd Congressional District, had closed her restaurant Sunday. Along with the story, reporter Ray K. Erku snapped a photo outside Shooters Grill. There was a sandwich board blocking the entrance. In chalk, it read: "Thanks for the Support. Stay Tuned. #covfefe." The last word, of course, was a reference to former president Donald Trump's famous late-night typo tweet.

Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post.

News of the restaurant's closure wasn't a surprise. Boebert had told reporters in June that the building's new owners decided not to renew her lease. Records from Garfield County, where Rifle is located, indicate the building that housed Shooters was sold May 26, two days after the school shooting in Uvalde, Tex., where 19 children and two adults were killed.

The closing was on the same day Boebert went on Fox News and said, "When 9/11 happened, we didn't ban planes, we secured the cockpit." The new owner, a company named Milkin Enterprises, shares an address with another local business, the Green Cross Recreational Dispensary, which sells a wide line of flowers, edibles, cartridges and other THC and CBD products.

The owners of Milkin Enterprises, Mike Miller and Dan Meskin, have not provided many clues as to why they gave Boebert and Shooters Grill the boot. They have declined interviews. The Washington Post called the Rifle dispensary (and its sister location in Silt, Colo.), looking for the owners. The Post also emailed an account for Meskin found in public records. Neither Miller nor Meskin responded.

Story continues

But when the news of Shooters Grill's potential closing emerged, the Daily Beast reported that a "person familiar with the arrangement said the property manager felt he had a 'moral' imperative to close the business." The same story also said Boebert had dismissed the idea that the new owners, one of whom is the son of the previous landlord, were politically motivated to shut down her business. Boebert's office did not respond to a message requesting comment on the closing.

Related video: Lauren Boebert tells this story when talking about guns

Whatever the reason, the western restaurant has ridden off into the sunset after a nearly 10-year run.

"We were like a family," Boebert told Erku with the Post Independent. "I would say Shooters, for any employee, was their life. We lived and breathed it every single day. They were a part of this culture and brand that we created in Rifle, and there was a lot of pride with that."

Shooters opened in 2013 in a location across the street from the current one. The grill looked like a saloon straight out of central casting. The floors were hardwood, the walls decorated with rifles, knotty pine wood, a cross, pro-gun signs and American flags, including one that had the Pledge of Allegiance printed on it. A sign was placed in the front window, announcing the restaurant's position on open carry and positioning itself as a safe place for the MAGA crowd.

"WARNING," the sign read in all caps, "THIS IS NOT A GUN FREE ZONE."

A scroll through the restaurant's Yelp page photos proves that point: Numerous patrons have taken pictures inside the dining room, or outside the grill, their hands hovering over a pistol strapped to their hip, as if ready for a quick draw. The servers, frequently young women in T-shirts and denim shorts, also carried firearms, which probably explains why numerous journalists dubbed Shooters Grill a Hooters parody for Second Amendment die-hards.

Its menu borrowed the language from weapons manufacturers, the National Rifle Association and middle America, often twisting words into food-related puns. The restaurant sold Guac Nine and Swiss & Wesson burgers. It offered a Ruger Reuben. Appetizers were listed under the heading of "Target Practice." The kids menu was dubbed Lil Slingers. There was a prayer to "Father God" at the bottom of the menu.

The God-and-guns message would carry over into Boebert's political career when she was elected to Congress in 2020. She has been a staunch advocate for gun ownership, rejecting any calls for bans or controls, even after mass shootings. When she started her first term in the House, Boebert said she would carry her Glock pistol on Capitol grounds and in Washington, even though D.C. gun laws do not recognize concealed-carry licenses from other states.

She created a stir last month at a religious service in Colorado when she said: "I'm tired of this separation of church and state junk that's not in the Constitution. It was in a stinking letter, and it means nothing like what they say it does." Experts called her interpretation of the Constitution false and "dangerous."

A photo on the business's Yelp page shows a plaque that was dedicated to the opening of Shooters Grill on May 22, 2013. It features a quote from Proverbs, in script that mixes cursive with all caps: "Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed."

Shooters, however, struggled over the course of its existence. According to one public disclosure statement filed by Boebert, Shooters lost more than $242,000 in 2018. The Daily Beast reported that public disclosures indicated that Shooters had lost "more than $600,000 in total between 2018 and 2020." The restaurant also had accumulated nearly $20,000 of unpaid unemployment insurance premiums, which Boebert reportedly paid off days before the general election in 2020. Shooters also reportedly sickened dozens of people at a rodeo with its pork sliders.

Despite the hardships and the fact that she easily won her Republican primary in June, Boebert has not given up on Shooters. She told the Post Independent that she and her husband, Jayson, have been praying about the business's future.

"We would just dramatically scale it back, because, obviously, we're not in our building," she told the publication. "It may look like a Shooters coffee shop with pastries and some easy breakfast sandwiches and merchandise."

Related Content

What inflation? China's peppercorn purveyors are feeling the heat.

Secret Van Gogh self-portrait discovered on reverse of another painting

What I learned from 20 years photographing lightning in D.C.
FILE - Men wearing protective gear carry a dead body during the exhumation of killed civilians in Bucha, outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, April 8, 2022. / Credit: Efrem Lukatsky / AP

Washington  An international investigation has found grim new evidence of war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine, identifying cases of direct targeting of civilians, torture, rape and forced deportations.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a regional security organization, issued a report Thursday detailing "clear patterns of serious violations of international humanitarian law" committed mainly by the Russian army.

The report describes in vivid detail the torture of Ukrainian civilians by Russian troops.

In a summer camp in Bucha, just outside Ukraine's capital of Kyiv that was occupied for over two weeks by Russian forces, the investigators said they found a series of torture chambers.

"In Zabuchchya, a village in the Bucha district, 18 mutilated bodies of murdered men, women, and children were discovered in a basement: some had their ears cut off, while others had their teeth pulled out," according to the report.

Speaking Thursday in Vienna, U.S. Ambassador to the OSCE Michael Carpenter described a Russian missile attack on the central city of Vinnytsia that killed more than 20 people, including 3 children, as "disgusting," but "a reality that we contend with each and every day."

Ukrainian emergency services showed images of a child's dead body lying on the ground next to a play stroller she had been pushing down the road with her mother when the missiles struck.

In an interview with CBS News senior foreign correspondent Holly Williams, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov called the strike the latest proof that his country is at war with "a state of terrorists."

"They're using that weapon against civilian people, against the civilian facilities, against the hospitals against the kindergartens," he said.

The OSCE report says that as Russia is increasingly unable to muster enough of its own forces, it has recently begun resorting to conscripting Ukrainian men between the ages 18-65 from territory it occupies and sending them straight to the front lines, with little to no training.

Story continues

"The escalation, and rising casualty rates, have begun to spark anger even among pro-Russian communities. Several videos posted online purportedly show the wives of Donetsk and Luhansk conscripts demanding assistance for their husbands and asking why men with no military background are being sent to fight," according to the report.

Incidences of gender-based violence have remained prevalent throughout the war, the report states. Natalia Karbowska, co-founder and director of strategic development for the Ukrainian Women's Fund, suggested during a June U.N. Security Council briefing that "the Russian Federation is using sexual violence and rape as instruments of terror to control civilians."

In one instance, 25 girls aged 14 to 24 were allegedly kept in a basement in Bucha where they were gang-raped by Russian troops. Nine of the girls became pregnant, according to Ukraine's Commissioner for Human Rights.

Russian President Vladimir Putin bestowed the honorary title of "guard" on the military unit accused of war crimes in Bucha, according to a Russian presidential decree.

In a Facebook post, the Russian Embassy in the U.S. dismissed the report as an attempt by Washington "to vilify the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation," which it suggested was due to "dissatisfaction with the success of a special military operation." The Putin regime has consistently referred to the invasion of Ukraine as a "military operation." Referring to it as a war can land Russians in prison.

The OSCE report also discusses "filtration centers," set up by Russia's occupying forces, where Ukrainian civilians "are separated from others and often simply disappear."

The report says detained individuals are handed over to authorities in the occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where some are sentenced to death.

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for an immediate end to Russia's "filtration" operations and for the release of detained Ukrainian civilians. Russian authorities have deported between 900,000 and 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens, deliberately separating Ukrainian children from their parents, according to the Biden administration.

"The unlawful transfer and deportation of protected persons is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians and is a war crime," Blinken said in a statement Wednesday. "Russian authorities must release those detained and allow Ukrainian citizens forcibly removed or coerced into leaving their country the ability to promptly and safely return home."

Strong close of week for U.S. stock market despite latest inflation numbers

Biden fist-bumps Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

TechWatch: Tech companies upping layoffs
KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO  FRIDAY, 15 JULY 2022, 18:26

At an operational meeting with permanent members of the Security Council on Friday, Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, proposed discussing the "situation in the regions".

Source: RIA Novosti

Quote from Putin: "You and I work on the most acute, most sensitive issues on a daily basis, but we must not forget about the current situation in the regions of the Russian Federation either. Let's talk about that today."

Details: He added that reports would be presented by Alexander Bortnikov, Director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), and Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Minister of Internal Affairs.

The meeting was held via video link. No other details are currently known.

Background: Earlier, Dmitry Peskov, Putins press secretary, announced that Putin had decided to hold an operational meeting with permanent members of Russias Security Council on Friday 15 July.
Jul. 15A Richmond man was arraigned in Cheshire County Superior Court on Tuesday on charges alleging he assaulted and choked a woman at his home in May.

A grand jury indicted William Sweeney, 55, last month on three counts of second-degree assault and one count of attempted second- degree assault.

Law enforcement responded to the emergency room at Heywood Hospital in Gardner, Mass., after a report of an assault in Richmond around 11 a.m. on May 25, according to an affidavit written by Deputy Sheriff Matthew Sands. At the hospital, a woman who knew Sweeney told police he'd punched and stepped on her, resulting in injuries including a broken bone in her foot and a perforated eardrum, the affidavit states.

The woman, who had large bruises on her left foot, elbow and chest, said Sweeney had put his hands around her neck, causing her to become dizzy before throwing her to the ground, Sands wrote in the affidavit.

When she tried to call 911, Sweeney took her cellphone, she said, and also blocked the door and pushed her when she tried to leave the house, before she ultimately escaped, the affidavit states. Sweeney also put a cigarette out under her chin, resulting in a burn, she said, according to the affidavit.

Sheriff's deputies arrested Sweeney on May 28. Judge Elizabeth Leonard has ordered he be held without bail, according to court documents.

Ryan Spencer can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1412, or rspencer@keenesentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter at @rspencerKS
PROVIDENCE  School districts in Rhode Island must develop protocols to administer medical marijuana to students with a demonstrated medical condition under a new state regulation.

The change to the regulation was made last month, but school leaders contacted by The Journal were surprised that school nurses had the authority to administer medical marijuana to students.

Students must have a medical marijuana card, a doctors signature and a parents signature, among other requirements.

There are currently 22 patients younger than 18 who have medical marijuana cards, according to the state Department of Health.

Rhode Island recently approved legalizing recreational marijuana use in Rhode Island. It allows an adult 21 or older to buy and possess up to an ounce of cannabis, with no more than 10 ounces for personal use kept at home. It would also allow Rhode Islanders to grow a small amount of their own cannabis at home once the law takes effect.

But the state Department of Health said the school regulation was not prompted by the change in recreational use.

Medical marijuana was not previously prohibited in schools, according to Health Department spokesman Joseph Wendelken. The revised regulation provides guidance to districts regarding implementation.

Marijuana is legal in RI: What does it mean for drug tests, employers and employees?

Policy came from departments of Education and Health

The policy was developed by the state departments of Education and Health, according to education spokesman Victor Morente, who said parent advocates and members of the General Assembly expressed interest in having RIDE and RIDOH do this.

Legal cannabis: Lawmakers vote to legalize recreational marijuana in RI

We heard rumblings about it, said Lincoln Supt. Larry Filippelli. One of my nurses was concerned. You have the law [legalizing recreational marijuana] in December. If they need it for treatment, then its like treatment for diabetes or anything else. I think youre wise to create a district policy. Its not going away. That is the smart play.

Story continues

Filippelli noted that in Lincoln, students are suspended for smoking or having marijuana.

Michael Cerullo, a licensed psychotherapist and founder of What's the Rush Rhode Island, an advocate for evidence-based policy, said, "Marijuana in any form is dangerous when it interacts with any form of mental-health condition, whether it is known or subsequent to initiating use.

"I am concerned that this regulation does not make clear whether the prescriber must have a previous and ongoing relationship with the patient," he said.

He also questioned why the regulation's definition of medical marijuana excludes cannabinoid medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

"To me, it makes absolutely no sense to exclude these approved, evidence-based medications," he said.

Barrington School Committee takes no action

The Barrington School Committee on Thursday night briefly discussed adopting language of the state regulations as the district's policy, but did not take any action.

Heres what the new regulations say:

Students with a medical marijuana card cant smoke marijuana. In fact, it can only be administered in specific locations, such as the nurses office, and it can't be administered on school trips.

Home delivery: New medical marijuana dispensary opens in South Kingstown

Marijuana shops: Towns in RI still have a chance to ban cannabis retailers. These two already scheduled a vote

Students with a medical prescription cant be disciplined for treatment or considered under the influence of marijuana.

Students cant handle or administer the medical marijuana themselves.

A school nurse can refuse to administer the drug as long as that refusal applies to all students. In that case, the nurse must make other arrangements for qualifying students to receive marijuana.

And parents must release schools from any liability unless educators intentionally disregard the provisions of the regulations.

The Journal reached out to the Rhode Island Certified School Nurse Teachers Association but did not receive a response.

Linda Borg covers education for The Journal.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI school nurses allowed to administer medical marijuana to students
POPASNA, Ukraine (Reuters) - Two months after falling to Russian troops, the eastern Ukrainian town of Popasna that once was home to 20,000 residents has turned into a ghost town with little sign of life.

Ukrainian troops retreated from Popasna in May after Russian forces launched an offensive along most of Ukraine's eastern flank, with intense attacks and shelling around the town in the Luhansk region.

On a visit to Popasna on Thursday by a Reuters reporter, the town looked deserted, with nearly all apartment buildings either destroyed or heavily damaged. Barren streets bore no sign of people or animals.

A former resident, Vladimir Odarchenko, stood inside his damaged home and surveyed the debris strewn across the floor.

"I have no idea what I'm going to do. Where to live? I don't know," he told Reuters. "Summer is fine, I can rent a tiny apartment, if I have enough money."

Russia has continued to pound eastern Ukraine in an effort to gain control of the Donbas region. Moscow earlier this month captured Luhansk province, which makes up part of the Donbas.

Russia launched what it called its "special military operation" against Ukraine on Feb. 24, which the West says is an unprovoked war of aggression.

The conflict has laid waste to Ukrainian cities and caused 5.2 million people to flee the country, according to the United Nations.

(Reporting by Reuters, Editing by Deepa Babington)
"UKRAINSKA PRAVDA"  FRIDAY, 15 JULY 2022, 09:48

Russian forces struck Kharkiv at night, and in the morning carried out a missile attack on Mykolaiv; information on casualties and the scope of the destruction is being clarified.

Source: information from the heads of oblasts on the situation as of 8:00 AM on 15 July

Details:

Kharkiv: At night, occupying forces fired a missile at the Kholodnohirskyi district. The projectile hit an open area. Additionally, at night, the school building in the Nemyshlyansk district was damaged as a result of a strike. There are no victims or injured.

In the greater oblast  a private house in the Chuhuiv district in the village of Korobochkino was struck by a shell.

During the day, Russian forces also shelled the Kharkiv district. Private households were affected.

Mykolaiv Oblast: Mykolaiv was hit by a missile this morning. Information on victims and damage is being established.

During the day, shelling was recorded in the village of Lymany of Halytsynove hromada [amalgamated territorial community - ed.], as well as in Shevchenkivskyi Hromada, Shyroke Hromada, and Bashtanska Hromada. According to preliminary data, there were no casualties, but fields and dry grass caught fire across communities: after Russian shelling in the village of Bereznehuvate and the settlement of Lepetykha, dry grass caught fire; a field of wheat in the village of Pryvilne of the Pryvilne hromada burned; and dry grass burned in the village of Novoivanivka of the Bashtanka Hromada.

Shelling of villages along the delineation line continues in the Bereznehuvate hromada. Information on casualties and damage is being established.

Kherson Oblast: explosions were seen throughout the day on the territory of Kherson Oblast. The situation is tense in Nova Kakhovka, where the Armed Forces continue to strike occupiers positions. A number of fires were seen during the day  burning fields in the suburbs and in Darivka hromada. The situation in the villages near Snihurivka, the Ingulets River and on the borders of the oblast is persistently difficult. Cruel treatment of residents is recorded in Henichesk. The information regarding the uncontrolled release of water from the Kakhovka Reservoir to the North Crimean Canal has also been confirmed.

Story continues

Donetsk Oblast: At night and in the morning  shellings of Krasnohorivka, Marinka, and Velyka Novosilka from Grad MLRS.

At 5:00 AM  missile attack on Kostiantynivka. A 5-story residential building was damaged, a person was injured. During the day: 3 people died, 7 were injured.

The oblast remains without gas and partly without water and electricity. Evacuation of the population continues.

Dnipropetrovsk Oblast: Russian occupiers shelled three districts at once. Fuel caught fire in Nikopolsk due to shelling from Grad MLRS. The fire has been put out. At the site of the shelling, specialists of the State Emergency Service found Gras and phosphorus ammunition fragments. In the Kryvyi Rih District, the park zone of the city of Zelenodolsk was again shelled from barrel artillery. In Synelnykovske, a missile directly hit the school. Rescuers are clearing the rubble. Information about the dead and casualties is being clarified.

Luhansk Oblast: on the front line, Russian troops are continuing to carry out artillery and missile strikes with the following assault attempts.

Over the past day  there was at least one missile attack and multiple airstrikes, in particular, on Verkhnokamiansk.

In Verkhnokamiansk and in Bilohorivka what remains of civilian infrastructure was damaged. However, Russian occupying assaults in both directions were unsuccessful.

Also, three attacks from barrel artillery, four from mortars, one from MLRS, and five from tanks were recorded.

Resistance to the Russian occupation authorities and the military are continuing: yesterday in Sievierodonetsk, a car carrying occupiers was blown up "unexpectedly" on the central street of the city. As a result, six were wounded, four of them seriously.

Sumy Oblast: Yesterday, Russian forces shelled 8 hromadas in Sumy Oblast. In total, more than 40 rounds were fired from various types of weapons (machine guns, rocket and barrel artillery, and drones were used).

Hromadas affected by shelling: Myropilsk, Yunakivka, Esmansk, Novoslobidsk, Khotynsk, Shostkinsk, Krasnopilsk and Velykopysarivsk.

No casualties or destruction was recorded.

This morning there was a mortar shelling of Shalyhinska hromada, without losses or destruction.

Chernihiv Oblast: Yesterday in the evening  artillery shelling of the territory near the settlements of Karpovychi and Mkhy (Novgorod-Siversky District). Without casualties or destruction.

Vinnytsia: As a result of the missile strikes on the city centre, 36 residential buildings were damaged, 17 of them being nearly destroyed.

As of 6:00 AM, 183 people sought help at health care facilities, of which 110 were treated on an outpatient basis. A total of 73 people were hospitalised, including 3 children. Currently, there is information about 23 dead, including three children.

Missing: 18 people.

Search operations and the clearing of the rubble continue.
The findings also suggest men could benefit from an existing drug to increase their lifespan. (Getty Images)

Scientists have unearthed findings that help to explain why men typically die several years younger than women in a first-of-its-kind study.

Their shorter lifespan has now been linked to the loss of the male sex chromosome (made up of DNA) that happens as many men age, which can cause the heart muscle to scar, and potentially lead to heart failure, research from University of Virginia School of Medicine finds.

Estimates show 40% of 70-year-olds suffer this 'Y' chromosome loss, with the new discovery suggesting these men could benefit from an existing drug that targets dangerous tissue scarring.

"Particularly past age 60, men die more rapidly than women. It's as if they biologically age more quickly," says Kenneth Walsh, PhD, director of University of UVA's Hematovascular Biology Center.

Read more: Optimism the key to living longer, study suggests

Men lose Y chromosomes as they grow older, which could be harming their hearts. (Getty Images)

"There are more than 160 million males in the United States alone. The years of life lost due to the survival disadvantage of maleness is staggering. This new research provides clues as to why men have shorter lifespans than women."

On average, as women live five years longer than men in the US, for example, Walsh estimates the new finding may explain as many as nearly four years of the difference.

While women have two X chromosomes, men have an X and a Y. Many men begin to lose their Y chromosome in a fraction of their cells as they age, which appears to be particularly true for smokers.

This loss occurs mainly in cells that rapidly change, like blood cells, while it does not occur in male reproductive cells.

The modal age (largest number) at death in the UK in 2018-2020 was 86.7 years for males and 89.3 years for females, in comparison with 86.5 years and 89.0 years respectively in 2015-2017, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The median age at death was 82.3 years for males and 85.8 years for females, in comparison with 82.4 years and 85.8 years in 2015-2017.

Read more: Eating lentils could add 10 years to your life, scientists say

Story continues

Kenneth Walsh thinks the drug called pirfenidone could help counteract the harmful effects of the chromosome loss. (Getty Images)

While scientists previously found that men who suffer Y chromosome loss are more likely to die at a younger age and suffer age-associated diseases like Alzheimer's disease, the new research is believed to be the first hard evidence that it directly causes harmful effects on men's health.

This is the best evidence to date that losing the Y chromosome is detrimental to health, says John Perry, a human geneticist at the University of Cambridge, Science journal reports. He led one of the biggest studies of the male sex chromosome loss, but wasn't involved in the new research.

Walsh suspects that the drug called pirfenidone may help counteract the harmful effects of the chromosome loss, which may not just have implications for the heart, but other parts of the body too.

Read more: Elon Musk's suggestions for 'improved quality of sleep'  how accurate are they?

Walsh, of UVA's Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and the Robert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research Center and his team used cutting-edge gene-editing technology to develop a special mouse model to better understand the effects of Y chromosome loss in the blood.

They found the loss accelerated age-related diseases and made the mice more prone to heart scarring and led to earlier death, with the results published in the Science journal.

The scientists also assessed the effects of Y chromosome loss in men, conducting three analyses of data from the UK Biobank, a huge biomedical database. They found the Y chromosome loss was associated with cardiovascular disease and heart failure.

As chromosome loss increased, so did the risk of death.

But good news is that the findings suggest that targeting the effects of Y chromosome loss could help men live longer, healthier lives.

Watch: Adding these foods to your diet may help you live longer
Neve Campbell dropped out of the latest new Scream sequel over a pay dispute earlier this year.

The actor has played lead character Sidney Prescott in all five previous entries of the hit horror franchise, most recently in this years Scream.

Campbells exit, which earned support from her original co-stars, creates a hole at the centre of the series that Sidney has filled since the first Scream movie was released in 1996.

Gale Weathers, the fan-favourite news reporter played by Courteney Cox in the original film, is the only member of the 1996 cast so far confirmed to return for Scream 6.

On Thursday (14 July), it was announced that actors Samara Weaving (Ready or Not) and Tony Revolori (Spiderman: No Way Home) would both be joining the new film, which is directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who also directed the successful fifth instalment.

Previous casting additions to the forthcoming slasher film include Hayden Panettiere, whose character Kirby hasnt been seen since Scream 4, as well as Melissa Barrera, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding and Jenna Ortega, whose characters all survived the most recent film.

Weaving and Revolori will be joined by another series newcomer, My Best Friends Wedding star Dermot Mulroney.
A Hollywood writer and producer accused of "serial" sexual assault posed as a photographer and lured women to his home during a seven-year span, Los Angeles police said Thursday.

Eric Weinberg, who was the co-executive producer of "Scrubs," was arrested Thursday at his home in Los Angeles Los Feliz neighborhood, the citys police department said in a statement.

He is accused of "several" sexual assaults, including rape, between 2012 and 2019, police said.

It wasn't clear how many counts he was accused of. A department spokesperson and detectives did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.

Police said Weinberg targeted women in their 20s and 30s at grocery stores, coffee shops and other public places. Weinberg allegedly arranged photo shoots with the women at his home while posing as a photographer, the department said.

Once the women were in his residence, he would sexually assault them during the photo shoot, the department said.

Detectives believe there may be unidentified victims dating back decades.

It wasn't immediately clear if Weinberg, who is being held in lieu of $3.2 million bail has a lawyer to speak on his behalf. There was no response to a message left on a phone number listed under his name.

Weinberg's IMDB page lists dozens of producing and writing credits on shows including "Californication," "Anger Management" and "Politically Incorrect." The page says he was nominated for five Emmy awards.
The inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) notified lawmakers that the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) had deleted text messages from Jan. 5, 2021, and on the day of the Capitol riot itself after they had been formally requested by investigators.

DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari wrote in a letter addressed to House and Senate Homeland Security committees, which was given to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol rioting, that text messages from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021, had been erased as part of a device-replacement program, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Hill and first reported by The Intercept.

The USSS erased those text messages after OIG requested records of electronic communications from the USSS, as part of our evaluation of events at the Capitol on January 6, Cuffari continued.

The letter said DHS officials had told the Office of the Inspector General that they could not provide records directly to the inspector general until they were reviewed by lawyers.

Second, DHS personnel have repeatedly told OIG inspectors that they were not permitted to provide records directly to OIG and that such records had to first undergo review by DHS attorneys. This review led to weeks-long delays in OIG obtaining records and created confusion over whether all records had been produced, he added.

DHS did not respond to questions from The Hill about why OIG was denied access to the records.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the House select committee and the House Homeland Security Committee, said that they had just received the letter and did not immediately know who deleted the text messages.

Well, they were not clear as to how, they just know that theyre not there, Thompson said.

And we had asked them some time ago to look at it. So it didnt come on the committee side, it came on the Homeland side. And this was their  it was a letter. I have not seen the report yet. So its concerning, obviously, and if theres a way we can reconstruct the text  we will, he added.

Story continues

In a statement issued late Thursday, a Secret Service spokesman said that his agency had been cooperating with the DHS Office of the Inspector General and argued that the insinuation that the Secret Service maliciously deleted text messages following a request is false.

The spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi, acknowledged that some data was lost on mobile phones earlier this year after the agency started to reset its devices in January as part of a pre-planned, three-month system migration. But he claimed this began before an inspection had started.

Guglielmi further claimed that the Secret Service had alerted the DHS watchdog that there had been some loss of phone data once the Secret Services electronic communications were requested.

The Secret Service spokesperson said the DHS Office of the Inspector General had been told that texts pertaining to the investigation had not been impacted by the reset.

DHS OIGs allegation regarding DHSs cooperation with its investigation is neither correct nor new. To the contrary, DHS OIG has previously alleged that its employees were not granted appropriate and timely access to materials due to attorney review, he added.

DHS has repeatedly and publicly debunked this allegation, including in response to OIGs last two semi-annual reports to Congress. It is unclear why OIG is raising this issue again.

A spokesperson for the DHS Office of the Inspector General declined to delve into the letter when reached for comment by The Intercept.

To preserve the integrity of our work and protect our independence, we do not discuss our ongoing reviews or our communications with Congress, the spokesperson told The Intercept.

The Hill has reached out to the Department of Homeland Securitys Office of the Inspector General and U.S. Secret Service for comment.

Speaking to CNN last month, Marc Short, a former chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence, said he had contacted Secret Service ahead of the day of the Capitol riot.

And I think with thousands of people descending upon Washington with hopes of a different outcome, I just thought it was important that they be alerted to that, Short told the network. But I didnt have any specific intelligence, I did not have any knowledge the Capitol would be attacked the way it was.

The Secret Service also came up during dramatic testimony to the Jan. 6 panel last month from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

She offered a secondhand account that Trump had tried to grab the steering wheel of the car he was in and tried to lunge at a member of Secret Service personnel after he was told he could not go to the Capitol on Jan. 6.

The Secret Service has denied that the altercation took place.

The Secret Service has been cooperating fully with the select committee since its inception in spring of 2021 and we will continue to do so by responding formally and on the record to the committee regarding new allegations that surfaced in todays testimony, Secret Service said in a statement following her testimony.

 Updated at 10:48 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. candidate John Fetterman shared a Cameo video Thursday in which "Jersey Shore" star Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi appears to highlight the New Jersey ties of Fetterman's Republican opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz.

Fetterman, who has previously slammed Dr. Oz for recently moving to Pennsylvania after living in New Jersey for three decades, shared a link to a Cameo video starring the 34-year-old reality tv star, with the caption: "Hey Dr. OZ  JERSEY loves you + will not forget you!!!"

In the 47-second clip, Polizzi introduces herself as a "hot mess."

"Hey, Mehmet! This is Nicole-Snooki," she says. "I'm a hot mess on a reality show, basically, and I enjoy life."

It is not clear if Polizzi was aware that she was making a video specifically addressing Dr. Oz, or if she even knows who he is, since she never refers to him as "Dr. Oz." A personal use Cameo video from the reality tv star starts at $300, according to her Cameo page.

"I heard that you moved from New Jersey to Pennsylvania to look for a new job, and personally, I don't know why anyone would want to leave Jersey, because it's like, the best place ever, and we're all hot messes," she continues.

Hey @DrOz JERSEY loves you + will not forget you!!!  pic.twitter.com/YmaXfMpzUK  John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman) July 14, 2022

Polizzi then wishes Mehmet good luck, while snarkily suggesting he'll be back in New Jersey soon anyway.

"But I want to say best of luck to you. I know you're away from home and you're in a new place, but Jersey will not forget you. I just want to let you know, I will not forget you. And don't worry, you'll be back home Jersey soon. This is only temporary."

Story continues

She ends the video with a kiss to the camera.

This is the latest attack in a contentious Senate race with months left to go until election day.

Dr. Oz, who is being endorsed by former President Donald Trump, recently won a close GOP primary race against David McCormick, while Fetterman has been off the campaign trail after suffering a stroke on May 13.

From 2017: "First Ex" Ivana Trump

Epidemiologist urges caution as new COVID variant drives cases

U.S. Capitol Police officer says he's doesn't accept rioter's apology right now
By Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea hopes a high-level visit to Tokyo next week will kickstart talks aimed at a breakthrough in historical disputes despite concerns the death of former Japanese premier Shinzo Abe could change Japan's policy priorities, Seoul officials said.

Relations between the two North Asian U.S. allies have been strained over disputes dating to Japan's 1910-1945 occupation of Korea. Washington has been pressing Tokyo and Seoul to mend fences in the face of the North Korean nuclear threat and the rising influence of China.

Officials in the administration of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office in May vowing to improve ties with Japan, told Reuters they feel emboldened by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's election victory which could give him more scope to advance his policy agenda for another three years.

Foreign Minister Park Jin will visit Japan on July 18-20, the ministry said, a trip which a senior official handling Japan policy said is aimed at "turning on the tap" for serious negotiations on issues relating to forced labour, which stalled under Yoon's predecessor.

Park will meet his Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa Hayashi and discuss relations between the two countries and issues on the Korean Peninsula, the South Korean ministry said. Park will also pay respects to Abe.

Another South Korean official said Yoon would send a high-level delegation led by the prime minister when Japan holds a public memorial service for Abe, who was shot and killed last week while on the campaign trail.

Yoon would also likely use his Aug. 15 Liberation Day speech marking Korea's independence from Japan as a chance to send a reconciliatory message to Tokyo, the official added.

"What we're trying to do is to open the door for real talks," the senior official said.

The assassination of Abe, who was a defining leader in Japanese politics and a divisive figure in Korea, has raised new doubts about the outlook for relations with South Korea, where bitter wartime memories run deep.

Story continues

Some analysts say Korea might be put on the back burner while Kishida presses to achieve Abe's unrealised dreams, including constitutional reform aimed at allowing Japanese troops to fight overseas.

But some Korean officials see Japan as more willing to talk now, with pressure by U.S. President Joe Biden's administration also playing a potential role.

"We see great potential in stronger trilateral relationships," Derek Chollet, Counsellor of the U.S. State Department, told Reuters this week.

COOPERATION 'INEVITABLE'

Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Hirokazu Matsuno, said on Friday that cooperation with Seoul and Washington was "inevitable" for responding to North Korea's threat and other regional issues.

"Although relations between Japan and South Korea are in a very severe state ... we don't think it can be left as it is," he told a news conference, adding Tokyo would work together to resolve history issues and restore ties.

Yoon and Kishida met Biden on the sidelines of last month's NATO summit for their first trilateral talks, and Chollet said Washington stands ready to facilitate strong ties between its two allies.

At home, the Yoon government is gathering opinions from victims of forced labour, lawyers and experts via a newly launched public-private panel, which held its second hearing on Thursday.

At stake are South Korean court orders for a seizure of assets of Japanese companies accused of not compensating some of their colonial-era labourers. Tokyo has warned of serious repercussions if the orders are enforced.

The first official said the Yoon administration was seeking a "realistic, feasible proposal" that can win consent from both victims and the Japanese government.

A third official was more cautious, saying the compensation issue should be resolved alongside trade and other rows, which could make a compromise more difficult.

Yuko Nakano, a fellow at the U.S.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said any compromise would require patience and commitment from both Yoon and Kishida.

"High-level visits and meetings often attract attention, but equally important is to continue building on efforts that are happening below the surface," she said.

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Additional reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Josh Smith, Lincoln Feast and Alison Williams)
Space is important to us and thats why we're working to bring you top coverage of the industry and Florida launches. Journalism like this takes time and resources. Please support it with a subscription here.

---

SpaceX vaulted thousands of pounds of cargo from Florida to the International Space Station on Thursday, making way for yet another Falcon 9 mission set for liftoff before the week is out.

A 230-foot Falcon 9 rocket shot off Kennedy Space Center's pad 39A at 8:44 p.m. ET, taking more than 5,800 pounds of cargo, science experiments, and supplies to the orbiting laboratory some 250 miles above Earth. It's scheduled to dock at 11:20 a.m. ET Saturday, July 16.

Along its northeast trajectory, Falcon 9 broke away from darkness on the ground and into sunlight's path high above Earth, illuminating its cold-crystallized exhaust plume in what's informally known as the "jellyfish effect." It illuminated the eastern sky for more than 10 minutes.

The 162-foot first stage wrapped up its fifth flight to date after landing on the Shortfall of Gravitas drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. It should sail into Port Canaveral before the end of the week.

Some of the science investigations packed into the Dragon capsule include: how desert dusts impact Earth's atmosphere; the aging of immune cells and how to reverse changes caused by spaceflight; measuring cloud-top and ocean surface temperatures; and a student experiment that will test a concrete alternative for space habitats.

Beside the usual slate of food packed for astronauts like pre-packaged meals or dried foods, some fresh options like fruits, vegetables, cheeses, and event tahini are en route. Resupply missions also typically include other consumables like coffee and tea.

More: Astronomers on NASA's Webb telescope: 'Like a kid in a candy store'

Weekend launch

On tap before the week is out is yet another Falcon 9, this time slated to launch SpaceX's 51st batch of Starlink internet satellites from nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Liftoff from Launch Complex 40 is set for a two-hour window that runs from 10:20 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. Sunday, July 17.

Story continues

If successful, it will mean SpaceX has launched roughly 3,000 of its internet satellites to date, continuing to solidify its dominance as the largest constellation in orbit.

Sunday's launch will mark the 31st of 2022 and match the record-breaking pace set in 2020 and 2021. Though both of those years tied at 31 launches, the cadence still matched or beat some of the busiest times of the 1960s' Space Race.

For the latest, visit floridatoday.com/launchschedule.

Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com or 321-242-3715. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @EmreKelly.

Launch Sunday, July 17

Rocket: SpaceX Falcon 9

Mission: 51st batch of Starlink internet satellites

Launch Time: Between 10:17 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. ET

Location: Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

Weather: TBD

Trajectory: Northeast

Landing: Drone ship

Visit floridatoday.com/space at 9 a.m. Sunday, July 17, for real-time updates and live video.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: SpaceX launches ISS mission from Florida, setting stage for another
By Belen Carreno

MADRID (Reuters) - After several setbacks in regional elections, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez scored a rare legislative success as parliament passed three key bills late on Thursday, reinforcing his political strength despite galloping inflation, analysts said.

Coming on the back of his vow to slap extraordinary taxes on banks and power firms, which solidified support on the left, his stronger standing boosts Sanchez's chances to at least see out out his term through end-2023..

Sanchez, a Socialist, has governed since early 2020 in a minority coalition with the left-wing Unidas Podemos, having to rely on support of smaller groups, including left-leaning Catalan separatists and Basque nationalists.

"The government was clearly on a downward slope. We saw disaffection among the Socialist voters. And Sanchez has emerged from this week stronger... The coalition was coming apart at the seams and has received a boost to continue," said political scientist Ignacio Jurado.

Parliament approved an additional package of anti-inflation measures on Thursday night, including a tax cut on power bills, a new "Democratic Memory" bill to address the legacy of Francisco Franco's fascist dictatorship, and a judicial reform that aims to unblock appointments to the constitutional court.

The Socialists had appeared to be on the ropes after the conservative People's Party won a full majority in Andalusia - Spain's most populous region - in June regional elections.

In addition, soaring inflation, which hit 10.2% in June, was eroding support for the government and Sanchez's pledge to raise defence spending in line with Spain's NATO commitments had caused tensions with the junior allies.

But Tuesday's surprise announcement of a temporary banking tax in 2023-24 changed the picture.

"He has managed to capture his electorate's attention with the announcement, helped smooth out the edges with Unidas Podemos and united his parliamentary partners," said Pablo Simon, a political scientist at the Carlos III University.

Experts now see Sanchez's allies more inclined to get behind him when the government faces its next big test -- approving the 2023 budget in an autumn that will likely bring economic pain amid rampant inflation and uncertainty about Europe's energy supplies.

(Reporting by Belen Carreno; Editing by Andrei Khalip and Frances Kerry)
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, right, greets Sri Lanka's chief justice during Wickremesinghe's swearing-in as president in Colombo on Friday. (Sri Lankan President's Office)

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as Sri Lankas interim president Friday and will serve until Parliament elects a successor to Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who resigned after mass protests over the countrys economic collapse forced him from office.

The speaker of Sri Lankas Parliament said that Rajapaksa resigned as president effective Thursday and that lawmakers would convene Saturday to choose a new leader. Their choice would serve out the remainder of Rajapaksa's term ending in 2024, said Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana. He promised a swift and transparent process that should be done within a week.

The new president could appoint a new prime minister, who would then have to be approved by Parliament. With Rajapaksa out, pressure on Wickremesinghe was rising.

Wickremesinghe said in a televised statement said that in his short term as acting president, he would initiate steps to change the constitution to clip presidential powers and strengthen Parliament. He also said he would restore law and order and take legal action against insurgents.

Referring to clashes near Parliament on Wednesday night, during which many soldiers were reportedly injured, Wickremesinghe said true protesters would not get involved in such actions.

"There is a big difference between protesters and insurgents. We will take legal action against insurgents, he said.

Opponents had viewed Wickremesinghe's appointment as prime minister in May as alleviating pressure on Rajapaksa to resign. He became acting president when Rajapaksa fled Sri Lanka on Wednesday.

Rajapaksa arrived in Singapore on Thursday, and his resignation became official on that date. The prime minister's office said Wickremesinghe was sworn in Friday as interim president before Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya.

Sri Lanka has run short of money to pay for imports of basic necessities such as food, fertilizer, medicine and fuel, to the despair of its 22 million people. Its rapid economic decline has been all the more shocking because, before this crisis, the economy had been expanding, with a growing, comfortable middle class.

Story continues

Protest leader Jeewantha Peiris, a Roman Catholic priest, said demonstrators were happy because we have come through a hard journey.

Protesters cooked and distributed milk rice  a food Sri Lankans enjoy to celebrate victories  after Rajapaksas resignation. At the main protest site in front of the presidents office in Colombo, people welcomed his resignation but insisted that Wickremesinghe also should step aside.

I am happy that Gotabaya has finally left. He should have resigned earlier, without causing much problems, Velayuthan Pillai, 73, a retired bank employee, said as patriotic songs were blaring from loudspeakers.

But he added that Ranil is a supporter of Gotabaya and other Rajapaksas. He was helping them. He also must go.

The capital regained a tenuous calm after protesters who had occupied government buildings retreated Thursday. But with the political opposition in Parliament fractured, a solution to Sri Lankas many woes seemed no closer.

The country remains a powder keg, and the military warned Thursday that it had powers to respond in case of chaos  a message some found concerning.

Sri Lanka is seeking help from the International Monetary Fund and other creditors, but its finances are so poor that obtaining a bailout has proved difficult, Wickremesinghe recently said.

The protesters accuse Rajapaksa and his powerful political family of siphoning money from government coffers for years and of hastening the countrys collapse by mismanaging the economy. The family has denied the corruption allegations, but Rajapaksa acknowledged that some of his policies contributed to Sri Lanka's meltdown.

Maduka Iroshan, 26, a university student and protester, said he was thrilled" that Rajapaksa had quit, because he ruined the dreams of the young generation.

Months of protests reached a frenzied peak over the weekend when demonstrators stormed the presidents home and office and the official residence of Wickremesinghe, the prime minister. On Wednesday, they seized Wickremesinghes office.

Images of protesters inside the buildings  lounging on elegant sofas and beds, posing at officials desks and touring the opulent settings  captured the worlds attention.

The demonstrators initially vowed to stay until a new government was in place, but they shifted tactics Thursday, apparently concerned that an escalation in violence could undermine their message following clashes outside the Parliament that left dozens injured.

Protester Mirak Raheem noted that the lack of violence was important, though their work was far from over.

This is really something amazing, the fact that it happened on the back of largely peaceful protest," Raheem said. "But obviously, this is just a beginning, that there is a longer journey in terms of the kind of work that has to be done, not just to rebuild the economy but to create public confidence in this political system.

The protests underscored the dramatic fall of the Rajapaksa political clan that has ruled Sri Lanka for most of the last two decades.

Rajapaksa and his wife slipped away in the night aboard a military plane early Wednesday. On Thursday, he went to Singapore, according to the city-states Foreign Ministry. It said he had not requested asylum.

Since Sri Lankan presidents are protected from arrest while in power, Rajapaksa probably wanted to leave while he still had constitutional immunity and access to the plane.

A military strategist whose brutal campaign helped end the countrys 26-year civil war, Rajapaksa and his brother, who was president at the time, were hailed by the islands Buddhist Sinhalese majority. Despite accusations of wartime atrocities, including ordering military attacks on ethnic Tamil civilians and abducting journalists, Rajapaksa remained popular among many Sri Lankans. He has continually denied the allegations.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Investigators arrested four people and seized suspected drugs and fake currency after searching 624 S. Walnut St. on Thursday.

Investigators from the Crawford County Sheriff's Office and METRICH arrested four people and seized suspected drugs and fake currency after searching a South Walnut Street home on Thursday.

The search warrant at 624 S. Walnut St. was the result of a several months-long investigation into illegal narcotics being used and sold from the property, according to a news release from the Crawford County Sheriff's Office. The search was conducted by the sheriff's office and METRICH, assisted by the Crawford County Sheriffs Office Special Unit and the Bucyrus Police Department.

Other arrests: Drug charges pending against 67-year-old woman after search of Pleasant Hill Drive home

Bucyrus: Two people face drug charges after deputies search home

Galion search: Police seize suspected methamphetamine

Bucyrus police: Woman faces drug charges after search of Waterford Glen mobile home

Deputies seized suspected methamphetamines, fentanyl, fake currency, prescription medication, firearms, marijuana and drug paraphernalia, according to the news release. They arrested two men, ages 35 and 33, who were the targets of the investigation. They also arrested two women, ages 34 and 19.

The 35-year-old man had active warrants out of the Crawford County Sheriffs Office for a charge of aggravated trafficking in methamphetamines. The 33-year-old man was arrested for a felony probation violation and has pending charges for aggravated trafficking in methamphetamines. The 19-year-old woman has pending charges for permitting drug abuse.

All four are incarcerated at the Crawford County Justice Center and reports will be forwarded to the Crawford County Prosecutor's Office for consideration of additional charges.

This case is still being investigated by sheriffs office detectives.

Citizens can report any suspicious activity to the Crawford County Sheriffs Office, 419-562-7906, or leave a tip for METRICH by calling 419-52-CRIME or visiting metrich.com.

This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Four people arrested after deputies search S. Walnut St. home
TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwanese prosecutors on Friday accused a Chinese Apple Inc supplier of stealing commercial secrets from a Taiwanese supplier and poaching its workforce to win orders from the U.S. company, saying it had charged 14 people.

Taiwan has been stepping up efforts to stop what it views as underhand and illegal activities by Chinese firms to steal know-how and poach away talent in what Taipei's government views as a threat to the island's tech prowess.

Prosecutors in New Taipei said after a year-and-a-half investigation they had found that China's Luxshare Precision Industry Co Ltd had targeted Taiwanese competitor Catcher Technology Co Ltd "in order to quickly enter the Apple production chain to win orders".

Luxshare "lured" Catcher's China based research and development team with promises of high salaries and stole business secrets from the Taiwanese firm, causing them big losses, the prosecutors said in a statement.

Luxshare was doing this in order to be able to "quickly build factories and mass produce cases for iPhones, iPads and other products", the statement said.

Luxshare did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and neither did Apple.

New Taipei prosecutors have now charged 14 people in connection with the case for breach of trust and taking commercial secrets for use overseas, they added.

"The department will do its best to investigate such cases to maintain the sound development of our country's enterprises and ensure the competitiveness of national industries."

Catcher, which makes iPhone and iPad cases, said in a statement it continues to implement and optimise the protection of trade secrets and intellectual property rights, and will investigate anything that infringes on its rights and interests.

The company is cooperating with the probe, it added.

In May, Taiwanese authorities raided 10 companies or their R&D centres operating in Taiwan without approval suspected of illegally poaching chip engineers and other tech talent.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
Howard famously claimed that one times one equals two and is now suggesting his drone company can remove plastics from the ocean. (Photo: Jerod Harris via Getty Images)

Howard famously claimed that one times one equals two and is now suggesting his drone company can remove plastics from the ocean. (Photo: Jerod Harris via Getty Images)

Terrence Howard, who once famously argued that one times one equals two, is changing the world  or so he claims.

The former Empire actor is currently visiting Uganda as part of a government effort to draw investors from the African diaspora to the nation, according to Vice. In a lofty presentation Wednesday, Howard addressed officials and claimed to have developed a new hydrogen technology.

I was able to identify the grand unified field equation theyve been looking for, and put it into geometry, he claimed. Were talking about unlimited bonding, unlimited predictable structures, super symmetry.

Howard continued by claiming he would be able to clean the ocean and defend Uganda from exploitation with cutting-edge drone technology. He called this system The Lynchpin in a 2021 press release and said the proprietary technology held 86 patents.

The Lynchpins are now able to behave as a swarm, as a colony, that can defend a nation, that can harvest food, that can remove plastics from the ocean, that can give the children of Uganda and the people of Uganda an opportunity to spread this and sell these products throughout the world, said Howard.

VIDEO: I want to develop a New Hydrogen technology in Uganda. The main purpose of the project would be to defend the sovereignty of the country as far as technology is concerned - @terrencehoward#UBCUpdatespic.twitter.com/CFkr8Fhkmk  UBC UGANDA (@ubctvuganda) July 13, 2022

The actor has made similarly vague statements in the past. Howard told Rolling Stone in 2015 that one times one equals two, not one, and that he created a new language of symbols called simply Terryology  which he refuses to share until the language is patented.

Story continues

Howard, who briefly quit acting in 2019 only to come out of retirement in 2020, has seemingly made rewriting history a personal side hustle. When asked in September 2019 about his retirement on the Emmys red carpet, he made nebulous claims that rapidly went viral on social media, according to Vice.

Ive made some discoveries in my own personal life with the science that, yknow, Pythagoras was searching for, he said. I was able to open up the flower of life properly and find the real wave conjugations weve been looking for for 10,000 years.

His latest claims concerning Ugandan sovereignty and regional pollution have yet to be clarified. Howard was invited to speak by Frank Tumwebaze, the minister of agriculture, animal industries and fishery, who claimed Howard would explore Ugandas uniqueness and spread the word.

While part of Howards address was posted on Twitter by Uganda Broadcasting Corporation and is already making the rounds, vague claims about putting the grand unified field equation into geometry was surely not the word they intended to spread.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
Facebook/James Whitfield

A member of a school board in Texas has said the quiet part out loud, admitting that a beloved Black high school principal who shared his stance on racism in the wake of George Floyds death was pushed out of the job for being a total activist.

Dr. James Whitfield, who became Colleyville High Schools first Black principal in 2020, wrote a letter to the school community about police brutality after Floyds murder, which led to him being placed on administrative leave in July 2020.

He is encouraging the disruption and destruction of our district, former school board candidate Stetson Clark said during a board meeting at the time, the Texas Tribune reported.

In September 2021, the school district voted unanimously to not renew Whitfields contract, causing uproar among many parents, students, and teachers. His critics claimed the letter he wrote to the community about education [being] the key to stomping out ignorance, hate, and systemic racism, was equivalent to implementing Critical Race Theory in the school.

Tammy Nakamura may be new to the Grapevine-Colleyville school board but that didnt stop her from weighing in on Whitfields controversial departure during a gathering of school board members last month hosted by the Republican National Committee.

On the events page, the RNC stated that the group was organizing the June 26 meeting ahead of upcoming local, state, and federal elections to discuss issues parents have raised, and the success they have had in getting elected and making a difference, and how parents/students can get involved.

Nakamura was listed as a distinguished, elected trustee who would speak at the meeting.

RuPaul Book Pulled From Library Shelves Over One Parents Fury

In a video of the event posted to the Colleyville Citizens for Accountability Facebook group on July 8, Nakamura is seen commenting on Whitfields departure. After alleging Whitfield brought national attention to the school district because he was married to a white woman, Nakamura said it was the principals supposedly woke agenda that led to his ouster.

Story continues

I went in last week and read the whole file, she said during the meeting.

Thats the straw that broke the camels back that got him fired, Nakamura said, referring to the letter Whitfield sent to parents about targeting racism and hate, which she claimed showed an activist agenda. There is absolute proof [of] what he was trying to do, she said.

Though Nakamura didnt elaborate on the contents of Whitfields letter, she was adamant that she had a list of other educators in the school system with similar motives.

They have to be stopped now, she added. We cannot have teachers such as these in our schools because theyre just poison, and theyre taking our schools down.

However, members of the Colleyville community pushed back, saying the novice school board member was attempting to fear-monger with incoherent and misguided claims for the sake of politics.

First, Tammy Harris Nakamura, your story is incoherent so its hard to follow your misguided claims, posted Amyn Gilani in the Colleyville Citizens for Accountability Facebook group.

Second, Dr. James Whitfield was targeted because he addressed the murder of George Floyd and he made himself available to support all students who have questions and thoughts about inequality and injustice, Gilani wrote. James is an asset to our community, not poison.

Sounds like a 15th century attempt to prosecute an old world inquisition, Karl Meek posted, questioning the board members motives in targeting educators with different political views. Whats next, rounding up the poisonous teachers, shackling them and then sentencing them to an indeterminate incarceration in the Towers of Colleyville? Whats old must be new again?

Another Colleyville resident called Nakamuras suggestion of a list of poisoned teachers an employment hit list.

Oregon Schools Ridiculous Battle Over Handmaids Tale Ends With Book Ban

Others questioned why Nakamura even had access to go through educators files and whether it was a breach of privacy.

Well tami, that is not what was read in open meeting by the HR director, wrote Grapevine-Colleyville school district substitute teacher David Benedetto. [By the way] .. why are you revealing confidential personnel matters?

According to the Star-Telegram, Whitfield is on paid administrative leave until his resignation officially goes into effect in August 2023.

Neither Nakamura nor the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District immediately returned requests for comment.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.

Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now.
The deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in May prompted some new scenarios for this years session of the Mercer County sheriffs active shooter training.

Now that you see the video come out where they didnt respond, Sheriff Jeff Grey told News Center 7s James Rider on Thursday. We teach deputies and the police officers that are in this [that] you get there, you get in that building right now. You go to the threat.

>> Doctor who provided abortion for 10-year-old is under investigation

Grey was referring to the surveillance video of the Uvalde school shooting, which shows the police response to the shooter, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, who killed 19 children, two teachers and wounded 17 other people -- including his mother -- on May 24.

The video, obtained by several news outlets, showed the police response as tentative as Ramos was shooting his victims inside Robb Elementary. He was shot dead an hour and 14 minutes after police first arrived on scene.

Grey wanted to make things clear to the officers and teachers who took part in the training Thursday.

Were a military organization and when somebody who out ranks you tells you to do something, we expect you to do it. But as Ive told the deputies, Im the sheriff, if I tell you not to go and somebodys shooting in that school you go. You go.

Teachers were made up to be victims; officers used Air Soft guns.

At one point, Fort Recovery Police Chief Jared Laux played the role of an officer trying to stop or slow officers and deputies as they responded to the incident set up in the scenario.

Most of the scenarios are based on incidents that have happened in Ohio or across the nation. Each person who goes through the training has an immediate discussion with instructors about decisions made during the exercise.

Its interesting to watch different officers, Grey said. The newer younger guys that havent been through the training so much sometimes are a little more hesitant on what to do. Not hesitant on going in to attack but hesitant on whats the right thing to do.

Story continues

This years training session began today and continues Friday at Fort Recovery Elementary/Middle School.








Texas filed a lawsuit against President Joe Bidens administration Thursday over its guidance that life- or health-saving abortions must be made available to patients, regardless of a states laws on the procedure.

The guidance in question came in a memo this week from the Department of Health and Human Services that reiterated existing guidance dating back to 1986. The guidance requires that all patients receive appropriate medical care and stabilizing treatment in an emergency situation.

Since the fall of Roe v. Wade last month, a number of states have enacted abortion bans, some of which include exceptions for the life and safety of the mother. However, the language in those clauses is often vague and confusing, which creates an incentive for providers not to perform abortions until a patient is moments from death, for fear of losing their license or facing legal repercussions.

The Biden administrations memo is an attempt to address that, but Texas officials have interpreted it as an effort to use federal law to transform every emergency room in the country into a walk-in abortion clinic and to force providers into performing abortions, the lawsuit says.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton leaves after addressing anti-abortion rights activists at a rally outside the Supreme Court last year. (Photo: via Associated Press)

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton leaves after addressing anti-abortion rights activists at a rally outside the Supreme Court last year. (Photo: via Associated Press)

This administration has a hard time following the law, and now they are trying to have their appointed bureaucrats mandate that hospitals and emergency medicine physicians perform abortions, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) said in a statement Thursday. I will ensure that President Biden will be forced to comply with the Supreme Courts important decision concerning abortion and I will not allow him to undermine and distort existing laws to fit his administrations unlawful agenda.

The White House called it unthinkable that a state would try and fight this guidance.

This is yet another example of an extreme and radical Republican elected official, White house press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement, referring to Paxton. It is unthinkable that this public official would sue to block women from receiving life-saving care in emergency rooms, a right protected under U.S. law.

Story continues

Texas trigger ban on abortion is set to go into effect soon, but providers have already ceased offering the procedure because Paxton argued its already outlawed by a pre-Roe ban that was never repealed.

The Texas abortion ban does include a clause allowing for life-saving and health-preserving abortions, but it simply calls on providers to use their reasonable medical judgment when making those decisions. Since the Supreme Court struck down Roe, providers have spoken up about how murky those situations are, and have warned that patients may die while they wait for legal advice on how to proceed in an emergency.

The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate among developed nations, an issue that disproportionately affects people of color. In the U.S., Black women are over three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
A young woman, a born swimmer, backstrokes her way across the Adriatic Sea under a blinding sun in the opening images of Murina, which begins a weeklong run at the Gene Siskel Film Center Friday.

We dont yet know her circumstances, where shes from, what kind of life she lives. But by the time director and co-writer Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic returns to these images, we know why the swimmer carves the water like someone tasting real freedom, perhaps for the first time in her 17 thwarted years.

Advertisement

Murina is the eye-filling debut feature from the Croatian-born filmmaker now based in New York. The film tells a simple, beat-by-beat story of this teenager, Julija, played by Gracija Filipovic, and a life defined by the Dalmatian region coastline: craggy, forbidding, with cliffs ideal for jumping.

Underwater, her relationship with her father (Leon Lucev) works well enough. Father and daughter dive for moray eels, the murina of the title. Above water, the tensions among this family threaten to burst into violence. The father has given up on making his wife behave the way he wants her to. Murina is a clear if programmatic narrative of what happens when the child in this dynamic bears the brunt of his disapproval.

Advertisement

Residing on an island, Julijas father and long-suffering, sun-dappled mother (Danica Curcic) are entertaining a longtime acquaintance who may buy the land and develop it for tourism. The adults share a shadowy history, and when we meet this potential savior, played by Cliff Curtis, hes plainly a wolfish narcissist and a man of means who means to stir up trouble.

Right away, sheltered, watchful Julija sees this man with the arrogant, charismatic Elia Kazan profile as her ticket out. Shes hyper-aware of how he looks at both her and her mother.

Julija sees a way out for both women in this miserably patriarchal clan, and a way to see the world. The girl dreams of going to school in America. Anywhere but here, she thinks, though shes effortlessly in tune with her physical surroundings where she is.

If he gets this, her mother says of Julijas father and the land sale, hell be calmer.

If he gets money, the daughter responds, calmly, hell be worse.

Gracija Filipovic, left, Danica Curcic in a scene from "Murina." (Mario Topic/AP)

From there, Murina explores elements of sunshine noir, and hints of a sinister romantic quadrangle. At heart, though, it follows a tidy course of self-discovery for its protagonist, without an overload of nuance or emotional or even much dramatic complexity.

What the film has is visual authority and an eye for composition. Kusijanovic and her inspired cinematographer, Helene Louvart (Happy as Lazzaro, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, The Lost Daughter) have no interest in capturing tourism beauty. The landscape isnt about prettiness; its about toughness, and the accumulating harshness of the human behavior in a story of someone finding her escape hatch.

Advertisement

The filmmaker, who wrote Murina with Frank Graziano, worked with Filipovic four years ago in the excellent, heart-rending short film Into the Blue. Its well worth seeing; there, the barely-teenaged friendship of two girls and a caddish boy plays out in ways that feel completely honest and authentic. In Murina you sense the filmmaker straining a bit for the same within her story structure. Shes essentially building a case for whats obvious from the beginning: Julija wants out, because obedience and compliance is no life at all.

Her camera eye, I suspect, will see her through in future projects. Martin Scorsese backed Murina as executive producer. Like the films spearfishing, eagle-eyed protagonist, who seems most at home in the water, the filmmaker clearly is swimming in the right direction.

Danica Curcic, Cliff Curtis and Leon Lucev in "Murina." (HANDOUT)

Murina  3 stars (out of 4)

Not rated (some nudity, violence)

Running time: 1:34

How to watch: July 15-22 at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St.; www.siskelfilmcenter.org. In Croatian and Spanish with English subtitles.

Advertisement

Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.

mjphillips@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @phillipstribune

Big screen or home stream, takeout or dine-in, Tribune writers are here to steer you toward your next great experience. Sign up for your free weekly Eat. Watch. Do. newsletter here.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Outside Supreme Court The Washington Post / Getty Images

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Biden administration.

Paxton says the Department of Health and Human Service's rule that protects abortion care in emergency medical situations is unlawful.

The rule was clarified as part of Biden's executive order protecting access to reproductive healthcare.

Texas is suing the Biden administration for requiring hospitals to perform abortions in medical emergencies, the state's Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Thursday.

The lawsuit comes after President Joe Biden and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued guidance on the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), affirming that providers who perform "legally-mandated, life- or health-saving abortion services in emergency situations" are protected by the act. The guidance came as part of Biden's executive order protecting access to reproductive healthcare services.

In the lawsuit, Paxton said Biden's rule "forces hospitals and doctors to commit crimes and risk their licensure under Texas law."

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre slammed the lawsuit, arguing it is an example of how Republicans want to operate in a post-Roe US.

"This is yet another example of an extreme and radical Republican elected official," Jean-Pierre said in a statement. "It is unthinkable that this public official would sue to block women from receiving life-saving care in emergency rooms, a right protected under U.S. law."

In clarifying the rule last week, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra  who is named in the lawsuit  said federal law mandating the emergency care preempts state laws.

"Under the law, no matter where you live, women have the right to emergency care  including abortion care," Becerra said July 11. "Today, in no uncertain terms, we are reinforcing that we expect providers to continue offering these services, and that federal law preempts state abortion bans when needed for emergency care."

Story continues

Paxton is staunchly against abortion rights and declared a "sanctity of life" holiday the day Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court last month. Texas banned abortions immediately after the ruling was made, and Paxton successfully blocked attempts by abortion providers in the state to temporarily resume services.

A press release from Paxton's office claimed the Biden Administration "seeks to transform every emergency room in the country into a walk-in abortion clinic."

"I will ensure that President Biden will be forced to comply with the Supreme Court's important decision concerning abortion and I will not allow him to undermine and distort existing laws to fit his administration's unlawful agenda," Paxton said in a statement.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Elon Musk recently said that a special election in Texas this year was the first time I ever voted Republican. But his political evolution, according to a Yahoo Finance review, isn't quite so simple.

The Tesla (TSLA) CEO's political views and allegiances have moved back and forth across the political spectrum in seemingly haphazard ways many, many times over the years.

While 2022 may be the first time Musk says he marked his ballot for a Republican, he recorded his first federal political donation back in 2003. That $2,000 check went to Republican George W. Bush, according to Federal Election Commission records.

In the intervening years, Musk has signaled support for a dizzying array of figures ranging from Barack Obama to Marco Rubio to Andrew Yang to Margaret Thatcher to even Kanye West. Musks history suggests that while he may have currently allied himself with Republicans, that could change again in a hurry.

Its a point underscored by Musk himself in recent days when  even as he allies with the GOP  he is feuding with Donald Trump and recently asked the former president to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset.

Musk is also of course gearing up for a court fight with Twitter (TWTR) as the social media company prepares to go to a Delaware court to force Musk to stick to his agreement to buy it for $44 billion. Musk's political leanings have become a flashpoint in the saga, especially after Musk suggested he might let Trump reinstate his account if the deal went through.

Half Republican, half Democrat, if you will

Musk's 2003 check to Bush came after a few donations to local politicians in California who represented both parties. As the SpaceX CEO became more interested in national politics, he was soon taking the same approach. In 2004 he sent along some money to John Kerry, Bushs opponent.

It was also in 2004 that Musk become involved with Tesla, rising to become the electric car-makers CEO and a prominent face for clean energy.

Story continues

Musk's political positions have belied any easy categorization. At various points over the years, Musk has called himself a socialist (jokingly, he says), while he also says that he opposes government subsidies (after his company benefited handsomely from them). In 2020, he waded into social issues by tweeting that pronouns suck, which his then-partner said represented hate.

No more political comments for me now that I've shot off both my feet.  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 9, 2013

Perhaps the only constant over the years is Musks desire not to ally himself permanently with any political ideology. He described himself as "half Republican, half Democrat, if you will" in 2014 and. In 2021 he claimed "I would prefer to stay out of politics," especially when it came to hot-button social issues.

For many years, largely due to his position atop the country largest EV marker, Musk was seen as more of an ally of Democrats even as he  and Tesla's own political action committee  continued to fund politicians in both parties.

"In order to have your voice be heard in Washington, you have to make some little contribution," Musk told HuffPost in 2013.

Then-president Barack Obama speaks to Elon Musk during a tour of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in 2010. (REUTERS/Jim Young)

Musk continued to insist he was a moderate even as he publicly endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2016, saying that Trump "doesnt seem to have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States.

A 'registered independent'

After Trump's election, Musk's relationship with the White House was hot and cold.

Musk visited Trump Tower after Trump's victory and then become one of the first visitors to see the newly inaugurated president at the White House. He was there on Jan. 23, 2017 for a meeting of manufacturing executives. Musk was back for a second visit just a few days later.

President Donald Trump greets Elon Musk before a policy and strategy forum at the White House on February 3, 2017 as Trump advisors Steve Bannon (L) and Jared Kushner (R) look on. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

But by June, Musk cut many of his ties after Trump pulled the U.S. from the Paris climate deal. That led to a few years where Musk mused about being a socialist and seemed to endorse high taxes in addition to his tweeted support of Andrew Yang.

Things appeared to shift again during the COVID-19 pandemic as Musk became an increasingly outspoken critic of pandemic lockdowns. He publicly thanked Trump for saying that a Tesla factory should re-open, and he moved himself and Tesla to Texas in 2021.

It was also that year that Musk took to sending juvenile  and often incredibly crude  tweets to mock Democratic politicians from President Biden and his family to Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. The barrage continued earlier this week with a much-criticized tweet attacking Bidens son, Hunter.

Musk has also been critical of$ Biden on policy as the president has touted a range of companies for their green efforts but rarely mentions Tesla.

It has now been over 20 months since the FEC last recorded a donation from Musk to a Democrat and, for now at least, Musk says he is leaning towards supporting Ron DeSantis in 2024.

Ben Werschkul is a writer and producer for Yahoo Finance in Washington, DC.

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance

Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, YouTube, and reddit.
Kelsey Parker, widow of the late The Wanted singer Tom Parker, has said she misses him immensely as she celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary.

Tom died aged 33 on Wednesday (30 March) after he was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour in 2020.

Kelsey marked their fourth wedding anniversary by sharing a video from their wedding day in 2018 on Instagram of them dancing and singing together.

Under the post shared on Thursday (14 July) night, she wrote in the caption: Never did I ever think this is how Id be celebrating our four-year wedding anniversary Tom.

Most people wish to have their wedding day again, Id settle for a hug.

Miss you immensely and its not getting easier but as I promised I would, Im here, staying positive, toasting you and us and staying grateful for the time we had.

A still from a video shared by Kelsey Parker to mark her fourth wedding anniversary (Kelsey Parker/Instagram)

The 32-year-old continued: Our wedding day truly was the best day of my life and Im holding on to every memory of it. Love you Tom. Thank you for choosing me to be Mrs Parker. Positive Parkers Forever.

Confirming his death in March, Kelsey said he fought until the very end.

We are truly thankful for the outpouring of love and support and ask that we all ensure Toms light continues to shine for his beautiful children, she said in a statement at the time.

Tom shares two children with Kelsey, two-year-old daughter Aurelia and one-year-old son Bodhi.

The couple had been in a relationship for 13 years, since Kelsey was aged 19.

On Friday (6 May), she opened up about her grieving process in her first interview since his death on ITVs Loose Women.

I have the kids. I have to wake up each day, I have to get on with it, just trying to be as strong as possible in a really difficult situation and time for us all, she said.

Kelsey and Tom Parker celebrate their wedding day in 2018 (Kelsey Parker/Instagram)

We were soulmates, we loved each other so much, he was my best friend, she added. I found the love of my life at the age of 19 and Ive spent all these years with him. How lucky am I to say I found love? I was so in love with him.

Story continues

In a recent appearance on Lorraine, Kelsey revealed that Aurelia still believes her father is on tour.

During the interview on Tuesday (14 June), Kelsey told host Lorraine Kelly: Whenever she sees pictures of her dad, shes like, Its my dad! Shell be three at the end of this month.

Ive been really honest, she does still talk about him every day, she doesnt quite understand hes not coming back.

So Ive had to be really blunt and say hes not coming back, thats it, hes dead and hes not coming back because she doesnt really understand, she continued.

Shes just really confused by it. She thinks hes on tour. But we do then talk about him every day. She does ask me every day about him.
By Tarek Amara and Angus McDowall

TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia's president is using a referendum on a new constitution to move back towards dictatorship, the head of the biggest Tunisian opposition party, the Islamist Ennahda, warned on Friday.

Rached Ghannouchi, who was parliament speaker until President Kais Saied shut the chamber and seized most powers last summer, said the atmosphere in the build-up to the July 25 vote was "undemocratic and funereal".

Saied's focus on political changes while the economy slid further towards crisis also meant Tunisia faced a "Sri Lanka situation" with a looming social explosion, Ghannouchi told Reuters in an interview.

"Saied's speeches can only be translated into clashes, chaos and assassination... Tunisia could reach the point of famine and is in dire need of dialogue to confront these crises," he said.

Ghannouchi, a former political prisoner, has been a leading player in Tunisian politics since the 2011 revolution that ousted autocratic leader Zine al-Abidin Ben Ali, introduced democracy and triggered the Arab Spring uprisings.

He has been a main critic of Saied since the president's seizure of broad powers last year.

"Tunisia is moving towards a dictatorial regime that brings together all powers (under one person)," he said.

Saied has said his actions were needed to save Tunisia from years of political infighting and stagnation, and that his constitution is correcting the course of the 2011 revolution.

This year, in the run-up to the referendum, Saied has greatly expanded his control over the judiciary and the formerly independent electoral authority, raising questions over rule of law and a fair vote.

His proposed constitution gives him nearly unlimited powers while diluting the role of the parliament and judiciary. Ennahda and most other parties have urged a boycott of the referendum.

INVESTIGATION

Next week, Ghannouchi must appear before an investigating judge on suspicion of corruption, which he and Ennahda both deny, calling the charges political.

Story continues

Activists have warned that the authorities may use his hearing to arrest Ghannouchi. "It would not be surprising if I am arrested," he said.

"Dictatorial regimes seek to use the judiciary and employ the security services, as Ben Ali did, against the opposition," he said.

Ghannouchi compared the new constitution, which contains a legislative body based on regional councils, to that of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and other Arab autocrats.

"The constitution establishes a unilateral, populist regime reminiscent of that of Gaddafi and the Arab dictators," he said.

However, he said, democratic principles had become well established among Tunisians over the period since the revolution. He said Ennahda was urging its supporters to boycott the referendum instead of voting 'no' because "entering a game where your opponent sets all the rules is unwise".

Ennahda will call protests for July 19, the day he faces the judicial hearing, and July 23, two days before the referendum, he said.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara and Angus McDowall, Editing by William Maclean)
The Los Angeles Police Department on Thursday arrested Hollywood producer Eric Weinberg, alleging assaults on women stretching over seven years.

Weinberg, best known as co-executive producer of the TV show "Scrubs," was taken into custody about noon at his Los Feliz home and booked into jail for "several sexual assaults including rape," police said.

The crimes stretched from 2012 to 2019, in which he targeted several women whom he lured to his Edgemont Street home under the guise of photo shoots, police said.

Detectives said in a new release that Weinberg "appears to have targeted women in grocery stores, coffee shops and other public places. Weinberg would approach the women who were in their 20-30s under the guise of being a photographer and would set up photo shoots with them. Once the women were in his residence, he would sexually assault them during the photo shoot."

Detectives believe there may be additional, unidentified victims that could date to the early 1990s and are looking to speak with them.

Representatives for Weinberg could not be reached for comment. He was being held on $3.225-million bail. Weinberg worked as executive producer on 92 episodes of "Scrubs" from 2001 to 2007 and wrote some of them. He also served as a producer on "Veronica's Closet," "Californication" and "Anger Management."

Investigators have not yet formally presented their investigation to the district attorney's office for review, but that is expected in the next 48 hours.

The LAPD is asking victims or anyone with information to contact detectives at (323) 561-3272 or by email at 39284@lapd.online

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Two men accused of vandalizing an Olympia anti-hate mural in October were also arrested in North Idaho on suspicion of conspiring to riot at a pride event.

The city of Olympia announced the mens arrests on Monday and noted they have known connections to Patriot Front, a white nationalist hate group. KING 5 TV reported their connection to the Idaho Pride event on Wednesday.

Citing court documents, KING 5 reported Colton M. Brown and Spencer Simpson were identified on videos of the June 11 Idaho incident. That day, police in Coeur dAlene arrested 31 masked Patriot Front members in the citys downtown, The Idaho Statesman reported.

Simpson attended a hearing in Olympia municipal court on Wednesday. He pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor crime of aiding and abetting graffiti, according to KING 5.

Brown did not attend his hearing, so a judge issued a warrant for his arrest, according to KING 5. He was charged with the same crime.

Neither of them have criminal convictions in Washington state, according to KING 5.

The Olympia mural covered the front of a Fourth Avenue building that has since been demolished. It was created in 2014, in part in response to violent attacks outside Jakes, downtown Olympias only gay bar.

The two men are accused of using stencils to spray paint Patriot Front over the mural. City staff and volunteers repainted the mural soon after.

A new affordable housing project has been planned for the site of the demolished building. In the meantime, the mural has been kept in storage.

Its unclear if and when the mural may return, but theres an active petition to bring the mural back. The petition also calls for several other Patriot Front members to be charged with crimes related to defacing the mural.

On Monday, Olympia Police Chief Rich Allen said his department is working to identify others involved.

Two members of white nationalist group face charges for defacing Olympia mural in 2021
A sailor from Lemoore Naval Air Station will go to trial for allegedly raping a China Peak Mountain Resort employee in 2020.

Fresno County Superior Court Judge Jonathan Skiles ruled Thursday there was enough evidence to proceed with the case against John E. Burton, 41.

Burton was arrested Feb. 17, 2020 after Fresno County Sheriffs deputies said he broke into the hotel room of a 25-year-old ski and snowboard resort worker he met in the bar of the Inn at China Peak.

The woman testified her memory from the night of the alleged assault is a little hazy. She remembered she and her boyfriend were enjoying themselves with a few drinks. She recalled talking with the bartender, a few other people who were celebrating a birthday party and the defendant.

She told prosecutor Nicole Galstan that she met him for the first time that night.

What she cant remember is how she got from the bar to one of the rooms at the Inn where she was allegedly raped by Burton.

Under questioning from the prosecutor, the woman made clear she and Burton did not have consensual sex. Did you at any point speak to the defendant about having sex? Galstan asked.

The woman tearfully replied, No.

Did you consent? Galstan asked.

Again she replied, No.

Do you recall him having sex with you, the prosecutor asked.

No, the employee said.

Under cross examination by Burtons attorney Matthew Wallin, the resort employee acknowledged she has previously blacked out after drinking heavily. He pressed her about how many times she had blacked out and she said she couldnt remember.

He also asked her if she was a flirtatious person when she drinks. She replied that she likes talking to people.

A witness testified that eventually the employee left the bar, but then fell outside and had to be helped back inside.

Cody Briscoe, the Inns front desk clerk that night, testified the woman was too intoxicated to get home safely, so he provided her a room for the night. He also remembers the defendant offering to help.

Story continues

He said to take her up to his room, he would take care of her, Briscoe said. That was a big red flag. And I got a weird feeling in my gut. She was helped to the room by security and another worker.

Still concerned about the woman, Briscoe testified that when he went to check on her later, he opened the door partially and saw the defendant having sex with her. She also appeared to be passed out, he testified.

She was not making any noises or moving on her own, he said.

He testified that he closed the door and went to the end of the hallway to call the resorts security officer, who also called the Fresno County Sheriffs Department.

After questioning by deputies, Burton was arrested. and charged with rape.

If convicted, Burton could face up to eight years in prison.
Lynn Alderman said her doctors were in network, but that Bright HealthCare kept denying her claims anyway and that its not clear why.

The first few times, I was like, OK, a mistakes been made. Several more times, wow, someones not really great at their job, she told Action 9s Jason Stoogenke.

Alderman said Bright HealthCare eventually paid her bills, but that it was still a hassle.

ALSO READ: Report: NC hospitals that got COVID-19 relief reaped profits

They are affordable, but watch it like a hawk because you could be paying things that you shouldnt be having to pay, she said.

At least one state has taken legal action against Bright HealthCare. Colorado said it received more than 100 complaints against the company and fined it $1 million.

Here in the Carolinas, the North Carolina Department of Insurance told Stoogenke it received 37 complaints in the last year surrounding issues of out-of-network providers at in network facilities and that the company worked with the agency to correct the claims.

Bright HealthCare said it will no longer offer plans in South Carolina -- and five other states -- to focus on growing in markets where [the company] can deliver the greatest impact.

Value Penguin -- which is part of LendingTree -- studies insurance companies extensively. It said Bright HealthCare is affordable, but that the low prices come with a trade-off: a smaller network of providers.

Im not going to weigh in on whether a company is good or not because it can be good for you if you want to get a cheap plan with a narrow network and it just so happens that that network has the doctors that you go to, thats great  it serves your needs, said Divya Sangameshwar, with Value Penguin.

ALSO READ: Nursing shortages cause NC hospital to temporarily close ICU

The company emailed Action 9: Bright HealthCare has offered affordable health care options in Charlotte since 2020, and we are fully committed to ensuring the best experience for our members and providers. That means continually finding ways to improve and resolving any issues in a timely manner. We are committed to our North Carolina communities, and look forward to continuing the work to make healthcare right, together.

Story continues

At last check, the Better Business Bureau counted more than 150 complaints against Bright HealthCare in the last three years, but still gave the company an A+ rating because of the amount of business it does.

Make sure your doctors and hospitals are in network before signing up with any health insurance. You dont want to find out the hard what they they are not.

(WATCH BELOW: Atrium to merge with Wisconsin-based health system; HQ slated for Charlotte)




By Andrea Shalal and Stefanno Sulaiman

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) - The World Bank is seeking to block release of a report prepared for the Group of 20 major economies that calls for lowering the bank's capital requirements to boost its lending capacity, four sources familiar with the matter said.

Proponents of the independent report - due be released on the sidelines of a meeting of G20 finance officials in Indonesia this week - believe the changes would free up much-needed funds for poorer countries at a time when high inflation is making it difficult for rich nations to boost spending overseas.

But the World Bank and other multilateral development institutions do not want the report published, the sources told Reuters, as it includes recommendations to ease capital adequacy ratio requirements.

The World Bank has long rejected any moves to tweak its strict capital requirements, saying that doing so would weaken its standing in capital markets, jeopardize its AAA rating, and limit its ability to raise funds to lend to poor countries.

A World Bank spokesperson said the institution was "assessing" the report's recommendations.

The report, prepared by economists and development experts for the G20, includes recommendations that would require changes to multilateral banks' governing structures, one of the sources said. Some changes will take longer to enact, while others could "move the needle in the short term", a second source said, without providing any details.

Reuters did not independently review the report.

A third source said changes were clearly needed, given the myriad and overlapping challenges facing the global economy that all require massive resources to resolve.

"There is a huge amount of lending capacity to be gained for urgent global and development priorities. That deserves to be looked at closely and with a solution-oriented mindset," the third source added.

Development economists estimate the World Bank and other multilateral development banks could lend up to $1 trillion if they tweaked their capital ratios and accepted a slight downgrade in their ratings on capital markets.

Story continues

In April, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said major reforms were needed at the World Bank to better equip the bank to address current challenges.

Yellen said "trillions and trillions of dollars" were needed to address the growing mountain of needs, but the World Bank's lending totaled $99 billion in the 2021 fiscal year.

G20 host Indonesia declined to comment on the report or its release date.

(Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor)
As "Nocturnal Animals," the novel, unfolds in Susan's imagination, it becomes clear that her ex never got over her lack of faith in his work. I confess to some confusion in the early going; some of Susan's reactions to the story turns are so extreme, I assumed that the kidnapping/murder plot came straight out of Susan's real life. Ford adapted the 1993 Austin Wright novel "Tony and Susan," and the LA scenes are all Ford's invention. The worlds inhabited so vividly by Adams, Gyllenhaal, Shannon and company owe something to David Lynch, and even J.D. Salinger (Salinger's 1949 story "The Laughing Man" likewise concerned a hostile act of fiction). There may be less than meets the eye here. But what meets the eye is pretty striking.
china covid xi jinping - AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

Xi Jinpings key economic target is in tatters after the Chinese premiers zero-Covid strategy sparked a severe growth slowdown.



Chinas economy grew just 0.4pc in the second quarter, the weakest performance since the onset of the pandemic and Wuhan lockdown two years earlier, and the second-weakest in three decades.



The weak expansion means China is likely to fall short of its goal of 5.5pc GDP growth, a blow to Mr Xi as he prepares to secure a third term in power.



Its National Bureau of Statistics said the foundation for sustained economic recovery is not stable, warning of the risks posed by continued outbreaks.



Beijing is expected to unleash hundreds of billions of dollars in stimulus in an effort to prop up growth, although detailed plans have yet to emerge.



Goldman Sachs slashed its forecast for Chinas annual growth to 3.3pc following the data, saying the figures suggested a heavier-than-expected toll from lockdowns in April and May.



The bank said China's recovery from the recent lockdowns would be slower than the 2020 rebound, owing to signs of cooling demand elsewhere in the world.



Manufacturing hub Shanghai was hardest-hit after entering a two-month lockdown. Output shrank by 13.7pc as lockdowns prompted factory closures and caused disruption at the worlds biggest port.



In Beijing, which also introduced restrictions, output dropped 2.9pc, the third-highest across all provinces.



Economists at Australia and New Zealand Bank said new downside risks to growth are now looming for Chinas economy, including a faster-than-expected fall in home-buyer mortgage payments and the prospect of further local lockdowns.



Julian Evans-Pritchard from Capital Economics said the reading was even weaker than meets the eye, calling it implausible that output was higher between April and June despite a bounceback at the end of the period.



He said: Even with some massaging of the figures, its hard to see how the governments target of around 5.5pc growth this year can be attained."

Chinese house prices fell by 0.1pc in June, the tenth successive month of falls despite government efforts to curb a property crisis.

Sales fell for a twelfth consecutive month, the most sustained slump since China created a market for private property in the 1990s.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday condemned the Russian missile attack in the city of Vinnytsia as the actions of a terrorist state.

The Russian strike on Thursday in the city in central Ukraine killed at least 23 people and wounded more than 100 others far from the front lines of the ongoing war. Zelensky accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of purposefully targeting civilians with no militaristic intent.

And if someone launched a missile attack on a medical center in Dallas or Dresden, God forbid, what would it be called? Wouldnt it be called terrorism? Zelensky said.

The attack comes as Russia has engaged in a series of small-scale offensives in the last few days as the country continues its effort to win additional territory. Ukrainian forces said Wednesday that Russia launched 10 missiles into the city of Mykolaiv killing at least five people.

Rescue operations in Vinnytsia are ongoing as rescue teams with sniffer dogs continue to search for survivors. As of Friday, more than 73 people  including four children  remain hospitalized as a result of the strike, and 18 people are still missing.

Ukraines Interior Ministry said Friday that Russian forces had carried out more than 17,000 attacks on civilian targets since Putin invaded the country on Feb. 24.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A state appeals court affirmed that a dump-truck driver deserved an enhanced, felony motor vehicle homicide sentence for ramming into a minivan stopped at a red light on Highway 370 near Gretna.

Two children were killed and three others were injured in the Nov. 16, 2019, collision.

Investigators testified that the driver of the loaded dump truck had not engaged his brakes and had concluded a 13-minute cellphone call just before the crash. The truck struck the minivan at an estimated 47 mph at least.

Jesse Knight, the driver, had appealed his conviction for two counts of motor vehicle homicide, claiming that he wasnt driving recklessly, which carries a more serious penalty.

Driving recklessly, legally defined as driving with an indifferent or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property, enhances the crime of motor vehicle homicide from a Class I misdemeanor, which carries a maximum of one year in jail, to a Class IIIA felony, which is punishable by up to three years in prison.

Sarpy County District Judge Michael Smith sentenced Knight to two years in prison on each of the two counts of motor vehicle homicide, ordering the sentences to be served consecutively. Plus, the judge added three months in prison for the reckless driving charge, according to state court records.

Knight, who expressed remorse for the accident, appealed. He maintained that his driving was normal and unremarkable but for the moment of inattention or driver error immediately preceding the accident.

But the Nebraska Court of Appeals rejected the appeal. The court ruled on Tuesday, July 12, that the evidence showed Knight ignored a flashing yellow warning sign.

The warning light indicated that a red stoplight was 648 feet ahead at the 192nd Street and Highway 370 intersection, giving him plenty of time to stop, the court said.

Knight was so distracted that he neglected to heed numerous warning signs and drove a loaded dump truck straight through a red traffic light at full speed, the court ruling stated.

Abby Young, 16, and Stephen Young, 10, were killed in the accident. Their mother and two brothers were critically hurt.
Is there one food that resonates across the United States? Tacos, perhaps.

According to Alejandra Ramos, host of The Great American Recipe, judges often heard about someone serving tacos, but it was always with this completely different spin. We had Korean tacos. We had Mexican tacos. We had the all-American ground-beef-style tacos. All these different interpretations of this one dish.

And, no matter where the recipes emerged, there were surprises.

While contestants may have represented a certain area, their dishes werent site specific. One was from New England, but he didnt do typical chowder. One was from New York, but her food was Puerto Rican. More likely, officials say, the recipes were inspired by family.

Executive Produce Jilly Pearce says the PBS series is really about love and family and connection. The recipes tell the story of who we are.

The secret ingredient: Stories.

In the casting process, producers looked at the recipes, the contestants heritage and their personalities. The goal was to find the best home cooks living in the United States.

Because it was produced during the pandemic, contestants, show personnel and judges were separated from their families. Food, then, became a way for everyone to connect.

Jonathan Barzilay, the chief operating officer for PBS, called it a recipe for optimism.

The show really evolved as a concept during the pandemic, Pearce says. Hopefully, the audience will connect with that.

Because contestants are amateurs, they had to adapt to the changes found in a television cooking setting. When somebody is used to being able to cook something for like five hours and they have to adapt to one of our competition times, thats a big challenge, Pearce says.

Tiffany Derry, one of the shows judges, says contestants werent prepared for the intensity of the stovetops they were using. Theyd go, Its so hot. How did it cook so fast? It definitely was a challenge for them.

Those contestants also had to adapt their recipes to work in the setting. If they needed special tools, they were able to bring them from home.

It really told a story about their heritage, Pearce says. Some of those things had been in their family for years.

Because the contestants werent attempting anything too complex, home chefs could easily re-create the dishes.

Hopefully every viewer is going to see that with so many different cultures being represented, ingredients that they use and have in their pantry are probably different than what everybody has at home, judge Graham Elliot says. Hopefully, this will encourage them to go out and try some new things and experiment when those ingredients.

To make it a bit easier, there will be a cookbook to accompany the series.

If theres a challenge, its in sourcing the ingredients, says judge Leah Cohen. Find the right ones  at a Mexican or Asian grocery, for example  and a new world could open. I dont think we always value how great simple, delicious food is.

The Great American Recipe airs on PBS.
DES MOINES  Women who have an abortion should not be prosecuted if the procedure is outlawed, but physicians who violate a state law by administering an abortion should, Iowa Republican U.S. Rep Ashley Hinson said Friday.

Hinson did not directly say whether she believes anyone who assists a pregnant woman who has an abortion should be prosecuted. In Congress, she voted against it, but earlier as a state lawmaker, supported an abortion bill that was silent on the issue.

First and foremost, I do not support prosecuting women for having an abortion, Hinson said during her weekly conference call with Iowa reporters. I want to make sure women have access to maternal health care and other resources for alternatives to abortion.  But I firmly also believe medical providers should follow the law and should be accountable to the law.

Hinson said she does not support criminal charges for anyone who receives an abortion, including those who may travel out of one state where abortion is illegal to have an abortion in another state where it remains legal. It also means Hinson supports prosecuting physicians who administer abortions in states where it is illegal.

Hinson, during the conference call, did not directly answer whether she supports prosecuting other individuals who assist a person who is receiving an abortion. While Hinson has yet to comment on the question, her staff said she has been consistent on the matter and pointed to a recent vote Hinson cast in the U.S. House.

On June 28, according to congressional records online, Hinson voted in support of an amendment to a federal budget bill that says the federal justice department shall not use funding in the bill to investigate or prosecute any individual that crosses state lines to access abortion services or provides assistance to another individual to obtain abortion services.

Hinson was the only Republican to support the amendment, which passed.

However, Hinson as an Iowa legislator voted for state abortion restrictions that do not include protections for other individuals who assist a person who is receiving an abortion. That legislation could soon become state law, as Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds plans to ask the state courts to lift their injunction on the measure.

Iowa Senate File 359  known as the fetal heartbeat bill  would ban abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy, which often is before the woman knows she is pregnant. The bill contains exceptions for pregnancies that are the result of rape or incest or where a pregnancy threatens a womans health. It also states a woman should not be prosecuted for having an abortion.

However, the bill is silent on protections for other people who may help a pregnant woman who has an abortion in violation of the law.

The measure was halted by the courts after it was signed into law by Reynolds in 2018. But in the wake of recent U.S. and Iowa Supreme Court rulings, Reynolds said she plans to ask the state courts to lift that injunction and allow the law to go into effect.
NEW YORK (AP)  Trillions of insects migrate across the globe each year, yet little is known about their journeys. So to look for clues, scientists in Germany took to the skies, placing tiny trackers on the backs of giant moths and following them by plane.
Moroccan Jewish communities in Morocco and from around the world have welcomed the relevance and foresight of the proposed measures for the establishment of a new organization of Jewish communities capable of ensuring effective and harmonious management of communities throughout the national territory.

In a statement, the Council of Jewish Communities in Morocco said that it is with deep gratitude and immense pride that all Moroccan Jewish communities in Morocco and around the world have taken note of the statement of the spokesman of the Royal Palace made public at the end of the Council of Ministers held Wednesday under the presidency of King Mohammed VI.

This legal mechanism offers members of our diaspora a framework that will allow them to further strengthen ties with the Kingdom and get involved with fervor for the defense of national causes, the Council said.

This set of measures will allow, under the umbrella of the Commander of the Faithful, to ensure the preservation of the sacred values of Moroccan Judaism and the rehabilitation and promotion of the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of the Hebrew tributary of the rich Moroccan Civilization, the statement said.

it added that all these measures, which were taken after consultations with qualified representatives of the Jewish community, respond to the wishes of Moroccan Jews, here and elsewhere, to regain their place within the nation in order to contribute to the building of a united and peaceful, dynamic and prosperous Morocco, in its legitimate ancestral borders.

Moroccan Jews expressed their gratitude to King Mohammed VI for this new mark of his benevolent solicitude which fulfills their aspirations by strengthening the ties of unfailing allegiance that have united them for centuries to the Alaouite Throne.

During the Council of Ministers, Minister of Interior Abdelouafi Laftit made a presentation on the Moroccan Jewish Community that covered a set of measures seeking to implement King Mohammed VIs instructions on the organization of the Moroccan Jewish community.

These measures are based on the supreme responsibility of the King as Commander of the Faithful and guarantor of the free exercise of worship for all Moroccans, all religious confessions included, and come to enshrine the Hebrew tributary as a component of the Moroccan rich culture, the statement by the Royal Palace spokesperson said.

In his presentation, Abdelouafi Laftit spoke of the National Council of the Moroccan Jewish Community, overseeing the management of community affairs and the safeguarding of the heritage and the cultural and religious influence of Judaism and its authentic Moroccan values. Regional committees of the Council will be responsible for managing the day-to-day issues and affairs of the communitys members, the minister said.

The presentation also covered the Commission of Moroccan Jews living abroad, which works to consolidate the ties of Moroccan Jews settled abroad with their country of origin, to strengthen their cultural and religious influence and to defend the supreme interests of the Kingdom.

In his presentation, the Minister also dealt with the Foundation of Moroccan Judaism, whose mission is to promote and watch over the Jewish-Moroccan intangible heritage, to safeguard its traditions and to preserve its specificities.
The Spanish government reiterated, Thursday, the importance of reinforcing its relations with Morocco, which is a neighbor and a reliable partner.

Morocco is, without doubt, a reliable partner and neighbor, said the Spanish government spokeswoman, Isabel Rodriguez, who was guest to a program aired on Spains Antena 3 TV channel.

Highlighting the multiple partnerships between Rabat and Madrid, the Spanish official noted that cooperation between the two countries encompasses significant areas of common interest.

Morocco is an important neighbor with which we must maintain good relations, not only in terms of management of migration flows but also in the economic sphere, she stated.

The Spanish government  through its president Pedro Sanchez and officials heading key ministries  has repeatedly reaffirmed its determination and commitment to further developing relations between the two countries, in line with their new roadmap.

The joint declaration adopted last April by Morocco and Spain, at the end of discussions between King Mohammed VI and the President of the Spanish government, Pedro Sanchez, underlined that the two countries have opened a new stage in their bilateral relations.

This new stage responds to the call of King Mohammed VI, to inaugurate an unprecedented stage in the relations between the two countries, and of King Felipe VI to work together to materialize this new relationship.

It is also in line with the desire of the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sanchez, to build a relationship on more solid foundations.
Effort needed to reduce flight delays, cancellations

The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam has just asked domestic airlines to make an effort to reduce the rates of flight delays and cancellations.









While domestic aviation recovers, it is important to make an effort to reduce the rate of delays and cancellations.  VNA/VNS Photo



inh Viet Thang, the civil aviation authoritys director, said that the domestic aviation market was recovering at a pace that beat every forecast, citing statistics that domestic visitors through airports in June increased by 38 per cent against the same period in 2019 before COVID broke out.



However, the number of delayed and cancelled flights has increased significantly, especially at Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat international airports, as the aviation infrastructure remains undeveloped, he said.



We cannot wait until the infrastructure system improves to reduce the rates of delays and cancellations, Thang said.



He pointed out that Noi Bai T3 Terminal was expected to go operational in July 2024 at the earliest and Long Thanh Airport in the second or third quarter of 2025, while Tan Son Nhat Airport would not be upgraded until Long Thanh was put into operation.



Whats important is to find new ways to solve the problems, including the application of technology to reduce the number of delays and cancellations and ensure travel demand, Thang said.



Affirming that there was much work to do, Thang said that it was important to have the determination to improve the situation, adding that if each stage was shortened and operation capacity improved, the airport would have better traffic, meaning delays and cancellations would decrease.



After surveying Tan Son Nhat Airport, Deputy Director of the Civil Aviation Authority Ho Minh Tan said that the flight delays at Tan Son Nhat Airport were quite severe in June. There were several reasons for the delays and cancellations.



Besides the overloaded infrastructure or bad weather, the arrangement of aeroplanes in the parking lots was not reasonable, not considering the aircraft's departure time.



According to Nguyen Quy on, deputy director of the Southern Flight Management Corporation, pilots must strictly follow the time they are allowed to occupy the runway. Every second saved from the time of runway occupation means a lot to flight operation.



Sharing the same viewpoint, Bui Thanh Ha from the Vietnam Flight Management Corporation said that in a recent survey at Tan Son Nhat Airport, when Singapores B777-300 aeroplane landed, it took the pilot only 60 seconds to get off the runway while the Vietnamese pilot took nearly 70 seconds.



Deputy Director General of Vietnam Airlines Trinh Hong Quang said that no carriers wanted its flights to be delayed or cancelled. However, the market was growing too fast beyond every forecast, and carriers could not keep up.



Quang said that the carrier would cooperate with relevant management agencies to improve services and reduce the rates of delays and cancellations.



According to Thang, when the number of passengers on the plane increased, the infrastructure was limited, and congestion and flight delays were unavoidable.



It would be hard for passengers to accept that the flight, which took only 45 minutes from departure to arrival, was delayed for hours.



If there were no improvements, the number of flights must be reduced, Thang said, adding that even the UK had to cancel hundreds of thousands of flights recently.



Thang asked the Vietnam Flight Management Corporation and the Airports Corporation of Vietnam to coordinate to discuss the operation rules for parking and be flexible in accordance with flight times.



It is also necessary to regulate the time for occupying the runways of specific airports, especially Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat airports, which were overcrowded, he said.



More than 5,600 flights of domestic airlines were delayed in June, accounting for more than 18 per cent of the total number of flights and nearly 16 per cent higher than the same period of 2021 and 9.4 per cent higher than May.



Sixty-five flights were cancelled last month or 0.2 per cent of the total number of flights.



The most common reason for the delay was a late return of an aeroplane.



According to the International Air Transport Association, Vietnam is among the countries with the fastest recovering domestic aviation market.
Conor Mackey, of electronic music project lynyn, could be considered a musicians musician. Mackey, who also plays in the rock band Monobody and creates classical music compositions for chamber ensembles, has spent the majority of his life learning about and working within multiple music scenes. But, it was only until recently that he felt comfortable enough to share his long-private electronic music with the world. Curious listeners can hear Mackeys creations on the debut lynyn record, lexicon, out July 15.

Growing up in a musical household, Mackey learned how to play the piano, bass, bassoon and clarinet from an early age. But it was a trip to a childrens museum in San Francisco at 10 years old that first sparked his interest in electronic music.

Advertisement

A music room within the museum included a computer and a rudimentary digital audio station. Children could choose different loops and paint them into an arrangement. The experience, Mackey said, introduced him to the solo power of electronic music.

I was instantly hooked on that because you could build something out of nothing and have access to all these different sounds and create an entire piece of music on your own, which I didnt even know existed, Mackey recalled.

Advertisement

After his visit, Mackeys parents bought him Sonic Foundry Acid, a music production software. Later, Mackey shared the software with a friend and the two would make beats together.

By high school, Mackey had begun to nurture three different directions for music. There were his classical pursuits through youth orchestra and bassoon performance. He also picked up the guitar and began to play in local funk and jam bands. And then there was the electronic music, cultivated from that long ago museum visit, and something he could maintain in private.

Ive kind of had all these different facets, almost like different parts, of the musical personality, Mackey said. One of those three tracks (has) followed me for my entire career.

Those tracks even followed him to college at Northern Illinois University where Mackey went to school for music and graduated with a degree in composition.

Conor Mackey of the electronic music project lynyn also has a classical music background. (Dennis Elliott)

Yet Mackey, who also plays in the band Monobody and creates compositions for chamber ensembles, has largely made a name for himself outside of the electronic music world. Part of this is due to how electronic music fits into his creative world. What made me want to be an artist, Mackey said, I think it was (an) overall obsession with music and creating my own music. You know, taking the myriad influences and parts of my personality and trying to distill them into a personal language and make a statement.

Electronic music, in some ways, represents a sort of absolute control over making his own music. While Mackey enjoys collaborating with others, it is the genres singular ability to create vast, transformative sounds through the efforts of only one person that makes it so creatively compelling.

Its the ability to create something that is wholly yourself, right? began Mackey. The way Ive been making electronic music for so long, its just me and (I) have complete control over every facet of the composition, from every step of the way.

Advertisement

With the release of his debut album, lexicon, Mackey will finally have the chance to introduce this ever-present side of himself to larger audiences. Work on the record began in the winter of 2020. Tracks began with open experimentation. Mackey usually had a very loose idea of what sort of things he wanted to try. Hed focus on improvisation and record everything he created. Later, hed go back through those longform, improvised recordings and heard if anything could lead to a musical breakthrough in his inner ear.

Does something spark? Does it imply something else? And then once I found that thing, then its kind of like off to the races, Mackey said. I guess thats what my process is like  lots of little discoveries. And also trying to set up the conditions for that moment of discovery to happen. So when you set up those conditions, something happens and then that thing implies something else. And then its that over and over again.

A track is ready when moments stop implying things. I really liked the idea, especially when it comes to making electronic music, that the inspiration for any piece of music can come from anything, Mackey added.

Fans of electronic music will hear elements of many contemporary, foundational genres, from IDM to ambient to break beats and drum and bass. The latter genre in particular was formative for Mackey, who said the first electronic music album he ever purchased was the 1998 record New Forms by Roni Size & Reprazent. Yet, knowing those genre elements are present, lexicon is still sure to surprise and delight listeners. Anticipating one musical journey, Mackey instead guides audiences through an evocative voyage brimming with nostalgia, intelligence and joy. Lexicon is undoubtedly one of the most exciting and innovative records of the year.

Hopefully, it still feels like everything else Ive ever done, which is to say that its a moment in time and once its completed, its time to just do the next thing and explore new territory, Mackey said.

Britt Julious is a freelance critic.
The Poliario leadership continue to trade in the suffering of the Sahrawis they are holding hostage in the Tindouf camps in south western Algeria. This time, it is the turn of the foreign representative of the Algeria-backed militia who has just opened a second private hospital in Ecuador adding to a clinic he already owns in Panama.

Meantime, the Sahrawis held hostage in Tindouf suffer from lack of access to medical care in full sight of Algerian state, which has done nothing to improve the situation there, leaving thousands of Sahrawis under the yoke of a ruthless militia that engages in all sorts of humanitarian aid embezzlement while subjecting Tindouf dwellers to malnutrition.

The so-called foreign minister of the Algeria-sponsored and self-proclaimed polisario republic Mohamed Salem Ould Salek has relegated management of the two clinics in Latin America to his son.

Opposition group in support of Moroccos autonomy initiative within the camps known as Forsatin said the new investments in Latin America are reflective of an endemic corruption within the Algeria-funded Polisario elite.

It is clear that this funding comes from the humanitarian aid funds destined to the refugee camps in Tinduf. It is to be noted that all those medical devices were supposed to be given as a humanitarian aid to the camps. However, those medical equipments are smuggled abroad, sold or transferred to the private projects of Polisarios leadership illegally, and through fake companies affiliated to the Polisario totalitarian regime, Forsatin said in a statement.

In 2020, the theft of humanitarian aid has showed cracks within the separatists edifice after senior Polisario leaders Bashir Mustapha Sayid called for the leadership to step down because of its involvement in what he described as piracy in Tindouf amid coronavirus concerns.

Algeria has tried to downplay the scale of the chaos within the camps and the risk facing the population held against its will in the camps by imposing a media blackout.

From humanitarian aid embezzlement by the Polisario officials to slavery and forced disappearances in the Tinfoud camps, Algeria has abdicated its responsibilities and forsaken a civilian population to the mercy of a separatist militia.

Algerias obstinacy to refuse allowing a head-count of the population of the Polisario-run camps prompted the EU to reduce aid sent to these camps in a bid to curb humanitarian aid diversion.

The decision was taken following a report by the EU anti-fraud office (OLAF) denouncing the embezzlement of humanitarian aid by the Polisario leadership and Algerian officials. Therefore, the European Commission decided to cut aid commensurately with the estimated number of 90,000 people instead of the inflated 165,000 people put forward by the Polisario and Algeria in an attempt to sell the idea of the existence of a Sahraoui People with a republic in exile.

Carrying out a head-count of the population held in Tindouf will enable international aid agencies to assess the needs of the population and will also pave the way for the camps dwellers to obtain the refugee status, which will grant them the right to return to their homeland Morocco or at least the right to freely choose their country of asylum. Such options that Algeria and the Polisario dread the most as they continue to trade in the suffering of Sahraouis living in abject conditions.
The U.S.-Africa Business Summit, which seeks to encourage investment in the Continent, will be convened this year in Marrakesh July 19-22 under the theme: Building Forward Together.

A press release issued by the U.S. Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) said the summit will explore a renewed commitment by both public and private sector stakeholders to building stronger U.S.- Africa trade, investment and commercial ties as we emerge from unprecedented health and economic challenges.

The 2022 U.S.-Africa Business Summit is the first major in-person U.S.-Africa conference since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The gathering features high level and panel debates on business opportunities and challenges in agribusiness, finance, energy, health, mining infrastructure, ICT, security and creative industries.

The event facilitates connections between key African and American business leaders and investors. It provides networking opportunities, and activities that will allow attendees to meet face-to face to engage on key U.S.-Africa economic issues and re-establish important business contacts that were not possible over the past 2 years.

Participants will interact with high-level government officials and business leaders from countries with some of the most promising markets for investments and hear about business opportunities, government policies and success stories.

They will also have the possibility to engage in closed-door conversations with key decision makers and meet high-level African and American governmental delegations, and CEOs and senior executives of U.S. and African companies.
President of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, is expected in Marrakesh on Monday for a four-day visit.

This visit renews the African Development Bank Groups commitment to strengthening the exceptional partnership that has united Morocco with the institution for more than half a century  with results that benefit the population, AfDB said in a statement.

Morocco is a source of inspiration; a country that demonstrates that, with ambition, will, and resources, transformation can become a reality, Adesina was quoted in the statement as saying.

The Kingdom is our premier partner, with a large portfolio of top-tier operations that position it as a leader in multiple domains on the continent, he added.

On Tuesday July 19, Adesina will attend the General Meeting of Africa50, a pan-African infrastructure fund based in Casablanca, in his dual capacity as the head of the AfDB Group and chair of the Board of Directors of the Fund, an initiative of the Bank.

Adesina will also participate in the United States-Africa Business Summit, which begins on 19 July in Marrakech, under the theme Building Forward Together.

The Bank President will meet with senior officials and private sector representatives during his visit. He will also meet with key development partners.

Adesina will be accompanied by the Vice-President for Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery, Yacine Fal, and the Vice-President for the Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialization, Solomon Quaynor, the statement said.

The AfDB Group has been operating in Morocco for more than 50 years. Its portfolio is worth more than 12 billion, covering health, agriculture, energy, water, transport, human development and the financial sector.
The Spanish parliament has just confirmed the position of the Sanchez government in favor of the autonomy plan for the settlement of the Sahara conflict, by rejecting by an overwhelming majority a draft resolution hostile to Morocco, presented by some small independentist parties.

Spains Congress of Deputies, the lower house of Parliament, confirmed, Thursday evening, the position of the government of Pedro Sanchez on the Moroccan Sahara issue, corroborating thus the broad support for the Morocco-proposed autonomy proposal within Spanish constitutional institutions and main political formations.

By rejecting by 252 votes out of 333 the draft text asking the Spanish government to review its position on the Sahara, the Spanish Parliament evidenced its clear and decisive support to the approach taken by the President of the Government, Pedro Sanchez.

Sanchez stressed last March in a message to King Mohammed VI that his country considers the Moroccan autonomy initiative as the most serious, realistic and credible basis for resolving the dispute over the Sahara.

A major fact about the Thursday vote is that the two main political formations in Spain representing the majority (Spanish Socialist Workers Party-PSOE) and the opposition (Popular Party-PP) voted against the text of the resolution. The text was approved only by the deputies of the Catalan republican left and the Basque separatists of Bildu, extremist formations that have little impact on political life.

With the rejection of this motion by the Spanish Parliament, the government of Pedro Sanchez comes out more consolidated and stronger in its recent position on the Sahara and its irreversible support for the autonomy plan, now considered as the one and only solution to put a definitive end to this conflict, artificially created by the Algerian military regime.

This new slap in the face to the separatists supporters has once again put things in their right place and strengthened the position of the Spanish government, which had recognized, in the message addressed to the King, the importance of the Sahara issue for Morocco, while emphasizing the Kingdoms serious and credible efforts within the framework of the United Nations to find a mutually acceptable solution to the dispute.

The position adopted by the Spanish Congress of Deputies enshrines support for Moroccos full sovereignty over its southern provinces and for its serious efforts to resolve the dispute over the Sahara.

This new debacle has definitively confirmed the bankruptcy of the theses supported by the separatists, which are echoed by a tiny minority, pursuing spurious electoral interests, and shattered the hopes of the separatists and their few supporters.

The text is a further blow to the increasingly isolated polisario separatists, who are in a catatonic and desperate state in Spain.

Despite the vile maneuvers and indecent acts of the polisario and Algeria, the Spanish government has not stopped defending the relevance and the validity of its decision regarding the Moroccan Sahara, which is the result of a reflection and evaluation of the whole situation.

The statements and the unambiguous positions of Spanish officials, supporting the Moroccanness of the Sahara, further dismay the separatists, who see support for them in Spain dwindle daily. At the same time, the autonomy initiative under Moroccos sovereignty has emerged as the one and only solution to this regional dispute.
Thanks to a direct mediation by Morocco, under the leadership of King Mohammed VI, and by the United States, the Israeli authorities have decided to open, without interruption, the Allenby/King Hussein border crossing, linking the West Bank and Jordan.

This joint Moroccan-US mediation led to an agreement for the permanent opening of this crossing 24/7. The Allenby crossing between the West Bank and Jordan is the only opening of the Palestinians onto the world and will facilitate the circulation of people, goods and vehicles between both countries, which will have a beneficial impact on the Palestinians daily lives.

This mediation is, once again, an eloquent testimony of the interest of the King, Chairman of the Al-Quds Committee, in the Palestinian cause and the well-being of the Palestinians.

The Israeli Minister of Transportation, Merav Michaeli, who announced the opening of the Allenby border crossing this Friday, expressed thanks to King Mohammed VI and to the US President, Joe Biden, for their commitment and their continuous efforts for peace and prosperity in the Middle East.

I would like to thank President Biden, King Mohammed VI and Morocco for their commitment to furthering the peace process and the regions economic growth, the Israeli official tweeted.

For several months now, the Israeli Transportation Minister and her staff have been in contact with American, Moroccan and Palestinian elements in order to lead to the continuous opening of the Allenby crossing between Israel and Jordan.
UPDATE: Changes reflect that the motion to change the venue from Chase County was denied in a hearing on Friday. Also notes the new trial date for the William Stanback case in Lincoln County.

The murder trial for Kevin S. German, one of two individuals accused of killing Annika Swanson in November 2019, is scheduled to begin Monday in Imperial.

Jury selection and opening arguments are set to begin at 9 a.m. MST in Chase County District Court. The trial is scheduled to run 10 days.

Germans lawyer, Clarence E. Mock, filed a motion Tuesday to change the venue, contending that his client could not receive a fair and impartial trial in Chase County.

Judge Patrick Heng denied the motion during a hearing on Friday morning. Heng wrote in his decision that, "the defendant may resubmit his motion to change venue of Trial during the jury selection process if he determines it is necessary."

German, 26, is charged with first-degree murder and felony kidnapping in the abduction and death of Swanson, 22. He also is charged with a second count of felony kidnapping for allegedly holding another woman captive for three days in a home near Enders.

Keonna N. Carter, 24, of Taylorsville, Utah, is the co-defendant in the German case and is included on the witness list for his trial on behalf of the state. She is charged with first-degree murder and one count of felony kidnapping.

Authorities found Swansons body Nov. 24, 2019, at the bottom of an 8-foot-deep irrigation drainage pipe in a rural area near Imperial.

Her father had reported her missing three days earlier.

Both German and Carter were arrested in Fort Collins, Colorado, in the final week of November 2019. They waived extradition back to Nebraska the following month in Larimer County Court in Fort Collins.

Meanwhile, a motion has been filed in Lincoln County District Court to continue the murder trial of William Stanback, which had been scheduled to start Tuesday.

Stanbacks attorney, Amanda Speichert filed the request Wednesday and the Lincoln County Attorneys office had no objection. The trial is now scheduled to start on Sept. 13.

Stanback, 42, of Greeley, Colorado, is accused of shooting his fiancee, Kimberly Emri, and disposing of her body in a retention pond in North Platte in March 2020.

The trial was initially scheduled to begin May 10 but was continued to allow Stanback additional time to undergo a pretrial evaluation, according to court records.
The owner of Eula Maes (Eua la la) Boutique in Opelika, LaTara Hardnett first established her clothing business in 2017 by selling clothes out of the trunk of her car.

Hardnett, a 44-year-old Opelika native, is also a real estate agent with Three Sixty and an afterschool coordinator at Dean Road Elementary for grades K-2.

By December 2021, she opened up a store front boutique on 109 South Eighth Street and it became the first Black-owned boutique in downtown Opelika, which Hardnett said means everything to her.

Financially with the economy, its very hard for all businesses right now, but especially to be an independently owned and operated Black business, she said.

While Hardnett has faced challenges, she said what she enjoys most is meeting the women and families who come to the boutique looking for the perfect clothing item.

She loves seeing customers reactions while shopping and seeing how the experience can transform a bad day into a good day.

Hardnett never really thought about the possibility of opening a clothing boutique until after having a daughter of her own. While shopping with her daughter, Laila Haynes, she said the high prices made it difficult, especially while being a single mother.

Thats when she got the idea to create her business and provide affordable and stylish clothing options for women and children.

Clothing is just like food to the soul, Hardnett said. When you go shopping and when women come in here and theyve had a long day or if they have had a conflict or just a difficult time, they can come in and do something for themselves. Shopping is like one of those things thats soothing to the soul. Its therapy really.

Hardnett said she and her mother Eula Mae both loved clothing, so she named the boutique after her to carry on her memory and legacy. Saturday, July 16, marks the anniversary of her mothers birthday.

On Sept. 6, 1996, Eula Mae had a massive heart attack while working at East Alabama Mental Health and passed away. Hardnett was 18 years old at the time.

Everything that I do is for my mother, she said. As soon as you walk in, you see her picture.

This photo of Eula Mae is framed and displayed on a shelf on the back wall for customers to see when they first open the doors.

The boutique is also family run. Hardnett along with her daughter and three of her aunts  Virginia Dowdell, Lillie Bailey and LaTraysa Love  all work together to honor Eula Mae through the business.

It bridges the gap and brings us together, Hardnett said.

Eula Maes Boutique recently won the minority business of the quarter from the Opelika Chamber of Commerce for the spring quarter of 2022.

That meant everything. That just continued my mothers legacy, Hardnett said.

Haynes, Hardnetts 18-year-old daughter, said she shares a passion for fashion with her mother and believes that wearing the right outfit can give people confidence.

I feel like we say dont judge a book by its cover, but we definitely judge by the way you look on the outside, she said. So I think presentation is everything. How you carry yourself and how you look every day is important, so these clothes will definitely be implemented when I go into court someday.

Haynes recently graduated from Auburn High School in May and has plans to attend LSU in the fall and join the law program under African American Studies.

During high school, Haynes was not only a student and cheerleader but also worked at the boutique. She said she enjoys being able to help her mother.

My mom has definitely instilled hard work and no slacking in doing what I need to do to be the person that I am, Haynes said.

One of the reasons Haynes wants to pursue a career in law is so she can help others like her mother.

Eula Maes Boutique partners with different churches and other community groups in the area that help women who struggle with drug addiction and are going through rehabilitation.

I try to reward them monthly or during holidays with clothing because, like I said, clothing to me is more like therapy, Hardnett said. Eula Maes is so much more than clothing.

Hardnett said the boutique doesnt have set hours, but instead is open based on availability, need and by appointments. She posts the stores hours daily on the Facebook page Eula Maes (Eua la la). Here customers can prepay for items and pick them up at the boutique.
In an undated image provided by UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, John R. Froines in 2015 at UCLA, where he directed numerous university research centers and was a pioneering advocate for air quality regulations. (UCLA Fielding School of Public Health via The New York Times)

John R. Froines, a quiet but politically stalwart chemist who stood trial alongside six other anti-war activists  known collectively as the Chicago Seven  on charges of conspiring to incite a riot during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and who went on to become a pioneering advocate for environmental justice, died Wednesday in Santa Monica, California. He was 83.

His wife, Andrea Hricko, said the death, at a hospital, was caused by complications of Parkinsons disease.

Advertisement

A recently minted Yale Ph.D. on his way to teach chemistry at the University of Oregon, Froines found himself drawn into the swirl of anti-war activism building up to the Democratic convention, to be held in August 1968 at Chicagos International Amphitheater.

Tom Hayden and Rennie Davis, two of the protest organizers, knew Froines through his work in Connecticut with the New Haven chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, and they invited him to join their inner circle.

Advertisement

During the convention, tens of thousands of protesters marched in the streets and hundreds were arrested during violent clashes with the Chicago Police Department. But only eight were indicted under federal charges of crossing state lines to incite a riot; they included Hayden, Davis and Froines, who was also charged with building an incendiary device, accused of having shown three women how to make a stink bomb.

Several of those charged were already famous as radical activists and counterculture provocateurs. Bobby Seale had co-founded the Black Panther Party in 1966; Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, co-founders of the Youth International Party, or the Yippies, were renowned for antics like dropping wads of cash onto the floor of the New York Stock Exchange from the visitors gallery.

The defendants were originally known as the Chicago Eight, but became the Chicago Seven when the judge in the case, Julius Hoffman  no relation to Abbie  had Seale legally severed from the group to be tried separately. (In an extraordinary move, the judge had earlier ordered Seale bound and gagged for several days in the courtroom after Seales repeated protests over his treatment by the court. He was later jailed for contempt.)

Though the men stood in solidarity, Froines stuck out as particularly straight-laced and earnest, especially in contrast to the likes of Hoffman, who treated the trial with comic disdain, putting his feet on a table and referring to Judge Hoffman as his illegitimate father.

John was straight, Lee Weiner, one of the defendants, said in a phone interview. Im not going to say we didnt get along, because thats not true. But I never had an impulse to say to John, Lets go smoke some dope. "

Despite what many saw as clear bias against the defendants by Judge Hoffman, in 1970 the jury acquitted Froines and Weiner of all charges. An appeals court later dismissed most of the charges against the others.

Froines eventually returned to academia, then worked for several years in Washington for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Under his direction, the agency wrote the first regulatory guidelines for non-carcinogenic toxins like lead and cotton dust, setting the stage for dramatic increases in workplace and public health.

He did much the same at UCLA, where he moved in 1981. He directed numerous university research centers and sat on the states scientific review panel for air quality.

Advertisement

And he engaged with communities hit hard by industrial pollution and smog, tailoring his research to their needs and even accompanying neighborhood groups to meet with government and corporate officials.

When you walk into a room with an internationally recognized expert on an issue, it makes a difference, Angelo Logan, co-founder of one such organization, the California-based East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, said in a phone interview. Johns work was driven, driven to make real differences in peoples lives.

John Radford Froines was born June 13, 1939, in Oakland, California. His father, George, a shipyard worker, was murdered when John was 3, leaving his mother, Katherine (Livingston) Froines, a teacher, to raise him and his brother, Robert, by herself.

After graduating from high school, he joined the Air National Guard, then earned an associate degree from Contra Costa Community College. He went on to the University of California, Berkeley, where he received a bachelors degree in chemistry in 1962.

It was at Yale, where he pursued a doctorate, that he first became involved in politics. He started as a moderate, chairing the university chapter of Students for Johnson during the 1964 presidential campaign.

But, like many young people, he soured on the president after Johnson followed his landslide victory that fall with a massive expansion of the war in Vietnam. Froines joined the local branch of SDS, helping to organize poor white and Black residents in the citys Hill neighborhood.

Advertisement

He met his first wife, Ann (Rubio) Froines, through the organization. They later divorced. In addition to his wife, Hricko, he is survived by his daughter, Rebecca Froines Stanley, and his son, Jonathan.

After his acquittal, Froines resigned from his position at the University of Oregon to continue his anti-war activism. He went back to New Haven to support the Black Panther Party during a series of trials against Seale and others, and in 1971 he helped organize the May Day anti-war protests in Washington, D.C.

The next year, he returned to academia as a professor at Goddard College, in Plainfield, Vermont. He later worked for Vermonts department of occupational health for two years before moving to Washington.

Froines death leaves just two surviving members of the Chicago Eight, Seale and Weiner.

The trial of the Chicago Seven became a touchstone of the era, one repeatedly mined for its historical significance. Two movies have been made about the case, most recently The Trial of the Chicago Seven (2020), written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, with Danny Flaherty playing Froines.

It was a personal legacy that left Froines with mixed feelings. He remained as committed to social justice as he had been in his youth, he said, but he had left his activist days behind and was eager to be known better for his work regulating lead than for standing in court beside Abbie Hoffman.

Advertisement

No one is the same now as then, he told The Los Angeles Times in 1990. We still need student protesters because many of the problems of the 60s continue and new issues have emerged. But nobodys a student activist at 50. Youd have to have your head examined.

c.2022 The New York Times Company
To make matters even more complicated, more than 40% of new discoveries were made by national oil companies, as well.

As much as 65 percent of the worlds discovered oil and gas reserves are under the control of national oil companies.

Big Oil majors in the United States have found themselves the target of much pressure to boost production lately, as prices go wild amid a tightand tighteningmarket. At the same time, the U.S. government, as well as the EU, have been looking all over the world for more supply. Wood Mackenzie just had some bad news for them. According to new research from the energy consultancy, more than half65 percent, to be preciseof the worlds discovered oil and gas reserves are under the control of national oil companies.

The reason this is bad news is that, in addition to NOCs like Saudi Aramco, QatarEnergy, and Abu Dhabis Adnoc, these companies also include Russias Rosneft and Gazprom, the National Iranian Oil Company, and Venezuelas PDVSA.

These seven companies, according to Wood Mac analysts, can keep producing oil and gas at their current rates for the next 40 to 60 years or even longer if they tap their spare capacity.

It was national oil companies that have made 41 percent of all new oil and gas discoveries in conventional resources since 2011, the analysts noted. Whats more, the NOCs share in new discoveries has been on the increase since 2018 as the energy transition push prompts the evolution of their exploration strategies, the report said.

In total, national oil companies have discovered more than 100 billion barrels of oil equivalent since 2011, the report said, which was twice what oil majors discovered. But not all is rosy for the NOCs. Unlike the majors, NOCs were significantly worse at commercializing these new discoveries, the Wood Mac analysts noted.

Two-thirds of what Big Oil has discovered since 2011 is considered viable and advantaged. On the other hand, two-thirds of what the NOCs have discovered is considered contingent.

This could, of course, change with the right incentive. Right now, however, it seems that the NOCs, especially in the Middle East, dont have much of an incentive, especially as prices begin sliding under the weight of recession fears.

The fact remains, however, that most of the already discovered oil and gas in the world, two-thirds of it, is under the control of just seven companies, of which four are subject to sanctions from some of the worlds biggest oil and gas consumers.

Related: Armed Guards Raid Libyan National Oil Company As Political Shakeup Escalates

One might brush this off on the basis that these large consumers, in the face of Europe and the United States, notably, are moving towards an economic model much less dependent on fossil fuels than it has been hitherto.

An argument could be madeand it has been made by organizations such as Emberthat these barrels of oil and cubic meters of gas are future stranded assets that will fade into obsolescence before the middle of the century rolls around.

Just how valid such a brush-off or an argument would be, however, is a different matter. The last six months, and especially the last three months, have prompted some serious reconsiderations of priorities in European capitals and in Washington. Both have gone from staunch opponents of oil and gas to cautious defenders as energy security trumped emission fears for the first time in years.

As true as that might be, the governments of Europe and the U.S., two of the biggest consumers of oil and gas globally, believe that this refocusing on energy security will only be a short-term matter. Oil and gas will be necessary only for a few more years, their reasoning goes, until we build enough wind parks and solar farms. Coal, too.

The fact that European buyers are signing long-term contracts for U.S. LNG, however, suggests something else. It suggests an acknowledgment that oil and gas might very well continue to be necessary for not years but decades to come.

And there are just seven companies that can keep supplying that oil and that gas for decades to come without regulatory, government, or activist investor pressure of the kind Big Oil has been subjected to in recent yearspressure that has been affecting its production rates. The future, then, belongs to national oil companies.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Europe has overtaken Asia as the biggest buyer of U.S. crude oil, importing 213.1 million barrels over the first five months of the year, while Asia imported 191.1 million barrels, Bloomberg reported, citing Census Bureau data.

This is the first time in six years that Europe has been a bigger buyer of U.S. crude than Asia.

The change resulted from the redirection of oil flows following Russias invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions that the European Union and the United States imposed on Moscow in response.

However, U.S. oil might not be enough to fill the gap left by Russian oil once the European Union embargo on the latter takes effect later this year. According to one energy analyst, this means the EU would need to step up imports from Asia.

Jonathan Leitch from Turner Mason & Company believes that the shortfall in oil imports from Russia to the EU could be more than 700,000 bpd, and the EU would need to find new sources to plug the gap.

China and India could be among these sources, Leitch told UBS in a recent call, but both countries are putting limits on exports as they seek to lower domestic oil and fuel prices. Related: Could Argentinas Dead Cow Shale Patch Help Solve The Energy Crisis?

What the suggestion means, however, is that neither the United States nor the Middle Eastern OPEC producers could step in fast enough to fill the gap.

According to Christopher Haines from Energy Aspects, who spoke to Bloomberg, the substantial rate of U.S. oil imports into Europe will remain unchanged over the short term as the EU reduces its reliance on Russian oil.

The problem, both for Europe and Asia, is that U.S. production of crude is not growing fast enough to respond to demand in the two regions. This, coupled with doubts about OPECs ability to boost production, suggests prices are likely to remain elevated.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Uncertainty is dominating the oil market this week, with recession fears being countered by physical tightness and growing supply risks.

Oilprice Alert: This month's Intelligent Investor column, now available for Global Energy Alert members, outlines the bullish case for oil, gas, and coal. If you're an investor in the energy space then now is the time to sign up for Global Energy Alert.

Friday, July 15th, 2022

Oil market watchers have become senior macroeconomists lately, with price swings increasingly dependent on larger market sentiment. This weeks seesawing was in large part driven by the market expecting a 100 basis point hike, sending all global crude benchmarks crashing down to double digits, however as soon as the US Federal Reserve opted for a more modest 75 bps hike, ICE Brent bounced back to $102 per barrel. Following the recent hedge fund sell-off, it seems that there is still no consensus on the main driving trend in the markets  fears of economic recession are just as strong as the feeling of immediate physical tightness.

Biden Visit Ends Without Production Boost Promise. With President Bidens visit to Saudi Arabia in full swing, senior US officials have confirmed that Washington is not expecting Riyadh to boost crude production immediately, lifting crude prices by $2/barrel in Fridays trading.

Asian LNG Prices Feel the European Heat. Spot Asian LNG prices have been trending above $40 per mmBtu lately, with increasing cooling demand and outages in several key suppliers (Peru, Australia) adding a layer of upward pricing pressure, whilst gas-strapped Europe continues to see prices well above those in Asia.

Algeria Becomes Largest Gas Supplier to Italy. In an ongoing diplomatic row with Morocco and Spain, Algeria has been rerouting its gas exports to Italy and is now set to supply the southern European country with 25 bcm of natural gas, with increased throughput rates starting next week already.

Iraqi Export Capacity Upgrades Get Delayed. Whilst Baghdad has been maintaining that it would expand crude export capacity by 150,000 b/d (to 3.4 million b/d in total) thanks to new infrastructure in Basrah, that goal is now postponed into Sept-Oct amidst pumping station upgrade setbacks.

Chinas Power Supply Strained Under Record Heat. Peak power loads in several Chinese regions (Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Jiangsu etc.) have hit all-time highs this week, with temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius, leading to 5-6% year-on-year increases in average electricity consumption rates.

ConocoPhillips Doubles Down on Port Arthur LNG. US oil major ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) agreed to buy a 30% stake in Sempra Energys 13.5mtpa Port Arthur LNG project, agreeing to purchase 5 mtpa of LNG produced by the first phase of the project and supply the natural gas for its share of output.

Tripoli Government Pulls Off Hostile Takeover. The UN-backed Government of National Unity has sacked the longtime chairman of Libyas NOC Mustafa Sanalla and replaced him with former central bank governor Farhat Bengdara, storming the oil companys headquarters to install the new head.

China Might Scrap Australia Coal Ban. According to a Bloomberg report, Chinese officials are proposing to end a ban on Australian coal, introduced in October 2020, wary that Europes buying spree after the sanctions on Russian coal kick in will lead to increased competition for supplies.

Brussels Cozies Up to Azerbaijan. The European Commission has been working on a memorandum that would stipulate its goal of increasing Azerbaijani gas imports to at least 20 billion cubic meters by 2027, currently taking in 8 bcm via the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) that ends in Italy.

Nationalization Boosted EDF Shares. Trading in shares of French energy firm EDF was suspended this week, up 13% week-on-week, as the French government prepares to nationalize the remaining 16% of shares it does not own still at a buyout price of close to 13 per shares, a 30% premium to current prices.

Indonesia Discovery Buoys Mubadala Upstream Plans. The UAE-based Mubadala Petroleum discovered a net 118-meter gas column with its Timpan-1 exploration well offshore North Sumatra, with the Indonesian find de-risking at least several TCf gas reserves in the basin.

Warren Buffett Still Likes Occidental Very Much. Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway has continued buying up shares of Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY), adding another 4.3 million shares this week and taking total ownership of the oil firm to 19.2% (the equivalent of 179.4 million shares).

Japan Accelerates Nuclear Restart Amid Power Supply Qualms. The Japanese government is working towards the restart of four nuclear reactors before the onset of the 2022/2023 winter season, bringing the total number of operating units to nine, the highest number since the Fukushima incident.

China Moves to Limit Fertilizer Exports. China is rolling out a quota system to limit exports of phosphates, a key ingredient to producing fertilizers, that should see the light of the day at some point in H2, with early reports indicating the quotas will be set significantly lower than current export levels.

By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Russia is capable of manufacturing by itself all the equipment necessary for expanding its domestic gasification network, Russian Trade and Industry Minister Denis Manturov said on Friday.

We will be able to provide ourselves all the technological equipment and piping for the gasification of the whole country, the minister said during a speech at the Russian Parliament, as carried by Russian news agency TASS.

It is important to upgrade our capacities by replacing foreign exploration, drilling, and offshore equipment, as well as accelerating work on our own medium- and large-tonnage LNG equipment, Manturov was quoted as saying.

Russia will also accelerate the timeline for testing and launching mass production of large gas turbines, said the minister, who was just promoted to also serve as one of Russias deputy prime ministers.

Western sanctions and the exodus of international oil and engineering companies from Russia after Putins invasion of Ukraine will slow down Russias energy industry development because Moscow can no longer rely on Western equipment, analysts say.

Russias claims that it can provide all the equipment necessary for domestic gas networks come amid a row with the West, in which Moscow slashed deliveries to Europe in the middle of June. Russia said that a gas turbine for a Nord Stream compressor station being repaired by Siemens at a facility in Canada could not be returned due to the Western sanctions on Russia. European leaders, including those of Germany and Italywhose countries are most affected by the slashed Gazprom deliverieshave said that the Russian excuses are lies and that the lower gas supply was a politically motivated decision.

Earlier this week, Canada agreed to return the Gazprom turbine that Siemens Energy sent to a factory in the North American country for repairs earlier this year. The decision comes after calls from Germany to return the turbine, so, according to German Economy Minister Robert Habeck, Russia has no excuse to keep gas flows along Nord Stream at 40 percent of the pipelines capacity.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
There will be no public announcements about an oil supply rise during or after U.S. President Joe Bidens visit to Saudi Arabia, Bloomberg reported on Friday, quoting sources with knowledge of the matter.

President Biden is visiting Saudi Arabia today, where he will meet King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, after making a U-turn in his attitude toward the Kingdom.

Soaring oil prices and record national average gasoline prices of over $5 per gallon in the United States on some days in June, months before the midterm elections, have prompted President Biden to consider a visit to Saudi Arabia and a meeting with its rulers. Two years ago, he described Saudi Arabia as a pariah state and criticized it for its track record of abuses of human rights.

In an op-ed published in The Washington Post on Saturday, President Biden defended his decision to visit Saudi Arabia, writing that the Middle Easts energy resources are vital for mitigating the impact on global supplies of Russias war in Ukraine.

But Saudi Arabia, the worlds biggest crude oil exporter, may not have the capacity and/or the willingness to tap deeper into capacity despite the continuous calls from major oil-consuming nations.

The U.S. doesnt expect the Saudis to raise production immediately, a U.S. official told Reuters just before President Bidens visit to Saudi Arabia. The United States will be looking closely at what will happen at the next meeting of the OPEC+ group in early August, the U.S. official said.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are believed to hold most of the worlds spare capacity, which is critically low now, analysts say. Experts also point out that Saudi Arabia would likely prefer to manage oil supply via the OPEC+ agreements rather than with unilateral increases in production. The Saudis are also looking to keep their cooperation with Russia as part of the OPEC+ pact.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
West Virginias Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who holds a swing vote in a 50-50 Senate, said on Thursday that he would not support President Joe Bidens energy and climate investments bill, essentially deadlocking the piece of legislation the Democrats have sought to pass to help the Administrations clean energy goals.

Senator Manchin declined to back the energy and climate provisions, as well as the tax provisions, in the reconciliation bill on which the Senate Democrats have been working. Manchin told on Thursday Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that he would only back a reconciliation bill that reduces the price of medicines and extends subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, a Democrat briefed on the discussions told CBS News.

Senator Manchin is thus dealing a blow to President Bidens energy and climate agenda by refusing to back in August the bill as-is.

Thats not the first time the West Virginia Senator has refused to support climate provisions in legislation pursued by the Democrats. Last autumn, President Bidens spending plan was thrown into doubt after Manchin opposed the clean electricity part of the program and the penalization of coal-powered electricity generation.

Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, who helped draft part of the proposed reconciliation bill, said he was disappointed with Senator Manchins refusal to back the bill in its energy and climate part.



Related: Ukrainian Energy Giant Asks Creditors To Defer Debt Payments

This is our last chance to prevent the most catastrophic, and costly, effects of climate change, Sen. Wyden said in a statement carried by CBS.

The failure of the reconciliation bill is another setback for President Bidens clean energy agenda after the Supreme Court ruled at the end of last month that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does not have the authority to set greenhouse emission standards for existing power plants. In a climate case brought by West Virginia, a major coal-producing state, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Congress had the power to set environmental standards for power plants, not the EPA.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
After an armed takeover of Libyas National Oil Company (NOC) on Thursday, newly appointed chairman Farhat Bengdara has told media that he is in full control and that force majeure could be lifted on Libyas oil exports within a week.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Bengdara said he would double Libyas crude oil production to 1.2 million bpd. He also reiterated assurances to foreign partners that all existing contracts would be honored.

Serious doubts remain as to Bengdaras control, however, as long-time NOC Chairman Mustafa Sanalla has refused to step down in the face of a takeover decree from the Government of National Unity (GNU), led by interim prime minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, whose own mandates legitimacy is questioned.

In an address to the public on Thursday, a defiant Sanalla, who has run the politically independent NOC for eight years, refused to accept the takeover, calling Dbeibahs government illegitimate as his mandate technically expired when he failed to hold elections in December 2021.

In a telephone interview with Reuters later on Thursday, Sanalla said he was in Tripoli attempting to defuse the situation and calling for international pressure to avoid what would inevitably lead to the creation of two parallel NOCs in a country already suffering a dangerous deadlock with parallel governments vying for control of the nations oil resources.

On Friday, Dbeibah filed a complaint with the Attorney General against Sanalla, saying that he deliberately appeared in the media and made blatant and irresponsible statements against the Prime Minister and some other officials, refusing to implement the cabinets decision and hampered the work of the hand-over committee.

Sanalla has also filed a complaint demanding the takeover decree be revoked and accusing the Dbeibah government of acting to appease the UAE.

In the meantime, the NOCs website and social media accounts have not published any updates since Thursday, further questioning who is in control.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
The French should brace for a complete cutoff of Russian natural gas, French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday, Bastille Day, calling on citizens to turn public lights off at night and embrace what he referred to as energy sobriety, the Associated Press reported.

Speaking on public television, Macron said that while France is seeking to boost alternative energy sources and new natural gas supplies, tough times lay ahead.

This war will continue. The summer, early autumn will be very hard, Macron said, adding that Russia is using energy, like it is using food, as a weapon of war. We should prepare ourselves for the scenario where we have to go without all Russian gas.

Among the plans to lessen the blow of a Russian gas cutoff, Macron offered up an energy conservation plan that, among other things, would curtail the use of public streetlights.

The French president is under intensifying pressure from both the countrys far-right and far-left, who hold him accountable for domestic failures to keep consumer prices under control and for his inabilityhowever farfetchedto end Russian President Vladimir Putins war on Ukraine.

In June general elections, Macrons government lost its absolute majority in the National Assembly, weakening his position against his opponents.

Macron has vowed to increase the countrys supply of renewable energy. At the same time, he is committed to relying on nuclear power as a permanent solution. The French president is eyeing a 50/50 mix of nuclear power and renewable energy.

In another bid to keep costs down for consumers, France is preparing an energy nationalization plan that will see the government take over the remaining 16% share in the giant EDF power group for more than 8 billion euros, and possibly up to 10 billion euros with debt included, the Guardian reports.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
A red-headed woodpecker in Miami Woods Forest Preserve in Morton Grove on July 14, 2022. Previously in steep decline, red-headed woodpeckers seem to be responding to practices such as the clearing of invasive species and restoration of open oak woodlands, according to a study, which found a 3.3% average annual increase. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)

Dozens of local birds, including the increasingly rare Henslows sparrow, are doing surprisingly well in Chicagoland, according to an analysis of 22 years of data by the nonprofit Bird Conservation Network.

Of 104 key species tracked in the study, 56% had populations that were stable or increasing, likely due to the Chicago regions many parks and nature preserves, which cover nearly 10% of land in the six-county area.

Advertisement

In contrast, only 37% of the tracked birds are increasing or holding steady in other areas of the state, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey.

I think thats a fun finding for people given that you think of Chicagoland as being more developed, said Bird Conservation Network President Eric Secker. Forest preserves, park district lands  in Chicagoland theres quite a mix of organizations that are protecting land for birds, and were seeing those are really helping them survive.

Advertisement

In other parts of the state, he said, agriculture has often consumed prime bird habitat.

The study, which began in 1999, drew on more than 29,700 surveys conducted by volunteer monitors at almost 2,500 locations in area parks and nature preserves.

Among the birds that appear to be benefiting from living in the region: the 3- to 4-foot tall sandhill crane, the dashing red-headed woodpecker  with a crimson head and crisp patches of black and white  and the elusive Henslows sparrow, which is considered endangered in Canada and seven U.S. states.

A sandhill crane flies near Medaryville, Indiana, in 2017. Sandhill cranes were found breeding in Lake County around 1980, and are now increasingly common. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)

Only about 410,000 breeding Henslows sparrows remain in the world, and the birds are declining nationally. However, the conservation network study found the birds were up an average of 3.4% per year in Chicagoland.

Henslows sparrows often benefit from habitat restoration efforts and the creation of tallgrass prairie.

Sandhills were hunted almost out of existence in Illinois by 1900, and were listed as endangered in the state as recently as the 1990s. But they were found breeding in Lake County around 1980, and are now increasingly common, with suburban sightings popping up in social media posts.

Sandhills saw an average annual increase of 7.4% in the study. The authors cautioned that the increase may be due in part to the loss of wetlands in other parts of the state, with the birds flocking to the wetlands that remain.

Previously in steep decline, red-headed woodpeckers seem to be responding to practices such as the clearing of invasive species and restoration of open oak woodlands, according to the study, which found a 3.3% average annual increase.

Advertisement

Red-headed woodpeckers are declining in other areas of Illinois, perhaps because of the loss of oak woodlands, which offer food in the form of acorns, the study said.

The stunning northern flicker, with its neatly polka-dot underbelly and wings lined in bright yellow, is increasing slightly in Chicagoland but declining elsewhere in Illinois.

The study relied on volunteer monitors  experienced birders who went out to parks and preserves to conduct counts according to detailed instructions. The monitors used eBird, an online database with a free app for recording and sharing sightings.

One of the things thats really exciting about this study is not just the results, but also the approach that was taken, really involving people in the community, and having them be part of the process, said Chris Wood, director of eBird and managing director of the Center for Avian Population Studies at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Not all of the news from the study was good. Species showing declines included the ovenbird, which relies on heavy leaf litter, and the beloved bobolink, known for its distinctive coloring and song, as well as its impressive annual migration. The black-and-white bird with a straw-colored head patch can fly up to 12,500 miles to and from South America in a single year.

A bobolink perches at Paul Douglas Forest Preserve near Hoffman Estates on July 15, 2022. Bobolinks were down 2.9% annually, according to the North American bird study. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)

Afternoon Briefing Daily Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox each afternoon. >

Bobolinks were down 2.9% annually, with Secker offering several possible explanations. A lot of restored grasslands in the area tend to be dominated by tall grasses, and bobolinks may prefer a mix of grasses and flowering plants. Its also possible that an international decline in insects, which is increasingly of concern to scientists, may be reducing the birds food supply.

Advertisement

Lastly, the problem may not be limited to this region  or even this country. Bobolinks are poisoned by farmers in Central and South America, where the birds feed on crops.

Still, the big takeaway is that Chicagolands investment in preserving and restoring natural areas is working well, Secker said.

Now he wants to use the information from the study to help local birds.

Were really trying to take the next steps to really collaborate more with land managers and make change happen, he said. Not just to present this data but to start asking the follow-up questions: the species is declining, what can we do about it?

That might include creating a score card to help determine priority birds for parks and preserves, Secker said, or offering a map of the places where high-priority birds are found.

nschoenberg@chicagotribune.com
NEW YORK (AP)  Shares of Twitter slid 11.3% on Monday in the first day of trading after billionaire Elon Musk said he was abandoning his $44 billion bid for the company and the social media platform vowed to challenge Musk in court to uphold the agreement.

Twitter is now preparing to sue Musk in Delaware, where the company is incorporated. While the outcome is uncertain, both sides are preparing for a long court battle.

Musk alleged Friday that Twitter has failed to provide enough information about the number of fake accounts on its service. However, Twitter said last month that it was making available to Musk a fire hose of raw data on hundreds of millions of daily tweets when he raised the issue again after announcing that he would buy the social media platform.

Twitter has said for years in regulatory filings that it believes about 5% of the accounts on the platform are fake. But on Monday, Musk continued to taunt the company, using Twitter, over what he has described as a lack of data. In addition, Musk is also alleging that Twitter broke the acquisition agreement when it fired two top managers and laid off a third of its talent-acquisition team.

Musk agreed to a $1 billion breakup fee as part of the buyout agreement, although it appears Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and the company are settling in for a legal fight to force the sale.

For Twitter this fiasco is a nightmare scenario, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, who follows the company, wrote Monday. He said the result would be an Everest-like uphill climb for Parag & Co. given concerns over employee morale and retention, advertiser concerns and other challenges.

The sell-off in Twitter shares pushed the share price below $34, far from the $54.20 that Musk agreed to pay for the company. That suggests Wall Street has very serious doubts that the deal will go forward.

Many experts in the legal and business sectors believe Twitter likely has a stronger case.

Morningstar analyst Ali Mogharabi noted that Twitter has described its estimate of fake and spam accounts for years in regulatory filings while explicitly noting that the number might not be accurate given the use of data samples and interpretation.

Given current market conditions, Mogharabi said, Twitter may also have a solid argument that the layoffs and firings of the past weeks represent an ordinary course of business.

Many technology firms have begun to control costs by reducing headcount and/or delaying adding employees, he said. The resignations of Twitter employees cannot with certainty be attributed to any change in how Twitter has operated since Musks offer was accepted by the board and shareholders.

Tech industry analysts say Musks interlude leaves behind a more vulnerable company with demoralized employees.
A utility worker marking gas lines with half-dollar-sized dots, instead of foot-long lines, because he didnt want to mar the aesthetics of the Old Market. A utility technician locating the gas shutoff valve on his way to the fire but locking the coordinates for it in his truck, causing a 70-minute delay in squelching the fire.

That bungled approach led a Douglas County District Court judge Thursday to find Omahas public utility, Metropolitan Utilities District, 50% responsible for the natural-gas-fueled fire that destroyed one of the Old Markets iconic buildings on Jan. 9, 2016.

Judge Timothy Burns ruled that MUD will pay half of the award the judge will determine at a later trial in which hell receive evidence on the extent of damages suffered by three plaintiffs: the Mercer family, founders of the Old Market; their restaurant, Ms Pub; and their insurance carrier, Columbia National Insurance Company.

Burns ruled the other half of the fault goes to North Central Services, a Minnesota contractor that was boring lines in the Old Market for Verizon Wireless. In the 6 years since the fire, 55 plaintiffs, including the buildings tenants, had filed 16 lawsuits against MUD and the other companies involved in the project. Lawsuits against the City of Omaha were tossed because it had no role in the project or fault in the resulting fire. Most of the other lawsuits were settled.

Burns decision to split the damages will no doubt be appealed. Burns spent most of his time on MUDs haphazard response  including using dots to mark gas lines. But in the end, the judge also ruled that NCS should have been more careful in its drilling, which involved horizontally boring under the sidewalks to install fiber-optic cables.

The Court acknowledges the destruction of the Mercer Building was a devastating loss to plaintiffs and Omaha as a whole, Burns wrote.

Thankfully, the judge said, no one died. But the judge ruled that the strike happened in part because MUD marked the gas lines differently than it had the rest of the gas lines in the Old Market area.

In a statement Thursday, Stephanie Mueller, vice president for customer experience, said MUDs legal team was reviewing the order and considering all options available to it at this time.

The District is deeply disappointed in the Courts findings including its allocation of fault, Mueller said.

In his 38-page ruling, which followed a two-week trial in February, the judge said he was troubled by a MUD workers testimony that he used two half-dollar sized dots  as opposed to full lines  to mark the sidewalk.

MUD employee Chris Sacco said he chose to use dots for aesthetic purposes so as not to overly mark the property in front of Ms Pub, Burns wrote. This explanation overlooks several other considerations, most notably the presence of an 18-inch blue line indicating a water utility that was marked the same day by MUD locator Travis Crawford  No other gas lines were marked with yellow dots.

A second locator, Ron Jankowski, drove the area five days before the fire. Traveling 15 mph, Jankowski testified he was able to see Saccos yellow dots on the sidewalk.

Therefore, he did not re-mark, re-locate or get out of his truck, in order to make sure the markings were sufficient, Burns wrote.

Employees of NCS were boring under the streets of the Old Market to place fiber-optic cables for Verizons network. In later interviews, the judge noted: All members of the NCS crew consistently testified that they did not see Saccos yellow dots, nor did they see the abandoned gas valve in the area.

While NCS workers did not see the yellow dots marked by MUD prior to excavating, members of NCS were able to identify the dots when shown a photo during later depositions, Burns noted.

The judge also ruled that MUD failed in its duty to fill in and properly mark a gas valve that was abandoned when MUD redid the gas lines into Ms Pub in 2009.

The failure to seal that old gas valve caused delay as workers spent more than an hour trying to shut off a line that was no longer operational and, thus, was not the cause of the fire.

According to the judges order:

NCS struck the gas line about 2:45 p.m. that frigid Saturday. The gas ignited and the basement of the Mercer Building exploded about 2:50 p.m.  raising the first floor approximately 2 to 3 feet and throwing one employee about 10 feet in the air. The buildings windows blew out.

Firefighters arrived about 2:54 p.m.

Prior to arriving at the explosion at 3:16 p.m., MUD technician Steve Osmera did locate the correct turn-off valve on his vehicles computer, Burns wrote. However after making contact with OFD, he realized he locked the piece of paper he had written the coordinates on in his truck.

In turn, Osmera and other MUD technicians believed the abandoned gas valve box on the sidewalk was the correct gas valve shut off to the line into the Mercer Building, Burns wrote. They ultimately had to break off the cover in order to turn the valve; however, the fire did not abate.

It took more than an hour before MUD, at 4:26 p.m., finally found the correct gas shut off valve to the service line running to the Mercer Building.

The correct gas valve was the same one Osmera initially located on his computer, Burns wrote.

This was approximately 90 minutes after the gas service line was initially struck by NCS and approximately 70 minutes after MUD employees arrived on the scene, Burns noted. The fire continued in the Mercer Building, ultimately reaching the fourth floor and causing the roof to collapse.

Burns wrote that the Nebraska Supreme Court has noted that utility companies have a heightened duty to warn and protect customers because of the inherent danger of energy sources like natural gas.

The Court finds MUD, as a provider of natural gas, has a heightened duty to exercise care commensurate with the risk posed by the nature of natural gas as a dangerous commodity, Burns wrote. This includes using reasonable care to locate and mark its lines; maintain its utilities, which includes properly abandoning its discontinued service lines  and responding to emergencies in a reasonable manner.

MUD had argued that it had used the proper color (yellow) and had marked the gas line satisfactorily. It noted that the Nebraska State Fire Marshal had approved the use of dots in an amendment to its regulations passed after the fire, in 2019.

The issue is not whether dots are permissible  in fact, it is undisputed that dots can be appropriate for marking utilities, Burns wrote. Rather the issue is whether the two yellow dots made by MUD clearly identified the utility lines at issue.  In this case, they did not.

Burns noted that other gas lines in the Old Market were marked with yellow lines, not dots.

Burns didnt fault MUD for its initial response time. The judge did take issue with the 70 minutes it took from the time it arrived to then turn off the gas. He noted the error of the MUD employee locking the coordinates to the active gas valve in his truck.

An Omaha fire captain testified that most utilities cut off ruptures within 10 to 15 minutes of an emergency, Buns said.

MUDs delay in turning off the gas was a serious breach of MUDs duty of care, Burns wrote.

The judge, however, did agree with MUDs argument that even if it had cut off the gas upon arrival at 3:16 p.m., the Mercer Building still would have been a total loss. By the time MUD arrived, Burns ruled, the fire had compromised the first floor, which means firefighters would not have been able to fight it from within.

Originally built in 1900, the Mercer Building was rebuilt  and Ms Pub reopened in 2017.

Attorneys for MUD also had argued that NCS should have seen existing blue lines on the same section of sidewalk and removed a section of the sidewalk to look underneath  a process called potholing. That would have revealed the gas lines.

But NCS said there was no reason to pothole the sidewalk for water lines, since water lines are 6 feet deep and the company was boring closer to 3 feet below the surface.

Ultimately, the judge held NCS 50% responsible because, he wrote, it had a duty to inspect the area carefully in order to ensure the boring path would not affect underground utilities.

And the judge held MUD 50% responsible for dotting a sidewalk instead of marking it.

Using dots for aesthetic purposes ... does not reflect the standard of care commensurate with MUDs duty, Burns wrote. MUD chose protecting appearance over preventing utility strikes.
The superintendent of Nebraskas largest school district received a raise and contract extension on Thursday.

The Omaha Public Schools board approved a 4.85% raise and an employment contract through June 30, 2025, for Cheryl Logan during its meeting.

It has been and continues to be the honor of my career to serve here, Logan said.

Logan will receive $329,113 as her base salary for the 2022-23 school year, according to a pay transparency notice. Last year her salary was $313,890.

District officials said Logans raise mirrors a 4.85% total compensation package increase teachers received for the 2022-23 school year. Starting teachers will receive an increase of $1,000 for the 2022-23 school year, bringing total salary to $44,000, according to the negotiated contract that was approved in 2021.

Logans contract features a $12,000 transportation stipend and a new provision that allows her to take up to 10 paid days of consulting leave per year. This will allow her to provide consulting services outside of OPS.

Five board members who were present supported raising Logans salary and extending her contract. Three members were absent for the vote: Spencer Head, Nick Thielen and Ricky Smith.

Nancy Kratky was the sole member who voted no.

Jane Erdenberger, board vice president, said she couldnt be more enthusiastic.

We are getting a great deal for our money, and I am excited to have Dr. Logan stay with us for another three years, she said.

Doug Kagan, president of Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom, said the organization doesnt agree with the boards decision because OPS taxpayers arent getting their moneys worth.

District mismanagement is apparent, he said.

One community member voiced opposition to Logans contract at the June 23 board meeting. Janet Kohll said the school boards approval would send the wrong message to teachers.

Many teachers dont feel that the top administration under the leadership of Cheryl Logan has their back. This is not the time for a contract extension and a raise for the superintendent, she said. (It tells) OPS teachers that the current state of affairs in OPS is not only acceptable, but is to be rewarded.

District officials announced teacher stipends in June to help the shortage, as well as plans intended to improve working conditions for the 2022-23 school year, such as starting routine home visits to improve student behavior.

Board member Margo Juarez said she voted yes because she wants Logans leadership in opening the districts new schools and addressing its issues.

I am concerned about all of these teachers who have left the district. But I have confidence that Dr. Logan will make a change and try to see how can we improve our district, she said. Thats why I want her to be here. I want her to fix the problems.
Protesters stop motorists from patronizing the BP gas station during a Justice for Jailyn Logan-Bledsoe rally at the BP gas station in Oak Park at 100 Chicago Ave. on June 25, 2022. (Karie Angell Luc/for Pioneer Press)

A brother and sister from Chicago are facing charges in the shooting death of 18-year-old Jailyn Logan-Bledsoe, fatally shot during a robbery and carjacking in Oak Park last month, officials said.

Logan-Bledsoe, a recent graduate of Oak Park-River Forest High School, was remembered as a fierce advocate and organizer for her work in the community.

Advertisement

Kenneth Elliott, 21, and his 17-year-old sister, Adrianna Vanzant, were taken into custody Thursday in Chicago and have been charged with first-degree murder, according a statement posted on the village of Oak Parks website.

Though Vanzant is a minor, she was charged as an adult given the nature of the crime, according to the site.

Advertisement

Police say Elliott and Vanzant were armed with handguns when they approached Logan-Bledsoe from behind and opened fire around 1:50 a.m. June 22 in a gas station parking lot at 100 Chicago Ave.

Logan-Bledsoe was shot in the neck and died a short while later, officials said.

Vanzant fled the scene in Logan-Bledsoes vehicle while Elliott fled in a separate vehicle, police said. Logan-Bledsoes vehicle was later recovered in the 200 block of North Kilbourn Avenue in Chicago, police said.

Elliott, of the 1700 block of North Linder Avenue, was scheduled to appear Friday morning in the 4th Municipal District Court in Maywood.

Afternoon Briefing Daily Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox each afternoon. >

Vanzant, of the 900 block of North Monticello Avenue, was transferred to the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center and was expected to appear in bond court via Zoom on Friday.

Logan-Bledsoe was remembered by some in the Oak Park area as a fierce advocate and organizer for her work in the community as well as her brilliance and confidence.

She was a very powerful, brilliant young woman that definitely cared deeply about her community, said Cynthia Brito, the teens adviser at the Revolutionary Oak Park Youth Action League, a youth-led community organization that has advocated for racial equality.

Logan-Bledsoe was in the Class of 2022 at OPRF High School, which had its commencement on May 28.

Advertisement

Logan-Bledsoe was planning to attend college in Miami and pursue a career in tech, according to Brito.

In addition to her work with ROYAL, which centered around combating police violence, LGBTQ issues and more, Logan-Bledsoe chaired the youth committee for the NAACP.

Brito said ROYAL would be advocating for the BP gas station to close earlier  around 11 p.m.  but emphasized that in addition to addressing the immediate safety concerns posed by the shooting and related incidents, community leaders and members should consider other factors that could lead to violence.
McLean County Art Center to exhibit 'The Painter's Pedagogy' by Harold Gregor

BLOOMINGTON  McLean County Arts Center will showcase the work of Harold Gregor in a new exhibit, "The Painter's Pedagogy," along with 50 of his students.

The exhibit will open with a free reception at MCAC on Friday, July 15 at 5 p.m.

The exhibit will juxtapose Gregor's work and his students to further explore his conceptual framework and spark discussion on Gregor's influence on contemporary art. Gregor is often referred to the "Dean of the Landscape School" and his unique perspective and colorful interpretation of the midwestern landscape revolutionized landscape painting.

"Much of our understanding of contemporary landscape painting, especially of Midwest imagery, is due to his teaching and his legacy as an exhibiting professional artist," said McLean County Arts Center Executive Director Doug Johnson, one of Gregor's students at ISU, in a news release.

Gregor was Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Illinois State University. He also worked closely alongside Harold Boyd and Ken Holder during his tenure and exhibited nationally in New York, Chicago and Santa Fe. Gregor's influence as a professor of painting and drawing can be seen in the work of many of his students, including Nicolas Africano, Eric Rohmann and Woonsook Kim.

Gregor earned a B.S. from Wayne State University, an M.S. from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. from Ohio State University where he studied with Holt Sherman. He served his country in the United States Army during the Korean War. His long career as a professor of painting and art history included positions at San Diego State University, Purdue University and Chapman College before joining the faculty at Illinois State University in 1970.

Gregor's exhibit will be available through Aug. 26 and is accessible to everyone.

Visit haroldgregor.art or mcac.org for more information.
BLOOMINGTON  Volunteers clamored about in the basement of Eastview Christian Church on a rainy Friday, laughing and packing 1,000 "blessing bags" filled with toiletries, sanitizer, face masks and bandages for homeless veterans.

Fourteen-year-old Jakhil Jackson, who founded Project I Am in 2016 when he was 8 years old, came from Chicago to Bloomington to partner with the Jule Foundation, led by Andre Hursey. Hursey works with teens in Bloomington-Normal on what he calls "teen enrichment." He started the foundation seven years ago to expose local youth to African American culture, mentorship and to build professional skills.

Hursey said giving back is part of the teens' growth process. "People are pouring (goodness) into you," he said. "It's important to pour into others."

Volunteers made an assembly line and raced each other to see who could fill bags the fastest. The bags were then packed into boxes for delivery to the Bloomington Veterans Affairs Clinic.

According to its website, Project I Am has raised over $275,000 for the homeless. The blessing bags are a major part of this and contain basic items that people without housing might not have readily available.

Chase Frech, part of the Jule Foundation, said partnering with Jackson is "a great opportunity to help other people."

One young member of the foundation, Justin Dellamy, age 11, said, "I wanted to help bless other people."

Jackson's grandmother, Phyllis Smith, who goes by Miss GG, said they usually work with VA hospitals in Chicago. "(We) realize there are veterans here in Bloomington, too, so we decided to make some bags for them."

Hursey said he is grateful that Jackson and his family made the trip to help.

"For (Jackson) and his mother and his grandmother to come to Bloomington which is two, two and a half hours, to work with Jule Foundation," he said, "we just really appreciate it."

Jackson said he enjoys helping organizations around the state, not just in Chicago.

"Even though it's still in the same state," he said, "Bloomington is so far from Chicago. So it's a whole different community out here. It's really cool to help other people from different places."

Jackson credited his grandmother for the partnership.

"That has to do with my GG," he said with a grin. "She's a very good communicator and networker. She knows how to find the right organizations to work with."

Hursey and Jackson met through The Steve & Marjorie Harvey Foundation. "Without that organization, we probably wouldn't have been able to make this happen today," Hursey said.

The two got acquainted during a remote mentorship session.

"I got to see this young man do some phenomenal things," Hursey said, pointing at Jackson. "We made a connection." Then, with a smile, he added, "I guess kudos go back to the GG."
When the new school year starts this fall, whether Illinois college students and faculty will be surrounded by vaccinated classmates and colleagues will largely depend on where they are enrolled.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday announced an end to a statewide COVID-19 vaccine mandate for college students and faculty, essentially leaving the policy up to individual schools. Some local colleges and universities were still grappling with the decision later in the week, while others came down on opposite sides.

Pritzker announced the move  along with other policy changes meant to carefully unwind COVID-19 policies and mandates that have been in place throughout the pandemic  despite growing concerns about new coronavirus variants that appear more able to evade immunity.

Illinois State University and Heartland Community College both changed their policies in light of the new executive order. Most students and employees who are not vaccinated no longer need to submit weekly tests.

However, those who work in healthcare or prekindergarten-12 education must still submit weekly COVID tests if they are not vaccinated, including the ISU Laboratory Schools and the Child Development Lab at Heartland. Students and employees who work in healthcare settings at both schools also still need to test weekly.

Testing has also changed for both campuses. Heartland has closed its SHIELD testing after funding ended for it, spokesman Steve Fast said. ISU also ended its SHIELD testing earlier this month as the state reduced the program, it said in its July 7 COVID update.

Heartland is referring students and employees to local testing resources, as well as the at-home tests available through the federal government. ISU has self-administered antigen testing on campus at least through July 29. Its latest COVID update said it would provide more information about testing options after that date in coming weeks.

Illinois Wesleyan University had already implemented a stronger requirement for vaccination that the other higher education institutions in Bloomington-Normal. It does not plan to change its COVID policies in light of the latest executive order, IWU officials said.

Students are required to be not only vaccinated but also receive a booster ahead of fall semester unless they receive a medical or religious exemption. Students needed to be vaccinated or exempted to register for spring 2022 classes. Employees are encouraged but not required to receive a booster but are required to test weekly if they are not vaccinated.

As of late June, IWU did not plan to require weekly testing for non-vaccinated or boosted students in the fall, it said in its Fall 2022 COVID FAQ. That may change based on on-campus transmission and state requirements.

Northwestern University plans to push forward with its already announced vaccine mandate for the upcoming academic year, but will continue to adapt (their) own policies and protocols following the advice of public health and (their) own medical experts, according to a university spokesperson.

This was a relief to Zoe Lewis, a rising sophomore at the university.

People dont mask on campus, like they should  especially in classes, Lewis said. People are in econ classes with 300-person lectures. And to have the possibility of not only people in there not being masked, but people in there not having vaccines on top of it, is going to cause widespread havoc in communities with these colleges.

Lewis has asthma and stressed how critical vaccine mandates can be for the health of immunocompromised students on college campuses. Despite Northwesterns decision to continue with its vaccine mandate, Lewis noted a sense of anxiety over returning to Northwesterns campus without a mask mandate.

Northwestern continues to strongly recommend that its affiliates wear masks in spaces where distancing is not possible when transmission levels are elevated.

Not having mask mandates or vaccine mandates typically ... would be fine for college students because typically they are the ones least affected by it, but its extremely isolating to any immunocompromised students who have no other choice but to protect themselves and it makes students not able to join social activities, class activities, be ready to go to in person things, she said.

Meanwhile, Northern Illinois University will not be requiring the vaccine for the upcoming school year, but strongly encourages students and faculty and staff members to be vaccinated, a university spokesperson said.

The University of Illinois system hadnt made a decision yet on Thursday regarding the vaccine policy on its three campuses, saying in a statement that it is still evaluating how the updated COVID-19-mitigation requirements will impact our three universities.

The health and well being of the people on our campuses will drive our decisions, the statement read.

Among schools that have not yet announced a policy were the University of Chicago and DePaul University, which said it was still considering its plans for the upcoming school year.

Columbia College in Chicago plans to continue to require students and faculty members to be vaccinated, said Lambrini Lukidis, a spokesperson for the college.

I think weve been a little bit stricter with some of our COVID mitigations, Lukidis said.

Part of what drives the decision, she said, is the type of instruction at Columbia College, which is primarily theater, music and dance and other arts.

We feel that having the vaccine is an added precaution for our campus community, she said.

Loyola University and Roosevelt University also said officials plan to require vaccines for students, faculty and staff during the upcoming year.

Pritzkers tweaks to pandemic rules come in the wake of complaints and lawsuits by conservatives claiming the governor overstepped his authority. Many of the legal challenges to the rules were filed by attorney Thomas DeVore, who is now the Republican nominee for attorney general, though all of those lawsuits have ultimately been unsuccessful.

Connor Wood contributed to this story.
During a sometimes-fiery interview last week, House Speaker Chris Welch pledged to tie House Republican candidates to the far-right top of their ticket and called House Republican Leader Jim Durkin a failed leader. A Durkin spokesperson, in turn, called Welch unhinged.

It started when I asked Welch if he thought gun law reform would play a major role in the fall campaign, which is basically just around the corner.

I think Democrats, particularly Democrats in Illinois, vastly differ from Republicans in Illinois on some major issue, Welch said. Guns is one of them. We have a guy that's running for governor right now, who's leading the Republican ticket [state Sen. Darren Bailey], that is probably the most pro-Second Amendment legislator the state has ever had -- certainly the most pro-Second Amendment candidate for governor we've ever had. And looking at who's won races on the Republican side, we have a lot of folks who want to keep dangerous weapons on the streets and make it more difficult to live in a lot of our communities.

"We have a candidate for governor who does not believe in a woman's right to choose. He believes that even in the case of rape, and said that a woman wouldn't have a right to an abortion. These are issues that are ripe to be discussed in the fall campaign.

Bailey bragged often during the Republican gubernatorial primary campaign that he was the most pro-gun state legislator and candidate for governor. He also said on the campaign trail that he was against all abortion except to save the life of the mother. Hes tried to walk that back since then by saying hes not for bans, but the damage has been done and his public (and recorded) comments are fair game.

Told that he sounded eager to pair Republican candidates with the top of their ticket, Welch said, The top of their ticket is very much a reflection of the bottom of their ticket. A lot of right-wing extremists are their candidates for office. And these are some very important issues that voters are going to have to choose between. We can continue to move Illinois forward. We can be a safe haven for women when it comes to reproductive health. We can be a state that leads when it comes to common sense gun laws, or we can go back. I believe that people in the state don't want to go back. We're going to tell them in November, We won't go back.

Later in the interview, which ranged over a variety of topics, I returned to the topic about campaigns. House Republican Leader Jim Durkin has often demanded that Welch take specific actions, and the two have frequently sparred. So, I asked Speaker Welch, did he believe Leader Durkin should speak out about Republican gubernatorial nominee Darren Bailey?

I think the House Republican leader is very hypocritical, Welch said. He's been a hypocrite, especially since I've become Speaker. He says one thing but does another very often. He's yet to speak out against Donald Trump. He's yet to speak out against this extreme Supreme Court. He's yet to speak out against Darren Bailey.

"He's a failed leader. And I think Jim Durkin is nothing like the Jim Durkin I met 20-plus years ago. He's a failed leader. And he should speak out against extreme, bad politicians like Donald Trump and Darren Bailey.

I asked Durkins office for a response. Speaker Welch sounds unhinged, said Durkin spokesperson Rachel Bold. He would do the institution a favor by reflecting on his own behavior and telling us how he has grown in the last 20 years. His comments are rich coming from a guy who defended Public Official A's corruption for over a decade. Speaker Welch can't and won't comment about the real issue, Democratic corruption, all because he is indebted to the 13th Ward.

In case youve been living under a rock, Public Official A is a reference to former House Speaker and current 13th Ward Democratic Committeeperson Michael Madigan, who was given that moniker by federal prosecutors in the indictment of four of his cohorts.

Durkin has reportedly been firming up his support within his own caucus since several unfavorable primary results caused at least one member to start calling around about a possible challenge. But if Durkin manages to knock the House Democrats off their super majority pedestal this November, the two leaders will have to somehow find a way to work together.
People walk by the Walter Athletics Center at Northwestern University on July 14, 2022, in Evanston. Northwestern is not dropping its vaccine requirement, while other schools will no longer require COVID-19 vaccination. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

When the new school year starts this fall, whether Illinois college students and faculty will be surrounded by vaccinated classmates and colleagues will largely depend on where they are enrolled.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday announced an end to a statewide COVID-19 vaccine mandate for college students and faculty, essentially leaving the policy up to individual schools. On Thursday, some local colleges and universities were still grappling with the decision, while others came down on opposite sides.

Advertisement

Pritzker announced the move  along with other policy changes meant to carefully unwind COVID-19 policies and mandates that have been in place throughout the pandemic  despite growing concerns about new coronavirus variants that appear more able to evade immunity.

[ The virus is not done with us yet: New COVID-19 variants better evade antibodies, doctors say ]

Northwestern University plans to push forward with its already announced vaccine mandate for the upcoming academic year, but will continue to adapt (their) own policies and protocols following the advice of public health and (their) own medical experts, according to a university spokesperson.

Advertisement

This was a relief to Zoe Lewis, a rising sophomore at the university.

People dont mask on campus, like they should  especially in classes, Lewis said. People are in econ classes with 300-person lectures. And to have the possibility of not only people in there not being masked, but people in there not having vaccines on top of it, is going to cause widespread havoc in communities with these colleges.

Lewis has asthma and stressed how critical vaccine mandates can be for the health of immunocompromised students on college campuses. Despite Northwesterns decision to continue with its vaccine mandate, Lewis noted a sense of anxiety over returning to Northwesterns campus without a mask mandate.

Rising sophomore Zoe Lewis sits at her desk in The Garage shared workspace at Northwestern University in Evanston on July 14, 2022. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

Northwestern continues to strongly recommend that its affiliates wear masks in spaces where distancing is not possible when transmission levels are elevated.

Not having mask mandates or vaccine mandates typically ... would be fine for college students because typically they are the ones least affected by it, but its extremely isolating to any immunocompromised students who have no other choice but to protect themselves and it makes students not able to join social activities, class activities, be ready to go to in person things, she said.

Meanwhile, Northern Illinois University will not be requiring the vaccine for the upcoming school year, but strongly encourages students and faculty and staff members to be vaccinated, a university spokesperson said.

The University of Illinois system hadnt made a decision yet on Thursday regarding the vaccine policy on its three campuses, saying in a statement that it is still evaluating how the updated COVID-19-mitigation requirements will impact our three universities.

The health and well being of the people on our campuses will drive our decisions, the statement read.

Advertisement

Afternoon Briefing Daily Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox each afternoon. >

Among schools that have not yet announced a policy were the University of Chicago and DePaul University, which said it was still considering its plans for the upcoming school year.

Columbia College in Chicago plans to continue to require students and faculty members to be vaccinated, said Lambrini Lukidis, a spokesperson for the college.

I think weve been a little bit stricter with some of our COVID mitigations, Lukidis said.

Part of what drives the decision, she said, is the type of instruction at Columbia College, which is primarily theater, music and dance and other arts.

We feel that having the vaccine is an added precaution for our campus community, she said.

Loyola University and Roosevelt University also said officials plan to require vaccines for students, faculty and staff during the upcoming year.

Advertisement

Pritzkers tweaks to pandemic rules come in the wake of complaints and lawsuits by conservatives claiming the governor overstepped his authority. Many of the legal challenges to the rules were filed by attorney Thomas DeVore, who is now the Republican nominee for attorney general, though all of those lawsuits have ultimately been unsuccessful.
The Bank of Ghana is to have the first right of refusal for the purchase of all gold mined in Ghana as part of measures to stabilize the countrys currency and ensure macroeconomic stability, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia has disclosed.



Government is also working to help acquire the necessary certification for refineries in the country as well as help set up more, Dr Bawumia stated on Thursday, July 14, 2022.



Speaking at the launch of a collaboration between the Accra Business School and South East Technological University, Ireland Vice President Bawumia said Government has been and will continue to implement forward-looking measures to ensure the country is not buffeted unnecessarily by external economic shocks as is occurring right now across the world, leading to the country engaging the International Monetary Fund for balance of payments assistance.



One of the key measures, the Vice President emphasized is the right of first refusal for the purchase, at world market prices, of all gold mined in the country to build up the countrys gold reserves to ensure stability of the currency.



Notwithstanding being one of the big gold producers in the world, Ghanas reserves of gold at the central bank at the end of 2021 was only 8.7 kilograms. It was against this background that the Bank of Ghana started a Gold purchase program from gold producers to build up its foreign exchange reserves.



To enhance this programme, Government will implement a new policy (which is already backed by law) under which the central bank (Bank of Ghana) will have first right of refusal for all gold mined in Ghana. The central bank will purchase the gold at world market prices and the mining companies will export the portion that is not purchased by the Bank of Ghana.



Ultimately, once we accumulate enough gold, future borrowing and our currency can be backed by gold. This will stabilize the cedi long term, Dr Bawumia explained.



Ghana must also increase the benefits she accrues from the mining of her minerals through value-addition, the Vice President insisted, hence the recent commissioning of a National Assay Lab by the Precious Minerals Marketing Company and the ongoing efforts to acquire international certification for existing refineries.



We must also deepen our industrialization through value addition to gold. Even though Ghana has two gold refineries, none has London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) certification. This limits our full participation in the gold value chain. We will urgently work towards LBMA certification for our refineries in the next few years.



Value addition to minerals such as lithium and bauxite will similarly be pursued in addition to the One District One Factory (1D1F) programme and the continued implementation of the automotive sector policy.



Accra Business School



Commending the leadership of the Accra Business School for rolling out programmes designed to meet the needs of todays Ghana, Dr Bawumia maintained that the introduction of Information Technology into classrooms is a necessity for the government's digitalisation agenda.



It is the perfect match for knowledge-seekers everywhere as the world is brought to them with concision and wit; an opportunity to learn the language of the digital future and the digital economy.



Information Technology education will help us in powering digital life by rethinking competition, capitalism and the roots of collaboration between the public and private sectors The widespread adoption of ICT can only be achieved through education. However, none of this can be achieved without a strong strategic centre, making better use of data, and building capability across the state's digitalisation agenda.



The role of IT education in an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world transcends geographical boundaries, economies, and sectors, he emphasised.



In this era of global integration, ICT becomes indispensable and embedded in everyday activities. The promises it offers seem limitless. It can provide governments, businesses, and citizens with access to relevant information and allow them to communicate to make informed decisions and enable more efficient processes and services to address various economic, social, financial, and educational needs.

Source: Office of Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Ghana has been to the International Monetary Fund seventeen times since Independence for financial aid.



Ghana has also never been in a better place to receive this financial aid without any long-term repercussions.



At first, glance, hearing the phrase IMF sends shivers down the spine of Ghanaians, and justifiably so.



Successive governments have entered the program and exited with fanfare, only to let the gains evaporate in a short time due to a return to the very practices that triggered going to the fund in the first place.



Ghana is fortunate in 2022 that despite a crippling global pandemic and an increasingly unending war in Ukraine, there are numerous indicators which signal hope that an IMF program would have lasting gains this time.



Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia outlined these during a speech at the launch of the Accra Business Schools new IT program held Thursday, June 14th, 2022.



Speaking at the launch, the Vice President listed the programs that place Ghana on a far better footing now than it has ever been and signal hope for the future.



After each IMF program, the underlying system and structure of the economy has remained the same, Bawumia said, adding a slew of policies and interventions Ghana did not have for any of our past trips to the monetary fund.



Ghana did not have a national id card, no functional national digital property address systeminefficiency, bureaucracy and bribery at the port and in delivery of government services, no digitisation at the passport office, DVLA, births and deaths .., less than 4% of the population had a tax identification numberthere were no drones to deliver medical suppliesand no free senior high school education, Bawumia rattled.



The compounding effects of these policies, alongside more fiscal responsibility on the part of the government should, in theory, help Ghana recover very well from the program's effects.



Dr Bawumia further spoke on a necessary cut to spending, increase in revenue mobilisation and curtailment of concessionary borrowing moves on the part of the government.



A further important step is to see the central bank, the Bank of Ghana, have a right of first refusal to purchase any gold mined in Ghana, a move to shore up its reserves back to acceptable levels.



All these add up to a promising future outlook despite the difficult economic conditions triggered by external factors  the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war  which Ghanaians are currently feeling.



Theres never a right time to go to the IMF- its like a trip to the doctor and theres really no good time for a trip to the doctor.



However, if we have to go, this might very well be the best time  a time in our history when we have enough policies in place to cushion the effects and enable consolidation of those gains going forward.



None of the previous governments committed a sin in the 17 times we went to the IMF, it was more in the fact that the country was allowed to deteriorate again after the program.



Ultimately, thats what this government would be judged on and not going to the IMF because weve seen that movie many times.

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
The Kenyan government has rolled out a fresh round of fuel subsidies in a bid to prevent a rise in prices at the pump.



A litre of petrol will remain at the current price despite the recent rise in the cost of oil, eliminating fears of another hike as Kenyans grapple with the rising cost of other essential goods.



The government had earlier hinted that it could remove the subsidy ahead of its monthly review.



In June, the authorities had described the existing fuel subsidy as "unsustainable".



However, there was a last-minute change of heart and the government authorised the spending of some $141m (120m) to retain current retail fuel prices for another 30 days.



Without the subsidy, a litre of petrol in the Kenyan capital Nairobi would have hit $1.80. At the moment, it costs $1.34.



Over the last year, Kenya has spent over $860m to subsidise fuel in the face of rising prices in global market.

Source: BBC









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
The World Health Organization is warning that Africa is facing a growing risk of outbreaks of diseases that spread from animals to people.



It says these zoonotic outbreaks have increased by more than 60% over the last decade with a large spike recorded since 2019.



Most of the cases have involved the Ebola virus, other viral haemorrhagic diseases, dengue fever, anthrax and monkeypox.



The WHO's Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said there was a need to act now to stop Africa becoming a hotspot for emerging infectious diseases.



The WHO says among the reasons behind the spread of these diseases are rapid population growth, increased demand for food derived from animals and encroachment on wildlife habitats.





#Africa  is facing a growing risk of outbreaks caused by zoonotic pathogens.



There has been a 63% increase in the number of zoonotic outbreaks in the region in the decade from 2012-2022 compared to 2001-2011, according to a @WHO analysis  https://t.co/b6mnJVKydw pic.twitter.com/V6QEPSSSQB  WHO African Region (@WHOAFRO) July 14, 2022

Source: BBC









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, while speaking at the launch of two new high-level information technology programmes at the Accra Business School at Baatsona in Accra, declared his choice of the Ghana Card over road interchanges in the countrys quest for development.



According to him, Ghanaians do not fully appreciate the digitalisation drive by the government but the government is poised to pursue the agenda as a vehicle to transform the economy.



He said the government has been able to solve many problems that have faced Ghanaians through digitalisation.



Citing the roll-out of a National Identification System, the Ghana Card, Dr. Bawumia said its relevance cannot be overemphasized.



Dr Bawumia noted that the national identity card, also known as Ghana Card, is more beneficial than the numerous interchanges constructed across the country.



Some of the problems go back to independence. We inherited a problem of no unique national identification system. This has been with us since independence. We had implemented a national identification system for the Ghana Card. Today, we have 16 million Ghanaians with unique identities, and that is a major transformation. A lot of people sometimes do not appreciate its impact.



If you gave me 1000 interchanges and the Ghana Card, I would choose the Ghana Card because it has more impact, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia said.



He explained further that the Ghana card has made life simpler, for instance, with the Ghana card, students can now access loans without guarantors.



Ghana card



President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's administration relaunched the Ghana Card registration on Friday, September 15, 2017.



The card according to the government will serve as a unique identifier for both resident and non-resident Ghanaians as well permanently resident foreign nationals.



Currently, the card serves as an electronic passport and SSNIT card with the Bank of Ghana also announcing that the card will be the only approved card for all bank transactions in the country.



The National Communication Authority (NCA), on the other hand, has asked citizens to re-register their SIM Cards with their Ghana Cards.



Ghana Card as E-passport



Dr Bawumia recently announced that the roll-out of the Ghana Card fully met the requirements for an E-passport, despite a rejection by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).



This claim was shot down by Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, Foreign Affairs Minister.



She told Parliamentarians that the processes for the acceptance of the Ghana card as a source document for international travel have not been finalised yet.







Source: ghanaweb.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
The Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin has stated that Parliament is working towards the creation of a Museum and an Archival Department to enable the institution to preserve and share with citizens, relics of the Legislature.



Speaker Bagbin said this when he received three hundred copies of a supply chain application book from the Author, Professor Douglas Boateng.



The Rt. Hon speaker bemoaned the fact that reading culture among the youth is at an all-time low.



He referred to Ghanaian scholars, who in the past stood shoulder to shoulder with world leaders and said this was only made possible because they took knowledge acquisition very seriously.



Speaker Bagbin urged Members of Parliament to read more, in order to improve their knowledge in new trends of politics and parliamentary practices.



The Deputy Minority Chief Whip, Ahmed Ibrahim, emphasized the need for libraries in the country to be digitalized, in line with what pertains in other parts of the world.



He said, this need is underscored by the fact most of the new knowledge that is available on academic subjects can be found online and books that cannot be found in large quantities for distribution could easily be uploaded by the libraries for anyone interested in them.



The Deputy Majority Chief Whip, Hon. Habib, speaking in a similar vein, said books should be made more easily available for those who need them.



He expressed his appreciation for the supply chain principle and described how those principles, when applied in economics and politics enhance efficiency.



The author and donor of the book to Parliament, Professor Douglas Boateng, indicated that over fifty thousand copies of the book have been supplied to institutions worldwide, including Harvard university.



He said application of the supply chain principles results in efficiency and incremental gains, as policy makers are able to plan in stages and execute these plans, knowing and appreciating the effect of one stage on the other.



He indicated that the book, which is in English and has a French version, will soon be uploaded on an APP that will be launched in August.





Source: paliament









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
Sri Lanka's prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has been sworn in as acting president as the country reels from an economic crisis and unrest.



He replaces Gotabaya Rajapaksa who fled to Singapore after unprecedented mass protests which saw demonstrators overrun the presidential palace.



Protesters defied a curfew to celebrate his resignation during the night.



Sri Lanka is experiencing economic chaos as it faces an acute shortage of food, fuel and other basic supplies.



The process of parliament electing a new president will begin on Saturday, with MPs likely to take a vote in a week's time.



Given the governing party has a majority, MPs are thought likely to back Mr Wickremesinghe, who has close links with the Rajapaksa family.



But whether Sri Lanka's public would accept this is another matter, because Mr Wickremesinghe's resignation as PM was a key demand of protestors.



Earlier this week, crowds stormed the former prime minister's compound, clashing with security forces.



A demonstrator. Manuri Pabasari, told the BBC at the time that a protest rally against Ranil Wickremesinghe was expected in the coming days.



"He has no people's mandate [and] is a well-known Rajapaksa supporter," she added. "I mean the new president and the new prime minister should be not a Rajapaksa supporter."



The governor of Sri Lanka's central bank, Nandalal Weerasinghe, has warned the country may shut down if no stable government is formed soon.



There was a "lot of uncertainty" over whether enough foreign exchange can be found to pay for essential petroleum, he told the BBC's Newsnight programme, and progress on getting an international bailout package depended on having a stable administration.



Meanwhile, Singapore says the ousted president Gotabaya Rajapaksa did not ask for political asylum when he arrived there.



The former president, who arrived with his wife and two bodyguards, no longer has legal immunity as a head of state and his position is now more precarious as he tries to find a safe country to shelter in.



He is expected to stay in Singapore for some time before possibly moving to the United Arab Emirates, Sri Lankan security sources told AFP news agency.

Source: BBC









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
An attempt by some driver unions to maliciously increase public transport fares without the consent of the main union, GPRTU and the Ghana Road Transport Coordinating Council (GRTCC), who per the administrative arrangement, have the mandate to negotiate public transport fares on behalf of all driver unions, has hit a snag.



The GPRTU, together with some driver unions, met on Monday, July 10, 2022, to discuss the way forward for their business in the midst of the challenges confronting the country.



At the said meeting, one key issue  the re-introduction of toll booth levy, this web portal understands, came up for thorough discussion.



However, moments after the said meeting, some driver unions, notably, True Drivers Union, Ghana Committed Drivers Union, and Concerned Drivers Union, issued statements purporting to trigger an increase in public transport fares.



Following the public statements, the GPRTU and the Ghana Committed Drivers Association say they are not in harmony with the plans by these driver unions.



In a join statements issued in Accra on Wednesday, July 13, 2022, the GPRTU and the GRTCC described as malicious, plans by the True Drivers Union, Concerned Drivers Union, and the Ghana Committed Drivers Association, to increase public transport fares.



The Ghana Committed Drivers Association also in a statement issued on Wednesday, condemned that action of the driver unions and distanced themselves from any purported to increase public fares.



According to the GPRTU, GRTCC and the Ghana Committed Drivers Association, the intended action by the driver unions is not only targeted at creating disaffection within the driver unions and or transport operators but confusion among the general public.



For the records, we, Ghana Committed Drivers Association work hand-in-hand with the GPRTU, and the Ghana Road Transport Coordinating Council (GRTCC), the only recognized mandated bodies, to negotiate public transport fares on behalf of all transport unions, to increase public transport fares or otherwise. We, therefore, urge the general public to treat any purported talks or plans to increase transport fares with the contempt that it deserves, noted the Chairman of the Ghana Committed Drivers Association, Charles Danso, in a statement issued on Wednesday, July 13, 2022.



The GPRTU and GRTCC also in a joint statement signed by the GPRTU General Secretary, Godfred Abulbire, and released in Accra on Wednesday, July 13, 2022, said we want to state without any equivocation and again in unambiguous terms that not only is the statement a palpable false but also malicious and targeted to increase disaffection and confusion with the driver unions. We urge the various driver unions, the commuting and the general public to disregard any such statement and treat it with the contempt that it deserves.

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
The Deputy Ranking Member on Parliaments Education Committee, Dr. Clement Apaak, has condemned the Akufo-Addo government for the poor food it feeds students of the various basic schools across the country.



He said using 97 pesewas to feed each student under the School Feeding Programme was not the best and needed to be adjusted upward.



How can you be feeding the future leaders of this nation this way?Even the cat at the presidents house, can you feed them with 97 pesewas? he fumed.



The Academic who is also the MP for Builsa South Constituency in the Upper East Region said the government ought to feed the students well since it had received funds to that effect.



SHS Food Shortages



Apaaks concerns was in reaction to the food shortage in Senior High Schools across the country, which he said could have been avoided if the government meant well.



Government has not been able to supply food for most of the Senior High Schools for sometime now a situation which has forced students to feed on the little they have.



In barely 24 hours, Heads of second-cycle schools in the Eastern Region are likely to push for a shutdown over the lack the food in the schools.



While other schools are anxiously waiting for food from suppliers for days and contemplating a shutdown in the Ashanti Region, the schools in the Upper West Region are yet to receive the food items promised by the Ministry of Education.



Dr Apaak, who said on Gumbe Show on TV XYZ that he has witnessed the terrible situation in some schools, also lambasted the Akufo-Addo government for the hunger among students in the hundreds of schools across the country.



He said GHS0.97 the government has allocated to each pupil per day was cruel and insufficient.



Is what they are eating not poison? whats the quality? whats the quantity? the Legislator quizzed.



He commended the parents and teachers who have come out to raise concerns about the food shortage in the second-cycle institutions across the country.



Parents and the headmasters, as you have started speaking, dont go back to sleep, he stated and indicated that parliament had approved about 2.3 billion cedis to fund the flagship programme.



The money must be put to work and let the students eat well, he lamented.



Calls For Review of Free SHS



Meanwhile, Educationist, Prof Ivan Addae Mensah has urged the government to urgently decentralize food supply to schools.



People always talk of the possibility of heads being corrupted. Of course there may be a few cases but the majority of heads are very honest. They care about the school children, he said in an interview with Joy News.



In his view, if the Free Senior High School programme is not reviewed to allow some parents pay fees, the situation will only get worse.





Source: ghanaweb.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
The Atewa forest reserve has been a subject of litigation following the decision by the government of Ghana to mine bauxite in the critical watershed and biodiversity hub located in the Eastern Region of the country.



But, even before the case could fully go on trial between some environmental groups and the government at the Accra High Court, the Minerals Commission has granted a license to Vimetco Ghana Bauxite Ltd, to do prospecting in the forest reserve.



The license which was published on the website of the Minerals Commission is set to expire in February 2025.



Many people in the locality are however wondering why the government is bent on pushing for mining in the forest reserve, especially when the case is in court.



Broken promise



At the beginning of this year, the government of Ghana announced a temporal ban on all forms of prospecting activities within forest reserves across the country as it tackles illegal mining.



The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, issued the order.



A statement released by the minister said The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources hereby directs persons and/or companies engaged in reconnaissance and/or prospecting in Forest Reserves, with or without legal authorization, to suspend such activities until further notice,



The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, accordingly, hereby gives persons and/or companies engaged in reconnaissance and/or prospecting in Forest Reserves, seven (7) days from the date of the publication of this notice, to cease their operations and evacuate their equipment accordingly.



Furthermore, the Minerals Commission has been directed not to accept, process and/or recommend the grant, including renewal and/or extension of reconnaissance and prospecting licences in Forest Reserves.



The directive by the Minister followed a National Consultative Dialogue on Small Scale Mining which was dominated by illegal mining and its harmful impact on the environment.



Among the resolutions adopted at the dialogue was a charge to the government to take steps to strictly apply laws and sanctions to all persons who infringe the law, irrespective of political colour or socio-economic status or class.



Speaking to ghenvironment.com in an interview, Kofi Yeboah, a resident of Sagyimase in the East Akim District described as a broken promise the issuance of license to Vimetco Ghana Bauxite Ltd by the government to do prospecting in the forest reserve.



Here is a government that is saying that, there should be no prospecting in any of the forest reserves in the country, so what happens to the license given Vimetco Ghana Bauxite Ltd to do prospecting in this valuable Atewa forest reserve. This is a broken promise and we shall resist any form of mining in this forest.



He asked further Does it also means that, the Ministry lied by going ahead to approve a prospecting for mineral in protected forest even when the Ministry said it was suspending all exploration and prospecting activities.



According to Yeboah, even if the government could not honour its promise of suspending prospecting in the Atewa forest, it should be able to respect the court and wait for the final outcome of the case before taken any final decision, especially when the government prides itself as believing in the rule of law.



A treasure of biodiversity



Located in Ghanas Eastern Region, Atewa Forest forms part of the threatened Upper Guinea Forest, one of the worlds global biodiversity hotpots.



Atewa Forest is a Protected Forest Reserve, a Key Biodiversity Area (KBA), and meets the conditions for Alliance for Zero Extinction status. The forest is home to many endangered, endemic and rare plants and animals, over 100 of which are threatened or near threatened with extinction.



Four species are listed as Critically Endangered (CR) on the IUCN Redlist of Threatened Species, and many more as vulnerable. The forest is also home to five species believed to be endemic to the forest, meaning they are found nowhere else on Earth.



As a critical watershed, the forest is also the source for the Birim, Densu and Ayensu rivers, which provide water for some 5 million people, including residents of the capital, Accra.



The unwanted record



A resident of Asiakwa, Samuel Ntow observed that, the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Jinapor is tainting his image over some of the decisions that he has taken so far.



He explained that For the unwanted records, the first was the Achimota forest reserve which the Minister supervised its declassification as a reserve, the recently encroached CSIR lands which he said should be regularized for the encroachers, the proposed mining at a Ramsar site in the Central Region and this current one of providing prospecting license to a company to destroy the biodiversity rich Atewa forest reserve.



According to him, such records for the Minister are unwanted and it is imperative that he redeemed his image by working to protect all natural resources rather than supervising their exploitation.



Prospecting fatigue



This is not the first time a prospecting is going to be carried out in the forest as in June 2018, the state-owned Ghana Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation (GIADEC) started clearing access roads to the summit of the Atewa forest to allow test drilling for bauxite deposits.



Ntow added So this becomes the second mining prospecting license granted to a company since 2018. The question also is, how many prospecting is the government planning to do at Atewa.



Atewa for national park



The Okyenhene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin has been pushing for the shift towards developing the Atewa forest reserve into a national park.



Last year, he called on government through the Ministry of Tourism to shift attention towards developing the Atewa forest rather than mining its gold.



The revered king said this at the Ofori Panin Fie at Kyebi when Tourism Minister Dr. Awal Mohammed, his Deputy, Mark Okraku-Mantey, and officials from the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) paid a courtesy call on him last year.



Develop a national park at Atewa forest, the species that God has given us there is phenomenal but if we begin to look at gold and its recklessness of galamsey and other things in the forest, we would never get there, the Okyenhene said.



Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin continued, Gold would go away. It is not a renewable resource. The reckless felling of timber is a disregard for our nature. Build a museum in addition to the park that would tell our history and show artefacts.





Source: starrfm









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
Pipa learners perform at the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing on July 13. [Photo by Su Guanming/China Daily]

Pipa, a traditional Chinese string musical instrument with a history of over 2,000 years, has always been popular among Chinese children who learn musical instruments.

The diversity of its sounds and the beautiful look have drawn music lovers of various generations.

Since 2011, a summer camp, founded by veteran pipa player Zhang Hongyan has been held at the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing to teach pipa to children of different levels.

As part of the annual Gateway to Music festival, one of Beijing's biggest arts festivals for children that has been staged during the summer vacation since 1995, the pipa summer camp marked its 11th year this summer.

On July 13, over 70 children performed at the Forbidden City Concert Hall after a three-day-long training. Coming from different parts of China, such as Shandong, Shanxi and Fujian provinces and Beijing, the children, from those who have learned to play pipa for several years to those who touched the musical instrument for the first time, displayed their skills onstage.
The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has called on the public to desist from making prank calls to its emergency numbers to support efforts to improve fire safety in the country.



According to the Service, the practice was a drain on its limited resources to promptly respond to fake emergencies, thereby, depriving real fire victims of the needed support.



Bemoaning the phenomenon, Division Officer (DOIII) Paul Tawiah, the Assin-Fosu Municipal Fire Officer, told the Ghana News Agency the act was "increasing and worrying."



"It is very unfortunate to have personnel move a fire tender with blaring siren just to realize there is no fire outbreak after getting to a particular supposed scene," he said.



In the Assin-Fosu Municipality, he said, the Service had received four prank calls between January and June.



He mentioned Assin-Dompim, Andoe, Akomfode-Camp and Darmang as the leading communities for prank calls.



"We received a distress call from Assin-Darmang about a fire outbreak and quickly rushed to the community only to realize it was a false alarm. This is very disheartening."



He said the perpetrators disabled their telephones after making the call, thereby making it difficult to trace them.



However, he hinted that the Service was collaborating with other security agencies to get perpetrators arrested to face the full rigours of the law.



DOIII Tawiah cautioned the residents to regularly renovate all hand-dug wells, particularly prior to the rainy season to prevent the rising instances of cave-ins in the area.



He said the Service was committed to deepening sensitization on fire safety as part of measures to prevent fire disasters, especially in communities and market centres.



Since fire prevention is a shared responsibility, we as a Region are making a passionate appeal to every individual to take fire safety awareness seriously and observe the dos and donts of fire.



Everyone should also try and own a simple fire extinguisher that he or she can use to control the fire before calling Fire Service, he said.



The Commander noted that non-adherence to simple fire safety measures like cooking and using fire with strict supervision, engaging professional electricians in electrical installations and periodically conducting an electrical audit of public places like markets were the cause of most fire disasters.



He appealed to benevolent individuals and organizations to support the Service in the area with logistics to help them deliver their services effectively.





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
A former Presidential Staffer, Charles Bissue says his decision to withdraw from the NPP General Secretary contest was for the betterment of the party.



According to him, his focus now is to revamp the partys communication and project the good works of the Nana Addo-led government to Ghanaians.



This, he said will be a major factor for the partys quest to Break The 8 in the 2024 general election.



Mr Bissue admitted that the party is not doing enough to propagate its good works  after mentioning Information Minister, Kojo Nkrumah for his excellence in explaining government issues to the understanding of the common Ghanaian.



We need people to communicate well on what this government is doing. There are a lot of good things this government is doing that we are not telling the people. This is what I want to do, he said in an interview with NEAT FMs morning show, 'Ghana Montie'.



Charles Bissue has officially announced his withdrawal from the NPP General Secretary contest.



Read his statement



On Wednesday, 13 July 2022, I officially withdrew my aspiration for the General Secretary position of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). A letter has been issued to that effect, to the National Election Committee, and that I believe was received in good faith.



In the spirit of the Partys constitution as stipulated in Article 10 (4), I presented myself as a nominee for the General Secretary position, to which, I was duly vetted and passed by the Elections Committee.



I secured the 4th position among five other contenders on the ballot paper.



My campaign was strongly articulated with an assurance of transforming the Party into effective political machinery that inspires confidence and trust within the Party and among Ghanaians.



My message of change was well received by the masses of delegates and party people across the country.



I have impressed on the Party that the New Patriotic Party requires transformation  a transformation that embraces scientific and innovative electoral strategies and systems, and effective Party management.



Delegates had high hopes of the change I am capable of effecting in the Party should I become the General Secretary. Though I am stepping out of this contest, I am willing to share with whoever gets elected as the General Secretary, and the Party in general, the knowledge, ideas, and tools I had intended to use in rebuilding the Party into prominence and sustained political power.



As a Patriot, I will continue to serve in any capacity, and pursue the interest of the Party at all times.



To my Party people and particularly delegates, I urge you to uphold the tenets of our Partys constitution, values, and principles in all endeavors.



The Ghanaian is super sensitive to the manner in which we conduct our internal elections. I pray, therefore, that, in unity, we allow delegates to freely make a choice for its leadership for the next four-year term.









Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/peacefmonline.com/ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has noted that Ghana has been hit by a quadruple whammy in the last few years resulting in the countrys quest to seek support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).



Dr Bawumia said the country will not be going to the IMF for support had it not been for the fiscal impact of this quadruple whammy.



He indicated that the energy sector excess capacity payments, the banking sector clean-up, COVID-19 and the Russia- Ukraine war are events that have pushed the country to seek the support of the Bretton Woods institution.



Speaking at the Accra Business School on Thursday (14 July), under the theme: The Role of Information Technology Education in the Governments Digitalisation Agenda Dr Bawumia said, the excess capacity payments of GHC 17 billion relate to a legacy of take or pay contracts that saddled the countrys economy with annual excess capacity charges of close to US$1 billion.



Dr Bawumia said these were basically contracted to supply energy to Ghana in excess of Ghanas requirements, but we were obligated to pay for the power whether the country uses it or not.



The excess capacity payments, he indicated, include GHC 7 billion of payments for gas resulting from the previous government signing an offtake agreement for a fixed quantity of gas with ENI Sankofa on a take or pay basis which was way in excess of what was needed at the time.



Not keeping up with the excess capacity payments would have meant throwing the country back into a new bout of dumsor.



Bawumia said the country was also confronted with a banking crisis as a result of the mismanagement of the banking sector.



He said Ghanas banking system was on the verge of collapse and not dealing decisively with it would have meant disaster for the economy with millions of people losing their savings.



Direct COVID-19 expenditure amounted to GHC 12.0 billion, made up of GHC8.1 billion in 2020 and GHC 3.9billion in 2021.



He indicated that the three items of expenditure cumulatively amounted to GHC 54.0 billion (the equivalent of some US$7.0 billion), which was borrowed.



The Ministry of Finance estimates that the interest payment on this borrowing for the three items amounts to GHC 8.5 billion annually. This is some 23% of Ghanas annual interest payments of GHC 37 billion, he said.



It should be noted that without the GHC 54.0 billion debt for the three exceptional items (COVID-19, Financial Sector and Energy), Ghanas debt to GDP would be within the sustainability threshold of some 68% instead of the 76.6% at the end of 2021.



If you take out the fiscal impact of this quadruple whammy, Ghana will not be going to the IMF for support because our fiscal, debt and balance of payments outlook would be sustainable.



Of the four factors, two (COVID-19 and the Russia Ukraine war) were external and the other two (the banking sector clean up and the excess capacity payments) were the result of policies of the previous government.



Way forward



On the way forward for the country Vice-President Bawumia said, Unfortunately, judging from where we are today, there is no end in sight for the Russia-Ukraine war. While we hope for a quick end to the war, we must understand that things could get worse before they get better.



He said the major lesson of the last two years is that we have to be more self-reliant as a country. It is important that we take decisions that will inure to the benefit of the country regardless of whether we are going to the IMF for a program or not.



According Dr Bawumiathe immediate task for the country is to restore fiscal and debt sustainability  through revenue and expenditure measures and structural reforms, adding that non-concessional borrowing should be curtailed to enhance debt sustainability.

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
Monetization in the Ghanaian political landscape is a source of worry to former President John Agyekum Kufuor.



According to him, he is surprised that politics in Ghana has become increasingly monetized and it appears people now want to go into politics purposely to make money.



He noted that he did not go into politics because of money but to pursue his dream and purpose to better the lives of Ghanaians.



Monetization of politics these days, people talk so much money these days, they make it seem people go into politics to make money.



I didnt go into politics to make money. I just believed there was some mission for me to pursue to better a lot of our society, former President J.A. Kufuor told TV3.



Commenting on how Ghanaians perceive the governing party, the former President noted that the NPP is the only party that is always ready to build the nation through social intervention programmes.



Generally, there is this belief and commitment that the party is a party of destiny, destined to be the party to help evolve the nation of Ghana to a serious wealth creating society, of deep social sense inclusively.



It showed when we got the chance, in terms of doing the necessary social interventions like education, like healthcare, fairness and justice, like the repeal of the Criminal Libel Law to allow people to think and to talk and also to demand accountability of leadership at the same time to also dwell in the people that sense of responsibility of citizenship.



So it is there within the party, it is like because of the current challenges, we occasionally seem to be losing our way but when you talk to the rank and file in many respects, they are set to regain the trajectory as I said earlier," President Kufuor stressed.







Source: ghanaweb.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
The General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has admitted that using the Ghana Card as a sole document to register voters is a good idea.



Speaking on Dwaboase on TV XYZ, the chief scribe of the opposition party indicated that it was possible until all eligible Ghanaians have had their cards from the National Identification Authority (NIA).



His comment follows a warning by the Minority in Parliament against the Electoral Commissions plan to compile a new voters register using only the Ghana card.



According to the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, such a move will threaten the stability of the country as the inalienable rights of legal-age Ghanaians to vote and to exercise that right to vote will be infringed upon.



Our understanding as we pick it up is that the Electoral Commission of Ghana is desperately planning to discard the 2020 Voter Register and replace it with a new voter register  which register has caused the taxpayer and the people of Ghana to build with $80million thereabout, he said.



If it happens, that will be the second time the Jean Mensa-led Electoral Commission has discarded a voters register.



But Asiedu Nketiah has cautioned the NIA and the EC on the move.



If you ask me that should we use the Ghana card exclusively for voter registration, Ill say yes; Its wonderful, he told host Kwame Minkah and urged that all Ghanaians be given their Ghana cards before such a move is made.



Ahead of the 2020 general elections, the EC had justified its call for a new voters register by claiming that the 2016 register contained the names of non-citizens and, therefore, a new register was the best way to expunge those names from the register.





Source: XYZ









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
Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has explained his suggestion for Ghana to adopt the Westminster form of democracy that involves both a President and Prime Minister instead of the current system of a President and Vice President.



According to him, if Ghana should adopts this system, it would pave the way for the leader of the legislative house to be the Prime Minister.



He was speaking on Frontline on Rainbow Radio 87.5Fm, where he indicated that this system would allow the side of the Majority to appoint the Prime Minister to compliment the work of the President.



In that case, we can have a ceremonial president who would be the head of the state, but the leader of parliament would be the head of government just like we had in the era of Busia and the late father of President Akufo-Addo.



He clarified that his suggestion was not related to the current administration, but a call for a constitutional review to help Ghana adopt a system that would cost the nation less money.



He clarified that his comments were misconstrued to mean that we currently dont need a vice president.



He stressed we could only do away with the vice president if we adopted the Westminster system I suggested.





Source: rainbow radio









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
General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, Johnson Asiedu Nketia has replied to Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia over accusations that part of the current economic challenges was created by former President John Dramani Mahama.



The NDC scribe in a July 14, 2022 interview on Joy News said it is unacceptable that after six years in office Bawumia will be blaming a predecessor for running down the economy.



John Mahama didnt come back in 2020 or 2019 to do anything, so if after six years in office you are still blaming predecessors, it means that you have no clue as to why you went into the election to become the leader in the first place, Asiedu Nketia said.



He described Bawumias refusal to admit his role in the economic mess as akin to a donkey who is crying that grass is blue.



He joined calls for the Vice President  who is head of the governments Economic Management Team, EMT  to resign his position because he had lost the trust of the populace.



Every Ghanaian knows that he has lost credibility and if we were in a well-functioning society, people like that should be leaving their office.



Because the things he has said politics and democracy is about trust in our leadership. So, if you are running a system where you cannot even trust your leadersthen how are we expected to trust in the solutions that they are prescribing? he stressed.



Bawumia in comments made at an event in Accra on July 14 explained some reasons for which Ghana returned to the International Monetary Fund despite earlier stance by the government against such a move.



Among the reasons he outlined was the role that the Mahama government played especially with the banking crisis.



If you take out the fiscal impact of this quadruple whammy, Ghana will not be going to the IMF for support because our fiscal, debt and balance of payments outlook would be sustainable. Of the four factors, two (COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war) were external and the other two (the banking sector clean-up and the excess capacity payments) were the result of policies of the previous government, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia clarified.













Source: ghanaweb.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
Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has indicated that the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), even though a capitalist party, is known as the only party that is always ready to build the nation through social intervention programmes.



These programmes, he said, touch every aspect of the nation.



Generally, there is this belief and commitment that the party is a party of destiny, destined to be the party to help evolve the nation of Ghana to a serious wealth-creating society, of deep social sense inclusively.



It showed when we got the chance, in terms of doing the necessary social interventions like education, like healthcare, fairness and justice, like the repeal of the Criminal Libel Law, to allow people to think and to talk and also to demand accountability of leadership at the same time to also dwell in the people that sense of responsibility of citizenship.



So it is there within the party, It is like because of the current challenges, we occasionally seem to be losing our way but when you talk to the rank and file in many respects, they are set to regain the trajectory," the former President told TV3 in an interview ahead of the NPP National Delegates Conference that starts today.







Source: ghanaweb.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
Charles Nii Armah Mensah, alias Shatta Wale, is unhappy with recent comments by his fellow artiste, Michael Owusu Addo, alias Sarkodie.



The latter in an interview on a South African showbiz podcast platform made comments to the effect that Shatta Wale's behaviour relative to personal discussions between them and his subsequent social media outbursts were confusing.



Sometimes, we will be on the phone chatting [and] the next day, he will be on the radio saying F Sark, Sometimes, we dont understand it but I think he brought some energy and attention to the music industry, Sarkodie said on MacG's Podcast And Chill.



When Shatta Wale had the opportunity not through social media but in a July 14 radio interview to respond to Sarkodie's opinion, he said it cast him in a bad light.



He (Sarkodie) shouldnt have said that. People have that perception that I have that crazy lifestyle. So, if a colleague like mine talks like that, somebody would think Shatta is a mad man, he said on Accra-based Hitz FMs DayBreak Hitz programme.



Shatta Wale took a subtle dig at Sarkodie stating that in his opinion, the rapper did not know what he is about.



Unlike his 'rival,' Shatta Wale said he will not disrespect Sarkodie's brand by going around making such denigrating comments about him.



I have sat with you, spoken business languages with you. I have had plans that I called you about because I felt we could use at least the numbers we have to create something. But if you want to talk like this, say it well.



Shatta Wale also gave a better rendition of what his colleague could have said void of disrespect.



He could have said maybe Shatta has discussed something with me and, because I have not made up my mind, sometimes he feels that I am not ready, you know he goes on social media I will understand, he added.







Source: ghanaweb.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
Graphical abstract. Credit: iScience (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104393

In the 2016 sci-fi movie "Arrival," a linguist and a theoretical physicist race against time to communicate with endangered extraterrestrial heptapods wishing to share their wisdom and technologies with the human race so it will survive and one day return the favor.

At the University of California, Berkeley, a real and more down-to-earth mission to decode an unknown form of communication is underway. Linguist Gasper Begus and computer scientist Shafi Goldwasser are part of an international team of researchers attempting interspecies communication with sperm whales by deciphering their deafening, 200-plus decibel clicking sounds, or codas.

They are among the key members of the Cetacean Translation Initiative (CETI), a newly launched, five-year multidisciplinary project aimed at cracking sperm whales' Morse code-like communications off the Caribbean island of Dominica, to gain a deeper knowledge of the ocean's brainiest predators and to preserve their habitat from further human disruption.

With scientists from 16 different research enterprises, CETI is estimated to be the largest effort at interspecies communication in history. Whether on land or in the ocean, it is a daunting feat.

"We're dealing with a completely unknown form of communication, and gathering the data can be challenging," said Begus, an assistant professor of linguistics in UC Berkeley's Division of Social Sciences and director of the Berkeley Speech and Computation Lab. CETI's engineering team is building a system of drones that will automatically tag the whales and record their vocalizations and other parameters, such as orientation, velocity and temperature.

Preceding humans on Earth by some 15 million years, sperm whales' gigantic brains give them the neural capacity for planning, sophisticated communication and social interactions that last for decades. Their silvery, 30-plus-ton bodies store carbons and play a supporting role in cooling the earth.

Sperm whales organize themselves into large, matrilineal families and clans, with each group identifying itself with its own signature dialect. Their powerful clicking sounds are emitted via a mixture of organs known as spermaceti that are atop their skulls. The whales' sound patterns are learnednot innate, like a dog's bark, Begus said.

Their deep-ocean habitats are threatened by noise pollution, climate change, commercial fishing and military activities that include underwater explosions and sonar technology.

If left to die naturally, sperm whales sink to the ocean floor, taking with them the carbons stored in their bodies that would otherwise have been released into the atmosphere if the whales had been hunted and brought to land. Moreover, whale excrement contributes to the growth of phytoplankton, which is estimated to capture some 40% of all carbon dioxide produced.

"If we get to know sperm whales better by learning their communication and the full scope of their cognitive and social life, it's harder for us as a species to treat them like non-sentient beings and destroy them," Begus said.

In their respective labs at UC Berkeley, Begus and Goldwasser, a winner of the prestigious Association for Computer Machinery's A.M. Turing Award, are using artificial intelligence, including deepfake technology, to identify linguistic patterns in recordings of what may eventually amount to billions of sperm whale clicks.

"In the case of translation of one human language to another, a 'Rosetta stone' is often available, which makes this a so-called supervised language translation problem. And even when such examples are not known, at the very least we have a good sense of what may be the general topics and context in which conversations are taking place, so as to detect when a proposed translation is nonsensical," said Goldwasser, who at UC Berkeley is director of the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing and the C. Lester Hogan Professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences.

"For CETI," she added, "we need to significantly extend the theory and practice of unsupervised language translation, where no correct translation examples are given, to a setting where our prior knowledge on what the whales may be communicating about is limited, and we can't run controlled experiments. New methods to model what the whales are communicating about will guide us when we are making progress in the translation task or, alternately, rule out proposed translations."

As with any unknown form of communication, the sounds sperm whales make to communicate with one another and navigate via echolocation are full of enigmas. The unknown in the sperm whale communication system is not only what the codas mean, but also how we test and confirm what we think they mean.

To tackle these questions, the team will take advantage of new advances in artificial intelligence (AI). Begus is developing AI models that learn human speech in a way that is similar to how children learn language: without supervision, without text, and by imitation and imagination. Together with his team in the Berkeley Speech and Computation Lab, he is testing whether models that learn human language from speech can also learn the sperm whale communication system.

Meanwhile, fellow CETI collaborators from more than a dozen research institutions worldwide are working on other areas of the project, including the installation of a network of underwater microphones, drones and robotic fish to stealthily track and record sperm whale communication.

CETI's leader, David Gruber, is a professor of biology and environmental science at Baruch College at the City University of New York. Gruber, Goldwasser and Michael Bronstein, a professor of computer science and artificial intelligence at Oxford University, met in 2018 during a fellowship year at Radcliffe College. There, they came up with CETI's goal during a yearlong seminar that examined many possible ways to use machine learning in the sciences.

Their research is published in iScience. Other project collaborators hail from MIT, Harvard University, Israel's Haifa University, Canada's Carleton University, Aarhus University in Denmark, University of Lugano in Switzerland, Google Research, the Dominica Sperm Whale Project and Italy's Institute for Scientific Interchange.

The Save the Whales movement dates back to the 1960s when American biologist Roger Payne, now a member of CETI, recorded "Songs of the Humpback Whale," which led in 1972 to the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act. The act prohibits activities that harass, capture, collect or kill marine mammals, such as whales, dolphins, seals and manatees.

Explore further Could humans communicate with whales?

More information: Jacob Andreas et al, Toward understanding the communication in sperm whales, iScience (2022). Journal information: iScience Jacob Andreas et al, Toward understanding the communication in sperm whales,(2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104393

Provided by University of California
More than 50 years ago, most Chinese people living in far-flung areas enjoyed movies in the open-air thanks to movie-screening workers who trekked there with mobile facilities. Now, such a "tradition" is being relived with a campaign jointly launched by Beijing Normal University and China Film Archive.

On July 12, the drive, themed as "taking movies to the countryside", was unveiled in a primary school in Zunyi, Southwest China's Guizhou province, two days after the organizers announced the event in Beijing.

The revolutionary blockbuster 1921, a retelling of the founding of Communist Party of China, was screened to the school's children. Before the screening, actor Wang Renjun, who plays Chairman Mao Zedong in the movie, alongside the scriptwriter Yu Xi, showed up online to share the behind-the-scene stories and their understanding of the historical characters.

A group of Beijing Normal University's students, mostly studying at the first or second grades, have joined the campaign, designing special curriculums based on the movies to give local children art and culture lessons.

Xiao Xiangrong, dean of the School of Art and Communication at the university, said that he wished the campaign could help those children to become the "discoverers, admirers and creators of the beauty of art".

Besides, he also wished such an event could help the students from Beijing Normal University to obtain a more intuitive impression of how to teach children and youngsters, thus benefiting their teaching career in the future.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

To spur decarbonization, public investments must go beyond government support of research and development and expand into the manufacturing and deployment of new technology. To do this, governments must move beyond the myths surrounding public investment in clean energy that discourage use of public funds, a newly published Yale School of the Environment-led commentary in Nature Energy explains.

In 2021, worldwide investment in low-carbon energy transition was $755 billion, far below what is required, the authors note. Climate finance must grow by a factor of almost six by 2030 to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. However, government support in helping to advance clean energy technology, the authors say, has been hampered by three key myths that permeate the discussion: government should not pick "winners" by throwing funding behind key innovators; public financing of a specific technology company could lead to excessive government support known as "rent-seeking"; and publicly funded clean energy technology that fails is tantamount to policy failures.

"We have a dual goal with this piece debunking the arguments against scaling up at the same time as saying how do you manage scaling up well?" says lead author Jonas Meckling, who was the Coleman P. Burke Distinguished Visiting Associate Professor at YSE in 2021 and is associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

The commentary grew out of an effort to bring faculty and students of different academic disciplines together to examine clean energy policy at a time when the Biden Administration's Build Back Better plan proposed more than $500 billion for climate initiatives. That legislation stalled in Congress.

"The commentary is a playbook in defense of why you shouldn't actually be susceptible to arguments that spending money on climate is inefficient and wasteful," says co-author and YSE Professor of Economics Matthew Kotchen.

The Nature Energy commentary was also co-authored by Peter Raymond, professor of ecosystem ecology; Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy Daniel Esty; and Charles Harper '22 MEM, Gillian Sawyer '22 MEM, and Julia Sweatman '22 MEM, who were student leaders of the YSE Climate Change Initiative. Additional authors include Indiana University Professor Sanya Carley; Bella Tonkonogy, director of climate finance at the Climate Policy Initiative; and Joseph Aldy, professor of the practice of public policy at Harvard Kennedy School.

To kickstart decarbonization, governments must redirect investment toward decarbonization and subsidize clean technologies to lower their costs below that of dirty alternatives, the authors say.

To drive down costs, policy makers should focus on technologies that maximize emission reductions over time and help bridge funding gaps in early-state technology known as the "valley of death." Markets cannot be counted on to optimize these critical policy dimensions, the authors state.

"The goal of spreading risk in public investment is to maximize energy innovation returns, notas for venture capitaliststo maximize financial returns," they wrote.

Policy makers also have to manage expectations. Not every technology that governments fund will be successful. Governments should diversify their portfolios across technologies and types of firms, which will result in some major successes, along with some failures, the authors advise.

Acknowledging upfront that public investments may not always lead to market successes makes large failures less likely.

"If policy makers believe that they must show that every company receiving public funds is a success, then they may be hesitant to pull the plug in cases where success becomes increasingly unlikely," the commentary states.

To avoid sinking money into ventures that fizzlea criticism faced by the Obama administration's backing of the solar company Solyndra which went bankruptgovernments can impose cost and productivity targets on companies with public funding as well as automatic sunset clauses. Solyndra was one of myriad investmentsthat included Tesla and wind farmsthe federal government made in clean energy companies.

Agencies can also facilitate accountability through high levels of transparency in managing, monitoring, and evaluating the performance of investments and by appointing leaders with high visibility, the authors suggest.

"Failed companies don't mean failed policies," says Kotchen. "It's important that we have the right expectations for the resources we are deploying."

Explore further Clean energy investing makes financial as well as climate sense, says new report

More information: Jonas Meckling et al, Busting the myths around public investment in clean energy, Nature Energy (2022). Journal information: Nature Energy Jonas Meckling et al, Busting the myths around public investment in clean energy,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41560-022-01081-y
Bombus interacti. Credit: Pierre Rasmont

Life in the Arctic is harsh. Arctic temperatures are punishing, making life difficult for many animals to survive. Yet lots of insects, including mosquitoes, manage to thrive in the frozen region. So why don't they freeze themselves?

"They can freeze solid," says Callaghan, an Arctic ecologist at Sheffield University. But insects have developed many successful and varied strategies to avoid dying of cold. These essentially fall into two categories: "They either avoid freezing or tolerate it," Callaghan explains.

To avoid the cold, many insects go through a resting stage during winter monthsa period of dormancy and suspended development known as a diapause. This usually happens when the insects are eggs or larvae and gives them greater protection from the cold environment.

Some insects shed their body water in response to cold, eventually losing nearly all of it. This controls where ice crystals may form in the body, moving it away from vital organs. These insects tolerate the cold by essentially freezing solid but without any of the harmful effects. When the ice melts at the end of the winter, they get moving again.

Many insects also produce compounds, like the natural alcohol glycerol, which work as antifreeze. These chemicals prevent the formation of ice crystals and allow cold-dwelling insects to "supercool," meaning their body water can drop to a temperature much lower than zero without freezing.

One beetle is known to supercool to temperatures lower than -50 degrees Celsius. The ice inside can eventually transform into a glass-like statefree from damaging ice crystalsin a process known as vitrification.

Collaborative research in the Arctic

Callaghan is the founder and science coordinator of the EU-funded INTERACT project which has funded 1,000 researchers to work in the Arctic. This huge collaboration connected 89 research stations across the frozen regions, with scientists working together to uncover more about environmental and ecological change.

One exciting find was the discovery of a new species of Arctic bumblebee, found by a Belgian-led team of scientists and described for the first time in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. The bee was named Bombus interacti, after the INTERACT project.

A major facet of the INTERACT project was mutual learning, with an online forum letting scientists throughout the network discuss matters from fieldwork safety to minimizing the environmental footprint of Arctic-based research stations. And perhaps how to survive the cold of the Arctic winters

Knock-on effects of overwintering insects

Some of the environmental change being witnessed around the worldand emphatically in polar regionsis also reflected in the overwintering strategies of insects.

The autumn moth, for example, overwinters in diapause as eggs on the branches of birch trees. These eggs are usually killed during winters where temperatures drop below -33 degrees Celsius, which then reduces damage done to the birch trees in the spring and summer by caterpillars.

Yet as winter temperatures are increasing, higher numbers of moth eggs are surviving and the caterpillars are damaging or killing more birch trees. The moths therefore succeed and spread, adding to this cycle. "So winter survival of insects can be good for them, but not necessarily for other parts of the ecosystem," says Callaghan.

Explore further Where do all the mosquitoes go in the winter?

More information: Baptiste Martinet et al, Integrative taxonomy of an arctic bumblebee species complex highlights a new cryptic species (Apidae: Bombus), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society (2019). Journal information: Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society Baptiste Martinet et al, Integrative taxonomy of an arctic bumblebee species complex highlights a new cryptic species (Apidae: Bombus),(2019). DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlz041
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

The United Nations has declared the 2020s as the decade of ecosystem restoration, a call for countries around the world to dedicate resources towards healing the earth. While the goal of ecosystem restoration is to reverse the degradation of the world's landscapes and waterways, the movement runs the risk of destroying the lives of millions of the world's poorest people if their farmlands and pastures are converted into natural ecosystems, therefore reducing global food production as part of the process.

Restorationists have proposed a variety of global priority maps that seek to identify where restoration funding should be focused. In a paper recently published in Nature, a team of international researchers and scientists argue that these proposed maps have several shortcomings.

By examining recent influential studies, most importantly a paper published in Nature in 2020 that was designed to influence global negotiations over restoration funding, the scientists note that these studies rarely include information about who is affected by restoration.

They found:

The maps don't identify who lives on the lands identified as restoration priorities.

They don't consider who will bear the costs of restoration, yet their maps clearly indicate that these costs will be concentrated in poor rural areas in the tropics.

The maps put scientists, rather than affected people, as the key decision-makers.

For example, the 2020 paper they critique is based on optimizing restoration to achieve the greatest biodiversity and carbon storage gains. As it happens, biodiversity and carbon storage are highest in lowland tropical forestsareas which are also home to dense human populations in many parts of the world, many of whom already practice biodiverse and regenerative forms of small-scale agriculture.

"Our recent research in India and Mexico shows that small farmers in poor countries often make wise long-term decisions about managing their natural resources, especially when they are given political power and clear land rights. Political empowerment and land rights for indigenous and forest-dependent people should be a core component of the global restoration agenda," said Claudia Rodriguez Solorzano, an adjunct assistant professor in the University of Minnesota Department of Forest Resources.

Restoring these ecosystems in the ways described by restorationists could involve removing farmlands and urban settlements and replacing them with forest, savanna or grassland in an effort to create a landscape that functions as if no human populations exist there. Since many areas are currently densely populated or intensively used by peoplean estimated 300 million people living in restoration priority landscapesthis plan would require coming up with a system to remove people from their farmland and homes, destroying their livelihoods and their diverse and sustaining agricultural systems.

Instead, these authors suggest that restorationists work directly with people in these areas to identify their restoration priorities. Such an approach would also improve restoration success, since it would focus on what local people want and are most likely to support.

"It's vital that people directly affected by restoration play a major role in determining what restoration happens. These people hold important local knowledge about ecosystems and their own economic needs which will enable them to craft restoration strategies that work and avoid large-scale human rights abuses," said Forrest Fleischman, Ph.D., corresponding author of this paper, and an associate professor of environmental policy at the University of Minnesota Department of Forest Resources.

"Biologists and social scientists need to collaborate to address disciplinary limitations. Ecologists in particular need to be aware that people are an important part of the equation for all forms of conservation. Many ecologists have particular beliefs about nature that are based on cultural values developed in Europe and North America, but these are not universal. Many of the people who live and work in lands identified as priorities for restoration hold different views and engaging with those views is essential for successful restoration," said Joseph Veldman, an assistant professor at Texas A&M University Department of Ecology & Conservation Biology.

Explore further Nature restoration no substitute for cutting fossil fuels

More information: Forrest Fleischman et al, Restoration prioritization must be informed by marginalized people, Nature (2022). Forrest Fleischman et al, Restoration prioritization must be informed by marginalized people,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04733-x Bernardo B. N. Strassburg et al, Global priority areas for ecosystem restoration, Nature (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2784-9 Journal information: Nature
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Climate change is destroying heritage sites across Europe and globally. Ancient historical landmarks could disappear completely unless swift action is taken to protect them from environmental damage, researchers are warning.

Future generations may never get to explore streets conquered by medieval knights in Greece, city quarters built by the Islamic empire in Spain, 10th century cliff-top castles in Slovakia and many other historical wonders in Europe.

Floods and rising temperatures are already damaging ancient buildings, said Angelos Amditis, project coordinator of a project called HYPERION which is helping major sites in Greece, Italy, Spain and Norway, adapt to the impacts of climate change.

"If we don't act fast, if we don't allocate the right resources and knowledge, and  create a common alliance to address the climate change issues, we will pay very dearly," he said.

"We may (completely) lose well-known landmarks in Europe and globally  our children may not have a chance to see them except on video," said Dr. Amditis, who is director of Research and Development in the Athens-based Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (ICCS).

Historical vulnerabilities

The HYPERION project is developing tools for mapping out the risks and helping local authorities find the most cost-effective ways to reduce the vulnerability of historical sites.

Mapping the risks includes assessing the structure and condition of buildings and monuments and installing sensors to monitor the ongoing impacts of climate change and other threats to the sites.

The project also uses data from Europe's Copernicus satellites to map the areas at risk and gather climate data.

What can make conservation work particularly complex is that different buildings on a single site were often constructed in different eras and using different materials. Each building must therefore be individually assessed, and may need different forms of protection.

For example, early builders in Venice often re-used stones and other bits of buildings found locally. As the city became wealthier, it began importing fresh materials which were better quality, and are proving more resistant to the impacts of rising tides and floods.

Viking towns

And in Norway's Viking town of Tnsberg, buildings were constructed over several centuries, and made with different types of wood or stone. Local temperatures are rising, and affecting each building material differently, said Dr. Amditis.

Many monuments and sites are made more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change because they are already suffering damage from pollution, earthquakes or other hazards.

So, to boost their resilience to climate change, they need to be restored and protected from all the hazards they face, said Dr. Amditis.

For example, Greece's beautiful city of Rhodes is hit by frequent heatwaves, earthquakes and flooding. But its medieval buildings also need protection from damage caused by heavy delivery lorries. This could involve finding a less harmful way to transport goods to the local population, said Dr. Amditis. The HYPERION project is not involved in this aspect of the city's resilience planning.

Locals' solutions

Authorities must involve local communities when planning ways to protect heritage, said Daniel Luckerath, project coordinator of a project called ARCH.

"The danger is that they will not like the solution you provide and then they might not use the historic area anymore," said Dr. Luckerath, who is a project manager at Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems (IAIS).

"People are what make historic areas  what give those areas value," he said. Without them, 'you would just have a ghost town," he added.

Like HYPERION, the ARCH project is developing tools for authorities to assess and protect their local heritage. ARCH is co-designing these with authorities in Slovakia's ancient capital Bratislava, the Italian village of Camerino, Valencia in Spain and Germany's harbor-city, Hamburg.

Sometimes there is a difficult trade-off between protecting heritage and allowing new developments which benefit the local community. For example, Hamburg recently carried out major dredging work to allow larger container ships to reach its port.

Water levels

This work, combined with climate change, is changing the water levels in the city's 19th century warehouse district which is a World Heritage Site, said Dr. Luckerath. This change in water levels could weaken the foundations of the old warehouses so they will need ongoing monitoring, he said.

Major heritage sites are not the only ones that need to be preserved. "Any site in danger is a problem for the communities living there," said Aitziber Egusquiza, coordinator of the SHELTER project which is developing risk assessment, early warning systems and conservation tools for communities, including those with few financial and technical resources.

In some cases, local authorities do not monitor the impacts of climate change and other risks, lack information about the age and state of their local heritage, and lack the political will to protect it. As a consequence, communities living near some of Europe's most exposed sites are not necessarily aware of their vulnerability, making it very difficult to conserve them.

"That worries me," said Egusquiza, who is senior researcher at Tecnalia, an independent research and technology organization in Spain.

It is important to convince the leadership to invest in conserving these sites, especially as they bring tourism and jobsboth of which will be lost if that heritage is lost, said Egusquiza.

"We need to put more numbers on what will be lost if we don't act," he said, referring to projections about economic impacts on local communities.

Community heritage

The tools developed by SHELTER, ARCH and HYPERION projects will be tested by the cities and communities which helped design them, and then trialed in other regions to see if they can be replicated in different situations. Ultimately, the aim is to help all communities protect their heritage.

But with Europe and other regions facing the combined crises of the COVID-19 pandemic, war in Ukraine, and rising cost of living, it is easy for leaders to push preserving cultural heritage down the list of priorities, said Dr. Amditis.

"It is a very expensive and time-consuming exercise, but it is worth the time and the resources. If you lose even one site, it's a big loss for humanity," he added.

Explore further Gamifying tools to improve the resilience of Europe's historic areas to climate change

More information: HYPERION report: HYPERION report: cordis.europa.eu/project/id/821054/reporting
Firefighters battle a blaze raging in Morocco's northern region of Ksar Sghir on July 14.

Hundreds of Moroccan firefighters and soldiers battled late Thursday to put out at least four infernos ripping through forests in the north of the kingdom, officials said.

The fires, fanned by strong winds in the four areas, have not resulted in any casualties so far, but nearly 500 families were evacuated "as a precaution" in the provinces of Larache and Taza, according to official statements.

Several villages that were evacuated also saw military planes dropping loads of water to extinguish fires tearing across the dry terrain, an AFP journalist said.

Shocked by how fast the flames were spreading, residents fled their homes, with some families herding their cattle and horsesupon which their livelihoods dependahead of them.

"I was with my family, and at one point, we heard people shouting, 'Fire! Fire!'" said Samir Boundad, from Larache.

"We ran out to flee and fortunately, thanks to God, the fire moved up the mountain."

A village in the Ksar El Kebir region was destroyed by the flames.

Hundreds of civil defence workers, as well as soldiers and police officers, are trying to stop the fires from causing more destruction.

In four provincesLarache, Ouezzane, Tetouan and Tazathe fires ripped through forestland that is difficult to access, said Fouad Assali, head of the National Center for Forest Climate Risk Management.

Since Wednesday night, at least 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) of forest have been burned in Larache and Ouezzane, according to initial reports.

"Efforts are continuing in the hope of bringing these fires under control," Assali was quoted as saying by the official MAP news agency.

Since Wednesday night, at least 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) of forest have burned in Larache and Ouezzane, according to initial reports, leaving burnt trees smouldering under a sky blanketed by plumes of smoke.

Intense droughts, soaring temperatures

The North African nation, which is struggling under intense droughts, has in recent days been hit by soaring temperatures approaching 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit).

"It is the heat that causes this kind of fire. It was yesterday at dawn that the fire reached our village," Ahmed Mezouar, 58, a resident of Larache, told AFP, adding that he was hopeful that firefighters would be able to contain it.

Still, he worried, as a neighbouring village had been completely surrounded by the flames.

People evacuate a house as a wild forest fire rages in northern Morocco.

Planes dropped loads of water to extinguish fires tearing through Morroco's terrain.

"We are afraid for our houses," he said. "For the moment, we are safe."

Across the Strait of Gibraltar, wildfires are also raging in southern Europe, from Portugal and Spain through to France and Greece.

Scientists say extreme weather events such as heatwaves and droughts, which make wildfires more likely, are linked to climate change.

They are expected to become even more frequent, more prolonged and more intense in the future.

Explore further Cooler weather helps Spain with fires; rain helps in Germany

 2022 AFP
Jupiter, center, and its moon Europa, left, are seen through the James Webb Space Telescopes NIRCam instrument 2.12 micron filter. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and B. Holler and J. Stansberry (STScI)

On the heels of Tuesday's release of the first images from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, data from the telescope's commissioning period is now being released on the Space Telescope Science Institute's Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes. The data includes images of Jupiter and images and spectra of several asteroids, captured to test the telescope's instruments before science operations officially began July 12. The data demonstrates Webb's ability to track solar system targets and produce images and spectra with unprecedented detail.

Fans of Jupiter will recognize some familiar features of our solar system's enormous planet in these images seen through Webb's infrared gaze. A view from the NIRCam instrument's short-wavelength filter shows distinct bands that encircle the planet as well as the Great Red Spot, a storm big enough to swallow the Earth. The iconic spot appears white in this image because of the way Webb's infrared image was processed.

"Combined with the deep field images released the other day, these images of Jupiter demonstrate the full grasp of what Webb can observe, from the faintest, most distant observable galaxies to planets in our own cosmic backyard that you can see with the naked eye from your actual backyard," said Bryan Holler, a scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, who helped plan these observations.

Clearly visible at left is Europa, a moon with a probable ocean below its thick icy crust, and the target of NASA's forthcoming Europa Clipper mission. What's more, Europa's shadow can be seen to the left of the Great Red Spot. Other visible moons in these images include Thebe and Metis.

Left: Jupiter, center, and its moons Europa, Thebe, and Metis are seen through the James Webb Space Telescopes NIRCam instrument 2.12 micron filter. Right: Jupiter and Europa, Thebe, and Metis are seen through NIRCams 3.23 micron filter. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and B. Holler and J. Stansberry (STScI)

"I couldn't believe that we saw everything so clearly, and how bright they were," said Stefanie Milam, Webb's deputy project scientist for planetary science based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "It's really exciting to think of the capability and opportunity that we have for observing these kinds of objects in our solar system."

Scientists were especially eager to see these images because they are proof that Webb can observe the satellites and rings near bright solar system objects such as Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars. Scientists will use Webb to explore the tantalizing question of whether we can see plumes of material spewing out of moons like Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus. Webb may be able to see the signatures of plumes depositing material on the surface on Europa. "I think that's just one of the coolest things that we'll be able to do with this telescope in the solar system," Milam said.

Additionally, Webb easily captured some of Jupiter's rings, which especially stand out in the NIRcam long-wavelength filter image. That the rings showed up in one of Webb's first solar system images is "absolutely astonishing and amazing," Milam said.

Jupiter and some of its moons are seen through NIRCams 3.23 micron filter. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and B. Holler and J. Stansberry (STScI)

"The Jupiter images in the narrow-band filters were designed to provide nice images of the entire disk of the planet, but the wealth of additional information about very faint objects (Metis, Thebe, the main ring, hazes) in those images with approximately one-minute exposures was absolutely a very pleasant surprise," said John Stansberry, observatory scientist and NIRCam commissioning lead at the Space Telescope Science Institute.

Webb also obtained these images of Jupiter and Europa moving across the telescope's field of view in three separate observations. This test demonstrated the ability of the observatory to find and track guide stars in the vicinity of bright Jupiter.

Asteroid 6481 Tenzing, center, is seen moving against a background of stars in this series of images taken by NIRCam. Click on the image to play the gif again. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and B. Holler and J. Stansberry (STScI)

But just how fast can an object move and still be tracked by Webb? This was an important question for scientists who study asteroids and comets. During commissioning, Webb used an asteroid called 6481 Tenzing, located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, to start the moving-target tracking "speed limit" tests.

Webb was designed with the requirement to track objects that move as fast as Mars, which has a maximum speed of 30 milliarcseconds per second. During commissioning, the Webb team conducted observations of various asteroids, which all appeared as a dot because they were all small. The team proved that Webb will still get valuable data with all of the science instruments for objects moving up to 67 milliarcseconds per second, which is more than twice the expected baselinesimilar to photographing a turtle crawling when you're standing a mile away. "Everything worked brilliantly," Milam said.

Explore further Webb telescope nearly set to explore the solar system
Graphical abstract. Credit: Water (2022). DOI: 10.3390/w14081278

Factory farming for meat production is harmful to the environment. In addition to its direct emissions of methane, its use of liquid manure releases climate-damaging nitrogen compounds such as ammonia and nitrous oxide into the atmosphere and pollutes the groundwater with nitrates. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have analyzed how the liquid manure produced by livestock farming, which is often used as fertilizer, affects its nitrogen footprint. They showed that the nitrogen pollution caused by liquid manure from the production of beef is three times higher than that for pork and eight times higher than that for poultry.

Large amounts of nitrogenous fertilizer and animal feed are used in agriculture. A substantial fraction of their nitrogen is released into the environment unused, for example when nitrates are leached from the soil or when livestock farming emits ammonia. "It's well known that meat production has a very negative impact on the global nitrogen balance. But so far the nitrogen footprint calculator doesn't show what share of that impact can be attributed to the amount of liquid manure it produces," says Prantik Samanta, a Ph.D. candidate in the Water Chemistry and Water Technology Department of KIT's Engler-Bunte Institute.

"At the same time, these quantities of nitrogen represent a huge loss of resources, because recovering nitrogen is very energy-intensive." The amount of nitrogen released as pollution by the liquid manure resulting from beef, pork and poultry productionand lost as a raw materialhas now been analyzed in a study by lead author Samanta and colleagues. They also calculated how much energy would be needed to process the liquid manure and recover nitrogen, which could then be made available for more targeted fertilizer use.

Highest nitrogen losses from beef production

"We found that the lost nitrogen per kilo of meat can be directly calculated with a virtual nitrogen factor, VNF for short," says Samanta. "The correlation between total nitrogen input and the resulting nitrogen loss per kilogram of meat produced is linear." The VNF expresses the ratio of the nitrogen losses to the nitrogen content in the meat. The greatest losses occur in the liquid manure that needs to be disposed of or treated. The results show that beef production in most parts of the world has the biggest impact on the nitrogen footprint, with nitrogen losses three times higher than those for pork and eight times higher than those for poultry. The researchers attribute this to the higher feed requirements and high basal metabolic rates of cattle. They see the nitrogen losses from pork and poultry production as more likely due to poor conditions in which the animals are kept rather than to their feed and digestion.

In their analysis, the researchers also compared several countries. "Relative to the amount of meat consumed, Japan releases the most nitrogen, followed by Australia. That's also because the values shift when countries export or import large amounts of feed and meat," says Samanta. "As a result, the amount of liquid manure needing treatment per kilogram of meat is also highest in Japan." Nitrogen losses due to meat production are lower in the United States and Europe, according to Samanta.

Meat price hikes due to high energy needs

The researchers also calculated how much energy would be required to minimize the amount of nitrogen released into the environment. "When 1 kilogram of beef is produced, 140 grams of ammoniacal nitrogen remain in liquid manure from the cattle. To recover it, we need 7 kilowatt-hours of energy. By comparison, Germany's per capita electricity consumption is about 29 kilowatt-hours per week," says Samanta. For the treatment of 1 kilogram of pork or poultry manure, the required energy decreases considerably, to less than 3 or 0.8 kilowatt-hours, respectively.

"Our results clearly show how much energy would be needed for liquid manure treatment in order to reduce the overall nitrogen footprint," says Samanta, adding that the amount of energy needed is not accounted for in pricing. "If it were, the price for meat would have to increase by 0.20 to 1.50 euros per kilo depending on the kind of meat."

The research was published in Water.

Explore further Removing the nitrogen bottleneck in the world's food supply

More information: Prantik Samanta et al, Impact of Livestock Farming on Nitrogen Pollution and the Corresponding Energy Demand for Zero Liquid Discharge, Water (2022). Prantik Samanta et al, Impact of Livestock Farming on Nitrogen Pollution and the Corresponding Energy Demand for Zero Liquid Discharge,(2022). DOI: 10.3390/w14081278
A portion of the DynaMoS research team at Kennedy Space Center: (L-R) Kim Hixson, Janet Jansson, Yuliya Farris, Marcia Garcia. Credit: Andrea Starr, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

A tiny piece of rural Washington stateand some of its "inhabitants" blasted off into space from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday, July 14.

The inhabitants are bacteria that live in the soil in Prosser, Wash. Scientists will study what the bacteria do in a microgravity environment to learn more about how soil microbial communities function in space. That's information scientists need to grow food either in space or on another celestial body.

The experiment, funded by NASA, is called DynaMoS, or Dynamics of Microbiomes in Space. The study is being conducted by researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

The soil microbial community headed for the International Space Station is composed of eight species of bacteria that PNNL scientists isolated from a scientific field site in Prosser that is run by Washington State University. The microbes will be among the payload of NASA's SpaceX CRS-25 resupply mission.

Crops in space?

PNNL scientists will study how the microbes behave in space compared to how they behave on Earth. Why do some species flourish under certain conditions and struggle under others? Who needs which partners to thrive, and who might be expendable? Will microbes work in space like they do on Earth, to help us grow food and cycle carbon and other nutrients?

"We still have a lot to learn about how microorganisms behave on Earth," said Janet Jansson, a chief scientist and laboratory fellow at PNNL and the leader of DynaMoS. "There are even more questions to address if we are to grow food in space, for instance on the lunar surface or for a long-lasting mission to Mars. How do microbes behave in microgravity, for instance?"

Jansson, Ryan McClure and other PNNL scientists have spent several years studying how communities of microorganisms behave in the soil on Earth.

"Plants need beneficial soil microbes to help them grow. Microbes can provide nutrients and protect plants from drought, from pathogens, and from other kinds of stress," said McClure. "Understanding how microbes interact as they do this is the first step for building communities of microbes that can support plant growth in places like the moon, Mars, or the space station."

Soil and its microbes from Prosser, Wash., are heading for the International Space Station, part of an experiment to learn more about microbial behavior in microgravity. Credit: Photo by Eddie Pablo III, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

At home, even in space

The experiment draws upon some of the fanciest technology available to study something as common as soil. Just one cup of soil typically contains thousands of different microbial speciesfar too many to understand at once. From its studies in Prosser, the PNNL team has evolved a naturally interacting community of eight species that will be used for the space mission.

The bacteria will grow in their home environment, soil collected from Prosser. A few days before launch, the scientists will inoculate the soil with the eight bacteria: Dyadobacter, Ensifer, Neorhizobium, Rhodococcus, Sinorhizobium, Sphingopyxis, Streptomyces, and Variovorax.

The soil will contain chitin, a common microbe chow found in soil worldwide. The ability to eat chitin, or eat byproducts given off by other species as they break down chitin, is key for the microbial community to survive.

"The native soil microbiome is very complex, with thousands of species and millions of interactions. So, we chose to start by focusing on eight species from a naturally evolved community to study," said McClure, who calls the grouping a "reduced-complexity community.

The experiment will include 104 test tubes containing the soil and chosen microbes. Half will be sent to the space station, and half will grow under similar conditionsexcept for gravity and atmospherein a laboratory at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Each tube will contain 20 grams of soil packed with chitin and hundreds of millions of each of the eight bacteria. The tubes will be sampled at four different times over 12 weeks. Then the space samples will be returned to Kennedy Space Center, and all the samples and microbes will be driven via refrigerated truck from Kennedy to PNNL for intensive analysis.

Back on terra firma

Scientists will measure the number of each species as well as their proteins, other molecular messengers known as transcripts, and byproducts called metabolites. Measurements will tell who is most abundant, who is rare, and more importantly what each is doing and how they're interacting. The measurements will be done at EMSL, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a DOE Office of Science user facility at PNNL.

"We need to understand who plays well with whom, who never wants to be with whom, and so on. It takes a village of microbes to create a thriving community and to enhance crop production. That's true for agricultural production anywhere, whether in space or on Earth," said Jansson, who is on a panel of biologists taking part in the Decadal Survey on Biological and Physical Sciences Research in Space 20232032.

Much of the groundwork for the soil mission has been established through a study of the soil microbiome by PNNL scientists and which has been funded by DOE.

Other experiments on board will look at wound healing, immune cells, biosensors, concrete and Earth's dust.

Explore further Scientists discover new soil viruses
Russia's Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft carrying members of the International Space Station launches from Kazakhstan in July 2019.

The United States and Russia said Friday they would renew flights together to the International Space Station, preserving one of the last areas of cooperation amid Western attempts to isolate Moscow over the invasion of Ukraine.

"To ensure continued safe operations of the International Space Station, protect the lives of astronauts and ensure continuous US presence in space, NASA will resume integrated crews on US crew spacecraft and the Russian Soyuz," the US space agency said in a statement.

NASA said that astronaut Frank Rubio would fly with two Russian cosmonauts on a Soyuz rocket scheduled to launch on September 21 from Kazakhstan, with another astronaut, Loral O'Hara, taking another mission in early 2023.

In a first, Russian cosmonauts will join NASA astronauts on SpaceX's new Crew-5 which will launch in September from Florida with a Japanese astronaut also on the mission.

Another joint mission on the SpaceX Crew-6 will fly out in early 2023, NASA said.

The move comes despite the European Space Agency earlier this week terminating its relationship with Russia on a mission to put a rover on Mars, infuriating Russian space chief Dmitry Rogozin who banned cosmonauts on the ISS from using a European-made robotic arm.

But hours before NASA's announcement, President Vladimir Putin dismissed Rogozin, a firebrand nationalist and ardent backer of the Ukraine invasion who once quipped that US astronauts should get to the space station on trampolines rather than Russian rockets.

Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, said the agreement with NASA was in the interests of both countries and "will promote cooperation" on space.

Russian space agency Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin walks prior to the launch of the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft in Kazakhstan in October 2018.

"The agreement seeks to guarantee that in the event of an emergency caused by the cancellation or major delay in a Russian or American space launch, at least one Roscomos cosmonaut and one NASA astronaut will be present to service the Russian and American sections respectively," it said.

NASA said that the ISS was set up for joint participation by the United States and Russia along with Europe, Japan and Canada.

"The station was designed to be interdependent and relies on contributions from each space agency to function. No one agency has the capability to function independent of the others," NASA said.

'Dear friends' in space

Soyuz rockets were the only way to reach the space station until SpaceX, run by the billionaire Elon Musk, debuted a capsule in 2020.

The last NASA astronaut to take a Soyuz to the station was NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei in 2021.

He returned to Earth in March this year alongside Russian cosmonauts, also on a Soyuz.

Speaking to reporters afterward, Vande Hei said that the cosmonauts remained his "very dear friends" despite their nations' tense relationship.

Russian cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov (right) and Anton Shkaplerov (center) and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei (left) are seen inside the Soyuz MS-19 space capsule shortly after landing in Kazakhstan on March 30, 2022.

"We supported each other throughout everything," he said. "And I never had any concerns about my ability to continue working with them."

The United States has imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia after Putin on February 24 invaded Ukraine, defying Western warnings.

The sanctions, which include tough restrictions on financial interactions, have led to an exodus of leading US brands from Russia including Starbucks and McDonald's.

But the International Space Station is unique. It was launched in 1998 at a time of hope for US-Russia cooperation following their Space Race competition during the Cold War.

The ISS is expected to wind down in the next decade.

Rogozin had warned that Western sanctions could affect cooperation.

"If you block cooperation with us, who will save the ISS from uncontrolled deorbiting and falling on US or European territory?" Rogozin wrote in a tweet earlier this year.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not indicate that his removal meant Putin was unhappy with Rogozin.

One independent media outlet said he would be promoted and could be put in charge of occupied territories in Ukraine.

Explore further ESA fully cuts Mars mission ties with Russia, angering Moscow

 2022 AFP
Two of the study orphans at ages 13 and 14, resting with their calves. One has a floppy left ear and the other (since killed by gunfire during conflict between humans and elephants) had a floppy right ear. They were always together, so they had at least one pair of righted ears between them. Credit: Jenna Parker.

A team of researchers from Colorado State University, the Smithsonian Conservative Biology Institute and the Save the Elephants program in Kenya reports that social support by members of elephant herds in African savanna elephants reduces stress levels of orphaned youngsters. In their paper published in the journal Communications Biology, the group describes their study of stress levels in orphaned wild elephants and their ability to rebound from a great loss.

Over the past several decades, African savanna elephants, the largest land animals in the world, have seen population declines due to increases in both poaching and droughta situation that has led to many elephants being orphaned. Because of the long maturation process (it takes 20 years for the elephants to reach their full size), the number of orphans has increased overall. Also, elephant calves are highly dependent on their mothers for the first decade of their lives. In this new effort, the researchers studied the stress levels of orphans as they adapted to sudden changes in their care.

To learn more about orphan stress levels, the researchers followed several herds for over a year, watching carefully when they defecated. They collected the samples and tested them for glucocorticoid metabolite (GCM) levelsa relatively easy way to measure stress levels in mammals. As a control, the team collected and tested samples from 25 orphans and 12 calves raised by their mothers. Orphans included in the study were from seven to 21 years old and had lost their mothers at ages up to 19. The researchers noted that five of the orphans had left their family after being orphaned to join with another family or to form groups with other orphansthe rest stayed with their natal families.

One of the study orphans from the Americans family, at age 13, crossing the Ewaso N'giro River with her calf and her sister's calf. Credit: Jenna Parker.

In testing the GCM levels, the researchers were surprised to find that overall levels for the orphans were no higher than they were for the control group. But there were some individual differences. They found, for example, that those calves that had made "friends" with other calves near them in age had lower GCM levels than those that had little social support. They also found that orphaned calves living in larger groups also had lower GCM levels.

The researchers suggest that good social support can help calves who lose their mothers by reducing the amount of stress they undergo.

Explore further Orphaned elephants' social lives substantially altered by poaching

More information: J. M. Parker et al, Social support correlates with glucocorticoid concentrations in wild African elephant orphans, Communications Biology (2022). Journal information: Communications Biology J. M. Parker et al, Social support correlates with glucocorticoid concentrations in wild African elephant orphans,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-03574-8

 2022 Science X Network
Nansha is one of Guangzhou's least populated districts, but it may soon become its most essential. An ambitious new plan promises to catapult the district into the global spotlight and make it one of the most exciting places to observe the development of China's high-tech economy.



Nansha is Guangzhou's only coastal district and sits almost at the geographical center of the Pearl River Delta, one of the largest urban zones on Earth, consisting of Hong Kong, Macao, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and seven other cities. Possibly due to the success of its neighbors, it was overlooked for a long time. In contrast to the bustling metropolises around it, Nansha long remained a tranquil backwater, occasionally visited by tourists looking for fishing villages, quiet beaches and Qing-era ruins.

Everything began to change in 2004 when, recognizing Nansha's unique geographical advantage, Guangzhou built a container port in the district. The investment quickly paid off. Almost immediately after opening, the Port of Nansha became one of the fastest-growing container terminals on the Chinese mainland and sparked a rapid rate of urbanization. The success caught the attention of the State Council in 2012, which designated Nansha a State-level New Area, tying the district's development directly into national strategy. It has since become an essential part of China's trading network.

In June 2022, the State Council issued an ambitious plan to transform the district into a high-tech hub. The plan states that by 2035, Nansha will become a magnet for technology firms and a global sci-tech innovation center. Together with a raft of other policies, the plan aims to turn the district into a globally competitive tech hub similar to Silicon Valley.

So how does Nansha stack up when it comes to science and technology? What needs to be done, and can it really compete internationally?

First, it's worth noting that, with fewer than a million residents, Nansha already punches well above its weight economically. The district is now one of the world's top 12 ports and shipping hubs and a center for high-end manufacturing, aerospace and marine technologies, health industries, and integrated circuits.

Moreover, a vibrant artificial intelligence (AI) sector has established itself in the district. According to the local authorities, Nansha is already home to over 400 AI businesses. For comparison, Beijing, a long-established global tech hub, hosts around 1,000 AI companies. Moreover, Nansha's AI companies aren't just small startups. Cloudwalk Technology, Aofei Data, and Pony.ai each have a market value of more than $1 billion, according to the Hurun Research Institute. For such a young and sparsely populated district, these numbers are eye-catching.

The plan will build upon these advantages by attracting more high-tech companies with a reduced corporate income tax of 15%, lower than the national standard of 25%. There will also be a raft of support policies, including subsidizing the use of electricity and financing R&D. In addition, authorities have greenlighted several national-level research institutes and incubators in the district, with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology currently building a campus there.

So far, so good, but Nansha still faces a difficult hurdle. It simply needs more people. The plan recognizes this and lists several incentives to attract young people to work, study and start new businesses in the district. Enticements include income tax exceptions for international talent and various subsidies for accommodation and children's schooling. With a low cost of living compared with its more prominent neighbors, and not to mention its beaches and mountains, Nansha shouldn't have a problem attracting talent.

The district is also set to benefit from a flurry of infrastructure projects to help bring more people in from outside the district. Right now, despite being nestled between so many cities, commuting to Nansha from the surrounding cities is still generally inconvenient. For example, it's over an hour's drive from Guangzhou Baiyun Airport, and the metro takes 90 minutes to reach downtown.

However, a new metro line set to open this year will connect Nansha to the city center in just 30 minutes, while a new high-speed railway will open in 2025 and connect it to Shenzhen in 30 minutes. Once opened, Nansha will be one of the few places on Earth within half an hour of two global centers, an attractive prospect for would-be residents.

So, considering all of that, how realistic is the plan?

In any case, the plan's measures are concrete and build upon the district's existing advantages. But will the policies outlined in the plan be enough to achieve the district's global ambitions? We'll have to wait and see. But with the district's inherent advantages, impressive infrastructure projects and the backing of the national government, the future looks promising.




Conventional nanoscale imaging is usually difficult to perform for large, micron-scale samples owing to drifts caused by thermal effects and vibrations. Now, researchers from Japan address this issue with a newly developed imaging system that compensates for such drifts. Credit: Professor Prabhat Verma from Osaka University

Raman spectroscopy, an optical microscopy technique, is a non-destructive chemical analysis technique that provides rich molecular fingerprint information about chemical structure, phase, crystallinity, and molecular interactions. The technique relies on the interaction of light with chemical bonds within a material. However, since light is a wave, optical microscopes are unable to resolve distances less than half the wavelength of the light incident on the sample. This is known as the "diffraction limit," which prevents Raman spectroscopy and other optical microscopy techniques from reaching nanoscale resolutions.

To improve the spatial resolution, another technique called "tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy" (TERS) was invented, which can reach spatial resolutions below the diffraction limit. In TERS, a metallic nano-sized tip confines the light within a nano-sized volume just above the sample. The light interacts with the sample molecules on the surface and the imaging is performed by analyzing the scattered light.

TERS has been successfully used to analyze chemical compositions and surface defects in sample at nanoscale resolutions. However, during imaging, the nanotip tends to drift due to unavoidable thermal and vibrational fluctuations under ambient conditions, causing either the sample to be out-of-focus or misalignment between the nanotip and focal spot, or both. This causes considerable distortions in the scattered signals. To avoid this, TERS imaging needs to be completed within a time window of 30 minutes, a restriction that prevents imaging of any sample larger than 1 m2 with nanoscale resolution.

In a new study published in Science Advances, a research team from Japan, led by Dr. Ryo Kato, a designated Assistant Professor at the Institute of Post-LED Photonics at Tokushima University, and Associate Professor Takayuki Umakoshi and Professor Prabhat Verma from Osaka University, has now developed, for the first time, a stable TERS system that is not limited to a short imaging time window. The team demonstrated its capability by successfully imaging nanoscale defects over a period of 6 hours in a micrometer-sized, two-dimensional (2D) tungsten disulfide (WS 2 ) filma material commonly used in optoelectronic devices. "Our new optical nano-imaging system enables characterization of defect analysis in large-sized WS 2 layers at a high pixel resolution down to 10 nm without any significant loss of optical signal," says Dr. Kato.

To compensate for the drifts over extended periods, the team developed a feedback system that tracks the displacement of the focused light source and readjusts the position of the focus plane accordingly. The focal position of the light source is tracked by measuring the displacement of a reflected laser guide beam directed into the microscope. The focus is then stabilized with a piezo-controlled objective scanner whenever the system senses a drift or a change in the focal position of the light source.

To stabilize the nanotip, the team designed a laser-scanning-assisted tip drift compensation system. In this case, galvano-scanners take images of the laser spot around the metallic nanotip just as it approaches the sample surface. This image appears as a bright spot and indicates the position of the nanotip. Once the measurement at a particular pixel has been carried out, the image of the laser spot around the nanotip is captured again. The laser spot is then moved to match the new position of the nanotip in this image. The process continues throughout the imaging process, ensuring the nanotip remains at a constant position.

By implementing these corrections, the team was able to image a 2D sheet of WS 2 (see image above) with a scan area of 1  4 m2. With a 12 times longer imaging time window than that of conventional imaging, they could detect unique defects missed in conventional TER imaging. They also showed that the defect density on a larger WS 2 sample (comparable to device scales) was higher than that reported for smaller samples.

The study could open doors to precise, high-resolution imaging of not only optoelectronic devices but also biological samples. "Our new drift-compensated TERS microscopy could not only evaluate surface properties of device materials better but also allow us to study biological processes such as the mechanism underlying the development of diseases. This, in turn, could help develop novel clinical methods and therapies," says Dr. Umakoshi.

More information: Ryo Kato et al, Ultrastable tip-enhanced hyperspectral optical nanoimaging for defect analysis of large-sized WS2 layers, Science Advances (2022). www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abo4021 Journal information: Science Advances Ryo Kato et al, Ultrastable tip-enhanced hyperspectral optical nanoimaging for defect analysis of large-sized WS2 layers,(2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abo4021

Provided by Tokushima University
Credit: Shutterstock

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact on the global economy, with the total cost likely to exceed US$12.5 trillion dollars according to International Monetary Fund estimates.

At the same time, the crisis has accelerated huge changes in the way we live and work, and the adoption and invention of new technologies.

Policymakers and leaders in science and industry are pinning their hopes on further innovation to drive economic recovery.

It is a good plan, but stimulating innovation is not easy. I have studied attempts to stimulate local innovation around the world over the past century, and found six broad approaches, each with strengths and weaknesses.

1. Place

This is the development of specialized high-tech clusters or hubs (think the next Silicon Valley). There is good evidence high-tech clusters are crucial for national competitiveness.

Industrial clusters (and cities more generally) are centers of innovation, productivity, skills development and new enterprise creation. Clusters aid both co-operation and competition between firms, build local supply chains, and can create regional brands such as watches from Geneva or suits from Savile Row.

Many governments have tried to create these clusters from scratch with public research institutions, creating science and technology parks, or providing financial and other incentives. Only a few of these attempts have succeeded.

Attempts to accelerate existing or emerging industry clusters have been more successful. Building new industry clusters is also incredibly costly, and can take decades to pay dividends.

2. Culture

This approach seeks to build an innovative, entrepreneurial environment through enhancing lifestyle, culture, and public amenity. It seeks to create a "people climate" where residents can experiment, build, share knowledge and form creative partnerships. This should also attract and retain the young, creative, educated wealth-builders of the future.

Urban revitalization projects worldwide have followed this approach. These projects repurpose downtown and inner-city areas into hip and trendy environments which encourage incidental interactions, casual conversations and group learning.

However, lifestyle enhancement doesn't always lead to more innovation. It can lead to rapid gentrification, which displaces creative communities who can no longer afford the rising rents.

3. Skills

Another way to boost innovation is to increase the local level of valuable skills. This can be done by attracting skilled migrants or training up the local population.

The problem with focusing on skills alone is that people are mobile. Skilled people will leave if they're not provided with ongoing opportunities, or if the financial, lifestyle or creative rewards are higher elsewhere.

Global competition for highly educated or skilled people with experience in creating successful ventures or products is becoming fierce.

However, skills-led approaches to innovation can be powerful as part of the "triple helix model" which integrates research, government, and industry. Critically, skills development needs to be matched with local opportunity.

4. Mission

The mission-based approach pools private and public funding and skills to tackle a mid- to long-term challenge. The most famous example is the U.S. moonshot: the 1961 mission to send a person to the Moon and back by 1970.

NASA had funding for the moonshot over three presidencies. The mission succeeded, and in the process it developed several new technologies and products.

Since that time, "mission statements" have become common in business and government. Governments and NGOs use missions and targets to inspire action on a range of challenges, from net-zero commitments and the UN's Sustainable Development Goals to developing vaccines for global pandemics in under 100 days.

However, missions can run into trouble through lack of ongoing funds, unclear goals, competing interests, and the generation of unintended consequences. Missions can also divert funding from curiosity-driven "blue sky" research, which has been responsible for some of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of all time.

5. Finance

One crucial element in boosting innovation is increased funding for research and development, universities and other research institutions, and commercializing new technologies. However, the relationship between increased funds and increased innovation is complicated.

As countries become more advanced, spending on innovation can become less efficient. Once early gains have been achieved from adopting existing technologies, further advances can only come from the more expensive and riskier processes of creating and commercializing new technology.

This pays off for countries with large markets and existing levels of high productivity, but is harder for other countries.

The venture capital that enables many emerging companies to expand rapidly is highly geographically concentrated. Venture capital also tends to focus on a few sectors, including the information technology and pharmaceutical industries.

6. Technology

This approach uses government spending to provide purpose and funding for new and emerging technologies such as drones, AI, blockchain, and robotics.

When governments engage with innovative local companies early, building their capabilities and co-developing technology applications, it can be good for government and industry. Government gets more modern services, while industry has a strong client.

This approach has built some of the largest and most successful innovation hotspots in the world, including Silicon Valley. The downsides of this approach are that it can gamble with funds allocated for other government purposes, embarrass governments when things go wrong, and relies on government being able to rigorously assess new technologies.

No magic bullet

Success in building vibrant, innovative areas at a local level is crucial for boosting and growing the national economy. None of these six approaches alone will be a "magic bullet" for innovation and economic recovery.

So what will work? Paying close attention to local contexts, and balancing all of these approaches: mixing and matching for local circumstances, while focusing on national productivity, technology development, and future markets.

Explore further Digital tech is the future, but new report shows Australia risks being left in the past

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Centering whiteness: the Dutch colonial administrator of Seram, Indonesia, in the early 20th century. Credit: Tropenmuseum | Wikimedia, CC BY-SA

Whiteness is a modern, colonial invention. It was devised in the 17th century and used to provide the logic for genocide and slavery. The first recorded mention of "white people," historians concur, is in English playwright Thomas Middleton's 1613 play, The Triumphs of Truth.

Ever since the 17th century, people across the worldfrom the Dominican Republic and Morocco to India and New Zealandhave been variously granted or denied rights on the basis of being deemed white or non-white. Whiteness thus has consistently entailed opposition, power and subjugation.

Research shows that this theme of whiteness as power and unity has persisted even as the boundaries of whiteness have shifted.

As European powers colonized various parts of the world, they implemented and refined racial categories. In colonial Barbados, 17th-century labor codes described indentured Europeans as "white" and gave them more rights than enslaved Africans on that basis. This ensured that the two groups would not unite in rebellion against wealthy planters. As African American studies expert Edward B. Rugemer has argued, this also "codified racial distinction as a tool of mastery" and was replicated in Jamaica and South Carolina. Crucially, it hinged on the fact that enslaved Black people had no legally recognized rights, whereas European-born white servants did. Slave status was for life, without recourse, and heritable.

In other Caribbean and Latin American colonies, the term "white" gradually replaced the term "Christian" as the designation for European settlers. In Haiti, French colonial officials grouped people into an array of categories that conflated race and class: "grands blancs" (big whites), "petits blancs" (little whites), "free coloreds," and "slaves," with the overarching distinction being between whites and non-whites.

Spanish and Portuguese colonizers in Latin America, meanwhile, developed the intricate and rigid casta system. At the top of this caste-based hierarchy were peninsular Spaniards (people from the Iberian peninsula), and at the bottom, enslaved Africans.

Whiteness as a political tool

What has made whiteness such an enduringly powerful tool is its "nonsense logic", as writer Robert P Baird recently put ithow ill-defined it is as a label. It can, and has been, defined in whatever way best serves to consolidate power for the ruling group.

Echoing the division between enslaved people and indentured servants centuries earlier, working-class people in the 20th century were pitted against one another by appeals to whiteness.

In his 1995 book, How the Irish Became White, American historian Noel Ignatiev looks at 19th-century Irish immigration to the US. He details how these working-class newcomers emphasized their distance from Black laborers, thereby laying claim to whiteness.

As a radical socialist, he questions why they effectively sided with the oppressor (white Americans), rather than with the oppressed (Black enslaved people). "Imagine how history might have been different had the Irish, the unskilled labor force of the north, and the slaves, the unskilled labor force of the South, been unified. I hoped that understanding why that didn't happen in the past might open up new possibilities next time," he later explained.

When whiteness is used to enact violence

However, as much as whiteness enables power, it also fuels anxiety. Because the category is at once ill-defined but also bestows great power, people who find themselves in that category have consistently been at great pains to protect it. Historically, and still today, in the minds of many of those who stand most to benefit from it, whiteness must be kept "pure."

Thus, colonial officials in the British Empire treated white settlers as citizens with rights, but Indigenous and enslaved people as threats to be suppressed and controlled.

For centuries, universities and schools across Europe formalized the notion of white supremacy through knowledge production and dissemination. The Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus taught that every living being could be categorized and classified into types. The German naturalist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach claimed that human beings were divided into five "scientific" races based on skull shape with the "Caucasian" skull described as "the most handsome and becoming."

In India, in the heyday of scientific racism, colonial scientists argued that ethnicity and caste were physical attributes, assigning hierarchical status and privileging proximity to whiteness. And as scientific racism became mainstream, whiteness was naturalized and framed as "common sense" for generations of students.

Even more sinister were the political and social programs that whiteness justified: eugenics, forced sterilization, and genocide. In the 20th century, the humanities and social sciences, too, were agents of white supremacy. Sociology sought to explain modernity by universalizing the experiences of European and North American societies, while either depicting African and Asian societies as "primitive" or writing them out of history.

This latter point is crucial. White people, and white institutions, have long centered their experiences, imagining them to be universal. Universalizing their experiences, in turn, has permitted white people to speak of themselves as individuals, who are unmarked by race and racism.

This stands in contrast to the way in which non-white and Black people are collectively othered and racialized. And it continues to have tangible, and often terrible, daily consequences.

Universities and schools impose white-centric curriculums and uniform policies that discriminate against Black pupils. Officers overpolice Black communities in the name of law and order. Authorities adultify Black children, which leads to their being treated as criminals.

In each case, whiteness enacts violence without being spoken. By remembering the history of whiteness, however, we might begin to address the legacies of empire and slavery.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

The whole-site management of a Marine Protected Area (MPA) can increase the total abundance of reef species within its borders by up to 95%, according to new research.

This is in contrast to regions where only known features are conserved, with species abundance increasing by just 15% in those areas compared to others where human activity is allowed to continue unchecked.

The findings are highlighted in a study by the University of Plymouth, and are the latest to emerge from its long-running monitoring of marine conservation measures in Lyme Bay, off the south coast of England.

The area is home to two co-located MPAs that have adopted different management styles in their exclusion of bottom-towed fishing.

There is a 270 km2 Special Area of Conservation (SAC), where measures are in place to protect the known extent of sensitive reef habitats. Within that is a 206 km2 areaincluding a mosaic of reef and sedimentary habitatswhere the whole site is protected under a Statutory Instrument.

The new study, published in Fisheries Management and Ecology, showed that in addition to an increase in overall reef abundance, the whole-site approach can have significant other benefits.

The mobile species in the whole-site MPA showed levels of functional redundancywhere any species loss is compensated by other species7% higher than in neighboring areas. The whole-site approach also resulted in higher levels of species diversity.

Researchers say this is indicative of a healthier seabed, which is generally more resilient to incidents such as storms or biological invasions.

Dr. Bede Davies, who led the research as part of his Ph.D. studies, says that "the UK's reefs are a key feature of our coastal areas and support many species of conservation and commercial importance. However, many of them have been damaged and degraded by human activity, posing a threat both to the reefs themselves and also the species that rely on them. This study shows that, given the right support these areas can recover, and Marine Protected Areas are undoubtedly part of the solution. However, the level of recovery is boosted enormously if we work with local communities to consider sites as a whole rather than looking at specific features in isolation."

The research is the third study from the University in under a year to demonstrate the benefits of implementing a whole-site management approach within the Lyme Bay area.

In 2021, researchers showed there are 370% more fish to be found within the MPAand more than four times greater species diversitythan in similar areas outside it.

They also found the approach enhances ecosystem resilience in the MPA, with important seabed habitats and species recovering more quickly following extreme storms than in the wake of bottom-towed fishing.

The University has been working with local communities to monitor the effectiveness of these measures since they were introduced in 2008, with the work having influenced the UK Government's 25-year Environment Plan and been highlighted in various other national reports.

Dr. Emma Sheehan, Associate Professor of Marine Ecology (Research), leads the University's work in Lyme Bay and is the current study's senior author. She says that "Marine Protected Areas are increasingly being recognized as a sustainable way of enhancing the marine environment while supporting coastal communities. The Global Ocean Alliance has a current target to protect 30% of marine areas by 2030. However, introducing such measures is arguably less important than ensuring they are effectively implemented. Our work in Lyme Bay has shown what can be achieved by doing things properly from the off, and sets the benchmark for what other MPA managers should be looking to achieve across the world."

Explore further Marine Protected Area status can boost fish populations by almost 400%

More information: Bede Ffinian Rowe Davies et al, Ecosystem benefits of adopting a wholesite approach to MPA management, Fisheries Management and Ecology (2022). Bede Ffinian Rowe Davies et al, Ecosystem benefits of adopting a wholesite approach to MPA management,(2022). DOI: 10.1111/fme.12581
A male fly trying to mate with a female corpse held in place by a dab of Vaseline. The fungus has grown out of the rear body segment and is visible as large white patches from which spores are ejected. Credit: Filippo Castelucci

Entomophthora muscae is a widespread, pathogenic fungus that survives by infecting common houseflies with deadly spores. Now, research shows that the fungus has a unique tactic to ensure its survival. The fungus "bewitches" male houseflies and drives them to necrophilia with the fungal-infected corpses of dead females.

After having infected a female fly with its spores, the fungus spreads until its host has slowly been consumed alive from within. After roughly six days, the fungus takes over the behavior of the female fly and forces it to the highest point, whether upon vegetation or a wall, where the fly then dies. When the fungus has killed the zombie female, it begins to release chemical signals known as sesquiterpenes.

"The chemical signals act as pheromones that bewitch male flies and cause an incredible urge for them to mate with lifeless female carcasses," explains Henrik H. De Fine Licht, an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Environment and Plant Sciences and one of the study's authors.

As male flies copulate with dead females, the fungal spores are showered onto the males, who then suffer the same gruesome fate. In this way, Entomophthora muscae spreads its spores to new victims and ensures for its survival.

This is the conclusion of a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Copenhagen and Swedish University of Agriculture Sciences in Alnarp.

"Our observations suggest that this is a very deliberate strategy for the fungus. It is a true master of manipulationand this is incredibly fascinating," says Henrik H. De Fine Licht.

Fly corpses become more attractive as the hours pass

Tracking fly behavior also let the researchers demonstrate that dead female flies become more attractive as time passes.

Specifically, 73 percent of the male flies in the study mated with female fly carcasses that had died from the fungal infection between 2530 hours earlier. Only 15 percent of the males mated with female corpses that had been dead for 38 hours.

"We see that the longer a female fly has been dead, the more alluring it becomes to males. This is because the number of fungal spores increases with time, which enhances the seductive fragrances," explains Henrik H. De Fine Licht.

Besides the insight into nature's fascinating mechanisms, the study provides new knowledge that may lead to effective fly repellents in the future. Henrik H. De Fine Licht adds:

"Flies are quite unhygienic and can sicken humans and animals by spreading coli bacteria and any diseases that they are carrying. So, there is an incentive to limit housefly populations, in areas where food is being produced for example. This is where the Entomophthora muscae fungus may prove useful. It might be possible for us to use these same fungal fragrances as a biological pest control that attracts healthy males to a fly trap instead of a corpse," he concludes.

The research was published in The ISME Journal.

The research explained

The researchers used an array of methods. These included the chemical analysis of fragrances emitted by the fungus and amplified in dead female flies, as well as by studying the fungus' genetics via RNA sequencing.

They also studied the sexual habits of male flies through behavioral experiments that exposed them to dead female flies which were at various stages of fungal infection, as well as females that had died from other causes. Here, researcher observations demonstrated that male flies preferred mating with fungus-infected females that had been dead for quite some time.

More about the zombie fly fungus

Entomophthora muscae is a fungus that survives by taking control of and infecting its host, namely flies.

The fungus secretes special enzymes that break a fly's body down over the course of about seven days. The fungus can eject its infected spores at up to 10 meters a second, which is among the fastest of nature's movements.

Explore further A fungus that uses chemicals to trick male flies into mating with infected dead females

More information: Andreas Naundrup et al, Pathogenic fungus uses volatiles to entice male flies into fatal matings with infected female cadavers, The ISME Journal (2022). Journal information: ISME Journal Andreas Naundrup et al, Pathogenic fungus uses volatiles to entice male flies into fatal matings with infected female cadavers,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41396-022-01284-x
CORINTH  An Indian Lake man was sentenced on Thursday to 16 years in prison for assaulting a Corinth man with an ax last October.

Justice D. Locke, 20, had pleaded guilty in Saratoga County Court in May to felony first-degree assault. Locke entered the apartment of the man at 16 Mallory St. at about 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 26 and attacked him with the tomahawk-style axe.

The Saratoga County Sheriffs Office received a call the following morning about a person with serious physical injuries. The victim was treated at the scene was treated by EMTs from Jessups Landing EMS and transported by helicopter to Albany Medical Center.

Investigators Jeff Bouyea and Steven Brown from the Saratoga County Sheriffs Office were led to Locke after receiving a report of a person who entered the Cumberland Farms in the village of Corinth in a highly agitated state and with blood on his hands.

The man was identified later as Locke.

Police located him in Indian lake and he voluntarily went with investigators to the Saratoga County Sheriffs Office for an interview, authorities said. Locke admitted to assaulting the victim with a tomahawk-style ax and then fleeing the scene. He hid the weapon in a building in Indian Lake.

Investigators located the weapon and analyzed forensic evidence collected at the scene to link Locke to the crime.

Police have not disclosed Lockes motive for the assault.

Saratoga County Court Judge James Murphy also sentenced Locke to 5 years of post-release supervision.

This was a bold and purposeful attack, which will affect the victim in this case for the rest of his life, Saratoga County District Attorney Karen Heggen said in a news release.
SARATOGA SPRINGS  A repeat felon faces up to 16 years in state prison following a guilty plea to four separate robbery charges in connection with a crime spree that took place in February.

Between Feb. 19 and Feb. 21, 37-year-old Justin P. Rock, of Ballston Spa, entered the X-tra Mart, Smoke n' Save, Post Time Wine and Spirits, and I Love New York Pizza in downtown Saratoga Springs and got away with hundreds of dollars in cash collectively, according to police.

Police said that Rock had a firearm and demanded cash from the register of the businesses he entered. Rock robbed three of the businesses on Feb. 21, two of which were less than 10 minutes from each other, according to police.

Karen Heggen, district attorney for Saratoga County, announced on Thursday that Rock will pay restitution to the victims and will serve his four separate prison terms consecutively. He will be sentenced on Sept. 15.

Rock will face a prison sentence between eight and 16 years, according to a news release.

Heggen thanked the Saratoga Springs Police Department and the crime victims for their hard work, commitment and perseverance to ensuring that Rock was held accountable.
LAKE GEORGE  Three local nonprofit organizations are partnering to celebrate the 32nd anniversary of the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

The Lake George Rotary Club on Wednesday announced the partnership with Southern Adirondack Independent Living and Warren, Washington and Albany counties ARC, which is a chapter of The ARC of New York.

The passage of the act into law resulted in the federal prohibition on discrimination based on a disability.

Peter Wilhelm, organizer and vice president of the Rotary Club, said that the idea to put on the Tuesday, July 26, celebration was formed when the club met with Tyler Whitney, deputy executive director of SAIL.

We were brainstorming how to promote disability awareness and provide an event where people of all abilities could gather, he said.

In June, the Rotary Club connected with Lisa St. John, assistant executive director of human resources for WWAARC, and Lake George Junior-Senior High School Principal Francis Cocozza to get the ball rolling for the first-ever event in Lake George.

People of all abilities are invited to join the Celebration of Independence 2022 free of charge starting at 11 a.m. in the Lake George High School Auditorium. Parking is limited.

Wilhelm said that the goal of the event is to celebrate the individual achievements of accessibility in our community, and to set the stage to continue that positive change and have Lake George lead by example.

The Day of Independence celebration includes a panel of speakers representing the three nonprofits, including keynote speaker Gina Mintzer, executive director of the Lake George Regional Chamber of Commerce. She is also the host for the event.

Speakers will present the resources and opportunities within their respective organizations, and recipients of services will speak about their journey of independence, according to a news release.

The three nonprofits hosting the event are helping the communities they serve live independently and are encouraging, disability awareness, according to a news release.

Pastries and light refreshments will be provided by Krumkill Cafe, which is a full-service takeout and catering business serving the Capital Region that is employed by the WWAARC.

If you would like to be involved in the celebration or would like additional information, contact Wilhelm at wilhelmpet96@gmail.com, or by calling 518-681-0584. The event will run from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Two out-of-state contractors who previously owned businesses that operated in Ocean and Monmouth counties in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy were sentenced Friday on theft charges, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said.

John Bishop, 57, of Celebration, Florida, and Paul Rueda, 50, of San Diego, Texas, had pleaded guilty to identical charges of theft by failure to make required disposition.

Billhimer said Bishop and Rueda each stole funds through contractor businesses they operated between October 2014 and May 2017 in the aftermath of Sandy.

Bishop, who pleaded guilty May 6, was ordered to pay $178,425 in restitution to his victims, and Rueda, who pleaded guilty May 9, was ordered to pay $542,800 in restitution.

Investigators found Bishop and Rueda formed John Paul Building LLC in November 2012, weeks after the storm wreaked havoc along the Jersey Shore and elsewhere on the East Coast.

Nonprofit recommends limiting coastal building in flood-prone areas LITTLE EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP  New Jersey could limit building in areas that are expected to f

Six homeowners throughout Ocean and Monmouth counties entered into contracts with John Paul Building LLC to repair their homes following the storm, Billhimer said in a news release. Collectively, the homeowners paid the two men more than $350,000, which the defendants agreed to use to complete the projects. The homeowners received little to no work on their projects, and the company disbanded without returning any of the funds to the homeowners.

Between July 2016 and May 2017, Rueda, who grew up in Little Egg Harbor Township, entered into agreements with four additional homeowners under his newly formed contracting business, PKR Construction, Billhimer said. These homeowners paid Rueda a total of $363,575 toward construction. Although some work was performed, Rueda converted the victims funds into his own personal use and benefit, failing to complete those projects.

Detectives from Little Egg Harbor, Brick Township, Point Pleasant Borough and Middletown Township aided in the investigation, Billhimer said.
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Soon we will no longer integrate with Facebook for story comments. The commenting option is not going away, however, readers will need to register for a FREE site account to continue sharing their thoughts and feedback on stories. If you already have an account (i.e. current subscribers, posting in obituary guestbooks, for submitting community events), you may use that login, otherwise, you will be prompted to create a new account.
China's top health authority said regions with favorable local conditions are encouraged to offer free vaccines against the human papillomavirus to protect women and girls from cervical cancer, CCTV reported on Wednesday.

As China currently has not included the HPV vaccination into its national immunization regimen, local governments with adequate resources are encouraged to pilot vaccination projects, as part of an effort to help increase the inoculation rate of HPV vaccines among young girls in the country, according to the National Health Commission.

In May 2021, the commission launched pilot projects focused on cervical cancer prevention strategies in 15 key cities, to formulate relevant regulations and introduce awareness campaigns.

At present, provinces such as Guangdong, Hainan and Fujian have all rolled out policies aimed at covering all schoolgirls eligible for HPV vaccinations.

China has so far approved five HPV vaccines, including two homegrown ones.

According to an expert at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, by the end of 2020, China had administered nearly 12.28 million HPV vaccines, up from about 3.42 million by the end of 2018.

But the overall vaccination rate remains relatively low due to the large number of women eligible for HPV vaccines and limited supplies in the country. Moreover, the HPV vaccination rate of school-age girls in China is less than 1 percent.

Cervical cancer involves a malignant tumor that seriously threatens women's health. Studies have shown that persistent infection of high-risk HPV is directly related to the incidence of cervical cancer, with the two most common virus strains-Type 16 and Type 18 responsible for nearly 85 percent of cervical pre-cancers.

Inoculation for school-age girls can effectively block the infection and reduce the incidence of cervical cancer and precancerous lesions, especially for girls who have not been infected with HPV yet.




ATLANTIC CITY  Stockton University partnered with area artists and unveiled on Thursday two new murals that honor the lives of prominent Black figures and the impact they left on the community.

Its definitely very exciting to have these murals here, and its great that some of our students got to play a part in their creation, said Michael Cagno, executive director of the Noyes Art Museum at Stockton.

The two murals are located within blocks of each other. The first highlights four prominent educational figures from the area while the second depicts three figures who have made a major impact on the Black community.

The murals were done just in time for the city to be in the national spotlight as civil rights activists, politicians and delegates begin arriving for the NAACP National Convention, which began Thursday and runs through Wednesday.

The first mural, located on the side of the former Midtown Grocery building, is titled Education Trailblazers.

The mural features portraits of Juanita High, a member of the Stockton University Foundation Board of Directors; Dorothie W. Dorrington, a former president of the Atlantic City Board of Education; Vera King Farris, a former president of Stockton; and Hannah Pierce, principal of the former Indiana Avenue Girls Vocational School.

Youngsters add artwork to new AtlantiCare facility ATLANTIC CITY  What started as arts-and-crafts projects for children will become a mural in

Charles Barbin, 44, of Brigantine is the artist behind the mural. Barbin said the opportunity to do the piece came together after he was approached by members of Stockton and the NAACP.

We were presented through Stockton and members of the NAACP to have these educators throughout history in Atlantic City be represented on this corner, Barbin said.

After being presented the idea, Barbin began planning the mural.

One thing he wanted to include was an education tree. The tree connects the four women, with portraits of children at the bottom. As the tree grows out, it will depict the children growing into adults in education.

Barbin also wanted to make sure the mural stands out color-wise.

We wanted to use complementary colors because no matter if you are riding a bike, driving a car or walking down the street, the mural is going to be eye catching, Barbin said.

Pleasantville City Council to discuss Midtown Neighborhood Plan PLEASANTVILLE  City Council will discuss the Midtown Neighborhood Plan at its June 22 meeti

The mural was worked on at Barbins studio, Dunes Art Gallery in Brigantine, and took about two weeks to complete. He used the lining of parachutes to create the mural.

That approach allowed him to work on it in the studio and not have to worry about bad weather days that could hinder the process.

The mural was installed in about five hours Wednesday night. On Thursday morning, four Stockton students and Barbin put some finishing touches on it. Barbin hopes to have it completely done by the end of this weekend.

The second mural, located a little farther down Atlantic Avenue on the side of the former RP Lounge, features portraits of Muhammed Ali, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Fannie Lou Hamer.

Zach Katzen from Create 48 and Union Hall Arts approached Stockton with the idea.

The first person Katzen chose to be on the mural was Ali because he came across what he said was a rare old photo of Ali in the city.

When will construction start on the Royal Farms in Absecon? ABSECON  With public doubts stirring about a new Royal Farms coming to the city, an update 

I met a man named Lester Mohammad who is a local historian, and he had this photo of Muhammed Ali that was taken on Madison Avenue and not a lot of people had seen it because it was part of his private collection. So I wanted to share it with everybody on a much larger scale, Katzen said.

The second painting is a recreation of King on Chicken Bone Beach. Katzen said he chose this photo because it represents everything Atlantic City is about.

This photo is such a perfect representation of Atlantic City to me. Its a place where amazing things happen, Katzen said. But its also a place where civil rights activists activists like Dr. King would come to relax because this was the only acceptable place for them. So this photo of him in a bathing suit I think really represents the city.

The last photo depicts Hamer and the impact she had when she spoke at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in the city, seeking to seat a slate of Black delegates.

She spoke about freeing rights for women, especially in the south, Katzen said. I also thought it was a good tie-in for Stockton since they have a room that honors her.

After getting all the details together, Katzen reached out to New York City artist BK Fox, who worked on a design for about six months. Once the design was finished, it took Fox a week to spray paint the mural on the wall.

With the NAACP convention in Atlantic City this week, Katzen was glad the project was done in time.

One of the best parts about this is that we were able to get it done in time to share this with the world, Katzen said.
This fall, students at Davenport Central High School will have an opportunity no other students in the country will have.

Elliott Aviation and the school district have teamed up to offer a first of its kind apprenticeship. The program will allow for juniors in high school to enroll in a mechanic apprenticeship.

Adrienne Wheeler, VP of Human Resources for Elliott, said once she joined the team in November, it was her goal to find a unique way to involve new workers.

"Right away one of the strategic problems I was asked to help solve was around talent and hiring," she said.

The team was met with open arms at the school district.

Elliot visited our classrooms at Davenport Central, and was so impressed with the students, they wanted to figure out ways to engage them more," said the district's Career and Technical Education Director Alli Vandermyde.

The Department of Labor (DOL) has a plethora of registered apprenticeships, she said but those are traditionally skilled trades in manufacturing, she said. Because these programs are so popular, Wheeler thought bringing it to the schools was one way to get ahead.

"We thought, 'Why not really take this DOL credential and credibility and marry it up with the skills that we need?'" she said.

Vandermyde said she jumped at the opportunity to partner, because it provided a chance for students to think outside the box when it comes to their future careers.

"I want great jobs for these kids in the program  but I also wanted to start putting the thought into kids minds about jobs they have never heard of," she said.

In aviation, the career paths are both interesting and high paying, she said. According to Indeed, the average pay for an aircraft mechanic in Iowa is nearly $27 per hour.

The demand for mechanics is high, too. Wheeler said the industry is expected to see the need grow by 10-12% over the next decade. But, there's already a shortage of 12-15,000 mechanics. 30% of all licensed mechanics are older than 65, which puts the pressure on, she said.

"There's a lot of red flags there when you're building a workforce," she said.

The two-year apprenticeship involves a student taking classes during the school year, working at Elliott the summer before their senior year, then completing more classes while working for Elliott part time during their senior year. After graduation, the student will work for Elliott full time and complete fully paid-for training classes.

In a few years time, they will have all the tools they need to sit for their board certification to become an official aircraft mechanic, Wheeler said.

Vandermyde said a few students have shown interest in the program so far. In order to be eligible, they have to have take prerequisite courses then apply to Elliott, which makes the final decision.

The goal is to begin the apprenticeship with only one or two students, in order to make sure its a sustainable method. Vandermyde said she hopes the success of the program will inspire other industries to keep high school students in mind for future projects.
One of the first things Westyn Wilson asked when he learned his wish was about to come true was if his brother could join him.

Westyn, 12, and his 8-year-old brother, Aceyn, are as thick as thieves, and if Westyn was going to head to John Deere on a Make-A-Wish trip, Aceyn was going to be right there with him.

The two boys sat in the cab of a combine Thursday morning in the John Deere Visitor Center, fiddling with controls and waving to the Deere employees gathered below. Their parents watched fondly from the floor, speaking with people lined up to give their well-wishes and thanks for stopping by.

"They're four years apart, but they are best friends," Shelbi Wilson, Westyn and Aceyn's mom, said. "It was very hard for both of them when he couldn't come into the hospital every time, but it just made them closer and closer."

After two years of waiting, Westyn and his family were able to travel to East Moline from their home in Pine, Arizona, for his Make-A-Wish visit, a two-day excursion filled with everything John Deere. His first stop was to Deere Harvester Works, where he took a tour of the facilities and received Deere-themed gifts from employees.

The family will also make stops at the gift shop, Deere Pavilion, world headquarters, Coal Valley equipment test site and Modern Woodmen Park for a River Bandits game.

Westyn was diagnosed with Wilms' Tumor  a rare kidney cancer  four years ago. It had grown to touch his lung, and Westyn spent a year undergoing radiation and chemotherapy and has been in remission since. Doctors were able to preserve much of his kidney.

While Westyn was a bit shy in the face of all the attention, Aceyn was the opposite  stepping up to speak for his brother when prompted.

"He was so excited," Aceyn said of Westyn's reaction to seeing the Harvester Works and Visitor Center for the first time.

The kids' love for Deere goes back generations. Westyn's paternal great-grandfather bought his first brand-new piece of Deere equipment in the early 1960s, and passed that loyalty down. Both his grandfathers, one in construction and one in agriculture, use Deere machines, and Westyn has always been fascinated with them.

Dustin Wilson, the boys' father, said one of Westyn's favorite things to do is run the skid steer and work in other Deere equipment on his grandpa's farm. When Westyn grows up, he wants to go into a field where he can operate equipment of his own.

"That's all he wants to do, play in the tractors," Dustin said.

Westyn is the 10th child to visit Deere through Make-A-Wish, said Dustin Lemmon, in public relations for Deere. Westyn was originally supposed to travel to Illinois in 2020, but all Make-A-Wish traveling was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than choose a wish closer to home, Westyn wanted to wait.

Make-A-Wish Illinois Senior Community Engagement Manager Janet Glavin said she is thankful that the organization can go back to granting wishes like Westyn's again after having to pause the work. From what she heard Thursday, Deere employees were humbled that Westyn chose them for his wish.

"That Westyn really waited for two years to be able to have this wish, because of the pandemic, makes it even more impactful that we were able to do it today, thanks to John Deere," Glavin said.
Four people face gun-related charges in Rock Island County after a series of arrests by the Moline Police Department.

The arrests were made by officers working the third shift, according to the department in a post on its Facebook page acknowledging those officers efforts. Multiple illegally possessed guns were confiscated during the arrests.

The incidents happened between July 3 and July 9, according to court records.

The arrests:

July 3. Amari J. James, 19, Moline:

The Moline Police Department said the arrest occurred during a traffic stop.

James is charged with two counts of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and resisting a peace officer, according to court records.

The Rock Island County States Attorneys Office alleges James had a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson pistol and a Glock-style 9 mm pistol when he did not have proper licensing, such as a firearm owners identification card, court records state.

At the time, the weapons were uncased, loaded and immediately available to James when he was somewhere where he did not have permission to be so armed, records state.

The resisting charge stems from an accusation that James ran when an officer attempted to arrest him during the gun investigation, according to court records.

James was in custody at the Rock Island County Jail, according to court records. He was being held on a $50,000 bail. To be released, he would have to post a $5,000 bond.

James next court hearing has been set for July 19, court records state.

July 5. Dominique L. Johnson, 32, Maquoketa:

Johnson was also arrested during a traffic stop, according to the police department.

He is charged with armed violence, unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, unlawful possession of a controlled substance and unlawful possession of cannabis, according to court records.

Authorities accuse Johnson of having a .22-caliber Sig Sauer pistol, less than 15 grams of a substance containing Ecstasy (15 grams is about half an ounce) and between 100 and 500 grams (between 3.5 and 17.5 ounces) of a substance containing cannabis, court records

Johnson has a prior Rock Island felony conviction for robbery, according to court records. This conviction prohibits him from having firearms.

Police said Johnson had two pistols, but the court record listed only the Sig Sauer.

Johnsons bail has been set at $150,000, according to court records. To be released, he would have to post a $15,000 bond.

His next court hearing is scheduled for July 19, court records state.

July 8. Bobby G. Ivey, 65, from Dallas, Texas:

Ivey was arrested at the Country Inn & Suites, 2721 69th Ave. Court, the police department said.

Prosecutors have charged Ivey with two counts of unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon and one count of battery, according to court records.

He allegedly had a Ruger .380-caliber LCP Max pistol and a Taurus .40-caliber PT 140 G2 pistol despite a felony conviction, according to court records. The documents did not provide details of the prior felony.

The battery charge alleges he knowingly made physical contact of an insulting and provoking nature with a woman, court records state.

Iveys bail is $50,000, according to court records. To be released, he would have to post a $5,000 bond.

His next court hearing is set for July 26, court records state.

July 9. Dontaye Polk, 29, Davenport:

Polk was arrested during a traffic stop, according to the police.

He has been charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and a misdemeanor count of violating Illinois conceal/carry code.

Polk allegedly had a Beretta 84 .380-caliber pistol when he did not have proper licensing, such as a firearm owners identification card, court records state.

At the time, the weapon was uncased, loaded and immediately available to Polk when he was somewhere where he did not have permission to be so armed, records state.

The misdemeanor charge accused Polk of being under the influence of alcohol or another substance at the time he was carrying the gun concealed, court records state.

Polks bail has been set at $5,000, according to court records. To be released, Polk would have to post a $500 bond.

His next court hearing is scheduled for July 26, court records state.
Dozens of city workers in Bettendorf are asking to be certified as a class for a class-action suit against the city.

An attorney for Council 61 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFSCME, early this week filed a two-count complaint in district court in Scott County, representing 53 employees, including about 40 former and current workers who have signed on to the suit.

At issue is the calculation of on-call pay as it is applied to overtime pay.

Bettendorf terminates services to Riverdale The Bettendorf City Council voted 7-0 Tuesday to terminate its agreements to provide snow removal and engineering inspection services to the city of Riverdale because of what it regards as Riverdale's lack of cooperation in resolving a bike path dispute.

"We have not seen the filing. We are aware of certain allegations relating to the calculation of overtime pay and the interaction with on-call pay," City Attorney Christopher Curran wrote in a statement Friday. "We have been working with AFSCME and its legal counsel in good faith to resolve the matter and will continue to do so."

Bettendorf employees frequently are on-call for sewer/storm water issues, along with workers from the street department, including those responsible for snow removal. On-call workers get an extra $100 per week, sometimes $200, which is to be calculated into hourly pay after 40 hours.

The city failed to add the on-call pay to overtime calculations, AFSCME asserts.

"Plaintiffs bring this action on behalf of themselves and similarly situated employees to recover unpaid wages and overtime," according to their complaint.

The city and the union are not in agreement on the amount of compensation the workers have coming, said AFSCME's attorney, Kelsey Marquard. A two-year time period, beginning July 1, 2020, is covered by the claim.

Effective in the summer of 2020, the city calculated overtime pay, based on workers' straight hourly rate. Various schedules for on-call work provide for the extra $100/week, which was not included, according to the filing.

"Adding the on-call pay to an employee's regular rate increases the employee's regular rate by at least $2.50 an hour," Marquard wrote.

One count of the claim alleges the city violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by failing to adjust the pay. The second count claims the city violated Iowa's Wage Payment Collection Act on the same grounds, further alleging the pay slight was intentional.

The suit seeks "an amount to be proven at trial, including lost wages and benefits, unpaid overtime, liquidated damages," along with attorney fees.
Anticipation is growing among Moline residents and businesses hoping the city finally acts on broadband.

Earlier this week, Mayor Sangeetha Rayapati assured residents the city is one step closer to finalizing a deal with a provider. The city has been seeking a provider for three years.

Moline's frontrunning proposals are from Metronet and Geneseo Communications.

"The internet infrastructure we can have in Moline impacts everything," Rayapati said. "It's not just about residential, it's about what we can offer for businesses that want to locate here."

Rayapati reminded residents at a library meeting Wednesday that council members are looking for a provider who can bury at least 90% of the fiber, offer one gigabyte for everyone in Moline, and offer a full range of services including high-speed internet, phone and television services.

Geneseo is proposing about 95% of its infrastructure be underground, at a cost of up to $22 million. Metronet is proposing a majority of the installation be strung on poles but at no cost to the city.

Resident Annisa Wanat said she prefers underground but is curious about how the city is going to pay for the installation of the underground.

Rayapati said the city has set aside $1 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to put toward the project and further funding would come from other means but has yet to be determined.

Residents meeting with the mayor said that they would prefer most of the fiber to be installed underground, because it would be protected from weather and easier to maintain.

Burial installation would take two years, whereas aerial installation would be anywhere from 12 to 18 months.

One resident asked about environmental impacts and if the companies would restore areas where they work.

According to Moline's ordinances, companies would be expected to restore the area to what it was before and obtain a right-of-away permit or licensing agreement that establishes nothing can be constructed or installed on land maintained by the city without an agreement with the city.

City Administrator Bob Vitas said the ordinance was written in 2003 and, at the time, the council's intention was to have a "three-prong test in place" to regulate how utility companies would perform. He acknowledge in recent years that some companies working on city property failed to repave areas after their work.

"When you open a trench, if you open street, or if you open up the right of way, obviously restoration has to happen," Vitas said.

Vitas said a performance bond of $2,500 will be required and if the company fails to go back and restore the area within a prescribed timeframe, the city will use the bond to pay for the restoration.

Once the council determines which company to go with, CTC Consulting will negotiate term rates and how long the rates will be in place. Vitas said rates will be retained with competing media and will last for three to five years before it changes again.

The monthly cost is being projected anywhere from $30 to $90 depending on the speed of internet.

Moline has gone through two rounds of bids in the past three years for a citywide broadband provider. In the second round of proposal requests, respondents included AT&T, Geneseo Communications, Mediacom, Metronet and Windstream.

CTC Technology, the city's consultant, recommended negotiating with both Windstream and Metronet as preferred providers but Windstream has since withdrawn its proposal.

The council is expected to discuss the broadband search further during a roundtable discussion Tuesday.
Allison Rose waited more than an hour for her son to get out of work before making calls to find him.

Rose had dropped off her son, Casen Garcia, for his third-shift job at 8 p.m. Friday, July 8, at the Tyson Foods plant in rural Joslin. Rose regularly dropped him off, then picked him up in the morning.

Garcia, 22, was supposed to get off work at 7:30 a.m. on July 9. His mom got there early, 7:20. At 8:35, with no sign of Garcia, she called his fiancee, Jessica Rocha Alvarado, to see if she had heard from him.

"I tried calling him two or three times, then I used the security call-in line," Alvarado said. "I was told they'd been trying to call me and his mom, Alli, for an hour. Neither of us had any missed calls on our phones.

"They said they couldn't tell me anything on the phone. I honestly thought he hurt himself. I thought he'd cut his hand off; I hoped. Deep down, I could feel something was wrong."

Her instincts were correct.

"I went to the guard shack, and that's where they told me they had found my son in the parking lot and he was already gone," Rose said. "They told me that it had something to do with his heart  an underlying medical condition.

"I came to find out he never was in the parking lot, and he never had an underlying medical condition at all, ever."

However, preliminary autopsy results indicate Garcia, of East Moline, had an enlarged heart, according to Rock Island County Coroner Brian Gustafson. The condition can result from a number of causes, and Gustafson said toxicology results are likely to give more specific clues.

Tyson Foods issued this statement: "Were cooperating with authorities as they investigate the passing of one of our team members from our Joslin, Illinois, facility. The team member experienced a medical episode on July 9. We extend our thoughts and prayers to the team members family, friends and co-workers."

But Garcia's family and several co-workers say they think the "medical episode" was brought on by conditions inside the plant.

Investigations are underway

Despite Tyson's declaration that Garcia died as the result of a "medical episode," the cause of his death has not yet been determined.

In addition to pending autopsy results, the Rock Island County Sheriff's Department is investigating, and the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA, is conducting an inspection at the plant.

"We have an open investigation into this persons death. As of right now, the investigation is centered on why someone so young may have passed away," Sheriff Gerry Bustos said. "I know the investigators have attended his autopsy and are awaiting the final results and toxicology report, but no cause has been definitively identified."

Garcia's body was found just outside the doors of a rendering area known as "the basement," Rose said. He was lying on railroad tracks that serve the plant.

Several of his co-workers spoke to a reporter on the condition of anonymity, saying they feared they would be fired for talking about what happened. Each has reached out to Garcia's mother, telling her what they think happened: He died either from extreme heat exposure, ammonia inhalation, electrocution or a combination of all three.

His mother, fiancee and his co-workers said Garcia was a healthy and fit 22-year-old. He was an active member of the Illinois Army National Guard, and it was not unusual for him to sprint several blocks to the convenience store near his home, Alvarado said.

"He never was out of breath," she said. "If 'health issues' caused this, it had to be from the conditions he was working in."

His mother, having spoken with several of her son's co-workers, said she was convinced something besides an undetected heart issue took him.

"I'm told it was 120 degrees in that basement, and Casen always talked about the smell of ammonia," Rose said. "Two days before he died, he said, 'Mom, I can't believe no one's died down there.'"

Several co-workers said Garcia and others would rotate through the basement, taking regular breaks to escape the heat and smell. Garcia had left the basement just minutes before he collapsed outside the plant doors, they said.

Just before that, co-workers said, another maintenance worker in rendering had been told to get out of the basement because he was pale and had stopped sweating.

Delays in reaching him

A co-worker and a supervisor tried to revive Garcia, but the co-worker didn't know CPR and the supervisor had injuries that prevented him from performing life-saving measures effectively, co-workers said.

While a medical office is just a few minutes' walk from the tracks where Garcia died, several people said, the medical response took 25 minutes. Workers said those around Garcia were pleading desperately into a radio, "Man down!" and "He's not breathing!" but radio chatter about equipment repair kept overriding their pleas.

"It took another 15 minutes for the ambulance to get there," Rose said. "As my son was dying, the production crew was told to keep working, and several of them said they were told not to talk to the police."

Two of Garcia's colleagues said he appeared to be gasping for air before he died. One worker said he took off one of his boots just outside the door, suggesting he was trying to cool off. But another told Rose that Garcia had moved an overhead hoist just outside the door, and it came into contact with a power line.

"We know he only had one boot on, and the other was a distance away from him, which may have happened if he was shocked," Rose said. "The coroner said that hasn't been ruled out."

Gustafson, the coroner, declined to say whether Garcia's body showed signs of electrocution, saying the investigations and the toxicology screen should supply more answers.

Family says drugs are out

A co-worker who spent a recent holiday with Garcia said the two had a "deep conversation" about drugs, and Garcia worried about people using illicit drugs because he had read so many bad things about fentanyl.

His mother and fiancee said he used marijuana, which is legal in Illinois, but he was not an illicit-drug user.

"He wouldn't even let me buy nicotine vapes," Alvarado said. "Drugs? Absolutely not."

Garcia was into healthy living, she said. His goal, in fact, was to one day open a vegetarian restaurant.

"We had our house, and we were just starting to save," she said. "He was amazing with food. He hated working at the plant and was always complaining about how dangerous it was.

"He was scared he would die there. He was trying to get some experience, then move on. He had just applied at Arconic."

A good job was important to Garcia. He and Alvarado have a 14-month-old son together whom he adored.

"The last couple days, it's been hitting our son," she said. "He's agitated and screaming out, 'Da-da! Da-da!' Honestly, sometimes I just scream with him.

"I just can't believe I lost him. How is this even happening?"
The Bettendorf Community School Board unanimously declined to accept a petition calling for a Vote of No Confidence to remove Superintendent Dr. Michelle Morse after the district said it was deemed invalid under the Iowa Code.

About 1,200 people signed the petition; however District Counsel Wendy Meyer said the board couldn't act on the petition because the electronic signatures could not be verified, and the call to remove Morse conflicted with Iowa law.

"Even if the petition came in front of the board, the board could not fulfill what it's requesting because we have to follow procedures under Iowa Code 279, which provides statutory provisions for termination and procedural safeguards," Meyer said.

Iowa Code 279.8B rules that a petition is valid if signed by at least 10 percent of school district residents who voted in the last school board elections, or at least 500 eligible voters within the district. If valid, the board must place any proposal specified in the petition on the next regular school board meeting agenda, or on the agenda of a board meeting held within 30 days.

A group of parents and community members called Bettendorf Parents United began collecting signatures after the board meeting on May 26. Bettendorf Parents United organizers would not disclose the total number of group members.

Janiece Goldsberry has grandchildren in the district. She walked around her neighborhood to get signatures for the petition.

"People are done, they are tired of it. I know people who are selling their houses to leave this district because of what this administration and this board has allowed to happen to our schools," she said during the public forum. "It has to stop now."

The petition cited 60 district staff or administrators leaving their positions since August 2021, calling the number unacceptable and stating that the district has suffered greatly since losing qualified and experienced staff due to the current lack of leadership.

Board President Rebecca Eastman addressed some of these concerns in a statement before the review was held.

"Public education across the country and world is dealing with increased pressure, scrutiny and criticism. Bettendorf is no exception," Eastman said. "We have and will continue to welcome input from students, staff, parents and community members regarding how we, as a district, can better serve our students, staff and families. We are steadfast in our commitment to collaborate with all stakeholders to identify solutions and cultivate stronger relationships."

She said Bettendorf, like other districts in Iowa and across the nation, saw an increase in resignations and retirements and that the majority of staff leaving are moving to other positions or advancements for family and personal reasons.

"Some are making the change due to the intense pressures of working in education," Eastman said, before quoting a July 2022 American Federation of Teachers survey.

"The unprecedented challenges of continuing instruction during a pandemic may have eased, but newly organized book-banning campaigns, political interference, and the latest school shootings are draining more teachers of enthusiasm for their jobs," the survey said.

Eastman also noted that 26 staff members took advantage of an early retirement incentive, compared to only two last year.

"In spite of the perception of some, Bettendorf continues to be a highly desirable district. The majority of our vacancies are filled, and have been filled by highly qualified, experienced and passionate educators while other districts continue to look to fill spots," she said.

The petition also claimed Morse has completely failed in her legal duties to provide a safe learning environment for all students and staff in the wake of increased student misconductwhich some feel has hindered student achievement and teacher instruction.

Eastman said that staff has been working throughout the summer to update practices and protocols in addition to improving and clarifying district expectations and consequences. She listed additional administrative and security support and adding a district social, emotional and behavioral health coordinator as measures taken to improve student and staff safety at the middle and high schools.

"As our new administrative team prepares for the upcoming school year, they are dedicated to remaining solution-focused and finding opportunities to improve the district for students, families and staff," Eastman said. "Our goal, going into the 2022-2023 school year is to center our work on our district core values of community, integrity, lifelong learning and empowerment."
The Rock Island-Milan School District #41 announced their registration dates for the 2022-2023 school year on Wednesday.

Registration will take place on Wednesday, July 20 and Thursday, July 21 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Rock Island High School Fieldhouse. All families who are new to the district will need to register for school on those dates.

The site is located on 1400 25th Avenue in Rock Island.

The district would like to note that families will not be able to register at their home school on the first day, which falls on Wednesday, August 3. However, there will be a satellite registration location available at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center that day for families to register their students from 8:00 a.m. to noon.

The Martin Luther Kind Jr. Center is located on 630 9th Street in Rock Island.

More information about registration, a map of home school boundaries and other requirements can be found on the district's website, www.rimsd41.org.

-- STAFF REPORT
The Iowa State Education Association (ISEA) awarded Quad-Cities local Valarie Garr with the 2022 Paul Mann Memorial Human Relations Award at their "Celebration of Excellence" banquet in Des Moines on August 1. Garr is the president and founder of the Quad-City Minority Partnership Committee and serves as the diversity coordinator at the University of Iowa College of Nursing.
A state regulatory board cleared the way this week for Iowa-American Water to buy the city of Blue Grass's sanitary sewer system for $2 million and charge its own rates.

Once the deal is completed, it'll be Iowa-American Water's first sewer and stormwater system it owns and operates, a spokesperson said, and the company wants to take on more in the future.

The sale, too, means rates will go up for those 725 residential and commercial customers to offset costly upgrades needed bring the system up to state standards, according to regulatory filings. But city officials say it'll still be a smaller increase than if the city made the improvements itself.

Blue Grass already has some familiarity with Iowa-American Water  the utility company took over the city's water system after voters overwhelmingly approved the deal in a 2016 referendum. The city is one of eight eastern Iowa cities that get their water service from Iowa-American Water.

Under state law, the Iowa Utilities Board is required to review and approve a rate-regulated utility company buying a municipal-owned utility system. Blue Grass and Iowa-American Water got the green light last week.

The decision by the state board also OK'd wastewater charges  $39.48 fixed monthly rate plus about 74 cents for each 100 gallons after 2,500 gallons.

That's a jump from the current minimum monthly charge of $22.69 for under 25 gallons.

According to regulatory filings, Iowa-American Water will have to complete more than $3 million in upgrades to the water system to bring it in line with Iowa Department of Natural Resources standards. The price hikes are meant to offset that cost.

City Clerk Ann Schmidt said the city conducted a cost analysis and found in order to keep ownership of the system and make the upgrades, Blue Grass would have needed to raise rates 250%. Plus, she said, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources denied the city's application for an extension on making the needed upgrades.

"We were kind of desperate," Schmidt said.

Iowa-American Water spokesperson Lisa Reisen said the company expected the transition to last "months not years," but didn't have an exact timeline.

The sale of the city's wastewater system didn't require voter approval, Schmidt said, but city staff and elected officials held three public meetings for community feedback.

"Being a small town, we had a lot of people come in and ask questions, and after answering those, people seemed to be very comfortable with the city's decision," Schmidt said. "The majority of the town understood the situation we were in and knew this was the best route to take financially."

The Iowa Utilities Board will monitor Iowa-American Water to ensure it makes the improvements, according to the filings, and the company will be required to look for other federal and state funding options to help offset the costs of improvements.
Construction on a new federal courthouse in downtown Rock Island has begun.

The courthouse, serving the Central District of Illinois, will be built on the site of the former Bituminous Insurance Co., 320 18th St., which was demolished in November.

Kelly Young, director of government development for Russell Construction, said the "shell building" would cost less than $10 million and the project was on track to be completed by the summer of 2023. The 53,356-square-foot, three-story federal building will house multiple federal tenants.

"Site work, underground piers and foundations are underway," Young said Friday. "We have had fantastic support from subcontractors and teaming partners to maintain schedules for site work, steel fabrication and more. We expect to see a lot happening as we go vertical in September; the building will really start to take shape.

"We continue to appreciate our great relationship with the city of Rock Island navigating through our development and construction downtown."

Rock Island Investors was awarded a $49.8 million contract by the General Services Administration in July 2021 for construction of the courthouse. Russell Government Group, LLC, makes up 50% of Rock Island Investors. The remainder of the development group is owned 30% by Fishman Family Properties LLC and 20% by Jeff Eirinberg. Rock Island Investors began soliciting the contract in 2018.

Shive-Hattery, which specializes in judicial design, will serve as the architect.

Rock Island Investors will lease the building to the federal government through a 20-year contract with the General Services Administration. The agreement states the government will pay $2.5 million annually for rent, tenant improvements, secured parking and operating expenses.

The former Central District of Illinois courthouse at 211 19th St., Rock Island, was closed in October 2018 because of mold and flooding issues. Operations were temporarily relocated to the Southern District of Iowa U.S. District Court, 131 E. 4th St., Davenport. Anyone needing to conduct business at the federal courthouse has had to travel to Iowa since then.
Primary doses and booster shots of COVID-19 vaccinations are available Saturday at the Walcott Truckers Jamboree.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is partnering with Healthy Trucking of America, or HTA, and the local health department to host the "We Can Do This" vaccination event.

The 2022 Walcott Truckers Jamboree, a large trucking convention in Walcott, begins at 9 a.m. Saturday, concluding at 5 p.m.

The event includes over 175 exhibits and expects more than 40,000 people. Primary series doses will be offered, and booster shots are available to everyone 5 years and older who are vaccinated.

"COVID-19 vaccines continue to work very well at preventing severe illness, hospitalization and death," according to the United States Department of Health and Human Services. "A booster shot is an extra dose that helps keep up your protection."

To find free vaccines near you:

 Text your ZIP code to 438829

 Call 1-800-232-0233

 Barb Ickes
This week, I felt fortunate to join minds from across the state to discuss one of the most pressing issues in South Dakota, nursing demand. The South Dakota Association of Healthcare Organizations (SDAHO) led the conversation for building a healthy future in the field of nursing.

Numbers from the South Dakota Board of Nursing showed a nearly six percent job growth in registered nurses from 2016 - 2020. By 2028, job growth will hit 13%, or the need for an additional 1,700 nurses, based on projections from the South Dakota Department of Labor. Higher education is essential in attacking this issue, but we can't accomplish it alone.

The Board of Regents (BOR) and the Board of Technical Education (BOTE) are committed to training more quality nurses for the state. This past year, BOR and the South Dakota Legislature addressed this challenge head-on. Adjustments to the Self-Support Tuition Rate allow us more flexibility in setting course costs and locations, supporting initiatives to produce more high-demand healthcare graduates in high-demand areas.

Throughout South Dakota, our efforts to increase nursing graduates are underway. This year, the Legislature also approved funding for a Health Science addition at Black Hills State University-Rapid City. Students will now be able to complete their Bachelor of Nursing degree through South Dakota State University (SDSU) in our state's second largest city. More students will have the opportunity to graduate with an accelerated Bachelor of Nursing degree through SDSU in the reconstructed Lincoln Hall on the campus of Northern State University in Aberdeen. The recent approval of the University of South Dakota-Sioux Falls campus aims to become the Health Science Hub for USD, increasing students and programming.

But these efforts are not just taking place at the university level. South Dakota's technical colleges aim to instruct more than 300 additional students in their Practical Nursing and Registered Nursing programs in the next five years. Lake Area Technical College, Southeast Technical College, and Western Dakota Technical College offer these nursing programs at their campuses and additional locations statewide. We know a strong partnership within higher education can help combat academic barriers, so for students who want to expand their education, measures are underway to ease the transfer between technical colleges and public universities.

We are optimistic that these efforts, and the work of others, will minimize the strain for healthcare professionals in our state. The need for nurses in South Dakota is a statewide concern, and we are thankful for organizations like SDAHO for bringing higher education to the table. A solid step forward begins with everyone on the same path.

Dr. Brian Maher is the Executive Director of the South Dakota Board of Regents.
The Bitterroot National Forest is inviting the public to identify relevant scientific information and issues for the forest to consider in amending its 1987 Forest Plan components for old growth, course woody debris and snags.

The forest is conducting the evaluation to consider using more recent scientific literature and updated metrics for old growth, course woody debris and snags than was available 35-years ago when the Forest Plan was adopted.

In 2019, the forest conducted a similar study in coordination with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) to consider updating its Forest Plan Elk Habitat Objectives.

The purpose of the latest proposed amendment is to update current plan direction for old growth, course woody debris and snags based on current scientific information regarding the management of these characteristics to habitat diversity. The amendment would also align the Bitterroot plan with the definition and standards for old growth used by the Forest Service across the Northern Region and nationally.

Forest Plan amendments may be broad or narrow, depending on the need for change, and are used to help forests adapt to new information or changing conditions. Once approved, the amendments will apply to all future projects implemented under the 1987 Forest Plan.

To learn more about the Forest Plan amendment proposal visit https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=57302

Public comments specific to this review are valuable in helping the Forest Service identify concerns, develop alternatives, and refine the analysis to focus on issues. Comments are due by Aug. 12.

Electronic comments must be submitted by going to the project webpage: https://cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public//CommentInput?Project=57302.

If you wish to comment in writing, please address your comments to: Bitterroot National Forest, Attn: Forest Plan Amendment, 1801 N. 1st Street, Hamilton, MT 59840. Comments can also be hand-delivered to the Bitterroot National Forest Supervisors Office in Hamilton or faxed to 406-363-7159. Be sure to indicate on the fax cover page that these are comments for the Forest Plan Amendment.

Individuals and organizations who submit substantive comments during these opportunities will be eligible to object to the draft decision or participate as an interested person in any resolution meeting that may be held.

For additional information visit the Bitterroot National Forest Project webpage https://www.fs.usda.gov/projects/bitterroot/landmanagement/projects or contact Kimberly Smolt, Special Projects Manager at kimberly.smolt@usda.gov.
As the spring hunting season for wild turkeys just ended in Montana, I am sure many a hunter pursuing this bird found them to be a bit more difficult to harvest then one would think. After all, this bird with males weighing up to 25 pounds has a brain the size of a grape. Yet this non-native species has extremely acute hearing and vision which can detect the slightest movement or sound, which often sends the bird in the opposite direction of the hunter.

Merriams turkeys, native to the Southwest, were introduced in to eastern Montana in the 1950s with some additional introductions of the eastern turkey species in to the Flathead region of western Montana. Turkeys found in the Bitterroot are likely Merrimans with some potential for hybrids from wild and domestic breeding. From the initial introduction of Merriams, Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks has moved surplus numbers around the state, where today, wild turkeys are found in nearly every county of Montana.

Merriams turkeys were named after Dr. Clinton Hart Merriam, (1855-1942) known as The Father of Mammalogy and served as the Chief of the U.S. Biological Survey for over 25 years. This handsome turkey is more adapted to living in the western mountain landscapes, where they can be found along river bottom corridors or steep mountain ponderosa pine forests. In both cases, they will seek out mature pine or cottonwood galleries for their nighttime roost habitat. The eastern species was likely the bird responsible for our Thanksgiving tradition and if Ben Franklin had his way, the wild turkey would have been our national symbol rather than the bald eagle.

Here in the Bitterroot, turkeys have thrived mainly due to mild weather and backyard feeding which has benefited flocks of over 50 birds found in neighborhoods around Hamilton and Corvallis. In the river bottom, turkeys appear to be doing well, but the heavy snows in the spring of 2019 took its toll on the population.

Merriams turkeys have similar iridescent breast and back feathers as the eastern turkey yet the tail fan and tail coverts are light beige color while on the eastern bird the tips are cinnamon brown. Males will have brightly colored heads during breeding season with red, blue and white colorations. Adult males will have a unique feather group known as the beard protruding out of their breast area which continues to grow throughout their life. This bristled hair-like tassel is thought to attract females. Males with beards over 10 inches are often referred to as long-beards. Female birds have a much duller appearance with no head coloration which is intended to safeguard the bird while nesting.

All of the males will gobble to attract hens during breeding season. A male will gobble when he hears hen turkeys clucking or noises such as the slamming of a vehicle door, honk of a horn, or a great horned owl hoot. Each male will attempt to attract as many hens as he can and will follow the group of hens until each one is bred and takes off to nest. Hen turkeys are finnicky nest site selectors and often pick a spot that is unlikely to get disturbed. Should you stumble upon an incubating hen, believe me, as she takes flight your fight-flight response will be peaked out.

Hens will typically lay about eight eggs that take 28 days to hatch. Eggs in the nest have a high probability of being destroyed by skunks and raccoons especially if quality nesting habitat is lacking. Once hatched the poults (turkey chicks) will immediately begin searching for insects to feed on as they follow the adults through pastures in search of bugs. It is during this time that the poults are susceptible to predation from the ground as well as the air. Red fox, coyotes, great horned owls, and redtail hawks are common predators. It is not uncommon to watch a hen with eight to 10 chicks get thinned down to three to four poults by the time they are pheasant size.

A true wildlife management success story, turkey numbers across their historic range were few around the 1900s. Today, turkeys can be found in 49 of the 50 U.S. states. Here in the Bitterroot, you can expect to see or hear this Thanksgiving symbol for years to come.

Sam Lawry, Teller Wildlife Refuge Executive Director has 35 plus years in the wildlife conservation profession. His contributions to the Ravalli Republic are intended to share some of that knowledge of wildlife in the Bitterroot with the community. If you would like more information about Teller Wildlife Refuge please visit our website at www.tellerwildlife.org.
A former Hamilton High School Band director was honored with a symphonic composition written by a former student and performed by the Missoula City Band on Wednesday evening.

Sunrise Over Anglers Roost is a symphony composed by Hamilton native Frank Felice to honor Scott Southwick.

Southwick taught band for 25 years  in Phillipsburg for six years and at HHS from 1975 to 1994.

After retiring, Southwick directed the choir at Faith Lutheran Church for 20 years. He sings with the Montana A Cappella Society, was in a quartet for the Stevensville Playhouse production of The Music Man, and plays euphonium (baritone) with the Bitterroot Community Band.

I keep busy doing music for sure, Southwick said. Music is so many things, it is not just tunes. It can be healing, it can be meditative, and it can be prayer-like. It can be happy and joyous. The bottom line is that music is good for the soul.

Southwick said that Felice is an amazing man, he was an amazing kid.

He came to me his junior year and wanted to play in the pep band and I said, I cant use a guitar but I can use a bass guitar, Southwick said. He said he could do it. But the rule was that to be in the pep band students had to be in the concert band. So, he learned the string bass. He took to it like a duck to water.

Southwick said the following year Felice wanted to be in the marching band, which has no guitars.

So, he learned the euphonium (baritone), Southwick said. He just picked that right up. He also sang in the choir, so the kid was gifted from the get-go."

Felice graduated from HHS in 1980, went to Concordia College, then he got his master's degree and finished his doctorate at the University of Minnesota.

A professor of composition at Butler University, Felice was commissioned to compose a song for the college's 100th anniversary of the Butler Bands.

I knew all my other colleagues would be playing big, fast, loud pieces and I wanted to write something that was slow, lyrical and quiet, Felice said.

With the former and current Butler Band directors playing euphonium and having learned the brass instrument from Southwick, Felice decided to feature the instrument in the song, adding a euphonium solo.

Felice has previously written a piece for his high school choir teacher Virginia Vinal. Vinal was the HHS choir director for 30 years, the founding director of the Bitterroot Chorus, founding member of Missoula Symphony and the Hamilton Players. She passed away in 2018 at age 91.

I thought, I need to write a piece for Scott, Felice said. I combined all that into this piece and since Im incredibly homesick for the Bitterroot all the time I thought up Sunrise Over Anglers Roost.

He said the keyboard parts have special effects, a secret sample and a surprise melody.

Anyone from western Montana will know that tune, Felice said.

Felice is a full-time contemporary classical composer and played keyboard at Wednesdays concert to load digital samples into the performance. He drove from Indianapolis, Indiana, to participate. He has attended many HHS class reunions and is staying this week at Southwicks home.

Felice said that after having gone out into the world and crafting a full-time career, he sees that small schools are producing stellar musicians.

Hamilton has been doing it for decades, decades and decades, he said. You dont think about it or realize it until you grasp where these musicians came from. Hamilton has an oversized arts reach.

He listed some great names and credited Southwick.

Felice said he does wish he lived in Montana but appreciates the opportunities of a larger city.

Globalization and the Internet make things easier but in Indianapolis, I have two orchestras in town, an opera company, three professional choirs, two original dance companies, plus things going on in my own university, Felice said. Here I would have some (opportunities), but I would be going out to places as much as I would be staying here.

He says Montana is always in his heart and influences him daily.

I have a Western mentality of how I approach people, how I talk, how I interact with everyone, he said. Im wired to dry climates. Id rather look up for my horizon rather than look straight. This is home. I come home, get recharged and go back out to the flatlands.

Felice and Southwick said they are grateful to Missoula City Band Director Gary Gillette, the retired chair of the Music Department at Sentinel High School. Gillette heard the symphonic composition posted on Southwicks Facebook page, contacted Felice and received permission to perform Sunrise Over Anglers Roost."

Southwick said that he feels grateful to Felice for writing a composition to honor him.

I feel fulfilled, he said. It is great to know you had that kind of effect on somebody way back when. As a teacher, more important than the music was the kids. Felice was a standout.
Gov. Greg Gianforte appointed a committee charged with tackling Montanas housing crisis Thursday, asking the group to recommend steps the state can take to address affordability and availability.

Gianforte signed an executive order Thursday creating the new Housing Advisory Council. The 26-member task force will meet for the first time next week with the directive of making recommendations to the state Legislature and state agencies to increase the supply of affordable, attainable workforce housing.

Owning a home is part of the American dream, but for more than a decade, its become harder and harder for Montanans to afford to own or rent a home, Gianforte said in a statement, going on to call current regulations burdensome.

The executive order also cites a shortage of construction labor, zoning, lack of entry-level homes and a lack of land developers and land to develop. Population growth has outpaced new housing starts and increased demand and supply chain delays have caused construction costs to jump by more than 18%, the order states.

Montana faces a crisis of affordable, attainable housing that poses substantial challenges to hardworking Montanans, employers, communities and the states economic health, the order states.

The order directs the task force to issue a report to the Legislature by Oct. 15 on potential legal changes and a report to the governor by Dec. 15 on steps state agencies or local governments can take. While not limiting scope, the order again identifies regulations and zoning as considerations in the reports.

Announcement of the task force comes the day after Democratic lawmakers proposed spending $500 million of a the states budget surplus on housing, specifically for financing programs for low- or no-interest loans to fund multi-family housing units.

The executive order does not specifically mention public funding as a potential solution, but does not eliminate it either.

Montana Department of Environmental Quality Director Chris Dorrington will chair the task force. Other members include other state and local officials, business interests and housing experts.

In May, the Helena Area Habitat for Humanity took out a full page ad in the Independent Record imploring the governor and other state and local officials to take specific action to address the housing crisis.

Executive Director Jacob Kuntz is among the appointees of the council. He expressed some encouragement at news of the task force on Thursday.

A lot of action is needed on housing right now, he said.  Our big thing here is, when you think about housing its not just for the poorest of the people but its part of the work to help keep Montana running, part of economics of the state.

Kuntz described one pitfall of talking about housing as falling into silos on solutions. Often Republicans focus on regulation issues while Democrats will focus on the money aspect in pushing for public funding. He hopes the task force is able to bridge some of those divides and focus on solutions such as infrastructure and incentivizing for-profit and non-profit building.

Everything needs to be on the table to do this, Kuntz said. The solution is to build more homes. There is no other solution.

The council will meet next Wednesday in Helena.

Other task force members include:

Sen. Ellie Boldman, D, Missoula

Sen. Greg Hertz, R, Polson

Rep. Danny Tenenbaum, D, Missoula

Rep. Sue Vinton, R, Billings

Patrick Barkey, Ph.D., director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana

Terry Brockie, CEO of Island Mountain Development Group

Ross Butcher, commissioner of Fergus County

Kendall Cotton, president and CEO of the Frontier Institute

Nathan Dugan, president and co-founder of Shelter WF

Mark Egge, affordable housing advocate, data scientist, and former member of the Bozeman Planning Board

Laurie Esau, commissioner of the Department of Labor and Industry

Jaclyn Giop, president of the Montana Water Well Drillers Association

Eugene Graf, owner of E.G. Construction

Emily Hamilton, Ph.D., senior research fellow and director of the Urbanity Project at the Mercatus Center

Adam Hertz, secretary of the Montana Board of Housing

Amanda Kaster, director of the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation

Bob Kelly, mayor of Great Falls

Bill Leininger, president of the Montana Association of Realtors

Todd OHair, president and CEO of the Montana Chamber of Commerce

Scott Osterman, director of the Department of Commerce

Nicole Rolf, senior director of governmental affairs at the Montana Farm Bureau Federation

Mike Smith, market president of Glacier Bank

Valerie Stacey, environmental health specialist with Lewis and Clark County

Don Sterhan, steering committee member of the Montana Housing Coalition; president and CEO of Mountain Plains Equity Group
A Richmond police officer has been charged with assaulting a Chesterfield County sheriffs deputy who was providing security at a birthday party July 2 at the Cultural Center of India that ended with a juvenile being fatally shot in a bathroom.

The Richmond Police Department in a statement said Officer Shwarlyn Arriola is charged with felony assault on a law enforcement officer and misdemeanor obstruction.

Chesterfield Sheriff Karl Leonard said the Richmond officer is accused of assaulting one of two off-duty deputies who were providing security in uniform during the birthday party that erupted in gunfire about 10:30 p.m. A juvenile male was found shot to death in the bathroom.

Before police arrived, the Chesterfield deputy who was assaulted responded to the area of the reported shooting to investigate, police said. The deputy encountered a person with a handgun, and the deputy shot and wounded that person. That person sustained non-life threatening injuries and later was charged with reckless handling of a firearm.

"I had two deputies that were working off-duty employment there at the time of the event, Leonard said. And [the assault on the deputy] all stems out of that.

Leonard emphasized that Chesterfield police is investigating the incident.

Arriola was arrested Thursday and placed on leave without pay. He was hired on Dec. 7, 2020, the Richmond Police Department statement said.

Chesterfield police have arrested four juvenile males, ages 15 to 17, and charged them with second-degree murder in the death of the teen who was killed at the center, in the 6600 block of Ironbridge Parkway. Police said that teen was the intended target.
A veteran Colonial Heights police commander who retired last year has returned to the force after being hired as the citys new police chief.

William H. Anspach III, 52, was sworn in Monday. He will replace Jeff Faries, who held the job for 15 years before retiring March 31 amid an investigation of alleged inappropriate behavior while off duty.

Before retiring in July 2021, Anspach served 23 years with Colonial Heights police, working his way up from patrol officer to deputy chief.

The city is very fortunate to be able to welcome William Anspach back in this capacity, said City Manager Douglas Smith in a statement in announcing Anspachs appointment. Chief Anspach brings knowledge and vast experience to the city and department as chief of police.

Anspach earned a bachelors degree in community and public affairs from Virginia Commonwealth University and is a graduate of the Criminal Justice Command College and the FBI National Academy. He got his start in policing with Petersburg, where he served three years before joining Colonial Heights.

I always told [city leaders] that the first police chief job that I would ever apply for would be the city of Colonial Heights, Anspach said in a phone interview. I graduated high school here; I have family here; this has been my home for pretty much my entire life. I love this community, and this community has embraced me.

Really, every opportunity for advancement and training has come from the city, he added. I have done every job in this agency.

Anspach said he retired in July 2021 to see if I could learn something new, because he had reached a plateau in his career with the department as deputy chief. There was really no room for advancement for me.

But when the chiefs job opened up, I always have had a feeling that I want to serve my community ... and I threw my hat in the ring.

Police identify Henrico man fatally shot by officer during confrontation with knife Police said the officer, who was not identified, has been employed by the department since June 2020.

The city, which advertised for the chiefs position after Faries retired, received applications from 28 candidates from Virginia and 10 other states, including North Carolina, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, New Hampshire, Alabama, Florida, Texas, New Mexico and Alaska, Smith said in response to questions.

The candidates were narrowed to a selected group and interviewed by a panel that included Smith; Wayne Hoover, chief of Fire and EMS for Colonial Heights; and Sean Dunn, chief of police for Williamsburg.

Smith then interviewed a group of three finalists and selected Anspach for the job. He is being paid $135,400 annually.

Faries, Smiths predecessor, announced his retirement amid an ongoing Virginia State Police investigation requested by Colonial Heights officials into what state police described in March as allegations of inappropriate behavior and interactions in an off-duty capacity by Faries.

Police have declined to elaborate on the specific nature of the allegations.

Faries was a well-liked and highly regarded fixture of the department who joined the force in 1989. Smith placed Faries on leave March 2 after the allegations surfaced.

Contacted Thursday, state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said the investigation remains ongoing.
China's employment market perks up amid broader positive signs, gov't support

Xinhua) 08:19, July 15, 2022

Aerial photo shows a job fair held in Zigui, central China's Hubei Province, Feb. 8, 2022. (Photo by Zheng Jiayu/Xinhua)

BEIJING, July 14 (Xinhua) -- China's employment market has seen signs of an upturn, amid broader improvements in key economic indicators and the implementation of multiple pro-employment policies.

The country's surveyed urban unemployment rate fell to 5.9 percent in May from 6.1 percent in April, compared with the overall goal of keeping the rate no more than 5.5 percent in 2022 set in the government work report.

Key economic indicators have also been on the mend. The purchasing managers' index for China's manufacturing sector, which measures the country's factory activity, came in at 50.2 in June, returning to the expansion territory.

Looking ahead, as the economic activities gradually get back on track, China's employment market is expected to improve further, according to an official with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

STABILIZING EMPLOYMENT

A State Council's Executive Meeting on Wednesday deemed employment a top priority in ensuring people's livelihood and an important underpinning for keeping overall economic performance stable.

The Xi'an Qiulin Commerce and Trade Co., Ltd. has seen its business revenues slipping since the COVID-19 outbreak, but didn't cut any jobs, thanks to a 3-million-yuan (446,000 U.S. dollars) refund of unemployment insurance premiums and other subsidies that it has received since 2020.

"We have maintained a team of 270, with basically no layoffs," said Wu Pingshan, a human resource staffer with the company.

China earlier implemented policies such as deferring social insurance contributions by employers, and refunding unemployment insurance premiums for enterprises that make no cuts or minimal cuts to staff number. Wednesday's meeting has decided to execute these policies on a one-stop basis.

From January to May, 2.73 million enterprises across the nation received 12.9 billion yuan of unemployment insurance refund, benefiting a total of 51.89 million people, official data showed.

"The COVID-19 pandemic will eventually wane, and we believe that our business will fare better as production and life restore," Wu added.

KEY GROUPS SUPPORTED

Liu Zhenzhong, director of the employment service center of the University of South China, has been busy since June coordinating with over 80 companies on online recruitment activities, despite the fact that many students have already graduated.

Many companies are rebooting their recruitment plans as production resumes, and government organs are stepping up efforts to expand employment channels for college graduates, Liu said.

College graduates and migrant workers make up key groups of China's employment pool. According to data, the number of people who reach the working age and will be employed for the first time stands at 16 million this year, marking a new high over the years. Among them, college graduates amounted to 10.76 million, also a historical high.

Keeping this in mind, China will provide tailored employment services on an ongoing basis to graduates who are yet to secure jobs, according to the State Council's Executive Meeting. Policies to expand employment channels for graduates will be effectively implemented. Resumption of in-person recruitment will be expedited. Policies will be rolled out to support service outsourcing industries to hire graduates.

Apart from the key groups, the meeting also highlighted the need to safeguard workers' equal employment rights. Employment discrimination against people who had earlier tested COVID-19 positive but have now recovered will be strictly forbidden.

Thanks to measures to aid the unemployed, 1.96 million people who had previously been laid off landed new jobs between January and May this year.

While the current employment situation has improved, the adverse impacts of COVID-19 have not been fully eliminated, and the general pressure and structural problems on the employment market still exist, China's human resource authorities said, calling on local governments to thoroughly implement the pro-employment policies.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)
 Flash

A forum aiming to promote EU-China cooperation on climate change was held in the representative office of the European Commission in Madrid on Thursday.

The event, titled "Promoting EU-China cooperation in the field of Climate Action, Sustainable Finance as a driver for change," aimed to open a discussion about the opportunities for cooperation between the EU and China to combat climate change.

European and Chinese representatives of the public and private sectors reviewed progress in green finance, and discussed ways for further progress.

"This is a new platform, but one that is going to bring a lot of investment between China and Europe," Margaret Chen, President of the China Club in Spain, told Xinhua, adding that the world was in a "complicated moment, but we think we all have to help so the world functions well."

Meanwhile, Augusto Soto, President of the EU-China Trust, highlighted the need for trust in EU-Chinese relations, saying the forum was about "sustainable finances with great world experts."

"There are many ways we can look at our relation, but mutual confidence is the most important," he said, stressing the need for green investment as "the environment is our future as a species."

The city councils of the Chinese city of Hefei, the capital of east China's Anhui Province, and the Spanish city of Salamanca were among the key organizers of the forum, at which representatives of both cities signed a formal declaration of cooperation.

The event was backed by the Spanish Embassy in China and the Chinese Embassy in Spain and was attended by both ambassadors.
About 21,000 babies and toddlers in Virginia have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in the three weeks since the shots were made available. Thats not a high number  its almost 5% of the state population for tots ages 4 and younger.

But its better than the national average, which reached 2% last week.

The low numbers reflect the trepidation of parents waiting to see how the shots perform, the relatively few babies and toddlers who develop severe illness and a general sense of disregard for the more than 2-year-old pandemic  despite rising hospitalizations and the emergence of the BA.5 variant.

It is low, said Christy Gray, Virginias vaccine coordinator. But there are reasons, and we did anticipate it would be a lower uptake.

On the other side of the equation are parents who are quickly signing up their kids for shots and analyzing the pros and cons of Moderna and Pfizer. Pediatricians are largely choosing Pfizer for its familiarity, but some parents are chasing down doses of the faster-immunizing Moderna.

So far, roughly 400,000 babies and toddlers in the U.S. have received a COVID shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Thats about 2% of the 19.5 million American children under the age of 5.

And its well below the 1 in 5 parents who told a Kaiser Family Foundation poll they would vaccinate their children immediately.

But its been only three weeks, and the number of vaccinated babies is growing. At clinics offered by the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts, every clinic has operated at capacity, a spokesperson said.

Vaccination rate lowest in school-age kids

Based on the vaccination rate of other age groups, the number of babies and toddlers getting shots might remain low. The vaccination rate of elementary school-age children is lower than every other age group in Virginia.

Among kids and young adults ages 12 to 34, the vaccination rate is fairly consistent; between 76% and 79% have gotten at least one shot. For kids ages 5 to 11, theres a steep drop-off. Only 45% of them have gotten one shot or more.

There are a few factors at play here. Children and young adults are less likely to develop severe disease from a COVID infection, and vaccines for kids havent been available as long.

But parents who think their kids are somehow protected from hospitalization are wrong. In the past 13 weeks, as subvariants of omicron have spread through the state, more children ages 0 to 9 have been hospitalized than adolescents and teens ages 10 to 19.

COVID is still hitting the oldest in society the hardest. The vast majority of recent hospitalizations in Virginia  82%  were for patients ages 50 and up.

When you look at hospital patients below the age of 50, there isnt a big difference between the number of kids and young adults. There have been 78 patients in their 40s and 59 patients under the age of 10.

Omicron and its subvariants have disproportionately affected younger kids, who are less vaccinated or not vaccinated, said Dr. Mark Grabill, a pediatrician with Pediatric Associates of Richmond. The populace is less likely to participate in prevention measures such as masking, and the state health department no longer recommends masks in schools, day cares and summer camps.

Masks came off, and things seemed to resume back to normal, Grabill said.

The type of illness kids are developing has changed with recent variants, too, Grabill said. Lately, kids have displayed flu-like symptoms  fevers up to 104 degrees, fatigue, body aches, nose symptoms, cough and a sore throat. A few have been hospitalized with breathing issues.

Thats a change from earlier in the pandemic when cold-like symptoms, including congestion and cough, were more common. The BA.5 variant has been blamed for the current uptick in hospitalizations in the state and across the country. Many of the infected were previously vaccinated.

While kids have been hospitalized at rates similar to young adults, kids havent died at the same rate. There have been eight COVID deaths in the state in the past three months among patients in their 40s. Among kids 0 to 9, theres been one. Deaths from COVID have been relatively low since the original omicron wave ended in February.

Across all age groups, interest in vaccination has been low this year. There was a jump in April when second boosters were authorized but, overall, many young people are unwilling to get the shot. According to a recent poll by Morning Consult, 27% of adults ages 18 to 34 have no plans to get a vaccine, which is higher than other age groups.

Among parents who have babies and toddlers, these individuals are more likely to wait and see how vaccine distribution goes before signing up their own kids, Grabill said.

I think parents are understandably hesitant, he said. But I think we have really good data from the trials to show its a safe vaccine, and were recommending it when parents come into our office.

While vaccinated adults are still catching the BA.5 subvariant this summer, experts say the baby vaccines are good at warding off severe disease.

There are other simple reasons why some parents havent signed up. Some havent found the time in the first three weeks, and others are still planning out the shot schedule. Moderna recipients get two doses four weeks apart, and Pfizer recipients receive two doses three weeks apart and a third shot eight weeks after the second. And some parents may not be aware of baby vaccines yet.

Its hard to say how Virginia compares with other states, as state-by-state data is still hard to find. North Carolina and Maryland have not yet published their vaccination numbers for kids under 5.

Some parents seeking Moderna

For the first time, parents have a choice of which vaccine to give their children. Before June, Pfizer was the only shot approved for kids ages 5 to 17.

For some parents, Moderna is the shot of choice. At the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts, where more than 330 tots have been vaccinated, more parents have requested Moderna than Pfizer, a spokesperson said.

That might be because more pediatricians ordered Pfizer shots, making them easier to access across the state. Many pediatricians ordered Pfizer because they had been offering it to older kids for months, and their employees were accustomed to the storage and delivery procedures.

As of Wednesday, the Virginia Department of Health has ordered roughly 82,000 Pfizer vaccines and 57,000 Moderna vaccines, a spokesperson for the department said.

Another reason parents are seeking Moderna is because the regimen requires just two shots four weeks apart. Recipients of Pfizer receive two doses three weeks apart and a third dose eight weeks after the second.

To get her 4-year-old son immunized with Moderna, Henrico County resident Sarah Reyes carpooled with a friend and drove to Charlottesville. They had been unable to find an availability for Moderna shots in town that fit her schedule. On the state health departments website for finding vaccines, Reyes located a pediatricians office, Piedmont Pediatrics, that had Moderna shots available on a Saturday.

I wanted the two shots and to be done, Reyes said.

Getting her son, Evan, vaccinated means he wont have to quarantine from day care every time he is exposed to someone with the virus. While day cares have implemented different policies, Reyes day care asks for unvaccinated children to quarantine after an exposure. Vaccinated children can continue attending but might be asked to take a test.

Plenty of parents have been happy to take either shot, said Grabill, the pediatrician. His office requested Pfizer, and most parents hes seen havent expressed a preference for one shot or the other. Experts recommend both Moderna and Pfizer.

Kids who are prone to developing fevers may better suited for Pfizer, Grabill said. In trials, about one in six children developed a fever of 100.4 degrees or more.

Megan Fuller of Midlothian signed up her 14-month-old twin sons for a Moderna vaccine trial, where they will receive two shots of a modified vaccine designed specifically for the omicron variant. Moderna could eventually recommend a third shot for all its baby and toddler vaccine recipients.

To Fuller, Moderna was the better choice, not only because of the faster immunity, but because of the starts and stops that slowed Pfizers path to approval. Last year, Pfizer planned just two shots for its baby vaccine, but the results fell short of expectation, the company said. In February, rollout of the shot was delayed, and a third dose was added.

I just have more confidence in Moderna, Fuller said. It feels like Pfizer has had a lot of back and forth.
Unvaccinated kids in Virginia who are exposed to COVID-19 no longer need to routinely quarantine away from school, day care or summer camp, Gov. Glenn Youngkin advised Thursday, marking a shift in guidance for the state.

The new procedure, which breaks with advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, addresses the empty classrooms that plagued school attendance during the height of the omicron variant.

Youngkin also announced that masks are no longer routinely recommended in schools, day cares and camps  indoors or outdoors  which also breaks with advice from the CDC.

The CDC recommends mask-wearing indoors in areas of high transmission, which currently include Richmond, Henrico and Chesterfield.

Though schools and day cares have different quarantine policies, the CDC recommends unvaccinated people stay home for five days following an exposure. Vaccinated individuals dont have to quarantine.

Babies and toddlers at day care often had no other choice than to quarantine because vaccines werent available. But children 6 months and up are now eligible for shots, and quarantine policies motivated parents to vaccinate their children.

Hospitalizations are on the rise in Virginia, and the BA.5 subvariant is now responsible for a majority of cases.

As Virginians continue to return to the office and social settings, the pandemic is disrupting workplaces and family life when entire child care facilities, camps and classrooms shutter in response to as few as two cases, Youngkin said in a statement. Today marks a shift in my administrations recommendations to optional quarantine for exposure to COVID-19 in child care and school settings as the severity of the disease decreases.

The Virginia Department of Health recommends people who test positive to isolate for at least five days. If they are asymptomatic or symptoms are resolving and have been fever-free for 24 hours, they may return after day five. These people should continue to mask through day 10. People unwilling to mask should test themselves or stay home through day 10.
Sean Sublette Follow Sean Sublette Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

NASA released the first images from the new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) on Tuesday. The telescope, which had been in development since 2002, sits in a gravitationally stable position about 1 million miles from Earth and can look more deeply into the universe than its older cousin, the Hubble Space Telescope.

Hubble detects mostly visible and ultraviolet light, but JWST is using an imager more sensitive to infrared light. Wavelengths in the infrared are longer than ultraviolet and visible ones, so they penetrate interstellar dust, allowing us to see much farther away from our own solar system.

Space telescopes also give us better views because they are not blurred by the effects of Earths atmosphere.

More importantly for research, there are many additional parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, like the infrared, that do not even reach Earth because they are absorbed or reflected by our atmosphere.

Justin Bartel, an astronomer and immersive experience manager at the Science Museum of Virginia, attended the unveiling of the images in person at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

I was chosen as one of about two dozen attendees of a program NASA runs called NASA Social, Bartel said. As the programs name suggests, its geared toward social media users. Im documenting the experience primarily through the Science Museums accounts. The museums followers get a special look through my experience, but its also a unique chance for me to hear from the missions scientists and engineers to inform future presentations Ill help create in The Dome for future Science Museum guests.

The scientific community knew this telescope would be a quantum leap over Hubble. Launched in 1990 and still hard at work, Hubble is watching the universe from Earths orbit. But the images from JWST are about three times sharper and 100 times more sensitive .

Bartel was surprised at how quickly the imagery came together.

The deep field image of SMACS 0723, for example, only took a couple hours of observing in each filter, Bartel said. A comparable Hubble image took days of observing through each filter.

SMACS 0723 is the name of the galaxy cluster, an acronym of the Southern Massive Cluster Survey. The numbers refer to its position in the sky, which is known as right ascension (seven hours, 23 minutes).

The Stephans Quintet image was able to reveal the motion of gas around an actively accreting supermassive black hole at the center of one of the galaxies, Bartel said. To learn all that, and to learn it essentially as soon as the telescope is turned on, is amazing.

JWSTs mission design lifetime is at least 5  years. NASA is optimistic it will last longer than 10 years, as it has 20 years worth of fuel. But it doesnt end there. Bartel saw firsthand what is coming next.

While touring the Environmental Test and Integration facility, new signage, hardware and office occupants were moving in to guide the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope through the same process over the next couple of years.

Roman will be a great complement to JWST, casting a wide net across the sky for targets that other observatories like JWST can study in depth.
Mark Smith has credible 2A bona fides: He owns several Smith & Wesson 9 mm semiautomatic pistols. Every three months or so, hes at the range, squeezing off several clips and truing up his aim. Hes taken gun-safety classes and has a concealed-carry permit. For Smith, firearms are about security.

Im protecting myself, protecting my team, protecting my customers, said Smith, the owner of a five-branch franchise of Midas automobile repair shops in Richmond and its suburbs. That includes the global chains highest-grossing outlet, in westernmost Henrico County, with just under $5 million in annual sales.

His support of gun rights, notwithstanding, Smith worries firearms are falling into the wrong hands. Alarmed by deadly mass shootings across the country and continuing gun violence in the Richmond area, Smith  through his latest signature commercial combining policy and personality  wants his customers to do something about it.

In a 30-second television advertisement - a 60-second version runs on radio - Smith urges a three-day waiting period for gun purchases, paired with more thorough background checks. He also calls for public pressure on Congress and the Virginia legislature to adopt tougher restrictions on firearms.

This is new ground for Smith. He has long practiced what is known as cause marketing. That is, elevating the profile of his business  and, ideally, its profitability  by tying it, for a broad audience, to public concerns and organizations that focus on them. For Smith, that includes blood services and regional and local feeding programs.

But in choosing to speak out on firearms, given the fury of the gun debate, Smith risked trouble. Some friends worried for his safety. In Virginia, where there were mass shootings in 2007 and 2019 and where polls show strong support for gun control, a shrill political fight continues over how access to firearms should be managed, if at all.

During their brief total control of Virginia government, Democrats won restrictions successfully resisted for years by Republicans. But with a GOP governor and his party within a single seat of taking back the General Assembly, Republicans make no secret of again minimizing limits on firearms.

And though Smith, in his commercial, urges relatively modest restrictions, that he is doing so in a region with more than 550,000 television households  Richmond is the nations 56th-largest broadcast market  means he can quickly generate kitchen-table chatter, some of it unwanted, on a provocative subject.

It was not an un-thoughtful move, said Mike Guld, the Raleigh, N.C., advertising and marketing consultant who has produced Smiths commercials from the start more than 20 years ago. This was a potentially contentious subject that we did not know whether ... we should play or not.

Not one to rely on data-driven market surveys, Smith followed his instincts. This son of an automobile industry executive and effusive fan of Herman Melvilles Moby Dick who has voted for both Democrats and Republicans, Smith said he pondered several days before deciding to go with the advertisement, which now having run several weeks, has been largely well-received.

At least thats what anecdotal evidence shows.

Sharing a favorable comment Thursday that a customer posted on his LinkedIn page, Smith estimates that hes heard  by phone, social media and in-person  from about 125 customers; that all but 12 approved of the commercial. Two told Smith to take it down, underscoring their distaste for it with a four-letter expletive.

And a solitary protester stood outside Smiths shop on Broad Street, just west of the Richmond-Henrico line, holding a sign that urged performing an unnatural act on President Joseph Biden.

In the TV spot, the barrel-chested, bearded, bespectacled Smith  speaking to camera, much as he does in person: quickly, purposefully, allegro  says, There comes a time to talk about things other than car care. That time is now.

Gun violence  this is out of control. Texas, Buffalo, Southern California  these other shootings. These kids are under 21 and they have access to guns they shouldnt have access to.

Smith continues, This is our community. We need to take care of it. Nothing changes until something changes. We need to be that change.

About five seconds into the commercial, a streamer appears that  in black and red capital letters against a yellow field, reads, I SUPPORT THE SECOND AMENDMENT AND OWN GUNS. I AM ADVOCATING FOR RESPONSIBLE AND ACCOUNTABLE GUN OWNERSHIP.

As cause marketing that is character-driven, Smiths shtick sticks out. Its creating allies and adversaries.

Bill Hamby, who, with 35 years in television and public relations, has handled such disputed projects as the failed Walt Disney history theme park for Northern Virginia, commended the Smith commercial as admirable and brave; that it works because Smith  he shuns scripts, by the way  comes across as likeable, believable, credible everyman.

To Philip Van Cleave, the tireless lobbyist for the pro-gun Virginia Citizens Defense League, Smith is stepping over a line, alienating customers  actual and prospective  at the expense of others: Businesses should try to be neutral. ... They dont want to cut out customer base in either direction.

Van Cleave says hell suggest his members boycott Smiths repair shops. Also, Van Cleave said, this could mean trouble for Midas at the corporate level should word of Smiths advocacy spread beyond Virginia. At weeks end, Midas didnt seem concerned, saying Smiths views are his own.

Midas recognizes its franchisees have the right of free speech and may communicate their opinions publicly, said Midas Jonelle Compiani. The opinion Mr. Smith expressed is his. It does not mean his views and opinions are expressed by Midas, constitute or imply an endorsement by Midas, or necessarily state or reflect those of Midas.

That people are talking about the commercial  perhaps its more accurately described as an advertorial  is mission-accomplished for Smith.

Hes not only keeping it on the air, hes planning to update it.
Authorities in the Southwest Virginia county inundated with devastating floodwaters said all of the people unaccounted for had been located Thursday, with no fatalities reported. Officials are still gauging the damage, including washed-out roads and buildings, caused after torrential storms swept through the area.

John McClanahan, the sheriff of Buchanan County, which borders West Virginia and Kentucky, said Thursday that crews worked throughout the night to find and reunite residents. Authorities on Wednesday said 44 people were missing, but 27 had been located by Thursday morning, officials said.

Among the first units to respond to a flash flood alert in Buchanan was the Swift Water Rescue Team of the Bristol Fire Department, about 75 miles to the south. They arrived at 2:30 a.m. Wednesday.

They had major, major flooding over there; houses completely gone, cars in rivers, bridges torn out and no means of egress for most of the citizens, Capt. Gary Russell said Thursday morning. On the initial search we finished 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, we probably made contact or moved out 30 to 40 individuals. We probably hauled out 15 to 20 on our vehicles.

Rescue crews were hampered by damaged roads, foot-deep mud and heavy debris. Phone service also was knocked out, presenting challenges for residents to contact loved ones. The search area included 30 miles of road and 400 structures.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Wednesday declared a state of emergency to make resources and personnel available to continue to assist in the response effort, said Macaulay Porter, a spokeswoman for the governor. She said Youngkin is being briefed regularly by state and local officials about the response, and the National Guard is prepared to help.

Youngkin also is scheduled to tour the flood-damaged parts of Buchanan County on Friday.

Waters already up to his chest

At an emergency shelter set up at Twin Valley Middle School, people loaded cases of water and other supplies Thursday morning, preparing to deliver them to those directly affected by the flood.

Marcy Watson, Buchanans director of social services, said about a dozen elderly people with medical conditions were placed in nearby motels because homes were damaged, Watson said.

Denise McGeorge, disaster programs director for the countys Department of Social Services, was waiting at the shelter to take reports of damage. McGeorge said she had already heard from people whose homes were devastated and who had lost everything theyve worked for in their lives.

She said a couple described their residence beginning to collapse around them Tuesday night, with water rushing in so quickly that they had trouble getting out.

Hes 6-2, and the waters already up to his chest, McGeorge said.

McGeorge said the man turned to his wife and said that if he did not make it out, he hoped she would tell the children that he loved them. The wife responded that they were going to make it, McGeorge said.

The couple then clawed at the ceiling until they broke through to rafters, and clung to them to keep from being swept away.

Another husband and wife reported being bitten by a copperhead snake and stung by bees as they fled from rising water, McGeorge said.

They all have their stories ... and theyre all heartbreaking, McGeorge said.

Patty Mullins on Thursday recounted her horrifying experience.

Awakened around midnight Tuesday by her black Labrador, Vayda, Mullins was startled to see floodwaters a foot deep and rising inside the bedroom of her single-story home next to the Dismal River.

Barefoot, wearing just a nightgown and T-shirt and carrying a small flashlight, the 67-year-old Mullins forced open a screen so she and her dog could climb out a window. She reached her red Ford Ranger pickup parked in the driveway, climbed on top and reached for Vayda.

I tried to pick her up, but shes about 70 pounds. I couldnt pick her up. The last time I saw her she was headed down the river backwards right over there, Mullins said while gesturing.

But the horror that unfolded Wednesday morning in the mountains of Buchanan County was just beginning.

I tried to wade, but the water was too deep, and I cant swim, but the current brought me this way and washed me up in that tree over there, Mullins said.

By 6 a.m., the Dismal River was starting to recede and she heard men walking along the nearby railroad track, so she flashed her flashlight, which remarkably worked. Freed from the tree, Mullins walked barefoot across a small bridge littered with downed trees, limbs and debris.

I stayed up in the tree all night with the water up to my waist, she said.

Hotels also filled with the displaced. Ida Proffitt, 61, was staying at the Comfort Inn in Grundy after fleeing through knee-deep water from her home in the Oakwood community, near the Whitewood area that authorities described as the worst hit by the rain-fueled torrent.

Proffitt said they watched as an unmoored pontoon boat pushed a parked vehicle into the side of her mobile home, then smashed the front porch before the flood swept the boat away. They counted 11 vehicles floating past, including a pickup with a man sitting in the back, Proffitt said.

Some of their neighbors could not get across the road but retreated to higher ground behind the mobile homes and spent the night there, Proffitt said.

I thought I was going to die, she said.

By Wednesday, the water was back down and the Proffitts could start to take stock of their losses.

Still, she cant stop thinking about the rising floodwaters that she and her husband waded through Tuesday night as they left their Buchanan home to find higher ground.

Its like I cant calm down.  Youd really have to be there to know the fear, Proffitt said Thursday afternoon.

Didnt have time to get out

The area has a history of flooding, and there were extensive problems last summer in the Hurley area of Buchanan, where remnants of Hurricane Ida saturated the terrain.

The Bristol response team helped then as well, although this weeks flooding is a much larger event, Russell said.

Its substantial compared to Hurley. Its a lot more widespread  over 27 miles altogether, he said. Bridges and roads washed out, homes blocking roadways, homes completely gone. Every resident we made contact with said it came very quickly and a lot of them didnt have time to get out.

McGeorge noted that state relief funds were still coming in for the Hurley disaster. He was hired to coordinate the response.

Were on the front end, the beginning stages of the response to Tuesdays flooding, McGeorge said.

At the same time Mullins was trying to escape the waters, Columbus and Victoria Fleming climbed up into the rafters of the house they were renting.

My daddy always said keep your head above water. I told him we cant give up, weve got to climb higher, Victoria said.

They emerged after the water began receding and, on Thursday, tried to salvage whatever they could as the home is also a total loss.

Mullins grew up along the Dismal River and has seen it flood before. She said her mother always told them to head to the nearby railroad tracks if waters rose, but this time they were too deep to traverse.

The 1977 flood didnt do none of this, Mullins said.

As of Thursday afternoon, Appalachian Power reported more than 1,300 homes were without power in the affected area. Emergency response personnel said much of the impact zone has no power, water service, sewer service or cellphone service.

McGeorge said the extent of the damage would not be known for days or longer. A damage estimate is expected to start on Friday.

Russell said the people hes encountered are stunned at the loss.

They meet you, begging for help, with whats on their back, he said. Everything else in their life is gone at that point.
Radfords Glencoe Mansion, Museum & Gallery has received $5,000 from the Virginia Tourism Corporation to help market the 2022 Mary Draper Ingles Festival, taking place this year from July 29-31. The organization is one of 259 local and regional tourism marketing programs across the state to receive funds to increase visitation and revenue.

Glencoe is partnering with Long Way Brewing, historic Ingles Farm, the Radford Info & Welcome Center, the Radford Chamber of Commerce and the Wilderness Road Museum in Dublin to bring back the iconic celebration that commemorates the capture of the frontierswoman, her escape and return to the New River Valley during the French and Indian War.

Were so excited to be able to plan this weekend for our regional residents as well as tourists who have shown a great interest in this story for decades, said Scott Gardner, Glencoes executive director. Activities include tours of Marys ancestral farm, still operated by her descendant Col. Lewis Bud Jeffries, historic reenactors, live music, period costumes and dancing, a petting zoo, food trucks and the reintroduction of a special craft beer created by Long Way Brewing that's named for the Colonial heroine.

Celebrating the Virginia legends epic journey is the overarching message to attract visitors to the New River Valley where they can see, hear and feel the experiences of settlers in the early years of Americas development and the westward migration. In 2017, Virginias General Assembly established the last Saturday in July as Mary Draper Ingles Remembrance Day.

These grant funds provide an important opportunity for communities across the commonwealth to accelerate recovery efforts and continue with their best-in-class marketing initiatives to attract new travelers, said Rita McClenny, president and CEO of Virginia Tourism. Increased visitation translates directly into revenue generation, underscoring tourisms important role in stimulating economic growth and expansion, she added.

The VTC Marketing Leverage Program is designed to increase visitor spending by leveraging limited marketing dollars, stimulating new tourism marketing through partnerships, and extending the Virginia is for Lovers brand.

To learn more about Mary and the festival that celebrates her history, visit www.marydraperingles.com. For more information about Glencoe Mansion, Museum & Gallery, go to www.glencoemansion.org.

- Submitted by Scott Gardner
Demarcus Shaiquan Glenn convinced a Roanoke jury that he killed a man in self-defense during a botched drug deal. But he had no defense to a related firearm charge later brought by federal authorities.

Glenn, 23, pleaded guilty Friday to using a gun in connection with the distribution of marijuana.

A plea agreement presented to U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Dillon calls for a 12-year sentence.

The case marked an unusual situation where a successful federal prosecution was based on essentially the same set of facts presented earlier to a state court that delivered a not-guilty verdict.

The cornerstone of keeping our communities safe is prosecuting anyone who discharges a firearm while participating in the drug trafficking trade, U.S. Attorney Chris Kavanaugh said.

Defense attorney Chris Kowalczuk, who represented Glenn in both cases, said he has not seen such a move by federal authorities in the 28 years he has practiced law in Roanoke.

Approval by U.S. Justice Department officials in Washington, D.C., was required.

The question was whether there were federal interests that were left unresolved in state court. Those interests were addressing the recent increase in gun violence in Roanoke, according to federal authorities.

Keeping illegal guns off our streets is an important step in keeping our communities safe, Stanley Meador, special FBI agent in charge of the bureaus Roanoke office, said in a statement released after Glenns guilty plea.

At a trial last year in Roanoke Circuit Court, Glenn testified that he shot 16-year-old Tyler Polumbo in late May 2019 during a drug deal that quickly went bad.

I went to go sell some weed to someone, Glenn said Friday during a brief statement in federal court. I thought he was going to shoot me, so I shot.

After hearing Glenns testimony during an October trial, the jury acquitted him of murder, attempted robbery and use of a firearm in commission of each of those crimes.

One month later, he was charged in federal court  where his earlier testimony would have made no difference.

Drug dealers with firearms should take heed: You cannot shoot someone during a drug deal and then claim self-defense when you are carrying that firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking, Kavanaugh said in a statement released after Fridays hearing.

The federal charge carries a maximum punishment of life in prison and a mandatory minimum of 10 years.

If Dillon does not agree to the 12-year sentence that is part of the plea agreement, the judge must reject the deal and Glenn would be allowed to withdraw his guilty plea.

Dillon put off a decision on whether or not to accept the plea agreement until Oct. 17, when Glenn is scheduled to be sentenced.

According to evidence presented in his state trial, Glenn and Polumbo had never met before when an acquaintance connected them on a Friday night and helped arrange a meetup so Polumbo could buy a couple ounces of marijuana.

Glenn agreed to go to Polumbos home in southwest Roanoke, where they met on the front porch for the $300 sale. He carried a gun in his pocket, Glenn said, because of the dangers of drug dealing.

Both Glenn and Polumbos friend, Dylan Keith, who was 18 at the time, agreed what happened next went down quickly, with Keith estimating it all took a span of about two minutes.

Glenn testified that Polumbo raised a gun and demanded his marijuana. He grabbed Polumbos right arm and pulled out his own gun as the two struggled. As he felt his grip on Polumbo slipping, Glenn said, he pulled his trigger.

The bullet struck Polumbo in the torso. He was lying dead on the porch by the time medics arrived.
An employee was infected with hepatitis A while working at a downtown Roanoke restaurant during the past month, the Roanoke City and Alleghany Health Districts announced Friday.

However, the worker did not handle food, the health department said, and the agency is not recommending that patrons of Billys between June 20 and July 6 should seek treatment.

The Market Street restaurant and bar is the fourth Roanoke Valley eatery with a confirmed employee hepatitis A case within the past year.

About 50 people were sickened in 2021 by an infected employee after dining at Famous Anthonys restaurants in Roanoke and Roanoke County. Four of them died, more than 30 were hospitalized and two received liver transplants.

In May, the health department also identified hep A inflections at Tucos Taqueria Garaje and at Luigis Italian Gourmet restaurant.

While we are disappointed to announce another case connected to a current hepatitis A outbreak in our area, we believe this situation is low risk for the public, the health department said after inspecting Billys.

Health officials have been combating a recent communitywide hepatitis A outbreak that extends outside of restaurant doors. Primarily the disease is spread among people who misuse drugs, they said.

Hepatitis A is a virus that causes liver inflammation, which can prevent the organ from functioning normally. According to the American Liver Foundation, hepatitis A is most commonly spread by not washing hands before preparing or eating food or not washing hands after using the bathroom or changing a diaper.

Citing what it characterized as an abundance of caution, the health department offered hepatitis A vaccines to customers of Tucos and Luigis.

At Billys, the infected worker did not handle food, a health department news release said, adding: This situation does not meet the criteria to recommend post-exposure hepatitis A vaccine for patrons of the restaurant.

However, the Roanoke health department is offering free doses of hepatitis A vaccine to the public on a first-come, first-served basis, while supplies last at a mobile clinic located across the street from the agencys headquarters at 1513 Williamson Rd. on Tuesday, July 19, between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Additionally, many pharmacies and primary care providers also offer the hepatitis A vaccine, the health department said.

Billys has fully cooperated during the investigation, the health department said.
 Flash

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on Thursday allowing the government to take special economic measures to support the armed forces during their counter-terrorism and other operations abroad.

The Russian government is authorized to provide all necessary assistance to the armed forces, including "temporarily reactivating mobilization capacities and facilities" and "unlocking state reserve material assets."

Meanwhile, legal entities will not be able to refuse when concluding agreements and contracts on the delivery of goods and provision of services to the Russian armed forces.

Under the new legislation, it will also be possible to establish different work conditions for employees at certain organizations, including work during holidays, at night and on weekends.
BEDFORD  The relocation of a recent Pride Month display of LGBTQ books at a Bedford County library brought multiple residents out to speak at a county Board of Supervisors meeting this week, with several expressing support for the librarys display and one saying the display should have been relocated or removed.

When Pride Month  a time federally designated for LGBTQ awareness and activism  kicked off in June, Bedford County public libraries, like other public library systems, added themed displays offering resources related to the LGBTQ+ community, and books with representation of this community.

Before long, the Forest Library branch was targeted by a small number of individuals, some affiliated with a local group that desired to remove or relocate LGBTQ materials.

As Pride Month progressed, some opposed to Pride Month and having LGBTQ resources displayed in public libraries campaigned to remove books they thought to be inappropriate or problematic.

One course of action encouraged was for someone to check out all LGBTQ-related books and materials from their local public libraries with the intent of not returning them.

Those opposed to the Pride Month displays also pushed for them to be moved to a non-prominent section of a library, or requested the displays be removed altogether.

Debbie Bahouth, chair of Bedford County public libraries board of trustees, said workers at the Forest library received verbal comments and emails that led to a feeling of being unsafe.

Out of concern for the safety of library workers, Bahouth said, the decision was made to move the display from the librarys traditional display location. At the Forest location, displays are set up across from the desk toward the main entrance of the library, visible to those walking in.

Bahouth confirmed all the LGBTQ books on display at the Forest library were checked out by one person and had not been returned for some time. The books eventually came back, but they had all been placed on hold, so were immediately checked out again and remain unavailable.

Never, to Bahouths knowledge, have any of Bedfords public libraries had to move a display for fear of the safety of library workers or faced individuals removing specific materials in this nature.

The board and library staff, she said, were dismayed at the aggressive response from what she said was a small group of people.

We want to continue to provide information to the entire community, as diverse and inclusive as we can, Bahouth said. We have always had diverse topics with the display areas. We do not censor or show bias to anything. That is not our purpose; it is not anybodys individual opinions, as far as the staff, about what should or shouldnt be displayed. This is a service to the entire community, and thats what we strive to maintain.

At Mondays Bedford County Board of Supervisors meeting, county resident Donna StClair said taking books from public libraries and not returning them was a lawsuit waiting to happen, because those books are public property, funded by taxpayer dollars.

Jessica Scott, another county resident, said she supported displays of special observances at all Bedford public library branches.

Libraries have traditionally set up exhibits for federally recognized holidays or awareness initiatives, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Day or disability awareness.

According to the Bedford County Public Library website, the objective of displays or exhibits is to provide educational, cultural, informative, and attractive exhibits for public view, Scott said, citing the online resource. According to the same website, she added, displays must meet a standard acceptable to the community. An 8.5-by-11 piece of paper with the word pride printed in rainbow colors and then just a handful of library books most certainly would meet that standard. Hiding displays isnt educational. Its not cultural, or informative.

Concern over the actions to remove or hide LGBTQ+ materials went beyond the matter of censorship itself. Speakers expressed dismay at what such actions meant to a space supposed to be inclusive, safe, and informational for all.

Elizabeth Mansel, a former special education teacher who also spoke during the meeting, said targeting one minority group  the LGBTQ community in this instance  was a slippery slope to targeting still more groups, such as people of color, people with disabilities, or those who do not practice a Christian religion, as if such treatment were acceptable.

As a parent, Mansel said she understood the desire to protect children and acknowledged some topics might be uncomfortable for adults to talk about  but she said the actions shown by those working to remove or censor queer resources taught children that LGBTQ topics were off-limits, period. Lines of communication need to remain open between youth and trusted adults, she said, and anything else only serves to drive young people to seek answers elsewhere.

Each family is responsible for determining what their children will be exposed to, but it is the responsibility of the public library system to provide a safe and inclusive setting to support all citizens, Mansel said.

As public servants, your [the board of supervisors] obligation is to ensure that all citizens, including minorities, are represented equally and no one group is seen of lesser value.

Citing portions of ALA policy, as well as the Library Bill of Rights, a document derived from the U.S. Constitution, speaker Cindy Younghouse said library exhibits need to be equitable and librarians needed support to follow ALA policy.

ALA policy 53.1.15 states: The American Library Association stringently and unequivocally maintains that libraries and librarians have an obligation to resist efforts that systematically exclude materials dealing with any subject matter, including gender or sexual orientation. The Association also encourages librarians to proactively support the First Amendment rights of all library users regardless of gender or sexual orientation.

Mary Katherine Bennett spoke to supervisors at a June 13 meeting about the Pride Month displays in some of the public libraries, saying she wanted to bring the matter to the boards attention, citing the need to protect children.

Bennett, who also attended Mondays meeting, defended her stance.

I am not a hateful person, Bennett said after stating she was part of a local group, the Bedford County Patriots, which another speaker called a religious extremist hate group.

She said she just wanted children to be protected and wondered why others seemed to have a problem with that.

Bennett said she and others asked librarians at the Forest location, via emails, phone calls, and in-person conversations, to relocate or remove the Pride Month display.

In an emailed statement Wednesday, a spokesperson with Bedford County Patriots responded to the incident addressed during Mondays board of supervisors meeting, saying: Concerned members of the Bedford community were made aware of sexually explicit materials being displayed in front of the childrens section at Forest Public Library. Our community came together and respectfully requested all sexual books be moved out of the childrens section. We are grateful that the staff at the Forest Public Library listened to our community and relocated the sexualized books to the adult section.

Bahouth said the display was not in the childrens section of the Forest library but in the same location that has been used for exhibits as long as anyone can remember, a spot used largely because of the buildings layout and space.

James Jones, a 35-year volunteer with the Friends of Bedford County Public Libraries organization, said at the supervisors meeting that libraries are the most democratic of institutions. He was troubled by the harassment and threats facing his communitys public libraries from local groups and individuals. Such censorship, he said, has no place in a pluralistic society, and any group who does not like the book selections presented has no right to deny those books to the rest of the community.

Tolerance of others is a sign of a healthy community, Jones said. We all need to support our library system, and the professional librarians who staff it. Let them do their job unencumbered by the condemnation of a few. Let our libraries continue to serve us one and all.
Thank you for reading!

Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.
Only in America, it seems, can Border Patrol agents be cleared of breaking any laws but still be punished, while those entering the country illegally mostly escape punishment.

President Biden, then-press secretary Jen Psaki and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, all rushed to judgment when they saw a video of Texas Border Patrol agents last September herding Haitians attempting to enter the country without authorization. Biden had threatened the agents, saying they would pay for their actions. They have paid in lost time on the job, the smearing of their character and probably an end to their careers. It is the administration that should pay. One hopes the agents will find a lawyer who sues them for slander.

In a 511-page report (only the government requires so many words to explain the obvious), Customs and Border Protection said the agents did not whip the migrants, who managed to get across the border anyway, but added they are still guilty of unprofessional conduct, including using unnecessary force on Haitians. Apparently, some of the agents used bad language while trying to turn the people back. Shocking, I know. Were they supposed to say: Would you pretty please turn around and go back to your country?

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has joined other Republicans in calling on President Biden and others to apologize to the four agents they falsely accused. Good luck with that. Being a high government official means never having to say youre sorry. Paxton said instead of being punished, the agents should be rewarded.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott is trying to do the job the Biden administration has so far refused to do by sending migrants who cross into his state back to an established crossing point where they can be processed. The administration opposes the move and is suing Texas to try to stop it. Yes, I understand that immigration is the constitutional responsibility of the federal government, but whats a governor to do when his state is being overrun by migrants, some of whom they say are destroying private property and committing other crimes, including rape and murder?

In Richmond, Virginia, two men in the country illegally were arrested prior to what authorities say was a plot to conduct an act of terrorism on July 4. Someone heard something and said something, preventing what might have been a tragedy had the men been able to proceed with their alleged plot. One of the men reportedly had been deported twice before.

If Republicans achieve a majority in the House and Senate in the November election, their top priority must be securing the border and restoring a legal process for those seeking to enter the country. President Biden is likely to veto any legislation passed by Republicans to achieve that goal, but if there are enough Republicans in Congress his veto can be overridden.

It isnt just those breaking our laws to get here that is a continuing problem, but also the large amounts of the deadly drug fentanyl coming in. Fentanyl now ranks No. 1 on the list of biggest killers of 18-to-45-year-olds in the United States. And it is about the number of desperate people promised a better life by the cartels and human traffickers who have died on their dangerous journey.

All the administration has said is dont come, which is like telling a child not to raid the cookie jar. Secretary Mayorkas has repeatedly made the ludicrous claim that the border is closed. He should be impeached for lying and not enforcing the law, or maybe bring back the ancient whiplash form of punishment and apply it to high government officials (just kidding).
 Oklahoma AG requests additional delay before state gets back to executions | Main | Does the Constitution limit the age at which a juve killer can be tried as an adult? 

October 14, 2014

Three Justices dissent from denial of certiorari in Jones/Ball acquitted conduct case

I am very disappointed to have to report that this morning the Supreme Court denied certiorari review in the notable federal drug sentencing case from DC involving Antwan Ball and his co-defendants concerning judicial fact-finding to increase a federal guideline sentence contrary to a jury acquittal. As I noted in this post last week, Jones v. US, No. 13-10026, was relisted by the Justices after their "long conference." Now today's SCOTUS order list has at the very end the news that cert has been denied in Jones v. US, No. 13-10026, with a three-page dissent from that decision authored by Justice Scalia and joined by Justices Thomas and Ginsburg. Mega-bummer!!!

Here is the bulk of Justice Scalia's dissent from the denial of cert in Jones (with emphasis in the original):

A jury convicted petitioners Joseph Jones, Desmond Thurston, and Antwuan Ball of distributing very small amounts of crack cocaine, and acquitted them of conspiring to distribute drugs. The sentencing judge, however, found that they had engaged in the charged conspiracy and, relying largely on that finding, imposed sentences that petitioners say were many times longer than those the Guidelines would otherwise have recommended. Petitioners present a strong case that, but for the judges finding of fact, their sentences would have been substantively unreasonable and therefore illegal. See Rita v. United States, 551 U.S. 338, 372 (2007) (SCALIA, J., joined by THOMAS, J., concurring in part and concurring in judgment). If so, their constitutional rights were violated. The Sixth Amendment, together with the Fifth Amendments Due Process Clause, requires that each element of a crime be either admitted by the defendant, or proved to the jury beyond a reasonable doubt. Alleyne v. United States, 570 U. S. ___, ___ (2013) (slip op., at 3). Any fact that increases the penalty to which a defendant is exposed constitutes an element of a crime, Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 483, n. 10, 490 (2000), and must be found by a jury, not a judge, Cunningham v. California, 549 U. S. 270, 281 (2007). We have held that a substantively unreasonable penalty is illegal and must be set aside. Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 51 (2007). It unavoidably follows that any fact necessary to prevent a sentence from being substantively unreasonable  thereby exposing the defendant to the longer sentence  is an element that must be either admitted by the defendant or found by the jury. It may not be found by a judge. For years, however, we have refrained from saying so. In Rita v. United States, we dismissed the possibility of Sixth Amendment violations resulting from substantive reasonableness review as hypothetical and not presented by the facts of the case. We thus left for another day the question whether the Sixth Amendment is violated when courts impose sentences that, but for a judge-found fact, would be reversed for substantive unreasonableness. 551 U.S., at 353; see also id., at 366 (Stevens, J., joined in part by GINSBURG, J., concurring) (Such a hypothetical case should be decided if and when it arises). Nonetheless, the Courts of Appeals have uniformly taken our continuing silence to suggest that the Constitution does permit otherwise unreasonable sentences supported by judicial factfinding, so long as they are within the statutory range.... This has gone on long enough. The present petition presents the nonhypothetical case the Court claimed to have been waiting for. And it is a particularly appealing case, because not only did no jury convict these defendants of the offense the sentencing judge thought them guilty of, but a jury acquitted them of that offense. Petitioners were convicted of distributing drugs, but acquitted of conspiring to distribute drugs. The sentencing judge found that petitioners had engaged in the conspiracy of which the jury acquitted them. The Guidelines, petitioners claim, recommend sentences of between 27 and 71 months for their distribution convictions. But in light of the conspiracy finding, the court calculated much higher Guidelines ranges, and sentenced Jones, Thurston, and Ball to 180, 194, and 225 months imprisonment. On petitioners appeal, the D. C. Circuit held that even if their sentences would have been substantively unreasonable but for judge-found facts, their Sixth Amendment rights were not violated. 744 F. 3d 1362, 1369 (2014). We should grant certiorari to put an end to the unbroken string of cases disregarding the Sixth Amendment  or to eliminate the Sixth Amendment difficulty by acknowledging that all sentences below the statutory maximum are substantively reasonable.

I am especially disappointed that Justice Scalia and his joiners here could not garner one more vote to grant cert from any of the newer Justices who came on the Court after Blakely and Booker became the Sixth Amendment law of the land. Of course, Justice Alito has frequently shown his disaffinity for expanding the Sixth Amendment rights recognized in those cases. But Chief Justice Roberts joined the Blakely gang in applying (and arguably expanding) Sixth Amendment rights in Cunningham v. California and Justices Sotomayor and Kagan have "shown empathy" for defendants seeking expanded applications of the Sixth Amendment in more recent cases such as Alleyne. As I will explain in a future post, anyone (like me) hoping that Justices Sotomayor and Kagan might end up being even more committed to defendants' procedural rights at sentencing has to be deeply troubled by their disinclination to provide a fourth vote for granting cert in Jones.

Previous related posts on this case and acquitted conduct sentencing enhancements:

October 14, 2014 at 09:58 AM | Permalink

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:

https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451574769e201b7c6f32b20970b

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Three Justices dissent from denial of certiorari in Jones/Ball acquitted conduct case:

Comments

One vote short of the four votes needed to grant Certiorari.

Posted by: Jim Gormley | Oct 14, 2014 10:00:49 AM

I understand Breyer's intransigence since he's been locked into acquitted conduct as the cornerstone of the USSG since the very beginning, but I'm totally at a loss to understand where Sotomayor and Kagan are on this. The split of the Justices (and seeming lack of courage and intellectual honesty) here is beyond ironic.

Posted by: Stan Adelman | Oct 14, 2014 10:27:47 AM

Perhaps someone's (or some-two's) worried about how a vote on the merits would come out . . .

Posted by: SH | Oct 14, 2014 10:37:46 AM

I think you are right, SH, but just elevating the debate by having this before SCOTUS would be very valuable and might even "shame" Justices like Kennedy or even Roberts to reconsider Watts.

Ultimately, as I will say in a coming post, I think Justices like Breyer, Kennedy and Roberts realize that taking up a case like this --- especially if/when the ruling below might be affirmed --- would give the court a(nother) black eye. I suspect Breyer Kennedy and Roberts, perhaps at the same time they made Sotomayor and Kagan happy by denying cert in the SS marriage cases, requested that Sotomayor and Kagan vote to deny in this case for the time being.

Posted by: Doug B. | Oct 14, 2014 11:18:32 AM

This may seem puzzling to many, at least those not SCOTUS-philes, with regard to the political makeup of the justices involved in the cert-denial / dissent of cert denial scuffle.

Scalia is not, last I heard, pro criminal, and Kagen / Sotomayor / Breyer were not heavy sentencing afficianados. What gives here?

The point I've been trying to make is that there is a "Constitutional Interpretation" split among the justices, and NOT a conservative/liberal split. For the most part, those who have followed rigid constitutional authority have been more aligned with the right (Thomas, Alito, Scalia) than the left (Kagan, Sotomayor, Breyer, Ginsburg). The left is more open to a "fluid" or "evolving" constitutional jurisprudence. (Notable was Kagan's preference for a foreign Constitution over the US Constitution which should frankly disqualify ANY judge, not just a Supreme Court justice, but I digress).

Scalia's remonstrance was indicative of providing one of those moments where people, if they get past the "What the Fudge?" reaction, realize the true nature of how Constitutional helps everyone, not just those of a particular political bent.

Posted by: Eric Knight | Oct 14, 2014 11:38:35 AM

This issue shows the complexity of the divisions of the USSC, which does not always come down on a strict liberal/conservative axis. Take a look at the Blakely break-down:

Scalia, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Stevens, Souter, Thomas, and Ginsburg, JJ., joined. OConnor, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Breyer, J., joined, and in which Rehnquist, C. J., and Kennedy, J., joined except as to Part IVB. Kennedy, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Breyer, J., joined. Breyer, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which OConnor, J., joined.

We saw something similar in certain Confrontation Clause rulings -- on certain issues, Scalia/Thomas (not always voting the exact same way) see certain constitutional clear lines that have pro-criminal rights results. Roberts/Alito are less formalist in various cases. This means, given Breyer's past actions, Sotomayor/Kagan is key here and might be more hesitant in expanding past cases than their predecessors.

The reference to the SSM denials seem a bit stretched though both probably have prudential elements. I agree the matter is due to be taken & the "black eye" concern seems overblown. But, the author is a lot more knowledgeable on the subject than I.

Posted by: Joe | Oct 14, 2014 12:19:31 PM

ETA: SCOTUSBlog has a post on this denial and also referenced Dunlap v. Idado.

http://www.scotusblog.com/2014/10/the-jury-acquits-the-judge-still-sentences-can-that-be/#more-219219

Posted by: Joe | Oct 14, 2014 12:21:12 PM

"Scalia is not, last I heard, pro criminal"

Scalia voted for the defendant in *every* Fourth Amendment case last term. Breyer, of course, voted against. One problem is that a line of argument that gets Scalia's vote inevitably loses Breyer, and vice versa.

The Justices are a bit more complicated than the popular media portrayal, especially, as noted by Joe above, on the Confrontation Clause and right to trial by jury.

Posted by: John Thacker | Oct 14, 2014 1:37:06 PM

I wasn't certain Scalia would be in Ball's camp here. Since he was (and Thomas too) the fact that at least Sotomayor wasn't interested suggests to me that they didn't think they could get five votes. A dissent from denial of cert is much better than a dissent in an opinion on the merits.

Posted by: Erik M | Oct 14, 2014 2:20:56 PM

Thomas wrote Peugh vs. US, which Scalia dissented from, so he's less surprising, I agree. But this was *the* best case to test this proposition, since the jury explicitly found the defendants not guilty and the judge essentially reversed. It really was the perfect test cases.

Note too, as Scalia does, that the lower courts have essentially been interpreting the Court's silence as consent to these kind of enhancements.

Posted by: John Thacker | Oct 14, 2014 4:22:05 PM

what this so-called issue proves is this group of retards now holding the bench of the USSC are both a joke and a criminal gang involved in destroying the United States Constitution.

Posted by: rodsmith | Oct 14, 2014 10:52:09 PM

John, just a point of clarification. Sotomayor wrote Peugh, to which Thomas dissented. But I agree that this was a very good test case. The only thing that would have made it better was if the acquitted conduct was less-directly related factually to the jury's finding of guilt. Here, you had three guys selling drugs together who were acquitted of conspiracy. Not disagreeing with the jury finding, but you can imagine the judge easily getting over the preponderance hurdle on the facts.

Peugh v. U.S.: Reversed and remanded, 5-4, in an opinion by Justice Sotomayor on June 10, 2013. Justice Ginsburg, Justice Breyer, and Justice Kagan joined the opinion in full and Justice Kennedy joined the opinion except as to Part III-C. Justice Thomas filed a dissenting opinion, in which Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Scalia and Justice Alito as to Parts I and II-C. Justice Alito filed a dissenting opinion in which Justice Scalia joined.

Posted by: TJH | Oct 15, 2014 12:31:05 PM

"One problem is that a line of argument that gets Scalia's vote inevitably loses Breyer,"

I believe that this largely because of bad lawyering. Because of the way that these two justices see the law you will never get them to agree on every case. But there is no good reason why a well-tailored argument can't pick up both votes in some cases.

Posted by: Daniel | Oct 15, 2014 4:03:38 PM

How can an individual now consent to serving on a jury, when a judge can overturn a not guilty verdict ? In fact, after being acquitted of conspiracy charges, the judge tried him again on the same count ( amounting to double jeopardy ) and found them guilty and denied them their jury verdict.

Just another FUBAR decision by our traitorous SCROTUM justices. So was their decision that the death penalty is unconstitutional for child molesters. Everyone dies, so the death penalty in and of itself is not unconstitutional ( nor cruel and unusual ), only the manner of execution can be cruel and unusual.

Jurisdiction - How can one submit to jurisdiction of a court that does not have to obey the verdict of the jury ?

I demand that the House Of Representatives impeach the 6 dishonorable justices who did not either vote to overturn the lower courts decision, or who didn't vote to review the unconstitutional sentence given.

Posted by: Michael Martin | Oct 18, 2014 1:34:53 PM

Post a comment
The Intersectoral Action Fund addresses complex public health challenges

VICTORIA, BC, June 17, 2022 /CNW/ - Canada is one of the healthiest countries in the world, and everyone in Canada deserves opportunities to thrive and lead a healthy life. The Government of Canada recognizes that every individual should have the resources and opportunities for health and wellbeing and is taking action to address systemic health challenges and barriers.

Health inequities are the systematic, unfair, and avoidable differences in health outcomes. Health inequities have long existed in Canada, but have been even more evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic disproportionately affected the mental and physical wellbeing of many groups in society, including Indigenous peoples, Black and racialized communities, as well as people from lower income households, children, youth, and seniors.

Today, John Aldag, Member of Parliament for Cloverdale - Langley City, on behalf of the Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Health, announced an investment of more than $370,000 through the new Intersectoral Action Fund (ISAF) for two organizations based in British Columbia.

Generation Squeeze, based in Metro Vancouver, will receive $249,680 in funding to increase awareness of the importance of social spending for positive health outcomes, and champion the development and use of data on the relationship between social spending and medical care spending to inform policy decisions. This project will work within and across four key sectors  public health, childcare, housing, and poverty reduction  to promote wellbeing in Canada from the early years onwards.

The Community Social Planning Council of Greater Victoria will receive $122,200 in funding to develop and test a regional strategy for building equity into climate action. The strategy will focus on the intersection between climate and health equity. It will help guide transportation decision-making to maximize the benefits between climate, accessibility, affordability, and health outcomes. This project recognizes that climate change and poverty disproportionally impact vulnerable individuals and are compounded by Indigenous, visible minority, refugee, newcomer, gender, and sexual identity status.

Story continues

The Public Health Agency of Canada, through the ISAF, is funding projects across the country to improve the conditions for health and the systems and structures that shape them, and to help everyone in Canada reach their full health potential.

Quotes

"Our government is taking action to address complex health inequities so that everyone in Canada can live a healthy life. By supporting projects likes the ones announced today, we can take meaningful steps towards tackling the root cause of health disparities and help improve health outcomes for all. "

The Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos

Minister of Health

"Generation Squeeze and the Community Social Planning Council of Greater Victoria play an important role in helping the Government of Canada strengthen its efforts to address our country's complex public health challenges. These projects will help build a healthier future for communities in British Columbia."

John Aldag

Member of Parliament for Cloverdale - Langley City

"A key lesson from public health is that health doesn't start with health care. Data shows that social investments matter more for our health than the money we put into medical care, because health begins where we are born, grow, live, work and age. Our project will help bring these data to life by showcasing that spending on child care is health spending, investments in affordable housing are health spending, and reducing poverty  as we did through the pandemic  is health spending."

Dr. Paul Kershaw

Founder, Generation Squeeze

"There is a growing recognition across communities that the impacts of climate change and resulting climate emergencies are disproportionately landing on marginalized communities. Tying equity to climate action is crucial for creating solutions that work for all community members, and this funding will help us support municipalities in doing just that."

Diana Gibson

Executive Director of the Community Social Planning Council of Greater Victoria

Quick Facts

The ISAF launched in May 2021 to support action on social determinants of health. The Fund helps build capacity in communities to advance intersectoral action on social determinants of health, particularly as they move towards the difficult work of recovering from the pandemic.

Social determinants of health refer to the broad range of social, economic and environmental factors that relate to an individual's place in society (such as gender, race, income, education, or employment) and that determine individual and population health. These determinants are shaped by the distribution of wealth, power, and opportunities within and between populations.

Intersectoral action refers to the ways that different groups and sectors of society work together to enhance the health of our communities. The ISAF supports communities to build capacity for such action, and helps ensure that the social determinants of health and health inequities are understood and addressed.

Fourteen projects were selected for funding through the ISAF. These projects will address the root causes of long-standing community health challenges or those heightened by COVID-19, or proposed activities that build on or advance intersectoral initiatives to expand their reach or impact.

Associated Links

SOURCE Public Health Agency of Canada

Cision

View original content: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/June2022/17/c6935.html
  5270  182.913.1% 10%  TAG Heuer Connected Calibre E4  Porsche Edition Taycan  240  43 10%1000 1.52% 2.79%8%   19826    11.67140.4%  3.2242.5%  643040.1% 3.3%     Verizon 202212 13012  Twitter 47FF91 85%  20%19% 74% 3  14%13% 15%    2.4687%  10%9%
FRIDAY, July 15, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Starting Saturday, if you or someone you know is contemplating suicide or having a mental health crisis, you can dial just three numbers -- 988 -- to get help.

Callers will be connected to a trained counselor at a local call center and ultimately routed to potentially lifesaving support services. The three-digit code for the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline replaces the 10-digit number for what was formerly known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

The new three-digit number is easy to remember, free, available 24/7 and confidential, said Thea Gallagher, a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at NYU Langone Health in New York City.

"If 988 becomes just as ubiquitous as 911, we are saying that mental health and physical health are on the same level, and that breaks stigma," she said.

The need for such access and services has never been greater, Gallagher said.

"With the ongoing pandemic, we have seen an increase in depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts and behavior, so we know mental health has never been more negatively impacted," she said.

In 2020, more than 47,000 Americans died by suicide, a 33% increase from 2000, according to The Pew Charitable Trusts.

The new number will also accept texts, and live chat is available, said Dr. May Lau. She is a pediatrician at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the medical director of the Adolescent and Young Adult Clinic at Childrens Medical Center Dallas.

Crisis counselors speak multiple languages and are culturally competent at counseling members of the LGBTQ community. There are also resources available for people who are deaf or hearing-impaired, Lau said.

"The text function is only in English for now, but most of the people who feel comfortable texting are younger, and many of them are bilingual," Lau noted.

The new line is not just for people who are contemplating suicide. Counselors are also skilled in discussing self-harm, addiction, domestic violence and other mental health issues. If a caller needs immediate medical attention, 988 will collaborate with local police or hospitals to dispatch services.

"We are trying to help people deal with crises before they become life-threatening," said Anthony Wood, interim CEO and COO of the American Association for Suicidology. The group has been calling for a three-digit suicide hotline for years.

And while a three-digit number is a big step forward, there are still some kinks to work out, Wood said.

For starters, local crisis centers will need more counselors to handle the expected surge in calls, he said.

"Member centers are gearing up for more volume and accountability to their communities, and while funding has been expanded, we are still in a situation where there are not enough dollars to cover the cost for every part of the country," Wood said. "Every state is struggling with how to fund the program."

The existing number, 1-800-273-8255, will still be available after July 16.

More information

Learn more about the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

SOURCES: Thea Gallagher, PsyD, clinical assistant professor, department of psychiatry, NYU Langone Health, New York City; May Lau, MD, pediatrician, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and medical director, Adolescent and Young Adult Clinic at Childrens Medical Center Dallas; Anthony Wood, interim CEO and COO, American Association for Suicidology, Washington, D.C.

Was this page helpful?
You are here: World

 Flash

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa flew into Singapore from the Maldives on Thursday evening, the Straits Times reported.

The Singaporean newspaper said Rajapaksa arrived on board a Saudi flight, which landed at Singapore's Changi airport at 7:17 pm local time (1117 GMT).

It is not clear how long he will stay in Singapore or if he has another destination in mind, the newspaper added.

Rajapaksa left Sri Lanka for the Maldives on Wednesday, just hours before his resignation was expected to be announced, amid a severe economic crisis that has sparked protests in the country.

Sri Lankan Speaker of Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena confirmed on Wednesday that a new president will be elected on July 20 through a vote in parliament.
BATTLE CREEK, IOWA  Investigators in Ida County now believe they know what caused a house explosion on July 6 that leveled the entire structure and sent three occupants to the hospital with serious injuries.

According to a press release from Ida County Sheriff Wade Harriman, the cause of the explosion at 2362 Carriage Avenue in Battle Creek was an underground gas leak in the service line.

The three occupants of the home: Jeremy Bruning, 42, Sandra Jepsen, 68, and Joel Stapleton, 46, were inside at the time of the explosion but were helped outside by another person who had been outside. The blast was reported at 9:34 a.m., and the house was engulfed in flames when firefighters and emergency personnel arrived.

Working the case with the Ida County Sheriff's Office was the Iowa State Fire Marshal's Office. Responding to the initial blast were fire departments and emergency crews from Battle Creek, Ida Grove, Holstein, Danbury, Cushing, Kiron and the Crawford County Memorial Hospital Ambulance service and emergency services from Ida, Woodbury, Monona and Cherokee counties, plus the Iowa State Patrol.

As of now, the release said there are no updates available on the condition of the Bruning, Jepsen and Stapleton.

On July 13, exactly one week after the explosion in Battle Creek, an early Wednesday morning explosion in a residential neighborhood in Le Mars injured three people and destroyed two homes. In that case, Le Mars Fire-Rescue Chief Dave Schipper said three individuals were inside or around the home at 327 Third St. SW at the time of explosion and suffered injuries.
SIOUX CITY -- The City of Sioux City will host a pop-up public engagement event for the downtown infrastructure reconstruction plan on July 22.

The event, which is being held during Food Truck Friday, runs from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Pearl Street Park, 620 Pearl Street. No formal presentation is planned, and attendees may drop in at any time.

The public will have the opportunity to learn more about the plans progress, as well as provide input and feedback about project priorities and downtown locations that have been identified as priority areas. Attendees can also enter to win free movie passes to the Promenade Cinema 14, dinner for two, and tickets to the Rockzilla Tour at the Hard Rock Casino/Battery Park on Aug. 12.

The city has engaged JEO Consulting Group to create the plan. The plan is being developed to identify and prioritize the repair and replacement needs of the utility infrastructure in the downtown.

The planning area covers approximately 126 blocks and includes the area from Wesley Parkway to Floyd Boulevard and from Gordon Drive to Eighth Street. The plan will be completed in early 2023. Construction of identified improvement projects will be determined based on available funding.

For more information visit sioux-city.org or contact the Public Works Department at 712-279-6324.
SIOUX CITY -- Police have arrested a man suspected of robbing a woman at gunpoint outside a Sioux City convenience store in June.

Asa Starr, 18, of Sioux City, was booked into the Woodbury County Jail early Friday on charges of first-degree robbery, going armed with intent, assault while participating in a felony and felon in possession of a firearm. His bond was set at $250,000.

Starr is charged with the June 27 robbery of a woman while she was filling her car with gas at Select-Mart, 4103 Floyd Blvd.

According to court documents, the woman was at the gas pump when a car pulled up beside her, and Starr got out of the passenger side, approached her and demanded her belongings while displaying a gun. The woman initially grabbed the gun and struggled with Starr before complying with his demands for not only her credit card, but a bag inside her vehicle. The woman complied out of fear for the safety of her children inside her vehicle, court documents said.

Starr got back into the car and fled into Plymouth County, where, according to court documents, he fired the gun at another person after discarding some of the stolen items at the person's property. Starr was seen burying what was believed to be a pistol in a dirt pile at a third location, and police retrieved a .25-caliber handgun from the location on Wednesday.

Starr is scheduled to be sentenced July 25 for a November 2020 break-in and robbery at a Sioux City home in which he threatened the occupant with a gun and stole televisions and a video game system. Starr pleaded guilty in May to second-degree robbery and second-degree burglary.
SIOUX CITY -- A Sioux City man has pleaded not guilty of punching his mother in the face and causing injuries that led to her hospitalization.

Kevin Maas, 51, entered his written plea Thursday in Woodbury County District Court to one count of willful injury. Because of his previous felony convictions, a habitual offender enhancement was added to the charge, increasing the prison sentence Maas could face to 15 years.

Maas is accused of assaulting his mother on May 12 at her Sioux City home after she refused to go with him to pick up another person. According to court documents, she offered him money for a cab, but he hit her and tried to strangle her. Maas fled before police arrived.

The 74-year-old woman was admitted to the intensive care unit at MercyOne Siouxland Medical Center, where she was treated for a left orbital fracture, multiple broken cheek and nasal bones and a head bleed.
SIOUX CITY  As part of its ongoing water conservation efforts, the City of Sioux City is asking the public to voluntarily comply with an odd/even watering plan for residential and commercial lawns through September.

Under the plan, which went into effect Friday, property owners with odd numbered addresses are encouraged to water on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, while even numbered addresses should irrigate on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Watering is not recommended on Mondays.

"As we get into the heat of the summer, hot, dry conditions persist. With the odd/even watering plan, the idea is to even out water demands throughout the week, so that we can keep our water storage structures at normal operating levels," Sioux City Utilities Director Brad Puetz said Friday, during a news conference at City Hall.

In late April, the city first asked residents to consider turning off the faucet when they brush their teeth, taking shorter showers and irrigating their lawns efficiently in effort to conserve water among moderate to severe drought conditions. A lack of precipitation and runoff in the Missouri River's upper basin is causing lower river levels and directly impacting the city's well water supply.

Puetz said water demands due to irrigation in the early morning hours are "really starting to stress" the city's water storage structures. He estimated that irrigation equates to 30 to 40% of the city's operational use.

"We've been maintaining normal storage levels so far," he said. "We see a lot of people throughout the city watering their yards in the hottest period of the day, with little benefit offered to the lawn. It really just puts an additional stress on the distribution system in our water storage structures."

Puetz said property owners should water between 3 a.m. and 9 a.m. and not water during the other hours of the day, when it's hot.

"We hope that people take the time to look at their irrigation systems and make sure they're set appropriately -- that's for both residential and commercial properties," he said. "All we can do at this point is put it into place and, then, assess whether or not it's a system that's conserving water."

Active water conservation can reduce the need for the city to implement further steps outlined its water conservation plan. The full plan is available sioux-city.org or by calling the Sioux City Water Treatment Plant at 712-279-6150.
SIOUX CITY  The number of tests coming back positive for COVID-19 is ticking upward in Woodbury County amid the emergence of highly contagious new subvariants.

The county saw a 39% increase in the number of positive COVID tests reported in the last seven days, according to the state's most recent COVID-19 report. The data, which was updated by the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) on Tuesday, shows 256 positive tests, which is up from the 183 positive tests reported on July 5.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's COVID Data Tracker rates Woodbury County's community transmission level as low. That level was calculated on July 7 using data from June 30 to July 6.

According to IDPH's website, 57.3% of Woodbury County residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Nationwide, the latest COVID-19 surge is driven by the highly transmissible BA.5 subvariant, which now accounts for 65% of cases with its cousin BA.4 contributing another 16%. The subvariants have shown a remarkable ability to get around the protection offered by vaccination.

The most common symptoms reported by patients infected with the omicron variant are cough, fatigue, congestion or runny nose, according to a CDC report published in December.

With the new omicron subvariants pushing hospitalizations and deaths higher in recent weeks, states and cities are rethinking their responses and the White House is stepping up efforts to alert the public.

Last week, UnityPoint Health -- Sioux City announced that it is once again requiring staff members, patients and visitors over the age of 2 to wear a mask at all facilities. The requirement went into effect on July 7.

In a statement, the Sioux City hospital said it had not seen an increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations, but wanted to take precautions to protect sick patients and those with weakened immune systems.

"It's important that we as a community remember the basic infection prevention strategies we've been practicing since the beginning of the pandemic  wash your hands, wear a mask, stay home when you're sick, and get your appropriate vaccinations," the statement said. "As always, the health and safety of our patients and team members is our top priority."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
On this weeks edition of the On Iowa Politics podcast: Grassley and Ernst on a federal abortion ban, J.D. Scholten joins Team Franken.

On Iowa Politics is a weekly news and analysis podcast that aims to re-create the kinds of conversations that happen when you get political reporters from across Iowa together after the day's deadlines have been met.

This weeks show is hosted by The Gazettes Statehouse Bureau Chief Erin Murphy and features Jared McNett of the Sioux City Journal, Gazette Opinion Editor Todd Dorman, and Sarah Watson of the Quad City Times.

The show was produced by Stephen M. Colbert, and the music heard on the podcast is courtesy of Iowa bands Milk & Eggs and Copperhead.
Really, South Dakota Democrats?

After the last 18 months filled with controversy concerning a Republican attorney general and his involvement in a fatal car accident in 2020  resulting in the first impeachment and conviction/removal of a state office holder in South Dakota history  the states Democrats failed to nominate a candidate for the AG post during their convention last weekend in Fort Pierre.

As a result, former Attorney General Marty Jackley, a Republican, is unopposed in his effort to return to the job he left four years ago to run for governor.

For the record, there is no question that Jackley is a well-known figure  he previously served as AG from 2009-2019 and would have been the heavy favorite to win this fall. Understandably, few Democratic candidates would have wanted to face that buzzsaw.

However, given all this state has witnessed these many months regarding former Attorney General Jason Ravnsborgs automobile accident and his actions thereafter, the state deserves more than to have a new attorney general take over without voters at least being able to weigh in on it.

Specifically, South Dakotans will be denied the wide-ranging discussion that two candidates would have had regarding the recent issues with the AGs office.

The next attorney general will have a lot of outreach and fence-mending to do with the public, as well as with legislators and law enforcement, as the office moves forward from its tumultuous recent past. So far, Jackley appears to understand the task ahead.

But this serious issue would be better highlighted with open campaign-trail dialogue. The Democrats inability to put up a candidate removes that prospect and basically takes them out of whatever conversation that may have been had this fall about the direction of the attorney generals office.

This also puts an even harsher spotlight on the diminished stature of the party, which holds no statewide offices and has only a handful of lawmakers in the Legislature. Meanwhile, the party has also failed to put up a candidate for the U.S. House race against Dusty Johnson (who nevertheless faces a challenge from libertarian Collin Duprel).

To be fair, the outmanned Democrats know what they are up against, especially in the AG slot. After 2018, when Democratic attorney general candidate Randy Seiler brought decades of experience and a long resume to the race but lost handily to the relatively inexperienced Ravnsborg, it was clear that any Democrat running for this post would have a big hill to climb.

Also, this campaign dialogue would have come at a time when there is increasing skepticism about some actions in Pierre which seem detached from public sentiment. The recent issues with Ravnsborg seemed to sharpen those perceptions.

South Dakotans have endured too much to let the attorney generals situation slip back into a fog. After all this, there is a real need for frank, bilateral, illuminating dialogue regarding the extraordinary recent events with the AG post and the future of that office.

But we will likely be deprived of that.
 Flash

Sri Lanka's Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena announces the official resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa as the President of Sri Lanka in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on July 15, 2022. [Photo/Xinhua]

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as interim president before the chief justice on Friday, following the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, according to the prime minister's office.

Earlier in the day, Sri Lanka's Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said he has received the resignation letter of the president, and from this point forth the president has legally resigned from his legal duties and responsibilities.

"Under these circumstances, the constitutional procedure of appointing a new president will now be activated. Until this constitutional procedure is over, according to the constitution the prime minister will function in the capacity of the president overseeing functions, duties, and powers of the office of the president," the speaker told a media briefing.

The speaker added that parliament will convene on July 16 and he requested all legislators to attend parliamentary sessions on that day.

He requested maximum cooperation for the democratic process of electing a new president and government from all party leaders, state officials, and security forces, and made a special appeal to the citizens of Sri Lanka to create a peaceful environment that would allow all lawmakers to attend parliament freely.

Under such an environment, with the help of all responsible, the speaker said he intends to conclude the process of electing a new president within a short period of seven days.

Sri Lanka has been in the midst of a severe economic turmoil for months, which has led to a shortage of basic supplies such as food, gas and fuel.
Netflixs new adaptation of Persuasion tries to bring a millennial sensibility to Austens final novel, combining the anachronisms of Dickinson with the fourth-wall-breaking of Fleabag. The movie, directed by Carrie Cracknell with a script by Ronald Bass and Alice Victoria Winslow, preserves the broad strokes of the books plot, but the details are very different, mostly thanks to the films reimagining of the main character, Anne Elliot (Dakota Johnson). We break down the most significant changes below.

Anne Elliot

Anne Elliot, whom Austen once described in a letter as almost too good for me, is a tricky sell for modern audiencesmaybe even the trickiest of Austens heroines, after Mansfield Parks Fanny Price. In the novel, Anne is 27 years old, her bloom of youth and beauty has vanished, and she has remained single since breaking off her engagement to sailor Frederick Wentworth, then poor and lacking connections, when she was 19. Still, she remains convinced to the very end she was right to listen to her friends and familys advice out of a sense of duty, even though it made her and Wentworth unhappy. All of which might make her more difficult to relate to for 21st-century viewers.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Perhaps this helps explain why Bass and Winslow have changed Annes personality considerably, much like the 1999 adaption of Mansfield Park did with Fanny. Whereas Austens Anne is mature and measured, Anne seems like a woman out of time: She chugs wine at every opportunity, and at one point she wonders aloud why people assume all women want is to be chosen by any eligible bachelor, as though shes ignorant of her own socioeconomic circumstances as a denizen of the early 19th century.

[Read: Fire Island Is a Surprisingly Faithful Jane Austen Adaptation (Albeit With More Poppers)]

Austens novel uses third-person narration, but one with many insights into its heroines observations and opinions. The film translates this by having Johnson offer commentary in voiceover as well as deliver asides directly to the camera (another similarity to the 99 Mansfield Park). Anne thus recites verbatim many lines otherwise belonging to the novels narrator, such as noting that vanity is the beginning and the end of her fathers character. While Austens Anne is certainly observant, the movie also couples this with something of a mean streak, with Anne at times seeming amused by her own familys misfortunes.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Finally, Johnsons Anne is considerably, er, quirkier than her book counterpart. Her former fiance walks in on her doing an imitation of him wearing a bread basket on her head and sporting a mustache of jam. At a dinner party, she drunkenly blurts out that her brother-in-law, Charles Musgrove, preferred her before marrying her younger sister (a fact that is true to the book, though she doesnt go blabbing about it). And she later breaks an awkward silence by describing a dream in which she is an octopus. She is a Manic Pixie Dream Spinster.

The Rest of the Elliots

As in the book, the film sees Anne, her father Sir Walter Elliot (a fabulous Richard E. Grant), and her elder sister displaced from their home when financial mismanagement forces them to relocate to Bath and rent out their estateto none other than Fredrick Wentworths sister and her husband. Wentworth (played here by Cosmo Jarvis) is now a wealthy captain in the Royal Navy who still resents Anne for leaving him, even as he spends time with her and her in-laws, the Musgroves.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Since Sir Walter has no sons, there is a cousin who stands to inherit the familys estate, Mr. William Elliot (Henry Golding). In the film, Mr. Elliot openly tells Anne that he has come to town to prevent her father from marrying Mrs. Clay, a woman of lower rank, because any son they had would jeopardize his inheritance. Anne tells Mr. Elliot she is impressed by his honesty, a far cry from how she reacts learning of his plan and motivessecondhand, not from Mr. Elliot himselfin the novel: Mr. Elliot is evidently a disingenuous, artificial, worldly man, who has never had any better principle to guide him than selfishness.

Advertisement

Advertisement

[Read: Netflixs Persuasion Isnt Just Bad Austen. Its One of the Worst Movies in Years.]

Other Characters

Advertisement

Advertisement

Despite the movies time period and setting, it features several actors of color as landed gentry, including Golding. The Nigerian-British actress Nikki Amuka-Bird plays Annes advisor and surrogate mother Lady Russell, who in the film Anne describes as an unflinching speaker of truth and who tells Sir Walter to his face that his arrogance is putting his family in jeopardy. (In the book, she is considerably more deferential due to Sir Walters social station.)

No adaptation of Persuasion would be complete without a pivotal scene: Louisa Musgrove (Nia Towle) is injured when she impulsively jumps from a wall and Wentworth fails to catch her, and Annes compassion and calm head in the aftermath begin to repair their relationship. This one scene, at least, is the same. The movie also faithfully reconstructs the scene that brings Wentworth and Anne back together at last: Wentworth overhears Anne say that women love longest, and famously writes her a letter in which he confesses his feelings and claims to be half agony, half hope.

21st Century Attitude

Or perhaps the movies Wentworth shouldve written agony + hope = , since this Persuasion is packed with contemporary slang and ideasthe producers even considered setting it in the present day. The costuming makes no effort at period accuracy. Anne calls Mr. Elliot a ten, and another character refers to Anne herself as a six. She makes reference to a playlist while holding a stack of music. She says the best way to listen to Beethoven is while drinking alone in her room, though the phonograph has not yet been invented. And Annes self-absorbed younger sister Mary (Mia McKenna-Bruce, in a standout performance) refers to herself as an empath. Needless to say, none of this appeared in Austens novel.
Theres a mystery in Where the Crawdads Sing, the new film directed by Olivia Newman, which tells the life story of Kya Clark (Daisy Edgar-Jones), abandoned from childhood to live alone in the marshlands of North Carolina in the 1950s and 60s. The movie, like the Delia Owens novel on which it is based, tells Kyas story via flashbacks as she stands trial for the murder of Chase (Harris Dickinson), a handsome rich-boy stinker with whom she once had a secret romance. If Kya didnt kill him, then who did?

Advertisement

The real mystery, though, is the massive appeal of Owens novelwhich has sold more than 12 million copies to become one of the bestselling titles of all timeand whether that appeal can be replicated onscreen. At its heart, the novel is a woozy fantasy about female suffering and the virtue of nature-loving, a form of nobility so exalted it overrules the laws of man. Crawdads doesnt have much in common with Stephenie Meyers Twilight when it comes to plot and style, but both novels have the cloistered, feverish illogic of a daydream and take place in imaginary worlds shaped by desire and untrammeled by reality. Movies conjure up worlds like this all the time, but they cast their spell using different tools, tools whose sharp edges can puncture the delicate bubble of novelistic illusion. In the movie version of Crawdads, thats exactly what happens.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

The same ethical solipsism that enabled Owens past adventures abroad presides over Crawdads.

Raised in a cabin beyond the edge of town, Kya loses her entire family as a little girl. Her abusive drunk of a Pa (Garret Dillahunt) drives away her beautiful, artistic Ma (Ahna OReilly) and eventually the rest of her siblings. Then Pa disappears and seven-year-old Kya survives on her own in the cabin, selling mussels to Jumpin (Sterling Macer, Jr), a kindly Black man who owns a gas and bait shop on the marina. Jumpin and his wife, Mabel (Michael Hyatt), provide what little parenting Kya gets, and help her hide from social services. Mabel supplies her with clothes and shoes from the church charity box. The rest of the town, with few exceptions, calls her Marsh Girl and Wolf Girl, the other children bullying Kya so mercilessly that she refuses to attend more than a single day of school. Eventually she befriends Tate (Taylor John Smith), the son of a shrimper, who teaches her how to read and write and becomes her first love. But Tate goes off to college, leaving Kya vulnerable to Chases unscrupulous seduction.

Advertisement

For the largely female readership of Crawdads, Kya makes an inviting avatar. A cross between St. Francis and Snow White (without the dwarves), she never does anything wrong. Or, rather, the novel builds the argument that Kya is simply incapable of doing wrong. She is a child of nature, uncorrupted by human society, who takes her cues from the innately good creatures of the marsh. In the film, as Kya flees a schoolroom full of jeering kids, she declares in voiceover I reckon I was better off learning from the wild. Later, Chase breaks her heart by getting engaged to a pearl-bedecked daughter of the towns elite, and a falcon appears at her window to comfort her. Whenever I stumbled, the marsh caught me, Kyas voiceover intones again.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

The film understandably organizes itself around the Kya/Chase/Tate love triangle, which is more cinematic than the triangle that drives the novel: Kya/Nature/Humanity. The movie, being a movie, succumbs to the human desire to see a glamorized version of the world onscreen. For someone who wears hand-me-downs and lives alone in a swamp, Kya has a surprisingly extensive wardrobe of pretty, well-fitting outfits, including a long white lace dress and a darling sky blue cardigan with embroidered flowers, items that always appear clean and pressed. Her marsh is a world of lushly photographed herons and picturesquely labyrinthine wetlands, not mosquitos and mud. ( Her feet get a little dirty, but thats about it.) Her long hair, while loosely styled, is never tangled or greasy or even practically scraped back into a bun. For someone who hides like a timorous fawn whenever visitors come around, the movies Kya is as well turned out as a heroine in a country music video.

Advertisement

One of the novels weakest aspects is its handling of race, and Newman and screenwriter Lucy Alibar have wisely trimmed back Owens clumsy attempts to draw parallels between Jumpin and Mabels position in the community and Kyas. Preposterously, the novel has Jumpinwhen he realizes that Chase has beaten and attempted to rape Kyaurge her to report the assault saying, He caint go an do a thing like that and then just go on boatin round in that fancy boat of his. King of the World. In the film, he simply promises not to make trouble by telling anyone. Still, theres not much the filmmakers can do with the novels obliviousness in this department. Any attempt to do justice to the situation of people like Jumpin and Mabel in 1950s North Carolina would only distract from the storys commitment to depicting Kya as the towns primary outcast and scapegoat. On screen, with the cameras eye liberated from Kyas limited perspective, the omission seems even more blinkered.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

The release of the film version of Where the Crawdads Sing has drawn fresh attention to Owens troubled past as a wildlife conservationist and bestselling nonfiction author in Africa. In short, Owens husband Mark ran what was effectively a lawless armed militia while battling poachers in Zambia and eventually the couple was forced to flee the country, where they are still wanted for questioning in a 1995 murder case. The same ethical solipsism that enabled Owens past adventures abroad presides over Crawdads, and Newmans film cant escape it, either. In the novels primitive morality, people are all good or all bad, and which category they fit into can be determined by their treatment of Kya. The handful of townsfolk who sympathize with her are the exception. The rest are nasty, superficial, and cruel.

Advertisement

Sign up for the Slate Culture Newsletter The best of movies, TV, books, music, and more, delivered to your inbox. We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again. Please enable javascript to use form. Email address: Send me updates about Slate special offers. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Sign Up Thanks for signing up! You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time.

Why should Kya, whose virtue is proven by her love of the marsh and its creatures, be subjected to the rules of such brutes? When her lawyer (David Strathairn) makes his closing argument, he tells the jury, We labeled and rejected her because she was different. Surely Kya cant be the only poor person in Barkley Cove, the only person unfairly treated or struggling to fit in, but you wouldnt know it from Owens story. The town, in both book and film, has a Disney gloss, all candy-colored storefronts and mean ladies in white gloves. Like the marsh itself, its rigged, a stage set designed to focus all attention on Kya and her exclusion. And by making this visible, the movie only serves to reveal what a contrivance it is.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Spoiler alert: Although Kya is acquitted of killing Chase, much, much later Tate learns that she did in fact deliberately murder him. She considers this merely one more thing she was forced to do to survive, which is only natures way, so how could it be wrong? A swamp knows all about death, Kya explains in voiceover at the movies beginning, repeated at the end, and it doesnt necessarily define it as a tragedy, let alone a sin. But you cant have it both ways. Nature may not believe in sin, but it also doesnt believe in good and evil. Saints as well as sinners are a human invention, as are heroines who are just too good to be true.
Alex Murdaughthe attorney from a prominent South Carolina family who is suspected of committing a truly staggering number of crimes that were revealed in the aftermath of a fatal 2019 boat crashwas indicted Thursday for murder. He is accused of killing his wife Maggie and 22-year-old son Paul in June 2021. We will attempt to briefly review this very complicated and extremely tragic situation as coherently as possible.

Why did Alex Murdaugh allegedly kill his wife and son?

Advertisement

We dont know yet. The documents released by authorities do not present evidence that speaks to his motive or how the murders are believed to have taken place, except to say that Maggie Murdaugh was killed with a rifle and Paul Murdaugh was killed with a shotgun. (Alex Murdaugh was the person who reported their deaths to police, saying he had discovered them dead on a 1,700-acre hunting property belonging to the family.) Murdaughs attorneys say he was not involved in the killings in any way and that they expect the state to turn over its evidence against him within 30 days. (See here for reporting by the local investigative site FITSNews on what some of that evidence might be.)

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Why might have Alex Murdaugh killed his wife and son?

It is a long story. In February 2019, 19-year-old Mallory Beach was killed when a boat she was riding on, which belonged to the Murdaugh family, hit a bridge structure at 2 a.m. Witnesses said Paul Murdaugh was driving it at the time and that he was extremely drunk and acting belligerently. In April 2019 Paul Murdaugh was charged with operating the boat while intoxicated.

Alex Murdaugh has been accused of obstructing the investigation into the crash by pressuring witnesses not to reveal Pauls culpability. He has also since been charged with executing multiple fraud and embezzlement schemes, which were ongoing at the time of the crash; these included an alleged attempt to commit insurance fraud in order to benefit from the 2018 death of a housekeeper at one of the Murdaugh familys properties. FITSNews has reported that a grand jury and an attorney representing Beachs family were seeking Alex Murdaughs financial records in the days and weeks before the murders. Investigators are also looking into rumors that Alex and Maggie Murdaughs son Buster was involved in the 2015 death of a local 19-year-oldthough he has not been charged with a crime. (More on that case, and some of the others discussed here, can be found at this link.)

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

So one speculative possibility is that Paul and Maggie Murdaughs killings were in some way an effort on Alex Murdaughs part to prevent authorities who were looking into the boat crash from discovering his elaborate web of other alleged criminal behavior. In the weeks after the double murder, it was speculated in the press that Paul and Maggie may have been killed for purposes of revenge; other members of the familynone of whom have themselves been implicated in any criminal activity, to be clearsaid on TV that they believed Paul had received threats online.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Is there any further reason to believe Alex Murdaugh would do something this drastic and risky in order to avoid being held responsible for his other behavior?

Advertisement

Advertisement

Yes. In September 2021 Murdaugh told police he had been shot in the head by an unknown assailant while attempting to change a flat tire. The gunshot wound was only superficial, though, and within two weeks Murdaugh had been charged with hiring an acquaintance to carry out the purportedly random head-shooting. (Its not clear whether it was an accident that the friend failed almost entirely to actually hit Murdaughs head with a bullet.) Murdaugh has been in custody since then.

Why would someone from a family wealthy enough to own multiple properties, including one that was 1,700 acres, steal a bunch of money in the first place?

Again, we still dont really know, except that Murdaugh has said through his attorneys that he was addicted for some time to Oxycodone.

Is there anything ironic about this situation as it relates to the job that was held by multiple generations of Murdaugh family members, a job that was responsible for their prominence and, indirectly, for their wealth?

Alex Murdaughs father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were all prosecutors.
Whats going on with Republican Pennsylvania gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano, the Jan. 6 and QAnon enthusiast who believes that state legislatures should be able to overrule voters in presidential elections? Heres Media Matters:

Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano said in a filing that he paid $5,000 in campaign consulting fees to social media platform Gab.

Thats cool. According to Slate.com, Gab is a Twitter clone with a far-right user base. The man who killed 11 people at Pittsburghs Tree of Life synagogue in 2018 was a major Gab user; a Guardian piece about the service is headlined Data breach appears to show neo-Nazis among investors. It was founded by a person named Andrew Torba. What kind of political issues is Andrew Torba concerned about? Lets check with the New York Times:

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

The day after a mass shooting in Buffalo, where a white man was charged with killing 10 Black people after posting a racist screed online, Mr. Torba posted on Gab, The best way to stop White genocide and White replacement, both of which are demonstrably and undeniably happening, is to get married to a White woman and have a lot of White babies.

Greatthats great stuff. But what is Doug Mastriano getting for the money he gave Andrew Hitler Torba? Over to HuffPost:

Every new account currently being created on Gab automatically follows Mastriano. HuffPost created five new accounts on Thursday. Each one automatically followed the same seven accounts: those belonging to Torba, a handful of far-right media outlets, and Mastriano. A scroll through Mastrianos recent followers on the site shows many of them to be anonymous accounts created this month. Moreover, an archived version of Mastrianos page from early April, before his campaign paid Gab, shows him with only 2,300 followers. He now has nearly 37,000.

Pittsburgh NPR affiliate WESA notes that Torba also interviewed and endorsed Mastriano on Gab in the days after the payment.

How is Mastriano doing in the latest poll of his race, conducted by the Pennsylvania AARP?

Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D) narrowly leads State Senator Doug Mastriano (R), 49% to 46%.

Thats not much. It might not even be outside the margin of error!

The margin of error for the 500 statewide sample is 4.4%

Great. Great. Great!

Ha ha, thats great.

Great.
The Family Research Council is a notorious right-wing policy think tank and lobbying group that has for decades promoted anti-LGBTQ causes with such intensity the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled it a hate group.

But according to a report from ProPublica published on Monday, since 2020, it has also been designated as an association of churches.

In practical terms, this means that the FRC, as a religious institution, does not need to publicly file a Form 990 that allows anyone to get insight into its financial workings, including into certain assets, grants, and large salaries. It also makes it harder for the IRS to audit the group.

Advertisement

It does not mean, however, that the FRC has suddenly remade itself into something entirely new. Instead, according to ProPublica, it simply claimed it had partner churches that shared in its goal of promoting pro-life and religious freedom causes, as well as helping families flourish, which is typically code for opposing LGBTQ rights. (The FRC also opposes pornography and divorce and promotes abstinence-based sex education and parental rights.)

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

The FRC also claimed, on tax forms, that it holds chapel services at its office building for employees.

Perhaps on paper the group was able to differentiate itself enough from its independent political arm, the Family Research Council Action, which does the more explicitly partisan work for the broader organization, endorsing candidates and lobbying for certain bills. But in reality, the two share the same employees and address. (Until he was accused of molesting multiple young girls, Josh Duggar, who was recently imprisoned for child pornography, was FRC Actions executive director.)

Advertisement

Advertisement

The nonprofit was formed about 30 years ago as a spin-off of the powerful fundamentalist policy group Focus on the Family because its political work endangered Focus on the Familys tax-exempt status. And its not like the work has gotten less political. FRCs current president, Tony Perkins, reportedly had a cozy relationship with President Donald Trump and was one of the key advocates behind Trumps military transgender ban.

But the FRC is only the latest such group to claim religious exemptions.

In 2015, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association also attained church status. Soon afterward, Focus on the Family publicly declared itself a church. (According to the Washington Post, it had changed its status to protect donors identities; it still voluntarily releases financial information in its 990s.) In 2018, the far-right legal group Liberty Counsel, which represented Kentucky clerk Kim Davis in her efforts to avoid giving licenses for same-sex marriages, was given the same reclassification. (Like Perkins, Liberty Counsel supported the efforts to overthrow the 2020 election.)

Advertisement

Advertisement

Avoiding public scrutiny isnt the only reason an evangelical nonprofit might want to register as a church. A key point here, particularly with a judiciary so currently inclined toward prioritizing religious interests, is that being labeled a religious group might protect nonprofits legally if theyre found to be discriminating against potential gay employees or are getting into other legal disputes over LGBTQ rights.

Advertisement

Advertisement

It also fits with a broader trend: In the last few years, Christian nationalists have begun to campaign more aggressively against the ideas that underpin the IRS rules and the very concept of the separation of church and state. In April, Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee in the Pennsylvania gubernatorial race, went ahead and called that a myth. In May, the right-wing megachurch pastor Greg Locke announced that he had dissolved his churchs tax-exempt 501(c)(3) status cause the government aint gonna tell me what I can and what I cant say. Recently, Rep. Lauren Boebert said she was tired of this separation of church and state junk.

Advertisement

Advertisement

These Christian nationalists have one particular target in mind when they make many of these complaints: the Johnson Amendment. The Johnson Amendment, which has been around since 1954, requires nonprofits to avoid endorsing and funding political candidates or lobbying for specific legislation. (They can still engage in issue advocacy.) Churches have long complained about being muzzled by the rule. In 2017, Trump signed an executive order deprioritizing its enforcement, having promised during his campaign to scrap it altogether. For many Christian right-wingers, who have already won recent battles against secularism in education, the boundaries between church and politics is next.

The big picture: When politically active nonprofits openly claim religious freedom protections, it is more than just a savvy way to cut down on paperwork. Its a sign that evangelical groups are feeling increasingly emboldened in their belief that the separation between church and state is, in practical terms, a myth.
On Tuesday morning, ICE officers arrested and detained Loay Ibrahim Ebayyah, 51, in Hoover, Alabama. Ebayyaha lawful permanent resident whose most recent paperwork granted him residency through at least May 24 of next yearwas confronted outside by ICE officers, placed in handcuffs, and then taken inside his home after apparently asking to say goodbye to his 18-year-old son, Khaled. [Update, July 22, 2022, at 5 p.m.: One week after this article was published, an ICE spokesperson responded with its description of the case. The spokesperson said that Ebayyah was a Jordanian national and alleged that he is wanted for rape in Jordan. She stated that [b]etween 2016 and 2018, it is alleged that Ebayyah falsified immigration documents. The spokesperson also issued a statement saying: Regardless of nationality, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) makes custody determinations on a case-by-case basis, in accordance with U.S. law and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policy ICE is committed to safe and effective enforcement of the nations immigration laws, and continues to focus its limited resources on cases of greatest importance to national interest and public safety. Ebayyahs lawyer Julie Goldberg said that Ebayyah was born in Kuwait and that ICE forced him to sign documents that he could neither read nor understand and told him that it was only regarding his detention and nothing else. The ICE spokesperson said, ICE takes many factors into account when targeting and arresting individuals, including their criminal and immigration history. She added: ICE takes allegations of misconduct very seriously  personnel are held to the highest standards of professional and ethical behavior, and when a complaint is received, it is investigated thoroughly to determine veracity and ensure comprehensive standards, which ICE is required to follow, are strictly maintained, and enforced.]

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Khaledwho is scheduled to go to basic training on Sunday after enlisting in the Marines Corps last monthimmediately called his commanding officer. When one of the ICE officers asked who he was calling, Khaled explained it was his sergeant. The officer, according to Khaled, told him you dont need to be on the phone with him and took his father away without any explanation.

It was traumatizing because Im now enlisted in the Marine Corps right? And heres my initial thoughts, ok, so, is this how you get treated as a Muslim for serving the country, Khaled recalled.

Ebayyahs arrest and continuing detention appears to contravene a memo that Acting ICE Director Tae Johnson put out in May instructing agents to consider U.S. military service by an immigrant or his family member to be a significant mitigating factor that weighs against enforcement action. Under the policy, officers are supposed to ask detainees about their own military service or the service of their immediate family members and to seek approval from the highest-ranking official in their field office before any further enforcement action.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Sign Up for the Surge The most important political nonsense of the week, delivered to your inbox every Saturday. We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again. Please enable javascript to use form. Email address: Send me updates about Slate special offers. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Sign Up Thanks for signing up! You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time.

But as Ebayyahs arrest suggests, there is often a disconnect between the policies from the top and ICEs actions on the ground. [Update, July 22, 2022, at 5 p.m.: One week after this article was published, ICE provided Slate with an update offering further details in the case. Those details are published at the top of this story.]

Advertisement

The new policy was put in place this past May after a 2019 report from the Government Accountability Office found that ICE did not consistently follow its policies involving veterans who were placed in removal proceedings from fiscal years 2013 through 2018 and does not consistently identify and track such veterans. What happens to Khaleds father will be one test of whether or not the new policy is actually being respected, or if ICE is continuing a pattern immigrant advocates have claimed of ignoring administration directives.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Immigration advocates have racked up a number of complaints about the Biden administration, even as the president has worked to pull back Trump-era policies. Part of the challenge of bringing ICE in line with new orders to end Trump-era policies is the conservative-stacked courts. In May for instance, a Trump-appointed judge in Louisiana blocked the Biden administration from ending Title 42, a Trump-era policy which sped up deportations of asylum seekers due to a public health emergency, even after the administration only moved to end the policy after more than a year leaving it in place. Last month another judge, this time a Trump-appointee in Texas, blocked guidance by the Department of Homeland Security ordering Immigration and Customs Enforcement to focus its immigration enforcement on threats to public safety and national security and against those immigrants who had committed aggravated felonies. And earlier this month, a panel of the ultra-conservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit appeared likely to side with a Bush-appointed judge in Texas who last year ruled that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was unlawful and blocked new applicants.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Even when the Biden administration hasnt been stymied by the courts, though, it has reportedly received pushback from within ICE itself. For months, immigration lawyers have reported that the agency is ignoring leadership directives. In May 2021, for instance, the Intercept reported that immigration attorneys were seeing ICE refuse to follow earlier guidance on enforcement prioritization in a number of cases, with fewer than half of detainees in one survey having been convicted of an aggravated felony. In January, NPR reported thatdespite lower deportation numbers largely connected to Title 42 expulsions not counting towards the totalimmigration attorneys across the country believed that Trump-era ICE agents were undermining the new [Biden enforcement] policy. Biden hasnt even been able to confirm a new head to that agency, with his appointee Ed Gonzalez withdrawing his nomination last month after a more-than-year long delay in the confirmation process.

Advertisement

Advertisement

The struggle to bring ICE to a heel can be devastating for immigrants and their families. In Ebayyahs case, his detention has rocked his son who is fighting to get his father out of detention before he ships out for basic training.

If were not able to get my dad out of the detention center or the county jail that they have him in beforehand, Im going to probably end up delaying my ship date by a little bit, Kahled said. Because hes the only family I have.

Advertisement

To make matters worse, Kahled has received no explanation for his fathers detainment. The familys attorney says that Loay Ebayyah has no criminal record. According to Khaled, Ebayyah also had been a military contractor with the U.S. Army during the first Gulf War, and later during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (that he was a military contractor overseas was confirmed by his attorney). He and Khaled have been in the United States since Khaled was 10-years-old. Both father and son have paperwork and legal status to be in the United States.

Advertisement

ICE wont provide any answers for the family, lawyer, or to the press. When asked about why Ebayyah had been detained given his sons military service, the May 23 memorandum by the interim director of ICE, and the other circumstances in the case, an ICE spokesperson said she wasnt yet able to comment because of privacy concerns. That was the same explanation Khaled received when he went to the detention center with his fathers best friend where his father was being held. [Update, July 22, 2022, at 5 p.m.: One week after this article was published, ICE provided Slate with an update offering further details in the case. Those details are published at the top of this story.]

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

The officer who arrested him told me he couldnt even find a parking ticket in his name, Khaled said. My following question was why was he being detained, why was he being held at a detention center, and why cant I see him or talk to him? And he was just telling me, I cant let you know, its private.

The May 23 directive instructs [o]fficers and agents [to] investigate all claims of U.S. military service by a noncitizen and says that in the case of family members of service members agents should obtain as much detail regarding the immediate family members U.S. military service from the noncitizen as possible. That should include, interviews with noncitizens and [efforts to] affirmatively inquire whether the noncitizen is currently serving, or has served, in the U.S. military, or if an immediate family member is currently serving, or has served, in the U.S. military. Khaled, though, appears to have been blown off and doesnt even know why his father is being detained.

Advertisement

Its unclear the extent to which all the instructions of the May 23 memo were followed in this case, whether the system just needs time to process the case, or whether or not there are circumstances that offer a plausible explanation for Loay Ebayyahs detention.

Advertisement

What this detention makes clear, however, is the ongoing challenge the Biden administration is facing when enacting its immigration policies. The administration has been heavily criticized for its approach to immigration from both the left and right. While anti-immigrant hardliners in the GOP castigate Biden for a drop in deportations, pro-immigrant activists have noted that Biden has retainedor expandedsome of the worst immigration policies of the Trump era. How Loay Ebayyah and others like him are treated going forward, though, will point to the extent to which one of the few remaining pro-immigrant actions taken by the Biden administration that so far has been allowed to stand in federal court will actually have any weight, or will crumble like so many previous policies.
This article is from Big Technology, a newsletter by Alex Kantrowitz.

Elon Musk will probably pay Twitter a lot of money. Hes on the hook after signing a deal to buy it, throwing a tantrum, and trying to back out last week. And after reading Twitters powerhouse lawsuit, many observers now believe the Delaware courts will force him to buy Twitter for $44 billion, his initial offer price.

But a closer look at the legal process, with input from Delaware lawyers, indicates Musk might have more in his favor than the narrative suggests. He may still lose, or agree to a massive settlement, but a ruling that forces him to buy Twitter remains unlikely.

Advertisement

I dont think hes screwed at all, said Morgan Ricks, a law professor at Vanderbilt University. If it were a slam dunk case and the remedies were very clear and easily enforceable, then everyone would be buying Twitter at $52. Right now, its trading at $36.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Given that Musk seems to have violated his contract, the crucial questions are now what the Delaware Court of Chancery will do about it, and how Twitters legal team will anticipate those actions. The court may order Musk to buy Twitter at the agreed-upon pricevia a specific performance clause in the contract that forces itbut thats an unusual step the court isnt fond of taking.

Advertisement

Specific performance, under Delaware law, is an extraordinary remedy, said Robert Penza, a Delaware lawyer with decades of experience before the Chancery Court. They would only do it if theyre convinced theres not an adequate remedy at law, such as monetary damages.

The court may be particularly hesitant to order Musk to close the deal because it understands he might not comply, a seemingly preposterous notion that somehow carries weight. Carolyn Berger, the courts former vice-chancellor, said this outright on CNBC Wednesday. The problem with specific performance, she said, especially with Elon Musk, is that its unclear whether the order of the court would be obeyed.

The court could fine Musk for noncompliance daily, Berger said, but the fines would simply pile up on a ledger and might not result in any action. So, a desire for a quick resolution might push the court to rule in favor of Twitter, but only levy damages, which lawyers familiar with the case believe are capped at $1 billion.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

The possibility of not getting $44 billion via a specific performance order will loom over Twitters case and likely push it to settle. The Delaware courts chancellor, Kathaleen McCormick, has forced mergers in the past, and has written that the court has not hesitated to order specific performance. But the risk of failing to get the specific performance order, and landing only $1 billion in damages, could make a settlement for more than $1 billion appealing for Twitter.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Most smart lawyers, and most experienced lawyers, will not fall in love with their case, given that no case is a slam dunk, said Francis Pileggi, a Delaware corporate lawyer. I dont care who you are or what case it is. Every case has different shades and different nuances that make it less than a sure thing. So, statistically, 99 percent of all cases settle.

Advertisement

Advertisement

To arrive at a settlement number it can accept, Twitter will contemplate the probability that it will get a specific performance ruling, up to $1 billion in damages, or lose outright. Then, when evaluating the damages, the company will likely factor the markets poor performance this year into its calculations. I dont think its going to be easy to prove damages, Pileggi said.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Musk doesnt want this to go on forever either, and he might be willing to pay a premium above the $1 billion and be done with it. The two sides may also agree to a lower purchase price, shake hands, and complete the transaction. But the $10 billion settlement some predict seems fanciful.

There is plenty of pride and emotion in this case, and it would be foolish to underestimate it. Musk may decline to negotiate a settlement because he doesnt feel bound by the law. Twitter may refuse to settle because it feels it must stick it to Muskwhos routinely disparaged its executivesand see the process through for the sake of its shareholders. And the Delaware Chancery Court may feel its legitimacy is at stake, and therefore opt for specific performance to demonstrate the law means something.

But a settlement that merely inconveniences Musk remains the most likely outcome. And though Twitterwhich made $5 billion last yearcould use his money, it will likely be deflating for the company and its shareholders after everything its endured.
ARCHIVED - Spain will fine banks and energy companies if they pass on tax hikes to consumers



The Spanish government aims to stop big business raising their prices, but admit there are loopholes

Spanish Finance Minister, Maria Jesus Montero

The Ministry of Finance in Spain is working against the clock to finalise two new taxes which were announced this week on the sky-high profits being made by energy companies and banks in the current crisis.

These two new taxes, which form part of a raft of new economic measures that include free rail travel , with which it hopes to raise 7 billion euros over the next two years.

The proposal launched by the President of the Government, Pedro Sanchez, this week in Congress during the debate on the state of the nation, consists of two new taxes: one for energy companies and another temporary and exceptional one for banks.

These will not be changes to existing corporate tax as initially speculated, but two new taxes that will be aimed at a small number of companies, those with a turnover of more than 1 billion euros.

The ministry remains secretive about the details of the new taxes, which it hopes will be ready to implement by the end of the year, because it wants to negotiate them with Unidos Podemos, its partner in government.

This is the time to test the social commitment of big business, Sanchez proclaimed last Tuesday from the rostrum of Congress, so that any indirect benefits do not fatten the profit and loss account or the salaries of the directors.

The Minister of Finance, Maria Jesus Montero, has made it clear that she is working to prohibit large energy companies and financial institutions from passing on the fiscal cost to their clients.

In the regulation, we are planning to prohibit the passing on of this tax to the final price borne by citizens, she said, and the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) will be given all the functions to monitor and apply sanctions in the event that any company departs from the law.

However, Treasury sources have acknowledged that in practice it is difficult to prevent companies from passing on raised costs to their customers because there are multiple legal avenues available to them to escape the regulators scrutiny. Whats more, both banks and energy companies have already suggested that they will appeal the taxes in the courts. In fact, the banking employers association has alleged that the measures generate legal uncertainty.

Montero justified the tax measures by saying that big energy companies are obtaining obscene profits because theyre produce electricity at a much lower cost than the price quoted on the market, and said the new taxes hope to redistribute the social burden.

Those who earn the most should be those who contribute the most to the common coffers, she said.

The tax on large energy companies will be applied for two years on profits recorded in 2022 and 2023, with the aim of raising 2 billion euros a year. The government is basing it on the tax approved by the former Italian Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, who has actually offered to resign today after failing to keep his government coalition together.

Image: Wikimedia commons
Exhibition gives a look into the life of a writer, poet and key figure in the Slovak national movement.

Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled

At one time, a visit to the museum of writer, poet and key figure in the Slovak national movement Janko Jesensky was mandatory for primary school kids in Bratislava. But after the fall of the communist regime in 1989, interest waned and the museum closed.

Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement

Now though it has re-opened, offering an exhibition not just about Jesensky but also information about the villa in which the museum is housed, and the man who designed it, prominent architect Friedrich Weinwurm.

This is a time capsule because this apartment started to be used as a museum very early [after the subject of the museum died], Daniel Hupko, curator of literature collections at the Bratislava City Museum (MMB), said at the official re-opening of the museum.

Explaining that this was why it remains in its original state without any significant alterations from the second half of the 20th century, he added: Because of this, we can today admire an authentic Friedrich Weinwurm interior.

Henrieta Moravcikova, architecture historian and expert on the works of Weinwurm, said she was pleased that the Jesenskys apartment has been opened to the public.

It is an exceptional place that documents the urban residential interior of an important intellectual of the interwar period, Moravcikova told The Slovak Spectator.

The villa is seen by some as a crossroads in the fates of two intellectuals who rose to prominence during the first Czechoslovak Republic and who died after that same republic had collapsed amid the rise of totalitarianism and the start of WWII.

The Janko Jesensky Museum open every Thursday and Friday between 15:00 and 18:00 until August 28, 2022

Somolickeho 2, Bratislava

free admission

As an open critic of the wartime regime, Jesensky was a thorn in the side of the ruling powers, while Weinwurm had to close his architecture studio and was persecuted for his left-wing politics and Jewish origin. He died during the Holocaust under what remain unclear circumstances, apparently while trying to escape from Slovakia, probably to Hungary.

Jesensky wrote passionate anti-fascist poetry attacking the regime of Nazi Germanys satellite Slovak state. Manuscripts were secretly smuggled across borders, and their words made their way back over the airwaves to listeners at home via wartime broadcasts on London radio. He died three years after Weinwurm, in December 1945.

Janko Jesensky was a prominent writer, and even in his lifetime was included in school textbooks. Even decades later, his poetry and prose still have something to say to us, Hupko told The Slovak Spectator.

Hupko noted that Jesenskys witty and satirical prose is amusing and shines a light on human faults and social ills. His poetry is chillingly critical, he said, pulling readers out of the comfort of everyday life, while it is critical, breaks social boundaries and is painfully striking.

Jesenskys texts have lost none of their topicality - they are still alive, mainly because Janko Jesensky works with ordinary topics of social existence, criticises but does not moralise, mocks but does not humiliate, said Hupko.

Who was Janko Jesensky?
Trot Insider has learned from multiple sources that horseman Mark Evers of Lebanon, Ohio has died after being involved in a shootout with police in Warren County on Tuesday (July 12).

Clearcreek Twp. police were called to reports of a domestic violence incident off Ohio State Route 48 on Tuesday night. An individual, identified as Evers, reportedly opened fire on the officers and shot one in the head. A second officer returned fire, killing the shooter.

The names of the police officers involved have not been released. As of Wednesday morning, the officer that was shot remains in ICU in critical condition at Miami Valley Hospital but is breathing on his own and is responsive.

Evers, 65, started in the harness racing industry in the late 1970s. As a driver, he won 830 races with horses earning $3.6 million. Horses trained by Evers won 432 races and more than $4.7 million in purses.

Trot Insider will provide updates to this story as they are confirmed.
Many eyes will be fixed on Summerside Raceway this upcoming weekend as its time for the 54th running of the Governor's Plate. A race that has eluded Maritime native Carl Jamieson in his Hall of Fame career, the Governors Plate is one of P.E.I.s upcoming signature events on the veteran horsemans radar for his homebred pacer No Plan Intended.

Owned by Jamieson along with Brian Paquet of Quebec City, Que., No Plan Intended should be circled on every program as he heads into Saturdays big race as one of the favourites. The four-year-old gelding found himself posing for a picture in the winners circle after his Summerside debut when he took the fastest of two eliminations in 1:52.3 last weekend.

No Plan Intended was sired by Jamiesons former OBrien Award winner and North America Cup champion Up The Credit. The Nova Scotia native believes No Plan Intended is one of the best that came from that sire.

Heading east from Ontario, the four-year-old gelding had a lot of racing to do in a short period of time to be eligible for the Governors Plate eliminations. Trained by Colin Johnson and driven by David Dowling while racing in P.E.I., he made his first start at Charlottetown Driving Park on July 2 and finished second in a duel with Beachin Lindy. No Plan Intended followed up that performance with a 2:00.3 qualifier on July 4. After his Governor's Plate elimination race, he had recorded three charted miles in just one week and looked very good doing it.

Jamieson was exceptionally pleased with the results of the last Fridays elimination.

He raced super well and had no problems, Jamieson told Trot Insider. He had to race three times in six days once he got out there. It was a bit tough on him but thats the rules.

No Plan Intended has made it to the winners circle 15 times in 45 lifetime starts and has a mark of 1:51.1, which he achieved in back-to-back starts at Woodbine Mohawk Park in June. He has accumulated more than $200,000 in earnings with more than $85,000 won in 2022 alone, only halfway through July. No Plan Intended has been on a hot streak as of late as he has won five of his last six starts, including a four-race win streak in southern Ontario before the gelding moved east. The decision to ship him out east was effortless for Jamieson.

The only reason I kept him around was to put him in the Gold Cup & Saucer," he said. "I could have sold him a few times but the whole plan was to keep him for it. With him winning four in a row in Ontario, he was starting to get into it tough in Ontario so I thought it would be best to get him climatized out there.

Last year during his sophomore campaign, No Plan Intended was at the top of the divisional standings in the Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots program and he also made history last August at Dresden Raceway when he broke the track record in 1:53.4. This was No Plan Intended's first race on a half-mile track and was only the second time he raced anywhere other than the seven-eighths track at Woodbine Mohawk Park. Although there is a limited sample size, No Plan Intended has had no issues with the size of the track he faces. Heading into Saturdays final, he has three wins in four starts on a half-mile surface and one of which is a track record.

Jamieson is no stranger to big races in P.E.I. as he was the trainer and driver for the 2006 Gold Cup & Saucer winner, Banner Yankee. However, Jamieson has never been involved in a Governors Plate before. This is a new experience, but the main prize is the Gold Cup and Saucer next month at Charlottetown Driving Park.



Ive only won [the Gold Cup & Saucer] the once and Ive been second and third a few times. Its one of those races that everyone from the Maritimes wants to win. The plan is for Jody [Jamieson] to go out there and drive him for that.

With Dowling retaining the drive for the Governors Plate, No Plan Intended has drawn the second post position and finds himself in the perfect spot to have a good chance at winning.

I think hes one of the best and the post position is fine, said Jamieson. I want him to race from behind anyway and not out in front. Hes a real strong finisher.

No Plan Intended will be greeted by a well-experienced field of competitors. The other elimination winner, Twin B Tuffenuff, gets the nod as the slight favourite on the morning ling with the inside post position, and Beachin Lindy, who is the only horse to have beaten No Plan Intended in his last six starts, has drawn post position six. The last three winners of the Governors Plate, Time To Dance, Bugsy Maguire and Rose Run Quest, also draw into this years final. Cecil Ladner Memorial champion Rotten Ronnie and Island Beach Boy round out the field.

The first of 13 races at Red Shores Summerside starts at 6:30 p.m. Atlantic time and the card will feature not only the eight pacers fighting over the $30,000 purse in the Governors Plate, but also a $7,500 Bob Dewar Memorial consolation along with the Ruby Chappell Memorial Mares Open and Atlantic Sires Stakes for three-year-old colts.

To view Saturday's harness racing entries, click on the following link: Saturday Entries - Summerside Raceway.

(A Trot Insider exclusive by Trey Colbeck)
Tyler Buter scored the 4,000th driving win of his career when he piloted Dragon Roll to a 1:52.2 victory in the seventh race on Thursday night (July 14) at Yonkers Raceway.

Buter had Dragon Roll, trained and owned by Ricky Bucci, on the lead through fractions of :27.1, :56.2 and 1:24.1 in the $30,000 event for pacing mares, and the five-year-old Roll With Joe mare dug in gamely through the stretch to defeat this year's Blue Chip Matchmaker Series champion Drama Act by a neck.

A 36-year-old Michigan native with deep family ties to the sport, Buter started his career in 2002 and made his first appearance in the winner's circle at the Gladwin County Fair in the Wolverine State. He moved east in 2010 and has been a regular face in the driving colony at Yonkers since then.

His best year in the bike was 2019 when he was victorious 327 times, including in the $500,000 Messenger at Yonkers with American Mercury, and his assignments have earned $5.69 million. In total, his drives have banked over $51.7 million.

(Yonkers Raceway)
A museum displaying artifacts and replicas from Biblical times will make its way to a Scottsbluff church later this month.

The Scottsbluff Church of Christ, 1919 Ave. N, will host exhibits from the Bible Land Museum, which is located in Sandy, Oregon, but often brings its displays on tour across the country.

The exhibits will be open for a 6:30 p.m. lecture on Wednesday, July 27, then the late mornings, afternoons and early evenings of the following Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday.

They will be viewable from 2-6 p.m. on Sunday, July 31 as well.

Probably around 2013, I began collecting a few artifacts, items I had found at estate sales that were archaeological relics  from the time period of Biblical history, Bob Stancell, the museums founder and director, said.

When the Bible Lands Museum opened in 2015, many of the exhibits featured items from Stancell's own collection. Since 2017, he routinely takes the exhibits on tour.

Stancell said different displays hell bring to Scottsbluff include a Roman crucifixion exhibit, a Dead Sea Scroll replica, a diorama of ancient Jerusalem, and various models, idols and arrows.

Stancell acquires artifacts, often through auctions, from across the world. He said he wouldnt be able to have a museum without using the internet to source the historical pieces from.

Visitors will be able to see exhibits displaying artifacts and models from a variety of ancient cultures, including the Sumerians, Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Persians and Romans.

To say we have any items stand out is really hard because they kind of go in groups, he said. Everything that I purchase I research and I try to take a class on the period. ... It takes some serious digging.

Other exhibits include armor props used in period movies, which guests are invited to try on.

A lot of times people get more excited over the movie props than they do the actual artifacts, but we do have a lot of artifacts, Stancell said.

Stancell will host lectures every weekday the exhibits are available. He said hed also act as a guide to show people around and explain about the artifacts in greater detail.

Theres some actual Biblical-type history coming with the museum. This is going to be a good chance to see it, Church of Christ member Shane Reinpold said. Reinpold was the one who first learned about the museum and helped bring it to the area.

Not everyone can head overseas to see the actual historical locations, Reinpold said, so they can at least see artifacts and models.

Its the first time the Scottsbluff Church of Christ has hosted an event of this caliber. Reinpold said. Weve had meetings, but weve never had an exhibit like this.

This is one of seven trips the Bible Land Museum will make this year. Stancell recently returned from showcasing the exhibits in Tacoma, Washington. Other stops will be in Oklahoma, Alabama, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee.

We get bigger turnout the farther east we go, Stancell said.

In Scottsbluff, the touring museum will be free and open to everyone.
The Scotts Bluff National Monument proved to be valuable to the local economy drawing in 194,000 visitors.

Those visitors pumped $12.6 million into the local economy and had a cumulative benefit of $15 million for the economy and supported 169 jobs, according to a report by the National Park Service.

Scotts Bluff National Monument is a vital part of our valleys economy, especially for park gateway communities where visitors each year find a place to hike, drive to the top for a view, eat and sleep and make use of other local services that help drive a vibrant tourism and outdoor recreation industry, Scotts Bluff National Monument Superintendent Dan Morford said in a press release. At Scotts Bluff, we are excited to share the story of this place and the experiences it provides. We also feature the park as a way to introduce our visitors to western Nebraska and all that it offers.

The spending analysis was conducted by economists at the National Park Service and the U.S. Geological Survey, according to a press release. The report shows $20.5 billion of direct spending by more than 297 million park visitors in communities within 60 miles of a national park. This spending supported 322,600 jobs nationally; 269,900 of those jobs are found in these gateway communities. The cumulative benefit to the U.S. economy was $42.5 billion.

Karla Niedan-Streeks, executive director of the Gering Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the monument plays an important role in the local economy and in Panhandle tourism.

The Scotts Bluff National Monument is certainly our number one attraction. Its our most recognized attraction, and, obviously, the most visited attraction that we have in Gering, Scottsbluff and in the region. I think people at times dont realize how important this attraction is to our communities from a tourism aspect, she said. The monument  is a tremendous draw for our community because those people who are going to the monument are spending time at our other attractions.

We know that (tourists) are not just stopping at the monument, but theyre taking some additional time, whether its to purchase a service or a meal, or hopefully staying overnight. We know that those monies are certainly coming into Gering.

On Thursday, July 7, Jarod Cunningham and his girlfriend, Makayla Becker, visited the monument on a cross country trek from West Virginia to California.

Cunningham said he had planned to visit Scotts Bluff National Monument for some time.

Ive been to all 48 (contiguous) states, he said.

He hadnt yet been to the monument, and Becker has only been to around 31 states on her quest to check off all 48 contiguous states.

Cunningham said the monument was a great place to check off Nebraska for Becker. The couple said they planned to stay overnight before heading to Fort Laramie, then on to California with stops along the way.

Niedan-Streeks said, (The monument) is a tremendous economic boon to our community and certainly puts us on the map as a as a tourism destination for all those who are seeking the great scenery, the great hiking and the great history that they get to experience at the Scotts Bluff National Monument.

Historically, the monument has always pulled in lots of tourists.

Ive been here for about 25 years  as I recall, one of the highest visitation numbers that they recorded annually was just over 205,000, so (194,000) is a great number post-COVID recovery, she said.

COVID didnt really slow down tourism much at the monument, Niedan-Streeks said.

One interesting thing, which I dont think is really mentioned, is that the monuments visitation numbers during the height of COVID were really, really good. It was April of 2020 where they set the highest visitation number in April of any year, she said.

Niedan-Streeks said a good number of those tourists were from Colorados Front Range who were wanting to visit someplace safe that was a short drive and outdoors.

Scotts Bluff County Visitors Bureau Director Brenda Leisy said the monument plays a huge role in the local economy.

If we did not have the national monument, I think that we would definitely have a really hard time pulling people into our community. It just plays such a significant role in our tourism operation, Leisy said.

Leisysaid it takes a community effort to draw in tourists.

It takes every single person, events and attractions to make it a large package to try to get (tourists) to stay here longer.  We all work well together, and thats very important, she said.
In 1988, five years after calling the Soviet Union an evil empire, President Ronald Reagan visited Moscow where he addressed an audience of students from Moscow State University. At the heart of his speech, Reagan promoted the virtues and success of liberty and his vision that tyranny would ultimately be defeated (recall his other forecast made to the British Parliament in 1982 that the Soviet Union would end up on the ash heap of history).

Contrast those remarks with the current president and his trip to the Middle East. A headline in the Connecticut Post asks the right question: Biden once wanted to make Saudi Arabia a pariah  so why is he playing nice with the kingdoms repressive rulers now?

Biden will meet with Saudi Arabias Prince Mohammed bin Salman (affectionately known as MBS), who has been accused by U.S. intelligence of sending a hit squad to murder journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Apparently feeling the heat of criticism from people opposed to the trip, Biden felt the need to explain himself in an op-ed for The Washington Post.

In it, Biden makes this ludicrous claim: The Middle East Ill be visiting is more stable and secure than the one my administration inherited 18 months ago. He must have forgotten the Abraham Accords, which Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner cobbled together. It normalized relations between Israel and five Arab countries, including Bahrain, the UAE and Morocco, something never before achieved. As usual, Biden gives no credit to Trump.

Speaking of not forgetting, Biden was part of an administration that spent nearly $350,000 supporting a group trying to unseat then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a U.S. Senate investigation. The administration has also been pushing for a nuclear deal with Iran, which has clearly failed and never had a chance of succeeding. Thats because Irans leaders have repeatedly said they are obeying Allahs command to acquire nuclear weapons.

Biden has said he will raise the issue of human rights with MBS. That is unlikely to produce positive results in a nation that has only recently allowed women to drive cars.

Despite the cover-up with noble intentions, this trip is about trying to persuade Saudi Arabia to produce more oil so U.S. gas prices will come down to tolerable levels ahead of the November and 2024 elections. What will the U.S. get in return? Probably no more than Biden and Obama got from opening diplomatic relations with Cuba.

Last February, Biden telephoned MBS to effectively ask him to pump more oil after he had curbed additional domestic oil production, reversing the much lower gas prices during the Trump administration. Biden seemed to be offering him a deal  Biden would provide more so-called defensive weapons for the Saudis to fight the Houthis in Yemen in exchange for more Saudi oil. Reading between the lines of reports about the call, it appeared MBS turned him down.

When Reagan visited Moscow, his approval ratings were 53 percent, according to Gallup. He dealt from a position of strength and moral clarity. Bidens approval numbers (if they can be called that) have declined to a record 33 percent, according to a New York Times/Siena College survey with a majority of Democrats wanting him to be replaced in 2024. Ninety percent of young Democrats want another candidate.

The Middle East has been relatively quiet in recent years. Bidens trip is unlikely to enhance stability and more likely to stir things up again. It has the potential of being a lose-lose for America and for Israel, which would be quite an accomplishment.
Davis and Lake Norman Regional Medical centers have named Matthew Littlejohn network chief executive officer effective July 25. Littlejohn was promoted from network COO, a position he has held at the hospitals since January 2021. He succeeds Clyde Wood who recently announced his transition to the position of CEO at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne, Ind.

Since joining the hospitals, Littlejohn has recruited multiple primary care providers and physician specialists and has expanded capacity and occupancy of behavioral health services to better meet the needs of adult and geriatric patients. He has managed daily operations to more effectively provide quality care to the patients served by the hospitals, and he has additionally worked to expand access points and presence in the community.

Prior to joining the North Carolina market, Littlejohn served as CEO of Tennova Healthcares Newport Medical Center, in Newport, Tenn., where he expanded services, enhanced facilities, and recruited physicians  all with a vision to serve more patients locally. He previously served as assistant CEO of Tennovas North Knoxville Medical Center, in Powell, Tenn., before his promotion to CEO of Newport Medical Center. Prior to joining Tennova Healthcare, he held several leadership roles at Bon Secours St. Francis in Greenville, S.C., where he was responsible for acquisitions, executing strategic initiatives, expanding access, and managing multiple services lines. Littlejohn completed his administrative residency at Roper St. Francis Healthcare in Charleston, S.C., also part of the Bon Secours Health System.

Littlejohn holds a masters degree in health care administration from the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, S.C., and a bachelors degree in political science with a minor in business administration from the University of South Carolina in Columbia, S.C.
Children visiting Salisburys Waterworks Visual Arts Center knew him simply as Mister Don, the Doorman. He always greeted them with a welcoming smile as he held the door for classes of fifth graders visiting an art museum for the very first time.

And to the guests at the centers annual Oyster Roast fundraiser in January, he is remembered as the man who handed out the aprons. He was often behind the scene at Waterworks, making sure all the minor details were attended to at receptions and other events. And, when it came time for photos to be snapped, he kept himself in the background as much as he could, typically placing himself in the back row whenever possible.

What all those folks may not have known was that this elegant, soft-spoken, gentle man was also an award-winning artist, as well as a teacher whose impact on the lives of his students remains fresh, decades after he retired from the classroom. His figure drawings and figurative paintings had been featured in numerous state and national juried shows and won national awards. His work is on display in the collections of more than a dozen universities, institutions and businesses throughout the South.

Some of his works are being featured in an exhibit at Waterworks Visual Arts Center through September.

Sadly, for those who knew him, Donald Everett Moore passed away in February, just a few months shy of his 79th birthday. Yet, he filled those eight decades with service to art in just about every way imaginable.

Don Moore, born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1943, exhibited talent at a very young age. His brother Ray notes that when Don was around 8 years old, he created a beautiful charcoal drawing of an angel, which Ray still has and cherishes.

Later, while visiting a local museum, Don was fascinated by the sculptures and wanted to understand more about that art form, so he touched the works to literally get the feel of them. The people who ran the museum got upset and tossed him out, exclaiming that he had no business there and, besides, he was without any artistic talent. While others might have been discouraged, those were just the sort of challenging words the young boy needed. He went on to attend art school at the University of Alabama, where he received his bachelors and masters degrees in fine art. He was also a student at the University of Georgia and did summer studies at the prestigious Art Students League in New York City, where such disparate artists as Ai Weiwei, Al Hirschfeld, Cy Twombly and Charles Dana Gibson, among many others, had also studied.

As a professional artist, Don focused on paint as his primary medium. In describing his work, he once said, I dont paint to make people happy or to match furniture. I hope my paintings make people think.

Perhaps most noteworthy about Don Moores body of work is how hard it is to categorize. Beginning later this month, Waterworks is dedicating all of its galleries to the paintings of this amazing artist, and a brief stroll through the exhibition will attest that his work is as varied as it is thought provoking. One views a portrait of an elegant gentleman painted in the style of a Gilbert Stuart, and a few steps away is a triptych illustrating multiple aspects of a Salisbury treasure, Hurley Park. Nearby hangs a nude with touches reminiscent of the cubism of Juan Gris or Georges Braque. A short distance from that is a yellow canvas with nothing more than a half-finished face of a beautiful woman entitled Memory.

That curiosity about all types and styles of artwork is perhaps the reason Don spent most of his career as an art teacher. He loved art and wanted to share it with others, whether they were young college students, older retirees looking for something to keep themselves busy, or young children just starting to recognize the joy of artistic expression.

He taught briefly at the University of Alabama, then, as an assistant professor at Coker University in Hartsville, South Carolina. In 1974, he moved to the Piedmont area of North Carolina where he served as director of the Art Department of Mitchell Community College in Statesville for 32 years.

After retirement from Mitchell in 2004, Don discovered Waterworks and immediately immersed himself in its programs. His love affair with the center lasted for the rest of his life. He served on the board of directors, and taught figure drawing and art appreciation classes for several years while, simultaneously volunteering for any assignment that needed filling. Don particularly loved working with young artists, to build in them a fire of appreciation for art, similar to his own. In 2008, Don Moore was the first person to receive Waterworks Volunteer of the Year Award, because of his demonstrated commitment to volunteerism and the arts.

Most recently, he served on the Exhibitions Committee, locating and showing the works of local and regional artists who had previously received little attention.

Waterworks partnered with the Lutheran Services Abundant Living Adult Day Care (now Trinity Living Center) program, where participating artists create portraits of clients and donate them to their families. Don was a ready volunteer for that program and, no doubt, many local residents now have Don Moore paintings of their loved ones hanging in their homes.

Don was involved with a number of other art organizations. He was a Juried Member of the Associated Artists of Winston-Salem, and an active member of Plein Air Carolina (PAC-Salisbury) and Mooresville Artist Guild. He was a Lifetime Member of The Artist Guild of Statesville and the Iredell Museums, and served on the Advisory Board for Mitchell Community Colleges Fine Arts program.

Don Moore left behind a body of work that reflects his curiosity, his openness to trying new ideas, and his love of people. And, true to his goal, they make people think.
To lead by example, sometimes it is as simple as that: Being the person others see so they can see whats possible for themselves.

There wasnt a lack of successful women at the Abby Winthrop SMART Girls Inspiring Womens Leadership Conference, nor were the stories of overcoming difficult events in their childhoods before they got to where they are today. One of those was state senator Vickie Sawyer, who told the story of her upbringing and the challenges she overcame.

She was very honest with us, she didnt sugarcoat anything, Anna Rufty said. She went from a not-so-great place to being very successful.

While the young women come from a variety of backgrounds, overcoming obstacles and achieving their goals was the message heard over and over and the conference this week. Stories like that from Sawyer, County Commissioner Melissa Neader, Dr. Alvera Lesane of Durham Public Schools, and others were ones of sometimes being the first from their family or the first in their position. That resonated with the young women this week as the camp has given them a chance to meet and speak with women that are leaders in Statesville, Iredell County and the state of North Carolina.

Abbys Smart Girls program coordinator Alethea Hyde said these examples of successful women help the young girls see a tangible example of success, not just the idea of it.

Its not always been easy for them to get where they are, but they did get to where they are. They are in the positions they are in because they worked hard for it, Hyde said. You can do anything you put your mind to, but show them in leadership positions and how they got there.

Putting these young women in that forward-thinking mindset, giving them tangible examples around them, and giving them a chance to see and experience it firsthand was the goal of the conference, according to Brady Johnson, the Boys & Girls Club of the Piedmonts director of development. Russ and Vicki Winthrop, who founded the club and helped organize the camp, wanted to expand on the programs success, according to Johnson.

They wanted to focus on leadership, and what female leadership in the community looks like, Johnson said. Weve got some of the top women leaders in the county, and this week they came in and told their personal stories. There are some resounding themes the girls have gotten to hear this week, about being resilient, and not letting your current circumstances dictate what your tomorrow looks like.

Its a really good lesson in what leadership looks like, and they are being inspired by these local leaders to realize that they can achieve these same lofty goals if they set them early and persevere and work hard.

The camp at Mitchell Community College consists of a number of speakers sharing their stories, tours of Statesville city hall, the countys government complex, and other downtown locations as well as other speakers from local groups speaking on different topics.

The week will be capped off Friday with the girls being paired with mentors who will continue to advise and guide them in the years ahead.

They will serve as mentors now until they graduate from high school, Johnson said. Thats the icing on the cake: These lessons wont end on Friday afternoon.

Learning by example

The conference, as well as Abbys Smart Girls, is open to young women in middle school and high school. And while many of the lessons apply universally across all backgrounds, some of what the young students have learned can apply particularly to young Black women who often face more scrutiny in their appearance and behavior, and what is considered professional.

It can be really difficult how you present yourself as a person of color, certain hairstyles, types of clothing, or a certain way I want to express myself, that could be deemed unprofessional, so its sometimes just finding a good balance, Promise Lovelace said. You have to figure that out early on in life, or youll be set back.

She said she can early see that at times in school, even people that may have good grades, treat people well, but might do things that lead to them being judged otherwise.

And sometimes, being judged as a woman simply doing something traditionally seen as a more masculine activity.

Even though were working just as hard, or even harder because of the setbacks we have, Lovelace said.

Even with that, just like the women that have spoken to the girls this week, there is something anyone can learn from, or be reminded of as challenges present themselves to everyone in any walk of life.

One of the things they picked up on throughout the week was the passion behind the work of those speakers, a reminder that money cant be the only motivator at a job.

Money cant be the only thing, and thats something I really thought in middle school when thinking about a career. You have to like your career to be successful, Keyannah Graham said.

And along with that passion, having a plan and adapting is important as well.

I have a vague idea of what I want to do, but I want to have a plan and do the best to follow that plan, though the plan most likely wont go the way I expect it, I still need to have that option that if things go as expected, I can do that, by Ill still have room for changes, and I can accept what happens either way, Lovelace said.

Planning for the future isnt always easy to think about, or something they have been thinking about, but the young women said that had been more on their minds this week as they listened to the speakers at the conference.

Its helped me to think about my future, I havent thought a whole lot about it yet, but its got me thinking of career options, Anna Rufty said.

Talking about what could happen in the future, people talking about the way they handled it, what to do, and how fast things go, Ava Sweatte said.

Looking ahead

Abbys Smart Girls was founded by the Winthrops after their daughter Abby Winthrop died in 2019 at the age of 24 while awaiting a heart transplant. The club provides support to young women at the Boys & Girls Club in Statesville.

Johnson said that the work the club is doing today is the type that Abby would have been doing once she graduated from college.

Were carrying on her legacy, and we hope to continue to do that with this conference next year as well, Johnson said.

He said they hope to double the size of the several dozen young women, as well as possibly split it into middle and high school groups.

Johnson also expressed gratitude to all the local leaders and groups involved for their time and said many plans to take part next year as well.
Blue Mountain School students, staff and families read a book every summer break; and before school starts they gather to celebrate the book.

This year Blue Mountain School Reads is sharing Wishtree by Katherine Applegate.

When Blue Mountain School reached out to find a generous sponsor who could purchase the book for the school community, Randye and Ed Gralla answered the call with another question: Wouldn't it be wonderful if Blue Mountain School could share the book with the while Floyd community?!

The folks at Blue Mountain School were delighted by the idea of sharing their love of literacy with all their neighbors and putting books in the hands of all the children in Floyd.

Regardless of where they go to school, their age or any other factors, all families in the Floyd community are invited to share the love of reading and sign up to receive a free copy of Wishtree by Katherine Applegate.

Blue Mountain School has worked to spread the word to friends and neighbors by having activities and a sign up at Floyd Small Town Summer events.

Blue Mountain School will host a book celebration on Aug. 1.

Any Floyd family can follow the link to the Wishtree book request form, or look for more information on Facebook, Instagram or email contact@bluemountainschool.net.

Book requests will remain open through Sunday, July 17. Participants can learn details about book pick up and the book celebration when your book requests are processed.

Blue Mountain School hopes you can read with us.

Tammie Saver is the executive director of Blue Mountain School.
Editors note: Information is provided by the Cowlitz County Corrections Department and local law enforcement agencies. Each individual named in this report is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Possession of stolen property  Kelso police Wednesday arrested Timothy Edward Collins, 49, of Kelso on suspicion of possession of stolen property, making/possessing vehicle theft tools and possession of a stolen vehicle.

Burglary  Longview police Wednesday arrested Brandon Lee Keeth, 24, of Gervais, Oregon, on suspicion of residential burglary.

Fugitive  Cowlitz County sheriffs deputies Thursday arrested Duane Darrell Lane Jr., 36, of Longview on suspicion of being a fugitive from justice.

Harassment  Longview police Thursday arrested Mitchell Sheldon Moe, 26, of Longview on suspicion of felony harassment, malicious mischief, interfering with domestic violence reporting and unlawful imprisonment.

Burglary  Longview police Wednesday arrested Diana Marie Sundstrom, 31, of Portland on suspicion of residential burglary.

Drugs  Cowlitz County sheriffs deputies Wednesday arrested Stephanie Rose Suttles, 27, of Longview on suspicion of introducing a controlled substance to the jail and making a false statement.

Theft  Washington State Patrol troopers Wednesday arrested Jesse Vaidabid Jr., 38, of Hillsboro, Oregon, on suspicion of second-degree theft, malicious mischief and making/possessing vehicle theft tools.

Editors note: A software switch at Cowlitz County dispatch has prevented the agency from temporarily supplying 911 call logs and officer notes past June 6. The agency is working to create new reports to supply media outlets.
CASTLE ROCK  A replacement levy is on the ballot this August for the Castle Rock fire department, which officials say will continue to fund medical services, necessary equipment and fulltime staff.

Bill LeMonds, chief at Cowlitz County Fire Protection District 6 covering Castle Rock and northern Cowlitz County, said this levy will ask homeowners for $1.20 per $1,000 of assessed property value and is the same as the one passed in 2016.

For a $374,000 home, the median resale price of a home in Cowlitz County, that would cost a homeowner about $450 annually.

LeMonds said the levy will keep us able to fund our many units.

If we dont get funding we would definitely have to shut down the medic unit at some point, not necessarily immediately but at some point, LeMonds said.

An argument submitted to the county against the levy by Matthew Keeling asked whether Castle Rock really needed an ambulance.

LeMonds said without the medical services, people in Castle Rock would have to wait for available services from Longview or Kelso.

The fire protection district needs a simple majority for the replacement levy to pass.

In the August 2016 primary, the levy passed with 61% of voters, who at the time approved increasing the tax collection from 42 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value to the current rate of $1.20.

LeMonds said if the levy does not pass in the Aug. 2 primary it will go onto the November ballot this year.

Ballots were scheduled to be mailed to voters on Friday, with corrected primary local voters pamphlets scheduled to reach each household in Cowlitz County by Monday, according to a news release from Cowlitz County Auditor Carolyn Fundingsland.

A replacement ballot can be found at votewa.gov, where voters can also view the status of their ballot.

New voters must register by 5 p.m. July 25 either online or through mailed registration, according to the auditors office.

If voting by mail, no stamp is needed but ballots must be postmarked by Election Day.

Drop boxes open Friday and close 8 p.m. Aug. 2. In Castle Rock, voters can find a 24-hour ballot box on the sidewalk in front of the Castle Rock Library at 137 Cowlitz St. West.
Potential exploratory drilling for minerals in the Green River Valley near Mount St. Helens has been in a standoff between the Canadian mineral development company Ascot Resources and conservation groups for over a decade.

Right now, Ascot is not moving forward. But those involved with the Green River Valley Alliance, an initiative founded by nonprofit Cascade Forest Conservancy, want to ensure no company is ever able to establish mining projects in that neck of the woods.

Campaign manager Sean Roome, 27, of Portland said the conservation group is not taking action because of the exploratory drillings impact to the environment. However, if the exploratory drilling is approved, he said it would be difficult to stop the area from quickly becoming a full-fledged mine. Current mining laws date back 150 years, making the process hard to stop for conservation purposes, he said.

The nonprofit is running a campaign by the name No Place for a Mine, and Roome will be at the Packwood Brewery from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Aug. 3 presenting on the issue and the organizations work. There will also be an action workshop where attendees can sign petitions and write letters while learning other ways to stop steps toward a mine at Mount St. Helens.

The group is currently pursuing a legislative mineral withdrawal, which requires an act of Congress. Roome said the act would only prohibit mining in the area and would not affect harvest of timber or other natural resources.

The first step in that process is securing support at the local and regional levels so that we can build a campaign and build support from a wide variety of audiences, from people from all different backgrounds, to leverage that into support from our federal representatives, Roome said.

David Stewart, vice president of corporate development and shareholder communications for Ascot, called the campaigns materials grossly misleading in an email. Stewart said the company has no plans to build a mine at the Mt. Margaret property. We have been trying to do some minimal-impact exploration drilling on the property, an incredibly common practice all over the world, and the ability to do that has been tied up in the courts for some years now.

Roome said the potential plans could also affect recreation. Trails in the area, he said, are beloved for hikers, mountain bikers, backcountry hunters and anglers, and horseback riders. The Green River is also a wild steelhead gene bank, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, meaning it has a self-sustaining population of wild steelhead and is not stocked by hatchery fish.

Roome said a mine would threaten the health of the river and what it provides to those fish and to communities downstream who rely on the glacial river for drinking water as it flows into the Toutle and Cowlitz rivers.

We firmly believe that its no place for a mine, Roome said. But, we are open to engaging with people no matter what their stance is.
CLARK COUNTY  Firefighters extinguished a blaze Thursday afternoon in rural north Clark County that displaced two adults and four children, though no one was physically hurt in the incident.

Clark-Cowlitz Fire Rescue at 2:57 p.m. Thursday responded to 311th Circle near Battle Ground after reports of a manufactured home that had caught fire and was spreading to nearby vehicles, according to a news release from the department.

No one was home during the incident and no injuries were reported. The six displaced people are being assisted by the Red Cross as the Clark County Fire Marshals Office investigates the cause of the fire.

Limited access and the obscure location of the property initially delayed response, the fire department said.

A total five engines, one tower ladder, three water tenders, one ambulance, four chief officers and one fire marshal arrived to help in the firefighting efforts.

Clark County Fire District 3, Clark County Fire District 10, North Country EMS, Clark County Fire Marshals Office and Clark PUD assisted.
CENTRALIA  Community leaders and local residents gathered at China Creek Tuesday in Centralia to celebrate the completion of the second phase of the China Creek Project.

Work started in summer 2021 on the second phase of the China Creek Flood and Habitat Protection Project, located just off Gold Street. The project aims to mitigate substantial flooding in the downtown area while also improving fish passage.

Most of the $2.91 million project had been finished by late last year, save for a flood-control weir that retains water in a basin and improves flows into downtown.

Ron Averill, a former Lewis County Commissioner who represents Centralia on the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority, announced the Chehalis Basin Board decided in the past week to approve an additional $643,000 for the project, which will allow a gauge to be placed at China Creek to measure its water levels. Averill said he hopes the gauge will be installed by November.

According to Centralia Public Works Director Kim Ashmore, plans are already underway for phase three of the China Creek Project.
The three candidates running for Cowlitz County District 3 commissioner include incumbent John Jabusch  an independent who was appointed to the seat by Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee in late 2021  and two Republican applicants the board couldnt agree on: Christie Masters and Rick Dahl.

County Commissioner John Jabusch to face prior applicants Rick Dahl and Christie Masters in race for District 3 seat Candidate filing week may be more than a month away, but the race for the Cowlitz County District 3 commissioner seat already is rolling, with

The top two in the Aug. 2 primary election will square off in the November general election. Only voters in District 3  West Longview, Rose Valley, Castle Rock, Toutle, Ryderwood and rural northern Cowlitz County  will vote in the primary race.

Former Commissioner Joe Gardner stepped down in September, leaving about 15 months in his second term. The county received seven applications for the position. A candidate review committee made recommendations to the board, which interviewed the three highest ranked candidates, including Masters and Dahl.

The commissioners remained split on who to appoint until their Nov. 2 deadline, with Arne Mortensen supporting Dahl and Dennis Weber supporting Masters. The decision was forwarded to Inslee, who appointed Jabusch in early December after he applied directly to the governors office.

Candidates

The three candidates, all with private sector and business careers, share similar opinions on many issues, but vary on the conservative spectrum.

Of the three candidates, Masters is the only one with other political experience as a cemetery district commissioner, precinct committee officer and Cowlitz County Republican Central Committee treasurer. Masters stepped down from the central committee board when she applied for the District 3 commissioner seat, she said.

Masters and her husband own Firing Range Services and the Legends Indoor Firing Range in Longview. The Rose Valley resident, who graduated with a degree in statesmanship, said her education, experience as an entrepreneur, volunteerism with other campaigns and longevity in the community, including raising her family, all factor into her decision to run.

Im a problem solver, she said. I think every voice matters. I have firm beliefs, but Im a good listener.  Im conservative, a Republican, but it takes compromise, not compromising values but coming up with ways together, to solve problems. I wouldnt want someone to feel like theyre not being listened to.

Castle Rock resident Dahl retired from Fibre Federal Credit Union earlier this year after a 40-year banking career. He said he decided to apply then run for the position because people need representation. Government works best when led by citizens.

The road map I use is the Constitution, he said. Its an incredible document, weve strayed a long way from it and the results are obvious.

Dahl said he is an open-door person and would stay in touch with residents and be involved with the community.

Jabusch, owner of Pro Caliber Motorsports, said with his experience running businesses and managing employees, hes taken to the commissioner role like a duck to water. The Rose Valley resident said hes focused on responding to anyone who reaches out to address their frustrations and complaints.

My job is to serve the citizens of Cowlitz County, he said. Im willing to listen to perspectives from a wide range of people and I dont just say, This is my ideology and Im stuck right here. And thats what Im going to do with the homeless thing,  take input from all sides.

Homelessness

Jabusch is part of a subcommittee reworking a request for proposal for a hosted site to replace the Alabama Street homeless encampment first opened by the city of Longview in December 2019.

The county could have done a better job writing the formal request for organizations to manage the site, Jabusch said. Community House on Broadways proposal was fine but legal staff advised the commissioners not to accept it because it did not fulfill the request by only serving a small segment of the camps population: those who are interested in being drug- or alcohol-free, he said.

Its pretty much a unanimous feeling that the camp needs to be closed, Jabusch said. But weve got to have some alternatives for those folks that are down there.

The subcommittee is working to narrow down potential sites so a new call for proposals can include a location, Jabsuch said. Any location will get pushback but the hosted site  including 24/7 staffing, a curfew, rules and security  is going to be better than the current encampment, he said.

Masters said the county needs to come up with immediate results for people who live around the camp, while also looking at long-term changes. She said she wants to see as many independent solutions as possible, but that the hosted camp is intriguing. After looking at other similar sites, Masters said she liked the idea of getting people help but having firm rules and encouraging jobs as well as housing.

Criminal behavior needs consequences but jail is not the best place for people with certain mental health problems, Masters said. She applauded the new countywide program establishing teams of behavioral health professionals to help law enforcement respond to crisis calls.

Dahl, who called the Alabama Street site a work-free drug zone, said he would push to enforce the law to stop criminal activity, which would shrink the number of homeless people in the area and leave a smaller core of people in need. Services may have to expand but the county has existing programs that can help, Dahl said.

Once the lawlessness is cleared out, we have resources to help, he said. One thing that adds to it is people that struggle with mental issues. There needs to be some pressure on the state to start enacting some of the help theyve taken away.

County budget and economy

Describing himself as fiscally conservative, Dahl said hed like to see the county operate off its own local tax base rather than the federal credit card of grants and debt.

When you put future generations into debt, thats theft, he said. Expecting them to pay for your wants, thats not OK. Grants need to be solid and benefit everybody.

Dahl said he wouldnt take grants earmarked for a specific group but would consider those that would have long-term benefits for the whole county, like infrastructure projects. He said the grants are taxpayers money because funds come from the government and often have spending requirements like time limits or project types.

After attending the commissioners weekly meetings over the past few months, Dahl said most of the workload is as expected, but the amount of strong feelings from the public around issues is different than the private sector.

Ive always been good at stepping away from emotion, looking at pros and cons of whats best for the citizenship, county, he said. Youre not going to please everybody, I have no illusions I can, but I will try to step back and make the best decision for the 100,000-plus people in the county.

Masters also said people dont want the county to be dependent on grants to function. While some are taxpayer funds coming back to the county, the commissioners shouldnt accept grants with onerous strings attached, she said. The county reduces tax burden when it runs efficiently, so commissioners have to be frugal and look ahead to anticipate needs, Masters said.

We cant see into the future but we can prepare the community with resources, encouragement and by making sure we operate in-budget, she said.

Masters said some things are outside the bounds of county commissioners, such as the new laws affecting policing, but the board should inform people on what they can do about the legislation like contacting their representatives. While much of the public involvement is up to personal responsibility, the county could increase public outreach, she said.

As commissioner, Masters said she would work toward having a government that works the way it should and increase transparency.

Jabusch said hes heard from people frustrated by the slow speed of government, particularly those applying for building permits. While the county building and planning department has a lot of good people, the commissioners need to beef up staff and continue to streamline processes and communication, he said.

Growth is headed our way, Jabusch said. Weve got to get our house in order because its coming for us. And if our processes are slow now, as that growth kind of runs over us, its going to be worse.

The commissioners should help facilitate good economic development in the county, Jabusch said. In representing the commissioners on the Cowlitz Economic Development Council board, Jabusch said hes helped set up meetings between businesses and building and planning.

There are a lot of businesses inquiring about locating here, he said. Im optimistic that theres going to be some good things in the future.
Oregon pianist, guitarist, composer, lyricist, vocalist and recording artist John Nilsen returns to Longview for a solo piano concert at 6 p.m. July 23 at Longview United Methodist Church, 2851 30th Ave., Longview.

In November 2021, Nilsen was chosen a Yamaha Signature Piano Artist. He has performed in all 50 states in the United States. He also has performed in Europe and Asia, and has sold more than a million CDs worldwide.

Born in Seattle in 1956, Nilsen and his family moved to Portland in 1960. When he was 6 years old, he started studying classical piano from his mother. When he was 14 years old, he began playing the guitar. In 1974, he moved to Ashland, Ore., to attend Southern Oregon College (Southern Oregon University). He graduated in 1979 with a bachelor of arts degree in English. In 1995, he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the university. The award is the most prestigious given to SOU graduates.

From 1983 to 1985, Nilsen recorded three successful solo piano records on Los Angeless Eagle Records.

In 1987, Nilsen founded the Magic Wing recording label which has a catalog of 18 successful titles, each with international distribution, according to Nilsens bio.

Worldwide, 250 of his compositions and musical arrangements are receiving Broadcast Music Inc. royalties.

His 20th CD, Foreign Films, released in August 2019, emphasizes Nilsens piano compositions with an orchestra backup. Several piano solos have a string quartet backup. The 18 tracks are intended to make listeners feel like they are listening to a motion picture soundtrack.

Nilsen currently is recording his 21st CD.

He played 240 performances each of the 30 years before COVID-19 hit in 2020.

Nilsen splits his performances among touring internationally and performing with the John Nilsen Trio featuring Jeff Leonard on bass and Jason Moore on percussion; and with his guitar/vocal rock band John Nilsen and SWIMFISH featuring Dave Captein on bass, Mike Snyder on drums and percussion, Bob Logue on guitar and vocals, and Don Woodward on guitar, mandolin, harmonica and vocals.

According to Nilsens bio, SWMFISH includes Nilsens piano playing and features his acoustic and electric guitar playing.

He has been a member of Ten Grands, created by Oregon musician, songwriter and pianist Michael Allen Harrison as a platform to benefit music education and the play it forward program.

Nilsen also gives back to his community.

For the past 25 years, he has been teaching songwriting residencies and speaking to students in schools including every school in Oregons West Linn/Wilsonville School District and throughout the country.
Using emoji at work can lead to mishaps with clients and colleagues because many disagree on emoji meanings, says survey of 9,400 hybrid workers.

As managing director of a transport consultancy, Carol Deveney is used to celebrating completed projects with her clients in the government and at engineering firms. While she'd usually be able to congratulate her clients in person, the lockdown meant switching to text-based chat tools, where emoji added a bit of levity.

Text messages just seem a bit bland, said Deveney. I was trying to put my friendly nature into the message.

It was: Here's the jazz hands,' like, Ta-da, we got this done.' But they're not jazz hands, she said. Her son quickly told her the real name of the emoji hugging face, which is officially meant to be an offer of a hug.

That kind of confusion is commonplace in workplaces around the world, according to a survey of 9,400 hybrid workers across North America, Asia and Europe by workplace communications provider Slack and language learning app Duolingo.

Emoji have become a vital part of workplace communication, with 71% of American workers saying messages not peppered with the pictorial icons are incomplete in meaning. Globally, more than half of workers include emoji in messages sent to colleaguesthough 30% refuse to do so with their boss.

As we continue to embrace hybrid work from digital HQs, emoji help people acknowledge one another, clarify intent, and add a little color, depth and fun to work, said Olivia Grace, senior director of product management at Slack.

It's also seen as more efficient by 54% of workers worldwide, with two-thirds of American respondents saying it speeds up communication.

Emoji are a significant and net positive communication tool in our digital world, said Keith Broni, editor-in-chief of Emojipedia, an online reference encyclopedia whose parent company sits on the body which approves emoji for public use. They really can enable us to clarify emotional intent and the means through which our messages will be interpreted by the recipient. This has never been more important than in the last two years.

However, as hybrid work increasingly embraces cross-border working, and businesses are able to cherry pick employees from different countries, the risk of that missive being misconstrued increases, as in the case of Deveney and her jazz hands.

In all, 58% of survey respondents say they didn't realize specific emoji have different meanings, and the potential issues that could cause.

Take the smiley face emoji, officially termed the slightly smiling face. Globally, people most closely associate the symbol with feeling happy and general positivity. But beware a message with a smiley face in the United States or Singapore: one in five people in both countries use it to show exasperation. In Japan, just one in 20 employees would catch on to that more subtle, subversive meaning.

Caution is also advised when deploying the peach emoji. Seven in 10 respondents took the symbol literally, missing its more euphemistic meaning more common elsewhere. And in China, 56% of workers took the eggplant or aubergine emoji to mean just that. Large parts of the rest of the world would snigger at that. There is always potential for someone to look at an emoji and think it means X, but the most common understanding of that emoji is Y, said Broni.

It all makes for a potential minefield of misinterpretation, one that Deveney's keen to avoid in the future. At first, she considered sending an apology message explaining her misunderstanding, then decided she was overthinking it.

But the hugging face-jazz hands emoji has been consigned to history, she said: I've stopped sending emojis in any business message.
It has been revealed that the Telescope Mirror Tech used by James Webb Telescope also improves Lasik eye surgery precision and potential.

Recently, the James Webb Space Telescope grabbed the attention of the world by sharing images of the last moments of a star and also those of the Universe as it was billions of years ago- 13 billion years ago, to be exact. The tech used for the purpose is quite futuristic, but do you know that the same can be used on Earth to improve our health and wellbeing? Well, that is exactly what is happening. It has been revealed that the Telescope Mirror Tech used by James Webb Telescope also improves Lasik eye surgery precision and potential.

The tech used to make Webb's mirrors has also been incorporated into Johnson & Johnson's Vision's design Refractive Studio, a device that takes precise eye measurements to map imperfections in visual pathways and cornea curvature. It has the capability to map the information uniquely to each patient's eye.

According to the information gathered from J&J the Design Refractive Studio is now available to eye doctors in 47 countries, and the iDesign technology has enabled well over 18 million successful LASIK procedures worldwide. In case you are wondering, then know that the James Webb Telescope was years in the making and the tech has spread widely by its creators

In early 2000s the technology got started when Albuquerque, New Mexico-based subcontractor WaveFront Sciences worked with NASA to develop a system to measure deviations in Webb's mirrors as they were being ground and polished to precise specifications.

Now here is what Lee Feinberg, optical telescope element manager for Webb at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland has to say, The mirrors were one of the really critical technologies we needed to develop to enable the observatory.

He further added, We had to polish them in such a way that, when they cool down, they become the mirror shape that we want, We had to match the curvature of one mirror to the next, which was a very challenging problem.
Beam, Asia-Pacifics largest and fastest growing shared micro-mobility company today launched a new campaign that seeks to educate Malaysians on alternative, convenient and more sustainable modes of transport. Called Drive Something New Today, the company is looking to demonstrate the key role that its shared e-scooter services play in solving the everyday issue of completing first and last mile journeys when using public transport.

According to the company, its mission is to turn little drives into better rides and make cities flow better for everyone. During an event in Kuala Lumpur earlier today, we experienced first-hand how Beams shared e-scooters could fill a long-time gap in Malaysias public transportation system.

Indeed, the e-scooters are able to connect people to transit points, popular destinations and hotspots with ease thanks to its affordable sharing concept. Furthermore, Beam is also seeking to reduce dependency on private vehicles which in turn decreases CO2 emissions. In fact, the company claims that with every 10km ridden on its e-scooters instead of a car, riders save 2.65kg of CO2 emissions.

In a recent poll among micro-mobility riders in May 2022, Beam found that almost 50 percent of 1800 Beam riders surveyed said that its services had made them more likely to consider using public transport as an option. Furthermore, 77 percent of regular riders said that they always, usually or sometimes use an e-scooter to connect to or from public transport.

During the same event, Beam also elaborated on the technology that it used to safeguard the safety of its riders. One of the most notable features are its speed-limiting technology which caps the e-scooters to 25km/h, even when riding downhill, which is in line with the proposed regulation for micro-mobility vehicles in our country.

This is thanks to a sturdy aircraft-grade aluminium chassis underneath Beam e-scooters that houses an efficient electric powertrain and a high-grade IoT communications device. The latter also enables Beams proprietary virtual parking technology as well as a geofencing technology that ensures riders stay within designated areas approved by the local authorities.

In addition to utilising various technologies, Beam is also safeguarding riders safety with an in-person flagship safety programme called the Beam Safe Academy. Conducted by the companys certified instructors, the programme educates attendees on proper e-scooter usage.

Besides that, the Drive Something New Today campaign also introduces the Beam Booster programme that the company asserted as having the potential to boost the local economy and tourism. A platform that highlights local businesses through Beams virtual parking technology, riders are encouraged to make pit-stops or end their journeys right in front of a Beams partner doorstep, which could generate interest and even gain revenue for local businesses.

Furthermore, Beam is also an MDEC e-Rezeki partner that has created employment opportunities in the gig economy for locals. Currently, the company employs over 250 Malaysian gig workers as Beam Rangers to conduct important maintenance tasks on its e-scooters.

Striving to ensure that its e-scooters are accessible and affordable, the #BeamForAll campaign advocates for equitable access to transportation services for all Malaysians. This is more significant than ever now, considering how microbility has been recognised as an essential part of the public transport framework in the 12th Malaysia Plan.

So, what do you guys think of Beam and its shared e-scooters service? Have you tried riding one before? Share your thoughts and experiences with us in the comments below and stay tuned to TechNave for more tech news from Malaysia and beyond!
In-situ construction of the Br 2 cathode and Zn anode during the charging process. Credit: IMCAS

High-performance, micro-sized electrochemical energy storage devices are essential for future miniaturized electronic devices, such as smart medical implants, wireless sensors, and the Internet of Things. Microbatteries (MBs) typically show higher energy density and more stable voltage output than micro-supercapacitors.

However, current MBs involve tedious construction procedures and unsatisfactory electrochemical performance. In addition, no methods exist to construct or manipulate a liquid microelectrode.

A joint research team led by Prof. Qu Liangti from Tsinghua University, Prof. Zhang Zhipan from the Beijing Institute of Technology, and Prof. Liu Feng from the Institute of Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IMCAS) recently proposed a dual-plating strategy to rapidly construct new zincbromine microbatteries (ZnBr 2 MBs) with ultrahigh areal energy density and polarity-switchable functionality.

The results were published in Science Advances.

In this strategy, the in-situ plating of cathodes and anodes on microelectrodes takes place during the charging process, thus eliminating the synthesis of active materials. Furthermore, the troublesome and time-consuming mass matching of cathodes and anodes in previous methods can also be avoided, since the new method involves plating in cathode-anode pairs.

The researchers constructed the first aqueous ZnBr 2 MBs with liquid cathodes by using redox-active 1-methyl-3-propylimidazolium bromide, which not only prevents diffusion of Br 3  but also shows fast kinetics during charging and discharging.

The ZnBr 2 MBs showed equal numbers of cathodes and anodes. They also delivered record-high areal capacity and energy density, more than 10 times that of most planar microbatteries.

ZnBr 2 MBs are polarity-switchable, thus allowing self-rectification during possible faulty operations such as wrongly connecting cathodes and anodes during charging.

"The combination between the suitable binding strength and loose network microstructures in electrodes endows ZnBr 2 MBs with outstanding performance," said Prof. Liu.

This work offers new insights for promoting the development of miniaturized electronics through the fine design of their states, mechanical properties, and microstructures.

More information: Chunlong Dai et al, Fast constructing polarity-switchable zinc-bromine microbatteries with high areal energy density, Science Advances (2022). Journal information: Science Advances Chunlong Dai et al, Fast constructing polarity-switchable zinc-bromine microbatteries with high areal energy density,(2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abo6688
Mission trips. Ive been on dozens of them.

Like the cold watermelon slices we slurped after painting an orphanage in Miguel Aleman, Mexico, or the water we poured over our heads after repairing a home for a poor family in Livingston, Alabama, those trips always refresh and replenish us in mind, body and spirit. As a teenager named Alejandro said about the mission trip our churchs youth are currently on in Albuquerque, New Mexico, they are a disturbance I needed from the worlds complacency that Paul perhaps addressed when he wrote to some of the earliest Christians, telling them to not sleep, but to stay alert and clearheaded (1 Thessalonians 5:6).

Something that always rubbed me wrong about those trips, though, was the presumptuous position the mission sometimes took over the people it was supposed to love and serve in witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

A trip I led middle schoolers on in Arlington one summer had us providing vacation Bible school to children in poorer areas of the city. As we prepared games, puppet shows and Bible stories for those little ones, a man from the organization hosting us gave a pep talk. He said that our mission was to get those kids to accept Jesus. A sixth grader in our group raised her hand and asked, What if they dont accept Jesus? The man said to the preteen in my care, Well, you just tell em the truth. Tell em theyre going to go to hell. That didnt sound like what she learned in Sunday school, not like the Gospel message that called her to be on that trip in the first place, not like the command Jesus said superseded all others: to love God with her entire being, and to love her neighbor as herself.

The answer she got was presented as truth but it smacked of colonization. That misguided mission that sees people as others in need of correction is what never sat well with me, and its a festering bubble under the wallpaper of our history.This week, our churchs youth have been learning about that historys effects on people they are trying to love and serve, and how it has shaped their community and culture.

Through visits to Albuquerques Indian Pueblo Cultural Center and the Jemez Pueblo, and from presentations by Indigenous speakers, the youth are learning about the Paleo-Indian cultures present some 12,000 years ago in the area, and how the land where they are staying was settled by the Tiwa people beginning around 1250. They are learning about the Doctrine of Discovery, how colonizers interpreted Joshua in the Bible to see the Indigenous people of this land as Canaanites, as others, to be conquered and controlled, and how that concept led to land theft, genocide and the displacement of millions. They are learning about how several Christian churches now recognize this sordid past and make it their mission to own that history so they can repent from it and be about the honest work of reconciliation and healing. They are learning the truth, and that truth is setting them free with a refining power strong enough to set all people free in love and service not toward but alongside one another. That is the mission.

Our group volunteered at HopeWorks, a nonprofit providing hope to those experiencing homelessness. The youth sorted donations, cleaned a walk-in pantry, and served meals to over 300 people. They also made flower-shaped cutouts from construction paper and invited people to write their name on them to place on the wall. While they did this, I met a man named Jonathan. He told me that he had just gotten a bike without a chain when one of our youth, Iris, asked him if he wanted to write his name on a flower. Jonathan said yes, and kept talking to Iris and me.

Jonathan shared that he was Indigenous, half Oklahoma Cherokee, half Isleta. Jonathan drew the eagle feathers around the flower. In his culture there are six directions, each of which is represented by a different animal, the eagle representing up. Jonathan told Iris, Im a friend before anything else. I dont judge. Were all equal.

Later in the week, Iris wrote a poem reflecting on that encounter. She granted me permission to share it with you here:

With Jonathan, beads of sweat dripping down both of us

Five-point Eagle-feather design

Broken bike chain

I was anxious

Five-point Eagle-feather design

His art

I was anxious

But he was friend before anything else;

before his art,

his broken bike chain.

Friend before anything else

With Jonathan, beads of sweat dripping down both of us.

As Jesus instructs us to not determine who our neighbors are, but to be a neighbor, Jonathan showed us, the missioners loving and serving him, what matters most: to not judge who deserves friendship, but to be a friend. That is the mission.

Upon first encountering the people he called Indians by incorrectly believing he was in India, Columbus wrote, They are so artless and free with their possessions that no one would believe it without having seen it. Of anything they have, if you ask them for it they never say no, rather they invite the person to share it. Within 100 years of that encounter, the Indigenous population in the Americas had shrunk from 100 million people to 10 million, and within 25 years the entire population of Hispaniola had been exterminated. Justified by the Doctrine of Discovery, this remains the most massive genocide in human history.

Imagine what our community and culture would be like if Columbus and those after him had met Indigenous peoples hospitality with mutual neighborliness? Imagine what being a follower of Jesus would look like if his followers understood repentance to be about addressing sins of ethnocentrism and turning away from them by being neighbors who seek and speak truth? Imagine what Christianity would look like if its mission were to be a friend, to be a neighbor, before anything else, working alongside all of Gods children to dismantle any doctrine, system or power that sought to oppress them?

Mission work would look a lot different, Gods kingdom would come more quickly on earth as it is in heaven, and, like the Prophet Isaiah pronounces that the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain, the bubbles in our wallpaper might finally be smoothed out in witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Commitment and dedication are two essential leadership traits in the mind of James Olson, a former Central Intelligence Agency operative and chief of counterintelligence.

Olson gave his thoughts on those two traits and shared examples of how he used those characteristics during his 31-year tenure with the CIA during a Bryan-College State Chamber of Commerce Leadership Luncheon at the Stella Hotel in Bryan on Thursday afternoon. He currently works as a professor of the practice at the Bush School of Government and Public Service of Texas A&M University.

Dedication, I define as serving something larger than yourself, finding what that is and for me, it was the country. I dedicated my life to our country, he said. And commitment means giving it everything you have. Making certain that all the talents and energies God gave you, that you devote to what it is that you believe in. Those two things together, I think, are essential. Otherwise, youre kind of just a halfhearted leader. I was surrounded by people in my career who just exemplified dedication and commitment, so I try to share that with my students and I bring it up when I have a chance to talk to current or future leaders.

Olson told luncheon attendees that after he graduated from the University of Iowa, he joined the Navy and was in charge of 30 sailors. Olson noted he was later recruited by the CIA and believed he would only be in the organization for a couple of years and planned to return to Iowa to practice law and maybe become a judge. When he got to the CIA, though, Olson said his plans changed when he felt a sense of calling.

This was my form of service to our country, Olson said. I had started that feeling of service in the Navy, but it really took hold when I got to the CIA. I had found, at the CIA, my dedication in my life to our country and I had found my commitment in my life to ensuring that this great country of ours had the best intelligence in the world.

Olson outlined how he spent most of his career in the CIA as a spy catcher in counterintelligence and found spies that worked against America, primarily in Russia and China. His wife, Meredith, was an undercover CIA agent as well.

It was a difficult career, Olson said. It was a demanding career. When I think about some of the experiences that we faced, I sometimes wonder how we did it. And the way we did it is because we believed in what we were doing. We had dedication and commitment.

Although most of his missions are still classified, Olson shared part of one foreign mission he was involved with that has recently been released.

Our profession was not risk-free, so youve got to have something [inside of you] that sustains you and puts you through the rough, dangerous times, he said. I dont want to overdramatize it, but there were operations when I wasnt certain I would come back. But you believe in so much of what youre doing. This operation couldve gone badly as well, but youre so mission-focused and youre so committed to serving the country that you are willing to do whatever it takes.

Olson said he would go back and serve in the CIA again, but since he cant reverse the clock he said the next best thing he can do is teach and prepare the next generation. At the end of his speech, he challenged the crowd to find something they believe in and make a difference with dedication and commitment in their service.

One of my mentors told me that service in the CIA is doing hard things in hard places, Olson said. And thats kind of what I believe in, too.
After much back-and-forth discussion stretched from late Thursday into early Friday, the College Station City Council unanimously approved a zoning proposal to allow an Amazon Prime Air Drone Facility within city limits.

All six council members in attendance voted for the proposal, which would allow Amazon products of a certain criteria to be delivered directly to peoples homes via drones. The proposal was brought to the community after the citys Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved the first round of rezoning at 400 Technology Parkway along Texas 6 near Texas Avenue during a June 14 meeting.

Engineering Services and Construction Inspections Manager Anthony Armstrong told the council that the applicant, Amazon, requested the zoning district change from research and development to a planned development district in order to provide small consumer aerial distribution.

Technology Parkway will be home to the facility, which will have three buildings to house inventory and the drone services. Armstrong said drones only carry products 5 pounds or less and can deliver a package in less than 30 minutes within a 4-mile radius of the facility.

Amazon held posted meetings and sought feedback from neighborhoods near the potential site that belonged to the Homeowners Associations [HOA], including Emerald Forest, Sandstone, Fox Fire, Amber Lake, Shadowcrest, Stonebridge, Chadwick and Woodcreek, Armstrong said.

Sean Cassidy, Amazon Prime Air director of safety and regulatory affairs, said the drones will not deliver 24/7 and will fly up to 400 feet, and could make 25 to 200 trips a day to deliver packages.

Amazon is always innovating for our customers  we want to bring technology to the community, he said. These drones are designed to safely [deliver] packages to customers.  We are proud to work with [Texas] A&M in the aviation sector and later work with local food banks, nonprofits and summer camps at A&M. We are excited for College Station to be one of the first in the U.S. for this facility.  This location wasnt random; we looked at communities, topography and demographics.

During the meeting, the council heard from HOA residents expressing concerns regarding safety, noise and privacy with drones being close to their homes.

Robin Murphy, a resident and member of the Emerald Forest Homeowners Association, spoke on behalf of a group in opposition of the drones and asked how much the Planning and Zoning Commission considered the noise level.

David McWhirter of College Station said, We should all be skeptical of this corporation.

Monica Williams of College Station told the council she was worried drones may spy on her.

Patrick Williams of College Station asked the council if Amazon wanted to come to the city because of Texas A&M or because the city does not have drone regulations.

Stuart Lewis, a resident of Emerald Forest, said the reason this site was chosen was because it was cheap.

This is an experimental technology  we are going to be the object of their experiment, he said. There should be some drone regulations enacted before this thing gets completely out of hand  develop your technology in RELLIS [Campus].

The council had received 18 written comments about this topic and heard from numerous residents concerned about their privacy and if the drones would be able to photograph them.

Cassidy said the drones do have cameras but are used to view objects that could obstruct views and not for surveillance.

They are safety devices  personal privacy is important. At Amazon we are about safety, efficiency and reliability, he said.

Council members went back and forth in discussion with Cassidy about how the drones are regulated. He and acting city attorney Adam Falco notified the council that the city has no regulations regarding air rights for homeowners, but that the Federal Aviation Administration sets drone guidelines nationwide.

Members of Texas A&M University and the A&M System spoke in favor of the drones being in the city, including Susan Ballanina and Billy Hamilton.

Matt Prochaska, the president/CEO of the Brazos Valley Economic Development Council, also spoke in favor.

College Station Police Chief Billy Couch and Fire Chief Richard Mann both said they did thorough research and did not find any immediate concerns with the drones.

Councilman John Nichols expressed concerns about voting against the motion.

Clearly we are only voting on the zoning.  There are so many places in the city you could do this without asking us, he said. This is a secluded place and from my perspective having it across a buffer it is a good place to have it. I am hesitant to push them out into the community. Every question we have asked is about FAA.

Council member Elizabeth Cunha expressed frustration with Amazon for not bringing a drone in person for them to view and noted they have not posted a date for residents to view how the operation will work.

I am frustrated a drone didnt come today so we could all see it, she said. The real power rests with the homeowner  the real power is yours.

Council member Linda Harvell said she wanted Amazon to succeed here.

But you are going to have to show these homeowners that you will follow through with them, she said.

Council member Dennis Maloney said because the city cannot regulate drones, they can only hope Amazon fulfills the promises it made to residents.

I cant control the air rights, but if there is a problem we will address it with our ordinances, he said. While I am uncomfortable with it  but that is the best use of zoning for that land.

Mayor Karl Mooney agreed with the council yet expressed hesitation.

This concerns me  and citizens have come forward to tell us to regulate drones, but the city cannot regulate drones. If Amazon were to come and not do [what it needs to], it gives us authority to contact FAA, he said. I am going to support this but with some concerns and a watchful eye.

Councilman Bob Brick was absent from the meeting.
Country

United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe
The Tri-County Lakes Administrative Commission will be holding its first public hearing next week for a proposed no-wakesurfing zone in the Merriman Run area of Smith Mountain Lake.

The public hearing comes nearly a year after TLAC approved the use of no-wakesurfing zones on the lake as an effort to alleviate the growing concerns of many lake residents. Applications for the zones became available at the TLAC office on Jan. 1, but so far only one has been completed.

TLACs navigation committee will listen to public comments before voting on the no-wakesurfing application on July 19 at 6 p.m. in the TLAC offices on Scruggs Road in Moneta. The recommendation of the navigation committee will go to the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources where they will make a final vote on the application.

If the application is approved by TLACs navigation committee and the DWR, there is a question of how the no-wakesurfing zones will be enforced by conservation officers. Sgt. Tim Dooley with the DWR said no final decisions have been made so far.

We are waiting to see what comes out of the public hearing, Dooley said. We have stayed out of the discussion at this point.

Dooley did say the DWR would likely coordinate with other area lakes that have no-wakesurfing zones already in place to see how officers there enforce them. Lake Anna in northern Virginia has implemented multiple no-wakesurfing zones in recent years.

To complete an application for a no-wakesurfing zone at Smith Mountain Lake, applicants must first obtain written consent from at least 75% of neighbors in the impacted area that they agree to have the zone. Those applying must also show verifiable proof that a public safety hazard exists and occurs on a regular basis through written statements, videos and reports to law enforcement.

Applicants can also show structural, shoreline or vessel damage has occurred that can be verified by submitting repair bills, pictures or a written statement from a business professional that can verify the damage was caused by wakesurfing.

Applicants in a channel, cove or area of water with less than 400 feet between shorelines or the furthest extending points of a structure such as docks are also considered for no-wakesurfing buoys.

Lorie Smith, chairman of TLAC, said a lot of work has gone into working through the first application to assure that everything is correct. She said there is an emphasis that the committee gets it right with the first application.

She admitted there had been some initial hurdles they needed to overcome in this first application, although it was expected as this is a totally new to the lake. We didnt expect it to be seamless, she said.

The TLAC board expected some unforeseen issues in the first year. That is why it agreed to an annual review of the no-wakesurfing zone application process to assure it is working as intended. Smith said she expects a review to take place late this year or early next year.
A captain with the Franklin County Sheriffs Office will take over as chief of the Rocky Mount Police Department in August.

Near the end of the Rocky Mount Town Councils Monday evening meeting, Town Manager Robert Wood announced that Phillip Young will be filling the police chief position.

Right now the plan is that he will start on or about Aug. 15, Wood said.

Young, who will be paid $104,624 in his new position, is a lifelong Franklin County resident and has been with the sheriffs office for 24 years. Before joining the sheriffs office as a patrol deputy, Young served as a police officer  and later police chief  for the Ferrum College Police Department.

He has held several roles at the sheriffs office, including field training officer, school resource officer, professional standards sergeant and administrative lieutenant.

He [Young] spent 12 years on the Emergency Response Team with much of that time spent as a designated marksman. Most of his leadership experience has been in dealing with hiring, budget, internal affairs and FOIA, a Tuesday statement from the sheriffs office said. Captain Young has served as the accreditation manager for the office, overseeing the initial accreditation of the department as well as the first and second re-accreditations through the Virginia Law Enforcement Professional Standards Commission.

Young has a bachelors degree in management and leadership from Bluefield College, where he graduated with honors, and a criminal justice graduate certificate from the University of Virginia.

He is a graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigations National Academy, Session 262, as well as the FBI Law Enforcement Executive Leadership Associations Supervisor, Command and Executive Leadership Institutes, the sheriffs office statement said.

Franklin County Sheriff Bill Overton Jr. mentioned Young at Mondays school board meeting.

Im thankful that well have a wonderful relationship with him, Overton said.

Mondays announcement marks the end of a 10-month search for a new Rocky Mount police chief.

Weve been searching for a new police chief for some time, Wood said. We had over 20 applications come into the Berkley Group who helped us with that process.

Young will take over the chief duties from Capt. Mark Lovern, who has served as the departments interim police chief since the early September retirement of former chief Ken Criner.

Criner retired in 2021 after more than 30 years in law enforcement, roughly a decade of which was spent at the Rocky Mount Police Department. Criner became police chief in 2014.

In 2020, four police department employees filed federal discrimination complaints against the town. Three of those same employees also filed complaints with the town about Criner, alleging a hostile work environment and disparaging, profane comments made about subordinates.

Criner was placed on administrative leave for five weeks in spring 2020 in response to the complaints filed with the town. Criner spent two of those weeks on unpaid leave.

A month after Criners retirement in 2021, a former Rocky Mount police officer filed a lawsuit claiming he was forced out of his job after defending and trying to help employees who Criner allegedly harassed.

That lawsuit was settled in May, but another filed in February by a person claiming harassment, Regina Stanley, is slated for a jury trial in the U.S. District Court in Roanoke starting May 1, 2023.
Italian president rejects PM Draghi's resignation

Xinhua) 08:27, July 15, 2022

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi speaks at a press conference in Rome, Italy, on July 12, 2022. (Str/Xinhua)

Draghi decided to formally resign after the second largest force in his coalition -- the Five Star Movement (M5S) -- boycotted a confidence vote on the government's relief bill to combat soaring prices in the Senate earlier in the day.

ROME, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Italian President Sergio Mattarella rejected a resignation offer of Prime Minister Mario Draghi, after meeting him late on Thursday night.

Draghi decided to formally resign after the second largest force in his coalition -- the Five Star Movement (M5S) -- boycotted a confidence vote on the government's relief bill to combat soaring prices in the Senate earlier in the day.

In an official statement after their meeting at the Quirinale Palace, Mattarella's office said that "the president has not accepted the resignation."

Mattarella has invited Draghi "to appear before Parliament for communications, in order to have an assessment of the situation ... in its proper forum," the statement specified.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella makes a declaration after receiving the official notice of his re-election at the Quirinale presidential palace in Rome, Italy, on Jan. 29, 2022. (Str/Xinhua)

Draghi is now expected to address the lower house and the Senate next Wednesday, according to local media.

The crisis broke out after weeks of tensions mounting within the broad coalition supporting Draghi's national unity government, which was formed in February 2021.

Draghi, former chief of the European Central Bank, has been enjoying a large political consensus up to the latest months, when infighting focused on what the cabinet's priorities in the short and mid-term should be.

After the M5S refused to take part in the confidence vote on Thursday, Draghi gathered the cabinet and formally announced to his ministers that he would resign, saying the majority that had supported the government from its creation does not exist anymore.

"Since my inauguration address before the Parliament, I always said the cabinet would go on only if there was a clear prospect of implementing the government's program ... Such cohesiveness has been crucial to meet the challenges of these months," Draghi said. "These conditions no longer exist."

Members of Italy's parliament attend a voting session to elect Italy's new president in Rome, Italy, on Jan. 28, 2022. (Photo by Alberto Lingria/Xinhua)

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)
Franklin County Public Schools is looking into the financial feasibility of staffing every school in the division with a school resource officer.

As educators, local representatives, school officials and members of law enforcement have grappled with the question of school safety in the wake of the May 24 Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, school resource officers have emerged as a solution.

A school resource officer is funded through law enforcement...and they are employed by the Franklin County Sheriffs Office or the town of Rocky Mount. They are police officers or sheriffs and they are armed, FCPS Director of Operations Jason Guilliams said.

The county and division seem to be investigating how to place a school resource officer in each of the divisions schools based on Blackwater District Supervisor Ronnie Mitchells demands at a June 21 Franklin County Board of Supervisors meeting.

Weve got to put an armed officer in every school in this county, Mitchell said.

It would take 15 more positions to add enough school resource officers while still meeting Franklin Countys other law enforcement needs.

At Mondays school board meeting, Franklin County Sheriff Bill Overton Jr. and FCPS Superintendent Bernice Cobbs presented a tentative plan to add 15 school resource officer positions.

The Rocky Mount Police Department was not part of that plan, although it is responsible for two of the divisions current school resource officers.

Board Chair Jeff Worley said he hates to talk about school safety in terms of money, but it is a significant obstacle in the tentative plan.

Cobbs and Overton estimated that adding 15 officers would cost roughly $1.96 million in the first year and $1.12 million in the second year.

The sheriffs department is going to apply for a grant from the Department of Criminal Justice that could support six school resource officer positions, Cobbs said.

If awarded, the four-year grant would provide about $456,000 in the first year and $276,000 in each subsequent year. The tentative school resource officer plan also increases the FCPS contribution by $300,000.

The school board approved the additional $300,000 target Monday, but that still leaves nine of the proposed school resource officer jobs empty and a funding gap of roughly $1.2 million in the first year and $545,000 per year after that.

Cobbs identified the divisions federal COVID-19 relief funds as a potential funding source to make up some of the gap.

Meanwhile, Mitchell alluded to raising taxes at the board of supervisors meeting on June 21.

Yall can blame it on me if weve got to raise taxes to fund putting SROs in our schools. You point the finger right here, Mitchell said.

Meanwhile, the Roanoke County and Roanoke City school divisions are in the process of making some substantial security upgrades. Both divisions school boards have indicated interest in adding school safety personnel like school resource officers and the Roanoke County division is applying for funding from the same Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services grant program as FCPS.
Smith Mountain Lakes poplar Pirate Days is set to return this weekend. Crowds are expected to fill area marinas dressed in pirate garb and ready to do battle, possibly without a longtime popular weapon.

Water balloons are no longer allowed according to a new law passed in Virginia last year. The Virginia code, 29.1-556.1, states It is unlawful for any individual 16 years of age or older or other person to intentionally release, discard, or cause to be released or discarded outdoors any balloon made of a nonbiodegradable or nonphotodegradable material or any material that requires more than five minutes contact with air or water to degrade.

With the new law in place, even current biodegradable water balloons on the market would not meet those strict standards.

Sgt. Tim Dooley with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources said the goal this year will be mainly to make sure people know the new rules. It is our intention to address any violations we observe, he said. This can be done in a variety of ways to include educating the individuals regarding the changes to the code or, if warranted, an official warning or summons may be issued.

Chris Bechtler, manager of Crazy Horse Marina, is already trying to reach out to participants this year about the new law. The marina is traditionally the site of some of the largest Pirate Days battles each year as boats decorated as pirate ships roam the cove and toss water balloons at other boats.

We are discouraging the use of water balloons, Bechtler said.

The Smith Mountain Lake Association is also pushing to get the word out on the new law. SMLA President Bill Butterfield said he is a fan of the annual pirate festivities, but has questioned the environmental impact of the water balloons.

Water balloons that are biodegradable and those that are non-biodegradable are indistinguishable from one another. The biodegradable balloons also still take months to break down. In that time, Butterfield said they can still do harm to the environment.

The popped balloons can litter the waterways and shoreline. They can also become ingested by area wildlife such as fish or birds or even by local pets.

Balloons can also be harmful to boats and personal watercrafts by being sucked up into water intakes. The intakes could be clogged by balloon debris.

Butterfield asked residents to consider alternative ways to participate in pirate battles this year. He encouraged the use of water guns that will allow people the same opportunities to have fun while keeping the lake clean and not breaking the law.
The botnet behind the largest HTTPS distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack in June 2022 has been linked to a spate of attacks aimed at nearly 1,000 Cloudflare customers.

Calling the powerful botnet Mantis, the web performance and security company attributed it to more than 3,000 HTTP DDoS attacks against its users.

The most attacked industry verticals include internet and telecom, media, gaming, finance, business, and shopping, of which over 20% of the attacks targeted U.S.-based companies, followed by Russia, Turkey, France, Poland, Ukraine, the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands, and Canada.

Last month, the company said it mitigated a record-breaking DDoS attack aimed at an unnamed customer website using its Free plan that peaked at 26 million requests per second (RPS), with each node generating approximately 5,200 RPS.

The tsunami of junk traffic lasted less than 30 seconds and generated more than 212 million HTTPS requests from more than 1,500 networks in 121 countries, topped by Indonesia, the U.S., Brazil, Russia, and India.

"The Mantis botnet operates a small fleet of approximately 5,000 bots, but with them can generate a massive force  responsible for the largest HTTP DDoS attacks we have ever observed," Cloudflare's Omer Yoachimik said.

Mantis stands out for a number of reasons. The first is its ability to carry out HTTPS DDoS attacks, which are expensive in nature due to the computational resources required to establish a secure TLS encrypted connection.

Secondly, unlike other traditional botnets that rely on IoT devices such as DVRs and routers, Mantis leverages hijacked virtual machines and powerful servers, equipping it with more resources.

These volumetric attacks aim to generate more traffic than the target can process, causing the victim to exhaust its resources. While adversaries have traditionally utilized UDP to launch amplification attacks, there has been a shift to newer TCP reflected amplification vectors that make use of middleboxes.

Microsoft, in May 2022, disclosed that it prevented about 175,000 UDP reflected amplification attacks over the past year that were aimed at its Azure infrastructure. It also observed a TCP reflected amplification attack on an Azure resource in Asia that reached 30 million packets per second (pps) and lasted 15 minutes.

"Reflected amplification attacks are here to stay and pose a serious challenge for the internet community," the Azure Networking Team noted. "They continue to evolve and exploit new vulnerabilities in protocols and software implementations to bypass conventional countermeasures."
Operation Splash presented by the Grand Island YMCA with funding from the Heartland United Way

Drowning Prevention Week has just passed, but there are many weeks of summer remaining.

To help all children in the community learn to swim and be safe around water, the Grand Island YMCA, with funding from the Heartland United Way, is providing Operation Splash.

The program is for children who are ages 3-5 or in grades kindergarten through fifth grade and who qualify for Title XX or free/reduced price lunches.

In its seventh year at the Grand Island YMCA, Operation Splash is a learn-to-swim and water safety program. In previous years, the Y transported kids from schools after the school day was over. This year the Y will provide Operation Splash Monday through Thursday afternoons, Aug. 1-4.

This week of free swim lessons will teach up to 120 kids basic swimming skills and water safety. Kids who complete the program will receive a free YMCA youth membership for August 2022.

Operation Splash will be held at the Grand Island YMCA, Monday through Thursday, August 1-4. Registrations are available at the Y, 221 E. South Front St. Call 308-395-9622 for more information.
Thursday, Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced an interim consent order with Sugar Camp Energy LLC over an alleged release of dangerous forever chemicals from a mine in Franklin County.

A lawsuit filed earlier this year alleges Sugar Camp used firefighting foams containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as forever chemicals, in an attempt to extinguish an underground fire at the Sugar Camp mine, located near Macedonia. PFAS were subsequently discharged into waters near the coal mine.

Raoul said the order is an important first step toward ensuring that Sugar Camp is held accountable for the damage it has done by using the chemicals.

Under the order, Sugar Camp is required to test the facilitys ponds for PFAS and to install new treatment systems to remove PFAS from the facilitys wastewater. The order restricts Sugar Camps transfer or discharge of water from ponds contaminated with PFAS and requires the mine to test discharged wastewater for PFAS. The state reserves the right to seek additional remedial actions by Sugar Camp beyond this interim order.

Sugar Camp jeopardized public safety and irresponsibly violated state environmental statutes by misusing dangerous forever chemicals, Raoul said in a press release. Exposure to such chemicals can cause long-lasting damage to the environment and poses a serious risk to public health.

In 2016, Sugar Camp was issued a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit that authorized the company to discharge wastewater from specified outfalls at its mining facility, subject to limitations. The permit does not authorize the discharge of PFAS.

The facility operates a network of pumps and pipelines that pump water from its two longwall mines to prevent underground flooding of the mines. This water is pumped to two slurry impoundments at the facility and is ultimately discharged into nearby waters, including the Middle Fork of the Big Muddy River.

After the underground fire broke out in August 2021, the IEPA received a citizen complaint regarding firefighting foam being discovered in a farm field ditch and a tributary to Akin Creek, which is located near the facility. The IEPA conducted an inspection and found evidence of the firefighting foam in the tributary to Akin Creek and in other nearby areas.

Raouls lawsuit alleges that laboratory analysis of water samples revealed the presence of PFAS in the water. Subsequent sampling done by Sugar Camp further revealed the presence of PFAS in the facilitys impoundments and in permitted outfalls.

IEPA referred this case to the Attorney Generals Office following the inappropriate handling of aqueous firefighting foam by Sugar Camp Energy, LLC, according to IEPA Director John J. Kim.

PFAS are human-made, synthetic chemicals that are highly toxic to humans and animals. They are known as forever chemicals because they are extremely resistant to degradation in the environment.

PFAS may be linked to serious adverse health effects in humans and animals, including increased serum cholesterol, immune dysregulation, pregnancy-induced hypertension, kidney and testicular cancers and other issues.

Bureau Chief Andrew Armstrong and Assistant Attorney General Kevin Bonin are handling the case for Raouls Environmental Bureau.
It is not too much of a stretch to compare Austin A. Lanes tenure as chancellor of Southern Illinois University Carbondale to a term paper.

Now entering his third year at the helm of the university, Lane spent most of his first year researching his topic. He called it his listening tour, gaining perspective and insight from students, faculty, alumni, staff members and community members.

His recently completed second year was akin to a student spreading his or her notecards all over the desk and outlining the planned term paper. In his case, Lane used the last 12 months to craft, fine-tune and present Imagine 2030, SIUs first strategic plan in decades.

Now, with the plan in place, it is time for Lane and the Carbondale campus to metaphorically write the paper as attention turns to implementation of the plan and its five pillars.

You get strategic plans in place by taking two years to really get that feedback and then craft the new strategic plan, Lane explained. Im feeling as if now we are all moving in the same direction and were understanding the priorities  not just for me, but for the entire university  and our efforts are getting very intentional. We have something that we can focus and rally around.

Lane said the strategic plan allows faculty and staff to all work toward the same goals.

Its not enough to just have a fancy strategic plan. Now we are doing more than just talking about the strategic plan. Its about action steps, methods of assessment and targets, he explained.

Lane said a website is in development which will feature effectiveness plans, benchmarks and reporting on progress.

In looking back, Lane said he feels his biggest success  although he was careful to spread credit to the entire campus community  has been in efforts within Southern Illinois, especially when it comes to recruiting students. Lane noted that student enrollment from the region was up 34% over the previous year.

Hopefully, you are beginning to see that commitment, starting with the relationships that we have been building with superintendents and principals, counselors, teachers and community organizations, he said, adding that he would also consider the creation of the strategic plan as a major accomplishment.

He said enrollment continues to tick in the right direction.

If you look at what our trend looks like right now, and it is early  we have six weeks to go is that we will exceed the size of the freshman class we had last fall and that was the largest class weve had in probably five years, he said. Applications are up this year, admissions are up and we appear to be yielding more students by registrations, so right now, it all very promising.

Lane said he wants to see SIU do a better job of attracting international students, especially for graduate degree programs.

Ive seen other institutions that have excelled in their international student populations a little better than us and I really think weve got some work to do there, he said.

The chancellor also reflected on the challenges of last year, a season in which the Carbondale campus faced a number of student tragedies beginning with the shooting death of student Keeshanna Jackson and continued with the deaths of students Jacob Jurinek and Joseph Ermel.

Jackson was killed in a shooting at a Carbondale house party the first week of classes. Ermel died in a motorcycle accident near Alto Pass. Jurinek was killed in the Astroworld tragedy in Houston, Texas.

Ive been doing this 27 years and that really shook me up more than any other tragedy, Lane said of Jacksons death. To have that loss happen and to have to talk to her mother and family it was a very tough way to start a semester and nobody ever really gets over it.

Lane continued, That probably was one of the hardest semesters of my career. So much happened and we were trying to come out of COVID. Emotions were high and we started off a very fun and exciting year and then we have these deaths, but we are a very resilient university.
BELLEVILLE  There are 152 confirmed and probable monkeypox cases in Illinois, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data last updated Wednesday.

The CDC has reported 159 cases in New York and 161 in California, but every other state in the country has a lower case count than Illinois.

Additionally, it is unclear if a probable case reported by the St. Clair County Health Department Thursday is included the in CDC's figure for Illinois.

According to the CDC, monkeypox is a rare disease caused by infection with the monkeypox virus. It's in the same virus family as the variola virus, which causes smallpox.

Although monkeypox symptoms are similar to those caused by smallpox, monkeypox symptoms are more mild, and the disease is rarely fatal, the CDC says.

In 2021, at least two monkeypox cases, both travel-related, were reported in the U.S.

Monkeypox was first reported outside of Africa in 2003, when 47 confirmed and probable cases were identified from Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Kansas, Wisconsin and Ohio. The people infected with monkeypox in the 2003 outbreak had all had contact with pet prairie dogs, who were infected after being housed near animals imported from Ghana, according to the CDC.

"Many  though not all  " of the reported monkeypox cases this year have been among men who have sex with men, the CDC says.

The CDC provides a fact sheet for how to mitigate the risk of contracting monkeypox through sexual activity and also emphasizes the importance of not stigmatizing people in the LGBTQ+ community.

Anyone can contract and spread monkeypox, regardless of sexual orientation.

The CDC is advising health authorities about monkeypox testing and contact tracing.

What are the symptoms of monkeypox?

Symptoms typically appear one to two weeks after infection, the CDC says. The infection usually lasts two to four weeks.

Some people may first develop a rash, and some experience a rash as their only symptom.

The rash progresses through multiple healing stages and can look like "pimples or blisters that appears on the face, inside the mouth, and on other parts of the body, like the hands, feet, chest, genitals, or anus," the CDC says.

Other possible monkeypox symptoms include:

Fever

Headache

Muscle and back aches

Swollen lymph nodes

Chills

Exhaustion

How can you try to avoid monkeypox?

In addition to the safe sex practices the CDC recommends in its fact sheet, there are a couple of precautions people can take to mitigate their risk of contracting monkeypox.

The CDC recommends people wash their hands with soap and water frequently or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

Another tip is to avoid skin-to-skin contact with people who have a rash that looks like monkeypox. Additionally, the CDC says to avoid sharing cups or eating utensils and avoid touching clothing, bedding or towels of a person who has monkeypox.

Are vaccines available?

The Illinois Department of Public Health announced June 30 federal officials allocated 1,291 doses of JYNNEOS vaccines to the state of Illinois from the national stockpile.

The Chicago Department of Public Health has been allocated a separate stock of 3,200 doses.

In the June 30 statement, IDPH said the majority of the then 46 probable monkeypox infections were found in Chicago and northern Illinois counties.

The JYNNEOS vaccine is used to prevent disease or lessen symptoms of monkeypox and smallpox in adults who are determined to be at a high risk of infection, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

People who think they have been exposed to or contracted monkeypox should contact a health provider to talk about the possibility of testing and vaccination.
The one thing predictable about nature is its unpredictability.

Our natural world changes from day-to-day, making every encounter with a living creature a random occurrence. And, in the case of Southern Illinois where we have four distinct seasons, were lucky enough to witness an annual natural progression.

Natures new year begins sometime in March when temperatures moderate, albeit unpredictably. The earliest wildflowers emerge from the frosty ground. And, day-by-day the world slowly turns green.

Hibernating animals emerge from their dens. Neotropical migrants return from their tropical winter homes, bringing color and songs to our woods and back yards.

And, although the transition from the bitter cold of winter to the warm breezes of April and May can seem to last forever, nature moves rapidly.

Birds next quickly and produce their first clutch of youngsters. Tiny goslings can be seen waddling around area lakes long before the calendar tells us summer has officially arrived. Tiny bunnies hop cautiously near their mothers and spotted fawns are seen bedded down nervously in grassy fields.

The world changes quickly before our eyes.

The turtle, snakes and butterflies that we havent seen for months are seemingly everywhere. Cliff swallows return to their gourd-shaped mud nests, raise their family and head back to their wintering grounds my mid-summer.

And, in the blink of an eye, summer is a memory as we start to see coots and teal on our lakes. It happens quickly.

Here are a number of scenes from Southern Illinois this summer.
Law enforcement authorities believe an Orangeburg man was involved in a June 15 shooting incident in Denmark and are asking the public to help find him.

On Friday, the S.C. Law Enforcement Division asked for tips concerning the whereabouts of TreQuan Tyreke Stokes, 22, of Orangeburg.

He is considered armed and dangerous, according to SLED spokesperson Renee Wunderlich.

Stokes may be driving a light blue Honda or black Dodge Charger.

Earlier this week, SLED announced the arrest of Keith Nathaniel Sharpe, 21, of 356 Morgan St., Aiken. Sharpe is facing four counts of attempted murder.

SLED warrants accuse Sharpe of physically injuring three men  ages 20, 21, 24  and firing at a 25-year-old man in the June 15 shooting.

SLED took Sharpe into custody on July 6.

Denmark Police Chief Leroy Grimes previously said the shooting occurred on Plum Alley around 5:14 p.m.

Warrants allege Sharpe was armed at the side of a residence while a second unnamed gunman knocked on the door.

When someone in the house opened the door, Sharpe and the unnamed gunman allegedly opened fire, striking the three men and nearly striking another.

The incident was recorded on video surveillance, warrants say.

Witnesses also provided information to law enforcement about the suspected shooters.

SLED redacted the portion of the warrants containing the name of the other suspected shooter.

Sharpe was booked into the Bamberg County Detention Center.

The 2nd Circuit Solicitors Office is prosecuting the case.

As for Stokes, hes currently out on bond for one count of murder and three counts of attempting murder stemming from a Feb. 24, 2019, shooting in the parking lot of Cook Out, located at 725 John C. Calhoun Drive in Orangeburg.

Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School senior Raquan Middleton, 17, died in the incident.

Orangeburg Department of Public Safety officers arrested Stokes in the days following the shooting. He remained at the Orangeburg County Detention Center until Circuit Judge Ed Dickson granted him bond on Dec. 17, 2021.

Daniel Wesley Ryant II, 18, of Orangeburg, is also facing one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder in the deadly Cook Out shooting.

Ryant is out on bond, according to online court records.

Stokes is a Black male standing 5-foot-8 and weighing approximately 225 pounds. He has brown eyes and black hair.

If anyone knows Stokes whereabouts, they are asked to call SLEDs Low Country Regional Office at 843-782-3822 with information. SLED says not to approach Stokes. Callers dont have to give their names.
Talented students benefit from dedicated and talented teachers. This is clearly demonstrated in the collection of students artwork at the Orangeburg County Fine Arts Center, on display in the lobby and as part of the Visual and Performing Arts Expo in the Lusty Gallery.

Recently added to an impressive student collections are the works of Orangeburg County School District Visual Arts Educators. In addition to nurturing students talent, encouraging discipline and inspiring creativity, these teachers are displaying their considerable skills as visual artists.

Visitors to the Arts Center are always amazed at the level of student competency on display and we are happy to tell them that these young artists are the recipients of excellent classroom instruction, explains Vivian Glover, director of community arts and development. To prove the point that these outstanding instructors are also very good artists, we invited them to join the students exhibition in the Lusty Gallery.

The Arts Centers summer exhibition includes students works from Bethune-Bowman Middle High in Bowman, whose instructor Paul Abrahamsen has art on display. There are also works by students from Branchville High School and Lockett Elementary, whose instructor is Lillie Dunning; Elloree Elementary, where art is taught by Mary Fogle; and William J. Clark, where award-winning students are taught by Melissa Wright. Robert E. Howard Middle students and their instructor, Tunisha Berry Summers, both have works in the exhibition. Jasmyne Wall, instructor at Edisto Primary, is showing her mixed media series, "Pray for Your City," as part of the students and teachers show.

This is an exhibition that not only the school district, but the entire county can be proud of, Glover noted. We hope that residents, especially our young people, join visitors coming to the Arts Center. Orangeburg County deserves to be recognized for fostering exceptional abilities in both the performing and visual arts. The Arts Center is dedicated to helping establish that reputation.

The students and teachers show is up until Friday, Aug. 19, 2022. The Arts Center, located at 649 Riverside Drive, Orangeburg, 29115, is open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Friday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tours by appointment can be arranged by calling 803-536-4074 or emailing Heather Rast at hrast@orangeburgarts.org.
The Regional Medical Center Board of Trustees met Thursday evening for nearly two hours behind closed doors to discuss the proposed partnership of the hospital with the Medical University of South Carolina.

"We discussed the proposed partnership with MUSC and solicited input from all members of the board," RMC Board Chair the Rev. Dr. Caesar Richburg said in a prepared statement following the meeting. "Specific questions were asked by the medical staff on the board as well as questions related to the transaction which were handled by our legal counsel."

"We are compiling a full list of questions and we will be meeting with county councils and MUSC in the coming weeks to negotiate and discuss the best partnership that will serve the needs of our beloved community with the resources of MUSC and the backing our legislative delegation," Richburg said.

There was no discussion of the matter in open session or action of the board prior to adjournment.

Prior to going into closed session, Richburg did inform trustees about a scheduled meeting with Orangeburg County Council in Council Chambers at 6:30 p.m. Monday following the regularly scheduled council meeting. Calhoun County Council is also to be part of the meeting.

A budget proviso passed by the S.C. General Assembly allows MUSC, within its own budget, to enter into the partnership with RMC with the intention to enhance services.

The proviso extends through June 30, 2023, and has the potential of extending for years to come depending on the nature and progress of the relationship between the two institutions.

The partnership would provide RMC with a number of resources, including clinical, educational and research programs with an aim at improving care and the financial outcomes of the hospital.

The proposal discussed would keep the RMC board in place for quality oversight, medical staff accreditation and community engagement while financial responsibility for RMC would fall under the MUSC board. All RMC employees would remain.

MUSC officials as well as Rep. Gilda-Cobb Hunter, D-Orangeburg, who spearheaded the budget-proviso process, propose entering into the partnership by the close of RMC's fiscal year Sept. 30.

Cobb-Hunter said the partnership with MUSC aims to help strengthen RMC's viability as a health care institution in the region.
Twelve Rowan University students headed to the Big Apple last month for the first in-person National Model United Nations (NMUN) conference in three years. They brought home a Distinguished Delegation award, the second highest honor presented to a participating team.

Each year, thousands of college students from the United States and around the globe participate in the NMUN conference, a simulation of United Nations proceedings. The Distinguished Delegation award was a particular honor for Rowan, which only began participating in the NMUN in 2019. COVID-19 canceled the 2020 conference, and the 2021 conference was held virtually.

Anushree Chauhan, a freshman political science major from Mount Royal, was named chair of the International Organization for Migration Committee at the conference after a highly competitive application and interview process. Chauhan is pictured at right with Rowan history professor Kelly Duke Bryant at an on-campus presentation by the group.

Intense preparation

The Model UN course associated with the event in the College of Humanities & Social Sciences requires intensive work as students prepare to portray delegation members.

Students spend the first eight or nine weeks of the semester working on learning as much as they can about the country that theyre representing, the issues of that countrys government, its priorities and also learning about how the United Nations functions, various rules of procedure and how it is structured, said Duke Bryant, International Studies and Area Studies coordinator. This years Rowan delegation represented Armenia during the New York City conference.

In addition to learning about the economics, international, cultural, political and foreign policy viewpoints of a country, students study the United Nations committees they are assigned to, said faculty advisor Maryella Hannum, who accompanied the students to the conference, along with Katrinka Somdahl, associate professor of political science.

She explained that students need to understand the history and mandate of the committee, the actions it has taken previously and its current agenda. Then, students research two complex global topics on the agenda and write a position paper for the course.

It is a monumental task to connect and integrate all of the information and write a position paper through the lens of their assigned country, Hannum said.

After submitting the position paper, delegates hone the skills they will use at the conference, such as public speaking, advocacy, rules of procedure, negotiation and collaboration to interact with delegates from other cultures with different viewpoints.

Engaging and interactive

During the simulation, students are expected to represent their assigned country without breaking character at any time, Duke Bryant noted.

While role playing a diplomat is challenging, the simulation itself is engaging and interactive, Hannum said. Students develop confidence in public speaking, substantive debate, bloc formation, negotiating, talking through complex problems and much more, she said. They also learn how the international community works to solve problems.

Students make meaningful friendships that will last a lifetime through an intensive learning experience, she said

Returning to an in-person conference this year, delegates better developed diplomacy and networking skills and learned to manage international relationships firsthand.

The in-person experience adds so much more to the deep learning that takes place by creating meaning through an increased ability to connect and integrate, Hannum said.

Students were eager to network with delegates from around the world and apply the knowledge and skills they developed in the classroom.

Having the opportunity to meet with others and have all that they have learned come together full force at the conference is an intensive and profound learning experience, Hannum said.

Rowans spring 2022 NMUN delegation was engaged and diligent at the conference, and their Distinguished Delegation award was well deserved after a semester of extensive preparation and learning.
The European Commission visited Luxembourg City on Wednesday in honour of the 70th anniversary of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

In 1952, the ECSC held its first meeting inside City Hall on Place Guillaume II. In the context of the anniversary, the European Commission visited the capital on Wednesday and held its weekly meeting in the same room inside City Hall.

After President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen was welcomed by Grand Duke Henri inside the Grand Ducal Palace, the Commission made its way to Place Guillaume II, walking past the big construction site to City Hall, where Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and Mayor of Luxembourg City Lydie Polfer were awaiting them. On the way, the President of the European Commission randomly met a school class from Mersch. The pupils accompanied the Commission members to City Hall, where they took a selfie with Bettel, von der Leyen, and Polfer.

A photo exhibition commemorating the 70th anniversary of the ECSC is currently on display in the lobby of City Hall. The pictures show the first meeting of the ECSC, which was founded after the Second World War to regulate the production of coal and steel in Europe. The ECSC also paved the way for an integration process, which culminated in the founding of the European Union in 1993. Prime Minister Xavier Bettel stressed that it should never be forgotten that Luxembourg was there from the very beginning, while Polfer added that it was the start of a big change.

The European Commission then held its meeting, which takes place every week but this time in the rather unusual setting of the municipal council's meeting room. The room was specially arranged to resemble the decor of the 1952 meeting.

After the meeting, a commemorative plaque was inaugurated and von der Leyen signed the Golden Book of Luxembourg City. The Prime Minister then invited the European guests to lunch before they will conclude their trip to Luxembourg with a stop at the European Court of Auditors.
Early voting has been underway for two weeks, and Natrona County residents are turning out.

Natrona County Clerk Tracy Good said her office is seeing more voters than normal during a non-presidential election.

It feels like were busier right off the bat, she said.

As of Friday morning, 446 people had voted at the clerks office. Elections officials have sent out roughly 1,500 mail ballots, getting 200 back so far.

In a non-presidential election year  also known as a midterm election  fewer voters typically turn out. Good partially attributes this years above normal turnout to some key races.

One of the most closely watched midterm races in the nation is taking place in Wyoming: Rep. Liz Cheneys reelection bid. Cheney is being challenged by Harriet Hageman, a natural resources attorney backed by former President Donald Trump.

For many, the race reflects their views on Trump, whom Cheney says is a threat to democracy and the rule of law. Cheneys opposition to Trump and his unfounded claims of voter fraud have resulted in increasing support from her among Democrats. Many Democrats and independents have told the Star-Tribune say they plan to cross over and vote for Cheney in the Republican primary.

In Wyoming, its easy to switch your party affiliation  even on the day of the primary  to vote in a different partys election. The practice is known as crossover voting.

Good says shes noticed a lot of party changes. Secretary of State data also indicates that many left-leaning Wyomingites are planning to cross over.

From January to July, the number of affiliated Democrats in the state decreased by 2,537. In 2018 and 2014  the previous two midterm election cycles  that number was only 21 and 177, respectively.

Independent registration also bucked previous trends. From January to July, independent (or unaffiliated) registration decreased by 419, whereas in the last two midterm election cycles it increased. In 2018, the number of independents grew by 332. In 2014, they increased by 512.

While the U.S. House race has national attention, there are some other hotly contested races on the state level, likely also contributing to the turnout. The superintendent of public instruction has a Republican field with a number of formidable candidates. Whats more, this seat was vacated by previous superintendent Jillian Balow, creating a more wide-open race. The position was filled by Brian Schroeder, presumably giving him a bit of a leg up in terms of name recognition.

This is the first major election following the 2020 presidential election, in which Trump and his allies sewed deep seeds of doubt about the security of the nations elections. But that message does not appear to have gained traction in Natrona County, at least as it pertains to the states elections, Good said.

We dont hear much negativity about voter fraud here in Wyoming.

This is the first major election in Wyoming since the Legislature passed a voter ID law. Opponents of this law have argued that it creates undue barriers on the process of voting. But in Natrona County, the law doesnt appear to be causing issues, Good said.

People are glad that were asking for ID to vote, she said. No one seems to have any heartburn about that.

The following forms of ID are acceptable:

WY drivers license or ID Card;

tribal ID card;

valid U.S. passport;

U.S. military card;

drivers license or ID card from another state;

University of Wyoming student ID;

Wyoming community college student ID;

Wyoming public school student ID

Valid Medicare insurance card;

Valid Medicaid insurance card.

If you do not have one of the listed documents, you may obtain a free Wyoming identification card from the local driver services office. If you are not registered yet, you will also need a valid form of ID to register (this is not a new law in Wyoming).
A COVID-19 outbreak continues to impact Wyomings state prison in Torrington.

On July 5, the facility found 162 cases of the coronavirus among people incarcerated at the Wyoming Medium Correctional Institution. Thats a quarter of the prisons population.

Another 20 employees also tested positive when the entire prison was tested, according to Department of Corrections spokesperson Paul Martin.

This week, testing found another 59 cases in the facility, eight of those among staff.

That means that one in three people incarcerated at the medium-security prison have tested positive in a two-week span.

The majority of cases have not been serious or even symptomatic, Martin said. Those who do have symptoms and need medication can be treated with molnupiravir, an antiviral pill similar to paxlovid.

It is given as soon as possible after diagnosis and within 5 days of symptom onset, Martin said.

No inmates have needed to be taken outside the facility for COVID treatment during this latest outbreak, Martin said Wednesday.

The prison remains in the DOCs red zone, meaning transmission is high. Positive inmates have been put into isolation, anyone inside the facility must wear a mask, recreation and in-person visitation are on pause and all meals are being taken in living units instead of dining halls. Phone and video visits are still happening on a limited basis, though inmates are reportedly limited to one 30-minute phone call per day.

The other four Wyoming state prisons, all less populous than WMCI, are still in the lowest transmission level, according to the DOC, and have not reported testing results in months. Staff at the central office in Cheyenne have recently returned to wearing masks at work.

Martin said there was no testing done in Torrington for the past couple months, but that the most recent round of COVID tests was likely spurred by an uptick in people reporting sickness.

It is important to remember that an individual can test positive for up to 90 days following exposure, Martin said in an email earlier this week. It is very possible that many/most of these (in Torrington) were exposed in the past 90 days.

The outbreak has also put a strain on Torringtons staff, which already has 17 vacancies. Around 300 people work at the facility, roughly 200 of them in security. To make sure security posts stay fully staffed, Martin said, other employees have been working overtime.

Testing could resume at other facilities if transmission levels in the surrounding communities  Lusk, Riverton, Newcastle and Rawlins  are on the rise.

The DOC is assuming, based on research by the state department of health, that the omicron variant remains dominant in Wyoming.

The Torrington facility reported the most COVID-19 spread during the first two years of the pandemic, though the virus arrived later in Wyoming prisons than it did in most other parts of the country.

In May, a smaller outbreak was found at the Wyoming Womens Center in Lusk, where around 46 cases were found during a month-long lockdown.

To date, nine people have reportedly died in Wyoming prisons due to COVID-19. The most recent death was reported in March.
Former President Donald Trumps pick to unseat Rep. Liz Cheney in the race for Wyomings lone House seat holds a commanding 22-point lead with a month until the primary, a new Casper Star-Tribune poll shows.

Natural resources attorney Harriet Hageman leads Cheney 52% to 30%, the poll shows. No other challenger received more than 5% support. Only 11% of voters were undecided.

The poll, conducted for the Star-Tribune by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy, surveyed 1,100 registered Wyoming voters likely to participate in the primary, resulting in a margin of error of plus or minus 3%, according to Brad Coker, Mason-Dixon managing director.

While the Cheney-Hageman race is one of the nations most closely watched, this is the first independent, public, in-state poll to be conducted. It was performed from July 7 to July 11  shortly after early voting began here.

The big story is Liz Cheney is going to get beat, said Coker. Thats a foregone conclusion.

Cheneys vote to impeach the former president after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and her relentless criticism of Trump as a threat to democracy and the rule of law have spurred the toughest reelection fight of her career. In September, Trump selected Hageman from several challengers as his pick to take on Cheney, one of his biggest political enemies.

In past elections, Cheney has handily beat her primary opponent. And given that Wyoming is one of the nations most conservative states, the Republican House nominee often coasts to victory in the general election. But the Wyoming Republican Party has turned on Cheney, censuring her soon after Trumps impeachment and voting last fall to no longer recognize her as a member of the GOP.

Among those polled, only 27% approved of Cheneys job performance. Two-thirds disapproved, with 7% saying they were not sure. Men were especially critical of Cheneys performance: Only one in five approved of the job shes doing.

Those results track with interviews conducted by the Star-Tribune this summer. The congresswomans critics say shes too distracted by her service on the House Jan. 6 committee and her battles with Trump to properly serve the state, and the poll found 54% of voters were less likely to support her because shes part of the panel investigating the attack on the Capitol.

Cheney critics complain that she rarely visits, with many of them calling her a RINO (Republican in name only) as they air their grievances. Voters also called her a carpetbagger, an insult shes been hit with since she moved to the state in 2012, a year before her unsuccessful bid for U.S. Senate.

Liz Cheney betrayed President Trump, said Mark Hladik, whos lived in Wyoming for 42 years. Ninety-nine point nine percent pure RINO.

Hladik is a Trump backer, but said the former presidents endorsement of Hageman didnt influence his choice.

Travis Van Hecke, a Casper City Council candidate, thinks its time for someone different, adding that he wouldve voted for almost anyone who ran against Cheney.

This race is more about Liz Cheney than it is about Donald Trump, Coker said. Anybody whos credible, who ran to the right of Liz Cheney would probably win this race  with or without Donald Trump.

More poll analysis The Casper Star-Tribune is planning a series of stories tied to its recent poll of likely voters in Wyoming's Republican primary. Today: Hageman takes a commanding lead

Hageman takes a commanding lead Sunday: Many Democrats are supporting Cheney

Many Democrats are supporting Cheney Wednesday: The impact of Donald Trump on Wyoming's House race

The impact of Donald Trump on Wyoming's House race Thursday: Voters and Jan. 6

Voters and Jan. 6 Friday: A demographic breakdown of the race

Many of those interviewed, including Hladik and Van Hecke, voted for the congresswoman in the past, including as recently as 2020. But that past support no longer matters.

Once a politician gets to a certain point, theres a point of no return, Coker said.

Still, Cheneys opposition to the former president has earned her some backing. John Strong, a 67-year-old Casper Republican whos lived nearly his entire life in Wyoming, said many who plan to vote for Cheney commend her for standing up to Trump.

This time around, its not just Republicans who are participating in the GOP primary. Many Democrats and independents plan to take advantage of Wyomings same-day voter registration and party-affiliation changes to vote for Cheney.

According to figures from the Wyoming Secretary of State, the number of registered Democrats and independents in Wyoming has dropped considerably more from January through July of this year than in previous midterm elections.

Cheney has a 53% job approval rating with Democrats who planned to vote in the Republican primary, the poll shows. Her approval rating among independents who plan to vote Republican in August is 29%.

Many crossover voters who intend to support Cheney cite her resolve in fighting back against Trumps attempts to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election.

This is a straight value question. And the question is whether youre on board with democracy or not, said Jane Ifland, a two-time Democratic candidate for statehouse and a pro-abortion activist whos lived in Casper since 1980.

I just cant believe it, she said. Ive never registered Republican in my life.

But because of the relatively small number of Democrats in Wyoming, crossover voting is unlikely to make a difference, the poll shows. While 69% of registered Democrats who plan to participate in the GOP primary are supporting Cheney, that level of support still leaves her trailing Hageman by a wide margin.

Before jumping into the race with Trumps endorsement in tow, Hageman, a well-known attorney, ran for governor in 2018 and finished third with 21% of the vote. She was born and raised on a family ranch outside of Fort Laramie and attended the University of Wyoming for undergraduate and law school.

Just over half of all primary voters have a favorable opinion of Hageman, the poll shows. Among registered GOP voters, the number is higher  at 57%.

Cheney and Hageman used to be friendly, something that Cheney plastered on a billboard on a major highway coming into Casper this spring.

Hageman: Liz Cheney is a Proven, Courageous Constitutional Conservative. Thanks, Harriet, the billboard says next to a picture of the two women smiling together.

Since joining the race, Hageman has pushed the narrative that Cheney is too distracted by her fights with Trump to properly serve Wyoming. She also frequently touts her history of fighting the federal government in court.

Until the last couple months, Cheney rarely campaigned, despite having millions of dollars in the bank. In roughly the last month, however, Cheney has put out three TV ads and multiple mailers. Hageman has put out mailers, but has focused on her ground game, often appearing at local events and holding town halls. While Cheney participated in the latest Jan. 6 hearing, Hageman walked in Caspers annual summer parade on Tuesday.

Cheney and Hageman are the highest-profile candidates in the race, but there are others. State Sen. Anthony Bouchard, R-Burns, garnered 5% support. Bouchard was the first to challenge Cheney, but his campaign faltered after he admitted in May 2021 that he impregnated a 14-year-old girl when he was 18. Small business owner Robyn Belinskey and retired army colonel Denton Knapp each polled at 1%.
Trinidad and Tobago NGL Ltd (TTNGL) yesterday reported after-tax profit of $117.5 million for the six months ended June 30, 2022, which represents a 40.6 per cent increase compared to the $83.6 million the producer of cooking gas and natural gasoline recorded for the same period in 2021.

Directors of TTNGL said the company continues to post a solid financial performance for 2022.
For Astor50th Anniversary is the title of a series of performances in celebration of The Astor Johnson Repertory Dance Theatres (AJRDT) 50 years of existence and also in memory of the late dancer.

The shows, put on by AJRDT dancers at Queens Hall, St Anns, will run from September 16 to 19. A school show is planned for September 16 from 10 a.m., a gala performance night on September 17 from 6 p.m. and a performance night on September 18, 2022, from 7 p.m.
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.
Summary: TWO men were shot and killed in separate incidents on Sunday night and yesterday morning with one murder in Laventille and the other in Petit Valley, Diego Martin.
One month before his passing on May 6, 2001 the artist Carlisle Chang relived with relish th
WASHINGTON (AP)  The House has voted to restore abortion rights nationwide in Democrats' first legislative response to the Supreme Court's landmark decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

The bill has little chance of becoming law, with the necessary support lacking in the 50-50 Senate. Yet voting marks the beginning of a new era in the debate as lawmakers, governors and legislatures grapple with the impact of the court's decision.

The legislation passed 219-210. The House also passed a second bill to prohibit punishment for a woman or child who decides to travel to another state to get an abortion, 223-205.

"Just three weeks ago the Supreme Court took a wrecking ball to the fundamental rights by overturning Roe v. Wade," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ahead of the votes, gathering with other Democratic women on the steps of the Capitol. "It is outrageous that 50 years later, women must again fight for our most basic rights against an extremist court."

Republicans spoke forcefully against the two bills, praising the Supreme Court's decision and warning that the legislation would go further than Roe ever did when it comes to legalizing abortion.

Urging her colleagues to vote no, Washington GOP Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers called abortion "the greatest human rights issue of our generation."

She said the Democratic legislation "has nothing to do with protecting the health of women. It has everything to do with forcing an extreme agenda on the American people."

By overturning Roe, the court has allowed states to enact strict abortion limits, including many that had previously been deemed unconstitutional. The ruling is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

Already, a number of GOP-controlled states have moved quickly to curtail or outlaw abortion, while states controlled by Democrats have sought to champion access. Voters now rank abortion as among the most pressing issues facing the country, a shift in priorities that Democrats hope will reshape the political landscape in their favor for the midterm elections.

This is the second time the House has passed the bill, which would expand on the protections Roe had previously provided by banning what supporters say are medically unnecessary restrictions that block access to safe and accessible abortions. It would prevent abortion bans earlier than 24 weeks, which is when fetal viability, the ability of a human fetus to survive outside the uterus, is generally thought to begin. It allows exceptions for abortions after fetal viability when a provider determines the life or health of the mother is at risk.

The Democrats' proposal would also prevent states from requiring providers to share "medically inaccurate" information, or from requiring additional tests or waiting periods, often aimed at dissuading a patient from having an abortion.

The bill that would prohibit punishment for traveling out of state would specify that doctors can't be punished for providing reproductive care outside their home state. Democratic Rep. Lizzie Fletcher of Texas, one of the bill's authors, said the threats to travel "fail to reflect the fundamental rights that are granted in our Constitution."

Democrats have highlighted the case of a 10-year-old girl who had to cross state lines into Indiana to get an abortion after being raped, calling it an example of how the court's decision is already having severe consequences.

"We don't have to imagine why this might matter. We don't need to conjure up hypotheticals. We already know what's happened," Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Thursday on the Senate floor.

"Should the next little 10-year-old's right or 12-year-old's right or 14-year-old's right to get the care that she desperately needs be put in jeopardy?"

The Constitution doesn't explicitly say travel between states is a right, though the Supreme Court has said it is a right that "has been firmly established and repeatedly recognized." Yet the court has never said exactly where the right to travel comes from and that could leave it open to challenge or elimination, as the right to an abortion was.

Democrats have teed up more bills for passage in the coming weeks. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Friday that the House will vote next week on legislation guaranteeing a right to contraception.

Only two Senate Republicans, Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, have been supportive of abortion rights, but they do not support the Democrats' proposal, calling it too far-reaching. They have introduced alternative legislation that would bar states from placing an "undue burden" on a woman's ability to obtain an abortion before fetal viability, among other provisions.

When pressed Thursday on whether Democrats should work with the two senators, Pelosi pushed back, "We're not going to negotiate a woman's right to choose."

Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee has already launched a digital ad campaign to energize voters on the issue, warning that Republicans' ultimate goal is to outlaw abortion nationwide.
PHOENIX  Mental health emergencies in the United States havent gotten the attention and support they require, resulting in increased suicide rates over past decades, particularly among teens, young adults and people of color.

Enter 988  the federally mandated dialing code used to connect those in need to 24/7 suicide prevention services. A call or text to the number links individuals with trained counselors who are part of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline network.

The Federal Communications Commission requires phone providers to make 988 accessible by Saturday, July 16. The Lifeline networks number (1-800-273-8255) will remain in operation, but the idea is to provide an easy-to-remember and faster way to get help.

The 988 lifeline  will help thousands of people overcome crisis situations every day, and it will serve as a universal entry point so that no matter where you live, you can reach a trained crisis counselor who could help, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said at a pre-rollout forum in May.

The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, or AHCCCS, is responsible for launching 988 in the state. An advisory committee has been assembled to guide implementation and ensure the new system meets the needs of Arizonans.

Last year, the state received a $135,000 award for planning; an additional $1.9 million grant will help the state recruit, hire and train additional 988 counselors.

One goal of the new hotline is to reduce interactions between those experiencing a mental health crisis and police, who often are dispatched to handle such situations. A study this year by the Vera Institute of Justice examined 911 calls in nine U.S. cities, including Tucson, and found about 19% involved behavioral health situations.

If trained properly, 911 dispatchers could transfer crisis calls to 988. Callers then would be connected to counselors who can provide support and resources, such as access to mobile mental health crisis teams, outpatient follow-up care, therapeutic interventions and more.

Mental health professionals are there from beginning to end, said Benjamin Miller, president of Well Being Trust, a national foundation working to advance the mental, social and spiritual health of individuals. Thats a totally different process than what happens when you call 911.

Research shows that people with untreated mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed during a police encounter.

Ideally, the person answering the phone (via 988) is trained to handle mental health crises, Miller said. They know what to say to de-escalate, they know what to say to calm and what to say to help the individual figure out what their next steps might be.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which covers the nation with a network of more than 200 crisis centers, has received over 20 million calls since 2005. In 2020, the last year for which data are available, almost 43,000 of the 2.4 million calls were from people in Arizona. Calls to Lifeline from the state have increased 86% since 2016.

Federal officials predict that 988 could receive up to 7.6 million calls in the first year  requiring $560 million in funding to expand local and state call centers and increase training.

But longer-term funding remains a question.

So far, 21 states have enacted legislation related to 988, with several appropriating tax dollars or adding telecommunications fees to pay for services, according to the nonpartisan National Academy for State Health Policy.

There has been no proposed telecom fee in Arizona, however, and no increase in state funding to support the 988 hotline, according to AHCCCS spokeswoman Heidi Capriotti, who said the agency will further develop financial sustainability plans as 988 evolves.

Experts say more states need to take action to secure funding for years to come.

If we want 988 to live up to its potential, it needs to be properly funded in every state, said Molly Candon, a health economist at the University of Pennsylvania.

In 2020, Arizona spent about $158 million on crisis services, including 911, through a combination of federal funds and money from the state general fund. In addition to the new 988 line, 23 other crisis lines operating in the state will be consolidated into a single statewide 800 number by October.

Beyond funding, some advocates question whether states have enough resources and counselors in place to support 988. One concern is a lack of mental health specialists trained to work with people of different races and ethnicities, or with LBGTQ people.

Among racial and ethnic groups, Native Americans have the highest suicide rates in the nation. Suicide is also a growing crisis in the LGBTQ community; about 45% of LGBTQ youth considered attempting suicide in the past year, according to a survey this year by The Trevor Project, a national organization fighting suicide among LGBTQ youth.

Federal officials have partnered with The Trevor Project on 988 implementation and are developing training resources to help crisis counselors work with other high-risk populations, including Native Americans, Black youth and people in rural areas.

Cultural competency is a core part of the 988 legislation, Candon said. Having a shared, lived experience with counselors can be incredibly powerful.

More than a helpline, 988 is an opportunity to rethink approaches to mental health, substance use disorders and suicide prevention, Candon said, including expanding the reach of mobile crisis response teams or opening urgent care facilities that specialize in behavioral health.
WASHINGTON  Republican senators grilled Arizona attorney Roopali Desai, a nominee to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, over her history of working for progressive causes and her work fighting claims of 2020 election fraud.

Many were like Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C, who voiced concerns during the Senate Judiciary Committees confirmation hearing Wednesday for Desai about her ability to be an impartial judge after her work in an area of the law that really requires you to wear a jersey for one side or the other.

Desai, who would be the first South Asian to serve on the circuit if confirmed, repeatedly told senators that while she has worked as an advocate, as a judge she would be committed to the rule of law and to implementing the Supreme Courts precedent.

I am committed to following the law objectively and without interjection of any of my personal or political views in any case that is presented before me if I am so fortunate to be confirmed, Desai told the committee.

While she acknowledged that some of my clients have been affiliated with Democratic causes, she has also represented large corporations, Fortune 500 companies and the government.

Desai was nominated by President Joe Biden in June to fill the Arizona seat on the circuit court that is being vacated by Judge Andrew Hurwitz. Its the seat that was held previously by Judge Mary Schroeder, the first female chief judge in the circuit for whom Desai once clerked.

The 9th Circuit is the largest in the nation, handling appeals from 15 federal districts, ranging from Arizona to Montana, Alaska to Guam, and all the states and territories in between.

The daughter of South Asian immigrants, Desai was born in Toronto but grew up in Glendale and received her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Arizona. She is currently a partner at Coppersmith Brockelman in Phoenix, which specializes in civil litigation, civil appeals and political law.

She has won several awards for her work as a litigator, and was named one of USA Todays 12 Women of the Year for 2022, alongside gymnast Simone Biles and Vice President Kamala Harris.

In introducing Desai on Wednesday, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., called her one of the most experienced and respected lawyers and litigators in the state. She noted that statements of support have come from groups representing civil rights and human rights law to groups representing police and firefighters.

One letter of support came from Alexander Kolodin, an attorney who opposed Desai in lawsuits challenging the 2020 election results and the state Senates much-maligned audit of that election.

Having faced the very best litigators the other side has to offer, I can tell you with confidence  nobody else holds a candle to Ms. Desai, wrote Kolodin, who said he had seen her advocated for clients by making originalist arguments that might have come from Justice (Clarence) Thomas pen.

But Desais involvement in the election lawsuits was just one of the issues senators wanted to ask her about Wednesday.

Desai defended Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs in a case brought by voting rights groups that tried to force later registration deadlines during the COVID-19 pandemic. She also represented Hobbs after former President Donald Trumps campaign sued the secretary of state, the Maricopa County recorder and others, claiming fraud in Maricopa County during the 2020 election. The claims were eventually dropped.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, burrowed in on Desais brief supporting the Democratic National Committee in Brnovich v. DNC, a case in which the U.S. Supreme Court last year upheld Arizonas ban on ballot-collection by third parties. Desais brief argued that bans on ballot harvesting suppress the vote of minority groups, a position Cruz challenged citing a 2005 report by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Bakers that called mail-in ballots the largest source of potential voter fraud.

Desai told Cruz only that if confirmed as a judge she would be committed to the rule of law and to implementing the Supreme Courts precedent.

She gave essentially the same answer to Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, when he questioned her about her support for a Phoenix law that would have forced a calligraphy and stationery business to produce wedding invitations for same-sex couples. The owners of Brush & Nib Studio claimed that the law violated what Lee called the owners sincerely held religious beliefs. The Arizona Supreme Court ruled in the companys favor in 2019.

When pressed by Lee, Desai again said that she would faithfully and fully apply the precedent of the United States Supreme Court in the 9th Circuit as a judge.

Republicans seemed more concerned by Desais advocacy, which includes service for the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Cannabis Rountable and Just Communities Arizona, which seeks to end mass incarceration. Cruz noted that she is on the board of Save Our Schools, which advocates against school vouchers  something Cruz supports.

As an American you have the right to express your First Amendment rights, Cruz said. Your job as a judge is different.

Its one area where the two agreed: Desai said that the roles of judge and advocate are starkly different and she would respect that difference.

Not all the questioning was tough, however. Some of it was not even questioning: Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., prefaced his remarks by telling Desai and another nominee that you can rest, because I just want to talk to you for a few minutes, I dont have any questions.
Prescott Valley officials expect crowds when former President Donald Trump brings his Save America PAC to a political rally there on July 22.

What they dont expect is payment: Prescott Valley  like Phoenix before it  says police protection is just part of what cities do, and they do not bill for it.

A spokesperson for Prescott Valley confirmed this week that the town will provide the police and traffic control coverage normal to any large event in the community, but that other costs related to the use of Findlay Toyota Center are handled by an outside management company.

Thats not the position that was taken by Mesa and Tucson, which sent bills totaling more than $146,000 of services for Trump rallies in 2016 and 2018, bills that were never paid.

The mayor and council wanted to protect the communitys taxpayers from the really exorbitant amount of security costs related to these events, said Lane Mandle, chief of staff to the Tucson city manager, of the March 2016 campaign event staged by Trump who was a candidate for president at the time.

The Prescott Valley rally was originally set for July 16 but Trump postponed it on Friday, citing the death of his first wife, Ivana.

The rally now is set to occur at 7 p.m. Friday, July 22.

Trump wont be appearing as a candidate there, but will instead rally support for the Republican candidates he has endorsed in Arizona. Those include gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, Senate hopeful Blake Masters and secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem, among others.

It is being organized by his Save America Political Action Committee, ahead of Arizonas Aug. 2 primary elections. Its not clear how many people will turn out for the event at the 6,000-seat arena.

When then-candidate Trump appeared in Tucson in 2016, city officials deployed 180 police officers inside and outside the Tucson Arena at an estimated cost of $81,000, which was charged to the Trump campaign. That bill remains unpaid.

Trump was president when he appeared at an October 2018 Trump  Make America Great Again rally at the Mesa-Gateway Airport. Mesa said it does not bill for presidential security, but it did try to recoup public safety costs for such things as crowd and traffic control at events.

The city sent the Trump campaign a bill for more than $64,000, which included costs for barricades, security and towing. The bill was not paid, and Mesa officials later said the campaign is not legally obligated to cover the costs.

That argument has been used by Trumps campaign and others. Tucson officials said they also tried to bill the campaign of 2016 Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, but never collected.

The rationale for non-payment by both Trump and Sanders was that their campaigns never agreed to nor were obligated to pay for police protection at the Tucson Convention Center as part of their licensing agreements, and they did not request special services from police outside the center.

Trumps campaign also said that it was frustrated by the refusal of Tucson Police to do anything to control the violent and angry protestors outside of the convention center.

After several unsuccessful collection attempts, Tucson gave up.

Ultimately the city determined that we would be unlikely to prevail on any legal action to collect the money so we stopped trying to collect on that, Mandle said.

Tucson and Mesa are not alone. The Center for Public Integrity in 2019 identified eight other cities across the country that it said were trying to claim a total of about $700,000 from the Trump campaign.

But other cities see the cost of public safety services as part of a community benefit. That includes Phoenix, which has hosted Trump rallies in the past but has not billed for public safety expenses.

Anytime there is a large-scale event in Phoenix, the city takes an all-hands-on-deck approach and our priority is the continuity of service to our customers and the safety and security of all residents and visitors within the community, said city spokesperson Dan Wilson.

The Federal Election Commission confirmed that there is no requirement for congressional or presidential campaign committees to pay for expenses incurred by a state or local municipality in connection with a federal officeholders or candidates campaign event. If candidates do foot the bill, they are allowed to use campaign funds to pay security costs, the FEC said.

Mandel said that due to the experience of not getting paid by either campaign for the 2016 rallies, Tucson has since changed the licensing agreement and policy for its convention center. Not only are event organizers responsible for all costs including security costs to use the convention center, they now must pay the costs in advance to be given access to the facility.
Nattha and Eric Post have a passion for cooking.

So its only appropriate that the husband-wife duo decided to open their own restaurant, housed in the former Peking Palace on Tucsons east side.

On social media, the restaurant said Peking Palace was now under new ownership as Nattha's Bann Thai Asian, with a menu featuring some Peking Palace favorites, in addition to dishes of their own.

Natthas Bann Thai Asian, located at 6970 E. 22nd St., opened around June and serves up Thai and Cantonese dishes from mussaman curry to Pad Thai.

If you're wondering why the eatery decided on serving both Thai and Chinese cuisines, the website sums it up, describing the history of a southern migration and a current Thailand population where about 15% of people are Chinese.

At Nattha's Thai Asian House, we bring to you the best of both worlds, the website says.

According to a press release, Nattha is from Thailand, where she learned to cook and went to school for human resources. Eric is a Tucson native who learned to cook from his Italian mother. He worked at a pizzeria early in his career, before becoming a helicopter pilot and mechanic and later an attorney. They have both attended cooking schools in Thailand, the press release says.

Register for more free articles. Log in Sign up

Natthas Bann Thai Asian is a labor of love and an opportunity for us to invite the dining community in to taste the result of our passion for and dedication to serving authentic Asian cuisine that is approachable and delicious, Eric said in the press release. We want people to enjoy the experience of trying new things but also feel comfortable eating the familiar dishes they love.

Natthas Bann Thai Asian

Hours: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Closed Sunday.

Location: 6970 E. 22nd St.

Price: Entrees range from around $12.95 to $14.95.

Visit the website for more information.
Tucsonans love to thrift just about everything. From new-to-you clothing to home decor and kitchen appliances, our local thrift stores have a little something for everyone.

So, whether youre shopping used to save money or to help the planet, Tucson has plenty of thrift shops to choose from. Here is our mega list of locally-owned and nationally-run thrift shops around the city (in alphabetical order).

Important note: Each shop has different operating hours, so we recommend double-checking their hours before heading out on a shopping spree. Happy thrifting!

Assistance League of Tucson

1307 N. Alvernon Way

The Assistance League of Tucson has plenty of home decor, housewares and typical thrift shop odds and ends. You can check out their inventory online, purchase an item (or items) and do in-person pickup in case you dont want to spend a few hours digging through products.

Blessingdales Thrift Stores

4817 E. Speedway and 2621 N. Oracle Road

Sales from the Blessingdales Thrift Stores of Tucson benefit the programs at Teen Challenge of Arizona. There are currently two locations in Tucson, including one on Oracle Road and one on Speedway.

Bringing Out The Best Thrift Store Boutique

5320 E. Speedway

This thrift shop recently opened in the former SAS Fabrics building on Speedway. You can find clothing, home decor, furniture and more at this thrift shop boutique.

Buffalo Exchange

2001 E. Speedway

Although Buffalo Exchange currently has around 40 locations across the U.S., the clothing and accessory resale store started right here in Tucson in the 1970s. Here, you can buy, sell and trade clothing, shoes and more. This secondhand shop has been a Tucson staple for over 45 years and counting.

Christian Family Care Thrift Store

7667 E. Speedway

This thrift shop offers secondhand clothing, furniture and household items. The sales from the store help serve at-risk children and families in the Tucson community, their website says. They also offer a 50% off sale on the first Saturday of every month!

Cotton Blossom

5224 W. Dove Mountain Centre Road

The Cotton Blossom thrift shop in Marana is associated with MHC Healthcare. The shop offers high quality, gently-used merchandise at great prices, with their proceeds going toward families and individuals in need, according to their website.

DaZees

231 W. Duval Road, Green Valley

This volunteer-run resale boutique offers blouses, dresses, jewelry, handbags and even some formal wear for women and men. The proceeds from the shop benefit the Hands of a Friend foundation which helps women and their children who have suffered from domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, and elder abuse, according to their website.

Deseret Industries Thrift Store and Donation Center

3850 W. Orange Grove Road

Deseret Industries Thrift Store and Donation Center moved to its new location on Orange Grove Road this year after operating out of its previous location near downtown for 25 years. The store has around 15,000 square feet of thrifty goodness.

Elsas Closet Thrift Store

3553 S. 12th Ave.

Find used appliances, furniture, home decor, clothing and more at this local thrift store. You can find this thrift store across the street from Pueblo High School.

Family Bargain Thrift Shop

329 E. Grant Road

This thrift shop is a recent addition to Tucsons thrifting scene as it opened last year. They offer furniture, home decor and antiques!

Golden Goose Thrift Shop

15970 N. Oracle Road, Catalina

The Golden Goose Thrift Shop has been around for nearly two decades. Find home goods, kitchen items, art, collectibles and more at this thrift shop. All profits benefit the SaddleBrooke Community Outreach and IMPACT of Southern Arizona organizations.

Goodwill of Southern Arizona

Various locations throughout Tucson

This list wouldnt be complete without mentioning Goodwill of Southern Arizona. There are currently 13 Goodwill of Southern Arizona thrift stores and donation centers around the city. (This doesnt include the Goodwills that are only donation centers.) Whats the most unique item youve found at a Goodwill store?

Good Threads Boutique by Goodwill

7366 N. Oracle Road

Did you know that Goodwill has a shop specializing in secondhand high-end clothing and accessories, too? Check out this Goodwill boutique on Oracle Road.

Great Things Thrift Store

4140 W. Ina Road

You can find clothing for all ages, toys, dinnerware and more at this Arizona-based thrift store. The shop aims to help alleviate the high costs of childcare items without sacrificing the quality.

HabiStore

935 W. Grant Road

The Habitat for Humanity store offers used appliances, furniture, home items and even new building materials. The sales from this thrift store help fund home building and repair projects in our community, according to their website.

Humane Society of Southern Arizona Thrift Store

1010 S. Wilmot Road

Find furniture, clothing, kitchen items and more at the HSSA Thrift Store located at its new home near 22nd Street and Wilmot Road. Plus, you can check out local adoptable pets from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays!

InJoy Thrift Stores

250 N. Pantano Road

When we say this place is huge, we mean it. Theres plenty of space to find the perfect houseware item, T-shirt, toy and even a wedding dress at this thrift store.

Just Cause Thrift Shop

2554 N. Stone Ave.

Register for more free articles. Log in Sign up

You never know what you might find at this tiny hole-in-the-wall thrift shop on Stone Avenue. They have a selection of dinnerware items, home decor and furniture, plus many other oddities.

Las Dos CoMadres Thrift Shop

2002 S. Fourth Ave.

Find womens clothing and accessories at this South Tucson thrift shop. They also offer a variety of home items such as cookie jars, plates and framed artwork.

Little Bird Nesting Company

4508 E. Broadway

Of course, we couldnt forget the babies and kiddos in your life! This shop offers gently-used clothing, accessories, toys and other childcare items.

Platos Closet

5616 E. Broadway and 7306 N. Oracle Road

Like some of the other shops on this list, Platos Closet isnt Tucson-based and has locations across the U.S. But despite its national status, you can find clothes for all seasons in all sizes for a respectable price.

Resale Ranch

5151 N. Oracle Road

Resale Ranch is a secondhand shop that sells household items, furniture, tools, jewelry and more. The shop is located on Oracle Road north of River Road and does estate clean-outs and donation pick-ups. Resale Ranch will be moving locations to the Santa Marana Christmas Tree Ranch in early September. Their last day at the Oracle location will be Aug. 10.

ReThreads Thrift

66 E. Pennington St.

Find some new threads (get it?) at this shop dedicated to breaking down the stigmas of mental illness. Many of the clothes featured at this shop are donated from Buffalo Exchange!

Safe Shift Estate Sale Store

2801 E. Grant Road

This local estate sale store may only be open three days a month, but its 8,500-square-foot location offers plenty of space to find used furniture, home decor, accessories and more. The funds raised help benefit local firefighters and first responders through the Greater Tucson Fire Foundation, according to their website.

Savers

5845 E. Broadway

OK, OK, Savers doesnt have local ties, but they do support Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Arizona, according to their website. Savers is a great place to find clothes, old movies, books and more. Plus, they pull out all the stops during Halloween time, with a large DIY costume section for those ballin on a budget.

Salpointe Thrift and Gift Shop

1705 E. Fort Lowell Road

Yes, the Salpointe Thrift and Gift Shop has ties with Salpointe Catholic High School. Proceeds from the shops sales, which average around $30,000 a year, benefit the high school, according to their website.

Speedway Outlet

5421 E. Speedway

This thrift store says they add thousands of new items to their inventory daily. So even if you strike out the day you shop, you can always try again the next day or the day after that or the day after that  you get the idea.

St. Vincent de Paul of Southern Arizona Thrift Stores

820 S. Sixth Ave. and 5426 E. Pima St.

Try your thrifting luck at this thrift stores two locations in Tucson. St. Vincent de Paul of Southern Arizona hopes to help the community by assisting with clothing, food, furniture and even rent and utility assistance, according to their website.

Sweet Repeats Childrens Resale Boutique

7936 N. Oracle Road

Sweet Repeats is a childrens resale boutique located in Oro Valley. They offer gently-used childrens items from clothing, toys, books, baby equipment and more. The shop also offers trade or sell options, but you need to book an appointment for those options.

Teal Saguaro

2260 N. Rosemont Blvd.

This resale boutique directly supports Tucson Medical Center. Funds raised go back into the hospital. You can find clothing, kids' items, small appliances and more at this locally-run thrift shop.

The Girls Estate Sales

330 S. Wilmot Road

The Girls Estate Sales is a great place to find home decor, furniture, collectibles and more. They offer an ever-changing inventory, so youll always find something new at this shop.

Treasures & More

5527 E. Pima St.

This thrift shop sells used furniture, clothing and other household items. Located on Tucsons east side near Pima Street and Craycroft Road, all of the proceeds benefit the Miracle Center and GAP Ministries programs that help those struggling from addiction reclaim their lives, their website states.

Tucson Thrift Shop

319 N. Fourth Ave.

Tucson Thrift Shop is the go-to place for unique vintage clothing and accessories. And, of course, for all of your DIY costume needs! The shop has been a staple on Fourth Avenue for years.

Twice As Nice

7333 E. Broadway

Find your next outfit at Twice As Nice, a secondhand clothing and accessories thrift shop on Tucsons east side. You can occasionally find toys at this shop, too!

Wendy's Collection Boutique

5851 E. Speedway

This local thrift shop is associated with the local nonprofit Women Warriors, which supports female veterans. You can find clothing, shoes and accessories at this shop located on Speedway.

White Elephant

601 N. La Canada Dr., Green Valley

The White Elephant Thrift Store has been in Southern Arizona since 1964. The shop features clothing, electronics, home decor, furniture, movies and more. Note: Cash or personal check (with ID) are the only accepted payment methods.

The local thrifting scene is constantly changing. Have a new favorite thrift shop you recently discovered? Did an old favorite recently close up shop? Send me an email at everdugo@tucson.com to let me know, so we can keep this list updated. 
Walmart recently announced it will sell items from four Oklahoma start-up companies, including one that makes products in Tulsa.

More than 1,000 business owners across the nation participated in Walmarts annual Open Call event for the chance to hawk their products in stores or online through the nations largest retailer.

Of 330 businesses that advanced through the final round, four hailed from the Sooner State. They are Bethany-based TBK Industries, which sells Kooler Kube and Kooler Gel, Oklahoma City-based UltraPet-Curcumin, Muldrow-based Dig Defence Small/Medium Animal Barrier and Lone Grove-based Screws Southern Soda.

TBKs co-founders are Steve and Helen Glass and their Kooler products, which are made in Tulsa, are the only ones of the four companies that will be sold in-store in Walmart. The other three will either be featured in Walmart Marketplace or on Walmart.com.

The Kooler items are designed to make ice last up to 50% longer. They are expected to hit Walmart shelves in the spring.

Its a dream come true, Helen Glass said in a statement. Were so excited to join the Walmart family and see our products in stores. Its a testament to the hard work weve poured into our business.

In 2013, Walmart pledged to spend $250 billion over 10 years on products made, grown or assembled in the United States, a milestone the company recently announced that it had reached. Last year, Walmart committed to invest an additional $350 billion on products made, grown or assembled in this country by 2031.

We know how much supporting American products and American jobs truly does matter to our suppliers, entrepreneurs, sellers and local communities, Laura Phillips, Walmart senior vice president for global sourcing and U.S. manufacturing, said in a statement. With all the new tools and resources available this year, were hoping we can foster growth for many more businesses and Walmart Marketplace sellers that already work with us, along with those that are just getting started.

Featured video:
Dear Doctors: Ticks are a big problem where we live in Pennsylvania. Our family loves being outdoors, so staying away from tick territory isnt an option. One thing I really want to know is the right way to remove a tick when you get bitten.

Dear Reader: Were glad to get this question because, as we said in our column last week, the United States has seen a surge in reports of tick bites and tick-borne illnesses in recent years. This is due to heightened awareness, an increase in tick populations and an expansion of their range. At the same time, the easing of pandemic constraints has led to an increase in outdoor activities. The upshot is that more people are encountering more ticks than ever before.

Ticks bite mammals because they require a blood meal to advance through each of their three stages of life. To complete their two- to three-day feed, they are outfitted with a trio of complex mouthparts. These include telescoping rods, hooked teeth and a straw lined with backward-facing barbs through which it sips blood. The tick uses its mouthparts to pierce the skin, latch on and bury its head. You dont feel the bite due to painkillers in the ticks saliva. The point of all this (unsettling, we know)detail is to help you understand what youre working to undo as you remove a tick.

The goal in extracting a tick is to pull its head out of the flesh without damaging or squeezing its body. The best tool for this is a pair of tweezers with pointy ends. These give you a precise grip and good leverage. Start by washing your hands and sterilizing the tweezers with rubbing alcohol. Then place the slender tips of the tweezers as close to the skin as possible, on either side of the ticks head. Gently pull up, using steady and even pressure. Youre pulling those backward-facing barbs from the skin. Be sure not to twist, turn or jerk as you pull or the head, or mouthparts might be left behind in the skin. Once the tick is free, check that its whole. If undamaged, its legs will move. If the tick breaks and you cant retrieve the head or the mouth, it is advisable to seek medical help to remove it.

Wash the bite thoroughly with soap and water. Secure the tick in a plastic bag or bottle so that, should you develop symptoms in the next 30 days, it can be examined. Tick-borne diseases can have similar symptoms, including fever, chills, rash, nausea or vomiting, fatigue, headache and body aches. Keeping the tick allows it to be examined and a specific virus or bacterium to be identified, and then the appropriate treatment can be prescribed.

Meanwhile, take precautions. In wooded areas, wear long pants and long sleeves, and tuck in your shirt and pant cuffs. Light colors make ticks easier to spot. Use insect repellent with 20% to 30% DEET on clothes and exposed skin. Be sure to follow the product instructions. End all outdoor activities with a thorough tick check.

If you have been bitten by a tick and develop symptoms, its important to seek medical care.

Eve Glazier, M.D., MBA, is an internist and associate professor of medicine at UCLA Health. Elizabeth Ko, M.D., is an internist and assistant professor of medicine at UCLA Health.
In the days leading up to the June 28 elections, county residents who received The Tulsa Times newspaper in their mailboxes learned a lot about District 3 County Commission Republican primary candidate Kelly Dunkerley  not all of it true.

The ad for Dunkerleys campaign informed readers that a poll conducted by the Oklahoma Election Information Bureau Inc. showed Dunkerley leading Bob Jack by 6 percentage points. The OEIB was created this year by individuals associated with Tomahawk Strategies, the consulting firm that provided marketing services to Dunkerleys campaign.

The mailer also included a quote from Stuart Jolly, former President Donald Trumps former national campaign field director, on what the poll results meant.

We are seeing a breakaway shift for Dunkerley, Jolly is quoted as saying. If undecideds split proportionately, Kelly would win with 60 percent.

A separate flier mailed out by Dunkerleys campaign also touts Jollys endorsement and includes a picture of the former Trump campaign official.

But Jolly never endorsed Dunkerley, never spoke the words hes quoted as saying in the imitation newspaper, and has never met the county commission candidate.

That group thought they had spoken to me about it but had not, Jolly said of Dunkerleys campaign. I dont know Kelly and have never met him. So its highly unfortunate that my name and likeness was used in this race, but I had zero input or knowledge of any of it prior to those fliers going out.

Dunkerley said he reviews campaign materials before they are sent out and that he accepts responsibility for the misrepresentation.

Those are my responsibility, but there are times in campaigns when communications arent completely clear, Dunkerley said. And we have apologized to Mr. Jolly and moved on down the road. And he has, too. So I think those issues are resolved.

The faux newspaper includes another story that talks about how the man Dunkerley is attempting to succeed, former Commissioner Ron Peters, appointed him to the county Board of Adjustment. The article includes an image of a smiling Peters.

Peters told the Tulsa World that although he did appoint Dunkerley to the county BOA, he never gave Dunkerleys campaign permission to use his image in its campaign materials.

Dunkerley said the appointment to the BOA was something Peters was involved in, so that is why that was included in that publication.

The Dunkerley campaign is not the first to use a newspaper-style ad to get its message across, and Dunkerley insisted that there was no intention to mislead recipients of the mailer.

Its new. Its not something that all candidates do, and it took a lot of work to put it together, he said.

Dunkerley accused Jack and others of trying to pull him down because of his strong showing in the June 28 primary. Dunkerley won 49.1% of the vote to Jacks 35.6%.

With neither garnering more than 50% of the vote, they will meet as the top two vote-getters in a runoff election Aug. 23. That winner will become the next District 3 county commissioner.

They are going to try different ways to tear me down, Dunkerely said. Thats unfortunate thats part of the process.

John Fritz, who lists himself on his Facebook page as CEO and managing partner at Tomahawk Strategies, the consulting firm that created the four-page flier, said in an email that state Ethics Commission rules do not prohibit newspaper-style campaign ads.

Mr. Dunkerleys second-place opponent may not have liked it, but many people did love it, Fritz wrote.

He also noted that the picture of Peters was obtained from a publicly available website and that the accompanying article never stated that Peters had endorsed Dunkerley.

Jack said the voters of Tulsa County deserve respect from the candidates they elect.

Candidates should be truthful and ethical, he said. It is disrespectful to act otherwise.

Asked why the public should trust him as a county commissioner if they dont believe hes been trustworthy as a candidate, Dunkerley argued in part that Jack briefly claimed he had Peters endorsement, only to remove that claim from his campaign page.

As far as trustworthiness, there is plenty to ask other candidates, as well, Dunkerley said.

Jack confirmed that he had briefly posted Peters endorsement on social media but later took it down.

Commissioner Peters and I are in complete agreement on the facts regarding his endorsement and the reasoning for the retraction, Jack said.

The Oklahoma Election Information Bureau is a nonprofit issue-advocacy organization established in April, according to state Secretary of States Office records. Fritz is listed as an incorporator of OEIB, and John Tyler Hammons, an attorney for Tomahawk Strategies, is listed as the registered agent.

Tomahawk has been accused of crossing the line between strained interpretations of the facts and outright falsehood. It only recently fully settled a lawsuit stemming from inaccurate claims it made in campaign advertising for now-state Sen. Cody Rogers, R-Tulsa, in his 2020 Republican primary against Dr. Chris Emerson.

Those ads claimed that Emerson, an anesthesiologist, had pleaded guilty to malpractice and had a history of not paying his bills. Neither assertion was true, as Tomahawk ultimately admitted in a settlement agreement, but Rogers won the election.

Randy Krehbiel contributed to this story.

Featured video:
Leaders with North Tulsa Food is Medicine are celebrating their first year helping participants with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes by providing fresh local produce and training to help them prepare it.

FreshRx was designed to help those on SoonerCare who have uncontrolled type 2 diabetes, determined by A1C measurements. In 12 months, 30 of 40 participants saw reduced A1C numbers through the program that prioritizes fresh food and health education.

Participants attended monthly nutrition and cooking classes, as well as received fresh local produce every two weeks for the yearlong program. FreshRx also followed up quarterly to measure participants A1C, blood pressure and weight changes.

The program began on July 13 last year as a partnership with Crossover Health Services and Good Samaritan at the Tulsa Dream Center. On Wednesday, 40 participants graduated from the program.

These people are at extreme risk for a catastrophic health event, whether its heart attack, stroke, kidney failure or even amputation, FreshRx Director and local gerontologist Erin Martin said.

In addition to the 75% whose A1C levels were reduced, 18 participants became controlled diabetics  meaning their A1C went below 8, with an average A1C reduction of 2.2%.

It is estimated that if you lower someones A1C level by 1% to 2% in the year, youre actually saving the state upwards of $24,000 or more per person because youre preventing a lot of other health costs through SoonerCare, Martin said.

The program is expanding. The first year saw $185,000 raised, with local funders doubling and tripling their contributions to bring in an additional $300,000 going forward, Martin said.

Going into year two, FreshRx will serve 100 participants at three north Tulsa clinics: Crossover Health Services, Community Health Connection and Good Samaritan at the Tulsa Dream Center.

Were really excited to expand, Martin said. We believe that this program should be a permanent part of our health care infrastructure.

The local economy also benefits through participation by local farmers including Resilient Growers, Robinson Ranch, Fisher Produce, Avery Acres and Birch Creek Farms. All of the produce provided are locally sourced, regenerative produce thats free of chemical preservatives.

The food that were providing, it tastes better than any food anyones ever had because its not mass produced, its not genetically modified, theres no chemicals on it, the soil health is exquisite (and) it has more nutrients in it because its coming locally, Martin said. It tastes better than food that you would even find at a Whole Foods.

FreshRx is intentionally trying to go after sustainable sources, which is why leaders current focus is on policy.

We just entered for an interim study at the state Capitol with the potential of passing a bill or working with the Oklahoma Health Care Authority to pay for this service, Martin said.

The program is free for participants thanks to local sponsors including Ascension St. John, Morningcrest Foundation, Zarrow Commemoration Fund, and the Land and Justice Fund through the Decolonizing Wealth Project.

Featured video:
OKLAHOMA CITY  A Tulsa abortion clinic is shutting its doors and moving out of state.

The Tulsa Womens Clinic, 6136 E. 32nd Place, hopes to reopen in September in Carbondale, Illinois, said Andrea Gallegos, executive administrator.

Dr. Alan Braid owns the Tulsa facility and another one in San Antonio, Texas, which will relocate to Albuquerque, New Mexico, she said.

The action comes after Oklahoma essentially banned all abortions and the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe. v. Wade, leaving the decision on whether to allow abortions up to each individual state.

The Tulsa facility had not been able to perform abortions since Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a total ban on the procedure in mid-May, Gallegos said.

Patients in Oklahoma are being asked to travel out of state right now, Gallegos said. While we dont agree with that, we very much feel that access is important. Carbondale is a 7-hour drive from Tulsa. So we are hoping that while it is certainly not an easy option, it can be an option for Oklahomans to get to Illinois.

The Tulsa clinic averaged 300 to 500 abortions a month, Gallegos said.

Abortion bans do not stop the need for abortions, she said. They do not make abortions go away.

Some women will not have the option to travel and will be forced to give birth, she said.

Sen. Julie Daniels, R-Bartlesville, the author of several bills putting additional regulations on abortion, thinks the number of abortions in Oklahoma will drop.

They have made a business decision to move, Daniels said. They will have very little if any business in our state.

A 10-year-old rape victim in Ohio had to go to Indiana earlier this year to get an abortion due to a ban on the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy in her home state.

When 10-year-olds that are raped and have to leave their state to make the choice of abortion, that is the direction and indicative of Oklahoma, said Rep. Regina Goodwin, D-Tulsa. And that is despicable.

When the Oklahoma state Legislature passes laws that talk about fertilization and stripping women of their bodily autonomy, Oklahoma is not OK.

Featured video:
People may enjoy forgetting about precautions during each lull between COVID-19 surges, but health care professionals and data experts want to caution Oklahomans now that theyre seeing another significant uptick.

Tulsa Countys COVID-19 risk has been upgraded from the lowest to the highest level in recent weeks as cases have continued to rise across the state since the summer holidays began. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracks community-level risk to help get public health recommendations to residents based on the most recently available local data.

The age group seeing the most infections has been those ages 18-35, according to an update Thursday from Dr. David Kendrick of My Health Data Network.

That age group has historically brought up the rear in terms of vaccination status, so a surge among young adults isnt unexpected, state epidemiologist Jolianne Stone said Friday.

We recommend, if youre not considered up to date, we encourage you to do so, she said in a phone interview.

Children 4 and younger have also shown an increase in infections and hospitalizations in recent weeks, Kendrick noted, so families should be taking note and discussing precautions.

Its only in recent weeks that vaccinations have been approved and recommended for that youngest age group, Oklahoma State Department of Health spokeswoman Erica Rankin noted in a call Friday.

The vaccine for infants in Oklahoma is not required, rather is opt-in based on parents or a guardians choice, but supply is available, she said in an email. We would encourage parents and guardians to consult with their childs health care provider to make the best decision for their child.

Dr. Jeff Johnson, ER medical director for Hillcrest Health System, said vaccination is the focus of his message with cases rising.

I think COVID is not on everybodys radar like earlier on in the pandemic, Johnson said, so people are just feeling symptoms of an infection and trying to get it figured out.

In emergency rooms, its part of the standard line of questioning to discuss vaccination status, according to Dr. Chad Phillips, Ascension St. John medical director of emergency departments.

At area hospitals, several ER directors point out that more patients are coming in with COVID-19, though to a lesser extent at Ascension ERs, Phillips said.

According to data from spokeswoman Lauren Landwerlin, the number of COVID-19 patients has nearly doubled each month since May across all of Saint Francis Health System. She confirmed that those are patients for whom COVID-19 is the chief complaint.

But the presenting symptoms related to a COVID infection have changed since previous surges, two ER directors said separately in phone interviews Friday.

The respiratory piece has not been as affected, so its sometimes just weakness, viral symptoms like  no appetite, nausea. Were not seeing as much intense respiratory distress like we saw from other surges, said Dr. Ryan Parker, ER director for Saint Francis Health System.

The severity of symptoms is less a concern now for health care providers than in previous surges, but patients are still having enough apprehension with a symptomatic case to seek ER help, said Dr. Jason Moore.

A lot are scared, still feeling the fear associated with the respiratory variants, and so they dont know,  Am I gonna be OK? so they come to the ER, said Moore, who works at facilities across eastern Oklahoma through OSU Medical Center.

But about half of those Moore sees are surprised to find that theyre COVID-positive. In many cases, they can be discharged with guidance on home treatment for their symptoms, he said, noting that the situation is likely different at bigger hospitals.

At Saint Francis, many of the COVID Unit patients are seeing longer stays because of the challenge in finding skilled nursing and rehabilitation, Parker said.

For some patients, there are times we cant get them to the next level of care. Like elderly patients needing a nursing home bed or weak patients needing to go to a rehab facility, Parker said, noting staffing shortages across the health care industry.

Moore also pointed out that older people are still having some difficulty if they become infected with COVID-19, even with cases that are presenting with less severity.

If youre going to be in a public, highly populated area, at that point, make sure to wear a mask, Moore said. A couple of months ago, I wasnt as adamant about that because cases were so low, but these new variants are spreading very rapidly.

Most of those who spoke Friday offered similar guidance for anyone concerned about becoming infected: Go back to early-pandemic precautions, including social distance, masking, hand-washing and monitoring symptoms.

Have common courtesy, Phillips said. If you feel sick, stay at home, get tested  till youre over your illness for the sake of co-workers, family and friends.

Stone said vaccination remains the most important component of precaution, the best tool to prevent the kind of severe infection Oklahoman saw in previous waves of COVID.

Kendrick on Thursday repeated his concern about data indicating again that COVID-related hospital admissions are almost entirely of unvaccinated patients.

Moore and Parker each remarked upon the effect these increasing unvaccinated COVID admissions can have on the people who work at local health care facilities.

The hard part about all the exposure risk  is our colleagues who are nurses, lab techs, rad techs, they have to be home because they have COVID, Moore said. Finally, we were able to take a little bit of a breath after this last surge, but now I just worry about peoples burnout.

Thats another strain, not just the numbers (of patients) we see, but the workforce taking care of them.

Featured video: BA.5 , leading U.S. cases, sparks concern about contagiousness
U.S. Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., maintained his hard line against abortion rights Thursday by blocking unanimous consent on Democratic legislation guaranteeing the right to interstate travel for the procedure.

The conversation today is not just about the right to travel and the right to health care.  The conversation today is not just about women. There are two people in this conversation.  This is a child in this conversation, as well, Lankford said in lodging his objection to the bill known as the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act of 2022.

Lankfords objection prevented the bill from being accepted unanimously, meaning it must go through a longer process for approval.

Although Lankfords objection stopped the measure, he is not the only Republican opposed to it.

The bill would bar states and individuals from restricting movement between states to receive or provide reproductive health care that is legal in that State.

That would include attempts by states to prevent businesses or organizations from helping women go to other states for abortions.

Democrats sponsoring the bill said Republicans are planning state and federal legislation to restrict such travel.

Lankford said no such restrictions have been enacted, but he acknowledged that they are a possibility.

To be very clear: no state has banned interstate travel for adult women seeking to obtain an abortion, Lankford said. Now, am I confident there are some people that are out there talking? Yes, but theres also in this Senate 5,000 bills that have been filed, and how many of them are actually going to move?

Democrats and Republicans have both acknowledged a right to travel established by legal precedent going back to an 1866 U.S. Supreme Court decision involving a tax assessed on those leaving the state of Nevada; skeptics, though, note that the current court has shown little regard for precedent.

Lankfords exact position on state or federal travel bans is unclear. His offices news release on Thursdays objection referred to the bill as Democrats Attempt to Promote Abortion Tourism.

Lankford has at times said abortion rights themselves are a state issue, but he has also indicated support for outlawing the procedure nationwide.

Recently, he introduced legislation to prevent the Biden administration from declaring a medical emergency to allow abortions to continue in states such as Oklahoma, which has the nations strictest abortion prohibition.
U.S. Second Amendment absolutists are pointing to the recent slaying of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as reason to scoff at firearm safety proposals.

We disagree. If anything, Abes tragic death serves as a reminder of how well the countrys gun laws work.

Abe, the longest serving Japanese prime minister, was gunned down during a campaign stop for his party. A 41-year-old unemployed former sailor has confessed to the crime, according to law enforcement.

The gun he used was homemade, fashioned out of wood and metal, and effective only at close range. Security at the event is under scrutiny for not having tighter precautions, allowing the gunman to get off two shots from a short distance.

Gun deaths and political attacks are so rare in Japan that law enforcement may have gotten lax in the kind of security necessary for such public events. It is common for Japanese senior officials to get close with the public.

Japan was among the first countries to institute gun restrictions and firearm safety laws. The country sees fewer than 10 gun-related deaths a year, and last year, Japan had only one gun death, according to its National Police Agency.

Americans face a vastly different reality.

The highest number of gun deaths on record was in 2020 with 45,222 people, with a little more than half of those being suicides, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly 8 in 10 murders are caused by a firearm  the highest percentage since 1968.

To take the higher U.S. population into account, the rate of gun deaths in 2020 was 13.6 per 100,000 people. Thats the highest rate since the 1990s but lower than the 16.3 gun deaths per 100,000 people in 1974, says the Pew Research Center. Oklahomas gun death rate is 20.7.

The No. 1 killer of U.S. children is a gun. With one exception, no other peer nation among the worlds top 12 countries counts firearms among its top causes of child deaths. The exception is Canada, which lists firearms as the fifth most common killer of children.

Americans are limping from mass shooting to mass shooting, with no location exempt from tragedy.

The U.S. experienced more mass shootings in the past five years than in any other half-decade going back to 1966, according to a Marshall Project analysis of the database kept by The Violence Project. These are shootings where at least four people are killed or injured.

The analysis found that recent mass shootings are increasing the death count per episode, coinciding with the use of assault-style weapons. Semi-automatic firearms have been used in nearly half of the recent mass shootings, compared to a third of them in the previous five years.

Imagine if Abes killer had been able to obtain an AR-15 before the shooting? Americans have seen that play out hundreds of times, including on June 1 at the Tulsa Saint Francis Health System campus, where a gunman killed four people before killing himself. That gunman bought the weapon just hours before the murders.

Japanese are in mourning, and we join others in extending sympathy. No nation deserves to work through senseless gun tragedies, and that includes the U.S.
In Ho Chi Minh City, students on summer break are eagerly on the hunt for fulfilling work experiences.

Tran Dai Hung, a sophomore at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics and Finance, has spent the past two years working part-time as a communications assistant for a large English school system.

He earns about VND3.5 million (US$150) a month.

His last two jobs included working at a pub for VND16,000 ($0.68) per hour and a coffee shop for VND20,000 ($0.86) an hour.

Hot job market

While Hung enjoyed his last few jobs, he hopes to use this summer to find work that will prepare him for his future career.

The problem with his previous gigs, he said, was that they mostly revolved around completing repetitive tasks.

Similarly, Mai Gia Han, a student at Ho Chi Minh City Industry And Trade College, said that it is relatively easy for local students to find summer jobs.

Han uses the VND3-4 million ($128-171) she earns each month to cover her daily expenses.

But while students like Hung and Han have found it easy to find employment, others have not had such luck.

Ngoc Mai, a student at the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, explained that with an IELTS score of 6.5, an acceptable band by local standards, she had a difficult time looking for a job for summertime.

She spent weeks being interviewed at coffee shops, bars, and food chains, before she finally found a bar on Hoang Sa Street in District 3 that would hire her.

A need for manpower

The coronavirus pandemic has forced many enterprises to scale down or close their business, according to Nguyen Xuan Son, operations manager of Enterprise Account Outsourcing and Staffing Services at ManpowerGroup Vietnam.

But many of these businesses are beginning to bounce back.

Vietnams gross domestic product (GDP) increased 6.42 percent during the first six months of 2022, with manufacturing-processing and services in dire need of staff.

The need for both permanent and seasonal employment is much higher than in previous years, particularly in manufacturing, electronic trading, transport, warehouse services, fast-moving consumer goods, and food services, Son said.

Le Thi Doan Trinh, HR director at Scommerce JSC, said recruiting seasonal workers is currently difficult due to high competition and rising pay in the delivery sector, where people flock to secure work, as well as in the entire seasonal job market in general.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Wei Huaxiang, Consul General of China in Ho Chi Minh City, paid a visit to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspapers head office on Thursday morning.

During a meeting at the office, Le The Chu, Tuoi Tres Editor-in-Chief, congratulated Chinese Consul General Wei Huaxiang on his new appointment and wished him the best during his tenure in the southern hub.

Additionally, the editor-in-chief introduced to Consul General Wei all Tuoi Tre publications.

The Tuoi Tre editions feature information in various fields such as activities of high-ranking officials, people-to-people exchanges, economic development, bilateral trade, and more, Chu said.

The chief editor emphasized that many readers are interested in studying, traveling, and doing business in China.

Wei Huaxiang, Consul General of China in Ho Chi Minh City, holds a Tuoi Tre publication during his visit to the newspapers head office on July 14, 2022. Photo: Huu Hanh / Tuoi Tre

He hoped that the positive outcomes achieved in the relations between Vietnam and China in the past would continue to be strengthened in the coming time.

We also expect that with the experience and position of Chinese Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City, Mr. Wei Huaxiang would be able to enhance the connection between Vietnam and China, as well as the development of Ho Chi Minh City, Chu said during the meeting.

Meanwhile, Consul General Wei expressed delight at visiting the headquarters of Tuoi Tre newspaper.

The diplomat said that he has been in Vietnam for approximately 50 days as a consul general.

This is also his first visit to the southern city.

Representatives of the Consulate General of China in Ho Chi Minh City and Tuoi Tre newspaper at a meeting on July 14, 2022. Photo: Huu Hanh / Tuoi Tre

He hoped that Tuoi Tre may serve as a bridge to strengthen the friendship and optimism among citizens of the two nations.

During the meeting, Consul General Wei made a number of suggestions to the Tuoi Tre leader for the promotion of exchange and studying activities between the two peoples, especially the younger generations.

Chief editor Chu believed that the exchange activities among young people from the two nations would contribute to the improvement of the Vietnam-China relations.

He stated that Tuoi Tre is willing to serve as a gateway for information exchange and bilateral tie building activities.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Vietnam's Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has signed a decision to appoint Dao Hong Lan as a new acting Minister of Health.

PM Chinh handed over the decision to Lan on Friday morning, which means her duty as an acting health minister took effect on the same day, a source told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper shortly after.

The new appointment came a month after the former health minister, Nguyen Thanh Long, was removed from his post and arrested early in June for his involvement in Viet A Technology Corporations gouging of COVID-19 test kit prices.

Lan, 51, was born in northern Hai Duong Province.

She obtained a masters degree in economics and once worked as Deputy Minister of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs and the secretary of the Bac Ninh Province Party Committee for the 2020-25 term, according to the Communist Party of Vietnam magazine.

Lan is the only top leader of the Ministry of Health after her 14 predecessors since 1945 not to have medical experience.

She is the third woman to have held the post, after Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Thi Trung Chien, from 200 to 2007, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Kim Tien, from 2011 to 2019.

The Vietnamese governments current term includes one female minister and one female head of a ministerial-level agency besides Lan -- Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra and Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Nguyen Thi Hong.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
What you need to know today in Vietnam:

Politics

-- The Vietnamese Embassy on Wednesday held a seminar to spotlight Vietnams reform and its path toward socialism at the National Experimental University of the Armed Forces (UNEFA) of Venezuela, according to the Vietnam News Agency.

Society

-- The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health says it has worked out three scenarios where authorities would have to treat 2,000-6,000 dengue fever patients.

-- Lightning struck two women to death in Ninh Binh Province, northern Vietnam on Thursday, local authorities said the same day.

-- Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has asked that the Airports Corporation of Vietnam and the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee start work on a new terminal at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in the third quarter of this year and put it to use in September 2024.

-- Royal Seafood International Trading Company Limited in Ho Chi Minh City gave an extremely rare orange lobster imported from Canada to the Museum of Oceanography in Nha Trang on Thursday afternoon. The lobster measures 55 centimeters long, weighs nearly two kilograms, and was shipped from Canada in July.

-- Two people won a combined jackpot of VND210 billion (US$8.9 million) in the Vietlott draw on Thursday.

Business

-- Farmers in the Central Highlands, Vietnam's largest coffee-growing area, sold coffee COFVN-DAK at VND44,000-44,500 ($1.88-1.90) per kg, up from a VND41,800-42,300 range a week earlier, Reuters quoted traders as saying on Thursday.

-- Vietnams forestry product exports are expected to reach $16.3 billion in 2022, near the target set earlier this year, the Vietnam News Agency cited figures at a conference organized by the Vietnam Administration of Forestry (VNFOREST) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Hanoi on Thursday.

World News

-- "Around 25 million children around the world missed out on routine vaccinations that protect against life-threatening diseases last year, as the knock-on effects of the pandemic continue to disrupt health care globally," Reuters reported.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health has announced a plan to prepare the treatment system in order to respond to scenarios where the city has between 2,000 and 6,000 dengue fever patients at the same time.

The health department on Thursday unveiled three scenarios where the citys dengue fever cases hit 2,000-6,000 at one time as well as corresponding schemes to ensure sufficient treatment capacity.

In the first scenario, Ho Chi Minh City provides treatment for 2,000 dengue patients at a time, including less than 200 cases with serious symptoms.

About 2,400 beds and 260 ICU beds will be available to provide treatment at 14 hospitals across the metropolis, including Cho Ray Hospital, Thong Nhat Hospital, University Medical Center, and Military Hospital 175, among others.

Approximately 460 doctors, of whom 160 specialize in resuscitation, and 920 nurses will be needed to take care of the patients.

The second scenario assumes that the city has between 2,000 and 4,000 dengue fever patients at the same time, including 200-400 cases with serious symptoms.

A total of 4,000 standard beds and 410 ICU beds will be ready at 14 hospitals in the city.

Health authorities will mobilize 870 doctors and 1,740 nurses for the treatment of dengue fever patients.

In the third scenario, the city documents up to 6,000 patients at a time, of whom 400-600 have severe symptoms.

The metropolis will need 6,000 standard beds, 605 ICU beds, 1,280 doctors, and 2,560 nurses.

Reports from major hospitals show that a patient with severe dengue fever needs about six liters of infusion fluid and two units of blood and blood products.

The health department asked hospitals to prepare sufficient amounts of transfusion fluid, blood, and blood products to ensure the best treatment for patients.

Dengue fever is an infectious disease that is transmitted by the bite of an Aedes mosquito infected with a dengue virus, according to the World Health Organization.

Symptoms include fever, headaches, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash that is similar to measles.

Ho Chi Minh City has recorded more than 26,000 dengue fever cases since the beginning of 2022, a nearly 230 percent increase year on year, according to VnExpress newspaper.

Hospitals across the city are currently providing treatment for over 2,000 dengue fever patients.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
A rare yellowish orange lobster caught in Canada is on exhibit at the Museum of Oceanography in Nha Trang, the capital of Khanh Hoa Province in south-central Vietnam.

The exhibition opened on Thursday afternoon, amazing tourists who had the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the unusual yellowish-orange lobster.

The museum received the lobster for research and exhibition purposes from Royal Seafood International Trading Company Limited in Ho Chi Minh City.

The company imported the rare crustacean from Canada earlier this month.

The lobster, which weighs about two kilograms and measures 55 centimeters long, is doing well in its tank.

A yellow-orange lobster and a sapphire-blue lobster are kept in the same tank at the Museum of Oceanography in Nha Trang, the capital of Khanh Hoa Province in south-central Vietnam. Photo: Minh Chien / Tuoi Tre

The water temperature inside the tank is maintained at 5-10 degrees Celsius in order to mimic the lobsters natural habitat.

Yellowish orange lobsters are extremely rare, with a probability of one in 30 million, said Kieu Tan Vu, marketing manager at Royal Seafood.

This lobster was on display at the company's seafood store in District 7 in Ho Chi Minh City, where a buyer previously offered VND150 million [US$6400] to buy it, Vu said.

We decided not to sell the crustacean because we already had plans to donate it to the Nha Trang Museum of Oceanography for research and display.

In March, Royal Seafood gifted a 48-centimeter-long, 3.9-kilogram rare sapphire-blue lobster to the museum.

The sapphire blue lobster had also been imported from Canada.

According to Ho Son Lam, deputy head of marine biology technology at the museum's Institute of Oceanography, the scientific name for Canadian and American lobsters is Homarus gammarus.

Lobsters are typically dark blue to bluish green and are primarily found along the Atlantic coast and in North America. Lam said.

There are, however, yellow and orange lobsters due to genetic abnormalities.

Yellow-orange lobsters are difficult to find in the wild because their bright shells make them easy targets for predators.

According to various studies, the yellow lobster is the consequence of a rare genetic mutation, whereas the orange lobster is the result of a lack of a protein that helps bind pigments," Lam said.

The majority of orange lobsters are tricolored, with a mix of orange and black.

"However, these studies were conducted on a small scale because the lobsters are so rare in the wild.

"This lobster is being kept for research and display.

"If its orange-yellow color persists in the next shelling, that means the color is the result of a genetic mutation.

"If the color changes, it is the result of the lobster adapting to its natural habitat."

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Two women were killed by a lightning strike as they were traveling to work on a motorbike in Thai Binh Province, northern Vietnam on Thursday, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

Preliminary information showed that the incident took place in Phu Son Commune, Nho Quan District at around 7:30 am on Thursday.

Quach Thi T., 37, and Bui Thi N., 34, who both resided in Thach Binh Commune, were traveling to their workplace by motorcycle along a local street when they were struck by lightning.

Police in Nho Quan District later coordinated with relevant authorities in transporting the deceased back to their families.

A third person who had been riding a different vehicle was also hit by lightning, but was able to regain consciousness and recover after an hour.

It was raining heavily when the lightning strike occurred, according to chairman of Thach Binh Peoples Committee Vu Dung.

Both T. and N. worked for a toy company in Nho Quan District, Dung continued, adding that N. had four young children.

The Thach Binh Peoples Committee has offered financial support worth VND2 million ($85) to the family of each victim and called on local benefactors to provide further assistance.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
The wreckage of a wartime U.S. naval aircraft has been found in the shrimp pond of a resident in Vietnams Mekong Delta region.

The plane wreckage was uncovered in the shrimp pond of 54-year-old Le Van Cham in Duyen Hai Town, Tra Vinh Province on July 8, the Duyen Hai Peoples Committee confirmed on Wednesday.

When renovating his shrimp pond that day, Cham spotted an oil leak in it, before noticing some hard objects under the water.

He then used an excavator to dig up the objects and found multiple metal pieces.

The man then sold them to a scrap collector.

Military officers examine the objects belonging to a wartime aircraft in Tra Vinh Province, Vietnam. Photo: Huu Hiep / Tuoi Tre

After acknowledging the incident, the Military Command of Duyen Hai Town mobilized a unit to verify the information and made a report to the Military Command of Tra Vinh Province.

Military officers found at the pond multiple remains of a plane, pilot's parachute, and equipment marked US.NAVY.

The letters printed on the remains indicated that they belonged to a U.S. naval aircraft during the war in the past, but the exact type of the plane has not been identified.

Local authorities are also looking for the metal objects that Cham sold to the scrap collector, while examining the area near the shrimp pond to search for other possible plane remains.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Police in Quang Nam Province have detained a local man as they are investigating allegations that he illegally sent people to work in Cambodia for over US$200 in brokering fees each time.

Truong Cong Duy, 30, from Que Chau Commune, Que Son District, was arrested on Tuesday for questioning in relation to brokering illegal exits from Vietnam.

Over the past few years, many young people in Quang Nam have fallen victim to false job advertisements on social media and have wound up being transported across the Cambodian border with the expectation of a job awaiting them.

After being trafficked to Cambodia, many of these people were subject to forced labor and found themselves unable to escape, according to local police.

In early April, Duy offered high-salary jobs in Cambodia to two other men from the same commune, promising that they would work at a company owned by a Vietnamese woman.

The victims were then held captive with many other Vietnamese.

Every day, the trafficked victims were forced to do intense labor for about 12 hours and were physically abused by their managers.

Some even had to have their families pay ransoms if they wished to return home.

Duy was paid around VND5 million (US$213) for each trafficked victim.

Since the beginning of this year, Duy managed to send seven people to Cambodia.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
A man from Ha Tinh Province, north-central Vietnam has been sentenced to five years and six months behind bars for his activities aimed at overthrowing the peoples administration.

The provincial Peoples Court on Wednesday handed the jail term to Nguyen Duc Hung, 31, a resident of Ky Phuong Ward, Ky Anh Commune, on charges of making, storing, distributing, or disseminating information, documents, and items against the state of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam under Article 117 of the 2015 Penal Code.

From 2016 to 2021, Hung used several Facebook accounts, such as 'Nguyen Duc Hung' and 'Nguyen Duc Hung Sbr,' to edit, upload, and share articles, video clips, and images with content aimed at sabotaging the Party and state, according to the indictment.

In July 2021, Hung joined a secret group on Facebook which spread information to distort and defame the peoples administration, causing public agitation and violating the interests of the state as well as the legitimate rights and interests of individuals and organizations.

Police in Ha Tinh arrested and initiated legal proceedings against Hung in January this year.

At the court, Hung pleaded guilty and asked for a commutation.

Apart from his jail sentence, Hung will be put on probation for two years after serving his prison term.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
On 60 Minutes this Sunday, a man who fell overboard en route to Panama -without a life jacket- and fraud in the pathology industry.

Fall Guy

Anyone who has ever stepped onboard a boat has probably considered, even if only briefly, what would happen if they fell off it. The terror of that thought is usually washed away though by knowing there would be immediate help. A life ring would be thrown into the water, the boat would turn around and a rescue would happen. But thats not the case for that special breed of adventurer, the lone sailor. A month ago, 41-year-old Australian John Deer was happily sailing his small yacht towards Panama when the unthinkable occurred. John literally took a wrong step and fell overboard. When he surfaced all he could see was his boat sailing off into the distance. To make matters even worse, it was getting dark, he wasnt wearing a life jacket, and he didnt have an emergency locating beacon. He was completely alone in shark-infested waters. As Tom Steinfort reports, how John Deer survived the freak accident makes him the luckiest unlucky bloke in the world.

Reporter: Tom Steinfort

Producer: Lisa Brown

The Bloody Lie

The promise was a medical revolution that would benefit the entire world, but in reality it was a great big bloody lie. When young entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes claimed to have invented a machine that with a pinprick of blood could diagnose hundreds of diseases in patients, she instantly became the darling of Silicon Valley. Holmes and her business partner and ex-lover, Ramesh Sunny Balwani, then set about duping investors to bankroll their company, Theranos. What the couple didnt count on though was the courage of two of their own employees who knew the blood machine didnt work, and knew they had to tell the world. Now Holmes and Balwani have been found guilty of fraud and are facing the prospect of decades in prison.

Reporter: Tara Brown

Producer: Naomi Shivaraman

8:45pm Sunday on Nine.
ABC has announced an Arts Week of new titles showcasting the arts from around the country.

From Sunday August 7 audiences will be spoilt for choice with the opportunity to immerse themselves in art that will uplift, inspire, educate, and entertain.

Great Southern Landscapes (6x30mins)

Tuesday 9 August at 8pm on ABC TV

From the Producers of Finding the Archibald, art lover Rachel Griffiths returns to ABC screens and sets out to explore the fusion of art, social history, and travel to examine iconic Australian landscapes. Packing up her boots and backpack, she heads off across Australia to discover the exact spot where some of our most famous artists captured their interpretation of our iconic landscapes. Along the way she meets people who will help unlock the hidden secrets of the works and the untold stories behind them. Credits: Great Southern Landscapes is a Mint Pictures production in association with Magdalene Media. Production investment from ABC and Screen Australia. In association with Screen NSW.

Art Works

Tuesday 9 August at 9.20pm on ABC TV

Art Works is Australias only dedicated arts television program. We deliver candid, surprising, and unexpected stories from across Australias creative scene. From major exhibitions and festivals, intriguing artist profiles and touching personal stories, Art Works examines the role arts can play in our lives. We feature emerging creatives as well as established artists, and look to generate conversations, debate, and critical thinking. Whatever the story were presenting, our role is to make the arts accessible to all Australians. Join Namila Benson for a special Arts Week episode, which celebrates Australian creativity in all its forms. Credits: Art Works is an ABC Production, Series Producer: Bryson Hall, Managing Editor Arts: Edwina Throsby.

Walking Man (1x30min)

Wednesday 10 August at 7.30pm on ABC TV Plus

The Walking Man was a prolific Perth artist, hidden in plain sight, whos work shines a light on the concept of making art just for arts sake. This is the story of Ross Seaton, the Walking Man, through the lens of Professor Ted Snell, as he sorts through thousands of artworks and collected items hoarded and stockpiled in every room of Rosss home to bring together an eclectic exhibition set to stun the local Arts community and beyond. Credits: Walking Man is a VAM Media Production, developed and produced with the assistance of Screenwest and Lotterywest. Director Luna Laure, Executive Producer Brendan Hutchens.

Jeffrey Smart (1x60mins)

Wednesday 10 August at 8.30pm on ABC TV Plus

The comprehensive story of one of Australias greatest 20th century painters. The documentary incorporates rich archive material including rare interviews with Smart and his long-term partner Ermes De Zan at their wonderful Tuscan farmhouse and vision of places around Arezzo that so inspired the artist. Further insights come from portrait subjects and friends Clive James and David Malouf, and leading Australian scholars Deborah Hart and Barry Pearce who curated major exhibitions in public museums. Credits: Jeffrey Smart is a Catherine Hunter Production, financed with the assistance of the National Gallery of Australia. Writer, Director Catherine Hunter, Producers Catherine Hunter, and Shelley Maine.

Anatomy of a String Quartet (1x50mins)

Wednesday 10 August at 9.30pm on ABC TV Plus

Guided by four musicians from the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Anatomy of String. Quartet takes audiences on an intimate journey through the rehearsal and performance of an iconic piece of string music. As the players explore the story behind the music, they also share in their artistic process and the challenges of collaboration. Credits: Anatomy of a String Quartet is a Stranger Than Fiction production produced in association with the ABC and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Writer, Director Joseph Nizeti. Producers Sarah Noonan and Jennifer Peedom. Executive Producer Jo-Anne McGowan.
New Aussie grey nomads drama series Darby and Joan, starring Bryan Brown and Greta Scacchi is coming to Acorn TV in August.

The 8 part series from CJZ was created by Glenys Rowe and Phillip Gwynne and filmed in Queensland across the Gold Coast, Scenic Rim, Redland City, North Stradbroke Island, Mount Isa and Cairns.

The series asks: can you find yourself in the middle of nowhere?

As the series opens, retired Australian homicide detective Jack Darby (Brown) has taken to the open road with his dog Diesel to flee his past, while recently widowed English nurse Joan Kirkhope (Scacchi) is on a reluctant pilgrimage to find answers about her husbands mysterious death. They couldnt be more different: the low key, ruggedly charming Aussie and the tightly-wound Englishwoman, but when they collide in the Australian outback and become drawn into a series of unexpected mysteries, this unlikely investigative duo soon realize the most intriguing puzzle they face is each other.

Exploring the world of the real-life phenomenon of grey nomads  retirees who leave behind their comfortable homes to set out for adventure on the endless roads of Australia  Darby and Joan shines a light on fascinating and often unseen areas of the continent from isolated, sweeping coastlines to lush hinterland, to small communities in the Outback and a myriad of fascinating characters moving through a world where everyone seems to be searching for something  or trying to escape it. Danger and secrets lurk for those who bother to look.

Darby and Joan is executive produced by Claire Tonkin (My Life is Murder), David Hannam (Secret Bridesmaids Business), Matt Campbell, Bea Tammer and Catherine Mackin, with series producer Pino Amenta (Five Bedrooms, Wentworth) and supervising producer Toni Malone (My Life Is Murder).

The series creators are Glenys Rowe and Phillip Gwynne, and its writers are Paul Bennett, Keith Thompson, Andrew Anastasios, Giula Sandler, David Hannam, Adam Zwar, Beck Cole and Ainslie Clouston. The set-up director is David Caesar and the directors are Ben C. Lucas, Mairi Cameron and Jo OShaughnessy. The series is produced by CJZ, with major production investment from Screen Australia in association with Screen Queensland.

Two episodes weekly on Mondays from August 8 on Acorn TV.
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
ReportLinker

Major players in the food cans market are Crown Holding Inc, Ardagh Group, Kian Joo Group, Silgan Holdings Inc, Can-Pack S. A, Envases del Plata, CPMC Holding Limited, Wells Can Company, Toyo Seikan Group Holdings Ltd, and Aaron Packaging Inc.

New York, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Food Cans Global Market Report 2022" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06282162/?utm_source=GNW





The global food cans market is expected to grow from $25.91 billion in 2021 to $27.67 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.8%. The market is expected to grow to $34.86 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 5.9%.



The food cans market consists of sales of food cans by entities (organizations, sole traders, and partnerships) that manufacture containers for the distribution or storage of food and beverage items. The food is processed and sealed in airtight containers with tops that can be lifted and replaced.



The main types of materials used for food cans are aluminium cans and steel/ tin cans.Aluminium cans are made from alloys of aluminium, which are generally strong and very lightweight.



The food cans used usually are either 2-piece cans or 3-piece cans. The food cans are used in meat, poultry, and seafood, pet food, bakery and confectionery, sauces, jams and pickles, fruits and vegetables, tea and coffee, and other end-users.



North America was the largest region in the food cans market in 2021.The Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing region in the forecast period.



The regions covered in the food cans report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East, and Africa.



The increase in the penetration of organized retail is expected to be a major driver of the food cans market over the coming years.Increased disposable incomes, shifting consumer preferences and tastes, shifting demographic profiles, and increased expenditures are all contributing to the organized retail sectors growth.



Vendors rely on the organized retail sector to distribute and sell their products, and large organized retailers carry vast volumes of canned foods and beverages in their stores. For instance, according to the Retailers Association of India (RAI), the share of the organized retail market is expected to grow to 22-25% by 2021 in India, which is expected to increase the sales of food cans in the country.



Recyclable aluminium cans are shaping the food cans market.The companies operating in the food cans sector are increasingly focusing on recyclable aluminium cans to strengthen their position.



For instance, in July 2019, Ardagh Group, a Luxembourg-based producer of glass and metal products launched a new slimline 187ml are specifically designed to present and protect wine and wine-based drinks.The can is airtight, lightproof, and shatterproof and is composed of 100% recyclable aluminium.



Both the can end and the body of this innovative design has unique requirements to preserve the wines quality throughout filling, transit, and storage.



In August 2019, Envases del Plata S.A., an Argentina-based aluminium packaging solutions company acquired Ball Corporations tinplate steel aerosol packaging facilities in Garin and San Luis, Argentina for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition strengthened the product portfolio of Envases del Plata S.A. and would aid in further growth in the region. Ball Corporation is a US-based company that provides innovative, sustainable aluminium packaging for beverage, personal care, and household products.



The countries covered in the food cans market are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK, and USA.





Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06282162/?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




Snubbed: Cristiano Ronaldo is expected to reject a huge offer from Saudi Arabia (Getty Images)

Cristiano Ronaldo is expected to reject a mega offer from an unnamed Saudi Arabian club.

The 37-year-old has asked to leave Old Trafford and was offered to Chelsea, although Thomas Tuchel has opted not to move for the forward.

Ronaldo is absent from Uniteds pre-season tour of Thailand and Australia due to a family issue and speculation continues over his future.

The club have repeatedly said that the veteran is not for sale and manager Erik ten Hag reiterated that stance earlier in the week.

Few could realistically afford Ronaldo, but a club in Saudi Arabia is understood to have sounded him out about a potential two-year deal worth 275million euros (233.4million).

That figure would dwarf any other players wage and could also see United receive a fee in the region 30m euros (25.45m).

But Ronaldo is expected to reject the proposal - perhaps no surprise given his desire to play top level football, with Uniteds lack of Champions League football a key part of his frustration.

There remains no update as to when the forward will link up with Ten Hags side, who are currently in Melbourne, Australia.

Additional reporting from PA
SWNS

Americans are using therapy to cure their midweek slump, new research suggests. In a poll of 2,009 adults, 59% have either attended or currently attend therapy. Of those respondents, almost eight in 10 (79%) would rather have therapy during the workweek instead of the weekend (12%). About one-quarter (26%) prefer to have their session on a Wednesday, specifically. The poll, conducted by OnePoll on behalf of BetterHelp, found that for 35%, how they feel after a therapy session is greatly dependent on which day of the week the appointment took place, even more so than than the weather outside (31%) or by recent current events (30%). Fifty-nine percent would rather have therapy in the morning than the afternoon (26%) or evening (6%). Further narrowing down their preferences, 57% of respondents prefer their therapist to be older than them. You squeeze in all kinds of things into your schedule when you find them to be valuable, necessary, and important to you, and thats how you incorporate therapy sessions into your life, says Haesue Jo, licensed therapist and head of clinical operations at BetterHelp. You prioritize them. You adopt the belief that your mental wellness and maintenance of its health is valuable, necessary, and important. You save space for sessions, you schedule sessions, you show up to sessions, and you incorporate insight and learnings between sessions. Time and day aside, almost eight in 10 (77%) believe they would benefit from being able to message their therapist whenever they needed. The poll also asked respondents to describe the goals they set for 2022. While 31% said theyd like to learn a new hobby and 26% are vying for a promotion at work, others are working on their mental wellness. The most respondents (34%) are aiming to reduce their anxiety. Eighty-five percent of those surveyed acknowledged that their family and friends have varying degrees of impact on their overall health and happiness. Asked what actions respondents believe are necessary for good mental health, resting (37%), eating a balanced diet (35%) and socializing with others (31%) ranked high among respondents. Research also revealed that respondents spend the same amount of time caring for their mental health and physical health every week. The average person spends about four hours per week maintaining their physical and mental state, which equates to about 347 hours, or 15 days total per year. Even so, one in 10 dont dedicate any time per week to their mental and physical health. Respondents also noted that physical and mental health work in tandem with one another. About four in 10 (39%) said both are equally important when it comes to how healthy you feel overall. But others prioritized mental health slightly over physical health, 29% vs. 25% respectively. Eight in 10 believe their physical health is dependent on factors completely outside of their control, but only about six in 10 (57%) say the same about their mental health. Holistic wellness considers all aspects of what makes you feel healthy, says Jo. Some may ponder, 'The chicken or the egg?' and sometimes I ponder, 'physical or mental/emotional wellness?' Only focusing on one of these aspects leaves you vulnerable to unwellness overall, since mental and physical health are so intertwined. TOP HABITS FOR GOOD MENTAL HEALTH Drinking water - 37% Exercising - 37% Resting - 37% Eating a balanced diet - 35% Engaging in hobbies - 32% Positive self-talk - 32% ENDS
Five Memorable Hands from the 2021 WSOP Main Event Final Table

July 15 2022 Will Shillibier

Poker fans around the world have to wait one more day for the final table of the 2022 WSOP Main Event, eagerly anticipating the resumption of play at Bally's and Paris, Las Vegas.

And what better way to gear up for this must-not-miss final table  and perhaps get a taste of what we can expect this year  we thought we'd look back to the 2021 WSOP Main Event final table.

Here we take a look back at five memorable hands from last year's Main Event final table.

Follow All the Updates on the 2022 WSOP Main Event

From Second in Chips to Busto

Alejandro Lococo had started the final table third in chips, but had moved up to second in the standings after the early eliminations of Chase Bianchi and Jareth East.

When this hand took place, another short stack in the shape of Ozgur Secilmis propped up the leaderboard, but that didn't stop a huge confrontation breaking out between Lococo and chip leader Koray Aldemir.

Aldemir had three-bet pre-flop with after Lococo opened with . Aldemir flopped a full house, with Lococo check-calling all three streets  the last street for his tournament life  on a board of , only to be shown the bad news.

This hand saw Aldemir strengthen his hold on the chip lead, sitting with more than other six players' chips combined.

Fun Fact: This hand is used as a training exercise for new PokerNews live reporters!

Cracking Kings with T9 Suited

Secilmis had been the short-stack in the previous hand, but with play five-handed he found himself middle of the pack when this hand took place.

Having opened with he called the shove from Joshua Remitio for the American's last chips. Remitio's looked to be far behind, but the board saw him flop trips to crack Secilmis' pocket kings and double up. Secilimis would ultimately bust in fifth position.

Fun Fact: Secilmis was the first Turkish player to make the WSOP Main Event final table

Almost a Double KO!

It would have been one of the most famous hands in WSOP Main Event history, if only pocket queens had held.

Aldemir unsurprisingly still held the chip lead and it was the German with the ladies , having both Jack Oliver and Joshua Remitio at risk.

The flop gave both opponents outs. The turn gave Oliver additional flush outs, with the river completing his flush to triple up. Remitio would win the side pot with his rivered straight.

However, Aldemir still held the lead with double the remaining players' chips put together. It would take a lot to deny him victory.

Breaking Out the Double Check-Raise

George Holmes was one of the stories of the final table, making his way from home games to playing for millions of dollars on the greatest stage of all.

But this 'Home Game Hero' wasn't afraid of mixing it up three-handed.

Both he and Jack Oliver were battling against Aldemir, when Holmes made this extravagant play. Check-raising Oliver twice on a board, with Oliver throwing his hand away on the turn.

Oliver would be eliminated in third place, which brought the tournament to heads-up. George Holmes or Koray Aldemir - who would come out on top?

Clinching Victory in Style

More often than not, the final hand of the WSOP Main Event is an all-in confrontation; the two players enduring the agony of the run-out with the cameras and confetti poised.

On this occasion, the moment of victory was preceded by a drawn-out chess match of a poker hand, with Aldemir getting it right on the river to come out on top.

Having check-raised on a flop, Aldemir bet on the turn with Holmes calling. The river was the and Aldemir checked.

With around 105 million chips in the middle, Holmes shoved for 133 million and Aldemir went into the tank. Three minutes later, Aldemir had made his decision. He called with for two pair, beating the top pair of Holmes. And just like that, he was world champion.
Kalidou Koulibaly has said goodbye to Napoli as he nears a move to Chelsea, saying: "you have been everything for me".

The centre-back joined Napoli in 2014 from Genk and spent eight years with the Italian club, winning the Supercoppa Italiana in 2014 as well as the Coppa Italia in 2020.

But he is now set to join Chelsea in a deal reported to be worth 34million.

He will look to help Chelsea close the gap to Liverpool and Manchester City, after the Londoners finished 18 points off second place and 19 adrift of top spot in the 2021-22 campaign.

The Senegal defender posted an Instagram post on Friday, where he bid farewell to the Napoli fans.

The caption read: "Victories, defeats, joys, disappointments. Too many emotions lived together: impossible to summarise them. But I keep everything: in my mind, in my heart.

"My two children were born in Naples. I have met people who will always be part of my life and who made me and my family feel at home: from the first to the last moment. Thanks to you, Naples, I became the man I am today.

"Thanks to the club, the president, the coaches, all my team-mates and all the people I have had the pleasure of working with over the years. Thank you, Naples and Neapolitans, for all the love we have given each other.

"Now I feel I have to leave and get back into the game: it's time for a new adventure. Go Napoli forever."
The Japanese prime minister has blamed inadequate police security for the assassination of former leader Shinzo Abe, who was shot while giving a speech.

Fumio Kishida said that officials at the National Public Safety Commission and National Police Agency were investigating what went wrong and will come up with measures to improve.

He said: "I urge them to fix what needs to be fixed, while also studying examples in other countries."

Mr Abe, the country's longest-serving prime minister, was assassinated last week in western city of Nara.

Mr Kishida also announced plans to hold a state funeral for Mr Abe later this year, noting his contributions at home and in boosting Japan's security alliance with the United States.

Mr Abe was shot with what appeared to be a homemade gun as he made a campaign speech outside at a political rally on Friday.

He sustained two neck wounds and died a few hours after the attack.

Photos and videos of the shooting show the alleged gunman was able to come close to Mr Abe.

A suspect, named by police as 41-year-old Yamagami Tetsuya, was arrested at the scene and is being detained for questioning.

The police said he told investigators that he shot Mr Abe because of a rumoured link between the former leader and a religious group he hated.

A government spokesman said it will review possible regulations on handmade guns.

Tomoaki Onizuka, the Nara prefectorial police chief, said: "We can't deny that there were problems with the security plan given how things ended.

"I feel a grave sense of responsibility."

Itaru Nakamura, commissioner general of the National Police Agency, has expressed regret for the killing.

He said at a news conference: "We failed to fulfil our responsibility to protect dignitaries.

"We take this extremely seriously.

"My responsibility at this stage is to devote all of my efforts to reviewing (the incident) so that police departments across the country will learn from the review to prevent similar incidents from ever happening again."

The assassination, the first of a sitting or former Japanese prime minister since the 1930s, shocked the nation.

Political violence is rare in Japan, which has strict gun regulations.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent in any way the editorial position of Euronews.

The 53 countries that make up the World Health Organization's European Region were officially declared wild polio-free in June 2002  a remarkable achievement that has been sustained each year since.

Recently, the United Kingdom announced its detection of vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV), a variant of the poliovirus that can emerge in under-immunised communities, in sewage samples in London.

This news is a stark reminder that until all forms of polio are gone globally every country remains at risk.

While sustaining a wild-polio-free status for the 20th year will be a victory - underlining the power of vaccines, the tireless efforts of ministries of health and health professionals to offer the benefits of vaccines to their populations amidst other public health priorities, and the level of commitment of the Regions Member States to eradicate polio - it is not the end of the story. Our job is not done.

High vaccination coverage has reduced polio cases globally by 99% since 1988, successfully wiping out two of the three wild poliovirus strains globally.

But today, the world faces a double burden. Serious programmatic and systemic challenges allow pockets of wild poliovirus to persist in Afghanistan and Pakistan, sometimes with the virus spilling over to other countries, including most recently into Malawi and Mozambique.

Vaccines remain our best defence against polio.

At the same time, outbreaks of vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) continue to be reported, particularly across Africa, but also in Europe. In addition to the VDPV recently detected in sewage in London, Israel, Tajikistan and Ukraine have all seen VDPV outbreaks in the last 12 months. Meanwhile, were witnessing declining immunisation rates in the European Region  to levels below those considered necessary to protect the population.

Story continues

Vaccines remain our best defence against polio. Until all forms of poliovirus are gone, every unvaccinated child, every un- and under-vaccinated community, is at risk. This is not the time to be complacent.

Looking back at what was required to achieve polio-free status in the European Region - and ahead at the tools available to address the challenges of the coming decade - we have good reason to be cautiously optimistic.

Lessons learned from the COVID-19 vaccination rollout, including engaging with communities and addressing misinformation and vaccine hesitancy have strengthened this hand.

Thanks to strong collaboration, effective vaccines and the European Immunization Agenda 2030: an apt instrument adopted by all 53 Member States in the Region, it is within our reach to sustain the Regions polio-free status for as long as it takes to achieve global eradication of the disease. To do this, we cannot ignore what happens overseas, hoping it wont reach our shores. Within WHOs European Programme of Work, Member States need to ensure that every child in the Region is vaccinated and thereby protected from this devastating disease.

No one person, country or region can eradicate polio alone  we need to join forces.

Indeed, the key to ending polio for good - everywhere - is robust primary health care capable of achieving and sustaining high polio vaccination coverage and quickly detecting and responding to an outbreak.

Eradication will require significant resources, but without continued efforts, hundreds of thousands of polio cases could emerge over the next decade resulting in tragic and avoidable health outcomes and costs.

No one person, country or region can eradicate polio alone  we need to join forces. The stakes are high, but so are the social and economic benefits of eradication.

This year the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), a public-private partnership led by national governments - with WHO, Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), UNICEF, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance  launched a US$4.8 billion ask to fund its new five-year strategy, vaccinate some 370 million children multiple times every year, and stop polio transmission once and for all.

Countries can pledge their support to the GPEI at the World Health Summit in Berlin this October. This moment presents a historic opportunity for the European Region to step up and establish itself on the world stage as a champion in the fight to protect the worlds children.

Building upon the solidarity demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic, countries in the European Region are well-placed to champion childhood immunisation and equity. Every contribution counts. We call on every government, in the Region and beyond, to expand political and financial support to GPEIs efforts to end all forms of the poliovirus.

Two decades after Europe was first certified as wild-polio-free by the European Regional Certification Commission for Poliomyelitis Eradication, this status is to be confirmed in October, for 2021 and 2022.

Let us not squander what weve worked so hard for. Instead, lets commit ourselves and lead the way toward a world in which no child is ever again paralysed by this preventable disease.

Dr Marc Danzon was the World Health Organization's Regional Director for Europe from 2000 to 2010 and Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge has been the World Health Organization's Regional Director for Europe since 2020.
China urges the Japanese side to take seriously the legitimate concerns of various parties and stop pushing forward the ocean discharge plan, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Thursday. #GLOBALink





Produced by Xinhua Global Service
The website thuocsi.vn launches Durex flagship store, paving way for first online wholesale pharmaceutical trading platform

thuocsi.vn, one of the leading successful start-ups in the health-tech industry, has recently inked a strategic partnership with Durex to facilitate the supply of the world's most popular condoms for pharmacies and clinics nationwide.

The deal enables Durex to open its own shop and distribute genuine products on the largest pharmaceutical e-commerce market in the country - thuocsi.vn, which has monthly sales transactions with nearly 15,000 official pharmaceutical traders around the country.

Under the recent partnership inked between Durex and thuocsi.vn, 15.000 pharmacies in thuocsi.vn system can easily buy genuine Durex

Vuong Dinh Vu, Co-founder and Commercial Director of thuocsi, said: "Our mission is to build up a mainstream healthcare ecosystem that most people can easily access. We will bring solutions and comfort for pharmacies about genuine sources with full invoices.

"We look forward to working with manufacturers, distributors as well as people in a new way, helping our partners get sustainable business benefits, thereby contributing to public healthcare with better quality and lower cost."

According to the businessman, cooperating with Reckitt to distribute genuine Durex products throughout thuocsi is a good mission because Durex is not only a well-known brand in the world but also the most popular condom brand in the Vietnamese market.

Soren Bech, General Director of Reckitt Vietnam, said that being a prestigious condom brand in the world in the past 90 years, Durex has always brought the best solutions for safe sex, creating a healthier and happier world.

"In Viet Nam, in recent years, Durex has made many efforts in safe sex promotion via practical activities in conjunction with NGOs as well as the Health Ministry's Administration of HIV/AIDS Control, encouraging people, especially youth, to use condoms to prevent sexually transmitted diseases," he said.

Soren Bech, General Director of Reckitt Vietnam and Vuong Dinh Vu, Co-founder and Commercial Director of thuocsi, launch the online Durex shop at the signing ceremony.

Bech said: "We are proud to cooperate with a reputable enterprise like thuocsi, which owns a nationwide distribution system, to bring Durex products to consumers. Together with thuocsi.vn and thousands of partners, we want to create more benefits for the community."

Through this strategic cooperation, Durex and thuocsi.vn want to distribute high-quality Durex products to customers such as pharmacies and clinics.

In addition, the two companies will jointly conduct many training activities on safe sex, product knowledge enhancement, and effective business solutions for Durex products.

With more than 90 years of experience, Durex has constantly been improving technology to improve consumers' experience. All Durex condoms are strictly examined before hitting the street to ensure the best quality for consumers.

Durex has made its products available on the online shop at thuocsi.vn platform devoted to pharmacies and clinics.

Durex has made many efforts in the journey to raise awareness about safe sex and prevent sexually transmitted diseases.

Durex accompanies the Health Ministry's HIV/AIDS Control programme with the DUREX RED campaign in 2019 or, more recently, the "Open up Unitour" programme, delivering educational information about safe sex to 16 major universities across the country.

Established in 2018, thuocsi.vn is one of the most successful leading startups in technology for medical services and healthtech.

thuocsi.vn is an e-commerce platform dedicated to pharmacies, clinics and hospitals. It includes the website and mobile application, providing and distributing drugs and pharmaceuticals, with nearly 15,000 pharmacies and clinics in the country. The thuocsi.vn website is gradually expanding its drug and pharmaceutical distribution network to other countries in Southeast Asia, such as Cambodia.

In the future, thuocsi.vn aims to not only help develop the healthcare system in the country but also serve as a foundation for modernising traditional distribution channels.
While domestic aviation recovers, it is important to make an effort to reduce the rate of delays and cancellations.  VNA/VNS Photo

HA NOI  The Civil Aviation Authority of Viet Nam on Wednesday asked domestic airlines to make an effort to reduce the rates of flight delays and cancellations.

inh Viet Thang, the civil aviation authoritys director, said that the domestic aviation market was recovering at a pace that beat every forecast, citing statistics that domestic visitors through airports in June increased by 38 per cent against the same period in 2019 before COVID broke out.

However, the number of delayed and cancelled flights has increased significantly, especially at Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat international airports, as the aviation infrastructure remains undeveloped, he said.

We cannot wait until the infrastructure system improves to reduce the rates of delays and cancellations, Thang said.

He pointed out that Noi Bai T3 Terminal was expected to go operational in July 2024 at the earliest and Long Thanh Airport in the second or third quarter of 2025, while Tan Son Nhat Airport would not be upgraded until Long Thanh was put into operation.

Whats important is to find new ways to solve the problems, including the application of technology to reduce the number of delays and cancellations and ensure travel demand, Thang said.

Affirming that there was much work to do, Thang said that it was important to have the determination to improve the situation, adding that if each stage was shortened and operation capacity improved, the airport would have better traffic, meaning delays and cancellations would decrease.

After surveying Tan Son Nhat Airport, Deputy Director of the Civil Aviation Authority Ho Minh Tan said that the flight delays at Tan Son Nhat Airport were quite severe in June. There were several reasons for the delays and cancellations.

Besides the overloaded infrastructure or bad weather, the arrangement of aeroplanes in the parking lots was not reasonable, not considering the aircraft's departure time.

According to Nguyen Quy on, deputy director of the Southern Flight Management Corporation, pilots must strictly follow the time they are allowed to occupy the runway. Every second saved from the time of runway occupation means a lot to flight operation.

Sharing the same viewpoint, Bui Thanh Ha from the Viet Nam Flight Management Corporation said that in a recent survey at Tan Son Nhat Airport, when Singapores B777-300 aeroplane landed, it took the pilot only 60 seconds to get off the runway while the Vietnamese pilot took nearly 70 seconds.

Deputy Director General of Vietnam Airlines Trinh Hong Quang said that no carriers wanted its flights to be delayed or cancelled. However, the market was growing too fast beyond every forecast, and carriers could not keep up.

Quang said that the carrier would cooperate with relevant management agencies to improve services and reduce the rates of delays and cancellations.

According to Thang, when the number of passengers on the plane increased, the infrastructure was limited, and congestion and flight delays were unavoidable.

It would be hard for passengers to accept that the flight, which took only 45 minutes from departure to arrival, was delayed for hours.

If there were no improvements, the number of flights must be reduced, Thang said, adding that even the UK had to cancel hundreds of thousands of flights recently.

Thang asked the Viet Nam Flight Management Corporation and the Airports Corporation of Viet Nam to coordinate to discuss the operation rules for parking and be flexible in accordance with flight times.

It is also necessary to regulate the time for occupying the runways of specific airports, especially Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat airports, which were overcrowded, he said.

More than 5,600 flights of domestic airlines were delayed in June, accounting for more than 18 per cent of the total number of flights and nearly 16 per cent higher than the same period of 2021 and 9.4 per cent higher than May.

Sixty-five flights were cancelled last month or 0.2 per cent of the total number of flights.

The most common reason for the delay was a late return of an aeroplane.

According to the International Air Transport Association, Viet Nam is among the countries with the fastest recovering domestic aviation market.  VNS
HA NOI  Viet Nam is the leading country for online purchases in Southeast Asia, with an average of 104 orders per year, per person, according to a new report.

Ninja Van Group, an e-logistics company, operating in Southeast Asian countries, including Viet Nam, published the report on, 'e-commerce beyond borders.'

Seventy-three per cent of survey respondents said they regularly shop on e-commerce shopping platforms, and 59 per cent said they have ordered or shopped on international websites many times.

Viet Nam currently accounts for 15 per cent of Southeast Asia's online shopping market, after Thailand with 16 per cent, and on par with the Philippines.

The report shows that Vietnamese people love online shopping and lead the region in many indicators.

"With strategic research demonstrating the development of the e-commerce and e-postal industries in Southeast Asia, we believe that the Vietnamese market is one of the countries with the most potential thanks to the sustainable and clear growth in recent years," said Phan Xuan Dung, sales director of Ninja Van Viet Nam.  VNS
CAN THO  The Can Tho Irradiation Joint Stock Company held a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday (July 14) for the construction of a large-capacity irradiation centre in Tan Phu Ward, Cai Rang District, Can Tho City.

The centre will be located on an area of nearly two hectares. The centre will include a warehouse and irradiation line to serve in the sterilisation of fruits, seafood, food and medical products.

Irradiation is considered a safe technology that helps to kill all bacteria and micro-organisms and keep fruits fresh for longer periods, even up to a few months. Major fruit importers such as Australia, Canada and the United States require fruits to be irradiated before they enter their countries.

The centre is expected to open by 2023. Fruit firms in Mekong Delta provinces will able to save on logistics costs, as they no longer will have to transfer goods to other provinces or cities for irradiation.

The centre can handle up to 50,000 tonnes of fruit yearly.

Nguyen Trong Tin, chairman of Can Tho Irradiation Joint Stock Company, said that at present, the Mekong Delta accounts for more than 95 per cent of rice exports, 70 per cent of fruit exports and 65 per cent of seafood exports for the whole country.

According to Tin, the centre will make an important contribution to Can Tho as a logistics centre for the whole Mekong Delta.  VNS
HA NOI  Some 65 photos and seven videos featuring historical relic sites, landscapes, customs and the daily routines of Iranian people are on display at the Viet Nam Museum of Ethnology.

Titled "Iranian Art Heritage, the cradle of civilisation," the event showcases a stunning collection of carpets, hand-painted vases, and engraved and enamelled copper.

On the one hand, handicrafts reflect the wisdom and craftsmanship of the Iranian people and give visitors a glimpse of the sophisticated Iranian artistry and its national essence that evolved through the ages. On the other hand, photographs depict Iran's historical traces, beautiful landscapes, and a glance at the people's traditional customs, rituals and daily life.

The event aims to celebrate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Iran and Viet Nam.

Ali Akbar Nazari, Ambassador of Iran to Viet Nam, said culture played a significant role in international communication.

"Realising the special place of culture as an influential sort of soft power, the embassy considers holding cultural events a priority," he said.

"The exhibition is a warm-up and introduction to several cultural events that we will hold in 2023 for the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Iran and Viet Nam.

"To give visitors a better understanding of the brilliance of Iran's art heritage, civilisation, and time-honoured history as well as promote cultural exchange, a harmonious combination of valuable handicrafts and photographs collected from different parts of Iran are being introduced.

"The country is home to one of the world's oldest continuous major civilisations, with historical and urban settlements dating back to 7,000 BC."

Foreign Affairs Deputy Minister Pham Quang Hieu appreciates the exhibition. He said the photography and handicrafts told a compelling story about historical events, customs and the unique culture of the Iranian people stretching from the sixth century BC to the modern day.

"I believe that the exhibition will provide Vietnamese people with a new and more intuitive perspective of the brilliant Persian civilisation, and the land of the exciting and curious tales of Lady Sheherazade, which is familiar to many Vietnamese generations," he said.

"The exhibition will also greatly contribute to our common goal of building a better relationship between the two peoples."

The event will run until July 31, at the Kite Building, Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, Nguyen Van Huyen Street, in Ha Noi. VNS
BRUSSELS  The European Union (EU) always attaches importance to its relationship with Viet Nam, and considers the country an important partner in the region, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said.

She was speaking on July 15 (local time) at a reception for Ambassador Nguyen Van Thao, Head of the Vietnamese delegation to the EU, who presented his credentials.

Von der Leyen said the two sides will also continue to coordinate and support each other at regional and international forums, in line with the EU Strategy on strengthening relations with the Indo-Pacific Region.

The Ambassador conveyed Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's regards to the EU President and an invitation for her to visit Viet Nam at the earliest time.

Ambassador Thao also presented the priorities during his term, focusing on promoting cooperation on four main pillars.

Trade and investment will be strengthened along with promoting the effectiveness of the EU-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), especially in the context of the volatile world and regional situations with high risks of supply chain disruption and food security issues.

The ambassador noted that despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, two-way trade turnover between Viet Nam and the EU last year and in the first five months of this year still recorded impressive growth. He hoped that the EU would continue to encourage more diversified economic cooperation and increase investment in Viet Nam, especially in important fields such as sustainable development, green and circular economy, logistics and modern infrastructure.

The second pillar is cooperation in responding to climate change. Thao affirmed that Viet Nam places high priority on and is determined to deliver on its commitments at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), striving to achieve the goal of net zero emissions by 2050, suggesting that the two sides enhance collaboration in this field because this is also an area of great concern and high priority for the EU.

Cooperation between Viet Nam and EU in green energy and sustainable energy transition is another priority. The ambassador said that PM Chinh highly appreciated the G7's considering the establishment of a Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) with Viet Nam, which is coordinated by the UK and the EU. Energy transition is important to the successful implementation of Viet Nams socio-economic development strategy in the coming period, and will create a milestone in Viet Nam-EU relations, he said.

Attention will be paid to collaboration between Viet Nam and EU in other important areas. The ambassador said he highly appreciates the EUs issuance of many important strategies, including the Cooperation Strategy with the Indo-Pacific region, which reflects that the bloc attaches great importance to the regions role.

Viet Nam will continue to work closely with the EU on the basis of mutual benefits, peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and around the world, Thao said.

The EC President agreed with the cooperation priorities proposed by the Vietnamese Ambassador, saying that these are also areas the EU values and promotes in the coming time, especially trade and investment promotion, the establishment of JETP and response to climate change.  VNS
RIYADH, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Arabia announced Friday a decision to open its air space for all air carriers.

The country's General Authority of Civil Aviation tweeted that the decision meets Saudi Arabia's dedication to fulfilling its obligations under the Chicago Convention of 1944, which stipulates non-discrimination between civil aircrafts used in international air navigation.

The decision consolidates the Kingdom's position as a global hub connecting three continents and enhancing international air connectivity.

On the same day, Israeli caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid applauded the Saudi Arabian decision on its airspace openness. "This is the first step. We will continue to work with due caution, for the Israeli economy, its security and for the citizens of Israel," Lapid said in a statement released by his office.

Israeli airlines previously could not travel over Saudi airspace due to a ban, making flights to regions like Asia costlier and longer.

The announcement comes on the same day Saudi Arabia prepares to welcome U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday.

Biden's visit is his first to the Kingdom and the Middle East since becoming president. He will meet Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and the country's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud. 
Deputy Minister of National Defence Sen. Lt. Gen. Hoang Xuan Chien meets Egyptian Ambassador to Viet Nam Amal Abdel Kader Elmorsi.  Photo qdnd.vn

HA NOI  Deputy Minister of National Defence Sen. Lt. Gen. Hoang Xuan Chien hosted a reception in Ha Noi on Thursday for newly-accredited Egyptian Ambassador to Viet Nam Amal Abdel Kader Elmorsi.

Welcoming the diplomat, Chien expressed hope that she will pay attention to and support the maintenance and development of defence cooperation between Viet Nam and Egypt, in the interest of each country, and for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the regions and the world.

Stressing that Egypt is one of Viet Nams active partners in Africa and bilateral defence cooperation still holds great potential for development, Chien proposed both sides increase delegation exchanges, set up a mechanism to share information on the political security and socio-economic situation as well as UN peacekeeping missions in Africa, and discuss the possibility of collaboration in addressing post-war bomb and mine consequences.

Ambassador Amal Salama emphasised the importance of defence cooperation in the two countries relations, confirming that her country wants to boost collaboration with Viet Nam in this field.

She also suggested the two countries speed up the establishment of a joint committee on defence cooperation, share experience in cybersecurity and collaborate in the defence industry and training of Vietnamese and Arab languages for the two countries military officers.

On the same day, Sen. Lt. Gen. Chien received Colonel Hara Takashi, Japanese Defence Attache in Ha Noi for the 2019-2022 tenure, and his successor Colonel Ishihara Masanao.

On behalf of the Defence Ministrys leaders, he extended his condolences to the Japanese people and the family of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe over his death.

Chien announced that, despite the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, defence cooperation between Viet Nam and Japan has maintained growth and promoted its role as an important pillar in bilateral relations.

He appreciates Colonel Haras contributions to the bilateral ties during his tenure in Viet Nam, expressing his hope that Colonel Ishihara will help promote results achieved during the implementation of defence cooperation contents and have new initiatives to further boost the ties.

The Japanese officers expressed their hope that Viet Nam will organise several events that were delayed due to the pandemic, including the International Maritime Review and International Defence Expo.

Colonel Ishihara said he wishes to further bilateral defence ties with the Vietnamese Defence Ministry during his term in Viet Nam.  VNS
HA NOI  ao Hong Lan, former Secretary of Bac Ninh Party Committee, will serve as the Acting Minister of Health, as the former minister is under arrest for his role in COVID-19 test price gouging.

The appointment was announced by the Politburo and the Government on Friday at a ceremony held at the Ministry of Healths headquarters in Ha Noi, with the attendance of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Deputy Prime Minister Vu uc am and Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra, as well as representatives of Bac Ninh Province.

Lan, born in 1971 in the northern province of Hai Duong, has a masters degree in economics and is currently a member of the Central Party Committee. She used to serve as Deputy Director of the Social Insurance Department at the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA), Deputy Chief and then Chief of the MoLISA Office, Deputy Minister of the MoLISA, Vice Secretary of the Bac Ninh Province's Party Committee in the 2015-20 tenure and served as Party Secretary of Bac Ninh Province for the 2020-25 tenure from July 2021, with a separate decision issued on Thursday by the Politburo removing her from this post.

The Government leader in the ceremony said Lan is a capable official who has excelled in the many positions she has occupied at both a local and central level.

He trusts that the new health leader will utilise her strengths and capacity, together with the health ministrys cadres, workers and staff, to overcome challenges and successfully carry out all assigned tasks, PM Chinh said.

The health sector has made great efforts and showed unyielding spirit in the face of COVID-19 over the past two years, which has made significant contributions to the socio-economic recovery achievements that the country is seeing now as pandemic is under control.

He urged the health sector to focus on maintaining solidarity and keeping up integrity, bringing more attention to consolidation of leadership as well as personnel training and capacity raising efforts.

The health sector is also asked with closely following COVID-19 developments in the world, especially the emergence of new variants, and continuing to push the vaccination campaign, PM Chinh said, adding that the new minister should be more resolute in directing the inoculation efforts in the face of currently unsatisfactory vaccination progress.

The Government leader also wants more attention to address bottlenecks in procurement of medical items and drugs to ensure sufficiency and meet peoples demands, raising preventive medicine capacity, and getting more quality healthcare workers at all levels.

In her remarks, the new acting health minister Lan recalled her experience of the COVID-19 outbreak in Bac Ninh in 2021.

I do not come from a healthcare background. Taking on this role, everything is new to me, but with responsibility to the Party, the public, and the 500,000 people in the health sector, I will do my best, maintaining the devotion of generations of doctors, mobilising the wisdom of the whole sector, implementing solutions to overcome immediate difficulties and for the long-term development of the sector, she said.

Her predecessor, former minister Nguyen Thanh Long, is currently under investigation for mismanagement and facilitating medical firm Viet A to overstate the prices of COVID-19 test kits. The scandal has led to the arrest of nearly 70 people, mostly health officials, from across the country. This case has also resulted in a shortage of drugs and medical equipment in State facilities as the procurement agencies are fearful of wrongdoings.  VNS
HA NOI  The High Peoples Court of Ha Noi on Wednesday (July 13) reduced the prison sentence of the former chairman of the municipal Peoples Committee Nguyen uc Chung.

Chung was convicted of intervening in the bidding of two digitisation projects at the Ha Noi Department of Planning and Investment.

According to the court of appeals' decision, Chung will serve a jail term of two years, taking into account his work and fulfilment of compensation, instead of the three years given at the original trial.

Chung submitted to the court 85 commendation certificates and medals for his good performance in the past, from the Police Department and the People's Committee of Ha Noi, to petition the court to mitigate his penalties.

Along with two previous sentences, Chung will spend a total of 12 years behind the bars from the date of arrest on August 28, 2020.

The trial panel found that Chung took advantage of his assigned position to illegally interfere in bidding activities, adversely affecting contractor selection.

The bidding package for digitising business registration data was invested by the Department of Planning and Investment.

However, during the implementation of the bidding packages, at the proposal of Bui Quang Huy, General Director of Nhat Cuong Company, Chung halted bidding, which went against regulations. This created favourable conditions for Nhat Cuong to win two bidding packages in Ha Noi.

At the court of appeal, the trial panel assessed that Chung had accepted personal responsibility.

Moreover, the defendant was still suffering from a serious illness that required treatment, so the court accepted to reduce the sentence for the defendant.

During the two days of trial, Chung repeatedly appealed against and denied creating favourable conditions for Nhat Cuong Company to participate in the bidding package at the Ha Noi Department of Planning and Investment.

Chung said that he only had a normal social relationship with the owner of Nhat Cuong Company dating back to when he was in the police force.

Regarding the bid suspension, Chung said that the main reason was there were many mistakes in the bidding invitation documents from the Department of Planning and Investment, and the project was not appraised.

He declared that he acted according to his authority and not to clear the way as alleged, but make the project comply with the law, as well as save and effectively use the State budget.

However, by the end of the trial, Chung no longer argued that he was wronged, but instead asked the court to consider reducing the punishment.

The court of appeal also reduced the sentences of Pham Thi Thu Huong, former Chief of the Office of the Department of Planning and Investment, to two years and 8 months instead of three years and 6 months, and Pham Kim Tuyen, former Head of Business Registration Department (Department of Planning and Investment) to three years in prison, compared to four years and 6 months.

The Court said that the first-instance judgments pronounced against Huong and Tuyen were correct and appropriate.

However, these two defendants committed crimes under the direction of their superiors, and during the investigation and trial, they made a sincere declaration.

During the court of appeal procedures, the two defendants asked their families to fulfil their civil obligations on their behalf, to prove their remorse. The court noted that the two defendants had paid more than VN3 billion (US$129,000) each to overcome the consequences.  VNS
HA NOI  Viet Nam needs a strategy to transition to green and renewable energy in response to climate change that contributes to economic development and fulfils international commitments, said Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

He made the statement yesterday while chairing the third meeting of the national steering committee for implementing Viet Nam's commitments at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26).

At the COP26, Viet Nam committed to developing and implementing strong emissions reduction measures to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

PM Chinh said achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 is the inevitable development goal of the world through strong energy transition and low-emission development. This is also a new global requirement regarding trade and investment set after the COP26.

PM Chinh said that the commitments should be implemented under a scientific and result-oriented roadmap, which needs to set monthly, quarterly and five-year targets.

Regarding tasks for the future, ministries and agencies should revamp their leadership and management to better supervise the implementation of the commitments, and remove obstacles to the work, the PM noted.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is requested to promptly complete and submit to the Government a master plan on tasks and solutions to implement the results of the COP26. Based on dossiers submitted by the ministry, the Government Office will review and report to the PM to approve the national strategy on climate change adaptation by 2050 and the action plan on methane emission reduction by 2030.

The Ministry of Science and Technology is entrusted to propose policies to encourage the development of green technology and renewable energy.

The PM agreed with the plan to organise a cooperation dialogue with development partners about the implementation of goals of net-zero emissions and energy transition.

The PM asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade to complete the plan to realise the declaration to transit from coal-fired to renewable energy.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Government Office is entrusted with with gathering reports and opinions on the current shortcomings to submit to the Government. This will all for current regulations to be adjusted, creating conditions for renewable energy development.

The Government leader instructed the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to conduct a survey and evaluate wind power potential across the country.

PM Chinh noted that ministries, agencies and localities need to continue reviewing and proposing solutions to help promptly tackle shortcomings and difficulties in climate change adaptation and renewable energy growth.

The focus should be made on reviewing related mechanisms and policies, mobilising all legal financial resources, innovating science and technology and improving human resources quality.

One of the important goals is to develop the energy transition industry, study energy technology and promote the manufacturing of made-in-Vietnam equipment, he said.

To realise commitments at COP26, PM Chinh said it is necessary to acknowledge that climate change adaptation and net-zero emissions are opportunities for sustainable development and get priority in development policies.

Climate change adaptation must be carried out based on equality and be the responsibility and obligation of the whole political system and society.

At the meeting, the participants reviewed what have been done since the previous meeting, and looked into a draft project on organising a conference with international organisations and development partners to discuss cooperation in achieving the net-zero emission targets.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment reported that right after the COP26, Viet Nam actively and proactively took measures to implement its commitments.

Following the PM's directions at the second meeting five months ago, ministries, agencies and localities focused on building a draft plan to implement the results of the COP26, a national strategy on climate change adaptation by 2050, a national action plan on green growth by 2021-2030 and an action plan on methane emission reduction by 2030.

Some ministries, including ministries of Industry and Trade, Transport, Construction and Foreign Affairs, have built their action plans to realise Viet Nam's commitments at COP26.

Information dissemination has been strengthened to raise awareness of the whole political system and the public about climate change.

The State Bank of Viet Nam said many partners have expressed interest in supporting sustainable and green development in Viet Nam.  VNS
People in Chieng Noi, a remote mountainous commune of Mai Son District, Son La Province, are being held back by a lack of suitable transport infrastructure, forcing farmers to push their motorbikes up steep, muddy roads to sell their produce and children to wade through streams up to 70cm deep to get to school.
Rain showers brought brief respite from the heat in Waco on Thursday, but triple-digit temperatures are expected to continue as more local cities announce restrictions to curb water use, including an immediate measure in Bellmead because of a water well malfunction.

Lacy Lakeview and West also had announced new water-use restrictions by Thursday, following restriction announcements since last week in Waco, Hewitt, Woodway and Robinson.

National Weather Service meteorologist Juan Hernandez said 0.01 of an inch of rain fell Thursday at Waco Regional Airport. Hernandez said most of the rain from the storm fell in areas west of the city. Year to date, Waco has received just 8.86 inches of rain, 43% of its typical rainfall total of 20.58 inches.

Hernandez said the rain brought Thursday afternoons temperature down into the high 70s and low 80s, but it will have little impact on weather in the following days or the water levels at Lake Waco, the areas main drinking water reservoir, which is at its lowest since 2006.

Bellmead and Lacy Lakeview both implemented water restrictions Thursday. Bellmead City Manager Yost Zakhary said a water well malfunctioned Wednesday, leading to Bellmeads restrictions. Bellmead gets all of its water from its own groundwater wells.

The restrictions remained voluntary Thursday, but if residents do not comply, the water level could quickly become low enough that it would force the city to mandate restrictions and impose fines up to $2,000 for violations.

If we dont have voluntary compliance, the water will get down low really fast, Zakhary said.

Bellmead is asking residents to not use water outside and not to use dishwashers or washing machines until after 7 p.m. Car wash hours have been restricted to between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., and the splash pad at Brame Park has been closed.

Zakhary said the city is not planning on buying water from Waco and he expects Bellmeads water supply to endure the downed well.

However, Zakhary said residents need to help the city conserve water so critical resources including medical facilities do not run out of water.

Zakhary said bringing the well back online is the citys top priority. City workers are waiting on parts to repair the well, and it is expected to be operational again within 72 hours, he said.

Before the well went out, Bellmead had called on residents to use less water in general, to not water during peak hours and to avoid washing personal vehicles at home. The citys pre-outage goal was to reduce use by 20% and avoid the need for mandatory restrictions.

Under the restrictions in Lacy Lakeview, watering is not allowed on Thursdays or any day between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Residential customers at odd-numbered addresses may water on Tuesday and Saturday. Residential customers at even-numbered addresses may water on Wednesday and Sunday. All nonresidential customers may water on Monday and Friday. Hand watering and the use of soaker hoses are allowed on designated watering days plus two more days of residents choice.

Lacy Lakeview City Manager Keith Bond said violations of the restrictions can carry a fine of up to $2,000. Bond said Lacy Lakeview buys all of its water from Waco and must follow drought restrictions and contingency plans similar to what Waco implements.

Its on all of us to keep water use down, Bond said. We have plenty of water, but we need to conserve now.

McGregor does not have any restrictions in place, but City Manager Kevin Evans said city officials will meet Friday to determine if restrictions are necessary. McGregor gets about 80% of its water from Lake Belton and the rest from groundwater wells, Evans said.

We will assess the situation and act accordingly, Evans said.

He said he believes the city is in good shape for water, and will likely only implement voluntary restrictions.

West Mayor Tommy Muska said West will implement water restrictions Monday, which will be voluntary. Muska said the city will ask residents with odd-numbered addresses to water only on days with odd-numbered dates and residents with even-numbered addresses to water only on days with even-numbered dates. For example, someone with a street number of 401 could water on July 15, while someone with a street number of 402 could water on July 16.

Muska said West saw its typical summertime increase in water use arrive earlier than usual this year, and has been using about half a million gallons of water per day.

Were getting August heat in June, Muska said.

Wests water comes from groundwater wells and from Lake Waco, via purchases from the city of Waco.

If voluntary restrictions do not decrease water use, West may decide to implement mandatory restrictions, Muska said.
A San Diego company specializing in shipping container buildings hopes to salvage the multicolored mass of shipping containers at the corner of Fourth Street and Jackson Avenue to open a boutique hotel, shops, restaurants and a plaza by next summer.

The estimated $11.6 million project got a nod Thursday for a $2.3 million tax-funded contribution from Wacos downtown Tax Increment Financing zone board.

The structure was originally dubbed The Containery, a shopping and dining complex pitched by developer Bill Wetterman in 2017. That project was up for a $488,000 TIF contribution but missed a 2019 deadline, ran into financial trouble and fell through. Multiple contractors filed liens against the property, and the lender, TFNB Your Bank For Life, foreclosed on it last year.

After the Containery folded with construction approaching the final stages, the bank hired the projects broker, Gregg Glime, to sell the property. But it was Assistant City Manager Lisa Blackmon who brought the property to the attention of Rad Lab, the architecture and development firm that confirmed plans to buy the property in April.

Blackmon said she admired Rad Labs projects in other cities, and when she started working for the city of Waco, she contacted officials at the firm to let them know about the Containerys fate and to ask if they would be interested in picking it up.

I said Although I wanted to work with you in California, Im in Waco, Texas now, and weve got this half-built container yard I think you should check out, Blackmon said.

Rad Lab CEO Philip Auchettl said other than a trip to BSR Cable Park, now known as Waco Surf, he did not know much about Waco and thought the project was weird. In April, he, Glime and Blackmon toured the building, and he saw potential in the abandoned project.

If all goes well, the structure will open under the name Herringbone in August next year. The TIF board voted Thursday to recommend awarding Rad Lab $2.3 million for work including facade improvements, burying nearby power lines and pedestrian improvements around Jackson Avenue.

When we first were invited out to Waco, we were met with a very brightly painted shipping container project that had been three-quarters built, deteriorating and clearly not built to code, Auchettl said during Thursdays TIF board meeting. Most standard developers wouldnt know what to do in this scenario, let alone touch it.

Auchettl told the board he revised his presentation to keep it from turning into a horror story about the issues Rad Lab discovered in the structure, but there are many. He said there are a range of basic health and safety violations and elements that show engineers were not allowed to oversee the work.

Everything needs to be replaced, rebuilt, reengineered, Auchettl said.

He said Mitchell Construction, the original general contractor on the project, was sidelined early on and should not be blamed for the result.

He said the containers used for the project are in rougher shape than Rad Lab would have chosen, and many surfaces are so dented that the only way to conceal them is to paint the whole structure a darker color and hide the worst spots with decoration.

What I always tell people is if you are doing a shipping container development, make sure youre using someone who has experience, Auchettl said. Otherwise, what ends up happening is whoevers involved ends up learning on your dollar. Unfortunately, I believe thats what happened.

Problems run deeper than the dents. During the TIF meeting, Auchettl told the board the developments elevator, housed in the tallest green container tower, was leaking oil that was running directly into the citys sewer system.

Waco City Manager Bradley Ford said the project never progressed far enough for a city inspection, but the leaking elevator would have never passed.

Auchettl said shipping container projects are full of pitfalls for developers who are not familiar with their quirks. The containers themselves grow weaker with every hole cut into them, which means they need more reinforcement with every modification.

Shipping containers are very immaculately engineered to be very efficient for what theyre doing, which is not being a building, Auchettl said.

Because water pools in some parts of the plaza, the brick paving and drainage work will need to be redone. Shipping container roofs are lightly sloped and very thin, he said. Putting the containers side by side trapped rain water between the roofs and caused water damage, so Rad Lab plans to replace the roofs entirely.

He said some people get the impression shipping container projects are cheaper, but in reality they are just as demanding as regular buildings because the containers require reinforcement, plumbing, drywall and all the other components of a regular building.

Ultimately, it just ends up being a facade, he said.

Auchettl said the previous developers spent most of their time and resources on the warehouse building next to the shipping container structure. He said it has stood since 1928 and has been home to an auto shop, gas station, drycleaner and eventually an auto maintenance shop for the city of Waco.

There wasnt even a concrete floor in this building, he said.

The warehouse has new bathrooms and has been reinforced with structural steel and brought up to code. The second floor will serve as a 2,000-square-foot event space for the hotel, which could host everything from weddings to recitals.

An orange container nearest to the warehouse building is slated to become an ice cream and coffee shop. Toward the back of the plaza, Rad Lab plans to build a stage for live music and bring in a convenience store with items like charcuterie boards, bottles of wine and other picnic-friendly fare that customers can eat at large tables in the plaza, which will be shaded by trees.

Auchettl and Glime said they plan to bring in stores that complement each other and will not step on each others toes. Auchettl said he hopes to bring in a mix of small businesses and larger brands. Leases will last 12 months, and Rad Lab will start taking applications soon.

Of the 50 or so shipping containers, about 12 will house third-party retailers. The boutique hotel will have about 19 rooms made of shipping containers.

Rad Lab is partnering with Lucky Find Hospitality on the hotel portion of the project, which will take up the second floor of the complex.

Corey McEntyre, head chef and owner of Milo All Day, is in talks to run Herringbones food and beverage program.

Design House Jewelry Studio is the developments only current tenant, in the renovated warehouse. After construction wraps up, the warehouse will also house a cocktail lounge, sushi bar and wood-fired pizza spot, which would bear different names but all be run by MacIntyre for Herringbone.
ASHLAND  After choosing to not extend the deadline again to abate a nuisance property in the downtown district, the Ashland City Council reversed its decision and granted the owner additional time to fix the issues.

Lowell Krueger attended the July 7 city council meeting with his attorney, Maureen Freeman-Caddy, to discuss the nuisance complaint at his property at 106 South 16th Street.

At the June 16 city council meeting, the council chose not to extend the deadline to abate the nuisance complaints, including issues with the basement walls and foundation. Also at that meeting, the council voted to obtain bids for demolition, rehabilitation or sale of the property by July 7.

However, at the July 7 meeting, the council voted to allow Krueger until Aug. 18 to meet with representatives of the city council and Building Official Bill Krejci to determine a checklist of things that need to be done in order to bring the structure into compliance with city codes, as well as a timeline for when it would be done.

Prior to the vote, Freeman-Caddy questioned the councils right to order Kruegers building to be demolished. She said the council passed a resolution ordering Krueger to abate the nuisance, not to demolish the house.

What does abate mean. It does not mean to demolish. It means to fix the nuisance thats sitting there today, she said.

Freeman-Caddy said the council asked Krueger to fix the hole in the basement, which she said has been done.

At this point it seems the main structural integrity of the house has been shored up, she said.

Kruegers attorney also noted that it is her legal opinion that if the city tears down the house, it would be tantamount to inverse condemnation, where a property owner can be compensated if their property is damaged by a public use.

I have advised my client that I think its an order to get an injunction, Freeman-Caddy said. If you proceed to demolish, I think that theres a fairly good case for inverse condemnation, on this, particularly since this house is not one that I would look at and say this is a bulldozable demolition abatement at this point in time.

Council Member Bruce Wischmann said the council gave Krueger over a year to get the basement done. The council passed the resolution requiring Krueger to abate the nuisance in March 2021. Multiple extensions were granted since then.

Its been over a year, Wischmann said.

The council also set a two-year timeline for the house to be made habitable, which would include basic necessities like heating, air conditioning, running water and electricity, according to Wischmann.

The consensus of the council was to get the house to an insurable standard, he said.

But Wischmann said Krueger did not seem to be getting things done in a timely manner, and that is why they did not grant him an extension at the June meeting.

Council Member Chuck Niemeyer suggested Krueger hire help to get the work done.

If we see a schedule, it has to have the fact that (youre) going to get some help, he said.

After going into executive session to discuss the matter further, the council agreed to work with Krueger and his friend, Christine Devilier, to set up a timeline for completion. Freeman-Caddy asked that Krueger be given a list of expectations from the city so he can research and find contractors to develop a timeline.

Mayor Rick Grauerholz was also agreeable to the idea of giving Krueger extra time.

My thoughts are, if we can come to some sort of an official agreement, with a timeline this can be an asset to Ashland, he said.

The council also voted to table the selection of a contractor to demolish the structure until the Aug. 18 meeting, in the hopes that Krueger will have a schedule for completion that is agreeable to the council.
China's hog production stays in reasonable range: commerce ministry

Xinhua) 08:45, July 15, 2022

BEIJING, July 14 (Xinhua) -- China's hog production remains in a normal and reasonable range at present, said Shu Jueting, spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), on Thursday.

Pork prices in China surged since mid-June, while pork supply is generally sufficient, Shu told a press conference.

The MOC will coordinate relevant governmental departments to take proactive measures to ensure pork supply and stabilize pork prices, said Shu.

Information on the supply and demand, as well as prices of pork, would be released timely to stabilize market expectations.

Shu also noted that the country would make better use of pork reserves to prevent fluctuations in the market.

Efforts will be made to smooth the channels between production and sales in regions hit by the COVID-19 pandemic or floods to guarantee the meat consumption of residents.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)
Aerial photo taken on July 7, 2022 shows a view of the Eighth Bangladesh-China Friendship Bridge in Pirojpur, Bangladesh. The Eighth Bangladesh-China Friendship Bridge is now waiting to be inaugurated and handed over to the Bangladeshi government. (Xinhua)

DHAKA, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The Eighth Bangladesh-China Friendship Bridge is now waiting to be inaugurated and handed over to the Bangladeshi government.

China Railway 17th Bureau Group Co., Ltd constructed the 2.96 km bridge under a joint venture of China Railway Major Bridge Reconnaissance & Design Institute Co., Ltd. and China Railway Wuhan Bridge Engineering Consulting Supervision Co., Ltd.

Seven friendship bridges have already been completed across Bangladesh with Chinese grants. And the eighth one was built over the Kocha River in Bangladesh's Pirojpur district, 185 km southwest of Dhaka.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will formally inaugurate the much-awaited bridge in September, Bangladeshi Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader told journalists.

Officials said the bridge will play an important role in accelerating the flow of people and goods in Barisal and Khulna divisions in southern Bangladesh. 

Aerial photo taken on July 7, 2022 shows a view of the Eighth Bangladesh-China Friendship Bridge in Pirojpur, Bangladesh. The Eighth Bangladesh-China Friendship Bridge is now waiting to be inaugurated and handed over to the Bangladeshi government. (Xinhua)

Aerial photo taken on July 7, 2022 shows a view of the Eighth Bangladesh-China Friendship Bridge in Pirojpur, Bangladesh. The Eighth Bangladesh-China Friendship Bridge is now waiting to be inaugurated and handed over to the Bangladeshi government. (Xinhua)

Aerial photo taken on July 7, 2022 shows a view of the Eighth Bangladesh-China Friendship Bridge in Pirojpur, Bangladesh. The Eighth Bangladesh-China Friendship Bridge is now waiting to be inaugurated and handed over to the Bangladeshi government. (Xinhua)

Aerial photo taken on July 7, 2022 shows a view of the Eighth Bangladesh-China Friendship Bridge in Pirojpur, Bangladesh. The Eighth Bangladesh-China Friendship Bridge is now waiting to be inaugurated and handed over to the Bangladeshi government. (Xinhua)
The Royal Air Force Museum has been fortunate to acquire three significant collections from 20th-century aviation photographers. Each adds to the record of aviation in the 20th century, especially the history of the Royal Air Force, and they have been generously donated by their families.

The first collection was acquired before lockdown. Richard Winslade worked with historic aviation organizations, including the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and the Royal Navy Historic Flight as was. He had scanned and cleaned many of his images before uploading them to his page on Flickr.

The second collection was offered just before lockdown, but couldnt be collected before the imposition of travel restrictions. Richard Wilson was one of the foremost aviation photographers of his generation, learning from masters, such as Charles E Brown, and taking their place following their retirement. Richard, like Brown, worked closely with RAF Public Relations and was awarded the CP Robertson Memorial Trophy, presented annually to the person considered to have made the best contribution in presenting the work of the RAF to the public. An interview with Richard was published in Supplement No. 7 of Aeroplane Monthly in 1985.

[wbn_ads_google_one}

While we were waiting for an opportunity to collect the Wilson collection, the Rentoul and Wakeford collection was offered to us by Tom Wakefords widow. This collection is far larger than the other two combined and more varied in content. Tom Wakeford was a semi-professional aviation photographer, author, and magazine editor. The subject of his books included the Panavia Tornado, Operation Granby, and the RAF 75th anniversary. He worked closely with Ian Rentoul, whose photographs are included in the collection. The RAF Museum is grateful to the families of these extraordinary photographers.
by Adam Estes

The U.S. Air Forces first operational supersonic bomber, the Convair B-58 Hustler, made its initial flight on November 11th, 1956. In addition to the bombers massive delta wing, distinctive innovations included a sophisticated Sperry AN/ASQ-42 inertial navigation and bomb guidance system, a slippery wasp-waist fuselage, and an extensive use of heat-resistant, honeycomb sandwich skin paneling in both the wings and fuselage. Since the airframes fuselage cross-section provided too little room for internal ordinance storage, Convairs engineers came up with a unique solution, designing a massive, jettisonable, two-component pod slung under the fuselage which contained a nuclear weapon in the upper section, along with extra fuel, reconnaissance equipment, or other specialized gear in the lower portion. The B-58 crew consisted of a pilot, navigator/bombardier, and defense systems operator.

Convair built 116 Hustlers, of which the first thirty were test and pre-production examples while the remaining 86 entered operational service. Hustlers flew within Strategic Air Command between 1960 and 1970. Setting 19 world speed and altitude records, B-58s also won five different aviation trophies.

Castle Air Museums Hustler is the seventh example to roll off North Americans production line in Fort Worth, Texas. A pre-production airframe, YB-58A-1-CF 55-0666 flew for the first time on March 20th, 1958. As its type prefix suggests, this Hustler served as a test aircraft with Convair, which fitted a YJ79-GE-5 jet engine on a special centerline pod. On November 8th, 1958, the aircraft flew for 32 minutes at a sustained Mach 2 velocity with its YJ79-GE-5 engines. On April 29th, 1959, the U.S. Air Force formally took 666 on strength, but the airframe remained with Convair for test and evaluation purposes. On May 1st, 1959, Convair converted the Hustler into YRB-58A configuration.

On August 16, 1962, the aircraft established a record, performing the then Hustler flight up to that point, remaining aloft for 11 hours and 15 minutes. In November that year, the Air Force transferred the airframe to the 6510th Operational Maintenance Squadron (Air Force Systems Command), at Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) in California. In May 1964, the 666 moved on to the 3345th Maintenance and Support Group (Air Training Command) at Chanute AFB in Rantoul, Illinois, which subsequently redesignated the Hustler as a GRB-58A, for instructional use only.

In 1967 the Husler moved across the airfield for outdoor display in Chanutes air park. Base technicians repainted the aircraft in the markings of B-58A 61-2059, a Hustler nicknamed Greased Lightning which became famous for flying an 8,028 nautical mile nonstop journey from Tokyo to London at an average speed of 938 mph in October, 1963. Oddly enough, the real 61-2059 still exists and is on public display at the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum in Ashland, Nebraska.

With the closure of Chanute AFB in 1993, the U.S. Air Force Museum loaned 55-0666 to the Octave Chanute Aerospace Museum, located in Grissom Hall, the former missile maintenance training facility at the now-decommissioned base. Placed indoors on static display, the airframe regained her correct serial number on the tail, but retained its Greased Lightning nose art. Unfortunately, the Hustler received damage when staff attempted to move the bomber with its main landing wheels locked, fracturing the nose gear.

Sadly, the Octave Chanute Aerospace Museum itself had to close its doors in 2015, its exhibits either having to find new homes elsewhere or face the scrappers torch, a fate which some of the less-loved transport types did indeed suffer. The B-58 is a massive aircraft, so not an easy airframe to move economically, but given the types rarity and popularity 666 was always likely to find organizations both willing and able to foot the expenses of transferring the sleek bomber to their facility. This is how Castle Air Museum came to acquire 55-0666 on loan for display at their home in Atwater, California. They shipped the Hustler to Atwater by road during August, 2017.

Behind a chainlink fence, the airframe is undergoing remedial work at present on external static display. While the outdoors is never an ideal environment for any airframe, the arid nature of Californias climate should limit the risk of longterm corrosion problems. Heres hoping that the airframe also receives a little TLC to regain her regal good looks before too much longer.

Adam Estes is a university student with a passion for aviation history. He is a volunteer for the Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino, California, and has kept tabs on numerous aircraft and museums around the world. His goal is to become a museum curator while continuing to write articles and books on aviation history.
WAVERLY  Wartburg College was awarded more than $13,000 to install two electric vehicle charging stations on campus as part of a settlement with automaker Volkswagen AG.

Two charging stations will be installed this fall in the Saemann Student Center parking lot along Wartburg Boulevard. Each station can simultaneously power two vehicles at level two charging, which can take a battery from empty to full in four to 10 hours.

As a part of our commitment to campus sustainability, Wartburg College wants to make sure that were ready to handle electric vehicles, said Brian Rumsey, environmental sustainability administrator. These stations will allow us to provide charging to students, employees and community members when they visit campus.

The Iowa Department of Transportation recently selected 18 projects to receive funding out of 33 applications statewide. Money was awarded for fast chargers along high-traffic corridors and for community charging installations. Wartburgs charging stations are estimated to cost $16,555, with the grant covering $13,244.

Volkswagen created a trust fund for environmental mitigation projects, specifically the reduction of nitrogen oxide, after deceiving regulators about the emissions from its vehicles. Iowa is expected to receive $21 million from the fund over the next several years, according to the DOT.
WATERLOO  This years Iowa Irish Fest promises to be educational with three days jam-packed with a variety of workshops, intermingling with music, fun and activities.

The 16th annual fest takes place Aug. 5-7 in the Lincoln Park area downtown.

Tickets are currently on sale at IowaIrishFest.com and discounted tickets are available at select businesses in Waterloo.

Organized by the Cedar Valley Irish Culture Association, the organization fosters and develops Irish fellowship and community outreach.

We try to be very protective of the cultural aspects of the fest, and its our mission and focus as an organization to promote Irish culture and music. From what I can tell from the growth and popularity of these workshops, the public wants that, said Kate Schildroth of Reinbeck, Iowa Irish Fest workshop program chair.

Our workshops encapsulate the educational aspects of what we want to offer to the public  Irish culture, history, music. This will be our third year with the consolidated workshop program under one umbrella  artist, travel and whiskey workshops  and family workshops, she explained.

Schildroth often invites visiting band members to present workshops.

Some will contract for extra workshops, and we say what would you like to present? They may have something theyre passionate about, a special skill to share with visitors.

They will usually suggest a topic, so we have some unexpected things as workshops, she said.

From example, Brother Crowe will lead a workshop at 6 p.m. Friday in writing a new Irish song which the Celtic, bluegrass and country folk group from Detroit will perform on stage later in the weekend.

And we always try to work in Irish language workshops for beginners and intermediate levels, tin whistle workshops and workshops for more advanced musicians who can bring their guitar, Bodhran drum, fiddle or banjo and sit down with these world-class musicians and pick up a few skills and tricks, Shildroth said.

Workshops begin on Friday and are offered throughout the weekend. Artist workshops are free to anyone who has purchased entry into the fest. There is no need to register.

Among the most popular workshop offerings likely will be those on travel to the Emerald Isle and how to sample and enjoy whiskey.

Throughout the weekend, Humble Travel will offer presentations designed to answer a range of travel questions. Sessions are at 4:45 p.m. Aug. 5, 12:30 p.m. Aug. 6 and 1:30 p.m. Aug. 7.

On Aug. 6 at 10 a.m., Celtic Thunder member Colm Keegan will teach sayings in the Irish language and give participants a virtual tour of his travel bus. At 11 a.m. Aug. 6, the Screaming Orphans will guide participants through Dublin, Ireland; and at 3:30 p.m. Aug. 6 and 3 p.m. Aug. 7, the Black Donnellys will present the movie, An Irish Story: This is My Home, followed by a question-and-answer session.

Whiskey workshops will include a session on Irish cream, paint-and-sip, how women have shaped whiskey, pairing single malt whiskey and chocolate with chocolates from Chocolaterie Stam in Cedar Falls, and how to create a whiskey charcuterie board with Darian Everding and Mike Hoversten.

Murphy Quint, head distiller of Cedar Ridge Winery and Distillery in Swisher, will explore American single malt whiskey, including Cedar Ridges Signature Edition of their American Single Malt.

All whiskey workshops are $30 per person and registration. Space is limited. Participant must be 21 or older and have a valid ID.

Schildroth and her co-chair Sean Riley, a recent masters graduate from University of Northern Iowas history department, worked together to create a history exhibit, The Western Irish Brigade/Fenian Brotherhood/Irish-American Invasion of Canada.

Its the first time weve created our own history exhibit, Schildroth said. The brigade fought for the Union Army during the American Civil War and organized three invasions of Canada.

The exhibit will be displayed at COR, located at 220 E. Fourth St.

Volunteers are needed to staff workshops. To volunteer and for a complete listing of workshops and their locations and registration details, go to IowaIrishFest.com.
DES MOINES  Don Schnitker, a special agent in the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigations major crimes unit has been tabbed to head the recently created Iowa School Safety Bureau.

The bureau is charged with examining ways to keep Iowas schools safe, including from active shooter incidents. It was created by Gov. Kim Reynolds, who recently infused the bureau with $100 million in federal pandemic relief funding.

Schnitkers strong leadership skills and extensive law enforcement experience will be extremely beneficial for the bureau while utilizing innovative technology, providing training, and conducting intelligence monitoring, Reynolds said in a state public safety department news release. Im confident the Governors School Safety Bureau will be a great resource for our schools and local law enforcement partners while helping to protect our most precious and valuable assets  our children.

Schnitker has worked for the state criminal investigation division for 17 years, and assisted in the creation of the Iowa Child Abduction Response Team.

SUICIDE PREVENTION LINE: The 988 suicide prevention line launches Saturday, the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services announced. The 988 line is a national program overseen by the Federal Communications Commission.

Iowans who call or text 988 will be directly connected to counselors trained in crisis management and de-escalation, and who can connect Iowans to the services and supports that they need, the state department said.

The national launch of 988 coincides with the significant work weve been doing here in Iowa since I took office to enhance and improve our historically fragmented crisis response system, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said in the state health departments news release. Iowa families  all families  should have quick and easy access to necessary mental and behavioral health care resources when they need them, and 988 will serve as a centralized resource for Iowans to utilize during their times of need.

The state health department also highlighted the state program Your Life Iowa, which provides at any time free support to anyone dealing with mental health care concerns, suicidal thoughts, substance abuse, or problem gambling.

JUDGE CONFIRMED: Judge Stephen Locher, of Des Moines, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to a lifetime appointment for as a federal judge in the Southern District of Iowa.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Lochers confirmation was rare unanimous approval from the full Senate.

Judge Locher represents the best and brightest of our legal community, and it was an honor to work with him throughout his swift confirmation process, Grassley said in a news release. Drawing on years of experience in both civil and criminal law, Judge Locher understands the proper role of a judge, and Im confident he will enforce the law as written.

U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, also added her praise and congratulations in the news release.

Locher has been a U.S. Magistrate Judge in the Southern District of Iowa since 2021, and previously he was an assistant U.S. Attorney in the district office. Locher graduated from Harvard Law School and got his bachelors degree from Notre Dame University.

GRASSLEY HONORED: U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, received the National Corn Growers Associations Presidents Award for his leadership and advocacy for corn growers and agriculture, the group announced.

Sen. Grassley has spent his career advocating on behalf of corn growers, Chris Edgington, the National Corn Growers Association president and a farmer from St. Ansgar said in a news release. Whether its taking a stand on regulations burdensome to farmers, advancing agricultural exports through trade, or supporting legislation that will extend access to higher ethanol blends, we would not have secured the policy successes we have over the years were it not for the contributions of the senior senator from Iowa.
It is interesting that us in the western world, the ones born and living in the western world, have the ability to stop this war. And yes, if Russia declares war? That is when it gets nasty

The internet is full of information and all you have to do is to be awake and willing to see. See things without that shroud over your eyes and in many cases just simply lift you eye lids and look around

~~ Hard to do I know! ~~

So, facts are all there and the key is only if the Western Empire of Lies and Chaos backs down

The one thing that no one seems to get, is that the East is being nice right now. They do not want a destruction of the world as we know it, they just want to change the crap that has flowered under the care of a sick and immoral society, called the West

It is amazing to hear the people spout about the west. They really think that they live in the bastion of freedom and they really think that they have such a monopoly over the rest of the world. Yet it is that very bastion of freedom that is the actual prison of its inhabitants

I dont need to write a million words on what is going on and I dont need to come up with some wild tale about why it is all happening because of one man or one group and or one incident. I dont need to blame Biden, Trump and or a thousand others. Why, we cannot even blame the Jews

I have already written a million words on what is happening right here on this website and it is what it is and it is being proven why I have been writing and talking about what is happening for almost fifteen years. Right on this website, everyday, non-stop. Fifteen years people. I have been expressing tidbits of info, info that leads us to what is happening today

But you do blame everything and everyone. Why? Because you want to blame something and anything, except yourself and all like you, around you everyday. It is the, I talk the talk, but never walk the walk, syndrome

In the west, we have had the saying of never bite the hand that feeds you, be used against us and we dont want to have Hollywood quit making movies. ~~ Like that is real life? Huh?

But it truly is what the western world has become. A Hollywood movie and we all like a good movie? Right?

I like a good movie and I stress, Good Movie, because Hollywood has lost that ability to produce a good movie. Movies are and actually have been nothing but another form of propaganda to control the masses and the ability to separate the wheat from the chaff. That is an issue and we seem to not have the ability as humans to easily do that anymore

You see!

I want to blame Lucifer and or what is the same as this entity destroying us!

Yet, that is a simplification for my own brain to accept what is going on

What is going on is above our Pay Grade!

I have not been shown at any point that what I say has been wrong. You can twist it and manipulate it in your mind all you want, but we are just the pawns in what is happening. Pawns can change the outcome of anything, that is why they are pawns. pawns are used, yet plentiful. If pawns decided to change direction?

Therefore, like any good pawns consumers? We are in control and it is our lives and our money and our resources that are being squandered as we follow the pretty lights of Broadway and embrace the immoral life that has surrounded us. It is the easy path and humans always and I mean almost always follow the path of least resistance

Just like a moth to the flame

I have a question I ask myself!

Would I die for my country or would I die for the world?

For me it is simple and is based upon basic needs for continuation of life upon our planet

I believe that the world is much more important than one country and when we are faced with world wide altercations of our existence? The world has to be the priority

The World IS!

A country is but a small part of the World and all the parts and or countries must mesh and work together, for us to be above what we seem to embrace within our limited abilities to comprehend

God Shuffled His Feet!

I appreciate this video and the message that has been sent

Oh how so human and so what we are

It is a World War People and Wake You Must!

WtR
SINGAPORE, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Liu Jianchao, head of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, met with Heng Swee Keat, first assistant secretary-general of Singapore's ruling People's Action Party and deputy prime minister of Singapore, here on Friday.

Heng said that Singapore attaches high importance to relations with China and is willing to maintain close exchanges between the two ruling parties, increase the sharing of governance experience, deepen pragmatic cooperation and strengthen communication and coordination on international and regional affairs.

Liu said that China is willing to strengthen all-round cooperation with Singapore, push forward the development of bilateral relations in a bid to benefit the people of both countries and promote peace and prosperity in the region. 
Weather Alert

...Another Round of Thunderstorms This Week... * Another surge of monsoon moisture will bring back thunderstorms to the region this week, with the best chances being today, Wednesday, and Thursday. * Each day today through Thursday, most areas will have a 20 to 40 percent chance of seeing a storm in the afternoon and early evening hours. Nocturnal showers and thunderstorms are possible tonight and again Wednesday night. * Impacts will range from lightning, new fire starts, and strong outflow winds with blowing dust, to periods of heavy rainfall and flash flooding. * Ensure you have a way of receiving weather alerts or monitoring radar on your phone. If you live in a flash flood prone area, especially near a burn scar, be ready to act quickly if heavy rainfall occurs.
I live in fear of going to bed, says Jenny Verdery, 55. Shes not afraid of the usual suspects like nightmares, critters or prowlers. Shes afraid of what often wont visit her at night: sleep.

For the past few years, Verdery has frequently awakened in the middle of the night after dozing for two or three hours. Then she cant fall back to sleep.

Its been devastating, says Verdery, a yoga teacher in Washington, D.C. Its definitely kept me from feeling good.

Her doctor thinks it might be related to menopause, but that hasnt been confirmed. Meditation hasnt helped, nor have yoga and breathing exercises.

About a third of Americans suffer from at least periodic insomnia, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM). In most cases, the sleep issues resolve on their own. But when insomnia lasts for a month or more, its considered a chronic condition that affects about 1 in 10 of us. For Verdery and others who sometimes struggle at night, the stress can create a sleep-disrupting cycle: Lying awake night after night creates anxiety about falling asleep, which exacerbates insomnia.

This is something I see in almost all my patients with insomnia, says Joshua Tal, a clinical sleep and health psychologist in New York City. Poor sleep is often a reaction to stress, he explains, and then the problem starts to spiral.

If you have a couple of bad nights, then the first thing that happens is you start to worry, Will I sleep tonight? But if youre worrying, then your body is going to keep you awake, he says. Its thinking, Wheres the bear? But the bear is sleep itself. And so it becomes self-perpetuating.

How age can trigger sleep anxiety

Just the simple fact of aging itself can start the wheels of anxiety in motion. As you get older, you get multiple awakenings throughout the night, which can lead to the anxiety-insomnia spiral, says Raj Dasgupta, M.D., an AASM fellow and spokesperson.

Age-related reasons for sleep disruptions can include menopausal hormone shifts associated with discomfort or restlessness; prostate issues for men that lead to more frequent trips to the bathroom; pain from chronic conditions, which can be more common in our later years; and certain medications that can cause sleep problems, such as high-blood-pressure meds (including beta-blockers) and antidepressants. Your health provider will also want to rule out apnea, a condition in which breathing stops or is constricted briefly as you sleep.
For Chen Guanghong, a Chinese chef based in Ghana for 12 years, using Chinese cuisine to communicate with Ghanaian diners is always more efficient than words.

"Food speaks louder than words," he always joked.

Chen worked in a Chinese restaurant affiliated with China's Gansu International Economic and Technical Cooperation Co., Ltd. in downtown Accra, the capital of Ghana.

The restaurant is a household name among locals because of its authentic Chinese flavor. It could take in tens of thousands of Ghanaian diners yearly, including many Ghanaian officials and celebrities.

Wisdom Kwable, a Ghanaian chef that worked in the restaurant for 10 years, told Xinhua that he picked up the skill of cooking Chinese cuisine with the help of Chen and decided to make it a lifelong career.

"As an old Chinese proverb says 'food is the paramount necessity of the people', I believe no matter Chinese or Ghanaian, the pursuit of delicious food is the same, and the Chinese cuisine brought us closer," said Chen.





Produced by Xinhua Global Service
Page under Maintenance

This page is under maintenance, while being upgraded. Please visit later. Thank you.

[Go Back]
The Otero County Commission  which made national news recently by questioning and refusing to certify recent election results  on Thursday passed a resolution condemning abortions in the county.

The Republican-controlled, three-member commission unanimously voted to approve the resolution at a crowded meeting that brought dozens of county residents to the commission chambers  attendees who passionately argued both sides of the abortion debate. More people in the crowd spoke in favor of abortion rights.

Abortion is legal in New Mexico. And Otero County Attorney R.B. Nichols said the resolution wouldnt ban or criminalize any abortion procedures in the county.

This is not going to outlaw anything, he said during the meeting. This is a matter of an opinion being expressed.

Efforts to reach Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains and other pro-abortion rights groups were unsuccessful Thursday.

The Otero legislation declares the county a sanctuary of life.

It says the commission agrees with a the recent Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade, which eliminated the nationwide right to an abortion. The four-page resolution says the commission is against Planned Parenthood and any other clinic that perform abortions, as well as medications that can be used to end a pregnancy.

The resolution says the commission takes a neutral position on abortions done because of medical concerns facing the mother or unborn child, or in cases of rape or incest.

I dont believe that a person can just go out and have a wild Friday night, she gets pregnant, and goes off and gets an abortion, said Gerald Matherly, the vice chairman of the commission. Some people should have some responsibilities.

Couy Griffin, an Otero commissioner and the founder of Cowboys for Trump, said he was hopeful the resolution would start a trend. He called on other county commissions in conservative-leaning parts of the state to pass like-minded resolutions.

If the governor wants to embrace (abortion rights) in Santa Fe, if they wanna have abortion clinics in Las Cruces, if they want to do it in Albuquerque, then they are well within their rights to do so , he said. But if they dont want it in Carlsbad, if they dont want it in Roswell, if they dont want it Farmington, then those county commission boards across the state of New Mexico have to get the same types of resolutions passed.

Griffin also sounded off on Mark Ronchetti, the Republican candidate for governor, for his statements after the Supreme Courts Roe vs. Wade decision. Ronchetti said in a message posted to Twitter that, although he is pro-life, he believes in permitting abortion up to 15 weeks into pregnancy and in cases of rape or incest or to protect the life of the mother.

That doesnt sound like somebody who is Republican or conservative, in my opinion, Griffin said. Because we should protect life at its conception.

Ronchettis campaign didnt respond directly to Griffins remarks on Thursday.

Earlier this year, the Otero County commission made national news when it refused to certify the results of the 2022 primary elections because of perceived signs of election fraud, though top state election officials said the commissioners concerns werent valid. The board ultimately voted to certify the results.
New Mexico health officials arent considering imposing a mask mandate or other restrictions amid the emergence of a new highly contagious omicron subvariant of the coronavirus.

Instead, Dr. David Scrase, the acting health secretary, is encouraging New Mexico to get vaccinated and booster shots, consider wearing masks at times, stock up on COVID-19 tests and seek treatments once infected with the virus. He also suggested people monitor public health data so they know when the virus becomes more prevalent in their community.

This is a completely and totally different pandemic than we were in two years ago, Scrase said during a COVID update on Thursday. And while the case counts might be just as high as they were at some of our peak periods, our hospitalization rates are incredibly low.

New Mexico on Thursday reported 593 new cases and 29 COVID-related deaths, pushing the toll to 8,035 since the start of the pandemic. There were 173 people with COVID hospitalized throughout the state on Thursday, according to the Department of Healths website.

Scrase that the BA.5 subvariant of the omicron strain of the coronavirus is estimated to account for about a third of all cases in the state. He said the highly contagious version of the virus will likely dominate the state by early August.

Though the confirmed case counts remain relatively low compared to prior stages in the pandemic, its likely the numbers dont tell the whole story. Many people who contract the disease can test and isolate at home and arent included in official data. Scrase said that cases could be three to eight times higher than the official data that is reported.

The virus actually wants to live with us. So it evolves over time to more easily infect people but it reduces the number of people who are killed, Scrase said. And thats what we normally see in any kind of viral spread or pandemic is a slight decrease in severity of illness but an increase in infectiousness.
Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education member Courtney Jackson says shes feeling a little as if no good deed goes unpunished.

Jacksons modest proposal to help parents better navigate the districts website and get involved in the academics of childrens education recently turned into a political sideshow, causing the board to table the plan on a 6-1 vote.

But, heres the kicker: Jackson, an attorney-turned-stay-at-home mom, says her parental rights and responsibility policy wouldnt change anything  not who has access, to what information, when. It would simply aggregate current district policies about parental rights  what documents they have access to, when then can go on campus, etc.,  under a single tab at aps.edu.

Jackson said her proposal stemmed from numerous constituent questions, questions she, as a board member, couldnt easily find the answers to on the website. And she sent the plan through both the counseling and legal departments before bringing it to the board.

All that, unfortunately, got lost in translation.

About 30 LGBTQA+ activists showed up at the board meeting to protest the policy. Damon Carbajal, co-chair and policy coordinator for GLSEN Albuquerque, a local chapter of a national LGBTQ+ advocacy network, said while parents have a right to know whats going on with their children, they dont have a right to know everything. He worries gender support plans crafted by schools would be made available to parents.

They already are.

Jackson says that, while unofficial gender support plans allow students to use the pronouns and names of their choice in school without parental notification, parents are required by school policy to be made aware of official support plans.

The APS Student Handbook states Student Records kept by the Albuquerque Public Schools will be open to review by parents/guardians and/or students and will be treated in a confidential manner. And the districts Gender Support Plan Checklist says a gender support plan meeting should include the principal, student, parent/guardian, Title IX Director (for initial plans), counselor & nurse (if student/parent give permission), and anyone else the student/parent requests.

It further gives parents a say on who has access to their childs gender records, with the option to keep historical information in private folders with limited access.

Jacksons proposed policy similarly states parents have the right  to have access to all educational records of a school district concerning their child, including educational and/or social support plans, school counseling records and school health records.

And while Board President Yolanda Montoya-Cordova says we came out of this one a little too quick, we didnt do our homework, Jackson had. She checked how other school districts have formulated parental notification policies and consulted with APS administrators, who found no state or federal law prohibiting parents from obtaining the counseling records of their children.

She says her plan is modeled on the Houston school district.

Jackson told the Editorial Board she intends to bring the policy back up for discussion and hopes to have it implemented by the end of the year after plenty of community feedback. Thats good, because, while there will always be individual cases where family situations are difficult  whether it involves academics or personal issues  a standard concern among educators for decades has been the fact that parents are not involved enough in their kids education. Making that involvement easier should be a no-brainer.

Because Jackson is right, with the vast majority of APS 71,460 students, the responsibility (for parents to help) educate our kids does not end when the parents walk their children through the front door.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

A rape victims communication with a sexual assault nurse examiner can be used in the trial against the alleged perpetrator, even though the victim is now deceased, the New Mexico Supreme Court has ruled.

While the U.S. Constitution assures those accused of crimes the right to confront witnesses against them, the states highest court decided Thursday that using much of what a rape victim  who died in 2018 of causes unrelated to the incident  told the nurse examiner in 2017 would not violate defendant Oliver Tsosies constitutional rights because the primary purpose of those statements was not testimonial in nature. While the nurse examiners role is both to collect evidence and to provide medical care, the court determined that statements related to medical care should be allowed.

The victims statements to the nurse examiner occurred at a clinic inside the Family Advocacy Center on the same night the 2017 incident occurred  details the court cited in its ruling that most of the victims statements were related to medical care.

We conclude that the evidence regarding this timing circumstance supports the primary purpose of the SANE exam being nontestimonial, Chief Justice C. Shannon Bacon wrote in the majority opinion. Fellow justices David Thomson and Julie Vargas signed onto the opinion.

But Justice Michael Vigil dissented, arguing that the majority ignores the primary purpose of the SANE exam.

The core characteristic of SANE examinations is the collection and preservation of evidence, irrespective of necessary medical treatment, Vigil wrote in his dissent.

The Supreme Courts majority reversed lower courts, which had found nearly all of the statements to the SANE nurse inadmissable in the pending trial of Oliver Tsosie, according to a news release from the Administrative Office of the Courts. The court sent the case back to the District Court to decide other questions about admitting statements.

Tsosie is on trial for a 2017 incident. He has been charged with criminal sexual penetration, kidnapping, aggravated assault and battery, burglary and bribery of a witness, according to the AOC, but his trial is on hold due to the evidentiary questions.

New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas hailed the ruling as significant.

I am pleased that the Supreme Court recognized the important medical role that SANEs provide for sexual assault victims, he said in a statement. It is important that sexual assault victims seek help from such professionals who can provide needed help and services.
BOSTON  And you thought you had a long layover.

A familys beloved pet cat that had been dodging airport personnel, airline employees and animal experts after escaping from a pet carrier at Bostons Logan International Airport about three weeks ago was finally caught Wednesday.

Whether out of fatigue or hunger, well never know but, this morning, she finally let herself be caught, an airport spokesperson said of the cat named Rowdy in a statement.

Rowdy was given a health check and will be returned to her family.

Im kind of in disbelief, said her owner, Patty Sahli. I thought, What are the odds were actually going to get her back? But I got a call this morning and I am just so shocked.

Rowdys time on the lam began June 24 as Sahli and her husband, Rich, returned to the U.S. from 15 years in Germany with the Army. When their Lufthansa flight landed, the 4-year-old black cat with green eyes escaped her cage in pursuit of some birds.

Rowdy was soon herself on the receiving end of a chase as her getaway set off a massive search involving airport and Lufthansa personnel, construction workers and animal welfare advocates, as well as the use of wildlife cameras and safe-release traps.

Despite numerous sightings, Rowdy always eluded her pursuers  but now a little calm has been restored.

It was such a community effort, said Sahli, who is originally from New Hampshire and is moving to Florida. Were just so grateful to everyone who helped look for her.
BETHLEHEM, West Bank  During a visit to the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Friday, President Joe Biden offered compassion and financial assistance for hope-starved Palestinians but also delivered a blunt acknowledgment that the ground is not ripe for new attempts to reach an elusive peace.

Political uncertainty in Israel, which is holding another round of elections in November, and the weakness of Palestinian Authority leadership has dimmed any chance of restarting negotiations that broke down more than a decade ago.

The stalemate has left millions of Palestinians living under Israeli military rule. Biden said they deserve a state of their own thats independent, sovereign, viable and contiguous. Two states for two peoples, both of whom have deep and ancient roots in this land, living side by side in peace and security.

Although such a goal can seem so far away, he said he wouldnt abandon the dormant peace process.

Even if the ground is not ripe at this moment to restart negotiations, the United States and my administration will not give up on bringing the Palestinians and the Israelis, both sides, closer together, Biden said during a joint appearance with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Biden offered more than $300 million for the Palestinians on Friday, including $201 million for a United Nations agency that helps refugees and a proposed $100 million for hospitals. The health care funding requires congressional approval.

Israel has also committed to upgrading wireless networks in the West Bank and Gaza, part of a broader effort to improve economic conditions.

However, Biden did not criticize Israel for expanding settlements, some of which resemble sprawling suburbs, in occupied territory that the Palestinians want for a future state. Nor did he mention his unfulfilled pledge to reopen a U.S. consulate in east Jerusalem, which served as a de facto embassy to the Palestinians before President Donald Trump closed it three years ago.

Abbas, in his own remarks, said the key to peace in the region begins with ending the Israeli occupation of our land, and he said Israel cannot continue to act as a state above law.

He also raised the death of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, saying her killers need to be held accountable.

Abu Akleh was shot during an Israeli military raid in the West Bank in May, and U.S. officials say she was likely killed unintentionally by Israeli troops. However, they did not say how they reached that conclusion, and the outcome angered many Palestinians, including her family, who accuse the U.S. of trying to help Israel evade responsibility.

Biden said the U.S. will continue to insist on a full and transparent accounting of her death and will continue to stand up for media freedom everywhere in the world.

He called her death an enormous loss to the essential work of sharing with the world the story of the Palestinian people.

Palestinian journalists wore black T-shirts with Abu Aklehs picture and placed a poster of her on an empty chair in the room where the leaders spoke.

Bidens trip to the West Bank was met with skepticism and bitterness among Palestinians who believe he has taken too few steps toward reviving peace talks, especially after Trump sidelined them while heavily favoring Israel.

Israels outgoing government has taken steps to improve economic conditions in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. But Yair Lapid, the 58-year-old caretaker prime minister, has no mandate to hold negotiations. Nov. 1 elections could also bring to power a right-wing government that is opposed to Palestinian statehood.

Meanwhile, the 86-year-old Abbas, whose Palestinian Authority administers parts of the occupied West Bank and cooperates with Israel on security, is more representative of the status quo than Palestinian aspirations.

His Fatah party lost an election, and control of Gaza, to the Islamic militant group Hamas more than 15 years ago. He called off the first national elections since then last year  blaming Israel  when Fatah appeared to be heading for another crushing defeat. Polls over the past year have consistently found that nearly 80% of Palestinians want him to resign.

On Friday, Hamas criticized Abbas for meeting with Biden, calling the U.S. a partner in the aggression on our people.

Palestinian leaders fear being further undermined by the Abraham Accords, a diplomatic vehicle for Arab nations to normalize relations with Israel despite the ongoing occupation. Biden, who traveled to Saudi Arabia later Friday to attend a summit of Arab leaders, hopes to broaden that process, which began under Trump.

Hours before Biden was set to become the first U.S. leader to fly directly from Israel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the kingdoms General Authority of Civil Aviation signaled the end of its strict limits on Israeli flights over its territory. Biden called the decision an important step towards building a more integrated and stable Middle East region.

It wasnt the first presidential flight directly between Israel and the kingdom. President George W. Bush flew from Tel Aviv directly to Riyadh in 2008, and President Donald Trump flew from Saudi Arabia directly to Israel in 2017, but the White House nevertheless called it historic.

During his appearance with Abbas, Biden said he hopes that the Abraham Accords could ultimately benefit the Palestinians as well.

I do believe that in this moment when Israel is improving relations with its neighbors throughout the region, we can harness that same momentum to reinvigorate the peace process between the Palestinian people and the Israelis, he said.

However, apart from his visit to the West Bank, there was little mention of the Palestinians during the two days Biden spent in Israel, which he praised as a democracy that shares American values. At a news conference with Biden, Lapid evoked the U.S. civil rights movement to portray Israel as a bastion of freedom.

It all reeked of hypocrisy to Palestinians, who have endured 55 years of military occupation with no end in sight.

The idea of shared values actually makes me sick to my stomach, said Diana Buttu, a Palestinian lawyer and political analyst. I dont think Israeli values are anything that people should be striving towards.

Both Biden and Lapid said they support an eventual two-state solution but their approach, often referred to as economic peace because of its focus on financial assistance and business development, has limitations.

Mr. Biden is trying to marginalize the Palestinian issue, said Mustafa Barghouti, a veteran Palestinian activist. If he does not allow Palestinians to have their rights, then he is helping Israel kill and end the very last possibility of peace.

Roughly 700,000 Jewish settlers now live on annexed land in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, which were seized in the Six Day War in 1967. Most of the world considers the expanding settlements illegal.

Well-known human rights groups have concluded that Israels seemingly permanent control over millions of Palestinians amounts to apartheid. One of those groups, Israels own BTselem, hung banners in the West Bank that were visible from the presidential motorcade.

Israel rejects that label as an attack on its very existence, even though two former Israeli prime ministers warned years ago that their country would be seen that way if it did not reach a two-state agreement with the Palestinians. The U.S. also rejects the apartheid allegations.

___

Krauss reported from Ottawa. Megerian reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Josef Federman in Jerusalem and Zeke Miller and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.

___

This story has been corrected to show Biden is not the first U.S. president to fly directly from Israel to Saudi Arabia.
Copyright  2022 Albuquerque Journal

Jessica Kelley told jurors she had smoked methamphetamine for hours and become increasingly paranoid the day 10-year-old Victoria Martens was strangled and dismembered in her mothers Northwest Albuquerque apartment in August 2016.

Kelley testified all day Thursday during the trial of Fabian Gonzales on charges of child abuse, recklessly caused, resulting in the death of a child under 12, evidence tampering and conspiracy.

She said she and Gonzales had smoked meth together around midnight on Aug. 23, 2016  the day Victoria was killed  in the apartment of Victorias mother, Michelle Martens.

Kelley, who had been released from prison just days earlier, continued smoking meth throughout the morning, she told jurors. She said she believed God was sending her messages through a television in Martens apartment.

I was really, really paranoid because of the drugs, Kelley said.

Kelley also told her sister in a phone call that her ex-husband had hacked the television and phones and was sending her messages. Prosecutors played the phone conversation for jurors recorded just hours before Victorias killing.

Kelley testified she first confessed to her role in Victorias death two months after prosecutors held a televised news conference in 2018 outlining a startling new theory of the case.

Kelley acknowledged that she heard the District Attorneys news conference on television while awaiting trial at the Bernalillo County jail.

In that 2018 news conference, 2nd Judicial District Attorney Raul Torrez announced that prosecutors believed an unidentified man had entered the Northwest Albuquerque apartment of Victorias mother, and strangled the girl.

Torrez also revealed that neither Gonzales nor Martens had been in the apartment at the time of Victorias killing.

Prosecutors in 2018 dropped charges of murder and criminal sexual penetration against Gonzales and Martens.

Prosecutors that year also charged John Doe with first-degree murder and criminal sexual penetration and other crimes. He remains unidentified.

Kelley was in the apartment at the time and testified Thursday that a well-dressed man with a Mexican accent entered the apartment, strangled the girl, then told Kelley that she and Gonzales need to clean up the mess.

Kelley testified that she pulled Gonzales aside shortly after he returned to the apartment and told him that Victoria was dead. She said Gonzales went into Victorias room, and she found Gonzales dismembering the girl.

Kelley said Gonzales had placed trash bags under the girl and was using kitchen knives to cut into her body. She said she helped clean up the scene and later asked for Gonzales help moving Victorias body to the bathtub.

But on cross examination, defense attorney Stephen Aarons asked her to explain why Gonzales would try to cover up a murder he didnt commit. Kelley had no answer.

Aarons also questioned why Kelley waited two years to provide a complete statement to police.

You knew that Fabian and Michelle were charged with her murder and you didnt give your full confession for two years, right? Aarons asked Kelley.

Kelley responded that allegations made to that point were based on lies told by Martens.

All I know is, from the jump the story was wrong and lies had been made, Kelley said. And it wasnt made by me. When I made my statement, my statement matched the facts.

Kelley, 37, pleaded no contest in 2019 to six felony charges, including reckless child abuse resulting in death and aggravated assault. She was sentenced in April to 44 years in prison but will be eligible for parole in half that time.

Aarons told jurors in opening statements that Kelley acted alone when she strangled Victoria and dismembered the girl in a failed attempt to conceal the crime. Aarons also said that, in exchange for her testimony in Gonzales trial, prosecutors offered her a generous plea deal that will make her eligible for parole after serving 22 years of her sentence. Kelley was not sentenced as a serious violent offender, which would have required her to serve 85% of her sentence.

Michelle Martens, 40, pleaded guilty in 2018 to reckless child abuse resulting in death. She faces 12 to 15 years in prison. No sentencing hearing has been scheduled in her case.

Martens and Kelley are required by their plea deals to testify in Gonzales trial.

Prosecutors allege that Gonzales and Martens worked together to dismember Victorias body and clean up the crime scene.

Aarons contends that Martens and Gonzales were not aware that Victoria was dead until Kelley burst into their bedroom and struck Martens in the face with an iron.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka  Sri Lankas prime minister was sworn in Friday as interim president until Parliament elects a successor to Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled abroad and resigned after mass protests over the countrys economic collapse.

Lawmakers were to convene Saturday to begin choosing a new leader who would serve the remainder of Rajapaksas term, which ends in 2024.

A tenuous calm returned to the capital of Colombo on Thursday after protesters who had occupied government buildings retreated, but with the political opposition deeply fractured, a solution to Sri Lankas many problems seemed no closer.

As people celebrated in the streets, Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana promised a swift and transparent political process that should be done within a week.

The new president could appoint a new prime minister, who would then have to be approved by Parliament. After Rajapaksa resigned, pressure on the prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, was rising.

In a televised statement, Wickremesinghe said he would initiate steps to change the constitution to curb presidential powers and strengthen Parliament, restore law and order and take legal action against insurgents.

It was unclear to whom he was referring, although he said true protesters would not have gotten involved in clashes Wednesday night near Parliament, where many soldiers reportedly were injured.

There is a big difference between protesters and insurgents. We will take legal action against insurgents, he said.

Wickremesinghe became acting president after Rajapaksa fled Sri Lanka on Wednesday, flying first to the Maldives and then to Singapore. The prime ministers office said Wickremesinghe was sworn in Friday as interim president Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankas opposition leader, who is seeking the presidency, vowed to listen to the people and to hold Rajapaksa accountable.

In an interview with The Associated Pres s from his office, Sajith Premadasa said that if he wins the election in parliament, he would ensure that an elective dictatorship never, ever occurs in Sri Lanka.

Thats what we should do. That is our function  catching those who looted Sri Lanka. That should be done through proper constitutional, legal, democratic procedures, Premadasa said.

Sri Lanka has run short of money to pay for imports of basic necessities such as food, fertilizer, medicine and fuel for its 22 million people. Its rapid economic decline has been all the more shocking because, before this crisis, the economy had been expanding, with a growing, comfortable middle class.

The protests underscored the dramatic fall of the Rajapaksa political clan that has ruled Sri Lanka for most of the past two decades.

The Rev. Jeewantha Peiris, a Catholic priest and protest leader, said the country had come through a hard journey.

We are happy as a collective effort because this struggle of Sri Lanka was participated by all the citizens of Sri Lanka, even diaspora of Sri Lanka, he said.

Protesters cooked and distributed milk rice  a food Sri Lankans enjoy to celebrate victories  after Rajapaksa resigned. At the main protest site in front of the presidents office in Colombo, people welcomed his resignation but insisted Wickremesinghe also should step aside.

Sri Lanka remains a powder keg, its economy in ruins. And the military warned Thursday that it had powers to respond in case of chaos  a message some found ominous.

Abeywardana, the speaker of Parliament, urged the public to create a peaceful atmosphere in order to implement the proper parliamentary democratic process and enable all members of Parliament to participate in the meetings and function freely and conscientiously.

Sri Lanka is seeking help from the International Monetary Fund and other creditors, but its finances are so poor that even obtaining a bailout has proven difficult, Wickremesinghe recently said.

The protesters accuse Rajapaksa and his powerful political family of siphoning money from government coffers and of hastening the countrys collapse by mismanaging the economy. The family has denied the corruption allegations, but Rajapaksa acknowledged that some of his policies contributed to Sri Lankas meltdown.

Maduka Iroshan, 26, a university student and protester, said he was thrilled that Rajapaksa had quit, because he ruined the dreams of the young generation.

Months of protests reached a frenzied peak last weekend when demonstrators stormed the presidents home and office and Wickremesinghes official residence. On Wednesday, they seized his office.

Images of protesters inside the buildings  lounging on elegant sofas and beds, posing at officials desks and touring the opulent settings  captured the worlds attention.

The demonstrators initially vowed to stay until a new government was in place, but they shifted tactics Thursday, apparently concerned that an escalation in violence could undermine their message following clashes outside Parliament that left dozens injured.

Protester Mirak Raheem noted that the lack of violence was important, though their work was far from over.

This is really something amazing, the fact that it happened on the back of largely peaceful protest. But obviously this is just a beginning, Raheem said, citing work to rebuild the economy and restore public confidence in the political system.

Rajapaksa and his wife slipped away in the night aboard a military plane early Wednesday. On Thursday, he went to Singapore, according to the city-states Foreign Ministry. It said he had not requested asylum, and it was unclear if he would stay or move on. He previously has obtained medical services there, including undergoing heart surgery.

Since Sri Lankan presidents are protected from arrest while in power, Rajapaksa likely wanted to leave while he still had constitutional immunity and access to the plane.

As a military strategist whose brutal campaign helped end the countrys 26-year civil war, Rajapaksa and his brother, who was president at the time, were hailed by the islands Buddhist Sinhalese majority. Despite accusations of wartime atrocities, including ordering military attacks on ethnic Tamil civilians and abducting journalists, Rajapaksa remained popular among many Sri Lankans. He has continually denied the allegations.

___

Find more of APs Sri Lanka coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/sri-lanka
KANSAS CITY, Mo.  Leaders in largely Democratic Kansas City, Missouri, dont control the citys police department, hire the police chief or determine how the department spends its tax dollars. A 1930s-era law gives that power to a five-member board largely appointed by the Missouri governor, who since 2017 has been a Republican.

A longstanding dispute over that arrangement is erupting this summer. The two sides are preparing for a statewide vote in November on a constitutional amendment that would give the Republican-majority Legislature even more authority to set police funding.

A key legislative backer says Kansas City police need the support because some Democrats want to defund the force  a charge city leaders vehemently deny.

A local civil rights leader sued on behalf of city taxpayers, arguing that allowing the state to control the citys police force amounts to taxation without representation and discriminates against Kansas Citys large Black population, which experiences much of its violent crime.

Mayor Quinton Lucas, who is the only person on the Board of Police Commissioners not appointed by the governor, has indicated the proposal will be challenged in court.

The debate echoes recent confrontations between Republican state officials and Democratic leaders of larger cities elsewhere over issues including voting rights, mask mandates and recognition of the Juneteenth holiday. And it comes as the nation continues to wrestle with racial injustice in policing.

Last year, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas and Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia signed restrictive election laws that opponents claimed targeted Democratic strongholds. And school boards in largely Democratic areas defied governors in Florida, Texas and Arizona who sought to ban mask mandates during the height of the pandemic.

Kansas City, with a population of about 508,000, about 28% Black, is the only Missouri city without local control of its police force. Its believed to be the largest city in the U.S. in that situation, the mayors office said.

After racial injustice protests in 2020 sparked calls for more police accountability, Lucas and some City Council members passed two ordinances that would have given city officials some control over how $42.5 million of the police departments $239 million budget for 2021-2022 fiscal year would be spent. The money would have been used to emphasize social service and crime prevention programs.

Critics, including the police union and former police chief, said the proposal was a roundabout way of defunding the department and would leave it with insufficient money to make it through the year.

Shortly after the ordinances passed, the state-appointed police board sued the city to undo them and won. The judge said state law gives the board exclusive authority over the police budget.

The fight prompted legislators to pass a bill requiring the city to increase police funding from 20% of its general revenue budget to 25%. Republican Gov. Mike Parson signed the bill June 27.

But there was concern the move would run afoul of a state constitutional ban on unfunded state mandates for cities. So lawmakers put an amendment to address that on the November general election ballot.

Lucas tweeted that the bill represents the raw exercise of power by state lawmakers over the people of Kansas City, and would be challenged in court. He and other officials have noted the city already routinely funds the police department above the 20% requirement.

State Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer, a Republican who represents counties in suburban Kansas City, said he sponsored the legislation to stand with law enforcement during a time of radical attempts across the country by city councils to defund the police.

Melissa Robinson, a Democratic Kansas City Council member, said the current arrangement disenfranchises Kansas City taxpayers by allowing outsiders to decide how their tax dollars are spent.

She said supporters are strategizing how to persuade residents outside the city that the issue on the November ballot is centered on local control, a principle frequently lauded by Republicans.

This is not about divisive conversations about blue lives and Black lives, she said. Its the basic question of how government should work  We never said we wanted to decrease funding, we just wanted to separate out some money and ask questions about better ways to address crime.

Luetkemeyer said all Missourians should care about how the Kansas City police department operates because the city is one of the main economic drivers in the state.

If Kansas City sees a dramatic increase in crime because police are defunded, thats going to have a ripple effect across the entire economy in the state of Missouri, he said.

According to police department crime statistics, reports of the most serious crimes, such as homicides, sex assaults, robbery, fraud and weapons violations decreased 6% from 2020 to 2021.

Homicides in the city have fluctuated between 151 in 2017 to 157 in 2021, with a high of 179 in 2020. The statistics show 78% of homicide victims in the city in 2021 were Black men and women.

Gwen Grant, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City and the civil rights leader who filed a lawsuit over the funding issue, said the current arrangement is steeped in racism.

During the Civil War, Missouri was sharply divided between Union and Confederate supporters, with much of the Union support centered in St. Louis and Kansas City, which had larger Black populations than elsewhere in the state.

In 1861, Missouri Gov. Claiborne Fox Jackson, who supported the Confederacy, persuaded the Legislature to pass a law giving the state control over the police department in St. Louis. Missouri voters in 2013 approved a constitutional amendment returning that department to local control.

The state took over the new Kansas City Police Department in 1874. That changed in 1932, when the Missouri Supreme Court ruled the appointed boards control of the agency was unconstitutional.

But the state took back control in 1939 at the urging of another segregationist governor, Lloyd Crow Stark, in part because of corruption under highly influential political organizer Tom Pendergast. In 1943, a new law limited the amount a city could be required to appropriate to a police board to 20% of its general revenue in any fiscal year.

Grant said she did not expect supporters of state control to acknowledge the racist elements of the situation.

You cant sidestep that, she said. Thats the big elephant in the room  We are the only city of our size in the country that does not have control of its police department. If state control is so great, why is it that we are the only people with it?

___

Ballentine reported from Jefferson City, Missouri.
UNITED NATIONS, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations is talking with the Egyptian government after Cairo announced a suspension of its participation in the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, said a UN spokesman on Friday.

The Egyptian Permanent Mission to the United Nations has notified the world body that Egypt will temporarily suspend its activities in support of the peacekeeping mission in Mali starting Aug. 15, confirmed Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Egypt's decision came a day after the Malian authorities ordered a suspension of rotations of UN peacekeepers.

"The (Egyptian) decision is related to concern about the increase in attacks on Egyptian peacekeepers who escort convoys supplying bases in central and northern Mali," said Haq.

Seven Egyptian soldiers have been killed since the beginning of the year. The safety and security of peacekeepers is a top priority and essential to ensuring that the United Nations can carry out mandated work to protect civilians and build peace in Mali and all other peacekeeping missions, he said.

"We respect and deeply appreciate the service and significant sacrifice by Egypt and other countries contributing uniformed personnel to our missions, which operate in extremely difficult and often dangerous conditions," he said. "The UN is working closely with Egypt to address this issue."

Haq said the United Nations is dealing with the government of Mali on a number of issues.

On the suspension of rotations, the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, known by its French acronym as MINUSMA, is continuing all efforts to meet with the Malian authorities and to address this issue without delay, he said. "And we're going to continue to push our various efforts and see what progress we can make."

On the way ahead beyond Aug. 15, Haq said the United Nations is still in discussions with the Egyptian authorities and will see what will result from the discussions.

"And we're trying to make it clear to them, as well to all of our contingents, not just that we appreciate the contributions that they've made, but that we're doing our utmost to find ways to ensure the safety and security of the peacekeeping contingents themselves. But there's no getting around the fact that it is a dangerous task," he said. "It's been a very fraught situation on the ground. But we'll see also what the results of the discussions with Egyptians are before we consider what the next steps would be."

It is very clear that the people of Mali need protection. So the contributions that the Egyptians have made are crucially important. That is why the world body is seeing what it can do to handle this particular situation, he said. "They've given us some advance warning, so we'll see what can be done. But right now, we are working closely with Egyptians to address this issue."

Haq stressed the fact that Egypt is not talking about a withdrawal, but rather a temporary suspension of activities starting Aug. 15.

He said the Egyptian contingent in MINUSMA has 1,035 personnel. 
AUSTIN, Texas  Democrat Beto ORourke on Friday reported raising nearly $32 million in his bid for Texas governor during the first half of 2022, more than Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and a haul that puts their race on track to smash spending records in Novembers midterm elections.

The new figures, released as campaign finance reports were due in Texas, put Abbott in the rare position of finding himself outraised. For nearly a decade, the two-term incumbent has pulled in more money than any governor in U.S. history, a stockpile that has overwhelmed rivals and kept challengers at bay.

Abbott has raised more than $30 million since the beginning of the year  a significant total even by his big-money track record, and only slightly less than ORourke. Abbott also still holds an advantage with money to spend, reporting more than $46 million in cash on hand as of June 30.

But the narrowing gap underlines ORourkes durability as a fundraising powerhouse and how money is pouring into high-profile governors races even as inflation and President Joe Bidens sagging approval creates strong headwinds for Democrats with voters.

In Georgia, another red state that Democrats are aggressively trying to flip, Democrat Stacey Abrams last week reported raising $22 million over the previous two months, far outpacing incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.

We are building a grassroots campaign to reach voters across Texas and WIN on the night of November 8, ORourke tweeted.

ORourke said he raised more than $27 million during the most recent fundraising period between February and June. During that span, there was a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde and Texas outlawed virtually all abortions after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

ORourke sharpened his attacks on Abbott after both events, calling for new firearm restrictions that the two-term governor does not support and reinstating abortion access. Abbott, meanwhile, has kept a heavy focus on expanding his massive security operation on the U.S.-Mexico border as the number of migrants entering the county remains high.

During the same four-month period, Abbotts campaign said it raised nearly $25 million.

ORourke remains an underdog in Texas, where no Democrat has won a statewide race in nearly 30 years. Former President Donald Trump carried Texas by 5.5 points in 2020, and some recent public polling has given Abbott a roughly similar lead.

Texas has no limits on campaign contributions.

ORourke said he received more than 511,000 contributions during the latest fundraising period. Thats more than four times as many as Abbott, who reported 113,000 contributions and whose campaigns have long been supercharged by six- and seven-figure donations from wealthy Texas executives.

The numbers reported by both campaigns, which were made ahead of campaign finance filings becoming publicly available, did not break down the largest donors.

As we move into the heat of the summer campaign, were well positioned to fund all our campaign efforts, Gardner Pate, chairman of Abbotts campaign, said in a statement.
Supreme Court terms run from the beginning of October to the end of June.

As recently as 1985-86, the court cranked out 175 formal opinions in a single term. This past term, they managed just 63.

There are nine justices, assisted by four law clerks each. The clerks are typically recent high-GPA graduates from prestigious law schools. That means 45 of our top legal minds labored nine months to produce an average of 1.4 decisions each. Terry Pratchett wrote whole novels faster than that.

The disappearing caseload is one measure of the changing role of the Supreme Court. The court has gotten away from what its members call, a bit disparagingly, error-correction  fixing mistakes made by lower courts, which accomplishes nothing but justice. Instead, the justices have shifted their focus to big policy questions (as you may have heard).

Usually, I can count on each term to throw up at least a couple column-worthy business law cases, replete with colorful facts and interesting legal issues.

Not this year.

Sure, there are a few business cases among the 63, but they involve technical questions of statutory construction or civil procedure, boring even to the people involved.

Nonetheless, several recent cases signal possible big shifts in the courts approach to certain business law topics, as Ill try to explain in this and the following few columns.

The first involves regulation of the internet. Last September, Texas became the leader in the race to regulate social media, passing House Bill 20, discussed in the last two columns.

Two tech industry trade associations (members: Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc.) sued in Texas federal court. In December, a district judge issued an injunction preventing HB20 from going into effect.

Texas appealed. In late May, a divided panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the injunction, a ruling that reportedly came as a shock to many in the tech industry. From the perspective of Silicon Valley, it might have been all too easy to dismiss HB20 as a political stunt rather than a serious threat.

The trade associations petitioned the Supreme Court. In early June the justices reinstated the injunction, but only on a 5-4 vote. One of the dissenting justices, Elena Kagan, didnt explain her reasoning, but the other three did.

Samuel Alitos dissent was joined by Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch. The details of Alitos reasoning are less illuminating than one introductory remark. He wrote: Social media platforms have transformed the way people  obtain news.

Which is to say, four justices of the Supreme Court were willing to countenance a law giving government a significant degree of control over the way people obtain news.

Some readers might recall the old fairness doctrine, which required editorializing TV and radio stations to present opposing viewpoints. It was justified by public ownership of the airwaves and the limited number of broadcast licenses that could be issued. Those justifications dont apply to the internet.

In his signing statement, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott made no bones about the purpose of HB20. He wanted to use state power to prevent private companies from censoring one particular political viewpoint, namely his. HB20 is a poorly written statute, making it difficult to predict with confidence how it would work in real life. But it seems to create a two-track system for content moderation. For posts that dont advance a viewpoint  a key term the law fails to define  the platforms would be allowed to enforce their own acceptable use policies.

But if they remove a post, or cancel an account, or demonetize a video, they have to provide notice and a hearing and a right to appeal, all of which impose administrative costs.

Twitters chief executive recently tweeted: We suspend over half a million spam accounts every day. HB20 would allow each of the half-million bots to protest.

The second track applies to social media posts that express a viewpoint. The platforms may remove viewpoint posts only in strictly limited circumstances. For example, specific threats of violence may be removed, but only if they target people because of race, color, disability, religion, national origin or ancestry, age, sex or status as a peace officer or judge.

Viewpoint posts advocating violence against anyone else  against liberals, say, or gays, or feminists  must be left alone, apparently, unless they separately violate some specific federal or Texas law.

This is just one of several disturbing features of a law four justices of the Supreme Court would have allowed to go into immediate effect.

Given the close 5-4 vote, we should expect other, slicker statutes imposing political controls on social media to pop up around the country. The court will surely be revisiting the issue soon.

Joel Jacobsen is an author who in 2015 retired from a 29-year legal career. If there are topics you would like to see covered in future columns, please write him at legal.column.tips@gmail.com.
TEHRAN, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Friday rejected a recent U.S. claim that Iran is providing Russia with drones for use in Ukraine as "baseless" and politically motivated.

Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks in a phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, according to a press release on the foreign ministry's website, after U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Monday that "information" indicates Iran is preparing to provide Russia with "up to several hundred" drones, including weapons-capable ones.

Such allegations, which came just ahead of the ongoing U.S. President Joe Biden's Middle East tour, are aimed at "achieving specific political goals and purposes," the top Iranian diplomat noted.

"Just as we said at the beginning of the (Ukrainian) crisis, we are opposed to war in Afghanistan, Yemen, Palestine and also Ukraine," Amir-Abdollahian told Kuleba. 
Wieden+Kennedy has brought on board Ayesha Ghosh as Managing Director for India. Ghosh, who will be based in Mumbai, will partner with Santosh Paddy Padhi, who was hired as CCO of India for the independent agency in March. Current W+K Delhi Managing Director, Gau Narayanan, who is leaving India and W+K to return home to the UK, will stay on in his current role to help with the transition through August.

Click here to check the Award Categories

Ghosh, who officially starts at W+K on July 15th, joins the agency after six years at Taproot Dentsu, where she was CEO, based in Mumbai. She joined Taproot in 2016 as general manager, and after driving considerable business growth + profitability, building out the agencys design offering, shaping the strategic approach to creative work, and structuring the talent base/agency culture, was promoted to CEO in 2021.

Taproot was rated the No. 1 Independent Agency from India at Cannes and ranked amongst the Top 20 Independent Agencies in the World, along with being the first ever Indian agency to win "Creative Agency Of The Year" at Adfest, Spikes Asia Creative Agency Of The Year and Integrated Grand Prix winner, Clio India Agency Of The Year, and Local Creative Agency Of The Year.

Prior to Taproot, Ghosh was part of the leadership team for Contract Advertising for over a decade, helping build and grow the agencys presence. Here, she worked closely with the consulting and design practices, to help expand sources of growth. Previous to Contract Advertising, she held permanent positions in a number of industry shops including Grey Worldwide, Trikaya Grey and PSL McCann Erickson.

Wieden+Kennedy recently began expanding its presence in India, moving into Mumbai with the hire of Padhi and now Ghosh. Previously, the agency had been established in Delhi since 2007, over the years building some of Indias most exciting brands, including IndiGo Airlines, Royal Enfield, and the Government of India.

Some of W+K Indias greatest hits over the years include Nike Da Da Ding, an initiative to bring in foreign investment into manufacturing called Make in India, 15 years of branding and design for IndiGo Airlines, and more recently, Thats Why I Airbnb, for Airbnb, Light up new beginnings, for OPPO, and Gamerkind, Humankind needs you, for HP Omen. In 2021, W+K Delhi had their best new business year in five years, adding business from ABinBev, Delhivery, Hero Motorcorp, OPPO, PokerBaazi and Visa.

On joining the agency, Ghosh commented, Its astonishing how W+K consistently produces off-the-charts work, across the world. I hope to absorb some of that genius and with the help of a talented team in India and an ace like Paddy, create some genius of our own. With scattered attention, infinite distractions, only work that is honest and primal, will win for brands. And thats what we mean to do.

Immediately, Ghosh joins Padhi in building out an expanded leadership, talent and client roster for W+K to create transformative work for local and global brands.

Santosh Padhi (Paddy) Chief Creative Officer, Wieden + Kennedy, India, commented, Im glad Ayesha is joining us to be part of this wonderful journey. She is absolutely blunt and honest when it comes to work, which is extremely important these days for our business. Clients, too, prefer to have conversations that cut to the chase. Ayesha and I have worked closely together for a good number of years at Taproot, we understand and complement each other. An organisation is known by the kind of people that work for it and both of us will be focusing on putting together a crazy, talented bunch of people, across departments. And we believe that magic will follow.

Neal Arthur, Global CEO, Wieden+Kennedy, added here, Ayesha's first day is a great day for W+K. W+K India has big things ahead. Their collective creative ambition, optimism and connection to both local and global culture will no doubt usher in the next wave of transformation for the brands they work with. We are excited and grateful to have Ayesha with us.
Legendary martial arts superstar and director Bruce Lee was on the brink of his big break; Enter the Dragon was the first time a Chinese American male actor was in a starring role in a Hollywood movie. In 1973, a month before the release of this iconic blockbuster that catapulted him to global stardom, Bruce Lee died under mysterious circumstances in Hong Kong at the age of 32. On his 49th Death Anniversary, watch an in-depth investigation, hosted and narrated by Academy Award nominee and Emmy Award winner Laurence Fishburne, into the tragedy that unfolded on that fateful day in The Death Of Bruce Lee on Wednesday, 20th July at 9 PM on HistoryTV18.

That evening, he complained of a headache, took a painkiller, went for a nap, and never woke up. A myriad of rumours and conspiracy theories surrounded his sudden demise, shocking and capturing the attention of the world. Bruces brother, Robert Lee, remained unsatisfied with the official cause of death - a fatal reaction to aspirin. But could something as ordinary as this widely used drug send an extraordinary person to his deathbed?

In an attempt to find the truth and lay bare what or who dealt the final blow to a man known for his exceptional strength, speed and skill, the show investigates every possible angle to get to the bottom of the truth. From renowned rooftop fights and challenges posed on his movie sets, to feuds with alleged Triad mobsters who ran Hong Kong's shadowy underworld, the documentary uncovers the surprising life of the man, the myth, the legend  Bruce Lee.

If foul play was involved, what was the motive, and who might want to hurt him? The documentary reconstructs the events of that fatal night and searches for a possible explanation by scrutinising previously unseen documents like his autopsy reports, toxicology report and statements from witnesses. There are also interviews with police officers, medical experts, those in the inner circles of show business and the mafia.

On Lees 49th death anniversary, join us to unravel one of history's greatest mysteries  as we shine a light on the enigmatic events surrounding the death of a cultural icon. Was Bruce Lees untimely death a tragic accident, conspired murder or culmination of a life spent flirting with danger? Is fact stranger than fiction? Discover the answer in an investigative special narrated by Academy Award nominee and Emmy Award winner Laurence Fishburne.

Arun Thapar, President  Content & Communication, A+E Networks | TV18, commented, At HISTORY TV18, we strive to bring OUR viewers the very best of international content. With this two-hour special, we offer a riveting investigative special that aims to unravel an enduring mystery. Shows like this are in line with our brand promise of delivering gripping, high quality features with A list talent to a discerning and upscale urban audience.
As part of Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting's strategy for continuous growth, the company has announced its foray into packaged foods business in India. The Company has an ambitious plan to be a significant player in the snack food, spices and ready to eat market. The Company has appointed Mr. Anil Chugh, hitherto India & SAARC head of the Wipro Consumer Care business, to head the foods business. Consequently, Mr. Neeraj Khatri, head of Wipro Consumer Cares Philippines entity, has moved as India & SAARC head of Wipro Consumer Care business.

Commenting on the foods foray, Mr. Vineet Agrawal, CEO of Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting, said, "Our decision to enter packaged food business would complement our existing categories in personal care, thus building a complete offering in the FMCG space in India. Anil has led the India Consumer Care business from 2007. Under his leadership, Santoor has risen to be the number two brand in toilet soaps in India. Neeraj has played a significant role in turning around our Indonesia business and then steered the Philippines acquisition during the initial years and post that through an extremely tough Covid environment. Our leadership changes align with our ambitions of being a significant and leading player in FMCG space in all the markets we operate in."

Mr. Chugh and Mr. Khatri are Wipro Consumer Care veterans who have spent over 25 years at Wipro. Both started their careers with Wipro Consumer Care from their respective B-School campuses.

Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting, a significant player in personal care, home care, and lighting business, recorded a revenue of Rs 8,634 crore for the financial year ended on March 31, 2022. Its flagship soap brand, Santoor, has become a Rs 2,300 crore plus brand. It continues to be the second-largest selling soap in the Country.
KAMPALA, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The number of malaria cases in Uganda has risen since January, Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng said on Thursday.

Aceng said that of the 11.25 million patients who had visited outpatient departments since the start of the year, roughly 3.15 million had malaria, according to tweets by Ugandan parliament. Nearly 775,000 malaria cases were children under five years old.

Aceng said that the country has achieved a notable reduction in malaria cases over the last decade, adding that the malaria parasite prevalence rate was reduced from 42 percent in 2009 to 9 percent in 2019. The proportion of malaria deaths to total deaths in health facilities has decreased from 18 percent in 2013 to 12 percent in 2019.

Given the recent case increase, the mosquito-transmitted disease remains a serious health problem that continues to stagnate economic growth and social development, the ministry said. 
TRIPOLI, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The National Oil Corporation (NOC) of Libya on Friday announced full resumption of operation at all oil fields and ports in the country after about three months of closure amid waves of protests.

"Upon resumption of oil production in all of the oil locations, we will coordinate with the Ministry of Oil and Gas to raise the daily production to the highest possible rates," said Farhat Gdora, the newly-appointed chairman of NOC, told a press conference in the eastern city of Benghazi.

In mid-April, many oil fields and ports in Libya were shut down by local protesters who demanded Prime Minister Abdul-Hamed Dbeibah hand over power to the government appointed by the parliament in March.

Dbeibah, however, has been refusing to do so, saying his government will only hand over power to an elected government.

Libya failed to hold general elections in December 2021, because of disagreements on the election laws among the parties.

The North African country has been suffering escalating violence and unrest ever since the fall of the late leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011. 
Government action

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) Calls to Action set out a path toward reconciliation by providing achievable and meaningful targets for governments, organizations and people to work towards everyday.

Twenty-nine of the 94 TRC calls to action relate to provincial jurisdiction, and the Alberta government has made progress on 24 of these. This includes initiatives listed below in the areas of education, justice, child welfare, mental health and addictions, consultation, infrastructure and more.

While the calls to action are vital, there are many ways to pursue reconciliation and we must listen to the concerns of Indigenous Peoples to find ways to support healing and growth. The path towards reconciliation can only be followed through partnership and collaboration.
A previously unnoticed Proud Boys member, Robert Fussell, has shredded conspiracy theories about January 6 pushed by the House January 6 Select Committee and federal prosecutors

Journalist Carter Walker of Pennsylvanias Lancaster Online newspaper punches far above the papers fighting weight. Walker reported on July 7 that Robert Fussell revealed himself to be the third Proud Boys member that the federal prosecutors were trying to find in their conspiracy theory of a seditious conspiracy.

That means that Seattles Fussell volunteered to be indicted for seditious conspiracy. Why would he do that? To prove that the Democrats and prosecutors are lying about January 6, 2021, Fussell is willing to risk prosecution for two 20-year felonies. The Lancaster paper reported:

Robert Fussell, of Seattle, revealed his identity and role because, he said, evidence cited by federal prosecutors is being mischaracterized. Should the entire private chat logs of the senior Proud Boys planning council be publicized, it would undermine the governments case, he said. Fussell, who uses the pseudonym Rex Fergus, is referenced in an indictment as one of three members of upper-tier leadership of the Proud Boys Ministry of Self-Defense, which allegedly planned the groups actions on Jan. 6. He is not named in the indictment, as he has not been charged with any crime.

So Fussell believes the falsehoods by Democrats about January 6 are so deceitful he is willing to risk going to jail for up to 40 years by identifying himself.

Coincidentally, these revelations are also confirmed by new revelations of an undercover FBI agent reporting that the Proud Boys never planned to enter or attack the Capitol. The Gateway Pundit reported that a whistleblower leaked FBI notes to them. See Text Message 1 , Message 2 , Message 3 , Message 4 , Message 5 , Message 6 , Message 7. The agent reported to his handler that the Proud Boys actually de-escalated the crowd.

Meanwhile, Fussell revealed one of three key conversations among the Proud Boys Ministry of Self Defense leadership team. The second of three chats is over 400 pages of messages on communication app Telegram. Fussell suggested to Lancaster Online he will release the rest.

The actual chat messages from the Proud Boys leadership team demonstrate:

The Proud Boys, even their appointed leadership team, had no plans about January 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C., other than to protect demonstrators from ANTIFA and BLM violence.

As late as December 27, 2020, the leaders are debating whether to hold protests in their own local state capitols rather than joining the announced demonstration at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C. announced on December 19.

Thus, as late as December 27, the Proud Boys had not decided whether they were going to D.C. at all.

The response to holding local events is striking. In your authors words, the response was whatever

In other words, there was no goal to do anything at the Capitol or in D.C. The leadership didnt care if any Proud Boys came to D.C. or not, or stayed in their own states, because there was nothing in particular planned for D.C.

There were no plans to interfere in the counting of Electoral College votes.

The leadership chats are amazingly rambling and unfocused, demonstrating no goal to actually get anything done in Washington, D.C. on January 5-6, 2021.

Remember: Proud Boys have always been focused on allowing demonstrators to engage in free speech. They typically do not carry the message themselves. They are mainly ticked off at leftist violence. Videos show the Proud Boys focused on ANTIFA and chasing them away.

Remember: Proud Boys have always been focused on allowing demonstrators to engage in free speech. They typically do not carry the message themselves. They are mainly ticked off at leftist violence. Videos show the Proud Boys focused on ANTIFA and chasing them away. There is no discussion of the Electoral College or Congress counting votes.

There is no effort to recruit anyone else to show up on January 6 or any leadership role with regard to other demonstrators.

The leaders mainly debate how not to get stabbed by ANTIFA and BLM counter-demonstrators, including those whom leftists stabbed in November or December joking that they dont recommend it, and discussing clothing that would protect against getting stabbed.

The Ministry of Self Defense was created to try to organize Proud Boys who attend rallies and events. (As Aaron Wollkind explains, originally a drinking and sports-watching fraternity, the Proud Boys consists of the party boys and a small number of rally boys who started defending the right of free speech at conservative events.)

The MOSD is clearly explained as responding to the total lack of structure among the Proud Boys.

The chats emphasize that MOSD means self-defense. Tarrio strongly instructs Proud Boys must not go looking for trouble, must stick together, and defend demonstrators and one another.

Enrique Tarrio emphasizes in the chats that the Proud Boys must be peaceful.

Even the prosecutions Third Superseding Indictment includes the admissions:

13. From at least in and around November 2020, TARRIO used his platform as the leader of the Proud Boys to publicly post statements in response to the projected results of the 2020 Presidential Elections, e.g.

a. On November 6, 2020, TARRIO posted a message that read, The media constantly accuses us of wanting a start a civil war. Careful what the [f---] you ask for we dont want to start one but we will sure as [f---] finish one. b. On November 12, 2020, TARRIO posted a message that read, [F---] Unity. No quarter. Raise the black flag. c. On November 16, 2020, TARRIO posted a message that read, If Biden steals this election, [the Proud Boys] will be political prisoners. We wont go quietly I promise.

Even the aggressive talk is clearly defensive, with no plans to start any trouble.

31. On December 20, 2020, PERSON-3 posted a message to the MOSD Leaders Group that stated, I am assuming most of the protest will be at the capital [sic] building given whats going on inside. In response, TARRIO posted a video chat, which would take place on December 21, to discuss the MOSD and January 6.

In other words, as the indictment admits, there was no focus on interrupting the Electoral College count. The Proud Boys were just guessing where most people would be expected to be. A couple like Biggs made angry, violent statements. But the group did not agree with those.

One reason this is such a breakthrough is that the FBI and prosecutors have imposed gag orders on January 6 Defendants and their attorneys. The Protective Orders prevent the public from knowing how baseless the prosecutions about January 6 really are.

Many have heard that the FBI and courts are withholding over 14,000 hours of video. The Protective Orders are why. Actually, the number is much higher by now.

Hiding behind these gag orders, Congress and prosecutors misrepresent the facts. I have seen those documents and videos as an attorney who formerly represented Proud Boys and Oath Keepers defendants. I can tell you that the cases are fraud on the court. But I cannot show you the documents or videos.

Yet Fussell has his own copies. He did not receive the documents or videos through or from prosecutors. Therefore, he has no restrictions on his use of his own documents from his own phone. Fussell has blown the lid off January 6.

Image: Pixnio -- Devanath
Teachers are being caught molesting students, working in pornography in their free time, and even allowing young girls to pose topless in sexual positions for art projects. These incidents are growing. Child sex changes are being normalized, and sexuality is being pushed onto children even in preschool.

No longer can parents brush these incidents off as isolated. Children are being sexualized more and more at younger and younger ages and its gotten to the point that parents who wish to protect their childrens innocence must stand up and take control. While politicians and the media fearmongers about the 1 in 10 million children who will face school shootings (those are the same odds as being struck by lightning), 1 in 10 public school students are sexually abused by a teachers or other school staff members.

This is the epidemic communities need to be fighting. Yet the sexualization of minors has become so commonplace that Ghislaine Maxwell was charged and sentenced for sex trafficking minor girls and not a single man who sexually abused those involved has been arrested or brought to justice.

While masses of people tuned in to watch the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard trial, very few school officials and lawmakers have done anything to prevent child sex abuse in schools. If anything theyve perpetuated it by pushing gender theory and identity politics. Pornographic books have been allowed to remain in school libraries because, although the display graphic sexual images, theyre inclusive to the LGTBQ+ community. Whats more, bans of sexual education for young children -- who are too young to understand concepts like transgenderism -- are being villified by teachers and activists who believe its perfectly healthy and normal for educators to teach young children about sexuality, and even support educators who post pornography online in their free time.

More teachers are getting caught with graphic Only Fans accounts, and plenty of men support them. When reporting on the latest incident (where the teacher in question used her classroom nickname as her porn handle) I was told off by men who obviously enjoyed seeing a teacher naked. They argued that she didnt take off her clothes in the classroom so its none of parents business. Oddly enough, as much as women are told that working in porn is empowering, not one single female defended this teachers actions in my debates.

In truth, its not against the law for a teacher to work in porn or have an Only fans account, but educators are supposed to lead by example. I dont know many parents who want their kids working in porn. There may be movements to normalize sex work, but the fact is that it requires no skill sets. Thats why OnlyFans is so popular.

Teachers were once held to a higher standard than the rest of society because children emulate their educators. They do as others do, not as theyre told, and as sexuality and a sexually obsessed culture followed the sexual revolution -- which was less of a revolution and more of a display of sexual perversion -- children have become victims of sexual abuse at increasing rates.

This is not a coincidence. Just last week yet another teacher was charged for 11 different counts of sexually assaulting a student under 16 years of age. Not only did he sodomize the victim but also recorded the incidents. This is another common trend.

Last month a woke teacher in Hawaii repeatedly molested a 13-year-old boy and recorded hundreds of pictures and videos of the incidents so he could share them with another teacher across the country. This is the state of education. Sexual abuse is common.

Unfortunately sexual molestation causes long-term trauma. Young children who are abused by child predators suffer internal injuries that may never fully heal in addition to the mental issues that follow, while older minors who may even allow their abuse (although they are not old enough to understand the impact, and therefore unable to lawfully give consent) suffer from more severe psychological damage. This has to stop, and if the school system wont do anything about it, parents must.

As school boards ignore parental rights, and teachers unions continue to draw lines over curriculum transparency, many families are forced to seek out alternative options. Some can afford private school, and others trust in charter schools. But tuition for private institutions is nearly as high as college fees, and charter schools are publicly funded, and thus beholden to Department of Education standards.

For most of us, homeschooling is the only true option. It is not only a way to properly prepare our children for the future, but a safe haven from sexual exploitation and grooming techniques that normalize underage sex and hook-up culture -- and unfortunately lead to sexual abuse.

Homeschooling has protected my children from harmful outside influences that are damaging the innocence of masses of kids. While my husband and I do not aim to shelter our children, we do discuss other behaviors as the children mature. Over time, I know that new influences will become more common. Young adults must explore on their own, but it is parents job first and foremost to instill a good set of values and lessons upon their kids in order to provide them with a proper moral compass to navigate all the chaos they will face as they journey further from home.

Homeschooling is no longer a niche education alternative. Its a sanctuary where children can learn math, science, English, and history without being sexualized. Families who educate their children at home are quickly learning how easy it is to impart knowledge while also finding peace knowing that their children are safe from sexually obsessed teachers and school staff.

It may seem like a big change for families accustomed to the education system, but there are more resources available to parents than ever. From websites like Khan Academy and Starfall.com to School Zone workbooks and the Kidz Labs science kits, taking control of our childrens education ensures that they are no longer indoctrinated into a world of sexualized learning.

Public schools are openly encouraging children to explore their sexuality and even seek sex changes before they are mature enough to make these life-altering decisions. Teachers are openly hailing lessons on sexuality while working in pornography. Grooming and child molestation is the true epidemic which needs to be eradicated from the public school system. Unfortunately teachers unions, school boards, and the Department of Education refuse to address parents concerns and the growing number of sexual abuse cases against teachers.

Families have the right to walk away and embark on a homeschooling journey. This fall they can safeguard children from the dangers that child predators pose within classrooms by taking a stand and stepping up. Homeschooling accommodates any schedule and sets a much better example.

Jessica Marie Baumgartner is a reporter for Go 2 Tutors education news, and homeschooling mother. Her book, Homeschooling on a Budget, comes out August 2.

Image: StockSnap.io
Starting with the organic rise of the Tea Party in 2008, a slate of enthusiastic patriots announced their candidacy for public office. The goal was to stop President Barack Obamas leftward tilt while also changing the elitist GOP agenda, which too often seemed uni-party.

Fast forward to Donald Trumps historic 2016 White House win. America First MAGA candidates threw their hats into various campaign ringscity councils, state legislatures, and Congress. Yet, no matter how hard many Tea Party and MAGA candidates worked, most could not compete with GOP coffers that easily paid for radio spots, television ads, colorful billboards, and glossy flyers that promoted the same Establishment candidates that got us into the current mess.

The Groundhog Day-like cycle, repeats every two years beginning in the primary:

Step 1  Establishment and MAGA candidates announce their candidacy.

Step 2  Establishment candidate ignores MAGA candidate.

Step 3  MAGA candidate starts gaining traction; receives endorsements.

Step 4  Local and state GOPs blanket the district or state with commercials, ads, flyers, and billboards (many deceptive) knowing the MAGA candidate lacks the financial resources to compete.

Step 5  The establishment candidate wins the primary. GOP says Republicans must now come together.

Step 6  RINO wins the election and quickly starts disappointing MAGAs.

Image: Young Kim and the Dems (edited). YouTube screen grab.

A prime example is Rep. Young Kim (CA-39). Almost as soon as Rep. Kim won her current 39th Congressional District race she started disappointing the very people who supported her campaign. Political activist Gale Stoddard, known as the voice of the Filipino people, shares her insightful story:

I have known Young Kim for over 25 years when she accompanied her boss, former Congressman Ed Royce, to my moms centenarian birthday parties held in my backyard. I also held three meet-and-greet fundraisers for her. Kim seemed the ideal candidate in 2020 for the Republican Party. With the expert conservative mentoring of the esteemed Ed Royce, we knew her rise in the political world was assured. But something went awry. ... [S]he has gone too far to the left.

Rather than run for reelection in the district in which she lived, Kim chose the new 40th Congressional District, which has a slight Republican advantage. An America First MAGA candidate (Ret.) Col. Greg Raths, a Mission Viejo City Councilmember, was also running. When it looked as if Raths might win the primary against incumbent Kim, it was all GOP Establishment hands-on-deck to stop him with what some claim were misleading radio and TV ads. Glossy flyers (from Kims PAC or local/state GOPs) attacking America First candidate Raths were mailed out on an almost daily basis. Again, former Kim supporter Gale Stoddard wrote:

My heart ached when I saw on TV the terrible ads Young Kims team created to burn the sterling reputation of an acclaimed member of the US ARMED FORCES, distinguished Marine officer Greg Raths. In my opinion, the ads were oozing with hate. A lot of Chino Hills voters expressed their disdain to me and promised to never vote for Kim again.

In early July, after receiving yet another email message begging for a donation, Dorothy S. who lives in the 40th Congressional District e-mailed Young Kim as follows:

You should NOT have lied about Greg Raths. This is his neighborhood, not yours.

Following his primary loss, America First Raths put out a short video explaining what happened:

Every two years.... Albert Einstein famously said, Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

NOT. THIS. YEAR!

Thanks to Joe Bidens dismal leadership and his Administrations multiple failures a Red Wave is on the horizon. If there is any year for patriots to say, Hell no, we wont vote for House Never-Trump RINOs, its the 2022 midterm election.

CNNs Chris Cillizza, who leans so far left he might need a cane to walk upright, said on May 26:

With just over five months before the 2022 midterm elections, its becoming more and more clear that a Republican wave is building out in the country.

On June 15, Elon Musk tweeted:

Massive red wave in 2022.

Andy Roth wrote in The Red Wave is Not Just Inevitable, Its Also Conservative:

What the red tsunami portends is not merely a coming Republican majority in Congress and state capitols, but a realignment that propels conservatives into power. All across the nation in one primary after another, conservative state legislative candidates are defeating milquetoast establishment and moderate candidates.

The problem with RINOs is that we never know which way they will go on an issue, such as the 15 spineless Republican senators who voted with Democrats to destroy the Second Amendment. As President Trump said on June 25 at his Illinois rally:

[W]e also have to defeat the backstabbers and the dreadful RINOs  And these RINOs are in many ways worse than the Democrats because you dont really know where theyre coming from. You dont know where theyre coming from.

The America First MAGA base wont ever be valued unless the GOP Establishment has a shocking wake-up call.

What MAGAs can do:

Become actively engaged in the GOP apparatus to grow our influence.

Join nonpartisan conservative organizations. In Orange County, that would be Conservative Patriots of Orange County.

Donate directly to MAGA candidates and/or organizations instead of state or local GOP Establishment apparatus.

Follow and post RINO voting records to alert others.

Volunteer with non-RINO Republican candidates.

In open primary states consider registering as No Party Preference.

MAGAs choices on Election Day:

Only for the House (of Representatives), skip the congressional race on the ballot where the America First candidate should have appeared but didnt, and

Write in the America First candidate (if write-in allowed).

Grudgingly vote for the Republican candidate, accepting that, if elected, his or her focus will be uni-party, i.e., make nice with Democrats and likely ignore the MAGA base.

In the interim period before the 2022 midterm election, it behooves all of us MAGAs to contact our wayward Republican officeholders and remind them that every vote counts, especially those who are registered Republicans and that they should not dismiss our legitimate concerns lest they be defeated by a Democrat.

Economists at Chapman University believe Republicans will gain 53 seats in the midterm election due to high gas prices. The Senate is too close but, perhaps, Republicans should win the House with a few less RINO seats.

As we get closer to the pivotal November 2022 midterm election, look for state and local GOPs to insist that Republicans vote for any candidate with an R after their name. They will claim a RINO is still better than a Democrat. Many America First patriots will respond thusly:

NOT. THIS. YEAR!

You can contact Robin Itzler at PatriotNeighbors@yahoo.com.

(Image of Col. Greg Raths courtesy of Col. Raths.)
You may have noticed that, especially in the last few years, western civilization, and American society generally, seems to have plunged into an abyss of insanity, depravity, and general confusion. With the introduction to concepts like Critical Race Theory or Gender Theory to the national discourse, and with words being created seemingly out of thin air, like heteronormative, pan-sexual, non-binary, and the prefix, cis-, society has been pushed closer and closer to the edge of national disunity and societal insanity.

The fact that men and women are now being referred to not as male or female, but cis-male and cis-female by not only professional idiots who happen to be gender studies majors or bitter middle-aged lesbian feminist college professors, but by major corporations who make the sodas you drink at barbecues or who manufactured the car you drive or even by a legendary company beloved by children for decades that was, until recently, an institution in and of itself, is an indication of just how far our society has fallen. And, indeed, Doctor Jill Bidens latest speech at the Latinx Incluxion luncheon, in which she made a gaffe that would cause any average peon to be completely demolished and ostracized, blackballed, and character assassinated by American Pravda (CNN, MSNBC), is just the latest example of Americas collective mental breakdown.

While all this woke nonsense and linguistic gibberish may make it sound like the people uttering these ridiculous words had a stroke, rest assured, these words are being used not by accident, or not just to be sensitive to the feelings of others, but to, quite literally, erase reality itself. This absurd babel did not just spontaneously emerge within the last few years, but is deeply rooted in an academic theory that has been applied to multiple disciplines since at least the 1960s, known as postmodernism.

In essence, the theory of postmodernism literally rejects the ideas of objective reality and truth itself. Postmodernism was born out of the psychotic mind of radical French philosopher Jacques Derrida, who was the primary and original advocate for a line of thinking known as deconstruction. The goal of the Deconstructionists was to essentially blur or erase the lines between fact and fiction, reality and fantasy, and, from their perspective, there was no such thing as absolute truth, objective reality, or fundamental morality, it was all relative, subject to the interpretation of the individual and/or his social group or community. In a phrase, these lunatics spawned the idea of living your truth.

According to Encyclopedia Brittanica, postmodernists believe that the values, practices, and principles of the Enlightenment era in the West, that is scientific inquiry, rationality, reason, and the search for objective truth through the use of these methods, essentially create a system of intellectual hierarchies(if we havent heard that word bandied about enough recently) that suppress alternative ideas about, and interpretations of, the world, and thus oppress those who may not believe, or may not want to believe, the objective truths about the world. The postmodernists reject the idea that truth exists independently of the individual human mind, and they argue that truth is subjective, and that one persons truth is no more valid, true, or factual than another persons. They advocate that science, history, language, etc should be viewed through a lens of an individuals personal experience and feelings instead of the actual facts themselves, and that by asserting that there is a real truth, which obviously there is and always will be, you are excluding the perspectives of others who may not subscribe to the truth as established by the dominant group and their methods of finding the objective truth.

Is any of this starting to sound familiar? If so, that may be because Critical Race Theory, gender theory, transgenderism, feminism, etc. are all the progeny, or, more accurately bastard children, of postmodernism. And postmodernism itself is the child of Marxism. Marxists reject the truth and grand narratives about the world because they believe it was established by an elite group, the ruling class. They seek to destroy it on that basis because they see it as the rules, regulations, standards, and customs of the bourgeoisie oppressing the proletariat. The postmodernists view truth as a hierarchy and that facts discerned and believed by the dominant group, or ideas that are believed by the majority of rational people, oppress ideas and beliefs of those on the fringes or who are legitimately delusional. It is Marxism dressed up as free thinking, which is not free thinking at all because free thinking requires the use of rationality in order to determine the truth by the using the facts known about the world, and the postmodernists, according to their own beliefs, do not believe in facts or the idea of facts. (Jordan Peterson discusses this notion in great detail in this lecture.)

If all of this madness sounds like hogwash that someone pulled out of their behind, dressed up in academic language, and pretended was a serious belief because they have the right degree, thats because it is. It is total garbage, not based on any kind of evidence or facts, but also not based on logical argumentation or rationality because the postmodernists reject literally all of those ideas and concepts. Nonetheless, this is what many of your children are now being taught in public schools. They are being taught, just like the postmodernists want them to be, that there is no such thing as truth. They want your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and friends to believe that everything is true, and nothing is true; everything is real, nothing is real; left is right; up is down; if you are a male and you believe you are a female, or you feel like you should be a female, regardless of the fact that you have a penis and testicles, than you literally are a female, and other people should recognize that you are a female and if they dont, then they are the ones with the mental problem, not you; if a white student achieves higher grades than a black student, it is not because the white student is factually more intelligent than the black student and worked harder, but because of systemic racism and unconscious bias of the teacher.

The rational person then asks, really, can you prove that the teacher is discriminating against the black kid, or that the white student got the grade he did because the system favors him, or the system is against the black kid? Wheres your evidence? To that, the postmodernist critical race theorist replies, well, I dont have any evidence to prove this, but I dont need evidence, I just feel like its racist or biased, therefore it is. It is fair to say that, since the toxic ideas of postmodernism have left the campus and infected nearly every institution in America from medicine, to law, to commercials for soda and sneakers, that it has caused every single cultural issue and rift this country now faces, which is why we now have, in 2022, a circus sideshow pretending to be an intellectual and a legal scholar telling a U.S. senator that men can get pregnant, and acting like she was the intelligent one in that scenario, which, according to postmodernism, even someone as stupid as her is smart because she feels like she is.

Image: Kevin Dooley
In the first paragraph of the introduction to the book Industrial Society and Its Future, author Ted Kaczynski said:

The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. They have greatly increased the life-expectancy of those of us who live in "advanced" countries, but they have destabilized society, have made life unfulfilling, have subjected human beings to indignities, have led to widespread psychological suffering (in the Third World to physical suffering as well) and have inflicted severe damage on the natural world. The continued development of technology will worsen the situation. It will certainly subject human beings to greater indignities and inflict greater damage on the natural world, it will probably lead to greater social disruption and psychological suffering, and it may lead to increased physical suffering even in "advanced" countries [emphasis added].

Kaczynski's words were prescient and accurate. In another terrifying step toward transhumanist tyranny, Chinese citizens are now subject to the will of computers and their communist programmers. A Daily Mail article reported that in an effort to "improve" its judicial system, China implemented the use of artificial intelligence. Touted as "a significant contribution to the judicial advancement of human civilisation [sic]," this technology suggests new legislation, drafts legal documents, and notifies the court of "perceived human errors" in statutory judgments. According to the Supreme Court in the Chinese capital city of Beijing, "[j]udges must now consult AI on every case by law," and "if they go against its recommendation they [the judges] must submit a written explanation for why." Recently linked to police databases and the social credit system, this A.I. even has the power to punish the convicted.

No one can refute the fact that technology has certainly enhanced the experience of mortal existence in many ways, but one could question if the cost was worth the reward  especially in the context of automated robots with algorithmic biases running criminal courts, and dictating fates of those standing accused under a communist regime.

With the near-continuous development of innovative technologies, the agenda towards transhumanism becomes strikingly concentrated, and as Kacyzinski foretold, "it will certainly subject human beings to greater indignities." Laboratories operating in a godless vacuum create chimeras, with human-monkey hybrids even living for 19 days. Current science shows that a human embryo has cardiac activity (a heartbeat) as early as 18 days post-conception, so one can identify this as a serious breach in ethical research. Unchecked, technological advancements will realize Kaczynski's prophetic tale.
Pro-abortion groups have vandalized and set fire to crisis pregnancy centers throughout the U.S. recently. However, they have much more work to do, according to Democratic Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren.

Warren told NBC10 Boston: "In Massachusetts right now, those crisis pregnancy centers that are there to fool people who are looking for pregnancy termination help outnumber true abortion clinics by three to one. We need to shut them down here in Massachusetts and we need to shut them down all around the country." She added, "You should not be able to torture a pregnant person like that."

Where to start? Crisis pregnancy centers are there to "fool" people while abortion clinics are there to "help" people? (Excuse me, I guess the preferred term is now not abortion, but "pregnancy termination.") Pregnancy centers "torture" the "pregnant persons" who visit them, so "we need to shut them down all around the country"? It is abortion providers who routinely torture babies in the womb, in many cases dismembering them and/or sucking their brains out.

No, Warren  and the vast majority of "progressive" Democrats  aren't pro-choice. They are simply pro-whatever it is they want. They are pro-sloth, pro-personal convenience...pro-evil. When you look at the facts, they are more like "no-choicers" than "pro-choicers."

They are pro-choice when it comes to:

Whether or not to smoke pot

Whether or not to smoke crack cocaine

Whether or not to imbibe magic mushrooms and assorted other drugs

Whether or not to have a job/gainful employment

Whether or not to chase Supreme Court justices and Republican politicians out of restaurants and other public places

Whether or not to bathe

Whether or not to use the restrooms and locker rooms of your non-birth-assigned sex

Whether or not to burn and loot cities in protest of some/anything

Whether or not to kill your kid

Yet they are fanatically anti-choice as regards their proscriptive commandments:

Thou shalt not say things we don't like

Thou shalt not be allowed to own a firearm

Thou shalt not be allowed to pray in public

Thou shalt not be allowed to wear furs

Thou shalt not be allowed to eat red meat

Thou shalt not be allowed to walk unarmed through the Capitol building in protest of anything

Thou shalt not be allowed to "misgender" a trans person

Thou shalt not be allowed to question election results, processes, equipment, or those involved in tabulating and reporting the results, as this is a danger to our democracy

Thou shalt not say "All Lives Matter."

Thou must accept emergency-use, experimental gene-therapy vaccines into thy body if the government and "experts," in their benevolence and wisdom, say thou shalt

The left loves to use euphemisms, misinformation, outright lies, and projection to fool people who are underinformed.

"Hypocrisy termination" would be far better for society than "pregnancy termination."

Image: Tim Pierce.
I've been writing a lot about how the Dems have painted themselves into a corner. It is beyond fun to contemplate how badly they've cooked their own geese for the next two election cycles. It's also a reason for us conservatives to have some optimism. We've been yearning for an American reset for some time, and the Dems have been working unwittingly to provide it (is there any kind of Dem but a witless one?). Maybe conservatives actually have an opportunity to make it happen  if we don't pass on this rare chance.

That brings me to some interesting email I've been receiving.

I've gotten a fair amount of negative email from readers. They aren't bothered by my assessment of how badly the Dems have screwed everything up. They're bothered by my level of optimism. A composite of these emails would read something like this:

The Democrats are evil geniuses. They have corrupted everything, and there will never be another fair election. Even if we do get Republicans elected, they're all a bunch of Vichy cowards and will do nothing to stop our march toward socialism. America is finished.

For everyone who feels that way, I have a couple of questions. What's your plan, Sparky? Do you care enough to do something besides whine about it? The pessimists in the conservative camp need to make a choice, and I see only four options.

Option 1 would be to cast a protest vote. I get it  a choice between a RINO and a Democrat feels like no choice at all. I don't think it will happen, but my worst nightmare is going into the voting booth in 2024 and seeing a choice between Romney and Obama (Michelle this time). Thanks, Utah.

Unfortunately, some conservatives will go the protest route. They will vote for a third-party candidate who has no chance of actually winning. The Democrats would love for a large number of conservatives to take that option  which should convince those same conservatives that it would be a huge mistake.

In 1992, faced with a choice between Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, 19,743,821 principled protesters voted for Ross Perot and delivered the presidency to Bill Clinton. They certainly made their dissatisfaction with the choices known. But they also empowered the corrupt Clinton dynasty, which still plagues American politics 30 years later. Some Democrats are even talking about another Hillary run in 2024. Others want Chelsea to get into politics. It gives me night terrors just thinking about it. So how did that protest vote from 30 years ago work out for America? Wasn't so harmless, was it?

The "we're doomed" crowd could take non-electoral action  and no, I don't mean revolution. Option 2 would be to amend the Constitution to redirect America's course. Article V of the Constitution provides the states with a means to do it without the help of our RINOs in Washington, D.C. It's a powerful tool that was endorsed by the late Justice Scalia. One group, Convention of States Action, is pursuing this option, and they're more than halfway to making it happen. However, it would be naive to think an amendment, without good leadership, could fix what ails the country. Just think about the damage a few Supreme Court appointments from President Ocasio-Cortez could do.

My impression is that the default plan of the doomsayers is option 3: surrender. Stop voting or supporting the Republicans and just give up. One of my business mentors, a retired Army colonel, told me that in any conflict, the winner is selected by the loser. When one party stops fighting, it awards the win to the other party. Those who think America isn't worth the effort anymore can go back to their Big Bang Theory reruns and wait to get the daily government talking points on the 10:00 nightly Tass broadcast. But when they're saddened at the sight of their children growing up in an America without freedom, they'll have nobody to blame but themselves. They will never know if their votes could have made the difference.

Option 4 is to soldier on. Show up at the polls every Election Day (including primary elections) and vote smartly. As for the argument that we'll never have another fair election  we don't need fair elections. We need conservatives elected. There will always be cheating, but if our margin of victory is big enough, the cheating will not be able to steal the election.

I recommend that we follow the guidance of William F. Buckley, Jr.: vote for the most conservative candidate who can win. That means that we have to accept that some candidates from the west coast or the northeast will need to be somewhat more moderate than candidates from Texas or Idaho. But the Democrats have bollixed things up so badly that I suspect some very conservative candidates can, and will, win in the next two elections.

Those of us choosing option 4 need to get out to the primaries and vote for the most conservative candidates available. Then we need to show up for the general election and do it all over again.

As you have probably guessed, I've chosen option 4 for myself. The next two election cycles are going to be HUUUGE for conservatives. There is no way I'm going to miss out on being a part of that.

And as long as we've decided to soldier on, let's do it with enthusiasm and optimism. The more confidence we project, the more likely it will be that the leftists will become dispirited and take their own option 3. Given the news lately, they're getting pretty dispirited already  thanks to President Gremlin. As an added bonus, if we're joyous while beating them, it will drive them absolutely bonkers. We all need to stop whining, put on a happy face, and engage!

John Green is a political refugee from Minnesota, now residing in Idaho. He has written for American Thinker, American Free News Network, and The Blue State Conservative. He can be followed on Facebook or reached at greenjeg@gmail.com.
Agrieneth Masule (L, Front), who runs a feminine hygiene project that raises funds for sanitary pads given to needy girls through Motlaletsi Charity Club, distributes sanitary pads to students at Kgamanyane Community Junior Secondary School in Mochudi, a village in Kgatleng district, Botswana, on June 20, 2022. "Period poverty," defined as a lack of access to menstrual products, education, and hygiene, causes one in every 10 African girls to miss school each year, according to the United Nations Children's Fund. Without proper education and resources, girls are frequently forced to stay at home, particularly in rural areas. As a result, they miss 10-20 percent of their school days and, in some cases, completely drop out. (Photo by Tshekiso Tebalo/Xinhua)

by Tshekiso Tebalo, Teng Junwei

GABORONE, July 15 (Xinhua) -- "Period poverty," defined as a lack of access to menstrual products, education, and hygiene, causes one in every 10 African girls to miss school each year, according to the United Nations Children's Fund.

Without proper education and resources, girls are frequently forced to stay at home, particularly in rural areas. As a result, they miss 10-20 percent of their school days and, in some cases, completely drop out.

Agrieneth Masule is determined to change this in Mochudi, a village in Kgatleng district, about 37 kilometers northeast of Botswana's capital, Gaborone.

Masule, 34, runs a feminine hygiene project that raises funds for sanitary pads, which are then given to needy girls through Motlaletsi Charity Club.

Motlaletsi means assistance to people in need in the local Setswana language.

For the past six years, Motlaletsi Charity Club has worked with six schools in Kgatleng district, donating over 10,000 sanitary pads in total.

Sanitary pads are expensive, with one month's supply for a girl costing an average 150 pula (about 12 U.S. dollars), almost a quarter of a rural resident's monthly income, said Masule, who founded Motlaletsi Charity Club.

Masule, a single mother with two children, used to teach at several primary schools, but her last teaching contract was not renewed by the government. She now gives private lessons to primary and secondary students to support herself and her children.

While waiting to get a full-time teaching position at one of the institutions where she filed applications, Masule decided to focus on projects that help school-aged children, particularly girls.

In April, she completed a 252-kilometer walk to raise awareness about "period poverty," especially its impact on a girl's access to education.

"Many of the girls miss school because they do not have a simple sanitary pad. People laugh at them. People bully them. They feel uncomfortable and they go back home," Masule told Xinhua.

Her team seeks to get sanitary pads for needy girls to help them finish their basic education, she said.

"You can't run away from having your periods," Masule said. "A menstrual cycle should never prevent these girls from achieving their dreams."

Gaonyatsege Ntwayagae Phefo, senior teacher of guidance and counseling at Kgamanyane Community Junior Secondary School, said her school population consists primarily of needy students whose parents do not work, and they are usually forced to share their sanitary pads with other family members, and that sometimes they don't have anything when they have their periods.

"Since the donation of pads, girls have gained confidence and are more open to discussing menstruation issues," Phefo said.

Masule told Xinhua that the project has been a success and that she is pleased with the results -- guidance teachers are reporting that absenteeism is down thanks to the donations.

She said the charity still faces challenges because menstruation occurs on a monthly basis, so more sponsors and donations are needed.

They are also considering introducing reusable pads that are less expensive, more durable and environmentally friendly, Masule said. 

Agrieneth Masule, who runs a feminine hygiene project that raises funds for sanitary pads given to needy girls through Motlaletsi Charity Club, shows a reusable sanitary pad in Mochudi, a village in Kgatleng district, Botswana, on June 20, 2022. "Period poverty," defined as a lack of access to menstrual products, education, and hygiene, causes one in every 10 African girls to miss school each year, according to the United Nations Children's Fund. Without proper education and resources, girls are frequently forced to stay at home, particularly in rural areas. As a result, they miss 10-20 percent of their school days and, in some cases, completely drop out. (Photo by Tshekiso Tebalo/Xinhua)
Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson, has been turned into a left-wing propaganda center. There is more emphasis placed on the fact that he owned slaves than his moral accomplishments. Throughout the plantation there are boards that link Jefferson to slavery. During tours (one of which is called the "Slavery at Monticello Tour"), half of the comments about Jefferson are negative, and signage throughout the estate includes the word "enslaved" for every job description such as "enslaved cook." There is an entire section on the Monticello website dedicated to slavery that starts out with this statement: "Thomas Jefferson wrote that 'all men are created equal,' and yet enslaved more than 600 people over the course of his life."

This is the letter that I sent to Monticello:

I see that you have caved in to the lies about Thomas Jefferson, one of the greatest men that ever lived. You slander him because he owned slaves. Have you read history? Slavery existed world-wide at the beginning of our country, it was not unique to us, nor was it our fault that it existed. But it was Jefferson's famous words "all men are created equal" that led to the end of slavery in this country. When Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, he included banning slavery, but the southern states would not agree. The Founders thought that without the south they wouldn't have a country so they decided to delete it and deal with the problem later. Indeed, it was dealt with later  the Civil War. Also, don't forget that it was Jefferson who promoted Article 1 section 9 of the Constitution which prohibited the importation of slaves into the country starting on January 1, 1808. Jefferson's idea that all men are equal was a radical idea, and it took time for people to change their attitudes about slavery. However, some people have not changed their attitude about it as there are countries that still have slavery today. But our country got rid of it. Why didn't he free his slaves even though he was opposed to slavery? Because it was unlawful in the state of Virginia at that time. It is unforgivable that you are smearing Thomas Jefferson. You should be ashamed of yourselves for denigrating the man whose words eventually led to the abolition of slavery.

Slander against Thomas Jefferson is slander against the Declaration of Independence, the very document that provides the foundation for freedom for all people. It is defamation against America and her founding in general. It is Critical Race Theory and the 1619 project brought despicably into Jefferson's own home, a home he built. If he is so terrible, stop touring his house. Don't make his house into a shrine against him and everything he achieved.

Obsessing about slavery in Jefferson's own house is a slap in the face of a great man who worked hard and risked everything for all our freedoms, including black Americans. Could these ignorant and cowardly critics write the Declaration themselves? Would they even have the courage and wisdom to abhor slavery amidst a dominant culture that accepted it, as Jefferson did?

We should all stand up and defend this great man and our Founders, even the slaveholding ones, who changed history. Instead, Monticello is questioning the goodness of this giant and his compatriots, and even the goodness and effectiveness of the Declaration of Independence: "Is 'all men created equal' being lived up to in our country today? When will we know when it is?"

Ayn Rand said, "I want you to look at the birth of a miracle: the United States of America. If it is ever proper for men to kneel, we should kneel when we read the Declaration of Independence. The concept of individual rights is so prodigious a feat of political thinking that few men grasp it fully" (A Nation's Unity).

Not only do the people at Monticello not grasp it fully, but they don't grasp it at all and are therefore not worthy of the man whose house and legacy are entrusted to them. Let the people running Monticello know what you think about their betrayal of America and her heroes. Let them know what you think about their traitorous actions toward the document of freedom and the man who wrote it. It is time to speak up before it is too late.

Charlotte Cushman is a Montessori educator who taught for over 40 years and co-owned and operated two Montessori schools. She authored Montessori: Why It Matters for Your Child's Success and Happiness, Effective Discipline the Montessori Way, and Your Life Belongs to You. She has been involved in the study of Ayn Rand's philosophy since 1970. Her book website is Cushmanbooks.com, and her opposition to social justice in Montessori website is authenticmontessorieducation.com.
In a July 14 Wall Street Journal column, writer Daniel Henninger highlighted, "Responsibility for the public failure of this [Biden] government lies with the Democratic Party." This assertion falls short of comprehensively informing the reader of our political reality. Mr. Henninger, from his editorial perch at a media outlet replete with Trump-loathers, must know he is misinforming his readers by omitting the role of the NeverTrump turncoat crowd in the election of the corruptly incompetent Joe Biden as president.

Mr. Henninger is quite right to point out in his column that Joe Biden won the Democrat nomination for the presidency in 2020 because Democrats were concerned that leftists like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren "couldn't win in the general election" against President Trump. And so, as Mr. Henninger observes, "the Democrats fashioned a faux moderate candidacy out of Mr. Biden."

Mr. Henninger's omission of the role of Trump-hating "conservatives" is where he goes astray. Let's acknowledge what they are: faux conservatives. These individuals played a major part in the installation of Joe Biden in the Oval Office. Had the likes of Big Establishment neocons like William Kristol, David Brooks, Bret Stephens, Max Boot, Jennifer Rubin  the list goes on ad nauseam  not placed personal pique above the national interest, it is entirely conceivable that Donald J. Trump would currently hold the office to which he is entitled. But these NeverTrump malcontents would gag before acknowledging the truth. President Trump's policies, both domestic and foreign, can be defined as "successful" and scrutinized as such.

The headline of Henninger's Journal column is "Joe Biden's Sinking Presidency." This is not a title to suggest that Joe Biden's time in office has been a boon to the Republic, as a New York Times/Siena poll discovered that more than 70% of respondents believe that the country is headed in the wrong direction. Clearly emerging is a consensus that the presidency of Mr. Biden has been a disaster. Where, then, are polls wondering if Joseph R. Biden, Jr. is fit to be president? Such polls appeared regularly during the tenure of Mr. Trump's successful presidency, polls generated by political reprobates avidly seeking the overthrow of the Trump presidency.

This is not to deny the role of the Democrats in putting the malleable Biden in the West Wing, but Mr. Henninger, by ignoring the crucial role of the NeverTrump miscreants, casts a blind eye to the political betrayals of those claiming to be on the right side. In working to elect Joe Biden as president, the NeverTrump cabal of faux conservatives placed personal grievances above the national (and international) interest. It is, quite simply, baseless to say that a utilitarian sense of common good is achieved with Joe Biden in the Oval Office.

A famous movie scene comes to mind: the cab setting in On the Waterfront, where Terry Malloy tells his mobbed-up brother Charlie, "It was you [who made a bum out of me]." That accusation is quite synonymous with the current political environment  it was the NeverTrump jackals who helped the Democrat party foist upon the American people someone who was not fit to be president. The truth, Mr. Henninger, is that in their rush to garner favorable publicity from a mendacious media, double-crossing Republicans posing as civil servants inserted personal interests ahead of national ones.
We are living in bizarre times where immutable norms, which were once considered sacrosanct, are being violated before our eyes.

A riot is called a peaceful protest; a protest is called an insurrection; Abraham Lincoln is called a racist; and the president of the National Women's Law Center, Fatima Goss Graves, refuses to define a woman.

Rep Andrew Clyde: "I was hoping that you could define what a woman is for us."



Pro-abortion witness: "I wonder ... if in part the reason you're asking the question is that you're trying to suggest that people who don't identify as women can't be pregnant." pic.twitter.com/2frLaZ4FXp  Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) July 13, 2022

Leading this theater of absurd is the far-left brainwashed woke mob on social media that hides under the cloak of anonymity and launches coordinated attacks on those who deviate from its groupthink.

Calling them "woke" is a euphemism; it gives the impression that it is their virtuousness that has gone overboard. What they are really is a sinister far-left totalitarian cult that shuts down opposing perspectives. They desire total conformity among the people.

They didn't even spare Hellen Keller, who traveled the world, raising awareness and advocating for the rights of people with disabilities. Keller was slammed by the mob as "just another, despite disabilities, privileged white person."

The mob's most recent target was Holocaust victim Anne Frank. Frank was a 13-year-old Jewish girl who spent two harrowing years hiding in an Amsterdam basement trying to elude the Gestapo. Frank recounted her deeply traumatic experiences living in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands in her diaries, which make for an important historical document related to the Holocaust. Frank eventually was apprehended by the Nazis and sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where she was murdered at the age of just 15.

Even the coldest of humans would feel compassion for Anne Frank and the victims of the Holocaust.

But not the woke mob.

Last weekend, a Twitter debate broke out on whether Anne Frank had "white privilege."

The Jerusalem Post and TMZ covered the shameful discussion.

One user tweeted the following: "Anne Frank had 'white privilege.' Bad things happen to people with white privilege also, but don't tell the whites that."

Some users disputed that the Holocaust had even occurred.

Another user tweeted the following: "No one is saying the Nazis didn't target white people, just that white people can hide behind their whiteness, whereas in Nazi USA Black people can't. Go tell black people the whites got it hard."

The discussion emanates from the vile distortion that since most Jewish people are indistinguishable from Caucasians owing to the color of their skin, they have "white privilege." This is an attempt to suggest that the Jewish people who faced genocide in Nazi Germany were lesser victims owing to their skin color.

There is also an attempt to suggest that the Holocaust was the only period when the Jewish people suffered, hence they are lesser victims. The proponents of this theory conveniently ignore the antisemitism that is still rampant all over the world.

Similar ideas were expressed early this year by co-host of The View Whoopi Goldberg, who alleged that Nazis killing Jews was "white people doing it to white people."

Hence, Goldberg asserted that the Holocaust wasn't about race, but instead about "man's inhumanity to man." Goldberg was suspended and ultimately compelled to apologize.

Now for some historical facts.

"Nazi" stands for Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei  i.e., The National Socialist German Workers' Party. The Nazis were socialists who practiced identity politics and implemented laws based on it.

The Nazis believed in the superiority of the "Aryan Master Race." The Nazis considered the Jewish people to be inferior, and hence they were excluded from the master race.

The Nuremberg Race Laws in Nazi Germany deprived the Jewish people of German citizenship and forbade marriage or sexual relations between Jews and "citizens of German or kindred blood."

This legalized "otherization" of the Jewish people was among the early stages that eventually led to the Holocaust, where 6 million Jews were brutally massacred.

To attribute "white privilege" to Anne Frank is an attempt by the left to downplay the graveness of the genocide and indulge in victim-blaming and Holocaust denial.

This should come as no surprise: the modern left is viciously antisemitic.

Since they cannot display their bigotry in the open, leftists resort to dog whistles. "We do not hate the Jewish people; we just disapprove of Zionism or the policies of Israel" is what you will hear them say.

Since the days of President Obama, the Democrats have championed the Palestinian cause, abandoning the U.S.'s only true ally and pluralistic democracy in the Middle East, which is Israel. Some Democrats have even described Israel as an "apartheid" state.

The Democrats stay mum when terror-group Hamas fires rockets into Israel. "The Squad," which includes Palestinian-American Rep. Rashida Talib and Somalian Islamist Rep. Ilhan Omar, is blatantly antisemitic and pro-Palestine. These women opposed funding of Israel's Iron Dome. Their fellow Squad member, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, famously "wept" to apologize for her "present" vote.

Sen. Bernie Sanders was raised Jewish and was once sympathetic toward Israel. Recently, he has expressed support for Palestinian causes, perhaps to appease the antisemitic Democrat base.

The left frequently compares the U.S. (under Republicans) to Nazi Germany. This is an abominable trivialization of the darkest chapters in human history.

It's not only the left in the U.S., but also the left in the U.K. that has been rabidly antisemitic.

Back to the mob attacking Anne Frank.

The disgraceful "debate" was shut down by a few prominent Twitter accounts.

The American Jewish Council tweeted the following:

Over the weekend, Anne Frank was trending on social media with users debating whether she had white privilege.



It is an absurd and deeply offensive claim that this victim of the Holocaust benefited from any privilege, white or otherwise.



Heres why :  American Jewish Committee (@AJCGlobal) July 11, 2022

Anne Frank died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.



Learn more: https://t.co/l0xRjHkuEq  American Jewish Committee (@AJCGlobal) July 11, 2022

Stand with Us, a non-profit educational group dedicated to supporting Israel and fighting antisemitism, tweeted the following:

To argue that someone who endured the #Shoah benefited from any kind of racial privilege is simply disgusting. History shows us that this idea is unequivocally false.  StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) July 11, 2022

The World Jewish Congress tweeted the following:

It seems that some people need a reality check this morning.



In 1940s Europe, Anne Frank was not able to hide behind her whiteness.



Because she was a Jew, Anne and her family hide from the Nazis in an atticbehind a bookcase.



But, as we know, it wasnt enough.  WJC (@WorldJewishCong) July 11, 2022

Israeli-American writer Emily Schrader tweeted the following:

Anne Frank was murdered for not being white



Six million Jews were murdered for not being white



Twitter isnt the problem, #antisemitism is. pic.twitter.com/WiwFwRieWx  Emily Schrader -   (@emilykschrader) July 10, 2022

Journalist Ben Hartman viewed the debate about Jews having privilege in context with an email notifying of an FBI warning of a security threat to the Jewish community in San Antonio.

Was just getting caught up on the "Anne Frank had white privilege" thing and found this email from the Austin Jewish Community. Shabbat Shalom! pic.twitter.com/bQkQZT13R7  Ben Hartman (@Benhartman) July 9, 2022

Israeli activist Hen Mazzig also slammed the "debate."

On this website, I have seen people call Anne Frank a Becky, privileged, and lucky.



We are talking about a CHILD who was MURDERED.



Show some decency and respect.  Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) July 9, 2022

While facts triumphed in this "debate," it is troubling that discussions such as these keep coming up at regular intervals by Twitter leftists, which are not only based on blatant falsehood, but also deeply insensitive to the victims of an authentic genocide.

It represents an ever deepening rift between black-agenda activists (who are often rich, leftist white women) and Jewish activists, who have historically been closest of allies in the Civil Rights struggle. It's also flat-out Holocaust denial.

It is probably a sign of a U.S. education system desperately in need of a revamp.

Image: Picryl, public domain.
Exklusiv! Ein Riesensprung voran  Animals Asia beginnt mit dem Bau des zweiten Rettungszentrums in Vietnam 15. Juli 2022

Der Augenblick, auf den wir gewartet haben, ist endlich gekommen!

Heute tat Jill Robinson, Grunderin und CEO von Animals Asia, den ersten Spatenstich zum Bau unseres zweiten Rettungszentrums in Vietnam und lautete damit das Ende der Barengallefarmen und den Beginn eines neuen Zeitalters fur den Tierschutz im Land ein.

Auer Jill nahmen Vertreter der vietnamesischen Regierung, Angehorige des Expertenteams von Animals Asia in Vietnam, prominente Unterstutzer, darunter die Botschafter von Animals Asia fur das Vereinigte Konigreich, Peter Egan und Lesley Nicol, sowie zahlreiche weitere Unterstutzer an der Feier zu Ehren dieses Schlusselmoments in der Geschichte von Animals Asia und in der Geschichte Vietnams teil.



Vize-Minister Le Quoc Doanh, Ministerium fur Landwirtschaft

Jill erklart:

Dies ist ein Augenblick des Stolzes fur Vietnam, und es ist Animals Asia eine Ehre, Partner der Behorden, der Menschen Vietnams und des Nationalparks Bach Ma zu sein und dabei zu helfen, diesen bedeutenden Meilenstein zum Schutz derWildtiere im Land zu setzen. Vietnam ist fuhrend im Tierschutz, und wir hoffen, dass andere diesem leuchtenden Beispiel folgen werden.

Das neue Rettungszentrum wird:

Platz fur 300+ Baren schaffen, die von den verbliebenen Barengallefarmen in Vietnam gerettet werden mussen

Der vietnamesischen Regierung ermoglichen, die Beschlagnahme aller noch auf Barengallefarmen gehaltenen Baren abzuschlieen

Sobald der letzte Bar gerettet ist, der Moglichkeit einen Riegel vorschieben, dass Wilderer der Freiheit entrissene Baren in den Gallehandel einschleusen, und auf diese Weise bedrohte wilde Populationen schutzen

Eines der Grundungsziele von Animals Asia erreichen  das Ende der Barengallefarmen in Vietnam.

Wir sind also im Rennen: Wir beginnen so schnell wie moglich mit dem Bau des wichtigsten Gebaudes, der Quarantanezone. Wenn alles nach Plan verlauft, ist das gesamte Rettungszentrum bis 2024 fertig.

Das bedeutet, dass wir hoffentlich bis 2026 den letzten Baren von der letzten Barenfarm des Landes sicher bei uns zu Hause haben.

Unser Ziel ist ehrgeizig, wir stehen vor unserer bislang schwierigsten Herausforderung. Doch wir mussen es schaffen: fur diese Baren, die noch auf Gallefarmen dahinvegetieren und geduldig, doch verzweifelt darauf warten, dass wir sie retten.

Und wir wissen, dass wir es schaffen konnen. Nicht nur, weil wir bereits Experten auf unserem Gebiet sind  wir betreiben schlielich schon zwei Rettungszentren und haben mehr als 660 Baren gerettet -, sondern weil wir Sie an unserer Seite haben: unsere fantastischen Unterstutzer.

Ihre Freundlichkeit und Grozugigkeit sind der einzige Grund, warum wir jetzt dort sind, wo wir sind  an diesem bedeutsamen Punkt unserer Grundungsmission. Und wir wissen, Sie werden mit uns gemeinsam die Sache zu Ende fuhren  Schritt fur Schritt, Bar fur Bar, Farm fur Farm, Kafig fur Kafig - und dafur sorgen, dass kein Bar zuruckbleibt.
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The police have arrested 23 people on charge of involvement in criminal activities in Afghanistan's northern Kunduz province over the past couple of days, provincial police spokesman Qari Abidullah Abid has said.

The arrested men, according to the official, were involved in criminal activities including armed robbery, killing, theft, kidnapping and selling drugs.

The police have also discovered illicit drugs and arms in possession of the arrested individuals, the official said.

The official noted that security forces would spare no efforts to ensure law and order across Kunduz province.

The Taliban-run administration has vowed to crack down on outlaws and irresponsible armed men as part of efforts to ensure lasting peace and security in war-torn Afghanistan. 
(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 15 - Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said Friday that Premier Mario Draghi's government is unlikely to survive the current crisis it is enveloped in.

Draghi presented his resignation to President Sergio Mattarella on Thursday after the 5-Star Movement (M5S), a key part of the ruling coalition, failed to back the government in a confidence vote in the Senate.

Mattarella refused to accept the resignation and told Draghi to report to parliament and assess the situation, something the premier is set to do on Wednesday.

But Draghi has said he is unwilling to continue with his national unity government without the M5S, so Mattarella's move may have just delayed the inevitable.

There are various possible outcomes if the Draghi executive does collapse, but several political commentators see the most likely being that parliament will be dissolved and early elections will take place within months.

"It would be right for the Draghi government and the coalition to continue, but at the moment I see that as highly unlikely," Di Maio told RTL radio.

Di Maio is the former head of the M5S but he recently left the movement to form his own centrist party, Together for the Future (IPF), after a row over M5S leader and ex-premier Giuseppe Conte's opposition to Italy sending more weapons to Ukraine.

He blasted his former group as "irresponsible".

"Conte's party, which is no longer the M5S, decided not to support the confidence vote and the premier, a man of his word, resigned as he said he would," Di Maio said.

"Unless there is an act of maturity from the parties in the next few hours, we risk no longer having a government on Wednesday and there will be early elections.

"And this will be a serious problem for the country.

"With parliament dissolved, we'll have a provisional administration that won't have the power to approve the budget (for 2023).

"We'll see what happens with the bond spread in the coming hours.

"We certainly won't be able to handle the gas-price cap (the Draghi government has been calling for at the EU level).

"The procedures to implement the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP or PNRR) will stop".

Conte has been at the centre of tension within the ruling alliance for months.

The ex-premier had recently presented Draghi with a list of demands he said the M5S wanted to be met in order to stay in the executive.

On Tuesday Draghi showed willingness to reach agreement on some of these issues, including a demand for the introduction of a minimum wage.

But he also stressed that the sense of his government of national unity would be 'lost" if the parties supporting it started to lay down ultimatums.

The M5S rebelled over a decree including a measure on plans for a waste-to-energy plant in Rome, something it opposes.

Conte said that others were to blame for the M5S's decision not to take part in Thursday's confidence vote.

"The M5S gave its support from the start to this government...

with the cornerstones of the ecological transition and social justice," Conte told reporters.

"If then you have blackmail in which measures contrary to the ecological transition enter a decree, we will never give our vote.

"Those who forced things in this way they should take responsibility (for what has happened)". (ANSA).


Gas: Prague convenes EU council on Russian gas on July 26 Discuss future of Nord Stream1 and possible solidarity measures

(ANSA) - TRIESTE, 15 LUG - The Czech Minister of Industry and Trade, Jozef Sikela, has convened an extraordinary EU Council on Energy for Tuesday, July 26, to discuss the future of Nord Stream 1 and possible solidarity measures. The Council meeting will be held just days after Russia is scheduled to reopen the Nord Stream 1 pipeline and present the European Commission's energy contingency plan. The Czech Republic, which currently holds the six-month rotating presidency of the EU Council, wants ministers to discuss the EU's plans for the coming winter before the summer break in August.



In this context, the Commission intends to present on July 20 a package of measures for the coming winter. The Nord Stream Ag consortium, which operates the pipeline, started regular annual maintenance work on Monday, which is expected to last until July 21. However, European customers are concerned that gas may be interrupted. (ANSA).





 Copyright ANSA - All rights reserved
Bucharest to host 2nd Moldova Support Conference Support reform efforts to achieve goals for EU

(ANSA-ROM) - BUCHAREST, 15 LUG - Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu will co-chair in Bucharest on Friday, along with his German counterpart Annalena Baerboc and French Minister of State for Development, Francophonie and International Partnerships Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, the second edition of the Moldova Support Conference ministerial meeting.



According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), representing Moldova at the meeting will be an important ministerial delegation led by Minister of Labor and Social Protection Marcel Spatari. Moldovan President Maia Sandu will give a virtual address at the opening of the conference.



The event will be attended by delegations from EU, G7 and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) member states, officials from the European Commission, the European External Action Service, as well as international financial institutions and international organizations, including the secretary-general of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OECD), the vice-president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, representatives of the World Bank, the European Investment Bank and specialized agencies of the United Nations.



The Bucharest conference will focus on supporting Moldova's reform efforts, including achieving the goals set by the European Commission in its June 17, 2022 opinion, which proposed granting Moldova EU candidate status and was the basis for the late June European Council decision under which the status was granted. A key component will be the meeting of the five working groups of the Support Platform for Moldova, composed of government experts from participating states.



These groups work in key areas: the humanitarian situation of Ukrainian refugees hosted by Moldova; the fight against corruption; energy security; financial assistance and border management. During the meeting, the expansion of the working groups will be considered so that they can adequately respond to Moldova's reform needs. The first edition of the meeting took place on April 5 in Berlin and generated significant political, financial and technical support that directly benefited the country. According to the MFA, this international format under which Moldova enjoys in-depth support is essential amid an accumulation of crises besieging Moldova, especially in energy and economic terms, exacerbated by the consequences of Russia's military aggression against Ukraine. Aurescu announced in Berlin that Romania will organize the second edition of the ministerial conference, taking into account Romania's special relationship with Moldova, based on a communion of language, culture and history, as well as a bilateral strategic partnership for Moldova's European integration launched in 2010. The Berlin conference generated financial commitments worth 659.5 million euros in loans, budget support and financial assistance, commitments to relocate 12,000 Ukrainian refugees from other countries to Moldova, and humanitarian aid worth 71.3 million.



(ANSA-ROM).





 Copyright ANSA - All rights reserved
MADRID - A girl of approximately four years of age and a woman were found dead on a rickety boat used by migrants to try to reach the Canary Islands in Spain, the Efe news agency reported Friday, citing information provided by Spanish emergency services.



The two victims were found in the night between Thursday and Friday, when several migrant rescue operations were carried out.



Overall, more than 100 people were disembarked.




TEL AVIV - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday demanded that "those responsible for the death of Shireen Abu Akleh face justice" after meeting with US President Joe Biden in Bethlehem. Abu Akleh, a reporter for Al Jazeera, was killed on May 11 while she was following an operation carried out by the Israeli army at a camp in Jenin, in the northern West Bank. She was also an American citizen. "It is necessary to prevent Israel from feeling above international law", added Abbas.



The Israeli-Palestinian dossier was at the center of talks between the Palestinian president and Biden. At the end of the meeting, Biden said Palestinians deserve an independent State, adding that his commitment for a two-State solution along the lines of 1967 remains unchanged.



"The Palestinian people deserve a State of their own that's independent, sovereign, viable and contiguous", Biden noted, distancing himself from statements made in the past by his predecessor Donald Trump.



Biden went on to say that he realizes the two-State objective appears remote when restrictions to movement or daily concerns "for your children's security are real and immediate". He went on to say that this visit was the beginning of a new, strengthened dialogue between the United States and Palestinians.



The president stressed that he turned around Trump's stance on the issue, and that he decided to boost support to the economy, security and healthcare of Palestinians. He went on to announce that 200 million dollars will be devolved to UNRWA (the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) and an additional 100 million dollars for the Palestinian healthcare network of East Jerusalem. This, he continued, is the moment to strengthen Palestinian institutions. Biden said such a step requires an improvement on "transparency" and the fight against corruption by the Palestinians.



After meeting with Abbas, Biden visited the Church of the Nativity. He is then scheduled to travel by helicopter to the Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv from where he will fly to Saudi Arabia.
RIYADH - Saudi Arabia has announced that it is opening its airspace to "all carriers", in an apparent gesture of goodwill towards Israel, as US President Joe Biden is expected Friday in the country, the Saudi Civil Aviation Authority said on Twitter.



Biden, who will reach Saudi Arabia today from Israel, praised the "historic decision" of Saudi Arabia to open its airspace to all civil carriers without discrimination, a decision that includes flights to and from Israel, according to a statement issued by US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.



The statement stressed that this decision is the outcome of public efforts undertaken by the president with Saudi Arabia over the course of several months, which culminated in the visit Friday and paves the way to a more integrated, stable and safe Middle East, which is vital for the security and prosperity of the US and for the security and prosperity of Israel, it noted.



Israeli Premier Yair Lapid for his part congratulated the Saudi leadership for opening its airspace, adding "this is a first step". "After a long and secret road and intense diplomacy with Arabia and the US, we woke up today - he stressed, thanking President Biden for the 'Jerusalem Declaration' - with an announcement that makes us happy". "We will continue to work in this direction with the necessary caution for the good of Israel's economy, its security and that of its citizens", he concluded.
The parents of a 12-year-old boy who has catastrophic brain damage are planning the next stage of a legal fight after a High Court judge reviewed evidence and ruled that doctors could lawfully stop providing life-support treatment.

Mr Justice Hayden described what had happened to Archie Battersbee as a tragedy of immeasurable dimensions.

But the judge, who delivered a ruling on Friday after reviewing evidence at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London earlier this week, said medical evidence was compelling and unanimous, and painted a bleak picture.

Archies parents, Hollie Dance and Paul Battersbee, from Southend in Essex, said they would ask Court of Appeal judges to overturn Mr Justice Haydens decision.

Ms Dance, 46, wept outside court as she told how she planned to keep fighting and asked journalists: Where does a mothers love stop?

Mr Justice Hayden heard how Ms Dance found Archie unconscious with a ligature over his head on April 7  she thinks he might have been taking part in an online challenge.

The youngster has not regained consciousness.

Doctors treating Archie at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, think he is brain-stem dead and say continued life support treatment is not in his best interests.

Archies parents disagree, and say his heart is still beating.

Lawyers representing the Royal London Hospitals governing trust, Barts Health NHS Trust, had asked for decisions about what medical moves were in Archies best interests.

Archie Battersbee suffered a devastating brain injury three months ago (Hollie Dance/PA)

Archie would want us to keep on fighting, Ms Dance said after Mr Justice Haydens ruling.

And we will keep on fighting. We will appeal.

Ms Dance added: With all due respect to Mr Justice Hayden, it is not in Archies best interests to die.

She went on: Where does a mothers love stop?

Mr Battersbee said: There have been too many battles in too short a space of time.

He needs more time. Well try to appeal. Who knows?

Archie Battersbees mother Hollie Dance (right) and family friend Ella Carter, outside the High Court during an earlier hearing (PA)

Another High Court judge, Mrs Justice Arbuthnot, had initially considered the case.

She concluded, after an earlier hearing, that Archie was dead.

But Court of Appeal judges had upheld a challenge by Archies parents to decisions taken by Mrs Justice Arbuthnot, and said evidence should be reviewed.

Archies father Paul Battersbee outside court (James Manning/PA)

Mr Justice Hayden said evidence showed Archie had suffered a significant injury to multiple areas of his brain and had not regained awareness at any time.

Archies mother described him as a fighter and I have no doubt he was, said Mr Justice Hayden.

But the fight, if it can properly be characterised as such, is no longer in Archies control.

The damage to his brain has deprived him of any bodily autonomy.

Eventually Archies organs will fail and ultimately his heart will stop.

Mr Justice Hayden said the reality of Archies case was terrible.

There is unfortunately no treatment possible to reverse the damage that has been caused to Archies brain, he said.

There can be no hope at all of recovery.

The judge said he had reached his conclusions with profound regret.
Delays to building secure schools are leaving vulnerable young people, especially girls, in unsafe conditions, according to a report from MPs.

The report found that delays in building secure schools, alongside the closure of secure training centres, had left children with substandard care, amid concerns that highly vulnerable girls were being failed by custody provision.

The review by the Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) found that girls made up just 3% of children in custody in the year ending March 2021, but were some of the most vulnerable in the estate as they were more likely to have experienced sexual or physical victimisation and relationship difficulties.

PAC added that delays in building new secure schools were leaving young people at risk in unsafe conditions.

Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre, which closed last year (Rui Vieira/PA)

The report found that when Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre  a secure centre which was rated inadequate by Ofsted in 2021 because poor practice was putting children at risk  closed at the end of last year, the prison service opened a specialist unit to accommodate girls at HMYOI (Her Majestys Young Offender Institution) Wetherby at short notice.

The prison service continues to place girls in the Keppel Unit at Wetherby, despite the fact provision is still maturing there. PACs report found.

While there has been a long-term decline in the number of children in custody, the Government and Her Majestys Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) also expect that this number will more than double by 2024, while the prison service faces significant delays and cost increases in opening its first secure school.

We are unconvinced of the Ministrys and HMPPSs commitment to delivering the secure school vision of small, local, educationally focused establishments, the PAC report said.

It added that the first such school may not open now until February 2024, over seven years after the Charlie Taylor review set out Government commitments to create secure schools with ambitious standards for all pupils.

The Taylor review planned for secure schools to be small, with 60-70 places, and close to the communities they serve.

Oasis Charitable Trust was appointed as the provider for the first such school in 2019, with HMPPS only realising later that legislation would be needed to allow a charity to run a secure school.

Plans for the second secure school have not been made.

PACs report said that using a provider to run a secure school was untested and that there were insufficient safeguards in place.

HMPPS now intends to work in partnership with the provider through a funding agreement, but the PAC report added that it was still working out the essential details of this arrangement, including how it will incentivise the provider to accept the wide range of children that HMPPS would like it to accept, and how it would manage underperformance.

HMPPS also said that it was reviewing and actively monitoring performance of Oakhill STC, according to the report, a centre in Milton Keynes where Ofsted inspectors found frequent violence and excessive use of force used in October 2021.

Inspectors found the environment to be dilapidated last year, with a report from a monitoring visit finding that children were spending up to 23 hours a day in their rooms in July and August 2021 due to inadequate staffing.

Inspectors described this practice, while it had ended by the time of their visit, as wholly inappropriate, adding that childrens experiences at the time were bleak and barely met minimum standards of human decency.

The latest Ofsted report for Oakhill STC rates it as good and notes that the communal areas and kitchens in the childrens houses are cleaner and better decorated than at the last inspection and that children spend an increased average of 13 hours per day outside their rooms during weekdays.

PAC found that the estate managed by HMPPS and the Ministry of Justice is totally unsuited to meeting the complex needs of children in custody, in an echo of the recent MacAlister review which found both STCs and YOIs to be wholly unsuitable for accommodating children in the criminal justice system.

In April 2022, 432 children between 10 and 17 years old were held in custody in the UK. PAC found that children from ethnic minority backgrounds and those with mental health or learning disabilities were over-represented.

Dame Meg Hillier, PAC chair, said: The Government faces the double disaster of a growing number of children being held in custody while delays and spiralling costs jeopardise what were promised to be safe, secure facilities.

Secure schools were heralded as the solution for the youngest and most vulnerable in custody. Its time for the department to get a grip on the programme it announced its support for seven years ago.

We urge the Government to understand the impact that custody has on children, particularly those held in unsafe conditions or those receiving substandard care.

It is clear that the Government lacks a coherent strategy for youth custody which must have at its heart the need to reduce the number of children entering the criminal justice system and providing sufficient safeguards for those that do.

The report recommends that the HMPPS should set out how it will measure how it meets the needs of vulnerable children in custody, set out a clear strategy for how it will improve outcomes through early intervention and set out how it will make sure capacity means that children can be placed in centres close to home.

It adds that HMPPS provide assurance that it has firm control over the remaining timetable and costs to delivering the first secure school, alongside the Ministry of Justice, and set out how the funding agreement would ensure high quality care at the first secure school, as well as specific plans for evaluating the Keppel Unit at HMYOI Wetherby.
ISLAMABAD, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan's army conducted an operation on Wednesday night and killed two terrorists in the Ziarat district of the country's southwest Balochistan province, said a military statement on Thursday night.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan army, said that the forces conducted the operation to release two kidnapped persons, including a lieutenant colonel of the Pakistan army and his cousin.

According to the ISPR, a group of 10 to 12 terrorists abducted Lieutenant Colonel Laiq Baig Mirza and his cousin on Tuesday night when they were returning to the provincial capital Quetta after visiting a tourist spot in the Warchoom area of Ziarat.

"On receipt of information, Army Quick Reaction Forces were immediately despatched to chase fleeing terrorists," said the ISPR, adding that a search operation was launched by engaging the commandoes of the Special Services Group of Pakistan army.

The security personnel spotted a group of terrorists moving in a stream beside mountains and started encircling them on Wednesday night, but they killed the abducted officer and attempted to flee from the site after knowing the military's movement, said the military.

An exchange of fire took place between forces and the terrorists, during which two terrorists were killed, while others managed to escape from the area along with the other abductee, added the statement.

"Determined to recover the innocent civilian hostage and apprehend perpetrators, sanitization operation in the area by security forces continues unabated despite bad weather conditions," said the ISPR. 
Ivanka Trump says she is heartbroken following the announcement that her mother Ivana Trump has died at the age of 73.

The businesswoman and former presidential advisor, described her mother as brilliant, charming, passionate and wickedly funny.

Ivana Trump was the first wife of former US president Donald Trump and died at her home in New York City.

Heartbroken by the passing of my mother, Ivanka wrote on Twitter.

Mom was brilliant, charming, passionate and wickedly funny. She lived life to the fullest  never forgoing an opportunity to laugh and dance.

Heartbroken by the passing of my mother. Mom was brilliant, charming, passionate and wickedly funny. She lived life to the fullest  never forgoing an opportunity to laugh and dance. I will miss her forever and will keep her memory alive in our hearts always.  pic.twitter.com/EyhrLNLUJw  Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) July 14, 2022

I will miss her forever and will keep her memory alive in our hearts always.

Donald Trump, who was banned indefinitely from Twitter, posted the announcement on his social media platform Truth Social.

I am very saddened to inform all of those that loved her, of which there are many, that Ivana Trump has passed away at her home in New York City, he said.

She was a wonderful, beautiful, and amazing woman, who led a great and inspirational life.

Her pride and joy were her three children, Donald Jr, Ivanka, and Eric. She was so proud of them, as we were all so proud of her. Rest In Peace, Ivana!

In a separate statement the Trump family described Ivana as a force in business, a world-class athlete, a radiant beauty, and caring mother and friend.

Eric Trump also shared a picture of the family together.

Among various US politicians paying tribute to Ivana was former Governor of Alaska and vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, who described her as beautiful and gracious.

My condolences to the Trump family for the loss of the beautiful and gracious Ivana, she wrote.

She was the first Trump I met, back in 1996, when she came to Alaska.

My condolences to the Trump family for the loss of the beautiful and gracious Ivana. She was the first Trump I met, back in 1996, when she came to Alaska. I remember standing in line in Anchorage at the J.C. Penney store to meet her during an event to promote her new perfume.  Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) July 14, 2022

I remember standing in line in Anchorage at the JC Penney store to meet her during an event to promote her new perfume.

Czech-born ski racer and model, Ivana married Donald Trump in 1977.

She became well known in her own right for her accent and her signature beehive hairdo and appeared in the 1996 hit film The First Wives Club

Ivana also made a guest appearance on the seventh series of UK Celebrity Big Brother in 2010.

She was born Ivana Zelnickova in 1949 in the Czechoslovak city of Gottwaldov, the former city of Zlin that just had been renamed by the Communists, who took over the country in 1948.

She was married four times, most recently to Italian actor Rossano Rubicond.
The national flower of Ukraine, the sunflower, has seen rocketing demand this summer, a supermarket chain reported.

Tesco said demand for sunflower bouquets was already up by nearly 120% on the same time last year.

Growers said the current heatwave was boosting growth of the bright yellow blooms, which have become a symbol of solidarity with Ukraine and resistance against the Russian invasion.

Michael Holod, chair of the Nottingham branch of the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain, said it would make sense that the surge in demand was due to people wanting to stand with Ukraine.

Sunflower grower James Lacey of L&D Flowers, inspects one of his fields of sunflowers near Spalding, Lincolnshire, U. (Paul Marriott/ PA)

Its one of many ways obviously the UK have supported Ukrainians in general, and obviously were hoping that continues, he said.

Any support, whether its planting sunflowers or through the schools, however its done, solidarity being the word.

The support needs to continue to be shown as clearly the wars still on.

Its not making the headline news it was a few months ago but the wars still very present.

The main area for sunflower production in the UK is south Lincolnshire, largely due to the fertile silt-based soil which offers ideal growing conditions.

One of Tescos growers, L&D Flowers, based in Pinchbeck, south Lincolnshire, farms more than 3,000 acres.

The current heatwave has boosted the growth of crops of sunflowers, which are the national flower of Ukraine. (Paul Marriott/ PA)

James Lacey, managing director of L&D Flowers, said: The current heatwave has been great news for sunflower growth as the more sun they get the more they grow.

The plant itself has a tap root which buries deep into the soil to search for moisture, meaning they are quite happy with hot, sunny, dry days.

This is the longest heatwave weve had for about five years and based on current weather predictions we calculate a harvest of around 13 million stems this season.

Sunflowers have been grown in the UK for the gifting bouquet market for 20 years, with the first growers starting up in the early 2000s.

Until then sunflowers had traditionally been imported, mainly from Europe, but entrepreneurial growers saw an opportunity to grow them in the UK and demand in the last 10 years has been rising steadily.

Tesco Flowers buying manager Georgina Reid said: Theyve only been in stores for a few weeks but demand so far this summer has been exceptionally strong and if this continues were likely to see our best ever season.

The start of the sunflower season has coincided with the current heatwave and the longest period of sunny weather for about five years and if theres anything that screams out summer its a beautiful bouquet of sunflowers.
Schools are considering closures on Monday and Tuesday next week after the Met Office issued a red weather warning over expected record-breaking temperatures.

Alan Roe, headteacher of Dr Challoners High School in Buckinghamshire, wrote to parents on Friday to say that due to the worsening weather forecast and the red weather alert (which was amber this morning), we have decided to close the school on Monday and Tuesday on health and safety grounds.

He added that the school would open as planned on Wednesday morning and would close for the year at midday.

Many of our classrooms are very uncomfortable when the temperatures are in the mid-20s, Mr Roe said.

He added that with temperatures forecast to be up to 40 degrees Celsius on Monday and Tuesday, we cannot keep the temperature in many of our rooms to an acceptable and safe level, adding this decision had been taken in conjunction with several other local schools.

Teachers would set cover work and activities for Monday and Tuesday, he said, but there would be no livestreamed lessons.

This approach means that students can do work when it suits them and perhaps when it is a bit cooler, and staff are not having to work when it is exceptionally hot.

The Costello School in Hampshire has written to parents to state that after the extreme temperatures forecast for Monday and Tuesday next week we have taken the difficult decision to close the school on these days.

Altwood Church of England School in Maidenhead announced that it would be closing on Monday and Tuesday because of the extreme heat, as did Three Rivers Academy in Surrey.

Kemnal Technology College in Bromley, London, wrote to parents to say that under guidance from its trust and the Department for Education, we have taken the unprecedented decision to close the school and ask students and staff to work remotely.

We apologise for the late notice but we have been constantly monitoring the weather over the past few days and we believe that this is in the best interests of the school community, the letter from headteacher Emma Wride and executive headteacher Stuart Smith adds.

Ms Wride and Mr Smith noted that this was a last minute decision which could cause undue stress for parents unable to arrange childcare, and so a skeleton staff would keep the school open for parents with no alternative.

They said work would be set remotely via Google Classrooms, with pupils expected to follow their timetable.

Marlbrook, Little Dewchurch and St Martins Primary School in Herefordshire will give parents the option to choose whether their children go in at all on Monday, July 18.

The NEU teaching union issued a statement saying it would support headteachers making professional decisions to cope with the red warning, including in some circumstances to close or partially close schools.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: There is clear Government guidance available online to help school staff look after children in the hot weather, including the use of ventilation, keeping children hydrated and avoiding vigorous physical activity for pupils.

Individual school leaders are responsible for managing their own local circumstances, but we are not advising schools to close.
Producers of fries refusing to supply to Russia, McDonald's successor says McDonald's restaurants reopen in Russia under new name Vkusno & tochka

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The head of the company now running the former McDonald's Corp chain of restaurants in Russia told RBC TV that producers of French fries are refusing to supply to the country and warned that attempts to increase domestic processing are fraught with difficulties.

McDonald's quit Russia after a Western backlash against Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine, which included a barrage of economic sanctions, and sold all the restaurants it owned to a local licensee in May.

Restaurants began opening under the new name Vkusno & tochka, or "Tasty and that's it", on June 12. CEO Oleg Paroev told Reuters the chain had sold almost 120,000 burgers on opening day.

The new ownership was keen to stress that high quality standards would be maintained or even bettered, and that consumers would not notice much difference. It has since been forced to admit that it is facing a shortage of French fries until autumn, blaming a poor harvest in Russia and supply chain woes.

"What has happened now is that due to well known events many foreign companies, I would even say all major producers of fries, have refused to deliver this product to Russia," Paroev told RBC TV, a business channel, late on Thursday.

Paroev said that factories in both "friendly" and "unfriendly" countries that produce fries belong to five or six major companies, whose headquarters are based in unfriendly nations and which have therefore refused to supply to Russia.

Moscow deems countries that have imposed sanctions against Russia over its actions in Ukraine as "unfriendly".

Paroev said there was a shortage in Russia's harvest this year of the specific potatoes needed for French fries and that other issues could arise, with only a few enterprises capable of processing potatoes for French fries in Russia.

(This content was produced in Russia, where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine.)
The Lockerbie bombers son is deeply disappointed that UK Supreme Court judges have refused permission to launch an appeal in the case, a lawyer has said.

Lawyers for the family of the late Abdelbaset al-Megrahi  the only man to be convicted of the bombing of Pan-Am flight flight 103 in 1988  had been seeking to overturn a ruling by the High Court.

A total of 270 people were killed in Britains largest terrorist atrocity when the plane, travelling from London to New York, was brought down over Lockerbie in Scotland.

Former Libyan intelligence officer Megrahi was found guilty in 2001 of mass murder and jailed for life with a minimum term of 27 years.

In January last year, Megrahis son, Ali al-Megrahi, lost an appeal against his late fathers conviction.

The Supreme Court has ruled that permission to appeal against that decision should be refused, saying the application does not raise an arguable point of law.

Lawyer Aamer Anwar, representing the Megrahi family, insisted this was not the end of the matter as he would take the case back to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) and continue to pursue an appeal.

Mr Anwar said: I spoke today to Ali, the son of the late al-Megrahi, and he said he was deeply disappointed in the decision of the UK Supreme Court.

Ali told me he was eight years old when his father went to the Netherlands to stand trial. When his father returned to Libya to die, Ali spent most of his time next to his father and said that until his dying breath he maintained his innocence.

The Megrahis regard their father as the 271st victim of Lockerbie.

Megrahi was released from prison in Scotland in 2009 on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, and died in Libya in 2012.

The Libyan had originally lodged an appeal against his conviction in 2007, but this was abandoned in 2009 before he was granted compassionate release.

Lawyer Aamer Anwar (Jane Barlow/PA)

Mr Anwar said: Ali said as a son he will not give up on his fathers dying wish to clear his name and that of Libya, and has instructed myself as his familys lawyer to continue with a further application to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission.

In March 2020 the SCCRC referred Megrahis case to the High Court as a possible miscarriage of justice may have occurred.

However, in what was the third appeal against Megrahis conviction in November 2020, at the High Court in Edinburgh, a panel of five judges rejected the claim.

Mr Anwar said that after having spoken to Megrahis son this is not the end of the matter as the reputation of the Scottish criminal justice system has suffered badly both at home and internationally because of widespread doubts about the conviction of Mr al-Megrahi.

The lawyer said: On December 21 1988, 270 people from 21 countries were murdered in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, the worst terrorist atrocity ever committed in the United Kingdom.

Since then the case of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only man ever convicted of the crime, has been described as the worst miscarriage of justice in British legal history.

For my legal team it has been eight long years but for the families we represent it has been 33 long years of struggle for truth and justice. Sadly that struggle is not over.
A 27-year-old man was arrested and is sitting behind bars in Columbus, Ohio, tonight charged with impregnating a 10-year-old girl who traveled to Indiana for an abortion in June.

The alleged timeline is heartbreaking.

According to the Columbus Dispatch, the girl's mother notified Franklin County Children Services of the pregnancy just two days before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. She traveled to neighboring Indiana about a week later to have an abortion because she was just three days past the six week time frame allowed in her home state, where there are no exceptions for rape or incest.

This case set off a flurry of sympathy and outrage from many in favor of abortion rights including the President of the United States.

"Just imagine being that little girl. Ten years old. Does anyone believe that it's Ohio's majority view that that should not be able to be dealt with?," President Biden said.

There was heated debate in the halls of Congress.

"Do you think a 10-year-old should choose to have a baby?," California Representative Eric Swalwell said.

"It would probably impact her life and therefore would not be an abortion," anti-abortion activist Catherine Glenn Foster said.

REP. ERIC SWALWELL: Wait  it would not be an abortion if a 10-year-old with her parents made the decision to have a baby that was a result of rape?

CATHERINE GLENN FOSTER: If a 10-year-old became pregnant as a result and it was threatening her life, then that's not an abortion, so it would not fall under any restriction in our nation.

Sarah Warbelow is the legal director for the Human Rights Campaign.

"I just heard some very serious disinformation. Abortion is a medical procedure," Warbelow said.

But the reaction from the right-wing media was one of denial after the Indianapolis Star published the article. Various outlets posted headlines like "An Abortion Story Too Good to Confirm" and calling the story "an activist tale looking like a lie."

"I's just too rich to verify. It's just too great. We can get kicks and clicks," Kellyanne Conway said on Fox News.

"We know that potentially it's not true. Not having evidence that it's not true is not having evidence that it is true," said Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner.

Republican politicians from across the country, including Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, joined in on casting doubt on the validity of the story.

"We have regular contact with prosecutors and local police and sheriffs, not a whisper anywhere. We don't know who the originating doctor in Ohio was, if they even exist," Yost said.

Yost, after numerous interviews denying the facts of this case, is now backtracking on his contact with law enforcement about the case, thanking the Columbus Police for "securing a confession," but admitting that he had not checked with the majority of agencies on this case.

"You're asking me if I called every one, or had somebody call every one. No, I didn't," Yost said.
Mental health professionals across Missouri and Kansas are preparing for Saturdays launch of 988, a 24-hour call and text line they expect will change how mental health crises are handled.

They hope 988, which will replace the 10-digit National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, can help callers more easily access local help at any hour.

Im someone who lives with mental illness and so its like, Oh my gosh we finally have a resource that we can use, said Holly Miles, board vice president for the National Alliance on Mental Illness Missouri. So youre gonna see this huge flock of people, especially individuals who are in crisis, that finally have this lifeline, this raft, that they can grasp onto.

How it works

Like 911, the line will be staffed 24/7, with local operators at call centers handling the majority of calls and national entities taking over if those centers become overwhelmed. Anyone can call or text 988 to talk with a trained mental health professional and receive support if they or someone else is in emotional distress, having suicidal thoughts or experiencing other crises.

Six centers will handle calls in Missouri and four will take calls in Kansas. Kansas City callers will be forwarded to a call center at CommCARE in Missouri or the Johnson County Crisis Line in Kansas.

Lauren Moyer, who heads the 988 task force in Missouri, said 90% of callers can be triaged over the phone. The other 10% may need in-person care, which will come through mobile crisis centers and behavioral health crisis centers, an alternative to hospitals and emergency rooms.

Patients can walk in and stay in the behavioral crisis centers for up to 24 hours and are then assigned to a case manager who can help them receive longer term support.

Calls for mental health crisis lines average about 20 minutes, said Tim DeWeese, director of the Johnson County Mental Health Center. Operators are trained to create a repertoire with callers so they can learn whats going on, connect them to resources and ensure theyll have follow up care, a key difference that separates 988 from other emergency response.

Well develop a plan with them as far as next steps and that may be to come out to the mental health center, that may be to have the mental health center reach out to them the following day or that night, if we need to, he said. Whatever is needed to help that person manage that crisis situation, thats what were going to try to do.

Meeting the increased need

With a shorter and easier number to remember, call centers are expected to see a rise in calls. But mental health professionals in Missouri and Kansas said they felt ready to meet that challenge.

When 988 was first announced, Michelle Watson, the director of call center services at CommCARE, said the center had wanted to increase staffing, but didnt have the money or resources. Grants allowed CommCARE to increase its call staff to have at least one more operator per shift, Watson said. On average, that means three to four people will answer calls each shift compared to two to three operators that worked a shift before staffing increases.

CommCARE and other call centers have combated staffing challenges by opening up more part-time positions. Some jobs in Kansas and Missouri have also been opened up to bachelors level candidates or professionals working toward their license, rather than requiring a masters degree or completed license.

The hiring increases will help meet the expected influx of callers, said Moyer. Missouri received just over 40,000 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline calls in 2020. That number is estimated to increase six times to more than 250,000 callers a year once the number goes live and a national media campaign advertising 988 goes out around December, she said.

Moyer said call center response rates have improved across the states six call centers in preparation. When the task force formed in July 2021, she said the state had around a 40% in-state call answer rate with just two call centers. The in-state answer rate has risen to around 85%, just five percentage points shy of the national goal for 988 call centers by next July, Moyer said.

Early state funding, grants and staffing increases helped Missouri call centers make improvements, while some states havent begun discussions for funding, she said. Making those plans in advance also meant that call center staff could make it through the training process in time for 988 to launch.

The hiring focus now is on mobile crisis centers, which Moyer hopes to have fully staffed by late October, as well as behavioral crisis centers. The state currently has nine open behavioral crisis centers and expects to have 15 by the start of 2023.

Our work isnt over, but I do feel like were in a strong position to pretty much provide well-supported crisis services, Moyer said.

Kansas mental health facilities have seen similar improvements, according to Monica Kurz, director of the Kansas Suicide Prevention HQ. Kurz said with funding from the Kansas Legislature in the past two years, including $10 million recently approved for the call line, the state has seen its in-state response rates increase from 60% to over 80%.

She said call centers have increased their staffing and should meet the goal of having enough people to answer phones when 988 goes live. At her center, KSPHQ, Kurz said there are currently around 80 staffers and volunteers, more than at any time since she started in 2005.

Diverting from 911

Experts also hope a standardized number will help people in crisis get in touch with mental health professionals rather than law enforcement when they call 911.

Sometimes those interactions end in tragedy, said Sherrie Vaughn, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Kansas. One in four people killed by police have a severe and untreated mental illness, and people with untreated mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed by law enforcement, according to a report by the Treatment Advocacy Center.

Oftentimes, Vaughn said, people call police for help, but officers dont have the training or resources available to properly assist them. Thats also why she said about two million people experiencing a behavioral health crisis are booked into jails across the country each year, according to a 2020 report from the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors.

By implementing 988 and other mental health resources, Vaughn said those numbers will drop.

 I believe that, she said, because people are going to get the help they need early, and theyre going to get the best care possible and theyre going to get diverted from the justice system as a result of that.

The standardized number will also help send people in crisis to behavioral health centers rather than hospital emergency rooms where theyll likely wait longer for care from people with less training in mental health, said Dr. Greg Nawalanic, a clinical psychologist with the University of Kansas Health System.

Diverting mental health-related calls will take pressure off of emergency room personnel as well as 911 operators and law enforcement officers, Nawalanic said.

If you go to an emergency department, youre going to get a very well-intended, likely psychiatrically trained nurse, he said, but youre not going to get a qualified, licensed mental health professional until likely the next day.

Room to grow

While mental health professionals and activists agree that 988 is a much-needed resource, they also know there will be room for improvement after the crisis line goes into effect.

Both Moyer and Kurz said staffing and resources will need to be increased at mobile crisis centers and behavioral crisis centers. Moyer is also working to create a centralized database that shows availability at centers across Missouri.

Vaughn said she hopes mental health resources and call centers will continue to receive funding from states. One way to create consistent funding, she said, is to add a monthly fee to cellphone bills, like the fees required to fund 911.

She also thinks more attention can be placed on existing programs in Kansas, some through NAMI Kansas, that look to decrease the number of people with mental illness who end up in jails. She hopes to see more resources like mental health courts across the state.

If 988 operators can help connect people to these programs and resources in addition to mental health clinics and behavioral centers, they should also be expanded across the state, Vaughn said.

Part of 988 is to connect them with those local resources, those community-based services that can come alongside and help them along with the community mental health centers, Vaughn said. It takes everybody to come alongside and help.
Missouri and Kansas, along with the rest of the United States, are set to launch the new 988 national mental health emergency hotline this weekend to make it easier for people in crisis to get help. But its going to take a lot more state funding to keep this lifesaving operation sustained long term, and lawmakers must make sure that happens.

The 10-digit National Suicide Prevention Lifeline number transitions to 988 on July 16, and it needs to become as familiar as 911.

The goal of 988 is to provide a simple number that will make interventions and resources more accessible to people experiencing a mental health crisis, said Tim Deweese, Johnson County Mental Health Center Director.

Like 911, the easy-to-remember three digit-number will save lives around the country, Deweese said. Its not just an emergency number to call, but its also a connection to services for the person in crisis or a concerned friend or family member.

National data shows that mental health conditions have been rising for years. The national nonprofit Mental Health America reported in 2019 that Americas suicide rates were at the highest level since World War II.

More than 2.5 million young people in the U.S. have severe depression, and multiracial and LGBTQ youths are at greatest risk, according to the association.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 exacerbated mental health problems by forcing people into isolation away from support systems  family, friends, schools and the workplace. But the pandemic also showed clearly that mental illness is indiscriminate, affecting people of any age, economic status, race or religion.

The good news is that with more awareness about mental illness, more people are seeking help. In the first half of this year, the Johnson County crisis line received 18,600 calls  more than twice the 7,784 calls it got in all of 2017.

Still, millions continue to suffer in silence. More than half of adults with mental illness do not receive treatment. The percentage of untreaded children is even greater and has led to an increase in suicide and drug use among teens, according to the MHA report.

While 988 will be available nationally, it is up to each state to develop a plan and secure the money to make sure the 24-hour crisis hotline is sustainable.

Calls to 988 connect to the existing National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which routes them to some 200 crisis call centers around the country. The response to calls will vary from state to state, city to city.

In Kansas and Missouri, callers can be connected to a trained crisis specialist. The intervention may include assessment, stabilization, referral and follow-up for individuals at high risk for suicide and/or poor mental health outcomes, a Missouri Department of Mental Health worksheet says.

Rob MacDougall, clinical director of emergency services for Johnson County Mental Health, said the plan is to also have mobile crisis response teams that can be sent out at a moments notice. And with 988 making calls for help easier, call centers expect the number to boom.

Missouri state mental health officials anticipate that with 988, call centers will get more than 258,000 calls statewide  more than four times the current volume, at a cost of about $16 million. State funding and federal block grants are helping, but long-term funding remains in question.

The Missouri Department of Mental Health will have to request an appropriation annually to sustain 988 service. There are no guarantees.

Last month, the Kansas Legislature approved $6 million in funding for 988 call centers for two years. Centers have already hired additional staff in anticipation.

But MacDougall is right: His state of Kansas and Missouri need to have predictable and ongoing funding beyond the next two years to grow the operations and ensure their effectiveness and sustainability.

After the most recent string of mass killings  including the murder of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, by an obviously disturbed teenager  lawmakers who oppose stronger gun laws have harped on the need for more mental health services. Fully paying for 988 call centers should be the least that red state legislatures can do.

An efficient and well-funded mental health crisis and intervention system will divert mental health crises away from already burdened systems including hospitals, courts and jails. It could reduce arrests, incarcerations and potentially violent encounters with police.

In other words, the new 988 crisis hotline will keep a lot of people safer. Lets make it work now and over the long term.
Amazon's customers in the United Arab Emirates won't find listings for LGBTQ-related products on its website anymore. According to The New York Times, the Emirati government has demanded the removal of products associated with LGBTQ people and issues and has threatened to penalize Amazon if it doesn't comply by Friday. In response, the e-commerce giant has pulled individual product listings and restricted search results for over 150 keywords. The UAE criminalizes consensual same-sex relations, and punishment could include imprisonment and even the death penalty.

Some of the search terms the website had restricted are broad enough to cover most items, including "lgbtq," "pride" and "closeted gay." However, some blocked search terms are more targeted, such as "transgender flag," "chest binder for lesbians" and "lgbtq iphone case." The Times says those terms didn't produce any result when the publication tried them out.

In addition, Amazon blocked several books in the region. Nagata Kabi's My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness and Roxane Gay's Bad Feminist are two of the affected titles. In a statement sent to The Times, spokesperson Nicole Pampe said that as a company, Amazon remains "committed to diversity, equity and inclusion" and that it believes "that the rights of L.G.B.T.Q.+ people must be protected." Pampe added, however: "With Amazon stores around the world, we must also comply with the local laws and regulations of the countries in which we operate."

Amazon is but one of the companies in the tech industry that has given in to the demands of a restrictive government in order to keep operating in a region. Netflix, for instance, previously pulled a show critical of the Saudi government, while Apple reportedly gave the Chinese government control of some of its data centers in the country. Google once developed a censored Chinese search engine called Project Dragonfly, though it ultimately terminated the initiative in 2019.

Outside of regions with restrictive laws, Amazon is much less likely to remove items from its product listings. When a group of employees in Seattle called on the company to remove books that suggest kids who identify as transgender are mentally ill, Amazon said that as a bookseller, it has "chosen to offer a very broad range of viewpoints, including books that conflict with [its] company values and corporate positions."
A long-time associate and a former campaign manager of Horry County Council Chairman Johnny Gardner was arrested Wednesday and charged with stealing close to half a million dollars from an estate he was managing.

Luther Luke Allen Barefoot, 60, was charged by South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) officials with two counts of breach of trust with fraudulent Intent for the value of $10,000 or more, according to a news release sent Thursday.

Gardner did not respond to a request for comment. Roger Slagle, Horry Countys GOP chairman, declined to comment.

An arrest warrant states that between late 2016 to early 2020, Barefoot opened a checking account at Anderson Brothers Bank and transferred about $400,000 from the estates checking account into his own personal account at the bank for personal use.

A second arrest warrant says that Barefoot removed nearly $65,000 for personal use. About $35,000 was deposited and transferred to one of his own companies, Laurel Street Enterprises. Approximately $29,000 was transferred to Call The Man LLC, which Barefoot owns as well.

Each arrest warrant states that the facts are reliable and are gathered from Anderson Brothers Bank financial records and multiple witness interviews. The warrants also say there is no evidence that shows Barefoot or anyone on his behalf intended to pay the money back.

Barefoot, from Conway, was booked at the J. Ruben Long Detention Center in Horry County Wednesday afternoon after the Conway Police Department asked South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, SLED, officials to investigate the matter.

Barefoot and Gardner were previously investigated by SLED in 2018 for allegations of extortion, which both denied doing. Gardner eventually admitted to six violations of state ethics rules from his 2018 campaign and paid a fine.

According to Horry County bookings, no bail has been set. The case will be prosecuted by the South Carolina Attorney Generals office.
Chinese built road spurs rural transformation in South Sudan

Xinhua) 08:46, July 15, 2022

JUBA, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Several striking developments have recently sprung up along the 392 kilometers Juba-Terekeka-Rumbek Road which is being constructed by a Chinese firm, Shandong Hi-Speed Group Co. Ltd (SDHS).

Schools, health centers, and businesses have mushroomed along the 63 kilometers Juba-Terekeka stretch that has been completed.

This stretch was once swampy and difficult to navigate due to huge potholes since the independence of South Sudan in 2011.

Meti Abuk, a 21-year-old police officer based in Terekeka is one of the many people relieved to see the construction of this crucial road network being fast-tracked.

The road is designed to link up Central Equatoria state which hosts Juba, the capital of South Sudan with other six states across the vast east African country.

"When construction of this road started, security drastically improved along the stretch to Terekeka, even our people are finding it easy to transport their goods such as fish and milk to Juba," Abuk told Xinhua during an inspection of the road on Wednesday.

"The road has also eased movement as people can travel within an hour to Juba and back to Terekeka," he added.

In November 2021, the Chinese company successfully completed the tarmacking of 25 kms on this road but as of now 63 kms of tarmac has been completed, despite some challenges like delayed payment to the contractor.

Hellen Rajan, a 30-year-old mother of four who works in one of the busy restaurants along the road, said she has seen the transformation of lives and the landscape in the last two years.

"This road has become a very important lifeline for many of us because we can access essential goods from Juba such as sugar, maize flour that we use in our restaurant," Rajan said.

Jaffer Ibrahim, who has been driving along the Juba-Terekeka stretch for over 15 years under extreme difficulty, said the successful paving of the road has helped motorists move with ease during the ongoing rainy season.

"We are seeing goods from Juba reaching Terekeka on time and basic items from Terekeka are finding their way to markets in Juba," Ibrahim said.

John Kenyi, Director-General in the Ministry of Roads and Bridges, hailed SDHS for the successful tarmacking of the busy road.

"I would like to thank the contractor who worked hard to finish the 63 kms with a lot of challenges, so we would like the second session not to have challenges so that they can catch up with the time allocated for them to complete the project," Kenyi said.

Peter Lam Both, Interim Secretary General of the ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) said the completion of the road is a catalyst for more development projects to follow.

"I also want to urge all our people to remain peaceful with one another, so that development can come and be accomplished, without peace nothing can be done," Both said.

"We will work together with the contractor Shandong Hi-Speed and the Ministry of Roads and Bridges to make sure that this road is financed because now we have seen the trunk that is going to Bahr El Ghazal has already started operations," he added.

Ma Wenjun, Charge d'affaires of the Chinese Embassy in South Sudan, acknowledged that the road has already transformed local citizens' livelihoods.

"This road has been transforming people's lives by providing facilities for transportation, logistics, trade, and business among others," Ma said.

"This is the fifth time I have been here in the past two years, I have seen that a lot of shops and stores have been built along the road and more are in the process of construction, so this is a road of development and happiness, it is the future of South Sudan because it connects almost two-thirds of the population of South Sudan," Ma added.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)
JAKARTA, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia recorded a trade surplus of 5.09 billion U.S. dollars in June, a big jump compared to the previous month's 2.89 billion dollars, as the country reopened crude palm oil (CPO) exports, the Statistics Indonesia (BPS) said on Friday.

This Southeast Asian country banned the export of CPO commodities from April 28 to May 22 to control domestic cooking oil prices, but this policy has caused state revenues to drop drastically.

"The palm oil surplus was recorded at 2.74 billion dollars or contributed 54 percent to the trade surplus in June," BPS head Margo Yuwono told a press conference.

The archipelagic nation recorded total exports of 26.09 billion dollars in June, up 21.30 percent compared to May and soaring 40.68 percent compared to June last year.

Non-oil and gas exports in June were mainly to China (5.09 billion dollars), India (2.53 billion dollars), and the United States (2.46 billion dollars), while to the nine other ASEAN countries at 5.08 billion dollars and 27 European Union countries at 1.68 billion dollars.

Cumulatively, Indonesia's exports from January to June reached 141.07 billion dollars, up 37.11 percent over the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the value of Indonesia's imports reached 21.00 billion dollars in June, up 12.87 percent compared to May and an increase of 21.98 percent compared to June last year.

The main commodity-supplying countries to Indonesia in June were China (6.11 billion dollars), Japan (1.46 billion dollars), and Thailand (0.90 percent dollars), as well as ASEAN countries at 2.83 billion dollars and the European Union at 0.97 billion dollars.

From January to June, Indonesia's import value was 116.18 billion dollars, up 27.62 percent year-on-year. 
Few are lucky  or brave  enough to visit brown or grizzly bears in the wild. But as Mike Fitz says, you dont have to leave your desk to get an intimate glimpse of these animals in one of Americas most remote national parks.

"This is live footage from Brooks River in Katmai National Park, Alaska, and it's one of the best places in the world to watch brown bears fishing for salmon," Fitz said.

Fitz is the resident naturalist with explore.org, which partnered with the National Park Service a decade ago to live-stream the bears annual summer feast on sockeye salmon at Brooks Falls.

"So they're gathered at the waterfall right now trying to get, really, their first good meals of the year after a long winter of hibernation," "So they're hungry right now. There's a lot of competition going on for the best fishing spots, and it's also sort of, like, the end of the mating season, as well. So a lot of interesting bear activity to see on the cameras right now."

This may help explain the bear cams surging popularity. Last year, more than 16 million people logged on to the live cams to watch the brown bears. Thats compared to the several thousand who were lucky enough to visit the park in person.

"These places aren't accessible to everybody, whether you live, you know, in the middle of a big city, and maybe it's just hard to get out and see a wild place, or maybe you don't, like I've mentioned before, you don't have the money or the time or there's some sort of physical limitation," Fitz said. "But I, through the webcams, I've seen people's lives really changed, and sort of, like, their whole perspective on nature shift."

Thats exactly what happened to Naomi Boak, a former television producer living in the Bronx when she first discovered the live cams back in 2014.

"I was pretty sick and somehow, somehow, I found the bear cams, and I saw this big Buddha-like bear sitting on a rock by the falls in kind of a position that made me think of Rodins Thinker, and I became addicted," Boak said.

NEWSY'S SAM EATON: How did it impact your life? I mean, the decisions you made going forward, how did that change your personal journey?

NAOMI BOAK: In 2019, I saw on Katmai Conservancy's Facebook page that the park was looking for a media ranger, and I thought, "Oh my god, that's perfect."

Ten days later, Boak was in Alaska doing a three-season stint watching over the same bears she had come to know so well when she was sick.

"When I started to see bears that I recognized  because you recognize them as individuals and you follow their stories, their soap operas  I was completely a fan girl, and I was so grateful," Boak said.

She says now, back in Massachusetts, she still watches religiously as a way to filter out the steady stream of bad news.

"It calms you down," Boak said. "It takes you out of yourself into a world that you don't need control over. You let that world happen. You become a part of it, and that story envelops you and heals you."

British environmentalist Tony Juniper, the chair of Natural England, has written extensively on humanitys relationship with animals. He says restoring peoples connection to the natural world, even through webcams, is essential if were going to stave off the dual crises of climate change and biodiversity loss.

"It's not a one-way street," Juniper said. "The more we can connect people with the natural world, not only do we get that benefit in terms of people's health and wellbeing, but also that's how we generate, over time, the mandate to save it. Because once people value something, of course they have a very different relationship with it."

This is a relationship Fitz has tapped into to educate millions of people about the larger ecosystem that supports Katmais 2,000 brown bears and the last great sockeye salmon run on Earth. Then there are the bears themselves, with names like Otis, Lefty and Grazer. Their unique personalities and dramas unfold in real time like a bear reality show.

"I love to watch the hierarchy of the bears at the waterfall, among the adult males," Fitz said. "Each year that hierarchy sort of shifts and ebbs and flows depending on who feels the strongest really in the moment. So yeah, there's a lot of the storylines that I'm looking forward to following and everyone else can follow on the webcams too."

It's all culminating with Fat Bear Week in early October, when fans have the chance to vote on which bear put on the most pounds ahead the long winter hibernation.
Central Pennsylvania residents will likely see lots of mosquitoes, ticks and bed bugs this summer, according to the National Pest Management Association.

Barbecues, picnics and all outdoor activities introduce interactions with pests, and some are more of a concern than simply being a nuisance.

The Centre Daily Times spoke with Jim Fredericks, chief entomologist at the NPMA, about how people can avoid pests and stay safe during summer travel.

Heres what to know about this summers buggy season in central Pennsylvania and across the Northeast U.S. region.

How can you limit tick and mosquito interactions?

The most important thing to do when you plan to be outside is to wear bug repellent, Fredericks said. Its best to use one with an Environmental Protection Agency registration number.

In order to be registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a manufacturer needs to be able to show that A, the product does not cause harm to people or the environment, and then B, they need to prove that it actually works, Fredericks said.

Another precaution you can take is to check yourself, your children and your pets for ticks when you return home from an outdoor activity.

The sooner you remove a tick, the less likely it is to be able to transmit Lyme disease, Fredericks said.

Taking a shower makes the tick check a lot easier, and you may be able to wash a tick off if it hasnt attached itself yet.

To avoid mosquitoes, it can be helpful to reduce standing water on your property, Fredericks said. If you have a bird bath, make sure to dump it out and replace the water at least every couple days.

If standing water is left in place for a week, then mosquitoes are able to complete their entire life cycle, Fredericks said. And so theyll be able to lay eggs, the larvae will develop, the pupa will develop and youll have flying, biting mosquitoes with temperatures above 80 degrees or so.

How can you avoid bed bugs?

Summer travelers should inspect hotel rooms and other vacation housing facilities for bed bugs.

We should expect an increase in the number of bed bug calls, simply because for the last couple of years people just have not been traveling the same (amount) that they have in the past, Fredericks said.

Take a look around the bed and bed frame for the pests, which are about a quarter-inch long, reddish-brown in color, flat and oval-shaped, Fredericks said.

You may be more likely to see the bugs fecal spots than the creatures themselves, Fredericks said. It looks like a tiny dark stain on fabric.

Not only should you inspect for bed bugs when arriving at a vacation destination, there are precautions you can take when you return.

When you get home, (do) laundry right away, because the dryer is whats going to kill any and all life stages of bed bugs that might be hitchhiking on your clothing thats inside your suitcases, Fredericks said.

Another good practice to combat bed bugs is to store your suitcase somewhere other than your bedroom. If bed bugs have come home with you in your bag, they might be able to stay alive by feeding off you in your bedroom.

Instead keep it in the garage or in the basement, where any hitchhiking bed bugs are less likely to find a blood meal when they need one, Fredericks said.

If you suspect you have a bed bug infestation in your home, its recommended you call in a professional pest management company.

Bed bugs are really not a do-it-yourself type of a pest, Fredericks said.

A professional will be able to more accurately determine the scale of the infestation, Fredericks said, and implement the best treatment practice to get rid of the bugs as quickly as possible.

Depending on how many bed bugs are in your home, an infestation may require return visits from a professional.

Heat treatment is one of the most common methods to get rid of bed bugs, as temperatures above 122 degrees Fahrenheit will kill all stages of bed bugs.

If you need a pest professional to take care of any issues at your home, you can use pestworld.org to locate an exterminator.
As summer heat finally reaches Washington state, many are heading to nearby lakes, oceans and pools to beat the heat.

But before diving into the water, knowing if the temperature is safe is highly important, as if water is too cold or too hot it can cause health issues.

Although the water temperature may feel refreshing, it could be changing your blood pressure, according to U.S. Masters Swimming, a non-profit membership program for master swimmers.

Hot water can cause a rapid decrease in blood pressure, which can lead to dizziness or loss of consciousness swimming in temperatures below 70 degrees Fahrenheit can lead to increased heart rate and blood pressure, the website states.

Swimming in water that is too cold, especially under 64 degrees, also increases the risk of cardiac arrest, the U.S. Master Swimming website states, and can make even healthy individuals experience muscle spasms in the water.

Cold water drains body heat about four times faster than being in cold air, according to the National Weather Service, and can cause cold shock once your body is in cold water. Cold shock can change our heart rate, blood pressure and breathing dramatically, increasing the risk of drowning even for strong swimmers.

Wearing a life jacket can be life-saving during cold shock or hypothermia and give rescuers enough time to get to you in the water, and is highly recommended even for strong swimmers.

The risk of swimming in cold water is extreme, causing officials to plead with Washingtonians earlier this summer to stay out of the water to reduce the risk of hypothermia, even during a heat wave.

Taylor Dock in Boulevard Park in Bellingham, Wash.

So what water temperature is safe?

The National Centers for Environmental Information says there is no optimal water temperature for swimming, but most people like to swim in 70-78 degree water, as it is usually the most comfortable.

But swimming in water 70 degrees or below could result in hypothermia even in the summer, as the body quickly surrenders its heat to cold water and chilled blood can impair the heart and brain, the Centers for Environmental Information states.

Cold shock does not only occur in freezing water, but can be just as dangerous in waters between 50-60 degrees, the weather service states, and breathing problems that can result in drowning can also occur in water around 77 degrees.

During the warm summer weather, many dont realize just how cold the water can still be.

Lake Whatcom at Bloedel-Donovon Park in Bellingham, Wash.

How to measure water temperature

Knowing the temperature of a lake, pool or ocean can be simple to determine before diving in.

LakeMonster, a current lake conditions website also provides current lake temperatures across Washington state.

Finding the water temperature where you want to swim can also be as easy as bringing a thermometer, according to Utah State University. Keep in mind that water temperatures decrease as water depth increases. A surface measurement would not be totally accurate.

To check water temperature before heading to the beach, the National Data Bouy Center collects data regularly from buoys across the country to show water temperatures, wind speed, air temperature and other information at the buoys locations.

The center has buoys throughout Puget Sound and could give you the life-saving information you need before heading out to swim.

Jack Hyde Park in Tacoma.

What to do if someone has hypothermia

Being in cold water can cause hypothermia, which produces warning signs of exhaustion, shivering, memory loss, drowsiness and confusion, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

If someone has these side effects and has a temperature below 95 degrees, the CDC says to get medical attention immediately.

If you cannot get medical help right away, warm the person up by going into a warm room, removing cold clothes, giving them a warm beverage, electric blanket and layers of clothing, towels or sheets.

Severe hypothermia can cause unconsciousness or a lack of breathing or pulse. Handle the person with care, perform CPR and try to warm the person until medical aid arrives.
President Biden and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas meet in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on Friday. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press)

President Biden on Friday endorsed an independent Palestinian state, although he conceded that such a historic development was "far away" and acknowledged the despair of the Palestinian people long frustrated in their fight for equal rights.

Even if the ground is not ripe at this moment to restart negotiations, the United States and my administration will not give up on bringing the Palestinians and the Israelis, both sides, closer together, Biden said during a joint appearance with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem.

"I know that the goal of the two states seems so far away while indignities like restrictions on movement and travel or the daily worry of your childrens safety are real and they are immediate," Biden added. "The Palestinian people are hurting now. You can just feel it. Your grief and frustration. In the United States, we can feel it.

Biden's remarks were unlikely to salve Palestinians' frustrations with U.S. policy. They are irked, in particular, that Biden has not reversed the Trump-era actions, including the former president's declaration that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. That was a controversial decision because Palestinians claim part of the contested holy city as the capital of an eventual state. They are also angry that Israeli settlers have been steadily gobbling up land that would complicate their ability to govern an eventual independent nation.

"Peace begins with Palestine and Jerusalem," Abbas said. After decades of Israeli control, the Palestinian leader said, "is it not the time for this occupation to end and for our steadfast people, again, to gain their freedom and independence."

Biden's closed-door meeting with Abbas in a Bethlehem government compound included numerous other Palestinian officials, including Hussein Sheikh, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organization often mentioned as the aging Abbas' successor.

The four hours that Biden spent in Bethlehem and East Jerusalem was the only nod to Palestinians on the president's itinerary during a four-day trip to the Middle East that featured meetings with the leaders of Israel, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations.

As he entered Bethlehem, Biden was met with large signs saying, "Mr. President, this is apartheid," which had been erected by an Israeli human rights group. Portraits of slain Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh also appeared on the walls of some buildings along the roads into Bethlehem.

Journalists attending a joint appearance by Biden and Abbas also took a symbolic step to draw attention to the killing by leaving an empty chair in the press area.

She was killed, most likely by Israeli forces, while covering an Israeli military raid in the West Bank town of Jenin on May 11. Her death and the U.S. reluctance to blame Israel has infuriated Palestinians.

Biden said in his joint appearance with Abbas that the U.S. government "will continue to insist on full and transparent accountability for her death."

"Her death is an enormous loss to the essential work of sharing with the world the story of the Palestinian people," he added.

Expectations were low even before Biden arrived. The Biden administration has renewed diplomatic ties with the Palestinians and restored financial aid, both of which had been severed by former President Trump. But the White House has not reversed other Trump actions, failing to reopen, for example, the U.S. Consulate in East Jerusalem, which had served Palestinians and was shuttered by Trump.

National security advisor Jake Sullivan, speaking to reporters on Friday on Air Force One on the way to Saudi Arabia, said Biden and Abbas discussed the consulate and said U.S. officials "continue to engage" with Palestinians and Israelis. But in 18 months, there has been no movement.

"I think were expecting too much from [Biden] regarding Palestine," Palestinian writer Mariam Barghouti said Friday on Twitter. "Older than the State of Israel, his ideology is from the era of colonial conquest. I dont think thats something that will change at this point."

In Bethlehem, Biden also toured the Church of the Nativity with several clerics who explained the elaborate mosaics and Byzantine architecture. Christian tradition holds that a small grotto under the center of the ancient church marks the birthplace of Jesus.

The White House said Biden's visit to the church was meant to signal support for Christians throughout the region who have faced attack and displacement. Palestinians are among the last indigenous Christians who remain in the Holy Land, but many have immigrated to the U.S., Latin America and other countries.

Earlier Friday, Biden toured the Augusta Victoria Hospital, part of the East Jerusalem Hospital Network, that serves as the "backbone" of healthcare for Palestinians, as Biden put it. Its U.S. funding was cut by Trump, and Biden pledged $100 million in new money.

A woman in the audience, who identified herself as a nurse, told Biden: Thank you for your support, but we need more justice, we need more dignity.

Bierman reported from Jerusalem and Wilkinson from Washington.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Chefs Max Boonthanakit and Lijo George prepare to open at Camphor. (Wesley Lapointe / Los Angeles Times)

Early in the evening at Camphor, sunlight seeps through shaded windows and casts long shadows across its floors. Nearly every surface in the dining room has been painted white; walls and ceilings and tabletops take on an added pearly glow in the burst of brightness. Staffers move calmly through the space, past a gate-like gold sculpture near the entrance and banquettes the color of a tranquil sky at dusk.

At this hour, the restaurant takes on the dream-state feel of a waiting area to a cinematic afterlife.

Camphor's dining area. (Wesley Lapointe / Los Angeles Times)

The beef tartare at Camphor. (Wesley Lapointe / Los Angeles Times)

The effect sets an appropriate tone for the cooking. Though chefs Max Boonthanakit and Lijo George look to France for the menus baseline inspiration, their modernist retooling and canny use of spice pull dishes like beef tartare and roast chicken out of any usual sense of place or time. Down a narrow alley, behind the unassuming facade of a four-story red brick Arts District building, Boonthanakit and George create their own realm. This is bistro cooking of the mind.

The two met several years ago while cooking at Blue by Alain Ducasse in Bangkok, and the mention of Ducasses name alone can conjure some key words that also apply to Camphor: luxury, imagination, technique, global flavors. Before moving to Thailand, Boonthanakit worked as opening pastry chef in the same kitchen he now co-leads; the space previously housed Mei Lins too-short-lived Nightshade.

Cyrus Batchan, whose No.8 hospitality group is behind the swank cocktail bar Lock & Key in Koreatown, had partnered with Lin on Nightshade and last year reached out to Boonthanakit: Would he be interested in creating something new in the vacant location? The answer was yes, but with the addition of George, a native of Kerala, India, with years of fine-dining experience in Hong Kong and Doha, Qatar. George had never been to Los Angeles, but Boonthanakit knew their styles would click no matter where in the world they were cooking together.

Among a handful of snacks to kick off the meal, one makes an especially persuasive opening statement: tiny fried shrimp, shells and all, buried in a variation on South Indian milagai podi (also known as gunpowder spice) that burns with black pepper and beams with citrusy curry leaves. Its satisfying crunch sets off sparks across the taste buds. It also complements bar director Andrew Paniaguas headier, herbal-leaning cocktails  particularly the complex gin-based Trocadero with its dashes of absinthe, cucumber and celery bitters.

The baby shrimp "gunpowder" appetizer at Camphor. (Wesley Lapointe / Los Angeles Times)

A warm hunk of bread comes with a smooth emulsion of Epoisses and butter. Depending on the ripeness of the Epoisses, the spread can recall a mild Brie or deliver the kind of funk that nearly singes your eyebrows. As you alternate between bites of spice-pummeled shrimp and crusty sourdough smeared with washed-rind cheese, the Camphor aesthetic starts to come into focus.

Boonthanakit and George can spin familiar Eurocentric restaurant dishes into fun new dimensions. While tinkering with fresh ideas for dressing up beef tartare, they landed on pairing it with herb tempura chips. Cradle a lightly battered basil or shiso leaf in your palm and spoon over some of the chopped round steak glossed in light mayo seasoned with dashi. You might catch the zap of a stray caper or the licorice nip of tarragon. I wind up using a fork more than my hands, but I appreciate the presentations inventive elegance.

Barbajuan is a snack or hors doeuvre of fried ravioli, often stuffed with chard and ricotta, ubiquitous across the French Riviera. Here the kitchen team forms the fried bundles into ovals reminiscent of abalone and fills them with Dungeness crab; on the side is the gentlest aioli and, odd but rewarding, a handful of candy-red teardrop-shaped Peruvian sweet chiles. Comforting mussels cooked in white wine with wisps of bacon arrive after an act of pampering: The cooks have already removed the bivalves from their shells.

Boonthanakit semijokingly uses the word tedious to describe the effort he and George invest in their take on poulet farci. It begins by deboning chicken breasts while at the same time cutting twice the length of skin off the bird. They brine that portion and turn chicken thighs into truffled mousse; there is layering the elements into a cylindrical form and then poaching and finally searing the transformed bird and setting it in a thyme-scented sauce of jus and vin jaune before it reaches the table.

The chicken entree with a side of truffled vegetables at Camphor. (Wesley Lapointe / Los Angeles Times)

The involved technique reminds me of the luxe stuffed chicken that Lincoln Carson once served at Bon Temps  another Arts District restaurant that, like Nightshade, was an early, heartbreaking casualty of the pandemic. This version has an understated contrast in textures. When I concentrate, I can trace the soft, heady-sweet scent of garam masala that perfumes the dish like a pheromone. It stamps the intricate recipe with the chefs joint brand of individualism.

Originally Boonthanakit and George announced that the food at Camphor would be a merger of French and Indian cuisines; they backed off from that frameworks confines, but a side dish called lentils & lamb remains as a testament to the route they might have taken.

Its basically high-tech dal: lentils simmered in a smoky broth made with lamb neck bones with ginger, garlic and spices that George brings back from Kerala, which is one of the worlds vital growing regions for black pepper, cardamom and other seasonings. A clear note of roasted cumin runs through the dish, which is crowned by an ornate green lentil foam lightened with cream. Rich and soothing and profound, the dal is my favorite thing the restaurant serves.

"Lentils & lamb" at Camphor. (Wesley Lapointe / Los Angeles Times)

If the chefs liberate themselves from any set notion of geography in their cooking, neither are they beholden to any real sense of seasonality. Handsomely seared beef tenderloin in peppercorn sauce, a silken tangle of scallops and pasta, poached lobster tail splayed over Cognac-laced bisque: They all feed into a culinary sense of perpetuity, of Camphor as a cocoon of indulgence. As might be obvious by now, dining here requires something of an investment: The chicken costs $40 a la carte, for example; youll want to add a $16 side of the lentils & lamb and another $16 for asparagus, which appeared during spring and has lingered into the summer months. The bearnaise spooned over the top is textbook.

Before he left for Thailand, Boonthanakit created buzz with his icy, artful desserts at Nightshade. I see and taste the connection between then and now most in his creation centered around kiwi. He poaches the fruit in cardamom syrup until it takes on a candied suppleness. Over the top is a frozen disc made of green apple and lemon balm tea, with patterns made from charcoal powder and coconut that mimic a kiwis sliced-open center. Its vegan, otherworldly and a wholly appropriate finale.

Camphor's dining room fills with dinner reservations. (Wesley Lapointe / Los Angeles Times)

If youve settled into Camphors sweet-hereafter vibe, youre likely also finishing the last sips of a premier cru Chablis or Pommard that dapper maitre d Kalani Lau helped you select. He worked for years at Santa Monicas Capo, which has a wine binder as thick as a Reuben sandwich, so he knows his stuff.

One last extravagance? A server will likely trundle over a gold cart stocked with liqueurs for post-dinner sipping. If Batchan is in the restaurant, he might come over and tell you about his personally amassed collection of chartreuse  the herbal spirit, whose recipes purportedly total more than 100 ingredients, made by Carthusian monks since the 16th century. The flavor of green chartreuse has no one landing point: It rockets from anise to summery herbs, from sweet to bitter, and back again. Itll return you to the world outside at once calmed and intrigued. In that way, it's as fitting an end to a meal at Camphor as Boonthanakits desserts.

The kiwi and mint frozen dessert at Camphor. (Wesley Lapointe / Los Angeles Times)

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Want more food news? Sign up for the Food & Drink newsletter at sacbee.com/foodnews to get your weekly fill.

More than 70 wineries dot El Dorado County today. Fifty years ago, there was only one.

Boeger Winery  and by extension, the modern El Dorado County wine scene  celebrated its golden anniversary last weekend, a party that will roll into Saturday and Sunday.

El Dorado County had 4,300 acres of vineyards in 1898, but just 11 acres growing for out-of-county wineries in the early 1960s.

By the time Greg and Susan Boeger fell in love with the region while drinking a bottle of wine under a fig tree, though, word was getting around: soil scientists had identified the Sierra Nevada foothills as prime growing territory.

The Boegers quit their jobs as state workers and bought the Fossati familys old Placerville pear orchard in February 1972. They converted it to a vineyard and began by planting French varietals such as merlot and cabernet before adopting the more niche Italian and Spanish grapes such as negroamaro and barbera for which Boeger Winery is now known.

What Bogle Vineyards was to Clarksburg in those early years, Boeger was to El Dorado County. The Bogle and Boeger family patriarchs shared the California State Fairs 2018 Wine Lifetime Achievement Award.

Boeger championed the foothills slopes, high temperatures and cool pockets as ideal terrain for certain reds, and drew outside attention to foothill towns such as Camino and Placerville.

The Boegers co-founded the El Dorado Winery Association and the El Dorado Wine Grape Growers Association, and helped get the region formally recognized as an American viticultural area in 1983. As the awards streamed in, Greg Boeger made a point of sharing knowledge and vine clippings with newer farmers, his and Susans son Justin said.

The great thing about wine industry in general, but particularly in El Dorado (is that) I feel like were really close, said Justin Boeger, the winerys winemaker since 1998. A rising tide lifts all ships, so we really try to work and collaborate with everybody to make sure more people are aware of the great wine that come out of this (region).

Greg still oversees the vineyard, and will have his hands full as the winery ramps up production of whites such as pinot gris and sauvignon blanc over the next five to 10 years, Justin said.

Greg Boeger next to a Gold Rush-era grape press in the original stone cellar on the property now home to Boeger Winery.

Boegers anniversary celebration continues this weekend with vineyard strolls, barrel tastings in the cellar and blacksmith demonstrations at 1709 Carson Road in Placerville  about 45 miles from Sacramento. Visit https://www.boegerwinery.com/50th-anniversary-open-house for more information.

What Im Eating

Kuji Asian Grills salmon plate lunch comes with potato macaroni salad, pickles, rice and kimchi.

Kai and Suji Jung grew up in Davis and South Korea, met while cooking in Hawaii and opened Woodlands Kuji Asian Grill in January 2019. The menu at 1801 E. Gibson Road merges those backgrounds as seamlessly as Kuji combines the owners names.

Half of Kujis menu is dedicated to takes on Hawaiian plate lunch, similar to a Southern meat-and-three. Fiery housemade kimchi, rice, Korean pickles and bacon bit-topped potato macaroni salad come with entrees such as salmon ($14), cooked beautifully in a sweet-savory sesame glaze with a crunchy layer of skin over the top.

The K-chicken sandwich ($13) is another smash hit, a riff on the trendy dish that ranks among the regions best. Crisp chicken katsu nestles between two thin slices of toast with a funky slaw, pepper aioli and galbi sauce, with a side of fries that were firm but still fluffy inside.

The pork belly salad ($13) had nice texture constrast between its bright lettuce, garlic chips, dried mushrooms and pickled onions. While the flagship meat was slightly overcooked, it was at least masked by a domineering spicy soy pepper vinagrette.

The Jungs and Kuji have had a tangible impact on Woodlands dining scene. To highlight other Asian American and Pacific Islander leaders in the Sacramento region, nominate them for The Bees Top 25 AAPI Change Makers by July 22, a new project similar to the Top 25 Black Change Makers list published earlier this year.

Openings & Closings

The Bees wonderful utility team and talented interns wrote a ton of opening and closing news this last week while I was working on the story about Naija Boy Tacos. Here are few notable ones:
Tia Bess carried a dog-eared copy of the graphic novel Gender Queer in her purse as she stood in line to hear Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speak Friday morning.

Bess, a Clay County mom of three, came to the inaugural Moms for Liberty summit at the Tampa Marriott Water Street to commiserate with hundreds of others from around the nation about their concerns that sexually explicit books, lessons on race and gender identity, and other things they find objectionable have infiltrated public schools.

She, like other moms and grandmothers at the event, also wanted to hear ideas about how to make change. She quickly connected with Michelle Beavers, a Brevard County mom who has fought to remove dozens of titles from that districts school libraries.

I want to take my knowledge back, to be able to educate more parents, Bess said.

Thats the goal Tina Descovich had in mind when she co-founded Moms for Liberty less than two years ago in the midst of the pandemic. She and a handful of other current and former Florida school board members, all conservative politically, said they wanted to create a movement to empower parents to overcome what they considered to be a leftward push on curriculum and other aspects of public school.

On Friday, Descovich said she was thrilled with the turnout from across the nation for the groups first major event, which featured DeSantis as its introductory keynote speaker.

We have a great opportunity in this election in August with the primaries in the school boards ... and then in November in my election and all these other elections, to really solidify the state of Florida as this countrys citadel of freedom, DeSantis told the crowd.

After the governors speech, Democrats held a news conference to criticize the moms group and its message.

An organization whose very existence only originates from the founders themselves being voted out of office by a majority of voices. They serve as a tool of distraction for the DeSantis administration as he works with his legislators to dismantle our public schools, said Brevard County School Board member Jennifer Jenkins, who has been harassed at home for her stance on issues.

Alyssa Knight, left, 31, Dunedin Highland Middle School teacher, speaks with attendees about critical race theory and other topics outside the Moms for Liberty National Summit Friday, July 15, 2022, in Tampa.

Jenkins said she hasnt seen a person wearing Moms for Liberty T-Shirts in Brevard in months, and was relieved to hear the summit was not as large as they had anticipated. About 500 people were in attendance.

Moms huddle

Moms for Liberty has grown quickly. It counts more than 200 chapters and 95,000 members in 38 states, and has gained political clout in local school board races as well as larger campaigns, including DeSantis reelection bid. Its also become a target for critics, who have blasted the parental rights movement as code for intolerance to ideas like LGBTQ student rights and a full teaching of the nations racist past.

Members have led outreach campaigns at the Conservative Political Action Conference and often broadcast their message on conservative media, which has helped the group grow.

Sponsors of the summit include a number of conservative groups, including the Leadership Institute, which seeks to grow conservative activism and place more conservatives in government, politics and the media.

Merianne Jensen, a mother of four who launched a chapter in Virginia just two months ago, said she was praying to get involved in a bigger way when she was fighting a mask mandate at her kids schools. She learned about Moms for Liberty when her father-in-law sent her a Breitbart news article that said the group was saving America by empowering parents.

I am coming here to help and be rejuvenated, Jensen said before heading into the auditorium to hear DeSantis, who she said was a hero for children.

After the DeSantis speech, attendees headed into hourlong strategy sessions on subjects such as Are You Ready to Run? and Gender Ideology in Our Schools, most of which reporters were not allowed to attend.

Its mostly mothers that have really struggled with their own children in their communities, Descovich said. They have all come to this place feeling their voices havent been heard. They are here to be trained and empowered.

Nicole Donahue of Vero Beach is one of those parents. The stay-at-home mom of a 4-year-old, Donahue said she recently joined Moms for Liberty to become more informed about the rights she and her child have as they prepare to enter the schools. She also hoped to meet other parents who can provide insights and ideas.

Ultimately I think the education system is flawed, Donahue said, and it needs to be given back to our children.

Kourtney OHara, a Moms chapter leader from Lexington, South Carolina, said she found the information presented worth the entry fee and travel costs, for which she said her husband is working an extra shift. She appreciated learning how Floridians worked three years to pass a parental bill of rights, which she and others are pushing for at home.

She also liked learning about how to get a positive, simple message about the cause to the public: Were not looking to make enemies.

Located at the same hotel complex as the Florida Democratic Partys Leadership Blue event this weekend, the Moms for Liberty summit also drew opposition.

Pinellas County high school history teacher Brandt Robinson, wearing a no hate in my state T-shirt, stood outside the hotel with a handful of others to protest the organization and DeSantis.

Its important that we let the public know that there are citizens who are standing up to the governor and to Moms for Libertys false claims that we are indoctrinating our students.

Inside the main ballroom, the mood was more celebratory. Attendees mingled and visited booths with swag, including books for sale called Counter Wokecraft, and buttons saying No matter what my teacher says Ill always love America.

When DeSantis took the stage, the group presented him with a liberty sword modeled after the type given to gladiators. The event has adopted the phrase joyful warriors to describe its members.

Jennifer Arguello, a mom of three running for school board in Osceola County, said she learned more about how to effectively run her campaign. She networked with other candidates and learned many of the basics about which voters to reach and how to reach them.

Arguello said it was almost like teaching candidates how to be a salesperson. Above all, though, she said she was happy she was able to network with other candidates.

There are a lot of like-minded people like us out there, Arguello said. I dont feel alone.

Miami Herald staff writer Bianca Padro Ocasio and Tampa Bay Times reporter Emily L. Mahoney contributed to this report.
Its debate week, conflicting visions of Florida, another DCF horror story

Daphne Campbell, a former Democratic state legislator who has faced several controversies, has filed to run for mayor of North Miami.

The 65-year-old registered nurse represented North Miami for eight years in the Florida Legislature, first as a state representative and then as a senator. She was unseated by Jason Pizzo in a 2018 primary and made an unsuccessful run for state Senate in 2020.

Campbell was the first candidate to enter the May 2023 mayoral race, according to city records. She did not respond to requests for comment about her campaign.

The latest comeback bid by Campbell, who was born in Haiti, is to lead a city of about 60,000 people in a largely Haitian-American community.

It could also set up a rematch between Campbell and North Miami Vice Mayor Alix Desulme, who lost a 2010 state House of Representatives primary to Campbell by fewer than 400 votes and unsuccessfully challenged her again two years later.

Desulme told the Miami Herald on Friday that he is definitely interested in running for mayor, but is waiting to enter the race until after Mayor Philippe Bien-Aime vacates the seat as he runs for Miami-Dade County Commission. Desulme declined to comment on Campbells decision to run.

On campaign forms filed in April, Campbell listed an address on Northwest 132nd Street in North Miami, a single-family home she purchased in November, according to county property records. Questions about residency have followed her in the past  in 2018, the Herald found holes in her residency record that made it unclear if she lived in her state Senate district as required, though no official action was taken.

North Miamis charter says candidates for mayor must live in the city continuously for at least a year before qualifying to run for office. The qualifying period for the May 2023 election begins next March.

Campbell was also at the center of various controversies while in office. Despite being a registered Democrat, she was criticized by colleagues for taking conservative stances on social issues including abortion and gay marriage. One fellow Democrat reportedly called her a traitor in 2011 for supporting a Republican abortion bill.

In another incident, Campbell posted a video to YouTube showing her accepting a designer purse stuffed with cash from the pocket of a healthcare nonprofit executive at a 2017 campaign fundraiser, but later insisted it was a joke.

The Florida Ethics Commission imposed a $22,500 penalty on Campbell this March after finding she violated state financial disclosure laws by filing forms that failed to include unpaid taxes.

She lied about everything, failed to disclose everything that she needed to, Don Gaetz, a member of the ethics commission and former Republican state senator, said at the March meeting.

Campbells campaign for North Miami mayor has been quiet so far, with no announcements on social media and only a single $350 donation reported. Campbell also reported receiving a $1,000 loan, but an April disclosure form did not show who made the loan.

Campbell is serving as her own campaign treasurer, records show.

She is one of two candidates to enter the mayoral race with the qualifying period still eight months away. Hector Medina, a retired physician who has run several times for North Miami City Council, filed to be a candidate last month.

Campbell garnered enough support to win reelection twice in the state House of Representatives and become Floridas only Haitian senator in 2016.

She faced personal tragedy last June when her 23-year-old son, Jason Campbell, was shot and killed in North Miami-Dade. A woman was arrested and charged with his murder weeks later.
A downtown brewery is being sold after eight years.

And its new owners might be familiar to fans of the Boise beer scene.

Woodland Empire Ale Craft, 114 W. Front St., will change hands Friday, said Dave Krick, one of the buyers.

The new ownership will be split four ways  equally. Two of the owners will be Krick and his wife and business partner, Jami Adams, who own Bittercreek Alehouse, Diablo & Sons and Red Feather Lounge on 8th Street in downtown Boise. The others will be David Roberts, general manager at Bittercreek, Diablo and Red Feather, and Jake Black, owner of Lost Grove Brewing, 1026 S. La Pointe St.

Woodland Empire founders Rob and Keely Landerman opened the brewery and taproom in 2014.

... The Empire couldnt be in better hands, the brewery posted on social media, and we think theyll do a great job continuing on and growing what we built. Plus, Keely will still be part of our incredible brew team, so youre guaranteed great beer as always!

Woodland Empire plans to close for a couple of weeks during the transition, according to the post.

In a phone interview, Krick said that the brewery has a loyal following and that no immediate changes are planned. Definitely not with the beer, he said. I think thats one of things that we like about what theyre doing over there. Keely does a great job, and Keelys staying with us, which is really cool.

Keely Landerman is Woodland Empires head brewer. The beer is distributed in Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Alaska, Krick said.

We love the brand, he said. Weve known Rob and Keely since they started it.

We were going to build a brewery at some point, Krick explained, and this just seemed like a much easier pathway and just a good opportunity.

In late 2015, Krick announced plans for a brewery called Works Progress Administration. But that project has been delayed.

Might WPA beer eventually be brewed at Woodland Empires 15-barrel brewhouse?

To be determined, Krick said. Right now, we dont have the capacity for it. Theyre at full capacity right now.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem was initially eager to jump into lawmaking when the U.S. Supreme Court indicated this year it was poised to allow states to ban abortions. But now that the political realities have arrived, the Republican governor has hesitated. (John Raoux / Associated Press)

Gov. Kristi Noem had pledged to immediately call a special legislative session to guarantee that every unborn child has a right to life in South Dakota if the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade. But nearly three weeks after that ruling, the first-term Republican remains unusually quiet about exactly what she wants lawmakers to pass.

Noem, widely considered a potential 2024 presidential candidate, isn't the only GOP governor with national ambitions who followed up calls for swift action with hesitance when justices ended the constitutional right to abortion that had been in place for nearly 50 years.

In Arkansas, which like South Dakota had an abortion ban immediately triggered by the court's ruling, Gov. Asa Hutchinson has said he does not plan to put abortion on the agenda of next months special session focused on tax cuts. And in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis, a top potential White House contender also running for reelection, has shied away from detailing whether he will push to completely ban abortions despite a pledge to expand pro-life protections.

Noem has given no indication of the date, proposals or whether a special session will even happen to anyone beyond a small group of Statehouse leaders. When asked whether the governor still plans to call lawmakers back to the Capitol, her office this week referred to a June statement that indicated it was being planned for later this year.

It's a change of tack from when the Supreme Court's decision first leaked in May and the governor fired off a tweet saying she would immediately call for a special session to save lives" if Roe was overturned. The enthusiasm placed Noem, the first woman to hold the governor's office in South Dakota, in a prominent spot in the antiabortion movement.

However, as the abortion ban became reality last month, Noem kept her plans a secret besides saying there is more work to do and pledging to help mothers in crisis.

Some conservatives in the South Dakota Legislature wanted to take aggressive action, including trying to stop organizations or companies from paying for women to travel out of state for an abortion, changing the criminal punishment for performing an abortion and possibly clarifying state law to ensure the ban didn't affect other medical procedures.

Republican state Sen. Brock Greenfield said many South Dakota lawmakers attending the state party's convention on June 24, the same day as the Supreme Court ruling, expected Noem would call them back to Pierre this week for a special session, but "obviously that hasnt come to fruition."

It might not be a bad idea to just let the dust settle and proceed very carefully, very strategically as we go forward, said Greenfield, a former executive director of the states most influential antiabortion group, South Dakota Right to Life.

The caution reflects the evolving landscape of abortion politics, as Republicans navigate an issue that threatens to divide the party while giving Democrats a potential election-year boost.

Nationwide polling conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research before the Supreme Court ruling to overturn Roe showed it was unpopular, with a majority of Americans wanting to see the court leave the precedent intact. Subsequent polling since the ruling showed that a growing number of Americans, particularly Democrats, cited abortion or women's rights as priorities at the ballot box.

In political battleground states, some other prominent GOP governors  including possible White House contenders  haven't charged to enact abortion bans.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has said he considers the abortion question settled in his state, pointing to a 1991 law that protects abortion rights. However, he has resisted efforts by the Democratic-controlled Legislature to expand abortion access.

Virginia's Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, also considered a potential presidential contender, wants lawmakers in the politically divided General Assembly to take up legislation next year, saying he personally would favor banning most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

During an online forum with abortion opponents, he said he would gleefully sign any bill to protect life but acknowledged that Virginias political reality might require compromise.

My goal is that we ... in fact get a bill to sign, he said. It wont be the bill that we all want.

In the wake of South Dakota banning abortions, Noem took a softer approach on the issue by launching a website for pregnant women. She even seemed warm to the idea of pushing for state-backed paid family leave.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who is in a closely watched gubernatorial race with Democrat Beto ORourke, took a similar approach to the high court ruling that could make it the most populous state to ban abortions. He issued a statement saying Texas prioritized supporting womens healthcare and expectant mothers and pointed to efforts to expand programs for womens health as well as to fund organizations that dissuade women from having an abortion.

States with the nations strictest abortion laws, such as Texas and South Dakota, also have some of the worst rates of first-trimester prenatal care, as well as uninsured children in poverty, according to an AP analysis of federal data.

South Dakota Right to Life's executive director, Dale Bartscher, suggested Noem's action in a special session could be part of a turn in strategy: An entirely new pro-life movement has just begun  we stand ready to serve women, the unborn and families.

He said he had been communicating with the governor's office on her plans but declined to detail them.

But Noem in recent weeks has faced questioning for her stance that the only exception to the state's abortion ban should be to save the life of a mother, even if she has been raped, became pregnant through incest or is a child.

It's also not clear where she stands on some conservative lawmakers' desire to target organizations and companies that are helping women leave the state to access abortion services  a proposition that could undermine Noem's efforts to attract businesses to the state.

Brockfield warned that a special legislative session could result in a whole lot of arguments over whether were going too far, or whether we havent gone far enough.

At the same time, abortion rights protesters have shown up at Noem's campaign office and named her in chants decrying the state's ban. They see momentum growing for an effort to restore some abortion rights in the state through a 2024 ballot measure, pointing out that South Dakota voters in 2006 and 2008 rejected Republican state lawmakers' efforts to ban the procedure.

Ive lived in this state my whole life and Ive never seen people show up to protest for this issue like they have in recent weeks, said Kim Floren, who helps run an abortion access fund called Justice Empowerment Network.

The fund has also been strategizing for a special session, including hiring legal representation and planning protests in Pierre, Floren said.

Their desires may be dismissed in South Dakota's Statehouse, where Republicans hold 90% of seats, but abortion rights advocates say there is a fresh urgency in alerting voters to the potential impact of the state abortion ban.

Were going to see people die, said Callan Baxter, president of the South Dakota chapter of the National Organization for Women. Were going to see some real-life consequences and the exposure is going to have a big impact legislatively going forward.

Associated Press writers Sarah Rankin, Brian Witte and Andrew DeMillo contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The police arrested two drug smugglers and seized 3 kg of opium poppy from their possession in the northern Kunduz province on Friday, a police officer Mohammad Omar said.

The alleged drug traffickers, according to the official, were attempting to smuggle the contraband from Kunduz to the capital city Kabul Friday morning but the police, acting on a tip-off, stopped their car and discovered 3 kg of opium.

Both the arrested men have been taken in into custody for investigation, the official added.

Similarly, the police arrested a suspected man on Thursday in the neighboring Takhar province and found 60 grams of heroin in his possession, police spokesman in the province Abdul Mubin Safi said. 
By Catarina Demony and Kylie MacLellan

LEIRIA, Portugal/LONDON (Reuters) - Hundreds more people were evacuated from their homes as wildfires blistered land in France, Spain and Portugal on Friday, and officials in Europe issued health warnings for the heatwave in coming days.

More than 1,000 firefighters, supported by water-bomber aircraft, have battled since Tuesday to control two blazes in southwestern France that have been fanned by scorching heat, tinder-box conditions and strong winds.

While temperatures dipped a little in Portugal, they were still expected to top 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in some places, with five districts on red alert for extreme weather and more than 1,000 firefighters tackling 13 wildfires, authorities said.

In Spain, the Environment Ministry said it was helping tackle 17 wildfires across the country.

Officials are worried about the effects on people's health and on healthcare systems already challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic as the searing heat hits the continent, with warnings issued for worse to come in Britain in particular.

The World Meteorological Organization said on Friday the heatwave would trap atmospheric pollutants, degrading the air quality, especially in towns and cities.

"The stable and stagnant atmosphere acts as a lid to trap atmospheric pollutants, including particulate matter," Lorenzo Labrador, WMO scientific officer, told a Geneva press briefing.

"These result in a degradation of air quality and adverse health effects, particularly for vulnerable people."

From July 7 to July 13, Portugal registered 238 excess deaths due to the heatwave, the country's DGS health authority said.

"In this specific case, the excess can be attributed to the heatwave. In the last few days we have had very high, extreme temperatures ... and for a very long period," DGS chief Graca Freitas told Lusa news agency.

Health Minister Marta Temido said on Thursday the health system faced a "particularly worrying" week due to the heatwave and said some hospitals were overwhelmed.

UK WARNING

Britain's weather forecaster issued its first red "extreme heat" warning for parts of England on Monday and Tuesday when temperatures are forecast to reach record highs.

"Exceptional, perhaps record-breaking temperatures are likely early next week," Met Office Chief Meteorologist Paul Gundersen said.

"Nights are also likely to be exceptionally warm, especially in urban areas," he said. "This is likely to lead to widespread impacts on people and infrastructure."

The highest recorded temperature in Britain was 38.7 C (101.7 F) recorded in Cambridge on July 25, 2019.

Hannah Cloke, climate expert at Britain's University of Reading, said the heatwave showed climate change is here and there is an urgent need to adapt.

"We are seeing these problems now and they are going to get worse. We need to do something now," she told Reuters.

"It's harder to cope with these types of temperatures in the UK because we're just not used to them."

In Portugal, the highest temperature on Thursday was recorded in the northern town of Pinhao at 47 C (116.6 F), just below the record.

In France's southwestern Gironde region, 11,300 people have been evacuated since the wildfires broke out around Dune du Pilat and Landiras. Some 7,350 hectares (18,000 acres) of land have been burnt, and authorities said the fires had not yet been stabilised.

In Spain, the wildfires that have been burning in parts of Extremadura, which borders Portugal, and the central Castille and Leon region forced the evacuation of four more small villages late on Thursday and on Friday.

The flames are now threatening a 16th century monastery and a national park. Several hundred people have been evacuated since the fires started and 7,500 hectares of forest have been destroyed in the two regions.

In Catalonia in the northeast, authorities suspended camping and sporting activities around 275 towns and villages to prevent fire risks and restricted farm work involving machinery.

Areas of Galicia and Extremadura remained on extreme alert for temperatures expected to touch 44 C (111 F).

(Additional reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten in Paris, Emma Pinedo and Christina Thykjaer in Madrid, William James in London and Emma Farge in Geneva; Writing by Alison Williams; Editing by Frances Kerry)
By Scott McIntosh, opinion editor

If you like this newsletter, forward to a friend or colleague, and they can sign up here.

This week, it came out that outgoing Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin nearly quadrupled the salary of her offices lone staffer, who is also a ranking state GOP officer and a former spokesperson for McGeachins unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign.

McGeachin raised Machele Hamiltons salary to $37 per hour, the equivalent of nearly $77,000 in annual pay, as first reported by the Associated Press.

She was able to do this because July 1 is the beginning of the fiscal year for the state, so its a reset on her offices annual budget, which for the 2022-23 fiscal year is about $202,000.

Its really an odd situation, because McGeachin lost her bid for governor in the May Republican primary, and her compatriot, Priscilla Giddings, lost her bid to try to replace her in the lieutenant governors office. So McGeachin has committed more than a third of the offices annual budget to one person, an administrative assistant, at an annual salary that is $23,000 more than the lieutenant governors salary.

Of course, McGeachin just blames the media and others, claiming a manufactured scandal, as shes done before for her own ridiculous missteps.

You could speculate that McGeachin made the move out of spite to hamstring likely incoming lieutenant governor Scott Bedke. Some, though, wouldnt give her enough credit to be so conniving. The other explanation would just be sheer corruption.

Either way, its not good, and Idaho will be glad to be rid of her, according to our editorial board.

Oh, Middleton

Middleton Police Chief Brian Zimmerman says his officers were good at their jobs but certainly violated policy.

The city of Middleton finds itself in yet another controversy over its police department. Its police chief and another officer have resigned after a reported investigation found policy violations and leadership failure within the police department, according to Mayor Steve Rule.

Its not the first time the Middleton Police Department has been the subject of controversy. Less than two years after Middleton broke from the Canyon County Sheriffs Office and formed its own police department in 2014, its two inaugural officers resigned when it was discovered that the officers were engaging in inappropriate behavior with a domestic violence victim. Less than a year after that, the police chief resigned over a spat with then-Mayor Darin Taylor.

Oh, Middleton. Whats in the water there?

Of course, this is the same city that keeps sending Tammy Nichols to the state Legislature, now as a senator.

The small city of about 10,000 people is no stranger to controversy and discord. A couple of years ago, you might recall, school staff members were photographed in Halloween costumes that were less than appropriate.

The Middleton school district has been through a couple of short-lived superintendents, and the firing of an assistant principal drew the angry ire of some parents.

One school board meeting got so heated, the police were called and some board members, frightened for their lives, were escorted out and received death threats.

Read my full column on what I think Middleton city officials should do next.

Jan. 6, far-right groups and Idaho

Stephen Ayres, who pleaded guilty last in June 2022 to disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building, left, and Jason Van Tatenhove, an ally of Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, right, arrive to testify as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 12, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Far-right groups who planned insurrection are commonplace in Idaho and close to power. On Tuesday, the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol held a hearing delving into the role of far-right paramilitary organizations in the attempt to stop certification of the 2020 presidential election.

This is the right place to look. Unfortunately, Idaho has too many ties to these extreme groups, right through to sitting legislators.

Read our full editorial here on how Idaho needs the same kind of work that led to the ouster of the Aryan Nations.

Tax on guns

Stopping at an Idaho Fish and Game check station is not optional for those whove been hunting.

Rep. Russ Fulcher wants you to know that hell stand up for your gun rights in Washington. He wants you to know this, whether or not hes done any actual work of that kind. Yes, the Democrats proposal to tack on a 1,000% tax on certain firearms is political theater. So, too, is Fulchers support for a bill that would get rid of a successful program that funds hunting and wildlife programs. Read our full editorial here.

Other opinions

Quality Education Act: Jerry L. Evans, former Idaho state superintendent of public instruction from 1979 until 1995, writes that he will be voting yes to raise taxes on wealthy Idahoans and corporations to increase funding for public education.

New perspective on homelessness: Development director of CATCH writes that he used to think people experiencing homelessness were lazy and just needed to get a job. Working in this field, though, has given him a new perspective on the complexities of homelessness.

Bipartisan Innovation Act: Bipartisan Innovation Act would help Idaho semiconductor manufacturers be competitive, writes Jay Larsen, the founder and CEO of the Idaho Technology Council.

Im listening

Send me your story ideas, news tips, questions, comments, or anything else on your mind. You can reach me via email at smcintosh@idahostatesman.com.

Find me on social media:

Twitter (my DMs are open)

LinkedIn

What youre saying

This week, we received letters to the editor on Boise State University, abortion, Idaho tax rebates, Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachins budget and organizing on Independence Day. You can read these and more letters by clicking here.

You can submit a letter to the editor or guest opinion by clicking here.

Like this newsletter?

If you like this newsletter, forward to a friend or colleague, and they can sign up here.
Ana de Armas, left, and Jamie Lee Curtis, seen at CinemaCon 2019 in Las Vegas, got to know each other better while filming "Knives Out." (Chris Pizzello / Invision / Associated Press)

Note to Jamie Lee Curtis: Never publicly admit something boneheaded you once thought, before you learned otherwise. Because people on social media won't hesitate to call you out.

The actor, who co-starred in "Knives Out" with "The Gray Man" star Ana de Armas, just shared with Elle that she thought De Armas was newly arrived in Hollywood when the two started working together on the hit 2019 whodunit.

I assumed  and I say this with real embarrassment  because she had come from Cuba, that she had just arrived," Curtis told the magazine. "I made an assumption that she was an inexperienced, unsophisticated young woman."

Curtis said that the first day they worked together, "I was like, Oh, what are your dreams? The 63-year-old said she asked that because she was impressed with De Armas and wanted to introduce her to Hollywood friends, including Steven Spielberg and godchildren Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal.

But the Cuban actor had already done "War Dogs," "Blade Runner 2049" and more before landing her breakout role in "Knives Out." She already knew Jake Gyllenhaal, Curtis' godson. Keanu Reeves as well, apparently. No word on whether there's a Spielberg connection. She'd been working in Spain for years after growing up in Cuba.

It wasn't until after "Knives Out" came out, however, that De Armas got involved with her "Deep Water" co-star Ben Affleck and got to experience what it feels like to be stalked by paparazzi in a city  Los Angeles  that kept her "anxious." (We would be anxious too if one day we found ourselves in Batman's trash bin.)

Going through [the paparazzi routine] confirmed my thoughts about, This is not the place for me to be, she told Elle. It became a little bit too much. Theres no escape. Theres no way out. She reportedly pulled the rip cord on that relationship early in 2021 and traded her seven years in L.A. for a new home in New York, as well as a new boyfriend.

So much for being a Hollywood neophyte.

Some people on social media jumped on Curtis' comments with reactions that were all over the map. Some cried racism while others pegged the actor as an example of Hollywood hypocrisy.

"Even if she had just come from Cuba- I assume Jamie Lee Curtis is the one without the sophistication to know how deeply rich & sophisticated Cuban culture is," Twitter user @StorytellAre said.

"Jamie Lee Curtis assumed Ana de Armas was 'unsophisticated' because shes a young latina immigrant," @alix_iconic tweeted. "Its this type of attitude/thinking that leads to Hispanic women being the most underpaid demographic in the US."

"JamieLee is not exactly the brightest bulb in the pack..never has been. Typical Hollyweird elite..looking down on others. #Hypocrite #Bigot," @PamT817716 tweeted.

"No one is calling JLC a monster," @Lucianowrites explained. "We're rightfully complaining about the racism that many of us have personally experienced, which she embodied when she assumed that Ana De Armas was an unsophisticated newcomer despite the fact that ADA is a consummate talented professional."

Meanwhile, actor and the Outlaw Nation pundit John Rocha shared his thoughts: "#JamieLeeCurtis is the sweetest, warmest person I've ever interviewed. BUT Hollywood LIBERALS, sadly, are not immune to AMERICAN beliefs that Latin immigrants are uncultured. To her credit, Jamie owns it and #AnaDeArmas handles it with class, but it's still a gut punch."

Now the two women are friends, according to Elle, and Curtis has a very different opinion of De Armas, who in addition to acting has a contract to do ads for Estee Lauder cosmetics. De Armas is "not as fancy" as the advertisements suggest, Curtis said.

[T]alking to her is kind of give-and-take," Curtis said. "Shes curious and asks a lot of questions."

De Armas can be seen now in Netflix's "The Gray Man," starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans, in which The Times' film critic Justin Chang says that she is "basically extending her 'No Time to Die' cameo."

To see De Armas in a starring role, fans will have to wait until the currently NC-17-rated "Blonde," in which she plays Norma Jean Baker/Marilyn Monroe, comes out later this year.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
CASPER, Wyo.  Few in Wyoming seem all that confident predicting what will happen in Liz Cheneys primary election, even though the general consensus is that she faces an uphill battle to retain her seat in Congress.

Only a few polls have been released, and theyve shown Cheney down by large margins. Most Wyoming political insiders say its hard to poll the state, especially when its hard to know how many voters will turn out and who they will be. But they also agree that even if the polls are off to some degree, its clear that Cheney is well behind her main opponent, Harriet Hageman, who has the backing of former President Donald Trump.

Rep. Liz Cheney at the House select committee hearing on Tuesday. (Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

But with a month to go before the Aug. 16 primary, in a House election that has major implications for the future of the national Republican Party, there is a sense among some that there are ripples of movement that are hard to detect except through private conversations.

If youd have asked me six months ago whether Cheney stood a chance, I would have said, 'Not in the world.' But now I think that shes developing support, Tom Lubnau, a Republican former state House speaker, told Yahoo News. Shes way far behind. I dont know if theres enough time or momentum to beat Hageman.

The Jan. 6 committee hearings in Washington, Lubnau said, are starting to peel back the layers of how the assault on the Capitol was also an attack on democracy.

Lubnau, who now practices law and has endorsed lesser-known GOP primary candidate Denton Knapp, a retired Army colonel who is his childhood friend, said there are a few different types of voters in Wyoming.

Some of these voters respect Cheney for standing up to Trump and have no problem saying so. Others, who support Hageman, feel Cheney betrayed them by confronting Trump over his attempt to overthrow the 2020 election, or cant separate being mad over Jan. 6 with an entire endorsement of the Democratic agenda.

And then there is another group that is keeping their mouth shut and dont want to get in an argument but are going to vote for Cheney, Lubnau said. That last group is growing, but I dont know if its growing large enough to overcome the hole that Rep. Cheney dug for herself.

Republican congressional candidate Harriet Hageman. (Natalie Behring/Getty Images)

Im not sure of the exact statistics, but about 60% of us make our decisions based solely upon emotions, and Rep. Cheney is one of those rational decision makers who makes her decisions based upon the facts. And so I dont know if she can develop enough emotion to sway the emotional voters, Lubnau said.

Other Cheney supporters are less sanguine and express concern about her chances of winning.

Im cautious and concerned ... Im not optimistic, but Im hanging in there, said Joanne Tweedy, a Cheney backer from Gillette. I call people every day. Anybody I can talk to and change their mind, I do.

Tweedy told Yahoo News that she does not even have a Cheney sign up in her yard. I have neighbors that may or may not be happy if I put one up, so I just dont want the hateful thoughts and comments.

I know a lot of quiet people who say, We're going to vote for Liz, we just don't want our name on those surveys, Tweedy said. I just don't know how many that is.

Numerous Cheney supporters expressed hope that the congresswomans political career will merely enter another chapter if she loses to Hageman, managing their expectations for the near term while also predicting that she will run for president in 2024 no matter what.

Dont worry about her. Dont get concerned about her. Whatever she is doing, she knows exactly what shes doing, and if it doesnt work, therell be something else shell be doing, former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson, a Cheney supporter, told Yahoo News.

Former Sen. Alan Simpson at his home in Cody, Wyo. (Bill O'Leary/Washington Post via Getty Images)

Simpson also said that the Jan. 6 committee, which Cheney helps lead, is gradually giving her a boost. Every day that goes by, they strip some of the sheen off of Donald J. Trump. When this primary comes up, Aug. 16th, they will have stripped the emperor's clothes, he said.

Simpson added that the simplicity of Cheneys recent challenge to Hageman  daring her to acknowledge that the 2020 election was legitimate and not stolen  is sapping Hagemans momentum.

In the July 1 debate between Cheney, Hageman and three other candidates for Wyomings lone seat in the House of Representatives, Cheney laid down a gauntlet.

I'd be interested to know whether or not my opponent Ms. Hageman is willing to say here tonight that the election was not stolen. She knows it wasn't stolen, Cheney said.

I think that she cant say that it wasnt stolen because shes completely beholden to Donald Trump. And if she says it wasnt stolen, he will not support her. So weve got to be honest.

Cheney also pointed out that Bill Stepien, who is now advising Hageman, was Trumps campaign manager in 2020 and was one of many close Trump advisers who testified under oath before the Jan. 6 committee that the election wasnt stolen and that Trump knew this as early as election night.

Cheney also turned the word betrayed against Hageman, who has repeatedly accused her of betraying Wyoming by standing up to Trump.

Campaign manager Bill Stepien with President Donald Trump aboard Air Force One in August 2020. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

I think that there's a real tragedy that's occurring, and the tragedy is that there are politicians in this country, beginning with Donald Trump, who have lied to the American people, and people have been betrayed, Cheney said.

He consistently has said that the election was stolen when it wasnt, when its absolutely clear, the courts decided, the courts determined the outcome.

Hageman, in response, said the Jan. 6 committees process has been totally unfair. Voters, she said, are terribly concerned about the lack of due process and that there's no ability to confront or cross-examine witnesses.

You might have 15 hours of videotaped depositions, and the committee shows 13 seconds of something, or two and a half minutes of something, Hageman said.

Hageman also tried to duck Cheneys question, instead saying there are serious questions about the 2020 election.

Her basis for this assertion was $500 million that was donated by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, to help election administration around the country in 2020, after Congress failed to allocate enough funding to conduct an election during a pandemic.

(Yahoo News did a detailed examination last December of the criticisms lodged against Zuckerbergs donations, and found there was little evidence that the money helped Joe Biden or other Democrats in a meaningful way.)

Yet the belief that the 2020 election was rigged for Biden continues to trump facts among some Republican voters in Wyoming. The insurrection was before Jan. 6, said Bob Ide, a state Senate candidate who was part of the crowd outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as it was being stormed by Trump supporters trying to stop certification of the results. Ide called the Jan. 6 hearings a show trial.

Images of Capitol Police Officer Aquilino Gonell are shown on a screen during a hearing of the House select committee on Tuesday. (Doug Mills/Pool/Getty Images)

Hageman supporter Marti Halverson, an active member of the Wyoming Republican Party in the western part of the state, backed Cheney in 2020 and hosted the congresswoman at her home that year. But she stopped supporting Cheney once she voted to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6 insurrection, Halverson told Yahoo News.

She said Cheneys most recent offense was to vote for legislation last month intended to reduce gun violence. Cheney was one of 14 House Republicans to support the measure, which passed the Senate with 15 Republican votes and became law.

Halverson, much like Hageman, called the Jan. 6 hearings so one-sided as to be laughable but also said she is not glued to them.

I have better things to do, Halverson said.

Even some of Cheneys supporters expressed discontent with the Jan. 6 committee to Yahoo News.

I thought the committee was supposed to be finding out if there was any un-American activities going on with the event that day, but I think its gotten clear off from that. I think its taken after Trump completely, and maybe its a little misguided now, said state Sen. James Anderson, who has endorsed Cheney and is encouraging Wyomingites to vote for her.

Another prominent Cheney supporter, state Rep. Landon Brown, said Cheneys candidacy is about more than just who represents Wyoming in Congress.

Liz Cheney political director Amy Womack talks up her candidate to a voter in Casper, Wyo. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

It is a test, he said, of whether the national Republican Party can stand for a set of principles and for the Constitution, or whether it will walk further down the path of obedience and submission to Trump, who has already shown no regard for the rule of law or the will of the people.

We have to think about what the outcome of this election ultimately means to our country, because this is not just Wyoming, Brown told Yahoo News. This is the outcome of our entire country that we're looking at now.

Simpson, the former senator, put it this way: For me its really simple. Liz has attacked the root cause of a man who is so filled with himself and full of himself that he would actually get on the phone and tell somebody to change 11,000 votes in Georgia, or call somebody to say, Why dont you organize something in Michigan and send us a fake bunch of electors?

Now, for me, who is a poor old soul who practiced law and served in Congress  that, to me, is the baldest, boldest, the most egregious rape of the Constitution and all that America stands for, Simpson said.
FILE PHOTO: Tesla CEO Elon Musk leaves Manhattan federal court after a hearing on his fraud settlement with the SEC in New York

By Tom Hals and Hyunjoo Jin

(Reuters) - The judge overseeing Twitter Inc's $44 billion lawsuit against Elon Musk has a no-nonsense reputation as well as the distinction of being one of the few jurists who has ever ordered a reluctant buyer to close a U.S. corporate merger.

Kathaleen McCormick took over the role of chancellor or chief judge of the Court of Chancery last year, the first woman in that role. On Wednesday, she was assigned the Twitter lawsuit which seeks to force Musk to complete his deal for the social media platform, which promises to be one of the biggest legal showdowns in years.

"She already has a track record of not putting up with some of the worst behavior that we see in these areas when people want to get out of deals," said Adam Badawi, a law professor who specializes in corporate governance at the University of California Berkeley. "She is a serious, no-nonsense judge."

In contrast to Musk's brash and volatile behavior, she is known as soft-spoken, approachable and amiable  but a person who also stands her ground. She advocates respect among litigants and integrity at legal conferences.

"We've always had each other's backs, we've always gone out for drinks after arguments and maintained this level civility," she told a gathering at the University of Delaware this year.

After weeks of confrontational tweets suggesting Twitter was hiding the true number of fake accounts, Musk said on Friday he was terminating the $54.20-per-Twitter share acquisition, worth $44 billion. On Tuesday, the social media platform sued.

Judges have ordered reluctant buyers to close corporate acquisitions only a handful of times, according to legal experts and court records. One of those was McCormick.

Last year, McCormick got the attention of Wall Street dealmakers by ordering an affiliate of private equity firm Kohlberg & Co LLC to close its $550 million purchase of DecoPac Holding Inc, which makes cake decorating products.

She described her ruling as "chalking up a victory for deal certainty" and rejected Kohlberg's arguments that it could walk away because of a lack of financing.

The case has many parallels to the Twitter deal. Like Musk, Kohlberg said it was walking away because DecoPac violated the merger agreement. Like Musk, Kohlberg argued in part that DecoPac failed to maintain ordinary operations.

There are also differences. Musk's deal is magnitudes bigger, involves a publicly traded target company in Twitter and might have implications for Tesla Inc, the electric vehicle maker that is the source of much of Musk's fortune.

In other cases, she has come down on the side of shareholders when they clashed with management.

Last year, she prevented energy company The Williams Cos Inc from adopting a so-called poison pill anti-takeover measure, saying it breached their fiduciary duty to shareholders.

Last month, she said shareholders of Carvana Co could sue the board for a direct offering of stock to select investors when the share price was depressed during the early pandemic.

A graduate of Notre Dame Law School, McCormick started her career with the Delaware branch of the Legal Aid Society, which helps low-income people navigate the court system.

She went into private practice "mainly for financial reasons," she told the Delaware Senate during her confirmation hearing, joining Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, one of the state's main firms for business litigation.

She joined the Court of Chancery in 2018 as a vice chancellor and became the first woman to lead the Court of Chancery last year.

Despite her mild manner, Eric Talley, who specializes in corporate law at Columbia Law School, said he doubts McCormick would be cowed by Musk.

"I would not be placing my bets on Chancellor McCormick suddenly becoming weak-kneed," he said.

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware and Hyun Joo Jin in San Francisco; editing by Noeleen Walder and Jonathan Oatis)
Policing pregnancy

In the 1970s, after abortion became legal, friends of mine who were pregnant but not married, warily checked to see if I would try to push them into having an abortion. I told them I supported whatever choice they made. I told women who chose abortion the same thing.

I knew I could not control my friends lives. However, we have legislators in Idaho and other states who seem to feel they should make this choice for women and men. These legislators are also threatening doctors with fines and prison. We once trusted a doctors opinion when s/he stated that fetus was not viable or the pregnancy threatened a womans life. Decisions about a pregnancy are no longer private ones between a person and her doctor or support system. Our legislators intend to legislate the fate of unintended or problematic pregnancies. This is not to be an individual decision or one made by a couple or family. Involving a doctor endangers the doctor. If this becomes part of the state legal code, there will be police involvement.

Do private citizens want legal involvement in pregnancies? Do readers want police involvement? Consider the blowback in criminalizing abortion decisions.

Janelle Wintersteen, Boise

Gun debate

When will the debate about AR-15s, bump stocks, extended magazine clips that hold 100 rounds, semi-automatic handguns with clips that hold 30 plus rounds, and paper mache background checks, end? Answer: never. Which brings us to the debate on weapons of mass destruction. A weapon of mass destruction is designed to kill the maximum number of people in the shortest amount of time with the least expenditure of energy. AR-15s and high-caliber semi-automatic handguns more than fit the bill. Thats why they are the weapons of choice for mass murderers. They are military and police-grade weapons, not civilian playthings. Mass murderers are domestic terrorists, they should be handed over to the military, given a speedy trial and publicly hanged. In their hometown.

But enough of wishful thinking. The situation will continue as is as long as the wildly liberal second amendment exists as-is and is defended by the pro-gun advocates using the equally liberal first amendment, both of which are embedded in the most liberal constitution in the world.

Tom Yount, Boise

Fetus rights

There is much ado about womens rights of choice, but what about a fetus right to life?

When a woman decides to have sex she has the right to use contraceptives and the obligation to use them if she doesnt want a pregnancy. Using abortion as birth control is irresponsible when there is such an easy alternative.

Contraception equals no conception, and no conception equals no abortion.

That should make both the Pro-choice and the Pro-life people happy.

Thomas B. Norris, Meridian

American decline

Republicans have succeeded in taking power in the US because they are both ruthless and effective. Their foundation is based on four pillars. Power, propaganda, exploitation, and control. Power is the basis for all decisions; what will benefit me? Propaganda; The end justifies the means. Republicans use the Nazi mantra; The bigger the lie the better. If you repeat the lie enough, the masses will believe it. They are the masters of misinformation and lies. Exploitation; Republicans use the media, courts, local, state, and national leaders to exploit propaganda. Control; Republicans will control the federal and state governments through control of the elections. They will control women and all types of minorities. Democrats are weak, indecisive, and feckless. They need to be more ruthless than Republicans but many of them are ethical and care about people. Our divided nation will join a Mafia-like world of dictatorships laced with the corrupt elite. Europe may hold on to democracy for another decade but the die is cast for the end of democracy, liberty, privacy, justice, and equality on earth. The Pursuit of Happiness has become the pursuit of survival. Babylon the great is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils.

Kurt Smith, Boise
Motions have been filed from the defense attorneys of Lori Vallow Daybell to seek clarification in the language in the grand jury indictment against her and her husband, Chad Daybell.

Lori Daybells defense team argues that two of the counts listed in the indictment are too complicated because they each include two separate allegations.

Counts one and three in the official indictment, which was filed on May 25, 2021, are both labeled, Conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and grand theft by deception.

Count one against the Daybells indicts them for alleged conspiracy to commit the first-degree murder of 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and grand theft by deception, for wrongfully continuing to collect five monthly Social Security Survivor benefits on behalf of Tylee.

Count three indicts the couple for alleged conspiracy to commit the first-degree murder of 7-year-old Joshua JJ Vallow and grand theft by deception, for wrongfully continuing to collect four monthly Social Security benefit checks on behalf of JJ, and four monthly Social Security child-in-care payments.

According to Idaho Code, an indictment must be direct and certain. The defense argues that because there are two separate crimes, a jury could be confused on how to rule for two crimes when both of them are included in one count. The defense asks that the grand jury re-deliberate and amend the indictment so that both alleged crimes are their own count.

According to the motions filed, the crimes as currently stated do not meet the elements of a single crime, but in fact, lumps two crimes into one allegation making it a general felony for possible punishment purposes at sentencing.

The defense also argues that although there is a punishment for each of the charges on their own, there is no single punishment for the two charges lumped together.

Lori and Chad Daybell are charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the deaths of JJ and Tylee  two of Loris children  and Chads first wife, Tammy Daybell. They have pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors are pursuing the death penalty against both.

The Daybells are scheduled to stand trial together on Jan. 9, 2023, in Boise.
Ron DeSantis insists hes focused only on trying to win his reelection race for governor this year.

The rest of the country seems ready to speculate about his political future anyway.

National interest in a hypothetical DeSantis presidential candidacy has mushroomed in recent months, drawing attention from pundits, famous industrialists, and even a certain former Republican president  all debating if the Florida Republican will launch a bid for the White House as soon as next year.

Its a boomlet, leading Republicans say, that has helped generate more interest from rank-and-file Republicans in DeSantis than all potential 2024 candidates except for former President Donald Trump. And its made many of them sit up and take notice, even as he campaigns to win a second term as governor.

The name I hear most frequently talking to people is Ron DeSantis, said Scott Walker, the former Wisconsin governor who said the former congressman was a constant subject of conversation during a recent cruise he took with a large group of fellow conservatives.

What they said to me all the time is, they feel like DeSantis has the kind of guts, the same kind of backbone as Trump, but is the newer, younger, fresher version, Walker added. Thats what I hear repeatedly.

Republicans emphasize that the interest in DeSantis isnt confined to the upper echelons of their party either, percolating as much among the rank-and-file voters and leading pundits. That appears to be born out in polls of GOP voters about a hypothetical 2024 primary, where the governor has emerged as a clear second choice behind Trump.

One survey released this week, from the New York Times/Siena College, found 49% of people who planned to vote in the 2024 GOP presidential primary said they backed Trump. The potential candidate with the second highest share of the vote, however, was DeSantis, with 25% support.

The governors next closest competitor, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, registered just 7% support in the survey, despite running once before in a GOP presidential primary in 2016.

DeSantis has also commanded an unusual amount of support from deep-pocketed and small-dollar donors from beyond Florida. Since he was elected governor in November 2018, more than 90,000 donations from donors with out-of-state addresses have poured into his Friends of Ron DeSantis political committee and his reelection campaign account, adding up to more than $50 million  more than one-third of the roughly $140 million he has raised in that period.

The conversations that you have with Republicans in Florida, the conversations that I have with political folks out of Florida, there is a real desire to see what the governor is going to do, said Todd Reid, a Florida-based Republican strategist and former longtime aide to Sen. Marco Rubio.

Surges of interest in candidates, no matter how intense, can be short-lived, and political veterans caution that theres no guarantee the early signs of support for DeSantis would last by the time the primary begins.

And any potential bid for the presidency would likely put him up against Trump, the man whose endorsement helped him originally win the governorship in 2018. Despite losing the 2020 presidential election, Trump retains a dedicated fan base within the GOP, and is already publicly musing about whether he should announce a new campaign later this year.

The 2024 Republican primary could also feature a field filled with longtime Republican stalwarts: In addition to former President Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and Sen. Rick Scott of Florida are widely seen as considering bids for the GOP presidential nomination.

Any DeSantis bid would also almost certainly depend on him winning reelection this year. Democrats, in fact, have begun to use the perception of DeSantis White House ambition against him in their race.

He cares more about running for the White House than your house, said Charlie Crist, a Democratic gubernatorial nominee, in an ad released Thursday.

Crist is seeking the Democratic nomination along with Nikki Fried, the states commissioner of agriculture.

But even if no one can predict the future, Republicans say DeSantis popularity with conservatives is real, at least for now.

Peter Feaman, a member of the Republican National Committee from Florida, said DeSantis has more appeal with the GOP base than any Republican politician hes ever seen, including former Govs. Jeb Bush, Charlie Crist and Rick Scott.

Ive been there with Bush, Crist, Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis, Feaman said. Ive never seen someone more popular with Republicans. Its amazing.

Some Republicans are taking the unusual step now to encourage DeSantis to get into the presidential race. Ready for Ron, a political action committee, formed in May to collect signatures of potential DeSantis supporters that, pending a decision from the Federal Election Commission, it hopes to give the governor if he declares as a candidate. Its similar to an effort launched before Hillary Clinton announced her own presidential campaign in 2016, known as Ready for Hillary.

A lot of different factors contribute to his popularity, and its just continued to build, said Lilian Rodriguez-Baz, legal counsel for Ready for Ron. It didnt happen overnight.

Republicans and conservatives, however, arent the only ones who have taken notice of DeSantis.

The governor has been the subject of a profile in the New Yorker magazine published in June, a conditionally supportive tweet from billionaire industrialist Elon Musk, and an attack ad from, of all people, California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The cross-country Democratic rival aired an ad criticizing DeSantis over the Fourth of July weekend.

He was also criticized by Vice President Kamala Harris, who in Orlando on Thursday took issue with the governors support for restricting abortion rights.

DeSantis has brushed off the criticism.

Everybody wants to talk about me and Florida, he said last week. Im just sitting here, little old me doing my job.

Walker, the former Wisconsin governor, said he would encourage DeSantis and others to get into a presidential primary, even running against Trump.

Itll be good to have a debate about the future of the party and the future of the country, he said.
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters.

A fight between the U.S. Department of Justice and leaders of Pennsylvanias court system is playing out in federal court  and the outcome could have major implications for people who experience opioid addiction and face criminal charges.

The federal agency sued the Pennsylvania court system in February, alleging that it discriminated against people with opioid use disorder. The Justice Department found that several county courts in the state system banned or limited the use of medication prescribed to treat addiction.

Its now arguing that the entire court system is responsible, as Pennsylvanias constitution gives the state Supreme Court general supervisory and administrative authority over all the courts and justices of the peace.

Attorneys for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and its administrative arm are trying to convince a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit. They argue that the court system does not have a top-down leadership structure like a corporation, but is instead made up of many parts each with their own responsibilities.

Heres what you need to know about the case.

What are medications for opioid use disorder?

Three drugs  methadone, buprenorphine and extended-release naltrexone  are approved by the federal government to treat opioid use disorder. All three are effective and save lives, according to a 2019 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

For people with opioid use disorder, buprenorphine and methadone can reduce withdrawal symptoms and cravings without causing a euphoric high, according to a report from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a federal agency. The medications allow patients to function normally, attend school or work, and participate in other forms of treatment, the report says.

The third drug, naltrexone, works to block the euphoric effects of opioid drugs, and the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has found there is no abuse and diversion potential with naltrexone.

What does the Department of Justice allege?

The lawsuit focuses on people who are under a judges supervision.

The Department of Justices core argument is that people with opioid use disorder should have an equal opportunity to benefit from programs that serve as an alternative to incarceration  and creating unnecessary barriers to those programs is a violation of their rights under federal law.

The Justice Department began investigating Pennsylvanias court system after receiving complaints about an opioid use disorder medication ban in Jefferson County in 2018. The ban caused significant harm to at least two people, the federal agency wrote in a letter of findings, which was publicly released in February.

The same letter alleged that both Jefferson and Northumberland counties violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, and it identified six other counties it said have or had problematic policies for treatment court programs that serve as an alternative to incarceration.

In that February letter, the Department of Justice urged the statewide court system to make several changes  and it filed the federal lawsuit later that month when it wasnt satisfied with the court systems response.

Sonya Mosey, 45, worked with the Legal Action Center to file a complaint with the Department of Justice after the Jefferson County Court of Common Pleas banned any opiate based treatment medication, including those prescribed by a doctor.

Whats the harm of banning these drugs?

A Jefferson County court order that banned opiate based treatment medications in 2018 led Sonya Mosey to face a choice: Stop taking her physician-prescribed medication or have her probation revoked and go to jail.

Mosey had struggled with opioid addiction for more than a decade and weaning herself off the medication caused her to feel sick every day and fear the worst, she previously told Spotlight PA.

Honestly, I knew I was going to relapse, and I was probably going to die, Mosey said. I knew my parents were probably going to have to bury me.

After the judge lifted the ban, Mosey said she had a spark of hope.

Guidance from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration warns against arbitrary time limits for using opioid use disorder medication. The 2019 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine found people are about 50% less likely to die when treated long-term with buprenorphine or methadone.

Whats the Pennsylvania court systems argument?

There is no question that  particularly in the judicial system of a large state such as Pennsylvania  some mistakes will be made in the sixty judicial districts, attorneys for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and its administrative arm wrote in a court filing.

But they argued that the Department of Justice has failed to provide evidence of a systemic, statewide problem. Attorneys said that statewide court leaders already remind county courts that they must follow federal requirements and provide ample support to help courts satisfy their obligations. And they say the statewide system should not be held accountable for the supervision that judges provide at the local level.

Theyve raised a number of other technical arguments, as well, including whether the Justice Department has standing to sue.

Whats the Department of Justices argument?

The statewide system has the power and responsibility to ensure county courts do not adopt these types of blanket discriminatory policies, Department of Justice attorneys wrote. They argued that local courts are part of the statewide system, not separate legal entities, and that the statewide court systems disability discrimination policies are generic and insufficient.

Attorneys for the Justice Department are asking a federal judge to order Pennsylvania courts to make a number of changes. They argue that the system should adopt or revise policies to explicitly state that no court within the system can discriminate against someone because they take prescribed opioid use disorder medication.

Are there legal challenges happening in other parts of the country?

In court filings, attorneys for Pennsylvanias judicial system said the Department of Justice might be using the lawsuit to set a national example to advance policies.

Justice Department attorneys are increasingly using the Americans with Disabilities Act to try to overcome some of the rampant discrimination that people with substance use disorders face, according to a recent special report by STAT, a health-focused news organization.

In an April news release, the department pointed to the Pennsylvania lawsuit as an example of its broader response to the opioid epidemic. Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for the departments civil rights division, said the agency is committed to using federal civil rights laws to safeguard people with opioid use disorder from facing discriminatory barriers as they move forward with their lives.

What do advocates think of the case?

The court system needs to step up to the plate and make sure that these kinds of practices end immediately, Sally Friedman, senior vice president of legal advocacy for the national Legal Action Center, told Spotlight PA.

Friedmans organization represents Mosey and helped her fight the Jefferson County ban in 2018. Friedman said the state judicial system cant turn a blind eye to discrimination when many of its courts are interfering with peoples civil rights  especially when that interference puts lives in danger.

Whats next?

The federal district court judge hearing the case has yet to rule on the court systems motion to dismiss as of July 13.

WHILE YOURE HERE... If you learned something from this story, pay it forward and become a member of Spotlight PA so someone else can in the future at spotlightpa.org/donate. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results.
Republicans overtook Democrats in Kentucky voter registration for the first time in state history last month, according to the State Board of Elections.

Though not a majority, the GOP became a plurality as of June according to the voter registration figures released on Friday. Republicans now outnumber Democrats 1,612,060 to 1,609,569. Republicans do not, however hold a simple majority since almost 346,000 registered voters did not claim either major party.

A statement from the Republican Party of Kentucky noted that in 1984, when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, was first elected, Democrats had a 1.3 million to 525,000 voter registration advantage.

The shift was widely expected as the GOP had been quickly gaining ground on the once-dominant Democratic majority in registered voters for several years.

McConnell said in a statement that he never thought hed see more registered Republicans than Democrats in the once deep blue state.

Congratulations to all my fellow Republicans who have worked so hard and so long to make this historic day possible. This is great news for the Commonwealth but its just the beginning, McConnell said.

In federal offices and in the state Capitol, Republicans have already been gaining significant ground. The GOP holds more than three-quarters majorities in both the State House and Senate; five of Kentuckys six U.S. Representatives are Republicans and both Senators are members of the GOP.

The Kentucky House of Representatives flipped red in 2016, while the Kentucky Senate has been under Republican control since 2000, despite registered Democrats outnumbering Republicans by nearly 693,000 voters at that time.

Though touted as big news by state Republicans, Kentucky political observers have expected the shift for some time given that trends in statewide voting  with the notable and recent exception of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshears victory  have swung conservative.

University of Louisville political science professor Adam Enders said that a sense of heritage had inspired voters to stubbornly keep their traditional party registration even though they no longer vote for its candidates

There were some stronger labor traditions in parts of Kentucky that might have kept people registered as a Democrat, Enders said. ... But the extent to which ideology and party registration were matching up in Kentucky was just a little bit askew, and its been correcting.

Beshear emphasized on Friday that registered Democrats were still roughly equal in number to Republicans and that hes tried to be a good governor for everybody.

We ought to stop trying to fight to move the state right or left, but to just move it forward and focus on things that truly impact peoples lives like good jobs, a great public education and access to health care, Beshear said. The people out there just want results and thats what were trying to give them.

One material effect of the change in registration plurality, noted by former state GOP spokesman Tres Watson, is that several boards and commissions would eventually have to become majority-Republican.

That is the one main difference between yesterday and today, Watson said.

At least 24 boards and commissions, a majority of them involving postsecondary education, currently require a governors appointments to reflect the proportional representation of the 2 leading political parties in the state. The University of Kentuckys Board of Trustees requires the boards political makeup to reflect the states voter registration as of Dec. 31 the year prior.

As a tactical matter politically, thats one less patronage slot on all the boards and commissions with that requirement, Watson said.

Last days of the mountain Democrats? Red wave in Eastern Ky. becomes increasingly local.
SUVA, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Fijians have been urged on Friday to get vaccinated and receive their booster shots as the island nation continues to report more COVID-19 cases recently.

Fiji's Health Minister Ifereimi Waqainabete said on Friday that Fiji continues to record increasing COVID-19 cases and it is imperative for people in the country to get vaccinated and also receive their booster shots, according to the Fijivillage news website.

The Health Ministry confirmed that Fiji has reported 326 new COVID-19 cases over the past three days. Of the 326 new cases, 149 cases were reported in the central part of the country.

Currently, 95 percent of Fijians aged 18 and above have received their second dose, he said, adding that 38,755 children aged 15-17 years have received their first dose and 32,093 have received their second dose of the Moderna vaccine.

In addition, 25,782 of children aged 12-14 years in Fiji have received their first dose and 15,743 have received their second dose of the Moderna vaccine.

Meanwhile, schools around Fiji have been asked to reinforce COVID-19 safety measures as students will return to school for another term.

Fiji's Education Minister Premila Kumar said that teachers, heads of schools and students are strongly recommended to wear masks amid rising cases.

So far, Fiji has brought back many COVID-19 safety measures in hospitals, health centers and other workplaces due to rising COVID-19 cases.

Fiji, a South Pacific island nation with a population of around 900,000, has reported a total of more than 66,000 COVID-19 cases with 869 deaths since March 2020 when it recorded its first confirmed case.

In addition, 912 COVID-19 patients have died from serious medical conditions unrelated to the virus. 
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, right, greets Sri Lanka's chief justice during Wickremesinghe's swearing-in as president in Colombo on Friday. (Sri Lankan President's Office)

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as Sri Lankas interim president Friday and will serve until Parliament elects a successor to Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who resigned after mass protests over the countrys economic collapse forced him from office.

The speaker of Sri Lankas Parliament said that Rajapaksa resigned as president effective Thursday and that lawmakers would convene Saturday to choose a new leader. Their choice would serve out the remainder of Rajapaksa's term ending in 2024, said Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana. He promised a swift and transparent process that should be done within a week.

The new president could appoint a new prime minister, who would then have to be approved by Parliament. With Rajapaksa out, pressure on Wickremesinghe was rising.

Wickremesinghe said in a televised statement said that in his short term as acting president, he would initiate steps to change the constitution to clip presidential powers and strengthen Parliament. He also said he would restore law and order and take legal action against insurgents.

Referring to clashes near Parliament on Wednesday night, during which many soldiers were reportedly injured, Wickremesinghe said true protesters would not get involved in such actions.

"There is a big difference between protesters and insurgents. We will take legal action against insurgents, he said.

Opponents had viewed Wickremesinghe's appointment as prime minister in May as alleviating pressure on Rajapaksa to resign. He became acting president when Rajapaksa fled Sri Lanka on Wednesday.

Rajapaksa arrived in Singapore on Thursday, and his resignation became official on that date. The prime minister's office said Wickremesinghe was sworn in Friday as interim president before Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya.

Sri Lanka has run short of money to pay for imports of basic necessities such as food, fertilizer, medicine and fuel, to the despair of its 22 million people. Its rapid economic decline has been all the more shocking because, before this crisis, the economy had been expanding, with a growing, comfortable middle class.

Protest leader Jeewantha Peiris, a Roman Catholic priest, said demonstrators were happy because we have come through a hard journey.

Protesters cooked and distributed milk rice  a food Sri Lankans enjoy to celebrate victories  after Rajapaksas resignation. At the main protest site in front of the presidents office in Colombo, people welcomed his resignation but insisted that Wickremesinghe also should step aside.

I am happy that Gotabaya has finally left. He should have resigned earlier, without causing much problems, Velayuthan Pillai, 73, a retired bank employee, said as patriotic songs were blaring from loudspeakers.

But he added that Ranil is a supporter of Gotabaya and other Rajapaksas. He was helping them. He also must go.

The capital regained a tenuous calm after protesters who had occupied government buildings retreated Thursday. But with the political opposition in Parliament fractured, a solution to Sri Lankas many woes seemed no closer.

The country remains a powder keg, and the military warned Thursday that it had powers to respond in case of chaos  a message some found concerning.

Sri Lanka is seeking help from the International Monetary Fund and other creditors, but its finances are so poor that obtaining a bailout has proved difficult, Wickremesinghe recently said.

The protesters accuse Rajapaksa and his powerful political family of siphoning money from government coffers for years and of hastening the countrys collapse by mismanaging the economy. The family has denied the corruption allegations, but Rajapaksa acknowledged that some of his policies contributed to Sri Lanka's meltdown.

Maduka Iroshan, 26, a university student and protester, said he was thrilled" that Rajapaksa had quit, because he ruined the dreams of the young generation.

Months of protests reached a frenzied peak over the weekend when demonstrators stormed the presidents home and office and the official residence of Wickremesinghe, the prime minister. On Wednesday, they seized Wickremesinghes office.

Images of protesters inside the buildings  lounging on elegant sofas and beds, posing at officials desks and touring the opulent settings  captured the worlds attention.

The demonstrators initially vowed to stay until a new government was in place, but they shifted tactics Thursday, apparently concerned that an escalation in violence could undermine their message following clashes outside the Parliament that left dozens injured.

Protester Mirak Raheem noted that the lack of violence was important, though their work was far from over.

This is really something amazing, the fact that it happened on the back of largely peaceful protest," Raheem said. "But obviously, this is just a beginning, that there is a longer journey in terms of the kind of work that has to be done, not just to rebuild the economy but to create public confidence in this political system.

The protests underscored the dramatic fall of the Rajapaksa political clan that has ruled Sri Lanka for most of the last two decades.

Rajapaksa and his wife slipped away in the night aboard a military plane early Wednesday. On Thursday, he went to Singapore, according to the city-states Foreign Ministry. It said he had not requested asylum.

Since Sri Lankan presidents are protected from arrest while in power, Rajapaksa probably wanted to leave while he still had constitutional immunity and access to the plane.

A military strategist whose brutal campaign helped end the countrys 26-year civil war, Rajapaksa and his brother, who was president at the time, were hailed by the islands Buddhist Sinhalese majority. Despite accusations of wartime atrocities, including ordering military attacks on ethnic Tamil civilians and abducting journalists, Rajapaksa remained popular among many Sri Lankans. He has continually denied the allegations.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
BA.5, a new Omicron subvariant of the coronavirus, has become dominant in the U.S., accounting for 65% of infections nationwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some experts have called it the worst variant we have seen so far, due to its high transmissibility and its ability to evade immunity conferred by vaccination or prior infection.

People with prior infection, even with BA.1 or BA.2, are likely still at risk for BA.4 and BA.5, Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said on Tuesday at a virtual press briefing by the White House COVID-19 response team.

Walensky and other top U.S. health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned that a new surge driven by the Omicron subvariant is here. However, they said that so far, BA.5 has not shown signs of causing more severe disease.

We know now, from experience that weve had over the last couple of months and others in other countries, that it doesnt appear to be associated with greater disease severity or hospitalizations compared to the most recent subvariants, Fauci said.

The White House COVID-19 response team also emphasized that the current vaccines are still highly protective against severe disease and death. In addition, they said that the country has the tools, such as high-quality masks and antiviral treatments, to protect against infections as well as serious illnesses.

To help offer more guidance on how to remain protected against BA.5, Yahoo News spoke to Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease doctor and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

Staying up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations, including boosters, is important

Vaccines remain our single most important tool to protect people against serious illness, hospitalizations and death, Ashish Jha, coordinator of the White Houses COVID-19 response said on Tuesday at the briefing. Staying up to date is essential as we see BA.5 rise across the country, he added.

Gandhi told Yahoo News that BA.5 seems to evade neutralizing antibodies conferred by the vaccines or even prior infection from other Omicron subvariants such as BA.1, and that this is probably why we are seeing more reinfections. However, she said, our T-cells, which help us prevent severe disease, are still working.

T-cells are an important part of the immune system that help fight some viruses. While antibodies, such as those acquired from a vaccine or previous infection, attack a virus as it enters the body, T-cells act as another line of defense once the virus has made it into the body, by preventing the virus from multiplying and causing severe disease.

A woman wearing a mask at a COVID-19 walk-up testing site on June 6, 2022, in New York City. (John Smith/VIEWpress)

In a post on the medical website Medscape, Gandhi wrote that Mild upper respiratory infections will be common as BA.4/BA.5 evade our nasal antibodies. However, she told Yahoo News that our T-cells immunity from the vaccines or prior infection will continue to protect against severe outcomes.

We absolutely know that [for] severe disease, vaccines are still protecting us against that particular problem, which is the worst problem, Gandhi said.

Walensky said on Tuesday that the CDC is still collecting data on the vaccine's effectiveness against Omicron BA.5. However, Gandhi pointed to recent data on vaccine effectiveness from South Africa, which suffered a BA.5 wave earlier. According to a report from the largest health care system in that country, two doses of the Pfizer vaccine are 87% effective against hospitalization from BA.5.

Boosters are key to staying protected against BA.5

Infectious disease experts have also stressed the importance of getting boosted now if you are eligible. This is because some studies have shown that vaccine protection against infection and serious outcomes from COVID-19 wanes over time, particularly for those who are older and immunocompromised.

Those who are older, those who are immunocompromised, those who have multiple medical conditions should be very up-to-date on their boosters, because they're more at risk when there's high amounts of circulating virus for their even mild infection to get worse, Gandhi said.

Americans who are 50 years or older and those 12 and older who are moderately or severely immunocompromised are now eligible for two booster shots, meaning they can receive up to four doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

According to CDC data, the risk of dying from COVID-19 for adults aged 50 and older who have received two booster doses is only 25% of the risk for those who have received one booster dose. This data, Jha said, underscores the importance of staying up to date on your COVID-19 vaccines.

People aged 5 and above are also eligible for a first booster. The CDC recommends that those in this age group who received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine have their booster or third dose at least five months after completing their primary series.

U.S. regulators are also considering offering a second booster shot soon to people under 50 or all adults, to offer more protection to this age group and lessen the impact of the BA.5 wave.

I know that the FDA is considering this, looking at it. And I know CDC scientists are thinking about this and looking at the data as well, Jha said on Tuesday.

Should you get a booster now or wait until the fall, when an Omicron-specific vaccine is available?

One concern many Americans have, Gandhi says, is that the current COVID-19 vaccines available are designed to target the spike protein of the ancestral strain of the virus, which first circulated in 2020.

BA.5 looks very different from the ancestral strain, at least in the spike protein, Gandhi said, adding that BA.1 [an earlier Omicron subvariant] had 26 to 32 mutations along its spike protein that differed from the ancestral strain, and that BA.5 has even a few more mutations. It may be why the booster is not helping us avoid mild infections as well as we'd hoped, she added.

Pfizer and Moderna are both working on a new vaccine formulation designed to target BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants. These are expected in October, and Jha said Tuesday that the Biden administration had already placed one order with Pfizer for 105 million doses.

A vial of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)

However, Gandhi said that getting a booster now if you are eligible  and have not recently recovered from a COVID-19 infection, which she said also offers protection  is a smart choice and does not preclude you from getting another Omicron-specific booster in the fall.

There has been no evidence that getting vaccines close together is harmful, Gandhi said.

Any booster or any exposure broadens your T-cell immunity. So that's a good thing. That just means that there's no harm in it. Absolutely no harm, Gandhi said, citing a recent study supporting this recommendation.

For those who are under 50 and healthy, however, Gandhi said that waiting for the Omicron-specific vaccine in the fall is probably prudent and that in the meantime, people in this group should use all preventive measures, such as masking and testing, to avoid getting infected. Then you're going to get antibodies that are tailored towards the circulating subvariant, she said.

For high-risk people, treatments can help prevent severe outcomes

For individuals who are more likely to get very sick from COVID-19, some treatments are available that could reduce their chances of hospitalization and death. One of them is the antiviral pill Paxlovid, which has been shown to reduce the risk of hospitalizations and death by 90%.

The medication can only be prescribed by a health care provider and must be given within five days of symptom onset for it to work effectively, according to the CDC.

Health officials recommend that people talk to a health care provider immediately after testing positive for COVID-19, to see whether they are eligible for any of the treatments available, including Paxlovid.

Americans are also encouraged to visit COVID.gov to find a Test to Treat location to get tested and treated all in one place.

We have worked very hard to acquire more of these pills than any other country in the world. And weve moved quickly to make these treatments widely available at more than 41,000 locations across the country, Jha said at the Tuesday briefing.

Pfizer's Paxlovid is displayed on July 7, 2022 in Pembroke Pines, Fla. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

What can I do to prevent getting infected?

Gandhi and U.S. top health officials said that public health mitigation measures such as indoor masking, testing and improving ventilation are crucial in preventing BA.5 infections.

The CDC has developed a tool to check how much virus is circulating in each community, and to help people decide whether or not they should consider masking in indoor or public spaces.

However, some infectious disease experts have warned that the CDC Community Levels map may not offer a full picture of the number of infections and the degree of risk, since many cases are not reported as more people test at home.

Gandhi says wearing a well-fitted, high-quality mask in public places, especially while using public transportation, is a good way to avoid getting BA.5 right now.

Improving ventilation is also important

We know that improving indoor air quality by improving ventilation, putting in indoor air purifiers  they can make an enormous difference in reducing infections and spread, Jha said. If you are a business or a school or any kind of institution that brings people together indoors, please work to improve the quality of that indoor air.

Finally, testing is a key factor in stopping transmission, Gandhi said.

If you are going to be around someone vulnerable, for example, or if you've been exposed to someone [with COVID-19], get tested.

Cover thumbnail photo: CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images
On July 9, 1,500 Muslims gathered in Tacoma to celebrate Eid al-Adha, an important Islamic holiday.

What made the gathering special was where they prayed and celebrated.

The ink is barely dry on an $11 million purchase agreement for a former fitness center just off South 38th street that will become the new Islamic Center of Tacoma.

The Lord blessed us to have a whole community for us to be here so we can show and share our bread and share our love with the rest of our society, Imam Abdulhakim Mohammed, the centers executive director, said Saturday.

Imam Abdulhakim Mohammed walks over a chalk drawing that was created for a celebration of the Islamic holiday, Eid al-Adha, at what will soon be the new Islamic Center on Montana Avenue in Tacoma, on Saturday, July 9, 2022.

The week of July 11, the Fit Republic sign was still on the outside of the 69,000-square-foot building located just a few feet away from Costco Wholesales Tacoma location.

Inside, the building soon will transform into the new Islamic Center which, includes a mosque, fitness gyms, cafe and a minaret.

The move comes after the centers former mosque at 2010 Bridgeport Way West in University Place was heavily damaged by arson in October.

Prayers

On Saturday, Mohammed led the service facing rows of men and boys. Periodically, they would kneel as mandated in the Quran. They faced northeast, the most direct path from Tacoma to Mecca.

A child stands within a group of men as they pray during a prayer led by Imam Abdulhakim Mohammed for a celebration of the Islamic holiday, Eid al-Adha, at what will soon be the new Islamic Center on Montana Avenue in Tacoma, on Saturday, July 9, 2022.

Separated by an empty area, women and girls did the same in the rear of the space.

Except for the prayer rugs lined up along neatly taped lines on the floor, there was little that indicated an Islamic center was coming. A three-story-high climbing pinnacle a few feet away gave the space a decidedly recreational feel.

Starting Friday, July 15, Mohammed said, prayers will be held at the new location and every Friday thereafter. Friday is Islams holy day.

Forged by fire

After last years fire, Mohammed was forced to hold daily prayers at Tacoma Community College and Friday prayers at St. Marks Lutheran Church by The Narrows.

The traditional single (Friday) service went to three to accommodate the numbers, Mohammed said. Now, only one Friday service will need to be held in the new building.

Mohammed said the center has taken in more than $4 million in donations toward the new building. St. Marks held a fundraiser for the new center. Donations poured in from across the country, Mohammed said.

Weve had almost all houses of worship collect funds for us, he said.

Mohammed expects to have $6 million by the end of the year, covering more than half of the purchase price.

An online fundraiser to rebuild the mosque has pulled in $546,000. Once rebuilt, the center will still keep the University Place location as a mosque for daily prayers.

Melting Pot

Tacoma resident Lena Hammoud has been attending services at the University Place mosque for 25 years. On Saturday, she said her first prayers in the new spacious building at 31 Montana Ave.

This is heaven, by comparison, she said, surrounded by several other women.

A woman holds hand over her mouth as she laughs with friend before the start of a prayer led by Imam Abdulhakim Mohammed for a celebration of the Islamic holiday, Eid al-Adha, at what will soon be the new Islamic Center on Montana Avenue in Tacoma, on Saturday, July 9, 2022.

She estimates regular attendance at the old mosque went from 300 to 1,500 over 25 years, vastly outgrowing the University Place location.

If the weathers nice, we had people praying indoors and outdoors in our old mosque, Hammoud said.

While Islam connected the worshippers at Saturdays service, their roots were from across the globe.

We have (congregants) from Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Hammoud said. Sisters, help me out, she implored the women. Sudan, Syria, Iran, England, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Dubai, the women listed.

Two woman take a selfie after a prayer that was led by Imam Abdulhakim Mohammed for a celebration of the Islamic holiday, Eid al-Adha, at what will soon be the new Islamic Center on Montana Avenue in Tacoma, on Saturday, July 9, 2022.

Some congregants, like Hammouds four children, are American-born. Others are converts.

So, were really a melting pot, and of all all types of cultures, she said.

Saturdays prayers and sermon were in both English and Arabic. English is generally the uniting language at the mosque.

Future Plans

Its accurate to call the new building a mosque, Mohammed said, but it will be much more than that. Like the old center in University Place, the new building will have a food bank, Sunday school and a clinic.

But the new building, taking advantage of its former use, will have two fitness areas  one for men and one for women. The climbing pinnacle will stay.

The current weekend clinic will soon become a full time medical clinic.

In December, the center plans to begin distributing 1,500 meals a week to anyone who needs it.

Most of the people we distribute those to are non-Muslims, Mohammed said. His congregation is mostly middle class, he said.

A child sits on a prayer rug during a prayer led by Imam Abdulhakim Mohammed for a celebration of the Islamic holiday, Eid al-Adha, at what will soon be the new Islamic Center on Montana Avenue in Tacoma, on Saturday, July 9, 2022.

English classes, a day care center, bookstore, library and coffee shop are in the works.

In the long-term plans: a K-5th grade school.

The building will host weddings and funerals.

Minaret

Renderings passed out at Saturdays service show a minaret rising from the building. Mohammed hopes to have the tower built within two years.

A rendering of the new Islamic Center of Tacoma at 31 Montana Ave. shows a minaret rising next to the building. Flyers with the image were handed out before the start of Eid al-Adha services on July 6, 2022 at the new mosque.

Traditionally, a minaret is used to issue a call to prayer five times a day over a town. Minarets in Islamic regions of the world frequently sport loud speakers.

We are working with the city to have a minaret, Mohammed said. That way people will recognize its not a gym anymore. Its actually a mosque.

Mohammed couldnt yet provide a figure for the towers height. He doesnt know if it will broadcast the call to prayer.

We would love to, but I dont think that is our call right now, he said.
Ukraine and Russia: What you need to know right now Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kharkiv

(Reuters) - Western officials accused their Russian counterparts of war crimes on Friday after Russian missiles struck a Ukrainian city far behind the frontlines in an attack Kyiv officials said killed at least 23 people.

ECONOMY/DIPLOMACY

* The European Commission is set to adopt its seventh package of sanctions against Russia, which will add a ban to the import of Russian gold and tweak existing restrictive measures to avoid hampering food exports, two officials said on Friday.

* U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Friday urged Group of 20 major economies to take urgent action to address a short-term food insecurity crisis exacerbated by Russia's war in Ukraine, and avoid market-distorting export restrictions and stockpiling.

* Yellen condemned Russia's "brutal and unjust war" in Ukraine and said Russian finance officials taking part in a G20 meeting in Indonesia shared responsibility for the "horrific consequences" of the war.

* The European Union has "shot itself in the lungs" with ill-considered economic sanctions on Russia, which, unless rolled back, risk destroying the European economy, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday.

FIGHTING

* Russian forces have been slowly advancing west following shelling and probing assaults towards the town of Siversk in Ukraine's Donetsk region from Lysychansk, Britain's defence ministry said on Friday. "Bakhmut is likely to be the next objective, once Siversk is secured," the ministry tweeted in a regular bulletin.

* Ukraine is using Western-supplied long-range weapons and 155mm "smart" shells to hit Russian ammo dumps and supply lines, forcing Moscow to rethink how it supplies fuel and ammunition to the front line, a Ukrainian general said.

* Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield accounts.

(Compiled by Nick Macfie)
Rescuers work at the scene of a building that was damaged by a deadly Russian missile attack in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, Thursday, July 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

VINNYTSIA, Ukraine (AP)  Rescue teams with sniffer dogs combed through debris in a central Ukrainian city on Friday looking for people still missing after a Russian missile strike a day earlier that killed at least 23 people.

Russian forces, meanwhile, pounded other sites in a painstaking push to wrest territory from Ukraine and try to soften unbending morale of its leaders, civilians and troops as the war nears the five-month mark.

The cruise missile strikes on Vinnytsia launched by a Russian submarine on Thursday were the latest incidents to take civilian lives and fan international outrage since President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion on Feb. 24. The campaign now has been focusing on Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, but Russian forces regularly fire upon targets in many parts of the country too.

Ukraine's Interior Ministry claimed Friday that Russian forces had conducted more than 17,000 strikes on civilian targets during the war, driving millions from their homes, killing thousands of fighters and civilians and rippling through the world economy by hiking prices and crimping exports of key Ukrainian and Russian products like foodstuffs, fuel and fertilizer.

More than 73 people  including four children  remained hospitalized and 18 people were missing after Thursday's strike, said Oleksandr Kutovyi, spokesman for the emergency service in the Vinnytsia region. Search teams were poring over two sites on Friday  an office building with a medical center inside, and a concert hall near an outdoor recreation area and park, where mothers with children often stroll.

Vinnytsia Gov. Serhiy Borzov said only 10 people among the nearly two dozen killed had been identified so far.

Russia deliberately hit civilians and all those responsible for the crime must be brought to account, he said, denouncing the barbaric behavior by Russia that tramples on international humanitarian law.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a deputy head of the presidents office, said three missiles were used.

There is no answer to the question why yesterday, and why in Vinnytsia, Tymoshenko said. We expect every second and minute that this could happen in any corner of Ukraine.

After initial silence after the strikes on Vinnytsia, Russia's Defense Ministry said Friday that its forces had struck an officers club  which the concert hall was known for back in Soviet times.

Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said the Kalibr cruise missiles landed as that military facility hosted a meeting between Ukrainian air force command and representatives of foreign weapons suppliers. He said attendees of the meeting were discussing prospective supplies of warplanes and weapons as well as work to repair Ukrainian aircraft.

Participants of the meeting were eliminated in the strike, Konashenkov said.

His claim couldnt be independently verified. Ukrainian authorities insisted the site had nothing to do with the military.

Overall, Ukraines presidential office said on Friday morning that 26 civilians were killed and another 190 were wounded by Russian shelling over the past 24 hours. That included three other victims in the Donetsk region, which along with neighboring Luhansk  nearly totally controlled by Russian forces  makes up the broader Donbas region.

The situation in the Donetsk region is exacerbating every day, and civilians must leave because the Russian army is using scorched earth tactics, Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said. It appeared that the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk were next in line for Russian forces, but it wasn't at all clear how soon such a push could begin in earnest.

Elsewhere, authorities in Mykolayiv said there were at least 10 explosions in the southern city overnight, accusing Russian fire of hitting universities. Vitaliy Kim, the head of Mykolaivs military administration, posted on social media a video of smoke rising over the strikes.

Separately, the Russian news agency Tass, citing Russian-backed separatists, reported Friday that two civilians were killed and six others were injured after Ukrainian forces allegedly shelled a bus terminal in the Voroshilovsky district of the city of Donetsk a day earlier.

Also Friday, Daria Morozova, the human rights ombudsperson for the Moscow-backed separatist leadership in Donetsk, said a British mercenary died in captivity on Sunday. She said the man, whom she identified as Paul Urey, had died of chronic illnesses and stress.

From our side, he was given the necessary medical assistance despite the grave crimes he committed, she said.

___

Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has reached a settlement with journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones following the months-long battle last year over her initially not being offered tenure at the university.

UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees Chair David Boliek confirmed the settlement to The News & Observer Friday.

The settlement was for less than $75,000 and was approved by Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz, Boliek said.

Hannah-Jones is an investigative journalist for The New York Times who was hired last spring as UNCs Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media.

Any settlement reached by public universities in the state for less than $75,000 is able to be approved under the sole authority of the universitys chancellor, according to the UNC Policy Manual. No settlement requires a vote from the universitys Board of Trustees, though settlements for higher sums of money require approval from the UNC System president or the systems Board of Governors, depending on the exact amount of money involved.

Attorneys representing Hannah-Jones, including the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc., last year threatened to take legal action, including filing a federal discrimination lawsuit, against UNC-Chapel Hill and its Board of Trustees over the failure to give her tenure, The N&O previously reported.

Boliek told The N&O Friday that the settlement reached by the university was to resolve that potential legal action, and that a formal lawsuit was never filed by Hannah-Jones attorneys.

The steps taken to resolve the lingering potential legal action posed by Ms. Hannah-Jones will hopefully help to close this chapter and give the University the space to focus on moving forward, Boliek said in a statement to The News & Observer.

In a statement provided to The N&O by UNC Media Relations, UNC Associate Vice Chancellor of University Communications Beth Keith said the settlement is an important step forward as Carolina focuses on its future and continues to educate the next generation of leaders.

As a part of the agreement, the University will accelerate its investment in crucial initiatives in Carolina Next, its strategic plan, to further that ongoing work, the statement read. The university said the statement was all the information we have to share at this time and did not provide more information what what those crucial initiatives were.

Knight Chair positions have historically been tenured at the school, but when Hannah-Jones tenure candidacy was first presented to the Board of Trustees in January 2021, they never voted on it, so it was not approved. Hannah-Jones was instead offered a fixed-term contract, with the option of being reviewed for tenure within five years.

The lack of tenure initially offered to Hannah-Jones ignited a national controversy, with hundreds of scholars, journalism professionals, UNC faculty, alumni and students advocating for Hannah-Jones.

Amid the controversy, the Board of Trustees later called a vote on Hannah-Jones tenure, voting 9-4 to grant her tenure, but Hannah-Jones declined to come to UNC and instead accepted a position to be an inaugural Knight Chair at Howard University.
For the first time since 2019, hundreds of local and national artists returned to Happy Valley this week for this years Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts. The in-person event took two years off due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Throughout downtown State College, creators set up shop to sell original works and share their love of all things art with visitors passing by. Although each artist brings something new to the table, sidewalk sale exhibitors can all agree on one thing: Its great to be back.

Im so happy to be able to talk with people and show off all my art thats been secluded in my house for the past few years, said Alexander Ramos. This is my first time out to a big event again. I was disappointed that the festival fell through the last two years.

Ramos booth on Allen Street at this weeks festival focuses on still life paintings  works of art that look realistic enough to warrant signs noting that theyre not photography. A painter outside of his work at Penn State, Ramos first came to Arts Fest in 2019 and was immediately hooked.

Alexander Ramos laughs with customers as they talk about his paintings at the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts on Thursday, July 14, 2022.

Ramos says greeting festivalgoers and introducing them to his art is a priceless component of each Arts Fest trip.

This is a great place to get out there and get seen, he said. Interacting with the people who come by is an added bonus.

Ramos is far from the first Arts Fest vendor to get his feet wet in 2019, only to miss out on the next few due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Over on Fairmount Avenue, designer Carson Cashman has set up shop to literally drum up business for his booth selling custom percussion instruments.

We had a really great time in 2019, said Cashman, a Pittsburgh native. The crowds are just nonstop and full of lively, interested people. Ive never felt like there arent people at my booth or nearby looking at my stuff. Its a great atmosphere for vendors.

Cashmans booth represents his business, Louson Drums. Alongside his woodworker father, Cashman makes and sells specialized cajon drums that are more portable and versatile than traditional instruments. Thanks to a few patents, including an external snare, Cashman says his products are unique within the percussion community.

Carson Cashman plays one of the CajonTab drums made by he and his father in their booth Louson drums at the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts on Thursday, July 14, 2022.

At his booth on Thursday, Cashman said business picked up on just the festivals first day. He says he anticipated returning to State College ever since his first Arts Fest in 2019.

(Business) was huge the first time. We had a really, really big festival, he said. We probably sold more than 80 drums over the first few days. Business has already been great this time, and were happy to be back. People are looking for something new, and weve got it.

Not all artists in Happy Valley this weekend are hoping to cash in on their work. Some, including street painter Abby Cramer, prefer to create works that all can enjoy while they walk past. On East Nittany Avenue on Thursday, she began working on a re-creation of Vladimir Kushs Departure of the Winged Ship.

Cramer, now an art teacher in Bucks County, attended State College Area High School and studied at Penn State. She said she was happy to make the trip across the state to create alongside her peers.

Its really nice to be back in a festival atmosphere after the last two years, said Cramer, who has attended nearly ever Arts Fest since 1999. We did a virtual one in 2020, and in 2021, a few artists collaborated, but nothing on a large scale like this. It all wasnt quite the same.

Cramer was far from the only Arts Fest veteran lining the boroughs streets on Thursday. In fact, one local photographer can proudly say hes attended every festival since the annual event began in 1967.

Once again set up in a booth on Allen Street, Bellefonte-based photographer Dick Brown chatted with countless passersby as longtime friends and new customers browsed his collection. Brown, 86, says Arts Fest presents an annual opportunity to connect with the community.

Its fun when people remember me and come back, he said. The people really make this place special, and festivals let me see them each year.

Dick Brown talks with a customer about a series of photographs at his booth during the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts on Thursday, July 14, 2022.

After retiring from a decades-long career with the Centre Daily Times, Brown began traveling to art exhibitions and festivals all across the country, eventually slowing down in recent years. He makes a point of returning to Arts Fest each year to continue supporting an event that helped him succeed many years before.

If I ever had to lay out a plan for my life, I knew I wanted to fly and be a photographer. Ive gotten to do both, Brown said. At 86, I can say Ive had the best life anybody could ever want, and these festivals were a part of it.

If Thursday afternoons crowds were any indication, the draw for Arts Fest is strong  especially after a two-year hiatus. Pen and ink artist Douglas Fulks traveled more than 1,000 miles from his Kansas City, Missouri, home to capitalize on the events anticipation. His booth features hand-drawn prints of more than 100 stadiums hes visited across the country, including Penn States own Beaver Stadium.

Fulks says a long absence made this years Arts Fest all the more important.

(Arts Fest) means everything to everybody. This is like breathing for people, said Fulks, whos now attended nearly a dozen Arts Fests. A celebration of art is an enhancement of life, and weve missed it. Every show that Ive been able to pick up after the pandemic has been greeted with more enthusiasm than normal.
Chinese President Xi Jinping visits the community of Guyuanxiang in the Tianshan district of Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province. (Li Xueren / Xinhua News Agency)

Chinese leader Xi Jinping visited Xinjiang in the country's northwest this week amid concerns over Chinas detention of a million or more members of primarily Muslim ethnic minorities in the remote border region.

Xi stressed the full and faithful implementation of his ruling Communist Party's policies in the region and highlighted social stability and lasting security as the overarching goals, the official Xinhua News Agency said Friday.

He showed no signs of backing off an approach that has come under harsh criticism from the U.S. and many European governments and prompted bans on the export of cotton and other products from Xinjiang over reports of forced labor.

Under Xi, authorities have carried out a sweeping crackdown on Xinjiangs Uyghur and Kazakh communities following an outburst of deadly separatist violence.

Critics have described the crackdown that placed thousands in prison-like indoctrination camps as cultural genocide. The U.S. and others have placed officials responsible under visa bans for their part in extra-legal detentions, separation of families and incarceration of people for studying abroad or having foreign contacts.

Xi, on what was described as an inspection tour from Tuesday to Friday, called for developing Xinjiang into a region that is united, harmonious, prosperous and culturally advanced, Xinhua said.

He called Xinjiang a core area and a hub in Chinas program of building ports, railways and power stations connecting it to economies reaching from Central Asia to Eastern Europe.

Xi met with leaders of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a supra-governmental body that operates its own courts, schools and health system under a military system imposed on the region after the Communist Party took power in China in 1949.

Xi learned about the history of the XPCC in cultivating and guarding the frontier areas," Xinhua reported.

Xinjiang borders Russia, Afghanistan and volatile Central Asia, which China has sought to draw within its orbit through economic incentives and security alliances.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The allegations that SAS troops killed detainees in Afghanistan will not be buried and will be investigated fully if the new evidence is handed over by the BBC, a defence minister has said.

Responding to an urgent question in the Commons on new allegations concerning British Special Forces in Afghanistan, James Heappey said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) would not rule out any kind of investigation into the claims.

Labour argued an independent investigation into the allegations would secure justice for any of those affected and, above all, would protect the reputation of our British Special Forces.

Defence minister James Heappey said the Royal Military Police and BBC were in discussions about Panorama handing over any new evidence (House of Commons/PA)

According to BBC Panorama, British Special Forces soldiers allegedly killed detainees and unarmed men in suspicious circumstances during counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan.

The Panorama investigation reportedly uncovered 54 suspicious killings carried out by one British SAS unit on a six-month tour of Afghanistan in 2010/11.

Mr Heappey said it was his understanding that the allegedly criminal events referred to in the Panorama programme have been fully investigated by the service police but stressed that the MoD remained fully committed to any further reviews from investigations where new evidence or reason to do so is presented.

He told the Commons that the Royal Military Police (RMP) and BBC were in discussions about Panorama handing over any new evidence.

Shadow defence secretary John Healey called for an independent investigation (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

He said: A decision to investigate the allegations of criminality is for the service police. They provide an independent and impartial investigative capability, free from improper interference.

Earlier this week, the Royal Military Police wrote to the production team of Panorama to request that any new evidence be provided to them  I understand that the BBC has responded to question the legal basis on which the RMP are requesting that new evidence, which makes little sense to me, but the RMP and the BBC are in discussions.

Shadow defence secretary John Healey said similar allegations against Australian special forces had been subject to an independent investigation, asking: Will the Government now do the same?

To investigate these claims and any cover-ups in the chain of command, to secure justice for any of those affected, and above all to protect the reputation of our British Special Forces?

The defence minister said the allegations wont be buried, adding: That does no service to our armed forces whatsoever. They will be investigated fully if the new evidence is handed over.

In this morning's Urgent Question in Parliament on recent allegations about British Special Forces in Afghanistan, I put it to the Minister that our Special Forces should be subject to the same democratic accountability as the rest of the armed forces. pic.twitter.com/NPfnjJ3bdF  Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) July 14, 2022

He added: The Secretary of State was very clear when I spoke to him earlier in the week on this matter, that he is not ruling out any type of public inquiry or review.

If it is clear that there are failings that need to be looked at, the MoD wants this to be as transparent as possible so that everybody can have confidence in the service justice system and the reputation of our armed forces can remain untarnished.

Independent MP and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn asked the minister if he thought it was appropriate for the RMP to investigate the allegations and whether its time for special forces to be brought under the same democratic accountability as the rest of the armed services.

Mr Heappey replied: I have every confidence in the independence of the Royal Military Police as an independent police force, free of political influence or influence from the chain of command, just like I have confidence that all other police forces are proudly operational, independent.

And no, I dont think that the special forces should be moved into a position of more overt democratic oversight. And the reason for that is the work that they do is right at the extreme end of the threat envelope, the risk to life and limb is profound.

What they do in defence of our nations interests is extraordinary. And if we were to compromise that even in the slightest, our nation would be at a disadvantage and brave people would be in severe peril.
LISBON, July 14 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission (EC) on Thursday signed an agreement with Portugal providing 23 billion euros' (23.02 billion U.S. dollars) financing for implementing the Portugal 2030 program.

The funding will be used to "support economic, social and territorial cohesion projects to develop a more diversified, innovative and competitive economy," said the EC in a statement.

Emphasis will be placed on the "ecological and digital transition of the country, promoting balanced territorial development between different regions and between rural and urban areas, namely with regard to better access to essential services," said the statement.

European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms Elisa Ferreira said, "the partnership agreement with Portugal establishes a strategic commitment to relaunch growth in a more inclusive, sustainable and digital way."

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa hailed the agreement, with "clear objectives and concrete goals, a strategic vision and resources for its implementation," as a "huge opportunity for Portugal."

"With people first, we want to reach the forefront, with a more inclusive and less unequal society, with quality jobs, in a more competitive and innovative, greener and more digital country," Costa tweeted. 
There were more electives

There were better teachers

There were less tests

There were more exciting ways to learn

Other

Vote

View Results
YEREVAN, JULY 14, ARMENPRESS. Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan participated in the event organized at the French Embassy on the occasion of the National Day of the Republic of France. As ARMENPRESS was informed by the office of the Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia, Mher Grigoryan gave a speech in which he particularly said,

Your Excellency, Madam Ambassador,

Distinguished representatives of the diplomatic corps,

Dear colleagues, attendees,

On behalf of the Armenian Government and myself, let me to warmly congratulate you on the occasion of the National Day of France.

More than two centuries ago, the French people opened a new path to the future based on human rights and democracy, and since then, the high universal values of the French Revolution have become an exemplary guide for many countries.

Armenian-French friendship has a history of centuries. Armenians and French people have been together in many important and turning points of their history. We will never forget that at the beginning of the 20th century, France extended a fraternal hand to tens of thousands of Armenians who survived the genocide and found their second homeland.

The friendship between our two countries became an important foundation for establishing a high-level political dialogue, as well as effective and close cooperation in all key areas.

Honorable Ambassador,

The Armenian people are grateful to France for always paying attention to and pursuing the protection of the vital interests of Armenia and the fundamental rights of the Armenian people.

Armenia attaches great importance to the involvement of France in the process of the final and fair settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict in the format of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs.

I would like to express special thanks for the humanitarian support provided by friendly France during and after the 44-day Artsakh war.

I would like to mention that in parallel with the high-level Armenian-French political dialogue, we are now making efforts to develop our economic cooperation, which is also fostered by the Armenian-French economic cooperation road map for 2021-2026 signed last year.

I cannot but emphasize the special role of cooperation in the field of culture, science and education in Armenian-French relations.

We highly value cooperation in the field of education, in particular, the French University operating in Armenia deserves special attention. The presence of Tumo center in Paris and in Lyon that opened recently are also encouraging for us.

I also attach importance to the close decentralized cooperation between Armenia and France, to which the cooperation between more than 30 local governments of the two countries has a significant contribution.

As a participant of the European Union's Eastern Partnership initiative, we appreciate France's support in expanding cooperation with the European Union.

Summarizing my speech, I would like to once again congratulate you, Madam Ambassador, the staff of the embassy, the Government and the friendly people of France on this holiday, wishing prosperity and welfare.

Taking this opportunity, I am also happy to record that this year we are marking the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Armenian-French diplomatic relations, in connection with which I wish longevity to the Armenian-French friendship.

Long live the Armenian-French friendship!

Long live France!

Long live Armenia!
YEREVAN, JULY 15, ARMENPRESS. On June 7 the presidency of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia elected Arsen Bobokhyan Director of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography. Arsen Bobokhyan has been working in the Institute since 1998. He has published 208 academic articles, 9 books. In an interview to ARMENPRESS, Mr. Bobokhyan told about the future plans and shared his concerns connected with the field.

The excavation period has already started in the Republic. Bobokhyan said that excavations are carried out in monuments of all ages, starting from the Stone Age to the Middle Age. Currently, different excavations are taking place in monuments of stone age (Aghitu), bronze and iron ages (Karnut, Solak), ancient (Artashat), medieval (Tavush, Aruch). The excavations will intensify in the second half of July and especially in August (Dvin, Dashtadem, Artanish, etc). More than 20 expeditions will work this year, most of them are international. All monuments are important and could give an unexpected result, he said.

Arsen Bobokhyan notes that archaeology of the 21st century is oriented not by findings, but by the excavation process. Therefore, the excavations that are done methodically correctly are valuable. There are excavations which do not have outstanding findings, but they are carried out in such detail and care, that they could be considered highly effective. I highly value all excavations carried out by the Institute, there are just some excavations of a sensational nature. The tomb that was accidentally opened in Shahumyan village last year was like that, it dates back to 2800-2600 BC, and the bulk material with hundreds of metal objects and pottery is exclusive in its significance not only in regional context, he said.

He informed that the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography carries out a lot of excavations, but the existing space is not enough for preserving that materials. Now we are trying to give the findings of old excavations to museums, make a free space in the Institute, but the area is not enough again. The processing of archaeological material lasts long and archaeologists, including me, fail to do it quickly. Years are passing and we do not manage to repay our debts. But in case of existence of a space and opportunities, that process would have been gone faster. We have been promised to be provided with at least one or two floors in the building of the library of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia in order to transfer the Institutes laboratories there. We are looking forward to that day, he said.

As for the funding to the excavations, he said that the government provides them with respective funding, but they also have extra-budgetary programs provided by the Science Committee. Foreign expeditions also make some investments. In particular, we have Armenian-American, Armenian-French, Armenian-Italian, Armenian-Israeli, Armenian-German and other expeditions, he noted.

Asked how many archaeological sites of Artsakh have become under the control of Azerbaijan as a result of the 2020 war, and what is the Institute going to do for them, Arsen Bobokhyan said: There are many lost ancient sites. We have a group of Artsakh in the Institute, which has created a website about the monitoring of Karabakh monuments in cooperation with American archaeologists. The presentation of the website will take place soon in the National Academy of Sciences. Quantitative data will be presented there. The main excavations in Artsakh were in Tigranakert, however, archaeological activities were also being carried out in other sites as Azokhi and Mirik. Several new books dedicated to various issues of Artsakhs ancient and medieval culture have been published by the Institute recently and will be published.

He also talked about the fate of the findings from Artsakhs monuments that were saved. The material of Tigranakert has been mostly brought to Armenia. Many materials in Shushi Museum have been left. However, it was possible to evacuate and exhibit some materials, particularly some values from Shushi were displayed at the Erebuni Museum. Of course, there has been a major loss in cultural values. But this is not something new for our history. We are like a pottery that is constantly being broken and recovered, he added.

The full version of the interview is available in Armenian.

Interview by Ani Danielyan

Photos by Hayk Badalyan
YEREVAN, JULY 15, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Emergency Situations of Armenia Armen Pambukhchyan received Charge d'Affaires of the Georgian Embassy in Armenia Irakli Kvanchakhadze, the ministry said in a news release.

During the meeting Minister Pambukhchyan said that the ministry is ready to cooperate with the Georgian side in different areas.

Irakli Kvanchakhadze in turn thanked for the warm welcome and expressed hope that the cooperation will continue.

The ongoing and future programs were discussed during the meeting.

The sides highlighted the presence of mutual support and trust between the two friendly countries.
ROME, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The coming days look to be clouded with uncertainty for Italy's government, as the country's prime minister tendered his resignation only to have it rejected by the head of state.

Prime Minister Mario Draghi, whose resignation was turned down by President Sergio Mattarella late Thursday, is now expected to address the Italian parliament and garner support next week in what will be a key moment for the government.

Analysts say that the central issue is whether Draghi will continue to have the full support of the populist Five Star Movement, a senior member of the current ruling coalition. The party splintered into two factions in recent weeks, after Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio left with dozens of lawmakers to found a new movement "Together for the Future."

On Thursday, Draghi decided to formally resign after the Five Star Movement boycotted a confidence vote on the government's relief bill to combat soaring prices in the Senate earlier in the day. Prior to the vote, former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, also leader of the Five Star Movement, had warned that the party would pull its support for Draghi if the government does not change policies on a handful of topics including economic and labor reforms and waste management policies.

"These are complicated and challenging times," Salvatore Vassallo, a political scientist at the University of Bologna, told Xinhua. "To some extent, close observers have expected a government crisis for some time. But that does not mean it is easy to predict what will happen."

Vassallo said he does not believe the government will call snap elections. A new vote could shake up the representation of different parties in parliament. Italy is already scheduled to hold a general election in the first half of 2023.

"We have to stay on the lookout because what happens within the Five Star Movement will have reverberations on the overall government's stability," said Francesco Galietti, founder of Policy Sonar, a political risk consultancy.

Draghi has said very clearly that he does not want to be the prime minister of a caretaker government that does not have support from all of its coalition partners, Galietti explained. 
YEREVAN, JULY 15, ARMENPRESS. Armenia is planning to open a diplomatic office in Cyprus, Ambassador of Armenia to Cyprus Tigran Mkrtchyan said during the meeting with Chairman of the Board of Directors of Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) Michalis P. Michael.

The Ambassador of Armenia arrived in Cyprus on a first official visit.

Tigran Mkrtchyan said that the upcoming diplomatic office will be represented by an Armenian diplomat and expressed hope that Cyprus will also open a diplomatic office in Armenia.

Ambassador Mkrtchyan said that long-term close relations exist between Armenia and Cyprus. He expressed hoped that there will be an opportunity in the near future to mutually open diplomatic representations in Yerevan and Nicosia.

The Armenian Ambassador also touched upon the Cyprus-Armenia-Greece cooperation, stating that a number of meetings have taken place within the frames of this partnership, particularly in military, political and Diaspora fields, expressing hope for the further expansion of this collaboration.

He expressed gratitude to Cyprus for the support provided to Armenia.

In his turn Michalis P. Michael stated that efforts will be made to further expand and deepen the cooperation with Armenia, including the partnership in the fields of news and information, adding that CyBC is broadcasting daily radio programs specially for Cypriot-Armenians.
YEREVAN, JULY 15, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan received Russias Minister of Transport Vitaly Saveliev and his delegation, the PMs Office said.

During the meeting Prime Minister Pashinyan praised the intensity in the Armenian-Russian relations in the person of regular official visits which highlight the unique nature of the bilateral ties. Nikol Pashinyan attached importance to the cooperation in all directions, including in the field of transport, and also highly valued the efforts and operational response of the Russian side in solving emerging crisis situations in the Upper Lars border checkpoint.

The Russian minister conveyed the warm greetings of Russian PM Mikhail Mishustin to the Armenian PM and assessed the work with the Armenian partner agencies effective. He said that Russia is interested in developing the friendly, brotherly partnership and mutually beneficial programs with Armenia.

Views were exchanged also around the cooperation in transportation and logistics fields. The sides touched upon the aviation and road communication, public transport infrastructure, both sides highlighted exchange of experience and active inter-agency work in these directions. It was stated that the development of transportation communication will contribute to the increase in bilateral passenger and cargo transportations, will boost economic contacts and tourism ties.

PM Pashinyan asked to convey his greetings to Mikhail Mishustin.
YEREVAN, JULY 15, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attended the solemn event dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the formation of the Border Guard Troops of the National Security Service. Minister of Defense Suren Papikyan, Director of National Security Service Armen Abazyan, Chief of Police Vahe Ghazaryan were also present at the event, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Pashinyan congratulated all the servicemen on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the formation of the Border Guard Troops and noted, In general, as in any country, the border guard troops in the Republic of Armenia are considered part of the Armed Forces. During the entire history of the Third Republic, the border guard troops contributed to the protection of the territorial integrity and security of the Republic of Armenia and together with the army fulfilled the tasks that were set before the army. But I want to emphasize that purely in terms of the idea, the concept, the border guard troops are generally the symbol of peace, because the borders, the protection of which is entrusted to the border guard troops, are usually considered peaceful borders. Because it is assumed that a friendship or peace treaty has been concluded with the states located in the direction of those borders, and this is a very important circumstance to record.

The border guard troops, in fact, since their formation, have not always and not everywhere acted according to the logic of this function. We bow our heads and pay our respects to the border guards who died protecting the Motherland. But I want to emphasize again that the logic of our policy is that we want all the borders of the Republic of Armenia, without exception, to be handed over to the control of the border guard troops, and the army units to return to their permanent locations. And this is exactly what we mean in the logic of the Armed Forces when we say peace agenda, this is exactly what we mean when we announce that the Armenian Government has adopted a peace agenda.

Of course, we understand the complications facing this process. There are a lot of discussions that yes, we need peace, but not at any cost. In general, one does not need anything at any cost, because everything has a price, and peace can be achieved not at the cost of everything, not at any cost, but at the cost of peace itself.

I am saying all this on this occasion to emphasize the direction and desire of our policy, but also to record that we still have a long way to go to achieve this goal, a very difficult and complicated way.

Unfortunately, the security challenges facing our country are not only unresolved, but remain concerning. All of us, first of all the country's political leadership, must work to ensure peace and stability along our country's borders.

By and large, our strategic goal is to hand over all the borders of the Republic of Armenia to border guards so that they can perform their special functions: border protection, which includes the fight against illegal migration, the fight against illegal border crossings, the fight against illegal activities, fight against drug trafficking, etc.

I consider it important to emphasize this context in relation to the service of the border guard troops. But right now, talking about our vision for the future, I want to emphasize this day and the past. We should once again pay our respects to all the border guard troops who fell for the sake of the Motherland and the future.

I would like to thank all of you for your service during this time, for that you carry shoulder marks on behalf of the Republic of Armenia and the people of Armenia. I want to thank your family members, because your service brings with it difficulties also for your families. I would like to wish success to all the border guard troops of the Republic of Armenia, to all of us, the Republic of Armenia, in fulfilling our mission. And we have only one mission: to ensure the safe, prosperous development and future of the Republic of Armenia, to ensure the independence and sovereignty of the Republic of Armenia, to guarantee that the Republic of Armenia as an independent state will be handed down from generation to generation to the proud and dignified citizens of the Republic of Armenia.

Congratulations once again, thank you for your service.

The Prime Minister presented state awards for the bravery and dedication shown in defending the borders of the Motherland. Captain Hrant Arzumanyan was posthumously awarded the Medal of Valor, Sergeant Karen Sargsyan was posthumously awarded the Medal for Combat Service. The Prime Minister handed over the awards to their relatives.

Nikol Pashinyan presented Medals for Combat Service to lieutenant colonel Vahan Hambardzumyan and captain Vladimir Tumasyan.

Prime Minister Pashinyan also laid flowers at the khachkar dedicated to the memory of border guards who fell for the Motherland, paying tribute to their memory.
I2U2 agenda is positive, practical, says Modi

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, United States President Joe Biden, new Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and United Arab Emirates (UAE) President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan participated in the first ever four-nation India-Israel-US-UAE (I2U2) virtual summit on Thursday evening that focused on food security and clean energy.

At the summit it was decided that the oil-rich UAE would invest US $2 billion to develop a series of integrated food parks across India that will incorporate state-of-the-art climate-smart technologies. India will "provide appropriate land for the project and will facilitate farmers integration into the food parks" while American and Israeli private companies will assist in the projects that will "help maximise crop yields and, in turn, help tackle food insecurity in South Asia and the Middle East."

Later, at a special briefing, foreign secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said that the states where these food parks may be set up include Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. He added that these food parks would benefit small and marginal farmers in India and raise farmers' incomes. He said food crops could include rice, potatoes, onions and bananas.

Also, it was decided at the summit that the I2U2 would advance a "hybrid renewable energy project" worth US $330 million at Dwarka in Gujarat "consisting of 300 megawatts of wind and solar capacity complemented by a battery energy storage system." The project will help achieve Indias goal of achieving 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030. In a joint statement, the I2U2 said "such projects have the potential to make India a global hub for alternate supply chains in the renewable energy sector."

Referring to the I2U2 grouping founded last year as a "unique grouping of countries," the four nations said this "aims to harness the vibrancy of our societies and entrepreneurial spirit to tackle some of the greatest challenges confronting our world, with a particular focus on joint investments and new initiatives in water, energy, transportation, space, health, and food security."

In his remarks, Mr Modi said the I2U2 has adopted a constructive agenda which is "positive and practical", adding that the grouping has identified joint projects and the roadmap to move ahead and has also decided to increase joint investment in these sectors.

The PM also said the four nations can mobilise their strengths like capital and markets to "accelerate our agenda", adding that "amid the global uncertainty, our cooperative framework is a good model."

The four leaders said they "intend to mobilise private sector capital and expertise to modernise infrastructure, advance low-carbon development pathways for our industries, improve public health and access to vaccines, advance physical connectivity between countries in the Middle East region, jointly create new solutions for waste treatment, explore joint financing opportunities, connect our startups to I2U2 investments, and promote the development of critical emerging and green technologies, all while ensuring near-and long-term food and energy security."

The joint statement said, "Todays inaugural I2U2 leaders meeting focused on the food security crisis and clean energy. The leaders discussed innovative ways to ensure longer-term, more diversified food production and food delivery systems that can better manage global food shocks."

Further, the joint statement said, "The UAE -- home to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and host of COP28 in 2023 -- will invest $2 billion USD to develop a series of integrated food parks across India that will incorporate state-of-the-art climate-smart technologies to reduce food waste and spoilage, conserve fresh water, and employ renewable energy sources."

On clean energy, it said, "The I2U2 group will advance a hybrid renewable energy project in Indias Gujarat State consisting of 300 megawatts (MW) of wind and solar capacity complemented by a battery energy storage system. The US Trade and Development Agency funded a feasibility study for the $330 million USD project. UAE-based companies are exploring opportunities to serve as critical knowledge and investment partners. Israel and the United States intend to work with the UAE and India to highlight private sector opportunities."

The four leaders in their statement said, "We also welcome other new groupings of countries, such as the Negev Forum for regional cooperation, that recognise the unique contributions of each partner country, including Israels ability to serve as an innovation hub connecting new partners and hemispheres to strategically address challenges that are too great for any one country to manage alone."

They also "expressed their determination to leverage well-established markets to build more innovative, inclusive, and science-based solutions to enhance food security and sustainable food systems" and "welcomed Indias interest in joining the United States, the UAE, and Israel in the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate initiative (AIM for Climate)."

The meeting also reaffirmed the groupings support for the Abraham Accords and other peace and normalisation arrangements with Israel and "welcomed the economic opportunities that flow from these historic developments, including for the advancement of economic cooperation in the Middle East and South Asia and in particular for the promotion of sustainable investment amongst the I2U2 partners."
BJP did get the Muslim vote in the 2022 UP Assembly elections, as pointed out by Hilal Ahmed in his analysis of the result

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his speech at the BJPs national executive session in Hyderabad earlier this month, had exhorted party workers to reach out to the backward sections of the minorities, and not confine themselves to the Hindus, as he also asked them to take out Sneha Yatra, or friendship rallies. This seems to be a classic disclosure of the truth without intending to do so. Mr Modi has been hailed as the icon of Hinudtva during his chief ministerial tenure in Gujarat, and which was seen as his great strength to claim to be the PM candidate in 2013 in the run-up to the 2104 Lok Sabha elections.

He was seen as a hardliner Hindutva leader in the party, and no one dared to question his credentials on this score. He, therefore, broke the mould on July 3 as he spoke of the need to reach out to the backward sections among the minority communities. He was careful enough to avoid mentioning the words Muslim and Christian, but then there was no need to do so.

Mr Modi has consistently refused to utter the words Christian and Muslim in his speeches, whether at public rallies or in party forums.

When the occasion demanded, he did so in passing, when he said that he wanted to see the computer in one hand and the Quran in the other of young Muslims during the 2014 campaign, but that was an exception. And, of course, he did talk about giving land to qabristan during the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election campaign. The other gestures continued, such as when the chadar went to the dargah of Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer Sharif from the Prime Minister, and minorities affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi carried out the gesture. There was the rare occasion when he attended an international conference on Sufism in New Delhi during the early days of his first term. The most important thing was the continuance of scholarships and other funds to Muslims and other minorities that the ministry of minority affairs handled.

Mr Modi was very self-conscious that his attitude and gestures towards the Muslims and other religious minorities should not carry a whiff of Congress secularism. He seemed to imply that he and the BJP would deal with the religious minorities on their own terms, making it clear that they are doing so as Hindus and not as believers in secularism.

Most admirers and critics tend to overlook Mr Modis sadbhavna mission in September-October 2011, where he fasted in Ahmedabad and Jamnagar though he declined to wear a skull cap offered by a Muslim cleric. He said in Ahmedabad then that Gujarat was the first to send humanitarian aid to Kashmir, a reference to the earthquake that had killed hundreds of people.

But in principle, he avoided talking about the religious minorities, and he would not also mention the word Hindu. So, in the July 3 speech in Hyderabad, he broke his own protocol. He mentioned the words Hindu and minorities. The implications are much too clear. He revealed that the BJP is a Hindu party and that the party workers are asked to work for Hindus, and as part of social engineering, work for the backward and marginalised classes in Hindu society. Mr Modi told them that they do not have to confine themselves to Hindu backward and marginalised classes, and they should now look to the marginalised and the backward classes among the minorities as well.

The immediate context of the remark was the BJPs victory in the recent byelections in Rampur and Azamgarh, two ostensible Muslim-dominant constituencies, in Uttar Pradesh. It is believed that Muslims in these two constituencies had voted for the BJP and facilitated its victory, so it was necessary to reciprocate the gesture by paying attention to the needs of the backward classes among the Muslims in these two constituencies.

It has been evident that the BJP did get the Muslim vote in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, as pointed out by Hilal Ahmed in his analysis of the result. But Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanaths attitude and those of other BJP workers in the state has remained one of the mailed fist.

Is this a fallout of suspended party spokesperson Nupur Sharmas offensive comments on Prophet Muhammad and his personal visit to Abu Dhabi and his meeting with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Mr Modi had stopped in Abu Dhabi on his way back from the G-7 summit in Germany to offer his condolences on the passing away of Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The UAE government also issued an official statement condemning Nupur Sharmas statement and had emphasised the need for protecting human rights.

Mr Modi is making the necessary amends in his partys stance because he had maintained a stony silence on the issue so far.

Does it mean that the BJP, a Hindu party, and he as the Hindu leader have done their duty towards the Hindus, and now it is time to reach out to the minorities? But that could spell the end of Mr Modis hold over the BJP and the support that the RSS had provided to him all these years, even as Lal Krishna Advani expressed his words of appreciation to Mohammed Ali Jinnah in Karachi in June 2005. Or is it the case that after eight years as Prime Minister, Mr Modi has mellowed and though he made it to the top because of his Hindutva, he is tired of the playing the role of the aggressor?

Many would say the reference to the minorities was a passing remark, one of his empty homilies, and one shouldnt pay too much attention to it because the BJP remains as aggressive as ever, and its aggression is not directed just towards the Congress and its policy of appeasement of the minorities, but that there is no let-up in the partys aggression towards Muslims and Christians in general. The party brass knows that its electoral victories are dependent on its anti-Muslim and anti-Christian stance, and even if Mr Modi has shifted his position, the party simply cannot.

Mr Modis critics would dismiss this reference to the minorities as one of his deceptive political tactics, and insist that he remains the Hindutva hardliner that he always was.
What happened in Maharashtra recently was a well-scripted move to further the ruling partys footprint

A great American President had once said that in politics, nothing happens by accident If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way. What happened in Maharashtra recently was a well-scripted move to further the ruling partys footprint. Also, state leaders should learn the lesson that the high command is supreme and they must play second fiddle when required to do so.

Former CM Devendra Fadnavis, who was demoted to deputy CM, is in good company. In neighbouring Gujarat, home turf of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah, where Assembly polls are due by the yearend, a similar demotion occurred last year.

Deputy CM Nitin Patel, the senior-most of the Patels in the BJPs Hindutva laboratory, who was raring to be CM, was summarily demoted. Nitinbhai, as hes known throughout Gujarat, was left high and dry. The PM not only changed the CM but dropped the entire Cabinet, so Nitinbhai remained an MLA, in an almost double demotion. The PM may have got the idea from an electrical firms advertisement two decades back!

It was double whammy for Nitinbhai: five years ago he was almost set to become CM, replacing Anandiben Patel, and had even distributed sweets to celebrate. Suddenly Vijay Rupani, known as close to Amit Shah, was made CM, which also left Anandiben fuming.

Five years later the high and mighty in Vijay Rupanis government were dropped like a hot potato and only first-term MLAs were made ministers, including the chief minister. Amid charges that the Covid-19 pandemic wasnt handled well, Mr Rupani resigned without giving any reason and said he was among the loyal soldiers of the party who were assigned different roles by the organisation from time to time.

Till then, no one had heard Bhupendra Patels name outside Gujarat, but he was suddenly made CM. How can a first-term MLA be well known outside the state? Theres a tale behind Bhupendra Patels appointment: he was the MLA from the constituency long represented by Anandiben. Some say it was sweet revenge by Ananidben over Amit Shah. That the two leaders dont get along well is an open secret in Gujarats politics.

As of now, it seems that Mr Modis gamble is paying off as there appears no serious threat to the BJP in Gujarat despite being in power for more than two decades in the state. Tomorrow, of course, is another day.

If one intently pursues the Modi-Shah style of politics within the BJP, one thing is always clear: they go all out to cut established players to size. B.S. Yediyurappa was instrumental in bringing BJP to power in Karnataka, hailed by the party as the BJPs gateway to the South. The Modi-Shah duo tolerated Mr Yediyurappa for a while till the government stabilised but ensured he quit without making too much noise.

Basavraj Bommai, who replaced him, is a relative newcomer to the BJP.

As chief minister, Madhya Pradeshs Shivraj Singh Chouhan is Mr Modis contemporary. He was once hailed as PM material by L.K. Advani. He might be Madhya Pradesh CM now but he is a changed man. There was no immediate alternative for the BJP high command to ensure a smooth transition when Kamal Naths government collapsed in early 2020 after Jyotiraditya Scindias rebellion. Now Mr Chouhan misses no opportunity to praise the Prime Minister. It looks as if he wants to complete the term and appears resigned to the fact that he may not be at the helm after next years Assembly polls even if the BJP returns to power. ED raids on a prominent businessman close to him a while back were a matter of much debate within political circles in the state.

In Maharashtra, Mr Fadnavis demotion has not only stunned the BJP in the state and its allies but also surprised the former CMs detractors. Mr Fadnavis, arguably one of the tallest BJP leaders in Maharashtra, had become the partys face after being at the helm from 2014 to 2019.

What could be worrisome for Mr Fadnavis in Maharashtra in the short as well as the long run is the direct access Eknath Shinde, the new CM, has with the Modi-Shah duo, amid signals that the rebel Shiv Sena leader had known much before Mr Fadnavis that he was to be sworn in as CM. This could change the equations in the state BJP and those critical of Mr Fadnavis may try reassert themselves after being left in the cold for long.

If Mr Shinde succeeds in marginalising Uddhav Thackerays Shiv Sena, then Mr Fadnavis utility in the state for the BJP high command would be less. In such a scenario, the young leader could be called to New Delhi and become a Cabinet colleague of Nitin Gadkari, a dreaded prospect for Mr Fadnavis, once seen as one of the BJPs emerging stars along with leaders like Yogi Aditynath.

New signals from the BJP high command on Maharashtra will be visible soon when the Eknath Shinde Cabinet is expanded. Who gets what will indicate the shape of things to come. The choice of young and ambitious Rahul Narvekar, a newcomer to the BJP and an Assembly first-termer, as the new Speaker says a lot.

Theres no doubt that the state BJP units unity will be put to test with the application of the Gujarat model in Maharashtra. If there are more such shocks from New Delhi, it could lead to some rejoicing in the badly bruised Opposition camp.
by Vladimir Rozanskij

Two months of pre-trial detention for the Moscow Duma deputy. He faces up to 10 years for spreading "falsehoods" about the army. Like Naval'nyj, one of the very few opponents who did not flee. The anti-Putin front is still alive in Russia.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - The repression of opponents of the Putin regime in Russia hardly makes the headlines anymore, but the arrest of the capital's city hall deputy Ilja Jashin has caused quite a stir. He is one of the most prominent figures still in the field after Aleksej Naval'nyj and many of his associates were sent to prison and many other opposition activists fled abroad.

On 13 July, the Bassmannyy court in Moscow decreed that Jashin be arrested and remanded in custody for two months, and the politician now faces a sentence of up to 10 years. He stands charged with spreading 'fake news about the army' were raised against him because of a video circulated on YouTube on 7 April in which he spoke about mass killings in Bucha and around Kiev.

In the video Jashin accuses Russian soldiers of war crimes, citing a BBC video of events in Bucha. The deputy was taken from his flat, which was searched, and then charged with resisting a public official for not voluntarily handing over the keys to all furniture and drawers. A small crowd of Jashin's supporters who had gathered in front of the court, were arrested in turn.

Jashin is one of the few opposition figures who had managed to win a seat in the Moscow Duma in last year's local elections, thanks to the Navalnist mechanisms of the 'tactical vote'. The mechanism was opposed in every possible way by the regime. He is also one of the very few to follow the example of Naval'nyj himself, remaining in Russia knowing full well that he would face harsh persecution. His supporters had pleaded with him on social networks to 'flee or you'll end up in jail!', but he himself had spoken on Jurij Dud's (also arrested) television programme, saying he was 'ready for the lager'.

A colleague of Jashin's, the deputy of Moscow's Kranoselsky district Aleksej Gorinov, has also already been sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for 'pronouncing falsehoods', ushering in the recently passed provisions of the law. Jashin's two months of pre-trial detention, as his lawyer Mikhail Birjukov explains, is a sign of a repressive approach, being unnecessary before the indictment, and does not bode well for the outcome of the trial.

The defence intends to appeal to the Constitutional Court against the indictment and the arrest methods, and Jashin himself wants to 'fight all the way' to defend his rights and freedom of expression in general, as he said: 'It is not normal that it is forbidden to question the Ministry of Defence' press releases. The MP's friends and supporters did not believe in the arrest until the very end, because of Jashin's ability to express his thoughts without violating any existing rules. As several supporters expressed it, 'we thought they were satisfied with Naval'nyj'.

Jashin had grown in authority in recent times, presenting himself as a credible, effective, and independent politician, even compared to the rest of the opposition. The signal that the authorities intend to give with his arrest, simply put, is 'get out, all of you', and as the lawyers believe, in court the prosecutor will state that you were given many signals and warnings, if you didn't leave, the fault is yours alone'.

Instead, the few heroes of dissent who chose what is called the 'Naval'nyj option' are sending a strong message to the entire population: we are not traitors or pro-Westerners, we are Russians, and Russia is not Putin's Russia. Ilja Jashin, Vladimir Kara-Murza, Aleksej Gorinov and many other lesser-known people, few of whom are still at large, testify to a hope that no war can stifle: as journalist Aleksandr Rikhlin says, 'heroes are not only those who die, they are also those who do not flee, and we will not forget that'.
by Fady Noun

The pro-Iranian Hezbollah raises the spectre of war with Israel over gas fields. At the same time, it has the power to prevent parliament from electing a new president. Meanwhile, President Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Mikati are on opposite sides. The list of possible candidates becomes clear. Maronite patriarch is afraid that the timing of the election might be manipulated.

Beirut (AsiaNews)  On the eve of US President Joe Bidens visit to Israel, with US-Russian rivalry becoming more entrenched in the Middle East in the wake of the Ukraine war, Hezbollah is becoming more aggressive.

If Lebanon is prevented from exploiting its gas resources, we will not allow anyone else to extract and sell gas, regardless of the consequences, said on Wednesday the groups secretary general Hassan Nasrallah to mark the 16th anniversary of the July 2006 war.

After sending three drones over the Karish gas field (northern Israel) about ten days ago, Nasrallah is now openly threatening war to assert Lebanon's rights over all of the Qana gas field (southern Lebanon), 20 per cent of which Israel claims, something that Lebanon fiercely rejects. The latter is estimated to hold reserves worth US$ 600 billion.

At present, the United States and Europe are seeking regional stability that would provide Europe with stable access to Middle Easter gas in lieu of Russias, which is soaked in Ukrainian blood.

Is Iran using the maritime border dispute with Israel as a new card up its sleeve? It seems so, and it against this background that we can read Lebanons current political situation. In only a few months (31 October), Hezbollah's main Christian ally, President Michel Aoun, will see his mandate come to an end. Meanwhile, Prime Minister-designate Nagib Mikati is undertaking the task of forming a new government.

Under the Constitution, Parliament must elect a new president in September. The main candidates are Gebran Bassil, head of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM); Suleiman Frangieh, head of the pro-Syrian Marada Movement (MM);[*] and a compromise candidate, General Joseph Aoun (unrelated to the current president), commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces.

The leader of the Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea, is not running even though he will play a major role in who is elected. His past as head of an armed militia prevents him from seeking this office.

The president and the prime minister-designate are approaching this election from diametrically different positions. President Aoun, who wants his son-in-law Gebran Bassil to replace him, is expecting a tough if not hazardous election; for this reason, he was a cabinet with all the communities represented, conscious that if no one is elected, the cabinet will assume the powers of the presidency.

For his part, Mikati, who is both the outgoing and the prime minister-designate, is suspicious of President Aoun and wary of another six years with a president dominated by Hezbollah.

As a result, he is proposing a limited cabinet reshuffle that would see the replacement of the Energy Minister, Walid Fayad (who is close to President Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement), with Sunni businessman Walid Sinno. Mr Mikati is fully aware that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is calling for structural reforms  including in electrical power sector  to help Lebanon cope with its economic collapse.

Mikatis advisers fear a repeat of President Michel Aouns election in 2016, which came after two and a half years in which parliament failed to elect a new head of state because of joint opposition from the Free Patriotic Movement and Hezbollah.

In the current parliament, no camp has a majority and what happened in 2016 could repeat itself. In fact, the pro-Hezbollah camp has enough votes to prevent the house from reaching the necessary quorum to meet (65), let alone elect a president on a first ballot (two thirds).

The Maronite Patriarchate fears a political vacuum in the presidency. Like the people of Lebanon, we refuse to see the presidential election manipulated, said Patriarch Bechara al-Rahi last Sunday. We are committed to respecting the constitutional timetable for this election, which must be held on time," he added.

Going further, he warns against any temptation President Aoun might have of trying to stay in office if no agreement is reached over his successor, something that the presidents inner circle rejects.

[*] Also known as Zgarta after its leaders hometown.
Kim Davis Requests Full Court Review for Qualified Immunity NEWS PROVIDED BY Liberty Counsel July 15, 2022



The Ermold and Yates cases each involve a same-sex couple who sued Kim Davis in 2015 following the Supreme Court's Obergefell decision requiring all states to recognize same-sex marriage. The district court entered judgment against Davis in both cases, holding that Davis is personally liable to the plaintiffs for violating their marriage rights by not issuing marriage licenses. In the appeals, Liberty Counsel argues the district court should have dismissed the plaintiffs' claims because Davis has qualified immunity, meaning she is immune from the plaintiffs' claims as a public official who did not violate any clearly established right. Because Davis was entitled to an accommodation of her sincerely held religious beliefs about marriage under both the First Amendment and Kentucky law, she should not be held liable to the plaintiffs for exercising her right not to violate her conscience while marriage licenses were readily available to the plaintiffs throughout Kentucky. CINCINNATI, Ohio, July 15, 2022 / Christian Newswire / -- Liberty Counsel filed for a pre-hearing en banc petition to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of former Rowan County, Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis, requesting that the full Court hear her appeals in the cases Ermold v. Davis and Yates v. Davis regarding her qualified immunity defense under the First Amendment and religious freedom rights. The full review by all the judges of the Court of Appeals was requested before Davis' reply brief is due and before any hearing on the appeal has been conducted. The full review is requested because the plaintiffs argued in their answer brief filed yesterday that a prior 2017 panel already decided this issue. Davis disagrees and thus is requesting the full panel review, especially in light of comments by Supreme Court Justices that this case raises important issues that should be addressed regarding religious accommodation.The Ermold and Yates cases each involve a same-sex couple who sued Kim Davis in 2015 following the Supreme Court's Obergefell decision requiring all states to recognize same-sex marriage. The district court entered judgment against Davis in both cases, holding that Davis is personally liable to the plaintiffs for violating their marriage rights by not issuing marriage licenses. In the appeals, Liberty Counsel argues the district court should have dismissed the plaintiffs' claims because Davis has qualified immunity, meaning she is immune from the plaintiffs' claims as a public official who did not violate any clearly established right. Because Davis was entitled to an accommodation of her sincerely held religious beliefs about marriage under both the First Amendment and Kentucky law, she should not be held liable to the plaintiffs for exercising her right not to violate her conscience while marriage licenses were readily available to the plaintiffs throughout Kentucky. Since the 2017 appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court has decided three cases which sharpen and amplify the religious free exercise rights at the heart of Davis' qualified immunity defense. First, in Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission (2018), the High Court held that "official expressions of hostility to religion" violate free exercise rights. Then Fulton v. City of Philadelphia (2021) made it clear that government officials like Kentucky's former Governor Steve Beshear violate free exercise rights when they deny policy exceptions for religious reasons while granting exceptions for nonreligious reasons. This is how Governor Beshear treated Davis when he denied any religious accommodation from his marriage license mandate while approving exceptions for others. Finally, in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, the Supreme Court explained that the government must balance competing constitutional rightslike Davis' religious free exercise rights and the Ermold and Yates plaintiffs' marriage rightsinstead of picking constitutional winners and losers. Davis is a professing Christian who possesses a sincerely held religious belief and conviction, based on the Bible which she believes to be the Word of God, that "marriage" is exclusively a union between one man and one woman. As a result, when former Governor Steve Beshear demanded that all Kentucky county clerks endorse marriage licenses for same-sex couples, with no reasonable accommodation for clerks with sincerely held religious beliefs about marriage, Davis recused herself from issuing any marriage licenses in Rowan County, though marriage licenses remained available throughout Kentucky, including in all surrounding counties. (Kentucky marriage licenses can be obtained and used anywhere in the Commonwealth regardless of the residence of the licensee.) Refusing to obtain a marriage license from a nearby county clerk, the Ermold and Yates same-sex couples repeatedly demanded licenses from Davis and sued her when she refused to violate her conscience. Although former Governor Beshear denied any accommodation of Davis' sincerely held religious beliefs, causing her to be sent to jail in a related litigation for refusing to violate her conscience, Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin then came into office and vindicated Davis with an executive order acknowledging her right to an accommodation. The executive order provided an accommodation to all county clerks by removing their endorsements from marriage licenses throughout the state, and a unanimous Kentucky General Assembly made the accommodation a permanent enactment of Kentucky law. Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, "The First Amendment required then Gov. Steve Beshear to accommodate the sincere religious beliefs of Kim Davis. Had Gov. Beshear followed the law and granted Kim Davis a religious accommodation, there would be no case. As a result of Kim Davis, now every Kentucky clerk is entitled to a religious accommodation regarding marriage licenses. Kim Davis, the pioneer who spearheaded this effort, is also entitled to the same protection."



Liberty Counsel provides broadcast quality TV interviews via Hi-Def Skype and LTN at no cost.



SOURCE Liberty Counsel



CONTACT: Mat Staver, 407-875-1776, Liberty@LC.org



Related Links



lc.org/



Share Tweet
Todays headlines: Gotabaya Rajapaksa formalises his resignation; Japan and the UK on the brink of joint production of military fighter jets; in the Philippines a mayor has signed an ordinance requiring civil servants to smile; Russia blocks a site helping Buryats military personnel return home is blocked.

MYANMAR

The Central Bank of Myanmar has ordered companies and individual debtors to suspend foreign loans repayment. The decision was made to prevent the country's foreign exchange reserves from falling further. For the same reason, the ruling military junta has banned the import of cars, luxury goods and restricted fuel imports.

SRI LANKA

It is official: from Singapore Gotabaya Rajapaksa formalized his resignation opening up a new phase that should lead to the election of a new government: parliament has up to 30 days to elect a new leader. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was appointed acting president, will be sworn in today.

PHILIPPINES

Mulanay city mayor, Aristotle Aguirre, who took office last month, fulfilling his campaign promises, has signed an ordinance requiring public employees to smile. There are disciplinary sanctions for those who do not comply with the new rule. The mayor said he wanted to send 'good vibes'.

CHINA

China's gross domestic product contracted by 2.6% in the second quarter of the year. Year-on-year growth was only 0.4% due to repeated lockdowns imposed on major cities for the 'zero covid' policy. It is the worst economic performance since the start of the pandemic. Meanwhile, Xi Jinping visited Xinjiang for the first time since 2014, when he began his campaign of repression.

JAPAN - UNITED KINGDOM

Reuters sources report Japan and the UK may soon sign a defense agreement to develop a jet combining the features of the next-generation Tempest and FX fighters. This would be the first time Tokyo has collaborated with a non-US partner in the military field.

IRAN

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said Iran will have a "harsh response" to any "mistakes" made by Washington or its allies. The statements came just after US President Joe Biden and Israeli President Yair Lapid signed a joint agreement to deny Iran obtaining nuclear weapons.

RUSSIA

Russia has blocked the website of the foundation 'Free Buryatia', which helps the military of the local republic to dissolve their contracts and return home alive from the war in Ukraine. The site can no longer be accessed even using a Vpn, so far it had managed to help about 150 people return.

TAJIKISTAN

The authorities in Tajikistan are carrying out mass repressions against journalists, starting with the television journalist Zavkibek Saidamini and the radio journalist Abdusattor Pirmukhammadzodu, for their criticism of the government after the recent crackdown in the Pamir.
The project in the wake of Pope Francis' visit and includes buildings for prayer, a hall and a meeting centre. A reference point for Christians, Muslims (Sunni and Shia), Jews and Sabeans. A way to restart, and rebuild, after the violence and devastation of war and jihadist movements.

Baghdad (AsiaNews) - The government of the governorate of Dhi Qar, in southern Iraq, has begun construction work on a centre for interreligious dialogue, which will include places of worship for the Islamic, Christian, Jewish and Sabeic faiths.

It will also include a hall and a centre for interreligious dialogue, which will be built near the ancient city of Ur, one of the most important archaeological sites in the country and linked to the figure of Abraham, the father of the three great monotheistic religions.

Ur and Najaf represented a key stage of Pope Francis' apostolic journey to Iraq in March 2021. According to various observers and Islamic-Christian leaders, the foundations were laid, for an Iraq founded on coexistence, pluralism, peace and a multicultural vision, capable of overcoming jihadist fundamentalism in the meeting with Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and in the interreligious prayer in Ur,.

The London-based Pan-Arab daily Al-Araby Al-Jadeed (The New Arab), reports the centre in Ur will will cover an area of over 10,000 square metres and is part of a programme to revive and revive the ancientcity of Ur, as part of a broader plan promoted by the government following the pontiff's visit to the Arab country.

In July last year, the general secretariat of the Iraqi Council of Ministers announced the approval of a centre for interreligious dialogue. In recent days, the deputy governor of Dhi Qar Ghassan Al-Khafaji, who is in charge of planning, confirmed the local administration's intention to grant a licence for the construction of the first church, which will be flanked by urban planning and infrastructure works such as water, sewage and roads.

Al-Khafaji emphasises that work is still in progress," to develop a new tourist area in Ur, next to the ancient city, following Unesco parameters. And he has chosen four of them, the first of which will include a complex for interreligious dialogue, including a church site, a mosque and a hall connecting the two areas, to be the centre of the tourist city'. Christian sources hope that these initiatives will strengthen cohesion between believers of different religions, united under the common Iraqi flag.

Scholars and experts define this project as a way to rebuild after the devastation to the heritage caused by war and sectarian violence, starting precisely from places of worship. For researcher Ahmed Abdel-Hussein, the project that is about to be born in Ur can be "a place where unity begins", against the divisions and violence of the past, archiving "extremism and fanaticism".

Abdul-Hussein adds that Churches and mosques were targeted and demolished by extremist groups "that embraced radical ideologies". This is why, he concludes, 'building a complex that is inclusive of religions will be an important response' against all kinds of extremism and fanaticism, reinforcing the value of unity.
Email Newsletters

Get the best of The Aspen Daily News in your inbox. Our newsletters are free, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

NHTSA

Service campaign 22TC08 boils down to incorrect engine control module programming. When the accelerator pedal of the 2022 model year Toyota Tundra is forcefully depressed and immediately followed by aggressive braking, there is a possibility for the pickup truck to stall at low speeds. Recall number 22TA07 affects both combustion-engined and hybrid vehicles. A programming issue may cause the front camera image to display instead of the rear camera image when the gear lever is placed into reverse, which is laugh-out-loud hilarious and a noncompliance condition to boot.Just over 31,400 vehicles equipped with the Panoramic View Monitoring system are called back. Thestill hasnt released any information in regard to these recalls Owners will be notified by first-class mail by months end. The reflash takes approximately 45 minutes, according to the document attached below. In the meantime, owners may get in touch with Toyota by calling 800-331-4331. Thes and Toyotas VIN search tools also need to be mentioned.Twinned with the 2023 Sequoia, the 2022 Tundra presently retails from $35,950 excluding destination freight charge. Prospective customers are presented with a ten-speed automatic transmission connected to a twin-turbo V6 that displaces 3.4 liters, not 3.5 like Toyota says it does. The base version develops a respectable 348 horsepower and 405 pound-feet (550 Nm).Higher up, the V35A-FTS is much obliged to crank out 389 horsepower and 479 pound-feet (650 Nm). The range-topping version is the i-Force Max, with Max standing for hybrid assistance. In hybrid mode, Toyota quotes 437 horsepower and 583 pound-feet (790 Nm) of torque at 2,400 rpm.
HP

After their @GCAmazingSpaces appearance the boys are still riding high on their celebrity status ... bless. pic.twitter.com/Ps4hLWsKnP  TukTukCamper (@TukTukCamper) July 20, 2014

This gorgeous (and very small) camper is the work of David Motley, a man whose wife describes him as a mad raging perfectionist. David and Hazel own a Cambridge-based business called Hide and Stitch, which specializes in custom leather furniture and finishes  so, yes, they are what you might call artisans. This explains the excellent workmanship in the finished project.Speaking of the project, it took David six months and 12,000 (approximately $14,200 at the current exchange rate) of his own money to bring into reality. The actual work started in January 2014, when David acquired the two parts that would serve as the basis of the future camper: a 1960 Lambretta Li 175 Series 2 scooter and a 1969 Lambretta box.Lambretta is a scooter made in Italy by Innocenti, later outsourced to India, and recently revived. The Li 175 Series 2 was introduced in 1960 under the Lambro name and was offered with a box on top or a flatbed. David used the latter. He also found an original box from a later model that was once used by milkmen and is one of the two of its kind known to exist today. The work he had to do on both would have probably discouraged a less mad man: they were covered in rust and had basically to be stripped down to the bone in order for the actual build to start.The cab of the scooter was in working condition, though, so at least there was that. David widened the box and cut the floor, and welded it onto the body of the scooter. He also tore down the wall dividing the two, welding them together to create more interior space and, this way, allow a fully-grown adult the possibility to lie down.Inside, he created a cozy and surprisingly elegant lounge-like space , with a bed that fit himself and his two kids (snugly), storage cupboards, cup holders, curtains, and leather side panels. The fact that the Lambro had a two-person bench at the front helped because it allowed him to use it as a bed extension in camp mode.At the rear, underneath the bed, David inserted a kitchen drawer. Press a button, and out came the drawer; inside it, he placed a tiny sink and a one-burner gas stove, with cupboards holding custom glass recipients with washing liquid, sugar, coffee, and tea. Separately, of course. In his chat with TV personality George Clarke for the show Amazing Spaces, David joked about the sleepless nights hed spend agonizing over the color of the container caps. Somehow, you can tell hes only half-joking because of the attention to detail on the build borders on obsession.Amazing Spaces was the only media appearance of the gorgeous Tuk Tuk Camper, and it never touched on details like the powertrain or Davids plans to actually use it. That said, the Lambro model featured a single-cylinder two-stroke air-cooled engine that delivered 7and a maximum speed of 36 mph (58 kph) when fully loaded. Maximum payload was 882 pounds (400 kg) for the flatbed model.On the website that launched shortly after the start of the project, David jokingly described the Tuk Tuk Camper as our tiny luxurious little motorhome that would also be unique and our family could all use (well nearly all of us!). No word if any member of the family ever got to enjoy it like this, but at the very least, they got a very beautiful, very tiny thingy to admire.
When the 2022 F1 season first kicked off, it was obvious that Ferrari and Red Bull went about designing their cars very differently. The Ferraris were clearly better in slow and medium corners, while the Red Bulls pulled away on the straights and in very fast corners.Fast forward to Austria last weekend and Ferrari looked every bit as quick as Red Bull on the straights, which the team says is down to a new low-drag wing that was first used by Leclerc in Canada, as reported by Motorsport When asked if the balance of performance between themselves and Red Bull has changed, Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto had this to say: We had a disadvantage compared to the Red Bull, no doubt, in terms of straight-line speed, especially in DRS zones.In terms of power of their DRS, compared to ours, we worked a lot on it. So, the new rear wing that we introduced first with Charles in Canada, we have had it on both cars since UK.And with that new rear wing, I think we have simply reduced the gap we had in terms of speed. I think they still have got a slight advantage, but its very little or negligible.Meanwhile, traction-wise, Binotto believes theres nothing separating his team and Red Bull , although he does apparently think Leclerc and Sainz are in a better position to exploit all that grip, compared to Verstappen and Perez.In the power limited [corners], we are very close, he said. Then its only about the grip limited corners where we can make the difference.I think [in Austria] we have been fast, not only because of the car, but because I think the two drivers made a fantastic weekend in terms of car balance, car setup, understanding the tires, managing the tires and driving on track.
General Motors canned the Regal due to abysmal sales, topping 14,118 units during calendar year 2018. The biggest of the Big Three in Detroit apparently refused to acknowledge that utility vehicles reign supreme nowadays, with increasingly more customers stepping away from conventional body styles like the good ol sedan, wagon, and hatchback.The Regal was also subjected to a couple of high-profile recalls. In August 2018, it was called back over insufficient coating on the rear brake caliper pistons. In October 2019, a handful of units were recalled for insufficient welds on the driver and passenger front seat frames. These cars were produced in Germany at Opels factory in Russelsheim, but nevertheless, the myth of German quality is exactly that in relation to modern vehicles.GM has recalled the Regal once again for power brake assist loss to the tune of 23,734 vehicles from the 2018 through 2020 model years. GM became aware of this problem on April 22nd. Based on a braking performance problem affecting the 2019 model year Opel Insignia, the Detroit-based automaker opened an in-depth investigation into this matter on May 6th.Together with a supplier, which hasnt been named in the attached report, the automaker determined that a software error in a file supplied by GM could cause the hydraulic brake boost to fail to respond to a loss of brake vacuum pressure. Tests conducted on a Regal between June 22nd and 23rd showed that, following a loss of vacuum pressure, the stopping distance could exceed federal motor vehicle safety standard 135s requirements.A review of field data identified four claims received between January 2019 and March 2022, in which the invalid vacuum pressure diagnostic trouble code was set and the hydraulic brake boost was disabled. On the upside, none of these incidents ended in crashes or injuries. General Motors will reflash the software in the electronic brake control module to address the aforementioned condition with software that activates the hydraulic brake boost if the vehicle suffers a loss of vacuum brake pressure. Somewhat curiously, GM started using different software with the 2021 model year, which suggests that somebody was perfectly aware of the implications.
Absentee voting guidelines for 2022 general election In order to vote by mail in Iowa, you must submit a written application for a mailed absentee ballot, which...

Jana Utesch named new CAEDC director Jana Utesch of Cherokee has been hired as the new executive director of Cherokee Area Economic Development Corporation, according to...

New Marcus meat plant underway The Morrie Marks family of Remsen, long steeped in the Marks Meat Processing Center in Remsen, is building a new...

State auditor: Municipalities just cant give it away anymore Iowa State Auditor Rob Sands insistence that cities and counties cannot donate to outside agencies has created some compliance issues...
EV

The Japanese tech company has announced this week that it is building the world's largest factory focused on building batteries for electric vehicles in the state of Kansas. The facility will produce high-capacity 4680 cells for Tesla s vehicles and will be located near the city of De Soto.Kansas state officials have confirmed the deal and said the new Panasonic plant would create up to 4,000 jobs in De Soto, with an investment of up to $4 billion.As the largest private investment in Kansas history and one of the largest EV battery manufacturing plants of its kind in the country, this project will be transformative for our states economy, providing in total 8,000 high-quality jobs that will help more Kansans create better lives for themselves and their children, said Kansas Governor Laura Kelly in a press conference. According to 2021 estimates, De Soto has a population of just over 6,300 people. The new Panasonicbattery facility will be built on a 9,000-acre area that used to be an ammunition factory that closed in 1992.Its already been reported that Panasonic has an agreement with Tesla to supply the automaker with a larger battery model - the 4680 cells - to be fitted in Cybertruck in 2023, but the new plant will likely produce batteries for other vehicles in Teslas lineup as well. Production of the new battery type will start in Japan, at its factory in Wakayama, in March 2023. The Kansas factory is expected to be up and running by 2024.Panasonic plans to increase its battery production capacity by three to four times by 2029, with most of the growth in North America.
SUV

EV

Let us take the Rolls-Royce Cullinan as a pristine example  after all, we are dealing with the unofficial king of the ultra-luxurypersonalization trend. While the Bentley Bentayga is struggling to make a comeback, the Aston Martin DBX fights against anonymity, and V12-powered Italians continue to be late at the party (wink, Ferrari Purosangue , wink), this suicide-door rolling couch of a full-size SUV acts like it rules the custom world.And after witnessing Mikey Trapstars newly completed Rolls-Royce Cullinan subtly flaunt in the UK its almost murdered-out atmosphere (if not for the orange details) with matching Forgiatos, we kind of remained affixed to the whole idea of aftermarket wire wheels. And do not worry, there are other options if you think a set of wired Forgiatos shouldnt look that good on an oddly-colored Tesla Model X. Ups, that was another story, perhaps.Oh well, we have also embedded that interestingbecause it seems that zero-emission vehicles and aftermarket wheel builds are becoming a new custom, nowadays. Now, back to the Rolls-Royce Cullinan focus, this light gray example seen here goes to show that orange isnt necessarily the new black (badge of honor), but rather part of a subtle yet fancy color combination.Shown by the custom forged wheel experts over at Santa Fe Springs, California-based AG Luxury, this ultra-luxury SUV treat rides slightly lowered on AGL45 forged monoblock wired wheels featuring a gloss black finish. In return, this Black Badge also flaunts a few orange details  on the floating caps and within the badges that drape the front, sides, and rear. Not on the Spirit of Ecstasy, though, as probably the owner feared that it would be a tad too much orange  and we are quite happy with the decision.
Cruise was cleared by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to offer driverless commercial robotaxi services in San Francisco on June 2. It was the first company to get such a permit, beating rival Waymo to the punch. Waymo was also allowed to offer commercial services in San Francisco, but only with a human safety operator on board.Cruise is no stranger to crashes but according to a whistleblower letter sent to CPUC, the companys chaotic environment prevented it from addressing safety concerns raised by employees. Worse, information from traffic crashes involving the companys vehicles was hidden from employees working on critical safety systems.The letter claims that employees generally do not believe we are ready to launch to the public, but there is fear of admitting this because of expectations from leadership and investors. Ready or not, launch they did, even though the letter arrived at the CPUC offices on May 19, two weeks before the regulators granted Cruise the permit.A spokesperson for the CPUC said to Automotive News that the agency is looking into the concerns raised in the letter. They did not say whether commissioners were aware of its existence when they voted to approve Cruises license.Knowledge of the latter comes as several incidents involving Cruise robotaxis surfaced in the media. In April, months before the permit was issued, a police officer pulled over a Cruise vehicle driving at night with the lights off. The vehicle then repositioned itself before the traffic stop was complete. Later in the month, another Cruise vehicle blocked the path of a fire truck en route to a blaze.On June 3, just one day after Cruise got the permit, one of its autonomous vehicles was involved in a crash that resulted in injuries. And two weeks ago, dozens of Cruise vehicles clustered at an intersection, blocking the traffic . The same whistleblower letter claims that these so-called clustering incidents happen pretty often. Sometimes they can be solved remotely, but in some cases, the vehicles need to be towed from the location.
Sikorsky boasts of its CH-53K being the only heavy-lift helicopter to remain in production through 2032 and beyond. The recently supplied unit is the seventh altogether delivered to the fleet and the third LRIP (low-rate initial production) one, provided ahead of contract schedule. At the same time, it is the first CH-53K from the Lot 2 LRIP contract awarded by the U.S. Navy three years ago.Speaking about the recent delivery, Sikorsky also added that it plans to deliver two more units by the end of 2022.With its huge payload capacity, the long-range CH-53K, which is also the only sea-based helicopter in production, will provide three times the lift capability of its predecessor, according to Sikorsky. The helicopter will go to the Marine Corps Air Station New River in Jacksonville, North Carolina.The U.S. Marine Corps will use the CH-53K to transport equipment, armored vehicles, and personnel, to support operations deep inland from a sea-based center critical in the Indo-Pacific region.Sikorskys CH-53K King Stallion, which is the largest and heaviest chopper in the U.S. military, was built in the companys high-tech factory in Connecticut, using advanced digital technology.The CH-53K King Stallion replaces Sikorskys CH-53E, boasting a lift capacity that is three times larger. It can carry approximately 27,000 lb (12,247 kg) even in the harshest, most challenging conditions. Moreover, the King Stallion is more cost-effective than its predecessor, with its T408-GE-400 turboshaft engines delivering 57 percent more horsepower while using over 60 percent fewer components.Sikorskys CH-53K began its initial evaluation and operational tests in 2021, and this year, the Marine Corps also gave its vote of confidence, declaring Initial Operational Capability (IOC). The aircraft has over 3,000 flight hours to date and has proved its performance in a wide range of mission scenarios and environments.
The Netherlands Ministry of Defense made no secret that its new jet for VIP missions is actually a second-second aircraft. The aircraft itself might not be brand-new, but its about to be equipped with state-of-the-art protection systems.

9 photos
Palmdale, CA (93550)

Today

Sunshine. High 104F. Winds NNW at less than 5 mph, becoming SW and increasing to 15 to 25 mph..

Tonight

Mostly clear. Low near 75F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph.
In a short statement, the Armenian government said Pashinian and Burns discussed international and regional security, processes taking place in the South Caucasus and the fight against terrorism.

The statement gave no other details of the meeting which was also attended by Armen Abazian, the head of Armenias National Security Service (NSS).

Burns also held separate talks with Armen Grigorian, the secretary of Armenias Security Council.

The councils press office reported that Grigorian briefed him on the Armenian governments peace efforts and security challenges facing the region. It said the two men discussed Yerevans ongoing negotiations with Azerbaijan and Turkey in this context.

Burns had visited Armenia as well as Azerbaijan in 2011 in his capacity as U.S. deputy secretary of state. He urged at the time a greater sense of urgency for the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, saying that the status quo is not sustainable.

His latest trip to Yerevan coincided with an official announcement that the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers will meet in Tbilisi on Saturday.

The trip was first revealed by the Russian news agency Sputnik earlier in the day. It said the CIA chief arrived for unspecified high-level meetings and will spend only several hours in the country.

The Armenian authorities did not confirm or deny the report before issuing the official press releases on Burnss meetings. An NSS spokesman told RFE/RLs Armenian Service that he has no information about his visit.

The U.S. Embassy likewise declined to comment. No CIA director has ever visited Armenia before.

Tigran Grigorian, an independent political analyst, claimed that U.S. and Russian security officials arrived in Armenia in recent days for confidential talks focusing on the war in Ukraine.

Based on the scarce information available, one can presume that Yerevan or Armenia was simply chosen as the venue for some secret negotiations with Russia, Grigorian said. According to my information, Russian and American experts arrived in Yerevan for that purpose in recent days. So Burnss visit could be put in that context.

Burns, 66, is a former career diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2005 to 2008.
CalMatters is a nonpartisan, nonprofit journalism venture committed to explaining how Californias state Capitol works and why it matters. For more, go to calmatters.org.
You can reach Ishani Desai at 661-395-7417. You can also follow her at @_ishanidesai on Twitter.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

On Thursday, online travel site onlyinyourtstate.com released a map detailing what it described as the "most affordable" Lone Star road trip and the route runs right through Jefferson County. As for the affordability factor, the site notes that a family of four could spend less than $100 in total on the road trip through Southeast Texas. Here's what's on the road trip hit list.

The endpoints of the route are located in Sea Rim State Park and Galveston Island State Park, depending on where road trippers decide to start their journey. Starting point aside, the somewhat meandering route traverses 135 miles of Southeast Texas roadways with an estimated trip time of about three hours and nine minutes, according to Google Maps.

Starting in Galveston Island State Park, road trippers will next head northeast for approximately 25 minutes (13 miles) to hit the next stop on the list, the Galveston Railroad Museum located at 2602 Santa Fe Place in Galveston, Texas.

The next legs continue along the Ferry Rd. for approximately three miles and adventures will need to take the Port Bolivar - Galveston Ferry, a 2.6-mile journey with an estimated travel time of 30 minutes before continuing along White Ranch Rd, a spur of sorts along the road trip, en route to the third pit stop: Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge.

Next, the road trippers will follow Texas Highway124 North, Texas Highway 73 and Texas Highway 87 through Winnie and Port Arthur en route to the last stop at Sea Rim State Park in Sabine Pass, Texas.

Most affordable Texas road trip itinerary

Estimated travel time: 3 hours, 9 minutes

Trip distance: 135 miles

Refueling info: While the road trip has no shortage of refueling options, it's important to note that most of these stations are located on Galveston Island, Goat Island and Bolivar Peninsula with limited options en route to Beaumont until travelers hit Winnie.

Road trip pit stops:
A Beaumont man, who previously was sentenced to more than a decade in prison on other charges, has now been sentenced to 25 more years for a crime committed the year his previous sentence was complete.

Benjamin Bernard Garrett, 47, earlier this week rejected a plea deal, which would have given him 15 years in prison, for the aggravated assault charge.

In Texas, the second-degree felony offense normally carries a punishment range of two to 20 years in prison and a fine up to $10,000. Due to Garrets previous convictions, his punishment was enhanced for a punishment range of five to 99 years or up to life in prison.

Garrett's defense attorney asked the jury for a lesser sentence because no one was hurt in the case and the people involved didn't attend the trial.

However, the state prosecutor countered, saying the crime mattered to more than just those involved and added that Garrett didn't seem to have learned his lesson and he'd already done prison time for other offenses.

"This is your county. This is your county where you live," he told the jury. "This did not happen at the house. They were driving in a public roadway ... people live in those houses. We live in houses."

The Beaumont Police Department previously reported that officers received a call shortly before 3 p.m. in the area of Arthur Lane and Cleveland Avenue. The call was for a person who was in a white Chevrolet Malibu passenger car allegedly pointing a gun at them. Police said dispatchers advised shots were fired.

The car quickly sped away when officers arrived but ultimately was stopped in the 4100 Block of Harding Drive. The driver, now identified as Garrett, was arrested following a police chase.

Inside the vehicle, officers recovered two firearms along with several types of illegal narcotics, the Beaumont PD news release said at the time. Garrett is also a convicted felon, who was recently paroled.

Jefferson County jail records show that Garrett was brought in by U.S. Marshals on November 17, 2021.

According to information from the U.S. Department of Justice, Garret pleaded guilty in May 2021 to being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm. He was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Thad Heartfield on October 5, 2021, for the federal firearms violation in the Eastern District of Texas.

The information said Garrett had previously been convicted of four felony offenses, which prohibited him from owning or possessing firearms or ammunition. He was indicted on December 2, 2020 and charged with federal firearms violations.

This defendant did more than just illegally possess a firearm, he discharged the weapon, Former acting U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei, said in the October 2021 news release on the sentencing. Thankfully, no one was hurt, and we were able to take someone with a history of violent behavior off the streets of Beaumont.

meagan.ellsworth@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/megzmagpie
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Two more Jefferson County affordable living complexes officially have been completed, and renovations have started on a third.

On Thursday, the Texas General Land Office Disaster Recovery team cut the ribbons on the complexes constructed with Tropical Storm Harvey relief funds.

Beaumont Village, a low- to moderate-income senior housing community in Beaumont, recently was built and Cedar Ridge Apartments, a low- to moderate-income complex in Port Arthur, was renovated after both were damaged by Harvey.

The complexes were built as a part of the the Office's $588 million project to construct and rehabilitate rental housing damaged and destroyed by Harvey. Beaumont Village received $10.8 million and Cedar Ridge Apartments received nearly $6.5 million.

RELATED: GLO opens new affordable housing complexes in Jefferson County

Beaumont Village, which opened in March, has 72 units -- 78% of which are designated to low- to moderate-income residents.

"This does not have the feel of affordable housing community especially for our seniors in this community we know how needed this is, how appreciated it is," said General Land Office Public Affairs Specialist Catherine McKee. "This is again part of our commitment to building back stronger and better housing after Harvey."

Unlike Beaumont Village, Cedar Ridge Apartments is not a new complex but was reconstructed due to flood damage caused by Harvey.

Dana Naville has lived in Cedar Ridge Apartments for over 20 years -- through Harvey and Hurricane Rita.

"We've lost everything and we started over and I love everything about my apartment," Naville said.

RELATED: Beaumont opens a new affordable housing complex

The General Land Office on Thursday also took part in a groundbreaking ceremony for renovations to Stonegate Manor Apartments in Port Arthur.

Stonegate Manor Apartments is undergoing 18-months of renovations for damage caused by Tropical Depression Imelda.

The complex received $5 million in funding from the General Land Office.
Photo Courtesy of Newton Food Share

A food pantry in Southeast Texas has gained the ability to protect its food supplies during emergencies.

The Newton Food Share recently installed a natural gas-powered generator thanks to a $50,000 grant from Amerigroup.
Irish whiskey has always been a powerhouse, right? Jameson is one of the most recognizable names in drinks after all, and Bushmills is the oldest licensed distillery in the world, dating back more than four centuries.

Yet, the category was verging on extinction by the 1960s. By the 70s, there were only two operational distilleries in the whole of the country: Midleton, where Jameson and a litany of other consolidated brands were made, and Bushmills, also then owned by the same company.

How did the industry collapse? Gradually, and then suddenly, as they say. A couple of World Wars, the Irish War of Independence, Prohibition, the rise of Scotch whisky, and then, of vodka. It all played a part. Now, after decades of stagnation, the country is reclaiming its role in the world of whiskey.

A tasting at the Irish Whiskey Museum, which is located in the heart of Dublin. Jake Emen

The Irish Whiskey Resurgence

Back in the 1890s, there was no question as to where the center of the whiskey world was: it was Dublin, says Dan, an enthusiastic guide at the Irish Whiskey Museum in the heart of the capital. At the time, it was estimated that about one in every three people in Dublin were directly or indirectly involved in the production of alcohol, and almost three quarters of the whiskey sold around the world was Irish. As sales slowed, and distilleries closed and merged, Irish whiskey eventually dwindled all the way down to a minuscule 1% of the market.

Following the consolidation of Irelands remaining players  a move, which should be noted, did preserve the industry and many of its legacy brands, and allowed for an eventual comeback  there was no whiskey in Dublin. For decades, Dublin was dry. Well, thats not fair. It was still home to endless pubs and craic, and eventually incredible stores such as the Celtic Whiskey Shop, and attractions such as the Guinness Storehouse and the Jameson Bow St. experience, a visitors center but notably not a production site. Still, no whiskey was being made anywhere in the city, a harsh reminder of downturn and depression as the spirits onetime epicenter remained entirely denuded.

The Irish Whiskey Museum, which offers guided tours and tastings, chronicles the rise of the liquors production in the country, its fall and its current rebirth. When it opened in 2014, it also happened to herald a new dawn for Irish whiskey in Dublin: by the next year, actual, honest-to-goodness whiskey distillation returned to the city in a flourish in the form of Teeling Distillery.

Now the Irish whiskey category on the whole is healthier than it has been for about 125 years. In 2021, there were 5.9 million 9-liter cases of Irish whiskey sold in the U.S., representing $1.3 billion in sales, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. Its been a meteoric two-decade surge since 2002, with overall growth of 1,260% fueled by a staggering 9,102% growth in the super-premium niche.

Those legacy brands should be commended for opening up their stills, and their stocks, and releasing a litany of high-end and experimental offerings in recent years. At the same time, scores of craft brands have emerged, and while many continue buying their juice from the big boys, there are now approximately 40 operational distilleries across the island, with another two dozen or so in some stage of planning or development. Teeling was first out of the gate in Dublin, and has since been joined in town by the likes of Roe & Co, Pearse Lyons and the Dublin Liberties.

Teeling Distillery, opened in 2015, marked the beginning of a new era for Dublin-made whiskey. Jake Emen

Dublins Whiskey Scene Today

Being the first back in Dublin, theres a certain responsibility there, but also an opportunity to paint the picture we want, says Alex Chasko, Teelings master distiller.

Its almost taken for granted today: of course theres whiskey made in Dublin. Duh. However, it wasnt long ago when that wasnt the case. When Teeling opened its doors in 2015 it was a watershed moment for Irish whiskey, and for the city which was once its proud home. It also meant the distillery needed to start from scratch in terms of education and outreach, both to Dublin natives and visitors alike.

Seven years ago, we really had to start with what Irish whiskey was and its history, says James Kilgannon, the distillerys brand ambassador.

In the years since, the Teeling distillery and its product line have both come of age, with one early milestone being the release of their own single pot still whiskey in 2018. This category is distilled from a combination of malted and unmalted barley, with the style having been created originally as a means of evading the tax on malted barley. Who doesnt love an origin story like that?

Its become a unique tenet of Irish production, though, and combined with a triple distillation process produces a spirit without many close comparables in other whiskey categories. Single pot still whiskey is showcased by brands such as Redbreast and Green Spot (both under the Irish Distillers umbrella and made at Midleton), which for many drinkers represented the lone shining lights amid the darkest days of the countrys whiskey history.

Bringing more Irish single pot still to the world, and having made it themselves, was therefore no small feat, and for Teeling, this category remains the core of their lineup and production. Its a modern, Dublin pot still whiskey, were not trying to replicate anything, Kilgannon says. People are asking for Irish pot still now, which is incredibly exciting.

Teeling also distills single malt, offers single grain whiskey, and produces blended whiskey, a combination of the two. Collectively, this represents the four styles of Irish whiskey. At the distillery, they use those different starting points in numerous ways, producing the popular peated whiskey known as Blackpitts, for instance, along with an ever-growing assortment of cask finishes.

Not to mention the top of the product line, the Vintage Reserve Collection, a series of whiskeys with new releases over three decades of age, using remaining whiskey stocks obtained from the Cooley Distillery. The key for us is to use that stock wisely, Chasko says. Theyve been doling it out in select (and spectacular) small batches, and still have plenty in the reserve tanks to come, though its not an inexhaustible supply. Cooley, meanwhile, is notable for becoming the third active distillery in Ireland when John Teeling opened it in 1987. He sold the distillery in 2011 (its currently owned by Beam Suntory), and went on to launch the massive Great Northern Distillery, while his sons Jack and Stephen began their own project with the family name front and center.

Youve never seen a distillery like Pearse Lyons, guaranteed. Jake Emen

The New Distilleries to Know

At Roe & Co, in-house production is all about single malt whiskey, while the name is an homage to what was once Dublins largest whiskey distillery, George Roe & Co. They kind of owned Irish whiskey at that point [in the 19th century] in terms of output, says Billy, a guide at the distillery. But everything goes terribly wrong. And so it did for the whole industry, of course.

The new distillery opened in summer 2019, which means it will have self-distilled single malt at three years of age by this summer, though they arent planning to release anything made in house until its more thoroughly matured. Their product line is entirely sourced for the time being, with the brands signature offering unofficially dubbed 106, named for the 106th trial blend in an extensive search for the right profile.

Its a grain-forward blend and was designed to be approachable, but also versatile in cocktails. One tour option at the distillery includes a flavor workshop cocktail class where that idea can be put into practice, while the distillerys beautiful bar space showcases its spirits  and those from across the Diageo portfolio, of which its a part  in elaborate and inventive drinks of all varieties.

Were moving away from the idea of whats traditional, Billy says. If you like your whiskey in a cocktail rather than poured neat, why should they argue with you about it? And the more people drinking whiskey the better.

Just steps down the road is Pearse Lyons. Its where your prayers may yet be answered, as the distillery is located within St. James Church, its copper stills positioned beside gorgeous stained glass scenes depicting the whiskey industry. The distillery is capable of producing all four types of Irish whiskey in-house, across a lineup that currently includes self-distilled products, such as a five-year single malt, and sourced products including older malts, and blends between the two.

With its unique homebase, the distillery leans into the notion of telling not only the story of Irish whiskey, but of Dublin itself. Tours include a history lesson on the church and its place in town  Were surrounded by Guinness here, says Sheila, a tour guide, pointing out the many buildings in every direction tied to the citys signature drink  as well as the adjacent cemetery and the notable figures buried there. The list, apparently, includes a few relatives of the late Dr. Pearse Lyons, the distillerys founder.

The first church on the site was built in the 1100s, but it went through several iterations up through the modern age. Lyons acquired the out-of-service grounds in 2014 and refurbished it, and the distillery opened its doors in 2017. Today, at its altar are two copper stills (ironically from Kentucky producer Vendome, whereas sister bourbon distillery Town Branch uses Forsyths stills from Scotland), and unconsecrated or not, is that not holy? The water of life. Aqua vitae. The spirit that King Henry II of England noted was being made in Ireland at least as far back as 1170.

For 40 years, we had no working distilleries in Dublin, Sheila says. That isnt right.

No, it isnt right, not with a nine-century history of production in the country. Its only fitting then that the industry is alive and thriving once more in Dublin, its one-time world capital. There are so many distilleries coming on board, the landscape has changed dramatically, Chasko, Teelings distiller, says.

But everyone is doing something different, Kilgannon adds. Its competitive in Dublin, but in a healthy competition kind of way. The whiskey industry here is a community, we all know each other. Itll be interesting to see what its all like in five to 10 years.

The whiskey will be older, that much we know. Sounds like we better plan to check back in on it, then.

For more travel news, tips and inspo, sign up for InsideHook's weekly travel newsletter, The Journey.

The post The One-Time World Capital of Whiskey Is Booming Again appeared first on InsideHook.
China, Pacific island countries vow to strengthen cooperation

Xinhua) 08:53, July 15, 2022

BEIJING, July 14 (Xinhua) -- The second China-Pacific Island Countries Political Leadership Dialogue was held via video link on Thursday, with China and Pacific island countries vowing to strengthen cooperation and communication.

Political leaders, officials and business people from Pacific island countries participated in the dialogue in a virtual format. Diplomatic envoys to China from Pacific island countries attended the meeting in Beijing.

Liu Jianchao, head of the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said the CPC is willing to work with political parties in Pacific island countries to strengthen exchanges and mutual learning on country governance, promote pragmatic cooperation in various fields, and build a closer China-Pacific island countries community with a shared future.

Leaders of political parties from Pacific island countries said that China's successful experience provides important inspiration for their countries to achieve prosperity and development, and the political parties will firmly uphold the One-China policy, synergize the Belt and Road Initiative and development strategies of their own countries, and jointly build a community with a shared future for humanity.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen (center) talks with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva (left) and Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati on the sidelines of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting in Bali, July 15, 2022.

Indonesia's finance minister said Friday it is imperative that G20 countries are united in dealing with a looming food crisis caused by the conflict between breadbaskets Russia and Ukraine, or the worlds most vulnerable countries will face disastrous consequences.

During a meeting in Bali, Sri Mulyani Indrawati also told the top finance and economic diplomats from the Group of Twenty counties to schedule a forum of members finance and agriculture chiefs to devise a plan to deal with food and fertilizer shortages.

The unresolved COVID-19 pandemic as well as the unfolding war in Ukraine are likely to exacerbate the already severe 2022 acute food security that we are all already seeing. In addition to that, a looming fertilizer crisis also has the potential to further exacerbate and extend the food crisis even in 2023 and beyond, said the finance minister of Indonesia, this years holder of the G20s rotating chair and host of the Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting.

We are acutely aware that the cost of our failure to work together is more than we can afford. The humanitarian consequences for the world and especially for many low-income countries would be catastrophic, Sri said.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, it has blocked all of the latters Black Sea ports and cut off access to almost all of that countrys exports, especially of grain. Those moves sparked fears of a global food crisis.

In its April report, the Global Crisis Response Group, set up by the United Nations secretary general, said Ukraine and Russia provide 30 percent of the worlds wheat and barley, a fifth of its maize and more than half of its sunflower oil. Russia also is the worlds largest natural gas exporter and second largest oil exporter.

Sri said it was essential to deploy all available financing mechanisms to save lives and strengthen financial as well as social stability.

The G20 could urgently convene a joint G20 finance and agriculture ministers meeting to improve coordination between finance and agriculture ministers and explore actions to address the growing food insecurity and related issues, she said.

This is exactly like we did or what we are doing with joint finance and health ministers when we were dealing with COVID-19 and preparing a pandemic preparedness mechanism.

Sri kept her comments about G20 unity general, but its no secret that the group is split between the West, which has condemned Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, and others including China, Indonesia and India, which have refused to do so and continue to maintain ties with Moscow, analysts have said.

So sharp have the divisions been that in April, U.S., British and Canadian finance chiefs walked out of the last G20 finance ministers meeting in Washington when the Russian minister rose to speak. The Russian foreign minister reciprocated at last weeks G20 foreign ministers meeting in Bali during the top U.S. diplomats address.

Media reports said no one walked out on Friday, day one of the two-day meeting, but it remains to be seen whether the forum will produce a communique on Saturday.
A shoe lies near mounds of wreckage from flight MH17, two days after it crashed in a sunflower field in eastern Ukraine, July 19, 2014. [Dominique Faget/AFP]

Presiding judge Hendrik Steenhuis (right) and other trial judges and lawyers view the reconstructed wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight 17 at the Gilze-Rijen Air Base, Netherlands, May 26, 2021. [Peter Dejong/Pool/AP]

Soldiers carry a coffin with the remains of one of the Malaysian victims in the downing of flight MH17, from the cargo hold of another jet after its arrival at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Aug. 22, 2014. [AFP]

Mohamed Salleh, whose daughter, Malaysia Airlines flight attendant Nur Shazana, was one of the 298 killed when flight MH17 crashed after being shot down in eastern Ukraine, touches her coffin during a burial ceremony in Putrajaya, Malaysia, Aug. 22, 2014. [Mohd Rasfan/AFP]

Relatives of Malaysians who died aboard an airliner shot down over Ukraine by Russian-backed separatists eight years ago are marking the anniversary with renewed bitterness, as the region where the tragedy occurred is now engulfed in a war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Ammar Syarif said Russia's invasion of the neighboring country brought back feelings of disbelief connected with the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight 17 in eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border, on July 17, 2014.

His father, Malaysia Airlines flight supervisor Mohd Ghafar Abu Bakar, was among the 283 passengers and 15 crewmembers aboard the doomed Boeing 777.

They have not learned anything, have they? All these hostilities, fights, will only bring misery to the people, Ammar said.

What happened to MH17 might happen again. Different nations, different people, maybe. But I hope not, Ammar told BenarNews. I cannot blame Russia alone, Ukraine has a part in this too. This would not happen if there is no conflict between the two nations.

Flight MH17 had left from Amsterdam and was bound for Kuala Lumpur when a missile brought down the airliner, which crashed in a sunflower field in a village in the Donetsk region.

Malaysia Airlines flight supervisor Mohd Ghafar Abu Bakar died when a Russian-made missile struck flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014. [Photo courtesy his family]

Noraini Mohd Noor, who lost her sister, Rahimah Mohd Noor, expressed similar concerns.

Now, with the war between Russia and Ukraine, the possibility of another tragedy like MH17 is there, she told BenarNews.

The pain of both families deepened when they got their loved ones belongings that were recovered from the crash site.

We received the box about a year after the tragedy, I think. It contained my fathers name tag, his shirt and his safety book among others, Ammar said.

I recognized the shirt as we always watched what he packed for his trip. Until today, the box is still unpacked. My mother did not want to open it. I respect her wishes.

Noraini said her sister had packed gifts for family members as she planned to spend three months in Malaysia instead of her normal visit of two weeks.

After not seeing us for six years, she packed her luggage with souvenirs for us  lots of it was clothing, she said. But when it was returned to the family, we decided not to keep anything. We let her husband and her two children keep it all, it was our family decision.

She told me she wanted to fix our mothers home, she wanted to give some donations to orphans and wanted to spend more time with us, she said.

Then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko (right), joined by Kees Klompenhouwer, who served as the Dutch ambassador to Ukraine, kneel at a flower memorial for MH17 victims at the Netherlands Embassy in Kyiv, July 21, 2014. [AFP/Presidential Press-Service/Mykhaylo Markiv]

Rahimah, a government officer attached with Malaysias Ministry of International Trade and Industry, was sent to the Geneva office three decades earlier where she met and married her husband and had two children. Noraini said she was close to her sister.

We talked over the phone four times a week. Every conversation could last for hours. She loved talking about her family, her time in Geneva, and I loved listening to her, Noraini said.

And yes, she finally came home, for good, when they brought her lifeless body to be buried at our hometown in Ipoh, Perak.

Presiding judge Hendrik Steenhuis (second from right) and other judges listen to testimony from a woman who lost her father and stepmother when flight MH17 crashed in Ukraine, Sept. 6, 2021. [Peter Dejong/AP]

Court actions

In June, testimony in the trial of three Russians and a Ukrainian ended after a two-year trial. The four are linked to a missile which was fired from a launcher trucked into Ukraine and then returned to its military base in Russia after the missile brought down MH17.

Presiding Judge Hendrik Steenhuis said the verdict could be delivered in late November at the earliest, according to media reports.

In 2018, a Dutch-led international criminal investigation officially concluded that the missile had originated from a Russian anti-aircraft military unit.

Members of a joint investigation team present the preliminary results of the criminal investigation into the downing of flight MH17, in Nieuwegein, Netherlands, Sept. 28, 2016. [Emmanuel Dunhand/AFP]

Earlier this year, Australia and the Netherlands initiated legal proceedings against the Russian Federation in the International Civil Aviation Organization.

In a news release on March 14, the Australian government said Russia refused to negotiate with the two nations after withdrawing from talks in October 2020.

The Russian Federations refusal to take responsibility for its role in the downing of Flight MH17 is unacceptable and the Australian government has always said that it will not exclude any legal options in our pursuit of justice, the statement said.

While we cannot take away the grief of those whose loved ones died as a result of Russias actions, the Australian government will pursue every available avenue to ensure Russia is held to account so that this horrific act never happens again.

Kuala Lumpurs state-run news agency, Bernama, reported that Malaysia had agreed to participate with Australia and the Netherlands.

I am fine with our decision to take part in the lawsuit, Ammar said of the legal action.

Noriani, meanwhile, said she expected little from Moscow, which invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, and whose forces have since seized large areas of the Donbas, according to news reports.

I know they [Russia] will never admit that they did it. What else can we do when people do not admit that they have done wrong? Nothing. I can do nothing. You can do nothing, she said.

Azmi Hassan, a senior fellow with Nusantara Academy for Strategic Research, a think-tank in Selangor, questioned Malaysias participation in the legal proceeding because it was not involved in those negotiations with Russia.

The court action was a result of Russias decision to stop negotiating. Malaysia was not part of it. I do not think it was wise for us to be part of the legal action now, he told BenarNews.

The Malaysian government needs to be neutral, Azmi said.

The MH17 issue has been used as geopolitical tools by nations toward Russia and by Russia toward others, so Malaysia has been doing its best to not be tangled in this geopolitical game, he said. We need to take a neutral position until we get concrete proof that Russia is involved directly in the MH17 issues and take the same stand with the Russia-Ukraine war  that is to be as neutral as possible.

On Sunday, Noriani and her family will focus on Rahimah.

We never fail to do something special for her every year. Our siblings will gather, we will do special prayers, recite special duas for her, she said.
Former Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels wait for transportation to a weapons decommissioning ceremony at Camp Darapanan, Sultan Kudarat in Mindanao, a southern island in the Philippines, Sept. 7, 2019.

A Malaysian-led international peace monitoring group has departed from the southern Philippines after the administration of Rodrigo Duterte, who left office late last month, decided their presence was no longer needed, officials said Friday.

The peacekeeping force, known as the International Monitoring Team (IMT) and tasked with safeguarding a ceasefire agreement between the Philippine government and former Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas, departed the country from Cotabato City to little fanfare last month. The monitors had operated in the southern Mindanao region for nearly two decades.

Naguib Sinarimbo, a spokesman for the former MILF rebels, confirmed the withdrawal to BenarNews and said the IMT wanted to alter some of the terms of their agreement. He did not elaborate.

While it has not yet been resolved, they have decided to pull out their contingent. Their authority to stay has also expired, Sinarimbo said. He said IMT could operate again in the Philippines subject to a government review.

The IMT, commanded by Maj. Gen. Hamdan Ismail, officially pulled out at the end of June.

In a message before his departure, which was made available to the press on Friday, Ismail said the bond between the Philippines and Malaysia had grown stronger since IMTs stay in Mindanao.

I wish that your dreams and my dreams of achieving lasting peace in this part of the region can be realized in the near future, Ismail added.

Lt. Col. Aminuddin Ihsan (left), the head of the Bruneian contingent, speaks at a news conference in Manila on Oct. 20, 2004, after the arrival of the 10-member army team from Brunei that would join a larger group of Malaysian peace monitors overseeing a ceasefire between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Sitting next to him is Malaysian Maj. Gen. Zulkifeli bin Mohd Zin, head of delegation for International Monitoring team. [Erik de Castro/Reuters]

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front signed a peace agreement with the central government in 2014, ending its long-running separatist insurgency in Mindanao. Malaysia had brokered the peace negotiations, and its participation evolved to include the monitoring of the interim ceasefire pact forged by both sides about two decades ago.

Representatives from Libya, Brunei, and Japan were included in the Malaysian-led mission, which also monitored the humanitarian, rehabilitation and development aspects of the peace process. The peacekeeping contingent also ensured the protection of civilians in areas where the rebels operated.

Brig. Gen. Antonio Nafarrete, who headed the governments ceasefire team, expressed the administrations gratitude for the IMTs peacekeeping efforts in Mindanao.

Thank you very much. We recognized the IMTs invaluable contribution in sustaining the gains of the Bangsamoro peace process as the team nears the end of its tour of duty, he said.

What will Marcos do?

It remains unclear whether Dutertes successor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., will extend IMTs peacekeeping tenure.

Critics say his father and namesake, the Philippines longtime dictator, led massive military drives in the south and many people either died or disappeared during his time in office from 1965 to 1986.

The former rebels, for one, campaigned against Marcos Jr. Its leader, Murad Ebrahim (whose real name is Ahod Balawag Ebrahim), had blamed Marcos father and the military under the late dictator of ransacking Muslim areas and massacring entire communities. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front was formed, in part, to fight these alleged atrocities, while also seeking independence.

The IMTs strength at one time stood at 60, but it gradually decreased as tension and fighting reduced and peace began to take hold. In March, the government informed the IMT it would no longer extend the mission.

The fronts ceasefire chief, Butch Malang, said the organization remains committed as ever in strengthening the joint peace mechanisms.

We also take this opportunity to strengthen further our common commitment, teamwork, and dedication to work together with all our partners for a stronger proactive ceasefire accord during the post-agreement period of the peace process between the government and the MILF, said Malang.

The MILFs adherence to the ceasefire has been a gradual success but was collectively realized due to the strong cooperation and partnership of security forces, local governments, and communities on the ground, he added.
If you'd like to leave a comment (or a tip or a question) about this story with the editors, please email us

We also welcome letters to the editor for publication; you can do that by filling out our letters form and submitting it to the newsroom.
Editors note: The Berkshire Eagle will bring readers updates on candidates and campaigns ahead of the Sept. 6 primary elections.

Berkshire District Attorney

Berkshire District Attorney Andrea Harrington and challenger Timothy Shugrue are developing their local support this week as their campaigns pass the two-month countdown to the primary.

Harringtons campaign announced she has received the endorsement of the Massachusetts Womens Political Caucus, a nonpartisan statewide organization with a mission of increasing the number of women elected to public office and appointed to public policy positions, according to the caucuss website.

Harrington has made combating gender-based violence and gender and racial equity key components of her campaign. In recent weeks and in the aftermath of the Supreme Courts decision to reverse Roe v. Wade, Harrington has emphasized her dedication to protecting reproductive health rights.

In recent social media statements and local news interviews Harrington has recommitted herself to a 2020 promise to never prosecute abortion-related crimes.

Samantha Bone and Nairoby Sanchez of the womens caucus said in a statement that we need bold leaders like District Attorney Harrington who not only embody their communitys core values, but who recognize that transforming the face of our government is critical.

This is the third time the MWPC has endorsed Harrington. The organization backed her in her 2016 run for state Senate and again in her first DA campaign in 2018, selecting Harrington over candidates Judith Knight and former DA Paul Caccaviello in the primary race.

Knight, a criminal defense attorney from Lee, has reappeared as a figure in this DA election, this time as part of a new group of attorneys, union officials and members of law enforcement who have joined the Committee to Elect Shugrue as honorary chairs.

The Shugrue campaign announced that Knight, along with Francis B. Marinaro, Mary K. OBrien, Ronald Holmes, F. Sydney Smithers and William C. Blackmer Jr., will provide oversight to the campaign and will be in a position to offer strategic advice to Shugrue and his team.

Marinaro is a former Register of the Berkshire Probate and Family Court. OBrien is the former Register of the Berkshire Middle District Registry of Deeds. Holmes is the former business manager of Laborers Local 473. Smithers is a local attorney who has served as town counsel for several Berkshire County communities. Blackmer is a retired lieutenant in the Massachusetts State Police and former commanding officer at the Cheshire barracks.

I am pleased to announce the formation of a distinguished and diverse group of individuals who have agreed to serve as honorary co-chairs of my campaign, Shugrue said in a statement. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have attracted such outstanding people as supporters.

Berkshire County Sheriff

The candidates for Berkshire County sheriff kept campaigning this week, ahead of the Sept. 6 primary that will decide who runs the office for the next six years.

Alfred E Alf Barbalunga, the candidate running against incumbent Thomas Bowler, issued a pair of press releases, in which he further elucidated his thoughts on the jail on Cheshire Road.

Barbalunga, the chief probation officer for the Southern Berkshire District, in a statement accused Bowler of overseeing a legacy of warehousing inmates at the jail.

He reiterated his stance that female inmates should be held at the Cheshire Road facility rather than at the regional womens correctional facility in Chicopee, saying in a second statement that a separate but equal facility is inherently unequal, noting the lengthy travel times to the facility for families and defense lawyers.

Barbalunga said the result is unequal treatment of female inmates, adding that research shows women who are separated from familial connection are more likely to suffer during their time in jail and have trouble upon release.

During an appearance with Bill Sturgeon on WTBRs Morning Drive, Bowler was asked about the decision to incarcerate women in Chicopee. He said that in the mid-2000s the four Western Massachusetts sheriffs and the Legislature studied how best to meet the needs of these women, and decided on a regional approach.

The Legislature appropriated $50 million to build the Western Massachusetts Regional Womens Correctional Center in Chicopee, he said.

According to Bowler, the portion of the facility that would house female inmates was built around 2012, when former Hampden County Sheriff Michael Ashe asked Bowler if he wanted incarcerated women from Berkshire County to be housed there in order to provide them equitable and gender specific services.

It was a long process, it wasnt something where we just ripped them out of the community like my opponent says, Bowler said. It was appropriate, because they deserve the same services that male inmates get.

The number of incarcerated women in Berkshire county is notably smaller than the number of incarcerated males, he said, but delivering services to them locally would require all services be duplicated, because of state law that dictates how female and male inmates must be kept separate from one another.
PITTSFIELD  Defense attorney Timothy Shugrue and Berkshire District Attorney Andrea Harrington will meet in two forums across the county as the candidates continue to make their cases for the DAs office.

The campaigns have both agreed to two candidate forums in August. One will be an in-person event hosted by the North Adams Democratic City Committee and Williamstown Democratic Town Committee, and another forum will be held virtually and hosted by the Berkshire County branch of the NAACP, League of Women Voters and ACLU.

Harringtons campaign said that a third debate is in the works.

The Berkshire District Attorney's primary is two months away. Here's what you need to know Voters will decide whether to re-elect Andrea Harrington, who has dedicated herself to reforming how prosecutors pursue justice, or to give local defense attorney Timothy Shugrue a chance to  in his words in March reinvigorate the office.

Campaign representatives said that the NAACP-hosted forum is set for some time in early August, though organizers have yet to publicize details about the event.

The North County forum is set for Aug. 24 at 6 p.m. at the Greylock Community Club in North Adams. The North Adams Democratic City Committee said on its Facebook page that along with the DA candidates, an invitation has been extended to the candidates for the countys state representative and state senator positions.

Harringtons campaign said in a statement Thursday that the district attorney is looking forward to participating in the upcoming debates and forums and talking about her proven record as District Attorney, emphasizing her work on gender-based violence, the opioid epidemic and racial disparities in the courts.

Shugrues campaign  which has focused on a platform of stricter drug crime prosecutions, diversion programs and combatting gun violence  said in a statement that he is excited to come before voters and give them an opportunity to see the differences between Tims vision of the office of District Attorney and the one that currently exists.

Shugrue campaign representatives told The Eagle that the campaign has reached out to the Harrington campaign to try and organize a series of cross-county debates alongside the scheduled forums.

Shugrues campaign manager and wife, Joann, wrote to The Eagle that Shugrue is looking for candidates to meet face-to-face and ask and answer questions from one another  not just from a moderator.

So far, the forums represent the first time the candidates will appear side-by-side before voters cast their vote in the Sept. 6 Democratic primary.
Several projects in the Berkshires to handle heavier rains brought on by the changing climate will advance with new backing from the state.

The $4.6 million in overall grant funding for 31 projects statewide, announced this week, includes $367,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding to pay for construction work on a culvert replacement project along the Savery Brook at Frost Road in Washington.

The culvert there is too small and collapsed. The finished structure will increase stream connectivity, improve aquatic habitat, and reduce flooding hazards.

We are thrilled to finally have the last piece of the funding puzzle fall into place, said Kent Lew, chairman of the Washington Select Board. That culvert, already undersized, collapsed four or five years ago. The result is serious flooding over the entire road. I myself have seen otters dashing across the road because they cant get through the culvert.

He said previous grant funding of about $47,000 paid for the design of the culvert replacement project, and that the town had been applying for other grants to finish the project.

I dont think I can communicate our level of frustration over this, Lew said. In a rainstorm, that road essentially becomes a dam.

Now that the funding is in place, the town will put the project out to bid, hoping to start work in the fall, with completion in the spring, Lew said.

Another grant of $26,500 will go to Egremont to conduct engineering, design, and permitting work on a culvert replacement project along a tributary to Karner Brook at Blunt Road. Replacing the degraded structure will improve stream connectivity and decrease barriers to wildlife passage.

In the town of Mount Washington, the Nature Conservancy will get $50,000 in American Rescue Plan Act money to remove the Becker Pond Dam.

Taking it out, the state says, will both eliminate a public safety hazard and the liability the dams owner faces. It will also restore the ponds ecology, including fish passage. The money will go to cover final designs on the dams removal, along with permitting and bid services.

Also receiving a grant is the Housatonic Valley Associations Berkshire Clean, Cold, Connected Restoration Partnership. The $220,375 grant will fund ecological restoration, such as road-stream crossing replacements.

According to information released by the governors office, the projects were chosen to strengthen community preparedness for large storms, improve climate-ready infrastructure, protect fisheries, wildlife, and river habitats, and restore floodplain habitat and flood storage capabilities.

The money comes from the Department of Fish and Games Division of Ecological Restoration.

Climate specialists say climate change in New England will result in more humidity and fewer rain episodes  but when there is rain, it will come with greater wind severity and heavier rainfall, resulting in the need for higher-capacity culverts and drains.

Gov. Charlie Baker said in a statement this week that the grants help replace aging infrastructure and enhance outdoor recreation.

Ron Amidon, commission of the Department of Fish and Game, said the projects funded will improve habitat, water quality and public safety.
PITTSFIELD  Berkshire County voters have quite a few primaries to decide, the Massachusetts secretary of state said Friday. Like voters across the commonwealth, theyll have the option of indicating election choices by mail.

Secretary of State William Galvin told The Eagle in a phone interview that registered voters should look for mail from his office, starting Saturday, that contains the paperwork that allows voters to request mail ballots for the Sept. 6 primaries.

The polling hours dont always work for people, Galvin said.

His office prevailed in a court fight with the state Republican Party over the use of mail ballots. The GOP has threatened to challenge the decision, by the state Supreme Judicial Court, to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The state justices upheld the VOTES Act, a law that made the option of voting by mail permanent in the state.

To the possibility of a further legal challenge, Galvin said this Friday: Catch me if you can.

The application forms arriving in mailboxes allow independents to request a ballot to vote in a party primary without having that action change their lack of a party enrollment.

Galvin said his office pushed for continued use of mail-in ballots as an option. We still have some uncertainty as to where the pandemic is going, he said, citing growing COVIC-19 case numbers in parts of the state.

Galvin said he believed voters should have options about how to exercise their rights. And thats all this does, he said. Voters face no out-of-pocket costs to go the route of mailed ballots. Postage is prepaid for both the initial application to receive a ballot and in mailing the actual ballot supplied to applicants.

Galvin said he wanted to expedite delivery of the applications to voters in Berkshire County, noting that there are competitive races for district attorney, sheriff and the state Senate seat to be vacated by Sen. Adam Hinds, D-Pittsfield.




First up, Joe Biden is thinking about dropping tariffs against China. But theres a spy in prison this morning that helps us understand why he shouldnt. Ill explain.





Your second brief, If youre looking for a good paying job, you might consider being a CEO for a health insurance company. One executive made $142M dollars last year. Let's talk about that.





And as always, Im keeping an eye out for developing stories. Put this one on your radar. Mexican cartels are grooming American kids online and paying them cash to traffic illegals or run drugs across the border. Ill share details.





If you enjoyed this episode of the President's Daily Brief, remember to subscribe and listen daily at podfollow.com/pdb.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
IMPROVING AIR QUALITY QUOTIENT WITH TECH

Air quality affects all living organisms in diverse ways. Airborne pathogenic microbes are associated with many infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), avian flu, anthrax, and SARS-CoV-2. In particular, the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the real need for mechanisms to control the spread of airborne respiratory pathogens. Thus, preventing the spread of disease from pathogens has come to the forefront of the public consciousness. And this has brought an increasing demand for novel technologies to prioritise clean air by both big and small players. Startups are flaring up with innovations and technology that have the potential to change the situation, providing methods to combat air pollution and related infections sustainably, intelligently and in an affordable manner.

For Feedback, please email us at: communications@mmactiv.com
Inaugurates the Research Laboratory, Advanced Diagnostic Laboratory and 2nd Blood Transfusion Unit at the Thalassemia and Sickle Cell Society (TSCS) in Hyderabad

The Vice President (VP), M Venkaiah Naidu highlighted the importance of preventive measures to address the huge burden of genetic diseases like thalassemia and sickle cell anaemia in the country.

Addressing a gathering after inaugurating the Research Laboratory, Advanced Diagnostic Laboratory and 2nd Blood Transfusion Unit at the Thalassemia and Sickle Cell Society (TSCS) in Hyderabad, the Vice President urged the private sector and NGOs to complement the governments efforts in combating genetic diseases.

Recognising that the available treatment options for these genetic conditions-- bone marrow transplantation or regular blood transfusion - are cost-intensive and distressing to the child, Naidu called for a comprehensive approach to address the health challenge of thalassemia and sickle cell anaemia.

The VP said that lack of awareness of these genetic diseases is a major impediment in their prevention and early diagnosis. Naidu exhorted the youth to come forward and donate blood for the needy. He also appreciated the Union Health Ministry for coming up with detailed guidelines for the prevention and management of thalassemia, sickle cell anaemia and other variant anaemia.

On this occasion, Naidu also inaugurated the Main Auditorium and Mini Auditorium at TSCS.
The world's largest fashion brands and retailers must increase transparency to tackle the climate crisis and social inequality, according to the latestreleased by non-profit organisation Fashion Revolution.

The seventh edition of the index ranks 250 of the worlds largest fashion brands and retailers based on their public disclosure of human rights and environmental policies, practices, and impacts across their operations and supply chains. Fashion brands Max Mara, Tom Ford and Jil Sander ranked among the lowers for transparency, scoring 0%.

The majority of brands (85%) do not disclose their annual production volumes despite mounting evidence of clothing waste around the world, and most major brands and retailers (96%) do not publish the number of workers in their supply chain paid a living wage.

The Fashion Transparency Index reveals insights into the most pressing issues facing the fashion industry, such as:

 As new and proposed legislation focuses on greenwashing claims, almost half of major brands (45%) publish targets on sustainable materials yet only 37% provide information on what constitutes a sustainable material.

 Only 24% of major brands disclose how they minimise the impacts of microfibres despite textiles being the largest source of microplastics in the ocean.

 The vast majority of major brands and retailers (94%) do not disclose the number of workers in their supply chains who are paying recruitment fees. This paints an unclear picture of the risks of forced labour as workers may be getting into crippling debt to accept jobs paying poverty wages.

 While many brands use their channels to talk about social justice, they need to go beyond lip service. Just 8% of brands publish their actions on racial and ethnic equality in their supply chains.

Despite these disappointing results, Fashion Revolution says it's encouraged by increasing supply chain transparency among many major brands, primarily with first-tier manufacturers where the final stage of production occurs, e.g. cutting, sewing, finishing and packing. Nine brands have disclosed their first-tier manufacturers for the first time this year.

Fashion Revolutions cofounder and global operations director Carry Somers says: In 2016, only five out of 40 major brands (12.5%) disclosed their suppliers. Seven years later, 121 out of 250 major brands (48%) disclose their suppliers. This clearly demonstrates how the index incentivises transparency but it also shows that brands really are listening to the millions of people around the world who keep asking them #WhoMadeMyClothes? Our power is in our persistence.

Highest scoring brands

Italian brand OVS scored highest again this year with 78%, tied with Kmart Australia and Target Australia, who increased their scores by 22 percentage points vs 2021.

This is followed by H&M, The North Face and Timberland who are tied at 66%. The biggest movers this year are Calzedonia Group brands (Calzedonia, Intimissimi and Tezenis) who increased their score by to 54%, a significant improvement compared to last years 11%.

Lowest scoring brands

Seventeen major brands score a dismal 0% rating including: Jil Sander, Fashion Nova, New Yorker, Max Mara, Semir, Tom Ford, Helian Home, Belle, Big Bazaar, Elie Tahari, Justfab, K-Way, Koovs, Metersbonwe, Mexx, Splash and Youngor. A total of 73 brands score in the 0-10% range  thats almost a third of the worlds largest brands and retailers.

More key findings from 2022 index

Progress on transparency in the global fashion industry is still too slow among 250 of the worlds largest fashion brands and retailers, with brands achieving an overall average score of just 24%, up 1% from last year

"For another year, we have seen major brands and retailers publicly disclose the most information about their policies, commitments and processes on human rights and environmental topics and significantly less about the results, outcomes and impacts of their efforts," says Fashion Revolution.

Most (85%) major brands still do not disclose their annual production volumes despite mounting evidence of overproduction and clothing waste

Thousands of tonnes of clothing waste are found globally. Brands have disclosed more information about the circular solutions they are developing (28%) than on the actual volumes of pre- (10%) and post-production waste they produce (8%). "Brands have sat by as waste-importing countries foot the bill, resulting in serious human rights and environmental implications," notes Fashion Revolution.

Just 11% of brands publish a responsible purchasing code of conduct indicating that most are still reluctant to disclose how their purchasing practices could be affecting suppliers and workers

Greater transparency on how brands interact with their suppliers ought to be a first step towards eliminating harmful practices and promoting fair purchasing practices, according to the NPO. The poor performance on transparency in this vital area is a missed opportunity for brands to demonstrate they are serious about addressing the root causes of harmful working conditions, including the instances where they themselves are the key driver.

Despite the urgency of the climate crisis, less than a third of major brands disclose a decarbonisation target covering their entire supply chain which is verified by the Science-Based Targets Initiative

Many brands and retailers rely heavily on garment-producing countries that are vulnerable to the impacts of the climate crisis, yet Fashion Revolution's research shows that only 29% of major brands and retailers publish a decarbonisation target covering their operations and supply chain, which is verified by the Science Based Targets Initiative.

Only 11% of brands publish their supplier wastewater test results, despite the textile industry being a leading contributor to water pollution

Fashion Revolution points out that the fashion industry is a major contributor to water pollution and one of the most water-intensive industries on the planet. Only 11% of major brands publish their wastewater test result, and only 25% of brands disclose the process of conducting water-related risk assessments in their supply chain.

Transparency on wastewater test results is key to ensuring that brands are held accountable for their potentially devastating impacts on local biodiversity, garment workers and their communities.

Most major brands and retailers (96%) do not publish the number of workers in their supply chain paid a living wage nor do they disclose if they isolate labour costs

According to Fashion Revolution, insufficient progress is being made by most brands towards ensuring that the workers in their supply chain are paid enough to cover their basic needs and put aside some discretionary income. Just 27% of brands disclose their approach to achieving living wages for supply chain workers and 96% do not publish the number of workers in their supply chain paid a living wage.

"In response, we have joined forces with allies across civil society to launch Good Clothes, Fair Pay. The campaign demands groundbreaking living wage legislation across the garment, textile and footwear sector. We are collecting one million signatures from EU citizens from 19th July 2022," the NPO comments.

Fashion Revolutions policy and research manager Liv Simpliciano believes that greater transparency is crucial in order to address the root cause of many of fashions social and environmental issues featured in the Fashion Transparency Index.

It is frustrating to see brands continued lack of transparency on critical issues like their waste volumes, carbon and water footprints and workers being paid a living wage. When there is a lack of transparency on the issue itself, we cannot reasonably understand if what is being done is robust enough to drive the impact we so urgently need.

Transparency empowers civil society and workers representatives and until brands publicly disclose all the information necessary to hold them accountable for their impacts, being un-transparent feels like a deliberate strategy to reinforce the status quo.
South Africa's Competition Commission, which has been probing online markets for over a year, has provisionally found that Google's paid search results distort competition, making it a "de facto monopolist" in general search.

Source:  Indian Express Indian Express South Africa's Competition Commission, has provisionally found that Google's paid search results distort competition, making it a "de facto monopolist" in general search.

This is according to Reuters, which has reported that South Africa's Competition Commission - that has been probing online markets for over a year - has provisionally found that Google's paid search results distort competition, making it a "de facto monopolist" in general search.

Paid results to be labelled as advertising

The watchdog provisionally recommends that paid results are prominently labelled as advertising with borders and shading to be clearer to consumers and that the top of the page is reserved for organic or natural search results based on relevance only and not influenced by payments.

It also recommends that Google allowed competitors to compete for prominence in a search by having their own specialist units and with no guaranteed positions for Google.

"The inquiry is also exploring whether the default position of Google search on mobile devices should end in South Africa," it adds.

Distorting of competition in Googles favour

The competition watchdog says in a statement the prevalence of Google's paid search at the top of the search results page "without adequate identifiers as advertising raises platform customer acquisition costs and favours large, often global, platforms."

While "preferential placement of their own specialist search units also distorts competition in Google's favour."

Increasing competition

According to Reuters Google will review the report and work constructively with the commission to answer their questions, a Google spokesperson said in an emailed response to Reuters.

"The competition Google faces is always increasing, there are more ways than ever that people can find information, from specialised sites for travel and shopping, or from other search engines, social media and elsewhere," the spokesperson adds.

Governments around the world are strengthening the regulation of US tech giants that have become even more powerful during the Covid-19 pandemic.

There are multiple investigations globally into their market positions, including in the US and the European Union. Britain's competition regulator in May launched its second probe into Google's advertising practices.

(Reporting by Nqobile Dludla Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
This year, in celebration of Mandela Day, the Nelson Mandela Foundation hosted its inaugural Mandela Day Houghton Run on Sunday, 17 July, a day before what would have been his 104th birthday.

The event, which honoured the birthday of the global human rights icon, the late Nelson Mandela, was held in the grand old suburb of Houghton, where Madiba often walked in his later years. Many people were often surprised to find him walking the streets with his bodyguards in tow.

"I have always believed exercise is a key not only to physical health but to peace of mind."

Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, 1994.

As an added treat for participants, multi award-winning group, Ladysmith Black Mambazo participated in this inaugural event in celebration of our first democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela, with whom they shared many memorable gatherings, including the awarding of his Nobel Peace Prize.

The 8km race route incorporated some iconic sites, such as Madiba's 12th street house, the Sanctuary Mandela on 13th Street and the Nelson Mandela Foundation on Central Street.

The Old Edwardians club hosted the start and finish of the race, with Virgin Active Houghton hosting the race warm-up. Interestingly, the establishment of Virgin Active was a direct result of Nelson Mandela's intervention to financially rescue the former Health & Racquet Clubs by reaching out to Sir Richard Branson of the Virgin Group in Britain.

Other businesses based in the neighbourhood who have lent their support to the event are Power FM, Vision Tactical, and Indwe Insurance.

The race started at 8am and was be timed with Discovery Vitality offering 300 points for members to complete the distance. Tickets were available at Ticketpro for a donation of R200. All race proceeds went towards the work of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.




Nexia SAB&T has welcomed Kreston Johannesburg Inc. (Kreston JHB), a partner-led accounting, audit and business advisory firm, as its 10th office in South Africa. The business will continue to trade under the Nexia SAB&T brand, emphasising its close links to Nexia International (Nexia). Nexia, with a presence of 265 members across 128 countries, is the 8th largest network of independent accounting and business advisory firms and was awarded the coveted Network of the Year in 2021 by the Digital Accountancy Awards.

Nexia SAB&T is a home-grown South African professional services firm with nine offices in each of the countrys provinces. Kreston JHB will become its second office in Gauteng, South Africas economic hub. Nexia SAB&T provides a comprehensive portfolio of services in the accounting, audit and business advisory space. Its clients include start-ups and SMMEs, family-owned and managed business, multi-national and publicly listed companies, as well as government and SOEs.

Kreston JHB is an established firm with over 27 years of experience in the accounting, audit and tax arena.

Nexia SAB&T CEO, Bashier Adam, mentioned that the deal represented enormous potential for two entrepreneurial and forward-thinking firms, providing an opportunity to leverage our position as a leading mid-tier firm in South Africa.

Kreston JHB has built a reputation on offering a personalised service. Trust, quality and professionalism have always formed the foundation of our approach, and this has earned us a reputation as a trusted partner in the business services landscape, comments Jacques de Villiers, managing director of Kreston JHB. These values align well with those of Nexia SAB&T and this was a strong motivation to embark on this relationship.

Ayisha Ramasike, chairperson of Nexia SAB&T, added: The coming together of our firms under the Nexia SAB&T banner feels very appropriate. Our company backgrounds, values and vision are aligned. The merger will also mean more resources for our clients and growth opportunities for our staff, which we see as an exciting next step in Nexia SAB&Ts incredible story.




The Reserve Bank now regards crypto as a financial asset and intends to regulate it as such.

This was the message of Kuben Naidoo, deputy governor of the South African Reserve Bank, during PSG's Future of money, banking and crypto webinar, which headlined on 12 July as part of its Think Big series.

"Our view has changed. There is a need to bring crypto into the mainstream.

"In terms of South African law, there's nothing stopping South Africans buying and selling crypto assets on the local exchange," Naidoo said.

"Where we do need regulation and will need to do know-your-customer (KYC) compliance, is the point at which they change their rands to crypto assets, and on the other side of the exchange, where they want to change their crypto asset to rands."

Naidoo said the anticipated regulatory framework for crypto trading would focus on its role as a financial asset, not a currency.

"Crypto is not a currency," he said. "You can't go to a shop and exchange it for goods. It's also far too volatile to be used as a payment."

To this end, the Reserve Bank is looking to align crypto with the required licensing requirements set out by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority.

"The first step would be to declare it a financial product, which would allow the Reserve Bank to list it as a scheduled financial product under the Financial Intelligence Centre Act.

"The second would be to have basic KYC and to develop a regulatory framework for the exchange control rules, which would mean South Africans would know how to legally transact with it across borders."

Awaiting sign off is the proposal that if South Africans intend to trade in more than R1m in crypto assets, they'd have to show that they're a South African resident, and they'd have to show their source of income.

"This would be reported to the central bank, recorded, and the tax authorities would issue a tax clearance certificate and a source of funds statement," Naidoo said.

A health warning on the financial product is also key in the regulation of crypto, Naidoo said.

"People need to know that they could lose money when trading in crypto, that [a crypto pledge] is not a bank deposit and that the [ecosystem in which it trades] is not a bank.

Money laundering a key challenge

"[Regulating crypto] legitimises the industry, prevents money laundering and allows for a safe transaction platform for people," Naidoo said.

"The shift that we are seeing in stance from the Sarb is coming through in parts as a result of SA being hit by two big scams already and triggering a lot of concern about theft and money laundering. We're investigating eight to 10 big pyramid schemes per year. The big ones were Triple-M and Sharemax."

"Similarly, 90% of the transactions in the US using crypto assets as payment transactions are either for opioids or the gambling industry.

"People think crypto gives them anonymity and that it's harder to trace them, which is why it's used in cross-border cyber attacks and kidnappings, and as ransomware.

"We're seeing if we can sift out the good apples from the bad apples, and create a regulatory environment that is safer....

We want to create a regulatory environment that will make digital currency safer. Whether it goes up or down is not an issue. The job of the central bank is not to pick winners and losers in an investment race, but to regulate it so that people have an adequate health warning and investor protection.

Naidoo said SA's regulatory framework for crypto trade would be rolled out within the next 12 to 18 months.
The S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy has revealed the jury for the Africa, Middle East and South Asia region, who will be judging the signature dishes of the young chefs at the regional leg of the competition to be held in the city of Cape Town in January 2023.

Spanning two continents, the jurors are three female chefs who have achieved global recognition in their careers: Tala Bashmi from Bahrain, Selassie Atadika from Ghana, and Siba Mtongana from South Africa.

The jurors share their insights on what they will be looking for when judging the competition:

Tala Bashmi

Bahrain-born and Swiss-trained, Tala Bashmi made her name internationally known with her appearances on Top Chef, and at home in Bahrain at her restaurant Fusions by Tala on the rooftop of the five-star Gulf Hotel, where she drives the renaissance of Arabic food and is building a thriving modern culinary scene from the ground up.

She says she will be looking for the young chefs unique perspective, connection to their food history, and original take on food, rather than trends: "Being a region so rich in ingredients, spices, flavours, and culture, it will be great for the chefs to showcase the uniqueness of their region. Also, I believe that sustainable cuisine will play a big role for the new generation of chefs to have longevity in this industry."

Tala is looking forward to: "Uncovering what the next generation is bringing to the table, and in sharing my experiences, perspective, and how Ive adapted to challenges and changes in the industry."

Selassie Atadika

A former United Nations humanitarian, Selassie Atadika completed her culinary education at The Culinary Institute of America. Her company Midunu, a nomadic private dining enterprise in Accra, Ghana embodies New African Cuisine, employing local, seasonal, and underutilised ingredients including traditional grains and proteins to deliver Africas bounty to the table. She was also a finalist in the 2019 Basque Culinary World Prize.

"There are so many exciting trends, ingredients, and ways of interpreting dining coming from regions of Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, which have had limited attention in international gastronomy, she says. With a plethora of traditional preservation techniques like smoking, fermenting, salting, and drying in these cuisines, I'm looking forward to them coming through in the competition."

Selassie is looking for a sense of place in the young chefs signature dishes and for a chef discovering their voice and adding to the culinary world, with innovation and a fresh approach to tradition. "Im interested to see the young chefs bring more diversity to the gastronomic world in this competition! With many eyes on new frontiers in gastronomy, young talent from this region will be necessary for these conversations"

Siba Mtongana

South African celebrity chef and star of the award-winning Sibas Table on Food Network, Mtongana is also a best-selling cookbook author, a business-savvy entrepreneur, and the force behind Siba The Restaurant at the Table Bay Hotel in Cape Town.

Apart from technical skill she will be looking for thoughtfulness, creativity and lots of authenticity: "Those are the key ingredients to create something outstanding, she says. Another criteria that will help her judge dishes from perhaps very different food cultures in this diverse region, is taste. "Ultimately as chefs, we must cook food that people will love, enjoy and come back for - and tell the whole world about that experience."

Mtongana sees Africa and Afro-fusion as one of the upcoming trends in world gastronomy. "It's important that the finalists keep both local and international audiences intrigued and wowed when using ingredients that may not yet be known in the West."

And what shes looking forward to: "Im super excited and proud that South Africa is the host country for this edition of the competition and feel so honoured to be part of the very first only female judging panel! I look forward to seeing young, pure and raw talent through these young chefs showcasing their skills. I think its important to impart and share our knowledge with the younger generation to inspire them to be the best now and in the future!"
A fulfilled and thriving workforce is a goal for all progressive businesses. Post-pandemic, employers across the world are grappling with optimal staffing solutions for recovering businesses. This has been evident to many frustrated travellers at airports around the world, waiting in queues because staffing levels have not been adequately restored to match increased demand. But it is not only airports and airlines that are struggling to find the best model to manage fluctuating workflow. Globally, companies are trying to find the most efficient staffing models and flexible arrangements within those models to ensure they meet increased customer demand and new staff expectations.

Many businesses are keen to see employees returning to the workplace, with a large number (especially in the professional and business services industries) sensing an opportunity to attract and retain sought-after talent by redefining their post-pandemic workplace policies. However, a large number of employees are less than keen to face the daily commute and canteen food after two years of the great flexibility remote working offers to them, with many resisting the urge to give up their work from home status.

What talent wants

While workplace flexibility has become a key negotiation point in employment contracts, the modern workforce also increasingly demands that their employers' activities match their own personal ideals. This includes that the business operates in a sustainable way and provides benefits for the environment, local economies and the surrounding communities. The pandemic doubled down on this focus on corporate citizenship, and businesses have had to ensure they identify sustainability risks and opportunities in every part of their business strategy, including in workforce planning.

Attracting the right talent particularly requires responsible leadership and increasing transparency. Employees of the modern workforce want to be in an environment where they feel they are making a meaningful contribution to the greater global issues. Employees, customers, shareholders and other stakeholders are demanding that organisations take a stance on important issues such as racism, sexual harassment, unemployment, and income inequality. Leading businesses are turning this challenge into a competitive advantage by creating workplaces with purposeful engagement and ways to accommodate a diverse set of employees with differing workplace needs. Business indicators such as staff turnover and employee engagement are now the critical markers of organisational effectiveness.

Businesses in the post-pandemic environment are also considering the composition of the workforce, creating a structure that draws on the various forms of staffing solutions that are appropriate to the business, with due regard to the benefits and drawbacks of traditional and flexible workforce options.

Changing strategies

Employers are also considering changes in their employee relations strategy that move from a primary focus on collective engagement to recognising the needs of smaller interest groups or, where possible, individual employees. Employee engagement surveys, individual feedback sessions, career planning, performance management, employee goal and expectation setting, anonymised feedback channels and exit interviews are useful tools in the arsenal of the modern people practitioner and line manager.

These and other communication vehicles are likely to be a more accurate barometer of the employee relations climate than considering the number of days lost due to industrial action, a number of grievances filed, or labour disputes declared. In this era of high employee mobility  even when taking into account the dramatic unemployment rate  staff appear to be more inclined to vote with their feet (or social media account) than filing a grievance or demanding that their trade union resolve the issue with the employer.

A successful post-pandemic business will also create opportunities for feedback and information from staff and stakeholders outside (or in addition to) the traditional upward communication channels. They will also find workplace-appropriate mechanisms to regularly test the employee relations climate, being nimble to adjust employee relations strategies to tailor to the fast-changing views of society as reflected in the workplace. A further imperative for employers of the modern workforce will be creating a purpose for employees by communicating an understanding of what the business is and the reason for its existence, then linking that to the function of the teams and individuals.

Employers that are able to correctly identify the right workforce mix when considering the various options available to them and then find ways of accommodating and communicating with their staff to create meaning and purpose for them are at a strategic advantage when it comes to attracting the right talent and managing an engaged workforce in the new world of work.
Higher education, science and innovation minister Dr Blade Nzimande says the South African delegation's recent visit to the United Kingdom will propel South Africa's hydrogen economy to greater heights.

According to the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), the team representing South Africa explored potential trade relationships to support high technology manufacturing centred on the hydrogen economy.

Along with the DSI, delegates included those from Airports Company South Africa, the Limpopo Economic Development Agency, Trade and Investment KwaZulu-Natal, the Gauteng Department of Economic Development, and academia. They visited Teesside, which is at the forefront of the UK's transition to a green economy and is an international gateway to the UK.

The DSI said its ambition is to lead the UK's transition to a green economy and expand its international trading role.

"The mission was aimed at establishing strategic partnerships that will promote the manufacturing of locally developed intellectual property across South Africa's hydrogen corridor, and the export of green hydrogen and green ammonia to the UK market," said Nzimande.

Long-standing bilateral agreement

South Africa signed a bilateral agreement with the UK on cooperation in science and technology in 1995, with climate change, biotechnology, astronomy and global change identified as areas for collaboration.

One of the key outcomes of the mission to Teesside was to expand the existing agreement through a memorandum of understanding setting out identified potential collaboration opportunities on the hydrogen economy.

The DSI is interested in collaborating with the UK2070 Commission to share ideas on how to use hydrogen economy opportunities to deal with poverty, unemployment and inequality.

The UK2070 Commission is an independent inquiry into the city and regional inequalities in the UK, which will include a review of the policy and spatial issues related to the UK's long-term city and regional development.

The delegation, which returned on Thursday, 14 July, agreed to collaborate in numerous areas, deepen existing collaboration instruments such as the Newton Fund, finalise agreements, establish working groups and collectively sign the memorandum of understanding.
As of 20 June 2022, 213 foreign truck drivers had been arrested for operating illegally this year. This has been accompanied by local truck drivers staging economically devastating protests across the N3 and other major highways. These protests are already predicted to have cost the economy over R300m.

Through all of this, many are blaming foreign truck drivers. But they are not the ones hurting the economy through destructive protests. If anything, they are the ones keeping it alive by maintaining crucial supply chains across the country.

To solve the problem of foreign truck drivers, an 11-point plan has been agreed upon by the South African Transport Union (Satawu), the industry bargaining council, the All Truck Drivers Alliance (ATDF), and the Transport Association of South Africa (Tasa).

The plan, in essence, involves restricting the rights of foreign truck drivers, bringing foreign truck drivers in line with restrictive SA labour laws (that dont help anyone), and the tightening of visa requirements.

The knee jerk reaction by many is that foreigners are taking South African jobs, and this must stop. Local is lekker, right? Well, not necessarily.

Many businesses employ foreigners because they arent held back by inane labour regulations that make employing South Africans risky, costly, and restrictive. Often, foreign drivers are also more experienced and better suited for the job. If they werent a net benefit to the business, and the economy by extension, they wouldnt be hired.

Local truck drivers dont want to compete with foreigners, so theyre disrupting innocent peoples lives, halting supply chains, and damaging the economy. Theyre effectively holding the state and SA hostage because they fear competition from skilled workers who just want to do their job.

The fact that these truck drivers are foreign is irrelevant. Being local doesnt make someone more deserving of a job than a foreigner. And lack of compliance to destructive labour laws is more a reflection of why those labour laws should be abolished. Foreign truck drivers arent actually hurting anyone. They arent taking jobs from locals. Because if local people truly wanted those jobs, they wouldnt be hiding behind unions, labour laws and the state. Theyd perform better. Work harder or be willing to be paid less.

Boon for the economy

And as consumers, having many cheaper truck drivers shipping goods around the country is a net boon for the economy and for our society. It will reduce the cost of living and make everything cheaper.

We should be welcoming more foreign truck drivers, not pushing them away.

What these moves to restrict foreign truck drivers really amount to is babying industries and lobby groups. Its pampering local businesses like children. When we restrict competition, we let our local businesses and workers live in a fictional world in which they have protected employment and dont have to perform well or be paid realistically (because the market rate is what really matters). It doesnt prepare us for the global market or reality.

But most of all, our economy relies on skilled and affordable truck drivers. And the majority of these are foreign truck drivers. If they are forced out of the industry and country, then watch prices soar even more. And it wont be the local truck drivers who suffer. The costs of their selfishness will be handed down to the poorest South Africans, who will have to pay even more for the barest essentials.

Cut the red tape

Instead of restricting foreign truck drivers and forcing ill-thought-out labour laws on them, we should be abolishing the laws for all people working in South Africa. Be them local or foreigner. Restrictive labour laws are the prime cause of our economy stagnation and decline. Businesses cant afford the risk or expense of employing costly, often apathetic, union-bound workers. And those who want to work, cant, as the minimum wage, labour restrictions and a host of regulations disincentivise businesses from employing new workers.

Cut the red tape for everyone, and South Africans will no longer need to worry about foreign truck drivers. Everyone will be on the same footing.

The government and all South Africans must not bow to the demands of these local truckers and their heavy-handed unions. Jobs belong to those willing to work. Accidents of birth should have no bearing on who has the right to work. Let anyone, foreign or not, be employed as a trucker if their employer seems them suitable. And let their performance speak louder than any bit of xenophobic legislation.

This article was first published in City Press on 4 July 2022.
Franklin D. Roosevelt once said: "A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor" and, in the case of Zahid Mohammadi , this is completely accurate. The president and CEO of Pivotal B2B Media has faced many challenges in his lifetime. Hailing from Afghanistan, a country with its fair share of turmoil, Mohammadi was able to rise above his personal struggles in order to create something that would not only benefit Afghans, but people all around the world.

Zahid Mohammadi

Without the support of a wealthy family, Mohammadi worked tirelessly to complete his education. He was incredibly proud and grateful to receive a scholarship to the University of Pune, where he earned a BA in Political Science. During his time as a college student, he also had to work in order to support himself, and it was with luck that the experience sparked his passion for his own business.

B2Bs dont exist in Afghanistan and, if they do, they havent yet penetrated the mass market. When I was studying in India, I found a job at a B2B marketing company and it inspired me to start my own venture. I decided to start my own path when I returned to Afghanistan, says the self-made entrepreneur.

In his first year of business, Pivotal B2B Media generated over 900% of the initial capital  an incredibly impressive accomplishment. However, Mohammadis problems were far from over.

When the pandemic swept the globe, Mohammadi was forced to restructure the company in order to keep it afloat. Digitising the business proved to be a huge challenge, especially in the beginning. Mohammadi had to lean on his feet quickly in order to bring the company online. In August 2021, he faced another significant obstacle, as Afghanistan passed a law which prohibited Pivotal B2B Media from continuing to operate in the country.

That was when I lost all hope of trying to make it work in my home country, the innovator explains, I left Afghanistan and moved the company to America in search of better opportunities, and this experience allowed me to learn much more than I ever could have in my own country.

Since the company started operating in the US, Mohammadi has successfully launched new products, such as: demand generation for technology, marketing automation, marketing database services, content syndication, global B2B media, event marketing, and CRM.

Muhammadi is currently working on advanced marketing technologies that have great potential for high returns. His position gives him the opportunity to help other organisations identify specific market segments, using an intelligent targeting strategy. Pivotal B2B media analyses job positions, locations, technology users, and other unique filters in order to seek out the ideal niche for their client, helping them to deliver efficient marketing strategies.

The founder is passionate about creating job opportunities for Afghan youth, and hopes to be able to give them the support that he never had. He believes that the people of Afghanistan have profound intelligence and potential, but they are stifled and oppressed by the lack of technology and exposure. Through his company and partnerships, he is working towards bringing more of the Afghan workforce into the global market by encouraging and fostering interest in working remotely for top media and software companies. Although Mohammadi doesnt have any immediate plans to return to his home country, he will always hold a soft spot in his heart for Afghanistan.






Borsa Italiana non ha responsabilita per il contenuto del sito a cui sta per accedere e non ha responsabilita per le informazioni contenute.

Accedendo a questo link, Borsa Italiana non intende sollecitare acquisti o offerte in alcun paese da parte di nessuno.

Sarai automaticamente diretto al link in cinque secondi.
BEIJING (AP)  Chinas economy contracted in the three months ending in June compared with the previous quarter after Shanghai and other cities shut down to fight coronavirus outbreaks, but the government said a stable recovery is under way after businesses reopened.

The worlds second-largest economy shrank by 2.6%, down from the January-March periods already weak 1.4%, official data showed Friday. Compared with a year earlier, a measures that can hide recent fluctuations, growth slid to 0.4% from the earlier quarters 4.8%.

Activity was much weaker than expected, Rajiv Biswas of S&P Global Market Intelligence said in a report. A worker installs a surveillance camera outside a mall, Friday, July 8, 2022, in Beijing. China's economic growth plunged to 0.4% over a year earlier in the latest quarter after Shanghai and other cities were shut down to fight coronavirus outbreaks, but the government said a "stable recovery" is underway. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Asian stock markets were mixed following the news. The Hong Kong was down 0.8% at mid-morning while Shanghai, Tokyo and Seoul gained.

Anti-virus controls shut down Shanghai, site of the worlds busiest port, and other industrial centers starting in late March, fueling concerns global trade and manufacturing might be disrupted. Millions of families were confined to their homes, depressing consumer spending.

Factories and offices were allowed to start reopening in May, but economists say it will be weeks or months before activity is back to normal. Economists and business groups say Chinas trading partners will feel the impact of shipping disruptions over the next few months. A man lowers his mask to drink from a cup as he past near a mall, Wednesday, July 13, 2022, in Beijing. China's economic growth plunged to 0.4% over a year earlier in the latest quarter after Shanghai and other cities were shut down to fight coronavirus outbreaks, but the government said a "stable recovery" is underway. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

The resurgence of the pandemic was effectively contained, the statistics bureau said in a statement. The national economy registered a stable recovery.

Data on factory output, consumer spending and other activity suggest overall growth was even weaker than the headline figure, Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said in a report.

Even accounting for Junes strength, the data are consistent with negative y/y (year-on-year) growth last quarter, Evans-Pritchard wrote. This isnt the first time that the official GDP figures have seemingly understated the extent of an economic downturn. FILE - A worker operates a machine for knitting socks in a factory in Funan county in central China's Anhui province, on March 1, 2022. China's economic growth plunged to 0.4% over a year earlier in the latest quarter, officials announced Friday, July 15, 2022, after Shanghai and other cities were shut down to fight coronavirus outbreaks, but the government said a "stable recovery" is underway. (Chinatopix via AP, File)

The slump hurts Chinas trading partners by depressing demand for imported oil, food and consumer goods.

Chinas infection numbers are relatively low, but Beijing responded to its biggest outbreak since the 2020 start of the pandemic with a zero-COVID policy that aims to isolate every person who tests positive. The ruling party has switched to quarantining individual buildings or neighborhoods with infections but those restrictions covered areas with millions of people.

The ruling Communist Party is promising tax refunds, free rent and other aid to get companies back on their feet, but most forecasters expect China to fail to hit the ruling partys 5.5% growth target this year.

Other major economies report growth compared with the previous quarter, which makes their levels look lower than China. Beijing for decades reported only growth compared with the previous year, which hit short-term fluctuations, but has started to release quarter-on-quarter figures.

Forecasters say Beijing is using cautious, targeted stimulus instead of across-the-board spending, a strategy that will take longer to show results. Chinese leaders worry too much spending might push up politically sensitive housing costs or corporate debt they worry is dangerously high.

Growth for the first half of the year was 2.5% over a year earlier, one of the weakest levels in the past three decades.

Retails sales were off 0.7% from a year earlier in the first half after plunging 11% in April.

Investment in factories, real estate and other fixed assets climbed 6.1%, reflecting the ruling partys effort to stimulate growth by boosting spending on public works construction and ordering state-owned companies to spend more.

China also faces headwinds from weak global demand. Exports jumped 17.9% in June over a year earlier, but forecasters say that reflected ports clearing out cargo after anti-virus curbs lifted. They say growth is likely to fall back.

Slowing growth in the United States and Europe could weaken demand for Chinas manufacturing exports, said Biswas.

China rebounded quickly from the pandemic in 2020, but activity weakened as the government tightened controls on use of debt by its vast real estate industry, which supports millions of jobs. Economic growth slid due to a slump in construction and housing sales.

Investors are waiting to see what happens to one of Chinas biggest developers, Evergrande Group. It has struggled since last year to avoid defaulting on $310 billion owed to banks and bondholders.
WASAGAMING  For two former corporate workers from Calgary, the town of Wasagaming, located 100 kilometres north of Brandon on the shores of Clear Lake, is proving to be a dream come true.

Bree Andal and her partner own the iconic Sugar Shop candy store and Prairie Sun Jewelry and Apparel. Both businesses are located in the historic Scraces building, which was converted from a grocery store and butcher shop 20 years ago.

Andal and her partner gave up their careers in Calgary and bought the businesses at the beginning of the pandemic. It was their dream to live and own a business in Clear Lake, and the pandemic didnt stop them from achieving it. Miranda Leybourne/The Brandon Sun The Ponce family visited Wasagaming, in Riding Mountain National Park, to take in the quaint sights and sounds.

It almost brought more Manitobans out to the park, which is what we want to see, instead of people spending that money going out to Banff or Ontario.

Even though sales remained steady during the pandemic, Andal said it was still a stressful time to be in business.

People were a little bit at their breaking point with COVID. We still had an awesome year business-wise, but this year has been fabulous. Miranda Leybourne/The Brandon Sun Sandra Shwetz, owner of the Boardwalk on Clear Lake, is happy to be serving customers with an unmasked smile.

Andal said a big reason this year is proving so successful is that more people are coming into the park that didnt during the pandemic.

Weve seen people coming out from different portions of Manitoba, weve seen [licence] plates from New York here, so were generating people. People are hearing about us and its so good to see  were very thankful to every person that walks through our door.

Another notable local business in the community is the Boardwalk on Clear Lake, a place people flock to for everything from ice cream to bug spray. Business owner Sandra Shwetz said the pandemic didnt have much of a financial impact on it. Miranda Leybourne/The Brandon Sun Members of the Hilstrom, Jutrast and Pushie family, from Estevan, Sask., enjoy some recreation at Clear Lake on their first trip back since the pandemic.

The business stayed constant. We had an increase over the year before, even in the first COVID year.

This year is the 18th that the business has been serving sweet treats and necessities to visitors. Shwetz said the loosening of restrictions feels wonderful.

Its incredible not to be trying to marshall people from one place to the other with the rules changing every week.

The business removed the plexiglass it had installed to create more separation between customers and workers and, although staff still wear masks during peak hours, Shwetz is happy they can smile at people again. Tension was higher for everyone during the pandemic, even in a place known for holidaymaking happiness.

It wasnt as fun. I have the most fun job in the world, serving ice cream to people, [but]  their spirits werent as high as normal.

The best part of this year for Shwetz has been the return of beloved regular customers that stayed away over the past two years, erring on the side of caution for their health.

Were seeing some faces that wed been seeing for 15 years and didnt see for two. Now theyre back again.

Shwetz is happy to see her customers able to sit down and gather at the picnic tables and benches outside once more.

That sense of community is much stronger this year.

Girlie Ponce, who hails from Winnipeg, visited the town recently with her extended family. They tried to limit their travel during COVID, and now she said theyre all happy to be able to enjoy everything Wasagaming has to offer.

Its just so nice here. Its so cosy and quaint, with beautiful scenery.

Amber Hilstrom brought her family to the lakeside community from Estevan, Sask., around 293 km southwest of Brandon. She said it was their first time returning to Riding Mountain National Park in years.

It feels great to be here.

The pandemic didnt stop Sheldon, Darlene and Porter Rybuk, residents of Winnipeg, from visiting Wasagaming every summer. Last year they even came out twice.

Darlene Rybuk said things have definitely improved this year compared to the last two.

Last year  quite a lot of restaurants and businesses were closed, which was kind of disappointing. So this year, its nice to see that everything is opening up.

While some competition from provincial parks is likely, especially after the Manitoba government announced free park access during the months of July and August, people from within the province and as far away as Texas are flocking to Wasagaming to enjoy a summer thats much more relaxed than in past years.

 mleybourne@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @miraleybourne
Feelings of apprehension and excitement are rippling through Indigenous communities ahead of the Popes visit to Canada later this month and his impending apology to residential school survivors on home soil.

The Canadian government has announced more than $30 million for Indigenous communities and organizations, earmarked to cover the cost of travel for residential school survivors during the pontiffs visit July 24-29. The money can also be used for cultural events and ceremonies to mark the Popes visit.

Pope Francis is expected to expand on an apology he delivered at the Vatican in spring for the abuse that occurred at Roman Catholic-run residential schools in a bid to facilitate reconciliation and healing between the Church and First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples. Winnipeg Free Press Leah LaPlante, vice-president of the Manitoba Metis Federation, says some people are looking forward to the Popes visit, while others appear hesitant.

Debbie Huntinghawk, co-ordinator for 60s Scoop programming at the Brandon Friendship Centre, said she has had people ask her where they can find support and funding to travel to see the Pope.

Theres probably a busload that would like to go from Brandon.

People have been asking their local bands for funding, but most cannot afford to cover such travel expenses, Huntinghawk said.

Manitoba Metis Federation vice-president Leah LaPlante said while First Nations people were most affected by residential schools, some Metis people also attended them. From what shes hearing, theres a lot of excitement in the Metis community right now about the Popes visit.

We have some elders going to Edmonton with the hopes of just being within sight of the Pope, because the Catholic Church was the way we were raised as Metis, and theyre really looking forward to the trip.

Joseph Maud, a resident of Dauphin, attended Pine Creek Indian Residential School from 1965-69. He plans on travelling to Edmonton to hear what Pope Francis has to say, in honour of his siblings; eight of nine of them attended the school, and three have died.

To Maud, who said he was mistreated by the nuns at the school, its important for him to witness what the pontiff says during his visit.

It has to be sincere  he represents the entire Catholic Church, so its important for me personally to hear his apology.

Maud attended former prime minister Stephen Harpers apology in Ottawa in 2009, but said he was disappointed that the promises made then were not kept.

A lot more has to be done by the Church, by the government and by the general population.

The lack of reconciliation, and the fact that Indigenous people still face discrimination and racism in 2022, is a grim reflection of the country, Maud said.

Its really, really upsetting that nothing has been done. Its really, really shameful.

Linda Clearsky, a resolution support worker from Treaty 2 and Treaty 4 territory in Brandon, said she will be travelling to Edmonton to support residential school survivors from her community. Shes worried that the funding announcement came too late to truly be of use to many people.

Its short notice, she said.

Clearskys mother and grandmother were both survivors of residential schools, and she said other survivors have a lot of mixed feelings about Pope Francis visit.

People are saying, Whats sorry going to do? How is an apology going to fix what happened to me?

Residential school survivors are encouraged to contact their local governments to arrange travel for the Popes visit.

 mleybourne@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @miraleybourne
A woman who pleaded guilty to leaving her young children unattended over a weekend because she was burned out was sentenced to a year of probation on Thursday afternoon.

The 28-year-old woman pleaded guilty in Brandon provincial court to a charge under the Child and Family Services Act of failing to attend to her childrens needs.

The identities of the children are covered under a publication ban, so the woman cannot be named. Brandon Sun The Brandon courthouse. (Matt Goerzen/The Brandon Sun)

In late August 2018, Brandon police received a report both of the childrens parents were out drinking and were requested to do a wellness check, said Crown attorney Andrew Sieklicki.

When police arrived, they knocked on the apartment door, but there was no response. He said there was no noise from inside the residence.

Approximately five minutes later, officers opened the unlocked door and immediately saw a newborn baby swaddled in heavy blankets asleep on the couch, according to the Crown. The baby was alone and there was nothing to keep it from falling off the couch.

Officers continued the search and found an infant sleeping in her crib in a bedroom, but no adults nearby, Sieklicki said.

The apartment itself was in disarray, he said. There was, however, food and baby formula in the kitchen.

Neighbours told police the father of the children left at approximately 2 p.m.  six hours before police arrived close to 8 p.m., the Crown told the court.

The childrens mother, the accused, departed the day before on a weekend binge, Sieklicki said, and left the kids in their fathers care.

[The accused] did no checks on her newborn  she did nothing to ensure the responsibility of those children, he said, adding the childrens father is more culpable in the case.

The case is a true plea bargain, said defence lawyer Jonathan Richert.

The woman has severe Gladue factors, including alcohol and child abuse growing up. She also suffered both sexual and physical abuse.

At the time, the woman was burned out from the burden of parenting, Richert said.

She had entrusted and asked the father here to care for them while she had some time off  She needed for her own self-care some time away from the parenting responsibilities, maybe a poor decision under the circumstances, he said.

Since the incident, the woman has gone through residential addiction treatment and was devastated by the charges.

Judge Patrick Sullivan said he understands the situation she was in, but it would have been much worse if one of the children died as a result.

I think both you and your partner made some really bad choices on that day, he said, adding he hopes the woman can reflect and learn from the circumstances.

If alcohol or meth or some other substance was part of your self-care, thats not workable.

Sullivan sentenced the woman to a one-year suspended sentence by way of a year of supervised probation. He also ordered her to attend counselling.

 dmay@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @DrewMay_
The death of Ryan Eamer after he tried to seek treatment at Brandon Regional Health Centre was a massive failure of the medical system and a tragic example of why a sobering centre is needed in southwestern Manitoba, says his mother, Brenda Eamer.

Ever since she went with Ryan, 46, to the hospital on Feb. 18, 2021, for detox services and he died more than 24 hours later from head trauma sustained in a fall, she said it has been a long and frustrating journey to get answers, and she wonders why there arent more harm reduction options for people like her son.

She said the hardest part of it all, is that Ryan wanted help but couldnt find any. Submitted Ryan Eamer died in February 2021, after trying to access detox services at Brandon Regional Health Centre. His mother, Brenda Eamer, has been fighting for more than year to find out why her son died, as well as establish a sobering centre in the city.

During that entire time, no one [at the hospital] stopped to ask if he was OK, took five minutes to just check on him on a one-to-one basis, she said. If someone had just taken a couple minutes to talk to him, he would likely be here now.

Ryan had been struggling with alcohol dependency for years, Eamer said. He had been doing well, but he relapsed during the pandemic because he lost his support system of friends and co-workers, driving him into depression and having few options.

On that day, she recalled, they went to the emergency room to have him admitted for his alcohol dependency. A nurse told them Ryan was too intoxicated to be admitted to a detox bed. As his mother and emergency contact, Eamer insisted he stay because he suffered from withdrawal seizures. He was admitted, and she left due to COVID-19 restrictions in place at the time. She found out later that Ryan twisted his ankle and fell, hitting his head, in the hospital. A review into his death by Prairie Mountain Health confirmed this.

A nurse called police under Manitobas Intoxicated Persons Detention Act, which is used when a person is deemed a threat to others or themselves. Eamer insists he wasnt a threat to others, pointing to internal records that also confirm this. Even so, Brandon Police Service officers took Ryan to the station to sober up.

Eamer said she was not informed her son was removed from the hospital, despite being the emergency contact on record. She was only told by officers four hours later to pick him up at the station.

Ryan, who had a visible bruise on his forehead, asked to return to the hospital, his mother said. Yet, he was still not triaged or examined by a doctor. The health authoritys review also confirms this.

He was trying to do everything right. We put our trust in the hospital and [he was] still denied help, she said. I cant help but feel after all of this, the nurses used the act because they didnt want to deal with him.

Fed up and humiliated by his ordeal, Ryan asked to just go back to his apartment to get some sleep.

Eamer found him dead in his apartment the next afternoon.

The ordeal didnt end for her there. It took 15 months to obtain the official autopsy report, in which the cause of death was listed as blunt-force trauma to the head. That stalled her investigations, she said, because she needed that information to move ahead. A critical incident review took 13 months. The College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba documented the ordeal but did not discipline the two nurses involved in Ryans care, according to a report by the CBC.

It really does wear you down, she said.

But, she refused to give up.

Prairie Mountain Health did eventually issue an apology, Eamer said, and the review made several recommendations. Those included having a permanent mental health liaison in the emergency room, more training for staff on how to triage patients, updating policies relating to patients who use substances, and provide clear guidance on how to treat those who are intoxicated and seeking detox services. The form that was used to clear Ryan for detention was also suspended.

When reached by the Sun, a spokesperson from PMH said they do not discuss the details of a case with the media and referred back to the family. However, they did say they are working with the province and stakeholders to establish a sobering centre in Brandon.

Eamer said this gave her more time to do some research and track medical records. That left her with more questions about people like herself and Ryan, who have been cycled into and out of the medical and justice systems without any supports.

She said her grief is compounded by knowing Ryan wanted help but had few options beyond the hospital and jail. This is why she still wants a formal inquest into Ryans death, as she believes it will show where the failures happened and prove the need for a sobering centre.

She has been working with advocates for people with substance-use disorders to institute a local sobering centre. Last year, the province announced a $2-million investment from the department of justice for Brandon to establish its own facility.

Since then, however, she and others have heard little about any progress.

We are not asking for much  a centre where people who want help can get it, Eamer said. This city should be looking at what works around the country. Weve had a year, there should be a plan in place.

Since that announcement, she said there hasnt been even a meeting with stakeholders or the city on how to proceed. That meeting should include people like herself, as they can speak from lived experience and show the damage being done by lack of services, she said.

One such advocate is Kim Longstreet, who herself knows the pain of having a child who struggles with substance use.

She made it her lifes mission to talk openly about the addictions crisis in Westman and has been pushing for a community wellness centre that will offer both short- and long-term services, depending on a persons needs.

After doing this for so many years, Brandon definitely needs a centre where all services for people who are struggling could be met, said Longstreet, whose son overdosed in 2012.

She said a comprehensive plan for the centre was drawn up and would address gaps in services, including a standardized assessment and screening tool, detox, long-term treatment, structured sober living, rapid access to addictions medicine and a medical van to dispatch to calls.

At this centre, no one will be turned away, Longstreet said. This would give people who need it fast and centralized services, she said, adding it would also take the pressure off the medical system and the local hospital.

Right now, most of the help for substance disorders and alcohol dependency is not available 24-7, or is faith-based, which doesnt apply to everyone, Longstreet said.

However, she did give credit to the government for acknowledging mental health and addictions is a real issue by creating the provincial department of mental health and community wellness.

While she welcomes the progress being made, she said there is a long way to go before anyone sees tangible results.

I am glad this government is taking this crisis seriously  the couple of inches government has moved since Ryan died is good to see but in that time, so many have died and more will die before we have real progress, she said.

City manager Ron Bowles confirmed the city is collaborating with the province to develop a plan for a sobering centre. They have also engaged with the Canadian Mental Health Association to perform an assessment with stakeholders and come back to the city and province with their recommendations for a made-in-Brandon approach to a sobering centre.

The association has been asked to do five things: engage with the community, social services and the Community Wellness Collaborative and Brandon Police Service; develop a scope of services that will be offered; determine the cost of building a sobering centre, preferably using existing space that the city can purchase or lease; put together a plan on how this centre should be governed and operated; and determine what the operating budget may look like.

The association has started the process, Bowles said, and is scheduled to have a report ready to present by the fall or early winter of this year. It will be reaching out to community stakeholders in the near future.

Bowles added that he is pleased the province identified addictions as an issue in Brandon, but it has taken a long time to act because careful planning is needed to avoid mistakes.

There is no template for something like this, and we have to get it right the first time, Bowles said. About 50 cities in Canada have [a sobering centre], so there are not too many of them. We want to develop services that are not overlapping, and we dont want to miss a chance to close a gap we missed in services.

 kmckinley@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @karenleighmcki1
Awaken Music- Move of Heaven | Hoganson Media PR

San Diego-based collective Awaken Music, from the 10,000 member, multi-campus Awaken Church, releases its sophomore, full-length album, Move Of Heaven, to digital and streaming outlets everywhere today (July 15) via The Fuel Music.

Produced by Grammy Award-winning Stephen Blake Kanicka (Kanye West, for KING & COUNTRY) and mixed by David Cook (Chris Tomlin, Shawn Mendes), Move Of Heaven pushes the artistic envelope with a modern pop sonic landscape mixed with spiritual warfare anthems. Leaning deeply on faith to drive action, Awaken Music intends to bring the body of Christ together when circumstances could otherwise drive them apart.

The idea behind Move of Heaven is really to engage with God and believe that He is going to invade earth and affect change for all of us as believers, says Awaken Church Executive Pastor Mike Yeager. Its a warfare album. We want all of our songs to really encourage people to move toward the front lines of the spiritual battle at hand.

Ripe with honest and encouraging lyrics, the album features the Worship Leader-premiered lead single Come What May, the Awaken Conference-inspired Revive Us and focus track Peter, which is a first person account of Peter's interaction with Jesus, his despair in failure and triumph in God's restoration.

Along with the music, Move of Heaven expands on the concept of spiritual battle in its visual components. In addition to Awaken Music releasing stylized performance videos for each song, its new albums cover is derived from the painting The battle of Marciano in Val di Chiana by Giorgio Vasari.

Yeager, who has a PHD in structural engineering and spent time in Florence, Italy studying cultural heritage and structural assessments of buildings and monuments before joining the Awaken Music team, shares how in the back of Vasaris original fresco painting, there is a small green flag that says cerca trova, which means seek and you shall find. The wall of this painting is rumored to have been placed in front of, with an approximately six inch gap, the unseen painting by Leonardo da Vinci, The battle of Anghiari.

Many believe Vasari left a clue to this hidden painting with the flag, alluding to the priceless treasure behind the depiction of battle. The idea of treasure and beauty waiting just inches past a war is much like the experience of Christians, Yeager notes. Thats one of the beauties of the Christian life, especially for us at Awaken Church. We talk a lot about the battle and the fight, but the paradox is that the more were engaged in spiritual warfare, the more we actually find rest.

Exploring that paradox, Awaken Musics Move of Heaven is a project that is meant to impact culture and inspire changed lives. God is active, so the church and the music should be as well, Yeager emphasizes.
University life can feel very pressured and stressful while, at the same time, being a most exhilarating experience for many students. This polarity is why its so hard to address mental health issues on campuses  theyre pretty individualised events.

But there are commonalities too. The entrance to university marks a period of massive transition for most people. They start to make independent decisions about their lives and studies, and need to navigate various academic, social and financial demands. Additionally, many students leave their homes and the safety cushion of their familiar support networks, often for the first time in their lives.

University life can feel very pressured and stressful for students. Credit:Louise Kennerley

Even pre-COVID-19, an Australian study by Studiosity found that almost half of university students wanted to drop out. In another study from 2016, more than 19 per cent of students said they had a mental health disorder, while more than 67 per cent mentioned their mental health was poor and they experienced sub-clinical distress and low levels of resilience.

Since before the pandemic, the University of Wollongong (UOW) has been on a journey to unpack wellbeing and its meaning for students. Through various surveys, we pinpointed that collectively, the highest stressors for students are finances and connection.
The real Porkys strip club on Darlinghurst Road switched off its famous neon lights five years ago after 30 years. The attention to detail on the Kings Cross set includes everything down to the graffiti. Credit:Media Mode Before lockout laws restricted late-night trading, John King of the Cross Ibrahim could often be seen standing outside the strip club with his bouncers in tow. The real club also featured in Nines Underbelly: The Golden Mile and one graphic scene showed Ibrahim - played by Firass Dirani - being carried away by a bouncer after being stabbed. It's over: Firass Dirani comes to grief in Underbelly: The Golden Mile.

But even when that series was made back in 2009, producers had to look beyond Kings Cross to shoot scenes. Much of the show was shot on Longueville Road Lane Cove, which was transformed into the notorious Golden Mile in the leafy north shore. The Longueville shops became The Love Machine, Porkys and the Pink Pussycat. Longueville Road was a no-go zone and even Sydney buses were diverted around the film location. According to locals, three times during one week, Longueville Road was dressed up to look like Kings Cross. Neon signs were put up and taken down each day, something the crew working on the set at western Sydney dont have to bother about. New chapter for fraudster

Well-connected Annabel Walker says she has turned her life around after becoming known as the socialite fraudster of the Southern Highlands tweed and pearls set after she was sentenced to prison in 2020 on a string of charges over various scams. Annabel Walker appearing on SBSs Insight program. Credit:SBS And in two months time, shes expecting her first baby, the start of a new chapter far from the unflattering headlines she previously generated. But when she appeared on SBSs Insight program recently, in an episode featuring both con artists and their victims - including Cecilie Fjelljoy who featured in the Netflix hit Tinder Swindler series - it was Walkers comments about paying every cent back which had tongues wagging around the coffee shops of Bowral. She claims to have paid her dues since walking out of prison, but those claims fell flat for her former boss, Aust Leisure Group director Hugh Clarke, who says he is yet to see a cent of the money she stole.

Walker had used her boss credit card to swindle more than $17,000. A few people called me up after seeing her on the television, but I have not seen any of that money returned, so I am not really sure what she was talking about. Yes, I would happily take the money back ... she knows exactly where to find me, Clarke told PS. But according to Walker, she has paid around $20,000 through a Work Development Order (WDO) since leaving prison and working for a charitable organisation called Keeping Women Out Of Prison. WDOs are a NSW initiative that allows vulnerable people to clear outstanding fines (penalty notices and court fines) with activities or treatment rather than money. WDOs are supervised by organisations or health practitioners called WDO sponsors. I am trying to do the right thing, I have turned my life around, I want to make amends, she told PS, explaining she was unsure how the money was being returned, promising to send a copy of the order on Thursday, which had not arrived by Friday press-time.

The former student at the prestigious Frensham school in Mittagong had previously told the court she was in an irrational state of mind and acted on pure adrenaline describing it as an out-of-body experience. The court previously heard she sent fake documents to police claiming she had checked into South Coast Private Hospital for mental health treatment to explain why she couldnt report on two occasions as part of her then bail conditions. During sentencing, magistrate Susan McIntyre told the court Walkers great deal of dishonesty matters showed a flagrant breach of trust. Party time in Paxos Its Australian film and television super-producer Bruna Papandreas Big Fat Greek Birthday in Paxos, marking her 50th birthday a year after the event when her original birthday bash was canned by COVID.

Shes certainly earned her right to celebrate, having produced a slew of global hits, she is the woman who brought the world Australian stories including Big Little Lies and Penguin Bloom. This week she has been greeting a cast of her Aussie friends on the Greek resort island for celebrations, including fellow producer Emma Cooper, Naomi Watts, Asher Keddie and Mary Coustas. On Friday Nicole Kidman had joined the fun, which culminated in a Grecian Luxe themed dinner. No word on whether fellow Australasian Neil Finn of Crowded House fame would be joining them, though he was also spotted on Paxos this week. Raised by a single mother in a housing commission flat in Adelaide, Papandrea is set to mark her 51st birthday, no doubt a good time to reflect on her success after twice dropping out of college: once after starting a commerce law degree at Melbourne University and later bailing on an arts degree at Adelaide University.

Cupids arrow hits High-profile Sydney architect Nick Tobias has confirmed he is dating Dana Lewis, a red carpet fixture who recently split with her wealthy husband David Lewis. Architect Nick Tobias. Credit:James Brickwood The Lewises were last in these pages a year ago after it emerged Davids uncle, 63-year-old London-based moneybags Michael Lewis, married the 31-year-old Lady Kitty Spencer, the daughter of Princess Dianas brother, Earl Spencer. In 2019 PS revealed Tobias marriage with wife Miranda Darling, a writer and former model, had come to an end.

Meanwhile, it was rich lister Sydney businessman Robert Whyte who was drawing attention onboard James Packers IJE last week on the Mediterranean. Whyte, 79, had been joined on the boat by Sydney single mother Alessandra Eddy, the marketing boss at the luxury Belinda fashion boutique, who told PS Whyte, 40 years her senior, was an old family friend. Rich Lister Robert Whyte. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer Bastille Day with glitter The young burlesque artiste Gypsy Rose Lee once famously learned Ya Gotta Have A Gimmick, a lesson obviously understood by Melbourne performance artists The Huxleys, (made up of partners Will and Garrett Huxley, local icons around Melbourne) who were among the star attractions at French purveyors of beauty potions Lancomes lavish Bastille Day dinner on Thursday night in Redfern. Formidable Melbourne performance art duo the Huxleys.
When Mark Avery moved to Forest Lodge, in inner Sydney, more than 20 years ago, the first thing he did was dig three large ponds in his backyard for frogs to seek refuge, breed and eat the cockroaches and mosquitoes that would otherwise have made their way into his home.

He shares his patch of suburbia with three native species of frog and, in the warmer months, he sees dozens of them hopping around the backyard.

Mark Avery by one of the ponds in his backyard, which provide a habitat for frogs. Credit:Louise Kennerley

So, when he noticed a drop-off in the population and found a sick frog lying on his back doorstep, he was eager to help solve the problem.

Avery is one of hundreds of concerned citizens who have contributed to a database of dead and dying frogs, which a team of Sydney scientists is using in a bid to find the cause of Australias latest frog pandemic.
Agriculture minister to provide funding to help combat foot and mouth disease

Were sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. Were working to restore it. Please try again later.

Dismiss
Aware the council was careening off the rails, the bishops agreed to work on a rephrased set of motions on women in the church. This is not the way we were anticipating or hoping the process would go, Shane Mackinlay, the Bishop of Sandhurst in Victoria, said. For Gill, the failure of the motion on women deacons hit especially hard. As a member of the Diocese of Broken Bays diaconate formation team, she helps prepare aspiring deacons  ordained ministers who are allowed to conduct baptisms, weddings and funerals, as well as distribute Holy Communion. Gill feels a calling but cannot be a deacon in the Catholic Church. Credit:SMH Gill feels a calling to be a deacon herself, but is ineligible because she is a woman. This puts the Catholic Church well behind other forms of Christianity, such as Anglicanism, in which women have long been able to serve not only as deacons but priests in many dioceses. I enjoy being part of it, but there are many times when I think, I could do this, Gill says of her diaconate training role. You look at general society and the church is quite behind the times in terms of what women are allowed to do.

The uproar at the plenary council was just the latest skirmish in a global reckoning about the role of women in the Catholic Church, one being overseen by the reform-minded Pope Francis. Francis is no gender equality radical; in 2019 he branded feminism as machismo in a skirt. But Christopher Lamb, author of The Outsider: Pope Francis and His Battle to Reform the Church, says the Pope has taken important steps elevate the role women within the church since his election in 2013. Pope Francis has made history by appointing women to key roles in the Vatican. Credit:AP While the plenary council was underway, Francis announced he would appoint women to a committee that advises him on selecting bishops for the first time in the churchs history. This week he named the three women  two nuns and one layperson  he has chosen for the job. Last year he changed church law to officially allow lay women to perform tasks during mass, including reading liturgies. The Pope has also made history recently by appointing women to the council that oversees Vatican finances and the powerful Synod of Bishops. Hes broken a number of Vatican glass ceilings, Lamb says. The burning question now is whether Francis will go a step further and allow women to serve as deacons. An expert commission, launched by the Pope in 2020, is currently studying the issue after a similar 2016 commission failed to reach a consensus.

Prominent Catholic scholar Phyllis Zagano, who served on Franciss 2016 expert commission, says there is no compelling historical or biblical reason to continue excluding women from serving as deacons. Zagano, the author of Women in Ministry: Emerging Questions about the Diaconate, says male and female deacons existed as members of the one diaconate until the 12th century, when the ministry was subsumed into the priesthood. A separate ministry for deacons was revived in 1967, allowing married men to serve in the diaconate but not women. The history cannot be changed; the history is there, Zagano says. Others insist the theological issues are more complicated. In 2019 Francis said: There were deaconesses at the beginning, but [the question is] was theirs a sacramental ordination or not? Some socially conservative Catholics also fear that allowing women to serve as deacons would open the door to female priests, an idea Francis has explicitly ruled out. The debate is lively and contested, but there is momentum for change. Former president of Ireland Mary McAleese with Pope Benedict XVI. She is calling for women to be made deacons. Credit:AFP

Former president of Ireland Mary McAleese has called for the church to allow women deacons, an idea backed by Dublins Catholic archbishop Dermot Farrell. A major meeting of German Catholics in February  similar to Australias plenary council  supported female deacons. I think that restoring the tradition of ordaining women to the diaconate is certainly doable, Zagano says. I was told many years ago by the highest placed woman in Rome, They cant say no, they just dont want to say yes. I think the Holy Father, in his wisdom, is responding to the needs of the church in such a fashion that it will not be undone. Loading As well as sending a powerful symbolic message about empowering women, Vatican expert Christopher Lamb says female deacons would help the church spread its message in areas where priests and volunteers are in short supply. But he says Francis understands the need to act slowly and incrementally to avoid arousing fierce opposition from more conservative members of the church hierarchy. As it neared its end, the plenary council passed a set of reworded motions saying that each Catholic diocese in Australia should commit to creating new opportunities for women to participate in ministries that engage with the most important aspects of diocesan and parish life.

The participants  including 37 of 43 bishops  supported a motion saying the church would examine how to best allow women to serve as deacons if such a move is approved by the Vatican. After initially feeling devastated by the plenary council, Gill says she admires the way the bishops and other participants regrouped just in time to acknowledge the role of women in the church. Loading Regardless of what Pope Francis decides, the 73-year-old will never fulfil her ambition to be a deacon: under Catholic rules, deacons cannot be older than 65 when they are ordained. But she hopes younger Catholic women will be given the opportunity to extend their religious service and receive more recognition for their work in the church. I think a spark of the Holy Spirit has gone out into the wider Catholic community, she says. We need to keep that flame burning to make sure change eventually happens.
Melbourne men admit to shooting driver in the face

Were sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. Were working to restore it. Please try again later.

Dismiss
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size The NSW hospital system is sick. So sick that instead of acknowledging and fixing its mistakes, it buries them. And so sick that it needs an independent regulator to oversee healthcare in NSW. That is the diagnosis of twelve eminent clinicians who have spoken to the Herald in the wake of a string of troubling deaths in regional hospitals. These senior doctors have told the Herald that a culture of cover up has become endemic within parts of the NSW Health bureaucracy, and speaking up about preventable patient deaths can be a career-ending move for even the most senior doctors and nurses. It comes after a Herald investigation revealed the disturbing circumstances surrounding four potentially avoidable deaths in regional NSW hospitals. They included the death of Tony Coulston, who was left vomiting blood for hours after falling from his hospital bed; Carmel Haynes, whose blood vessel was pierced during an unnecessary procedure; Heather Smith, whose torn oesophagus went undetected for 11 days after elective surgery and a man whose fatally high potassium levels were not acted on by staff. None of the deaths were scrutinised outside the local health districts where they occurred because they were either not reported to the coroner or the coroner chose not to investigate, angering the patients families. Carmel Haynes (right) with her twin sister, Rose Carroll, with whom she was inseparable. Carmel died during an unnecessary procedure at Orange Hospital in 2021. The clinicians, who have each risen to distinguished positions and have decades of experience, have spoken of a deep rift between the doctors and nurses on the hospital floor and back-room health administrators.

Advertisement

The clinicians allege they have been made to work in often dangerously under-resourced environments and sidelined by a bureaucracy that deflects blame at every level when its budget-driven decisions lead to medical mishaps and patient deaths. Six of the 12 clinicians spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared being blacklisted for airing their concerns. Their comments mirrored damning findings recently handed down by a parliamentary inquiry, sparked by a Herald investigation into failings across the regional NSW hospital network. The inquiry savaged the behaviour of NSW Health and its local health district bureaucracies, finding a culture of fear had staff scared of reprisals for raising patient safety and resourcing issues. Tony Coulston after a fall in Port Macquarie Base Hospital that would ultimately kill him. Health Minister Brad Hazzard did not comment when the report was released in May, referring queries to Regional Health Minister Bronnie Taylor. When the Herald put further questions to Hazzards office for this article he was unavailable, directing questions to NSW Health.

Advertisement

Deputy secretary Joanne Edwards said NSW Health was committed to improving the safety and care of patients and made regular, ongoing improvements to workplace culture in line with its core values of collaboration, openness, respect, and empowerment. NSW Health has a strong culture of identifying, reporting and learning from patient safety incidents and promotes a just culture, where staff are encouraged to report problems openly and honestly and learn from mistakes, she said. The inquiry proposed an ombudsman to investigate patient deaths and oversee the health bureaucracy, but the clinicians were dubious the position would resolve the deep-rooted problems. Dr Kerrie MacDonald, whose efforts were recently lauded by the NSW Coroner after she led a group of doctors who exposed the death of teenager Alex Braes, is spearheading calls for the establishment of an independent healthcare regulator in NSW. Dr Kerrie MacDonald led a group of doctors who blew the whistle on the death of Alex Braes. Credit:Terry Cunningham Long-standing Riverina GP Dr Marion Magee said while the parliamentary inquiry pulled no punches and nailed the problems, there remained a glaring omission in its final report. A root cause analysis asking: why? If we imagined that NSW Health was a patient, lets be honest, its 2am, theyre in the resus room, Im firing off the paddles ready to give them a shock, Magee told a regional health forum in Griffith in May.

Advertisement

Magee said the problems could be traced back to the 1990s when the sidelining of clinicians began with the abolition of local hospital boards. It took away the two-way conversation, she said. Tension between managers and clinicians boiled over at the landmark Garling inquiry in 2008. It led to the establishment of 15 local health districts (LHDs), to be advised by clinical councils, touted as giving doctors and nurses a say over the running of hospitals. Heather Smith, right, with son Phillip Smith. Heather died in 2019 from a torn oesophagus after routine surgery went wrong in Dubbo Hospital. In 2019, NSW Auditor-General Margaret Crawford found the reforms had not met expectations and inadequate clinician engagement required attention as priority. MacDonald, a paediatrician with over four decades experience, said Alex Braes death illustrated how the system kept administrators insulated from the consequences of their decisions. In that case, the ginger-haired teenager succumbed to sepsis after presenting four times to emergency with searing pain in his knee. His vital signs were not checked because of a business rule introduced by hospital administrators discouraging observations being taken.

Advertisement

Broken Hill teenager Alex Braes, who died of septic shock after being sent home from Broken Hill Hospital. A group of doctors, who were incensed after the Far West LHD downgraded the severity classification of Braes death meaning it didnt have to be investigated, blew the whistle on the saga. This year the coroner vindicated their efforts to expose the wholly inadequate response to Braes death. However, only doctors appeared before the inquest and not administrators, meaning it remains a mystery who devised the business rule and who downgraded the incident. The lack of accountability angered senior doctors. Nobody was shamed, nobody lost their job, one said. At least it got to a coroner. You can bet your bottom dollar there are Alex Braes all over this state in a steady little trickle and very rarely does anything come of it. Loading Like Magee, MacDonald felt the parliamentary inquiry failed to diagnose the underlying problem  why the ministry and its LHD executives had allowed country hospitals to become so dysfunctional in the years since the Garling inquiry. MacDonald believed the fault lay with a culture of managing upwards and prioritising budgets over health outcomes and safe work conditions for doctors and nurses.

Advertisement
Diana Drummond describes Wenona, the North Sydney private girls school where she has been deputy principal for almost four years, as an unapologetic feminist boot camp.

But after two decades of leading some of the citys prestigious private girls schools  including MLC and St Catherines  Drummond is set to take up the top job at Middle Coves alternative co-educational Steiner school.

Ive loved my years in girls education and believe absolutely in the right for single-sex schools to exist. They provide an education that allows women to become the leaders in society they should be, the former primary school teacher says.

Diana Drummond, the new principal at Glenaeon Rudolf Steiner School, Middle Cove with students Olivia Holden and Riley MacPherson. Drummond will start as principal in 2023. Credit:Steven Siewert

Drummond, 50, will take up the principal role at Glenaeon in January. It is one of 22 Steiner schools in NSW, famous for their alternative education philosophy, one that uses nature, art and creativity to underpin the states curriculum. The school admits boys and girls.
The man who strangled a Brisbane mother to death before raping her 12-year-old daughter for 90 minutes has been sentenced after an almost eight-year court case.

Jacob Michael Smith, 45, was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and rape after a jury trial in March 2018, before that conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal last year.

Jacob Michael Smith, then 38, being driven away from the Dutton Park police station in August 2014. Credit:Dave Hunt - AAP

The Court of Appeal ruled the original trial judge failed to instruct the jury that Smith may not have intended to kill the woman. A retrial was ordered on the murder charge in May 2021.

However, that retrial never happened, with Smiths legal team striking a deal to plead guilty to manslaughter, as a substitute for murder. This was to ensure the victims daughter did not have to testify again.
Loading Above, 260 kilometres high, soared John Glenn, hurtling through space at 28,000km/h. He was the first US astronaut  a word to untether the imagination  to orbit the Earth. The Western world was agog. Almost a year previously, on April 12, 1961, the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had orbited the globe. It was as if the West had lost the Cold War by this single, upstart rotation. Glenn would make amends by completing three orbits. Perth waited in its illuminated night.

Gerry OConnor at the Muchea Tracking Station in WA, where he became the first Australian to speak with a man in space. Credit:Age archive And glory be: Glenn declared he could see the lights, his words picked up by the Muchea Tracking Station north of Perth, where communications technician Gerry OConnor became the first Australian to speak to a human in space. Just to my right I can see a big pattern of lights, apparently right on the coast. I can see the outline of a town and a very bright light just to the south of it, radioed Glenn. Perth has called itself the City of Light ever since, even if Paris has owned the title since the time of Louis XIV, the Sun King, when an edict required lanterns to be placed on every street to keep the city safe. This week, pictures came to Earth that stretched towards the beginning of time.

The very first image released from NASAs James Webb telescope, parked about 1.6 million kilometres from Earth, provided a brilliant view of stars and galaxies from about 4.6 billion years ago. That is the furthest humanity has ever seen in time and distance. It offered a window towards the moment of creation. It left the achievements of Glenn and the other aerial and space exploits of the past 60 years  from men on the moon to the exploration of Mars  in the dust. Stardust, if you like. And yet, the wonder of this adventure in the pursuit of universal knowledge seemed somehow to fall short of the awe it deserved. Oh, the pictures and explanatory articles were given decent enough space in the news media  though generally not quite front-page treatment  TV news services used the pictures between stories of car accidents and political scandals and there continues a small torrent of commentary on social media, some of it morphing into predictable arguments about creation, God and the Big Bang.

Before the week was out, however, there was the gnawing sense that this was destined to be another relatively fleeting story that managed to shoulder its way into the worlds short attention span before, like everything else these days, drifting away. Loading Have we, in not much more than half a crowded century, lost our ability to be awestruck and to maintain simple wonder and fascination beyond the next thought? The modern tide of distrust in what we once understood to be objective fact appears to have nibbled at our inquisitiveness and our willingness to experience lasting delight through what the late art critic Robert Hughes called the shock of the new. Hughes observed that the height of the Eiffel Tower, when completed in 1889, enabled people to view Paris in a way they never could before, permanently changing attitudes to space and time and the very trajectory of art. The wonder of it has lasted.

Is it possible that in the internet era and the post-truth wake of Donald Trump, Boris Johnson and Scott Morrison, amazement at the cosmos is no longer a durable qualification of the Western heart? Loading Trump, after all, led an American population so corrupted in spirit that a Gallup poll of 2019 discovered 40 per cent of the population believed God created them in their present form within the past 10,000 years. Johnson, a known liar and vulgarian, helped persuade Britons to turn their backs on Europe. Morrison maintained no more than a pretense that his government cared about the threat of climate change. And now, with the makings of a key to the secrets of the universe and of creation at hand, society seems less moved than was our little family when an aeroplane flew by 60 years ago. Have we really become so jaded?
More than just glorified lawn mowers a tribe of goats has been introduced at Royal Park this winter in an attempt to regenerating the habitat of a species of lizard.

The goats are there to munch on weeds that are threatening the survival of the Whites skink, which needs clear areas of grass and soil to thrive.

A tribe of goats has landed at Melbournes Royal Park. Credit:Jason South

Here at the City of Melbourne we are not kidding around when it comes to saving the habitat of the little lizards, acting Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece said as he unveiled the goat pens in the park.

Royal Park contains one of the most significant population of skinks in Melbourne, but their habitat is under threat from dense weed growth.
Anthony Albanese is the beneficiary of a unique diplomatic honeymoon that has the potential to place Australia on the shortlist of nations that are seen as moral middle powers.

From Asia to Europe and now the Pacific, Australias 31st prime minister has been greeted with public displays of affection that his more charismatic Labor predecessors would have killed for. Three images in particular come to mind.

Illustration: Simon Letch Credit:

Last month, Indonesian President Joko Widodo took Albanese for a bike ride around Bogor Palace  a greeting no other foreign leader has received  to emphasise their shared humble origins. On Wednesday, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare hugged Albanese, echoing the theatrical embrace that French President Emmanuel Macron gave the Australian leader a fortnight earlier.

Albanese would appreciate that these gestures are not really about him as an individual. In fact, his peers would have a double-take if they realised the man they are cheering onto the international stage ran a tongue-tied election campaign and that Labor squeaked into office with its lowest primary vote since the Great Depression.
From masks and vaccines, to the office and testing heres a guide to making the right calls. See all 5 stories.

What can we do as individuals to combat the winter COVID-19 wave? In the third instalment of a special series, The Ages health team asks experts for the best advice on testing.

RATs, PCRs ... the once-unknown abbreviations that are now part of our common parlance will continue to play an important role as new COVID-19 subvariants whip through our homes, schools and hospitals.

Rapid-antigen tests are less reliable than PCRs. Credit:Getty Images

Standing in a queue to get a PCR test is less common given the rise of rapid-antigen tests to help monitor, isolate and report coronavirus infections.

RATs are an excellent screening tool for the virus, but they are not foolproof.
Job vacancies for nurses and aged care workers have doubled in three years, new data shows, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese moves to expand the Pacific Labour Scheme ahead of the governments Jobs Summit.

Hospital and aged care operators are desperate for staff as the wave of COVID infections from the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants sends thousands of workers into isolation, while the nurses union warns that staff are at breaking point.

Our workforce is crushed at the moment, Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation President Annie Butler said.

With the peak of the wave expected to hit at the end of July, Butler said she was worried about how high hospitalisation - currently sitting at 4500 nationally, compared with the January peak of 5000 patients - could go.
Sydney tenants are facing sky-high housing costs, with rental prices in some suburbs increasing hundreds of dollars a week over the past year.

Median house rents in four in 10 Greater Sydney suburbs jumped at least 10 per cent over the year to June, according to the Domain Rent Report for the June quarter, released on Thursday. The largest increases were in the citys east, northern beaches, upper north shore and Central Coast.

Fairlight is among dozens of suburbs where the median weekly asking rent for houses jumped more than 20 per cent. Credit:Steven Woodburn

Vaucluse had the biggest jump as its median asking rent rose 51.5 per cent, or $850 per week, to $2500. Fairlight, Dover Heights, Erina and Roseville were also among the top 10.

It comes as Sydneys median house rent reached a record $620, and unit rents hit $525 after their steepest annual increase in 14 years. More than 90 per cent of suburbs analysed recorded higher house rents than a year ago, while more than 80 per cent had unit increases, at the same time as many tenants are facing rising prices for petrol, heating and groceries.
The base housed Chinese state-owned company workers when they built roads all down this remote northern part of Fiji between 2011 and 2015. When Cyclone Yasa hit in 2020, the Chinese-built primary school in Lekutu sheltered the villagers. After the category-five storm passed it was one of the few buildings left standing. Down the road, the secondary school was wiped out. It was pretty flattened, says Australian Army Captain Brenton Cathie who is overseeing the construction of the new school. Were still in the rebuild phase at the moment, but were almost there. Were doing the finishing stages. Army Captain Brenton Cathie in the Lekutu Secondary School Australia is helping to build. Credit:Joe Armao The two 30-metre classrooms have been built in 60 days. When finished, the secondary school will accommodate 250 students. It will not only be the main school for Lekutu but also for many of the remote islands off the coast that send their children to board here. When the old school was destroyed some of the students felt like someone had died, says the school manager Ovini Baleinamau. Every day they would eat there and sleep there. When they saw it had been hit by the cyclone they cried.

Like many locals and leaders, Baleinamau wants China and Australia to keep competing in Fiji. Its better for our development, he says. There is more money. But elsewhere Chinese over-development and commercial assertiveness has created an enduring legacy of distrust and anger in some communities. The Deo family lives in Dreketi, about 90 kilometres outside the provincial capital Labasa. Next door to their farm, a Chinese state-backed mine digs tonnes of bauxite - a main source of aluminium - out of the ground. Nar Deo, with his family in the Muanidevo settlement, Dreketi. Credit:Joe Armao

The air is thick with the smell of chemicals. The red dirt from the mine site runs down the river valley through their property and hangs in the air over their crops, killing them before they are harvested. It is a big problem, says Nar Deo. The 40-year-old has lived here with his family for decades, now three generations are under the same roof  including his three young children who are all having breathing problems. Every day the dust settles. The mine does not employ any locals, says Deo, but has now thrown up so much dust and bauxite that dozens of children at the local school are having the same breathing difficulties while their parents are struggling to put food on the table. It is not right, he says. In Sigatoka, central Fiji, another Chinese company has been trying to mine dark mineral sand for export back to China. To do it they wanted to take over an island off the coastal town. The proposal has split the community.

The Chinese came in and they offered only one side of the village to get the whole thing and they wanted to sell because the village is desperate for money, says local homeowner Angeline Lalabalavu. Angeline Lalaballavu at home in at Olosara beach, Sigatoka, Fiji. Credit:Joe Armao So theres part of the village that feels like it wants to have the investment from the mining and this part of the village that does not. Her son, Ratu Naiqana Lalabalavu, says the company had already collected large samples of minerals. It was a shitload, so they offered them quite a few million [dollars]. But the island is also at a key entry point to the Sigatoka river, sparking resistance from locals worried about the environmental impacts of further mining. The impacts are already being felt as mining, dredging and climate change combine to deplete fishing stocks.

The companys tactics are more reflective of some sharper edges of Chinas diplomacy in the region: large ambitions and big wallets are often accompanied by demands that deals be settled quickly. The approach can split communities and Pacific leaders. In Suva this week, at the Pacific Island Forum leaders meeting, climate change was the dominant topic of discussion. Chinas geopolitical ambitions also loomed large given the Solomon Islands first security deal with Beijing in April, and Chinas failed push for a Pacific-wide economic and security pact in May. Chinese-owned Aurum Exploration bauxite mine at Nabulu in Dreketi, Fiji. Credit:Joe Armao There is a distinct difference with the approach that was taken by China through their foreign minister when he came here a couple of months ago, said Henry Puna, the secretary-general of the forum . They came here with their own prepared outcomes document. And it was that that our members have reacted against. Because the thing is if anybody knows what we want, what we need and what our priorities are, its not other people, it is us.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had failed to consider what Dr Paula Vivili, the deputy director general of development organisation the Pacific Community, calls Pacific time. The phrase is a useful shorthand for the slower pace of life in the region, but it also points to a wider need to consult, to dialogue, to talanoa. In Fiji they call it Fiji Time. In Tonga, its Tonga Time. When you ask the elders, they say: its Pacific Time, he says. Because people are more important than programs. Veirokorokovi, Veiwaraki. Veikauwaitaki. [Be respectful, wait for each other, care for each other]. For that same reason, the Pacific had grown wary of Australia until this year. The Coalition had become known for digging in its heels during negotiations and calling for concessions over key issues - particularly on climate change. The last time the prime minister Scott Morrison attended the forum, in 2019, his Fijian counterpart, Frank Bainimarama, said he would be better off dealing with China. Loading It was the culmination of years of frustration that would eventually help steer the Solomons towards Beijing, with Kiribati the next nation most likely to follow. The Pacific leaders also saw an understandable economic opportunity for their people  by forging closer economic ties with China they could maximise their returns from other governments  including Australia and the United States.

In the last few decades, Australias history in the region has been described as overseeing and overlooking. Australia thinks of itself as overseeing the region as the big power in the region, says Dr Wesley Morgan, a Pacific diplomacy expert with the Climate Council. The overlooking part is that Australia forever overlooks the region. Its only when theres a security crisis that Australia tends to rediscover its role as a key power in the Pacific. In Suva this week, the attention was on Solomons Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare after his April security deal with Beijing. By the second day of the forum, US Vice President Kamala Harris had committed her country to spending almost a billion dollars more in the region over the next decade. Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavares greeting to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese: How about a hug? Credit:Joe Armao

Behind closed doors, Australia, with the benefit of a new prime minister and foreign minister, had sought to re-orientate its relationship with leaders. Officials adopted a three cs agenda in each meeting  climate, COVID and competition. Pacific leaders were keen to talk about the first two, but more reluctant to talk about the third. Australia had to put it on the agenda. It opted to frame the discussions about financial sovereignty for Pacific nations. That framing appealed to the agency of Pacific leaders who had become sick of being referred to as chess pieces. When the regional security deal with Beijing was raised, it was with the expectation that China would come again, and again. The deal was seen as Beijings first step in normalising its presence in the region, and leaders were left in little doubt after their meetings last month with Foreign Minister Wang Yi that China was strategic, hard and determined. Juncao grass was developed by Chinese scientists. Credit:Joe Armao By the end of the first day of meetings, Bainimarama  who had criticised Morrison heavily in 2019 - asked to sit next to Penny Wong at dinner, a minister below his ranking. Sogavare, after their warm hug for the cameras, sat next to Albanese. The latter two held further detailed discussions at the leaders retreat on Thursday. Publicly, Albanese was relieved that Sogavare had made personal assurances to him that China would not build a naval base in the Solomons. Privately, Sogavare had been frank with Australian officials telling them the security deal with China was what it was  and Australia was just going to have to accept that while there may not be a navy base, there will be a Chinese police presence in the country.

Behind the scenes that day, officials in Canberra were finalising the funding for a $2 billion takeover deal of Digicel Pacific, the regions largest mobile network. The purchase was a direct response to the threat of this most important infrastructure asset being sold to China Mobile. We have set about an objective to reconfirm Australias position in this region, Albanese said after the meetings finished on Thursday. The soft-power of Australias cultural links has perhaps been underestimated  particularly across language, sport and news services like the ABC. On Wednesday, Albanese watched the State of Origin in Suva with Puna, Papua New Guineas James Marape and Tongas Siaosi Sovaleni. These cultural connections are something that Australia can offer to people and very few countries elsewhere, says Australias Pacific Minister Pat Conroy. Youre not going to get a Pacific rugby league team in the Chinese rugby league competition for example.
Latest News Boomer Home Loans Group enters voluntary administration Specialist lender for over 55s seeks capital

Thousands of CBA customers face delayed interest rate pain This due to a measure aimed to help homebuyers through the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic

Transitional lender Keystart has launched a new offering to help Western Australians buy a home sooner.

The Urban Connect Home Loan pilot will provide 300 home loans to Western Australians to buy medium and high-density homes close to transport hubs and in urban locations across 189 suburbs in the greater Perth area.

The first of its kind in Australia, the home loan is specifically designed to make medium- and high-density living more accessible and to support the Western Australian Governments infill priority.

The Urban Connect Home Loan will be accessible to Western Australian singles earning up to $180,000 a year to purchase a home for $550,000 or less, and couples and families with a combined income of up to $200,000 a year to purchase a home for $650,000 or less.

Read more: How is Perth property performing?

People can purchase apartments in medium- and high-density buildings which have a minimum of two bedrooms. The property price and income limits ensure access in locations close to transport and urban activity centres, providing additional options for people to purchase apartments close to urban centres and selected rail transport hubs to better suit their needs.

The two-year pilot of these loans, which is capped at 300 places, will be available for new and established homes.

Keystart CEO Paul Graham (pictured above right with Western Australian State Premier Mark McGowan) said he welcomed this innovative new product and saw it as a natural extension of the companys role in helping Western Australians start their homeownership journey sooner.

The Urban Connect pilot is going to give us really valuable insight into the long-term need for a product like this in Western Australia, Graham said. We know that saving for a deposit to secure finance is the biggest barrier to homeownership for most people and is usually being saved simultaneously to people paying rent.

Read more: Government expands first home buyer scheme

Graham said Keystarts low deposit home loans helped people get their foot on the property ladder sooner and to start building equity instead of paying rent.

We are seeing a growing need for this type of assistance across more demographics and property types, he said. By making homeownership more accessible to Western Australians, especially in urban areas and locations close to transport infrastructure, we can support infill targets and contribute to vibrant and engaged communities around greater Perth.
Latest News Boomer Home Loans Group enters voluntary administration Specialist lender for over 55s seeks capital

Thousands of CBA customers face delayed interest rate pain This due to a measure aimed to help homebuyers through the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic

Rental prices spiked at their fastest pace in seven years in the year to June 2022, amid a continued crunch in stock available for rent, according to the PropTrack Rental Report June 2022.

The report found that median weekly rental prices have risen 7% compared to June last year, marking the strongest annual rate of rental growth recorded since before 2015. The total supply of rentals available, meanwhile, has declined 27.7% below its decade average.

Rental price surges were felt the most regionally, climbing 11.4% year-on-year, compared to just 4.4% in the capital cities. The soaring rental prices came as the volume of stock available for rent continued to shrink, with the number of new rental listings in June 2022 some 13.8% lower than the decade average.

The limited supply drove competition in the rental market, with the number of potential renters per rental property listed on realestate.com.au increasing 28% year-on-year across capital cities, with Sydney and Melbourne experiencing the greatest increase.

Some of the heat, however, has started to come out of the market in regional areas recently, with potential renters per rental property listed on realestate.com.au rising just 6% in June year-on-year.

Following heightened demand for rental properties from the start of the pandemic, competition in the rental market continued to heat up over the second quarter of 2022, said Cameron Kusher, PropTrack director of economic research and report author. Major capital city rents have fallen from the peaks experienced during the pandemic, which makes renting more attractive, particularly as home prices have risen so much over the past two years. Prices for rentals in the major capital cities are lifting on the back of reduced supply and we see this continuing for some time, particularly as populations grow and activity returns.

Kusher said theres also already some indication that rental pressures are easing in certain regional areas, with more stock for rent and properties taking longer to lease.

This is logical as the impetus to shift regionally has eased as major cities have reopened, he said. Some people that moved during the pandemic will now return to the big cities, while others deciding to stay will look to purchase their own home.

Kusher noted that the current rental market is extremely tight overall, with many people looking for rental properties at a time when the supply remains insufficient  with relief unlikely to be on its way any time soon.

With overseas and interstate migration returning with borders now reopened, it seems likely that rental conditions will tighten further over the coming months, he said. This is likely to be most evident in Sydney and Melbourne, where rental demand and prices dropped throughout the pandemic but are now rebounding rapidly. While investor borrowing as a share of total lending is increasing, were still seeing a heightened volume of sales from investors and the reopened borders are likely encouraging landlords to move their properties from the long-term to short-term rental markets, further reducing supply.

Kusher said the ultimate solution to the tightness of the rental market is more rental properties.

Increased investor purchasing is addressing this, but it will take some time to ease the existing pressure, he said. Federal and state governments continue to offer incentives to first-home buyers. With property prices falling and rents rising, this may encourage some to move from renting to ownership. Over time this may ease some of the rental supply pressures, but it is likely to mostly be offset by the return of arrivals from overseas, most of whom seek rental accommodation on arrival.

Here are some of the additional findings from the report:
Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

We, however, have a request.



As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.



Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.



Digital Editor
Ronnie Screwvala-led unicorn upGrad has initiated a M&A (mergers and acquisitions) strategy in negotiations to acquire various in markets, such as the US and Southeast Asia. As part of that strategy, upGrad Rekrut, a 100 per cent subsidiary of upGrad, has acquired Wolves India, a recruitment and staffing firm, for an undisclosed amount. It specialises in helping recruit tech talent.

upGrad is making these moves at a time when the company almost doubled its valuation to $2.25 billion after raising $225 million in fresh funding from investors such as James Murdochs Lupa Systems and family offices of Lakshmi Mittal of ArcelorMittal and Sunil Bharti Mittal of Bharti Airtel, according to the sources.

Geographical expansion is definitely a critical area for us, said Mayank Kumar, co-founder and managing director of upGrad, in an interview.

We are in talks with in the US and Southeast Asia, and exploring opportunities where we can expand our presence internationally.

The international business is so critical that the firms other co-founder Phalgun Kompalli, has shifted to the US to lead businesses within the brand there.
It isn't often that a home-grown bank acquires a pioneering multinationals business that had set the template for it in the first place. Thats what Axis Banks of Citibanks retail business in India telegraphs. Ever since he moved into the corner-room, has been in a hurry  resetting the banks financials and keeping an eye on inorganic growth in these turbulent times. Chaudhry, the bank s managing director and chief executive officer, spoke with Raghu Mohan to make it clear that he will not change his spots. Edited Excerpts:

Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

We, however, have a request.



As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.



Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.



Digital Editor
Eleven districts of Bengal, mostly in the northern part of the state, have reported at least 65 cases of black fever, also called 'kala-azar', in the last couple of weeks, a senior official of the health department said on Friday, citing results of a state-administered surveillance.

Districts where maximum number of cases was recorded include Darjeeling, Malda, Uttar Dinajpur, Dakshin Dinajpur and Kalimpong, he told PTI.

"Kala-azar was practically eradicated from . A recent surveillance, however, led to the detection of 65 cases in 11 districts. Now that these cases have been detected, the state will be able to tackle the spread of the disease, the official said.

The districts of Birbhum, Bankura, Purulia, Murshidabad have also reported a few cases of black fever, mainly transmitted by bites of sandflies infected with parasite Leishmania donovani.

According to the official, no case was detected in the city thus far.

"It was found that the was mostly prevalent in people who have spent a considerable amount of time in Bihar, Jharkhand and in Uttar Pradesh. Some individuals from Bangladesh, too, have been showing symptoms of kala-azar," the official said, adding that the surveillance process will continue.

A top bureaucrat at the state secretariat said that the government has taken the decision to treat all diagnosed with the "free of cost".

"Even if the infection is detected in a private laboratory or hospital, the doctor should immediately bring the matter to the attention of the district health officer. All expenses of treatment along with meals will be borne by the state health department. The district chief health officer will monitor the whole matter," the bureaucrat told PTI.

Arrangements are also being made to provide nutritious food to the patients, he added.

(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 on Friday granted bail to co-founder Mohammed Zubair in a case related to an "objectionable" tweet he had posted in 2018 against a Hindu deity.

Additional Sessions Judge Devender Kumar Jangala granted the relief to Zubair on a bail bond of Rs 50,000 and one surety of the like amount, and directed him not to leave the country without its prior permission.

A magisterial court had on July 2 dismissed his bail plea and sent him to 14-day judicial custody (JC) in the case, citing the nature and gravity of the offences against the accused and observing that the matter was at an initial stage of investigation.

(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.)
Data protection law is a fundamental requirement for the development of 'Federated Digital Identities', proposed by the government to sync multiple identities including Aadhaar, passport etc into one unique ID, a senior official of identity technology firm IDEMIA said on Thursday.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) has proposed a new model of "Federated Digital Identities" under which a citizen's multiple digital IDs like PAN, Aadhaar, driving licence, passport numbers, etc can be interlinked, stored, and accessed via one unique ID.

IDEMIA India Regional President and Executive VP for branding and communications Matthew Foxton said that there will be aspects of biometrics involved in proving the identification of a person but the technology alone will not be sufficient for the development of a federated identity structure.

"The data protection law that we have mentioned, it's not there yet. It's on its way, but it's a fundamental part of the federated digital ID structure and is a must-have that structure moving forward," Foxton said.

He was speaking at a webinar on the proposed new ID system.

"India has massive advancements, particularly in terms of national programmes and as a country is well-positioned to build digital identity-based solutions and services, Even though a digital identity is required for a wide variety of activities online, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to implement ID and access systems," Foxton said.

Meity in its draft for InDEA 2.0 (India Enterprise Architecture 2.0) has proposed the creation of a new unique id system.

The InDEA 2.0 proposes to create a framework that enables governments and private sector enterprises to design IT architectures that can span beyond their organizational boundaries and enable the delivery of holistic and integrated services to the customers.

"The core value proposition of InDEA 2.0 to the governments is in terms of more rational planning of IT investments, cost savings due to reusable and interoperable systems, and better architectures designed faster. To the citizens, it means a more holistic and seamless experience across organizations. And to the industry, it holds out the immense promise of innovation," the draft framework says.

Andhra Pradesh IT secretary Saurabh Gaur said the government programmes have a federated architecture from the policy perspective.

"We have a lot to learn to understand from the private ecosystem, where innovators contribute, pick up the practices and make them a part of our enterprise architecture systems and this change has happened in the last few years. Every government policy that comes out today goes through a very thorough and elaborate process, with a built-in stakeholder consultation process," Gaur 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.)
China to make all-out efforts to ensure autumn harvest: official

Xinhua) 09:00, July 15, 2022

BEIJING, July 14 (Xinhua) -- China will make all-out efforts to secure a bumper autumn harvest and ensure that the grain output for 2022 stays above 650 billion kg, an agricultural official said Thursday.

Efforts will be made to strengthen farmland management, and enhance preparedness against weather-related disasters, plant diseases and pests, to secure a good autumn harvest, Pan Wenbo, an official with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said at a press conference.

The planting area of the autumn grain has seen steady expansion this year, laying a solid foundation for a bumper harvest, Pan said.

Official data shows that the country's total grain output increased 1 percent year on year to 147.39 million tonnes in this year's summer harvest, with the planting area and output per hectare of summer grains both seeing expansion.

The summer grain harvest has provided solid support for the country in keeping the price stable and stabilizing economic growth, Pan noted.

China aims to ensure that the full-year grain output in 2022 stays above 650 billion kg, according to this year's government work report.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)
On Friday afternoon, a long queue of people braving the scorching Chennai heat was seen outside Kelambakkam Health Centre, keeping the officials at its vaccination unit busy.

What was driving the long queue in an otherwise vaccine-hesitant state of Tamil Nadu, according to one official at the center was: All are from one single company.

A batch of over 50 people from Chennai-based Super Auto Forge, the largest manufacturer of cold and warm forging parts in India, constituted most of the serpentine queue. Taking the third dose is not compulsory. However, officials are urging the staff to come for vaccination to ensure their own safety, that of their families and of the workplace as well, said a staff member in the queue who requested anonymity.

The Kelambakkam Health Centre is not an exception. State health department officials say the response on Friday was encouraging. P Senthil, Tamil Nadu health secretary, that till now, about 2 per cent of those aged 18-59 had taken their shots, and the coverage was slightly higher among the 60-year-plus group.

We are getting a good response and are planning mega vaccination camps on July 24, and subsequently every two weeks. We have also opened 2,590 permanent vaccination centres in all government medical college hospitals and other . They will function round the clock. We have called for the setting up of special camps in office complexes and industrial complexes, so that people can make full use of the 75-day window, Kumar said. Other states are gearing up too. Madhya Pradesh will hold a campaign between July 21-25.

Kumar said the Centre would bear the cost of the free vaccines and provide them to state governments.

Union Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba chaired a meeting on Friday morning with the chief secretaries of all states to dwell on the 75-day free precaution dose campaign. Ninety seven million doses of Covid-19 vaccines are lying with states at the moment.

States have started collecting data on their vaccine requirements. State Immunisation officer of Maharashtra, Sachin Desai said they have asked all districts to compile the demand for additional doses to run these 75-day-long free boosters for all adults. We will share this data with the Centre as soon as it is compiled. We will need more vaccines soon, Desai said.

Maharashtras capital Mumbai saw an enthusiastic response too, despite the rains. On a day when the citys schools were shut on account of the downpour, there were queues outside vaccination centres in Dadar.

People would take this opportunity to get their precaution dose ahead of the Ganpati festivities. Since it's free now, many would not hesitate to come out. We expect a better turnout during the weekend. Around 104 government CVCs were functional today, an official at the Mumbai civic body.

Meanwhile, anticipating rising demand for vaccine shots, the Union Health Ministry has asked global vaccine alliance GAVI to supply 50 million of the allocated 100 million doses of Covishield to India under the COVAX facility free of cost, agencies reported.

PTI reported that Prakash Kumar Singh, director (government and regulatory affairs) at Serum Institute of India (SII), had written a letter to the health ministry in April for use of 100 million doses of Covishield offered free of cost by GAVI.

The 75-day drive is also likely to significantly reduce vaccine wastage in India. Covishield, the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, which constitutes about 80 per cent of Indias overall Covid-19 vaccination, will expire in September as it has a shelf life of nine months and the last batches were made in December. Serum Institute of India (SII), the maker of Covishield, stopped producing the vaccine after it accumulated a huge stockpile at its Pune plant. According to some estimates, SII will waste nearly 200 million doses of Covishield by September.

Bharat Biotechs Covaxin, on the other hand, has a 12-month shelf life. The company is sitting on stocks of about 50 million doses, and finished supplying the tendered amounts to the Centre in the first quarter of 2022.

Offtake of boosters among the 18-59 years age group has been discouraging so far. Data shows that only around 1 per cent of the eligible adults in this age group, excluding healthcare and frontline workers, have taken their third paid shot at private vaccination centres. Indias precaution dose coverage for all, including senior citizens, healthcare and frontline workers, was around 8 per cent of the eligible population of 640 million as of July 13 (estimated considering a six-month gap between the second dose and the precautionary dose).

India opened precaution shots for all adults on April 10. Earlier, it had allowed senior citizens and healthcare and frontline workers to take the booster shot from January 10. Last week, the government also reduced the gap between the second and third doses to six months from nine months.

At a meeting on Thursday, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan urged states and Union territories to hold special vaccination camps on various Yatra routes, as well office complexes, railway stations, schools and colleges to administer precaution doses of the Covid vaccine to all aged 18 and above.

They were advised to hold special vaccination camps on the routes of Char Dham Yatra (Uttarakhand), Amarnath Yatra (Jammu and Kashmir), Kanwar Yatra (all states and UTs of north India), and major melas and congregations. Bhushan advised them to operationalise special workplace vaccination camps at big office complexes (public and private), industrial establishments, railway stations, interstate bus stations, in schools and colleges etc.

With Inputs from PTI
Delhi Metro Rail Corporation chief Vikas Kumar on Friday visited the Bihar capital to review the progress of the Metro project, which is being executed by the DMRC, officials said.

Metro is currently under construction in the old city, a flagship project whose foundation stone was laid by Prime Minister on February 17, 2019.

DMRC's Managing Director Vikas Kumar "visited to review the progress of Patna Metro Rail Project and also met officials of the PMRC (Patna Metro Rail Corporation), senior officials told PTI.

It was his first visit to the PMRC site since he took charge as the new chief. Kumar, a 1988-batch officer of the Indian Railway Traffic Service, on April 1 had assumed charge as the new managing director of the urban transporter.

"Kumar had a meeting with Anand Kishor, Principal Secretary-cum-MD/PMRCL, in which various critical issues related to Patna Metro works, such as acquisition of private land mainly of depot land, JICA fund tie-up, and fund-related issues were discussed," the official said.

Kishor informed him that all the land acquisition matters are in an "advance stage".

For Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) fund tie-up, PMRCL informed that regular meetings and discussions are in progress with JICA Study Group and fund tie-up is also in an "advance stage and likely to be signed by March 2023". He also emphasised to expedite the work of underground section, they said.

The chief visited sites of the project, including one "near a museum," the official added.

The 31 km-long Patna Metro rail project, comprising the Danapur-Mithapur-Khemni Chak corridor (Line-1) and Patna Railway Station-Pataliputra Bus Terminal corridor (Line-2), is expected to benefit over a million passengers from the Bihar capital and will also reduce the number of vehicles and ease congestion, the had earlier said.

DMRC is working on the Patna Metro project, which is aimed at decongesting the city using a mass rapid transit network for the first time.

Officials recently had said that as part of the PMRC project, two depots were initially planned, however, now, only one depot near Pataliputra Bus facility, will be built.

Patna Metro's planned station at PMCH, originally proposed to be built on an elevated structure, will now be constructed underground, and two gates for exit or entry would be located inside the campus of the institution which is undergoing a major infrastructure revamp, officials had said early April.

Situated on the banks of Ganga, Patna is a historic city, which was the site of the ancient capital of Pataliputra of the great Mauryan Empire. The city is dotted with iconic landmarks and heritage sites from Mughal period to British era.

Railways had arrived in Patna in 1860s during the British rule, and prior to that river and roads were the prime means of transportation.

(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.)
Forward Party (GFP) chief and MLA Vijai Sardesai has urged the Pramod Sawant-led state government to replicate the Kerala model of utilising the funds for the welfare of labourers.

He was speaking in the state Legislative Assembly during its ongoing session on Thursday over the demand of grants for the labour department.

He said that should emulate the Kerala model of labour welfare.

"I want to know how the funds from the Labour Welfare Board are utilised here," he asked the state government.

Sawant pointed out that in Kerala, the labour welfare funds are utilised for the workers for various purposes like providing financial aid for education, tour subsidy, marriage, for differently-abled children of workers, among other things.

" should emulate such ideas and do something good for the labourers," he said.

Sardesai also sought to know what benefits are being provided by the government to hundreds of women, who are working as labourers in the building construction sector in the state.

(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 SC/ST Welfare Committee of the Legislative Assembly has asked the education department to get FIRs registered against refusing to admit EWS students.

Chairman of the committee, Vishesh Ravi said on the direction of the panel, the education department had issued show cause notices to refusing to admit economically weaker section (EWS) students.

Even after the notices, some have not admitted EWS students and not given stationery to them. Therefore, the committee has asked the education department to register FIRs on receipt of complaints against such private schools (sic), a statement quoted Ravi as saying.

The show cause notices were issued to GD Salwan School, Salwan School, SD Public School, Ramjas Public School, JD Tytler School and other private schools on the instructions of the committee.

These schools refused to admit students under the and have also not provided free stationery, books and uniforms to theses students according to the rules, the statement added.

(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 projects of the I2U2 will be located in and help with agriculture, and green energy, according to the joint statement of the four leaders after the group's launch.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with his Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid and UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan along with the US President Joe Biden launched the Middle East Quad known as "I2U2" from the initials of the participants.

The UAE will invest $2 billion in the and project that aims to "maximise crop yields and, in turn, help tackle insecurity in South Asia and the Middle East," the statement said on Thursday.

Biden claimed that the project that will utilise US and Israeli expertise "has the potential to sustainably increase India's food yield in the region threefold in just five years".

Gujarat will be the beneficiary of the 300 megawatt wind and solar energy programme and projects like that "have the potential to make a global hub for alternate supply chains in the renewable energy sector," the statement added.

Speaking through a videolink from India, Modi said, "The I2U2 has established a positive agenda from its very first summit on Thursday."

"We have identified joint projects in several areas and have also made a roadmap to take them forward," he added.

The I2U2 will work in six areas -- water, energy, transport, space, health and food security -- combining the expertise and the resources of the four nations, Modi said.

With political and strategic divergences among the four countries, the emphasis was on economic and technical cooperation.

Unlike in the Indo-Pacific region, where the other Quad of -- the US, Japan and Australia -- face direct aggressive conduct by China, in the Middle East the challenge for I2U2 is from China's Belt and Road initiative to extend its power more subtly through predatory lending and trade practices.

The US President, who was present in person with Lapid in Jerusalem for the launch, said, "The first two projects that we're tackling together on food security and clean energy are designed to take on two of the most urgent crises affecting people around the globe: food insecurity."

"Our nations represent some of the most innovative, technologically capable, and entrepreneurial people on the planet," he added.

The mobilisation of the strength of the I2U2 nations can be seen in the two projects in India.

UAE will invest $2 billion in the and food project, and the US and Israeli private sectors will lend their expertise while India will provide the land facilitating farmers' integration into food parks, the joint statement said.

The project will "develop a series of integrated food parks across India that will incorporate state-of-the-art climate-smart technologies to reduce food waste and spoilage, conserve fresh water and employ renewable energy sources," it added.

For the $330 million Gujarat wind solar electricity project that is to be complemented by a battery energy storage system, UAE-based companies are exploring opportunities to serve as "critical knowledge and investment partners," the statement said.

The US Trade and Development Agency has funded a feasibility study for it and the US and Israel are to work with the UAE and India to highlight private sector opportunities, it added.

"Indian companies are keen to participate in this project and contribute to India's goal of achieving 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030," it said.

UAE President said that he wanted to "emphasise the importance of giving priority during the coming time to research and development, healthcare and space".

Among the future projects mentioned is providing vaccines -- something that has been a focus area for the other Quad in the Indo-Pacific.

While putting the spotlight on food and energy security, the joint statement laid out an ambitious agenda ranging from infrastructure for better physical connectivity in the region to financing start-ups, with waste treatment in between.

The I2U2 statement detailed them: "We intend to mobilise private sector capital and expertise to modernise infrastructure, advance low carbon development pathways for our industries, improve public health and access to vaccines, advance physical connectivity between countries in the Middle East region, jointly create new solutions for waste treatment, explore joint financing opportunities, connect our startups to I2U2 investments, and promote the development of critical emerging and green technologies, all while ensuring near- and long-term food and energy security."

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed @arulouis)

--IANS

arul/khz/

(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.)
Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Friday launched a campaign here offering free booster doses of COVID-19 vaccine for people in the age group of 18 to 59 years.

The had made the announcement a few days ago that it will provide booster doses for free, as the country is celebrating 75 years of independence. The booster doses will be provided for the next 75 days from Friday.

The chief minister along with health minister Rushikesh Patel launched the campaign from the urban health at Sector 14 here.

The booster doses will be given in from July 15 to September 30, for 75 days to the eligible population, a government release said.

Around 4 crore people are eligible to take the jab in . Those who have completed six months after their second dose are eligible for the boost dose, it said.

The doses will be administered 3,500 health centres and a staff of around 15,000 people will be engaged for the same, it said.

As per the release, the government will also organise camps in corporate offices, societies and other public places to cover the entire population with booster doses.

The government has so far administered 11.20 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccine and over 98 per cent people above the age of 18 years have been inoculated with both doses of the vaccine, it 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.)
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Friday issued an orange alert warning of heavy to very heavy rainfall in Narmadapuram division of Madhya Pradesh, where railway tracks were inundated, affecting the movement of trains.

The orange alert warned that heavy to very heavy rainfall, ranging between 64.5 to 204 mm, is likely to lash isolated places of the Narmadapurman division, which comprises Narmadapuram, Harda and Betul districts.

The has also issued two yellow alerts forecasting likely heavy rains at isolated places in 21 districts, including Bhopal and Jabalpur, and thunderstorms with lightning in eight divisions, including Bhopal and Indore.

The alerts are valid till Saturday morning.

According to officials, rail traffic to Nagpur in neighbouring Maharashtra was affected after water gushed onto the tracks in the Kiratgarh-Betul section of Nagpur division of the Central Railways, as a result of the downpour.

Some trains heading towards Nagpur were either stopped at Itarsi and Hoshangabad stations in Narmadapuram district or diverted, they said.

A MEMU train from Amla in Betul district to Itarsi in Narmadapuram and vice versa were cancelled on Friday, they said.

As per the data, Pachmarhi, the lone hill station of Madhya Pradesh, Ujjain, Indore, Bhopal and Jabalpur received 68.2 mm, 48.0 mm, 30.4 mm, 10.4 mm and 3.5 mm rainfall respectively in 24 hours ending 8.30 am on Friday.

Several other districts of the state also received showers, it stated.

The rainfall activities are likely to abate in western Madhya Pradesh, as the low-pressure area over coastal Odisha has weakened slightly, said Ved Prakash Singh, senior meteorologist at IMD's Bhopal office.

However, the rainfall in eastern parts of the state is expected to increase due to a well-marked low area over northeast Arabian Sea, he said.

As a result of these factors, the state will continue to receive rainfall for the next five days. Bundelkhand and Vindhya regions are expected to receive good showers after July 19, Singh 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.)
India, Nigeria, Indonesia, Ethiopia and the Philippines have recorded the highest number of children did not receive their vaccines against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis in 2021, UN agencies have said.

Data by the World Health Organisation and recorded the largest sustained decline in global childhood vaccinations in approximately 30 years.

It said the percentage of children received three doses of the against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP3) a marker for immunisation coverage within and across countries fell 5 percentage points between 2019 and 2021 to 81 per cent.

"As a result, 25 million children missed out on one or more doses of DTP through routine immunisation services in 2021 alone, the data said. This is two million more than those missed out in 2020 and six million more than in 2019, highlighting the growing number of children at risk from devastating but preventable diseases.

According to the data, 18 million of the 25 million children did not receive a single dose of DTP in 2021, "the vast majority of whom live in low- and middle-income countries, with India, Nigeria, Indonesia, Ethiopia and the Philippines recording the highest numbers.

coverage dropped in every region, with the East Asia and Pacific region recording the steepest reversal in DTP3 coverage, falling nine percentage points in just two years.

Planning and tackling COVID-19 should also go hand-in-hand with vaccinating for killer diseases like measles, pneumonia and diarrhea, said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. It's not a question of either/or, it's possible to do both.

The UN agencies said the decline was due to many factors including an increased number of children living in conflict and fragile settings where immunisation access is often challenging, increased misinformation and COVID-19 related issues such as service and supply chain disruptions, resource diversion to response efforts, and containment measures that limited immunisation service access and availability.

This is a red alert for child health. We are witnessing the largest sustained drop in childhood immunisation in a generation. The consequences will be measured in lives, said Catherine Russell, Executive Director.

While a pandemic hangover was expected last year as a result of COVID-19 disruptions and lockdowns, what we are seeing now is a continued decline. COVID-19 is not an excuse. We need immunisation catch-ups for the missing millions or we will inevitably witness more outbreaks, more sick children and greater pressure on already strained health systems, she said.

Among countries with the largest relative increases in the number of children who did not receive a single between 2019 and 2021 are Myanmar and Mozambique.

Globally, over a quarter of the coverage of HPV vaccines that was achieved in 2019 has been lost. This has grave consequences for the health of women and girls, as global coverage of the first dose of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is only 15 per cent, despite the first vaccines being licensed over 15 years ago.

The UN agencies said it was hoped that 2021 would be a year of recovery during which strained immunisation programmes would rebuild and the cohort of children missed in 2020 would be caught-up.

Instead, DTP3 coverage was set back to its lowest level since 2008 which, along with declines in coverage for other basic vaccines, pushed the world off-track to meet global goals, including the immunization indicator for the Sustainable Development Goals, they said.

The UN agencies warned that this historic backsliding in rates of immunisation is happening against a backdrop of rapidly rising rates of severe acute malnutrition.

However, there were some countries that notably held off declines. Uganda maintained high levels of coverage in routine immunisation programmes, whilst rolling out a targeted COVID-19 vaccination programme to protect priority populations, including health workers.

Inadequate coverage levels have already resulted in avoidable outbreaks of measles and polio in the past 12 months, underscoring the vital role of immunisation in keeping children, adolescents, adults, and societies healthy.

First dose measles coverage dropped to 81 per cent in 2021, also the lowest level since 2008. This meant 24.7 million children missed their first measles dose in 2021, 5.3 million more than in 2019. A further 14.7 million did not receive their needed second dose.

Similarly, compared to 2019, 6.7 million more children missed the third dose of polio vaccine and 3.5 million missed the first dose of the HPV vaccine - which protects girls against cervical cancer later in life.

The sharp two-year decline follows almost a decade of stalled progress, underscoring the need to not only address pandemic-related disruptions but also systemic immunisation challenges to ensure every child and adolescent is reached.

WHO and are working with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and other partners to deliver the global Immunisation Agenda 2030 (IA2030), a strategy for all countries and relevant global partners to achieve set goals on preventing diseases through immunisation and delivering vaccines to everyone, everywhere, at every age.

It's heart-breaking to see more children losing out on protection from preventable diseases for a second year in a row. The priority of the Alliance must be to help countries to maintain, restore and strengthen routine immunisation alongside executing ambitious COVID-19 vaccination plans, not just through vaccines but also tailored structural support for the health systems that will administer them, said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

(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.)
India on Friday handed over disaster relief materials to in order to help the Himalayan country to cope with the situation caused by and landslides.

Indian Ambassador to Nepal, Naveen Srivastava, handed the relief materials to Home Minister Bal Krishna Khad. The relief materials include 3,000 tents (big/family) and 10 motor inflatable boats.

"As part of our continued commitment to support disaster relief efforts of Nepal, the Ambassador of India to handed over consignments of flood and disaster-relief material to the Home Minister of Nepal," the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu said in a statement.

In his remarks during the event, Srivastava expressed that this timely supply of relief materials should be optimally utilised by the concerned agencies to ensure their maximum benefit by timely distribution and efficient utilisation.

Khand thanked the government of India for the timely delivery of the relief materials and appreciated the disaster relief-related cooperation between India and .

As close neighbours, India and Nepal share wide-ranging and multi-sectoral cooperation, the Embassy said.

The gifting of relief materials reflects the continued support of the government of India in bolstering the government of Nepal's efforts to build a disaster-resilient Nepal," it added.

--IANS

ag/arm

(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.)
Union minister Arjun Munda has said that people from different and institutions in the country should come together to chalk out a plan for the welfare of tribals.

The Minister of Tribal Affairs was speaking after inaugurating a two-day symposium - 'Manthan' - at Galtare in Palghar district of Maharashtra on Thursday, the theme of which is uplift of tribal communities.

Union Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Bishweswar Tudu was also present on the occasion.

"All institutions and should come together to prepare a plan for the welfare of tribals. A report should be prepared on the implementation and performance under the Scheduled Tribes Component (STC)," Munda said.

The STC was formed after a prolonged deliberation. Hence, its performance in different needs to be evaluated, he added.

The representatives of the education ministries in the states doing a commendable job in regional languages under the National Education Policy should be roped in to form a five-member committee to explore the scope of work to be done by the tribal affairs ministry, he said.

The symposium focuses on various programmes to be undertaken under the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav by Eklavya Model Residential Schools, Fees Control Authority, Grants Department and Tribal Museums which organise 'Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas' on birth anniversary of freedom fighter Bhagwan Birsa Munda, an official statement said.

It also includes discussions on Scheduled Tribe Component and health and education of tribal population, it said, adding that tribal affair ministers and the chief secretaries of different states and union territories are attending the symposium.

Apart from Maharashtra, representatives of Tribal Welfare Departments from Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Manipur, Tripura, Gujarat, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Assam, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Nagaland, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu are taking part in the symposium, the statement 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.)
Live news updates: Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has resigned, Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardenaon officially announced on Friday, after a week of dramatic developments and massive protests against the government for mishandling the economy that bankrupted the country. The 73-year-old leader on Thursday emailed his resignation letter to the Speaker soon after he was allowed by Singapore to enter the city-state on a "private visit".



on Thursday won the second round of ballot in the Conservative leadership race with 101 votes - the most by any contestant so far - tightening his grip on the race to replace as party leader and . There are now five candidates left in the Tory leadership contest after Suella Braverman, the Indian-origin Attorney General in the fray, was knocked off the shortlist with the least votes at 27.

The US House of Representatives on Thursday approved legislation that recommend an India-specific waiver under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), thus deepening defence ties between both the democracies and help deter aggressors like China.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister met Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) president here on Friday.

The meeting, which is currently underway, is taking place at 'Shivtirtha', Thackeray's residence at Dadar in central Mumbai.

The MNS chief had last month undergone a hip replacement surgery at the Lilavati Hospital. This is Fadnavis's first visit to Thackeray after the surgery.

Earlier this month, Thackeray had written an open letter to Fadnavis, praising him for setting an example of party loyalty and commitment by taking over as deputy chief minister of the state despite being the frontrunner for the top post.

The meeting between the two leaders assumes significance in view of the upcoming elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the pending expansion of the Maharashtra cabinet led by Eknath Shinde.

Shinde, who rebelled against the Shiv Sena leadership along with majority of party MLAs, took oath as the chief minister on June 30, a day after the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Uddhav Thackeray collapsed. Fadnavis was sworn in as his deputy.

The MNS, which has one MLA, had backed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the last month's elections to the Rajya Sabha as well as state Legislative Council seats.

The win of the BJP in these crucial polls, which saw its candidates getting more votes than it has, had come just before the rebellion in the Shiv Sena that led to the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led government.

(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 NCP on Friday criticised Chief Minister over the clearances given to the Ahmedabad-Mumbai project, saying he should focus more on issues concerning the state.

Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday said that Shinde had given all the clearances to expedite the project, which the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi government, of the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress, had put on the back burner.

The NCP's chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said, "The illegal government of has expeditiously given clearances to the project".

Thane district, which Shinde represents, is the most urbanised district in the state, with the largest number or municipal corporations, he said.

"Shinde should focus more on issues concerning the state and Thane district to resolve the urban problems it faces, instead of bowing before neighbouring Gujarat," Tapase alleged.

The estimated cost of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad project is Rs 1,10,000 crore, of which Rs 88,000 crore are being funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Over 70 per cent land required in for the project has been acquired in Thane and Palghar districts.

(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.)
India on Thursday once again pressed China for "scrupulously" following the existing agreements on the management of the Line of Actual Control (LAC), three days ahead of the 16th round of military talks on the eastern border row.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said it is essential that "appropriate agreements between India and China of 1993 and 1996 are scrupulously followed".

He was replying to a question on the lingering row in eastern during a media briefing.

Bagchi also referred to a statement by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to emphasise that India will never accept any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo along the LAC.

India has been pressing for quick disengagement of troops from all the remaining friction points in eastern Ladakh, insisting that peace and tranquillity along the border are prerequisites for progress in overall ties.

India has been maintaining that the bilateral ties were predicated on the maintenance of peace and tranquillity along the border areas in accordance with various agreements and pacts the two sides sealed since 1993.

The two sides are set to hold the 16th round of high-level military talks on July 17 to resolve the issues in the remaining friction points in eastern .

The last round of talks between the Indian Army and the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) took place on March 11.

In the fresh round of talks, the Indian side is expected to press for disengagement of troops as soon as possible in all the remaining friction points besides seeking resolution of issues in Depsang Bulge and Demchok.

The situation in eastern Ladakh figured prominently in last week's talks between EAM Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Bali.

At the one-hour meeting in Bali on the sidelines of a conclave of foreign ministers of the G20 nations, Jaishankar conveyed to Wang the need for early resolution of all the outstanding issues in eastern Ladakh.

He also said that the relationship between the two countries should be based on "three mutuals" -- mutual respect, mutual sensitivity and mutual interests.

"Recalling the disengagement achieved in some friction areas, the external affairs minister reiterated the need to sustain the momentum to complete disengagement from all the remaining areas to restore peace and tranquillity in the border areas," the (MEA) said in a statement.

The MEA further said that Jaishankar "reaffirmed the importance of fully abiding by bilateral agreements and protocols, and the understandings reached between the two ministers during their previous conversations."



The eastern Ladakh border standoff between the Indian and Chinese militaries erupted on May 5, 2020, following a violent clash in the Pangong lake areas.

Both sides gradually enhanced their deployment by rushing in tens of thousands of soldiers as well as heavy weaponry.

As a result of a series of military and diplomatic talks, the two sides completed the disengagement process last year in the north and south banks of the Pangong lake and in the Gogra area.

Each side currently has around 50,000 to 60,000 troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the sensitive sector.

(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.)
West Bengal Chief Minister on Friday said she was proud that the and University bagged the top two spots among state-aided varsities in the NIRF India Rankings 2022.

Education Minister Bratya Basu credited Banerjee's "visionary leadership" for the achievement.

"Proud that, according to NIRF 2022 India Ranking, and University are at first and second positions among all State aided Universities in India. Among colleges, St Xavier's is eighth in the country. Congratulations to our academic fraternity and students (sic)," the chief minister tweeted.

In the overall university rankings, JU ranked fourth and University ranked eighth. Last year, Calcutta University ranked fourth, while JU was at the eighth spot.

"Mamata Banerjee's visionary leadership speaks for itself once again," the education minister said.

Calcutta University vice-chancellor Sonali Chakraborty Banerjee told PTI that the rank was the result of consistent academic excellence of the faculty, students and researchers.

"This rank will inspire us to strive better," she added.

Teachers' Association (JUTA) general secretary Partha Pratim Roy said it was a proud moment for the varsity.

(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.)
With reporting the first case of monkeypox in India, the state government and health experts are of the opinion that there is no need to panic as of now and the state has already taken adequate steps to minimise its spread.

Health experts are of the opinion that the disease isn't as fatal as Covid. According to data available with the World Health Organisation, of the 3,413 monkeypox cases detected in 50 countries till June end, only one death has been reported in Nigeria. The United Kingdom reported the maximum number of cases, at 793, followed by Germany (521).

According to a government source, 15-20 people are already under observation, including 11 travelled along with an infected person on a flight from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Thiruvananthapuram on July 12. After coming in contact with an infected person, the incubation period is around 21 days. Arvind Kumar Achra, Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology at Dr Ram Manohar Lohiya Hospital, Delhi, was part of the Union governments high-level multidisciplinary team sent to to monitor monkeypox, told Business Standard that though not contagious like Covid, one cause of worry is that the virus transmits through multiple modes.





It is unlikely to have break out beyond the current case, as the state has already taken all precautionary measures. Unlike Covid, the possibility of mutation is lower too, said Anish T S, a member of the Covid management committee in and assistant professor, Department of Community Medicine, Thiruvananthapuram. The infected person was first admitted to a private hospital in Kollam and later shifted to Thiruvananthapuram medical college. Kerala health minister Veena George had said on Thursday that there is nothing to worry about the virus and the affected patient is stable.

Kerala had seen the first three cases of Covid-19 too, when three Indian medical students returning from Wuhan were infected on January 30, 2020. On May 19, 2018, Kerala had also reported the first case of Nipah virus in South India on May 19, 2018.

Experts say the reason such diseases are getting detected first in Kerala is probably because of its better surveillance, higher density of non-resident India population and the quality of human resources in the medical field. Awareness among people is higher in Kerala and the system is sensitive to such diseases. Moreover, out of the NRI population, a large quantity may be working in the healthcare sector abroad, unlike other states. These are the reasons why such diseases get identified easily in Kerala, Anish said.

This is not like Covid. Only people with close contact get affected. Another major advantage is that it is not (as) fatal. We should be cautious and people with comorbidities should take extra care, said Samuel Koshy, president, Indian Medical Association, Kerala.
The district administration on Friday invoked the stringent Act (NSA) against one of the accused allegedly involved in torturing a 21-year-old tribal student in last week, officials said.

In a related development, the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) has issued notices to the authorities in Madhya Pradesh, seeking an action taken report (ATR) on the incident within three days, they said.

The commission has taken suo moto (on its own motion) cognizance of the incident -- that had triggered protests -- and issued notices of the district collector and the city's commissioner of police, they added. Collector Manish Singh has issued an order stating that Saddam Patel (35), one of the accused, be kept in jail for his involvement in crime under the NSA, an official said. The allows preventive detention of an individual for months if the authorities feel that the individual is a threat to the national security, and law and order. Patel, along with three others, was arrested on Monday on charges of attempt to murder and other offences for allegedly assaulting the tribal man, police said. As per the victim's complaint, his landlord and three others confined him to a house, beat him up, poured petrol in his private parts and then shot a video of his in the nude on July 9, they added. The victim, a student hailing from Alirajpur district, was living on rent along with his two sisters in the house of accused Nazim Khan. The latter suspected that the tribal man had extorted Rs 50,000 from his son and bought a laptop, police said.

On July 9, Khan took the victim out on the pretext of buying a goat, confined him to a house and assaulted him," they added. Right-wing organisation Hindu Jagran Manch and different tribal outfits had staged protests over the incident.

(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.)
is geared up to begin administering the COVID-19 booster doses to people in the age group of 18 to 59 years from Friday and chief secretary



S C Mohapatra has asked officials to launch a drive in colleges and higher educational institutions across the state in a campaign mode.

Mohapatra, who reviewed the coronavirus situation in the state, said on Thursday that it is well under control though the number of cases are rising in urban pockets like Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.

He directed all district collectors and concerned departments to remain vigilant and vaccinate people above 18 years of age on a war footing.

The chief secretary's direction to focus on colleges and universities came after 44 students of a national university in Cuttack tested positive on Wednesday.

Mohapatra directed officials to strictly enforce COVID-appropriate behaviour in public places, ramp up testing and operate a 247 COVID helpline. He also asked them to intensify awareness on wearing of masks, avoiding crowds, and maintaining physical distance.

He told district collectors and municipal corporation commissioners to spread information on location of vaccination centers, call center and help center numbers and facilities for treatment.

The chief secretary also asked the district collectors to create separate COVID wards and remain in readiness for enhancing the number of beds as per requirement.

State immunisation nodal officer and director of family welfare, Bijay Panigrahi said that the free booster doses will be made available at 2,500 vaccination centers..

While there are adequate health workers to administer the booster doses to beneficiaries, we do not have enough stock of vaccines and the Centre will be informed about it, he said.

He said as per the Centre's instructions, all adults between the age group of 18 and 59 years will be eligible to get free of cost booster doses of COVID vaccine at government centers under a special drive over the next 75 days from Friday.

Panigrahi said that about 98 per cent children between the age group of 12 and 14 years have been administered the first dose of COVID vaccine, while 72 per cent of children have been given the second dose. 92 per cent of the children aged 15 to 17 years have been given the first dose and 82 per cent of them the second dose.

He said 96 per cent adults above the age 18 have received first dose of the COVID vaccine, while 90 per cent adults have received the second dose.

About 28 per cent healthcare workers, frontline workers and senior citizens in the state have been given the precautionary dose so far, Panigrahi added.

(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.)
New Delhi [India], July 15 (ANI): The central government will seek to push several legislations during the monsoon session of beginning July 18 and its legislative agenda includes 24 bills for passage, sources said.

The first day of the monsoon session will see voting for the presidential election.

Some of the bills that are in the pending list include The Indian Antarctica Bill, 2022. The bill is pending in the Lok Sabha.

The Inter-State River Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill, 2019, was passed by Lok Sabha and in the upcoming session, it is likely to be taken up in the Rajya Sabha.

The Weapons of Mass Destruction and their Delivery Systems (Prohibition of Unlawful Activities) Amendment Bill, 2022 was passed by Lok Sabha and is yet to be passed by Rajya Sabha.

The Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2021 is pending in Lok Sabha, The Anti-Maritime Piracy Bill, 2019 and The Anti-Doping Bill, 2021 are also pending in Lok Sabha.

The Constitution (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Orders (Second Amendment) Bill, 2022 (in respect of State of UP - amendment regarding change of district name to be approved by Cabinet) was introduced in Lok Sabha in March 2022.

The new bills to be newly introduced in the during the Monsoon session include The Central Universities Amendment Bill, 2022.

The Family Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2022 is also a new bill and was sent for printing on Thursday.

The other bills on the government agenda include Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2019, (in respect of State of Assam), The Mediation Bill, 2021 (with Standing Committee chaired by Shri Sushil Kumar Modi); The Cinematograph (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (report of Standing Committee under examination) and the Registration of Marriage of Non-Resident Indian Bill, 2019 (report of Standing Committee under examination).

The other bills are Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Fifth Amendment) Bill, 2019 (report of Standing Committee under examination), the Pesticide Management Bill, 2020 (report of Standing Committee under examination).

The first Batch of Supplementary Demand for Grants (General) and connected Appropriation Bill will also be presented in the upcoming session.

The panel which scrutinised the biodiversity Bill is in the process of submitting its report in the upcoming session. This committee was chaired by BJP member Dr Sanjay Jaiswal.

The upcoming monsoon session of will have a total of 17 working days and will conclude on August 12.

(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.)
Amid the flood situation in following heavy rainfall, state BJP President CR Paatil on Thursday said that Prime Minister and Home Minister are constantly monitoring the situation in the rain-battered state.

Two Air Force Choppers and NDRF team will start rescue operations on Friday morning in the state, informed state BJP President CR Paatil.

Paatil tweeted, "Prime Minister and Home Minister are constantly monitoring the condition in . And added that on the request has arranged for two Air Force Shoppers and NDRF team which will start the rescue operations in the state from tomorrow morning."

PM Modi is constantly keeping an eye on the situation in Gujarat after excessive rainfall and has also given telephonic instructions for tackling the situation, Paatil added.

Paatil also added that Union Minister Amit Shah has also told him to contact him even during mid-night in case of any emergency.

Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel has been constantly monitoring the situation of the flood-affected areas of the rain-battered state.

Heavy rains in several areas of Gujarat since the last few days brought life to a standstill. While residents of low-lying areas have been shifted to safer places, those stranded at home due to waterlogging have been provided with relief material.

The Chief Minister visited the state control room on Thursday night to take stock of the situation, especially in the Navsari district. He later spoke with the Collectors of Navsari and Valsad via video conferencing and sought details of the relief work and rescue operation.

He took detailed information on moving people to safer places, opening up of roads and highways, and regarding the work being done by the NDRF, stated the state government.

Locals of Golvad and Fadvel village near Kaveri river in Navsari District were trapped due to flash on banks of river Kaveri.

Several parts of Ahmedabad face waterlogging as rainfall continues to lash the city. There was waterlogging in Vejalpur and Shrinand Nagar in Ahemdabad.

Amid the prevailing flood-like situations in the Valsad district of Gujarat, the police and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have relocated at least 350 people to safer places from the low-lying areas of the district, Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Nilesh Kukadia said on Wednesday.

"Since the water level is rising here, we have appealed to the people to move on to safer places...We have also availed the people with the shelter homes facility," SDM Kukadia told ANI.

A massive amount of water was released from the Madhuban dam on Daman Ganga river in Valsad district as the region continues to remain battered by heavy rainfall.

The Coast Guard on Thursday rescued two women and a child trapped in the Toran village of Navsari after heavy rainfall.

Many parts of Gujarat have been facing incessant rainfall which has caused a flood-like situation in the area.

According to ICG, the woman and the child were immediately taken into the aircraft and evacuated to a safe location.

Earlier on Tuesday, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel visited the flood-affected areas of Navsari and met the victims.

On the other hand, Union Home Minister Amit Shah also assured all possible help to Gujarat Chief Minister Patel as heavy rains caused flood-like situations in the state's various areas.

Gujarat administration, State Disaster Response Force and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) are engaged in providing quick help to the affected people, the Home Minister further said.

The Meteorological department said that Gujarat's situation is due to flash . The state received 18 inches of rainfall in just four hours. People are now struggling to procure even essential items.

(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 five persons arrested in for indulging in anti-national activities following raids in the Phulwari Sharif area, which also led to the recovery of several incriminating documents, including PFI's 'Mission 2047', allegedly had Prime Minister on their radar, the ongoing probe by Bihar police indicated.

Police have arrested Athar Parvez and Mohammed Jalaluddin -- a retired sub-inspector from Jharkhand -- from the Phulwari Sharif area. Later, three more individuals -- Margoob Danish, Arman Malik and Shabbir -- were arrested.

They were allegedly running a terror module and were engaged in brainwashing the Muslim youth, the police said.

Following the detection of the suspected terror module, several investigating agencies have started the investigation, and looking into different aspects including funding, conspiracy, training to Muslim youth etc.

Sources said that they were reportedly planning to carry out an attack on PM Modi during his recent visit to during the centenary year celebration of Bihar Vidhan Sabha.

The Prime Minister had visited on July 12 and Athar Parvez and Mohammed Jalaluddin were arrested on July 11 from Phulwari Sharif.

They also held a "secret meeting" on July 6 and 7.

Athar Parvez, the former member of Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) is the brother of Manzar Parvez who was involved in the November 2013 Patna Gandhi Maidan serial blast during the rally of Narendra Modi, who was then the Prime Ministerial candidate.

During the investigation, it was also revealed that Athar Parvez used to take shelter in the house of Mohammad Jalaluddin in Jharkhand.

Jalaluddin was the SHO of Bhelwaghati police station in Jharkhand's Giridih district from November 20, 2018 to January 27, 2021.

Jalaluddin is considered a Muslim hardliner who used to extend support to Muslims in legal issues.

He also involved in helping the people of Muslim community in the construction of houses, marriages, apart from providing other assistances. He is said to have good connection and network with a large number of Muslim youth in Jharkhand's Giridih district.

Sources said that Jalaluddin was in contact with a number of youths just before his arrest in Patna. The investigating agencies are now scanning his network.

Preliminary investigation reveals that Athar Parvez and Jalaluddin own three bank accounts on which three bulk transactions to the tune of Rs 14 lakh, Rs 30 lakh and Rs 40 lakh have been made. The ED team is looking into this aspect and already started the investigation.

Following the statement of Parvej and Jalaluddin, the ATS of Bihar Police arrested the third accused Arman Malik as well.

They were involved in meetings of Popular Front of India (PFI) and Social Democratic Party of India at district, state and national level, and also in conspiracies surrounding anti-national and communal activities.

Following their statement, Patna Police have registered FIR against 26 people.

They are identified as Mohammad Raslan, a secretary of PFI Bihar-Bengal Regional Committee; Mohammad Riyaz, national level leader of PFI; Mohammad Ansarul Haq, PFI director of Mithilanchal region of Bihar; Mohammad Amin Alam, among others.

"The investigation is currently underway. We are doing every possible efforts to bust such terror or criminal activities. The central and state agencies are investigating it from all angles," said SK Singhal, DGP of Bihar police.

The police have recovered sensational documents from Jalaluddin and Parvez in which it has been written that they will make India an Islamic state by 2047.

On the pretext of providing physical training to the youth, the accused were brainwashing them in Patna. They were allegedly provoking Muslim youth against the Hindus.

Meanwhile, sources in the know of things said the NIA is also closely monitoring the matter, and has launched a parallel probe.

Though the NIA has not made any comment, there are possibilities that the case might be transferred to the probe agency in the coming days.

The PFI, however, said that it never published any objectionable documents and said that things were being planted.

--IANS

ajk/pgh

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ripudaman Singh Malik, an accused in the 1985 bombing of an flight off the coast of Ireland, was shot dead in Surrey city of on Thursday. Malik, 70, was acquitted of all charges in 2005.

Malik was on his way to his office when he was shot at him at 9:30 AM (7:35 PM IST). The local police believe it was a targeted killing, as reported by The Guardian.

What is the 1985 bombing?

flight named Emperor Kanishka was on June 23, 1985 flying to London to Mumbai with a stopver at Delhi, when it exploded an altitude of 31,000 feet, killing all 329 people on board. Flight 181 originally took off from Toronto and landed at the Mirabel airport in Montreal, where it became Flight 182. More passengers boarded the flight as it got ready to depart to London, bringing the total to 329, including 22 crew members.

The journey of flight 182 to Mumbai included two stops, one at London's Heathrow Airport, and the other at Delhi's Palam airport.

On the first leg, the flight departed for . It made contact with the Shannon Air Traffic Control Center, but five minutes later, vanished off the radar screen.

A little while later, a bomb placed in cargo exploded killing all on board. It was at. Remnants of the plane were found off the Irish coast. The flight had 268 Canadians, 27 Britishers and 24 Indians.

It was the deadliest mass killing in the history of . In fact, it was the deadliest attack in the history until 9/11 attack in the USA.

It has been attributed mainly to the terrorist outfit Babbar Khalsa, while a Canadian Commission of Inquiry also mentioned the International Sikh Youth Federation.

Another blast in Japan

On the same day, another bomb went off at the Narita airport in killing two baggage handlers. It was later revealed that both bombs were a part of the same plan. This bomb was originally planted in a flight from and then shifted to Air India flight 301 which was flying to Bangkok.

Malik was the main accused in the blast along with Inderjeet Singh Reyat and Ajaib Singh Bagri. Malik and Bagri were charged with 329 counts of murder, but they were acquitted for lack of evidence after Reyat said that he could not remember the details of the plot.

Reyat was charged with manslaughter and served 30 years in jail. He was released in 2016. Malik was acquitted in 2005 and later founded the Khalsa Credit Union.
Ripudaman Singh Malik, who was acquitted in the 1985 terrorist bombing, was shot dead in Surrey in Canada's British Columbia province on Thursday morning.

Confirming the news, Jaspal Singh, Brother-in-Law of Malik told ANI, "We are uncertain about who killed Ripudaman. His younger sister is on her way to ."

Malik was one of the persons who was accused of playing a crucial role in the bombing of Flight 182 Kanishka.

A bomb exploded on Flight 182 "Kanishka" from off the coast of Ireland on June 23, 1985, killing 329 passengers and crew. This included over 280 Canadian citizens including 29 entire families and 86 children under the age of 12.

Malik and his co-accused, Ajaib Singh Bagri, were acquitted in 2005 of mass murder and conspiracy charges. Notably, Malik spent four years in prison before his acquittal and later asked for USD 9.2 million as legal fees, however, a British Columbia judge rejected his claims for compensation.

The terrorist bombing of the AI Flight 182 remains the worst terrorist attack on to date.

The majority of the victims were Canadians, and the bombing was the result of a conspiracy conceived, planned and executed in Canada.

(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.)
More than Rs 36 crore in cash, linked to alleged "illegal mining" in Jharkhand, has been seized over the last more than two months as part of two separate money laundering investigations, the said on Friday.

The latest seizure pertains to an investigation against Pankaj Mishra, the political representative of Chief Minister Hemant Soren, and others where the federal probe agency said it has frozen Rs 11.88 crore cash kept in as many as 37 bank accounts.

This action came after the (ED) raided at least 19 locations in Sahibganj, Barhet, Rajmahal, Mirza Chauki and Barharwa of on July 8 as part of a probe into alleged irregularities in the operation of toll plaza tenders and instances of in the state.

"Cash amounting to Rs 11.88 crore lying in 37 bank accounts belonging to Pankaj Mishra, Dahoo Yadav and their associates has been seized under the Prevention of Money laundering Act in the case," the agency said in a statement.

The ED had earlier seized Rs 5.34 crore "unaccounted" cash soon after the July 8 raids.

Five stone crushers that were being illegally operated and an equal number of "illegal firearm cartridges" have also been seized, it said.

"The evidence collected during the course of investigation including statements of various persons, digital evidence and documents revealed that the seized cash/bank balance is derived from being rampantly done in Sahibganj area including the forest area," the ED said.

The agency said it was probing a trail of Rs 100 crore of "proceeds of crime" generated from illegal mining operations in the state.

The second instance where cash, linked to alleged illegal mining in the state, was unearthed pertains to the ED action against suspended IAS officer Pooja Singhal, in May this year.

Apart from the 2000-batch IAS officer, her businessman husband and a chartered accountant linked to them and others were raided by the ED as part of a money laundering investigation linked to a case of alleged corruption in the MGNREGA scheme.

The bureaucrat, who was holding the charge of mining secretary, was suspended by the state government following her arrest by the ED.

Suman Kumar, a chartered accountant (CA) linked to her and her husband, was also arrested by the agency and a total cash of Rs 19.76 crore was seized by it then.

A charge sheet has been filed against Singhal and others by the agency before a special PMLA court in Ranchi this month.

"Evidence collected during the course of investigation (against Singhal and others), including those collected during the searches and statements of various persons, revealed that the major chunk of the seized cash was derived from illegal mining and it belonged to senior bureaucrats and politicians," the ED said.

The total cash seizure in these two cases linked to the alleged illegal mining in Jharkhand stands at Rs 36.98 crore, the agency said.

The ED action and statement comes at a time when Chief Minister Soren is embroiled in a case of owning a mining lease in the state.

The Election Commission (EC) is hearing this case as the BJP has sought Soren's disqualification as an MLA under the electoral law.

Following a reference from the Jharkhand governor, the EC had in May issued a notice to the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader under Section 9A of the Representation of the People Act as it is alleged that owning the lease violates this law.

Soren's legal team, however, has maintained that Section 9A of the Act does not apply to the case and cited a Supreme Court ruling.

(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 pollution control board (TNPCB) has commenced monitoring the air quality after residents complained of a pungent order suspected to be due to Sulphur Dioxide leak from Petroleum Corporation Limited (CPCL).

Residents of Tiruvottiyur and Manali in city have been complaining of a pungent smell for the past few days and several healthy people had complained of breathlessness. Residents living in an area of 2-3 kms of CPCL have complained of pungent smell and breathlessness, particularly during the morning and evening times.

A senior officer with the TNPCB while speaking to IANS said, "We have received complaints from residents of Jyothi Nagar in Tiruvattiyor and in Manali areas. We are monitoring the air quality for the next 24 hours and will find out what exactly has happened."

The officer also said that a few days ago CPCL had imported Sulphur dioxide from Russia with high sulphur content and the PCB has directed CPCL not to further import that particular variety of crude oil.

CPCL officials, however, denied that there was any leak from the plant and a senior official told IANS that they are assisting the PCB officials in finding out the gas that has leaked. The official said, "If the leak was from our plant, our workers and officials would have felt it first."

The CPCL official also denied that there was no crude import with high sulphur content from Russia and that crude comes from Mumbai and the Middle East.

However, the PCB has directed the CPCL to install incinerators with Sulphur Recovery Units (SRUs). The pollution control board also directed CPCL that emission standards are complied with and to achieve Sulphur Recovery efficiency of 98.7 per cent at all times in compliance with the Union Environment Ministry notification of March 2008.

--IANS

aal/dpb

(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.)
district in Maharashtra has reported 168 new positive cases, which took its overall infection count to 7,32,105, a health official said on Friday.

With this addition, there are now 1,518 active cases in the district, he said.

The rose by one to reach 11,918, while the recovery count stood at 7,18,623, the official added.

(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.)
says JC Flowers ARC base bidder for Rs 48k cr bad loan portfolio

said on Friday it has selected JC Flowers ARC as its partner for the proposed sale of a stressed loan portfolio the private lender estimates to be at Rs 48,000 crore. In accordance with the Reserve Bank of India guidelines, the bank said in a BSE filing it proposes to run a transparent bidding process on the Swiss Challenge basis for the portfolio's sale using the JC Flowers ARCs bid as the base bid. Read more...

IIT-M top education institute, IISc Bengaluru best univ: Govt ranking

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras is India's best educational institute, according to a government ranking that put the premier engineering college at the top for the fourth year straight. led in overall and engineering categories, according to the education ministrys National Institutional Rankings Framework (NIRF) 2021. Read more...

to boost trade lanes with joint Haifa Port acquisition

and Special Economic Zone said its acquisition of Haifa Port with a local Israeli partner will boost trade lanes with the company's Indian ports and could better connect Europe and the Middle East in the longer term. After a two-year tender process, and local chemicals and logistics group Gadot clinched the 4.1 billion shekel ($1.18 billion) winning bid for Haifa Port, Israel announced on Thursday. Read more...

No need to panic over monkeypox, have taken steps to curb it: Kerala govt

With Kerala reporting the first case of monkeypox in India, the state government and health experts are of the opinion that there is no need to panic as of now and the state has already taken adequate steps to minimise its spread. Health experts are of the opinion that the disease isn't as fatal as Covid. According to data available with the World Health Organisation, of the 3,413 monkeypox cases detected in 50 countries till June end, only one death has been reported in Nigeria. Read more...

says no decision on mandatory disclosure of insurance commissions

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) said on Friday it has not decided on a proposal for mandatory disclosure of commissions on policy documents. It has come to the notice of the authority that concerns are being expressed in some quarters regarding mandatory disclosure of commissions on the policy documents. The concerns emanate from certain recommendations made by working groups constituted by the insurance councils, said the insurance regulator. Read more...
Elaborate arrangements are underway for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to inaugurate here on Saturday under which around five km area of the venue has been taken in the security cordon.

The foundation stone of the four-lane expressway, which will connect Chitrakoot with the Lucknow-Agra Expressway, was laid by Modi in February 2020.

The project took 28 months to complete.

"The government has been committed to enhancing connectivity across the country, a key feature of which has been the work towards improvement in road infrastructure," an official statement issued here said.

The 296-km, four-lane expressway constructed at a cost of around Rs 14,850 crores, under the aegis of Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA), can later be expanded upto six lanes as well.

Extending from Highway (NH)-35 at Gonda village near Bharatkoop in Chitrakoot district to near Kudrail village in Etawah district, where it merges with the Agra-Lucknow expressway, it passes through seven districts, viz. Chitrakoot, Banda, Mahoba, Hamirpur, Jalaun, Auraiya and Etawah.

Along with improving connectivity in the region, the will also give a major boost to economic development, resulting in the creation of thousands of jobs for the local people. Work on the creation of an industrial corridor in Banda and Jalaun districts, next to the expressway, has already been started.

Jalaun SP Ravi Kumar said that with a view to ensure proper security during the PM's programme, around five km area of the venue has been taken in the security cordon and the administration has asked all the security personnel to remain stationed at their respective points of deployment in view of the PM's programme.

An art gallery is also being set up in which the fort of Mahoba, Jagmanpur fort of Jalaun and the defense corridor have been shown. Besides the RAF (Rapid Action Force) and PAC (Provincial Armed Constabulary), policemen have been deployed in the area, he said.

Intensive checking campaign is being conducted in all the hotels and restaurants of Orai, the district headquarter. Bomb disposal squad has also been camped.

To help the beneficiaries of different government schemes reach the public meeting site, roadways buses have been made available at the municipal and nagar panchayat headquarters of the district. Apart from this, buses will also be provided at the development block and village level to take the beneficiaries from the rural areas to the meeting place, the SP said.

Bundeli artistes of Bundelkhand will perform their art at the function.

(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 on Friday granted bail to co-founder Mohammed Zubair in a case related to his alleged objectionable tweet in 2018 on a Hindu deity, observing that "the voice of dissent is necessary for a healthy democracy".

Zubair, however, will remain in jail as he has been remanded to judicial custody in some of the FIRs registered against him by the UP Police for allegedly hurting religious sentiments.

Zubair will be sent to the concerned jail in Uttar Pradesh after his release, according to a Tihar jail official here. The journalist is currently lodged in Tihar jail since July 2.

Granting relief to the journalist, Additional Sessions Judge Devender Kumar Jangala said Indian and the political parties are open for their criticism and that merely criticism of any political parties is no ground to invoke section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups) and 295A (outraging religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code(IPC).

"Undoubtedly free speech is the proper foundation of a democratic society."



The court further said the Hindu religion is one of the oldest religion and most tolerant and that followers of the Hindu religion are also tolerant.

Six separate FIRs have been lodged against Zubair in Sitapur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar and Hathras districts in UP.

The court directed Zubair to furnish a bail bond of Rs 50,000 and one surety of like amount, and directed him not to leave the country without its prior permission and not to repeat the offence. The journalist was also ordered to ensure that his tweet or retweet, or any material on social media content is not even touching boundaries of the offence punishable under Section 153A and 295A of IPC.

It said the accused is not required for any custodial interrogation and the alleged act would come into the category of offence only when it is done with a guilty intention.

The judge noted that till today the police have failed to establish the identity of a said Twitter user who felt offended by the tweet of the accused and based on whose complaint the present case was filed.

In response to prosecution's argument that the words "Before 2014" and "After 2014" used by the accused in his tweet have hurt the sentiments of the Hindu community and is sufficient to incite the feeling of hatred among people, the court said the followers of the Hindu religion are tolerant.

"Hindu religion is one of the oldest religions and most tolerant. The followers of the Hindu religion are also tolerant. Hindu religion is so tolerant that its followers proudly name their institution/organisation/facilities in the name of their Holy God or Goddess," the judge said.

A large number of Hindus proudly name their children in the name of their Holy God and Goddess, he added.

"The website of Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India reveals that the number of companies is incorporated, in the name of Holy Hindu God or Goddess. Therefore naming of an institute, facility or organisation, or child in the name of Hindu Deity on the face of it, is not violative of Section 153A and 295A IPC unless the same is done with malice/guilty intention," the judge said.

The court noted the use of words "Before 2014" and "After 2014" by the accused in his tweet was meant to point towards a particular political party. The BJP-led NDA came to power in 2014.

"In Indian democracy, the political parties are open for their criticism. The political parties are not shying away from the public to face the criticism of its policies. The voice of dissent is necessary for a healthy . Therefore, merely for the criticism of any political parties, it is not justified to invoke sections 153A and 295A of IPC," the judge said.

He said that is a government by the people via open discussion.

"The democracy can neither work nor prosper unless people go out to share their views. Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India gives freedom of speech and expression to its citizen."



He said that a free exchange of ideas, dissemination of information without restraints, dissemination of knowledge, airing of differing viewpoints, debating and forming one's views and expressing them, are the basic indicator of a free society.

"This freedom alone makes it possible for people to formulate their own views and opinions on a proper basis and to exercise their social, economic, and political rights in a free society in an informed manner. The liberty of speech and expression guaranteed by Article 19(1)(a) brings within its ambit, the corresponding duty and responsibility and puts limitations on the exercise of that liberty."



"The applicant has posted the image of the scene of a movie 'Kisi se na kehna' released in the year 1983. This movie was certified by the Central Board of Film Certification, which is a statutory body of the Government of India, and is available for the public view since then. No complaint is stated to have been filed till today that the said scene of the movie has hurt the feelings of a particular community of society," the court noted.

The court said police authorities are bound to proceed in the investigation as per provisions of CrPC.

"Considering the facts and circumstances of the case and the fact that the accused is not required for any custodial interrogation, I am inclined to allow the present bail moved on behalf of application applicant/accused Mohammed Zubair. The applicant is admitted to bail," it said.

The court asked Zubair to surrender his passport to the Investigating Agency within three days of his release from jail and "shall not tamper with evidence nor otherwise indulge in any act or omission that is unlawful or that would prejudice the proceedings in the pending matter."



"The applicant/accused will join the investigation as and when called by the SHO/IO to do so," it 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.)
Be prepared for fresh COVID-19 waves, WHO chief scientist has warned, amid the onset of new variants that are more transmissible, immune evasive and growing concerns about greater hospitalisations.

There is mounting evidence that suggests that Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 are infecting people who have been vaccinated.

We need to be prepared for these #COVID19 waves -- each new #variant will be more transmissible & immune evasive -- higher numbers infected will translate into greater hospitalisations & sickness. All countries must have a data driven plan to quickly respond to changing situations, Swaminathan tweeted on Thursday.

She was tweeting in response to a Twitter thread by Senior Advisor at World Bank Group Philip Schellekens who said that we are seeing a global U-turn in COVID-19 mortality. Following months of decline, it has started to rise again, which did not come as a big surprise given properties of BA.5, relaxed attitudes towards infection control and 3/4 of the world not being up-to-date on vaccination.

Schellekens said the pandemic is intensifying in high-income countries and upper-middle-income countries are also seeing an up-tick in new cases.

He noted that the US, France, Italy, Germany and Japan are the drivers of the global surge among high-income countries and Brazil, an upper-middle-income country, is leading the developing world.

Mortality rates have started to edge up slightly, he said, adding that the US and Brazil are currently the main contributors to global mortality.

WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, at a press conference earlier this week, said he is concerned that cases of COVID-19 are climbing -- putting further pressure on stretched health systems and health-care workers.

I am also concerned about the increasing trend of deaths, he said.

The WHO chief noted that the sub-variants of Omicron, like BA.4 and BA.5, continue to drive waves of cases, hospitalisation and death around the world.

Surveillance has also reduced significantly including testing and sequencing making it increasingly difficult to assess the impact of variants on transmission, disease characteristics, and the effectiveness of counter-measures.

The virus is running freely and countries are not effectively managing the disease burden based on their capacity, in terms of both hospitalisation for acute cases and the expanding number of people with post COVID-19 condition -- often referred to as long-covid, he said.

New waves of the virus demonstrate again that the COVID-19 is nowhere near over. As the virus pushes at us, we must push back, Ghebreyesus said.

The WHO COVID-19 Weekly Epidemiological Update, released this week, said that globally, the number of weekly cases increased for the fifth consecutive week, after a declining trend since the last peak in March 2022.

During the week of July 4 to 10, over 5.7 million new cases were reported, a 6 per cent increase as compared to the previous week.

The number of new weekly deaths was similar to the figure reported during the previous week, with over 9800 fatalities reported to the WHO.

As of July 10, just under 553 million confirmed cases and over 6.3 million deaths have been reported globally.

These trends should be interpreted with caution as several countries have been progressively changing COVID-19 testing strategies, resulting in lower overall numbers of tests performed and consequently lower numbers of cases detected, it said.

At the country level, the highest number of new weekly cases were reported from France (7,71,260 new cases; 6 per cent), the United States of America (7,22,924 new cases; -6 per cent), Italy (661,984 new cases; 30 per cent), Germany (561,136 new cases; -9 per cent), and Brazil (396,781 new cases; -3 per cent).

The highest number of new weekly deaths were reported from the US (1987 new deaths; -19 per cent), Brazil (1,639 new deaths; 11 per cent), China (692 new deaths; -8 per cent), Spain (619 new deaths; 98 per cent), and Italy (574 new deaths; 33 per cent).

The update said that the South-East Asia region has been reporting an increasing trend in cases since early June, with over 164,000 new cases reported, a 5 per cent increase as compared to the previous week.

Four of the 10 countries for which data were available showed an increase in the number of new cases of 20 per cent or greater, with some of the greatest proportional increases observed in Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The highest numbers of new cases in the region were reported from India (120,222 new cases; a 7 per cent increase), Indonesia (17,388 new cases; +29 per cent), and Thailand (14,938 new cases; -6 per cent).

The number of new weekly deaths in the region increased by 23 per cent as compared to the previous week, with over 400 new deaths reported.

The highest numbers of new deaths were reported from India (229 new deaths; +15 per cent), Thailand (135 new deaths; +25 per cent), and Indonesia (42 new deaths; +31 per cent).

(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.)
said on Friday it has signed an agreement with JCF ARC LLC and JC Flowers Asset Reconstruction (JC Flowers ARC) for a partnership to sell the private lenders stressed assets estimated worth Rs 48,000 crore.

The bank, in August, 2021 invited applications for setting up an ARC, planning to hold 20 per cent stake in it. On the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) objection, it agreed to hold a minority stake in the entity.

What went wrong at

The bank was launched on January 21, 2004, by Rana Kapur and his brother-in-law, Ashok Kapoor. In 2005, the bank went public. Ashok died in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. Rana Kapur managed the bank as its CEO after 2008.

In 2014, the gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of the bank stood at 0.31 per cent. In 2017, the bank was included in the BSE's benchmark index, Sensex. It was valued at over Rs 1 trillion.

The in 2014 started a clean-up of the banking sector and started identifying the NPAs of lenders. It was when the crisis at came to light.

found out that YES Bank's reported of NPAs and the central banks estimates didnt match. The lender was giving out loans to companies that were already under stress, like Anil Ambani group, and Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL). The bank was asked to admit more NPAs to its balance sheet.

However, the crisis spread after YES customers started withdrawing their deposits. Tirupati temple trust, one of the biggest depositors of the bank, withdrew Rs 1,300 crore in 2019. According to a report by the Indian Express, depositors withdrew Rs 18,000 crore from the bank between March 2019 and September 2019. Rana Kapur stepped down as CEO in January 2019.

On March 5, 2020, the superseded the bank's Board of Directors and capped the withdrawals to Rs 50,000. It also asked the State Bank of India (SBI) to get a 49 per cent stake in the bank for restructuring it.

RBI also appointed Prashant Kumar, a former senior executive at SBI, as an administrator at YES Bank. He later became the bank's CEO on March 6, 2020.

The SBI holds 49 per cent of YES Bank and has appointed JCF ARC LLC and JC Flowers Asset Reconstruction Private Limited (JC Flowers ARC) to help it sell the .
While the Covid-19 pandemic has left the countrys education sector struggling, has led to many students falling out of the ambit of formal education. However, has emerged as one of the better-performing states in India, especially the government schools and grant-in-aid schools.

Education for all



According to the child tracking system (CTS) data, nearly 65 per cent of the total students study in the 40,000 government schools in the state. This represents over 7 million students studying in grades 1 to 12. Moreover, more than 500,000 students in study in private schools under the Right to Education Act, 2009.

CTS data further reveals that more students in have been admitted to government schools than private ones after Covid. In the past year, out of the 327,000 students that enrolled in schools, 200,000 were admitted to government schools alone.

Catering to the needs of students in far-flung areas, the state has also started schools in the core interior tribal areas like Dangs.

The education is imparted not only in Gujarati, but also Hindi, English, Marathi, Urdu, Odia, Tamil and Telugu mediums.

Mission Schools of Excellence



The state government has also formed the ambitious Mission Schools of Excellence, India's largest school transformation programme. Under the mission, over 20,000 schools in the state with the strength of more than 120 students will be transformed into 'Schools of Excellence' (SoE). It is expected to benefit 80 per cent of government school students in Gujarat. The state government, under SoE, will also provide physical and digital learning facilities to students to help them achieve grade-appropriate learning.

Befriending technology



The state is also focusing on integrating technology with school education. Under the Gyankunj Project, over 15,000 smart classrooms have been built across Gujarat, according to MIS data. In 2022-23, as many as 24,000 more such classrooms are expected to be made functional. The daily online attendance of all schools in the state is 11.5 million.

All public elementary schools and field officers have also been provided with tablets. Over 350 schools have been equipped with CCTV cameras, MIS data further showed.

To increase access to the Centre's DIKSHA app, QR codes have been added to school textbooks. These can be accessed to learn online. As a result, Gujarat has been topping the national ranking in terms of the number of direct plays on the app. Also, online classes for each grade are telecast through DD Girnar, a TV channel.

So far, over 300 million virtual classroom sessions have been conducted on Microsoft Teams. This is the largest use of the platform worldwide. Also, YouTube is being used actively for live interactive classes for students in grades 9 to 12. Eighty million views on the state's YouTube channel is a testament to that.

The state has also launched the first edtech company, Gujarat Education Technologies (GET). A learning management system and the G-Shala content app were launched under the scheme. Currently, over 3 million students are using G-Shala.

Gujarat has also become the first state to launch a school accreditation and ranking framework, GUNOTSAV 2.0.

Food, transport and more



Under two schemes  the Mid-day meal scheme and Doodh Sanjivani Yojna (DSY)  around 7 million students get free meals and flavoured milk. DSY mainly caters to 78 tribal and developing blocks, providing them with 200 ml of milk per child per day.

Since the launch of the school transportation facility in 2012, over 150,000 students have benefitted from an improved transportation facility, according to data from the unified district information system. Hundreds of thousands of students get a free pass to travel via state transport.

In the past 20 years, over 145,000 classrooms have been built in the state. In the next 12-18 months, 20,000 additional classrooms are likely to get ready, according to data from the (SSA).

Teacher-student relationship



The state government, in the past 8 years, has allocated over 15 per cent of its Budget to the education sector. According to the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE), the pupil-teacher ratio in the state stands at 28:1 and the student-classroom ratio is 25:1. A total of 237,000 teachers are employed in government schools in Gujarat, according to the data from Teacher Portal.

In the past 20 years, 185,000 teachers have been recruited in the state.

Gujarat was the first state to launch the learning-outcome-based students' report card. It also launched Vidya Samiksha Kendra, a centre for monitoring school education indicators online. Over 10 billion data points have been collected in real time using the platform.

For its efforts, Gujarat was awarded the Prime Minister's Award for Excellence in Public Administration in 2021.
India should be allowed to export from its public stockholding to countries facing a hunger crisis, something which is in contravention of current (WTO) rules, Union Finance Minister said on Friday.

Sitharaman was speaking on the sidelines of the meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors (FMCBG) in Bali, Indonesia.

WTO norms have restrictions that grains so procured cannot be brought to the market for export... We have repeatedly said we are willing to trade in the surplus we have, Sitharaman said.

According to WTO norms, countries are not allowed to export from their public stockholding because those are procured at subsidised rates. The finance minister said India could help in reducing hunger or food insecurity but there was a hesitation on the part of the WTO.

Food insecurity, especially in times of war, is one of the biggest challenges that many countries face, she said.

Many nations are facing food shortages because the war in Europe has disrupted supply chains. Before the war, Russia and Ukraine were two of the biggest foodgrain exporters.

A group of 70-80 countries, led by Singapore, are pushing member countries of the WTO to accept binding commitments of not extending export restrictions on the procured under the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).





ALSO READ: India to boost foodgrain production, committed to help globally: Mandaviya

Some members, however, have voiced concern regarding a blanket exemption for WFP food purchases due to domestic food security considerations.

Speaking at the event, Sitharaman said food, fuel, and fertilisers were global public goods, and ensuring access to these for developing and emerging economies was critical. She said there was an urgency to strengthen food production and global food system.

Sitharaman also shared Indias experience, including robust gains in agriculture production, the widening of the food security programme during the Covid-19 pandemic, and innovative delivery mechanisms such as the One Nation One Ration Card scheme.

Sitharaman also spoke at the main FMCBG event and said Indias long-term growth prospects were anchored in public capital expenditure.

In an interview with Business Standard earlier this month, the finance minister had expressed similar views. She had said the Centre was counting on its capex programme to revive demand in the economy, and might not go for sector-specific fiscal measures.

The route we have chosen and the one we are sticking with is capex. Even during the pandemic, we adopted this method of spend on capital assets, and made sure the economy revival happened. And states really showed that they had the absorptive capacity, she had said.

The government has laid emphasis on capital expenditure to push economic growth, which has been hit by the pandemic. It is expected that the increase in public spending would crowd in private investment.

According to the latest Monthly Economic Report of the finance ministry, private sector investment has started to pick up, with the share of the Indian private sector in the investment proposals reaching a record high of 85 per cent in the April-June quarter, rising from an average of 63 per cent in the preceding four quarters.

The Centres FY23 capex target is Rs 7.5 trillion, of which Rs 1 trillion will be long-term, interest-free loans to states for their capex needs.
The is preparing a bill for a new registration regime for newspapers that will also include the media industry, which currently is not included in the Centre's registration framework, reported The Economic Times.

The government will propose the Registration of Press and Periodicals Bill, 2019, with the changes before the Cabinet soon. The new bill will replace the colonial-era Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867, which currently regulated the newspaper and printing press industry in India.

If the bill is passed, websites operating in India will come on par with newspapers, and they will have to register themselves with the Press Registrar General, equivalent to the prevalent Registrar of Newspapers in India, the ET report stated. platforms currently do no such registrations.

The Centre in 2019 had put out a draft of the bill that defined 'news on digital media' as "news in digitised format that can be transmitted over the internet, computer or mobile networks and includes text, audio, video and graphics".

When the bill was proposed, it stirred controversy as many argued that it was the Centre's attempt to 'control' digital . The at that time had not moved further with the draft bill.

However, the Centre has now finalised all ministerial and other stakeholder consultations, and the bill will not go to the for approval, after which it will be presented in the Parliament, ET reported.

The ET report stated that the 2019 bill would also free up the book publishing industry by removing existing provisions related to book registrations and related matters.

The draft also proposes to 'decriminalise' and simplify registration requirements and regulations.
The along with the Indian Agricultural Research Institute will provide training in urban farming to the citizens from August for growing fruit and vegetables for self-consumption and as an entrepreneurial venture.

Delhi Environment, Development, General Administration Minister Gopal Rai chaired a review meeting with environment department officials and Krishi Vigyan Kendra regarding the plan to promote urban farming, an official statement said on Friday.

Rai said that the training for smart urban farming will be given by experts of Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) and Delhi will witness a "sharp rise in its green cover" unde the Smart Urban Farming Initiative.

"Experts from Indian Agricultural Research Institute will start the training programme of Urban Farming in entire Delhi from August month onwards. 400 awareness workshops and 600 entrepreneurship training programmes will be organised across Delhi under the initiative," he said.

"We will conduct 400 hands-on workshops across Delhi and 600 entrepreneurship training programmes will be undertaken by industry partners," he said.

On June 29, the Delhi Cabinet approved the Smart Urban Farming Initiative, which will benefit nearly 25,000 families in the first year from the 1,000 workshops that will be conducted.

(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.)
Union Fertiliser Minister Mansukh Mandaviya some days ago hoped would eliminate import by 2025 through the increased domestic production and enhanced use of urea, which cuts the consumption of traditional by as much as 30 per cent.

But trade and industry sources said was on course to achieving near self-sufficiency in in the next few years through conventional routes.

And, will play a big supportive role in the same

This optimism rests on the commissioning of six new conventional urea plants, each with an annual production capacity of about 1.3 million tonnes. Of these, the Barauni and Sindri plants will be commissioned by September, and the others in the next three-four years. Once all these public sector urea plants start functioning, Indias domestic urea output will rise by 7.8-8 million tonnes.





This, when added to the existing production of 25 million tonnes per annum, will take the annual availability of fertilisers to almost 33 million tonnes. consumes around 35 million tonnes of urea at present. Hence, dependence on imports will automatically go down to 1-3 million tonnes a year as against the current 7-9 million tonnes.

This will not only make us almost self-sufficient in urea but also lower the requirement of floating open global tenders to import urea each year, which sometimes leads to cartelisation among global players to Indias detriment, a senior industry official said.

He said once India became a marginal urea importer in the global market, a lot of problems associated with rising international rates would go.

On top of all these, the is signing long-term contracts with countries such as Oman for about 1 million tonnes of urea a year. This should further eliminate the need for big imports, the official said.

plan

The commercial production of nano urea started on August 1, 2021, and the producers were Iffco and Rashtriya Chemicals and (RCF).

After that, a plan was drawn up to increase nano urea output in eight plants of Iffco and in various phases starting August 2021. Those together will produce around 440 million bottles of 500-ml nano urea. This will be equivalent to around 20 million tonnes of urea.

Since the launch of nano urea, the government has dispatched some 39 million bottles to be sold at outlets of Iffco and . Of that around 28.7 million bottles have been sold.

This is equivalent to around 1.3 million tonnes of conventional urea.

According to a ministry official, the government will save foreign exchange of about ~40,000 crore a year due to a reduction in imports. Nano ureas application can lead to a reduction in soil, water and air pollution caused by the overuse of chemical fertilisers. At present, the nano urea capacity is 50 million bottles per year.

Cooperative major Iffco has introduced innovative nano urea in the market. Commercial production started on August 1, 2021, at its Kalol unit in . Seven more nano urea plants are being set up by Iffco as well as and National . Iffco transferred nano urea technology to these two public sector undertakings free of cost.

It is estimated that by using nano urea, farmer income will increase by an average of ~4,000 per acre.

Private sector in wait-and-watch mode

Nano urea being a patented product, private companies might have to get the licence to produce it in their plants.

However, some industry players said they wanted to assess its effectiveness and cost for atleast a year before doing large-scale production and sales through their channels.

Sources said, roughly, of the 25 million tonnes of urea domestically produced in the country, around 14-15 million tonnes comes from the public sector and cooperatives, rest from a combination of private sector and joint ventures.

Several private players said nano urea was essentially suitable for foliar application (that is, from the top through a sprayer on the leaves), while conventional urea was applied at the roots of the plants. Therefore, it needs to be closely analysed.

Urea is usually applied three times on a plant. While the first dose is delivered on the soil when the plant has not germinated, the second and third doses are applied when the plant grows. In the case of nano urea, as it is meant for foliar application, the first dose isnt possible while the second and third doses are. Therefore, it needs to see how the product behaves in farmers fields, the official said.
Every higher institution will be part of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), Union Minister said on Friday, while asserting that by next year, institutional accreditation will be unified.

He added that there will soon be a system under which every school in the country will also be accredited.

Asserting that accreditation and assessment shall be mandatory, Pradhan said every higher institution needs to be accredited and self-declaration and transparency shall be the basis of assessment and accreditation.

"By next year, we will unify institutional accreditation, which is presently done by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), and the programme accreditation is presently done by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA).

"Ranking on innovation, done earlier by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), will henceforth be integrated with the . All institutions will be part of the combined system of assessment, accreditation and rankings. Such a system will be transparent and objective," the minister said.

"From next year, the ranking categories will also include innovation and entrepreneurship. The number of ranking categories can be increased according to the needs. Work is already going on on the rankings of the ITIs and polytechnics," he added.

Pradhan was addressing the gathering at the launch of the NIRF for 2022.

"Soon, there will be a system under which each school will also be accredited. We will take the state governments on board. Parents will know the standing of the schools where their children are being admitted," he said.

The education minister informed that only those universities and colleges that have NAAC grading or NIRF ranking will be eligible for inclusion in the list maintained by the University Grants Commission (UGC) under section 12B of the UGC Act, 1956 for receiving financial assistance.

"Our accreditation and rankings system will also become international and invite foreign institutions to be a part of it. Several private higher education institutions apply some affirmative action or reservation policy. All private HEIs shall move in that direction to ensure inclusive education and comply with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 principles. The institutions shall become multi-disciplinary.

"IITs featuring in the top 10 in the management category shows that the market also desires multi-disciplinary education and institutions," Pradhan said.

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras retained the top spot among all the educational institutes in the country for the fourth consecutive year, whereas the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru was adjudged the best university and research institution, according to the seventh edition of the NIRF launched on Friday.

Seven IITs -- IIT-Madras, IIT-Bombay, IIT-Delhi, IIT-Kanpur, IIT-Kharagpur, IIT-Roorkee and IIT-Guwahati -- figured in the top 10 in the overall rankings.

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi and the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) were ranked ninth and tenth respectively in the overall rankings.

In the "universities" category, IISc-Bengaluru bagged the top spot, followed by JNU and Jamia Millia Islamia.

The Banaras Hindu University (BHU), which was ranked third last year in the category, slipped to the sixth position this year.

(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 Institute of of India (ICAI) on Friday declared the CA's final results on its official website. Candidates who appeared for the CA exams, which were held in May, can check their results at ICAI's official website, .nic.in.

The CA final exams were held from May 14 to 29, 2022 at various exam centres across India.

The has also released the merit list of candidates along with the results.

Here's how you can check your ICAI CA Final result 2022:

Visit the official website of ICAI, at icai.nic.in Click on the link that says Results 'Final: May 2022' Log in using your credentials Submit your details and download the results Take a print out of the same for future references Candidates can also check their merit list

This should be noted that the ICAI has also released the schedule for the CA November exam 2022. The schedule for Inter and final CA course examinations can be checked on the official website of ICAI, at icai.org.

The intermediate course examination for Group 1 will be held on November 2,4,6 and 9 this year, according to the ICAI. The Group 2 exam will be held on November 11, 13, 15, and 17, 2022, the ICAI said on its website.
If two students vying for the same seat at get the same Common University Entrance Test (CUET) score, in that case, their Class 12 maks will be the tiebreaker, said DU Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh, reported The Indian Express on Thursday.

While talking to IE, Singh said that to ensure maximum seats are filled in the first round of counselling, DU will admit extra students.

The first phase of CUET-UG for university to undergraduate courses starts Friday, July 15. The first phase of CUET-UG, the second biggest entrance exam in the country, will be held on July 15, 16, 19, and 20. The CUET has received 1.4 million registrations this year. Nearly 810,000 candidates will appear in the first phase and the rest 680,000 candidates in the second.

"We have decided that if there is tie between two students' CUET scores, the marks of the best three class XII subjects will be counted as a tiebreaker," Singh told IE. He added, "If that is all the same, then we will consider the four best subjects. If it still remains tied, then the score of best five subjects will be counted."

If the score remains the same even after these processes, then age will be a factor, and the seat will be given to the older applicant, Singh said.

No subject is mandatory to be counted in the best of three, Singh told IE, adding, "Any three subjects with the highest score can be counted in this."

The V-C said that DU would admit 20 per cent extra students in the general and OBC category and 30 per cent extra in the SC/ST category in the first round of counselling in case of withdrawal or dropouts, IE reported.

DU's move is aimed at filling up SC/ST seats, as every year, the university conducts a special drive to fill these seats, as many remain vacant.

Singh had also announced a committee in April to look into the "shortfall" in the enrolment of SC/ST students.
Vice Chancellor Yogesh Singh on Friday said a low student-teacher ratio could be one of the reasons for the varsity slipping in the Ministry of Education's National Institutional Ranking Framework 2022, even as he said the work done today will only be reflected in the next two years.

The varsity slipped by a spot to the 13th position this year. In the overall rankings as well, its position declined to 23 from 19 last year.

The seventh edition of National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings was announced on Friday by Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

The (DU) is ranked behind city-based Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), which bagged the second and third positions, respectively in the NIRF under the 'university' category.

Last year, DU was ranked 12th, while it was ranked 11th in 2020. It was at the 13th spot in 2019 and ranked seventh in the university category in 2018.

The rankings have been done in various categories like overall, universities, colleges, research institutions, among others.

DU's Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma (ARSD) College was ranked above St. Stephen's and Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), and was among the top 10 colleges in the country.

Five DU colleges were among the top 10 colleges in the NIRF rankings with Miranda House bagging the top spot for the sixth consecutive year.

In its overall ranking, the university slipped to 23rd rank from 19th last year. In 2020, it was ranked 18th and 20th in 2019. In 2018, it had bagged the 14th rank.

Five DU colleges were among the top 10 colleges in the country this year, with Hindu College improving its ranking from ninth to second this year, while Lady Shri Ram College for Women securing the fifth position from its earlier second rank.

Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College, which was ranked 12th last year, secured its spot among the top 10 colleges in the country and was ranked seventh above Kirori Mal College (KMC), St. Stephen's College and Shri Ram College of Commerce that are ranked tenth, eleventh and twelfth, respectively.

The has scored 43.1 in teaching, learning and resources (TLR), a marginal improvement from last year when it had scored 42.65 in the same domain.

However, it is way behind JNU and JMI which have a TLR of 71.94 and 68.17, respectively.

Speaking to PTI, DU VC Yogesh Singh noted, "We will have to improve on the research factor. The low student-teacher ratio could be one of the reasons for the decline in rankings. We are in the process of hiring teachers, but the results will show in the next couple of years. Some changes might be visible the next year, but the actual results will only be seen in the next two years."



Talking about Delhi Technological University (DTU), where he previously served as the vice chancellor, Singh said it has improved its ranking and is now ranked 38 in the university category.

Although the varsity's rankings have witnessed a downfall, its colleges have been performing well with Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College being the surprise entrant in the top 10 colleges in the country.

"It is a proud moment for all of us. We are consistently doing well in the rankings. Last year, we were 12th, and the year before that, we were ranked 13th and for three years, we were 14th. It is a reward for us. Even last year, SRCC and KMC were behind us," ARSD principal Gyantosh Jha told PTI.

Talking about the parameters where the college fared well, he said the institute has excellent graduation and research outcomes, but lagged in the perception quotient.

"We did very good in research and professional practices. We did well in TLR, but we got only 24 marks out of 100 in the perception area, an improvement from last year when we had scored 15 marks. We are trying to improve the image of the college.

"There was a time when it was considered a college for those students who could not secure admissions anywhere else in DU, but that has changed in the last five to six years. Our college is 63-years-old and we are carrying the burden of our past image," he added.

Miranda House principal Bijayalakshmi Nanda stressed that consistency was the key to the college maintaining the numero uno position.

"We also have the guidance of DU which is more than that of other colleges since we are a constituent college of the varsity. Our governing body also comprises senior DU professors.

"We had also involved our senior faculty members (who have retired) in mentoring the current faculty. We have tried to align ourselves with the National Policy. We have also started looking at emphasising on skill development, incubation and research centres. We had to go online due to COVID-19. We tried our best to stimulate the environment of online classes," she added.

(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.)
Fearing further shrinking of space for public sector financial institutions, of staff and officers will launch an agitation against the consolidation and privatisation of state-owned .

The government must rethink on further consolidation before seeing the impact of previous rounds, Union leaders said.

Ahead of the 53rd anniversary of bank nationalisation, United Forum of (UFBU) will hit the streets from July 17 to protest against privatisation and consolidation of (PSBs).

employees and officers organisations will take to Twitter on July 17, a day before Parliaments monsoon session commences.

They are opposing the idea of further consolidation for reasons like adverse effect on job opportunities, damage to customer services and issues with information technology integration. They feel that there is a need to review the working at existing banks, which went through merger and amalgamation.

CH Venkatachalam, general secretary, All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) said, top officials at banks (where consolidation happened) are telling the government that everything is okay. That is all. Nobody is throwing light on the ground-level situation.

Unions have flagged problems like closure of branches, IT integration not seamless and customers not being happy.

There are so many issues. All complaints get the same standard reply we are attending to it, they said.

Unions said there are definite problems with consolidation. The senior bankers do not have adequate expertise to run big-sized banks, union leaders said.

Consolidation through mergers reduced the number of PSBs from 27 in 2016-2017 to 12 now.

In the first significant exercise, State Bank of India (SBI) merged five subsidiaries and Bhartiya Mahila Bank with itself.

This was followed by the merger of Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank with Bank of Baroda in 2019.

Then there was a large-scale integration exercise in 2020 where Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India merged with Punjab National Bank. Also, Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank folded into Union Bank and Syndicate Bank merged with Canara Bank.

C J Nandakumar, president, Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI), said consolidation is just a preclude to privatisation. According to him, the exercise (consolidation) has been a failure. The mergers have made little difference to services and working. In fact, challenges have only gone up for employees after consolidation due to problems in human resource and systems integration, Nandakumar said.

S. Nagarajan, general secretary, All India Bank Officers Association (AIBOA) said unions will oppose it as this (consolidation) is shrinking the space for PSBs.

Around 7,800 branches of PSBs have been closed while private sector counterparts have opened 4,500 branches. These are mostly at places where PSB branches were located.
on Friday sealed a deal with JC Flowers to set up an asset construction company (ARC), to which the private sector lender will sell Rs 48,000 crore of legacy through the Swiss challenge method to become a zero-NPA bank.

the bank has signed a binding term sheet with JCF ARC LLC and JC Flowers Asset Reconstruction Private Limited (JC Flowers ARC) for a strategic partnership in relation to the sale of identified of the bank, said in communication to the exchanges.

The term sheet became effective on Friday.

The bank has decided that JC Flowers ARC will be the base bidder for the proposed sale of an identified stressed loan portfolio of the bank, aggregating up to Rs 48,000 crore, it said.

The bank plans to conduct the bidding process on a Swiss challenge basis for sale, using the JC Flowers ARCs bid as the base bid.

 has completed a big part of its re-emergence with the announced sale of Rs 48,000 crore of its legacy NPAs to JC Flowers ARC, said Abizer Diwanji, head, financial services, EY, which assisted the bank on the deal. This is the single-largest sale of NPAs in India and a start to a financial institution selling its to specialists and moving on to focus for providing credit for growth, Diwanji wrote in a social media post.





ALSO READ: YES Bank's stressed loan portfolio: Understanding what went wrong at lender

YES Bank management had earlier said there would be the 15:85 NPA structure for NPA sale  that is, the bank will get 15 per cent of the sale amount in cash and the remaining in security receipts, and whenever the ARC would make recovery, SRs would be liquidated. Since YES Bank will be having a stake in the ARC, the profitability of the ARC would also be shared in proportion.

The earlier plan of YES Bank was to complete the sale of by June 2022. However, the deal was delayed as both the players were ironing out a few issues.

I agree that there has been a delay. At the same time, you would appreciate it would be a very large transaction. We have a stressed asset pool of around Rs 50,000 crore. Also, this is a first of its kind in the industry. And, when you are entering in a partnership with a foreign player, they would like to ensure their interests remain protected over a period of time, YES Bank MD & CEO Prashant Kumar told Business Standard in an interview last week.

As on March 31, 2022, the banks gross non-performing assets were Rs 27,976 crore -- about 14 per cent of the gross advances.

The entire NPA stock both from corporate and retail would be transferred to the proposed ARC in a transparent manner and then the bank would be exactly without any GNA, Kumar had said while announcing the Jan-March earnings of the bank.
Revealing a grim picture of the state of women in Afghanistan, a report by the (WEF) has ranked as the worst country in terms of gender parity.

In the Global Gender Gap Index which was released by WEF on Wednesday, is placed in the last spot in a survey of 146 countries, Khaama Press reported.

Economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment were the four parameters considered in the preparation of the index of the current state and evolution of gender parity

It assesses the gender gap around the world and provides a robust cross-country analysis. A large constant sample for time series was analysed as 102 countries have been represented in every edition of the index since 2006.

According to the report, the parity witnessed an increase this year because women are earning 2 per cent more on average than in 2021 while men are earning 1.8 per cent less on average than in 2021.

"Twenty-eight countries have closed less than 50 per cent of the gender gap on this indicator," the report added.

The lowest levels of parity were recorded in Iran (16 per cent), (18per cent) and Algeria (18 per cent).

"Overall, Sub-Saharan African and the Middle East and North Africa have the lowest levels of income parity, at approximately 23 per cent and 24 per cent, respectively," local media reported citing the report.

"The current government considers all rights of women in Islamic regulation. The women are working in various fields because the government should include women, based on necessity," said Taliban's deputy spokesman Bilal Karimi while defying the report.

"If such restrictions on women continue, not only the women will be removed from the Afghan society, but this will also affect the community," local media reported citing women's right defender Zarqa Yaftali.

"We are expecting the Islamic Emirate to take steps to ensure women's rights and include women in the government," women's rights activist Mariam Maroof said.

While Afghanistan is the worst country in terms of gender parity, Pakistan ranked second-worst in a survey of 146 countries.

As per the statistics, Pakistan has 107 million women and the country closed at 56.4 per cent in the report's gender gap index. The report observed, "this is the highest overall level of parity Pakistan has posted" since the launch of the global gender gap report by WEF in 2006.

Pakistan's ranking in other parameters also exposes the country's sorry state of affairs. The country ranked 145th in terms of economic participation and opportunity; 135th in educational attainment; 143rd in health and survival; and 95th in political empowerment.

(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.)
Chinas grew at the slowest pace since the country was first hit by the coronavirus outbreak two years ago, making Beijings growth target for the year increasingly unattainable as economists downgrade their forecasts further.

The 0.4 per cent expansion in gross domestic product reported for the three months to June, when dozens of cities including and Changchun imposed lockdowns, was the second weakest ever recorded. Group Inc. promptly cut its full-year growth forecast to 3.3 per cent, saying the figures suggest Covid lockdowns last quarter took a heavier-than-expected toll on the .

The slowdown means will miss its target of about 5.5 per cent by a wide margin this year, the first time thats likely to happen. The government didnt set a target in 2020, during the first wave of the coronavirus outbreak, and only missed it slightly by 0.2 percentage point in 1998.



Chinas outlook remains highly uncertain as President Xi Jinping stays committed to his Covid Zero approach of stamping out infections.

With a major buyer of commodities from oil to coal to corn, the economys slowdown is a blow to a global already hit by recession fears.

China's economy logged a 2.5 per cent YoY growth in the first half of 2022, official data showed on Friday. Making matters worse for the economy, data showed no sign of improvement in the slump in Chinas property investment, which drives demand for goods and services worth about 20 per cent of Chinas .


Tibetan spiritual leader the on Friday began his month-long visit to and said India-China border disputes should be resolved through "talks and peaceful means" as use of military is an outdated option.

The spiritual leader's visit to is expected to rile China as it comes amid the military standoff between Indian and Chinese troops at several friction points in eastern .

A top government functionary said the visit of the to Ladakh was a "completely religious" one, and no one should have any objections to the tour.

"India and China are most populated countries and neighbours. Sooner or later, you have to solve this problem (border disputes along the Line of Actual Control) through talks and peaceful means," the told reporters in Jammu before leaving for Ladakh.

"Use of military force is outdated now," he said.

The government functionary said it is not for the first time that the Dalai Lama is visiting a border region. He said the spiritual leader has been to Ladakh as well Arunachal Pradesh several times in the past.

"The Dalai Lama is a spiritual leader and his visit to Ladakh is completely religious. Why should anyone have objections to the tour," the government functionary said.

Earlier this month, China criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for greeting the Dalai Lama on his 87th birthday, saying India should stop using Tibet-related issues to interfere in China's internal affairs.

However, India rejected the criticism and asserted it is a consistent policy to treat the Dalai Lama as an honoured guest of the country.

This is the Dalai Lama's first visit outside Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh in the last two years as he was mostly confined to the hill station due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The Dalai Lama had visited Ladakh in the past. He had visited Tawang (Arunachal Pradesh) too but he could not undertake any visit in the last two years due to the pandemic," the functionary said.

The 14th Dalai Lama was given rousing reception in Leh as hundreds of people stood up on the two sides of road to welcome his cavalcade from Leh airport to Jivetsal Photang.

In Jammu, he avoided a question on Kashmir issue and said, "It is complicated issue. I do not know about it".

Replying to another question about objections raised by China to his visit in Ladakh, he said this is usual but Chinese people have not objected to it.

"Some Chinese hardliners consider me separatist and reactionary. They always criticise me", he said.

The Tibetan spiritual leader said the Chinese people have now realised that the Dalai Lama is not a separatist.

As far as meaningful autonomy and Tibetan Buddhist culture preservation is concerned, he said, more Chinese people are showing respect for Tibetan Buddhism.

In a message to the world, the Dalai Lama said there is no point to fight each other. "The fight happens due to 'my nation, my country, my idealogy (thinking)'. That is too narrow-minded an approach."



He said people live together whether one likes or dislikes it. "These are little family problems too as all human beings are all brothers and sisters," he said.

On Thursday, the Tibetan spiritual leader said in Jammu that more and more people in China are beginning to realise that he is not seeking "independence" but meaningful autonomy and preservation of the Tibetan Buddhist culture.

"Some Chinese hardliners consider me a separatist and a reactionary and always criticise me. But now, more Chinese are realising that the Dalai Lama is not seeking independence and only wishing China (to give) meaningful autonomy (to Tibet) and (ensure) preservation of Tibetan Buddhist culture," the spiritual leader said.

The Dalai Lama has been living in India ever since he fled Tibet in 1959. The Tibetan government-in-exile operates from India and over 1,60,000 Tibetans live in the country.

(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.)
There is tacit coordination that the community will not let cash-strapped -- as long as it stays on course -- to become Sri Lanka, a media report said on Friday, days after Islamabad signed a preliminary agreement with the IMF for the release of USD 1.17 billion loan tranche that had been on hold since earlier this year.

The Monetary Fund on Thursday confirmed that an agreement was reached with Pakistan, which is facing a serious since last one year, to restore a stalled loan programme and also increased its size from USD 6 billion to USD 7 billion.

The revival of the IMF's bailout is likely to help the government overcome the as the release of installment of loans from the fund will encourage other financial institutions to engage with .

According to The Express Tribune newspaper, background discussions with diplomatic channels have revealed that the international community was standing behind the IMF all the time and did not give any chance to the government to walk away from the talks by not extending any kind of cash assistance to .

"All the friends of Pakistan had asked it to work with the IMF and the international community was constantly briefed by the IMF staff about the progress on the programme negotiations," the daily reported, citing diplomatic sources.

The disclosure by the diplomatic channels was also confirmed by the government sources, who told the paper that Saudi Arabia and the UAE had also advised Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to first take the IMF route.

Receiving no cash from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar was also surprising for the Sharif family that has historically cordial relations with the royal families of these countries.

There is tacit coordination that the international community will not let Pakistan -- as long as it stays on course -- to become Sri Lanka, where its President Gotabaya Rajapaksa sent in his resignation after fleeing to Singapore amid mass protests over his country's economic meltdown, the daily said.

The government sources said that this ended the chances for taking any popular decision despite fast erosion of the political capital of the ruling alliance.

However, those countries did help Pakistan avoid a default by extending billions of dollars loans that matured in the past six months but were further extended.

The diplomatic sources said that the IMF board of directors belonging to these countries had given assurances that they would not withdraw their existing bailouts.

The international community believes that Pakistan needs reforms under the IMF programme -- even more than its money.

According to the diplomatic sources, many people would think that Pakistan had been in a similar situation in 2018. However, they added that the situation was different this time, as there was less money available in the international markets.

The IMF's decision to give only USD 1.2 billion after pushing Pakistan to swallow many bitter pills also indicates that the international creditors would keep Pakistan in a tight spot.

The previous government of Imran Khan had signed the 39-month loan programme in July 2019 aimed at avoiding default on foreign repayment obligations. However, the country remained in turmoil and its foreign exchange reserves remained thin amid heightened external debt-related vulnerabilities, the newspaper 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.)
Italian President Sergio Mattarella rejected a resignation offer of Prime Minister Mario Draghi, after meeting him.

Draghi decided to formally resign late Thursday evening after the second largest force in his coalition -- the Five Star Movement (M5S) -- boycotted a confidence vote on the government's relief bill to combat soaring prices in the Senate earlier in the day.

In an official statement after their meeting at the Quirinale Palace, Mattarella's office said that "the President has not accepted the resignation".

The President has invited the Prime Minister "to appear before Parliament for communication, in order to have an assessment of the situation ... in its proper forum," the statement said.

Draghi is now expected to address the lower house and the Senate next Wednesday, according to local media.

The crisis broke out after weeks of tensions mounting within the broad coalition supporting the Prime Minister's national unity government, which was formed in February 2021, Xinhua news agency reported.

Draghi, former chief of the European Central Bank, has been enjoying a large political consensus up to the latest months, when infighting focused on what the cabinet's priorities in the short and mid-term should be.

After the M5S refused to take part in the confidence vote on Thursday, the Prime Minister gathered the Cabinet and formally announced to his ministers that he would resign, saying the majority that had supported the government from its creation does not exist anymore.

"Since my inauguration address before the Parliament, I always said the Cabinet would go on only if there was a clear prospect of implementing the government's program ... Such cohesiveness has been crucial to meet the challenges of these months," Draghi said. "These conditions no longer exist."

--IANs

int/khz/

(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.)
Kathaleen McCormick took over the role of chancellor or chief judge of the Court of Chancery last year, the first woman in that role. On Wednesday, she was assigned the lawsuit which seeks to force Musk to complete his deal for the social media platform, which promises to be one of the biggest legal showdowns in years.

"She already has a track record of not putting up with some of the worst behavior that we see in these areas when people want to get out of deals," said Adam Badawi, a law professor who specializes in corporate governance at the University of California Berkeley. "She is a serious, no-nonsense judge." In contrast to Musk's brash and volatile behavior, she is known as soft-spoken, approachable and amiable -- but a person who also stands her ground. She advocates respect among litigants and integrity at legal conferences.

"We've always had each other's backs, we've always gone out for drinks after arguments and maintained this level of civility," she told a gathering at the University of Delaware this year.

After weeks of confrontational tweets suggesting was hiding the true number of fake accounts, Musk said on July 8 he was terminating the $54.20-per- share acquisition, worth $44 billion. On Tuesday, the social media platform sued.

McCormick on Friday scheduled the first hearing for July 19 in Wilmington, when she will consider Twitter's request to expedite the case and conduct a four-day trial in September.

Judges have ordered reluctant buyers to close corporate acquisitions only a handful of times, according to legal experts and court records. One of those was McCormick.

Last year, McCormick got the attention of Wall Street dealmakers by ordering an affiliate of private equity firm Kohlberg & Co LLC to close its $550 million purchase of DecoPac Holding Inc, which makes cake decorating products.

She described her ruling as "chalking up a victory for deal certainty" and rejected Kohlberg's arguments that it could walk away because of a lack of financing.

The case has many parallels to the Twitter deal. Like Musk, Kohlberg said it was walking away because DecoPac violated the merger agreement. Like Musk, Kohlberg argued in part that DecoPac failed to maintain ordinary operations.

There are also differences. Musk's deal is magnitudes bigger, involves a publicly traded target company in Twitter and might have implications for Tesla Inc, the electric vehicle maker that is the source of much of Musk's fortune.

In other cases, she has come down on the side of shareholders when they clashed with management.

Last year, she prevented energy company The Williams Cos Inc from adopting a so-called poison pill anti-takeover measure, saying it breached their fiduciary duty to shareholders.

Last month, she said shareholders of Carvana Co could sue the board for a direct offering of stock to select investors when the share price was depressed during the early pandemic.

A graduate of Notre Dame Law School, McCormick started her career with the Delaware branch of the Legal Aid Society, which helps low-income people navigate the court system.

She went into private practice "mainly for financial reasons," she told the Delaware Senate during her confirmation hearing, joining Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, one of the state's main firms for business litigation.

She joined the Court of Chancery in 2018 as a vice chancellor and became the first woman to lead the Court of Chancery last year.

Despite her mild manner, Eric Talley, who specializes in corporate law at Columbia Law School, said he doubts McCormick would be cowed by Musk.

"I would not be placing my bets on Chancellor McCormick suddenly becoming weak-kneed," he said.

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware and Hyun Joo Jin in San Francisco; editing by Noeleen Walder and Jonathan Oatis)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
cofounder and executive chairman Reid Hoffman has supported tech billionaire over his war of words against former US President .

Hoffman shared his thoughts about the Musk versus Trump issue in a Twitter thread and said he wasn't surprised that Musk was being attacked by the former President and compared the two men's reputations, reports Teslarati.

He added that he supports people working to build a better future for the US and the world.

"Not surprised to see Trump's attacks on . Elon's a classic immigrant story - an entrepreneur with a real record of success. Started EV revolution w/Tesla, resurrected US rocket industry w/SpaceX, fighting climate change while promoting American innovation," Hoffman said.

It all started when, recently, the former US President claimed at a rally in Alaska that Musk had told him that he voted for him. Musk responded to the claim on Twitter saying, "not true".

The Tesla CEO pointed out that he did not hate the former President, but also called him out for his drama.

"Yeah, but too much drama. Do we really want a bull in a china shop situation every single day!? Also, I think the legal maximum age for the start of the Presidential term should be 69," Musk said recently.

In response to Musk's comments, Trump shared a bit of a ranting post on his social network, Truth Social. He said that Musk came to him for help with subsidies and that he could have told Elon to drop to his knees and beg and that Elon would have done it.

--IANS

vc/vd

(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.)
Tibetan spiritual leader, the on Thursday said he is not seeking separation of his homeland from but but is seeking more autonomy for his people.

"People in are increasingly realising that I am not seeking the independence of Tibet, but autonomy and preservation of its Buddhist culture," he told the media in Jammu.

The said only a few Chinese hardliners considered him to be a separatist.

The Nobel Peace Laureate is travelling to Ladakh on Friday where he is going to stay for a month to deliver discourses and meet followers.

After a long hiatus, the is making his first visit outside his headquarters in Himachal Pradesh's Mcleodganj since leaving Bodh Gaya in January 2020 ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic's outbreak.

--IANS

vg/vd

(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.)
Another accused, Brijesh Tiwari, a native of Kolkata, who was Srinivas point of contact for obtaining fake certificates from Himalayan University in Itanangar, Arunachal Pradesh, is still on the run.  Representational image/DC

HYDERABAD: An intermediate pass out who did not even have a degree landed a job with a reputed software firm in Gachibowli with help of fake degree certificates purchased from Palagoni Srinivas, director of Sri Vaibhav Academy, who was previously arrested by the LB Nagar Special Operations Teams on June 24.

According to police, three more offenders involved in fake certificate racket are on the run, and efforts are on to trace and nab them. Rachakonda Police Commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat has warned the recruiters of such firms to thoroughly verify documents during their hiring process. M. Mallikarjuna Gandhi, an employee of Accenture India Pvt Ltd, was arrested for securing a job by submitting fake educational certificates which were procured from Palagoni Srinivas, director of Sri Vaibhav Academy. The scam came to light with the arrest of Srinivas on June 24.

According to the police, Mallikarjuna Gandhi, who did not even have a degree, approached P. Srinivas of Sri Vaibhav Academy education consultancy firm in Saroornagar and obtained a fake degree from Himalayan University in Itanagar. In another instance, 51-year-old K.V. Mallikarjuna Rao paid Srinivas Rs 90,000 for a fake degree certificate for his daughter. While P.Srinivas and K.V. Mallikarjuna Rao were arrested on June 24, Gandhi was apprehended on July 13. Police said they seized fake Himalayan University marks memos and provisional certificates from Mallikarjuna Gandhi.

However, another accused, Brijesh Tiwari, a native of Kolkata, who was Srinivas point of contact for obtaining fake certificates from Himalayan University in Itanangar, Arunachal Pradesh, is still on the run.

Brijesh Tiwari was arranging and selling fake and forged educational certificates to Srinivas, who then sold them to his customers. Tiwaris arrest will shed more light on this case, said LB Nagar inspector A. Sudhakar (Special Operations Team), while adding that further investigation into the case will result in more arrests. Weve learnt that three more people obtained the fake certificates from Sri Vaibhav Academy. It will take some time to identify, track, and apprehend them because it was done about two years ago, but our teams are working on it, he stated.

Meanwhile, an employee from Accentures hiring team, who requested anonymity, stated that the companys Background Verification team is in charge of hiring and cross-checking documents submitted by jobseekers. After confirming a position in the company, the job-seekers profile is shared with the Background Verification team, who cross-checks the documents and approves, the employee explained.
A Pakistani court on Friday declared Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's younger son Suleman Shehbaz and another person proclaimed offenders in a case.

The Lahore Special Court (Central-I) declared Suleman and Tahir Naqvi proclaimed offenders after they failed to appear despite being summoned, the Dawn newspaper reported.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had booked Shehbaz and his sons Hamza and Suleman in November 2020 under the Prevention of Corruption Act and Anti Act.

Arrest warrants were issued for Suleman and Naqvi on May 28. At the same hearing, the court had also issued arrest warrants for another suspect, Malik Maqsood alias Maqsood Chaprasi', who passed away in the United Arab Emirates last month.

On June 11, the FIA had submitted a report about non-bailable arrest warrants issued for Suleman, Naqvi and Maqsood. In its report, the FIA had stated that the warrants could not be executed since Suleman was not present at his address and had gone abroad.

At Friday's hearing, the court sought details about the properties of Suleman and Naqvi as well as Maqsood's death certificate.

The court also accepted the request for granting Prime Minister Shehbaz a one-time exemption from attending the hearing but directed that he appear before the court at the next hearing.

The hearing was subsequently adjourned till July 30.

The FIA in December 2021 submitted the challan against Shehbaz and Hamza to a special court for their alleged involvement in laundering an amount of Rs 16 billion in the sugar scam case.

The investigation team has detected 28 benami accounts of the Shehbaz family through which of Rs 16.3 bn was committed during 2008-18. The FIA examined the money trail of 17,000 credit transactions, according to an FIA report submitted to the court.

The amount was kept in hidden accounts and given to Shehbaz in a personal capacity, the report added.

This amount (Rs 16 bn) has nothing to do with the sugar business (of the Shehbaz family), it claimed. The money received from the accounts of low-wage employees by Shehbaz was transferred outside via hundi/hawala networks, ultimately destined for the beneficial use of his family members, the FIA had alleged.

Eleven low-paid employees of the Sharif group who held and possessed' the laundered proceeds on behalf of the principal accused, are found guilty of facilitating money laundering. The three other co-accused of the Sharif group also actively facilitated the money laundering, the agency had 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.)
Prime Minister on Thursday slashed the price of petrol by PKR 18.50 per litre and diesel by PKR 40.54 per litre respectively, a move that comes after four rounds of massive hikes by the current dispensation since it came to power three months ago.

In his address to the nation, Sharif said the price cut, the first such step by his government was made possible after the price of crude fell below USD 100 per barrel.

The new price of petrol will be PKR 230.24 per litre, while diesel will be available at PKR 236 per litre.

The new rates will come into effect from midnight today, he said.

"Today with God's blessing, oil prices are declining in global markets and it is by his mercy that today we have got the chance to reduce the prices back, Sharif explained.

The reduction in came after Sharif's regime had hiked prices on four occasions, with the last hike being implemented on July 1.

In his speech, Sharif said he had inherited a "troubled economy" from the previous Imran Khan-led government.

"The previous government trampled on the agreement it had with the IMF and laid landmines for us," he said.

Sharif said Khan, during his final few weeks in power, had slashed even though the government's coffers were empty.

"This was done so our government would fall into difficulties, Sharif asserted.

The Prime Minister's announcement on Thursday coincides with the Monetary Fund (IMF) confirming the revival of a stalled loan program for .

The IMF said on Thursday that it had agreed with to resume that suspended loan programme that would inject USD 1.17 billion into the ailing economy.

Pakistan is at a challenging economic juncture, the IMF said as it reached a preliminary Staff-Level Agreement on the combined seventh and eighth reviews for a USD 6 billion loan facility for the cash-strapped country.

The agreement paves the way for the release of the much-awaited USD 1.17 billion loan tranche that had been on hold since earlier this year, the Dawn newspaper reported.

In a tweet on Thursday, Prime Minister Sharif congratulated the Finance and Foreign Office teams led by Miftah Ismail and Bilawal Bhutto for their efforts in reviving the IMF programme.

It was a great team work. The agreement with the fund has set the stage to bring country out of economic difficulties, Sharif added.

(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.)
Ranil Wickremesinghe was on Friday sworn in as Sri Lanka's interim president until Parliament elects a successor to Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who resigned after protests against his government for mishandling the economy that bankrupted the country.

Wickremesinghe, 73, was sworn in as the acting president of before Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya, the prime minister's office said in a statement.

Rajapaksa has resigned, Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena officially announced on Friday, two days after the embattled leader fled the country in the face of massive protests against his government for mishandling the economy that bankrupted the country.

(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.)
Russian missiles struck a city in central on Thursday, killing at least 23 people and wounding more than 100 others, Ukrainian authorities said.

Ukraine's president alleged the attack deliberately targeted civilians in locations without military value.

Officials said Kalibr cruise missiles fired from a Russian submarine in the Black Sea struck civilian buildings in Vinnytsia, a city 268 kilometers southwest of the capital, Kyiv.

Vinnytsia region Gov. Serhiy Borzov said Ukrainian air defenses downed two of the four Russian missiles that were launched.

National Police Chief Ihor Klymenko said only six bodies have been identified so far, while 39 people are still missing. Three children where among the dead.

Of the 65 people hospitalised, five remain in critical condition while 34 sustained severe injuries, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said.

There was a building of a medical organisation. When the first rocket hit it, glass fell from my windows," said Vinnytsia resident Svitlana Kubas, 74. And when the second wave came, it was so deafening that my head is still buzzing. It tore out the very outermost door, tore it right through the holes.

Along with hitting buildings, the missiles ignited a fire that spread to 50 cars in a parking lot, officials said.

These are quite high-precision missiles ... They knew where they were hitting, Borzov told the AP.

hasn't officially confirmed the strike. But Margarita Simonyan, head of the state-controlled Russian television network RT, said on her messaging app channel that military officials told her a building in Vinnytsia was targeted because it housed Ukrainian Nazis.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused of intentionally aiming missiles at civilians. The strike happened as government officials from about 40 countries met in The Hague, Netherlands, to discuss coordinating investigations and prosecutions of potential war crimes committed in .

Every day is destroying the civilian population, killing Ukrainian children, directing missiles at civilian objects. Where there is no military (targets). What is it if not an open act of terrorism? Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky echoed Zelenskyy, calling the missile attack a war crime" intended to intimidate Ukrainians while the country's forces hold out in the east.

The U.S. embassy in Kyiv issued a security alert late Thursday urging all U.S. citizens remaining in to leave immediately.

The alert, which appeared to be in response to the Vinnytsia attack, asserted that large gatherings and organised events may serve as Russian military targets anywhere in Ukraine, including its western regions.

Vinnytsia is one of Ukraine's largest cities, with a prewar population of 370,000. Thousands of people from eastern Ukraine, where Russia has concentrated its offensive, have fled there since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Kateryna Popova said she saw many injured people lying on the street after the missiles struck. Popova had fled from Kharkiv in March in search of safety in quiet Vinnytsia. But the missile attack changed all that.

We did not expect this. Now we feel like we don't have a home again, she said.

Borzov said 36 houses were damaged and residents have been evacuated while a 24-hour hotline has been set up for information on those injured or missing. July 14 will be declared as a day of mourning, he said.

Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said the attack mirrors previous ones on residential areas that Moscow has launched to try to pressure Kyiv to make some concessions.

"Russia has used the same tactics when it hit the Odesa region, Kremenchuk, Chasiv Yar and other areas," Zhdanov said.

The Kremlin wants to show that it will keep using unconventional methods of war and kill civilians in defiance of Kyiv and the entire community.

Before the missiles hit Vinnytsia, the president's office reported the deaths of five civilians and the wounding of another eight in Russian attacks over the past day.

One person was wounded when a missile damaged several buildings in the southern city of Mykolaiv early Thursday. A missile attack on Wednesday killed at least five people in the city.

Russian forces also continued artillery and missile attacks in eastern Ukraine, primarily in Donetsk province after overtaking the adjacent Luhansk region.

The city of Lysychansk, the last major stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in Luhansk, fell to Russian forces earlier this month.

Luhansk and Donetsk together make up the Donbas, a mostly Russian-speaking region of steel factories, mines and other industries that powered Ukraine's economy.

Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko, meanwhile, urged residents to evacuate as quickly as possible.

We are urging civilians to leave the region, where electricity, water and gas are in short supply after the Russian shelling, Kyrylenko said in televised remarks. The fighting is intensifying, and people should stop risking their lives and leave the region.

On the battlefront, Russian and Ukrainian militaries are seeking to replenish their depleted stocks of unmanned aerial vehicles to pinpoint enemy positions and guide artillery strikes.

Both sides are looking to procure jamming-resistant, advanced drones that could offer a decisive edge in battle. Ukrainian officials say the demand for such technology is immense with crowdfunding efforts underway to raise the necessary cash.

In other developments:



Russian-installed officials in southeastern Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region announced that they planned to hold an early September referendum on incorporating the region into Russia. Large parts of Zaporizhzhia are under Russian control now, as is most of neighbouring Kherson. Kremlin-backed administrations in both areas have declared their intentions to become part of Russia. Separatist leaders in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics have also announced similar plans.

Russia's parliamentary speaker visited separatist-held areas in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, hours after Kremlin-installed officials in the country's south announced they would hold a referendum on joining Russia. According to Russian news agencies, Vyacheslav Volodin spoke of the need to harmonize legislation between Russia and the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic in his address to the territory's self-proclaimed legislative assembly. He said Moscow and the separatists need to create a single legal field in the areas of health care, education, public utilities and social protections.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed into law a bill banning the dissemination of information on Russian companies and individuals who could face sanctions. The law explicitly bans from internet or media publication without written permission any information about transactions made or planned by Russian individuals or legal entities participating in foreign economic activity. It also suspends for three years the obligatory publication of key financial and governance information by major Russian state corporations.

(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.)
on Friday opened its airspace to "all air carriers," signalling the end of its longstanding ban on Israeli flights overflying its territory a key step toward normalization between the two nations as President visits the region.

In a statement posted to Twitter hours before Biden is set to become the first US leader to fly directly from to the kingdom, Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation said it was announcing "the decision to open the Kingdom's airspace for all air carriers that meet the requirements of the Authority for overflying."



The announcement is an incremental step toward the normalization of relations between and and builds on the strong but informal ties the erstwhile foes have developed recent years over their shared concerns about Iran's growing influence in the region.

In recent years, has allowed flights between and Gulf states to cross through its airspace. In 2020, then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly flew to Saudi Arabia for a meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and last week several Israeli defense reporters visited the kingdom and published news reports about their welcome.

Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid stood side-by-side Thursday and declared they would not allow Iran to become a nuclear power. They parted ways, though, on how to get there.

Biden, in a joint news conference after a one-on-one meeting with the Israeli leader, said he still wants to give diplomacy a chance. Moments earlier, Lapid insisted that words alone won't thwart Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

While Biden suggested his patience with Iran was running low, he held out hope that Iran can be persuaded to rejoin a dormant deal intended to prevent it from building a nuclear weapon.

"I continue to believe that diplomacy is the best way to achieve this outcome," Biden said on the second day of a four-day visit to Israel and Saudi Arabia. It's his first trip to the Middle East as president.

Biden's emphasis on a diplomatic solution contrasted with Lapid, who said Iran must face a real threat of force before it will agree to give up on its nuclear ambitions.

"Words will not stop them, Mr. President. Diplomacy will not stop them, Lapid said. The only thing that will stop Iran is knowing that if they continue to develop their nuclear program the free world will use force.

Lapid suggested that he and Biden were in agreement, despite his tougher rhetoric toward Iran.

I don't think there's a light between us, he said. We cannot allow Iran to become nuclear.

Biden, too, said, We will not, let me say it again, we will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi lashed out at the U.S. and "its regional allies for stoking instability in the region, state-run IRNA news agency reported.

Any mistake by the Americans and their allies in the region and the world will be met with a harsh and regrettable response, Raisi said.

Biden warned that his patience is wearing thin for Iran to rejoin the nuclear deal, a day after saying he'd be willing to use force against Tehran as a last resort. The president said the U.S. had laid out for the Iranian leadership a path to return to the nuclear deal and was still waiting for a response.

When that will come, I'm not certain, Biden said. "But we're not going to wait forever.

Resurrecting the Iran nuclear deal brokered by Barack Obama's administration and abandoned by Donald Trump in 2018 was a key priority for Biden as he entered office. But administration officials have become increasingly pessimistic about the chances of getting Tehran back into compliance.

Israeli officials have sought to use Biden's first visit to the Middle East as president to underscore that Iran's nuclear program has progressed too far and encourage the Biden administration to scuttle efforts to revive the deal.

Israel opposed the original nuclear deal because its limitations on Iran's nuclear enrichment would expire and the agreement didn't address Iran's ballistic missile program or military activities in the region.

Instead of the U.S. reentering the deal, Israel would prefer strict sanctions in hopes of leading to a more sweeping accord.

The one-on-one talks between Biden and Lapid marked the centerpiece of a 48-hour visit by Biden aimed at strengthening already tight relations between the U.S and Israel. The leaders issued a joint declaration emphasizing military cooperation and a commitment to keeping Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

In the joint statement, the United States said it is ready to use "all elements of its national power" to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb.

Iran announced last week that it has enriched uranium to 60 per cent purity, a technical step away from weapons-grade quality.

The joint declaration could hold important symbolic importance for Biden's upcoming meeting with Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia as he seeks to strengthen a regionwide alliance against Iran.

The US president, who is set to arrive in Saudi Arabia on Friday, said he also stressed to Lapid the importance of Israel becoming "totally integrated" in the region.

Israel during the Trump administration signed on to the Abraham Accords, declarations of diplomatic and economic normalization signed by Israel, Bahrain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates that were signature foreign policy achievement for the Republican president. For Israel to come to such an agreement with the Saudis, an economic and Islamic epicenter in the Mideast, would be even more significant.

(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 U.S. securities regulator quizzed last month over a tweet in which the world's richest person raised doubts over whether he would move ahead with his $44 billion acquisition of Inc due to concerns over the number of fake users on the platform.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) asked Musk in a letter whether he should have amended his public filing to reflect his intention to suspend or abandon the deal, according to the June 2 letter made public on Thursday.

The agency was referring to his May 17 tweet in which he said the "deal cannot move forward" until provided more data about how the company handled fake accounts.

The letter shows the SEC has been tracking Musk's statements on the blockbuster deal, increasing pressure on the Tesla Inc boss who has been locked in a feud with the SEC over his tweets about Tesla since 2018. The agency already has several open probes into Musk, according to court filings and media reports.

The SEC said in the letter it had inquired about the May 17 tweet with Musk's legal counsel the following day, but had not received a response more than two weeks later. The SEC added if Musk did not respond, it may decide to release publicly all correspondence, including the letter.

Musk's lawyers said in a June 7 letter that the tweet did not require an amendment because Musk's plans for the deal had not changed at that time.

Musk said on Friday he was terminating the deal because the social media company had breached multiple provisions of the merger agreement, although on Tuesday sued Musk alleging he had broken the terms of the deal and made misleading statements about its operations.

Securities lawyers said they expected the SEC would scrutinize Musk's public statements on the deal to assess whether he misled the market as to his intentions, Reuters reported on Thursday.

In April, the SEC asked Musk whether the disclosure of his Twitter stake was late and why it indicated that he intended to be a passive shareholder. Musk later refiled the disclosure to indicate he was an active investor.

(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco and Tiyashi Datta in BengaluruEditing by Anil D'Silva and Matthew Lewis)

(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.)
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya has resigned, Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardenaon officially announced on Friday, after a week of dramatic developments and massive protests against the government for mishandling the economy that bankrupted the country.

The 73-year-old leader on Thursday emailed his resignation letter to the Speaker soon after he was allowed by Singapore to enter the city-state on a "private visit".

On Friday morning, Speaker Abeywardena formally announced that President has resigned.

In a brief press statement, the Speaker said that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will act as President until a new leader is elected.

He urged public to allow peaceful environment for all lawmakers to take part in the process which should finish within 7 days. The Sri Lankan Parliament will meet on Saturday.

The Speaker had received the resignation letter from through the High Commission in Singapore on Thursday night. However, he wanted to make the official announcement after the verification process and legal formalities, his media secretary Indunil Abeywardena had said.

On Saturday, Rajapaksa had announced to step down on July 13 after thousands of protesters stormed his official residence, blaming him for the unprecedented that has brought the country to its knees.

He, however, fled to the Maldives without resigning from his office. From Maldives, he went to Singapore on Thursday.

A spokesperson for Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Rajapaksa has been "allowed entry into Singapore on a private visit".

He has not asked for asylum and neither has he been granted any asylum, the spokesperson said, adding Singapore generally does not grant requests for asylum.

Rajapaksa was the first person with the army background to be elected as Sri Lanka's President in 2019.

Sri Lanka, a country of 22 million people, is under the grip of an unprecedented economic turmoil, the worst in seven decades, leaving millions struggling to buy food, medicine, fuel and other essentials. In several major cities, including Colombo, hundreds are forced to stand in line for hours to buy fuel, sometimes clashing with police and the military as they wait.

(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.)
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced her plans to establish a 9/11 style independent commission outside the Congress to probe the January 6, 2021 Capitol Hills insurrection, even as bipartisan Senators voted 57-43 to impeach the former president, but failed to get the support of 17 Republicans to have the 2/3rd majority required to convict Trump.

Trump was free to go on impeachment in the second vote of the senate.

Even as Trump got this reprieve with his 'Trumpification' of the Republican party, Pelosi announced plans for Congress to establish an outside and independent commission to investigate "the facts and causes" related to the attack on the US Capitol last year.

In a letter to her Democratic colleagues on Monday, the California Democrat said the commission will be modelled on the commission established after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

President Joe Biden responded to the Senate's acquittal of Trump by reminding Americans that truth must be defended, saying the impeachment of the former President was a stark illustration of the danger posed to democracy by lies, misinformation and extremism.

And Biden said that although Trump was acquitted, his actions in the lead-up to the Jan 6 riots were not "in dispute".

"This sad chapter in our history has reminded us that democracy is fragile. That it must always be defended. That we must be ever vigilant. That violence and extremism has no place in America. And that each of us has a duty and responsibility as Americans, and especially as leaders, to defend the truth and to defeat the lies," Biden said in a statement.

Biden's statement was preceded by Pelosi noting the recent work of retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who has "been assessing our security needs by reviewing what happened on January 6 and how we must ensure that it does not happen again".

"As we prepare for the Commission, it is also clear from General Honore's interim reporting that we must put forth a supplemental appropriation to provide for the safety of Members and the security of the Capitol," Pelosi wrote.

Such a move will require legislation and will likely tee up partisan difficulties, NPR WNYC quoted her as saying.

Her letter to colleagues came several hours after four House Republicans sent a letter to Pelosi suggesting she may be responsible for the delay in the deployment of National Guard troops ahead of and during the insurrection.

The letter did not mention Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who on January 6 was still the Senate majority leader and would have also had a say in the Capitol's security posture.

"Many important questions about your responsibility for the security of the Capitol remain unanswered," the letter read.

Drew Hammill, Pelosi's deputy chief of staff, called the Republicans' letter a "transparently partisan attempt to lay blame on the Speaker".

"The Speaker has and will continue to take action to ensure accountability and enhance the security of the Capitol," he said in a statement.

"Following the insurrection, the House Sergeant at Arms, the Senate Sergeant at Arms and the Chief of the Capitol Police were removed from their positions. It is the job of the Capitol Police Board, on which these three individuals sat, to properly plan and prepare for security threats facing the US Capitol."

Senator Chris Coons, a close ally of President Biden, told ABC's 'This Week' that he supports a September 11-style commission to probe further into the events leading up to the attack.

"There's still more evidence that the American people need and deserve to hear," the Delaware Democrat said.

"The 9/11-style commission is the way to make sure that we secure the Capitol going forward, and that we lay bare the record of just how responsible and abjectly and violating of his constitutional oath President Trump really was."

Following the January 6 attack, heightened security measures were deployed around the complex, including the requirement of members to walk through metal detectors and various forms of fencing secured around the Capitol's perimeter.

Trump, facing conviction and impeachment in the Senate committee probing the Capitol insurrection, escaped impeachment as the Senate voted 57-43 to acquit former him during his second impeachment trial.

Even though the yearlong hearings by the Senate committee gathered mounting evidence to convict Trump, it had no legal powers to do so as it's only a fact-finding commission that can recommend a trial.

That's why Pelosi has quickly moved to appoint a 9/11 style commission that's independent of Congress and from the outside to find the causes of the riots. Trump is up against the wall again.

Seven GOP Senators voted with Democrats -- the most bipartisan impeachment vote in US history -- but fell short of the 17 needed to convict the former Ppresident, according to CNBC news. .

Of those seven Republicans, two are retiring and only one -- Alaska's Lisa Murkowski -- faces her state's voters in the next election cycle in 2022.

Following Trump's second acquittal in an impeachment trial, House Democratic managers are defending their decision not to forge ahead with seeking witnesses to help make their case.

Members on both sides of the aisle were anticipating a surprise Senate vote to allow witnesses threatened to upend the speedy trial. But after a two-hour break, the House managers relented, and they and Trump's defence team reached a deal that would prevent them from going down the prolonged path of seeking to add witnesses to the trial.

Instead, they allowed a statement released by Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, in which she relayed a conversation she said the House GOP leader had with Trump, to be entered into the trial record.

The House impeachment managers defended that choice, arguing that continuing the trial with witnesses wouldn't have been strategically advantageous.

"We have no regrets," lead House impeachment manager Jamie Raskin, told NBC's 'Meet the Press'.

"We left it totally out there on the floor of the Senate, and every Senator knew exactly what happened. We could have had a thousand witnesses but that could not have overcome the kinds of silly arguments that people like McConnell and Capito were hanging their hats on," he added.

Senator Stacey Plaskett was vitriolic in saying the Trump trial needed "More Senators with spines, not more witnesses".

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell West Virginia GOP Senator Shelley Moore Capito both cited constitutional concerns in their decision to vote to acquit Trump.

The Senate vote raises further questions about Trump's role in the Republican Party going forward. In a statement after the verdict, Trump said: "Our historic, patriotic and beautiful movement to 'Make America Great Again' has only just begun."

Senator Lindsey Graham, an ally of the former President, told Fox News that he had spoken with Trump, and that he's eager to help the GOP win the House and Senate back in 2022.

But Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, who was one of the seven Republicans who broke ranks with their party in voting to convict the trump, told ABC's 'This Week' that Trump's "force wanes" in the GOP.

Cassidy is facing backlash in Louisiana over his vote, including the state GOP voting to unanimously censure him. But he said people want to hold their leaders accountable and that's what his vote to convict was based on.

"I have the privilege of having the facts before me, and being able to spend several days deeply going into those facts. As these facts become more and more out there, if you will, and folks have a chance to look for themselves, more folks will move to where I was," he explained.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell excoriated Trump for his actions on the day of the attack on the US Capitol, calling them a "disgraceful dereliction of duty".

But he said ultimately he did not vote to convict the former President because of constitutional concerns. "There's no question, none, that President Trump was practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day," McConnell said shortly after the 57-43 Senate vote that ended in the former President's acquittal.

--IANS

arm/

(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 US House of Representatives has passed by voice vote a legislative amendment that approves waiver to India against the punitive sanctions for its purchase of the S-400 missile defence system from Russia to help deter aggressors like China.

The legislative amendment was passed on Thursday as part of an en bloc (all together as a single unit) amendment during floor consideration of the National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA).

Authored and introduced by Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna, the amendment urges the Biden administration to use its authority to provide India with a Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) waiver to help deter aggressors like China.

is a tough US law that authorises the US administration to impose sanctions on countries that purchase major defence hardware from Russia in response to Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its alleged meddling in the 2016 US presidential elections.

"The must stand with India in the face of escalating aggression from China. As Vice Chair of the India Caucus, I have been working to strengthen the partnership between our countries and ensure that India can defend itself along the Indian Chinese border," said Khanna, the US representative from California's 17th congressional district.

"This amendment is of the utmost importance, and I am proud to see it pass the House on a bipartisan basis," he said.

The law was brought in 2017 and provides for punitive actions by the US government against any country engaged in transactions with the Russian defence and intelligence sectors.

In October 2018, India signed a USD 5 billion deal with Russia to buy five units of the S-400 air defence missile systems, despite a warning from the then-Trump administration that going ahead with the contract may invite US sanctions. The S-400 is known as Russia's most advanced long-range surface-to-air missile defence system.The US has already imposed sanctions on Turkey under the for the purchase of a batch of S-400 missile defence systems from Russia.

Following the US sanctions on Turkey over the procurement of S-400 missile systems, there were apprehensions that Washington may impose similar punitive measures on India.

The US has not yet made any decision on potential sanctions or waivers to India under CATSAA law for its purchase of the S-400 missile defence system from Russia, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in April.

The Ministry of External Affairs has said that India was pursuing an independent foreign policy and its defence acquisitions are guided by its national security interests.

In his remarks on the House floor, Khanna said there is no relationship of greater significance to US strategic interests than the US-India partnership.

"My bipartisan NDAA amendment marks the most significant piece of legislation for US-India relations out of Congress since the US-India nuclear deal," Khanna, a Democrat, said.

The legislation says that the United States-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (ICET) is a welcome and essential step to developing closer partnerships between governments, academia, and industry in the two countries to address the latest advances in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, biotechnology, aerospace, and semiconductor manufacturing.

Such collaborations between engineers and computer scientists are vital to help ensure that the and India, as well as other democracies around the world, foster innovation and facilitate technological advances which continue to far outpace Russian and Chinese technology, it 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.)
Vietnamese carrier on Friday said its flight services will connect five Indian cities to by early November this year.

At present, Mumbai and Delhi are part of the southeast Asian airline's network.

has been flying into India since December 2019 when it launched services to Delhi from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in .

The services were discontinued after India suspended all commercial passenger flight operations in late March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

After the Indian government lifted the ban on March 27 this year, announced resumption of operations along with expansion of its services between the two countries.

"We launched services to Mumbai in June with an Airbus A320 within three months of resuming flights to Delhi. And within a month of that we upgraded the aircraft to 214-seater A321 from 180-seater A320. This is a very positive sign of demand growth," Jay Lingeswara, Director Commercial, VietJet, said at an event here.

Vietjet has received a very good response from customers and that has given it the confidence to further expand its services from India, he said.

"By early November, we will have five Indian cities -- New Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Hyderabad -- connected with Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Phu Quoc and Da Nang in Vietnam," Lingeswara said.

VietJet also said it plans to introduce services on the Mumbai-Da Nang route from September.

Earlier, the airline has already announced services from Mumbai and New Delhi to Phu Quoc islands from September 9.

The airline's services from Bengaluru are scheduled to commence from early November.

has lifted the arrival regulations related to Covid-19 and travellers can enjoy a complete pre-pandemic fashion arriving in Vietnam. The S-shaped country is more than ready to welcome travellers to visit and explore its magnificent scenery, the airline said.

"When we mount the flights, that is our investment. We can't get things coming in immediately. So, it is not just investment but also the commitment that Vietjet has made to the market," Lingeswara added.

(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.)
After his family refused to give him money, Dharam Singh allegedly jumped through a window on the fourth floor of the hospital in the early hours of Friday. (DC File Photo: P Surendra)

Hyderabad: A 40-year-old man, a chronic alcoholic, allegedly died after leaping from the fourth floor of the Gandhi Hospital building.

According to the police, L. Dharam Singh, a native of Amrabad in Nagarkurnool district, was admitted to the Gandhi Hospital for treatment for his strange behaviour. Dharam Singh, according to police, demanded money from his family members to buy alcohol.

After his family refused to give him money, Dharam Singh allegedly jumped through a window on the fourth floor of the hospital in the early hours of Friday.

His family members, who brought him to Gandhi hospital for treatment a few days ago, saw his anxious and agitated behaviour as a sign of mental illness. Since then, he has been demanding money for alcohol from his wife and family members who visit him, and when they refuse, he used to pick a fight, police said.
The could ban the import and transit of some fuel oil from Russia around six months ahead of the planned deadline, an EU official and four traders told Reuters.

The EU has been reducing imports of Russian oil products since March, after Moscow sent thousands of troops into Ukraine, and agreed a full ban from February 2023.

However, the import and transit of Russian coal is being stopped sooner - from Aug. 10, and technically may include fuel oil.

EU bans are based on so-called Combined Nomenclature (CN) codes used by customs. One of the codes being used for the coal ban is 2707, which also refers to: "Oils and other products of the distillation of high temperature coal tar; similar products in which the weight of the aromatic constituents exceeds that of the non-aromatic constituents".

The customs code is declared by the exporter of the product.

Normally, oil products refined from crude oil have a different CN code a 2710. However, fuel oil contains aromatics that almost always exceed 50%.

Some oil products not produced from coal distillation could also be classified under code 2707 if they have chemical similarities, an EU official told Reuters, asking not to be named because of restrictions in talking to the media.

Two traders involved in Russian fuel oil trading said the potentially affected volumes would not be large.

"Only small volumes (of fuel oil) are exported now from Russia directly to the European countries," one said.

The bulk of cargoes carrying Russian fuel oil were destined in recent months to the UAE oil hub of Fujairah and ship-to-ship transfer infrastructure off Greece's Kalamata port.

In the event of an early EU ban on fuel oil, buyers could divert more cargoes for ship-to-ship transfers and to the Asian market, traders said.

In June, only about 500,000 tonnes of the total 3.5 million of Russian fuel oil exports were supplied directly from Russian ports to EU countries, Reuters calculations based on Refinitiv data show.

More than a quarter of the 500,000 tonnes was shipped last month from Russia to Estonia and Latvia, which store and transfer the oil products to other destinations.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Coal Secretary Anil Kumar Jain on Friday stressed the need for increasing the output and dispatches of dry fuel in a sustainable manner to make the country self-reliant in the sector.

While interacting with senior officials of Coal India-arm Northern Coalfields Ltd (NCL), the secretary also called for the adoption of innovative techniques while mining to lessen its impact on the environment.

He also asked the PSU to adopt business diversification strategies.

Jain said NCL is eager to promote sustainable which is getting reflected in the recent initiatives by the coal miniratna, the said in a statement.

Jain along with Joint Secretary Vismita Tej was on a visit to NCL to assess the overall performance of the company. NCL CMD Bhola Singh and other senior officials were also present.

Jain also laid the foundation stone for a 50 MW solar power plant in the Nigahi Area of Madhya Pradesh. The plant will be set up over an area of 129.35 hectares of land with a total power generating capacity of 94 million units per year and will lead to reducing carbon emission by 78020 tonnes per year.

The generated power will be used for operational and other purposes by NCL.

The company is set to achieve 273-megawatt power generation in the coming time from renewable sources to achieve the target of Net Zero.

Jain visited the Nigahi open cast coal mine and oversaw the mine operation. He also inspected the site of the ongoing First Mile Connectivity Project at Jayant Area. NCL is working on nine First Mile Connectivity Projects with an investment of more than Rs 3,100 crore out of which two projects have already been completed.

With the completion of these FMC projects by FY'24, NCL will be capable to despatch entire coal produced through eco-friendly and mechanized mode.

NCL produces more than 122 million tonnes of coal annually from its 10 highly mechanized opencast mines based in Singrauli and Sonbhadra districts of MP and UP states.

(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.)
Union minister emphasised the need to introduce "advanced technologies and innovative agronomy" to enhance the productivity of cotton.

Addressing an interactive meeting with the Textile Advisory Group in Mumbai on Thursday, the textile minister said supply of good quality seeds is the vital necessity for improving productivity of cotton.

He also called for focus on ways to enhance productivity of cotton with specific outcome-oriented actions from all stakeholders including the government, research institutes and the industry.

For delivery-based contract and open position limits on commodity exchange MCX, Goyal directed his ministry, textile commissioner, CCI and TAG to engage with MCX/SEBI and find structured solutions on contract front.

Any possibilities of manipulations on price front to the disadvantage of cotton textile value chain have to be contained, the minister said.

Goyal, on the suggestions of the industry, directed the textile commissioner that the penal provisions under the relevant sections of Collection of Statistics Act be invoked for compliance to ensure accuracy of statistics across the value chain.

The action may begin with the ginning segment immediately, he said.

He asked the textile commissioner to utilise services of CCI personnel for data collection from ginning segment under Collection of Statistics Act.

On suggestions to evolve yarn national index, Goyal directed to examine its objectivity, feasibility and reliability for industry.

He asked the Cotton Corporation of India to lend agricultural extension services in cooperation with Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to farmers through its network of branches all over India.

"Goyal emphasised that supply of good quality cotton seeds is the vital necessity for improving productivity of cotton. He also emphasised the need to introduce advanced technologies related to high yielding cotton seeds and innovative agronomy such as high density planting system to enhance productivity of cotton," an official statement said.

Textile value chain needs to strengthen traceability technologies and testing facilities in the country, the minister said.

While deliberating on the approaches for use of coloured fertilizer bags to avoid contamination in cotton, Goyal asked the Textile Advisory Group to address the long pending issue on priority with a solution without leading to cost escalation.

(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.)
Angel One reported 49.6% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 181.51 crore on a 44.69% increase in total income to Rs 686.53 crore in Q1 FY23 over Q1 FY22.

Profit before tax in Q1 FY23 stood at Rs 242.58 crore, up by 49.6% from Rs 162.16 crore in Q1 FY22. Total expenses rose by 42.1% to Rs 443 crore in Q1 FY23 over Q1 FY22.

As compared with Q4 FY22, the company's net profit declined 11.3% while revenue remained stable.

Earnings before depreciation, amortization, & taxes (EBDAT) decreased by 10.9% to Rs 249.1 crore in Q1 FY23 compared with Rs 279.5 crore in Q4 FY22. EBDAT margin de-grew to 48.4% in Q1 FY23 from 54.9% in Q4 FY22.

The company said that it continued to witness strong gross addition of 1.3 million clients in Q1 FY23, crossing 10 million client mark during the quarter. Total client base was 10.4 million in Q1 FY23, up 13% QoQ and 96.9% YoY.

The firm's overall retail equity turnover market share stood at 20.8% in Q1 FY23, down 21 bps QoQ.

Angel's Average Daily Turnover (ADTO) stood at Rs 9,39,800 crore in Q1 FY23, up 8.9% QoQ.

Dinesh Thakkar, chairman and MD, said: India is experiencing a significant and fundamental shift with growing financialization of savings, as seen from 7.6% and 10% sequential growth in demat accounts and cash trades & F&O contracts respectively in Q1 FY23. Retail investors continue to be net buyers for nine consecutive months, investing over Rs 1.4 trillion in cash segment on NSE and owning nearly 9.7% in India Inc., highest since September '16.

Angel's tech-focused approach has not only made the business resilient but facilitated us to hold a strong market position. Our endeavour to offer clients the best investing experience is reaping rich dividends, as evidenced by our robust operational performance over many quarters. We continue to expand our market share in total demat accounts, incremental demat accounts and NSE active client base.

We are preparing to leverage the maturing ecosystem by broadening our product portfolio. The first step towards this is the roll out of our Super App to our iOS and Web clients, access to which will progressively be given to our Android clients. In line with our dividend policy, the board of directors have declared a distribution of 35% of the quarters' profit, as an interim dividend to the shareholders.

Narayan Gangadhar, chief executive officer of Angel One said, Quarter gone by has been historic, as we became one of the few players to surpass the 10 million client mark. Our strong operational parameters demonstrate high level of resilience of our business model, despite market cycles. For 39 months in a row, i.e. since we migrated to a flat pricing structure, we have experienced growth in our average daily orders in over 80% instances, when the headline indices corrected by 5% or more.

We are confident of the robustness of our business model and strongly believe that our engines will facilitate us to garner superior growth from our target markets. The successful roll out of the first phase of our Super App, has been a hallmark event. The app will be superimposed with multiple layers, offering a variety of different financial products.

As we move ahead to achieve our goal of market leadership, we further expanded our tech talent pool with hirings from top tech companies. These assets are vital for the growth of our business as they will enable us to build superior products for our clients, thus offering them the best experience. This will positively contribute to make the business robust, resilient and competitive.

The company's board has recommended an interim dividend of Rs 7.65 per equity share.

Angel One is the largest listed retail stock broking house in India, in terms of active clients on NSE.

Shares of Angel One were down 1.89% at Rs 1,287.50 on the BSE.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hindustan Unilever Ltd is quoting at Rs 2549, up 2.05% on the day as on 12:49 IST on the NSE. The stock is up 5.44% in last one year as compared to a 0.29% spurt in NIFTY and a 13.89% spurt in the Nifty Financial Services index.

Hindustan Unilever Ltd gained for a third straight session today. The stock is quoting at Rs 2549, up 2.05% on the day as on 12:49 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is up around 0.19% on the day, quoting at 15968.8. The Sensex is at 53504.88, up 0.17%. Hindustan Unilever Ltd has risen around 18.74% in last one month.

Meanwhile, Nifty Financial Services index of which Hindustan Unilever Ltd is a constituent, has risen around 12.75% in last one month and is currently quoting at 40897.3, up 0.96% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 20.52 lakh shares today, compared to the daily average of 20.41 lakh shares in last one month.

The benchmark July futures contract for the stock is quoting at Rs 2554.7, up 1.97% on the day. Hindustan Unilever Ltd is up 5.44% in last one year as compared to a 0.29% spurt in NIFTY and a 13.89% spurt in the Nifty Financial Services index.

The PE of the stock is 66.34 based on TTM earnings ending March 22.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has rushed a high-level multi-disciplinary team to Kerala to collaborate with the State Health Authorities in instituting public health measures in view of the confirmed case of Monkey Pox in Kollam district of Kerala.

The Central team to Kerala comprises of experts drawn from National Center for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. RML Hospital, New Delhi and senior official from Ministry of Health & Family Welfare along with experts from Regional Office of Health & Family Welfare, Kerala.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
It is crucial to have an integrated chain of activities when organising fish farmers, especially those who are poor, noted NN Sinha, Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, at the First Conference on Fishtech, organised by the industry chamber FICCI. Delivering the Special address, Sinha alluded to the need to develop an integrated structure akin to the dairy sector.

There is a lot of scope for developing such a value chain, he said. The secretary also referred to growing seaweed, ornamental fishing, and cage culture as viable livelihood activities. Aquaculture is an important livelihood option for a large number of people, he said.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will hold an all-party meeting on Saturday (16 July 2022) ahead of the Monsoon Session of Parliament beginning Monday (18 July 2022).

During the meeting, Birla will seek support of political parties to ensure smooth functioning of the house.

Rajya Sabha Chairman M.

Venkaiah Naidu has also called a meeting of floor leaders of different parties in the Upper House on 17 July 2022.

The Monsoon session of Parliament begins on 18 July and will continue till 12 August. The Presidential Election and the Vice Presidential Election will be held during this period.

The Presidential Election will be held on Monday (18 July) while the Vice Presidential election will be held on 6th August 2022.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Opposition parties' joint Presidential candidate on Thursday accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of indulging in horse trading in the election for the country's highest constitutional post and sought a probe into it.

He claimed that the saffron party was carrying out 'Operation Kamal', under which it was allegedly offering a "huge sum of money to non- MLAs" to ensure its presidential candidate's win as it is afraid of the outcome of a free and fair election.

Kamal or lotus is the poll symbol of the . In recent years, the have been accusing the of carrying out 'Operation Kamal' to gain power in the states where it does not rule. The opposition uses the term to describe the saffron party's alleged attempts to engineer defection for forming a government.

Talking to reporters after meeting the Congress MLAs, Sinha said, "I read with deep distress this morning the news published in a leading newspaper in Madhya Pradesh with the headline - 'BJP eyeing 28 tribal MLAs of Congress, cross voting preparation'."



"I have also heard from credible sources that huge sums of money are being offered to non-BJP MLAs to vote for the party's candidate in the presidential elections," he alleged.

This clearly means that 'Operation Kamal' is now being put into effect even in the election to the highest office of the Republic, Sinha said, adding it also shows the BJP has become fearful of the outcome of a free and fair presidential election.

"When I came here I came across clear evidence. (Congress tribal MLA and former MP Minister) Umang Singhar, in a meeting, in clear words said about pressure being mounted on him. What type of is in play in the country.. forget the presidential election," he asked. The former Union minister said the election on July 18 will decide the future of the country. Since the beginning they have been saying is a defeated candidate. They are saying we are winning the presidential election with a huge margin. So why are you worried? You are keeping an eye on 28 Congress tribal MLA and saying you are going to indulge in cross-voting. So the point I am making is this - the president election taking place is not merely a presidential election, it is for the country's future, he added. He urged the Election Commission and also the Secretary General of the Rajya Sabha, who is the returning officer for the presidential election, to probe the reported corruption practices of the ruling party.

"The right name for 'Operation Kamal' is 'Operation Mal' (dirt), because it has become synonymous with dirty political corruption by the ruling party. It has been used to create defections in and even to topple state governments run by the opposition parties," the former Union finance minister said. "Apart from Madhya Pradesh, the BJP has used it to dislodge opposition governments in Karnataka, Goa, Arunachal Pradesh and most recently in Maharashtra. In all this, I hear alarm bells for democracy in India," he said. Asked about the change in the BJP now and when he was its member, Sinha said the saffron party has undergone a sea change. The two are different parties. The BJP led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani lost no confidence by one vote. In 1999, the Atal government was defeated by one vote. And I regard that as a very majestic chapter.. by just one vote. Can you now imagine the BJP government at the Centre or states losing by a single vote?, he quipped.

You can't even think of this. You might be remembering that after losing the confidence motion then, Vajpayeeji said, the goods were for sale as well at mandi (market) but we did not buy. Today Umang Singharji said about buying. Where has the BJP gone?, he remarked.

The ruling BJP-led Democratic Alliance (NDA) has fielded Droupadi Murmu, a tribal leader from Odisha, as its candidate for the election to the post of president.

(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 took on the opposition, especially the Congress, over the issue of unparliamentary words on Thursday and said it is trying to create an issue where none exists.

have slammed the government, saying the new list of unparliamentary words is meant to gag the criticism of the Centre's functioning.

Citing Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla's remarks over the issue, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Sambit Patra said the speaker has presented the facts and cleared all illusions created by the opposition.

The speaker has clearly stated that no word has been banned and that certain words would be expunged on the basis of its context, he pointed out.

Hitting out at the opposition, Patra said several political parties, including the Congress, are trying to mislead the country and creating an issue where none exists.

(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.)
On Thursday, TB reservoir witnessed 1.04 lakh cusecs of inflows and the dam was with 98.804tmc-ft water as against 104tmc-ft capacity. (DC file photo)

ANANTAPUR: All 30 crest gates of Tungabhadra reservoir were lifted and 1.14 lakh cusecs of outflows was being released downstream following constant heavy rains in the Western Ghats region.

Low-lying areas of the river at Hampi, parts Raichur district of Karnataka along with Mantralayam and surrounding areas in Kurnool district were sounded an alert over the rise in heavy outflows from the reservoir.

On Thursday, TB reservoir witnessed 1.04 lakh cusecs of inflows and the dam was with 98.804tmc-ft water as against 104tmc-ft capacity.

Excess water is released towards the river and to canals of HLMC and LLC and power generation units.

Dam secretary Naga Mohan told that more than 50tmc-ft of water storage was recorded more than that of July last years second week.

"As per pro rata, we assessed 171tmc-ft yield in the reservoir and this may rise if heavy inflows continued," he said.

The Tungabhadra river witnessed with flow, constantly rising the water level at Mantralayam temple town. Devotees were alerted against taking bath in the river.

Mantralayam Sri Raghavendra Swamy mutt pontiff Sri Subhudendra Theertha Swamiji offered poojas at Tungabhadra river closer to the mutt premises on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Srisailam reservoir receives constant inflows from Tungabhadra sources. Srisailam dam got 1.06 lakh cusecs of inflows. Dam authorities hope the constant flows from TB and Krishna could fill the reservoir early this time. Shutters of four gates of Sunkesula reservoir were lifted and 16000 cusecs of water released towards Srisailam.
TMC general secretary on Thursday accused the of targeting opposition camps to serve interests of the ruling party at the Centre but wondered why summons are not sent to BJP leaders whose names surfaced in ponzi schemes.

Banerjee lashed out at the Enforcement Directorate (ED) after the agency summoned West Bengal Minister Moloy Ghatak in connection with its probe in the coal pilferage case and said the party would emerge stronger the more the Union government harasses it.

"The central investigating agencies are targeting because the BJP has instructed them to harass opposition leaders. It is ironical that they have never summoned BJP leaders whose names have surfaced in ponzi scams," he told reporters here.

The TMC leader wondered why the central agency wasn't investigating the alleged role of coal department officials in the coal pilferage case.

"I have heard that the ED has summoned Moloy Ghatak in some coal theft case. Tell me, who is responsible for the security in coal mines? It is the CISF, which is a central force and reports to the Home Ministry. If your house is robbed, will you question your neighbour or the security guard? Why isn't ED doing that?" he questioned.

"The more you harass Trinamool Congress leaders by using the CBI and the ED, the stronger we will emerge," he said.

Banerjee said the party would continue its fight against the anti-people policies of the BJP-led government at the Centre.

West Bengal BJP leadership dubbed the allegations "baseless" and said the ED is an independent agency devoid of any political influence.

"The BJP has nothing to do with the CBI or the ED investigations. The allegations are baseless. The agencies are free to probe leaders of any party if they want. We have nothing to say about it," BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya 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.)
The Democratic Alliance's (NDA) presidential candidate on Friday said she accepted the offer to contest the election to make the people of her community and the country proud.

Murmu, who is canvassing support ahead of the July 18 election when she will face off with Opposition's candidate Yashwant Sinha, spoke before a gathering of MPs and MLAs at Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's official residence here.

On June 21, just 15 minutes before announcing my candidature, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called me and informed me about the decision. You can imagine what must have happened to me. I told him you have made me the governor (of Jharkhand) and I was able to discharge my duties properly, but will I be able to do this work properly?" Murmu said.

He said we all are with you and you have to do it," she said quoting the prime minister.

"After 75 years of Independence, the people who have never got this opportunity, who never thought that they will reach such a position... they are very happy and they have a lot of expectations and are very enthusiastic about it," said Murmu.

As prime minister is thinking of bringing the downtrodden into the mainstream.... and they should not feel small in life, (so) I have said yes to the offer, she added.

Murmu said all she has in her life is "this country, this party and God."



"Therefore, I thought in order to make the people of the country feel proud.... I am dedicating my life for the country. I have not accepted the offer for me, but for the country," she added.

Speaking at the program, Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat highlighted Murmu's struggles in life.

He also said that the wanted to ensure that not a single vote gets rejected in the presidential poll, and explained to the lawmakers how to mark a straight line on the ballot paper, like the sign for 'full stop' in Hindi.

Chief minister Chouhan also spoke about Murmu's journey from a corporator to MLA, minister and governor, and described her as a woman of strong determination.

The NDA's choice of Murmu for president forced many non-NDA parties to support her, he noted.

State president V D Sharma said the BJP is the only party which has given the opportunity to become president to a member of a minority community, a Dalit and now to a member of a tribal community.

Union ministers Prahlad Singh Patel and Faggan Singh Kulaste, BJP general secretary in-charge of West Bengal Kailash Vijaywargiya and members of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Samajwadi Party (SP) among others were present on the occasion.

Earlier, on her arrival from Raipur, Murmu was greeted by tribal dance troupes at the airport as well as at Chouhan's residence.

(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.)
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Friday said the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government's decision to rename city when it had been reduced to minority was illegal, and it will be ratified again in the next cabinet meeting.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government announced the renaming of in central as 'Sambhajinagar' -- after Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's elder son Chhatrapati Sambhaji -- in its last cabinet meeting on June 29, hours before Thackeray resigned.

Shinde was sworn in as chief minister with the BJP's support the next day, having split the Thackeray-led .

"The MVA government took the decision to rename as Sambhajinagar in its last cabinet meeting when it had been reduced to a minority government. Holding a cabinet meeting (in such a situation) was illegal," the chief minister claimed at an event here.

Sena founder Bal Thackeray had announced that Aurangabad -- which derives its name from Mughal emperor Aurangzeb -- will be renamed as Sambhajinagar several decades ago, Shinde said.

"The name Sambhajinagar is already there, we will ratify it in the next cabinet meeting," he said, adding that this will make the decision legally safe. He also said that he rebelled against the leadership to save the party and its workers. "We got nothing politically despite having our chief minister in the three-party dispensation. We finished fourth in nagar panchayat elections," said Shinde, who was a senior minister in the Sena-NCP-Congress government headed by Thackeray. People of the state accepted his decision to rebel as it was in the party's interests, Shinde claimed.

Meanwhile, Sena leader from Aurangabad and former MP Chandrakant Khaire, who has stayed loyal to Thackeray, warned that party workers would launch an agitation if the name of the city was not changed within a month. The Shinde-led government stayed the renaming which was an insult to Chhatrapati Sambhaji, he said, speaking to PTI. "Why the BJP didn't carry out renaming when it was in power from 2014-19? The BJP-led central government did not even pass the proposal to name the Aurangabad airport (for Chhatrapati Sambhaji)," he said, demanding that the airport too be named within a month. Aurangabad district chief Ambadas Danve too said that the "staying" of the decision to rename the city was "unacceptable.

(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.)
Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena on Friday said a probe is underway into the "unfortunate" wall collapse incident in the capital's Alipur area that claimed the lives of five people.

Nine people were also injured after the wall of an under-construction godown collapsed in Alipur this afternoon, according to police.

"Saddened at the tragic loss of precious lives in a wall collapse in Alipur, . The reasons behind the unfortunate incident are being inquired (into) and the injured are being provided necessary medical aid," Saxena said in a tweet.

According to the Municipal Corporation of (MCD), the wall was being constructed on private land in Bakoli village and the sub-divisional magistrate had issued a restraining order on the construction.

A case has been registered in the matter and two people have been arrested, the 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.)
Former councillor Manoj Kuthiala joined the Congress along with his wife Shubha here on Friday in the presence of state party president Pratibha Singh.

rural MLA Vikramaditya Singh was also present on the occasion. Kuthiala and his wife joined the Congress at their residence, Holly Lodge, in Lower Jakhu.

Later, Kuthiala told reporters that he was with the for the last 30 years. He decided to join the Congress as he was being ignored in the for some time, he said.

Kuthiala was elected as a councillor in 2007 and 2012 from Jakhu ward number 16. However, the Jakhu ward was reserved for women in 2017.

He said if the Congress asks any woman from his family to contest the upcoming municipal corporation elections, they would abide by the party decision.

(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.)
Just three days ahead of the Presidential election scheduled on July 18, the joint opposition nominee for the top post, Yashwant Sinha, faced a major setback after the (JMM) officially announced its support for NDA Candidate Draupadi Murmu.

The announcement came close on the heels of declaring support for Murmu.

The JMM issued a statement signed by its founder Shibu Soren, which said that after Independence, this is the first time that a tribal woman is contesting for the top Constitutional post and all the MPs and MLAs of the party will vote for Murmu.

The announcement came as a setback for Sinha, who was banking on the JMM because he hails from Jharkhand and had represented the state in the Lok Sabha for many years.

The had on Tuesday announced that it will support NDA's Presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu.

Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray made the formal announcement after a series of consultations with the party MPs, MLAs and other leaders, including tribals.

"There have been absolutely no pressures from the MPs, as claimed in the media. However, many Sena leaders and office-bearers from tribal communities have requested us we take a decision to support Draupadi Murmu for the President's post," Thackeray said.

--IANS

miz/arm

(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.)
MLA Anant Singh was disqualified on Friday by the Bihar assembly, following his conviction in a case related to the recovery of and ammunition, including an AK-47 rifle, from his residence, as per an official order.

Singh, the MLA of Mokama in Patna district, was convicted by a special MP-MLA court in June under different sections of the Act, Explosive Substances Act and the IPC. He was sentenced to ten years of imprisonment.

"Anant Singh, MLA from Mokama (assembly seat no 178) is disqualified from holding membership of the House following his conviction in a criminal case. Decision has been taken as per Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act," said an order issued by the secretariat.

Singh, locally known as 'Chhote Sarkaar', is also facing several other criminal cases, including those of murder, extortion and kidnapping, as per his election documents.

He is lodged at the Beur Central Jail in Patna.

An AK-47 rifle, two hand grenades, 26 rounds of bullets and a magazine were found by the police allegedly at his house on August 16, 2019 during a raid that lasted for over 11 hours.

The tally of opposition RJD, which is the single largest party in the 243-member Bihar assembly, went down to 79 with the disqualification of Singh.

(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.)
Samajwadi Party president on Friday hit out at the ruling BJP, saying is in the grip of drought but the government is not paying attention.

The only knows how to "cling to power" with the help of " of hatred", Yadav said in a statement issued from the SP headquarters here.

Due to the saffron party's policies, the state is slipping in every aspect of the development, he further claimed.

Yadav said the sowing of Kharif crops has been stalled at many places due to lack of rains and the government's recent plantation drive has also been affected by the drought.

He said the paddy crop also has been badly affected due to lack of adequate rainfall and the situation in the state is very worrying.

Referring to the power crisis, Yadav said even electricity is not available in the state. In villages the electricity is not even available for 10 hours.

He alleged Bundelkhand region has been neglected in the rule while the entire region benefited by the developmental works done during the Samajwadi Party government.

(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.)
Yashwant Sinha, the joint nominee of non- parties for presidential polls, arrived in Ranchi on Friday to seek support of legislators and parliamentarians over his candidature.

Sinha, who is a former MP from Hazaribag, was received by Jharkhand Congress chief Rajesh Thakur and other party leaders at the airport.

He is scheduled to attend a meeting of Congress legislators on Saturday, and then address a press conference.

Earlier this week, Sinha met AICC's Jharkhand in-charge Avinash Pande and Thakur in Delhi and discussed strategies for the upcoming election on July 18.

According to Congress sources, he is also expected to meet JMM Executive President and Chief Minister Hemant Soren during the day.

The JMM, which runs a coalition government with the Congress and RJD, has pledged its support to NDA presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu.

The party had initially backed Sinha, only to change its decision later after receiving flak from the tribal community to which both Soren and Murmu belong.

In the 81-member Jharkhand assembly, the ruling JMM-Congress-RJD alliance has a combined strength of 48 MLAs.

The has 26 legislators, including Babulal Marandi, the former JVM-P chief who joined the saffron camp after the 2019 assembly elections.

The saffron party also has 11 Lok Sabha and three Rajya Sabha MPs.

The JMM, the Congress and the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) have one parliamentarian each in the Lower House.

The ruling JMM has two MPs in Rajya Sabha and the Congress has one.

(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.)
Hero MotoCorp, the country's largest two-wheeler maker, is eyeing leadership position in the electric two-wheeler segment globally, according to its annual report for 2021-22.

The company, which currently leads the traditional two-wheeler segment globally in terms of volumes, is looking to foray into the electric segment in the upcoming festive season.

Hero MotoCorp had last year crossed the 100 million cumulative production milestone since its inception in 1984.

The company had achieved its first one million cumulative production milestone in 1994 and went on to cross 50 million units in 2013 and 75 million units in 2017.

"This year will see Hero MotoCorp claim its position in the exciting clean mobility space in a bold avatar. Hero MotoCorp will transform its leadership in the internal combustion engine (ICE) market into the electric vehicle space globally!" the company Chairman and CEO Pawan Munjal informed shareholders.

He noted that the company is geared up for the next decade.

"As we have our eyes on the production of the next 100 million by the end of 2030, we are taking strides towards sustainability and electrification with a single-minded determination to Be the Future of Mobility," Munjal said.

He further said: "All I can promise is that, while the first 100 million was achieved with the production of motorcycles and scooters, the next 100 would certainly be an all-new, innovative and greener body form."



In line with company's vision to lead the migration to the future of mobility, it has unveiled 'Vida' as its new brand identity for emerging mobility solutions.

"Through Vida, which means 'life', we will not only revolutionise the electric mobility space, but will also ensure a cleaner, greener and better future for generations to come," Munjal said.

He noted that with Taiwan's Gogoro Inc, it will bring the largest battery-swapping network to India.

"We are also in discussions with Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd to set up battery charging infrastructure for EVs across the country," Munjal said.

With the investment in Ather Energy, starting from 2016, the company is also accelerating its electric journey and bringing sustainable mobility solutions that deliver value to stakeholders, he noted.

Elaborating on other initiatives, Munjal said the company is focussing on digital initiatives to push sales.

"The company has launched a sales and aftersales services platform on WhatsApp. Going forward, we expect 30 per cent of our sales to be generated from digital channels," he added.

Reflecting on the last fiscal, Munjal said, the two-wheeler industry faced multiple headwinds, owing to weak demand and continuous challenges in the supply chain.

The rural markets, which account for over half the annual sales of motorcycles and scooters in India, remained under economic stress, he noted.

"Higher material costs, shortages of products and services and soaring fuel prices increased the cost of ownership, further dampening consumer sentiment and their ability to buy. All of these events impacted two-wheeler sales in India," Munjal stated.

To offset the adverse impact, Hero MotoCorp focused on expanding exports, optimising costs, prioritising projects, improving internal processes and re-evaluating options, he said.

The company reported total income of Rs 29,802 crore in 2021-22.

(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.)
Chief Minister, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy sits inside an auto-rickshaw at the launch of the Vahanamitra Scheme during a public meeting at AU Engineering College grounds in Visakhapatnam on Friday. (Photos by Arrangement)

Visakhapatnam: Chief Minister Jagan Reddy said on Friday, Ours is not a government like the previous TD dispensation that worked for four rich people. Our government will ensure the welfare of the 1.5 crore families in the state, individual to individual.

Addressing a large gathering under the banner of the YSR Vahana Mitras Rs 10,000 per beneficiary fund dispersal programme at AU Engineering College grounds here, Jagan said four rich people owning two newspapers, three TV channels and one `dattaputrudu (adopted son) supported the TD government that exploited and robbed the society during the five years of the TD rule.

During Chandrababu's tenure, it was a Dochuko-Panchuko (rob and share) culture. Now, there is no such looting by the government or sharing of the spoils of power. I dont have media channels to back me as was the case with Chandrababu Naidu and others. I only believe in God's grace and peoples love.

Compare the rules of the present government and the previous TD government before you you take your decision to vote the next time, Jagan said in an obvious reference to the assembly polls in 2024.

On the Vahana Mitra programme, the CM said the government disbursed a total of Rs 1026 crore including Rs 261.52 crore this time to as many as 2.62 lakh beneficiaries across the state. The government gave Rs 40,000 to each beneficiary family from this amount, he said.

Jagan said that during the previous term of Chandrababu, around Rs 50 crore was collected from auto drivers between 2014 and 2019, in the form of fines and challans. But, the YSRC government collected only 11 crore from them on these counts so far.

When you all told me about your troubles, I promised to be with you, at Eluru during my Padayatra on May 14 in 2018. I fulfilled my promise after our government came to power. Discriminations based on caste, region, religion and party is not our style of functioning. It doesn't matter if you don't vote for me," the CM said.

"If you are eligible, you will get the benefits of the schemes. This government has directly put Rs 1.65 lakh crore rupees in your accounts through direct benefit transfer (DBT) mode so far, he added.
The Supreme Court Friday said it would hear on July 27 the CBI's plea against the Kerala High Court order that had lifted the 60-day time limit on the anticipatory bail granted to former DGP Siby Mathews in a case relating to the alleged framing of scientist Nambi Narayanan in the 1994 espionage case.

The plea by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against the November 16 last year order of the high court came up for hearing before a bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and J B Pardiwala.

The high court had passed the order on a plea by Mathews, a former Director General of Police (DGP), challenging the condition limiting the period of anticipatory bail to 60 days.

A trial court on August 24 last year granted him pre-arrest bail but limited the period of anticipatory bail to 60 days.

When the matter came up for hearing before the top court on Friday, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) S V Raju, appearing for the CBI, said it has to be tagged with pending pleas filed by the probe agency against the high court order granting anticipatory bail to four other persons in the case.

The bench said it would hear these matters on July 27.

"In the circumstances, in order to secure the ends of justice, it is only appropriate that the said time stipulation of 60 days shall be lifted," the high court had said in its order.

Earlier, the CBI had moved the apex court against the August 13 last year order of the high court and the matter is pending.

The high court had on August 13 last year granted anticipatory bail to former Gujarat DGP R B Sreekumar, two former police officers of Kerala -- S Vijayan and Thampi S Durga Dutt, and a retired intelligence official P S Jayaprakash -- in connection with the case.

Sreekumar was then the Deputy Director of the Intelligence Bureau.

The top court had in November last year issued notice on the CBI's plea against the August 13 last year order.

The CBI had earlier told the apex court that it has found in its probe that some scientists were tortured and framed in the matter due to which development of the cryogenic engine was hit and this led to India's space programme going back by almost one or two decades.

The CBI has registered a case against 18 persons for various alleged offences, including criminal conspiracy, in connection with the arrest and detention of former scientist Nambi Narayanan in the espionage case.

The case, which had hit the headlines in 1994, pertained to allegations of transfer of certain confidential documents on India's space programme to foreign countries by two scientists and four others, including two Maldivian women.

Narayanan, who was given a clean chit by the CBI, had earlier said that the Kerala police had "fabricated" the case and the technology he was accused to have stolen and sold in the 1994 case did not even exist at that time.

The CBI, in its probe, had said that the then top police officials in Kerala were responsible for Narayanan's illegal arrest.

The apex court had on September 14, 2018, appointed a three-member committee, while directing the Kerala government to cough up Rs 50 lakh compensation for compelling Narayanan to undergo "immense humiliation".

Terming the police action against the ex-scientist of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) as a "psycho-pathological treatment", the apex court had in September 2018 said that his "liberty and dignity", basic to his human rights, were jeopardised as he was taken into custody and, eventually, despite all the glory of the past, was compelled to face "cynical abhorrence".

(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 2022 version of United Nations World Prospects was released during the second week of July. It said the world will breach the eight billion mark on November 15 this year.

And India will overtake China next year to become the worlds most populous nation with over 1.4 billion people. In 2050, the country is projected to have a of 1.66 billion - way ahead of Chinas 1.31 billion.

This might be not only because the rate of population growth in India is higher than in China, but the neighbour is also expected to experience an absolute decline in its population as early as next year.

This increasing population will put additional pressure on resources, which are already stretched. Changes in a countrys population size are always a result of the demographic transitions. One such phase is where the growth of the working age population -- aged 15-64 years -- is temporarily higher than the combined shares at younger and older ages.

This presents an opportunity for accelerated economic growth and social development, known as the demographic dividend.

In 2020, there were about 900 million Indians, which amounts to 67% of total population, in the working age group as compared to Chinas 64.9%.

The UN population report mentions that the working-age group will continue to increase for some time in Asia.

Madan Sabnavis, Chief Economist, Bank of Baroda, says news about population growth prima facie appears to be good as India will have a larger labour force. It will be a challenge to make sure the population is well-educated and make the labour force contribute to GDP, and there is a need to create viable jobs in the knowledge economy.

India barely invests 1.29% of the GDP annually on health, which is less than Bangladesh and Nepal. In contrast, China spends 6.7% of its GDP on health. Meanwhile, Indias education spending at around 3 to 3.5% of GDP is way below the global average of 4.2% or say Brazils 6.3% of GDP.

Coming to the job creation, if India does not create enough jobs and its workers are not adequately prepared for those jobs, then the demographic dividend may turn into a liability. Currently, the labour force participation rate, which is the proportion of the working-class willing to work, is lower in India at 46% than Chinas 68%, according to a World Bank database.

This is because of the low female labour force participation rate in India, which is around 19%, compared with Chinas 62%.

In August 2020, a McKinsey Global Institute report had said that India needed to generate 90 million non-farm jobs between 2023 and 2030 in order to absorb new workers and an additional 30 million workers who could shift from farm work to non-farm sectors.

To absorb this influx, India would need close to 12 million additional gainful non-farm jobs every year starting in financial year 2023. This would be triple of the four million non-farm jobs created annually between 2012 and 2018, the report noted.



To create jobs at such a massive scale, Indias GDP will need to grow by 8 to 8.5% annually over the next decade and the productivity growth needs to be maintained at 6.5 to 7%.

Moving on, should we be alarmed by the rate of population growth in general? Not so much. Indias total fertility rate -- the average number of children that could be born to a woman in her lifetime  has declined from 2.2 in 2015-16 to 2 in 2019-21.

Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation projects the countrys total fertility rate at 1.29 births per woman by the end of the century. This is way below the UNs replacement level fertility rate at 2.1 children per woman.

The latest NFHS survey also shows over two-thirds of Indian states have below replacement level fertility rates. Below-replacement fertility rates eventually result in negative population growth.

While India is expected to have a demographic dividend, reaping its potential benefits requires significant investments in education and health, and work towards the availability of gainful employment. This is a challenge not only for the government, but also for the private sector.
employees are unhappy. Amid claims of safety being compromised, regulator DGCA had to interfere. Indias largest airline IndiGo plans to enhance capacity by at least 60% compared to the previous year. But salaries have become a thorny issue in the sector. Employees remain dissatisfied as the wait for normalisation of wages continues to be uncertain. What is the reason for this delay and when will they see happy days again?

India is set to overtake China as the worlds most populous country sometime next year, according to a United Nations estimate. Should we be worried? What does this actually mean for the economy? How should the policymakers react?



A growing population is not a bad thing, if the rate of the growth of the working age groups is higher than the younger and older ages. Moving on to the markets, the spurt in mobility after the pandemic has brightened prospects for auto companies in India, especially the two-wheelers.

Analysts foresee a healthy demand momentum for the segment, aided by easing chip shortage worries and declining commodity prices. Take a look at the likely tailwinds for two-wheeler companies and whether it is time to add them to your portfolio.

The economic recovery has buoyed the demand for two-wheelers in India. But high atmospheric humidity has made the outdoors unpleasant in the national capital. If you doubt the temperature to be higher than what the thermometer is showing, you are not alone. So, why exactly does one feel hotter than what thermometers show? This episode of the podcast answers the question and more.
The headquarters of Hong Kong's Immigration Department on May 26. Photo VCG

A Hong Kong district court has sentenced the ringleaders of a gang that arranged more than 150 fake cross-border marriages to almost three years in prison, a longer term than usual due to the seriousness and extent of their criminal activities.

The main culprits, 45-year-old male Chen Jingwei, who was identified as the mastermind, and 52-year-old female Shi Yunping, each received sentences of 33 months on Wednesday, according to a statement on the Hong Kong government website.
China beat Japan 3-0 in the mens final of the 2022 Asian Volleyball Confederation Cup to claim the crown for the second time in a decade. The Chinese team went into the final unbeaten throughout the tournament in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand, and maintained a clean sweep over their East Asian neighbor. The Chinese mens team first became AVC champions in 2012

Aug 15, 2022 07:38 PM
HYDERABAD: TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao will hold a meeting with his party MPs in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on Saturday to discuss the partys strategy for the ensuing Parliament session, which is set to begin on July 18.

The Chief Minister is expected to call upon his party MPs to fight against anti-people policies being adopted by the BJP-led government at the Centre in both the Houses.

Party sources said the Chief Minister will direct his MPs to raise several key issues concerning Telangana in Parliament and ask them to join the MPs of other parties who are ready to fight against the Centres anti-people policies and to protect democratic values.

He wants MPs to question and protest against the injustice being meted out to Telangana by the Centre.

He could advise the MPs to expose the Centre for creating economic hurdles for Telangana by imposing restrictions on raising loans though the state has been maintaining strict financial discipline.

The TRS MPs could also be asked to raise the issue of the Centres anti-farmer policies because of which it stopped purchasing paddy from farmers and millers in Telangana and therefore creating problems for them.

Chandrashekar Rao is also angry at the Centres decision to send more teams to Telangana to inspect NREGA works. He called it the Centres double standards' towards Telangana, which has been implementing the National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREGA) scheme successfully.

The Chief Minister is expected also remind MPs about how the Centre praised the Telangana state government for implementing the employment guarantee scheme strictly and also the social audit of the programme earlier and also presented awards to Telangana.

The Centre on Thursday charged the TS government with indulging in irregularities in the National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREGA) scheme and announced to inspect of the works in several districts.

The Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao will also tell MPs that economic experts are raising serious concerns about the lopsided economic policies adopted by the Centre.
Estonian PM asked to form new coalition government after resignation

Xinhua) 09:02, July 15, 2022

TALLINN, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Estonian President Alar Karis on Thursday proposed that Reform Party leader Kaja Kallas form the next coalition government after she resigned as prime minister together with her minority government.

"I signed the resignation request of Prime Minister Kaja Kallas but also asked her to form a new government which could start working quickly and deal with all important issues of Estonian life. I hope that the new government can start its activities already next week." Karis said on social media.

At the presidential office, Karis met with Kallas, who submitted her resignation and that of the entire government.

Kallas proposed that the Estonian Parliament (Riigikogu), which is on summer break, hold an extraordinary session on Friday to vote on the new coalition of the Reform Party, Isamaa Party and the Social Democrats.

The Reform Party has been ruling as a minority government since Kallas dismissed all seven ministers from the junior coalition partner Center Party due to a dispute over welfare policy on June 3.

In accordance with the Constitution, the Estonian head of state nominates the candidate for prime minister, who is granted the authority to form a government by the parliament. The head of state then appoints the members of the government, after which they swear the oath of office before the Parliament.

Kallas, 45, has led her party since 2018 and became prime minister in 2021. The country is scheduled to hold the next parliamentary election in March 2023.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)
Hyderabad: TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Friday spoke to leaders of non-BJP parties over the phone and reportedly urged them to join hands to wage a united battle against anti-people and anti-poor policies of the BJP-led government at the Centre in the ensuing session of Parliament.

The Opposition leaders that Chandrashekar Rao spoke to include West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar among others.

He spoke to the close associates of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin as he has been undergoing treatment in a hospital for Covid.

Sources in Chief Ministers Office (CMO) said Chandrashekar Rao told Opposition leaders that time has come for all of the Opposition parties to raise their voices to protect the federal spirit and secular fabric of the country which are under threat under the Narendra Modi regime.

They claimed that the leaders of Opposition parties have responded positively to the TRS presidents proposal to fight against the Centre.

The CMO sources said the Chief Minister has sounded a war bugle against the Centres indifferent attitude towards non-BJP ruled states.

The Chief Minister has also strongly decided to fight against the BJP-led government at the Centre for adopting anti-people policies by coordinating with like-minded parties in all states.

Chandrashekar Rao, the sources said, will intensify his efforts to safeguard the democratic, secular and federal values of India which are under serious threat.

"The Chief Minister is ready to expose the Centre to the deepening economic crisis in India," the sources said.

Chandrashekar Rao is also ready to hold nationwide protests and expose the "undemocratic and authoritarian" functioning of the Modi government, the sources said.
Tehran denies the US allegation that the hundreds of drones will be sent to Russia, as Washington was called for its false claims.

This was verified by the Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who said that Iran remains neutral, slamming the White House for such inaccuracies.

Iran To Ship Drones to Russia

On Wednesday, the Iranian foreign minister spoke to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, stating that there are several types of cooperation with Russia and the defense sector, but will not help either side in this fight because it must be ended, reported RT.

He said that the present problem with the conflict is that several Western countries, like the US allegation, have armament manufacturers trying to sell their wares. It was also emphasized that Iran should avoid adding fuel to the fire and instead work to end the situation, noted The Fars News.

On Monday, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan warned reporters that Iran would deliver a large supply of UAVs, including military configuration types.

Many Western countries, notably the United States, deliver heavy armament to Kyiv, such as missile launchers, armored vehicles, and war drones. Moscow maintains that inundating Ukraine with weaponry will only aggravate the war.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to Tehran on July 19 to meet with his counterparts Ebrahim Raisi of Iran and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, according to the Kremlin.

Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, said on Wednesday that Putin would not address probable drones for Russia on his visit to Tehran.

Read Also: Vladimir Putin Net Worth 2022: Does Anyone Know Russian President's Hidden Wealth?

US Claims of Alleged Drone Shipments

According to a senior US official, Russian forces may begin receiving training this month to operate Iranian drones.

During a news conference on Monday, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan claimed that Iran was preparing to provide Moscow with hundreds of drones, some of which had been converted into weapons, noted Gulf News.

He suggested that the unmanned aircraft were meant to replace those Russia had lost in Ukraine. Since the delivery is expected to be completed quickly, Sullivan suggested that some drones may have already been distributed.

The US official described the material as fairly significant and newsworthy but provided no supporting data or explanations of how the US came to its decision.

Additionally, he used the occasion to reassert US charges that Iran attacked Saudi Arabia with drones before the Yemeni conflict ended.

Sullivan alluded to Riyadh and its allies' seven-year military campaign against the Houthi rebels. The US-backed campaign and the Saudi blockade of Yemen led to a major humanitarian catastrophe.

The Donetsk and Lugansk regions were supposed to get special status within the Ukrainian state under the Minsk agreements but failed to implement them, according to Russia, which sent its military into Ukraine on February 24. The protocols were signed in 2014, and Germany and France served as the mediators.

Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko revealed that Ukraine agreed to the deal only to get time, enough to build up its military with no intent to implement it.

Tehran called the US allegation nonsense, even drones for Russia were not in the picture as Washington grasps to maintain its failed narrative in Ukraine.

Related Article: Joe Biden Falls Into Another Foreign Policy Disaster With Attempts To Resurrect Iran Nuclear Deal

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
After Potterton was released from the service, a neighbor who worked at the Halas & Batchelor studio suggested that he apply there. The studio was gearing up for Animal Farm and Potterton would spend two years as an assistant animator on the film, which was released in 1954 as Britains first animated feature.

Potterton had ambitions to write and direct his own films and co-founded a cooperative that helped London-based animators with their personal projects. They called themselves the Grasshopper Group and included animators Bob Godfrey and Norman McLaren, who was starting to make waves at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) with his Oscar-winning short Neighbours. Potterton co-directed his own short at that time, Twos Company (1953), using the pixilation method.

O Canada

In 1954, Potterton emigrated to Canada and joined the NFB in Ottawa. Shortly after, the NFB relocated to Montreal. Potterton didnt settle entirely after moving to Canada however, and regularly made trips back to the U.K. for work and leisure.

He was back in the London in 1955 to help Eddie Radage start up his commercial studio on Savile Row. Potterton also helped another young filmmaker, Richard Williams, with storyboards for what would become Williams first animated film, The Little Island (1958).

Jumping across the pond to Canada again, Potterton wrote and animatednSpoilage Control (1956), a short film about proper control of fish spoilage which turned out to be entertaining and well executed, with a graphic style similar to United Productions of Americas (UPA) shorts.

Potterton left Canada and the NFB in 1960 and went to New York City to work at the commercial house Lars Calonius Productions. Calonius hope was that Potterton would take over the studio, but instead Potterton ended up going back to the NFB in Montreal after just one year.

Breaking out at the NFB

The 1960s proved a break-out decade for Potterton. Two of his animated shorts, My Financial Career (1962) and Christmas Cracker (1964), were nominated for Academy Awards.

He also wrote and directed the remarkable extended short The Railrodder (1964), starring Buster Keaton. The idea for the film came to Potterton when he saw a strangers head zip by him on an overpass. The person was on a railway speeder, and Potterton thought it made for a good sight gag so he quickly drew out some ideas in his ever-present sketchbook.

It was only later that Potterton thought of Buster Keaton and asked if the senior actor would be interested in the project. Potterton had grown up just after the time of silent comedies, but for him, as for many animators, comedians such as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Laurel and Hardy were idols and muses.

Building His Own Studio

In 1967, Potterton started his own studio, Potterton Productions, in Montreal. George Dunning, an acquaintance from London, asked him to do some work on Yellow Submarine (1968), so Potterton did layout for the Liverpool sequence.

Shortly after, he made the television special Pinter People for NBC, which broadcast in April 1969. It was a compilation of several short stories based on the work of playwright Harold Pinter, connected by interviews with Pinter.

It was during the production of Pinter People that Potterton met and befriended British actor Donald Pleasence, a relationship that would bear fruit throughout the years. Potterton wrote and directed the live-action film The Rainbow Boys, which starred Pleasence, and Pleasence wrote a childrens book called Scouse the Mouse, which Potterton illustrated.

During the 1970s, Potterton produced three animated films based on stories by Oscar Wilde. One of them, The Selfish Giant (1972), received an Oscar nomination. During that decade, Potterton also worked with Richard Williams on Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure (1977) as associate director.

Heavy Metal and Beyond

Potterton went 180 degrees in the opposite direction for his next project, taking the helm for the cult classic adult sci-fi anthology film Heavy Metal (1981). He also continued to produce and do story work on many childrens animated television series such as Rubik, the Amazing Cube and The Wizard of Oz in the mid-1980s.

In his fifth decade in the industry, Potterton created and produced The Smoggies (1991), a television series that promoted environmental responsibility which has been translated and shown in countries all over the world. Interestingly, Potterton says that The Smoggies was the first time he made real money from a production  the benefit of being the creator.

Settling Down Kind Of

Potterton is now 91. He lives on a farm about an hour east of Montreal and only 15 miles, as the crow flies, from the U.S. border. He keeps busy with his art, grows garlic, and flies radio-controlled model airplanes of all sizes and vintages.

He paints, often with the theme of vintage military planes, and is creating a narrated storybook for distribution on the internet. He is also working towards developing Scouse the Mouse into a feature-length animated film.

Reflecting on his years working in animation and the myriad of changes to the industry over that time, he says the single key to quality filmmaking is the importance of story. Being able to tell a good story is the best way to stand out and build your own career, Potterton says. Teamwork and openness to new ideas are also paramount, Potterton adds. None of these things you do on your own, he says.

Although he admits that story is king, Potterton sometimes wishes he had been a better draftsman. He is reminded of two things that Richard Williams told him, Whatever you do learn to draw the human figure, and, Always bend the horizon line. Words to live, and draw, by.
A very rare late 1980s behind-the-scenes video has resurfaced on Matt Jones Shot, Drawn & Cut Youtube channel which provides a detailed look at the production of the Roger Rabbit short Roller Coaster Rabbit, attached to the live-action film Dick Tracy in 1990.

The eight-minute short was among the earliest projects produced at Disneys short-lived Orlando, Florida animation studio, which was located within the Disney-MGM Studios theme park (later renamed Disneys Hollywood Studios). The studio is remembered for allowing visitors to walk through a set of overhead breezeways and observe the animation process in action below them. At times during the video, you can even see tourists legs passing by outside the windows as the artists are working.

The 25-minute video includes segments about effects animation, background and character animation, painting, checking, Xeroxing, camerawork, editing, sounds and music, and, perhaps most interestingly to viewers in 2022, early applications of computer animation which the Roller Coaster Rabbit team used used for the coaster tracks and cars as well as some sinister-looking darts. Theres a surprising amount of focus on technical processes, which are overlooked in such making-of films.
Photo: Contributed David Eby is the presumed front-runner in the race to succeed John Horgan as NDP leader and the next B.C. premier.

We arent quite entertaining yet the idea of a Prime Minister Pierre Poilievre, but we need to accept the notion of a Premier David Eby before long.

He is on Coronation Street, BC NDP style.

For the time being, Eby is doing that demure, still-considering-it, have-to-talk-to-the-family thing before suddenly entering the race, pretending it was a close call even though there had been a militaristic organization long in place when the opportunity arose to succeed John Horgan.

Remember, Eby was ready to wrest the party leadership in 2017 if the NDP hadnt formed a coalition with the Greens  one seat the other way, and he was in trample mode  so he is long prepared now.

Given hes in, and Ravi Kahlons out, the odds are long on anyone other than Ryan Reynolds or the Sedin twins. The big question is whether anyone consequential will run against him.

But a couple of events in recent days serve as blemishes as he awaits the crown and hint troublingly of what kind of provincial leader hed be.

To wit: Friday is commonly called take out the trash day by journalists because the mixture of lower public and media attention make it possible to get rid of news with a certain odour. Bad look? Bury it on Friday, the later the better.

Last Friday, Eby went all-in and waited until most everyone had checked out for a sunny weekend to sweep aside the board of BC Housing. This change of regime came after an Ernst & Young review of the provincial authority under Ebys ministerial watch for the last two years (he is also attorney general) delivered what couldnt have been a more miserable verdict of mismanagement.

Choose a function  administration, governance, strategic planning, program design, technology  and BC Housing had run amok. Documentation was shaky, approval standards were inconsistent, and the authority took undue risks with taxpayers money. Considering how it is a government priority, the place was kindergarten.

The government needs BC Housings success if it is to muster credibility in its ambitious $7 billion, 10-year subsidized housing plan. Eby thus dismissed the kids and brought in the grown-ups, a raft of ex-deputy ministers as board members to contend with the E&Y ee-yikes study.

It was Act 2 of the BC Housing containment strategy. Remember? Rather than step up to the podium, own the problem and stake his reputation in fixing it, Eby chose to post the report online June 30 as the Canada Day long weekend began.

It could be found on the ministrys website under the eye-catching headline: New report highlights BC Housing expansion, new board members announced. The conversation that created that bovine manure headline must have been one for the ages.

The news release heralded positivity: The findings identify opportunities to become more efficient and expand capacity within BC Housing to match organizational growth.

By more efficient, I take it that means finally functions, and by organization growth, I take it that describes before it become a sinkhole.

Then this week, on another portfolio the minister was only too happy to repeatedly call a dumpster fire on someone elses watch at the podium he evaded for the bad news on his watch (namely, the Insurance Corp. of British Columbia), the Supreme Court of British Columbia pronounced his plan as unconstitutional.

Not often does a lawyer get the opportunity to champion policy that the court finds an abrogation of constitutional rights, but here our next premier is.

The court smacked down the plan to cap the costs plaintiffs could recover for experts they employ in personal injury suits. These specialists are required to provide an evidence-based argument on the extent of injury, but the law Eby oversaw to reshape the ICBC business model  something I might add that has put money into everyones pockets in the last year, with no small crowing by the government  by capping at six per cent the damages won or the settlement for expenses and costs of expert evidence.

Justice Nathan Smith, in writing the judgment, was pretty clear on the motivation: The thinly veiled purpose of this legislation is to improve the finances of ICBC by reducing the quantity of expert evidence in motor vehicle accident liability claims and to thus both reduce litigation costs and produce lower damage awards whether by way of settlement or at trial.

This was the second time this provision had been tested. Strike two.

Eby has been strangely quiet all of a sudden, but its increasingly clear the ICBC legislation needs somewhat the same treatment of BC Housing, except it would be good if the minister would take the stage and say how.

The friendly face of Horgan isnt Ebys metier. He is an outstanding constituency (as opposed to constitutional) MLA who runs laps around any wannabe MLA for Point Grey, but running laps around the public as the provincial leader is a trait hed be best to shed.

Otherwise many of us will be scheduling staff for late Friday. Ultimately in politics, you can run but you cannot hide.

Kirk LaPointe is publisher and editor-in-chief of Business in Vancouver and vice-president, editorial, of Glacier Media.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Photo: Contributed

The Independent Investigations Office of British Columbia has been called after a man died in an incident involving police near Spuzzum.

The IIO BC is a civilian-led police oversight agency responsible for conducting investigations into incidents of death or serious harm that may have been the result of the actions or inactions of a police officer, whether on or off duty.

BC RCMP Staff Sgt. Janelle Shoihet said just after 9 a.m. today, officers from the Upper Fraser Valley Regional Detachment were called to a report of a man in crisis.

The man had allegedly told a loved one that he intended to harm himself by driving off a bridge, Shoihet said in a press release.

An officer located the man driving his vehicle on Highway 1 near Hells Gate.

The man failed to stop and drove over an embankment with a significant drop. He was pronounced dead at the scene, Shoihet said.

Highway 1 is currently closed in both directions near Hells Gate as the investigation is undertaken. Motorists are asked to avoid the area and to check DriveBC for the most up-to-date road closure information.

The IIO BC is now investigating the incident in an effort to determine whether police actions contributed to the mans death. As the matter is now under investigation by the IIO BC, no further information will be released by police.

All aspects and circumstances of the incident will be the subject of independent investigation by the IIO BC.


Photo: The Canadian Press

Vaccine clinics for British Columbia children aged six months to four years will open next month after Health Canada's approval of Moderna's COVID-19 shot for kids.

Health Minister Adrian Dix is encouraging parents to register their children so they are invited to book an appointment beginning on Aug. 2.

There are about 208,000 eligible babies and children in B.C. in that age category.

Acting provincial health officer Dr. Martin Lavoie says they know the vaccines are safe and have helped the province weather the pandemic.

While most children who are infected with COVID-19 have mild symptoms, he says others can get very sick.

The latest COVID-19 figures ending July 14 show there are 426 people in hospital with 34 in critical care, and there were 22 deaths in the week ending July 9.
A Russian missile strike leaves at least 23 dead in Vinnytsia as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky calls for its aggressor to be labeled as a terrorist state for its numerous attacks on civilians.

In a statement, Zelensky said that Russia has shown its attitude to international law, Europe, and to the entire civilized world. The Ukrainian president added that after the attack on Vinnytsia, no one should have any doubt that a Special Tribunal on Russian aggression against Ukraine was needed as soon as possible.

Russian Missile Strike

The official's remarks came after Moscow's missiles struck the city of Vinnytsia on Thursday leaving 23 dead, including three children under the age of 10. Zelensky also called for the confiscation of "all Russian assets and funds in all countries of the world" in order to compensate "the victims of Russian terror."

Images of the aftermath showed cars in Vinnytsia scorched as firefighters continued to search through the rubble of a damaged building. Another 64 people, including four children, were hospitalized, 34 of whom are in serious condition and five in critical condition, said the country's State Emergency Service (SES), as per CNN.

Chief of Ukraine's National Police Ihor Klymenko said that only six of the bodies had so far been identified and that DNA tests may be required to identify the others. There were more than 50 buildings and more than 40 cars that were damaged by the missile strikes, said the official.

Read Also: Ukraine's New Rockets Changes the Battlefield by Wiping Out Russian Targets; Moscow Is Reportedly Threatened

The brutal strike was conducted with the use of Russian Kalibr cruise missiles that were launched from submarines stationed in the Black Sea, said the deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Kyrylo Tymoshenko.

According to Aljazeera, the attack on Vinnytsia came as European Union officials convened in The Hague to discuss Russia's war crimes in Ukraine. Zelensky said during an address to European officials meeting that there were eight rockets used in the brutal attack, two of which struck the center of the city.

Attacks on Civilians

In a statement, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that he was "appalled" by the attack on civilians in the city, while the EU slammed the Russian missile attack as an "atrocity." Zelensky added that it was inevitable that the International Criminal Court (ICC) will bring accountability to those guilty of crimes under its jurisdiction.

Later, Ukraine's Interior Minister Denys Monastyrski said that two more missiles were intercepted en route to the city by air defenses. The ICC in The Hague opened an investigation into possible war crimes in Ukraine just after President Vladimir Putin's military troops invaded in February. The agency has dispatched dozens of investigators to the country to gather evidence.

Since the beginning of the war, thousands of people have already been killed and cities have been destroyed. Millions of civilians were also forced to flee their homes in fear of Russia's aggression.

The conference in The Hague heard testimony about atrocities and agreed to coordinate their investigations in Ukraine. Various nations have also agreed to pledge roughly $20 million to assist the court as well as the prosecutor general's office in Ukraine, the New York Times reported.



Related Article: Ukraine Cuts Diplomatic Ties with North Korea After Pyongyang Recognizes Breakaway of Russia's Proxies in Kyiv

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Photo: file photo The Bennett Bridge choked in wildfire smoke in August 2019

Exposure to air pollution in Canada is leading to nearly 8,000 deaths per year, says a new study.

The research, published today in a Health Effects Institute (HEI) report, looked at mortality in 7.1 million Canadians over the past 25 years.

Long-term exposure to particulate matter (PM2.5) was found to be the most harmful when combined with other pollutants like ozone. As of 2016, it led to 7,848 deaths per year, though that's likely a lower estimate compared to what Canada is experiencing now.

But even low concentrations of PM2.5  a pollutant vaulted into the air from wildfires, wood-burning stoves and fossil fuel emissions from cars and trucks  were found to contribute to increasing the risk of death in people already suffering from cardiovascular and heart disease, diabetes, pneumonia or a respiratory disease like COPD.

There's really no safe level of air pollution, said the study's lead author Michael Brauer, a professor at the University of British Columbia's school of population and public health.

Brauer and his colleagues combined data from satellites, local air sampling and atmospheric modelling to measure PM2.5 concentrations across Canada from 1981 to 2016.

After analyzing the data, the researchers found cities had particulate matter concentrations between nearly three and eight times higher than rural areas. Up until 1990, the highest PM2.5 concentrations were found in big cities, including Vancouver, Toronto, Hamilton and Quebec City.

And while those pollutant levels declined in the following years, even low levels were found to increase the risk of premature death.

'We picked the low-hanging fruit'

Brauer's data temper the results of a study released last year, in which Health Canada estimated all forms of air pollution contribute to the early death of 15,300 Canadians every year.

In that study, B.C.s Interior suffers some of the greatest fallout from air pollution in the country.

Between 2013 and 2018, the 10 census divisions in the country with the greatest exposure to PM2.5 were all in B.C.s Interior, according to a 2021 Health Canada analysis of the impacts of air pollution on human health.

Of those, half the census divisions  including Central Kootenay, where Nelson is located  were among the top 10 slices of the country with the highest per capita rates of premature death.

Brauer said climate change, from increased temperatures in cities to devastating wildfires, threatens a lot of the progress that has been made in recent decades.

We picked the low-hanging fruit, he said. With a warmer climate, things are not likely to get better without more aggressive action... And the faster that we decarbonize. the faster we're going to eliminate these health impacts.

The growing impact of bad wildfire seasons has led some medical professionals to rethink the way they diagnose health crises. After a record heat wave and brutal fire season, one B.C. doctor even diagnosed a patient as suffering from climate change.

A lot of people in the Kootenays sort of thought that this would be a good place to hide out while the rest of the world falls apart. But it's, of course, hitting us here, just like it's hitting many places, and we're really seeing the impacts, said Dr. Kyle Merritt, head of Kootenay Lake Hospital in Nelson.

Air pollution's global death toll likely much higher

Across the world ever year, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates outdoor air pollution leads to about 4.2 million deaths. Brauer's research would up that estimate by another 1.5 million.

Yet few jurisdictions have air quality standards that reflect the risk Brauer found in his study. Canadas 2012 Ambient Air Quality Standards set a path to reduce air pollutants in a phased approach through 2025. The current standards recommend PM2.5 concentrations below 8.8 micrograms per square metre.

In the U.S., national standards sit at 12 micrograms per square metre.

The WHO's recently updated standards, meanwhile, drop that threshold to 5 micrograms per square metre.

But none of those pollution limits meets the limit of 2.5 micrograms per square metre, beyond which Brauer says increases mortality risk.

That should be a signal to regulatory bodies both in Canada and around the world that air quality standards need to be strengthened, said Brauer.

Globally, it means we need to get on with it, he said. This is going to be there  even relatively clean countries, Western Europe, North America... there's still significant impact.

Photo: Contributed PM2.5 concentrations dropped throughout the study period but even low levels of exposure significantly affected risk of premature death. Brauer et al. (2022)

The UBC-led study is the latest in a series of HEI-backed studies looking at how even low levels of outdoor air pollution affect human health.

The first, a 2021 study looking at the effects of particulate matter, black carbon, nitrogen dioxide and ozone across 11 European countries, found significant links between those exposed to low levels of pollution and early mortality in people with cardiovascular and respiratory disease, and lung cancer.

The second report, released earlier this year and focusing on the United States, tracked low levels of air pollution exposure in 68.5 million older Americans. Once again, the story was repeated: even low levels of exposure to particulate matter increase the risk of death.
Photo: Cliff MacArthur/provincialcourt.bc.ca

A woman who pleaded guilty to manslaughter after fatally stabbing her common law partner in 2018 will avoid jail if she stays on good behaviour and follows court-ordered conditions.

In Vancouver Provincial Court on July 13, Shannon Marie Watts received a suspended sentence with conditions, including curfew, counselling and three years probation.

This whole matter can't be characterized as anything but tragedy, Judge David St. Pierre said in court.

Watts was 24 when she stabbed 26-year-old Shane John Tolmie in the chest once with a kitchen knife during a drunken argument in a Downtown Eastside apartment on June 28, 2018.

Watts, Tolmie and their two children had travelled earlier that day from Nanaimo to Vancouver, where Watts lived at the Sorella housing project at Abbott and Pender. Watts and Tolmie had reunited, after Tolmies time in Nanaimo recovering from being struck by a car. Tolmie accused Watts of being unfaithful to him while he was on Vancouver Island. An argument escalated from words to actions, with Watts picking up the knife.

She was arrested and released the next day, and the children apprehended by the Ministry of Children and Family Development.

Tolmie was kept on life support at hospital until July 1, 2018 when he died. Watts was originally charged in October 2019 with second degree murder. She pleaded guilty to manslaughter in August 2020.

Mr. Tolmie was a loved member of his family. By all characterizations, a good father, and he deserved a chance to become a better person, learn and grow the same as everybody else, St. Pierre said. That's not going to happen, and that's tragic.

Watts reacted to his death with numerous admissions in Facebook posts, claiming she did not mean to kill Tolmie. She expressed sorrow and remorse for her actions and feared she would be jailed and never see her children again.

I wish there was a reverse button, so I could have made better choices, she wrote in one of the messages.

Court heard that Watts grew up in Prince Rupert in a Nisgaa family whose elders were residential school survivors. She suffered abuse and neglect and witnessed parental substance abuse. She lived in 100 different foster homes in 20 to 30 communities from age 1 1/2 to 17 and became an alcoholic in her early teens. Watts became sober in May 2019, attended regular counselling sessions for mental health and addiction, received treatment for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder and went to work as a part-time flagger.

Given the opportunity to address the court, Watts said: I understand that his family wants nothing to do with me. And I respect that 100 per cent, I understand their fears. I apologize for the wrongs that I've done, the pain that I caused.

St. Pierre chose not to impose a jail sentence, acknowledging court precedents requiring leniency for Indigenous women, who are over-represented in Canadas prison population. He also cited Wattss remorse and her lack of criminal record or subsequent offences.

Miss Watts did not intend to cause the death of Mr. Tolmie, but she did, and she has to deal with the consequences of that, St. Pierre said.

Under the three-year probation order, St. Pierre ordered her to live under a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew every day, except if her probation officer consents to different hours due to employment or other compelling reasons. He banned Watts from possessing or consuming any drugs or alcohol, except as prescribed by a doctor, and not to enter any licensed establishment that excludes minors.
Photo: Contributed Protesters rally at the Ohio Statehouse in support of abortion rights after the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade on, June 24, 2022 in Columbus, Ohio. The story about an alleged rape of a 10-year-old Ohio girl who had to travel to Indiana for an abortion touched on a white-hot issue due to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on abortion.

It took only four paragraphs in a regional newspaper to ignite a media conflagration over abortion that in two weeks engulfed President Joe Biden, the partisan press and some of the country's top news organizations.

In the centre of it all: a 10-year-old rape victim, identity unknown, suddenly thrown into a political fight on one of the country's most contentious issues.

The Wall Street Journal and Washington Post both clarified or corrected stories after an Ohio man was charged on Wednesday with raping the girl, who traveled to Indiana for an abortion last month.

The case first came to light in a July 1 article in The Indianapolis Star about patients heading to Indiana for abortion services because of more restrictive laws in surrounding states, following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade. The piece began with an anecdote about an Indianapolis doctor asked by an Ohio colleague to help the girl, who was past the stage of pregnancy where she could get a legal abortion in Ohio.

The story was seized upon by Biden during a July 8 news conference to announce an executive order to try to protect access to abortion services.

A 10-year-old should be forced to give birth to a rapist's child? Biden asked. I can't think of anything more extreme.

By then, there were already questions raised about the Star's story, notably in a series of tweets and a July 8 story in PJ Media by conservative columnist Megan Fox, under the headline Viral pregnant 10-year-old rape victim abortion horror story deserves a deeper look.

Fox wondered why the only apparent source for the story about the girl was the Indiana doctor, Caitlin Bernard, and whether she was credible because she performs abortions and has protested restrictions placed on the service.

The Washington Post's fact checker, Glenn Kessler, wrote last Saturday about those questions, noting that an abortion performed on a 10-year-old girl is rare.

This is a very difficult story to check, Kessler wrote. Bernard is on the record, but obtaining documents or other confirmation is all but impossible without details that would identify the locality where the rape occurred.

The Star's story did not identify the Ohio doctor who had called Bernard. The newspaper's executive editor, Bro Krift, has not discussed what steps the paper took to corroborate Bernard's story, and declined comment to The Associated Press on Thursday.

A named source like Bernard is a good start, said Kathleen Culver, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin. If the Star had other sources, it may not have wanted to provide them at the risk of identifying the victim, she said.

Indiana's attorney general, Republican Todd Rokita, said Thursday his office was investigating whether Bernard violated medical privacy laws by talking about the victim to the Star, or failed to notify authorities about suspected child abuse. The prosecutor for Indianapolis, Democrat Ryan Mears, said his office had the sole authority to pursue any such charges and that Bernard was being subjected to intimidation and bullying.

Bernard's lawyer issued a statement Thursday that said the doctor provided proper treatment and did not violate any patient privacy laws or other rules. Bernard is also considering legal action against those who have smeared my client, including Rokita.

Bernard reported a June 30 medication abortion for a 10-year-old patient to the state health department on July 2, within the three-day requirement set in state law for a girl younger than 16, according to the report obtained by The Indianapolis Star and WXIN-TV of Indianapolis.

In conservative media circles, questions raised about the sourcing quickly shifted to claims that the story was a lie.

The idea that you would have politicians in America try to exploit a story like this and make up a story like this in order to advance their own sick agenda tells you they are not serious about the issue," Fox News analyst Charlie Hurt said on Tuesday.

The Wall Street Journal, in an editorial on Tuesday, called it an abortion story too good to confirm. The Journal wrote that all kinds of fanciful tales travel far on social media these days, but you don't expect them to get a hearing at the White House.

Under the headline Correcting the Record on a Rape Case Thursday, the Journal wrote that it appears President Biden was accurate.

The country needs to find a rough consensus on abortion now that it has returned to the states and the political process, the Journal wrote. One way to help is to make sure the stories about abortion, from either side of the debate, can be readily confirmed. Passions are already heated enough.

Kessler attached a note to his column updating with the arrest, and said it was a test case on whether journalists should rely on one source for an impactful story.

He faced intense heat online, both because of his original story and his explanations. U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York tweeted that this column is horrifying. Waiting for law enforcement confirmation is questionable when many women don't report rape to authorities, she said.

Shani George, a Washington Post spokesperson, said, The intent of the piece was to spotlight the need for careful reporting in a time when information spreads rapidly.

PJ Media's Fox said journalists should always question reporting and do their own digging, since media hoaxes are so prevalent today.

I would ask every single question I asked in my original reporting again, she told the AP.

PJ Media quickly pivoted on Thursday to a story headlined, Illegal alien arrested in rape of 10-year-old abortion patient but questions remain.

A Columbus police detective testified in a court hearing Wednesday that there was no evidence the suspect was in the country legally. In court documents filed the same day, a prosecutor said the suspect is not a U.S. citizen and is subject to potential deportation. The Associated Press is not identifying the suspect because there are questions about whether his reported name was real, and on the chance he's a relative of the girl involved.

The incident shows how political punditry often moves faster than journalism, and that journalists are caught responding to the punditry, said Wisconsin's Culver.

The most important issue here is it appears that a 10-year-old was sexually assaulted, she said, and that is a tragedy.
Photo: The Canadian Press U.S. President Joe Biden, left, gives a press conference with Israel's Prime Minister Yair Lapid, at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Jerusalem,

U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid stood side-by-side Thursday and declared they would not allow Iran to become a nuclear power. They parted ways, though, on how to get there.

Biden, in a joint news conference after a one-on-one meeting with the Israeli leader, said he still wants to give diplomacy a chance. Moments earlier, Lapid insisted that words alone won't thwart Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

While Biden suggested his patience with Iran was running low, he held out hope that Iran can be persuaded to rejoin a dormant deal intended to prevent it from building a nuclear weapon.

I continue to believe that diplomacy is the best way to achieve this outcome, Biden said on the second day of a four-day visit to Israel and Saudi Arabia. He also stressed on his first trip to the Middle East as president the importance of furthering ties between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

Hours before Biden was set to become the first U.S. leader to fly directly from Israel to the kingdom, Saudi Arabias General Authority of Civil Aviation announced early Friday the decision to open the Kingdoms airspace for all air carriers that meet the requirements of the Authority for overflying.

It signaled the end of its longstanding ban on Israeli airliners overflying its territory  an incremental step toward the normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel that builds on the strong but informal ties the erstwhile foes have developed in recent years over their shared concerns about Irans growing influence in the region.

President Biden welcomes and commends the historic decision by the leadership of Saudi Arabia to open Saudi airspace to all civilian carriers without discrimination, a decision that includes flights to and from Israel, U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement early Friday.

Bidens emphasis on a diplomatic solution on Iran's nuclear program contrasted with Lapid, who said Iran must face a real threat of force before it will agree to give up on its nuclear ambitions.

Words will not stop them, Mr. President. Diplomacy will not stop them, Lapid said. The only thing that will stop Iran is knowing that if they continue to develop their nuclear program the free world will use force.

Lapid suggested he and Biden were in agreement, despite his tougher rhetoric toward Iran.

I dont think theres a light between us, he said. We cannot allow Iran to become nuclear.

Biden, too, said, We will not, let me say it again, we will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi lashed out at the U.S. and "its regional allies for stoking instability in the region, state-run IRNA news agency reported.

Any mistake by the Americans and their allies in the region and the world will be met with a harsh and regrettable response, Raisi said.

Biden warned that his patience is wearing thin for Iran to rejoin the nuclear deal, a day after saying hed be willing to use force against Tehran as a last resort. The president said the U.S. had laid out for the Iranian leadership a path to return to the nuclear deal and was still waiting for a response.

When that will come, Im not certain, Biden said. "But were not going to wait forever.

Resurrecting the Iran nuclear deal brokered by Barack Obamas administration and abandoned by Donald Trump in 2018 was a key priority for Biden as he entered office. But administration officials have become increasingly pessimistic about the chances of getting Tehran back into compliance.

Israeli officials have sought to use Bidens first visit to the Middle East as president to underscore that Irans nuclear program has progressed too far and encourage the Biden administration to scuttle efforts to revive the deal.

Israel opposed the original nuclear deal because its limitations on Irans nuclear enrichment would expire and the agreement didnt address Irans ballistic missile program or military activities in the region.

Instead of the U.S. reentering the deal, Israel would prefer strict sanctions in hopes of leading to a more sweeping accord.

The one-on-one talks between Biden and Lapid marked the centerpiece of a 48-hour visit by Biden aimed at strengthening already tight relations between the U.S and Israel. The leaders issued a joint declaration emphasizing military cooperation and a commitment to keeping Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

In the joint statement, the United States said it is ready to use all elements of its national power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb.

Iran announced last week that it has enriched uranium to 60% purity, a technical step away from weapons-grade quality.

The joint declaration could hold important symbolic importance for Bidens upcoming meeting with Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia as he seeks to strengthen a regionwide alliance against Iran.

The U.S. president, who is set to arrive in Saudi Arabia on Friday, said he also stressed to Lapid the importance of Israel becoming totally integrated in the region.

Israel during the Trump administration signed on to the Abraham Accords, declarations of diplomatic and economic normalization signed by Israel, Bahrain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates that were signature foreign policy achievement for the Republican president. For Israel to come to such an agreement with the Saudis, an economic and Islamic epicenter in the Mideast, would be even more significant.

Lapid asked Biden to deliver a message on behalf of Israel to the Arab leaders he'll meet with in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: Our hand is outstretched for peace.

Your visit to Saudi Arabia is important for Israel and for the region, Lapid added. For our security and for the future prosperity of the Middle East.

The president will visit Saudi Arabia after calling the kingdom a pariah nation as a presidential candidate and releasing a U.S. intelligence finding last year that showed the kingdom's de facto leader, Mohammed bin Salman, likely approved the 2018 killing of of Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S.-based writer.

Biden declined to commit to mentioning Khashoggi's murder when he meets with the crown prince.

I always bring up human rights, Biden said at the news conference. But my position on Khashoggi has been so clear. If anyone doesnt understand it, in Saudi Arabia or anywhere else, then they havent been around for a while. He did not reiterate his position.
Photo: The Canadian Press Investigators arrive at the scene of a fatal shooting, in Surrey, B.C., on Thursday, July 14, 2022. Police say a vehicle with "multiple" people inside was waiting for Ripudaman Singh Malik hours before he was killed in a parking lot in Surrey, B.C. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Police say a vehicle with "multiple" people inside was waiting for Ripudaman Singh Malik hours before he was killed in a parking lot in Surrey, B.C.

Malik was one of the two men acquitted in the 1985 Air India terrorist bombings that claimed 331 lives.

Sgt. David Lee of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team told a news conference that a white Honda CRV pulled up near the scene of the shooting at around 7 a.m. and Malik was shot and killed at about 9:30 Thursday morning.

He says police found the same vehicle burned a few streets down soon after Malik was shot.

Malik and his co-accused, Ajaib Singh Bagri, were found not guilty in March 2005 of murder and conspiracy in a pair of Air India bombings that killed 331 people on June 23, 1985.

Lee says he understands Malik was a high-profile figure but asked that people don't speculate about the motive behind his murder, which is still being determined.
Photo: DBenitostock. China is stepping up measures to prevent the import of the monkeypox virus from inbound travelers while striving to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Canadians travelling for business, work and family to China will need to undergo double screenings for both monkeypox virus and COVID-19 during their quarantine period.



Chinas National Health Commission recently published a guideline on monkeypox prevention and control, stating that apart from COVID-19 tests, inbound travellers entering China should also be tested for monkeypox virus during quarantine  especially those who have a travelling history in countries with reported monkeypox infections within 21 days before entering China.



According to the guideline, returnees from epidemic areas should be closely monitored. If rashes or other symptoms related to monkeypox appeared, they should seek medical treatment and inform doctors of their travel history. Suspected cases need to be promptly reported to local disease control agencies and transferred to designated medical institutes.



The World Health Organization said Tuesday (July 12) that it will convene a second emergency meeting next week to decide if monkeypox is a global health threat as cases keep rising.



As of July 13, global monkeypox cases have topped 10,000, with cases found in almost 60 countries. So far, Canada has identified 477 cases, with 29 of them found in B.C..



No cases have been found in China yet and the authorities are determined to keep the virus out of the country by tightening up the prevention and control measures.



Many Chinese social media users, however, became further concerned about the import of monkeypox as disinformation and conspiracy theories that US let monkeypox loose are swirling on Chinas twitter-like platform Weibo.



Other conspiracy theories, such as the virus is created in a lab or caused by COVID-19, have also been circulating on social media in Ukraine, Russia, and the U.S.. Experts have debunked these theories, suggesting that all the genetic sequences for the virus DNA have shown that the virus is traced back from West Africa and is not something manufactured.
Photo: BC Courts

A Vancouver lawyer twice disbarred from practice is now before Vancouver provincial court to face eight counts of fraud and theft.

Steven Neil Mansfield will be defending himself but has brought on board former B.C. Supreme Court Justice Peter Leask as an advisor.

The charges involve four people and encompass four charges each of fraud over $5,000 and theft over $5,000.

Judge Jodie Werier released Mansfield on bail July 14.

He is not allowed be in a position where he controls money not his own, must be fingerprinted and photographed by police and report to a bail supervisor. He is also not allowed to contact the people listed in the indictment.

Twice disbarred

The Law Society of BC has twice disbarred Mansfield, who practiced law in the Lower Mainland for 24 years.

In the final years of his practice, he misappropriated large sums of trust funds from several clients in order to settle gambling debts, a May 2019 society disbarment decision said.

The decision said Mansfield could not pay from his personal resources and began withdrawing money from his trust accounts in order to meet the debts arising from his gambling losses.

Given the severity of the misconduct in this case, the disbarment of the respondent is necessary, the 2019 decision said. The respondent has demonstrated an egregious failure to respect his duties and obligations to his clients.

In that case, funds misappropriated were $310,972.

The prior decision was in July 2018. "[Mansfield] explained that his actions in intentionally misappropriating over $400,000 from two clients resulted from a gambling addiction," stated that decision.

A separate society notice said on June 13, 2017, lawyer Trevor Kaatz was appointed by B.C. Supreme Court to manage or to wind up Mansfields legal practice.
European Innovation Funding awarded for decarbonisation projects

15 July 2022

The European Innovation Fund (EU Environment and Climate) has agreed funding for several cement and lime sector projects, with Holcim and Lhoist among the companies that will receive funding.

Holcim Germany has received funding approval from the European Union for the Carbon2Business project in Lagerdorf in Schleswig-Holstein from the EU Innovation Fund. The funding is aimed at the construction of a new kiln line at Lagerdorf plant. With the use of oxyfuel technology, the first climate-neutral cement plant is to be built here. "With this tailwind, we can now drive the project forward even more effectively and make our contribution to decarbonisation," comments CEO Thorsten Hahn.

Meanwhile, Lhoists CalCC project to reduce CO 2 emissions at its Rety lime plant in France has been selected by the European Innovation Fund for funding. Together with Air Liquide, Lhoist is working to reduce the CO 2 emissions at the Rety plant by more than 600,000tpa, starting in 2028. As a leader in the lime industry, Lhoist is very proud that for the first time, a lime plant will capture its CO 2 emissions and store them in safe conditions.



Other projects for the cement industry being reviewed for funding include Lafarge Cement Poland (Holcim) Go4Ecoplanet at Kujawy Cement and HeidelbergCement's ANRAV CCUS project at Devnya Cement, Bulgaria.

Published under
CEMEX to clean Nile River

15 July 2022

CEMEX has signed a three-year agreement to support waste removal efforts in Egypts Nile River. Some of the waste will be used as a more sustainable alternative to fossil fuels at CEMEXs Assiut cement plant.

CEMEX will be collaborating with VeryNile, an initiative supported by the Ministry of the Environment in Egypt that develops eco-friendly solutions to remove inorganic waste from the Nile River. The company will provide financial support to double the amount of waste collected and contribute to the direct employment of over 100 people in the fishing community of Qursaya. The programme also includes activities to raise awareness among citizens to help reduce pollution and preserve the Nile River.

CEMEX provides cities and other industries with solutions for waste management, helping build a zero-waste circular economy. The unique characteristics of our production process allows us to co-process over 1.5Mt of waste per year in the EMEAA region, equivalent to the annual waste generated by a city the size of Madrid or Berlin, said Sergio Menendez, president of CEMEX Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia. This collaboration will help ramp up waste collection efforts in the Nile River, replace fossil fuels in our production process, and lower our carbon footprint in Egypt.

Published under
Moscow railed at what they call Blinken's allegations as false Ukrainian abuse in the current narrative. Recently Kyiv accused Russia of wrongdoing, but many Ukrainians have chosen the passport deal.

US Attempts To Fix Zelensky's Tattered Image

Russia has denied American allegations that it forcibly ejected up to 1.6 million Ukrainians into Russia, confiscated their passports, and issued Russian ones in their place, reported RT.

The source of the accusation is the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday, which the Kremlin called a pathetic and poor version of Western disinformation. This statement came from the Russian embassy in Washington.

The top US diplomat is accused of fabricating evidence of Ukrainian residents' mistreatment. Mentioned that 260,000 children and 900,000 and 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens who might have died in the conflict have been interrogated, held, and forcibly deported by Russian officials, noted the Press United.

He was reportedly referring to the exodus of residents from the republics of Donbass and Eastern Ukraine.

Before and throughout the ongoing military war, hundreds of thousands of people fled to Russia. Kyiv asserted that such people were "hostages" of Russia.

In an apparent effort to alter the demographic composition of some regions of Ukraine, Blinken continued to spread misinformation by dividing families, citing News Factory.

These Ukrainian citizens, according to Moscow, have a streamlined path to Russian citizenship should they desire it, given how badly they bombed countrymen in the Donbass as separatists. But Blinken's allegations of fake Ukrainian abuse have a more sinister reason.

Read Also: Donald Trump Net Worth 2022: Did Trump Get Richer Since Leaving the US Presidency?

The program was initially exclusively open to citizens of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, which Russia recognized as independent entities in February.

However, it was eventually made available to all Ukrainian citizens. More claims were doubled down by Washington and added more disinformation to smear efforts to naturalize Ukraine citizens who are tired of Kyiv's policies or Zelensky's deceptions.

Children are isolated from their parents and kidnapping from orphanages so that these kids will be adopted in Russia, said Blinken.

Suspiciously he offhandedly cited eyewitnesses, survivors, and Ukraine's General Prosecutor, which was not verified.

The US Mocked for Baseless Claims

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova responded to the US official's remark and compared it to something from a medical encyclopedia.

Then she discussed the malicious misinformation disseminated last Thursday by a Russian broadcast intended for the gullible US audience that would believe anything the Biden administration would say.

These claims were ridiculous, and they do not support Joe Biden's widely debunked assertion that Russian President Vladimir Putin could knowingly tax the United States and is the cause of the country's high gas costs.

The Donetsk and Lugansk regions were supposed to get special status within the Ukrainian state under the Minsk agreements. Still, according to Russia, Kyiv failed to implement them, which sent its military into Ukraine on February 24.

These protocols were first signed in 2014, and Germany and France served as the mediators.

The Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as separate entities in February 2022, and Ukraine was compelled to formally declare its neutrality and reluctance to ally with any Western military alliance.

Moscow, via its representatives, called Blinken's allegations of misinformation and Ukrainian abuse outright lies, resorted to by the US and unverified.

Related Article: Former Russian President Medvedev Says BRICS Can Create Reserve Currency To Support Its Members

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
During my 25 years of hosting a talk show on WDOD, we discussed thousands of topics. I always enjoyed hearing from listeners on what was happening on both the local and national level but the nostalgic programs were the most popular. We would talk about ones first car, corner drug stores, barber shops, hardware stores, grocery stores, pets, and sports; you name it, and the topic would come up.

I think listeners enjoyed sharing memories about their favorite restaurants the most. They would mention the Mount Vernon, Georges Hamburgers, the Read House Green Room, Ranch House, Black Angus Steak House, Home Plate and S & W cafeterias, The Rathskeller, Tick Tock, Bea's, Rickys,Terdon and a lot more but at the top of the list was the Town and Country on North Market Street.

Clyde Hawkins was Tivoli Theater-Memorial Auditorium manager for many years. He said the Town and Country Restaurant was by far the favorite of entertainers who came to town. Hawkins said he took promoter Lon Varnell and Liberace there once before the piano players' performance at the Memorial Auditorium. Liberace wanted to go back on a return visit.

My last day on the air at WDOD radio was Aug. 19, 2005. It started with a call from Bill Hall, owner of the popular eatery. We traced the restaurants entire history dating back to 1947.

He said his uncle Hugh Abercrombie, a businessman, got mad one day at the price he was paying for a hamburger downtown so he decided to open a place for lunch in North Chattanooga and called it Parkway Drive In. Hall said he didnt know where his uncle got the name Town and Country but expanded to serving dinner two years later and changed the name.

Hall said most of his family was involved in the business including his dad. The younger Hall remembers getting his first job in 1963 as a dishwasher and he evolved with the business, eventually becoming the chief executive officer.

Hall shared some of his memories during our conversation. He said Fess Parker came in several times while filming the movie A light in the Forest on Williams Island. He remembers his mother bringing him into the restaurant and sitting in Mr. Parkers lap. He sang to me Born on a Mountain Top in Tennessee. (The ballad of Davy Crockett)

On another occasion, Democratic Party Chairman Ward Crutchfield brought Roselyn Carter in on a Saturday night for dinner. Hall said it was at the beginning of her husbands presidential campaign. Hall said Mrs. Carter told his dad, I hope you will support us this year. His father responded, Support you for what? Mrs. Carter said, "My husband is running for president of the United States." His dad said, Why would he want to do a thing like that? Hall said his dad was really embarrassed.

Chattanooga Funeral Home President Gene Pike and his wife Gail were regular customers. Mr. Pike said they had the best salad bar in Chattanooga and he enjoyed their homemade dressings especially the blue cheese. Mr. Pike remembers that the late Ben Landress met his wife Chris at the Town and Country when she worked as a server. Mr. Pike enjoyed listening to Jon Robere play the organ during the dinner hour. Mr. Pike said Robere would play Let Me Call You Sweetheart for anniversary couples.

Hall said Marvin True was the last one to play the organ, When Mr. Trues health started to fail in 1995 he was unable to keep up the lengthy tradition. Hall said he couldnt find a replacement so they had to discontinue the popular dinner music.

Hall had nothing but praised for his employees. He said, We had the best cooks, servers and hostesses in the South.

Hall said, We were one of the few restaurants anywhere with a salad bar, which began in 1972. Hall said patrons also enjoyed the bottomless salad bowl with their homemade dressings, French, blue cheese and Thousand Island.

He said he didnt know when the restaurant started serving cinnamon rolls with meals but they really cut into his dessert sales. They did without them from 1972 to 1983. Hall said all he heard during this time was when are you going to bring back the sweet rolls and re-open on Sunday, so we did both. Hall added, Ms. Evas pecan pie was our most popular of the homemade desserts.

All the steaks on the menu were very popular, but Hall said the hamburger steak with the au jus was at the top of the list.

He eventually printed a cookbook selling about 6,000.

Hall said during the 58 years there was one minor fire that caused them to close at lunch but most diners never knew it occurred. There were half a dozen robberies that scared employees. Hall said he never went through one, but the workers told him about them.

The Town and Country was known for its large sign on top of the roof. The public didnt know what the electric bill was and the high maintenance costs for all the neon bulbs so operation was limited. Hall said the last time he turned it on was a few weeks before closing. At the time of this conversation, Hall was unsure who would get it.

Hall said, The decision to close was one of the hardest I ever made, but it was going to cost several hundred thousand dollars to modernize so everyone involved agreed we were doing the right thing.

Thousands of guests have many fond memories of the landmark restaurant. In the words of the late Mayor Pat Rose, The Town and Country Restaurant can never be duplicated. Carolyn and I always looked forward to eating there.

The Town and Country locked the doors for the final time in the summer of 2005 and over 400 items were auctioned off. The building was torn down and a Walgreens super store built on the property.

It was a good run, I thank everyone, and hope Chattanooga enjoyed it but its time to do something different, Bill Hall said.
Family members said a 20-year-old woman who died after a July 8 freak accident at a rodeo in Chatsworth, Ga., "always had a beautiful smile and was full of sass. You could always find her at Chick-fil-A getting a lemonade or at Brusters getting a single scoop of birthday cake ice cream. She loved the color teal, her jeep, Lily, and Peanut, but most of all she loved her family and friends."

It was also said of Breanna Leigh Chadwick that "she loved all kids and they loved her. She touched so many lives and will continue for many years."

Ms. Chadwick, a 20-year-old trainee teacher, was standing near a gate at the Murray County Saddle Club when a horse bolted through the gate.

She died after being airlifted to Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga.

Ms. Chadwick was attending Reinhardt University with plans to be a third grade teacher.

She was from Canton, Ga., and was the daughter of Kristy and Heath Chadwick. She had a sister, Kirstin Chadwick.
Michael Stone, vice president of innovative learning at Public Education Foundation, delivered the opening address at a conference in Torres Vedras, Portugal this week. Mr. Stone was invited to this city, an hour north of Lisbon, so that he could help the community create a school-based digital fabrication lab similar to the 35 labs that Mr. Stone has helped Hamilton County Schools install in public schools across the district. His travel expenses were paid through partnerships with the conference organizers and the US Embassy in Portugal.

Its been truly exciting to engage with citizens from other countries who want to learn how to do what we are doing in Hamilton County, Mr. Stone said, speaking from Portugal. Hamilton County teachers and administrators have incorporated digital fabrication labs into our schools so that our students have the opportunity to use cutting edge technology to solve real problems every day. Leaders in other countries have decided that they want this to happen in their schools too, and theyve turned to Hamilton County to learn how.

Earlier in July, Mr. Stone and STEM School Chattanooga teacher Kristin Burrus spoke at the International Society for Technology in Education conference held in New Orleans. This gathering attracts approximately 14,000 educators every year. Mr. Stone and Ms. Burrus spoke about Hamilton Countys Fab Labs and Fab Folio, a new mobile app that Hamilton County Schools and Public Education Foundation are developing to help students document and improve their tech skills alongside professional skills communication and collaboration.

People across the US as well as in other nations are interested in the work going on in Hamilton County, said Dan Challener, president of Public Education Foundation. This is all possible thanks to the terrific partnership between Hamilton County Schools, Public Education Foundation, and VW Group of America, who has generously funded many of the digital fabrication labs.
90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After? is back for season 7. The new seasons official trailer just dropped. Check out to see if your favorite 90 Day Fiance couple is returning.

Andrei Castravet and Elizabeth Libby Potthast, 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After? Season 7 | TLC

Angela, 56 (Hazlehurst, GA) and Michael, 34 (Nigeria)

90 Day Fiances favorite Southern Mee-Maw, Angela Deem, is back, but a lot has changed since we last saw her. Last fans knew Angela was waiting for Michaels spousal visa to be approved so he could come to the United States. With their growing marital issues, Angela strikes up a flirtatious friendship with a Canadian man.

Angela Deem and Michael Ilesanmi, 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After? Season 7 | TLC

In the official trailer for Happily Ever After? Season 7, Angela is video calling the new man in her life. She says, Ive gave nothing but loyalty to Michael for five years, but at this point, I got to do what I got to do for me. She suggests that she goes to Canada to meet him. But shes torn because Michael is close to having a visa, and she wants to give her marriage another chance.

Elizabeth, 31 (Tampa, FL) and Andrei, 35 (Moldova)

Happily Ever After? Season 7 picks up where Elizabeth Libby Potthast and Andrei Castravet left off. The pair just bought a house, and Andrei is settling into his real estate job with Libbys father. With their lives settling down, Elizabeth is considering pursuing her passion for music.

Andrei Castravet and Elizabeth Libby Potthast, 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After? Season 7 | TLC

In the new season, the couple will face new challenges. The tension between Andrei and Libbys family grows as they are concerned that Andrei is isolating Libby from them. In the trailer, Andrei is asked for an unexpected green card interview. He finds out that someone could be trying to sabotage Andreis immigration status to get him deported by writing letters to homeland security. Andrei says, Theres a lot of people from the family. They will make problems from us [sic].

Jovi, 31 (New Orleans, LA) and Yara, 27 (Ukraine)

Happily Ever After? Season 7 follows Jovi Dufren and Yara Zaya as they navigate relationship changes. Yara is dealing with postpartum insecurities after the birth of baby Mylah. As featured in the official trailer, she has been hanging out with new girlfriends who Jovi thinks could be a bad influence on her.

Yara Zaya and Jovi Dufren, 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After? Season 7 | TLC

A homesick Yara considers going back to her home country, Ukraine, visiting her family before the Russia-Ukraine war changed everything. Instead, Yara, Jovi, and Mylah decide to visit Prague, where her mother lives. Yara is desperate to help her loved ones to safety during this crisis and is considering bringing some to the US.

Ed, 56 (San Diego, CA) and Liz, 29 (San Diego, CA)

Big Ed Brown and Liz Woods return to continue their journey. A lot has changed since fans last saw the couple on 90 Day: The Single Life. The new season of Happily Ever After? will document Big Ed Brown and Lizs unexpected engagement.

Liz Woods and Big Ed Brown, 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After? Season 7 | TLC

Liz and Ed try to figure out their trust and control issues as they try to make their relationship work. However, the on-again-off-again couple is facing the challenge of getting their family on board with their upcoming union. With major life changes in store for this couple, will they overcome their control and trust issues before they walk down the aisle?

Jenny, 63 (Palm Springs, CA) and Sumit, 33 (India)

Sumit Singh and Jenny Slatten are married and living happily ever after in India. But of course, Sumits family is not happy, refusing even to acknowledge their union. While Sumit focuses on repairing his broken relationship with his family, Jenny becomes increasingly homesick for her children and grandchildren back in the US.

Jenny Slatten and Sumit Singh, 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After? Season 7 | TLC

In Happily Ever After? Season 7, Jenny and Sumit struggle to see eye-to-eye. They begin to realize that their age 30-year age gap could be part of the reason why they are having so many issues in their marriage. In the trailer, Jenny yells at Sumit, Why does everybody think its OK for me to sit here and take all this abuse? Will Sumit and Jenny ever find true happiness together?

Kim, 51 (San Diego, CA) and Usman, 33 (Nigeria)

With her boyfriends indecisiveness, Kim Menzies is taking the future of their relationship into her hands. She plans to visit Nigeria to propose to Usman Sojaboy Umar. Neither of their families is thrilled about the couple moving forward together. Kims son, Jamal, is concerned that his mom is moving too quickly. Meanwhile, Usmans mother worries that her son may never have grandchildren, given Kims age, and pushes Usman to marry a younger woman.

Kim Menzies and Usman Sojaboy Umar, 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After? Season 7 | TLC

As discussed in their previous season, Usman plans to have many wives. So as a solution for Usman to have children, his family tries to set him up with a younger bride. But the reality of being in a polygamous marriage with Usman has Kim worried about her future. With Usmans family trying to set him up with a younger bride, Kim is concerned she wont be his first wife.

RELATED: 90 Day Fiance Star Angela Deem Filmed Being a Karen on a Flight
To say that Emma Watson is well-traveled would be a gross understatement. Thanks to the Harry Potter franchise, the actor began traveling at the age of 10. Film promotion took her all over the world, and she was allowed to visit a bunch of different countries. However, these days, Watson seems to split her time between England and The United States. And Watson has shared that her dating life in the latter country is extremely different than it is in the former.

Emma Watson | Edward Berthelot/GC Images

Emma Watson doesnt talk about her boyfriend in a bid for privacy

For years, Watson has been tight-lipped about who shes dating. Shes shared that she never wants her boyfriends to feel like theyre part of a media circus. Furthermore, The Bling Ring actor places high value on her privacy. Shes explained that she cant talk about her boyfriend in the press if she wants people to respect her boundaries. But while Watson may not be willing to give specifics about her romantic life, shes gotten candid about dating in general.

How does the Harry Potter actor approach dating?

So how does Watson approach dating? For obvious reasons, the Beauty and the Beast alum cant just hop on a dating app or go on a blind date. In an interview with GQ UK, Watson shared that shes dated people shes met through mutual friends or during her time at college. The actor attended Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. She also spent a semester at Worcester College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, in England.

Dear Fans,

Rumours about whether Im engaged or not, or whether my career is dormant or not are ways to create clicks each time they are revealed to be true or untrue.  Emma Watson (@EmmaWatson) May 17, 2021

RELATED: Emma Watson Wanted to Buy the House She Rented but Couldnt

Generally, people I have dated have been friends of friends or people that I have been in a class with, Watson revealed. Someone that I have met under circumstances in which we are equals, so the fame thing doesnt enter the situation.

Watson explains that English guys shes dated have been pretty reserved

Interestingly, Watson shared that dating in The States is very different from dating in her home country of England. While on The Ellen Show, she shared that American guys and English guys have wildly different approaches when it comes to asking her out and dating her.

RELATED: Emma Watson Once Asked Her Parents Am I Still Your Daughter

Yeah, there is definitely one or two differences that Ive noticed, Watson shared. English guys are very well put together. They dress really well, and they are very well-mannered. But they are also very restrained. Usually, in the whole courting situation, Im used to being, first of all, ignored for the first two months of the ritual. And then maybe theyll acknowledge my presence. Then, theyll probably be a little mean to me. And then, maybe well you know whatever.

The Beauty and the Beast actor experienced culture shock when she started dating in America

Continuing on, Watson explained what her dating experience had been like in The States. Then I arrive in America, and I remember a few nights into Brown, this guy just being like, I like you. Youre great. Lets go on a date. Lets do it,' Watson recalled. Im like: Im sorry, what just happened? This is like a huge culture shock for me. Theyre very, like, open and very straightforward. But they wear flip-flops, and I dont know if I like that.

Clearly, Watson had drastically different dating experiences based on where she was in the world. Watson was last rumored to be dating Leo Robinton, an LA-based businessman, so it seems that, for now, the American approach has won the actor over.

RELATED: Harry Potter: Emma Watson Spent Days in Tears During 1 of the Movies
RuPauls Drag Race has become an international phenomenon over the years, with spinoff series in several countries around the world. Some Drag Race alumni have even gotten the honor of hosting or being a permanent judge on Drag Race in their home countries.

Brooke Lynn Hytes | Rodin Eckenroth/WireImage

Brooke Lynn Hytes hosts Canadas Drag Race

After placing second in Season 11 of RuPauls Drag Race, Canadian queen Brooke Lynn Hytes famously became the first Drag Race alumna to go from the main stage to the judges table.

On Canadas Drag Race, Brooke Lynn sits alongside Brad Goreski and Traci Melchor as a main judge as well as a host of the show. On the Canadian version of Drag Race, all three judges share an equal input in judging decisions as well as hosting duties in the werkroom.

Brooke Lynn has also expanded her cred as a judge with Canadas Drag Race: Canada vs. The World, the first international version of the show and first vs. The World installment of the series.

Nicky Doll hosts Drag Race France

Nicky Doll made history on Season 12 of RuPauls Drag Race as the first French queen to sashay into the werkroom. She ultimately placed tenth, but left her mark on the competition.

When Drag Race expanded to France in 2022, Nicky Doll was a natural choice to host the show. On Drag Race France, Nicky takes on the role of RuPaul as the host and a main judge. Shes joined on the judges panel by Daphne Burki and Kiddy Smile.

Jiggly Caliente is a judge on Drag Race Philippines

Jiggly Caliente was a fan-favorite queen back on Season 4 of RuPauls Drag Race, and she reintroduced herself to Drag Race fans in 2021 with her return on RuPauls Drag Race All Stars. In addition to her time on Drag Race, Jiggly made a name for herself as an actor, notably having a recurring role on the hit FX series Pose.

In 2022, Jiggly Caliente was announced as a permanent judge on Drag Race Philippines, sitting alongside host Paolo Ballesteros. Jiggly was a natural fit for the job: she was born in the island nation and speaks fluent Tagalog.

Drag Race Philippines will make history as the first international Drag Race with its own Untucked.

Rita Baga will host Drag Race Belgique

Rita Baga made her mark on Season 1 of Canadas Drag Race. But the Montreal-based queen has a connection to Belgium as well: she went to school there when she was younger.

With her announcement as the host of Drag Race Belgique, Rita Baga is the first Drag Race alumna to go on to host a Drag Race franchise somewhere other than their native country.

Cant wait to show you the talented queens that are reigning in the beautiful Belgium, this country that has been my home few years ago when I was completing my university degree, Rita said in an Instagram post. The drag scene in Belgium is vibrant, dynamic, and unique!

Pangina Heals hosted Drag Race Thailand before competing on UK vs. The World

The OG host and contestant, Pangina Heals became the first queen to go from the judges table to the main stage in 2022 on RuPauls Drag Race UK vs. The World.

Drag Race Thailand was renewed for a third season in 2021.

RELATED: RuPauls Drag Race UK vs. The World: A Guide to All the Competing Queens
The co-founder and CEO of the social media platform Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has been in the public eye for years. Often cited as a prime example of an eccentric billionaire, Zuckerberg likes to live off the radar. But he definitely enjoys the trappings of fame and fortune. Over the years, Zuckerberg has invested in several expensive homes, and these days, the tech entrepreneur owns at least a dozen properties. Notably, not only does Zuckerberg like to buy homes in exclusive neighborhoods, but the billionaire has a reputation for even buying his neighbors properties to ensure maximum privacy for him and his family.

What is Mark Zuckerbergs net worth?

Facebook co-founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

A renowned software developer, Zuckerberg launched Facebook in 2004. The social media platform quickly took off, reaching one billion users by 2012. By 2007, Zuckerberg had entered the spotlight. He became a billionaire and received notoriety for both his technological brilliance and his rumored eccentricity. Over the past decade, Zuckerberg has consistently been considered one of the most influential people in the world due to his involvement with Facebook and its parent company, Meta Platforms.

Zuckerberg has often caused controversy due to his handling of various issues related to Facebooks privacy measures. But the media magnate has only gotten wealthier. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Zuckerbergs 2022 net worth is around $70 billion. The publication notes that Zuckerberg is one of the richest people on the planet and one of the youngest of that elite group to boot.

Mark Zuckerberg owns 10 houses in California alone

The billionaire married his wife, Priscilla Chan, in 2012. The pair have two young children. Zuckerberg and his family live the good life. According to Architectural Digest, he owns at least a dozen houses, with 10 located in California. His extensive real estate holdings started in 2011 when Mark Zuckerberg purchased a $7 million house in Palo Alto. The mansion is reportedly just over 5,600 square feet. Its equipped with all kinds of technological advances, including a custom-made artificial intelligence assistant.

Over the years that followed, Zuckerberg purchased several more homes in California. He even bought up the houses surrounding their original Palo Alto house to create a bespoke compound for him and his family to enjoy. In 2014, Zuckerberg and crew expanded their operations to Hawaii. The Facebook co-founder purchasing over 700 acres on the island of Kauai for about $116 million. Since then, Zuckerberg and Chan have purchased more property in Hawaii, as well as in Lake Tahoe.

Zuckerberg and his family enjoy downtime in Lake Tahoe

His homes in Silicon Valley keep him close to the center of the action. But when Zuckerberg wants to unwind, he heads to his Lake Tahoe property. He owns two mansions in the area, according to SquareYards, expansive homes spread over 10 acres. Reportedly, the primary mansion has 15 bedrooms, huge tiers for docking his boats, and stunning scenic views of the lake and surrounding woods.

The mansions come complete with guesthouses and space for property caretakers, as well as all the interior delights that one would expect a tech magnate to have  such as an extravagant pool room and built-in bookshelves for cozy nights by the fire. For Zuckerberg, his Lake Tahoe property is the ideal spot to escape the chaos of running a massive business venture and enjoy some downtime with his family.

RELATED: Why Jim Carrey is Taking Shots at Mark Zuckerberg on Twitter
Only two Marvel Disney+ series have gotten a second season so far  Loki and What If? However, fans are holding out hope that more shows will continue on the streaming service. In particular, many believe that Moon Knight deserves a season 2. And theyre not the only ones who think so.

Oscar Isaac as Moon Knight | Marvel Studios

How did Moon Knight Season 1 end?

The Moon Knight finale wrapped up the shows main plot, but it also kept it open enough that Marvel could revisit the story. Whether thats in Moon Knight Season 2 or a future Marvel Cinematic Universe film remains to be seen.

Moon Knight Episode 6 begins with Arthur Harrow freeing the Egyptian goddess Ammit. And with the help of another goddess, Taweret, Layla releases Khonshu.

Meanwhile, in another realm, Marc refuses to stay in the Field of Reeds without Steven. So he goes back to the Duat and saves Steven. Together, they go through the Gates of Osiris and wake up in their body in Egypt. Since Khonshu is now free, he restores Marc and Stevens powers. And Layla agrees to become the temporary avatar of Taweret to stop Harrow and Ammit.

A fight ensues, but its only when Jake Lockley  Marc and Stevens third personality  comes out that they can stop Harrow. Marc and Layla imprison Ammit in Harrows body, and they send him to a hospital. Khonshu also agrees to release Marc and Steven from him. But in the Moon Knight end-credits scene, Jake Lockley and Khonshu pay Harrow a visit, and Jake shoots him.

Moon Knight writer hasnt heard anything about a potential season 2

During an interview with The Playlist, Moon Knight head writer Jeremy Slater discussed the probability of season 2.

I honestly have no idea, the writer shared. I havent had any conversations with Marvel. I think a lot of those decisions are ultimately going to be in the hands of [Marvel Studios president] Kevin Feige because hes the guy with the master plan. And of course, Oscar Isaac, because hes not signed up for the sort of traditional seven-film contract or whatever other actors have signed.

Slater continued, Oscar has the ability to do as much or as little Moon Knight as he wants to. I think he had a great time playing the character, and I think he really enjoyed the process and is happy he did it. But I also think hes not a guy whos going to rush in and just sort of churn out a sequel just because the first one was popular.

Again, I dont want to speak for him and put words in his mouth, but my guess is hes going to want to make sure that theres an actual story worth telling and that he gets to go to places that he didnt get to go in this first one and challenge himself in new ways, he concluded. My hope and dream is that we see him again in some form in the MCU, but I have no idea when that will be or what form it will take. Im in the dark like everyone else.

Congratulations to the team behind Marvel Studios' #MoonKnight on its 8 #Emmys nominations, including F. Murray Abraham for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance, Outstanding Cinematography, Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes, (Part 1 of 2) pic.twitter.com/hlJqwgIBgp  Moon Knight (@moonknight) July 12, 2022

Oscar Isaac addresses his future in the MCU

Moon Knight star Oscar Isaac echoed Jeremy Slaters sentiments while speaking with RadioTimes about season 2.

You know, I think we approached it as This is the story, and lets just put everything out on the table on this story,' the actor explained. Theres definitely no official plans to continue it. I think it would depend on what the story is.

Isaac added, I love being Steven. I just love it. Its just like, physically, its so much fun to be him. So, you know, if there was a story that really made sense, Id be happy to be part of it.

All episodes of Moon Knight are available to stream on Disney+.

RELATED: Moon Knight Originally Included Multiple MCU Crossovers
What to Watch After Uncharted: Keep the Adventures Going with These 5 Movies

The day has finally come: Uncharted is available on Netflix. Based on the video game series of the same name, the movie sees Tom Hollands Nathan Drake and Mark Wahlbergs Victor Sully Sullivan hunt down a $5 billion fortune left by Ferdinand Magellan. Whether youre ready for an encore or watching for the first time, you can stream Uncharted now. But why stop there? Have yourself a treasure-hunting film fest by watching these five adventure movies after Uncharted.

Mark Wahlberg as Victor Sullivan and Tom Holland as Nathan Drake in the Uncharted movie | Sony Pictures

Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

No adventure film fest would be complete without Indiana Jones, one of the most famous fictional adventurers. It all started with Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981. Starring Harrison Ford as the titular archaeologist, the film takes place in 1936 and sees Indiana Jones in search of the Ark of the Covenant. According to old tales, the relic has the power to make an army invincible. Indy must race against a band of Nazis who want to use the relic for world domination.

Where to watch Raiders of the Lost Ark: Showtime

The Goonies (1985)

Another classic 80s adventure movie is The Goonies. The suspenseful yet lighthearted story follows a group of kids whose homes are at risk of foreclosure when a property development company wants to build a country club. One day, the kids discover a treasure map that once belonged to a pirate named One-Eyed Willy. They set out to find the fortune with hopes that they can pay to save their homes. However, they encounter a group of dangerous criminals who want the treasure, too.

Marvel fans may recognize a young Josh Brolin, who grew up to play Thanos. The Goonies also stars Sean Astin, Corey Feldman, Jeff Cohen, and more.

Where to watch The Goonies: HBO Max

The Lost City of Z (2016)

Believe it or not, Uncharted wasnt Tom Hollands first time chasing down treasure on the big screen. In 2016, he starred in The Lost City of Z: a biopic about British explorer Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam). In the early 1900s, Fawcett went to Brazil to find an alleged lost city in the Amazon. When he found evidence of an advanced civilization, he made several attempts to return to the lost city and prove his findings.

Holland plays Fawcetts son, Jack. The cast also includes Robert Pattinson and Sienna Miller.

Where to watch The Lost City of Z: Amazon Prime Video

Tomb Raider (2018)

Another successful video game movie to watch after Uncharted is 2018s Tomb Raider. The film is based on the 2013 video game but also serves as a reboot of the early 2000s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider movies. Alicia Vikander plays Lara Croft, a British archaeologist and adventurer who sets out to find a tomb near Japan, her fathers last-known location. She hopes to solve the mystery of his disappearance and prove that hes still alive.

Where to watch Tomb Raider: Amazon Prime Video

The Lost City (2022)

Finally, we have The Lost City, which takes the adventure formula and packs in some extra comedy. The movie stars Sandra Bullock as a romance novelist named Loretta Sage and Channing Tatum as her cover model, Alan Caprison. While on tour to promote her newest novel, Loretta is kidnapped by a billionaire named Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe).

Abigail forces Loretta to translate a clue that could lead to the Crown of Fire, an ancient relic in a lost city. Alan and a friend attempt to rescue Loretta, but the mission goes wrong, leaving Loretta and Alan trapped in the jungle and hunted by Abigails security. They must work together to survive, find the Crown of Fire, and escape.

Where to watch The Lost City: Paramount+

RELATED: Uncharted Is a Movie Franchise Now, Fans Wonder if a Sequel Is Confirmed
Rome has been thrown into political chaos after Italian President Sergio Mattarella rejected Prime Minister Mario Draghi's resignation after the 5-Star Movement threatened to boycott the confidence vote.

In a statement, Draghi said that the pact of trust that had sustained the unity government was already gone. However, President Mattarella refused to accept the prime minister's resignation, instead urging him to address parliament to provide a clear picture of the political situation.

Mario Draghi's Resignation

It remains unclear how Mattarella's remarks will affect the political crisis that Italy has been plunged into as Draghi is expected to go to parliament on Wednesday. With sufficient support, the prime minister could remain in office.

The sudden development in Rome capped a day of drama that was triggered by the populist 5-Star Movement leader Giuseppe Conte's refusal to back the government's $23 billion package of economic aid for families and businesses. He argued that Draghi was not doing enough to tackle the cost of living crisis in the country.

Despite the Italian government comfortably winning Thursday's vote in the Senate with the help of other parties, the man who is known as "Super Mario" repeatedly warned that without the populist movement's support, the government will not survive, as per BBC.

"Today's votes in Parliament are very significant from a political point of view. The national unity majority that supported this government since its creation no longer exists," said Draghi. The prime minister went to the Quirinale Palace to tender his resignation to the president after he addressed ministers.

Read Also: Biden Defends Saudi Arabia Trip After Condemning Crown Prince for Khashoggi Murder, Vows To Bring Up Human Rights

The situation comes as elections were already due early in 2023 and, if the Italian government does collapse, a vote is likely to take place this autumn, much earlier than expected. Several parties on the right are keen on early elections, but a period of political uncertainty will jeopardize the nation's efforts to tackle a looming energy crisis and pass next year's budget to secure EU funding.

According to CNN, a statement from the office of the president read that the president of the Republic did not accept the resignation of Draghi and invited the Prime Minister to appear before Parliament. Many Italian political parties also expressed their support for President Mattarella's decision.

Internal Party Disputes

In a Facebook post, the minister for public administration from the Go Italy party, Renato Brunetta, said that Italy, in this difficult moment, cannot go on without Draghi. Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio also described the decision of his former party, the 5-Star Movement, as a "clear act of irresponsibility, thus condemning the country to the abyss."

Di Maio's party released a statement saying that they supported the president's decision and called Draghi a "precious and fundamental" political figure. It added that they were working to ensure that a solid majority in support of this government emerges in the parliament on Wednesday.

Analysts also contended that the opposition to the policy package is not so much ideological but a result of internal party disputes. The co-president of the consultancy firm Teneo, Wolfango Piccoli, said on Thursday that the move by 5-Star was largely triggered by turmoil prevailing within the ailing party, CNBC reported.



Related Article: Italian Government on the Brink of Collapse After 5-Star Threatens To Boycott Confidence Vote

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The seventh hearing of the congressional committee investigating the sedition at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was much about violence: who did it, who encouraged it, who knew it was coming yet did not intervene.

The crucial thing is the next step: What this committee, what all of us, will do to fortify our democracy against coups, political violence, said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) toward the end of the hearing. Political violence, he said, is the problem of the whole country now.

Raskin is far from alone in raising alarm about the possibility of political violenceseeking political ends through violent means instead of normal, peaceful processes like voting, running for office, lobbying, or protest.

We know from other countries that have descended into really serious political violence that this is a trajectory, and were on it, researcher Rachel Kleinfeld warned in a Washington Post article Monday. Were actually pretty far advanced on it.

Kleinfeld said we could see rising right-wing militia violence as well as violence from a disaffected left. She ominously projected that the percentages of Americans endorsing violence are approaching Northern Irelands Troubles at their height in 1973.

(The scale of this kind of political violence can vary widely, from an individuals attack to a revolution, but the Troubles are a good example of what many anticipate happening in the USepisodes of violence were largely localized, and in the background yet normal life continued though everyone was more fearful and depressed.)

Theres reason to be skeptical of the survey results shes likely referencing; for example, some who may tell a pollster violence against the other party [is] at least a little okay may also be far from willing to commit such violence themselves.

But the mouth speaks what the heart is full of (Luke 6:45). Theres no denying Kleinfelds point that Americans political rhetoric and animosity has worsened in recent years. Maybe Kleinfeld is right that we need to realize that paramilitary groups could become a normal part of our political life. Maybe political violence is on the way. Christians should have nothing to do with it.

You might believe that goes without saying, but there are two reasons I think it needs to be explicitly stated.

One is due to the current reputation of American evangelicals in much of mainstream media. Pundits and experts warning about the risk of right-wing political violence often include a mention of Christianity, Christian nationalism, and/or white evangelicals. Kleinfeld, for instance, argued that Russia is giving a White, Christian, traditional hierarchy, very masculine, led by a strongman model of politics, which is attractive to some on the antidemocratic US right.

This association makes sense to many Americans because of the proliferation of Christian symbolism among the crowd that stormed the Capitol, the record-high support former President Donald Trump consistently received from self-described evangelicals, and the Christian nationalist rhetoric from Republican figures like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. If this is not how we want our compatriots to think of us, unequivocally rejecting political violence is a good place to start.

The second reason is that I worry American Christians conception of acceptable political violence is too much shaped by our history and beliefs as Americansparticularly our understanding of the American Revolution as a laudable example of political violenceand not enough shaped by what Jesus taught about violence while living in a society with a far more brutal government than our own.

Article continues below

With Fourth of July festivities wound down, consider what were celebrating in the Revolution. There are serious complaints in the Declaration of Independence, but taxation was a prominent concernwithout representation, yes, but also at declining rates we would now find laughably low. Is that a good enough reason for Christians to kill Christians?

Thats a lot of what the Revolution was, after all: Christians killing Christians over political issues. And maybe with hindsight of more than two centuries we judge it a positive outcome. Or maybeexamining the ability of other ex-British colonies to gain independence without war, or even the history of Englands abolition of slavery compared to our ownwe dont.

I could talk myself in circles on the subject, but I cant come around to saying it was right for Christians to kill other Christians over tax rates. I cant come around to it because I cant square it with what Jesus said about violence, especially in the Sermon on the Mount:

I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.  You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. (Matt. 5:3841, 4345)

Christians have debated the implications of these verses and others like them (John 18:36; Rom. 12:1721; Eph. 6:12) for millennia, and I know my conviction that Jesus here is calling us to nonviolence isnt universally shared among faithful followers of Christ.

For a long time, I didnt share it either. I believed the pacifist interpretation to be too strange and hard and impractical. Eventually, however, I concluded Jesus had already spoken plainly; it was simply a command I did not want to hear. And an important realization, as I changed my thinking, was that Jesus was speaking in a violent political context.

We use turn the other cheek and go the extra mile metaphorically to describe interpersonal strife. Jesus used them literally, speaking to an audience at real risk of physical abuse by an occupying powerin fact, a government that did not offer them any of the outlets for peaceful political expression we have available to us.

Theres a lot wrong with our government and politics, but by global and historical standards, we enjoy remarkably free, functional, and democratic governance. If Jesus told his original hearers to eschew violence in favor of peaceful, surprising, and potentially self-sacrificial behavior, how much more should that command apply to us?

In that light, even if you interpret these verses differently than I do, perhaps you can see the gap between what the American Revolution says about political violence and what Jesus says about it. And if we cant see that gap, or if we find ourselves spinning scenarios in which wed be justified doing violence over politicsharming our neighbors and hating our enemies because we did not get the president or policy we wantedperhaps our minds have been conformed to the Revolution more than the mind of Christ (Rom. 12:2; 1 Cor. 2:1416).

Perhaps political violence is indeed coming to America, but it should not be by Christian hands.

[ This article is also available in  and . ]
Christian doctors in three states now have legal protections if they choose not to participate in certain medical procedures based on their religious conscience.

Most recently, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster signed into law last month a bill protecting medical practitioners from lawsuits or job loss for declining to perform various medical procedures that go against their religious or moral views. The law does not protect against emergency procedures.

Religious conscience protection laws for health care providers passed in Arkansas and Ohio in 2021. Another went before the legislature in Florida earlier this year.

We had a number of instances of individuals and doctors being pressured and coerced to participate in medical procedures that violated their conscience, said Aaron Baer, president of the Center for Christian Virtue, which lobbied for the Ohio law.

Some common practices that these laws have affected include various procedures undergone for the sake of gender transition, end-of-life care, contraception, and abortion.

The Ohio version of the law[TM1] went into effect last September. Under the provision, a medical practitioner, health care institution, or health care payer has the freedom to decline to perform, participate in, or pay for any health care service which violates the practitioners, institutions, or payers conscience as informed by the moral, ethical, or religious beliefs or principles held by the practitioner, institution, or payer.

The Center for Christian Virtue helped draft the clause and built off a preexisting policy from the Ohio State University providing similar protections that the statewide policy brings to their employees. South Carolinas version of the law, the Medical Ethics and Diversity Act, was drafted earlier this year on the heels of Ohio and Arkansas

A similar rule was unveiled by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in 2019, as the Trump administration aimed to expand a policy to allow religious health care workers to refuse providing care on the grounds that it violated their personal beliefs. (Some conscience protections were already in place; under the 1973 Church Amendments, institutions and individuals receiving federal funds in health care have not been required to provide abortions.)

However, this rule was blocked by federal courts after a number of lawsuits, and then the Biden administration announced plans to pull the proposed HHS policy.

In a story from NPR, Alex Duvall, a Christian family physician who practices in South Carolina, said he couldnt condone treatments including giving hormone therapy to transgender patients, and hes relieved that he can no longer be sued or fired by abiding by his religious beliefs in his work.

Its a battle of conscience, Duvall told NPR. It doesnt mean you don't care about patients and love patients or want to do your best for them.

As gender transition and transgender patient care have become more common, some Christian medical professionals have expressed concern that they will be penalized if they do not provide such procedures.

Our fear, as an organization, is we had a temporary reprieve under the Trump administration, said Dr. Jeffrey Barrows, the Christian Medical and Dental Associations senior vice president of bioethics and public policy, in a 2021 CT article. We are very concerned and expect that well have an increase in lawsuits and threats against our members and other Christian health care professionals if they do not perform some of these surgeries, prescribe cross-sex hormones, or prescribe puberty blockers.

The HHS issued guidance in March that explains that attempts to restrict access to gender-affirming care could violate section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act. The guidance comes after the HHS announced in 2021 that the antidiscrimination protections within section 1557 also apply to sexual orientation and gender identity. Two lawsuits, one in Texas and one in North Dakota, have opposed the policy on behalf of Christian hospitals and doctors.

Those opposed to the state laws have argued that they provide grounds for doctors to deny LGBT patients necessary care. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of South Carolina said the states bill would legalize discrimination. A group of 50 medical practitioners also asked the governor to veto the bill.

Baer says that the Ohio law received widespread support both inside and outside the evangelical community.

Its been a year now that this bill has been on the books, and no one has been denied medical services that they need, Baer said. But what this does is ensure doctors cant be forced to do something that violates their beliefs.
8-year-old boy paralyzed in Highland Park shooting in 'critical' condition, family asks for prayers

The family of an 8-year-old boy shot in a mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, is asking for prayers and support after the childs condition deteriorated Tuesday, requiring him to undergo a complex surgery.

Seven people were killed in the shooting during the Fourth of July parade, and as many as 24 other spectators were hospitalized after sustaining serious and critical injuries. A day after police apprehended 21-year-old Robert "Bobby" E. Crimo III as a "person of interest" in the shooting, he was charged with seven counts of first-degree murder.

Authorities said the suspect used a high-powered rifle to commit the mass shooting from the rooftop of a business.

As The Daily Beast reported, Cooper Roberts was attending the Fourth of July parade with his twin brother, mother and father when the shooting occurred. A bullet severed the child's spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed below the waist. His condition was upgraded to "serious" over the weekend, and he was taken off the ventilator.

The child briefly gained the ability to speak before he became critical again on Tuesday, with one of his lungs collapsing and an infection bringing on a fever. He was forced to undergo another surgery, his seventh operation since the shooting.

Coopers situation is now critical. He just went into a risky extensive, and lengthy surgery to try to again repair his esophagus, Anthony Liozzi, a spokesperson for the family, wrote in a Tuesday Facebook post.

His fever is spiking due to an infection, and one of his lungs has partially collapsed. Please, any and all prayers are very much needed today.

Liozzi posted a follow-up a few hours later, explaining that Cooper made it through a five-hour surgery and doctors had located a leak in his esophagus. The spokesperson assured people that the boy is with us and still fighting.

All your prayers are working. Please keep praying. Long road ahead and still very fluid situation, but the little guy made it! he wrote.

In another update, Liozzi wrote that Cooper still has fluid in his lungs which is being treated with medication. He added that the boy is stable and getting plenty of rest.

Coopers mother, Keely Roberts, was shot in the leg and foot but recovered. A Sunday statement posted by Zion Elementary School District, the boys school, said Cooper is in a great deal of pain  physically and emotionally.

The family wishes to acknowledge and thank the many, many people  emergency medics, police, fire department, nurses, and doctors at both hospitals  who did extraordinary things to save Coopers life, the statement reads.

It was a true miracle. And to thank from the bottom of their hearts the thousands who have prayed, sent gifts, supported the family in myriad ways, and donated to the Go Fund Me campaign for Coopers long-term care.

A GoFundMe for the family raised over $1.5 million as of Thursday.

We know their medical bills will be significant, as will the treatments, therapy, and all of the equipment, devices, and adaptations to their home, the GoFundMe description reads. Please continue to keep the Roberts family in your thoughts and prayers. Any help you can provide is deeply appreciated.

At a subsequent press conference after the shooting, Chris Covelli with the Lake County Sheriff's Office said more than 100 law enforcement officers were called to the parade scene to locate the shooter. He said it appears that the shooter targeted spectators at random.

According to Covelli, the parade was "three-quarters of the way through" when the suspect began shooting. "Very random, very intentional, and a very sad day."
Civil rights activist becomes first African American memorialized at National Statuary Hall

Mary McLeod Bethune, a civil rights activist who passed away in 1955, became the first African-American honored at the National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Wednesday.

An 11-foot-tall marble statue of Bethune was unveiled at Statuary Hall, with the activist being one of two statues that represent the state of Florida. Nilda M. Comas of San Juan, Puerto Rico, sculpted the statue.

Bethune founded the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Negro Girls in Daytona in 1904 and the National Council of Negro Women in 1935. She also served as the vice president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Persons.

According to the Architect of the Capitol, the statue depicts Bethune wearing academic clothing, representing her efforts to advance education and her multiple honorary doctorates. The sculpture also holds a black marble rose crafted independently of the statue, meant to symbolize her interracial and international cooperation efforts.

"She developed friendships with both First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, serving as a policy advisor to both," the Architect of the Capitol website explains.

"As part of the U.S. delegation, she was the only Black woman at the 1945 founding conference of the United Nations."

The Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church celebrated the statue installation, noting that Bethune was an active member of a Methodist church in D.C.

"Bethune was one of the most brilliant and impactful leaders of the 20th century who saw challenges and always responded with strategic insight and enduring solutions," said Bishop LaTrelle Easterling in a statement.

"Throughout 60 years of public service her contributions to education, women's and civil rights and equity transformed our nation and the world. Her intellectual prowess became the blueprint for the entire civil rights movement and contributed to The United Nations Charter."

The Bethune statue replaced an earlier one of Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith, which was removed from Statuary Hall last year after the Florida legislature and Gov. Rick Scott approved the replacement in 2018.

In recent years, some states have removed Confederate statues from Statuary Hall, with Virginia removing the Gen. Robert E. Lee statue in 2020 in Richmond, Virginia.

According to The Washington Post, there are still nine Confederate statues in the hall, including former Confederate States Vice President Alexander Stephens of Georgia and the former Confederate States President Jefferson Davis of Mississippi.

In 2020, North Carolina greenlit the creation of a sculpture of the Rev. Billy Graham to replace the statue of former Gov. Charles Aycock, an avid segregationist.

Last September, sculptor Chas Fagan told Spectrum News 1 that he is in the process of creating the Graham statue, which will be 7 feet tall and sit on a 3-foot-tall pedestal.
Pregnancy center spent up to $150K to bolster security amid increasing vandalism, director says

A pro-life pregnancy center director testified before Congress this week that her clinic has spent up to $150,000 to improve security measures as similar pro-life clinics across the country have been vandalized.

Heidi Matzke, the executive director of Alternatives Pregnancy Center in Sacramento, California, spoke before the Senate Judiciary Committee during a Tuesday hearing titled "A Post-Roe America: The Legal Consequences of the Dobbs Decision."

"Pregnancy care centers from coast to coast are being targeted for violent assaults of vandalism and hateful attacks online and in the media," Matzke said. "Just last week, a man approached our care center with an armed machete. We have been forced to hire 24-hour on-site security. We've had to reinforce doors and bulletproof our walls."

"We've had to paint our building with anti-graffiti coating," she added. "We've added cameras, armed our staff with pepper spray, and stopped running our mobile clinic because of threats of violence."

Matzke contends that the measures have protected the center from at least two attacks.

"We've had to spend ... valuable resources for women of up to $150,000 just to protect ourselves," she said. "Why? Because we offer free care to women."

She still believes that her center's work is "worth the risk."

Security cameras captured the footage of the man who went to the center with a Machete on July 8. Matzke said she was not there at the time.

"By God's grace, our security guy came around the corner and saw him and they exchanged words and then he ran off," she told the Catholic News Agency. "Fortunately, no damage was done, and, at this point, everyone is safe."

In another incident, Matzke said a woman attempted to hijack the center's mobile clinic. However, she was stopped by on-site security.

"Our nurse was in the back serving a patient and our mobile clinic has to be on  and air conditioning running  in order to operate effectively," Matzke told CNA. "A woman basically tried to get in the front seat and take off with it."

The Alternatives Pregnancy Center provides more than $1 million in free medical and material assistance to women every year, according to Matzke. In addition to ultrasounds and community referrals, the center provides prenatal and gynecological care.

"We charge them nothing," she assured lawmakers. "That means we never financially benefit from any choice a woman makes. We make no profit of any kind off the women who turn to us for help. We offer pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, and prenatal care up to 24 weeks. ... We test and treat sexually transmitted diseases. We offer abortion pill reversal services, abortion recovery counseling and parenting classes."

"If finances are a problem, we have diapers, wipes, baby formula, baby food, baby clothing, baby supplies," she continued. "If a woman needs a hotel room, we provide that as well. We pay for all of that."

Matzke said all the organization's services are provided by licensed medical professionals, including doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners and medical assistants.

"Our OB/GYN doctor was an abortionist," she said.

Even the local Planned Parenthood refers women to Matzke's center if a woman intends to keep her baby, the executive director claimed in her testimony.

Matzke said her organization helps women regardless of "who she is, where she comes from, or what her past is" because "life is a human right, and we need to protect that life."

"When a woman comes in so afraid what an unplanned pregnancy will mean for her life, her ambitions, her relationships, we do not urge her at that moment to make any decisions," Matzke told lawmakers. "Whether she chooses parenting, adoption or abortion, we will continue to be there for her for years if necessary."

Last month, the FBI announced it is investigating the recent attacks and vandalism of pro-life pregnancy centers as potential acts of domestic violence or extremism.

Many pregnancy centers throughout the country have been vandalized since a leaked draft opinion in May showing the Supreme Court was poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that made abortion a national right.The attacks continued after the court's ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization overturned Roe.

Clearway Clinic, a pro-life pregnancy center in Worcester, Massachusetts, posted on its blog on July 7 that it had been vandalized in the early morning hours.

According to the clinic, the vandals smashed two glass doors, three windows and spray-painted "Jane's Revenge" on the sidewalk in front of the facility.

Jane's Revenge is an abortion activist group that has claimed responsibility for multiple acts of vandalism against pro-life pregnancy centers and churches. The group took credit for the attack on the Clearway Clinic in a July 8 blog post on the anarchist website Abolition Media.

In a Facebook post from July 6, Birthright St. Paul in Minnesota announced that it had been vandalized with graffiti that read "Abort America" and "Blood on your hands."

Another Facebook post showed additional vandalism on the building, including spray-painted statements declaring "If abortions aren't safe, neither are you" and "Jesus loves abortion."

The Minnesota-based pregnancy center asked for donations to cover the cost of "the professional clean-up efforts of Birthright St. Paul's siding, brick, windows, door and signage due to vandals' destruction."

In her testimony, Matzke claimed that a "great deal of misinformation has been spread" about what pro-life pregnancy centers do.

"Our clinic is one of 3,000 pregnancy care centers across America," Matzke stressed. "Each year, hundreds of thousands come to our clinics looking for free medical care, emotional support and practical resources that will enable them to carry their pregnancies to term."
How to know the truth about the Trinity

The only way to know the truth about Gods nature and Gods plan of salvation is to believe what our Creator has revealed in the Bible. Apart from Scripture, we could only speculate about the nature of God and the will of God.

Jesus said, But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth  All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you (John 16:13,15). All three Persons of the Trinity are mentioned in that passage. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one God, co-equal and co-eternal.

Another instance where all three persons of the Trinity are explicitly referenced is at Christs baptism. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and landing on Him. And a voice from heaven said, This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased (Matthew 3:16,17).

All three Persons of the Godhead were involved when God created human beings. Let us make man in our image, in our likeness (Genesis 1:26). God consists of three distinct Persons, and man consists of three distinct aspects: spirit, soul and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

Jesus identified all three persons of the Trinity when he told his disciples, Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19).

The Apostle Paul wrote, For through Christ we both have access to the Father by one Spirit (Ephesians 2:18). There is one body and one Spirit - just as you were called to one hope when you were called - one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Ephesians 4:4-6).

And the Apostle Peter wrote to Gods elect, strangers in the world  who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood (1 Peter 1:1,2).

If you belong to a religious organization that rejects the biblical doctrine of the Trinity, you would be wise to run as fast as possible from that group. You will never come to know God by listening to false prophets who reject the true nature of God (1 John 4:1-3).

Jesus said, The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things (John 14:26). A closed mind leads some people to reject the doctrine of the Trinity.

On the other hand, if you are open-minded, you can humbly learn the truth about Gods nature as presented in Scripture: May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2 Corinthians 13:14). The three Persons of the Trinity are one in essence, nature, power, action, and will.

You will not understand the grace of God if you reject the truth about the Trinity. After all, the Holy Spirit is the One who brings people to faith in Christ (John 3:6). Rejecting the Trinity grieves the Holy Spirit and hardens mans heart, which in turn leads people to attempt to earn salvation by their works. This is the natural way man seeks to cover his sin. But this flawed approach does nothing to facilitate forgiveness or produce faith in the heart. And without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).

On the other hand, those who are open to accepting the biblical doctrine of the Trinity are often open to believing the truth of the Gospel (John 3:16). All three persons of the Trinity are referenced in the following passage: Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, Abba, Father (Galatians 4:6). The only way to become a son or a daughter of God is to accept by faith the sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross.

Believing false doctrines about the nature of God leads to believing false doctrines about salvation, and vice versa. For example, the false prophets of the Mormon religion and the Jehovahs Witness religion reject the Trinity, while also teaching the false doctrine that salvation is attained through mans efforts and religious deeds. In reality, a believer is saved, redeemed, born again, forgiven, and justified through faith in Jesus Christ alone on the front end of his relationship with the triune God (Romans 3:21-26; 5:1).

There were of course false prophets who rejected the true nature of God in the early centuries of the Christian church. The Apostles Creed was composed to refute heresy, defend the Gospel, and present the truth about the three persons of the Trinity. Christians for centuries have confessed their faith with the words of the Apostles' creed: I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth; And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit 

The reason Christians readily accept the biblical doctrine of the Trinity is because God reveals the truth concerning his nature to everyone who receives Jesus as Savior. As the Apostle John explained to believers, You have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth (1 John 2:20).

You too can come to know the truth about Gods nature and His plan of salvation as you trust Jesus to forgive your sins, and as you embrace the love of the one true God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The United States has successfully tested two Lockheed Martin Corp hypersonic missiles, a major milestone in light of recent breakthroughs in testing by geopolitical adversaries Russia and China.

China said in 2021 that it had successfully tested a hypersonic weapon that orbited the Earth before striking its target while Russia just became the first country to utilize hypersonic weapons in combat when it launched its Iskander and Kinzhal missiles at Ukraine.

US Carries Out 2 Successful Missile Tests After Series of Failures

The United States has seen a series of setbacks in its hypersonic missile program, raising worries that the country is falling behind Russia and China. Lockheed Martin's air-launched missiles failed three consecutive tests in March.

According to Reuters, the Pentagon confirmed on Wednesday that the US Air Force successfully tested its Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) rocket on Tuesday off the coast of California. Before launch, the rocket was carried beneath the wing of a B-52H bomber. Separate hypersonic missile tests employing Operational Fires (OpFires) were also completed successfully in May and on Tuesday.

OpFires is a ground-launched system managed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) that will rapidly and precisely strike important, time-sensitive targets while penetrating current opponent air defenses. According to DARPA, this was the ground-based system's first flying test, as per Independent.

The successful tests demonstrate progress in the various US hypersonic weapons development projects, which have been plagued by failed tests, rising cost worries, and growing concerns that the US is lagging in what has become a superpower arms race.

Read Also: Ukraine Cuts Diplomatic Ties with North Korea After Pyongyang Recognizes Breakaway of Russia's Proxies in Kyiv

Latest Botched US Military Missile Test

It follows a failed test flight of a different sort of hypersonic missile, the Common Hypersonic Glide Body, on June 29 at Hawaii's Pacific Missile Range Facility. The Defense Department declared at the time that an 'anomaly' prevented the whole test from being completed, but that it was not a total failure.

Defense companies seek to profit from the move to hypersonic weapons by creating novel detection and defeat systems in addition to constructing them. Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman Corp, and Raytheon Technologies Corp have all pushed their hypersonic weapons projects to investors as the world's attention has switched to the new arms race for an emerging kind of weapon, according to Daily Mail.

After politicians became worried that the US was slipping behind Chinese and Russian projects, the Pentagon intensified its attention on hypersonic weapon development. China successfully tested a hypersonic missile that orbited the Earth before striking its target last year. Russia just became the first nation to utilize hypersonic weapons in combat, launching its Iskander and Kinzhal missiles against Ukraine.

However, the US endeavor to catch up to Russia and China has not been without complications. In addition to the ARRW program's testing setbacks, another hypersonic weapons system encountered issues. According to the Pentagon, a test of the Common Hypersonic Glide Body failed in late June when an "anomaly" occurred during the first full system test. The glitch stopped the Defense Department from finishing the whole test, although the Pentagon stated that it was not a total failure.

The earlier test of the Common Hypersonic Glide Body, a Navy-Army collaboration, also terminated abruptly when the booster rocket failed. The Pentagon could not conduct a system test without the booster rocket. The Pentagon successfully tested the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) in March, but kept the test covert for two weeks to avoid raising tensions with Russia just before President Joe Biden's trip to Europe, CNN reported.

Related Article: Ukraine's New Rockets Changes the Battlefield by Wiping Out Russian Targets; Moscow Is Reportedly Threatened

@YouTube

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Episcopal Church finalizes merger of 2 Texas dioceses

The Episcopal Church has voted to approve the merger of two dioceses in Texas, one of which lost its property, name and assets in court to a breakaway conservative group.

The Episcopal Church in North Texas (ECNTX), formerly known as the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, has been seeking to merge with the Episcopal Diocese of Texas.

At the mainline denominations 80th General Convention, the House of Deputies approved a resolution for the merger last Saturday, while the House of Bishops approved it on Monday.

Bishop Scott Mayer, bishop provisional of North Texas, spoke at the General Convention in Baltimore, Maryland, explaining that he was looking forward to a wonderful future.

I cant overstate the energy and excitement around whats next, and I cannot overstate our gratitude for the generosity and the compassion shown by [Diocese of Texas Bishop] Andy Doyle and the people of the Diocese of Texas, said Mayer, as quoted by Episcopal News Service.

I especially am grateful for the people of North Texas, who chose from the beginning to live rather than survive and chose love over fear.

In February 2021, the Anglican Church in North America secured control of The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth after many years of litigation against The Episcopal Church and the local Episcopalian presence, known as ECNTX.

As a result, ECNTX had lost much of its financial assets, and all but three of its historic buildings to the theologically conservative leadership that had voted to leave the denomination.

In April, ECNTX and the Diocese of Texas announced that they were considering a merger, which they called a reunion, since ECNTX was originally part of the diocese.

Currently, the Diocese of Texas has a little more than 160 congregations and around 72,000 active members, while the ECNTX has 13 congregations and about 5,000 active members.

In June, the Diocese of Texas's Diocesan Council voted 526-14 in favor of the reunion proposal, with ECNTX voting unanimously to approve the reunion several days later.

The people in Fort Worth are eager to meet and have conversation, said Bishop Andrew Doyle following the votes, as quoted by ENS. This is an exciting moment for the Diocese of Texas.
Illinois church makes over 700 crosses to show support for Ukraine: 'God will help them'

A congregation in Illinois has made and handed out hundreds of wooden crosses for people to put in their yards as a reminder to think about and pray for Ukrainians suffering under the Russian invasion.

East Jordan United Methodist Church of Sterling began making white crosses 18 inches tall and 12 inches wide in late February when Russia launched its invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

Pastor Jim Miller of East Jordan UMC told The Christian Post that his church has handed out just over 700 crosses and is still making more.

"Everybody in the nation, if they got a heart, wants to do something," said Miller. "We don't have the wherewithal to go there and help out. Most people would be too afraid to go, but if we truly are Christian, then we believe that God will help them."

Miller said the church decided to make crosses that could be planted outdoors because he believes that, given the invasion, Ukrainians would not be safe doing so themselves.

"Ukraine is tremendous as far as being a Christian nation, but they're being persecuted," he continued. "So, we decided since they can't plant crosses, we will."

Once completed, the small crosses are placed by a two-sided marquee sign on the church property, where people can park their car, get out and take one for their home.

Miller considers the response to the church's cross ministry to be "amazing." He noted that many people have told him "why they're doing it, who they are doing it for."

"The biggest problem we see in our human condition in this nation and for the world is that every morning, you turn on the news and you get a new crisis and our interest and our attention on the previous crisis wanes and disappears," said Miller.

"I'm hoping that putting out the crosses will remind people of those poor people that are suffering. Just because we might turn it off in our minds, we can't turn their needs off. So this is like the biggest reason we are doing it."

East Jordan UMC also takes up a special offering every Sunday on behalf of the Ukrainians and holds a prayer meeting each Wednesday.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian President Vladimir Putin claiming it to be on behalf of pro-Russian separatists living in Eastern Ukraine.

Although it was expected that Russia would secure an easy victory over their smaller Eastern European neighbor, the Ukrainian population continues to mount a fierce resistance.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has recorded 11,544 civilian casualties in Ukraine as of July 11  5,024 killed and 6,520 injured.

The death toll includes at least 141 girls, 161 boys and 41 children whose sex is yet unknown.

"Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes," the agency reports.

"OHCHR believes that the actual figures are considerably higher, as the receipt of information from some locations where intense hostilities have been going on has been delayed and many reports are still pending corroboration."

Some scholars have compared the current conflict to the 1850s Crimean War in which Tsarist Russia tried and failed to acquire territory along the Black Sea despite its large army.

"There are very distinct parallels," said Orlando Figes, a British historian and author, in an interview with National Public Radio. "And I think Putin has probably overstretched himself in the same way that Nicholas I did."
More than a pretty face: 7 reactions to the death of fmr. President Donald Trumps ex-wife Ivana Trump

Tributes praising her skills as a mother, businesswoman and socialite who was more than a pretty face, followed the sudden death of former President Donald Trumps first wife, Ivana Trump, at her home in New York City Thursday.

The New York City police who are still investigating the death of the 73-year-old Czech-American icon, suggest she might have fallen down the stairs at her townhouse on the Upper East Side, according to The New York Times.

Ivana Trump married the former president in 1977 and divorced him in 1990, partly due to his affair with actress Marla Maples, who later became his wife. Their union produced three children, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump.

While she was remembered for many things, Ivana Trump, who was considered a charming socialite, was credited by many for her role in transforming the former president into a real estate mogul.

Often described as detail-obsessed and a workaholic, she worked alongside her husband on several of his early signature projects, like the development of Trump Tower in Manhattan and the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, N.J., Clay Risen wrote for The New York Times. She was the vice president for interior design for his company, the Trump Organization, and managed one of his most prized properties, the Plaza Hotel, all while raising their three children.

Many from the Trump family circle have been publicly sharing condolences since Thursday, including former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany who noted on Twitter: My family and I send all of our love and prayers to President Trump @IvankaTrump@DonaldJTrumpJr@EricTrump and the entire Trump family for the loss of Ivana Trump. Thinking of you all during this very difficult time.

Here are seven more reactions to the passing of Ivana Trump.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Next
Archie Battersbee can be removed from life support over parents' objections, judge rules

The parents of 12-year-old Archie Battersbee are again seeking permission to appeal after a high court judge ruled Friday that a London hospital can remove the boy's life support against the parents' wishes.

In a judgment handed down in the High Court of Justice Family Division, Justice Anthony Hayden ruled that it is in the child's "best interests" for the life support to be removed. The boy was found unconscious with a ligature around his neck on April 7 and suffered a "catastrophic hypoxic ischaemic brain injury."

Archie's parents, Hollie Dance and Paul Battersbee, appeared in court Monday after being granted permission to appeal an initial ruling last month to allow the hospital to discontinue his care.

"Where, as here, the treatment is futile, it compromises Archie's dignity, deprives him of his autonomy, and becomes wholly inimical to his welfare," Hayden wrote in his ruling. "It serves only to protract his death, whilst being unable to prolong his life."

"Having come to this conclusion, there emerges the prospect of an end to Archie's life, which reverberates more closely with the way he lived in the past."

Hayden wrote that "arrangements" can be made that will afford Battersbee the opportunity "to die in peaceful circumstances and in the embrace of the family he loved."

According to a Friday statement from the Christian Legal Centre, which is representing the family, the parents are seeking permission to appeal.

"This ruling is a crushing blow to Archie and his family. With all due respect to Mr. Justice Hayden, it is not in Archie's best interests to die," Battersbee's mother said in a statement following the ruling.

Dance contends that "planned death" is another name for euthanasia.

"The 'planned' removal of the ventilator is definitely the worst thing that may happen from my point of view. I cannot see how this is in any way dignified," Dance asserted.

"We disagree with the idea of dignity in death. Enforcing it on us and hastening his death for that purpose is profoundly cruel," she continued. "It is for God to decide what should happen to Archie, including if, when and how he should die."

The mother said she "cannot betray" her son as long as he is "fighting for his life."

During her testimony, Dance said she once spoke with her son about whether he would want life support removed if he were ever in such a situation. Battersbee reportedly said he wouldn't care if he was on life support as long as he was with his mother.

When asked by Hayden if his son would want his care to continue, Paul Battersbee testified that his son is a "proper mummies boy, and he would not want to leave her."

In her witness statement, Dance said that a do-not-resuscitate order has been placed on her son without the family's consent.

CLC Chief Executive Andrea Williams called the ruling another "devastating blow" and argues that Battersebee's case proves that "systematic reform is needed to protect the vulnerable and their families in end-of-life matters."

In a separate decision handed down in the Family Division of the High Court last month, Justice Emma Arbuthnot ruled that medical professionals at Royal London Hospital could remove Archie Battersbee's life support.

Arbuthnot wrote that Battersbee is likely dead "on the balance of probabilities." She permitted the parents to appeal the decision.

"It is clear from the anxious and careful scrutiny of all the evidence including from clinicians with different specialisms from five separate hospitals that tragically on the balance of probabilities, Archie is dead," her opinion reads.

The judge gave "permission to the medical professionals at the Royal London Hospital (1) to cease to ventilate mechanically Archie Battersbee; (2) to extubate Archie Battersbee; (3) to cease the administration of medication to Archie Battersbee and (4) not to attempt any cardio or pulmonary resuscitation on Archie Battersbee when cardiac output ceases or respiratory effort ceases."
'Entire diocese shattered': Nigerian bishop calls on world to act after Pentecost Sunday massacre

Just weeks after an attack on a Catholic church in southwestern Nigeria on Pentecost Sunday left dozens dead and injured many more, the diocese's bishop is urging the international community to speak out against the killing of Christians in his country.

Bishop Jude Arogundade of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ondo spoke with The Christian Post on the sidelines of the International Religious Freedom Summit held in Washington, D.C., late last month. He discussed the June 5 bomb-and-gun attack at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Owo. Around 40 people were killed, with some reports suggesting up to 80 were injured.

Arogundade hopes his presence at the annual conference "put out there for the whole world to see" what happened to his diocese and what is taking place in other parts of Nigeria.

He said that on Pentecost Sunday, "some terrorists came to St. Francis Church and opened fire on worshipers." The massacre "left the entire community broken" and the "entire diocese shattered," the bishop said.

In the weeks that followed, Arogundade said the diocese has tried to determine why anyone would "attack us for no reason" and also provided support to injured people and families who've lost loved ones.

He said one woman had two legs amputated because of injuries she sustained in the bomb blast and will need "long-term care."

Arogundade also spoke of children who "lost their father some years back" whose mother died in the attack, leaving them orphaned.

"We've done everything to raise money here and there, to provide them the education they need," the bishop added.

The diocese is also working to prepare the churches with cameras to prevent future "episodes."

"[We're] trying to educate our people on security matters in our diocese," he stated.

According to Arogundade, the southwestern portion of Nigeria where the diocese is located "is really a stable part of Nigeria" and has "never had this kind of incident before."

"We're so shocked and surprised that anyone would come from far away  to attack us," Arogundade told CP.

He praised the response of the Ondo state government, noting that "the governor has been very, very gracious and very, very supportive."

However, he claims the federal government's response to the attack is "lousy" and similar to its response to the frequent attacks against Christians in other parts of Nigeria. Arogundade claims the federal government led by President Muhammadu Buhari has elected to "just look away, playing dumb."

In recent years, thousands have been killed by violence in the country's Middle Belt states as radicalized Fulani herders have been known to carry out attacks against predominantly Christian farming communities. In the country's northeast, Islamic extremist groups like Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province have killed thousands and displaced millions.

Human rights advocates have argued for years that violence against Christians in Nigeria has reached the standard for "genocide." However, the Nigerian government maintains that religion is not a factor and has written off the violence in the Middle Belt states as decades-old farmer-herder clashes.

Arogundade characterizes the attacks against Christians in Nigeria as "ethnoreligious." He believes that what's happened in Nigeria "has gotten to that level of genocide."

He called for an "outcry from all decent people of the world so that the perpetrators can be brought to justice."

Arogundade criticized the U.S. State Department's removal of Nigeria from its list of countries of particular concern for tolerating or engaging in egregious violations of religious freedom last November. Nigeria was added to the list in 2020 by the Trump State Department after years of outcry from Nigerian Christians and rights activists.

In removing Nigeria as a CPC, the State Department ignored the recommendation of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent panel tasked by Congress to advise the federal government on religious freedom matters.

"Whoever did it must have acted out of ignorance, lack of understanding of what is going on," Arogundade said. "Every day, there are attacks here and there all over Nigeria, except for the southwest that has been very stable for some years now."

The religious leader called on U.S. leaders to disclose why Nigeria was removed from the list of CPCs and "make [a] pronouncement to stop the killing."

"That would be a kind of general understanding that America is complicit in whatever is going on to protect lives and properties of innocent Nigerian Christians" whose "only crime is that they believe in God" and "believe in Jesus Christ," Arogundade said.

"I just want the whole world to see and to hear and to know our story. We need to ask a question from the leadership of Nigeria why they are not protecting us, why they are not taking proactive actions to protect law-abiding citizens of the nation."

In releasing its annual international religious freedom report last month, the U.S. State Department acknowledged that "pervasive violence involving predominantly Muslim herders and mostly Christian, but also Muslim, farmers, particularly in the North Central, but also in the North West (where most farmers were Muslim) and South West regions."

Data from the Nigeria security tracker maintained by the Council on Foreign Relations suggests that an estimated 10,399 deaths occurred from conflict in 2021. The council estimated that 1,112 deaths "resulted from violence among ethnic groups, herdsmen, and farmers, some of which had implications for religion and religious freedom, according to multiple observers or, in the words of the council, 'sometimes acquires religious overtones.'"

While predominantly Muslim Fulani radicals are often blamed for attacks on farming communities, the State Department maintained that attacks were also perpetrated by "armed criminal groups of various ethnicities."

Secretary of State Antony Blinken "raised religious freedom issues with government officials in a visit in November, as did embassy and consulate general officials throughout the year," according to the State Department annual report.

Arogundade pleaded for stronger action from the international community.

"There are so many questions to be asked, and I see that in asking those questions, the world will be able to compel the leadership of Nigeria to give answers to those questions," he believes.

He rejected the idea that much of the violence unfolding in Nigeria results from conflicts between farmers and herders.

"I am very careful to say it's not a conflict between farmers and herders. No, it is an attack from the herders," he insisted.

"Farmers have never attacked anybody. It is the herder that goes around with the herd to devastate people's farms and destroy the livelihood of the people. [The] government has allowed this for too long to continue to happen."

The bishop reiterated his belief that herders "attacking the locals and taking over their properties and their farms" constitutes a form of "ethnic cleansing." He concluded that "they also attack churches in order to impose their Islamic religion."
Flight attendant fired for pro-life activism receives $5.1M in damages Flight attendant fired after criticizing union's support for Women's March receives $5.1M in damages

A flight attendant who alleges she was fired from her position due to her vocal religious opposition to abortion and union dues being used to support abortion-related causes has won a $5.1 million federal lawsuit against her former employer and union.

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation announced in a statement Thursday that Charlene Carter, a pro-life Christian who formerly worked as a flight attendant for Southwest Airlines, prevailed in her religious discrimination lawsuit with the airline and the Transportation Workers Union of America.

Carter will receive $5.1 million in combined compensatory and punitive damages against TWU and Southwest as a jury deemed that both organizations played a role in an unlawful termination.

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which describes itself as "a nonprofit, charitable organization" working to "eliminate coercive union power and compulsory unionism," provided Carter with free legal representation.

"This long overdue verdict vindicates Ms. Carter's fundamental right to dissent from the causes and ideas that TWU union officials  who claim to 'represent' Southwest flight attendants  support while forcing workers to bankroll their activities," said National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix.

"No American worker should have to fear termination, intimidation, or any other reprisal merely for speaking out against having their own money spent, purportedly in their name, to promote an agenda they find abhorrent."

The verdict from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas comes nearly five years after Carter filed a lawsuit against the TWU of America and Southwest Airlines following her termination after more than 20 years of service.

While Carter joined the Transport Union Workers of America's Local 556 union in September 1996, she resigned her membership in September 2013 upon discovering that her union dues were funding causes that contradicted her religious beliefs as a pro-life Christian.

However, Carter was still forced to pay union dues even though she did not belong to the union because the airline and railway employees are subject to the federal Railway Labor Act requirements.

The Railway Labor Act supersedes state-level Right to Work laws that prevent employees from having to pay union fees as a condition of employment and permits the termination of employees for refusal to pay union dues or fees.

At the same time, the Railway Labor Act allows employees to refrain from joining a union, criticize union leadership and lobby for a change in the union leadership.

In the time between her 2013 withdrawal from the union and her termination, Carter repeatedly shared her concerns about Local 556's political stances with union leadership.

In January 2017, Carter learned that union dues were probably used to attend the "Women's March on Washington DC," which advocated for legal abortion and funding for America's largest abortion provider Planned Parenthood. Abortion and the funding of the practice stand in direct contradiction to Carter's religious beliefs.

Carter made clear her opposition to using union dues to support the Women's March in several Facebook groups for Southwest flight attendants and in a message to Local 556 President Audrey Stone.

When Carter sent another email to Stone expressing support for a National Right to Work bill, Carter was ordered to attend a meeting with Southwest leadership to discuss "Facebook postings they had seen."

In those posts, Carter expressed her pro-life beliefs. The lawsuit claims that superiors at Southwest characterized her social media postings as a form of harassment and fired her for violating the company's "Workplace Bullying and Hazing Policy" and its "Social Media Policy" by posting content deemed "highly offensive in nature."

In May, a federal judge rejected the attempt from Southwest and the Transportation Union Workers of America to dismiss the lawsuit. The organizations argued that Carter did not have a "private right of action" to enforce her rights under the Railway Labor Act and characterized her case as a "minor" dispute that the district court did not have jurisdiction over.

"Even with this basic right under the Railway Labor Act successfully defended, however, TWU union officials still enjoy the enormous government-granted privilege of being able to force airline workers to financially subsidize their activities as a condition of employment," Mix added. "While we're proud to stand with Ms. Carter and are pleased by the verdict, there ultimately should be no place in American labor law for compelling workers to fund a private organization that violates their core beliefs."
Most Americans believe religious freedom is in decline; a third says Christians complain too much: poll

More than half of all Americans say religious tolerance for Christians is on the decline, even as more than a third also believes Christians complain too much about how they are treated in society, a newly released Lifeway Research survey suggests.

In a study of just over 1,000 Americans conducted last September, 54% said religious liberty in the United States is in decline, including around a quarter (24%) who strongly agree with that statement.

Almost a third (32%) of respondents disagreed, while 14% said they weren't sure.

An even greater percentage of Americans believe religious tolerance for Christians in America is in decline, with 59% agreeing that "Christians increasingly are confronted by intolerance in America today."

Less than a quarter (24%) disagreed, and another 18% said they were unsure if intolerance for Christians is increasing in America. African Americans (68%) and white Americans (59%) were more likely to agree than people of other ethnicities (47%).

Protestants (69%) and Catholics (59%) were most likely to agree that Christians are facing increasing intolerance. Fifty-three percent of respondents of other religions and 41% of religiously unaffiliated respondents said the same.

Those who attend a worship service at least four times a month (64%) are more likely to believe religious liberty is on the decline in America than those who attend less than once a month (53%).

The religiously unaffiliated, or "nones," were the least likely (40%) to agree religious liberty is on the decline.

"Freedoms are not limitless," said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. "As some groups seek more freedom, it often encroaches on another's freedom. It's not surprising those who are more religiously active are the ones noticing reductions in religious freedom compared to those who don't practice religion."

The survey also found an interesting corollary to the perceived decline in religious liberty: more than a third (36%) of all Americans say Christians in the U.S. "complain too much about how they are treated," including 14% who strongly agree. Nearly half (49%) of respondents disagreed, while another 15% weren't sure.

Males (40%) were more likely to agree than women (32%) that Christians complain too much about how they are treated. Respondents over 65 were the most likely to disagree that Christians complain too much (64%).

The survey found that those who hold Evangelical beliefs are more likely to disagree that Christians complain too much (61%) than those who don't have Evangelical beliefs (45%).

The religiously unaffiliated (53%) were more likely to agree than either Protestants (27%) or Catholics (34%) that Christians complain too much.

"Intolerance is about cultural pushback," McConnell said. "In the American marketplace of ideas, not all systems of thought are welcomed. The majority of all religions notice this pushback against Christians today."

The survey was conducted online with over 1,005 respondents and has an error margin of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points, with error margins being higher among subgroups. Quotas and slight weights were used to balance gender, age, region, ethnicity, education and religion to more accurately reflect the U.S. population.
Pro-life researcher skeptical of Gallup poll showing rise in support for abortion

A pro-life researcher is skeptical about a recent Gallup poll that reportedly found an overall increase in support for legal abortion, citing problems with the demographic breakdown.

Last month, the United States Supreme Court upheld Mississippis 15-week abortion ban with its 6-3 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.

A recent Gallup poll conducted May 2-22 that assessed Americans' views on abortion purportedly found an increase in the number of people who identify as pro-choice.

In a sample of more than 1,000 participants, Gallups data show that 55% of U.S. adults identify as pro-choice compared to 39% who identify as pro-life. Another 5% of U.S. adults said they had no opinion on the issue.

Michael J. New, researcher and associate scholar at the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute, noted in a piece for National Review that he doubted the poll's findings.

New said most of the increase in support for legal abortion appears to have occurred among racial minorities, but this opinion seems too sudden, especially when compared to the lack of change one way or the other for white respondents.

It makes little sense that the leak of the Dobbs decision would have a large impact on the views of racial minorities but only a marginal impact on the attitude of whites, New said in an emailed statement to The Christian Post.

The poll found that only 10% of "people of color" thought abortion should be illegal in all circumstances. New wrote in his National Review article that previous Gallup polls had indicated that 23% of total Hispanic or non-white Americans said they believe that abortion should be illegal in all circumstances.

New expressed doubt that a 13% drop could have taken place while the overall attitudes of non-minorities on abortion appear to have stayed the same.

He further explained that Gallup polls conducted between 2017 and 2019 found that 34% of Hispanics thought abortion should be illegal in all circumstances, adding that a decline of approximately 24 points in less than five years strains credulity.

The pro-life researcher also noted that Gallup polls between 2018 and 2021 found that 16% of whites thought abortion should be illegal in all circumstances. He noted that the recent survey found little change in white respondents abortion attitudes.

This new Gallup poll also has unusual findings regarding the abortion attitudes of low-income earners, New wrote. In Gallup polls between 2018 and 2021, 24% of those earning less than $40,000 a year said abortion should be illegal in all circumstances.

But the latest poll finds that only 15 percent of those making less than $40,000 a year said the same. A nine-point drop over a short time period is surprising.

New is asking Gallup to provide a detailed racial breakdown of the results of their 2022 abortion poll and that they consider commissioning another poll on abortion attitudes.

Abortion has become an exceptionally salient political issue in the aftermath of the Dobbs decision, the pro-life researcher wrote to CP. As such, accurate and detailed information about the abortion attitudes of key political demographics would certainly benefit activists, legislators, and the general public.
The mythology surrounding Roe v. Wade and abortion in America

Americans have witnessed in the past few weeks some truly extraordinary events. The Supreme Court voted to overturn the infamous Roe v. Wade decision, which in 1973 invalidated most of the then-existing restrictions on abortion in almost all of the 50 states.

Most Americans do not know, and the national media is definitely not telling them, that Roe declared that no states could ban abortions prior to 12 weeks' gestation, and in the Casey decision (in 1992), expanded that limit to 23 weeks' gestation.

Most Americans are also blissfully unaware that, as a result, prior to last months Dobbs decision, the United States was one of only seven nationsincluding China and North Koreathat allowed abortions on demand after 20 weeks of pregnancy. In fact, 75% of the nation limit abortions after 12 weeks."

The Roe decision was an exercise in raw judicial power and was so flawed that even the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, one of the most liberal justices to ever grace the Supreme Court, labeled Roe unnecessary and heavy-handed judicial intervention.

The truly hysterical reaction of the mainstream media to Roes demise has been revelatory. They have called it the end of democracy, and a catastrophe for women. Actually, it was a restoration of democracy and a huge win for American mothers.

As a result of the infamous Roe v. Wade decision, unborn human life was devalued and denied its humanity without American voters approval and 63 million unborn children, as a consequence, were slaughtered during the last 49 years.

The Supreme Courts reversal of Roe is not only a tremendous victory for our unborn fellow citizens, but it is also a tremendous victory for our nations mothers. According to the Journal for Clinical Ethics, 44% of American women who have had abortions later regret having done so. As someone who has counseled hundreds of such women over the last half-century, I can attest to the fact that the 44% figure is far too low. As a result of my experiences, I firmly believe this number is significantly underreported. That is the reason that I never speak about the issue from the pulpit without emphasizing that our Heavenly Father is a God of forgiveness and restoration as well as a righteous and holy God.

So where do we go from here?

In a truly remarkable article, Michael Kazin proclaimed this week, If Abortion is Outlawed, Americans Will Rebel." Mr. Kazin, a Georgetown University history professor, predicts confidently that if pro-lifers carry out indecent and unenforceable assaults on individual freedommost Americans will rebel against authorities who decree what they can do with their own bodies.

Unfortunately, that is what we have been given to expect from the once historically great New York Times. However, even the usually innocuous Prevention Magazine, which up until now my wife and I have perused for healthy nutrition information, declares in its August edition, Abortion is safer than pregnancy and childbirth."

Both Kazin and Prevention use language that compels one to ask, safer for whom? In an abortion, the baby always dies, and every abortion stops a beating human heart. When Kazin speaks of individual freedom, he is forgetting, or ignoring, the fact that when a mother exercises her individual freedom to choose to abort her child, another human being dies, namely her son or daughter.

Kazin compares the pro-life movement to the prohibition movement and its ultimate failure to free our society from the scourge of alcoholism. The pro-life movement and prohibition are fundamentally disanalogous movements. Prohibitionism did indeed outlaw the consumption of alcoholic beverages at the federal level in all 50 states. The Dobbs decision does not outlaw abortions everywhere. It does outlaw almost all abortions in Mississippi after 15 weeks gestation.

In light of the Supreme Courts decision, each states voters will decide for themselves through the democratic process which boys and girls can be legally killed within the borders of their state. Furthermore, the pro-life movement vs. Prohibition comparison is inaccurate at a more fundamental level. Prohibitionists desire was to make alcohol consumption illegal, thus interfering with an individuals ability to consume the alcoholic beverage of his or her choice. The pro-life movement seeks to protect a whole class of fellow citizens from having their lives extinguished before birth.

Consequently, if one seeks a comparison of the pro-life movement with another historic American reform movement, a far more likely candidate immediately comes to mindthe abolitionist movement.

The abolitionists goal was the immediate abolition of the institution of slavery and full freedom for all human beings being held in involuntary servitude. In other words, abolitionisms goal was to extend the right to life and freedom to the nations nearly 4 million African-American slaves and the pro-life movement wants unborn babies of all ethnicities and both sexes to be granted the right to life.

A half-century ago my ethics professor, the late great Paul Ramsey, spoke eloquently of defending our unborn citizens, babies who have heartbeats at 28 to 32 days gestation and measurable brain waves at seven weeks. Overestimating his fellow human beings, Dr. Ramsey told us that if wombs had windows, there would be very few abortions. Unfortunately, he was wrong. Sonograms are about as close to a window as one can imagine, and yet too many Americans want to strike down any restrictors on abortion up to and including birth and continue to deny the humanity of the fetus. Why?

One cannot overlook the truth of human depravity as one major reason. Slavery was making enormous sums of money for a small, but powerful class of Americans, North and South. Just so, the abortion industry is making enormous profits for a small, but powerful class of Americans.

In the Dred Scott decision, the Supreme Court voted 7-2 to declare that slaves were property, not people. Similarly, in 1973 in Roe v. Wade the Supreme Court found a supposed right to privacy allowing millions of these unborn Americans to have their lives snuffed out in utero.

I must confess that as I researched my senior thesis at Princeton in 1968 and early 1969, I never imagined how relevant these studies would be more than a half-century later.

I believe where we are right now is where the Abolitionists were at the end of the Civil War and millions of freed slaves needed to have their citizenship and civil rights protected. Then, as now, there were large segments of the population who openly declared that they would do everything they could to nullify the freedom of the former slaves.

The government established the Freedmens Bureau and used federal troops to seek to guarantee the full participation of the former slaves in American society. However, by the end of the Grant administration in 1876, the efforts were largely abandoned and Jim Crow segregation was established and reigned in the South until the Civil Rights Acts of 1964, 1965, and 1967.

Pro-lifers must not weary in well-doing. We must come alongside pregnant mothers and help them and their babies before and after birth. We will now have the opportunity to prove we are pro-life before and after birth right up through adulthood.

One final cautionary note. I learned during my thesis research that during the decades the abolitionist movement labored to abolish slavery, some of them became more fixated on punishing the slaveholders than on freeing the slaves. So they rejected all attempts at manumission (freeing the slaves with some financial compensation to slaveholders).

Just so, there are some in the pro-life ranks (sometimes called abolitionists) who not only want to criminalize abortionists, but also the mothers who seek to abort their children. This is completely wrong and contrary to the heartbeat of the pro-life movement from its inception in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

From the beginning, the pro-lifers have been insistent that both the babies and their mothers are victims. It would be a tragedy to now decide we are going to criminalize mothers.

When we had this debate at the 2022 Southern Baptist Convention, the abolitionist argument was soundly defeated. Prior to the floor debate, one person opposing the abolitionist argument asked me, What should we do? How do we best oppose it?

My answer was, First, get women to respond. All the people that I have heard argued for criminalizing pregnant mothers are mennot women. Second, ask the question, 'Do you want to save babies, or punish their mothers?' You cannot do both in the current political environment. If you insist on criminalizing mothers, you will get very few pro-life bills approved in most states.

Lets keep our eye on the ball, folks. Lets save babies and their mothers from the scourge of abortion.
Abortionist under investigation after questions raised about reporting of 10-year-old girl's rape

Indiana's attorney general's office is investigating whether an abortion doctor who made national headlines after revealing that a raped and impregnated 10-year-old girl crossed state lines to obtain an abortion reported the case to the proper authorities as an undocumented immigrant was arrested for the crime Tuesday.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said in an interview with Fox News Wednesday night that his office is looking into whether Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Caitlan Bernard failed to report the underaged abortion of the rape victim to the proper authorities as required by law.



Additionally, Fox News reported Wednesday that Bernard's employer, Indiana University Health, recently filed a HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) complaint against her for letting the girl's story get out in the news media. HIPAA aims "to protect sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without the patient's consent or knowledge."

The story about the 10-year-old girl was first published by The Indianapolis Star and repeated by Biden Friday while signing an executive order expanding access to chemical abortions and other "reproductive health services" following the U.S. Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade.

Bernard told the outlet on July 1 that she received a phone call from a child abuse doctor in Ohio. The doctor claimed that the call came three days after the Supreme Court returned the abortion issue to the states and triggered an Ohio law banning abortion after six weeks.

The story's validity was questioned in an article by Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler and PJ Media's Megan Fox in a series of tweets. It is not clear if the girl felt she had to go to another state to obtain the abortion or if she was referred to another doctor in another state.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost contends that the girl could have had the abortion in the state because Ohio's abortion law contains a medical emergency exception.

Providing more validity to Bernard's claim, The Columbus Dispatch reported Wednesday the arrest of a Columbus man charged with the rape, a felony of the first degree in Ohio. Gershon Fuentes was arrested after he confessed to raping the girl on at least two occasions.

Citing an unnamed source with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Fox News reports that Fuentes is a Guatemalan national who entered the U.S. illegally.

The girl, who just turned 10, was believed to be 9 years old when the rape occurred, according to Assistant Franklin County Prosecutor Dan Meyer.

The girl's mother filed a report through Franklin County Children Services on June 22, which alerted Columbus police to the girl's pregnancy. During Fuentes' Wednesday arraignment, Detective Jeffrey Huhn testified that the minor underwent a chemical abortion in Indianapolis on June 30.

During a segment with Fox News Host Jesse Watters, Rokita said his office is gathering information and looking at Bernard's licensure.

"If she failed to report it in Indiana, it's a crime for  to not report, to intentionally not report," Rokita said.

"This is a child, and there's a strong public interest in understanding if someone under the age of 16 or under the age of 18 or really any woman is having abortion in our state. And then if a child is being sexually abused, of course parents need to know. Authorities need to know. Public policy experts need to know."

State law requires reporting abortions for girls under the age of 16 to the Indiana State Department of Health and the Indiana Department of Child Services within three days of the abortion.

An audit of pregnancy termination reports released by Indiana Right to Life in 2018 listed Bernard as one of nine abortionists who failed to report underaged abortions to the health department.

The news cycle surrounding the girl's plight has drawn renewed outcry from pro-life activists who contend that some abortionists are skirting reporting laws and covering up child sex abuse.

"We have tried for years to get this particular subject covered," Mark Crutcher, the founder and president of Life Dynamics, a pro-life group that provides information about abortion risks and abusive practices within the industry, told The Christian Post.

The organization has released numerous undercover investigations and information showing abortion facilities covering up child sex abuse.

Life Dynamic has documented numerous instances of abortion facilities failing to act as mandatory reporters in child sex abuse cases.

In February and March of 2002, Life Dynamics conducted an undercover phone survey of 813 of the 906 abortion facilities the organization identified as being a part of Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation. In the phone calls, an adult woman with a childlike voice posed as a 13-year-old girl seeking an abortion after being impregnated by a 22-year-old man.

Life Dynamics claims this was a mandatory reporting situation, but 90% of the counselors they spoke to reportedly agreed to ignore the law.

In some of the tapes Life Dynamics posted online, clinic workers can be heard instructing the undercover investigator to provide a fake name and address, promising they wouldn't check it.

"Some of them even went to the point of saying, 'Look, you've already given me too much information, so call this other abortion clinic,'" Crutcher told CP. "And when you call them, don't tell them your boyfriend is a grown man. Don't tell them that you're 13 years old."

"What you have to understand is [the abortion facility] has got two people there that they're involved with. They've got the girl that's pregnant or may be pregnant," he continued. "And they've got the perpetrator. The perpetrator is the one with the money."

"So he's the one that they protect. They don't care about that girl at all. Anyone who cared about that girl would not be giving her this information on how to circumvent these laws and protect victims of child rape."

Life Dynamics has also collected information about cases of abusers taking underage girls for abortions without a report being made by abortion facility staff.

Crutcher said one particularly egregious case centered around a man named George England, who purchased a 5-year-old girl in 1972 after being discharged from the U.S. Army in Vietnam.

England traveled around the states with the girl, with court documents showing that he impregnated her for the first time when she was 13. He forced her to give up the first baby for adoption.

Court documents also show that England impregnated the girl an additional eight or nine times over the next six years, forcing her to have an abortion each time. Life Dynamics alleges that none of the facilities committing the abortions filed a report, noting that England continued abusing the girl until she was 19.

In 2018, the pro-life organization Live Action released a docuseries showcasing instances where Planned Parenthood carried out abortions on girls as young as 12, ignoring pleas for help and returning the victims to their abusers.

Live Action News summarized the cases of Planned Parenthood failing to report child sex abuse and performing abortions on minors.

Citing a 2015 Fox News report and a sheriff's report, the pro-life advocacy group described a case where Planned Parenthood Arizona counselor intentionally coded a 15-year-old girl's sexual assault as consensual. The counselor allegedly told the victim, "they did not want the hassle of having to report the assault to law enforcement as they were a mandatory reporter."

In 2012, Denise Fairbanks settled a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region, alleging that they ignored her pleas for help after her father impregnated her and forced her to have an abortion. The lawsuit says Planned Parenthood's failure to report the sexual abuse forced Fairbanks to endure it for another year and a half.
A grand jury has indicted the suspect in the horrific Buffalo supermarket shooting with 27 counts, including federal hate crimes and firearms charges, after he killed 10 people and injured three others on May 14.

The federal indictment came down on Thursday, exactly two months after the brutal attack on Black people shopping at a supermarket. Authorities also accused the gunman of being a white supremacist due to the nature of his actions on that day.

Buffalo Shooter Indicted

The 19-year-old suspect, who was identified as Payton Gendron, has been indicted on 10 counts of hate crimes resulting in death, three counts of hate crimes involving an attempt to kill injured individuals, one count of hate crimes alleging that he tried to kill more Black people in and around the Tops supermarket, and 13 counts of using, carrying, or discharging a firearm in relation to the hate crimes.

In a statement, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said that the Justice Department fully recognized the threat that white supremacist violence poses to the safety of the American people and American democracy, as per WIVB.

Prosecutors said that the suspect planned the attack for several months and was motivated by racist beliefs. FBI agents discovered a note at his home the day after the shooting in which he said he "had to commit this attack" because he cares "for the future of the White race."

Read Also: US Capitol Riot Hearings: Why Did Secret Service Delete Text Messages From January 5 and 6, 2021?

Authorities said that the gun that Gendron allegedly used was a Bushmaster XM rifle that had racial slurs scribbled on it, as well as, "Here's your reparations!" and the names of other people who have committed mass shootings.

According to Fox News, the gunman also kept a diary where he wrote: "statements that his motivation for the attack was to prevent Black people from replacing white people and eliminating the white race and to inspire others to commit similar racially-motivated attacks."

Horrific Racist Attack

Garland added that authorities will continue to be relentless in their efforts to combat hate crimes in the country, support the communities terrorized by them, and hold accountable those who perpetrate them.

The attorney general will also determine at a later date whether or not to seek the death penalty for the Buffalo shooter. The defendant's attorneys have said in court that federal prosecutors told them it could take a year before the decision on the death penalty can be made.

At the time, the horrific attack became the latest mass shooting that was simultaneously broadcasted online because the gunman was live streaming his actions. Twitch, the Amazon-owned platform on which the video appeared, took the footage down in less than two minutes.

However, that short time frame was enough time for individuals to download and repost copies of the video footage. One of which was viewed more than three million times, after a link to the video on Facebook garnered more than 500 comments and 46,000 shares before it was removed.

The attack renewed criticism of tech platforms and urgent calls for scrutiny over the moderation of videos and messages that are posted online, as they can quickly spread to a wide audience and possibly fuel copycat attacks, ABC News reported.



Related Article: Deshaun Watson Update: Browns Star Could Get Suspended for 4-6 Games Over Sexual Misconduct Allegations

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
DOJ launches Reproductive Rights Task Force to combat abortion restrictions after Roe reversal

The U.S. Department of Justice has announced the creation of the "Reproductive Rights Task Force" to protect access to abortion.

The task force was announced on Tuesday in response to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the 1973 landmark decision Roe v. Wade, ruling that the U.S. Constitution doesn't contain a right to abortion. The June 24 ruling opened the door for several states to ban abortion in most circumstances.

Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta will chair the task force, which will include representatives from other government agencies. The task force will monitor state and local restrictions on abortion.

"As Attorney General [Merrick] Garland has said, the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision is a devastating blow to reproductive freedom in the United States," said Gupta in a statement.

"The Court abandoned 50 years of precedent and took away the constitutional right to abortion, preventing women all over the country from being able to make critical decisions about our bodies, our health, and our futures."

The task force is charged with monitoring state and local legislation and enforcement actions that might "[i]nfringe on federal legal protections relating to the provision or pursuit of reproductive care" or "[i]mpose criminal or civil liability on federal employees who provide reproductive health services in a manner authorized by federal law." The task force will also monitor states that ban abortion pills or impair "women's ability to seek reproductive care in states where it is legal."

The task force will coordinate meetings with pro-bono attorneys, work with Congress to craft legislation meant to codify abortion access and provide online legal resources.

The DOJ task force was announced days after President Joe Biden signed an executive order to "protect and expand access to abortion."

Biden's executive order called on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to report within 30 days outlining strategies to "protect and expand access to abortion care, including medication abortion."

This will include "launching a public awareness initiative," sharing information with providers on abortion access and meeting with "private pro bono attorneys, bar associations, and public interest organizations in order to encourage lawyers to represent and assist patients, providers, and third parties lawfully seeking these services throughout the country."

In a statement, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser denounced Biden's executive order.

"Long gone is the Democratic Party of 'safe, legal, and rare.' President Biden has once again caved to the extreme abortion lobby, determined to put the full weight of the federal government behind promoting abortion," stated Dannenfelser.

"Democrats will stop at nothing to promote their agenda of abortion on demand, up until the moment of birth, paid for by the taxpayers  including dangerous mail-order abortion drugs  even if it means gutting the long-standing filibuster, increasing the size of the Supreme Court, or putting abortionists in tents in national parks."

In the opinion of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority that the Constitution makes no reference to abortion.

"Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division," the majority opinion states.

The decision triggered several state laws banning abortion in nearly all circumstances and calls by Democratic elected officials to pass federal legislation legalizing abortion nationwide.
Jill Biden faces criticism for comparing Latinos to tacos as Hispanic support for Democrats slips

First Lady Jill Biden's comparison of Latinos to tacos has come under fire from advocacy groups and politicians as questions mount about the Democratic Party's ability to win the Latino vote in the upcoming midterm elections.

While speaking at a LatinX IncluXion Luncheon at the 2022 UnidosUS Annual Conference in San Antonio, Texas, Monday, Biden brought up the "diversity" of the Latino community, suggesting that the differences between subgroups of Latinos were "as beautiful as the blossoms of Miami and as unique as the breakfast tacos here in San Antonio."

The crowd, which consisted of activists affiliated with an advocacy group that describes itself as "the largest Latino civil rights advocacy organization in the United States," appeared amused by her remarks. But other Latino advocacy groups and politicians had a less favorable reaction.

The National Association for Hispanic Journalists, which characterizes itself as "a national network of professionals and students dedicated to the recognition and professional advancement of Hispanics in the news industry," strongly criticized Biden's comments in a statement.

"Using breakfast tacos to try to demonstrate the uniqueness of Latinos in San Antonio demonstrates a lack of cultural knowledge and sensitivity to the diversity of Latinos in the region," the statement reads.

"NAHJ encourages Dr. Biden and her speech writing team to take the time in the future to better understand the complexities of our people and communities. We are not tacos. Our heritage as Latinos is shaped by various diasporas, cultures & food traditions."

NAHJ encourages @FLOTUS & her communications team to take time to better understand the complexities of our people & communities.



We are not tacos.



Our heritage as Latinos is shaped by various diasporas, cultures & food traditions.



Do not reduce us to stereotypes. pic.twitter.com/KQIq5gwsht  NAHJ (@NAHJ) July 12, 2022

The National Association for Hispanic Journalists appears sympathetic to progressive causes. It recently published a blog post titled "An Undone Right," lamenting that "reproductive care will be even more challenging for marginalized people after the fall of Roe v. Wade."

Multiple Latinas running for elected office also took issue with Biden's remarks. Rep. Mayra Flores, R-Texas, who recently won a special election to a U.S. House of Representatives seat based in heavily Hispanic South Texas, cited Biden's taco comparison as an example of "liberal pandering."

They just dont get it. Latinos arent buying their liberal pandering; we care about the rising costs of housing, food, gas, issues that impact everyday Americans. No matter how loud they yell their made up words, it wont change the reality of their failed policies. @theMRCpic.twitter.com/gXK7BVUMpF  Mayra Flores (@MayraFlores2022) July 12, 2022

"We care about the rising costs of housing, food, gas, issues that impact everyday Americans," Flores stated in a tweet.

Flores took issue with the use of the term "Latinx" to refer to the Latino community, stating in another tweet that "Latina > Latinx."

Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican running to represent Florida's 13th Congressional District, dubbed the controversy over Biden's remarks "Tacogate" in a tweet Tuesday. A meme accompanying her post featured a picture of a Latino family next to the phrase "What we see" along with a view of cartoon tacos adjacent to the phrase "What Jill Biden sees."

Yesli Vega, who is running as a Republican to represent Virginia's 7th Congressional District, wrote on Twitter that her "heritage" and "culture" "are more than tacos."

The Hispanic community in America isn't a minority voting pop. for you to use in your punchlines," Vega wrote. "We are citizens who work hard & contribute to this nation. November is coming!"

Hey @FLOTUS, my heritage, my culture, & my history are more than tacos. The Hispanic community in America isnt a minority voting pop. for you to use in your punch lines, we are citizens who work hard & contribute to this nation.



November is coming!????????pic.twitter.com/RDk0zGmJ6W  Yesli Vega (@yestoyesli) July 12, 2022

Biden's remarks come as polls suggest Latinos are expressing dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party. While CNN exit polling found that 65% of Latinos supported Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, a recent poll from Quinnipiac University showed that just 24% of Latinos approve of the president's job performance.

A New York Times/Siena College poll conducted in July found that 32% of Hispanic voters approve of the job Biden is doing as president while nearly two-thirds said they disapprove.

Other polls conducted earlier this year asked Latinos for their preferences in the upcoming midterm elections. Results of a Wall Street Journal poll conducted in March indicated that Latinos favored a Republican candidate for Congress over a Democratic candidate by 9 percentage points. An April poll conducted by Marist College in conjunction with NPR and PBS NewsHour revealed that Latinos favor the Republican over the Democrat by 13 points.

In a previous interview with The Christian Post, Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, said he thinks the shift in polling suggests are Latino voters are "abandoning the Democratic Party or leftist ideologies."

Rodriguez, who participated in President Donald Trump's inauguration and the inaugural prayer service attended by President Barack Obama before his 2009 inauguration, believes the Democratic Party has become "a new progressive, socialist, anti-right, anti-Christian" party. He contends the party "completely ignores the rights of individuals and the idea that we were created in the image of God, with God-ordained rights."

Classifying Latinos as "people of faith," he proclaimed, "Latinos are not going to stand for that."
Christians should rejoice over Dobbs

The Dobbs decision has revealed fault lines in American Christianity. These fault lines lay just below the surface for a long while, but are now clearly exposed. As long as abortion was legal by Supreme Court decree, it was possible to identify as pro-life but keep that commitment at the level of theory; one could hold pro-life views but not be perceived as a threat. All that has now changed.

To identify as pro-life post-Dobbs is not simply to hold an opinion many regard as wrong; it is to be part of an act of political and social oppression. And predictably, many Christians are feeling the need to nuance their relationship to the overturning of Roe.

The National Catholic Reporter has excelled itself in this regard. The strangest argument in its pages was made by Fr. Thomas Reese. He studiously avoided any expression of gratitude for the decision, and said it is a result of America's domination by big corporations. The response of big business to Dobbs would seem to indicate his case is, to put it charitably, a little overstated.

Then, in an article attributed to editorial staff, the Reporter revealed the real reason for its nuance about Dobbs: Donald Trump appointed the Supreme Court justices who made it possible, and Trump was arguably the most corrupt and morally degenerate president in history. That claim may or may not be true  the competition for the title is a little stronger than the Reporter acknowledges  but the argument is specious at best. As to the article's later assertion that women will die without Roes protection, one wonders whether the editorial staff of this prominent Catholic magazine are as familiar with their own churchs teaching on life and personhood as they are with Twitter (which has clearly had a baneful effect on otherwise intelligent peoples ability to construct an argument). It would seem not. By the standards of Catholic teaching, women have been dying by the millions for decades thanks to Roe.

Then there is the Reporters patronizing advice to Catholic pro-lifers: Rather than simply shift from advocating for overturning Roe to promoting a federal ban on abortion, Catholics in the pro-life movement must substantially change their tone and tactics. Maybe there are some who see the pro-life goal as merely banning abortion, but I have not met any. The pro-life Catholic movement seems highly committed, for example, to adoption, despite numerous attempts by various people in our current presidents party to make that as difficult as possible.

Of course, much of this sneering at the Dobbs decision is driven by the fact that, as the Reporter indicated, it was made possible by Trump. But that does not justify ingratitude and failure to rejoice at the decision itself. If we were to judge every act by the moral quality of its agents or by the subsequent issues that it raises, we would find ourselves in great difficulties.

Nobody of whom I am aware, for example, regards the liberation of Auschwitz in 1945 as a morally ambiguous thing. No child freed that day was particularly concerned that his liberators were members of the Red Army, acting on Stalins orders. Yet the Red Army was engaged in a military action that, in the long term, would lead to the notorious Iron Curtain dividing Europe. Nobody regards the fall of Hitler as a morally ambiguous thing, even though it was only made possible by the Americans and the British striking a deal with Joseph Stalin. Yes, Trump is obnoxious, but he isnt Stalin, and he did deliver on the abortion issue. Dobbs is a moment for joy.

On the Protestant side, Sojourners could scarcely contain its anger at the decision that it sees as enabling yet more violence against black womens bodies. Of course, Dobbs will disproportionately affect black women because abortion is a scourge of the African American community. But to claim that bodies are in danger and then advocate abortion is to buy into the silliest myth of the pro-abortion lobby, that the baby in the womb is not a body but merely part of the mother. Postmodern feminist gibberish, seasoned with a sprinkling of critical race theory, is these days the Sojourners way.

And then there are the evangelical elites. Late last year, I wrote in The Failure of Evangelical Elites that race and Trump were gifts to American evangelical elites, as they enabled silence on other issues such as abortion and LGBTQ+ matters. One of my critics, David French, has to his credit published a thoughtful piece on Dobbs in the Atlantic, where he rightly accents gratitude while pointing to work still to do.

Yet others continue to confirm my fears. The post-Dobbs silence of Russell Moore, official public theologian at evangelicalisms flagship magazine, Christianity Today, is a case in point. In June 2022, when Roe finally fell and public space in the United States was aggressively queered as never before, neither issue apparently rose to the level of importance that required public comment from the most well-known evangelical public theologian in the country. That is deeply sad and a complete dereliction of duty at a time when so many evangelicals want help in thinking through these matters.

I had always assumed that the LGBTQ+ movement would provide the trigger for the fracturing of American Christianity, not abortion. Yet post-Roe, the early signs are that the latter is performing that task. The coming months will be fascinating, and I suspect rather depressing, to watch. When it comes to abortion, especially after Dobbs, Christians face a choice of social respectability or religious fidelity. And the Christian commentariat already seems divided on which way to go.

Originally published at First Things.
PCUSA's anti-Israel resolution betrays bond between Jews and Christians

The rich heritage of our Christian faith is inseparable from the historical land of Israel, and our deep connection to Israel provides us an unwavering spiritual foundation as followers of Jesus. It is heartbreaking and disappointing when members of our community turn their backs on Israel; sadly, this seems to be all too common these days.



On July 8, the Presbyterian Church USAs (PCUSA) annual General Assembly passed a resolution declaring that the government of Israels laws, policies, and practices toward the Palestinian people fulfill the international legal definition of apartheid.



The resolution compared Israels policies in the West Bank to race relations in South Africa during the apartheid era, further alleging that Israels laws privileged Jewish people over Palestinians and relegated the latter to live in reserves and ghettos. In declaring that Israel had denied its Palestinian residents freedom of residence and the right to a nationality, the committee called on Church members to support ending Israels purported apartheid.



This is not the first time members of the PCUSA have levied such accusations against the state of Israel. Earlier this year, one Church leader described Israels policies toward the Palestinian territories as an occupation and likened it to 21st-century slavery.



The notion that Israel is an apartheid state is abhorrent. The fact is that the Jewish people have experienced almost two thousand years of persecution by those who identify as Christian, and the Jewish State has spent its entire existence threatened by conflict and destruction. Only recently have relations between the Jewish and Christian communities begun to heal; this resolution turns back the clock on all the progress our two communities have made.



By accusing Israel of apartheid, and by ignoring the complexities and historical facts of the present Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the recent decision by the PCUSA is all but asking for the delegitimization and destruction of Israel.



As Christians, we respect the inherent dignity of every person irrespective of their ethnic or religious background. Our faith calls on us to be emphatically pro-humanity. In turn, we must work toward and pray for peace for all the communities who call Israel home as well as their neighbors across the region.



A declaration of Israel as an apartheid state by a prominent Christian church does nothing to realize this peace. Instead, it undercuts the opportunity for peaceful coexistence and betrays our providential calling to be pro-humanity.



And the implications of the PCUSAs resolution go well beyond the Middle East; the reality is that these accusations of apartheid can lend credence to those who seek to  often violently  target the Jewish people.



Let us not forget that the most horrific and violent acts of erasure toward the Jewish people in history, which took place in Nazi Germany before and during World War II, began with the dehumanization and forcible removal of Jews from German society. The PCUSAs resolution, which alleges that Israel has relegated Palestinians to second-class citizens and forced them into ghettos is not only untrue but waters down those very same injustices which Jews faced in interwar Europe.



By effectively accusing the entire Jewish homeland of similar evils as those perpetrated by the Nazis or the apartheid government of South Africa, the PCUSA opens the door for antisemitic hate to live on in the United States.



I have long sounded the alarm about the threat of antisemitism. In 2021, the Anti-Defamation League reported more than 2,700 incidents of antisemitism targeting American Jews, the highest number since the organization began tracking such data in 1979.



It is a poison that the Jewish people have had to deal with for generations. As Christians, we need to be building systems of support to help our Jewish brothers and sisters combat antisemitism. And this is especially true in our churches, where antisemitism has often gone unchallenged.



Antisemitism, including anti-Israel bias, has no place in our churches. It is immoral and should be routinely rejected by Church leaders and community members. The Church cannot go around the wagon on this again. As Christians, we have a moral obligation to stand up solidly for a Jewish State where Jews can feel safe and secure.
home World 142 killed, 3,000 displaced in attacks by suspected Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria



A group of armed men suspected to be radical Fulani herdsmen attacked several villages in Nigerias Plateau State, killing at least 142 people, abducting dozens, mostly women, and displacing more than 3,000 people, according to reports.

Men in large numbers riding motorcycles arrived in Kanam Local Government Area (LGA) of Plateau State in the early morning hours last Sunday when people were preparing their farmlands for the rainy season, the U.K.-based group Christian Solidarity Worldwide said in a statement.

The assailants burned down at least 100 homes, destroyed farmlands, looted barns and stole livestock, and murdered villagers, it said, adding that at least 70 people, mostly women, were abducted.

The communities attacked were Dadda, Dadin Kowa, Dungur, Gyambawu, Gwammadaji, Kukawa, Kyaram, Shuwaka, Wanka and Yelwa.

CSW explained that rumors of an imminent terror attack on the states capital city of Jos led authorities to deploy security personnel in the city, leaving rural areas more vulnerable.

There were also reports of militia men having set up camps in forests in Wase and Kanam LGAs, but no proactive measures were initiated by security agencies to avert these ugly terror attacks, Yusuf Gagdi, a member of the House of Representatives, told The Cable, adding that at least 3,414 people had been displaced.

Kanam (LGA) is a mixed community where Christians and Muslims have been living together for hundreds of years, CSW quoted Benjamin Kwashi, Anglican Archbishop of Jos, as saying.

The two ruling houses, one Christian, one Muslim, have always interchanged. So this is not an issue between either of the communities because they are so mixed that separating them is difficult. This is definitely an unwarranted attack on a very peaceful community. My heart goes out to the families that are bereaved right now, to the wounded, he added.

There has been an increase in attacks by suspected Fulani radicals against farming communities in Nigerias Middle Belt states in recent years that have reportedly led to thousands of deaths.

Weapons are being made available to militants in Nigeria by way of war-torn Libya. And in the countrys Northeast region, the terrorist groups Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province have killed thousands and displaced millions in recent years.

In a report released last year, the Anambra-based International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) estimated that about 10 million people had been uprooted in northern Nigeria, where extremist violence was most severe, from July 2009 to July 2021.

During that time, the report stated, about 2,000 Christian schools were attacked.

The atrocities included massacres, killings, mutilations, torture, maiming, abductions, hostage-taking, rape, girl-child defilements, forced marriages, disappearances, extortions, forceful conversions and destruction or burning of homes and sacred worship and learning centers, Intersociety reported.

Intersociety said the mass violence had resulted from the propagation of radical Islamism.

The U.S.-based persecution watchdog group International Christian Concern warns that the Nigerian government continues to deny any religious motivation behind the attacks.

The Nigerian government, led by President Muhammadu Buhari, who comes from a Fulani background, attributes the violence in the Middle Belt states to decades-old farmer-herder clashes. However, Christian human rights advocates have accused the government of overlooking religious elements and not doing enough to protect Nigerian citizens.

Last year, the U.S. State Department removed Nigeria from its list of countries of particular concern for tolerating or engaging in egregious violations of religious liberty after it was placed on the list in 2020 by the Trump administration. The removal of Nigeria from the list drew backlash from some human rights activists.

Many have raised concerns about what they perceive as the governments inaction in holding terrorists accountable for the rising number of murders and kidnappings, which some groups warn have reached the level of genocide.

ICC identified Nigeria as one of its 2021 Persecutors of the Year.

Nigeria is one of the deadliest places on Earth for Christians, as 50,000 to 70,000 have been killed since 2000, the ICC Persecutor of the Year report states.

Open Doors USA, which monitors persecution in over 60 countries, reported that at least 4,650 Christians were killed between Oct. 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021. That is an increase from 3,530 the previous year. Additionally, more than 2,500 Christians were kidnapped, up from 990 a year earlier.



Originally posted on The Christian Post.
home World Anglican priest warns skies are darkening for religious freedom in Hong Kong



Religious freedom in Hong Kong is facing dangerous threats from the Chinese Communist Party, the Rev. Jonathan Aitken warned as Chinese President Xi Jinping marked the 25th anniversary of the city's handover from Britain to China.

The skies are darkening for religious freedom in Hong Kong, said Aitken, an Anglican priest and former cabinet minister and member of Parliament, during a speech at the National Club in London Wednesday, UCA News reported.

Aitken, 79, said there are increasingly ominous signs that religious freedom in Hong Kong is next on the hit list by the destructive forces of Xi's regime.

Hong Kongs National Security Law, which was imposed by the communist regime two years ago, can leave fundamental freedoms almost completely dismantled, Aitken said.

The law has four categories of crimes: succession, subversion of state power, local terrorist activities and collaborating with foreign or external foreign forces to endanger national security.

The law also positions Beijing as over the Hong Kong judicial system in cases deemed related to national security, the U.S.-based group China Aid reported earlier. This means that the judges in these cases must be Beijing-approved. Hong Kong residents can now also be taken to China, where they will face a courtroom with allegiance to the government.

The rule of law, Aitken said, has been undermined and any meaningful autonomy has been eroded. Many former lawmakers are in prison and Beijing has brutally curtailed press freedom, academic freedom and freedom of expression, he added.

In 1997, China had agreed to a one country, two systems arrangement to allow certain freedoms for Hong Kong when it received the city back from British control. Critics contend the security law undercuts the promised autonomy.

Today, a quarter of a century on from the handover, the whole world came to see that the Chinese communist regime has systematically broken those promises and violated the treaty, he added.

President Xi said Friday that the city's political system as it now exists "must be adhered to over the long run," signaling that China plans to preserve the political model, according to the BBC, which added that the audience comprised of mostly pro-Beijing elite.

"'One country two systems' has been tested and proved time and again, and there is no reason to change such a good system," he said, adding that the system had the "unanimous endorsement" of residents and "widespread approval" by world leaders. Xi further claimed that Hong Kong's "true democracy began" when mainland China regained control.

Xi also defended the policy of only allowing "patriots" to run for office in Hong Kong, saying it was "essential for safeguarding the long-term stability and security of Hong Kong."

"No people in any country or region in the world would ever allow political power to fall into the hands of forces or individuals who do not love, or would even sell out or betray, their own country," he said.

Describing Xi as ideologically a Marxist Nationalist and politically a brutal control freak, Aitken said his regime is particularly hostile to faith groups.

The Chinese communist government is committing genocide against the Uyghurs (a Muslim ethnic minority) of approximately 12 million people heavily concentrated in the Western province of Xinjiang, Dr. Richard Land, president emeritus and an adjunct professor of theology & ethics at Southern Evangelical Seminary, wrote in a recent column for The Christian Post.

Its been estimated that over 1 million residents of Chinas Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region have been detained in internment camps for the alleged purpose of re-education and de-radicalization, wrote Land, who has also served as an executive editor and columnist for The Christian Post since 2011. Those who have fled the region have spoken of the horrors of forced abortions and torture. There is no doubt that the impetus for this crime against humanity started at the very top of the CCP food chain.

China has also often been accused of rights abuses against other religious minorities including Christians, Tibetan Buddhists and Falun Gong practitioners.

Open Doors USA, which covers persecution in over 60 countries, estimates that China has more than 97 million Christians, many of whom worship in unregistered or so-called illegal underground churches.

The five state-sanctioned religious groups in China are the Buddhist Association of China, the Chinese Taoist Association, the Islamic Association of China, the Protestant Three-Self Patriotic Movement and the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association.

Even the organizations within the five authorized religions are subject to surveillance and limitations.

Internet censorship targeting Christians in China, including government-sanctioned Christian groups, is severe.

In April, a well-known Christian website disappeared after serving believers for about 21 years.

In March, it was reported that Chinese authorities had launched a mass training program for more than 100 religious content reviewers to remove non-government religious content from the internet.

This accreditation of over one hundred online religious activity auditors will only continue the crackdown of online religious content and put more Chinese Christians in danger, warned the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern at the time.

China has been labeled for years by the U.S. State Department as a country of particular concern for egregious religious freedom violations.



Originally posted on The Christian Post.
home Faith Archaeology discovery: Medieval Christian prayer beads found on Holy Island



Archaeologists recently uncovered Christian prayer beads dating from the eighth to ninth century on an ancient island in the United Kingdom known as "Holy Island," and say the discovery will give an insight into how people in medieval Britain lived and expressed their faith.

The beads, made from salmon vertebrae, were found clustered around the neck of one of the earliest skeletons, possibly that of a monk, on the island of Lindisfarne, off the northeast coast of England, The Telegraph reported.

Lindisfarne is also the birthplace of the Lindisfarne Gospels, one of the most celebrated illuminated books in the world.

The prayer beads may have been used for personal devotion, according to Dr. David Petts, the project co-director and a Durham University specialist in early Christianity.

We think of the grand ceremonial side of early medieval life in the monasteries and great works like the Lindisfarne Gospels. But what weve got here is something which talks to a much more personal side of early Christianity, he said.

Petts noted that the beads were recognized by Marina Chorro Giner, a zooarchaeologist. This bright, eagle-eyed researcher looked at them and said, actually these arent just fish bones, theyve been modified and turned into something," he said.

The beads were uncovered amid ongoing excavations by an archaeology social enterprise, DigVentures, and Durham University.

Lisa Westcott Wilkins of DigVentures was quoted as saying that the beads were important enough that this person was buried with it.

This is the only artifact from within a grave on Lindisfarne, so its a significant item. As far as were aware, its the first example of prayer beads found anywhere in medieval Britain, she said. We believe these beads were used as a personal object of faith, especially given that our modern word bead comes from the Old English 'gebed,' meaning prayer.

Lindisfarne is one of the most important centers of early English Christianity.

Irish monks settled here in AD 635 and the monastery became the center of a major saints cult celebrating its bishop, Cuthbert, says the British charity English Heritage. The masterpiece now known as the Lindisfarne Gospels was created here in the early eighth century. The ruins now visible are those of a 12th-century priory, which claimed direct descent from the early monastery.



Originally posted on The Christian Post.
home World Burger King apologizes for 'offensive campaign' using Jesus' words at the Last Supper



Burger King has apologized amid backlash from Roman Catholics in Spain for using the words of Jesus at the Last Supper to promote its veggie burger during Holy Week.

The fast-food giant launched a campaign in Spain advertising its veggie burger, The Big King Vegetable. The campaign used the phrase Take all of you and eat of it before noting that the product doesnt have meat and is 100% vegetarian with 100% flavor.

Other advertisements employed the use of the phrase The Flesh of My Flesh, with the word flesh crossed out and replaced with the word vegetable. Although it is headquartered in the United States, Burger King has over 200 restaurants in Spain.

The ad includes the phrase used by Roman Catholic priests at mass during the eucharistic prayer when the celebrant consecrates the Eucharist. The priest repeats the words Jesus said at the Last Supper shortly before his death, where he instituted the Eucharist: Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my body, which will be given up for you.

The ad appeared at bus stops throughout Spain and resulted in significant pushback as Spain's population is nearly 60% Roman Catholic.

Apparently, the loss of culinary taste and the lack of respect for religious sentiments go hand in hand," Bishop Jose Munilla of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orihuela-Alicante tweeted.

A picture of one of Burger King's ads accompanied Munillas tweet.

We apologize to all those who have been offended by our campaign aimed at promoting our vegetable projects at Easter, Burger King Espana posted on Twitter Sunday. Our intention has never been to offend anyone and the immediate withdrawal of the campaign has already been requested.

A petition launched Sunday on CitizenGo called on Burger King International CEO Daniel Schwartz to fire Jorge Carvalho, general manager of Burger King in Spain and Portugal, because of the ad campaign. The petition characterized the campaign as an offense to Christians.

Not everything is good to sell and the use of the words of Jesus Christ as a marketing tool in the midst of the commemoration of his death and resurrection is beyond acceptable, the petition states.

Signatories of the petition indicated that they would never do business with Burger King if the fast-food company did not comply with their request to fire Carvalho. As of Tuesday, the petition amassed more than 28,000 signatures.

The petition condemned Burger King for [mocking] the Eucharist and the death of Christ in the most sacred time for Christians and taking advantage of Holy Week to launch an offensive campaign against the millions of believers in order to get publicity and money.

In the U.S., Burger King has come under fire from conservatives for taking a side in the hot-button LGBT debate. Last year, in honor of LGBT Pride Month, celebrated in June, Burger King donated 40 cents to the LGBT advocacy group Human Rights Campaign for every ChKing sandwich sold.

Some viewed the tweet announcing Burger Kings partnership with the Human Rights Campaign as a veiled swipe at competitor Chick-fil-A, which closes on Sundays and is owned by a conservative Christian family that has voiced support for the traditional definition of marriage between one man and one woman.

Burger King's tweet noted the companys chicken sandwich sales would go to HRC during pride month (even on Sundays).

The fast-food organization made headlines in 2014 for selling a Whopper with a wrapper emblazoned with the rainbow colors that have come to symbolize the LGBT movement and a message on the inside reading, we are all the same inside.



Originally posted on The Christian Post.
home World Christians don't have to affirm transgenderism, but they cant express that view at work: tribunal



A London-based employment tribunal has ruled that the British Equality Act protects Christians beliefs that do not affirm transgenderism, but they cannot express those beliefs in the workplace.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal in London delivered the judgment Wednesday in a case concerning a Christian doctor whose work contract was terminated over his refusal to refer to a man as a woman.

In July 2018, Dr. David Mackereth, an A&E doctor with 30 years of experience, was forced out of his job in the Department of Work and Pensions. He subsequently took his case to the tribunal which ruled that biblical beliefs on gender are incompatible with human dignity and not worthy of respect in a democratic society. The doctor then sought to challenge that ruling.

Wednesdays judgment means that the belief that God created humans as male and female and not transgender is a protected belief under both the Equality Act and the Human Rights Act, said the British charity Christian Concern, whose legal arm, the Christian Legal Centre, represented the Christian doctor.

Furthermore, it means that more narrow beliefs flowing from that core belief, such as that affirming a transgendered person in their gender identity belief is harmful, are also protected. The right not to believe in transgenderism is also protected, Christian Concern added.

Justice Eady said in the ruling, The fact that a belief is likely to cause offense cannot, however, mean that it is automatically excluded from protection.

However, the appeals tribunal also affirmed that while the belief, or lack of belief, in transgenderism was protected, its manifestation in the workplace was qualified.

Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, called the judgment confusing and muddled.

The way in which the judge has driven a wedge between holding a belief and manifesting it means these basic Christian beliefs are protected on paper but not in practice, Williams said.

The freedom to hold a belief, but not be able to express it, is no freedom at all, he added.

Mackereth said he was grateful to the court for at least recognizing that a belief that we are made by God, both male and female in His image is not incompatible with human dignity.

However, he also said he will be taking the case to a higher court.

Mackereth said everyone in the NHS should be able to say publicly without fear that a person cannot change sex, but instead we are being forced to accept a massive change to our concept of the medical reality of sex, with no scientific basis for that change.

He continued: As Christians, we are not trying to be unkind to people in any way. As Christians we are called to love all people with Christian love. But we cannot love people truly when we live and disseminate a lie. If we are to tell patients that they need to follow the science, then we must not tell them that they can change sex.

In 2018, Mackereth was terminated as a medical assessor after refusing to identify clients by their chosen gender identity. In 2019, he took his case to an Employment Tribunal in Birmingham, claiming harassment and discrimination based on his Christian beliefs.

Mackereth said during proceedings that he was asked in a conversation by his line manager: If you have a man 6 foot tall with a beard who says he wants to be addressed as she and Mrs, would you do that? And Mackereth replied that in good conscience, he could not. His contract was subsequently terminated.

But the tribunal ruled in October 2019 that the Department for Work and Pensions had not breached the Equality Act of 2010 by firing the physician, who now works as an NHS emergency doctor.

The tribunals judgment was based on a legal precedent set in the 2010 case of Grainger PLC v. Nicholson which looked at what qualifies as a philosophical belief which is protected under the Equality Act. And the ruling had put Mackereths biblical beliefs on par with neo-Nazi beliefs and was believed to be the first time in the history of English law that a judge had ruled that free citizens must engage in compelled speech.



Originally posted on The Christian Post.
home World Franklin Graham asks Putin and Zelenskyy for a Holy Week ceasefire amid Ukraine invasion



As more than 1,300 civilians have been killed in Russias unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, evangelist Franklin Graham is urging Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to agree on a ceasefire during the 10 days of Easter observances.

I have written to  Putin and to  Zelenskyy asking for a ceasefire from April 15-24, Graham, who heads the international humanitarian organization Samaritans Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, wrote on Facebook on Thursday.

I shared with them that I will be calling on churches in Ukraine, Russia, and around the globe to join together in prayer during those 10 days, wrote Graham, who recently visited Ukraine. May we humbly unite before the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the Prince of Peace, to ask for His help and mercy.

Graham wrote that he hopes that if they can agree to a 10-day ceasefire, then maybe they can stop fighting for two weeks.

If they stop for two weeks, maybe they can stop for a month, he added. If they stop for a month, maybe they can stop for good. Youve got to start somewhere.

Since Russia began its invasion on Feb. 24, at least 1,325 civilians have been killed and 2,017 injured as of a Saturday update from the United Nations. Among those killed are 120 children. Since the invasion began, more than 10 million people in Ukraine have been forced to flee their homes.

Graham, the son of legendary evangelist Billy Graham, said the deadly conflict is a man-made disaster, a historic humanitarian crisis. He believes God is the only solution.

In an interview with The Christian Post last month, Graham discussed Samaritans Purses efforts to minister to help Ukrainians fleeing the regions of their country targeted by Russia for western Ukraine.

The organization has established a field hospital in western Ukraine. The North Carolina-based charity is operating medical clinics and distributing relief items through 3,000 church partners in Ukraine and Moldova. The charity has made five airlifts, delivering more than 185 tons of supplies since March 4.

Youve got people that are diabetic, youve got people with heart conditions, high blood pressure, all of these kinds of things are just normal everyday problems of life, Graham said. On top of that, you have a lot of people that  have been wounded  due to the shelling. And so, you have to throw that into the mix.

Among the medical clinics Samaritans Purse has established is a 24-hour clinic at a train station in Lviv and another at a bus station in the city. A third clinic is located in Chernivtsi in southwest Ukraine.

Samaritans Purse has over 150 staff members in the region and treats over 100 patients per day. The organization has seen more than 2,400 patients across all of its medical sites as of last week.

The organization plans to set up a second emergency field hospital near the front lines of the conflict.

Graham has received scrutiny in the media for his past meetings with Russian religious and government leaders.

When I go to Russia, were not there for political reasons, Graham said. Were there for spiritual reasons.  We want to have an impact with the churches. Russias the largest landmass in the world, and  they go from one time zone to the other.  This is a huge country and we ought to try to help the churches as best we can.

Graham, who met Putin in 2015, attributed his past meetings with Putin and Russian leaders to a desire to try to be a positive force in Russia to benefit the work of evangelicals and try to improve the relations with churches.

If we dont go and if we dont talk to them, then nothing happens, Graham stated.

Although Graham has met with Russian leaders in the past, he took action in opposition to Russian policies that impact religious freedom.

In 2016, he moved the World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians that was initially scheduled to take place in Moscow out of Russia in opposition to a law that severely limits the freedom to evangelize in public.

Specifically, the law banned evangelism outside of churches, which restricted missionary activities in residential neighborhoods. The law also required Christians to obtain government permission before they can share their faith with others publicly.

Graham rescheduled the summit for Washington, D.C., in May 2017.

In Russia, police have arrested thousands of protesters who have demonstrated against the invasion amid widespread censorship of social media and news outlets.

More than 280 priests and deacons of the Russian Orthodox Church and over 400 ministers of Evangelical churches in Russia have called for reconciliation and an immediate end to Russias ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

In his Facebook post, Graham urged Christians worldwide to pray for God to work in the hearts of leaders involved and to intervene and bring peace and an end to the conflict.

I pray there will be an end to this horrible conflict even sooner  Today! he wrote. But if not, maybe this could be a starting point. Will you join me in this prayer?



Originally posted on The Christian Post.
Chinese premier stresses consolidating recovery, bringing economy back on track

Xinhua) 09:16, July 15, 2022

BEIJING, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has stressed consolidating the foundation of economic recovery, calling for efforts to bring the economy back on normal track as soon as possible and keep it running in a reasonable range.

Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks while presiding over a symposium on the economic situation attended by economists and entrepreneurs on Tuesday.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)
Federal raid connected with "erratic" student who made false allegations against Olivet University

In April 2022, Newsweek surprised its readers by reporting about a 2021 federal raid and accusations of human trafficking at a Christian university in California. But in an even more surprising turn of events, sources have now revealed to HNGN that the Newsweek CEO, Dev Pragad, personally contacted former students seeking information about a "troublesome" coed at the same university. Thanks to a tip from a Newsweek reporter himself, the girl has been identified by HNGN as the primary "trigger" of the human trafficking investigation.



The girl, Rebecca Singh, flunked out of Olivet, sources say, before linking arms with an extortion network in a desperate play to achieve U.S. permanent resident status.



Now new evidence directly links CEO Pragad to this extortion network of ex-students providing false testimonies about the school to the U.S. government in exchange for Green Cards.



A revealing text message and social media message from the Newsweek CEO to former university students come amidst increasing scrutiny about Newsweek's newsroom independence following the threats Newsweek CEO Dev Pragad made to weaponize the newsroom against shareholder Johnathan Davis.



Pragad's expressed aim is to force Davis to give up his shares of Newsweek. Pragad isn't willing to take "no" for an answer, and has threatened to go "nuclear" against Davis and anyone else who stood in his way.



One would have likely taken Pragad's words as the rantings of a madman but Pragad proved that he was not deranged, but rather a dangerous person to cross paths with, as the story published by Newsweek in April was the first among many salvos that would be fired from Newsweek against Davis, against Olivet University (Davis' wife was the former president of the university), and against others that stood in the way of his greed.



Pragad tapped freelance reporter Naveed Jamali -- an ex-FBI double agent who once argued that the "Muslim Brotherhood" should "not" be labeled a "terrorist group" -- to produce a steady stream of additional pieces attacking the Christian university.



Now additional new information indicates that in their hit pieces, Newsweek has relied on false accusations from former Olivet University students, to falsely accuse the university of "human trafficking," among other things.

Who was the source of the human trafficking charge?

After the story of the raid broke on Newsweek, many people were curious about the credibility and identity of sources of the "human trafficking" and "visa fraud" allegations against the university. Since the Department of Homeland Security did not name these sources, this fell upon Newsweek to verify their identities for credibility.



Now HNGN has been provided with an email to Olivet University from Newsweek reporter Alex Rouhandeh dated July 13, 2022, stating that a 911 call in March of 2018 "triggered" the federal government to investigate the university.



HNGN has learned that this 911 call was made on behalf of Singh, a former Olivet student, who was in the process of being removed from the campus for unethical behavior and academic failure. She also conspired with other former students to form an "evil network" to make false accusations and threats against the university, various sources corroborated.



After seeing this recent Newsweek email, HNGN is now able to connect the dots from the federal raid to these former Olivet University students, their "evil network," and their false accusations against Olivet. Specifically, Singh and former students from Venezuela made false statements about Olivet University to the United States federal government, which resulted in the campus raid that took place on April 21, 2021.

Bad source Rebecca Singh's "erratic" and "troublesome" behavior

According to sources, Ms. Singh had engaged in "erratic" and "troublesome" behavior during her time at Olivet's campus, prior to making false allegations that resulted in the federal raid of Olivet University.



An Olivet alumnus shared with HNGN under the condition of anonymity, due to fear of retribution and harassment by the Newsweek CEO and his team of reporters, that Singh often stole money and personal items from other students. And although Ms. Singh had come to the U.S. from India on an international student visa, which requires students to stay at the campus where they study, she would often create fake doctor's notes as an excuse to avoid classes and travel to other states, the alumnus told HNGN. Additionally, Singh often kept her dorm-mates up all night with incessant, loud music despite their pleas.



For these and other misdeeds, in addition to failing academic performance, Singh was suspended and required to return home to India, according to the Olivet alumnus.



Yet prior to being removed from campus, Ms. Singh attempted to stay longer in the U.S. by transferring to another college. And on the final day of her removal from campus, Singh "bizarrely" requested a 911 phone call to be made on behalf of her welfare, according to sources. This was done despite comfortable arrangements for transporting her to the airport, which was confirmed by police.



After finally leaving the campus, Singh later provided false allegations to the federal government that led to a raid on Olivet University.

Former students extort school, give false testimony in exchange for U.S. green card offers.

Another Olivet alumnus revealed that after leaving Olivet's campus, Singh made a pact with former Olivet students living in Venezuela, agreeing to make false accusations against the university together.



According to the alumnus, these former students from Venezuela also extorted money from the university. The father of one of these students warned that they had formed a "malicious" network, and that the U.S. government had been misled into offering them green cards in exchange for false accusations against Olivet. They demanded money under the threat of providing false statements to the U.S. government against Olivet.



The former students from Venezuela also fabricated a story about their passports being "confiscated" while they were "imprisoned" in the campus. The alumnus said that these accusations were completely untrue and "made up out of thin air," and that the campus atmosphere was both supportive and friendly according to their experience.



Nonetheless, this "malicious" network of former students eventually provided the false accusations of "human trafficking" and "visa fraud" to the federal government that led to the raid on Olivet University, which was confirmed by the Newsweek reporter's recent email connecting this raid with Singh. And according to the email, this "malicious" network continues to make more false allegations to this day.

Newsweek CEO Dev Pragad personally contacted these bad sources, according to evidence

After Newsweek wrote the April 22 article alleging "human trafficking" and "visa fraud" at Olivet University, Newsweek CEO Dev Pragad immediately reached out to sources behind those allegations, according to a text message and social media message seen by this reporter. This connection was made possible by Pragad's personal involvement with the subject matter of the story, as well as Pragad's personal connection with people in India who know Singh. Pragad provided these sources to Newsweek reporters.



In the quote below that was shared and verified by HNGN, Pragad is seen searching for the full name and contact information of a person named 'Mohna' through various Indian intermediaries. This same 'Mohna' is the relative of Ms. Singh who was the source of false allegations against the university that resulted in a federal raid.



"Hi Claude, do you know Nithin and Mohna's full names? They were both in Riverside."

- Newsweek CEO Dev Pragad. Mohna is a cousin of Rebecca Singh. Riverside refers to Olivet's campus. Text message from May 2, 2022, soon after Newsweek's article publication.



"Hi Moses, I'd like to talk to you about this and understand your experience in Riverside."

- Message on LinkedIn from Newsweek CEO Dev Pragad to a former Olivet University student. Dated April 25, 2022, with a link to Newsweek's story published days earlier.



This follows a broader pattern of the Newsweek newsroom being fed information from Mr. Pragad.



For example, soon after Pragad told various sources that he was ready to unleash his newsroom against Davis -- the shareholder Pragad is attempting to oust from Newsweek -- and against Davis' associates in an effort to control the company, Newsweek wrote on April 22 that Olivet was linked to "human trafficking" and that a raid occurred at its campuses.



While this raid story was not published anywhere else, the story was published on Newsweek as headline news. This is consistent with Pragad's threat made one month before publication: "I'll go to media about OU raid by DHS for human trafficking etc to protect myself as well as defend myself legally," Pragad warned in March 2022.

Misrepresentation of Christian Education, Shelter for the Persecuted

According to the Olivet alumnus, Olivet University serves young men and women from around the world by providing Christian education, especially for students who have no other way to access Christian education due to religious persecution in their home country.



"Olivet University is a shelter for the persecuted, one of the most peaceful and safe campuses, where Christians can study and be trained" said the alumnus.



Olivet's educational program includes biblical and theological classes, along with Christian worship services and opportunities to learn practical church planting skills. However, these educational and religious programs have been misconstrued by a handful of "malicious" former students as "human trafficking" and "visa fraud," according to the alumnus.



"This is a complete misrepresentation of Olivet's beautiful Christian educational programs that have immense benefits for students," shared the Olivet alumnus. "I personally know so many happy and successful graduates who have become missionaries and pastors and ministry workers, so why is the U.S. government allowing itself to be deceived by these false accusations?"

Related Articles:





@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
home World French Guyana: Pastor shot dead, church set on fire after meeting delegation of Evangelicals



The pastor of an Evangelical church in French Guyana was shot to death and his church burned down the day after he met with a delegation from the National Council of Evangelicals in France that was visiting to discuss the implementation of a law on separatism, according to a report.

The 44-year-old slain pastor, identified as Pastor A. Kalloe of the Gado Lobi church in the town of Saint-Laurent du Maroni, was a member of the Guyana branch of the National Council of Evangelicals in France, or CNEF, according to the Evangelical Focus Europe, which said his church was also set on fire and destroyed a few hours after the shooting Tuesday night.

At least seven other people, including two sons of Pastor Kalloe, were injured in the shooting and two others were taken to a hospital in critical condition, it added.

Clement Diedrichs, the CNEF director, was quoted as saying that when he reached the spot, the church was still smoking.

I had never seen a church totally destroyed by fire, we are completely puzzled, Diedrichs said, adding that the pastor was very involved in his church and community.

All our prayers and fraternal condolences to the family and loved ones of this brother in Christ, the CNEF wrote on Facebook.

A local politician, Lenaick Adam, recalled that Kalloe was a man of faith, adding that he supported me in my political battles.

I honor his memory, my sincere condolences to his family. I wish the injured a speedy recovery. May the perpetrators be quickly found, he said.

French Guyana, also spelled as French Guiana, is governed by the provisions of the French constitution, which sees it as an integral part of the French Republic. There have been protests against a lack of investment from the mainland.



The CNEF delegation was in French Guyana to discuss the implementation of the French separatism law, which seeks to combat Islamist separatism as the enemy of the Republic.



Originally posted on The Christian Post.
home World Islamic State kills 20 Nigerian Christians as revenge for US airstrike



The Islamic State terror group has released a video showing the execution of about 20 Christian civilians in Nigerias Borno State in revenge for the killing of their leader in Syria by the United States special forces in February, according to reports.

The video, published on an IS-linked news outlet, shows a masked militant executing a Christian civilian while saying it is revenge for the killing of their leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, an Iraqi Islamic terrorist and the second caliph of the Islamic State.

The video shows three groups of captives in civilian clothes, according to Nigerias newspaper The Guardian.

The SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S.-based group that tracks the online activity of jihadist organizations, has confirmed the video's authenticity.



Weapons are being made available to militants in Nigeria through war-torn Libya. And in the countrys Northeast region, the terrorist groups Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province, as the IS group is known in Nigeria, have killed thousands and displaced millions in recent years.

In a separate attack last week, unidentified gunmen stormed a Catholic parish in northern Nigeria and abducted two priests, identified as Fr. Stephen Ojapa and Fr. Oliver Okpara from the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, and two unidentified boys from St. Patrick Catholic Church in Gidan Maikambo area of Katsina states Kafur Local Government Area, Vatican News reported.

Earlier this month, radical Islamic militants affiliated with either the Islamic Fulani herdsmen or the Islamic State West Africa Province killed at least eight Christians, including children younger than 5, and wounded several others in an attack in Borno state.

The gunmen had AK-47 rifles and shouted, Allah Akbar [Allah is the greatest] while firing indiscriminately, according to the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern.

In a report released last year, the Anambra-based International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) estimated that about 10 million people had been uprooted in northern Nigeria, where extremist violence was most severe, from July 2009 to July 2021.

The report added that about 2,000 Christian schools were attacked during that time.

The atrocities included massacres, killings, mutilations, torture, maiming, abductions, hostage-taking, rape, girl-child defilements, forced marriages, disappearances, extortions, forceful conversions and destruction or burning of homes and sacred worship and learning centers, Intersociety reported.

Intersociety said the mass violence had resulted from the propagation of radical Islamism.

The Nigerian government, led by President Muhammadu Buhari, who comes from a Fulani background, attributes the violence in the Middle Belt states to decades-old farmer-herder clashes. However, Christian human rights advocates have accused the government of overlooking religious elements and not doing enough to protect Nigerian citizens.

Many have raised concerns about what they perceive as the governments inaction in holding terrorists accountable for the rising number of murders and kidnappings, which some groups warn have reached the level of genocide.

Open Doors USA, which monitors persecution in over 60 countries, reported that at least 4,650 Christians were killed between Oct. 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021. That is an increase from 3,530 the previous year. Additionally, more than 2,500 Christians were kidnapped, up from 990 a year earlier.





Originally posted on The Christian Post.
home World Leah Sharibu held captive over 1,500 days in Nigeria, but family advocates haven't lost hope



For more than 1,500 days, Nigerian Christian teenager Leah Sharibu has been held captive by the Boko Haram terrorist group as Christians continue to be the target of attacks in the West African nation.

Gloria Puldu-Samdi, who was with Sharibus family in early May, told The Christian Post in a recent phone interview that despite little tangible hope, they're continuing the search for their daughter, who turned 19 on May 14, marking her fifth birthday in captivity.

Late March marked 1,500 days that Shariby has been in captivity. According to reports, it's unlikely that she would be able to escape because she's ordered to stay near Boko Haram commanders. Because of this, it's been claimed that even a military rescue mission would fail.

Abducted at age 15, along with around 110 other girls from a school in Dapchi in February 2018, Sharibu is now believed to have given birth to two children fathered by Boko Haram militants.

Puldu-Samdi, who leads the LEAH Foundation in honor of the Nigerian teenager whose example of courageous faith has inspired many worldwide, continues to advocate for her release. It has been widely reported that Sharibu has refused to deny Jesus Christ and refused to embrace Islam. That is reportedly why she remains in captivity.

The purpose of creating it is so that we can advocate for her, and for other women and girls who are persecuted for their faith and denied education, who have to pay a great price because of who they have chosen to be or who God has made them as women, Puldu-Samdi said. Its painful to see my people denied education, to see my people denied the right to have religious freedom, to see my communities destroyed.

Puldu-Samdi has many sisters, and her father, who is both Christian and educated, saw the value of girls receiving an education. For her, Sharibu is emblematic of every woman and girl who has been persecuted. Her ordeal and bravery in refusing to renounce Christ in the face of her terrorist captors is recounted in a book Puldu-Samdi co-authored with Peter Fretheim, titled Leah Hero For Jesus: The Real-Life Story of Leah Sharibu.

Her parents continue to call for prayer  that the Lord would keep her faith, her faith that is in her heart, that His presence will be with her," Puldu-Samdi said. "That even if she is forced to wear all the [hijab andabaya] things to show that they have forced her to change, that her heart would be hidden and that her heart would be strong and remain firmly, that she will always have the presence of the Lord. And pray for the release of this young child, that she would be able to get her freedom and that her parents would be strengthened.

Nigeria is increasingly imperiled politically, and attacks on Christian communities by terrorist groups and radical Fulani herders continue to escalate year after year, Puldu-Samdi added. She lamented the lack of attention the rise in violence is receiving worldwide.



On a daily basis, it is saddening, Puldu-Samdi said of the situation in Nigeria.

And Im saddened by what is happening in the situation in Ukraine and other places, but we can see and hear the support that Ukraine is getting. But why is the Nigerian Church being destroyed and the governments of the world are not holding the Nigerian government accountable? Why is every international body, the United Nations silent about what is happening in Nigeria? Why have they not investigated?

Under the Trump administration in 2020, Nigeria was placed on the U.S. State Departments countries of particular concern list. The CPC designation is placed on countries that allow severe violations of religious freedom under the International Religious Freedom Act.

The Biden administration lifted the CDC designation from Nigeria in 2021, drawing criticism from Christian human rights advocates and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Puldu-Samdi has been advocating for Nigeria be placed back on the CPC list, particularly as the persecution of Christians intensifies.

She highlighted reports about Christian student Deborah Samuel who was brutally murdered by stoning and beating with sticks in the northern Sokoto state of Nigeria. Her Muslim classmates had accused her of blaspheming the Islamic prophet Muhammed. While video footage of the gruesome murder circulated online in mid-May as though it had just happened, a Reuters fact check has since claimed that the footage is from August 2021.



Events like these are increasingly common in the villages in the region and are escalating, Puldu-Samdi added, lamenting how the world has largely ignored the plight of Christians in Nigeria.

As Nigeria prepares for a presidential election in 2023, Puldu-Samdi said she and others fear the country might implode. And some believe, according to national intelligence reports, that war in the nation is imminent.

Open Doors USA, a watchdog organization that monitors persecution in over 60 countries, ranks Nigeria as the seventh worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution. Open Doors reports that Christians in northern Nigeria live under the threat of radical Islamic groups like Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province, Fulani militants and other criminals who kidnap and murder Christians were "few consequences."

Christians in some northern states live under Shariah law and are treated as "second-class citizens," Open Doors reports in a fact sheet.



Originally posted on The Christian Post.
home Faith Man who served 33 years in prison for murder leads inmates to Christ



A man who served 33 years in prison for a murder he committed in 1987 has since helped lead hundreds of other inmates to faith in Jesus Christ through his work with a prison ministry.

Stanley Stever, a 52-year-old former inmate, has worked with Kindway, a Christian prison ministry based in Westerville, Ohio, founded in 2009.

In an interview with The Christian Post, Stever said he believes that God has forgiven him for the murder he committed and that there is hope for others who have committed crimes to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.

"Becoming a Christian was almost like being a recipient of a heart transplant, and it gave me the ability to come to the understanding that I have a new heart. And with that new heart, there's a new responsibility," Stever said.

Stever became a Christian in 1999 while still imprisoned at the Marion Correctional Institution in Marion County. Since he started telling other inmates about his testimony, Stever said he found healing. He said it's amazing to see how many lives he has changed through his redemption story.

"I've heard it said several times that 'forgiveness is not forgetfulness.' This means that you overcome the enemy by the blood of the lamb and the words of your testimony," Stever said.

"But, don't ever forget the things that the enemy did through you, in order that you might show the power of Christ to others in the Word through Him."

Looking back on his troubled past, Stever believes that many factors led him to kill another person.

He said he had deep anger that he kept bottled inside as a teenager. He said he was also bullied, which meant he was isolated from his peers in school.

"It was always the name-calling. I was a bigger kid. My name is Stanley Stever. So, they called me 'Stanley Steamer.' I became the joke of the school. And every day I went to school, I hated it," Stever recalled.

"I would physically get sick walking into school because of the anxiety that I had about going to school and knowing that I was going to be teased and belittled the whole day. And really, that's when the anger and the rage first started, which changed my mindset as a child."

'Sticks and stones will break your bones'

Growing up in Northern Sycamore, Ohio, Stever had six sisters and one brother. He remembers his mother and father were workaholics. He considered them "old school" because they thought that the more money they could bring in, the better off the family would be.

In his younger years, Stever said the relationship with his mother was great, and he looked up to her as a role model because of her selflessness.

"But to have a role model, you have to be a willing vessel in that also, and I wasn't a willing vessel," Stever recalled.

Stever said his father was another role model who respected women and loved his family. However, Stever said his father never disciplined him.

"Whenever I would fall short or do anything wrong, it would be, you know, 'boys will be boys' [or] 'he'll grow out of it.' He didn't have a clue what I was going through," Stever said.

"I guess you would call it a normal childhood, except for the different things that would happen at school," he added. "I felt like everybody was always making fun of me and was always belittling me.  I was always in turmoil."

Being raised in the '70s, Stever said, didn't help his life at school because counseling and in-school intervention for bullying were not common during that time.

"The tagline for that generation was 'sticks and stones will break your bones, but names will never hurt you' and 'knuckle up and be a man.' And these are the things that they would tell the young boys that were going through it," Stever said.

"I alienated myself. I didn't like people. I didn't like being around people. I brought a lot of that on because of what I was going through because I had no idea how to deal with it."

As Stever reached his mid-adolescence and started attending high school, the bullying continued. To mask his pain, Stever turned to drugs and alcohol.

"I would do just about anything that was put in front of me: from marijuana to beer to whiskey, cocaine, LSD, weapons and wet. I hated myself and I hated everything about me and I would do anything to get rid of that pain," Stever detailed.

"The anger and the violence kept building inside, and I had no release out of that, and when you have no relief out of that, you start isolating yourself and you start hating who you are."

'I could be whoever I wanted to be'

Doing drugs and alcohol, Stever said, made him feel as though he could leave his pain behind for short periods, telling CP that "it let me not be the person that I hated."

"And not being that person, I became someone that I could make up. At the drop of a hat, I could be whoever I wanted to be that day. I could be the mean, hateful, resentful guy. I became a chameleon," Stever recounted.

"And then, there was also the selfishness, the self-desires  everything that goes along with that part of a life attaches itself to you, and it attached itself to me."

About two years later, at age 17, Stever's bottled-up anger turned to rage and led him to commit a murder. After his arrest and during the trial, Stever turned 18.

As a result, he was tried as an adult and sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. He wound up serving 33 years before his release in October 2020.

When Stever thinks back on his crime, he thinks about how he didn't have an outlet to properly release his anger during his youth, noting that he "had no idea what life was."

"I said in my testimony that 'I wasn't born a murderer.' I didn't wake up one day thinking, 'you know what, I'm going to take someone's life today.' That's not who I am," Stever shared.

"The reasoning behind what I did is [that] I was a child with no sense of direction, with no supervision, with no identity, with no respect for life. And if you add all of that up, it's a recipe for tragic results. And that's what happened."

Something 'contagious'

During Stever's time at Marion Correctional Institution, he joined a neo-Nazi gang called the Aryan Brotherhood to find protection and a sense of community behind bars.

After a decade of being a gang member within prison walls, Stever said the gang leader came to know Christ through a four-day Christian retreat for inmates from Kairos Prison Ministry International.

Stever said there was something "contagious" about the change he saw in the ex-gang boss, which led him to attend a Kairos four-day Christian retreat.

For the first time in his life, Stever learned about the concept of forgiveness. Shortly after that, he accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior on Oct. 31, 1999.

Stever began working with Kindway while in prison. He eventually met his wife, Amy, through the prison ministry. The couple married in 2012.

Stever will continue to disciple inmates through Kindway for as long as he can, saying it's "awesome to bring the love of God into other people's lives."

"We've actually expanded the prison ministry into a reentry ministry that helps the men and women transition from prison out into society and become successful," Stever said.

"My job involves going in and working with incarcerated men and women, and we meet them where they are and help them work through their past. And then, we help them transition back into communities. It brings peace to my spirit to know that I am making a difference, one person at a time."



Originally posted on The Christian Post.






home World Nigerian student beaten to death, body burned over blasphemous WhatsApp message



A 25-year-old Christian student in Nigerias Sokoto State was beaten to death and her body burned after her Muslim classmates purportedly found a blasphemous message she had sent to a school WhatsApp group, according to a persecution watchdog.

The victim, identified as Deborah Emmanuel, who was also a member of the Evangelical Church Winning All and a student at the Shehu Shagari College of Education, was killed Thursday, the U.S.-based group International Christian Concern reported, adding that a video of her killing went viral on social media (a portion of the attack can be seen here).

Deborah, who lived with her parents in Sokoto, apparently got into an argument with her female classmates after sending a WhatsApp message her classmates interpreted as blasphemous, ICC said.

The video posted on social media shows her lying still on the ground as she tried to protect her head with her left arm as male and female students gathered around, beating her with sticks, throwing large stones, and shouting, Allahu Akbar, or Allah is greater. She pleaded with her classmates not to kill her.

School authorities reportedly attempted to save her but could not reach her.

Muslim students and teachers dont like Christians in the school, a student from the school was quoted as saying.

Since the attack, Muslim students have blocked the road to the school and Deborahs house, making it difficult for Christians to move around, the source said.

Nigerias Christians are routinely targeted, kidnapped and even killed by Islamic militants, including radical Islamic Fulani herdsmen and terror groups Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province.

Last December, Islamic Fulani radicals killed the Rev. Dauda Bature, a pastor from the same denomination in Kaduna state, a month after abducting him and despite a ransom payment being made.

The pastors wife told church leaders that her husband preached about Christ to his captors and prayed for their repentance, which made them angry and might have contributed to their decision to kill him.

In 2021, ICC designated Nigeria as one of the world's top Persecutors of the Year for its savage treatment of Christians.

Nigeria is one of the deadliest places on Earth for Christians, as 50,000 to 70,000 have been killed since 2000, the ICC Persecutor of the Year report stated.

Open Doors USA, which monitors persecution in over 60 countries, reported that at least 4,650 Christians were killed between Oct. 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021. That is an increase from 3,530 the previous year. Additionally, more than 2,500 Christians were kidnapped, up from 990 a year earlier.

In a report released last year, the Anambra-based International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) estimated that about 10 million people had been uprooted in northern Nigeria, where extremist violence was most severe, from July 2009 to July 2021.

The report added that about 2,000 Christian schools were attacked during that time.

The atrocities included: massacres, killings, mutilations, torture, maiming, abductions, hostage-taking, rape, girl-child defilements, forced marriages, disappearances, extortions, forceful conversions and destruction or burning of homes and sacred worship and learning centers.

Intersociety said the mass violence had resulted from the propagation of radical Islamism.



Originally posted on The Christian Post.






home World Over 50 killed in 'vile and satanic' attack at Nigerian church on Pentecost Sunday



Gunmen suspected to be Islamic Fulani herdsmen barged into a Catholic Church in southwestern Nigeria, opened fire and detonated explosives while the congregation was celebrating Mass on Pentecost Sunday, killing at least 50 worshipers, including women and children. It's feared that some Christians were also abducted after the attack.

After the gunmen stopped shooting and the aftermath of the explosions was visible at St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, it was a gory sight as dead bodies, both old and young, mostly women and children littered the church, the Nigerian daily The Guardian reported. Some bodies were dismembered with internal organs splashed on the temple ground.

The Rev. Andrew Abayomi, who led the Mass, was quoted as saying, We asked the people to seek refuge inside the church and we locked the doors. Some people still tried to escape; the attack was on for about 20 minutes.

A doctor told reporters that at least 50 bodies had been moved to the main government hospital in Owo and to St. Louis Catholic Hospital.

I was moved to tears when I saw a little boy that I used to hold his hands to school every morning lying down dead, among many others," one witness recalled. "What have we done wrong? Is it a crime to go to church to serve our God?

The witness said the gunmen, who are believed to be radical Fulani herders, got into the church from different angles, shot indiscriminately at the congregants and detonated what appeared to be dynamite.

Another witness was quoted as saying that some church members were abducted and their whereabouts is unknown.

Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu wrote on Twitter: This vile and satanic attack is a calculated assault on the peace-loving people of Owo Kingdom who have enjoyed relative peace over the years.  I appeal to our people to maintain calm and let the security agencies take charge  the perpetrators will never escape. We are after them. And I can assure you we will get them.

Pope Francis offered his condolences to the victims and their family members.

The pope has learned of the attack on the church in Ondo, Nigeria, and the deaths of dozens of worshipers, many children, during the celebration of Pentecost, the pope said in a statement. While the details are being clarified, Pope Francis prays for the victims and the country, painfully affected at a time of celebration, and entrusts them both to the Lord so that he may send his Spirit to console them.

In southwestern Nigeria, such attacks are not common. Violence related to Islamic insurgency is frequent in the northeast, and bandits often attack and abduct people for ransom in the northwest.

Open Doors USA, which monitors persecution in over 60 countries, reported that at least 4,650 Christians were killed between Oct. 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021. That is an increase from 3,530 the previous year. Additionally, more than 2,500 Christians were kidnapped, up from 990 a year earlier.



Originally posted on The Christian Post.
home US Presbyterian Church in America votes to leave National Association of Evangelicals



The Presbyterian Church in America has voted to leave the National Association of Evangelicals due to the interdenominational groups history of public policy advocacy.

At the PCA General Assembly on Wednesday, the theologically conservative Presbyterian denomination voted 1,030 to 699 in favor of overture calling for them to leave the NAE.

Known as Overture 3, or Withdraw from the National Association of Evangelicals, the measure had originally passed the South Carolina-based PCA Pee Dee Presbytery at their stated meeting last October.



To justify leaving the NAE, the overture quoted the Chapter 31 of the Westminster Confession of Faith, which says councils and synods are not to intermeddle with civil affairs which concern the commonwealth, unless by way of humble petition in cases extraordinary; or, by the way of advice, for satisfaction of conscience, if they be thereunto required by the civil magistrate.

[T]he NAE has frequently intermeddled in civil affairs, by publicly pushing for action on the environment, immigration, and has changed its original stance on the death penalty, reads the overture.

The measure also cited as a concern the NAEs passage of a resolution in 2018 titled Fairness for All in which the Evangelical group expressed support for anti-discrimination laws on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, provided they included robust religious liberty protections.

[M]any prominent conservative and evangelical thinkers and leaders have denounced this compromise as not leading to fairness for all who uphold biblical teaching on sexuality and marriage, but rather attempts to guarantee religious freedom for some organizations and institutions while potentially undermining the pre-political religious freedoms of all Americans codified in the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, continued the PCA overture.

The overture also concluded that PCA has no need of the benefits of membership in the NAE, especially of having a voice in Washington championing political concerns that would not even be permitted as a subject of discussion before its councils, let alone be adopted as positions.

At present, the NAE boasts around 40 different member denominations and church networks, with their online list, accessed by The Christian Post on Thursday afternoon, still including PCA.

Other member entities include the Assemblies of God, ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians, the Salvation Army, the Wesleyan Church, and the Christian and Missionary Alliance.

The decision comes as the current NAE president is a pastor ordained in the PCA, Korean American Pastor Walter Kim of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Named as the new president in October 2019 and taking office on New Years Day 2020, Kim became the first person of color to serve as president of the prominent Evangelical organization.



Originally posted on The Christian Post.
home Faith Secular intolerance of Christians' views is leading to self-censorship, report warns



Secular intolerance has a chilling effect on Christians who are having to practice various forms of self-censorship as they're finding it difficult to express their faith freely in society, according to a new report detailing accounts from four countries.

Secular intolerance has a chilling effect on Christians, which directly affects their capacity to express their faith freely in society and is leading to various forms of self-censorship, says the report, titled Perceptions on Self-Censorship: Confirming and Understanding the Chilling Effect, which includes case studies from France, Germany, Colombia and Mexico.

Some people do indeed fear being subjected to legal proceedings or being criminally sanctioned on charges of discrimination, while others fear being subjected to disciplinary proceedings in their work or places, notes the study, compiled by the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe, the Observatory of Religious Freedom in Latin America and the International Institute for Religious Freedom.

With some exceptions, the majority chose to keep its expressions of faith or its opinions on issues related to life, marriage and the family from a Christian doctrine perspective private because they had witnessed sanctions or prosecutions to which colleagues or peers had been subjected, it adds.

Many incidents cited in the report might seem insignificant, the authors say, but these many small things together cause death by a thousand cuts.

A few cuts do not kill you and barely hurt. But continuous small strikes eventually have an impact. We posit that the accumulation of seemingly insignificant incidents creates an environment in which Christians do not feel comfortable  to some degree  to live their faith freely. Indeed, Western Christians experience a chilling effect resulting from perceived pressures in their cultural environment, related to widely mediatized court cases.

Further, the study observes, Because of the subtle and generally non-physically violent nature of the chilling effect, it is often misunderstood or even ignored and therefore largely remains invisible.

This is the main reason why the phenomenon is not recognized in religious freedom datasets such as the Pew Research Center indexes, the authors add.

The report also warns this form of censorship is not only limiting peoples exercise of religion or their right to manifest their convictions, but also that these violations to the right to religious freedom can cause the disappearance of religion in a given context.

Madeleine Enzelberger, executive director of OIDAC Europe, said the study raises the legitimate question of: how is it possible in a mature, liberal democratic society that stands for tolerance, diversity, and inclusive and open discourse, that people are frightened to freely speak their minds? according to Christian Today.

Many Christians interviewed as part of the study did not realize they were self-censoring. In some cases, they had self-censored to the extent that they now stop seeing the characteristics related to self-censorship as a problem.

As one of its conclusions, the study laments that the Church has allowed itself to be self-censored  Christian religious leaders have more freedom to express themselves freely (but they do not always take advantage of it).

To remedy this form of censorship, the authors suggest there's an urgent need to educate policymakers, public servants (including the police) and judges about religion to increase their religious literacy.

We have seen that a high degree of religious illiteracy leads to misunderstanding of how religion informs behavior in different spheres of society and what the legitimate role of religion in the public domain is. Illiteracy therefore can consequently be the cause of practical intolerance against Christians.



Originally posted on The Christian Post.
home Faith South African Satanic Church co-founder steps down after experiencing the love of Christ



Riaan Swiegelaar, now a former "pastor" at the South African Satanic Church, took to social media this past weekend to share that the overwhelming love of Jesus recently inspired him to step away from Satanism.

"I'm doing this live video because many, more than 100 people on WhatsApp and almost 200 on Facebook, are sending me messages wanting to know why did I leave the South African Satanic Church as well as why did I turn my back on Satanism," Swiegelaar shared in a video he uploaded to Facebook on July 4.

The video now has almost 200,000 views.

"To be very honest, I initially thought I will slip out the back door quietly and I didn't really think that people would be this interested in why I am doing what I'm doing. I'm going to talk from my experience. I'm going to talk about my choices."

Swiegelaar penned a long letter that he thought to post, but he opted to speak from the heart instead.

"I actually feel it's time more people just start talking, speaking their truth. So I'm certainly encouraging people to do that as well by doing this video," he said.

Swiegelaar, a professing homosexual who hinted that he was once involved in Christian ministry over 20 years ago, shared that he was drawn to Satanism four years ago amid great brokenness.

At the time, he was an atheist, and the commonality of despair from those in Satanism is what drew him to that community.

"I got involved with Satanism because, at the time, it resonated with me, being very broken and sad without realizing it. I think the reason a lot of people resonate with Satanism is they come from a very broken place," he said. "I have met thousands of Satanists over the last three years, and I'm not saying the intentions are bad. They are extremely broken and extremely hurt. ... That's the one thing we all have in common."

While overwhelmed with emotion, Swiegelaar said he began to have a few experiences with Christians who, without judgment, showed him unconditional love.

"I've never known unconditional love in my whole life and up to today, there's only four Christians in my whole life that have shown me what unconditional love is. I want to thank those four people. Words cannot express what you have done for me," Swiegelaar continued as he named a few of those people.

"To show someone love is everything. It is not a simple thing. You have showed me everything. You have showed me the love of Christ. I have seen it in you," he added.

The former satanist revealed that even when he was a "monster" and an "ugly person," these people still showed him love. He described one of the instances that took place in May.

Swiegelaar was featured on the CapeTalk radio station to give an interview on behalf of the South African Satanic Church. During the interview, he boldly said, "'I don't believe in Jesus and I don't believe Jesus Christ exists.'"

Following the interview, the interviewer from the station approached him.

"She came to me after the interview, after I said that, and she hugged me, and she held me in a way that I've never been loved," Swiegelaar gushed. "That's all she did. She just said it was nice to meet me in person."

"A week later, on WhatsApp, through her status, I saw this woman is a Christian. I've never had a Christian do that," he described. "I've never experienced a Christian show that much love and acceptance unconditionally ... after I said the things I said, she did that. That stayed with me."

The turning point for Swiegelaar came when he had a divine encounter with who he believed to be Jesus during one of his Satanic rituals.

"I did this ritual, and I opened myself up, and Jesus appeared. And I was extremely cocky, and I said, 'If you are Jesus, you need to prove it.' And He flooded me with the most beautiful love and energy. And I recognized it immediately because that woman at the radio station showed it to me. That's how I recognized the love of Christ," he testified.

Because of his lifestyle choices, Swiegelaar shared that he did not believe he was worthy of God's love. Since his encounter, however, he has had "real conversations with God," and said he discovered that "the Kingdom of God is not a gated community, it is open to everybody."

While he is still learning of his newfound faith, Swiegelaar concluded his video by assuring everyone that he will continue to share his journey with Christ.

The Satanic Church of South released a statement following Swiegelaar's resignation and thanked him for his service to the church.

"We, as the SASC Council, want to thank Swiegalaar for his contribution, both as the pastor and the co-founder of the SA Satanic Church. We wish him success in all his future endeavors."





Originally posted on The Christian Post.






home World Uganda: Muslims abduct teacher, burn him inside mosque for praying in Christs name



In Uganda, a Christian teacher was abducted from his home and dragged inside a mosque where he was beaten and burned by his colleagues at an Islamic school who planned to kill him for praying in Jesus' name.

The victim, Yusufu Mwanje, converted to Christianity earlier this year after hearing a Christian businessman who supplied equipment to the school praying to Jesus in his office. Before he lost his job after being outed as a Christian following the April 2 attack, Mwanje had led the Ibunbaz Primary School in Bugiri, Morning Star News reported.

I wanted to keep my faith in Christ secret and began missing Friday prayers as I attended evening prayers at the church, Mwanje said. Some Muslim teachers noticed my absence and reported to the school management board.

Mwanje told the school leadership he had been praying from his house.

At around 3 a.m. on April 1, an unnamed staff person overheard Mwanje praying in Christs name and recorded him. The following morning, the staffer gathered other schoolteachers to eavesdrop on him.



As I finished the prayers at 4:45 a.m. and began preparing to go to the mosque to pray, I heard a knock at the door, Mwanje said. As I opened the door, there were people outside my door. They began shouting, Allah akbar [Allah is greater]! Allah akbar! Allah akbar! This is a kafir [infidel], this is kafirThey grabbed me and took me inside the mosque and started beating me badly and accusing me of heading a Muslim school, yet I had converted to Christianity. Others shouted, A liar, a liar, a liar. ... He deserves the death penalty.

Mwanje continued, I remembered [the supplier] telling me that in times of persecution, I should call on the name of Jesus. As I mentioned the name Jesus in a low voice, one attacker said, Azab Azab, meaning punishment in Arabic. Immediately, two Islamic teachers named Ustaz Hamudan and Hashim Sajabbi brought two old jerry cans and lit them with fire and started burning me with them. It was too painful. I fainted.

An elderly Islamic teacher named Alhaji Bruhan intervened and ordered the men not to kill Mwanje because Allah would kill him. He instructed some to take me to the school clinic for treatment, he said. I then realized that Jesus had come to save me.

Mwanje later called the Christian supplier who took him to a church where he was treated for five days before being transferred to Iganga Hospital, where he is now receiving treatment.

Last month, in a separate attack on a Christian convert in eastern Uganda, a Muslim woman attempted to murder her husband by adding rat poison to his food. Hiire Sadiki had been an Islamic teacher before converting to Christianity, unbeknownst to his wife. After he refused to participate in Ramadan and then overheard him praying in Christ's name, she plotted with other Muslims to kill him by adding poison to his food.

Sadiki is still recovering in a hospital in Butaleja District, Morning Star News reported,

Even though Uganda has a higher percentage of Catholics and Anglicans than Muslims, there are regions where Islam is the dominant religion.

The Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project estimates that about 11.5% of Ugandas population is Muslim, mostly Sunni. Armed attacks and murders of converts are not uncommon in the region.

Radical Islams influence has grown steadily, and many Christians within the majority-Muslim border regions are facing severe persecution, especially those who convert from Islam, a Voice of the Martyrs factsheet notes.

Despite the risks, Evangelical churches in Uganda have responded by reaching out to their neighbors; many churches are training leaders on how to share the Gospel with Muslims and care for those who are persecuted after they become Christians.



Originally posted on The Christian Post.
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russia has abducted almost 200,000 children since the beginning of its invasion of Ukraine.

"It is still being confirmed how many children Russian soldiers abducted and took out of Ukraine," Zelenskyy stated at the Ukraine Accountability Conference in The Hague, Netherlands. According to a statement issued by Ukraine's Presidential Office, "the preliminary figure is horrific - around two hundred thousand youngsters."

Russia Commits Human Rights Violations

In addition to slamming Russia, he claimed that the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies had only registered 34,039 offenses related to Russian aggression. Notably, the conference coincided with Ukraine's efforts to coordinate investigations into alleged war crimes committed by Russian forces.

As of the morning of July 14, almost 349 Ukrainian children had died as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war. The Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine stated on Telegram that the Russian Federation's full-scale military strike has affected over a thousand children in Ukraine. Approximately 652 Ukrainian children have been injured as a result of the fighting.

A Russian missile strike on Vinnytsia's city center on July 14 killed eight persons, including a toddler. The Ukrainian president labeled the Russian military assault in Vinnytsia an "open act of terrorism" against people. In a Telegram post, Zelenskyy condemned Russian soldiers for striking residents in regions "with no military (targets)."

According to a top Ukrainian source, Russian soldiers have abducted the majority of the 7,200 missing Ukrainian servicemen. Oleh Kotenko, Ukraine's Commissioner on Persons Gone Missing Under Special Circumstances, per an interview with Suspilne TV station, those missing included members of the military, security agencies, national guards, and border guards, Republic World reported.

Read Also: COVID-19 Surge Caused by BA.5 Variant Sparks Lockdown Fears in Shanghai, Heatwave Warning Issues

Ukrainian Children Are Most Affected in Russia-Ukraine War

In consonance with Ukrainian officials, Russian missiles targeted a city in central Ukraine on Thursday, killing 21 people and injuring over 90 more. The strike, according to the country's president, was an "open act of terrorism" against people in areas with little military importance.

Three missiles struck an office building and damaged adjoining residential structures in Vinnytsia, some 167 miles southwest of Kyiv, according to Ukraine's national police. The missile hit sparked a fire that engulfed 50 automobiles in a neighboring parking lot.

Serhiy Borzov, the governor of the Vinnytsia region, claimed Ukrainian air defense systems shot down four more missiles over the area. Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi told news media in Vinnytsya that the strike killed 21 people and injured at least 91 others, 50 of them were critical. Three children, he added, were among the deceased.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy indicated that the strike was planned to target people. The strike occurred during a meeting in The Hague of government officials from over 40 nations to discuss coordinating efforts to investigate and punish alleged war crimes in Ukraine, according to CBS News.

In the latest attack to target civilian targets far from the front lines, a barrage of missiles hit a shopping mall, a dance studio, and a wedding hall in central Ukraine on Thursday, killing at least 23 people and sparking a frantic hunt for dozens more missing in the ruins.

Seventy-one people were injured, including three children, when three missiles hit the middle of Vinnytsia, a generally peaceful regional capital, leaving a terrifying sight of burning wreckage in their wake.

According to Zelensky's office, the strike was carried out with cruise missiles launched from a Russian submarine in the Black Sea. Three children were among those killed in the strike on Vinnytsia, roughly 240 miles inland from the coast, according to the report.

Grooms used to carry their wives from the wedding hall, a well-known local icon, while a building next door used to attract students to a picture studio that produced school albums. The missiles struck a military officers' club and a hotel. Bystanders stared in awe as firefighters doused the smoking carcasses of crashed automobiles with water hours later. According to the Ukrainian State Emergency Service, 29 people are still missing, and a search is ongoing among the rubble in an area of town where people conduct errands.

Russia has stopped its offensive in eastern Ukraine to reassemble damaged military troops, but Moscow has served up daily reminders that its stockpile of long-range weaponry can inflict death and destruction on civilian and military targets alike far from the battlefield.

The Russian Defense Ministry has not commented on the Vinnytsia strike, while consistently denying targeting civilians. Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, condemned the incident, which happened as the Dutch government sponsored a meeting in The Hague to hold Russia accountable for human rights crimes in Ukraine, as per New York Times.

Related Article: Russia-Ukraine War: Russian Missile Hits Apartment in Donetsk Killing At Least 15, Dozens Trapped

@YouTube

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
UNC excavation crew in Galilee region of Israel uncover first known depictions of biblical heroines An excavation team in Israel has discovered the first known depiction of two biblical heroines from the Old Testament.

World to reach 8 billion people in November, India to unseat China as most populous in 2023: UN By Nov. 15, the worlds population is projected to reach 8 billion, and by 2023, India is projected to surpass China as the worlds most populous country, according to a new report from the United Nations.

Single, non-religious young adults are most unhappy Americans post-COVID-19: report Young adults under 35 who are single and non-religious report the highest levels of unhappiness since the COVID-19 pandemic began and since 1972, when the General Social Survey began measuring levels of happiness among Americans, a new analysis from the Institute of Family Studies suggests.
This article, 550 Women Sue Uber Over Alleged Sexual Assaults, originally appeared on CNET.com.

Uber has been sued by 550 women who allege they were sexually assaulted, harassed or attacked by Uber drivers, according to law firm Slater Slater Schulman.

The complaint, filed Wednesday in San Francisco County Superior Court, alleges that 550 women across several states, including California, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, had been "kidnapped, sexually assaulted, sexually battered, raped, falsely imprisoned, stalked, harassed or otherwise attacked by Uber drivers."

In addition to the 550 women currently involved in the civil suit, another 150 cases are being looked into by the law firm.

"Sexual assault is a horrific crime and we take every single report seriously," an Uber spokesperson said in an emailed statement to CNET. "While we can't comment on pending litigation, we will continue to keep safety at the heart of our work."

Uber's second US safety report was released last month. It included 141 rape reports in 2020.

In 2015, Uber was sued for sexual assault, and in 2018 it faced additional allegations and reports of rape. Its first US safety report, released in late 2019, noted nearly 500 rape reports in two years.

"While the company has acknowledged this crisis of sexual assault in recent years, its actual response has been slow and inadequate, with horrific consequences," said Adam Slater, founding partner of Slater Slater Schulman. "There is so much more that Uber can be doing to protect riders: adding cameras to deter assaults, performing more robust background checks on drivers, creating a warning system when drivers don't stay on a path to a destination."

In 2019, Uber added a number of safety features, including the ability to directly text 911 responders. It also has RideCheck, which pings drivers and passengers if it detects an unusually long stop or crash.
Zelensky: A Biography

By Serhii Rudenko. Translated by Michael M. Naydan and Alla Perminova

Polity. 208 pp. $25

- - -

Ukrainian political analyst Serhii Rudenko has written the first major biography of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to appear in English. In announcing the publication of "Zelensky," Polity, which is putting out the work, translated by Michael M. Naydan and Alla Perminova, noted that Rudenko, who has written other works on Ukrainian politicians, is based in Ukraine and was "responding to emails from a bomb shelter." Any review of this book must begin with the acknowledgment that its very existence - much like the transformation of a man from TV star to stumbling president to nearly universally admired wartime hero - is no small feat. There is, after all, a war going on in Ukraine, as there has been since late February.

This is more a biography of a presidency than of the president. Though the book spends some time on other moments in his life - the year of his birth, the launch of his acting career and his wife all have chapters - the vast majority takes place between 2018 and 2022, between Zelensky's decision to run for president and his presidency thus far.

The book is not organized chronologically, making it somewhat hard to keep track of what happened when, and who was in and out of favor with Zelensky at various points. Nor is it organized thematically. Or rather, each chapter has a theme - Zelensky's relationship to a given person, or a particular world event - but there does not appear to be much rhyme or reason as to why any given chapter follows another.

It should also be said that the book is somewhat awkwardly translated and that sometimes the author directly contradicts himself. "Those who took the actor's performance to be a famous comedian's joke had no idea that Zelensky had already decided to run for president a long time before," he writes of Zelensky's Dec. 31, 2018, televised campaign announcement. On the next page, he writes, "Zelensky himself, according to the former Head of the Office of the President Andriy Bohdan, didn't make the final decision to participate in the presidential campaign until December 31, 2018."

More concerningly, the chapter on Zelensky's dealings with President Donald Trump contains a glaring factual error. "The American press urged Trump to put pressure on his Ukrainian counterpart to speed up the investigation into Biden's son," Rudenko writes. This is not what happened. Many believed that Trump pressured Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden's son with the goal of hurting a domestic political opponent (namely, Biden); the American press then reported on it. Rudenko goes on to say that had Zelensky investigated the son, Biden, as U.S. president, might not have provided such staunch support to Ukraine. This seems to slightly miss the point, which is that Ukraine, a sovereign state, was being used for domestic political purposes. For American readers less familiar with the ins and outs of Ukrainian politics than Trump's impeachment saga, such as myself, the Trump chapter casts doubt on the rest of Rudenko's analysis.

Perhaps most frustratingly, although Rudenko often draws comparisons between the various crises of Zelensky's presidency and the strength and resolve he's displayed since Russia began its all-out assault on Ukraine, he spends considerably less time analyzing how the same person was capable of being all these things: TV star, clown, reported oligarchic ally, disappointing president and heroic wartime leader.

Toward the end of the book, Rudenko writes, "Everyone in Ukraine today, without exception, has just one enemy, the victory over which the existence of the Ukrainian state depends." There is no doubt that the actions and choices of Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, have fortified and unified the Ukrainian people. "Zelensky is no longer playing the role of the president. He is the leader of a nation that, with weapons in its hands, is defending its freedom and independence." But what was it that allowed him to transform from one to the other?

Despite all of that, there are some high points in the book. The chapters about Zelensky and members of his presidential team at various points of his administration are especially strong and read as crackling little political dramas. The chapter on Ihor Kolomoisky, the oligarch to whom the president is reportedly tied (though at some points more than others, as the book makes clear), is especially biting. It's hard to think of a better opening to any chapter of any recent book than: "Legends abound about this person. One of them is that, at a business party, he cut off part of the tie of one of his top managers with a cake knife."

Even with all the jumping back and forth across time and theme, certain truths emerge about Ukrainian politics and Zelensky: Ukraine has long been plagued by corruption and nepotism. Politicians have promised to do better and then have gone back to the status quo. And Russia, in threatening Ukraine's sovereignty, has managed to unite Ukrainians and turn a floundering president into a leader.

But the war isn't over yet, and neither is Ukraine's history. Neither, for that matter, is Zelensky's story. This book, for all its flaws, is a first picture of this person in this place at this time. One hopes that, in the not-too-distant future, the war will be over, the story will continue and there will be other books to join it.

- - -

Emily Tamkin is senior U.S. editor at the New Statesman. She is the author of "The Influence of Soros: Politics, Power, and the Struggle for an Open Society" and the forthcoming "Bad Jews: A History of American Jewish Politics and Identities."
A former Southwest Airlines flight attendant has been awarded millions in damages after filing a lawsuit against Southwest Airlines and her former flight attendant union claiming she was wrongfully terminated for messages she sent to union leaders about their participation in a demonstration that in part supported abortion rights.

The Dallas Morning News' Kyle Arnold reported Thursday that a North Texas jury ruled in favor of Charlene Carter in her suit against the Dallas-based airline and Transport Workers Union Local 556, awarding her $5.4 million in back pay and damages for her pain and suffering resulting from her firing from the company in 2017.

A 2019 case opinion featuring court documents stated Carter was fired by Southwest Airlines in March 2017 for violating company policies regarding "social media, harassment and bullying." Carter's lawsuit maintains she was retaliated against by the company after sending emails to TWU Local 556 President Audrey Stone lambasting the union leader for participating in the Women's March in Washington, D.C. in January of that year. In her messages Carter called Stone "truly despicable" and criticized what she claimed to be union leader's politicization of the workplace.

"This is what you supported during your Paid leave with others at the Women's March in D.C." Carter wrote in a Facebook message to Stone, according to court documents. The message in question featured video of an aborted fetus. "You are truly despicable in so many ways," Carter wrote.

Three days after this, Carter responded to an email sent by Stone to Local 556 members with a message expressing her own support for Donald Trump and disdain for union leadership.

"First off I do not want your Propaganda coming in to my mailbox...YOU all DISGUST ME!!! OH and by the WAY I and so many other of our [flight attendants] VOTED FOR TRUMP...so shove that in your Propaganda MACHINE!"

The 2017 Women's March, which took place on January 1 of that year, was the largest single-day protest in U.S. history and occurred in response to the election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency in November 2016. The demonstration was supported by a coalition of groups that included Planned Parenthood and other organizations that advocate for women's reproductive rights. Carter's suit alleged Southwest Airlines and the union had "discriminated against her for her religious beliefs" and engaged in violations of labor laws protecting her right to speech advocating against Local 556's participation in the event.

The 2019 case opinion states that Carter became a member of Local 556 in 1996 and remained so until the fall of 2013, at which point she opted to resign and become a "nonmember objector" until the time of her termination in 2017. At the time of her resignation Carter had exercised her right "to object to paying the union's compelled fees because of its political, ideological, and other non-bargaining spending," according to the case opinion. Documents state that in 2013 Carter began publishing "numerous posts in a Facebook group open to all Southwest flight attendants expressing her disagreement with Union leadership and policies."

Carter's suit stated she "is a Christian who believes that abortion is the taking of a human life contrary to the teachings of the Bible and the will of God" and that her "sincere religious beliefs require her to share with others that abortion is the taking of a human life."

As first reported by Arnold, Mark Mix, president of the anti-union group National Right to Work Foundation, issued a statement this week supporting Carter's victory in court.

"Charlene Carter is a committed Christian," Mix stated. "And she strongly believes union officials have no business injecting themselves in policy battles over issues outside the workplace that are fundamental to her faith."
A Texas-born barnstormer coaxed his second-hand airplane into the thick clouds over a New York airfield on July 17, 1938 and to the surprise of puzzled onlookers turned a routine flight into an unscheduled trans-Atlantic crossing.

The handful of spectators waited in vain for Douglas Corrigan to set a course for California. When he vanished from sight on an easterly heading, one witness remarked, Ive got a hunch this fellow is on his way to Europe.

By accident or design, and no one ever knew for sure, the 31 year old aviator winged his way toward Ireland, where instant fame awaited Wrong Way Corrigan.

The Galveston native stole the thunder of another Lone Star flying sensation, Howard Hughes. Four days earlier, the Houston millionaire landed at New York City after circling the globe in the record-breaking time of three days, 19 hours and 17 minutes. Painfully uncomfortable in the public eye, Hughes shrugged off his rave reviews. Even at age 33 the wealthy industrialist put an eccentric premium on his privacy, an early indication of the bizarre behavior to come.

Hughes, of course, easily afforded the most modern plane on the market, the latest navigational gadgetry and a top-notch crew. Dirt-poor Corrigan, on the other hand, challenged the Atlantic all by his lonesome with six bits in his pocket, a map torn from an outdated almanac and an antique aircraft he bought for $900. To the man in the street struggling to survive the Great Depression, he was an infinitely more appealing figure than the stand-offish tycoon Hughes.

The courtship of Corrigans parents came right out of a Texas romance novel. The couple actually met at the Alamo. Their first child was born at Galveston in January 1907 and christened Clyde after his father. Six years later, the family moved to San Antonio, where the boy peddled newspapers on downtown street corners.

The elder Clyde went away on business and never came home. Two years dragged by before the abandoned housewife heard from her spouse, who informed her by mail that his future plans did not include her and their three children. Mrs. Corrigan filed for divorce and, needing no reminder of her no-good husband, changed her sons name to Douglas.

Growing up in southern California when barnstorming was all the rage, young Corrigan was bitten by the bug. After knocking around for more than a decade as a mechanic and part-time pilot, he decided to go for the glory.

Corrigan flew across the continent in July 1938 and touched down in Gotham with just four gallons of fuel in his tank. With Hughes set to circumnavigate the planet the very next day, his arrival went unnoticed.

Hundreds of miles from the Irish coast, a fuel line sprang a leak leaving Corrigan ankle-deep in gasoline. Realizing a single spark might blow him to smithereens, he punched a hole with a screwdriver in the bottom of the craft. The gas drained out saving him from certain death in the icy north Atlantic.

Twenty-eight hours after leaving the U.S., Corrigan switched off his single engine in Dublin, Ireland. Rising from the cramped cockpit, he said with a broad smile, Im Douglas Corrigan. Just got in from New York. Where am I? I intended to fly to California.

Over the cheers of the excited crowd, he explained his mistake to the American minister. Disoriented by the dense clouds over New York, he simply took a wrong turn. He then trusted a compass that he learned too late was broken.

The amused diplomat shook his head. It was hazy when you took off, was it? Well, your story seems a little hazy, too.

To the delight of the press and public, the impish pilot stuck to this implausible story. Back in the States, he was heralded as Wrong Way Corrigan, a coast-to-coast celebrity.

He milked the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for all it was worth. His autobiography was in the bookstores in time for Christmas, and the next year he played himself in the motion picture The Flying Irishman.

Anxious to be in on the joke, countless cities and towns honored the personable barnstormer. In keeping with the spirit of the tongue-in-cheek achievement, Corrigan was initiated into an Oklahoma tribe as Chief Wrong Way, and Abilene admirers presented him with a watch that ran backwards.

At his island birthplace, the award was in a more serious vein. Galvestonians renamed the local airport Corrigan Field, a fitting tribute to a hometown hero.

Aviation purists dismissed the Corrigan flight as a foolhardy stunt. No new trans-Atlantic trail was blazed, and the daredevil risked life and limb for a cheap thrill.

But the stuffed-shirt critics missed the point. More a Walter Mitty than a Charles Lindbergh or even a Howard Hughes, Douglas Corrigan turned an armchair fantasy into a seat-of-the-pants adventure, and Americans everywhere loved him for it.

Bartee welcomes your comments and questions at barteehaile@gmail.com or P.O. Box 130011, Spring, TX 77393 and invites you to visit his web site barteehaile.com.
The formal battles for Texas Independence spread over three distinct stages between April 6, 1830 and April 21, 1836. Actively engaged in all three of these stages was J.H. Shepperd of Montgomery.

The first stage, associated with the Mexican Law of April 6, 1830, centered on an attempt to halt further Anglo-American Colonization in Texas while calling for Texas- based shippers to check in with Mexican officials at Anahuac before departing for their final destination. This task in some cases required a several hundred miles journey.

In the midst of this multifaceted imbroglio, the arrest of two Texas Patriots, Patrick Jack and William B. Travis, led John Austin to compile an army of 160 men at the site of Liberty to engage the situation. Complications of this event spread to the Battle of Velasco in 1832. J. H. Shepperd was a part of this saga of the Texas Revolution.

Eventually stage two of the Texas Revolution began with Santa Annas disbanding of Congress to assume a dictatorship of Mexico in 1835. The first spark of indignation in Texas from this event erupted in the refusal of Texans in Gonzales to release a cannon to Mexican Authorities. This was the famous Come and Take it skirmish consisting of two phases beginning on October 2nd.

By the following October 28th, Stephen Austin had returned from imprisonment in Mexico to take temporary charge of the emerging Texas Army. As a first scenario, Austin sent a force under James Fannin and Jim Bowie to engage the Battle of Mission Conception in San Antonio. That force included J.H. Shepperd.

Stage three began in March 1836 with William Travis, Jim Bowie, David Crockett and company under siege in the Alamo. Addressing the heightened crisis, one recruiting site lay in the Anderson to Roans Prairie area of Texas at the homestead of A. D. Kennard. Among recruits at that location was J.H. Shepperd.

Realizing the citical implications in light of Mexican efforts at securing support of Texas Indians, Sam Houston appointed the most dependable man he could muster to engage that situation. That man was J. H. Shepperd who, upon reluctantly foregoing further glory in battle, dutifully secured Indian neutrality.

J. H. Shepperd, a man with a bent toward adventure yet linked to a solid sense of peacemaker, was a man of indispensable valor in the drive for Texas Independence.

Dr. Robin Montgomery is a native of Montgomery County, a historian, retired professor, author and columnist for The Courier
Conroe City council members were stunned after reviewing $7,000 in invoices from employees of a construction firm related to the new Hyatt Regency Hotel and Convention Center that showed thousands of dollars in expenses for meals, sunglasses and T-shirts.

One invoice tallied more than $2,000 at the Twin Peaks restaurant in Shenandoah.

In a 5-0 vote on Thursday, the council agreed to defer payment of the invoices and hire an independent auditor to review the receipts.

California-based DPR Construction Inc. submitted over 530 invoices to the city for payments totaling over $6.7 million related to the construction of the hotel and convention center including payroll for crew and equipment rental for the project. However, the council flagged dozens that seemed out of scope for the project.

Among the invoices were: more than $2,000 to Twin Peaks; $530.50 to Taco Veloz; $538.04 to Corkscrew BBQ; $347.34 to Chuys; $302.79 to Chick-Fil-A; $852.25 to Sams Club; $595.30 for Oakley Sunglasses; and $4,069.60 to Sportex Apparel for T-shirts.

This submission of invoices is egregious, said Councilman Harry Hardman.If this is what is being submitted on a regular basis this is unconscionable.

Onyourconroenews.com: Conroe city council blasts mayor as lacking leadership in halting attempt to change citys charter

Hardman along with Councilman Howard Wood asked to defer payment of the invoices pending an audit.

Councilwoman Marsha Porter pointed out several purchases at Home Depot as well as Amazon where items were delivered to a personal address.

Thats pretty suspicious to me, she said, asking what happens to the equipment the city is paying for when the project is complete.

Chief Financial Officer and Assistant City Administrator Steve Williams said he had flagged several invoices he said needed further review. He said he removed 51 invoices for a total of $6,687.31.

Those are items we feel like are in question and we need to take a look at them, Williams said.

When questioned on the number of meal invoices, Williams said some date back to December.

Porter said the city is paying too much for many items.

Thats not right, Steve, she said. I think that contract needs to be looked at again. Whoever negotiated that contract did not do the city a service.

Williams cautioned the council from deferring payment on all the invoices since many are related to payroll for the company and equipment rental.

Concern over the invoices comes on the heels of the cost of the project ballooning from $92 million to $107 million. The increase forced the council to seek another loan from the Conroe Industrial Development Corp. and pull additional funds from the citys hotel occupancy tax reserves.

In two separate actions during a May meeting, and each a 3-2 vote last week, the council approved an agreement with the CIDC for $6 million and an agreement to use $2.5 million in HOT funds to cover the increases. Porter and Former Councilman Duke Coon were the two nay votes.

cdominguez@hcnonline.com
PHILADELPHIA  Simmons Hanly Conroy in Alton has secured a $3.8 million verdict against Washington Penn Plastics on behalf of the estate of Daniel Dan Rugg and his wife, Sandra.

Dan Rugg died of mesothelioma, an occupational cancer caused by asbestos, after working for about 30 years as a maintenance worker at the Pennsylvania plastics factory. The jury found Wash Penn failed to provide a reasonably safe workplace and awarded $1.4 million in compensatory damages to the familys estate, $1.65 million in wrongful death damages and $750,000 in loss of consortium to Sandra Rugg.

After examining hundreds of pieces of evidence, the jury found that Wash Penn failed to provide a reasonably safe workplace by using industrial talc that contained asbestos, said Shareholder James Kramer who was trial counsel with Shareholder Donald P. Blydenburgh. The jury clearly understood that companies must take responsibility for exposing their employees to asbestos.

Expert testimony during the trial showed the talc used at the plant contained asbestos fibers. Dan Rugg dumped 50-pound bags of industrial talc into giant storage hoppers. Washington Penn was provided with testing documents showing its industrial talc contained asbestos, but never shared that information with their employees, including Dan Rugg.

Testimony during trial revealed Washington Penn knew of the dangers of asbestos as early as the 1960s. Yet, the factory never warned its employees or required them to wear protective gear like masks or use respirators.

Dans asbestos exposure was prolonged and immense, said Blydenburgh. He worked hard his entire life so he could enjoy retirement with his grandchildren. Instead, he developed and died from an entirely preventable cancer.

According to the firm, Dan Rugg was an avid outdoorsman who enjoyed taking his grandchildren camping and fishing. After developing symptoms in 2018, he underwent several tests and surgical procedures, including a thoracentesis where fluid was removed from his lungs.

He was diagnosed with mesothelioma in spring 2019; he died in 2021 at 64.

Every day of the trial, Sandra Rugg sat in the courtroom holding a picture of Dan.

This lawsuit was never about the money, she said. This is about the fact that a jury has held Wash Penn responsible for putting profits over its people. I hope no other family has to go through the loss and pain my family and I have experienced.

The trial lasted three weeks and the jury deliberated for a day. The verdict was awarded July 14.

In addition to Kramer and Blydenburgh, Shareholders Randy S. Cohn, Jared Hausmann and Todd Gampp represented the family in Pennsylvania before Judge Glynnis D. Hill.

The verdict is the tenth mesothelioma verdict the firm has won on behalf of mesothelioma patients in the past five years.

Simmons Hanly Conroy has offices in Alton, St. Louis, \Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco. For more, visit www.simmonsfirm.com.


The Republican attorney general of Indiana announced Thursday that authorities in his state are looking into probable failure to disclose the practice and child abuse. A doctor who said she previously assisted a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio in obtaining an abortion in Indiana, even though the girl's mother had previously reported the incident and that Ohio police were looking into it.

According to Indiana Department of Health papers, Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indianapolis-based Ob-Gyn, reported the abortion procedure on July 2, three days after it was conducted, as required by the agency.

Illegal Immigrant Sexually Abuses 10-Year-Old Girl

Bernard told CNN earlier this month that she assisted the girl after Ohio prohibited abortions as early as six weeks after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. According to police papers and court evidence, the young girl was raped in early May and Columbus police were first notified of her pregnancy on June 22. The girl had an abortion in Indiana a little more than a week later.

An abortion procedure done on a person under the age of 16 must be reported to the state's department of health as well as the department of child services within three days of the operation, according to Indiana law.

Attorney General Todd Rokita said in a statement Thursday that he is examining whether Bernard reported the abortion and abuse as required by Indiana law. Rokita made the statement for the first time on Wednesday. HIPAA, or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, establishes privacy guidelines for safeguarding individuals' confidential medical information, as per CNN.

The alleged rape made news earlier this month after Bernard told the Indy Star on July 1 that she had conducted an abortion for a teenage rape victim who had to travel state borders from Ohio to have the operation. Soon after the Supreme Court overturned the famous 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which guaranteed women the federal right to an abortion, Ohio enacted a six-week abortion restriction.

"It's difficult to fathom that in just a few short weeks, we won't be able to give that treatment," Bernard told the Indy Star at the time, referring to a similar abortion restriction that might take effect in Indiana as a result of the Supreme Court's decision.

Read Also: Marion Barber III Cause of Death, Saddening Condition Before Demise, Revealed

Ohio Bans Abortion

Following Bernard's remarks, President Joe Biden mentioned the event at a speech on July 11, and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem was questioned during a CNN interview on July 3 if she would compel teenage rape victims to deliver a baby.

Attorney General Todd Rokita announced that he would investigate Bernard for failing to report the abortion, claiming that failure to do so constitutes a crime in Indiana. However, documents obtained by Fox News Digital on Thursday show that Bernard successfully filed the required report with the state on July 2. According to the records, Bernard conducted a non-surgical abortion on June 30 on a 10-year-old Mexican girl who was six weeks pregnant, Fox News reported.

The Indianapolis Star reported earlier this month that the girl had to go to Indiana to seek an abortion because she was three days over Ohio's six-week restriction on the operation.

Ohio enacted a statewide ban on abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy, with no exceptions for rape or incest, mere hours after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24. Abortions beyond six weeks are still lawful in Indiana, though the state legislature's Republican majority is expected to adopt further limits soon.

President Joe Biden brought up the issue when condemning the Supreme Court's verdict at the signing of an executive order on abortion access on July 8. Some conservatives, including Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and Ohio Representative Jim Jordan, questioned the Indianapolis Star story's authenticity.

Yost stated that his office had not received even a hint of a complaint for the victim. Huhn, however, stated that Columbus police learned of the girl's pregnancy through a referral made by her mother to Franklin County Children Services on June 22. Fuentes' preliminary hearing is set on July 22, according to Newsweek via MSN.

Related Article: Former CIA Hacker Convicted of Perpetrating Largest Data Leak in Agency's History

@YouTube

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
In the wake of a July 4 mass shooting in Highland Park that left seven people dead and dozens more injured, Gov. J.B. Pritzker is calling for a ban at both the state and national levels on military-style rifles and high-capacity magazines.

The governor made those calls on national cable television and at the White House in recent days.

While I support an assault weapon and high-capacity magazine ban at the state level, we urgently need federal regulation on the weapons of war and high-capacity magazines that are used only for mass murder, Pritzker said in a statement. Illinois is not an island, and even with some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, our state is only as safe as the state with the weakest laws  many of which border Illinois.

The weapon used in the Highland Park shooting has been identified as a Smith and Wesson M&P 15, a semiautomatic rifle that holds 30-round magazines of 5.56mm ammunition. The person charged in the shooting, Robert Crimo III, reportedly used three such magazines during his attack on a Fourth of July parade, firing off more than 80 shots in a matter of just a few minutes.

Although the letters M&P stand for Military & Police, it and others like it have been widely available to civilians at sporting goods stores throughout the country.

The weapon used in Highland Park is also similar to guns used in other recent mass shootings, including the May 24 shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two teachers dead, and the May 14 shooting at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store that killed 10 people.

All those weapons are modeled after the Colt AR-15, a semiautomatic version of a rifle originally designed for the military.

Pritzker and Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering were at the White House this week for an event with President Joe Biden marking the recent signing of the Safer Communities Act, the first significant federal law addressing gun violence in nearly 30 years.

We had a number of conversations immediately after the attack in Highland Park and I've been impressed with the way they've handled things. It's been extraordinary, Biden said. And as the three of us have discussed, we have more to do.

Later, Pritzker appeared on CNNs State of the Union, and he repeated his call for additional measures to control gun violence.

I think that there are probably three things that need to be looked at here: One is changing some of the verbiage in the law on red flags so that something could have been filed that would have prevented the [firearm owners] card from being issued. That's one, he said. Two is that we need to ban assault weapons, not just in the state of Illinois, but nationally. And then third, high-capacity magazines.

A bill pending in the General Assembly would make it a felony to buy or sell certain rifles and high-capacity magazines. House Bill 5522, by Rep. Maura Hirschauer, D-Batavia, would also require existing owners of such weapons to register them with Illinois State Police, and it would prohibit those owners from selling them in-state to anyone but a federally licensed firearms dealer.

Hirschauer, a first-term lawmaker and organizer of a local chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, introduced the bill in January, but it was never considered in a substantive committee. Since the July 4 mass shooting in Highland Park, however, 50 more lawmakers, all Democrats, have signed on as co-sponsors.

I think that my colleagues have been moved by the tragedy in Highland Park, but also moved by the gun violence that affects the entire state, and constituents all over Illinois have been reaching out to their state representatives and state senators, telling them how important this bill is, Hirschauer said during a phone interview.

Gun rights advocates, on the other hand, argue that eliminating one type of gun from society will not address the underlying causes of gun violence.

We certainly understand the emotional response of anti-gun politicians in light of the evil and violence the world witnessed in Highland Park  just like the equivalent of 47 Highland Park shootings that have taken place in the city of Chicago year to date, Richard Pearson, director of the Illinois State Rifle Association, said in an email. Evil and violence do not lie in an inanimate object but in the hearts of people. At some point politicians must tackle the Why of violence instead of the easy way out by trying to ban inanimate objects.

Lawmakers had planned to convene a special session this summer, primarily to respond to the U.S. Supreme Courts decision striking down a constitutional right to abortion. Before the Highland Park shooting, however, those plans were put on hold and no special session has yet been scheduled.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey also called for a special session last week to repeal a criminal justice reform bill passed in January 2021 and convene a mental health task force consisting of doctors, first responders, patients, home caregivers, parents, teachers, and churches.

The Pritzker campaign, in turn, blasted Bailey for voting against gun safety bills and state budgets that increased mental health funding.

The next scheduled meeting of the General Assembly is Nov. 15 when the regular fall veto session convenes.
OSCEOLA COUNTY  When Lake County Sheriff Rich Martin received a call from the emergency management director of Osceola County, he was in his car within minutes to help find a missing child.

"We went over there and tried to help the best we could," Martin said. "Fortunately we found him safe and sound."

The missing boy was a 2-year-old who walked away from his home in LeRoy. Over a dozen law enforcement agencies united within 10 minutes to help find the missing child.

From Osceola County Sheriff Mark Cool's perspective, it was an amazing sight to see several forces quickly unite to return the child to their family. He said it was an overwhelming amount of support, and it reminded him of his purpose.

"You know why you do what you do," when something like this happens, Cool said.

"This was something you can't wait around," Martin said. "There's a window where we need to get on it and do a successful search."

"Everyone has a family," Cool said. "This was almost the best case scenario, to be able to reunite these parents with their son," he said.

Cool said you "cant describe" how the parents felt when their child was missing, and there were tears of joy upon the reunion. The parents, naturally, were ecstatic.

"It was amazing sight," Cool said.

The search included two K9 units, one of which came from the Mecosta County Sheriff's Office and was handled by a deputy, a line-grid search of the wild area surrounding the property involving members of the community, and drones.

A person who lived locally saw the incident command center the Osceola County police had set up in the roadway, and offered to put his drone in the air to assist with the search.

"Our first K9 was deployed and a minute later we had a drone in the air. That was a God moment, if you will, for him to be there within minutes and have a drone up," Cool explained.

Many of those involved in the search, including Martin, as well as Cool's unit, went home feeling good that they were able to assist this family.

"That was a great feeling for me, I know that, and my guys expressed that to me. It was a great feeling to be a part of that," Cool said.

Martin shared this sentiment, also saying "half the time" they don't believe in borders at the Lake County Sheriff's Office and many other law enforcement agencies and fire departments across the Osceola County area.

"Its always a good experience working with the Osceola County Sheriff's Office," Martin said. "Anyone who needs help, if theyre in another county or not, well bring further assistance when we can. I personally went out there because I know the relationship that we have," he said.

In addition to Martin and the Mecosta County Sheriff's Office's K-9 team, personnel who assisted in the search included the Meceola Central Dispatch, LeRoy Fire, Evart Fire, Lincoln Fire, Reed City Fire, Luther Fire, Hersey Fire, Evart Police Department, Osceola County EMS, Victim Services, Big Rapids Township (Drone Team), Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Michigan State Police, Osceola County Emergency Management Department and Osceola County CERT team.

Cool wants people to thank all the agencies involved, and said the good outcome of the search wouldn't have been possible without them.

"It would have been about five people out there trying to do this," Cool said, if all these agencies didn't provide their assistance.
The film will be based on Prince Andrew's catastrophic TV interview with Emily Maitlis. It will go behind the scenes of the Newsnight anchor questioning the king about his acquaintance with convicted child molester Jeffrey Epstein.

Hugh Grant, who starred in Four Weddings and a Funeral, is already being considered for the role of the disgraced Duke of York. The BBC2 Newsnight special will air on November 16, 2019.

Prince Andrew's 'Newsnight' Interview

It was designed to disprove rumors about Prince Andrew's relationship with Epstein, but it turned out to be a PR disaster. The duke was questioned about his ties to the late paedo Jeffrey Epstein, his friend Ghislaine Maxwell, and claims that he had sex with a 17-year-old.

During the questioning, Andrew stated that he had no recall of meeting Virginia Roberts Giuffre, with whom he is accused of having sex at Maxwell's London home. He even offered an alibi, stating he was at a Pizza Express birthday party in Woking with his daughter Princess Beatrice on the night of the alleged meeting.

In August 2019, Epstein took his own life in a detention cell, only a month after being accused of sex trafficking children. Then came a stream of horrifying tales of his assault on young females. Ghislaine Maxwell, a socialite, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last month for torturing and grooming scores of girls for the perverted Epstein. The former maid claims that the convicted sex trafficker and Andrew would flirt with one other while they spent out together on Epstein's famed Caribbean island Little St James.

Following Maxwell's imprisonment, the Duke of York is believed to be the next target of the attorneys' investigation into the sex ring run by multimillionaire pedophile Epstein. In February, the Duke reached an agreement with sex abuse complainant Virginia Giuffre, The Sun reported.

Read Also: Brittney Griner's Russia Detention: LeBron James Clarifies Controversial Comments on WNBA Star

Duke of York's Ties with Jeffrey Epstein

Prince Andrew further stated that the same alleged sexual relationship, which the American claimed began with the prince sweating profusely as they danced at London nightclub Tramp, was factually incorrect since he was suffering from a medical ailment at the time that prevented him from sweating.

He questioned the legitimacy of a photograph that appears to show Andrew as a teenager with his arm around Miss Roberts' waist. Following Ghislaine Maxwell's imprisonment, Prince Andrew came under further pressure this month to speak with the FBI about his pedophile pal Jeffrey Epstein.

Her victims believe the duke and other 'cowardly' Epstein allies who 'shelter behind status and reputation' should be prosecuted. Maxwell, 60, will almost certainly serve at least 15 of the 20 years she was sentenced to in a New York court on Tuesday for causing incalculable harm to young girls alongside Epstein.

In the 2000s, Prince spent weeks in Epstein's Florida estate, the so-called 'House of Sin,' where Lady of the House Maxwell ordered youngsters to pose as schoolgirls for underage sex with her lover.

For more than two years, US prosecutors have requested that the British government set up a formal interview with the Duke of Cambridge under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty. The Home Office has yet to act, and a dispute between the duke's legal team and US prosecutors over the terms of any FBI interview in London persists.

Maxwell, the daughter of media billionaire Robert Maxwell met Andrew while studying history at Oxford in the early 1980s, and the prince later brought her and her lover Epstein to Windsor Castle and Sandringham, as per Daily Mail.

Sam McAlister, who got the story for the BBC, spent months attempting to get the interview before visiting Andrew, his private secretary Amanda Thirsk, and oldest daughter Princess Beatrice at the Palace. She claimed that at this time the Duke revealed his Pizza Express alibi and his astounding assertion that he couldn't sweat due to a medical ailment.

McAlister stated that Andrew consented to the discussion because, "no one thinks they're going to do a horrible interview." She also stated that the Queen's second son did not look apprehensive while they chatted before the interview. McAliser, a skilled attorney, went on to say that she could "never" have imagined the consequences of the explosive interview, according to Express.

Related Article: Archie, Lilibet Won't Need To Follow These Royal Family Rules But Prince Harry, Meghan Markle Are Accused of Putting Children in Danger

@YouTube

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
fizkes/Getty Images/iStockphoto

If you attended Lindenwood University during the spring semester of 2020, you could have a check headed your way if you haven't received it already.

The university based in St. Charles, Missouri, just north of St. Louis, settled a class action lawsuit claimed the school "breached its contract with its students to provide in-person educational services for the Spring 2020 semester" by having students convert to remote learning in March 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Local residents and non-profit organizations are working to "save Sabine Lake."

The organizations recently announced two public town hall meetings taking place this week to discuss the Blue Marlin pipeline project.

The first is from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Robert A. Bowers Civic Center in Port Arthur and the second is from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday at the Bridge City Senior Center.

"Notorious polluter Energy Transfer has proposed building this giant crude oil pipeline right through the middle of Sabine Lake and down to an offshore export terminal off the coast of Louisiana," said a news release from the coalition. "Blue Marlin would move nearly 2 million barrels per day through the lake."

RELATED: Port Arthur organization discusses how to report pollutants

The Save Sabine Lake coalition is led by the Port Arthur Community Action Network.

Energy Transfer is the wrong company to operate a pipeline and Sabine Lake and Bessie Heights Marsh would be the wrong places for a dirty pipeline, organization CEO John Beard said in a news release. Were taking our campaign door to door and to the airwaves to show that Gulf Coast folks oppose this risky pipeline.

In addition to the town halls, the coalition is running TV ads in the Port Arthur area, knocking on doors and using social media.

The Robert A. Bowers Civic Center is located at 3401 Cultural Center Dr. in Port Arthur.

The Bridge City Senior Center is located at 103 Parkside Dr. in Bridge City.
DARIEN  After a chance viewing of a Darien High School band performance of the Ukrainian National Anthem, one prominent donor gifted thousands of dollars to the program  which the school could now use to purchase a high-quality and unique instrument.

In March, the DHS Wind Ensemble performed the Ukrainian National Anthem in a show of support for the war-torn country, which was invaded by Russian forces earlier this year and has since been engaged in an ongoing struggle for independence.

Suzanne Johnson, the wife of New York Jets owner Robert Woody Johnson, decided to donate $5,000 to the band earlier this summer, after she was forwarded a video of the performance from a friend whose child is in the Darien band, said Colleen Thompson, the districts music director.

The Johnsons did not specify a use for the money, leading school officials to dream big, Thompson said. The program is considering purchasing a rare instrument that they wouldnt normally be able to purchase, such as an English horn, though no decisions have been made yet.

Were trying to find something that will just last for a long time and we can really point to and say, This is as a result of this generous donation, Thompson said.

Woody Johnson, who served as former President Donald Trumps ambassador to the United Kingdom, and Suzanne Johnson, who is Ukrainian American, have made headlines for donating significant amounts of money toward Ukraine relief efforts.

DHS band director Jonathan Grauer said he has been inspired to play pieces that connect to something happening in the world at the current moment.

The first time students performed the Ukrainian anthem in March, the room fell silent, Grauer said.

I think kids were just reflecting on what was happening in the world, Grauer said. Its one of the things that music can do that theyre not going to get from an algebra class.
Sheriff

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Joshua D. Lowe, 24, of 1622 N. Fifth St., Springfield, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 6:23 p.m. Wednesday on charges of home invasion, battery, conspiracy and mob action.

Jacksonville Police

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 A 17-year-old boy was cited at 8:56 p.m. Wednesday on a disorderly conduct charge after police said he was fighting at East Wolcott Street and North Clay Avenue.

 Isaac Blount-Stephens, 18, of 108 W. Independence Ave. was arrested at 8:56 p.m. Wednesday at East Wolcott Street and North Clay Avenue on a charge of possession of alcohol by a minor.

 Armandos R. Fisher, 50, of 1114 E. Morton Ave. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 9:14 p.m. Wednesday on charges of theft and theft with a prior conviction.

ACCIDENTS

 Bradley T. Hayes, 44, of Jacksonville was cited on a charge of failing to yield after the car he was driving and one being driven by Willie T. Harris, 36, of Jacksonville collided at 10:46 a.m. Thursday in the 900 block of West Walnut Street.
Scientists are now challenging long-held beliefs that woodpeckers are equipped with shock-absorbing skulls to avoid getting concussions while hammering away at trees every day.

For many years, the prevailing theory has been that the structures in and around a woodpecker's skull absorb the shocks that are created during pecking. A biologist at the University of Antwerp, Sam Van Wassenbergh, said that blogs and information panels at zoos all present this theory as fact.

Shock-Absorbing Woodpecker Skulls

However, a new study that analyzed high-speed footage of woodpeckers in action has allowed Van Wassenbergh and her colleagues to challenge the long-held belief. The team of researchers discovered that woodpeckers are not absorbing shocks during pecking and are not likely concussed when they use their heads as hammers.

When a woodpecker slams its beak into a tree, it generates a shock, and if something in the animal's skull was absorbing the shocks before they reached the brain, then on impact, a woodpecker's head would decelerate more slowly compared to its beak, as per the New York Times.

Thinking of this, the researchers analyzed high-speed footage of six woodpeckers, two birds each from three species, hammering away into a tree. The team monitored two points on each bird's beak and one point on its eye to mark the brain's location.

Read Also: Archaeologists Are Perplexed by Strange Figures With Giant Heads Painted in Rock Shelters in Central Tanzania

The study found that the eye and the break decelerated at the same time, with the eye decelerating more quickly in some instances. This meant that, at the very least, the woodpecker was not absorbing any shock during pecking.

According to The Atlantic, on top of the finding, if woodpeckers did absorb shocks, it would only lead them to use more energy during pecking. An ornithologist at the University of Connecticut, Margaret Rubega, who was not part of the study, argued that you would not want to use a spring to hammer a nail into wood.

Avoiding Concussions

An engineer at MIT who has studied woodpeckers, Lorna Gibson, said she has always been skeptical of the shock-absorption idea surrounding woodpeckers. She wondered why it was even accepted, saying that the recent study's findings make "intuitive sense."

The findings of the study bring to light a mistake that is prominent in zoological literature, including hummingbirds drinking by using their tongues as straws, cheetahs overheating when hunting, mantis shrimps having a kaleidoscopic rainbow vision, honey badgers following birds to honey, or Komodo dragons killing with bacteria-laden bites.

Some of these popular theories began as assumptions that somehow calcified into received wisdom without anyone actually checking and reviewing them for accuracy. Other theories were straight up fabrications.

A separate team of researchers studied how woodpeckers are able to avoid getting concussions despite striking trees at such high speeds. They theorized that with the size of the animal's head being smaller than a human's, they can withstand forces that are seven times higher than the threshold for people which is 135 g's.

Based on the models, the forces that woodpeckers' brains sustain during pecking are below the danger threshold by a factor of two. Daniel Tobiansky of St. Mary's College of Maryland said that woodpeckers can theoretically hit the tree at higher speeds and it would still not suffer a concussion, Scientific American reported.



Related Article: Researchers Discover Fossil of Giant Tiny-Armed Meat-Eating Dinosaur Similar To T.Rex in Argentina

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
On this weeks episode of Segue, Southern Illinois University Edwardsvilles weekly radio program exploring the lives and work of the people on campus and beyond, a rebroadcasted episode will feature College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) Dean Kevin Leonard, PhD, interviewing Meg Smith, PhD, research assistant professor in the Interdisciplinary Research and Informatics Scholarship Center, known as the IRIS Center.

This episode of Segue airs at 9 a.m. Sunday, July 17. Listeners can tune into WSIE 88.7 FM The Sound or siue.edu/wsie.

After earning a bachelors in history and religion in 2013 at Hastings College in Nebraska, Smith attended Saint Louis University, where she earned a masters in 2015 and a doctorate in 2020, both in medieval history. She joined the SIUE faculty in spring 2021. Smith is one of four SIUE faculty members working on a new program called Realizing Inclusive Student Engagement in the Digital Humanities (RISE-DH), a new experiential learning and training program for African American students at SIUE, which will be supported by a $100,000 grant received by the IRIS Center.

How did you become interested in medieval and early modern Irish history? begins Leonard.

Ive always been interested in the past, Smith says. I loved history classes. I think partly because I have an affinity for arguing, and history sort of lends itself to that.

As a child, Smith wanted to restore art, specifically of icons and frescos. In college, her first major was art history, and after taking a class with Rob Babcock, PhD, at Hastings College where she was asked to solve a medieval murder, her perspective on history changed and she began to see it as a puzzle.

The class project was this wonderfully sneaky way of getting us to think about historical complexities and contingencies, and to discover for ourselves how interconnected the social, political and economic are, and to ask us essentially to make an argument and scaffold it with evidence doing all the things historians do. From that moment, I was hooked. I was a historian.

You mentioned that as soon as you became interested in history, you were drawn to medieval Ireland, Leonard states. What specifically about medieval Ireland attracted you?

At the start, it was really a matter of circumstance, explains Smith. I was in this exciting class diving in to this new body of material that Id really never encountered before. As I dug into it a little bit and continued to take classes in medieval history and Irish history, I discovered that there are interesting questions of identity that resonated with me, in part because of my experiences growing up abroad. I found echoes of my own experiences in medieval Ireland. It was both familiar and foreign.

Tell us more about the IRIS Center, prompts Leonard. What happens in the center, and what is your role there?

The IRIS Center is a digital humanities and social science center, Smith says. Thinking about the intersection between technology and the humanities is at the core of what we do, and our day-to-day work is a little bit of everything, as is my role. We support faculty research, sometimes helping to write grants. I do a lot of work on individual projects, like designing a website or creating a data visualization. We offer workshops and classes, and a minor for undergraduates. Any way we can support people doing digital humanities within the SIUE community, we are attempting to do it.

She explains that digital humanities is a field that uses different technologies to broaden or deepen our engagement with humanistic sources; for instance, using text analysis to grapple with a data set that is far larger than any one scholar could ever really deal with in their lifetime. This process can reveal patterns or meaningful themes across thousands of books rather than one or two.

Smith goes on to discuss the RISE-DH project, which responds to two separate but related challenges. First, the field of digital humanities and technology fields struggle with equity. With some notable exceptions, the fields are not geared in content or design toward attracting, addressing or educating people of color.

Second, the pandemic has disproportionately impacted African American students at SIUE. Howard Rambsy, PhD, distinguished research professor in the Department of English Language and Literature and co-investigator on the project, conducted a study of 125 Black students who reported that, among other things, they greatly suffered from a loss of connectivity during the pandemic.

This project responds to those challenges, both the digital divide and this lack of connectivity, by creating a culturally affirming environment in which to explore technology as it relates to Black literature and culture, and also cultivate this community of practice, Smith explains. Throughout the program, which will run next year, we will have 20 fellows who will participate in this community of practice and training program, and contribute to four projects, which will shape the program.

Tune in at 9 a.m. Sunday, July 17 to WSIE 88.7 The Sound to hear the entire conversation.
The right to own property was one of the founding tenets of the United States, with protections for private property included in the United States Constitution through amendments in the Bill of Rights.

However, landowners must be able to prove they own a piece of property in certain circumstances, especially in the case of a dispute with neighbors or government entities.

This is where the register of deeds comes in.

The register of deeds office is a constitutional office that has existed since the creation of the state of Michigan, and it is charged with collection and protection of property records, said Jennifer Kirchinger, register of deeds for Manistee County.

Kirchinger said there are a number of ways property records come to her office.

The property owner can bring the title in themselves, or it can come in through title companies or attorneys, she said. The paperwork comes in and we record and date stamp them, then we put them in our computer system. We now have a digital record system.

Paula Eberhart, register of deeds for Benzie County, said the office of register of deeds was one of the first state offices defined in Michigans constitution.

Real estate records are the foundation of a countys tax base, Eberhart said. We record over 200 types of documents in our office related to property records, such as quit claim deeds, warranty deeds, mortgages and discharges of mortgages, oil and gas leases, mineral rights and land contracts are all examples.

Eberhart said these documents are used every day by landowners as well as a variety of businesses and organizations.

Property records are needed by the county treasurers office, financial and real estate industries, lending institutions, abstract companies, lawyers, surveyors and the general public, she said.

Eberhart said her office has to keep property records updated and in a specific order.

We have to constantly study the laws that govern our office, she said. If we dont record property records properly, there could be issues.

Eberhart said there are some common questions and situations that come up at her office on a daily basis.

One of the most common questions people ask is how to add children to their deed, she said. People need to speak with a lawyer for that. Everybodys situation is different, and we dont want people doing something not in their best interest.

She also said people searching property records for restrictions on property up for sale has also been common, especially during the real estate boom of recent years.

People want to know if there are restrictions on property for sale, she said. In the past two or three years that has really been a common request. People want to know before they buy property.

Eberhart also said people check for easements on their property or property they are looking to purchase.

They want to know if there is an easement on their land, which means somebody else has the right to use their property in some way, such as having ingress and egress through their land, she said. For example, somebody might have an easement so that they can have a driveway through your property if they have property behind yours. Landlocked property cannot legally be sold anymore. There has to be some kind of access easement.

Eberhart said land patents are gaining popularity as well.

A lot of people want to be able to claim their land has been in their family for 100 years so they can claim it is a centennial farm or something similar, she said. We can trace the chain of titles to make sure it has stayed in the family name. We have records that go back into the late 1800s.

While the register of deeds office deals with legal documents, employees of the office cannot give legal advice, according to Eberhart and Kirchinger.

Were not attorneys; we cant give legal advice, but we do have state laws and statutes, and we have to abide by them and make sure we are recording and maintaining documents property, she said.

The Benzie County Office of the Register of Deeds is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday through Friday at the Benzie County Government Center, located at 448 Court Place in Beulah. The office can be reached by phone at 231-882-0016.

The Manistee County Office of the Register of Deeds is open from 8:30 am to noon and 1-4 p.m. Monday through Friday at 415 3rd St. in Manistee. It can be reached by phone at 231-723-2146.
Two months ago, I wrote about the "Class of 1972," wineries that either were founded or released their first vintage that year and went on to have a prominent impact in California wine. This year marks an important viticultural milestone in the East as well, as the 60th anniversary of the founding of Dr. Konstantin Frank Winery. That's a not-so-subtle reminder that the story of American wine has its deepest roots on the East Coast.

I also mentioned Konstantin Frank in a piece on the growing popularity of the Georgian grape variety saperavi, which he introduced to the United States in the late 1950s. Saperavi was a small part of the legacy Frank is most known for: Convincing viticulturists in Upstate New York that European vinifera grape varieties could survive the region's cold winters, and they needn't rely on American labrusca grapes or French-American hybrids.

Frank, of German heritage, was born in 1899 in Ukraine, then part of the Russian empire. He worked in agriculture and viticulture at the Polytechnic Institute of Odessa in the 1920s and 1930s under Stalin's Soviet Union, helping to restore vineyards decimated by successive wars. He became a refugee toward the end of World War II and settled in the Finger Lakes area in the early 1950s. Since English was not one of the nine languages he spoke, he took a menial job at the Geneva agricultural station. But he could converse with Charles Fournier, a Frenchman from Champagne who had been making sparkling wine at Gold Seal Vineyards since the 1930s using French-American hybrid grapes. Fournier hired Frank, and together they imported and planted vinifera varieties. By the early 1960s, just as Frank was striking out with his own winery, Gold Seal was producing well-regarded chardonnay and riesling.

Frank was proved right, and today vinifera is grown successfully not just in New York but all along the East Coast. He mentored and supported a group of vintners he called his "cooperators," who became pioneers in their own states. Remembered today primarily by wine lovers of a certain age, they included G. Hamilton Mowbray of Montbray Wine Cellars in Maryland, Elizabeth Furness of Piedmont Vineyards in Virginia, Doug Morehead of Presque Isle Wine Cellars in Pennsylvania, and Arnie Esterer of Markko Vineyard in Ohio.

Frank also helped build consumer awareness of wine. In 1967 he helped establish the American Wine Society, which today is the largest consumer wine group in the country. Six years later, he co-founded the Vinifera Wine Growers Association. Now called the Atlantic Seaboard Wine Association, the group continues to hold an annual competition to promote the wines of the East Coast.

Frank's campaign for vinifera was not without controversy. He was harshly critical of hybrid varieties, which were championed by Philip Wagner of Maryland's Boordy Vineyards as the best grapes for quality wine in the East. He repeated unsubstantiated claims made in Europe that hybrids were toxic. The vinifera versus hybrid question became a politically divisive debate rather than a collaborative discussion of which grapes grow best where.

Ironically, concern about the environment and climate change is leading today's viticulturists to take a second look at hybrid and native varieties. Those grapes are more disease resistant and require fewer chemicals in the vineyard than the European varieties. Vinifera won't be going away any time soon, but hybrids should gain increased acceptance among winemakers and consumers.

Konstantin Frank passed away in 1985. His son Willy took the reins and transformed the winery from an artisan tinkerer's laboratory to a thriving business, focusing on the vinifera grape varieties that were most commercially viable. Today the winery is helmed by Willy's son, Fred, and Fred's daughter, Meaghan, the third and fourth generations of a New York wine institution.

Dr. Konstantin Frank Winery has not just been a pioneer in the Finger Lakes, it has mentored several winemakers who worked there and moved on to become leaders in the region. These include Peter Bell of Fox Run (now retiring), Johannes Reinhardt of Kemmeter, Morton Hallgren of Ravines, Sebastian Leseurre of Domaine Leseurre and Peter Weis of Weis Vineyards.

On a recent trip to Hammondsport, I visited with Fred Frank on the porch of Chateau Frank, an old farmhouse a stone's throw from the main winery on the western shore of Keuka Lake. Willy had purchased this facility in the 1980s to make sparkling wines. As we tasted through several outstanding wines and discussed his grandfather's legacy, I asked Fred what excited him about the region's future. His answer surprised me.

"There's a lot of premium sparkling wine in the pipeline," he said as he poured me some 2019 Riesling Nature bubbly. "Our climate is closer to Champagne's than California's is."

My mind flashed back nearly seven decades to when a Frenchman from Champagne making sparkling wine in Upstate New York struck up a conversation with a Ukrainian refugee and sparked a revolution in winemaking throughout the Eastern United States.

"Ultimately, down the road, sparkling wine will become the next big buzz for the Finger Lakes," Frank said.
FG Trade/Getty Images

The Texas Medical Association (TMA) is raising the alarm on what they believe to be a growing number of cases in the state in which healthcare professionals are siding against providing care for women with severe pregnancy complications for fear of violating the state's abortion ban.

According to The Dallas Morning News' Allie Morris, a letter sent by members of the non-profit organization Wednesday to the Texas Medical Board claimed the association has received complaints regarding hospital administrators disallowing medical care providers from offering critical services to patients with ectopic pregnancies and other child birth complications.
A mile-long procession of school buses are headed to Sen. Ted Cruz's home in Houston on Thursday, July 14.

Thursday's roll-out is the official start of The Yellow Bus Project and Cruz's house is the first stop for the NRA Children's Museum, which is coordinated by Change the Ref, according to a Facebook post. Change the Ref is a non-profit aimed at spotlighting mass shooting awareness and reducing the NRA's public influence, started by artist Manuel Oliver and his wife Patricia. The Oliver's son Joaquin died in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

To commemorate this horrific historic moment, we are showing American voters the toll these politicians have taken on our children's lives with this all-too-real archive, Manuel said in a press release. And this is only the beginning. We will not stop with Sen. Ted Cruz. To every politician who has stood by, taken NRA money, and refused to listen to the people they represent: the museum is on the way to honor you next.

The 52 yellow school buses will be empty and the 4,368 empty seats are meant to honor the number of children killed by gun violence in the last two years. The bus at the front of the procession will include a display from the NRA Children's Museum, filled with photos, videos, audio recordings, and personal memories of the children who have died from gun violence since 2020.

Change the Ref/NRA Children's Museum

Change the Ref said that Cruz will also receive "a gift" when the procession arrives: a letter written in 2013 by Joaquin when he was 12 years old.

"Dear U.S. gun owner, I am writing this letter to talk to you about how were [sic] going to solve this gun law movement. Most of you have a problem with the idea of a universal back round [sic] check. Why are you mad that there's a back round [sic] check it's for your own good maybe you are fond of having crazy people with death machines. You shouldn't have anything against back round checks [sic] if you're innocent. Thank you, Joaquin Coral Springs."

Change the Ref/NRA Children's Museum

The NRA Children's Museum said they chose Cruz's home as the inaugural location for the procession because he is the top recipient of funding from gun lobbyists in Texas. An earlier press release said the museum would go to Cruz's office. MySA has requested clarification about the number of stops on Thursday.

We want to display, for the voters who keep these politicians in office, the consequences of those choices. We want voters to remember which politicians are in the pocket of the NRA when they visit the polls in November, Patricia said in a press release. We urge everyone to join us in our mission to fight for every innocent soul lost to gun violence and to demand universal background checks on gun sales.

Manuel was in the national spotlight earlier this week after he interrupted President Joe Biden at a news conference on Monday, July 11.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was installed as Sri Lanka's interim president on Friday until Parliament selected a new president to replace Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who stepped down after being ousted from power by widespread protests over the nation's economic collapse.

Rajapaksa's resignation as president took effect on Thursday, according to the speaker of Sri Lanka's parliament. Legislators will meet on Saturday to elect a new president. The remaining term of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, which ends in 2024, would be filled by their choice, according to Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana. He anticipates finishing the procedure in seven days, as reported by AP News.

A new prime minister might be chosen by that person, who would then need the consent of Parliament. With Rajapaksa gone, Wickremesinghe was under increasing pressure.

Rajapaksa moved on Thursday to Singapore on a flight from Maldives after leaving his country after chaotic protests. He tendered his resignation via e-mail, which was received by Abeywardenena's office, as per a CNN report.

New Presidential Powers To Be Limited

In a televised announcement, Wickremesinghe promised to take action to amend the constitution soon to limit the presidential authority and enhance Parliament. He added that he would reinstate law and order and prosecute "insurgents."

According to an Al Jazeera report, the 225-seat parliament will nominate candidates, who must submit their names to be considered in the election.

Per a resolution created at a gathering of party leaders chaired by parliamentary speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, a vote would be conducted the following day.

In a statement on Monday, Abeywardena said during the party leaders' meeting "it was agreed that this was essential to ensure a new all-party government is in place in accordance with the constitution. The ruling party has said the prime minister and the cabinet are ready to resign to appoint an all-party government."

To the distress of its 22 million citizens, Sri Lanka has run out of money to pay for imports of essential needs, including food, fertilizer, medication, and fuel.

Read Also: Russia-Ukraine War: Zelensky Claims Russian Troops Abduct More Than 200,000 Ukrainian Children Since Start of Invasion

Sri Lankans Also Suffer From Health Crisis

According to the World Food Programme, three out of every 10 households, or more than six million Sri Lankans do not know where to get their next meal. The country is also currently dealing with a significant dengue fever outbreak following several waves of COVID-19.

This year, Sri Lanka has seen more confirmed cases of dengue than the entire previous year, with close to 41,000 cases.

Because of the fuel supply shortage, patients and health professionals cannot go to hospitals. Medicines are also running out, according to Neelika Malavige, an immunologist at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura in Colombo.

"Due to the foreign-reserve crisis, we cannot buy reagents for some of our dengue experiments, so we are freezing many samples for when we can get the reagents. But in March, we had power cuts lasting for up to 13 hours, so we lost samples stored in some of our freezers," she told Nature.

Additionally, the expert said that food supply is a problem, which is partially attributable to the government's decision to impose a statewide ban on artificial fertilizers in May 2021. The measure significantly reduced agricultural output and increased the price of staple commodities like rice and vegetables.

The nation is seeking help from the International Monetary Fund and other creditors, but its finances are so poor that even obtaining a bailout has proven difficult, Wickremesinghe recently said.

Related Article: Rome Thrown Into Political Chaos as Italian President Reject's Prime Minister Mario Draghi's Resignation

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto ORourke raised a staggering $27.6 million from late February through June, according to his campaign. At least for now, that's the most amount of money a Texan seeking state office has ever raised in a campaign finance reporting period.

ORourke and Republican incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott are set to formally disclose their latest campaign finances on a report due Friday to the Texas Ethics Commission. It will cover Feb. 20 through June 30.

Abbott has not yet publicly disclosed how much money he raised in that period. But the $27.6 million that ORourke raised tops every amount Abbott  or anyone else  has previously raised in a single reporting period. And it gives ORourke a major boost as he challenges Abbott, who has had a massive financial advantage so far.

ORourkes haul came from over 511,000 contributions, 98.9% of which came in online, according ORourkes campaign. The average donation was $54.

As of the last report, though, Abbott had a huge cash-on-hand advantage over ORourke: $49.8 million compared to $6.8 million.

ORourkes campaign did not release his latest cash-on-hand figure.

The most recent fundraising period saw at least two major events that energized Democrats, including the Uvalde school shooting in May and then the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade in June.

Were receiving support from people in every part of Texas who want to work together to ensure our state moves beyond Greg Abbotts extremism and finally leads in great jobs, world class schools, the ability to see a doctor, keeping our kids safe and protecting a womans freedom to make her own decisions about her own body, health care and future, ORourke said in a statement.

ORourkes $27.6 million haul could easily be historic. For comparison, Abbott is the strongest fundraiser the state has seen in modern times, and his best reporting periods have not cracked $20 million in contributions.

Abbotts campaign sought to set high expectations for ORourkes fundraising during a call with reporters Wednesday. Abbotts chief strategist, Dave Carney, predicted ORourke would report raising $30 million. Carney declined to say if Abbott would top that number, but said $30 million would be a historic, kick-ass number for Beto.

Abbotts campaign has long made clear it plans to spare no expense on the race, predicting that it will spend over $100 million total. And it recent weeks, it has started flexing its financial prowess, announcing plans to spend an initial sum on advertising that is nearly $20 million.

Join us at The Texas Tribune Festival, happening Sept. 22-24 in downtown Austin, and hear from 300+ speakers shaping the future of Texas including Joe Straus, Jen Psaki, Joaquin Castro, Mayra Flores and many others. See all speakers announced to date and buy tickets.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2022/07/15/texas-governor-2022-abbott-orourke-fundraising-record/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.
Leslie Wexner was once known as the Merlin of the Mall for his seemingly magical ability to create ubiquitous retail brands: the Limited, Express, Bath and Body Works, Abercrombie & Fitch.

Perhaps his greatest success was Victoria's Secret, the fledgling lingerie company he transformed into a billion-dollar behemoth that dominated the intimate apparel market for decades. But, as detailed in the new docuseries "Victoria's Secret: Angels and Demons," the company imploded spectacularly following a series of publicity disasters, internal scandals and revelations about Wexner's ties to notorious predator Jeffrey Epstein in 2018 and 2019.

"It was one of the most dramatic collapses of a fashion empire in recent memory," says director Matt Tyrnauer, whose previous films include "Valentino: The Last Emperor" and "Where's My Roy Cohn?"

The Hulu series, which premiered Thursday, charts the rise and fall of the brand and the self-made Midwestern billionaire behind it, who started with a single store in a Columbus, Ohio, suburb and eventually grew wealthy enough to build his own town. Featuring interviews with journalists, models and former Victoria's Secret executives (though not Wexner, who stepped down from his role as chief executive in 2020), "Angels and Demons" portrays a corporate culture that was infected with the same misogyny it peddled to the masses.

We learn how Wexner acquired Victoria's Secret in 1982 and revamped the brand with a refined yet accessible sensibility based on a fictional Englishwoman named Victoria. By the late '90s, guided by Wexner and marketing chief Edward Razek, the company had embraced a more overtly sexy image: In the company's televised fashion show, supermodels like Heidi Klum and Gisele Bundchen strutted down runways in enormous angel wings and barely-there underwear.

Most damning of all is Wexner's close association with Epstein, who was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019 and killed himself while awaiting trial. As far back as 1993, Epstein, who served as Wexner's money manager for more than a decade during the heyday of Victoria's Secret, was rumored to pose as a talent scout for the company and was accused of assaulting a model during a so-called audition for the catalog in 1997. Another woman claims she was assaulted by Epstein at Wexner's Ohio estate in 1996. (Wexner said he cut ties with Epstein in 2007.)

"Angels and Demons"  which follows a Netflix documentary about sister company Abercrombie & Fitch, a podcast about Victoria's Secret released last year and a cottage industry of Epstein journalism  examines some of the most prevalent theories about the convicted sex offender and the origins of his wealth, including the suggestions that Epstein was running a massive blackmail scheme or working in intelligence.

And while it doesn't conclusively answer the most pressing question about Wexner  just why did he associate with Epstein for so long?  it is nevertheless a fascinating portrait of a business visionary with a catastrophic blindspot. (In 2019, Wexner claimed Epstein misappropriated "vast sums" of his money.)

Tyrnauer spoke with the L.A. Times about the series, what Wexner has in common with contemporary tech billionaires and the "fever swamp" of Epstein conspiracy theories.

Q: What drew you to Les Wexner and Victoria's Secret?

A: I like to make projects about closed systems and worlds apart. And this certainly fell into that category. My first film was about Valentino, which was the opposite end of the spectrum  the world of haute couture. This one is about the most mass of mass market and, in our current time, the culturally much more impactful, because the story of fashion has become one of the mass market. L Brands, the parent company of Victoria's Secret, virtually invented fast fashion. I started to explore this topic when certain famous models who had been associated with the brand began to rebel against it on social media. The company then had a near-death experience after I was already looking into the story and by then already seemed like a behemoth losing its grip.

Q: Did you find the former Victoria's Secret models were reluctant to speak?

A: Frederique van der Wal, who was one of the original major models associated with the brand, gave us a really insightful interview and was very articulate about her experience. Younger models also spoke. But a lot of the major names associated with the brand at its apex didn't speak, and I'm not sure why they weren't willing to do so.

Q: Van der Wal says she felt very exposed after days when she worked for Victoria's Secret. I thought that was striking. We think models are inured to that sort of thing.

A: When she was doing work for the brand, it was early days. Lingerie as fashion really wasn't a thing before Victoria's Secret, and I would venture to say that lingerie as fashion was barely ever a thing. I don't really consider Victoria's Secret to be a fashion brand. I consider it to be a marketing scheme that sold relatively inexpensive lingerie to the mass market and did so incredibly effectively using the tropes and trappings of the fashion world to achieve their goal.

Q: What did Wexner understand correctly about consumers, especially when it came to Victoria's Secret? What do you think he correctly intuited back in the '80s when he acquired the company?

A: I see Wexner as the [Amazon's Jeff] Bezos and [Meta's Mark] Zuckerberg of his time. He was one of the great merchants, certainly, but he was the analog version of the tech and social media titans we all obsess over. As I was making this, I really saw the 1.0 version of Instagram in the shopping mall. The mall was the fantasy machine of its time.

Q: Do you think Victoria's Secret would have floundered as a brand even if the ties between Epstein and Wexner never came to light? How much of the brand's troubles are tied to that relationship?

A: I think the brand ran out of road years ago. Why it kept going is a mystery to me. The angels on the runway and all of that exploitative use of female sexuality to sell things was incredibly dated. When I started the project, I might have been the last person in the Western Hemisphere that didn't know about the angels. I was like, "God, this seems like something from Las Vegas in the '60s at the Stardust."

You see [in the series] there was a lot of internal strife at the company. The crew that had done the original successful branding of Victoria's Secret as an upscale aristocratic world rebelled and either quit or were fired in the early aughts when [the company] changed tack. The relevance of the brand I think really stopped probably several years before its near-death experience [in 2018-2019].

Q: What do you think motivated Wexner? He is a cipher.

A: Wexner himself has said that he created a fantasy world and he lived in it. He builds his own town, outside of Columbus, where the company is based, called New Albany, which is a fantasy world of Georgian splendor that has nothing to do with the farmland on which it was built. It's the particular fantasy of one billionaire and has notes of Gatsby and Ralph Lauren.I think it was a forerunner to billionaires going to outer space and trying to colonize Mars.

Q: How did you approach the Epstein side of this story? Because I feel like you could spend the rest of your life going down Epstein rabbit holes.

A: Epstein is one of the greatest con men of the last 100 years in this country. I would say the other two were Roy Cohn and Donald Trump. Epstein's Zelig-like ability to attach himself to wealthy targets in that New York money-fashion-industrial complex is chilling.

Q: Reporter Sarah Ellison says that, according to the best estimates, Wexner paid Epstein around $400 million over the course of their business relationship. Do you have any sense of why Wexner apparently considered Epstein so valuable?

A: That remains a big question mark. And we may never know. Despite the efforts of many great journalists looking into this, including Sarah Ellison, who's in the film, and writers from Vanity Fair and the New York Times, it really remains a mystery.

Q: One of the sex-trafficking experts in the series states rather conclusively that Epstein was using women and girls as tools to blackmail powerful men. Are you convinced of this theory?

A: It's very hard to say. The Epstein narrative is now obscured by the weeds of the fever swamp. There are so many conspiracy theories around him and so many unanswered questions. It's rather disorienting and hard to parse reality from conspiracy, and the facts are scarce because he didn't live to go to trial.



VICTORIA'S SECRET: ANGELS AND DEMONS

Rating: TV-MA

How to watch: Premiered Thursday on Hulu


We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

Go to form
The United States and Japan showcased their military force by flying more than 50 jet fighters over the seas near Tokyo this week amid rising tension with China and Russia.

The exercises included 12 of the most advanced F-22 stealth fighters, four F-35 stealth jets, and 13 F-15 jets of the US Air Force, according to a news release from the Japanese Defense Ministry on Thursday.

Twenty Japanese F-15 and F-2 fighters and three US reconnaissance and support aircraft joined the US fighter jets, according to a CNN report.

The US and Japanese warplanes flew over the Pacific Ocean, the East China Sea, and the Sea of Japan to strengthen their tactical abilities and "joint response capability," according to the Japanese Defense Ministry.

Despite announcing in a news release last month that it had sent 12 F-22s from the Hawaii Air National Guard to Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, the US Air Force did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the exercises this week.

According to a US statement, the F-22 fighter jets were in Japan to conduct "various missions to enhance operational readiness to defend Japan and ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific," the US statement said.

Additionally, this week, the US and Japanese maritime patrol planes practiced near the Senkaku Islands, a group of uninhabited islands that China also claims and calls the Diaoyus, as well as the Nansei Islands, the nearest Japanese territory to Taiwan.

According to a Japanese statement, the exercise was held to "strengthen the capacity of the Japan-US Alliance for effective deterrence."

The Chinese Coast Guard's patrols in the waters surrounding the islands were "an appropriate exercise of China's sovereign right," the Chinese Foreign Ministry claimed per CNN.

China, Russia Boost Military Presence in Japanese Territory

The presence of Chinese and Russian vessels in the territory of Japan has grown recently.

Tokyo said late last month that eight Chinese and Russian ships had been detected in the vicinity of Japan.

According to a news statement from the ministry, a five-ship Russian flotilla spent a week sailing close to Japanese islands, from Hokkaido in the north to Okinawa in the south.

Read Also: Sri Lanka Crisis: Voting for New President Set After Gotabaya Rajapaksa Resigns via Email

In late May, Beijing and Moscow also flew six strategic bombers over the Pacific, the East China Sea, and the Sea of Japan. The incident occurred when Tokyo was hosting a meeting of "the Quad," which includes Australia, India, and the United States, as reported by the Japan Times.

Japan, Britain Reportedly To Develop Next-Generation Jet Fighters

Meanwhile, three individuals informed Reuters that Britain and Japan are nearing an agreement to combine their next-generation Tempest and F-X fighter jets programs. The two nations hope to finalize a pact on a new joint project by the end of the year.

The program would be the first time Japan to work with Britain on a significant military program, going beyond expectations when industrial talks began five years ago.

According to one of the sources, Japan and Britain would work together as "equal" partners. He stated that it would cost tens of billions of dollars.

By the end of December, the effort to merge the British Tempest program and the Japanese F-X program, operated by BAE Systems PLC (BAES.L), had not been publicized.

The sources requested anonymity because they were not authorized to communicate with the media about the program.

Related Article: US Military Performs Successful Hypersonic Missile Test as Washington Gets Closer to Russia, China in New Arms Race

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Canadas immigration pathways for tech talent Canada offers many temporary and permanent options to attract global tech talent. Edana Robitaille Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

Sans Font Size A

A

Canadas tech sector is booming, and industry growth is expected to continue outpacing the number of skilled tech workers in the Canadian labour force. This growth comes from a mix of startups and large companies, such as Google and Amazon, investing more money and growing their businesses in Canada. This investment is a core piece of Canadas economy and as a result there are over 250,000 tech workers in Toronto alone.



In response to the high demand for skilled tech workers, the federal and provincial governments offer many permanent residence and work permit options to hire workers from overseas. This article will explain some prominent options, whether you are an employer or tech worker yourself.

Schedule a Free Work Permit Consultation with the Cohen Immigration Law Firm

Temporary Work Permits

An employer considering hiring talent from abroad has several temporary work permit pathways to choose from. When there is a shortage of skilled Canadian tech workers, these programs aim to allow employers to quickly hire the tech talent they require for their business.

Global Talent Stream

The Global Talent Stream (GTS) is a prominent option in the tech sector. It was created to facilitate the growth of Canadas tech industry and aims to achieve a processing standard of two weeks once the final application is submitted by the potential employee. This pathway acts as a temporary work permit and can be used as a steppingstone for employees who wish to be eligible for permanent residence.

It is considered part of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) and before hiring, employers must first obtain a neutral or positive Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) from Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) to be eligible. ESDC evaluates if hiring workers from outside Canada will have a positive, neutral, or negative impact on Canadas labour market.

Additionally, to be eligible to hire under this program, employers must meet the criteria in one of the following two categories:

Category A: This category is for companies that approach EDSC though a referral partner. Referral partners are typically governmental, local or government affiliated agencies or business that have a mandate to support local economies. The employees hired under this category are highly specialized in a specific part of the tech sector. If the candidates occupation is already on the Global Talent Occupations List, the employer must apply under category B.

Category B: This is for employers who require employees who are employed in occupations that are already on the Global Talent Occupations list, such as software engineers, designers, or information systems analysts. These occupations are considered in-demand and the government has recognized a shortage of these skills in the Canadian labour force.

Labour Market Benefit Plan

Employers must also submit a Labour Market Benefits Plan (LMBP) to EDSC that outlines how they will commit to benefitting Canadas labour market in the long term. The focus is different depending on the category.

A category A plan must outline how hiring through the GTS will benefit job creation for Canadian and permanent residents.

Category B LMBPs need to show how they are going to increase their investment in training Canadians and permanent residents to learn in-demand tech skills.

In both categories, there are conditions relating to how skilled workers are paid. Anyone hired through the Global Talent Stream must be paid at the prevailing wage or higher.

The prevailing wage is the highest of either:

the median wage for the occupation on the Government of Canadas Job Bank;

the wage within the range an employer pays current employees in the same position at the same location, with the same skills and experience; or

the minimum wage floor as defined in the Global Talent occupations list (if applicable).

Schedule a Free Work Permit Consultation with the Cohen Immigration Law Firm

CUSMA

If an employer is hiring tech talent from elsewhere in North America, they may be eligible for the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA). Like the GTS, it is a temporary work permit.

This agreement can facilitate the mobility of talent between the countries. The agreement is further broken down into two categories that are relevant to tech workers.

Professionals: There are 63 occupations that qualify for CUSMA under the professionals category. Prominent tech occupations such as systems analysts and software engineers may be eligible.

Intra-Company transfers (ICTs): ICTs occur when employees of multinational companies move to the companys Canadian branch. The transferee is often someone in a management position or has other specialized knowledge.

Non-CUSMA ICTs

Multinational companies eligible for ICTs do not necessarily need to be located in Mexico or the United States. If any company has an established branch Canada, it may be possible for employees from other countries to transfer to Canada without an employer needing to obtain an LMIA.

Pathways to permanent residency in Canada

Tech talent may prefer to move to Canada as a permanent resident. The most common pathway for skilled tech workers to obtain permanent residence is through an immigration program that falls under the Express Entry application management system or a Provincial Nominee Program (PNP).

Express Entry

Express Entry is the Canadian governments largest entry stream for skilled immigrants.

Candidates with tech backgrounds are the leading recipients of permanent residence invitations under Express Entry.

Express Entry is designed to expedite applications for skilled workers. The most popular Express Entry option is the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP). This program is for those with at least one year of work experience that falls under National Occupational Codes 0, A or B, as most tech sector jobs do.

Alternatively, candidates who have completed one year of work experience in Canada in the past three years may be eligible for Express Entry through the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) program.

Express Entry is a two step process:

Candidates must self-assess if they are eligible for the program they wish to apply for.

If they are eligible, they must upload a profile to the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) website. IRCC will assign a Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score based on work experience, education, language abilities and other human capital factors in their profile. The higher the score, the more likely it is that a candidate will receive an invitation to apply (ITA) for permanent residence.

IRCC holds draws approximately every two weeks. If a candidate receives an ITA, they have 60 days to submit their final application to IRCC.

Discover if You Are Eligible for Canadian Immigration

Provincial nomination tech talent streams

Canada offers over 100 economic immigration pathways and many of them are part of a Provincial Nominee Program (PNP). All Canadian provinces, except Quebec and Nunavut, have PNPs that work in alignment with IRCC. These programs allow provincial governments to select candidates that they feel will be a good fit in the province. Several Canadian provinces have immigration streams designed to attract tech talent.

Here is a brief list of provincial tech talent streams:

BC Tech Stream: For this stream, candidates must be eligible for one of BCs immigration programs and have a job offer of at least one year.

OINP Tech Draw: Under this Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program candidates need to be eligible for either the Federal Skilled Worker Program or the Canadian Experience Class.

Saskatchewan Tech Talent Pathway: Eligible candidates must have an employer specific SINP (Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program) Job Approval Letter for an eligible technology sector occupation. They need at least one year of work experience in that occupation within the past five years,

Alberta Accelerated Tech Pathway: Candidates need to meet the eligibility criteria for the Alberta Express Entry Stream. They need to either be currently working in Alberta or have a job offer in one of 23 eligible occupations.

Quebec

Quebec offers its own program called the Quebec Immigration Program for Workers in Artificial Intelligence, Information Technology, and Visual Effects Sectors.

There are two tech categories under this program:

AI (Artificial Intelligence): There are two ways to eligible for this stream. If a candidate graduated from a Quebec college or university, they must have job experience and a job offer. If the candidate was trained abroad, they may not require a job offer but must demonstrate an education equivalent to a Quebec bachelors degree.

IT and Visual Effects streams: Candidates must have two years of work experience in one of 10 eligible occupations, out of the past five years. They must also have a job offer in that field and the equivalent of a Quebec technical studies diploma or a bachelors degree.

Discover if You Are Eligible for Canadian Immigration

 CIC News All Rights Reserved. Visit CanadaVisa.com to discover your Canadian immigration options.
By: Amrita Shergill, Account Manager, NaaS and Ecosystem Sales

COVID-19s disruption of traditional business models has paved the way for long overdue business operational changes. Declining revenues, along with the burden of growing fixed cost during Covid, induced lockdowns and eroded margins. Due to these tough conditions, organizations required working capital to keep the lights on.

In response to these adverse circumstances, businesses increasingly adopted technology and an asset-light model to navigate these market challenges. Network as a Service (NaaS) supports the asset-light model by using operating expenses (OPEX) in a pay-per-use manner, and transferring technology, people and processes to a vendor/partner that is a specialist in its respective field.

NaaS allows organizations to focus on its core business and maximize profits and shareholder value. Organizations can also move from a fixed to a variable cost structure. Research from Ernst & Young LLP1shows asset-light companies have outperformed their peers on total shareholder return over the last five years.

Aruba

Drivers, Challenges and Solutions for Executing an Asset-light Strategy

In February 2021 Ernst & Young conducted an asset-light strategy webcast poll, which included responses from more than one thousand C-suite executives. Fifty six percent (56%) of respondents agreed that digitization and innovation are key drivers for considering an asset-light strategy. However, many reported that finding the right partner is the biggest challenge in executing the asset-light strategy.

Having a world-class network is the cornerstone of any successful digital strategy, and companies are looking for a partner that can provide a complete network solution (hardware, security, software, services) to help simplify operations, optimize resources, realize network and security convergence, and improve the user experience.

Responding to this market need, IT vendors have introduced innovative solutions with NaaS that deliver high-performance, end-to-end network solutions in a simple monthly payment modelwith no upfront capital expenditure.

Today there is a heightened demand for different types of network consumption. To embrace an asset-lite strategy, companies must consider new ways of paying for and operating their networks and provide flexibility in how customers consume their services. NaaS can help rapidly deploy and manage networks in a more elastic way.

To learn more about NaaS and how HPE GreenLake for Aruba can support business agility through an asset-lite model, go to www.arubanetworks.com/naas

References:
A Chinese was admired for her well-written Russian medieval history piece until it was revealed she'd pulled off one of Wikipedia's largest frauds.

A Chinese Female Composed a Lengthy Fake Historical Piece on Wikipedia

Zhemao, who claimed to be a diplomat's daughter in medieval Russia, contributed extensive and authoritative entries to Chinese Wikipedia. According to Vice World News, Zhemao's most extended piece is nearly as long as The Great Gatsby. It described Tartar uprisings in 17th-century Russia and included a map.

In another post, the user provided rare photographs of antique Russian currency from archeologists. Her well-written pieces were well-respected until it was uncovered she'd pulled off one of the platform's biggest scams.

Chinese author Yifan exposed the scam in a Quora-like post. Yifan found one of her articles on a 14th- and 15th-century silver mine while researching a new book. The paper supposedly featured soil composition, mining construction, and silver refining procedures. Yifan sought to fact-check Zhemao's references with Russian speakers, but they didn't exist.

As a reaction, volunteer editors determined that her citations didn't line up or that she manufactured facts from obscure sources. Wikipedia's contributors self-regulate as a crowd-sourced encyclopedia. Wikipedia says its inclusion criteria are "verifiability, not veracity."

Zhemao acknowledged on her profile forging her identity and facts. She said she's not from Russia, and her spouse is Chinese. She's a housewife with a high school certificate, not a doctorate in global history from Moscow State University.

According to Vice's post, she was annoyed by Russian and English stories. She utilized internet translators to interpret web articles, then filled in the blanks with her imagination.

Read Also: Payments for SouthEast Asian Trips via QR Code May be Available Soon | Here's How to Avoid QR Scams

Wikipedia is the First Client of Meta's Disinformation AI Called Sphere

A new AI-powered tool called Sphere was unveiled on Monday (July 11) by Facebook parent company Meta. It is meant to assist in identifying and dealing with false information, or "fake news," on the internet.

Wikipedia is the AI model's first customer, which is rather appropriate. According to Meta's release, the crowd-sourced online encyclopedia is already utilizing Sphere to scan its pages and indicate sources that don't genuinely support the statements in the article.

According to Meta, it is the first [AI] model that can automatically examine tens of thousands of citations at once to determine if they support the relevant claims.

Meta also said that when Sphere identifies a dubious source, it will also suggest a more reliable one or a revision to increase the entry's accuracy.

The decision follows years of criticism over Facebook's involvement in enabling internet disinformation to proliferate and spread worldwide. Meta's research team said that the Sphere dataset has 134 million public websites. It uses this pooled online expertise to check millions of web citations for factual inaccuracies quickly.

Meta informed TechCrunch there is no cash remuneration from Wikipedia. Meta obtains a large-scale training field for Sphere, while Wikipedia acquires an AI tool that might increase factual accuracy.

Related Article: Facebook Seeks New AI System's Prowess to Prevent Hate Speeches and Misinformation
Termen Extins: Concurs de selectie a unui expert/e sau echipa de experti in domeniul evaluarii organizatiilor de tineret membre ale CNTM cu privire la existenta si eficacitatea politicii lor interne si identificarea prioritatilor strategice de dezvoltare
Primeste notificari pe email

Contractare si Achizitie Bunuri Anunturi de Angajare Granturi - Finantari Burse de studiu Stagii Profesionale Oportunitati de voluntariat Toate Articolele
The national anti-poverty charity Turn2us recently conducted reviews of two of its services to determine how equitable they were in reaching and serving different communities. The charitys leadership is acutely aware of the inequalities and unfairness that characterises UK society generally, and is anxious that their organisation does all it can to avoid mirroring them.

Turn2us CEO Thomas Lawson explains: If our sector is recreating some of those barriers and some of that oppression, then were not in a position to tackle those problems  we dont have the credibility or authority to tell society to be better. So, our sector as a whole has to hold itself to account for its patriarchal oppression, its racist oppression, its homophobic and queerphobic oppression.

Evidence gathered by Turn2us and others shows that it is statistically more likely that people of colour will experience financial hardship and barriers to economic security than white people, so Lawson says it is vital that the charity assesses whether it is reaching them.

He says: If Turn2us is not facing into the dynamics within its own organisation then we do not  and I do not  have the credibility to have this job. So, it has to hold itself to account for the people for whom we exist.

Review of Elizabeth Finn Fund

The first service that Turn2us reviewed was its Elizabeth Finn Fund (EFF), which provides grants of 1,000 to 2,500 to people experiencing financial hardship. It knew that applicants from minoritised ethnic groups were less likely to receive a grant, so it wanted to delve deeper to find out why and to hear about the experiences of people from these groups.

Turn2us contacted 147 applicants who were refused a grant between 2019 and 2021. This resulted in nine interviews and 27 survey responses.

Over half of the applicants interviewed felt there was conscious or unconscious bias at play in their interactions with the charity. Some respondents said that they felt a power imbalance reminiscent of the benefits system.

In response to the findings, the charity has temporarily closed the EFF to undertake a thorough redesign of it in partnership with people who have lived experience of financial insecurity.

Sonya Ruparel, director of programmes and partnerships at Turn2us, admits that the results of the research did not come as a huge shock to the charitys team.

I dont think some of us were very surprised. But I think we needed the evidence to make the changes, she says.

Lawson adds that the EFF was a very old funding structure that had not been looked at for some time. To the best of his knowledge, this was the first time the programme had been evaluated through an equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) lens.

Nonetheless, says Lawson, it was difficult for the charity, and for him personally, to learn that we were causing harm to people of colour when they were applying for our grants.

He explains: Personally, I felt accountable. Im the chief executive; Im accountable for the harm that this organisation has caused under my watch and that feeling is why I have a responsibility as a chief executive to support the organisation to address it.

But overall, Lawson adds, its irrelevant if we felt any of those difficult feelings, because the people for whom the organisation exists were experiencing harm  and my feelings in the face of that are irrelevant.

Turn2us is now overhauling the EFF fund model with its co-production partners  people with lived experience of poverty  and the fund is set to relaunch later this year.

Ruparel says: We are redesigning our approach to grants entirely and taking the opportunity to see deeply how we can put peoples dignity and decision-making more at the heart of how we make grants in the future.

She emphasises that Turn2us is continuing to help people in the meantime, but grant programmes currently available are more short-term.

Review of Grants Search Tool

Turn2us also conducted an independent review of its Grants Search Tool, which allows people in financial hardship to identify funds they can apply to.

The Social Investment Consultancy (TSIC) assessed the tool through a racial equity lens and identified the changes required to ensure it is not contributing to racial inequity.

This review was prompted by data that Turn2us analysed in 2020, which showed that people from minoritised groups were underrepresented among users of the tool. Subsequently, the charity worked to identify barriers that stopped people from those communities using it.

The findings were from TSICs desk review, two workshops, two interviews with experts on digital products and seven user research interviews with people from minoritised ethnic communities.

TSIC identified concerns that the tool was exhibiting systemic, institutional and interpersonal racism. For example, systemic racism was demonstrated via not enough targeted funds for ethnic minorities and not enough grants available for ethnic minorities facing health conditions. Interpersonal racism was evident in the fact that English was the only language available to access the data.

It was also discovered that the tool could be perpetuating institutional racism by failing to tackle perceptions among users that Turn2us was a middle-class and politically conservative organisation.

While the Grants Search Tool remains open to use, the charity is now working on bringing the TSICs recommendations to life, to make it a more equitable service.

Tackling historical perceptions

When pressed on the origins of these perceptions of Turn2us as middle-class and conservative, Lawson details how modern civil society grew up out of the industrial revolution, which created an extraordinary disparity of wealth where richer people felt compelled to help those less fortunate.

Though this was well-meaning, at the heart of that was an othering, he says. In this way, civil society upholds oppression, and this is a problem the sector must fix.

Ruparel agrees that institutional racism is prevalent throughout civil society and that Turn2us needs to address its own issues.

She says: We have been on this journey of really trying to understand how we could, in future, become anti-racist, and part of that was looking at that tool and asking, how can we look at it through an equity lens? So, we hadnt previously identified a problem, but we unearthed that there are issues within it that we can now address when we rebuild it.

Ruparel says the charity is trying to do this not only through the equity reviews, but through increasing diverse representation on its board and within the staff team.

Especially when I joined, our staff team was very white. We have been addressing that in the last three years, but when I came in, I was quite surprised at how white it was and I think that also tells a story that maybe people feel that we dont exist to support them because of who we are  and we are trying to address that.

Striving for anti-racism

Both Ruparel and Lawson emphasise that merely not being racist as an organisation is not enough, and that charities must strive to be actively anti-racist.

Lawson explains: Just not being racist condones racism. If youre simply passively not being racist, ultimately, youre being racist because youre condoning it and as a white ally then Im contributing to it. If I dont speak out when I see it or feel it or hear it then Im complicit and that is true for the organisation. We are complicit if we dont tackle it.

Ruparel adds: If we are not supporting people affected by social injustice and tackling social injustice in the work that we do, were buying into a system that is creating those injustices and we need to challenge that system. We cannot be part of it.

We are thinking very hard about how can we support people through our work to tackle those systems of injustice. It feels critical that thats what we do and we work with other organisations that are doing that as well.

Learning in the open

Lawson adds that Turn2us is deliberately publishing its findings so that it is seen to be learning in the open. He said that although it might be tempting for organisations to uncover these sorts of outcomes and figure out how to address them behind the scenes, this is not acceptable.

He says: That is us holding onto power and protecting ourselves, instead of being accountable to the people for whom we exist. We will probably, as we learn in the open, misstep. But by learning in the open we are inviting people to hold us to account.

Ruparel says that Turn2us plans to examine more of its services, products and programmes  including its flagship Benefits Calculator  through an EDI lens. Lawson also pledges to make sure the EDI lens is alive in annual reports and communications, and is at the heart of how we communicate with the world. The approach will also inform its next five-year strategy, which will go live on 1 April 2023.

Lawson says: If Turn2us, by being vulnerable and learning in the open, has an impact on other grantmakers, that is a good thing.

The pair urge other charities to also examine their organisations through an equity lens. Lets learn together, Lawson says.

Governance & Leadership is a bimonthly publication which helps charity leaders and trustees on their journey from good practice to best practice. Written by leading sector experts each issue is packed with news, in-depth analysis and real-life case studies of best practice in charitable endeavour and charity governance plus advice and guidance straight from the regulator. Find more information here and subscribe today! is a bimonthly publication which helps charity leaders and trustees on their journey from good practice to best practice. Written by leading sector experts each issue is packed with news, in-depth analysis and real-life case studies of best practice in charitable endeavour and charity governance plus advice and guidance straight from the regulator.
The coronavirus pandemic has had a devastating effect on many people and organisations, and this has meant charities have sometimes had to make very difficult decisions.

Despite this, civil society has, where possible, been extraordinarily innovative and resilient in its response. New ways of working are springing up as charities learn lessons from the pandemic. Indeed, many organisations now offer their staff more flexibility around where they work  some choosing to work remotely, some in an office, and others taking a hybrid approach.

Ultimately, the pandemic has meant charities must make decisions on new ideas, and in some cases, decide whether or not they should share office space. Sense and Family Rights Group have spoken to Civil Society News and shared their reasons for adopting this way of working, as have Shelter and Become. The charities have emphasised the many benefits which come with this collaborative approach, such as sharing learning and reducing rent commitments.

Sense: Were proud to share our office space

Richard Kramer, chief executive at Sense, noted adaptability, innovation, and collaboration were central to the resilience of UK charities in the face of the pandemic.

He explained: We were guided by this as we planned our return to our main London office, committed to working differently to support staff and ultimately reach more families and people with complex disabilities.

The Sense chief executive believes an office environment helps shape organisational culture, supports staff wellbeing and creates lots of opportunities for collaboration.

He said: It was clear that staff enjoyed the benefits of working from home during the pandemic, but also yearned for the social interaction of face to face meetings in the office.

Therefore, the charity made the decision to introduce a flexible work model that supports a blend of home and in-office work.

Sense also decided that ahead of the reopening of its main office, we would redesign it, making it more accessible for our disabled colleagues and introducing new collaborative workspaces.

Kramer said: The result is a more dynamic and modern working environment for staff, which is hopefully a more inspiring place to work.

He added: Key to the redesign was being able to, for the first time, share our office with another charity.

The chief executive said the decision has a number of perks, including the opportunity to collaborate, and also financial benefits.

He said: Were proud to share our office space Family Rights Group, as part of our wider ambition for greater collaboration and joint working within the sector.

Aside from working alongside colleagues who do fantastic work and the opportunities it will present, this move also, crucially, makes financial sense, as we seek to keep our costs down and ensure our funds go towards delivering support.

Family Rights Group: We needed affordable premises that lent themselves to hybrid working

Cathy Ashley, chief executive of Family Rights Group, explained the charity is a national but relatively small charity that works with families involved with childrens social care services.

She said: At the start of the pandemic all our staff transitioned to working from home, and in summer 2021 we gave up our London-based office because it wasnt conducive to safe working practices during the pandemic.

Ashley explained Family Rights Group saved the money on rental expenditure but knew that longer term, organisationally and for the wellbeing of our staff, we needed affordable premises that lent themselves to hybrid working.

Family Rights Group started looking in early 2022, and Ashley said the partnership with Sense was a perfect solution.

We were incredibly lucky because Sense was refurbishing their London building and had just the right amount of space to rent out to meet our needs.

They have been incredibly generous in their approach, it is an accessible building and we were able to influence their adaptations, to ensure the space met our requirements including building a bespoke confidential room for our advice service, the chief executive explained.

Ashley said the charity sees lots of benefits to being hosted by a larger charity with a different focus but similar ethos.

She explained: Were keen to learn from and work with Sense, particularly in addressing barriers facing parents, carers and children with complex disabilities.

We think theres multiple opportunities to explore, including running joint lunchtime learning sessions, and buddying up between staff in similar roles from the different organisations, and obviously were pleased our rental costs are going to a great cause.

Become: 'Theres serious value in bigger charities supporting smaller ones'

Katharine Sacks-Jones, chief executive of Become, a national charity for children in care and young care leavers, also notes that post-pandemic many charities are using offices differently and need different solutions.

She said: Leaving our rented office space last year enabled us to invest in our people and services  and so to do more for children and young people. We have staff all over the UK and remote working is strongly embedded, our people don't want to be in an office five days a week, but we still needed a space to connect and collaborate in a flexible way.

Given that, the chief executive said Become are now very thankful to be able to use Shelters office for monthly all-staff Together Days, which has helped teams to bond and work together offline.

She added that for team members based in or near London, Shelters office at Old Street is available for hot desking.

Sacks-Jones concluded: Theres serious value in bigger charities supporting smaller ones, and the opportunity with Shelter made perfect sense as our purposes and values align so closely. Shelter fights for all those whose lives are blighted by the loss of their home, and around quarter of homeless people are care-experienced. To be under the same roof, with opportunity for collaboration, advice, and inspiration, truly benefits us all.

Shelter: 'We are exploring the option of sharing our Old Street office space'

Shelter are currently trialling this with two organisations, Become and the Sheila McKechnie Foundation.

Tim Gutteridge, director of strategy enablement at Shelter, said: Shelter has adopted more flexible, hybrid working arrangements as a result of the pandemic, so not all of our people are in the office five days a week anymore. Our Old Street office is now set up as a really collaborative space where people can come to work together on projects and as teams, and also hot desk as and when they need to.

As part of our new and more flexible ways of working, we are exploring the option of sharing our Old Street office space where capacity allows with smaller charities who are aligned to our charitable aims. This is allowing us to maximise the space we have available at no extra cost to Shelter, and help other organisations in their fight for social justice. We are currently trialling this with two organisations, Become and the Sheila McKechnie Foundation, and so far it seems to be working well for everyone.

sign up to receive the Civil Society News daily bulletin here . For more news, interviews, opinion and analysis about charities and the voluntary sector,
Humanity can now get a better look at the largest planet in our celestial neighborhood, our solar system.

NASA's recently commissioned space observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, continues to make history as it photographs many of the cosmic bodies we know and want to know more of; it even took a picture of Jupiter and its moon, Europa.

NASA's newest space telescope recently received its commission, with NASA celebrating the event by releasing the first pictures the space telescope took when it became a commissioned space telescope.

James Webb Space Telescope Jupiter Picture Details

NASA mentioned in a blog post that the pictures of Jupiter and Europa were taken using the James Webb Space Telescope's (JWST or Webb) NIRCAM instrument 2.12-micron filter.

Thanks to the space telescope's instrument, we can clearly see the gas giant's distinct bands that encircle it and its Great Red Spot, a storm bigger than the Earth.

Contrary to the name, Webb's picture of the Great Red Spot appears white due to the process the picture underwent.

On the other hand, Jupiter's moon, Europa, can be clearly seen to the left of the gas giant.

However, that isn't the only Jupiter moon Webb captured on film. Thanks to NIRCam's 3.23-micron filter and its 2.12-micron filter, Webb was able to also capture Thebe and Metis, moons that couldn't be clearly seen using the latter filter.

Aside from Jupiter's moons, Webb was also able to capture some of the planet's rings on film, which stood out in the telescope's NIRCam long-wavelength filter image.

Read More: #ToyTech: The History of Nerf: How It Went From Nerf Ball to the Brand That It is Today

Stefanie Milam, Webb's deputy project scientist for planetary science based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, mentioned that she was dumbfounded when Webb was able to take a picture of Jupiter's rings, describing the feat as "absolutely astonishing and amazing."

Bryan Holler, a scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, said that when Webb's deep field images released the other day and its photos of Jupiter were combined, the result would demonstrate the full capabilities of what Webb can observe.

Holler is also one of the experts that helped plan for Jupiter's picture-taking using Webb's instruments.

John Stansberry, observatory scientist, and NIRCam commissioning lead of the Space Telescope Science Institute said that the pictures of Jupiter were designed to provide "nice images" of the entire disk of the planet. However, the wealth of additional information about very faint objects, such as the planet's rings, Metis, and Thebe, was "absolutely a very pleasant surprise" for a picture taken with approximately one-minute exposures.

Keep in mind that Webb is able to take pictures of this quality despite the fact it was hit by a micrometeoroid sometime at the end of May, specifically its Webb's primary mirror's C3 segment.

What's Next For Webb?

NASA is planning on using Webb's infrared instruments to properly observe and take photos of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, named Sagitarrius A*.

It is also planning to use the space telescope's instruments to study exoplanets.

Additionally, it could also be used to study fast-moving objects in space, such as asteroids, which it did when it was taking pictures of Jupiter and its moons, per Space.com.

Related Article: James Webb Space Telescope Snaps Its First Photo of the Carina Nebula, Southern Ring Nebula
The father of a deceased former choirboy filed a lawsuit against Cardinal George Pell and the Catholic Church in an Australian court on Thursday claiming the parent suffered psychological injury over an accusation that the once-senior Vatican official sexually abused the son.

Neither the father nor the son can be named under Australian laws that conceal the identities of victims of sexual abuse.

The father said in 2019 he was considering legal action seeking damages when Pell, Pope Francis former finance minister, was sentenced to six years in prison on jury convictions for abusing the son and another choirboy in a Melbourne cathedral in the 1990s. Both boys were 13 years old at the time.

Pell, now 81, had his convictions overturned by the High Court in 2020 after he had spent 13 months in prison. He has since been based in Sydney and holds no Vatican position.

The fathers civil case was brought before the Victoria state Supreme Court for the first time on Thursday. Justice Michael McDonald adjourned the case until Aug. 4 when questions over legal defenses will be resolved.

Pell has always maintained his innocence.

The fathers lawyer, Lisa Flynn, said the unanimous decision of the High Courts seven judges to acquit Pell only related to the criminal law, not civil law.

A criminal case must be proved beyond reasonable doubt while a civil case needs to be proved to a lower standard on the balance of probabilities.

There are different paths to justice and different avenues that survivors of abuse have, Flynn told reporters.

The father claims to have suffered nervous shock arising from his sons alleged assault by Pell, then the 55-year-old Melbourne archbishop.

The father also suffered from chronic adjustment disorder and persistent complex bereavement disorder, with mixed anxiety and a depressed mood, court documents show.

The father said he lost money due to medical expenses and lost his earning capacity. He has not nominated a monetary sum for his damages.

The father had no knowledge of the abuse allegation when his son died of a heroin overdose in 2014 at age 31.

The sons friend and fellow choirboy, who also cannot be identified, attended the funeral and signed a police statement a year later alleging they had both been abused in a cathedral back room.

The father first became aware of the allegation when questioned by police in 2016.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A California appellate court broke from its sister jurisdictions  as well as state and federal courts across the nation  and ruled that a hotel owners lawsuit seeking coverage for a COVID-19 shutdown may proceed.

In an opinion released Wednesday, the California 2nd Appellate District panel chided other courts for dismissing similar claims before hearing any evidence submitted by policyholders. The panel said rules that govern California state courts, unlike US district courts, dont allow judges to dismiss cases based on their personal assessment of how likely a case is to prevail.

We acknowledge it might be more efficient if trial courts could dismiss lawsuits at the pleading stage based on the judges common sense and understanding of common experience rather than waiting to actually receive evidence to determine whether the plaintiffs factual allegations can be proved, the opinion written by Presiding Justice Dennis M. Perluss says. But that is not how the civil justice system works in this state.

The decision reversed a ruling by the Los Angeles County Superior Court that dismissed a lawsuit against Firemans Fund Insurance Co. filed by the owner of the Marina Pacific Hotel and Suites in Venice. The appellate court noted that the policy purchased by the owner included coverage for communicable diseases, which is not the case in many of the hundreds of insurance disputes that have been dismissed at preliminary stages, called a demurrer in California.

However, the opinion specifically disputed a ruling by another 2nd Appellate District panel that found the coronavirus cannot cause a direct physical loss or damage and sustained the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by United Talent against Vigilant Insurance Co.

We are not authorized to disregard those allegations when evaluating a demurrer, as the court did in United Talent, based on a general belief that surface cleaning may be the only remediation necessary to restore contaminated property to its original, safe-for-use condition, the opinion says.

Three other California appellate panels have affirmed the dismissal of COVID-19 business-interruption lawsuits, as have appellate courts in nine states and state supreme courts in Iowa, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin, according to a litigation tracker maintained by the University of Pennsylvania.

Until now, the Louisiana 4th Circuit Court of Appeals had issued the only appellate court ruling in favor of a policyholder. In a 3-2 decision, it reversed the trial court and granted a declaratory judgment finding that a Lloyds of London syndicate owes business-interruption coverage to a New Orleans restaurant owned by Cajun Conti. That decision has been appealed.

The business that owns the Marina Pacific, Hotel Erwin, Venice Windward and Larrys restaurant argued that the communicable disease coverage included in the Firemans Fund coverage requires coverage for income lost because of public health orders that required closure of all non-essential California businesses in March 2020. The appellate court did not decide that the owner is correct, only that it is premature to dismiss the claim.

The opinion takes issue with a common finding by the dozens of appellate courts that have heard similar claims; that the coronavirus cannot cause a direct physical loss or damage. The panel said the policy issued to the hotels owner specifically calls for coverage for any direct physical loss or damage caused by a communicable disease event.

This language explicitly contemplates that a communicable disease, such as a virus, can cause damage or destruction to property and that such damage constitutes direct physical loss or damage as defined in the policy, the opinion says.

The plaintiff submitted evidence that SARS-CoV-2 can adhere to surfaces and survive up to 28 days. Also, multiple employees at Hotel Erwin tested positive for COVID-19 and public health officials ordered that the premises be evacuated, decontaminated or disinfected, the opinion says.

Mark Friedlander, director of the Insurance Information Institute, said the appellate courts ruling does not mark any trend. Courts continue to rule against policyholders in COVID-related business-interruption claims nearly 100% of the time because there is no physical loss present.'

About a third of U.S. businesses carry business-interruption coverage, he said in an email. These policies are not generally priced to provide communicable disease coverage. Even if a policy includes some form of a communicable disease rider, which is extremely rare, a claim may be denied if losses are not proven to be directly linked to physical damage.

Plaintiffs attorneys are hoping that appellate courts will turn the tide in favor of policyholders.

The attorney who won the nations only appellate court victory in a COVID-19 business-interruption case, John Houghtaling III in New Orleans, said his client bought a deluxe policy that did not exclude viruses for coverage.

Houghtaling said insurers allow coverage communicable diseases in two ways: Some include riders in policies that explicitly call for coverage of communicable diseases, as was the case for the Venice hotel group. Others simply omit from the policy the virus exclusion that the Insurance Service Office created in 2006 after the first coronavirus outbreak, caused by SARS-CoV-1.

Houghtaling said insurers continue to make the disingenuous argument that their policies never were intended to cover a pandemic, when in fact they submitted rate filings to insurance commissioners so they could charge extra for communicable disease coverage. That effort came after the Insurance Service Officer persuaded insurance regulators to approve its standard-form virus exclusion, he said.

Thats why this is so frustrating that a lot of these cases have been thrown out by the courts without allowing us to do discovery, he said.

About the photo: A bartender pours a pint at Hotel Erwin, one of the properties that filed a business-interruption claim for COVID-19 losses. Photo courtesy of Hotel Erwin.
WHITEWOOD, Va. (AP)  Flooding in a remote pocket of southwest Virginia has damaged more than 100 homes and left some 40 people unaccounted for, but there are no confirmed deaths or injuries, authorities said Wednesday.

First responders in Buchanan County began receiving reports of rising water and damage Tuesday night, authorities said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon. After daybreak, crews conducted aerial surveys to examine the extent of the disaster. Several small communities in the Virginia county that borders West Virginia and Kentucky were impacted, according to the sheriffs office.

About 40 people  a mix of adults and children  were reported unaccounted for, but that number was expected to decrease as swift-water rescue teams continued to survey the area, authorities said. A shelter was established at a local school.

Buchanan County Sheriffs Office Chief Deputy Eric Breeding said the number of persons unaccounted for is based on relatives trying to contact a resident in an area where there may be limited or no phone service.

It doesnt necessarily mean that they are in trouble or in danger. Theyre just letting us know that we need to check on these people, Breeding told reporters.

An official from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management said accessing the remote area was part of the struggle for search-and-rescue teams. Many roadways are blocked by landslides and approaches to bridges are washed out, the official said.

One of our neighbors driveways completely collapsed and fell down the mountain and fell down the creek, Dominick Fragoso told TV station WCYB. The roads, if you walk up there, theyre completely destroyed.

Buchanan County also suffered serious flooding damage last year, when the remnants of a hurricane hit the area in August, washing away homes and leaving one person dead.

This weeks flooding was less severe but more widespread, authorities said at the news conference.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin declared a state of emergency to aid with the response and recovery efforts.

As we continue to assess the situation, I want to thank our first responders and the personnel on the ground for providing assistance with our ongoing operations in Buchanan County. While rescue and recovery continues, please join me in prayer as we lift up our fellow Virginians impacted by this tragedy, Youngkin said in a statement.

Heavy thunderstorms also led to flash flooding Tuesday evening along the Little Pigeon River in eastern Tennessee that prompted the evacuation of more than 400 people from a campground. No injuries were reported in the Tennessee flooding, but vehicles and debris from the Greenbrier Campground were washed downstream by floodwaters, Sevier County Assistant Mayor Perrin Anderson told news outlets.

About the photo: Damage from flooding is shown in the Whitewood community of Buchanan County, Va., Wednesday, July 13, 2022. Flooding in a remote pocket of southwest Virginia has damaged more than 100 homes and left some 40 people unaccounted for, but there are no confirmed deaths or injuries, authorities said Wednesday. (Olivia Bailey/WCYB via AP)

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, the agency that manages Ingenuity's mission, decided to give the Mars helicopter a break from its operation.

There's more dust in the air and less sunlight in Mars this month since it's now dust season and winter on the planet. Thus, the JPL team has decided to ground Ingenuity for the mean time and give the helicopter's batteries a break for a few weeks.

Ingenuity is Expected to be Back in the Air in August

In a tweet, NASA's JPL announced on Thursday, July 14, that Ingenuity will be halting its operations for the next several weeks.

The #MarsHelicopter is taking a break for the next few weeks. Its winter and dust season on Mars, which means less sunlight to recharge Ingenuitys batteries. But dont worry, the team expects the rotorcraft to fly again in August. https://t.co/SzmZg7ln7l pic.twitter.com/VJIPsAb0aE  NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) July 14, 2022

Ingenuity is the first aircraft to make a powered flight on an extraterrestrial world. It is expected to be back in the Martian air around the start of August, according to NASA.

According to Space.com, Mars has "a slightly tilted axis in respect to its orbital plane," like Earth. This means, over the course of a year, the planet's northern and southern hemispheres is reached by different amounts of sunlight.

Mars, therefore, experiences distinct seasons. Martian winter is set to happen over the next few weeks. This means there will be more dust in the air, which will block out the sunlight that Ingenuity needs to recharge.

According to a NASA statement that was published on Wednesday, July 13, "dust levels are expected to subside later in July."

Thus, for the remaining weeks of July, the team has decided to give the helicopter's batteries a break to "build their daily state of charge back up."

Read Also: NASA's Ingenuity Helicopter Successfully Completes 20th Flight

Other Mars Rovers Also Experience Hibernation Like Ingenuity

Over the years, there are other Mars rovers that have to take similar pauses from their operation during the Martian winter season as well.

For the same reason as Ingenuity, China's Zhurong rover underwent hibernation on May 18.

Likewise, the harsh condition during winter in Mars threatened the lifespan of NASA's past rovers like Opportunity. As a matter of fact, the life of the solar-powered Opportunity ended because of a giant, sun-blocking dust storm in 2018.

However, according to NASA, their team is confident that, if permitted by the weather, Ingenuity will make it through safe and sound.

In the summer of 2020, NASA's Ingenuity helicopter was launched. The helicopter landed in Mars' Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021. It was attached to the underside of the Perseverance rover.

Weeks later, the Perseverance rover deployed the helicopter. On April 19, 2021 Ingenuity took its first flight.

The first flight of the 4-pound or 1.8 kilograms Ingenuity helicopter lasted only 39 seconds. It saw Ingenuity hovering around 10 feet or 3 meters above the reddish soil of a site named Wright Brothers Field.

As of writing, Ingenuity has made a total of 29 flights. It has a total of 55 minutes of air time. This record exceeded its original planned mission of just five flights.

The 25th successful flight of Ingenuity, which happened on April 8, 2022, set a new record for the highest speed and distance traveled during a single flight.

Related Article: NASA's Ingenuity Helicopter Delivers Incredible Photos of Perseverance Landing Gear
South Africa: Summit places role of municipalities under the spotlight

Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana, says the sustainability and development of municipalities is the foundation upon which we must build a bigger and more inclusive national economy.

That we must restore the economies of our municipalities to transform the lives of our people and nourish the ground for them to move from poverty to prosperity, is as true now as it was in 1994. The specific challenges may have changed, but the objective remains the same, Godongwana said.

Addressing the Chris Hani District Municipality Economic Development and Investment Summit held at Komani, Eastern Cape, on Thursday, Godongwana said, to attract investment that support sustainable job creation, municipalities should seek to understand the factors that influence the decisions by firms about where to locate their operations.

Though there is a temptation to design and offer complex incentive systems, it is important to understand that any such interventions would be undermined by poor delivery of basic services, Godongwana said.

Despite the powerful democratic movement that toppled apartheid and gave birth to progressive legislation, and a constitutional framework that foregrounds socio-economic rights, the Minister said poverty and inequality in recent years have deepened, and this reversal is most evident in the state of municipalities.

You see it in the regular protests where people pour out into the streets to demand basic services and opportunities to claim a better life for themselves and their children. You see it in factories, plants and small businesses closing shop and retrenching workers, because they cannot rely on the timely provision of electricity and water.

You see it in roads falling into disrepair, because councils have misspent their budgets and lack the technical skills to maintain critical infrastructure. You see it in the crumbling of the rule of law and in falling standards of quality of life, as police stations are understaffed and under resourced, while hospitals that cannot afford to hire nurses and doctors are stretched to breaking point, the Minister said.

He added that to restore faith in democracy, municipalities need to work and be the sites of economic growth, investment and industrial innovation that is rich in jobs and high on efficiency.

For this to happen, he said, municipalities and provinces must conduct themselves in a way that attracts investment.

That means meeting the basic needs of the communities they serve. At a financial level, it means adhering to elevated levels of governance and budgeting standards: spending money efficiently and in the interests of sustainable and inclusive growth, Godongwana said.

At a provincial level, the focus must be on health, education, roads and agriculture.

Improving and maintaining infrastructure

The Minister also emphasised that municipalities must focus on achieving a much higher level of bulk infrastructure delivery, including electricity and water, and basic services such as refuse removal.

The Minister said one way to overcome the challenges to delivering basic services and unlocking potential for high-growth activities, is for municipalities to improve and maintain their infrastructure. However, he said that municipalities are underspending on infrastructure.

The Chris Hani District Municipality he said, has underspent on infrastructure grants, and returned money to the national revenue fund in the last half a decade.

According to the Minister, in 2016/17, an amount of R38.9 million went unspent by the municipality and had to be returned to the National Treasury, and again in 2017/18, R65 million was returned to the National Revenue Fund.

In 2018/19, nearly R240 million was unspent. That figure was R97 million in 2019/20.the trend is clear and troubling. It is unfathomable that a municipality in a province like the Eastern Cape, where poverty, inequality, unemployment indicators are consistently higher than the national average, could fail to spend money on providing key services.

Municipalities are clearly struggling and we need to understand what the challenges are so that we can find effective solutions, Godongwana said.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2022-07-15. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
China, Cambodia intergovernmental committee holds meeting via video

Xinhua) 09:26, July 15, 2022

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi co-chairs the sixth meeting of the China-Cambodia intergovernmental coordinating committee with Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Hor Nam Hong via video on July 14, 2022. (Xinhua)

NANNING, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, co-chaired the sixth meeting of the China-Cambodia intergovernmental coordinating committee with Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Hor Nam Hong, on Thursday via video.

Next year will mark the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Cambodia and the completion of the two countries' first five-year action plan for building a community with a shared future. Noting this, Wang confirmed that China is willing to work with Cambodia to push bilateral cooperation at the forefront of the times, better serve the development of their respective countries and contribute to regional development and prosperity.

The facts show that the building of a China-Cambodia community with a shared future serves the fundamental and long-term interests of the two nations, and conforms to the trend of progress of the times and to the overall interest for peace and stability in the region. This cooperation is moving in the right direction, Wang said. The two sides are writing a new chapter in the high-quality development of bilateral relations in the new era, Wang adds.

Hor said Cambodia firmly adheres to the one-China policy, firmly supports the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative, and wishes the upcoming 20th National Congress of the CPC a complete success.

Cambodia and China have made remarkable progress in fully implementing their plan of action for building a community with a shared future for both countries. Hor thanked China for providing a large amount of vaccines and anti-epidemic supplies, guaranteeing that Cambodia will be able to effectively control the epidemic and improve its economic situation.

Hor also thanked China for helping Cambodia maintain stability and improving people's standard of living, bringing tangible benefits to the Cambodian people.

"The Cambodian side is firmly committed to building a Cambodia-China community with a shared future and consolidating our ironclad friendship so as to bring more benefits to the two countries and their citizens," Hor added.

The two sides reviewed the implementation of the consensus reached at the fifth meeting of the China-Cambodia intergovernmental coordinating committee and made plans for the next step of their cooperation.

The two sides formulated a new action plan on building a China-Cambodia community with a shared future and coordinated exchanges and cooperation in various fields.

The two sides will deepen the exchange in governing their respective countries, and firmly support each other in safeguarding core interests and taking the development path in line with their national conditions.

The two sides will promote the joint construction of key projects of the Belt and Road Initiative with a high standard, continue to fight the epidemic together, and develop their cooperation in the fields of economy, trade and agriculture.

The two sides will increase flights between the two countries, implement livelihood projects, and strengthen cooperation in science and technology, education, culture, think tanks and tourism.

The two sides will adhere to the ASEAN-led regional cooperation architecture and reject any attempt to turn the East Asian cooperation platform into an arena for major powers to engage in game playing.

After the meeting, the two sides jointly announced the signing of cooperation documents on human resources and infrastructure.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi co-chairs the sixth meeting of the China-Cambodia intergovernmental coordinating committee with Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Hor Nam Hong via video on July 14, 2022. (Xinhua/Cao Yiming)

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)
Toyota's Crown model is back and better than ever following a four-year hiatus.

The popular automaker recently unveiled the specifications of four new Toyota Crown models, which is the result of the company's "serious" reexamination of what "Crown" is.

Toyota's Crown model mostly fell out of the public's attention since its last model, the Toyota Crown 2.0, was released in 2018, per Toyota.

2023 Toyota Crown Details and Specifications

Toyota mentioned in its announcement that its upcoming Crown Crossover type is the result of its pursuit of a "Crown for a new era," which comes in the form of four completely new models, the Crossover type, Sport type, Sedan type, and Estate type.

The automaker stated that each model has its own unique feel while having the DNA of any Crown model: that of innovation and limit-pushing. It also added that these models are expected to meet diverse values and customer lifestyles.

For instance, the Crossover type is a new style that combines a sedan and an SUV, while the Sport provides drivers a "sporty" driving experience with an enticing atmosphere and an easy-to-drive package. On the other hand, the Sedan features a new formal design that meets "the needs of chauffeurs," while the Estate is a functional SUV with a mature atmosphere and ample driving space.

However, three of the four models will be released at a later time as the Crossover type will be the first to hit dealers' garages.

The 2023 Crown Crossover Type is equipped with an exterior design that conveys a "sense of strength" that screams fluidity and dynamism" while expressing a completely new form of a flagship vehicle for a new era.

The car's headlights and taillights are said to be connected, forming a single straight line to express "sophistication through surface cariation."

Furthermore, its tires feature large diameters that break the sedan stereotype. This feature, when combined with its body structure, makes the Crossover type's style neither a sedan's nor an SUV's.

Read More: BTS, Disney+ Collaboration to Bring 'Five Major Content Titles' to the Streaming Service

Moving on to its inner machinery, the Crossover type comes with a basic 2.5-liter Series parallel Hybrid System that can reportedly achieve class-leading fuel economy and quietness while not interrupting the quality and driving performance supposedly unique to Toyota Crown models.

CNET mentioned that this setup is very similar to the one found in the current RAV4 Hybrid, but with some tweaks to make the Crossover type's horsepower at 236 while having a fuel economy at around 38 mpg combined.

Drivers can also choose to have the car powered by a performance-oriented 2.4-liter Turbo hybrid system, which combines an inline 4-cylinder turbo engine that allegedly produces powerful torque even at low RPM, and a newly-developed bipolar nickel-hydrogen battery.

This combination linearly responds to the accelerator's operation from the driver by creating a "driving feel" with a sense of comfortable acceleration.

Lastly, the Crossover type is built on Toyota's New Global Architecture K (TNGA-K), the same base used for the Camry, RAV4, Highlander, and Sienna.

The utilization of such an architecture means that the Crown has almost a low to no chance of seeing a Polestar2-battling, fully electric version of the tall sedan.

Toyota 2023 Crown Crossover Type Availability and Release Date

Toyota mentioned that the 2023 Crown Crossover type would be released around Autumn 2022 in Japan, while CNET believes that the car will be available globally near the end of 2022.

While Toyota didn't disclose a specific price for the Crossover type, Auto Blog places the car's price tag to be somewhere in a range of $43,000 to $50,000, along with Crown's three other models.

Related Article: Nissan's 2023 Z Price Unveiled  Is it Far Cheaper Than Toyota GR Supra?
The Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center discovered the connection between the Holy Ghost ransomware and the North Korean hackers behind it.

The Holy Ghost ransomware cyberattack has been going on for quite some time now.

Holy Ghost is the name of a ransomware operation that has been carried out by hackers from North Korea for more than a year, targeting small businesses in different countries.

The group of malicious threat actors has been targeting small businesses and ransoming those businesses into paying them a decent amount in bitcoin.

Microsoft Unpacks 'Holy Ghost' Ransomware

Microsoft reveals that since June 2021 they have been tracking a group of attackers called DEV-0530 that originates from North Korea. They are responsible for the development and use of ransomware in attacks.

This organization, which calls itself H0lyGh0st, uses a ransomware payload with the same name for its campaigns. As early as September 2021, they were successful in compromising small enterprises in a variety of different countries.

According to MSTIC's assessment, DEV-0530 is affiliated with another group operating out of North Korea identified as PLUTONIUM, also known as DarkSeoul or Andariel.

Microsoft stated, "While the use of H0lyGh0st ransomware in campaigns is unique to DEV-0530, MSTIC has observed communications between the two groups, as well as DEV-0530 using tools created exclusively by PLUTONIUM."

According to the security researchers, victims are most likely targets of opportunity.

MSTIC has a strong suspicion that DEV-0530 gained initial access to target networks by exploiting vulnerabilities in public-facing web applications and content management systems.

The victims included financial institutions, educational institutions, manufacturing enterprises, and events and planning businesses.

Holy Ghost's Methods and Techniques

The Holy Group ransomware has been around since last year. However, the group was not able to achieve the same level of notoriety or financial success as those other gangs, despite the fact that it has been active for quite some time.

In addition, it has also been discovered that the Holy Ghost follows the same process and operation just like the other ransomware gangs, stealing data before deploying the encryption process to the infected outlets.

According to BleepingComputer, the hackers placed a ransom note on the hacked computer, and they also sent an email to the victim with a link to a sample of the stolen material in order to indicate that they were open to negotiating a payment in exchange for the decryption key.

In most cases, the actors asked for a modest sum of between 1.2 and 5 bitcoins, which is equivalent to approximately $100,000 given the current exchange rate.

According to MSTIC, the attacker was willing to negotiate, even if the demands were not particularly high. As a result, the price was occasionally reduced to less than a third of what was initially demanded.

Read Also: Apple Beta Guide: How to Download and Install the iOS 16 Beta on Your iPhone

North Korea's Ransomware Attacks

Microsoft diagnosed a few reasons for the continued cyberattacks and rampant ransomware tactics deployed by threat actors from North Korea.

The company thinks that there is a significant possibility that the series of hacks is being supported by the North Korean government.

Since 2016, the already fragile economy of North Korea has been even more fragile as a result of sanctions, natural catastrophes, drought, and COVID-19, which has isolated the country from the rest of the world beginning in early 2020.

However, on the contrary, it is also very possible that the North Korean government has nothing to do with these hacks. According to another theory, people who have connections to the PLUTONIUM infrastructure and tools can be working side jobs for their own financial gain.

Related Article: Axie Infinity Lost $620 Million to Hackers Who Started a Fake Job Offer
Colorado Politics is published both in print and online. Our website features subscriber-only news stories daily, designed for public policy arena professionals. Member subscribers also receive the weekly print edition of our award-winning newspaper, containing outstanding features and news stories, in their mailboxes every Saturday.
Are you a current print subscriber to Columbia Gorge News? If so, you qualify for free access to all content on columbiagorgenews.com. Simply verify with your subscriber id to receive free access. Your subscriber id may be found on your bill or mailing label.
DOJ is equipping to sue Google for antitrust crimes relating to its advertising technology business' competition restriction, which could result in another legal conflict.

DOJ's Antitrust Claims Against Google Might Spark Another Legal Battle

Bloomberg reports that the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust accusations against Google's ad tech company might result in yet another judicial dispute.

According to reports, the DOJ is getting ready to sue Google again for antitrust violations related to claims that its advertising technology division is restricting competition.

The Google ad tech platform is a market for buying and selling advertising on websites and mobile applications. But since it controls the market, it has been under investigation lately. As a result, officials will likely revoke the search engine giant's prior concessions to avoid a legal dispute.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday (July 8), citing individuals familiar with the situation, that Alphabet Inc.'s Google has provided concessions to prevent this U.S. antitrust lawsuit accusing the firm of abusing its weight in the advertising technology industry.

Google said earlier this week to Android Central that it has been collaborating with authorities to alleviate their worries. A corporate spokesman insisted that Google had no intentions to divest itself of its troubled advertising division.

The antitrust case might be filed soon. If granted, Google will face another antitrust complaint. Additionally, the Competition and Markets Authority is investigating whether Google unlawfully blocks external ad servers.

Read Also: CoinPayments is Shutting Down in the US: You Have 5 Days Left to Withdraw Your Crypto

EU Consumer Groups Protested Google's Sign-up Methods

Last month, European Consumer Organization (BEUC), a consumer rights organization in Europe, filed a wave of privacy complaints against Google, charging the advertising behemoth with misleading account creation design that they claim leads users to consent to intrusive and excessive data processing.

Google seems to depend on user permission as its legal justification for profiling account users for ad targeting reasons.

The GDPR regulations in Europe are meant to make it simple for users to choose privacy-protecting settings. Still, according to the complaint, Google allegedly breaks this guideline when you establish an account. Additionally, it highlights that Android users must have a Google account to download programs from Google Play.

BEUC also pointed out that the Irish Data Protection Commissioner in charge has yet to issue a ruling three years after initially complaining about Google's location-tracking policies. Ten consumer organizations have now grouped themselves under the BEUC and complained to France, Norway, Greece, and other EU members.

Moreover, BEUC claimed Google's practices haven't altered since its complaint. "We need immediate action from the authorities because a major player disregarding GDPR is unacceptable," said its deputy director Ursula Pachl.

Pachl added that this case is crucial, hence the European Data Protection Board must facilitate collaboration among EU data protection agencies. Google already saw the wrath of the EU in 2018 as it was fined $5 billion for its app and browser selection policies.

Related Article: Google Search Ads Still Promote Stalkerware - How is it Possible to Get Around the Ban?
The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form
From left in the front row, Kim Min-jae, Song Hyung-min and Gu Hyo-won, former leaders at the Global High School Union of the Freedom Speakers International (FSI), smile at its office in Seoul, July 10. From left in the second row are FSI co-director Lee Eun-koo, Shim Te-ri, Lee An-su and FSI co-director Casey Lartigue. Lee An-su, 17, from Yongsan International School of Seoul, and Shim, 17, from Seoul Foreign School, will lead the union over the next year as general director and vice general director, respectively. Courtesy of FSI



'They are just like us': Teenage volunteers share their experiences at FSI



By Jung Min-ho



Nuclear weapons, starvation and gross abuses of human rights: North Korea is the country everyone loves to hate. For many of those who used to live there, such negative images are among the many challenges they face when trying to start anew elsewhere.



High school students who have volunteered to assist North Korean defectors settle in South Korean society said one of the best things that came from their hands-on experiences  raising funds and teaching them English  was the realization that North Koreans are just like them.



Three volunteers shared their experiences interacting with North Korean defectors at the Global High School Union, the Freedom Speakers International's (FSI) support group of more than 100 students from 40 schools in Korea and overseas.



Among the most unforgettable memories for Gu Hyo-won, 17, a former co-director, was the three days he spent with his North Korean peers for an education program.



"It did not take long for us to become intimate as we were around the same age," Gu said in a recent interview. "One noticeable difference we had was the type of worries each of us had, which came from different circumstances. While most South Korean students, supported by family and friends, were concerned about school issues, many of those from the North did not receive such support and spent much time thinking about how to fast achieve financial independence  They were not much different, and that's the way we should look at them."



Gu, a student at Valor International Scholars in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, hopes that the new Yoon Suk-yeol administration will encourage more such interactions, which he believes help North Koreans adjust to life in the South and erase prejudices about them.



Song Hyung-min, 18, a former co-director who graduated from Asia Pacific International School in Seoul earlier this year, said his three-year experience at the FSI profoundly affected the ways he views the world and his own life.



"My time there changed many of my thoughts, about them and how I should live my life," he said. "I would also like to participate in more volunteer work like this when I'm in college. I hope I can play a role in changing people's lives positively."



Song, who had been indifferent to North Korean defectors living in the South before volunteering there, said he later found himself putting a lot of passion in as he taught English to a person who was taking the opportunity to learn seriously.



From his own experience, Song understands the people who pay little attention to North Korean defector issues. However, as their voices slowly changed him, he believes they can change others too.



Listening to their stories of surviving and escaping from the North was motivating and heart-wrenching at the same time, said Kim Min-jae, 19, who was involved in raising funds for the FSI. He also graduated high school at Seoul Scholars International early this year.



"I was touched by their bravery and will to act. I was also sad that they had no other choice but to escape," Kim said. "I used to have a prejudice about North Koreans such as aggressive or ignorant images  As I spent more time working for and with them, I realized they were the opposite of what I thought they were  I also felt we are all Koreans."



Kim, who is set to start his first semester at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Indiana, said he plans to study computer science and use his expertise to help the underprivileged.



"For now, I am a novice programmer, but as I grow, I want to continue to help good causes. My experience at the FSI-GHSU has served as the foundation for my plans," he said.




Apple CEO Tim Cook has given his backing to a major effort to convince state governors, government, and educators to make computer science classes available to every student in every school. But its not just philanthropy in play.

We just cant get the staff

Demand and supply. In theory, when demand increases, supply emerges to meet it. Except it doesnt always work out that way and as the world gets more digitized, the need for coders is growing faster than the world can keep up.

The demand for coding skills is growing so rapidly that developers continue to explore ways to design configurable solutions that can be built without code (no-code  essentially filling the gap Apples Shortcuts are becoming).

They know they must do this because demand for coding talent continues to increase internationally. Its a need that concerns every market, from the US to Singapore and everywhere between. By 2030, the world is expected to be short of around 82.5 million coders  already, 87% of organizations struggle to find the coding staff they require.

But some industries, particularly those concerning data analytics, manage to be both in great demand and on a rapid growth curve while also being desperate to find enough staff. Given the growing importance of AI, the lack of skills in data analytics is already having consequential effects on many enterprises. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that by 2026, the shortage of engineers in the US will exceed 1.2 million.

All we are saying, is give code a chance

Thats why more than 500 business, education, and non-profit leaders have signed an appeal for every student in every school to have the opportunity to learn computer science. Signatories, including Cook (and numerous Apple allies and competitors) know we must invest in the next generation of coders.

They warn that because computer science education is not universally available, many students never get the chance to learn. Thats why just 5% of US high school students study computer science  and some communities, particularly young women and students of color, left behind.

Employees know this, too, of course. And while not everyone has the talent for it, one side impact of the Great Resignation has been increasing numbers of workers join coding courses. They almost certainly hope to earn more cash and work more remotely in the future. Workforce tech education platform Pluralsight, notes that the four most popular courses it provides concern coding. Courses on AI and cloud services are also popular. At the same time, the pandemic has driven big investments in digital technologies to support the emerging future of work, further exacerbating the talent shortage.

Coding is one of the most valuable skills a person can learn. It can open new doors, jumpstart careers, and help big dreams seem like achievable goals. Everyone around the world should have an opportunity to learn how to code. https://t.co/yWfNlmQwdz  Tim Cook (@tim_cook) July 12, 2022

Apple can scale its coding search, but not everyone can

Apple has made no secret that it thinks we need to nurture more coding talent. It has built and continues to build new development hubs around the world so it can source talent unavailable in the US.

It runs coding workshops in retail stores and has developed academic courses to nurture future talent. Swift Playgrounds isnt just intended to be fun to use; its also designed to teach the essentials of coding to young people as the company works to foster future talents.

But Apples opportunity to engage in such schemes is something only the largest firms can really access  and the coder Cupertino creates today isnt necessarily going to be coding for iPhones tomorrow, particularly when their skills are in such high demand. Its also true that the need, combined with shortage, means more than 50% of companies are hiring tech workers who dont have all the skills the job needs.

Challenging the economy

All the same, the size of the issue represents a big challenge to economic growth and productivity, generating a transnational scramble to secure talent.

In the US, almost two-thirds of high-skilled immigration is for computer scientists. The US alone has more than 700,000 open computing jobs, but trains only 80,000 computer science graduates each year  and demand for those skills will increase as digitalization continues to grow. The demand is also putting existing hires under a great deal of pressure. That extra work means some claim around 70% plan to change jobs over the next year. This is in itself a problem for employers  it costs up to $35,685 to identify and recruit a full-time developer, according to CodeSubmit data.

Any churn in staffing represents added costs, as well as increased the pressure on existing workers and additional damage to project planning and overall productivity.

With all of this in mind, its of little surprise that Cook and what looks like a roll call of all the biggest businesses in the US are making this urgent call to code. Their eye-watering bonuses probably depend on it.

Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolics bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.
Though we get a reprieve from Exchange updates in this month's Patch Tuesday update, more printer updates are on the way. Even with no updates for Microsoft Exchange or Visual Studio, Adobe is back with 15 critical updates for Adobe Reader. And Microsoft's new patch deployment tool Auto-Patch is now live. (I always thought application testing was the main problem here, but actually getting patches deployed is still tough.)

Though the numbers are still quite high (with 86+ reported vulnerabilities), the testing and deployment profile for July should be fairly moderate. We suggest taking the time to harden your Exchange Server defenses and mitigation processes, and invest in your testing processes.

You can find more information on the risk of deploying these Patch Tuesday updates in our helpful infographic .

Key Testing Scenarios

Given the large number of changes in this July patch cycle, I have broken down the testing scenarios into high-risk and standard-risk groups:

High Risk: These changes are likely to include functionality changes, may deprecate existing functionality, and will likely require creating new testing plans.

Core printing functionality has been updated:

Install and test any new V4 print drivers on a local machine and print.

Test new V4 printer connections using client and server and print.

Test existing v4 printer connections

Ensure GDI rendering and printer drivers generate the expected output

The core changes relate to how Microsoft supports timestamp checking for kernel drivers, so testing applications that require digitally signed binaries is key for this cycle. The big change here is that unsigned drivers should not load. This may cause some application issues or compatibility problems. We recommend a scan of the application portfolio, identifying all applications that depend upon drivers (both signed and unsigned), and generating a test plan that includes installation, application exercising, and uninstall. Having a comparison between pre- and post- patched machines would be helpful, too.

The following changes are not documented as including functional changes, but will still require at least "smoke testing" before general deployment:

Test scenarios that utilize Windows DevicePicker. Almost impossible to test  as most applications use this common class. If your internally-developed applications pass their basic smoke test, you're fine.

Test your line of business applications that reference the Microsoft mobile CDP APIs. If you have internally developed desktop applications that communicate with mobile devices, a communications check may be required.

Test connections to the rasl2tp server. This means finding and testing applications that have a dependency on the RAS miniport driver over remote or VPN connections

And Curl. Specifically, CURL.EXE:  a command line tool for sending files via HTTP protocols (hence "client URL")  has been updated this month. Curl for Windows (the one that is being updated this month) is different from the Open Source project curl. If you are confused why the Curl project team offers this, here's the answer:

"The curl tool shipped with Windows is built by and handled by Microsoft. It is a separate build that will have different features and capabilities enabled and disabled compared to the Windows builds offered by the curl project. They do however build curl from the same source code. If you have problems with their curl version, report that to them. You can probably assume that the curl packages from Microsoft will always lag behind the versions provided by the curl project itself."

With that said, we recommend teams that use the curl command (sourced from the Windows supported branch) give their scripts a quick test run. Microsoft has published a testing scenario matrix that this month includes:

Use physical machines and virtual machines.

Use BIOS-based machines and UEFI-enabled machines.

Use x86, ARM, ARM64, and AMD64 machines.

Note: for each of these testing scenarios, a manual shut-down, reboot and restart is suggested.

Known Issues

Each month, Microsoft includes a list of known issues that relate to the operating system and platforms included in this update cycle. For July, there are some complex changes to consider:

Devices with Windows installations created from custom offline media or custom ISO image might have Microsoft Edge Legacy removed by this update, but not automatically replaced by the new Microsoft Edge.

After installing the June 21, 2021 (KB5003690) update, some devices cannot install new updates, such as the July 6, 2021 (KB5004945) or later updates. You will receive the error message, "PSFX_E_MATCHING_BINARY_MISSING." For more information and a workaround, see KB5005322.

After installing this update, IE mode tabs in Microsoft Edge might stop responding when a site displays a modal dialog box. This issue is resolved using Known Issue Rollback (KIR) with the following group policy downloads: Download for Windows 10, version 20H2 and Windows 10, version 21H1 .

After installing KB4493509, devices with some Asian language packs installed may receive the error, "0x800f0982 - PSFX_E_MATCHING_COMPONENT_NOT_FOUND."

Major Revisions

This month, Microsoft has not formally published any major revisions or updates to previous patches. There was a kind of sneaky update from the .NET group that really should have been included in the formal Microsoft documentation update process. However, that update was merely documented support for later versions of Visual Studio.

Mitigations and Workarounds

Microsoft published one key mitigation for a Windows network vulnerability:

CVE-2022-22029: Windows Network File System Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Noting that there are no publicly reported exploits for this network vulnerability, Microsoft still recognizes that some administrators may choose to disable NFSV3 before their server systems are fully patched. To disable this network feature, use the PowerShell command. " Set-NfsServerConfiguration -EnableNFSV3 $false." There is no need to disable V4 (as opposed to V3) as the later versions of this protocol are not affected by this security vulnerability.

Each month, we break down the update cycle into product families (as defined by Microsoft) with the following basic groupings:

Browsers (Microsoft IE and Edge);

Microsoft Windows (both desktop and server);

Microsoft Office;

Microsoft Exchange;

Microsoft Development platforms ( ASP.NET Core, .NET Core and Chakra Core);

Adobe (retired???, maybe next year).

Browsers

It just keeps getting better. The downward trend for Microsoft's browser reported vulnerability continues to track ever lower with just two (CVE-2022-2294 and CVE-2022-2295) Chromium updates for this July. Both updates only affect Edge (Chromium) and were released last week. Chrome should automatically update, with our initial analysis showing that both updates will have marginal impact on browser compatibility. You can read about this update on the Google Blog, with the technical details found on Git. Add these low-profile, low-risk updates to your standard browser release schedule.

Windows

With just four critical updates and 16 rated important this month, Microsoft is really giving IT admins a bit of a break. The four critical Windows update for this release cycle include:

CVE-2022-30221: This Windows vulnerability in the core graphics sub-system (GDI) could lead to a remote code execution (RCE) scenario.

CVE-2022-22029 and CVE-2022-22039: These Windows Network file system issues could result in RCE scenarios on the compromised system.

CVE-2022-22038: This low-level (Win32) RPC component, reported as difficult to exploit, could lead to very difficult troubleshooting scenarios.

All of these critical updates have been officially confirmed as fixed, with no reports of public exploits on Windows desktop systems. The remaining 14 updates are rated important by Microsoft and affect the following Windows systems and components:

Unfortunately, Windows Server 2012 did not fare so well, with reports of CVE-2022-22047 exploited in the wild. This Windows server vulnerability affects the Client Server Run-Time subsystem (CRSS) which is where all the badly behaving user mode drivers hang out. If you have any Windows Server 2012 under your care, this is a "Patch Now" update. Otherwise, add this very low-profile Windows update to your standard release schedule. And don't forget, Microsoft has delivered another Windows 11 update video; it's found here .

Microsoft Office

Microsoft released only two (CVE-2022-33632 and CVE-2022-33633) updates to Microsoft Office this month. Both updates are rated important by Microsoft, and both require local, authenticated privileges to the target system. Add these updates to your standard Office update schedule.

Microsoft Exchange Server

It's good that we get a break from Microsoft Exchange Server updates. Rather than simply resting, it may be worth investing in your Exchange security infrastructure. Microsoft has provided some major improvements on Exchange during the past year; here are a few ideas on securing your Exchange Server:

Microsoft Safety Scanner: This command line tool is downloaded from Microsoft (must be refreshed every 10 days) and removes malware from your target system. It's not a replacement for third-party tools, but if there is a concern about a machine, this is a good first step.

Exchange On-premises Mitigation Tool (EOMT): If you are unable to quickly patch specific Exchange Servers, Microsoft offers a command line to mitigate against known attacks. This PowerShell script will both attempt to remediate as well as mitigate your servers against further attacks  noting that once done, applying patches is the top priority.

Exchange Emergency Mitigation Service (EM): The Exchange Emergency Mitigation service (EM service) keeps your Exchange Servers secure by applying mitigations/updates/fixes to address any potential threats against your servers. It uses the cloud-based Office Config Service (OCS) to check for and download available mitigations and will send diagnostic data back to Microsoft.

All of these features and offerings are predicated on using at least Office 2019  another reason Microsoft has strongly recommended everyone move to Exchange Server 2019 at least. The EM Service was last used in March 2021 to deal with several Microsoft Exchange vulnerabilities (CVE-2021-26855, CVE-2021-26857, and CVE-2021-26858). These were specific attacks on on-premise servers. It's helpful to know this service is there, but I'm glad it has not been required recently.

Microsoft Development Platforms

As with Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft has not published any "new" security updates to the Microsoft .NET platform or tools this month. However, there was a problem with June's .NET update, which was addressed this month. This month's .NET release resolves the issue that some versions of .NET were not addressed by the previous patch  this is just an informational update. If you are using Microsoft Windows update infrastructure, no further action is required.

Adobe (really just Reader)

This is a big update from Adobe, with 15 updates rated as critical and seven rated important, all just for Adobe Reader. The critical updates mainly relate to memory issues and could lead to the exercise of arbitrary code on the unpatched system. You can read more about the Adobe bulletin (APSB22-32) and Adobe security bulletins here. Add this application specific update to your "Patch Now" release.
In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends a meeting of the Workers' Party of Korea in Pyongyang, North Korea, June 27. AP-Yonhap



North Korea said Friday that Ukraine has no right to take issue with its recognition of two breakaway regions in the war-torn country earlier this week, calling the measure a "legitimate exercise of sovereignty."



On Wednesday, Ukraine announced its decision to sever diplomatic relations with North Korea for formally backing the independence of the pro-Moscow republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.



In response to a question by the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) over the issue, a spokesperson for Pyongyang's foreign ministry defended the move and criticized Ukraine.



"Ukraine, which had committed acts quite contrary to impartiality and justice in the state-to-state relations while aligning itself with the U.S. unreasonable and illegal hostile policy toward the DPRK in the past, has no right and qualification to take issue with the DPRK over its legitimate exercise of sovereignty," the spokesperson said in a statement carried by the KCNA. DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.



"The DPRK will as ever develop the bonds of friendship and cooperation with all other countries in the world that respect its sovereignty and are friendly to it, on the principles of sovereignty equality, non-interference and mutual respect," the spokesperson added.



North Korea became the third country in the world to recognize the separatist entities, after Russia and Syria. It is widely seen as part of the Kim Jong-un regime's efforts to improve ties with Moscow amid frosty inter-Korean ties and a halt to denuclearization talks with Washington. (Yonhap)




The oath Marene Allison took years ago to defend and protect the United States is the same tenet that now guides her work maintaining cybersecurity at one of the largest pharmaceutical and consumer packaged goods manufacturers in the world.

Its like I raise my hand [in an oath] every morning and the mission is to protect and ensure the viability of my company in the cyber world, says Allison, who has been the CISO at Johnson & Johnson for more than 12 years. Its important to understand Im here to protect this company that is focused on human healthcare. Its a very, very important mission that I take seriously every single day.

Allison is accustomed to missions.

She was a member of the first class of women to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point, earning her Bachelor of Science degree. Her ties to the august academy have remained strong, becoming a member of the Board of Directors of West Point Women, and a Military Academy Liaison Officer/Congressional Coordinator for the State of New Jersey. And before joining the corporate world, she served as a Special Agent in the FBI, working on undercover drug operations in Newark, N.J. and terrorist bombings in San Diego.

Securing Johnson & Johnson

For the past dozen years, though, Allisons focus has been on securing Johnson & Johnsons worldwide information technology systems and business. Its a big job.

The 136-year-old U.S.-based company is a household name, manufacturing and selling ubiquitous products like Tylenol pain medication, Band-Aid adhesive bandages, Listerine, and Aveeno body lotion, along with orthopedic implants and medical devices. However, since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2019, the Fortune 100 company garnered global headlines for developing a COVID vaccine that quickly became a critical tool to protect people from the highly contagious and deadly disease.

Keeping information systems, data, and people safe at a healthcare company has its own challenges. Ensuring those protections when suddenly that company is a focus of the worlds attention, especially when the pandemic is embroiled in a heated political firestorm, becomes exponentially more difficult.

I think what COVID did was put healthcare in the spotlight, says Allison. At J&J we had cyber defenses and data protection already created, so we had resiliency in place that kept us above the fray. You had to understand what was coming at you and have those defenses in place.

That fits in with Allisons philosophy that its important to look beyond the technology being used today and the issues immediately in front of them. She focuses on looking ahead, not only at the devices and software Johnson & Johnson employees are going to want to use in the future, but at what challenges might be heading toward them.

Mature companies with large security organizations are looking at roadmaps all the time. You have to look at what is needed and what is out there and have plans in place to pivot quickly, she explains. You cant sit on todays technology and not think about what youll need for the future. Whether its artificial intelligence or machine learning, you have to look aheadthe workforce wants to be able to lean into new technologies.

Security during the pandemic

That eye-to-the-future helped when Johnson & Johnsons workers left their offices in droves to work remotely when the pandemic hit. When employees needed to be able to use Zoom to connect and communicate from their living rooms and kitchens, the question was if it was secure enough. It was a question Allison had asked and answered before COVID hit; she had evaluated Zoom before it was critical to the companys remote work needs.

We were digitally ready, she says. We look at our technology platforms and assess what needs to happen before we start using them every single day. Security has to be the department of, yes and heres how. When new technologies come out, people say, Were going to use these things. I say, I certainly hope so. Theyll help us in so many ways.

Another aspect of security during the time of COVID was protecting employees by educating them about the dangers of oversharing on social media.

We looked at the use of social mediahow we communicated, what platforms were being used, how much information was being shared, says Allison. Because everyone was home and on social media, people had to learn how to be more secure on social media. It was more about making sure they didnt become targets.

Creative team building

Staying ahead of tech advancements and enabling employees to safely work from home, while securing Johnson & Johnsons computer systems and data is an enormous job. But its one Allison doesnt take on alone.

The CISO says one of the things shes most proud of is the team shes built around her  the team that keeps all the trains running.

I think its really about creating a team thats able to handle the risks that are out there today in a very dynamic and very changing cyber world, while helping protect our business so theyre free to operate and to solve the issues of healthcare for humanity, she says. Its creating a team with diversity of thought so they can look at things from all angles and understand the technology, the business, and the threat. The real thing is the talent thats been created in the organization we have at J&J.

To build a top-notch cyber security team when theres a shortage of people trained for tech jobs takes vision.

Allison says shes had to be creative in the way she looks at people and what they can do. There are a lot of people who may not have started out with a tech degree, for instance, but that doesnt mean they cant be a valuable part of her team.

I believe in investing in people and knowing they can grow, she says. Ive seen police officers who have turned into forensic experts and the head of security operations. The creativity is in believing in people and what theyre capable of. You cant say, You went to school for mainframes so you cant be a cloud expert. [They] can. Thats what makes security people so special. Theyre always looking to solve problems. If you find someone like that, you seize on the opportunity.
A North Korean fisherman waits to be deported at the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjeom, in this Nov. 7, 2019, file photo. Courtesy of Ministry of Unification



By Jung Min-ho



Pictures of North Korean fishermen fiercely resisting deportation provide an answer to one important question: They seemed sincere about defecting to South Korea, contrary to the claims of the previous Moon Jae-in administration.



The revelation by the Ministry of Unification has left many people shocked here and abroad. Now, calls are mounting to uncover the whole truth behind the 2019 decision to send the fishermen back to the brutal North Korean regime. There are three big questions that remain unanswered.





In this Nov. 8, 2019, file photo, South Korea's Navy tows a boat used by two North Korean fishermen before it was handed over to North Korean authorities. Courtesy of Unification Ministry



Did they really kill 16 people on boat?



According to authorities under the Moon government, the fishermen conspired with a third man to kill their captain and 15 others on the boat before their escape to the South. But the boat's size  16 meters long, 3.7 meters wide and 17 tons in weight  has raised serious doubts about the allegations.



Their alleged murder plot was also unconvincing. The authorities claimed that the fishermen killed two of their fellow crewmembers working on the night shift with an ax and hammers before killing the "abusive" captain who was asleep. Then they went on to wake up two people "every 40 minutes" to kill them. All of the bodies were believed to have been thrown overboard. All this was supposedly done quietly in the open sea, without causing any of the others on the boat to notice unusual sounds.



The credibility of the murder accusation was damaged further by what was done to the boat following their "confessions." The boat, where the authorities claimed bore bloodstains, as well as the fishermen's clothes and shoes were disinfected on Nov. 2, 2019, the day they arrived in the South's waters, at the request of the National Intelligence Service (NIS). In the days that followed, they were all sent back to North Korea.



An official at the Ministry of Unification told The Korea Times that it cannot confirm whether the fishermen made the confessions without being forced, because it did not participate in the NIS-led investigation into the case.





The Constitutional Court in Seoul / Korea Times file



What justified exception this time?



Rep. Woo Sang-ho, the interim leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, told reporters Friday that South Korean citizens would not accept "the brutal criminals" as their neighbors.



According to ministry data, there are 23 convicted felons from North Korea who defected to South Korea, including murderers and terrorists. But none of them have ever been repatriated against their will, unlike the fishermen who suffered a different fate based solely on allegations without a trial.



The Constitution requires the government to treat North Korean defectors as citizens who have the right to have fair and prompt trial by legitimate legal procedures. Just last month in Seoul, a former North Korean spy received a 30-month prison sentence suspended for four years for playing a role in kidnapping a North Korean defector in China and sending him back to the North in 2010. The former agent defected to South Korea in 2016 and made the confession during the NIS' investigation, which eventually led to the conviction.



Also under the Constitution that states South Korea's territory as "the Korean Peninsula and its adjacent islands," President Yoon Suk-yeol appointed the governors of North Hamgyong Province and South and North Pyongan Provinces, Thursday, in a ceremonial move. The provinces are located in North Korea.



Experts say the deportation was a clear violation of the Constitution and South Korea's international treaty obligations for human rights.





Former President Moon Jae-in / Korea Times file
What is a data breach?

A data breach is a security incident in which a malicious actor breaks through security measures to illicitly access data.

Data about individualsnames, birthdates, financial information, social security numbers and driver's license numbers, and morelives in innumerable copies across untold numbers of servers at private companies, public agencies, and in the cloud. If someone who isn't authorized to access personally identifiable information (PII) manages to get a look at it, that can have dire consequences both for the individual and for the organization that stored the data and was supposed to keep it safe.

PII is valuable to a number of types of malicious actors, which gives an incentive for hackers to breach security and seek out PII where they can. On the flip side, companies and government organizations that store data often fail to adequately protect it, and in some jurisdictions legislation aims to crack down on lax security practices that can lead to data breaches.

One last note on terminology before we begin: sometimes people draw a distinction between a data breach and data leak, in which an organization accidentally puts sensitive data on a website or other location without proper (or any) security controls so it can be freely accessed by anyone who knows it's there. But the line between a breach and leak isn't necessarily easy to draw, and the end result is often the same.

How do data breaches happen?

A data breach happens when someone gets access to a database that they shouldn't have access to. This is a broad description and could include something as simple as a library employee sneaking a peek at what books a friend has checked out when they have no legitimate work reason to do so, for instance.

Most people wouldn't find that to be all that problematic, but it is true that some data breaches are inside jobsthat is, employees who have access to PII as part of their work might exfiltrate that data for financial gain or other illicit purposes. In other cases, however, data breaches occur along the same pattern of other cyberattacks by outsiders, where malicious hackers breach defenses and manage to access their victim's data crown jewels.

The how question helps us differentiate several different types of data breaches.

4 types of data breaches

Insider theft: Insiders can be compromised by attackers, may have their own personal beef with employers, or may simply be looking to make a quick buck.

Unauthorized access: This is probably the scenario most of us imagine when we picture a hacker stealing PII: an expert cybercriminal navigating around firewalls and other defense systems or taking advantage of zero-days to access databases full of credit card numbers or medical data that they can exploit. Attackers may use phishing, spyware, and other techniques to gain a foothold in their target networks. A specialized version of this type of attack involves physical theft of hardware where sensitive data is stored, either from an office or (increasingly likely) from individuals who take laptops home and improperly secure them.

Data on the move: PII that's being transmitted across open networks without proper encryption is particularly vulnerable, so great care must be taken in situations in which large batches of tempting data are moved around in this way.

Accidental exposure: This is the data leak scenario we discussed above. It's surprisingly common for sensitive databases to end up in places they shouldn'tcopied to serve as sample data for development purposes and uploaded to GitHub or some other publicly accessible site, for instance. Attackers have automated tools that scan the internet looking for the telltale signatures of PII. Then there are those organizations that upload crucial data to a cloud service but misconfigure access permissions. There's also a physical analogue here, when companies insecurely dispose of old laptops and hard drives, allowing dumpster divers to get access.

For those organizations looking to prevent the damage of a data breach, it's worth considering what these scenarios have in common. Most companies probably believe that their security and procedures are good enough that their networks won't be breached or their data accidentally exposed. Some are right about this; many are wrong. If you are wrongand the increasing ubiquity of network breaches makes it increasingly likely that you will bea zero trust approach can mitigate against the possibility of data disaster. Even if an attacker gets access to your network, PII should be ringed with extra defenses to keep it safe. Access to databases that store PII should be as restricted as possible, for instance, and network activity should be continuously monitored to spot exfiltration. Stored passwords need to be treated with particular care, preferably cryptographically hashed (something even companies that should know better fail to do).

What are examples of data breaches?

CSO has compiled a list of the biggest breaches of the century so far, with details on the cause and impact of each breach. These include not just the big Chinese-driven hacks noted above, but also hundreds of millions of accounts breached at Yahoo, Adobe, LinkedIn, and MyFitnessPal. Whats worse, some companies appear on the list more than once.

Here is a brief timeline of those significant breaches:

2012

LinkedIn - 165 million users

2013

Yahoo - 3 billion accounts

Adobe - 153 million user records

Court Ventures (Experian) - 200 million personal records

MySpace - 360 million user accounts

2014

Yahoo - 500 million accounts

2015

NetEase - 235 million user accounts

Adult Friend Finder - 412.2 million accounts

2018

My Fitness Pal - 150 million user accounts

Dubsmash - 162 million user accounts

Marriott International (Starwood) - 500 million customers

2019

Facebook - 533 million users

Alibaba - 1.1 billion pieces of user data

2020

Sina Weibo - 538 million accounts

2021

LinkedIn - 700 million users

Recent data breaches: 2022

While 2022 hasn't seen any breaches quite as high-profile as those listed above, that doesn't mean hackers have been sitting on their hands:

In June, Shields Healthcare Group revealed that their data may have been compromised, affecting up to 2 million people

That same month, hackers stole 1.5 million records, including Social Security numbers, for customers of the Michigan-based Flagstar Bank

In February, hackers leaked the names of hundreds of participants in the so-called Freedom Convoy in Ottawa after breaching GiveSendGo, a Christian crowdfunding platform used by the organizers

Data breach statistics

Looking for some key data breach stats? Security software provider Varonis has compiled a comprehensive list; here are some worth noting:

58% of data breaches involve PII

of data breaches involve PII 64% of Americans don't know what to do after a data breach

of Americans don't know what to do after a data breach In 2020, it took a breached company on average 207 days to realize they'd been breached

Impact of a data breach on individuals

In some ways, the idea of your PII being stolen in a breach may feel fairly abstractand after an endless drumbeat of stories in the news about data breaches, you may be fairly numb to it. But there's an awful lot that criminals can do with your personal data if they harvest it in a breach (or, more likely, buy it from someone who's harvested it; the criminal underworld is increasingly specialized).

PII provides the fundamental building blocks of identity theft. A clever criminal can leverage OPSEC and social engineering techniques to parlay even a partial set of information about you into credit cards or other fake accounts that will haunt you in your name. If your password was in the stolen data, and if you're the type of person who uses the same password across multiple accounts, hackers may be able to skip the fraud and just drain your bank account directly.

That said, the correlation between data breaches and stolen identities is not always easy to prove, although stolen PII has a high enough resale value that surely someone is trying to make money off it. Some of the highest-profile data breaches (such as the big breaches at Equifax, OPM, and Marriott) seem to have been motivated not by criminal greed but rather nation-state espionage on the part of the Chinese government, so the impacts on the individual are much murkier.

What to do after a data breach

Organizations should have detailed plans in place for how to deal with data breaches that include steps such as pulling together a task force, issuing any notifications required by law, and finding and fixing the root cause.

If youre an individual whose data has been stolen in a breach, your first thought should be about passwords. If the account that was breached shares a password with other accounts you have, you should change them as soon as possible, especially if they're for financial institutions or the like. Many password managers not only help you chose different strong passwords across websites, but also include data intelligence features that automatically let you know if any of your accounts are associated with a publicized data breach.

Beyond that, you should take extra care to maintain your financial hygiene. In particular, freezing your credit so that nobody can open a new card or loan in your name is a good idea.

Consequences of a data breach

A company that allows the data with which they were entrusted to be breached will suffer negative consequences. Such a breach can damage a company's reputation and poison relationships with customers, especially if the details of the breach reveal particularly egregious neglect.

There are also direct financial costs associated with data breaches, in 2020 the average cost of a data breach was close to $4 million. Much of those costs are the result of privacy regulations that companies must obey when their negligence leads to a data breach: not just fines, but also rules about how breaches are publicized to victims (you didn't think they'd tell you out of the goodness of their hearts, did you?) that involve administrative work and headaches on the part of the company. The overall goal is to encourage companies to lock down user data so they aren't breached, but that's cold comfort to those that are.

Data breaches and the GDPR

There are a number of regulations in different jurisdictions that determine how companies must respond to data breaches. HIPAA in the U.S. is important, thought its reach is limited to health-related data. But the 800-pound gorilla in the world of consumer privacy is the E.U.'s GDPR, which many large companies end up conforming to across the board because it represents the most restrictive data regulation of the jurisdictions they deal with.

The GDPR requires that users whose data has been breached must be informed within 72 hours of the breach's discovery, and companies that fail to do so may be subject to fines of up to 4 percent of the company's annual revenues. The details, however, are enormously complex, and depend on whether you can show you have made a good faith effort to implement proper security controls.
Threat hunting is a proactive approach for finding and remediating undetected cyber-attacks. It is a process that involves searching for indicators of compromise (IoC), investigating, classifying, and remediating. Threat hunting can be IoC-driven, in which the hunter investigates an indicator provided by external or internal sources. It can also be hypothesis-driven, in which the hunt begins with an initial hypothesis or question. For example, have we been affected by a recent campaign covered in the news?

Its best to assume youve been compromised

Threat hunting is necessary simply because no cybersecurity protections are always 100% effective. An active defense is needed, rather than relying on set it and forget it security tools.

Today, more than 70% of application code used is open source. Attackers look to include their malicious code in common projects, e.g. GitHub. After poisoning the well, they patiently wait as the new version makes its way into your cloud applications. Remaining undetected is vital to the success of this and most attacks. Unfortunately, most attacks succeed at remaining undetected. The average time required to identify and contain a breach is 280 days.

Threat hunting involves using manual and software-assisted techniques to detect possible threats that have eluded other security systems. These threat-hunting tasks can include hunting for malicious activity within your account. Attackers will do everything in their power to hide their actions, but usually will leave some traces of their activity  like breadcrumbs you can only see if you look in the right places.

The threat hunting process

There are three things you need to do to hunt threats effectively:

Step 1: Collect quality data

Data collected can come from log files, servers, network devices, databases, and endpoints. In the cloud, some of the most useful threat-hunting data will come from traffic flow logs and event activity logs.

Step 2: Analyze this data in the context of known threats

Threat hunters must search for patterns and potential IoCs. In order to monitor properly, you should always be looking at your logs. Too often, organizations dont have enough resources and manpower to dedicate to ongoing intrusion detection monitoring.

Step 3: Analyze the tools to make sense of it all

There are certain things that are obvious signs of potential malicious activity. You have outbound traffic to a Tor exit node? Access tokens are being abused by brand new sources? What you really want is a cloud security solution that will alert you of these things automatically. Even the most skilled threat hunter might not pick up on obviously malicious activity if it is buried under a mountain of cloud logs.

Finding and investigating indicators of misconfiguration, indicators of compromise, and attack

Threat hunting requires a scope of what to look for and a way to identify anything that doesnt fit in, such as irregular traffic, abnormal account activity, registry and file system changes, or commands used in remote sessions that were not seen before.

In order to find anomalies, its important to first have a basic understanding of regular activity. Once indicators are detected, follow the trail. This is often done by establishing a hypothesis and then identifying if each IoM or IoC is a threat. Some IoCs may use a blunt approach and present obvious evidence. For example, an increased amount of traffic to a country that the organization does not do any business with. It is highly recommended to utilize a security system that can automatically scan for known malware signatures or IoCs within your environment.

Enterprise environments often have diverse traffic, making detection more of a challenge. Most security solutions tend to be effective against malicious codes that have already been mapped and analyzed, whereas completely new malicious code is more challenging to detect.

Tips for effective cloud threat hunting

Sophisticated malware often hides inside something else to infiltrate service hosts, such as Windows processes that your system is always running. If they manage to inject malicious code, they can perform malicious operations in an undetectable way. Windows registry is another key location where malware might hide. Compare with the default system registry and investigate any changes. Microsoft Active Directory has been utilized in many of the major breaches of the last year. Consider moving your organization away from this system to protect against lateral movement and other attack techniques.

The level of detail you go into with threat hunting depends on your organizations priorities and the level of freedom each system has. Checking the integrity of critical system processes that are always active is an important part of the forensics side of threat hunting.

Embracing the cloud is critical to digital transformation initiatives, but for them to be successful, security must transform alongside the business. Quite simply, it is time for enterprises to rethink security to keep pace with an evolving landscape of risks.

CrowdStrike cloud security goes beyond ad hoc approaches by unifying cloud security posture management (CSPM) together with breach protection for cloud workloads and containers, AND our human threat detection engine that operates as an extension of your team, hunting relentlessly to identify and stop the most sophisticated hidden threats in a single platform for any cloud.

I am fascinated about threat hunting, and would love to continue that discussion. To learn more or contact CrowdStrike, visit us here.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

NEW MILFORD  About 35 residents of New Milfords Village Crest Center for Health and Rehabilitation have learned firsthand the therapeutic value visiting cats and dogs can provide in settings such as rehab and long-term care facilities.

There, eight rescued kittens from Westchester-based Rock n Rescue visited them last month for some cuddling and playtime.

These visits serve a dual purpose, said Dana Christos, the regional director of business development and marketing at National Health Care Associates, which operates Village Crest. They acclimate rescued kittens to human contact, giving them a leg up on the adoption process. The time spent petting kittens and playing with them also provides a form of occupational and recreational therapy for residents.

The kittens arrived at Village Crest with crew from Rock n Rescue, who presented them to residents in burrito blankets. As the name denotes, the blankets are burrito-shaped and swaddle the kittens. After the group visits, rescue volunteers later wheeled the kittens in baby strollers into the rooms of bedridden patients.

The program was very well received, noted Theresa DAmbrosio, the recreation director at Village Crest. All of the residents who participated were thrilled, and even one of our nonverbal residents was engaged.

Christos described it as very heartwarming to see.

Someone may have once had a pet that they miss very much, Christos added. Or they might have fond memories of having a kitten when they were a small child.

DAmbrosio pointed out that center staff enjoyed the program as well. For our nurses and nurses aides, its a break from the norm, she said. It put a smile on their faces just as much as it did for our residents.

Academic studies have demonstrated the positive impact of these kinds of pet visits. Research from both the University of Minnesota and the State University of New York has found that interaction with animals can lower both blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Such sessions also help improve patients psychological health and overall sense of well-being.

Kittens are beneficial for therapy, for starters, because their soft fur provides positive stimulation to the tactile sense. Bethel Healthcare  a facility that National Health Care Associates also owns  is piloting a similar program. For residents, about the only requirement for taking part in this activity might be a love for and an appreciation for cats.

Kittens and cats must, for starters, have all their shots up to date. They can be playful in personality, but not aggressive. The Rock n Rescue volunteers come with food and water, and the kittens get ample bathroom breaks and rest time between play sessions.

For the kittens, the program even provides a feline form of networking.

Rock n Rescue and other rescue organizations are able to identify people to provide foster care to pets through programs such as these, Christos said.

Rock n Rescue is based in South Salem, N.Y. Over the last two years, the organization has done 1,593 adoptions to Connecticut residents, approximately 200 of whom have Litchfield County residents.

Marla Valentine, Rock n Rescues co-executive director, is a social worker who worked in skilled nursing facilities for more than 25 years. There she witnessed the positive impact that pet therapy can have in such settings. Valentine also led the Rock n Rescue team that visited Village Crest.

We started this program in 2018 because we knew about the amazing healing and wellness benefits of animal interaction with older adults, she said. If youre in a nursing home, when you pet a kittens belly or watch it fall asleep in your lap youre not thinking about your hand hurting or your leg hurting youre watching the miracle of life thats with you, fluffy and purring.

Valentine pointed out that the kittens possess an innate sense of who needs their attention the most: During a visit, several will usually make a beeline for a patient in a wheelchair and climb into that persons lap.

Most Rock n Rescue kittens and cats are from areas of the South where pet spaying and neutering isnt common. In particular, the organization works with a large animal shelter in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Every two to three weeks a driver from this shelter brings a truckload of cats and kittens to eastern Pennsylvania, transferring them to a Rock n Rescue driver for the trip back to the groups Westchester facility.

Most adoptions of kittens happen via word of mouth and not via community outreach events. Yet, the nursing home visits put them in multiple social settings before they are adopted, helping to better socialize them, Valentine said.

To volunteer or adopt a pet from Rock n Rescue, call 914-533-1880.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

FAIRFIELD  Nearly one week since a shooting at a party that left one teen dead and another person injured, few details have emerged from the chaotic scene described by police.

Authorities have identified the person killed as Zion Burton, a teen who was just days away from his 16th birthday, according to police.

Fairfield detectives are investigating the incident with the Connecticut State Police Western District Major Crimes Squad, but no arrests in the incident have been announced.

We are still actively investigating with nothing further to report, Fairfield police spokesperson Lt. Michael Paris said. He said the incident is a very active case.

Heres a look at what is known so far about the shooting and the questions that remain unanswered:

When and where did the shooting take place?

After several 911 calls reported gunfire, Fairfield police said they responded to the banquet hall operated by Calvin United Church on Kings Highway East near Hibiscus Street around 10:30 p.m. last Saturday.

First arriving officers located an unresponsive male victim in the hall who was later identified as Burton, police said. Fairfield police said officers immediately began life-saving measures, but Burton later died at Saint Vincents Medical Center.

Police said the bullet that struck Burton also hit a female victim in the jaw. She arrived at the hospital after Burton was transported there by paramedics, according to police. She was later released.

What led to the shooting?

Fairfield police said at some point a physical fight broke out in the banquet hall. A single gunshot was heard, causing several people in the banquet hall to disperse to the street, Fairfield Chief of Police Robert Kalamaras said during a news conference last weekend.

Exactly what led to the fight remains unclear. Kalamaras said at the news conference that all of the evidence indicates that the suspect knew the victim, and fled the scene shortly after the shooting.

What was the party for?

Fairfield police had initially said the gathering was a birthday party for a 13-year-old.

Paris said Tuesday that police are being told that this was a party with several juveniles in attendance, but may not have been a birthday party.

Police have said between 150 to 200 people were present at the event. Three other people sustained minor injuries in the rush after the shooting, according to police.

It remains unclear how many adults were at the gathering.

Who was Zion Burton?

Burton, 15, had previously attended schools in Waterbury and Stratford, officials said. Police said he split his time between Bridgeport and Stratford.

His mother described him as sweet and having never harmed anyone during a memorial celebration on Sunday. She told Fox61 in an interview that her son ran a bouncy house business for children.

He was a nice young man, and got along well with his peers, Uyi Osunde, superintendent of Stratford Public Schoolsm, said in a statement.

Who was the other person shot?

Authorities have not released her identity, but said she has been released from the hospital.

How common is violent crime in the area?

Homicides are uncommon in Fairfield, a town of about 61,000 residents tucked between Westport and Bridgeport. According to FBI statistics, there was just one homicide  in 2019  reported between 2010 and 2020, the most recent year of data available. Violent crimes reported overall to the agency fell between 2018 and 2020, down from 34 instances in 2018 to 26 in 2020.

But the fatal shooting last weekend follows another high-profile shooting at a Fairfield restaurant in June. Fairfield police were called to Wafu Asian Bistro on the Post Road after receiving 911 calls about shots being fired around 12:15 a.m. on June 19. Police said a man suffered a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to his arm.

The state Department of Consumer Protection has since pulled the restaurants liquor license.
Alex Jones doesnt want white supremacy to be talked about during his trial.

But in Americas courtroom, we need to talk about it.

Theres toxic irony in Jones request that the families of Sandy Hook victims killed in the 2012 massacre be silenced about anything. He couldnt stop trying to spread his claim that loss of these 20 children and six educators was a hoax. He called it staged. He said it was manufactured. He dubbed it completely fake with actors.

Eight Sandy Hook families won a defamation lawsuit against Jones, who spread his beliefs on his Info Wars website. Its now up to a jury to determine how much Jones would pay in damages.

But Jones wants to be treated fairly, so hed prefer jurors not hear evidence related to white supremacy and right-wing extremism.

(E)vidence on the topics of white supremacy and right-wing extremism ... is not relevant to the issues that will be before the jury and would also be unfairly prejudicial and inflammatory to (Jones), claims Norm Pattis, the New Haven attorney who represents Jones. (E)vidence relating to those topics is irrelevant, would be an attack on (Jones) character and play to the emotions of the jury and distract from the main issues.

Its a bold gambit from a lawyer who only recently asked to be relieved from representing Jones. And it happens to dovetail with tweets from Jones former wife that she has insider info that might be of interest to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Jones has been trying to distort the dignity of the First Amendment throughout his time in the public arena. That he has lured so many followers is reason enough to talk about the issues he represents. Hes not merely synonymous with hoax, but with the issues he is trying to censor from his own record.

Regardless of what the judge decides about discussions in Jones case, we cant ignore the evidence that keeps surfacing in Connecticut communities, let alone the rest of our nation.

Messages of hate have shown up on flyers in 15 Connecticut towns of late. Some are from a group that seems to be modeling itself on Adolf Hitlers National Socialist Party.

History has shown us that this is not something to ignore, which is all the more reason to include such topics in appropriate curriculum.

To the credit of state officials, Connecticut has a new hate crimes unit to address the issue. The agency launched in April and has already tracked at least 27 incidents. State police spokesperson Sgt. Christine Jeltema deemed flyers dumped in neighborhoods to be propaganda.

Its tempting for any reasonable person to resist responding to such nonsense. But we need to talk about issues such as white supremacy. We cant blindly tune out hate speech from people such as Alex Jones. Ignoring such matters wont stop them from growing. Weeds thrive without being watered.




The government will beef up quarantine inspections at major airports as the number of travelers are expected to rise sharply in the summer vacation season amid a new wave of virus resurgence, Interior Minister Lee Sang-min said Friday.







Some 200 quarantine workers will be additionally assigned to Incheon International Airport, the No. 1 gateway to the country, and seven other regional airports in stages to tighten quarantine inspection, the minister said during a government virus response meeting.







"The government will facilitate a safe tourism environment as travel demand is expected to shoot up due to the normalization of international air routes and the peak summer vacation season," Lee noted.







Separately, the government will also assign about 2,500 workers at major tourist areas across the nation to ensure the compliance with antivirus rules and hygiene standards, according to the minister.







Driven by a highly contagious mutation of the Omicron strains, BA.5, the nation is facing another virus resurgence.







A day earlier, the government decided to expand eligibility for the fourth COVID-19 vaccine shot to people aged 50 and older as well as people aged 18 and older with underlying health conditions. Previously those aged 60 or over or with an immune disorder were eligible for the fourth dose.







Reservations for the new round of vaccination will start Monday while vaccine shots will be provided starting Aug. 1, according to the government.







The average daily tally of new coronavirus cases reached 29,865 in the week until Friday, nearly doubling from the previous week, it said. (Yonhap)


This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

BRIDGEPORT  A detective accused of mishandling one of two premature death cases last winter has lost two holidays as the result of an internal probe.

The police union Thursday confirmed that Detective Angel Llanos, despite being cleared in May by an independent labor arbitrator of allegations of wrongdoing, was recently penalized by Acting Police Chief Rebeca Garcia over the same matter.

The union, however, did not specify why the chief stripped Llanos of two holidays.

We disagree with the citys decision to discipline Detective Llanos and intend to challenge it, Larry Dorman, a spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said in a statement to Hearst Connecticut Media. We have no further comment at this time.

Garcia on Friday declined comment, citing the unions pending grievance over Llanos loss of holidays.

Thats a joke, Rawls sister, Dorothy Washington, said Friday when told of Llanos punishment. I dont want the guy to lose his job. I dont want anybody to lose their job in this day and age. (But) thats like a slap on the wrist.

Llanos and Detective Kevin Cronin were, respectively, accused of failing to properly notify the loved ones of 53-year-old Brenda Lee Rawls and 23-year-old Lauren Smith-Fields of their premature deaths last Dec. 12. Those cases drew national media attention and resulted in local protests, with some critics claiming the fatalities would have been treated more seriously had the women, who were both Black, been white.

The state legislature during the 2022 session also passed a new law for police with stricter death notification rules.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in late January ruled Smith-Fields death was an accident from acute intoxication due to the combined effects of fentanyl, promethazine, hydroxyzine, and alcohol and in late February stated Rawls cause of death to be cardiovascular disease with diabetes as a contributing cause.

Still, questions lingered about whether Llanos and Cronin did anything inappropriate.

In response to the controversy, Mayor Joe Ganim in late January while Garcia was on vacation  and, she has said, without consulting her  had ordered the deputy chief in charge to place both detectives on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of Office of Internal Affairs reviews.

The police union filed labor grievances over Ganims decision and in May the American Arbitration Association concluded Llanos should not have been placed on leave and ordered the city return him to duty with opportunities to make up for lost overtime.

According to the American Arbitration Associations final report on the Llanos matter, the arbitrator assigned that grievance, Michael Ricci, was not convinced by the citys justification for punishing Llanos, particularly six weeks after the fact.

The associations decision referred to evidence and testimony provided by Llanos and the union that showed the former followed the Bridgeport departments policy on death notification, which has no prescribed time restrictions.

At the scene the grievant (Llanos) performed his primary task by first ascertaining that there was no sign of foul play, then he and the patrol officer on the scene tried to contact the next of kin: to no avail, read the associations report. (Llanos) then informed his supervisor that he was unable to perform a death notification. The departments policy on OT (overtime pay) precluded him from trying to notify the next of kin beyond his regular shift. Two days after the incident, the DOAs sister was looking for her and she was notified then. The grievant noted that under similar circumstances  the incident happening away from a DOAs home  it could take weeks to months to notify the family. In sum, the city is not able to show and prove that the grievant failed to follow policy or practice concerning the womans untimely passing and the notification of her family.

Shortly after that decision was released, the union has said, Ganims administration quietly dropped its labor case against Cronin and returned him to work as well.

Meanwhile, Bridgeports Office of Internal Affairs concluded its probes into the departments handling of the Rawls and Smith-Fields incidents, the results of which have not been made public. Hearst Connecticut Media has filed Freedom of Information Act requests for both documents and is awaiting the citys compliance.

Washington on Friday said clearly internal affairs and Garcia concluded Llanos did something wrong for him to at least lose two holidays.

They (the Office of Internal Affairs) never spoke to me or my family, Washington said. Theyre doing the same thing the detective did  practically not acknowledging us.
If youre an avid traveler or youve just seen the videos floating around on TikTok (though the idea for luggage tracking isn't new), then you probably know about the current issue with luggage being lost or mishandled at airports around the world. In fact, based on the latest Air Travel Consumer Report, almost 220,000 bags were lost or mishandled during the month of April alone. And its only getting worse during the busy travel season.

With mountains of luggage piling up at airports, finding your own bag can be like finding a needle in a haystack. But it looks like people have started turning towards technology to help them find their bags by using Apple AirTags, Samsung SmartTags, and Tile Trackers.

These small trackers were originally designed for things like your keys, wallet, phone, or purses. But with how much luggage is getting lost this year, dropping one of the trackers in your bag can help make it much easier to find your bags among the hundreds (if not thousands) of others.

As you can probably guess, AirTags require you to have an iPhone or other device that uses iOS, and youll need to download the Find My app. Similarly, Samsung SmartTags require an Android device and the SmartThings app. Tile trackers are compatible with either operating system and require the Tile app (available from the App Store and the Play Store).

Depending on which brand of tag you use, the tracker can emit a sound when youre in range or show you the location on your phones screen via Bluetooth, or both. If the tracker is out of range of your phone, you should be able to see the last known location of your bag to help you narrow it down.

If you use the AirTags, you can take advantage of the Find My Network, which connects millions of devices around the world. When your AirTag is detected within the network, youll receive a notification and youll be able to see where it is. Tile has a similar system, but someone else has to scan the QR code on your tracker, which likely wouldnt happen if its in your suitcase!

No matter which tracker you go with, this still wont be a surefire way to never lose your bag. If you have a connecting flight at a busy airport and your bag doesnt make the flight, knowing that its still at the last airport wont help you get your stuff any quicker. So in addition to these trackers, we suggest traveling with just a carry-on as much as possible for the time being!




South Korea's Navy on Friday launched a new aviation command to be armed with high-end surveillance aircraft, choppers and drones, as part of efforts for stronger, longer-range maritime security capabilities, officials said.







Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Lee Jong-ho hosted a ceremony launching the Naval Air Command at an airport in Pohang, 370 kilometers south of Seoul, pledging efforts for "perfect" maritime aviation operations.







The newly minted command has grown out of the now-defunct Air Wing Six, the Navy's erstwhile centerpiece of aviation operations. Rear Adm. Lee Sang-sik, former chief of Air Wing Six, has been appointed the first chief of the command.







"We have achieved a new milestone  the creation of the Naval Air Command," CNO Adm. Lee said. "As the Navy's aviation forces are central to combined, joint operations, I call for strengthening the Navy's air operations by further developing an operational concept and continuing to secure high-tech aviation assets."







The command will run the Maritime Air Operation Coordination Council, a South Korea-U.S. dialogue platform designed to reinforce peacetime security cooperation with the U.S. Seventh Fleet and lead combined wartime operations, according to the Navy.







The unit will operate a series of assets that the Navy plans to deploy in the coming years. The assets include the P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft, MH-60R Seahawk helicopters, minesweeping choppers and unmanned surveillance aerial vehicles. (Yonhap)






Police on Friday placed a university student in Incheon under emergency arrest for allegedly causing a female classmate to fall to her death from a building after raping her.







The 20-something male suspect, a freshman at Inha University in Incheon, west of Seoul, is alleged to have caused the victim's death, when she apparently fell from the third floor of a campus building earlier in the day.







Police believe the suspect raped the victim after drinking with her inside the university. The victim, also in her 20s, was found lying naked on the ground outdoors on school grounds at 3:49 a.m. reportedly with blood on her head, mouth and ears.







The victim, who was in cardiac arrest at the time of the discovery, was taken to a hospital but later died. Police plan to conduct an autopsy.







The suspect reportedly confessed to the allegations during police questioning. Investigators plan to seek a formal arrest warrant for him. (Yonhap)


Even if youre a regular visitor to your local pharmacy, you may not realise that as well as dispensing medicines they also offer free health advice and testing services.

A new YouGov survey of around 2,100 people across Great Britain for Tesco and its health charity partners, the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK and Diabetes UK, has revealed the role pharmacies can play in providing quick, convenient guidance on a whole range of health conditions.

The survey found that of those who had visited a pharmacist for health advice, 43 per cent said it had eased their concerns about wasting their GP's time, while 53 per cent added not having to book an appointment as a major benefit.

Tesco is urging more customers to seek advice from their in-store pharmacists as it teams up with three of the UKs leading health charities to create its Lets Talk initiative: a unique programme for Tescos pharmacists and pharmacy colleagues that provides them with specialist training to ensure customers can get the best advice possible on how to lower their risk of cancer, type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Currently less than 3 per cent of those surveyed go to their pharmacist as their first port of call for information on how to lower their risk of these conditions, potentially meaning millions are missing out on advice that could make a big difference.

Tesco Pharmacies can offer quick, convenient information and support for a whole range of health conditions

With over 370 pharmacies across the UK and serving over half a million customers each week, Tesco is encouraging people to get a check up before the check outs and get friendly, professional advice on a whole range of health issues.

Dan Howarth, Head of Care at Diabetes UK , believes the extra training could help thousands of people live healthier lives.

'Currently, in the UK, 4 in 10 cases of cancer, up to 5 in 10 cases of type 2 diabetes and many heart and circulatory diseases can be prevented,' he says.

'Thousands of lives could be saved every year through people making changes to their day to day routine that lower their risk of type 2 diabetes, cancer, and heart disease.

Were proud to be working together with Tesco to help deliver this world-class training to Tesco pharmacists.'

The pharmacies are also often open for longer hours, with free parking and no need to book.

'We know that times are tough for lots of our customers and that can take its toll on peoples health,' says Paul Pilkington, Head of Pharmacy at Tesco.

So, as well as making sure you can rely on Tesco for value, we also need to do what we can to help our customers lead healthier lives.

'As well as prescriptions, we also offer health and medicines advice and free NHS services such as flu jabs and blood pressure checks.

Quick, convenient services offered by Tesco pharmacies Tesco has more than 370 pharmacies across the UK. As well as providing health advice, Tesco pharmacists can offer a wide variety of other services. These include:

NHS Flu jabs

Free NHS blood pressure checks

Free type 2 diabetes risk assessments

To ensure customers are getting the best possible help, the charities are rolling out specialist training to Tesco pharmacists so they can provide more information and support on how making small changes can make a big difference and lower their risk of developing these conditions, which are among the leading causes of premature death in the UK.

From today, you can pop into selected in-store pharmacies while on your weekly shop to access this free, confidential support without the need for an appointment.

In addition to all the services, help and advice our pharmacists already offer, customers will also now be able to receive quick and trusted information on lowering their risk of cancer, type 2 diabetes, and heart and circulatory diseases, says Paul.

We are also offering personally tailored help and advice on risk assessment, diagnostic signposting and management of a condition you have already been diagnosed with.'So if youre worried about your lifestyle or other health risks in your family, have a symptom you want to ask about or a diagnosis you want help to manage, pop in and talk to our specially trained pharmacists.

'Any pharmacy colleague wearing a ''Let's Talk'' badge will be able to help, and for those looking for more privacy, consultation rooms are available.'

As well as dispensing medicines, Tesco pharmacies provide plenty of other services, such as NHS blood pressure checks, advice on new medicines and flu vaccinations

'Any pharmacy colleague wearing a ''Let's Talk'' badge will be able to help, and for those looking for more privacy, consultation rooms are available.' Paul Pilkington, Head of Pharmacy at Tesco

The YouGov survey also found many people are unaware of the testing services on offer at local pharmacies, with only 2 per cent saying they would ask a pharmacist for a blood pressure check and just 1 per cent aware they can provide a risk assessment for type 2 diabetes.

And those aren't the only things on offer at pharmacies: shoppers can also get advice or be signposted to other services, including weight management advice and support tips for stopping smoking.

'It is clear to see from the results of the survey that pharmacists are an untapped resource for many local communities,' says Dan.

Tesco pharmacists can provide advice on how small day to day changes can lower your risk of developing common conditions

'Getting a free NHS blood pressure check and a free assessment of your risk of type 2 diabetes are two great ways to have a sense of your health status.

'Far more people could be taking advantage of the advice and support available to them from their Tesco pharmacy whilst they do their weekly shop.'

'We hope the ease of accessibility of Tesco pharmacies will encourage the public to use their pharmacists expertise to ease their health concerns,' adds Dan.

To find your nearest Tesco pharmacy go to www.tesco.com/pharmacy
Interior Minister Lee Sang-min explains a new police reform plan in Seoul, July 15, 2022. Yonhap



A new bureau overseeing key personnel and policy decisions for police will go into operation under the interior ministry next month, Minister Lee Sang-min said Friday, as his ministry seeks to tighten its grip over the law enforcement agency.



The "police bureau" will come into being on Aug. 2 following the Cabinet's planned authorization of revisions of relevant enforcement ordinances, the minister said in a press conference, announcing a sweeping police reform plan.



The plan came as police are set to take on more investigative roles from the prosecution under new laws aimed at reducing and ultimately abolishing the investigative powers of the prosecution, long accused of political meddling and abuse of power.



But critics say the move could put the police under political influence.



It marks the first time in 31 years for the interior ministry to exercise direct control of police since the law enforcement agency was spun off as an outside organization of the ministry in 1991 as part of efforts to ensure its independence and neutrality.



Lee said the new bureau will be in charge of submitting key policy and law proposals regarding police to the Cabinet for approval and recommending candidates for top police positions.



A senior superintendent general, the third-highest police rank, will be assigned to head the bureau to be staffed with a total of 16 personnel, 12 of them from the police, according to the minister.



The ministry will also come up with a set of regulations giving the interior minister the rights to approve or reject police's key policy decisions and have reports from the police on key issues, including the police budget.



Under the regulations, the interior minister will be entitled to get advance reports on key enactment proposals or other issues police submit to the Cabinet for approval as well as the national police chief's overseas business trip plans.



The interior minister will also be able to demand police's reports on how well they are fulfilling instructions from the president, the prime minister and the minister.



Under the reform plan, the police workforce will also be increased in the second half of this year to better respond to economic and cyberspace crimes, while a new 13-member police system enhancement committee will be established under the prime minister's office to follow up on the latest reform measures, Lee said. (Yonhap)


Everyone who loves The Godfather knows the scene in which a handsome bunch of flowers arrives for the title character, Marlon Brando's Don Vito Corleone. They have been sent by Johnny Fontane, the crooner modelled on Frank Sinatra who, thanks to Corleone family muscle (and a severed horse's head in a movie tycoon's bed), has landed a much coveted part in a new film.

There is a nod to this scene in The Offer, a compelling ten-part drama about the making of Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 masterpiece on Paramount+ that may have slipped under your radar when it was released last month on the new streaming service, but which you should rush to check out, with reviews calling it 'absolutely brilliant' and 'one hell of a series'.

In the first episode, flowers in the form of a funeral wreath arrive for real-life New York mobster Joe Colombo (Giovanni Ribisi), sent by Sinatra (Frank John Hughes) with a note: 'Hopefully we can make this thing go away.'

Recognising himself in the Fontane character, Sinatra loathed Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather. So when Paramount Pictures announced they were turning it into a film, with Puzo writing the script, Sinatra was enraged.

From left: Ruddy, McCartt, Evans, Coppola and Puzo in The Offer, a compelling ten-part drama about the making of Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 masterpiece on Paramount+

One night, the two Italian-Americans had an altercation at an LA restaurant, leading to Ol' Blue Eyes seeing red, yelling that Puzo was 'a pimp' and threatening to beat the hell out of him.

That story had always fascinated screenwriter Michael Tolkin, and on its own inspired him to create The Offer. 'So I had five minutes of the show written and now I just needed nine hours and 55 minutes more to fill in,' says Tolkin, who had satirised the workings of Hollywood in 1992 film The Player.

He found no shortage of material, starting with the famous line of dialogue that inspired his title  Don Corleone's ominous death threat, 'I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse.' Absorbingly, The Offer brings to life both the menace of the Mob and the machinations of movie producers  and finds barely an ethic in either camp.

It is also beautifully cast. Miles Teller excels as Albert S Ruddy, the industry outsider who had been a computer programmer before he helped create hit TV comedy Hogan's Heroes.

He was then asked to produce The Godfather, which Puzo himself had pitched to Paramount's head of production Robert Evans (English actor Matthew Goode) in 1967, when the book (provisionally titled Mafia) was still mostly unwritten.

The Offer dramatises Puzo's predicament perfectly. He was a blue-collar New Yorker who became a writer, but he wasn't well-known and any financial success he'd had was eroded by his gambling habit.

When he met Evans he had a wife and five children to support but was $10,000 in debt. He desperately needed Evans to option the film rights.

Eventually Evans did, paying $12,500, but almost more to get rid of him than anything else.

Ol' Blue Eyes saw red, yelling at Puzo that he was 'a pimp' and threatening to beat the hell out of him

In due course, the book ended up a huge bestseller. Evans had a hot property, but still wasn't sure whether it would translate to the screen.

However, he had the support of Paramount's eccentric owner Charles Bluhdorn, a cigar-chewing Austrian tycoon. Bluhdorn wanted The Godfather made, but to get it done, Ruddy had to spend months appeasing the Mafia  not least by agreeing to their wishes to never use the word 'Mafia'.

He also indulged their vanity by casting real mobsters as extras. When the film was finally ready, Ruddy arranged a discreet screening for them.

Not that it stayed discreet when dozens of flashy limos turned up outside the cinema, disgorging wise guys and their companions.

Now 92, Ruddy is an executive producer of The Offer and Teller often texted him during filming, telling him how much fun it was to play him. And no wonder.

Before he reached an understanding with Joe Colombo, Ruddy received regular death threats and even went out in public wearing a Groucho Marx disguise. 'You wanna make a movie that's going to make my people look like animals and that ain't gonna happen,' Colombo tells Ruddy in the drama.

The story of the making of The Godfather is just as dramatic as Puzo's original. Pictured: Marlon Brando as Don Corleone

Splendid as Teller is as Al Ruddy, for a British audience the standout performance comes from Goode, silkily smooth as the urbane but unstable Evans, who is manoeuvred by Ruddy into hiring Coppola (Dan Fogler, also excellent). Coppola, though not yet 30, was fiercely single-minded.

Evans was dead against the unknown (and admittedly rather short) Al Pacino playing Vito's youngest son Michael, allegedly calling him 'a runt' and 'that little dwarf'. Yet Coppola prevailed, as he did again when studio heads raged against the plan to cast the 'washed up' Brando.

The director resorted to alarming histrionics, even feigning an epileptic fit, until they gave in.

The Offer gets stuck into all of that, but aptly enough, the production was not without its own headaches. Armie Hammer was first hired to play Ruddy, but was forced to withdraw following accusations of sexual misconduct.

A more routine challenge was finding actors to play movie stars who were, or would become, household names. 'That was incredibly daunting,' says executive producer Nikki Toscano.

When studio heads raged against the plan to cast 'washed-up' Brando, Coppola ph feigned an epileptic fit

'How can anyone measure up to Marlon Brando and Al Pacino?' In fact, Anthony Ippolito makes a very plausible Pacino, and although Justin Chambers has a much harder job playing Brando playing Don Corleone (a transformation that involved rubbing boot polish into his blond hair and stuffing his cheeks with Kleenex), he gives it a creditable shot.

It was an easier task to choose Lou Ferrigno, made famous by the 70s TV series The Incredible Hulk, to play Lenny Montana. The 6ft 6in Montana had been a wrestler who became a mobster.

His speciality was arson, and he ended up doing time in Rikers Island prison. But by the time Ruddy and Coppola were casting The Godfather, he was a bodyguard for the Colombo family.

Picking him to play the Corleones' giant enforcer Luca Brasi was another way of winning them over. Montana himself was delighted. However, although not much fazed him, Montana was desperately nervous about acting opposite Brando in the wedding scene at the start of the picture.

Coppola duly had the brilliant idea of working Montana's anxiety into the story, hence the sequence in which he rehearses his lines to the Don first, and then fumbles them. The nervousness was real.

Montana was a hugely popular presence on set. When Ruddy's assistant Bettye McCartt (played in The Offer by Juno Temple) broke her watch, he gave her an antique replacement, studded with diamonds, telling her it was 'a gift from the boys'. He didn't tell how he'd got hold of it, but suggested that she should never wear it in Florida.

So, while it may have fewer corpses, the story of the making of The Godfather is just as dramatic as Puzo's original. For fans, it has ended up as The Offer they can't refuse.
Most women have cycled through a string of hairstyles - some better than others.

But not so the Duchess of Cornwall, 74, who has worn her hair in almost the exact same style for her entire adult life.

Camilla's signature icy blonde locks, soft fringe and feathered bob made its debut in the 1970s, when she was still in her 20s, and has remained almost untouched in the years since.

The approach is favoured by royals including the Queen and Princess Anne, who keep the focus on their work rather than their appearance. Both women have had the same hairstyle for many years.

Not only does it keep commentary on their looks to a minimum, but it also means members of the public are able to easily pick them out in a crowd.

Camilla's coiffure! The Duchess of Cornwall has had almost the exact same hairstyle for her entire adult life. Pictured: showcasing her feathered cut in 1979 (left) and in London this week

The royal's unchanging bouffant was noted by viewers of documentary Camilla's Country Life, which aired this week on ITV. Stephen Leng said it was an 'impressive' feat

The approach is favoured by royals including the Queen and Princess Anne, who keep the focus on their work rather than their appearance. Both women have had the same hairstyle for many years. Pictured, the Queen in 1960 (left) and at Windsor Castle this week (right)

Camilla's unchanging bouffant was noted by viewers of documentary Camilla's Country Life, which aired this week on ITV.

The programme followed the Duchess as she guest-edited the magazine ahead of her 75th birthday this weekend, and offered a glimpse at her life away from the glare of the public eye.

One viewer tweeted: 'Say what you like about Camilla but her commitment to one hairstyle for her entire adult life is impressive.'

Golden girl: In the 1980s, Camilla's hair had a more yellowy tone. Pictured, Camilla (right) and friend Amanda Ward (left) arrive at Heathrow following a holiday to Italy in 1982

Feathered flick: Camilla's voluminous locks were slightly longer than usual for an event in Hyde Park in 1989 (pictured). She wore her blonde locks tucked under a black hat

Outdated: Celebrity stylist noted that Camilla's hair was in need of a revamp in the 90s and 2000s. Pictured: Camilla at home in Wiltshire in 1992 (left) and at the polo in 1993 (right)

Speaking to FEMAIL, celebrity stylist Tom Smith noted: 'Camilla is a big fan of the 1970s hair style and she has never swayed from it. However there have been subtle changes over the years to bring it up to date.'

Tom noted that when her hair became too curly and voluminous, Camilla moved to soften the shape. She's also swapped the yellowy tone for a platinum blonde.

He continued: 'In the 90's and 00's Camillas hair looked outdated but cleverly in recent times she has made minor tweaks which contribute to her new glamorous appearance.

Framing her face: Camilla, pictured on her way to her 50th birthday at Highgrove House in June 1997, wears a soft fringe and her hair cut in a short bob

Ageing gracefully: Camilla beams on her way to an engagement with the National Osteoporosis Society in February 2022

Wedding belle: The Duchess of Cornwall's hair looked more feathery and full of volume than ever on her 2005 wedding day to Prince Charles. She topped the style with a feather hat

'But fast forward to today, to bring her look up to date, she has adapted a soft feathered fringe with a shoulder-length bob and pearly toned platinum colour hair which oozes a luxurious and expensive feel.

'She is embracing her grey which is wonderful to see. She always styles her hair in Farrah Fawcett style flicks which frame her face and it is a very flattering.'

Tom added that if he could get his hands on the Duchess' locks he would work to make them even more modern.

Platinum power! In recent years the Duchess has favoured an icy blonde tone. Pictured: in Morocco in 2011 (left) and on a visit to Battersea Dogs and Cats Home in 2012 (right)

Sleeker style: Camilla has also cut away some of the intense volume for a slightly lighter look. Pictured, at Clarence House in December 2020

'If I was given creative freedom with her hair I would keep the clean, creamy white/grey tones she has been wearing recently and focus on modernising her haircut,' he explained.

'I would change the shape of her layers to be a little more irregular and worn with a looser slightly more relaxed wave rather than the perfectly blowdried curls.

'This would help the style appear more youthful and soft while retaining the polish required by royals.'
Britons are being advised to go commando to beat the heat  with doctors saying ditching your pants is good for you.

Medics say not wearing underwear allows skin to cool more efficiently through sweating.

Airing your 'bits' also reduces body temperature, can improve sperm count for men and reduce the chance of getting a fungal infection - often caused by heat.

But medics also warn people to beware of painful zip injuries and wearing rough clothing against sensitive areas.

Who knows... even the most respectable-looking among us may actually be going commando (stock image)

Sexual health expert Samantha Evans told the Daily Star, 'For better health in intimate parts, women should ditch underwear whenever they can and wear long dresses or skirts.'

While medical group Rush said, 'Skin is part of your body's cooling system. Sweating cools the body and keeps its temperature in a healthy range.'

Other experts say the benefits of going commando are different for men and women.

According to the healthline website, Candida, the bacteria responsible for yeast infections, thrives in warm, moist environments, and ditching underwear can reduce the risk for women. .

'Wearing tight underwear or undies that arent made of a breathable material, such as cotton, can retain moisture in your genital area and make it easier for yeast bacteria to grow,' they said.

The also said not wearing pants can help reduce vaginal odour and discomfort as moisture from sweat and heat can make the genital area smell more strongly.

With regard men, the experts advise that going commando and well-ventilated can reduce fungal infections.

They said that 'warm, wet genitals' are a breeding ground for fungi, which can cause 'redness, irritation, and itching'.

But they warned that those who do go commando should wash their clothes regularly.

'Genitals carry a lot of bacteria,' they said, adding that you should only wear clothes that touch bare genitals once.

Meanwhile, risque men and women have taken to social media to urge others to go commando.

Abi Hynes tweeted, 'Surely we can all agree it's no bras in this heat.'

While British TV presenter Marverine Cole tweeted, 'Wonderful surprise to spend this morning...discussing the day's news.

'When you get Tory leadership race, supporting British pubs and should we go commando in the heat in one show, you know it's top one.'

TV presenter Marverine Cole has been discussing the topic on daytime TV

Others posted about going commando, especially at the gym.

On TikTok, one with the handle @Sophiep.fitness, said, 'I barely wear underwear with anything anymore.

'And no it's not gross. It kind of airs it out a little bit down there.'

But she warns against going commando with jeans in case it 'hurts a little bit'.

Another, @sofs.travaglini, also promoted the benefits of ditching undergarments.

One TikTok user urged followers to try going commando, saying she only wears pants with jeans

Another looked very happy at her little secret - then shared to all her Twitter followers

Either way, the hot weather looks set to continue.

The Met Office has further extended its amber weather warning to cover next Tuesday.

This means Britain's heatwave will likely last another two weeks.

The BBC forecasts temperatures of up to 37C on Tuesday with a record 39C possible.

It is set to remain at 27C or higher for every day through until late July.

The Met Office said, 'Temperatures will likely be above average for most towards the end of July, with the potential for it to be hot across England and Wales.'

Meanwhile, rail bosses warned trains could be cancelled and speed limits imposed due to sizzling track temperatures.

Network Rail said journey times could be longer due to the slower services and urged passengers to take plenty of water with them.
From technology to access to all the gadgets imaginable to make life run smoother, there's so many advantages to living in the modern world, but sometimes it's easy to wonder if things have gone a little too far.

Bored Panda has rounded up a selection of images from around the world shared by the Humans of Capitalism Instagram account, which aims to expose the dystopian side of the world we live in.

They've been snapped by people who saw something strange and it made them question the reality we're living in, and even their faith in humanity.

For instance, one motorist spotted a group of men stopping to take a selfie at the scene of a car smash, while elsewhere a woman posed to snap a picture while standing on the roof of a sinking car, proving that for some there's nothing more important than social media likes.

In a similar vein, others despaired over a woman who paused to take a seductive picture while sprawled over a crucifix, while someone else's heart sank at the sight of a bulletproof backpack for children.

Should be crucified! Residents of Barangay Lourdes Northwest in The Phillipines were horrified by a 'disrespectful' tourist who posed on crosses erected for the re-enactment of the crucifixion of Jesus

The obvious thing to do straight after a car crash on a busy highway in the US - take a selfie

We can't believe it either! The park rangers in Colorado who erected this sign were no doubt despairing at the actions of some tourists

Not such a wild time! Animal lovers were less than impressed by the Jamala Wildlife Lodge at the National Zoo and Aquarium in Canberra where people can soak in the bath while watching tigers behind glass

You know something's wrong when you're being told to behave like an animal! This sign, believed to be at a campsite in India, warned against leaving trash behind

Depressing! People were downcast over this sign in the US encouraging parents to work all night at a burger joint to make ends meet

Must be off your trolley! A little girl was left buried under a haul of shopping at a furniture store

Get your goat! People were horrified to spot a creature nibbling on fake grass at a store in the US

Always listening! Modern technology is fantastic, but this sign has serious 1984 overtones

Get your priorities right! Viewers were shocked to see a woman taking a selfie while awaiting rescue from a sinking car in the US

Zoo do you think you are? These elephants had to stay caged while a family watched them and enjoyed a meal

That's just cheap! Chinese fast fashion retailer Shein was blasted for trying to take advantage of Martin Luther King Day to boost sales

Not the kind of schoolbag any parent wants to buy: Sadly school shootings mean there's a demand for this product in the US

Brum deal! You have to make money somehow, but this eviction service in Birmingham. West Midlands, doesn't look like the most cheerful place to work
A fitness blogger transformed her own body through editing software to represent how the beauty standards for women compare to fast fashion trends throughout different eras.

In a viral video Cassey Ho, 35, from Los Angeles, California, used an editing software to show how women's bodies have become 'trends' throughout time.

The CEO and head designer of the fitness brand Popflex and blogger of Blogilates showed her over three million followers what women's body types looked like in different eras, including the 1400 through the 1700s, 1950s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s and 2020s.

From full figures during the renaissance to starving models in the 90s, women have gone without eating and ran to their plastic surgeons just to keep up with the everchanging 'perfect' body.

Cassey Ho, 35, from California, edited her body to show how the beauty standards for women have changed and showed the drastic difference in what it means to have the 'perfect' body

1400s through 1700s: For richer and poorer! Women show how financially successful their husbands are with their full figures

During the Renaissance, the ideal woman had a full figure to show financial success

Cassey depicted the Italian Renaissance era which was from the 1400s to the 1700s. The CEO said this was when 'full figures' were in and that those were thin were 'considered poor.'

This decade was a pivotal time for fashion and for the ideal body type.

During the Italian Renaissance, the ideal woman had a round stomach and full chest. This was the period of time when women were required to represent their husbands, so, to show the financial success of the man she was with, a woman was expected to be full-figured and desirably plump.

The silhouette of a Victorian woman was defined by a hoop skirt, during this time, woman wore larger hoop skirts to appear to have even fuller figure to not be seen as thin or poor from others.

The 1920s: The Roaring Twenties brings shorter skirts, tighter dresses and flattened chests

Next up were the 1920s, which was an era where women would 'bound their boobs to flatten their chests'; Cassey said this was the era of looking 'like a little boy'

Movie star Joan Crawford and flappers made the iconic boyish look popular

Next up were the 1920s, which was an era where women would 'bound their boobs to flatten their chests.' Cassey said this was the era of looking 'like a little boy.'

In the 1920s, or the Roaring Twenties, things took a major turn. Skirts became shorter and dresses became tighter. Women now embraced flat chests and favored a more androgynous appearance, even going so far as to wear bras that helped to flatten their chests.

Women ditched the corsets during this era and reached for something even less attainable. They bound their breasts in hopes of achieving a cureless, boyish body.

This body type was made popular by flappers and movie star Joan Crawford, who were ironically known for their energetic freedom. Despite a more liberating lifestyle, women in this time were still held captive by the standards of a 'perfect' body.

The 1950s: 'Skinny girls are not glamourous girls' special supplements on the rise as women strive for the hourglass figure

The CEO then represented the iconic hourglass figure from the 1950s, which represented a body shape where your bust and hips were nearly equal in size

The CEO then represented the iconic hourglass figure from the 1950s, which was made popular by actress Elizabeth Taylor, whose body measurement were 36-21-36. The actress was hailed to have the perfect body which caused many women to desire the same.

Actress Elizabeth Taylor made the hourglass figure popular with her equal measurements

The hourglass shape became the most desired body type during this time and the hardest to achieve and required women to only have fat in just the right places.

And after the age of boyish bodies, companies profited off of women's desperation to achieve the next body standard by selling special supplements that helped them gain weight. One ad in 1953 boasted: 'Men wouldn't look at me when I was skinny... but since I gained 10lb the new easy way I have all the dates I want'.

Another, selling Nurmal weight supplements, claimed: 'Skinny girls are not glamorous girls.'

To have an hourglass shape your bust and hips had to be nearly equal in size and you had to have a well defined waist. The actress represented a slimmer hourglass figure, many women wore corsets, starved themselves, or took special supplements to achieve this look.

The 1990s: Heroin chic hits the catwalks and Kate Moss tells the world 'nothing tastes as good as skinny feels'

Cassey said this was the period of being abnormally thin or 'emaciation' and referred to the perfect body as 'heroin chic'

Model Kate Moss was dubbed the face of heroin chic in the early days of her career

Moving onto the 1990s, Cassey said this was the period of being abnormally thin or 'emaciation' and referred to the perfect body as 'heroin chic.'

This body type was popularized by British model Kate moss who was dubbed as the face of 'heroin chic' in the early days of her career.

The new look told women they had to be petite, small-chested and abnormally thin to the point of looking ill.

Kate, with a 23in waist and 34A bust, further emphasized this standard when declared: 'Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels', while the Calvin Klein ads made woman with an unhealthy thinness to them the norm.

The 2000s: The return of the 'sexy model' with impossibly long legs and VS Angel wings attached

The fitness blogger featured was the 2000s, where women had 'big boobs, long legs and toned but not too toned flat stomach'

The VS Angel Gisele Bunchen became the new queen of the 2000s for her body type

The next decade the fitness blogger featured was the 2000s, where women had 'big boobs, long legs and toned but not too toned flat stomachs.' Cassey calls this woman the perfect 'VS Angel.'

This decade heralded Victoria's Secret model Gisele Bundchen the new queen, and Vogue even called her the 'return of the sexy model.'

The ideal body type women sought to achieve was no longer an abnormally thin frame, but impossibly long legs, a toned and flat stomach, and supermodel glamour, which was no easier to obtain than the heroin chic look.

The VS Angel also released a body trend that had been dying to bust out by inspiring women to achieve a look that would've sent even Barbie running to her plastic surgeon for implants.

With a new body standard to achieve, boob jobs soared throughout the country and women once again starved themselves to achieve a flat stomach.

2010: Eating disorders on a rise as women search for 'thinspiration' through models with thigh gaps

Next up Cassey represented the beauty standards of 2010 and describes this decade as the 'summer of Tumblr thigh gaps'

Cara Delevingne became a 'thinspiration' for many women for her thigh gap

Next up Cassey represented the beauty standards of 2010 and describes this decade as the 'summer of Tumblr thigh gaps.'

This decade caused women to develop a fixation with their legs not touching in hopes to emulate the stick-thin frames of models such as Cara Delevingne.

Women during this age became so obsessed with this look they resorted to starving themselves until they lost enough weight to develop a space between their thighs and used Cara as their 'thinspiration.'

During this time the number of people using social networks to share 'thinspirational' images that encouraged eating disorders saw a worryingly sharp rise and more young girls developed eating disorders.

2020s: Women race to undergo butt treatments for 'thicc' derrieres - while maintaining tiny waists

The clip begins with Casey representing what the ideal body type of a women in the 2020s, she describes the beauty standard as 'thicc everything + tiny waist'

The clip begins with Casey representing what the ideal body type of a women in the 2020s, she describes the beauty standard as 'thicc everything + tiny waist. Squats or implants - don't care.'

Cardi B represents the 'thicc' body standard which includes large butt and a thin waist

This era tells women the bigger their butt the better, and while many celebrities swore the size of their butts were due to genetics or squats, others such as Cardi B, revealed their plastic surgeons have done all the work for them.

With a new unattainable expectation to reach, plastic surgeons have seen a trend of BBLs or Brazilian Butt Lifts, which is a procedure that transfers fat from your lower body to your butt, to achieve the glamorized 'thicc' frame.

At the end of the video, Casey proudly exclaimed: 'Treating your body like a fast fashion trend is so out of style.'

The 35-year-old pointed out that the body type society labels as 'perfect' is everchanging, which is similar to fast fashion where trends come and go in the blink of an eye.

The constant fluctuation of what it means to have the 'ideal' body type often leaves women feeling confused, exhausted and inadequate, and Cassey's TikTok followers were quick to praise her for recognizing the insidious nature of body types turning into fast fashion.

'The fact that it's always FEMALE bodies going in and out of fashion,' said one user.

'This is amazing,' added another user.

A third user commented: 'It's crazy how body types... what we were born with and what we live in... have their own trends.'

'The fast fashion trend comparison is SPOT ON,' said another user.
Women who fell prey to the self-styled 'king of revenge porn' have detailed the trauma of discovering their naked photos and videos on his pornographic website in a new Netflix documentary.

The Most Hated Man on the Internet is a three-part series about Hunter Moore, the founder of the revenge porn site IsAnyoneUp.com, and one determined mother's battle to take him down.

Moore, now 36, launched the now-defunct website in 2010, allowing spurned lovers to anonymously post sexually explicit images of their former flames without their consent.

'Me and my friends would post [photos of] a bunch of girls, and I was like, "Yo, I can make money of f****n' people over,"' he explains in the archival footage featured in the trailer.

Netflix's upcoming documentary The Most Hated Man on the Internet is a three-part series about Hunter Moore, the founder of the revenge porn site IsAnyoneUp.com

Moore, now 36, launched the now-defunct website in 2010, allowing spurned lovers to anonymously post naked images and videos of their former flames

The docuseries features interviews with the women and men who were horrified to discover their nude photos and videos on IsAnyoneUp.com.

One woman says she woke up to 200 notifications after her image was unknowingly posted on the site. Another recalls how she begged Moore to remove her images, saying she has a family and a little boy.

'The response that I got: "LOL,"' she claims.

There are also key interviews with Charlotte Laws and her daughter Kayla, who was 24 when her topless photos were stolen from her computer by an anonymous hacker and posted on the sleazy website in 2012.

The docuseries features interviews with the women and men who were horrified to discover their nude photos and videos on IsAnyoneUp.com

One woman says she woke up to 200 notifications after her image was unknowingly posted on the site

'There I was topless. Multiple photos,' she recalls. 'I felt violated.'

Kayla had taken the photos in front of her bedroom mirror and stored them on her laptop, never intending to share them publicly.

The images had been accessed remotely by a stranger and uploaded to Moore's site. For Charlotte, this triggered a two-year battle to bring the man responsible to justice.

'He came after my daughter,' she says in the trailer.

'He needed to be brought down,' Kayla agrees.

Another recalls how she begged Moore to remove her images, saying she has a family and a little boy

She claims Moore simply responded, 'LOL,' after she sent her heartfelt plea

Moore shows little remorse when he is asked if he has ever felt sorry enough for someone to the point that he has taken something down.

'No. It's just too much fun,' he boasts in the archival footage.

'I don't know why all these people, you know, hate me,' he adds. 'I'm just making money off your nude pictures.'

Charlotte opened up about how she tracked down Moore in an interview with Mail on Sunday that was published earlier this month.

The mom, who was working as an investigator for an insurance company, got little help from the police because there weren't any laws against sharing these types of images at the time.

There are also key interviews with Charlotte Laws and her daughter Kayla

Kayla (pictured) was 24 when her topless photos were stolen from her computer by an anonymous hacker and posted on the sleazy website in 2012

A search revealed that the pictures had been posted on IsAnyoneUp.com, which Moore was running anonymously at the time.

But it was his bravado that eventually gave him away, and it wasn't long before Charlotte found his real name. She learned he had set up his website from the basement of his parents' home in Woodland, California.

'He was bragging all over the internet. This sleazeball was sitting in his parents basement, having found he could work with a computer hacker to steal pictures of innocent girls and make money,' she says.

Charlotte believes Kaylas pictures may have been used because she was Facebook friends with another girl whose intimate pictures had been posted on the site.

'There I was topless. Multiple photos,' Kayla recalls in the trailer. 'I felt violated'

For Charlotte, this triggered a two-year battle to bring Moore to justice

Once she had Moores name, she found a phone number and rang the address, but whoever answered repeatedly hung up.

Undeterred, Charlotte and her lawyer husband sent a series of 'cease and desist' letters to Moore, but they seemed to only embolden him.

He was laughing at us, she recalls. 'He replied to one legal letter with a picture of his penis.'

As Moore attracted more attention, his notoriety grew. He had 600,000 Twitter followers and claimed his website had 350,000 subscribers with 30 million page views a month, earning him a salary equivalent to $360,000.

Moore shows little remorse in the archival footage that is featured in the trailer

'I don't know why all these people, you know, hate me,' he says. 'I'm just making money off your nude pictures'

'He became something of a celebrity and was hosting parties where he worked as a DJ. So I went undercover in disguise to serve him papers, Charlotte says. I tried to find someone who would take my case on. But there was no one.

'I went online, went public about who this man was and what hed done to my family. Meanwhile, this slimeball was giving magazine interviews and being portrayed as a hero.

'At first, Kayla and my husband begged me not to get involved. They said he was dangerous and I couldnt win. But I was determined to bring him down.'

Charlotte's investigation took a sinister turn when she started receiving death threats. Meanwhile, Kayla was harassed and called a 'slut for taking the pictures.

However, other victims began contacting her, which helped her add to her collection of evidence against Moore.

In 2014, the FBI finally had enough to charge Moore with aggravated identity theft and aiding and abetting in the unauthorized access of a computer They shut down his website, raided his parents house, and seized his computers

Moore pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail. He was released in 2017 and is believed to be back living in his parents home

The mom got her big break in 2014 when the FBI started investigating the hacking of celebrity nude photos, including images of Scarlett Johansson and Jennifer Lawrence.

Charlotte pushed the FBI for help until she was put in contact with a detective, but the investigation dragged on for two years.

In 2014, the FBI finally had enough to charge Moore with aggravated identity theft and aiding and abetting in the unauthorized access of a computer. They shut down his website, raided his parents house, and seized his computers.

Moore pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail. He was released in 2017 and is believed to be back living in his parents home.

A co-conspirator was also jailed for hacking into Kaylas computer.

The Mail on Sunday made repeated attempts to contact Moore, but he failed to respond. He has also refused to co-operate with filmmakers.

The Most Hated Man on the Internet premieres on Netflix on July 27
A woman has split opinion after taking $8,000 out of her shared bank account because her husband pressured her into going back to work after being made redundant.

The 30-year-old, believed to be from the US, took to Reddit's AITA forum to explain she was recently made unemployed for the first time since she was 15.

She said she had gone a month without a pay check when her husband's car engine blew up - meaning he took her car to travel to the office.

This meant the woman wasn't able to travel for work and had to look at jobs from home - which she described as 'impossible to find'.

A woman has split opinion after taking money out of her shared bank account after her husband pressured her into going back to work after being made redundant (stock image)

'I currently have $8600 sitting in the bank from my last job, which would pay our rent for eight months so his comments are really starting to p*** me off and I've told him several times to get off my case,' she explained.

'I've even suggested I go and work with him because he is taking my car and making things impossible and he apparently doesn't think it's a good idea.

'Anyways, he started in with the whole "my money" argument but only when it's convenient for him.

'Like when he refers to taxes, it's "our" money (I get significantly more back than he does) but when it comes to other shit, he says "my money this, my money that" and it only just started when he got the promotion.

'He had no problem living off my money though the entire time he was unemployed because that was "our" money.

She also explained how her husband recently had a pay rise and had since been 'breathing down her neck' to get a job.

The 30-year-old, believed to be from the US, took to Reddit to explain she was recently made unemployed for the first time since she was 15 (post pictured)

Despite applying for dozens of jobs, she explained her husband was always on her case telling her 'you need a f***ing job' which was her 'last straw'.

'I took my car and left to go withdraw every penny I had in the bank account and stick it in an account he can't touch,' she explained.

'That left him with a little over $900 because the rest of the thousands were mine.

'He flips out and says I'm being financially controlling when in all actuality it's him.'

Hundreds of people replied saying she was 'not the a***hole' and her husband was in the wrong.

Hundreds of people replied saying she was 'not the a***hole' and her husband was in the wrong

'He can also spend that $900 dollars getting an Uber to work until he has enough saved to fix his car or replace it,' one said.

'Enjoy YOUR money and YOUR car,' added another.

'His mask has slipped and he has shown how he really feels about finances - whats his is his and whats yours is his! At the very least youll need to always have your own fund, if you dont end up separating out your finances for good,' said a third.

'Seriously, you need to reevaluate this relationship. A person who has the attitude "what's yours is mine and what's mine is mine" is never going to make a good partner,' penned a fourth.

'Take your money and more importantly TAKE YOUR CAR. Your career choices shouldn't be so restricted because he has no savings. Let him use his money,' said another.
An early learning expert has revealed what teachers really mean when writing common phrases on a report card - from 'he knows his own mind' meaning 'stubborn and uncooperative' to 'he has a lot of potential' meaning 'lazy'.

Dr Selina Samuels, the Chief Learning Officer for Cluey Learning explained in a blog post that many terms used by teachers are sanitised and in fact have a much deeper meaning.

The teacher, who spent several years working at a private school in Sydney, revealed that even seemingly positive phrases like 'good listener' can have a coded meaning - indicating your child doesn't contribute in class.

Elsewhere, 'independent' can mean they don't share well, while 'social' can indicate they distract others while terms like 'sophisticated understanding' and 'confident application' are strong signals that your child is working at an impressive level.

Dr Selina Samuels, the Chief Learning Officer for Cluey Learning explained in a blog post that many terms used by teachers are sanitised and in fact have a much deeper meaning (stock image)

'Has a lot of potential'

If a teacher says your child 'has a lot of potential' this indicates they are frustrated they are bright but lazy, Dr Samuels says.

The best and worst words to see in your child's report card Dr Samuels explained the best comments a teacher can write in a report card are comments that are specific to your child and show you that the teacher really knows him or her. However, the worst are generic, jargonistic and procedural, this could include telling you what the class has covered but offering very little information about how your child is progressing She said even if your being told something bad about your child it's better to have it told straight so as a parent you can work with the school to provide support. Dr Samuel also notes that report cards shout not be merely retrospective, but also 'provide genuine advice about where their focus should lie for the coming term or year.' Advertisement

'Very social' or 'enthusiastic'

'Very social', 'bubbly' and 'engage enthusiastically in discussion' are all codes for 'chatty' and 'talks a lot,' Dr Samuels says.

This may mean they get distracted by those around them - or are doing the distracting themselves. This could be helped by moving their seating plan.

'Independent'

Students who are 'independent' are probably not good sharers, Dr Samuels says.

'Good listener'

If a teacher write your child is a a 'good listeners' it likely he or she is quiet, doesn't ask questions or contribute in class.

'Knows his own mind'

This could mean your little one is 'stubborn and uncooperative'

'Erratic' or 'inconsistent'

If a teacher says your child's application is 'erratic' or 'inconsistent' it probably means they are playing to their strengths and ignoring anything that isn't already easy.

I can also be a veiled request to have a look at the family infrastructure around homework and act more consistently at home.

'Lacks focus'

If a child 'lacks focus', they are applying themselves.

'Emerging skills'

'This tells you there's a glimmer of hope on the horizon and they haven't given up on him just yet,' Dr Samuels says.

'Pleasure to teach'



Dr Samuels says that your child's teachers end a report with, 'She's a pleasure to teach', chances are it's true. Teachers don't use that phrase gratuitously.

'Perfectionist'

'This is not necessarily a good thing,' Dr Samuels says.

As it could indicate they're particular about presentation, or so frightened of getting something wrong, that she resists submitting anything for feedback
A criminal defence attorney has urged people to never use self-checkout machines to avoid accidentally shoplifting - or being falsely accused of it.

Carrie Jernigan, a lawyer from Arkansas, has become a viral sensation on TikTok sharing legal advice and tips.

In her latest video, she explains that self-checkout machines are often targeted by shoplifters which makes stores suspicious of many innocent people who are using them.

@carriejernigan1 Reply to @afamily20202 I have no idea why it cut off  original sound - LAWYER CARRIE

Jernigan explains there are three types of of people getting charged with shoplifting after using a self-checkout lanes.

The first are professional shoplifters, the second group are those who are guilty of 'theft by mistake' which is very difficult to prove.

'These are the people that I genuinely think just forgot to scan an item,' she explains.

'It is usually something that was on the bottom rack of the cart and when they are walking out, asset protection stops them.'

Carrie Jernigan, a lawyer from Arkansas, has become a viral sensation on TikTok sharing legal advice and tips

She also explained when self-checkout machines first started, stores let people off after they forgot to scan an item - but they are much stricter now.

'They let almost all of these people either scan and pay for the item, or just let them go, but took the item they did not pay for,' she says.

Stores are now much less sympathetic because shoplifters have become adept at stealing and now have a 'tell it to the judge' approach.

Jernigan explains there are three types of of people getting charged with shoplifting after using a self-checkout lanes.

The third group however are 'completely innocent' and are getting charged long after the bought something.

'It is something that happens when asset protection is doing a quality-control check, or inventory that weeks, days, months later comes up short,' she explains.

Jernigan added this happens after security teams watch hours and hours of videos and finding someone buying the item that's missing.

She also urged people not to pay in cash as it makes it trickier to prove you paid for something.

While those whoa re innocent like can eventually prove it likely can prove it, they often have to fork out thousands of lawyers bills.
Queen Letizia of Spain cast an elegant but sombre figure during the tribute to the victims of the Coronavirus and health personnel in Madrid today.

The royal, 49, looked elegant in a knee length simple navy dress with a tan bag as she paid homage to the victims of Covid-19 and the health workers lost during the last two years.

She was accompanied by her husband, who donned a simple black suit. and navy tie.

The Queen looked elegant but somber during the Madrid tribute, where she wore a navy dress and tan shoes with a matching bag

Queen Letizia and Spanish King Felipe Vl walked side by side in Madrid for the event

Letizia opted for a co-ordinated look for the outing, matching her tan handbag to her shoes

Former broadcast journalist Letizia tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month after showing mild symptoms of the virus.

Prior to testing positive for the virus, The Queen had had a busy few weeks, welcoming world leaders to Madrid for the NATO summit.

She also attended the presentation of the Princess of Girona Foundation Awards.

Queen Letizia escaped the virus back in February of this year when King Felipe tested positive.

A smile from Queen Letizia as she stands with her husband Felipe and the Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sanchez at the Royal Palace in Madrid

The royal couple looked straight faced as they sat in the front row, as homage was paid to the thousands lost in the covid-19 pandemic

For today's engagement, the royal opted for a co-ordinated look teaming her tan bag with brown suede heels, and accessorising with a pair of glistening blue earrings.

She wore her brunetted locks in a straight but voluminous style, and kept her make-up classic with a smokey eye and nude lipstick.

Earlier this week, she attended as conference in Madrid three days ago which was her first public appearance since recovering from coronavirus.

Today's occasion was no doubt an emotional occasion for the Queen of Spain as she reflected on the impact of the pandemic on the country.

Last year the Queen struggled to hold back tears as she joined her husband King Felipe VI at the same event to honour those lost to the virus.
U.S. mass shootings getting deadlier, more common: The Guardian

Xinhua) 09:31, July 15, 2022

LONDON, July 14 (Xinhua) -- More mass shootings occurred in the United States in the last five years than any other comparable time span dating back to 1966, The Guardian reported.

There were 31 massacres from 2017 through 2021, compared with 24 from 2012 through 2016, it said in an analysis piece last week.

As mass shootings in the United States reached a record high, so did the number of deaths and injuries, it said.

From 2017 to 2021, perpetrators killed 299 people -- about a third more than the 221 fatalities in the five-year period that ended in 2016, it said, adding that the number of people injured was five times higher.

The Guardian's analysis is based on data from the Violence Project, a nonprofit research group that uses a narrow definition of mass shootings adopted from the congressional research service, which advises federal lawmakers.

The Guardian noted that there is no national, legal definition of a "mass shooting" in the United States as several organizations that track mass shootings use different yardsticks: some count only incidents in which three or more people are killed, while others measure incidents with at least four people killed or injured.

The lack of consensus on what qualifies as a mass shooting makes the problem confusing to talk about, let alone try to address, it said, citing Jacob Kaplan, a criminologist at Princeton University.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)
A shark, with its fins severed, lies dead in the sea. Courtesy of Korea Federation for Environmental Movements





This video was made by Korea Federation for Environmental Movements to raise awareness on human brutality behind shark finning.



By Ko Dong-hwan



The number of Seoul hotels serving food made from shark fins has more than doubled compared to last year, an environmental activist claimed Thursday.



Thirteen hotels in Seoul have been selling shark fin dishes, known for their extravagant price and unfounded nutritional claims, Kim Sol from the Korea Federation for Environmental Movements (KFEM) has discovered. The activist told The Korea Times that there were six hotels in the capital last year that sold shark fin dishes. The KFEM has been monitoring the figure since 2015.



Shark finning is a mark of excessive human predation upon various shark species that are becoming increasingly endangered. The barbaric practice also disrupts marine ecology.



Two hotels that are part of the Josun Hotels and Resorts group plan to stop using shark fins in recognition of the importance of saving sharks and replace them with alternative ingredients, according to Kim, while 11 others refused to respond to his calls.



The Ambassador Seoul Pullman, one of the 11 hotels, announced in 2016 that it will no longer use shark fins in kitchens, but the activist found the hotel in Jung District was still using the ingredient this year. The list of 11 hotels include Koreana Hotel, The Shilla Seoul and Lotte Hotel Seoul.



Kim disclosed the findings in commemoration of global Shark Awareness Day, which falls on July 14.



Earlier this week, KFEM activists staged a performance against the hotels that use shark fins in their kitchens by posing in front of some of the hotels as a chef holding bloody Styrofoam boxes containing a sliced artificial shark fin.





Environmental activist Lee Yong-ki from the Korea Federation of Environmental Movements is dressed as a chef holding a Styrofoam box with a fake shark fin in front of The Ambassador Seoul Pullman in central Seoul, July 12, to protest against the hotel serving shark fins. Courtesy of Korea Federation of Environmental Movements
Advertisement

The Queen saw the funny side today when a mobile phone rang at a crucial moment as she officially opened a 22 million hospice building.

Her Majesty, 96, travelled the short distance from her Windsor Castle home to Maidenhead to formally launch the new home of the Thames Hospice and to meet staff, volunteers and a patient.

But just as the monarch, who was joined at today's outing by the Princess Royal, was introduced to Graham White and his wife Pat, who has stage 4 cancer and is receiving respite care at the centre, his phone rang and he reached into his pocket to turn it off.

The Queen quipped: 'Typical, his mobile instantly rings', and Mr White sheepishly said it was his son ringing.

Her Majesty, who moved with the aid of her now familiar walking stick, looked effortlessly elegant in a blue floral dress when appearing alongside her daughter, Princess Anne, 71, in the Berkshire area this morning.

Just as the monarch, who was joined at today's outing to Thames Hospice by the Princess Royal, was introduced to Graham White and his wife Pat (pictured right), who has stage 4 cancer and is receiving respite care at the centre, his phone rang and he reached into his pocket to turn it off

The monarch, who moved with the aid of her now familiar walking stick, looked effortlessly elegant in a blue floral dress when appearing alongside her daughter, The Princess Royal, 71, in the Berkshire area this morning

The Queen appeared in great spirits today as she made a surprise visit to a hospice with the Princess Royal to open its new centre

Her Majesty stands with Jonathan Jones, Chair of Trustees, after unveiling a plaque during a visit to officially open the new building at Thames Hospice

The 96-year-old Queen signs the visitor's book during her appearance this morning, alongside her daughter Princess Anne, 71

For more than 30 years the hospice has been providing palliative and end-of-life care and support to people across East Berkshire and South Buckinghamshire - and the new 22 million larger state-of-the-art facility means the centre can care for twice as many patients.

Its services are free for those who need care, and more than 50 per cent of the 13 million annual running costs come from charitable support.

It took three years of fundraising to hit the 6 million target needed to complete the 22 million build, which first opened its doors in 2020.

Mrs White sat as she chatted to the Queen and afterwards the 63-year-old described the encounter as 'very emotional', adding: 'This is a memory that I will treasure.'

She joked about her husband's phone ringing, saying: 'I could have killed him! People think the Queen is all stiff upper lip but she has a sense of humour.'

For more than 30 years the hospice has been providing palliative and end-of-life care and support to people across East Berkshire and South Buckinghamshire

The Queen, alongside Princess Anne, right, unveils a plaque during a visit to officially open the new building at Thames Hospice, Maidenhead

On Tuesday, the Queen (pictured left) celebrated the achievements of the NHS across the decades by awarding the institution the George Cross during a ceremony she hosted at Windsor

Princess Anne appeared alongside the Queen during this morning's appearance, wearing a stylish check ensemble

The Queen pictured after unveiling the plaque. The new 22 million larger state-of-the-art facility means the centre can care for twice as many patients

Mr White, 67, from Sandhurst, Berkshire, said: 'I turned my wife's phone off and I could have sworn mine was off - that was a bit embarrassing.'

His wife said: 'The Queen said the building is beautiful and she showed a keen interest in the different treatments for cancer, and hoped the new building would help support all the cancer patients here.'

The former Windsor site of Thames Hospice was opened by the Queen in 1987 and past visitors have included Diana, Princess of Wales, and Sophie, Countess of Wessex.

Now sited beside a picturesque lake surrounded by trees in nearby Maidenhead, the hospice's new building features an open plan reception with an airy atrium, a cafe and a shop.

On Tuesday, the Queen joked with NHS leaders and healthcare workers as she hosted a small audience at Windsor Castle to honour Britain's health service with the George Cross.

The 96-year-old was joined by Prince Charles as she handed out the medal, second only to the Victoria Cross, and heaped praise on NHS leaders from four countries over the UK's handling of the vaccine roll-out during the pandemic.

The centre's services are free for those who need care, and more than 50 per cent of the 13 million annual running costs come from charitable support. Pictured, the Queen during today's visit

The smiling monarch walks alongside Jonathan Jones, Chair of Trustees, with her beaming daughter Princess Anne walking behind the pair

The monarch moved with the aid of her now familiar walking stick during the visit today after travelling from her home of Windsor Castle to Thames Hospice

The Queen looked sophisticated in a blue floral frock, teamed with a black handbag and a shimmering sapphire brooch

All in the details: The monarch completed her ensemble with a pair of peal earrings and her statement matching necklace

Looking relaxed, the head of state wore a pretty floral dress for the ceremony, as the royals were joined by frontline workers from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Also present was May Parsons, the nurse who delivered the world's first Covid-19 vaccine outside of clinical trials to Maggie Keenan on December 8 2020.

The Queen was on fine form and when told about the nurse's historic first, she made her guests laugh with the quip: 'You're still alive?'

When the nurse told the Queen: 'We're terribly, terribly proud of the vaccination roll-out, it was so successful,' she replied: 'Yes it was amazing.'

And when NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard highlighted the tens of millions who have been jabbed, the monarch said 'tremendous'.

When the Queen asked: 'And what are you going to do with it?' with regards to the medal, she was told by Pritchard it would go on a tour of the NHS before being found a permanent home.

Each health executive from the four nations and their frontline colleague came up in turn to receive a George Cross which had been placed on a cushion carried by the Queen's Equerry Lieutenant Colonel Tom White.

The Queen touched the cushion in a gesture to symbolise its presentation.

Lieutenant Colonel Michael Vernon, Comptroller of the Lord Chamberlain's Office with responsibility for organising ceremonial events, read out the George Cross citation at the start of the ceremony.

It's the Queen's first public engagement since she enjoyed a brief stay at Sandringham. The Queen was spotted travelling back to Windsor last week - after she spent several days at her husband the late Duke of Edinburgh's former home.
The Duchess of Cornwall has been instrumental' in Prince Charles becoming closer to his sons - and Prince William is 'very grateful' that she has encouraged her husband to put family high on the agenda, a royal expert has claimed.

Royal commentator Katie Nicholl told 9Honey that the Duke of Cambridge, 40, is thankful for his stepmothers approach to family life.

She said: Camilla's very much, behind the scenes, been quite instrumental in Charles becoming closer to both of his sons.

I actually think the boys recognise not only that Camilla has been good for their father, made him a happier, more contented man in later life, I think they also probably acknowledge that she's had a lot to do with putting family high on the agenda for Charles.

... And I think certainly William is very grateful to Camilla for that because Charles is now making a lot more time in his life for his grandchildren.

The Duchess of Cornwall has been instrumental' in Prince Charles becoming closer to his sons - and Prince William (pictured with Prince Charles) is 'very grateful' that she has encouraged her husband to put family high on the agenda, a royal expert has claimed

Royal commentator Katie Nicholl told 9Honey that the Duke of Cambridge, 40, is thankful for his stepmothers (pictured) approach to family life

The expert explained how Camilla, who is mother to Tom Parker Bowles and Laura Lopes, loves being a grandmother and reminds her husband, the Prince of Wales, 73, not to miss out on time with his loved ones.

Yet the royal author admitted that the relationship between Prince William and his stepmother hasnt always been easy for very obvious reasons.

But she insisted that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge now have a good and warm bond with Charles and Camilla.

However, since Prince Harry stepped away from his royal duties, the royal expert confessed that she now wasnt sure what his feeling was towards the Duchess of Cornwall - especially after he stayed silent following the announcement she would be made Queen Consort.

Yet Ms Nicholl said the Duke of Sussex, 37, was very grateful to Camilla for making [his wife] Meghan [Markle] feel so welcome in the family.

Elsewhere, the Duchess is the cover star of the Country Life magazine after asking a photographer she knows well to take the image - the Duchess of Cambridge

While his brother Harry stayed silent on the matter, the Duke of Cambridge was said to be 'supportive' of the Queen's move to make his stepmother Queen Consort.

William was not part of the decision-making process, the Daily Mail understands, but is 'respectful' of the logic of his grandmother's decision.

Sources said that while William and Camilla's was not an easy relationship at first  or indeed for a number of years after her marriage to his father  the second in line to the throne is pragmatic about her role in his father's life and, now, the future of the monarchy.

'The duke is supportive,' a well-placed palace source confirmed to the Daily Mail.
A woman who quit her 'in-house job with fancy benefits' for sex work has gone viral after she added her new sultry position to her LinkedIn profile.

Arielle Egozi, 31, who is originally from Florida but lives in New York now, explained in a post on the job networking website that she opted to leave her previous position - she didn't disclose what it was - because she realized she 'wasn't happy.'

She said she chose to 'walk away' to pursue a career in sex work instead, explaining that she prefers a job where she can 'set and hold her own boundaries,' and 'engage only in ways that are safe, playful, and abundant' for her.

Arielle was not ashamed of her decision, and owned her new job - listing it on her LinkedIn profile under the experience section.

However, her move quickly went viral - garnering more than 1,000 comments and sparking a debate between users, some of whom called it 'extremely inappropriate' to list 'sex work' on her profile, and others who said it should not be 'shunned.'

A woman who quit her 'in-house job with fancy benefits' for sex work has gone viral after she added her new sultry position to her LinkedIn profile

Arielle Egozi, 31, from New York, explained in a LinkedIn post that she opted to leave her previous position - she didn't disclose what it was - because she realized she 'wasn't happy'

Arielle was not ashamed of her decision, and owned her new job - listing it on her LinkedIn profile under the experience section

In a message posted to LinkedIn, the sex worker opened up about why she decided to change careers, explaining that her new job has boosted her confidence and 'shown her what her power can do.'

She added that she is allowed to chose her own rate - charging 'exorbitant amounts' due to the 'emotional labor' that comes with the job - and that she has 'no problem rejecting those who don't want to pay it.'

'I dont waste my time with anything less,' she explained. 'I stopped pitching and negotiating. I have nothing to prove. Ive done the work up front to make my value evident.'

As for why she chose to put it on her profile for the world to see, Arielle explained that she wants any incoming clients or potential future bosses to 'celebrate and accept every experience as one that she will inevitably bring with her into a project.'

'Why is this different than any other client work?' she asked. 'The answer I come to, again and again, is that it isnt. So it's now up on my LinkedIn.'

She added: 'My new standard for incoming creative clients is that they be at least half as respectful, generous, and grateful as the John Does online.

Her move quickly went viral, and it sparked a debate between users, some of whom called it 'inappropriate' to list 'sex work' on her profile, and others who said it should not be 'shunned'

Arielle said she chose a job in sex work because she prefers a position where she can 'set her own boundaries,' and 'engage only in ways that are safe, playful, and abundant' for her

Arielle explained that she put it on her profile because wants future clients to 'celebrate and accept every experience as one she will bring with her into a project'

'They dont have to understand it, but they better respect the Hell out of it.'

Arielle's post was quickly flooded with responses from haters who told her it was 'nothing to be proud of' and accused her of 'oversharing.'

'Too much oversharing here,' wrote one person. 'Think this sort of "content" is more suited to OnlyFans rather than LinkedIn.'

'This is extremely tone deaf and arrogant (to add, extremely inappropriate),' slammed someone else.

'Sex work is a very dangerous (and also illegal) line of work. Most prostitutes dont have the luxury of charging exorbitant prices, not only in the United States but around the world.

'Young women and children have been victimized and traumatized by this line of work and what youre saying is that its a liberating and empowering feeling that they are suppose to feel because you get to control the situation (which isnt always the case).'

Another added: 'Nothing to be proud of. Im sorry you felt the need to go into sex work, and I feel even sadder for you that you felt you needed to post this on LinkedIn. Shameful and wrong to try and pull this off as female empowerment."'

'Adding sex worker to your LinkedIn profile would have been considered outrageous only a few years ago. Now its celebrated. Honestly dont get whats happening,' said a different user.

A fifth comment read, 'Promoting prostitution on LinkedIn. That's a new low. LinkedIn is not OnlyFans. Are there no good values left in this society?'

Arielle's post was quickly flooded with responses from haters who told her it was 'nothing to be proud of' and accused her of 'oversharing'

However, others were on Arielle's side, praising her for her 'courage' and thanking her for being 'so open' about a 'very taboo topic.'

'I'm very happy you've done this. I don't feel alone with doing it myself,' gushed one person.

Another added: 'I love this and thank you for this. Too many times has my past in exotic dancing and nude modeling come up as a problem for employers and I never quite understood why.

'I became very transparent with my past and my other hustles so that I can work with partners who celebrate me as I am and see the things that I bring to the table because of those experiences.'

'Well done for your courage, we need more of you around us,' said someone else.

'I respect the Hell out of what you doing. There is a need for more who think like you,' read another comment.

'This!' wrote another supporter with a hand clapping emoji. 'I celebrate you, your story, and all that you bring to the table. Thank you for sharing.'

'Really brave of you Arielle to be so open and post about this very taboo topic to help remove the stigma associated with it,' commented a different LinkedIn user.

However, others were on Arielle's side, praising her for her 'courage' and thanking her for being 'so open' about a 'very taboo topic'

In response to the backlash, Arielle said she added the work to her LinkedIn profile not to 'be radical' but instead, to 'hold herself accountable' for the 'choices she has made'

'I love this! We should further support and encourage the open discussion about sex work and its benefits for everyday work and life,' added another person.

'There are countless skills you learn from doing sex work - communication, marketing, PR, accounting, organization - which are worthwhile in your further career (whether you decide to stay in sex work or not).'

She said she doesn't 'owe anyone anything,' adding, 'If you want the privilege to project onto me, pay me. Otherwise, shut up'

Arielle made one more post in response to the backlash, explaining that she added the work to her LinkedIn profile not to 'be radical' but instead, to 'hold herself accountable' for the 'choices she has made.'

'My intention here was to bring all my pieces into the room,' she wrote. 'It was to hold myself accountable in celebration of the choices Ive made, the decisions that make me who I am and make my work what it is.

'It wasnt to inspire. It wasnt to be radical. It wasnt to make you upset. It was to make space for myself.'

She said she doesn't 'owe anyone anything,' adding, 'If you want the privilege to project onto me, pay me. Otherwise, shut up.

'It's weird to share something to own it, then having others take it and try to make it theirs anyway.

'Its wild to witness folks blatantly secrete their misogyny, respectability politics, and hatred for sex workers on a professional platform - but then I remember who invented the concept of professionalism in the first place.'

She concluded: 'I dont need to be the face of any of this - folks been out here since the beginning of humanity hustling and healing.

'If you dont know any sex workers, its either because you havent earned the trust for them to tell you, or because your friends are kind of boring.'
Former Victoria's Secret models recalled being forced to wear provocative, yet child-like lingerie adorned with toys and balloons during an explosive new Hulu docu-series, which exposed much of the underwear company's dark past.

Many of Victoria Secret's former employees, runway stars, and executives spoke out in the three-part show, entitled Victoria's Secret: Angels and Demons - which premiered on the streaming site on July 14 - with some admitting that they were left uncomfortable after they were put into youthful designs while modeling bras and underwear on the catwalk.

Victoria's Secret - which was launched in 1977 by Roy and Gaye Raymond and later sold to Leslie Wexner in 1982 - expanded its operations by opening a lingerie and apparel line specifically targeted towards younger women, called PINK, in 2002.

While PINK is aimed at college-aged ladies, some women who previously modeled for the brand slammed the company for putting them in child-like items while walking on the runway.

Former Victoria's Secret models recalled being forced to wear provocative, yet child-like lingerie adorned with toys and balloons during an explosive new Hulu docu-series

Many of Victoria Secret's former runway stars admitted that they were left uncomfortable after they were put into youthful designs while modeling bras and underwear on the catwalk

Victoria's Secret expanded its operations by opening a lingerie and apparel line specifically targeted towards younger women, called PINK, in 2002

Swedish model Dorothea Barth Jorgensen, now 31, recalled donning a red bra, blue pair of undies, and a bunch of children's toys combined to make a skirt, while she strutted her stuff in the 2012 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.

She stomped the runway as Justin Bieber performed next to her, and the model accused the brand of targeting young kids through the performance.

'I had this dress with toy things [all] around and the whole set was pretty much based on toys,' she said in the documentary.

'My sister's children were so excited that I'd be going on the runway with Justin Bieber. They were so obsessed with him and they were like 10 and 12 at the time so I think definitely they hit the target.'

Another model, named Lyndsey Scott, now 37, also walked in the show years earlier - back in 2009 - and she remembered wearing a top that had an enormous balloon-train behind it.

While PINK is aimed at college-aged ladies, some women who previously modeled for the brand slammed the company for putting them in child-like items while walking on the runway

Dorothea Barth Jorgensen recalled walking in a dress made out of toys at the 2012 Victoria's Secret runway show, accusing the brand of targeting young kids with the outfit

Lyndsey Scott said she had to wear a top that had an enormous balloon-train behind it in 2009, claiming the show was less about selling products than it was about 'fulfilling a fantasy'

The women spoke out in the new three-part Hulu show, entitled Victoria's Secret: Angels and Demons, which premiered on the streaming site on July 14

She claimed the runway show was less about selling its products than it was about 'fulfilling a fantasy,' pointing out that the clothes she wore weren't even sold in stores.

'I was wearing balloons. They were not clothes, they were not sold in the stores,' she explained.

'It wasn't about the clothes as much as it was about the models fulfilling this idea of this fantasy that Victoria's Secret wanted to fulfill.'

She added: 'I realize there were a lot of bad people who allowed bad things to happen.'

After its launch, Victoria's Secret quickly grew into one of the biggest lingerie companies in the world.

Numerous well-known models posed for the brand over the years - including Tyra Banks, Gisele Bundchen, Miranda Kerr, Karlie Kloss, Barbara Palvin, Lily Aldridge, Candice Swanepoel, Doutzen Kroes, and Alessandra Ambrosio, among others.

Numerous well-known models posed for the brand over the years - including Lily Aldridge, Candice Swanepoel, Doutzen Kroes, and Alessandra Ambrosio (pictured)

Heidi Klum walked in the show many times, and according to wing designer Martin Izquierdo, she wanted to ensure that all eyes were on her when she made her way down the catwalk

He revealed in the doc that she requested that she 'always have the biggest wings,' with her props measuring as high as 10-12 feet on one occasion

The brand marketed its models to the public as 'angels,' and it eventually launched its annual runway show in 1995, which showed the women walking down the catwalk with literal wings on their back.

The show became so popular throughout the 2000s that it saw a slew of famous performers, including Bieber, Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, and Ed Sheeran, and it was even broadcasted on national television - up until 2018 when it was canceled.

Heidi Klum walked in the show many times, and according to wing designer Martin Izquierdo, she wanted to ensure that all eyes were on her when she made her way down the catwalk.

He revealed in the doc that she requested that she 'always have the biggest wings,' with her props measuring as high as 10-12 feet on one occasion.

One past employee, who kept her identity hidden for privacy reasons, claimed that the company's use of idealistic women with perfect bodies often made customers feel insecure.

And when the brand started aiming products at 'teenagers and tweens' by releasing PINK, she said it 'did not feel good.'

One past employee, who kept her identity hidden for privacy reasons, claimed that the company's use of idealistic women with perfect bodies often made customers feel insecure

And when the brand started aiming products at 'teenagers and tweens' by releasing PINK, she said it 'did not feel good'

Chief marketing officer Ed Razek was slammed after he stated that 'transsexuals' and plus-size models had no place in the VS fashion show - leading to him stepping down in 2019

One year after he left the company, the New York Times released an explosive investigative report in which many old and current employees accused Razek of sexual harassment

'For me that's when I felt like things were going in the wrong direction because PINK was targeted at teenagers and tweens,' she revealed. 'So, that did not feel good.'

The brand has been slammed over the years for its lack of inclusivity, which came to a head when chief marketing officer Ed Razek publicly stated that 'transsexuals' and plus-size models had no place in the Victoria's Secret fashion shows - leading to him stepping down in 2019.

One year after he left the company, the New York Times released an explosive investigative report in which the outlet interviewed more than 30 current and former staffers from the company, many of whom accused Razek of sexual harassment.

The outlet reported that his 'demeaning comments and inappropriate touching of women' often left employees uncomfortable. However, he denied the allegations.

Elsewhere in the documentary, former Victoria's Secret executive Sharleen Ernest spoke out about the misogyny she saw during her time there.

'We were just following this bombshell, unattainable, single vision of how men see women,' she said.

Also exposed in the doc was CEO Leslie Wexner's bizarre relationship with millionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who oversaw his finances

Wexner (pictured) stepped down in 2020, and the company went on to have a re-branding one year later, bringing in Martin Waters as president

It launched an initiative known as the VS Collective in July 2021, in an attempt to provide a more encompassing environment for employees and customers

Also exposed in the doc was CEO Wexner's bizarre relationship with millionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who oversaw his finances.

'Wexner had the money that Epstein was seeking. Wexner got from Epstein the glamour and smoothness that he was seeking,' former CEO of Victoria's Secret Direct, Cindy Fedus-Fields, said in the Hulu show. 'I'm not at all inferring that it was a sexual need but there was something there.'

Wexner stepped down in 2020, and the company went on to have a re-branding one year later, bringing in Martin Waters as president.

It launched an initiative known as the VS Collective in July 2021, in an attempt to provide a more encompassing environment for employees and customers.

'The company featured in this docuseries does not reflect today's Victoria's Secret & Co.,' the brand said in a statement to People magazine, regarding the new documentary.

'When we became a stand-alone company in August 2021, we set out to regain the trust of our customers, associates and partners.

'Today, we are proud to be a different company, with a new leadership team and mission to welcome, celebrate, and champion all women.

'This transformation is a journey, and our work continues to become the Victoria's Secret our customers and associates deserve - where everyone feels seen, respected, and valued.'

Victorias Secret: Angels & Demons is now available to stream as a boxset exclusively on Paramount+ in the UK and Ireland. For more information, visit paramountplus.com/gb/
The Duchess of Cornwall has said she wants families to ditch phones at the dinner table and eat properly together.

In an interview to mark her 75th birthday Camilla expressed her concerns about social media, which she described as a 'double-edged sword', and admitted she often tells her grandchildren to put their 'flipping' phones away.

Speaking to Mail+ the Duchess admitted she had ventured onto apps like Houseparty and TikTok during the Covid lockdown to stay in touch with her younger relatives.

But she has concerns over how social media can harm people's wellbeing and how technology is coming to erode family values.

She said: 'Families don't sit down any longer, do they, and have dinner.

'Because I am ancient, in the old days we all sat down [to eat]. Now everyone is on their devices. It just makes me quite cross!'

The Duchess of Cornwall, 74, said families don't properly sit down at the dinner table for mealtimes as smartphones get in the way

Camilla (pictured at the Queen's Platinum Jubilee with Prine Charles

Camilla's commitment to family values comes as a royal expert claims she was 'instrumental' in bringing Prince Charles closer with his eldest son Prince William.

Royal commentator Katie Nicholl told 9Honey that the Duchess encouraged her husband, 73, to 'put family high on the agenda'.

She added the Duke of Cambridge, 40, is thankful for his stepmother's approach to family life.

Ms Nicholl said: 'Camilla's very much, behind the scenes, been quite instrumental in Charles becoming closer to both of his sons.

'I actually think the boys recognise not only that Camilla has been good for their father, made him a happier, more contented man in later life, I think they also probably acknowledge that she's had a lot to do with putting family high on the agenda for Charles.

'... And I think certainly William is very grateful to Camilla for that because Charles is now making a lot more time in his life for his grandchildren.'

The Duchess of Cornwall has been 'instrumental' in Prince Charles becoming closer to his sons - and Prince William (pictured with Prince Charles) is 'very grateful' that she has encouraged her husband to 'put family high on the agenda', a royal expert has claimed

Royal commentator Katie Nicholl told 9Honey that the Duke of Cambridge, 40, is thankful for his stepmother's (pictured) approach to family life

The expert explained how Camilla, who is mother to Tom Parker Bowles and Laura Lopes, loves being a grandmother and 'reminds' her husband, the Prince of Wales, 73, not to miss out on time with his loved ones.

Yet the royal author admitted that the relationship between Prince William and his stepmother hasn't always been easy for 'very obvious reasons'.

But she insisted that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge now have a good and warm bond with Charles and Camilla.

Elsewhere, the Duchess is the cover star of the Country Life magazine after asking a photographer she knows well to take the image - the Duchess of Cambridge

Speaking ahead of her 75th birthday the Duchess, who will become Queen Consort when Charles accedes the throne, said she remained committed to championing causes that mean a lot to her - including raising awareness of domestic violence.

She told Mail+: 'I can only do things that I feel quite passionately about. I am not a natural actress.'

The patron of the Safe Lives domestic abuse charity discussed the issue of 'frightening' coercive control in relationships.

She said: 'You can have someone who appears such a charming individual, that nice, smiley man who is lovely to everybody... to your friends, to your family... And we all know one, dont we?'

As she and Prince Charles enter their golden years, Camilla said they will continue to support each other 'as a team'.

She certainly shows little sign of slowing down, as she carries out approximately 150 royal engagements every year.

And when her husband becomes King the Duchess has vowed to maintain her commitment to the causes she cares about - including women's issues, literacy and improving the lives of underprivileged children.
Donald Trump's former political aide Omarosa Manigault Newman said that he 'constantly' sought advice from his ex-wife Ivana Trump during his presidency, claiming that she was 'one of the very few he listened to' - while discussing her sudden passing.

Omarosa, who first met Donald when she appeared on the first season of his reality show The Apprentice in 2004, and went on to serve as the assistant to the president and director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison - before she was fired by the White House Chief of Staff in 2017 - said Donald often turned to Ivana for her expertise, years after their marriage ended in a bitter divorce.

She claimed that Donald trusted his ex-wife's 'guidance' since she was 'a straight shooter' who 'was always able to size up a situation.'

'Ivana was a straight shooter and was always able to size up a situation,' Omarosa, 48, told People magazine.

Donald Trump's old political aide Omarosa Manigault Newman (seen in 2013) said the former president 'constantly' sought advice from his ex-wife Ivana Trump during his presidency

Omarosa claimed that Ivana, who was married to Donald from 1977 to 1992, was 'one of the very few he listened to' while discussing her sudden passing with People magazine

She said that Donald trusted his ex-wife's 'guidance' since she was 'a straight shooter' who 'was always able to size up a situation.' He and Ivana are seen in 1985

'She is one of the very few people that Donald truly listened to. Even in the White House, he constantly sought her guidance.'

It was announced that Ivana (pictured in 2018) had died at the age of 73 on Thursday, after she was found by a staff member 'unconscious and unresponsive' at the bottom of a set of stairs in her New York City townhouse

Ivana and Donald were married from 1977 to 1992, and they shared three kids together - Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka.

It was announced that Ivana had died at the age of 73 on Thursday, after she was found by a staff member 'unconscious and unresponsive' at the bottom of a set of stairs in her New York City townhouse.

Emergency services said they were called to the socialite's home after reports of someone in cardiac arrest were made around 12:40pm local time.

Foul play is not suspected, with a source close to the family telling reporters that Ivana's health had been declining for a while; however, an official cause of death has yet to be confirmed.

According to Politico, Omarosa was fired from her White House position after she allegedly got caught using the car service for personal trips.

Her controversial termination made headlines after it was reported that security had to carry her out of the White House, however, she later denied those claims and insisted that she had actually resigned from her post.

Omarosa has since publicly criticized the Trump administration numerous times, and she even published a tell-all book on her experience working with Donald in August 2018, entitled Unhinged.

Omarosa (seen with Donald in 2017) served as the assistant to the president and director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison - before she was fired in 2017

Omarosa has since publicly criticized the Trump administration numerous times, and she went on to publish a tell-all book on her experience working with Donald, entitled Unhinged

Donald later sued Omarosa, claiming she violated an NDA she previously signed by publishing the explosive memoir, but he was ordered to pay her $1.3 million in legal fees for the lawsuit

In the book, she made many accusations about the former president - including that he used the N-word - which led to him calling her 'disgusting' in a 2019 tweet.

He went on to sue Omarosa, claiming that she violated a nondisclosure agreement she had signed while working for his campaign by publishing the explosive memoir.

Emergency services said they were called to Ivana's home (pictured) after reports of someone in cardiac arrest were made around 12:40pm local time. Foul play is not suspected

However, in April 2022, a court arbitrator ordered the 45th President of the United States to pay Omarosa nearly $1.3 million in legal fees for the lawsuit.

Donald confirmed the tragic news of Ivana's passing while posting a touching tribute to his ex on his Truth Social account hours after her death.

'I am very saddened to inform all of those that loved her, of which there are many, that Ivana Trump has passed away at her home in New York City,' he wrote.

He went on to describe her as a 'beautiful, amazing' woman, while honoring her close bond with their children.

'She led a great and inspirational life,' he continued. 'Her pride and joy were her three children, Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric.

'She was so proud of them, as we were all so proud of her. Rest In Peace, Ivana.'

Donald and Ivana's marriage ended in heartbreak for the model, after it was brought to light that he had an affair with the actress Marla Maples during their relationship.

After her divorce from Donald - for which she was granted a $14million settlement and a mansion in Connecticut - Ivana left her old life of modelling behind and went on to become a businesswoman in her own right, as well as a media personality, fashion designer, and author.

Donald confirmed the tragic news of Ivana's passing while posting a touching tribute to his ex on his Truth Social account hours after her death

Ivana and Donald were married from 1977 to 1992, and they shared three kids together - Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka

Donald and Ivana's marriage ended in a bitter divorce, however, it was said that the two (seen in 1984) reconciled and were on speaking terms again by 2015

Despite going through a nasty split, it was said that the two reconciled and were on speaking terms again by the time he began his successful run for president in 2015.

Donald later wed Marla in 1993, and together, they welcomed a daughter, Tiffany - but they split in 1999.

He then tied the knot with his current wife Melania Trump in 2005. They share one son, Barron.

During Trump's presidency, Ivana hinted at their continuing bond while hitting out at Melania, branding herself the real 'first lady' in 2017, while claiming that she had a 'direct line' to her ex-husband at the White House.

Ivana added at the time that she was able to speak to her former spouse whenever she wanted to but that she always hesitated to phone him because 'Melania was there'.

'I [don't] really want to call him there, because Melania is there,' she told ABC News. 'And I don't want to cause any kind of jealousy or something like that, because I'm basically [the] first Trump wife. OK? I'm first lady.'

Donald described Ivana (seen together in 1987) as a 'beautiful, amazing' woman. He added: 'She led a great and inspirational life. Her pride and joy were her three children'

Her daughter, Ivanka, said she was 'heartbroken' by the 'passing of her mother' on Instagram, writing, 'Mom was brilliant, charming, passionate and wickedly funny'

Ivana's son Eric also spoke out about her death to DailyMail.com, saying in a statement issued on behalf of the family: 'Our mother was an incredible woman - a force in business, a world-class athlete, a radiant beauty, and caring mother and friend.

'Ivana Trump was a survivor. She fled from communism and embraced this country. She taught her children about grit and toughness, compassion and determination.

'She will be dearly missed by her mother, her three children and ten grandchildren.'

Ivanka said she was 'heartbroken' by the 'passing of her mother' on Instagram, writing, 'Mom was brilliant, charming, passionate and wickedly funny. She modeled strength, tenacity and determination in her every action.

'She lived life to the fullest - never forgoing an opportunity to laugh and dance. I will miss her forever and will keep her memory alive in our hearts always.'

Ivana was last pictured out and about in New York City on June 22, when she was seen leaving her Upper East Side townhouse and being escorted to hair salon.

She had also planned to visit her regular salon on Thursday, in preparation for an upcoming St. Tropez getaway.
Supermodel Paulina Porizkova showed off her phenomenal figure in a hand-made bikini while 'lounging around' during her Costa Rican getaway - after enlisting her best friend to snap a 'quick click' of her.

The former fashion star, 57, is staying at one of the luxury Hermosa-Hills villas run by Beauty Pie founder Marcia Kilgore's husband, Thierry Boue, which is her go-to spot when visiting her 'happy place.'

Porizkova took to Instagram on Thursday to share the photo of her looking peaceful as ever with the caption: Just lounging around the house in my new bikini. (I bought it in a local store called Brazilian Bikinis in Santa Teresa, and have no idea of the make because I tore the labels off right away. But the lady who sold it to me said it was reversible and hand-made.)'

Paulina Porizkova showed off her figure in a hand-made bikini while lounging around in Costa Rica after enlisting her best friend to take a 'quick click' of her

Earlier in the week the former was all smiles while posing for a beachside photo in a hot pink string bikini during her annual trip to Costa Rica

Porizkova revealed that she was headed to her 'happy place' on Tuesday when she shared a photo of herself gazing out of an airplane window

Porizkova added to her caption writing: 'Photography wise, it helps when you hand the phone camera to your girlfriend, whos willing to do more than a quick click of the phone for you. Thanks Jo!'

The former supermodel looks stunning in the photo, which shows her lying on lounge chair with her foot up on the table. Her long blonde hair is in loose waves that frame her face perfectly, and she is giving the camera a soft smile as she takes a much needed vacation with her children and best friend.

Thousands of likes rolled in without hours of the snapshot being posted, and she received plenty of comments from famous fans.

'Jealous!! This looks amazing,' wrote Full House actress Jodie Sweetin, while founder of hit skincare line Peter Thomas Roth responded with three fire emojis.

Earlier in the week the supermodel shared a photo of herself in a striking hot pink bikini hitting all the right angles after enlisting her son to take the photo.

She shared the bikini photo with the caption: 'When you ask your son to do a bikini photo of you  and hes 6'5" and too lazy to get down to get a better angle'

The mom has two sons  Jonathan, 28, and Oliver, 24  with her late husband, Ric Ocasek, but it's unclear which of her children is vacationing with her.

Porizkova, who is staying at a Hermosa-Hills luxury villa, had some monkeys stop by on Wednesday, much to her delight

She shared a hilarious video of one bold monkey running into their villa for a snack

'George seemed to be the one in charge of foraging, and while we were busy admiring his friends on one side of the house, George broke in and stole a banana off the kitchen counter!' she explained in the caption

Porizkova revealed that she was headed to Costa Rica on Tuesday when she shared a photo of herself gazing out of an airplane window.

'In midst of what feels like the world falling apart  Im going to my happy place with people I love and treasure. One week of vacation with my son, my best friend, and goddaughter to celebrate their birthdays in Hermosa Hills,' she wrote.

'Meanwhile, sometimes the bad news in the world is just overwhelming. The seesaw of life continues. There is much to do, a lot of causes to get behind. Im still trying to figure out how to best balance and prioritize.'

Porizkova's vacation comes after weeks of traveling for work, including overseas trips to Germany and France. She was most recently in Los Angeles visiting her stepson Chris Otcasek's wife, Colleen, and daughter, Olivia.

Costa Rica has become a safe haven for Porizkova, who traveled there in early 2020 while mourning her late husband Ric Ocasek's death. She has returned every year since

The model has two sons, Jonathan, 28, and Oliver, 24, with her late husband (pictured in 2016), but it's unclear which of her children is vacationing with her

'I realize by my posting lately, it looks like Ive been living the charmed life. And I am,' she explained. 'Modeling opportunities and travel  Im infinitely grateful.

'But there is also real life behind all the smiles. And that one isnt as photogenic,' she added. 'Real people, real pain. And Im a little overwhelmed, so I will take this week to recharge in the best company and my happy place. And come back swinging.'

Porizkova returned to Instagram on Wednesday to post a snapshot of herself smiling at a monkey on her porch along with a hilarious video of a monkey running through her villa and stealing a banana.

'Well, hello thereGeorge. He and his 4 friends showed up this morning on our porch,' she explained. 'George seemed to be the one in charge of foraging, and while we were busy admiring his friends on one side of the house, George broke in and stole a banana off the kitchen counter! Cheeky monkey!'

Porizkova's vacation comes after weeks of traveling for work, including overseas trips to Germany and France

The supermodel was most recently in Los Angeles visiting her stepson Chris Otcasek's wife, Colleen, and daughter, Olivia

Costa Rica has become a safe haven for Porizkova, who traveled there in early 2020 when she was just months into mourning her late husband, who died in September 2019.

Porizkova came home right when most of the country went into lockdown at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. She tried to return in November with her two sons, but as soon as they landed, she learned her passport had expired, and they were put on the next plane home.

'I had a total nervous breakdown in the airport, and they actually had to put me in a wheelchair to take me back to the plane, I was crying so hard I dont even remember it,' she wrote on Instagram at the time. 'I think this will be a really funny story  soon.'

Porizkova reflected on how much her trips to Costa Rica mean to her in a heartfelt post when she visited last July.

'I dont know what it is about being here, but my anxiety drops to nearly undetectable, and I feel like I get to pause all the stress of life,' she said. 'The minute I leave, it all comes rushing in again, but aaah, I can live for those moments of peace.

'Im so incredibly grateful for the opportunity to come here,' she added. 'And for good friends who give me a hand when I need it.'
A fitness expert has revealed how drinking alcohol is destroying your efforts and progress after a workout as Dry July reaches the half way point in Australia.

Mackenzie Blakey, Program and Research Lead for Body Fit Training in Sydney, told Daily Mail Australia drinking alcohol has been proven to reduce performance, impact muscle development and increase risk of injury when exercising.

Not only does alcohol dehydrate the body, it also increases the heart rate, impairs sleep and cognitive function and hinders muscle growth.

This ultimately hinders the progress towards your fitness goals by making it harder to lose weight or build muscle.

Mackenzie Blakey, Program and Research Lead for Body Fit Training in Sydney, told Daily Mail Australia drinking alcohol has been proven to reduce performance, impact muscle development and increase risk of injury when exercising

The effects of alcohol ultimately hinders the progress of your fitness goals and almost reverses what you are trying to achieve during a workout

How does alcohol impact your body and delay fitness goals?

Ms Blakey said alcohol impairs efficient energy utilisation and processing during exercise, making your body work harder to achieve a lesser outcome.

'Alcohol consumption alters your energy source used by working skeletal muscles, reducing energy supply and impairing metabolic processes,' she said.

'It also decreases the rate of protein production and muscle fibre recruitment.'

With these bodily functions and system not working at their best, you will feel worse when working out after drinking alcohol and will likely achieve very little after a workout session.

Thousands of Australians sign up each year to raise money for cancer research by ditching the drink for 'Dry July'

The 'warning signs' to determine if you drink too much alcohol: * If you drink alcohol 'without thinking' * If alcohol becomes a way to relax * Others notice your consumption * If it impacts your mood and lifestyle * If you drink more than 10 beverages a week or more than four per day * If you can't stick to drinking limits * If alcohol becomes a way to cope with different situations Advertisement

How does alcohol impact muscle growth?

Regardless of whether you're trying to burn fat, gain muscle or workout to keep fit, alcohol essentially prolongs the time it takes to reach fitness goals.

'Muscle growth is dependent on both hypertrophy training and sufficient nutrition including adequate protein intake - alcohol consumption affects both of these,' Ms Blakey said.

She added how on a night out when alcohol is consumed it is often paired with fast food, which is high in fats and carbohydrates with little protein.

'A big night of drinking is also generally paired with little sleep as well as dehydration,' she said.

'Hydration and sleep are important aspects of hypertrophy training as adaptations occur at rest, preceding the training session.'

'So alcohol not only negatively affects performance and the ability to train efficiently but also impacts the resultant gains.'

What to expect when you stop drinking: Within 12-24 hours: Detoxification begins and blood sugar normalises. During this period you may experience withdrawal symptoms including sweating, anxiety, depression and insomnia. Within one week: Quality of sleep should improve and you should start to feel more energised and hydrated. Within two weeks: Weight loss may begin thanks to cutting out the hidden calories in alcohol. Within three to four weeks: Blood pressure stabilises. Source: Dry July Advertisement

Regardless of whether you're trying to burn fat, gain muscle or workout to keep fit, alcohol essentially prolongs the time it takes to reach fitness goals

Why is it important to not exercise when you're dehydrated or hungover?

You should avoid exercising when dehydrated or hungover as this can lead to injuries.

Ms Blakey said dehydration places strain on different bodily system, which boosts your heart rate and increases the risk of fatal consequences.

'Dehydration impairs cognitive function, increases cardiovascular strain, alters metabolic function and induces alterations in central nervous system functions,' she said.

'This causes your exercising heart rate to increase at a greater rate and impairs your body's ability to regulate homeostasis therefore putting bodily systems under a greater level of stress.'
A keen hiker has discovered a dreamy secret paradise nestled in a national park on the outskirts of an Australian capital city.

The Sydney adventurer said he found a relatively untouched walking trail in the middle of Royal National Park which boarders the southern suburbs, just an hour out of the CBD.

The secret trail starts near Engadine Falls which is the closest waterfall in the park to the railway station of the same name making it a perfect destination for nature lovers looking for a day trip experience.

An avid Sydney hiker has discovered a 'rarely visited' walking track in the middle of a magical national park past spectacular waterfalls, lush forest and creeks

The adventurer said he found a relatively untouched trail in the middle of Royal National Park which boarders the Sydney's southern suburbs, just an hour out of the CBD

The explorer found an untrodden track in the enchanting park that took him down Engadine Creek that flows into Engadine Falls and past Horseshoe Falls to Kangaroo Creek

'A few photos of today's solo hike into a rarely visited, rugged & mostly untracked part of the Royal National Park,' he posted to a popular Facebook group alongside some spectacular images.

The explorer found an untrodden track in the enchanting park that took him down Engadine Creek that flows into Engadine Falls and past Horseshoe Falls to Kangaroo Creek.

The secluded falls, surrounded by lush bushland and greenery, looks spectacular as torrents of water gush over the tall rock face due to a recent bout of heavy rainfall.

Kangaroo Creek is a popular spot for swimmers in the warmer summer months but is just as spectacular in winter with vibrant-green clear waters among towering white gum trees

The hiker then said he returned past Tackawa Rill, which is the local Indigenous word for 'creek', and up the Engadine walking track which leads back to the train station

The secluded falls surrounded by lush bushland and greenery look spectacular as torrents of water gush over the tall rock face due to a bout of heavy rainfall

Kangaroo Creek is a popular spot for visitors to the Royal National Park for swimmers in the warmer summer months but is just as spectacular in winter with vibrant-green clear waters among towering white gum trees.

The hiker then said he returned past Tackawa Rill, which is the local Indigenous word for 'creek', and up the Engadine walking track which leads back to the train station.

While the keen explorer travelled off the beaten track, there are many trails in the area that will take visitors past the falls and creeks.

Walkers are warned parts of the marked track can be moderately challenging with steep descents and slippery paths.
An Iranian man needed a seven-and-half inch (19cm) water bottle yanked out of his anus.

The constipated 50-year-old, who wasn't named, was so scared of his wife's reaction he delayed seeking help for three days.

She had taken him to hospital because she was concerned about his lack of eating, abdominal pain and inability to go to the toilet.

But the man didn't tell doctors that it was because he had a 250ml bottle inside him. It was only spotted when he was sent for a CT scan.

Writing in the journal Clinical Case Reports, they said he didn't want to reveal he had inserted the object inside himself due to 'embarrassment and fear of his wife'.

The yellow arrow highlights the large water bottle the man inserted into himself. Medics who extracted it reported the object as being 7.5-inches (19.3cm) in length and 1.8 inches (4.7cm) in width

He had pushed the bottom of the bottle in first, so he would be able to pull it out by gripping the top.

But he was unable to extract the item, leaving the plastic bottle lodged deep inside his large intestine.

Medics at the Imam Khomeini Hospital in Sari did not say if the man explained why he had shoved the bottle inside him.

Although, they noted sexual gratification was usually behind such insertions.

The man, who had a history of depression, was immediately rushed for surgery and given anaesthesia to knock him out and relax his sphincter.

Surgeons then 'carefully and slowly' dragged the bottle back out of his anus. There was no rupture or bleeding.

Follow-up tests found no evidence the bottle had caused him any internal injuries, or perforation to his lower intestine.

Objects inserted into the rectum can potentially perforate the bowel, which can be deadly if material from the digestive tract seeps out.

But after three more days in hospital the man was discharged and also referred to a psychiatric clinic.

One month after his ordeal, the man reportedly has suffered no further problems or had any trouble with his bowel movements.

Discussing the issue of rectal insertions generally, the medics noted that most cases where men get objects stuck inside their rectums are men between the ages of 30 and 40.

They added that items such as light bulbs, bottles, truncheons, body spray cans, and turkey basters had all been previously reported as being found lodged in patient's backsides.

NHS doctors are no stranger to dealing with similar incidents, with data analysis last year finding about 400 'foreign' objects are pulled from English anuses each year.

A recent analysis of cases in England found the incidence of objects having to be removed from rectums is on the rise with cases particularly growing in men

The analysis found people in their 20s were the most likely to get an object stuck in their rectum followed by people in their early 50s

This was estimated to cost the taxpayer roughly 340,000 a year for things like drugs for performing procedures, and the manpower of NHS staff.

People most commonly shove objects into their rectum for sexual pleasure.

This is partly to do with the number of nerves in the anus making it highly sensitive, and for men it can also stimulate the prostate, an erogenous part of the male reproductive system.

For women it can also indirectly stimulate parts of the vagina.

With cases of objects getting stuck in rectum rising in Britain researchers have speculated increasing use of internet porn and access to sex toys, may be to blame.

The NHS advises that anyone exploring anal play do so safely and use an object with a flared base to prevent it from getting lost inside.

Other reasons for inserting objects into rectums, such as attempting to self-treat constipation or due to psychological disorders, have also been recorded.


Find solution to strife through dialogue, consensus



Subcontracted workers of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) have been staging a sit-down strike for 44 days as of Friday. They are occupying a very large crude oil carrier now under construction in the world's biggest dockyard  Okpo Shipyard  in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province. They are members of the Metal Workers' Union under the umbrella of the militant Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU).



Defining the strike as illegal, the government Thursday urged the unionized workers to stop the walkout immediately. In a statement, Employment and Labor Minister Lee Jung-sik said, "The walkout has been causing enormous damage to the employees of DSME and related companies." Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Lee Chang-yang claimed DSME has suffered 570 billion won ($432.2 million) in losses due to the strike. In addition, he said, daily revenue losses amounted to 25.9 billion won paired with 5.7 billion won in fixed costs.



They expressed concern that the strike will lead to a downgrading of the external credit rating of the shipbuilding industry due to possible delays in the delivery of vessels, despite recent signs of a recovery in the shipbuilding sector. Against this backdrop, employees of DSME and affiliates are holding rallies and events calling for the normalization of production. Even DSME's branch union of the KCTU called on the unionized workers to halt their occupation of the dock.



Yet, on the other hand, KCTU and some 40 liberal civic organizations are poised to muster support for the protesting workers. The workers are demanding direct negotiations with prime contractor DSME and its major shareholder Korea Development Bank (KDB). But this is inappropriate as they belong to a partner company. Given this, it is also improper for them to undermine the operation of DSME and deal a blow to the national economy in a bid to push for their demand.



More than 10 trillion won of public funds were poured into DSME to keep the insolvent firm afloat amid sluggish business over the past several years. It suffered 1.75 trillion won in net losses last year and 470 billion won in operating shortfall in the first quarter of this year. Since efforts to sell the shipbuilder failed last year, DSME has been struggling to stay alive. The unionized workers should refrain from worsening the situation for the sake of the desperate DSME employees.



The right to hold strikes should be guaranteed under the labor law. Yet, any walkouts out of the legal boundaries should not be permitted under any circumstances. The workers should no longer employ unlawful means. The relevant parties should double down on efforts to find a solution to the strife.



The union members have been suffering from drastic wage cuts and massive layoffs over the past five years due to the lackluster shipbuilding businesses. Their difficulties should be taken into account in the process of finding a compromise. It is time for the relevant parties to begin full-fledged dialogue to terminate the strike as soon as possible and find a mutually viable solution.


A mother has claimed her trip to Turkey for cut-price dental treatment saved her life  by spotting her deadly brain tumour.

Lisa Robinson, from Consett, County Durham, flew out last month for a consultation about dental implants.

Staff at the Magic Smile Turkey dental clinic in Antalya were immediately concerned about her lack of balance, and even asked if she was drunk.

Ms Robinson, 44, was rushed to hospital, prompting her partner, daughter and sister to make the five-hour journey to be by her bedside.

An MRI scan and tests revealed the mental health nurse had a brain tumour. Doctors also spotted a bleed on her brain.

Despite being given just a 25 per cent chance of survival before emergency 13-hour surgery, Ms Robinson pulled through. She arrived home this week, after three weeks at Anadolu Hastanesi Hospital.

Lisa Robinson, from Consett, County Durham, flew out last month for a consultation about dental implants (pictured before operation). Staff at the Magic Smile Turkey dental clinic in Antalya were immediately concerned about her lack of balance, and even asked if she was drunk

Ms Robinson, 44, was rushed to hospital, prompting her partner, daughter and sister to make the five-hour journey to be by her bedside. An MRI scan and tests revealed the mental health nurse had a brain tumour (pictured after surgery)

'Mislead millennials are signing up for a lifetime of unnecessary and painful treatments' Experts at the Harley Street Smile Clinic in London say they have been inundated with young people who are seeking remedial work after taking part in dental tourism. In an alarming blog post, the clinic says mislead millennials are committing to 'a lifetime of unnecessary, expensive and painful treatments'. It adds: 'Our clinic has been inundated over the last couple of years with young people who have been misled by bargain cosmetic dental centres in Turkey. 'Having been left with the harsh reality of a lifetime of dental work, costing far beyond the cost of having veneers done in the UK, often our clients have no idea what work they've actually had done, or what's involved in rectifying the issue. Dr Maurice Johannes, Principle Dentist at Harley Street Smile Clinic, added: 'I can't stress enough that people need to be 100% clear about exactly what they are signing up for when they go abroad for cosmetic dental treatment. 'Although patients are under the impression they are having veneers, in reality they are having crowns placed, which means much more aggressive tooth reduction.' Source: The Harley Street Smile Clinic Advertisement

Her sister Sharon Morris, who flew out to be with her, told ITV News: 'It is a miracle she pulled through.

'Someone is looking down on her. She is really lucky to be here.'

Ms Robinson, a mental health nurse, endured headaches in the weeks ahead of her trip. But it was assumed that they were down to work-related stress.

Headaches are, however, one of the most common symptoms of a brain tumour.

And severe 'thunderclap' headaches are a hallmark sign of brain bleeds, which can be fatal.

It is not clear what type of tumour Ms Robinson had, or whether the tumour was to blame for her bleeding.

Details about what surgery she underwent and what long-term care she needs are also lacking.

Ms Robinson's ordeal began on June 24, when she arrived in Turkey alone.

It is not clear why she wanted implants, which are titanium screws placed directly into the jawbone to replace missing teeth. But some people choose to have their teeth replaced with implants.

They are different to the celebrity-loved procedure, which sees teeth filed down to pegs and the replaced with shiny white crowns or veneers to give off a Hollywood smile.

The NHS charges patients 282.80 per implant, although private clinics can demand prices of up to 2,400.

Meanwhile, Turkey  famed for its cheaper treatments  offers them for as little as 1,600 for a full set.

Speaking from her hospital bed last week, she told ITV that staff at the clinic 'asked if I had had a drink' because 'I had no balance'.

But as well as the diagnoses, Ms Robinson and partner Michael Ringer have been left with a 50,000 medical bill that must be paid by mid-August.

Insurers refused to pay out for her surgery because her policy was deemed invalid.

AXA Partners, who she bought medical insurance from, said she hadn't declared that she sought help for her headaches before travelling.

It said the policy she bought did not suit her needs based on her 'ongoing symptoms and previous medical history'.

An AXA Partners spokeswoman said: 'We are sorry to hear about Ms Robinson's illness and are pleased that she is recovering well.

Doctors also spotted a bleed on her brain. Despite being given just a 25 per cent chance of survival before emergency 13-hour surgery, Ms Robinson (pictured after the procedure) pulled through

Her sister Sharon Morris (far right), who flew out to be with her, told ITV News : 'It is a miracle she pulled through. 'Someone is looking down on her. She is really lucky to be here'

'Whilst we understand that this is a distressing situation, declaring previous medical history is extremely important when purchasing travel insurance, as not doing so can invalidate your policy.

'The initial question that Ms Robinson was asked at the start of the sales process, is there to determine the best policy cover based on any previous medical history.

'Had Ms Robinson declared her previous medical history, she would have been offered an alternative insurance policy that would have better suited her needs and covered her for medical assistance related to this condition whilst abroad.'

It comes after a new BBC documentary revealed that a dental trend known as 'Turkey teeth' is leaving thousands of Britons facing painful complications.

The latest cosmetic fad, made popular by stars like Katie Price and Love Island's Jack Fincham, involves filing down teeth to pegs then replacing them with crowns or veneers.

The procedure, which leaves patients with a Hollywood smile, is being fuelled on social media under the hashtag #Turkeyteeth which has been viewed more than 100million times.

'Turkey teeth' trend leaves thousands of Britons with dead stumps, abscesses and serious dental issues: NHS paying for repairs of many who fly out for cut-price crowns and veneers fuelled by dream for perfect reality TV smile

A dental trend known as 'Turkey teeth' that involves travelling abroad to get drastic cut-price treatment is leaving thousands of Britons facing painful complications.

The latest cosmetic fad, made popular by stars like Katie Price and Love Island's Jack Fincham, involves filing down teeth to pegs then replacing them with crowns or veneers.

The procedure, which leaves patients with a Hollywood smile, is being fuelled on social media under the hashtag #Turkeyteeth which has been viewed more than 100million times.

But a new BBC documentary has looked at the fallout, asking whether the risks really outweigh the savings on having cheaper treatment, with UK dentists warning the complications can leave patients with huge medical bills to fix shoddy work.

A number of dentists surveyed on behalf of the BBC said some of the remedial work was provided by the NHS.

Meanwhile one private clinic has urged patients to be certain they know what they are getting after being contacted by clients who had been sold veneers but given the much more aggressive option of crowns.

The Harley Street Smile Clinic in London said they had been inundated by young people suffering from severe infections, intense long lasting pain, infected gums or rotting teeth due to the procedure.

A dental trend called 'Turkey teeth' which involves travelling abroad to get drastic cut-price treatment is leaving Brits facing painful complications. Pictured: Lisa Martyn from Ireland who has been left in pain after getting cut-price dental work done while on holiday in Turkey

In one case, Tiktok user Lisa Martyn revealed how her experience turned into a nightmare after she travelled to Turkey for the cosmetic treatment and paid 3,500 Euros (2,960) for what she thought was veneers but was actually a set of crowns.

She told the BBC: 'I was duped into the dream of having a full set of perfect teeth that I was never going to have any issues with but I was grossly misled about what I was having done - they were sold to me as veneers not a full set of crowns.

'No one sat down and told me the risks or if there were any other options. I thought that once they put the new teeth into my mouth that would be it - there would never be any more problems.

'But not only have I been in crippling pain every day since, but it has also cost me thousands. It's the biggest mistake of my life.'

Lisa flew to Turkey last year under the belief she would be fitted with 26 veneers in a bid to get the 'Hollywood smile' for her son's wedding but was actually fitted with crowns - a far more invasive procedure.

But months after her treatment, the 48-year-old was left in horrific pain after developing an abscess which nearly paralysed half her face and is suffering from nerve sensitivity.

This graphic shows how a tooth is shaved down slightly to make room for a thin veneer

Love Island's Jack Fincham was one of the first to share his Turkey Teeth story after getting the treatment before appearing on the ITV reality show in 2018. Pictured: Before and after

Describing the work on her social media channel, she said: 'I never in my life experienced anything like it.

'They were drilling then, banging and hammering. I was jumping out of that chair for two hours.

Crowns and veneers: What's the difference? Veneers and crowns are both dental treatments that can improve the look and function of your teeth. The most significant difference between the two is that a veneer only covers part of the tooth while a crown covers the entire tooth. A veneer is a very thin layer of porcelain, but can be made from other materials, and is usually chosen more for cosmetic purposes. They are bonded to the front of existing teeth with colouring to existing teeth matched by the dentist. A crown is roughly twice as thick and covers the whole tooth in a far more invasive procedure than veneers because most of the tooth is removed to make room. It can be made from porcelain, porcelain fused to a metal alloy or an all-metal alloy. While crowns are also chosen for cosmetic purposes, they also offer a solution for those with conditions including broken, decayed or crooked teeth. Advertisement

'No one asked how I was or even offered me a drink of water. My mouth was so swollen it was like a horror movie.

'I was numb from my neck up to the top of my nose but I could still feel the sensation. I still didn't know that all my natural teeth were filed down and these were crowns, not veneers. It was only after I returned home, that I was told by a UK dentist.

'Now I'm still in pain and I've resigned myself to the fact that I will have to have dentures and live with pain every day. I wanted to look nice for my son's wedding but now I would give anything to just know that day I won't be in agony.'

According to the BBC, she is unable to eat properly and has lost more than two stone since the treatment.

Lisa shared her story on Tiktok to raise awareness about the dangers of going abroad for cheap treatment and says the cost of fixing her teeth will financially cripple her.

Assistant video editor Alicia Watts also travelled to Turkey to get work done on her teeth five years ago and for a long time considered it the best decision she had made.

But this year, the 27-year-old has started to suffer from constant pain and multiple infections with her regular dentist in the UK who said the dentist in Turkey had done an 'awful job' and said she needed 650 of work done to fix the damage.

She told MailOnline: 'In 2017 I went to Antalya, Turkey and I was fitted with a full set of crowns, minus a few back teeth.

'I paid between 3,000-3,500 - it was a bit more because I got a stronger material called zirconia.

'I was actually very happy with them and I saw my UK dentist straight after who also said they looked fine.

'At the time I said to everyone that it was the best decision I had ever made because they looked so perfect.'

Although she was happy with the treatment, Alicia said it was extremely painful and described it as 'the worst pain I'd ever been in'.

Pictured: Alicia Watts travelled to Turkey to get work done five years ago and for a long time considered it the best decision she had made but is now suffering from constant pain

Alicia paid up to 3,500 for a full set of crowns at a dentist surgery in Turkey but a private specialist in the UK said the treatment was poor and quoted 650 to have remedial work done

She added: 'For 2 days I was crying in my hotel room because of the sensitivity of the teeth after they shaved them down and I couldn't stop bleeding but when I went back to the UK they were fine and for years they have been fine.

'However, 5 years later and I'm starting to be in constant pain due to tooth ache. I had an infection about 5 months ago which went away with antibiotics but now I'm in pain again.

'I went to a private dentist who said whoever fit the crowns did an awful job and I had another infection which has gone deeper into the tooth and gums, and that I needed an urgent root canal.'

Alicia declined the remedial work, which was not available through the NHS, because she couldn't afford the 650 it was going to cost.

She said: 'He said if I keep going this way my teeth will eventually fall out due to a build up of plague and infection underneath the teeth.

'My regular NHS dentist said they cannot do a root canal for me because of my crowns and the material of my teeth and told me I had to go to a private specialist.

Smile! The former glamour model, 42, disregarded her old gnashers while in the dentists chair at a surgery as she declared she no longer needed them and got new veneers in August 2020

'I'm on antibiotics again for the pain but I'm worried it will never go away and I won't be able to fix my teeth because I can't afford it.'

The treatment has proven popular with social media influencers and TV stars including model Katie price.

In August 2020, she shared a video which showed that her natural teeth had been shaved down to points which she said made her look like a James Bond villain before she had new veneers fitted while in Turkey.

The treatment was carried out after her original veneers fell out. However, in October that year, she had to go back to Turkey again after some of her new veneers fell out.

A spokesman for the star told the Sun at the time she had to return to Turkey to get the work fixed.

Love Island star Jack Fincham also received treatment in Turkey before appearing on the ITV reality show.

After the Love Island winner discussed his Turkey Teeth in 2018, Google searches for the term sky-rocketed.

Mr Fincham travelled to the Turkish city of Antalya five years ago, saying in a Love Island promotion video 'I absolutely love my pearly whites.

'I went all the way to Turkey to get these. I come back with a winning smile and a nice little holiday.'

But in the new BBC Three documentary 'Turkey Teeth: Bargain Smiles or Big Mistake,' he admitted he would 'do it differently' and showed off how his teeth had been filed down for his veneers.

He said that he receives lots of messages from people asking about the work he had done, and told the BBC that he now tells them about his own experience.

Speaking to the documentary's host Dr Trishala Lakhani, a dentist as well as Miss Universe GB, he said: 'I flew out there in the winter time, not the holiday season, and pretty much everyone on the flight was going to get some sort of procedure done.'

He got the work done despite knowing about the risks that come with veneers - such as a higher risk of requiring root canal work done or his teeth being removed.

'They mentioned all this stuff and it didn't put me off. It was for cosmetic purposes, so I was probably being a bit vain,' he admitted.

On the procedure itself, he said it 'can be quite uncomfortable'. 'You have loads of injections to numb your mouth. It's not an easy procedure. You have to do your research.' He added: 'Honestly, I love my teeth, but going back, if someone said, 'Would you have the composites or just get crowns done?' I'd get that.'

A survey carried out for the BBC found that hundreds of dentists in the UK had treated patients suffering from complications after getting work done abroad.

Dr MJ Rowland-Warmann, director of a dental clinic in Liverpool, told the broadcaster: 'If I did 20 crowns on a 21-year-old for the purposes of improving the colour, I would have my licence revoked, I would be struck off.'

She said her clinic receives one to three calls a day from people with issues with their teeth after going abroad but that her clinic cannot treat them.

'Some can't floss because their crowns are stuck together or they're in pain because they have bleeding gums.

'But it's easier for us not to take that patient. At the point when you inherit that patient and do any work, that's when the problems really start and that's when the UK dentist becomes liable. A risk we cannot take.

Pearly whites: Model Katie Price flew to Turkey to have matching his and hers veneers with her boyfriend Carl Woods in the summer of 2020 (pictured just before her holiday)

'This leaves patients in very vulnerable positions trying to scrabble around for help and it becomes very costly trying to fix the damage.'

Dr Maurice Johanne, Principle Dentist at Harley Street Smile Clinic, urged people to be careful about what treatment they were getting.

He said: 'I can't stress enough that people need to be 100 per cent clear about exactly what they are signing up for when they go abroad for cosmetic dental treatment.

'Although patients are under the impression they are having veneers, in reality they are having crowns placed, which means much more aggressive tooth reduction.'

London-based dental clinic said that it has been 'inundated' with young people seeking to have their botched survey rectified.

Not everyone who receives treatment abroad suffers complications. The BBC spoke to Tilly Entwhistle from Manchester who said she was thrilled with her work after being compared to Bugs Bunny as a child.

However, she said since visiting a dentist back in the UK, she was told they would not touch her teeth as they did not want to take responsibility for any issues with the work done in Turkey.
Put the keg away. People under 40 years old should never consume alcohol as it provides them no health benefits while increasing their risk of injury and death, a new study finds.

Researchers at the University of Washington, in Seattle, found that people under 40 who drink are more likely to be injured in a car accident, suicide or murder than their peers that avoid alcohol.

There could be some benefit to drinking for people over 40, though, as a glass of red wine each day could help reduce the risk of developing heart disease, stroke or diabetes.

According to most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 66 percent of adults in the U.S. consume alcohol every year, and five percent are heavy drinkers.

'Our message is simple: young people should not drink, but older people may benefit from drinking small amounts,' Dr Emmanuela Gakidou said in a statement.

Researchers, who published their findings Thursday in the Lancet, gathered data from over 200 countries for their Global Burden of Diseases study.

They compared alcohol use to 22 health conditions or outcomes, like injury, heart disease, cancer and more.

While the general public is likely aware of some dangers of alcohol - and particularly the damage it can cause to a person's liver - researchers set out to determine who suffered what level of risk and for what conditions.

They found that around 1.3 billion people consumed a harmful amount of alcohol in 2020, or around 15 percent of the global population.

Nearly three-in-five people who engaged in risky drinking were between the ages of 15 and 39 - age groups that are not recommended to consume any alcohol.

Around 75 percent of that group were males.

People in that age group have nothing to benefit from drinking, the researchers find, and are most likely to end up hurting themselves as a result of alcohol consumption.

There is some leeway a person has with drinking before it can cause them long-term damage to their health, though.

Researchers found that a man aged 15 to 39 years old could drink an average of 0.136 drinks per day - or just under one drink a week - and have nothing to worry about.

For women under 40, the tolerance is increased to 0.273 per day, or just under two drinks per week.

Researchers found that people under the age 40 do not have anything to benefit from drinking, and should avoid it entirely if possible (file photo)

Elderly people who drink red wine every now-and-then can reduce their risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, stroke and other conditions (file photo)

Convincing younger people not to drink is a tough task, though, especially in the U.S. and across Europe where alcohol has become engrained in younger cultures.

'While it may not be realistic to think young adults will abstain from drinking, we do think it's important to communicate the latest evidence so that everyone can make informed decisions about their health,' Gakidou said.

Elderly people have more of a cushion with drinking and their health, and can even benefit from a drink every now-and-then.

Researchers found that people aged 40 to 64 years old could drink up to two daily and maintain their health.

The elderly, people 65 and older, can stretch that all the way to three drinks per day.

This difference comes from the potential health benefits from drinking experienced by older people.

While youngsters have little to gain, older people who drink red wine generally have better heart health and brain health than their peers.
Advertisement

Masks orders are set to return to Los Angeles after the city officially crossed the threshold of 'high' Covid risk of Thursday night - with official guidance saying that mask mandates will return if it remains above that threshold for at least 14 consecutive days.

According to most recent data from the city's health department, the city is averaging 6,384 new cases every day and its test positivity rate - which has become one of the most effective ways to judge the current pandemic-state - has ballooned to 15 percent.

It comes as the BA.5 variant, which is now dominant in the U.S., continues its spread and causes case counts to jump across America.

Daily infections in America have increased by 30 percent over the past week to 140,677 per day, while deaths have crept up 25 percent to 536 daily over the last seven days.

Daily Covid cases in Los Angeles are beginning to creep upwards again, with America's second largest city not averaging 6,384 new cases every day

Los Angeles' test positivity rate, an important metric for determining Covid risk in the city, has ballooned to 15 percent in recent days, according to official data

The BA.5 (dark green) variant now makes up 65% of active cases in the U.S., over taking the BA 2.12.1 (red) strain - which now makes up just 17% of cases. The BA.4 (light green) variant is responsible for 16% of U.S. Covid cases

Whether Los Angeles remains under 'high' Covid risk is unknown, but all three relevant figures - cases, test positivity and hospitalizations - are all trending upwards.

America's second largest city is currently averaging 157 Covid-related hospitalizations every day, according to most recent official data.

'While we are not seeing anywhere near the devastation we saw last winter's omicron surge, we are seeing much higher case numbers than we saw at the peak of the delta surge. It's unlikely we are at the peak of this surge,' Barbara Ferrer, the city's public health director said Thursday.

But she added that Covid has killed more people in the city through the year's first six months than any other infectious disease.

If officials go through with plans to bring back mask mandates, which would be reinstated as early as July 29, Los Angeles would become the only city in America to require masks in all indoor public places.

It may not be the last, though, with officials in New York City also pushing to bring back mask orders amid rising cases in the Big Apple as well. Mayor Eric Adams has been hesitant to reinstate pandemic-related restrictions since he took office in January, though.

Dr Anthony Fauci, America's top infectious disease expert, is also recommending a return of masks amid widescale spread of the BA.5 variant.

'[BA.5 is] something we absolutely need to take seriously. It has a transmission advantage over the prior variant that were dominant,' Fauci told MSNBC.

The variant is believed to be the most infectious form of Omicron to arrive yet. Early data from South Africa - where it was first detected - also shows it may have the ability to evade natural Covid immunity provided by previous infection.

This is especially dangerous as it means many people who believe they are temporarily safe from Covid due to a previous infection are suddenly vulnerable once again.

It arrived alongside the BA.4 variant - also detected earlier this year in South Africa - which now makes up 16 percent of cases, per CDC data.

The BA 2.12.1 variant that was dominant before BA.5 now makes up just 17 percent of cases, being snuffed out by the two new strains.

The rampant spread of the two new strains, along with the rising cases that have come with it, have officials like Fauci recommending that Americans bring back some Covid measures they may be already-to-familiar with from the past two years.

'Everybody wants to put this pandemic behind us and feel and hope that it doesnt exist. It does, the good news is we have the capability and the tools to address it, and we need to utilize those tools,' Fauci, who serves as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease said.

'For example, getting vaccinated if you're not primarily vaccinated. If you're do for a booster, get a booster.

'And if youre in an area of high dynamic of infection  and were talking about mandating anything - but recommending people when they are in indoor congregate settings to wear a mask. Those are simple doable things that can help prevent us from even having more of a problem then we are having now.

Booster shots will likely soon include newly formulated jabs meant to target the Omicron variant, as vaccine manufacturers aim to roll out new shots in the coming months.

Currently available shots were formulated to fight the original Wuhan strain of the virus that erupted across the world at the start of 2020.

The virus has mutated greatly in the time since, and the Omicron variant-family has the ability to evade protection from infection provided by those shots.

Some experts disagree that shots tailored to Omicron are necessary, though, as the protection against severe infection, hospitalization and death by the original shots is still effective against the highly infectious strain.
Heart attack and stroke patients who call for an ambulance are being told it could be hours before they are seen  as the NHS wrestles with its worst ever summer crisis.

West Midlands Ambulance Service has warned it was 'under significant pressure' and category 2 callers could be waiting 'several hours'.

The update acknowledged call handlers may encounter 'difficult conversations' with people desperate for help as a result, adding that 'support will be available' for staff.

Later tonight, a BBC investigation will show how ambulances are being forced park for up to 20 hours outside hospitals waiting to hand over patients.

NHS guidance says paramedics should be able to hand over patients within 15 minutes of arriving at A&E.

The NHS is being battered by Covid, staff absences and excess admissions caused by the heatwave, with emergency departments the busiest they've ever been at this time of year.

It comes as data released yesterday showed average ambulance response times for heart attack and stroke callouts are now nearly triple NHS targets.

BBC researchers observed some ambulances queuing for over 10 hours this week to handover patients at Royal Cornwall Hospital (pictured)

Ambulances being delayed by patient handovers are one reason paramedics are taking longer to get to emergencies. Naomi Rees-Issitt's (pictured) son Jamie died from a cardiac arrest while waiting over 17 minutes for an ambulance that according to NHS targets should of been there in nine

Just this week West Midlands Ambulance Service advised 999 call handlers to tell the public it could take 'several hours' for crews to arrive to category two calls which include heart attacks and strokes. The NHS target for these incidents is 18minutes

Heart attack patients waited more than 50 minutes for an ambulance on average in England last month  nearly triple the NHS target. There were more than 300,000 category two callouts in June

These patients waited more than 50 minutes for an ambulance on average in June  despite the NHS target for these types of emergencies being 18 minutes or under.

Earlier this week, ambulance services across England were this week put on 'black' alert amid the escalating crisis, signalling they are under 'extreme pressure'.

Ambulance bosses have pleaded with sick Britons to only to call 999 in truly life-threatening situations and to stop ringing back asking where paramedics are.

BBC Newsnight found one ambulance at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth had to wait 11 hours before offloading.

NHS' worst summer ever laid bare: Heart attack patients now wait 52 MINUTES for an ambulance, 22,000 queue for 12 hours in A&E a month The NHS is on track to have its busiest summer on record with deadly consequences for patients as it battles a fresh surge of Covid, hot weather and a wave of staff absences, latest official data shows. Heart attack patients waited more than 50 minutes for an ambulance on average in England last month  nearly triple the NHS target  and more than 22,000 Britons queued for 12-plus hours in A&E before being seen. Callouts to the most urgent cases have also risen by a third in recent months, with the average patient with a life-threatening emergency now waiting nine minutes for paramedics, compared to the seven-minute goal. The health service's monthly performance stats lay bare the crisis in emergency departments as medics wrestle with increasing Covid hospital and staff sickness rates, excess admissions caused by the heatwave and pandemic backlogs. Ambulance services across England were this week put on 'black' alert amid the escalating crisis, signalling they are under 'extreme pressure, and trust bosses have told sick Britons only to call 999 if their condition is truly life-threatening and to stop ringing asking where their ambulance is. One in four nurses say they have witnessed patients being treated in corridors and waiting areas in recent months, leaving them vulnerable to substandard care. Dr Sarah Scobie, from the Nuffield Trust think-tank, said the latest figures 'indicate just how severely emergency care within the NHS is struggling and how that is putting patients with urgent and life-threatening care needs at risk.' Advertisement

At one point there were 20 ambulances waiting to hand over patients outside the hospital, with vehicles forced to go into an overflow carpark.

Similar 10-hour waits were observed by BBC researchers at Royal Cornwall hospital, and delays of up to three hours at Royal Shrewsbury and Heartlands in Birmingham.

However, the waits at South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust exceed even these.

Paramedics saw waits of over 16 hours at Worcestershire Royal, over 18 hours at Heartlands, and in excess of 20 hours at Royal Shrewsbury hospitals.

One paramedic, who spoke anonymously to Newsnight, told of the emotional impact of arriving later than they should to emergencies.

'It would be wrong to say that there are times when I haven't shed a tear,' they said.

'There are definitely cases that I've been to where we should have been to them sooner and less harm would have come to them.'

There have now been numerous cases of Britons desperately trying to save people while waiting for an ambulance that arrives too late.

Naomi Rees-Issitt, from Warwickshire, revealed her son Jamie died from a cardiac arrest after ambulance delays in January.

Jamie was 18 when his heart stopped.

As a category one call, the NHS should have had an ambulance crew on the scene within seven minutes.

But it was 17 minutes and 30 seconds before they arrived.

At the time of the call to get Jamie help, 17 of the 32 ambulances in their local area were either already en-route to hospitals or were waiting outside to handover patients.

Six of these ambulances had been waiting at a hospital for more than an hour.

Ms Rees-Issitt was due to meet with former Health Secretary Sajid Javid to discuss ambulance response times, but this was cancelled after his resignation shortly before the Conservative leadership race.

'We're back to square one because Sajid Javid resigned,' she told Newsnight.

'It's so deflating after we've worked for the last six months to try and arrange this meeting.'

A spokesperson for The West Midlands Ambulance service told Newsnight: 'A further investigation report will also be forwarded to Jamies family once it is completed.'

The latest NHS data show callouts to the most urgent cases like Jamie's have risen by a third in recent months, with the average category one patient now waiting nine minutes for paramedics, compared to the seven-minute goal.

Ambulance crews are meant to be able to handover patients in 15 minutes according to guidelines but waits of almost a day are now being reported (pictured Royal Cornwall Hospital)

BBC researchers visited six hospitals in England to observe patient handovers including this one in Heartlands in Birmingham

Adrian Boyle, President-elect of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, told the programme that the problem is caused because hospitals are unable to discharge tens of thousands of recovering patients into social care.

'The corridors in emergencies are frequently full anyway,' he said.

'Whats better is if we can discharge patients from hospital, create that space so we unblock our emergency departments and allow hand ambulances to hand over their patients seamlessly.'

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said the Government had updated hospital discharge guidance for the NHS and local authorities to 'ensure smooth discharges across the health and social care sectors'.

The latest A&E figures also show the pressure the NHS is under with more than 22,000 Britons queued for 12-plus hours in A&E before being seen in June.

The health service's monthly performance stats lay bare the crisis in emergency departments as medics wrestle with increasing Covid hospital and staff sickness rates, excess admissions caused by the heatwave and pandemic backlogs.

At the same time, the NHS backlog for routine ops grew from 6.4million to 6.6million in May, the latest month with data, meaning one in eight people in England are now waiting for elective care, often in pain.

The number waiting more than a year has also risen to 331,000 and more than 8,000 long-haulers have been in waiting more than two years  despite a Government pledge to wipe two-year waits by the end of this month.

The Newsnight programme will air on BBC Two, tonight at 10.30pm.
Landlords have called on the next Prime Minister to address the 'supply crisis' in the private rental sector.

Amid the race to decide the next Conservative party leader and Prime Minister, the National Residential Landlords Association has warned that home ownership ambitions cannot be supported without addressing the 'rental crisis'.

Three in five landlords in England and Wales reported increased demand for rental housing between March and June this year, a sharp increase from the 39 per cent who reported the same a year ago.

Rents climbed 2.8% in the year to May 2022, the highest annual increase since January 2016

The report revealed that nearly a quarter of landlords (23 per cent) planned to cut the number of properties they let over the next year, exacerbating the supply shortage.

In contrast just 14 per cent of them said they planned to increase the number of properties they let.

And as demand continues to outstrip supply rents are being forced up, rising 2.8 per cent in the year to May 2022 across the UK, the largest annual growth since January 2016.

This rise is taking away the money would-be homeowners could be putting towards saving for a deposit, according to the NRLA.

Ben Beadle, chief executive of the National Residential Landlords Association, said: 'The last six years prove that it was a nonsense to think that cutting the supply of rental housing when demand is so strong would make it easier for those saving for a home of their own.

'Driving rents up just leaves tenants with less cash to save for a deposit.

'We need a strong and vibrant private rental market that meets the needs of those who rely on the flexibility it provides, those who need somewhere to live before becoming homeowners and those for whom the promise of social housing tomorrow provides cold comfort today.

'The next administration needs to reset its plans for the sector.'

The average rent in the UK has increased by 177 since the start of the pandemic as landlords look set to reduce the number of properties they let.

Furthermore, the NRLA said the Government's 2016 decision to restrict tax relief on mortgage interest for landlords was directly responsible for its members' decision to reduce the number of properties they rent and restricting the market.

This is in contrast to holiday let landlords who still enjoy full tax relief on their mortgage interest.

And the pressure on the private rental market is impacting other areas of housing.

The District Councils Network has said that 76 per cent of the councils it surveyed have warned that a rise in landlords leaving the sector or converting properties to holiday lets has led to longer waits for council housing.

According to the English Housing Survey, between 2016/17 and 2020/21 the number of households in the private rented sector fell by 258,000 from 4,692,000 to 4,434,000.

Furthermore, recent research from Rightmove found that the average rent in the UK has increased by 177 since the start of the pandemic with the average monthly rent outside of London reaching a new record of 1,126.

In 2015, the then-Chancellor, George Osborne, announced a stamp duty surcharge of 3 per cent on the purchase of second homes and buy-to-lets, and began to withdraw the full tax relief available on mortgage interest.

The stamp duty change meant much bigger tax bills at the point of purchasing a property, but the removal of mortgage interest tax relief created an ongoing erosion of returns for landlords. Both changes took effect from April 2017.

Before this was introduced, landlords could deduct all mortgage interest from rental income and only pay tax on their difference, which amounted to their profits.

Under the new system, landlords must add rental income to their other income and pay income tax on the amount in full. They then receive a basic rate tax credit at a maximum of 20 per cent of their mortgage interest.

This effectively means they are paying tax based on revenue not profits.
A jury's decision has saved one of Manhattan's biggest real estate moguls a massive $60 million by acquitting him of hitting and scratching his wife, DailyMail.com has learned exclusively.

Abe Haruvi who co-owns some 500 rental condos in the Big Apple, would have had to give his Brazilian wife the enormous amount of money and real estate under an extraordinary pre-nuptial agreement that awarded her if he was ever found guilty of assaulting her but gave her nothing if he didn't.

The jury in West Palm Beach, Florida, however, found Haruvi, 67, not guilty of battery against Giovana Stephenson, his wife, court papers show.

'Justice prevailed,' Haruvi's ecstatic attorney Cyrus Toufanian told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview.

Stephenson's story grew like a 'fisherman's tale when the fish keeps getting bigger and bigger the more you tell it,' the attorney added.

Haruvi and his older brother Arthur have a $200 million portfolio of properties in Manhattan. He and his wife Giovana dressed to impress at a dinner at Art Basel in Miami in 2015

The couple signed a prenup that would give Giovana some $60 million in cash and property if Abe cheated or hit her

The beachfront Palm Beach home they bought in 2011 for $7.8 million is now estimated to be worth around $50 million

'First she said he had pulled her. Then when the police came she said he had pulled and scratched her. Then in court she said he had pulled and scratched and punched her.'

The July 6 decision was the second this year that went Haruvis way in his legal entanglements with his wife.

In March, a judge denied Stephensons attempt to obtain an injunction against domestic violence against Haruvi.

Haruvi, one of the biggest landlords on Manhattan's tony Upper East and Upper West Sides, and his 57-year-old wife signed a custom-made pre-nuptial agreement just before they were married on June 12, 2008.

The document, published in part in court files, states that Stephenson would receive $8 million cash  rising to $16 million after their 17th anniversary in 2025  their marital home and 50 percent of the couples jointly owned properties if they divorced in the wake of Haruvi getting convicted of 'any battery that qualifies as a misdemeanor of the first degree or greater.'

Haruvi's mug shot after he was arrested on suspicion of battery in December last year

That clause, according to Toufanians pleadings, gave his wife and mother of their three children the opportunity to take a sizeable bite out of the $200 million-real estate empire he owns with his older brother, Arthur.

'It was a terrible prenup,' attorney Touravian said in the interview. 'It said if he committed infidelity or hit her she was entitled to this money. Abe did neither.

'I guess when you are young and in love you don't imagine things going wrong and your spouse accusing you like this.'

After Haruvi was arrested at the couples 18,000 sq. ft. waterfront Regency house on December 9, 2021, he was charged with first degree misdemeanor domestic battery, police and court records show  allowing Stephenson a chance to claim the huge fortune.

She accused him of assaulting her during a dispute over his cellphone, according to police records.

Police photos showed slight redness on the left side of the wifes chest, but no injury was clearly visible.

It took the jury all of 30 minutes to agree unanimously to acquit Haruvi.

The pre-nuptial provision 'crystalizes the insidious economic motivation behind the fabricated battery case, attorney Toufanian wrote.

'The complainant,' he added, 'had 60 million reasons to lie that a battery occurred.'

According to the agreement if Stephenson were to divorce him she gets nothing unless he cheated or assaulted her.

'If Giovana files for divorce and Abe has not been guilty of adultery or physical abuse as defined by this agreement, then Giovana shall receive no alimony or spousal support at the termination of the marriage, she shall receive no lump payments, and she further waives any ownership she would have in the marital home,' the agreement read.

The couple rubbed shoulders with Gilligan's Island star Tina Louise at an Andrea Bocelli concert at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago in 2010

Happier days. Abe Haruvi and his wife Giovana Stephenson were pictured at the Feather Ball at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach in 2015

She would also get nothing from another property the couple owned in Palm Beach or two more in Loxahatchee, Florida.

As of July 15, neither Haruvi nor his wife had filed for divorce.

The couple's Palm Beach home alone is worth around $50 million at today's prices, Toufanian claimed in court files. The couple bought it jointly in 2011 for $7.8 million, public records show.

In addition to the trappings of extreme wealth, including a huge pool and several fountains, the five-bed, seven-bath house on Palm Beachs preferred north side also features a dock for a yacht.

Several incidents led up to the battery charge, Toufanian contended in court.

In April 2019, according to a motion in the criminal case, Stephenson called police because she couldnt find a diamond ring. She told cops whod come to help her search that she wanted to get out of the marriage but couldnt 'due to a prenuptial agreement she had signed, according to court records.

The Haruvi brothers portfolio includes this building on Manhattan's Upper West Side

The Haruvi brothers' own some 500 apartments in Manhattan, mainly on the Upper East and Upper West sides

The couple's prenup shows that Stephenson would get nothing in a divorce unless Haruvi cheated or hit her. The jury took just 30 minutes to decide he had not assaulted her

In April 2021, police were summoned to the house again. They had to call an ambulance when they were told that Haruvis mother-in-law fainted during dinner because of an argument about her living illegally at the couples house on an expired tourist visa from Brazil, which could have opened the family up to charges of harboring an illegal alien.

'Abes wife and her mother faked a fainting spell and then called the police and blamed it on Abe,' Toufanian wrote in court papers. 'They both wanted to create a false impression Abe is temperamental and/or violent.

'Miraculously as soon as the police left, the mother-in-law was fine. She did not go to the hospital, she did not go to the doctor, she did not even go to an urgent care clinic.'

Finally on December 9, 'Abes wife used a verbal disagreement over a cellphone to fabricate a claim of battery,' one of the cases pleadings reads.

'On that night, she screamed and exaggerated and created hysteria about the verbal disagreement causing the parties 12-year-old daughter to call 911. The police arrived within minutes. However, the wife took a video of herself before the police even got there, not for the police, but for the divorce case she was plotting to initiate to recover millions. The video shows no injury.'

Palm Beach police appeared unsure whether to arrest Haruvi, Toufanian contended.

'Body camera footage reflects that one of the two police officers queried his supervisor as to the sufficiency of probable cause to make an arrest.

Cyrus Toufanian said Stephenson's story grew like a fisherman's tale when the fish gets bigger the more time it is told

'But, the end result was that Abe was indeed arrested and taken to jail and charged with misdemeanor battery.'

Haruvi is the son of a Holocaust survivor who came to America 'with nothing,' according to the court file. He and his brother Arthur took over the family business from their father Jacob and increased their stronghold on Manhattan rentals.

The value of familys portfolio in Manhattan alone is more than $200 million, according to real estate websites.

Stephenson is said to be from the Brazilian upper crust and is believed to be from a wealthy family. She once was known in Palm Beach society for dating wealthy men.

The Haruvi brothers had been struggling financially during the pandemic. New York real estate website The Real Deal reported that around 40% of their Manhattan apartments were vacant at one point.

And the brothers have been at each other's throats with Arthur, 72, taking Abe to court accusing him of refusing to sign a refinance deal 'for no other reason but to further a personal vendetta.'

Now the question remains whether the couple will divorce now that Stephenson will get nothing.

Her attorney Joel Weissman told the New York Post in January that regardless of the outcome of the criminal case, it would go ahead as the marriage is 'not salvageable.'

Weissman did not return DailyMail.com's request for comment following Haruvi's acquittal.

Meanwhile Stephenson continues to live in the Palm Beach marital mansion while her husband stays elsewhere in Florida.

And she has filed a civil suit claiming the very fact he was arrested for battery should be cause for her to get the $60 million in a divorce.
Security guard Gary Allibon was eight months from retirement when he kissed his wife Monica goodbye for the last time and headed off to work at 4.10am on June 7, 2010.

The 59-year-old told Monica he loved her and left a note on the kitchen bench of the couple's home at Kirrawee in Sydney's south with the same message, as he often did during their 25-year marriage.

Almost three hours later Monica turned on the television to watch the 7am news and heard a security guard had been shot while delivering cash in the city.

Feeling instantly sick, she somehow knew the man left to die on the footpath after a dawn armed robbery on a Chubb security van was her darling Gary.

Security guard Gary Allibon was shot dead while delivering cash to an ATM in Sydney's central business district in June 2010. Three men wearing balaclavas escaped with $300,000. Police want to interview Comanchero boss Mark Buddle about the robbery and murder

Mark Buddle was expelled from Northern Cyprus last weekend and taken to a prison in Turkey from where he might soon be deported to Australia or a third country. He left Australia in 2016 and has spent time in Dubai, Iraq and Lebanon. Buddle is pictured with wife Mel Ter Wisscha

That robbery-turned-murder is the main reason New South Wales police want to talk to self-declared Comanchero 'commander of the world' Mark Douglas Buddle.

Buddle was expelled from Northern Cyprus last weekend and is now in a prison cell in Turkey, from where he might soon be deported to Australia or some other country.

While the 37-year-old has long been suspected of involvement in international drug smuggling, it was the investigation into Gary Allibon's murder that appears to have led Buddle to flee overseas.

The execution of Allibon was a senseless crime as brutal as it was unnecessary.

On the day he was killed Allibon had been dropping off cash at a Commonwealth Bank ATM when just after 6am a trio of armed men wearing balaclavas ambushed his crew of three in Sussex Street.

The bandits snatched a cash box containing $300,000 and should have immediately made their getaway in a stolen silver Audi S8 driven by a fourth accomplice.

Gary Allibon (out of picture) had his back turned and his arms raised when one of three armed robbers shot him with a .45 calibre handgun. The shooter then stole the guard's weapon

Instead, one of the gunman shot Allibon in the back while the guard had his hands raised, then stole his work-issued firearm in one last indignity.

Allibon, who had done as he was ordered and presented no threat to the robbers, died a short time later at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

The gang escaped with the cash in the Audi, which was captured on CCTV two days later driving in convoy with a black Mercedes C63 on Henry Lawson Drive at Milperra about 10pm.

The Audi was found dumped and incinerated a couple of hours later near Deepwater Park at Milperra, not far from the clubhouse of the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang.

A stolen Audi S8 used in the armed robbery in which Gary Allibon was killed was found burnt out two days later near Deepwater Park at Milperra, not far from the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang's clubhouse. The incinerated vehicle is pictured

Everything about the cash grab - except Allibon's shooting - looked like the work of experienced armed robbers, down to the use of stolen high-performance vehicles.

The Mercedes C63 was never located and neither was a white BMW X6 four-wheel drive which was also linked to the robbery.

Ballistics examinations matched the firearm used to kill Allibon to a drive-by shooting of a house at Vaucluse in the city's eastern suburbs in November 2007.

The same .45 calibre handgun was also likely used in the shooting of two members from the Notorious gang at Merrylands in western Sydney in March 2010.

Bullet casings found in the burnt-out Audi matched another weapon used in the western suburbs shooting of drug cook Roy Yaghi at Wentworthville in April 2010.

[Yaghi and his friend Jamie Grover, both Lone Wolf associates, were shot dead in August 2012 in a dispute over drugs].

On the fifth anniversary of Allibon's murder police released CCTV footage taken two days after the crime. The footage showed two men in a Mercedes C63 which was driven behind the Audi getaway car. A month later Mark Buddle tried to fly to Noumea with $60,000 undeclared cash

Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting Mark Buddle was involved in any of those crimes, only that he is a person of interest in the Allibon investigation.

Buddle grew up in public housing at beachside Maroubra in Sydney's south-east and spent time in juvenile detention. He had played representative rugby league but that career was ended by injury.

Joining the Comanchero when he was 21, he took control of the club after national president Mahmoud 'Mick' Hawi was jailed over the death of Hells Angels associate Anthony Zervas at Sydney Airport in March 2009.

Zervas was bludgeoned to death when 12 Comanchero confronted five Hells Angels and Hawi was eventually convicted of manslaughter.

In Hawi's absence the gang was taken over by Duax Hohepa Ngakuru until he left Australia in 2010 when the crown was seized by the fiercely ambitious Buddle.

Buddle grew up in public housing at beachside Maroubra in Sydney's south-east and spent time in juvenile detention. He had played representative rugby league but that career was ended by injury. He is pictured when he was commander of the Comanchero in NSW

In the following years Buddle spent time in prison for offences including assault, affray and intentionally causing injury but how and why police became interested in his knowledge - if any - of Allibon's murder is unclear.

A coronial inquest held into the shooting in September 2015 recommended the investigation be referred to the unsolved homicide unit of NSW Police.

Detectives first said they were close to making an arrest over Allibon's shooting in June 2014 when they stated publicly they knew who had killed him.

On the eve of the fourth anniversary of Allibon's death, Detective Superintendent Luke Moore of the Robbery and Serious Crime Squad said Strike Force Lorimer had made a number of significant breakthroughs.

'We believe we know who is responsible for this offence and we are very close to being able to charge those people with the offence,' Moore said at the time.

It was then police revealed the links they had made between the Audi and Yaghi's first shooting, as well as releasing details of the missing BMW X6 and a silver BMW 5-Series sedan, which was stolen during a car-jacking at Maroubra in July 2009.

Detective Superintendent Moore said detectives still needed 'little pieces of information' before they could arrest the suspects and asked the public for help.

He called those involved in the murder 'well-organised' and 'cold-blooded' and said they were suspected of having links to known organised crime groups.

A year later in June 2015, ahead of another anniversary, police released CCTV footage showing two men in the Mercedes C63 which was driven behind the getaway Audi two days after the crime.

Both men were likely identifiable to those who know them.

Detective Acting Superintendent Mick Sheehy issued a reminder there was a $100,000 reward for information that led to the conviction of Allibon's killers.

Gary and Monica Allibon were married for 25 years and lived at Kirrawee in Sydney's south. He regularly left love notes around the couple's home and was just eight months away from retiring

'We believe the men in the Mercedes as depicted in the CCTV could assist us greatly with our inquiries into the occupants of the silver Audi, so we are asking anyone who can identify them to come forward,' he said.

The next month Buddle was pulled off a plane at Newcastle Airport after chartering a flight to Noumea. He was carrying $60,000 in undeclared cash and spent eight weeks in prison.

Buddle legally flew out of the country in 2016 - first to Dubai, then Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey and Cyprus - and has not returned.

In 2017 he was still asserting authority over the Comanchero in his absence, texting associates: 'I'm the f***ing commander of the world... no one is to touch another member or set up another chapter without my permission.'

Buddle did not come back to Australia for his father's funeral that year or his mother's in 2018.

Buddle did not return to Australia for his father's funeral in 2017 or his mother's in 2018. Comanchero sergeant-at-arms Tarek Zahed is pictured in club colours carrying Buddle's mother's coffin. Zahed was shot ten times in May in an ambush that killed his brother Omar

Hawi, who was released from prison in 2015 and left the Comanchero, was shot dead outside a Rockdale gym in Sydney's south in February 2018.

Two Lone Wolf members were acquitted of that murder in 2020. One of those men, Yusuf Nazlioglu, was shot dead at Rhodes in the city's inner-west in June.

Detectives are interested in what Buddle might know about Hawi's murder, as well as the execution of gangster Mejid Hamzy at Condell Park in the city's south-west in October 2020.

Underworld rumour has it that there is a $7million contract on Buddle's head.

Less profitable but slightly less risky would be providing information that leads to the conviction of Allibon's killer and claiming the $1million reward.

That sum was increased from $100,000 in April 2020 when police announced they were reinvestigating the murder and again asked for the public's help.

Buddle took control of the Comanchero in 2010 while national president Mahmoud 'Mick' Hawi (above, with wife Carolina Gonzalez) was in jail. Hawi was shot dead while sitting in his Mercedes outside a Sydney gym in 2018

Monica Allibon said she hoped the increased reward would bring new leads to investigators and finally provide justice for her late husband.

'There are no words to describe the grief I felt the day Gary died - the grief of losing him and the grief of the loss of our future together,' she said.

'That gut-wrenching feeling has yet to subside, and I don't think it can while his killers continue to live their lives without facing the consequences of their actions.

'Gary was just months away from retirement and, in addition to our plans for relaxation and holidays, we had the simple dream of growing old together. That was ripped from us with a single bullet fired in greed.

'Those men robbed the van and took my husband's life, and the people who know them and what they did are robbing me of answers and justice for Gary.'

Monica Allibon has made regular public appeals for information that could lead to the arrest of those responsible for murdering her husband. She is pictured in 2020 when the reward for such information was increased to $1million

Detective Acting Superintendent Grant Taylor of the Robbery and Serious Crime Squad said the re-investigation was following well-established lines of inquiry.

'The original Strike Force Lorimer investigators established links between this case and other organised criminal activity, including three shootings, which we are continuing to explore,' he said.

'We believe we have a clear picture of the events of the day, and a fair idea of the identities under the balaclavas, but we need the community's help to bring our case beyond reasonable doubt.

'Make no mistake, this wasn't a robbery gone wrong; Gary Allibon had complied with their demands and was executed in cold blood.'

The newly appointed national president of the Comanchero is Sydneysider Allan Meehan (right), who was mentored by Buddle (left). Meehan took over after Mark Murray was locked up in Victoria on a murder charge

'The persons of interest to our investigation vary from those we believe know what happened or who was involved through to those who were there and the man who pulled the trigger.

'The time for any - or all - of these people to come forward is now. Strike Force Lorimer will get the pieces of information they need, so either way, you'll be seeing us soon.'

Asked directly about police interest in Buddle, Taylor said: 'Rest assured that individual you're talking about is right up there at the top of our equation and our thoughts.'

Anyone with information that may assist Strike Force Lorimer detectives is urged to contact Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000 or https://nsw.crimestoppers.com.au.
Embattled Congressman Madison Cawthorn has been pictured for the first time since losing his primary race in May and the launch of an ethics probe against him over claims he had an 'improper' relationship with a staffer.

Cawthorn, 26, was exclusively photographed by DailyMail.com at Ronald Reagan national Airport in Washington D.C on Tuesday as he got off a flight from Los Angeles.

A source on the American Airlines flight from LAX with Cawthorn told DailyMail.com that the 26-year-old boarded and disembarked last and spent the five-hour flight in Main Cabin Extra which offers seats with extra legroom and free alcoholic beverages.

Cawthorn, who wore jeans, a black polo shirt and camouflage Nike sneakers for the journey, told DailyMail.com he has no plans for a post-politics career in Hollywood but demurred when asked if he was considering going to work at Fox which has a bureau in the City of Angels.

He told DailyMail.com: 'You know what, I'm just enjoying my life. Just enjoying my life.'

Rep. Madison Cawthorn, 26, was exclusively photographed by DailyMail.com on Tuesday at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington D.C as he got off a flight from LA

He told DailyMail.com: 'You know what, I'm just enjoying my life. Just enjoying my life'

He told DailyMail.com he has no plans for a post-politics career in Hollywood but demurred when asked if he was considering going to work at Fox News which has a bureau in the City of Angels

Cawthorn wore jeans, a black polo shirt and camouflage Nike sneakers for the journey

Were Cawthorn to take a job with the right-leaning broadcaster, he would follow in the footsteps of a series of former Trump administration staffers, among them Hope Hicks and Kayleigh McEnany.

Hicks, 33, became Fox Corp's chief communications officer in March 2018 after her relationship with White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter was exposed by DailyMail.com.

She spent two years at the broadcaster, during which time she earned an estimated $1.8m, before leaving to rejoin the Trump administration in March 2020.

McEnany, 34, is still at Fox and is part of a four-woman panel that presents daytime chat show Outnumbered.

Cawthorn, the youngest member of Congress in half a century and the youngest ever sitting member to lose a primary, has regularly appeared on Fox News in his role as the representative for North Carolina's 11th Congressional District and was championed during his failed primary campaign by host Tucker Carlson.

After losing to challenger Chuck Edwards in the May 17 primary, he included Carlson in a list of 'America First Patriots' that also included former President Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in an Instagram post where he called for 'dark MAGA' to 'truly take command'.

He added: 'We have an enemy to defeat but we will never be able to defeat them until we defeat the cowardly and weak members of our own party.

'Their days are numbered. We are coming.'

In May, Cawthorn lost his re-election bid in a close race to Chuck Edwards, who was backed by Thom Tillis, a Republican senator from Cawthorn's home state of North Carolina

Madison Cawthorn made this vague post on after losing his race  his first social media activity since congratulating North Carolina state Senator Edwards on defeating him

After losing in the North Carolina primary, he included Tucker Carlson in a list of 'America First Patriots' that also included President Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene in an Instagram post where he called for 'dark MAGA' to 'truly take command'

Cawthorn has kept a relatively low profile since being defeated by Edwards which came after DailyMail.com published a video showing him rubbing the crotch of his aide and second cousin Stephen Smith.

The House Ethics Committee did not specify whether Smith is the staffer whose relationship with Cawthorn is being investigated but did say they are also looking into Cawthorn's financial affairs.

He was accused of insider trading follow a report that he was involved in a pump-and-dump scheme with a cryptocurrency named 'Let's Go Brandon.'

Other scandals that have engulfed Cawthorn in recent months include claiming cocaine and orgies are common among the Republican hierarchy in DC and calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a 'thug' as Russian tanks rolled into his country.

It also emerged that since taking office, Cawthorn has been cited twice by authorities for carrying a handgun in his carry-on luggage at the airport and was stopped by North Carolina highway patrol at least three times.

Cawthorn has become an increasingly embattled figure after a 'deluge' of scandal.' Leaked pictures emerged in which he was seen, possibly intoxicated, wearing women's lingerie at a party

A video posted on social media shows Cawthorn naked and thrusting his pelvis at another man's head. In the video, Cawthorn could be heard screaming and chanting as he started thrusting against an unknown man's face

An earlier video first reported by DailyMail.com shows Cawthorn talking about wanting to 'see a naked body beneath my hands' before his staffer and second cousin Stephen Smith puts his hand on Cawthorn's crotch

In addition to allegations of misconduct, revelations include leaked photos that show Cawthorn at a party and possibly intoxicated while wearing women's lingerie and a recorded phone-call with a former staffer released by political group PAC American Muckrakers aka Fire Madison Cawthorn.

The fired caseworker has filed a complaint against Cawthorn claiming she was not permitted by his office to take leave after her husband had a heart attack and that the congressman closed all but one of his North Carolina voter outreach locations.

An earlier video first reported by DailyMail.com shows Cawthorn talking about wanting to 'see a naked body beneath my hands' before Smith puts his hand on Cawthorn's crotch.

Another video was released showing Cawthorn, naked, screaming and chanting as he started thrusting against an unknown man's face. Someone else  presumably the person taking the video  could be heard laughing in the background and telling Cawthorn to 'stick it in his face.'

Cawthorn hit back, saying the video was a joke.

'A new hit against me just dropped,' he tweeted last week, explaining: 'Years ago, in this video, I was being crass with a friend, trying to be funny.'

For his part Cawthorn has gone on the offensive posting a two-and-a-half minute video on Instagram accusing the political establishment of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to take him down.
An American-made sniper rifle that can shoot between 400 to 600 bullets per minute was among the high-powered arsenal that was recovered by Mexican authorities following a war-like battle with an armed wing of the Sinaloa Cartel that left two police officers wounded Tuesday.

Security forces recovered 10 powerful rifles, including the first shoulder fired semi-automatic Barrett M82A1 .50 caliber rifle, a machine gun 12 grenades and 72 rounds of ammunition following the arrest of 14 members of an armed wing that responds to the cartel faction operated by the four sons of Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, who are otherwise known as 'Los Chapitos'.

The Barrett .50 rifle is developed by the Tennessee-based Barrett Firearms Manufacturing and sells for as much as $8,599.99.

Its bullets are powerful enough to knock down aircraft and can pierce through armored vehicles.

DailyMail.com reached out to Barrett Firearms Manufacturing for comment.

The Barrett M82A1 .50 caliber rifle (circled), American-made sniper rifle that can shoot between 400 to 600 bullets per minute, was among the high-powered arsenal that was recovered by Mexican authorities following a war-like battle with an armed wing of the Sinaloa Cartel that left two police officers wounded Tuesday

Joaquin Guzman-Lopez (left) and Archivaldo Guzman-Salazar (right) are two of El Chapo's four sons who have control of the Sinaloa cartel the infamous drug lord serves a life sentence in the United States

Ovidio Guzman-Lopez (left) and Alfredo Guzman-Salazar (right) are two of El Chapo's four sons who are wanted by U.S. authorities

Daniel Garcia, the director of Mexican private security firm Industrial Security Multisystems Group, told Milenio newspaper that the Barrett .50 can reach targets that are as far away as 5,900 feet.

'It's for long range shots. They have a magazine of 10, or in some cases of five useful cartridges, and it is not a repetition weapon, but rather a precision one. It is mainly used for long-range targets,' he explained.

'It uses copper-jacketed bullets with a steel core and is capable of piercing armor, level five or six, and even walls. It is a very powerful weapon,' Garcia added.

National Guard and anti-riot police stand guard after a confrontation between alleged members of the Sinaloa Cartel and police on the Mexico-Cuernavaca federal highway near the Mexico City town of San Miguel Topilejo on Tuesday. Two cops were wounded and 14 members of the cartel's armed wing were taken into custody

Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman is serving a life sentence in the United States

The Barrett .50 rifle is developed by the Tennessee-based Barrett Firearms Manufacturing. Its bullets are powerful enough to knock down aircraft and can pierce through armored vehicles

LOS CHAPITOS With Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman serving a life sentence in a United States prison, a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most powerful criminal organizations, is now under the direction of his four sons, who are known as 'Los Chapitos'. Joaquin Guzman-Lopez and Ovidio Guzman-Lopez are two of El Chapo's five children from his first marriage with Alejandrina Salazar. The infamous drug lord's two other sons, Ivan Archivaldo Guzman and Jesus Guzman, from his marriage to Griselda Lopez, make up the half of the organization's leadership which has been at odds with El Chapo's former righthand man and cartel co-founder, Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada. In December 2021, the U.S. government announced it was offering $5 million rewards for each of the four men. According to U.S. federal law enforcement authorities, Los Chapitos assumed leadership roles within the Sinaloa Cartel along with their uncle Aureliano El Guano Guzman and Zambada after el Chapo was arrested in Mexico in 2014 and was then extradited in 2016 to New York. The Department of Treasury identified Ovidio Guzman-Lopez, Joaquin Guzman-Lopez and Ivan Archivaldo Guzman as leaders of a cartel faction. All three had been previously indicted on federal drug trafficking charges. For years, the United States has been in the grips of the worst drug epidemic in its history, driven by overdose deaths involving heroin and illicitly manufactured fentanyl and an increase in methamphetamine availability, the Department of State said in a statement. Transnational criminal organizations are largely responsible for bringing these drugs and related violence to our communities. Ovidio Guzman Lopez, Ivan Archivaldo Guzman and Jesus Alfredo Guzman were all sanctioned by the Department of Treasury. Advertisement

A weapon of choice for Mexican cartels, the Barrett .50 caliber rifle was used by alleged Jalisco New Generation Cartel henchmen in the failed assassination plot of Mexico City police chief Omar Garcia Harfuch on June 26, 2020.

Garcia Harfuch was wounded. A woman who was standing in the vicinity of the attack and two police officers were killed.

The rifle was abandoned by the fleeing assassins and seized by the police.

A Sinaloa Cartel operative was captured on video manning a Barrett .50 rifle on October 17, 2019, after the criminal organization responded with a military-style offensive in the western city of Culiacan.

Fearing that innocent civilians could be lost, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador ordered the military to free El Chapo's son, Ovidio Guzman, who was briefly detained as security forces were executing an arrest warrant for extradition to the United States.

Jalisco New Generation Cartel fighters also used the semi-automatic rifle to knock down a helicopter operated by the Michoacan State Attorney General's Office during a battle between the cartel and authorities in the municipality of La Huacana in September 2016. The pilot and three cops were killed.

Barrett Firearms Manufacturing is among 11 gun makers that the Mexican government is suing in a Massachusetts federal court for $10 billion, accusing them of being responsible for the deadly flood of weapons across the border.

As part of the lawsuit filed in August 2021, Mexico alleges that the companies have undermined strict gun laws by designing, marketing and distributing military style assault weapons in ways they knew would arm drug cartels, fueling murders and kidnappings.

It alleges that more than 500,000 guns are smuggled annually from the United States into Mexico, of which more than 68 percent are produced by the gun manufacturing companies it sued, including Beretta USA, Barrett Firearms Manufacturing, Colt's Manufacturing Co. and Glock Inc.

'They know how criminals are getting their guns,' Jonathan Lowy, a lawyer for Mexico, argued during the 90-minute virtual hearing in April. 'They could stop and they choose to be willfully blind to the facts.'

Mexico estimates that weapons manufactured by the 11 Massachusetts-based gun makers were allegedly used in at least 17,000 homicides in 2019.
President Joe Biden visited the Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem Friday morning and announced he will ask Congress to fund $100 million for healthcare services for the hospital network, which serves the Palestinian population.

'Palestinians and Israelis deserve equal measure of freedom, security, prosperity and dignity and access to healthcare, when you need it, is essential to living a life of dignity for all of us,' the president said during brief remarks.

Biden followed in the footsteps of his wife, First Lady Jill Biden, who had visited the hospital twice before.

His visit, according to the hospital's CEO and East Jerusalem Hospital Network Secretary General Dr. Fadi Atrash, was 'bringing hope to thousands of Palestinians.'

'We Palestinians are same like Americans,' Atrash said. 'We have our own dream that we want to achieve. And for this we need hope, justice, freedom and support from friends like you in America and all over the world.'

'We are extremely, extremely happy to have you and you are most welcome, Mr. President,' Atrash added.

President Joe Biden visited the Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem Friday morning and announced he will ask Congress to fund $100 million for healthcare services for the hospital network, which serves the Palestinian population

President Joe Biden departs the stage Friday after announcing a $100 million commitment to East Jerusalem hospitals, which service the Palestinian people

When Biden took over the podium he talked about being Irish-American, likening the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to Irish Catholics' relationship with Great Britain.

He then asked, 'Are there any nurses in the room?'

'Because if not, I'm going home,' the president said to laughs. 'If there are any angels in heaven - no, no, no I mean this sincerely from the bottom of my heart.'

'My wife and daughter were killed and my boys were trapped in a vehicle for there hours when a tractor-trailer hit them - the doctor saved their lives, but the nurses made them want to live,' Biden said.

The president talked about his own healthcare challenges, double aneurysms with an embolism on top of that.

'I joked the reason they went in twice to take the top of my head off is they couldn't find a brain the first time,' Biden said.

In a more serious tone he added, 'I don't think you nurses are nearly appreciated enough.'

He recalled being in the intensive care unit - saying he had never made these comments publicly before.

'And you look at the monitors and you know if the line goes flat you're dead,' the president said. 'But you just get tired, even when you're not in pain, you just want to quit.'

'And the nurses at Walter Reed Hospital. Would come up, and they'd rub my face, they'd whisper in my ear. They'd get close and tell me, it's going to be OK. They made a difference in my life,' he said.

He then turned to his late son Beau Biden, who died of Glioblastoma in 2015, which the president said he believed was a product of his son's service in Iraq, as the Delaware attorney general was sleeping close to burn pits.

'He should be the man talking to you as president, not me,' Biden remarked.

The president then turned back to the business at hand - announcing the $100 million commitment to the Palestinian healthcare system.

'Working together, it is my prayer the United States will both relieve the hospital's burden of debt, and support targeted infrastructure updates and key reforms in patient care, to ensure longterm financial stability,' he said.

'We also welcome the $25 million contribution from the UAE. And I encourage other nations around the region and around the world to step up as well with their own contributions to support the vital work that's being done here,' the president added.

He said that the 'United States will continue to work with the Palestinian leadership, with the government of Israeli and with all our international partners to ensure that East Jerusalem's hospital network retains sustainable, remains available and is able to provide high-quality care the Palestinian people deserve.'

After the hospital stop, Biden will meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his last stop in Israel before he heads to Saudi Arabia to meet with its controversial crown prince.

Biden will offer Palestinians a commitment from Israel to modernize wireless access.

But that will be all that he has to offer.

Biden supports a two-state solution but there is no clear path to an independent Palestinian state.

'There are practical realities on the ground that we are very mindful of so we have not come in with a top-down plan but we have always said that if the parties are ready to talk, and we think they should, we will be there, right beside them,' said a senior administration official.

The Palestinians want an independent state in east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza - territories Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war.

The international community also supports the idea but it appears to be a distant goal amid hardening attitudes on both sides.

Yair Lapid, the caretaker prime minister, supports two states but he does not have a mandate to hold peace negotiations. And Israel's Nov. 1 elections could bring to power a right-wing government that is opposed to Palestinian statehood.

Biden will meet with Abbas, 86, who heads the Palestinian Authority that administers parts of the occupied West Bank and cooperates with Israel on security.

The president will spend his last day in Israel focused on the West Bank after there has been hardly any mention of the Palestinians over the past two days.

Biden's focus has been on the U.S.'s longtime ally Israel and he has repeatedly praised the country during his time on the ground.

Israeli officials objected to not having any of their officials with Biden on the hospital stop, which they see as happening in their territory.

But a senior administration official called it a 'private visit' and pointed out Jill Biden visited the same hospital when she was second lady, arguing the Bidens have long ties to it.

After the hospital stop Biden will visit with Abbas in Bethlehem and then see the Church of the Nativity.

He then heads to Saudi Arabia.
People drink and eat outdoors in downtown Seoul on April 23. Korea Times file



By Kim Jae-heun



As Korea is experiencing a resurgence of new Omicron subvariant cases, the local food service industry is deeply concerned that the government could adopt stricter quarantine measures again.



On Thursday, the number of daily new COVID-19 infections reached 39,196, more than double what it was a week earlier.



If the government brings back restrictions on late-night operating hours for multi-use facilities or limitations on the size of private gatherings, restaurants and bar owners worry they will inevitably face losses.



"We just started to see people come out to eat and drink. But because we are seeing a rapid rise in new COVID-19 cases here, I am worried things will go back to where they were a year ago," a restaurant owner surnamed Kim said.



The owner of a bar surnamed Kang said that the situation is worse for small business owners now compared to in 2021 because with time, rent and labor costs have increased, and public utility costs have risen.



On July 1, the government raised electricity and gas fees simultaneously, and it plans to increase the rates again in October. The prices of raw materials such as cooking oil and wheat have risen here partly due to the ongoing war in Ukraine that has inflated food prices around the world.



"Many small business owners will likely go bankrupt and close down their stores in the second half of this year if the current COVID-19 wave and the economic uncertainties continue. The government is pursuing various measures to stabilize living costs here but they are apparently not effective," Kang said.



The daily number of new COVID-19 infections reached 40,266 on Wednesday after surging since the end of June. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) predicts that the number of daily new infections will reach 150,000 by the end of this month if the current trend continues.



Previously, the KDCA had expected another wave of COVID-19 to happen between September and October, but due to the summer holiday season and recently lifted travel restrictions, the trend has come three to four months sooner than anticipated.



The BA.5 subvariant of Omicron is known to have higher transmissibility than previous strains as it substantially evade antibodies induced by the currently available vaccines or previous infections. BA.5 is expected to become the dominant strain in Korea soon, as its percentage of the total number of infections grew to 35 percent last week from 28.2 percent a week earlier.



Adding to concerns, the country confirmed on Thursday its first case of BA.2.75, the heavily mutated Omicron subvariant known as Centaurus.




Johnny Depp made one cancer survivor's dream come true in 2011 when the Make-A-Wish Foundation reached out to the long-time supporter to ask if he would grant her wish to meet him.

Now the actor has penned a heartfelt foreword to a children's book written by that same cancer warrior.

Katie Vandrilla, 31, is the author of children's book Thumper's London Adventure and a leukemia survivor who flew to London to meet her 'hero' Johnny Depp on the set of Tim Burton's Dark Shadows.

And more than a decade later, Depp is continuing to offer his support by writing the foreword for Vandrilla's latest children's book that hits shelves July 20. He wrote the sweet note on June 17 in Paris, just weeks after his victory against ex-wife Amber Heard.

'For my dearest Katie, For her dear family and friends,' the foreword begins. 'And for all the dear children out there, and for all their dear family and friends, that need that little bit of extra care and understanding right now.

'Please know that you are loved and that we are thinking of you all!

'With all my love, my respect and my good wishes to you, always, Johnny.'

Johnny Depp met cancer survivor Katie Vandrilla in 2011 when he granted her a 'wish' via Make-A-Wish while filming Tim Burton's Dark Shadows

Now the actor has penned a heartfelt foreword to a children's book written Vandrilla

During his weeks-long defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard, Depp's charitable contributions were questions. On the stand Depp said, 'When I donate money, I donate without my name being involved because I don't see that's important, my name being there in terms of money'

Vandrilla penned children's book Thumper's London Adventure, which hits shelves on July 20

Vandrilla is now cancer-free and a high school chemistry teacher and drama co-director in Berlin, Connecticut.

Her life was changed when at just 16 years old she was diagnosed with leukemia.

She told DailyMail.com, 'Meeting Johnny meant nothing short of everything to me.

'He gave me an escape and something to look forward to when I needed it most. And that moment changed my life in some of the best ways imaginable.'

Vandrilla said she writes for fun and began writing children's books about her stuffed bunny named Thumper during her cancer treatment.

'It started as a therapeutic project for myself, then turned into something bigger that I continued to work on for a few years. The story had to be fun, educational and inspiring,' she said.

The latest book follows Thumper who has one chance to be reunited with his family. The bunny must find Big Ben before the clock runs out, or remain lost in London forever.

When her first book in the Thumper series was published in 2018, she donated the royalties to Make-A-Wish to help other children with life threatening illnesses make their dreams come true.

'My Make-A-Wish sent me to a city I had never planned to travel, London, and is now a huge part of my life,' she said in a blog post.

'Giving back to Make-A-Wish is also a large aspect of my everyday life. Aside from my book, I volunteer as a wish granter to help other kids facing critical illnesses get their wish.'

Vandrilla is now cancer-free and a high school chemistry teacher and drama co-director in Berlin, Connecticut

Vandrilla said she writes for fun and began writing children's books about her stuffed bunny named Thumper (pictured) during her cancer treatment

Vandrilla told DailyMail.com, 'Meeting Johnny meant nothing short of everything to me'

'He gave me an escape and something to look forward to when I needed it most. And that moment changed my life in some of the best ways imaginable,' Vandrilla said

Johnny Depp has been known for his charity work.

Just last week he made a significant donation to the Perth Children's Hospital Foundation in Australia.

The actor, 59, donated nearly $800,000 USD ($1,173,548 AUD) to various charities through the sale of NFTs (non-fungible tokens).

Depp's NFT community called Never Fear Truth split the donations between the Perth Children's Hospital Foundation, the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity, the Footprint Coalition and the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles.

During his weeks-long defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard, his charitable contributions were questions.

On the stand Depp said, 'When I donate money, I donate without my name being involved because I don't see that's important, my name being there in terms of money.'

Depp said that he preferred to work behind the scenes, including turning premieres of his movies into benefit events for charities like Great Ormond St Hospital for children in London or volunteering with Make-A-Wish.

He said: 'I'm not looking for that pat on the back. I don't need the adulation, I don't need the attention.'

Thumper's Hospital Adventure was released in 2018.
A data expert is warning woman to use encrypted period trackers and to only sign up for them using alias email accounts in order to protect their privacy in the wake of Roe v Wade being overturned.

Mico Yuk, a data expert for Count, said although data is good, women still need to take precautions to protect their privacy.

Yuk, who has used a period tracker for six years, said period trackers follow 'overall health' and are collecting a lot data from users. Tracking apps can also trace sexual activity and whether or not women intend to become pregnant by user input.

She now recommends that women use encrypted trackers - like Period Plus or Natural Cycles - and to only use apps that explicity state they will not sell users' data. She also recommends checking phone settings to see whether an app is encrypted.

Yuk also suggested that women use an alias account when using health tracking apps and searching for healthcare questions. But more importantly, she advises to avoid using any email address that is 'connected to a search engine,' she told DailyMail.com.

Fears about how period tracking apps can expose women if they have abortions have mounted in the wake of Roe v Wade being overturned by the Supreme Court. Young women across the US were urged to delete the apps off their phones over fears their data can be tracked and they could face prosecution in states which have now criminalized abortions.

Mico Yuk, a data expert for Count, (pictured) is warning childbearing-aged women to be smart about protecting data after the controversial Supreme Court overturn of Roe v. Wade

After the overturn, many women jumped to delete their period-trackers (stock image) from their phones over fears that state governments could use their data to find out if they were pregnant in criminal cases against those who received abortions

Yuk encourages women who use period-tracking apps to use Natural Cycles and Period Plus, who have vowed to protect users data

One of the apps that Yuk recommends, Natural Cycles has promised its users, which pay a subscription to use the app, to 'never sell your data.'

'We charge a subscription in order to protect you and your data,' it said on its Twitter page. 'Our users' privacy is paramount to us.'

Yuk also said Period Plus will not sell users' data.

Another way to protect your data is to switch from Google Chrome - which owns your search history - to Firefox, which is 'focused on privacy', Yuk said.

Although Chrome offers an incognito option, Yuk dvises against using it, as 'you have to remember every time' to switch it over.

Chrome, in general, is 'full of a lot of data,' especially when the browser is signed into an email address, Yuk told DailyMail.com.

When it comes to creating an alias to sign up for period tracking apps or to browse health questions online, she recommends using Hushmail.com and Fastmail.com which she said is 'well worth' the small monthly service fee.

'The key is for it not to be tied to any search engine, as well as be encrypted and secure,' she told DailyMail.com.

Simply searching 'missed period' or other related terms, such as abortion clinics and health-related questions would be collected under the email address, leading to an easy trail back.

Six of the nine Justices votes to overturn Roe v. Wade, immediately threatening millions of American women access to abortion healthcare

When asked about how companies can sell healthcare data, such as period cycle information, without violated HIPPA, she said she 'couldn't' speak on the legal aspect, but was unsure how states would go about it since the overturn was so swift.

Yuk also said companies had more of a 'moral obligation, than a legal one' to protect user data and oftentimes sells data because it's 'cheaper' than fighting the subpoena.

Period tracker Flo, which had 38million users at one point, was caught selling user data without permission roughly two years ago after it promised to secure private information. It was later found out that it shared sensitive information from millions of users to third-party apps.

The data Flo sold went out to multiple big named platforms, such as Facebook and Google, and it influenced algorithms and targeted ads.

Other devices, such Google Home, have been accused of collecting recordings that also influence the data collected and presented to users, which can also be used against those being accused of an abortions crime.

The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, which allowed many states to activate trigger laws and start banning abortions as early as six weeks - when fetuses develop a heartbeat.

Recently, an Ohio 10-year-old girl became pregnant with her rapist's baby and was forced to travel to Indiana to receive an abortion.

Protesters took to the streets outside of the US Supreme Court (pictured) just hours after upheaval, calling for the Justices to realize that 'motherhood should be a choice'

The story became controversial after the Ohio AG and Governor's Offices claimed neither had 'heard a whisper' about the story and that there was no 'biological evidence' of the case.

The 27-year-old rapist has since been taken into custody and has admitted to sexually abusing the child at least twice.

Since the overturn, women in nearly 30 states are now at-risk of losing their right to abortion. Protesters across the country have taken to the streets to protest the upheaval and demand federal protection of the right to access abortion healthcare.

The Biden Administration has been prompted to work on federal protections, but so far nothing has come about.
Former Disney CEO Bob Iger regrets the decision to name his controversial successor Bob Chapek, who has had his contract renewed despite leading the company through and into some scandals and political controversies.

Iger, 71, went as far as to call Chapek a 'novice' and told Disney sources Chapek, 61, replacing him was one of his worst business decisions, Business Insider reported.

Chapek was to report to both the board and Iger, the long-serving CEO who spent his final year still chairing the company's board, but, according to a source, ended up not liking how the process went.

Iger and Chapek apparently clashed over the company's response to COVID and each other's political decisions, with the two having completely different advisory teams to go against each other.

The former CEO publicly and privately would state he disliked how Chapek handled everything from the battle with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over the so-called 'Don't Say Gay' bill, which led to the company losing major tax breaks to self-governance to Scarlett Johansson's contract dispute over Black Widow.

Former Disney CEO Bob Iger (pictured left) fought the decision to name his controversial successor Bob Chapek (pictured right), who has since gone on to lead the company through some scandals and political controversies.

Iger and Chapek apparently clashed over the company's response to COVID and their political decisions, with the two having completely different advisory team

Iger allegedly said he didn't know Chapek was such a 'novice' when it came to handling these issues.

Chapek, for his part, was allegedly angry with Iger continuing to meddle in affairs he felt were his to deal with, especially during COVID, calling Iger saying he was going to help during the pandemic 'a slap in the face' according to one executive.

Iger later had regrets about stepping down while COVID continued to hurt the company.

'If he had known and understood the scope of the pandemic, he never would have stepped down when he did,' a former Disney executive said.

However, the company's renewal of Chapek's contract in June appears to be a sign of a clean break between the two men.

The pair were most recently seen at the same retreat, Allen & Co.'s Sun Valley mogul get-together. They greeted one another 'cordially,' according to a report, but didn't speak to each other again.

Chapek took over the company in February 2020 and earned $32.5 million in the year to October 2, 2021.

His compensation was comprised of $2.5 million in salary, $10.2 million in stock awards, and $3.8 million in stock options - plus a $14.3 million bonus.

The pay for the next three years has not been revealed.

His contract was extended at the end of a two-day meeting of Disney's board.

The directors voted unanimously to replace his current deal, which expires in February 2023, with a new three-year agreement starting July 1.

Bob Chapek, 61, CEO of Disney, is seen on June 2 during the opening ceremony for Avengers Campus inside Disney California Adventure. On Tuesday his contract was extended for a further three years

'Disney was dealt a tough hand by the pandemic, yet with Bob at the helm, our businesses  from parks to streaming  not only weathered the storm but emerged in a position of strength,' said Susan Arnold, chairman of the board.

'In this important time of growth and transformation, the Board is committed to keeping Disney on the successful path it is on today, and Bob's leadership is key to achieving that goal.'

The board said in a statement: 'Bob is the right leader at the right time for The Walt Disney Company, and the Board has full confidence in him and his leadership team.'

Chapek was initially unwilling to speak out publicly against the so-called 'Don't Say Gay' bill - something which his predecessor Bob Iger, 71, rebuked him for.

The bill, which Joe Biden called 'hateful' but which supporters say protects children, was signed into law by DeSantis in April.

On June 16, Disney announced it was delaying the opening of its Florida tech campus, which would have relocated 2,000 workers from California.

Disney officials insisted the delay had nothing to do with tensions with the clash with DeSantis and said they simply needed more time to build the campus.

It will house digital technology, finance, and product development employees - in the Orlando area and the company wanted to give workers additional time to adjust to the transition.

The new opening date for the Florida campus will be in 2026. The company's giant theme park resort, Walt Disney World, is located about 20 miles away.

'While a growing number of our employees, who will ultimately work at the campus, have already made the move to central Florida, we also want to continue to provide flexibility to those relocating, especially given the anticipated completion date of the campus is now in 2026,' Disney said in a statement.

Chapek has come under fire for his clumsy handling of the row with DeSantis.

On March 7 he released a memo telling staff that Disney hadn't released a statement sooner because 'they are often weaponized by one side or the other to further divide and inflame.'

He later apologized for the company's handling of the bill, saying Disney would pause all political donations in the state and increase support for advocacy groups working to combat similar legislation in other states.

Disney employees staged a series of walkouts earlier in the month in protest at Chapek's failure to be more vocal on the issue - Disney employs 77,000 people in Florida.

Iger, meanwhile, tweeted his criticism of the new legislation.

He told CNN+ that he thought it was a clear-cut issue.

'A lot of these issues are not necessarily political,' said Iger.

'It's about right and wrong.'

Bob Iger appeared to take a swipe at his successor as Disney CEO and his handling of the 'Don't Say Gay' bill controversy, insisting that the issue was 'about right and wrong'

Chris Wallace asks @RobertIger about Disney weighing in on hot-button issues like the "Don't Say Gay" bill and the decision-making behind it. #WhosTalkingToChrisWallace pic.twitter.com/u20jYbl9gx  CNN+ (@CNNplus) March 31, 2022

Iger (right) is seen with his successor Bob Chapek (left), who took over in February 2021

Iger was asked by host Chris Wallace whether he felt a 'vanilla' company like Disney, which is not known for being edgy or political, should weigh in on controversial social issues.

What is the Parental Rights in Education bill? HB 1557 was introduced by two Republican members of the Florida Legislature - Representative Joe Harding and Senator Dennis Baxley. They say the bill's aim is to 'empower parents' in their children's education, and make teachers recognize the distinction between 'instruction' and 'discussion.' 'What we're prohibiting is instructing them in a specific direction,' Baxley said about how teachers lead students in a classroom. 'Students can talk about whatever they want to bring up, but sometimes the right answer is, ''You really ought to talk to your parents about that.''' The bill applies to children in kindergarten through third grade. It states that 'classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur.' It also requires districts to 'adopt procedures for notifying a student's parent if there is a change in the student's services or monitoring related to the student's mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being,' something LGBTQ advocates argue could lead to students being outed to their parents without the student's knowledge or consent. It was passed on March 8 in a 22-17 vote. The state House had approved the bill late February. DeSantis signed it into law on March 28 and it will come into effect on July 1. Advertisement

'I had to contend with this a lot,' said Iger.

'And the filter that I used to determine whether we should or should not weigh in, considered a few factors: What would its impact have on our employees, on our shareholders and our customers.

'And if any one of those three constituencies had deep interest in, or would be affected by, whatever the matter was at hand then it was something that I thought we should consider weighing in on.'

Iger, who has reportedly irritated Chapek with his continued high-profile, setting the two men at loggerheads, said business leaders needed to be courageous.

He said that when dealing with right and wrong, or with something 'that does have a profound impact on your business,' he thinks one has to do 'what is right and not worry about the potential backlash to it.'

Iger added: 'I think CEOs, you know  one of the things that CEOs accept as a responsibility is that they're going to have to weigh in on issues, even if voicing an opinion on those issues potentially puts some of your business in danger.'

On February 8, Biden spoke out against the bill, tweeting: 'I want every member of the LGBTQI+ community  especially the kids who will be impacted by this hateful bill  to know that you are loved and accepted just as you are.

'I have your back, and my Administration will continue to fight for the protections and safety you deserve.'

Several weeks later, on February 24, Iger tweeted: 'I'm with the President on this! If passed, this bill will put vulnerable, young LGBTQ people in jeopardy.'

He told Wallace that he spoke out because he felt the bill was 'potentially harmful to kids'.

'So I happen to feel and I tweeted an opinion about this 'Don't Say Gay' bill in Florida,' Iger said.

'To me, it wasn't politics, it was what is right and what is wrong, and that just seemed wrong.

'It seemed potentially harmful to kids.

'And it seemed as though it would do exactly what it shouldn't do.

'And that is to foster compassion, and understanding and acceptance, and enable young kids who might be gay to feel more confident, more comfortable, more part of society, if it could be discussed freely, as opposed to kept in the closet.'
An heir to the Rebels bikie gang throne has patched over to become a Comanchero in a move that has sent shockwaves through the underworld.

Jesse Vella, the nephew of former national president Alex Vella and cousin to current president Damien, was welcomed into the rival gang by new president Allan Meehan on Thursday.

'Welcome to A-grade,' Meehan said, posting a picture of the pair dressed in club colours, posing in front of a motorcycle and the Comanchero insignia.

'This (is) that new s***.'

The nephew (right, Jesse Vella) of a former Rebels president has patched over to the Comanchero bikie gang (left, president Allan Meehan) with the news of the shock move announced on social media

The move makes him the first member of the Vella family to ever leave the Rebels for another club.

It comes just months after Jesse farewelled his father Gino at his funeral in January, where Jesse read a poem.

Meehan, who was only announced as the new leader of the Comanchero last month, is said to have been courting Jesse - and his poaching is considered a power move.

Meehan took over from former Melbourne-based boss Mick Murray. Murray was arrested in April over the 2019 gangland killing of Mitat Rasimi, an associate of high-profile drug lord Tony Mokbel.

He was charged with one count of murder and is on remand behind bars.

An underworld source told News Corp Vella's recruitment shows the Comanchero is capable of doing 'what they want, when they want'.

Jesse (front, giving a speech) was born into Rebels royalty and is the son of late senior member Gino, nephew of former national president Alex and cousin to current president Damien

The move comes just months after Jesse farewelled his father Gino at his funeral in January

Meehan grew up in public housing in Sydney's south-west and has spent his half his life rising through the bikie gang ranks.

He joined the Rebels when he turned 18 and later became a Cronulla chapter president before he defected to the Comancheros.

Sources claim he was lured to switch allegiances by a mentor, Comanchero 'commander of the world' Mark Buddle.

Meehan is well 'respected' among both the gang's old guard and its new recruits, the Herald Sun reported.

'He's spent his entire adult life in bikie gangs,' one source told the publication.

'He doesn't know any other life.'

Allan Meehan (pictured) has spent his half of his life progressing through the bikie gang ranks

He was promoted to commander of the Canberra chapter early last year after the murder of former president Pitasoni Ulavalu and became the Sydney commander six months later.

It's understood Meehan has told members he'll oversee the Comancheros from Sydney but is expected to regularly travel to Melbourne.

It's been a chaotic few months for Australia's most powerful bikie club still reeling from the recent underworld shooting which left national sergeant-at-arms Tarek Zahed with serious injuries and claimed the life of his brother Omar.

Dozens of other members have been also arrested in AFP raids as part of Operation Ironside, one of the biggest and most significant crackdowns of organised crime in Australia's history.

One source recently said Meehan was regarded as 'pretty full on' but has a level head to control some of the gang's more volatile elements.

Police are already working hard to limit his powers as the new boss after officers paid him a visit at his home in Yerrinbool, in the Southern Highlands of NSW, recently.

Meehan, dressed in a smoking jacket, was handed a notice informing him they intended to go to the Supreme Court and take out a serious crime prevention order against him.

He's expected to face court over the matter today.
'I have always prayed that God would bless Emmett's family. I am truly sorry for the pain his family was caused'

'I did not wish Emmett any harm and could not stop harm from coming to him, since I didn't know what was planned for him,' she said in the unpublished piece

However, in a leaked 99-page manuscript, Donham now insists that she 'always felt like a victim as well as Emmett' and 'paid dearly with an altered life'

Now 87, Donham was just 21 at the time of the murder - and has since maintained her innocence

A white woman blamed for the racist lynching of Emmett Till claimed she is a victim in her leaked autobiography - while also asserting that she lied to try and protect the black teenager from his terrible fate.

In a leaked 99-page manuscript obtained by The Associated Press, Carolyn Donham, 87, insists that she 'always felt like a victim as well as Emmett'.

Donham went on to moan that she 'paid dearly with an altered life' after Till, 14, was killed by her husband Roy Bryant and her brother-in-law J.W. Miliam in Money, Mississippi in 1955.

Donham was was just 21 at the time - and has always maintained her innocence.

Last week, a group of activists stormed a North Carolina senior living facility in an attempt to arrest her after unearthing an arrest warrant, but it later transpired Donham did not live there.

'I did not wish Emmett any harm and could not stop harm from coming to him, since I didnt know what was planned for him,' she wrote in the unpublished piece, titled, 'I am More Than A Wolf Whistle.'

'I have always prayed that God would bless Emmett's family. I am truly sorry for the pain his family was caused.'

In the piece, first reported by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, Donham astonishingly claims it is at this point that she tried to protect the boy, telling the two that they had picked up the wrong man.

'I tried to protect him[Till] by telling Roy that `Hes not the one. Thats not him. Please take him home.'

Donham went on to claim that she didn't want Till killed.

Pictured is a copy of alleged Emmett Till accuser Carolyn Bryant Donham's memoir where she insists innocence in the infamous 1955 killing, which helped spur the US civil rights movement

The case gained prominence after a magazine published a photo of Till's mangled corpse and mainstream media picked up on the story.

Till - who was beaten and tied with barbed wire to a cotton gin before being tossed by his two assailants in the Tallahatchie River - was so disfigured that his mother could only identify it by an initialed ring.

He was visiting from Chicago at the time of the brutal killing, which helped galvanize the modern civil rights movement.

The crime has become a ingrained in the history of the US, with Donham's then-husband Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam acquitted of murder charges but later confessing to the crime in a magazine interview.

Carolyn Bryant Donham, who accused black teen Till of making improper advances before he was brutally lynched in 1955, has penned a memoir about the highly publicized killing, where she denies wanting the youth killed and instead insists she was a victim

Emmett Louis Till, a black 14 year old Chicago boy, whose weighted down body was found in the Tallahatchie River near the Delta community of Money, Mississippi, August 31, 1955. Local residents Roy Bryant, 24, and J.W. Milam, 35, were accused of kidnapping, torturing and murdering Till for allegedly whistling at Bryant's wife

The work is signed 'Carolyn' but was reportedly transcribed by her daughter-in-law Marsha Bryant.

Historian and author Timothy Tyson of Durham, said he obtained a copy from Donham while interviewing her in 2008, provided a copy to the AP on Thursday.

Tyson had placed the manuscript in an archive at the University of North Carolina with the agreement that it not be made public for decades, though he said he gave it to the FBI during an investigation the agency concluded last year.

After their acquittal in the Emmett Till trial, defendant Roy Bryant (right), Donham's husband, smokes a cigar as his wife happily embraces him and his half brother, J.W. Milam and his wife show jubilation. Bryant and Milam were cleared by an all white, male jury in the 1955 slaying

He said he decided to make it public now following the recent discovery of an arrest warrant on kidnapping charges that was issued for Donham in 1955 but never served.

'The potential for an investigation was more important than the archival agreements, though those are important things,' Tyson said. 'But this is probably the last chance for an indictment in this case.'

A cousin of Till who leads the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation, Deborah Watts, said the memoir is new evidence that shows Donham's involvement in the case and is particularly important when combined with the arrest warrant.

'I truly believe these developments cannot be ignored by the authorities in Mississippi,' she said.

The memoir is remarkable not only because it's the most extensive account of the sensational episode ever recorded by Donham, but also because it contains contradictions that raise questions about her truthfulness through the years, said Dale Killinger, a retired FBI agent who investigated the case more than 15 years ago.

For instance, Donham claims in the memoir to have yelled for help after being confronted by Till inside the family grocery store in Money, Mississippi, yet no one ever reported hearing her screams, Killinger said.

Also, Donham never previously mentioned that she and Roy Bryant chatted about the abduction. In the manuscript, she says they did.

'That seems ludicrous,' Killinger said. 'How would you have a major event in your life and not talk about it?'

In this September 23, 1955, photo, Milam, left, his wife, second from left, Bryant, far right, and his wife, Donham, sit together in a courtroom in Sumner, Mississippi. Bryant and his half-brother Milam were charged with murder but acquitted in the kidnapping and torture of 14-year-old black teen Emmett Till after he allegedly whistled at Donham

The Justice Department closed its most recent investigation into the case in December and Mississippi authorities haven't given any indication they plan to pursue the kidnapping warrant or other charges against Donham.

But the Till family is pushing authorities to act.

Keith Beauchamp, a filmmaker whose documentary preceded the Justice Department probe in which Killinger was involved and that ended without charges in 2007, said the memoir shows that Donham 'is culpable in the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Louis Till and to not hold her accountable for her actions, is an injustice to us all.'

'Our fight will continue until justice is finally served,' Beauchamp said.

It was Beauchamp, along with two of Till's relatives, who discovered the arrest warrant with Donham's name on it earlier this month in the basement of a Mississippi courthouse.

Tyson, the historian who provided the roughly 35,000-word manuscript to the AP, helped spur the government's most recent investigation into the killing by publishing a book in 2017 in which he quoted Donham as saying she lied when she claimed Till grabbed her, whistled and made sexual advances.

In the memoir, however, she claims Till did do those things. During the most recent investigation, Donham told the FBI she had never recanted, the Justice Department said.

Tyson said Donham's statements in the memoir exonerating herself of wrongdoing need to be taken with 'a good-sized shovel full of salt,' particularly her claim that Till identified himself to the men who took him from the family home and later admitted killing him.

'Two big white men with guns came and dragged him out of his aunt and great-uncle's house at 2 o'clock in the morning in the Mississippi Delta in 1955. I do not believe for one minute that he identified himself,' Tyson said.

Neither Donham nor any of her relatives have responded to messages and phone calls from the AP seeking comment. It is unclear where Donham currently lives or if she has an attorney. Her last known address was in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Author Timothy Tyson looks at a copy of Carolyn Bryant Donham's memoir in his home in Durham, North Carolina, on Thursday

Author Timothy Tyson looks at a copy of Carolyn Bryant Donham's memoir in his home in Durham, North Carolina
Vital heart surgery for children is being scrapped at the last moment causing agony for desperate families as Victoria's health system introduces strict new Covid rules that's stopping some operations.

Little Esmee-Rose Gregory, 3, has been waiting for life-changing open heart surgery since December but has had her operation cancelled five times.

She was due to go into theatre on Tuesday and parents Luke and Ebony again drove her 750km from Adelaide to Melbourne - only for the op to be scrapped once more.

'It's just stressful and just heartbreaking,' said father Luke Gregory on Friday. 'It's too easy to say come back later - but there might not be a later.'

Little Esmee-Rose Gregory, 3, has been waiting for life-changing open heart surgery since December but has had her operation cancelled five times

Melbourne hospitals are pausing category two and three elective surgery to focus on critical emergency operations as the latest Covid wave takes a grip on Australia.

But it has caused chaos and heartbreak for families waiting months for their children to get the treatment they need.

The Gregorys drove from Adelaide to Melbourne on Sunday after again being told Esmee-Rose's op was to go ahead on Tuesday.

But after they arrived, they found out on the morning of the operation that the surgery was being cancelled at the last moment again.

They tried again on Wednesday and Thursday, but it was cancelled again both times.

Esmee-Rose Gregory was due to go into theatre on Tuesday and parents Luke and Ebony again drove her 750km from Adelaide to Melbourne - only for the op to be scrapped once more

Royal Children's Hospital feared there may not be a spare bed in intensive care to look after Esmee-Rose after the operation and has now pushed the surgery back to August.

'It's not easy, waking up every day not knowing what's going to be going on and where we're going to be going,' Mr Gregory told the Today show on Friday.

'And then to know we're going to be going home after sort of wasting a week's time. That's not the best feeling.'

The family say the last time their daughter had surgery for her heart condition it transformed her life, and hoped for even more improvement after her next op.

'She'll get a better life expectancy,' said her mum. 'She'll be able to do more things a three year old can do.'

But she now faces waiting weeks more to go under the knife.

Mother-of-four Ms Gregory added: 'She could go downhill anytime.

'It means that we have to stop our lives to come back again. It's just a horrible thing to go through and I don't want anyone else to go through it.'

The Gregorys drove from Adelaide to Melbourne on Sunday after again being told Esmee-Rose's op was to go ahead on Tuesday

Bendigo boy Winston Tilkeridis, 5, has had his heart surgery cancelled eight times since May - including twice within a hour and once just 40 minutes before it was due to begin.

He needs palliative surgery to help ease his congenital heart disease tricuspid atresia, but father Cristean Tilkeridis fears the operation may come too late.

The child had a catheter put into his heart last October ahead of his open heart surgery which was supposed to be carried out within six months and was originally scheduled for April.

But nine months later, he's still waiting for the operation and the family have had their lives on standstill while they wait.

'If he wasn't to get into surgery, he'd eventually have heart failure  and then it would be emergency surgery,' Mr Tilkeridis told the ABC.

'Winston used to be OK with going to the hospital, but now he's really quite anxious. It's cruel to put anyone through that.

'It's really important we're not just numbers  we're people.'

Patrick Lo of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons said staff shortages because of illness and the severe flu season were impacting hospitals.

'There's just no resources left to carry out these procedures,' he told Virginia Trioli on ABC Radio Melbourne. 'The hospitals are completely bursting at the seams.'

Some Melbourne hospital are restricting elective surgery to clinically urgent category one patients to allow them to 'continue caring for the most critically ill'

The hospital has also reintroduced limits on outpatient appointments and compulsory N95 masks for visitors.

Dr Roderick McRae, President of the Australian Medical Association of Victoria , said on Thursday that the state health system was at a 'crisis point'.

He added: 'Something has to change because the healthcare system is at breaking point.'

The state health department said the Royal Children's Hospital would work with the families to reschedule the surgery again.
Tens of thousands of Aussie teenagers could have serious gaming problems, with the effects of too much screen time so bad they have apprehended violence orders against them.

New research from Macquarie University revealed some gamers showed highly aggressive behaviour when parents tried to put limits on their gaming.

In some cases kids damaged walls during rages and threatened self-harm.

One 13-year-old missed a year of school by staying up late hours to feed his gaming addiction, while others felt unsupported or disconnected from their families.

The risk factors for teens to develop a clinical problem with video games include being male, socially isolated and having self-esteem issues.

The study showed some students who were gaming too much felt unsupported or disconnected from their families, and felt disempowered by the outside world

The research showed some kids displayed highly aggressive behaviour when parents tried to put limits on their gaming

Associate Professor Wayne Warburton from Macquarie University, who led the research, told Daily Mail Australia the serious problem affected every part of some teenagers' lives.

'We see kids who miss years of school, who barely leave their rooms, who develop high levels of anxiety and depression,' Professor Warburton said.

'[Kids] who feel unable to face the outside world - there are even kids who have died at the screen.'

The head researcher said one child died of cardiac arrest in front of a screen because of insufficient electrolytes and long periods of arousal.

The study also zeroed in on about 900 students from a socially advantaged co-ed school in Australia and found 24 of the kids between years seven and 10 had internet gaming disorder (IGD).

IGD is characterised by excessive use of technology such as video games despite negative consequences and an inability to reduce or stop use. Those with IGD display lower psychosocial wellbeing, greater levels of psychopathology and diminished functioning.

The study also showed some students' behaviour had become so bad that parents had been forced to take apprehended violence orders against them and that some teens felt disempowered by the outside world.

Professor Warburton said there was light at the end of the tunnel for parents, with plenty of practical things to do to help.

'Try not to do things for kids that they can do for themselves and try to give them control over aspects of their lives you think they can handle,' Professor Warburton said.

'Encourage independence. Teenagers themselves can ask for the opportunity to do things themselves and take on responsibility, and hopefully their parents can assist with that.'

Professor Wayne Warburton, who heads the research, said there was light at the end of the tunnel for parents, with plenty of practical things to do to help and encourage independence in teenagers

Getting teens to make their own breakfast, do their own washing and letting older teens make doctor's appointments for themselves were examples of tasks that can help them gain independence.

'I think it is important to encourage self-control and discipline, as people who are more in control think things through, focus, manage their emotions well, control impulses - [and] tend to be happier and do better,' Professor Warburton said.

Child psychologist Jocelyn Brewer told the SMH time spent on screens wasn't a bad thing for teenagers as long as they had the correct balance.

If a young person is able to keep their grades in check, do their homework, socialise or play sport, then their screen time wasn't necessarily a problem.
The father of a 16-year old boy who was stabbed to death has spoken of his family's trauma and their mission to ensure no other parent loses their child in the same way.

Balin Stewart, 16, was fatally stabbed outside his home in Buddina, on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, just before midnight on January 20, 2022.

His father Michael told Daily Mail Australia if teens and parents were more aware of knife crime, 'I feel like we would still have our son'.

The family of Balin Stewart are campaigning to bring an end to knife culture. Balin Stewart (middle) pictured with mother Kerri-Lyn Stewart (left) and father Michael Stewart (right)

It started out as a regular night for the Stewart family. Balin went to a party and came home early and then sat with Mr Stewart, watching a couple of YouTube videos, before his father made his way to bed.

A short time later, Mr Stewart and his partner Kerri-Lyn were alerted to a disturbance and went outside to find their son unconscious on the grass with a trickle of blood coming out of a wound in his chest.

'Even after seeing the wound I wasn't overly concerned, the one thing that sticks out in my mind was there was only a small trickle of blood, he wasn't screaming, it was just a surreal situation,' Mr Stewart said.

'At the time his breathing was very erratic but he was breathing and had a faint pulse but seconds later he took three long gasping breaths and then that was that.

'I started doing CPR and when the first police car turned up I thought everything would be okay and then when the ambulance came it was like oh it's all going to be alright now but unfortunately it wasn't.'

Mr Stewart said he and his wife went inside as the ambulance arrived to change clothes and get ready to go to hospital assuming their son would be okay, but then police walked up to the house to tell them their son had died.

Balin Stewart, 16-year-old, sustained a stab wound that was 'not survivable' at Buddina on Queensland's Sunshine Coast last night, police sai

'Nothing ever prepares you to hear the words that your son is gone and time just stood still from that moment,' Mr Stewart said.

'It took a long time to process what happened and I really was in a state of shock like how could this happen? He was such a social kid, never in trouble, never in a fight and unfortunately this was his first real fight ever and he's gone.'

Mr Stewart now says his family has set out to educate the community on the knife epidemic.

'We don't want stricter penalties, we just want everyone, particularly youths carrying knives to understand how dangerous having a knife for any reason is,' he said.

'Our whole mission and goal is education, much the same as the campaign that was run about the 'king hit' where it was changed to being called a coward punch.

'We want to get teens and their peers to look down on carrying a knife and make it uncool.

'If that was the case before, I feel we would still have our son.'

The family has set up the #BinTheBladeForBalin campaign and the The Balin Stewart foundation in the hope the devastation experienced by them can be avoided by other families.

Mr Stewart said if knife crime was addressed 'I feel like we would still have our son'.

Mr Stewart said their son had lost his life to just a regular kitchen steak knife and was told by police steak knives are the most common knife carried by teenagers as it is the most accessible.

He said he wants parents to have open and honest conversations with their kids and to do a self audit on how many knives they have.

'Have the conversation with your kid about knife crime, not in a judgmental way but in an open, honest and investigative way,' he said.

Mr Stewart said more than anything he wants the teenagers to know it doesn't just ruin the life of the family of the child that dies but their life and the life of their parents as well.

'Don't ruin your life by carrying a knife, simple as that. You will wreck a whole lot of people's lives if you hurt someone with a knife,' he said.

'Think about your parents, your brother, your sister, your friends, they have to live with everyone looking down on their family and the pain it brings the ones that love you most.

The Balin Steward foundation and #BinTheBladeForBalin started in memory of Balin aims educate people on the dangers of carrying a knife and knife crime in general

'If you don't care about anyone else think about how your actions affect your family. If the tides were turned it would be just as damning on my family if it was our son who had taken a life.'

Mr Stewart said the part that gives his family some peace is learning of the impact Balin had on his friends and the wider community.

'Balin was the kid that was incredibly popular and liked by everyone. What made us so proud is so many kids came to us and said you know Balin made me feel like I was his best friend,' he said.

'We had awkward kids come to us and say he was the only one that would talk to them, the cool kids loved him, he took care of everyone and that's what makes us so proud to be his parents and hear all these stories.

'We just want to get as many people as possible knowing about knife crime. We were shocked and never would have thought our son would have known someone that would carry a knife let alone lose his life to one.'

Emergency services were called to a house in Iluka Avenue, Buddina (pictured) at around 11.20pm on Thursday night to find a 16-year-old boy with a life-threatening-wound. The boy died at the scene and a 17-year-old boy has now been charged with murder

Family friend Ashah Brown told reporters at the scene of the incident that a dispute about an ex-girlfriend may have been the cause of the fight.

'I've known him for years, he's such a nice kid. He was so nice and everyone loved him and no one had no reason not to like him,' Ms Brown said.

'He was just that good of a person.'
A data analyst has revealed how he was given a $50,000 pay rise - as the tech sector faces a huge shortage of workers.

Dulitha Piyasena, 32, left his job at the Bank of Queensland and is now earning more than $200,000 a year after being poached by the Queensland University of Technology to be a senior data analyst earlier this year.

He arrived in Australia five years ago on a salary of $85,000 - meaning he's seen his pay go up 135 per cent since 2017.

Mr Piyasena is a former engineer who completed a masters in data science. He is now a permanent resident on the path to citizenship.

'The demand has always been there but with COVID-19 restrictions and people returning to their home countries, it has only grown,' he told the Australian Financial Review.

His huge pay rise comes as the tech sector struggles to fill vacancies.

According to the Australian Computer Society, 1.2 million Australians will be employed in the sector within five years - but it still faces a predicted shortfall of 280,000 workers.

Dulitha Piyasena, 32, left his job at the Bank of Queensland and is now earning more than $200,000 a year after being poached by the Queensland University of Technology

'We are falling well short of meeting the demand,' the new ACS CEO Chris Vein said.

'The domestic pipeline is just not pumping out enough tech talent. We need over 60,000 new technology workers a year to meet the demand but we are only producing 10,000 technology grads and post-grads each year. 'In theory, we would try to fill that shortfall with foreign talent, but we can't and we may not be able to catch up for two, three or five years. Australia is competing with the US, Israel, every other country in the world for this talent.' The ACS also revealed that the federal government is struggling to find anything close to the 1900 cyber experts it needs for the new $10 billion program Project REDSPICE. The project is to double the size of the nation's leading cybersecurity agency and help Australia compete in cyber warfare with foreign nations like Russia and China.

Usually, the sector sees skilled migrants fill up vacancies, but Covid has seen that splutter, leader to the high salaries.

Mr Piyasena's $50,000 increase appears to be the new threshold in buisness.

This week, Shell revealed it was being forced to shut down its Prelude floating LNG vessel, after workers on more than $200,000 a year rejected an offer for a $30,000 pay rise.

The ACS report, collated for Deloitte Access Economics' Digital Pulse, found wages for technology workers grew by 10.4 per cent between 2019 and 2022, outperforming 6.9 per cent wage growth for non-ICT occupations.

The ACS said that a senior .NET/Java developer in Sydney can expect a salary between $120,000 and $170,000 a year before superannuation - a jump of up to 28 per cent over the previous year.

According to the Australian Computer Society, 1.2 million Australians will be employed in the sector within five years - but it still faces a predicted shortfall of 280,000 workers, driving up wages

Meanwhile, a tech network administrator in Melbourne can get an average of around $130,000 a year, a jump of 34 per cent.

The ACS has been calling for a $100 million program to help schools improve student digital literacy and increase the awareness of technology careers.

And the ACS has also proposed a business tax credit of up to $10,000 per employee for vocational technology training.

Boards are also increasingly considering the use of employee share schemes to encourage workers to invest in the long-term success of a business, to try and stop wages spiralling.
A TikTok influencer at the centre of a storm over his 'random acts of kindness' videos has been urged to perform them for 'people who really need it' - as video emerges of a Woolworths shopper looking less than impressed after he bought her groceries.

Harrison Pawluk, 22, produces viral videos of himself performing good deeds for strangers. But Pawluk sparked uproar this week when an older shopper hit out at him over a viral video where he gave her flowers while she sat and drank coffee at a shopping mall.

The shopper, Maree, said she felt 'dehumanised' by the episode - with Pawluk's video of the incident racking up more than 58.8million viewers.

Maree said she didn't even like the flowers.

It isn't the only time recently where one of the subjects of his clips has appeared underwhelmed - with Pawluk recently posting a clip of himself sneakily paying for a woman's groceries at the Woolworths checkout in Melbourne.

In the clip, Pawluk distracts the grocery shopper by pretending she has dropped money on the floor. As she turns away to search for it, Pawluk places money in one of her shopping bags.

'Oh, have a good day,' he says, and walks away as the woman returns to the checkout desk.

Told by the operator that Pawluk had paid for the groceries, the woman appears to have a muted reaction to the incident, smiling faintly, and later appears to be pointing in the direction of the influencer with an upset look on her face.

In the TikTok post by social media influencer Harrison Pawluk, he approaches a woman at a Woolworths checkout and distracts her by pretending she has dropped money on the floor

Told by the operator that Pawluk had paid for the groceries, the woman at first smiles but is then seen pointing in the direction of the influencer with an upset look on her face. 'Put it back, please,' she appears to firmly say

'Put it back, please,' she appears to firmly say.

Pawluk's manager Taylor Reilly, however, said the woman was pointing at her children and not at the influencer, citing unpublished footage.

'The lady wasn't pointing at Harrison or upset with him, she was pointing to her two kids that were running around telling them to do something instead of pointing at him,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

The video of the woman at Woolworths drew criticism - as well as praise - from viewers of the clip.

'Bro give the money to poor people. donate it,' one person commented. 'That would be valuable.'

'Bro if u want [to] help, help the people who need [it]' another posted.

Pawluk's videos on the platform have become the subject of fierce debate after Maree said she felt 'dehumanised' by the post in which he gave her flowers as she enjoyed a coffee on her own.

'At first it was just a bit of a joke to me and then I've sort of felt dehumanised,' Maree told Melbourne ABC presenter Virginia Trioli this week.

'It really doesn't even seem like it's me now, it's just this person, it's just not really me, I don't really even take it personally anymore but I just think that other women, especially older women, should be aware that if it can happen to me, it can happen to anybody.

'I suppose I am a bit offended, really, to tell you the truth.'

Pawluk, a university business student who works in retail, make between $10,000 to $15,000 a month through brand partnerships and sponsored posts

Harrison Pawluk, 22, interrupted Maree as she drank a takeaway cup of coffee in the Emporium Melbourne mall, and asked her to hold the bouquet - before leaving it with her and wishing her a nice day

But others love Pawluk's 'selfless' acts, commenting: 'Awesome, we need more people like him' and 'youre so kind'.

In fact, Pawluk's TikTok and YouTube videos make him between $10,000 to $15,000 a month through brand partnerships and sponsored posts, Mr Reilly told Daily Mail Australia.

'Yesterday was the first time a TikTok video has actually ever backfired for Harrison,' Mr Reilly said.

'He could be making staged skits like he used to, but instead he's trying to use his platform for good and promote these acts of kindness as he personally feels fulfilled by them and knows from comments that he is inspiring others.'

Mr Reilly also revealed Pawluk had received direct threats as a result of the backlash to the video.

'It's extremely disappointing to see that some people's first reaction is to private message Harrison and physically threaten him.

'You don't have to be a person in need to receive a random act of kindness, everyone deserves to feel the love.'

Yesterday Mr Reilly said Pawluk had pure intent in making the kindness videos.

'Harrison isn't out to fake his videos in order to get a viral video or an amazing reaction like a lot of creators do.

'He's doing this content because he genuinely believes, sometimes one person at a time, that he's making a difference.'

Pawluk added: 'My new goal is to find like minded businesses that want to also spread kindness to partner with me.'

Maree (pictured) who featured in the viral TikTok video receiving flowers from a young stranger said she felt 'dehumanised' by the experience

Pawluk, a university business student who works in retail, yesterday offered an apology to Maree via his manager if she'd been offended by the video.

'He whole-heartedly apologises to Maree if she was offended by what he did and urges her to contact him privately so he can personally apologise,' Mr Reilly said.

'If she requests him to take down the video he will do that.

'He would not want something designed to spread love and compassion to cause anyone concern.'

Harrison Pawluk's (pictured) June 21 video has already been viewed 58.8million times, getting 11.1million likes

Maree, who doesn't use social media, said the TikTok portrayal of the incident being a random act of kindness was wrong.

'These artificial things are not random acts of kindness really,' she said.

'It's really not about me anymore, I just think this whole idea that this is a random act of kindness is to be challenged.'

Maree said she noticed another young man had been filming the interaction.

'I said, "Did you film that? They said, "No, no". They obviously had.'

Maree said she didn't even like the flowers.

'They just sort of looked at me and I actually even said to them - it was a friendly discussion - "Do you want these flowers, I don't really want them" and I didn't want to carry them home in a tram really, to be quite frank.

'They weren't to my taste, really.

'They didn't want them but the person - I now know as Harrison - came along at that stage and said something about "I hope you enjoy the flowers" and off they went and that was it.'

Mr Reilly said Pawluk's videos featuring acts of kindness were usually well received.

'It's extremely rare for there to be controversy with these, probably because it went viral,' he said.

'Harrison generally gets nothing but gratitude.'

The influencer told Daily Mail Australia a recent trip to Los Angeles (pictured) where he witnessed poverty inspired him to make videos featuring acts of kindness

Pawluk's 21-year-old manager Taylor Reilly (pictured), who negotiates sponsorship, told Daily Mail Australia his videos featuring acts of kindness were usually well received

Other videos where Pawluk presents flowers to a woman sitting in a park, and gives a small plush toy to a child, show smiling, grateful recipients.

In some clips Pawluk holds a placard reading, 'If you are missing someone today, hug me' in a busy shopping mall, as people approach him to embrace.

In one clip he asks a woman seating on a city bench to hold a bunch of flowers as he removes his jacket from his bag, puts it on and walks away. But the end of the clip shows the bench empty and the flowers left behind.

Pawluk, who has three million social media followers, last month told Daily Mail Australia he was inspired by witnessing homelessness during a recent trip to LA.

'I was recently inspired to change the nature of my content and use my platform to do some good and spread some kindness,' he said.

'Not enough creators utilise their platforms for good.

'I want to hopefully use mine as a vessel spreading good and hopefully inspiring a few people along the way.'




Samyang Corp. executives and employees who participated in the International Food Technology Expo in Chicago, pose for a commemorative photo at the event held during July 11 through July 13. Samyang unveiled the allulose-based brand Nexweet to the global market for the first time at this exhibition. Courtesy of Samyang Corp.
Woke students blocked a record number of speakers and events at universities last year amid a steep rise in no-platforming.

Last night, the Office for Students (OfS), the watchdog, threatened to intervene where lawful views are being stifled.

In 2020-21 there were 193 refusals of events or speakers  more than double the 94 the previous year.

There have been student campaigns to stop Christians, Conservatives, feminists and Israeli politicians speaking on campuses.

Andrea Jenkyns, the universities minister, said the figures were concerning and warned of the chilling effect of censorship.

Universities minister Andrea Jenkyns has warned of the chilling effect of censorship after students blocked a record number of speakers and events at universities last year

Chris McGovern, of the Campaign for Real Education, said: Universities have been colonised by an Empire of Wokeness, and added that they are moving our society into a new Dark Age.

The Government is trying to strengthen free speech laws with new legislation going through Parliament.

Susan Lapworth, head of the OfS, said offensive or controversial topics must be open to free debate.

We are willing to intervene where we have concerns this may not be the case in this fundamentally important area, she said.

It comes amid growing reports that universities and student unions are stopping events from going ahead over fears unfashionable views may be expressed.

In recent years there have been student campaigns to stop Christians, Conservatives, feminists and Israeli politicians speaking on campuses.

Last night Miss Jenkyns said: Universities and colleges must be places that champion debate and diversity of thought and this government has warned of the chilling effect of censorship on our campuses.

While we know that the pandemic made it difficult for many organisations to arrange speaking events, this sharp rise in rejected speakers is very concerning.

Protestors gathered in Library Square at Sussex University to rally against Professor Kathleen Stock last year

In total last year, 19,407 events were held by universities with external speakers - meaning 99 per cent went ahead as planned.

The Left-wing University and College Union (UCU), which represents lecturers, said it did not recognise a free speech problem.

General secretary Jo Grady said: The Tory narrative of a free speech crisis caused by oversensitive students is totally at odds with the evidence.

She accused the government of whipping up a phony culture war and claimed it was making authoritarian interventions in campus life.

The data also showed how many incidents had to be referred to Prevent, the governments counter-terrorism programme.

A total of 47 cases were formally referred to external Prevent agencies, including 15 for being extreme right-wing radicalisation and 14 for being Islamist radicalisation.
Boris Johnson is pushing for failed Tory leadership candidates to back 'anyone but Rishi' Sunak, it was claimed today, amid reports that the whole team at 10 Downing Street 'hates' the former chancellor for causing the PM's downfall.

Johnson, who announced last week that he will step down as party leader when his replacement is decided, has said he will not publicly endorse any candidate or get involved in the increasingly bitter leadership race.

However, Johnson has reportedly made clear in private discussions with failed leadership hopefuls that Sunak should not be his successor.

Citing a source close to one such conversation, The Times said Johnson appeared to be most enthusiastic about his Foreign Secretary Liz Truss becoming Prime Minister.

Truss has been publicly backed by some of Johnson's closest cabinet allies - including Nadine Dorries, Jabob Rees-Mogg and attorney general Suella Braverman - but has come third in the two rounds of voting that have been held so far.

Sunak - Johnson's former chancellor - came out on top of Thursday's voting, and in second was Penny Mordaunt, who was also bearing the brunt of the attacks from rival camps as she gained the most momentum.

The Times reported that Johnson has indicated he would also be open to Mordaunt succeeding him if it meant that Sunak did not win the leadership election.

Boris Johnson (pictured leaving 10 Downing Street on Wednesday) wants failed Tory leadership candidates to back 'anyone but Rishi' Sunak, according to reports today

A source told The Times: 'The whole No 10 team hates Rishi. It's personal. It's vitriolic. They don't blame Saj [Sajid Javid] for bringing him down. They blame Rishi. They think he was planning this for months.'

The former chancellor resigned last week minutes after Health Secretary Sajid Javid, sparking a slew of further resignations that ultimately led to the PM's downfall.

Another Times source claimed that Johnson had voiced concerns that Sunak would go 'soft' on Vladimir Putin and his war in Ukraine, and ease sanctions on Russia.

An ally of Johnson's told The Times that it was untrue the PM wanted 'anyone but Rishi', but confirmed there is a resentment over his resignation - as well as the fact that Sunak had not presented a growth strategy in his last months as chancellor.

'Alongside the sense of betrayal is a sense of regret about what could have already been well under way,' they told the newspaper.

An ally of Sunak denied to The Times that he would go soft on Putin.

In Thursday's vote, Sunak picked up 101 votes, Mordaunt 83, Truss 64, Kemi Badenoch 49 and Tom Tugendhat 32.

A source told The Times that it's 'personal' and 'vitriolic' between Johnson and Rishi Sunak (pictured Thursday) after the former chancellor resigned last week minutes after Health Secretary Sajid Javid, sparking further resignations that ultimately led to the PM's downfall

Braverman had 27 votes, five fewer than she had in Wednesday's first round of the contest despite the field being smaller on Thursday.

In the first ballot, current chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and former health secretary Jeremy Hunt were both eliminated after not received enough votes to make it through into the second round.

The next round of voting is due on Monday, with subsequent rounds if required until two candidates are left, who will then battle it out over the summer to win the support of Conservative members. Their choice of the next prime minister will be announced on September 5.

Johnson will then formally tender his resignation to the Queen to make way for his successor the following day.

The five surviving Tory leader hopefuls will cross swords for the first time today in a TV debate . Channel 4 is hosting the first showdown for the prospective PMs at 7.30pm on Friday, with the channel saying all five had confirmed they will take part.

Further televised clashes are scheduled for Sunday and Tuesday.

Citing a source close to one such conversation, The Times said Johnson appeared to be most enthusiastic about his Foreign Secretary Liz Truss (pictured Thursday) becoming PM

The Times also reported that Johnson has indicated he would also be open to Penny Mordaunt (pictured Wednesday) succeeding him if it meant that Sunak did not come out victorious

Tory leadership race: Round two vote result Rishi Sunak: 101 (+13) Penny Mordaunt: 83 (+16) Liz Truss: 64 (+14) Kemi Badenoch: 49 (+9) Tom Tugendhat: 32 (-5) ELIMINATED Suella Braverman: 27 (-5) Advertisement

Braverman came out in support of Truss, describing the Foreign Secretary as the 'best person to unleash the opportunities of Brexit' and deliver tax cuts, as the right of the party seeks to rally round a single candidate.

Taking influential Tory Steve Baker's vote with her, it was a blow to Kemi Badenoch, who was facing pressure to pull out and back Truss to keep Sunak or Mordaunt out of No 10.

Sources close to Braverman told the PA news agency she made the decision after holding talks with Truss.

In a statement, Braverman said: 'Liz is the best person to unleash the opportunities of Brexit, and deliver much needed tax cuts.

'I'm confident she will defend free speech, champion equality of opportunity and take a robust line on illegal immigration.'

Baker, who had been backing Braverman, told PA: 'Suella has my complete loyalty. What she has decided, I will support.'

Tugendhat also dropped five votes but insisted he would not quit the race as the remaining contenders progress to a round of televised debates.

'I have never turned down a challenge because the odds were against me. I don't plan to start now,' the senior backbencher said.

Mordaunt gained the most votes, adding 16 from Wednesday's total.

Sunak won an extra 13 votes and is closing in on the 120 votes required to guarantee a place in the final two, who will face a vote of the Tory membership to decide the next party leader and prime minister.

Truss, who made a campaign launch speech earlier on Thursday, gained 14 votes but will hope that she can serve as a standard-bearer for the party's right, picking up supporters from not only Braverman but also Badenoch.

Former Brexit minister Lord Frost, who does not get a vote as a Tory peer, came out in support of Truss, urging Badenoch to pull out of the contest so there can be 'unity among free marketeers'.

Attorney General Suella Braverman (pictured Thursday) was knocked out of the leadership contest after recieving 27 votes, five fewer than she had in Wednesday's first round of the contest despite the field being smaller on Thursday

'Kemi and Suella Braverman set out convincing programmes, with differing emphases, for change. But Liz's depth of experience, her energy and ideas - as well as the simple fact she has the most votes of the three - put her in the lead.

'It is now time for pragmatism. I urge Kemi to stand down in return for a serious job in a Truss administration.'

He also stepped up his attacks on Mordaunt, saying she was 'absent on parade' when he worked with her on post-Brexit negotiations last year.

Badenoch said she is 'disappointed' that Braverman was not backing her and suggested an offer of a future Cabinet job could have been behind the decision.

'I know people want to support the person that they think is most likely to give them a job, or who has been there the longest, that's the easy thing to do, the tough thing to do is to take a risk and try something different,' she told LBC radio.

Braverman earlier singled out Mordaunt for criticism, accusing her of failing to stand up for women in her apparent support of trans rights issues and of not being an 'authentic Brexiteer'.

'My perception of Penny is she takes a different view to me when it comes to gender ideology and the position of trans, for example I think she said a trans woman is a woman, I disagree with that,' she told BBC Radio 4's PM programme.

The attack was the latest in a contest which became increasingly vicious on Thursday, with allies of Truss seizing on comments from Lord Frost about Mordaunt's competence.

'I felt she did not master the detail that was necessary in the negotiations last year. She wouldn't always deliver tough messages to the European Union when that was necessary,' he told TalkTV.

'She wasn't fully accountable, she wasn't always visible. Sometimes I didn't even know where she was. This became such a problem that, after six months, I had to ask the Prime Minister to move her on and find somebody else to support me.'

The former minister's remarks were highlighted by the Truss campaign, with Treasury Chief Secretary Simon Clarke saying the warning was 'a really serious one'.

Clarke told Sky News: 'It is telling, I think, where current members of the Government are placing their support.

'That is reflected in a number of very senior ministers' decisions about who to support in this race - they are not backing Mordaunt.'

Former cabinet minister David Davis, a supporter of Mordaunt, criticised the 'black ops' being directed at her.

'I wouldn't describe it as friendly fire,' he said. 'It's absolutely clockwork - you get to the point that somebody gets ahead and looks to be the real challenger and then the black op starts, the incoming fire starts.'

Mordaunt supporter George Freeman accused rival campaigns of weaponising trans rights issues because they are 'desperate' in the campaign for No 10.

The former minister told BBC Newsnight: 'This is beginning to get a rough campaign, it's a shame. Penny has shocked by breaking through and now people are fighting hard.

'I think it is a real shame to see this issue being weaponised and used as another part of the culture war/division politics which Penny has made very clear she wants to end when she's prime minister and focus on unity.'

He added: 'I think it is a shame - to put it mildly - that David is using this as a chance to fight old battles.'

When DID Rishi Sunak decide to knife his old boss? Leadership hopeful struggles under pressure to explain when he turned on Boris Johnson

By Harriet Line For The Daily Mail

Rishi Sunak yesterday struggled when he was put under pressure to explain when exactly he decided to knife Boris Johnson.

In an awkward interview, the Tory leadership frontrunner was asked when he realised Mr Johnson 'wasn't in your view a good Prime Minister'.

He repeatedly dodged the question, insisting that 'leaving government and resigning as chancellor was an incredibly difficult decision for me  it wasn't a decision I took lightly'.

Mr Sunak, whose dramatic resignation last Tuesday helped trigger the downfall of the Prime Minister, eventually answered that he decided to quit the Cabinet 'when I resigned'.

Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak told the BBC's Radio 4 that he decided to leave Cabinet 'when I resigned' - and refused to be drawn on when he decided that Boris Johnson was not a good Prime Minister

Mr Sunak, who has been criticised for having held a US Green Card including for some time while he was chancellor, said: 'I was living and working and studying in America at the time but after that I returned to the United Kingdom and decided to try and serve my country as an MP'

Critics suggested Mr Sunak sounded evasive and thin-skinned during the interview with BBC Radio 4.

The former chancellor was also forced to defend the role of Sir Gavin Williamson in his campaign during his BBC Radio 4 Today programme appearance.

Rival camps have suggested the ex-chief whip has been involved in 'dirty tricks' to ensure Mr Sunak faces a candidate he would be more likely to defeat in the final run-off of party members.

Mr Sunak insisted Mel Stride is running the parliamentary aspect of his campaign, not Sir Gavin, but refused to say what his role is.

'Like all the Members of Parliament who are on my team, they are talking to colleagues and making the case for my candidacy because they believe that I am the best person to beat Keir Starmer and the Labour Party and I'm really grateful for all their support,' he said.

Mr Sunak yesterday maintained his place at the front of the Tory leadership race, securing 101 votes  but gained just an extra 13 votes compared with the first round. His rival Penny Mordaunt gained the most votes, putting on 16 from Wednesday's total.

Mr Sunak also insisted he would 'like to stay' in the UK if he fails in his bid to become Prime Minister.

Mr Sunak, who previously held a US Green Card including for some time while he was chancellor, said: 'I was living and working and studying in America at the time but after that I returned to the United Kingdom and decided to try and serve my country as an MP and then in government and now, hopefully, if I'm fortunate enough, as Prime Minister.

'That's because I believe I'm the best person to lead us through the challenges we face, do that in an honest and responsible way.

'But also I know I've got the energy, the experience and the vision to grow our economy, grasp the opportunities I see ahead of us.' He defended his wealth and background, saying they did not bar him from understanding the plight of hard-pressed households.

'I don't judge people by their bank accounts, I judge them by their character and I think people can judge me by my actions over the past couple of years.

'Whenever I have needed to step in to support people I have, and furlough is a fantastic example of that.'
Tom Tugendhat says he felt like a 'prom queen' after being wooed by rival leadership candidates who asked him to drop out and join their teams.

The chairman of the foreign affairs committee vowed not to quit last night, despite being last-placed in the rankings by MPs.

Mr Tugendhat secured enough support to get through the knockout round yesterday, and said he was determined to compete in the televised debates starting tonight.

The former soldier said: 'I'm still in this fight.

Tom Tugendhat secured enough support to get through the knockout round yesterday, although he lost several votes to other candidates

Mr Tugendhart (far right) will face off against other leadership hopefuls (left to right) Penny Mordaunt, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and Kemi Badenoch in a television debate tonight

'What Members of Parliament and what members of the Conservative Party need to know is that whoever it is they choose as the leader in this process is somebody who can champion those ideas and values in the election that's coming in 2024. And then, I hope, maybe 2029 as well.'

Mr Tugendhat has vowed not to make any 'dirty backroom deals', and his supporters revealed that he had rebuffed calls from three leading rivals who have asked him to fall in behind them.

But he was the only candidate to lose support among Tory MPs yesterday, receiving 32 endorsements compared with 37 in the first ballot.

Mr Tugendhat declined to say whether Boris Johnson had been a good Prime Minister, saying: 'You know that we've had our differences.

'I have never made a secret about it. Frankly, I couldn't have been more open about my position.'

Conservative Party leadership hopeful Tom Tugendhat MP speaks during the launch of his campaign in London, United Kingdom on July 12, 2022

Asked whether he believed in Brexit, he insisted he would not take the UK back into the EU, but said he did not regret voting to remain.

'Six years ago, it was a different question,' he said.

'What you're asking me now is would I ever go back into the European Union?

'No, I wouldn't. And the reason I wouldn't, is because it would be bad for Britain. I have always put Britain first, I will always put Britain first.'

He said he had consistently voted to leave the EU since the referendum.

'Once you get your orders, you march on. I work for the people in the United Kingdom... that is literally the job. And I got my orders in June 2016 and I intend to deliver.'

Mr Tugendhat said he hoped he would pick up votes from other candidates - even those who had not yet dropped out of the race.

'Where will this go? I don't know. I can't tell you. But I can tell you that a lot of people are looking at the options before them today and thinking differently about the votes they made yesterday - and that's not surprising.'

He drew some criticism after the Conservative MP Chris Skidmore suggested he had told a hustings that he did not believe the net zero target of 2050 could be met.

Mr Tugendhat said he had been expressing a view that the current plans would not meet the target.

But he added: 'I find it very, very difficult to justify the argument that it is green to buy solar panels made by slaves in Xinjiang or it is green to buy batteries mined by children in Africa, [creating the] technology in appallingly dirty energy conditions, often made with coal-fired power stations and then turned into batteries in China by often, again, by people whose human rights violations are legendary.'
A police officer who was in the presidential motorcade on January 6 has confirmed that Donald Trump had a heated standoff with Secret Service as his supporters marched toward the US Capitol, a report suggested on Thursday evening.

A source familiar with the matter didn't name the officer to CNN but said they worked for the Washington, DC Metro police force.

The person was reportedly able to corroborate one of the more damning points presented by the House select committee investigating January 6 so far in its series of eight hearings this summer.

It was the testimony of 25-year-old Cassidy Hutchinson, who was the assistant to Trump's final chief of staff, Mark Meadows.

It's not immediately clear whether the officer corroborated some or all of Hutchinson's explosive account.

The former aide had described a chaotic scene in which Trump physically tried to assert command over the vehicle he was being driven in, shouting at Secret Service agents: 'I'm the effing president, take me to the Capitol now.'

Hutchinson had testified earlier that he knew some of the supporters who came to see him at the Stop The Steal rally on the White House Ellipse that day were armed before he walked on stage.

The January 6 committee has heard testimony backing up the alleged heated exchange between Donald Trump and Secret Service after his Stop The Steal rally, CNN reports

It comes after 25-year-old Cassidy Hutchinson, former assistant to Trump's last chief of staff, testified that Trump 'lunged' at his security detail

Trump's alleged heated confrontation with security took place after he egged the crowd to march on to the US Capitol, where lawmakers and then-Vice President Mike Pence were certifying President Joe Biden's electoral victory.

When agents protested against following the mob, Hutchinson said she was told by Former Deputy Chief of Staff Tony Ornato that Trump 'lunged' for the steering wheel - and then for a Secret Service agent.

'Sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We're going back to the West Wing, we're not going to the Capitol,' Hutchinson was told Secret Service agent Robert Engel said.

'Mr. Trump then used his free hand to lunge towards Bobby Engel,' Hutchinson recalled.

Ornato 'motioned toward his clavicle,' she added, as a sign the president went for his security detail's throat.

Both Ornato and Engel have reportedly denied Hutchinson's account, as as Trump.

Others have said that Ornato was not present when the event reportedly occurred and his claims should therefore be dismissed.

That and other bombshell claims prompted the former president and his allies to launch an unrelenting campaign of character attacks against Hutchinson.

Lawmakers on the committee have since confirmed that they have witnesses corroborating the senior White House staffer's testimony, though have not gone into further detail themselves.

The Secret Service's actions surrounding January 6 have been under increasing scrutiny since Hutchinson's testimony.

And on Thursday, the House Homeland Security Committee confirmed to DailyMail.com that it was in position of a letter from the Homeland Security Department's watchdog accusing the Secret Service of stonewalling its Capitol riot investigation.

He reportedly was trying to force Secret Service to drive him to the US Capitol where his supporters were gathering

The Secret Service deleted 'many' texts between January 5 and January 6 after the Inspector General's office had requested the agency turn over electronic communications, a letter first reported by The Intercept reads.

'The Committee on Homeland Security received a letter from the DHS Inspector General regarding the Secret Service deleting text messages the Office of Inspector General requested as part of its investigation into the January 6th attack on the Capitol,' House Homeland Security Chair Rep. Bennie Thompson told DailyMail.com.

'The Committee will be briefed about this extraordinarily troubling destruction of records and respond accordingly.'

The letter was also sent to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

Its ranking member, Republican Senator Rob Portman, told DailyMail.com the allegations made him 'deeply concerned.'
Rock legend Bruce Springsteen is returning to the UK with a string of dates next year.

Springsteen, 72, pictured, will perform with The E Street Band for the first time since 2017.

Their four UK concerts are in Edinburgh (May 30), Birmingham (June 16) and Londons Hyde Park (July 6 and 8).

Springsteen, 72, pictured above in 2019, will perform with The E Street Band for the first time since 2017

Springsteen, a 20-time Grammy Award winner whose hits include Born to Run, Dancing in the Dark and Glory Days, last performed in the UK in 2016.

He will play 31 concerts in Europe next year.

Tickets are expected to cost between 50 and 150 and go on sale at 9am next Thursday.

The concerts will use Ticketmasters Verified Fan system, which aims to get more tickets to individual fans rather than tout bots which buy large quantities to sell on resale sites.

Artists including Adele have used the system, which requires fans to register before buying a ticket.

Springsteen is one of the worlds best-selling artists, with 20 Grammys, two Golden Globes, an Oscar, and a Special Tony Award, to his name

The announcement follows the success of the European tour dates that have sold more than 1.2 million tickets.

The news was announced on Springsteens Twitter account in a statement which read: Bruce & The E Street Band have announced four UK dates on their 2023 International Tour! The new dates mark their first UK shows since 5 June 2016 at Wembley Stadium.

Springsteen has released 20 studio albums in his six-decade career.

His most recent studio album with E Street Bands - Letter To You, which topped the charts in eleven countries - marked their first recording live together in decades.

Springsteen is one of the worlds best-selling artists, with 20 Grammys, two Golden Globes, an Oscar, and a Special Tony Award, to his name.

He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Thousands of the countrys remaining red telephone boxes are to disappear from our streets as demand continues to fall in the age of the mobile.

Around a quarter of BTs payphones are likely to be removed over the next year, chairman Adam Crozier told the companys annual general meeting yesterday.

It follows action by regulator Ofcom last month to change the rules in order to protect kiosks in areas with a poor mobile phone signal, or where they are used frequently to report accidents or call helplines.

BT has 21,000 working payphones across the UK, 3,600 of which are the iconic red boxes.

It runs a scheme for communities to adopt phone boxes for as little as 1 and change their use, such as into miniature libraries and art galleries.

A BT spokesman said the firm was reviewing its payphones and was looking at removing those which arent used.

Thousands of the countrys remaining red telephone boxes are to disappear from our streets as demand continues to fall in the age of the mobile (file photo)

Other payphones in operation include newer glass kiosk designs as well as phones located in shopping centres and train stations.

Red phone boxes were once a staple of streets across Britain and remain an icon of the UK and serve as a key photo opportunity for tourists.

But their existence has been under threat due to the meteoric rise of mobile phones, which has caused demand for payphones to collapse in all but the most remote areas.
A hard Frost descends on Pennys campaign

It's an indictment of the reality-show nature of todays politics that a virtual unknown could suddenly be propelled into the job of prime minister.

In times past, all the serious candidates would have had a track record in office against which they could be judged. Today, lack of experience and profile seem almost to be an advantage.

Penny Mordaunt is a prime example. She is now a favourite for the leadership, yet most Tories know little or nothing about her, except that she speaks well and seems a plausible figure.

Under proper scrutiny, cracks quickly begin to appear. Her former boss Lord Frost  for whom she deputised in Brexit talks  delivered a devastating critique of her abilities and application yesterday.

Couldnt master detail, unable to deliver tough messages to Brussels when necessary, often missing in action. After six months, he asked the PM to move her on.

Coming from a man as battle hardened and as admired by the party membership as Lord Frost, these are grave charges that need to be addressed.

Penny Mordaunt pictured addressing the media and supporters during a press conference to launch her bid to become the next Prime Minister on Wednesday

Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt, Tom Tugendhat, and Kemi Badenoch are the remaining five candidates for Tory leadership

Given existing unease over Miss Mordaunts support for extreme trans issues and the fact she has criticised self-regulation of the Press, alarm bells should be clanging. Tories must remember they are choosing a prime minister, not the winner of Im A Celebrity.

A candidate who does have a strong and demonstrable Cabinet record is Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.

She embodies the values of traditional Conservatism  low tax, aspirational, meritocratic, anti-woke. And unlike the other front-runners, she remained loyal to Boris to the end. Significantly, she has the endorsement of Lord Frost.

Miss Truss advanced strongly in the second MPs vote yesterday but remains in third place. She will no doubt harvest many of the eliminated Suella Bravermans votes, but they will not be enough.

With Kemi Badenoch still in the race, the split in the traditionalist vote could yet keep both women off the final ballot, when Tory members will choose from the last two candidates.

Mrs Badenoch is hugely promising but untested and the chances of her overtaking Miss Mordaunt or Mr Sunak are slim. If she threw her weight behind Truss, both could be winners  Miss Truss as PM and Mrs Badenoch in a key office of state, where she could hone her political craft.

If they continue to slug it out, however, the traditional wing of the party could find itself out in the cold. That would be a travesty.

Boris still favourite

Meanwhile Boris Johnsons latest bravura performance in the Commons showed just how much we will miss the great boosteriser when hes gone.

With his trademark wit and oratorical flair he wiped the floor with irredeemably wooden Sir Keir Starmer, whose dud jokes fell even flatter than usual.

He also dismissed Ian Blackford, as ever a veritable ball of red-faced pomposity, with wry humour rather than copying the SNP leaders truculence and bile.

This was a class act by a remarkable politician who said he would be leaving with his head held high. So he should.

Boris Johnsons latest bravura performance in the Commons showed just how much we will miss the great boosteriser when hes gone

Of course there were mistakes but vastly outweighed by his stellar achievements  from securing Brexit, through the vaccine miracle to his statesmanship over Ukraine.

A week ago, when Boris was brought down by a palace coup, this papers front page headline asked the question: What the hell have they done?

Today, as the pretenders squabble for his crown, that question couldnt be more pertinent. And last night a poll on our Mail+ app and at mailplus.co.uk asked who would be the best pick for PM. The frontrunner, with about 50 per cent of votes, was  Boris Johnson. Enough said.
The number of households saying they no longer need a TV licence shot up by 270,000 last year, figures show, as the BBC faces competition from US streaming giants.

Domestic customers who declared they did not need to pay the charge, which is needed to watch or record live TV, went from 1.69 million to 1.96 million last year.

It comes after this weeks BBC annual report revealed that the number of licences in force had dropped by 300,000 from 25.2 million to 24.9million.

The BBC has seen large numbers of viewers being tempted away by the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ which do not require a TV licence.

Figures released this week also showed the TV licence evasion rate has increased to 8.9 per cent from a range of 6.5 to 7.5 per cent.

A BBC spokesman said: The overwhelming majority of households are licensed, sales increased this year and 90 per cent of people use the BBC each week.

The number of households saying they no longer need a TV licence shot up by 270,000 last year

The Television Licence Fee Trust statement released this week said: The number of domestic customers declaring that they did not require a licence reached 1.96 million in 2021-22.

Despite higher sales, the number of domestic customers who declared that they no longer needed a licence increased by the end of 2021-22 by 270,000, from 1.69 million in 2020-21.

It added the number of total households requiring a licence fell to 92.2 per cent last year. This compared with a figure of 93.8 per cent two years ago in 2019-20.
A man acquitted in a terrorist bombing that killed 329 people aboard an Air India flight in 1985 was shot dead in Canada on Thursday.

The victim, Ripudaman Singh Malik, was sitting his his car in Surrey, British Columbia on Thursday morning when a witness said he heard gunshots and ran outside to find Malik unconscious in his car.

Canadian authorities said it appeared that Malik had been killed in a targeted shooting.

Along with co-defendant Ajaib Singh Bagri, Malik was found not guilty in March 2005 of murder and conspiracy in a pair of Air India terror attacks that killed 331 people, one of which brought down an airliner off the coast of Ireland on its way to India on June 23, 1985.

Police had not initially released the dead man's identity, but confirmed it after Malik's son, Jaspreet Malik, reported his father's slaying in a statement on social media.

'The media will always refer to him as someone charged with the Air India bombing,' the son wrote on Facebook. 'The media and RCMP never seemed to accept the court's decision and I pray today's tragedy is not related.'

Ripudaman Singh Malik, was sitting his his car in Surrey, British Columbia on Thursday morning when a witness said he heard gunshots

RCMP and Surrey Police officers work at the scene of a shooting near a red Tesla vehicle, back, in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, on Thursday. Ripudaman Singh Malik, the man acquitted in the 1985 Air India terrorist bombing, appears to have been killed in the shooting, according to several media outlets.

Irish naval authorities bring ashore debris from an Air India Boeing 747, 28 June 1985 in Cork following the crash of the aircraft on June 23, 1985, of which Ripudaman Singh Malik was acquitted of bombing

Canadian authorities said it appeared that Malik had been killed in a targeted shooting

What happened to Air India Flight 182? A suitcase bomb was loaded onto a plane at Vancouver's airport and then transferred in Toronto to Air India Flight 182 The plane blew up off the Irish coast on its way to India on 23 June 1985, killing all 329 people on board. Most of them were Canadian citizens visiting relatives in the subcontinent. The bombings were widely believed to have been carried out by Canadian-based Sikhs in retaliation for India's deadly 1984 storming of the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine in the Sikh religion. Advertisement

In a statement, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said: 'We are aware of Mr. Maliks background, though at this time we are still working to determine the motive.

'We can confirm that the shooting appears to be targeted and there is not believed to be any further risk to the public.'

Sgt. Timothy Pierotti said that because the shooting took place in a residential area, police were confident witnesses would be able to help solve the crime.

Police said shortly after the attack that a vehicle believed to be used in the shooting was found engulfed in fire a few blocks away.

In Malik's trial, British Columbia Supreme Court heard that a suitcase bomb was loaded onto a plane at Vancouver's airport and then transferred in Toronto to Air India Flight 182.

The aircraft crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ireland, killing 329 passengers and crew.

About an hour later, a bomb destined for another Air India plane exploded prematurely at Tokyo's Narita Airport, where two baggage handlers died.

Inderjit Singh Reyat, the only man convicted in the bombings, testified for the prosecution at Malik and Bagri's trial and was later convicted of perjury.

Deepak Khandelwal of Oakville, Ontario, said the shooting 'just brings back all the horrible memories we'd had to go through for the last 37 years.'

He was 17 when his sisters, 21-year-old Chandra and 19-year-old Manju, were killed on Flight 182.

'It's like a nightmare that never stops giving,' he said.
A meat plant employee who was sacked for discussing salary negotiations with co-workers has lost his unfair dismissal challenge.

The Federal Circuit Court ruled in favour of JBS-owned Primo Foods' dismissal of a Brisbane quality assurance officer after finding the former employee broke the company's confidentiality policy.

The court found the dismissal was 'reasonable' in light of concerns about staff conflict and privacy and said did not breach workplace rights.

The court ruled in favour of Primo Foods' dismissal of a Brisbane quality assurance officer after finding the former employee broke the company's confidentiality policy (stock image)

The court found the termination 'reasonable' as the man allegedly spoke to colleagues about the details of their new pay offers (stock image)

The case was spearheaded by the Australian Meat Industry Employees Union who alleged the termination was unlawful and was in response to a previous protected bullying complaint the former employee had filed.

The court heard the officer had been employed at the company's Wacol plant for just shy of six years.

Primo Foods found evidence co-workers had discussed the details of their offers with the quality assurance officer as he was aware of the salary proposed as well as the status of ongoing negotiations.

At the time, the company was transitioning its 'quality team' from an hourly pay rate to a salary.

The court heard the former officer had told his supervisor he was aware coworkers were unhappy with their offers.

He went on to say some had asked for more money, while others were holding off signing the contract offered, waiting to see how their overtime would be affected, according to court documents.

Primo Foods argued that obtaining and discussing confidential salary information was against its code of conduct which therefore warranted termination.

The former employee was also previously warned about an unrelated matter and JBS considered his 'dishonesty' warranted contract termination.

The Australian Meat Industry Employees Union brought forward the case on behalf of the sacked worker alleging the termination was unlawful, something the judge disagreed with

The employee was given his termination letter in April 2021 with the reason given being he 'was in possession of confidential information in breach of the respondent's group code of conduct and ethics - that he had discussions with members of the team about the confidential terms and conditions of their contracts of employment; and that in doing so during his ongoing contract negotiations, was guilty of misconduct justifying the termination of his employment.'

As part of the court proceedings, four individuals provided statements outlining the importance of keeping salary offers confidential.

One respondent, a HR officer at the company, the court found had told 'each of the employees at the time the salary offers were made to them that such information was confidential, and that such offers were not to be shared around with other employees.'

Judge Egan found the former officer's employment was reasonably terminated, and that the company was entitled to take that measure based on their assessment of the seriousness of the code of conduct breach.

The judge found the human resources officer and general manager were detached from the worker's previous complaints, and entitled to take an earlier warning issued to him into account.
Unionized subcontractors of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DMSE) hold a rally before starting a hunger strike in front of Korea Development Bank, Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap.



By Lee Kyung-min



A month-long strike by unionized subcontractors of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DMSE) has developed into a hunger strike after the workers failed to receive mediation or assistance from the labor and industry ministries a day earlier, according to industry watchers, Friday.



Their collective struggle has been met by rallies held jointly by full-time regular workers of the shipbuilder based in Geoje Island, South Gyeongsang Province, as well as the island's residents.



The full-time workers and island residents fear that the drawn-out protest by the hardline workers will come at the expense of a much-awaited recovery in Korea's leading manufacturing sector. Korean shipbuilders are one of the country's growth drivers and top global players, having secured 45 percent of the advance orders around the world in the first half of this year, after years of an industry-wide slowdown.





Full-time regular workers of DSME hold a rally on Geoje Island, South Gyeongsang Province, Thursday. Yonhap
Millions of Australians could unknowingly be eligible for a cash refund worth well into the thousands.

The potential windfall is the result of dodgy 'junk' insurance policies attached to popular products such as credit cars and car loans that are now required to be repaid as a result of the 2019 Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Service Industry.

It recognised this type of insurance policy was often unwanted by consumers, or they were unaware it was part of their loan, and directed major banks to contribute to a $10million refund pool.

More than one million Aussies aged 60 and over could unknowingly be eligible for a cash refund well into the thousands

Nathan Mortlock (pictured), director of insurance refund experts, Claimo: 'If you've ever had a credit card, taken out a loan or obtained finance to buy a car, you're likely to have unknowingly paid for junk insurance and are eligible for a refund'

Insurance refund experts, Claimo, told Daily Mail Australia on Friday: 'A $10 billion 'junk insurance' refund pool is owed to around six millions Australians - over 60s account for around a sixth of the population.'

'If you've ever had a credit card, taken out a loan or obtained finance to buy a car, you're likely to have unknowingly paid for junk insurance and are eligible for a refund,' director Nathan Mortlock said.

'Shamefully, we've found some of these insurances have been charged as a compounding percentage, which over time has cost consumers thousands, even up to tens of thousands of dollars.'

Claimo has already recovered more than $10million in refunds for 3,000 Australians, but they insist that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

HOW TO CHECK IF YOU MAY BE ELIGIBLE FOR A REFUND: Look at your credit card statements and loan contracts

Look for the words 'credit card insurance', 'consumer credit insurance' or 'loan protection' (may appear on or near the 'interest changes' line)

If you find these references, or similar, chances are, you've been charged junk insurance and could be entitled to a refund Advertisement

The average Claimo refund is $3,400, with one client achieving a massive return of $70,000, while another $90,000 claim is currently pending.

'If you're over 60 and had loans during your lifetime, you are very likely to be owed money,' Mr Mortlock said.

'Although any loan prior to 2018 is worth investing, we now know the '90s were notorious for attaching junk insurance to loans.

'Most victims don't even know they have paid for junk insurance, or could be owed a refund.

'Even if you had a loan with a respectable bank or lender - you should still check.'

Mr Mortlock said that that some insurances 'just come with the loan or card' and we don't question it.

'People think these insurances are mandatory and they're not.'

He explained this was the reason the Royal Commission had ordered the banks to put aside the refund money but that it was up to each individual to apply for a refund.

'You won't be getting a call from your lender with a offer to give it back,' he said.

David Stavropoulos, Chief Commercial Officer at Claimo and a former partner at an international law firm, told Daily Mail Australia: 'For eligible claims, you may be entitled to compensatory interest in addition to the premiums you have been charged.'

The average Claimo refund is $3,400, with one client achieving a massive return of $70,000, while another $90,000 claim is currently pending (pictured, women walking along Pitt Street in Sydney, NSW)

'For a single premium paid in 2004, the compensatory interest is likely to be higher than the premium paid. This could effectively more than double the size of the potential refund.

'For example, a $2,000 insurance premium charged in 2004, could attract between $2,300 and $4,200 in compensatory interest.'

One lucky Perth resident, Stuart Mitchell, said he was shocked when he received a call from Claimo about a refund for all the junk credit card insurance he had paid over the years.

'To be honest, I thought I might get back $500-$600,' Mr Mitchell said.

'But when they said I'd be refunded nearly $16,000 - I nearly dropped the phone.'

Claimo's service offers to request your documentation on your behalf if you don't have it. They will check current and historic policies, including ones that are closed, paid out, or have been transferred elsewhere.

The process takes about one to three months on average to complete.
White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan celebrated Saudi Arabia opening its airspace to 'all carriers' including those from Israel on Thursday, in a statement crediting President Joe Biden's 'persistent and principled diplomacy' for getting it done.

It comes in the middle of the president's first trip to the Middle East as commander-in-chief.

The move could be seen as an outreach effort by the Saudis to the US, as Biden prepares to meet with the wealthy Gulf nation's ruling family on Friday afternoon - despite calling for the regime to be made a 'pariah' during the 2020 campaign trail.

'President Biden welcomes and commends the historic decision by the leadership of Saudi Arabia to open Saudi airspace to all civilian carriers without discrimination, a decision that includes flights to and from Israel,' Sullivan said on Thursday night.

'This decision is the result of the president's persistent and principled diplomacy with Saudi Arabia over many months, culminating in his visit today.'

White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan praised Saudi Arabia for allowing its airspace to be open to all commercial carriers in a late Thursday night statement

US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid sign a joint declaration affirming the 'unbreakable bonds' between the two countries and a US commitment to protecting Israeli security, in Jerusalem, Thursday, July 14, 2022

He said Saudi Arabia's decision 'paves the way for a more integrated, stable, and secure Middle East region, which is vital for the security and prosperity of the United States and the American people, and for the security and prosperity of Israel.'

He promised that Biden would have 'more to say' upon arrival in Jeddah.

There, the president is scheduled to meet with King Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud in an evening event that's for officials only.

After the short face-to-face, Biden and his team are sitting down for a working session with Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, Mohammed Bin Salman.

The Saudi civil aviation authority 'announces the decision to open the Kingdom's airspace for all air carriers that meet the requirements of the authority for overflying', it said in a statement on Twitter.

The decision could be seen as a gesture of goodwill from the Saudis as Biden prepares to meet with the wealthy Gulf nation's leaders on Friday

It was the latest conciliatory move by Riyadh concerning Israel, which it has refused to recognize despite intensive efforts by Tel Aviv to establish ties with Arab countries.

The decision was made 'to complement the Kingdom's efforts aimed at consolidating the Kingdom's position as a global hub connecting three continents.'

Shortly after the Abraham Accords were announced in 2020, Saudi Arabia allowed an Israeli aircraft to pass over en route to Abu Dhabi and announced that UAE flights to 'all countries' could overfly the kingdom.

Friday's announcement effectively lifts overflight restrictions on aircraft travelling to and from Israel.

Israel has been pushing for the overflight rights to shorten links to destinations in Asia.

Israeli authorities also want Muslim pilgrims from Israel to be able to travel directly to Saudi Arabia.

Currently they are required to make costly stopovers in third countries.
Every Aussie flying back from Bali will be checked for foot and mouth disease at the border, a minister has revealed.

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said $14million will be spent on combating the spread of the disease in Australia and overseas.

Returning Aussies who match the risk profile will be questioned, checked by detector dogs and have their shoes and luggage decontaminated.

'We need the travelling public to take this seriously,' he told reporters in Sydney.

'If foot and mouth disease gets into our country it will be a devastating blow for our agricultural industry, particularly our livestock industry.

'While there is a lot of attention on the travelling public coming back from Indonesia ... the highest-risk way of foot and mouth disease coming back into our country is through animal products, meat products and dairy products.'

Indonesia, which was free of foot and mouth disease from 1986 until May, confirmed last week that it has spread to Bali

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said $14million will be spent on combating the spread of the disease in Australia and overseas

Indonesia, which was free of the disease from 1986 until May, confirmed last week that it has spread to Bali.

Senator Watt said as a result of that spread the government was now risk-profiling passengers returning from Indonesia.

'If any of those passengers match the risk profile ... then those passengers are screened and go through being questioned, having shoes cleaned, having luggage examined, having detector dogs,' he said.

'If anyone does come back in the country and declare that they have had contact with a dam or livestock, or have got grains or meat products or any of the usual things that you have to declare, then those passengers are screened as well.'

Of the $14million, $5million will go towards on-the-ground measures in Indonesia, Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea, including technical assistance and epidemiological support.

A further $9million will be spent on 18 new biosecurity officers to be stationed at Australian airports and mail centres, as well as detector dogs in Cairns and Darwin.

Funding will also go towards a new northern Australia co-ordinator to manage surveillance and preparedness strategies across the region.

Senator Watt warned the disease could cause an $80billion hit to the economy if it was allowed to spread in Australia.

The government had previously provided $1.5million for at least a million doses for Indonesia's foot-and-mouth vaccine program, following a formal request for assistance after the disease spread to Bali.

Senator Watt has returned from Jakarta where he discussed the disease outbreak with his Indonesian counterpart.

Cases of foot and mouth disease were detected in the country in May and later surfaced in Bali, which welcomes more than 100 flights from Australia every week.

Of the $14million, $5million will go towards on-the-ground measures in Indonesia, Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea, including technical assistance and epidemiological support

Travellers entering Australia have been advised to ensure their clothes and shoes are free of soil or manure.

The agriculture minister said keeping the disease out of the country was a joint responsibility.

'We need the state governments and territory governments to play their role in making sure that they're prepared if we do see an outbreak come to Australia,' he said.

'We owe it to ourselves, we owe it to our farmers and we owe it to all Australians to take this disease seriously.'

There are fears the disease could be transported back to Australia by tourists who have been flocking to Bali since the end of coronavirus restrictions.

Indonesia's Ministry of Agriculture said it had been detected in more than 60 cows across three locations in Bali, putting Australian authorities on high alert.

Australia's last recorded case of FMD was in 1872, and recent modelling conducted by the Federal Government's commodity forecaster ABARES revealed an outbreak would cause revenue losses of $80billion over 10 years.

The disease is not a risk to human health but people can carry it on their shoes, clothes or in their noses  where it can survive for up to 24 hours. Flights from Denpasar to Darwin are only 2.5 hours long.

Humans can also transmit the disease to livestock, leading to fears of an export ban if the disease takes root.

It would likely take several years for trade to be reopened.

Livestock exhibiting symptoms should be reported to the national Emergency Animal Disease Watch Hotline on 1800 675 888.
A driver who caused a horror highway smash that claimed the life of a two-year-old girl has pleaded guilty to the crime during a court appearance from his bed.

Matt Livingston, 42, of Donald, crashed his 42-tonne semi-trailer on the Calder Freeway in Victoria just before Christmas last year, hitting three cars.

The toddler, from Caulfield South in Melbourne's south-east, was sitting in the back of her family's Volkswagen SUV.

Her parents and baby sister were also seriously injured in the crash, which was captured on dash cam by another motorist travelling behind.

Matt Livingston was behind the wheel of a semi-trailer that careened out of control

In a Facebook post in September - three months before the tragedy - Matt Livingston uploaded a photo of his truck (pictured)

Livingston captioned the Facebook photo with the caption 'livin' the dream' (pictured)

On Friday, Livingston appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court via videolink.

Dressed in a grey hoodie, a Carlton Blues scarf and other memorabilia could be seen hanging off the bed head alongside two teddy bears.

Livingston faces prison greens and a mouldy mattress after his plea hearing in the County Court of Victoria takes place on December 7 - almost a year to the day his driving cost the life of his young victim.

Livingston has pleaded guilty to more than a dozen charges, including culpable driving causing death, negligently causing serious injury and conduct endangering serious injury.

He also admitted to not only failing to update his truck driver's log book, but fudging it and failing to take adequate rest breaks.

Culpable driving in Victoria carries a 20-year maximum prison sentence.

Livingston remains free in the community on bail until his plea in December.

Following the crash, it was revealed the 42-year-old was a passionate driver who often posted on social media about how much he loved his job.

He uploaded an image of his semi-trailer at sunset on Facebook in September - just three months before the accident - with the caption 'livin' the dream'.

Livingston's profile was filled with photos taken from behind the wheel of his truck - most of which include gifs with hearts, comments about his love for truck driving, and endearing messages from friends and family.

Truck driver Matt Livingston (pictured) was involved in a crash on a Victorian freeway in which a two-year-old was killed and her parents and sister injured

Livingston often posted images of his truck on social media (pictured)

The horrific crash shocked the nation just weeks out of Christmas last year.

Jarrod Bell of Victoria's State Emergency Service said it was a 'confronting' scene to attend.

'Six vehicles and five people trapped, this is one of the largest and most complex calls I have attended in a decade,' he said.

'Any incident involving a child is challenging but when we are dealing with the death of a two-year-old that breaks my heart. This call is something that will sit with us for quite a while.'

Police were investigating several factors around the circumstances of the crash.

The crash was a scene of total carnage (scene pictured)

A two-year-old girl died. Her sister and parents were in critical condition after the horror smash on a busy freeway (pictured)

'We are too early in the investigation to come up with those answers - whether there is involvement of excessive speeding or drugs, or anything like that,' Detective Sergeant Mark Amos said at the time.

'It is simple physics why this happened and if people don't show some responsibility and respect it, then this will continue and other families are going to have the single worst Christmas of their lives.'

Distressing images showed grain and debris strewn across the highway, which was closed when emergency services arrived on the scene.

Onlookers said the wreckage was the worst they had ever seen.

'Drove past this just after it happened and I felt sick to my stomach. Terrible,' one woman wrote on Facebook.

Others who were stuck in traffic as a result said they broke down when they saw the tragedy on the news.

Confronting dashcam footage showed the moment the truck ploughed into several vehicles entering a 40km/h roadwork zone.

An SES officer said the crash site (pictured) was a 'confronting' scene to attend on Monday

Emergency crews rushed to the scene on the Calder Freeway in Melbourne 's north west, just after 2.30pm on Monday

A car in front of the semi-trailer appeared to swerve into the right-side lane, prompting the truck to do the same.

But the truck crashed into the back of a vehicle and a massive multi-car collision followed, ending with the semi-trailer toppling over.

'This is a catastrophe, this is an absolute disaster,' Detective Amos said at the time.

'It's monumentally frustrating to see this sort of stuff... take your time, slow down, look after each other.'

Aerial images showed the large truck on its side with the grain covering much of the road.

Debris from other cars was also strewn across the freeway including a vehicle that was towing a boat.
A drunk and drugged-up driver who killed four children walking along a Sydney footpath to buy ice-creams has had his jail term slashed.

Samuel William Davidson was driving erratically and speeding when he struck Veronique Sakr, 11, and her cousins, Sienna Abdallah, eight, and her siblings Angelina, 12, and Antony, 13.

The 31-year-old ploughed into them after his ute mounted a kerb at Oatlands, in Sydney's northwest on February 1, 2020. He was jailed in April 2021 for 28 years with a non-parole period of 21 years.

But in a majority decision on Friday, the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal concluded the term was manifestly excessive.

Immediately after Samuel William Davidson mowed down a group of children on a Sydney footpath, killing four of them, he was resigned to being jailed. His jail term has now been slashed

Antony (far left), 13, Angelina (far right), 12, and Sienna Abdallah (front left), 9, were killed in the horror accident on February 1, 2020

Davidson, a professional truck driver, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Veronique Sakr, 11 (on right), and her cousins, Sienna Abdallah, eight, and her siblings Angelina, 12, and Antony, 13 (left)

Davidson was resentenced to a term of 20 years with a non-parole period of 15 years. That is a cut of six years to his minimum prison term.

The former truck driver pleaded guilty to manslaughter for the children he killed and also pleaded guilty to three charges relating to the injuries caused to three other children. One boy has suffered permanent brain damage.

Veronique's mother, Bridget, was devastated by the decision, which was made by a panel of appeals court judges.

'What does it say about our judicial system? What we can do is help change the law so other families don't go what we go through,' she told the Parramatta Advertiser.

'One thing I want to say is it was all about him getting a crushing sentence but it's our kids who were crushed.

'No one's going to bring back Veronique or her cousins. I just worry what this means for future tragedies.'

After the crash, Davidson appeared distressed and was heard saying: 'What have I done? ... I have killed people ... I am going to jail.'

Bridget Sakr (centre) says she is devastated by the decision to release Samuel William Davidson early

Danny Abdullah, the father of Sienna, Angelina and Antony, said at the time of Davidson's sentencing that it did not matter whether he received one year or 100 years, 'we won't get Antony, Angelina, Sienna and Veronique back.'

'We will all have our hearts broken until the day we take our last breath and no sentence can help ease that pain.'

When sentencing Davidson at Parramatta's District Court, Judge James Bennett said Davidson's menacing, dangerous and aggressive driving over a significant period leading up to the tragic event showed he had abandoned all responsibility to the road safety of others.

The tragedy was inevitable, but the magnitude of the tragedy extended to the unimaginable, Judge Bennett said.

At the time, the professional truck driver was afforded a 25 per cent discount on sentence after pleading guilty to manslaughter for the children he killed and also pleading guilty to three charges relating to the injuries caused to three other children.

Davidson, the son of a former policeman, had been sitting poolside with his housemates drinking Vodka Cruisers and beers, having his first drink about 7am before consuming drugs and driving that fateful morning.

Danny and Leila Abdallah, parents of three of the children who were killed, have previously said they had forgiven the driver

The children were on their way to get ice-cream when Davidson ploughed into them on February 1

He was observed by witnesses speeding through a red light, swerving anti-clockwise around a round-about, and driving at a maximum speed of 133km/h in a 50km/h zone.

After the crash, Davidson appeared distressed and was heard saying: 'What have I done?

'I have killed people ... I am going to jail.'

After Davidson's sentencing, Mr Abdallah said his main disappointment lay in Australian culture's love of drugs and alcohol.

'That's where my frustration is, more than the driver.'

Davidson's letter of apology stated that he is heartbroken to have hurt such beautiful families by his horrid actions.

He said that he would do anything to relive that day sober and never leaving the house.

Davidson will now be eligible for parole on January 31, 2035.
Advertisement

Hunter Biden's wife Melissa Cohen has been spotted dropping by a cannabis dispensary in Malibu after running errands at Whole Foods and CVS.

Cohen, 35, was spotted on her shopping run Wednesday, and was escorted by a Secret Service protective agent as she ran her errands.

After picking up bananas and a pack of Kor wellness shots -- a Malibu-based health drink -- at Whole Foods, Cohen dropped by the 99 High Tide dispensary on the Pacific Coast Highway, where she was spotted leaving with a small unidentified purchase.

California is one of 19 US states where recreational weed is legal, and the 99 High Tide shop offers a wide array of pre-rolled joints, vape cartridges, edibles and loose flowers, according to the company's website.

The sighting seems to confirm that President Joe Biden's son Hunter and his family remain based in the area, just days after DailyMail.com revealed that they had moved out of their rented $20,000-per-month Malibu home.

Hunter Biden's wife Melissa Cohen has been spotted dropping by a cannabis dispensary in Malibu after running errands at Whole Foods and CVS

Cohen dropped by the 99 High Tide dispensary on the Pacific Coast Highway, where she was spotted leaving with a small unidentified purchase

California is one of 19 US states where recreational weed is legal, and the 99 High Tide shop offers a wide array of pre-rolled joints, vape cartridges, edibles and loose flowers, according to the company's website

Cohen, 35, was spotted on her shopping run Wednesday leaving the dispensary with a small purchase (circled)

The sighting seems to confirm that President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, and his family remain based in the area, just days after DailyMail.com revealed they'd moved out of their rented $20,000-a-month Malibu home

At Whole Foods Cohen picked up bananas and a pack of Kor wellness shots, a Malibu-based health drink

On her shopping run Wednesday, Cohen was sporting a pink floral summer dress and flowing black cardigan, paired with simple black pumps and chunky black-framed shades.

She also made a stop at CVS, where she was seen picking up paper towels and other household items.

The Secret Service agent on her protection detail remained close at hand as she made her shopping rounds. All immediate members of the sitting president's family, including adult children and their families, are afforded such protection as a matter of routine.

Cohen, a South African filmmaker, married Hunter in 2019, and the couple share a young son together, named Beau after Hunter's late brother.

Hunter has struggled with drug and alcohol addiction for much of his life, as he has detailed in his recent biography, but now says he is in recovery as he pursues a career as an artist.

On her shopping run Wednesday, Cohen was sporting a pink floral summer dress and flowing black cardigan, paired with simple black pumps and chunky black-framed shades

The Secret Service agent (right) on her protection detail remained close at hand as she made her shopping rounds

Cohen, a South African filmmaker, married Hunter in 2019, and the couple share a young son together, named Beau after Hunter's late brother

She also made a stop at CVS, where she was seen picking up paper towels and other household items

DailyMail.com revealed that Hunter has moved out of his rented Malibu home (right) and on to another property. His family had been renting the home for $20,000-a-month while their Secret Service detail rented a neighboring home for $30,000

He and Cohen first moved to Malibu a year ago, after moving to the exclusive enclave from a $20,000-a-month rented mansion in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Venice.

But DailyMail.com revealed on Wednesday that the Malibu mansion Hunter had been renting was back on the market, after the family apparently moved to another home in the area.

Secret Service officers were still seen this week stationed at the six-bed Spanish-style estate next door to Hunter's vacated Malibu home.

The USSS rented the neighboring property to house the First Son's protection team for $30,000 per month.

The 3,000 square foot Malibu home featured an open floor plan with solid oak floors and 180-degree views of the Pacific. The three-car garage was converted into a studio where Biden goes to paint every morning.

The property has a floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace, an indoor-outdoor living room with pocket doors and a great room with a vaulted ceiling.

While running errands Cohen dropped by the 99 High Tide dispensary on the Pacific Coast Highway

A Secret Service agent trails Cohen as she makes her stop at the Malibu dispensary

All immediate members of the sitting president's family, including adult children and their families, are afforded Secret Service protection as a matter of routine.

Cohen leaves the dispensary with her unidentified purchase on Wednesday

Its 0.7-acre lot features a pool, hot tub, stone patio and built-in barbecue.

His secret service detail snagged a $30,000-per-month 'Spanish-style estate' of their own next door to Hunter's, with six bedrooms and six bathrooms, and amenities including a gym, tasting room, pool, barbecue and a spa.

Meanwhile, Hunter's former neighbors in Venice are lamenting his departure a year ago, saying that without the constant Secret Service presence, the area has once again become filled with sidewalk homeless encampments.

'As homeowners in Venice, our neighbors have struggled with the out of control homelessness that has made our streets and neighborhoods unsafe,' said Ann McElhinney, who has a home down the street from Hunter's old condo.

'When Hunter moved into the neighborhood, his street was immediately cleared of the homeless. The minute he moved up to Malibu, his old street in Venice became a tent city. How is this fair to Venice homeowners?' she said.

'It just shows how the Biden's truly live a different life from the rest of us.'
The wife of the former owner of infamous NYC nightclub Studio 54 says he found religion just before dying at a Swiss suicide clinic on July 13, after a mystery illness turned him into a vegetable.

Mark Fleischman, 82, told the New York Post in June he spent $15,000 booking a first-class, one-way flight to Zurich, home of the famed Dignitas suicide clinic.

Once there, Fleischman drank a lethal dose of barbiturates to end his life after two years battling an illness which doctors haven't been able to diagnose - but which he says left him unable to move unaided.

Fleischman's wife of 27 years, Mimi, told the Post it was a surreal experience as he took the sodium pentothal.

'We looked at each other like, 'This is crazy in a way.' My feeling was, 'Wow. I can't believe this is happening,'' she said.

Fleischman's wife said that while her husband never wavered from wanting to go through with his assisted suicide, she did see changes in him toward the end.

'Mark used to not believe in God at all. He was a complete Atheist,' she said. 'He started to believe in God during the last few weeks. I believe in God

'Mark came to believe that there is life after death. He made a change in his belief system about the continuation of existence.'

Fleischman kept a hand on her husband's knee as he washed down the bitter drug with chocolate and a sweet drink.

The wife of the former owner of infamous NYC nightclub Studio 54 says he found religion just before dying at a Swiss suicide clinic on July 13, after a mystery illness turned him into a vegetable

Mark Fleischman, 82, said in June he spent $15,000 booking a first-class, one-way flight to Zurich, home of the famed Dignitas suicide clinic

Fleischman's wife of 27 years, Mimi, told the Post it was a surreal experience as he took the sodium pentothal

'Then, a minute later, he looked around and said, "I don't feel anything." I think it was a throwback to his drug-taking days. Three or four minutes later, he was asleep.'

However, this change of faith did not change his heart regarding his death.

'There was always the option that he would change his mind; but in reality, it was the opposite,' Mimi said. 'But by the time we got on the plane to Zurich, he was adamant. He made a decision and this was what he wanted to do, even as friends read about Mark and asked him not to do it. But Mark wanted to die on his own terms.'

Mimi Fleischman said they traveled to Switzerland last Sunday to head to Dignitas, saying they 'had a little fun' and enjoyed a movie en route to his suicide.

'It didn't feel like we were going to the end of the world, which, literally, we were,' she said.

The Fleischmans had said they wanted to explore the city of Zurich, but Mark's immobility made it difficult.

Once in Switzerland, the process involved making sure Fleischman was doing this by his own choice.

'Yes,' he said, choosing to stay in his wheelchair. 'I am ready to drink this.'

Mimi then detailed a 30-minute wait to drink the sodium pentothal as they continued to discuss what was going on. Before the 30 minutes was up, Mark asked to get the nurse to let him go through with it.

'They asked Mark if he was ready and he said, "Yes," ' said Mimi. 'Then they gave him the potion.'

Mimi remained at the side of her husband of 27 years as he fell asleep for good.

'I stayed for another hour, to be with him,' she said. 'I had all the mixed feelings. There was happiness for him that he could do it and that I could support him. I touched Mark. I realized that I am not going to touch him again. These were the last touches.'

Her final moments with her husband were, she said, very peaceful: 'I didn't cry. I was overwhelmed and relieved that he is free.'

Mark's body will be cremated in Switzerland and then sent to Mimi in California. She has yet to return herself after testing positive for COVID a day after Mark's ended his life.

Fleischman detailed the horrors of what he was going through just a few weeks before his death.

'I can't walk, my speech is f**ked up and I can't do anything for myself,' Fleischman, told the Post. 'My wife helps me get into bed and I can't dress or put on my shoes. I am taking a gentle way out. It is the easiest way out for me.'

Fleischman ran Studio 54 when it was one of the biggest clubs on the planet, known for spending time with the likes of the Rolling Stones, Robin Williams, Rick James and John Belushi.

Mark Fleischman took his own life via a lethal dosage of barbiturates with the assistance of a Swiss non-profit group called Dignitas on July 13

The former owner of Studio 54, one of the most famous and infamous clubs in the history of New York City, is pictured in New York in 1981

A bed is pictured at the Dignitas suicide clinic. Clients pay $15,000 to receive a drink - or intravenous drip - filled with poison, which kills them painlessly

Mark - seen here with wife Mimi Fleischman - said he was doing this because he's suffering from an undiagnosed illness for the past two years that has left him more or less 'a vegetable.'

Raquel Welch, Steve Rubell and Mark Fleischman at Studio 54 circa 1981. Rubell was one of the original co-founders of the club, and later died of AIDS

During that time, he remembers ample drug use, threesomes and boozing it up with the stars as part of what they called the 'Dawn Patrol.'

Mark, who is a stepdad to Mimi's two children from a prior relationship, said he'd been ill since 2016, when he felt his left leg start to drag at his home in California.

Mimi claimed back in June that it's worse than being paralyzed.

'It is worse than not being able to walk. Mark doesn't have balance. He drops things and does not know where his body is in space,' Fleischman said. 'Doctors originally thought he had a form of Parkinson's. But it is not that. Nobody knows what he has.'

Fleischman said he'd been considering taking his own life in this manner for the past two years.

'I came to the decision slowly,' he said. 'Two years ago, I decided that it wasn't worth living. I took a lot of Xanax and ended up in the hospital.'

He said he settled on his choice shortly after that, when he read a book about the process.

'I read in there that the easiest way is to suffocate. But I did not want the pain. I was going to buy a gun. But my wife interceded. We started looking into a place where it would be legal to find someone to do it with.'

Mimi initially tried to stop him but eventually decided to let him go the way of his choosing.

Mimi was at Mark's side when he took the pill that would end his life

'It's going to be horrible,' she said back in June. 'He is my partner and we are devoted to each other. So it is the end of a part of me as well. I have to honor what he wants. [But] he is not giving me a choice. He wants to end his life and this is a dignified way to do it.'

Mimi was able to locate Dignitas, a group that has been helping people with terminal illnesses end their lives since 1998. The nonprofit had conversations and a psychological test with Fleischman before he made the call.

'They want to be certain that I am making the decision for myself,' he said. 'After reading my material, they asked me some questions to make sure I was serious. I had to provide a notarized affidavit, stating that I want to die. I had to go to a psychiatrist and he confirmed that I am of sound mind. I provided all that and they said they want me over there.'

Studio 54 - located in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood - opened in 1977, after co-founders Steve Rubbell and Ian Schrager converted a former Broadway theater into what would become the world's first super club.

It instantly became the planet's hottest party spot for A-list stars. Bianca Jagger famously arrived at the club atop a white horse one evening.

It was also noted for its stage display of a crescent moon snorting cocaine from a spoon, with open drug-taking and sex the order of the day.

Drew Barrymore was taken to Studio 54 aged nine years-old by her mom, and was encouraged to do drugs and dance with male celebrities while there.

In 1978, Rubbell blabbed that 'only the Mafia' had made more cash than the $7 million the club had turned over in the first year, catching the attention of IRS investigators.

Rubbell and Schrager later admitted $2.5 million tax evasion, and were jailed for three-and-a-half years.

On what many believed to be Studio 54's final night, the pair were serenaded by Diana Ross and Liza Minelli.

Other stars in attendance that evening included Ryan O'Neal, Farrah Fawcett, Richard Gere, Jack Nicholson, Sylvester Stallone and Joceyln Wildenstein.

Schrager was granted a presidential pardon by former President Barack Obama in January 2017, while Rubbell died of AIDS in 1989.

In 1981, the club was sold to Schrager, but had lost its cachet. An even glitzier super club, The Saint, opened in New York's East Village the previous summer, stealing much of Studio 54's thunder.

Meanwhile, many patrons who frequented both venues soon were beginning to succumb to an horrific mystery illness - later identified as AIDS - with those who survived often left too terrified to continue with their hedonistic lifestyles.

Studio 54 staggered on without its celebrity sheen until 1986, while The Saint closed two years later, with both venues' clientele decimated by the terrifying new virus which at that time spelled an appallingly painful death.

Fleischman ran Studio 54 when it was one of the biggest clubs on the planet, known for spending time with the likes of the Rolling Stones, Robin Williams, Rick James and John Belushi

A crowd of hopefuls waits outside the doors of Studio 54 in 1978
Anthony Albanese is standing firm against a plan to extend 'pandemic leave' payments while a winter wave of Covid strikes - but an awkward tweet has come back to haunt him.

Mr Albanese's government has opposed plans to bring back the $750 payment for seven days of leave, citing strains in the Federal budget - but he is under pressure from some state leaders and Labor backbenchers.

The prime minister said there were many workplaces that were already offering paid leave to employees to isolate due to Covid-19.

'The idea no one is getting sick leave at the moment is not the case,' he said.

'Good employers are recognising people are continuing to work from home while they have Covid and receiving payments through that.'

However, he had a rather different tone on the issue in August 2020, when the then-Opposition Leader tweeted an emotional message about the need for pandemic leave.

Anthony Albanese is staring down a push for the Federal Government's pandemic leave program to be extended, with the Labor government citing budget pressures

'Do I go to work and make my colleagues sick, or do I stay at home and let my kids go hungry?' he previously tweeted.

'No one should have to make that choice - and paid pandemic leave would make sure they never have to. The Government should just do it.'

Proponents of extending paid leave circulated the message on Friday to criticise Mr Albanese.

The nation's leader said on Friday that the pandemic payments were put in place by his predecessor, Scott Morrison - and it was their decision to end the scheme.

However, several state premiers have pushed for the government to keep the payments.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet and Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff have called for the payments to be extended through the current wave of Covid-19 cases.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has pushed for pandemic leave payments to be extended- as has Queensland's Annastacia Palaszczuk

Federal Labor MP Mike Freelander broke ranks on Thursday, urging the prime minister to extend the support measures, with fellow backbencher Michelle Ananda-Rajah following suit.

Health Minister Mark Butler said the government was closely monitoring the situation, but indicated large payouts needed to end following the withdrawal of mandates surrounding the pandemic.

'There's no end to the list of worthy, important things we could be spending the money on in the health portfolio, but there is an end to the money,' he said.

'The Australian community understands, and indeed wants, the country to move to a new phase in confronting this pandemic.'

While the government said the end date of June 30 was decided by the coalition when they were in office, the opposition has accused Labor of hypocrisy for not choosing to extend the payments.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said the government needed to be consistent with its advice.

'They need to hold themselves to the same type of standard they held the previous government to and be transparent with what the medical advice is,' Senator Birmingham told Sky News on Friday.

Opposition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston said clarity was needed on why the pandemic leave measures were not extended.

'I would like the government to advise Australians of ... why they thought it was a good idea now to remove these particular supports at the same time they're telling Australians we're about to be hit by another very serious wave of the virus,' she told ABC radio.
Advertisement

The mother of a 10-year-old Ohio girl who was raped and impregnated by an illegal immigrant has denied the charges, despite the suspect admitting to the crime.

The woman, who declined to identify herself, claims her daughter is 'fine' after being forced to travel to Indiana to get an abortion.

The procedure was barred in their home state due to the so-called heartbeat bill, which bans abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected.

Gerson Fuentes, 27, of Guatemala, confessed to raping the young girl - however, her mother alleged to a television reporter that 'everything they're saying against him is a lie.'

Fuentes was arraigned on Wednesday in Columbus, where he faces a charge of felony first-degree rape of a child under 13. His bail was set at $2 million.

The mother (pictured hiding behind her front door) of a 10-year-old Ohio girl who was raped and impregnated by an illegal immigrant has denied the charges against Gerson Fuentes (not pictured). She claims her daughter is 'fine' and Fuentes is the subject of 'lies'

#NoticiasTelemundo hablo en exclusiva con la madre de la nina que fue violada en Ohio y asegura que "esta bien".



Agrego que lo que se dice sobre el joven que confeso el crimen "es mentira".



Mas detalles  https://t.co/fK0eoiHb5b pic.twitter.com/PbhyuXdCr9  Noticias Telemundo (@TelemundoNews) July 14, 2022

Telemundo reporter Maria Vargas-Pion visited the Columbus residence where the 10-year-old rape victim and her mother allegedly live on Wednesday.

A woman claiming to be the girl's mother hid behind her front door as she defended Fuentes.

'Did the girl live here as well?' Vargas-Pion asked.

The woman, speaking in Spanish, replied: 'Yes, but she's fine. Everything that they're saying against him is a lie.'

'And the child - are you related to her or her mother?' the reporter probed.

'She's my daughter,' the mother answered.

The woman reportedly said she has not filed charges against Fuentes, even though he was charged with rape after confessing to having 'vaginal contact' with the girl on at least two occasions.

The girl recently celebrated her 10th birthday, leaving investigators to suspect she was only nine years old when she was raped and later became pregnant.

Rape suspect Gerson Fuentes, 27, is seen at Wednesday's arraignment appearing via videolink. He is accused of raping a 10-year-old girl who had to cross state lines for an abortion

Police were made aware of the girl's pregnancy through a referral by the Franklin County Children Services that had been made by her mother on June 22.

She underwent a medical abortion in Indianapolis on June 30.

Columbus police Detective Jeffrey Huhn, who testified at Fuentes' arraignment Wednesday, claims the girl named the Guatemalan resident as her attacker and the father of her child.

He also testified that DNA evidence collected from the clinic in Indianapolis will be tested against samples taken from Fuentes, The Columbus Dispatch reported.

Officials are also testing DNA collected from the child's siblings in an attempt to confirm who fathered the fetus.

The case has been under scrutiny by Ohio officials, specifically Attorney General Dave Yost, since it first made national headlines earlier this month.

The Indianapolis Star, an Indiana-based publication, reported on July 1 that a little girl had to cross state lines to receive an abortion because she was denied one in Ohio.

Yost, during a Fox News interview Monday, claimed there's no 'biological evidence' to the story and he hasn't heard a 'whisper anywhere' about the little girl.

Additionally, an Indiana Department of Health filing obtained by Fox on Thursday, revealed that Indianapolis physician Dr. Caitlin Bernard reported the girl's alleges rapist was approximately 17 years old.

In court, a detective (not pictured) testified that the victim in the case was forced to travel to Indiana to get an abortion following the Dobbs ruling

Ohio AG Dave Yost Yost had claimed in an interview Monday there's no 'biological evidence' to the story, and that he hasn't heard a 'whisper anywhere' about the little girl

In a statement on Wednesday, Yost quickly took a different tack on the case

The child was six weeks and three days pregnant when she sought an abortion in Indiana, Bernard had told The Indianapolis Star.

She claimed the girl was ineligible by just three days to receive an abortion in her home state because of a newly imposed state ban on abortions at the first detectable 'fetal heartbeat.'

The ban was enacted shortly after the Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which had guaranteed abortion rights in America. The Ohio heartbeat bill has no exceptions for rape or incest.

According to court records, a report was generated on June 22 with the Columbus Division of Police for the girl's rape. Roe was overturned two days later on June 24.

On July 6, the victim identified Fuentes to authorities as the person who raped her.

A week later, Fuentes was served a search warrant for a saliva sample and was taken into custody where he confessed to raping the victim multiple times.

Gerson Fuentes, 27, (pictured) was arrested on July 12 and has been charged with one count of rape after police say he confessed to raping the child two different times

Fuentes appeared in court Wednesday and was given a $2 million bond. He's currently in the Franklin County Jail.

Franklin County Municipal Court Judge Cynthia Ebner said the case didn't warrant Fuentes - who is believed to be undocumented - to be held without bond, the Columbus Dispatch reported.

But Ebner said a higher bond was necessary due to Fuentes being a possible flight risk and for the safety of children involved.

Yost, skeptical of the case, told Fox on Monday: 'My office runs the state crime lab. Any case like this, you're going to have a rape kit, you're going to have biological evidence, and you'd be looking for DNA analysis.

'There is no case request for analysis that looks anything like this,' he added.

The AG also noted that 'Ohio's heartbeat law has a medical exception, which is broader than just the life of the mother.'

'This young girl, if she exists and if this horrible thing actually happened to her - it breaks my heart to think about it - she did not have to leave Ohio to find treatment,' he explained.

Following the news of Fuentes' arrest, the AG's office released a statement, reading in part: 'My heart aches for the pain suffered by this young child.

'I am grateful for the diligent work of the Columbus Police Department in securing a confession and getting a rapist off the street.

'Justice must be served and BCI stands ready to support law enforcement across Ohio putting these criminals behind bars.'

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita (left) says an investigation has been launched into Dr. Caitlin Bernard (right). She performed an abortion on the unidentified 10-year-old rape victim whose story made headlines when she was forced to travel from her home state to Indiana

Ohio is one of the many states set to impose laws, which would cap abortions at six weeks. Also in the state of Ohio, doctors are mandated to report abuse of minors

Meanwhile, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has vowed to probe Dr. Bernard over the abortion, claiming he questioned whether she had complied the Hoosier State's law requiring that all abortions be reported to authorities.

Appearing on Fox News Wednesday Rokita called obstetrician-gynecologist Bernard an 'abortion activist acting as a doctor' who he claims has a history of failing to report abortions.

'We're gathering the evidence as we speak, and we're going to fight this to the end, including looking at her licensure if she failed to report. And in Indiana it's a crime  to intentionally not report,' AG Rokita said on Fox News on Wednesday.

'This is a child, and there's a strong public interest in understanding if someone under the age of 16 or under the age of 18 or really any woman is having abortion in our state. And then if a child is being sexually abused, of course parents need to know. Authorities need to know. Public policy experts need to know.'

Dr. Bernard has not yet responded to the AG's remarks, but tweeted earlier Wednesday:

'My heart breaks for all survivors of sexual assault and abuse. I am so sad that our country is failing them when they need us most. Doctors must be able to give people the medical care they need, when and where they need it.'
A headmaster at one of Australia's most elite schools has been sacked after a review criticised his leadership.

Shore School headmaster Tim Petterson began his role at the campus in North Sydney in 2020 and more than 90 staff members have left under his management.

Staff and parents of the 133-year-old Anglican school, where fees cost up to $37,350 a year, slammed Mr Petterson's leadership style.

Earlier this year, he wrote a grovelling apology to staff, admitting he had been unintentionally 'disrespectful, insensitive and unwise'.

Consultant Rhonda Brighton-Hall was hired by the school council to review the leadership culture of the school, identify reasons behind divisions, and look into concerns about Mr Petterson's leadership.

Shore School headmaster Tim Petterson has been dismissed from the the role after a review

Staff and parents of the 133-year-old Anglican school, where fees cost up to $37,350 a year, slammed Petterson's management style and leadership

Teachers had written to the school's governing council about concerns and low staff morale, Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Brighton-Hall conducted interviews, read written submissions and carried out an anonymous survey before presenting the findings to the board.

Mr Petterson was informed of the council's decision this week as the school was preparing to welcome boys back for term three. The school community will be told on Friday.

Mr Petterson has been replaced on an interim basis by John Collier, the former head of the prestigious St Andrew's Cathedral School.

Chair of the council Bay Warburton said the decision had been made after 'deep deliberation'.

'This decision is not based on any suggestion of improper conduct on [Petterson's] part,' he said, in a letter sent to parents. 'However, Council has concluded that in the interests of unity within the School, leadership renewal is required.

'While council appreciates the significance of a change in leadership, we believe that it is in the best interests of the School and its students.'

Mr Petterson was just the eighth principal at Shore, also known as Sydney Church of England Grammar School.

Its past students include Hollywood actor Errol Flynn, media mogul Frank Packer and former prime minister John Gorton.

The school is known as one of the 'jewels in the crown' of the Sydney Anglican church. A quarter of students are sons or grandsons of old boys.

Teachers had written to the school's governing council about concerns and low staff morale

Petterson was informed of the council's decision this week as the school was preparing to welcome boys back for term three. The school community will be told on Friday

The school was previously in the news in April after pupils were banned from bringing laptops in.

Shore School initially allowed students to bring their own devices to class for their education under a Bring Your Own Device policy.

But the prestigious, single-sex Anglican college backflipped and introduced a ban after many boys became increasingly distracted by gambling, porn, social media and streaming sites instead of focusing on their teachers.

A former student who graduated from Shore School last year reportedly penned an article for the school's newsletter elaborating on just how frequent laptop misuse amongst his peers was.

'Students are gambling, gaming, scrolling through social media, watching Netflix, purchasing things on eBay, video conferencing with their friends and viewing pornography all while their teacher is addressing them,' he said.

'I am five weeks out from the trial HSC in one of the top classes and this is still happening every single day.'

The author wrote that 'fewer than half of the students in most of my classes are paying full attention to teachers, with most staring blankly at their laptops'.

He recalled how one teacher had to stop his class 'every 10 minutes' to tell students to look up and pay attention.




Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong / Korea Times file





By Lee Kyung-min







Calls are mounting to pardon Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin, fanned by expectations of an economic recovery led by the private sector to navigate Korea's economy, which faces challenging downside risks both from within the country and abroad, according to market watchers, Friday.







Many say President Yoon Suk-yeol should pardon the top corporate decision makers, who were indicted on bribery charges, in order to stimulate investments and create more jobs, helping the economy deal with the protracted COVID-19 pandemic and surging prices of goods and services.







Most expect the presidential pardon will come on Aug. 15 Liberation Day. Whether political figures, including former President Lee Myung-bak and former South Gyeongsang Province Governor Kim Kyoung-soo, will be eligible for the special pardon remains to be seen.







Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin / Korea Times file

Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Chairman Chey Tae-won, who doubles as SK Group chairman, stressed the need for special pardons, Thursday.







"I have long maintained that business leaders should be granted more leniency if circumstances allow," Chey said during a press briefing at Haevichi Hotels & Resorts on Jeju Island.







"I'm asking for an environment whereby business activities can proceed more freely and extensively to help weather economic challenges," he added.







The comment came less than a day after Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said pardoning business leaders will help boost the economy.







"Exploring the possibilities of pardons will not be considered too out of bounds in the eyes of the public, as the convicted figures have served prison terms," he said during a press conference at Korea Press Foundation in Seoul, Wednesday.







The ruling People Power Party's acting chairman and floor leader Kweon Seong-dong echoed similar sentiments on Friday.







Presidential pardons granted by previous administrations were intended to unite the public and revitalize the economy, he said after a party meeting at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul.







"I do not know who would be eligible, nor do I have any intention to recommend a list of names that I think should be pardoned. That will and should be determined only by the president."







The Ministry of Justice is currently reviewing the list of special pardons on the occasion of Aug. 15 Liberation Day. It will be finalized before the end of this month.







Both Lee and Shin were sentenced to two and a half years in prison, following a conviction in a protracted corruption trial involving disgraced former President Park Geun-hye.







Lee was in prison from Jan. 18 to Aug. 13, 2021, when he was released on parole.







Shin's sentence was suspended for four years.


A Seattle man who was arrested on suspicion of committing a hate crime against Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal has been released from jail because prosecutors say they're still gathering evidence in the case.

Brett Allen Forsell, 48, was arrested outside Jayapal's home on Saturday night, when police say he was standing in the middle of the street with a .40-caliber Glock 22 handgun holstered on his waist.

Jayapal had called 911 to report someone outside her home yelling obscenities, and a neighbor told cops the suspect had been shouting threats and slurs, including 'I'm going to kill you' and 'go back to India.'

King County prosecutors said Seattle police released Forsell on Wednesday because they couldn't say with certainty that he uttered the threats and racial slurs, the Seattle Times reported.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the Progressive Caucus Chair, was at home in Seattle with her husband, Steve (with her above), when she called 911 to report a man shouting obscenities

Court records show, however, Seattle police obtained a temporary Extreme Risk Protection Order to require the man to surrender his firearms and concealed pistol license, citing concerns about escalating behavior toward Jayapal and increasing mental health struggles.

Washington state has permissive open carry laws, and does not require a permit to open carry. Court records also show that Forsell had a concealed carry permit, and he was not charged with any gun-related crimes in the incident.

In 2016, Jayapal became the first Indian-American woman elected to the US House of Representatives. Forsell is listed in police documents as white.

The shocking incident unfolded at around 11:25 p.m. on Saturday, when police responded to Jayapal's home in the Arbor Heights neighborhood.

There, cops found Forsell 'standing in the middle of the street with his hands in the air' with a holstered gun, according to a police statement of probable cause, which redacted the suspect's name.

Jayapal had told a 911 dispatcher that the man was screaming obscenities and that her husband thought someone may have fired a pellet gun, according to the statement.

A neighbor told police she heard the man scream something to the effect of, 'Go back to India. I'm going to kill you,' the statement said. The neighbor also saw and heard the man drive by Jayapal's residence at least three times, yelling profanities.

In 2016, Jayapal became the first Indian-American woman elected to the House. Forsell is listed in police documents as white; and he was initially arrested on suspicion of hate crimes

A detective met with Jayapal's husband, who provided video clips from their home-security system, according to the protection order petition.

In one clip, the last part of the word 'India' can be heard, followed by an expletive-laced rant directed at Jayapal, the petition said.

In another clip, the man can be seen approaching the house while yelling profanities about being Jayapal's neighbor, followed by the sound of metal.

The detective couldn't be sure if the sound was from a handgun being racked or metal tent poles as the man tried to put up a tent on Jayapal's property, the petition said.

Police learned the man sent an email to Jayapal's public account in January, saying he didn't like her because of her 'perceived political wrongdoings,' the petition said.

Jayapal's husband gave cops video clips from their home-security system, but it doesn't seem they captured the threats in full

He has also driven by her house and shouted obscenities at her multiple times since late June, according to the petition.

The petition notes the man told officers he wanted to purchase an assault-style rifle for protection but denied saying anything about Jayapal's ethnicity or threatening to kill her.

The investigation is ongoing, and local or federal prosecutors could still file charges.

Seattle prosecutors didn't decline to file a criminal case -- but don't currently have evidence to prove a hate crime was committed, said Casey McNerthney, a spokesperson for the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.

Following an arrest, prosecutors have 72 hours, not including holidays and weekends, to file criminal charges against a person in custody. If charges are not filed by then, the person must be released from jail.

'In a time of increased political violence, security concerns against any elected official should be taken seriously, as we are doing here,' McNerthney wrote in an email Wednesday.

'The investigation is ongoing and our office is working with police investigators to make sure we understand the full extent of the suspect's actions to build the strongest case possible.'

Prosecutors declined to name Forsell as the suspect in the case because charges haven't been filed, but his identity was confirmed through King County booking records.

A judge had ordered him held in lieu of a $500,000 bail on suspicion of malicious harassment and hate crimes, until the court ordered his release on Wednesday.

Jayapal, a Democrat, heads the Congressional Progressive Caucus. In a statement, her office confirmed she was at home when 'incidents occurred at her Seattle home'

Jayapal, a Democrat, heads the Congressional Progressive Caucus. In a statement, her office confirmed that she was at home when 'incidents occurred at her Seattle home on Saturday night.'

'The congresswoman and her family are safe and appreciate the many calls and good wishes she is receiving from constituents,' the statement said.

'She is very grateful for the swift and professional response from the Seattle Police Department, the US Capitol Police, and the FBI investigators who are working together diligently on the investigation, and ensuring that she and her family stay safe,' the statement added.

'Because this is an ongoing investigation, she will not be commenting further at this time.'

Forsell's mother told police her son recently hadn't been eating or sleeping and struggling with pain from a workplace injury and with managing his mental health, according to the petition.

She told police it was not a good idea for her son to have access to guns.

Within 14 days of a temporary protection order being issued, a full hearing is held before a judge during which a respondent can challenge it.

The judge then decides whether to deny or grant a permanent order, which bars the respondent from owning or buying firearms for one year.
2006

Assange creates Wikileaks with a group of like-minded activists and IT experts to provide a secure way for whistleblowers to leak information. He quickly becomes its figurehead and a lightning rod for criticism.

2010

March: U.S. authorities allege Assange engaged in a conspiracy to hack a classified U.S. government computer with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.

July: Wikileaks starts releasing tens of thousands of top secrets documents, including a video of U.S. helicopter pilots gunning down 12 civilians in Baghdad in 2007. What followed was the release of more than 90,000 classified US military files from the Afghan war and 400,000 from Iraq that included the names of informants.

August: Two Swedish women claim that they each had consensual sex with Assange in separate instances when he was on a 10-day trip to Stockholm. They allege the sex became non-consensual when Assange refused to wear a condom.

First woman claims Assange was staying at her apartment in Stockholm when he ripped off her clothes. She told police that when she realized Assange was trying to have unprotected sex with her, she demanded he use a condom. She claims he ripped the condom before having sex.

Second Swedish woman claims she had sex with Assange at her apartment in Stockholm and she made him wear a condom. She alleges that she later woke up to find Assange having unprotected sex with her.

He was questioned by police in Stockholm and denied the allegations. Assange was granted permission by Swedish authorities to fly back to the U.K.

November: A Swedish court ruled that the investigation should be reopened and Assange should be detained for questioning on suspicion of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion. An international arrest warrant is issued by Swedish police through Interpol.

Wikileaks releases its cache of more than 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables.

December: Assange presents himself to London police and appears at an extradition hearing where he is remanded in custody. Assange is granted conditional bail at the High Court in London after his supporters pay 240,000 in cash and sureties.

2011

February: A British judge rules Assange should be extradited to Sweden but Wikileaks found vows to fight the decision.

April: A cache of classified U.S. military documents is released by Wikileaks, including intelligence assessments on nearly all of the 779 people who are detained at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.

November: Assange loses High Court appeal against the decision to extradite him.

2012

June: Assange enters the Ecuadorian embassy in London requesting political asylum.

August: Assange is granted political asylum by Ecuador.

2013

June: Assange tells a group of journalists he will not leave the embassy even if sex charges against him are dropped out of fear he will be extradited to the U.S.

2015

August: Swedish prosecutors drop investigation into some of the sex allegations against Assange due to time restrictions. The investigation into suspected rape remains active.

2016

July: Wikileaks begins leaking emails U.S. Democratic Party officials favoring Hillary Clinton.

November: Assange is questioned over the sex allegation at the Ecuadorian Embassy in the presence of Sweden's assistant prosecutor Ingrid Isgren and police inspector Cecilia Redell. The interview spans two days.

2017

January: Barack Obama agrees to free whistleblower Chelsea Manning from prison. Her pending release prompts speculation Assange will end his self-imposed exile after Wikileaks tweeted he would agree to U.S. extradition.

April: Lenin Moreno becomes the new president of Ecuador who was known to want to improve diplomatic relations between his country and the U.S.

May: An investigation into a sex allegation against Assange is suddenly dropped by Swedish prosecutors.

2018

January: Ecuador confirms it has granted citizenship to Assange following his request.

February: Assange is visited by Pamela Anderson and Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel.

March: The Ecuadorian Embassy suspends Assange's internet access because he wasn't complying with a promise he made the previous year to 'not send messages which entailed interference in relation to other states'.



August: U.S. Senate committee asks to interview Assange as part of their investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election.

September: Assange steps down as editor of WikiLeaks.

October: Assange reveals he will launch legal action against the government of Ecuador, accusing it of violating his 'fundamental rights and freedoms'.

November: U.S. Justice Department inadvertently names Assange in a court document that says he has been charged in secret.

2019

January: Assange's lawyers say they are taking action to make President Trump's administration reveal charges 'secretly filed' against him.

April 6: WikiLeaks tweets that a high level Ecuadorian source has told them Assange will be expelled from the embassy within 'hours or days'. But a senior Ecuadorian official says no decision has been made to remove him from the London building.

April 11: Assange has his diplomatic asylum revoked by Ecuador and he is arrested by the Metropolitan Police; he is remanded in custody by a judge at Westminster Magistrates Court.

April 12: He is found guilty of breaching his bail terms.

May 1: Sentenced to 11 months in jail.

May 2: Court hearing takes place over Assange's proposed extradition to the U.S. He tells a court he does not consent to the extradition and the case is adjourned until May 30.

May 13: Swedish prosecutors reopen rape case saying they still want to question Assange.

June 3: Swedish court rules against detaining him in absentia, setting back the extradition case.

June 12 Home Secretary Sajid Javid signs an extradition request from the US.

June 13 A hearing sets out the date for Assange's full extradition hearing - February next year.

November Swedish prosecutors stop investigation into an allegation of rape against Mr Assange

November 25 - Medics say without correct medical care Assange 'could die' in Belmarsh

December 13 - Hearing in London hears he is being blocked from seeing key evidence in case

December 19 - Appears at Westminster Magistrates Court via video-link where his lawyer claims US bid to extradite him is 'political'.

2020

February 24 -Assange faces an extradition hearing at Woolwich Crown Court.

Assange's representatives argue he cannot legally be handed to the US for 'political offences' because of a 2003 extradition treaty.

March 2 - Assange appears by video link at Westminster Magistrates Court, where he is refused bail amid the coronavirus crisis.

April 11 - Stella Moris, Assange's partner, who gave birth to his two children while he was living inside the Ecuadorian embassy, issues a plea for his release amid fears for his health.

June 24 - The US Department of Justice issues an updated 18-count indictment, over Assange's alleged role in 'one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States'.

August 25 - Ms Moris visits her partner in Belmarsh prison for the first time in almost six months.

September 7 - Assange's extradition hearings resume at the Old Bailey. They are expected to go on for up to four weeks.

October 1 - Judge Vanessa Baraitser adjourned the case at the Old Bailey until January 4.

January 4 - Judge Baraitser strikes down US extradition bid.

2021

October - Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett, sitting with Lord Justice Holroyde, hears two-day appeal from US.

December 10 - They rule in favour of the US and overturn decision not to extradite Assange.

2022

January - High Court gives Assange permission to ask the Supreme Court to consider his case.

April - After years of legal toing and froing, Westminster Magistrates' Court formally issued an order to extradite the WikiLeaks founder

June - Priti Patel signs an order to extradite Julian Assange to the US to face espionage charge
Two people acting suspiciously on a bridge in South Australia's mid-north have led to the discovery of bullets and prompted a major search for a gun used in one of three murders linked to the Adelaide drug trade.

About 35 police personnel, including members of a special task force, converged on the Hutt River near Clare on Friday in the ongoing investigation into the suspected murder of Robert Atkins.

The 29-year-old went missing in November 2020 and is thought to have been killed and his body disposed of somewhere near Orroroo, 275 kilometres north of Adelaide.

Robert Atkins (pictured), 29, went missing in November 2020 and is thought to have been killed and his body disposed of somewhere near Orroroo, 275 kilometres north of Adelaide

Detective Superintendent Des Bray said the couple were spotted on the bridge by a truck driver late last month.

'It appears they became spooked on seeing the truck and left the area immediately and then returned a few minutes later when they thought there was nobody left to see them,' Supt Bray said.

'We know they got out of a vehicle and disposed of what we believe to be ammunition and also a firearm which we suspect may have been used in the murder of Robert.'

Detective Superintendent Des Bray (pictured) said the couple on the bridge acting suspiciously were spotted by a truck driver late last month. It led to the discovery of bullets and prompted a major search for a gun used in one of three murders linked to the Adelaide drug trade

Since then police have recovered more than 100 bullets and ammunition packaging and hope to be able to recover DNA and fingerprints from the material.

Their ongoing search will concentrate on the river, with divers covering an extensive area by hand, and also an area of roadway between Clare and Spalding.

Supt Bray said detectives were confident they knew the identity of the couple and expected to interview them soon.

He said police believed they were disposing of evidence on behalf of a murder suspect.

Jeffrey Mundy (pictured), 36, was last seen in December, 2020. His body has not been found

The murder of Mr Atkins is thought to have links to two other killings, those of Trevor King and Jeff Mundy.

Mr King, 41, was found dead at suburban West Lakes in January 2020 with police now believing his death was staged to look like a suicide.

Mr Mundy, 36, was last seen in December 2020. His body has not been found, with police suspecting it was disposed of somewhere on SA's Fleurieu Peninsula.

Up to 15 people are believed to have been involved in the murders and detectives are also checking another 200 drug overdose deaths since 2019 to determine if any more are suspicious.

Police suspect Jeffrey Mundy's (pictured) body was disposed of somewhere on South Australia's Fleurieu Peninsula

In other inquiries into the death of Mr Atkins, Northern Territory police this week recovered an excavator and trailer, which they believe was stolen in SA in 2019 by those involved in his killing.

A 37-year-old man has been spoken to by police in relation to the excavator theft and is likely to be charged.
A convicted paedophile and former art teacher at a Sydney northern beaches high school has been found guilty of another charge of sexual assault on a teenage student.

Peter Wayne Scott, 71, was found guilty in a judge-alone trial of having sexual intercourse with a 16-year-old boy in December 1984. But he was acquitted of a charge of supplying the student with a stupefying drug to commit the assault.

The art teacher at Cromer High School in the 1980s took many of the male students under his wing, collecting them in his blue Toyota van to go surfing.

Former art teacher at Cromer High School (pictured) in the 1980s and convicted paedophile, Peter Wayne Scott, 71, took many of the male students under his wing, collecting them in his blue Toyota van to go surfing

Scott also ran B Sharp Productions producing videos for bands including Mental As Anything.

He would purchase alcohol for the students and supply them with cannabis, smoking together in his van on a weekly basis.

The victim said he looked up to Scott 'in a big way' as his own father was a rigid man and not encouraging of his singing, dancing or acting.

One afternoon Scott was driving the student home and asked if he masturbated, suggesting he should, and inquired if he was a virgin.

Another evening in December Scott took the boy to see a band in the city, before he drove them to a beach car park where they shared a joint.

Unlike other times, the victim said this joint made him feel light-headed and was told to lie down in the back of the vehicle.

The next thing he recalls is Scott rubbing his upper thigh, while he remained shocked and 'frozen' before he was sexually assaulted.

Scott was found guilty in a judge-alone trial of having sexual intercourse with a 16-year-old boy in December 1984. But he was acquitted of a charge of supplying the student with a stupefying drug to commit the assault

Eventually he moved or shuffled to show he was awake, and Scott said something along the lines of: 'It's OK. It'll get better next time, it's OK.'

He then drove him home as the sun was rising, he recalls.

Extremely embarrassed and ashamed, he never spoke to anyone about the incident until July 2018 at a charity event.

The victim and his friends had become aware of other allegations against Scott, and he opened up saying: 'I'm one of Peter's victims.'

A friend present gave evidence at the trial that he asked the victim if he was OK and he responded 'not really'.

'I feel so ashamed. It's just f***ed up my life. I wanted to tell you guys for so long, but I couldn't. I felt so ashamed, like it was my fault,' he recalled him saying before both men cried.

Scott in 2014 was jailed for at least seven-and-a-half years for drugging and sexually abusing a number of other students.

He abused and molested them in classrooms and storerooms, at his home near the beach and also in his van.

He will be sentenced again for this sexual assault at a later date.
Advertisement

President Joe Biden fist-bumped Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as he arrived for a meeting with the controversial royal Friday evening in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The two were seen talking as they walked together into the Al Salam Royal Palace.

Handout photos from the Saudis showed MBS - as the crown prince is called - ushering Biden into a bilateral meeting with King Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud.

Journalists were not allowed in the meeting.

Biden's second sit-down was with MBS and a larger working group of Saudi officials - but reporters were kept so far away the leaders' exchanges were inaudible.

Boom microphones, which are standard equipment for broadcast-quality sound and are mounted on poles, were barred from the room.

American journalists shouted questions toward the crown prince asking if he'd apologize to murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi's family and asked Biden if he still viewed Saudi as a pariah state.

MBS smirked at NBC News' Peter Alexander, who had asked the Khashoggi question, but otherwise ignored the reporters.

Alexander later tweeted that a Saudi aide grabbed his arm tightly after he yelled out his query.

Fred Ryan, the publisher and CEO of The Washington Post - which employed Khashoggi - called Biden's fistbump with the crown prince 'shameful.'

'The fist bump between President Biden and Mohammed bin Salman was worse than a handshake - it was shameful,' Ryan said in a statement. 'It projected a level of intimacy and comfort that delivers to MBS the unwarranted redemption he has been desperately seeking.'

Hatice Cengiz, Khashoggis fiancee, shared what she believed her late love's reaction would be to the fist bump: 'Is this the accountability you promised for my murder? The blood of MBS's next victims is on your hands.'

In the run-up to the trip, there were questions about whether Biden would be photographed shaking the hand of MBS.

During the campaign, Biden had made the 'pariah' remark, and while in office released an intelligence report that implicated MBS in the murder of Khashoggi, a Saudi-born Washington Post journalist who was living in the U.S.

The White House said Biden would be limiting contact with officials in Israel and Saudi Arabia due to new variants of COVID-19.

Biden was greeted at the King Abdulaziz International Airport by two other members of the Saudi royal family: Prince Khalid Al Faisal, the governor of the Makkah Province, and Amb. Reema Bandar Al Saud, Saudi's ambassador to the United States.

The Saudis rolled out a purple carpet for the president - and lined it with an honor guard holding swords.

Biden's direct flight on Air Force One made history - as he became the first U.S. president to fly between Tel Aviv, Israel and Jeddah.

Former President George W. Bush had previously flown between Israel and Saudi's capital Riyadh.

Former President Donald Trump flew from Saudi Arabia to Israel, on his first trip abroad as president.

A handout photo of President Joe Biden (left) fist-bumping Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (right) as he arrived for a meeting with the controversial royal Friday evening in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman smiles as he meets with President Joe Biden at the Al Salman Royal Palace Friday in Jeddah

A handout photo of President Joe Biden (left) seated alongside Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (right)

A handout photo of President Joe Biden (left) being escorted into Al Salman Palace by 'MBS,' Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (right) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Friday night

A handout photo of President Joe Biden (second from right) being walked into the Al Salman palace by MBS (right), flanked by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan (left) and Secretary of State Antony Blinken (second from left)

A handout photo of President Joe Biden's (left) meeting with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz (right) at the Al Salman Palace in Jeddah Friday night. Journalists were not let into the meeting between Biden and the Saudi king

A handout photo of President Joe Biden and his national security team meeting with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz at Al Salman Palace in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

President Joe Biden (center) flanked by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan (right) and Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) participate in a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other Saudi leaders. Biden and MBS' comments were inaudible because reporters weren't allowed to bring boom microphones into the room

President Joe Biden arrived in Saudi Arabia Friday night, after making a historic flight between Tel Aviv, Isreal and Jeddah

President Joe Biden (left) is greeted on the tarmac by Prince Khaled Al Faisal (center) and Amb. Reema Bandar Al Saud (right), Saudi's ambassador to the United States

President Joe Biden speaks with Saudi officials on the tarmac of the King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah

Workers roll out a purple carpet after President Joe Biden landed in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Friday night

Earlier, the president cheered Saudi Arabia's decision to open its airspace to Israeli planes in the hours before his Air Force One flight.

'Saudi Arabia's historic decision to open its airspace for all civilian planes, including those flying to and from Israel, is an important step towards building a more integrated and stable Middle East region,' Biden said in a statement Friday morning from Jerusalem.

The move marked a longstanding ban on Israeli flights overflying Saudi Arabia.

The American president took credit for the thaw.

'While this opening has long been discussed, now, thanks to months of steady diplomacy between my Administration and Saudi Arabia, it is finally a reality,' Biden said.

'Today, I will be the first president of the United States to fly from Israel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia,' he added.

'As we mark this important moment, Saudi Arabia's decision can help build momentum toward Israel's further integration into the region, including with Saudi Arabia,' Biden also said. 'I will do all that I can, through direct diplomacy and leader-to-leader engagement, to keep advancing this groundbreaking process.'

After spending Friday in East Jerusalem and meeting with Mahmoud Abbas, Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, in Bethlehem, Biden departed for Jeddah, where he will meet with Saudi's controverisal Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Biden was given a send-off on the Ben Gurion International Airport's tarmac by Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and President Isaac Herzog.

Biden shook hands with the Israel leaders after the White House said in advance of the trip that the president would be limiting contact due to an uptick in cases of COVID-19.

Reporters immediately questioned if the decision was to avoid a photo-op of Biden shaking hands with MBS, as the Saudi crown prince is called.

Biden tested negative for COVID-19 Thursday, the White House said Friday.

President Joe Biden waved as he departed Israel Friday - making a historic flight between the Ben Gurion Airport, outside of Tel Aviv, and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

President Joe Biden boards Air Force One at Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport in advance of his flight Friday afternoon to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

President Joe Biden shakes the hand of Israel's President Isaac Herzog (third from right), while Prime Minister Yair Lapid (center) also sends off the American president from the Ben Gurion Airport tarmac Friday afternoon

President Joe Biden, wearing his trademark aviators, walks across the tarmac of the Ben Gurion Airport outside of Tel Aviv, in advance of his historic flight to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

President Joe Biden departs in Marine One from Bethlehem after meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas

President Joe Biden will meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (pictured), the de facto ruler of the country, in Jeddah on Friday

President Biden said his position on Jamal Khashoggi's (above) murder has been 'clear': 'I always bring up human rights but my position on Khashoggi had been clear. If anyone doesn't understand it in Saudi Arabia or anywhere else, then they haven't been around for a while,' he said

Biden on Thursday wouldn't commit to bringing up the murder of Jamal Khashoggi when he meets with MBS, but the slain journalist's widow says she has assurances the president will mention it.

Hanan Elatr Khashogi told Fox News she met with three administration officials who assured her that 'the human rights issue, and on top of it, my husband's tragedy, it will come up' when Biden meets the crown prince on Friday in Jeddah.

Biden, however, dodged the question when asked about it during a press conference in Israel said his position on human rights has been 'positively clear.'

'My views have made it positively clear. I have never been quiet about talking about human rights,' he said when asked about the meeting.

The president, when pressed again, said his position is 'clear.'

'I always bring up human rights but my position on Khashoggi had been clear. If anyone doesn't understand it in Saudi Arabia or anywhere else, then they haven't been around for a while,' he said.

And Khashoggi's fiance Hatice Cengiz said the president must ask what has happened to the journalist's body, which has never been recovered.

'He has to ask what happened to his body? Where is his body? Still we do not have any answer,' she told the Associated Press. 'And people need to get the truth in this case. And we cannot forget.'

'We cannot forget what happened to Jamal.'

Jamall Khashoggi's widow Hanan Elatr Khashogi told Fox News she met with three administration officials who assured her that the slain journalist's murder 'will come up'

Biden, 79, called Saudi Arabia a 'pariah' state during the 2020 campaign after U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that MBS ordered Khashoggi's muder in Turkey in 2018. The journalist had written criticially of the crown prince's reforms in Saudi.

The White House has said Biden stands by that statement but it also has taken great pains to emphasize the president is meeting with the aging King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and his government, which would include MBS, who, at the age of 36, is Salman's heir to the throne and serves as defense minister.

Biden's meetings with the royals will take place Friday night.

On Saturday he'll attend the GCC+3 summit to talk oil prices and energy issues.

'When I see the Saudi leadership tomorrow, I'll be carrying a direct message,' Biden said. 'A message of peace and of the extraordinary opportunities a more stable integrated region could bring to the region and, quite frankly, to the rest of the world.'

The president argued, however, that he is also going to reassert the United States' influence in the region to counter the growing power of Russia and China on the energy market.

'The reason I'm going to Saudi Arabia, though, is much broader than as to promote U.S. interests,' he said at his press conference with Israeli Prime MIinister Yair Lapid.

'I think we have an opportunity to reassert what I think we made a mistake of walking away from - our influence in the Middle East. I'm going to meet with nine other heads of state. There are so many issues at stake. I want to make clear that we can continue to lead in a region and not create a vacuum,' he said.

He was also clear he wants to counter growing Russian and Chinese influence.

Russia is the second largest energy producer in the world after Saudi and China is a huge energy consumer and purchaser.

'The vacuum is filled by China or Russia - against the interest of Israel and the United States. The purpose of the visit is to coordinate with the nine heads of state,' he said.

Human rights advocates have encouraged Biden not to make the trip without bringing up Khashoggi's killing.

Khashoggi's widow, Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, said that a national security official told her that Biden will mention her late husband's name when he meets with MBS,

'They assured me they will bring this concern up special, about the case of my husband, Jamal Khashoggi,' she told Spectrum News.
A Maryland former elementary school teacher has been charged with bias-motivated assault after he allegedly posed as a police officer to target gay men at a park in Washington DC.

Michael Thomas Pruden, 48, is accused of spraying five men with pepper spray after dark at Meridian Hill Park, also known as Malcolm X Park, known as a 'cruising' spot for men seeking consensual sex with other men.

Pruden pretended to be a police officer before assaulting the men in separate occasions from 2018 to 2021, the Department of Justice alleged in an indictment.

He was arrested on Thursday and has been charged with five counts of assault on federal land, one count of impersonating a federal officer, and a hate crimes sentencing enhancement.

Pruden faces a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years for each assault count and a three-year statutory maximum sentence for impersonating a federal officer.

The hate crimes sentencing enhancement increases the range of the potential sentence for the assault counts.

Michael Thomas Pruden, 48, is accused of spraying five men with pepper spray after dark at Meridian Hill Park, also known as Malcolm X Park, known as a 'cruising' spot for men seeking consensual sex with other men

Pruden pretended to be a police officer before assaulting the men in separate occasions from 2018 to 2021, the Department of Justice alleged in an indictment

The DOJ said that Pruden was arrested on in Norfolk, Va.

An indictment, returned by a grand jury late last month and unsealed Thursday, said Pruden 'pretended to be a Park Police officer, shined a flashlight in the victims' faces and gave the victims police-style directives.'

US Park Police and the FBI Washington Field Office coordinated the investigation.

Pruden had first been investigated in connection with assaults in Daingerfeld Island in Alexandria, but was acquitted last August, local news station WUSA9 reported.

An indictment, returned by a grand jury late last month and unsealed Thursday, said Pruden 'pretended to be a Park Police officer, shined a flashlight in the victims' faces and gave the victims police-style directives'

In that case, Pruden had been charged with one count of assault with the intent to do bodily harm for allegedly using a tree branch and pepper spray to assault a person.

'In the D.C. cases, each of the victims was attack[ed] with pepper spray, some victims were struck with a flashlight (as opposed to a tree limb at Daingerfeld Island) and the attacker often claimed to be a police officer,' assistant attorney Christopher R. Cooke wrote in the filing at the time.

'The victims of these attacks positively identified the defendant as their attacker.'

At the time of the arrest, Pruden was a fourth-grade teacher at an elementary school, WUSA reported.
Organisers of the Melbourne International Film Festival will still open the event with police drama The Stranger, inspired by the manhunt for Daniel Morcombe's killer, despite condemnation from the victim's parents.

Daniel, 13, vanished after leaving his Sunshine Coast home on Sunday December 7, 2003, to buy his family Christmas presents at the local shopping centre.

It took an eight-year police investigation to convict Brett Peter Cowan with Daniel's murder.

The Stranger, starring Joel Edgerton, follows the story of an undercover officer tasked with securing a confession from a man suspected of murder. It is said to be based on Daniel's killing.

A Melbourne International Film Festival spokesperson confirmed the movie would remain in the line-up of the festival's opening night in August.

It comes after the furious parents, Bruce and Denise Morcombe, blasted the film and called the producers 'parasites'.

They revealed they were never asked for their approval or cooperation on the film inspired by their son's murder.

Daniel Morcombe (pictured), from the Sunshine Coast, disappeared in December 2003, aged 13, while going Christmas shopping

Pictured: Denise and Bruce Morcombe leaving the Brisbane Coroners court in 2019, 17 years after the murder of their son, Daniel

Pictured: Actors Sean Harris (left) and Joel Edgerton (middle) with director Thomas Wright (right) at the Cannes film festival

The film debuted internationally at the Cannes Film Festival back in May.

'MIFF respects and acknowledges the grief, pain and hurt that the Morcombe family have expressed about this film,' a MIFF spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia in a statement.

'The Stranger is a dramatised story of police who committed years of their lives and their mental and physical health to solve this case.

'The name of the victim is not mentioned and the family is not represented in the film. The crime is not the focus of the film; it is not depicted on screen.

Daniel Morcombe (pictured) went missing from a bus stop near his home sparking a tragic eight-year police investigation

'MIFF believes that this film, as recognised by its inclusion in Cannes Film Festival this year, is a powerful work from a respected Australian director.

'It provides opportunity for contemplation and discussion of challenging subject matter. MIFF is a space, like many film festivals, where all kinds of cinema, including that which we may find dark or difficult, can be responsibly presented to an audience.'

Starring and produced by Australian actor Joel Edgerton and Britain's Sean Harris, The Stranger explores the relationship between police and their lead suspect and is 'loosely' based on Daniel's horrific murder at the hands of pedophile Cowan.

But Bruce Morcombe appeared on The Today Show on Friday to slam the film, its producers and stars, and flatly refused to cooperate with the film when contacted by producers three years ago.

'We absolutely said ''no we don't want any part of that'',' Mr Morcombe said.

'Daniel's legacy is all about educating kids.'

Denise Morcombe also disputed the producers claims that the film is only vaguely inspired by Daniel's case, saying the actor who plays the part of career criminal - Harris - looks 'identical' to Cowan.

'The person that is depicting the criminal looks exactly like Cowan does,' Mrs Morcombe said.

Daniel's mother flatly said the film was not supported by the Morcombe family

They said they feel 'slighted' by the film and want the producers to stop using Daniel's name to promote the movie.

'All their media releases say it's about the manhunt to find Daniel Morcombe.'

The couple initially began airing their disgust at the film on Thursday when Mrs Morcombe took to social media to call the people involved with the movie 'parasites'.

'The movie 'The Stranger' is not supported by the Morcombe family,' she tweeted on Thursday.

'Individuals who make money on a heinous crime are parasites. They are callously disrespectful to Daniel, the DMF (Daniel Morcombe Foundation) and the Morcombe family.

'We find the making of the movie morally corrupt and cruel. Shame on you.'

Brett Peter Cowan (pictured) was sentenced to life behind bars over the killing of Daniel Morcombe

Edgerton and Harris were sought for comment by Daily Mail Australia.

Denise and Bruce Morcombe spent years tirelessly working to keep the missing person investigation active until Daniel's killer was finally arrested in 2011 after a long and frustrating eight-year investigation.

Since their son's disappearance, Mr and Mrs Morcombe have dedicated their lives to providing safety education to children through a foundation they launched in their son's name.

Daniel was waiting at a bus stop when he was abducted by serial pedophile Cowan, then aged 34, and taken to an abandoned house where he was molested then strangled.

His disappearance sparked one of the biggest missing person investigations in Australian history, culminating in Cowan's arrest eight years later.

The child killer subsequently led police to where he had dumped Daniel's remains in bushland at the Glass House Mountains in August 2011.

He was sentenced to life behind bars in Brisbane's Wolston Correctional Centre in 2014, with a minimum non-parole period of 20 years.

Cowan remains an unpopular inmate due to his horrific crimes - which include an extensive rap sheet of child sex offences prior to Daniel's murder.'

He has been the target of several brutal attacks at the hands of fellow prisoners, including being doused with boiling water in 2016 which left him with permanent scarring.

In May 2018, he was stabbed in the ear and neck with an 'improvised implement' and suffered superficial injuries.

Cowan will be eligible to apply for parole in 2034.

The producers of The Stranger released a statement following the Morcombes' comments.

'The Stranger is a fictionalised account of the undercover police operation that resulted in a successful murder prosecution. Out of our deepest respect for the family, the name of the victim is never mentioned in the film and the film does not depict any details of the murder. Nor is the family represented in the film in any way,' they said.

'Instead it tells the story of the unknown police professionals who committed years of their lives and their mental and physical health to resolve this case and others like it.

Murderer of Queensland schoolboy Daniel Morcombe, Brett Peter Cowan. It took nine years to convict him

'When the film was first in development, the producers approached the family to make them aware of the film. They declined to be involved. It is a decision we continue to respect.'

Writer Thomas M. Wright, who also directed the film, has not denied the story is based on the Morcombe investigation, but said he left out the family's experience.

'One reason I chose not to show the child or family was to make a film with a clear moral perspective,' he told Variety in May.

'I couldn't presume to know anything of the experience of that family. But I could see that there was a story about empathy and making meaning in the wake of violence, not violence itself.

'All of the actors went very deep on this film. I think it left a mark on everybody.'
Anthony Albanese will bring back the $750-a-week Covid isolation payment and has moved forward the emergency national cabinet meeting from Monday to Saturday as the latest Omicron variants sweep through Australia.

The Prime Minister said he'd been briefed by Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly on Friday afternoon about the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, and decided he and the state leaders needed to meet earlier than planned.

He will now temporarily reinstate the payment for casuals and workers with no sick leave benefits who are forced to isolate with the virus.

'Received afternoon briefing from Chief Medical Officer, Professor Paul Kelly on BA4/5 COVID wave,' Mr Albanese tweeted on Friday evening after flying back to Australia from the Pacific Islands' Forum in Fiji.

'He will report to National Cabinet tomorrow morning and we will discuss proposals to ensure the vulnerable are protected over coming weeks.'

He'd earlier shut downcalls from premiers and unions for the handouts to be continued after June 30.

Mr Albanese said the $1trillion national debt he 'inherited' from the Morrison Government and the ease of most Covid restrictions meant the payment was no longer beneficial.

It's understood many federal ministers supported bringing back the payment for those having to self-quarantine.

'We should move on it. Do we actually want people to work when they've got Covid?' one minister who wished to remain anonymous told Fairfax earlier on Friday.

The payment backflip comes as NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet pushed for the seven-day mandatory isolation period for Australians struck down with Covid to be reduced.

Casual workers who have to isolate with Covid will be able to access a $750 payment as Anthony Albanese temporarily reinstates it

Mr Perrottet on Friday said he will call for the rules around self-isolating to be discussed at national cabinet.

One option, which would be subjected to the advice of medical experts, could see those who test positive self-quarantine for five days or less instead of a week.

'Ultimately, we have to get to a point where if you are sick you stay at home and if you are not sick you can go to work,' Mr Perrottet told News.com.au.

'I think we need to look at the periods of time in which we are forcibly requiring people to not be able to work and provide for their families.'

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet (above) said he will call for the seven-day Covid isolation period to be discussed at Saturday's emergency national cabinet meeting

Mr Perrottet said if mandatory isolation periods were to continue the Federal Government has a responsibility to compensate casual workers.

'My view is this: if we're going to have the state take away people's liberty and they can't work well then the state needs to compensate,' the Premier said.

Mr Albanese had earlier stood firm in cutting the $750 weekly payments for workers in isolation, despite criticism from casual employees its removal will cost them vital income.

The Prime Minister rushed forward the emergency national cabinet meeting from Monday to Saturday

'The idea no one is getting sick leave at the moment is not the case,' he said on Friday morning.

'Good employers are recognising people are continuing to work from home while they have Covid and receiving payments through that.'

He added it was also the Morrison Government's plan to cut the payment and he was simply fulfilling that plan.

Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff, federal Labor MP Mike Freelander and other Labor backbenchers joined Mr Perrottet in calling for the payments to be reinstated on Thursday as Covid cases rise.

However, Health Minister Mark Butler said the government was closely monitoring the situation but saw no need to continue the payments as restrictions ease.

Casual workers, specifically in hospitality and retail sectors, called for the $750 Covid isolation payment to be reinstated to help make up for vital lost income

'There's no end to the list of worthy, important things we could be spending the money on in the health portfolio, but there is an end to the money,' he said.

'The Australian community understands, and indeed wants, the country to move to a new phase in confronting this pandemic.'

Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus also criticised the initial decision to scrap the payments.

'When you have a whole lot of people sick, the economy is sick  You can't on the one hand say people have to stay at home and on the other hand say you are not going to get paid and you are left with nothing,' she told Nine News.

'It is abandoning people and not the Australian way, we have to fix it.'

Australia recorded more than 43,000 cases and 66 deaths on Friday and there are currently 4,602 people in hospital with the virus.
A course taught to trainee detectives in the Metropolitan Police has been dropped after university lecturers said it was 'racist, misogynistic and discriminatory' and refused to teach it.

The training programme contained a case study which involved stereotypes of Asian and Middle Eastern immigrants as drug dealers, money launderers, rapists and child abusers, according to the Times.

The newspaper reports that the case study featured a role-playing scenario that centred on a Turkish drug dealer who uses a Gurkha knife to murder a Chinese money-launderer.

The training programme is taught at four London universities - Brunel, Anglia Ruskin, the University of West London and the University of East London - and is outsourced to a private company Babcock International.

According to the Times, the Met's crime academy and retired officers helped draft and approve the case study, which also includes incest, throat-slitting, self mutilation and attacks on a disabled child.

The force has insisted the content is drafted by the 'academic team' with 'operational input from the Met, including colleagues from the Crime Academy'.

A course taught to trainee detectives in the Metropolitan Police has been dropped after university lecturers said it was 'racist, misogynistic and discriminatory' and refused to teach it

The controversy is the latest in a series of blows to the force which, last month, was dramatically placed in special measures for the first time ever due to concerns about 'serious or critical shortcomings'.

A letter from HMICFRS cited numerous fiascoes at Britain's largest force, including the murder of Sarah Everard by serving officer Wayne Couzens, the 'racially profiled' stop and search of the Team GB sprinter Bianca Williams, and the strip-search of a 15-year-old black schoolgirl known as Child Q. It follows further scandals, including the failure to properly investigate serial killer Stephen Port and the revelation of racist WhatsApp messages exchanged by officers at Charing Cross Police Station.

University lecturers tasked with teaching the controversial case study slammed it as discriminatory.

Ruwan Uduwerage-Perera, the UEL course director and a founding member of the National Black Police Association, said in an email to his lecturers seen by the Times: 'The material is absolutely awful. The scenario is discriminatory.'

Meanwhile, Gurpal Virdi, a former Met detective who taught the case study, said the content was why 'nothing was changing' in the police, adding: 'As educators we cannot allow young minds to be contaminated with racism and discrimination.

'Policing is about keeping an open mind rather than narrow vision.'

Ruwan Uduwerage-Perera, the course director at the university of East London (pictured above) described the course material as 'absolutely awful' and said it was 'discriminatory'

Lecturers at the universities where the content was taught refused to include the case study in their lessons, prompting the force to affirm that new trainees who take the course this summer will be taught a different case study.

A spokesman said the force works in commercial partnership with Babcock International to deliver its recruit training for new police officers and pointed out that Babcock, in turn, partners with the four London universities who offer the course.

The spokesman added: 'The professional lecturing teams across Babcock and these Universities hold responsibility for designing and delivering a number of elements of the training, which is then reviewed and approved by the Met before use.

'All training content aligns to the National Police Curriculum which is owned by the College of Policing'.

The force said the content was subject to 'robust quality assurance' through the universities.

The case study was taught on the Degree Holder Entry Programme for Detectives and was first taught in September and October last year.

The course is taught by four universities including the University of West London (pictured)

The spokesman said: 'Case studies are designed to cover a range of complex issues delivered by suitably qualified and experienced higher education lecturers from the Universities who can ensure that material is appropriately contextualised and anchored to the achievement of learning outcomes.'

Recruits were surveyed about the content of the course and the Met says no initial issues were highlighted in respect of this case study.

But it added: 'Subsequent feedback was received by a small number within the lecturing team regarding the level of complexity and the potential for misinterpretation in the delivery of the material to ensure that sensitive, diversity linked, subject matter was appropriately framed and culturally sensitive.

'As a result, each University was given delegated authority to adapt the case study locally using their professional judgement and understanding of their local lecturing team capability in order to ensure that any risks of misinterpretation were removed.'

The Met confirmed that from this summer, new recruits will be taught an alternative case study after recognising that 'all case studies have a natural shelf life'.

A spokesman for Babcock International told MailOnline: 'Babcock works closely with the Metropolitan Police Service and partners with four London based universities to provide professional and academic solutions to support the delivery of training for new police officers for the Met.

'Both Babcock and the universities engage with a variety of additional experts and support organisations to develop particular elements of the training when this is required. All the content has to align to the National Police Curriculum and training is then reviewed and approved by the Met before use.

'The case study was used in September and October 2021. Whilst no initial issues were highlighted via recruit surveys, concerns were raised by a small number of lecturers.

'As a result, each University was given delegated authority to adapt the case study and in late 2021 work commenced on the development of new training materials.

'Since May 2022, all recruits have been completing a new programme.'
Advertisement

Penny Mordaunt complained that Tory rivals are deploying 'black ops' to block her from the last two in the contest because they know she will win.

The trade minister - a surprise bookies' favourite - demanded her opponents tone down their tactics as she boasted about polls suggesting is the most popular with party members.

She also tried to quell a rising backlash about her stance on gender issues, saying 'Westminster is tying itself in knots' about the topic and she believes women have a right to exclude trans people from single-sex spaces.

The intervention, in a Sky News interview, came as the fight for the keys to No10 intensifies again, with the five surviving candidate prepare to go head-to-head in hustings and a live TV debate.

Rivals have been engaged in a wave of brutal briefing as Liz Truss tries to claw back ground, with allies of the Foreign Secretary branding Ms Mordaunt 'utterly incompetent' and warning her becoming PM would be 'akin to a Corbynite takeover of the Conservative Party'.

Former Brexit minister Lord Frost drew a furious response after urging the other right-winger left in the contest, Kemi Badenoch, to pull out and get behind Ms Truss - something she has flatly dismissed.

Senior backbencher Simon Hoare, who is supporting Mr Sunak, swiped at the peer saying no-one 'gives a flying f***' what an 'unelected, failed minister' thinks.

Ms Mordaunt's supporters have struck back by predicting that Ms Truss will be 'aggressive and Marmite' in the first televised debate on Channel 4 tonight, with one telling The Times she could end up looking like 'Cruella de Vil'.

Ms Truss has been boosted by an endorsement from right-wing rival Suella Braverman, who was knocked out of the contest in the second round last night.

Ms Braverman also laid into Ms Mordaunt over her stance on gender issues, accusing her of trying to keep the word 'woman' out of maternity legislation.

Penny Mordaunt (pictured) has been installed as the surprise bookies' favourite due to polls showing she would beat frontrunner Rishi Sunak - and all the other contenders - in a run-off ballot of party members

The intervention, in a Sky News interview, came as the fight for the keys to No10 intensifies again, with the five surviving candidate going head-to-head in hustings (pictured) and a live TV debate this evening

Rishi Sunak (left) still has most support from MPs, while Liz Truss (right) is trying to claw back ground

Ms Truss has been boosted by an endorsement from right-wing rival Suella Braverman (pictured), who was knocked out of the contest in the second round last night

Senior backbencher Simon Hoare, who is supporting Mr Sunak, hit back at interventions from Lord Frost backing Liz Truss, swiping that no-one 'gives a flying f***' what an 'unelected, failed minister' thinks

Tory leadership race: Round two vote result Rishi Sunak: 101 (+13) Penny Mordaunt: 83 (+16) Liz Truss: 64 (+14) Kemi Badenoch: 49 (+9) Tom Tugendhat: 32 (-5) ELIMINATED Suella Braverman: 27 (-5) Advertisement

Ms Mordaunt said: 'People obviously are trying to stop me getting into the final because they don't want to run against me.'

She insisted that her campaign was 'not engaging in any of these black ops', and said her competitors 'might like to think about doing the same' because 'the worst thing would be is if we come out of this contest not in good shape'.

Ms Mordaunt also tried to put the gender debate to one side, saying that she is 'genetically a woman' and trans women are not. She insisted it is not fair for biological men to compete in women's sport.

But she added: 'I think we should be concentrating on the big issues that are worrying - and terrifying in some cases - the public.

'The huge cost of living issues that we have, access to health care, just the services that they want to see run really efficiently from the state.

'I understand why people are trying to stop me getting into the final two, but I am going to stay focused on the things that matter to the public and the people we're here to serve.'

On Sky, Beth Rigby pointed out that Ms Mordaunt would be the first single PM since Ted Heath, mentioned the motherhood row over Theresa May and asked whether it 'irritated' her that motherhood and marriage are still 'relevant' talking about women in powerful positions.

Ms Mordaunt said people's backgrounds were relevant to both men and women seeking public office, but said: 'The question... why aren't you married, is never asked of men.'

When Beth pressed if that meant Ms Mordaunt would never answer that question, she replied: 'I'd probably answer it, but you could never show it on television.'

The identity of the top two contenders who will go forward to the run-off ballot of Tory activists is still far from clear after the second round of voting by MPs.

Former Chancellor Rishi Sunak came top with 101 votes and Ms Mordaunt was second with 83 - adding 16 to her previous tally.

Ms Truss was still well behind on 64 - up 14 - while Ms Badenoch received 49, up nine. Tom Tugendhat is also still in the battle with 32 votes despite losing support.

The candidates will take part in hustings for the grassroots ConservativeHome website at 1pm, before facing off on Channel 4 at 7.30pm. There will be another ITV debate on Sunday night and MPs then vote again on Monday to eliminate another hopeful.

Ms Braverman came out in support of Ms Truss after they held talks last night, describing the Foreign Secretary as the 'best person to unleash the opportunities of Brexit' and deliver tax cuts, as the right of the party seeks to rally round a single candidate.

Taking influential Tory Steve Baker's vote with her, it was a blow to Kemi Badenoch, who was facing pressure to pull out and back Ms Truss to keep Mr Sunak or Ms Mordaunt out of No 10.

In a statement, Ms Braverman said: 'Liz is the best person to unleash the opportunities of Brexit, and deliver much needed tax cuts.

'I'm confident she will defend free speech, champion equality of opportunity and take a robust line on illegal immigration.'

Meanwhile, Lord Frost urged Ms Badenoch to withdraw from the Tory leadership race and back Ms Truss.

Writing for the Daily Telegraph, Lord Frost said: 'We need unity among free marketeers. Kemi and Suella Braverman set out convincing programmes, with differing emphases, for change.

Lord Frost urges Badenoch to pull out Former Brexit minister Lord Frost has thrown his support behind Liz Truss as he urged Kemi Badenoch to pull out of the Tory leadership contest so there can be 'unity among free marketeers'. 'Kemi and Suella Braverman set out convincing programmes, with differing emphases, for change,' the 57-year-old wrote in The Daily Telegraph. 'But Liz's depth of experience, her energy and ideas - as well as the simple fact she has the most votes of the three - put her in the lead. 'It is now time for pragmatism. I urge Kemi to stand down in return for a serious job in a Truss administration.' Ms Badenoch was under pressure early on Friday to withdraw and back Ms Truss to keep Rishi Sunak or Penny Mordaunt out of No 10. Ms Badenoch's campaign, however, said she is 'in it to win'. Her spokesman said: 'Kemi has brought interesting ideas and a new approach to this leadership contest. She is looking forward to the debates this weekend. 'She has no intention of stepping down and is in it to win.' Advertisement

'But Liz's depth of experience, her energy and ideas  as well as the simple fact she has the most votes of the three  put her in the lead.

He added: 'It is now time for pragmatism. I urge Kemi to stand down in return for a serious job in a Truss administration.'

Former health minister Ed Argar, Home Office minister Tom Pursglove and defence minister James Heappey also endorsed Ms Truss yesterday.

The Foreign Secretary used her campaign launch yesterday to promise continuity on Mr Johnson's key pledges such as levelling up, while breaking with the economic policy pursued by Mr Sunak.

There had been fury at the refusal of Mrs Braverman to step aside and lend her supporters to Miss Truss.

One ally said: 'If she had dropped out in the morning we could have expected a significant number of her people to come across, giving Liz momentum into the weekend. It was a golden opportunity missed.'

In her speech in central London yesterday, Miss Truss highlighted her experience as a former chief secretary to the Treasury, and said she was the only candidate with the experience to offer a credible economic alternative to Mr Sunak.

'We are at a critical moment for our country,' she said. 'Now is the time to be bold, we cannot have business-as-usual economic management, which has led to low growth for decades.'

She pledged to introduce 'bold supply-side reforms' including 'cutting taxes'.

Ms Truss also said she had opposed Mr Sunak's hike in national insurance and would scrap it if elected.

And she defended her decision to stand by Boris Johnson when others were deserting him.

'I am a loyal person. I am loyal to Boris Johnson,' she said.

'I supported our Prime Minister's aspirations and I want to deliver the promise of the 2019 manifesto.

'What we need to do now is deliver, deliver, deliver, and I am the person in this race who has the record of delivery.'

Tom Tugendhat (left) is still in the contest despite losing ground in the latest round of voting by MPs. Kemi Badenoch (right) has dismissed calls to stand aside and support Liz Truss
U.S. President Joe Biden, Israel Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Israel President Isaac Herzog attend the the opening ceremony of the Maccabiah in Jerusalem, July 14. Reuters-Yonap



U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid stood side-by-side Thursday and declared they would not allow Iran to become a nuclear power. They parted ways, though, on how to get there.



Biden, in a joint news conference after a one-on-one meeting with the Israeli leader, said he still wants to give diplomacy a chance. Moments earlier, Lapid insisted that words alone won't thwart Tehran's nuclear ambitions.



While Biden suggested his patience with Iran was running low, he held out hope that Iran can be persuaded to rejoin a dormant deal intended to prevent it from building a nuclear weapon.



''I continue to believe that diplomacy is the best way to achieve this outcome,'' Biden said on the second day of a four-day visit to Israel and Saudi Arabia. He also stressed on his first trip to the Middle East as president the importance of furthering ties between Israel and its Arab neighbors.



Hours before Biden was set to become the first U.S. leader to fly directly from Israel to the kingdom, Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation announced early Friday ''the decision to open the Kingdom's airspace for all air carriers that meet the requirements of the Authority for overflying.''



It signaled the end of its longstanding ban on Israeli airliners overflying its territory  an incremental step toward the normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel that builds on the strong but informal ties the erstwhile foes have developed in recent years over their shared concerns about Iran's growing influence in the region.



''President Biden welcomes and commends the historic decision by the leadership of Saudi Arabia to open Saudi airspace to all civilian carriers without discrimination, a decision that includes flights to and from Israel,'' U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement early Friday.



Biden's emphasis on a diplomatic solution on Iran's nuclear program contrasted with Lapid, who said Iran must face a real threat of force before it will agree to give up on its nuclear ambitions.



''Words will not stop them, Mr. President. Diplomacy will not stop them,'' Lapid said. ''The only thing that will stop Iran is knowing that if they continue to develop their nuclear program the free world will use force.''



Lapid suggested he and Biden were in agreement, despite his tougher rhetoric toward Iran.



''I don't think there's a light between us,'' he said. ''We cannot allow Iran to become nuclear.''



Biden, too, said, ''We will not, let me say it again, we will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.''



Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi lashed out at the U.S. and ''its regional allies'' for stoking instability in the region, state-run IRNA news agency reported.





U.S. President Joe Biden, left, speaks with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, at a press conference at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Jerusalem, July 14. AP-Yonhap
A British tourist has died on his honeymoon after he went swimming in the rough sea off a Thai beach.

Ali Mohammed Mian, 34, was just two days into a dream trip to the island of Phuket, southern Thailand when tragedy struck yesterday.

He was staying at the five-star Katathani Phuket Beach Resort and went for a paddle in the choppy waters - especially dangerous during the current monsoon rainy season.

Ali, from London, and a second swimmer, local man Surasit Phonglaohaphan, 55, were both dragged out of the water on the Kata Noi Beach.

Lifeguards pulled both men back onto the sand and performed CPR before paramedics rushed them in an ambulance to the Chalong Hospital.

Both Ali and Surasit, who are not believed to have been holidaying together, were pronounced dead shortly after they arrived at hospital.

Ali Mohammed Mian, 34, had been on the dream trip for just two days since arriving on the island of Phuket, southern Thailand, on July 12

Lifeguards pulled both men back onto the sand and performed CPR before paramedics rushed them in an ambulance to the Chalong Hospital

Lieutenant Colonel Kittipong Nupheng from the Karon district police station said officers had informed the British Embassy who are now in contact with Ali's family following the drowning in the Andaman Sea.

The policeman said: 'Our station received notification at 5pm from rescue volunteers that lifeguards had rescued two drowning tourists from the sea.

'Both of them were unconscious so CPR was performed. One of them had signs of a pulse. Both were taken to the Chalong Hospital but later died.

'We were informed that there was a red warning flag on the beach that the tourists had ignored to go swimming in the sea.

'They disobeyed the red flag and were swept away by the waves.'

Elsewhere in Phuket at the Kata Beach, two other tourists had to be rescued after they were dragged away by the strong currents. The couple, both in the mid-30s, survived and were taken to hospital.

Earlier this week, two backpackers drowned after ignoring red warning flags to swim in the sea on the island of Koh Chang island in Trat province.

Anna Carreras, 21, from Spain, and Rahul Ramkurrun, 22, from France, had allegedly stayed up all night partying with other young holidaymakers before going to the beach and swimming shortly before sunrise. Both drowned in the treacherous conditions.

Thailand is currently in the middle of its annual rainy season, which brings regular tropical monsoon downpours and strong winds. The currents in the Andaman Sea are also much stronger.
The suspect in the Buffalo grocery store shooting was indicted on federal hate crime charges yesterday - hours before the supermarket reopened with a commemoration ceremony.

Payton Gendron, 19, had additional charges handed down to him by a federal grand jury on Thursday in relation to the May 14 shooting of ten black people in the Tops Friendly Markets store.

He also faces 10 counts of first-degree murder and 10 counts of second-degree murder in state court.

Bishop Darius Pridgen, pastor of True Bethel Church, embraces community member Carlanda Meadors prior to a prayer and ceremony outside the Tops Friendly Markets

Jacqueline Cherry performs a traditional dance at Tops Friendly Market to commemorate the victims of the shooting in Buffalo on May 14

Authorities said he targeted the store because it was a hub in the predominantly black neighborhood.

Community members gathered at 2.30pm local time to commemorate the two-month anniversary of the shooting a day before it is likely to reopen, the grocery chain said in a statement.

The ceremony involved a bell-ringing to honour the victims of the attack which came after each of their names were read aloud.

Employees, neighbors and elected officials toured the overhauled store Thursday. Near the entrance, mirrors reflecting cascading water stood on both sides of a poem by Buffalo's poet laureate, Jillian Hanesworth, which begins: 'Let the hopeful healing waters flow.'

The store has been fully renovated since the attack.

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said the Tops store reopening was a step forward in the community's efforts to heal.

'It is important to move forward as a united and strong community. We will not let hate win,' he said.

In an interview on an Anti-Defamation League podcast, Brown said the store had been paying its 86 employees despite being closed following the shooting and had provided shuttles for shoppers to other Tops supermarkets.

The decision to reopen, rather than relocate, the store has been met with mixed emotions in the east Buffalo neighborhood that, beset by high poverty, fought for years to get a grocery store.

Since opening in 2003, the Tops location remains the only supermarket in the immediate area.

Linda Henderson prays during the ceremony which took place yesterday

All 10 of the victims (pictured) have been named by family members a day after the May 14 shooting

Its closure after the shooting forced many residents to take buses to other locations or rely on stopgap measures like neighborhood giveaways to access fresh food.

'We must never forget the intoxicating pain and utter cruelness of what occurred here,' state Attorney General Letitia James said Thursday, before going inside the store.

'Today we reclaim this space as ours.'

State Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, whose district includes the city, said her office fielded calls from people opposed to reopening, but she said the community could not wait years for a replacement.

Suggestions to local media and on social networks included turning the site into a park or recreational center that would bring the community together, or having several supermarkets that are more dispersed throughout Buffalo's East Side.

Some simply aren't comfortable entering a store where such terrible events took place.

'I can't go right now,' said Willie Boyd, 82, as he chatted with friends on a sidewalk nearby. He said he knew some of the victims and couldn't yet bring himself to walk the aisles where they died.

'I will eventually,' he said. 'I just can't right now. I just can't.'

Authorities say the suspect, who broadcast the attack in real time to the live-streaming service Twitch, is a white supremacist who targeted the store because it was the hub of a tight-knit, predominantly African-American neighborhood in Buffalo.

The hate crimes indictment spares federal prosecutors the additional legal step of asking a judge to determine whether there is sufficient evidence against the defendant to bring the case to trial

On Wednesday, federal prosecutors filed 26 counts of hate crimes and firearms charges against Gendron. Pictured: Gendron is arrested outside the Tops supermarket in Buffalo on May 14

People comfort each other outside the Tops supermarket after the mass shooting

The gunman was carrying two rifles and wore a Kevlar helmet, seen here, body armor and carried two rifles

The gunman opened fire around 2.30pm on Saturday while livestreaming the shooting

Heavily armed officer confer outside the Tops Friendly Supermarket located in a predominately black neighborhood just north of downtown Buffalo

Officers in riot gear secure the crime scene after 13 people were shot, three fatally, inside a Buffalo supermarket

Gendron, who was 18 at the time of the mass shooting, is currently in state custody facing 10 counts of first-degree murder and 10 counts of second-degree murder in state court

The hate crimes indictment spares federal prosecutors the additional legal step of asking a judge to determine whether there is sufficient evidence against the defendant to bring the case to trial.

If convicted, the Conklin, New York, man could face life in prison or the death penalty. Prosecutors must notify the court prior to trial whether they will seek a death sentence.

Gendron, who was 18 at the time of the mass shooting, is currently in state custody facing 10 counts of first-degree murder and 10 counts of second-degree murder in state court.

The indictment came less than an hour before community members planned to gather at the Tops Friendly Markets store - the site of the shooting - for a moment of silence and prayer to commemorate the two-month anniversary of the May 14 attack.

The store, which has since been fully renovated with increased security systems and a victim memorial, is set to reopen on Friday.

Ten days after the massacre, a mass shooting at a school in Uvalde, Texas, left 19 children and two teachers dead. Seven weeks after the Buffalo massacre, seven people where shot dead at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois.

The attacks have reignited a longstanding national debate over U.S. gun laws.
Advertisement

Three in 10 Britons have stayed at home to avoid Covid in the last month and more than 40 per cent have worn a face mask as fears about the virus start to take hold again, a survey suggests.

The UK is currently in the midst of a mild fifth wave that has seen infections rise for the past month, with 3.5million people carrying Covid last week  even though deaths and ICU admissions have remained flat.

An exclusive poll for MailOnline found 29 per cent of people have stayed indoors at some point since cases began rising to avoid catching the virus, while 42 per cent have worn a covering. Almost half observed social distancing rules that have not been in place since February, while two-thirds said they had sanitised their hands.

Just 16 per cent of people, around one in six, have not taken any precautions over the last month, according to the survey of 1,500 Britons by Redfield & Wilton Strategies.

NHS bosses privately expect the latest wave to fizzle out naturally in the coming weeks, without the need for any onerous public health measures.

And MailOnline's analysis of the latest official hospital figures suggest the latest wave is plateauing.

But that has not stopped individual hospitals, GP surgeries, care homes and some schools from reintroducing face masks and social distancing in recent weeks.

And across Britain's towns and cities, a growing share of the public appear to be donning masks again in shops, supermarkets and on public transport. Retail bosses have warned Britain is in danger of becoming a 'nation of hypochondriacs'.

An exclusive poll for MailOnline found 29 per cent of people have stayed indoors at some point since cases started rising to avoid catching the virus, while 42 per cent have worn a face covering. Almost half (49 per cent) observed social distancing rules that have not been in place since February, while two-thirds (67 per cent) said they had sanitised their hands. Just 16 per cent of people, around one in six, had not taken any precautions in the last month, according to the survey of 1,500 Britons by Redfield & Wilton Strategies

MANCHESTER: Members of the public wearing face masks in Manchester city centre on Thursday. They appear to be making a steady return to Britain's towns and cities amid a rise in Covid cases

LONDON: A shopper wears a face mask at a Tesco store in south London on Thursday

BIRMINGHAM: A man and a woman wearing medical face masks on Thursday in Kings Heath, Birmingham. Many people are choosing to continue wearing face coverings to reduce their risk of spreading or catching Covid

A woman on the Jubilee Line in London on Thursday wearing a medical face mask. Face coverings were previously mandatory but are now optional

Latest data shows there were 1,864 Covid admissions across England each day by July 12, on average, which was 13 per cent higher than the previous week

The weekly growth rate of hospitalisations for the virus  the speed at which rates are increasing  has more than halved in recent weeks. Average daily admissions had been climbing at a rate of around 40 per cent week-on-week at times last month but this has slowed to about 13 per cent

Only a third of patients are primarily sick with Covid, which suggests rising admissions are a symptom of high infection rates rather than severe disease. The majority (64 per cent) are known as 'incidental' cases  patients who went to hospital for a different reason but happened to test positive. The above graph compares incidental cases throughout the pandemic

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) weekly infection survey found more than 2.7million Britons were infected with Covid in the last week of June

Luke Johnson, a serial entrepreneur and chairman of Gail's bakery, told MailOnline: 'Recent research shows Covid is now no more lethal than influenza, thanks in part to vaccines and natural immunity.

'Society has never tested widely or shut down for flu  we have learned to live with it. We must do the same with Covid.

'We need to stop the irrational fear and get the disease in proportion. For the vast majority of those testing positive for Covid, they are asymptomatic or have cold-like symptoms.

'Unless we want to become a nation of hypochondriacs and suffer a much lower standard of living, society needs to stop testing, put Covid in the past, and regain its ambition.'

Professor Christina Pagel, a mathematician at University College London, said that for the next few weeks 'at least', she would be 'avoiding crowded indoor places  so Im not at the moment going to concerts, the theatre, indoor gyms.

She told The i newspaper earlier this week that she still wears a FFP2 mask 'on public transport and in shops and during work meetings'.

'I try to socialise outdoors as much as possible  sitting outside in pubs or restaurants, having picnics in the park  and Im as vaccinated as I can be,' she said. 'Im also testing if Im seeing lots of people or anyone at risk or if I have any cold and flu symptoms.'

Other users on social media have revealed they are staying indoors and being more cautious amid the uptick in cases.

Writer Sara Gibbs said: 'Tearfully cancelling all my upcoming plans and feeling like Im losing my mind because I seem to be the only person in the world taking precautions in what appears to me, but apparently nobody else, to be a serious wave of a deadly pandemic.'

Members of the public wearing face masks near Piccadilly Station in Manchester City Centre on Thursday

MailOnline analysis shows how the rate of severe illness from Covid has fallen over time. At the beginning of the pandemic, one per cent of all people infected with the virus (based on the Office for National Statistics infection rate) required mechanical ventilation within two weeks. But most recent NHS bed occupancy rates show just 0.015 per cent of those infected are admitted to an ICU bed - 100 times fewer than the start of the pandemic

Around 2.1m  the equivalent of one in 25  had the virus in England alone (shown), which was up from one in 30 the previous week

Is the fifth Covid wave already peaking? MailOnline's analysis of NHS data suggests the current wave of Covid admissions is peaking, and there are early signs the rise in cases is also slowing. The weekly growth rate of hospitalisations has halved in recent weeks, causing a visible drop in charts showing the virus' pressure on the health service. Average daily virus admissions had been climbing at around 40 per cent week-on-week at times last month but this has now slowed to about 13 per cent. The Office for National Statistics' weekly infection survey also suggests infections are slowing  despite gloomy warnings they could reach pandemic highs. There were an estimated 2.1million people infected in England in the most recent week, which marked a 17.7 per cent increase in seven days. That was compared to a 34 per cent jump the previous week. Covid cases would need to almost double to match the pandemic high of 4.1million infections in March, at the height of the BA.2 wave. Meanwhile, Covid deaths have started to creep up  but only marginally. Just 30 people are dying primarily from the virus each day in England and Wales, according to an ONS report today. Advertisement

Britain's fifth wave is being driven by the Omicron sub-strains BA.4 and BA.5, with the latter regarded as the most infectious variant of the virus yet.

They have caused daily Covid hospital admissions to rise to a near 18-month high, with around 2,000 people being hospitalised with the virus every day.

But BA.4 and BA.5 are both as mild as their parent strain, which has meant ICU admissions and deaths have remained steady despite cases rising for weeks.

Deaths and ICU rates  which used to be the barometer for social restrictions  have remained flat despite the uptick in cases, which has been attributed to milder variants, vaccines and growing natural immunity.

Millions of Britons ditched masks in April as part of 'Freedom Day' and the Government's living with Covid plan, which no longer made them a legal requirement.

They were only axed from official NHS guidance last month, but already individual trusts have started reimposing them.

Last week, the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust in Exeter started handing out disposable face masks and antiviral hand gel to all visitors.

'We moved back to mandatory face masks for all, and I think it's a sensible move,' Dr David Strain, an honorary consultant in medicine for older adults at the Trust, told Good Health.

'The point is to protect vulnerable patients at a time when one in 20 people in the population has Covid.'

Sadiq Khan has previously been a strong advocate of mask wearing.

The official Mayor of London website still advises Londoners to continue using a face covering 'in crowded or enclosed spaces where the virus can spread more easily, including on TfL services where face coverings are strongly recommended'.

Infection rates aren't just rising in the UK  they are on the march across Europe, fuelled by Omicron sub-variants thought to be even more infectious than the BA.2 strain that caused UK cases to soar to a record 4.1 million in April.

Governments are revisiting face mask guidance as a result.

France's former health minister Brigitte Bourguignon recently said people have a 'civic duty' to wear masks in crowded places, such as on public transport, at work and in shops; German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has warned that face masks 'will play a bigger role' in Germany in the coming months; and in Australia, Dr Kerry Chant, New South Wales chief health officer, last week urged residents to don a mask when they can't socially distance.

Meanwhile, the government of Cyprus announced it is to make it mandatory for people to wear face masks when indoors.

Despite billions of people wearing masks to reduce Covid transmission, goldstandard scientific evidence  in other words, randomised controlled trials  remains thin on the ground.

Instead, the evidence comes mainly from observational studies, which look at samples of people without interfering or controlling them in any way.

According to these studies, there is a benefit to wearing a mask.

For example, a review of public health measures published by the BMJ in October 2021, looking at 72 observational studies of nearly 400,000 participants, found a 53 per cent reduction in Covid-19 incidence from wearing masks.

Deaths and ICU rates  which used to be the barometer for social restrictions  have remained flat despite the uptick in cases, which has been attributed to milder variants, vaccines and growing natural immunity (pic: Birmingham mask wearers)

Despite billions of people wearing masks to reduce Covid transmission, goldstandard scientific evidence  in other words, randomised controlled trials  remains thin on the ground (pictured: Birmingham on Thursday)

The official Mayor of London website still advises Londoners to continue using a face covering 'in crowded or enclosed spaces where the virus can spread more easily'. Pictured: Commuters on the Tube on Thursday

One review of public health measures published by the BMJ in October 2021, looking at 72 observational studies of nearly 400,000 participants, found a 53 per cent reduction in Covid-19 incidence from wearing masks (pic: the Tube on Thursday)

Commuters wearing mask going down an escalator on the Jubilee Line on the London Underground on Thursday
Advertisement

The boss of Heathrow has been given a Government ultimatum to reveal his plan to end the continuing travel chaos ruining holidays for British holidaymakers.

Department for Transport (DfT) and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) chiefs have written a joint letter to Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye urging he provide a 'credible' recovery plan to get the airport back to operating 'reliably' at a 'stable level of capacity'.

They have also demanded to know why the airport believes a cap on daily departing passengers 'provides a safe and resilient airport with a positive passenger experience'.

It comes after Emirates - the world's biggest international airline - yesterday said it was refusing to axe flights in order to comply with the airport's new cap on passenger numbers.

Last night, Heathrow attempted to hit back at the criticism, with the airport saying it had 'no choice' but to make the 'difficult' decision to implement a passenger cap.

A spokeswoman also took aim at airlines refusing to comply, saying it would be 'disappointing' if any company was to put 'profit ahead of a safe and reliable passenger journey'.

But now the DfT and CAA have turned the spotlight back on Heathrow. DfT's director general for aviation Dr Rannia Leontaridi and the CAA's chief executive Richard Moriarty have requested Mr Holland-Kaye's assessment of why the airport's cap will work.

In the joint letter, they also wrote: 'We need you to develop a credible and resilient capacity recovery plan for the next six months, that provides comfort that Heathrow can operate reliably at a stable level of capacity.'

According to The Telegraph, Mr Holland-Kaye has been given until noon on Friday to assure them that the airport has enough staff for security screening and to assist disabled passengers.

It comes as travellers today shared pictures on social media of long queues at the airport overnight, including one queue appearing to stretch down a hallway of Terminal 3.

On another day of airport chaos:

Heathrow boss John Holland-Kaye was given until noon on Friday to assure the DfT and the CAA that the airport has a 'credible' recovery plan to get the airport back to operating 'reliably' at a 'stable level of capacity'

It comes after a furious row broke out between Heathrow and Emirates after the airline refused to comply with an unacceptable order to cut flights from its schedule;

An easyJet passenger whose flight was delayed by an hour due to baggage delays revealed how she watched a ground crew member sitting scrolling on his phone;

EasyJet crew members in Spain began a strike today over a wage dispute with bosses. The strike, involves staff at Barcelona, Malaga and Palma de Mallorca airports, is the second of three weekends of strike action planned by airline staff this month, with walkouts also scheduled for July 29-31;

Yesterday, easyJet Holidays chief Garry Wilson told the BBC that it had done 'everything in its control' to prevent flight cancellations and sure up its scheduling;

Gatwick Airport ran out of water - leaving some passengers unable to use the toilets and some food outlets unable to serve meals and drinks.

The boss of Heathrow (pictured: Queues at the airport overnight shared by one user on Twitter) is facing a Government ultimatum to reveal his plan to end the continuing chaos - after an airline last night launched an open rebellion against the airport's demands to cut the number of flights

It comes as travellers shared pictures on social media of long queues at the airport overnight, including one queue appearing to stretch down a hallway of Terminal 3

It comes as airline Emirates took aim at the west London airport (pictured: Queues overnight at Heathrow) over long queues, numerous flight cancellations, missing baggage and frequent delays, describing the situation as 'airmageddon'

Department for Transport (DfT) and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) chiefs last night wrote a joint letter to Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye (pictured) urging he provide a 'credible' recovery plan to get the airport back to operating 'reliably' at a 'stable level of capacity

It comes as British Airways last night started contacting passengers asking them to reschedule their flights amid a row between Heathrow and airlines over the airport's passenger cap.

Bosses at the west London travel hub sparked fury from travel chiefs on Tuesday after announcing an immediate 100,000 daily passenger limit. It is part of the airport's bid to reduce the risk of delay and cancellations ahead of the school summer holidays.

Emirates' strongly-worded response to Heathrow's passenger cap 'Emirates values our partnerships with airport stakeholders across our network with whom we engage continuously, and collaboratively, to secure our flight operations and ensure minimal customer disruption, particularly over the peak travel months. 'It is therefore highly regrettable that LHR last evening gave us 36 hours to comply with capacity cuts, of a figure that appears to be plucked from thin air. Their communications not only dictated the specific flights on which we should throw out paying passengers, but also threatened legal action for non-compliance. 'This is entirely unreasonable and unacceptable, and we reject these demands. 'At London Heathrow airport (LHR), our ground handling and catering  run by dnata, part of the Emirates Group - are fully ready and capable of handling our flights. So the crux of the issue lies with the central services and systems which are the responsibility of the airport operator. 'Emirates is a key and steadfast operator at LHR, having reinstated 6 daily A380 flights since October 2021. From our past 10 months of regularly high seat loads, our operational requirements cannot be a surprise to the airport. 'Now, with blatant disregard for consumers, they wish to force Emirates to deny seats to tens of thousands of travellers who have paid for, and booked months ahead, their long-awaited package holidays or trips to see their loved ones. And this, during the super peak period with the upcoming UK holidays, and at a time when many people are desperate to travel after 2 years of pandemic restrictions. 'Emirates believes in doing the right thing by our customers. However, re-booking the sheer numbers of potentially impacted passengers is impossible with all flights running full for the next weeks, including at other London airports and on other airlines. Adding to the complexity, 70% of our customers from LHR are headed beyond Dubai to see loved ones in far flung destinations, and it will be impossible to find them new onward connections at short notice. 'Moving some of our passenger operations to other UK airports at such short notice is also not realistic. Ensuring ground readiness to handle and turnaround a widebody long-haul aircraft with 500 passengers onboard is not as simple as finding a parking spot at a mall. 'The bottomline is, the LHR management team are cavalier about travellers and their airline customers. All the signals of a strong travel rebound were there, and for months, Emirates has been publicly vocal about the matter. We planned ahead to get to a state of readiness to serve customers and travel demand, including rehiring and training 1,000 A380 pilots in the past year. 'LHR chose not to act, not to plan, not invest. Now faced with an 'airmageddon' situation due to their incompetence and non-action, they are pushing entire burden  of costs and the scramble to sort the mess - to airlines and travellers. 'The shareholders of London Heathrow should scrutinise the decisions of the LHR management team. 'Given the tremendous value that the aviation community generates for the UK economy and communities, we welcome the action taken by the UK Department for Transport and Civil Aviation Authority to seek information from LHR on their response plans, systems resilience, and to explain the seemingly arbitrary cap of 100,000 daily passengers. Considering LHR handled 80.9 million passengers annually in 2019, or a daily average of 219,000, the cap represents greater than a 50 per cent cut at a time when LHR claims to have 70% of ground handling resources in place. 'Until further notice, Emirates plans to operate as scheduled to and from LHR.' Advertisement

The move is expected to result in the cancellation of around 1,000 flights this summer. But it sparked a furious row between the airport and Emirates, who yesterday said it was refusing to comply, describing Heathrow's demands as 'entirely unreasonable'.

The Dubai-based airline also took aim at the west London airport following months of long queues, numerous flight cancellations, missing baggage and frequent delays, a situation it described as 'airmageddon'.

And Virgin Atlantic heaped on the criticism, saying the airport was responsible for failures which are contributing to the chaos.

Meanwhile, airport chiefs ordered UK airlines to, 'stop selling summer tickets to limit the impact on passengers' because Heathrow is already expecting an average of 104,000 daily outbound passengers in the coming months.

Carriers were yesterday said to be in intense discussions with the airport and flight schedulers in an attempt to cut capacity by up to 15 per cent at Terminals 3 and 5.

And BA has now started to contact passengers due to fly before July 25 if they are able to reschedule their flight. Industry insiders have suggested the company is filleting out flights in order to more easily make short-notice cancellations.

However MailOnline understands the UK flag carrier has made a 'small number' of short-haul and domestic cancellations over the next two weeks to fit in with Heathrow's passenger cap. BA says it has moved passengers either onto trains or similar flights from Heathrow or City airports.

Yesterday, travel expert Paul Charles, who runs travel consultancy the PC Agency, shared an email from BA to customers asking passengers travelling in the next fortnight if they would like to reschedule their flights for free.

BA said passengers could change their flights to another BA operated flight to any date within the next 12 months, subject to availability.

Commenting on the email, in a post on Twitter, Mr Charles wrote: 'I said it would be a summer of stress. BA among airlines operating from Heathrow now asking those travelling before 25th July to consider changing flights, so enabling them to more easily choose which flights to cancel at short notice.'

The new measures, which are due to remain in place until September 11, are part of Heathrow's latest attempts to prevent a school summer holiday repeat of the chaotic scenes witnessed at airports up and down the UK over the Easter weekend.

Yesterday, in the latest update to the summer of airport chaos, BA began contacting customers by email asking if they are able to change their flights.

The email said: 'This week Heathrow Airport has set a passenger limit per day until September 2022. As a result, they have told us to adjust our flying schedule to reduce the number of customers using the airport this summer.

'We understand that some customers may want to review their travel plans in light of current travel challenges. We want to be as flexible as possible so that you can move your flights if you wish.

'If you are due to travel between now and July 25 and you wish to change your flights we have introduced a policy that will allow you to easily change your travel dates via our website.'

The airline insists the move is to help passengers who are concerned about flying amid the travel chaos and the current summer heatwave, and that it has already rescheduled in preparation for Heathrow's announcement.

MailOnline understands around 80 flights have been cancelled across the next fortnight. However BA insists its schedule is line with Heathrow's request and they are not expecting to make any short-notice cancellations, unless in the case of technical issues.

It comes as an American airline has sent an empty plane to the UK to repatriate hundreds of lost suitcases caught up in Britain's travel chaos - as an easyJet chief pointed the finger of blame at airports.

Delta Air Lines sent the Airbus SE A330-200 to Heathrow Airport last night to bring back the bags, which have been following a baggage backlog at the west London travel hub.

The backlog stretches back from a technical glitch earlier this month which resulted in thousands of bags being stacked up outside Terminal 2, creating what some described as a 'sea of luggage'.

A spokesperson for Delta added: 'Delta teams worked a creative solution to move delayed checked bags from London-Heathrow on July 11 after a regularly scheduled flight had to be cancelled given airport passenger volume restrictions at Heathrow.

'Delta flight 9888 from Heathrow to Delta's Detroit hub flew 1,000 bags back to the US, where teams then forwarded the bags on to our customers.'

British Airways (pictured: Library image) has started contacting passengers to ask if they are able to reschedule their flights amid a row between Heathrow and airlines over its decision to cap the number of passengers travelling through the airport

It comes after travel expert Paul Charles today shared an email from BA to customers asking passengers travelling in the next fortnight if they would like to reschedule their flights for free

Yesterday, as the blame game continued, Garry Wilson, chief executive of EasyJet Holidays, easyJet's holiday wing, said the airline had done 'everything in its control' to prevent flight cancellations and sure up the resilience in its scheduling.

The budget airline cancelled more than 4,000 flights in the three months to the end of June in a bid to prevent a repeat of the chaotic scenes witnessed at airports over the Easter Holidays.

Mr Wilson told the BBC: 'We've done everything in our control to ensure there's resilience in the system. There may be other things happening - like air traffic control delays, or with airport infrastructure.'

EasyJet staff in Spain go on strike today over pay Easyjet staff in Spain are set to take part in a walkout today following a row with bosses over pay. As many as 450 workers based at Barcelona, Malaga and Palma de Mallorca are set to take part in the strike - which will also stretch over the weekend. It is the second of three weekends of strike action planned by airline staff this month, with walkouts also scheduled for July 29-31. Earlier action took place on the first weekend of July. The strikes are taking place over a wage dispute between cabin crew and airline bosses. Advertisement

Travel firms have been blamed for the chaotic scenes at airports. Airlines and airports have been accused of failing to prepare for the return of international travel following the lifting of Covid restrictions earlier this year.

But airlines and airports have in turn blamed the Government, who they say left companies with no choice but to make job cuts by failing to extend the Covid furlough scheme for holiday firms until all travel restrictions had been lifted.

Mr Wilson rejected the suggestion EasyJet had failed to prepare for the summer. He said: 'No, I think with the information we had at the time, we took all the steps that were necessary. As soon as we knew there was strain on the system, we built up that resilience, by taking flights out.'

MailOnline has contacted Heathrow Airport for a comment.

In a response to Emirates' statement on the passenger cap, a Heathrow spokeswoman said aviation is 'a complex network' and 'no-one can operate in isolation'.

She explained that staffing for ground handling teams at the airport are only at 70 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, whereas passenger numbers are at 80-85 per cent.

She added: 'For months we have asked airlines to help come up with a plan to solve their resourcing challenges, but no clear plans were forthcoming and with each passing day the problem got worse.

'We had no choice but to take the difficult decision to impose a capacity cap designed to give passengers a better, more reliable journey and to keep everyone working at the airport safe.'

The spokeswoman noted the cap is 'significantly higher' than the 64,000 imposed at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.

'It would be disappointing if instead of working together, any airline would want to put profit ahead a safe and reliable passenger journey,' she added.

In December last year, Heathrow said it expected passenger numbers for 2022 to reach around 45 million. It subsequently raised its forecast to 'nearly 53 million' in May, and 54.4 million in June.

Terminal 4 was only reopened on June 14, some three months after the UK lifted all remaining coronavirus travel restrictions. It was the last terminal at a major European airport to resume operations during the pandemic.
Police are on the hunt for Rolex robbers on mopeds and e-bikes who use machetes to force people to hand over their 20,000 watches.

Some 109 incidents have been recorded in just two months in some of London's most desirable postcodes.

In areas including Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham there were 42 watch robberies between April 26 and May 30 and a further 67 in the following month - an increase of more than 60 per cent.

On July 12 couple was followed by a moped rider who threatened them with a machete in broad daylight at 10.10am around the Boltons Conservation Area in Chelsea.

In areas including Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham there were 42 watch robberies between April 26 and May 30 and a further 67 in the following month - an increase of more than 60 per cent

They were forced to hand over their Audemars Piguet and Patek Philippe watches. Some Patek Philippe watches are worth up to 210,000.

Just two days later a woman was threatened with a knife by two people on a motorbike and was forced to give them her watch and bracelet at 9.45pm in Kensington and Chelsea.

And on July 4 two people on a motorbike knocked down a man in his 50s before getting a knife out and stealing his Rolex watch, believed to be worth around 20,000, and his wedding ring between 9 and 10pm in Kensington and Chelsea.

Detective Chief Superintendent Owain Richards, in charge of policing for Central West BCU, said: 'We want people living in and visiting our city to enjoy the summer safely  no-one should have to go about their day in fear of thieves.

On July 12 couple was followed by a moped rider who threatened them with a machete in broad daylight at 10.10am around the Boltons Conservation Area in Chelsea. They were forced to hand over their Audemars Piguet and Patek Philippe watches. Some Patek Philippe watches are worth up to 210,000

'Sadly across Westminster and neighbouring boroughs we are seeing a rise in these offences as criminals take advantage of the longer days and the busy streets.

'We know the impact these crimes have on each and every victim and that is why we have this week launched an operation focused on tackling this issue. Extra officers have been put in place in locations where these crimes are most common, including those from specialist units like our Operation Venice teams.

'This is a top priority for us and we have already made a number of arrests, but we need your help. As well as asking people to report these robberies as soon as they happen, we know lots of these offences are recorded on mobile phones or doorbells and we are keen to see this footage.

'Please, if you have anything that shows a street robbery taking place, get in touch with us. Anything that helps us build up a picture of individuals carrying out these crimes could be crucial to us finding them and putting a stop to their abhorrent behaviour.'

Anyone who has footage or information about these cases  or any street robberies  should call 101 quoting Operation Furbish.

During the summer, London, like many other cities across the UK, will see increased footfall. Bigger crowds of people and more densely-packed streets create a more agile operating ground for street robbers.

Alongside proactive operations, the Met Police has dedicated teams of officers and detectives focus on responding effectively to reports of robbery as they happen on a daily basis.
A distraught father has spoken out after the drugged and drunk driver of a ute that ploughed into his three children had his jail sentence slashed by eight years.

Danny Abdallah's three children Sienna, eight, Angelina, 12, and Antony, 13 and their cousin Veronique Sakr, 11, were walking to get ice cream in Oatlands, Sydney when Samuel William Davidson mounted the kerb and killed all four in February, 2020.

The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal decided on Friday that Davidson's original 28 year sentence, carrying a non-parole period of 21 years, was manifestly excessive.

Mr Abdallah said the decision to reduce Davidson's sentence to just 20 years with a non-parole period of 15 years was 'disappointing' and he was unable to see how his children's killer was successful in the appeal.

Danny and Leila Abdallah (pictured) were left disappointed in the justice system after an appeal saw the killer of their three children have his sentence reduced by eight years

Samuel William Davidson has his jail term slashed by eight years on Friday after killing four children in Oatlands, in February, 2020

'Today is a tough one...it brought us back to the tragedy, we were slowly moving forward and focusing on the kids but it just brought us back there again,' Mr Abdallah told 2GB's Jim Wilson.

'Look four (children) died and three are spiritually dead they're just walking around with grief and pain.

'Although we did forgive the driver, I'm just disappointed by the justice system.'

Mr Abdallah, who has four children with wife Leila, said his children who survived the incident couldn't understand why the sentence had been reduced, and felt 'let down'.

'At the end of the day what they're (justice system) doing is they're giving permission for other people to take drugs and drink alcohol and drive because the sentence is going to be not much,' he said.

'It's not about me and my family, it's the next family that goes through this.

'What example have we shown society when someone does something like that?

'We've got to live with our life sentence.'

Immediately after Samuel William Davidson mowed down a group of children on a Sydney footpath, killing four of them, he was resigned to being jailed. His jail term has now been slashed

Antony (far left), 13, Angelina (far right), 12, and Sienna Abdallah (front left), 9, were killed in the horror accident on February 1, 2020

Davidson, a professional truck driver, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Veronique Sakr, 11 (on right), and her cousins, Sienna Abdallah, eight, and her siblings Angelina, 12, and Antony, 13 (left)

Former truck driver Davidson pleaded guilty to manslaughter for the children he killed and also pleaded guilty to three charges relating to the injuries caused to three other children. One boy has suffered permanent brain damage.

Veronique's mother, Bridget, was equally devastated by the decision, which was made by a panel of appeal court judges.

'What does it say about our judicial system? What we can do is help change the law so other families don't go what we go through,' she told the Parramatta Advertiser.

'One thing I want to say is it was all about him getting a crushing sentence but it's our kids who were crushed.

'No one's going to bring back Veronique or her cousins. I just worry what this means for future tragedies.'

After the crash, Davidson appeared distressed and was heard saying: 'What have I done? ... I have killed people ... I am going to jail.'

Bridget Sakr (centre) says she is devastated by the decision to release Samuel William Davidson early

Mr Abdullah said at the time of Davidson's sentencing that it did not matter whether he received one year or 100 years, 'we won't get Antony, Angelina, Sienna and Veronique back.'

'We will all have our hearts broken until the day we take our last breath and no sentence can help ease that pain,' he said.

When sentencing Davidson at Parramatta's District Court, Judge James Bennett said Davidson's menacing, dangerous and aggressive driving over a significant period leading up to the tragic event showed he had abandoned all responsibility to the road safety of others.

Danny and Leila Abdallah, parents of three of the children who were killed, have previously said they had forgiven the driver

The tragedy was inevitable, but the magnitude of the tragedy extended to the unimaginable, Judge Bennett said.

At the time, the professional truck driver was afforded a 25 per cent discount on sentence after pleading guilty to manslaughter for the children he killed and also pleading guilty to three charges relating to the injuries caused to three other children.

Davidson, the son of a former policeman, had been sitting poolside with his housemates drinking Vodka Cruisers and beers, having his first drink about 7am before consuming drugs and driving that fateful morning.

The children were on their way to get ice-cream when Davidson ploughed into them on February 1

He was observed by witnesses speeding through a red light, swerving anti-clockwise around a round-about, and driving at a maximum speed of 133km/h in a 50km/h zone.

After the crash, Davidson appeared distressed and was heard saying: 'What have I done?

'I have killed people ... I am going to jail.'

After Davidson's sentencing, Mr Abdallah said his main disappointment lay in Australian culture's love of drugs and alcohol.

'That's where my frustration is, more than the driver.'

Davidson's letter of apology stated that he is heartbroken to have hurt such beautiful families by his horrid actions.

He said that he would do anything to relive that day sober and never leave the house.

Davidson will now be eligible for parole on January 31, 2035.
A student whose flight home from Gatwick was delayed by an hour was outraged when she saw a member of the ground crew sitting down and looking at Instagram and TikTok on his phone instead of loading bags.

Rhiannon Hopcroft, 21, from Inverness, was on her way home to Scotland via a connecting flight from the troubled Sussex airport on Tuesday evening.

She told MailOnline: 'Having just been told that we were being delayed because they were having trouble loading baggage to look out the window and see one of only two baggage handlers sitting down next to all the bags and blatantly scrolling on his phone was shocking.'

Ms Hopcroft, a student at Oxford Brookes University, said when she looked out the window she saw a member of the baggage team scrolling on his mobile phone

Rhiannon Hopcroft, 21, from Inverness, was on her way home to Scotland via a connecting flight from the troubled Sussex airport on Tuesday evening.

Ms Hopcroft, a student at Oxford Brookes University, had been on holiday with friends in the south of France and flew back to the UK from Marseilles on an easyJet flight that afternoon - which arrived on time for her flight on to Inverness.

She was encouraged that she and her fellow passengers were all boarded on time for the flight from Gatwick.

But once they were boarded the time for the scheduled departure, 7.45pm local time, came and went without them moving.

She said: 'After a while the captain came on the tannoy to apologise and said that although the passengers were all boarded ok they were having issues getting all the check-in luggage on board and that was causing a delay.

'It was frustrating as it was very hot and uncomfortable and everyone was itching to get going but with all the cancellations we've heard about I guess we were all thinking it could be much worse.

'But then I looked out of the window and I saw that right below me was the loading ramp for bags.

'There were two guys in hi-viz jackets and on of them was putting the suitcases on it - but the other guy was just sat there right next to the bags scrolling on his phone.

'I definitely saw him scrolling on both Tiktok and Instagram - I was close enough to make out what was on his screen. His mate was doing all the work on his own.'

Ms Hopcroft, a student at Oxford Brookes University, had been on holiday with friends in the south of France and flew back to the UK from Marseilles on an easyJet flight that afternoon - which arrived on time for her flight on to Inverness

A source at Gatwick (pictured: Queues at the airport check-in area yesterday) said the person seen on his phone may not have been responsible for or qualified to load bags and could have been unable to do so for safety reasons

A source at Gatwick said the person seen on his phone may not have been responsible for or qualified to load bags and could have been unable to do so for safety reasons.

But Ms Hopcroft said: 'I can't see how it would be any less safe for him to be there and not to help with the bags - but if he wasn't then it was completely inappropriate to have him in full view of a whole plane full of frustrated passengers and messing about on his phone.'

She added: 'To be fair the cabin crew seemed as frustrated as we were by the delay and one of the actually went down to the tarmac and started apparently remonstrating with them to hurry up.

'Eventually we took off about an hour late. From what I could see this was largely avoidable.

'It may not have been the only reason but it can't have helped and it sent a terrible message to frustrated passengers who could see what he was doing.

'Thankfully I had enough time that it didn't cause me huge problems at the other end but I'm sure there must have been others who had problems resulting from being late.'

A spokesman for EasyJet said: 'We would like to apologise to passengers for the delayed departure of flight EZY867 from London Gatwick to Inverness, which arrived 30 minutes later than scheduled in Inverness.

'This was due to the late arrival of baggage handlers to the aircraft at Gatwick and we are looking into with our with our ground handling provider at the airport as this is not the level of service we expect for our customers.'

It comes as passengers 'passed out' at Gatwick Airport yesterday as hundreds of travellers were crammed into a small room 'without ventilation or AC' in the middle of one of the hottest heatwaves in years.

The fed-up flyers were reportedly given no information about their WestJet flight to Toronto, which was delayed for several hours as a result of an IT issue.

A number of customers took to social media to express their frustration, with one reporting that just two airport employees were made available to manage a group of 300.

One wrote: 'There are Canadians passing out at Gatwick airport due to the lack of support and flight delays with Westjet today. People citing rude staff too. I had a rude experience with Westjet at Gatwick too. Please investigate this for news updates? I'm very curious.'

Another said: 'Absolutely disgusting from @WestJet today. Have been at @Gatwick_Airport since 10:30 am stood in queue after queue. Now waiting in a room with no ventilation or AC. Whilst we are all kept in the dark about our flight to Toronto.'

A third added: 'Hey @WestJet can we please get ANY info on flight WS41 from @Gatwick_Airport to YYZ? We are crammed into a small, hot waiting area with no ventilation and not one staff member can give us information. Please tell us what's going on!'

A burst water main nearby lead to low water pressure at the terminal last night, wreaking more havoc at the already under-pressure airport

A spokesperson for the Canadian airline confirmed it had been impacted by an outage from communications infrastructure firm, Zayo - though said check-in services were restored before 5pm.

They added: 'Across our network we have seen three cancellations and more than 100 flights have been delayed as a result of the outage. We continue to thank all guests for their patience and will reaccommodate on the first available flight to ensure they get to their destination as soon as possible.'

It came as a burst water main in nearby Crawley resulted in low water pressure at the airport and malfunctioning toilets - creating even more chaos for stricken holidaymakers already facing cancelled and delayed flights.

Gatwick staff handed out bottles of water and brought water tankers on site, with only a limited number of toilets working. While some restaurants had to close earlier, the airport said all had reopened by 5pm.

The airport apologised and said it was working closely with SES Water, who insisted just before 7pm that 'the problem has been resolved'.

Raquel Rodrigues, 49, from Worthing, said ahead of her flight to Spain: 'We had a flight cancelled already and now there are no toilets. There are only two working in the whole terminal and you can imagine what the queues are like.

'Nobody wants the airport to close but there are heated exchanges between staff and people trying to travel with young families. Apparently, there is a tanker coming but it's just a bit third world.'

A Gatwick spokesperson denied that there were just two toilets working at any one time, and told MailOnline: 'Following an earlier issue with the supply of SES Water to Gatwick and the surrounding area, which led to lower water pressure than normal, water supplies have now been restored across the airport.

'Our teams are working to ensure all facilities are restored to normal levels of service. We apologise for any inconvenience our passengers experienced today.'

A spokesman for SES Water said: 'We are pleased to confirm that our teams are currently repairing the burst water main in Shipley Bridge, Horley, and we expect supplies to be restored to normal soon.

'We're sorry for any inconvenience caused today and thank you for your patience and understanding.'

Heathrow boss faces ultimatum over 'airmageddon': Government orders John Holland-Kaye to develop a 'credible recovery plan' as airlines clash with airport over flights cap

By James Robinson for MailOnline

The boss of Heathrow is facing a Government ultimatum to reveal his plan to end the continuing travel chaos - after an airline last night launched an open rebellion against the airport's demands to axe flights.

Department for Transport (DfT) and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) chiefs have written a joint letter to Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye urging he provide a 'credible' recovery plan to get the airport back to operating 'reliably' at a 'stable level of capacity'.

They have also demanded to know why the airport believes a cap on daily departing passengers 'provides a safe and resilient airport with a positive passenger experience'.

It comes after Emirates - the world's biggest international airline - yesterday said it was refusing to axe flights in order to comply with the airport's new cap on passenger numbers.

In a bid to reduce the risk of delay and cancellations ahead of the school summer holidays, Heathrow has now introduced a 100,000 daily departing passenger limit.

The move is expected to result in the cancellation of around 1,000 flights this summer. But the Dubai-based airline yesterday said it was refusing to comply, describing Heathrow's demands as 'entirely unreasonable'.

It also took aim at the west London airport following months of long queues, numerous flight cancellations, missing baggage and frequent delays, a situation it described as 'airmageddon'.

Virgin Atlantic also criticised Heathrow's actions and claimed it was responsible for failures which are contributing to the chaos.

Last night, Heathrow attempted to hit back at the criticism, with the airport saying it had 'no choice' but to make the 'difficult' decision to implement a passenger cap.

A spokeswoman also took aim at airlines refusing to comply with its passenger cap, saying it would be 'disappointing' if any company was to put 'profit ahead of a safe and reliable passenger journey'.

But now the DfT and CAA have turned the spotlight back on Heathrow. In its letter, by the DfT's director general for aviation Dr Rannia Leontaridi and the CAA's chief executive, has requested Mr Holland-Kaye's assessment of why the airport's cap.

The letter continued: 'We need you to develop a credible and resilient capacity recovery plan for the next six months, that provides comfort that Heathrow can operate reliably at a stable level of capacity.'

According to The Telegraph, Mr Holland-Kaye has been given until noon on Friday to assure them that the airport has enough staff for security screening and to assist disabled passengers.

It comes as travellers shared pictures on social media of long queues at the airport overnight, including one queue appearing to stretch down a hallway of Terminal 3.

Department for Transport (DfT) and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) chiefs last night wrote a joint letter to Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye (pictured) urging he provide a 'credible' recovery plan to get the airport back to operating 'reliably' at a 'stable level of capacity

The boss of Heathrow (pictured: Queues at the airport overnight shared by one user on Twitter) is facing a Government ultimatum to reveal his plan to end the continuing chaos - after an airline last night launched an open rebellion against the airport's demands to cut the number of flights

It comes as British Airways last night started contacting passengers asking them to reschedule their flights amid a row between Heathrow and airlines over the airport's passenger cap.

Bosses at the west London travel hub sparked fury from travel chiefs on Tuesday after announcing an immediate 100,000 daily passenger limit.

Airport chiefs ordered UK airlines to, 'stop selling summer tickets to limit the impact on passengers' because Heathrow is already expecting an average of 104,000 daily outbound passengers in the coming months.

Carriers were yesterday said to be in intense discussions with the airport and flight schedulers in an attempt to cut capacity by up to 15 per cent at Terminals 3 and 5.

And BA has now started to contact passengers due to fly before July 25 if they are able to reschedule their flight. Industry insiders have suggested the company is filleting out flights in order to more easily make short-notice cancellations.

However MailOnline understands the UK flag carrier has made a 'small number' of short-haul and domestic cancellations over the next two weeks to fit in with Heathrow's passenger cap. BA says it has moved passengers either onto trains or similar flights from Heathrow or City airports.

Yesterday, travel expert Paul Charles, who runs travel consultancy the PC Agency, shared an email from BA to customers asking passengers travelling in the next fortnight if they would like to reschedule their flights for free.

BA said passengers could change their flights to another BA operated flight to any date within the next 12 months, subject to availability.

Commenting on the email, in a post on Twitter, Mr Charles wrote: 'I said it would be a summer of stress. BA among airlines operating from Heathrow now asking those travelling before 25th July to consider changing flights, so enabling them to more easily choose which flights to cancel at short notice.'

The new measures, which are due to remain in place until September 11, are part of Heathrow's latest attempts to prevent a school summer holiday repeat of the chaotic scenes witnessed at airports up and down the UK over the Easter weekend.

It comes after travel expert Paul Charles today shared an email from BA to customers asking passengers travelling in the next fortnight if they would like to reschedule their flights for free

Yesterday, in the latest update to the summer of airport chaos, BA began contacting customers by email asking if they are able to change their flights.

The email said: 'This week Heathrow Airport has set a passenger limit per day until September 2022. As a result, they have told us to adjust our flying schedule to reduce the number of customers using the airport this summer.

'We understand that some customers may want to review their travel plans in light of current travel challenges. We want to be as flexible as possible so that you can move your flights if you wish.

'If you are due to travel between now and July 25 and you wish to change your flights we have introduced a policy that will allow you to easily change your travel dates via our website.'

The airline insists the move is to help passengers who are concerned about flying amid the travel chaos and the current summer heatwave, and that it has already rescheduled in preparation for Heathrow's announcement.

MailOnline understands around 80 flights have been cancelled across the next fortnight. However BA insists its schedule is line with Heathrow's request and they are not expecting to make any short-notice cancellations, unless in the case of technical issues.

It comes as an American airline has sent an empty plane to the UK to repatriate hundreds of lost suitcases caught up in Britain's travel chaos - as an easyJet chief pointed the finger of blame at airports.

Delta Air Lines sent the Airbus SE A330-200 to Heathrow Airport last night to bring back the bags, which have been following a baggage backlog at the west London travel hub.

The backlog stretches back from a technical glitch earlier this month which resulted in thousands of bags being stacked up outside Terminal 2, creating what some described as a 'sea of luggage'.

A spokesperson for Delta added: 'Delta teams worked a creative solution to move delayed checked bags from London-Heathrow on July 11 after a regularly scheduled flight had to be cancelled given airport passenger volume restrictions at Heathrow.

'Delta flight 9888 from Heathrow to Delta's Detroit hub flew 1,000 bags back to the US, where teams then forwarded the bags on to our customers.'

Yesterday, as the blame game continued, Garry Wilson, chief executive of EasyJet Holidays, easyJet's holiday wing, said the airline had done 'everything in its control' to prevent flight cancellations and sure up the resilience in its scheduling.

The budget airline cancelled more than 4,000 flights in the three months to the end of June in a bid to prevent a repeat of the chaotic scenes witnessed at airports over the Easter Holidays.

Mr Wilson told the BBC: 'We've done everything in our control to ensure there's resilience in the system. There may be other things happening - like air traffic control delays, or with airport infrastructure.'

Travel firms have been blamed for the chaotic scenes at airports. Airlines and airports have been accused of failing to prepare for the return of international travel following the lifting of Covid restrictions earlier this year.

But airlines and airports have in turn blamed the Government, who they say left companies with no choice but to make job cuts by failing to extend the Covid furlough scheme for holiday firms until all travel restrictions had been lifted.

Mr Wilson rejected the suggestion EasyJet had failed to prepare for the summer. He said: 'No, I think with the information we had at the time, we took all the steps that were necessary. As soon as we knew there was strain on the system, we built up that resilience, by taking flights out.'

MailOnline has contacted Heathrow Airport for a comment.
Advertisement

Camilla's first husband Andrew Parker Bowles has relived the horror of the 1982 Hyde Park bombing by the IRA that killed four soldiers and seven horses - before the perpetrators escaped justice.

On July 20, 1982, the soldiers of the Household Cavalry had just left their barracks and were riding their steeds through London's Hyde Park to Horse Guards Parade when the bomb - hidden in a blue Austin Morris - tore through their ranks.

IRA terrorist John Downey, who was ruled by a judge to have been partly responsible for the attack, was never convicted after it emerged he had been assured by the Metropolitan Police in a letter that he would not be prosecuted. No one else has ever been convicted in connection with the bombing.

Now, as families of the murdered soldiers continue to fight for justice for their loved ones, survivors have told their stories on camera for the first time in a crowd-funded documentary.

The then Lieutenant-Colonel Parker-Bowles, who was married to the Duchess of Cornwall from 1976 until 1995, was the commander of Household Cavalry when the attack took place.

Speaking in the upcoming documentary, the now-retired brigadier, 82, said the attack was the 'saddest moment' of his military life, whilst former guardsman Steve Sullivan, 58, said that the moment the bomb went off was 'like having every little bit of oxygen drawn out of your body'.

Two hours after the 10.43am Hyde Park explosion, a second bomb that had been planted underneath the bandstand in Regent's Park went off as 30 military bandsmen of the Royal Green Jackets were performing. Seven bandsmen lost their lives.

Camilla's first husband Andrew Parker Bowles has relived the horror of the 1982 Hyde Park bombing by the IRA that killed four soldiers and seven horses - before the perpetrator escaped justice. The then Lieutenant-Colonel Parker-Bowles, who was married to the Duchess of Cornwall from 1976 until 1995, was the commander of Household Cavalry when the attack took place

On July 20, 1982, the soldiers of the Household Cavalry had just left their barracks and were riding their steeds through London's Hyde Park to Horse Guards Parade when the bomb - hidden in a blue Austin Morris - tore through their ranks. Above: The aftermath of the attack

The new documentary, which needs further crowdfunding before it can be finished, is directed by former cavalryman Mauricio Gris and has been produced by independent production company Thread Films.

So far, 10,380 has been raised out of a 12,000 target to pay for the film.

Brigadier Parker-Bowles said in a clip from the new film: 'It was probably the saddest moment of my military life. I had under me three squadrons of soldiers, and I was responsible for their welfare, training and I suppose happiness.

'I suddenly heard this explosion, which, having been in Northern Ireland, as had many of the soldiers under my command, we recognized as an explosion but didn't realize it was aimed at the guard until one of the, I think was a farrier up in the tower block, could see down and said they've blown up the guard.

'On which we all set off as fast as we could down to the scene.'

Mr Sullivan, who was 19 at the time, said: 'It still hurts I mean, you know, there's not been one day of my life since that day that I haven't remembered something about something that went on that day.

'You know, it's always, always been part of my life ever since then. But, you know, that's terrorism. This inflicts terror on the living, doesn't it?

Two hours after the 10.43am Hyde Park explosion, a second bomb that had been planted underneath the bandstand in Regent's Park went off as 30 military bandsmen of the Royal Green Jackets were performing. Seven bandsmen lost their lives

Former guardsman Steve Sullivan (left in the documentary and right during his time in the Household Cavalary), 58, said that the moment the bomb went off was 'like having every little bit of oxygen drawn out of your body'.

Fellow former guardsman Simon Utley, who was 18 at the time and is now 57, said the noise of the explosion was so loud that his horse 'just took off'. 'It took off into Hyde Park and galloped away,' he added. 'I could not stop my horse. My horse had its bit in its mouth. It was biting onto it and I couldn't stop it'

'I never forget the feeling when that bomb went off was like having every little bit of oxygen drawn out of your body.

'I don't know if you've ever fainted. It's that feeling you get just before you pass out. And it's an emptiness. It just sucks the life out of you. Awful feeling horrible.

'You know, when you feel that feeling where you're going to faint or pass out, the last place you want to do that is sitting on top of a horse.

'And so I just remember grabbing hold of my horse and she ran into the park, hit the tree straight away. And I've come straight off the back of the horse.'

Mr Sullivan said he initially thought he had caused a 'car accident' because he was so disorientated.

'I lay down on the floor and I thought, I'm in a lot of trouble here,' he said.

'That was my only, that was my first initial thought. I remember lying there thinking, should I stay here? Shall I get up? And then as I looked up and then I saw the carnage over the road, it was horrendous.

'The fire and the horses lying down. People just standing and staring. I mean, I immediately got up, ran as fast as I could back over to the guard.'

In the immediate aftermath, Brigadier Parker Bowles ordered that the gravely wounded horses who had survived the initial blast be put of their misery. As well as the seven that died, another, named Sefton, survived despite having terrible injuries

Simon Tipper (top left) and Jeffrey Young (top right) and Anthony 'Denis' Daly (left) and Roy Bright (right) were killed in the terror attack in Hyde Park in a devastating 1982 car bombing

IRA terrorist John Downey, who was ruled by a judge to have been partly responsible for the attack, was never convicted after it emerged he had been assured by the Metropolitan Police in a letter that he would not be prosecuted. No one else has ever been convicted in connection with the bombing

Fellow former guardsman Simon Utley, who was 18 at the time and is now 57, said the noise of the explosion was so loud that his horse 'just took off'.

'It took off into Hyde Park and galloped away,' he added. 'I could not stop my horse. My horse had its bit in its mouth. It was biting onto it and I couldn't stop it.'

He said he was eventually able to stop it when they arrived near the Serpentine lake in Hyde Park. But when he tried to get off his horse, he got his boots stuck in one of the stirrups of his saddle.

He added: 'And so I'm laying on the floor like some see now of a medieval knight from being dragged along in full ceremonial uniform, lying on my back with my horse just walking along.

'And I remember looking up at my horse and seeing a hole the size of a dustbin. It in his hindquarters, his stomach.

'I could not, I could not take in what I was what I was looking at. I couldn't take it because my and also because my ear had gone into shock. It was like the loudest ringing noise ever and I remember

'And I remember looking over in the distance and I was I reckon I was I had to have been six, 800 meters away.

'That's how far my horse went and I remember looking over in the distance and all I could see was the blackest billowing smoke that I've ever seen.'

Squadron Quartermaster Corporal Roy Bright, 36, Lieutenant Dennis Daly, 23, Trooper Simon Tipper, 19, and Lance Corporal Jeffrey Young, 19, were the soldiers who were killed in the bombing.

The then Lieutenant-Colonel is seen with his wife Camilla and their children, son Tom and daughter Laura, in 1984

The members of the Household Cavalry were taking part in their daily Changing of the Guard procession from their barracks in Knightsbridge when they were hit by the blast. Above: The aftermath

The carcasses of the horses of the Household Cavalry lie in the road in Hyde Park after the horrendous attack

The road is seen being cleaned of blood and debris after the bombing in Hyde Park on July 20, 1982. As well as those who died, dozens of people were injured

The bomb had been surrounded by hundreds of four and six-inch nails so that it would cause maximum damage when it went off

In the immediate aftermath, Brigadier Parker Bowles ordered that the gravely wounded horses who had survived the initial blast be put of their misery. As well as the seven that died, another, named Sefton, survived despite having terrible injuries.

The bomb had been surrounded by hundreds of four and six-inch nails so that it would cause maximum damage when it went off.

As well as those who were killed, the other soldiers in the procession were among at least 51 people - including civilians and police officers - who were injured.

The members of the Household Cavalry were taking part in their daily Changing of the Guard procession from their barracks in Knightsbridge when they were hit by the blast.

The device is believed to have been triggered by an IRA member who was nearby inside Hyde Park.

In 2013, Downey was arrested and charged with the four soldiers' murders. However, he was told in 2014 that he would not face prosecution because of a letter mistakenly sent to him saying he was not wanted by police.

The Daily Mail's coverage of the Hyde Park attack is seen above. It told of the 'cruel murder of the Queen's men'

On another page, the paper reported on the subsequent attack on the bandstand in Regent's Park. The second explosion killed seven bandsmen

Downey was among 200 suspected terrorists who received similar letters, which effectively granted them an amnesty under a deal by former Prime Minister Tony Blair and the then Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams.

The suspect was wrongly given a letter in July 2007 that assured him he was not wanted for any offence, even though a warrant for his arrest had existed since May 29, 1983.

In 2019, the High Court ruled that Downey had been an 'active participant' in the bombing.

But at a hearing in 2020, a judge refused to award 'exemplary damages' to relatives of the victims of the Hyde Park bombing.

The relatives were asking for the damage because those killed had been denied 'some measure of justice, and thereby closure'.

Mr Justice Martin Spencer said awarding such damages would require an extension of the law which would be 'for either Parliament or the higher courts, and probably the Supreme Court'.

To donate to the crowdfunding campaign for the new documentary, click here.
British electricity has been helping keep the lights on in mainland Europe in recent months as the country has become a net exporter of power for the first time since 2017.

Data from the National Grid shows that Britain has been piping over electricity to France, Belgium and the Netherlands via undersea cables each month since April.

The electricity shortfall in Europe has been put down to an unusual shutdown in French nuclear power stations, with half of its 56 reactors offline in May for maintenance, refueling or due to unexpected problems such as corrosion.

While the UK is usually a net importer of electricity to help balance its grid, British gas-fired power stations have taken advantage of increased shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) arriving from the US, Qatar and also Peru to generate more electricity for export.

As much as 43 per cent of the UK's electricity comes from renewable sources such as wind and solar, but when the sun is not shining or the wind not blowing the country often needs to import to offset these times.

The last time the country was a net exporter on a monthly basis was in November 2017.

Britain has become a net exporter of electricity to mainland Europe for the first time since 2017 as French nuclear power stations experience unusual shutdowns

European demand for gas has contributed to the UK's gas exports increasing 185 per cent from 2020 to 2021, reaching record levels of exports in April 2022.

Difficulties in the French energy market have sent prices surging to record highs, leading to these regular occurrences of exports from Britain to France, analyst Joe Camish of Cornwall Insight said.

These difficulties come at a bad time for the continent as it grapples with the energy fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine and its imminent threat to turn off the gas tap.

With demand surging and supply being squeezed, the French government capped energy prices earlier this year to shield consumers from exorbitant electricity bills.

In response, panicking French energy majors EDF, TotalEnergies and Engie, who will instead face the brunt of the price spike, last month urged households and businesses to 'immediately' reduce their energy consumption.

'The French nuclear situation and the war in Ukraine have changed the balance between export and import of power from the continent to the GB market,' said Phil Hewitt, director of EnAppSys, an energy consultancy.

British gas-fired power stations have taken advantage of increased shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) arriving from the US, Qatar and as far away as Peru to generate more electricity for export

Because of this, EnAppSys expects Britain to buck its trend continue to be a net exporter to mainland Europe, even in the depths of winter.

It would be a reversal from recent winters in which Britain has been a net importer from France and, more recently, Norway.

The government recently ordered the National Grid to keep open two coal-fired power plants that were due to be shuttered in September as the ongoing energy crisis sidelines efforts to generate green energy.

It is expected that the UK will continue to help France make up its shortfall in nuclear output for the rest of the year.

The grids of both countries talk on a 'continuous basis' and offer each other mutual support in times of stress, according to the head of the National Grid ESO, Fintan Slye.

Despite the UK's status as a net exporter of electricity, this is not expected to shield consumers from 'extreme pricing' and a reliance on coal could lead to some period of 'very tight margins' between supply and demand, Hewitt warned.

Cornwall Insight has predicted that gas and electricity bills for British households will rise 65 per cent to more than 3,200 a year in October and from there jump to over 3,360 in January.
The parents of brain-damaged Archie Battersbee have said they will appeal against a High Court judge's ruling today that doctors can turn off his life support machines.

Archie suffered a devastating brain injury three months ago and doctors treating him said that continued treatment is not in his best interests and should end.

His parents, Hollie Dance, 46, and Paul Battersbee, 56, from Southend in Essex, disagree.

And a lawyer representing Archie's parents indicated that they wanted to try to challenge Mr Justice Hayden's ruling in the Court of Appeal.

Archie Battersbee's mother Hollie said she would try to appeal against the ruling that doctors can stop treating her brain-damaged son.

'Archie would want us to keep on fighting,' she said after the High Court ruling.

'And we will keep on fighting. We will appeal.'

Archie (pictured in hospital) suffered a devastating brain injury three months ago and doctors treating him say that continued treatment is not in his best interests and should end

Archie's father Paul Battersbee, who also lives in Southend but is separated from Ms Dance, told Mr Justice Hayden that Archie would 'not want to leave' his mother.

He said today: 'There have been too many battles in too short a space of time.

'He needs more time. We'll try to appeal. Who knows?'

Mr Battersbee had previously said: 'I am not looking at it through rose-tinted glasses, but it has only been 12 or 13 weeks and doctors have got it wrong before.'

He added: 'The most important thing for me is to know he has gone in God's way.'

'With all due respect to Mr Justice Hayden, it is not in Archie's best interests to die,' Ms Dance added, outside court.

'The planned removal of the ventilator is definitely the worst thing that may happen from my point of view. I cannot see how this is in any way dignified.

'We disagree with the idea of dignity in death. Enforcing it on us and hastening his death for that purpose is profoundly cruel.

'It is for God to decide what should happen to Archie, including if, when and how he should die.

'As long as Archie is fighting for his life, I cannot betray him. Until Archie gives up, I won't give up. I am living every parent's worst nightmare.

She added: 'There must be change in the NHS and in the court system before another family has to go through what we have. We will be appealing this ruling and we ask for your prayers and support.'

His parents, Hollie Dance (pictured with Archie) and Paul Battersbee, from Southend in Essex, disagree

Mr Justice Hayden, who reviewed evidence at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court earlier this week, on Friday concluded that ending treatment was in Archie's best interests.

He described what had happened to Archie as a 'tragedy of immeasurable dimensions'.

Another High Court judge had earlier concluded that Archie was dead, but Court of Appeal judges upheld a challenge, made by Archie's parents, to decisions taken by Mrs Justice Arbuthnot and said evidence should be reviewed.

Ms Dance urged Mr Justice Hayden to let Archie die a 'natural death'. She said her son would want treatment to continue.

Doctors treating Archie at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, have told judges they think he is 'brain-stem dead' and say continued life support treatment is not in his best interests.

Archie has been in a coma since he was found unresponsive with a ligature around his neck at his home in Southend, Essex, on April 7.

Ms Dance believes her son, a talented gymnast, choked while taking part in a viral social media trend known as the 'blackout challenge' that first began circulating online 14 years ago. The youngster has not regained consciousness since.

Archie has been in a coma since he was found unresponsive with a ligature around his neck at his home in Southend, Essex, on April 7

Lawyers representing the Royal London Hospital's governing trust, Barts Health NHS Trust, have asked for decisions about what moves are in Archie's best interests.

Mr Justice Hayden said medical evidence was 'compelling and unanimous', and painted a 'bleak' picture.

The judge said evidence showed that Archie had suffered a 'significant injury' to 'multiple areas' of his brain and had not 'regained awareness at any time'.

'Archie's mother described him as a fighter and I have no doubt he was,' said Mr Justice Hayden.

'But the fight, if it can properly be characterised as such, is no longer in Archie's control.

'The damage to his brain has deprived him of any bodily autonomy.

'Eventually Archie's organs will fail and ultimately his heart will stop.'

Archie's family are being supported by a campaign organisation called the Christian Legal Centre. Pictured: Archie's mother and father

Archie's father Paul Battersbee (pictured), who also lives in Southend but is separated from Ms Dance, told Mr Justice Hayden that Archie would 'not want to leave' his mother

Mr Justice Hayden said: 'This court has to ask itself whether continuation of ventilation in this case is in Archie's best interests.

'It is with the most profound regret, but on the most compelling of evidence, that I am driven to conclude that it is not.

'Accordingly, the court cannot authorise or declare lawful the continuation of this present treatment.

'It is obvious from the detail of the treatment that I have set out above that it is intrusive, burdensome and intensive. If there were even a possibility that it could achieve some improvement to Archie's condition, it would be both proportionate and purposeful.

'Where, as here, the treatment is futile, it compromises Archie's dignity, deprives him of his autonomy, and becomes wholly inimical to his welfare.

'It serves only to protract his death, whilst being unable to prolong his life.

'Having come to this conclusion, there emerges the prospect of an end to Archie's life, which reverberates more closely with the way he lived in the past.

'Arrangements can be made... that afford Archie the opportunity for him to die in peaceful circumstances and in the embrace of the family he loved.'

Archie's family are being supported by a campaign organisation called the Christian Legal Centre.

Chief executive Andrea Williams said after Mr Justice Hayden's ruling: 'This is another devastating blow for the family and for Archie. Sadly, however, this is what we have come to expect from the courts in end-of-life cases.

'What Archie's case has shown is that systematic reform is needed to protect the vulnerable and their families in end-of-life matters.

'Parents of vulnerable and critically ill children are being put through the mill at the most traumatic moments in their lives when what they need is compassion, support and respect from the NHS and the legal system.'

She continued: 'Behind the back of Parliament and the public, courts seem to have developed a concept of 'dying with dignity' which amounts to euthanasia in all but name.

'These sensitive ethical issues should be debated and determined in the democratic Parliament, not by judicial activists. Life is the most precious gift that we have.'

'Anyone following this story over the past few months will have seen what it takes to challenge the will of hospital bosses once they have decided life support should be removed.

'This family have fought courageously to get to this point in taking a stand for Archie's life. We continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with them as they appeal this ruling.'
In this July 3 file photo, Saudi special forces salute in front of a screen displaying images Saudi King Salman, right, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after a military parade in preparation for the annual Hajj pilgrimage, in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. AP-Yonhap



Saudi Arabia announced Friday it was lifting restrictions on "all carriers" using its airspace, an apparent gesture of openness towards Israel hours before US President Joe Biden's arrival.



The US leader welcomed the "historic" decision, the latest conciliatory move by Riyadh concerning the Jewish state, which it has refused to recognize despite intensive efforts by the Israelis to establish ties with Arab countries.



The Saudi civil aviation authority "announces the decision to open the Kingdom's airspace for all air carriers that meet the requirements of the authority for overflying", it said in a statement.



The decision was made "to complement the Kingdom's efforts aimed at consolidating the Kingdom's position as a global hub connecting three continents".



Biden said in a statement later Friday that Riyadh's move came "thanks to months of steady diplomacy between my administration and Saudi Arabia", where he is set to travel in the afternoon as part of a Middle East tour.



"As we mark this important moment, Saudi Arabia's decision can help build momentum toward Israel's further integration into the region, including with Saudi Arabia," Biden said.



Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid thanked Biden on Friday for "long, intense and secret diplomatic negotiations between Saudi Arabia and the United States" to reach a deal on overflights.



"And I want to thank the Saudi leadership for opening their airspace. This is only a first step," Lapid said.



Prior to Biden's arrival in Israel at the start of his Middle East trip on Wednesday, Washington had hinted that more Arab nations could take steps to pursue relations with the Jewish state. That spurred speculation about whether Riyadh would alter its long-held position of not establishing official bilateral ties until the conflict with the Palestinians is resolved.



The kingdom did not show any opposition when its regional ally, the United Arab Emirates, established diplomatic ties with Israel in 2020, followed by Bahrain and Morocco under the US-brokered Abraham Accords.



Yet analysts have stressed that any immediate gains are likely to be incremental and that Riyadh will probably not agree to formal ties  not during Biden's visit or while King Salman, 86, still reigns.





U.S. President Joe Biden waves before his departure to Saudi Arabia from Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, July 15. AP-Yonhap
An obsessed ex-policeman has been landed with a criminal record after he waged a vigilante vendetta spanning 30 years against an infamous car clamper nicknamed 'Dick Turpin' due to his zealous targeting of motorists.

Former PC Vaughan Evans, 61, was charged with harassment after he repeatedly smeared elderly retired JP Ted Evans as a 'paedophile' over his clamping activities in the picture postcard village of Haworth in West Yorkshire- former home of the Bronte sisters.

During his malicious hate campaign Evans who is no relation to the victim, loitered outside the 82-year old businessman's workplace at Central Car Park on North Street and shouted 'Child f***er' in front of the old man's family. He later falsely referred to him as a 'kiddie fiddler' on Facebook.

Evans would also upload videos to YouTube of a song called 'The Devils Clamper' and wrongly refer to the old man as a 'bent magistrate.' One lyric said: 'Didn't you used to rape children, once upon a time?'

A second song posted on the video sharing site went: 'In the rolling hills of Haworth lives a bad bad man' whilst the former constable posted a selfie video about his namesake on Facebook saying: 'It is a nice day to have a pervert and his family filming me when I was just walking my dog. I will just tell the truth about your perverted ways with children.'

Former PC Vaughan Evans, pictured outside Tameside Magistrates' Court, represented himself having been charged with harassing wheel clamper Ted Evans, no relation

Evans, pictured, denied he had been engaged in a 30-year feud with the wheel clamper

Magistrates handed Evans, pictured, a 12-month restraining order having found him guilty of harassment

In 2013 Evans, pictured, was dismissed from West Yorkshire Police as a result of the ongoing feud

Mr Evans who once featured in a Channel 4 documentary after he incurred the wrath of former House of Commons Speaker Betty Boothroyd when he clamped her friend's car in 2008 was said to have suffered 'distress and anxiety' due to the slurs.

In 2013 he won a civil injunction against Evans who was subsequently dismissed from West Yorkshire Police after he agreed to sign an undertaking that he would not harass the car park boss, his wife or children and not posting any further defamatory statements.

But the clamper who accused the former PC of being 'obsessed' with his family had to secure a second injunction last year then made a further complaint when Evans continued to hound him online.

It emerged the feud had begun in 1992 after the victim's son's stood trial accused of assaulting Evans but was cleared by a jury.

At Tameside magistrates court, Evans, from Keighley near Bradford was convicted of harassment and was issued with a a 12-month restraining order banning him from contacting the Evans family, going within 100m of the car park, or posting anything online about the family or in any other media. He was was also ordered to complete 40 hours of unpaid work and pay costs of 395. He denied any wrongdoing.

Since Mr Evans began his car clamping activities in 1991, he has been accused of being a 'thorn in the side' of the village which was the home of the Bronte sisters Charlotte Emily and Anne in the 19th Century.

He had previously been accused of immobilising a car while its driver was asleep, clamping a minibus for disabled children and clamping the prime minister of Australia. In 2003 his company, Carstoppers, won the RAC Dick Turpin Award for the nation's 'worst' clamper.

The car park in Haworth, Yorkshire has achieved notoriety across the country with Mr Evans' company Carstoppers being winning the RAC Dick Turpin Award for the nation's 'worst' clamper in 2003

In response the old man began selling T-shirts to raise money for charity, one showing a forlorn Santa Claus wheel clamped on his sleigh with the caption: 'Sorry, kids, Santa can't come, he's forgotten to pay and display at Haworth.' Another T-shirt showed Dick Turpin's tricorn hat, mask and crossed pistols with the epithet: 'You didn't get me, I paid and displayed.'

Prosecutor Richard Blackburn said that there had been 'quite a lot of incidents' involving the former constable and Mr Evans.

Britain's most notorious clamper, Ted Evans Mr Evans who once featured in a Channel 4 documentary after he incurred the wrath of former House of Commons Speaker Betty Boothroyd when he clamped her friend's car in 2008 was said to have suffered 'distress and anxiety' due to the slurs. He also clamped a former Australian prime minister and a minibus carrying a group of disabled children. He also clamped a car whose owner was inside sleeping. The documentary which featured the company boss discovered residents in the village of Haworth dislike the parking enforcer. People using his carpark face being immobilised if they outstay their welcome by a few minutes or if they cross the white line into a second bay. Advertisement

'The history goes back 30 years,' Mr Blackburn said, 'Edward Evans and his family are the owners of a car park in Haworth, West Yorkshire. The defendant was a serving police officer there is a feeling of a vendetta between the defendant and the complainant which began in 1991 when there was the introduction of wheel clamping.

'That was a very controversial step in the village which led to a crown court case in which the son of the complainant, James, was accused of assaulting the defendant. That was heard a long, long time ago in 1992. The complainant's son was acquitted of that charge and it seems the defendant has not forgotten about that and other things that have happened between the defendant and the complainant.

Mr Blackburn added: 'The defendant has always accused, always believed the complainant to be a paedophile. In April 2021 the complainant was at his workplace with his wife and one of his other son's Gareth.

'He has seen the defendant on the opposite side of the road. The defendant blows a whistle and shouts 'Child f***er' towards the complainant making him feel embarrassed and outraged. It was recorded on video and on the same day the defendant shouted at Mr Evans, he posted on Facebook referring to the complainant as an old 'kiddie fiddler'.

'That made the complainant feel so concerned that others may target him if they feel him to be a child sex offender. There was a further incident when the defendant walked past the car park on the opposite side of the road playing a song about the complainant being the devil's clamper.

'The song has been doctored to include offensive and insulting lyrics. He took them to imply that he was a bent - a corrupt - magistrate. That makes the complainant feel distressed and humiliated.

'He uploaded video to YouTube and Facebook with the complainant alleging some of the lyrics to Devil's Clamper can be heard and 'Didn't you used to rape children, once upon a time?' can be heard two times throughout the course of the video. That caused him anxiety. He felt mortified. He recorded that and sent it to the police.

'He alleged that the defendant made comments about him being 'bent' and that was also recorded and sent to the police.'

in May 2021 Mr Evans made an application for another civil injunction against his namesake but the ex-cop then rang him when he received court papers aggressively accusing him of sending one of his sons to his address.

Representing himself, Evans said he had never intended to cause any distress and added. 'I probably just wanted to cause them some annoyance because they were annoying me.'

He denied that there was a 30-year feud saying whilst there was an 'incident' in 1991, there was no contact for another 20 years until one the complainant's sons saw him and allegedly made comments 'about what he would like to do to my daughter'.

'I have spoken about and published things but I have always been factual,' he added: 'Maybe my dark humour can be construed as offensive but for that I can only apologise.' Becoming emotional, he added: 'I've been provoked at the worst time of my life. I thought that I acted proportionately trying to make a joke out of things but it has backfired on me.

'I have struggled mentally and have even been arrested. I dealt with the civil thing and then months later the police call in exactly the same thing. I never thought I was committing a crime. I've always known the difference between right and wrong.'

Sentencing Evans chairman of the bench, Caroline Turner, said: 'There was more than one incident causing some upset to the victim.'
A father accidentally hanged himself while trying to scare his fiancee after they had watched American Horror Story on TV, an inquest heard.

Dry liner Philip Burns, 36, was 'mucking around' to get the attention of girlfriend Michelle Delahunty-Evans.

Michelle told the hearing in Cumbria that she turned round after singing along to the TV at the couple's home to see Philip hanging with his back to the living room door.

Paramedics attended after she ran into the street to get help but it was too late to save his life on February 28 this year.

MIchelle told the hearing the pair had been out in Carlisle where they had 'quite a few drinks' and were 'having a laugh'.

Philip Burns (pictured), 36, was 'mucking around' and trying to prank his fiancee Michelle Delahunty-Evans (pictured) when he accidentally hanged himself in his home in February, an inquest heard

Mr Burns, who had been released from prison in February 2020, had 'turned his life around' and 'found a job he loved' as a dry lining operative before his tragic accidental death

She said they had returned to their home in the city and were 'joking around, being silly'.

Ms Delahunty-Evans said she had been singing along to the TV and had then turned around and saw Mr Burns had his back against the door.

She said they had been watching American Horror Story that weekend and Mr Burns had been trying to scare her.

A statement read out from a police constable who attended the incident said he arrived to find an unresponsive male on the floor and a person carrying out CPR.

He said Mr Burns' partner was 'intoxicated' and 'shocked' at what was going on.

A police sergeant who attended the scene said Mr Burns was lying on the floor when he arrived and there were indentations on the door frame.

A toxicological test of his blood revealed he had high levels of alcohol in his system and traces of cocaine.

Coroner Dr Nicholas Shaw told the hearing in Cockermouth: 'If someone is found hanging, you initially think they have committed suicide.

'Philip has no mental health history, no history of self-harm.

'He had been out for a night out and seems to have had a good time.

'People don't generally take their lives when people are in the same room at the same time.

'I find it hard to believe he has taken his own life.

'I'm more inclined to think that because they were playing around, I suspect this is something he has done that has gone wrong.

'No one will know. Philip can't talk to us from the grave. I think it's more likely than not he was mucking around and something went wrong.'

He said it was likely Mr Burns was trying to scare his fiancee by hanging on the door when the ligature had tightened and caused his death.

A statement read out from Mr Burns' mother, Andrea McGrath, said the loss of her son had 'completely broken her heart'.

Mr Burns had been released from prison in February 2020 after being convicted of assault on a child.

He had 'found a job he loved' as a dry lining operative.

The couple had been watching American Horror Story on TV that weekend, which is believed to have inspired Mr Burns' ill-fated prank. Pictured: Leslie Grossman and Macaulay Culkin, actors in the TV series American Horror Story

Ms McGrath said he had been in a better place than he had been in a long time.

Dr Shaw concluded that Mr Burns died by misadventure, with a medical cause of death as hanging.

In his concluding statement, the coroner said: 'After a long period of trouble, Philip Burns had turned his life around.

'He was taking steps to lead a more stable and balanced life. He was working. He had plans for the future.

'I'm happy with a conclusion of misadventure.'

Speaking to Ms Delahunty-Evans, Dr Shaw added: 'There will always be a hole in your heart where Philip was but it doesn't mean you won't find future happiness.'
President Joe Biden reaffirmed his commitment to the two-state solution as he met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas Friday in Bethlehem.

Biden also called the death of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh an 'enormous loss' that needed to be investigated, as he was greeted with calls of 'Justice for Shireen,' including from Abbas, all morning as he traveled through East Jerusalm and to the occupied West Bank.

'As I stand with you today, now as president of the United States, my commitment to that goal of a two-state solution has not changed in all these years,' Biden said, standing alongside Abbas. 'The Palestinian people deserve a state of their own that's independent, sovereign, viable and contiguous.'

Speaking first and through a translator, the 86-year-old Abbas asked Biden: 'Mr. President, after 74 years of al Nakba, the displacement and occupation, isn't it time for this occupation to end?'

'And for our steadfast people again to gain their freedom and independence and for the hopes of our young men and women who we cherish and trust their creativity to achieve a promising future without occupation?' Abbas added.

'Nakba' is the term Palestinians use - meaning 'catastrophe' - when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled in the war surrounding Israel's creation.

'In this regard, we say that the key to peace and security in our region begins with recognizing the state of Palestine and enabling the Palestinian people to obtain their legitimate rights in accordance with international legitimacy resolutions and ending all the permanent status issues including the Palestinian refugees issues - and the way to that begins with ending the Israeli occupation of our land,' Abbas continued.

Abbas said that Palestine should be drawn along the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Biden later mentioned the same borders but with 'mutually-agreed-to swaps.'

He also told Biden the U.S. should reopen an consulate in East Jerusalem and remove the Palestine Liberation Organization from the foreign terrorist list.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan later said that the administration supports reopening the consulate in East Jerusalem.

'We are not terrorists,' Abbas stated. 'And also we also look forward to reopening a PLO office in Washington,' he added.

'Mr. President, we look forward to the efforts of your administration to turn the page on the Israeli occupation of our land and the acts of racial discrimination apartheid against our people and to stop unilateral actions that undermine the two-state solution,' Abbas said.

President Joe Biden (left) and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (right) addressed the press after meeting Friday in Bethlehem. There, Biden reaffirmed his commitment to a two-state solution

President Joe Biden (left) shakes hands with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (right) during a joint statement they made Friday afternoon in Bethlehem

An empty seat was left among the Palestinian press corps with an image of slain Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh

President Joe Biden later visited the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem to 'underscore support for Christians who face challenges across the region'

Biden was greeted with considerable pomp as he arrived to the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinians rolled out the red carpet in Bethlehem - literally - as Biden and Abbas reviewed the troops and national anthems were played outside the Palestinian Muqataa Presidential Compound.

Biden opened his own statement by calling Abbas a 'friend.'

'We can count ourselves among the earliest supporters of a two-part solution,' Biden said. 'Two states for two people - both of whom have deep and ancient roots in this land.'

He said a two-state solution was about 'dignity' - a word he often associates with human rights.

'I know that the goal of the two-state seems so far away while indignities like restrictions on movement and travel, or the daily worry of your children's safety are real and they are immediate,' the president said.

'The Palestinian people are hurting now. you can just feel it. Your grief and frustration. In the United States we can feel it,' he continued.

'But we never give up on the work of peace,' Biden added.

Biden said it was important for there to be a 'political horizon that the Palestinian people can actually see or at least feel.'

Yair Lapid, the caretaker prime minister of Israel, supports two states but he does not have a mandate to hold peace negotiations. And Israel's November elections could bring to power a right-wing government that is opposed to Palestinian statehood.

'We can't allow the hopelessness to steal away the future that so many have worked toward for so long,' the president said.

'So even if the group is not ripe at this moment to restart negotiations the United States and my administration will not give up on trying to bring the Palestinians and Israelis and both sides closer together,' he added.

Biden also emphasized that Israel normalizing relations with Arab neighbors should be seen as an opportunity, not a defeat.

'I do believe that in this moment when Israel is improving relations with neighbors throughout the region, we can harness that same momentum to reinvorgate the peace process between the Palestinian people and the Israelis,' Biden said.

After his meeting with Abbas, Biden will fly Air Force One directly between Tel Aviv and Jeddah - becoming the first American president to do so between those two cities - as Saudi opened its skies to all civilian aircraft earlier Friday.

Biden also called on the Israelis to improve the lives of Palestinians today - from offering things like 5G services and access to renewable energy.

In turn, he encouraged the Palestinians to showcase good governance.

Both Abbas and Biden brought up the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Akleh.

In the room where they were speaking was an empty chair among the Palestinian press corps with her image on it, along with the words: 'The voice of Palestine.'

At an earlier hospital stop and along the motorcade route, there were also asks of 'Justice for Shireen,' after Akleh was shot and killed in May while covering a raid by the Israel Defense Forces.

Several Palestinian journalists covering Biden wore t-shirts with Akleh's face on them.

Abbas listed the killing of Akleh among a number of trangressions at the hands of the Israelis.

'Stopping the expulsion of Palestinians, demolishing houses, homes and storming the cities, villages and camps and stopping the daily killing and arrests, on a daily basis - and holding the killers of the martyred journalist Shireen Abu Akleh they need to be held accountable,' Abbas said.

Biden brought up Akleh when speaking of the many deaths of Israelis and Palestinians just this year due to the continued conflict in the region.

'And the United States has suffered loss as well. Including the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh,' Biden said. 'She was an American, an American citizen, and a proud Palestinian, and she was performing very vital work in an independent media, and vital work of democracy.'

'Her death is an enormous loss to the essential work of sharing with the world the story of the Palestinian people, he continued. 'I hope that her legacy, her legacy will inspire more young people to carry on her work of reporting the truth and telling stories that are too often overlooked.'

'The United States will continue to insist on a full and transparent accounting of her death and will continue to stand up to media freedom everywhere in the world,' the president stated.

Biden is not expected to meet with the journalist's family members while on his four-day Middle East trip.

The president also didn't explicitly commit to bringing up the death of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi - a U.S. resident and Saudi national, critical of the state - when he's face-to-face with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman later Friday.

President Joe Biden (left) stands alongside Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (center) during a welcoming ceremony Friday to the Palestinian Muqataa Presidential Compound in the city of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank

President Joe Biden (center), wearing his trademark aviators, participates in an arrival ceremony Friday in Bethlehem to the Palestinian Muqataa Presidential Compound for a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas

President Joe Biden was greeted with considerable pomp for his meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. He participated in a troops review and a ceremony where national anthems were played

President Joe Biden (left) shakes the hand of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (right) Friday during a visit to the West Bank

A reporter wears a shirt requesting justice for slain Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh at President Joe Biden's stop at Augusta Victoria Hospital Friday morning in East Jerusalem

President Joe Biden's motorcade passed a mural depicting slain Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh en route to his meeting with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. The mural was painted earlier this month by Palestinian artist Taqi Spatee and photographed ahead of Biden's trip to the Middle East

Biden's first stop of the day was a visit to Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem announcing he will ask Congress to fund $100 million for healthcare services for the hospital network, which serves the Palestinian population.

'Palestinians and Israelis deserve equal measure of freedom, security, prosperity and dignity and access to healthcare, when you need it, is essential to living a life of dignity for all of us,' the president said during brief remarks.

Biden followed in the footsteps of his wife, First Lady Jill Biden, who had visited the hospital twice before.

His visit, according to the hospital's CEO and East Jerusalem Hospital Network Secretary General Dr. Fadi Atrash, was 'bringing hope to thousands of Palestinians.'

'We Palestinians are same like Americans,' Atrash said. 'We have our own dream that we want to achieve. And for this we need hope, justice, freedom and support from friends like you in America and all over the world.'

'We are extremely, extremely happy to have you and you are most welcome, Mr. President,' Atrash added.

President Joe Biden visited the Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem Friday morning and announced he will ask Congress to fund $100 million for healthcare services for the hospital network, which serves the Palestinian population

President Joe Biden departs the stage Friday after announcing a $100 million commitment to East Jerusalem hospitals, which service the Palestinian people

When Biden took over the podium he talked about being Irish-American, likening the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to Irish Catholics' relationship with Great Britain.

He then asked, 'Are there any nurses in the room?'

'Because if not, I'm going home,' the president said to laughs. 'If there are any angels in heaven - no, no, no I mean this sincerely from the bottom of my heart.'

'My wife and daughter were killed and my boys were trapped in a vehicle for there hours when a tractor-trailer hit them - the doctor saved their lives, but the nurses made them want to live,' Biden said.

The president talked about his own healthcare challenges, double aneurysms with an embolism on top of that.

'I joked the reason they went in twice to take the top of my head off is they couldn't find a brain the first time,' Biden said.

In a more serious tone he added, 'I don't think you nurses are nearly appreciated enough.'

He recalled being in the intensive care unit - saying he had never made these comments publicly before.

'And you look at the monitors and you know if the line goes flat you're dead,' the president said. 'But you just get tired, even when you're not in pain, you just want to quit.'

'And the nurses at Walter Reed Hospital. Would come up, and they'd rub my face, they'd whisper in my ear. They'd get close and tell me, it's going to be OK. They made a difference in my life,' he said.

He then turned to his late son Beau Biden, who died of Glioblastoma in 2015, which the president said he believed was a product of his son's service in Iraq, as the Delaware attorney general was sleeping close to burn pits.

'He should be the man talking to you as president, not me,' Biden remarked.

The president then turned back to the business at hand - announcing the $100 million commitment to the Palestinian healthcare system.

President Joe Biden arrives for a tour of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem Friday - the last stop he made before departing for Saudi Arabia

President Joe Biden met with 'Church Patriarchs' at the Church of the Nativity, the White House said

'Working together, it is my prayer the United States will both relieve the hospital's burden of debt, and support targeted infrastructure updates and key reforms in patient care, to ensure longterm financial stability,' he said.

'We also welcome the $25 million contribution from the UAE. And I encourage other nations around the region and around the world to step up as well with their own contributions to support the vital work that's being done here,' the president added.

He said that the 'United States will continue to work with the Palestinian leadership, with the government of Israeli and with all our international partners to ensure that East Jerusalem's hospital network retains sustainable, remains available and is able to provide high-quality care the Palestinian people deserve.'

Israeli officials objected to not having any of their officials with Biden on the hospital stop, which they see as happening in their territory.

But a senior administration official called it a 'private visit' and pointed out Jill Biden visited the same hospital when she was second lady, arguing the Bidens have long ties to it.

Biden's last stop before departing for Saudi Arabia was to the Church of the Nativity.

The visit, the White House said, was to 'underscore support for Christians who face challenges across the region.'

There, he met privately with Church Patriarchs, the White House said, and received a tour of the mosaics and the church's architecture.

Biden then took Marine One back to Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport, where Israeli Prime Minister Lapid and President Isaac Herzog were there to wish him goodbye.
A tourist was bitten by a shark in Long Island on Wednesday - marking the fifth suspected attack in the area in just two weeks.

The Arizonan man, 49, was in waist-deep water in Fire Island when he was attacked at around 6pm as the shark bit his 'left wrist and his buttocks' according to Suffolk County police.

The victim was flown Stony Brook University Hospital after he was still remarkably able to walk out of the water.

This latest encounter came just hours after a shark attack on a paddleboarder at around 7.30am at Smith Point Beach, also in Suffolk County, New York.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said in a press conference that the beach 'once again is closed to swimming due to a shark bite that occurred earlier this morning.'

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone holds a press conference following the 2nd shark attack in 10 days at Smith Point Beach. 'You're interacting with marine life whenever you're out in the ocean, but they're closer to shore now,' said Bellone

The victim, a 41-year-old man, suffered a four-inch gash on his leg from the bite.

The man was knocked off his board during the attack and managed to punch the shark.

As the shark circled back, a wave helped the man escape and carried him back to shore, where he sought help.

The victim told officials he believed his attacker to be a sand tiger shark approximately four feet long.

Warmer water temperatures, cleaner oceans and more food are resulting in more interactions between sharks and humans.

'This is an issue of incredible importance to all of us here in Suffolk County,' said Bellone.

Zachari Gallo describes how he fought off a shark at New York's Smith Point Beach on July 3. He said: 'I hit the shark three times. I went boom, boom, boom. I guess in the third one it spun back and it's tail hit me in the chest'

Gallo suffered a bite to his hand after punching the shark off him

Gallo received stitches in his chest and Suffolk County officials closed the Long Island beach to swimming Sunday after the unprecedented shark attack

Lifeguard Zachari Gallo was playing the role of a victim during a training exercise when a five-foot shark bit him in the chest and hand on July 3.

He received stitches in his chest, and Suffolk County officials closed the Long Island beach to swimming Sunday after the unprecedented shark attack.

The lifeguard said once he felt the texture of his attacker, he knew it was a shark.

'I felt sharp, sharp pain and once I felt the rubbery texture, I knew it was some kind of shark,' Gallo told CBS.

He said: 'I hit the shark three times. I went boom, boom, boom. I guess in the third one it spun back and it's tail hit me in the chest.'

'We hadn't seen our beach closed to swimming in the history of Smith Point County Park since it opened in 1959,' said Bellone on Wednesday. 'I think it is an indication, however, that what were looking at is something of a new normal.'

'Interactions between humans and sharks may now increase, and fortunately we have not seen any significant injuries.'

A swimmer at Jones Beach had suffered a suspect shark bite on his right foot on June 30 as part of the spate of encounters.

Bellone offered tips to residents for safety, including avoiding swimming during dusk and dawn when there are no lifeguards, 'wearing shiny jewelry,' to not entering the water while bleeding and not go 'too far out.'

He also added that swimming in a group 'always makes sense,' so that if there is someone in distress, 'help is immediately there.'

'You're interacting with marine life whenever you're out in the ocean, but they're closer to shore now,' said Bellone.

The attacks in New York come as a 17-year-old girl lost a leg after being bitten by a shark off a Florida beach - only to be saved when her EMT brother beat the creature off her thigh.

Addison Bethea, 17, is pictured in hospital in Tallahassee days after a shark attacked her. Brother, Rhett Willingham, 22, left, saved her life by beating away the shark

Addison Bethea was attacked when the teen and her half-brother, Rhett Willingham, 22, went out scalloping in just five feet of water near Grassy Island, off Keaton Beach in Taylor County.

Her father, Shane Addison, 46, told DailyMail.com his daughter was in brother Rhett's boat about a mile-and-a-half off-shore swimming in the water when she suddenly felt something hit her in the back of the leg.

'Addison thought her brother was just playing around until a nine-foot shark latched onto her thigh and she started screaming, and there was blood everywhere,' he said.

As his daughter tried to pull the shark off her leg, her brother started beating nonstop on the beast trying to pry his sister loose. Once she was free, he grabbed her and carried her to his boat. A random stranger saw that the pair were in distress.

Rhett placed his sister on the stranger's boat and then he used a 4 foot tourniquet around her right upper leg top stop the bleeding.

'The shark got her bad,' Shane said. 'She was very pale, and nearly going into shock.'

Rhett called for an ambulance and when they arrived back on land, she was airlifted to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital some 80 miles away.
Supermodel Irina Shayk is at the centre of a social media storm after she was accused of 'backing Putin's war' by using his 'Z' symbol on Instagram.

She captioned a picture of a traditional Olivier salad with the phrase 'Russianzz on Wednesday', provoking outrage from Ukrainians and others who interpreted the spelling to be a reference to Russia's war Z symbol.

The anger came a day after Putin's forces fired a Kalibr missile at the busy city centre of Vinnytsia, killing 23 people including three children.

Social media users recalled that the Russian-born star and ex-fiancee of Hollywood star Bradley Cooper had previously posed with a book showing Vladimir Putin's image.

The story with the picture of the salad - a Russian specialty - vanished after 24 hours and Shayk, 36, has not commented on the hostile reaction.

Supermodel Irina Shayk, 36, is at the centre of a social media storm after she is accused of 'backing Putin's war' by using his 'Z' symbol on Instagram, posting a story with the caption 'Russianzz on Wednaday(sic)'

The story with the picture of the salad - a Russian specialty, which provoked outrage from Ukrainians and others, vanished after 24 hours and Shayk has not commented on the hostile reaction

Netizens recalled her posing in April 2020 with a picture of Putin, an image that has also disappeared from her account

Ukrainian journalist Maria Romanenko called for sponsors to reconsider working with her over the post.

She posted on Twitter: 'Irina Shaykworld-famous model from Russia who's recently worked for @Beyonce, Jean Paul Gaultier, @Burberry, &othersposted a weird cryptic story on Instagram with the word 'Russianzz'.

'I really hope these brands reconsider working with her when Russia uses Z to kill Ukrainians.'

'You must be banned in [the] civilized world while you support Russian terrorism against Ukrainian people! Stay in Russia forever and forget about USA and Europe - hypocrisy,' wrote one critic.

'I can't imagine! How after all death caused by Russia you support them and write Z' posted another.

The Z-sign is seen by some as the equivalent of the swastika, and is widely used by Putin's forces, as well as on pro-Russian propaganda.

Another hostile comment read: 'Hopefully one day you will feel the same like people from Ukraine who lost their children.'

One more pleaded: '@n.k.9.6.1 @burberry @louisvuitton @balenciaga @chaneloffial @supremenwyork @boss @versace @intimissimiofficial please pay attention to who you are collaborating with.'

Firefighters together with rescuers, military and the police work at the site of the Russian missile strike in downtown Vinnytsia

Emergency services work next to a damaged building at the site of a Russian military strike, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Vinnytsia

Shayk was accused of being a 'supporter of the terrorist state Ruzzia and genocide of Ukrainians.'

Another commenter branded her a 'Putin supporter' and asked: '@victoriassecret how does it feel to do collaborations with Russian fascist who supports Russia's genocidal war against Ukraine?'

Many comments referred to the carnage at Vinnytsia, when Putin's forces fired a Kalibr missile at the busy city centre yesterday, killing 23 including three children.

The missile launched from a submarine in the Black Sea crashed down on Vinnytsia at around 10.50am local time injuring at least 100 people.

Footage shows the moment of impact as cyclists and pedestrians were going about their day when suddenly the destructive power of the blast blows them off their bicycles while others cowered and dropped to the ground for safety.

Irina Shayk's most recent modelling gig - and perhaps her last - was for Beyonce's new Ivy Park 'Ivytopia' collection just this week

Irina is the ex-fiancee of Bradley Cooper (R, pictured May 2) after amicably ending their four-year relationship in 2019, pictured at the 91st Annual Academy Awards in 2019

Terrorised people are seen running to escape the strike unleashed on the city of 370,000 people in the centre of the country, far from the Donbas frontline.

One outraged commentator asked Shayk: 'Did you see those photos from [the] Vinnytsia bombardment?

'Did you see those small little bloody bodies of murdered by your Z-army kids, the age your daughter might be?

'Are you proud of it, Ms. Shaykhlislamova?

'I will never touch any brands that you promote, neither any of my friends will.

'We should boycott any company working with this monster.'
The devastated mother of a British aid worker who has died in captivity in Ukraine has lashed out at his 'murderers', saying Russian-backed separatists 'let him die'.

Paul Urey, 45, who was captured in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine on April 25, died on July 10 in the self-proclaimed People's Republic of Donestk after being taken to a prison camp in Ukraine's east, an official there said today.

Linda Urey, his mother, said she was 'absolutely devastated' to learn of her son's death - accusing rebel leaders of being 'f***ing murderers' and saying: 'I hate you all.'

In a Facebook message dripping with venom, she wrote: 'I told you he was a very sick man, I told he he was diabetic. I begged to give me my son back.

'Why did you let him die? I want answers. Why didn't you release him?

'I hate you all. I'm absolutely fuming, I really am, I'm angry. Very very very very angry. Murderers, that's what you are. F***ing murderers. I hate you.'

Daria Morozova - the DPR's 'human rights ombudsman' - announced Mr Urey's death on Telegram today, saying he passed away from 'illness and stress'.

British aid worker Paul Urey who was captured by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine has died in detention, Kremlin media has claimed

Linda Urey (pictured speaking at the time of her son's capture) has hit out today, accusing Russian-backed separatists of 'letting him die' and branding them 'murderers'

She said Urey suffered from 'insulin-dependent diabetes, damage to the respiratory system, kidneys and a number of diseases of the cardiovascular system'.

Morozova claimed he had been given proper healthcare in jail, but ultimately succumbed to his conditions and 'depression' over his fate.

In fact, prisoners in the DPR say they have been kept in modern-day concentration camps where beatings, torture, malnutrition and disease are common.

Jenny Urey, another relative, also paid tribute online - calling Mr Urey 'a hero' before adding: 'Paul is out of harm and safe now.'

Mr Urey, a father-of-two originally from Warrington, had gone to Ukraine without telling his daughters earlier this year to provide aid to locals caught up in the war.

He travelled independently of any organisation and was not working for a charity while there, but had been in contact with NGO Presidium Network.

Dominik Bryne of the Presidium Network helped raised the alarm about Mr Urey's capture on April 25 when messages from him stopped and a woman he had been trying to help began getting 'strange messages' from his phone.

Dylan Healy, a fellow Briton who had also been in contact with the charity, is thought to have been captured with him as the pair tried to cross a Russian checkpoint.

Ten days after his capture, Mr Urey appeared on Russian state TV to denounce the UK government as 'corrupt' and blast British media for misrepresenting the war.

He also claimed to have fought in conflicts including Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, but relatives say these statements were almost certainly made under duress.

Ukraine's foreign legion - made up of overseas volunteers who have travelled to the country to fight - confirmed today that he was not affiliated with them.

'He did not fight in Ukraine. He was an employee of a humanitarian organisation,' the group said - without naming the organisation.

Mr Urey was captured in the Zaporizhzhia region on April 25 while trying to cross a Russian checkpoint (pictured, the city's nuclear power plant after being attacked by Russia)

After his capture, Mr Urey was taken to the Donetsk region where he was held in a detention camp (pictured, the destroyed city of Mariupol in the same region)

At the time Mr Urey was captured, Russia had been pushed back from Kyiv (pictured) and was preparing an assault in the Donbas while steadily taking territory in the south

After Mr Urey appeared on state TV, it was revealed the DPR was charging Urey with being a foreign 'mercenary' and planned to put him on trial in their kangaroo court.

Russian separatists frequently accuse foreigners they capture of being 'mercenaries', because it means they are not protected under international law and can be prosecuted for crimes committed in war.

If convicted, Mr Urey would have been sentenced to death by firing squad.

Daughters Courtney and Chelsea Coman, 17 and 20, told Sky News after his Russian media appearance that they were 'preparing for the worst' and feared their father 'wouldn't be coming home any time soon'.

The pair said they had no idea Mr Urey had gone to Ukraine, and suspect he didn't tell them because they would have tried to stop him.

'We're just about coping for now. We really don't know anything, like if he'll be okay there, if he's coming home or going back to Ukraine as a prisoner swap,' Courtney said at the time.

'We just don't know, so we're preparing for the worst,' she added, before her sister chimed in: 'But hoping for the best.'

Chelsea said: 'It might seem selfish for other people but I do feel a bit like 'why have you gone and done this?'

'We don't know what's happening, you don't know if he's safe, you don't know where he is. We're more upset than anything.'

Linda also spoke out shortly after Mr Urey's capture - revealing he had gone to Ukraine shortly after the war broke out, had come home briefly in early April, then gone back to continue his aid work.

She said she 'begged' him not to return and to instead live out a 'boring life' in the safety of the UK, but he refused to listen.

'I was on FaceTime with him up to 4am on Monday morning and that was it  gone,' she said - describing him as 'too caring'.

Asked how she was feeling, she replied: 'Like I want to die, like I don't know what to do any more. I don't know. It's horrible.'

Aiden Aslin (left) and Sean Pinner (right) are two fellow Britons being held in Donetsk, where they have been sentenced to death for being 'mercenaries' despite being regular soldiers

MailOnline has contacted the Foreign Office for comment on Mr Urey's case.

A Downing Street spokesman said: 'They're clearly alarming reports and our thoughts are obviously with his family and friends.'

A Foreign Office spokesperson added: 'We are urgently seeking clarification from the Russian government on media reports that a British aid worker has died in Ukraine.'

His death comes amid fears for the safety of two more Britons held in the DPR who have been sentenced to death for being 'mercenaries' - Sean Pinner and Aiden Aslin.

The pair were captured fighting for Ukraine against Russia in the besieged city of Mariupol in April, before being handed the death penalty back in May.

They are appealing the sentence, but Denis Pushilin - self-proclaimed leader of the DPR - has already said he sees no reason to issue a pardon and earlier this week said an 'execution site' is being prepared for them.

If the sentence is carried out, then the two men will die by firing squad.

Though both Mr Aslin and Mr Pinner were fighting Russia, they were doing so as part of Ukraine's regular army - having moved to the country back in 2016, married Ukrainian women, and signed up the to military shortly afterwards.

As such, they should be considered prisoners of war under international law which protects them from prosecution for fighting.

Mr Urey's death will also raise fears for the safety of a number of other Britons being held in eastern Ukraine, including Mr Healy and Andrew Hill - a father-of-four British Army veteran from Plymouth also captured in April in Mykolaiv.

Mr Hill is thought to have been fighting for Ukraine's foreign legion, having gone to the country as an aid worker before being persuaded to sign up.

He has appeared on Russian state media a number of times - including in April when he was filmed with a bandaged left arm, a makeshift bandage around his head, and blood on his right arm.
Keir Starmer is on tour in Germany as the Tory civil war rages back in Britain.

The Labour leader has has been trying to burnish his statesman credentials with the trip, including a dress-down visit to the Berlin wall today.

Sir Keir wore a black polo shirt as he posed by the East Side Gallery section of the landmark, erected in 1961 by the communist authorities to separate East and West Berlin.

Most of the wall was demolished from 1990 after the two sides of the city were reunited the year before.

Keir Starmer wore a black polo shirt as he posed by the East Side Gallery section of the landmark, erected in 1961 by the communist authorities to separate East and West Berlin

Sir keir has been joined by shadow foreign secretary David Lammy (right) on the visit

The gallery section of the wall Sir Keir viewed includes a piece painted by Dmitri Vrubel called My God, Help Me To Survive This Deadly Love, which depicts then-leader of the Soviet Union Leonid Brezhnev and former East Germany leader Erich Honecker in a socialist fraternal kiss.

Sir Keir's visit takes him away from the turmoil in the UK as the Tories whittle down the field to replace Boris Johnson.

Labour has been demanding an early general election, and a confidence vote is due to be held in the government on Monday - although it looks doomed to fail.

Sir Keir is meeting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz with the pair expected to discuss Brexit and mutual economic prosperity between the UK and Germany.

Beginning his two-day trip to Berlin yesterday Sir Keir met Wolfgang Schmidt, Germany's federal minister for special affairs, head of the chancellery and commissioner for the Federal Intelligence Service.

He has been joined by shadow foreign secretary David Lammy on the visit.

The pair also visited the Memorial To The Murdered Jews Of Europe, where they took a guided tour around the holocaust memorial.
A multi-millionaire horse trainer has avoided having to pay an unpaid 273,000 bill for the refurbishment of her 3.5million mansion after a judge ruled the contract with the builder was with her bankrupt meat mogul husband and not her.

Niki Tottman won her court battle after being sued by builder Bobby Kher over a lavish half a million pound programme of works he carried out at her sprawling home in a leafy Hertfordshire village from 2015 to 2017.

A judge ruled that she was not liable for 273,000 shortfall after claiming 'whole financial side of my life' was taken care of by her husband Nigel Tottman, who went bankrupt - meaning his prior debts are discharged - after his family business went under in 2019.

She also accused builder Mr Kher of unfinished and defective work, claiming the ensuite in the bedroom of her equestrian daughter - who represented Team GB in dressage - had a broken toilet in her 30,000 bedroom.

Mr Kher claimed the equestrian and her former meat tycoon husband Nigel had left him with a 273,000 unpaid bill after agreeing to pay a total of 523,271 to overhaul the house and adjoining equestrian facilities at their home in Cheverells Green, Markyate near St Albans.

Niki Tottman (left) won her court battle after being sued by builder Bobby Kher (right) over a lavish half a million pound programme of works he carried out at her sprawling home in a leafy Hertfordshire village from 2015 to 2017. Pictured: Niki Tottman and Bobby Kher outside Central London County Court

The daughter Niki and Nigel Tottman, dressage rider Hermione Tottman - who has represented Team GB in the sport

The bill included 30,000 just to do up Hermione's bedroom to a design drawn up by her and her father.

Recorder Richard Shepherd has now ruled that Mrs Tottman does not have to pay the builder anything and hit him with a 58,000 legal costs bill, although rejecting claims the work was defective.

The court heard that Mr Tottman, 61, was the boss of multi-million pound grossing speciality meat business, Nigel Fredericks Ltd, until it collapsed with the loss of around 250 jobs in 2019 - having been in his family for over a century.

The ex-public schoolboy is now a discharged bankrupt, Judge Shepherd said.

His wife, Niki, also 61, is an expert horse dressage trainer and set up a thriving equestrian centre - known as Oliver's - next to her family home.

She runs the business alongside her daughter, Hermione - who has represented Great Britain on the International FEI Pony Circuit.

The couple found themselves caught up in a complex legal fight with their builder, Mr Kher, after he accused them of leaving a 273,271 shortfall following a 523,271 project to refurbish their home and the adjoining dressage stables.

Mr Kher claimed he agreed to overhaul the house, Hermione's bedroom and the adjoining equestrian facilities, but only ever saw 250,000 handed over.

He and his company - Turnkey Contract - went to court seeking the outstanding 273,271 cash balance, although Mrs Tottman and her husband claimed he had been paid in full.

He sued both Mr and Mrs Tottman, although his barrister, Mukhtiar Otwal, explained that he was not seeking a formal court judgment against Mr Tottman due to his status as a discharged bankrupt whose debts have been wiped out.

However, Mrs Tottman, a mum-of-six, denied she was liable for any unpaid sums, saying she did not enter into any binding contract with Mr Kher or his company, insisting that everything was agreed and paid for by her businessman husband, who she said held the family purse strings.

The couple's barrister, Maurice Rifat, told the court Mrs Tottman was 'not the contracting party' and urged the judge to throw out the claim against her.

'The court is invited to dismiss the claim against Mrs Tottman in circumstances where she was not the contracting party, all works done had been paid for, where there are still outstanding defects and snagging, and where the claimant cannot properly prove that any further sums are payable for alleged extra works,' he urged.

Mrs Tottman told the court she had nothing to do with paying the bills in her household, which she had always left to her husband throughout their 37-year marriage.

'I leave the whole financial side of my life to my husband,' she declared, adding: 'I am the mother of six children and so I have mainly been a housewife.

'That's what I've been doing - bringing up children and looking after the home.'

Her role had since evolved when she set up a thriving equestrian centre beside the couple's 3.5million home, she said, which she and her daughter now run.

In its early days, the equestrian centre was more of a 'hobby', said Mrs Tottman, although her knowledge and expertise with horses has now made it a highly professional and dynamic business.

But despite her involvement in running the daily activities of the stable yard, Mrs Tottman added that she still left the purse strings in her husband's hands, and told the court: 'I couldn't make any decisions without his agreement'.

And when Mr Kher and his company carried out works at her equestrian centre, she would check over the job done but leave the bills to Mr Tottman.

Olivers Equestrian Centre, Mrs Tottman's horse riding school she runs from her home in Hertfordshire with her daughter Hermione

Hermione Tottman is a up-and-coming star in the dressage world, having already competed with Team GB at a young age

'Nigel would always pay for it and approve the works,' she explained.

'I did have some input, but only in terms of the colours and furnishings and trimmings,' she added.

Asked about the 30,000 bill for her daughter's bedroom, Mrs Tottman insisted she wasn't involved and that the room was planned by her daughter and husband largely without her help.

And she claimed the refurbished ensuite bedroom is still bedeviled by snags, commenting: 'the shower doesn't turn on and the toilet doesn't work'.

Mr Kher's barrister said his claim against Mrs Tottman was 'founded on oral agreements he entered into with Nigel and Nicola for building and maintenance works to Olivers, which he undertook during 2015 to 2017'.

Giving judgment, Recorder Shepherd said Mrs Tottman had presented no solid evidence about long-term snagging problems and defects, adding that her main challenge had focused on criticism of the electrics.

'I find she has failed to establish on the balance of probability that the works are defective in the ways alleged,' he commented.

But he backed Mrs Tottman's case that she had no involvement in negotiating the contract or paying Mr Kher for the work done, pointing out that 'she had no employment at the time and spent much of her time either in the saddle or looking after her children at home'.

Mrs Tottman 'deferred to her husband' in money matters and had an allowance of 1,000 per month from him, which left her in no position to dole out large amounts of cash to a builder, said the judge, who dismissed the case against her.

'In my judgment, the contract in relation to the original works was between Mr Kher and Mr Tottman only,' he said.

'I accept that she was involved in some of the discussions, but that doesn't mean she was a party to the contract. Her involvement was limited to minor matters such as choosing colour schemes, the types of finish or the flooring.'

The judge went on to find that Mr Kher had only received 250,000 out of the total 523,271 he was owed for his efforts by Mr Tottman, commenting: 'the only payment made was the single payment of 250,000, such that the balance is due and owing'.

But the judge said he could not order Mr Tottman to pay the balance because Mr Kher's lawyers had not asked for a judgment against him due to his status as a discharged bankrupt.

And having thrown out Mr Kher's case against Mrs Tottman, he also ordered him to pay her 58,000 in legal fees.
A notebook containing rules for 'how to live' that was written by James Bond creator Ian Fleming has emerged 60 years on.

The 007 creator filled his pocket notepad with ideas and observations while drafting his 11th Bond novel You Only Live Twice, which was published in 1962.

Among his list of 13 rules was a warning to 'beware of motorcars with two women in the front seat'.

He took aim at the opposite sex in another instruction, warning: 'Don't waste your time on women who wear a bracelet on their left ankle.'

And one piece of advice that would not be out of place in a Bond novel reads: 'Don't draw your gun unless you see both the other man's hands.'

Others include 'beware people who smell' and 'tread carefully in the company of moustaches, side-burns and beards'.

The 39-page notebook, with writing in blue and black ink, is going under the hammer with Heritage Auctions, of Dallas, Texas.

It has been consigned by a private collector and is tipped to sell for 17,000. ($20,000).

A notebook containing rules for 'how to live' that was written by James Bond creator Ian Fleming has emerged 60 years on

The 007 creator filled his pocket notepad with ideas and observations while drafting his 11th Bond novel You Only Live Twice in 1962. Among his list of 13 rules was a warning to 'beware of motorcars with two women in the front seat'

The British writer also had no love for the country's ruling class as he wrote 'avoid people who call you Old Boy, and all politicians'.

Ian Fleming's rules for life 1) Don't draw your gun unless you can see both the other man's hands. 2) Don't waste your time on women who wear a bracelet on their left ankle. 3) Beware of motorcars with two women in the front seat. 4) Don't play cards against married couples, unless they are drunk. 5) See the brand name on the bottle 6) Avoid people who call you 'Old Boy,' and all politicians. 7) Never eat scrambled eggs unless you make them yourself. 8) Talk secrets only in the open air 9) Don't buy anything that eats 10) Beware of people who smell and tread carefully in the company of moustaches, side-burns, or beards. 11) Have nothing to do with correspondence in coloured ink - particularly when variegated. 12) Cut down on your drink when your eyes get red and on your smoking when your breath feels short. Don't worry about cirrhosis of the liver or cancer. 13) Live until you're dead. Advertisement

And pet owners were also given short shrift as Fleming mused 'don't buy anything that eats'.

On a more serious note, he jotted down an alternative epigraph for You Only Live Twice.

It read: 'You only live twice. Once when you are born and once when you are about to die.'

It is very similar to the final version used om the book: 'You only live twice: Once when you're born, and once when you look death in the face.'

His final point, returning to the Bond theme, is 'live until you're dead'.

You Only Live Twice was published in 1964 and was then made into a film starring Sean Connery as 007 three years later.

It was Connery's fifth appearance as Bond.

Joe Maddalena, vice president of Heritage Auctions, said: 'James Bond has been around for so long, and become such an icon and in literature and film and pop culture writ large, that we take the character and his creation for granted; it's like he's always been there.

'But these handwritten documents straight from his creator provide us with an insight and a perspective that often make 007 seem brand-new.

'We're allowed into the creative process; we're over his shoulder as Bond is born.'

Fleming died in 1964.

The sale takes place on July 16.

The notebook is just the latest item connected to Fleming that has come up for auction in the past year.

In March, two first edition Bond novels given by Fleming to his assistant Una Trueblood went on sale for 60,000.

Fleming's novel You Only Live Twice was turned into the fifth Bond film starring Sean Connery in 1967

Last November, a pair of cufflinks owned by Fleming that featured a spy-like secret code sold at auction for 4,000.

The 007 creator wore the cultured pearl set to the Dr No post-film screening party in 1962.

The backs of the cufflinks were inscribed with the letters WUS, SIL, UDH and NUF  believed to represent a so-far unsolved secret message.

Rule number 12 was: 'Cut down on your drink when your eyes get red and on your smoking when your breath feels short. Don't worry about cirrhosis of the liver or cancer. In his final rule, he added: 'Live until you're dead'
A police force has been slammed after uniform-clad cops escorted handcuffed teenagers with bags on their heads to their prom in a riot van.

West Midlands Police was accused of wasting taxpayer money and officer time when three officers dropped off the gang of teens after their ride let them down.

But the force insisted the stunt was vital to help build trust with the community.

Video shows the youngsters being escorted out of the van in handcuffs with bags over their heads in mock-arrest.

Social media user Wayne Gray blasted: 'How much did that cost the tax payer to take that van and the police officers as well when he could of just got a taxi?'

Rick Ross said: 'This country has gone downhill.'

West Midlands Police took teenagers to a prom in one of the force's vans, TikTok video showed

The children were handcuffed in the van and had spit hoods placed on their heads for stunt

Elaine Haddon added: 'Glad they got time to waste.'

Jo Bushell said: 'As cool as that was. can I just say what a waste of police resources that was.'

One - called Leesa - blasted: 'No wonder there are no police around when you actually need them as they are busy dropping their kids off. Sorry not impressed, not funny.'

Another person asked: 'Why could they not just get a lift in their parents' car?'

The youngster's mum, Dini - who posted the videos - said: 'The negative, vile and racist comments I've had is shocking - be kind.'

But a spokesperson for West Midlands Police insisted the cops were off-duty.

The trip from the police sparked accusations of wasting money and resources from some

But the force defended the stunt and said everyone was off duty and the van was going spare

In a statement a spokesperson said: 'An officer from our neighbourhood police team stepped in to help some local children who were due to go to their prom.

'But their transport fell through and they were incredibly upset over it.

'We actively engage with people in the area and local youths to help build trust, and officers often go out of their way to help others and make a positive impact where they can.

'The officer was on patrol when he saw a local boy who he knew from his years working in the area.

'The boy looked upset and after a chat it was established that he had been let down by the hire company for his prom transport.

'Our officer responded he will go to the ball'.

'He finished his shift, and then stayed on to help the boy and his friends.

'The officer did this in his own time, it did not impact on any police resourcing and the police van was not in operational use at the time and could be spared.

'The children were overjoyed with the gesture and their parents and members of the community also expressed their support.'
A father who lost his two kids, wife and mother in law in a house fire says he will 'never recover' from the tragedy.

The blaze that killed three generations of the Sri Lankan family began from an oil lamp lit during a Hindu festival, an inquest heard.

Niruba Yogan, 29, along with her mother Nagrasani Vasanthrajah, 60, and her two young children Tavishan, four, and Sasnaa, 23 months, all died in the blaze that ripped through their house in Bexleyheath, south east London last November.

The fire melted an electric cable in the cupboard under the stairs which in turn ignited the gas supply as the family prayed upstairs.

Once they realised the house was on fire they were trapped whilst a terrified Mrs Yogan rang her husband who was at work screaming 'fire, fire', it was reported at the time.

Yogan Thangavadivel was at work when a house fire started by an oil lamp during a Hindu festival ignited the gas supply and killed his wife, two children and mother-in-law. Pictured: Niruba Yogan, 29 and Nagrasani Vasanthrajah, 60, holding four-year-old Tavishan and 23-month-old Sasnaa

The fire melted an electric cable in the cupboard under the stairs of the house (pictured) in Bexleyheath, south east London, which in turn ignited the gas supply as the family prayed upstairs

Her husband, Yogan Thangavadivel, raced home on the night of November 18, 2021 but it was too late.

In a pre-written statement Mr Thangavadivel said: 'I do not even know where to start, how do you explain such a loss in a few words?

'I cannot believe they're all gone and I do not know how I will ever recover from this. But they will continue to live in my memories and my heart.

'Every day I wake up hoping this was all a horrible nightmare and my kids and my love are still alive in our dream house.

'My dear wife, you gave me the whole world. All those years with our family were the best of my life and I will never get to relive it.

'The pain and sorrow will always live with me as well as the happy memories.

'Being with you, I saw the whole world in a different light. It was like I found everything I wanted in you. Please come back.

'Tavishan, my son, always a happy and cheerful boy who does not sit for even a bit. His sly way of creeping up on you and laughing in your face is unforgettable.

'Just before he passed away he got a certificate from school saying he was a wonderfully talented boy.'

Of his daughter Sasnaa he said: 'She wore a big dress for her first birthday and it kept falling but that did not stop her from trying to play.

'Sasnaa never cried, she loved playing with other people and would not just stick to her parents.

'Both my babies were active and happy. They had so much to live for and I will forever wonder what what they would have grown up to become.

'My mother-in-law took the place of my mother who I lost in 2012. London was very new to her so me and my wife did everything to make sure she was happy.

'She always called me her son and made sure I was looked after.

'I wish that no one experiences this pain in their life and that it ends with me.

'Losing one family member is hard but four, I cannot even write this without breaking down.

'Rest in peace, until we meet again.'

Croydon Coroners court heard how the family placed a number of lamps around their house following the tradition of the festival.

But they became trapped while praying in an upstairs bedroom as one of the lamps ignited the gas and electricity supplies in a cupboard under the stairs.

Only a male family member who injured his legs jumping from a window, survived.

The family had only moved into the property in Hamilton Road three months before the fire.

Coroner Edmund Gritt said: 'His family were at home together with another family member who survived the fire.

'They were celebrating an annual festival called Karthigai Deepavali and the custom is to light oil lamps known as Diyas to bring lights to dark corners.

'They lit a number of Diyas and placed them around the home and went upstairs to pray.

'While there the family noticed the smell of burning but thought it was due to the lamps they lit so they put some out.'

When the other family member looked downstairs he saw the fire spreading and realised it was impossible to leave that way.

He was able to escape through one of the upstairs windows, injuring his legs as he jumped onto the roof of the garage.

Firefighters pulled the family from the blaze, but paramedics were unable to resuscitate any of the four people, who were pronounced dead at the scene

Giving evidence Peter Guppey, a sub officer and London Fire Brigade investigator, said: 'Witnesses said that member was trying to assist the family.

'The neighbour of the adjoining property tried to make entry through the front door. He broke the PVC door but the heat was too much.

'He tried to go through to the rear of the property but the smoke was too much for him to enter.'

The family were left disorientated by the smoke and unable to find their way out.

Firefighters pulled them out of the house but paramedics were unable to resuscitate them and they were pronounced dead at the scene.

Coroner Gritt said the fire had started from an oil lamp placed by the family on the floor of the under stairs cupboard, which contained the gas and electric utilities as well as combustible material such as timber and textiles.

He added: 'Unobserved, as the family prayed upstairs, the flame of the lamp ignited the combustible material in the cupboard.

'That fire itself melted the electric cabling and an electric arc breached the gas supply. There was not a gas explosion but effectively a gas flame which was fuelled by the gas supply.'

From there 'a slow stream of flame' spread up the stairs and trapped the family in the rear bedroom of the house.

Sub Officer Guppey said it was difficult to know the speed of the fire's spread but that the flocked wallpaper and paint helped it burn faster.

He added: 'A small Diya was found close to the threshold of the cupboard door. It was found on the floor and fire debris covered the top of it, which implies it was on the floor at the outset.

'A level of fire spread from around the Diya, progressing towards the cables of the electrical supply of the property.

'The rubber coating of the cable, that would give off a lot of heat and smoke once it became involved with fire.

'Also, there was a ready source of fuel in the area and plastics and other materials ignited and sustained flame.'

After reading post-mortem and toxicological reports Coroner Gritt concluded that the four family members had died from inhaling toxic fumes and smoke.
A young man turned away by multiple doctors and told he was 'young and healthy' before he was diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer now has just months to live.

Hans Su, 29, a business analyst Melbourne, first went to a GP in 2019 for persistent stomach pain but medical staff believed he was passing a kidney stone and he was sent home.

In 2021 he went to the emergency department with the same symptoms but doctors believed he may have had a minor infection and he was again told to come back only 'if the pain gets worse'.

Eventually after demanding doctors scan his stomach in July last year, Mr Su was given the devastating news he had stage four bowel cancer.

A failed 'life-saving' surgery left Mr Su in ICU and in January he was told he has less than a year to live.

'It never occurred to me that something like death could possibly come so soon, but here I am,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

Hans Su (pictured) was diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer and in January told he had a year to live

Mr Su (pictured with his wife) has says he wants young people to know 'cancer doesn't discriminate'

The 29-year-old has undergone 19 rounds of chemotherapy and is now hoping to raise awareness of bowel cancer so other young people don't ignore the warning signs.

'You have to be your body's strongest advocate. If you know something does not feel right, don't minimise it, push for further investigation,' he said.

'Cancer does not discriminate, it can happen to anyone no matter their age or their overall health status.'

Mr Su could have died without ever being diagnosed had his wife not intervened on the second occasion he wound up in the emergency department for his mysterious stomach pain.

'My wife basically said to me that I wasn't allowed home until they did the CT scan,' he said.

Mr Su (pictured with his wife) has left his job and hopes of having children behind as he turns his full attention to trying to reverse his cancer

'They did an ultrasound on my first visit and somehow found nothing despite the tumour being a decent size. So the next logical step was for a better scan.

'They eventually decided that a CT scan might be helpful but strongly expected to find nothing. I'm sure they were shocked with the results.'

By the time his tumour was found, it had already spread to his peritoneum - the membrane that lines the inside of the abdomen and pelvis - which meant that chemotherapy was unlikely to help.

After eight rounds of chemotherapy and no signs of progress, Mr Su underwent major surgery where any organ that has been affected by the tumour was removed.

Recovery for that kind of surgery is usually expected to be around six months.

Mr Su has undergone 19 rounds of chemo and various surgeries to try and stop the spread or remove his cancer

'As described by our previous surgeon, it's like being hit by a bus six times over,' Mr Su said in a GoFundMe to help fund his extensive medical expenses.

He underwent the surgery in January but as the cancer had spread to major blood vessels around his liver and heart, surgeons were unable to remove much.

'I was basically told that I now had terminal cancer, and a cure was no longer on the cards,' he said.

He said the recovery from the surgery was unbearable, adding the physical and mental pain was exhausting.

'It also took everything out of me to even just take a few steps, and the sight of having multiple tubes coming out of me was daunting,' he said.

'Mentally, I was distraught. To be told you're dying at the age of 28 was an incomprehensible feeling.'

He said chemo has left him losing his hair and the tips of his fingers and soles of his feet numb. He has also developed blood clots in his lungs.

Mr Su brought his wedding forward and married his partner last November. He had to quit his job while his wife is working casually as she helps care for him.

The pair had also dreamt of starting a family together.

A heartbreaking but not uncommon case of young-onset bowel cancer meant Mr Su was given only a year to live, now he doesn't want anyone else to miss the warning signs

Staring down the barrel of his heart-wrenching diagnosis Mr Su reminded young people to remember to be grateful for things in life.

'One thing that I've learnt the hard way is to not take anything for granted,' he said.

'Live each day to the fullest, look after your health and be grateful, even if it's for the smallest things.'

Mr Su is still undergoing treatment and in some good news has secured an appointment with a Sydney-based surgery team who will review his case to see if there are any more options to try.

Another major surgery has been planned for August in Sydney.

Mr Su (pictured) isn't done yet, he will fight the cancer until the end and says there's much more living he'd like to do

As the majority of bowel cancer cases are in those over the age of 50, Mr Su said doctors were reluctant to think his symptoms were a sign of the disease.

The average age at the time of diagnoses for men is 68, and 72 for women, according to cancer.net.

Cancer Council research shows 90 per cent of bowel cancers can be treated successfully.

For Mr Su, the chemotherapy has stopped his cancer from spreading any further, and he hopes his treatment and another try at surgery will give him some more time with his wife and family.

'I'm not ready to leave this earth yet, there's just so much more living I want and need to do,' he said.
Camille Vasquez was spotted introducing her British boyfriend Edward Owen to her star client Johnny Depp at his concert in Prague on Monday.

The happy couple were spotted laughing and joking with the Pirates of the Caribbean star in a backstage area of his European tour with guitarist Jeff Beck, 79.

Depp was seen beaming at Vasquez, 37, and Owen, 38, before pulling him into a bear hug as she smiled watching on.

The embattled 59 year-old has embarked on the music tour, playing multiple concerts, and releasing new music after his high-profile legal battle against ex-wife Amber Heard.

Vasquez also found herself thrust into the limelight after defending the actor in his highly publicized case  with the jury largely siding with him.

Heard had claimed in a 2018 op-ed for the Washington Post that she was a domestic abuse survivor, and has now been ordered to pay Deep $10 million in compensation and $5 million in punitive damages.

A court ruled that Heard had defamed him in the article, but the jury also awarded Heard $2million in her countersuit against Depp.

Vasquez was widely praised for her performance during the trial, and was awarded a promotion following her success in the courtroom.

Vasquez was seen smiling and tenderly touching her British boyfriend Edward Owen after introducing him to Depp in a backstage area of his concert. The actor then pulled him into a hug before waving at fans who caught the interaction on camera

Vasquez and Depp raised eyebrows during the six-week legal battle with his ex-wife Amber Heard over how close they were. The pair were regularly seen hugging and being very tactile in the courtroom

Vasquez attended the concert along with the rest of his legal team, Jessica Meyers and Samuel Moniz. Fans were quick to comment saying that there was a real affection between Depp and his entire legal team after the footage was posted online

Footage posted on Instagram shows the actor waving at fans before Vasquez puts an arm around her boyfriend while they chat with Jessica Meyers and Samuel Moniz, also part of his legal team.

Owen, a successful Cambridge-educated senior director at WeWork, can then be seen hugging the actor as Camille smiles at the pair.

Fans were quick to comment saying that there was a real affection between Depp and his lawyer, as well as the rest of the team.

Many fans believed that Depp and his lawyer could be in a relationship after watching the pairs tender interactions during the six-week trial.

Vasquez initially didnt shut down the rumors', chickling coyly when asked about their relationship, but she was then spotted leaving a Ritz-Carlton hotel in Virginia with her London based boyfriend.

During the trial, a clip of Vasquez comforting Depp in the courtroom delighted fans on social media.

The lawyer previously described and recently opened up about the situation again.

Speaking to Univision, she said: Of course, I did [hug him]. He's my friend, but he's my client first, and he was going through something very difficult.

I love my clients very much and I am Hispanic, I like hugging and touching people, not kissing. But I did give him a hug because he needed it.

Depp has also been accused of slamming his ex with scathing lyrics while performing on stage with legendary British guitarist Jeff Beck  the pair collaboration on album 18.

Depp was seen grinning at Owens as Vasquez and the rest of the legal team watched on, after enjoying the concert in Prague on July 11

Camille Vasquez, 37, and her boyfriend Edward Owen, were spotted leaving a Virginia hotel near the Fairfax County Courthouse - quashing rumors that the lawyer was dating the Pirates of the Caribbean star

Amber Heard had her motion seeking to have the verdict set aside on Wednesday, and is said to be considering a retrial. Depp has also been accused of slamming his ex with unsavory lyrics while performing on stage with Beck

Depp joined Beck onstage at a series of recent concerts in the UK, playing covers by Dennis Wilson, Marvin Gaye, Jimi Hendrix and Killing Joke.

With one song Depp sings the lyrics: I think youve said enough for one motherf***ing night.

While another he sings: Youre sitting there like a dog with a seven-year itch  If I had a dime, it wouldnt reach your hand.

Heard had filed a motion seeking to have Depps verdict set aside or have a mistrial declared following the jurys decision.

Her lawyers cited several factors, including an apparent case of mistaken identity with one of the jurors, and that the verdict was unsupported by the facts.

But on Wednesday Judge Penney Azcarate rejected all of the claims, ordering the Aquaman actress to pay the money.

Heard still has the ability to appeal the verdict to the Virginia Court of Appeals, and previously indicated that she would do so.
A migrant arriving in Dover today made the 'V for Victory' sign as boats made it to Britain for the eighth day in a row.

The young man, dressed in a jacket, tracksuit bottoms and a life jacket, was seen looking jubilant as he made it onto dry land.

He was among dozens more arrivals - including children - today, as government figures showed 173 migrants arrived in four small boats yesterday. It brings the total number of arrivals so far this year to 14,330.

Yesterday, young children were carried to safety by members of the armed forces in what was the seventh consecutive day of crossings.

On Wednesday, more than 100 migrants arrived, whilst 259 reached the UK in six boats on Tuesday.

Border Force officers also intercepted 442 migrants from 15 incidents on Monday - the highest number for nearly a month despite a Europe-wide crackdown on people smugglers and warnings migrants could be re-homed in Rwanda in central Africa.

A migrant arriving in Dover today made the 'V for Victory' sign as boats made it to Britain for the eighth day in a row. The young man, dressed in a jacket, tracksuit bottoms and a life jacket, was seen looking jubilant as he made it onto dry land

There were dozens more arrivals today as government figures showed 173 migrants arrived in four small boats yesterday. It brings the total number of arrivals so far this year to 14,330. Above: A small child being carried at Dover

The new crossings come after Irish premier Micheal Martin warned the UK Government's plan to send migrants to Rwanda may have resulted in an increase in international protection applicants in the Republic.

The Taoiseach described the policy as a 'shocking' initiative which was 'wrong'.

The Government has reportedly put fresh attempts to get the first deportation flight to the East African nation off the ground on hold until after the Conservative Party has elected a new prime minister over fears it could generate too much controversy during the leadership contest. The plane was grounded in June amid legal challenges.

Earlier this week armed forces minister James Heappey faced accusations the Navy had become a 'tour guide for illegal migrants' since the Ministry of Defence took charge of tackling crossings in the Channel in April.

Young men are seen at Dover Marina after making the dangerous crossing from France

While being questioned by MPs, Mr Heappey admitted the Government had abandoned proposals to use pushbacks to turn away migrants at sea in light of conclusions from Navy experts after trials of the tactic by Royal Marines.

Meanwhile prisons watchdog Charlie Taylor raised concerns about 'haphazard' Home Office arrangements in place for migrants and told how people were arriving ashore soaking wet and with petrol burns.

Mr Taylor, who inspects the conditions in which migrants are held when they arrive in the UK, added that people were 'crammed into facilities where some basic safeguards were not in place' as he highlighted the case of a man who had been convicted of a serious offence spending the night in a facility where there were children and families.

The Home Office said it removed 23 foreign criminals from the country, via a flight to Albania on Thursday.
A woman who was arrested at the Clapham Common vigil for Sarah Everard wants the public to get her 10,000 so she can sue the Metropolitan Police.

Lawyers for Patsy Stevenson, 29, have sent a pre-action letter of claim to the force, threatening legal action over its policing of the vigil and its conduct towards her in March 2021.

The 29-year-old is seeking an apology, an admission of liability from the Met that her human rights were breached, damages for false imprisonment and assault during her arrest and for the 200 fixed penalty notice she paid to be withdrawn.

Ms Stevenson has launched a CrowdJustice page to raise 10,000 for her legal fees and any costs 'if the police continue to defend the claim'.

Lawyers for Patsy Stevenson (pictured during her arrest at the Clapham Common vigil last year), 29, have sent a pre-action letter of claim to the force, threatening legal action over its policing of the vigil and its conduct towards her in March 2021

Hundreds attended the vigil in south-west London to pay their respects to 33-year-old Ms Everard, who was murdered after disappearing while walking home.

The event had originally been organised by Reclaim These Streets, who cancelled it after the Met said it should not go ahead, and no definitive answer on the matter was provided by the High Court.

But people turned up throughout the day, and officers did not intervene for the first six hours while many came to lay flowers, with the Duchess of Cambridge also paying her respects.

By the evening, hundreds of people had gathered and refused to leave when asked by police, leading to clashes that saw protesters bundled to the ground and arrested.

The 29-year-old (pictured during her arrest last year) is seeking an apology, an admission of liability from the Met that her human rights were breached, damages for false imprisonment and assault during her arrest and for the 200 fixed penalty notice she paid to be withdrawn

In a ruling by the High Court in March this year, two senior judges found the Met's decisions in the run-up to the planned event were 'not in accordance with the law' and breached the rights of the organisers. Pictured: Ms Stevenson

Woman accused of breaking law by attending vigil says investigation is an 'insult' to Sarah Everard A woman accused of breaching Covid-19 laws by attending a vigil for Sarah Everard has said the Metropolitan Police prosecution against her is an 'insult' to the murdered marketing executive's memory. Jenny Edmunds is accused of participating in a gathering of more than two people in a public outdoor place in a Tier 4 area - Clapham Common, south London - on March 13 last year. Edmunds, 32, of Lewisham, south London, appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday, speaking only to confirm her name and address and to plead not guilty. Tier 4 Covid-19 restrictions banned household mixing, aside from support bubbles, and two people meeting in public outdoor places. For attending the vigil, she received a 220 fine and was ordered to pay 100 in court costs and a 34 victim surcharge, with 28 days to pay, said Hodge Jones & Allen, a law firm representing Edmunds. A case management hearing has been set for September 23, with a trial listed for October 28, 31 and November 1 at City of London Magistrates' Court. In a statement provided by Hodge Jones & Allen outside court, Edmunds said: 'This prosecution is an insult to the memory of Sarah Everard, and all victims of gender-based violence and police brutality. 'It is a waste of public funds and just goes to further prove that the Met is not fit for purpose.' Advertisement

Images of Ms Stevenson being handcuffed and held down by two male officers sparked anger at Scotland Yard's policing of the gathering.

An official report from the watchdog, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services, backed the Met's handling of the event and found no evidence of heavy-handedness.

In a ruling by the High Court in March this year, two senior judges found the Met's decisions in the run-up to the planned event were 'not in accordance with the law' and breached the rights of the organisers.

Ms Stevenson, who is represented by Bindmans law firm, said she is 'motivated by this landmark result' and 'determined to see my case through to the end'.

She said: 'Women are being murdered just for being women. All we wanted was a space to collectively grieve and express anger, but this was denied to us. Instead, police officers used physical force to police our emotions, silence us and shut down this important space.

'Part of the reason I want to bring this case is because I know there are others who do not feel able to - whether it is because of the lack of availability of funding, because they are scared, or to protect themselves against reliving the trauma.

'I really hope that this will give others some courage to stand up for what they believe in and know that no matter how big the fight, no matter what title the police have, regardless of the power imbalance, you can fight them, because if someone abuses their power, I believe they must be held accountable.'

The Metropolitan Police has been asked to reply to the letter, sent on Tuesday, by 4pm on Friday.

The force declined to comment.
Vets are warning animal lovers to take precautions as the UK faces its hottest day on record, with the extreme temperatures already taking their toll on a variety of critters around the nation.

Baby squirrels in Jersey fell victim to the heat wave, with five of the tree-dwelling rodents needing medical treatment at an animal shelter on the Channel Island after being driven out of their nest by the unrelenting sun.

A reindeer in Enfield was spotted sprawled out in the overwhelming heat, reportedly with no shade or water for several days.

Beekeepers in Anglesey, North Wales, said they are 'running around like headless chickens' trying to prepare their hives for 37C forecast heat on Monday.

Katie Haywood, a honeybee farmer, told BBC Radio 4: 'At the moment were pulling beehives off roofs that weve removed from chimneys just in case they melt in the heat.

Vets are warning pet owners to take special care of their animals as Britain braces for its hottest day on record, with squirrels, a reindeer and snakes already struggling. Pictured: A reindeer was spotted sprawled out with no shade in Enfield

Vets are warning pet owners and animal lovers to take care of critters of all species as the Met Office issues a 'Red' extreme weather warning

Five baby squirrels on the Channel Island of Jersey had to be given veterinary care after being driven out of their nests by the unrelenting sun

All the team are running around like headless chickens putting water drinkers into all of our apiaries because our bees really need water.'

And snakes could start springing from their vivariums due to the hot weather, the RSPCA warned, with data from last year showing most escapes were reported to the charity during the summer.

In Stoke-on-Trent last week, a 3.5ft-long corn snake was found on the run, hiding in a wheelie bin, with a surprised resident saying they 'jumped and screamed' after lifting the lid and being faced with the fork-tongued escapee.

Meanwhile, the Met Office's 'Red' extreme heat warning has led to five horse races next week - in Beverley, Windsor, Chelmsford City, Southwell and Wolverhampton - being abandoned.

It comes as a French bulldog in south west London almost died, despite being in the shade, when its body temperature hit 41C.

The three-year-old dog, named Trojan, was rushed to Blue Cross vets in Victoria after he started fitting - despite his owner having left him in a relatively cool spot with plenty of water.

The sweltering pooch was placed on an ice-cold mat and given a saline drip to bring his temperature down.

Vets are now urging pet owners to keep pets inside over the next few days as the record-breaking heatwave is set to last until Tuesday.

Laura Vico, Blue Cross Senior Veterinary Surgeon said: 'It was touch and go for Trojan, we desperately needed to cool him down as quickly and as safely as possible.

'He was panting heavily and shaking uncontrollably so we had to really act fast.

'Trojan was put on an IV drip of saline, placed on a cold mat, had cooling spray to his ears and paws and given oxygen through a mask.

'He was also given medication to control the seizures.

'Over the next few hours his temperature began to drop, but he remained under the care of the vet team at Blue Cross animal hospital in Victoria overnight for monitoring.

'By the morning Trojan was much brighter and walking about so he was well enough to go home, as long as he was kept cool indoors and allowed plenty of rest.'

Relieved owner Marcus said: 'Despite just sitting in the shade and with plenty of water I was shocked that Trojan overheated to such dangerous levels.

'He seemed content and was drinking the water but after a while I noticed he was acting strangely so took him home.

'At home he got worse, he lay down and started shaking so I called Blue Cross for help.

The RSPCA warned snakes are more likely to make a break for it when the weather warms up, after a shocked resident of Stoke-on-Trent came face to face with a fork-tongued viper in their wheelie bin earlier this month

'I want to warn dog owners of the dangers in this hot weather, especially for flat faced dogs like Trojan.'

Signs of heatstroke include dogs panting excessively, dribbling or collapsing with a seizure.

The animal charity is also warning owners to keep pets away from open windows and balconies after a spate of accidents.

Seven-month-old puppy Bonnie suffered a smashed thigh after plunging 20ft from a first floor balcony when she chased a squirrel.
A pair of audacious British tourists abroad were caught staging a 'fall' so they could claim compensation - and Turkish hotels have complained many are doing the same.

The duo, described in local reports as a mother and daughter, were spotted choreographing the carefully planned fall on CCTV in Marmaris, southwest Turkey.

The older woman places her mobility scooter at the top of the staircase and begins to 'trip', with her 'daughter' dutifully waiting at the bottom to film it on her phone.

The collapsed woman then splays herself out dramatically, yelling for help.

Her daughter eventually stops filming and appears to tell her to get up.

The footage, which was branded 'Oscar Acting' by local newspapers, sparked fresh outrage among Turkish hotel owners, who have long complained that Brits are using crafty tactics to claim cash back on their trips.

Aside from fake falls, some hotel owners claim Brits have placed bugs in their room before complaining of stomach aches.

An injury or illness caught on holiday can result in affected tourists claiming hundreds or even thousands of pounds from their travel agent at the end of the trip.

Using a loophole in UK law, travel agencies are able to pass their court fees onto the hotel deemed responsible for the damage.

TUI was named by Turkish hotel bosses as a frequent offender.

The German-based agency group made no comment.

Istanbul Chamber of Commerce spokesperson Musa Evin branded British agencies' practices 'unfair - and called for a 'just' arbitration process.

He told Turkey Gazette: 'Not only do they claim a free trip, but they leave with more money in their pockets than they came with.'

Thousands of Brits flock each summer to resorts on the Turkish Riviera (Marmaris pictured)

Neither of the women in the clip have been identified - and it's not known whether the footage is recent or not.

But members of Turkey's tourist sector, which is still suffering the after-effects of Covid, are certain that something must be done.

Otherwise, Mr Evin said, 'the facilities of our country will continue to be sold for nothing, and our per capita income will stay the same.'

In 2018, some Turkish resorts began installing CCTV cameras so they could catch out 'casualty' fraudsters looking to save a few pennies on their trip.

Turkish Hoteliers Federation chair Bulent Bulbuloglu said hotels had started using 'detective skills' to spot the cheeky tacticians.

Hotel owners have long complained that Brits use crafty tactics to claim cash back on their holidays (Pictured, Club Aida resort in Marmaris on the Turkish Riviera)

He said: 'If a tourist claims they fell ill from eating hotel food, they have reports on the state of the food and state of other customers who consumed the same food.

'They have set up cameras everywhere to counter allegations that tourists slipped on floors and have reports prepared on the nature of floors, including if they are slippery or not.'

It follows the case of holidaymakers Leon Roberts, 38, and mother-of-two Jade Muzoka, 27, who sought 58,000 in damages after a 2016 trip to nearby resort Belek.

They claimed they were laid low with vomiting and diarrhoea for the entire trip - and received 3,000 for their troubles.

But the pair, from Derby, were caught out when social media posts showed them enjoying the trip they claimed was a 'nightmare'.

They were convicted of fraud and slapped with 26-week suspended sentences.

Roberts and Muzoka were each forced to complete 200 hours of community service after the judge branded them 'dishonest from the outset'.
A West Virginia judge was accused of waving a Colt 45 handgun at lawyers in his courtroom during a case over fossil fuel royalties where he mocked the defense's security team for wearing a 'sissy-a** purse' and carrying smaller guns than him.

Attorney Lauren Varnado filed a report to the FBI against Circuit Court Judge David Hummel Jr., who oversaw sees cases in New Martinsville, after he allegedly pointed a gun at her and her team on March 12.

Varnado - who represented the EQT Production Company against landowners suing over the royalty payments from fossil fuels extraction on their land - claimed Hummel began mocking her for having a security team following her around, according to her sworn statement provided to DailyMail.com.

'Aren't me and my guns and security enough,' Hummel allegedly asked the lawyer as he took out his Colt 45 pistol and pointed it at her and her team. 'My guns are bigger than your security's guns!'

The judge, who Varnado and her team accused of having a conflict of interest in the case given his ties to gas companies acquired by EQT, also ridiculed the defense's security team, according to court records.

'I got this man here carrying a man purse, which I make fun of him every damn day for wearing such a sissy-a** contraption,' he allegedly said, referring to a bag one of the security members was holding.

'And I hear he has blood coagulant,' he reportedly added. 'I have blood coagulant up here too, and I've got lots of guns. Like, bigger ones too.'

Circuit Court Judge David Hummel Jr. allegedly pointed his gun at Attorney Lauren Varnado, who accused the judge of having a conflict of interest in a fossil fuel royalties case

The incident allegedly occurred inside Hummel's courtroom in New Martinsville, West Virginia

Hummel has repeatedly denied that any such event took place inside the courtroom while the case is currently under investigation by the Judicial Investigation Commission of West Virginia.

'There is no incident,' he told The Daily Beast. 'I absolutely, categorically deny I had a gun that day in the courtroom.'

The judge, however, did later admit he has a gun inside the courtroom, but continued to deny that he ever pulled it out and pointed it at the lawyers.

'It was secreted in a drawer on the bench. I never showed my 1911 at the trial whatsoeverat any point during that trial.'

Varnado claims that Hummel pointed a Colt 45 pistol at her and her team after mocking her for having a security team

Varnado and her team, however, stand by the allegations they filed against the judge, saying the incident has left them traumatized.

'You don't understand what a terrible victimization it is,' Varnado, who was on the podium when the incident occurred as the gun remained pointed at her when Hummel allegedly left it out on top of his desk, told the Daily Beast.

'It was pretty traumatic for multiple people,' she added. 'The whole trial was insane.'

According to Varnado's statement to investigators, Hummel allegedly became irrate with her team when they called him out for failing to discuss his family's ties with gas companies.

Since the case Hummel was overseeing centered around royalties over fossil fuels with EQT, which his family benefits from, the defense asked for Hummel to be disqualified from the case.

According to court records, Hummel appeared to be antagonistic to the defense following the attempt to have him disqualified, calling out the efforts during a hearing last July.

'I'm Judge Hummel, and I have no conflicts, Supreme Court said, so here we are,' he allegedly said after the state's high court throughout the defense's request. 'And this time I don't have to talk about my Aunt Rose's numerals or which shoe I put on first or anything.'

Hummel has repeatedly denied he ever pointed a gun at anyone in his courtroom, but did admit that he carries a weapon inside his desk

Then on March 12, Varnado said she was surprised to learn that her security team would not be allowed in court, which had only happened once before during the months-long trial.

Varnado had acquired security detail in February 2020 after she said she was threatened at a restaurant in New Martinsville, when locals were allegedly angry with her firm for defending the large gas company in the royalties case.

After the defense entered the courtroom alone along with one attorney representing the plaintiff, they claim the judge chastised them for needing security in his courtroom.

'We were never told these folks were security until most recently,' the Hummel allegedly said.

When told about their security concerns, Hummel allegedly said, 'I promise you, I'll take care of them.'

Varnado said that after Hummel pulled out his weapon, it remained on his desk during the entire hearing.

'It's just a violation of basic gun safety, having it out like that pointing at people,' Varnado told the Daily Beast. 'It was too stunning to even process it. My brain didn't even process it until after the hearing concluded.

'I was on edge. I don't know if it was loaded.'

Judicial Investigation Commission of West Virginia said it could not provide details on the case because the investigation is ongoing.
A 14-year-old Philadelphia girl is the second person to be charged with murder in the brutal death of 74-year-old James Lambert, who was beaten with a traffic cone.

Gamara Mosely is being charged with third-degree murder and criminal conspiracy after turning herself in, according to the Philadelphia Police Department. She will be tried as an adult.

Police say Mosely hit Lambert twice with the traffic cone and possibly a third time off-camera.

Another teenager, 14-year-old Richard Jones, faces the same charges as Mosely after he and his 10-year-old brother also turned themselves in following the attack, though his brother was released.

Mosely's attorney, Lonny Fish, asked that people remind themselves of her age before they pass judgement.

'My client is 14 years of age, I would ask that everyone hold judgment,' he said.

'To lock up these children for a long period of time, do you think that will fix the problem that we have? I would say its not,' said Fish.

Gamara Mosely, 14, is being charged with third-degree murder and criminal conspiracy after she took part in a brutal attack that left 74-year-old James Lambert dead after being beaten with a traffic cone

14-year-old Richard Jones was the first to be charged in the assault, when he and his 10-year-old brother turned themselves in on Monday. His brother was later released

Police said Lambert (pictured) suffered several injuries to the head and was transported to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead

James Lambert Jr. attempted to escape the teenagers, but a girl pics up the cone and appears to bash it over his head as the teens chase after the desperate man. Two brothers, 10 and 14, have now handed themselves into Philadelphia Police in relation to the violent attack

The video captures the moment the seven teens chase Lambert, 73, of Philadelphia, at around 3am last month. One of the teens has a traffic cone in his hand as he approaches their alleged victim

Another 13-year-old girl turned herself in alongside Mosely on Wednesday, but was released without being charged.

That girl's lawyer, Donte Mills, said the girl did her best to stop the group from committing the assault.

'She took a stand in that moment, and in fact, tried to push people away,' Mills told Fox29. 'She tried to stop them from attacking Mr. Lambert.'

Mills said his client called 911 during the attack and waited with Mr. Lambert until medics arrived.

'I understand that this is a very serious situation and that these children have to be punished because they did something wrong, but not all of them are the same,' he said.

Horrific footage shows the gang of seven teens chasing James Lambert Jr. down the street before swinging a cone at the back of his head.

The callous group even filmed themselves carrying out the brutal attack in the early hours of June 24, on Cecil B. Moore Avenue in Philadelphia.

Police are still appealing for any information on the remaining three members of the gang.

Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner said that it was 'very likely' that the youths involved would be charged with murder.

He told CBS: 'This is a very very active investigation, things are happening hour by hour.'

In the footage Lambert can be seen falling over onto the sidewalk after being hit in the back of the head with the traffic cone by Mosely.

He is then surrounded by the group and Mosely picks up the cone again and hurls it at him before he attempts to get to his feet.

The teens then chase him off camera, with Mosely grabbing the cone for a third time and hitting him with it as they vanish from sight.

Police said Lambert suffered several injuries to the head and was transported to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Lambert's family said that they were heartbroken by his death and in complete disbelief that a group of kids were allegedly behind this.

Tania Stephens, Lambert's niece, told Fox 29 Philadelphia: 'I just don't understand what's going on in our city.

'He's walked that path for 60, 70 years of his life, and for his life to be snuffed out like that, is just unbelievable.'

'I don't understand how children that age, how are you out at 2am in the morning committing crime.

'Where were the parents, those cones are heavy and to pick it up with such force and to throw it not once but twice at a senior citizen's head and then laugh about it.'

Lambert's sister, Elsie Stephens has issued a heartfelt plea for the other teens involved to turn themselves in.

She told CBS: 'Let them turn themselves in, turn yourself in, how can you let us suffer like this. You took him away from us.'

One teen strikes Lambert on the back of his head, sending both Lambert and the cone falling onto the side walk during the brutal June 24 attack. Footage shows their victim struggling to get to his feet and away from his alleged attackers

Following the first attack with the traffic cone, Mosely picked up the makeshift weapon for a second time and hurls at the Lambert, who was lying on the ground

Police are offering a $20,000 reward for information on the seven teens, but will not confirm the charges they will face

Police believe the teens recorded the assault on one of their cell phones, and even laughed as they recreated the fatal attack while walking down the street

A $20,000 reward has been offered for information that leads to an arrest and conviction of each suspect.

The Philadelphia Police Department is still searching for three other offenders, who they describe as two black males and one black female in their early to mid-teens.

Along with video of the incident, police also shared additional clips of the young suspects who they believed to be between the ages of 13 and 17.

One of the male suspects had a blonde patch on his hair, while another one rode his scooter during the entire incident.

Another one of the alleged assailants appeared to be stumbling about, appearing to recreate the moment Lambert fell to the ground during the assault.

Officials said that one of the suspects also appeared to be filming the incident on their phone, but police have yet to find any video of the attack on social media.

Police did not specify what charges the teens would face, and said the final decision would be on the district attorney's office.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Philadelphia Police Department Homicide Unit at 215-686-3334/3335.

The teenagers chased after their victim who disappeared off camera. He was rushed to hospital but died several days later after suffering from head injuries'

Philadelphia has seen a drastic rise in violence, with overall crime up more than 25 percent so far this year compared to the same time in 2021.

While homicides and rapes have seen a notable drop this year, the number of assaults has only dipped by 1.47 percent, from 2,522 incidents last year to 2,485 so far this year.

Meanwhile, the number of shooting victims has gone up 5.51 percent, with police reporting 1,168 cases so far this year, up from 1,107 last year.

Robberies have seen the greatest uptick, with 1,427 cases reported this year, up 21.55 percent from the 1,174 reported last year.

Lambert's death came just four days before Anthony Nelson, 47, of Philadelphia, allegedly shot and killed 21-year-old Jailene Holton at the Philly Bar and Restaurant on June 28.

Nelson is accused of opening fire after he was kicked out of the venue when he was told that he would be unable to use a pool table because a league was playing.

After getting into a tussle with a bouncer, the group of three men were forced to leave, after which one member went to get a gun from their car.

Jailene Holton, 21, of Philadelphia, was shot while standing in the back of the Philly Bar and Grill on June 28. She was out for a night on the town with her friends

Anthony Nelson, 47, was arrested in Harrah's Casino, Atlantic City in connection with the shooting death of Jailene Holton, 21, of Philadelphia

Philadelphia Police are also currently investigation gunfire that ran out during the city's Fourth of July fireworks festival, which sent hundreds running for their lives

Holton had been standing at the back of the bar when she was struck in the head by a bullet, after more than a dozen shots were fired from less than 200 feet away.

Philadelphia Police are also currently investigating gunfire that ran out during the city's Fourth of July fireworks festival, which struck and injured two officers working at the event.

Officers Sergio Diggs, 36, and Deputy John Foster, 44, were transported to Jefferson Hospital in stable condition, and were released early Tuesday morning.

They suffered minor injuries from the shooting, with Foster, assigned to the Montgomery County Bomb Squad, shot in the shoulder, and Diggs, a Highway Patrol Officer, suffering from a graze wound to the head.

Police are still unsure if the shootings were an intentional attack on the city's officers, or if they were a result of celebratory bullets ricocheting and striking the men by accident.

Like in the attack with Lambert, Philadelphia police are offering a $20,00 reward for information leading to the arrest of a suspect.
An alleged killer yoga teacher posed as a woman named Ari to woo a man she met at a tattoo shop while on the run from cops in Costa Rica, it is claimed.

Kaitlin Armstrong, 34, told Teal Akerson she'd been through a 'traumatizing break up' after they met in Costa Rica in June.

But she failed to tell him was that she was suspected of shooting professional cyclist Anna Moriah Wilson dead, after discovering Wilson was secretly dating her boyfriend.

She told him that she hadnt healed from a recent break up when he tried to kiss her, and wasnt ready to get closer to him, Akerson said.

Teal also revealed that the pair had been on several dates in the time that Armstrong had been on the run before her capture on June 29.

Akerson said he was stunned to see old photos of Armstrong after she was arrested, after she allegedly underwent plastic surgery to change her appearance.

The singleton said Armstrong had undergone a facelift, and it has also been speculated that she changed her nose to try and evade investigators.

Teal Akerson, pictured, went on several dates with a Armstrong, who called herself 'Ari'. He was shocked to discover that she was actually wanted for murdering a love rival

Akerson said he only realized the woman he had been hanging out with was the fugitive after he saw her post-surgery pictures released by police. He said that the pair had been on several dates and smoked cannabis together

The couple met outside of the Good Life Tattoo store in Costa Rica before swapping numbers. Akerson had contact with the yoga teacher up until three days before her arrest

Akerson says he now realizes Armstrong's 'insistence' on hanging out in secluded areas 'made sense.'

Police say that Armstrong shot Wilson, 25, after discovering that she was having an affair with her cyclist boyfriend Colin Strickland.

Wilson was discovered dead in an apartment in Austin, Texas, on May 11 with two bullet holes in her head and another in her chest.

Armstrongs car, a black Jeep Grand Cherokee, was spotted driving past Wilsons friends home, where the gravel bike champion had been staying.

Search warrants have revealed that Armstrong visiting a gun range with her sister before the killing, and was given $450,000 by Strickland.

He also admitted to purchasing two firearms between the end of 2021 and start of 2022 for himself and Armstrong.

Shell casings from the gun, labelled '9mm JAG' were found in the room where Wilson was shot, just moments after returning from an outing with Strickland.

Authorities have revealed that the yoga teacher paid for a nose job and dyed her hair brown after fleeing the US, using her sisters passport to fly from Newak Airport in New Jersey.

Speaking to the Austin American Statesman, Teal explained that he was aware of the case but the change in her appearance meant he didnt put any of it together.

He initially spoke to her outside of a tattoo shop, saving her in his phone as Ari Tattoo, before the pair smoked cannabis and spent time together  speaking up until three days before she was arrested.

Teal said: Ari was a strange person. I met her outside the tattoo shop, her friends were getting tattoos and she was awaiting out there on the bench and I was having a beer in the lounge.

It became apparent to me that she was trying to have a conversation, trying to get to know me so I began talking to her more and more we ended up sharing numbers.

Kaitlin Armstrong's (pictured) was arrested for the murder of Anna Morah 'Mo' Wilson after a 43-day manhunt. Armstrong was allegedly jealous of her boyfriends secret love affair

Anna Moriah 'Mo' Wilson, 25, killed inside an apartment minutes after returning from an outing with Armstrong's boyfriend

We went on a bunch of dates but she said that she had been through a real traumatizing breakup, and she hadnt healed from it yet and wasnt ready to get close at all so we were just being friends.

We wanted to go out to different place we went to a bunch of different spots but most of the time she wanted to be at a secluded spot not a lot of people.

I didnt put any of it together, you wouldnt t imagine it. After it all happened, and I heard what she was really doing and running from it made sense why she didnt want to be seen.

Why she wanted to go to secluded places and it all kind of made a little more sense.

He added that Armstrong had a bandage on her nose, which she claimed was from a surfing accident, and he didnt recognize the pictures put out by police.

Teal admitted he only realized Ari was Armstrong after looking at her post-surgery images.

After her arrest Armstrong admitted that she had been going as Ari, and was deported to Houston.

She was taken to the Travis County Jail on July 5 and remains in the prison pending a $3.5 million bail.

Other Costa Rican locals said that Armstrong had seemed normal, and spent most of her time working part-time at the front desk of the hostel where she stayed and teaching yoga.

Wilson and Strickland went for a swim at a local swimming pool and then stopped by the Pool Burger (pictured) restaurant for dinner. Strickland then dropped Wilson home just minutes before she was shot dead

Timeline of Kaitlin Armstrong's movements since the murder of her boyfriend's lover May 11: Cyclist Moriah 'Mo' Wilson, 25, is found dead in an apartment in Austin, Texas, shortly after going swimming with Armstrong's boyfriend, Colin Strickland. May 13: Armstrong sells her Jeep Grand Cherokee, seen in surveillance footage outside the apartment where Wilson had been staying, and gets a check on May 15 for $12,200. May 14: An anonymous police tipster tells investigators that Armstrong flew into a rage after discovering Strickland's romance with Wilson. Armstrong is questioned by cops on an old warrant but had to be released when police realized it had expired. During the police interview Armstrong admitted it 'doesn't look good' when cops pointed out she had been near the apartment at the time of the murder. An anonymous caller tells Austin police that Armstrong had recently obtained a handgun. Armstrong is released and goes on the run from cops by hopping on an Austin-Bergstrom International Airport to Houston Hobby and then getting on a connecting Southwest flight to LaGuardia in New York. May 17: The firearm located at Strickland's residence was 'test fired' and police have determined it had 'significant potential' to be the gun used in the crime May 18: Armstrong is last seen at Newark Liberty International Airport, a two-and-a-half hour drive from Camp Haven in Livingston Manor where she is said to have been spotted about a month ago. June 30: Armstrong is arrested at a hotel in Costa Rica after a 43-day manhunt. Advertisement

She reportedly stayed at Don Jons Surf and Yoga Lodge for less than $20 a night, and partied at a barbecue restaurant founded by a former New York lawyer.

Police found two passports inside her hostel lockbox when they arrested her on an immigration violation.

During an interview with US police in May, they found passports belonging to Armstrong in her purse along with two iPhones.

Texas Deputy Marshal Brandon Filla previously told the New York Post in May that Armstrong flipped houses and 'may have the funds to continue to hide.'

He added: '[Armstrongs escape] wasnt something that was abrupt, this was something that was methodical, that was timed. She had somewhat of a plan.

Strickland reportedly asked Armstrong to return the money he lent to her for an investment account, but she kept it before heading to Costa Rica on May 18.

He admitted the affair with Wilson to the police, telling them that he had changed her name on his phone so Armstrong didnt know who he was speaking to.

Strickland added that he had also deleted previous messages, so his girlfriend was unable to find them, despite her suspicions.

Armstrong was linked to Wilson's death after her car was seen in the area around the time of the incident, leading officials to believe she killed the cyclist out of jealousy.

Police later discovered Wilson had gone to dinner with Armstrong's boyfriend the night of the murder.

Strickland told police the two of them took a swim at Deep Eddy Pool before eating, and he dropped her off at 8.36pm.

He stopped briefly to text Armstrong that he had visited a friend and that his phone had run out of battery.

Armstrong was allegedly tracking Wilson using the app for cyclists and runners, Strava.

Police arrested the yoga teacher after an anonymous tip and surveillance footage outside of Wilsons apartment shows the yoga instructors car.

They used her open misdemeanour warrant on theft of services to quiz her about Wilsonss death after receiving an anonymous tip that she had flown into a rage in January.

Armstrong reportedly discovered that Strickland had been involved with Wilson prior to their relationship.

During questioning on May 14, police showed Armstrong video surveillance of her SUV coming to a stop outside of the apartment Wilson was found dead on May 11.

The footage was stamped a minute after Wilson entered the building following her time with Strickland.

Armstrong also admitted it 'doesn't look good,' and a probable cause document for her arrest says she 'had no explanation as to why it was in the area and did not make any denials surrounding the statements presented to her.'

A neighbor, who asked not to be named, previously told DailyMail.com her security camera caught Armstrong's black Jeep Cherokee driving up to the property - above a garage at the back of a larger home - at 8:35 p.m.

A photo of Kaitlin's passport was obtained by Inside Edition following her arrest on June 30

US Marshals discovered Armstrong used her sister Christine's passport to flee to Costa Rica after allegedly murdering Wilson

During Wilson and Strickland's secret meet-up, Armstrong's 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee was spotted driving outside the home of Wilson's friend, where the cyclist was staying at

Armstrong's car was spotted again that night after Strickland dropped off Wilson

She also told DailyMail.com that Armstrong had been caught on camera the previous day, riding a bike in the same spot.

Officers confiscated two of Armstrong's cell phones and noted she had passports inside her purse before she was released.

Five days before she fled the country, and before she was quizzed by police, Armstrong sold her black Cherokee in Austin for more than $12,000.

She then reportedly flew from Newark Liberty International on May 18, on her sister Christines passport.

It's unclear whether Christine knows her passport was taken by her sister.

Armstrong then flew to Costa Rica where she stayed for about 43-days until she was arrested on June 30.

Police launched a country-wide manhunt for Armstrong, focusing on Texas, New York, and New Jersey before she was arrested.

They tracked her down after going door to door at San Jose hostels for six weeks, with the yoga teacher using three aliases to hide her identity.

As well as going by Ari Martin, she also claimed she was called Beth Martin and Liz Martin to unsuspecting locals.

Officers managed to identify her by showing a pre-surgery photo of her, and when they arrested her it was discovered she had cut her hair and dyed it brown.

Armstrong also reportedly underwent a nose job to change her appearance, with officers finding a $6,000 receipt for cosmetic surgery in her belongings.

She was booked in Travis County Jail in Austin and charged with first-degree murder as well as theft of service between $100 and $750.
A recent Georgia Southern University graduate who was left paralyzed after a routine chiropractor appointment had aspirations of being a chemist and solving environmental issues, her mother told told Dailymail.com.

'Shes forever changed,' Caitlin Jensen's mom, Darlene Jensen said of the incident that snapped four arteries in her daughter's neck, causing her 28-year-old daughter to experience cardiac arrest and a stroke, as well as a loss of pulse for over 10 minutes.

Dr. TJ Harpham, chiropractor at Richmond Hill Family Chiropractic, is the doctor who allegedly treated Caitlin, Inside Edition reported.

Harpham declined to speak to Inside Edition citing HIPAA. The office also told DailyMail.com that they declined to comment. The chiropractor's biography has since been removed from the practice's website.

Caitlin had been to Harpham on several occasions to address neck stiffness she was experiencing from 'sitting at her desk for months working on her last classes,' but had never undergone a neck adjustment, according to her mom.

'You don't think that a 28-year-old healthy woman is going to be having such an emergency and having a stroke.'

Jensen now languishes in a hospital bed and can only communicate with her eyes and partial parts of the left side of her body after the horrific incident on June 16.

Dr. TJ Harpham, chiropractor at Richmond Hill Family Chiropractic, is the alleged doctor who treated Caitlin multiple times, Inside Edition reported

Caitlin Jensen, 28, can only communicate with her eyes and portions of the left side of her body as she languishes in a hospital bed after the shocking incident on June 16

Jensen was rushed to hospital in Savannah, GA where it was revealed four arteries in her neck had been dissected during a routine neck adjustment

Darlene recalled the shocking call she received from Harpham on her daughter's phone.

'I just thought maybe she was dizzy,' Darlene said. 'It didn't ever occur to me that it was a serious event. I just thought maybe she stood up too fast or she was slightly dizzy and they were being over cautious.'

'I thought no big deal, I'll go check on her. When I got there, I could very quickly see that we were in a serious situation.'

Darlene said she was by her daughter's side when her heart stopped for 10 minutes.

'They had done a CAT scan and brought her boyfriend and I back into the room to be with her and she started to deteriorate. They were trying to get her back to CAT scan and that's when she went into cardiac arrest. We were there with her.'

Darlene has spent every day since by her daughter's bedside at Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah, Georgia, only leaving to work part-time. Caitlin's brother, who is home for the summer from college, has been rotating shifts with his mom until visiting hours end at 8 p.m.

'It's hard to see her laying there,' Darlene said. 'I wish I could take it from her. I would do it in a heartbeat. But we just try to be positive and focus on what we can control.'

'A friend of ours gave us this mantra, "control what you can and try not to worry about what you can't control," and we think about that daily and try to practice that,' she said, adding, 'some moments are harder than others but we try our best to do that.'

The family has experienced an outpouring of support from family, friends, and strangers as Caitlin's story reaches across the country.

She recalled the goals and aspirations her daughter had to care for the environment with a focus on sustainability.

'I watched her get this degree and I watched how hard she's worked and those classes are no joke,' Darlene said. 'We were really proud of her and excited for her. So it's really terrible this is where we are at right now, but I'm hopeful we'll be able to get her back and she can continue on one day. It'll forever change her of course, but change isn't always bad.'

Caitlin's mom, Darlene told Dailymail.com: 'You don't think that a 28-year-old healthy woman is going to be having such an emergency and having a stroke'

The 28-year-old, who read chemistry and biology at college, is said to have visited the unnamed practice for a neck adjustment

Her family said they are working on getting the chemistry graduate out of hospital and into rehab, Jensen had aspirations of caring for the environment with a focus on sustainability

Chiropractors are not doctors - but do require years of training for certification A chiropractor is not considered to be a doctor. They do not require a medical degree to practice. They do require a license to practice, which often includes and average of eight years of training and passing a certification exam. Continued education classes are generally required to maintain licensing as well. Chiropractors have been criticized for providing improper - if not dangerous - case to patients where proper medical treatment would suffice. While studies have shown that spinal manipulation can allive back pain and other similar ailments, there is little proof the treatment works for anything else. 'The founder of chiropractic treatment wrongly believed that all ailments can be alleviated with spinal manipulation, and this false panacea notion persists today among some practitioners,' Dr Ellie Cannon wrote for Mail on Sunday in 2017. There have been multiple reported incidents of patients suffering injury as a result of improper chiropractor care. In 2019, an 80 year old retired bank manager in the UK died after a chiropractor broke his neck and caused 'irreversible' damage to his spine after a procedure gone wrong. Advertisement

Jensen is slowly beginning to regain movement on the left side of her body after the first neck adjustment she received changed her life.

Darlene said they are working on getting the recent graduate out of hospital and into rehab at Shepherd Center in Atlanta.

The family refused to confirm the name of the chiropractor, saying it was irrelevant and could've happened under anyone's care. Since Caitlin's ordeal, Darlene has received messages from multiple people who experienced similar situations.

It turns out that its not actually as rare as it sounds like it would be,' she said. Its not like she went to some strange off the beaten path thing, it was a conventional therapy, the insurance covers treatments, so youd assume that it must be a safe thing to do.'

Inside Edition obtained a video of Harpham from a local news channel discussing his career and family history with the profession. His grandfather, uncle, and younger brother are all also chiropractors.

'Very fortunate to be a third generation chiropractor,' Harpham said.

Chiropractor Dr. Robert Pomahac told Inside Edition that accidents like Caitlin's are rare.

Pomahac didn't treat Caitlin but explained the unlikeliness of this occurring.

'Its about 1 out of 100,000. So very, very uncommon. Ive probably given 300,000 adjustments in the 20 years of practice, and Ive never had this situation occur, Pomahac said.

Darlene advised that people stay away from neck adjustments to avoid the same potential outcome.

'This can happen with any chiropractor,' she said.

Darlene told WSB-TV: 'The surgeon that saved her life, and every other doctor that has looked at her, have all agreed that this happened as a direct result of the neck manipulation.'

She added: 'The chiropractor called 911 and then called me and told me that she was 'having a reaction to the treatment.'

Jensen's brother, Caleb, added: 'You're talking to her and then 30 minutes later, she's in the hospital and now in the ICU.'

He said his sister is 'able to open her eyes every now and then and wake up a little bit. And kind of move her hands to squeeze a little. But that's it.'

Despite Jensen regaining slight movement, the specialists she's now receiving care from say it's too soon for surgery.

'Her neuro team believes it is still too risky to intervene surgically,' Darlene wrote in an online CaringBridge journal on July 14. 'Perhaps in 6 months or so, they may be able to go back in and place a couple more stents'

For now, the recent Georgia Southern University graduate is beginning to regain some movement in her left leg and hand, while occasionally giving a left smile and expressing emotions through her eyes - after bursting four neck arteries following her chiropractor visit.

'She's in good spirits,' Darlene said. 'She can't speak or anything. Her mouth won't fully open, but she's also still on a ventilator so she cannot see - but it doesn't seem like she's in serious distress by any means. She's handling it pretty well, I think all things considered.'

GoFundMe organizer Linda Foster has tracked Jensen's progress over the last month in a series of posts on the fundraising web site.

'She was so excited about all the career opportunities and possibilities on her horizon. Then on Thursday, June 16, 2022, Caitlin Jensen went to the chiropractor.'

'After an adjustment to her neck, Caitlin became ill and was rushed to the ER by ambulance. Once there tests revealed four dissected arteries in her neck.

'This damage led to cardiac arrest and a stroke, as well as a loss of pulse for over 10 minutes after which she was revived.

'Once the doctors were able to stabilize Caitlin, she was rushed to surgery. Doctors were able to repair some tears and placed a stent in one artery.

'Caitlin now lays in the neuro ICU in Memorial Hospital in Savannah, GA. She is in critical condition, and this trauma has resulted in a traumatic brain injury.

'Caitlin is currently conscious and able to respond to verbal commands by blinking her eyes, as well as wiggling her the toes of her left foot. However, the rest of her body sits in a state of paralysis due to the injury.

'Caitlin has a long road to recovery, and as a college student who has a very simple health care plan, she will need significant financial resources to get her through this road to recovery.'

She added: 'We ask that you please flood Caitlin with your prayers and positive energy and consider donating to this cause.'

GoFundMe organizer Linda Foster wrote: 'Caitlin Jensen graduated from Georgia Southern University this May with a degree in chemistry and biology, ready to live the American dream'

Jensen's mother, Darlene, shared a series of updates on the GoFundMe revealing her daughter's progress as she battles her horrific injuries

Darlene, shared a series of updates on CaringBridge revealing her daughter's progress as she battles her horrific injuries.

One of the first updates from June 18 read: 'We're still in the 72 hour most critical time frame, and Caitlin is still extremely critical and unstable.

'Her MRI last night was not positive in the slightest. We know that we are in an uphill battle to save our precious girl, and we are doing everything we can.'

In the same post, Darlene shared Caitlin briefly opened her eyes and she is '100% certain that she SAW and HEARD' her.

She also shared an exciting update on June 29, saying: 'Caitlin's face has gone wireless! YAY! Today she got her peg tube (for feeding) and lost the NG tube in her nose. I'm sure it feels better.

'The procedure went without incident and we are relieved to have that completed. They'll start multiple meds up in the morning to continue the goal of keeping the stent clear of clots.

'Tomorrow will be two weeks since the day we almost lost her. It's truly remarkable that she is alive. I am shaken to the depth of my being by this experience.

'When I look at my baby girl laying thereand she has the ability to look back at meto see life in her eyesto touch her and talk to hershe's ALIVE. Hallelujah.

'When I arrived at 6 a.m. today, she was awake and alert. She has a strong hand squeeze, and is still working hard at wiggling her toes on her left.

'She also did something new - she can give the tiniest of nods with her head. It would be easy to miss, but I swear - I saw her nod her head in answer to me today. We are still trying everything we can to get her into Shepherd.

'We're having trouble with the insurance part of it, and we really need that part to work out. Thank you for all the love and prayers. Tomorrow isn't promised, but today was a win.'

On July 2 she posted her daughter was 'progressing with her movements on the left side'. She said she noticed her daughter opening her 'eyes widely to show surprise, and the left corner of her mouth' to try to smile.

She said: 'Our favorite girl might be in the battle of her life, but she hasn't lost her sense of humor. She gave her best effort to smile today, and it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

'She was smiling because I began to play one of our favorite podcasts, Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend. She heard the opening song and 'smiled', which made me laugh, which made her do it again. WIN.'



One of the first updates from June 18 read: 'We're still in the 72-hour most-critical timeframe, and Caitlin is still extremely critical and unstable'

Caitlin Jensen's case is 'incredibly rare' and caused when inside wall of an artery tears, experts say Caitlin Jensen's case is 'incredibly rare' and caused when the inside wall of an artery tears, experts say. Arterial dissections occur when blood works its way into the tear in the wall of an artery and separates its layers, according to UVA Health. It creates a weak area which can cause life-threatening complications like the ones seen in Jensen's case. One Georgia chiropractor, who was not linked to the case, noted how 'incredibly rare' cases like hers are, with issues mostly producing 'headache and neck pain.' Dr. Steve Ranicki from Pooler said: 'Once they've gone to the medical doctor or chiropractor the likelihood is, unfortunately, a stroke will occur.' Advertisement

A few days later on July 7, Foster said Jensen was 'having a rough week' and asked visitors to not go to the hospital this week.

At the time, the 28-year-old was experiencing bleeding around the incision from the feeding tube in her stomach and had to get more stitches around it.

She was also suffering from low blood pressure and hay fever. Foster said: 'Then that night someone mistakenly used a vibration belt on her chest for pneumonia) they were not supposed to be doing.

'This pulled the stitches loose so surgery had to come back up during the night and stitch it again.'

Two days later, Darlene shared that her girl had started breathing on her own for over eight hours while even taking a nap.

'We are over the moon about that,' she wrote.

The next and last update on Caitlyn was posted two days ago on July 11.

'Hello everyone... On Saturday when Caitlin's blood levels started dropping, they stopped one of the anticoagulant meds,' Darlene wrote.

'They also gave her some medication to help reduce her stomach acid. Yesterday, her levels stabilized and have only dropped a little today. Because of this, we held off on the scope.'

'When Caitlin's blood levels started dropping, they stopped one of the anticoagulant meds. They also gave her some medication to help reduce her stomach acid.'

She added: 'Yesterday, her levels stabilized and have only dropped a little today. Because of this, we held off on the scope.'

Jensen has now been in the hospital for 27 days, just two months after the college graduate finished her degree in biology and chemistry.

She had decided to head back to the classroom after working for a period of time in Alaska, Darlene shared in a Facebook post.

The GoFundMe page dedicated to Caitlin's medical expenses has raised more than $46,000 with a goal of $100,000 to help with her treatment.

One Georgia chiropractor, who was not linked to the case, noted how 'incredibly rare' cases like Jensen's are, with them mostly producing 'headache and neck pain'.

But Dr. Steve Ranicki from Pooler said: 'Once they've gone to the medical doctor or chiropractor the likelihood is, unfortunately, a stroke will occur.'
An 8-year-old Arkansas boy was shot and killed by his five-year-old brother in what sheriff's believe was a tragic accident.

Four other children were inside the home alone with the mother when the shot was fired, killing the 8-year-old, KARK4 News reported.

Several weapons were taken from the home.

Jefferson County Sheriff Lafayette Woods Jr. said they were trying to find out how secure the weapons truly were,' Arkansas Online reported.

'How secure were the weapons?' Woods asked during an interview with KARK4 News. 'If it is reported that the weapons were secure then how did a five-year old manage to get the weapon in his hand and shoot it and fire off it off?'

The sheriff added: 'The mother said the weapons were secure, but we're vetting that information now,' Arkansas Online reported.

Investigators and prosecutors are now trying to determine whether neglect was involved and if charges would be filed, Woods said.

On Thursday afternoon around 2 pm, deputies from the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department responded to a 911 call of a shooting involving a toddler at a home on Shannon Valley Road in Jefferson County (pictured). When deputies arrived they found the 8-year-old boy unresponsive. Once the coroner arrived, the boy was pronounced dead

The Arkansas Department of Human Services was called in to check on the welfare of the other children inside the home and to assess the conditions, officials said.

Authorities said the children will be placed in the custody of their aunt pending a protocol check.

Sheriff Woods said the harrowing incident 'could have been avoided.'

'I can't emphasize strongly enough that guns need to be well secured and kept out of the hands and away from children at all times,' Woods said.

'Gun owners that do not properly secure their firearms are just one split second away for one of these tragedies happening in their home.'

On Thursday afternoon around 2 pm, deputies from the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department responded to a 911 call of a shooting involving a toddler at a home on Shannon Valley Road in Jefferson County.

When deputies arrived they found the 8-year-old boy unresponsive. Once the coroner arrived, the boy was pronounced dead.

The boy's body was sent to the state medical examiners office for an autopsy, as investigators from the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office continue to investigate.

Distraught family members were seen gathering outside the home following the tragedy, KARK News reported.

When DailyMail.com contacted the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department for more details they did not respond to our request for comment.
A young mom has sued Walmart, claiming she was fired from her job over bosses' issues with her demands for a place to pump breast milk for her baby.

The woman, 21-year-old Kyla Alegata, claims brass at the Florida store deemed her lactation needs 'problematic' before letting her go in January 2021, eight months after she gave birth to daughter Xighlah Star Alegata.

Alegata says she was repeatedly harassed in the buildup to her firing, after asking managers to make good on mandated breaks where she could pump the breast milk.

The mom, who is suing the chain for discrimination, maintains she was forced to wait for up to an hour to gain access to a room designated for lactation - and that she even had to share the space with male coworkers typing on laptops as she pumped.

Alegata adds that she was denied a request for pregnancy-related accommodations after receiving a doctor's note, with staffers at the big-box store telling her that Walmart 'does not accept doctor's notes.'

The mother was subsequently fired from the store, in DeFuniak Springs, in January 2021 - just two days after she pointed out bosses were violating federal law by denying her request.

She is now seeking damages from the company in the form of back pay as well as front pay, and attorney fees for a desired jury trial.

The woman, 21-year-old Kyla Alegata, claims brass at the Florida store deemed her lactation needs 'problematic' before letting her go in 2021, months after she gave birth to daughter Xighlah Star Alegata in May 2020

The federal lawsuit, filed July 7 in the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida, says that Alegata, a resident of DeFuniak Springs, was hired at the Walmart in December 2019 as a deli worker and baker.

Shortly after, in May 2020 - three months into the pandemic - she gave birth to baby Xighlah, the suit says, with the harassment allegedly commencing soon after, as she tried to begin to take breaks to pump breast milk for the newborn.

Alegata says that when she would ask to take these breaks - which are protected by federal law - the store manager and the manager of the deli department, who were not named in the suit, would purposely push back on the requests, keeping a room supposedly set aside for her locked, and making her wait at times an hour for access.

Once inside the room, Alegata asserts she was 'constantly interrupted' by other staffers at the store - which is situated about 65 miles from Panama City.

She further alleges that male employees were allowed by brass to work inside the room as she pumped, plugging away on laptops in plain view of the lactating mother.

While uncomfortable, Alegata allegedly bore those slights up until January 2021, after obtaining a note from her doctor requesting a more reasonable accommodation.

The mother was fired from the DeFuniak Springs store in January 2021 - two days after she pointed out bosses were violating federal law by denying her request for a private room to pump

At that point, she was told by her manager at the deli that Walmart 'does not accept doctors' notes.'

Fed-up with the situation, the mom alleges she brought the issue to the general manager on January 14, 2021, pointing out that by denying her request, the company violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibits employers from discriminating against their employees based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.

That act was amended to include protections for pregnant woman in 1978, with The Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which widened the protections to cover instances of 'pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions.'

Two days later, the mom said, she was fired.



The mom, who is suing the chain for discrimination, maintains she was forced to wait for up to an hour to gain access to a room designated for lactation - and says she was even forced to share the space with male coworkers as she pumped

The lawsuit accuses Walmart of engaging in sex/pregnancy discrimination due to the alleged mistreatment, and demands Alegata be compensated for lost wages, benefits, and emotional distress for the alleged ordeal.

Alegata first filed the charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Florida Commission on Human Relations (FCHR) in September, and in May of this year was granted permission to sue the store.

Brass at the big box chain, however, remain adamant that the claims are false, saying Alegata was in fact fired 'for excessive absences,' which they said 'were unrelated to any breaks or protected activity.'

Walmart spokesperson Randy Hargrove said of the suit in a statement. 'We support our associates by providing accommodations every day and believe store management provided (the woman) with the necessary breaks to express milk in a secure, clean and private area'

He added that the FCHR had allegedly already 'found it unlikely that any discrimination violating the law occurred in this case.'

Alegata, meanwhile, is demanding a jury trial.

A customer said he was almost assaulted by a manager at the DeFuniak Springs resident Ron Rich Monday - and Alegata reshared the post in agreement, saying she had similar experiences with the store's managers

The EEOC lawsuit is not the first for the Defuniak Springs Walmart, who was subject to another suit in 2021 after the store was accused of continually allowing a male employee to 'sexually harass at least three female employees.'

The federal filing alleged the store fired a woman who complained about the staffer's behavior, four days after receiving the complaint, according to a press release.

The EEOC has also filed a suit against the chain as a whole in February 2022, accusing it of providing an Iowa woman with 'an unsanitary storage closet to express her breast milk.'

The lawsuit further alleges that managers chose not to make good on a supposedly promised promotion, solely due to the fact that it had a newborn, another release from the agency asserts.

Complaints against the store also exist on social media, with one customer taking to Facebook earlier this week to write of an alleged instance at the location that saw the patron nearly assaulted by the store's assistant manager after he leveled a formal complaint against him.

The manager, the customer, had to be restrained by other staffers at the stores after growing irate after the customer, an elderly man, reportedly complained that there were not enough registers open.

The customer, DeFuniak Springs resident Ron Rich, wrote an impassioned post recounting the experience, which transpired Monday - and on Tuesday, Alegata reshared the post, agreeing with rich and slamming the store's managers.

'Yea I could definitely say with my experience as well managers there aren't the greatest,' the mom wrote.

Alegata's suit is currently being processed through the court system. A trial date has not been set.
Advertisement

This is the striking moment that a pair adolescent bears begin brawling - as they train to vie for female attention.

The pair of young male North American Brown Bears - more commonly known as grizzly bears - are being housed in British Columbia Provincial Park, Canada, and fought several times in a two-hour scrap.

The smaller bear was up for a fight despite only weighing around 125kg (275kg), according to wildlife photographer Jenny Stevens.

The pair of young male North American Brown Bears - more commonly known as grizzly bears - are being housed in British Columbia Provincial Park, Canada

Grizzly bear mating season runs from mid-May to mid-July as the testosterone runs wild among the males

But this pair are five-years-old, meaning that they are not old enough to attract female bears just yet

Each day, the Grizzly bear typically eats 30kg of the sedge grass that surrounds them as they tussle

When an adult bear approached the scrapping pairs - they quickly broke off and scuttled away

Black bear mating season runs from mid-May to mid-July as the testosterone runs wild among the males attempting to woo the females.

Grizzly bear mating season runs from mid-May to mid-July as the testosterone runs wild among the males attempting to woo the females.

But this pair are five-years-old, meaning that they are not old enough to attract female bears just yet.

And when an adult bear approached the scrapping pair - they quickly broke off and scuttled away.

Stevens, a 76-year-old retired insurance broker from Ontario, said: 'There was a mature female not far away, but she had no interest in them.

'The large mature male commenced courting her when the two younger bears left.

'At first, it upset me to see such viciousness, but it appeared they did not want to kill each other.

'Now and then fur flew, but I believe it really was serious practice for what awaits them in a few years.

'Males normally have to fight to win a female during mating season.'

Each day, the Grizzly bear typically eats 30kg of the sedge grass that surrounds them as they tussle.
Advertisement

Motorists in Devon and Manchester have been queueing around the block after two service stations slashed the price of their fuel by more than 20p a litre.

The filling stations in Newtown Abbot and Walkden, Greater Manchester have massively undercut their competitors, saving the average motorist 10 a tank.

Petrol in Newton Abbot is among the cheapest with the UK with it costing 164.9p a litre - compared to the national average of 190.65p. Diesel is selling for 179.9p - compared to a national average of 198.42p.

Bosses at the Limes Service Station in Walkden announced earlier today that they were slashing petrol prices to help people out during the cost of living crisis. The station is currently offering 169.9p for unleaded and 185.9p for diesel - much less than the national average.

Following the announcement, drivers could be seen queuing up outside the petrol station as they wait to get to a pump.

Co-director Hassan Mohammed said he has been overwhelmed with the response.

'The reaction has been fantastic. All of the customers have been really appreciative. It's been non-stop all day, the pumps have been busy all day long.

'Some people couldn't believe what we were doing until they came down and saw it for themselves. We've had a lot of people telling us how they're glad it's not a one-day gimmick and have said they'll be back again.'

Petrol in Newton Abbot is among the cheapest with the UK with it costing 164.9p a litre - compared to the national average of 190.65p. Diesel is selling for 179.9p - compared to a national average of 198.42p

Motorists queued along the road today to gain access to the Limes Service Station, pictured, in Walkden, Waverley

Co-director Hassan Mohammed said he wanted to give something back to the local community

The filling station is being inundated with customers 69.9p for unleaded and 185.9p for diesel - much less than the national average of 191.2p for petrol and 199.1p for diesel

Motorists at the filling station saved themselves around 20p per litre which works out around 10 a tank in an average family car

Motorists at the service station earlier today welcomed the price reduction which can save them more than 10 a tank

In Trago Mills, Newton Abbot, Devon, long lines of cars were spotted earlier today after the filling station slashed its prices

The Devon service station also faced large queues as motorists discovered the massive cost savings

Mr Mohammed said: 'We've been rushed off our feet, it's been very busy but everyone has been so positive about it,' he added. 'I'm fairly certain we're going to be busy all week long now that more people have heard about what we're doing'

Mr Mohammed said there have been 'hundreds' of people visiting the petrol station so far today and he expects demand to continue.

'We've been rushed off our feet, it's been very busy but everyone has been so positive about it,' he added. 'I'm fairly certain we're going to be busy all week long now that more people have heard about what we're doing.'

Earlier today, Mr Mohammed said he hopes to keep prices as low as possible for at least a week and will continue if he can. He said: 'My aim is to sustain these prices for at least the next week and then, if the pricing allows us, we will try and keep it going for as long as we can.'

Mr Mohammed said he chose to drop fuel prices so significantly because he wanted to give back to the Walkden community at a time when costs for essentials have been rising. He said he has been able to do it by putting savings back into the business.

He previously said: 'People's disposable incomes are being affected in a major way and we know that petrol is one of the biggest costs for people. We thought we'd like to do something for our community in Walkden. We've been here for seven years now and we've always tried to support our community.'

The national average of of a litre of petrol is 190.65p or diesel at 198.42 while motorists in Manchester pay 169.9p for unleaded and 185.9p for diesel - much less than the national average of 191.2p for petrol and 199.1p for diesel

The Limes Service Station on Manchester Road is open everyday from 6am to 10pm.

In Devon, lines of cars have been queuing up outside a discount retail park in Newtown Abbot.

Unleaded petrol is currently on sale for 164.9p a litre - compared to the national average of 190.65p.

It has the cheapest fuel in the UK, according to the RAC fuel watch - and was so busy today an attendant was in place to guide cars in and out.

Diesel is selling for 179.9p - compared to a national average of 198.42p.

Their price for unleaded petrol has still seen an increase - having been 153.9 in April 2022 - but is now the cheapest in the UK.

The RAC said: 'We monitor both wholesale and retail fuel prices daily, including those at the UK's supermarkets and urge retailers to pass on cost savings to motorists when they can be made.'

The RAC believe this petrol station is offering the cheapest fuel in the country, though travelling a long distance to fill up will not make financial sense

The price of fuel in the UK has been investigated by the Competition and Markets authority. Over the past 12 months petrol has increased by 60p per litre and 64p per litre for diesel.

CMA general counsel Sarah Cardell said: 'The recent rises in pump prices are a major worry for millions of drivers.

'While there is no escaping the global pressures pushing up fuel prices, the growing gap between the oil price and the wholesale price of petrol and diesel is a cause for concern.

'We now need to get to the bottom of whether there are legitimate reasons for this and, if not, what action can be taken to address it.

'On the whole the retail market does seem to be competitive, but there are some areas that warrant further investigation.'

She said the watchdog will 'use our formal legal powers' to investigate pump prices, and 'won't hesitate to take action' if it finds evidence of 'collusion or similar wrongdoing'.

A spokesman for UKPIA, a trade association representing the fuel sector, including refineries, said the review was 'undertaken at speed' and pledged to continue to 'work constructively' with the CMA and the Government 'to fully understand the issues which have been identified'.

He went on: 'As the findings of the review show, the UK typically benefits from a competitive domestic supply chain and prices tend to be most affected by changes in crude oil prices and other supply and demand factors, which have been particularly volatile in 2022.

'Tax is also a significant cost, which accounts for a large proportion of the pump price.

'We would note that, when fuel duty and tax is excluded, UK petrol and diesel prices have been consistently among the lowest in western Europe.'

RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said: 'We are particularly pleased to see that the CMA acknowledges the gap between wholesale and retail prices has been widening in recent weeks.

'Regardless of the reasons for wholesale prices being what they are, we continue to believe there is clear evidence, not least in the last week, that major retailers are incredibly slow to pass on falling wholesale costs, yet quick to pass on rising ones.

'The idea of allowing drivers to more easily compare pump prices near them may also prove beneficial.

'The question drivers may have, however, is how long the review will take and, crucially, when they might see a change to what they pay every time they fill up.'

Jack Cousens, the AA's head of roads policy, said pump price competition is 'broken' as supermarket fuel retailers are no longer sparking widespread price cuts by being the first retailers to pass on wholesale cost reductions.

That trigger appears to have gone, and now there is a need to find another way to re-invigorate pump-price competition, he said.

'The AA therefore welcomes the CMA's suggestion of more pump price transparency immediately.'
Iran's navy on Friday unveiled its first division of ships and submarines capable of carrying armed drones, as US President Joe Biden tours the Middle East.

The United States and Israel, the sworn enemies of Iran, have previously accused the Islamic republic of using drones and missiles to attack US forces and Israel-linked ships in the Gulf.

'The first drone-carrier division of the Iranian navy consisting of ships and submarine units carrying all types of drone for combat, detection and destruction has been unveiled,' state television said.

'All types of the latest advanced drones produced by the military and the defence ministry have flown over the Indian Ocean's waters to demonstrate their capabilities,' it added, showing images of drones taking off from a naval vessel.

The Iranian Army released images of the drone-carrying submarines and ships at sea today

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will be launched from the newly built vessels, Iran stated

Commander Mousavi said: 'As we are aware of the aggressive attitude in the (United States') system of domination, it is necessary to increase our defensive capabilities day-to-day'

The announcement comes as Biden undertakes his first presidential visit to Israel, where he and the Jewish state's caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Thursday signed a security pact reinforcing their common front against Iran.

Biden's trip also included a presentation of Israel's 'Iron Beam' air defence system, which uses lasers to intercept drones and missiles.

'As we are aware of the aggressive attitude in the (United States') system of domination, it is necessary to increase our defensive capabilities day-by-day,' Iranian army commander Abdolrahim Mousavi said on television.

'If the enemies make a mistake, (these drones) will present them with a regrettable response,' he warned during the unveiling.

Iran's arms programme has prompted fears the Islamic Republic will build nuclear weapons

An important ally of Russia in the Middle East, Iran trialled its new ships in the Indian Ocean

Commander Mousavi (pictured saluting) vowed enemies will face a 'regrettable response'

In October 2021, the United States imposed sanctions targeting Iran's drone programme, accusing it of supplying the technology to its allies in the region, such as Lebanon's Hezbollah, the Huthis of Yemen and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Monday said Iran plans to deliver 'hundreds of drones' to Russia to aid its war on Ukraine.

On Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian dismissed Sullivan's accusations as 'baseless', during a telephone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba.

Iran began developing its drone programme in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war.

Officers were pictured launching the armed drones with remote controls from a submarine
A popular female DJ in Houston, Texas plummeted to her death in the early hours of July 4. Her girlfriend claims she watched her climb onto a chair on the 13th floor balcony and accidentally fall over the railing.

Darian Lewis, 23, also known as DJ D Baby, died more than a week after being hospitalized from the devastating fall.

Lewis' girlfriend, Nishia Jackson, was the only other person present on the balcony when Lewis fell, but Jackson claims she had nothing to do with it.

'Theres no way I could have pushed her over, she was only able to get over because she climbed onto the furniture. I would have literally had to pick her up & throw her over which is absolutely absurd! WE WERE NOT FIGHTING!' Jackson said in a lengthy Facebook post.

The budding DJ, who had over 27,000 followers on Instagram when she died, had recently celebrated her 23rd birthday.

Her mother, Terri Lewis, took to Facebook to announce the death, saying 'My youngest and only daughter has transitioned, please pray for the family, my heart is heavy and broken.'

Her death remains under investigation by Houston police.

Darrian Lewis, also known as DJ D Baby, fell to her death during the early hours of July 4 while she was at her girlfriends apartment. Her girlfriend says Lewis was drunk and tried to climb a chair before toppling over the railing

Nishia Jackson, Lewis' girlfriend, says she saw Lewis fall from the balcony after Jackson barred Lewis from driving home as she was intoxicated. Jackson ran down the stairs to Lewis and called for help

Lewis fell from a 13th floor balcony at Camden apartments on Houston (pictured) around 5 a.m. on July 4th. She landed on the 9th floor pool deck

Lewis billed herself as 'the youngest female DJ in Houston' and said she found her love for DJing after being gifted a DJ set after high school

Lewis fell from the balcony on the 13th floor of Houston's Camden Downtown Apartments onto a pool deck on the 9th floor at approximately 5 a.m. on July 4. The four flight drop later proved fatal.

Prior to her death, Jackson said Lewis was dropped at her apartment by an 'associate' as she 'could not drive' due to how intoxicated she was.

Jackson said her girlfriend wanted to drive home, but when Jackson barred her from doing so, Lewis ran to the patio and climbed onto a chair where she 'fell over before I could save her.'

'I literally saw & heard her fall before my eyes,' said the distressed Jackson.

She says she then ran down the stairs to Lewis as the 'elevator took too long,' and upon reaching her 'immediately screamed' and 'summoned for help.'

Jackson addressed rumors that she purposefully killed her girlfriend, saying those theorizing about the events were 'cruel' and 'unjust.'

'Im aware there are a lot of rumors going around & theyre all very disheartening. We were far from perfect. We had issues like most however, I would never hurt her whom I love, nor anyone in such a manner,' she said.

Jackson also put to bed any rumors that Lewis was trying to hurt herself, saying 'Ive also been devastated by the fact that some ppl are now insinuating that she was trying to harm herself, thats not true either!'

Jackson laid out several explanations for what could have made her girlfriend fall and mentioned she'd never seen Lewis 'drinking on that level.'

'Maybe at the moment due to intake, she didnt realize how high up we were, maybe she just slipped! IDK but the lies are SICK!' she posted.

Lewis' girlfriend, Nishia Jackson, took to Facebook to discuss Lewis' death and the rumors circulating around it

Lewis' mom, Terri, posted some pictures with her daughter and said her 'heart is heavy and broken' about the 23-year-old's fall

But Jackson says she understands why people may blame her considering she was the only other person there at the time, saying 'folks will naturally find someone to blame.'

Her father, Darrin Lewis, said his family is 'going to trust the system, and we're going to let them do their job,' in regards to finding out how Lewis fell that night.

'She did things people that are 56 my age haven't done,' said Darrin.

Darrian only started to DJ after she was gifted a DJ set after high school, and quickly adopted the name DJ D Baby before attending Texas Southern University.

'The crazy part about is at the time, I could barely DJ. I saw going to college as a way to reinvent myself and start a new journey. The rest is history in the making' she said in an interview.

Lewis called herself 'the youngest female DJ in Houston,' and said she was 'affiliated with some the best media outlets and brands.'

Lewis also spoke about the role her parents played in her becoming a DJ, saying 'my parents play a huge role in my success, my family thats forever in my corner.
A 'drunk' pilot has been arrested after flying his light aircraft from Florida to Missouri before landing on the interstate.

John T. Seesing, 35, of Prairie Village, Kansas, landed a small aircraft on I-70 near Grain Valley around 2.45am on Friday.

Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP) said it believes Seesing was headed toward the Wheeler Downtown Airport in Kansas City when he ran out of fuel and had to make an emergency landing on the highway.

Seesing was the only passenger on board the aircraft and he sustained minor injuries.

The Kansan radioed in before landing and had a small collision with a guardrail, but no cars were hit.

A 'drunk' pilot landed a small aircraft on an Missouri interstate after he ran out of fuel. John T Seesing, 35, of Prairie Valley, was flying in from Florida and was headed to a Kansas City airport

The 35-year-old had a student pilot certificate, which was issued in January 2020, but was not allowed to have passengers

MSHP found the man 'intoxicated' and arrested him on the scene. He was arrested on suspicion of a DWI, careless actions, felony possession of a controlled substance, felony unlawful possession of a firearm, possession of less than 10 grams of marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia, according to the Kansas City Star.

Seesing has since been taken to a local hospital for treatment.

The 35-year-old had a student pilot certificate, which was issued in January 2020, but was not allowed to have passengers.

It took road crews roughly three hours to clean up the collision and tow the plane off the highway.

According to public records, Seesing has had a few run-ins with the law for traffic violations, including for excessive speeding and driving without a valid license in 2017.

Emergency crews said they found Seesing 'intoxicated' and he was arrested on suspicion of a DWI, careless actions, felony possession of a controlled substance, felony unlawful possession of a firearm, possession of less than 10 grams of marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia
A piece by famed British artist Damien Hirst was taken down after animal rights campaigners complained that a UV light inside was killing flies.

'A Thousand Years' (1990) features two connected glass cases, one with a box where flies and maggots hatch and another which contains a UV light.

Flies hatch and make their way toward the light before being zapped.

The iconic work was removed from display at Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, northern Germany this week after PETA and the city's veterinary office expressed opposition.

A tamer version of 'A Thousand Years' than has previously been displayed, PETA and Wolfsburg's veterinary office nevertheless campaigned for the work to be removed - and won

Famed artist Hirst, 57, is reportedly Britain's wealthiest living artist (file image)

They claimed the piece violated Germanys Animal Welfare Act, which outlawed the killing or harming of animals 'without good reason'.

A PETA representative said: 'Killing animals has nothing to do with art, it just shows the arrogance of people who literally will stop at nothing for their own interests.'

Museum director Andreas Beitin said: 'We thought that flies didnt come under the Animal Welfare Act.'

Previous versions of the work have included a rotting cow's head below the light, but this did not feature at the Kunstmuseum display.

Mr Hirst, whose work is often centred around death, has described the piece as 'a life cycle in a box'.

It's thought the British artist's works have featured one million dead animals, most of them insects.

His most famous work, 'The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living' (1991), is a preserved tiger shark encased in glass.

Legend has it that post-war painter and Hirst's hero Francis Bacon once studied A Thousand Years for more than an hour.

The piece was first displayed at Bermondsey gallery Building One in 1990.

Hirst's collector and former friend Charles Saatchi reportedly stared open-mouthed at the work when it was first unveiled - before buying it.

A rotting cow's head featured prominently in a version unveiled at Tate Modern ten years ago

Hirst poses with the encased tiger shark, his most famous work, at Tate Modern in April 2012

More than 9,000 butterflies were killed during the six-month run of 'In and Out of Love' at Tate Modern in 2012.

The RSPCA slammed the 'so-called "art exhibition"' and said: 'There would be national outcry if such an exhibition involved any other animal  such as a dog.

'Just because it is butterflies we are talking about here, doesnt mean they dont deserve to be treated with kindness.'
Russia 'bears full responsibility' for the death of a British aid worker who perished in the jail of a Moscow-backed proxy group in Ukraine, the foreign secretary has said.

Paul Urey, 45, who was captured in the Zaporizhzhia region on April 25, died on July 10 from 'illness and stress' in the self-proclaimed People's Republic of Donestk (DPR) after being taken to a prison camp in Ukraine's east, an official revealed today.

Liz Truss - a frontrunner to replace Boris Johnson - has since summoned Russia's ambassador to the Foreign Office for a reprimand, accusing Moscow of 'atrocities'.

'Russia must bear the full responsibility for this,' she said in a statement this afternoon. 'Paul Urey was captured while undertaking humanitarian work.

'The Russian government and its proxies are continuing to commit atrocities. Those responsible will be held accountable.'

Mr Urey was being held by the DPR accused of being a foreign 'mercenary', a claim denied by a UK charity who was in touch with him in Ukraine and the country's foreign legion, who say he was not fighting with them.

Ms Truss spoke as Mr Urey's devastated mother, Linda, told MailOnline that she wants 'proof of death' before she will believe her son is really gone.

Paul Urey, 45, a British aid worker captured by Russian forces in Ukraine on April 25, died of 'illness and stress' while in jail on July 10, Moscow-backed separatists said today

Linda Urey, Paul's mother (pictured at the time he was originally captured), has branded his jailers 'f***ing murderers' who 'let him die'

Speaking in a wheelchair, the 62-year-old said: 'Ive been told he died on Sunday due to ill health and depression.

'If that was the case, why have they waited five days until now to tell me? Why the delay? It doesnt add up.

'I was never given any proof that Paul was alive. I have never been given a picture, and I know its morbid, of him dead. And until Im told he is dead, with a picture, I shall still think he is alive.'

She added: 'He was out there trying to help a woman and her two children get out to safety.

'Anybody who looked at Paul would know he was not solider. No company would hire someone with so many medical needs as he would never pass a medical so why would they hold on to him?

Liz Truss has summoned the Russian ambassador, and said the country must 'bear full responsibility' for Mr Urey's death

What on earth did they see in Paul? They let 144 prisoners go. You would think someone with so many medical needs would be on that list.

You would have thought theyd be thinking: "Hes no good to us, hes half dead" and let him go, but they didnt. They let him die there.

I want to know why they let him die. He was no threat to anyone. He was helping people. I am angry.

Linda said Paul was taking from her at birth when she was aged just 16.

They reunited in 1999, lost contact again in 2006 before meeting up again in 2018.

She said: I finally got him back and now hes been taken from me again.

Paul was lovely. A pain in the bum but lovely. He would do anything for me.

He was just a dreamer but so kind-hearted. He thought he could help the world.

I told in not to go. I told him he was an older man and was poorly.

I said to him: "What if you get captured or die?" And he said: "Thats war. Something tells me that I have to go out and help."'

Russia, shortly before invading Ukraine, recognised the DPR and neighbouring Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) as independent statelets and vowed to help them defend themselves - having previously kept them at arms length.

Moscow maintains the two 'states' - which are not internationally recognised - operate independent of its authority.

But the UK has refused to deal with them directly, maintaining they are ultimately under the boot of the Kremlin.

Daria Morozova - the DPR's 'human rights ombudsman' - announced Mr Urey's death on Telegram today, saying he passed away from 'illness and stress'.

She said Urey suffered from 'insulin-dependent diabetes, damage to the respiratory system, kidneys and a number of diseases of the cardiovascular system'.

Morozova claimed he had been given proper healthcare in jail, but ultimately succumbed to his conditions and 'depression' over his fate.

In fact, prisoners in the DPR say they have been kept in modern-day concentration camps where beatings, torture, malnutrition and disease are common.

Jenny Urey, another relative, also paid tribute online - calling Mr Urey 'a hero' before adding: 'Paul is out of harm and safe now.'

Mr Urey was captured in the Zaporizhzhia region on April 25 while trying to cross a Russian checkpoint (pictured, the city's nuclear power plant after being attacked by Russia)

After his capture, Mr Urey was taken to the Donetsk region where he was held in a detention camp (pictured, the destroyed city of Mariupol in the same region)

At the time Mr Urey was captured, Russia had been pushed back from Kyiv (pictured) and was preparing an assault in the Donbas while steadily taking territory in the south

Mr Urey, a father-of-two originally from Warrington, had gone to Ukraine without telling his daughters earlier this year to provide aid to locals caught up in the war.

He travelled independently of any organisation and was not working for a charity while there, but had been in contact with NGO Presidium Network.

Dominik Bryne of the Presidium Network helped raised the alarm about Mr Urey's capture on April 25 when messages from him stopped and a woman he had been trying to help began getting 'strange messages' from his phone.

Dylan Healy, a fellow Briton who had also been in contact with the charity, is thought to have been captured with him as the pair tried to cross a Russian checkpoint.

Ten days after his capture, Mr Urey appeared on Russian state TV to denounce the UK government as 'corrupt' and blast British media for misrepresenting the war.

He also claimed to have fought in conflicts including Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, but relatives say these statements were almost certainly made under duress.

Ukraine's foreign legion - made up of overseas volunteers who have travelled to the country to fight - confirmed today that he was not affiliated with them.

'He did not fight in Ukraine. He was an employee of a humanitarian organisation,' the group said - without naming the organisation.

After Mr Urey appeared on state TV, it was revealed the DPR was charging Urey with being a foreign 'mercenary' and planned to put him on trial in their kangaroo court.

Russian separatists frequently accuse foreigners they capture of being 'mercenaries', because it means they are not protected under international law and can be prosecuted for crimes committed in war.

If convicted, Mr Urey would have been sentenced to death by firing squad.

Daughters Courtney and Chelsea Coman, 17 and 20, told Sky News after his Russian media appearance that they were 'preparing for the worst' and feared their father 'wouldn't be coming home any time soon'.

The pair said they had no idea Mr Urey had gone to Ukraine, and suspect he didn't tell them because they would have tried to stop him.

'We're just about coping for now. We really don't know anything, like if he'll be okay there, if he's coming home or going back to Ukraine as a prisoner swap,' Courtney said at the time.

'We just don't know, so we're preparing for the worst,' she added, before her sister chimed in: 'But hoping for the best.'

Chelsea said: 'It might seem selfish for other people but I do feel a bit like 'why have you gone and done this?'

'We don't know what's happening, you don't know if he's safe, you don't know where he is. We're more upset than anything.'

Linda also spoke out shortly after Mr Urey's capture - revealing he had gone to Ukraine shortly after the war broke out, had come home briefly in early April, then gone back to continue his aid work.

Aiden Aslin (left) and Sean Pinner (right) are two fellow Britons being held in Donetsk, where they have been sentenced to death for being 'mercenaries' despite being regular soldiers

She said she 'begged' him not to return and to instead live out a 'boring life' in the safety of the UK, but he refused to listen.

'I was on FaceTime with him up to 4am on Monday morning and that was it  gone,' she said - describing him as 'too caring'.

Asked how she was feeling, she replied: 'Like I want to die, like I don't know what to do any more. I don't know. It's horrible.'

His death comes amid fears for the safety of two more Britons held in the DPR who have been sentenced to death for being 'mercenaries' - Sean Pinner and Aiden Aslin.

The pair were captured fighting for Ukraine against Russia in the besieged city of Mariupol in April, before being handed the death penalty back in May.

They are appealing the sentence, but Denis Pushilin - self-proclaimed leader of the DPR - has already said he sees no reason to issue a pardon and earlier this week said an 'execution site' is being prepared for them.

If the sentence is carried out, then the two men will die by firing squad.

Though both Mr Aslin and Mr Pinner were fighting Russia, they were doing so as part of Ukraine's regular army - having moved to the country back in 2016, married Ukrainian women, and signed up the to military shortly afterwards.

As such, they should be considered prisoners of war under international law which protects them from prosecution for fighting.

Mr Urey's death will also raise fears for the safety of a number of other Britons being held in eastern Ukraine, including Mr Healy and Andrew Hill - a father-of-four British Army veteran from Plymouth also captured in April in Mykolaiv.

Mr Hill is thought to have been fighting for Ukraine's foreign legion, having gone to the country as an aid worker before being persuaded to sign up.

He has appeared on Russian state media a number of times - including in April when he was filmed with a bandaged left arm, a makeshift bandage around his head, and blood on his right arm.
Iran dismisses U.S. "lies" over Iran's involvement in Ukraine war

Xinhua) 09:38, July 15, 2022

TEHRAN, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry on Thursday rejected a U.S. official's claims as "lies" about Iran's alleged involvement in the Ukraine conflict.

The ministry's spokesman Nasser Kanaani tweeted that "apparently, lying and cheating are contagious among U.S. politicians who resort to fabrication for evil ends."

Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security advisor, said on Wednesday that "Russia deepening an alliance with Iran to kill Ukrainians is something that the whole world should look at and see as a profound threat."

Earlier this week, the United States also accused Iran of planning to provide Russia with combat drones that can be used in the conflict in Ukraine, the charges which were denied by Tehran.

Kanaani also slammed that Biden's visit to Israel was to "reinforce U.S.' unconditional support" for Israel.

On the first day of his regional tour, Biden arrived in Israel on Wednesday for talks on cementing ties with Tel Aviv, which will be followed by visiting Saudi Arabia on Friday.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)
A young boy fatally stabbed in his own bed in New Mexico managed to reveal the identity of his killer to investigators with his dying breath.

Bruce Johnson Jr., 11, told police in hospital that it was his own mother who had stabbed him shortly before he succumbed to his multiple stab wounds in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The boy's father, Bruce Sr., had called 911 after awaking to screams and finding his son wounded in their home Hobbs, N.M.

Bruce Sr. found his estranged wife and the boy's mother, Mary Johnson, unconscious in another room with 'self-inflicted' stab wounds to the chest.

Bruce Johnson Jr., 11, told police while in hospital that his own mom, Mary Johnson, stabbed him shortly before dying from his multiple stab wounds in the early hours of Sunday morning

The boy's father, Bruce Sr, had called 911 after awaking to screams and finding his son grievously wounded in their home in the town of Hobbs, New Mexico

Emergency services arrived at 1 a.m. and rushed the pair to the local hospital, where Bruce Jr was pronounced dead at 4.19 a.m.

Mary was stabilized and moved to a hospital in Lubbock, Texas, where an arrest warrant for first-degree murder was issued for her.

The Lea County Sheriff's Office said: 'Mr. Johnson told deputies that he was asleep when he heard his son screaming. He found his son in his room, lying on the bed suffering from stab wounds.

'He went to call 911 when he discovered Mary was also stabbed, but she was unconscious in another room. Mary suffered self-inflicted stab wounds to her chest.

'Bruce Jr. was conscious upon arriving at the hospital, where he spoke with the investigator, advising his mom, Mary, had stabbed him.'

Mary Johnson suffered self-inflicted stab wounds to her chest and was hospitalized before being charged with her son's murder

Bruce Jr.'s father, Bruce Sr., moved to New Mexico from Oklahoma to get away from Johnson, who had abused the child. She hadn't seen him in 40 days, and he allowed her to stay with them for a visit where she killed him

Investigators revealed that Bruce Sr. had moved to New Mexico from Oklahoma to get his son away from his estranged wife, who is thought to suffer from mental illness, and who was allegedly abusing the boy; at least two incidents had been reported.

In June, she bizarrely posted a video saying: 'Get your God degree to become a God! All you need to do is believe in yourself, respect others, and spread kindness.'

Mary, who suffered from a mental illness posted a bizarre rant, along with a video saying: 'Get your God degree to become a God! All you need to do is believe in yourself, respect others, and spread kindness'

In another Facebook rant Mary claimed her son could hear what she was thinking

In another rant, Mary wrote: 'My son and I discovered he can hear every f***** thing that I'm thinking. I don't like this God! My son does not need to be listening to me talking to you! Any other mother have this problem or do I fall in that 2% category again? This is why I don't want kids! They don't give me freedom. I'm heard writing, thinking, reading, sleeping ... Who wants to be Mother God?'

Prior to the fatal stabbing, Mary had not seen her son in around 40 days and she was desperate to see him.

Bruce Sr relented and permitted Mary to stay with them in order to spend time with Bruce Jr before the divorce went through.
A no-nonsense judge will next week hear Twitter's request to fast-track a trial in its lawsuit against billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

District Judge Kathaleen McCormick, the chancellor of Delaware's Court of Chancery, has set a 90-minute hearing beginning July 19 at 11am in Wilmington.

Twitter has requested a four day trial in September to force Musk to go through with his original $44 billion bid to buy the firm, which he announced he was no longer pursuing last Friday.

The firm's lawyers say they need just four days to prove that he should be forced to honor his agreement. McCormick has a reputation for being a no-nonsense judge who does not take prisoners, but has also been hailed for the fairness of her courtroom.

Twitter hopes to start the non-jury trial on September 19, but legal experts have predicted the case will take two weeks to try.

It is seeking a court judgement to force Musk to buy the company at $54.20 per share, as he agreed in the April 25 merger deal.

Alex Spiro, one of Musks lawyers in the case, didnt immediately respond to DailyMail.coms request for comment.

The Tesla CEO backed out of the $44billion buyout, with the social media giant launching a lawsuit in an attempt to get him to honor his offer

Judge Kathaleen McCormick, the first female chancellor in the Delaware Chancery Courts 229-year history, has scheduled a hearing for Tuesday next week at 11am to hear arguments in Delaware for a fast-tracked trial

Last week, Musk said he was terminating the buyout deal over concerns about bots and fake accounts.

He responded to the lawsuit with a tweet explaining that his use of the colorful emoji was shorthand for 'BS', a common abbreviation for 'bulls**t.'

Twitter's legal complaint includes the tweet from the billionaire containing the poop emoji.

The lawsuit filed on Tuesday cites Musk's May 16 tweet, among others, as evidence that he publicly disparaged Twitter, in violation of the merger agreement, before he backed out of the deal entirely.

Musk's tweet with the smiling poop emoji came in response to Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, who had sent several tweets explaining the company's procedures to combat spam and fake accounts, a battle Agrawal described as 'dynamic.'

In another tweet on May 17, Musk appeared to encourage the SEC to investigate the accuracy of Twitters public disclosures.

His online posts are being presented as evidence he has been pursuing the takeover in 'bad faith'.

But the crux of Twitter's argument is that the world's richest man is bound by the deal to buy the company he signed on April 25.

The lawsuit states that the deal does not include a contingency requiring Musk to secure financing.

It adds that the billionaire waived the customary right to due diligence, which refers to the type of investigation into business fundamentals that he later pursued regarding fake accounts.

Twitter stock jumped nearly 8 percent on Wednesday, to $36.75, in a sign that investors view the company's lawsuit as likely to succeed in some capacity.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note obtained by DailyMail.com that 'many investors spent last night reading the case and ultimately concluded that this Game of Thrones battle in court will result in some version of a Twitter win.'

He wrote: 'This will be a fierce battle in court with the fake account/bot issue front and center, but ultimately Twitter's Board is holding Musk's feet to the fire to finish the deal at the agreed upon price.

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal sent several tweets explaining how the company combats spam and fake accounts in an online battle with Musk

Twitter's lawsuit includes a screenshot of the billionaire responding to its CEO with the poop emoji, saying it's evidence he disparaged the company in violation of the buyout deal

Musk responded to the lawsuit with a tweet explaining that his use of the colorful emoji was shorthand for 'BS'

The lawsuit states that Musk 'refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests'.

Twitter's lawyers said the company was given little time to comply with Musk's demands for information on fake accounts, and argued that they suspected he was trying to use the data to form a competitor.

It states: 'Steadfast in its commitment to consummate the merger, Twitter continued to try to get Musk's team what it demanded while safeguarding its customers' data and harboring very real concerns about how Musk might use the data if he succeeded in escaping the deal.

'Twitter has bent over backwards to provide Musk the information he has requested, including, most notably, the full 'firehose' data set that he has been mining for weeks  and has been continuing to mine since purporting to terminate  with the assistance of undisclosed data reviewers,

Lawyers for the social media giant argued that if the company continued to bow to Musk's demands, it would 'expose Twitter to competitive harm.'

They added that despite saying he would back away from the deal, Musk has allegedly continued to mine Twitter's confidential data.
Advertisement

Heathrow have reportedly told airlines to fly with emptier planes in order to comply with the airport's controversial passenger cap.

Bosses at the west London airport have reportedly told carriers to consider reducing the number of seats - in some cases by as much as 25 per cent - on individual flights to avoid having to cancel them altogether.

It comes amid a stalemate between the travel hub and airlines over the decision to cap the number of departing passengers to just 100,000 per day.

In order to meet the cap, airlines need to reduce the number of passengers by around 4,000 per day - which means cancelling around 1,000 flights this summer.

But airlines are reluctant to cut back on flights, while Emirates have flatly refused, describing Heathrow's demands as 'entirely unreasonable'.

In a bid to break the deadlock, Heathrow have reportedly suggested airlines fly with emptier planes. According to The Telegraph, the strategy was discussed at a virtual meeting between the airlines' and Heathrow executives yesterday.

But such a move could result in thousands of passengers having their tickets cancelled at short notice. BA has proactively offered passengers flying before July 25 to move their flights to a later date free of charge.

It comes as the boss of Heathrow was today given a Government ultimatum to reveal his plan to end the continuing travel chaos ruining holidays for British holidaymakers.

Department for Transport (DfT) and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) chiefs have written a joint letter to Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye urging he provide a 'credible' recovery plan to get the airport back to operating 'reliably' at a 'stable level of capacity'.

They have also demanded to know why the airport believes a cap on daily departing passengers 'provides a safe and resilient airport with a positive passenger experience'.

Mr Holland-Kaye was reportedly given until noon on Friday to assure both groups that the airport has enough staff for security screening and to assist disabled passengers. It is not yet clear if this deadline has been met.

It comes as travellers today shared pictures on social media of long queues at the airport overnight, including one queue appearing to stretch down a hallway of Terminal 3.

On another day of airport chaos:

Heathrow boss John Holland-Kaye was sent a letter asking him to assure the DfT and the CAA that the airport has a 'credible' recovery plan to get the airport back to operating 'reliably' at a 'stable level of capacity'

It comes after a furious row broke out between Heathrow and Emirates after the airline refused to comply with an 'unacceptable' order to cut flights from its schedule;

An easyJet passenger whose flight was delayed by an hour due to baggage delays revealed how she watched a ground crew member sitting scrolling on his phone;

EasyJet crew members in Spain began a strike today over a wage dispute with bosses. The strike, involves staff at Barcelona, Malaga and Palma de Mallorca airports, is the second of three weekends of strike action planned by airline staff this month, with walkouts also scheduled for July 29-31;

Yesterday, easyJet Holidays chief Garry Wilson told the BBC that it had done 'everything in its control' to prevent flight cancellations and sure up its scheduling;

Gatwick Airport ran out of water - leaving some passengers unable to use the toilets and some food outlets unable to serve meals and drinks.

Bosses at the west London airport (pictured: Queues at Terminal 3 today) have reportedly told carriers they should consider reducing the number of seats - in some cases by as much as 25 per cent - on individual flights to avoid having to cancel them altogether

The boss of Heathrow (pictured: Queues at the airport overnight shared by one user on Twitter) is facing a Government ultimatum to reveal his plan to end the continuing chaos - after an airline last night launched an open rebellion against the airport's demands to cut the number of flights

It comes as travellers shared pictures on social media of long queues at the airport overnight, including one queue appearing to stretch down a hallway of Terminal 3

Airline Emirates took aim at the west London airport (pictured: Queues overnight at Heathrow) over long queues, numerous flight cancellations, missing baggage and frequent delays, describing the situation as 'airmageddon'

Department for Transport (DfT) and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) chiefs last night wrote a joint letter to Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye (pictured) urging he provide a 'credible' recovery plan to get the airport back to operating 'reliably' at a 'stable level of capacity

The DfT and CAA last night ramped up the pressure on Heathrow following months of disruption at Heathrow, and other separately run UK airports.

DfT's director general for aviation Dr Rannia Leontaridi and the CAA's chief executive Richard Moriarty last night penned a letter requesting Mr Holland-Kaye's assessment of why the airport's passenger cap will work - after criticism from airlines including Emirates and Virgin Atlantic.

In the joint letter, they also wrote: 'We need you to develop a credible and resilient capacity recovery plan for the next six months, that provides comfort that Heathrow can operate reliably at a stable level of capacity.'

Mr Holland-Kaye was reportedly given until midday today to respond to the letter. MailOnline has contacted the CAA and Heathrow to ask if that deadline has been met.

Emirates' strongly-worded response to Heathrow's passenger cap 'Emirates values our partnerships with airport stakeholders across our network with whom we engage continuously, and collaboratively, to secure our flight operations and ensure minimal customer disruption, particularly over the peak travel months. 'It is therefore highly regrettable that LHR last evening gave us 36 hours to comply with capacity cuts, of a figure that appears to be plucked from thin air. Their communications not only dictated the specific flights on which we should throw out paying passengers, but also threatened legal action for non-compliance. 'This is entirely unreasonable and unacceptable, and we reject these demands. 'At London Heathrow airport (LHR), our ground handling and catering  run by dnata, part of the Emirates Group - are fully ready and capable of handling our flights. So the crux of the issue lies with the central services and systems which are the responsibility of the airport operator. 'Emirates is a key and steadfast operator at LHR, having reinstated 6 daily A380 flights since October 2021. From our past 10 months of regularly high seat loads, our operational requirements cannot be a surprise to the airport. 'Now, with blatant disregard for consumers, they wish to force Emirates to deny seats to tens of thousands of travellers who have paid for, and booked months ahead, their long-awaited package holidays or trips to see their loved ones. And this, during the super peak period with the upcoming UK holidays, and at a time when many people are desperate to travel after 2 years of pandemic restrictions. 'Emirates believes in doing the right thing by our customers. However, re-booking the sheer numbers of potentially impacted passengers is impossible with all flights running full for the next weeks, including at other London airports and on other airlines. Adding to the complexity, 70% of our customers from LHR are headed beyond Dubai to see loved ones in far flung destinations, and it will be impossible to find them new onward connections at short notice. 'Moving some of our passenger operations to other UK airports at such short notice is also not realistic. Ensuring ground readiness to handle and turnaround a widebody long-haul aircraft with 500 passengers onboard is not as simple as finding a parking spot at a mall. 'The bottomline is, the LHR management team are cavalier about travellers and their airline customers. All the signals of a strong travel rebound were there, and for months, Emirates has been publicly vocal about the matter. We planned ahead to get to a state of readiness to serve customers and travel demand, including rehiring and training 1,000 A380 pilots in the past year. 'LHR chose not to act, not to plan, not invest. Now faced with an 'airmageddon' situation due to their incompetence and non-action, they are pushing entire burden  of costs and the scramble to sort the mess - to airlines and travellers. 'The shareholders of London Heathrow should scrutinise the decisions of the LHR management team. 'Given the tremendous value that the aviation community generates for the UK economy and communities, we welcome the action taken by the UK Department for Transport and Civil Aviation Authority to seek information from LHR on their response plans, systems resilience, and to explain the seemingly arbitrary cap of 100,000 daily passengers. Considering LHR handled 80.9 million passengers annually in 2019, or a daily average of 219,000, the cap represents greater than a 50 per cent cut at a time when LHR claims to have 70% of ground handling resources in place. 'Until further notice, Emirates plans to operate as scheduled to and from LHR.' Advertisement

The CAA did not confirm if they had received a response. However a spokesperson said: 'We remain in constant discussions with Heathrow Airport and the airlines.

'We continue to encourage all parties to collaborate effectively in minimising disruption for passengers this summer and ensure a positive passenger experience.'

It comes as British Airways last night started contacting passengers asking them to reschedule their flights amid a row between Heathrow and airlines over the airport's passenger cap.

Bosses at the west London travel hub sparked fury from travel chiefs on Tuesday after announcing an immediate 100,000 daily passenger limit. It is part of the airport's bid to reduce the risk of delay and cancellations ahead of the school summer holidays.

The move is expected to result in the cancellation of around 1,000 flights this summer. But it sparked a furious row between the airport and Emirates, who yesterday said it was refusing to comply, describing Heathrow's demands as 'entirely unreasonable'.

The Dubai-based airline also took aim at the west London airport following months of long queues, numerous flight cancellations, missing baggage and frequent delays, a situation it described as 'airmageddon'.

And Virgin Atlantic heaped on the criticism, saying the airport was responsible for failures which are contributing to the chaos.

Meanwhile, airport chiefs ordered UK airlines to, 'stop selling summer tickets to limit the impact on passengers' because Heathrow is already expecting an average of 104,000 daily outbound passengers in the coming months.

Carriers were yesterday said to be in intense discussions with the airport and flight schedulers in an attempt to cut capacity by up to 15 per cent at Terminals 3 and 5.

And BA has now started to contact passengers due to fly before July 25 if they are able to reschedule their flight. Industry insiders have suggested the company is filleting out flights in order to more easily make short-notice cancellations.

However MailOnline understands the UK flag carrier has made a 'small number' of short-haul and domestic cancellations over the next two weeks to fit in with Heathrow's passenger cap. BA says it has moved passengers either onto trains or similar flights from Heathrow or City airports.

Yesterday, travel expert Paul Charles, who runs travel consultancy the PC Agency, shared an email from BA to customers asking passengers travelling in the next fortnight if they would like to reschedule their flights for free.

BA said passengers could change their flights to another BA operated flight to any date within the next 12 months, subject to availability.

Commenting on the email, in a post on Twitter, Mr Charles wrote: 'I said it would be a summer of stress. BA among airlines operating from Heathrow now asking those travelling before 25th July to consider changing flights, so enabling them to more easily choose which flights to cancel at short notice.'

The new measures, which are due to remain in place until September 11, are part of Heathrow's latest attempts to prevent a school summer holiday repeat of the chaotic scenes witnessed at airports up and down the UK over the Easter weekend.

Yesterday, in the latest update to the summer of airport chaos, BA began contacting customers by email asking if they are able to change their flights.

The email said: 'This week Heathrow Airport has set a passenger limit per day until September 2022. As a result, they have told us to adjust our flying schedule to reduce the number of customers using the airport this summer.

'We understand that some customers may want to review their travel plans in light of current travel challenges. We want to be as flexible as possible so that you can move your flights if you wish.

'If you are due to travel between now and July 25 and you wish to change your flights we have introduced a policy that will allow you to easily change your travel dates via our website.'

The airline insists the move is to help passengers who are concerned about flying amid the travel chaos and the current summer heatwave, and that it has already rescheduled in preparation for Heathrow's announcement.

MailOnline understands around 80 flights have been cancelled across the next fortnight. However BA insists its schedule is line with Heathrow's request and they are not expecting to make any short-notice cancellations, unless in the case of technical issues.

It comes as an American airline has sent an empty plane to the UK to repatriate hundreds of lost suitcases caught up in Britain's travel chaos - as an easyJet chief pointed the finger of blame at airports.

Delta Air Lines sent the Airbus SE A330-200 to Heathrow Airport last night to bring back the bags, which have been following a baggage backlog at the west London travel hub.

The backlog stretches back from a technical glitch earlier this month which resulted in thousands of bags being stacked up outside Terminal 2, creating what some described as a 'sea of luggage'.

A spokesperson for Delta added: 'Delta teams worked a creative solution to move delayed checked bags from London-Heathrow on July 11 after a regularly scheduled flight had to be cancelled given airport passenger volume restrictions at Heathrow.

'Delta flight 9888 from Heathrow to Delta's Detroit hub flew 1,000 bags back to the US, where teams then forwarded the bags on to our customers.'

British Airways (pictured: Library image) has started contacting passengers to ask if they are able to reschedule their flights amid a row between Heathrow and airlines over its decision to cap the number of passengers travelling through the airport

It comes after travel expert Paul Charles today shared an email from BA to customers asking passengers travelling in the next fortnight if they would like to reschedule their flights for free

Yesterday, as the blame game continued, Garry Wilson, chief executive of EasyJet Holidays, easyJet's holiday wing, said the airline had done 'everything in its control' to prevent flight cancellations and sure up the resilience in its scheduling.

The budget airline cancelled more than 4,000 flights in the three months to the end of June in a bid to prevent a repeat of the chaotic scenes witnessed at airports over the Easter Holidays.

Mr Wilson told the BBC: 'We've done everything in our control to ensure there's resilience in the system. There may be other things happening - like air traffic control delays, or with airport infrastructure.'

EasyJet staff in Spain go on strike today over pay Easyjet staff in Spain are set to take part in a walkout today following a row with bosses over pay. As many as 450 workers based at Barcelona, Malaga and Palma de Mallorca are set to take part in the strike - which will also stretch over the weekend. It is the second of three weekends of strike action planned by airline staff this month, with walkouts also scheduled for July 29-31. Earlier action took place on the first weekend of July. The strikes are taking place over a wage dispute between cabin crew and airline bosses. Advertisement

Travel firms have been blamed for the chaotic scenes at airports. Airlines and airports have been accused of failing to prepare for the return of international travel following the lifting of Covid restrictions earlier this year.

But airlines and airports have in turn blamed the Government, who they say left companies with no choice but to make job cuts by failing to extend the Covid furlough scheme for holiday firms until all travel restrictions had been lifted.

Mr Wilson rejected the suggestion EasyJet had failed to prepare for the summer. He said: 'No, I think with the information we had at the time, we took all the steps that were necessary. As soon as we knew there was strain on the system, we built up that resilience, by taking flights out.'

MailOnline has contacted Heathrow Airport for a comment.

In a response to Emirates' statement on the passenger cap, a Heathrow spokeswoman said aviation is 'a complex network' and 'no-one can operate in isolation'.

She explained that staffing for ground handling teams at the airport are only at 70 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, whereas passenger numbers are at 80-85 per cent.

She added: 'For months we have asked airlines to help come up with a plan to solve their resourcing challenges, but no clear plans were forthcoming and with each passing day the problem got worse.

'We had no choice but to take the difficult decision to impose a capacity cap designed to give passengers a better, more reliable journey and to keep everyone working at the airport safe.'

The spokeswoman noted the cap is 'significantly higher' than the 64,000 imposed at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.

'It would be disappointing if instead of working together, any airline would want to put profit ahead a safe and reliable passenger journey,' she added.

In December last year, Heathrow said it expected passenger numbers for 2022 to reach around 45 million. It subsequently raised its forecast to 'nearly 53 million' in May, and 54.4 million in June.

Terminal 4 was only reopened on June 14, some three months after the UK lifted all remaining coronavirus travel restrictions. It was the last terminal at a major European airport to resume operations during the pandemic.
A pervert who pretended to help a vulnerable teenager after she suffered a serious head injury but instead dragged her to a basement and sexually assaulted her has been jailed for four years.

Sharif Abbas, 31, kidnapped the 19-year-old victim after she fell down some stairs at Bond Street Tube station in central London and was left bleeding with part of her skull exposed.

Instead of calling emergency services, Abbas led the stricken woman, who also had a broken wrist, to a nearby basement where he carried out a sex attack.

The sick defendant approached her when she sat down to recover and donned a TfL high-vis jacket, then after telling her to wait for him, scouted out an empty basement of a nearby building.

Sharif Abbas (pictured), 31, kidnapped the 19-year-old victim after she fell down some stairs at Bond Street Tube station in central London and was left bleeding with part of her skull exposed

He then brought her back to the basement, telling her he needed to examine her injuries, at which point he sexually assaulted her.

The fall happened at around 6am as she walked from one platform to another at Bond Street Tube station on June 16, 2019.

When Abbas entered the building's basement he had unwittingly triggered a silent alarm and police rushed to the scene where officers found Abbas assaulting the injured woman.

Officers found Abbas standing behind the victim with his hands under her clothing and the fly of his jeans undone.

He took her under a covered walkway where they were not visible to passers-by at street level, police said.

Instead of calling emergency services, Abbas lead the stricken woman, who also had a broken wrist, to a nearby basement where he carried out a sex attack. He claimed he tried to call for an ambulance but CCTV footage shows him on his mobile phone for the duration of the young woman's kidnap and records show he did not dial 999

After police arrived, paramedics took the woman to a hospital in west London where she had surgery for a broken wrist and was treated for her serious head injury.

She has since made a full recovery, according to the Met Police.

When Abbas was interviewed by detectives, he said it did not occur to him to press an emergency button nearby as he was trying to help her. He also walked past at least three other emergency buttons, police said.

He claimed he tried to call for an ambulance in the Tube station, but could not get signal. Abbas also added the victim asked him not to call for an ambulance.

But this was not the case as he had his phone to his ear throughout the 45 minutes he kidnapped the woman. No 999 call was made nor did he administer any first aid, police said.

The high-vis vest he wore was one he used when working on bus passenger surveys two years earlier, but at the time of the attack he was unemployed.

Abbas told detectives he carried it with him for use if he went running or in case he came across 'an accident or something'.

When Abbas was interviewed by detectives, he said it did not occur to him to press an emergency button nearby as he was trying to help her. He also walked past at least three other emergency buttons at Bond Street Station, police said

At Southwark Crown Court today, Abbas, from Haringey, north London, was jailed for four years after being found guilty of kidnap and sexual assault at an earlier hearing.

Sentencing Abbas, Judge Gregory Perrins said: 'I have no doubt that had they [the police officer] not attended in that moment, you [Abbas] would have gone on to commit a more serious sexual assault.'

As the trial took place during Covid restrictions, the victim had to fly back to the UK and quarantine in order to give evidence in court.

Detective Constable Nigel Pacquette, the investigating officer from the Met Police's Central West Command Unit, described the crimes as 'deplorable'.

He said after the hearing: 'Abbas was travelling on the Tube network carrying a high-vis tabard that would give the impression that he was a member of TfL staff.

'Given that he was unemployed, this alone was concerning, but his actions toward the victim were even more sinister.

'He claimed that he had taken her into the basement in order to check her body for cuts and bruises, after which he was going to help her, yet he stated he had no medical training, nor had he taken any actions to address her significant head wound.

'To take advantage of a seriously injured woman, particularly at a time when she required urgent medical attention, is deplorable.

'Thankfully, the quick thinking of the officers who responded to the alarm call, ensured that Abbas was apprehended at the scene.

'He was calculating and predatory and the verdict is wholly the right outcome to ensure that other women are protected from him.

'I am aware that the details of this case, and the predatory nature of offenders such as Abbas, will instil fear in many women. We are working hard to remove offenders of this type from our streets.'

DC Pacquette also paid tribute to the victim's bravery.

He added: 'The young lady targeted by Abbas has been incredibly brave, determined and patient throughout this investigation and the court proceedings.

'She no longer lives in the UK, and due to Abbas's not guilty plea, was compelled to return to Britain and quarantine in order to take part in the trial process.

'I applaud her actions to help ensure that other women are spared the perverse attentions of this man.'

Anyone who has been a victim of a sexual offence can contact police on 101.
An Arizona judge says a man may begin establishing an estate on behalf of an aborted fetus so he can sue a clinic for terminating his third wife's pregnancy.

Mario Villegas, 41, was allowed to establish an estate for the embryo, dubbed 'Baby Villegas,' in order to sue Jackrabbit Family Medicine Inc. and Camelback Family Planning, which carried out an abortion for ex-wife Meagan in 2018.

Villegas, a U.S. Marine veteran who accompanied Meagan during the procedure and consultations, claimed doctors failed to properly inform her of the health risks of an abortion, as well as not telling his ex-wife about the 'satisfaction' that comes with being a mother.

He says those oversights constitute breaches of Arizona's informed consent laws for abortion patients. But his ex-wife Meagan Speer-Villegas has refuted his claims, and insists she has no regrets about having the procedure.

Gila County Superior Court Judge Bryan B. Chambers said he'd allow Villegas to make the argument that the aborted fetus was a person worthy of an estate.

But he said he would withhold judgement on whether the fetus could legally have an estate represent it until a later date.

Villegas, who has been married three times, claims his fetus was a daughter, even though the sex of the embryo was never determined.

Villegas, of Solon, Iowa, originally filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the clinic and its doctors in 2020, claiming the physicians failed to obtain proper consent from his ex-wife.

Arizona holds informed consent laws, which dictates that abortion patients are to have a counseling session and a 24-hour period to mull their decision over before terminating their pregnancies.

'Defendants failed to obtain Meagan's informed consent because they did not tell her of the immediate and long-term medical risks associated with abortion that a reasonable patient would consider material, including the loss of the intense and emotionally satisfying maternal bond and relationship inherent in birthing and raising that child,' the lawsuit states.

Mario Villegas, 41, a U.S. Marine veteran, has been allowed to sue the clinics and doctors who carried out an abortion for his ex-wife in 2018

Gila County Superior Court Judge Bryan B. Chambers said he'd allow Villegas to make the argument that the aborted fetus was a person worthy of an estate.

Villegas had accompanied his ex-wife, Meagan, to terminate her pregnancy at the Camelback Family Planning facility, in Phoenix, Arizona

Attorneys for Villegas argued that medical providers rushed his ex-wife through the abortion procedure

Establishing an estate for a fetus is rare in the U.S., but Villegas reportedly heard about an Alabama case where a man sued the abortion provider for his ex-girlfriend in 2019 on behalf of the aborted embryo, ProPublica reported.

That case was ultimately dismissed in 2020, with an appeal struck down by the state's high court.

While the Alabama Constitution recognizes the 'sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children,' Villegas case was up for interpretation.

Arizona does not explicitly define what constitutes as a deceased person, leaving it to a judge to decided if an aborted fetus counts and can have an estate made in its name. It's unclear how many states allow estates to be established on behalf of a fetus or embryo.

The state allowed abortion up until 15 weeks of pregnancy. But providers there have canceled all appointments indefinitely, over an 1864 law banning all abortions that was automatically re-enacted after Roe v. Wade was axed last month.

Earlier this year, Arizona's GOP Governor Doug Ducey signed a bill into law that would only allow abortions up until 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Villegas hired the attorney from the Alabama case, J. Stanley Martineau, and filed a suit against the physicians, which his ex-wife opposed.

'We were not happy together at all,' she told ProPublica, adding that their marriage was failing and that she was worried about starting a family with him.

In a deposition, she described Villegas as emotionally abusive and claimed he would not let her get a job or even leave the house unless he accompanied her.

The couple later split, with Meagan insisting they'd discussed a termination before she had the procedure, having deemed their relationship too unstable to continue with the pregnancy.

Martineau argued that although Meagan signed four consent forms, the suit claims that Dr. Gabrielle Goodrick - of Camelback Family Planning where the Villegas were referred to by Jackrabbit Family Medicine Inc. - rushed them.

The lawsuit claimed that 'evidence shows that in her rush to maximize profits,' Goodrick allegedly 'cut corners' to get the procedure done quickly.

Tom Slutes, Goodrick's attorney, called the lawsuit 'ridiculous.'

'They didn't cut any corners,' he told ProPublica, adding that the woman 'clearly knew what was going to happen and definitely, strongly' wanted the abortion.

Meagan had signed a deposition that said she 'felt completely informed' by the staff prior to the termination of her pregnancy.

Representatives for the Jackrabbit Family Medicine Inc. did not be immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment.

Along with breaching consent laws and undertaking medical malpractice, Villegas also accused the clinics of taking away his fundamental right to parent 'Baby Villegas'

Along with breaching consent laws and undertaking medical malpractice, Villegas also accused the clinics of taking away his fundamental right to parent 'Baby Villegas.'

'Mario has been deprived of the love, affection, comfort, and companionship of his child, Baby Villegas, and has experience, and will continue to experience, pain, grief, sorrow, anguish, stress, and mental suffering as as result of her death,' the suit claims.

Although his lawsuit described 'Baby Villegas' as a girl, the sex of the embryo was never officially determined.

Martineau told ProPublica that the lawsuit is not intended to hurt Villegas ex-wife, but to establish the right of parents in the state.

'He has no desire to harass' he said. 'All he wants to do is make sure it doesn't happen to another father.'

Goodrick condemned the lawsuit, saying since it was filed two years ago, her annual medical malpractice insurance has more than doubled from $32,000 to $67,000.

After the Supreme Court struck down Roe V. Wade last month, Arizona's attorney general filed a motion to lift an injunction on the state's ban on abortion, which prohibits the procedure unless the mother's life is at risk.
A Cornish primary school teacher has been banned from teaching for posting inappropriate pictures of himself and offering to sell sexual services on the internet.

Thomas Heayel, 31, taught at St Columb Minor Academy in St Columb Minor, near Newquay, and was recently the subject of a Teaching Regulation Agency disciplinary hearing.

He was ruled to be guilty of posting or allowing to be displayed one or more inappropriate images of himself on the internet between February and July 2020.

He was also found to have posted or allowed to be displayed one or more images, messages and/or comments on the internet offering to sell sexual services during the same period.

Thomas Heayel, 31, taught at St Columb Minor Academy in St Columb Minor, near Newquay, Cornwall

In this image posted online the primary school teacher encouraged people to message him privately for 'modelling rates'

He was found to have posted pictures in nothing but his underwear, which the panel found could bring the teaching profession into disrepute

Mr Heayel, who started at the school on September 1, 2019, admitted the allegations and that his behaviour amounted to unacceptable professional conduct.

Concerns were first raised by members of the local authority on July 7, 2021, before the teacher was dismissed on July 23.

The disciplinary panel was satisfied that Mr Heayel's conduct fell significantly short of the standards expected of the profession, but that his actions fell 'towards the lower end of sexual misconduct'.

The panel said: 'Whilst the panel had regard to the fact that there was no evidence presented that any pupils had seen or accessed the images online, the panel did consider that as a teacher Mr Heayel was likely to be viewed as a role model by pupils.

'The panel noted that whilst the website where Mr Heayel posted the images was restricted, the images could also be accessed via a generic internet search and one image contained Mr Heayel's name.

'Consequently the images were in the public domain enabling any member of the public, or pupil, to have sight of them.

'The panel therefore concluded Mr Heayel's behaviour would undoubtedly damage the public's perception of the teaching profession and there were public interest factors to consider.'

It also the considered that public confidence in teaching could be 'seriously weakened if conduct, such as that found against Mr Heayel, were not treated with the utmost seriousness when regulating the conduct of the profession.'

The panel noted Mr Heayel's remorse but prohibited him from teaching indefinitely.

It found that although positive references were submitted to them, these were only relevant to Mr Heayels application for employment at the school and no new references had been provided since his misconduct.

The panel concluded there was 'little evidence to suggest that Mr Heayels contribution to the profession had been either long term or significant.'

This means he cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children's home in England.

He can apply for the prohibition order to be set aside, but not until 5 July 2024, two years from the date of the ordert.

In order for Mr Heayel to then return to teaching, he must prove to another Teaching Regulation Agency panel that he is fit to do so.
An Indiana doctor who performed an abortion on a 10-year-old rape victim is considering suing the state's Attorney General who threatened her with legal action.

Dr Caitlin Bernard helped the child obtain the abortion after reporting the procedure to relevant state agencies before the legally mandated deadline.

But motormouth Indiana AG Todd Rokita questioned whether she had reported the procedure to state officials, bragging that he was 'gathering evidence' to see if the doctor could face 'a criminal charge'

Documents obtained by the Washington Post have revealed that Dr Bernard did report the minor's abortion before she was legally mandated to do so.

She added: 'My client, Dr. Caitlin Bernard, took every appropriate and proper action in accordance with the law and both her medical and ethical training as a physician.

'She followed all relevant policies, procedures, and regulations in this case, just as she does every day to provide the best possible care for her patients.'

In a statement Kathleen DeLaney, the doctors attorney, confirmed that Dr Bernard is 'considering legal action against those who have smeared [her], including Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita.'

During an interview with Fox News, Rokita said: 'We're gathering the evidence as we speak, and we're going to fight this to the end  including looking at her licensure, if she failed to report, in Indiana it's a crime to intentionally not report.

He first raised his doubts in a letter to Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, saying that his office had requested, but not received, documentation from state agencies.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita says an investigation has been launched into Dr. Caitlin Bernard. She performed an abortion on the unidentified 10-year-old rape victim whose story made headlines when she was forced to travel from her home state to Indiana

Dr Caitlin Bernard helped the rape victim obtain an abortion, and has now said she is 'considering legal action' against those who have 'smeared her'. Her attorney has also stated that her considerations include AG Rokita

In his interview with Fox News, Rokita ranted: 'First of all this is an illegal immigration issue likely because of Biden's lawlessness at the border and everything going on down there.

'Which is why Indiana as a non boarder state has filed several independent lawsuits on that.

'Then we have the rape, then we have this abortion activist acting as a doctor with a history of failing to report.'

Officials with Indiana University Health said in a statement that Bernard did not violate any privacy laws when she shared an anecdote with the media about the 10-year-old rape victim needing an abortion in Indiana.

They added: 'As part of IU Health's commitment to patient privacy and compliance with privacy laws, IU Health routinely initiates reviews, including the matters in the news concerning Dr. Caitlin Bernard.

'IU Health conducted an investigation with the full cooperation of Dr. Bernard and other IU Health team members.

'IU Health's investigation found Dr. Bernard in compliance with privacy laws.'

In Indiana, abortion is legal up to 22 weeks into a pregnancy and under the state's laws those who provide the procedure are required to report them within 30 days.

Ohio is one of the many states set to impose laws, which would cap abortions at six weeks and do not have exceptions for rape or incest. Also in the state of Ohio, doctors are mandated to report abuse of minors

The mother (pictured hiding behind her front door) of a 10-year-old Ohio girl who was raped and impregnated by an illegal immigrant has denied the charges against Gerson Fuentes (not pictured). She claims her daughter is 'fine' and Fuentes is the subject of 'lies'

Any patients who are younger than 16 the reporting window is cut down to three days, and doctors must alert both Indiana's department of health and department of child services.

This is a way for authorities to launch investigations into possible child abuse cases.

The rape victim, a 10-year-old girl from Ohio, was attacked by illegal immigrant Gerson Fuentes, 27, who has admitted the crime.

But the mother of the child has sensationally denied the charges, claiming that her daughter is 'fine' after being forced to travel to Indiana to get an abortion.

In an interview with Noticias the girls mother claimed that 'everything they're saying against him is a lie.'

Fuentes was arraigned on Wednesday in Columbus, where he faces a charge of felony first-degree rape of a child under 13 with his bail was set at $2 million.

Gerson Fuentes, 27, (pictured) was arrested on July 12 and has been charged with one count of rape after police say he confessed to raping the child two different times

The woman reportedly said she has not filed charges against Fuentes, even though he was charged with rape after confessing to having 'vaginal contact' with the girl on at least two occasions.

The girl recently celebrated her 10th birthday, leaving investigators to suspect she was only nine years old when she was raped and later became pregnant.

Her case was first reported on July 1, a week after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and gained international attention.

The victim was forced to travel to Indiana for the procedure as it is barred in her home state due to the so-called heartbeat bill, which bans abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected.

The Ohio bill does not have any exceptions for rape, incest or abuse.

Initially the girl had sought treatment from an Ohio doctor but was turned away because she was just over six weeks pregnant, the cut-off imposed by a new state law.

She then asked Bernard for help on June 30, and the doctor then alerted Indiana's department of health and department of child services of the girl's abortion on July 2, noting that she had been a victim of abuse.

Police were made aware of the girl's pregnancy through a referral by the Franklin County Children Services that had been made by her mother on June 22.

Columbus police Detective Jeffrey Huhn, who testified at Fuentes' arraignment Wednesday, claims the girl named the Guatemalan resident as her attacker and the father of her child.

Ohio AG Dave Yost Yost had claimed in an interview that there was no 'biological evidence' to the story, and that he hadn't heard a 'whisper anywhere' about the little girl. He was then forced to issue a statement after the charges were brought against Fuentes

In a statement on Wednesday, Yost quickly took a different tack on the case following the charges. He initially claimed that Ohio's abortion laws have a 'medical exception'

He also testified that DNA evidence collected from the clinic in Indianapolis will be tested against samples taken from Fuentes, The Columbus Dispatch reported.

Officials are also testing DNA collected from the child's siblings in an attempt to confirm who fathered the fetus.

The case has been under scrutiny by Ohio officials, specifically Attorney General Dave Yost, since it first made national headlines earlier this month.

Yost, during a Fox News interview Monday, claimed there's no 'biological evidence' to the story and he hasn't heard a 'whisper anywhere' about the little girl before the charges were brought.

The AG also noted that 'Ohio's heartbeat law has a medical exception, which is broader than just the life of the mother.'

Following the news of Fuentes' arrest, the AG's office released a statement, reading in part: 'My heart aches for the pain suffered by this young child.

'I am grateful for the diligent work of the Columbus Police Department in securing a confession and getting a rapist off the street.

'Justice must be served and BCI stands ready to support law enforcement across Ohio putting these criminals behind bars.'
Fewer than a third of the US' white collar workforce show up to the office on Fridays, a new study has revealed as firms dream up lavish perks to try and lure them back.

The statistics, tabulated by New York property management company Kastle Systems, illustrates the persisting popularity of the hybrid work model well into the pandemic, particularly towards the end of the workweek.

Just 30 per cent of staff are showing up on Fridays, according to swipe card data. Tuesday and Wednesday are the busiest days of the week for offices, with half of workers showing up on both days.

On Monday, just 41 per cent will show up, while Thursdays see 46 per cent of workers come into the office - even though the COVID pandemic began close to two-and-a-half years ago.

The phenomenon has left employers at a loss as to how to fill seats as turnout dwindles - with many high-profile companies now enlisting services such as food trucks and wine carts to incentivize staffers to stop working from home.

Online Optimism, a marketing firm with offices in New Orleans, Washington DC and Georgia has laid on a 4pm Friday happy hour for workers who come in.

The only rule is that staff are not allowed to drink shots.

Online Optimism, which does not have any requirements for in-office work, reports that as many as 80 percent of its 25 employees show up on days when theres free food.

'Honestly, the best socializing happens on Friday,' CEO Flynn Zaiger told the Post. 'Why not have a beer or two? If people are going to be a little less productive one day of the week, Id rather it be Friday than Monday.'

Less than a third of the US' white collar workforce show up to the office on Fridays, a new study has revealed - and a slew of firms are responding by instilling a variety of over-the-top perks to lure back the wayward workers

Other reported fringe benefits include costume contests and karaoke sing-offs, all organized with one goal in mind - get workers off the couch and back to their desks.

However, according to the statistics compiled by Kastle, which provides building security services for 2,600 buildings across the US, that may be no simple task.

Many employers have embraced the new work climate, with high-profile companies such as New York-based CitiGroup declaring Fridays 'Zoom-free,' and accounting giant KPMG implementing a similar 'no-camera Fridays' policy.

The company, also headquartered in the Big Apple, also lets employees clock out for the weekend at 3 pm during the summertime - a practice that is becoming increasingly commonplace, human resource professionals say.

Many feel the trend is now here to stay.

'Its becoming a bit of cultural norm,' Peter Cappelli, director of the Center for Human Resources at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, told the Washington Post Friday of the recent movement toward remote work.

'You know nobody else is going to the office on Friday, so maybe youll work from home, too,' Cappelli said.

Meanwhile, some companies have even begun to nix Fridays altogether, with Crowdfunding platform Kickstarter and online consignment shop ThredUp, based in New York and the Bay Area, respectively, among a small but growing number of firms moving to a four-day workweek, from Monday to Thursday.

Executives at Bolt, a technology company in San Francisco that seeks to streamline customers' checkout process while shopping on the internet, started experimenting with no-work Fridays last summer.

But earlier this year, it was forced to lay off a third of its 1,000 staff after profits slumped.

Bolt is continuing with the four day work-week experiment regardless.

Some firms are experimenting with in-office happy hours to try and lure staff back into work on a Friday

'Even before the pandemic, people thought of Friday as a kind of blowoff day,' Cappelli told The Post. 'And now there's a growing expectation that you can work from home to jump-start your weekend.'

Other companies, however, have been slower to embrace the hybrid routine - and are now brainstorming ways to bring back remote workers to the fold, as they continue to pay astronomical rent for these office spaces amid - in many cases - decreased productivity.

Those firms - which sport offices in cities across the globe including New York, San Francisco, New Orleans, and Washington, DC - have elected to implement practices such as early happy hours, catered events, and even company-paid food trucks to address the diminished attendance on Fridays.

Julie Schweber, an adviser at the Society of Human Resource Management, says the logic behind the policies is simple - 'If you feed them, they will come.'

She told The Post Friday: 'Employers recognize that its tougher to get people to come back in, so theyre asking, "What can we do?"'

'The answer is basically: If you feed them, they will come. Food trucks, special catered events, ice cream socials, thats whats popular right now.'

And popular it is.

Others have rustled up food trucks, with one HR expert saying: 'If you feed them, they will come'

Those rapidly changing standards have fast spread across the country, with restaurants in areas usually trafficked by office workers forced to adapt with closures and earlier happy hours to accommodate the new climate.

The desire to work from home on Fridays is pretty clear-cut, Johnny Taylor, chief executive of the Society for Human Resource Management, told The Post.

'When you ask employees when they want to work from home, everyone wants Fridays,' Taylor, who began experimenting with hybrid work at his company in 2015, said.

He said that his early experiments with remote work, particularly remote Fridays, were a failure, with staffers ignoring their work towards the end of the week as early as lunchtime on Thursday, causing a drop in productivity.

Now however, he insists that times have changed, with office workers now accustom to the nuances of teleworking.

'Fridays from home have become institutionalized,' said Taylor, who now allows remote work on both Mondays and Fridays. 'Theres really no turning back.'

The latest monthly Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes survey shows that most organizations currently subscribe to a hybrid work model - with 56.1 percent offering fewer than three days of remote work a week and 16% are offering two.

Roughly 30 percent, however are not offering any, the org found - whereas about ten allow for one day.

Meanwhile, a majority of employees also say they want to work remotely for three or more days - with 15.6 percent prefering three; 9.3 percent choosing four; and 31.2 percent asking for the full five days.

Workplace experts, meanwhile, have warned that employers may risk losing more staffers if they mandate a full in-person work week.
The House passed a bill 219-210 to codify the right to an abortion on Friday and passed one 223-205 to ensure women can travel across state lines to get the procedure if necessary.

Every Republican voted against the 2022 Women's Health Protection Act to codify abortion rights, and every Democrat except Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, voted for the bill.

The House voted to pass the Ensuring Access to Abortion Act, which would enshrine protections for interstate abortions, with three Republicans joining all Democrats in voting yes.

Neither bill is expected to go anywhere in the Senate.

The House first passed an updated version of the Women's Health Protection Act (WHPA) after first passing the measure in February. The bill failed the Senate 51-49 in a procedural vote in May.

The bill would have needed 60 votes, 10 from Republicans, to pass, but failed to garner even a simple majority as Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., voted against it, as did pro-choice Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski, Alaska, and Susan Collins, Maine.

Congress has faced increasing heat to act on abortion rights after the Supreme Court in June voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case legalizing abortion pre-viability, in Jackson v. Women's Health Organization.

Republican Sens. Susan Collins, Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, Alaska, who opposed the Supreme Court overturning Roe last month and have put forth their own legislation to codify abortion rights, think the WHPA goes too far and could infringe on religious freedom protections.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, backed up by female House Democrats, speaks about abortion rights ahead of a vote on the Women's Health Protection Act (WHPA)

Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., who introduced the WHPA, speaks ahead of the second successful House vote on the bill she led

Democrats also passed legislation that would prevent either women or health care providers from being prosecuted for abortions if a woman travels across state lines to obtain an abortion.

No state currently bans out-of-state travel for abortions, though conservative lawmakers in a handful of GOP-led states have floated the idea. On the other hand, some liberal states have already taken steps to become abortion safe havens and promised to refuse cooperation in cross-state investigations into abortion cases.

In total 26 states have laws that indicate they are moving to outlaw or severely limit abortions in their state since the overturning of Roe.

On Thursday House Speaker Nancy Pelosi defended voting for a second time on the WHPA, which will not pass the Senate, rather than working with moderates on a slimmer bill that could garner a few Republican votes.

'We're not going to negotiate on a woman's right to choose. Senators Murkowski and Senator Collins may have their view, but it is not one about a woman having the right to decide. So we're not negotiating that, no,' Pelosi said in her weekly briefin
An 82-year-old man was violently attacked and killed by a serial felon at a bus stop in Portland on June 27.

Donald A. Pierce, 82, and Edward Lichtenstein, 88, were the victims of an unprovoked attack near the Portland State University campus.

Lichtenstein has been released from hospital, but Pierce died from his injuries at a hospital more than a week after the attack.

Witnesses told police that Keffer James White, 29, approached the men and started making fun of them for being old.

White then headbutted Lichtenstein, knocking him over, before knocking Pierce into the street and kicking him repeatedly in the head.

White then returned to Lichtenstein and proceeded to punch the man in the face.

Pierce sustained serious head and face trauma from the kicks that led to his death, while Lichtenstein received more minor injuries.

Donald A. Pierce, a lifetime professor and researcher, was beaten to death by Keffer James White, 29, in an unprovoked attack at a Portland bus stop

Keffer James White appears in court after violently attacking two men, one of whom died after White kicked him repeatedly in the head

The corner where the attack occurred in Portland, close to the Portland State University

Police were responding to an unrelated call in a nearby area when they happened upon the assault and arrested White.

After Pierce's death, White is being charged with second-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and second-degree assault in the case.

White has a lengthy rap sheet, and arrests prior to him assaulting the two men include unauthorized use of a vehicle, being a felon in possession of a firearm and strangulation.

White is being held without bail at the Multnomah County Jail.

His next court appearance will be on Friday, according to court records.

Pierce lived in Southwest Portland and was an accomplished professor and academic.

After receiving his Ph.D. in statistics from Oklahoma State University in 1965, Pierce went on to teach at Oregon State University for 30 years, from 1966 to 1996.

Pierce moved to Japan in 1996 in order to research the effects and cancer risks the atomic bombs had on Japanese residents.

The 82-year-old was also successful outside of university campuses, editing several major academic publications, authoring academic articles and serving on the board of statistics associations.

Edward Lichtenstein, 88, was also attacked by Keffer James White, but released from hospital

Pierce was recently teaching at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, where he taught biostatistics.

Portland has seen a dramatic rise in crime as of late, especially in terms of gun violence.

Portland police say there have been 670 reported shootings in the city so far this year, with 41 reported homicides.

But many say the rise of drug use in the city due to decriminalization legislation has spurred the crime rate upwards.

Oregon was the first state in the United States to decriminalize possession of personal-use amounts of heroin, methamphetamine, LSD, oxycodone and other drugs after voters approved a ballot measure in 2020 to decriminalize hard drugs.

Drug overdose deaths in the state also hit an all-time high in 2021 with 1,069, a 41 percent increase from 2020, Fox News reported.

And of the 1,885 people who received tickets for personal possession in the first year, only 91 people, a measly one percent, called the hotline, according to its non-profit operator, Lines For Life.

There is no information on whether White was under the influence when he initiated the unprovoked attack on Pierce and Lichtenstein.
BBC Breakfast's Naga Munchetty took a dress down from co-host Charlie Stayt and is facing backlash online after acting 'rudely' during a segment of reporting from an ice cream factory on this morning's show.

The interview, carried out by reporter Hannah Miller, saw the programme go live to Snugburys ice cream factory in Nantwich at just after 9am.

After having a jovial exchange with the factory worker and tasting some of the flavours on offer, Ms Miller turned back to the studio and told Naga and Charlie: 'It's definitely not too early. I bet you wish you were here now!'

While the ice cream maker laughed, Naga cut in to say 'I don't like ice cream Hannah.'

Naga (right) and Charlie (left) seemed to have some underlying tension following the segment, before Charlie made a point of returning to usual Breakfast programming

Business Correspondent Hannah Miller did her best to keep up the fun and cheeriness of the segment, but the ice cream factory worker was clearly left rather embarrassed

The drama came about after Ms Miller tried some of the ice cream being made at the Nantwich factory, before quipping 'I bet you wish you were here now!'

Charlie and Naga have had a few fraught moments in recent months, with viewers suggesting they are not fans of each other

She went on to say she doesn't like 'cold food' and isn't a fan of brownies either.

The segment turned rather frosty as Naga spoke, with several awkward pauses.

But the business presenter tried to inject some fun back into proceedings at the end, telling the rather embarrassed factory worker: 'Well I'm having a great time.'

As the camera cut away, Naga added: 'Well I'm glad you are enjoying the ice cream.'

But that wasn't the end of the awkward encounter, as Naga's co-host Charlie called her out for what she said on live TV.

'Do you think you rather brought the tone down there, if you don't mind me saying?', commented Charlie - he seemed visibly surprised by Naga's answers during the segment and was looking at her intently.

But Naga's response did not sit well with viewers, as she simply laughed and said: 'Oh be quiet, come on.'

She did then say 'I apologise', but laughed again.

Charlie continued staring at his co-host and said: 'Well she was working hard doing the story and then...'

The clip went viral on social media after Chris posted on Twitter, claiming Naga had tried to 'make it all about herself'

He then seemed to remember they were on air and quickly cut back to the autocue to resume regular Breakfast programming.

The rather tense exchange did not go unnoticed, and viewers have been quick to share their reactions, calling Naga 'rude', 'mean' and claiming she was trying to make the programme 'all about herself.'

Others praised her co-presenter and Ms Miller for their hard work, and pledged support to the factory worker in shot.

But some viewers didn't see a problem with Naga's questioning and pointed out that she apologised after the segment was over.

Her supporters criticised Charlie for 'rudely dressing her down on national TV'.

Meanwhile BBC Breakfast put a clip of the interaction on social media and captioned it with Naga's 'I don't like ice cream' comment. The post continued: 'Which one of the #BBCBreakfast team reveals they aren't a fan of ice cream?'

Naga hit headlines earlier this week as it was announced that the BBC is giving her a 110,000 pay rise, meaning her salary will now be 365,000 per year.

This encompasses her work on BBC Breakfast, radio and Panorama.

MailOnline has contacted the BBC for comment.
Smuggling networks have long been known for the creation of odd-looking makeshift vessels in order to ferry migrants from Cuba to Florida.

They certainly did not disappoint, albeit in what was an unsuccessful attempt at getting three Cuban men to the United States.

The men had their American dreams shattered when an aerial U.S. Customs and Border Protection unit that was patrolling the waters between Florida and the Caribbean communist island, spotting them aboard a yellow childrens convertible 69 miles south of Key West last Saturday.

CBP immediately contacted the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Key West around 2:30 pm to alert them of the rustic vessel.

The three individuals were removed and brought into a Coast Guard vessel.

Three migrants from Cuba were intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard last Saturday 69 miles south of the Florida Keys after they were spotted by a U.S. Coast Guard maritime unit

Their interdiction was among eight that were made between Saturday and Monday evenings.

The men eventually were repatriated to Cuba with 74 other migrants on Wednesday, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

Coast Guard crews maintain an active presence with air and sea assets every day through the Florida Straits to help save lives by removing people from unsafe environments," said Coast Guard District Seven Lt. Travis Poulos said in a statement. "Our crews help prevent people from losing their lives in these dangerous attempts."

The U.S. Coast Guard has seen a sharp increase in interdictions of Cuban migrants in sea waters.

The spike in Cubans fleeing the communist-run island over the last two years has been mostly driven by the scarcity of basic goods, restrictions on civil liberties and the mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As of Wednesday, the maritime military service reported 3,369 encounters with Cubans in fiscal year 2022, which spans from October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022.

In comparison, 1,459 interdictions were reported from fiscal year 2018 to 2021.

In the past, those fleeing the socialist regime had been allowed to remain in the United States under President Bill Clinton's 'wet foot, dry foot' 1995 policy, which revised the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act. The law granted them eligibility to become residents within a year.

However, President Barack Obama did away with the immigration policy on January 12, 2017, signing an executive decision that put an end to the longstanding law that granted permanent residency to Cubans reaching the country.

Cubans caught at sea by U.S. authorities are returned to communist island or the country from where they originally departed under United States policy.
Surveillance footage shows the shocking moment a Mustang, driven by a 16-year-old, sped through an intersection before getting hit by an SUV and splitting in half after it hit a tree, killing three.

Ring camera footage, obtained by the Staten Island Advance, shows the tragic moment siblings Jesie Gil, 15, and Fernanda Gil, 16, and their friend Ashley Rodriguez, 15, died on Saturday night.

The driver, a 16-year-old who has not been identified, can be seen driving the luxury car down Hylan Boulevard when a 2017 GMC Yukon pulls a left hand turn.

The Mustang can be seen veering toward the sidewalk before it appears to clip the corner of the Yukon, which is mid-turn. The car swerves off camera and reportedly hits a tree, which causes the two 15-year-olds in the backseat to be ejected from the vehicle.

It comes back into view of the Ring camera, spinning out into the roadway, before shooting across and hitting a telephone pole.

Dramatic surveillance footage shows the moment a Mustang, carry four teenagers, crashes into a GMC Yukon on Saturday night, killing three of the teens

After the two collided, the Mustang goes out of view and hits a tree, ejecting Ashley Rodriguez and Jesie Gil, both 15, out of the car

The vehicle then shot across the road and slammed into a telephone pole, killing Fernanda Gil, 16

According to the NYPD the red mustang had been travelling east at an 'unsafe speed,' while the Yukon had been travelling westbound and prepared to turn left.

Police are unable to confirm the speed, as NYC's speed cameras only operate between 10am and 6pm. As of August 1, it will move to 24 hours, according to the Staten Island Advance.

Fernanda, who had been in the front of the car, was rushed to Staten Island University Hospital North but was pronounced dead on arrival.

Both Ashley and Jesie were pronounced dead at the scene, while the driver of the mustang was rushed to hospital where he remains in a critical but stable condition.

A police source told the Staten Island Advance that the driver only had a learner's permit and should have had a licensed adult in the car.

The red Mustang was completely mangled by the force of the collision, with its airbags blown and glass shattered all over the street.

The black SUV had four passengers inside, a 44-year-old female, a 19-year-old female, a 23-year-old male and an 11-year-old female.

They all suffered minor injuries and were transported by EMS to Staten Island University Hospital North.

The driver of the Yukon, a Maher Asi-Mahmoud, 47, was arrested for driving while having a suspended driver's license with charges pending.

Rodriguez (pictured) died in the crash on Saturday. She was a week away from her Sweet 16 birthday party

Fernanda and Jesie Gil (pictured) were killed in the crash, alongside their friend

The NYPD's Highway Collision Investigation Squad is investigating, and no charges have been filed in connection with the grisly crash.

'Hylan Boulevard is Staten Islands Boulevard of Death,' Transportation Alternatives on Staten Island and South Brooklyn organizer, Rose Uscianowski, told the Staten Island Advance.

The three teens are among the 123 traffic deaths across the five boroughs this year.

Tributes have ben paid to the trio, with Fernanda and Jesie described as having an 'unbreakable bond.'

Ashley, who was riding in the rear of the vehicle with Jesie, had been planning her Sweet 16 birthday party for next week.

Ashley's sister Giselle Cruz posted a GoFundMe link online, writing: 'Anything will help, my baby sister was only 15 years old, a share will even be so much appreciated.

'My Ashley, Rest in Peace, the only sister I had is gone now, but flying high. Forever My Little Angel.'

The fundraiser has garnered more than its $25,000 goal.

Fernanda and Jesie's funeral visitation is Friday from 5pm to 9pm at Martin Hughes Funeral Home on Staten Island.

A family friend of Fernanda and Jesie has also set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for a funeral for the siblings.

It has reach $24,000 of its $30,000 goal, as of early Friday afternoon.

They wrote: 'Fernanda was the most kind hearted , thoughtful , most caring person I've ever known.

'She had a beautiful soul and was always upbeat. Her and her brother were always so close and had an unbreakable bond.

The accident happened on Hyland Boulevard and Richard Avenue (pictured) on Saturday

The car can be see wrapped around a telephone pole after the accident

'Jessie was a shy person, but yet very funny at times, as well as, Ashley. Fernanda and her family were very close and I can only imagine the hurt that they're going through at this time.

'Heaven received three beautiful angels, may they rest in paradise.'

Juan Sanchez, the teens' uncle, paid tribute to his niece and nephew, telling the New York Daily News: 'It's like a nightmare. Their parents are broken.

'We're trying right now [to plan the funeral] with someone who was helping us plan a wedding. We've never been in this situation.'

Jesie attended Tottenville High School while his older sister went to New Dorp High School, with relatives confirming they were their parents only children.
Two drug dealers appeared in a California court room Friday for the murders of 10 people in a 1993 Westlake apartment arson fire in Los Angeles.

Johanna Lopez and Joseph Monge appeared at the Los Angeles Superior Court in front of Judge Curtis B. Rappe on murder charges in connection with an arson fire that killed 10 people and injured more than 40.

Lopez was arrested in 2011 and pled guilty to manslaughter in 2020. Monge was arrested in 2017 along with accomplice Ramiro Valerio for conspiracy to commit murder. Monge plead guilty in 2020 to one count of voluntary manslaughter and admitted to his gang affiliation, according to the Los Angeles District Attorney's office.

The hearing was postponed until August 5 to give attorneys for Lopez and Monge enough time to file papers to lessen their sentences.

Johanna Lopez appeared in court today for the first time in years, after she was found in connection of the 1993 Los Angeles apartment fire that killed 10

Joseph Monge appeared on Friday in connection with the Los Angeles fire

Residents of the building were throwing children out of windows hoping they would be caught. The man in the photo above, witnessed a dead child in front of the building

The fire killed 10 tenants - including two pregnant women. About 40 people were injured and 100 more displaced

Residents attempted to jump out the windows to save their lives. A medical technician is viewed in the photo nearby the body of a pregnant woman who was one of the 10 to die

Fire was set to a mattress in the hallway of the complex and quickly spread. The case was unsolved for years until police arrested Lopez as a suspect

Monge was allegedly recruited by Lopez to commit the act

Valerio was found guilty of 12 counts of murder last month and was sentenced to life in prison without parole - despite insisting he didn't set the fire.

Meanwhile, another unidentified individual was allegedly responsible for the blaze but fled to Mexico, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The street the apartment complex sat on at 330 S. Burlington Ave. was home to drug dealing and street gangs that allegedly terrorized residents.

Officials said in 2017 that Lopez was paying a street gang for the right to distribute cocaine in the area, and schemed with Monge and Valerio to set the building on fire, The Los Angeles Times reported.

Lopez testified that she gave Valerio thousands of dollars a week for allowing her to staff the street with drug dealers. At the time of the fire, Valerio was making $25,000.

The arrests of the suspects was delayed until years later, as residents of the building refused to answer to police about the fire due to fear of local gang members. Some agreed to come forward and testify in 2017, over 20 years after the fire.

Isabela Diego (pictured above) held her son in her arms after dropping her two children out the window

The apartment building remains standing and can be seen in the photo taken in June 2022

The May 3, 1993 fire was suspected to be set by the suspects after the apartment manager wanted to halt drug dealings in the building. Lopez said Romero and Valerio said they would handle it.

The apartment manager was moving into a second-floor unit when a mattress caught fire in the hallway.

The flames rapidly spread as immigrants from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico attempted to escape from death by jumping out the windows and climbing down higher stories with tied bed sheets.

Children were dropped from the second and third stories in hopes they would be caught down below. Children between the ages of 15 months to 11 years died.

Following the deadly blaze, two men were charged in connection to the fire, but the case was dropped due to lack of evidence.

The 10 people killed in the fire included Olga Leon, 24, and her three children, Alejandrina Roblero, 29, and her three children, Rosalia Ruiz, 21, and Lancy Mateo, 1.

Leon and Ruiz were pregnant at the time of their deaths.

The hearing was postponed until August 5 to give attorneys for Lopez and Monge enough time to file papers to lessen their sentences

Ramiro Valerio (left) and Joesph Monge (right) were arrested in 2017 in connection with the 1993 fire. Apartment owners at the time refused to tell police what they knew out of fear of retaliation from local gangs

Johanna Lopez, 51, recruited Valerio and Monge to assist with the setting the complex on fire after the apartment manager attempted to shut down drug trafficking in the area

Valerio was reportedly an informant for the FBI following the fire, according to The Times. He denied any connection with the fire but his reports resulted in the boss of the Columbia Lol Cycos, Francisco 'Puppet' Martinez in being arrested.

Gang members and drug dealers eventually came forward and admitted Valerio discussed potentially lighting a fire to the apartment as a message to the manager. He was later arrested in 2017 at his work in Santa Clarita.
Advertisement

Heavily armed Taliban fighters have been pictured riding swan pedalos on a lake in Afghanistan, as women continue to be oppressed under the rule of the jihadists.

Photographs, taken on Thursday, showed several pedalos being operated by the jihadi fighters - some of whom were seen carrying military-grade rifles - on Band e-Amir Lake in the country's Bamyan province.

Some of the pedalos were shaped like swans, and appeared to also be transporting tourists on the lake.

Heavily armed Taliban fighters (pictured) have been pictured riding swan pedalos on a lake in Afghanistan, as women continue to be oppressed under the rule of the jihadists

Photographs, taken on Thursday, showed several pedalos being operated by the jihadi fighters - some of whom were seen carrying military-grade rifles - on Band e-Amir Lake in the country's Bamyan province

Some of the pedalos were shaped like swans, and appeared to also be transporting tourists on the lake

The majority of the tourists appeared to be men, but some women dressed in hijabs could also be seen in the small boats out on the clear blue water.

The lake is found in Afghanistan's Band-e Amir National Park - once a hotspot for international travellers and domestic tourists. Since the Taliban seized power last year, tourism to the country is now almost non-existent.

The park contains a series of six deep blue lakes situated in the Hindu Kush mountains, roughly 45 miles from Bamiyan, east of Kabul. It is formerly the home of the Buddhas of Bamiyan, which the Taliban destroyed in 2001.

Pictures on Wednesday also showed some domestic tourists at the site where the Buddhas once stood, while Taliban fighters patrolled the area with AK-47 assault rifles.

The lake is found in Afghanistan's Band-e Amir National Park - once a hotspot for international travellers and domestic tourists. The park contains a series of six deep blue lakes situated in the Hindu Kush mountains, roughly 45 miles from Bamiyan, east of Kabul. It is formerly the home of the Buddhas of Bamiyan, which the Taliban destroyed in 2001. Pictured: A group of women walk past the site where the Buddhas once stood on Wednesday

A tourist visits the site where the Shahmama Buddha statue once stood before being destroyed by the Taliban in March 2001

Taliban fighters stand guard in front of the site where the Shahmama Buddha statue once stood before being destroyed by the Taliban in March 2001, in Bamiyan province

The pictures demonstrate a dirth of international tourism to Afghanistan, with travel to all areas of the country labelled as unsafe by many governments since the Taliban took back control of the country in August last year as international forces backing a pro-Western government pulled out.

Since then, human rights - particularly those of women and girls - have been severely curtailed, with the Taliban bringing back strict laws that deprive them of equal rights to men, such as access to education and jobs.

Last week, the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution condemning rights violations against women and girls in the country, and urged the Taliban to end practices described as making them 'invisible'.

'Since August 2021, the human rights situation in Afghanistan has seriously deteriorated, especially for women and girls,' said Czech ambassador Vaclav Balek on behalf of the EU, which brought the resolution.

'Restrictive measures put in place by the Taliban are making (them) ... invisible in Afghanistan society.'

Since the fall of Kabul, the Taliban have been pictured on several occasions visiting the country's tourist sites.

In September - one month after their victory - dozens of fighters were seen riding fairground rides and riding pedalos at a theme park near Kabul. A week earlier, others were pictured at the Band e-Amir Lake doing the same thing, while women around the country protested against their treatment.
A hardworking immigrant who worked as a food runner and bus boy at a popular Manhattan restaurant has died after he was robbed and viciously beaten by five men in the South Bronx on a bridge that is notorious for random attacks.

Tiburcio Castillo, 37, affectionately known as 'Tibo,' died on Tuesday after he was beaten into a coma and spent 13 days on life support after the June 28 attack, the Upper East Site reports.

The married father of four worked at the French Bistro Quatorze located at 1578 First Avenue at 82nd Street in New York City.

Castillo was riding his e-bike to his home in the South Bronx after finishing his work shift. He was riding along the Willis Avenue Bridge when he was ambushed by five men who beat and robbed him.

The five men who allegedly brutally murdered Castillo have not been caught. An NYPD spokesperson told DailyMail.com on Friday that 'a complaint was never filed with the name Tiburcio Castillo.'

The Willis Avenue Bridge that extends from First Avenue and East 124th Street in Manhattan to Willis Avenue and East 134th Street in The Bronx, has been known to be 'one of the most dangerous in the city' and a place where 'assaults and robberies are frequently committed,' according to Sergio Solano, one of the leaders of deliverista advocacy group, El Diario de lose Deliveryboys en la Gran Manzana (The Diary of the Delivery Boys in the Big Apple) reported.

When Castillo did not return home or show up at his work shift at the restaurant the next day, his family grew frantic.

He was later found at Lincoln Hospital in The Bronx fighting for his life.

On Tuesday, Castillo succumbed to his injuries.

Tiburcio Castillo, 37, affectionately known as 'Tibo,' died on Tuesday after a vicious assault left him in a coma and on life support for 13 days. He leaves behind a wife and four children, ranging in age from 4 to 14 years old

The Willis Avenue Bridge that extends from First Avenue and East 124th Street in Manhattan to Willis Avenue and East 134th Street in The Bronx, has been known to be ' one of the most dangerous in the city' and a place where 'assaults and robberies are frequently committed,' according to Sergio Solano, one of the leaders of a deliverista advocacy group, El Diario de los Deliveryboys en la Gran Manzana (The Diary of the Delivery Boys in the Big Apple) reported

Castillo had been working at Quatorze for six months before the brutal attack.

Alex McNeice, partner at Quatorze restaurant, told DailyMail.com that Castillo was all about his family and providing for them. He was also active in the school community.

He said Castillo was the breadwinner and would send money to his family in Mexico.

'Just an unbelievably kind individual,' he said.

McNeice said he recently got his cousin and younger brother a job at the restaurant.

'He was a beautiful, beautiful person,' McNeice said. 'He always had a smile on his face. Never complained. He worked here six nights a week by choice.'

On Friday, McNeice arranged for a fundraiser at his restaurant to support Castillo's family. He said 150 people are expected to attend and estimates $10,000-$12,000 will be raised.

'It is going to be one of the biggest nights we ever had here. There has been so much support from residents and the community,' McNeice said.

On Friday, McNeice arranged for a fundraiser at his restaurant to support Castillo's family. He said 150 people are expected to attend and estimates $10,000-$12,000 will be raised

Quatorze has been a long-running Upper East Side establishment for nearly 40 years, located on East 79th Street before moving to its current location at East 82nd Street.

'Guests have been coming in and making their own donations by giving cash or writing personal checks,' he said.

McNeice also created a GoFundMe to help the Castillo family. The goal was originally $10,000 but has surpassed more than $50,000 as of Friday afternoon.

He told DailyMail.com that all the individuals involved in the fatal attack on Castillo have not been caught.

Two teens, between the ages of 15 and 16, were taken in but later released because they could not be be identified, he said.

When DailyMail.com tried to confirm this detail with an NYPD spokesperson, they did not respond.

'The should have been avoided,' McNiece said. 'This particular bridge [Willis Avenue Bridge] is where many assaults have happened before. It seems these immigrant communities don't get the same protection and it has to stop.'
Advertisement

President Joe Biden laughed on Friday night after he was questioned about criticism over his fist bump with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman outside the royal palace in Jeddah.

The image of the friendly fist bump drew harsh backlash from the publisher of the Washington Post and the widow of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed in a gruesome assassination that US intelligence services say bin Salman ordered.

Questioned about criticism of the fist bump by a DailyMail.com reporter, Biden laughed and then said it was a 'silly question' when asked how he can be sure another murder like that of Khashoggi wouldn't happen again.

Biden also insisted that he brought up Khashoggi's murder in his meeting with bin Salman, who is often referred to by his initials, MBS.

'In respect to the murder of Khashoggi, I raised it at the top of the meeting, making it clear what I thought of it at the time, and what I think of it now,' Biden told reporters from a Jeddah hotel after his meetings with the Saudis. 'I was straightforward and direct ... I made my view crystal clear.'

'What happened to Khashoggi was outrageous,' Biden later offered.

Biden told reporters that MBS 'basically said he was not personally responsible' for the gruesome killing that took place in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

'I indicated I thought he was,' Biden continued. 'He said he was not personally responsible for it and he took action against those who were responsible.'

An American intelligence report said MBS directed the assassination of Khashoggi, a Saudi-born critic of the kingdom, who was living in the United States.

After Biden fist-bumped MBS as he arrived for a series of Friday night meetings at the Al Salman Royal Palace in Jeddah, Fred Ryan, the publisher and CEO of The Washington Post - which employed Khashoggi - called Biden's fist bump with the crown prince 'shameful.'

'The fist bump between President Biden and Mohammed bin Salman was worse than a handshake - it was shameful,' Ryan said in a statement. 'It projected a level of intimacy and comfort that delivers to MBS the unwarranted redemption he has been desperately seeking.'

Hatice Cengiz, Khashoggi's fiancee, shared what she believed her late love's reaction would be to the fist bump: 'Is this the accountability you promised for my murder? The blood of MBS's next victims is on your hands.'

Biden was also read Cengiz's comments by a reporter, who then asked for the president's response.

'I'm sorry she feels that way,' the president answered. 'I was straightforward back then. I was straightforward today.'

A handout photo of President Joe Biden (left) fist-bumping Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (right) as he arrived for a meeting with the controversial royal Friday evening in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

President Joe Biden said Friday night that he brought up the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in his meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

At the press conference, Biden once again downplayed that his meetings in Saudi Arabia were focused on the crown prince, the de facto leader of the oil-rich nation.

After calling Saudi Arabia a 'pariah state' during his campaign for president, Biden now appears eager to re-engage with the kingdom, which is the world's top crude exporter, a US strategic ally, and major buyer of American weapons.

As soaring oil prices feed US inflation, which remains a top political threat to Democrats in November, Biden is hoping to convince Saudi Arabia to open the floodgates on crude exports and bring global energy prices down.

After being received by MBS at the royal palace, the president's first meeting was with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud. Journalists were not allowed in the meeting.

Biden's second sit-down was with MBS and a larger working group of Saudi officials - but reporters were kept so far away the leaders' exchanges were inaudible.

A handout photo of President Joe Biden (left) being escorted into Al Salman Palace by 'MBS,' Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (right) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Friday night

A handout photo of President Joe Biden (left) seated alongside Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (right)

The US intel that led Biden to declare Saudi Arabia a 'pariah state' In 2019 on the campaign trail, Biden vowed to make Saudi Arabia 'pay the price, and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are' over the 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi. The remarks came after U.S. intelligence officials concluded that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman himself ordered the killing of Khashoggi, who was drugged and dismembered at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Evidence reportedly included intercepts of MBS's phone calls in the run-up to the murder as well as communications between the kill team and a senior aide to the crown prince. Nevertheless, with soaring oil prices fueling politically damaging inflation back home, Biden now appears ready to re-engage with Saudi in a bid to convince the kingdom to boost crude exports. Advertisement

Boom microphones, which are standard equipment for broadcast-quality sound and are mounted on poles, were barred from the room.

American journalists shouted questions toward the crown prince asking if he'd apologize to Khashoggi's family and asked Biden if he still viewed Saudi as a pariah state - a comment the now-president made during the presidential campaign - and later said he didn't regret.

MBS smirked at NBC News' Peter Alexander, who had asked the Khashoggi question, but otherwise ignored the reporters.

Alexander later tweeted that a Saudi aide grabbed his arm tightly after he yelled out his query.

Biden's dismissive response to DailyMail.com on Friday is not the first time he has laughed or jeered at a reporter from the White House press corps, a habit that he has occasionally apologized for.

In January, he muttered 'what a stupid question' when asked if he was 'waiting for Putin' to make the first move in Ukraine.

And in December, he laughed and walked away when asked why he wasn't doing more to get answers from China on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Biden's bitterest interaction with the press may have come when he was caught on a hot microphone in January calling Fox News reporter Peter Doocy a 'stupid son of a b***h.'

Doocy had asked whether Biden thought inflation would be a 'political liability' in the midterm elections. Biden later called the journalist to apologize for the SOB remark.

Washington Post Publisher and CEO Fred Ryan called President Joe Biden's fist bump with MBS 'shameful' in a statement Friday. Biden laughed off a question from DailyMail.com about criticism over the gesture

Hatice Cengiz, Khashoggi's fiancee, shared what she believed her late love's reaction would be to the fist bump: 'Is this the accountability you promised for my murder? The blood of MBS's next victims is on your hands'

A handout photo of President Joe Biden (second from right) being walked into the Al Salman palace by MBS (right), flanked by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan (left) and Secretary of State Antony Blinken (second from left)

A handout photo of President Joe Biden's (left) meeting with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz (right) at the Al Salman Palace in Jeddah Friday night. Journalists were not let into the meeting between Biden and the Saudi king

A handout photo of President Joe Biden and his national security team meeting with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz at Al Salman Palace in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

In the run-up to the president's Middle East trip, there were questions about whether Biden would be photographed shaking the hand of MBS.

The White House said Biden would be limiting contact with officials in Israel and Saudi Arabia due to new variants of COVID-19 -- a move that some speculated was designed to avoid a handshake moment with MBS.

In Israel, the president did initially deploy fist bumps when greeting officials, but was seen dropping the protocol to accept warm handshakes from Israeli former PM Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials.

In Saudi Arabia, Biden was greeted at the King Abdulaziz International Airport by two other members of the Saudi royal family: Prince Khalid Al Faisal, the governor of the Makkah Province, and Amb. Reema Bandar Al Saud, Saudi's ambassador to the United States.

The Saudis rolled out a purple carpet for the president - and lined it with an honor guard holding swords.

Biden's direct flight on Air Force One made history - as he became the first U.S. president to fly between Tel Aviv, Israel and Jeddah, which is Saudi's commercial center and gateway to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

Former President George W. Bush had previously flown between Israel and Saudi's capital Riyadh.

Former President Donald Trump flew from Saudi Arabia to Israel, on his first trip abroad as president.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman smiles as he meets with President Joe Biden at the Al Salman Royal Palace Friday in Jeddah

President Joe Biden (center) flanked by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan (right) and Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) participate in a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other Saudi leaders. Biden and MBS' comments were inaudible because reporters weren't allowed to bring boom microphones into the room

Earlier, the president cheered Saudi Arabia's decision to open its airspace to Israeli planes in the hours before his Air Force One flight.

'Saudi Arabia's historic decision to open its airspace for all civilian planes, including those flying to and from Israel, is an important step towards building a more integrated and stable Middle East region,' Biden said in a statement Friday morning from Jerusalem.

The move marked a longstanding ban on Israeli flights overflying Saudi Arabia.

The American president took credit for the thaw.

'While this opening has long been discussed, now, thanks to months of steady diplomacy between my Administration and Saudi Arabia, it is finally a reality,' Biden said.

'Today, I will be the first president of the United States to fly from Israel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia,' he added.

'As we mark this important moment, Saudi Arabia's decision can help build momentum toward Israel's further integration into the region, including with Saudi Arabia,' Biden also said. 'I will do all that I can, through direct diplomacy and leader-to-leader engagement, to keep advancing this groundbreaking process.'

President Joe Biden arrived in Saudi Arabia Friday night, after making a historic flight between Tel Aviv, Isreal and Jeddah

President Joe Biden (left) is greeted on the tarmac by Prince Khaled Al Faisal (center) and Amb. Reema Bandar Al Saud (right), Saudi's ambassador to the United States

President Joe Biden speaks with Saudi officials on the tarmac of the King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah

Workers roll out a purple carpet after President Joe Biden landed in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Friday night

After spending Friday in East Jerusalem and meeting with Mahmoud Abbas, Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, in Bethlehem, Biden departed for Jeddah, where he will meet with Saudi's controverisal Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Biden was given a send-off on the Ben Gurion International Airport's tarmac by Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and President Isaac Herzog.

Biden shook hands with the Israel leaders after the White House said in advance of the trip that the president would be limiting contact due to an uptick in cases of COVID-19.

Reporters immediately questioned if the decision was to avoid a photo-op of Biden shaking hands with MBS, as the Saudi crown prince is called.

Biden tested negative for COVID-19 Thursday, the White House said Friday.

President Joe Biden waved as he departed Israel Friday - making a historic flight between the Ben Gurion Airport, outside of Tel Aviv, and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

President Joe Biden boards Air Force One at Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport in advance of his flight Friday afternoon to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

President Joe Biden shakes the hand of Israel's President Isaac Herzog (third from right), while Prime Minister Yair Lapid (center) also sends off the American president from the Ben Gurion Airport tarmac Friday afternoon

President Joe Biden, wearing his trademark aviators, walks across the tarmac of the Ben Gurion Airport outside of Tel Aviv, in advance of his historic flight to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

President Joe Biden departs in Marine One from Bethlehem after meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas

President Joe Biden will meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (pictured), the de facto ruler of the country, in Jeddah on Friday

President Biden said his position on Jamal Khashoggi's (above) murder has been 'clear': 'I always bring up human rights but my position on Khashoggi had been clear. If anyone doesn't understand it in Saudi Arabia or anywhere else, then they haven't been around for a while,' he said

Biden on Thursday wouldn't commit to bringing up the murder of Jamal Khashoggi when he meets with MBS, but the slain journalist's widow says she has assurances the president will mention it.

Hanan Elatr Khashogi told Fox News she met with three administration officials who assured her that 'the human rights issue, and on top of it, my husband's tragedy, it will come up' when Biden meets the crown prince on Friday in Jeddah.

Biden, however, dodged the question when asked about it during a press conference in Israel said his position on human rights has been 'positively clear.'

'My views have made it positively clear. I have never been quiet about talking about human rights,' he said when asked about the meeting.

The president, when pressed again, said his position is 'clear.'

'I always bring up human rights but my position on Khashoggi had been clear. If anyone doesn't understand it in Saudi Arabia or anywhere else, then they haven't been around for a while,' he said.

And Khashoggi's fiance Hatice Cengiz said the president must ask what has happened to the journalist's body, which has never been recovered.

'He has to ask what happened to his body? Where is his body? Still we do not have any answer,' she told the Associated Press. 'And people need to get the truth in this case. And we cannot forget.'

'We cannot forget what happened to Jamal.'

Jamall Khashoggi's widow Hanan Elatr Khashogi told Fox News she met with three administration officials who assured her that the slain journalist's murder 'will come up'

Biden, 79, called Saudi Arabia a 'pariah' state during the 2020 campaign after U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that MBS ordered Khashoggi's muder in Turkey in 2018. The journalist had written criticially of the crown prince's reforms in Saudi.

The White House has said Biden stands by that statement but it also has taken great pains to emphasize the president is meeting with the aging King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and his government, which would include MBS, who, at the age of 36, is Salman's heir to the throne and serves as defense minister.

Biden's meetings with the royals will take place Friday night.

On Saturday he'll attend the GCC+3 summit to talk oil prices and energy issues.

'When I see the Saudi leadership tomorrow, I'll be carrying a direct message,' Biden said. 'A message of peace and of the extraordinary opportunities a more stable integrated region could bring to the region and, quite frankly, to the rest of the world.'

The president argued, however, that he is also going to reassert the United States' influence in the region to counter the growing power of Russia and China on the energy market.

'The reason I'm going to Saudi Arabia, though, is much broader than as to promote U.S. interests,' he said at his press conference with Israeli Prime MIinister Yair Lapid.

'I think we have an opportunity to reassert what I think we made a mistake of walking away from - our influence in the Middle East. I'm going to meet with nine other heads of state. There are so many issues at stake. I want to make clear that we can continue to lead in a region and not create a vacuum,' he said.

He was also clear he wants to counter growing Russian and Chinese influence.

Russia is the second largest energy producer in the world after Saudi and China is a huge energy consumer and purchaser.

'The vacuum is filled by China or Russia - against the interest of Israel and the United States. The purpose of the visit is to coordinate with the nine heads of state,' he said.

Human rights advocates have encouraged Biden not to make the trip without bringing up Khashoggi's killing.

Khashoggi's widow, Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, said that a national security official told her that Biden will mention her late husband's name when he meets with MBS,

'They assured me they will bring this concern up special, about the case of my husband, Jamal Khashoggi,' she told Spectrum News.
The vile ringleader of the notorious Rochdale child sex grooming gang has been appointed equalities representative at his maximum security jail.

Shabir Ahmed was handed the role in a move branded an insult to his victims despite having attempted to blame his crimes on Western society for allowing young girls to parade on the streets.

The former taxi driver, 69  who forced his victims to call him Daddy  also tried to use human rights laws to claim his all-white jury had been biased and influenced by far-Right groups.

His extraordinary new status was revealed in a summary of the Parole Boards decision to reject his bid to be released from Wakefield prison  known as monster mansion because it houses some of Britains most dangerous inmates.

Only last month a damning report revealed how Ahmed  then a Labour Party member  was allowed to keep working as a council welfare officer despite being accused of preying on a young girl.

Shabir Ahmed, pictured, the vile ringleader of the notorious Rochdale child sex grooming gang has been appointed equalities representative at his maximum security jail

Nazir Afzal, the chief crown prosecutor who was key to bringing the group to justice, branded Ahmeds prison appointment staggering both in its insensitivity and appropriateness.

Its like putting the wolf in charge of the sheep, he added. One of Ahmeds victims said she was appalled and sickened.

Now in her late 20s, Girl A said: What the hell were the prison authorities thinking of?

Its insane to think they would let a racist like him anywhere near that kind of role.

She added: The truth is that hes a sick paedophile whos also the most racist person Ive ever seen. Its total madness.

Sources said the role of equalities representative involved collating views from inmates on the same wing and reporting back to prison staff.

Ahmed would have applied for the post and been subject to vetting, including consideration of the offence for which he was locked up.

Whistleblower Maggie Oliver, who resigned as a detective over failings in how police handled grooming cases in Rochdale, said it was an insult to victims.

She added: To give an equalities position to a child rapist who blames Western society for his appalling crimes demonstrates a shocking lack of judgment by authorities.

The latest scandal comes after the Daily Mail revealed last month that fellow ringleader Abdul Aziz, 51, won his battle against deportation back to his native Pakistan.

Ahmed was part of a nine-strong sex-grooming gang from Rochdale who were convicted for targeting 47 girls as young as 13 between 2005 and 2008.

Sources said the role of equalities representative involved collating views from inmates on the same wing and reporting back to prison staff. Pictured, file photo of Wakefield prison

The victims were plied with drugs and alcohol and were assaulted and raped by as many as five men. Ahmed was given a 19-year sentence for conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child, two rapes, aiding and abetting rape, sexual assault and sex trafficking.

He was later jailed for a further 22 years, to run concurrently, for 30 child rapes against a girl after a separate trial.

Ahmed subsequently tried to use human rights laws to claim the all-white jury had been biased and influenced by far-Right groups.

But judges in Strasbourg rejected his manifestly ill-founded bid. The European Court of Human Rights also threw out his attempt to argue the case against him had been tailored by police to fit anti-Muslim prejudice.

In 2016, while incarcerated in Wakefield, he flew into a rage when he heard a frail inmate respond to the Brussels suicide bombings by saying terrorists should be eradicated.

Ahmed threatened to kill 71-year-old James Palmer if you slag off Muslims again, before stamping on his head. A judge later handed him a further 12 months behind bars. He became eligible for parole last month but a panel concluded he should remain locked up.

Last month, a report into claims child sexual abuse was covered up by the Labour establishment in Oldham  which neighbours Rochdale  raised concerns over Ahmeds status.

Although Greater Manchester Police received an allegation against him in 2005, it chose not to inform his bosses at Oldham Council. Had this happened, it may have potentially avoided the tragic abuse of other children, the report said.

A Prison Service spokesman said last night: This role includes no safeguarding responsibilities and is intended to improve the behaviour of the prisoner.
Pictured: Vanity Fair's September 2017 edition cover, featuring Meghan Markle and the headline 'Wild About Harry!', which reportedly angered Buckingham Palace

Meghan Markle called her PR team in hysterics after Buckingham Palace reacted with 'fury' to her Vanity Fair interview about Prince Harry, a bombshell new book has claimed.

Tom Bower, journalist and author of 'Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the war between the Windsors', says Meghan was 'ecstatic' when she was asked to appear on the cover of Vanity Fair's September 2017 issue and do an interview with the magazine.

But when the magazine ran with the headline 'Wild About Harry' on its cover - focusing on Meghan's relationship with the British prince rather than her work as an actor, activist and philanthropist - Bower says the Palace was taken aback.

Within hours of the magazine's pre-publication copies being sent to Buckingham Palace, Bower says Meghan phoned her PR firm and 'hysterically' told them of the Palace's fury.

Bower reports that Meghan was furious that the piece was not more focused on her philanthropy but says this was due to the fact Vanity Fair researchers were unable to substantiate two key stories she had told about her activism as a young child.

Keleigh Thomas Morgan, a partner at Meghan's PR firm Sunshine Sachs, organised the interview, which was conducted by Sam Kashner - a long-standing contributing editor at Vanity Fair, who admitted before the interview that he had no idea who Meghan was.

According to Bower, Kashner was told Meghan was under strict orders from both Harry and her PR firm to steer clear of sensitive subjects - such as race, Donald Trump and her relationship with the prince.

The interview was done at Meghan's home. Bower says Kashner was uneasy knowing that Meghan had been told to be careful with what she told him.

'Both knew that a lot was riding on the interview, and both understood that the critical issue of Harry had been vetoed,' Bower says in his new book, according to The Sun newspaper.

'Meghan spoke, he realised, knowing that she had the winning ticket but avoiding giving an impression of triumphalism.'

After first discussing Meghan's speech at the United Nations and a letter she sent to Procter & Gamble as an 11-year-old requesting that they change a slogan promoting washing-up liquid that was deemed sexist, Kashner asked her about Harry.

Pictured: Prince Harry (right) and Meghan Markle (centre) appear alongside the Queen in July 2018. For her interview with Vanity Fair in 2017, Meghan was reportedly told by Harry not to disclose their relationship

To Kashner's surprise, Bower writes, Meghan replied: 'We're a couple. We're in love.'

As reported by Vanity Fair in 2017, Meghan said: 'I'm sure there will be a time when we will have to come forward and present ourselves and have stories to tell, but I hope what people will understand is that this is our time.

'This is for us. It's part of what makes it so special, that it's just ours. But we're happy. Personally, I love a great love story.'

Bower, as is also reported in the Times, says Kashner was 'quietly elated' with the actress's comments.

Bower says over the next few days Kashner called those who Meghan had recommended as her friends. Serena Williams denied she was Meghan's friend but just an acquaintance, saying 'You've got to be who you are, Meghan. You can't hide.'

Pre-publication copies of Vanity Fair's September 2017 edition were released to Megan's PR agency and Buckingham Palace. Her unexpected openness about Harry took the Palace by surprise, Bower writes.

Harry and Meghan are pictured at St Paul's Cathedral for the Queen's Thanksgiving mass, June

'Like a thunderclap, the interview triggered sensational reactions: Meghan had used her relationship with Harry to promote herself,' he says.

'The Hollywoodisation of the royal family had sealed Meghan's fate as Harry's fiancee.'

According to Bower, within hours of the pre-publication release, Meghan rang Ken Sunshine and Keleigh Thomas Morgan telling them of the Palace's 'fury'.

She said the agency should have had her comments about her relationship with Harry removed, raising fears she would fire them over the cover, and questions were asked about why there was not more about her philanthropy and activism in the piece.

Bower reports that the piece omitted comments on this because Vanity Fair researchers were unable to prove her claims were accurate.

Specifically, the magazine couldn't establish for sure that she had played a role in persuading Procter & Gamble to change their slogan, nor could they independently prove she received a reply after writing to then-First Lady Hillary Clinton.

According to Bower, Kashner later recalled: 'She complained because she wasn't presented in the way she wanted. She demanded the media do what she expected. I felt manipulated.'

Ken Sunshine reportedly told Vanity Fair's editor that he would have to 'deal with the Queen on this'.

Sunshine was told that Meghan only got the cover 'because of who she was likely to marry,' Bower writes, and not on her own merit.

MailOnline has contacted Meghan Markel's representatives, Sunshine Sachs and Buckingham Palace for comment.

REVENGE: MEGHAN, HARRY AND THE WAR BETWEEN THE WINDSORS by Tom Bower, to be published by Blink Publishing, on July 21 at 22
Taxpayers face losing up to 200 million after a council 'gambled' more than half a billion pounds on a green energy scheme run by a fast-living financier, the Daily Mail can reveal.

Cash-strapped Thurrock Council in Essex borrowed 655million of public money  the equivalent of triple what it spends on services each year  to invest in 53 solar farms across the UK.

It agreed a series of deals with globe-trotting businessman Liam Kavanagh, whose integrity was later questioned by a High Court judge over 5million his company banked in 'commission'.

Thurrock hoped the huge investment would generate millions in extra income but independent consultants hired by the council have privately warned that the solar farms are worth far less than required to recoup their cash.

They also raised concerns about the use of a 138million top-up investment made by Thurrock  approved after a series of meetings at London's five-star May Fair hotel between Mr Kavanagh and the council's finance chief  which does not appear to have gone into the farms. And the latest 12.5million interest payment owed to the council is months overdue, an investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has found.

Taxpayers face losing up to 200 million after a council 'gambled' more than half a billion pounds on a green energy scheme run by a fast-living financier, the Daily Mail can reveal. Pictured, a solar farm in Swindon

Although there are serious concerns about the effect of these deals on the council's finances, they certainly proved lucrative for Mr Kavanagh. During the years of Thurrock's investment, Mr Kavanagh, 45, legitimately took millions in dividend payments and his jetset lifestyle included the use of a private jet, a fleet of super-cars and a Hampshire farmhouse with a swimming pool, wine cellar, home cinema and steam and hot tub room.

Because Thurrock borrowed all the money it invested from more than 100 other councils and a Treasury-backed loan scheme, taxpayers across the country will pay the price if there is a default on the loan. Last night there were calls for an urgent government inquiry into the 'grave' situation.

Thurrock councillor and opposition leader John Kent said: 'This is a scandal of huge proportions, and we need to know what has gone so disastrously wrong. I'm really not sure Thurrock Council can survive a catastrophic loss of 200 million  it may well be on the brink of bankruptcy.'

He said council leaders had overseen a 'massive gamble with taxpayers' money'.

Thurrock's involvement with Mr Kavanagh began in June 2016 when, alongside Warrington and Newham councils, it financed the purchase of a solar farm in Swindon through bonds marketed by his company Rockfire Capital.

Over the next two years, Thurrock helped buy 53 sites across the UK, all of which are now owned by Mr Kavanagh.

The investments were issued through a complex series of bonds, all due to mature in the next five to six years.

In return, Thurrock would get interest payments worth millions of pounds.

Eventually, Thurrock became the sole local authority investor in Mr Kavanagh's businesses. During the period, Mr Kavanagh took more than 7.3million in dividend payments from Rockfire Capital. The company also banked 5million in commission for one part of the arrangement, which was later criticised by a judge.

Mr Justice Henshaw ruled in April last year that Mr Kavanagh was 'very likely' to have been the source of 'clear untruths' in a prospectus issued to Thurrock about some of the bonds.

Cash-strapped Thurrock Council in Essex borrowed 655million of public money  the equivalent of triple what it spends on services each year  to invest in 53 solar farms across the UK. It agreed a series of deals with globe-trotting businessman Liam Kavanagh (pictured)

It also 'concealed' the 5 million fee, which the judge said cast 'serious doubt' over whether it was a genuine fee for arranging the deal or a 'covert extraction of funds by Mr Kavanagh for his own benefit'. Mr Kavanagh denied any wrongdoing.

Days after concerns emerged about Thurrock's solar deals in 2020, a new company, Anyard Holdings, was registered in the Isle of Man.

Mr Kavanagh subsequently liquidated key companies that owed the council hundreds of millions and transferred the solar farms into the new offshore structure.

The Mail understands Camdor Global Advisors, consultants hired by the council, discovered the solar farms were not worth enough for Thurrock to recoup all of the money it invested. The shortfall could be as much as 200 million.

Dan Kirk, managing director of Toucan Energy Services (TES), the company mainly responsible for the day-to-day management of Mr Kavanagh's solar farms but which is separate from his business dealings and investments said in a statement that Camdor had asked him about the 138million top-up  which it understood was meant to go to some of the solar farms he manages for Mr Kavanagh  but Mr Kirk said TES never received any of the money.

Speed: Mr Kavanagh owns super-cars and also uses a private jet

A source close to Mr Kavanagh's company said the investments had been properly recorded on the relevant balance sheets, and claimed there were no specific terms governing how the funds could be used. Mr Kavanagh declined to comment to the Mail.

Thurrock Council said: 'The council and its external financial and legal experts have established a comprehensive resolution plan to safeguard the council's financial position. Thurrock Council is confident that the action taken on this matter will minimise risk and support the continued security of public funds.'

A Department of Levelling Up spokesman said: 'We are monitoring the situation in Thurrock closely and will not hesitate to take action if required.'
A police officer in the southern Brazilian state of Parana murdered six of his family members and two random strangers before he used his work weapon to shoot himself dead because reportedly could not accept that his wife wanted to end their marriage.

Fabiano Garcia, 37, hunted down his wife, 28-year-old Kassiele Mendes and his 12-year-old stepdaughter Amanda Menes, stabbing them both at their home in the Parana town of Toledo after he had ended his shift shortly after 7pm local time, the Military Police said.

Garcia then traveled to the home of his mother, Irene Garcia, 78, and stabbed her dead before he used his service gun to shoot dead his brother, Claudiomiro Garcia. Both victims were found in their respective rooms.

Brazilian police officer Fabiano Garcia pictured with his family (left to right): four-year-old son Miguel Garcia; 28-year-old wife Kassiele Mendes; 12-year-old stepdaughter Amanda Mendes; and nine-year-old Kamili Garcia. Fabiano Garcia, who was a member of the Toledo, Parana, Military Police force, killed his family as well as his mother and brother and two teenagers, who he reportedly did not know, on Thursday before he shot himself dead in his car early Friday

A surveillance camera captured the moment Brazilian police officer Fabiano Garcia drove up to 17-year-old Kaio da Silva and engaged him in a conversation before he shot him dead in Toledo, Parana, on Thursday night

According to Brazilian news outlet G1, it's believed that the police officer visited his mother-in-law's home in the town of Ceu Azul and shot dead his four-year-old son, Miguel Garcia, and nine-year-old daughter, Kamili Garcia.

Fabiano Garcia continued the carnage by shooting dead Kaio da Silva, 17, and Luiz Becker, 19, in Toledo.

A surveillance video showed Fabiano Garcia pulling up on a street before da Silva walked over to the front passenger side window. It appears that they have a discussion.

The edited video shows Fabiano Garcia driving off after he had shot da Silva.

Kassiele Mendes (left) reportedly upset her husband Fabiano Garcia (right) because she wanted a separation from their marriage. Garcia killed Mendes on Thursday night along with her stepdaughter, their two children, his mother and brother, and two teenagers he reportedly did not know

Brazilian police officer Fabiano Garcia (center) stabbed dead his wife Kassiele Mendes (left) and his 12-year-old stepdaughter Amanda Mendes at their home the Parana city of Toledo and then visited the home of his mother-in-law in the town of Ceu Azul where he shot dead his four-year-old son, Miguel Garcia (pictured in his arm) and nine-year-old daughter, Kamili Garcia (bottom center)

Fabiano Garcia then shot himself in his own car early Friday.

A voice note prior to the killings revealed that the cop was bothered over the separation with Kassiele Mendes. He was also upset about mounting gambling debts and said he committed the killings because he did not want to leave any responsibilities for his loved ones.

The Military Police said that Fabiano Garcia did not exhibit any mental issues.

'The Public Security Secretariat regrets the case that took place in Toledo and Ceu Azul and informs that the Civil, Military and Scientific Police will spare no effort to determine the reasons for the events,' the 19th Military Police Battalion said in a press release.
Celebrity journalist Chaunce Hayden sat down with Ivana Trump who shared insights into her life, including if she had any regrets marrying Donald Trump, living with and without wealth and what the public's biggest misconception is about herself.

Hayden is the former publisher of Steppin' Out magazine who met Ivana several times over the past 20 years. He interviewed 'kind and friendly' Ivana in 2016 for New York-based Metropolis Nights magazine and described her as 'smart as a whip.'

'I see a lot of Ivana in Ivanka. Ivana was a lot of things, but most of all I think she would want to be remembered as a mom who adored her kids,' Hayden said. 'She faced hard times with elegance and most of all she was an awesome mom.'

Ivana Trump died on Thursday of a suspected cardiac arrest after being found 'unconscious and unresponsive' in her New York City townhouse. She was 73.

Here, DailyMail.com recaps that 2016 interview.

Ivana Trump died on Thursday of a suspected cardiac arrest after being found 'unconscious and unresponsive' in her New York City townhouse. She was 73

Celebrity journalist Chaunce Hayden sat down with Ivana Trump for a 2016 interview for New York-based Metropolis Nights magazine

'Everything that I have done I would do all over again, including my marriage, because it's life and like life, things go up and down,' Ivana said in the interview, squashing rumors that she married Donald for wealth

'Ivana was a lot of things, but most of all I think she would want to be remembered as a mom who adored her kids,' Hayden said. 'She faced hard times with elegance and most of all she was an awesome mom'

Chaunce Hayden: How would you describe yourself?

Ivana Trump: Well I did come from a small town (laughing) but I didn't come from what you would call modest means. Czechoslovakia is a very sophisticated country. I had a fantastic education and lived in a beautiful home.

I received my Masters Degree (Physical Education) from Charles University in Prague and I always traveled around the world with my ski team, so it wasn't like I was coming from nothing to something. Another misconception about me, which is all wrong, is that I married for wealth.

Donald was working for his father when I met him. It was a nice life but we were very young kids who started from nothing. People have this idea that when I married Donald, I married this multi-billionaire. But that's not true at all. We were very young kids who started from scratch.

Hayden: Do you have any regrets marrying Donald?

The interview originally appeared in this edition of Metropolis Nights published after Donald Trump had been elected but before he took office

Ivana: Everything that I have done I would do all over again, including my marriage, because it's life and like life, things go up and down. Not always is everything wonderful; there will always be disappointments. And again, whatever I had done in my life I would do again.

There are a lot more women out there who are in a lot worse situations than I am. Yes, I did have a bad divorce and yes, I did not lie down and die; I went on with my life and turned a negative into a positive despite all the adversity. We are in this life only once.

This is not a dress rehearsal and you just have to go on with your life, as hard as it may be.

Hayden: How important is it for you to have wealth and could you survive without it?

Ivana: Well I have been there. I came from a middle class family, but if somebody said that money wasn't important they would be lying. Money is important, but I look at money as a chore more than anything else.

Yes, money does buy you a nice car and a nice home but it does not buy you happiness, that's for sure. Money can cause a lot of problems. Many families with money have children who slip and get involved with drugs.

So money is good in that it makes your life easier but if I did not have money, I would still make it.

I would always make enough money for my children and my mother to survive on. After all, how many cars can you drive and how many steaks can you eat.

Ivana said money causes problems, adding, 'Money is important, but I look at money as a chore more than anything else.' She was last pictured on June 22 in New York City

Media gather outside the residence of Ivana Trump on Thursday after her death at age 73

Hayden: What do you think is the public's biggest misconception about Ivana Trump?

Ivana: I think it was one of your questions earlier. You said, ''Ivana, you came from a communist country and gained all this incredible wealth.''

I think that is the biggest misconception. I did not marry for incredible wealth. When I got married I was about 27 and Donald was about 31 and working for his father.

But his father is a good man and didn't just give him a lot of money and say, go have a good time and do whatever you want to do with it. Donald had to earn his salary. So whatever he has, he earned.

I think many people think that the two of us were just given all this wealth. That's not true. We both worked very hard to acquire all that we have.
The Queen privately expressed relief that Meghan would not be attending Prince Philips funeral, a new biography claims.

Author Tom Bower writes that the grieving monarch told trusted royal aides on the morning she was due to lay her husband of 73 years to rest at Windsor: Thank goodness Meghan is not coming.

The claim is made in a new book, Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the War Between The Windsors.

Mr Bower is known as a leading investigative journalist who has previously written unauthorised biographies of Boris Johnson, Richard Branson and Robert Maxwell.

The book, being serialised in The Sun and The Times, says: In Windsor Castle the Queen was preparing to face the public on one of the saddest days of her life. Philip had been her rock for the previous 70 years.

The Queen, pictured here sat alone at the funeral of her husband Prince Philip, at St George's Chapel in Windsor on April 17, 2021. A new biography claims she told a trusted royal aide on the morning of the funeral: 'Thank goodness Meghan is not coming'

The biography claims the Queen made the remark in the lead up to her husband's funeral. Her grandson Prince Harry did arrive for the funeral, but the Duchess of Sussex did not attend after doctors did not clear her to fly while seven months pregnant. Picture are the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at a volleyball match during the 2020 Invictus Games in the Netherlands

To comply with Covid restrictions she would grieve alone inside the chapel. Thank goodness Meghan is not coming, the monarch said in a clear voice to her trusted aides.

The biographer claimed she made the observation at Windsor Castle as she prepared to go St Georges Chapel for the service, where the world watched on television as she sat alone due to Covid restrictions.

The alleged comment is believed only to refer to the drama surrounding speculation over whether both Harry and Meghan would fly in from the US at a time of family mourning as opposed to any personal animosity towards Meghan from the monarch.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment last night.

But sources close to the Queen questioned whether the monarchs focus would have been on anything else but her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, on the day of his funeral.

The Palace generally makes a point of refusing to comment on biographies about members of the Royal Family, of which there are many.

While Prince Harry attended his late grandfathers funeral on April 17 last year, the Duchess of Sussex announced that her doctors had not allowed her to fly from the US as she was seven months pregnant with her second child, Lilibet.

She joined Harry in posting an online tribute to Philip and sent a wreath.

It was the first time that Harry had seen his family since he and Meghan gave their bombshell interview to Oprah Winfrey in which they accused the Royal Family of a slew of highly-disputed transgressions including racism towards Meghan and their unborn first child, Archie.

Prince Harry did attend the funeral, flying in several days before so he could clear the UK's quarantine requirements before the service. Here he is pictured at the funeral in Windsor on April 17, 2021

There had been much debate following Philips death as to whether the couple would attend his funeral and, if so, how relations would be between them and the rest of the family.

Only Harry ended up flying over, arriving a few days before the service to quarantine in line with the UKs Covid restrictions at the time.

He flew back to the US immediately after the service, having spoken only briefly to his brother.

Relations between the Sussexes and the rest of the family have barely recovered, although Harry and Meghan did fly over with their children for the Queens Platinum Jubilee celebrations last month.
As the Tory leadership race reaches fever pitch, the battle is on for every last backer.

But theres one vote of confidence all of the candidates would happily do without  the Chinese Communist Party.

Sadly for Rishi Sunak  whos not exactly short of support as the contests frontrunner  the dubious honour has fallen to him.

Chinas largest state tabloid has praised the former chancellor for his relatively soft stance on Beijing and pragmatic view on strengthening ties with the country.

Global Times, a sister publication of Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece Peoples Daily, singled him out for his record of pushing for trade talks with China.

Earlier this year Mr Sunak called for a complete sea change to revive UK-China relations.

While most of the candidates hold a tough stance on China, the Global Times report said, only one of them [Sunak] has a clear and pragmatic view on developing UK-China ties.

Chinas largest state tabloid has praised former chancellor Rishi Sunak (pictured on Friday) for his relatively soft stance on Beijing and pragmatic view on strengthening ties with the country

The piece also quoted an expert who warned that Penny Mordaunt could hold an even tougher stance than Boris Johnson.

While the tabloid stopped short of an outright endorsement, there have been concerns over Beijings mouthpiece singling Mr Sunak out. A government source said: Its worrying that China  which is the biggest strategic threat to the West and our democratic values  seems to want Rishi as our next PM. What does that say about him?

Mr Sunak has been less hawkish on China than many of his ministerial colleagues, despite tensions over trade, human rights abuses and Hong Kong.

In his Mansion House speech last year, he suggested that improving trade ties with China was a priority for Britain.

Too often, the debate on China lacks nuance, he said.

The truth is, China is both one of the most important economies in the world and a state with fundamentally different values to ours.We need a mature and balanced relationship. That means being eyes wide open about their increasing international influence and continuing to take a principled stand on issues we judge to contravene our values.

The lucrative Chinese subsidiary of Infosys, an Indian IT firm founded by Mr Sunaks father-in-law Narayana Murthy, employs 3,300 workers at its offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Dalian, Hangzhou and Jiaxing.

Mr Sunaks wife Akshata Murty owns a 700million stake in Infosys.
Phillipa Sage has been called many things in her colourful, frenetic life. 'W***e' by comedian Harry Enfield ('He was joking. He didn't mean it', she says); a woman with 'a strong sense of self' by radio's Chris Evans ('one of my biggest compliments') and 'The One' by her lover Jeremy Clarkson who, it turns out, didn't mean it either.

Today, as the many millions of fans of the hugely popular series Clarkson's Farm know, 'the big man', as Phillipa calls him, is living in rural bliss at his 1,000-acre Diddly Squat farm in the Cotswolds with girlfriend of five years Lisa Hogan.

And 'The One' who wasn't the one? Well, Phillipa, 53, is now an author having written about her 'decadent' life of private jets, helicopters and yachts with the former Top Gear host, as they partied with just about every famous person on the planet.

Their on-off relationship, which lasted for more than a decade, was a passionate 'meeting of heart, mind, body and soul,' she says. 'I was the only person in the world who told him to f*** off.'

But the thing he loved most about her, she tells me, was her 'clever' sense of humour  an affection that will be sorely tested should he happen to decode the blurb on the back of her book The Wonderful World Of Jeremy Clarkson.

'Through the years they spent together, Phillipa really gets under the hood of the complex, under-estimated, national treasure that is Jeremy Clarkson,' it reads. Which, on the face of it, is a very kind way to describe a former boyfriend  until you string together the first letter of 'complex', 'under-estimated' 'national' and 'treasure'.

Phillipa Sage (right) and Jeremy Clarkson had an on-off relationship for more than a decade, which Ms Sage describes as 'a tumble dryer of chaos'

Phillipa remains deeply affected by the years she spent with Clarkson, 62. The break-up took such a toll on her she says she lost a stone in weight in less than a fortnight, and pretty much her sanity

'Yes, he's definitely complex.' She chews the word over. Her eyes flash. Let's just say these days Phillipa would no more pass the time of day with Clarkson than sniff one of the This Smells Like My B******s candles he flogs from his farm shop.

For, as she reveals in this exclusive interview, her years with Clarkson were, in fact, 'a tumble dryer of chaos' that ended in acrimony, tears and a nervous breakdown.

'He'd actually told me, 'I was born for you' and asked me to stay the night a few days before he was out with Lisa.'

'Then, one of my friends pointed out the photograph of him with another woman. I thought, 'Oh yes, she's definitely his type. She's tall and blonde. He's gone for the perfect upgrade: taller, skinnier, younger.' So I was like 'f*** off', what are you doing when we are supposed to be working things out?

'He told me to calm down. He told me she was just a friend, then a couple of weeks later he told me he wanted to be with her.'

This is a woman whose emotional turmoil is such that her mood turns on a sixpence. She's been through six years of therapy which, she says, 'saved me', although I suspect nothing has been as much of a tonic as the veiled insult on the back of her book.

He still tries to make contact on her birthday, although she has blocked him.

'That was one of our connections in my romantic head  and his. His first wife and his first girlfriend, I believe, had the same birthday as me: February 26. I'm a Pisces. He's an Aries  a f***ing great ram.'

Phillipa remains deeply affected by the years she spent with Clarkson, 62. The break-up took such a toll on her she says she lost a stone in weight in less than a fortnight, and pretty much her sanity.

An honest soul, she truly believed in his love for her until what she calls her 'horrible week' began.

'Jeremy was due to fly out to Africa to film their first big film for Amazon and I thought he was focusing on his new job. He said he'd gone to the office because he was very busy with all the production.

'My dad [who sadly died last month] had a terrible accident falling down the stairs. I was on my way to the hospital to see if he was dead or alive.

'I knew Jeremy would want to speak to me before getting on the plane being the needy whatsit he is and obviously I wanted to speak to him because I was upset about my dad.

'When I called, he shut the phone off which he never does. I thought, "Oh, he must be in a meeting". Because I thought he was in the office.

'Eventually, I found out he was in the pub.'

Clarkson's Diddly Squat Farm in Chipping Norton has a farm shop and cafe, and attracts many fans of the former Top Gear presenter

Jeremy Clarkson and girlfriend Lisa Hogan attend Wimbledon 2022. Clarkson told his former partner Phillipa 'I was born for you' just days before being photographed with Lisa

Perhaps it was women's intuition but she went to his flat like Miss Marple on speed. Whatever she discovered there, it devastated her.

'I was physically sick. I realised where the word gutted came from because that's how I felt. And, yes, I was angry. We had everything.

'One of his best friends told me, 'You're the one. Everyone has someone they are truly in love with and you're his'.

'I truly believed we were going to be happy ever after.

'As someone said to me, the problem was I'd become the homemaker. I was with the builders on the [Diddly Squat] farm. I was buying carpets and curtains and we'd gone shopping together.

'If you become the main woman or the wife, there's a vacancy, isn't there?' Phillipa is a striking woman who is 6ft in her stockinged feet and looks uncannily similar to Jeremy's current partner, Lisa.

There was, of course, also The One before Phillipa  his wife of 21 years Frances and the mother of his three children Emily, Finlo and Katya, who were still at school when Phillipa filled the vacancy.

Jeremy and Frances separated in 2011  six years before Phillipa's relationship with Clarkson ended.

Now Phillipa is a compassionate soul with a '17 but going on five-year-old' son Alfie, who suffers with Fragile X syndrome [an inherited condition that causes learning and cognitive disabilities].

She loves her son deeply and doesn't strike me as the sort of woman who would happily wreck someone else's family. 'I hated it,' she says. 'But I truly believed he was unhappy in his marriage. I'm not the first person to fall in love with someone who's married. I didn't want to be a mistress.

'That's why I told him to f*** off on numerous occasions. I didn't want to be in that situation, but he was very persuasive and I believed in love.'

Phillipa was in her 20s and working as an event organiser at the London International Motor Show when she first met Clarkson. He was 36 and had been married to Frances, his manager and second wife, for three years.

Clarkson's first marriage, to Alex Hall, lasted only six months. 'I thought he was obnoxious, which is probably what most people think, then I got to know what I call the real Jeremy Clarkson. He's fascinating because he's bombastic and arrogant but there's a softer, kind side.

'He is one of those people who can talk about anything and everything. He knows anything and everything and, if he doesn't know it, he'll make it up.

'That first time we were just drunk at a party but, oh my God, we genuinely got on well. He started his charm offensive but we weren't a full-blown affair until I was 30-something.'

Phillipa was separated from Alfie's father and had returned to work for the production team of Top Gear Live in 2007 when she was, as she says, 'fully committed to him'.

The 'tumble dryer of chaos' included party after party in London's swankiest clubs and restaurants, on private islands, country estates and some of the poshest dining rooms in the country.

She sank shots with former Prime Minister David Cameron, got down on the dance floor with Mick Jagger, hit it off with Hugh Grant and partied with the powerful, the famous and the wealthy in a high-octane world, fuelled, at times, by vast amounts of alcohol.

Of the former PM, she says: 'I really liked him and loved Sam [Cameron's wife, Samantha]. I had really genuine conversations with them. The night of the shots, to be fair, he only had one then he was gone because it was the Russian first invasion of Ukraine, I think.

'That life is like a fantasyland. Of course I know how lucky I was to go to all these amazing places but it was false. I was happiest when we were on our own.

'You know, Jeremy once said he hated parties. I was shocked because he seemed addicted to them, but it was almost like he had a sense of duty to go.

'We had a fantastic holiday in Lake Como and on a boat on the Canal du Midi. Jeremy was very happy on that plastic boat.

'One of the things he loved about it was, because you were on the water, it forced you to slow down, so you had to relax.'

Then, in 2015, Jeremy's fast-paced world jolted to a sudden halt when he was first suspended then fired by the BBC for punching a Top Gear producer with such force he had to go to A&E.

'When it went wrong with the BBC I felt, God, this is a golden opportunity to simplify your life,' Phillipa says.

'He's actually a bit of a hippy, walking around in bare feet. We were very happy to cook together  very happy to go shopping. He used to dream of an empty diary and pottering around the farm and just hanging out with me,' she continues.

'He wanted to just sit on the veranda and watch the sun go down. He was keen to have me as his farmer's wife. He said I'd make a good farm girl simply because I managed to open and close big farm gates.

'I'd do all the chores with him. We were going to clear an area where there was a waterfall and a lake and maybe build a little lodge there. He told me he just wanted to write. That's what he loved most. And he was going to build a top floor [at the house] for Alfie and a carer.

'I'm shocked at what he's done with it now because I thought he always wanted to keep his private life private. He wanted peace and quiet.

'He talked about me running the shop  a sort of mini Daylesford  but like it being a sweet vegetable barn not a blimming commercial enterprise. I don't get it.'

Today there's a lot she 'doesn't get' about Jeremy. She truly thought he was her 'soulmate'. Their relationship troubles had been hard on them both. 'Andy Wilman  his best friend and producer  was also begging me not to give up on him.

'It was actually A.A. Gill's illness [Adrian Gill the travel writer, food critic and one of Jeremy's closest friend who died of cancer in December 2016] that drew us back together, because we were very close as a couple with him and Nicola Formby [the journalist and wife he married just weeks before his death].

'We'd been at Adrian's funeral together and were obviously upset. I was pretty fragile.'

Phillipa got the impression there was still a chance things could work out between them. 'That was when he said to me, 'I was born for you'.' The following day he was photographed with Lisa.

Phillipa last saw Clarkson a few weeks later at his home. 'We'd been to-ing and fro-ing on text and phone calls. I wanted to give it one more shot because, at that point, he really was the love of my life.

'He said he'd made up his mind he wanted to be with Lisa because she didn't nag him.' She pauses. 'I walked out crying and that was the end of that. He obviously wanted to have the last word.'

She hands me a copy of her book about her life with the 'complex, under-estimated, national treasure that is Jeremy Clarkson'.

Some might not blame her for the parting shot.

The Wonderful World Of Jeremy Clarkson, by Phillipa Sage, published by Ad Lib (RRP 9.99) is out on July 21. instagram.com/pj.sage/
Rafael Caro Quintero, the fugitive drug lord who was accused of murdering United States DEA agent Kiki Camarena in 1985, was arrested by Mexican security forces Friday, an official with Mexico's Navy confirmed.

He was arrested in Choix, a municipality in the western state of Sinaloa. It comes almost a decade after he walked out of a Mexican prison and went straight back to drug trafficking.

The source wasn't authorized to speak publicly and agreed to confirm the action only if not quoted by name. No further details about the capture were immediately available.

DailyMail.com reached out to the DEA for comment.

Caro Quintero walked free in 2013, after 28 years in prison, when a court overturned his 40-year sentence for the 1985 kidnapping and killing of US Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena. The brutal murder marked a low point in US-Mexico relations.

The former leader of the Guadalajara Cartel, Caro Quintero had since returned to drug trafficking and unleashed bloody turf battles in the northern Mexico border state of Sonora.

He and the cartel are portrayed in the Netflix series, 'Narcos: Mexico.' Actor Tenoch Huerta Mejia played Caro Quintero in the series.

Rafael Caro Quintero, one of the two men who co-founded the Guadalajara Cartel and was accused of kidnapping and murdering Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena in 1985, was captured in Mexico on Friday

The investigation led by Camarena brought down the Guadalajara Cartel, but not before he was kidnapped, tortured and killed by the criminal organization in 1985

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has maintained he's not interested in detaining drug lords and prefers to avoid violence.

An appeals court in the western state of Jalisco overturned Caro Quintero's verdict on August 9, 2013, but the Supreme Court upheld the sentence five days later. It was too late by then; Caro Quintero was spirited off in a waiting vehicle.

In 2013, he penned a letter to then-President Enrique Pena Nieto asking the government to stop searching for him because he had already done his time in prison for the Camarena murder.

He was on the FBIs Most Wanted list, with a $20 million reward for his capture through the State Department's Narcotics Rewards Program.

He was added to the FBIs top 10 most wanted list in 2018.

U.S. military personnel carry the coffin containing the body of DEA agent Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena following his 1985 murder

The United States had offered a $20 million reward for information leading to the capture and conviction of Rafael Caro Quintero

Caro Quintero was one of the primary suppliers of heroin, cocaine, and marijuana to the United States in the late 1970s.

Caro Quintero, who is known as the 'Narco of Narcos,' was one of the co-founders of the Guadalajara Cartel.

The defunct criminal organization was targeted by the DEA in the 1980s.

The cartel sought revenge on Camarena after the Mexican military raided a 2,500-acre marijuana plantation in 1984. Caro Quintero blamed Camarena for a raid and his henchmen kidnapped him Guadalajara on February 7, 1985.

Rafael Caro Quintero is escorted by Mexican law enforcement agents at the Puente Grande prison in Guadalajara on January 29, 2005

Mexican pilot Alfredo Zavala, who was employed by the Mexican government and DEA, was kidnapped the same day in a separate incident.

The tortured bodies of Camarena and Zavala were located on March 5, 1985, wrapped in plastic and dumped at an abandoned property in La Angostura, a city in the state of Michoacan.

Caro Quintero would flee to Costa Rica with his girlfriend and was arrested with six other people on April 4, 1985.

Following his unexpected release from prison, Caro Quintero build his presence back up in the drug trade.

He had a fallout in late 2020 with the four sons of Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, who are known as 'Los Chapitos', despite his ties to the jailed drug lord's Sinaloa Cartel and created his own network, known as the Caborca Cartel.

The feud has resulted in a wide range of attacks in the states of Sinaloa and Sonora that left multiple cartel members dead on both sides.
The trans row continued to dog Penny Mordaunts leadership campaign yesterday, as she dismissed criticism of her woke views by insisting her position was simple and straightforward.

Miss Mordaunt said Westminster was tying itself in knots about the issue  while she has been accused of changing her views to win support.

It emerged that Miss Mordaunt once called for complete solidarity with the transgender community  comments that jar with her stance now.

Asked yesterday if trans women were women  as she has previously stated  she said: Some people who are born male will go through a process to transition into another gender and they are issued a legal document in their new gender. They are not biological women like me, but the law recognises them in their new gender and thats very simple and straightforward. And Westminster is tying itself in knots over it.

The trans row continued to dog Penny Mordaunts leadership campaign yesterday, as she dismissed criticism of her woke views by insisting her position was simple and straightforward

Asked if trans women can legally be women, she said: Legally but not biologically. And we are not equivalent in that respect. People should look at my record on this. I was raising, for example, the issue of trans people competing against women in sport many years ago.

What she said then... vs what she says now THEN Trans women are women - Interview with the PinkNews website in 2018 Trans men are men and trans women are women - Speaking in the House of Commons in March 2021 NOW Some people born male and who have been through the gender recognition process are also legally female. That DOES NOT mean they are biological women, like me - Tweet on Sunday I think it was Margaret Thatcher who said, Every prime minister needs a Willie. A woman like me doesnt have one - At her campaign launch on Wednesday, referring to Margaret Thatchers tribute to her right-hand man, Willie Whitelaw Advertisement

Miss Mordaunt suggested the issue was being used against her, adding: Its not having an impact on my campaign, and its not having an impact on my parliamentary campaign. And I think the reason for that is that people recognise it for what it is. I understand why people are trying to stop me getting into the final two, but I am going to stay focused on the things that matter to the public and the people were here to serve.

The trade minister was also asked about her brothers views on the relationship the Conservative Party has with the LGBTQ community. James Mordaunt has claimed the Tories are complicit with hatred towards the community. Miss Mordaunt said: Im a small-state Conservative. Government shouldnt be telling pubs and clubs what their toilet policy is. We should be concentrating on the big issues that are worrying and, in some cases, terrifying the public.

Yesterday, it emerged that Miss Mordaunt had said she was in complete solidarity with the trans community when women and equalities minister in 2018.

She has faced criticism for an apparent change of stance after declaring in recent days that trans women are not biological women. She had previously insisted at the despatch box in Parliament that trans women were women. Former leadership contender Suella Braverman has accused the trade minister of refusing to stand up for women. She claimed Miss Mordaunt resisted using the words woman and mother in legislation allowing her to take maternity leave from her role as Attorney General.

It came as scientists voiced concerns that Miss Mordaunt is a keen supporter of the bogus treatment of homeopathy in the NHS. Supporters of the so-called treatment claim it can cure disease using highly diluted substances  but its critics deride it as quackery and a belief in magic water.

Michael Marshall, of the pro-science charity Good Thinking Society, said: It is concerning to think that a leading contender for the highest office has such a poor appreciation of the importance of evidence when it comes to healthcare and science, and that she feels confident standing publicly against the conclusions of medical experts.


The watchdog for the Department of Homeland Security on Friday briefed all nine members of the House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol attack about his finding that the Secret Service deleted texts from around Jan. 6, according to two people familiar with the matter.

While lawmakers were tight-lipped about what they heard, the closed-door briefing with the inspector general, Joseph Cuffari, came two days after his office sent a letter to leaders of the House and Senate Homeland Security committees stating that Secret Service agents erased messages between Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021 'as part of a device-replacement program.'

The deletion came after the watchdog office requested records from the agents as part of its probe into events surrounding the Jan. 6 attack, the letter said.

For the Jan. 6 panel, the watchdog's finding raised the startling prospect of lost evidence that could shed further light on Donald Trump's actions during the insurrection.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Democratic chairman of the House Jan. 6 panel, said Friday that the committee is taking a deeper look at whether records may have been lost. 'There have been some conflicting positions on the matter,' the Mississippi lawmaker said.

The private briefing was confirmed by two people familiar with the matter who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss it.

The Secret Service has admitted to deleting texts from January 5 and 6 but claimed it was part of a 'pre-planned, three-month system migration,' and insists proper procedures were followed.

Agency spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said, 'The insinuation that the Secret Service maliciously deleted text messages following a request is false. In fact, the Secret Service has been fully cooperating with the OIG in every respect - whether it be interviews, documents, emails, or texts.'

He said the Secret Service had started to reset its mobile devices to factory settings in January 2021 'as part of a pre-planned, three-month system migration.' In that process, some data was lost.

The inspector general has first requested the electronic communications on Feb. 26, 'after the migration was well under way,' Guglielmi said.

The agency, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, shot back at the Inspector General saying it had 'maliciously' erased messages from 2021.

A spokesman argued staff had been 'fully cooperating' with Joseph Cuffari with 'interviews, documents, emails, or texts'.

It comes after the Homeland Security IG claimed in a stunning letter 'many' texts on those dates had been wiped.

The messages were allegedly erased after his team asked the law enforcement office for electronic communications as part of its probe into the US Capitol attack.

In this Jan. 6, 2021, file photo insurrections loyal to President Donald Trump rally at the U.S. Capitol in Washington

The Secret Service said in a statement Thursday night: 'The insinuation that the Secret Service maliciously deleted text messages following a request is false.

'In fact, the Secret Service has been fully cooperating with the OIG in every respect  whether it be interviews, documents, emails, or texts,' the agency said.

A spokesman said the Secret Service 'began to reset its mobile phones to factory settings as part of a pre-planned, three-month system migration' in January 2021 before the watchdog office opened its probe.

'In that process, data resident on some phones was lost,' they said.

But the Secret Service maintained the IG did not request the communications until late February - at which point the 'migration' had already begun.

Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari accused DHS of stonewalling his Capitol riot investigation

The agency also disputed the notion it was stonewalling investigators and dragging out the probe by weeks.

The spokesman added: 'DHS has repeatedly and publicly debunked this allegation, including in response to OIG's last two semi-annual reports to Congress. It is unclear why OIG is raising this issue again.'

'This is a Secret Service matter. We're just not going to comment on it,' said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, when asked about the matter and whether President Biden still has confidence in the agency.

Earlier Cuffari claimed in his bombshell letter to the top members of the House and Senate Homeland Security Committees the Service had wiped their phones.

The document, seen by CNN, also accused DHS employees of stonewalling requests for information until they were reviewed by the department's lawyers.

'This review led to weeks-long delays in [the inspector general's office] obtaining records and created confusion over whether all records had been produced,' the letter states.

Inspector General Cuffari wrote the purpose of his letter was to offer lawmakers a briefing on the 'access issues.'

The House panel told DailyMail.com it would be opening an investigation into the matter.

It states the Department of Homeland Security told its watchdog the messages were deleted 'as part of a device-replacement program.'

Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Democrat chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, confirmed to DailyMail.com lawmakers would take up Cuffari's offer.

'The Committee on Homeland Security received a letter from the DHS Inspector General regarding the Secret Service deleting text messages the Office of Inspector General requested as part of its investigation into the January 6th attack on the Capitol,' Mississippi lawmaker Thompson said.

'The Committee will be briefed about this extraordinarily troubling destruction of records and respond accordingly.'

Republican Senator Rob Portman told DailyMail.com he was 'deeply concerned' by the allegations of stonewalling by the Secret Service.

'I am deeply concerned by the letter I received from the DHS Inspector General documenting the Department's delays in producing materials to the Inspector General and its deletion of records following requests by the Inspector General,' the Ohio legislator said.

'It is essential that the Department be transparent with its inspector general, Congress, and the American public.'

Secret Service agents' role in the events of January 6 has been under intense scrutiny since the explosive testimony of 25-year-old Cassidy Hutchinson, the assistant to Donald Trump's final chief of staff.

Secret Service agents' role in the events of January 6 (pictured) has been under intense scrutiny since the explosive testimony of 25-year-old Cassidy Hutchinson, the assistant to Donald Trump's final chief of staff

Hutchinson recounted being told that Trump got physical with his security detail on January 6 when they would not take him to the US Capitol after he called on his supporters at the White House Ellipse to march there.

'I'm the effing president, take me to the Capitol now,' Hutchinson said Trump raged in the back of his vehicle.

When agents protested, Hutchinson said she was told by Former Deputy Chief of Staff Tony Ornato that Trump 'lunged' for the steering wheel and then for a Secret Service agent.

'Sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We're going back to the West Wing, we're not going to the Capitol,' Hutchinson was told Secret Service agent Robert Engel said.

'Mr. Trump then used his free hand to lunge towards Bobby Engel,' Hutchinson recalled.

Ornato 'motioned toward his clavicle,' she added, as a sign the president went for his security detail's throat.

Multiple people have said Ornato disputes Hutchinson's account, though he's yet to do so publicly under oath.

Lawmakers on the committee have since confirmed that they have witnesses corroborating the senior White House aide's testimony, though no specifics have been made available thus far.
Penny Mordaunt left a job because she was so incompetent that she couldnt organise a tea party in a park, the Tory equivalent of a p***-up in a brewery, her former boss said yesterday.





Lord Moylan said the Tory leadership hopeful quit the role of head of communications for Kensington and Chelsea Council in London because she couldnt do the job.

His intervention came after former Brexit minister Lord Frost said he asked for Miss Mordaunt to be replaced as his junior minister during talks with the EU last year.

Penny Mordaunt left a job because she was so incompetent that she couldnt organise a tea party in a park, the Tory equivalent of a p***-up in a brewery, her former boss said yesterday (pictured during her time in the role as head of communications for Kensington and Chelsea Council in London)

Conservative peer Lord Moylan (pictured), a former diplomat who was deputy leader of the council when Miss Mordaunt was hired in June 2001, claimed yesterday she was clueless and had no grip

Navy almost threw her out over exams Further pressure was mounting on Penny Mordaunt last night to explain her record as a naval officer. Senior officers reacted with fury in yesterdays Daily Mail over claims she had fought in the Navy, when she is only an honorary officer. Promotion: Mordaunt in uniform last year Now, defence sources suggested she was made an honorary captain because she faced being booted out of the reserves. A source said: I find the naval reservist narrative disingenuous... she is allowed to wear the uniform, but she would never be called up. She was made an honorary when she became minister for the Armed Forces because she was about to be thrown out. They said she timed out on sitting the relevant exams... So everyone was polite and made her an honorary. A naval source said: She had a set time period to attend the Britannia Royal Naval College but failed to do so. Miss Mordaunt was asked for comment. Advertisement

Conservative peer Lord Moylan, a former diplomat who was deputy leader of the council when Miss Mordaunt was hired in June 2001, claimed yesterday she was clueless and had no grip.

We hired her to be director of comms and... she was incompetent, he said.

My recollection is she was never on top of anything  even to the point of organising the Tory equivalent of a p***-up in a brewery, a tea party in Holland Park. She couldnt even do that.

There was no leadership or management grip at all. She was clueless. She didnt stay because she couldnt do the job.

The Tory grandee, who served as chief airports adviser to Boris Johnson when he was Mayor of London, said Miss Mordaunt left the role in 2003 following concerns about her performance. He added: Some people have said this happened 20 years ago and maybe shes changed, maybe shes grown up.

But clearly  following on from what Lord Frost said  she hasnt devoted the intervening decades to self-improvement. Asked why he had chosen to speak out, he said: I was saving it for if she got too far, but when I saw Lord Frost say something, I thought I should piggy-back on his comments.

I didnt do it out of spite. I didnt do it because I dislike her. I just dont think she should be prime minister.

Lord Frost said he had grave concerns about international trade minister Miss Mordaunt taking the top job. I felt she did not master the detail that was necessary in the negotiations last year. She wasnt fully accountable, she wasnt always visible. Sometimes I didnt even know where she was.

Miss Mordaunt said yesterday she was not scared of becoming prime minister. Defending her low profile in government, she claimed she had been beavering away in her junior ministerial roles in recent years.

I have just been getting on with my job, but I have thought long and hard about what this country needs, she said. I feel really compelled to do this. It would be a huge honour to be prime minister.

Miss Mordaunt is the bookmakers favourite to win the race. A source on her campaign said: Penny is the best-placed candidate to lead this country, and she is grateful of the support shown from colleagues across the public, private and charity sectors as well as the military.

We dont think this contest will be well served by blue-on-blue attacks.
Three teenagers have been charged over the stabbing murder of a 17-year-old boy at Sydney's Royal Easter Show earlier this year.

The shocking incident in April saw Uati 'Pele' Faletolu knifed in the chest during a melee witnessed by families attending the show.

Faletolu had been on a break from working on the Break Dance ride at the show when the altercation occurred on April 11.

The teen was an expectant father.

Uati 'Pele' Faletolu, 17, was knifed in the chest during a melee witnessed by families attending the show on April 11. Faletolu had been on a break from working on the Break Dance ride at the show

The police investigation into Faletolu's death had been stymied with officers at one stage saying people were keeping key details 'secret', but revealed an 18-year-old man was arrested at Shalvey in Sydney's west last Saturday and charged with murder

A second 18-year-old man was arrested at Schofields Train Station on Wednesday and was also charged with murder, while a 14-year-old boy was arrested in Arndell Park on Friday and also charged with murder

'From the outset police were met with a wall of silence from associates of those involved and undertook a painstaking investigative process to reach this point,' State Crime Commander, Acting Assistant Commissioner Jason Weinstein, said

The police investigation into his death had been stymied with officers at one stage saying people are keeping key details 'secret', but have now revealed an 18-year-old man was arrested at Shalvey in Sydney's west last Saturday and charged with murder.

A second 18-year-old man was arrested at Schofields Train Station on Wednesday and was also charged with murder.

A 14-year-old boy was then arrested in Arndell Park on Friday and also charged with murder.

The three teens were refused bail ahead of court appearances.

Police seen at the scene of the melee at the Royal Easter Show last April

State Crime Commander, Acting Assistant Commissioner Jason Weinstein, said the arrests were the result of a long investigation by Homicide Squad detectives.

'From the outset police were met with a wall of silence from associates of those involved and undertook a painstaking investigative process to reach this point,' he said.

'This and other recent acts of knife crime that weve seen were senseless acts of violence which have had devastating consequences for victims, their families, and also those allegedly responsible.

'I implore young persons to think carefully about their choices and the consequences of carrying or using a knife and encourage parents to speak with their children about the dangers associated with it. I dont want to see other families devastated like this.'

Three teenagers - two 18-year-olds and a 14-year-old - have been arrested in the past week and charged with the murder of Faletolu

Deputy Premier and Minister for Police Paul Toole said the arrests send a strong message that violence of any kind will not be tolerated.

'This was a shocking incident that played out publicly at one of Sydneys most popular family events,' Mr Toole said.

'This breakthrough clearly shows that it doesnt matter how long it takes, and no matter what obstacles police face, their investigations remain ongoing, and now three teenagers are facing murder charges.'
In Defence of Marxism is committed to safeguarding your privacy. At all times we aim to respect any personal data you share with us, or that we receive from other organisations, and keep it safe. This Privacy Policy (Policy) sets out our data collection and processing practices and your options regarding the ways in which your personal information is used.

This Policy contains important information about your personal rights to privacy. Please read it carefully to understand how we use your personal data. We may update this Policy from time to time without notice to you, so please check it regularly.

The provision of your personal data to us is voluntary. However, without providing us with your personal data, you will be unable to (as appropriate): contact us; subscribe to our mailing list; subscribe to any of our publications; or receive information about In Defence of Marxism.

We collect information about you:

(1) When you give it to us DIRECTLY

You may give us your personal data in order to subscribe to a newsletter or publication, when you contact us by phone, email or post, when you sign a petition / statement, and/or when you donate money to us.

(2) When you give it to us INDIRECTLY

Your information will also be provided to us when you follow us or otherwise interact with on or via Twitter, when you like and/or join our page on Facebook or interact with us in other ways on or via Facebook.

(3) When you give permission to OTHER ORGANISATIONS to share it or it is AVAILABLE PUBLICLY

We may combine information you provide to us with information available from external publicly available sources. Depending on your privacy settings for social media services, we may also access information from those accounts or services. We use this information to gain a better understanding of you and to improve our communications and fundraising activities.

(4) When you visit our WEBSITE

We use cookies to identify you when you visit our website. Please refer to our Cookies Policy for details on the way our use of cookies affects your personal data.

What information do we collect?

We may collect, store and use the following kinds of personal data:

(1) We will typically hold your name and contact details, including telephone number, location, and e-mail address. However, we may request other information where it is appropriate and relevant, for example:

Your bank details or debit/credit card details (if making a donation).

(2) any communication preferences you give;

(3) information about your computer and about your visits to and use of this website including your IP address, geographical location, browser type, referral source, length of visit and number of page views; and/or

(4) any other information shared with us as per clause 1.

Do we process sensitive personal information?

Applicable law recognises certain categories of personal information as sensitive and therefore requiring more protection, including political opinions and trade union membership. In limited cases, we may collect sensitive personal data about you. We would only collect sensitive personal data if there is a clear reason for doing so; and will only do so with your explicit consent.

How and why will we use your personal data?

Personal data, however provided to us, will be used for the purposes specified in this Policy or in relevant parts of the website.

We may use your personal information to:

(1) Enable you to subscribe to our hard copy publications;

(2) Send you information about our work, campaigns, organisations and any other information, products or services that we provide (this will not be done without your consent);

(3) Provide you with the services, products or information you have requested;

(4) If you request, put you in touch with other supporters in your area (who have also provided such consent);

(5) Handle the administration of any donation or other payment you make via credit/debit card, cheque, standing order or BACS transfer;

(6) Collect payments from you and send statements and/or receipts to you;

(7) Conduct research into the impact of our activity / campaigns;

(8) Deal with enquiries and complaints made by you relating to the website or us in general;

(9) Make petition submissions to third parties, where you have signed a petition and the third party is a target of the campaign to which the petition relates; and/or

(10) Audit and/or administer our accounts.

Supporter Analysis

Google Analytics

We may use some of your personal information to analyse our digital performance, for example to see how our website can be improved to help us achieve the purposes set out in section 9 below, to record how you are using our website or to assess the popularity of different articles / campaigns.

For more information on how we use your personal information in relation to Google Analytics, please view our cookie policy by clicking this link cookies policy



You can opt-out of the collection of information for such purposes here: http://www.aboutads.info/choices

Communications, updates, fundraising

Where you have provided appropriate consent, we will contact you by telephone and e-mail, with targeted communications to let you know about our events and/or activities that we consider may be of particular interest; about the work of In Defence of Marxism; and to ask for donations or other support.

Donations and other payments

All financial transactions carried out on our website are handled through either:

PayPal (Europe) S.a r.l. (PayPal), a third party payment services provider. We recommend that you read PayPals privacy policy (available at https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full?locale.x=en_GB ) prior to effecting any transactions with us through PayPal; or

GoCardless Ltd (GoCardless), a third party payment services provider. We recommend that you read GoCardlesss privacy policy (available at https://www.gocardless.com/legal/privacy) prior to effecting any transactions with us through GoCardless.

We will provide your personal data to PayPal / GoCardless only to the extent necessary for the purposes of processing payments for transactions you enter into with us. We do not store your financial details.

Childrens data

We do not knowingly process data of any person under the age of 16. If we come to discover, or have reason to believe, that you are 15 and under and we are holding your personal information, we will delete that information within a reasonable period and withhold our services accordingly.

Security of and access to your personal data

We endeavour to ensure that there are appropriate and proportionate technical and organisational measures to prevent the loss, destruction, misuse, alteration, unauthorised disclosure or of access to your personal information.

Your information is only accessible by appropriately trained staff and volunteers.

We may also use agencies and/or suppliers to process data on our behalf. We may also merge or partner with other organisations and in so doing transfer and/or acquire personal data.

Please note that some countries outside of the EEA have a lower standard of protection for personal data, including lower security requirements and fewer rights for individuals. We may transfer and/or store personal data collected from you to and/or at a destination outside the European Economic Area (EEA). Such personal data may be processed by agencies and/or suppliers operating outside the EEA. If we transfer and/or store your personal data outside the EEA we will take reasonable steps to ensure that the recipient implements appropriate measures to protect your personal data.

Otherwise than as set out in this Privacy Policy, we will only ever share your data with your informed consent.

Your rights

Where we rely on your consent to use your personal information, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. This includes the right to ask us to stop using your personal information for direct marketing purposes or to be unsubscribed from our email list at any time. You also have the following rights:

(1) Right to be informed  you have the right to be told how your personal information will be used. This Policy and any other policies and statements used on our website and in our communications are intended to provide you with a clear and transparent description of how your personal information may be used.

(2) Right of access  you can write to us to ask for confirmation of what information we hold on you and to request a copy of that information. Provided we are satisfied that you are entitled to see the information requested and we have successfully confirmed your identity, we have 30 days to comply.

(3) Right of erasure  as from 25 May 2018, you can ask us for your personal information to be deleted from our records.

(4) Right of rectification  if you believe our records of your personal information are inaccurate, you have the right to ask for those records to be updated.

(5) Right to restrict processing  you have the right to ask for processing of your personal data to be restricted if there is disagreement about its accuracy or legitimate usage.

(6) Right to data portability  to the extent required by the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) where we are processing your personal information (i) under your consent, (ii) because such processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are party or to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contact or (iii) by automated means, you may ask us to provide it to you  or another service provider  in a machine-readable format.

To exercise these rights, please send a description of the personal information in question using the contact details in section 15 below. You can also unsubscribe from our email list by sending a blank email to news-unsubscribe@marxist.com

Where we consider that the information with which you have provided us does not enable us to identify the personal information in question, we reserve the right to ask for (i) personal identification and/or (ii) further information.

Lawful processing

We are required to have one or more lawful grounds to process your personal information. Only 4 of these are relevant to us:

Personal information is processed on the basis of a persons consent Personal information is processed on the basis of a contractual relationship Personal information is processed on the basis of legal obligations Personal information is processed on the basis of legitimate interests

(1) Consent

We will ask for your consent to use your information to send you electronic communications such as newsletters and and fundraising emails, and if you ever share sensitive personal information with us.

(2) Contractual relationships

Most of our interactions with supporters are voluntary and not contractual. However, sometimes it will be necessary to process personal information so that we can enter contractual relationships with people. For example, if you subscribe to one of our publications, or purchase merchandise online.

(3) Legal obligations

Sometimes we will be obliged to process your personal information due to legal obligations which are binding on us. We will only ever do so when strictly necessary.

(4) Legitimate interests

Applicable law allows personal information to be collected and used if it is reasonably necessary for our legitimate activities (as long as its use is fair, balanced and does not unduly impact individuals rights).

We will rely on this ground to process your personal data when it is not practical or appropriate to ask for consent.

Achieving our purposes

These include (but are not limited to) promoting socialist policies

Governance

Internal and external audit for financial or regulatory compliance purposes

Statutory reporting

Publicity and income generation

Conventional direct marketing and other forms of marketing, publicity or advertisement

Unsolicited messages, including campaigns, newsletters, and fundraising appeals

Analysis, targeting and segmentation to develop and promote or strategy and improve communication efficiency

Personalisation used to tailor and enhance your experience of our communications

Operational Management

Maintenance of suppression files

Processing for historical, scientific or statistical purpose

Purely administrative purposes

Responding to enquiries

Delivery of requested products or information

Communications designed to administer existing services including subscriptions, administration of petitions and financial transactions

Thank you communications and receipts

Maintaining a supporter database and suppression lists

Financial Management and control

Processing financial transactions and maintaining financial controls

Prevention of fraud, misuse of services, or money laundering

Enforcement of legal claims

Reporting criminal acts and compliance with law enforcement agencies

When we use your personal information, we will consider if it is fair and balanced to do so and if it is within your reasonable expectations. We will balance your rights and our legitimate interests to ensure that we use your personal information in ways that are not unduly intrusive or unfair in other ways.

Data retention

The length of time each category of data will be retained will vary depending on how long we need to process it for, the reason it was collected, and in line with any statutory requirements. After this point the data will either be deleted, or we may retain a secure anonymised record for research and analytical purposes.

In the event that you ask us to stop sending you direct marketing/fundraising/other electronic communications, we will keep your name on our internal suppression list to ensure that you are not contacted again.

Policy amendments

We keep this Privacy Policy under regular review and reserve the right to update from time-to-time by posting an updated version on our website, not least because of changes in applicable law. We recommend that you check this Privacy Policy occasionally to ensure you remain happy with it. We may also notify you of changes to our privacy policy by email.

Third party websites

We link our website directly to other sites. This Privacy Policy does not cover external websites and we are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those sites. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of any external websites you visit via links on our website.

Updating information

You can check the personal data we hold about you, and ask us to update it where necessary, by emailing us at webmaster@marxist.com

Contact

We are not required by law to have a Data Protection Officer  however we have a Data Protection Manager.

Please let us know if you have any queries or concerns whatsoever about the way in which your data is being processed by emailing the Data Protection Manager at webmaster@marxist.com
Scotland Yard has been accused of foul play for poaching large numbers of officers from neighbouring forces with a 5,000 signing on bonus.

A row has erupted between Britains largest police force and its regional partners as the constabularies try to meet recruitment targets but lack the financial clout to match the pay packages and bonuses.

Police and crime commissioner (PCC) for Hertfordshire, David Lloyd, said the Met lacks decency as it poached large numbers of officers from his force. And Festus Akinbusoye, the PCC for Bedfordshire, described the policy as wrong and fundamentally bad for policing.

Mr Lloyd said rather than attracting new recruits to policing, the signing on bonus was drawing officers from other forces, adding: Not only can they offer London-weighted salaries, they have this lump sum on top. The whole basis of policing is that we help each other out but it doesnt feel like they are adopting this collaborative approach.

Scotland Yard has recruited 9,400 officers in the last three years, it reached a record 33,567 in March and still intends to recruit a further 4,000 by next year

Scotland Yard said that it is a significant net loser on transferees and its net position is 300 down

Scotland Yard has recruited 9,400 officers in the last three years and reached 33,567 in March  a record. The force intends to recruit a further 4,000 by next year. Alongside the one-off payment, it has increased the joining salary to 31,686 including allowances.

The Home Office said the policy was an operational decision for each police force and it could not comment.

Scotland Yard said that it is a significant net loser on transferees and when considering officers who have transferred in and out since 2019, its net position is 300 down.
Posing earnestly for her passport photo, this is the only known image of Sheila Seleoane, the solitary spinster whose body lay undiscovered for two-and-a-half years after she died in her London flat.

Published here for the first time, it was given to the Mail by her long-lost family in South Africa, who used it to illustrate the order of service at her funeral in her ancestral homeland.

I have spent months investigating the background to this disturbing story, in many ways a parable for the depersonalisation of life in many parts of urban Britain.

In the coming days, the truth behind the scandal should emerge. On Thursday an inquest will seek to establish how, and when, Miss Seleoane died. It will be followed by publication of an independent report into how her death could have gone unnoticed for such a scandalous length of time.

However, I have already uncovered many fresh elements to this perplexing case.

The only published photo of Sheila Seleoane is a passport photo. Since her body was discovered, relatives in South Africa who she had never met have shown more concern than the UK, writes David Jones

Harriet Harman, Labour MP for Camberwell and Peckham, has demanded a full investigation into why Peabody ignored repeated calls from neighbours who complained of a horrendous smell more than two years ago

Despite promises to sensitively refurbish and re-let the flat in which her body was discovered, residents have reported that Peabody has not taken any action since

Among them is the macabre claim, made by a neighbour who lived directly below the dead woman, that footsteps were heard in her fourth-floor flat in Peckham, South London, many months after she had died  supposedly alone and without anyone knowing (or caring) what had become of her.

We will return to this development. First, however, a poignantly ironic observation.

It is that Miss Seleoane's distant relatives, who lived 8,000 miles away and never once spoke to her, much less met her  have shown more concern, since learning of her death, than anyone with whom she had contact in Britain.

The list who surely ought to have enquired into her disappearance much earlier includes her colleagues, the police, utilities companies, and certainly the Peabody Trust, the affordable-housing charity from which she rented her flat.

In recent weeks, this British-born medical secretary has been remembered at two funerals. The contrast between them tells us all we need to know.

Just two mourners attended the first, on April 19 at Croydon Crematorium, a few miles from where she was found: her brother Victor, a convicted murderer from whom she was estranged, and a representative of Peabody.

Watching this soulless service via video-link was a sobering reminder of her isolation.

As a pastor gave a superficial overview of Miss Seleoane's 61 years of life (without referring to her disgraceful abandonment) the two men sat dutifully on opposite sides of the aisle. When it finished, they shuffled away quickly.

If only the housing trust had honoured the promise it made to residents of Lord's Court, the block of flats where Miss Seleoane lived, several neighbours would have attended. However, they didn't know that the funeral had taken place until the Mail informed them.

'Everybody is disgusted that Peabody didn't tell us, but I'm glad that she at least had a proper send-off,' said one.

Peabody responded to the neighbour's subsequent complaint with a letter stating Miss Seleoane's 'immediate family'  presumably meaning her furtive brother, her only living relative in Britain  wanted a 'private' service.

No one in the block can recall exactly when they last saw her striding purposefully to the bus stop or returning home with shopping. An ambulance is pictured outside the building

Neighbours say they complained about the smell for more than two years, as well as raising concerns about the number of unopened letters

However, after her body was found I traced her distant relatives in the Eastern Cape, from where her mother Adelina emigrated in 1954 to work as a doctor's housekeeper in London.

Deeply distressed to hear of her abandonment, they were determined to mark her passing with a traditional Methodist ceremony, and burial in the family plot.

To their credit, Peabody did arrange and pay for Miss Seleoane's remains to be flown to South Africa.

Held last month in a packed chapel whose bare-brick walls echoed to stirring eulogies and the uplifting strains of a gospel choir, it was a magnificent occasion that finally brought her the dignity and affection she had been denied.

Some members of her sprawling South African family travelled many miles to be among the 100, or so, mourners led by Miss Seleoane's sister, Bella Brooms, one of her two surviving siblings.

But now these distant kinfolk are demanding answers.

Since their culture ensures neighbours constantly call in on one another, her fate is beyond their comprehension, and they are at pains to know how it could have happened.

They can't afford to attend the inquest, due to begin on July 21 at Southwark Coroner's Court, at the same time as the independent report, by housing consultants Altair, is expected to be published. However, they will follow proceedings as closely as possible.

Residents of Lord's Court also want the truth behind this saga.

Their constituency MP Harriet Harman has asked the coroner to allow them to bear witness to their harrowing experiences at the inquest. One neighbour, who repeatedly reported her suspicions that Miss Seleoane had died, tells me she will certainly give evidence.

To recap, Miss Seleoane is known to have died sometime in the late summer or autumn of 2019. Alarmed by the overpowering smell that filled the corridors, residents repeatedly raised concerns with Peabody.

Yet her remains were discovered, propped on the sofa and apparently flanked by deflated party balloons (the presence of which is yet another mystery) when, finally, police broke into the flat in February this year.

The Met say they are satisfied there was nothing untoward about her death and that she died naturally  though whether a pathologist can pinpoint the precise cause with certainty after such a long period of decomposition remains to be seen.

We must assume the police have good reason to make this assertion. Yet one wonders how it squares with that bombshell footsteps claim from the resident living below.

This person is believed to have said they heard the sounds through the ceiling more than once last winter.

In February, when Miss Seleoane's balcony windows  which had been closed for more than two years  began to bang open and shut, this same resident raised the alarm.

Police arrived to find her white-painted door locked from the inside, with a months-old notice warning that gas contractors were about to be cut off Sellotaped to it.

Neighbours began complaining to the housing association landlord about a 'foul smell' in the building in October 2019

For reasons unknown, this threat was never carried out. But when the police broke in they found her skeletal remains.

So, could someone have accessed the flat by other means during the estimated 30 months that she laid?

A ghoulish intruder, perhaps, who, having entered through the open windows wasn't repelled by the stench, nor scared off by the sight of a decomposing body on the settee.

According to a source living in the building, it is just possible.

'For at least two months, in September and October, 2021, scaffolding was erected so the outside of the building could be painted, so someone could have climbed up to the fourth floor,' they told me, speculating that it might have been a prospective burglar or rough-sleeper.

Adding to the intrigue, the insider says another resident claims to have heard someone climbing the scaffolding in the months before the body was discovered.

Whatever the truth, we can be sure that these suspicions were reported to Peabody, for they were addressed by Pablo Cazar, the trust's Head of Neighbourhoods  South, in a letter to residents dated April 6.

'From our visits and conversations, we know many of you have questions, and we are sharing what we can in this letter,' he wrote.

'The police have confirmed that Ms Seleoane died of natural causes, and they are not treating her death as suspicious. Although there have been reports from residents that people may have entered Ms Seleoane's flat in the past two years, the police have decided not to open a criminal investigation on this basis.'

Oddly, we might think, the Met also won't be taking any further action in relation to another bizarre element of this case. One that casts more questions over the beleaguered force's competence.

Neighbours became increasingly concerned when letters began to pile up in the letterbox

Prompted by another neighbour's concerns, police were first persuaded to visit the stinking flat in October 2020. According to this neighbour, officers then reported they had 'made contact' with the occupant and established she was 'safe and well'.

Peabody has confirmed this account to me, saying the police's message of reassurance led them to believe 'everything was fine'.

If true, this seems astonishing. Why would the officers have said that when, by that time, Miss Seleoane had been dead for a year?

Cause for an inquiry, surely?

Not in the eyes of the Met. Though they admit to attending the address that month  on two separate occasions  they have told the Mail 'it was not deemed by the officers that there were sufficient grounds to enter the premises'.

The force's Directorate of Professional Standards has looked at the actions of the officers involved, they added in a statement, and 'not found any reason to launch an investigation'.

But back to that letter from Mr Cazar. In it, he acknowledged people living in the housing block had suffered 'distress' and been offered free counselling. However, angry residents claim he made other promises which haven't been kept.

For one thing, they were assured that Miss Seleoane's flat would soon be refurbished, by 'very experienced contractors' who would handle their task 'sensitively'. This week, however, one resident sent me a new photograph of that locked door.

It looks exactly as it did after her body was found, with the battering ram's cracks unrepaired, instructions scrawled on the cracked paintwork, and rivet holes around the frame.

This seems to be yet another disgraceful lapse, given some of Miss Seleoane's neighbours are still struggling to overcome the trauma of living beside a corpse.

One mother says her children are tormented by nightmares.

'Everyone living on Sheila's floor has asked to be rehoused in another block, but nothing at all has been done,' says one resident, who intends to take the matter to the housing ombudsman after the inquest and report are published.

'Peabody says they plan to refurbish the flat and re-let it. But to my mind it is a grave. Nobody should have to live there. It ought to be left permanently empty.

'The trust is supposed to care about its residents  that's why it's there  but it obviously couldn't care less about us. It just wants it all to be forgotten.'

Perhaps so. Whether or not this is a fair assumption, in South Africa, at least, Miss Seleoane will be remembered. At her second funeral, I am proud to say, a family speaker expressed gratitude to the Mail for our role in delivering her back to her ancestors.

'It was a beautiful service. We will be forever thankful for what you did for Sheila and for our family,' said Miss Seleoane's niece, Itumeleng, a school library assistant, who organised the event.

Peabody has repeatedly expressed contrition over this case. Doubtless it is genuine. Barely a month after Miss Seleoane's body was found, however, the trust came under scrutiny again.

Inside Housing magazine revealed that the body of another of its residents, Terry Watkins, who was in his 60s, had been found in his low-rent flat in Westminster  several months after his neighbours began raising concerns about his welfare with Peabody.

This time it will not shoulder any blame. A spokesman insisted that the circumstances were very different, adding that it was 'difficult to see how we could have known about this situation'.

In relation to Miss Seleoane's case, he said there was no evidence that anyone had entered her flat. Police had 'declined to investigate this'.

Responding to residents' other complaints, he said it might have been 'insensitive' to refurbish Miss Seleoane's flat before she had been laid to rest in South Africa, but the work would be done.

Rehousing requests had not been ignored. Peabody was 'working with one resident' but others rejected the new homes offered.

This venerable old organisation promises to learn lessons from the forthcoming inquest and independent report.

We must hope it does.

Yet I fear that no official inquiry will answer the questions of a faraway family with very different values to ours.

These community-minded people may never understand how, in Britain  a country they so much admire  a decent, professional woman could be allowed to vanish without so much as a care.
A British aid worker who died behind bars in Russian-held Ukraine was tortured by Vladimir Putins henchmen, his sister said last night.

Her claims about Paul Urey, 45, a type 1 diabetic, were shockingly backed up by a human rights group which said his death echoed those of others tortured in Russian jails.

Mr Ureys sister, Lyndsey Coulton, spoke out after the Foreign Office informed the family of the father-of-twos death. It came after over ten weeks of captivity in the hands of separatists in the Donetsk region. [The Russians] did something to him, I think they tortured him, she said.

Officially he died due to chronic illness and depression, but I dont think it was that. She added: More could have been done to save him. Why wasnt he part of a prisoner swap? Vladimir Osechkin, founder of anti-torture group Gulagu, supported her claims.

Paul Urey, 45, a British aid worker captured by Russian forces in Ukraine on April 25, died of 'illness and stress' while in jail on July 10, Moscow-backed separatists said

Linda Urey, Paul's mother (pictured at the time he was originally captured), has branded his jailers 'f***ing murderers' who 'let him die'

Our source said from 28 April 2022 [Paul Urey] was kept in Donetsk torture pre-trial detention centre, where torture experts from FSIN (the Russian penitentiary system) and FSB (the Russian secret service) worked with him, he said. The Briton suddenly got colossal health issues, related to disrupted work of kidneys and other vital organs. Exactly the same diagnoses are given by Russian prison doctors to those who are tortured to death in jails.

Mr Ureys death has triggered a furious diplomatic dispute between the UK and Russia.

Last night his mother Linda Urey, 62, who had a special relationship with her son having reunited after he was put up for adoption, said of his captors: Murderers, thats what you are, murderers. I hate you all. I told you he was a sick man, I told you he was diabetic.

Liz Truss has summoned the Russian ambassador, and said the country must 'bear full responsibility' for Mr Urey's death

Mr Urey, from Culcheth near Warrington, had been working for humanitarian organisation the Presidium Network, seeking to rescue women and children from Ukrainian villages near the frontline. He was detained at a Russian checkpoint on April 25 and accused of mercenary activities. Prior to his death, Mr Urey was held in Ukrainian territory occupied by pro-Russian separatists.

They have set up a peoples republic and pledged allegiance to Moscow. Donetsk Peoples Republic (DPR) official Daria Morozova claimed that British representatives ignored the possibility of negotiating his return and alleged they did not provide the necessary medical supplies through the Red Cross.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss led a chorus of outrage last night, saying: Russia must bear full responsibility. He was helping Ukrainian people in the face of the unprovoked invasion. Those responsible will be held to account.

The UKs refusal to recognise the DPR may have proved an obstacle to negotiating Mr Ureys release and that of other captured Britons. Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner are awaiting execution having been found guilty of the false charge of being mercenaries.
Advertisement

A 10million townhouse in London's swanky Mayfair has gone on the market after being refurbished using strict Historic England guidelines.

The guidelines are used in historic buildings, and concern everything from structural issues to simple fixings, given that it is Grade-II* listed.

In this high-end family home, the guidelines helped to shape the finished look of the beautifully crafted interior.

The luxury townhouse is in London's affluent Mayfair and is being sold by Rokstone estate agents with a price tag of 10million

The property has been recently refurbished using guidelines from Historic England, with some of the missing wood panelling being reinstalled

The property was built 300 years ago, with the recent refurbishment being approached extremely carefully.

The local council and Historic England worked with the current owner's architect to ensure that some missing details were reinstated.

These included some wood panelling and box cornicing that were reinstalled in the front living room and library, using the Historic England guidelines.

Some of the panelling is original. It was stripped back and then the new panelling was closely matched before being installed. Much of the work will have been done by hand.

Historic England explained that early examples of interior features would often be hand crafted, but by the later 18th century and into the 19th century elements such as stair balusters would be machined.

There is wood panelling on several of the floors, including in the double reception room on the first floor (pictured)

The property has some decorative fireplaces in several rooms, including this one surrounded by dark coloured walls

This dining room at the property also has a decorative fireplace in the background as well as some large sash windows

The guidelines are often mistaken from being from English Heritage. But in April 2015, English Heritage separated into two organisations.

One of them was the English Heritage charity that looks after more than 400 historic places, including stone circles, abbeys, historic houses. The other is Historic England, a public body that gives advice about listed buildings.

The latter explained that the Mayfair property is Grade II* listed, meaning it has greater heritage significance compared to its simply Grade II listed neighbours and very few buildings fall into this category.

It went on to describe the townhouse as a 'very special building'. This is due to the surviving ground, first and second floors - which is higher than normal in a house of this type and age.

It added that the house is unusual as it has 'a less hierarchical interior' with panelling on even its less prestigious upper floors.

Alfie Stroud, of Historic England, said: 'London's historic homes are so important to the city's character and heritage, and we hope our guidance will help owners to preserve their significant interiors.'

The entrance hallway has some black and white tiles on the floor as well as some light wood panelling on the walls

The double reception room on the first floor of the townhouse has a decorative fireplace and a light coloured carpet

The unusual breakfast room has space for a small table and chair, and is filled with plants against a tiled wall backdrop

The breakfast room provides a light and airy space that is effectively a conservatory which can be used all year round

The kitchen features dual-tone cabinets, tiled flooring and a sash window that overlooks the unusual breakfast room

The extra effort made to retain the historic feel of the property doesn't mean that modern luxuries were compromised.

They include a bespoke bar with a wine cooler, and a vaulted wine store.

Meanwhile, the property's kitchen boasts quartz worktops, Miele appliances and a Quaker boiler hot top.

Other features of the property include an internal balcony in the library with views of Mayfair's rooftops, and plenty of sash windows - with the largest windows on the ground and first floors of this five storey home.

The property was built by bricklayer John Barnes and it was once occupied by landscape painter WJ Poole, who lived in the house between 1817 and 1822.

The family home has four bedrooms - including this double bedroom with another decorative fireplace and sash windows

The property is on Park Street, the longest street in Mayfair that runs from Oxford Street to South Street, and is parallel with Park Lane.

The area retains its conservation statue due to its rich architectural legacy and its high number of listed buildings.

The 10million townhouse has four-bedrooms and is being sold by Rokstone estate agents.

The average price of a property sold in Mayfair during the past 12 months is 3,202,900.

It compares to 312,201 for the country as a whole, according to property website Zoopla.
Advertisement

It blew the minds of the scientific community when the first batch of James Webb's spectacular images were revealed to the world this week.

But attention has already turned to what the $10 billion (7.4 billion) telescope could capture next  with potentially habitable exoplanets expected to be near the top of that list.

NASA has not officially revealed the new set of targets for its super space telescope, but Webb is understood to have observed a protostar  or very young star  called CED110IRS4-LRS.

In direct contrast to its maiden images of deep-space, Webb has also been pointing its instruments much closer to home so that it can provide humanity with dazzling views of our own solar system, with new 'bonus' pictures already dropping today.

It has captured images of Jupiter's faint rings, the gas giant's moon Europa and an asteroid called 6481 Tenzing, which is found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

These pictures were taken before Webb's science operations officially began on July 12, but have just been released as part of the latest data dump for astronomers to pore over.

It has also been reported that Webb has been monitoring asteroid 1998-BC1, which is another asteroid belt space rock.

But even more exciting is that the observatory is expected to spend a fair bit of time looking at Trappist-1 - the most studied planetary system outside of our own.

'During its first operating cycle, the James Webb Space Telescope will set its sights on the TRAPPIST-1 system, an incredible collection of seven rocky exoplanets 41 light-years away from Earth,' NASA explained.

The telescope will undergo 'atmospheric reconnaissance' in a bid to learn more about the system's atmospheres, habitability, and planetary formations.

Excitement: Attention has already turned to what objects the James Webb Space Telescope will capture next, after NASA released its first full-colour images earlier this week. New 'bonus' pictures are already dropping today, including this one showing Jupiter and its moon Europa

Blinded by the light: Jupiter and some of its moons can be seen here through Webb's NIRCam instrument

Moving objects: Asteroid 6481 Tenzing, centre, is pictured against a background of stars in this image taken by NIRCam

WHAT WILL WEBB IMAGE NEXT? As well as looking into deep space, Webb has also been pointing its instruments much closer to home so that it can provide humanity with dazzling views of our own solar system. As the first five images were being released to the world on Tuesday, Webb was already observing a new part of the universe. The telescope is understood to have observed a protostar  or very young star  called CED110IRS4-LRS. It has also been reported that it has been monitoring asteroid 1998-BC1, which sits between Mars and Jupiter, and is expected to spend a fair bit of time looking at the most studied planetary system outside of our own. Trappist-1 is home to the largest batch of Earth-size habitable zone planets ever seen orbiting a host star. It lies about 40 light-years away but is set to be a major focus of Webb during its first full year of operations. NASA has not officially said what its new super space telescope will target next, or when the next science pictures will drop, but they could follow every month or so. Advertisement

In the meantime, hot on the heels of Tuesday's release of the first images from Webb, data from the telescope's commissioning period is now being released on the Space Telescope Science Institute's Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes.

It includes images of Jupiter and pictures and spectra of several asteroids, captured to test the telescope's instruments before science operations began earlier this month.

The data demonstrates Webb's ability to track solar system targets and produce images and spectra with unprecedented detail.

'These images are designed for engineering purposes, so they aren't processed in the same way as our first images this week,' officials wrote on the NASA Webb Telescope Twitter account.

'Like some earlier calibration images, these are processed to emphasise certain features.'

Bryan Holler, a scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, who helped plan the observations, said: 'Combined with the deep field images released the other day, these images of Jupiter demonstrate the full grasp of what Webb can observe, from the faintest, most distant observable galaxies to planets in our own cosmic backyard that you can see with the naked eye from your actual backyard.'

Fans of Jupiter will recognise some familiar features of our solar system's enormous planet in these images seen through Webb's infrared gaze.

A view from the NIRCam instrument's short-wavelength filter shows distinct bands that encircle the planet as well as the Great Red Spot, a storm big enough to swallow the Earth.

The iconic spot appears white in one of the images because of the way Webb's infrared image was processed.

Clearly visible on the left of the image is Europa, a moon with a probable ocean below its thick icy crust, and the target of NASA's forthcoming Europa Clipper mission.

What's more, Europa's shadow can be seen to the left of the Great Red Spot, while other visible moons in these images include Thebe and Metis.

'I couldn't believe that we saw everything so clearly, and how bright they were,' said Stefanie Milam, Webb's deputy project scientist for planetary science based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

'It's really exciting to think of the capability and opportunity that we have for observing these kinds of objects in our solar system.'

Scientists were especially eager to see these images because they are proof that Webb can observe the satellites and rings near bright solar system objects such as Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars.

The telescope (pictured), which was launched from Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana on December 25 last year, will explore the universe in the infrared spectrum, allowing it to gaze through clouds of gas and dust where stars are being born

A view from the NIRCam instrument's short-wavelength filter shows distinct bands that encircle the planet as well as the Great Red Spot, a storm big enough to swallow the Earth

NIRCam short-wavelength image of Jupiter taken by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, showing the moons Thebe, Europa and Metis. It was taken using the F323N filter that highlights light of wavelength 3.23 micrometre

A commissioning report says the pictures 'demonstrated that JWST can track moving targets even when there is scattered light from a bright Jovian planet'. They also show its ability to capture details like rings and moons around bright planets

Webb easily captured some of Jupiter's rings, which especially stand out in the NIRcam long-wavelength filter image.

That the rings showed up in one of Webb's first solar system images is 'absolutely astonishing and amazing,' Milam said.

'The Jupiter images in the narrow-band filters were designed to provide nice images of the entire disk of the planet, but the wealth of additional information about very faint objects (Metis, Thebe, the main ring, hazes) in those images with approximately one-minute exposures was absolutely a very pleasant surprise,' said John Stansberry, observatory scientist and NIRCam commissioning lead at the Space Telescope Science Institute.

But just how fast can an object move and still be tracked by Webb?

This was an important question for scientists who study asteroids and comets. During commissioning, Webb used an asteroid called 6481 Tenzing, located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, to start the moving-target tracking 'speed limit' tests.

The team proved that Webb will still get valuable data with all of the science instruments for objects moving up to 67 milliarcseconds per second  similar to photographing a turtle crawling when you're standing a mile away.

One of Webb's first five official science images to be released was of Stephan's Quintet, which is located in the constellation Pegasus and is notable for being the first compact galaxy group ever discovered in 1877

Sea of stars: This Webb image reveals baby stars in the Carina Nebula (pictured), where ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds shape colossal walls of dust and gas

Two cameras aboard Webb captured the latest image of this planetary nebula, cataloged as NGC 3132, and known informally as the Southern Ring Nebula. It is approximately 2,500 light-years away. One image was taken in the near-infrared (left) and another in the mid-infrared (right)

Spectacular: Pictured is the first image from the James Webb Space Telescope, showing SMACS 0723, a galaxy cluster billions of light-years from Earth. It was revealed to the world earlier this week by US President Joe Biden

It is not clear when Webb's next science images will drop, but they could be published fairly regularly, perhaps every month or so.

Dr Stephen Wilkins, head of astronomy at the University of Sussex, told MailOnline the first five images 'represent only a few days of observations on the observatory'.

It begs the question of what could follow after weeks, months and years of observations.

'We'll start getting more raw data today from a variety of programme (including my own ones),' Dr Wilkins added.

'However, this won't immediately or necessarily be turned into nice images for the public and it may take a while. These five images really are the tip of the iceberg.'

Experts have already planned out what Webb will image during its first year of operations.

This followed more than 1,000 proposals from researchers of what to observe, which were then whittled down by panels of scientists.

More details about which areas of space were chosen to observe in the first year are available here.
Advertisement

Britons are set to bake in 106F (41C) heat next week  but just why is the country in the midst of such a sweltering heatwave?

Experts say it is due to a number of factors, including winds blowing hot air up from north Africa and the Sahara, the 'Azores High' subtropical pressure system creeping farther north, and the ongoing impacts of climate change.

It could culminate in the UK's hottest day in history on Monday, with the country put on a 'national emergency' footing amid fears even healthy people could die.

Part of the problem is that a pressure system called the Azores High, which usually sits off Spain, has grown larger and is being pushed northwards.

This has brought scorching temperatures to the UK, France and the Iberian peninsula.

The high pressure near the southern half of Britain, which has been responsible for this week's warm weather, is also continuing to dominate overhead.

When this develops it triggers heatwaves, which can also bring so-called 'tropical nights'  when night-time temperatures fail to drop below 68F (20C).

These heatwaves are becoming more likely and more intense because of climate change.

Meanwhile, winds are expected to turn southerly from today, bringing hot air up from north Africa and the Sahara and allowing the UK to tap into some of the 113F (45C) heat from Spain and France.

Professor Hannah Cloke, natural hazards researcher at the University of Reading, said: 'We have had heatwaves in the UK before, but the intensity of heat that has been forecast, which will either break UK records or at least get very close, is enough to kill people and animals, damage property, and hobble the economy.'

Why is it so hot? Experts say it is due to a number of factors, including winds blowing hot air up from north Africa and the Sahara, the 'Azores High' subtropical pressure system creeping farther north, and the ongoing impacts of climate change. Sunbathers are pictured on Bournemouth beach in Dorset this morning as they enjoy the continuing hot weather

Next week: The Met Office has issued this forecast map to accompany the extreme heat warning next Monday and Tuesday

The Azores High usually sits to the south but is currently directly over the UK and Ireland, stretching from the Azores Islands

WHAT ARE THE MAIN AIR MASSES SWIRLING ABOVE BRITAIN? There are five main air masses above Britain, along with a sixth one that is a variation of one of them. The UK is more likely to get maritime air masses because our weather primarily comes from the west. The reason for this is because of the direction the Earth spins, leading us to experience prevailing westerly winds. Although Britain does get air masses arriving from the east, too, they're not as common, forecasters say. Polar Maritime Arriving from Greenland and the Arctic Sea, it brings wet and cold air that leads to chilly and showery weather. Arctic Maritime As its name suggests, this air mass comes from the Arctic. It brings with it wet and cold air that causes snowfall in the winter. Polar Continental When the Beast from the East struck Britain in 2018, the bone-chilling air was Polar Continental and came from Siberia. It brings hot air in the summer and cold in the winter, leading to dry summers and snowy winters. Tropical Continental Everybody's favourite summer air mass, the Tropical Continental is what gives us heatwaves and bags of sunshine. The air is hot and dry and comes from North Africa. Tropical Maritime Arriving from the Atlantic Ocean, this warm and moist air brings cloud, rain and mild temperatures to the UK. Returning Polar Maritime The returning Polar Maritime is a variation of the Polar Maritime. However, it takes the air first southwards over the north Atlantic, then north-eastwards across the UK. During its passage south, the air becomes unstable and moist but on moving north-east it passes over cooler water, making it more stable. It brings largely dry weather and cloud. Advertisement

This Tropical Continental air mass is one of five that battle for supremacy over Britain and is what gives us heatwaves and bags of sunshine.

Dr Mark McCarthy, head of the Met Office National Climate Information Centre, said: 'The highest temperatures experienced in the UK tend to occur when our weather is influenced by air masses from continental Europe or North Africa  as it will be at the weekend.

'There is already a strongly-embedded warming due to climate change across the continent, that is increasing the likelihood of challenging the existing UK temperature record.'

The 'Azores High', which is undergoing 'unprecedented' changes, is also a big contributor to the current hot weather in Britain.

A new study suggests the atmospheric high-pressure system is being driven by climate change and already causing droughts in parts of Portugal and Spain.

The Azores High rotates clockwise over parts of the North Atlantic and has a major effect on weather and long-term climate trends in western Europe.

Researchers say this system 'has changed dramatically in the past century and that these changes in North Atlantic climate are unprecedented within the past millennium'.

Using climate model simulations over the last 1,200 years, experts from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution found that the Azores High started to grow to cover a greater area around 200 years ago, as human greenhouse gas pollution began to increase.

It expanded even more dramatically in the 20th century, in step with global warming.

Now the high pressure system, which is usually above the Atlantic and about 1,000 miles from mainland Portugal, has grown larger and pushed farther north, bringing high temperatures to the UK.

'We anticipate that the area of high pressure over the Azores will increasingly extend towards the southwest of the UK,' Daniel Rudman, of the Met Office, has said.

'This will lead to a good deal of warmer and mostly dry weather, especially across the south, although it may also bring cloud and rain into the northwest at times.'

Meanwhile, long July days and short nights also mean that strong sunshine builds up high temperatures.

Britain has been slowly getting hotter since the 19th Century, with the 10 hottest years since 1884 all having occurred since 2002.

In the past three decades alone, the UK has become 1.62F (0.9C) warmer.

'We hoped we wouldn't get to this situation but for the first time ever we are forecasting greater than 40C in the UK,' said Met Office scientist Dr Nikos Christidis.

'In a recent study we found that the likelihood of extremely hot days in the UK has been increasing and will continue to do so during the course of the century, with the most extreme temperatures expected to be observed in the southeast of England.

'Climate change has already influenced the likelihood of temperature extremes in the UK.'

As the Azores High has expanded, winters in the western Mediterranean have become drier. This graph shows the number of winters with extremely large Azores Highs in a 100 year window

The UK had its ninth hottest summer on record last year and the hottest since 2018, with an average temperature of 15.28C (59.5F). The graphic above shows which areas of Britain had higher than average summer temperatures compared to the average from 1981-2010

Which weather will we get? There are five main air masses that battle it out above Britain. They include the Polar Maritime, Arctic Maritime, Polar Continental, Tropical Continental and Tropical Maritime. A sixth air mass, known as the returning Polar Maritime, also affects the UK

He added: 'The chances of seeing 40C days in the UK could be as much as 10 times more likely in the current climate than under a natural climate unaffected by human influence.

'The likelihood of exceeding 40C anywhere in the UK in a given year has also been rapidly increasing, and, even with current pledges on emissions reductions, such extremes could be taking place every 15 years in the climate of 2100.'

Extreme heat events do occur in natural climate variation due to changes in global weather patterns, the Met Office said.

But it added that the increase in the frequency, duration, and intensity of these events over recent decades is clearly linked to the observed warming of the planet and can be attributed to human activity.

The chances of seeing 106F (40C) days in the UK could be as much as 10 times more likely in the current climate than under a natural climate unaffected by human influence, experts say.

Professor Cloke described the red warning for extreme heat as a 'wake-up call' about the climate emergency.

'Even as a climate scientist who studies this stuff, this is scary. This feels real. At the start of the week I was worried about my goldfish getting too hot. Now I'm worried about the survival of my family and my neighbours,' she said.

Why IS the British weather so changeable? UK is 'unique' because FIVE air masses battle for supremacy above it, bringing an extraordinary mix of atmospheric conditions that lead to sun one minute and rain the next

Warm and sunny one minute, rain the next, sometimes the British weather can be so wildly changeable it's difficult to keep up.

But just why is it so variable and prone to change from day to day? Or even, much to the frustration of those who have forgotten a coat, hour by hour?

And has climate change affected it?

MailOnline spoke to several meteorologists about what makes the UK's weather so 'unique', as one put it, and whether any other country in the world compares.

At the heart of it are five main air masses that each have similar temperature and moisture properties. They battle for supremacy above Britain and can spark an extraordinary mix of atmospheric conditions when they clash.

'The UK doesn't have its own weather,' said Met Office forecaster Aidan McGivern, 'it borrows it from elsewhere.'

'That is what the air masses are  large bodies of air that come from other places.'

These graphics show the amount of rain and duration of sunshine areas of Britain had last summer as a percentage of the average from 1981-2010. Northern, central and western parts of the UK had less rainfall compared to the average, while some of the south had more. Southern areas also had less sunshine, while northern parts including Scotland had more

WHAT IS THE JET STREAM AND HOW DOES THAT AFFECT BRITAIN'S WEATHER? The jet stream is a fast moving strip of air high up in the atmosphere that's responsible for steering weather systems towards the UK from the Atlantic. It has a warm side to the south and a cold side to the north and can have a major impact on what kind of weather we experience. In a typical British summer, when temperatures are warmer and drier, the jet stream is to the north of the UK, where it pulls up hot air across the country. However, in the winter it sits further south and brings wet and windier weather because low pressure areas come closer to the UK. The jet stream, which sits at about 30,000ft, can also change shape, going from flat to amplified, and it's the latter that can lead to huge thunderstorms developing very quickly. Advertisement

Professor Liz Bentley, CEO of the Royal Meteorological Society, said: 'When two air masses are next to each other that is when we get dramatic weather conditions.

'Air masses are dependent on wind direction; if coming from the continent they are continental, from the north they are polar, from the ocean it's maritime and from the south they're tropical.'

They include the Polar Maritime, Arctic Maritime, Polar Continental, Tropical Continental and Tropical Maritime. A sixth air mass, known as the returning Polar Maritime, is also seen above Britain and is a variation of the Polar Maritime.

Each air mass brings a different type of weather, but as they meet and battle it out, it's the one that wins which dictates if we get warm sunshine, freezing rain or a spectacular thunderstorm.

'We mainly get the maritime air, either Tropical Maritime, Polar Maritime or returning Polar Maritime, because of how the Earth spins, leading to prevailing westerly winds for the UK,' Mr McGivern said.

Professor Bentley added: 'Although all the air masses have a role to play, the prevailing wind direction for us is westerly so we tend to see more coming from the Atlantic.

'The time of year doesn't affect which air mass wins, but when one does, it depends what season we're in as to what weather we get.

'In the winter, air from the continent is very cold. That's why we had the Beast from the East in 2018  because freezing air was coming from Siberia.

'However, in the summer, when the Tropical Continental air mass is more common, the air is warm because it's coming from a very hot continent, so you're likely to get heatwaves.'

Although it might not always seem it, heatwaves in Britain are actually becoming much more common.

'We are seeing climate change in the UK,' said Professor Bentley. 'There has been an increase in temperatures  the average monthly temperature has increased by 1C (1.8F) in the last 30 years.

'Temperature records are being broken more regularly and we're also more likely to see heatwaves that last longer and are more intense.'

So is the British weather only going to get more unpredictable?

'It's becoming more volatile, more intense,' said Professor Bentley. 'It's a much more volatile situation than three or four decades ago.

'Sometimes we even get two or three seasons in one day.

The graphic above shows how the jet stream works and where it's located between seasons

'We've also seen increases in rainfall, particularly intense rainfall that can lead to flash floods, which is another effect of climate change in the UK.

'And the Met Office has said in a report that we are likely to see 40C (104F) recorded in the UK within the next decade.'

Some of the cold and dreary weather can often be brought by the Polar Maritime, but it is not just about the air masses  the jet stream at 30,000ft also plays its part.

This is a fast moving strip of air high up in the atmosphere that's responsible for steering weather systems towards the UK from the Atlantic.

It has a warm side to the south and a cold side to the north. In a typical British summer, when temperatures are warmer and drier, the jet stream is to the north of the UK, where it pulls up hot air across the country.

However, in the winter it sits further south and brings wet and windier weather because low pressure areas come closer to the UK.

The jet stream can also change shape, going from flat to amplified, and it's the latter that can lead to huge thunderstorms developing very quickly.
A former Tesla employee described the day he was laid off as being a lot like The Wolf of Wall Street and said workers were crying in the lobby.

The anonymous ex-IT worker was employed at the electric vehicle facility in Fremont, California, for only three months when the news arrived - mere weeks after CEO Elon Musk had told employees that 10 percent of salaried employees would be laid off.

'I recalled the scene from The Wolf of Wall Street when the company gets disbanded and everyone's crying,' he told Business Insider, explaining that there were several red flags on the day he was laid off.

Scroll down for video

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, pictured above, announced in June that layoffs were coming for 10 percent of salaried workers - but also noted the firm would continue to hire hourly employees

When he arrived at work, he noticed that his supervisor was already online with her boss before he even logged in; shortly thereafter, his supervisor came in and dropped off her bags without saying anything to him.

Another colleague then told him that someone else who'd worked at Tesla for years was laid off the day before.

'Then I got an email from my supervisor asking if I could join her in a meeting room and that we needed to chat for a bit,' he explained in a first-person essay. 'I knew right then they were going to let me go.'

He was then brought into a room with his supervisor, who had already logged into Zoom with another manager and someone from human resources.

The former IT worker had only been employed for three months at Tesla's facility in Fremont, California, pictured above

'I was instantly surprised,' he wrote. 'I just assumed it would be someone else getting laid off since I was recently hired. Why go through the trouble of hiring me just to let me go?'

There was already someone from security waiting with all his belongings when he left the room.

'There was a handful of people crying when I got to the lobby,' he explained to Business Insider.

'The kicker is that I actually really like Elon Musk - I just wish he would listen more,' the former worker explained. Model Y cars are pictured above during the opening ceremony of the new Tesla Gigafactory in Gruenheide, Germany

'I walked outside and saw through the building windows that even more people were in meeting rooms, holding tissue boxes and wiping their tears away.

'I recognized some of them were colleagues who were on work visas, so I don't know what their situation looks like now.'

The company cut off his email access by midnight that evening.

The laid-off IT worker lamented that he'd made it through four interviews just to get hired for the role - a fairly standard practice in the highly competitive world of Silicon Valley jobs.

Musk has previously explained that even though salaried workers have been laid off, the company is still hiring hourly workers and that the overall headcount would only drop by about 3.5 percent.

'The kicker is that I actually really like Elon Musk - I just wish he would listen more,' he explained.

'A lot of people were unhappy with him changing the work policies.

'And his goals are really big  I've seen employees sleeping on the couches in the factories because they're working 12-hour days, four days a week to meet their goals. And it's quite taxing on their bodies to work like that all day.

'But still, I think that the company and Elon Musk are doing good things for the world.'
TikTok's global chief security officer Roland Cloutier, who oversees cyber security, is stepping down from his role as the company faces scrutiny from US officials over privacy concerns.

TikTok's global chief security officer Roland Cloutier, who oversees cyber security, is stepping down from his role as the company faces scrutiny from US officials over privacy concerns

Cloutier, who is based in Florida, will be replaced by New Jersian Kim Albarella, who has been appointed as the interim head of TikTok's global security organization - the change goes into effect on September 2.

The move follows a bombshell BuzzFeed News report that revealed US user data has been 'repeatedly accessed' by China-based employees.

'With our recent announcement about data management changes in the US it's time for me to transition from my role as Global Chief Security Officer into a strategic advisory role focusing on the business impact of security and trust programs, working directly with (CEO) Shou, (ByteDance VP of Technology) Dingkun and other senior leaders,' Cloutier wrote in a Friday memo.

Cloutier was brought in two years ago to help TikTok handle traditional cybersecurity issues, as well as data security issues unique to TikTok due to its Chinese ownership.

However, TikTok has been reshuffling its global security team and moving China-specific security issues, including ringfencing it from ByteDance, to more localized teams.

It recently announced a dedicated U.S. data security team known as 'USDS' as a gatekeeper for US user information, minimizing China's access to data.

The company is discussing a structure under which the team would operate autonomously and not be under TikTok's control or supervision, Reuters previously reported.

Cloutier, who is based in Florida, will be replaced New Jersian Kim Albarella (pictured), who has been appointed as the interim head of TikTok's global security organization

TikTok, whose leadership is based in the US and Singapore, is considering rolling out similar data security teams in other regions including the EU, according to a source.

The company hired Cloutier from payroll processing company Automated Data Processing Inc (ADP) in 2020 and Albarella previously worked for ADP for more than a decade.

The BuzzFeed News report, published on June 17, seems to have opened Pandora's Box for TIkTok  there have been several changes within the company and US officials are now calling for the app to be banned in the US.

The report claims to have listened to leaked audio of more than 80 internal TikTok meetings.

The recordings, which were captured from September 2021 through January 2022, include 14 statements from nine TikTok employees who met to discuss 'Project Texas'  the classified effort to stop engineers in China from retrieving the data.

An audio clip is of a director at TikTok who referred to a ByteDance engineer as a 'Master Admin' who 'has access to everything', according to BuzzFeed News.

Then on June 29, Brendan Carr, commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), posted on Twitter urging Apple and Google to TikTok 'from their app stores for its pattern of surreptitious data practices.'

Carr included a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Apple CEO Tim Cook, expressing why TikTok needs to be removed, citing a report from last week that 'shed fresh light on the serious national security threats posed by TikTok.

On June 29, Brendan Carr, commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), posted on Twitter urging Apple and Google to TikTok 'from their app stores for its pattern of surreptitious data practices.'

The letter continues with 'some concerning' evidence about why the China-owned app should be removed.

This includes an incident in March 2020 when researchers discovered the app, through Apple's App store, was accessing users' sensitive data  passwords, cryptocurrency wallet addresses and personal messages.

Carr also notes that several US military branches have banned TikTok on government issued devices and has urged personal to remove the app from their personal smartphones.

It also cites TikTok's decision in 2021 to pay $92 million to settle dozens of lawsuits that accuse the app of collecting personal data without the user's consent - and most of these users were minors - and selling it off to advertisers.

Carr gave Apple and Google until July 8 to either remove the app or explain why they chose not to comply.

DailyMail.com has contacted Carr for comment and has yet to receive a response.

TikTok's troubles, however, did not stop there: Nine Republican senators wrote the company a lengthy letter with questions about privacy issues.

And TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew responded on June 30, confirming China-based employees can access US user data.

The letter from TikTok does not clearly state US user data has been or can be accessed by employees outside of the country, but it answers 11 questions that the senators requested answers to by July 18.

'[W]e are confident that when you review our responses, you will see that TikTok has not, at any point, misled Congress about our data and security controls and practices,' Chew wrote.
A fungus that turns houseflies into zombies ensures its survival by 'bewitching' males into mating with the fungal-infected corpses of dead females - and a new study finds the longer the female is dead, the more alluring it is to the male.

The fungus, formally known as entomophthora muscae, infects a female fly, slowly eats it alive from the inside and then in about a week, the spores take over the behavior of the now dead insect.

And once it has full control, the fungus releases a chemical signature that acts as pheromones to lure unsuspecting males.

As the male copulates with the infected female corpse, the fungal spores attach to the male, which in turn also becomes a zombie housefly.

Scientists at the University of Copenhagen found 73 percent of the male flies mated with female carcasses that had died from the fungal infection between 25 to 30 hours earlier.

Only 15 percent of the males mated with female corpses that had been dead for three hours.

Scroll down for video

A fungus that turns houseflies into zombies ensures its survival by 'bewitching' males into mating with the fungal-infected corpses of dead females - and a new study finds the longer the female is dead, the more attractive it is to the male

Henrik H. De Fine Licht, an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Environment and Plant Sciences and one of the study's authors, said in a statement: 'We see that the longer a female fly has been dead, the more alluring it becomes to males.

'This is because the number of fungal spores increases with time, which enhances the seductive fragrances.'

The team believes that this discovery could also lead to developing more effective fly repellent.

Licht adds: 'Flies are quite unhygienic and can sicken humans and animals by spreading coli bacteria and any diseases that they are carrying.

Entomophthora muscae turns its victim into a zombie. Once infected, E. muscae causes flies to ascend to a high point and spread their wings like a marionette on a string, to spew spores from their swollen abdomen

So, there is an incentive to limit housefly populations, in areas where food is being produced for example.

The fungus that turns houseflies into zombies Entomophthora muscae infect houseflies, penetrating their skin. It grows throughout the flies' bodies, digesting their guts and killing them in fiveseven days. The fungi can even hijack the insects' brains  forcing them to land on a surface and crawl upwards to give the parasite a better shot at spreading. On the fly corpse, the fungi grows an array of tiny spore cannons to infect other flies that come nearby. Advertisement

'This is where the Entomophthora muscae fungus may prove useful. It might be possible for us to use these same fungal fragrances as a biological pest control that attracts healthy males to a fly trap instead of a corpse.'

Previous studies have already detailed E. muscae's ruthless process of infection. Its genus name, Entomophthora translates to 'destroyer of insects'  and it's no surprise why.

Once infected, spores called conidia are produced from the fly  a process called sporulation.

E. muscae causes flies to ascend to a high point and spread their wings like a marionette on a string, to eventually spew the spores from their swollen abdomen.

The fungus invades the fruit fly's nervous system and forces it to embark on the fatal climb, known as 'summit disease', before devouring the brain and muscles.

When the fly is dead, the fungi grows an array of micro-sized stalks on the corpse, each one a pressurized cannon of liquid with a spore that can be ejected outwards.

Unfortunate male flies are attracted to 'zombie' female fly corpses  and when they accidentally trigger the cannons, they end up coated in a spray of infectious spores.

This ensures that the fungal spores are dispersed as widely as possible so the gruesome process happens again on another fly.

Overall, the E. muscae infection process itself is not different between male and female houseflies.

Licht is one of the scientists who first uncovered how the fungus turns flies into 'zombie' necrophiles by releasing the chemical signature.
The crisis of capitalism is radicalising countless young people, who are hungry for revolutionary ideas and organisation. More and more are identifying themselves as communists. The youth wing of the Communist Party of Britain, the Young Communist League (YCL) has grown on this basis. The British Marxists of Socialist Appeal issued a friendly but sharp open letter to the comrades of the YCL, showing how the opportunism of their leaders, and their emphasis on stunts over theory, stand in sharp contrast to the real ideas of Lenin. The response from the YCLs official channels entirely proved the comrades point.

Within 15 minutes of the letter being published (less time than it would take to read), the YCL published a childish non-reply, whilst blocking Socialist Appeal comrades. This was followed by a stream of silly insults and memes from some of their official accounts and leading activists  anything other than reply to the political points of the open letter. This reaction speaks precisely to a lack of confidence in ones own politics. Stalinist organisations invariably have a disdain for theory, because their own ideas are a complete revision of the authentic theories and methods of Marxism and Leninism. Therefore, rather than defending themselves, they respond to criticism with evasion and calumny.

It is tremendously positive that so many young people in Britain are drawn to the banner of Marxism, Leninism and communism. We sincerely hope that members of the YCL and other Communist Party activists around the world consider our open letter, read Lenin in his own words, and draw their own conclusions about whether the leaders of their organisations are up to the task of building a revolutionary party capable of overthrowing capitalism today.

For our part, we are 100 percent confident in our ideas: if you want to discuss any of our positions, get in touch  or better yet, join us!

Comrades, you have joined the Young Communist League (YCL) to fight against capitalism, and for socialist revolution. You were looking for a revolutionary party based on the ideas of Marx and Lenin.

The Communist Party was founded over 100 years ago with such ideas at its heart. Its early years were guided by Lenins advice and policy, and saw great successes.

But the seizure of power by Stalin in Russia, and the promotion of the theory of socialism in one country, distorted the work of Communist parties around the world, including in Britain, leading them into a blind alley of reformism and nationalism from which they have never escaped.

Never has this been clearer than today, in the depths of the deepest crisis of capitalism for 300 years. At precisely this moment, the Communist Party leaders shun the fight for revolutionary socialism in favour of mild reformism and a national British Road to Socialism.

The leaders of the Young Communist League (YCL), meanwhile, replace revolutionary education and propaganda with flares and food bank collections. The systematic work of building support for communist ideas among the working class is ignored in favour of stunts. The League prioritises style over substance.

These leaders swear by socialism in every other sentence, while they trample the programme and methods of Marx and Lenin in practice. In doing so, they sweep under the carpet the crimes of Stalinism.

But if you dont learn from history, you will repeat its mistakes. After all, isnt the revolutionary party supposed to be the memory of the working class?

Internationalism

Marxism is based on internationalism, or it is nothing. The interests of the world socialist revolution are our starting point. This is rooted in the international character of capitalism itself.

Marxism is based on internationalism, or it is nothing / Image: Public Domain

Capitalism has created a world market, a world division of labour, and a worldwide working class. Capitalism has laid the material basis in terms of industry and technique for the development of world socialism and classless society. World revolution and international socialism were the basis of the teachings of Marx and Engels. This was fully understood by Lenin and the Bolsheviks.

From his first involvement in revolutionary politics, Lenin held true to an internationalist line. He tied the fate of the Russian Revolution to the European socialist revolution.

In fact, such was Lenins internationalism that he was even prepared to sacrifice the Russian Revolution for a successful revolution in Germany. He was an internationalist not just in words, but in deeds. And he had no time for petty nationalism within the revolutionary party.

The present policy of the Communist Party leaders has drifted very far from this Leninist approach. In the latest version of the Communist Party programme, Britains Road to Socialism, we find only two short paragraphs on internationalism buried halfway through the document.

In those paragraphs, internationalism is presented as a secondary afterthought, or a byproduct of the struggle for socialism in one country. For the Communist Party leaders, it is nothing more than a nice idea to be promoted, rather than the axis around which all revolutionary policy is based.

For example, the CP document says:

International solidarity often plays an important role in helping workers and peoples fight and win battles for justice, peace, and freedom in their own countries.

Compare this to Lenins writing in April 1918, as the Russian Revolution was consolidating power: We shall achieve victory only together with all the workers of other countries, of the whole world...

For Lenin, internationalism was central. But for todays Communist Party leaders, internationalism is peripheral.

The document continues:

Socialisms values, principles, and aspirations can only be universal rather than purely local or national. In practice, however, this does not negate the primary, essential need to overthrow capitalism at the level where the capitalist class holds state power.

In other words, internationalism is a nice aspiration, but is of little practical consequence in the struggle for socialism.

Marx disagreed. He built the First International in the 1860s, which was an active revolutionary organisation with sections across Europe, which intervened in the English trade unions and the Paris Commune. The statutes of the International were guidelines for practical revolutionary work. In them Marx wrote: The emancipation of the workers is not a local, nor a national, but an international problem.

Todays leaders of the Communist Party directly contradict this when they write that overthrowing capitalism is primarily a national problem.

Given the international character of capitalism in the epoch of imperialism, capitalism as a whole cannot be overthrown purely on a national level. That is why Lenin established the Communist International in 1919, which was dissolved by Stalin in 1943 as a gesture to the Allies. The Communist International held up the banner of world revolution, which was abandoned by Stalin and his reactionary theory of socialism in one country.

History shows us that without the international extension of the socialist revolution, the revolution will be isolated and in danger of degeneration. That is why the Bolsheviks, who never held the idea that socialism could be established in backward Russia, regarded the Russian revolution as part of the world revolution.

Without a conscious and predominant policy of internationalism, any successes on a national scale can only ever be temporary.

Theory and practice

The relegation of internationalism to an aspiration which often plays a role in the class struggle has led the Communist Party leaders to abandon the perspective of world revolution, in favour of appeals to the international bourgeoisie (the so-called United Nations, for example) to solve the problems of capitalism and imperialism.

For Lenin, internationalism was central / Image: Public Domain

To fight the oppression of Palestinians, for example, genuine revolutionaries need a programme of class struggle methods, like the Palestinian general strike seen in May 2021. That means also arming the masses, and linking their struggle to overthrow capitalism with that of workers and youth across the region  including in Egypt, Turkey, Iran, and even within Israel itself.

This would be the basis for a Socialist Federation of the Middle East, which alone can guarantee the rights of all workers and youth throughout the region. On a capitalist basis, there can be no Palestinian liberation, because the Israeli capitalist class will never allow the existence of an independent sovereign Palestine.

The Communist Party leaders disagree. During the social explosion in Palestine last year, John Foster, the CPs International Secretary, said:

A two-state solution based on pre-1967 borders, establishing a sovereign state of Palestine alongside a secure Israel, remains the only realistic solution to the ongoing conflict and the oppression of the Palestinians.

With this the CP leaders abandon any idea that the revolutionary struggle of the workers and youth of the Middle East can solve the Palestinian problem. Instead they put their faith in international diplomacy, presumably brokered by the bourgeoisie of other nations, to create sovereign states under capitalism.

This proposal suggests that its possible to reconcile the interests of the Israeli capitalists with those of the Palestinian masses, on whose oppression the Israeli rulers base their power. In what way this is a realistic solution is anyones guess.

The Communist Party policy, which has abandoned socialist revolution, is to demand that the capitalist class find a solution to the oppression of Palestine. A genuine socialist policy would work towards a Socialist Federation of the Middle East, the architect of which can only be the working class of the entire region.

China

CP policy in China also ditches international proletarian solidarity in favour of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. They defend the idea that socialism is being built in China, when capitalism has been clearly re-established, under the tutelage of the so-called Communist Party.

Capitalism has clearly been re-established in China / Image: Public Domain

Under Deng, the CP popularised catchphrases like it is glorious to get rich and assured the aspiring capitalists that it was acceptable for some people to get rich first. Under Jiang Zemin, capitalists were formally invited to join the party.

As the Evergrande crisis displayed last year, the Chinese economy is now capitalist to the core, backed by a strong state. Its fluctuations are determined by market forces and its policies are dictated by the needs of big business. Chinese economic growth is today based on the accumulation of more and more debt, which is a drag on further growth, and which is fuelling the crisis of overproduction that is wracking the Chinese economy.

To escape these contradictions, China must export more and more, and expand its own imperialist sphere of influence. This is the meaning behind its Belt and Road initiative.

The growing class contradictions in China threaten outbreaks of social unrest, including in the important Xinjiang province, which is of great strategic importance to the Chinese ruling class, and where the Uyghur population is concentrated.

It is this, more than anything else, which explains why the Chinese ruling elite has ramped up oppression of the Uyghurs, including the use of re-education camps, the existence of which is not disputed by the Chinese state.

A Marxist policy towards China requires international solidarity with the Chinese workers and youth, who are increasingly struggling against Chinese capitalism and the vicious exploitation of the new ruling class.

The leadership of the CP and the YCL take the opposite view, aligning themselves with the Chinese ruling elite, instead of the workers and peasants.

Last year, during the centenary celebrations of the Chinese Communist Party, the general secretary of the CP, Robert Griffiths, said:

[Chinas development] has been made possible by the planned nature of economic and social development, with key industries and services under public ownership or control, directed and led by the Communist Party of China through its mass organisations and the established institutions of state.

According to the CP, the Chinese economy is actually subject to planning and control by the Chinese masses. But if this is the case, what is the explanation for the Evergrande debt crisis?

How did it happen that, last year, Chinese energy companies turned peoples lights and heating off to force the government to remove the cap on energy prices so that they could make more profit?

China now has almost as many billionaires as the USA, while the working class faces brutal exploitation. This is especially the case for the nearly three million migrant workers in China, who have no rights.

How can such crises, big business diktats, and inequality be the product of planning and control by the masses?

In the same speech Griffiths said:

In the finest internationalist tradition of the communist movement, China is also assisting other countries and peoples to accelerate their own economic and social development through the Belt and Road initiative.

The Belt and Road initiative is primarily aimed, not at enriching other countries, but at strengthening China, both economically and strategically.

For example, China currently controls Sri Lankas Hambantota deepwater port through a 99-year lease, and has lent heavily to the $4bn railway linking Kenyas port of Mombasa with Nairobi. These strategic assets are to secure Chinas control over imports and exports to these countries.

One part of the Belt and Road initiative is the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. This involves a loan from China to Pakistan of almost $50bn, which will be paid back with interest at rates up to 6%.

Last October, a crisis erupted in Uganda when it became apparent that a $200 million loan from Chinese banks for the development of the airport in Kampala could grant the Chinese ruling class the right to seize the airport if repayments are not made.

The Belt and Road initiative is patently not a product of the finest internationalist traditions of the communist movement, but is rather a product of Chinese imperialism trying to strengthen its position.

Finally, Griffiths added:

I have also learned not to trust any reports in the West about Xinjiang and its Uyghur people, having witnessed for myself how the Uyghur language can be seen and heard everywhere and how most of the top state and Party personnel there are themselves Uyghur-speaking Uyghurs.

It is true that we should be deeply suspicious of the Wests crocodile tears for the Uyghur people. Western imperialism has cynically exploited and oppressed national minorities for centuries, and it is hypocrisy of the worst kind for them to condemn Chinas treatment of the Uyghurs.

However, to deny that such oppression exists and is simply made up by the Western media is false. This flat denial of what the Chinese state itself doesnt dispute requires closing ones eyes to the facts. Similarly, the leaders of the British Communist Party for decades swallowed the line that Stalin was building socialism in Russia, which was shown to be false.

The mistakes of CP policy on China stem from the treatment of internationalism as a vague aspiration instead of a concrete task. Real internationalism requires a serious understanding of the regimes, economies, and class nature of different countries. On that basis, a programme for action can be developed.

The leaders of the CP and the YCL have replaced that with support for the Chinese capitalist regime, on the superficial basis that it uses the language and symbols of communism.

Proletarian internationalism or bourgeois nationalism?

The nationalism of the Communist Party leaders is repeated even more crudely by the leaders of the Young Communist League.

One of the recent campaigns listed on the YCLs website is online meetings about progressive patriotism. In April this year, the YCL posted an image of the St Georges Cross on social media with the assertion that the task of socialists is to reclaim national identity.

 The Young Communist League sends greetings to working people across England on St Georges Day! This day - which should be a public holiday across Britain - is an opportunity to celebrate the radical history and modern diversity of England. (1/8) pic.twitter.com/OZPcpTmwtn  Young Communist League of Britain (@yclbritain) April 23, 2022

This focus on giving a left colouration to English nationalism will only sow confusion and play into the hands of reactionaries.

Ideas of patriotism and nationalism are not inherent to working-class consciousness. They are deliberately promoted by the ruling class using every means at their disposal, to divide workers and strengthen national cliques of capitalists.

Communists should have nothing to do with this nationalist poison. Faced with relentless nationalistic and patriotic bourgeois propaganda, we must stand firm on a principled internationalist programme which remorselessly exposes the hollow lies of patriotism and nationalism.

If we capitulate to this propaganda even one inch, or try to combine socialism with bourgeois patriotism in some way, we will find that instead of turning nationalists into socialists, we will have turned socialists into narrow nationalists.

This is what Lenin explained: there is no middle ground between nationalism and internationalism. They are irreconcilably opposed camps. He wrote:

Bourgeois nationalism and proletarian internationalism  such are the two irreconcilably hostile slogans that correspond to the two great class camps throughout the capitalist world and express two policies on the national question. (Critical remarks on the national question, 1913)

The leaders of the YCL should reflect carefully on Lenins writings on nationalism and internationalism. The task of socialists is not to reclaim national identity but to be ruthless in our criticism of all ideas that divide workers and hold back the working class movement, including so-called left patriotism.

Taking power in Britain

Every genuine communist wants to see power in the hands of the working class, in Britain and in every other country. How is this to be achieved?

In the Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels explain that the workers cannot overthrow the capitalist class without first winning political power, thats to say without transforming the state into the proletariat organised as the ruling class.

As Lenin explained:

The basic question of every revolution is that of state power. Unless this question is understood, there can be no intelligent participation in the revolution, not to speak of guidance of the revolution.

In State and Revolution, Lenin explains that the chief and fundamental point in the Marxist theory of the state is that all previous revolutions perfected the state machine, whereas it must be broken, smashed. This is the lesson that Marx drew directly from the experience of the Paris Commune.

In other words, for the working class to take power, the existing bourgeois state machinery of parliament, courts, police, army, prisons, etc. cannot be taken over and refined, polished or perfected to suit the interests of the working class. It must be smashed to pieces, to be replaced by newly created working-class state institutions, such as workers councils.

This, Lenin says, is a fundamental point of Marxist theory. Its what distinguishes revolutionaries from reformists.

Unfortunately, this fundamental point of Marxist theory  upon which Lenin based his most famous theoretical work  has been jettisoned from todays Communist Party programme.

In Britain's Road to Socialism, the CP leaders provide us with a rigid blueprint of a revolutionary process, which develops through stages, and which hinges on capturing the existing bourgeois state machinery and wielding it in the interests of the working class.

The opening stage in Britains socialist revolution will therefore have to culminate in the election of a left-wing government at Westminster, based on a socialist, Labour, communist and progressive majority at the polls, says the document.

It continues:

From the outset, the left government will have to introduce extensive changes in recruitment, staffing and management policies within the civil and diplomatic services, the judiciary, the police, the secret services and armed forces in order to replace key personnel with supporters of the revolutionary process.

Members of the YCL may be thinking that changes to management techniques in the civil service is not the kind of communist policy they signed up for. There is nothing Marxist or Leninist about this approach to the state, which aims to capture the bourgeois state apparatus and, bit by bit, refashion it into a tool for the workers.

The problem is that this is like trying to turn a dangerous tiger into a playful kitten by pulling its teeth out one by one. As soon as you pull the first tooth, youll likely lose your arm. The capitalist class is not simply going to sit by and watch its state apparatus be dismantled piece by piece.

Back in 2015, an unnamed serving general of the British army told the press that Corbyn would face a mutiny and a coup if he tried to scrap Trident, pull out of NATO, or shrink the armed forces in any way. Corbyn had only been leader of the Labour Party for a few months at the time, let alone leader of the country.

The idea that a left government would be able to introduce extensive changes to staffing policies in the armed forces without provoking a rebellion is a far-fetched and dangerous illusion to be peddling.

Our task is not to win positions in the bourgeois state apparatus. The key to socialist revolutions in the past has instead been the emergence of alternative forms of state power, built and operated by the working class. This is a phenomenon known as dual power.

In six pages setting out exactly how the revolutionary process is to unfold, there are just two sentences in the CPs programme about these institutions which have formed the embryo of workers power in every proletarian revolutionary movement throughout history:

New bodies of working-class and popular power are likely to be necessary to monitor or take over state functions and ensure implementation of the LWP [Left Wing Programme]. These are likely to emerge from the class struggle itself as trades unions, community organisations and other forms of popular action engage in the contest for power at local, regional, national and state level.

What the CP leaders say is likely to be necessary (as if it is simply an option) as a supplement to reforming the bourgeois state apparatus, has, in fact, been instrumental in all past revolutions.

During the Russian Revolution, the organs of workers power were precisely the soviets. Elsewhere they have been workers and soldiers councils, factory committees, strike committees, or even neighbourhood committees. These embryos of workers power are key in any revolutionary overturn, as opposed to the illusory formal democracy we have under capitalism.

The revolutionary process has in each case consisted of a struggle between the opposing organs of state power  one representing the bourgeoisie, and the other the proletariat. The task of communists, in this situation of dual power, is to explain the necessity of transferring the entire state power to the working class. This is the essence of Lenins famous slogan: All power to the soviets.

It is certainly true that there are no soviets or workers councils in Britain today. If communists were to advance a slogan of all power to the soviets at the present time, they would be rightly looked upon as absurd.

However, in the revolutionary period opening up, councils of action or extended strike committees, as in the 1926 General Strike, will be thrown up.

To sow illusions in a programme of reform of the bourgeois state apparatus is inexcusable for real communists.

Instead of reformist sloganeering, the leaders of the Communist Party and the YCL should be educating a new generation of revolutionaries in the history of past revolutions and the Marxist theory of the state. This would be serious preparation for the future revolutionary developments in Britain.

Reformism leads to defeat

Abandoning the Leninist approach has led the CP leaders to make serious mistakes. For example, during Jeremy Corbyns leadership of the Labour Party, they saw him as the best chance for years of a left politician capturing a position in the bourgeois state machine, and so cheered his reformist policies uncritically.

The CP cheered Corbyn's reformist policies uncritically / Image: Public Domain

The pages of the Morning Star were full of uncritical praise for Corbynism, even while Corbyn and his allies were continually trying to appease the right wing of the Labour Party, as the Blairites openly sabotaged the party on behalf of the ruling class.

The Corbyn movement, as a left reformist group, was incapable of dealing with this situation. They were not prepared to fight to the end against the right of the party. Their vision for transforming society was based on coming to an accommodation with the ruling class, rather than mobilising the working class in struggle.

As we have seen, this is also a fatal flaw of Stalinism and the Communist Party leadership.

Corbyn came under huge pressure and, in the end, after four years as leader of the party, he did not deal a decisive blow against the right, despite having the overwhelming support of the membership and the trade union rank and file.

Instead of warning Corbyn against compromise with the right, and encouraging him to deal a decisive blow against the Blairite MPs, the Morning Star published the following advice to Corbyn:

On the whole, Labour could make room for more MPs who are in tune with the membership by ensuring more Jeremy-backing MPs can get selected when sitting MPs retire or get selected for newly marginal seats.

In other words, it was argued that bit-by-bit reform of the Labour Party was the best way to turn it into a vehicle for socialism, rather than a head-on confrontation with the agents of capitalism.

As we know, the Labour right had no qualms about repeatedly and publicly confronting Corbyn head-on, which ultimately resulted in his defeat and resignation. This led to complete demoralisation of the Corbyn movement.

There are lessons to be learned from this: about the weaknesses of left reformism, and how revolutionaries should relate to mass movements around reformist leaders.

Unfortunately, the editorials published by the Morning Star after Corbyns defeat and just before Starmers election contain no explanation of the key lessons of this experience. They point out that Brexit was Corbyns undoing. But they dont explain why Corbyn compromised on this question in the first place.

While we can give critical support to the left in the fight against the right, if revolutionaries reduce themselves to cheerleading every left reformist who appears in the labour movement, we will face a Corbyn-style defeat over and over again.

The Morning Star editorial board claims that Jeremy Corbyns leadership has strengthened our movement. But that will only be true if we understand why Corbyn failed, and how we can avoid the same outcome in the future.

The importance of Marxist theory

Without an understanding of genuine Marxism, and theoretical questions  like how capitalism works, imperialism, the national question, the state, etc.  its easy to make mistakes, as the CP leaders have proved.

Rank-and-file members of the CP and YCL should demand a return to the genuine ideas and methods of Lenin and Marx / Image: Public Domain

This is why Lenin wrote, in the first chapter of What is to be Done?, that: Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement.

This text was, effectively, the founding document of Bolshevism. It takes as its starting point the struggle for Marxist theory. It was on this basis that Lenin built a party capable of leading the Russian Revolution.

How did the Soviet Union go from a healthy workers' state to a bureaucratic caricature of socialism? What is Stalinism? What did Lenin and Trotsky really stand for?



Want to find the answers to these key questions? Check out Wellred's 'Stalinism pack'!



 https://t.co/wHe2istzzi pic.twitter.com/ibV24yCvIi  Socialist Appeal (@socialist_app) July 15, 2022

It is unfortunate then that the CP and YCL leaders pay little attention to the systematic discussion, debate, and promulgation of Marxist ideas among their members and beyond. Theoretical questions are, in some quarters, even treated with contempt.

For example, in a letter to the Morning Star earlier this year, a member of the YCL argued that discussions over differences between Stalin and Trotsky are wasting our time. The dispute is portrayed as tiresome rivalry, like children squabbling in the playground.

But this is certainly not the case. For Marxists, this history cannot be brushed under the carpet. It is like saying the Russian Revolution is only of historical interest, nothing more.

The letter-writer thinks its a distraction from getting real work done. But surely, as communists, we need to know our history in order to learn from it?

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, the saying goes. Genuine revolutionaries are Leninists and not Stalinists. But we therefore need to know the difference.

Stalinism is not simply a label, like a branded t-shirt, but the phenomenon of what went wrong in the Soviet Union. This was revealed at the 20th Congress of the CPSU  although the crimes were laid at the foot of one man, Stalin, as opposed to the Stalinist bureaucracy as a whole.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, many of the leaders who held a CP card went over to capitalism. They participated in the plunder of the countrys state-owned assets and emerged as the capitalist oligarchy that rules Russia today. These bureaucrats betrayed the revolution.

We cannot deny this history, as many have tried to do. The aforementioned YCL member argued in his letter that Stalin didnt create any theories that diverged from Marxism-Leninism. How can that be so, when the Stalin regime presided over the purge trials of the 1930s, when the majority of Lenins Central Committee were murdered?

This travesty has nothing whatsoever to do with Marxism-Leninism, and everything to do with Stalinist political counter-revolution.

He asks if we are not bored by talking about our history. But we cant bury our heads in the sand and pretend it didn't happen. Whether you agree with Trotsky or not, we cannot escape the fact he led the October Revolution with Lenin and provided a Marxist analysis of Stalinism. He fought counter-revolutionary Stalinism for which he was murdered. We can choose to ignore it. But as Marx once said: ignorance never helped anyone.

Prioritising getting real work done over understanding Marxism seems to be the method of the YCL leaders. The Leagues focus in recent months has been on banner drops, setting off flares, waving flags and chanting their own name on demonstrations (as well as Stalins name!), alongside collecting for food banks.

Theres nothing wrong with most of these things (except the glorification of Stalin). But they bring us no closer to educating a new generation of young people and workers in revolutionary ideas.

In What is to be Done?, Lenin explains that a focus on the struggle for Marxist theory cannot be insisted upon too strongly at a time when the fashionable preaching of opportunism goes hand in hand with an infatuation for the narrowest forms of practical activity.

While the Communist Party leaders preach opportunism both at home and abroad, and the YCL leaders infatuate themselves with the narrowest forms of practical activity, rank-and-file members of these organisations should demand a return to the genuine ideas and methods of Lenin and Marx.

Decisive class battles are approaching. Revolutionaries urgently need to build a party steeled in Marxist theory  one that can navigate the storm and stress of the coming events. The socialist revolution in Britain and internationally depends upon it.

We therefore appeal to all true revolutionaries and communists, who wish to build an organisation based upon the genuine ideas of Marx and Lenin, to join us in this historic task.
Arsenal are reportedly ready to cut their losses on record 72million signing Nicolas Pepe this summer, with Leeds, Sevilla, Lyon and Marseille all interested.

Pepe became the Gunners' record signing in 2019 when he joined from Lille, but he has struggled to cement his place in the starting XI.

The Ivory Coast international started just five Premier League games last season and contributed just one goal and one assist during his 19 domestic outings.

Arsenal are reportedly ready to cut their losses on record 72million signing Nicolas Pepe

The Ivory Coast international winger started just five Premier League games last season

The 27-year-old has been playing second fiddle to the likes of Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith-Rowe and Gabriel Martinelli and he even hired a new agent earlier in the summer.

LaLiga side Sevilla are said to have begun talks with Arsenal over Pepe's availability, according to Diario de Sevilla.

The same reports does, however, suggest that his salary presents an issue to Sevilla, with Pepe needing to lower his current 100,000 per week demands if a move is to happen.

Pepe will need to lower his current 100,000 per week demands to move to LaLiga side Sevilla

The 27-year-old has been playing second fiddle under Gunners boss Mikel Arteta (pictured)

There is also a question over the fee, with Sevilla only prepared to pay 15m for the 27-year-old.

The Gunners are holding out for around 10m more as they look to recoup some of the huge fee they forked out just three years ago.

Either way, it appears Arsenal will have to accept a massive loss on the player, but Sevilla are not the only club interested in signing the winger.

Marseille and Lyon are both keen to bring Pepe back to France, where he shone for Lille

Marseille and Lyon are both keen to bring him back to France, where his performances for Lille originally earned him the big-money move to Arsenal.

Leeds are also eyeing a move as they seek a replacement for Raphinha, who has joined Barcelona.

Pepe, however, is currently with the Gunners on their pre-season tour of the USA and he featured as they sealed a 5-3 win over Nurnberg in Germany on Friday before jetting off to the States.
Manchester United fans have been left furious with a goal conceded in the team's friendly with Melbourne Victory.

United fell behind in the first half through a goal from Chris Ikonomidis on the counter after United's defence was split by the A League side.

The goal brought back sour memories from last season for United fans, who were hoping new manager Erik ten Hag would be able to improve their poor defensive record.

Harry Maguire (left) and Victor Lindelof (right) were criticised by Manchester United fans

Victor Lindelof was the main target of blame on social media after the Swede was pulled out of position on the left hand side, which resulted in the cross for the goal.

One Twitter user posted: 'Lindelof is not good enough. Never has been. Not for Manchester United. Maybe for Dundee United.'

Another said: 'What the f*** was Lindelof doing he just left his man.'

Lindelof was partnering Harry Maguire at centre back, with Ten Hag recently confirming the England defender will remain as captain for the following season after widespread criticism.

Maguire though was beaten to the ball by Ikonomidis, clearly out-paced when trying to track back.

Harry Maguire will remain as Manchester United captain despite a difficult 2021-22 campaign

Lindelof struggled for form last season and may find himself down the pecking order at United

Fans took aim at the partnership on social media, with one fan posting: 'Maguire + Lindelof F****** HONKING!! Cant play a high line with them, theyre far too slow!'

@bethTmufc added: 'Two slow CBs with a high line will not work, need at least one with pace.'

United are set to complete the signing of Lisandro Martinez in the coming days after finally agreeing a deal to sign the defender for 46million from Ajax.

Fans on Twitter pleaded for the centre back to join up with the team soon to help fix their defensive frailties.

'Harry Maguire x Lindelof will never work if Man Utd are playing a high line. Two slow CBs,' said @UtdFaithful.

'Can't wait for Lisandro Martinez to join.'

Another used posted: 'Absolutely exposed Maguire and Lindelofs lack of pace. Martinez cant come soon enough.'

Scott McTominay and Anthony Martial were on target later in the half to put United ahead.
Essex's Epping Ongar Railway runs Ale Trains in which locally brewed real ale is dispensed from the barrel

Advertisement

Railway expert Andrew Martin reveals that Britain has more than 120 preserved, or heritage, railways

Britain has more than 120 preserved, or heritage, railways. They vary in length from a mile to 30 miles, and each is a portal into the past.

Often the theme is 1940s, so the preserved stations tend to bristle with posters proclaiming Dig for Victory or Careless Talk Costs Lives, so prevalent during World War II, but some will take you back to the 19th century, others the 1970s.

The lines are run by 22,000 volunteers, and 4,000 paid employees. They carry 13 million passengers a year over 500 miles of track and contribute half a billion pounds per year to the economy. Most operate between March and October; many are also open over the Christmas holidays.

There is no equivalent phenomenon in any other country, and the lines reflect our romanticisation of both railways and the countryside.

In 1935, when the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway in Devon closed, a wreath was laid at Barnstaple station bearing the words, Perchance it is not dead, but sleepeth. (And the L&B is currently being reopened in stages.)

The first line brought back from the dead was the Talyllyn in North Wales, closed in 1950, re-opened in 1951, after a campaign by railway author L.T.C. Rolt. In the 1960s, branch line closures by the railway axeman Dr Beeching, and the ending of steam traction by British Railways, created a demand for what had been taken away, and many of the lines have been reopened by preservationists.

All the lines survived the pandemic, and the Heritage Railway Association (celebrating its 60th anniversary this year) expects this season to be really strong.

The preserved railways are not part of the national network, so you cant book tickets on Trainline, but most of their websites facilitate booking.

Most of the railways operate a rover ticket enabling you to go up and down their route all day, and these  the simplest ticket option  vary between about 10 and 35, depending on the line length. Its easy to spend a whole day on even the shortest lines, some of which, it must be admitted, dont really go anywhere.

In 1935, when the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway in Devon closed, a wreath was laid at Barnstaple station. The line (above) is currently being reopened in stages, Andrew reveals

The trains tend to amble (max speed 25mph), and its hypnotic to watch clouds of steam from the engine floating back past the carriage window, while listening to the di-dum di-dum rhythm of old-fashioned jointed (as opposed to seamlessly welded) track. But there are also spin-off attractions: bookshops, cafes, museums.

Many lines are offering kids for a quid to tempt families back. Whole compartments can often be reserved, and part of the lines charm is the availability of this more intimate form of accommodation, with buffet or restaurant cars other reminders of a more civilised era of train travel.

I have written a book on these lines, and what follows are my recommendations, but all are worth a visit.

Best for views

Bygone age: The North Yorkshire Moors Railway (pictured) is particularly beautiful in late summer, when the heather is purple and the ferns are fading to brown

A glimpse inside the mellow, tawny-hued interiors of the North Yorkshire Moors Railways vintage wooden carriages

Above is a standard carriage on North Yorkshire Moors Railway. According to Andrew, the preservation of Britain's steam trains reflects the nation's 'romanticisation of both railways and the countryside'

The prettiest branch lines tended to be the most uneconomic, so they were often closed  and have often been reopened.

The North Yorkshire Moors Railway (nymr.co.uk) is particularly beautiful in late summer, when the heather is purple and the ferns are fading to brown, colours that complement the mellow, tawny-hued interiors of the lines vintage wooden carriages.

In Wales, the Ffestiniog Railway and its sister line, the Welsh Highland, have a harmonious relationship with the Snowdonia National Park, through which they run.

In Wales, the Ffestiniog Railway and its sister line, the Welsh Highland, run through Snowdonia National Park. Above, a Welsh Highland train heads south from the village of Beddgelert into the Aberglaslyn Pass

Above, the Ffestiniog Railway leaves the village of Tanygrisiau heading for Blaenau Ffestiniog

A First Class Pullman carriage on the Ffestiniog Railway. 'All the best photographs of the wide, sweeping Vale of Ffestiniog are taken from the train,' Andrew reveals

A third-class carriage on the Ffestiniog Railway

All the best photographs of the wide, sweeping Vale of Ffestiniog are taken from the train, and as the Welsh Highland engines run through the great gorge of the Aberglaslyn Pass, youd think you were in Switzerland.

The hub, or hinge, of the two lines is at Porthmadog, and a weekend there permits a day devoted to each line. (For both lines, see festrail.co.uk)

The wide windows of the carriages on the Strathspey Railway in the Scottish Highlands (strathspeyrailway.co.uk) offer a cinematic experience.

The Strathspey Railway (pictured) in the Scottish Highlands has the Cairngorms in view for much of the time, usually part-shrouded in a mysterious fog

The Strathspey Railway's wide windows offer a cinematic experience. Above is the line's Officer's Saloon Car

The line has the Cairngorms in view for much of the time, usually part-shrouded in a mysterious fog.

There are about six types of weather going on there at once, a steward on the train told me.

He had a faraway look as he gazed in that direction, but the tea and fruit cake he served me were excellent.

Best for dining

The Keighley & Worth Valley Railway runs through the Pennines above Bradford, an area known as Bronte Country

The Keighley & Worth Valley Railway has regular evening fish and chip specials called Haworth Haddock. Above is the train's restaurant car

Passengers on The Keighley & Worth Valley Railway line can enjoy music and dancing at the Keighley terminus during one of the line's evening specials

Movie star: The Keighley & Worth Valley Railway features in the new Railway Children film. On the right, Sheridan Smith (left) and Jenny Agutter (right), who starred in the original Railway Children film, pose by the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway at the premiere of the 2022 sequel. Both actresses star in the new film

Passengers by the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway line

Many lines run on-board dining services or have station restaurants. The Keighley & Worth Valley Railway (kwvr.co.uk), which runs through the Pennines above Bradford (aka Bronte Country), has regular evening fish and chip specials called Haworth Haddock.

The stations along the line are gas or oil-lit for the occasion, which culminates in music and dancing at the Keighley terminus.

The new film The Railway Children Return, incidentally, was shot on this line, as was the original 1970 version.

The Epping Ongar Railway (eorailway.co.uk) connects stations with Victorian origins that, between 1946-94, were operated by London Underground as the easterly extremity of the Central Line.

The EO runs regular Ale Trains, in which locally brewed real ale is dispensed from the barrel in their Pig and Whistle mobile bar.

And theres no need for a designated driver, since the railway is connected to Epping Tube station by 1950s Regent type double-decker buses. After a good evening on the Ale Train, the conductors Mind how you go! as you disembark is said in earnest.

The Epping Ongar Railway (pictured) connects stations with Victorian origins that, between 1946 and 1994, were operated by London Underground as the easterly extremity of the Central Line

The Epping Ongar Railway runs regular Ale Trains, in which locally brewed real ale is dispensed from the barrel

Best for seascapes

The Dartmouth Steam Railway (dartmouthrailriver.co.uk) in South Devon runs along part of the English Riviera (a term invented by the Great Western Railway in 1904) and the Dart Estuary.

If you watch the trains while standing in the sea at Goodrington Sands, they seem to be skimming over the roofs of the beach huts.

The Dartmouth Steam Railway (above) in South Devon runs along part of the English Riviera (a term invented by the Great Western Railway in 1904) and the Dart Estuary

The 23-mile West Somerset Railway (west-somerset-railway.co.uk) was built in the 1860s and skirts the sea on its way from Bishops Lydeard to Minehead.

On summer Saturdays in Minehead, everyone in town seems to be coming and going from the WSR station which, with its bunting and flower baskets would be evocative of inter-war holidays even without the green and gold ex-Great Western locos.

Best for diesels

In Derbyshire, the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway has a collection of evocatively oil-smelling Derby Lightweights (above), which date from the mid-1950s

An Ecclesbourne Valley Railway train compartment. Upcoming events include a summer diesel gala (August 5 to 7) and a 'Taste of Faulty Towers' theatrical dining experience on Saturday August 20 and Sunday September 10

Prince Charles tucks in to afternoon tea on board the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway

Most preserved lines celebrate the charisma of steam locomotives  the most sensitive thing man ever made, wrote Mark Twain  but there are some diesel specialists, including the Mid-Norfolk Railway (midnorfolkrailway.co.uk).

When I visited this line, a driver stepping down from a cab said: Diesels as much part of railway history as steam  and more for anyone our age. Hed weighed me up as being late-50s, like himself, and the 1970s BR carriages of his train (blue and grey check seats) took me back to my boyhood.

In Derbyshire, the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway (e-v-r.com) has a collection of evocatively oil-smelling Derby Lightweights, which date from the mid-1950s.

They have straw-coloured speed whiskers painted on the front, meant to give an impression of momentum, but actually suggesting an old mans handlebar moustache.

Best for history

The Boness and Kinneil Railway, which runs by the Firth of Forth, operates the Museum of Scottish Railways

Above is a first-class carriage on the Boness and Kinneil Railway line. Heritage lines offer a reminder of 'a more civilised era of train travel', Andrew says

Many of the railways have museums, perhaps the most distinguished being the Museum of Scottish Railways on the Boness and Kinneil Railway (bkrailway.co.uk), which runs by the Firth of Forth.

The museum focuses on freight and displays the wagons by which railways once conveyed milk, mail, salt, grain  and will do again, if sense prevails.

The Isle of Wight lines relied on cast-offs from the mainland, so they were always behind the times.

According to Andrew, the Isle of Wight lines relied on cast-offs from the mainland, so they were always behind the times, and the Isle of Wight Steam Railway (pictured) makes a virtue of this

The Isle of Wight Steam Railway's carriages are at least 90 years old, with endearingly chintzy interiors

One of few urban lines, the Middleton Railway runs past council estates and playing fields in Hunslet, South Leeds

The Isle of Wight Steam Railway (iwsteamrailway.co.uk) makes a virtue of this, and passengers are guaranteed a ride in a carriage at least 90 years old, with endearingly chintzy interiors.

The Middleton Railway (middletonrailway.org.uk) is one of the few urban lines.

Running past council estates and playing fields in Hunslet, South Leeds, it covers just a mile of track. But its an important mile, a remnant of the line that carried coal to the heart of Leeds, so kickstarting its industrial revolution.

Best for eccentricity

The Kent & East Sussex Railway (kesr.org.uk) wends its way through the Kentish Weald. It was created by Colonel Holman Fred Stephens who, in the early 20th century, ran an empire of rural lines on the cheap.

They had no signals, but, as the old railway joke has it: A single engine has yet to acquire the knack of running into itself.

Above is the Poplar Terrier 150 on the Kent & East Sussex Railway, which wends its way through the Kentish Weald

The Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway line's (pictured) terminus is at Dungeness, where the grey nuclear power station looms over the grey shingle beach

At Tenterden Station, one of the Colonels improvised rail motors, adapted from a Ford van, is displayed, and theres a wonderful museum in a corrugated iron hut where light jazz plays as you view the artefacts.

On the 15in gauge tracks of the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway (rhdr.org.uk), 4 ft-high steam locos pull little carriages along the coast of south Kent.

The terminus is at Dungeness, where the grey nuclear power station looms over the grey shingle beach. Near the station theres a cafe with a sign reading: Dungeness is not bleak. It is bleak, but beautifully so.
Every week our Holiday Hero Neil Simpson takes an in-depth look at a brilliant holiday topic, doing all the legwork so you dont have to. This week: Last-minute holidays to Las Vegas.

Leaving Las Vegas to the last minute could pay off this summer, with plenty of deals on offer as the city fights to get visitor numbers back to pre-pandemic highs.

Prices tend to edge down as temperatures rise (it can top 100F in summer), but holidaymakers now get their pick of hotels with new attractions, renovated rooms and added extras.

Book a last-minute trip to Las Vegas this summer and you might bag a bargain - prices tend to edge down as temperatures rise, and there are deals on offer as the city fights to get visitor numbers back to pre-pandemic highs

Check in to The Strat  formerly The Stratosphere  and youll stay in a sleek, modern hotel thats visible from all across the city.

While rooms are not huge by Vegas standards, each has been refurbished during the pandemic and they give easy access to the citys SkyPod and Observation Deck set 1,149ft above the Las Vegas Strip.

Thrill-seekers can take a rollercoaster ride in the sky on the SkyPod, or can brave the hotels other mile-high attractions such as Insanity, Sky Jump and X-Scream. For a more serene experience, sip on cocktails at Level 108 Bar or dine at the retro, revolving restaurant on Level 106 with knockout views.

The Strat hotel is best for thrill-seekers as it has its own amusement rides, such as Insanity (pictured)

Big attractions: The Mad Apple circus show is the hot new attraction at New York New York hotel

Take a three-night mini-break at The Strat with British Airways Holidays from 1,099pp including flights, or stay seven nights this summer, also including flights, from 1,229pp (britishairways.co.uk/lasvegas).

Mad Apple, a just-opened Cirque du Soleil show with close-up magic performers, is the hot new attraction at New York New York hotel. Another of the hotels recent claims to fame is the Nine Fine Irishmen pub. The interiors were made in Dublin, shipped to Vegas and rebuilt in the heart of the hotel. Book a table for the likes of shepherds pie and bangers and mash with imported beers and whiskeys.

Look across the road from the hotel lobby for something far more American: a huge branch of M&M World.

Book flights and a three-night break at New York New York with Kuonis new online offshoot Breeze from 816pp (breeze.kuoni.co.uk).

Nearly 25 years after first opening its doors, and two decades after appearing in Oceans Eleven, The Bellagio remains one of the ultimate Las Vegas hotels.

This year guests check in to remodelled rooms, with hand-made mattresses and a mix of granite, marble and mother-of-pearl in the bathrooms. Eat in restaurants such as Picasso, with the artists paintings and ceramics adorning the walls, book a private cabana by the pool or wait till dusk to see the Bellagio fountains  one of the most photographed events in America. Book ahead to get flights and five nights later this year from 1,059pp (dialaflight.com).

The Bellagio (above) remains one of the ultimate Las Vegas hotels, and this year guests check in to remodelled rooms

Find a younger, even more opulent vibe at the new Virgin Hotels outpost a few blocks down the Las Vegas Strip. The hotels restaurants include a steakhouse, a branch of celebrity-friendly Nobu, a juice bar and a branch of Afters Ice Cream, one of the most colourful, and Instagram-friendly, new brands in America.

You can head outdoors to find DJs playing at the poolside Elia Beach Club, book hot stones, warm scalp or other treatments in the spa, or see emerging acts perform in 24 Oxford, a nod to Virgin Records beginning on Londons Oxford Street.

Book a seven-night stay, including direct flights on Virgin Atlantic, from 1,070pp this summer (virginholidays.co.uk).
She's known for showing off her breathtaking physique on magazine covers and runway shows alike.

And Elsa Hosk left little to the imagination on Thursday in a set of sizzling glamour shots uploaded to her Instagram.

The 33-year-old supermodel struck poses in a sheer fuchsia dress that showcased her gym-honed figure and ample bust.

Wow! Elsa Hosk left little to the imagination on Thursday in a set of sizzling glamour shots uploaded to her Instagram

Hosk's curve-clinging dress had a thigh-high slit and loose ruffling along the hem for added flair.

The runway fixture strolled around in a pair of hot pink lace-up heels with white flowers on the front of them. She toted her belongings in a Barbie-approved pink purse.

Hosk's voluminous blonde hair was worn in wild waves that flowed down her back and chest from a middle part.

Nice touch! The runway fixture strolled around in a pair of hot pink lace-up heels with white flowers on the front of them

Daring: Hosk's curve-clinging dress had a thigh-high slit and loose ruffling along the hem for added flair

Accessorize: She toted her belongings in a Barbie-approved pink purse

Hosk also shared several photos and videos that featured her baby daughter Tuulikki Joan, aged one, to her Instagram Story.

One shot showed the little one posing with Hosk's mother Marja. Another showed Tuulikki's dad carrying her around outside.

Hosk's longtime partner was later seen leading their child by the hand.

Baby girl: Hosk also shared several photos and videos that featured her baby daughter Tuulikki Joan, aged one, to her Instagram Story. One shot showed the little one posing with Hosk's mother Marja

Doting dad: Another showed Tuulikki's dad carrying her around outside

Hosk and Daly initially have been romantically linked since 2015.

In 2020, the model revealed that they were expecting their first child together.

She shared the pregnancy announcement, which included a set of black-and-white images, to her Instagram account at the time.

Hosk gave birth to Tuulikki Joan in February 2021.

So sweet: Hosk's longtime partner was later seen leading their child by the hand

Hosk's daughter has made frequent appearances on the Danish supermodel's Instagram page since her arrival.

Earlier this week, Hosk uploaded a set of shots with her baby girl that had been taken during a recent family vacation.

She also added a short message in her post's caption that read: 'Me and my girl and vacation hair.'
Former Miss Universe Australia Maria Thattil has slammed a group of men catcalling her in a Melbourne car park.

The 29-year-old shared a video to Instagram stories, explaining how she felt unsafe after three men catcalled her as she parked her car.

'I just parked my car and I was nervous to park my car because there were three guys in the carpark and it was kind of isolated,' she explained.

Bisexual Miss Universe Australia Maria Thattil hit back at a group of men catcalling her in a Melbourne car park

'I just parked my car anyway and I'm like "I'll walk back to my building" and straight away the catcalling [started], "Why you so fine?", howling at me like I'm a dog.'

Maria went on to say she turned around to confront the men and was surprised by the outcome.

She continued: 'I literally just turned around and I'm like "I just want to let you know I don't appreciate being catcalled because it literally doesn't make me feel safe".'

'I just parked my car and I was nervous to park my car because there were three guys in the carpark, it was kind of isolated. But I just parked my car anyway and I'm like "I'll walk back to my building" and straight away the catcalling [started], 'Why you so fine?', howling at me like I'm a dog,' she said

'You know what? They actually apologised. They were like "you know what, no, actually we're sorry",' she said.

Maria also said 'it's great they apologised' but she isn't going to 'applaud mediocre basic behaviour'.

'They could have have turned around and just been super aggressive,' she admitted.

Maria went on to say she turned around to confront the men and was surprised by the outcome

'It could have gone any which way but I'm not going to applaud like mediocre basic behaviour.'

'I just think that we see enough, we hear enough. Women talk about it enough now that I think you have enough access to information to know cat calling isn't f---ing cool and it makes people feel unsafe, so don't do it,' she said.

'It shouldn't take someone verbalising their discomfort for people in this day and age to know catcalling is a form of street harassment that isn't cool.'
Australian actor Mark Little is returning to Neighbours after 17 years to reprise his role as Joe Mangel on Friday's episode.

The veteran actor, 62, now lives in a remote Welsh farmhouse and was unable to fly to Melbourne to film his cameo on set with the cast.

His character instead joins Harold Bishop (Ian Smith) for a video call to discuss their concerns about Melanie Pearson (Lucinda Cowen).

Australian actor Mark Little (pictured in London on March 17, 2015) is returning to Neighbours after 17 years to reprise his role as Joe Mangel on Friday's episode

Mark originally appeared on Neighbours as Joe from 1988 to 1991, and reprised his role for four months in 2005.

Mark's portrayal of Joe as a down-to-earth labourer who loved a drink resonated with viewers in Britain and Australia.

Fans were disappointed in 1991 when Mark chose not to renew his contract so he could pursue other opportunities.

Joe will make a cameo on Friday's episode during a video call with Harold Bishop (Ian Smith)

He joins of slew of Neighbours veterans returning to the series ahead of its finale, which airs on July 28, including Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan and Guy Peace.

Neighbours was axed after the UK's Channel 5 decided in March not to renew its contract with production company Fremantle to finance and broadcast the series.

The TV Week Logie Awards attracted widespread criticism in June for failing to properly acknowledge the cancellation of the series during the ceremony.

Mark's portrayal of Joe as a down-to-earth labourer who loved a drink resonated with viewers

Ryan Moloney, 42, one of Neighbours' longest-serving cast members, later slammed the organisers of the Logies for failing to give the Aussie soap a proper send-off.

Moloney, who played Jarrod 'Toadfish' Rebecchi, said he was 'incredibly disappointed' by the lacklustre tribute put together for the ceremony.

The Ramsay Street veteran said it was unfair that two former Neighbours stars, Natalie Bassingthwaighte and Daniel MacPherson, were invited on stage to share their memories of the soap, instead of an actor currently on the series.
Dame Joan Collins is currently 'recovering and doing fine' after suffering from a pinched nerve in her leg earlier this week.

The 89-year-old star was 'airlifted' to Princess Grace Hospital in Monaco but is now 'back home in St. Tropez and is walking around,' as reported by Page Six.

A rep for Collins confirmed the news, adding that the 'pain has been excruciating but fortunately she's dealt with it, and she's OK now.'

Recovering: Dame Joan Collins is currently 'recovering and doing fine' after suffering from a pinched nerve in her leg earlier this week; Collins seen in 2021

Collins is 'enjoying the rest of her holiday' in St. Tropez' as she recovers, but pinched nerves are 'brutal' and 'the most painful thing.'

Despite the pain and recovery time, the famously stylish star's rep insisted that 'this will not inhibit her fashion whatsoever' and that it's 'fine' for her to wear heels.

A pinched nerve occurs when 'too much pressure is applied to a nerve by surrounding tissues, such as bones, cartilage, muscles or tendons,' as per the Mayo Clinic.

This pressure can lead to intense pain, along with tingling, numbness and/or overall weakness.

Opening up: Collins revealed her health ordeal to her 278,000 Instagram followers on Monday while sharing a snap of herself posing on a yacht during her St. Tropez holiday

Hospitalized: The 89-year-old star was 'airlifted' to Princess Grace Hospital in Monaco but is now 'back home in St. Tropez and is walking around,' as reported by Page Six; Collins seen in 2021

Though rest is the most common way to heal a pinched nerve, more serious cases may require surgery to relieve the pain.

Collins revealed her health ordeal to her 278,000 Instagram followers on Monday while sharing a snap of herself posing on a yacht during her St. Tropez holiday.

'Enjoying a great day out, one week before I had to go to the Princess Grace Hospital in Monaco for a trapped nerve in my leg,' captioned the UK native.

Though the pinched nerve was less than ideal, Collins was grateful for the hospital staff's care.

Vacation: Collins is vacationing in Port de Saint-Tropez, which is located in Southeastern France and is a go-to destination for sailing and luxury yachting. Taking to her Instagram on July 3, the author shared a snap of herself hanging aboard a yacht with her brother Bill, 76, and Collins' stylist Rene' Horsch

'Not fun! But they were great!' she concluded.

Collins is vacationing in Port de Saint-Tropez, which is located in Southeastern France and is a go-to destination for sailing and luxury yachting.

Taking to her Instagram on July 3, the author shared a snap of herself hanging aboard a yacht with her brother Bill, 76, and Collins' stylist Rene' Horsch.

'It's a hard life but some of us got to do it!' captioned Collins, along with the hashtags '#hardlife #boat #friends #sainttropez'

Also present on the trip is Collins' longtime husband Percy Gibson, 57. He was featured in a collage of snaps shared on Instagram last Thursday.

Hubby: Also present on the trip is Collins' longtime husband Percy Gibson, 57. He was featured in a collage of snaps shared on Instagram last Thursday

Going strong: Collins wed Gibson back in 2002, making it her fifth marriage; the couple seen in March

'Friends, family and fun on the Fabulous French Riviera!' wrote the star, who enjoyed a number of al fresco lunches with her husband and pals in the south of France.

Collins wed Gibson back in 2002, making it her fifth marriage.

Last month, Collins was the picture of elegance as she led the procession of Dames during the Platinum Jubilee Pageant.

The Hollywood Icon was accompanied by Gibson in a cream vintage jaguar as the celebrations for her majesty's 70-years on the throne drew to a close on Sunday, June 5.
Footy WAG Jesinta Franklin has admitted the Covid lockdowns over the last few years were the worst period of her entire life.

The model and influencer, 30, made the emotional admission at a swanky Sydney event for beauty brand Lancome, for which she is an ambassador.

'The last couple of years have been so difficult for everyone and lockdowns and the pandemic really challenged my happiness,' she said.

Jesinta Franklin revealed at a Lancome event on Thursday that the Covid lockdowns were the worst period of her entire life

'It was probably the hardest period I've ever had in my life,' she continued.

'I had two kids in Covid, my husband [Sydney Swans player Buddy Franklin] was away for work. We had to quarantine, we had AFL hub, so my happiness was really challenged.'

Jesinta went on to say that practising gratitude got her through the difficult period.

'It was hard but I think I just simplified everything,' she explained.

'On my really bad days, I would just think about the things that I was grateful for and it was as simple as having a roof over my head, the health of my children, the health of my family.'

'I had two kids in Covid, my husband [Sydney Swans player Buddy Franklin] was away for work. We had to quarantine, we had AFL hub, so my happiness was really challenged,' she said

She also said her two children, daughter Tullulah, two, and son Rocky, one, and husband Buddy bring her 'so much joy'.

Back in August, Jesinta received some backlash for saying lockdowns 'can take a toll on mental health and well-being no matter your circumstances'.

One her followers suggested she had 'lost touch' with everyday Australians given her personal wealth.

They commented: 'I think lockdown is much easier if you haven't lost your ability to earn an income or you're worried the bank won't approve your next request to put your mortgage on hold. You've lost touch.'

Buddy is one of the AFL's biggest earners, currently playing for Sydney on a nine-year contract worth an estimated $10million.

She also said that her two children, daughter Tullulah, two, and son Rocky, one, and husband Buddy bring her 'so much joy'. (Jesinta and Buddy are pictured together)

Jesinta, who has previously spoken about her husband's mental health battles, fired back: 'Mental health doesnt discriminate.'

'Telling someone they arent allowed to feel something because someone else is worse off lacks compassion,' she added.

'I agree that some people have it much, much harder than others. I wish it wasnt that way, I truly do. What we need during this time is kindness, not comparison.'

The mother of two continued: 'We also have no idea what someone is going through behind closed doors, no matter how their life may appear on the outside.

'I think its important we check in on those we love, even the ones we think are doing okay. That was the sentiment behind my comment.'
Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan were shown portraying the New York Times reporters who took on Harvey Weinstein in a trailer released on Thursday for 'She Said.'

The 37-year-old British actress plays investigative journalist Megan Twohey and Zoe, 38, portrays her colleague Jodi Kantor in the upcoming drama by Universal Pictures.

Twohey and Kantor published a report about Weinstein, 70, in October 2017 that detailed decades of sexual abuse by the Hollywood producer ushering in the #MeToo movement.

Drama film: Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan were shown portraying the New York Times reporters who took on Harvey Weinstein in a trailer released on Thursday for 'She Said'

The trailer opened with quick cuts of Twohey and Kantor followed by an exterior shot of The New York Times building.

Kantor and Twohey were shown at a meeting with editors who urged the reporters to 'interrogate the whole system.'

'I was told that the wrongdoing in Hollywood is overwhelming,' Kantor after some reporting told her editors.

Twohey later asked Kantor what they were looking at in the early part of their investigation.

Investigative reporter: Zoe, 38, portrays investigative reporter Jodi Kantor in the upcoming drama by Universal Pictures

New trailer: The trailer opened with quick cuts of Twohey and Kantor followed by an exterior shot of The New York Times building

Pulitzer winners: Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey are shown in April 2018 in New York City

'These young women walked into what they all had reason to believe were business meetings. Instead, they say he met them with threats and sexual demands,' Kantor told her.

Clips showed a long hotel corridor, terrified women and voiceovers of victims.

'Harvey adamantly denies any allegation of assault,' a lawyer told the reporters and their editor.

Abusive encounters: Clips showed a long hotel corridor, terrified women and voiceovers of victims

Business meetings: 'These young women walked into what they all had reason to believe were business meetings. Instead, they say he met them with threats and sexual demands,' Kantor said

Twohey spoke with a couple about speaking freely about 'the payouts' Weinstein made to settle sexual abuse claims.

'What payouts, John?,' the woman said turning to her husband.

Andrea Braugher, 60, as NYT executive editor Dean Baquet, 65, was shown in the trailer warning the reporters about being under surveillance by Weinstein.

Tough story: The reporters were shown being rejected when trying to interview people

'The only way these women are gonna go on the record,' Twohey said while driving.

'Is if they all jump together,' Kantor said in the passenger seat.

Baquet was shown leading a teleconference meeting with Weinstein.

Multiple victims: 'Is if they all jump together,' Kantor said in the passenger seat as she discussed how to get all the victims to go on the record with Twohey

'Who have you talked to?,' Weinstein asked over the speakerphone.

'Go write. It's time to write,' Baquet told his reporters.

She Said will be released in theaters on November 18.

Weinstein's rape conviction and 23-year-prison sentence was upheld last month by a New York appeals court that rejected the movie moguls claims that the judge at his landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced him by allowing women to testify about allegations that werent part of the criminal case.

Conviction upheld: The rape conviction and 23-year-prison sentence for Harvey Weinstein, shown in February 2020 in New York City, was upheld last month by a New York appeals court that rejected the movie moguls claims that the judge at his landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced him by allowing women to testify about allegations that werent part of the criminal case

The ruling was issued by a five-judge panel in the states intermediate appeals court.

The bombshell decision and affirmed the milestone verdict in Americas reckoning with sexual misconduct by powerful figures - an era that began with a flood of allegations against Weinstein.

Weinstein is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence in a California prison and is awaiting trial in California on charges he assaulted five women in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills from 2004 to 2013.

The New York Times and The New Yorker were awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for their coverage of Weinstein.
Richard Osman's fiancee, Ingrid Oliver, is apparently so proud she's due to marry the Pointless host she now wears outfits to match her engagement ring.

The actress, 45, who played scientist Petronella Osgood in Doctor Who, wore a green skirt that highlighted her emerald and diamond sparkler on a visit to a West London park with Richard, 51, on Thursday.

Ingrid paired the eye-catching pleated skirt with a black top and matching jacket with a gold sequinned embellishment.

Couple: Richard Osman's fiancee, Ingrid Oliver, is apparently so proud she's due to marry the Pointless host she now wears outfits to match her engagement ring

Also sporting a pair of sunglasses, the star completed her look with a gold necklace and hoop earrings.

Former Pointless presenter Richard opted for a black printed T-shirt with navy trousers and a light blue blazer.

Richard confirmed his engagement to Ingrid during an interview with fellow novelist Marion Keyes in May.

Richard had previously sparked rumours of a marriage proposal in April when Ingrid was pictured wearing the emerald ring on her wedding finger.

Rock: The actress, 45, who played scientist Petronella Osgood in Doctor Who, wore a green skirt that highlighted her emerald and diamond sparkler on a visit to a West London park with Richard, 51, on Thursday

Asked by Keyes if he was getting married during an interview for The Guardian, he confirmed: 'Yes, exciting, isn't it?!'

The presenter embarked on a romantic relationship with Doctor Who star Oliver last summer after knowing her on a platonic basis for many years.

The actress subsequently moved into Richard's south-west London home that October, and he admitted he's finally found happiness.

Relationship: Richard confirmed his engagement to Ingrid during an interview with fellow novelist Marion Keyes in May (pictured in May 2022)

Appearing on the Christmas Day edition of Desert Island Discs, he said: 'I'm happy with myself, I've got these beautiful kids, I've met the woman who I'm going to be with for the rest of my life.

'That thing of competition and ambition, you soon realise that rocket fuel disappears and it's about happiness and my kids bring me happiness and Ingrid brings me happiness.'

The host finalised his divorce from his former wife in 2007 and has two children, daughter Ruby and son Sonny, with her.
Dan Osborne appeared in high spirits on Thursday as he attended the Paul Strank Charitable Trust Summer Party at Restaurant Ours in Kensington, London.

The former TOWIE star, 31, dressed to impress in a blue striped shirt, teamed with jeans and a pair of white trainers as he posed with co-stars Liam Gadsby and Dan Edgar.

He beamed beside the pair as they enjoyed a boozy lads night out at the lavish event.

Stylish: Dan Osborne appeared in high spirits on Thursday as he attended the Paul Strank Charitable Trust Summer Party at Restaurant Ours in Kensington

Meanwhile Dan, 32, looked dashing in a grey shirt and matching trousers while sporting an amazing tan after returning from filming in the Dominican Republic.

Liam, 33, oozed confidence in a satin black shirt, which showed off his chest, while wearing cream trousers and loafers on his bottom half.

Paul and Irene Strank, who own the business and run the events, have been raising money for numerous amazing causes over the years.

Looking good: The former TOWIE star, 31, dressed to impress in a blue striped shirt, teamed with jeans and white trainers as he posed with co-stars Liam Gadsby and Dan Edgar (L-R)

Dapper: Liam oozed confidence in a satin black shirt, which showed off his chest, while wearing cream trousers and loafers on his bottom half

It comes after his wife Jacqueline Jossa shared a gallery of snaps of her children spoiling their dad for Father's Day earlier this month.

Dan and his partner Jacqueline Jossa share Ella, six, and Mia, two, and Dan has a son - Teddy, seven - from a previous relationship

She described him as a 'dream come true' for being the 'best daddy ever to our babies'.

'My world': Jacqueline shared a gallery of snaps of her children spoiling their dad on fathers day on Father's Day earlier this month

The three children can be seen proudly sitting at the bottom of the stairs holding up presents, a card, chocolate and breakfast.

In another snap the three can be seen sitting on a bed alongside Dan who has clearly just woken up.

Jacqueline also posted snaps of Dan with each individual child and a video of him crossing a street holding both his girls hands.
Just a day after Love Is Blind Season 2 contestant Jeremy Hartwell filed a lawsuit against the Netflix dating show, the production company behind it, Kinetic Content, has responded.

Hartwell, a 36-year-old Chicago entrepreneur, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday, accusing the production company of underpaying the contestants, while also 'depriving them of food, water and sleep' while plying them with excess alcohol.

Kinetic Content responded to the lawsuit in a statement to US Weekly on Thursday, revealing Hartwell was only on the show for a week.

Lawsuit: Just a day after Love Is Blind Season 2 contestant Jeremy Hartwell filed a lawsuit against the Netflix dating show, the production company behind it, Kinetic Content, has responded

Statement: Kinetic Content responded to the lawsuit in a statement to US Weekly on Thursday, revealing Hartwell was only on the show for a week

'Mr. Hartwells involvement in season 2 of Love Is Blind lasted less than one week,' the statement began.

'Unfortunately, for Mr. Hartwell, his journey ended early after he failed to develop a significant connection with any other participant,' the statement continued.

'While we will not speculate as to his motives for filing the lawsuit, there is absolutely no merit to Mr. Hartwells allegations,' the statement added.

Week: 'Mr. Hartwells involvement in season 2 of Love Is Blind lasted less than one week,' the statement began

'We will vigorously defend against these claims,' the statement concluded.

Hartwell's lawsuit alleged, 'the only drinks that [the show] regularly provided to the cast were alcoholic beverages, soft drinks, energy drinks and mixers.

He also claimed that, 'hydrating drinks such as water were strictly limited to the cast during the day' and that the producers, 'cut off their access to personal contacts and most of the outside world.'

Alcohol: Hartwell's lawsuit alleged, 'the only drinks that [the show] regularly provided to the cast were alcoholic beverages, soft drinks, energy drinks and mixers

'At times, defendants left members of the cast alone for hours at a time with no access to a phone, food, or any other type of contact with the outside world until they were required to return to working on the production,' the lawsuit alleges.

Hartwell is represented by Chantal Payton of Payton Employment Law, PC, of Los Angeles, who claimed in a Wednesday statement the show made the contestants, 'hungry for social connections and altered their emotions and decision-making.'

Hartwell was one of the original 30 contestants on Season 2 of Love Is Blind, though he was not featured on the show at all, failing to move beyond the 'pod phase' of the show.

Contestants: Hartwell was one of the original 30 contestants on Season 2 of Love Is Blind, though he was not featured on the show at all, failing to move beyond the 'pod phase' of the show

Hartwell shared an excerpt from his journal during his time on the show in the Love Is Blind pods, describing the experience as 'surreal.'

He added it was, 'somewhat disconnected as if I were caught in the current of a river that suddenly arose around me.'

'Filming Love Is Blind was one of the most intense and memorable events of my life and thanks to journaling and reflection, it remains an experience that Im at peace with, regardless of the ups and downs,' he captioned his post.

Surreal: Hartwell shared an excerpt from his journal during his time on the show in the Love Is Blind pods, describing the experience as 'surreal'
Andy Lee and longtime girlfriend Rebecca Harding are currently enjoying a romantic break in Greece after jetting to Europe.

And the pair are living it up in luxury, staying at stunning five-star resort the Katikies Hotel in Santorini.

Accommodation can cost up to $4,000 (AUD) per night for a clifftop suite.

Andy Lee and longtime girlfriend Rebecca Harding are currently enjoying a romantic break in Greece after jetting to Europe, and the pair are living it up in luxury, staying at stunning five-star resort the Katikies Hotel in Santorini

Waitress-turned-model Rebecca shared an artsy picture on Instagram on Thursday as she and Andy enjoyed a dip in the sea from a yacht.

On the floor was a luxurious navy towel embellished with the hotel's logo.

'Magic, just magic,' she captioned another series of pictures of the pair lapping up the pristine views in Santorini.

Accommodation can cost up to $4,000 (AUD) per night for a clifftop suite

Waitress-turned-model Rebecca shared an artsy picture on Instagram on Thursday as she and Andy enjoyed a dip in the sea from a yacht owned by the hotel

The hotel boasts three infinity swimming pools, library and a sunbathing deck.

It also has fine dining restaurants, a high-end fashion boutique, crafted tours in Santorini and offers boat adventures for guests.

Andy Lee and Rebecca recently spent time in Mykonos with his best mate Hamish Blake and his wife Zoe Foster Blake.

'Magic, just magic,' she captioned another series of pictures of the pair lapping up the pristine views in Santorini

They also spent a few days in London before soaking up the sun in Greece.

Earlier this week, Andy copped the wrath of his followers for still not getting down on one knee and proposing to his girlfriend of seven years while in Greece.

The comedian shared a series of holiday snaps to Instagram of the couple exploring the stunning islands.

His fans flooded the comments section, asking why the radio star is taking so long to make the brunette beauty his wife.

Earlier this week, Andy copped the wrath of his followers for still not getting down on one knee and proposing to his girlfriend of seven years while in Greece

'You need to put a ring on her,' one person wrote. 'Bend the knee,' another said.

'Andy is soo going to propose to Bec on this trip,' another one commented. 'Where's the ring?,' one asked.

'Time to put a ring on it Andy,' another said.

It comes after Andy recently denied secretly marrying Rebecca after internet sleuths spotted what appeared to be their 'wedding photo' in his home last October.

'You need to put a ring on her,' one person wrote. 'Bend the knee,' another said

But he confirmed on The Kyle and Jackie O Show it was simply a case of mistaken identity - because he and Bec weren't the couple in the photo.

'I'm the most offended because it is actually my sister and brother-in-law in that photo, and [he] is 5'10" and wears glasses,' Andy said.

He joked that it was 'bloody annoying' that people would confuse him with a shorter, bespectacled man.

'I am deeply in love with Bec. I'm sure it will happen at some stage,' he added.
Brooke Blurton has claimed she wasn't notified by producers of The Bachelorette that her sister had died shortly after filming wrapped last year.

The 27-year-old said on Friday her sister died 'during post-production' when she was spending time with her winning suitor Darvid Garayeli in the days after shooting the finale.

She alleged on Nova's Two Girls One Pod podcast, hosted by Angie Kent and Yvie Jones, that she wasn't told of her family member's death until later.

Brooke Blurton (pictured) has claimed she wasn't notified by producers of The Bachelorette that her sister had died shortly after filming wrapped last year

'My sister died post production, literally the day that I was saying goodbye to Darvid after our two- or three-day rendezvous. My sister's dead and I haven't been f**king notified,' she said.

'And that's the reality of my world. I'm this Bachelorette. I'm this really glamorous person, and you're like, "No, like my sister's got schizophrenia or had schizophrenia."'

'She's got a past history with drug and alcohol substance use, and here she is passed away. And I'm jumping in the car to be sent to an Airbnb [with Darvid] and that's a real reality of my life,' Brooke added.

The 27-year-old said on Friday her sister died 'during post-production' when she was spending time with her winning suitor Darvid Garayeli in the days after shooting the finale. She allegedly wasn't told of her family member's death until later

The youth worker will be discussing her sister's death in her new book, Big Love.

The memoir will also detail her experience in reality TV, her mother's suicide when she was just 11, and her traumatic childhood marred by sexual assault and drug-fuelled violence.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia in April, Brooke said she was inspired to write her book because she wanted to 'normalise situations and experiences that other young people might have had throughout their lives'.

'My sister died post production, literally the day that I was saying goodbye to Darvid after our two- or three-day rendezvous. My sister's dead and I haven't been f**king notified,' she said

She said it was 'difficult' to relive past trauma, but wanted to 'own' her story.

Brooke, a Noongar-Yamatji woman from Western Australia, added: 'The book has very cathartic moments.

'I think it's quite relieving in some ways that I can look at [my life] in hindsight and be like, "Wow, I've done so much, and I'm only just getting started."'
Since appearing on Married At First Sight in 2020, Hayley Vernon has gone on to become one of Australia's leading porn stars.

And earlier this month, the 34-year-old lashed out at one of her OnlyFans subscribers after they requested extra content - despite not generously tipping Hayley on the site.

In the tense exchange, the subscriber politely asked Hayley if he was entitled to anything extra for having his 'renew on'.

MAFS bride-turned-porn star Hayley Vernon (pictured) has slammed one of her OnlyFans subscribers for requesting extra content

OnlyFans users are able to select an option to have their monthly subscriptions to accounts they subscribe to automatically renew.

Some OnlyFans performers offer extra content to subscribers that keep their renew switched on, as a thank-you for their loyalty.

However, Hayley didn't seem to appreciate the fan's continued support.

The 34-year-old lashed out at one of her fans, who felt that they were entitled to extra content for being a loyal subscriber

Firing back at his request, the brunette responded: 'Aaron, you've spent $10.20 in ten months, calm down. I send them when I choose!'

Hayley was most likely referring to tips that Aaron had sent in.

After Hayley shared the exchange on social media, some of her followers were less than impressed with her customer-service skills.

'Thats how you treat your customers? Lmao,' wrote one.

Firing back at his request, the brunette responded: 'Aaron, you've spent $10.20 in ten months, calm down. I send them when I choose!'

Hayley recently revealed in a documentary by The Wash that she'd made more than $1.3million doing hardcore porn on OnlyFans in just two years.

'Can you imagine that opening my legs has got me this far?' she said.

Before becoming one of the country's most successful adult entertainers, Hayley was hooked on crystal meth and had to steal food from Coles and Woolworths to survive.

'I was an ice addict for the biggest part of my adult life. The way in which my life is today, I could never, ever have imagined,' she said.

'I have to pinch myself some days - most days, actually.'

Hayley posted the exchange on social media for everybody to see (pictured)

Hayley recently revealed in a documentary by The Wash that she'd made more than $1.3million doing hardcore porn on OnlyFans in just two years

Hayley won Best Newcomer at the The Adult Industry Choice Awards in May.

Hayley doesn't hold back on OnlyFans, doing everything from threesomes to X-rated scenes with other women.

'People can see me do boy-girl content, girl-girl content, male-male-male content there's pretty much nothing that I don't do,' she boasted.
Kourtney Kardashian and her husband Travis Barker were seen holdings hands after grabbing a bite to eat with her son Reign, seven, in Westlake Village on Wednesday.

Following a casual lunch at Joi Cafe, known for their plant-based dishes, smoothies and coffee, the couple- who recently tied the knot during a lavish ceremony in Italy -looked happy in love as they walked back to their car.

For their outing, the 43-year-old reality star cut a casual figure in a white and navy blue graphic long sleeve t-shirt, drawstring sweatpants and a pair of sandals.

Happy couple: Kourtney Kardashian and her husband Travis Barker were seen holdings hands after grabbing a bite to eat with her son Reign, seven, in Westlake Village on Wednesday

The Blink-182 drummer, 46, who recently hospitalized with a severe case of acute pancreatitis, appeared in good health as he walked by his spouse's side.

The father-of-two kept a low profile in a black hoodie, matching pants, sneakers and silver shades.

Kardashian's youngest child, who she shares with ex Scott Disick, wore a gray tee and fuzzy black pants and a pair of slides.

Yum! Following a casual lunch at Joi Cafe, known for their plant-based dishes, smoothies and coffee, the newlyweds looked happy in love as they walked back to their car

Comfortable: For their outing, the 43-year-old reality star cut a casual figure in a white and navy blue graphic long sleeve t-shirt, drawstring sweatpants and a pair of sandals

Cool guy: The Blink-182 drummer, 46, who recently hospitalized with a severe case of acute pancreatitis, appeared in good health as he walked by his spouse's side

Neither of her other children Mason, 12, and Penelope, ten, appeared to be present on the excursion, nor were Barker's kids Landon, 18, or Alabama, 16, from his past marriage to ex-wife Shanna Moakler.

Late last month, the musician was rushed to hospital after developing a severe case of pancreatitis apparently caused by an endoscopy he had undergone a week earlier.

'After dinner, I developed excruciating pain and have been hospitalized ever since,' he wrote in an Instagram post.

Casual: The father-of-two kept a low profile in a black hoodie, matching pants, sneakers and silver shades

Quality time with her youngest: Kardashian's youngest child, who she shares with ex Scott Disick, wore a gray tee and fuzzy black pants and a pair of slides

'During the endoscopy, I had a very small polyp removed right in a very sensitive area, usually handled by specialists, which unfortunately damaged a critical pancreatic drainage tube. This resulted in severe life threatening pancreatitis.'

In her own social media statement, Kourtney wrote, 'Oh what a scary and emotional week it has been. Our health is everything and sometimes we take for granted how quickly it can change. Travis and I went in for a routine endoscopy together and he ended up with severe, life-threatening pancreatitis.'

She continued, 'I am so grateful to God for healing my husband, for all of your prayers for him and for us, for the overwhelming outpouring of love and support. I am so touched and appreciative.

Recovering: Late last month, the musician was rushed to hospital after developing a severe case of pancreatitis apparently caused by an endoscopy he had undergone a week earlier

Bonding: Barker looked every inch the doting stepdad as he patted Reign's head

In her own social media statement last month, Kourtney wrote, 'Oh what a scary and emotional week it has been. Our health is everything and sometimes we take for granted how quickly it can change. Travis and I went in for a routine endoscopy together and he ended up with severe, life-threatening pancreatitis'

Thankful he's okay: She continued, 'I am so grateful to God for healing my husband, for all of your prayers for him and for us, for the overwhelming outpouring of love and support. I am so touched and appreciative'

'I am so so thankful to our specialists, doctors, and nurses at Cedars Sinai for taking such wonderful care of my husband and me during our stay.'

In a follow-up post, she wrote, 'It's crazy how sometimes words could never truly express the gratitude or feelings I have inside of me.'

Being that he's doing much better, Kourtney and Travis have been getting back to life as usual.
Veteran Neighbours star Alan Fletcher has revealed how producers tried to hide his alopecia diagnosis while filming the Channel Ten show.

The 65-year-old actor said he tried to hide his diagnosis - an autoimmune disorder that causes hair loss - by claiming his character Dr Karl Kennedy had a dodgy hair product fail.

'It was starting to get a bit weird. Karl was wearing caps all the time, so I went to the producers and literally said "I need to have a little scene, just something wedged in that explains what's going on",' Alan explained.

Neighbours' Alan Fletcher, 65, revealed he tried to hide his alopecia diagnosis on the show with storyline about his character Dr Karl Kennedy having a dodgy hair product fail

'So we popped in a little scene where Karl comes out, with almost no hair, saying he's just used some dodgy hair product and he hasn't followed the instructions, and that is how we sort of explained it.'

Earlier this year the Neighbours actor addressed fans' concerns about his health after he debuted a bald head.

Alan reassured fans he's okay in a video posted to the show's Twitter account in May as he explained his diagnosis.

'It was starting to get a bit weird. Karl was wearing caps all the time, so I went to the producers and literally said "I need to have a little scene, just something wedged in that explains what's going on",' Alan explained

The star revealed his newly bald look in recent Neighbours episodes, prompting fans to voice their concerns.

'A lot of fans have expressed a little concern about my health on the internet, and there have been some media inquiries as well, so I just want to put something to rest,' he said in the video.

'I am absolutely fine. I'm fit and well working on Neighbours and having a great time. But, I can report to you, I do have a disorder called alopecia areata.'

Alan explained that the disorder 'causes patchy hair loss', and he eventually just decided to shave it all off.

'So we popped in a little scene where Karl comes out, with almost no hair, saying he's just used some dodgy hair product, that you know, he hasn't follow the instructions, and that's how we sort of explained it,' Alan said. Pictured Alan and co-star Jackie Woodburne

'I started to lose hair into my beard and then on my scalp in patches. So eventually I shaved my beard off, and then my hair became so patchy on my head, I had to get rid of most of that as well,' he explained.

Alopecia areata cannot be cured but if only patches of hair are lost there is an approximately 60 to 80 per cent chance of it growing back within a year.

However, there is no guarantee it will grow back and doctors cannot predict whether it will, nor how much hair will be lost.

If hair does grow back, it can take months or years and usually starts as sparse white hairs in the bald patches which can eventually thicken and regain their colour.

Regrowth is less likely if all someone's hair falls out.

Alopecia areata cannot be cured but if only patches of hair are lost there is an approximately 60 to 80 per cent chance of it growing back within a year
Mike 'The Situation' Sorrentino wrestled with his old instigator ways during a group trip to El Paso, Texas, on Thursday's episode of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation.

The 40-year-old reality star re-opened wounds after telling the group that Angelina Pivarnick, 36, leaked the disastrous wedding speech video that caused a serious rift among the roommates.

'The girls did their own thing on social media, did some posts and such. But that has nothing to do with me,' Mike said in a confessional.

Inner battle: Mike 'The Situation' Sorrentino wrestled with his old instigator ways during a group trip to El Paso, Texas, on Thursday's episode of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation

'I know it's really messy right now, but I don't think I did anything wrong,' he added.

Angelina skipped the trip to El Paso as she continued to recover after a recent nose job.

Her attendance was up in the air up until the moment their private jet left for Texas.

Angelina told a producer that she didn't go on the trip because she didn't want to be around them.

Wedding speech: The 40-year-old reality star re-opened wounds after telling the group that Angelina Pivarnick, 36, leaked the disastrous wedding speech video that caused a serious rift among the roommates

Hands clean: 'The girls did their own thing on social media, did some posts and such. But that has nothing to do with me,' Mike said in a confessional

Vinny Guadagnino, 34, and Paul 'DJ Pauly D' DelVecchio, 42, noted that Mike was really into Angelina's business.

Mike during a workout session told them how two men had reached out to him claiming to have had affairs with Angelina while she was married to Chris Larangeira.

Spilling details: Mike during a workout session with Vinny Guadagnino, 34, and Paul 'DJ Pauly D' DelVecchio, 42, told them how two men had reached out to him claiming to have had affairs with Angelina while she was married to Chris Larangeira

'Mike is heavily invested in this new drama with Angelina, but he's always been, like, an instigator type. Like, he likes to push buttons. He likes to know. He is The Investigation,' Pauly said in a confessional.

'They sent me all of the receipts, tons of videos, very incriminating stuff,' Mike told his friends.

'Bro, if you get one more receipt, you're gonna turn into my accountant, kid,' Vinny quipped.

Heavily invested: 'Mike is heavily invested in this new drama with Angelina, but he's always been, like, an instigator type. Like, he likes to push buttons. He likes to know. He is The Investigation,' Pauly said in a confessional

'You're going to turn into CVS,' Pauly added.

Vinny and Pauly then teased Mike for stirring up the pot and exposing people.

'Yeah, I don't know. It's so messy that, like, I feel that it interferes with, like, my own progress as a person,' Mike admitted.

Messy situation: 'Yeah, I don't know. It's so messy that, like, I feel that it interferes with, like, my own progress as a person,' Mike admitted

'Damn. Is this the old Sitch or the new Sitch?,' Vinny asked.

'The old me and the new me is beefing about how we're going to handle the situation,' Mike said.

Vinny noted in a confessional that Mike had already handled the situation by sharing the evidence he gathered in a group chat.

Already handled: Vinny noted in a confessional that Mike had already handled the situation by sharing the evidence he gathered in a group chat

'The old Sitch, he wants to expose you. You know what I'm saying?,' Mike said.

'Yeah, but the new Sitch just wants positive vibes only, and that's it,' Mike said.

'I don't want to be The Instigation. But at the end of the day, we're all friends, and we all know everything about each other. And she's our friend, and this is really messy. So I'm, like, stepping back,' he said with his hands raised to his chest.

'This guy. He drops all the information and is like ''allegedly'',' Vinny said raising his hands like Mike and calling it the universal 'guilty' sign.

Guilty sign: 'This guy. He drops all the information and is like ''allegedly'',' Vinny said raising his hands like Mike and calling it the universal 'guilty' sign

Mike also told Nicole 'Snooki' Polizzi, 34, Jennifer 'JWoww' Farley, 36, and Deena Cortese, 35, that he shared the information because they are all best friends and know everything about each other.

'Yeah, Mike's acting, like not guilty at all on the Angelina drama,' Pauly said in a confessional.

'Yeah, so I don't know how to deal with this. I'm hands off right now,' Mike told the group.

Best friends: Mike also told Nicole 'Snooki' Polizzi, 34, Jennifer 'JWoww' Farley, 36, and Deena Cortese, 35, that he shared the information because they are all best friends and know everything about each other

Pauly in a confessional admitted that he couldn't do another year of the women arguing as they piled on Angelina.

Angelina meanwhile met with her plastic surgeon Dr. John Tutela who reminded her not to put anything in her nose and no picking.

'I have to be honest with you about something. I picked a few times,' Angelina admitted.

No picking: Angelina meanwhile met with her plastic surgeon Dr. John Tutela who reminded her not to put anything in her nose and no picking

'Just stop doing it,' the doctor told her.

'I keep thinking it's a booger, so I keep trying to touch it,' Angelina said.

'No, no. Don't. Don't touch it,' he advised her.

Stop it: 'Just stop doing it,' the doctor told her

He told her that it was more swollen than normally and picking was going to make it worse.

'Well, now I learned my lesson. Do not pick my nose, Angelina. I'm gonna have to say it to myself a lot of times, but I think I'm gonna get it down pat,' Angelina said.

Dr. Tutela told Angelina about her high blood pressure they noticed during surgery and she promised that she was getting stressors out of her life.

Lesson learned: 'Well, now I learned my lesson. Do not pick my nose, Angelina. I'm gonna have to say it to myself a lot of times, but I think I'm gonna get it down pat,' Angelina said

Back in El Paso, the roommates went off-roading and then went line dancing at Ricky D's Nightclub.

The Situation investigated the taco situation in El Paso and ate some from a taco truck.

'I stumbled across this,' Mike later told his friends as video showed him eating there just minutes earlier.

Jersey Shore: Family Vacation will return next week on MTV.

Off road: Back in El Paso, the roommates went off-roading

Good times: Vinny was behind the wheel as the roommates went offroading

Taco time: The Situation investigated the taco situation in El Paso and ate some from a taco truck
He has made a name for himself starring on Big Brother Australia and Australian Survivor.

But Luke Toki has revealed a surprising new career change.

The 35-year-old explained he's stepping away from the cameras and is now a real estate agent in his hometown of Perth.

Australian Survivor star and Big Brother winner Luke Toki, 35, has revealed he is now working as a real estate agent

'Going once, going twice, SOLD,' Luke's wrote in an Instagram post.

'I am now a real estate agent, not a mode as this photo may confuse you,' he wrote underneath a picture of himself in a suit and aviator shades.

'When you are ready to list your property, wouldn't you want it in the hands of the "Michael Jordan of sales," the "Dwayne Johnson of open homes," and the "Elvis Presley of auctions."

'When you are ready to list your property, wouldn't you want it in the hands of the "Michael Jordan of sales," the "Dwayne Johnson of open homes," and the "Elvis Presley of auctions," he said

'All aboard the hot property express, haha,' he added.

'Well done brother,' fellow Survivor star Locky Gilbert commented underneath.

'And a year later, almost exactly, he did exactly what he said he was going to do,' Imogen Anthony remarked.

Luke appeared on Australian Survivor in both 2017 and 2019.

Luke appeared on Australian Survivor in both 2017 and 2019

He won Big Brother VIP last year, taking home the $100,000 prizemoney.

Luke won $100,000 for his chosen charity the Perth Children's Hospital Foundation for Cystic Fibrosis Clinical Research - a cause which is close to his heart.

His two eldest boys, Lennox, and Nate, eight, suffer from autism, while his youngest daughter, two-year-old Madeline, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis shortly after being born.

Upon hearing the news of his win, Luke said: 'It's so great that I now get to go back to Perth Children's Hospital with a big stack of cash.'
Les syndicalistes doivent se rejouir de cette nouvelle qui va ravir leurs adherents, notamment ceux qui viennent a Maurice sur contrat, car a partir du mois de juillet 2022, les contributions au National Savings Fund serony desormais rembourses avec des amendements au National Savings Fund (Claims and Payment) Regulations.

Cabinet has agreed to the refund of National Savings Fund contributions to non-citizens each time they leave Mauritius upon expiry of their employment contract. Amendments would be brought to the National Savings Fund (Claims and Payment) Regulations accordingly. This measure would be effective as from July 2022.

Partager et informez vous aussi......

0 shares Share

Tweet

LinkedIn

Articles similaires
Fresh off his portrayal as Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee in the Hulu miniseries Pam & Tommy, Sebastian Stan is now hard at work on A Different Man.

And on Thursday the actor was spotted shooting scenes for the thriller film along the streets of New York City alongside co-stars Renate Reinsve and Adam Pearson.

During the busy day of filming, the costuming department ended up dressing up Stan in two different outfits for his scenes.

New role: Sebastian Stan, 39, was spotted shooting the thriller film A Different Man in the East Village neighborhood of Downtown Manhattan on Thursday

Stan, 39, shot a scene with Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve while in the East Village neighborhood in Downtown Manhattan.

For this particular scene, the actor was dressed in black pants with a brown leather jacket over a floral white shirt and matching shoes.

The Romanian native also had a leather bag over his right shoulder for the scene shot along the bustling streets.

'Action': Stan greeted Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve in one of his scenes

Costuming: For this particular scene, the actor was dressed in black pants with a brown leather jacket over a floral white shirt and matching shoes

Shooting trio: Co-star Adam Pearson (center backdrop) also stars in the scene for the film

Stylin': The actress was dressed in a green leather jacket, green top and green shorts with chunky heels for the scene by the costume department

'Action,' director Aaron Schimberg declared, and then Reinsve began her walk towards Stan, which saw them embrace while saying their hellos.

The actress was dressed in a green leather jacket, green top and green shorts with chunky heels for the scene by the costume department.

Pearson could be seen in the backdrop, waiting for Stan's character to wrap up his conversation with Reinsve for the scene. Pearson, 37, was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis type I, which causes non-cancerous tumors to grow on nerve tissue.

Wardrobe change: While Reinsve remained dressed in the same outfit, Stan changed into a blue suit for another scene with the actress

'And action!' The Pam & Tommy star waited for director Aaron Schimberg to to yell action to begin his scene decked out in a blue blazer and pants combo with a white dress shirt

Rockin' and rollin': The Romanian actor most recently starred in the Hulu series Pam & Tommy, in which he played Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee

The costume stylists for the film also dressed Stan in a blue suit for another scene he shot with and Reinsve.

While the actress remained dressed in the exact same outfit that she wore earlier, Stan's blue ensemble was paired with a white dress shirt and white sneakers.

Written and directed by Aaron Schimberg, A Different Man tells the story of Edward, an outcast seeking a new lease on life who undergoes facial reconstructive surgery and becomes fixated on an actor in the stage production based on his former life, according to IMDb.

Strike a pose: The actor struck a pose or two as he waited in front of a some doorsteps

Classy: Stan paired his blue suit with a white dress shirt and matching sneakers

Ready to shoot: Pearson, 37, was dressed for this particular scene in a brown ensemble

Diagnosed as a child: The British actor was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis type I, which causes non-cancerous tumors to grow on nerve tissue

Pearson's condition was the result of a blow to the head at age five that resulted in a bump that persisted instead of healing.

He would eventually be diagnosed with neurofibromatosis type I.

His identical twin brother, Neil Pearson, also suffers from the condition, but his manifests in a far different way than Adam.

Pearson is also set to test his cooking skills when he participates in Celebrity MasterChef. He will be among 20 celebrities to try and create some delicious dishes and impress the judges Gregg Wallace and John Torode.

Chillin': The three co-stars snuggled u for a few photos after their hard day at work

Bpnding: Stan would also post the same image of the three co-stars on his Instagram page on Thursday, but his caption simply read: 'FRIENDS'

Grateful: The British actor has been giving updates on the shoot for A Different Man, including this post where he thanked everyone for their support while he sat in his trailer waiting to shoot his next scene
Sami Sheen, the eldest daughter of Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards, said that her father does not support her having an OnlyFans account, but that her mother does.

Sami chat with TMZ on Thursday at the Beverly Hills restaurant Il Pastaio, where she was asked about the reception from her parents to the account.

'I'm super grateful, I have a supportive mom on my side,' Sami said, adding that her father 'hasn't' particularly come around on the idea, 'not too much.'

The latest: Sami Sheen, 18, the eldest daughter of Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards, told TMZ Thursday that her father does not support her having an OnlyFans account, but that her mother does

Asked about the lack of support from Charlie, 56, of having the account, Sami said, 'I don't really mind, it's totally fine,' later adding that it was a 'personal' issue she'd prefer not to go into detail about.

Sami said she was 'happy for' her mother also starting a page on the site, adding, 'I don't mind at all ... I'm super happy, she's doing really well.'

Sami said there is more of a 'stigma around' bikini pics posted to OnlyFans as opposed to on Instagram.

'Everyone thinks it's just for like, raunchy stuff, but you can post whatever you want on there,' she said. 'I'm just kind of doing my own thing, seeing if people like it or not. I just like the creative side of it and being able to make my own choices and be my own boss.

Sheen has issued mixed messages about his feelings about Sami having the page, first saying he didn't condone it, later saying he was supportive

Richards, pictured in NYC in 2019, is 'doing really well' with her account after starting it, Sami said

Family: Lola Sheen, Charlie Sheen, Sami Sheen and Denise Richards were seen in a group shot last year

The Two and a Half Men alum and Richards, 51, were married from 2002 until 2006 and are also parents to daughter Lola, 17, while Richards is also mother to adopted daughter Eloise, 11.

Charlie has issued mixed messages about his feelings about Sami having the page, as he told E! News last month in a statement, 'I do not condone this, but since I'm unable to prevent it, I urged her to keep it classy, creative and not sacrifice her integrity. She is 18 years old now and living with her mother. This did not occur under my roof.'

Sheen later clarified his remarks, telling Us Weekly in a statement that he was supportive of Sami's efforts.

'Denise has illuminated a variety of salient points, that in my haste, I overlooked and dismissed,' he said. 'Now more than ever, its essential that Sami have a united parental front to rely upon, as she embarks on this new adventure. From this moment forward, shell have it abundantly.'

Earlier this week, Richards spoke with E! News' Daily Pop, explaining how she feels there is an unnecessary stigma applied to OnlyFans as opposed to other social media sites.

'A lot of us have posted pictures of ourselves on Instagram in a bikini or something that might be perceived as risque,' Richards said. 'And if my daughter chooses to post a picture of herself in a bathing suit on OnlyFans, why would she get backlash on that but not on Instagram?'

She said that criticism raised toward Sami was 'very unfair,' as she's 'able to do what she wants to do' as an adult.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was spotted on the set of his first ever live-action TV series, Netflix's UTap.

The 74-year-old actor was seen on location in Toronto, filming scenes for the upcoming spy series.

He was not spotted with any co-stars though he was seen getting his make-up touched up between takes on the new show, which marks his first foray into live-action television ever in his storied career.

Arnie on set: Arnold Schwarzenegger was spotted on the set of his first ever live-action TV series, Netflix's UTap

Schwarzenegger was spotted wearing an azure blue button-down shirt and orange sunglasses with black frames.

He sported a grey beard with a watch on his left wrist as he walked through the set on Thursday afternoon.

The action icon completed his look with khaki pants and black shoes for his day on the set.

Arnold's look: Schwarzenegger was spotted wearing an azure blue button-down shirt and orange sunglasses with black frames

The project was first unveiled back in August 2020, when Schwarzenegger was set to star in the series from Skydance Television and creator Nick Santora (Scorpion).

Monica Barbaro was later brought on to star, with her and Schwarzenegger playing a father and daughter who have both worked for the CIA for years... though they have kept their jobs a secret from one another this whole time.

After learning they're both part of the spy agency, they are forced to work together as partners... and learn who each other really are.

First series: The project was first unveiled back in August 2020, when Schwarzenegger was set to star in the series from Skydance Television and creator Nick Santora (Scorpion)

Schwarzenegger also confirmed in March that he still plans on moving ahead with his Twins sequel Triplets with Danny DeVito and Tracy Morgan.

The project had been moving forward last year, though the death of Twins director Ivan Reitman - who was slated to direct Triplets - put the project on hold.

The actor revealed in March they are going to, 'wait a little bit until this whole thing cools down and then we're gonna readdress it.'

Plans: Schwarzenegger also confirmed in March that he still plans on moving ahead with his Twins sequel Triplets with Danny DeVito and Tracy Morgan

Schwarzenegger is also attached to star in The Legend of Conan, where he will return as the aging King Conan, though it's unclear when that will move forward.

He has also been set to star in the Western TV series Outrider, though it's also unclear what the status of that project is.

The actor is also starring as The President in Kung Fury 2, which is currently in post-production.
Beauty and the Geek Australia host Sophie Monk has quashed claims 'the geeks' on the series are paid actors.

Rumours have swirled that the cast of Channel Nine's hit show are 'too nice' for reality television and it may be scripted.

The TV star, who has hosted the program since last year, insisted cast members are completely genuine.

Beauty and the Geek host Sophie Monk (pictured, centre, with 'geek' Lachlan Mansell and 'beauty' Kiera Johnstone) has quashed claims 'the geeks' on the series are paid actors

She told Now To Love: 'The boys would be so flattered to hear that [people think they're actors]. Someone even asked me if we geek them up more... I've watched their audition tapes, if anything they are less geeked up!'

The 42-year-old added the chemistry seen between the beauties and the geeks was real and often led to romance on and off the set.

'If I see chemistry there then we're gonna pair them up together and see where it goes,' she added.

The TV star, who has hosted the program since last year, insisted cast members are completely genuine

The new series of Beauty and the Geek will premiere on Channel Nine on Sunday 17 July.

Sophie had her own storybook romance earlier this year when she married boyfriend Joshua Gross.

The Love Island Australia host, 42, and her neurosurgical robotics consultant beau, 41, exchanged vows at their Central Coast, NSW home in March, after eloping together - inviting no guests as they held a wedding just for themselves.

Sophie had her own storybook romance earlier this year when she married boyfriend Joshua Gross (pictured)

She said another reason they chose to have a wedding at home was to keep things 'stress-free'.

'We figured, if you don't invite one person, then no-one could get upset,' she told Stellar Magazine.

The newlyweds are planning to start a family, with Sophie telling Stellar they don't want to pressure themselves but would love children together.
She was whipped into shape by her husband Chris Hemsworth for her recent Netflix film Interceptor.

And Elsa Pataky shows off her action hero body in a new advertisement for the Thor star's successful Centr Fit workout app.

The mother-of-three flaunts her bulging biceps and toned back in a P.E Nation crop top teamed with matching leggings in the promotional Instagram video.

Elsa Pataky, 45, shows off her bulging biceps in activewear as she stars in new ad for her husband Chris Hemsworth's Centr Fit app

The Spanish beauty is seen working up a sweat as she lifts numerous weights and uses battle ropes.

The 45-year-old talks about the app's home and gym version for the Power Program.

She explained she used the program to build strength and muscle for her role in Interceptor alongside her hunky hubby.

During the Covid pandemic Elsa was using Chris' personal training app to access fast workouts she could do from her home.

Elsa explained she used the program to build strength and muscle for her role in Interceptor alongside her hunky hubby

The mother-of-three flaunts her bulging biceps and toned back in a P.E Nation crop top teamed with matching leggings in the promotional Instagram video

Back in 2021, she told Sunday Life she credits her age-defying bikini body to eating healthy and training hard.

'I have learnt to eat healthily over the years and it's just part of who I am,' she said.

Elsa continued: 'I have a few cheat days each week and make up for it by going to the gym or horse riding.'

The Spanish beauty is seen working up a sweat as she lifts numerous weights and uses battle ropes

Makeup free, Elsa looks youthful in the video clip

'Nothing beats the morning endorphins after you've worked out. You feel better and know it's worth it.'

Speaking to Good Housekeeping in 2018, Elsa said she always strives to make fitness a priority, even if it means taking her three children with her to the gym.

'Trust me, most kids can have fun just about anywhere, including a gym,' she said.

Yoga is also a major part of Elsa's fitness routine, with the Spanish actress explaining that the mat-based exercise is 'great for toning your booty'.

The Fast and Furious star will usually end her day with a yoga routine or some more strenuous exercise.
Bachelorette star Brooke Blurton shocked her fans on Friday by posing in an extremely revealing swimsuit.

The zebra animal print swimsuit featured a plunging neckline and a dangerously high cut around the crotch.

Posing for selfies in the changing room mirror, Brooke wrote: 'Debating on this kini.. not sure if I want to commit to the constant camel toe (in this case zebra toe).'

Bachelorette star Brooke Blurton shocked her fans on Friday by posing in an extremely revealing swimsuit

Despite her reluctance to purchase the raunchy swimwear, Brooke's celebrity followers urged her to get it.

'I will never forgive you if you dont buy this,' gushed author Clementine Ford.

'Immediately yes,' gushed Love Island's Tina Provis, while sex columnist Nadia Bokody dropped a string of fire emojis.

Brooke recently signed up for OnlyFans - but as a fan, not a creator.

Posing for selfies in the changing room mirror, Brooke wrote: 'Debating on this kini.. not sure if I want to commit to the constant camel toe (in this case zebra toe)'

While she isn't making content herself, the former Bachelorette has an account on the adult website that she uses to follow her favourite models.

The 27-year-old, who is single following her split from ex Darvid Garayeli, told Yahoo on Wednesday: 'I have an OnlyFans account, as in I watch other people.'

'I just find it so intriguing. I'm interested, I'm curious, I can't help that! I have to know!' added Brooke, who just launched a Nova podcast called Not So PG.

'And, you know, I'm also gay so I love women's bodies and physiques, and if that's what it is, why not?'

Brooke recently signed up for OnlyFans - but as a fan, not a creator

The bisexual youth worker said OnlyFans is a diverse platform that isn't just limited to porn, calling it a 'creative space for people to show themselves creatively'.

Brooke, who rose to fame on The Bachelor in 2018 before starring on Bachelor in Paradise and The Bachelorette, appears on the cover of Women's Health this month.

She told the magazine it's important for her to set 'healthy boundaries' on social media, but at the same time she's 'not afraid to share the ugly stuff as well'.

'If you can be vulnerable with yourself and also with others, I admire that over being physically strong because I think that, for me, is so admirable and the strength to share vulnerability is not credited enough in this world,' she said.
Bella Hadid shared her travel style on Thursday on Instagram as she took a private jet from Europe to New York.

The 25-year-old model wore a plain black camisole top under a bright red unbuttoned shirt along with a dark blue denim skirt with leopard print trim in snaps she shared with her roughly 53.5 million followers.

Bella completed her look with black heels and long black stockings.

Travel style: Bella Hadid shared her travel style on Thursday on Instagram as she took a private jet from Europe to New York

She had her long black straight down with bangs framing her face.

Bella accentuated her natural beauty with pink lipstick and accessorized with rectangular mirrored sunglasses and a plate necklace.

She carried a large black purse and struck poses while leaning against a grey wall next to a plant with pink blossoms.

Bella played with her hair and showed her long legs while flying in a private jet with a companion.

The look: The 25-year-old model wore a plain black camisole top under a bright red unbuttoned shirt along with a dark blue denim skirt with leopard print trim

Long stockings: Bella completed her look with black heels and long black stockings

Natural beauty: The model accentuated her natural beauty with pink lipstick and accessorized with rectangular mirrored sunglasses and a plate necklace

She earlier shared snaps from Amsterdam on Instagram Stories, including a topless mirror selfie that she self-censored with an editing tool.

Bella was seen on Thursday night attending the La Detresse Summer Trip Collection Celebration at Dante Seaport in New York City.

The fresh-faced beauty wore a black leather jacket and matching knee-high boots for the event and accessorized with hoop earrings.

Long legs: Bella showed her long legs while flying in a private jet with a companion

Mirror selfie: The model earlier shared snaps from Amsterdam on Instagram Stories, including a topless mirror selfie that she self-censored with an editing tool

Busy woman: Bella was seen on Thursday night attending the La Detresse Summer Trip Collection Celebration at Dante Seaport in New York City

Bella was at Paris Fashion Week earlier this month and was joined in Europe by her art director boyfriend Marc Kalman, 34.

Marc and Bella have been dating since July 2020. They went public with their relationship in July 2021 while the model was at Paris Fashion Week and the Cannes Film Festival.

Bella is the younger sister of model Gigi Hadid, 27, and both followed in the footsteps of their model mother Yolanda Hadid, 58.
Eagle-eyed Love Island viewers have in past speculated that there may be romantic tension between Dami Hope and Paige Thorne, despite them never being coupled up.

And Thursday night's episode added more flames to the fire as some took to Twitter when the Dublin native said she 'can't resist a cuddle'.

Following a recoupling which saw the Welsh paramedic, 24, be picked by bombshell Adam Collard, the islanders remarked on their new sleeping arrangements as they woke up.

Hug: It comes after the microbiologist comforted paramedic Paige when she was upset over partner Jacques' behaviour in Casa Amor last week

Morning: Following a recoupling which saw the Welsh paramedic, 24, be picked by bombshell Adam Collard, the islanders remarked on their new sleeping arrangements as they woke up

Cosying up in bed with Indiyah Polack, the Senior Microbiologist questioned: 'Dami how did you guys sleep, Paige and Adam, any cuddles?'

Adam, 26, replied that there was 'a little cuddle'.

'I know Paige cant resist a cuddle,' Dami then said, 'so I don't know why I'm asking.'

Cuddles: Cosying up in bed with Indiyah Polack, the Senior Microbiologist questioned: 'Dami how did you guys sleep, Paige and Adam, any cuddles?'

Twitter went wild as users commented on the pair's 'suspicious' friendship.

'"I know Paige can't resist a cuddle" Dami is in love with this girl I acc promise,' one wrote.

Another quipped: 'IF YOU WANT PAIGE JUST SAY THAT.'

A third questioned: 'Wdym dami. Man said I know paige can't resist a cuddle.'

'You can't tell me he doesn't secretly like here,' another comment read.

Secret? Twitter went wild as users commented on the pair's 'suspicious' friendship

Elsewhere some also voiced their surprise that Indiyah hasn't 'vomited' at the interactions.

'Indiyah bad him up pls,' one wrote.

Another remarked: 'How has Indiyah not vomited yet?'

Confusion: Elsewhere some also commented their surprise that Indiyah hasn't 'vomited'

Social media users also asked why Dami would know that Paige enjoys cuddles.

One wrote: 'How do you know Paige can't resist cuddles, Dami?'

Another tweet said the pair have a 'suspiciously close friendship'.

'How do you know Paige can't live without a cuddle,' a post read. 'HATE THEIR FRIENDSHIP.'

Suspicions: Social media users also asked why Dami would know that Paige enjoys cuddles

And it's not the first time the cosy pals sparked speculation there's more between them.

Last week fans were convinced they could get romantic when Dami comforted paramedic Paige when she was upset over Jacques' behaviour in Casa Amor.

Many on Twitter spotted their 'connection' after he rushed to comfort Paige in the bedroom after she stormed off from her row with Jacques who kissed Cheyenne behind her back.

Interesting: Love Island fans were last week convinced that Paige and Dami could get romantic

In addition, later in the episode the pair had a catch up over whether Dami wanted to continue to get to know new girl Summer who he recoupled with or former flame Indiyah.

Some viewers then noticed that Dami jumped on top of Paige in a flirty way and gave her a hug at the end of the conversation.

The fans' theory come after Dami's heart raced the most for Paige during the heart rate challenge.

Happy: Many on Twitter spotted their 'connection' after he rushed to comfort Paige in the bedroom after she stormed off from her row with Jacques who kissed Cheyenne behind her back

Flirty? In addition, later in the episode the pair had a catch up over whether Dami wanted to continue to get to know new girl Summer who he recoupled with or former flame Indiyah

Upset: Jacques has come under fire from fans after he kissed Cheyanne during Casa Amor and then failed to apologise to loyal Paige afterwards - instead using the excuse that he wanted to 'test himself'

Drama: It came after the rugby player's behaviour was revealed in scathing fashion by Cheyanne during the dramatic recoupling and end of Casa Amor

'Dami is into paige,' wrote one fan on Twitter, while another said: 'dami wants paige so bad. he definitely planned this.'

And a third added: 'Dami fancies Paige and no one can convince me otherwise.'

It comes as on Thursday new bombshell Adam coupled up with Paige as the episode kicked off with a recoupling where the boys got to pick.

Adam said in his speech: 'I want to couple up with this girl as she made me feel the most welcome since getting to the villa.

'I am trying to play it cool but am constantly am gravitating towards her.

'She is beautiful and funny. It's not been plain sailing for her in here but I am hoping to change that and want to get to know her more. So the girl I want to couple up with is Paige.'

After she said: 'You did so good with your speech, we just get on and it's so easy. I'm excited!'

Moving on: Elsewhere new bombshell Adam Collard coupled up with Paige Thorne as Thursday's episode kicked off with a recoupling where the boys got to pick

Elsewhere around the fire pit Andrew and Tasha recoupled, Billy picked Danica, Indiyah reunited with Dami, Luca picked Gemma, Josh chose Summer and Deji was left with just Coco to couple up with.

Later on the episode Paige admitted to 'really fancying' bombshell Adam after he picked her in the recoupling.

During a chat with Ekin-Su Culculoglu, she told the actress that he gave her 'f**ny flutters' - a remark made famous by previous seasons of the reality show.

Thrilled: After she said: 'You did so good with your speech, we just get on and it's so easy. I'm excited!'

In the steamy scene Paige glanced over at a drenched Adam as he took an outdoor shower.

As pal Ekin-Su questioned 'how's things with you?', the Welsh paramedic admitted: 'I do really quite fancy Adam.

'I don't want to say the word f**ny flutters but...': continued a giggling Paige, after Ekin-Su jibed that there's 'nothing not to' fancy about Adam.

It comes after Jacques made the tough decision to leave the villa following his infidelities to Paige during Casa Amor.

In emotional scenes, Paige was left teary as the sportsman promised to wait for her on the outside.

But it seems her head could be turned, as Adam has been battling for her affections since his shock arrival - with the pair enjoying a date during Wednesday's episode.

Choice: Adam said in his speech: 'I want to couple up with this girl as she made me feel the most welcome since getting to the villa. I am trying to play it cool but am constantly am gravitating towards her'
They were in attendance at Frida Aasen and Tommy Chiabra's wedding on Thursday alongside her parents Sir Phillip Green and his wife Tina.

And following the celebrations, Chloe Green was spotted having dinner with her partner Manuele Thiella and her family in Portofino later in the evening.

The heavily pregnant heiress, 31, who is expecting her second child and first with Mauele, covered her baby bump with a pretty floral dress.

Look of love: Chloe Green was spotted having dinner with her partner Manuele Thiella and her family in Portofino later in the evening

The flowing dress with frilly detailing was belted above her burgeoning bump and styled it with a selection of earrings.

Choe wore her highlighted locks swept back off her face and tied in a chic plait, while she opted for a subtle pallet of make-up.

The mother of one looked loved-up with her man as they sat down with her family for an al fresco dinner.

Glowing: At the wedding earlier in the day, Chloe was glowing in a hot pink asymmetric gown with her hair in a sleek bun, teamed with flat sandals and a string of pearls

Mama to be! The heavily pregnant heiress, 31, who is expecting her second child and first with Mauele, covered her baby bump with a pretty floral dress

Manuele looked smart as he sported a striped blue and white shirt with a pair of white shorts and a silver necklace.

At the wedding earlier in the day, Chloe was glowing in a hot pink asymmetric gown with her hair in a sleek bun, teamed with flat sandals and a string of pearls.

Chloe is already a mother-of-one after giving birth to a son, Jayden Meeks-Green, with her ex-boyfriend Jeremy Meeks in 2018.

Former flame: Chloe is already a mother-of-one after giving birth to a son, Jayden Meeks-Green, with her ex-boyfriend Jeremy Meeks in 2018 (pictured at the wedding)

Chatting: Chloe has remained mainly out of the public eye as of late, with a brief appearance at Cannes Film Festival the only recent public sighting of her

Chloe has remained mainly out of the public eye as of late, with a brief appearance at Cannes Film Festival the only recent public sighting of her.

Last month, Chloe revealed her pregnancy as she unveiled a baby bump for the first time while on holiday in St Tropez.

Chloe unveiled her previous pregnancy in a similar way back in 2018, showing off her first bump as she enjoyed a day on her father's superyacht in Monaco.

Big reveal: Last month, Chloe revealed her pregnancy as she unveiled a baby bump for the first time while on holiday in St Tropez

Back in 2020 when she initially began dating Manuele, a source told MailOnline: 'Chloe has known Manuele for months and they have always been very close friends.

'They have a lot in common; they're both parents and are from similar worlds, Chloe is very happy with him.'

They added: 'He's very much been accepted into her family.'
Tammy Hembrow welcomed daughter Posy Poole last month.

And on Friday, the fitness entrepreneur took her newborn to her first ever lunch date.

The 28-year-old showed off her post-baby body in a white ensemble, consisting of a boho top with frilly details and a corseted design.

Tammy Hembrow welcomed daughter Posy Poole last month. And on Friday, the fitness entrepreneur took her newborn to her first ever lunch date. Pictured with Posy

It showed off a peak at her flat stomach, and the influencer added a slinky white mini skirt to the outfit.

Tammy finished her ensemble with a pair of high-heeled thong sandals, and chose a bronzed makeup look with a nude matte lipstick.

She carried little Posy in her arms, with the tot matching her mum in a white onesie and bonnet.

The 28-year-old showed off her post-baby body in a white ensemble, consisting of a boho top with frilly details and a corseted design

Tammy chose a bronzed makeup look with a nude matte lipstick

'First lunch date' she wrote in the caption, alongside a series of emojis

The model also showed off her lunch, which included oysters and what appeared to be a cocktail.

'First lunch date' she wrote in the caption, alongside a series of emojis.

It comes after Tammy posted two photos highlighting her postpartum 'lumps and bumps'.

Tammy, a mother of three, cradled her newborn in a carrier strapped to her chest while posing for the body-positive snaps on Instagram.

The model also showed off her lunch, which included oysters and what appeared to be a cocktail

It comes after Tammy posted two photos highlighting her postpartum 'lumps and bumps'

Tammy wore a skimpy yellow and orange two-piece with G-string bottoms as she stood on the deck of her Gold Coast home.

In the caption, she said 'I'll be living in bikinis in Bali' come September, when she hosts a wellness retreat for some of her followers.

The retreat will include 'fun activities such as a sunrise hike, aerial yoga and secluded beaches' and will give guests the chance to 'reset and refresh'.

Tammy, a mother of three, cradled her newborn in a carrier strapped to her chest while posing for the body-positive snaps on Instagram

Tammy gave birth to Posy, her first child with Ironman fiance Matt Poole, in late June.

She is already mother to two older children, son Wolf and daughter Saskia, from her previous relationship with Reece Hawkins.

Tammy and Matt, 32, are still in the baby bubble, having spent the last few weeks posting loved-up family photos on Instagram.
Sarah Hyland was certainly living her best life this week as she posed for a fun snap with pals on board a yacht as she celebrated her bachelorette party.

The bride-to-be, 31 - who is due to marry fiance Wells Adams this year - looked sensational in a white 'bride' swimsuit as she larked about with her bridesmaids including Vanessa Hudgens in an Instgarm snap shared on Thursday.

The ladies were in good spirits amid the boat trip this week, taken ahead of them jetting off for a luxury stay at the 5-star Casa Aramara private estate in Punta Mita, Mexico.

Let the fun begin! Sarah Hyland was certainly living her best life this week as she posed for a fun snap with pals on board a yacht as she celebrated her bachelorette party

The image saw Sarah - who was forced to postpone her wedding to Wells Adams several times on account of the pandemic - beam with joy as she finally celebrated her hen do with pals.

And she certainly looked the part, teaming her bridal one-piece with an embellished mesh sarong teamed with pink heart-shaped sunglasses and sparkly jewellery.

Captioning her fun snap, she penned: 'Bachelorette Trip of my dreams. I love these humans with all of my heart and feel so much gratitude for the space we hold for each other. You all are MAGIC.'

Here she is: The bride-to-be, 31 - who is due to marry fiance Wells Adams this year - looked sensational in a white 'bride' swimsuit as she larked about with her bridesmaids including Vanessa Hudgens in an Instgarm snap shared on Thursday

The actress also took to her Instgarm to stories to share further updates of her celebrations, with Sarah and her pals seen preparing to jet off to their luxury accommodation via private jet.

Sarah looked fabulous in the image, donning a strapless white top with a feathered trim, which she teamed with a white shirt and a cropped veil headband.

The Modern Family star also uploaded a snap of her party set-up which showed a long table in front of balloons which read 'Sarah Did Wells', with the beauty remarking: 'How cute is this?'

Fun: Captioning her fun snap, she penned: 'Bachelorette Trip of my dreams. I love these humans with all of my heart and feel so much gratitude for the space we hold for each other. You all are MAGIC'

Sarah's wedding to Wells has been delayed multiple times on account of COVID-19.

But the couple are finally tying the knot this year, and last month Sarah and Wells were feted at their bridal shower.

Earlier this year, Wells joke about eloping with Sarah should their nuptials get postponed once again.

Here we go: The actress also took to her Instgarm to stories to share further updates of her celebrations, with Sarah and her pals seen preparing to jet off to their luxury accommodation via private jet

'How cute is this?' The Modern Family star also uploaded a snap of her party set-up which showed a long table in front of balloons which read 'Sarah Did Wells'

'Listen, we've postponed it two years in a row. If something else crazy happens this year, then we're just going to go to Vegas with powder blue suits and knock it out,' Wells told ET Canada.

He added: 'I'm not sure if we can wait another year. We'll see. Who knows what's going to happen.'

Wells and Sarah planned to get married in August 2020 and have changed their wedding date a few times due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

They started dating in 2017 and got engaged in Fiji in July 2019.

Engaged: Wells and Sarah planned to get married in August 2020 and have changed their wedding date a few times due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking with People, Sarah said she quickly jumped into wedding planning mode right after they became engaged.

'Where we were staying [in Fiji] didnt have a lot of Wi-Fi, so later that night I started having a panic attack like, I need Pinterest to look at wedding stuff!' she told People shortly after the proposal.

'Wells was like, "I thought you wanted a long engagement!" I was like, "I do, I just need to look at wedding stuff. I dont know who Ive turned into!"'

While Sarah ended up toning down the wedding planning, she did compare herself to Monica Gellar from Friends in preparing her special day.

'I bought wedding magazines, and I cut out stuff that I like visually to make vision boards,' she told the publication. 'Im trying to curate my binder, trying to figure out what we want, DJ, band, both, who knows? Im like Monica from Friends!'
Love Island is set to finally air Movie Night on Friday's episode, with Ekin-Su Culculoglu fretting over her and Davide Sanclimenti's future amid the airing of unseen Casa Amor clips.

After much speculation from fans desperate to see more drama, producers have last set up scenes in which the secret moments islanders had hoped to keep under wraps is played out in front of the entire villa.

And certain islanders have more to worry about than some following their antics during Casa Amor week, with Ekin-Su telling Davide 'If we pass this were fine', no doubt referring to her close encounter with George Tasker.

Uh oh! Love Island is set to finally air Movie Night on Friday's episode, with Ekin-Su Culculoglu fretting over her and Davide Sanclimenti's future amid the airing of unseen Casa Amor clips

While Davide will certainly hoping that his secret his with Coco Lodge will remain undisclosed.

The Italian hunk also issues a haunting warning to the boys, telling them: 'Forget nothing, at the end someone will pay the bill.'

The upcoming drama is set to unfold as Gemma Owen receives a text which reads 'Its time to get glam and hit the red carpet as you attend Mad Movies the premiere! #SpillThePopcorn #ITV2andChill.'

Mad Movies will see the Islanders will take part in a cheeky quiz to earn the right to choose which clip plays.

Exposed: After much speculation from fans desperate to see more drama, producers have last set up scenes in which the secret moments islanders had hoped to keep under wraps is played out in front of the entire villa

Amid Davide and Ekin-Su's uneasiness, Dami Hope also frets about his dirty laundry being aired as he admits: 'Personally, I know I am starring in this movie!'

Movie night is a favourite feature among fans, with viewers often gripped by the fallout after the islanders' secret chats, unfaithful kisses and bedtime antics are exposed to the villa.

A source told The Sun of the feature: 'Bosses have kept viewers waiting this year - but rest assured it's going to be worth it.

Drama: Certain islanders have more to worry about than some following their antics during Casa Amor week, with Ekin-Su telling Davide 'If we pass this were fine', no doubt referring to her close encounter with George Tasker.

Secret liaisons: While Davide will certainly hoping that his secret his with Coco Lodge will remain undisclosed

'If any Islanders thought the misdeeds of Casa Amor were behind them they are very much mistaken.

'Pretty much all couples are at risk from what plays out on the big screen and it's sure to be unmissable.'

The challenge previously caused chaos, with Teddy Soars and Faye Winter involved in an explosive argument that saw a record number of viewers complain to Ofcom.

Here it comes: The upcoming drama is set to unfold as Gemma Owen receives a text which reads 'Its time to get glam and hit the red carpet as you attend Mad Movies the premiere! #SpillThePopcorn #ITV2andChill'

Get the popcorn ready: Mad Movies will see the Islanders will take part in a cheeky quiz to earn the right to choose which clip plays

Can't wait! 'Pretty much all couples are at risk from what plays out on the big screen and it's sure to be unmissable'

Jake Cornish was caught out in the clips as he appeared to encourage the boys to betray their love interests back in the villa.

Earlier this month, fans predicted a rocky patch ahead for Davide and Ekin-Su after she reentered the main villa from Casa Amor.

While Ekin-Su called Davide out on his infidelities while she was in Casa Amor, she did not reveal she'd had what newcomer George described as a 'little play around' under the covers while they shared a bed.

Highly-anticipated: Last year's Movie Night saw Jake Cornish, Faye Winter and Teddy Soares erupt after clips were shown

Heated: The challenge previously caused chaos, with Teddy Soars and Faye Winter involved in an explosive argument that saw a record number of viewers complain to Ofcom

Home: Evictee Jay Younger was seen for the first time on Friday since being evicted from the villa at Manchester Train station

Ekin-Su and new boy George were seen sharing a cuddle in bed in Casa Amor earlier in the series, with George telling the other boys the next day: 'Something pretty mad happened last night. There was some touching going on.'

But it remains to be seen whether Ekin-Su and Davide, as well as the other couples, can survive the explosive fallout from Movie Night.

Love Island continues Friday at 9pm on ITV2 and ITV Hub.
Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richards enjoyed a rollicking dinner on a docked yacht in Portofino this week during her family vacation in Italy.

The 53-year-old at one point rose from her seat at an alfresco table on deck and began to joyfully sing and dance.

The star looked stunning in a sleek peekaboo black dress that showed off her taut midriff and plunged to bare her cleavage.

Having a ball: Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richards enjoyed a rollicking dinner on a docked boat in Portofino this week during her family vacation in Italy

Kyle is married to the smoldering Mauricio Umansky, the founder and CEO of a successful real estate brokerage.

Mauricio and Kyle have been married since 1996 and share three daughters - Alexia, 26, Sophia, 22, and Portia, 14.

Kyle, who converted to Judaism for Mauricio, also has a 33-year-old daughter called Farrah Aldjufrie by her first husband Guraish Aldjufrie, a real estate developer.

Andy Cohen accidentally revealed Kyle had a breast reduction during an awkward moment on Watch What Happens Live in June.

Living it up: The 53-year-old at one point rose from her seat at an alfresco table on deck and began to joyfully sing and dance

When you got it: She was decked out in a sleek peekaboo black dress that showed off her taut midriff and plunged to bare her cleavage after a recent breast reduction

Dinner party: Kyle is married to the smoldering Mauricio Umansky and has four daughters - Farrah, 33, Alexia, 26, Sophia, 22, and Portia, 14

The TV host, who also produces the Real Housewives franchise that made Kyle a star, was apparently unaware she was keeping the procedure a secret from the public.

While interviewing her on Watch What Happens Live, Andy, 54, casually asked her: 'How's the breast reduction working out?'

Kyle replied tartly: 'Oh, thank you for letting everyone know, Andy, thank you,' leaving the Bravo impresario mortified at his gaffe.

Andy clapped his hands over his mouth, exclaiming: 'Oh, oh my God! I thought you've talked about it! No, no!'

Whoops! Andy was horrified when he realised he'd accidentally exposed her surgery secret and declared: 'Oh, oh my God! I thought you've talked about it! No, no!'

Secrets revealed! Andy Cohen accidentally revealed Kyle had a breast reduction during an awkward moment on Watch What Happens Live in June

'I had a breast reduction surgery. I never had implants. I had double Ds, no implants. I still don't have an implant but I went in and I said: "I want smaller boobs and I don't ever wanna wear a bra ever again in my life," and here I am!' Kyle spilled.

She confessed that 'you can't really tell' at the moment that she has even had a breast reduction as 'they're so swollen.'

Her family trip to Portofino comes after Kyle's fellow reality star Kourtney Kardashian held her lavish wedding to Travis Barker there in May.

After a weekend of functions, including an alfresco family dinner on Portofino's Piazza Martiri dell'Olivetta, Kourtney and Travis married at Castello Brown.
Heartbreak High has been rebooted for Netflix.

And on Friday, the cast was revealed alongside a promotional image featuring the new characters.

Among the inclusive line-up are gay and non-binary characters, TV Blackbox reports.

Heartbreak High has been rebooted for Netflix. And on Friday, the cast was revealed alongside a promotional image featuring the new characters

Actor James Majoos plays Darren, who goes by they/them pronouns and is described as 'snarky' and 'brash'.

Gemma Chua-Tran plays Sasha, described by the publication as the 'chicest lesbian at the school' who goes by both she/her and they/them pronouns.

Josh Heuston will depict Dusty, a bisexual character who 'has slept with half the girls  and even a few boys  at school'.

Among the inclusive line-up are gay and non-binary characters, TV Blackbox reports

Actor James Majoos plays Darren, who goes by they/them pronouns and is described as 'snarky' and 'brash'

Bryn Chapman-Parish meanwhile plays Spider, who is described as 'a sprinkling of incel' and 'class clown'.

Set in the fictional Hartley High, the eight-episode series is a woke update of the '90s high school drama that made Callan Mulvey and Ada Nicodemou household names.

According to Que Minh Luu, Netflix's Director of Content in Australia and New Zealand, 'Making Heartbreak High for today's generation of Australians has been a long-standing dream.'

Gemma Chua-Tran plays Sasha, described by the publication as the 'chicest lesbian at the school' who goes by both she/her and they/them pronouns

Josh Heuston will depict Dusty, a bisexual character who 'has slept with half the girls  and even a few boys  at school'

'We couldn't be more stoked to be starting production on a show that means so much to so many of us, with a cohort of such incredible breakthrough talent stepping up both on screen and off.

'Teenage (and adult) me would be equally thrilled to be friends with or socially rejected by this outrageously talented cast.'

Itself a spin-off of the 1993 film The Heartbreak Kid, the original series was praised for its multicultural cast, as well as its willingness to tackle gritty issues, from drugs to romance to religion to shoplifting and homelessness.

Heartbreak High will stream on Netflix later this year.
Advertisement

The 2022 series of Love Island has seen plenty of drama, romance, tears and tantrums so far in the islanders' attempts to find their one true love.

From the racy Casa Amor antics, Jacque O'Neill's shock exit and former islander Adam Collard's even more surprising arrival - season eight has left viewers on the edge of their seats.

But as the age old saying goes, all good things must come to an end. But just when is the Love Island final? And what happens in the final episode?

Here's everything we know so far...

What a series! The 2022 series of Love Island has seen plenty of drama, romance, tears and tantrums so far in the islanders' attempts to find their one true love

When is the Love Island 2022 final?

While no official finish date has been confirmed by show bosses, host Laura Whitmore said the show will run for for a total of eight weeks.

And with the latest series kicking off on Monday 6 June, it's likely to end on 1 August.

The theory coincides with last year's series seven eight week run, which the 2021 series starting on 28 June and ending on 23 August.

The end is nigh: As the age old saying goes, all good things must come to an end. But just when is the Love Island final? And what happens in the final episode?

What happens in the final?

The Love Island final will see the public vote and crown the winner of the 2022 series.

The last episode of the series usually sees four couples make the final, with last year seeing Faye and Teddy, Chloe and Toby, Millie and Liam and Kaz and Tyler make it to the end.

After the winners are crowned, the couple are then handed an envelope each- one containing the 50,000 prize money and one with nothing inside.

Their relationship is then put to the ultimate test as the person with the prize many then gets to choose whether to split the money or keep it to themselves.

Reigning champions: The now former couple Millie Court and Liam Reardon were crowned the 2021 winners

Who is in the final?

With over two weeks left of series eight and with more dumpings to come, it remains to be seen which lucky islanders will make it to the final day.

However, William Hill have tipped Ekin-Su and Davide to win, with odds of 13-8.

While new couple Paige Thorne and Adam Collard have healthy odds of 3-1 from the bookmaker.

Meanwhile, lovebirds Gemma Owen and Luca Bish have odds of 11-4, with on-again couple Dami Hope and Indiyah Polack tipped at 7-2.

Who will it be? With over two weeks left of series eight and with more dumpings to come, it remains to be seen which lucky islanders will make it to the final day

How can I apply for Love Island 2023?

In addition to next year's summer show, it was recently announced a winter series of Love Island would be back in 2023.

The new series of the show will come to ITV2 and new channel ITVX in the New Year, with January seeing a fresh batch of Islanders heading to South Africa on a quest for love and romance.

Meanwhile, summer 2023 will see the dating show return to Mallorca for another eight week run.

While producers have not officially invited hopefuls to apply for next year just yet, ITV advertised the application process for the 2022 series earlier this year.

Upcoming: The new series of the show will come to ITV2 and new channel ITVX in the New Year, with January seeing a fresh batch of Islanders heading to South Africa on a quest for love and romance

The ITV website stated that bosses were looking for 'vibrant singles from across the UK who want to head to the sun in search of love'.

Applicants must be 18 years of age or over and they must be available for a minimum of 10 consecutive weeks.

Aspiring reality stars must register and fill in an online form, and agree to the terms and conditions which allow programme makers to 'collect and process personal information which is more sensitive than "everyday" personal information, such as your mental health, your physical fitness and health, your sex life, your sexual orientation, your political opinions, your religion, your race and your criminal history.'

Love Island continues Friday at 9pm on ITV2 and ITV Hub.
James Corden was in good spirits as he left beachfront gastrobar Le Club 55 in St. Tropez after joining Sofia Richie and her boyfriend Elliot Grainge for lunch on Friday.

The television host, 43, has been enjoying a sun-soaked getaway with his wife Julia Carey in the South of France.

And he was seen alighting a boat which also carried model Sofia, 23, and music executive Elliot.

Stepping out: James Corden, 43, was in good spirits as he left beachfront gastrobar Le Club 55 in St. Tropez after joining Sofia Richie and her boyfriend Elliot Grainge for lunch on Friday

Comedian James wore a navy blue Burberry shirt with a the name of the brand embroidered in white on the chest.

He wore a pair of blue and white checked shorts and some colourful Nike trainers.

Sofia looked stylish in a 740 blue and white Dior one-piece swimsuit and a pair of matching shorts.

Summer style: Sofia looked stylish in a 740 blue and white Dior one-piece swimsuit and a pair of matching shorts

Looking good: She completed her look by wearing a pair of blue sandals while she shielded her eyes behind a pair of clear-framed sunglasses

Steady: James was helped on to the boat by a member of the crew before heading to the bar with his pals

She completed her look by wearing a pair of blue sandals while she shielded her eyes behind a pair of clear-framed sunglasses.

Earlier in the day, James was seen walking hand-in-hand with his other half as she spoke animatedly on the phone during a spot of retail therapy.

James donned a black polo shirt and green shorts for the outing, slipping his feet into pastel Nike trainers.

Soaking up the sun: He shielded his eyes behind a pair of dark sunglasses as he prepared to set sail on the boat

Summer suave: He donned a navy Burberry shirt and checked shorts, holding onto a hand fan as he attempted to battle the heat

Shielding his eyes behind dark shades the actor sported a beard as he wore his hair slicked back from his handsome face.

Julia, who shares children Max, 11, Carey, seven, and four-year-old Charlotte with James, flaunted her toned legs in a pair of denim cut off shorts which she layered over a black vest.

Protecting herself from the sun with an oversized fedora and shades, the TV producer carried a shopping bag over her shoulder.

Romantic: Earlier in the day, James cut a casual figure in a black polo shirt and green shorts as he walked hand-in-hand with wife Julia in St Tropez on Friday

It comes after James was spotted taking his new 100,000 Range Rover for a spina round London on Monday.

Donning dark shades for the drive, the star was joined by a male pal as they seemingly tested the car's performance.

James is set to step down as the host of the Late Late show at the end of next season and he teased that he might have time for other projects after that

Mum and Dad: Julia, who shares children Max, 11, Carey, seven, and four-year-old Charlotte with James, flaunted her toned legs in a pair of denim cut off shorts

Exit: James will step down as the host of the Late Late Show at the end of next season as he plans to spend more time back home in Britain

And the actor hinted at Gavin and Stacey's potential return as he admitted he will have 'more free time' if he did return to the UK next year.

Speaking at London's Freemasons Hall recently James said that he trusts the show's co-creator Ruth Jones 'judgement' about when or if the sitcom will make a comeback.

According to The Sun, James said: 'Ruth's judgement is always bang on, she is such an incredible judge and she instinctively will know when it's right.

'And look, I'll have a bit more free time, maybe that'll be the time to get together and talk about something.

'But I trust her judgement so much that if it's right, we'll do it.'
She recently opened up about going through a 'difficult, difficult time' with husband Paddy McGuinness.

But Christine McGuinness, 34, appeared to be in high spirits as she enjoyed a Cheshire countryside walk on Friday, beaming as she snapped some selfies.

Despite returning to her car to discover a flat tYre, it seemed that nothing could dampen the former model's mood - as she also hinted that her marriage was getting back on track via an Instagram Story.

And... pose: Christine McGuinness was spotted posing for selfies during a countryside walk in Cheshire on Thursday as she hinted things were back on track with husband Paddy

Christine donned a bright mustard cami crop top and a pair of high waisted denim shorts for the walk.

Pairing the ensemble with Chloe flat mules and a crossbody phone holder, the beauty had her blonde locks styled straight.

She donned a radiant palette of makeup for the outing, and was camera ready as she pulled out her phone.

Smiles: She appeared in high spirits in the snaps, despite recently detailing her marriage turmoil with Paddy McGuinness

Bright: Christine donned a bright mustard cami crop top and a pair of high waisted denim shorts for the walk

Perfect pic: Christine was camera ready as she pulled out her phone, making sure to get the scenic views in the shot

Seemingly making the most out of her walk, Christine giggled as she walked down the countryside path.

She added a pair of black sunglasses, throwing her hands in the air before gazing down at her phone.

But the walk prefaced unfortunate car trouble for Christine, as she returned to her new Mercedes G Wagon to discover a flat tyre.

Gorgeous: Pairing the ensemble with Chloe flat mules and a crossbody phone holder, the beauty had her blonde locks styled straight

Car trouble: But the walk prefaced unfortunate car trouble for Christine, as she returned to her new Mercedes G Wagon to discover a flat tyre

Leaning down to check the tire, Christine then snapped a picture of it, before giggling alongside the car.

Opening the driver's door, she leaned over the seat to reach into the back of the car, figuring out how to rectify the situation.

The cheery walk comes as she shared a snap to Instagram Stories, hinting that things at home are looking up for her and Paddy.

Documenting: Leaning down to check the tire, Christine then snapped a picture of it

Got a spare back there? Opening the driver's door, she leaned over the seat to reach into the back of the car, figuring out how to rectify the situation

Happy place: The cheery walk comes as she shared a snap to Instagram Stories, hinting that things at home are looking up for her and Paddy

Writing: 'Home will always be my happy place', the blonde beauty beamed for the outdoor pic - with her blonde locks gathered together in a high ponytail.

It seems her family unit is looking up, after she shared details on the 'difficult time' she and Paddy were going through just last week.

Describing her mental state as 'all over the place' in an interview with Fabulous magazine, she shared that she is 'not going to put up with things from Paddy that she might've in the past.'

'I'm feeling really quite raw and all over the place. What I might have put up with in the past, I probably wouldn't put up with now, and the same for him. I can't deny we are having a very, very difficult time,' she shared.

Ups and downs: It seems her family unit is looking up, after she shared details on the 'difficult time' she and Paddy were going through just last week

But keen to clear her own name, the former model added that she wasn't the one who caused the difficult situation.

'It's just  we've been together 15 years, 11 years married: we are gonna have ups and downs  but this situation at the minute  I don't want to go into it too much but I will just say that I didn't cause this situation,' she continued.

The couple have spent time apart in recent weeks with Christine jetting off on her first ever girls' holiday with her close friend Chelcee Grimes, while Paddy returned on Sunday from a Top Gear filming trip to Thailand.

But things appeared to be slightly more positive as she appeared on Lorraine on Tuesday morning, telling host Carol Vorderman that she the pair are headed on holiday next week with their three children.

Separate lives? The couple have spent time apart in recent weeks with Christine jetting off on her first ever girls' holiday with her close friend Chelcee Grimes, while Paddy returned on Sunday from a Top Gear filming trip to Thailand
Drake's team have denied a swirl of internet speculation that he was arrested at a Stockholm nightclub this week.

The 35-year-old music star has indeed been visiting Sweden, though it remains unconfirmed whether he is there for work.

Rumors flew Thursday night that he was taken into police custody, but his team informed The Hollywood Reporter that he was not arrested and was in his hotel.

Nope: Drake's team have denied a swirl of internet speculation that he was arrested at a Stockholm nightclub this week; he is pictured leaving this year's Super Bowl

Drake landed in Sweden on Wednesday in his baby blue personal Air Drake jet and is said to have dined at the local Italian-American restaurant Ciccio's.

While in town, he posed on Instagram with the local 'it girls' Elizabeth and Victoria Lejonhjarta, twin models who have previously appeared in two of his music videos.

He allegedly attended a party in his honor at the Stockholm nightclub Berns in the city center Thursday night, according to the Swedish newspaper Expressen.

The private event reportedly had a special guest list - which a source said was skewed to female attendees.

Trio: While in town, he posed on Instagram with the local 'it girls' Elizabeth and Victoria Lejonhjarta, twin models who have previously appeared in two of his music videos

Having fun: By Friday night, after his team denied he was arrested, Drake was back on his Insta Stories in a selfie with the Lejonhjarta twins

Police are said to have arrived at Berns that night, spoken to partygoers and left after 20 minutes, possibly putting an end to the fete, Expressen reports.

A source told the newspaper that such police encounters can occur when people smoke hookah on public premises.

Sweden banned hookah in bars and restaurants in 2005, and in 2019 expanded the prohibition to even the establishments' outdoor seating areas.

Wow: Drake landed in Sweden on Wednesday in his baby blue personal Air Drake jet, which is pictured elsewhere on his Instagram

Police spokesman Ola Osterling confirmed to Expressen that law enforcement visited Berns that night, but refused to elaborate on the subject.

Osterling also noted that Berns was one of several establishments the police visited in Stockholm that evening.

By Friday night, after his team denied he was arrested, Drake was back on his Insta Stories in a selfie with the Lejonhjarta twins.
Jeff Bridges took on the role as father of the bride when he helped his daughter Hayley Bridges tie the knot in a romantic wedding in California's Santa Ynez Valley in Santa Barbara county.

The 72-year-old Against All Odds actor donned a navy blue suit, white shirt and light blue tie as he walked his youngest child down the aisle in a romantic August 2021 ceremony.

The details of the fairytale nuptials are only now being shared in Brides magazine.

Father of the bride: Jeff Bridges took on the role as father of the bride when he helped his daughter Hayley tie the knot in a romantic wedding in California's Santa Ynez Valley

Hayley, who works as an interior designer, and her husband, wealth advisor Justin Shane, chose to celebrate their special day at Kestrel Park in Santa Ynez, California.

The property offers luscious outdoor settings so that the 123 wedding guests could safely celebrate just two months after masking restrictions had been lifted in California.

The ceremony was originally planned for August 2020 but was postponed due to the pandemic.

Greetings: The Oscar winner, 72, raised a glass of champagne as he welcomed guests to the reception at Kestrel Park in August 2021

Postponed: The wedding was originally planned for August 2020 but was postponed due to the pandemic. The couple chose an outdoor venue for the ceremony that included 123 guests

Hayley looked beautiful in an Anne Barge lace gown with intricate embroidery and a V neckline. The frock featured an A-line skirt, translucent straps and a low back.

The glowing bride styled her blonde locks in loose curls and completed the vision with a chapel length veil.

'My hair was styled in a way that I would do my own hair going to other events, so it felt like me,' explained the glowing bride.

Justin waited for her at the end of the aisle in a classic black tux with a leafy boutonniere.

Saying yes: Hayley said 'yes' in an Anne Barge lace gown with intricate embroidery and a V neckline. Her groom, Justin Shane, wore a traditional black tuxedo

Details: The couple first met in 2014 and go engaged in 2019 at the Bridges' family ranch in Montana

The Oscar nominated actor made sure not to steal the spotlight from the happy couple.

He did, however, raise a glass to his daughter and new son-in-law as he greeted guests at the reception.

'My dad gave a welcome speech and touched on a trait of Justin's that I also mentioned in my vows,' Hayley recalled, 'Which is that kids and dogs love him. I believe this to be an example of his wonderful energy.'

Jeff has been happily married to his wife, film producer Susan Geston, since 1977, and they have two older daughters, Isabelle and Jessica.

Father-daughter dance: Jeff, who has been happily married to film producer Susan Geston since 1977, proudly twirled his daughter across the dance floor

These images have surfaced after Bridges almost died when he came down with COVID in January 2021.

The Big Lebowski star had no resistance as he was getting chemo for his non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

The Hollywood icon added that he did not really have the will to fight the virus as he felt he was 'dancing with mortality,' he told People.

The star has been in remission from lymphoma since September 2021 and is now promoting his new FX show The Old Man.

Close call: Bridges almost died when he came down with COVID in early 2021. Here he is pictured in June

A rare recent photo of Bridges: Here he is seen in November 2020. He has not been seen much since 2019

'I was pretty close to dying. The doctors kept telling me, "Jeff, youve got to fight. Youre not fighting." I was in surrender mode. I was ready to go. I was dancing with my mortality,' said the father.

He was weak from battling cancer - which he revealed he had in early 2020 - and he was not vaccinated as there was no vaccine yet.

'I had no defense. Thats what chemo does  it strips you of all your immune system. I had nothing to fight it,' Bridges told the site.

Bridges also said the affects of COVID were far worse than the cancer.

'COVID made my cancer look like nothing,' said the Los Angeles resident who added he was in the hospital for five months where he suffered intense pain and was on oxygen.

The TRON: Legacy actor got better when he was given convalescent plasma treatment.

The process involves using blood from people who have already recovered from COVID. And then he had to do physical therapy to get his strength back.

His recovery was not fast as he started taking 'baby steps.'

But there was a silver lining. Being so sick made him unable to work which kept him close to home with his family.

'Who would say, "Id love some cancer and give me a dose of COVID?" But my ability to receive all the love and give it was just heightened,' he said.

'Everything was turned up in the most beautiful way.'
The pair have been spotted frolicking in the sun at a beach club in Marbella.

And Megan Barton Hanson stepped out hand-in-hand once more with her mystery man as they headed to a pool in the Spanish city on Friday.

The OnlyFans star, 28, has been putting on a cosy display with her unknown companion during their getaway, which comes just weeks after she looked loved-up with her ex boyfriend James Lock.

Cosy: Megan Barton Hanson, 28, stepped out hand-in-hand with a mystery man as the pair continued their Marbella holiday on Friday

Megan looked sensational in a skimpy orange and red tie-dye bikini that she paired with a semi-sheer wrapped top.

She added a low slung skirt with dramatic slits up the front, that showed off her taut abs and belly button jewellery.

Her beach look was completed with a pair of black sandals with gold detailing and a matching leather hand bag.

New man: The OnlyFans star has been putting on a cosy display with her unknown companion, which comes just weeks after she looked loved-up with her ex James Lock

The television personality wore her long blonde locks with a hint of a wave and shielded her eyes with a pair of Seventies style sunglasses.

The outing will no doubt cause confusion, after Megan appeared to have rekindled her tumultuous romance with James, as they were seen holdings hands on a trip to the Costa del Sol last month.

Megan and the TOWIE star, 35, previously split up following a hotel room bust-up in March.

But it recently appeared their romance is back on as they put on a cosy display during their outing, with James wrapping his arm around the glamour model.

Beach chic: Megan looked sensational in a skimpy orange and red tie-dye bikini that she paired with a semi-sheer wrapped top and matching skirt

Their reunion comes after Megan was reportedly left terrified after her hotel room door was 'kicked in' during a heated row with James in March.

According to The Sun, the reality star alerted the hotel staff who dialled 999, with police spotted arriving by onlookers at the hotel shortly after.

Megan had been staying at the 350-a-night Courthouse Hotel in central London, after she enjoyed a date with another reality star at the same club where James was also partying.

Hand-in-hand: The outing will no doubt cause confusion, after Megan appeared to have rekindled her tumultuous romance with James, as they were seen holdings hands

Megan was leaving a nightclub at 1.30am with Life On Marbs star Adam Graham shortly after her ex James arrived with a mystery women.

Things then reportedly took a serious turn hours later when it is believed that TOWIE star James was informed of Megan's room number.

A source told the publication: 'At one point, the hotel door was kicked. There was a lot of shouting. Megan was shocked. It was all very aggressive'.

The source believed James was handed a key by staff after he showed them photos of himself and Megan.

Exes: Megan and the TOWIE star, 35, previously split up following a hotel room bust-up in March (pictured in March)

The insider added: 'This all happened in broad daylight in a busy hotel. It was very dramatic and Megan's hotel door was damaged in the chaos'.

James and Megan ended their relationship for the second time earlier this year and both later stepped out with new romantic interests.

The on-off pair went Instagram official with their rollercoaster romance in October last year after meeting on Celebrity Ex On The Beach, but their union lasted just two months before they split after Christmas.

They reunited when James gifted Megan with a cake shaped like her breasts.

While Megan was said to be 'upset' over what happened, it was claimed that pals thought their 'weird connection' meant this might not be the end.
Victoria Silvstedt showed off her sensational figure as she walked across the sandy La Reserve Beach in Saint-Tropez on Friday.

The Swedish model, 47, wore a a plunging orange bikini top and matching bottoms as she soaked up the sun in the South of France.

She shielded her eyes behind a pair of dark sunglasses and played with her hair as she enjoyed the warm weather.

Beach fun: Victoria Silvstedt, 47, showed off her sensational figure as she walked across the sandy La Reserve Beach in Saint-Tropez on Friday

Earlier in her outing, the fashionista wore a colourful tie-dye cover-up before whipping it off to go for a swim.

Victoria displayed her bronzed body in her two-piece swimwear set as she rested on the sun loungers in between dips in the water.

The blonde beauty styled her platinum locks into a disheveled do and was in good spirits during her outing.

Summer style: The Swedish model wore a a plunging orange bikini top and matching bottoms with a colourful cover-up as she soaked up the sun in the South of France

On the move: Victoria showed off her fit physique as she made her way across the sand during her European break

Going for a dip: She shielded her eyes behind a pair of dark sunglasses and played with her hair as she enjoyed the warm weather

Looking good: The blonde beauty styled her platinum locks into a disheveled do and was in good spirits during her outing

Rest and relaxation: Victoria displayed her bronzed body in her two piece swimwear set as she rested on the sun loungers in between dips in the water

Life in colour: Earlier in her outing, the fashionista wore a colourful tie-dye cover-up before whipping it off to go for a swim

Steady! Victoria was seen with her hands in the air, keeping her balance as she walked on the sand

She was later seen walking along the beach, wearing a crop-top in the same colour of her swimwear.

She wore a brown tiered mini skirt with ruffled detail and decoration at the hem.

Victoria carried a blue and white Luis Vuitton bag with her and delicately walked on her tip toes as she made her way across the sand.

All change: She was later seen walking along the beach, wearing a crop-top in the same colour of her swimwear

New ensemble: She wore a brown tiered mini skirt with ruffled detail and decoration at the hem

Fashion forward: Victoria carried a blue and white Luis Vuitton bag with her and delicately walked on her tip toes as she made her way across the sand

In love: Victoria has been enjoying her time in the South of France with her partner Maurice Dabbah

Victoria has been enjoying her time in France with her partner Maurice Dabbah.

The beauty and Maurice, who is dubbed one of the richest businessman in Sweden, have been together since 2011.

Victoria enjoyed a lengthy stint in the spotlight after being chosen to represent her country in the Miss World pageant in 1993.

Relationship: The beauty and Maurice, who is dubbed one of the richest businessman in Sweden, have been together since 2011

Looking back: Victoria enjoyed a lengthy stint in the spotlight after being chosen to represent her country in the Miss World pageant in 1993

Victoria has been enjoying her time in France with her partner Maurice Dabbah.

The beauty and Maurice, who is dubbed one of the richest businessman in Sweden, have been together since 2011.

Victoria enjoyed a lengthy stint in the spotlight after being chosen to represent her country in the Miss World pageant in 1993.

Professional: After her pageant days, the Scandinavian stunner was spotted by Hugh Hefner and went on to become a Playboy Playmate

After her pageant days, the Scandinavian stunner was spotted by Hugh Hefner and went on to become a Playboy Playmate.

Since her career rocketed, Victoria has modelled for some of the world's most prestigious fashion houses, including Chanel, Dior and Valentino.

Despite the glamorous veneer to her lifestyle as a young model, she revealed there was a dark side in a recent interview with Female First.

Victoria said: 'I started very young to model in Paris when I was 18, I remember like starving myself to fit into the clothes.

'It was an amazing experience but you know I did shows for Valentino, Chanel, so it was really prestigious.'
Advertisement

Josh Samuel Le Grove and Coco Lodge were both dumped from the villa on Friday's dramatic episode of Love Island.

The model, 22, and the graphic designer, 27, said goodbye to paradise after being voted the least favourite boy and girl.

It came after Thursday night's cliffhanger where viewers learnt that Summer, Coco, Tasha, Deji, Josh and Andrew were vulnerable and could be dumped.

Bye: Josh Samuel Le Grove and Coco Lodge (pictured) were both dumped from the villa on Friday's dramatic episode of Love Island

After the dumping Josh said: 'I knew it was coming bro I knew it was coming. It is what it is man it's not too deep. It was a shock but I have had such a great time. I didn't find love in the villa but I might do on the outside.'

Coco added: 'I've spent a lot of my life single and now I will just wait for those boys to slide into the dms. The last few days have been amazing but there definitely were some ups and downs. But it was an amazing experience.'

Josh was coupled up with Danica on the return from Casa Amor but then recoupled with Summer, who he had been getting to know.

Meanwhile, Coco caused a stir when she coupled up with Andrew during Casa Amor, but he ultimately chose to go back to Tasha after some ups and downs.

All over: The model, 22, (pictured) and the graphic designer, 27, said goodbye to paradise after being voted the least favourite boy and girl

Reaction: After the dumping Josh said: 'I knew it was coming bro I knew it was coming. It is what it is man it's not too deep. It was a shock but I have had such a great time. I didn't find love in the villa but I might do on the outside'

Journey: Coco added: 'I've spent a lot of my life single and now I will just wait for those boys to slide into the dms. The last few days have been amazing but there definitely were some ups and downs. But it was an amazing experience'

After the dumping Tasha was in tears after being voted least popular by the public for the third time.

However some of the other Islanders questioned her emotion after she had just made Andrew her boyfriend and should have been focusing on the positivity of that.

Tasha didn't take well to the criticism when Luca pointed out to the others: 'But she didn't even cry when Andrew brought back another guy but she's crying now?!'

Drama: Coco caused a stir when she coupled up with Andrew during Casa Amor, but he ultimately chose to go back to Tasha after some ups and downs

Story: Josh was coupled up with Danica on the return from Casa Amor but then recoupled with Summer who he had been getting to know

Upset: After the dumping Tasha was in tears after being voted least popular by the public for the third time

Later in bed Tasha cheered up as Andrew told her that he loved her and she told him the same back. Afterwards she said in the Beach Hut: 'It feels so good! I never thought I would say those three words to anyone in here.'

In her exit interview, Coco said of her experience and of Andrew in particular: 'Me and Andrew have no bad blood between us anymore.

'I still think he took things a bit far with me, however I do understand when someone has a hold over you like Tasha has a hold over him, you can't forget them.

'As soon as that person comes back it's hard to want to pursue both when you have such strong feelings for someone because you've known them a lot longer.

'I don't have any bad blood towards him but I do wish maybe things were handled a bit differently and it didn't go as deep with us in Casa. It is what it is and we're cool.'

Kind: In her exit interview Coco said of her experience and of Andrew in particular: 'Me and Andrew have no bad blood between us anymore. I still think he took things a bit far with me, however I do understand when someone has a hold over you like Tasha has a hold over him, you can't forget them'

Honest: Meanwhile Josh said in his exit interview of his budding romance with Summer that was cut short: 'I feel like it was going in a good direction but it was very early days though - we were still just getting to know each other'

Meanwhile Josh said in his exit interview of his budding romance with Summer that was cut short: 'I feel like it was going in a good direction but it was very early days though - we were still just getting to know each other.

'Obviously, if someone walks in for her, I'm happy for her but if she stays single and leaves then we'll see what happens on the outside.'

Elsewhere on the episode, Movie Night returned, which led to Ekin-Su Culculoglu fretting over her and Davide Sanclimenti's future amid the airing of unseen Casa Amor clips.

After much speculation from fans desperate to see more drama, producers at last set up scenes in which the secret moments islanders had hoped to keep under wraps is played out in front of the entire villa.

Bottom three: It came after Thursday night's cliffhanger where viewers learnt that Summer, Coco, Tasha, Deji, Josh and Andrew were vulnerable and could be dumped

And certain islanders have more to worry about than some following their antics during Casa Amor week, with Ekin-Su telling Davide 'If we pass this we're fine', no doubt referring to her close encounter with George Tasker.

Meanwhile Davide was hoping that his secret kiss with Coco Lodge remained undisclosed.

The Italian hunk also issued a haunting warning to the boys, telling them: 'Forget nothing, at the end someone will pay the bill.'

Gemma Owen received a text ahead of the Movie Night which read: 'It's time to get glam and hit the red carpet as you attend Mad Movies the premiere! #SpillThePopcorn #ITV2andChill.'

Uh oh! Elsewhere on the episode Movie Night returned on Friday's episode, which led to Ekin-Su Culculoglu fretting over her and Davide Sanclimenti's future amid the airing of unseen Casa Amor clips

Mad Movies saw the Islanders take part in a cheeky quiz to earn the right to choose which clip plays.

Amid Davide and Ekin-Su's uneasiness, Dami Hope also fretted about his dirty laundry being aired as he admits: 'Personally, I know I am starring in this movie!'

Movie night is a favourite feature among fans, with viewers often gripped by the fallout after the islanders' secret chats, unfaithful kisses and bedtime antics are exposed to the villa.

A source told The Sun of the feature: 'Bosses have kept viewers waiting this year - but rest assured it's going to be worth it.

Exposed: After much speculation from fans desperate to see more drama, producers have last set up scenes in which the secret moments islanders had hoped to keep under wraps is played out in front of the entire villa

'If any Islanders thought the misdeeds of Casa Amor were behind them they are very much mistaken.

'Pretty much all couples are at risk from what plays out on the big screen and it's sure to be unmissable.'

The challenge previously caused chaos, with Teddy Soars and Faye Winter involved in an explosive argument that saw a record number of viewers complain to Ofcom.

Earlier this month, fans predicted a rocky patch ahead for Davide and Ekin-Su after she reentered the main villa from Casa Amor.

Secrets revealed: Luca was also rattled by one clip, telling the boys afterwards: 'I am 100% 100% bringing that up'

While Ekin-Su called Davide out on his infidelities while she was in Casa Amor, she did not reveal she'd had what newcomer George described as a 'little play around' under the covers while they shared a bed.

Ekin-Su and new boy George were seen sharing a cuddle in bed in Casa Amor earlier in the series, with George telling the other boys the next day: 'Something pretty mad happened last night. There was some touching going on.'

Luca was also rattled by one clip, telling the boys afterwards: 'I am 100% 100% bringing that up.'

Later on the episode things were heating up between Paige Thorne and Adam Collard as she distanced herself from Jacques O'Neill once and for all.

The brand new pair, who got closer when the bombshell made a comeback last week, appear to be taken with each other, as the Welsh beauty's previous partner Jacques made a tearful exit from the show.

In scenes on Friday night, Paige told Dami Hope that 'everything happens for a reason' when discussing the rugby player leaving.

She said: 'When Jacques was in here, we weren't exactly the most perfect couple going on - there were some bumps in the road.

'That's still not taking away the feelings and connection I had with him for sure. Since he's been gone, I feel like everything happens for a reason. I'm enjoying my time getting to know Adam.'

Dami replied: 'I'm enjoying seeing you happy. It just seems very natural for you guys. It's nice to get to know him.'

When pressed on more details of whether she sees potential with him, Paige responded: 'Potential for me personally I would say yes. I don't know what he's sayingwhich really infuriates me.'

Pal Dami told Paige that 'he's only saying good things' and 'seems really set on you at this moment in time'. It came as the pair coupled up as the last episode kicked off with a recoupling where the boys got to pick.

Adam said in his speech: 'I want to couple up with this girl as she made me feel the most welcome since getting to the villa. I am trying to play it cool but am constantly am gravitating towards her. She is beautiful and funny. It's not been plain sailing for her in here but I am hoping to change that and want to get to know her more. So the girl I want to couple up with is Paige.'
She recently returned to the UK after soaking up the sun in Marbella.

And Sarah Jayne Dunn was all smiles on Friday as she left Ducie street bar and restaurant in Manchester.

The former Hollyoaks actress, 40, stood out from the crowd in an eye-catching electric blue cropped blazer, teamed with black trousers.

Bold: Sarah Jayne Dunn stood out from the crowd in an eye-catching electric blue cropped blazer as she left Ducie street bar and restaurant in Manchester on Friday

Sarah showed off her tanned and toned abs in the ensemble after her recently holiday, while sporting a pair of gold sandals.

The star, who played Mandy Richardson on the Channel 4 soap opera for 25 years, accessorised with a long gold chain and carried a white Dior handbag.

She opted for a glam makeup look with a classic nude lip and styled her golden locks straight.

Sarah recently collaborated with fellow OnlyFans model Rhian Sugden to create an X-rated podcast that will discuss 'sex, fetishes and roleplay'.

Stunning: The former Hollyoaks actress, 40, showed off her tanned and toned abs in the ensemble after her recently holiday, while sporting a pair of gold sandals

Gorgeous: She opted for a glam makeup look with a classic nude lip and styled her golden locks straight

Speaking about the risque venture Sarah exclusively told MailOnline: 'I'm super excited to launch my new podcast, Hot and Bothered.

'It seemed like a natural progression after the success of my OnlyFans account to continue the conversation around confidence and empowerment and give people an insight into the OnlyFans world.'

The close friends are both successful models in their own right, with Rhian being a former Page 3 girl and glamour model as well as appearing in lads mags including Zoo, Nuts and Maxim.

Sarah was sensationally sacked from the Channel 4 show in a row over OnlyFans as she refused to give up her money-making X-rated subscription account.

New project: It comes after Sarah Jayne (left) and Rhian Sugden, 35, (right) revealed they have launched an X-rated podcast about 'sex, fetishes, roleplay'

She explained how she struggled financially during the coronavirus pandemic and wanted a stable form of work to rely on.

When asked if it has been worth it, Sarah said: 'Yes is the short answer. This not something I've done on a whim, I'd been thinking about it for months prior to launch. Lockdown is one of the biggest reasons, it was difficult for all of us.

'The uncertainty of knowing what was going to happen after, would I have a job to go back to? Financially it was difficult.

'It was during that time I thought I needed something else that I can do that I can be creative and in control of. That's where thought process came from. It's been great. No regrets. It's changed my life.'
Yazmin Oukhellou has broken her silence on the horror car crash in Turkey which tragically killed her boyfriend Jake McLean.

The TOWIE star, 28, suffered serious injuries to her arm in the crash, which took place in the early hours of Sunday July 3.

And now Yazmin has revealed she deliberately broke her trapped arm to escape the crash and rush for help - while Jake lay unconscious in the Mercedes.

Devastated: Yazmin Oukhellou has broken her silence on the horror car crash in Turkey, which left her boyfriend Jake McLean dead

In an interview with The Sun, Yazmin said: 'I didn't want to admit it to myself that he could be dead.

'So I thought, 'Right, I can either lay still and bleed to death, or snap my own arm to try to save us  I had no choice.'

At the time Yazmin didn't realise she had opened an artery but revealed she was covered in blood as she lay upside down in the car.

She added: 'I somehow snapped my arm through pure adrenaline and panic, I climbed out of the car, and I was kind of holding my arm together with my left hand.'

Tough time: The TOWIE star, 28, suffered serious injuries to her arm in the crash which took place in the early hours of Sunday July 3

Yazmin said she convinced herself that Jake was still alive as she ran to the top of the bank they has rolled down and screamed for help.

Luckily, a man walking his dog found her instantly and rushed down to the car to help, but sadly it was already too late as Yazmin said she couldn't feel Jake's pulse.

Yazmin said the grief and shock have left her needing therapy and she hasn't left her mother Lisa's side since the accident.

The reality star also confirmed that the couple were currently off, but she flew out to Turkey in the hope they could reconcile and recalled how the trip made things 'perfect' between them.

Tragic: In an interview with The Sun, Yazmin said: 'I didn't want to admit it to myself that he could be dead'

The television personality had been on holiday with Jake in the resort of Bodrum where the terrifying incident took place.

Jake and Yazmin were driving in a blue Mercedes E class saloon along a windy, mountainous road between the coastal city of Bodrum and the seaside town of Yalikavak as they returned from a night out.

The crash took place at around 4.30am and investigators have established that the car hurtled around 70 feet over a left turn bend and landed in a ravine almost 30 feet below.

Heartbreak: The grief and shock of the crash and losing Jake have left Yazmin needing therapy

Jake was pronounced dead at the scene while Yazmin was rushed to hospital, where she underwent treatment for her injured arm.

After the crash, she clambered through thick, thorny bushes to stop a passing motorist for help.

A source told MailOnline last week that Yazmin has been left heartbroken: 'Yaz is unable to feel any sense of relief because her heart has been ripped in two over Jake's death.

'She still can't come to terms with what has happened.'

Crash: Photographs have revealed the extent of the damage to the blue Mercedes E class saloon that Jack McClean was driving during the crash

Jake, 33, - who has previously dated former TOWIE star Lauren Goodger - was driving at the time of the crash.

Yazmin suffered serious injuries but pulled herself from the wreckage to get help.

Her mother flew out to support her daughter during her recovery at Bodrums Acibadem Hospital in the days after the crash before bringing her home.

Family: Yazmin's mum flew out to Turkey to support her daughter in the days after the crash, and helped to bring her back home

Meanwhile MailOnline understands that Yazmin could face a police quiz in upcoming days amid reports about the moments leading up to the crash.

According to reports yesterday she was arguing with Jake as their car crashed.

The claims were made by his mum, Anita Walsh, who raised her concerns with prosecutors investigating the crash that killed her son in Bodrum, Turkey.

Anita told prosecutors that Jake would not have lost control of the car as it flew off a bend on a mountainous road because of his driving expertise.

An Assistant Prosecutor who cannot be named under Turkish Law told MailOnline on July 6: We have spoken with Jakes mother and she has told us that something was going on in the car that distracted him.

She does not believe that this accident was caused by his poor driving. She said that he is a very skilled and experienced driver and would not have lost control of the car like this.

Prosecutors are investigating whether Jake was drink-driving. The on-off couple argued outside a club at 3am, shortly before Sunday's crash.

Jake McLean died after crashing his car off a road near the party resort of Bodrum, in Turkey

Jake and Yazmin are thought to have got together in May last year before she revealed their relationship on Instagram in December in a clip that showed the pair kissing.

But she split from him just a month later after he was reportedly caught 'acting single' while on a holiday in Dubai and leaving a club alone with Love Island ex Ellie Jones.

The pair were still thought to be split up when the crash happened on Sunday. Friends say they are unsure what the pair were doing together in Turkey, but may have been there to sign some kind of business deal.

A source told MailOnline: 'It's a complete tragedy and a total loss of life. Everyone is in shock and hoping Yazmin makes a full recovery.
Advertisement

The long-awaited Movie Night returned to Love Island on Friday's VERY tense episode and brought all the usual drama along with it.

Luca Bish was left absolutely fuming when he witnessed throwback scenes of his partner Gemma Owen flirting up a storm with new boy Billy Brown - while Davide branded Ekin-Su a 'liar' over her behaviour in Casa Amor.

Shouting at dressage ride Gemma, 19, fishmonger Luca, 23, raged: 'If you wanna flirt then I'll flirt, get me a bombshell in here now!' as he lost his temper over her antics while his back was turned.

Not happy: Luca Bish was left absolutely fuming when he witnessed throwback scenes of his partner Gemma Owen flirting up a storm with new boy Billy Brown during Love Island's Movie Night on Friday's episode

Ahead of the outburst, the boys and girls took part in a pub quiz, with the boys winning the second point and choosing to watch a clip entitled: 'She's just not that into you.'

The video showed an old clip of Dami reading Gemma's mind where he suggested that Luca was more into her that she was into him and predicted that her head could be turned if a bombshell ticked all her boxes.

Laughing Gemma replied: 'I don't think you're that far wrong with that you know!'

The next part of the 'movie' showed her flirting with Billy in the kitchen where she suggested they shouldn't chat to much in case they raised suspicions before she cheekily quipped to him: 'Friends can't hug!'

Fuming: Threatening dressage ride Gemma, 19, fishmonger Luca, 23, shouted: 'If you wanna flirt then I'll flirt, get me a bombshell in here now!' as he lost his temper over her antics while his back was turned

Oh no: Ahead of the outburst the boys and girls took part in a pub quiz, with the boys winning the second point and choosing to watch a clip entitled: 'She's just not that into you' which showed Billy and Gemma flirting

Rage: In reaction, Luca lost his temper and said to the boys: 'You were f***ing flirting! And I was made out to look like an idiot for it'

In reaction, Luca lost his temper and said to the boys: 'You were f***ing flirting! And I was made out to look like an idiot for it.

'I can't stand liars mate. If you wanna flirt then I'll flirt, Get me a bombshell in here now. I have been made to look like a f***ing mug. I am bringing that up with her 100%.'

Billy then retorted: 'It wasn't like that!' as Gemma looked over worriedly.

Elsewhere on the night, Davide branded Ekin-Su a liar yet again after her antics were revealed from Casa Amor.

Here we go! The long-awaited Movie Night returned to Love Island on Friday's VERY tense episode and brought all the usual drama along with it

Angry: He continued: 'I can't stand liars mate. If you wanna flirt then I'll flirt, Get me a bombshell in here now. I have been made to look like a f***ing mug. I am bringing that up with her 100%'

The boys won the first point of the pub quiz and therefore the first clip and picked the video titled: 'I know what Ekin-Su did last summer.'

It showed Ekin in bed with Casa Amor boy George as they fumbled around under the covers. The clip then showed Ekin as she asked him to keep it a secret from the other boys when they discussed it the next day.

The girls then quipped: 'You kept that quiet!' while Ekin exclaimed back: 'Nothing happened!'

That didn't stop Davide kicking off, as he shouted: 'You're a liar!'

Nightmare: Elsewhere on the night Davide branded Ekin-Su a liar yet again after her antics were revealed from Casa Amor

Popular: Movie night is a favourite feature among fans, with viewers often gripped by the fallout after the islanders' secret chats, unfaithful kisses and bedtime antics are exposed to the villa

He later said in the beach hut: 'Apparently she had something in Casa Amor with him. I don't even care who he is. The point is why have you lied again! Why do you need to lie to me Ekin!'

After much speculation from fans desperate to see more drama, producers at last set-up scenes in which the secret moments islanders had hoped to keep under wraps were played out in front of the entire villa.

Gemma received a text ahead of the Movie Night which read: 'It's time to get glam and hit the red carpet as you attend Mad Movies the premiere! #SpillThePopcorn #ITV2andChill.'

Movie night is a favourite feature among fans, with viewers often gripped by the fallout after the islanders' secret chats, unfaithful kisses and bedtime antics are exposed to the villa.

Exciting: Gemma received a text ahead of the Movie Night which read: 'It's time to get glam and hit the red carpet as you attend Mad Movies the premiere! #SpillThePopcorn #ITV2andChill'

Eek! It showed Ekin in bed with Casa Amor boy George as they fumbled around under the covers. The clip then showed Ekin as she asked him to keep it a secret from the other boys when they discussed it the next day

It comes after earlier this month, fans predicted a rocky patch ahead for Davide and Ekin-Su after she reentered the main villa from Casa Amor.

While Ekin-Su called Davide out on his infidelities while she was in Casa Amor, she did not reveal she'd had what newcomer George described as a 'little play around' under the covers while they shared a bed.

Ekin-Su and new boy George were seen sharing a cuddle in bed in Casa Amor earlier in the series, with George telling the other boys the next day: 'Something pretty mad happened last night. There was some touching going on.'

The rest of the clips will be revealed on Sunday night's show - with the 'next time' teaser showing Indiyah getting annoyed at Dami as they rest of the Islanders look on shocked.

Bye: Elsewhere on Friday night's show Josh Samuel Le Grove and Coco Lodge were both dumped from the villa

Elsewhere on Friday night's show Josh Samuel Le Grove and Coco Lodge were both dumped from the villa.

The model, 22, and the graphic designer, 27, said goodbye to paradise after being voted the least favourite boy and girl.

It came after Thursday night's cliffhanger where viewers learnt that Summer, Coco, Tasha, Deji, Josh and Andrew were vulnerable and could be dumped.

After the dumping Josh said: 'I knew it was coming bro I knew it was coming. It is what it is man it's not too deep. It was a shock but I have had such a great time. I didn't find love in the villa but I might do on the outside.'

Coco added: 'I've spent a lot of my life single and now I will just wait for those boys to slide into the dms. The last few days have been amazing but there definitely were some ups and downs. But it was an amazing experience.'

Josh was coupled up with Danica on the return from Casa Amor but then recoupled with Summer who he had been getting to know.

Meanwhile Coco caused a stir when she coupled up with Andrew during Casa Amor, but he ultimately chose to go back to Tasha after some ups and downs.

After the dumping Tasha was in tears after being voted least popular by the public for the third time.

Upset: After the dumping Tasha was in tears after being voted least popular by the public for the third time

However some of the other Islanders questioned her emotion after she had just made Andrew her boyfriend and should have been focusing on the positivity of that.

Tasha didn't take well to the criticism when Luca pointed out to the others: 'But she didn't even cry when Andrew brought back another guy but she's crying now?!'

Later in bed Tasha cheered up as Andrew told her that he loved her and she told him the same back. Afterwards she said in the Beach Hut: 'It feels so good! I never thought I would say those three words to anyone in here.'

In her exit interview Coco said of her experience and of Andrew in particular: 'Me and Andrew have no bad blood between us anymore. I still think he took things a bit far with me, however I do understand when someone has a hold over you like Tasha has a hold over him, you can't forget them.

'As soon as that person comes back it's hard to want to pursue both when you have such strong feelings for someone because you've known them a lot longer. I don't have any bad blood towards him but I do wish maybe things were handled a bit differently and it didn't go as deep with us in Casa. It is what it is and we're cool.'

Meanwhile Josh said in his exit interview of his budding romance with Summer that was cut short: 'I feel like it was going in a good direction but it was very early days though - we were still just getting to know each other.

'Obviously, if someone walks in for her, I'm happy for her but if she stays single and leaves then we'll see what happens on the outside.'
Skip to main navigation

For Release: Friday, July 15, 2022

DEC Encourages Visitors to the Catskills to 'Love Our New York Lands' and Practice Safe, Sustainable Recreation

With Increased Visitation, All New Yorkers Have a Responsibility to Protect State Lands, Respect Other Visitors

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Basil Seggos is reminding visitors to the Peekamoose Blue Hole, and other popular areas including Kaaterskill Clove, to safely and responsibly enjoy outdoor recreation on public lands without endangering public safety or negatively impacting natural resources. This season, increased visitation to these popular areas is resulting in unsafe parking and hiking, and increased rescues, trash, and other environmental damage. DEC is encouraging all New Yorkers to practice safe and responsible recreation to protect themselves and others.

"The Catskills offer beautiful natural treasures that attract people from across the state and country, and DEC wants to continue to share these experiences," said Commissioner Seggos. "That's why we're continuing to work with our partners to promote sustainable use and ensure we protect this special place. Being prepared, following the local and state requirements for public lands, and preventing damage to our trails and waterways are among the steps visitors can take to help protect themselves and the Catskills for generations to come."

DEC is observing a continued increase in visitation to Peekamoose Blue Hole by users without the required permit, as well as unsafe parking and trash. Last year, DEC updated regulations as part of an ongoing effort to improve public safety and reduce environmental impacts in the area. A permit is required for all visitors to the Peekamoose Blue Hole and the nearby corridor along the Rondout Creek, including campers, picnickers, hikers, and anglers. Visitors need a permit seven days a week including holidays from May 15 through Sept. 15. Current regulations include:

Visitors are required to obtain a permit for a $10 fee through Reserve America (leaves DEC website), consistent with fees for other DEC recreation-oriented Day Use Areas in the Forest Preserve;

The permit must be displayed when on site;

Parking in designated parking areas only. Parking along the shoulder of the road is prohibited by the town and is a tow away zone;

Permits must list the names of all members of the visiting party when making the reservation. Names can be changed up to one day in advance;

Prohibit alcohol and coolers larger than 12 inches in any dimension at the Blue Hole. Limited use will be allowed at nearby designated camping areas only; and

Camping permits are now required to reserve primitive tent sites in the Lower, Middle, and Upper fields. Visit Reserve America's website (leaves DEC website) to make a reservation.

The Blue Hole is open to permit holders from one half hour before sunrise to one half hour after sunset, except for designated camp sites nearby. Users are required to use portable restroom facilities for human waste disposal and the dumpster for all other waste. In addition, the following activities and items are prohibited (with limited use allowed at the nearby designated camping area only):

Camping;

All fires (including charcoal fires, wood fires, gas grills, propane stoves or other portable stoves);

Use of portable generators;

Glass containers; and

Radios and other audio devices.

DEC continues its expanded outreach to connect with visitors before they plan and prepare their visit, including:

Real-time alerts on twitter via @NYSDECAlerts (leaves DEC website) for the Peekamoose Blue Hole and Peekamoose camping sites;

Posting the DEC Catskill Outdoor Bulletin on the backcountry information website;

Offering the DEC webpage in Spanish, English, and other languages;

Providing outreach on the permit system to websites that highlight the Blue Hole;

Coordinating with New York State Department of Transportation to place variable message boards on both roads that lead into the Blue Hole with information about permit requirements; and

Developing signs in both English and Spanish at the parking area and at the Peekamoose Blue Hole trailhead.

DEC continues to work with many partners including the Catskill Visitor Center, which provides the public with valuable information about the permit system and how to obtain a permit before their visit. The Center also produced a radio ad airing in the area to help explain the permit system. To complement the DEC Forest Rangers and Assistant Forest Rangers that patrol and are posted at the Blue Hole, the Catskill Center has two stewards at the location five days a week, including weekends and holidays. Stewards work to check permits, provide information about the special regulations, and educate visitors who arrive at these sites without a permit on how to obtain one for their next visit.

"Educating visitors about responsible recreation in the Catskills is what we do at the Catskills Visitor Center and through our Catskill Stewards Program at high-use areas in the Catskill Park, including the Peekamoose Blue Hole. We have heard directly from our staff about how challenging this year is given an increasing number of visitors, especially those visitors unaware of the permit system," said Jeff Senterman, Executive Director of the Catskill Center. "We look forward to strengthening our partnership and collaboration with the DEC to better educate and direct visitors both before they arrive in the Catskills, and once they are here. We urge all visitors to the Catskill Park to make the Catskills Visitor Center in Mount Tremper their first stop. Once there, they will find helpful staff, informative exhibits, and free information that will help them responsibly recreate across the Catskill Park."

The requirements specific to the Peekamoose Blue Hole are part of a comprehensive effort DEC launched to encourage safe, sustainable use in the Catskills and Adirondacks earlier this summer. This includes DEC's Love Our New York Lands campaign with information for visitors to do their part to protect State lands by encouraging sustainable use and inspiring the shared sense of responsibility and ownership of these resources. In addition, the campaign interprets the seven Leave No Trace principles (leaves DEC website), which provide a framework of minimum impact practices for anyone visiting the outdoors, particularly unfamiliar audiences who may be new to hiking.

If there are no Peekamoose Blue Hole permits available for a particular day, DEC encourages visitors to develop a list of alternate locations for their outdoor adventure. Examples of opportunities for recreation within 75 miles of Blue Hole include:

Belleayre Beach (leaves DEC website)

Kenneth L. Wilson Campground

Minnewaska State Park Preserve (leaves DEC website)

Mongaup Pond Campground

Bear Spring Mountain Campground

Little Pond Campground

Lake Superior State Park (leaves DEC website)

Visitors are encouraged to get the latest information about these and other destinations in the Catskills by visiting the DEC and New York State Parks (leaves DEC website) websites and the Catskills Visitor Center at 5096 Route 28 in Mt. Tremper, NY; (845) 688 -3369.
Forum on EU-China climate cooperation held in Madrid

Xinhua) 09:55, July 15, 2022

MADRID, July 14 (Xinhua) -- A forum aiming to promote EU-China cooperation on climate change was held in the representative office of the European Commission in Madrid on Thursday.

The event, titled "Promoting EU-China cooperation in the field of Climate Action, Sustainable Finance as a driver for change," aimed to open a discussion about the opportunities for cooperation between the EU and China to combat climate change.

European and Chinese representatives of the public and private sectors reviewed progress in green finance, and discussed ways for further progress.

"This is a new platform, but one that is going to bring a lot of investment between China and Europe," Margaret Chen, President of the China Club in Spain, told Xinhua, adding that the world was in a "complicated moment, but we think we all have to help so the world functions well."

Meanwhile, Augusto Soto, President of the EU-China Trust, highlighted the need for trust in EU-Chinese relations, saying the forum was about "sustainable finances with great world experts."

"There are many ways we can look at our relation, but mutual confidence is the most important," he said, stressing the need for green investment as "the environment is our future as a species."

The city councils of the Chinese city of Hefei, the capital of east China's Anhui Province, and the Spanish city of Salamanca were among the key organizers of the forum, at which representatives of both cities signed a formal declaration of cooperation.

The event was backed by the Spanish Embassy in China and the Chinese Embassy in Spain and was attended by both ambassadors.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)
Hyderabad: Taking a serious note of the continued encroachment of numerous lakes in the city, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has slammed the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) for failing to take stringent measures to prevent such encroachments.

While the GHMC claimed that it had initiated measures such as deploying the Lake Protection Force and installed CCTVs at the entry and exit points across the lakes, the NGT rebuked the civic body stating that these measures remained only on paper and that no practical steps were taken to curb lake encroachments.

The GHMC had previously submitted a report on encroachments within the Full Tank Levels (FTLs) and buffer zones of the citys lakes.

According to the report, there were 8,718 encroachments within the FTLs and 5,343 within the buffer zones. The GHMC also claimed to be working to remove the encroachments.

While noting that serious steps were not taken in letter and spirit by the GHMC, the NGT directed officials from the irrigation department and the district collector to submit a detailed report on the number of water bodies and their encroachments, as well as the future course of action to be taken to restore and protect the lakes.

Meanwhile, Purushottam Reddy, a city environmentalist, expressed his displeasure, saying, NGT is lamenting that nothing has been done. The NGT established a rapid response mechanism. What prevents the NGT from holding a hearing on court conduct? The state government has failed to comply with an earlier NGT order. This is not the first time the state government has disobeyed a court order.

Further, the environmentalist noted that several cases had previously been filed regarding Musi pollution, Jawaharnagar garbage, and water body protection. My contention is that neither the Supreme Court nor the NGT issues a compliance order. Nothing will happen unless the court puts the Chief Secretary and the municipal commissioner behind the bars. What prevents the NGT and the Supreme Court from putting the Chief Secretary behind bars if he does not comply with the NGT or the Supreme Court order, he questioned.
Modi was on a visit to Bihar to attend a function organised on the occasion of the centenary celebrations of the Bihar Assembly. When asked whether the suspects were plotting to carry out attacks on any particular targets the police said the matter is under investigation.  DC Image

PATNA: The Patna police on Thursday said that it busted a terror module and arrested two persons for indulging in anti-India activities and for planning to disturb the event in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi had participated on July 12.

The arrested persons have been identified as Mohammad Jalaluddin and Mohammad Athar Parvez. According to the police, Jalaluddin is a retired Jharkhand police officer and Athar has been an active member of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and is currently associated with the Popular Front of India (PFI). Modi was on a visit to Bihar to attend a function organised on the occasion of the centenary celebrations of the Bihar Assembly.

When asked whether the suspects were plotting to carry out attacks on any particular targets the police said, The matter is under investigation. A special team has also been constituted to find out more about their activities. Reports said the accused were being trained in Phulwari Sharif 15 days ahead of Modis visit and held meetings on July 6 and 7. The Bihar police found incriminating documents, one of them titled  2047 India towards Rule of Islamic India in raids at the Phulwari Sharif office of the suspected terrorists. Reports said the police also recovered 25 PFI pamphlets. Preliminary investigation revealed that the suspected terrorists were managing a training camp in the Phulwari Sharif area and were actively involved in radicalising youths for the past few months.

According to the police, for the past two months, the accused got in touch with many people who came and stayed in Patna under fake names. Reports suggest that both the suspects held a meeting on July 6 and 7 and also trained locals on how to use swords and knives in the name of martial arts training. The police got information about a group operating in Phulwari Sharif locality and raided a building in the area on July 11 and arrested both the suspects.
Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh government has targeted to administer booster dose for prevention of Covid to 3.5 crore people free of cost in about 45 days from Friday in the state.

Health minister Vidadala Rajani told mediapersons here on Friday that based on the direction from Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, they had targeted to administer booster dose to 3.44 crore people in the age group of 18 to 59 years, on a war-footing in the state.

She said that ANMs, Asha workers, anganwadi workers, volunteers and other health personnel would take part in the administration of Covid booster shot in all PHCs and village/ward secretariats in the state and added that registration for vaccination and its administration would be done at the same facilities.

She said that they would also keep the Covid booster dose available at railway stations, colleges and schools, bus stations, industrial estates, private firms and other places.

The minister said that two doses for prevention of Covid were given to 4.35 crore people out of targeted 3.95 crore and 36 lakh people aged above 60 years were given Covid booster dose also so far.

She said that 8.54 crore two doses of Covid were distributed in the state in which 7.66 lakh got the Covid shots at private hospitals and the remaining at government facilities free of cost in the state.
The BC Welfare minister (in picture) along with district collector Karnan rushed to the spot with NDRF teams and rescued the migrant labourers.  Twitter

Karimnagar: Some 39 members, of which nine migrant labourers from a brick kiln and seven Singareni workers including two life boat drivers and 23 residents of Ganganagar were stranded in the floodwaters due to heavy rains in erstwhile Karimnagar district in the past two days.

With the overflowing of water from Erukulla wagu and heavy rains, the Vallampadu and Theegalaguttapalli villages were submerged in the flood waters. Around nine migrant labourers from Odisha state working in a brick kiln in Vallampadu village were stranded. They sent an SOS to the locals.

The BC Welfare minister along with district collector Karnan rushed to the spot with NDRF teams and rescued the migrant labourers. They were shifted to a rehabilitation centre.

Five members of Singareni --Kanakam Lakshmaiah, Doddapalli Sammaiah, Sangam Rajamouli, Sailu and Kumar -- who went to work in the filter bed on Wednesday were stranded in the floodwaters.

The SCCL sent a life boat to save the workers, but the boat failed after reaching the spot. With difficulty, the two members somehow managed to come out of the boat but they too were struck at the filter-bed.

After 24 hours, with the initiatives from Ramagundam MLA Korakanti Chander Patel, the officials rushed to the spot along with the NDRF teams and rescued the Singareni workers and two others.

Around 23 residents of the Ganganagar of Godavarikhani town were stranded in the backwaters of Sripada Yellampalli project on Wednesday night. MLA Patel along with the NDRF teams carried out rescue operations and shifted them to a rehabilitation centre.
Andhra Pradesh government has issued excise rules for implementation of the new bar policy in AP from September 1 for a period of three years. (AFP file photo)

VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh government has issued excise rules for implementation of the new bar policy in AP from September 1 for a period of three years.

Prohibition and excise department issued GO 527 dated 13-07-2022 and published it in the extraordinary issue of AP Gazette on Thursday. State government has accordingly fixed the license fee and non-refundable registration charges per annum.

For population up to 50,000, license fee for liquor outlets is 5 lakh and non-refundable registration charge is 15 lakh. For population between 50,000 to 5,00,000, licence fee is 5 lakh and non-refundable registration charge is 35 lakh. For population above 5,00,000, licence fee is 5 lakh and non-refundable registration charge is 50 lakh.

For bars, the annual license fee and annual non-refundable registration charge for each of the licenses will be enhanced by 10 percent every year.

For three star and above hotels and microbreweries, license fee shall be 5 lakh and non-refundable registration charge is 50 lakh per annum, with an increase of 10 percent on both license fee and registration charge every year.

Special chief secretary for excise Rajat Bhargava said on Thursday that AP State Beverages Corporation is following 181 standards for distribution of liquor. He maintained that they are permitting sale of liquor only after subjecting it to several tests in chemical labs.

AP presently has 840 bars.
Hyderabad: TRS working president and minister K.T. Rama Rao on Friday said the TRS government headed by Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao will score a hat-trick by winning the Assembly elections in 2023. Citing an internal survey report, Rama Rao said the TRS will win over 90 seats in the Assembly of 119 seats.

Speaking to media here on Friday, Rama Rao said Chandrashekhar Rao will be the first CM from South India to assume office for the third consecutive time.

He said previous chief ministers in undivided Andhra Pradesh, including N.T. Rama Rao, N. Chandrababu Naidu, Y.S. Rajashekar Reddy, could not achieve this feat.

Rama Rao claimed even the two surveys publicised by the Congress and the BJP in the last two days clearly confirmed that the TRS is going to retain power in the 2023 Assembly polls, proving that the TRS enjoys a popular mandate in Telangana even after completing eight years of governance.

The TRS working president stated that the party has been receiving constant feedback on the performance of the state government from political strategist Prashant Kishors I-PAC teams.

The feedback is positive. People favour the TRS for its welfare schemes and development programmes. The surveys also indicated that people want new pensions and ration cards. The CM will soon take a call on issuing new pensions and ration cards," Rama Rao said.

He also made it clear that performance and public acceptance will be the only criterion for the party to give tickets to candidates to contest the next Assembly polls and not other factors like being sitting MLAs, big leaders etc.

He stated that neither the Congress nor the BJP has a strong presence in all the districts. "The TRS is the only party which has a strong presence in all the constituencies. The Congress and the BJP are confined to only a few constituencies. They have no candidates to contest all the 119 seats," Rama Rao said.

The minister reiterated that the Assembly elections will be held as scheduled in December 2023 and ruled out the possibility of early Assembly polls.

Referring to the Chief Minister's recent challenge thrown at the BJP daring it to announce election dates for the Assembly and the Lok Sabha and, in that event, the TRS was ready to dissolve the Legislative Assembly, Rama Rao said, "Everyone knows how the BJP is controlling all autonomous bodies in the country, including the Election Commission. The BJP has the capability to schedule elections whenever it wants. If BJP is willing to dissolve the Lok Sabha, we too are ready to dissolve Assembly and face polls."

Rao welcomed the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's proposed visit to his home constituency Siricilla soon to hold a deekha (demonstration). "I request Rahul Gandhi to stay in Siricilla at least for two days and see for himself how the TRS government has developed towns and villages in the last eight years.

Rahul Gandhi should see Mission Bhagiratha, Mission Kakatiya, irrigation projects, 24x7 quality power, Rythu Vedikas, Vaikuntadhamams, Prakruthivanams, learn a thing or two about welfare and development and try to implement them in Congress-ruled states," the minister said.

Describing Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the "PM of Gujarat", Rama Rao said, "Most of the funds and projects go to Gujarat. He discriminates against Telangana.

At a time when Telangana is battered by heavy rains and floods, any PM with a heart will give funds towards disaster relief. But Modi is sending teams to Telangana to inspect MNREGA works by levelling false charges of irregularities in the implementation of MNREGA. We have created assets like Rythu Vedikas, Vaikuntadhamams etc by using MNREGA funds. Is it wrong to create facilities for farmers and people in rural areas using MNREGA funds?" Rama Rao asked.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his speech at the BJPs national executive session in Hyderabad earlier this month, had exhorted party workers to reach out to the backward sections of the minorities, and not confine themselves to the Hindus, as he also asked them to take out Sneha Yatraa, or friendship rallies. This seems to be a classic disclosure of the truth without intending to do so. Mr Modi has been hailed as the icon of Hinudtva during his chief ministerial tenure in Gujarat, and which was seen as his great strength to claim to be the PM candidate in 2013 in the run-up to the 2104 Lok Sabha elections.

He was seen as a hardliner Hindutva leader in the party, and no one dared to question his credentials on this score. He, therefore, broke the mould on July 3 as he spoke of the need to reach out to the backward sections among the minority communities. He was careful enough to avoid mentioning the words Muslim and Christian, but then there was no need to do so.

Mr Modi has consistently refused to utter the words Christian and Muslim in his speeches, whether at public rallies or in party forums.

When the occasion demanded, he did so in passing, when he said that he wanted to see the computer in one hand and the Quran in the other of young Muslims during the 2014 campaign, but that was an exception. And, of course, he did talk about giving land to qabristan during the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election campaign. The other gestures continued, such as when the chadar went to the dargah of Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer Sharif from the Prime Minister, and minorities affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi carried out the gesture. There was the rare occasion when he attended an international conference on Sufism in New Delhi during the early days of his first term. The most important thing was the continuance of scholarships and other funds to Muslims and other minorities that the ministry of minority affairs handled.

Mr Modi was very self-conscious that his attitude and gestures towards the Muslims and other religious minorities should not carry a whiff of Congress secularism. He seemed to imply that he and the BJP would deal with the religious minorities on their own terms, making it clear that they are doing so as Hindus and not as believers in secularism.

Most admirers and critics tend to overlook Mr Modis sadbhavna mission in September-October 2011, where he fasted in Ahmedabad and Jamnagar though he declined to wear a skull cap offered by a Muslim cleric. He said in Ahmedabad then that Gujarat was the first to send humanitarian aid to Kashmir, a reference to the earthquake that had killed hundreds of people.

But in principle, he avoided talking about the religious minorities, and he would not also mention the word Hindu. So, in the July 3 speech in Hyderabad, he broke his own protocol. He mentioned the words Hindu and minorities. The implications are much too clear. He revealed that the BJP is a Hindu party and that the party workers are asked to work for Hindus, and as part of social engineering, work for the backward and marginalised classes in Hindu society. Mr Modi told them that they do not have to confine themselves to Hindu backward and marginalised classes, and they should now look to the marginalised and the backward classes among the minorities as well.

The immediate context of the remark was the BJPs victory in the recent byelections in Rampur and Azamgarh, two ostensible Muslim-dominant constituencies, in Uttar Pradesh. It is believed that Muslims in these two constituencies had voted for the BJP and facilitated its victory, so it was necessary to reciprocate the gesture by paying attention to the needs of the backward classes among the Muslims in these two constituencies.

It has been evident that the BJP did get the Muslim vote in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, as pointed out by Hilal Ahmed in his analysis of the result. But Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanaths attitude and those of other BJP workers in the state has remained one of the mailed fist.

Is this a fallout of suspended party spokesperson Nupur Sharmas offensive comments on Prophet Muhammad and his personal visit to Abu Dhabi and his meeting with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Mr Modi had stopped in Abu Dhabi on his way back from the G-7 summit in Germany to offer his condolences on the passing away of Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The UAE government also issued an official statement condemning Nupur Sharmas statement and had emphasised the need for protecting human rights.

Mr Modi is making the necessary amends in his partys stance because he had maintained a stony silence on the issue so far.

Does it mean that the BJP, a Hindu party, and he as the Hindu leader have done their duty towards the Hindus, and now it is time to reach out to the minorities? But that could spell the end of Mr Modis hold over the BJP and the support that the RSS had provided to him all these years, even as Lal Krishna Advani expressed his words of appreciation to Mohammed Ali Jinnah in Karachi in June 2005. Or is it the case that after eight years as Prime Minister, Mr Modi has mellowed and though he made it to the top because of his Hindutva, he is tired of the playing the role of the aggressor?

Many would say the reference to the minorities was a passing remark, one of his empty homilies, and one shouldnt pay too much attention to it because the BJP remains as aggressive as ever, and its aggression is not directed just towards the Congress and its policy of appeasement of the minorities, but that there is no let-up in the partys aggression towards Muslims and Christians in general. The party brass knows that its electoral victories are dependent on its anti-Muslim and anti-Christian stance, and even if Mr Modi has shifted his position, the party simply cannot.

Mr Modis critics would dismiss this reference to the minorities as one of his deceptive political tactics, and insist that he remains the Hindutva hardliner that he always was.
The interestingly-named I2U2 (India-Israel-United States-United Arab Emirates) grouping and the summit of its leaders offer a reflection of the past, a picture of the present and a sneak peek at the future. And from the looks of it, the summit has left something for everyone to cheer as it has decided to channel technologies, know-how and capital to address the pressing issues humankind faces today, and identified two of the immediate ones: food security and clean energy.

The first-ever summit of the four-nation grouping in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan participated has an agenda that prioritised the key problems of the world and prescribed possible solutions. The leaders talked of their intention to mobilise private sector capital and expertise in areas as vast and significant as infrastructure, health, climate change, physical connectivity, waste treatment, startups, critical emerging and green technologies. And these four nations have the technology, know-how, infrastructure and funds to launch some big-ticket experiments that will collectively benefit the world. Mr Modi has called it a positive and practical agenda that can address what he called was a global insecurity. And the model is the cooperative framework of nations.

In concrete terms, UAE will invest $2 billion to develop integrated food parks in India that will incorporate state-of-the-art climate-smart technologies provided by American and Israeli private companies. It has also been decided to set up a $300 million hybrid renewable energy project consisting of 300 megawatts of wind and solar capacity complemented by a battery energy storage system in Gujarat. The aim is to make India a global hub for alternate supply chains in the renewable energy sector.

One cannot miss the emphasis on the critical knowledge and investment partners, as the summit put it, who will be in the forefront of the efforts and the determination to leverage well-established markets to achieve its targets. In other words, India has reaffirmed its plan to open itself up for international capital and technologies to address its issues, especially in the key food and energy markets. This decision gels very well with the curve India took with the privatisation and globalisation process it launched some three decades ago.

The four leaders have also called for strengthening of peace and normalisation arrangements between Israel and the UAE as per the Abraham Accords which will result in more economic opportunities.

The summit has a charming historical shade to it. India and UAE have shared warm relations since long and the United States and Israel have been friends ever since the formation of the latter but it is not long ago that India normalised its ties with Israel; and the Israel-UAE relations are still a work in progress. That way, the summit reflects the quick changes that happen in international relations. It would have been unthinkable for Air Force One to take off from Israel to Saudi Arabia a decade ago.

History may have presented people with unpleasant memories but there is little point in nursing them. Heal them, and move forward for greater common good, is the message.
Nepal's former prime minister and CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda embarked on a three-day India visit on Friday during which he is scheduled to meet top government functionaries and forge an understanding on several topics that remain unresolved between the two neighbouring countries.

Prachanda's Secretariat said he is visiting New Delhi at the invitation of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President J P Nadda.

The visit is aimed at strengthening party-to-party relationship with BJP, said Ganesh Shah, a senior party leader and Standing Committee member of the CPN (Maoist).

A common understanding would be forged during my visit to India on several topics that remain unresolved throughout history and it would be focused on resolving the problems, Prachanda told reporters at the Tribhuvan International Airport before leaving for New Delhi.

Nepal shares a border of over 1,850 km with five Indian states -- Sikkim, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Ties between the two countries came under severe strain after Kathmandu published a new political map in 2020 that showed three Indian territories - Limpiyadhura, Kalapani and Lipulekh - as part of Nepal.

India had reacted sharply, calling it a "unilateral act" and cautioned Kathmandu that such "artificial enlargement" of territorial claims will not be acceptable to it.

Prachanda is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday before returning to Nepal, the Kathmandu Post reported. During his India visit, the Nepalese leader is also scheduled to meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and BJP president Nadda, it said.

However, Shah said, "It is not certain whether Prachanda will meet Prime Minister Modi or not.

"I am excited to visit India. This is my goodwill visit," the Kathmandu Post report quoted Prachanda as saying.

The Maoist leader's visit comes two days after he held extensive talks with the head of the International Liaison Department of the Chinese Communist Party Liu Jianchao in Kathmandu. Prachanda, however, said his visit to India has no connection with the visit by the Chinese leader, the report said.

Prachanda's visit was discussed in the standing committee meeting held on Thursday evening. The meeting concluded that the visit would help further strengthen Nepal-India relations, My Republica website reported.

Speaking to journalists at the Tribhuvan International Airport, Prachanda said that his visit to India would be crucial for Nepal, news website nepallivetoday.com reported.

Prachanda claimed his visit will focus on strengthening Nepal-India relations. He said his visit was also to enhance the relationship between the BJP and the Maoist Centre, the report said.
Ahead of Parliament's Monsoon session that begins next week, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhar Rao held consultations with his counterparts in other states to consolidate strategy, and to intensify the Oppositions attack against the Narendra Modi-led ruling party at the Centre.

KCRs parleys come ahead of the Opposition parties meeting on Sunday, as announced by the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, and Congress veteran, Mallikarjun Kharge.

For the last two years, the TRS supremo has been on a self-proclaimed mission to unite the non-Bharatiya Janata Party and non-Congress parties to evolve into an alternative political grouping in the country.

According to sources, the Telangana chief minister has taken up a big exercise now to expose the union government on the deepening economic crisis in the country.

Also read: Telangana BJP demands CM KCR to resolve Podu lands issue

As part of his effort to reveal the Centre's continuing indifference to the situation, and anti-people policies, Rao, on Friday, spoke over the phone with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

KCR also spoke to close associates of Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin, who was in hospital after contracting Covid-19. Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav, Uttar Pradeshs Leader of Opposition Akhilesh Yadav and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar are among the other party chiefs that KCR discussed his plan of action with.

The whole exercise is to safeguard democratic, secular and federal values, which are under big threat now. While waging a big battle against the centre in the Parliament session, KCR is getting ready to hold nationwide protests to reveal Modi government's true colours, a TRS functionary said.

The source also claimed that the opposition party leaders are responding positively to KCRs proposal to launch a democratic fight against the centre.

Meanwhile, KCR will hold a meeting with his party's nine Lok Sabha and seven Rajya Sabha members on Saturday to discuss the party's strategy in Parliament.

The CM is expected to direct the TRS MPs to put up a stiff fight against the Modi government for the injustice meted out to Telangana in all sectors. The MPs will be asked to lodge protests in Parliament for creating economic hurdles to Telangana state, which has been maintaining financial discipline, a CMO official said.
In one of the biggest contraband seizures in recent times, the Navi Mumbai police seized 72.518 kgs of heroin valued at Rs 362.5 crore in the international market, in an intelligence-based operation. It was seized from a container kept in a private yard in Panvel in Raigad district off the old Mumbai-Pune Highway.

The container from Dubai had arrived at the Nhava Sheva port and was headed for Punjab, according to initial investigations carried out by the Navi Mumbai Police.

Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner Bipin Kumar Singh personally oversaw the investigations carried out by Additional Commissioner of Police Mahesh Ghurye and Deputy Commissioner of Police Suresh Mengade. No arrests have been made so far.

Acting on an intelligence input, the Navi Mumbai Crime Branch searched the container and found that the drugs were concealed in door frames.

The seizure was made under the NDPS Act and further investigations are in progress.
Couty Derry Harper Lauren ONeill will be performing at the Harps Alive Festival | An Chruit Bheo | Harps Leevin in Belfast this evening.



Lauren will perform alongside fiddler Eugene McKenna at Strike Up The Harp at the Music Hall at The Deers Head today, Friday, July 15, an evening filled with the exploration of harpers tunes from the esteemed Bunting collection.



Regarded as the leading light in harping in Northern Ireland, Laurens PhD produced ground-breaking research into the relationship between the harp and 16th century Bardic poetry. Since then, she has gone on to establish an active performance and teaching career as she maintains an instrumental role in the revival of the Derry harp school.



The partnership between Harp Ireland and Reclaim The Enlightenment is to mark 230 years since the Belfast Harpers Assembly in Belfast. In 1792 the Harpers Assembly in Belfast brought together 11 harpers, six of whom were blind and the eldest Denis Hempson was 97 at the time.

Organised by the Harps Alive partnership, the festival will bring together the finest harpers from across the island to recognise the landmark event that collected music more than two centuries ago for future harpers to learn from and perform.

Aibhlin McCrann, Chair of Cruit Eireann Harp Ireland, said that celebrating the anniversary presented a unique musical opportunity for the harping community.

We are delighted to bring harpers from all over Ireland together to mark 230 years since the Belfast Harpers Assembly in Belfast she said.

Our harping heritage transcends boundaries and has really connected the partners, north and south.

It is wonderful to hear the harpers music reflecting our living tradition and to see that there is so much interest in it. We are looking forward to welcoming audiences across the city of Belfast to our concerts, talks and exhibitions and in Dublin later in the month.

John Gray, Chair of Reclaim the Enlightenment said the Harps AliveAn Chruit BheoHarps Leevin festival is rooted in musical history.

In bringing more than 50 harpers to Belfast, the festival will create the largest ever such assembly in the city, he said.

It will be a celebration of the heritage of the harp and the contemporary revival of harp playing, and when it concludes we hope to have created more awareness of the harp tradition with the public and leave a lasting legacy.

For tickets to Lauren ONeill at Strike Up The Harp, as well as more information about the festival, go to http://harpsalive.com
New advice which will see everyone aged 50 and over in Northern Ireland offered a Covid booster vaccine this autumn has been welcomed by Health Minister Robin Swann.

Mr Swann said planning for the new booster programme could now begin based on the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) guidance.

The new advice is aimed at boosting protection ahead of possible further waves of the virus.

Frontline health and social care workers and those aged five to 49 in a clinical risk group, including pregnant women, will also be eligible for the booster dose.

Mr Swann said delivering the vaccine programme would be a major logistical operation for the health service.

It comes as new statistics show more than 5% of people in Northern Ireland tested positive for Covid in early July.

An estimated 107,600, 5.86% of the population, tested positive for the virus in the week ending July 6, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Mr Swann said: We can now step up our planning to deliver our autumn booster programme in Northern Ireland, based on this JCVI guidance.

Vaccination provides vital protection against Covid-19, and has been particularly effective at reducing the risk of serious illness, hospitalisation and death.

When we think back to where we were in 2020 before vaccines became available, we are reminded just how much we owe to all those who made our vaccine programme possible.

Our vaccination programme in Northern Ireland has involved a huge collective effort right across health and social care.

He added: The JCVI advice for this autumn means boosters will be available to a large section of our population, who JCVI believe would benefit most from receiving a booster dose.

Delivering this programme will be a major logistical operation for our health service but I am very confident we will rise to the challenge once again, despite all the pressures our service continues to face.

Vaccination is our chief defence against Covid-19 and I would again urge everyone who is eligible for a booster as part of our autumn programme to come forward as soon as it becomes available.

Under the advice from JCVI, those eligible for a further dose will be:

 Residents in a care home for older adults and staff working in care homes for older adults.

 Frontline health and social care workers.

 All adults aged 50 and over.

 Those aged five to 49 years in a clinical risk group, including pregnant women.

 Those aged five to 49 years who are household contacts of people with immunosuppression.

 Those aged 16 to 49 years who are carers.
NEWSLINE Release Number: 2022-59 Date: July 15, 2022

California Invests Over $231 Million to Advance and Expand Apprenticeship

State budget includes unprecedented funding for earn-and-learn opportunities, complemented by newly released strategic plan

Oakland - The California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR), its Division of Apprenticeship Standards (DAS) and the Labor & Workforce Development Agency have released Advancing Apprenticeship in California: A Five-Point Action Plan to expand the states number of apprentices to a half-million by 2029. This comes as California invests significantly in apprenticeship via the 2022-2023 state budget.



Apprenticeship is a key strategy for meeting Californias workforce development needs, said Labor Secretary Natalie Palugyai. With this new intentional funding and our roadmap for expansion, the State is creating equitable onramps to careers and opportunities for upward mobility for Californians.



The Five-Point Action Plan was developed in response to Governor Newsoms goal of serving 500,000 apprentices in California by 2029. This plan sets up the framework and strategies to meet that ambitious goal through new and revised policies. These include refining state policies and processes in many different sectors, addressing gender imbalance in the building trades, and creating more opportunities for youth through apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs.



We developed this plan through collaborative discussions and engagement with employers, educators, labor and community groups, said DIR Director Katie S. Hagen. This funding will help lay the groundwork for a major expansion of the apprenticeship model, which allows workers to earn as they learn on the job.

The plans five points include:

Supporting regional and sectoral apprenticeship intermediaries

Creating new apprenticeships outside of the traditional trades

Improving gender representation in the trades

Supporting youth apprenticeship for in-school and out-of-school youth

Building pathways into the public sector

The 2022-2023 budget invests over $231 million in apprenticeship-related spending this year and more than $480 million over the next three years. New funding includes $175 million to create apprenticeship innovation funding for non-traditional programs, $65 million to create a youth apprenticeship grant program, $15 million to fund a unit that works to advance women in construction, and an increase of over 30% to the reimbursement rate for training in building and construction apprenticeships.



The Department of Industrial Relations Division of Apprenticeship Standards consults with employers to develop a skilled workforce, by establishing innovative apprenticeship programs that offer training, to create viable career pathways for Californians.



Contact: Communications@dir.ca.gov, (510) 286-1161
Subscriber content preview

By JOHN HANNA and SEAN MURPHY

Associated Press

TOPEKA, Kan.  Japan's Panasonic Corp. selected Kansas as the location for a multibillion-dollar mega-factory to produce electric vehicle batteries for Tesla and other carmakers, lured by the largest package of taxpayer-funded incentives that the state has offered a private business.

The company and Gov. Laura Kelly announced the new project Wednesday, just hours after Kelly and eight top leaders of the Kansas Legislature signed off on a package of incentives worth $829 million over 10 years. The state had created a new program to offer incentives that could reach $1 billion or more only five months before  because of Panasonic's project.





. . .
NR Smith

Apella Capital, a financial advisory and wealth management firm serving individuals, families, and businesses, announced NR Smith and Associates, a registered investment advisor firm headquartered in Olympia, has joined the firm. NR Smith brings over $82 million in assets under management to Apella Capital. This is the second acquisition for Apella in 2022 and the first jointly with Wealth Partners Capital Group. NR Smith is a wealth management firm and CPA practice, providing clients with financial planning, portfolio creation, asset management, tax preparation and planning, and accounting services. This is Apella's thirteenth transaction to date. Apella is headquartered in Glastonbury, Connecticut and has thirteen offices around the country in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Colorado, Oregon and California. The history of NR Smith & Associates goes back to 1941, when Elliot Spring offered accounting, tax services and bookkeeping systems to local loggers, timberland owners, and Christmas tree growers.




Subscriber content preview

SEATTLE  An apartment complex at 3539 27th Place W. sold for over $20.7 million, according to King County records.

The seller was an LLC associated with Cadence Real Estate, which acquired the property in 2017 for over $14.5 million. It was then called The Maggie, and upgrades were planned.





. . .
FIVE Indian nationals, including a baby travelling from Bulawayo to Beitbridge, have been kidnapped in the border town.

They were travelling in a small car when their kidnappers intercepted the vehicle, demanded ransom before whisking them away.

We are investigating the case and hope to have leads soon. This was, indeed, a group of foreign nationals who were travelling to Beitbridge, national police spokesman Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi told NewsDay Weekender yesterday.

It is understood the Indians arrived by air from their country, and proceeded to Bulawayo by bus from where their contact hired a vehicle to take them to Beitbridge.

Sources said the incident happened just after the tollgate when entering Beitbridge.

Sources close to the investigations said the kidnappers were initially demanding a ransom of US$2 000 for each person.

Police have been making follow-ups and have been to Makakavhule, where reports of human trafficking have been received, the sources said.

The kidnappers have sent photographs and they were cheeky enough to have police talk to their victims, who are now known to have been smuggled into Musina, South Africa.

Earlier this year, about eight Somali nationals died in an accident when feuding human traffickers allegedly engaged in a high-speed car chase in a fight over trafficked victims. Newsday
Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema has called for a vote of no confidence in parliament against President Cyril Ramamphosa and ultimately his impeachment regarding the theft of money from his game farm.

Malema told a news briefing on Thursday that his party would approach the courts to compel parliament to investigate the presidents alleged misdemeanours.

We are not seeking an ordinary motion of no confidence, we seek impeachment, he said, citing allegations of corruption stemming from the theft of cash in US dollars from Ramaphosas Phala Phala game farm in Limpopo, Eskoms rolling blackouts and the recent death of 21 teenagers at a tavern in the Eastern Cape.

Last month, Malema demanded that Ramaphosa step aside immediately over allegations that he concealed the theft of $4-million from his farm in February 2020. The EFF leader also accused the president of defeating the ends of justice by allegedly applying vigilante methods of interrogation against those suspected to be responsible for the theft.

Ramaphosa has publicly denied any wrongdoing, but on Thursday Malema claimed the president has confessed to his caucasus, his own faction, that hes got no defence on the money, that the money was illegal and that hes got no answers and therefore he must step down.

He said the EFF had written to the South African Reserve Bank, the South African Revenue Service and the Financial Intelligence Centre to demand that the president be held accountable.

Who must respect law enforcement agencies and South Africas criminal justice system when the sitting head of state chooses a gangsterism approach of hunting those who stole what appears to be stolen dollars from him? he charged.

Urging other South Africans to join in, Malema said the EFF would embark on a national protest should Ramaphosa refuse to step down.

The national shut down is to demand our country back from an incompetent, directionless and criminal syndicate that enjoys the protection of white monopoly capital, he said.
A man arrested after six kilos of suspected cocaine were found following a speed stop on the M1 motorway, was last week remanded in custody with consent to bail, at Dundalk District Court, subject to strict bail conditions.

The drugs, with an estimated street value of over 420,000, were allegedly recovered from a silver BMW which was stopped by a member of the Roads Policing Unit after it was detected driving at 157kph.

Kevin Siewe Ngouambe (28) of GrangeView Place, Clondalkin, Dublin 22 is one of two men charged with unlawful possession of cocaine and having the drug for sale or supply at Mooremount, Dunleer on June 13th last.

Following a contested bail hearing last Wednesday, Judge Michele Finan remanded him in custody with consent to bail on his own bond of 1,000 and an independent surety of 3,000.

The case was put back to July 27th for the directions of the DPP.

Bail terms include that he resides with his mother (and independent surety) at an address in Lucan, that he signs on daily at the local garda station there, that he surrenders his passport, does not leave the jurisdiction and provides a mobile phone number to the investigating garda on which he is contactable at all times.

Judge Finan warned him his bail would be revoked if any of the terms were breached saying "You're getting bail on stringent conditions.
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.
Louth County Council are seeking applications from suitably qualified candidates to avail of funding under the Local Live Performance Scheme.

The scheme, an initiative of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, is to assist established professional artists, arts organisations/groups, producers and promoters to programme and present live performance events in County Louth during September and October. It is expected that the scheme will provide successful applicants the opportunity to deliver new activities, beyond the scope of their core activity or usual programme of events.

It is anticipated that grant award per event will fall between 2,500 and 10,000. Some higher awards may be considered up to a maximum of 20,000 if the scale and audience reach is deemed large enough. This funding scheme is aimed at supporting programming across Co. Louth which features a diverse range of multiple art forms.

Funding may be used to support fees for performers across all genres comprising of designers, technicians, crew, lighting and sound engineers, support staff and associated costs. It is expected that locally-based professional artists will feature as an element of each of the successful proposals. Applicants must demonstrate a track record, of a minimum of three years, in the programming and presentation of live events.

Louth County Council says it welcomes applications from individuals, groups and organizations that represent the diversity of Irish society. We encourage applications from all areas of the community. The local authority says it is committed to fair pay and a policy to Pay the Artist and asks that individuals, please refer to the Arts Councils policy on Paying the Artist when valuing their time as an artist and those collaborating with them. It adds that it is committed to projects that consider equality, inclusion, accessibility and diversity and that seek to include all voices of culture. It also encourages people to consider how they can target and engage with new / different audiences while planning their event.

Applications will be assessed on artistic ambition (30%), audience engagement (15%), feasibility (20%), track record (20%) and value for money (15%). For details of criteria and eligibility please see the guidelines on the website https://www.createlouth.ie/ latestnews/.
INTERNAL squabbles within the government have reportedly pushed out Mines and Mining Development permanent secretary Onesmo Mazai Moyo who announced his departure this week, the Zimbabwe Independent has established.

In a management meeting held on Tuesday, Moyo announced his departure from the ministry after serving for four years since his appointment in 2018.

Before he became a permanent secretary, Moyo served as the general manager of Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ).

The Independent is reliably informed that there has been a well-orchestrated scheme within the Office of the President and the Cabinet (OPC) and at the Mines ministry to jettison the top official.

There are indications that Moyo had suggested serving until 2023 but the move was shot down leading to his impending departure.

Moyo has been under pressure for some time now. Some officials within the ministry have been lobbying the OPC to have him removed, a source close to the developments said.

He eventually gave in to the pressure and this week he announced his departure. He had initially requested to hold the fort until 2023 but that was shot down.

There are also indications that government bigwigs were not happy with Moyo because of the rising number of mining disputes that went unresolved.

During his tenure, the ministry was rocked by several cases of mining disputes and in various instances, officials working under him faced allegations of corruption.

Contacted for comment, Moyo referred all questions to his principals.

I cannot comment on those issues and I suggest you contact the appointing authority and get a comment, Moyo said without disclosing his exact date of departure.

Mines minister Winston Chitandos mobile phone was not available.

The latest Auditor-Generals report for the year ended December 31, 2020 raised red flags that there could be over- or understatement of the amount disclosed as the Public Financial Assets for the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development where Moyo is the accounting officer.

According to the report that is done annually, the ministry failed to produce an accurate return on public financial assets.

The opening balance of ZW$630 656 405 (US$4,4 million at the auction rate of ZW$142:US$1 when the report was released in April this year) as at January 1, 2020, was different from the closing balance of ZW$104 386 597 (US$735 116) as at December 31, 2019. There was no explanation on why there was a variance of ZW$526 269 808 (US$3,7 million).

The reconciliation of the funds that were used in line with the Hwange Colliery investment was reported to be still pending at the time of the audit.

According to the AG, the reconciliation of the Hwange Colliery is underway and the ministry had based its return on the information supplied by the Hwange Colliery with the corrective measure to be taken.

The ministry, according to the report, made some progress in addressing the audit findings for the previous year in the collection of the outstanding revenue as seen in the decreased numbers from ZW$257 927 409 (US$1,8 million) in 2019 to ZW$166 457 861 (US$1,1 million) as at December 2020. Zimbabwe Independent


ZANU PF secretary for administration Obert Mpofu (pictured) yesterday left Esidakeni Farm in Nyamandlovu in a huff after human rights lawyer Siphosami Malunga and his business partners won a Supreme Court case against the high-ranking politician.

Malunga won a High Court order to stop Mpofu from evicting him from the farm but the top Zanu PF official appealed to the Supreme Court.

The superior court threw out his appeal on Tuesday this week.

Watch Outbrain demo to learn how to hit your marketing KPIs

Malunga co-owns Kershelmar Farm, popularly known as Esidakeni, with his business associates gold miner Charles Moyo and a National University of Science and Technology (Nust) scientist Zephania Dhlamini.

Their lawyers, Webb, Low and Barry on Tuesday wrote to Mpofus legal representatives Ndove and Associates, giving the politician 24 hours to vacate the farm.

The Zimbabwe Independent understands that Mpofu packed his load and left Esidakeni Farm at around midday yesterday.

We believe by now you have uplifted the judgment by the Supreme Court in which your clients appeal was dismissed. Can you please ask your client to vacate the farm by close of business July 14, 2022 and allow our client to take immediate occupation, failing of which we are issuing a writ of ejection, the lawyers declared in the letter.

In the Supreme Court ruling, the bench made up of Deputy Chief Justice Elizabeth Gwaunza, Justice Alfas Chitakunye and Justice Hlekani Mwayera ruled that Mpofus appeal had no merit adding that he should pay the costs of the case. The judges also described Mpofus taking over of the farm as a brazen invasion which was done without following due process. They also ordered Mpofu to vacate the farm and desist from disrupting operations.

In the Supreme Court appeal, Mpofu, his wife Sikhanyisiwe, and their company Mswelangubo Farm (Pvt) Ltd claimed to have taken over Esidakeni Farm on the basis that they had an offer letter.

The Zanu PF politburo member in December last year moved into Esidakeni Farm following his controversial offer of a portion of the hotly contested farm.

Esidakeni is a 553-hectare dairy farm bought by Malunga and partners in 2017 from former white farmers through Kershelmar Farms (Private) Limited.

However, the Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Water, and Rural Resettlement Anxious Masuku acquired the farm through a Notice of Acquisition General Notice 3042 of 2020 in the Government Gazette on December 18, 2020. Mpofu was handed over the farm through his company Mswelangubo Farm, which he owns with his wife, Sikhanyisiwe, who was allocated 154 hectares.

Other beneficiaries of the government acquisition notice are Bulawayo businessman and Nust lecturer Dumisani Madzivanyati, who was allocated 50 hectares, while Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) officer Reason Mpofu was also allocated 50 hectares. Zimbabwe Independent
Founded in 2005 as an Ohio-based environmental newspaper, EcoWatch is a digital platform dedicated to publishing quality, science-based content on environmental issues, causes, and solutions.

A wildfire burning in California has spread from a national park into a national forest.

The Washburn Fire ignited July 7 in Yosemite National Park and promptly forced the evacuation of hundreds of people from the town of Wawona and the closure of the parks southern entrance, as The Guardian reported. Since then, it has spread to 4,759 acres  according to the most recent figures from InciWeb  and entered the Sierra National Forest.

As firefighters pursue the Washburn Fire using a coordinated full suppression strategy, the fire remains active on the Sierra National Forest during hot and dry conditions, the forest wrote in a press release posted on Facebook Thursday.

News ReleaseWashburn Fire triggers next phase of firefighter and public safety closure on the Sierra National Forest Posted by U.S. Forest Service  Sierra National Forest on Thursday, July 14, 2022

The flames first breached the Sierra National Forest on Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times reported. At the time, the fire displayed active to very active fire behavior driven by hot, dry conditions, officials said. This led to the closure of Forest Routes 5S43, 5S06, 5S22 and 5S37, which will remain in effect until August 1. Five more routes were announced closed on Thursday, according to the press release: 6S10, 5S40Y, 5240, 5S04 and 5S70A.

The fire is moving east along the South Fork of Merced River in a remote river canyon making access very challenging, the press release explained. The fire is impacting wilderness, main forest roads and recreation areas. This calls for significant firefighting and Forest Service resources to help fight the Washburn Fire. For these reasons, these forest lands and roads near the southern boundary of Yosemite National Park need to be closed for the safety of the public and firefighters.

However, the release noted that the closures still only impacted less than three percent of the total forest area.

When the Washburn Fire forest ignited in Yosemite, it was near the parks famed Mariposa Grove of redwoods, according to a press release from InciWeb and the park. There was concern that the flames could harm the more than 500 mature sequoias in the grove, including the parks second tallest tree  the 209-foot tall Grizzly Giant  NPR reported.

However, the trees are safe for now, according to The Guardian. In previous years, the park had ordered prescribed burns to clear vegetation around the trees, and this paid off, stalling the flames so that firefighters could put in sprinklers to offer additional protection.

Weve been preparing for the Washburn fire for decades, Yosemite forest ecologist Garrett Dickman said, as The Guardian reported. It really just died as soon as it hit the grove.

As of now, the fire is 31 percent contained, according to InciWeb. However, it could keep burning until January if the dry weather doesnt let up, said Stanley Bercovitz, public information officer from the interagency team responding to the fire, as The Guardian reported.

California and the rest of the U.S. West is in the midst of its worst megadrought in 1,200 years, which has been made 42 percent more extreme due to the climate crisis. The drought is also fueling severe wildfires in the region. In general, climate change will make extreme fires 30 percent more common by 2050 and 50 percent more common by 2100, according to the UN.
Founded in 2005 as an Ohio-based environmental newspaper, EcoWatch is a digital platform dedicated to publishing quality, science-based content on environmental issues, causes, and solutions.

The violet coral fungus was one of the rare species found by citizen scientists in the Scottish Highlands. Dan Molter (shroomydan) at Mushroom Observer / CC BY-SA 3.0

Citizen scientists have helped to discover a fungus previously unknown to science in the soil of the Scottish Highlands.

Scientists analyzed 219 soil samples collected by hiking volunteers from 55 Munros  or mountains  in Cairngorms National Park last year and found that hidden in the dirt was a new species of fungus from the Squamanita genus, The Herald reported.

There are more living organisms in just one teaspoon of soil than there are people on the planet, and soil biodiversity has a hugely important role to play in the functioning of ecosystems, Keilidh Ewan, project manager of the charity Plantlife that helped organize the research, said in a press release. The coming together of researchers, conservationists and the local community has uncovered some wild and wonderful species and has created evidence-based foundations against which the effects of climate and environmental change can be monitored going forward.

.@keilidhewan, Rare Plants and Wild Connections project manager, "There are more living organisms in just one teaspoon of soil than there are people on the planet." on results of #citizenscience #fungi study with @JamesHuttonInst More results here: https://t.co/BGaRi08j2l pic.twitter.com/ZOpGmSBn95  Plantlife (@Love_plants) July 14, 2022

The Cairngorms mountains in Scotland boast four of the five highest peaks in the UK and the park that protects them contains one third of UK land higher than 600 meters (approximately 1,969 feet), according to the Cairngorms National Park website. The area is also an important haven for alpine biodiversity in Britain  it is home to 25 percent of its rare and endangered species.

This biodiversity was clearly on display in the results of the fungi study. When the soil samples were analyzed by researchers at the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland, they sequenced the DNA of 2,748 different fungi species for a total of more than 17,000 records, according to the press release.

A unique collaboration of mountain enthusiasts, @JamesHuttonInst, and @PlantlifeScot are looking to understand the pressures of #ClimateChange and #AirPollution on our highly sensitive montane habitats. Check out the results of their hard work  https://t.co/pRaWrPYxJ6 pic.twitter.com/UAjtRqHoXF  Plantlife Scotland (@PlantlifeScot) July 14, 2022

The unique discoveries included the following:

Two species of fungi new to the UK. These were the Arctic Amanita groenlandica species and the Antarctic Acrodontium antarcticum species. The so-called Strangler fungus (Squamanita contortipes) that earns its name from taking control of other fungi and is very unusual in the UK. The also rare Violet Coral fungus, which is an important indicator for the health of unimproved grassland ecosystems that are also natural carbon sinks.

A discovery of mountainous proportions! Results of 2021 #citizenscience study from @JamesHuttonInst @PlantlifeScot discovers new to UK #fungi species as well as a number of rarities, including violet coral fungus. More on these discoveries here: https://t.co/BGaRi08j2l pic.twitter.com/PSZXIaqiPP  Plantlife (@Love_plants) July 14, 2022

The study leaders said that the research was important for aiding in the conservation of the Cairngorms unique alpine ecosystem.

Fungi are crucially important to the functioning of our alpine ecosystems, but because they are mostly hidden below ground, and because alpine ecosystems are remote and difficult to access, we know very little about the distribution and diversity of fungi in this iconic habitat, James Hutton Institute ecologist Andrea Britton said in the press release. Thanks to the hard work of volunteers and scientists coming together, the data from this survey will add significantly to our knowledge of this vital group and can be used to start identifying which habitats and locations are particularly important for conservation of fungal diversity.

However, that diversity is threatened by the climate crisis. The Cairngorms have a frigid, snowy climate because of their altitude and distance from the sea and therefore play host to the best examples of Arctic plant life in the UK. But University of Stirling researchers told BBC News that some of these species are being pushed up the mountains as temperatures rise. In this context, the latest research is especially important.

This is helping us to understand the threats that this fragile habitat is facing and, ultimately, the more we understand, the better we can protect these much-loved places for the future, Ewan said.




Arla Foods and Danone to invest in cattle farms in Nigeria





Denmark-based Arla Foods and French-owned Danone are investing in cattle farms in Nigeria following Nigeria's ban on foreign exchange for the import of milk, Global Financial Digest reported.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) strictly controls the authorised market and restricts access to foreign exchange for importers of 45 products, including milk. Nigeria has two official exchange rates, with the official rate being 45% less expensive than the unofficial rate.

The cost of conducting business in Nigeria has increased due to the difficulty obtaining dollars. Arla Foods and Danone are investing in cattle farms to support their businesses, despite the fact that the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), an organisation with more than 3,000 members, identified access to dollars as the biggest obstacle to production in the West African nation.

Jimmy Johnmark, general manager Arla, said the company is spending US$10 million on a cattle farm in Kaduna State, Nigeria.

Johnmark said the business will be able to buy foreign currency to import 400 cows in August and 1,150 over the following five years.

As part of a state-built grazing reserve, it also intends to work with the Kaduna administration to purchase milk from 1,000 pastoralists.

Johnmark said Arla expects to reduce its milk imports by about 20% in five years by producing 46,000 litres per day on-site.

Ferdinand Mouko, managing director for Danone Nigeria, said Danone is investing in a cattle farm in southwest Nigeria's Ogun State and working with private investors, such as Obasanjo Farms, which is owned by Nigeria's former president Olusegun Obasanjo, to meet the 2028 local input target of 65%.

Danone offers technical support and pledges to purchase the milk, he said, while private investors provide the cows and farm infrastructure.

In contrast to the daily average of 1.5 litres a day for local breeds, Danone plans to increase its stock to 500 cows over a five-year period with a capacity to produce 15 litres per cattle per day.

Over 90% of the domestic milk production in Nigeria comes from roaming herders.

According to the central bank, local milk production is estimated to be 500,000 tonnes, while demand is expected to be 2.2 million tonnes as of 2020. Multinational corporations are primarily in charge of processing because they import almost all of their milk inputs due to the poor yields from locally bred cows.

- Global Financial Digest


CHINA has implored Zimbabwe to conduct an independent security assessment at the US$100 million new parliament building it erected on the outskirts of Harare, it has emerged.

Overtures by China, which will soon be handing over the parliament building situated in Mt Hampden, about 18 kilometres from the capital Harare, are meant to calm fears that the Asian giant has intentions to snoop on Zimbabwe.

Fears that Beijing could potentially use the new parliament building to spy on Harare follow allegations that China bugged the African Union (AU) headquarters it built and paid for in the Ethiopian capital in 2018.

But the AU dismissed the reports as patently false. Beijing also refuted the spying allegations.

In the case of Zimbabwe, the Chinese embassy told the Zimbabwe Independent this week that Beijing offered Harare an opportunity to carry out surveillance and security checks on the soon to be commissioned Parliament building.

The request was extended to Local Government and Public Works ministry, headed by July Moyo.

A Chinese embassy official, Liang Zhizun said in an interview that as normal procedure, the embassy had requested the Zimbabwe government to conduct independent and thorough information technology (IT), data and all other necessary security inspection on the building before a formal hand-over.

The audio, video and IT system will be managed and controlled by (a) Zimbabwean team in the future running of the building. A few rumours say that China would bug the new parliament building are outdated and low ranked trick played by some foreign countries who are not happy to see any achievements in China-African co-operation, Zhizun said.

The same rumours occurred on the AU Headquarters in 2018 and were completely rejected by the AU and the African people including many state leaders. We do not want to see the same farce and laughing stock in Zimbabwe.

Regarding the new parliament building, which sits on a land area of 33 000 square metres, Local Government technical director of engineering services Henry Hungwe, during a site visit last week, said relevant departments had carried out security checks and nothing unusual was detected.

We were here from the beginning of site establishment. We included every department responsible. We had all departments in government involved. The road was done by ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development while water was connected by Zinwa. Zesa did the electricity, he said.

 and the checks (were done) by the security people including the police. Security checks were done from the beginning. I can confirm that we asked our security people to have the liberty to do a sweep of the building to check and see if there is anything. But so far everything is on track.

The imposing new parliament building, whose architectural design was derived from the countrys Great Zimbabwe ruins in Masvingo, has an office building which boasts of 600 rooms. The office building has capacity to accommodate 1 000 people.

It also has an outdoor access road leading to the Public Square and ceremony square in front of the Parliament building with a grand stair case.

Construction of the building started in November 2018 and was completed on May 27 this year. Shanghai Construction Group was contracted to carry out the project.

Beijing and Harare have hailed the new building as a symbol of solid ties between Zimbabwe and China.

The allure of the building is expected to herald a new capital as authorities plan to set up offsite infrastructure such as shopping malls and residential stands to decongest Harare.

It boasts of two sections, which include a six-storey office building and a four-storey parliament building. Zimbabwe Independent
All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Your college years can be some of the best of your life, but we know it can be tough to enjoy them when youre scrounging every dollar for textbooks, food and (if youre lucky) the occasional outing with friends. Money is tight when youre a student, and that financial stress can be compounded by the reality of having to stay on top of your studies.

If theres a silver lining, its student discounts. Many companies offer their products and apps for less to those struggling through lectures, writing term papers and studying for finals. Weve compiled a list of the best deals you can get on useful services, along with some things youll enjoy in your down time. Just keep in mind that most of these offers require you to prove your status as a student either by signing up with your .edu email address or providing some form of student identification.

Shopping

Engadget

Amazon Prime Student

If youre not piggybacking off of your parents Amazon Prime account, you can have the subscription for less while youre in school. College students can get Prime Student for free for six months, then it costs only $7.49 per month after that. That comes out to about $90 per year, and the membership includes the same perks as regular Prime does, including free two-day shipping, free same-day delivery in select areas, and access to the entire Prime Video library.

Best Buy

While it doesnt offer a specific student discount, Best Buy has Student Deals that you can sign up to receive. Aside from proving your student status, the only requirement is for you to be a My Best Buy member; that program is free to enroll in. We actually recommend that most people sign up for My Best Buy because some items, especially during site-wide sales, will be even cheaper for members. All student deals will appear in the Member Offers page in your account.

Apple

Apple offers some deals to students and educators in the form of knocking down the prices of its most popular laptops and tablets. There isnt a flat percentage rate across all products; the discounts vary by device. For example, right now students can get a MacBook Air M1 starting at $899, which is $100 less than the normal starting price, and the iPad Pros start at $749, which represents a $50 discount. These are decent savings if you must have a brand new Apple product, but those with tighter budgets should also consider Apples refurb program. Also for 2022, students can get up to a $150 gift card and 20 percent off AppleCare when they purchase a qualifying Mac or iPad.

Samsung

Much like Apple, Samsung doesn't offer a blanket discount across all of its products for students. But you can save depending on what you're looking to buy. For example, you can save hundreds on the latest Galaxy S22 smartphones, and the discount will be deeper if you have a handset to trade in. On the laptop-and-tablet side of things, you can get a Galaxy Chromebook 2 for as low as $350 or a Galaxy Tab S8+ for. as low as $200.

Microsoft

Microsoft also provides students and educators with up to 10 percent off its gadgets, including the already affordable Surface Go 2 and the Surface Headphones 2. And Microsofts online store doesnt only sell Surface devices: You can also find Windows PCs from Lenovo, HP, Acer and others there at discounted prices.

Streaming

Engadget

Spotify

Spotify Premiums student plan gives you a lot for only $5 per month. Besides access to millions of songs, it also includes Hulus ad-supported tier and Showtimes ad-free service. Youd spend roughly $27 a month if you paid for all three separately at their full prices, making this student offer one of the best you can get.

Pandora

Pandora also offers students its Premium membership for $5 per month. Pandoras offering doesnt include any additional services, but you do get an ad-free experience, personalized music, unlimited skips and unlimited offline play. Plus, youll get 60 days of free use before your payments kick in.

Apple Music

Apple also slashes 50 percent off its Apple Music subscription for students, bringing it down to $5 per month. The offer is available for up to 48 months so you can enjoy the rate for the entirety of your college experience. Whats more, the company bundles Apple TV+ in this student offer, so you can watch Apple originals like Ted Lasso and Severance.

Paramount+

Paramount+s student discount knocks 25 percent off the Essentials monthly plan, so youll end up paying around $3.75 per month for access to the services content with limited commercials. With this subscription, you can watch shows like Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, South Park, RuPauls Drag Race and more, but just keep in mind that this particular plan doesnt include access to your local CBS station.

Discovery+

Discovery+ knocks 40 percent off monthly plans for students, so you can get access for only $3 per month. Youll pay for the Ad-Lite plan, so there will still be commercials to sit through, but you can get that discounted rate for as long as you are an enrolled student.

Tidal

Tidal provides student discounts on both of its streaming services: Premium and Hi-Fi. Premium drops to $5 per month, down from $10, while Hi-Fi costs $10 per month, down from $20. Tidal is still often overshadowed by Spotify and Apple Music, but these discounts are a good way to give it a try without spending too much money.

Hulu

College students can sign up for Hulus ad-supported plan for only $2 per month. Thats $4 less than the normal price and a great deal considering all of the content that Hulu has to offer (think: The Handmaids Tale, Greys Anatomy, Rick & Morty and more). Yes, you have to deal with commercials, but its a small price to pay to binge-watch shows like Brooklyn Nine Nine, which can provide a much-needed laugh when youre drowning in coursework.

YouTube

If youre already spending a lot of time watching YouTube, you may have a better experience with YouTube Premium. The Student plan cuts nearly 50 percent off the price so youll pay $7 per month for ad-free video viewing, background play, video downloads and access to YouTube Premium Music. The latter is YouTubes attempt at a Spotify/Apple Music competitor, but it has a long way to go before it can really hold a candle to those services. However, if you listen to most of your music via YouTube already, Premium could be your one-stop-shop for music and video streaming.

Headspace

Being a student is stressful even in the best of times, but now its even more difficult to concentrate and find peace. Headspace is just one of many meditation and mindfulness apps available that can help with that, but it stands apart with an excellent student discount: $10 for the entire year, or $60 less than a normal annual membership. In addition to a large library of meditation lessons and routines to follow, Headspace recently added SleepCasts, a collection of soothing voices reading bedtime stories to help you fall asleep, as well as mindful workout routines.

Engadget

Adobe Creative Cloud

Youre probably using Adobe products if youre studying anything related to digital art or design. Adobe Creative Cloud is the industry standard in this space but the entire suite of programs is quite expensive at $53 per month. Thankfully, Adobe has education pricing for students that drops the entire creative suite to $20 per month for the first year. That includes the big programs like Photoshop CC and Illustrator CC along with Lightroom CC, Premiere Pro CC, Adobe XD and more.

After your first year, the monthly cost increases to $30 per month. While not ideal, its still more affordable for students than it is for industry professionals. If youre not tied to Adobe programs, you might also consider Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher apps from Serif ($50 each for the Mac or Windows versions), which compete with Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, respectively.

Ableton Live

Regardless of whether youre studying music production, students can get 40 percent off Ableton Live Standard or Suite for as long as they are enrolled full-time. That brings Live 11 Standard down to $269 and Suite down to $449  great discounts on some of the best music software available right now.

Microsoft 365

Many students have to use Microsoft 365 tools on the regular. If your college or university doesnt provide you with an account, you can still get Microsoft 365 for free by taking advantage of the companys student and educator discount. This gives you access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and even Microsoft Teams free of charge, which is a solid deal considering an annual subscription costs $100.

Ulysses

Spending all day and night writing papers is even more frustrating when you dont have all your writing organized in one place. Ulysses is a popular writing app for mac/iOS that can be used for note taking as well as thesis writing, with features like auto-save and auto-backup, word-count writing goals, markup, plain text support and DropBox integration. Normally, Ulysses costs $40 per year but students can get it for only $12 every six months, or $24 per year. There isnt a direct alternative for Windows users, but you do have options including Scrivener (a one-time student price of $41.65), IA Writer (a $20 one-time price) and FocusWriter (free and open-source).

Evernote

Evernote can be an indispensable tool if you like to keep all of your thoughts in one place  everything from class notes to web clippings to to-do lists. Students can get half off one year of Evernote Premium, which brings the price down to $4 per month or $48 for the year. Premium is the way to go if youre investing in Evernote because it syncs your notes across unlimited devices, gives you offline access, lets you annotate PDFs and search saved documents.

Notion Personal Pro plan

Notion provides students and educators its Personal Pro plan for free just by signing up with a valid .edu email address. While the free version of the service has a ton of features, the Pro plan adds unlimited pages and blocks, file uploads and version history. That means you wont be restricted if you want to collect your entire academic life in Notion, along with your personal to-do lists, agendas, notes and more.

Github Student Developer Pack

Aspiring developers can sign up for Githubs Student Developer Pack, which includes discounts and resources that developers can use to learn, create projects and more. Github partnered with a bunch of companies including Educative, Canva, Namecheap, Bootstrap Studio and others to offer students access to many of the services theyll need as the expand their skills.

Squarespace Student plan

Whether youre itching to get a jump-start on your portfolio or just want an online space to show off your work, Squarespace is a good option as it gives students a 50 percent discount on any of its annual plans. The most affordable option will cost $72 for the year, which is half the normal yearly price of $144. Squarespace is one of many website builders out there, but its particularly popular with creative professionals. Its customizable templates make it easy to build a website and make it look exactly how you want it. Plus, you can upgrade down the line to add things like website analytics, custom JavaScript and CSS and e-commerce.

News

Engadget

You shouldnt rely on Twitter to be your sole source of news. With foreign wars, new viruses, Supreme Court decisions and upcoming elections making headlines daily, its important to get your news from reliable sources. Yes, its daunting to get into the news on a regular basis, but its crucial to know whats going on in the country and the world as a whole. Here are some reputable news organizations that offer student discounts on their monthly or annual subscription plans.

The Atlantic: Starts at $35 per year for digital-only access.

The New York Times: $6 every four weeks for a base subscription.

The Washington Post: $1 every four weeks for digital-only access.

The Wall Street Journal: Starting at $4 per month for the Student Digital Pack.
Casio has launched a new G-Shock model with a bold color that would look instantly familiar to space fans. It takes its eye-catching hue from the iconic orange suits astronauts wear for the ascent and entry portions of their flight so that they could be easily spotted by rescue teams in case their spacecraft has to bail out into the ocean. On the watch's official product page, G-Shock wrote that the black dial of the watch represents the black visor on the helmets astronauts wear with the suit, while the thin blue line on the dial mimics the suits' blue accents.

In addition, the watch's band loop is adorned by an American flag and the back of its casing features the engraving of an astronaut. Even its packaging is on-theme: The watch comes in a tin can and a box that also feature elements of NASA's "pumpkin suits."

As collectSPACE notes, NASA introduced the vivid spacesuits following the Challenger tragedy in the 80's, and they had gone through several iterations since then. The latest version is the Orion Crew Survival System, which had been optimized for comfort, comes in more than one size and was designed to be easier to connect to the communications system.

Turn on browser notifications to receive breaking news alerts from Engadget You can disable notifications at any time in your settings menu. Not now Turned on Turn on

That Casio would release a new G-Shock watch based on a NASA spacesuit doesn't come as a surprise. It has a long history with the agency, with G-Shock being one of the few timepieces NASA has approved for use on the space shuttle and aboard the ISS. In fact, this is the third NASA-branded G-Shock model it has released, following an all-white and a black-and-white watch adorned with the red NASA logo known as "the worm."

This orange watch, however, is more expensive than its predecessors and will set buyers back $170. It's only available for a limited time and can be purchased from Casio's website.
ZANU PF has been described as a criminal gang after a ruling party member threatened opposition leader Nelson Chamisa and his family with death.

The police were evasive yesterday when contacted over whether investigations have been opened yet following the threat.

Zanu PF member Abton Mashayanyika, who is a Habbakuk Apostolic Faith Mission bishop in Mberengwa, Midlands province, recently made the threats against Chamisa while addressing a rally at Rampopo hills under Chief Mapiravana in Mberengwa North.

In the video which has gone viral on social media, Mashayanyika said: When we said down with (the late former Zimbabwe-Rhodesia Prime Minister Abel) Muzorewa, we meant he should die, when we say down with a witch, we mean they should die. When we say down-down with Chamisa, we mean he should be killed. Do you all understand the meaning? Down with CCC [Citizens Coalition of Change], down with Chamisa and his children.

The chant is an age-old rallying call from Zimbabwes 1970s war of liberation which largely called for the death of the then common enemy, the late Rhodesian leader Ian Smith.

After independence in 1980, the Zanu PF party adopted the chant against all those who opposed its rule.

Police yesterday were evasive when asked whether there have been any investigations into Mashayanyikas utterances.

Police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said the matter was being investigated at local level, and referred questions to Masvingo provincial spokesperson Inspector Kudakwashe Dewa.

Dewa, however, referred questions to Midlands provincial spokesperson Inspector Emmanuel Mahoko, who said: If he said the matter was being investigated at the local level, what more can I say? Further details will be released in due course.

Zanu PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa refused to comment on the matter, while party information director Tafadzwa Mugwadi did not respond to questions sent to him.

The opposition CCC said the police inaction against threats to the life of their party leader confirmed their fears over selective application of the law.

This came as CCC legislators Job Sikhala (Zengeza West) and Godfrey Sithole (Chitungwiza North) are fighting for their freedom at the courts following their incarceration on June 14 on charges of inciting violence.

CCC said it was not taking the threats against Chamisa lightly after he survived two assassination attempts during his meet-the-people tours last year when gunshots were reportedly fired at his convoy.

CCC acting spokesperson Gift Siziba said: We do not take this lightly chiefly because there have been numerous attempts on the life of president Chamisa. It is to this end that we call for our able police service to move with speed and detain Mashayanyika and charge him and his accomplices with death threats and calling for violence.

Lawyer Alec Muchadehama said Mashayanyika should be charged for inciting public violence.

He has gone beyond the bounds of freedom of expression. The Constitution guarantees the freedom of expression, but this is not the kind of freedom the Constitution entails. What he is saying is completely unjustified, Muchadehama said.

But that he has not been arrested or the police not issuing a statement shows how the police in Zimbabwe selectively apply the law by only targeting people who are perceived to be anti-Zanu PF. To that extent, it gives weight to allegations that the police act in a partisan manner.

Said Effie Ncube, a political analyst: The threats by this fellow are sadly consistent with the long-standing position of Zanu PF in which it has sought to retain power by all foul means.

If you look at its record of murders, abductions, enforced disappearances and corruption on a grand scale, it has surpassed all regimes since colonial rule. Nothing like it has ever been seen. It has crossed all the lines in terms of being repugnant and brazenly criminal.

Renowned United States-born applied economics professor and currency reformer Steve Hanke said the ruling party was synonymous with a criminal organisation.

He made the remarks in an interview on CNBC Africa about Zimbabwes current economic woes and possible solutions on Wednesday.

Now we have a new President (Emmerson Mnangagwa), but, in fact, the same kind of regime, we have a Minister of Finance (Mthuli Ncube) who has been there since 2018 and its the same old story. We have got the governor of the Reserve Bank (of Zimbabwe, John Mangudya), whos been there since 2014. Thats the same old story and we have got Zanu PF, a political party in power, but you have to remember Zanu PF has more in common with a criminal organisation than a political party, so thats where we are at, Hanke said.

You have got criminals running the country. There are absolutely no preconditions to install a successful currency board, there have been over 70 of them. They have all been installed in the middle of the crisis in most cases.

Political lecturer and analyst Eldred Masunungure said Hankes assertion was spot on.

This is a party in government, deeply corrupt and has all sorts of predatory conduct, both in politics and the economic issues of the country; but it remains a political party. Its an ugly animal, yes, he said. Newsday
The worlds largest NFT platform, Opensea, is cutting 20 percent of its workforce. The information comes directly from CEO Devin Finzer, who tweeted a screenshot of a Slack message he'd sent to the entire company staff Thursday. Finzer blamed the economic instability around both crypto specifically and the economy broadly for the layoffs. The cuts, he wrote, would prepare the company in the event of a prolonged downturn.

The changes were making today put us in a position to maintain multiple years of runway under various crypto winter scenarios (5 years at the current volume), and give us high confidence that we only have to go through this process once."

Today is a hard day for OpenSea, as were letting go of ~20% of our team. Heres the note I shared with our team earlier this morning: pic.twitter.com/E5k6gIegH7  Devin Finzer (dfinzer.eth) (@dfinzer) July 14, 2022

Since Opensea doesnt disclose the number of its employees, its unclear exactly how many people are impacted by the cuts. But after this story was published, OpenSea told Engadget that the company now employs 230 people. In the same Slack message, Finzer states the impacted staffers will get "generous severance" and healthcare coverage into 2023. Specifically, the company is offering 12 weeks of severance pay, accelerated equity vesting and six months of healthcare coverage among some other benefits.

In January the company raised $300 million in venture capital funding, which Finzer said it would use to hire 90 new employees and establish a fund for creators. Finzer made no mention of the new investor dollars in his memo to employees.

Opensea joins a growing group of prominent crypto giants who have undergone layoffs this summer. Coinbase cut more than 1,100 jobs last month, also citing the crypto winter and tough economy. Also in June, BlockFi laid off roughly 20 percent of its staff (or around 200 people) and Crypto.com laid off 260 workers  only months after it signed a $700 million deal for naming rights to the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Update, 7/15/22 12PM ET: This story has been updated to note that OpenSea confirmed that its headcount now stands at 230 employees. We've also added some details on the package offered to former employees. The story originally stated that OpenSea had 769 employees, but that detail has been removed as it was inaccurate.
TikTok's global chief security officer (CSO) will step down from that position and shift into a strategic advisory role. Roland Cloutier's change in duties follows concerns about how the company is handling US user data. TikTok recently admitted that employees outside of the country were able to access that information, although "robust cybersecurity controls and authorization" from its US security team were required.

Cloutier will be an adviser on the business impact of TikTok's security and trust programs. TikToks head of security risk, vendor and client assurance, Kim Albarella, will take over as the chief of the company's worldwide security teams on an interim basis.

"Part of our evolving approach has been to minimize concerns about the security of user data in the US, including the creation of a new department to manage US user data for TikTok," CEO Shou Zi Chew wrote in a memo to TikTok staff. "This is an important investment in our data protection practices, and it also changes the scope of the global chief security officer role. With this in mind, Roland has decided to step back from his day-to-day operations as global CSO, effective September 2nd."

Turn on browser notifications to receive breaking news alerts from Engadget You can disable notifications at any time in your settings menu. Not now Turned on Turn on

A TikTok spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal Cloutier wasn't overseeing the new team that manages US user data. That department reports to Chew directly. Cloutier's departure wasn't related to lawmakers' concerns over US data security, the spokesperson said, and the shift had been in the works for a couple of months.
Paramore has officially announced her Fall 2022 tour, and we are FREAKING out.

It is just a big day for music news. Lizzo and Sabrina Carpenter have both released new albums. Demi Lovato released a music video of a single from her highly-anticipated album Holy Fvck. Drake had to clarify to the world that he wasn't arrested in Sweden (wait, what?)

Well, it is time to add Paramore to the list of those with THRILLING music news. The band just announced the dates and locations of their Fall 2022 tour.

We have been predicting the return of Paramore for some time now. Back in early May, it was announced that she would be headlining the ACL Music Festival. Furthermore, the band's last era was After Laughter which was five years ago.

While songs such as "Hard Times" are still non-negotiable hits, fans everywhere desperately want more from the band.

Shows. Fall 2022.



Verified Fan Presale Registration starts TODAY through Sunday at: https://t.co/fVS8MHifhc



Verified Fan Presale starts Wednesday, July 20th at 10AM local.



General on-sale starts Friday, July 22nd at 10AM local.



See you there. pic.twitter.com/6uU0SF2Suz  paramore (@paramore) July 15, 2022

The announcement posters state that the group will be playing at seventeen different venues across the United States this fall. Presale for the show is starting today, and lasts until Sunday. (This is going to be a very Paramore-ticket-anxiety filled weekend!)

On top of the news that Paramore is hitting the road, the bottom right hand corner of the flyer gets us excited all over again. It announces that Paramore will be traveling with other superb bands Young the Giant and Japanese Breakfast, AND it says, "TBD," WHICH MEANS THEY ARE LOOKING FOR EVEN MORE ACTS TO ADD TO THIS STELLAR LINE-UP.

This tour is going to be AMAZING!
The Eastern Gate: War and Peace in Nagaland, Manipur and Indias Far East by Sudeep Chakravarti, Simon and Schuster India, 2022; pp 399, `899.

The Mirror Has Many SidesFor some time, many of us have been looking forward with anticipation to the latest book by Sudeep Chakravarti on the North East, The Eastern Gate: War and Peace in Nagaland, Manipur and Indias Far East. The book essentially focuses on the complex politics and political games in Nagaland and Assam, with a deep dive into the vortex of ethnic and insurgency politics in these states with glimpses of it in Assam and Tripura. I was fascinated by the title because it reminded me of my first book on the region, Strangers of the Mist, Tales of War and Peace from Indias North East, published 28 years earlier. The title for the blurb on the inside flap also appears to be a play on John le Carres bestselling novel on espionage and the Cold War, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Here it is Traders, Pushers, Soldiers, Spies.

Chakravarti has written some outstanding books on insurgency, culture and historythese include Red Sun: Travels through Naxalite Country; Highway 39: Journeys through a Fractured Land; and The Bengalis: A Portrait of a Community. Of these, I regarded Highway 39 as one of his most engaging work as it tells many stories of conflict, tragedy, and opportunity and opportunism built around a road that ploughs through the states of Assam, Manipur and Nagaland, connecting governments and rebels, people, and contesting ideas. He refers to his conversations for that book and meets some of the protagonists of those stories again, as do many of us when we go back to learn about change and continuity, minor and epochal transitions in society, systems and individuals, as new priorities, new politics, new ideas and new work emerge. It is a time-tested way of undergirding, understanding, and affirming both the micro and the macro picture.

In his new book which sprawls over nearly 400 pages, Chakravarti employs a mix of deeply personalised narratives as well as brusque, staccato reporters notebooks, with numerous interludes (that is what he calls them, placing experiences and stories, framed in boxes) between chapters.

An Ideological Construct

What is fascinating is of course the idea of the Eastern gate, the main title, which is an ideological construct. What does this mean for Manipur, where it took birth? How does this play into the fertile cauldron of conflicting reflections and anxieties that bubble in Manipur almost every day and the deeply sensitive and remarkably creative Manipuri people, both the Meiteis of the plains and the Nagas, Kukis, and other ethnic groups of the hills?

The Eastern Gate is an ideological concept which has emerged in Manipuri consciousness over some time. Some years ago, the scholar Vijaylakshmi Brara drew my attention to an ancient saying but as a way of looking at the then Look East Policy (now Act)that prosperity and peace would come from renewed connectivity to South East Asia where many communities of the North East trace their roots. But would it also mean that the Western gate to the rest of India would remain open or not?

As of now, with the Myanmar situation being acutely conflicted and the infrastructure boom on the Indian side, the Western gate remains very much open. The highways to enable the movement of goods, services, and people across Myanmar to South East Asia which were celebrated with fanfare a decade ago are virtually closed. There is little hope of the Eastern gate reviving until Myanmars conditions improve. Without safe and smooth access through Myanmar, the North East will increasingly have to turn to its bete noire, Bangladesh, to break free of its landlocked status. This has already begun to happen, albeit in a modest way with the first shipload of goods coming from Patna to Guwahati via Bangladesh. Yet, this took an extraordinarily long routevia the Bay of Bengal as the Farraka Barrage on the Ganga means that navigation is not possible. The lack of foresight of policy planners often creates new problems even as they seek to resolve the existing ones.

Compelling Stories and Details

The Eastern Gate is divided into three books with 42 chapters. A motley range of characters including politicians, drug addicts and dealers, insurgent leaders as well as government negotiators and spooks saunter across its pages. A few figures dominate the narrative, including R N Ravi, the former government interlocutor with the premier Naga insurgent group, the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN) (Isak-Muivah [I-M]), and who later became the governor of the state. Ravi went on to challenge both the I-M supremo Thuingaleng Muivah and the state chief minister far too bluntly for the liking of powers there and in Delhi. In a letter to Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, Ravi basically accused his government of doing nothing to tackle the armed gangshis description for the rebel group which was extorting at will. The scenario in the State is grim. The law and order has collapsed (p 360).

Ravi paid for his outspokenness and his belief that Delhi would unfailingly support him. He was removed from both positions and sent to Tamil Nadu to occupy the Raj Bhavan there. Muivah, ageing and ailing, has held out against no less than four interlocutors and six prime ministers. Rio remains firmly ensconced as chief minister. The Framework Agreement that was brokered with much fanfare in 2015 is still to fructify.

The author details some of the wealth of the NSCN (I-M) and its members as well as the break-up of its taxes and budget outlay. Details of Naga state officials arrested for funnelling funds to the underground throws fascinating light on their operation style but one wishes that there was more on how this, in turn, translates into the unaccounted wealth of ministers, politicians, and rebel leaders (who live in splendid non-isolation in large palatial bungalows in Dimapur). Many of them are believed to have acquired extensive properties across the North East and the country, including in tony neighbourhoods in New Delhi.

Chakravati is at his sparkling best when he tells compelling stories that he personally witnessed. These crackle off the books pages like automatic gunfirerelentless and smooth. To cite a few,

T, the glassy-eyed arms dealer, who is high on meth and mirth, offers Berettas, Glocks, Brownings and Smith and Wesson and even assault rifles.

The old Naga general who tests an emptied Walther and warns that Manipur will fall apart if the Nagas do not get their homeland. A visit to a drug dealers den.

Chats with police officers and intelligence officials where he has come to drink their liquor and pick their brains.

The visit to the Unified NGO Mission in Manipur.

Among the most powerful are the one and a half pages on Vidyarani (p 169), same age as my daughter where she does not speak at an interview and runs out because she wants to throw up. The child had been picked up by the police and kept in illegal custody because the state is upset with her parents. The note quotes a social welfare worker saying that the girl worries that if she speaks the truth something bad will happen to her parents.

A Challenging Read

However, the notes and diary jottings, though interesting overall, can also be frustratingly brusque at other times, making a complicated story even more complex. Matters are not helped when these italicised jottings are at times disconnected to the larger narrative or the succeeding chapter. Chakravarti tries to put together the differences, challenges and convoluted internal rivalries and jousting within governments (both state and union) as well as conflicting armed groups in a single narrative. This is a daunting task for any authorand The Eastern Gate becomes a challenging read, as it marshals detailed facts in many intertwined narratives that jump from incident to incident and move between processes and time lines.

One wishes that the editors had worked closely with the author to enable a free flow of this important narrative especially since the numerous interludes, reporters notes, and granular approach to detail can lose a reader. For example, referring to the killing of an Arunachal Pradesh member of Parliament with 10 others in a guerrilla ambush in 2019, Chakravarti writes:

In contrast, media in Nagaland was careful not to tag any particular faction of NSCN, papering over the incident with a general reference to NSCN. Besides K and I-M, at the time of the killings, there was also the Reformation or R faction, and the NK or Neopao Kanyak-Kiovi Zhimomi factionthe latter two also in peace talks with the government. Moreover, as we have read, internal dissent led to the Ks factions post-Khaplang chief Khango Konyak being removed by a coup in 2018, and his place claimed by Yung Aung, a nephew of S S Khaplang, the original K in the factions nameand who died in 2017. After his ouster Khango Konyak moved to India with loyal cadres and sued for peace as the faction NSCN (K-Khango). (p 272)

One would also urge the addition of a separate glossary of organisations.

There is need for attention to details which may appear minorPhizos niece was Rano Shaiza; she did not use the family name of Iralu after her marriage.1, 2 The issue of migration in and to Assam is lightly treated (it could have been easily left out or referenced in the introduction). So too the questions of the sensitive Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens. Much attention is given to articles in Economic & Political Weekly of 1960 relating to AssameseBengali riots and the reporters notes which are extensive elsewhere in the book are missing in this chapter. The first page (306) of that chapter refers to tens of thousands of Bengali Hindus fleeing from the then East Pakistan in anti-Hindu riots and also of tens of thousands of Garos, Khasis and Hajongs. Some figures would have been useful as it would help place the CAA issue in perspective. The author appears to have drawn upon his earlier book, The Bengalis, for this segment.

AFSPA

The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) has a place in The Eastern Gate. Most interesting is an account of former army chief General Bipin Rawats outburst at his officers for signing a petition to the Supreme Court opposing the acts dilution. In December 2021, news broke out of the massacre at Oting. In a botched operation, a special army unit fired at and killed several Naga miners returning home, thinking they were an insurgent group. No warning was given and the special operating procedure was violated according to the Nagaland director general of police. That incident led to fresh calls for the acts repeal.

After a few months, the Indian government moved adroitly. I was in Assam when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on 28 April that New Delhi was removing the AFSPA from most parts of Assam, parts of Nagaland (for the first time since it was first imposed there in 1958) and more police station jurisdictions in Manipur. The latter was in addition to all Imphal municipal areas from where it was lifted in 2004. The AFSPA is not being repealed but has been technically put in abeyance in these places which could no longer be defined as disturbed areas. The latter description enabled the use of the act. It was a move that would meet the concerns of both the armed forces and civil society groups.

One cannot blame a reader or an observer for being perplexed at this tortuously complex situation. The Eastern Gate has placed a mirror to this incredibly convoluted and difficult scenario, reflecting the multiple challenges facing the state, the region, its communities, politics, and internal conflicts. Indeed, there are several books compressed in Chakravartis book which turns up in the manner of a smorgasbord with many items on display, all tantalising and sometimes quite confusing, which is understandable, given that the mirror has many sides.

Notes

1 Rano was married to Lungshim Shaiza and became the first woman member of Parliament elected to the Lok Sabha from Nagaland. Her husband who was killed by Naga militants at an election rally in Manipur and was the brother of the former chief minister of that unfortunate state, Yangmasho Shaiza who was assassinated at his private home; the Shaiza and Phizo families have suffered grievously through this entire situation. These are books in their own right for they tell many compelling, gut-wrenching stories of blood and tears.

2 Muivah has acknowledged in interviews to the human rights lawyer Nandita Haksar and her husband Sebastian Hongray of the I-Ms hand in the killing of Yangmaso Shaiza, the former chief minister of Manipur, his brother Lungshim Shaiza as well as several attempts made on the life of Rishang Keishing, another former chief minister (Haksar and Hongray 2019).

Reference

Haksar, Nandita and Sebastain M Hongray (2019): Kuknalim, Naga Armed Resistance: Testimonies of Leaders, Pastors, Healers and Soldiers, New Delhi: Speaking Tiger.
Utilising the third round of World Bank Survey data collected during September 2020, the employment shocks in rural India are analysed based on the gender, age, caste, and income quartile of individuals. Using graphical representations and simple mean tests, it is found that, on average, females in rural areas did not have an occupation relative to males in most of the states that feature in the survey. Older females and Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes show a lower probability of retaining regular salaried jobs during the lockdown and were adversely affected owing to disruptions in daily wage work.

The industrial employment in India as a per cent of total employment had stagnated around 24% for the entire decade of 2010. Industrial employment in China had reached 30% in 2012 and 2013, but fell to 27.42% in 2019. In terms of the absolute number of job creation and availability, even the slightly higher percentage implies millions of additional workers in the industrial sector. Furthermore, the service sector employment in China has steadily risen to 47.25% in 2019, while that in India has remained around 32.28% in 2019. Apparently, this comparison is not necessary while trying to understand the impact of COVID-19 on the conditions of rural workers either in India or China, which is the main purpose of this article. Yet, a brief background should be useful to reflect on where the employment levels in these two growth-wise comparable countries stood just before COVID-19 affected economic activities substantially.

A further justification to this generalised comparison comes from the fact that none of the developing countries have well-designed unemployment insurance schemes, which economic shocks such as those that are brought over by the pandemic exposes as major institutional weaknesses. Agricultural, farm and non-farm employment often provides rural insurance to large masses in developing countries. For India, that too has dropped 7 percentage points between 2011 and 2020, while it also fell to 25% for China. But this has been probably more than compensated for by the rise in service sector jobs. Under these circumstances, countries with higher and diverse employment-generating capacities shall turn out to be more resilient to economic shocks. Additionally, the pandemic and the lockdown made the informal labour force of India, suffering over decades of job insecurity, low earnings, lack of social protection, and dependence on daily wages, even more vulnerable (ILO 2020; Chen 2012; State of Working India 2020). How did India do during the first two phases of the pandemic in terms of jobs and rehabilitation for displaced workers?

The combination of the pandemic leading to various degrees of lockdowns around the world (Hale et al 2021) had disastrous effects on all economies, with no exception to India. Apart from facing the severity of steep mortality rates and breakdown of the health infrastructure attending to increasing caseloads, India suffered through catastrophic effects on the rural sector, which, even by the latest Census of Population (2011), hosts 69% of the population. Further, given that 50.4% of the country still lives on less than $3.20 per day based on the 2015 World Bank figures (2019), it is not hard to imagine that individuals who live on meagre monthly wages or belong to the vast majority of daily wage workers, would suffer the hardest owing to the sudden stoppage in economic activities. Consequently, as mentioned by the International Labour Organization (ILO), 400 million people in India face the risk of falling back into poverty (Brookings Report 2020). Among such individuals, migrant workers, who make up 36% of the Indian population (based on the 2011 Census), experienced not only falling wages and job losses but also mass exodus and reverse migration triggered by the sudden announcement of the lockdown (Dandekar and Ghai 2020). However, this had received substantial attention in concerned forums in the subsequent months. We take this evidence forward by analysing age cohort-, gender- and occupation-wise outcomes of lockdown on the large contingent of rural workers of which return migrants form an important subsection.

For example, according to the initial ILO estimates, there has been a rise in unemployment and underemployment between 5.3 million (low estimate) and 24.7 million (high estimate) relative to the 2019 numbers. Subsequent analysis by the ILO has revealed that the figures were considerably underestimated (Walter 2020). As recent papers have suggested, vulnerable groups might have been hit even harder in terms of employment and other factors by the pandemic (Deshpande 2020). Deshpande shows that although, in absolute terms, the number of male job losses is higher than female job losses, due to pre-existing gender employment gaps, the shocks have different implications for the two groups.

In this article, we present a preliminary analysis, in terms of descriptive statistics and data visualisations, of economic shocks experienced due to COVID-19 in six states covering the rural districts. Further, we describe the source and the coverage of the data in detail and offer a descriptive analysis of the rural labour market outcomes.

Data and Descriptive Statistics

Data source: We consider survey data collected by World Bank, IDinsight, and the Development Data Lab over May 2020 to September 2020 in India. The objective of the survey is to provide an assessment of changes in agricultural production and consumption induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. It also provides information on employment during lockdown and changes in income (wages) brought on by the pandemic. Additionally, it provides information on migrant workers and access to relief funds. Six states of India, namely Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh (UP), Andhra Pradesh (mP), Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh (MP), are included in the survey. World Bank (2020) mentions that four previous frames have been considered from IDinsight projects, alongside frames from the National Rural Livelihoods project. Appropriate weighting schemes have been applied in order to be able to create comparable state-level estimates. The surveys were carried out for rural areas in the six states using computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) techniques. To avoid non-responses as much as possible, surveyors attempted to call back respondents up to seven times. A software called SurveyCTO has also been used to check for validation and consistency.

Sample characteristics: We have 5,200 observations for districts across six states. The average age of the sample is about 37.5 years. In terms of household size, five individuals is the average size. We have information for 2,731 observations in terms of the gender of the head of household. About 83% among 2,731 observations have a male as the head of the household. In terms of belonging to specific income quartiles, again, we have information for 2,731 observations. About 20.8% of individuals belong to the lowest quartile.

Employment: Effects by Gender

We start our analysis with the third round of data. In the first round, questions about occupation during the lockdown were not asked. In terms of overlaps, about 38% of the individuals responded in the second and third rounds in which questions related to employment and occupation during the lockdown were posed. In Figure 2, we show the percentage of individuals categorised as females and non-females (males) by state who had no occupation during the lockdown period. The question asked in the survey is if an individual had any occupation during the lockdown or not. We constructed a binary variable, which is assigned one for responses stating no occupation, 0 otherwise. Zero may imply one of the following: being self-employed in non-cultivation, salaried jobs in government, salaried jobs in private sector, daily wage labour in agriculture or daily wage labour in non-agriculture. Except AP, we find that, for each state, the percentage of females with no occupation is higher than males. The biggest gap is for Rajasthan where almost 70% females did not have any occupation during the lockdown compared to about 52% non-females.

In Figure 2, we consider occupation to be distributed as a binary between salaried jobs in government or private or non-salaried jobs. It shows the percentages of females in each state holding salaried jobs during the lockdown. Not surprisingly, the percentage of employment for any state in salaried jobs is less than 10%. However, we do not find any clear gendered pattern for employment. In some states like MP, Bihar and uP, more females are employed in salaried jobs relative to males. The opposite is true in Jharkhand and Rajasthan. For AP, the percentages are almost similar. Finally, Figure 4 shows the percentage of females by state who are employed in daily wage jobs, distributed between agricultural or non-agricultural activities. Again, based on the figure, we do not find any obvious pattern on employment gap between females and males across states.

Next, we conduct t-tests to investigate if the group means between the groups are significantly different or similar. We consider no occupation, occupation in salaried jobs and occupation as daily wage labourers by gender as the groups. In Table 1, we report the t-statistics, the degrees of freedom and the probability for the alternative hypothesis stating that the means of the groups (females and males) are significantly different from each other. In column (1), we report the t-statistics along with the probability for no occupation during lockdown. In column (2), we report the same for salaried jobs, and in column (3), we present the t-statistics along with the probability for holding daily wage occupation. Interestingly, the t-test is negative and significant for column (1). This means that during the lockdown, on average, more females had no occupation compared to males. However, the t-statistic is not significant for column (2) suggesting that there is no significant difference between the employment of females and males in salaried jobs. In column (3), the test is positive and significant suggesting that more males were employed in agricultural or non-agricultural daily wage jobs relative to females.

Employment effects by age and gender: Next, we consider if the type of employment, including no occupation, has a pattern by age. The median age of our sample is 35 years. We construct a dummy assigned 1 if individuals are above the median age. Once again, we conduct t-tests by different employment types (including no occupation) based on the two age groups. In Table 2, we report the results. Interestingly, we find that older adults (above the median age) are more likely to not have any occupation relative to individuals below the median age. At the same time, we find that the t-statistics for salaried jobs and daily wage are both positive and significant. This implies that younger adults (individuals below median age) are more likely to have daily wage as well as salaried jobs relative to older adults.

In Figure 4, we present the percentages of individuals having no occupation based on the constructed age dummy, as well as gender. Based on the figure, we cannot identify any meaningful pattern by gender and age. For some states like AP and UP, we find that more females above the median age (35) did not have an occupation during lockdown relative to males. For all the other states, Rajasthan, MP, Bihar and Jharkhand, we find the opposite to be truemore males above the median age (35) were not employed relative to females. To explore further, we perform t-test of mean difference for the two groupsno occupation during lockdown for females above 35 years and no occupation during lockdown for females below and equal to 35 years. Our t-test results show that the null hypothesis can be rejected. The t-statistic for the alternative hypothesis stating that the group means are different from each other is significant at the 5% level. The t-value is negative suggesting that females above median age are more likely to not have any occupation relative not only to males, but also females below the median age. As far as government jobs are concerned, we do not find any significant difference between the group means. In the case of daily wage jobs, the t-statistic is positive and significant implying that females above 35 years of age are more likely to be in daily wage jobs. We do not present a table for these sets of results keeping space constraint in mind but they are available on request.

Employment effects by caste and income: As the final set of our results, we consider employment patterns of individuals by caste and income groups. We construct a dummy assigned 1, if an individual belongs to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Other Backward Caste (OBC); 0 otherwise. Zero can indicate general caste or other caste. It is well known that the existing literature has documented earning and education differences between general caste and SCs, STs or OBCs (Hoff and Pandey 2006; Borooah and Iyer 2005; Das 2003; Unni 2001; Lakshmanasamy and Madheswaran 1995). We conduct t-tests for all employment groups, including no occupation. In the case of no occupation during the lockdown, we do not find a significant difference between the two groupsbelonging to general or other caste versus belonging to SC, ST or OBC. But for salaried jobs, we actually find the t-statistics to be positive and significant. The difference is the mean of group 1 (belonging to general or other group) and the mean of group 2 (belonging to SC, ST or OBC). The positive sign would imply that individuals belonging to general or other caste had more salaried jobs on average, relative to individuals belonging to SC, ST or OBC. In the case of daily wage workers, we find the opposite to be true.1

Finally, we check if not having an occupation during the lockdown, having a salaried job or being a daily wage worker is contingent on belonging to lower- or upper-income quartiles. We construct a dummy assigned 1 if an individual belongs to the upper quartilesthird and fourth; 0 would indicate belonging to the first or the second quartile. We run the t-tests for no occupation, salaried jobs, and daily wage occupation. The t-statistic is not significant in any of the cases.

Concluding Remarks

Employment levels in the agricultural sector in India were falling for some years preceding the onset of the economic crisis owing to the COVID-19 pandemic since a large number of workers in India, whether regular salaried, employed in some public sector jobs, or daily wage earners belong to the rural and semi-urban landscape in the country. It is also widely acknowledged that a substantial number of semi-skilled and unskilled workers migrate to agriculturally and industrially more active states. During the economic crisis, such as the spread of the pandemic, these workers returned to their places of origin for economic support from their families.

The rural areas were also less affected by the spread of the virus. However, farm and non-farm activities in rural areas are strongly related to economic activities in urban areas. Disruption in the economic activities in cities spill over to rural areas and affects livelihoods. The rural jobs were affected and the aspect that recent studies have not quantified yet accounts for gender gaps in employment owing to the crisis. We have demonstrated that during the lockdown, the probability for having no occupation was significantly higher for females in almost all states, except AP, and this is vindicated by the simple group mean test we conducted. We also subsequently showed that older workers are less likely to retain jobs during the pandemic, which is not surprising, but obviously no less distressful given that social security, except for pockets of central- and state-level supports, is rather non-uniform across the length and breadth of the older population in the country. Furthermore, since females over 35 years of age, which we find as the median age in our sample, are more likely to be in daily wage jobs, disruptions in economic activities through full or partial lockdown are borne disproportionately by older women. Workers belonging to SC, ST and OBC classifications were also adversely affected as compared to general caste workers with salaried jobs, while the reverse was true for daily wage work.

Overall, the lockdown and economic disruptions have been responsible for considerable hardships among the rural population in India. It has also led to non-uniform effects across gender, caste and age groups, which we used to break down the general observations. This short and descriptive article has been able to further identify the groups that have been the most adversely affected due to the pandemic and qualify for economic and social support.

Note

1 We do not present the t-values but they are available on request.

References

Borooah, V and S Iyer (2005): Vidya, Veda and Varna: The Influence of Religion and Caste on Education in Rural India, Journal of Development Studies, Vol 41, No 8, pp 13691404.

Dandekar, A and R Ghai (2020): Migration and Reverse Migration in the Age of COVID-19, Economic & Political Weekly, Vol 55, No 19, pp 2831.

Das, M B (2003): Ethnicity and Social Exclusion in Job Outcomes in India: Summary of Research Findings, Unpublished paper.

Deshpande, A (2020): The Covid-19 Lockdown in India: Gender and Caste Dimensions of the First Job Losses, Working Papers 30, Ashoka University, Department of Economics, New Delhi, India.

Hale T, N Angrist, R Goldszmidt et al (2021): A Global Panel Database of Pandemic Policies (Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker), Nature and Human Behaviour, Published online 8 March, pmid: 33686204.

Hoff, K and P Pande (2006): Discrimination, Social Identity, and Durable Inequalities, American Economic Review, Vol 96, No 2, pp 20611.

ILO (2020): ILO Monitor: COVID-19 and the World of Work, International Labour Organization, (Fourth edition) Updated Estimates and Analysis, Geneva: International Labour Organization.

Kesar, S, R Abraham, R Lahoti, P Nath and A Basole (2020): Pandemic, Informality, and Vulnerability, Impact of COVID-19 on Livelihoods in India, CSE Working Paper, 202001, https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000428008.

Lakshmanasamy, T and S Madeshwaran (1995): Discrimination by Community: Evidence from Indian Scientific and Technical Labor Market, Indian Journal of Social Sciences, Vol 8, pp 5977.

Unni, J (2001): Earnings and Education among Ethnic Groups in Rural India, NCAER Working Paper Series 79, National Council of Applied Economic Research.

Walter, D (2020): Implications of Covid-19 for Labour and Employment in India, Indian Journal of Labor Economics, Doi:10.1007/s41027-020-00255-0.

World Bank (2019): Poverty and Equity Brief, South Asia, India, viewed on 25 February 2022, povertydata.worldbank.org, www.worldbank.org/poverty.

 (2020): COVID-19-Related Shocks in Rural India 2020, Rounds 1-3; Version date: 2021-01-12; viewed on August 2021.
Friday, July 15, 2022

By Scott Lorenz

Westwind Communications

As a book publicist I get asked by clients and authors about going to the National Publicity Summit in New York. Ive attended almost every Summit since Steve Harrison started it and go once or twice a year to create new media relationships, maintain old ones and of course, to pitch my clients to the media. Through the Summit, Ive gotten clients booked on Fox News, PBS, CNBC, MSNBC and a number of national magazines.

I represent a lot of authors. Heres the problem: authors have to do most of the promotion of their books if they want them to sell. Even if youve been picked up by one of the big publishing houses, they only do so much to get you media attention. This is the reality.

So, lets say you decide to get media attention yourself. You plan your trip to New York City, where most of the big media are headquartered. You roll into Manhattan with your strategy all laid out: First, Im going to try to meet with the producer of Good Morning America, and then Im going to Fox News, and then Im going to see the guy at Reuters. After lunch, Im going to try to talk to the Today Show and then Im going to stop by and see if I can talk to the producer of 60 Minutes.

Forget about it. Its not going to happen.

Reason #1 why I recommend the Summit for many people is access, one-on-one, to these media gatekeepers in a very efficient and organized event. But is it for every author? Depending on your situation, it may or may not make sense to go. Id recommend it if you have a consumer-oriented, non-fiction topic. Does it have broad audience appeal? Can your book help the average person in their day-to-day lives? If so, then it makes sense for you to consider attending.

If you have a highly technical topic such as how computers work, or one about a historical event such as WWII, it probably doesnt make sense to go to the Publicity Summit, unless you can connect your book to current trends. (In fact, the Summit staff will probably turn down your application if they feel that the media would not be interested in the topic.) Generally, fiction, poetry and books about localized topics will not do well at the Summit. For example, a book about the best bars in Chicago would probably not be of interest to the national media who attend the Summit.

Should you go if you feel youre not ready to meet the media? Heres the dirty little secret: no-one feels ready. Dont worry about that. If youre an expert with a decent topic with a unique angle, the Summit can work for you. Go there to build relationships, yes, but also go to get feedback from the news industry professionals. Ive seen people before the Summit starts coming in thinking theyre heading in one direction, then after having interacted with 100 journalists and producers, leaving with all new information or directiona better book title, the perfect pitch, new business ventures and relationships.

Im such a fan of Steve Harrison and his National Publicity Summit that I am now an affiliate for the Summit. If you are interested in attending please check out this link: http://bit.ly/Big-Time-PR

Book publicist Scott Lorenz is President of Westwind Communications, a public relations and marketing firm that has a special knack for working with authors to help them get all the publicity they deserve and more. Lorenz works with bestselling authors and self-published authors promoting all types of books, whether its their first book or their 15th book. Hes handled publicity for books by CEOs, CIA Officers, Navy SEALS, Homemakers, Fitness Gurus, Doctors, Lawyers and Adventurers. His clients have been featured by Good Morning America, FOX & Friends, CNN, ABC News, New York Times, Nightline, TIME, PBS, LA Times, USA Today, Washington Post, Womans World, & Howard Stern to name a few.

Learn more about Westwind Communications book marketing approach at https://www.book-marketing-expert.com/ or contact Lorenz at scottlorenz@westwindcos.com or 734-667-2090 or fill out the form below. Follow Lorenz on Twitter @aBookPublicist. Want help titling a book? Check out Scott Lorenzs new award winning, bestselling book: Book Title Generator- A Proven System in Naming Your Book www.BookTitleGenerator.net
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

CPS Energys multi-front legal war to recoup some of what it paid for natural gas during 2021s deep freeze is winding down  leaving ratepayers on the hook for higher bills.

Of lawsuits filed against 18 suppliers the utility accused of price-gouging at the depths of the storm, only two remain. The others have been dropped or settled, but CPS has fought to conceal terms of the settlements.

While the outcome of its legal battle is murky, this much is known: CPS has made a plan to shift virtually all of the $1 billion-plus it racked up buying high-priced fuel onto ratepayers, who will see higher bills for the next 25 years as a result.

Exactly how high theyll go remains unclear.

There will be no increase until further resolution of remaining open lawsuits, the city-owned utility said in a statement. We are pleased with our progress in the gas supplier litigation and with only two natural gas cases remaining we are confident that our customers will pay significantly less in the long run than if we hadnt taken on these legal actions.

The 16-month legal saga began after CPS spent more than $1 billion buying pricey natural gas and electricity the week of the storm  roughly the same amount it typically spends for fuel in a whole year.

The ensuing financial crisis rocked CPS, leading to an exodus of top leaders. A few weeks after the storm, CPS unleashed its legal assault on gas suppliers  even as customers and elected officials directed their anger at the utility after the deep freeze led to days-long blackouts.

On ExpressNews.com: Embattled CPS Energy head Paula Gold-Williams to step down in early 2022

CPS settled several of its lawsuits late last year, agreeing to pay suppliers $418 million. The utility has been charging ratepayers an average $1.26 per month since March to pay off that debt  a fee theyll see on their bills for the next 25 years.

As the final cases are added, that amount could nearly triple.

Since early this year, the utility has settled six more cases in which it was contesting a total of about $32 million in bills. The two remaining suits are contesting combined charges of about $350 million.

The $418 million in debt CPS agreed to last year was packaged into a so-called regulatory asset, allowing the utility to pay it off over time and leading to the current bump in customers bills.

But CPS and the city structured the asset to absorb up to $1 billion in debt if CPS is forced to pay the entire storm-related bill. Because it wont disclose details of the settlements, its unknown whether that will be necessary.

In January, CPS interim President and CEO Rudy Garza said the monthly charge to ratepayers for the debt would probably increase to $3 or $3.50 after all suits are resolved.

The utility would have to return to City Council to receive approval for that.

Along with the March increase for storm-related debt, City Council approved a general rate increase that raised bills by about $5 on average. CPS said it was needed to boost employee pay and bolster technology and infrastructure.

The rate increases, higher natural gas prices and record high temperatures combined to push up the average CPS customers bill 25 percent in May from a year earlier.

On ExpressNews.com: CPS customers bills jump 25 percent in May from a year ago, a windfall for city of San Antonio

18 suits, 16 settled

In all, CPS sued 18 energy companies  including two Energy Transfer subsidiaries in a single lawsuit  and was sued by two others, Enterprise Products and ConocoPhillips.

But for now, CPS wont discuss the settlements and their impact on ratepayers, citing its ongoing litigation against Dallas-based Energy Transfer and Houston-based Enterprise. CPS said all of its other cases were dismissed.

Separately, the Texas Supreme Court is expected to decide soon whether to hear CPS Energys case against the Electric Reliability Council of Texas over, among other things, bills for wholesale electricity CPS bought from the state grid operator during the winter storm.

CPS has focused largely on its battle against Energy Transfer, in which the utility is apparently contesting roughly $250 million. The suit against Enterprise is challenging another $100 million in bills.

CPS has fought hard to keep the terms of settlement agreements with gas suppliers secret. The Texas Attorney Generals Office sided with CPS and earlier this year blocked an effort by the Express-News to obtain the settlement agreements.

Many of the recent filings in its ongoing lawsuits involve CPS lawyers seeking to block release of the settlements, which CPS calls irrelevant to the two cases at hand.

CPS defended its overall strategy in its statement, saying that launching the legal fight has saved San Antonio households from paying the full bill for storm-related charges. Its possible that gas suppliers sought to settle with CPS to avoid having to defend in court the high prices they charged as the state suffered during the storm.

On ExpressNews.com: CPS Energy lawsuits face slim chances of victory, raising specter of rate hike

While we cannot speak about individual cases, there are a host of reasons why parties to a lawsuit choose to settle and we disagree with the implication that any of these disputes were settled due to a lack of confidence in CPS Energys claims, CPS said. Any resolution of these disputes were completed with the best interest of our customers and the community in mind.

Why the secrecy?

During the storm last year, CPS said it saw natural gas prices  which were typically from $2.50 to $3 per unit at the time  rise slightly to $3.25 on Feb. 10 as the deadly winter storm took hold. But by Feb. 16, Energy Transfer Partners was charging CPS $400 per unit of gas, an increase of more than 15,000 percent from what CPS ws paying at the start of the month.

No wiggle room, an Energy Transfer gas trader told CPS about the price on Feb. 16, according to court filings. We have to hold at $400.

CPS also was facing astronomical prices from more than a dozen other gas suppliers.

Prior to the storm, the highest price recorded for natural gas sold in Texas since 1994 was about $25 per unit at the Houston Ship Channel hub, according to CPS. That was in 2003.

As it contested bills from gas firms after the winter storm, CPS determined that $38.83 per unit of gas was the maximum price it would pay. Any price above that was unreasonable, unconscionable, and unlawful, the utility said in its lawsuits.

In court, it has declined to say how it arrived at that figure beyond saying that it has conducted a comprehensive analysis that included looking at factors such as natural gas prices during previous disasters and reviewing price gouging statutes in other U.S. states.

But lawyers for Energy Transfer have argued CPS is trying to conceal its settlement agreements because, they say, CPS likely settled cases by paying suppliers more than $38 per unit, in effect paying what it is arguing should be an illegal price.

And while CPS has declined to discuss the cases, its top lawyer has said previously not to assume CPS is sending cash outlays to gas companies as part of the settlements.

CPS has declined to explain that further. But it sued a wide swath of the gas suppliers operating in Texas, so Energy Transfer lawyers suggested CPS may have mended those relationships by agreeing to pay down the disputed amounts over time through other natural gas purchases.

In other words, CPS may have agreed to pay suppliers a premium on future natural gas purchases in order to maintain a supply of gas and also pay off its storm-related debt.

Settlement agreements are relevant because they prove  or likely prove  that CPS Energy paid more than $38.83/MMBtu for natural gas purchased during Winter Storm Uri, Energy Transfer lawyers said in a court filing seeking to unveil the settlement agreements between CPS and other gas suppliers. That revelation undermines CPS Energys core defense, which is probably why CPS Energy is fighting so hard to conceal the settlement agreements.

From loud to quiet

In any case, CPS Energys series of quiet settlements this year comes after the utility made a number of much trumpeted public announcements when it first filed the lawsuits.

S.A. VOTES Voter Guide: What to know for the Texas runoff election A breakdown of key state and local races and candidates in the May 24 primary runoff.

Shortly after it launched its legal fight last year, Carolyn Shellman, the utilitys former general counsel, and two of her top deputies left CPS over disagreements with former CEO Paula Gold-Williams, who herself resigned in October. The nature of the disagreements that led to the lawyers departure remains unclear, but it was notable that Shellman exited abruptly just after the major legal effort began. She had spent 15 years as the utilitys top lawyer.

Shellman has declined multiple interview requests.

On ExpressNews.com: As CPS Energy names interim general counsel, it says outside lawyer tab to hit $10 million this year

Its also not clear what implications a CPS victory in court against Energy Transfer and Enterprise Products would have on the Texas natural gas market broadly.

Since there were many transactions between utilities and gas companies for natural gas priced above $38.83 per unit, a court ruling that prices above that number amounted to illegal price-gouging could raise questions about whether and how to amend or unwind those gas purchases made in February 2021.

And a CPS victory in court could set a precedent in future disputes over natural gas transactions in which gas priced higher than $38.83 per unit is considered generally unlawful, which could effectively cap the price of natural gas going forward.

If you put a max price you can charge, the immediate result is shortages, said James Coleman, a professor of energy law at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. If youre going to have a market system, its really hard to do price caps.

He suggested that CPS Energy winning in court against gas suppliers could hurt the states natural gas and electric system.

Were price jumps rational?

During the freeze last year, natural gas wellheads and pipelines froze, severely restricting the supply of natural gas available on the market. Energy Transfer and other companies that reported record earnings after the storm argued they were well-prepared market participants able to deliver gas in the frigid conditions when other companies could not.

If firms know theyll have an opportunity to reap huge profits if they keep operating during an extreme weather event, theyre more likely to make investments that ensure natural gas stays flowing, Coleman said.

A lot of natural gas companies are saying, I missed out on a lot of profit because I didnt ensure I could provide natural gas during this crisis. So theyre working to do that, he said.

If one of these suits was actually tried and ends up in a surprising decision,  such as CPS not having to pay its gas suppliers  absolutely that will have a negative impact on companies incentive to invest going forward, he said.

On ExpressNews.com: Report: CPS hasnt explored all options to close Spruce coal plant early

CPS is not the only utility arguing against the storms price jumps. For example, Vistra Corp. of Irving has also argued gas suppliers engaged in price-gouging during the winter storm. And the Brazos Electric Power Cooperative filed for bankruptcy after the winter storm as a result of the high gas prices.

In 2021, CPS bought about 30 percent of its natural gas under longer-term contracts at fixed prices. But the volume of gas CPS needs changes day to day, with San Antonio weather being the biggest wildcard.

CPS purchases the rest of its gas on the Texas spot market as needed. There, prices can shift based on the most recent average prices paid at any one of several in-state gas trading hubs. But Garza has said hedging a much larger portion of the utilitys gas supplies would be prohibitively expensive.

No entity is so risk-averse that they're going to hedge 100 percent (of their natural gas fuel supply) because they can't afford it, Garza said in April.

Still, since the winter storm, CPS has said it boosted the amount of gas in storage and locked in prices for a bigger volume of natural gas. It also revamped its communication system to alert customers about extreme conditions and encourage households and businesses to conserve power. And CPS redid its system for managing rolling power outages, aiming to avoid households again being left without power for long stretches of time.

In the bigger picture, Coleman said the worldwide shift toward wind, solar and natural gas for energy is creating problems for grid operators around the world. Intensifying global demand for natural gas and inadequate investments in power generation  theres little enthusiasm to build new nuclear or coal-fired power plants, for example  are translating to higher energy prices for consumers around the globe.

Politicians are making decisions about should we have price caps? How do we encourage consumers to reduce their use? How do we encourage energy companies to increase output, and yet everybody hates super high prices? Coleman said.

This problem that Texas experienced in (February 2021) is increasingly  and will be increasingly around the world  the big problem with energy policy, he said.

diego.mendoza-moyers@express-news.net
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Despite blistering South Texas temperatures, part of SpaceXs Starbase compound in Boca Chica appeared to be covered in snow in aerial photographs circulating on social media this week.

It was actually the result of a July 8 liquid nitrogen leak at the launch pad, state and federal regulators confirmed late Thursday. The leak occurred three days before an explosion under a SpaceX booster rocket at the site Monday afternoon.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and Galveston office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers confirmed the leak.

On ExpressNews.com: SpaceX booster test explosion, fire slows companys progress toward orbital launch from Boca Chica

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is aware of the liquid nitrogen discharge that occurred fully within the boundaries of SpaceX property, the agency said in a statement. The discharge did not impact TPWD property.

The Corps of Engineers said it was notified of the spill but was not investigating or inspecting it. We recommend you reach out to SpaceX for specifics, it said in a statement.

SpaceX didnt respond to requests for comment Friday.

Liquid nitrogen is a colorless, odorless gas that condenses to liquid at minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit. Its vapor can cause cold burns, frostbite and permanent eye damage. Individuals exposed can face suffocation or death.

While Elon Musks SpaceX powers its Raptor 2 engines with liquid oxygen and liquid methane, the aerospace company uses liquid nitrogen as fuel to launch its Starship rockets.

McAllen-based Starbase photographer RGV Aerial Photography uploaded a YouTube video of the snow-like formation of liquid nitrogen at Starbase on Saturday. The videos have since been shared on various social media platforms amid a growing debate over the possible environmental impacts of SpaceX operations.

Mondays explosion also raised such concerns, coming amid routine testing of SpaceXs Super Heavy booster in preparation for its first-ever Starship orbital launch from Starbase, which is on a stretch of land near the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge.

S.A. VOTES Voter Guide: What to know for the Texas runoff election A breakdown of key state and local races and candidates in the May 24 primary runoff.

After the explosion, Musk tweeted: Yeah, actually not good. Team is assessing damage.

On ExpressNews.com: FAA: SpaceX launches wont cause significant environmental consequences but changes are needed

The events come about a month after the Federal Aviation Administration concluded an environmental review of SpaceXs plans for orbital launches from the 47-acre facility, issuing a finding of no significant impact. The FAA said it would require SpaceX to take more than 75 actions to mitigate environmental impacts before issuing the operator license needed to launch from the site.

After, Musk said the company could handle the mitigation steps and be ready to launch as early as this month.

It was unclear Friday how the explosion and liquid nitrogen leak would affect SpaceXs permit or plans to launch, though the company reportedly resumed testing at the site Thursday.

eric.killelea@express-news.net
KIN MAN HUI/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

A San Antonio police officer is recovering after he was stabbed in the neck while trying to break up an argument.

Christopher Perry, 23, was arrested on suspicion of attempted capital murder of a peace officer in connection with the assault. The unidentified officer is a five-year veteran with SAPD.
boonchai wedmakawand/Getty Images

A Fort Worth police officer is accused of destroying images of child pornography off of a man's computer, the police department said in a news release.

Sgt. Rodsdricke Martin was fired Tuesday following an administrative investigation into the January incident. He was also indicted by a Grand Jury for tampering with physical evidence related to the case in March.
Yvette Justice Fleming

Ordinary people thought it may be an ostrich, but it was really an emu that got loose in north Houston Thursday afternoon.

Yvette Justice Fleming caught the exotic bird on video as police followed the emu around a parking lot.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

The U.S. Supreme Courts recent ruling that limits the Environmental Protection Agencys authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants could affect the agencys future regulatory capacity, though it will have little immediate effect on San Antonios city-owned electric company.

In a 6-3 decision in West Virginia v. EPA, the Supreme Court ruled that the EPA overstepped its authority under the Clean Air Act when it issued the never-implemented Obama-era rule called the Clean Power Plan, which sought to establish guidelines to limit carbon emissions from existing power plants in an effort to address climate change. The Courts ruling says the EPA can no longer implement sweeping, large-scale regulations that are likely to affect the economy unless Congress specifically authorizes it.

Although the Clean Power Plan never took effect, CPS Energy has taken steps to lower its carbon emissions, having reduced its use of coal to 18 percent, exceeding the goal sought by 2030 under the Clean Power Plan.

On ExpressNews.com: U.S. Supreme Court rules EPA overstepped in climate regulation

But while CPS is largely unaffected by the recent ruling, one CPS board trustee believes the wider implications of this decision could be harmful for the environmental movement just because of all the things we dont know yet.

Agencies like the EPA might read this decision today and say, Oh, we were going to do X, but now we cant because [the court] is going to strike it down, said Francine Romero, who is a CPS trustee and chair of the Department of Public Administration at the University of Texas at San Antonio. If the EPA was challenged now, then it could be shot down again.

With the Supreme Courts majority opinion saying that Congress  as as policy-making body  must authorize major regulations related to climate action, many environmentalists are concerned that nothing will ever change.

Romero said that although certain environmental rules that some people have sought may never become reality, the EPA is not necessarily devoid of power.

The Clean Power Plan was a very ambitious plan, she said. So it might be that the EPA must work at a much smaller scale now.

Rule was never in effect

In 2009, during the Obama administration, the EPA determined that it needed to regulate greenhouse gases, which it found to be a danger to human health. To do so, it looked to the Clean Air Act, enacted in 1963 as a means to reduce and control air pollution nationwide.

While the EPA routinely regulates new sources of air pollution, part of the Clean Air Act enables the EPA to regulate existing sources, said Victor Flatt, University of Houston Law Center professor and co-director of the Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Center. The problem, he said, comes where industry is called on to use the best system of emission reduction.

The term was just never fully defined, Flatt said.

On ExpressNews.com: Councilwoman, environmental advocates push for stricter federal regulations on CPS Spruce Plant

Under the Clean Power Plan, the Obama administration proposed that the best system of emission reduction entailed requiring utilities and states to add more renewable power, such as wind and solar, and to convert coal-fired power plants to natural gas, Flatt said.

The Clean Power Plans interpretation of best system of emission reduction was almost immediately challenged in court, and the Supreme Court issued a stay blocking the plans implementation. The stay remained in place for years, Flatt said.

Then, when Biden was elected, he said they werent going to use the (Clean Power Plan) anymore, he said. Thats whats so weird about the Supreme Court taking the case. The rule was never even in effect.

And under the Supreme Courts ruling, the EPA can devise no such rule in the future on its own. The ruling follows whats called the Major Questions Doctrine, which dictates that Congress must unambiguously authorize administrative agencies to make decisions of vast economic and political significance for those decisions to be enforceable.

Congress has to be explicit in what they tell the agency to do, Flatt said. And they didnt explicitly give the EPA the power to do that.

Already making moves

CPS Energy said it is reviewing the West Virginia v. EPA ruling and its potential ramifications. Meanwhile, CPS is committed to decarbonizing its operations and transitioning to cleaner energy to ensure climate resiliency.

CPS Energy is already making the move to cleaner energy, Romero said. I think a lot of cities are in the same position as them. Theyre already moving toward decarbonization.

CPS noted that it closed its oldest coal-fired units in 2018 and has since detailed future closures of its natural gas units and options for closing its two remaining coal units. CPS also supports the citys Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, which includes a resolution to become carbon neutral by 2050.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonios CPS Energy eyes zero-carbon project at coal plant

But even as CPS and other utilities work to reduce their carbon footprints independent of government mandates, many environmentalists remained worried for the long term. They say the significance of the Supreme Courts ruling has less to do with the Clean Power Plan today and more to do with the future of climate change and the EPA.

Were in political gridlock right now. There are elections coming up. Were going to have a completely new House of Representatives in 2024, and one third of the Senate will be up for election, said Bill Piatt, law professor at St. Marys University School of Law. We have to elect people into office who are going to redraft legislation and give the EPA the power it needs, but everything is in the air right now.

Piatt said environmental issues now need to be fought over at the state level.

With the electricity sector generally adopting more renewable energy on its own, environmentalists are concerned about the EPAs ability to regulate other industries, including petroleum producers and refineries.

Newer forms of regulation  such as emissions trading, which provides economic incentives for reducing pollutants  could be harder to implement, given that Congress never authorized them, Flatt said. This means the regulation of greenhouse gasses will be less flexible and more costly in the future.

This wont stop the EPA from their ability to regulate pollutants, but it will make it slower, Flatt said. And for a lot of people, theres not enough time for that.

Elena Bruess writes for the Express-News through Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. ReportforAmerica.org. elena.bruess@express-news.net
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Family members of school shooting victims targeted the Houston home and congressional office of Sen. Ted Cruz on Thursday, the first stop in their nationwide school bus caravan demonstrating for tougher gun regulations.

Fifty-two buses and 20 parents, in what organizers called The NRA Childrens Museum, first drove to the Republican senators home in River Oaks, then drove around his offices at Louisiana and Pierce streets.

Manuel Oliver, whose 17-year-old son Joaquin Oliver was shot and killed in 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., said the campaign is targeting lawmakers who accept campaign contributions from the NRA, hoping to influence voters before the mid-term elections in November.

My wife Patricia and myself, we have been trying to find non-traditional ways of fighting against gun violence, Oliver said, noting the 4,300 seats in the buses represent the number of children killed by gun violence since 2020.

On ExpressNews.com: Texas teachers protest Sen. Ted Cruzs response to Uvalde massacre: Here to teach, not to police.

The busses include personal items from the some of the slain children.

It's very graphic, but yet, between other things, we carry items inside that belong to our kids. When I say our kids, I'm talking about parents from all around the country.

Among the items is a letter written by Olivers son when he was 12 for a school project on gun control. The letter called for universal background checks.

Most of you have a problem with the idea of universal back round (sic) check. Why are you mad that theres a back round check its for your own good maybe you are fond of having crazy people with death machines, Joaquin wrote in 2013. You shouldnt have anything against back round checks if youre innocent.

Oliver said this is the first time his family has shared his sons letter. He delivered a copy of it to Cruzs home where a security guard took it and said he would give it to the senator.

Upon visiting Cruzs office, demonstrators were met again with one of Cruzs representatives who said the senator was in Washington D.C.

Its hard to find them (legislators) for obvious reasons, Oliver said. They are not going to show their faces but in the long term they will need to start giving answers because this is huge. These are items from American kids that died because of the inaction of our politicians.

On Monday, Oliver heckled President Joe Biden during a speech promoting a bipartisan gun control law. Biden told him to sit down during the incident.

The parents participating in the caravan initially gathered Wednesday at a parking lot outside of the city to create a bus formation in the shape of an assault rifle before Thursdays planned action.

Oliver hopes to bring awareness of the legislators who accept NRA campaign contributions while sharing with the public the personal messages and items on and inside the buses. He also hopes other parents will join the movement as the group visits other locations.

We can find ways to reach people with an easy language to understand, like a museum, Oliver said. When you get into a museum, you learn things.

joel.umanzor@chron.com
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Days before its next board meeting  which has no provision for a board discussion of its suspended police chief  the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District has been working on the nuts and bolts of a fall reopening plan made extraordinary by the mass shooting at one of its elementary campuses on May 24.

Among other non-routine decisions, the district has finalized plans on where to place the 500 students who had attended Robb Elementary School, where an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 students and two teachers.

Superintendent Hal Harrell has been publicizing the plan this week, including safety and security upgrades. Left unmentioned was the fate of Pete Arredondo, the school districts police chief suspended with pay shortly after Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw blamed him for the failure of law enforcement officers to rapidly confront the shooter.

The escalating anger at the police response  and at the transparency of the investigations of it  has been on weekly display at City Council meetings. Arredondo resigned from the council days before the release of video Tuesday showing dozens of officers from multiple agencies waiting in a hallway outside the two Robb classrooms where surviving victims spent more than an hour before they were rescued and the gunman was killed.

On Friday, the school district announced its board had scheduled a 45-minute special meeting starting at 5:30 p.m. Monday, just before its regular monthly meeting, specifically to offer the opportunity for open dialogue with our community.

The special meeting agenda said the discussion  in an orderly fashion  is to focus on the changes and updates for the 2022-2023 school year, to include questions regarding safety and security plans. It was unclear if the employment status of the districts police chief fit that topic. The regular meeting had a 15-minute forum scheduled, with speakers limited to three minutes on any topic.

The board can respond to questions at the special meeting but apparently wont talk about Arredondo at the regular meeting  no provision for discussing personnel matters appears on the agenda, including on a list of topics the board might address in a closed session.

On ExpressNews.com: Officers to testify on Uvalde shooting  but not Pete Arredondo

The agenda did include a resolution to send to Gov. Greg Abbott, and trustees were expected to set a start date for the fall semester that will be later than usual.

The delay will allow us to better address staff and student needs for a successful school year, Harrell wrote.

The district is working with the Texas Education Agency and the Texas School Safety Center to conduct safety and security audits of all district property. The agencies have provided initial recommendations that the district is acting on with $1 million in funding donated by the Las Vegas Raiders.

Current projects include the installation of new perimeter fencing, adding security cameras, upgrading doors, door locks and access points and hiring additional district police officers and security personnel. Harrell said interviews for new officers started this week.

Orders are being placed right now, Anne Marie Espinoza, the districts spokeswoman, said Thursday. It is our hope and intent these get done before the first day of school happens.

The districts own budget will cover salaries for the additional security personnel after the Raiders donation runs out. But other gifts from a sympathetic nation have been mentioned in the districts recent back-to-school announcements.

School supplies for every student will be free, donated by a partnership of Goldman Sachs and Education Products, Inc. in a gift worth $100,000, the districts parent-teacher organizations said.

Kits will ship directly to your childs campus to be given to their teacher and will be available for you at Meet the Teacher in August, the district said Friday.

Robb Elementary will be demolished and a new school constructed to replace it, made possible by $10 million pledged by H-E-B and the family of its chairman, Charles Butt.

The district previously said most Robb students would be shifted to Flores Elementary, but after some adjustments, Robbs second and third graders now are slated to attend Uvalde Elementary as third and fourth graders, Harrell wrote.

Uvalde Elementary is a new creation, to be located at the Benson Educational Complex. Robb Elementary teachers, staff and administrators will move with them.

Fourth graders who were at Robb will become fifth graders at Flores Elementary. Dalton Elementarys first graders, who normally would have gone to Robb as second graders, will stay at Dalton another year.

The Flores change is because, as we started looking at different plans, the Benson campus lends itself for an elementary because it was one before, Espinoza said. It will allow us more adequate space and resources to meet all the needs of our students and not squeeze four grade levels onto one campus.

Crossroads Academy, an alternative high school, had been at the Benson Educational Complex but will be relocated to provide more space for the Uvalde Elementary students.

As we continue to prepare for the 2022-2023 school year, a lot of work is still to be done, and many questions are yet to be answered, Harrell wrote. We are committed to working with you to understand your concerns so that they can be appropriately addressed and we will continue to share updates and information throughout the summer.

claire.bryan@express-news.net
Since a tractor-trailer carrying migrants was found on Quintana Road last month, the once desolate road has given way to an ongoing funeral procession and pilgrimage.

Since the day dozens of migrants were found dead inside a tractor-trailer on Quintana Road last month, the once desolate road has given way to an ongoing funeral procession and pilgrimage.

Dedicated to the 53 migrants who died as a result of being transported in a tractor-trailer without ventilation and water, the now-sacred site underwent another transformation within a matter of days.

It has grown from a memorial to the 53 to one for all migrants whove died making their journeys to the United States, a tangible representation of all that combined loss.

On ExpressNews.com: Ayala: Human smuggling tragedy calls for compassion toward migrants, not contempt

People from all over the country and Mexico have been drawn here, including a woman whose daughter was among the 53.

Union Pacific land lies on one side of the memorial, where an easement contains at least 54 crosses stuck in concrete by a brigade of mourners who took no credit.

Fifty-three crosses, some painted pink, others black, have joined a larger one that depicts Jesus Christ.

They make up Los 53 Migrantes Memorial, as its Facebook page is named. The hashtags it uses say so much, #WallOfCrosses, #ParedDeCruzes, #AmnestyNow.

Mourners have gathered here to recite rosaries in the Catholic tradition and evangelical prayers from a bullhorn. Native Americans have offered blessings in the form of sage smudging. Mariachi players and folklorico dancers have made their way here, too.

The memorial has grown organically, without a plan or design.

Sandragrace Martinez showed up June 29 after all the emergency vehicles were cleared. She brought a case of bottled water. It grew from there.

An artist painting a mural at the site offered shade under his tent. On her second day, another tent appeared. She offers free counseling and free hugs there.

Martinez, 48, is a licensed professional counselor who has become the de facto caretaker of the memorial, and she runs it with a corps of volunteers.

During the Democratic primary, Martinez ran unsuccessfully for state land commissioner, but thats a remote memory now.

Martinez is now focused on how to make this memorial a permanent one, even after her folding table, chairs and igloo were stolen.

New equipment turned up.

Martinez has had company. Her friend Grace Hernandez, 69, who represents a group called Mujeres Hispanas por Mejor Justicia, has stopped by.

It has been nonstop, Martinez says of the steady flow of traffic that begins late weekday afternoons and runs into all-day weekends.

The pilgrimages arent organized, but Martinez says people have come from as far away as Oregon, North Carolina and Florida and as far south as the Mexican states of Zacatecas and Colima.

On ExpressNews.com: Ayala: Human smuggling tragedy calls for compassion toward migrants, not contempt

For some migrants and their families, especially for the undocumented who cant go home for funerals, the memorial de los 53 has become the place at which to mourn, say goodbye, lay flowers and pin a picture.

Others are erecting walls of steel between two nations, Martinez said. The Quintana Road memorial has erected a wall of crosses.

In June, Martinez was in Buffalo, N.Y., for the 30-day anniversary of a fatal shooting at a Tops grocery store, where 10 people were gunned down.

Martinez then traveled to Washington, D.C., where Uvalde residents testified before a House committee about the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School.

She waited in the hallway outside to offer counseling afterward, she said.

Martinez wasnt assigned to perform any of these tasks, but the bilingual counselor says she has been drawn to them to offer help.

Her nonprofit Mental Wellness Connections Inc., offers free and low-cost mental health services and immigrant resources, she said.

So far, the memorial is a self-funded project. In addition to water, she has set up two portable toilets on site and has put $10,000 of her own money into an account to fund the site, she said.

Ramon Vasquez of the Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation and Gabriel Velasquez of Avenida Guadalupe have offered their help.

Over the weekend, they escorted attendees of the national UnidosUS conference, which convened in San Antonio, to the site. They included Ana Marie Argilagos, president and CEO of Hispanics in Philanthropy, and Marco A. Davis, president and CEO of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.

The site has triggered emotions wrapped up in other losses and traumas, she said.

The chilled water bottles she hands out for free are symbolic of so much more. They thirst, not just physically but spiritually, she said.

On Monday, it was so hot she told volunteers to rest. Theyve decided to keep their vigils to Wednesday afternoons through Sundays.

So far, no one has asked them to leave. A Union Pacific representative asked that a mural be moved slightly, she said, and the rail company will put up temporary fencing to keep people a safe distance from the tracks.

Martinez said she has contacted the offices of District 4 City Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia to discuss making the memorial a permanent one and plans for a ceremony July 27, marking 30 days since the tractor-trailer was discovered.

Most of the people whove visited here are humble. They bring their families and flags representing their countries of origin.

Only one moment has given her pause.

A trucker drove by. From where she was sitting, Martinez saw the driver, blonde and blue-eyed, an image of a Confederate flag inside his cab.

Her signs were in full view: Free Hugs, Free Mental Health, Immigrant Rights Matter.

Then he showed up in front of her. Im not racist, he said. I know you saw that flag.

He wondered if hugs were really free to someone like him.

He came around (the table), hugged me and balled, Martinez said. She remembers he said, This isnt right. First the kids, and now this.

Its one of the thousands of interactions with mourners, all with distinctive stories, that continue to show why the site of such trauma might also be one of healing.

eayala@express-news.net
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

The phrase We settle our differences at the ballot box carries more weight in the aftermath of Jan. 6 and the conspiracy to overthrow the 2020 presidential election.

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chair of the House select committee on Jan. 6, invoked the words as he opened Tuesdays hearing, calling them the most basic way to explain the importance of elections in the United States.

Sometimes my choice prevails. Sometimes yours does. But its that simple. We cast our votes. We count the votes, he said. If something seems off with the results, we can challenge them in court. And then we accept the results.

But misinformation and disinformation about election integrity have placed the nation in a precarious position as we approach midterm elections and the 2024 presidential race.

On ExpressNews.com: Voices of vets join chorus for gun safety

Many believe the election system is flawed and assume the intractable belief that either my candidate won or the other side cheated.

For some, the idea justified harassment, violence and intimidation after the 2020 election. It fueled the Big Lie of widespread voter fraud that brought a mob to the Capitol on that cold January day 18 months ago, and its still percolating in our national dialogue.

Among the Jan. 6 committees most damning revelations are the continued threats to U.S. elections and democracy.

Poll workers are a vital and often overlooked part of the democratic process, but a nationwide shortage of these civil servants makes voting more difficult with fewer polling sites, increased wait times and less transparency.

On ExpressNews.com: What we expected from officials after Uvalde  and what we got

This puts us all at risk, and several organizations have stepped up to recruit the next generation of poll workers.

One nonprofit and nonpartisan group called We the Veterans hopes to enlist more than 100,000 veterans and military family members into the ranks as part of its Vet the Vote campaign.

According to Vet the Vote, more than 130,000 poll workers have stopped serving over the last three midterm elections and 66 percent of election officials found it challenging to fill open positions in 2018. Aging is also a concern, with 60 percent of poll workers older than 61, including 25 percent over 70.

The groups leaders told me they see working at polling sites as another way for the countrys more than 17 million vets and millions more military family members to serve.

All of us in some way, shape or form have made a commitment to support our country and sacrifice for our country, said Anil Nathan, an Air Force vet and We the Veterans co-executive director.

On ExpressNews.com: At a cemetery in Uvalde, an everlasting grief

He cited the Reagan National Defense Survey that pegs the military as one of the nations most trusted entities, with 45 percent of Americans reporting a great deal of trust and confidence in the institution. And that statistic is troubling when you consider the number was 70 percent in 2018.

The real challenge, Nathan said, is helping people realize that a lack of poll workers is a true crisis for our democracy.

Ellen Gustafson, a Navy spouse and co-executive director of We the Veterans, said veterans and family members are a talented and dedicated workforce whose presence at polling sites will remind voters that fellow citizens run the countrys free and fair elections.

Theres a huge benefit to this becoming a new social norm for our community of veterans and military members, she said. When you leave service, or if youre a military spouse, or even a military kid, this is something you can do to play your part in democracy, regardless of wearing the uniform.

Joe Plenzler, a retired Marine and We the Veterans board member, isnt just calling for vets to help; hes also signed up to serve as an election judge.

It doesnt matter what political party you may or may not belong to, but if the sanctity of belief in elections is threatened, then everyone loses, he said. For me, its all about maintaining our system of governance, because we can either duke it out in the ballot box, which is where weve traditionally done that, or the alternatives to that are less than optimal.

Veterans or family members can get more information at vetthe.vote.

The democracy we save might be our own.

brandon.lingle@express-news.net
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

As we inch closer to the November elections, be prepared to hear a chorus of complaints from Republicans that Democrats are dangerous socialists. This rant has gone on for years and itll continue this fall.

Its a silly accusation, and most Republicans making it dont have the slightest idea what they are talking about.

Take Sen. Ted Cruzs comments in May when he said, Socialism doesnt work. Its produced misery and suffering and poverty and death wherever its been applied.

Really? Tell that to Finland or Norway.

Cruz would have us believe the models for American socialists are Cuba or the Soviet Union. Nothing could be further from the truth. The models for American socialists are the nations of Scandinavia, where health care is a right, education is superb and democracy flourishes.

How do I know this? Because I have studied socialism closely and been a member of the Democratic Socialists of America for years.

I learned about socialism from two people when I was younger  my father, who was an historian and community college president, and an older friend in my hometown of Dodge City, Kan., named Henry Peterson.

Henry was a Danish immigrant who had a deep commitment to peace, economic justice, and improving the lives of working class men and women. Henry was a candidate for Kansas governor back in the 1930s on the Socialist Party ticket.

Henrys hero was the famous American socialist Eugene V. Debs, the labor organizer who ran for president a number of times and was the first of four notable socialists in the 20th and 21st centuries, the other three being Norman Thomas, Michael Harrington and Bernie Sanders.

Debs ran for president in 1920 from a federal prison cell in Atlanta, where hed been sentenced for advocating noncompliance with the draft. He got more than 900,000 votes.

At his 1918 sentencing hearing, Debs delivered a memorable speech, declaring: While there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

Thomas, a Presbyterian minister, ran for president on the Socialist ticket in 1928, the first of six attempts at the office. He was one of the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union and the author of more than 20 books. An advocate for international peace, Thomas was a vocal critic of the war in Vietnam.

On Thomass 80th birthday, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote: I can think of no man who has done more than you to inspire the vision of a society free of injustice and exploitation.

Harrington became the most visible American socialist following the publication of The Other America in 1962, a work that became a centerpiece in Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnsons War on Poverty.

Harrington was the founder 40 years ago of the Democratic Socialists of America, the largest socialist organization in the U.S. today with nearly 100,000 members and chapters in every state. He was a university professor and a prolific writer.

Sanders is a U.S. senator from Vermont who ran two strong campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination, in 2016 and 2020. A strong backer of labor and single payer health care, he is a supporter of the Green New Deal.

Sanders is a supporter of LGBTQ rights and is pro-choice on abortion. He favors raising the minimum wage and has high favorability ratings in Vermont and nationally.

Democratic Socialists have supported legislation that became Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, the 40-hour workweek, paid maternity and paternity leave, government support for environmental protection and subsidized mortgages.

Current campaigns are centered on the New Green Deal and tuition support for college education. According to a 2019 YouGov poll, 70 percent of millennials would support a socialist political candidate. Little surprise there.

Writing in 2020, millennial author Nathan J. Robinson explained: We all look at migrants trapped in President Donald Trumps squalid jails, the homeless people sleeping at the foot of luxury towers, the people trying to pay their medical bills on GoFundMe, and we are horrified. Our mindset is quite simply that the intolerable cannot be tolerated. And if you believe that, you just might be a socialist yourself.

Roger C. Barnes is professor emeritus of sociology at the University of the Incarnate Word.
I read with interest the July 5 article In Llano, readers fight for banned books. Should communities censor images, books, art, music not congruent to the morals and standards of a community, regardless of how people feel? Is there a moral and philosophical justification for censoring offensive things?

I dont think censorship should be decided at large.

As a retired teacher, I have the luxury of reading the classics with a leisurely eye toward dialectic discussions with my good friend Rafael Castillo. I asked him whether censorship should be allowed in public libraries. He smiled and asked, What if we allowed books on how to make pipe bombs in school libraries?

My reply took some intellectualizing and consultation with Plato the philosopher.

Platos book, The Republic, laid out his visionary ideal.

It was an ideal republic ruled by reason, not emotions. Plato saw his own democracy admired andromorphic gods who displayed the worst human foibles. He argued that flawed ideas must be rigidly controlled and censored because people tend to be easily influenced by evil ideas and thereby degrade the body politic.

Plato began his critique of Greek religion because the education system required memorization; Homers epics about the gods and their meddling and violence were taught to young boys and a few aristocratic girls. These Greek gods routinely committed adultery, rape, bribery and other cruel acts. He questioned their divinity and the requirement of depravity, murder and infanticide as rational and good.

Plato admired virtue, honesty and justice in people, and argued that actions of good people were greater than the immortality of the gods. As such, young people must not be exposed to tales and stories of wicked behavior, lest they become corrupted.

Who decides what is good and what is bad? Whose values are being propagated? Castillo asked.

Of course, the values of the guardians, Plato argued, require that for the state to be good, it must have good citizens. All good citizens are those who wish to be worthy and good. For this to occur, Plato insisted, citizens must be well educated, and this means children must not be exposed to evil ideas or images. It is therefore imperative that the state control education, as well as the other arts, to prevent moral corruption in the population.

Given all this, would Plato approve of smashing statues in our own day?

Perhaps. Why should we use tax dollars to erect statues of slaveholders and military officers who fought to maintain an evil institution? In Platos Republic, the mob violence of Jan. 6 on our Capitol would never have been approved because it was both offensive and contrary to the virtuous and the good.

Because of this, Plato taught democracy would always fail because it produces tyrants and because ordinary people can be duped into supporting strongman rule by cunning, false promises and lies. In time, these tyrants would become increasingly corrupt, egotistical and whimsical, surrounded by sycophants and inflicting misery on the very people they promised to save.

If political events of our day anger us, finding the culprit requires us to only look in the mirror.

Julian S. Garcia is a retired teacher and former writer with ViAztlan: An International Journal of Arts and Letters. He is the author of La Fantastica Curandera and other stories.
When Tom Tugendhat was about 20, he felt he needed a better understanding of North Africa. So he traveled overland from Morocco to Israel, skipping only Libya because it wouldnt let him in. Much of the journey he did on foot.

Why North Africa? I asked when we spoke by phone recently. Because its  there? he replied half-jokingly, an echo of George Mallorys line about climbing Mount Everest. Unlike Mallory, Tugendhat survived the trip. He mastered Arabic in Yemen and worked as a journalist in Lebanon before turning to soldiery a few years later.

Tugendhat has survived a few other things on his way to becoming a contender for leader of Britains Conservative Party and thus Boris Johnsons successor as prime minister.

Among them: A 10-hour firefight during his service in Iraq, in which he was wounded twice by friendly fire. Service in Afghanistan, where he was decorated by the 82nd Airborne Division after the capture of Musa Qala  a rare distinction for a non-American. And opposition to Brexit, which might have spelled political death for him as a Tory had he not distinguished himself as Parliaments most compelling and credible voice on foreign affairs.

In the interest of full disclosure: Hes also managed to endure a friendship of many years with me.

Tugendhat is bidding for Conservative leadership at a bleak time for traditional parties of the center right, in Britain and other democracies. The basic problem: They are stale at their diminished center and nutty at their expanding fringe. To put it another way: Where there is sense, there is not much charisma; where there is charisma, there is almost no sense.

Thats been the pattern in Britain under the past dozen years of Tory leadership. There was the colorless and technocratic David Cameron, who lost the vote on Brexit. There was the colorless and overmatched Theresa May, who fumbled the execution of Brexit. There was the nothing if not colorful Boris Johnson, who got Brexit done (and in whom I placed modest hopes) but lacked the moral character and political principles to make it work.

Tugendhat, by contrast, represents three things the current party is not.

The first is an older ideal of conservatism, reminiscent of John McCains or Winston Churchills, in which a sense of honor (personal, martial and national) is paramount. If that seems fusty, its also the best possible cure to Johnsons political legacy, which has been the destruction of trust  in the Conservative Party, in government, in Britain itself.

The second is that Tugendhat, unlike the tax-raising Johnson and former chancellor Rishi Sunak, is serious in his philosophical commitment to economic freedom. We became a party that thought economics was about profit, not liberty, he told me. Liberty is not an economic project. But it will deliver growth, prosperity and happiness if you focus on freeing people from constraints.

The third is that Tugendhat is deeply knowledgeable about foreign affairs  and war. These days, that would be a vital asset not only for Britain but all of NATO.

Tugendhat received international praise last year after delivering a gut punch of a speech in the House of Commons, denouncing the Afghanistan withdrawal. The reason I was so angry is that I knew this would encourage our enemies, he said. The fundamental betrayal was of the British people and our allies, because our enemies would see us as weak.

Among those enemies is Vladimir Putin. How does the free world meet the challenge he poses in Ukraine? The Ukrainians are going through battlefield stocks in hours what we are supplying in weeks; we need to increase the rate of fire. The more important aim, he added, is to put Putin in a position where he thinks he might lose.

Only then will he negotiate  and only then will it be worth negotiating with him, Tugendhat said.

The West  Washington especially  could use a leader who thinks in these terms, particularly in the face of a protracted war in which Moscow may use its energy leverage over Europe to pressure Ukraine to negotiate an end to the war from a position of weakness. Doing what it takes to help Ukraine win may exhaust NATO, but falling short will kill both Ukraine and the alliance.

Tugendhat is probably the only leader in Britain who understands the stakes viscerally. There are Conservatives who will never forgive him for opposing Brexit, (hows that going, by the way?), but Brexit is an accomplished fact. The surest way to put a party on a path to defeat is for it to spend its time settling old scores rather than facing present or looming dangers. A West that confronts the challenges of war needs a warrior to lead it.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Texas is already guaranteed record-setting spending for a governor's race this year as Gov. Greg Abbott and Beto ORourke shatter previous fundraising records.

With almost four months to go before Election Day, Abbott and ORourke have raised $150 million, easily surpassing the combined $95 million Gov. Rick Perry and Democrat Tony Sanchez spent in 2002 and the combined $90 million Abbott and Democrat Wendy Davis spent in 2014.

The 2022 governors race is also set to become the most expensive campaign in state history, surpassing the $125 million that ORouke and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz spent on their 2018 battle for the U.S. Senate.

2018 FLASHBACK: Beto ORourke vs. Ted Crus is the most expensive U.S. Senate race in America

ORourke, the former congressman from El Paso, reported raising $27.6 million since Feb. 20, bringing his total to almost $41 million since entering the race in November 2021.

Im grateful for everyone who helped us raise $27.63 million in just over four months as we support the powerful work of our organizers and more than 78,000 volunteers, ORourke said.

Abbott, the two-term incumbent from Wichita Falls, announced he has raised $24.9 million since Feb. 20 and has raised over $109 million since the start of 2019 for his re-election .

Texans continue to show their support for Gov. Abbotts campaign by donating to his campaign, said Gardner Pate, chairman of the Texans for Greg Abbott Campaign. As we move into the heat of the summer campaign, were well positioned to fund all our campaign efforts.

The bulk of the money for the two campaigns is going to advertising.

LATINO VOTE: Gov. Greg Abbott spending early and big on Spanish-language ads against Beto ORourke

Abbott, who is seeking a third term as governor has already committed to nearly $20 million in ad buys for the general election. His campaign announced last month that they have already reserved more than $8.8 million for television ads, $2.75 million for Spanish-language advertising, and more than $8 million for highly targeted digital advertising.

ORourke has said he, too, will be pouring money into television ads and other forms of media but said as important as that is making sure they have a field operation where organizers and volunteers can blanket the state to turn out voters.

The most important thing we can be doing is meeting voters where they are, ORourke said during an interview at the Texas Democratic Convention in Dallas.

He said as big as his field operation was during the 2018 U.S. Senate race, what theyve seen already this year is topping that.

It has already far exceeded everything we did in 2018, ORourke said.

Texas is one of the most expensive states for political advertising because it has nearly two dozen major media markets.

ORourkes campaign emphasized that since February, it has received more than 511,000 contributions, averaging $54 per donation  which they say is a sign of how the campaign is supported by small-dollar donors and not big-money interests. Abbotts campaign reported 114,000 contributions, with more than 85 percent coming from Texas.

Abbotts campaign said one of the newer ways its reaching out to voters is through streaming services that take political advertising. They said they can hone their advertising to viewers based on demographics in ways traditional television ad buying doesnt.

We will be able to reach our voters, said Dave Carney, a senior campaign adviser for Abbott.

This week, Abbotts campaign announced it is putting up billboards along Interstate 35 aligning ORourke with President Joe Biden, whose approval ratings have bottomed out in Texas. Mark Miner, Abbotts campaign communications director, said they are mashing the two names together and calling it Team BIDO.

No matter how hard Beto tries to reinvent himself, Team BIDO will move Texas in the wrong direction, Miner said.

After he speaks at the Texas Democratic Convention on Friday night in Dallas, ORourke is planning another long road trip to promote his campaign. Starting Tuesday, ORourke is scheduled to hold 70 events over 49 days while hitting more than 65 counties.

jeremy.wallace@chron.com


Croatia Airlines is yet to make a decision on the renewal of its fleet, despite reports the carriers management has opted to order Airbus A220 jets. Following reports that Croatia Airlines Supervisory Board okayed an order for fifteen A220s, the Croatian carriers spokesperson, Davor Janusic, told EX-YU Aviation News, The mentioned topic wasn't on the agenda of Croatia Airlines' Supervisory Board and the company does not confirm the mentioned information". It has been almost a year since the carrier made contact with global aircraft manufacturers such as Airbus, Boeing and Embraer over a potential order. The company noted, Renewing Croatia Airlines fleet is of strategic importance for the company, although no final decision about the matter has been made yet. Croatia Airlines is yet to make a decision on the renewal of its fleet, despite reports the carriers management has opted to order Airbus A220 jets. Following reports that Croatia Airlines Supervisory Board okayed an order for fifteen A220s, the Croatian carriers spokesperson, Davor Janusic, told EX-YU Aviation News, The mentioned topic wasn't on the agenda of Croatia Airlines' Supervisory Board and the company does not confirm the mentioned information". It has been almost a year since the carrier made contact with global aircraft manufacturers such as Airbus, Boeing and Embraer over a potential order. The company noted, Renewing Croatia Airlines fleet is of strategic importance for the company, although no final decision about the matter has been made yet.





Croatia Airlines twelve-member fleet currently averages over sixteen years with both the A319s and the A320 being on average over twenty years old, while the Dash 8 turboprops are close to thirteen years old. The addition of newer generation aircraft is envisaged in the companys post-Covid strategy, which must be approved by its main shareholder  the Croatian government. Croatia Airlines has conducted aircraft market research. Potential options with multiple aircraft manufacturers have been considered and possible fleet renewal scenarios developed. It previously said certain market conditions must be met for the fleet renewal to commence, without specifying details.





The airline had previously said the A220 would be a perfect fit for its future fleet, while Embraer noted, The E2 family is comprised of three family members, from ninety to 146 seats, which will offer Croatia Airlines great flexibility to operate the ideal capacity on their future network. Most recently, Boeing floated the idea of providing its MAX jets to the Croatian carrier saying, We strongly believe that the 737 MAX family is the perfect choice for Croatia Airlines short and medium haul network. The 737 MAX offers unmatched performance for smaller markets with the possibility of increasing aircraft capacity within the same family of aircraft in order to meet increased demand, which we expect to occur on the Croatian market in the coming years.
Reset

password

Please enter your email address and we

will send you a link to reset your password

This field is required.

If would like to speak to a member of

our team, please call us on 01-4199525
As the UK faces another week of scorching temperatures above 30C, rural campaigners are warning the public over the risk of wildfires.

The current heatwave is leaving grass and vegetation in bone-dry conditions perfect conditions for blazes to break out.

On 10 July, twenty firefighters spent several hours tackling two wildfires in an Essex woodland that covered about two hectares of woodland and shrubland.

Fires and huge plumes of smoke were reported on Salisbury Plain in southern England on Tuesday, while emergency services in Northamptonshire and Warwickshire said they had been called out to grass fires.

These are the first of a series of fires anticipated in the high UK summer temperatures, and they follow the blazes put out by over 3,000 firefighters in Portugal at the weekend as the country was hit by the extreme weather the UK now experiences.

Multiple early gorse fires also broke out in Northern Ireland across March and April 2022.

Now campaigners at the Countryside Alliance are highlighting the risk of wildfires, particularly the risk to farmland, wildlife and protected habitats, as well as the lives of people working in rural areas.

Their ability to start in rural locations, and under difficult conditions, is a threat that rural fire and rescue services have to be prepared for, the group says.

Sarah Lee, head of policy of the Countryside Alliance said: Wildfires can have a devastating impact on farming, local communities, wildlife, and protected habitats.

"Remaining vigilant and cautious during this hot weather, as well as increasing awareness amongst those that want to enjoy our beautiful countryside is key to reducing risk.

Advice for public

The Countryside Alliance has issued guidance and advice to the public to help prevent wildfires:

 Do not discard cigarettes.

 Please do not start fires or use BBQs as they frequently cause wildfires.

 Dispose of all litter appropriately.

 Do not release sky lanterns. Once released, there is no control over where they end up.

 If anyone finds themselves in a position where they encounter a wildfire that they are unable to bring under control safely, move to a safe location up wind and call the emergency service on 999 immediately, giving an accurate location of the fire.
Chinese envoy calls on upcoming Colombian gov't to consolidate peace

Xinhua) 09:58, July 15, 2022

UNITED NATIONS, July 14 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Thursday called on the upcoming Colombian government to further consolidate peace in the country.

China welcomes the successful holding of the presidential elections and appreciates the commitment of President-elect Gustavo Petro to implementing the peace agreement, his call for national unity and his focus on achieving peace as the core goal of the upcoming government, said Dai Bing, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations.

"We hope the new government will build on the achievements already made, actively promote the peace process in Colombia, work to address the difficulties and challenges in the implementation of the peace agreement, and consolidate the hard-won peace gains," he told the Security Council.

Violence by illegal armed groups in some areas has seriously threatened the safety of civilians, especially women and children, and has become a disruptive factor to the peace process. China welcomes President-elect Petro's willingness to resume peace talks with the National Liberation Army and to open dialogue with other armed groups yet to join the peace process, he said.

China also hopes that the upcoming government is committed to improving the security situation in the conflict-affected areas through dialogue and negotiation so as to end the conflict once and for all and by strengthening the deployment of security forces in the conflict-affected areas where the government lacks effective control, he added.

Achieving development is the fundamental means to eradicate the root causes of violence and conflict, said Dai.

Fully implementing the key provisions of the peace agreement, such as rural reform, the re-integration of former combatants and substitution of illicit crops, requires sustained government investments to accelerate land and housing distribution and ensure the balanced development of all regions, he said.

The peace process in Colombia is a success story of ending a conflict and rebuilding peace through dialogue and negotiation. China appreciates the important role played by the UN Verification Mission in Colombia in support of the peace process. China hopes the mission will maintain cooperation with the upcoming government and strengthen coordination with the UN Country Team in Colombia to make even greater contributions to the early achievement of lasting peace, stability, and sustainable development, he said.

China firmly supports Colombia in its efforts to fully implement the peace agreement and stands ready to work with the rest of the international community to continue to support the Colombian-led and Colombian-owned peace process. China looks forward to more achievements by the Columbia people in nation-building and development, he said.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)
Only subscribers with PAID Print or E-Edition subscriptions enter here to gain access. If you are not a Current Paid subscriber do not go through this portal. Please return to the subscription page to purchase one of our offers. Thank you!
Sri Lankas apparel sector is going about business as usual despite the country lacking a functioning government after the president fled to Singapore and finally resigned this week, writes

The South Asian island nation of Sri Lanka is facing an acute fuel shortage with its foreign exchange reserves depleted and the country ensnared in a chaotic public debt default. But the apparel exports sector, which accounts for 40 per cent of the countrys total export income, has been spared the agony of procuring fuel by the government since January to bring the much-needed dollars into the country.

Diesel in bulk

Sri Lanka is facing an acute fuel shortage with its foreign exchange reserves depleted and the country ensnared in a chaotic public debt default. But the apparel exports sector, which accounts for 40 per cent of the country's total export income, has been spared the agony of procuring fuel by the government to bring the much-needed dollars into the country.#

Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF) secretary general Yohan Lawrence told Fibre2Fashion that since April apparel companies have been able to buy diesel in bulk from Lanka Indian Oil Company (LIOC) and the state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC). This has allowed plants to operate during power outages and use this fuel for their staff transport and company vehicles.

Lawrence said that all apparel factories provide transport to their employees, and they have now extended these routes to ensure that as many employees as possible can come to work on staff transport. Moreover, the port and airport continue to function, so the sector gets its product in and out. Companies large and small have all invested in fuel storage capacities to hold upto two weeks of diesel.

Hasitha Premaratne, group finance director and managing director of Brandix India, said that as the government approved allowing export-oriented companies to purchase fuel on a priority basis by paying foreign exchange, operating the apparel manufacturing factories around the island has been easy. The government also allowed the exporters to purchase bunkering fuel from shipping lines to run generators in factories. Exporters were allowed this to run their operations smoothly.

Brandix apparel alone has 700 buses operating to transport staff into factories. Premaratne said that staff attendance has been 100 per cent in their factories so far this year barring May 10, which was the day after the infamous riots at Colombos Galle Face Green.

Bernard Boteju, chairman Bernard Boteju Industries said that there was no issue in transporting employees to the factories as the company managed to secure three browser (tanker) loads of petrol about two months ago. Till then the company was running on fuel stocks they already had. Boteju, who is in the small and medium apparel sector, said that his company is not affected at all by the fuel crisis. From last month up to now, we have had full attendance of staff.

Pooling resources

Small and medium sector (SME) apparel factories are pooling their resources with other SMEs to ensure continued operations. But some firms still get diesel in small quantities from the local fuel sheds. However, with the restrictions on the sale of fuel to only health, forces, etc, some SME plants are unable to function fully. Where possible the bigger plants are sharing their stocks with smaller ones to ensure that the sector can continue to operate, Lawrence added.

He said the sector has showed remarkable resilience and its export earnings expanded by 30 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to $446 million in May, while export earnings from the sector increased by 16 per cent YoY to $2.2 billion in the first five months of the current year.

All exporters reiterate that there is an urgent need to maintain buyers confidence in the industry. We need the global apparel buyers to have confidence enough in us to execute their orders on time, Boteju said adding that so far none of the buyers have cancelled orders.

Sector analysts point out that globally the apparel industry is going through a slowdown, and other supplying nations like India, China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, etc are all witnessing such a phenomenon. The slowdown is also being felt by Sri Lankan apparel manufacturers, but the players have been in continuous dialogue with the buyers and ring-fencing the industry from the existing macro situation.

According to Premaratne, customers are closely watching the situation in the country and showing their concern. But the industry has been communicating and assuring the apparel buyers that they can deliver.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (WE)
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have voted to increase then the European Unions (EU) final energy consumption to 45 per cent by 2030 after revising the Renewable Energy Directive (RED). The target is also supported by the European Commission under its RepowerEU package. MEPs also demanded clarity on green electricity parts.

The Industry, Research, and Energy Committee (ITRE) of the European Parliament wants to speed up significantly the implementation of renewable energy as well as the decline of energy consumption by 2030, according to a European Parliament press release. The ITRE also insisted member states decide an indicative target for the innovative renewable energy technology of at least 5 per cent of the newly installed renewable energy capacity.

MEPs also urged for the simplification of the hydrogen ramp-up and increased the number of cross-border projects for the green electricity expansion to two projects per member state. Member states that have the highest annual electricity consumption will be required to undertake a third project by 2030.

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have voted to increase the share of renewables in the European Union's (EU) final energy consumption to 45 per cent by 2030 after revising the Renewable Energy Directive (RED). The target is also supported by the European Commission under its 'RepowerEU' package. MEPs also demanded clarity on green electricity parts.

Renewables deployment is expected to result in a 16 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions via using higher shares of advanced biofuels and a larger share of renewable fuels of non-biological origins such as hydrogen.

Moreover, MEPs also supported the revision of the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED), the law that establishes the energy saving targets in both primary and final energy consumption in the EU, in a separate vote. As per the revised law, Member States should jointly carry out a reduction of at least 40 per cent by 2030 in final energy consumption and 42.5 per cent in primary energy consumption compared to 2007 projections. This is proportional to 740 and 960 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) for final and primary energy consumption, respectively. Member States should also fix mandatory national contributions to meet these targets, which are to be achieved via measures at local, regional, national, and European levels in different sectors, the release added.

Only the expansion of renewable energy means true independence, said Markus Pieper, lead MEP on the renewable energy directive. Our vote demonstrates strong support for the increased 2030 target of 45 per cent. At the same time, we confirm the need for more cross-border cooperation to expand renewable energy deployment and call for a diversified import strategy for hydrogen. We have also raised the requirements for the sustainability of biomass and fuels, while at the same time showing ways in which biogenic materials can make a real economic contribution to the energy transition.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (NB)
The) has come into effect since June 21, 2022. The law requires US companies to prove that goods imported from Chinas Xinjiang are not made with forced labour, otherwise Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will have the right to seize those goods. This should give a boost to Indian cotton textile exports to the US.

The UFLPA establishes a presumption that the importation of any goods, wares, articles, and merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of China, or produced by certain entities, is prohibited by Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 and that such goods, wares, articles, and merchandise are not entitled to entry to the United States, according to the CBP.

The UFLPA will have a huge impact on textile-apparel imports into the US, as about 20 per cent of the worlds cotton comes from China, and 84 per cent of that comes from Xinjiang.

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) has come into effect since June 21, 2022. The law requires US companies to prove that goods imported from China's Xinjiang are not made with forced labour, otherwise Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will have the right to seize those goods. This should give a boost to Indian cotton textile exports to the US.#

US import of cotton non-apparel products from India were valued at $1581.038 million during January-May 2022, according to the latest data released by the US department of commerce. In comparison, imports from China were worth $1013.660 million in the same period. Thus, India has a dominant position in the import with share of 36.41 per cent, followed by China with 23.71 per cent.

The US had imported non-apparel cotton products (home textiles, fabrics, etc) worth $2465.493 million from India in 2020. This jumped by 49.24 per cent to $3679.600 million in 2021. On the other hand, imports from China grew at 12.32 per cent during the same period.

Since India already has a dominant position in the export of cotton non-apparel products to the US, it should get a further boost after the ban. But the extent of advantage cannot be foretold as it is based on several factors including the readiness of the Indian industry.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KUL)
UL Solutions Advances Power Tool Safety with Addition of New Laboratory in Germany

The laboratory provides European power tool manufacturers comprehensive safety, performance, quality, reliability and certification testing services that address regulatory compliance and destination market access.

NEU-ISENBURG, Germany, July 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- UL Solutions, a global leader in applied safety science, has officially opened a new power tool laboratory. Complementing UL Solutions offices and laboratories in Germany, the power tool laboratory provides testing, inspection and certification services for a diverse range of power tool products for customers across Europe.

"Today marks an exciting new day in our relationship with European power tool manufacturers as we commemorate the opening of a new, state-of-the-art UL Solutions laboratory in Neu-Isenberg," said Giorgio Decataldo, business development manager in the Appliances, HVAC and Lighting group at UL Solutions. "Given our mission of working for a safer world, UL Solutions is dedicated to using its testing and certification expertise to help power tool manufacturers in Europe open new markets, forge partnerships and succeed in an increasingly competitive marketplace."

The new UL Solutions power tool laboratory provides a local comprehensive service provider to power tool manufacturers across Europe and helps empower manufacturers shorten development cycles and increase speed to market while navigating regulatory complexities. Capabilities at the Neu-Isenberg power tools facility include:

Safety testing and certification for North American access and for conformance to standards to earn the UL Mark

Power tool battery and charger testing

Testing in accordance to IEC/EN 62841 and IEC/EN 60745 standards

Energy efficiency requirements and testing

Performance testing

Smart tools privacy and cybersecurity services

Certification needs assessment

"The trends driving growth in the power tool market include demands for tools that are connected, easily operated, portable, battery-powered and energy-efficient," said Davide Atzeni, senior business manager in the Appliances, HVAC and Lighting group at UL Solutions. "With these innovations come the need for safety science expertise to transform big, complex challenges into business opportunities. UL Solutions is dedicated to harnessing its scientific approach, testing capabilities and certification expertise to help power tool manufacturers in Europe open new markets and succeed in an increasingly competitive marketplace."

According to Market Data Forecast, the growth of the power tool market can be attributed to the rising demand for cordless tools with the rapid adoption of flexible battery systems, the growing popularity of the do-it-yourself (DIY) culture and infrastructure developments to meet the needs of increasing populations. The North American power tools market is also expected to grow significantly in the construction, manufacturing and automotive industries.

In addition, according to M&M Report, North America accounted for 38% of the overall power tools market in 2019 and is expected to have strong momentum inthe global power tools market over the next decade. In Europe, the power tools market is forecast to grow with a compound annual growth rate of 5.4% between 2022 and 2029 and reach an annual sales level of $1,797,946,000 (USD) by 2029. Asia Pacific also offers significant growth opportunities to power tool manufacturers due to rising income levels, an upsurge in construction activities and growth in manufacturing industries.

"Adding testing capabilities in Germany will strengthen our ability to help customers export products to destination markets, such as North America, while meeting safety and performance testing and certification needs in Europe," Atzeni said. "Small and medium-sized European power tool manufacturers want to be more competitive with established brands in the North American market. However, current European-based certifiers lack the North American market awareness and acceptance that the UL Mark offers. The presence of UL Solutions in Germany means that local manufacturers have a global partner to help them navigate regulatory landscape complexities worldwide."

About UL Solutions

A global leader in applied safety science, UL Solutions transforms safety, security and sustainability challenges into opportunities for customers in more than 100 countries. UL Solutions delivers testing, inspection and certification services, together with software products and advisory offerings, that support our customers' product innovation and business growth. The UL Certification Marks serve as a recognized symbol of trust in our customers' products and reflect an unwavering commitment to advancing our safety mission. We help our customers innovate, launch new products and services, navigate global markets and complex supply chains and grow sustainably and responsibly into the future. Our science is your advantage.

Press contact:

Steven Brewster

UL Solutions

ULNews@UL.com

+1.847.664.8425

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1858873/UL_Solutions_Power_Tools_Image.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1849892/UL_Solutions_Logo.jpg
MANILA, July 15, 2022 - (ACN Newswire) - It is imperative to take the required measures and have the appropriate protections in any hybrid work environment due to the rise in the usage of personal devices for work, network access through insecure connections, and targeted phishing efforts. The danger of a breach will grow with the adoption of a hybrid working model, even with appropriate cybersecurity safeguards for remote workers in place.Mr. Chito Jacinto, Vice President of ISOG and Board Member of ISACA Manila, gave some of his insights on growing cybersecurity in a hybrid environment. In our interview, he used the banking industry as an example of how organisational structures and accountability must adapt in order to scale up cybersecurity. As the most highly regulated business in the world, rising regulatory fragmentation can be seen not just from banking regulators but also from overall governmental authorities, making these institutions more exposed to cyber attacks. Mr. Jacinto advised that instead of a fragmented approach by concerned or operational units, a unified organisational or bank-wide strategy in response to cybersecurity-related requirements is required.According to him, a hybrid workplace poses hazards since present IT infrastructures were not built to meet the demands of a hybrid workplace, let alone a totally remote operation. This creates a situation in which multiple users, including both hardware and software security technologies, are not under the authority of the organisation's network.Mr. Chito Jacinto will facilitate an EDXchange session at the DX Leaders Strategy Forum Philippines on August 24-25, 2022. To join his roundtable, invitations are requested at Request Invitation - DX - Philippines 2022 (edxevents.com) (https://philippines2022.edxevents.com/request-invitation/).Source: EDXCopyright 2022 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved.
COLOGNE, Germany, July 14, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Maleth Program is the first space bioscience project led by Professor Joseph Borg of the University of Malta. The second mission under the Maleth Program, or Maleth II, was launched on the July 15th, 2022.



"Maleth II boarded a SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft for the launch as part of Commercial Re-supply mission 25 (CRS25) destined for the International Space Station and will stay in orbit for around 60 days", said Prof. Borg.

Singleron Biotechnologies, a single cell multi-omics company based in Cologne, Germany, proudly supports this exciting project along with the Ministry for Foreign and European Affairs, the Ministry for Education of Malta, and MeDirect - Malta's first digital Bank. The mission is being facilitated by the Research, Innovation, Development Trust (RIDT) that will be supporting University of Malta students.

The Maleth II biocube will once again be remotely controlled from Malta, by Arkafort Ltd. in collaboration with Prof. Borg and can have real-time telemetry data on the running experiment on board the space station. "Alongside the human skin tissue samples to study microbiome involved in diabetic foot ulcers, is also a yeast sample that forms part of an ongoing mini-project supported by Singleron Biotechnologies to detect at a single cell level all the genetic changes inside the yeast cells when exposed to low earth orbit conditions", explained Prof. Borg.

Singleron is proud to be a partner in this exciting research project from Europe and believes that single cell analysis can be a powerful tool to understand the impact of space trips on biological organisms ranging from yeast to human.

About Singleron

Founded in 2018, Singleron develops and commercializes single-cell multi-omics products that can be used in both research and clinical settings. Its current product portfolio includes instruments, microfluidic devices, reagents, software analysis and database solutions that facilitate high-throughput single-cell analysis. The company currently has offices, laboratories, and manufacturing facilities in Germany, Singapore, China, and the US. Its products are used in over 1,600 laboratories in hospitals, research institutes, and pharmaceutical companies.

Media Contact

Shaun Cordes

Email: pr@singleron.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ce9ced24-9d7e-4544-b73b-c489a4cbffa4
Germany and the U.S. are tied for the title of the world's most crypto-friendly country

and the U.S. are tied for the title of the world's most crypto-friendly country Switzerland moves up to third place.

moves up to third place. Singapore falls to fourth place, and Australia rounds out the top 5 in fifth place

falls to fourth place, and rounds out the top 5 in fifth place New U.S. crypto regulation and the EU's MiCA set a global example

DUBLIN, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Germany has to share the top spot with the United States in the latest Q2 rankings for 2022. Both Germany and the U.S. scored strongly across multiple metrics. Germany took first place in the 2022 Q1 ranking, driven by the unprecedented decision by savings institution Sparkasse to allow bitcoin investments. The U.S. has followed hard on its heels, but still hasn't quite managed to overtake the European nation. Germany's score might get a boost in Q3 following the EU's new regulatory framework for crypto, titled Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA).

President Biden's push for better cryptocurrency regulation and anti-money laundering laws give the U.S. an advantage this quarter. Scores were also raised by pensions and investment giant Fidelity announcing in April that crypto would form part of the portfolios of American pension funds. This is as groundbreaking an endorsement of bitcoin as that by the Sparkasse savings institution in Germany.

Moving up into third place is Switzerland, which has steadily risen through the rankings thanks to progressive legislation and high trading volumes. The Swiss ranking was improved by the Canton of Lugano's decision to use bitcoin as de facto legal tender. In Lugano, bitcoin can now be used for everything from watches to taxes.

In fourth place is Singapore. The city-state took first place in the 2021 Q4 ranking but has since ceded ground to other countries. Singapore is still a crypto powerhouse thanks to a high concentration of crypto holders and ICOs. Restrictions on the third-party advertising of virtual asset service providers (VASPs) have lowered its score.

In Q4 2021, Australia was in second place behind Singapore. Q2 2022 saw it fall to fifth place simply through being overtaken, rather than by any regressive policies.

Coincub CEO Sergiu Hamza states: "In the quarterly rankings, all governmental moves to legitimize crypto investment, safeguard consumers, and consolidate strategy boost a country's crypto economy and score highly within our ranking criteria."

The Q2 rankings have been calculated with data assembled up to the recent market falls in crypto prices. All Coincub rankings are compiled from wide-ranging data that goes beyond price. These include government policies toward cryptocurrency, current legislation, taxes, investments, blockchain education courses, crypto startups, and the status of CBDCs. These criteria provide a comprehensive account of the crypto economy and blockchain acceptance within any country.

For the full ranking of the top fifty crypto-friendly countries in Q2, 2022 - see Here .

About Coincub.com

Coincub.com offers bespoke information, guidance, and analysis on the workings of the crypto economy for both new and experienced crypto investors on a uniquely country-by-country basis. Complete country guides and rankings can be found on the website.

Contact

Sergiu Hamza - CEO Coincub

sergiu@coincub.com

(+353) 871756897

5th floor, 40 Mescal Road, Dublin 4, Dublin D04C2N4, Ireland

Copyright  2022 Coincub | All rights reserved
Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA / Key word(s): Quarter Results

RICHEMONT ANNOUNCES DOUBLE-DIGIT SALES GROWTH FOR THE FIRST QUARTER ENDED 30 JUNE 2022



15-Jul-2022 / 07:30 CET/CEST

Release of an ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



Highlights Positive start to the financial year with double-digit sales growth both at actual exchange rates (+20%) and constant exchange rates (+12%)

Strong performance driven by higher sales in Europe, Americas, Japan and the Middle East and Africa more than offsetting lower sales in Asia Pacific; the US, Richemont's largest single market for the quarter, comprising 22% of Group sales

Growth led by retail, now accounting for 58% of Group sales compared to 55% in the prior year period

Sales growth across all channels and business areas, both at constant and actual exchange rates:

-Jewellery Maisons delivering sales growth of 20% at actual exchange rates (+12% at constant rates)

- Specialist Watchmakers growing by 18% at actual exchange rates (+10% at constant rates)

- Online Distributors increasing by 8% at actual exchange rates (+2% at constant rates)

- Other business area progressing strongly by 36% at actual exchange rates (+28% at constant rates)

April-June 2022 2021 % change 2022 vs 2021 m m constant rates actual rates By region Europe 1 290 905 42% 43% Asia Pacific 1 780 1 933 -15% -8% Americas 1 344 955 25% 41% Japan 421 240 83% 75% Middle East and Africa 429 364 6% 18% By distribution channel Retail 3 051 2 421 18% 26% Online retail 910 809 5% 12% Wholesale & royalty income 1 303 1 167 4% 12% By business area Jewellery Maisons 3 015 2 515 12% 20% Specialist Watchmakers 1 002 849 10% 18% Online Distributors 691 637 2% 8% Other 600 440 28% 36% Inter-segment eliminations -44 -44 -6% - Total 5 264 4 397 12% 20%

Review of trading in the three-month period ended 30 June 2022 versus the prior year, at constant exchange rates



All channels and business areas, as well as most regions, generated sales growth versus the prior year period notwithstanding an uncertain environment and demanding comparatives following a 129% sales rebound in the prior year comparable period. The 12% sales growth delivered in the quarter ended June 2022 was driven by strong double-digit increases in Europe, the Americas and Japan. Sales in Europe grew by 42% sustained by robust domestic demand and a return in tourist spending, primarily from American and Middle Eastern clients. Growth was strong across markets, particularly in France where sales increased by triple digits. In Asia Pacific, the strict enforcement of a zero covid policy led to double-digit sales declines in mainland China and Macau SAR (China) and to a single-digit sales reduction in Hong Kong SAR (China). Sales in mainland China were 37% lower for the quarter, although the rate of decline softened to 12% in June when restrictions were progressively eased. The solid momentum across most other Asian markets, notably in Australia, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand, partially mitigated the decline of sales in the region, with sales in Asia Pacific overall contracting by 15%. In the Americas, sales rose by 25% notwithstanding demanding comparatives against the prior year period, driven by strong domestic spending. As a result, for the quarter the US was Richemont's largest single market, accounting for 22% of Group sales. Japan posted the strongest regional performance with an 83% growth in sales, supported by strong local demand. Sales in the Middle East and Africa increased by 6% on demanding comparatives, reflecting solid domestic and tourist spending, notably in Dubai and Qatar. All channels recorded sales growth, with retail posting the strongest relative channel performance. Retail sales rose by 18%, driven by double-digit increases across all business areas, and noteworthy performances in Europe, the Americas and Japan. Online retail sales increased by 5%, reflecting muted sales progression at the Group's Online Distributors and strong growth at our Jewellery Maisons and Specialist Watchmakers. Direct sales to clients for the Group as a whole represented 75% of Group sales, a circa 200-basis points increase over the prior year period. Sales in the wholesale channel increased by 4% as higher sales at our Other business area more than offset lower wholesale sales at our Jewellery Maisons and Specialist Watchmakers which were impacted by ongoing Covid-related restrictions in China. Despite the disruption experienced in China, the Jewellery Maisons generated a 12% sales growth benefitting from thriving retail sales and solid jewellery and watch sales at Buccellati, Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels. Sales progressed in all regions and channels, excluding Asia Pacific and wholesale. The Specialist Watchmakers' sales increased by 10%, driven by online and offline retail sales, which together contributed to 53% of the business area sales. Growth was achieved in most Maisons and regions with an ongoing outperformance of A. Lange & Sohne, Panerai and Vacheron Constantin. The Group's Online Distributors recorded a 2% sales progression and continue their shift towards a hybrid business model. The Group's Other business area, mostly composed of our Fashion & Accessories Maisons, posted the strongest sales increase at +28%, supported by strong retail and wholesale sales with sustained demand across most Maisons and regions. Peter Millar continued to deliver a robust performance while Delvaux posted a strong contribution, and the renewed creativity supported by new designers at Alaia, Chloe and Montblanc positively impacted sales. The Group's net cash position at 30 June 2022 was  5.4 billion (2021:  3.6 billion), reflecting the quarter's strong trading as well as replenishment of inventories. Corporate calendar



The annual general meeting will be held on Wednesday 7 September 2022 in Geneva. The interim results for the current financial year will be announced on Friday 11 November 2022. About Richemont



At Richemont, we craft the future. Our unique portfolio includes prestigious Maisons distinguished by their craftsmanship and creativity, alongside Online Distributors that cultivate expert curation and technological innovation to deliver the highest standards of service. Richemont's ambition is to nurture its Maisons and businesses and enable them to grow and prosper in a responsible, sustainable manner over the long term. Richemont operates in four business areas: Jewellery Maisons with Buccellati, Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels; Specialist Watchmakers with A. Lange & Sohne, Baume & Mercier, IWC Schaffhausen, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Panerai, Piaget, Roger Dubuis and Vacheron Constantin; Online Distributors with Watchfinder & Co., NET-A-PORTER, MR PORTER, THE OUTNET, YOOX and the OFS division; and Other, primarily Fashion & Accessories Maisons with Alaia, AZ Factory, Chloe, Delvaux, dunhill, Montblanc, Peter Millar including G/FORE, Purdey and Serapian. Find out more at www.richemont.com. Richemont 'A' shares are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange, Richemont's primary listing, and are included in the Swiss Market Index ('SMI') of leading stocks. Richemont South African Depository Receipts are listed in Johannesburg, Richemont's secondary listing. Investor/analyst and media enquiries



Sophie Cagnard, Group Corporate Communications & Investor Relations Director

James Fraser, Investor Relations Executive Investor/analyst enquiries: +41 22 721 30 03; investor.relations@cfrinfo.net

Media enquiries: +41 22 721 35 07; pressoffice@cfrinfo.net; richemont@teneo.com

End of ad hoc announcement
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / July 15, 2022 / Amaroq Minerals Ltd. (AIM:AMRQ)(TSXV:AMRQ), announces that on July 13, 2022 it was informed that Livermore Partners LLC, a company in which David Neuhauser, Non-Executive Director of Amaroq Minerals, is Managing Director, acquired a total of 35,700 common shares of no par value in the Company. This brings Livermore Partners LLC's total holding to 12,016,410 shares, 6.78% of the capital in the Company.

DEALING NOTIFICATION FORM

FOR USE BY PERSONS DISCHARGING MANAGERIAL RESPONSIBILITY

AND THEIR CLOSELY ASSOCIATED PERSONS

1. Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities/person closely associated a) Name: Livermore Partners LLC, David Neuhauser 2. Reason for the notification a) Position/status: Non-Executive Director b) Initial notification/Amendment Initial notification 3. Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor a) Name Amaroq Minerals Ltd. b) LEI: 213800Q21S5JQ6WKCE70 4. Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted a) Description of the financial instrument, type of instrument: Identification code: Common shares of no par value in Amaroq Minerals Ltd. ISIN: CA02312A1066 b) Nature of the transaction: Purchase of common shares of no par value in Amaroq Minerals Ltd. c) Price(s) and volume(s): Price(s) Volume(s) 1) CAD$ 0.63 31,200 2) CAD$ 0.63 4,500 d) Aggregated information: Aggregated volume:



Average price: 35,700 CAD$ 0.63 e) Date of the transaction(s): July 12th, 2022 July 13th, 2022 f) Place of the transaction TXSV

Award of stock options

Amaroq Minerals also announces that it has granted 39,062 stock option awards ("Options") to an employee under the Corporation's Stock Option Plan.

The options have an exercise price of C$0.64 per share, vested immediately on the date of grant, and will expire if they remain unexercised five years from the date of the award.

Enquiries:

Amaroq Minerals Ltd.

Eldur Olafsson, Executive Director and CEO

+354 665 2003

eo@amaroqminerals.com



Eddie Wyvill, Investor Relations

+44 (0)7713 126727

ew@amaroqminerals.com

Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited (Nominated Adviser and Broker)

Callum Stewart

Simon Mensley

Ashton Clanfield

+44 (0) 20 7710 7600

Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited (Joint Broker)

John Prior

Hugh Rich

Dougie Mcleod

+44 (0) 20 7886 2500

SI Capital Limited (Joint Broker)

Nick Emerson

Charlie Stephenson

+44 (0) 1483 413500

Camarco (Financial PR)

Billy Clegg

Emily Hall

Charlie Dingwall

+44 (0) 20 3757 4980

For Company updates:

Follow @Amaroq_Minerals on Twitter

Follow Amaroq Mineral Ltd. on LinkedIn

Further Information:

About Amaroq Minerals

Amaroq Minerals' principal business objectives are the identification, acquisition, exploration, and development of gold and strategic metal properties in Greenland. The Company's principal asset is a 100% interest in the Nalunaq Project, an advanced exploration stage property with an exploitation license including the previously operating Nalunaq gold mine. The Corporation has a portfolio of gold and strategic metal assets covering 7,615.85km2, the largest mineral portfolio in Southern Greenland covering the two known gold belts in the region. Amaroq Minerals is incorporated under the Canada Business Corporations Act and wholly owns Nalunaq A/S, incorporated under the Greenland Public Companies Act.

Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities legislation, which reflects the Company's current expectations regarding future events and the future growth of the Company's business. In this press release there is forward-looking information based on a number of assumptions and subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control, that could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to the factors discussed under "Risk Factors" in the Final Prospectus available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Any forward-looking information included in this press release is based only on information currently available to the Company and speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information to reflect new circumstances or events. No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved of the contents of this press release. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Inside Information

This announcement does not contain inside information.

SOURCE: Amaroq Minerals Ltd.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/708691/DirectorPDMR-Shareholding--Notification-of-Transactions-of-DirectorsPersons-Discharging-Managerial-Responsibilities-PDMRs-and-Award-of-Stock-Options
Phoenix, Arizona--(Newsfile Corp. - July 15, 2022) - Sewer Time Septic and Drain (602-777-7867), serving the Greater Phoenix area, has updated its septic tank pumping and inspection services.





Sewer Time Septic and Drain

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8814/129885_ff3701c214d83bde_001full.jpg

The company now offers home inspection services in accordance with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) as part of the Notice of Ownership Transfer Inspection for owners in the process of selling their residential properties. A certified ADEQ Septic Tank Inspection is required by law.

More information can be found at https://sewertime.com/septic-services/septic-inspection

Additionally, Sewer Time Septic and Drain provides full-service engineering and design, plus excavation and installation of both conventional and alternative inspection services. As part of its updated services, the company manages all aspects of any new construction or retrofit project in-house and without the need for subcontractors, saving customers both time and money for completed projects.

The company's inspection services culminate in a comprehensive ADEQ report and the completion of paperwork relevant to the ownership transfer, including a septic tank location map, with all documentation sent to the required parties. The inspection process itself includes a detailed list of items for the septic tank & systems, the disposal and pumping of all septic tank seepage, filter cleaning - as necessary - and water flow monitoring. Any repairs are quoted separately, with the landscaping then restored to its original condition.

Additional information regarding the law is available at https://azdeq.gov/notice-transfer-and-inspection-site-wastewater

Sewer Time Septic and Drain offers repair, support, and routine annual maintenance for property owners. Typically, the company services homes that are experiencing sewage backups into owners' sinks, drains or yards, which can result in drain field replacements. However, properly engineered, designed, and installed systems - which the company will manage - can prevent the most serious drainage/sewage system problems.

One customer commented: "Sewer Time has a fantastic team. Very professional and knowledgeable from the office staff to the field guys. They pumped our tank and found the problem with our sewer line and were able to fix it the same day. Saved us from having to stay in a hotel until it was fixed. Highly recommend this company."

Interested parties can learn more at https://sewertime.com

Contact Info:

Name: Dan Endres

Email: danendres@sewertime.com

Organization: Sewer Time Septic and Drain

Address: 2550 W Union Hills Dr, Phoenix, AZ 85023, United States

Phone: +1-602-777-7867

Website: https://sewertime.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/129885
Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
According to statistics released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in June 2022, Chinese automobile manufacturers exported 249,000 vehicles a month, breaking the 200,000 mark again. 16.6% of Chinese total car exports.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220715005014/en/

(Photo: Business Wire)

With the continuous upgrades and development of China's industrial technology, more self-owned brand vehicles have entered the international market. Among them, CHERY International, which has been committed to the development of the international market, has maintained the No. 1 position in the export of passenger vehicles for 19 consecutive years.

According to the latest sales statistics in June, CHERY Group sold a total of 105,005 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 43.6%. In the first half of the year, the cumulative sales volume of automobiles reached 475,250 units, a year-on-year increase of 12%. Among them, 148,000 units were exported overseas, the highest number in history.

On June 25th, at the China Chongqing Auto Show, CHERY Automobile made an appearance with its product lineup. As one of the top five annual auto shows in China, CHERY has launched a youthful masterpiece the OMODA 5, which integrates the design concept of a new generation of ART IN MOTION to create a crossover style. Based on cool appearance, the safety performance is even more commendable. At the beginning of the development, it strictly complied with the five global crash standards, especially the strict EURO-NCAP.

Previously, in the "20th Anniversary Summit Forum of CHERY Automobile's Overseas Development", the OMODA 5's 64km/h, 40% overlapping deformable barrier offset collision test showed great potential. The test result showed that the A-pillar was not deformed after the collision and the front and rear doors could be opened normally.

CHERY Automobile has more than 300 real vehicle collisions and more than 500 simulated collisions every year, creating the hard-core quality and excellent reputation of its own brand.

CHERY International has always been committed to cooperate and develop the EU market. Spain, as a major automobile consumption market in the EU, may also become one of the choices for CHERY's new adventure. Will CHERY's high-quality new products serve Spanish consumers? This is undoubtedly something that only the future can tell.

Facebook: CHERY Spain

link: https://www.facebook.com/CHERY-Espa%C3%B1a-105827098547919

Facebook: CHERY Italia

link: https://www.facebook.com/CHERYitalia

Facebook: CHERY France

link: https://www.facebook.com/CHERY-France-111673837955296

Facebook: CHERY Germany

link: https://www.facebook.com/CHERY-Germany-106979888430597

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220715005014/en/

Contacts:

AO CAO

caoao@myCHERY.com

+86 15345302364
LONDON, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Perkbox , the global benefits and reward platform, has announced the launch of the Perkbox Partner Programme. Open to any B2B businesses or intermediaries that serve the HR sector, it unlocks best-in-class rewards and benefits for their customers with globally dispersed employees.

The Partnership Programme is now live, opening the door to incentives and rebates for many partners, with a host of leading companies already signed up. These include HiBob, the modern HR platform that is delivering remarkable work experiences for dynamic, mid-sized and small-enterprise businesses and their employees; Deel - the global payroll company; Wagestream - the financial wellbeing app founded by charities, which gives employees access to fair financial services built around flexible pay;Pento - a payroll automation software combined with reliable, expert support for efficient People and Finance teams; Lattice - the complete performance and engagement platform, Omnipresent - who makes it fast and easy to hire and onboard remote talent anywhere in the world; and, Cezanne HR - an HR system made for mid-sized UK & international businesses.

The Perkbox Partner Programme is designed to help partners grow their networks, by offering global customers access to Perkbox's leading rewards and recognition platform and industry-leading tools. This enables businesses to care for, connect with and celebrate their employees in any location around the world. It also coincides with the launch of Perkbox's HR Marketplace, which expands access to best-in-class HR tools to customers and will provide an additional channel for partners to promote their own offers.

Partners can receive incentives and rebates, including commission on the initial licence fee for new customers. Access to enhanced lead generation support through Perkbox's Partner Management Software, Partnerstack, also offers clear and simple tracking and pipeline visibility.

can receive incentives and rebates, including commission on the initial licence fee for new customers. Access to enhanced lead generation support through Perkbox's Partner Management Software, Partnerstack, also offers clear and simple tracking and pipeline visibility. Businesses benefit from seamless access to Perkbox's leading benefits and reward platform and the ability to support their people in any location around the world.

benefit from seamless access to Perkbox's leading benefits and reward platform and the ability to support their people in any location around the world. Employees benefit from access to over 4,000 free perks and discounts, on-demand digital content to support wellbeing and the ability to feel recognised for a job well done.

Joel Tobias, Director of Strategic Alliances, at Perkbox commented: "The Perkbox Partner Programme is the latest phase in delivering rewards, recognition and benefits to people around the world. Through the programme we're expanding our global footprint even further whilst helping our partners to grow their own networks and customer base.

"In today's environment, employee experience makes all the difference in attracting and retaining the best talent and a holistic benefit and rewards offering is integral to delivering this. We're thrilled with the initial response to the Partner Programme and are proud to be working with companies such as HiBob and Deel to help businesses everywhere offer a world-class, consistent and engaging employee value proposition."

Yoav Gur, Senior Director of Business Development from HiBob commented: "Joining the Perkbox Partner Programme both complements and strengthens our strategic offering and enables us to deliver unique solutions for our global customers looking to support their people around the world.

"In a competitive, borderless jobs market, businesses must seek out new ways to improve their EVP. Our participation in this programme means we're able to go even further for our customers and help them to create a consistent and dynamic benefits and rewards experience that attracts and retains the best talent."

Becoming a Partner is a free and simple process, with no minimum targets to reach before accessing the benefits of the programme.

To find out more information about the Perkbox Partner Programme visit:

www.perkbox.com/uk/partner-programme

About Perkbox

Perkbox is the global benefits and rewards platform that allows companies to care for, connect with and celebrate their employees, no matter where they are and what they want. With over 10 years' experience, Perkbox is trusted by more than 4,500 companies across 66 countries and counting. Its location agnostic platform helps companies with diverse and dispersed workforces harmonise their Employee Value Proposition (EVP) - keeping each employee happy, healthy, and motivated

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1596310/Perkbox_Logo.jpg
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 15, 2022 / Commerce Resources Corp. (TSXV:CCE)(FSE:D7H0)(OTCQX:CMRZF) (the "Company" or "Commerce") is pleased to announce that it has completed its first shipment of a mixed rare earth carbonate ("mixed REC") concentrate sample to a major global producer of rare earth elements ("REEs") for evaluation. The sample (gram quantities) meets typical market specifications and was produced as part of the Company's ongoing scale-up to larger kilogram quantities.

The sample follows the initial gram quantities of mixed REC sample produced by the Company, announced March 23rd, 2022. The Company is pleased to report the new sample has a neodymium (Nd) plus praseodymium (Pr) distribution - i.e. % of Nd+Pr oxide of the total rare earth oxide ("REO") - of 24.2%, which is significantly higher than that reported by several major global producers, and that of the previous samples produced (21.6% and 22.4% NdPr). Additionally, the mixed REC sample grades 53.9% REO, with 1.0 ppm Th, and <0.1 ppm U.

The Company has now produced several bench-scale samples of mixed REC concentrates to market specifications, with NdPr distributions ranging from 21.6% to 24.2%. The strong NdPr distributions that characterize these Ashram samples rank among the highest in the world for non-cerium depleted mixed REC concentrate and exceeds that of several major global producers. These samples were produced with the Company's conventional flowsheet developed at Hazen Research, CO, in which several process operations have been demonstrated at a continuous pilot-scale level. The Company is now undergoing a process scale-up to kilogram quantities of mixed REC concentrate to deliver to additional third-party processors per their request.

The mixed REC sample recently delivered to the third-party producer (Figure 1) was produced from the Ashram Rare Earth and Fluorspar Deposit using a conventional recovery flowsheet, which results in high grade monazite concentrate exceeding 40% REO. The monazite concentrate was processed through a sulphuric acid pot digestion, to 'crack' the monazite, which was then followed by a water leach to liberate the individual REEs into solution at high recovery (98% for NdPr in the sulphuric acid + water leach stage - see news release dated September 9th, 2021). The thorium was then selectively removed using solvent extraction and the REEs subsequently isolated - also using solvent extraction - and precipitated as a mixed REC concentrate, meeting typical market specifications.

In the rare earth industry, a mixed REC concentrate is typically viewed as the initial marketable product in the REE value chain. A mixed REC is readily saleable as it is the most common feedstock to REE solvent extraction facilities globally, which separate the individual REEs and allow for them to be individually refined into marketable products and disseminated throughout downstream value chains.

Figure 1: Sample of marketable mixed rare earth carbonate, with an NdPr distribution of 24.2%, produced from the Ashram Deposit and shipped to global producer for evaluation

About the Ashram Deposit

The Ashram Deposit ranks as one of the largest REE (and fluorspar) deposits globally, consisting of a monazite dominated, single mineralized body outcropping at surface, and has a footprint approximately 600 m along strike, over 300 m across, and 600 m deep, remaining open in several directions. The deposit hosts a measured resource of 1.6 million tonnes (Mt) at 1.77% rare earth oxide (REO) and 3.8% F, an indicated resource of 27.7 Mt at 1.90% REO and 2.9% F, and an inferred resource of 219.8 Mt at 1.88% REO and 2.2% F, at a cut-off grade of 1.25% REO (Effective Date July 5th, 2012). Note, mineral resources are not mineral reserves as they do not have demonstrated economic viability. There is no certainty that all or any part of the Mineral Resources will be converted into Mineral Reserves.

NI 43-101 Disclosure

Darren L. Smith, M.Sc., P.Geo., Dahrouge Geological Consulting Ltd., a Permit holder with the Ordre des Geologues du Quebec and 'Qualified Person' as defined in National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, supervised the preparation of the technical information in this news release.

About Commerce Resources Corp.

Commerce Resources Corp. is a junior mineral resource company focused on the development of the Ashram Rare Earth and Fluorspar Deposit located in Quebec, Canada. The Company is positioning to be one of the lowest cost rare earth producers globally, with a specific focus on being a long-term supplier of mixed rare earth carbonate and/or NdPr oxide to the global market. The Ashram Deposit is characterized by simple rare earth (monazite, bastnaesite, xenotime) and gangue (carbonates) mineralogy, a large tonnage resource at favourable grade, and has demonstrated the production of high-grade (>45% REO) mineral concentrates at high recovery (>70%) in line with active global producers. In addition to being one of the largest rare earth deposits globally, Ashram is also one of the largest fluorspar deposits globally and has the potential to be a long-term supplier to the met-spar and acid-spar markets.

For more information, please visit the corporate website at www.commerceresources.com or email info@commerceresources.com.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

COMMERCE RESOURCES CORP.

" Chris Grove "

Chris Grove

President and Director

Tel: 604.484.2700

Email: cgrove@commerceresources.com

Web: https://www.commerceresources.com

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements, which includes any information about activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future. Forward looking statements in this news release include that we expect to scale-up our production of mixed REC; that mixed REC is readily saleable; that Ashram is one of the largest fluorspar deposits globally and has the potential to become a long-term supplier to the met-spar and acid-spar markets; and that the Company is positioning to be one of the lowest cost rare earth element producers globally. These forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information. Risks that could change or prevent these events, activities or developments from coming to fruition include: that we may not be able to fully finance any additional exploration on the Ashram Project; that even if we are able raise capital, costs for exploration activities may increase such that we may not have sufficient funds to pay for such exploration or processing activities; the timing and content of any future work programs; geological interpretations based on drilling that may change with more detailed information; potential process methods and mineral recoveries assumptions based on limited test work and by comparison to what are considered analogous deposits that, with further test work, may not be comparable; testing of our process may not prove successful or future samples derived from the Ashram Project may not yield positive results, and even if such tests are successful or initial sample results are positive, the economic and other outcomes may not be as expected; the availability of labour and equipment to undertake future exploration work and testing activities; geopolitical risks which may result in market and economic instability; and despite the current expected viability of the Ashram Project, conditions changing such that even if metals or minerals are discovered on the Ashram Project, the project may not be commercially viable; The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and the Company assumes no responsibility to update or revise such information to reflect new events or circumstances, except as required by law.

SOURCE: Commerce Resources Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/708589/Commerce-Resources-Ships-First-Mixed-REC-Sample--242-NdPr--to-Major-Rare-Earth-Producer
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM / ACCESSWIRE / July 14, 2022 / Domo Disaster Recovery Ltd. ("DOMO") was founded by Cat5 Building Systems Ltd. ("CAT5") following the unprovoked Russian attack on Ukraine civilians, with over 7 million Ukrainians displaced and an additional 6 million Ukrainians forced to flee their country. Domo has set out to provide dignified sustainable housing solutions for refugees and internally displaced families.

From the outset, DOMO's founder's mandate was to break the mold when it comes to Humanitarian Response. We have brought together an eclectic group of like-minded experts from around the globe as we work together with our local partners to provide Sustainable, Resilient and Innovative Housing solutions, not in camps but integrated community settings. Our solutions enable and provides for cool housing in the summer and warm houses in the very cold winters are erected in less than a day. Our factories will produce up to 60 homes a day and include solar power to power the units.

DOMO will work with our partners from Aviation Without Borders-USA, (AWB), ENERGYRA Solar Solutions (ESS), James W Turner Construction (JWTC), and Phase One Consulting as we strive to deliver the most cost-effective, sustainable housing solutions for those most in need.

With your support, we can achieve real results!!

DOMO's chief architect and co-founder is currently on the ground working with our local partners and the Polish municipalities to start the building of the first homes for the refugees.

DOMO expects to break ground shortly on our first site "Shelter from the Storm".

Please see the website www.domodiasterrecovery.com where you can donate and support our refugee housing solutions and see our unique tiny home designs.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION. PLEASE CONTACT:

CAT5 Building Systems Ltd.

Malcolm Wright

Managing Director

+1407-421-6660

info@cat5buildingsystems.com

Website: www.cat5buildingsystems.com

SOURCE: Net Zero Renewable Energy Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/708631/Cat5-Building-Systems-Ltd-Announces-the-Launch-of-Domo-Disaster-Recovery
Recognition of commendable, longstanding dedication to the field of cancer immunotherapy

OEGSTGEEST, Netherlands, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ISA Pharmaceuticals B.V., a clinical stage biotech company developing immunotherapies to treat cancers and infectious diseases, is delighted to announce that ISA's Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) and Founder, Professor Dr. Cornelis "Kees" Melief has been nominated and selected by the Board of Directors of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) as a Fellow of the Academy of Immuno-Oncology (FAIO) . The fellowship recognises Prof. Melief's inspiring contributions and dedication to cancer immunotherapy, and will be presented at the SITC's 37th Annual Meeting in Boston, 8-12 November 2022.

SITC is a professional society of scientists, clinicians, government representatives, and industry leaders from around the world dedicated to improving outcomes for cancer patients by advancing the science and application of immunotherapy. SITC consists of more than 2.400 members, representing 22 medical specialties engaged in the research and treatment of cancer.

The Academy of Immuno-Oncology was established by SITC to honour individuals who have launched the field of cancer immunotherapy into the breakthrough cancer treatment it is today and bring together the brightest minds in the field to continue to advance SITC, the field, and the next generation of immuno-oncologists.

Professor Melief is a globally recognised immunology expert, specialising in cancer immunology and immunotherapy, known for his groundbreaking translational work in devising new cancer therapies that activate the patient's own immune system. In addition to his role as Chief Scientific Officer at ISA Pharmaceuticals, he is Emeritus Professor of Immunology at the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands. He is author of more than 545 peer-reviewed publications, cited over 67.000 times, and inventor on more than 30 patents and patent applications.

Gerben Moolhuizen, Chief Executive Officer of ISA Pharmaceuticals, said: "The Fellowship of the Academy of Immuno-Oncology is one of the society's most prestigious honours and all of us at ISA Pharmaceuticals are proud that our very own CSO Kees has again been recognised for his longstanding commitment and achievements. His pioneering work has demonstrated the potential to significantly improve patient outcomes for the treatment of cancer.

For ISA Pharmaceuticals, Kees has been instrumental in the advancement of our versatile synthetic long peptide (SLP) immunotherapy platform and adjuvants, yielding several clinical stage immunotherapeutics for the treatment of different cancer types and infectious diseases. Our lead product ISA101b was recently awarded Fast Track designation by the US FDA for treatment of recurrent and metastatic, human papilloma virus type 16 (HPV16)-positive oropharyngeal cancer (OPC).

ISA continues to advance an exciting pipeline, including SLP immunotherapies that target hepatitis B virus and PRAME-positive cancers and we look forward to another incredible year of growth and innovation as we work to bring novel targeted immunotherapies to patients."

About ISA Pharmaceuticals

ISA Pharmaceuticals is an immunotherapy company developing treatments for various cancers and infectious diseases. ISA Pharma has best-in-class technology to stimulate and activate the human immune system, specifically T cells, to fight diseased or infected cells. Its lead asset ISA101b is in late-stage clinical trials for human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16)-induced cancers in a collaboration with biotechnology company Regeneron.

Other assets are in preclinical stage development and include immunotherapies to treat patients that suffer from cancers that over-express PRAME and cancers caused by other HPV types than HPV16, chronic hepatitis B or SARS-CoV2 infections. For more information, please visit www.isa-pharma.com.

About SITC

Established in 1984, the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) is a nonprofit organization of medical professionals dedicated to improving cancer patient outcomes by advancing the development, science and application of cancer immunotherapy and tumor immunology. SITC is comprised of influential basic and translational scientists, practitioners, health care professionals, government leaders and industry professionals around the globe. Through educational initiatives that foster scientific exchange and collaboration among leaders in the field, SITC aims to one day make the word "cure" a reality for cancer patients everywhere. Learn more about SITC, our educational offerings and other resources at sitcancer.org and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube.
The award-winning AI platform enhances its global presence in cooperation with MoRA

JAKARTA, Indonesia, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of its commitment to foster digital education and in line with the UAE's efforts to promote smart transformation in education and knowledge sectors, Alef Education , a leading global education technology provider that empowers 21st-century learning, has partnered with Indonesia's Ministry of Religious Affairs (MoRA), for the extension of its free pilot program, allowing 1.5 million learners to benefit from its award-winning digital learning platform.

Alef Education and the Ministry signed an agreement in November 2020 to transform the education sector in Indonesia using advanced education technologies that deliver personalised learning experiences for students and improve learning outcomes. From July 2021, as many as 500,000 grade seven math students had access to the platform.

Based on the positive feedback from both teachers and students, the platform has added Arabic language as a new subject and broadened its content, covering grades 7 to 12, instead of just the seventh class. The platform will now be made available to 1.5 million math and Arabic language learners. Alef's digital math lessons are aligned with the Indonesian curriculum standards and utilize the GASING method to support student achievement. Meanwhile, Arabic language classes are entertaining and interactive, and promote reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills.

HE H. Yaqut Cholil Qoumas, Minister of Religious Affairs, Indonesia, stated: "We thank Alef Education for their continued collaboration and for extending this pilot program to include not only math, but also Arabic language learning across 7-12 grades. The Alef Platform has proven itself as an exceptional tool that can support Indonesian schools as they shift towards modern teaching and learning methods - whether online, face-to-face, or hybrid. Ultimately, we hope that tools like the Alef Platform will support our objective to improve the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) score and numeric literacy for madrasah students under MoRA."

Geoffrey Alphonso, CEO, Alef Education, said: "At Alef Education, we are committed to transforming the global education industry, and our partnership with Indonesia has proven highly successful. We are excited to further extend our services to Indonesia through our ongoing partnership with the Ministry of Religious Affairs and look forward to millions of Indonesian students learning through our fun and engaging platform. We are also delighted to be announcing the Alef Awards in Indonesia where teachers and students who demonstrate exemplary teaching and learning practices will be eligible for prestigious prizes to reward their hard work and dedication."

Alef Education's flagship product, the Alef Platform, also supports teachers with delivering engaging, gamified content that aligns specifically to their curriculum, assisting in grading and student management. The Platform generates real-time data to relay relevant and timely feedback to students and teachers that help enable this transformative process and has been a critical part of the Platform's success. Its centralized dashboard leverages Machine Learning and Big Data to provide actionable data, and intelligent and accurate recommendations to Ministries to enable the improvement of learning outcomes amongst students. Since its inception, Alef Education has impacted the lives of more than 670,000 students from over 4,000 schools in the UAE, Indonesia, and the US, and now an additional 1,500,000 students across Indonesia.

About Alef Education

Alef Education is a leading global education technology company that is at the forefront of using artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to create personalised learning experiences that transform the way the world is educated.

Alef Education, with its three products, the Alef Platform, Abjadiyat, and Arabits, has a growing presence in key education markets worldwide, such as the United Arab Emirates, United States of America, Indonesia, Egypt, and the Netherlands. The award-winning Alef Platform provides AI-powered learning and teaching solutions that leverage real-time data to drive improvements across the education ecosystem. Abjadiyat is an Arabic language learning platform that offers engaging and interactive content from kindergarten to grade 4. Arabits is a complete Arabic language learning system for non-native speakers that helps students of all ages learn, practice, and improve their Arabic-language skills, powered by AI.

For more information, visit www.alefeducation.com or https://alef.co.id/ .

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1859373/Alef_Education.jpg
SALT LAKE CITY, UT / ACCESSWIRE / July 15, 2022 / Motos America Inc. (OTC PINK:WECT-D) (the "Company"), a publicly-traded motorcycle dealership group, announced today the official award of an open point BMW motorcycle dealership to be located in Roswell, GA, a suburb of Atlanta. The selection of Motos America for this open point dealership was confirmed following a meeting last week in BMW's home market of Germany between Motos America CEO Vance Harrison and President Kris Odwarka with top BMW executives.

The new dealership will be located at a prime location in Roswell, Georgia. Motos America's BWM dealership in Roswell will offer a complete line of new and pre-owned BMW motorcycles, parts, accessories, apparel and service capabilities in a new wholly dedicated facility.

"As an authentic lifestyle company focused on luxury branded motorcycle dealership operations and riding experiences, we can't think of a better opportunity than to create from the ground up a new open point BMW dealership in Roswell, Georgia, which has convenient access to the major metropolitan area of Atlanta and several surrounding suburbs," said Vance Harrison, Chief Executive Officer of Motos America. "BMW is one of the most exciting motorcycle brands globally. Demand is growing rapidly with over 194,000 units sold worldwide in 2021, an increase of nearly 15% from the prior year. With gas prices nearly doubling year-over-year and strong secular trends for remote lifestyles, we expect heightened interest for motorcycles overall and for premium brands such as BMW. We are grateful to have been selected by BMW and for the trust they have placed in our operational capabilities through awarding us this dealership site and for their continued commitment to our success."

An open point dealership refers to a new dealership that has been or will be opened where such rights for the specific location were granted to a dealer by a motorcycle manufacturer. Motos America's new state-of-the-art facility in Roswell will be equipped with all of the latest service technology and staffed by experienced BMW master technicians, service and sales people. A lounge equipped with TV, WiFi, comfortable seating and reading material will offer a place for customers and riders to share their excitement for the open road.

The financial obligations of the award to the Company will be defined in the coming months; however, the Company will not pay blue sky or other fees to BMW or any others for this dealership award, but will be obligated to make certain new motorcycle and parts purchases prior to opening the dealership. The Company expects to lease a building to house the new dealership. Leasehold improvements and build-outs will be negotiated with the new landlord.

About BMW Motorrad

BMW Motorrad is the motorcycle business segment of BMW Group. With fascinating products and customized services, BMW Motorrad stands for passion, dynamic performance, design, technology and innovation.

With its four brands BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce and BMW Motorrad, the BMW Group is the world's leading premium manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles. The company set the course for the future at an early stage and consistently makes sustainability and efficient resource management central to its strategic direction, from the supply chain through production to the end of the use phase of all products. The BMW Group production network comprises 31 production and assembly facilities in 15 countries; the company has a global sales network in more than 140 countries.

About Motos America

Motos America Inc. (OTC: WECT-D - (pending symbol change to MTAM)) is a premium European motorcycle dealership consolidation company. In Nov. 2021, the company changed its name from "Weconnect Tech International, Inc." to "Motos America Inc." When it changed its name, the company adopted a new business model. Motos America purchases and operates powersports dealerships, with an emphasis on European luxury motorcycle brands, including BMW Motorcycles, Triumph Motorcycles and Ducati Motorcycles. The company believes the motorcycle dealership industry is primed for consolidation, similar to what has occurred in the automotive industry. Motos America believes that consolidation in this niche will bring about the same advantages of scale associated with automotive dealer group consolidations. Namely, better operating results driven by professional management, branding and marketing opportunities, and volume purchasing.

For more information, please contact:

Motos America Inc.

Jordan Darrow, Investor Relations

jordan@motosamerica.com

(512) 551-9296

This Press Release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, among other things, statements regarding our business strategy, future revenues and anticipated costs and expenses. Such forward-looking statements include, among others, those statements including the words "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "believes" and similar language. Our actual results may differ significantly from those projected in the forward-looking statements. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this report. We undertake no obligation to publicly release any revisions to the forward-looking statements or reflect events or circumstances after the date of this document. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, there are a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements.

# # #

SOURCE: Motos America Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/708702/Motos-America-Announces-Award-of-Open-Point-BMW-Motorcycle-Dealership-in-Atlanta-Suburb-of-Roswell
Oscillate plc

("Oscillate plc" or the "Company")

Notice of AGM and Board Changes

Oscillate PLC (AQSE: MUSH) announces that notice convening the Company's annual general meeting ("AGM") has been posted to Shareholders. The AGM will be held at the offices of Peterhouse Capital Limited, 80 Cheapside, London EC2V 6EE, at 10:00 a.m. on 8 August 2022.

Notice of the AGM will shortly be available at https://oscillateplc.com/.

The Company also announces that Narisha Ragoonanthun has stepped down as a director of the Company with immediate effect, to focus on other ventures. The Board would like to thank Narisha for her tireless work whilst with the Company, and would like to wish her all the best with her future endeavours.

--ENDS-

The directors of the Company accept responsibility for the contents of this announcement.

Enquiries

Company:

Fungai Ndoro

Tel: 020 37450281

https://oscillateplc.com

Corporate Adviser:

Peterhouse Capital Limited

Guy Miller & Mark Anwyl

Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7220 9796

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation EU 596/2014 as it forms part of retained EU law (as defined in the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018).
BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - French stocks advanced on Friday after two Fed officials signaled support for a second straight 75-basis-point rate hike at the U.S. central bank's policy meeting later this month, alleviating some fears of a 100-basis point hike. Italy's political turmoil remained in focus after President Sergio Mattarella rejected Prime Minister Mario Draghi's resignation and asked him to address parliament next week to get a clearer picture of the political situation. The benchmark CAC 40 rose 56 points, or 1 percent, to 5,971 after declining 1.4 percent on Thursday. Banks BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole and Societe Generale all traded up over 1 percent. Automaker Renault soared 5.3 percent despite European passenger car registrations declining for the twelfth successive month in June. Registrations of new passenger cars decreased 15.4 percent year-over-year in June, faster than the 11.2 percent fall in May, as supply chain issues continue to hurt production, the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association said. Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / July 15, 2022 / HSBC (contact: 'synd manager'; telephone: +44 207 992 8066) hereby gives notice, as Stabilisation Coordinator, that the Stabilisation Manager(s) named below may stabilise the offer of the following securities

The securities: Issuer: PepsiCo, Inc. Guarantor (if any): na Aggregate nominal amount: GBP 300,000,000 exp. / GBP 300,000,000 exp. Description: Fixed due 22nd July 2029 / Fixed due 22nd July 2034 Offer price: TBC / TBC Other offer terms: Stabilisation: Stabilising Manager(s): HSBC Bank plc Stabilisation period expected to start on: 15th July 2022 Stabilisation period expected to end no later than: 22nd August 2022 Existence, maximum size & conditions of use of over-allotment facility[1]: 5% of the aggregate nominal amount Stabilisation Venue(s) Over the counter (OTC)

In connection with the offer of the above securities, the Stabilisation Manager(s) may over-allot the securities or effect transactions with a view to supporting the market price of the securities at a level higher than that which might otherwise prevail. However, there is no assurance that the Stabilisation Manager(s) will take any stabilisation action and any stabilisation action, if begun, may be ended at any time. Any stabilisation action or over-allotment shall be conducted in accordance with all applicable laws and rules.

This announcement is for information purposes only and does not constitute an invitation or offer to underwrite, subscribe for or otherwise acquire or dispose of any securities of the Issuer in any jurisdiction.

In addition, if and to the extent that this announcement is communicated in, or the offer of the securities to which it relates is made in, any EEA Member State before the publication of a prospectus in relation to the securities which has been approved by the competent authority in that Member State in accordance with the Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 (the "Prospectus Regulation") (or which has been approved by a competent authority in another Member State and notified to the competent authority in that Member State in accordance with the Prospectus Regulation), this announcement and the offer are only addressed to and directed at persons in that Member State who are qualified investors within the meaning of the Prospectus Regulation (or who are other persons to whom the offer may lawfully be addressed) and must not be acted on or relied on by other persons in that Member State.

This announcement and the offer of the securities to which it relates are only addressed to and directed at persons outside the United Kingdom and persons in the United Kingdom who have professional experience in matters related to investments or who are high net worth persons within article 12(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 and must not be acted on or relied on by other persons in the United Kingdom.

This announcement is not an offer of securities for sale into the United States. The securities have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933 and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration. There will be no public offer of securities in the United States.

[1] Please note that the existence and the maximum size of any greenshoe option, the exercise period of the greenshoe option and any conditions for exercise of the greenshoe option must also be disclosed, if such option exists. In addition, the exercise of the greenshoe option must be disclosed to the public promptly, together with all appropriate details, including in particular the date of exercise and the number and nature of securities involved

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.

SOURCE: HSBC Bank PLC

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/708722/PepsiCo-Inc-Announces-Pre-Stabilisation-Notice
FLYINGGROUP pre-orders up to 50 VX4 aircraft

Increases Vertical's eVTOL pre-order book to up to 1,400 aircraft

Expands Vertical's customer base to include the business aviation market

Vertical Aerospace (Vertical) [NYSE: EVTL], a global aerospace and technology company that is pioneering electric aviation, announces today that FLYINGGROUP, one of Europe's leading business jet operators, has conditionally pre-ordered up to 50 VX4 aircraft.

FLYINGGROUP, which began operations in Antwerp in 1995, operates from aircraft bases across Europe and the Middle East. Currently managing 45 conventional aircraft, today's pre-order announcement forms part of FLYINGGROUP's new approach to sustainable aviation, embedding zero emissions transport options into its fleet. The integration of the VX4 into its existing services will provide their customers with a sustainable, innovative, and efficient regional air mobility alternative and transform their first and last 100-mile journeys.

Vertical has already sold its VX4 to a diverse range of customers including aircraft lessors, airlines, and helicopter operators, including American Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Avolon and Bristow. Today's announcement represents Vertical's first commercial agreement within the business aviation market, a further demonstration of the significant market demand for the VX4. This partnership increases Vertical's conditional pre-order book to up to 1,400 aircraft with a total value of $5.6bn.

The two parties have agreed to launch a Joint Working Group (JWG) to begin exploring FLYINGGROUP's application of using the VX4 in the business aviation market, including individual ownership, low volume operation and fractional ownership. The JWG will also explore the terms and conditions of a Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) service centre, potentially granting FLYINGGROUP the right to perform MRO services for their fleet and to support their private sales.

The piloted zero operating emissions four-passenger VX4, is projected to be capable of travelling distances of 100 miles (160 km), at a top speed of 200mph (320km/h), while producing minimal noise and has a low cost per passenger mile.

Stephen Fitzpatrick, Founder CEO, Vertical Aerospace, said "We are delighted to partner with FLYINGGROUP to change the way people travel throughout the business aviation market. With this provisional pre-order, FLYINGGROUP can look to a future where they can continue to provide quality to business clients but now with zero emissions."

Bernard Van Milders, Founder of FLYINGGROUP, said "Now that we're also enabling flexible and energy-efficient regional travel, we are honoured to partner with Vertical's team and their state-of-the-art aircraft. Going electric is the next big step in our sustainability plan. Not only will we be expanding our fleet with the most advanced electric eVTOLs; we will be able to accommodate our clients and guests with the newest zero-carbon 'door-to-door' private and business aviation. By connecting airports with cities and ports, FLYINGGROUP is bringing a new wave of business travel to corporations and individuals

About Vertical Aerospace

Vertical Aerospace is pioneering electric aviation. The company was founded in 2016 by Stephen Fitzpatrick, an established entrepreneur best known as the founder of the Ovo Group, a leading energy and technology group and Europe's largest independent energy retailer. Over the past five years, Vertical has focused on building the most experienced and senior team in the eVTOL industry, who have over 1,700 combined years of engineering experience, and have certified and supported over 30 different civil and military aircraft and propulsion systems.

Vertical's top-tier partner ecosystem is expected to de-risk operational execution and its pathway to certification allows for a lean cost structure and enables production at scale. Vertical has a market-leading pre-order book by value for a total of up to 1,400 aircraft from global customers creating multiple potential near term and actionable routes to market. Customers include American Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Avolon, Bristow, Marubeni, Iberojet and FLYINGGROUP, as well as Japan Airlines (JAL), Gol, Air Greenland, Gozen Holding and AirAsia, through Avolon's VX4 placements.

Vertical's ordinary shares and warrants commenced trading on the NYSE in December 2021 under the tickers "EVTL" and "EVTLW," respectively.

Vertical Media Kit

Available here

About FLYINGGROUP

FLYINGGROUP has been active since 1995 from Antwerp, where the head office is also located. Over the years, the company has expanded its activities to other airbases in Europe and the Middle East (Brussels, Kortrijk-Wevelgem, Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Luxembourg, Paris, Malta and Dubai).

FLYINGGROUP takes care of the entire management of its customers' business aircraft, including maintenance, CAMO, certification, crew management, charter sales and flight operations. The pursuit of high-quality service has led to ever-increasing customer confidence. As a result, the company is a reference in private and business aviation in Europe.

FLYINGGROUP currently manages 45 aircraft, fifteen of which are based in Antwerp, Belgium. In 2021, 12,739 flight hours were performed. The consolidated turnover amounted to more than 110 million euros in the previous financial year.

FLYINGGROUP has more than 233 experienced employees worldwide, including 135 crewmembers and 90 people work at the group's head office in Antwerp, Belgium.

Find out more: flyinggroup.aero

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any express or implied statements contained in this press release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding the certification and the commercialization of the VX4 and related timelines, the differential strategy compared to its peer group, and the transition towards a net-zero emissions economy, expected financial performance and operational performance for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2022, as well as statements that include the words "expect," "intend," "plan," "believe," "project," "forecast," "estimate," "may," "should," "anticipate," "will," "aim," "potential," "continue," "are likely to" and similar statements of a future or forward-looking nature. Forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected, including, without limitation: Vertical's limited operating history without manufactured non-prototype aircraft or completed eVTOL aircraft customer order; Vertical's history of losses and the expectation to incur significant expenses and continuing losses for the foreseeable future; the market for eVTOL aircraft being in a relatively early stage; the potential inability of Vertical to produce or launch aircraft in the volumes and on timelines projected; the potential inability of Vertical to obtain the necessary certifications on the timelines projected; any accidents or incidents involving eVTOL aircraft could harm Vertical's business; Vertical's dependence on partners and suppliers for the components in its aircraft and for operational needs; the potential that certain of Vertical's strategic partnerships may not materialize into long-term partnership arrangements; pre-orders Vertical has received for its aircraft are conditional and may be terminated at any time in writing prior to certain specified dates; any potential failure by Vertical to effectively manage its growth; the impact of COVID-19 on Vertical's business; Vertical has identified material weaknesses in its internal controls over financial reporting and may be unable to remediate the material weaknesses; Vertical's dependence on our senior management team and other highly skilled personnel; as a foreign private issuer Vertical follows certain home country corporate governance rules, is not subject to U.S. proxy rules and is subject to Exchange Act reporting obligations that, to some extent, are more lenient and less frequent than those of a U.S. domestic public company; and the other important factors discussed under the caption "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") on April 29, 2022, as such factors may be updated from time to time in Vertical's other filings with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof and accordingly undue reliance should not be placed on such statements. Vertical disclaims any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than to the extent required by applicable law.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220714005099/en/

Contacts:

Vertical Media

Samuel Emden

nepeanverticalteam@nepean.co.uk

+44 7816 459 904



Vertical Investors

Eduardo Royes

investors@vertical-aerospace.com

+1 (646) 200-8871
The Germany-based heating specialist wants to invest more than 200 million (US$200.5 million) in the new heat pump facility.From pv magazine Germany German heating, industrial, and refrigeration systems manufacturer Viessmann will build a new heat pump factory in Legnica, Poland. The Allendorf-based company wants to invest more than 200 million (US$200.5 million) in the new facility. Viessmann said in the spring it intends to invest a total of 1 billion in the expansion of its heat pump and green air conditioning business over the next three years. The new facility will be built on an area ...

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
For those who would like to show the world how they are feeling in a more customised way, the OPPO Omoji offers them the perfect smooth, detailed version of themselves

Both accurate and authentic, the OPPO Omoji is easy to create, too

DUBAI, UAE, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- OPPO is celebrating World Emoji Day by inspiring users to express themselves and their unique style with one of the features of ColorOS 12 - the OPPO 'Omoji'. The Omoji enables the bold and fun to get creative with a 3D animated emoji.

For those who would like to show the world how they are feeling in a more customised way, the OPPO Omoji offers them the perfect smooth, detailed version of themselves! Boosted by OPPO's industry-leading Face Capture algorithm, an OPPO Omoji is the ultimate avatar, suited for every generation of smartphone users.

Tarek Zaki, Senior Product Manager of OPPO MEA said: "In today's world, emojis offer a form of self-expression which caters to new generations' desire to be unique and channel their energy through their smartphones. As we celebrate World Emoji Day, we encourage OPPO users to embrace their individuality and interests, embodying their real identities through the miniature, animated character replicas we call Omojis."

Both accurate and authentic, the OPPO Omoji is easy to create, too. All users need to do is go to Account under Settings, create a profile and adjust the ten different parameters designed to help them customise their look such as Skin, Hair, Eyes, and Nose. Plus, there are over 200 stylistic accessories to choose from - so there is no mood that cannot be captured with an Omoji!

Users can set their Omoji as a profile picture and add it to their Always-On Display to make the most of the fantastic feature. With OPPO Omoji's advanced face algorithm, the most subtle movements are mimicked in full liveliness. OPPO Omojis are available on all smartphone models with ColorOS 12 on board from December 2021 onwards.

Happy Emoji Day, from OPPO to the world!

About OPPO

OPPO is a leading global technology brand since 2004, dedicated to providing products that seamlessly combines art and innovative technology.

OPPO is on a mission to building a multiple-access smart device ecosystem for the era of intelligent connectivity. The smartphone devices have simply been a gateway for OPPO to deliver a diverse portfolio of smart and frontier technologies in hardware, software and system. In 2019, OPPO launched a $7 BillionUS Dollar three-year investment plan in R&D to develop core technologies furthering design through technology.

OPPO is firmly pursuing the creation of the best technology products and technological artistry for global users. Based on the brand elements of leading, young and beautiful, OPPO dedicates to the mission of letting the extraordinary users enjoy the beauty of technology.

For the last 10 years, OPPO has focused on manufacturing smartphones with camera capabilities that are second to none. OPPO launched the first mobile phone, the Smile Phone, in 2008, which marked the launch of the brand's epic journey in exploring and pioneering extraordinary technology. Over the years, OPPO has built a tradition of being number one, which became a reality through inventing the world's first rotating camera smartphone way back in 2013, launching the world's then thinnest smartphone in 2014, being the first to introduce 5X Zoom 'Periscope' camera technology and developing the first 5G commercial smartphone in Europe.

Today, OPPO was ranked as the number four smartphone brand globally. OPPO brings the aesthetics of technology of global consumers through the ColorOS system Experience, and Internet service like OPPO Cloud and OPPO+.

OPPO's business covers 40 countries with over six research institutes and five R&D centers across the world, from San Francisco to Shenzhen. OPPO also opened an International Design Centre headquartered in London, driving cutting edge technology that will shape the future not only for smartphones but for intelligent connectivity.

About OPPO MEA

OPPO started its journey in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region in 2015 after setting up its regional office in Egypt. Following the immense success of the brand's sales centre in Cairo in the first year, OPPO accelerated its expansion plan across the MEA region and inaugurated its country operations in UAE in 2019. Now OPPO is physically present in more than 13 markets across the region, including Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and the Levant.

To empower its presence in the region in line with its product localisation strategy, OPPO further invested in MENA and set up its very own factory in Algeria in 2017, thus, becoming the first Chinese brand to build a manufacturing premises in North Africa. Based on insights of local consumers in each country, OPPO has evolved the progress of product localisation, taking into consideration several perspectives towards each market, including product localisation, to further meet the core needs of users; marketing localisation, to better communicate with local young customers; and talent localisation, to understand local consumers further and provide an optimum customer service.

Within the last year, OPPO has started to adjust its product line in the Middle East region specifically. This has included the launch of its flagship OPPO Find X Series and the introduction of the OPPO Reno Series. OPPO will continue to evolve its local product line to offer more premium series to consumers in the region.

A forward-thinking international technology company, OPPO strives to be a sustainable company that contributes to a better world and have enacted positive change in every way possible through activating local community initiatives and humanitarian, charity campaigns.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1860113/OPPO_OMOJI.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1451542/OPPO_Logo.jpg
SYDNEY, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- "Global Silicon Metal Market" the new research report adds in Data Bridge Market Research's reports database. This Research Report spread across 329 Page, 53 No of Tables, And 244 No of Figures with summarizing Top companies, with tables and figures. The Silicon Metal report acts as a thorough synopsis on the study, analysis and estimation of the market and how it is affecting this industry. The report gives current as well as upcoming technical and financial details of the industry to 2029. It presents with a telescopic view of the competitive landscape to the client so that they can map the strategies accordingly. e.g. strategic planning supports businesses improve and enhance their products which customers will desire to buy. The research study carried out in this global Silicon Metal market analysis report covers the local, regional as well as global market.

Global silicon metal market was valued at USD 6.95 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 10.27 billion by 2029, registering a CAGR of 5.00% during the forecast period of 2022-2029. In addition to the market insights such as market value, growth rate, market segments, geographical coverage, market players, and market scenario, the market report curated by the Data Bridge Market Research team also includes in-depth expert analysis, import/export analysis, pricing analysis, production consumption analysis, and climate chain scenario.

Get a Sample to Understand the Complete Structure of the Report @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-silicon-metal-market

Market Overview:-

Silicon metal is basically a refined version of silica by thermally reducing quartz in a Submerged Arc Furnace (SAF) together with a reducing chemical. Metal silicon and industrial silicon are other names for it. Calcium, iron, and aluminum make up the majority of its chemical make-up. Metallic silicon can be classified into many classes, including 553, 441, 411, 421, 3303, and so on, depending on its Fe, Al, and Ca content.

According to OICA, output of automobiles increased by 3% from 2020 to 80,145,988 units in 2021. Making cars more fuel-efficient and reducing greenhouse gas emissions are top priorities for automakers. The aluminum-silicon alloy is the best choice for addressing these criteria because of its resistance to corrosion, low wear rates, and minimal thermal expansion. As a result, the demand for aluminum-silicon alloys will rise along with the manufacturing of automobiles, which would further increase the demand for silicon metals.

The Major Players Covered in the Global Silicon Metal Market are:

Infineon Technologies AG ( Germany )

) Cree, Inc. (U.S.)

ROHM Co., Ltd. ( Japan )

) Microsemi (U.S.)

STMelectronics ( Switzerland )

) Fuji Electric Co., Ltd. ( Japan )

) Semiconductor Components Industries, LLC (U.S.)

General Electric (U.S.)

Toshiba Corporation ( Japan )

) Renesas Electronics Corporation ( Japan )

) Microchip Technology Inc.,(U.S)

Grindwell Norton Limited ( India )

) Dow (U.S.)

CUMI ( India )

) Entegris (U.S.)

Acess Full PDF Report @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/checkout/buy/enterprise/global-silicon-metal-market

Recent Development

In April 2020, Elkem ASA has now finalised the previously announced acquisition of Polysil, a renowned Chinese silicone elastomer and resins material firm. In addition to silicone products for electronics and medical uses, Polysil is a world leader in silicones for baby care and food-grade applications. Polysil and Elkem's complementing product and market positions offer a strong platform for further specialisation and expansion in China and internationally.

In December 2021, The Norwegian Research Council has awarded Elkem NOK 16 billion to develop a new silicon manufacturing strategy that completely eliminates all direct CO2 emissions. This might be a game-changer for the global silicon sector. The business might offer the technology to other businesses, enabling silicon to be produced globally with the least amount of climatic and environmental impact.

Opportunities

Developments and Increasing Strategies by Manufacturers

Furthermore, various developments by market players and significant investments in research and development activities that further enhance product applications extend profitable opportunities to market players from 2022 to 2029. Additionally, the increasing attention of manufacturers towards sustainability and cost-efficiency will encourage inventors to find more creative and economical ways to produce silicon, which will further expand the future growth of the silicon metal market.

What benefits does DBMR study is going to provide?

Latest industry influencing trends and development scenario

Open up New Markets

To Seize powerful market opportunities

Key decision in planning and to further expand market share

Identify Key Business Segments, Market proposition & Gap Analysis

Assisting in allocating marketing investments

Core Objective of Silicon Metal Market:

Every firm in the Silicon Metal market has objectives but this market research report focus on the crucial objectives, so you can analysis about competition, future market, new products, and informative data that can raise your sales volume exponentially.

Size of the Silicon Metal market and growth rate factors.

Important changes in the future Silicon Metal Market .

. Top worldwide competitors of the Market.

Scope and product outlook of Silicon Metal Market.

Developing regions with potential growth in the future.

Tough Challenges and risk faced in Market.

Global Silicon Metal top manufacturers profile and sales statistics.

Browse Detailed Summary of Research Report @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-silicon-metal-market

Silicon Metal Market Dynamics

This section deals with understanding the market drivers, advantages, opportunities, restraints and challenges. All of this is discussed in detail as below:

Drivers

High Usage of Silicon Metal

The silicon metal serves as the foundation for many items; therefore, the industrial and consumer sectors depend heavily on it. The majority of silicon metal produced today goes toward making aluminum alloys, accounting for most of the total production. Both automotive and aeronautical products are made from aluminum alloys. The addition of silicon increases the alloy's strength, cast ability, and brittleness, enabling it to be used for a wider variety of high-performance components. The usage of aluminum-based materials as substitutes for heavier steel or iron parts in automotive applications has increased, which has resulted in a large increase in silicon demand in the transportation industry. As a result, the market is projected to have an accelerated growth over the forecast period.

Furthermore, the presence of a large aluminum alloy manufacturing base will further propel the silicon metal market growth rate. Additionally, the expanding solar and semiconductor industry will also drive market value growth. Silicon metal is a great insulator in controlled conditions and offers the necessary conductive efficiency. The market is expanding due to a growing concentration of defense and aerospace elastomers business owners and other industry experts on enhancing the technologies made possible by incorporating silicon metal. The lightweight aircraft trend, which will further affect business emergence during the projection period, is what is driving the silicon metal industry's booming market. The expansion of the building and construction industry is also further projected to bolster the growth of the market.

Market Segmentation: Silicon Metal Market

The silicon metal market is segmented on the basis of product type and application. The growth amongst these segments will help you analyze meagre growth segments in the industries and provide the users with a valuable market overview and market insights to help them make strategic decisions for identifying core market applications.

Product Type

Metallurgy Grade

Chemical Grade

Application

Aluminum Alloys

Semiconductors

Solar Panels

Stainless Steel

Other Applications





Table of Contents:

Chapter 1 Silicon Metal Market Overview

Chapter 2 Global Economic Impact on Industry

Chapter 3 Global Market Competition by Manufacturers

Chapter 4 Global Production, Revenue (Value) by Region

Chapter 5 Global Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions

Chapter Global Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type

Chapter 7 Global Market Analysis by Application

Chapter 8 Manufacturing Cost Analysis

Chapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers

Chapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders

Chapter 11 Market Effect Factors Analysis

Chapter 12 Global Silicon Metal Market Forecast

For More Insights Grab TOC@ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/toc/?dbmr=global-silicon-metal-market

Trending Market Reports:

Silicon Carbide (SiC) Market, By Product (Black Silicon Carbide, Green Silicon Carbide), Device (SIC Discrete Devices, SIC Bare Die), Wafer Size (2 Inch, 4 Inch, 6-Inch and Above), Application (RF Device and Cellular Base Station, Power Grid Device, Flexible Ac Transmission Systems, High-Voltage, Direct Current, Power Supply and Inverter, Lighting Control, Industrial Motor Drive, Flame Detector, EV Motor Drive, EV Charging, Electronic Combat System, Wind Energy, Solar Energy, Others), Vertical (Telecommunication, Energy and Power, Automotive, Renewable Power Generation, Defense, Power Electronics, Others) - Industry Trends and Forecast to 2029 https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-silicon-carbide-market

Silicone Gel Market, By Product (Inorganic Silicone Gel, Organic Silicone Gel), Thickness (Above 7.0nm, 5nm To7.0nm, 4.5nm to 5nm, Below 2.5nm), End-Use Industry (Electrical & Electronics, Medical & Pharmaceuticals, Cosmetics & Personal Care), Country (U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Rest of South America, Germany, France, Italy, U.K., Belgium, Spain, Russia, Turkey, Netherlands, Switzerland, Rest of Europe, Japan, China, India, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Rest of Asia-Pacific, U.A.E, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, South Africa, Israel, Rest of Middle East and Africa) Industry Trends and Forecast to 2028https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-silicone-gel-market

Liquid Silicone Rubber Market, By Curing system (Injection Moulding, Peroxide Cure System, Platinum-Based Cure System and Condensation Cure System), Application (Electrical and Electronics, Automotive, Medical, Consumer Goods, Building and Construction, Cosmetic Applications, Aerospace and Aeronautics and Industrial Components), Grade (Industrial Liquid Silicone Rubber, Medical Liquid Silicone Rubber and Food Liquid Silicone Rubber), Technology (Liquid Injection Moulding System), Country (U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Rest of South America, Germany, France, Italy, U.K., Belgium, Spain, Russia, Turkey, Netherlands, Switzerland, Rest of Europe, Japan, China, India, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Rest of Asia-Pacific, U.A.E, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, South Africa, Israel, Rest of Middle East and Africa) Industry Trends and Forecast to 2028. https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-liquid-silicone-rubber-market

Silicone surfactants Market, By Application (Emulsifiers, Foaming Agent, Defoaming Agent, Wetting Agent, Dispersants and Others), End-Use Industry (Personal Care, Construction, Textile, Paints and Coatings, Agriculture and Others), Country (U.S., Canada, Mexico, Germany, France, U.K., Italy, Spain, Russia, Turkey, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxemburg, Rest of Europe, Japan, China, South Korea, India, Australia And New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Rest of Asia-Pacific, Brazil, Argentina, Rest of South America UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel, South Africa, And Rest Of Middle East and Africa) Industry Trends and Forecast to 2029 https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-silicone-surfactants-market

Silicone Adhesives Market, By Type (One Component, Two Component), Technology (PSA, Non-PSA), End User (Building and Construction, Transportation, Medical, Electrical and Electronics, Other) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-silicone-adhesives-market

Silicon Carbide Fibers Market, By Type (First Generation, Second Generation, Third Generation), Form (Continuous, Woven Cloth, Others), Phase (Amorphous, Crystalline), Usage (Composites, Non-Composites), End User (Aerospace and Defense, Energy and Power, Industrial, Others) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-silicon-carbide-fibers-market

Silicone Elastomers Market, By Type (Room Temperature Vulcanized, Liquid Silicone Rubber, High Temperature Vulcanized), Process (Compression Molding, Liquid Injection Molding, Injection Molding, Extrusion, Others), Application (Construction, Electrical and Electronics, Healthcare, Industrial Machinery, Automotive and Transportation, Consumer Goods, Others) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-silicone-elastomers-market

About Data Bridge Market Research:

An absolute way to forecast what future holds is to comprehend the trend today!

Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavours to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process. Data Bridge is an aftermath of sheer wisdom and experience which was formulated and framed in the year 2015 in Pune.

Data Bridge Market Research has over 500 analysts working in different industries. We have catered more than 40% of the fortune 500 companies globally and have a network of more than 5000+ clientele around the globe. Data Bridge adepts in creating satisfied clients who reckon upon our services and rely on our hard work with certitude. We are content with our glorious 99.9 % client satisfying rate.

Contact Us:-

Data Bridge Market Research

US: +1 888 387 2818

UK: +44 208 089 1725

Hong Kong: +852 8192 7475

Email:- corporatesales@databridgemarketresearch.com

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1011053/Data_Bridge_Market_Research_Logo.jpg
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - July 15, 2022) - Awakn Life Sciences Corp. (NEO: AWKN) (OTCQB: AWKNF) (FSE: 954) ('Awakn'), a revenue-generating biotechnology company researching, developing, and commercializing therapeutics to treat addiction with a near-term focus on Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) is today providing a business and corporate update.

Awakn launches 'Beta' phase of its Licensing and Partnerships business in North America. Awakn has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) documents with multiple well-established Clinics in North America. Once full agreements are signed, the clinics will be given access to Awakn's proprietary ketamine-assisted therapy for the treatment of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). Awakn's treatment is backed by the successful Phase II b trial which resulted in 86% abstinence at 6-months post treatment. The 'Beta' phase will precede the full launch which is targeted for early 2023. Awakn will work with its license partners to fine tune the roll out of the treatment in advance of the full launch.

Awakn has initiated its Innovative Licensing and Access Pathway (ILAP) application for its lead program Project Kestrel. The ILAP is a UK government run initiative that supports innovative approaches to the safe, timely and efficient development of medicines. Awakn aims to accelerate the time to market for its ketamine-assisted therapy for AUD, eventually facilitating patient access to this treatment on the National Health Service (NHS).

Awakn CFO, Kate Butler, is leaving the Company, effective July 31, 2022, to pursue other opportunities. Awakn has commenced the search for a permanent CFO and for the interim period Jonathan Held, Chief Business Officer, Co-founder and previous CFO has been appointed as interim CFO.

Awakn has filed a Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) for MDMA-assisted therapy for the treatment of AUD. This patent allows Awakn the freedom to operate and pursue its promising research and results from its Phase II a trial.

In 2021, Awakn signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with the psychedelic company Mindcure. It was intended that Mindcure would provide their therapeutic software application (iSTRYM) as a digital system to be used in Awakn's Licensing Partnerships. Mindcure have recently announced following a strategic review they have ceased all research projects. As a result of this development, Awakn will not be pursuing an agreement with Mindcure.

Awakn CEO, Anthony Tennyson, commented, "We are delighted to see our Licensing Partnerships business move into its 'Beta' phase as we execute on our strategy of commercializing our therapeutics. I would also like to thank Kate Butler for all her work with Awakn and wish her the very best in her next venture."

About Awakn Life Sciences Corp.

Awakn Life Sciences Corp. is a revenue-generating biotechnology company researching, developing, and commercialising therapeutics to treat substance and behavioral addictions. Awakn has a near-term focus on Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD), a condition affecting 400m people globally for which the current standard of care is inadequate. Our goal is to provide effective therapeutics to addiction sufferers in desperate need and our strategy is focused on commercializing our R&D pipeline across multiple channels.

www.AwaknLifeSciences.com | Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook | www.AwaknClinics.com

About Project Kestrel

Project Kestrel is the lead clinical development program of Awakn Life Sciences. Project Kestrel is supported by Awakn's Phase II a/b 'KARE' clinical trial which examined ketamine-assisted therapy for the treatment of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). The trial resulted in patients experiencing on average 86% abstinence at 6 months post treatment versus 2% before the trial which means that study participants went from being sober on average 7 days a year to being sober on average 314 days a year. Awakn is planning to initiate a Phase III trial in the UK in 2022 and plans to seek regulatory approval in the UK and the US in due course.

Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains certain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements, as defined in applicable securities laws (collectively referred to herein as "forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking statements reflect current expectations or beliefs regarding future events or the Company's future performance. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "continues", "forecasts", "projects", "predicts", "intends", "anticipates", "targets" or "believes", or variations of, or the negatives of, such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "should", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, including statements relating the business of the Company. All forward-looking statements, including those herein are qualified by this cautionary statement.

Although the Company believes that the expectations expressed in such statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the statements. There are certain factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking information. These include, but are not limited to:COVID-19; fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; the business plans and strategies of the Company; the ability of the Company to comply with all applicable governmental regulations in a highly regulated business; the inherent risks in investing in target companies or projects which have limited or no operating history and are engaged in activities currently considered illegal in some jurisdictions; changes in laws; limited operating history; reliance on management; requirements for additional financing; competition; fluctuations in securities markets; inconsistent public opinion and perception regarding the medical-use of psychedelic drugs; expectations regarding the size of the addiction market; and regulatory or political change. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this news release speak only as of the date of this news release or as of the date or dates specified in such statements.

Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information. For more information on the Company, investors are encouraged to review the Company's public filings on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward- looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities in the United States. The Company's and Awakn's securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

Investor Enquiries:

Anthony Tennyson, CEO, Awakn Life Sciences

anthony.tennyson@awaknlifesciences.com

Media Enquiries:

America and Canada: KCSA Strategic Communications

Anne Donohoe

Adonohoe@KCSA.com

Rest of World: Eat More Fruit Communications

Paul Jarman / Nora Popova

awakn@eatmorefruit.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/130925
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 15, 2022) - GoviEx Uranium Inc. (TSXV: GXU) (OTCQX: GVXXF) is pleased to announce that the Government of the Republic of Niger has agreed to a deferment of 50% of the Madaouela project's surface area taxes payable later this month. According to the terms of the deferment, GoviEx is to pay 50% of the surface area taxes due, or 1,824 million FCFA (US$2.8m), in July 2022 and the remaining 50% in December 2022. The Madaouela project is a mine permitted uranium development project jointly owned by GoviEx (80%) and the Government of the Republic of Niger (20%).

Daniel Major, CEO, commented: "Once again the government of Niger has proven to be an excellent partner and willing to work with GoviEx. We welcome the deferment and look forward to further progress with the development of Madaouela. Our feasibility study is due in Q3 and it represents another step towards Madaouela becoming a producing asset."

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

About GoviEx Uranium Inc.

GoviEx is a mineral resource company focused on the exploration and development of uranium properties in Africa. GoviEx's principal objective is to become a significant uranium producer through the continued exploration and development of its flagship mine-permitted Madaouela project in Niger, its mine-permitted Mutanga project in Zambia, and its multi-element Falea project in Mali.

Contact Information

Isabel Vilela

Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications

Tel: +1-604-681-5529

Email: info@goviex.com

Web: www.goviex.com

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All information and statements other than statements of current or historical facts contained in this news release are forward-looking information.

Forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties concerning the specific factors disclosed here and elsewhere in GoviEx's periodic filings with Canadian securities regulators. When used in this news release, words such as "will", "could", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "may", "potential", "should," "look forward" and similar expressions, are forward- looking statements. Information provided in this document is necessarily summarized and may not contain all available material information.

Forward-looking statements include statements related to: (i) the Company's plans and ability to make the negotiated area tax payment when and as agreed; and (ii) the anticipated timing for the completion of the feasibility study on the Madaouela project.

Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations include (i) the inability of GoviEx's to make the area tax payments as agreed and expected; (ii) potential delays due to COVID-19 restrictions; (iii) additional changes to the new Mining Code in Niger that may affect the Madaouela project; (iv) the failure of GoviEx's projects, for technical, logistical, labour-relations, or other reasons; (v) a decrease in the price of uranium below what is necessary to sustain GoviEx's operations; (vi) an increase in GoviEx's operating costs above what is necessary to sustain its operations; (vii) accidents, labour disputes, or the materialization of similar risks; (viii) a deterioration in capital market conditions that prevents GoviEx from raising the funds it requires on a timely basis; and (ix) generally, GoviEx's inability to develop and implement a successful business plan for any reason.

Although GoviEx has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from those contained in the forward- looking statements, there can be other factors that cause results, performance, or achievements not to be as anticipated, estimated, or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate or that management's expectations or estimates of future developments, circumstances, or results will materialize. As a result of these risks and uncertainties, no assurance can be given that any events anticipated by the forward-looking information in this news release will transpire or occur, or, if any of them do so, what benefits that GoviEx will derive therefrom. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this news release are made as of the date of this news release, and GoviEx disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise such information, except as required by applicable law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/130942
Technological developments in mobility aids or assistive devices to promote older people's mobility are projected to broaden the scope of personal mobility devices market

An increase in injuries due to traffic accidents is likely to drive the personal mobility devices in Asia Pacific

WILMINGTON, Del., July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The value of the global personal mobility devices market stood at US$ 10.4 Bn in 2021. The global market is projected to rise at a CAGR of 7.1% during the forecast period, from 2022 to 2031. The global personal mobility devices market is likely to surpass value of US$ 20.5 Bn by 2031. The introduction of technologically advanced products and an increase in automobile accidents resulting in impairments are projected to support growth of the global personal mobility devices market. In addition, expanding geriatric populace and the increasing prevalence of chronic illnesses are anticipated to support positive future market outlook for personal mobility devices.

Additionally, it is anticipated that an increase in the frequency of chronic diseases including muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, and arthritis across all age groups is estimated to fuel demand for highly improved mobility aids. The distribution of personal mobility devices is a crucial component of healthcare in nations including the Philippines, South Africa, Cuba, Guyana, Indonesia, Mozambique, and Costa Rica. These devices are given by the Ministry of Health in these countries. The Ministry of Social Welfare is in charge of providing mobility aids in various nations, including Vietnam, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and India. In the near future, it is anticipated that these nations will present development prospects for the global personal mobility devices market.

Personal mobility devices market demand analysis estimates that the wheelchairs category makes up a considerable portion of the global market, which is largely focused on high-income regions and is highly fragmented. Less than half of the global personal mobility devices market is controlled by the top four manufacturers, which are Invacare, Sunrise Medical, Ottobock, and Permobil.

Request Brochure of Personal Mobility Devices Market Research Report - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=6715

Key Findings of Market Report

The incidence of traffic accidents and serious injuries is driven by poor infrastructure, increasing number of automobiles, and bad roadways. According to a World Health Organization (WHO) estimate, 20 million to 50 million individuals worldwide suffer non-fatal injuries each year due to traffic accidents. As a result, it is anticipated to drive growth opportunities in personal mobility devices market in the forthcoming years.

The number of people over 65 years is growing rapidly all over the world. With aging, one's capacity to do physical tasks declines. The number of elderly people using mobile devices is probably going to rise, mostly due to their fear of falling. This factor is likely to increase demand and present considerable growth opportunities for the key players in the personal mobility devices market.

Medical furniture & bathroom safety devices and medical mobility aids & ambulatory devices now make up two product segments of the global market for personal mobility devices. In 2021, medical mobility aids & ambulatory devices represented a significant market share for personal mobility devices market.

Request for Analysis of COVID-19 Impact on Personal Mobility Devices Market - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=covid19&rep_id=6715

Global Personal Mobility Devices Market: Growth Drivers

Based on distribution channel, hospital pharmacies accounted for a sizeable market share in 2021, making up over 50% of it. The presence of licensed doctors and the anticipated increase in prescription filling demand at different hospital pharmacies are expected to boost the category. Additionally, the reliability on the quality and pricing of the pharmaceuticals as well as advice from qualified specialists on drug use are anticipated to fuel segment development.

In 2021, North America held a sizable portion of the global market for personal mobility devices, amounting to over 40%. The region's market for personal mobility devices is anticipated to expand steadily over the next years as a result of rising aging-related illness prevalence and rising healthcare costs. Additionally, the market is anticipated to grow due to advances in healthcare infrastructure and attractive reimbursements for purchase or rental of these devices.

Get Exclusive PDF Sample Copy of Personal Mobility Devices Market Report - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=6715

Global Personal Mobility Devices Market: Key Players

Some of the key market players are

Sunrise Medical (US) LLC

Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc.

GF Health Products, Inc.

Patterson Companies, Inc.

Pride Mobility Products Corp

Stryker Corporation

Make an Enquiry Before Buying - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=EB&rep_id=6715

Global Personal Mobility Devices Market: Segmentation

Product

Medical Mobility Aids & Ambulatory Devices

Medical Furniture & Bathroom Safety Products

Modernization of healthcare in terms of both infrastructure and services have pushed the healthcare industry to new heights, Stay Updated with Latest Healthcare Research Reports by Transparency Market Research:

Smart Medical Devices Market: The global smart medical devices market is expected to reach the value of US$ 70.1 Bn by the end of 2028 and to expand at a CAGR of 7.5% from 2021 to 2028.

Durable Medical Equipment Market: The global durable medical equipment (DME) market was valued at US$ 153.1 Bn in 2018 and is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 6.2% from 2019 to 2027.

Assistive Technologies for Visually Impaired Market: The global assistive technologies for visually impaired market is expected to exceed the value of US$ 13.9 Bn by the end of 2031.

Elderly and Disabled Assistive Devices Market: The global elderly and disabled assistive devices market is expected to reach the value of US$ 31.6 Bn by the end of 2028.

Home Healthcare Market: The global home healthcare market is expected to reach the value of US$ 499.6 Bn by the end of 2028.

Ambulatory Cardiac Monitoring Devices Market: The global ambulatory cardiac monitoring devices market was valued at US$ 13.5 Bn in 2020 and is projected to expand at a moderate CAGR from 2021 to 2031.

Robotic Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies Market: The global robotic rehabilitation and assistive technologies market is anticipated to reach more than US$ 5.5 Bn by 2031.

Thoracic Drainage Devices Market: The global thoracic drainage devices market is anticipated to reach more than US$ 962 Mn by 2031. The global market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 4.6% from 2022 to 2031.

About Transparency Market Research

Transparency Market Research, a global market research company registered at Wilmington, Delaware, United States, provides custom research and consulting services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insights for thousands of decision makers. Our experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools & techniques to gather and analyze information.

Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.

For More Research Insights on Leading Industries, Visit Our YouTube Channel and hit subscribe for Future Update - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8e-z-g23-TdDMuODiL8BKQ

Contact:

Rohit Bhisey

Transparency Market Research Inc.

CORPORATE HEADQUARTER DOWNTOWN,

1000 N. West Street,

Suite 1200, Wilmington, Delaware 19801 USA

Tel: +1-518-618-1030

USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453

Website: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Blog: https://tmrblog.com

Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1682871/TMR_Logo_Logo.jpg
TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / July 15, 2022 / Intellipharmaceutics International Inc. (OTCQB:IPCIF) and (TSX:IPCI) ("Intellipharmaceutics" or the "Company"), a pharmaceutical company specializing in the research, development and manufacture of novel and generic controlled-release and targeted-release oral solid dosage drugs, announced today that its financial statements for the interim period ended May 31, 2022 and related management's discussion and analysis and accompanying Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer certificates (collectively, the "Second Quarter Financial Filings") due July 15, 2022 (the "Filing Deadline") will not be filed by the Filing Deadline.

Despite avoiding any major COVID-19 outbreaks across its various divisions, the spread of the Omicron variant led to certain senior management of the Company contracting the virus. Fighting symptoms of COVID-19 made it difficult to meet the Filing Deadline, but the Company is working expeditiously to finalize the Second Quarter Financial Filings and expects to file the Second Quarter Financial Filings by July 21, 2022. While the delay in filing the Second Quarter Financial Filings is largely due to COVID-19, the Company continues to operate as usual.

Since the Company will fail to file the Second Quarter Financial Filings by the Filing Deadline, as required by National Instrument 51-102 - Continuous Disclosure Obligations, the securities commissions or regulators may impose a failure-to-file cease trade order against all of the shareholders of the Company. As the Company endeavors to file the Second Quarter Financial Filings by July 21, 2022, the Company expects any issued failure-to-file cease trade order to be revoked within a couple of days following the filing of the Second Quarter Financial Filings.

The Company will issue a news release once the Second Quarter Financial Filings have been filed.

About Intellipharmaceutics

Intellipharmaceutics International Inc. is a pharmaceutical company specializing in the research, development and manufacture of novel and generic controlled-release and targeted-release oral solid dosage drugs. The Company's patented Hypermatrix technology is a multidimensional controlled-release drug delivery platform that can be applied to a wide range of existing and new pharmaceuticals.

Intellipharmaceutics has developed several drug delivery systems based on this technology platform, with a pipeline of products (some of which have received FDA approval) in various stages of development. The Company has ANDA and NDA 505(b)(2) drug product candidates in its development pipeline. These include the Company's abuse-deterrent oxycodone hydrochloride extended release formulation ("Oxycodone ER") based on its proprietary nPODDDS novel Point Of Divergence Drug Delivery System (for which an NDA has been filed with the FDA), and Regabatin XR (pregabalin extended-release capsules).

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements in this document constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and/or "forward-looking information" under the Securities Act (Ontario). These statements include, without limitation, statements expressed or implied regarding our expectations regarding the filing of our Second Quarter Financial Filings and the timing thereof; the issuance of a failure-to-file cease trade order by the securities commissions or regulators and the revocation thereof, if any; our plans, goals and milestones, status of developments or expenditures relating to our business, plans to fund our current activities; risks associated with COVID-19, including its impact on our business and operations; and statements concerning our partnering activities, health regulatory submissions, strategy, future operations, future financial position, future sales, revenues and profitability, projected costs and market penetration and risks or uncertainties related to our ability comply with OTCQB Venture Market and TSX requirements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "appear", "unlikely", "target", "may", "will", "should", "expects", "plans", "plans to", "anticipates", "believes", "estimates", "predicts", "confident", "prospects", "potential", "continue", "intends", "look forward", "could", "would", "projected", "set to", "seeking" or the negative of such terms or other comparable terminology. We made a number of assumptions in the preparation of our forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements, which are subject to a multitude of known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, future circumstances or events to differ materially from those stated in or implied by the forward-looking statements. Risks and uncertainties relating to us and our business can be found in the "Risk Factors" section of our latest annual information form, our latest Form 20-F, and our latest Form F-1 and Form F-3 registration statements (including any documents forming a part thereof or incorporated by reference therein), as amended, as well as in our reports, public disclosure documents and other filings with the securities commissions and other regulatory bodies in Canada and the U.S., which are available on www.sedar.com and www.sec.gov . The forward-looking statements reflect our current views with respect to future events and are based on what we believe are reasonable assumptions as of the date of this document and we disclaim any intention and have no obligation or responsibility, except as required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Trademarks used herein are the property of their respective holders.

Unless the context otherwise requires, all references to "we," "us," "our," Intellipharmaceutics," and the "Company" refer to Intellipharmaceutics International Inc. and its subsidiaries.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Company Contact:

Intellipharmaceutics International Inc.

Isa Odidi

Chief Executive Officer

416.798.3001 ext. 102

investors@intellipharmaceutics.com

SOURCE: Intellipharmaceutics International Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/708700/Intellipharmaceutics-Announces-Delay-in-Filing-Second-Quarter-Results-Due-July-15-2022-The-Financial-Statements-Will-be-Filed-By-July-21-2022
MONTREAL, QC / ACCESSWIRE / July 15, 2022 / Alphinat Inc. (TSXV:NPA) announces the release of SmartGuide Version "X" and Board of Director changes.

"SmartGuide X introduces several new features and a multitude of improvements to make developing your applications easier than ever," explains Harold Russel Alphinat's Chief Software Architect. "With this version, it has never been so easy and pleasant to create secure web/mobile applications for your organization."

SmartGuide X focuses on facilitating the integration of source control systems, as well on the addition of numerous functionalities to reduce, more than ever, the use of code in the creation of your apps.

With SmartGuide X it is possible to have dynamic validation messages, recalculate fields, trigger events on fields, or even stop the processing of a sequence of actions.

Multilingual support has also been greatly improved, allowing labels to be translated directly from the Designer interface without the need to use an Excel file.

A brand-new base theme is provided which allows much easier customization and facilitates updates.

Smartlet source files now separated by pages, for easier versioning

Smartlet localization files in JSON form separated by page, to facilitate version management

Metadata now available at theme level

New simplified Smartlets navigation URL, allowing you to ride in default Smartlets multiple mode

Scripts in beanshell now with highlighting for easier reading

Rules support via beanshell scripts

Action GotoSmartlet can now trigger Smartlet initialization destination

Actions to show/hide a field

Ability to assign an error message to a field

Ability to put a read-only field on an action

New function available to delete cookies

Extension functions can return arrays of values

As well as several performance optimizations

Do not hesitate to contact Alphinat at sales@Alphinat.com for more information.

Our teams are involved in a variety of strategic projects. Using SmartGuide, they have been able to rapidly delivery solutions with minimal delays, demonstrating the level of productivity that SmartGuide offers our clients and partners.

SmartGuide allows the IT department to focus on the infrastructure, technical conventions, connections to existing systems. SmartGuide demonstrates that it offers our clients and partners the lowest Total Cost of Ownership compared to custom coded solutions.

In order to accelerate future growth, Alphinat has considerably broadens its horizons by now counting five main areas of solution development:

SmartGuide Grants and Contributions solution (www.SmartGrants.ca) was developed in conjunction with a federal department of the Canadian Government. This platform offers unparalleled productivity for federal, state and municipal clients creating calls for grants including financial program creations for applications, adjudication and payments. SmartGuide Portal Edition for Dynamics 365 (www.smartD365.com) has optimize the way that clients can now create and deploy online services on top of Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM solutions. This offering is available in SaaS mode as well as on-premises. SmartGuide GreenHouse Gas Registry solutions (www.SmartGHGR.ca) is a green fintech solution allowing governments and industry to work together in reducing the harmful effects of greenhouse gas. Alphinat currently has three provincial clients for our SmartGHGR.ca solution. SmartGuide Claims solutions (www.SmartClaims.ca) was developed in conjunction with a major IT consulting partner, which aims at offering unparalleled productivity to federal, state and municipal clients for financial claims applications, ajudication and settlements for financial compensation and class action settlements. SmartGuide CIVIC Portal, CIVIC Portal for Permits & Licensing (www.PermitSmart.ca) and SmartGuide Municipal Cloud are Municipal Cloud and on-premises solutions front ending partner solutions and other digital services for improved user experience for both the cities and their citizens.



The team delivers solutions to various federal, state, and provincial agencies and municipalities across North America. In addition, the company continues to be involved in supporting its partners to ensure the delivery of solutions to government customers.

Alphinat also announces the retirement of Marcel Elefant from the Board of Directors after many years of tireless services and valuable insights Marcel shared with management and the board.

"We wish to thank Marcel for his time and unwavering support of Alphinat Inc," said Michel Lemoine, Chairperson of the board of Alphinat. "We enjoyed his thoughtful recommendations and shared enthusiasm to help bring Alphinat to a commercial success."

Alphinat welcomes Sridhar (Sri) Subramanian to the Board of Directors of Alphinat as Sri brings 25 years of experience in the software industry including executive roles in marketing and strategic partnership development. "Sri has worked to partner with Alphinat in the past and has helped align our partnership strategy," said Curtis Page, President and CEO of Alphinat. "We are thankful to have Sri join our team and his support to management and the board will be impactful."

Alphinat's full filling information can be found on SEDAR, at www.sedar.com.

About Alphinat

At Alphinat, we are driven by the passion to make application development easy for everyone. We enable people leveraging a customer's vision to be an integral part of the development team. After all, what better way to ensure a more favourable outcome than to provide those closest to an application's end-users with a vested interest in its success throughout its development?

So, whether you choose to develop your applications with the help of our low-code platform SmartGuide, kickstart your project using one of our pre-built apps or engage us or one of our partners to do the work for you, we're here to help you deploy better applications in record time. Visit us at https://www.alphinat.com for more information. We look forward to hearing from you.

Forward-looking statements

Certain statements in this document, including those which express management's expectations or estimations with regards to the Company's future performance constitute forward-looking statements" as understood by applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are, of necessity, based on a certain number of estimates and hypotheses; while management considers these to be accurate at the time they are expressed, they are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and risks on the commercial, economic and competitive levels. We advise readers that these forward- looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other known and unknown factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements. A number of factors could cause significant differences between actual results and those described in forward-looking statements. These include, but are not limited to, the Company's capacity to increase acceptance of its products on the market, and to penetrate new markets; the potential existence of defects or undetected problems in the Company's products; the Company's ability to manage its growth; the Company's ability to compete with others; potential commitments; maintaining the Company's intellectual property rights and defending against litigation putting those rights in question; the Company's reliance on the knowledge of its key personnel; and the Company's access to sufficient capital to finance its future needs. This is a partial and non-exhaustive list of factors that could bear on any of our forward-looking statements. Investors are advised to not rely unduly on the forward-looking statements. This advisory applies to all forward-looking statements, whether expressed orally or in writing, attributed to Alphinat or to any individual expressing them in the name of the Company. The Company is under no obligation to publicly update these forward-looking statements, whether to reflect new information, future events, or other circumstances. Risks and uncertainties that bear on the Company are described in greater detail in the Company's Annual Report.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

For further information please contact:

Mr. Curtis Page

Chief Executive Officer

Alphinat Inc.

(514) 398-9799 ext 225



SOURCE: Alphinat, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/708713/Alphinat-Announces-the-Release-of-SmartGuide-Version-X-and-Board-of-Director-Changes


JERUSALEM (dpa-AFX) - Saudi Arabia has announced that it will open its airspace to all air carriers, paving the way for flights between the Arab country and Israel.



Lifting the longstanding ban on Israeli planes flying over Saudi aerial territory is seen as improvement in relations between the two countries, which still do not have diplomatic ties.



The drastic change in the Kingdom's aviation policy was announced Friday by Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation.



'Within the framework of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's keenness to fulfill its obligations under the Chicago Convention of 1944, which stipulates non-discrimination between civil aircrafts used in international air navigation, and to complement the efforts aimed at consolidating the Kingdom's position as a global hub connecting three continents and to enhance international air connectivity, the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) announces the decision to open the Kingdom's airspace for all air carriers that meet the requirements of the Authority for overflying,' it said in a statement, without mentioning Israel.



The development is a foreign policy gain for US president Joe Biden, who is set to visit Saudi Arabia later in the day.



After holding talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in West Bank, Biden is scheduled to board Air Force One at Ben Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv, at 8:25 AM ET, to become the first U.S. President to fly from Israel to Saudi Arabia.



In the last leg of his crucial Middle East Tour, Biden will meet with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud at Alsalam Royal Palace, Jeddah. It will be followed by the President and his team participating in a working session with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Saudi Ministers.



Biden hailed the Saudi announcement as a 'historic decision' which he described as the result of 'months of steady diplomacy' between his Administration and Saudi Arabia.



'As we mark this important moment, Saudi Arabia's decision can help build momentum toward Israel's further integration into the region, including with Saudi Arabia,' he said in a statement. He promised to do all that he can, 'through direct diplomacy and leader-to-leader engagement, to keep advancing this groundbreaking process'.



A separate statement by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on the opening of Saudi airspace said, 'The President will have more to say on this breakthrough later today, as we embark on his historic flight directly from Israel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia'.







Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A report released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Friday unexpectedly showed growth in regional manufacturing activity in the month of July. The New York Fed said its general business conditions index jumped to a positive 11.1 in July from a negative 1.2 in June, with a positive reading indicating growth in regional manufacturing activity. The increase surprised economists, who had expected the index to edge down to a negative 2.0. Meanwhile, the New York Fed said firms turned pessimistic about the six-month outlook, calling the move a rare occurrence in the survey's history. Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 15, 2022 / Silver Phoenix Resources Inc. (CSE:SP) ("SPR" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that, further to its news release dated April 12, 2022, it has entered into an amalgamation and share exchange agreement dated as of July 14, 2022 (the "Definitive Agreement") with Atlas Biotechnologies Inc. ("Atlas"), AgMedica Bioscience Inc. ("AgMedica") and Cambrosia Ltd. ("Cambrosia" and together with Atlas and AgMedica, the "Targets") and the ordinary shareholders of Cambrosia (collectively, the "Cambrosia Shareholders"), to complete a business combination that will result in a reverse takeover of SPR by the shareholders of the Targets (the "Transaction").

Upon completion of the Transaction, the combined entity (the "Resulting Issuer") will continue to carry on the businesses presently carried on by the Targets and will change its name to "Atlas Global Health Inc." or such other name as the parties to the Definitive Agreement may agree.

The proposed Transaction, if completed, will constitute a Fundamental Change as that term is defined under the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "Exchange" or the "CSE"). As such, the closing of the Transaction is subject to the receipt of all necessary approvals, including without limitation, the receipt of all requisite shareholder approvals, and receipt of regulatory approval for the Transaction and listing of the issued and outstanding common shares of the Resulting Issuer (the "Resulting Issuer Shares") on the Exchange.

The Definitive Agreement was negotiated at arm's length and is effective July 14, 2022.

Description of the Proposed Transaction

Acquisition of the Targets

Pursuant to the Definitive Agreement, the parties intend to complete (i) a three-cornered amalgamation involving Silver Phoenix, Atlas and 432998 Alberta Ltd. ("Subco 1"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company; (ii) a three-cornered amalgamation involving Silver Phoenix, AgMedica and 4060407 Canada Inc. ("Subco 2"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company; and (iii) a share exchange between the Company and the Cambrosia Shareholders. The acquisition of the issued and outstanding shares of Cambrosia, in turn, is conditional upon the acquisition by Cambrosia of all or a majority of the shares of five international distribution and retail businesses from the holders thereof (the "Cambrosia Acquisition Vendors") for a combination of cash and Resulting Issuer Shares (the "Resulting Issuer Cambrosia Acquisition Shares"), all as more particularly described in the Definitive Agreement which will be filed electronically on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) under the Company's issuer profile.

Upon completion of the proposed Transaction each of Cambrosia and the corporation resulting from the amalgamation of Atlas and Subco 1 will be wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Resulting Issuer and the Resulting Issuer will own all of the voting and participating shares of the corporation resulting from the amalgamation of AgMedica and Subco 2 ("AgMedica Amalco").

It is intended that: (i) all of the outstanding Atlas shares shall be exchanged, on a pro rata basis, for an aggregate of 38,551,500 Resulting Issuer Shares; (ii) all of the outstanding AgMedica class A preferred shares and common shares shall be exchanged, on a pro rata basis (after giving effect to a liquidation preference attached to the class A preferred shares of AgMedica), for an aggregate of 38,551,500 Resulting Issuer Shares and each of the outstanding class B preferred shares of AgMedica shall be exchanged for a class B preferred share of AgMedica Amalco having the same terms and conditions; and (iii) all of the outstanding Cambrosia shares shall be exchanged, on a pro rata basis, for an aggregate of 77,103,000 post-Consolidation Resulting Issuer Shares (less the Resulting Issuer Cambrosia Acquisition Shares and less the Resulting Issuer Shares issuable on exercise of the 9,400,000 legacy options held by an insider of Cambrosia, as adjusted for the exchange ratio of Cambrosia shares for Resulting Issuer Shares), all on a post-Consolidation (as defined below) basis.

Upon completion of the Transaction the former Atlas shareholders will hold approximately 24.5% of the issued and outstanding Resulting Issuer Shares, the former AgMedica shareholders will hold approximately 24.5% of the issued and outstanding Resulting Issuer Shares, the former Cambrosia shareholders and Cambrosia Acquisition Vendors will hold, in aggregate, approximately 49% of the issued and outstanding Resulting Issuer Shares, and the existing shareholders of the Company will hold the remaining approximate 2% of the issued and outstanding Resulting Issuer Shares.

Consolidation

As of the date hereof, the Company has 8,411,564 common shares issued and outstanding. Prior to the completion of the Transaction, SPR will effect a consolidation of its shares such that the number of issued and outstanding common shares of SPR (the "Consolidation") immediately prior to the closing of the Transaction is no more than 3,500,000 outstanding common shares in the Company.

Convertible Securities

Additionally, and prior to the completion of the Transaction, all issued and outstanding warrants of the Company which have not been exercised shall be cancelled. All issued and outstanding options of the Targets (other than the 9,400,000 legacy options held by an insider of Cambrosia, as adjusted for the exchange ratio of Cambrosia shares for Resulting Issuer Shares) shall become fully vested and exercisable immediately prior to the effective time of the Transaction and each issued and outstanding option of the Targets, respectively, that has not been exercised prior to such time shall terminate and expire.

Escrow, Lock-Ups and Hold Periods

The Resulting Issuer Shares to be issued pursuant to the Transaction will be issued pursuant to exemptions from the prospectus requirements of applicable securities legislation, and certain of the Resulting Issuer Shares issuable pursuant to the Transaction will be subject to a statutory hold period of four (4) months and one day from the date of issue.

Pursuant to applicable policies of the Exchange Resulting Issuer Shares held by directors, officers and 10% shareholders of the Resulting Issuer and its affiliates will be subject to escrow and released as to 10% at listing and thereafter as to 15% every six months thereafter.

In addition, the parties have agreed that all other former shareholders of the Targets shall be subject to a lock-up which in most instances shall be for a 36-month period with approximately 21% to be released at listing, 15% at each of the 6-, 12-, 18-, 24- and 30-month anniversary thereof and the remaining shares released at the 36-month anniversary of closing.

Break Fee

The Definitive Agreement provides that in the event of a termination of the Definitive Agreement resulting from a breach by any party of the non-solicitation covenant therein and the execution by that same party of an agreement for consummation of an alternative transaction or the announcement by that party of an intention to enter into an alternative transaction, the breaching party shall pay to each other party the sum of $250,000 and each of the parties shall reimburse one another so that legal and regulatory expenses of the transaction (other than in respect of the preparation of this agreement) are shared equally among them.

Approvals

The Definitive Agreement also contemplates other material conditions precedent to the closing of the Transaction including: (A) the receipt of all regulatory approvals relating to the Transaction, including, the approval of the Exchange; (B) receipt of applicable shareholder approval, including (i) Atlas shareholder approval approving the proposed Transaction in accordance with the provisions of the Business Corporations Act (Alberta); (ii) AgMedica shareholder approval approving the proposed Transaction in accordance with the provisions of the Canada Business Corporations Act; (iii) SPR shareholder approval at the Company's Annual General and Special Meeting scheduled for 10 a.m. (PST) on July 28, 2022, to set the number of directors to hold office for the ensuing year at four (4) and, subject to and conditional on closing of the Transaction, to set the number of directors of the Company as it exists immediately following completion of the Transaction at seven (7) for the ensuing year, and approving the disposition of the Big Showing Property (which is substantially all of the assets of the Company), all as more particularly described in the Company's management information circular dated June 23, 2022, which is available on SEDAR under the Company's profile; and (C) that each of the parties shall have executed, delivered and performed their respective covenants as outlined in the Definitive Agreement, and all representations and warranties of each party contained in the Definitive Agreement shall be true and correct at the Completion Deadline (as defined in the Definitive Agreement).

There can be no assurance that the Transaction will be completed as proposed, or at all.

The completion of the sale of the Big Showing Property is conditional upon the closing of the Transaction. In the event that the Transaction does not close, the Company will not proceed with the sale of the Big Showing Property.

Board and Management of the Resulting Issuer

On completion of the Transaction, the Resulting Issuer's board of directors and management team will be reconstituted such that the board of directors of the Company ("Original Slate") will increase from four (4) to seven (7) and shall comprise the following individuals:

Tamir Gedo (Chair), a nominee of Cambrosia

David Pappo, a nominee of Cambrosia

Iftach Seri, a nominee of Cambrosia

Jonathan Ben-Cnaan (Vice Chair), a nominee of Cambrosia

Elan MacDonald, a nominee of Atlas

Sheldom Croome, a nominee of Atlas

Trevor Henry, a nominee of AgMedica

It is intended that Itamar Grotto (a nominee of Cambrosia), Dylan Kennett (a nominee of Atlas) and Donald Clow (a nominee of AgMedica) will be appointed directors of the Resulting Issuer at a later date.

Management of the Resulting Issuer will comprise the following individuals:

Trevor Henry - President

Sheldon Croome - Chief Executive Officer

Kevin Mills - Chief Financial Officer

Jeffrey R. Gossain - Chief Operating Officer

Jonathan Ben-Cnaan - SVP, M&A

Detailed information as to the biographical information of the Board of Directors and management team will be disclosed in the listing statement of the Company to be prepared in connection with the Transaction.

Description of the Targets

Atlas Biotechnologies Inc.

Atlas Biotechnologies Inc. is based in Edmonton, Canada, and its wholly owned subsidiary, Atlas Growers Ltd., is federally licensed in Canada for cultivation and processing of cannabis products, with a focus on health and wellness, and adult use products. Atlas currently produces flower, extracts, topical and edible formulations with medical distribution across Canada and adult-use distribution in seven provinces and territories, accessing over 70% of the Canadian population. Atlas operates under two core brand names, being, Natural History, which is focused on producing cannabis products for adult-use markets, as well as Atlas Thrive, which produces smokeless health and wellness focused products. A

AgMedica Bioscience Inc.

AgMedica Bioscience Inc. is a vertically integrated licensed producer of cannabis based in Chatham, Canada, that is licensed to cultivate, process, distribute and sell dried and fresh cannabis flower, cannabis extracts, edibles and topicals, and cannabis plants and seeds. AgMedica currently supplies the adult-use market in Canada through its Vertical and Five Founders brands. AgMedica also supplies the medical cannabis markets in Canada, Australia, Israel, Denmark and U.K., and has forged strategic partnerships with various organizations around the globe to support its vision for the future growth of the cannabis industry.

Cambrosia Ltd.

Cambrosia Ltd. is an international holding company, active, through its subsidiaries and contractors, across key stages of the cannabis value chain: development of products derived from cannabis extracts, and importation, distribution and retailing of medical cannabis.

The common shares of the Company will remain halted until all necessary filings have been accepted by applicable regulatory authorities.

For more information, please contact Scott Ackerman, at (778) 331-8505 or email: sackerman@emprisecapital.com.

On behalf of the Board,

Silver Phoenix Resources Inc.

Scott Ackerman, Director

All information contained in this news release with respect to the Targets was supplied by the Targets for inclusion herein and the Company has relied on the accuracy of such information without independent verification.

As noted above, completion of the Transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including but not limited to, Exchange acceptance of the Transaction. The Transaction cannot close until the required shareholder approval is obtained in respect of the applicable matters. There can be no assurance that the Transaction will be completed as proposed or at all.

Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the management information circular prepared, or listing statement of the Company to be prepared in connection with the Transaction, any information released or received with respect to the Transaction may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon. Trading in the securities of SPR should be considered highly speculative.

The Exchange has in no way passed upon the merits of the Transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.

Neither the Exchange nor the Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Information:

This press release may include "forward-looking information" (as that term is defined by Canadian securities legislation), concerning the Company's business. Forward-looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, statements regarding the Transaction and closing thereof, the exercise and cancelation of the Company's options, the vesting and exercise of all issued and outstanding options of the Targets, the nomination and appointment of proposed directors and officers of the Resulting Issuer, shareholder, director and regulatory approvals, the descriptions of the Targets and information regarding the business and operations of the Resulting Issuer. Forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "plan", "estimate", "may", "will", "intend", "should", and similar expressions.

Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information which include, but are not limited to: the failure of the parties to obtain the necessary regulatory approvals relating to the Transaction, including, the approval of the Exchange and applicable shareholder approval, or to otherwise satisfy the conditions to the completion of the proposed Transaction in a timely manner or at all; significant transaction costs or unknown liabilities; the failure to realize the expected benefits of the proposed Transaction; and general economic conditions. Such forward-looking information is also based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the Company's management, including: assumptions as to the ability of the parties to receive, in a timely manner and on satisfactory terms, approvals relating to the Transaction, including, the approval of the Exchange and applicable shareholder approval; the ability of the parties to satisfy, in a timely manner, the other conditions to the completion of the proposed Transaction; and other expectations and assumptions concerning the proposed Transaction. The anticipated dates indicated may change for a number of reasons, including the inability to receive, in a timely manner, the necessary shareholder approvals or the necessity to extend the time limits for satisfying the other conditions to the completion of the proposed Transaction. Accordingly, investors and others are cautioned that undue reliance should not be placed on any forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such expectations and assumptions are reasonable, investors should not rely unduly on such forward-looking information as the Company can give no assurance they will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements in this press release are made as of the date of this press release. The Company disclaims any intent or obligation to publicly update any forward-looking information (whether as a result of new information, future events or results, or otherwise) other than as required by applicable securities laws.

SOURCE: Silver Phoenix Resources

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/708697/Silver-Phoenix-Announces-the-Signing-of-a-Definitive-Agreement


SEATTLE (dpa-AFX) - Big box retailer, Amazon.com Inc (AMZN) is considering to make changes to its selling and marketing practices to put an end to antitrust investigations by European Union.



The company has been entangled in two anti-trust lawsuits issued by the continental watchdogs which alleged Amazon for using its huge reach and platform for stunting local sellers.



In a recent statement, the EC said that the company has agreed to treat the local sellers equally and it will not use the seller data for its own business. The bloc's antitrust department also probed into the company's delivery details to see if the company is employing unethical tactics to downplay the delivery of the local merchants and thereby, boosting its sales.



The company promises to treat the local sellers equally in its 'Big Box' spot which often drives very high traffic. The company will also allow the vendors to choose their own delivery partners. As a result, the company might be able to avoid the antitrust crackdown on big tech companies and which could end up Amazon facing fines of up to 10% of its global revenue.



The EU is also on the verge of enforcing its new Digital Markets Act that will make life tougher for the tech conglomerates. A company spokesperson reportedly said, 'While we have serious concerns about the Digital Markets Act unfairly targeting Amazon and a few other US companies, and disagree with several conclusions the European Commission made, we have engaged constructively with the Commission to address their concerns and preserve our ability to serve European customers and the more than 185,000 European small and medium-sized businesses selling through our stores. No company cares more about small businesses or has done more to support them over the past two decades than Amazon.'



Amazon's document will now be handed over to the third party and will accept proposals till September 9.







Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

AMAZON-Aktie komplett kostenlos handeln - auf Smartbroker.de
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 15, 2022) - Tana Resources Corp. (CSE: TANA) ("TANA" or the "Company") has mobilized a geological team to carry out the recommended Phase 1 Exploration Program at its 1,500 hectare King - Double T project (the "Property") located approximately 20 kilometers north of the former Snip Gold Mine in northwest BC's Golden Triangle. Tana is earning a 70% interest in the Double T claim block and a 50% interest in the King claim block by making a series of cash payments, share issuances and meeting a series of work commitments.

Highlights of King - Double T Property:

Historic exploration has identified a number of mineralized areas including:

King Vein - a flat lying quartz vein yielding grab sample highlights of 1,725 g/t gold; 1988 drilling returned values ranging from 9.19 to 103.59 g/t gold (0.294 to 3.315 oz/t) over widths ranging from 0.43 to 0.50 metres; (true width unknown)



North Zone - a stratiform lead-zinc-silver zone returning highlight grab samples of 6.4% lead, 31.3% zinc and 890 g/t silver; 1987 drilling returned values ranging from 0.01 to 7.3 g/t gold and 2.0 to 219 g/t silver all over widths of one metre; (true width unknown)



The source of the exploration information is Tana's June 21, 2021 Technical Report on the Double T Property by Derrick Strickland, found under Tana's profile on SEDAR.

"We are very pleased to announce the commencement of exploration at King - Double T," commented Tana CEO, Vic Korajian. "The historic gold and silver grades demand follow up, especially in light of the recent work by Enduro Resources Corporation within 1 kilometre of our property. We are very excited to see what the Tana technical team can uncover as they attempt to trace these zones along strike," he continued.

The King - Double T property lies in an underexplored, prospective area of the Golden Triangle north of the former Snip Mine, where recent, gold, polymetallic and porphyry copper prospects have been discovered. The receding ice has opened large sections of the King - Double T property that were inaccessible to the earlier explorers in the late 1980's, including a number of unexplained magnetic anomalies.

The King Vein and North Zone appear to spatially relate to the suspected southern projection of the regional McLymont Fault, as supported by a series of historic airborne magnetic surveys. Recent exploration by Enduro Resources Corporation (see Enduro July 11, 2022 News Release) appears to further support the extension of the Fault southwest across their property to within 1000 metres of the Tana property boundary.

Tana's Golden Triangle experienced team plans to delineate the extent of the known gold and polymetallic skarn style mineralization and its relationship to the McLymont Fault, evaluate the recently deglaciated magnetic anomalies in the northern part of the Property and assess the significance of historic polymetallic soil and rock geochemical anomalies in other areas of the Property. Results will be reported as they become available.

About TANA

Tana Resources Corp. is a Canadian mining exploration company focused on the acquisition and development of high value mining projects. The Company's objective is to build shareholder value through the acquisition of projects with significant technical merit. The Company's management team has many years of experience in exploration, finance and efficient public company management.

Qualified Person

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by R. Tim Henneberry, P.Geo. (BC), a Director of the Tana and a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101.

For additional information, please visit the Company's website at www.tanaresources.ca.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

"Vartan Korajian"

President and CEO

For further information, please contact:

778-855-3994

Email: vic@tanaresources.ca

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release."

Forward-Looking Statements:

This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking" statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although TANA believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of TANA's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by law, TANA undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/130937
The Bank of Lithuania carried out a scheduled targeted inspection of NEO Finance, AB (legal entity code 303225546, address: A. Vivulskio street 7, Vilnius; Company). During the inspection, the Bank of Lithuania found that the Company properly complied with the requirements of Article 17, Part 1 and Article 21, Part 2, Point 1 of the Law on Consumer Credit during the inspected period. 1 case out of 20 inspected was identified, when the Company did not immediately reduce the total price of the consumer credit by the amount of overpayment of EUR 7.4 after the consumer credit recipient has fulfilled the obligations under the consumer credit agreement before the set term due to an unintentional error in the IT system. The company during the inspection returned the overpayment to the consumer credit recipient and, in order to prevent such a violation in the future, immediately performed the necessary programming work. On 12/07/2022, by the decision of the Financial Market Supervision Committee of the Bank of Lithuania, it was decided to complete the inspection of the Company, without applying impact measures or mandatory instructions to the Company. Head of Adminstration Paulius Tarbunas Email: paulius.tarbunas@neofinance.com
FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Commerzbank (CRZBY.PK) said it still expects a net result of more than 1 billion euros for fiscal 2022 despite an expected revenue burden at its Polish subsidiary mBank. The company noted that this outlook is under the condition that there will be no further significant deterioration in the economic environment and that no material additional provisions for the Swiss Franc loan portfolio at mBank will be necessary. Commerzbank estimates negative one-off effect of 210 million euros to 290 million euros at mBank in third quarter due to legislation on credit holidays for private mortgages. Operating result of Commerzbank will be impacted by corresponding amount. For more earnings news, earnings calendar, and earnings for stocks, visit rttnews.com. Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. securities regulator has sought more information regarding billionaire Elon Musk's tweets related to his planned $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.



The filing by Musk's lawyers at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP was in response to last month's letter from the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the SEC letter dated June 2, Musk was asked about his May 17 tweet on Twitter's potential spam and fake accounts, in which he said the 'deal cannot move forward.'



According to the SEC, the term 'cannot' suggests that Musk is exercising a legal right under the deal terms to suspend completion of the acquisition or otherwise does not intend to complete the acquisition. The regulator asked to explain the term, as to why that statement wasn't a material change that should have been amended in his public filing to reflect his intention about the deal.



The agency asked for a written analysis of Musk's current plans or proposals with respect to the acquisition of Twitter.



Musk's lawyers replied that there was no material change to his plans and proposals regarding the proposed transaction at that time.



Last week, Musk sought to terminate his deal to acquire Twitter, claiming that the social media giant failed to comply with its obligations in the merger agreement.



Responding to Musk's notice of planned termination of the merger deal, Twitter in a filing called Musk's purported termination of the deal 'invalid and wrongful.' Twitter also sued Musk in Delaware Chancery Court to enforce the merger agreement.



Musk has been under SEC scrutiny for the past few years. In 2018, he agreed with the agency to pay a $20 million fine and to step down as Chairman of Tesla after he threatened investors in a tweet that he had secured funding to take Tesla private, but the SEC found it was a case of defrauding the investors.



In March this year, the SEC asked a federal judge to let Musk's usage of his Twitter handle continue to be monitored, as done as part of his 2018 agreement. Meanwhile, Musk asked the judge to end his agreement and to block a subpoena asking for records of pre-approval of a poll conducted on Twitter in November on the possibility of selling some of his stock.



In June, Musk appealed against the US District judge's refusal to end his feud with the SEC regarding his tweets.







Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

TESLA-Aktie komplett kostenlos handeln - auf Smartbroker.de
DGAP Post-admission Duties announcement: Diebold Nixdorf, Incorporated / Third country release according to Article 50 Para. 1, No. 2 of the WpHG [the German Securities Trading Act]

Diebold Nixdorf, Incorporated: Release according to Article 50 of the WpHG [the German Securities Trading Act] with the objective of Europe-wide distribution



15.07.2022 / 15:50

Dissemination of a Post-admission Duties announcement according to Article 50 Para. 1, No. 2 WpHG transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG.

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.





Press Release

Media Relations Investor Relations

Mike Jacobsen, APR Christine Marchuska, CAIA

+1 330-490-3796 +1 607-206-9212

michael.jacobsen@dieboldnixdorf.com christine.marchuska@dieboldnixdorf.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

July 14, 2022

Diebold Nixdorf to Conduct 2022 Second Quarter Investor Call on Aug. 2

HUDSON, Ohio - Diebold Nixdorf (NYSE: DBD) will release 2022 second quarter financial results on Tuesday, Aug. 2 before trading begins on the New York Stock Exchange. Octavio Marquez, president and chief executive officer, and Jeffrey Rutherford, executive vice president and chief financial officer, will discuss the results during a conference call and webcast beginning at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Prior to the call, Diebold Nixdorf will provide a press release summarizing business and financial results, and a shareholder letter containing other highlights from the period. The press release and letter will be accessible by visiting the Investor Relations section of Diebold Nixdorf's website located at http://www.dieboldnixdorf.com/earnings. Live access to the conference call, as well as the replay, will also be available on this website.

To access the call, we encourage you to pre-register at https://ige.netroadshow.com/registration/q4inc/11304/diebold-nixdorf-inc-second-quarter-2022-earnings-call/. After registering, a confirmation will be sent via email and will include dial-in details and a unique PIN code for entry to the call. To avoid long wait times, we suggest registering at least one day in advance to receive your unique PIN code. Registration will be open throughout the live call. You may also access the call and register with a live operator. The conference call will last approximately one hour. Participants should plan to dial in 15 minutes prior to the session. Details on the call are as follows:

Dial-in number Conf. ID Time/Date

Conference Call Toll free: 844-200-6205 113233 8:30 a.m. ET; Aug. 2, 2022

International: 929-526-1599

About Diebold Nixdorf

Diebold Nixdorf, Incorporated (NYSE: DBD) is a world leader in enabling connected commerce. We automate, digitize and transform the way people bank and shop. As a partner to the majority of the world's top 100 financial institutions and top 25 global retailers, our integrated solutions connect digital and physical channels conveniently, securely and efficiently for millions of consumers each day. The company has a presence in more than 100 countries with approximately 22,000 employees worldwide. Visit www.DieboldNixdorf.com for more information.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/diebold

Twitter: twitter.com/dieboldnixdorf

Facebook: www.facebook.com/DieboldNixdorf

YouTube: www.youtube.com/dieboldnixdorf

DN-F

###

PR_22-4064

15.07.2022 The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases.

Archive at www.dgap.de




WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday convened a meeting of Florida state legislators who are fighting on the frontlines to protect reproductive rights.



The meeting, held in Orlando, was a follow up to engagements about reproductive rights that the Vice President had with health care providers, faith leaders, constitutional law and privacy experts, advocates, State Attorneys General, and other state legislators from across the country.



During the meeting, Harris conveyed the Administration's commitment to protecting access to reproductive health care, including abortion access. She encouraged the legislators to continue fighting to protect reproductive rights in Florida in the wake of recent Supreme Court decision annulling Roe v. Wade, which upheld the right to have an abortion.



She emphasized that the government should not interfere with the right of every American to make the most intimate decisions about 'heart and home' - including reproductive health care access. The Vice President reiterated the Administration's commitment to partnering with elected leaders at the local, state, and federal level to protect reproductive health care. She also discussed actions the Biden Administration is taking to defend health care access, and applauded the state legislators for their work defending abortion access in Florida.



Florida's legislative leaders told the meeting that extremist legislators in the state are fighting to further limit reproductive health care access.



Florida currently has a 15 week ban on abortion, with no exception for rape or incest. The law came into effect on July 1.



They said abortion bans across other southern states is overwhelming the health systems in Florida.



Harris and the state leaders reaffirmed their commitment to working together to protect reproductive rights for all women across the state of Florida and the nation.



Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra; Doctor Robyn Schickler, Chief Medical Officer at Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida; Florida Senate minority leader Lauren Book; and Leader-Designate Fentrice Driskell also attended the meeting.







Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
Finsbury Growth & Income Trust Plc - Transaction in Own Shares

For immediate release

15 July 2022

FINSBURY GROWTH & INCOME TRUST PLC

(the "Company")

MARKET PURCHASE OF COMPANY'S OWN SHARES

The Company announces that it has today purchased 98,088 of its own shares ("Ordinary Shares") at a price of 791.59 pence per Ordinary Share. Such shares will be held in treasury by the Company.

The transaction was made pursuant to the authority granted at the Annual General Meeting of the Company held on 9 February 2022.

Following this transaction, the total number of Ordinary Shares held by the Company in treasury is 5,029,811; the total number of Ordinary Shares that the Company has in issue, less the total number of Ordinary Shares held by the Company in treasury following such purchase, and therefore, the total number of voting rights in the Company is 219,961,492.

The figure of 219,961,492 may be used by shareholders as the denominator for calculations of interests in the Company's voting rights in accordance with the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

For and on behalf of

Frostrow Capital LLP

Company Secretary

For further information, please contact:

Victoria Hale

Frostrow Capital LLP

Tel: 020 3 170 8732
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - July 15, 2022) - CoinAnalyst Corp. (CSE: COYX) (FSE: 1EO) (the "Corporation") is pleased to announce that, as a result of the filing of its annual financial statements and management's discussion and analysis for the financial year ended December 31, 2021, and the CEO and CFO certificates, on July 14, 2022, the management cease trade order issued by the British Columbia Securities Commission ("BCSC") on May 4, 2022, has been revoked by the BCSC effective July 14, 2022.

About CoinAnalyst:

CoinAnalyst provides an artificial intelligence (AI)-based big data analytics platform that enables investors in the digital asset sector and other industries detailed AI-powered analysis of market sentiment, fundamentals, and technical indicators. The platform monitors and analyzes real-time data from the digital asset market (Coins/Tokens/NFTs/initial offerings). The software monitors news sources, tracks influencers, scans online social media, and provides sentiment analysis, forecast and trade signals on the top 300 digital assets (more are added regularly). Additionally, the software system provides news, price quotes, and allows for messaging. The platform is accessed through a monthly subscription model, which ranges in prices depending on whether the plan is basic, professional, or corporate. The platform is sold through business-to-consumer (B2C) and through business-to-business-to-consumer (B2C2C). To learn more about CoinAnalyst, please visit www.coinanalyst.tech.

For more information, please contact:

Andrew Sazama

Chief Operating Officer and Director

Email: contact@coinanalyst.tech

Phone: + 49 69 2648485 - 20

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements relating to the Corporation's business and operations. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Corporation's expectations are risks detailed from time to time in the filings made by the Corporation with securities regulations. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Corporation will update or revise publicly any of the included forward-looking statements as expressly required by Canadian securities law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/131043
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 15, 2022 / The Power Play by The Market Herald has announced the release of new interviews with G2 Energy and Mammoth on their latest news.

The Power Play by The Market Herald provides investors with a quick snapshot of what they need to know about the company's latest press release through exclusive insights and interviews with company executives.

G2 Energy (CSE:GTOO) names James Tague as President of G2 Energy Holdings US, Inc.

G2 Energy Corp. (GTOO) has appointed James Tague as President of its wholly-owned subsidiary G2 Energy Holdings US. In this role, Mr. Tague will manage the operational, financial, and business development of G2 Energy's US operations. Mr. Tague sat down with Daniella Atkinson to discuss the opportunity and outline the company's plans.

For the full interview with James Tague and to learn more about G2 Energy, click here

Mammoth (TSXV:MTH) reports new diamond drilling results from its Tenoriba gold-silver property

Mammoth Resources Corp. (MTH) has provided results from an additional four drill holes at its flagship Tenoriba gold-silver property. The property is located in the prolific Sierra Madre precious metals belt of Mexico. Thomas Atkins, President and CEO of Mammoth Resources, sat down with Sabrina Cuthbert to discuss the recent drill results.

For the full interview with Thomas Atkins and to learn more about Mammoth, click here

Interviews for The Power Play by The Market Herald are released daily. To learn more about the companies featured in The Power Play or to explore our other interviews visit The Power Play by The Market Herald.

About The Market Herald

The Market Herald Canada is the leading source of authoritative breaking stock market news for self-directed investors. Our team of Canadian markets reporters, editors and technologists covers the entire listed company universe in Canada. We cover over 3,985 businesses, their people, their investors, and their customers. We write the stories that move the Canadian capital markets.

DISCLAIMER: Report Card Canada Media Ltd. ("Report Card") is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Market Herald Limited, an Australian company ("Market Herald"). Report Card is not an advisory service, and does not offer, buy, sell, or provide any other rating, analysis or opinion on the securities we discuss. We are retained and compensated by the companies that we provide information on to assist them with making information available to the public. All information available on themarketherald.ca and/or this press release should be considered as commercial advertisement and not an endorsement, offer or recommendation to buy or sell securities. Report Card is not registered with any financial or securities regulatory authority in any province or territory of Canada, will not be performing any registerable activity as defined by the applicable regulatory bodies and do not provide nor claim to provide investment advice or recommendations to any visitor of this site or readers of any content on or originating from themarketherald.ca. Market Herald and/or its affiliates and/or their respective officers, directors or employees may from time to time acquire, hold or sell securities and/or commodities and/or commodity futures contracts in certain underlying companies mentioned in this site and which may also be clients of Market Herald's affiliates. In such instances, Market Herald and/or its affiliates and/or their respective officers, directors or employees will use all reasonable efforts to avoid engaging in actiAons to minimize any conflict. All the information on this document and/or the website - themarketherald.ca - is published in good faith and for general information purpose only. Report Card does not make any warranties about the completeness, reliability, and accuracy of this information. Any action you take upon the information you find on this document and/or website (themarketherald.ca) is strictly at your own risk. Report Card will not be liable for any losses and/or damages in connection with the use of our website. From our website, you can visit other websites by following hyperlinks to such external sites. While we strive to provide only quality links to useful and ethical websites, we have no control over the content and nature of these sites. These links to other websites do not imply a recommendation for all the content found on these sites. Site owners and content may change without notice and may occur before we have the opportunity to remove a link which may have gone 'bad'. Please be also aware that when you leave our website, other sites may have different privacy policies and terms which are beyond our control. Please be sure to check the Privacy Policies of these sites as well as their "Terms of Service" before engaging in any business or uploading any information.

CONTACT:

The Market Herald

Charity Robertson

charity.robertson@themarketherald.ca

themarketherald.ca

SOURCE: The Market Herald

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/708777/The-Power-Play-by-The-Market-Herald-Releases-New-Interviews-with-G2-Energy-and-Mammoth
CUMMING, GA / ACCESSWIRE / July 15, 2022 / Talented cedar shake roofing specialists at Braswell Construction Company redefine Georgia neighborhoods using stunning DaVinci Synthetic Shake Roofing.

Braswell Construction Group (BCG) is a preferred partner in the roofing industry known for its exceptional installations and great customer service. Recognized as the top roofing specialist for real cedar shake and synthetic shake roofing, BCG is one of the few Georgia contractors that knows how to restore and maintain cedar shake. 99% of the cedar roofing replacement jobs BCG has worked on were incorrectly installed by the original roofing company.

With over 20 years of experience, Braswell Construction Group installs shake roofing correctly the first time. BCG offers premium shake roofing options for customers wanting to improve the look and function of their home. Additionally, there are different grades of cedar shake and different manufacturers most of which produce inferior products as compared to the products BCG uses. The expanding category of synthetic roofing products cater to homeowners, builders, and remodelers who prefer renewable resources that come with the advantage of extreme durability and longevity yet want the look of natural shake roofs.

Advanced materials and manufacturing technologies give the synthetic products better resistance to weathering, greater durability, and longer lifespans than real cedar, according to manufacturers. "The material is mimicked to obtain efficiency and also longer life over the natural product," says Chris Braswell, owner of BCG.

BCG is recognized as a DaVinci Masterpiece Contractor by DaVinci Roofscapes. The program, sponsored by DaVinci RoofScapes, was established to facilitate relations with select contractors in recognition of their expertise and experience in installing and maintaining DaVinci synthetic shake roofing systems. This esteemed accolade and elite status of being named a DaVinci Masterpiece Contractor recognizes a heightened level of expertise and experience in installing DaVinci roofing systems.

The Power of DaVinci's Synthetic Shake

Roofing professionals know that top manufacturers let their materials speak for themselves, and that is exactly what DaVinci Roofscapes has done since they originated back in 1997. "DaVinci offers a superior quality of product that strikes the balance between high-end luxury design and stunningly modern appearances that are made to last," says Chris Braswell, CEO of Braswell Construction Group. DaVinci's focus on creating beautiful appearances that last longer than the average tile is what makes them a preferred partner with roofing companies all around the United States.

Earlier variations of shake shingles from other brands have slowly become less popular over time, but DaVinci aims to bring it back into the spotlight with a proprietary line of polymer-based composite cedar shake tiles. Their compelling synthetic line offers exactly what customers expect-a stunning appearance and a long lifespan. It pairs the appearance of genuine cedar shingles with even more durability than natural materials currently offer.

DaVinci's Synthetic Shake preserves its beautiful color, even after exposure to the elements. To the delight of homeowners, these shingles are ideal for withstanding a long list of problems caused by nature, including hazards associated with wind, hail, moss, tree falls, and drastic temperature changes.

The Synthetic Shake line has proven its durability and security through a comprehensive series of flame tests, including intermittent, spread, and burning brand tests. These shingles proudly received a Class A rating in the roof fire ratings offered by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), making them a cut above the rest. Able to resist spreading flames, fire penetration, and recurring intermittent flames, DaVinci offers yet another remarkable product designed to keep homeowners safe.

Ideal for homeowners in different climates, DaVinci's Synthetic Shake is built to last no matter what life brings. Available in both single-width and multi-width varieties, the Synthetic Shake line is a compelling example of yet another wonderful DaVinci Roofscapes product. Homeowners can enjoy these shingles in a range of color schemes that covers everything from the subtle Chesapeake all the way to the DaVinci-coined Fancy Shake. Already, the reviews agree that this product is a new age for synthetic shakes in roofing, and DaVinci is changing the way that we view them with these resilient and aesthetically pleasing materials.

About DaVinci Roofscapes:

DaVinci Roofscapes is a roofing manufacturer that wants to make the roofing industry better one roof at a time. Committed to natural looks and styles, they provide materials that make homes look gorgeous, offering any home an instant upgrade. Bringing together natural beauty, exceptional performance, and a long-lasting design, they are able to meet the needs of consumers living in a wide range of different environments. As game-changers in the industry, they can bring together years of experience with innovative designs to create products that look great and perform even better.

About Braswell Construction Group:

Braswell Construction Group is a leader in specialty roofing and a DaVinci Roofer Masterpiece Contractor. BCG has been a recipient of the prestigious DaVinci Project of the Year Award Winner multiple times, an award that is only given to three roofing specialists nationwide.

BCG has been locally owned and operated since 2002, and prides itself on its high-quality craftsmanship, exceptional customer service, and professional acumen. They have a reputation for always completing its roofing and restoration projects on time and on budget while providing customized service, top-notch customer service, and unparalleled workmanship.

Braswell Construction Group has been featured several times in both Yahoo Finance, ABC, FOX, among many others as an industry leader and the top Roofing Contractor in the state of Georgia.

Braswell Construction Group operates from many Georgia locations to service homeowners with all their roofing and restoration needs in Greensboro/Lake Oconee, Augusta, Athens, Covington/Conyers, Stone Mountain, Cumming, Gainesville, Milton, Alpharetta, Sandy Springs, Buckhead, metro Atlanta, and their respective surrounding areas.

For more information, please visit https://www.braswellconstructiongroup.com

Contact Info:

Name: Michelle Bird

Email: info@braswellconstructiongroup.com

Organization: Braswell Construction Group, Inc. Roofing & Restoration

Address: 3060 Pharr Ct N Northwest #32nd, Atlanta, GA 30305

Phone: (678) 283-2551

SOURCE: Braswell Construction Group

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/708780/Cumming-Shake-Roofer-Braswell-Construction-Group-Uses-Synthetic-Shake-Roofing-to-Improve-Georgia-Neighborhoods
New Brunswick, New Jersey--(Newsfile Corp. - July 15, 2022) - Social justice activists and volunteers have a new way to effect positive change in the world. SoAct, which believes that everyone has the power to make a difference no matter how small, has created an app that connects like-minded people who are passionate about social causes. Individuals and nonprofits will be able to form communities that focus on specific issues, engage in conversations, share resources, and plan/host virtual or in-person events.





SoAct

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8668/130968_a52677ec6480f844_001full.jpg

The release of SoAct's app comes at a time when social activism is increasing around the globe, including in the United States. Individuals and organizations are working to find solutions for a growing list of causes that include climate change, inequalities in education and healthcare, poverty, racism, and human trafficking, among others. While people have been organizing to effect change for hundreds of years, today's activists have a tool that can give them an advantage as they scale their efforts: social media.

"At SoAct, we are inspired by the thousands, perhaps even millions, of individuals and groups who are protesting peacefully in the streets, volunteering their time, and searching for solutions to important issues," says SoAct's Co-Founder and CEO, Peter Clark. "We have all seen how pivotal social media has been in connecting activists both here in the United States and abroad. We are excited about giving them a new tool that can help them to unify, share, and inform them so that their efforts are magnified, ultimately leading to more change."

SoAct explains that its social media app is designed to facilitate individuals, groups, organizations, nonprofits, and companies coming together more easily. Users are able to specify their cause, search for other activists, and connect. SoAct states that organizations and nonprofits can also give awards and certificates to their volunteers, and because they are easily searchable in SoApp's database, they can potentially grow their communities.

The app has recently been updated and now includes a collaboration feature that allows individuals and groups to engage with their followers, with the goal of generating more revenue. With the ability to be paid to organize, the user can help their community and scale their cause at the same time.

"Our app enables users to create engaging content and support other people and groups who share their social justice goals," SoAct says. "This is a wonderful tool for those who seek to be change makers in their communities."

As the work to make the world a more equitable place continues, SoAct has some advice for those who are passionate about social justice. "Don't ever give up," the company says. "Your efforts and your commitment are needed. You are the leaders who will change our society into one that is safe, fair, and prosperous for everyone."

SoAct is a condensed social media platform that is centered around the user's passions and desire to positively impact shared communities. Issues include cancer, sustainability, poverty, hunger, and more. SoAct supports its activists as they make a difference. It is not just an app - it is a movement that allows everyone to collaborate to create a better future.

For more information about SoAct, please see its website or contact:



Peter Clark

SoAct

pete@soactapp.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/130968
WEST SPRINGFIELD, MA / ACCESSWIRE / July 15, 2022 / USA Medical Supply, Inc a durable Medical Equipment, Mobility, & now a Scrubs & Uniforms retailer and provider, announced that it has opened up a Scrubs & Uniforms Division to fulfill the needs of Healthcare Workers in Western Massachusetts & Hartford County Connecticut. USA Medical Supply will be offering for sale some of the biggest names in the Scrubs & Uniforms business. Those brands include Wonderwink, Carhartt, Barco, Grey's Anatomy, Healing Hands, White Cross, Med Couture, Landau, etc. USA Medical Supply has over 6500 sq Ft of retail space, two large dressing rooms, and a handicap accessible bathroom for convenience. Healthcare Workers that show their Work ID will get an extra 20% off regular pricing. "We wanted to give back to the Healthcare Community here in Western, Massachusetts by offering them a huge selection of scrubs and uniforms. The 20% goes a long way for many people in this economic environment. The discount will be applied to your purchase with a valid work ID from a healthcare provider such as(Baystate Health Systems, Trinity Health, Mercy, Sisters of Providence, Holyoke Health, Hartford Hospital, or any other New England Healthcare Facility, we will honor that 20% with your Work ID. My company and I appreciate everything that the Healthcare Community does day in and day out. You are the real heroes!" said Richard Spafford, President of USA Medical Supply. To meet with growing demand, USA Medical Supply plans on opening on Saturday's starting in September 2022.

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Morganton, North Carolina--(Newsfile Corp. - July 15, 2022) - Blue Ring Investors LLC, which helps busy professionals to invest in real estate, has announced it is under contract on a 75-unit property in Port Arthur, Texas. With the contract, the company adds to its growing portfolio of investment-grade commercial properties in multifamily, senior housing, and student housing asset classes.

Blue Ring Investors, founded by President Sanjay Hegde and co-managed by his partner Dr. Jeannette Bimbach, specializes in asset management and raising capital while helping busy professionals from healthcare and other industries to invest in commercial real estate. Started in 2021, Blue Ring Investors now has over 190 multifamily units under management and 700 self-storage units under construction. The company partners with an established network of vetted, successful real estate acquisitions teams in whose deals it invests on its clients' behalf. The new contract with the 75-unit property, Blue Ring Investors states, is its latest step in growing its portfolio so that it can assist more clients.

"We are very excited about our Port Arthur contract," Mr. Hegde says. "It represents the incredible growth of Blue Ring Investors in just over a year, and we are proud to offer it as a possible investment opportunity for our clients."

Blue Ring Investors focuses both on CRE investments as well as education about the industry. It explains that to help investors better understand the pros and cons of owning multifamily assets, it has begun doing a monthly webinar, "Strategic Multifamily Investing with Dr. Jeannette and Sanjay." The company also offers a podcast page on its website that is regularly updated.

"It has been very successful thus far," Blue Ring Investors says. "We have talked with many potential and existing investors about multifamily syndication. What we have found is that people have a strong desire to better understand alternative investment opportunities so that they can have the potential to diversify their assets. For some, owning multifamily assets can be a good option."

While helping the Blue Ring Investors team with the Port Arthur contract, Mr. Hegde spoke at the GOB Network Conference at the Westin O'Hare in Chicago on July 13-14, 2022. "We support the conference's mission: to eliminate all obstacles that prevent individuals from being successful real estate investors," says Mr. Hegde. "I had a wonderful time being on the Passive Investing Panel and sharing what I have learned through my own experiences at Blue Ring Investors to help more people potentially save for retirement."

Next on the horizon for Mr. Hegde will be the Middle East Investors Summit in Dubai, which he will attend on behalf of Blue Ring Investors from November 14-15. "It will be an assemblage of global leaders in real estate, infrastructure, hedge funds, private equity, and other sectors, and I am looking forward to networking and strategizing with all of them," Mr. Hegde states.

Blue Ring Investors brings together sophisticated investors who, with the company's leadership, can leverage the group's combined financial resources to invest in carefully chosen commercial real estate deals. The company works to identify qualified vendors, partners, and advisers to give it a competitive advantage as it enters new markets.





Sanjay Hegde is Founder and President of Blue Ring Investors LLC and has more than 15 years' experience establishing customer relationships and managing multimillion-dollar corporate accounts for companies in the U.S. and abroad. An Acquisitions Specialist, Funding Specialist, Property Asset Management Specialist, and Underwriting Specialist, Mr. Hegde is connected to a deep network of operational, tax, and legal experts focused on commercial real estate investing.



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8668/131065_0f204e6f44a6ea11_002full.jpg





Dr. Jeannette Birnbach has been running a successful practice for the last 24 years in the Pacific Northwest. Realizing the potential of multifamily investments, she purchased three small multifamily properties on her own, which led to discovering the power of passive syndication for larger properties. Now working as a general partner at Blue Ring Investors, she guides other healthcare practitioners to learn about passive real estate investing.



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8668/131065_0f204e6f44a6ea11_003full.jpg

For more information about Blue Ring Investors, please contact:

Sanjay Hegde

828-391-4805

sanjay@blueringinvestors.com

Blue Ring Investors | Facebook

Blue Ring Investors (@blueringinvestors)  Instagram photos and videos

(99+) Blue Ring Investors: Overview | LinkedIn

Blue Ring Investors - YouTube

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/131065
Crossplane Capital, a Dallas, TX-based private equity firm, closed its second private equity investment fund, Crossplane Capital Fund II, L.P., above its $325 million target.

With the closing of Fund II, Crossplane has raised over $730 million since its founding in 2018, including co-investment vehicles. Fund II will continue to target lower middle market industrial companies that are family and founder owned and seeking an operational and financial partner or are companies going through a complex situation such as a carve-out or a restructuring.

Founded in 2018 and led by Managing Partners Brian Hegi and Ben Eakes, Crossplane Capital is a private equity firm that makes control investments in niche manufacturing, value-added distribution and industrial business services companies. The firm seeks to partner with lower-middle market companies to enhance financial performance and generate strategic value creation. .

Since the first closing of Crossplanes inaugural fund in July 2019, Crossplane has closed six platform investments and 20 add-on acquisitions in its target sectors of industrial business services, value added distribution and niche manufacturing.

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld acted as fund counsel for Crossplane.

FinSMEs

15/07/2022
If an alien had been watching Earth, beginning about 10,000 years ago and up to the present, this intelligent being likely would have concluded there was some kind of infestation going on down there!

With todays world population at almost 8 billion and U.S. population 330 million-plus, it is vital to recognize a relevant historic event.

On March 27, 1972, the Commission on Population Growth and the American Future, after more than two years of intense study, presented its findings to Congress and the president, who had established the commission with strong bipartisan support in both chambers.

Its chairman, John D. Rockefeller III, stated, We have concluded that ... no substantial benefits will result from further growth of the nations population, rather that gradual stabilization ... would contribute significantly to the nations ability to solve its problems.

The U.S. population was approximately 210 million, 120 million people fewer than today. This larger population is driving many of our major problems.

For comparison, this 120 million increase equals the current combined state populations of Massachusetts, Tennessee, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, Wisconsin, Colorado, Minnesota, South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, Kentucky, Oregon, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Utah, Iowa, Nevada, Arkansas, Mississippi, Kansas, New Mexico, Nebraska, Idaho, West Virginia, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Maine, Montana, Rhode Island, Delaware, North Dakota, Alaska, Vermont and Wyoming, plus Washington, D.C.

It is beyond absurd to ignore the overwhelming negative reductions in our quality of life the additional people are driving, including the effects on representative democracy.

When the nation was founded, each member of the U.S. House represented 30,000 constituents. Now the population in each district is about 750,000, a 25-fold dilution in the constituents affective relationship with their congressional representative.

Turn that number around and it would take 25 times more House members (currently 435) to restore the original ratio  or 10,875. Incredible! Most agree that 435 is already dauntingly unwieldy.

The commission assessed population pressure from many angles, with chapters that included population distribution, the economy, resource/environment, government, social aspects, public policy, education and the status of children and women, reproduction, immigration and stabilization, among other topics.

Under reproduction it stated, As the Commission moves towards a population policy for the U.S., our principal objective is the enrichment of life, not its restriction. And under a chapter headed organizational changes, We therefore recommend the creation of an Office of Population Growth and Distribution within the Executive Office of the President.

Clearly, even if the human population could be instantly stabilized, many of our most serious problems would remain unsolved. Climate change, social/economic justice and global migration issues, among many others, will continue to demand attention for many decades. These issues and many more will all be impossible to solve unless human numbers are stabilized.

No one asks to be born, and each needs food, water and other necessities of life no matter where they live. But given the number added in the past 50 years, it is foolhardy to conclude that population pressure plays no part in the severity of the issues we now confront. It is an event magnifier of historic proportion in our common trajectory.

Population pressure is a global issue, but because national sovereignty is supreme, it behooves each country to put forth its best effort toward stabilization. For us, it is imperative to rekindle advocacy leading to stabilization, eyeing a sustainable long-term future.

We are already 50 years behind moving forward with the commissions recommendations, and consequently we have suffered disastrous outcomes. Lets hope it is not too late to avert the worst results of continuous population growth.
Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021.
We've been waiting for this one for a while.....

House hitmaker Dom Dolla has finally blessed us with festival weapon 'Miracle Maker' after dropping it in shows for the last wee while.

General Lee chatted to the Aussie DJ/producer about the new release where he revealed the warm - and at times intense - reception of the track.

'I've never been bullied online to release a record before' he laughed. 'It's really exciting man, I've never had this much vibe on a record before.... I just love that everyone's so passionate about it.'

Combining a pitched up classic rap vocal for the intro with the powerful and soulful gospel vocals of Clementine Douglas, 'Mirace Maker' has sent festival frothers into a frenzy for months and now we have our hands on it to enjoy on demand.

Check it out below.
Xi stresses making Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps stronger, more prosperous

Xinhua) 11:13, July 15, 2022

URUMQI, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, has stressed efforts to make the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) stronger and more prosperous.

Xi made the remarks while visiting Shihezi City on Wednesday afternoon during an inspection tour in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Speaking to XPCC officials and staff workers, Xi said he was pleased about the great progress made by the XPCC in reform and development, and XPCC officials and staff workers themselves should also be proud.

Calling the XPCC's strategic status "irreplaceable," Xi expressed his hope that XPCC officials and staff workers will carry forward the spirit of the XPCC, continue to work hard, step up reform, and make down-to-earth and persistent efforts to make the XPCC stronger and more prosperous.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)
New York, US, June 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to a comprehensive research report by Market Research Future (MRFR),  Small Wind Power Market Analysis by Grid Connectivity (On-Grid and Off-Grid), By Axis (Horizontal Axis and Vertical Axis), by Capacity, and by Region - Global Forecast to 2030 valuation is poised to reach USD 14,920.4 Million by 2030, registering a 13.5% CAGR throughout the forecast period (20212030).

Small Wind Power Market Overview

Small wind power is made of a distinctive set of tools built within the wind energy sector. They are usually used to provide energy to a small-scale use such as an individual or small customers including advertising systems, farms, households, road signalization, and weather stations. They provide a hopeful substitute for several distant electrical uses as separate applications and in mixture with other energy conversion technologies. The global market for small wind power has recorded a massive rise in the growth rate in the last few years, propelling the global economy towards optimum growth.

Small Wind Power Market Report Scope:

Report Metric Details Market Size USD 14,920.4 Million CAGR 13.5% Base Year 2020 Forecast Period 2021-2030 Historical Data 2019 Forecast Units Value (USD Million) Report Coverage Revenue Forecast, Competitive Landscape, Growth Factors, and Trends Segments Covered Grid Connectivity, Capacity and Region Geographies Covered North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World (RoW) Key Vendors Shanghai Ghrepower Green Energy Co. Ltd., Ryse Energy, SD Wind Energy, Unitron Energy Systems Pvt. Ltd., Northern Power Systems Inc., ZKEnergy Science & Technology Co. Ltd, City Windmills, Xzeres Wind Corporation, Aeolos Wind Turbine, Eocycle Technologies Inc., H.Y. Energy Co. Ltd., Ennera Energy and Mobility and Bergey Windpower Key Market Opportunities Favorable government initiatives and policies Key Market Drivers Adoption of small wind energy in rural households

Get Free Sample PDF Brochure

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/4568

Market Drivers

The global market for small wind power has recorded a tremendous growth rate in the last few years. The market's performance is credited to the implementation of small wind energy in rural households, increasing investments in the production of clean energy, and encouraging government programs and policies.

Market Restraints

On the other hand, the rising adoption and implementation of alternative solutions and high capital costs may impede the growth of the small wind power market.

Small Wind Power Market Segments

Among all the types, the vertical axis wind turbines segment led the global small wind power market in 2020 and is likely to record the highest growth rate over the assessment timeframe. The growth of the segment is credited to its high-efficiency feature.

Among all the installation types, the on-grid segment will lead the global market for small wind power in 2020. Given the growing environmental concerns and demand from off-grid applications, the segment will likely register the highest growth rate over the projected timeframe.

Out of all the application areas, the commercial segment will lead the global market for small wind power in 2020. The segment's growth is credited to the rapid expansion of infrastructure and the rise in industrialization across the globe.

Browse In-depth Market Research Report (121 Pages) on Small Wind Power Market:

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/small-wind-power-market-4568

Small Wind Power Market Regional Analysis

The global small wind power market is analyzed across five major regions: the Middle East & Africa, South America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and North America.

As per the research reports by MRFR, the North American region is anticipated to dominate the global market for slight power wind over the assessment era. The U.S. contributes over 75% of the North American small wind power market. The country has the second-largest market across the globe. The imminent phase-out of the total value of the U.S. production tax credit (PTC) in the last quarter of 2020 mainly propelled investments in wind turbine capacity 2020. Canadian energy mix has also been influenced by small wind power. In the past decade, the Canadian energy from wind power has grown by 20 percent per year. Furthermore, in Mexico, the use of small wind turbines is becoming an alternative energy strategy with growing potential for fulfilling in situ electrical demands and is in the growing stage of promoting social penetration.

Ask To Expert:

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/ask_for_schedule_call/4568

The small wing power market for the European region is likely to record a substantial growth over the forecasted timeframe. The regional market's growth is ascribed predominantly to the fact that the regional energy market grows gradually more dependent on a renewable energy source, which is cheap to harness and carbon-emission free. Furthermore, the low feed-in tariff, high electricity prices, and growing regional investments are also projected to influence the regional market's growth. In addition, the regional market has witnessed a massive rise in the adoption of renewable energy across the rural areas, given the rising awareness regarding the environmental benefits and cost-effectiveness, which in turn is projected to boost the growth of the regional market over the coming years.

COVID-19 Impact

The global COVID-19 pandemic has had a massive impact on the majority of the market sectors across the globe. The small wind power market was no different than others in the early stage of the pandemic. On the other hand, towards the last quarter of 2020 and beginning of 2021, the market picked up the pace with growing demand, because of which the overall economic impact was low. The implementation of social distancing norms and travel restrictions led to causing significant disruptions in the supply chain. This also caused a significant delay in project building timelines. The effect of absence of the workforce and the supply of project components may trigger unsuitable project completion and a chronological impact on project economics. Other than this are the latest policy changes that restrict the clearance of goods from countries in turbine assembly. Though, many countries such as India are concentrating on boosting manufacturing with global technology available and accelerating component manufacturing. On the other hand, the demand creation is likely to rest on the government's commitment and several procurement models for boosting small wind power market growth.

Buy this Report:

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=4568

Small Wind Power Market Competitive Analysis

Dominant Key Players on Small Wind Power Market Covered are:

Shanghai Ghrepower Green Energy Co. Ltd.

Ryse Energy

SD Wind Energy

Unitron Energy Systems Pvt. Ltd.

Northern Power Systems Inc.

ZKEnergy Science & Technology Co. Ltd

City Windmills

Xzeres Wind Corporation

Aeolos Wind Turbine

Eocycle Technologies Inc.

H.Y. Energy Co. Ltd.

Ennera Energy and Mobility

Bergey Windpower

Related Reports:

Oil Country Tubular Goods Market Research Report: Information by Manufacturing Process, Grade and Region - Forecast till 2030

Cutting and Perforating Pipe Drilling Tools Market Research Report: Information by Product, Application and Region - Forecast till 2030

Oil and Gas Drones Market Research Report Information: by Type, by Application and by Region - Forecast till 2030

About Market Research Future:

Market Research Future (MRFR) is a global market research company that takes pride in its services, offering a complete and accurate analysis regarding diverse markets and consumers worldwide. Market Research Future has the distinguished objective of providing the optimal quality research and granular research to clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help answer your most important questions.
Roseau, July 14, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Secret Bay Dominica has been named Travel and Leisures No #1 Resort in the Caribbean, Bermuda and The Bahamas for 2022. The resort topped the World's Best Awards reader's survey for the second time in three years in the region.

The World's Best Awards survey, Travel and Leisure, asks readers to weigh in on travel experiences around the globe every year to share their opinions on the top cities, islands, cruise ships, spas, airlines, and more. Readers rated the different islands according to their activities and sights, natural attractions and beaches, food, friendliness, and overall value.

Dinesh Kissoon, general manager of Secret Bay said that they are honoured and humbled to be recognized by Travel and Leisure and its readers as the #1 resort in the Caribbean for a second time.

This would not be possible without our devoted team and loyal guests who inspire us. Over the past couple of years, weve been reminded just how essential travel is in replenishing our souls, so were excited to celebrate this distinction with our peers as travel has opened up once again.

Secret Bay opened its doors in 2011 and the secluded six-star, all-villa resort consists of exquisite and residential-style villas. Each villa has a private plunge pool and dedicated villa host, on-call concierge, access to secret beach chefs and guides, and transformative experiences curated specifically for each guest.

The award-winning villas of Secret Bay have gained world recognition for their artful fusion of high design and local craftsmanship, forming open-air luxury residences amid nature's lush embrace.

As a Green Globe-certified resort composed entirely of sustainably- sourced materials, Secret Bay is situated in a beautiful equilibrium that consists of every trait of sustainability and eco-tourism.

The magic of the place will leave anyone spellbound with its luxurious resort amenities that complete the most unrivalled island escape. The opulence of Dominica can be experienced by visiting or staying at the most luxurious eco-tourist resorts, which makes tourists' visits exciting and worth giving.

The Secret Bay's majestic riverside Bwa Mang Wellness Pavilion, Zamann Watersports Hut, treetop Gommier Spa, Zing Zing restaurant, cliff edge Vetiver Sunset Deck, and other first-class elements are breathtakingly impressive. Both within and beyond resort grounds await a host of perspective-shifting, life-altering experiences.

Known for its remote locale, hyper-personalized service, private accommodations with plunge pools,chef-driven epicurean culinary experience, island-to-table dining and no menu concept, and wellness offerings, Secret Bay has won the hearts of thousands and hundreds of people seeking an under-the-radar luxury hideaway.

Secret Bay has been praised for its ability to effortlessly capture the luxury of time as it consists of numerous green and eco-friendly initiatives.

The resort has recently disclosed its newest amenities, such as Mouben Welcome House, Gwiyavye' Lap Pool and Bar and Zing Zing Lounge  which are inspired by biophilic design and embrace the resort's nature and sustainability design ethos. Through these additions, the government of Dominica is working to promote eco-tourism and preserve its natural resources.

Secret Bay is unique in its diversity: two beaches, the Cario River, a spectacular marine cave and two different microclimates. Now, the resort is establishing itself as one of the best boutique hotels in the Caribbean and even in the world.

Besides Travel and Leisure, Secret Bay has been recognized by The Knot as one of the 'best places for a honeymoon', by Harper's Bazaar, among the 'best resorts' by the magazine Islands as one of the best luxury resorts in the Caribbean 'by Smith Hotel Awards and by CNN' as the perfect place for a breakaway on an island.

Moreover, The TripAdvisor Traveler's Choice Awards also recognized Secret Bay in the following categories: Luxury, Small Hotels, Romance and Service. Additionally, in 2015, Secret Bay received the Andrew Harper Grand Prize for the Caribbean Region, earned Green Globe certification in 2019, and was accepted in Relais and Chateaux in 2019.

Dominica offers visitors incredible beauty through its truly luxurious real estate projects, such as Grand Bay Resort, Jungle Bay, Kepinski and Tranquillity Beach resort, which fulfil every measure of eco-tourism and sustainability.

Dominica is a haven for adventure travellers for anyone who wants to experience hiking, waterfalls, hot springs and lakes, cultural events/festivals, diving and water sports, canyoning adventures and whale/dolphin watching.

Besides this, Dominica consists of nine active volcanoes, providing its lakes and rivers with extremely warm temperatures, especially Boiling Lake, which reaches temperatures above 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

Moreover, the country offers a variety of tailored accommodation preferences ranging from eco-friendly travellers to luxury seekers. All hotel offerings remain aligned with the island's promise to cater to its travelling guests while keeping its sustainability promise.

The Nature Isle of the Caribbean is widely recognized for its lush green forests and sustainable tourism offerings. Dominica has 365 rivers, more than 300 miles of hiking trails and more than 170 bird species. It is also known as the home to one of the last indigenous tribes in the world- the Kalinago.

With all these splendid beauties, Dominica emerged as one of the worth considering options for the travellers, due to which it gained consideration in the list despite being nominated for the first time.

The funds generated by the Citizenship by Investment Programme of Dominica have been wisely used by its government in various development projects. Secret Bay is also a government-approved real estate project under the CBI Programme.

The country has been renowned for having the world's best CBI programme with its rigorous due-diligence process. Launched in 1993, the alternative citizenship of Dominica offers true benefits to the investors, such as portfolio diversification and the opening of the doors of substantial business opportunities.

The CBI programme of Dominica has also been ranked as the world's number one for five consecutive years in a row by the CBI Index by Financial Times of PWM Magazine.
NEW YORK, July 14, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- KlaymanToskes (KT) announces an investigation of behalf of IONQ investors and employees who sustained substantial losses on their concentrated IONQ (NYSE:IONQ) positions with full-service brokerage firms. Investors who held large, concentrated positions in IONQ stock and/or received margin calls resulting in the forced sale of stock should contact our firm to discuss our investigation and potential recovery options. The investment losses may be the result of full-service brokerage firms negligence and failure to supervise the management of concentrated, leveraged positions in IONQ stock.



Concentrated positions in IONQ stock might be the result of a financial advisor recommendation, participation in company stock plans, interest in tax deferral, or an emotional attachment to IONQ stock. According to securities attorney Lawrence L. Klayman, No matter what the source of the securities concentration, brokerage firms are responsible to recommend suitable risk management strategies to protect concentrated stock positions held in a full-service brokerage account.

IONQ shareholders who sustained substantial losses can contact us to discuss our investigation and for a no obligation, free consultation. We can be reached at 888-997-9956.

About Us

KlaymanToskes is a leading national securities law firm which practices exclusively in the field of securities arbitration and litigation on behalf of retail and institutional investors throughout the world in large and complex securities matters. The firm has recovered more than $230 million in FINRA arbitrations and over $350 million in other securities litigation matters for its clients. KlaymanToskes has office locations in California, Florida, New York, and Puerto Rico.

Contact

KlaymanToskes

Lawrence L. Klayman, Esq., (888) 997-9956

lklayman@klaymantoskes.com

www.klaymantoskes.com
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 14, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Madison Pacific Properties Inc. (the Company) (TSX: MPC and MPC.C), a Vancouver-based real estate company, announces the results of operations for the nine months ended May 31, 2022.



The results reported are pursuant to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for public companies.

For the nine months ended May 31, 2022, the Company is reporting net income of $37.3 million (2021: $37.0 million); cash flows from operating activities before changes in non-cash operating balances of $7.4 million (2021: $7.6 million); and income per share of $0.60 (2021: $0.58). Included in net income is an after-tax net gain from the fair value adjustment on investment properties of $17.1 million (2021: $26.8 million).

The Company currently owns approximately $718 million in investment and development properties, including the Companys proportionate share of properties held through jointly-controlled partnerships. The Companys investment portfolio comprises 54 properties with approximately 1.9 million rentable sq. ft. of industrial and commercial space and a 50% interest in a 54 unit multi-family rental property. Approximately 99.0% of available space within the industrial and commercial investment properties is currently leased. The Companys development properties include a 50% interest in the Silverdale Hills Limited Partnership which owns approximately 1,400 acres of residential designated development lands in Mission, British Columbia. In June 2020, the partnership commenced development of 162 townhomes and 65 single family lots on the site, which consumed approximately 38 acres of land inventory. Approximately 60% of the four phase townhome development has been completed and sold and of the remaining townhome units, 100% have been presold. In respect of the single family lot development, 61 units have been committed for sale to a single developer of which 18 lots have been sold.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the geopolitical events in the world has continued to cause global economic disruption. These are uncertain and challenging times and management will be continuing to monitor business developments and market conditions and any effect they may have on the business.

For a review of the risks and uncertainties to which the Company is subject see its most recently filed annual and interim MD&A.

The Company is pleased to announce that a $.0525 per share dividend on each of the Class B voting common shares and Class C non-voting shares will be payable September 6, 2022 to shareholders of record on August 15, 2022. The dividend is considered an eligible dividend for tax purposes.
Seoul, South Korea, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- United States, Rockville MD: Fact.MR, a market research and competitive intelligence provider, states that the global Industrial motor brakes market would be reaching US$ 1.34 Billion in 2022 and go for a stable CAGR of 4.5% between 2022 and 2032. Fact.MR has gone on records to mention that governments across the globe are extensively spending on enhancement in infrastructure at the residential as well as commercial level. Therefore, the global Industrial motor brakes market is projected to reach US$ 2.08 Billion by the year 2032.



The rise in construction projects has resulted in greater demand for backhoes, excavators, bulldozers, graders, trenchers, and several other components of construction machinery. This is where industrial motor brakes come into picture, as heavy loads could be managed effectively through them.

For Critical Insights on Industrial Motor Brakes Market, Request a Sample Report

https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=559

Excavators, backhoes, graders, bulldozers, trenchers, and many other pieces of construction machinery are in higher demand as a result of the increase in construction projects. To manage heavier loads, this equipment needs to work differently.

The use of brakes enables construction equipment to carry heavier loads. In addition, the market for industrial motor brakes is driven by rising equipment demand and production.

Whats Influencing Industrial Motor Brakes Market Growth?

Easy Stopping Process & Effective in Reducing Production Time Driving Sales of Industrial Motor Brakes

Because natural braking would take a long time, industrial motor brakes are essential instruments in the manufacturing and process industries. The market for industrial motor brakes has ultimately been driven by the growth in production rates and the necessity to complete tasks by the deadline.

In addition, the market for industrial motor brakes is experiencing increased demand due to the growth of new and emerging sectors. A majority of firms all around the world are choosing motor brakes since they have advantages over traditional systems. It has been noted that this is a fresh, emerging trend in the market, favouring the same.

There is some room for aftermarket services with heavy use. As a result, the manufacturers of industrial motor brakes will have greater opportunities.

To learn more about Industrial Motor Brakes Market, you can get in touch with our Analyst at https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=AE&rep_id=559

Key Segments Covered in the Industrial Motor Brakes Industry Survey

Industrial Motor Brakes Market by Type :



DC Brakes

AC Brakes Torque





Industrial Motor Brakes Market by Braking Mode :



Holding

Overhauling Braking Load-assisted Braking Soft-stop Braking



Industrial Motor Brakes Market by Application :



Regenerative Braking

Dynamic Braking Plugging





Industrial Motor Brakes Market by End Use :



Metals & Mining

Construction Manufacturing Processing



Industrial Motor Brakes Market by Region :



North America

Latin America Europe East Asia South Asia & Oceania MEA



Competitive Landscape

To increase the output of automated guided vehicles (AGV) and electric cars, manufacturers are focusing heavily on reducing machine stop time, which has led them to turn to industrial motor brakes.

Industrial motor brakes also enable pulley tension maintenance, the activation of dynamic brakes, and precise movement and stop, all of which preserve worker safety.

Strong industrial motor brakes are in higher demand due to the growing need to stop motors instantly to prevent worker or product harm.

Get Customization on Industrial Motor Brakes Market Report for Specific Research Solutions

https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=RC&rep_id=559

Key players in Industrial Motor Brakes Market

Warner Electric, Inc.

Brook Crompton UK Ltd.

Eaton

Sterling Controls

Ogura Industrial Corp.

Altra Industrial Motion.

EMTorq

Force Control Industries

Tolomatic

Toshiba International Corporation

Havells





Key Takeaways from Industrial Motor Brakes Market Study

North America holds 21.6% of the market share.

Europe contributes for 24.5% of the entire market due to speedy industrialization.

Easy Stopping process to be the major reason for resorting to industrial motor brakes





Fact.MRs Domain Knowledge in Industrial Goods

Expert analysis, actionable insights, and strategic recommendations of the highly seasoned industrial goods team at Fact.MR helps clients from across the globe with their unique business intelligence needs.

With a repertoire of over thousand reports and 1 Billion-plus data points, the team has analysed the industrial goods across 50+ countries for over a decade. The team provides unmatched end-to-end research and consulting services.

Explore Fact.MR's Coverage on the Industrial Goods Domain-

Resilient Flooring Market- The global resilient flooring market is poised to grow at nearly 5.6% CAGR, in terms of value until 2026, surpassing US$ 10 Bn by the end of the short-term forecast period. As of 2020, the market was valued at US$ 7.2 Bn, up from US$ 6.1 Bn in 2017.

Fire Suppression Systems Market- The market for fire suppression systems was valued at nearly US$ 17 Bn as of 2021, and is expected to surge Y-o-Y at a rate of 5.8% in 2022, reaching US$ 18 Bn. By the end of the forecast period 2022-2032, the market is likely to have grown 1.6x in value terms to reach US$ 30 Bn.

Construction Equipment Market- The global construction equipment market was valued at US$ 113 Bn in 2021, and is expected to increase at a steady CAGR of 4% during the forecast period. As per this growth rate, this industry can be projected to reach a market size of worth US$ 174 Bn by 2032.

Machine Tools Market- The global market for machine tools is estimated to witness slow growth over the next couple of years attributed to COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a swift and severe impact on the global machine tools market with significant disruption in imports from China.

Ammunition Market- The global ammunition market was valued at US$ 19.2 Billion in 2021, and is projected to register a Y-o-Y increase of 4.16% in 2022 to be valued at US$ 20 Billion.

Waterjet Cutting Machine Market- A new forecast by Fact.MR estimates that waterjet cutting machine revenues will expand nearly 1.6x between 2021 and 2031, surpassing US$ 1.5 Bn in 2031 with a 10 year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 5%.

Personal Protective Equipment Market- As of 2021, sales of personal protective equipment were valued at US$ 51.5 Billion, and are expected to surge at a Y-o-Y growth rate of 2.9% in 2022, reaching US$ 53 Billion. Across the forecast period ranging from 2022-2032, the personal protective equipment market value is poised to expand at a CAGR of 6.6% to reach US$ 100.3 Billion.

Aerial Work Platforms Market- The global aerial work platforms market, the market is gaining traction steadily, expected to ascend at around 6% CAGR through 2031. As per the report, the market is likely to be valued at US$ 9.3 Bn by 2021. Preference for boom lifts will remain dominant, with a predicted absolute opportunity worth US$ 2.5 Bn during the forecast period.

Brushless DC Motors Market- The worldwide brushless DC motor market was estimated at US$ 18 Billion in 2021 and is predicted to increase at a CAGR of 6.3% during the forecast period from 2022 to 2032. As of 2022, the industry is forecast to be valued at US$ 19 Billion, representing a Y-o-Y increase of 5.5%.

Pre-Painted Steel Coil Market- The pre-painted steel coil market has garnered a market value of US$ 10.64 Bn in 2022, anticipated to register a positive CAGR of 6.4% in the forecast period 2022-2032 and reach a value of US$ 19.79 Bn.

About Us:

Market research and consulting agency with a difference! Thats why 80% of Fortune 1,000 companies trust us for making their most critical decisions. While our experienced consultants employ the latest technologies to extract hard-to-find insights, we believe our USP is the trust clients have on our expertise. Spanning a wide range  from automotive & industry 4.0 to healthcare & retail, our coverage is expansive, but we ensure even the most niche categories are analyzed. Our sales offices in United States and Dublin, Ireland. Headquarter based in Dubai, UAE. Reach out to us with your goals, and well be an able research partner.

Contact:

Mahendra Singh

US Sales Office:

11140 Rockville Pike

Suite 400

Rockville, MD 20852

Email: sales@factmr.com

Tel: +1 (628) 251-1583

Follow Us: LinkedIn | Twitter
TORONTO, July 14, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In a release issued earlier today under the headline Class 1 Nickel Identifies new Sulphide Nickel targets in the La Mott Ultramafic Complex, Quebec by Class 1 Nickel and Technologies Limited (CSE: NICO), please note that the spelling of La Mott Ultramafic Complex should be spelled La Motte Ultramafic Complex in the headline, first bullet, and first paragraph, and in the ninth paragraph, EM systems should be BHEM systems. The corrected release follows:



Class 1 Nickel Identifies new Sulphide Nickel targets in the La Motte Ultramafic Complex, Quebec

A new Ground TDEM Geophysical Survey confirms ten (10) new exploration targets within a La Motte ultramafic complex that hosts the former Marbridge Nickel Mine.





Four (4) Electro Magnetic (EM) anomalies indicate potential near-exploration targets identified within a 2-kilometre vicinity, including a shallow and un-drilled anomaly spanning over 800 metres immediately south of Marbridge.





Three (3) anomalies correlate with nickel mineralization at the former Marbridge Nickel Mine. The geophysical compilation also indicates that conductive trends continue down plunge and along strike of known nickel mineralization. Two (2) anomalies indicate a very poorly tested trend in the immediate footwall to Marbridge Mine #2 and a potential hanging wall zone respectively.





A laterally extensive TDEM trend occurs on the Ataman zone that where localized shallow historical drilling confirms high-grade nickel sulphides.





Compiled magnetic surveys correlate directly with ultramafic rocks and map their extent.





Interpretation and planning of a diamond drilling campaign now underway.

Class 1 Nickel and Technologies Limited (Class 1 Nickel or the Company) (CSE: NICO), is pleased to announce positive initial results and recommendations stemming from the 32.85 line-km ground TDEM survey that has been completed over the Somanike Nickel Sulphide Project (the Project or Property) in La Motte, Quebec.

The company is pleased to announce that 10 new EM anomalies have been successfully identified including a grouping in the vicinity of the historical Marbridge Mine.

The Somanike Nickel Project is located 25 km north of the town of Malartic and is comprised of 172 contiguous mining claims with a combined area of 45.3km. The Somanike Project includes the famous Marbridge Nickel Mine and its associated deposits which were partially mined by Falconbridge Nickel, delivering 702,366 tons grading 2.28% Ni and 0.1% Cu over a five-year period ending in 1968 (see attached Figures 1-3).

President Mr. David Fitch commented, The presence of these new EM anomalies in the vicinity of the Marbridge Mine is both exciting and significant for the Company and further supports the various expert opinions that have unanimously concluded that Marbridge could extend deeper and along strike. Furthermore, anomalies detected elsewhere in association with ultramafic rocks, bodes well for exploration success.

Exploration Manager P. Geo Mr. Alex Beloborodov observed, The new geophysical signatures along with a now-advanced geological database will assist our team in building a targeted diamond drill program. Our aim is to explore these signatures for new nickel-rich sulphide bodies and to investigate the potential continuity and extension of the known mineralized horizons in the vicinity of the historical Marbridge Nickel Mine.

Figure 1: Somanike Project Location Map is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a466e6d9-a26e-477b-8e80-9610737d47fa

Figure 2: TDEM anomalies on first derivative magnetic map is available https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/bda9c06c-3be9-4ab1-9c65-2a2f6d3844a0

Figure 3: EM anomalies conductivity base map is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/88b02aed-9086-4e58-8f9e-fe0f8f865107

The four Marbridge Nickel Mine deposits are equally spaced (300350 meters apart) over a one-kilometre strike length within a northwest trending ultramafic body interpreted to represent komatiitic flows. The nickel-sulphide mineralization exhibits relatively strong plunge continuity. The deposits plunge either east or southeast and are steep except for the #1 Mine which has a shallow easterly plunge. The ore mined previously was sourced largely from Mine 1 and was milled at the Canadian Malartic located 25 kilometres to the south of the project. Ore mined had an estimated average recovery of 88% producing a concentrate grade reported at 11.9% Ni (source: Falconbridge Limited reports and public domain). The concentrate was shipped to Falconbridges Sudbury smelter. The deposits are ultramaficassociated, subcropping, plunging shoots of high-grade nickel sulphides. These are conductive and comprised of disseminated and massive sulphides with a small surface expression and relatively good continuity down plunge.

Modelling by the Company shows the main lenses are open at depth and has also confirmed the existence of a largely unexplored footwall horizon that correlates well with the Marbridge EM-6 trend.

Consulting geophysics group TMC Geophysics reported that the new EM anomalies identified are included within the confines of 3 main E/W to ESE/WNW oriented conductive horizons or anomalous trends. The most prospective conductive horizons being the Marbridge and Ataman trends for which relative interest is already confirmed from past exploration works and drilling.

TMC Geophysics have advised the company to infill the original grid with STDEM reconnaissance profiles at 100 m apart. This would represent a major add-on for the survey data analysis, as one can already observe its relevance by the examination of the historical airborne EM data. Planned drill holes will be surveyed with down-hole geophysical systems (BHEM). These surveys have proved successful in identifying off-hole mineralization in major nickel camps throughout the world. Downhole BHEM systems have very likely never been used in the Marbridge area.

The Companys technical team are now reviewing the results with a view to planning a consequential drilling program.

Qualified Person

All the technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Alexandr Beloborodov, P.Geo., geological consultant to the Company, who is a Qualified Person under the definitions established by National Instrument 43101.

For more information, please contact:

David Fitch, President

T: +61 400.631.608

E: dfitch@class1nickel.com

About Class 1 Nickel and Technologies Limited:

Class 1 Nickel and Technologies Limited (CSE: NICO) is a Mineral Resource Company focused on the development of its 100% owned Alexo-Dundonald Project, a portfolio of Kambalda-Type komatiite-hosted magmatic nickel-copper-cobalt sulphide Mineral Resources located near Timmins, Ontario, as well as exploring the Somanike komatiite hosted nickel copper project in Quebec, which includes the well-known Marbridge Nickel Mine.

For additional information please visit our new website at www.class1nickel.com

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its regulation services provider has reviewed or accepted responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements and Information

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the impact and implications of the EM anomalies at the Project, the growth potential and possible economics of the Project and the Companys understanding of the Project, the development potential and timetable of the Project; the timing and amount of estimated future exploration; costs of future activities; capital and operating expenditures; success of exploration activities; the anticipated ability of investors to continue benefitting from the Companys low discovery costs; technical expertise and support from local communities; and the anticipated timing and receipt of applicable regulatory approvals for the Private Placement. Generally, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, schedule, estimates, forecasts, intends, continue, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, will, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements are made based upon certain assumptions and other important facts that, if untrue, could cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Class 1 Nickel to be materially different from future results, performances or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which Class 1 Nickel will operate in the future. Certain important factors that could cause actual results, performances or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, amongst others, currency fluctuations, the global economic climate, dilution, share price volatility and competition. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Class 1 Nickel to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to: the impact the COVID-19 pandemic may have on the Companys activities and the economy in general; the impact of the recovery post COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on nickel and other metals; there being no assurance that the exploration program will result in positive results; risks and uncertainties inherent to mineral exploration activities and resulting estimates; receipt of necessary approvals; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; future gold and other metal prices; accidents, labour disputes and shortages; environmental and other risks of the mining industry, including without limitation, risks and uncertainties discussed in the latest annual information form of the Company, and in other continuous disclosure documents of the Company available under the Companys profile at www.sedar.com. Although Class 1 Nickel has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Class 1 Nickel does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
English French

PRESS RELEASE - INSIDE INFORMATION





Recent medical publications provide new insights in timing and dynamics of fracture healing using early radiological assessment

With the improved statistical analysis, the number of required patients could be reduced by 20%

An interim analysis will be added to the study providing an early assessment of ALLOBs efficacy based on radiological data of the first 66 evaluable patients and more stringent efficacy end point criteria





Mont-Saint-Guibert, Belgium, 15 July 2022, 7am CEST  BONE THERAPEUTICS (Euronext Brussels and Paris: BOTHE), the cell therapy company addressing unmet medical needs in orthopedics and other diseases, today announces an optimized statistical analysis and the implementation of an interim analysis for the ongoing Phase IIb clinical trial with its allogeneic bone cell therapy product, ALLOB. Subsequent to the consultation just completed with our existing and potential partners, Bone Therapeutics will proceed in the near term with the submission of the amendments to the study protocol for approval to the regulatory authorities.

Serious and difficult fractures, including tibial fractures, are a leading cause of delayed and non-union fractures and continue to be a high unmet medical need with frequent complications. This poses a serious burden to patients, their family and society. As a result, there is a pressing demand to develop accelerated bone regeneration in these patients. Bone Therapeutics has administered ALLOB in approximately 60 patients in several Phase I and I/IIa clinical trials. The clinical results so far have demonstrated both good tolerability, evidence of increased bone formation and other clinical benefits. Based on these promising initial results, Bone Therapeutics is conducting an additional controlled Phase IIb study in tibial fractures at risk for delayed or non-union.

Recent published medical data has provided new information on timing and dynamics of radiological evidence of fracture resolution. Based on this new evidence, Bone Therapeutics has improved the statistical analysis of the ALLOB Phase IIb study. The updated analysis will provide an optimal radiological assessment of the acceleration of bone formation at 3 months following an intra-fracture administration of ALLOB, compared to standard practice alone. The updated statistical analysis converts one of the current secondary endpoints to a primary endpoint and will therefore have limited impact on the study conduct. The amendment also enables a reduction of approximately 20% of the required patient numbers from 178 patients to 132 evaluable patients while maintaining the same statistical power. Additionally, this updated analysis is expected to facilitate the definition of clinical trial objectives and endpoints in the measurement of fracture healing in subsequent studies, namely the expected confirmatory Phase III study in fractures as well as in studies for bone regeneration in other clinical indications.

In addition, Bone Therapeutics will also introduce an interim analysis based on the assessment of radiological data from approximately 66 evaluable patients at 3 months post-administration. The interim analysis will provide an opportunity to document the efficacy of ALLOB and to achieve a relevant clinical milestone at an earlier time point. An independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) will evaluate the interim analysis and could recommend completing the study early for efficacy if the targeted, more stringent interim efficacy level in bone healing has been achieved. Similarly, the study will operationally remain unchanged.

Bone Therapeutics ALLOB represents a significant opportunity for clinical unmet medical needs in bone regeneration namely difficult tibial fractures. These affect more than 300.000 patients per year in US and EU alone and can have a significant impact to the lives of those affected, said Anne Leselbaum, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Bone Therapeutics. The improved statistical analysis derived from emerging clinical data, will more precisely document the potential benefit of ALLOB over standard practice alone in difficult tibial fractures and could become a reference for future clinical trial objectives and endpoints. The current operational focus of Bone Therapeutics on the conduct of the study aims at ensuring the delivery of top line data as scheduled by of the first half of 2023. With the inclusion of the interim analysis, we gain an opportunity to evaluate the efficacy of ALLOB at a slightly earlier time in 2023 and to potentially advance its development to the next stage.

ALLOB Phase IIb clinical trial is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in patients with high-risk tibial fractures. This study will assess and compare against placebo, in association with standard of care stabilization surgery, the potential for ALLOB to accelerate fracture healing after 3-months follow-up and prevent late-stage complications in these patients, after a follow-up period of 6 months. ALLOB will be applied by a single percutaneous injection within 24-96 hours post-definitive reduction surgery in patients with fresh tibial fractures at risk of delayed or non-union. Following the approval in seven European countries, the study is currently enrolling patients in over 40 sites.

The proposed amendments to the statistical analysis and the introduction of the interim analysis will be submitted to the relevant regulatory authorities for approval. It is expected that, even if the amended study protocol is approved, this will not have a significant impact on the overall timing of the ALLOB Phase IIb study as previously communicated. Bone Therapeutics expects to announce the recommendation of the DSMB for the interim analysis and to report topline results as scheduled by the first half of 2023. Should the pandemic continue to have impact on patient availability, Bone Therapeutics may have to re-evaluate this timeline and, in that eventuality, will communicate again to the market.





About ALLOB

ALLOB is Bone Therapeutics off-the-shelf allogeneic cell therapy platform consisting of human allogeneic bone-forming cells derived from cultured bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) from healthy adult donors. To address critical factors for the development and commercialization of cell therapy products, Bone Therapeutics has established a proprietary, optimized production process that improves consistency, scalability, cost effectiveness and ease of use of ALLOB. This optimized production process significantly increases the production yield, generating thousands of doses per bone marrow donation. Additionally, the final ALLOB product is cryopreserved, enabling easy shipment and the capability to be stored at the point of care for easy clinical use. The process will therefore substantially improve product quality, reduce overall production costs, simplify supply chain logistics, increase patient accessibility and facilitate global commercialization. The Company has implemented the optimized production process to produce clinical batches for the ongoing Phase IIb clinical trial in patients with difficult-to-heal tibial fractures.





About Bone Therapeutics

Bone Therapeutics is a leading biotech company focused on the development of innovative products to address high unmet needs in orthopedics and other diseases. Currently Bone Therapeutics is concentrating specifically on the development of its most advanced clinical asset, the allogeneic cell therapy platform, ALLOB.

Bone Therapeutics core technology is based on its cutting-edge allogeneic cell and gene therapy platform with differentiated bone marrow sourced Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (MSCs) which can be stored at the point of use in the hospital. Its leading investigational medicinal product, ALLOB, represents a unique, proprietary approach to bone regeneration, which turns undifferentiated stromal cells from healthy donors into bone-forming cells. These cells are produced via the Bone Therapeutics scalable manufacturing process. Following the CTA approval by regulatory authorities in Europe, the Company has initiated patient recruitment for the Phase IIb clinical trial with ALLOB in patients with difficult tibial fractures, using its optimized production process. ALLOB continues to be evaluated for other orthopedic indications including spinal fusion, osteotomy, maxillofacial and dental.

Bone Therapeutics cell therapy products are manufactured to the highest GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) standards and are protected by a broad IP (Intellectual Property) portfolio covering ten patent families as well as knowhow. The Company is based in the Louvain-la-Neuve Science Park in Mont-Saint-Guibert, Belgium. Further information is available at www.bonetherapeutics.com.





For further information, please contact:

Bone Therapeutics SA

Miguel Forte, MD, PhD, Chief Executive Officer

Lieve Creten, Chief Financial Officer ad interim

Tel: +32 (0)71 12 10 00

investorrelations@bonetherapeutics.com

For Belgian Media and Investor Enquiries:

Bepublic

Bert Bouserie

Tel: +32 (0)488 40 44 77

bert.bouserie@bepublicgroup.be

International Media Enquiries:

Image Box Communications

Neil Hunter / Michelle Boxall

Tel: +44 (0)20 8943 4685

neil.hunter@ibcomms.agency / michelle@ibcomms.agency

For French Media and Investor Enquiries:

NewCap Investor Relations & Financial Communications

Pierre Laurent, Louis-Victor Delouvrier and Arthur Rouille

Tel: +33 (0)1 44 71 94 94

bone@newcap.eu





Certain statements, beliefs and opinions in this press release are forward-looking, which reflect the Company or, as appropriate, the Company directors current expectations and projections about future events. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and assumptions could adversely affect the outcome and financial effects of the plans and events described herein. A multitude of factors including, but not limited to, changes in demand, competition and technology, can cause actual events, performance or results to differ significantly from any anticipated development. Forward looking statements contained in this press release regarding past trends or activities should not be taken as a representation that such trends or activities will continue in the future. As a result, the Company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release any update or revisions to any forward-looking statements in this press release as a result of any change in expectations or any change in events, conditions, assumptions or circumstances on which these forward-looking statements are based. Neither the Company nor its advisers or representatives nor any of its subsidiary undertakings or any such persons officers or employees guarantees that the assumptions underlying such forward-looking statements are free from errors nor does either accept any responsibility for the future accuracy of the forward-looking statements contained in this press release or the actual occurrence of the forecasted developments. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release.
Sydney, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Proactive, provider of real-time news and video interviews on growth companies listed in Australia, has covered the following companies:

Legacy Minerals Ltd (ASX:LGM) has confirmed a wide mineralised corridor from its maiden diamond drilling program at the Harden Gold Mine prospect, situated within the Harden Project in New South Wales. Click here

Matador Mining Ltd (ASX:MZZ, OTCQX:MZZMF) is set to advance its greenfield exploration targets as well as its inaugural diamond core drill program at Malachite and other additional high-priority targets including Bunker Hill, Grandys and Hermitage after a successful share placement raising gross proceeds of $4.5 million. Click here

Carnavale Resources Ltd (ASX:CAV) has kicked off diamond drilling at the Kookynie Gold Project with the aim of providing detailed textural and structural information for the high-grade Western Australian project. Click here

Prescient Therapeutics Ltd (ASX:PTX)s PTX-100 for the treatment of peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCL) has been granted orphan drug status by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Click here

Okapi Resources Ltd (ASX:OKR) has kicked off an extensive maiden field exploration program at the Newnham Lake and Perch Uranium projects in the Athabasca Basin of Canada. Click here

AVZ Minerals Ltd (ASX:AVZ) is set to restart diamond drilling at the Manono Lithium and Tin Project as it looks to significantly increase lithium resources and reserves at Roche Dure. Click here

Kin Mining NL (ASX:KIN) has welcomed experienced gold industry executive Rowan Johnston to the companys board as a nonexecutive director. Click here

Openn Negotiation Ltd (ASX:OPN) is confident its new partnership with Australian property focused payment and cash flow solutions group, Realty Assist Australia Pty Ltd, will improve user experience and increase market share. Click here

Animoca Brands Corporation Ltd subsidiary Blowfish Studios has launched the Astrafer token  the official governance and utility token for the AAA open-world mech combat game Phantom Galaxies. Click here

About Proactive

Proactive is a unique tech-enabled platform providing companies globally with a comprehensive investor engagement solution across their business lifecycle.

With six offices on three continents, Proactive works with innovative growth companies quoted on the worlds major stock exchanges, helping executives to engage intelligently with investors.

In 2020, Proactive featured in 809 million search results, our content was viewed over 165 million times and our readers spent over 10 million hours on our websites. Proactive has produced over 300,000 articles and 20,000 executive interviews since it was established in 2006.

For more information on how Proactive can help you make a difference, email us at action@proactiveinvestors.com
Geneva, Gurgaon and Oslo, 15 July 2022: ACME group (ACME) a pioneer in cleantech sector such as solar, green hydrogen and ammonia development, Scatec ASA (Scatec) a leading renewable power producer and Yara International ASA (Yara) a leading global ammonia player, have signed a term sheet for offtake from the first phase of green ammonia from Oman.

Oman has excellent conditions for renewable energy and a strategic location to produce green ammonia for export to both Europe and Asia, which are the pacesetters in reducing CO2-emissions.

ACME and Scatec are already evolving the green ammonia project in Oman. The joint venture aims at building a state-of-the art facility. Yara is a front-runner in global ammonia production, logistics and trade and are growing the market for green ammonia that can be used for decarbonising other industries.

ACME and Scatec will begin developing the first phase of the project over 12 km2 of land to produce 100,000 metric tonnes of green ammonia per annum in the Special Economic Zone at Duqm. Once fully developed, a second phase will be added, and the project is expected to produce up to 1.1 million tonnes of green ammonia annually.

The parties have agreed the principal terms for offtake of 100,000 tonnes annually of green ammonia in a first phase, and potential further offtake from the projects second phase as this develops. This agreement is groundbreaking for enabling the partners first green ammonia project in Oman. For Yara the green ammonia supply will contribute to produce green fertiliser and for decarbonising other industries like shipping, power, and steel industry.

There is a growing need to accelerate decarbonisation of hard-to-abate industries through Power-to-X solutions such as production of green hydrogen, ammonia and other critical feedstocks powered by renewable energy.

Quote from Mr. Magnus Krogh Ankarstrand, President Yara Clean Ammonia

Yara Clean Ammonia is working on enabling the clean ammonia market. The green ammonia from Oman will go into our scalable distribution system and contribute to emission-free fuel for deep-sea shipping, power production and fertiliser globally.

Quote from Mr. Rajat Seksaria, CEO ACME Group

We are delighted to partner with YARA Clean Ammonia as an offtaker from our under development project in Oman. We hope that this project will be an early success story in the sector and play a vital role in accelerating large scale adoption of green ammonia. We are also grateful to Oman Authorities for their proactive support in enabling fast track development of this project.

Quote from Mr. Terje Pilskog, CEO Scatec

This is a crucial milestone for Scatec with ACME and Yara in this exciting project. The project is part of our strategy to capitalise on our experience in large-scale renewables in attractive regions, and the agreement will further our ambitions within green hydrogen and ammonia.



For further information, please contact:

For analysts and investors: Andreas Austrell, VP Investor Relations, ir@scatec.com

For media: Stian Karlsen, Communications Manager, stian.karlsen@scatec.com



About Yara Clean Ammonia (YCA)

Yara grows knowledge to responsibly feed the world and protect the planet. Yara Clean Ammonia is uniquely positioned to enable the hydrogen economy in a market expected to grow substantially over the next decades. We aim at significantly strengthening our leading global position as the worlds largest ammonia distributor, unlocking the green and blue value chains, and driving the development of clean ammonia globally.

Building on Yaras leading experience within global ammonia production, logistics and trade, Yara Clean Ammonia works towards capturing growth opportunities in low-emission fuel for shipping and power, carbon-free food production and ammonia for industrial applications.

Yara Clean Ammonia operates the largest global ammonia network with 12 ships and has access to 18 ammonia terminals and multiple ammonia production and consumption sites across the world, through Yara. Revenues and EBITDA for the last 12 months were USD 3,037 million and USD 166 million respectively as per Q1 2022. Yara Clean Ammonia is headquartered in Oslo, Norway. www.yaracleanammonia.com

About ACME Group

ACME Group ( www.acme.in ), set up in 2003, is a pioneer in cleantech sectors such as solar, green hydrogen & ammonia and sustainable green protein development. The Company is one of the leading Solar Power Developers in India with project under development & operational portfolio of 8.5 GW. The company is presently constructing 1.8 GW generation capacity which will be one of the largest single location solar generation facilities in the world. In the field of Green Hydrogen & Ammonia besides under development project in Oman, the Company has al-ready set up the worlds first single location integrated solar power to green ammonia facility at Bikaner Rajasthan. The company employs more than 1000 people in India and abroad.

About Scatec ASA

Scatec is a leading renewable energy solutions provider, accelerating access to reliable and affordable clean energy in high growth markets. As a long-term player, we develop, build, own and operate renewable energy plants, with 3.5 GW of installed capacity across four continents today. We are targeting 15 GW of renewable capacity to be in operation or under construction by the end of 2025, delivered by our 600 passionate employees who are driven by a common vision of Improving our Future. Scatec is headquartered in Oslo, Norway and listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol SCATC. To learn more, visit www.scatec.com or connect with us on LinkedIn .

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5-12 the Norwegian Securities Trading Act
Serstech Group, Second Quarter 2022

Net sales: KSEK 8 444 (2 765)

Profit for the period: KSEK -1 986 (-5 299)

Earnings per share SEK -0.02 (-0.06)

Earnings per average number of shares: SEK -0.02 (-0.07)

Serstech Group, Half Year 2022

Net sales: KSEK 10 498 (14 224)

Profit for the period: KSEK -8 594 (-2 270)

Earnings per share SEK -0.10 (-0.03)

Earnings per average number of shares: SEK-0.10 (-0.03)





During the second quarter the activity among our customers was almost at a pre-pandemic level in Europe and the United States, and it has been possible to have customer meetings again. Many tenders have been published in the first half of the year and we have received notifications from our partners about imminent tenders that likely will close over the coming nine months. We have seen that the Ukraine war has caused some delays in purchase decisions and the increased likelihood of a recession could potentially cause further delays over the next twelve months. The security industry is, generally speaking, less affected than other industries by a downturn in the economy, but a downturn could cause the lead times in the sales cycles to increase.



For almost two years, we have focused on developing the important US market and in May, we received the first major order. The order of 7.8 MSEK was delivered in June and we expect payment by mid-August. We now have a first customer reference in this important market, which will further support our fast progress. We estimate that the US market constitutes somewhere between a third and half of the total world market and we see significant opportunities there, despite it being the home market for most of our competitors.



Based on the many tenders currently open for bids and our historical hit-rate, we expect to get some additional large orders over the next 12 months. Due to the payment terms in most tenders, we will however need to pay for production costs (COGS) before we get paid from our partners, which has created a need for a cash buffer. In June, we secured a loan and an increased overdraft credit to be used to temporarily cover the production costs for the expected orders.



For the last 18 months our production partner has been working on securing components for our instruments and the work has been rather successful. Some components are however permanently out of stock, which has required us to do some product redesigns to enable production. We expect to continue to spend most of our R&D resources on such adaptations for the rest of the year. We have also seen a 10-15% increase in production cost, especially driven by increased component prices. Despite the component shortage, we expect to be able to produce enough instruments to meet the demand in 2022.



The two-year absence of new sales opportunities in our industry is coming to an end and we expect 2022 to get us back to growth. Many tenders were published in the first half of the year, and we expect several of these to come to completion in the second half.







For further information, please contact:

Stefan Sandor,

CEO, Serstech AB Phone: +46 739 606067

Email: ss@serstech.com

or

Thomas Pileby,

Chairman of the Board, Serstech AB Phone: +46 702 072643

Email: tp@serstech.com

or visit: www.serstech.com

Certified advisor to Serstech is Svensk Kapitalmarknadsgranskning AB (SKMG), phone: +46 11 323 07 32, e-mail: ca@skmg.se.

About Serstech

Serstech delivers solutions for chemical identification and has customers around the world, mainly in the safety and security industry. Typical customers are customs, police authorities, security organizations and first responders.The solutions and technology are however not limited to security applications and potentially any industry using chemicals of some kind could be addressed by Serstechs solution. Serstechs head office is in Sweden and all production is done in Sweden.

Serstech is traded at Nasdaq First North Growth Market and more information about the company can be found at www.serstech.com

Attachment
Dublin, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Enteral Nutrition Market (2022-2027) by Product, Application, End User, Distribution Channel, Geography, Competitive Analysis, and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The Global Enteral Nutrition Market is estimated to be USD 7.64 Bn in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 10.82 Bn by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 7.21%.



Market Dynamics

Market dynamics are forces that impact the prices and behaviors of the Global Enteral Nutrition Market stakeholders. These forces create pricing signals which result from the changes in the supply and demand curves for a given product or service. Forces of Market Dynamics may be related to macro-economic and micro-economic factors. There are dynamic market forces other than price, demand, and supply. Human emotions can also drive decisions, influence the market, and create price signals.



As the market dynamics impact the supply and demand curves, decision-makers aim to determine the best way to use various financial tools to stem various strategies for speeding the growth and reducing the risks.



Company Profiles

The report provides a detailed analysis of the competitors in the market. It covers the financial performance analysis for the publicly listed companies in the market. The report also offers detailed information on the companies' recent development and competitive scenario. Some of the companies covered in this report are Abbott Laboratories, Aveanna Healthcare, Avanos Medical, B.braun Melsungen, BD, Baxter, etc.



Countries Studied

America (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, United States, Rest of Americas)

Europe (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Rest of Europe)

Middle-East and Africa (Egypt, Israel, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Rest of MEA)

Asia-Pacific (Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Taiwan, Rest of Asia-Pacific)

Competitive Quadrant

The report includes Competitive Quadrant, a proprietary tool to analyze and evaluate the position of companies based on their Industry Position score and Market Performance score. The tool uses various factors for categorizing the players into four categories. Some of these factors considered for analysis are financial performance over the last 3 years, growth strategies, innovation score, new product launches, investments, growth in market share, etc.



Ansoff Analysis

The report presents a detailed Ansoff matrix analysis for the Global Enteral Nutrition Market. Ansoff Matrix, also known as Product/Market Expansion Grid, is a strategic tool used to design strategies for the growth of the company. The matrix can be used to evaluate approaches in four strategies viz. Market Development, Market Penetration, Product Development and Diversification. The matrix is also used for risk analysis to understand the risk involved with each approach.

The report analyses the Global Enteral Nutrition Market using the Ansoff Matrix to provide the best approaches a company can take to improve its market position.

Based on the SWOT analysis conducted on the industry and industry players, the analyst has devised suitable strategies for market growth.

Why buy this report?

The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the Global Enteral Nutrition Market. The report includes in-depth qualitative analysis, verifiable data from authentic sources, and projections about market size. The projections are calculated using proven research methodologies.

The report has been compiled through extensive primary and secondary research. The primary research is done through interviews, surveys, and observation of renowned personnel in the industry.

The report includes an in-depth market analysis using Porter's 5 forces model and the Ansoff Matrix. In addition, the impact of Covid-19 on the market is also featured in the report.

The report also includes the regulatory scenario in the industry, which will help you make a well-informed decision. The report discusses major regulatory bodies and major rules and regulations imposed on this sector across various geographies.

The report also contains the competitive analysis using Positioning Quadrants, the analyst's Proprietary competitive positioning tool.

Key Topics Covered:



1 Report Description



2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Market Dynamics

4.1 Drivers

4.1.1 Increasing Prevalence of Chronic Diseases and Rising Geriatric Population

4.1.2 Increasing Prevalence of Dysphagia

4.1.3 Growing Demand for Neonatal and Preterm Enteral Feeding

4.2 Restraints

4.2.1 Stringent Government Regulations

4.2.2 Insufficient Reimbursements for Enteral Nutrition

4.3 Opportunities

4.3.1 Opportunities in the Emerging Economies

4.3.2 Shifting Trend Towards Consumption of Disease Specific Formulas

4.4 Challenges

4.4.1 Complications Associated with Enteral Nutrition



5 Market Analysis

5.1 Regulatory Scenario

5.2 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

5.3 Impact of COVID-19

5.4 Ansoff Matrix Analysis



6 Global Enteral Nutrition Market, By Product

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Standard Formulas

6.3 Disease-specific Formulas



7 Global Enteral Nutrition Market, By Application

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Critical Care

7.3 Diabetes

7.4 Neurology

7.5 Oncology



8 Global Enteral Nutrition Market, By End User

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Adults

8.3 Pediatric



9 Global Enteral Nutrition Market, By Distribution Channel

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Hospitalle

9.3 Online

9.4 Retail



10 Americas' Enteral Nutrition Market

10.1 Introduction

10.2 Argentina

10.3 Brazil

10.4 Canada

10.5 Chile

10.6 Colombia

10.7 Mexico

10.8 Peru

10.9 United States

10.10 Rest of Americas



11 Europe's Enteral Nutrition Market

11.1 Introduction

11.2 Austria

11.3 Belgium

11.4 Denmark

11.5 Finland

11.6 France

11.7 Germany

11.8 Italy

11.9 Netherlands

11.10 Norway

11.11 Poland

11.12 Russia

11.13 Spain

11.14 Sweden

11.15 Switzerland

11.16 United Kingdom

11.17 Rest of Europe



12 Middle East and Africa's Enteral Nutrition Market

12.1 Introduction

12.2 Egypt

12.3 Israel

12.4 Qatar

12.5 Saudi Arabia

12.6 South Africa

12.7 United Arab Emirates

12.8 Rest of MEA



13 APAC's Enteral Nutrition Market

13.1 Introduction

13.2 Australia

13.3 Bangladesh

13.4 China

13.5 India

13.6 Indonesia

13.7 Japan

13.8 Malaysia

13.9 Philippines

13.10 Singapore

13.11 South Korea

13.12 Sri Lanka

13.13 Thailand

13.14 Taiwan

13.15 Rest of Asia-Pacific



14 Competitive Landscape

14.1 Competitive Quadrant

14.2 Market Share Analysis

14.3 Strategic Initiatives

14.3.1 M&A and Investments

14.3.2 Partnerships and Collaborations

14.3.3 Product Developments and Improvements



15 Company Profiles

15.1 Abbott Laboratories

15.2 Aveanna Healthcare

15.3 Avanos Medical

15.4 B.braun Melsungen

15.5 BD

15.6 Baxter

15.7 Boston Scientific

15.8 Byram Healthcare Centers

15.9 CONMED

15.10 Cardinal Health

15.11 Danone

15.12 Fresenius Kabi

15.13 Global Health Product

15.14 Hormel Foods

15.15 Lincare

15.16 Mead Johnson Nutrition

15.17 Meiji

15.18 Moog

15.19 Nestle

15.20 Otsuka Pharmaceutical

15.21 Reckitt Benckiser Group

15.22 Victus



16 Appendix



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/i58khy

Attachment
Dublin, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Seed Treatment Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2022-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The global seed treatment market reached a value of US$ 7.37 Billion in 2021. Looking forward, the publisher expects the market to reach US$ 12.35 Billion by 2027, exhibiting at a CAGR of 8.9% during 2022-2027. Keeping in mind the uncertainties of COVID-19, we are continuously tracking and evaluating the direct as well as the indirect influence of the pandemic. These insights are included in the report as a major market contributor.



The treatment of seeds involves the application of chemical or organic agents for improving the quality and providing protection to the grain. Eco-friendly pesticides and fungicides that prevent pathogens and rodents from damaging the crop are widely used in the process of seed treatment.

These pesticides and fungicides are used in different concentrations according to the requirements of the crop or the soil. The treatment process involves various stages such as exposing the seeds to the sun, immersing them in nutrient-rich water, coating, priming, phytosanitary treatment, pelleting, and microbial inoculation.



With the rapidly increasing global population, there has been a significant rise in the demand for food grains, which calls for the production of higher and enhanced yields. Furthermore, effective seed treatment prevents seed and soil-borne infections, aids in improving the germination time and enhances the overall productivity. It also averts the ill-effects of agrochemical residues in the crop, thus aptly meeting the soaring demand for chemical-free foods.

Moreover, extensive research and development in bio-farming techniques coupled with the production of energy-efficient, environment-friendly and economical means of seed treatment have also catalyzed the market growth.

Competitive Landscape:

The report has also analysed the competitive landscape of the market with some of the key players being Bayer, Syngenta, BASF, DOW Agrosciences, Dupont, Nufarm, FMC, Arysta Lifescience, Sumitomo Chemical, UPL, Incotec, Germains, Advanced Biological Marketing Inc, etc.



Key Questions Answered in This Report:

How has the global seed treatment market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years?

What are the key regional markets in the global seed treatment industry?

What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the global seed treatment market?

What is the breakup of the market based on the type?

What is the breakup of the market based on the application technique?

What is the breakup of the market based on the crop type?

What is the breakup of the market based on the function?

What are the various stages in the value chain of the global seed treatment industry?

What are the key driving factors and challenges in the global seed treatment industry?

What is the structure of the global seed treatment industry and who are the key players?

What is the degree of competition in the global seed treatment industry?

What are the profit margins in the global seed treatment industry?

Key Topics Covered:



1 Preface



2 Scope and Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Introduction

4.1 Overview

4.2 Key Industry Trends



5 Global Seed Treatment Market

5.1 Market Overview

5.2 Market Performance

5.3 Impact of COVID-19

5.4 Market Breakup by Type

5.5 Market Breakup by Application Technique

5.6 Market Breakup by Crop Type

5.7 Market Breakup by Function

5.8 Market Breakup by Region

5.9 Market Forecast



6 Market Breakup by Type

6.1 Chemical Seed Treatment

6.1.1 Market Trends

6.1.2 Market Forecast

6.2 Non-Chemical Seed Treatment

6.2.1 Market Trends

6.2.2 Market Forecast



7 Market Breakup by Application Technique

7.1 Seed Coating

7.1.1 Market Trends

7.1.2 Market Forecast

7.2 Seed Dressing

7.2.1 Market Trends

7.2.2 Market Forecast

7.3 Seed Pelleting

7.3.1 Market Trends

7.3.2 Market Forecast

7.4 Others

7.4.1 Market Trends

7.4.2 Market Forecast



8 Market Breakup by Crop Type

8.1 Corn/Maize

8.1.1 Market Trends

8.1.2 Market Forecast

8.2 Soybean

8.2.1 Market Trends

8.2.2 Market Forecast

8.3 Wheat

8.3.1 Market Trends

8.3.2 Market Forecast

8.4 Rice

8.4.1 Market Trends

8.4.2 Market Forecast

8.5 Cotton

8.5.1 Market Trends

8.5.2 Market Forecast

8.6 Others

8.6.1 Market Trends

8.6.2 Market Forecast



9 Market Breakup by Function

9.1 Seed Protection

9.1.1 Market Trends

9.1.2 Market Forecast

9.2 Seed Enhancement

9.2.1 Market Trends

9.2.2 Market Forecast

9.3 Others

9.3.1 Market Trends

9.3.2 Market Forecast



10 Market Breakup by Region



11 SWOT Analysis



12 Value Chain Analysis



13 Porters Five Forces Analysis



14 Price Analysis

14.1 Price Indicators

14.2 Price Structure

14.3 Margin Analysis



15 Competitive Landscape

15.1 Market Structure

15.2 Key Players

15.3 Profiles of Key Players

15.3.1 Bayer

15.3.2 Syngenta

15.3.3 BASF

15.3.4 DOW Agrosciences

15.3.5 Dupont

15.3.6 Nufarm

15.3.7 FMC

15.3.8 Arysta Lifescience

15.3.9 Sumitomo Chemical

15.3.10 UPL

15.3.11 Incotec

15.3.12 Germains

15.3.13 Advanced Biological Marketing Inc

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/grb1zc

Attachment
Dublin, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Industrial Hose Market (2022-2027) by Material, Media Type, Industry, Geography, Competitive Analysis and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The Global Industrial Hose Market is estimated to be USD 12.4 Bn in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 19.79 Bn by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 9.8%.



Market dynamics are forces that impact the prices and behaviors of the Global Industrial Hose Market stakeholders. These forces create pricing signals which result from the changes in the supply and demand curves for a given product or service. Forces of Market Dynamics may be related to macro-economic and micro-economic factors. There are dynamic market forces other than price, demand, and supply. Human emotions can also drive decisions, influence the market, and create price signals.



As the market dynamics impact the supply and demand curves, decision-makers aim to determine the best way to use various financial tools to stem various strategies for speeding the growth and reducing the risks.

Company Profiles

The report provides a detailed analysis of the competitors in the market. It covers the financial performance analysis for the publicly listed companies in the market. The report also offers detailed information on the companies' recent development and competitive scenario. Some of the companies covered in this report are Alfagommarity S.P.A., Colex-Hannfin Ltd, Continental AG, Eaton Corp plc, Flexaust Inc, Gates Corp, Kanaflex Corpoaflex Co Ltd, Kuriyama Of Amiyama America Inc, Kurt Manufaturing, etc.



Countries Studied

America (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, United States, Rest of Americas)

Europe (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Rest of Europe)

Middle-East and Africa (Egypt, Israel, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Rest of MEA)

Asia-Pacific (Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Taiwan, Rest of Asia-Pacific)

Competitive Quadrant

The report includes Competitive Quadrant, a proprietary tool to analyze and evaluate the position of companies based on their Industry Position score and Market Performance score. The tool uses various factors for categorizing the players into four categories. Some of these factors considered for analysis are financial performance over the last 3 years, growth strategies, innovation score, new product launches, investments, growth in market share, etc.



Ansoff Analysis

The report presents a detailed Ansoff matrix analysis for the Global Industrial Hose Market. Ansoff Matrix, also known as Product/Market Expansion Grid, is a strategic tool used to design strategies for the growth of the company. The matrix can be used to evaluate approaches in four strategies viz. Market Development, Market Penetration, Product Development and Diversification. The matrix is also used for risk analysis to understand the risk involved with each approach.



The analyst analyses the Global Industrial Hose Market using the Ansoff Matrix to provide the best approaches a company can take to improve its market position.



Based on the SWOT analysis conducted on the industry and industry players, The analyst has devised suitable strategies for market growth.



Why buy this report?

The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the Global Industrial Hose Market. The report includes in-depth qualitative analysis, verifiable data from authentic sources, and projections about market size. The projections are calculated using proven research methodologies.

The report has been compiled through extensive primary and secondary research. The primary research is done through interviews, surveys, and observation of renowned personnel in the industry.

The report includes an in-depth market analysis using Porter's 5 forces model and the Ansoff Matrix. In addition, the impact of Covid-19 on the market is also featured in the report.

The report also includes the regulatory scenario in the industry, which will help you make a well-informed decision. The report discusses major regulatory bodies and major rules and regulations imposed on this sector across various geographies.

The report also contains the competitive analysis using Positioning Quadrants, the analyst's Proprietary competitive positioning tool.

Key Topics Covered:



1 Report Description



2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Market Dynamics

4.1 Drivers

4.1.1 Increasing Demand for Robust Industrial Hoses for Critical Applications in Several Industries

4.1.2 Growing Infrastructure-Related Developments

4.1.3 Rising Demand for PVC Material

4.2 Restraints

4.2.1 Shortage of Technical Expertise of Industrial Hoses

4.3 Opportunities

4.3.1 Growing Demand for Automobiles Worldwide Increasing Modernization of Agriculture Processes

4.4 Challenges

4.4.1 Long Lead-Time

4.4.2 Lack of Product Differentiation



5 Market Analysis

5.1 Regulatory Scenario

5.2 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

5.3 Impact of COVID-19

5.4 Ansoff Matrix Analysis



6 Global Industrial Hose Market, By Material

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Natural Rubber

6.3 Nitrile Rubber

6.4 Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)

6.5 Silicone

6.6 Polyurethane



7 Global Industrial Hose Market, By Media Type

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Water

7.3 Oil

7.4 Hot Water and Steam

7.5 Air and Gas

7.6 Food and Beverage

7.7 Chemical



8 Global Industrial Hose Market, By Industry

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Automotive

8.3 Pharmaceuticals

8.4 Infrastructure

8.5 Oil & Gas

8.6 Food & Beverages

8.7 Chemicals

8.8 Water & Wastewater

8.9 Mining

8.10 Agriculture

8.11 Others



9 Americas' Global Industrial Hose Market

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Argentina

9.3 Brazil

9.4 Canada

9.5 Chile

9.6 Colombia

9.7 Mexico

9.8 Peru

9.9 United States

9.10 Rest of Americas



10 Europe's Global Industrial Hose Market

10.1 Introduction

10.2 Austria

10.3 Belgium

10.4 Denmark

10.5 Finland

10.6 France

10.7 Germany

10.8 Italy

10.9 Netherlands

10.10 Norway

10.11 Poland

10.12 Russia

10.13 Spain

10.14 Sweden

10.15 Switzerland

10.16 United Kingdom

10.17 Rest of Europe



11 Middle East and Africa's Global Industrial Hose Market

11.1 Introduction

11.2 Egypt

11.3 Israel

11.4 Qatar

11.5 Saudi Arabia

11.6 South Africa

11.7 United Arab Emirates

11.8 Rest of MEA



12 APAC's Global Industrial Hose Market

12.1 Introduction

12.2 Australia

12.3 Bangladesh

12.4 China

12.5 India

12.6 Indonesia

12.7 Japan

12.8 Malaysia

12.9 Philippines

12.10 Singapore

12.11 South Korea

12.12 Sri Lanka

12.13 Thailand

12.14 Taiwan

12.15 Rest of Asia-Pacific



13 Competitive Landscape

13.1 Competitive Quadrant

13.2 Market Share Analysis

13.3 Strategic Initiatives

13.3.1 M&A and Investments

13.3.2 Partnerships and Collaborations

13.3.3 Product Developments and Improvements



14 Company Profiles

14.1 Alfagommarity S.P.A.

14.2 Colex-Hannfin Ltd

14.3 Continental AG

14.4 Eaton Corp plc

14.5 Flexaust Inc

14.6 Gates Corp

14.7 Kanaflex Corpoaflex Co Ltd

14.8 Kuriyama Of Amiyama America Inc

14.9 Kurt Manufaturing

14.10 Norres Schlauchtechnik GmbH

14.11 Pacific Echo Inc

14.12 Parker-Hannfin Corp

14.13 Piranha Hose Panha Products Inc

14.14 Polyhose India Pvt Ltd

14.15 Ryco Hydrolics

14.16 Salem-Republic Rubber Company

14.17 Semperit (Semperflex)

14.18 Titeflex Corp

14.19 Transfer Oil S.P.A. Trelleborg Corp



15 Appendix



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/n4olk4

Attachment
Dublin, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Blood Glucose Test Strips Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2022-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The global blood glucose test strips market reached a value of US$ 10.53 Billion in 2021. Looking forward, the publisher expects the market to reach a value of US$ 17.57 Billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 8.91% during 2021-2027. Keeping in mind the uncertainties of COVID-19, we are continuously tracking and evaluating the direct as well as the indirect influence of the pandemic on different end use sectors. These insights are included in the report as a major market contributor.



Blood glucose test strips refer to small, disposable plastic or paper strips used to monitor blood glucose levels and control diabetes symptoms. They are manufactured using polyolefin, polyamide, polysulfone and cellulose materials. A blood glucose test strip comprises several components, such as hydrophilic, adhesive, sensors, enzymes and electrode layers. They are also soaked in glucose oxidase that reacts with glucose present in the blood sample to indicate sugar levels. Apart from this, blood glucose test strips are easy to use, cost-effective, and can be used daily. Consequently, they assist in identifying high or low blood sugar levels, monitoring the effectiveness of diabetes treatment, and lowering the risks of developing hypoglycemia and/or hyperglycemia.



Blood Glucose Test Strips Market Trends:

The increasing prevalence of diabetes, especially among the growing geriatric population is creating a positive outlook for the market. In line with this, blood glucose test strips are widely used to test sugar levels regularly at home, while eliminating the need to visit a diagnostic laboratory, which is supporting the market growth.

Additionally, the widespread product adoption among type-2 diabetic patients due to the easy availability of glucometers, convenient handling, and the level of accuracy provided by the machine are favoring the market growth. Moreover, the demand and online sales for blood glucose monitoring devices and consumables, such as test strips significantly surged during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

This can be attributed to the increasing need to continuously monitor sugar levels in patients and commoners both as a precautionary measure and to record post-infection symptoms, which, in turn, is augmenting the market growth. Other factors, including extensive research and development (R&D) activities in the field of biomedical engineering, evolving lifestyles and eating habits, and the implementation of various government initiatives focusing on educating the masses regarding diabetes and its preventive measures, are anticipated to drive the market toward growth.

Competitive Landscape:

The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined along with the profiles of the key players being 77 Elektronika Kft., Abbott Laboratories, AgaMatrix Inc., Ascensia Diabetes Care Holdings AG (PHC Holdings), B. Braun Melsungen Aktiengesellschaft, Bioland Technology Ltd., Bionime Corporation, BTNX Inc., Microlife Corporation (Midas Company Limited), Norditalia Group S.R.L., Rossmax International Ltd. and Unistrip Technologies LLC.



Key Questions Answered in This Report:

How has the global blood glucose test strips market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years?

What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the global blood glucose test strips market?

What are the key regional markets?

What is the breakup of the market based on the type?

What is the breakup of the market based on the technology?

What is the breakup of the market based on the distribution channel?

What is the breakup of the market based on the end user?

What are the various stages in the value chain of the industry?

What are the key driving factors and challenges in the industry?

What is the structure of the global blood glucose test strips market and who are the key players?

What is the degree of competition in the industry?

Key Topics Covered:



1 Preface



2 Scope and Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Introduction

4.1 Overview

4.2 Key Industry Trends



5 Global Blood Glucose Test Strips Market

5.1 Market Overview

5.2 Market Performance

5.3 Impact of COVID-19

5.4 Market Forecast



6 Market Breakup by Type

6.1 Thick Film Electrochemical Films

6.1.1 Market Trends

6.1.2 Market Forecast

6.2 Thin Film Electrochemical Films

6.2.1 Market Trends

6.2.2 Market Forecast

6.3 Optical Strips

6.3.1 Market Trends

6.3.2 Market Forecast



7 Market Breakup by Technology

7.1 Glucose Dehydrogenase (GDH)

7.1.1 Market Trends

7.1.2 Market Forecast

7.2 Glucose Oxidase (GOD)

7.2.1 Market Trends

7.2.2 Market Forecast



8 Market Breakup by Distribution Channel

8.1 Online

8.1.1 Market Trends

8.1.2 Market Forecast

8.2 Offline

8.2.1 Market Trends

8.2.2 Market Forecast



9 Market Breakup by End User

9.1 Individuals

9.1.1 Market Trends

9.1.2 Market Forecast

9.2 Hospitals and Clinics

9.2.1 Market Trends

9.2.2 Market Forecast

9.3 Others

9.3.1 Market Trends

9.3.2 Market Forecast



10 Market Breakup by Region

11 SWOT Analysis



12 Value Chain Analysis



13 Porters Five Forces Analysis



14 Price Analysis



15 Competitive Landscape

15.1 Market Structure

15.2 Key Players

15.3 Profiles of Key Players

15.3.1 77 Elektronika Kft.

15.3.1.1 Company Overview

15.3.1.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.2 Abbott Laboratories

15.3.2.1 Company Overview

15.3.2.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.2.3 Financials

15.3.2.4 SWOT Analysis

15.3.3 AgaMatrix Inc.

15.3.3.1 Company Overview

15.3.3.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.4 Ascensia Diabetes Care Holdings AG (PHC Holdings)

15.3.4.1 Company Overview

15.3.4.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.5 B. Braun Melsungen Aktiengesellschaft

15.3.5.1 Company Overview

15.3.5.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.5.3 SWOT Analysis

15.3.6 Bioland Technology Ltd.

15.3.6.1 Company Overview

15.3.6.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.7 Bionime Corporation

15.3.7.1 Company Overview

15.3.7.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.7.3 Financials

15.3.8 BTNX Inc.

15.3.8.1 Company Overview

15.3.8.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.9 Microlife Corporation (Midas Company Limited)

15.3.9.1 Company Overview

15.3.9.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.10 Norditalia Group S.R.L.

15.3.10.1 Company Overview

15.3.10.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.11 Rossmax International Ltd.

15.3.11.1 Company Overview

15.3.11.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.11.3 Financials

15.3.12 Unistrip Technologies LLC

15.3.12.1 Company Overview

15.3.12.2 Product Portfolio

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/jxztrq

Attachment
New York, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Taste Masking and Taste Assessment Services and Technologies Market, Distribution by Type of Formulation, Type of Techniques, Scale of Operation and Key Geographical Regions : Industry Trends and Global Forecasts, 2022-2035" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06292889/?utm_source=GNW

The existence of such taste in drug formulations is unappealing and has been shown to have a negative impact on patient compliance, particularly among the pediatric and geriatric patient population. In fact, in an event hosted by Adare Pharma Solutions and International Flavors and Fragrances (IFF), it has been reported that 30% to 40% of the pediatric population refuses to take a solid or liquid medication and about 26% of the geriatric population reports difficulty in swallowing tablets and capsules. , Given the fact that there are numerous taste receptors on the tongue, it is difficult to block the taste of such drugs pharmacologically. Therefore, in order to overcome the bitter taste of drugs, numerous conventional and novel taste masking techniques are being employed by pharmaceutical players; these include addition of sweeteners, coating, microencapsulation and hot-melt extrusion. Studies have suggested that application of taste masking technologies in oral drugs can increase the patience compliance from 53% to 90%.



Various pharmaceutical companies are actively investing time, capital and resources to develop palatable, pleasant-taste drug formulations, as well as a variety of taste-masking and assessment procedures for the drug dosage forms meant for children and elderly patients. However, the overall process of development and assessment of taste-masked formulations is associated with several challenges, including variation in taste and its intensity in different APIs due to varying chemistries, identifying globally acceptable tastes, developing flavor matching placebo formulations (for testing) ensuring compliance with stringent regulatory guidelines and good clinical practices (GCPs), clinical research costs, and managing product life cycle. The aforementioned reasons have prompted the pharmaceutical companies to outsource the taste masking and taste assessment related operations to third party service providers with expertise in this area.



Presently, 50 companies claim to offer services for taste-masking and taste-assessment, development and commercialization of taste masked formulations in compliance with the regulatory guidelines. Service providers also assist in assessment of taste masking agents in order to develop technologies suitable for wide range of formulations with different APIs. Over time, centralized agencies, including the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) have streamlined efforts related to assessing the palatability of taste-masked drugs. Additionally, the last few years have witnessed several strategic alliances between the players in this domain for expansion of existing taste masking capabilities to ensure drug formulations palatability and commercial success. Moreover, stakeholders are actively looking for patient-centric and age-appropriate dosage forms and novel excipients. Given the ongoing efforts to enhance palatability of oral drug formulations, drug adherence and patient compliance, the taste-masking and taste assessment technologies and services market is likely to evolve at a steady pace in the next few years.



SCOPE OF THE REPORT

The Taste Masking and Taste Assessment Services and Technologies Market, 2022-2035: Distribution by Type of Formulation (Solids, Liquids, Semi-Solids and Others), Type of Techniques (Hot Melt Extrusion, Microencapsulation, Ion Exchange Resin, Coating and Others), Scale of Operation (Preclinical / Clinical and Commercial) and Key Geographical Regions (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the World (RoW): Industry Trends and Global Forecasts report features an extensive study of the current market landscape, offering an informed opinion on the taste masking and taste assessment services and technologies. The report features an in-depth analysis, highlighting the diverse capabilities of stakeholders engaged in this field. In addition to other elements, the study includes:

A detailed assessment of the current market landscape of taste masking and taste assessment service providers, providing information on type of service(s) offered (taste masking and taste assessment), scale of operation (preclinical / clinical and commercial), manufacturing scalability, other service(s) offered along with information on type of formulation (tablets, granules, capsules, suspensions, solutions, syrups, emulsions, semi-solids and others), end users (pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and others), techniques used for taste masking (hot melt extrusion, microencapsulation, coating, ion exchange resin and others), branch of healthcare (pediatrics, geriatrics and others) and regional capability. In addition, the chapter provides details on the year of establishment, company size and location of headquarters of companies providing taste masking and taste assessment services.

A detailed assessment of the current market landscape of taste masking and taste assessment technology providers, providing information on technology name, type of service(s) offered (taste masking and taste assessment), techniques used, type of formulation (tablets, capsules, liquid, powder and others), end users (pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and others) along with information on patent, availability of technology for partnerships and licensing. In addition, the chapter provides details on the companies providing technology platforms for the purpose of taste masking and taste assessment, along with information on their year of establishment, company size and location of headquarters.

Elaborate profiles of key players engaged in providing taste masking and taste assessment services; each profile features a brief overview of the company, its financial information (if available), service portfolio, technology portfolio and an informed future outlook.

Elaborate profiles of key players engaged in providing technology platforms for taste masking and taste assessment; each profile features a brief overview of the company, its financial information (if available), technology portfolio and an informed future outlook.

An in-depth competitiveness analysis of taste masking and taste assessment service providers based in different geographies, by taking into consideration the company strength (based on its experience), service portfolio (service(s) offered, scale of operation, type of formulation, techniques used for taste masking, branch of healthcare) and regional capability (operational area of the company).

A brief description of various types of partnership models (namely asset acquisition, manufacturing agreement, research and development and technology licensing agreement) adopted by stakeholders engaged in this field. It is worth mentioning that the data captured during our research was analyzed based on several parameters, including year of partnership, type of partnership, purpose of partnership, type of service(s) offered, scale of operation, type of formulation and geographical location of players involved in a partnership.

An insightful analysis of the patents filed / granted for taste masking and taste assessment since 2017, taking into consideration various relevant parameters, including type of patent, publication year, geographical location, CPC symbols, emerging focus areas, leading players (in terms of number of patents granted / filed in the given time period), patent characteristics and geography. In addition, the chapter includes a detailed patent benchmarking and an insightful valuation analysis.

A case study on companies providing pharmaceutical excipients employed for taste masking, featuring a detailed analysis based on several parameters, including companys year of establishment, company size, location of headquarters, functional properties of the excipients and type of formulation developed using those excipients.



One of the key objectives of the report was to estimate the existing market size and future growth potential of the taste masking and taste assessment services and technologies market. We have provided informed estimates on the likely evolution of the market in the short to mid-term and long term, for the period 2022-2035. Our year-wise projections of the current and future opportunity have further been segmented across types of formulations (solids, liquids, semi-solids and others), types of techniques (hot melt extrusion, microencapsulation, ion exchange resin, coating and others), scales of operation (preclinical / clinical and commercial), and key geographies (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and RoW).



The opinions and insights presented in this study were also influenced by discussions conducted with multiple stakeholders in this domain. The report features detailed transcripts of interviews held with the following individuals (in alphabetical order of company / organization names):

Phillipe Tschopp (Head of Business Development, Glatt Pharmaceutical Services)

David Tisi (Director of Technical Operations, Senopsys)

Brandon Keener (Business Development Associate, Adare Pharma Solutions)



RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The data presented in this report has been gathered via secondary and primary research. For all our projects, we conduct interviews with experts in the area (academia, industry and other associations) to solicit their opinions on emerging trends in the market. This information is primarily useful for us to draw out our own opinion on how the market will evolve across different regions and technology segments. Where possible, the available data has been checked for accuracy from multiple sources of information.



The secondary sources of information include

Annual reports

Investor presentations

SEC filings

Industry databases

News releases from company websites

Government policy documents

Industry analysts views



While the focus has been on forecasting the market till 2035, the report also provides our independent views on various non-commercial trends emerging in the industry. This opinion is solely based on our knowledge, research and understanding of the relevant market trends gathered from various secondary and primary sources of information.



All actual figures have been sourced and analysed from publicly available information forums and primary research discussions. Financial figures mentioned in this report are in USD, unless otherwise specified.



KEY QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Who are the leading players engaged in providing taste masking and taste assessment services and technology platforms?

Which companies offer taste masking technologies for licensing?

What kind of partnership models are commonly adopted by industry stakeholders?

What is the relative competitiveness of different taste masking and taste assessment service providers based in different geographies?

How has the intellectual property landscape in this field evolved over the years?

How is the current and future opportunity, related to taste masking and taste assessment likely to be distributed across key market segments?



CHAPTER OUTLINES



Chapter 2 is an executive summary of the key insights captured during our research. It offers a high-level view on the current state and likely evolution of taste masking and taste assessment services and technologies market in the short-midterm and long term.



Chapter 3 provides a general introduction to the taste masking and taste assessment, including information on bitterness of drugs, need for taste masking and physiology of taste buds. The chapter lays emphasis on concept of taste masking and various traditional and modern techniques used for masking the aversive taste of drug formulations. In addition, the chapter gives a brief overview on different type of excipients used for masking the taste of bitter formulations, including natural and artificial. The chapter also highlights taste assessment and the approaches used for taste assessment. Further, it highlights the current scenario and future perspectives in taste masking and taste assessment services and technologies in the market.



Chapter 4 provides a detailed assessment of the current market landscape of taste masking and taste assessment service providers, providing information on type of service(s) offered (taste masking and taste assessment), scale of operation (preclinical / clinical and commercial), manufacturing scalability, other service(s) offered along with information on type of formulation (tablets, granules, capsules, suspensions, solutions, syrups, emulsions, semi-solids and others), end users (pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and others), techniques used for taste masking (hot melt extrusion, microencapsulation, coating, ion exchange resin and others), branch of healthcare (pediatrics , geriatrics and others) and regional capability. In addition, the chapter provides details on the year of establishment, company size and location of headquarters of companies providing taste masking and taste assessment services.



Chapter 5 provides a detailed assessment of the current market landscape of taste masking and taste assessment technology providers, providing information on type of service(s) offered (taste masking and taste assessment), techniques used, type of formulation (tablets, capsules, liquid, and others), end users (pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and others). In addition, the chapter provides details on the year of establishment, company size and location of headquarters of companies providing taste masking and taste assessment technologies.



Chapter 6 features detailed profiles of key players engaged in providing taste masking and taste assessment services for oral drug formulations; each profile features a brief overview of the company, its financial information (if available), service portfolio, technology portfolio and an informed future outlook.



Chapter 7 presents elaborate profiles of key players engaged in providing taste masking and taste assessment technology platforms for various oral drug formulations; each profile features a brief overview of the company, its financial information (if available), technology portfolio and an informed future outlook.



Chapter 8 features an in-depth competitiveness analysis of taste masking and taste assessment service providers based in different geographies, by taking into consideration the company strength (based on its experience), service expertise (service(s) offered, scale of operation, type of formulation, techniques used, branch of healthcare) and regional capability (operational area of the company).



Chapter 9 presents a brief description of various types of partnership models (namely asset acquisition, manufacturing agreement, research and development and technology licensing agreement) adopted by stakeholders engaged in this field. It is worth mentioning that the data captured during our research was analyzed based on several parameters, including year of partnership, type of partnership, purpose of partnership, type of service(s) offered, scale of operation, type of formulation and geographical location of players involved in a partnership.



Chapter 10 features an insightful analysis of the patents filed / granted for taste masking and taste assessment since 2017, taking into consideration various relevant parameters, including type of patent, publication year, geographical location, CPC symbols, emerging focus areas, leading players (in terms of number of patents granted / filed in the given time period), patent characteristics and geography. In addition, the chapter includes a detailed patent benchmarking and an insightful valuation analysis.



Chapter 11 is a case study on excipients used in pharmaceutical taste masking. It is worth mentioning that the data captured during our research was analyzed based on several parameters, including information on companys year of establishment, company size, location of headquarters, functional properties, and type of formulation.



Chapter 12 presents a detailed market forecast analysis, providing insights on the likely growth of taste masking and taste assessment services and technologies market for the period 2022-2035. In addition, the chapter presents the likely distribution of the projected future opportunity across the types of formulation (solids, liquids, semi-solids and others), type of techniques (hot melt extrusion, microencapsulation, ion exchange resin, coating and others), scales of operation (preclinical / clinical and commercial) and key geographies (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and RoW).



Chapter 13 is a summary of the overall report. In this chapter, we have provided a list of key takeaways from the report, and expressed our independent opinion related to the research and analysis described in the previous chapters.



Chapter 14 consists of interview transcripts of discussion held with various key stakeholders in this market. The chapter provides a brief overview of the companies and details of interviews held with Phillipe Tschopp (Head of Business Development, Glatt Pharmaceutical Services), David Tisi (Director of Technical Operations, Senopsys) and Brandon Keener (Business Development Associate, Adare Pharma Solutions).



Chapter 15 is an appendix, that contains the tabulated data and numbers for all the figures in the report.



Chapter 16 is an appendix, that provides the list of companies and organizations mentioned in the report.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06292889/?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.



__________________________
New York, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Business Jets Market by Aircraft Type, Systems, End-Use, Point of Sale, Services, Range and Region - Global Forecast to 2030" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05797736/?utm_source=GNW

The manufacturers of business jets are primarily focused on improving passenger experience and enhancing operational efficiency. However, complex product certification procedure and uncertainty of ordersare limiting the overall growth of the market.



Thelight aircraft type segment is estimated to register the highest CAGR of the business jets market from 2022 to 2030

Based on aircraft type, the light aircraft segment of the business jets market is estimated to register highest CAGR from 2022 to 2030. High demand for intercity travel is driving the growth of light aircraft type business jets.However, these aircrafts are cost-efficient and comfortable for short-haul distances, that are also adding to the demand and growth of business jets market.



The private usersegment of end use is estimated to account for the largest share of the business jets market in 2022

Based on end use, the private user segment is estimated to account for the largest share of the business jets market in 2022. In recent years, the demand for ease of air travel has increased significantly.Additionally, they provide access to locations where airlines do not offer regular flights. These are the driving factors that are leading to the increasingnumber of private users of the business jets market.



North America is estimated to account for the largest share of the business jets market in 2022

North Americais estimated to account for the largest share of the business jets market in 2022.The aviation and aerospace sectors in the region are growing steadily. This has consequently created a significant demand for business jets. The growth of the business jets market in this region is driven by factors such as rapid growth in aircraft manufacturing, technological advancements, and travel and tourism.



Break-up of profiles of primary participants in thebusiness jetsmarket

 By Company Type: Tier 1  55%, Tier 2  20%, and Tier 3  25%

 By Designation: C-Level Executives 75%, Manager Level  25%

 By Region: North America 20%, Europe  25%, AsiaPacific  30%,Latin America- 10%, Middle East- 10%, Africa- 5%



Key players in the business jets market are Textron Inc. (US), Embraer SA (Brazil), Gulfstream Aerospace (US), Bombardier Inc. (Canada), Dassault Aviation (France), Boeing (US), Airbus (Netherlands), Honda Aircraft Company (US), Syberjet Aircraft (US) and Piper Aircraft (US)among others. These companies provide business jetsin various countries across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Africa.



Research Coverage:

The market study covers the business jets market across segments.It aims at estimating the market size and growth potential of this market across various segments, such asaircraft type, end use, point of sale, system, range, and region.



The study also includes an in-depth competitive analysis of the key players in the market, along with their company profiles, key observations related to product and business offerings, recent developments, and key market strategies.



Reasons to buy this report:

The report will help market leaders/new entrants in this market with information on the closest approximations of the revenue numbers for the overall business jets market and its subsegments.This report covers the entire ecosystem of the business jets, and disruptive technologies, such as sophisticated cabin interiors, autonomous business aircraft and electric propulsion.



This report will help stakeholders understand the competitive landscape and gain more insights to better position their businesses and plan suitable go-to-market strategies. The report will also help stakeholders understand the pulse of the market and provide them with information on key market drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities.



The report provides insights on the following pointers:

 Market Penetration: Comprehensive information on business jetsoffered by top players in the market

 Product Development/Innovation: Detailed insights on upcoming technologies, research & development activities, and new product launches in the business jets market

 Market Development: Comprehensive information about lucrative markets  the report analyzes the business jets marketacross varied regions

 Market Diversification: Exhaustive information about new products, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments in the business jets market

 Competitive Assessment: In-depth assessment of market shares, growth strategies, products, and manufacturing capabilities of leading players in the business jets market

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05797736/?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.



__________________________
New York, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Insight Partners published latest research study on "Micro-Surgical Robot Market Forecast to 2028  COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis  by Component, Application, End User, and Geography," the report highlights trends prevailing in the market and factors driving its growth. The global micro-surgical robot market growth is attributed to the increasing popularity of minimally invasive surgical procedures, and the advantages of robotic surgeries in terms of accuracy, repeatability, control, and efficiency. However, the high cost of micro-surgical robots and unfavorable reimbursement scenarios hinder the market growth.

Download PDF Brochure of Micro-Surgical Robot Market Size - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis with Strategic Developments at: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/sample/TIPRE00018501/

Micro-Surgical Robot Market Report Scope & Strategic Insights:

Report Coverage Details Market Size Value in US$ 1.28081 Billion in 2022 Market Size Value by US$ 2.81757 Billion by 2028 Growth rate CAGR of 11.9% from 2022 to 2028 Forecast Period 2022-2028 Base Year 2022 No. of Pages 193 No. Tables 85 No. of Charts & Figures 81 Historical data available Yes Segments covered Component, Application, and End User Regional scope North America; Europe; Asia Pacific; Latin America; MEA Country scope US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Australia, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Argentina Report coverage Revenue forecast, company ranking, competitive landscape, growth factors, and trends





Global Micro-Surgical Robot Market: Competitive Landscape and Key Developments

MMI S.p.A.; Microsure B.V.; Stryker Corporation; Intuitive Surgical, Inc.; Medtronic; Galen Robotics, Inc.; Ethicon (Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc.); Asensus Surgical, Inc.; Zimmer Biomet; Titan Medical Inc.; and ForSight Robotics LTD. are the leading companies in the global micro-surgical robot market. The market is anticipated to flourish with the development of innovative products by the key market players.

Inquiry Before Purchase: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/inquiry/TIPRE00018501/

In May 2022, MMI S.p.A. announced the grand opening of its new facility in Pisa, Italy. MMI consolidated its operations at locations in Pisa into a single 3,000 m site.

In April 2022, ForSight Robotics announced that Adani Global Limited completed the acquisition of a minority stake for $20 million.

North America is the largest market for micro-surgical robots, and the US holds the largest share of the regional market, followed by Canada. The market growth in the US is ascribed to the developments made by key players operating in the country, technological advancements in micro-surgical robots, and an increasing number of ambulatory surgery centers. In December 2020, the Ottava robotic surgical system from Johnson & Johnson competed with Intuitive Surgical's da Vinci. This latest robotic surgical system of Johnson & Johnson's has six arms to allow more control, flexibility, and patient access during surgery. The company has been working on evaluating the Ottava system since 2021, with clinical trials set to begin in 2022. According to the company, Ottava will be able to execute a variety of treatments that overlap the treatment capabilities of the da Vinci system.

Have a question? Speak to Research Analyst: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/speak-to-analyst/TIPRE00018501

Advantages of Robotic Surgeries in Terms of Accuracy, Repeatability, Control, and Efficiency Fueling Global Micro-Surgical Robot Market Growth

The introduction of robotic surgery is the most recent advancement in liposuction. A surgeon controls the treatments from a master console, while the robotic patient cart performs the procedures more easily and precisely than laparoscopic systems. Owing to its 3D vision and accuracy, and intuitive multi-range instruments, robotic surgery has distinct advantages in liposuction procedures over traditional laparoscopic surgeries, ensuring greater patient safety. Robotic surgeries also aid in the improvement of suturing abilities, and reduction in post-operative pain and recovery time. Robotically aided liposuction is also recommended for obese individuals weighing more than 250 kg, as laparoscopic liposuction is more demanding and difficult. As per an article published in Springer Nature Limited on the comparison between the surgical outcomes of integrated robotic surgery and conventional laparoscopic surgery for distal gastrectomy, in 2020, the surgical success rate in the integrated robotic distal gastrectomy (IRDG) group was 98%, significantly higher than the success rate in conventional laparoscopic distal gastrectomy (CLDG) group, i.e., 89.5%. Although both groups had similar rates of in-patient and out-patient problems, the readmission rate of the IRDG group was much lower than the CLDG group. Further, robotic surgeries aid better visualization capabilities, providing surgeons a better view of the work area and allowing them to see microscopic details using high-definition cameras. These systems have more dexterity than the human hand, and their ability to rotate 360 and navigate better allows surgeons to reach hard-to-access areas.

According to an article published in PubMed Central on Robotic-Assisted Microsurgery for an Elective Microsurgical Practice, a team of researchers has combined a nitrogen-powered arm (as a fifth robotic arm) with an optical magnification video lens system (Point-Setter arm and VITOM lens from Karl Storz, Tuttlingen, Germany) to develop a robotic platform for extracorporeal robotic microsurgical treatments. The VITOM is an HD exoscopic video system with optical lenses used for spine surgery and pediatric surgery. The optical magnification in the system ranges from 16 to 25. The microsurgeon can view the image from the VITOM system just below the main 3D robot camera view using the TilePro imaging software in the surgeon interface. Thus, robotic microsurgeries ensure greater accuracy, repeatability, control, and efficiency. In line with the growing desire for better and faster healthcare services, these benefits of micro-surgical robots propel the market growth.

Avail Lucrative DISCOUNTS on Micro-Surgical Robot Market Research Study: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/discount/TIPRE00018501/

Global Micro-Surgical Robot Market: Segmental Overview

Based on component, the global micro-surgical robot market has been bifurcated into instruments and accessories. The instruments segment is expected to hold a larger share of the market as of 2022. Moreover, this segment is anticipated to register a higher CAGR in the market during the forecast period. The market growth for the instrument segment is attributed to their incumbent usage, high volume consumption, and product innovation.

In terms of application type, the global micro-surgical robot market is segmented into plastic surgery, ENT surgery, urology surgery, neurosurgery, ophthalmic surgery, lymphatic surgery, and others. In 2022, the urology surgery segment is expected to hold the largest share of the market. Moreover, it is expected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

Based on end user, the global micro-surgical robot market is segmented into hospitals & clinics, ambulatory surgical centers, research institutes, and others. In 2022, the hospitals and clinics segment accounts for the largest share of the market. Moreover, the same segment is expected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

Directly Purchase Premium Copy of Micro-Surgical Robot Market Growth Report (2022-2028) at: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/buy/TIPRE00018501/

Browse Adjoining Reports:

Intelligent Surgical Robot Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Component Type (System, Accessories); Application (Urology, Gynecology, Thoracic Surgery, General Surgery, Cardiac Surgery, Others); End User (Hospitals, Ambulatory Surgical Centers. Others) and Geography

AI-based surgical robots Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Product Type (Services, Instrument and Accessories); Application (General Surgery, Urology, Orthopedic, Gynecology, Others) and Geography

Robot-Assisted Surgical Systems Market Forecast to 2028 - Covid-19 Impact and Global Analysis - By Product (Surgical Robots, Rehabilitation robots, Noninvasive Radiosurgery Robots, Hospitals and Pharmacy Robots, Emergency Response Robotic Systems); Application (Neurology, Orthopedics Robotic System, Laparoscopy, Special Education,); End User (Healthcare Providers, Healthcare Payers, Others)

Surgical Robotics Care Device Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis by Product Type (Systems, Accessories, Services); Surgery Type (Gynecology, Cardiac, Spinal, Urology, Vascular, Oncology, General Laparoscopy Surgery)

Medical Robots Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Product (Surgical Robots, Hospital & Pharmacy Robots, Rehabilitation Robots, Non-Invasive Radiosurgery Robots, and Others), Application (Laparoscopy, Neurology, Orthopedics, Gynecology, Urology, Cardiology, and Others), and End User (Hospitals, Ambulatory Surgical Centers, and Others), and Geography

Surgical Robots Market Forecast to 2028 - Covid-19 Impact and Global Analysis - By Components(Instruments and Accessories, Robotic Systems and Services); Application(General Surgery, Gynecological Surgery, Orthopedic Surgery, Urological Surgery, Neurosurgery and other applications); End User(Hospitals and Ambulatory Surgical Centers.)

Robotic General Surgery Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Type (Coronary stents, Peripheral stents, EVAR stent grafts); End User (Hospitals, Cardiac centers, Ambulatory surgical centers)

Noninvasive Radio Surgery Robot Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis by Type ( Fully Automatic, Semi-automatic ); Applications ( Orthopedic, Laparoscopy, Neurology )

Orthopedic Medical Robots Market to 2025 - Global Analysis and Forecasts by Product (Systems and Instruments & Accessories), Anatomy (Upper Extremities, Lower Extremities, and Others), Application (Surgery, Rehabilitation, and Others), End User (Hospitals, Orthopedic Clinics, and Ambulatory Surgical Centers) and Geography

Minimally Invasive Surgery Robot Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Product and Services (Instruments and Accessories, Robotic Systems, and Services); Application (General Surgery, Gynecological Surgery, Urological Surgery, Neurosurgery, Orthopedic Surgery, and Other Applications); End Use (Hospitals, Ambulatory Surgery Centers, and Others), and Geography

About Us:

The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We specialize in industries such as Semiconductor and Electronics, Aerospace and Defense, Automotive and Transportation, Biotechnology, Healthcare IT, Manufacturing and Construction, Medical Device, Technology, Media and Telecommunications, Chemicals and Materials.

Contact Us:

If you have any queries about this report or if you would like further information, please contact us:

Contact Person: Sameer Joshi

E-mail: sales@theinsightpartners.com

Phone: +1-646-491-9876

Press Release: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/pr/micro-surgical-robot-market
Majuro, Marshall Islands, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The creators of the new alien-themed ecosystem Zoonies are thrilled to announce the launch of 8,888 NFTs on the Solana blockchain via the OpenSea launchpad on July 20, 2022. Zoonies is partnering with OpenSea, the worlds leading NFT marketplace, as the very first project to debut their new launchpad experience.







Cute, mutant aliens called Zoonies are a highly developed civilization living on Planet Zoon. Zoonies lore describes these aliens, who chose to stay isolated on their planet for thousands of years until allowing humans to visit Planet Zoon.

The only way to get to Planet Zoon is to drink a Zoonie-made, extremely potent psychedelic potion that calibrates a human brain to connect with the Planet Zoon dimension. Human brains will tune out their earthly dimension, connecting to Planet Zoon.

Our goal is to develop an alien-themed ecosystem around Zoonies, said a company spokesperson. We are supported by strong branding and innovation. The development team ran with the concept of the Solana-powered Planet Zoon, which is a semi-pixelated, 2D metaverse where holders of popular Solana NFTs will be able to play as their avatars.

The spokesperson continued, Within 60 days of launch, Zoonies holders will be able to claim free, alien-themed apartments of all different sizes on Planet Zoon. This is where a basic building kit allows users to create basic builds.

There are a total of 10,000 Planet Zoon apartments, of which Zoonies holders can freely claim 8,888. The remaining residences will then be available for public sale. The value of apartments is based on size and the size of Zoonies apartments will be completely random for Zoonies holders.

Join Zoonies now on Twitter and Discord. For more information about the launch and to see sneak peeks, visit www.zoonies.xyz.

About Zoonies

Zoonies is a collection of 8,888 NFTs, featuring unique characters strongly branded as cute but mutant aliens called Zoonies. The team of Zoonies is developing an alien-themed ecosystem defined with strong branding and innovation. The Zoonies lore describes the story of a highly developed civilisation living on Planet Zoon that decided to be isolated for thousands of years. Zoonies decided to let humans on Planet Zoon. However, the only way to get to planet Zoon is to drink a Zoonie-made extremely potent psychedelic potion that makes humans tune their brains away from their home dimension and towards the dimension where Planet Zoon exists.

About OpenSea

OpenSea is the worlds leading peer-to-peer marketplace for NFTs. We make minting, purchasing and selling NFTs frictionless and friendly, and offer unmatched selection and multi-chain options for creators and collectors of all kinds. Were on a mission to build the worlds most trusted and inclusive NFT marketplace with the best selection, and were dedicated to empowering creators and communities of all kinds to achieve economic independence in a new digital economy. Headquartered in New York, the OpenSea leadership team comes from Google, Palantir, Lyft, Uber, Stanford and Berkeley. Investors include a16z, Paradigm, Coatue, YCombinator, Founders Fund, Coinbase Ventures, 1Confirmation, and Blockchain Capital.
Dublin, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Radiodermatitis Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2022-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The global radiodermatitis market reached a value of US$ 464.4 Million in 2021. Looking forward, the publisher expects the market to reach a value of US$ 579.5 Million by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 3.76% during 2021-2027. Keeping in mind the uncertainties of COVID-19, we are continuously tracking and evaluating the direct as well as the indirect influence of the pandemic. These insights are included in the report as a major market contributor.



Radiodermatitis, or radiation dermatitis, refers to a skin condition caused due to radiation therapy used for the treatment of cancer. It generally occurs as a side effect during cancer treatment or after interventional radiology in patients with cancers of the breast, lungs, skin, neck, head or perineum region where the skin is part of the target field.

Some of the commonly used products to treat radiodermatitis include topical antibiotics, corticosteroids, hydrophilic creams, hydrogel and hydrocolloid dressings, silicone-coated dressings, silver-leaf dressings, oral analgesics, and anti-inflammatory agents. In recent years, radiodermatitis treatment has gained traction as it helps reduce discomfort, minimize pain and prevent interruption in ongoing therapy while improving the overall quality of the patient's life.



Radiodermatitis Market Trends:

The widespread prevalence of cancer and the rising adoption of radiation therapy as a treatment option represent the primary factors driving the market growth. Besides this, the increasing geriatric population across the globe and the growing need to counter the adverse side effects of radiation therapy are augmenting the demand for radiodermatitis treatment.

Additionally, numerous governing and non-governing agencies are taking favorable initiatives to spread awareness regarding the available radiodermatitis treatment and management products.

This, in confluence with the rising public and private investments in the ongoing research and development (R&D) activities in the field of life sciences, is catalyzing the market growth. Furthermore, the leading players are focusing on developing innovative product variants to expand their product portfolio and gain a competitive edge.

Moreover, the rising number of clinical trials, favorable government policies, increasing consumer expenditure capacities, improving healthcare infrastructure and easy availability of generic drugs are some of the other factors creating a positive market outlook.

Competitive Landscape:

The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined along with the profiles of the key players being 3M Company, Bausch Health Companies Inc., Bayer AG, BMG PHARMA S.p.A., Charles River Laboratories International Inc., ConvaTec Group plc, Helsinn Healthcare SA, ICON plc, Integra LifeSciences, Molnlycke Health Care AB and Stratpharma AG.



Key Questions Answered in This Report:

How has the global radiodermatitis market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years?

What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the global radiodermatitis market?

What are the key regional markets?

What is the breakup of the market based on the product?

What is the breakup of the market based on the distribution channel?

What are the various stages in the value chain of the industry?

What are the key driving factors and challenges in the industry?

What is the structure of the global radiodermatitis market and who are the key players?

What is the degree of competition in the industry?

Key Topics Covered:



1 Preface



2 Scope and Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Introduction

4.1 Overview

4.2 Key Industry Trends



5 Global Radiodermatitis Market

5.1 Market Overview

5.2 Market Performance

5.3 Impact of COVID-19

5.4 Market Forecast



6 Market Breakup by Product

6.1 Topical

6.1.1 Market Trends

6.1.2 Key Segments

6.1.2.1 Corticosteroids

6.1.2.2 Hydrophilic Creams

6.1.2.3 Antibiotics

6.1.2.4 Others

6.1.3 Market Forecast

6.2 Oral

6.2.1 Market Trends

6.2.2 Market Forecast

6.3 Dressings

6.3.1 Market Trends

6.3.2 Key Segments

6.3.2.1 Hydrogel and Hydrocolloid Dressings

6.3.2.2 No Sting Barrier Film

6.3.2.3 Honey Impregnated Gauze

6.3.2.4 Silicone Coated Dressings

6.3.2.5 Others

6.3.3 Market Forecast



7 Market Breakup by Distribution Channel

7.1 Hospital Pharmacy

7.1.1 Market Trends

7.1.2 Market Forecast

7.2 Retail Pharmacy

7.2.1 Market Trends

7.2.2 Market Forecast

7.3 Online Pharmacy

7.3.1 Market Trends

7.3.2 Market Forecast



8 Market Breakup by Region



9 SWOT Analysis



10 Value Chain Analysis



11 Porters Five Forces Analysis



12 Price Analysis



13 Competitive Landscape

13.1 Market Structure

13.2 Key Players

13.3 Profiles of Key Players

13.3.1 3M Company

13.3.1.1 Company Overview

13.3.1.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.1.3 Financials

13.3.1.4 SWOT Analysis

13.3.2 Bausch Health Companies Inc.

13.3.2.1 Company Overview

13.3.2.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.2.3 Financials

13.3.2.4 SWOT Analysis

13.3.3 Bayer AG

13.3.3.1 Company Overview

13.3.3.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.3.3 Financials

13.3.3.4 SWOT Analysis

13.3.4 BMG PHARMA S.p.A.

13.3.4.1 Company Overview

13.3.4.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.5 Charles River Laboratories International Inc.

13.3.5.1 Company Overview

13.3.5.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.5.3 Financials

13.3.5.4 SWOT Analysis

13.3.6 ConvaTec Group plc

13.3.6.1 Company Overview

13.3.6.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.6.3 Financials

13.3.7 Helsinn Healthcare SA

13.3.7.1 Company Overview

13.3.7.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.8 ICON plc

13.3.8.1 Company Overview

13.3.8.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.8.3 Financials

13.3.8.4 SWOT Analysis

13.3.9 Integra LifeSciences

13.3.9.1 Company Overview

13.3.9.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.9.3 Financials

13.3.9.4 SWOT Analysis

13.3.10 Molnlycke Health Care AB

13.3.10.1 Company Overview

13.3.10.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.10.3 SWOT Analysis

13.3.11 Stratpharma AG

13.3.11.1 Company Overview

13.3.11.2 Product Portfolio



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ozlndz

Attachment
AUSTIN, Texas, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SmallCapVoice.com Inc. (SCV) announces the availability of an interview with Greg Reimer, newly appointed Chairman of the Board to Canadian cobalt exploration company Fuse Cobalt Inc. (the Company or Fuse) (TSXV:FUSE, OTCQB:FUSEF FRA:43W3) and current CEO of Surge Battery Metals Inc.



Speaking with SCVs Stuart Smith, Reimer gives a quick review of Fuse and how his professional background is complementary to the Companys business model and growth track.

I've had a lot to do with mining policy and operations, as well as energy. I'm well-suited for this field and look forward to serving on the board, he says, then moving to discussion of Fuses Glencore and Teledyne properties. A significant increase in cobalt prices has given the Company the ability to refocus and plan for our 2022 exploration program  These two projects have high cobalt intersections that were identified in previous drilling programs and we're currently securing drilling resources for a fall drilling program.

Reimer also gives insight into the broader battery metals market and discusses increasing demand for electric vehicles and battery-powered consumer products.

Listen to the full interview at: https://www.smallcapvoice.com/july-interview-fuse-cobalt-fusef/.

About Fuse Cobalt Inc. https://fusecobalt.com/

Fuse Cobalt Inc. is a Canadian-based exploration company that trades under the symbol FUSE on the TSX Venture Exchange. The Company's focus is on exploration for high value metals required for the manufacturing of batteries.

About SmallCapVoice.com

SmallCapVoice.com, Inc. is a recognized corporate investor relations firm, with clients nationwide, known for its ability to help emerging growth companies, small cap and micro-cap stocks build a following among retail and institutional investors. SmallCapVoice.com utilizes its stock newsletter to feature its daily stock picks, podcasts, as well as its clients' financial news releases. SmallCapVoice.com also offers individual investors all the tools they need to make informed decisions about the stocks in which they are interested. Tools like stock charts, stock alerts, and Company Information Sheets can assist with investing in stocks that are traded on the OTCMarkets. To learn more about SmallCapVoice.com and its services, please visit https://www.smallcapvoice.com/small-cap-stock-otc-investor-relations-financial-public-relations/.

Socialize with SmallCapVoice and their clients at

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SmallCapVoice/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/smallcapvoice

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smallcapvoice/

Forward Looking Statements:

This press release and the offering materials may contain forward-looking statements and information relating to, among other things, the company, its business plan and strategy, and its industry. Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance. They are based on the current beliefs of, assumptions made by, and information currently available to the company's management regarding the future of the company's business, future plans and strategies, anticipated events and trends, the economy and other future conditions. When used in the offering materials, the words "aim," "estimate," "project," "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "envision," "estimate," "expect," "future," "goal," "hope," "likely," "may," "plan," "potential," "seek," "should," "strategy," "will" and similar references to future periods are intended to identify forward-looking statements, which constitute forward looking statements. These statements reflect management's current views with respect to future events and are subject to inherent risks, uncertainties and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict (many of which are outside of the company's control) and could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they are made. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements concerning the company, the offering or other matters, are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements above. The company does not undertake any obligation to revise or update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after such date or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Contact Information:

SmallCapVoice.com

Stuart T. Smith

512-267-2430

Info@SmallCapVoice.com

Source: SmallCapVoice.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/627950a9-2b48-45a3-b98d-a297c18c7f12
New York, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Power Plant Boiler Market: By Type ; By Technology ; By Fuel type ; By Capacity ; and Region  Global Analysis by Market Size, Share & Trends for 2014  2020 and Forecasts to 2030" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06191754/?utm_source=GNW

Over the years, the efficiency of these boilers has improved dramatically, with some systems having up to 90 percent fuel-to-steam efficiency. The dimensions of these boilers depend on their utility in power plants and industry and primarily on their steam-based or hot water operations. Fluidized boilers, multi-tube boilers, and pulverized boilers, each of which has a particular meaning, are the various types of power plant boilers. These boilers are used in different industries, depending on their use. Mobile steam engines such as portable engines, steam locomotives, compared to power stations and industrial plants, make use of the smaller boiler connecting them to piping points of use.



Market Highlights

Power Plant Boiler Market is expected to project a notable CAGR of 4.5% in 2030.

Power Plant Boiler Market to surpass USD 24.3 Billion by 2030 from USD 19.5 Billion in terms of value growing at a CAGR of 4.5% throughout the forecast period, i.e., 2020-30. Due to the rapidly growing demand for industrialization and urbanization around the world, the Power Plant Boiler Market is experiencing major growth. Besides, government organizations are investing in upgrading existing power plants, and the construction of new power plants is driving demand growth in response to rising customer needs. Besides, developments in technology, such as the introduction of supercritical boilers, have had a positive effect on the growth of the market.



Power Plant Boiler Market: Segments

Fluidized bed combustion segment to grow with the highest CAGR of 13.2% during 2020-30

Power Plant Boiler Market is segmented by Type as Pulverized fuel combustion, Fluidized bed combustion, and Others. The pulverized fuel combustion segment is estimated to lead the market with a share of over 54.2% in 2019 which is universally adopted for large-scale power plants. The method of pulverized fuel combustion requires powdered coal, which is used to increase the area of combustion exposure. By using hot air, the powdered form of coal is blown into the furnace, secondary air is provided in the combustion chamber to allow the fuel to be completely combusted. The turbulence created by the secondary air allows air and fuel to be mixed uniformly. Therefore, with greater efficiency, the outcome of this process allows combustion at a faster rate. It is likely that developments in the process of raising efficiency and reducing carbon emissions would push the industry towards innovation. Boiler manufacturers are investing heavily in studying and designing new processes to increase performance.



Supercritical Segment to grow with the highest CAGR during 2020-30

Power Plant Boiler Market is segmented by Technology into Subcritical, Supercritical, and Ultra-critical. The subcritical segment accounted for the largest revenue share of 70% in 2019 and is projected to maintain its lead over the forecast period. The development can be due to the reliance on coal for power production. The number of coal-based power plants, especially in developing economies, is that at a modest pace. The easy availability and low input costs are likely to be the main drivers over the projected timeframe for the growth of the segment. The highest rising CAGR over the forecast period is likely to be observed by the supercritical segment. The technology is becoming widely popular, particularly in OECD countries and China. China has tremendously expanded its power generation potential from supercritical boiler technology. The main aspect responsible for the growth of the segment is the high performance achieved by this technology. Higher performance is provided by ultra-critical technology, which is the highest among the different types of technologies available for boiler power generation. In contrast to other technologies, the cost of production using this technology is high.



Power Plant Boiler Market: Market Dynamics

Drivers

Rapid Industrialization in Developing Countries

Market growth is boosted by factors such as rising urbanization, increasing demand for electricity, demand for boilers based on coal fuel, and the number of projects to increase power capacity. Moreover, technical developments and advancements in the process of raising efficiency and reducing carbon emissions are likely to drive industry innovation. The use of coal is expected to increase in the coming years, despite concerns about high carbon emissions. With the implementation of successful coal-based emissions control technologies, policymakers worldwide are exploring different alternatives. Developing steam conditions has created the ability to use supercritical technology. The transmission/distribution system & power industry is projected to have the largest investment projects in the industrial world, offering sufficient opportunities for business growth.



Increasing electricity demand

In order to produce high-pressure steam, power plant boilers use various fuels such as coal, natural gas, petroleum, and biomass/wastes to enable plants to generate electricity. The fastest-growing source of demand for energy is electricity. Huge quantities of energy continue to be consumed by developed countries, thus rising demand in developing countries. Electricity demand is powered by increasing sales, expanding manufacturing production, and growing services sectors. In countries like Canada, Brazil, and Russia, economic growth and industrial demand have also increased the use of electricity. Electricity consumption in the Middle East and Africa, especially in Egypt and Iran, has also increased. Rising demand for electricity is therefore likely to drive the boiler market for power plants.



Restrain

High capital requirement to install power plant boilers

High capital expenditure and high installation costs for power plants are major factors that limit the growth of the global power plant boiler market. Moreover, post-construction stages, such as repair and technology installation, often entail significant capital investment. Besides, the final construction cost is influenced by strict environmental legislation and the high cost of technology used in supporting power plants. Due to design specifications and varying levels of after-sales service, the cost of power plant boilers varies considerably. High pressure and high-temperature requirements increase the expense of the boiler. There is also a tremendous need for capital to build power plant boilers. Furthermore, the device used in the boiler for coal firing or gas firing also influences the boiler cost. Besides, several boilers and different fuels are used by a power plant, which raises costs. Due to the high degree of technological expertise involved in the operation of industrial boilers, these costs are likely to remain the same, thus limiting the existing demand for power plant boilers.



Power Plant Boiler Market: Key Players

Dongfang Electric Corporation Ltd.



Company Overview, Business Strategy, Key Product Offerings, Financial Performance, Key Performance Indicators, Risk Analysis, Recent Development, Regional Presence, and SWOT Analysis.



IHI Corporation

Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction

Siemens AG

Thermax Ltd.

GE Power

Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises Inc.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd.

Harbin Electric Corporation Co. Ltd.

Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Ltd



Power Plant Boiler Market: Regions

Power Plant Boiler Market is segmented based on regional analysis into five major regions. These include North America, Latin America, Europe, APAC, and MENA.



Power Plant Boiler Market in APAC led the market with a lion share of more than 50% in 2019 and is projected to maintain its lead over the forecast period. As power consumption in the area increases at an exponential rate, APAC is experiencing a huge demand for the product and is witnessing growth potential. The regions rapid urbanization is a crucial growth factor. The fastest growth in the urban population is expected to occur in India and China. It is expected that rapid industrialization and the rising transportation sector in India and China would increase energy demand. To minimize carbon emissions, both nations plan to implement electric vehicles in their respective countries. Unique subsidies are provided by the central government in China to manufacturers of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid cars to encourage the selling of electric vehicles in the region. Factors such as government-led initiatives to sell electric vehicles are likely to further strain power resources, resulting in the need for excess power.



Competitive Landscape:

The Power Plant Boiler market, which is highly competitive, consists of several major players such as Babcock & Wilcox Enterprise (US), Dongfang Electric Corporation (China), Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction (Korea) hold a substantial market share in the Power Plant Boiler market. Other players analyzed in this report are General Electric (US), and Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (Japan) are the leading players in the power plant boiler market. Siemens, IHI Corporation, John wood Group, Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited, Thermax, Andritz Group, Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Valmet, and Harbin Electric among others.



Key players are adopting inorganic growth strategies such as product launches in the global nutritional supplement market. For instance, In February 2020, General Electric was awarded a contract by Hitachi Zosen Corporation. Under the contract, General Electric will offer a steam turbine generator, CFB boiler, and air quality control system to the Kamisu Biomass Power Generation plant in Japan.



Power Plant Boiler Market is further segmented by region into:

North America Market Size, Share, Trends, Opportunities, Y-o-Y Growth, CAGR  United States and Canada

Latin America Market Size, Share, Trends, Opportunities, Y-o-Y Growth, CAGR  Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, and Rest of Latin America

Europe Market Size, Share, Trends, Opportunities, Y-o-Y Growth, CAGR  United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Hungary, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, NORDIC, Russia, Turkey, and Rest of Europe

APAC Market Size, Share, Trends, Opportunities, Y-o-Y Growth, CAGR  India, China, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, and Rest of APAC

MENA Market Size, Share, Trends, Opportunities, Y-o-Y Growth, CAGR  North Africa, Israel, GCC, South Africa, and Rest of MENA

Power Plant Boiler Market report also contains analysis on:



Power Plant Boiler Market Segments:



By Type:

Pulverized Coal Towers

Circulating Fluidized Bed Boilers

Other

By Technology:

Subcritical

Supercritical

Ultra-critical

By Fuel Type:

Petroleum

Nuclear

Natural gas

Coal

Renewables

By Capacity:

<400 MW

400800 MW

?800 MW

Power Plant Boiler Market Dynamics

Power Plant Boiler Market Size

Supply & Demand

Current Trends/Issues/Challenges

Competition & Companies Involved in the Market

Value Chain of the Market

Market Drivers and Restraints

FAQs on Power Plant Boiler Market

Which segment is anticipated to hold the largest market share?

At what CAGR is the market anticipated to grow between 2020 and 2030?

Who are the key players in the Power Plant Boiler Market?

What could be the challenging factors in the growth of the Power Plant Boiler Market?

What are the growth drivers for the Power Plant Boiler Market?

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06191754/?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.



__________________________
New York, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Organic Vegetable Farming Global Market Report 2022" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06282200/?utm_source=GNW





The global organic vegetable farming market is expected to grow from $9.79 billion in 2021 to $10.28 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.9%. The organic vegetable farming market is expected to grow to $12.46 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 4.9%.



The organic vegetable farming market consists of production and sales for organic vegetables and related services.Organic farming refers to the method of crop production that involves the use of biological materials to prevent the use of synthetic pesticides, genetically modified organisms, antibiotics, and fertilizers.



Organic farming provides high-quality and healthy food to humans together with protecting the environment from pollution, soil degradation, and erosion to optimize biological productivity.



The main types of organic vegetable farming are pure organic farming and integrated organic farming.Integrated organic farming is a zero-waste, cyclical process in which waste products from one operation are recycled into nutrients for other processes.



The various methods include composting, crop rotation, cutting, mulching, polyculture, soil management, and weed management that are used for protected crops, salads, green veg, root crops, potatoes, others.



The Asia Pacific was the largest region in the organic vegetable farming market in 2021.Western Europe was the second largest region in the organic vegetable farming market.



The regions covered in the organic vegetable farming report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East, and Africa.



Rising demand for organic food is anticipated to act as a major driver for the growth of the organic vegetable farming market during the period.The health benefits offered by organic food such as high nutritional content, non-GMO, and being free from synthetic pesticides and fertilizers tend to be a key factor for augmented demand for organic food including organic vegetables.



According to the 2020 Organic Industry Survey released by the Organic Trade Association, the USA organic food sales hit $50.1 billion, up by 4.6% from 2019. Due to the beneficial impact on the health of organic growers, assistants, their families, and customers, as they are less exposed to harmful chemicals, and the increasing consumers preferences for organic food is projected to generate higher demand for organic vegetable farming during the forecast period.



The launch of various schemes by the governments of various countries across the world is promoting organic farming.Due to the health benefits and environmental benefits offered by organic products, the governments are promoting organic farming activities by launching various schemes and encouraging the population to shift towards organic products.



For instance, the government of India is promoting organic farming under its two dedicated schemes - Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) and Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region (MOVCDNER).Other schemes for promotions of organic farming include Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) and Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) and Network Project for Organic Farming.



The launch of similar schemes worldwide is likely to provide ample avenues for the organic vegetable farming markets growth shortly.



The high cost of organic farming in comparison with conventional farming is predicted to limit the growth of the organic vegetable farming market.According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), the prices for organic food are higher than that of conventional products attributing to greater labor inputs and other costs incurred to produce high quantities of production to lower the overall cost.



Furthermore, organic vegetable farming does not use chemicals and toxic substances which increase the cost for natural fertilizers along with the high cost of obtaining organic certifications. This scenario is expected to hurt the organic vegetable farming markets growth in the coming years.



In January 2021, L T Foods, an Indian rice manufacturer, acquired a 30% share in Leev. nu via its subsidiary Nature Bio Foods BV, with an option to acquire a further 21% ownership at the end of five years. This acquisition contributes to the expansion of LT Foods portfolio. Leev. nu is the Netherlands-based Organic Specialty Food Company with a portfolio that includes breakfast bars, nutritious snacks, a baking range, and so on.



The countries covered in the organic vegetable farming market are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK, and USA.





Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06282200/?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.



__________________________
New York, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Decorative Coatings Global Market Report 2022" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06284325/?utm_source=GNW

KG, BASF SE, Diamond Vogel, Kansai Paint Co. Ltd., Kelly-Moore Paints, and RPM International Inc.



The global decorative coatings market is expected to grow from $75.04 billion in 2021 to $81.82 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.0%. The decorative coatings market is expected to reach $101.87 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 5.6%.



The decorative coatings market consists of sales of decorative coatings by entities (organizations, sole traders, and partnerships) that are applied to buildings and structures for protection, durability, and decoration purpose. Decorative coatings also known as architectural coatings consist of paints and coatings used to coat buildings and homes that are designed for a specific use such as to protect against the wear and tear of a buildings walls.



The main types of products in decorative coatings are emulsion, wood coatings, enamels, and others.The emulsion consists of small polymer particles in which the pigments are trapped.



These are suspended in water and then fuse after drying paint creating a film of paint.The emulsion is a water-based coating.



The different resin types include acrylic, alkyd, vinyl, polyurethane, others and involve various formulations such as water-based, solvent-based, and powder-based. It is used in several applications including residential, and non-residential.



Asia Pacific was the largest region in the decorative coatings market in 2021.North America is expected to be the fastest growing region in the forecast period.



The regions covered in the decorative coatings market report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East and Africa.



The rising urbanization all over the globe is expected to drive the growth of the decorative coatings market going forward.Urbanization refers to the population movement from rural to an urban setting and increasing human population densities in urban areas.



The need for residential and non-residential structures is expanding as a result of urbanization, which will propel the decorative coatings industry forward. For instance, according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 68% of the worlds population is 2.5 billion people are projected to live in urban areas by 2050. Therefore, rising urbanization all over the globe is driving the growth of the decorative coatings market.



New product innovations have emerged as a key trend gaining popularity in the decorative coatings market.Major companies operating in the sector of decorative coatings are focused on developing advanced products to strengthen their position.



For instance, in May 2019, Ashland, a US-based chemicals company launched Aquaflow NMS-460E rheology modifier, a new non-ionic synthetic associative thickener for use in decorative coatings. It is a solvent-free and APEO-free nonionic synthetic associative thickener (NSAT) designed to provide a mid-high shear viscosity response for exceptional brush and roll application to build balanced rheology where two thickeners are required.



In June 2021, PPG Industries Inc., US-based coatings, and specialty materials company acquired Tikkurila for an undisclosed amount. With this acquisition, PPG Industries Inc intends to use Tikkurilas regional network and a strong portfolio of decorative brands to provide clients with access to new technologies and resources. Tikkurila is a Finland-based chemical manufacturing company that manufactures decorative paints and coatings.



The countries covered in the decorative coatings market report are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK, USA.





Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06284325/?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.



__________________________
LOUISVILLE, Ky., July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HSG, a national healthcare consulting firm, will lead a continuing education webinar for the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) on "Filling Gaps in Physician Network Practice Management." The program, scheduled for Tuesday, July 19, at 11 a.m. Central time, was developed to address the situation many hospitals and healthcare organizations are facing after the pandemic created a drain on middle management in many markets. Registration for this webinar is open to both members and non-members at ACHE.org.

Leading the discussion on how hospitals and health systems can address voids in practice management is HSG Advisors Director Davis Creech. He is joined by Bryan Fredericks, Healthcare Executive, Physician Networks and System Operations, and Ron Peterson, FACHE, President/CEO, Baxter Regional Medical Center. The three will discuss how healthcare system leaders' staffing needs vary in this environment. They will also share their experiences on effectively using on-site interim project managers to keep strategic focus in such a challenging healthcare environment.

"The healthcare industry currently lacks a robust pool of talented and experienced managers that can lead and implement strategic projects," said Creech. "This missing leadership is slowing progress in physician networks, which can create revenue cycle issues and major losses for hospitals and healthcare systems. Leadership must examine alternative ways to keep pace and remain financially viable. Often, experienced interim support is the best option," he added.

ACHE's continuing education webinar will address issues that can be managed by interim help. Because of the significant number of private practices acquired during the pandemic, transitioning a practice is often an area of need. Other issues include training office and network staff to increase production and throughput, implementing provider-based billing, enhancing and stabilizing service line offerings, and building data management infrastructure to bolster management strategic decision-making.

For more information or to register for the webinar, visit the Learning Center on ACHE's website. To learn more about filling management gaps at hospitals and healthcare systems, visit the HSG Advisors website. Articles and resources on interim practice management solutions are available online.

HSG partners with hospitals and healthcare systems to discover the root cause of issues and create plans to solve the problem. From implementing provider-based billing evaluation and training to payor credentialing and onboarding of newly acquired private practices, HSG's veteran onsite project management team can be an interim answer to completing organizational projects and developing solutions to systemic problems. For more information on performance improvement services, visit HSGAdvisors.com or contact Davis Creech at 502-814-1183 or DCreech@hsgadvisors.com.

About HSG

HSG is a national healthcare consulting firm headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky. The practice empowers leaders to build differentiated health system strategies and high-performing employed physician networks by pairing data intelligence with experienced advice. The firm's comprehensive approach to leveraging market facts to inform healthcare strategies allows leaders to understand opportunities and deliver the right care to their communities. For more information about HSG, visit www.HSGAdvisors.com, LinkedIn, email info@hsgadvisors.com, or call (502) 814-1180.

Media Contact: Karolyn Raphael

Winger Marketing

karolyn@wingermarketing.com

Related Images











Image 1: Davis Creech of HSG Advisors to Lead Webinar for ACHE on Interim Management





HSG, a national healthcare consulting firm, will lead a continuing education webinar for the American College of Healthcare Executives on using interim management to alleviate the stress of healthcare worker shortages.









This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.

Attachment
Industry Consulting Firm G. Palmer & Associates Quarterly Forecast Assists in Previewing Near-Term Hiring Patterns

NEWPORT BEACH, CA, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire  Demand for temporary workers in the United States is expected to increase 9.6% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the 2022 third quarter, when compared with the same period in 2021, according to the Palmer Forecast, released today. The increase in demand principally reflects strong demand for labor across the U.S.

The Palmer Forecast indicated a 7.4% increase in temporary help for the 2022 second quarter. Actual results as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) came in higher, with an increase of 11.9%, reflecting an almost 2% decline in labor productivity as demand in labor was greater than anticipated.

Demand in jobs across all categories remained strong, with a total of 11.3 million open jobs reported by the BLS, as of July 6, 2022, for data through the month of May.

The BLS reported that temp help jobs increased by 5,400 in June 2022, a gain of 11.0% year-over-year, to 3.1 million jobs. Year-to-date through June 2022, there have been 70,101 jobs added, 11,700 average per month. There was a solid rebound in temp help jobs in 2021, with a total of 302,800 added for the year and an average of 25,200 jobs added per month. According to the BLS, 201,000 temp jobs were lost in 2020, or an average job loss of 16,700 per month. The BLS also reported 27,000 temp help jobs were lost in 2019, an average of 2,200 fewer jobs per month. In 2018, more than 99,000 temp help jobs were added over 2017.

The Labor Department reported that nonfarm payroll employment increased by 372,000 jobs in June 2022, which was ahead of consensus estimate increases of 275,000 jobs. For the 2022 second quarter, there were 1.1 million nonfarm jobs added, averaging 375,000 per month, up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. For 2021, nonfarm employment was up by 6.4 million jobs, compared with 2020. To put this in perspective, there were 9.4 million jobs lost in 2020, and 2.1 million total jobs added for 2019. For 2018, a total of 2.6 million new jobs were created, versus 2.1 million new jobs in 2017.

The key categories of jobs created are as follows:

Private Sector: +381,000

Total Non-Farm: +372,000

Private Service Production: +333,000

Education and Health Services: +96,000

Leisure and Hospitality: +67,000

Professional and Business Services: +40,000

Manufacturing: +29,000

Construction: +13,000

Temp Help: +5,400

Government Sector: -9,000

In June 2022, the labor participation rate was unchanged at 62.2%, and it has been in a narrow range of 64.4% to 61.9% since June of 2020. The U3, commonly referred to as the unemployment rate, remained unchanged at 3.6%.

As reported by the BLS, the rate of unemployment for workers with college degrees decreased 10 bps in June 2022 versus May, to 2.1%, and the unemployment rate for workers with less than a high school education increased 60 bps to 5.8%. The U6 unemployment rate, which tracks those who are unemployed, as well as those who are underemployed and are working part-time for economic reasons, was down 40 bps to 6.7% in June versus May. The U6 rate is considered the rate that most broadly depicts those most affected by the last economic downturn and measures the rate of discouraged workers.

The temp help employment market improved again in June, and the trend will likely continue, throughout 2022, said Greg Palmer, founder and managing director of G. Palmer & Associates, an Orange County, California-based human capital advisory firm that specializes in workforce solutions. One of the most revealing indicators to watch is the temp help penetration rate, because it measures temp help as a percentage of total employment. In June, the temp penetration rate remained strong, at 2.07% of the total labor market, compared with the all-time high of 2.08% in February, and a pre-pandemic level of 1.57%. The penetration rate cycle last peaked at 2.05% in December 2015 and was at a low of 1.3% in June 2009.

The largest issue remains the number of workers re-entering the workforce, since there is greater selectivity in seeking new opportunities, with the current high demand for employees. Staffing companies are reporting extreme difficulty filling the many current open jobs they have. The American Staffing Association (ASA) Staffing Index also remained steady and improved from an index low of 59.9 on May 10, 2020, to a close of 106 on June 12, 2022, remaining flat with 2021, and exceeding the pre-pandemic levels of 2019 by 10.4%, Palmer added.

About the Palmer Forecast

The Palmer Forecast is based, in part, on BLS and other key indicators. The model was initially developed by the A. Gary Anderson Center for Economic Research at Chapman University and serves as an indicator of economic activity. Companies that employ temporary staff use the forecast as a guide to navigate through fluctuating economic conditions in managing their workforce to meet business demands.

About G. Palmer & Associates

G. Palmer & Associates, founded in 2006, provides advisory services in the human capital sector. Founder Greg Palmer has served on the board of the American Staffing Association and was president and chief executive officer of RemedyTemp, Inc., one of the nations largest temporary staffing companies, prior to its sale in June 2006. For more information, visit www.GPalmerandAssociates.com.

Philip Boronow, Analyst

G. Palmer & Associates

949.201.7296

www.GPalmerandAssociates.com
ORLANDO, Fla., July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Danette Anthony Reed has ascended to Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporateds highest office, becoming the 31st woman to be installed as its International President & CEO during the organizations biennial international convention on Thursday, July 14, in Orlando, FL. Thousands of sorority members and dignitaries were present for her installation. She becomes the first Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated International President who is an engineer.



She takes the helm of the nations first African American sorority 114 years after its founding at Howard University. Alpha Kappa Alpha is the oldest Greek-letter organization established by African American college-educated women; it comprises over 320,000 members in over 1,046 undergraduate and graduate chapters throughout the United States and 11 nations worldwide. The sororitys international headquarters are in Chicago, IL.

A Dallas, TX resident and retired PepsiCo executive, Danette Reed brings decades of corporate leadership, community engagement, service, and progressive sorority governance. Her 46 years of continuous sorority service at local, regional, and international levels has well-prepared her for this role.

I am humbled and excited to lead this great organization of outstanding women who represent all walks of life and who consistently live up to our mission of service to all mankind, she said. It is an honor and a responsibility that I dont take lightly. Over the next four years, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority will provide programs of service locally and worldwide to make a difference in the communities we serve.

As International President & CEO, Danette Reed will lead the sororitys 18-member board of directors, set policy, and develop programs to mobilize Alpha Kappa Alpha members globally to address pressing issues impacting families and communities. She will uphold the sororitys mission to be of Service to All Mankind.

Prior to her installation, Danette Reed held over 24 leadership positions in the sorority at all levels, including International Treasurer. A committed Life Member and Silver Star (25-year) member, she recently completed her term as First International Vice President of the sorority. Previously, she served as Vice President of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Housing Foundation and Vice President of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Educational Advancement Foundation.

At the chapter level, Danette Reed has been president or vice president of three chapters, held numerous other leadership positions, and was a charter member of Omicron Mu Omega Chapter, in Dallas, TX, where she currently is a member. While president of Omicron Mu Omega Chapter, she received the South Central Regions Outstanding Presidents Award.

During her tenure at PepsiCo, Danette Reed rose through the operations ranks in the Frito-Lay division, becoming the first African American woman plant director to lead the start-up of an $80 million bakery facility in Dallas. She later moved to Frito-Lays corporate office and led a cross-functional team in the commercialization of $300 million in innovative products. She retired in 2017 after 34 years of service.

Danette Reed holds a Masters degree in Business Administration, specializing in Finance, from Southern Methodist University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University.

In addition to her Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority service, Danette Reed is a charter member of the Greater Denton County (TX) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated; Top Ladies of Distinction; the Carrousels of Dallas, TX; and the National Association of Parliamentarians.



About Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated:

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated (AKA) is an international service organization founded in 1908 at Howard University in Washington, D.C. It is the oldest Greek-letter organization established by African American, college-educated women. Alpha Kappa Alpha comprises 320,000 members in over 1,046 graduate and undergraduate chapters in the United States, Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, Dubai, Germany, Japan, Liberia, Nigeria, South Korea, South Africa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Led by International President and CEO Danette Anthony Reed, Alpha Kappa Alpha is often hailed as Americas premier Greek-letter organization for African American women. For more information on Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and its programs, visit www.aka1908.com.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Carisma Ramsey Fields

International Media Relations & Production Chairman

cramsey@aka1908.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/0ec7e003-3cd8-451a-83c7-d0d936b89887
New York, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Cloud Security Global Market Report 2022" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06285798/?utm_source=GNW

, IBM Corporation, Foreseeti, Sophos, Forcepoint LLC, Palo Alto Networks Inc., Bitglass, Imperva, Intel Security, Proofpoint Inc., Zscaler Inc., FireEye Inc, CloudPassage, Fortinet Inc, Avanan, Illumio, vArmour, Aqua Security, Cloudflare, SiteLock, Tenable Inc, and Accenture.



The global cloud security market is expected to grow from $10.98 billion in 2021 to $13.73 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25.1%. The cloud security market is expected to grow to $30.99 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 22.6%.



The cloud security market consists of sales of cloud security services by entities (organizations, sole traders, and partnerships) that improves the security capabilities and risk assessment of the cloud providers.Cloud security is a set of policies, procedures, and technologies that work together to protect the cloud data.



Cloud security protects against data breaching, loss of confidential data, and insecure application programming interfaces (API).



The main types of cloud security are application security, database security, endpoint security, network security, and web, and email security.Application security has both hardware and software procedures to minimize data threats.



The different service models include infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS), and software-as-a-service (SaaS) and are deployed through public, private, and hybrid. It is employed in several sectors such as BFSI, healthcare, IT, and telecom, among others.



North America was the largest region in the cloud security market in 2021.Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing region in the forecast period.



The regions covered in the cloud security market report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East and Africa.



The rising number of cyberattacks is expected to propel the growth of the cloud security market going forward.A cyberattack is a malicious and deliberate effort by an individual or organization to breach the data of another individual or business.



Organizations use cyber security for minimizing cyber-attacks, as result, the rise in the number of attacks increases the demand for the cybersecurity market. For instance, according to the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), an India-based government ministry, cyberattacks in India increased from 3.9 lakhs in 2019 to 11.5 lakhs in 2020. Therefore, the rising number of cyber-attacks drives the growth of the cloud security market.



Technological Advancements have emerged as a key trend gaining popularity in the cloud security market.Many companies are launching new technological solutions in cloud security so as to meet customer demand.



For instance, in July 2020, Fortinet Inc., a US-based cloud security company launched a cloud-to-cloud WAN solution for enhancing multi-cloud applications. The solution offers centralized management with end-to-end visibility in multiple cloud environments and reduces the complexity by saving time and resources and also providing API applications for security requirements.



In December 2021, F5 Networks, a US-based cloud security company acquired Threat Stack for an amount of $68 million.With this acquisition, F5 networks intend to extend their portfolio in cloud security solutions and also strengthen their security capabilities.



Threat Stack is a US-based cloud security management company.



The countries covered in the cloud security marke report are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK, USA.





Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06285798/?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.



__________________________
New York, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Cloud Access Security Brokers Market" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06283017/?utm_source=GNW





After conducting thorough research on the historical and current growth parameters of the Cloud Access Security Brokers Market, the growth prospects of the market are obtained with maximum precision.



Market Segmentation

The Cloud Access Security Brokers Market is segmented in detail to cover every aspect of the market and present complete market intelligence to readers.



By Cloud Deployment Type

Software as a Service

Platform as a Service

Infrastructure as a Service



By Software Type

On-Premise Software

Cloud and Monitoring

Control & Monitoring

Risk & Compliances Management

Cloud Data Encryption

Data Confidentiality/Data Leakage Prevention

Tokenization



By Services

Consulting

System Integration

Operation & Maintenance



By Region

North America

Latin America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Middle East and Africa (MEA)

Report Chapters



Chapter 01  Executive Summary



The executive summary of the Cloud Access Security Brokers Market includes the market proprietary wheel of fortune, demand-side and supply-side trends, opportunity assessment, and recommendations on the Cloud Access Security Brokers Market.



Chapter 02  Market Overview



Readers can find the detailed segmentation and definition of the Cloud Access Security Brokers Market in this chapter, which will help them understand basic information about the Cloud Access Security Brokers Market. This section also highlights the inclusions and exclusions, which help the reader, understand the scope of the Cloud Access Security Brokers Market report.



Chapter 03  Market Background



The associated Software Type assessment of the Cloud Access Security Brokers Market is carried out in this section. The macroeconomic factors affecting the growth of the Cloud Access Security Brokers Market are provided in this section and the impact of these macroeconomic indicators on the Cloud Access Security Brokers Market is analyzed. The processing overview and technological advancements in the Cloud Access Security Brokers Market are also provided.



Chapter 04 Cloud Access Security Brokers Market Value Chain



Profit margins at each level of the Cloud Access Security Brokers Market are analyzed and readers can find detailed information on top importers and exporters as well as the value chain of the Cloud Access Security Brokers Market.



Chapter 05  Market Dynamics



The drivers and restraints impacting the growth of the Cloud Access Security Brokers Market are explained in this chapter. Opportunities and ongoing trends in the Cloud Access Security Brokers Market are also comprehensively discussed.



Chapter 06  Cloud Access Security Brokers Market - Pricing Analysis



This chapter includes global as well as regional pricing analysis by Cloud Deployment Type. The pricing influencing factors are also explained in this chapter. The readers can understand the manufacturer level, distributor level as well as retail level pricing analysis for 2022 and 2032.



Chapter 07  Cloud Access Security Brokers Market Demand Analysis and Forecast 2022-2032



This chapter includes a detailed analysis of the historical Cloud Access Security Brokers Market (2014-2021), along with an opportunity analysis for the forecast period (2022-2032). Readers can also find the absolute $ opportunity for the current year (2022) and incremental opportunity for the forecast period (2022-2032).



Chapter 8  Global Cloud Access Security Brokers Market Analysis (2014-2021) & Opportunity Assessment (2022-2032), By Cloud Deployment Type



Based on the Cloud Deployment Type, the Cloud Access Security Brokers Market is segmented into Software as a service, Platform as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service. In this chapter, readers can find information about key trends and developments in the Cloud Access Security Brokers Market and market attractive analysis based on the Cloud Deployment Type.



Chapter 9  Global Cloud Access Security Brokers Market Analysis (2014-2021) & Opportunity Assessment (2022-2032), By Software Type



Based on the Software Type, the Cloud Access Security Brokers Market is segmented into On-premise Software  Control & Monitoring, Risk & Compliance Management, Cloud Data Encryption, Data Confidentiality/Data Leakage Prevention, Tokenization, Cloud Based Software  Control & Monitoring, Risk & Compliance Management, Cloud Data Encryption, Data Confidentiality/Data Leakage Prevention, Tokenization. In this chapter, readers can find information about key trends and developments in the Cloud Access Security Brokers Market and market attractive analysis based on the Software Type.



Chapter 10  Global Environmental Testing Equipment Market Analysis (2014-2021) & Opportunity Assessment (2022-2032), By Services



Based on the Services, the Environmental Testing Equipment Market is segmented into Consulting, System Integration, Operation & maintenance. In this chapter, readers can find information about key trends and developments in the Environmental Testing Equipment Market and market attractive analysis based on Services.



Chapter 11  Global Cloud Access Security Brokers Market Analysis (2014-2021) & Opportunity Assessment (2022-2032), By Region



This chapter explains how the Cloud Access Security Brokers Market will grow across various geographic regions, such as North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia & Pacific, China, India, Japan and the Middle East & Africa (MEA).



Chapter 12  North America Cloud Access Security Brokers Market Analysis 2014-2021 & Opportunity Assessment 2022-2032



This chapter includes detailed analysis of the growth of the North America Cloud Access Security Brokers Market along with the country-wise assessment including the U.S. and Canada. Readers can also find regional trends and market growth based on Cloud Deployment Type, Software Type, Services, and country of Cloud Access Security Brokers in North America.



Chapter 13  Latin America Cloud Access Security Brokers Market Analysis 2014-2021 & Opportunity Assessment 2022-2032



Readers can find detailed information about factors such as, pricing analysis, and regional trends that are impacting the growth of the Latin America Cloud Access Security Brokers Market. This chapter also includes the growth prospects of the Cloud Access Security Brokers Market in leading LATAM countries such as Brazil, Mexico, and rest of the Latin America region.



Chapter 14  Eastern Europe Cloud Access Security Brokers Market Analysis 2014-2021 & Forecast 2022-2032



This chapter includes a detailed analysis of the growth of the Eastern Europe Cloud Access Security Brokers Market, along with a country-wise assessment that includes Poland, Czech Republic and Rest of Eastern Europe. Readers can also find the pricing analysis, regional trends, and market growth based on countries in Eastern Europe.



Chapter 15  Western Europe Cloud Access Security Brokers Market Analysis 2014-2021 & Forecast 2022-2032



This chapter includes a detailed analysis of the growth of the Western Europe Cloud Access Security Brokers Market, along with a country-wise assessment that includes the U.K., France, Germany and Rest of Western Europe. Readers can also find the pricing analysis, regional trends, and market growth based on countries in Western Europe.



Chapter 16  APEJ Cloud Access Security Brokers Market Analysis 2014-2021 & Opportunity Assessment 2022-2032



Readers can find thorough information about the growth parameters of the APEJ Cloud Access Security Brokers Market during the period 2022-2032.



Chapter 17  Japan Cloud Access Security Brokers Market Analysis 2014-2021 & Opportunity Assessment 2022-2032



Readers can find important factors that can make a huge impact on the growth of the Cloud Access Security Brokers Market in Japan based on the market segmentation, during the forecast period. This chapter provides the overview of drivers, restraints, and trends in the Japan Cloud Access Security Brokers Market.



Chapter 18  MEA Cloud Access Security Brokers Market Analysis 2014-2021 & Opportunity Assessment 2022-2032



This chapter provides information on how the Cloud Access Security Brokers Market will grow in the major countries in MEA region, such as GCC Countries, South Africa and Rest of MEA during the period 2022-2032.



Chapter 19  Competition Landscape, Company Share and Company Profiles



In this chapter, readers can find a comprehensive list of all the leading stakeholders in the Cloud Access Security Brokers Market along with detailed information about each company, including company overview, revenue shares, strategic overview, and recent company developments.



Chapter 20  Assumptions and Acronyms



This chapter includes a list of acronyms and assumptions that provide a base to the information and statistics included in the report.



Chapter 21  Research Methodology

This chapter helps readers to understand the research methodology followed to obtain various conclusions, important qualitative information, and quantitative information about the Cloud Access Security Brokers Market.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06283017/?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.



__________________________
ST. LOUIS, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Missouri Gov. Mike Parson participated in a ceremonial bill signing with the API Innovation Center (APIIC) @ Cortex on Thursday for House Bill (HB) 3007. The bill went into effect on July 1, approving $15 million in grant funding for the advanced manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and semiconductor computer chips. The passing of this bill is evidence of Missouri's commitment to leading innovation in bioscience, healthcare, and advanced manufacturing and fostering job growth and economic development throughout the state.

The grants outlined in HB 3007 from the Missouri Technology Investment Fund will aid in funding the state's efforts in bolstering domestic semiconductor production and leading the reshoring of APIs. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), approximately 78 percent of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) manufacturers are located outside of the U.S. This state legislation combats the public health and national security risk caused by the nation's over-reliance on foreign-sourced manufacturers.

"This investment in the advanced manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients and semiconductor computer chips will help strengthen our domestic supply chains and create quality jobs right here in Missouri," Governor Mike Parson said. "One of the greatest lessons we learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent supply chain crisis, is our over-reliance on foreign manufacturing. Missouri is a leader in bioscience, health care, and advanced manufacturing, and when we find ourselves in the next crisis, the last thing we want to do is rely on other countries for goods we can produce - and produce better - right here in Missouri."

United States Pharmacopeia (USP) identified Missouri as first in the nation with the most API manufacturers producing essential medicines, positioning it as the ideal location to activate the process of reshoring APIs to the U.S. APIIC @ Cortex is a nonprofit organization that is currently working in the API sector in Missouri to strengthen American pharmaceutical manufacturing. Their initiative is to establish Missouri as the nation's hub for domestic API production, resulting in a secure U.S. essential drug supply chain.

"The APIIC @ Cortex is proud to partner with the Governor and the state of Missouri to strengthen drug API manufacturing in the United States," said Tony Sardella, CEO and Chair of the APIIC @ Cortex. "The Center's efforts to foster adoption of innovative and advanced manufacturing capabilities will help build our nation's health security, reduce drug shortages and production costs while accelerating time to market."

Cortex President and CEO Sam Fiorello said, "APIIC @ Cortex brings together industry experts to advance new technologies and make the United States more secure by having greater control of our drug manufacturing. Beyond that, APIIC @ Cortex will drive diversity in our bioscience innovation ecosystem by creating quality jobs that are attainable for our region's residents. We welcome APIIC @ Cortex to the district and look forward to partnering with them towards a growing, diverse, and equitable regional economy."

The initial project of the APIIC @ Cortex is to secure a source of U.S.-produced API for lomustine, a chemotherapy drug used to treat glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer. There is currently no U.S. source of lomustine, and recently the sole manufacturer of the drug significantly increased its price, making clinical trials cost-prohibitive. In 2021, the manufacturer also pulled out of the federal discount program for Medicare patients, leaving many patients struggling to pay for treatment. According to the Society for Neuro-Oncology, "the field of neuro-oncology is in the midst of a crisis with lomustine." This crisis is being resolved by the APIIC @ Cortex in collaboration with Glioblastoma Foundation, a nonprofit that will develop lomustine and make it more affordable and accessible for glioblastoma patients that need it most. Lomustine will be manufactured utilizing continuous flow manufacturing, an advanced drug manufacturing process developed by Continuity Pharma that is more efficient than decades-old batch manufacturing. The continuous flow manufacturing process can significantly improve drug quality, address shortages of essential medicines, accelerate time to market, and strengthen the overall manufacturing competitiveness of the U.S.

"The Glioblastoma Foundation is proud to be a part of this initiative to make Lomustine more accessible and affordable for glioblastoma patients. We're grateful to our partners at Continuity Pharma for sharing our commitment to getting this drug to the people who need it without excessive pricing as no one should ever have to give up their chance at life due to money," said Gita Kwatra, PharmD and Chief Executive Officer of the Glioblastoma Foundation.

The APIIC @ Cortex has facilitated stakeholder partnerships with key players, such as the Glioblastoma Foundation; Continuity Pharma; Emerson, Experitec, and Mallinckrodt Specialty Generics, to create a sustainable network for the U.S. production of lomustine and other critical drugs.

Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry President and CEO Daniel Mehan stated, "There are strong national security and economic arguments being made right now about the need to onshore high-tech manufacturing. As these industry functions look to expand in the United States, we think Missouri  a leading state for tech manufacturing growth  stands to benefit. Bringing these critical investments to Missouri will benefit every industry and ripple across our economy for decades to come. We greatly appreciate Gov. Mike Parson and the leaders of the Missouri General Assembly for helping position our state for this opportunity."

Brewer Science, headquartered in Rolla, Missouri, is a global leader in the tech industry, specifically in the development and manufacturing of next-generation materials and processes that foster cutting-edge technology, including semiconductor computer chips.

Brewer Science Executive Vice President Dan Brewer stated, "Brewer Science is living proof that Missouri is more than ready to be a hub for innovation in the semiconductor industry. For over 40 years, our business has helped cultivate Missouri's growing, diverse high-tech talent pipeline and the significant cost advantages that benefit all industries in our state. With these new critical investments, Missouri is poised and ready to be a national leader in the domestic production of semiconductors. We are grateful for the leadership of Governor Mike Parson and everyone in the Missouri General Assembly who has championed our growing industry."

To learn more about APIIC @ Cortex and its commitment to de-risk and safeguard the nation's API supply chain, visit: www.apicenter.org or contact info@apicenter.org. For more information about Brewer Science and its work in technology innovation and the semiconductor industry, visit: www.brewerscience.com.

Media Inquiries:

Laura Reed, (618) 656-7333

Related Images











Image 1: Missouri Gov. Mike Parson Signs House Bill 3007 at API Innovation Center @ Cortex Event





Missouri Gov. Mike Parson signs House Bill 3007, approving $15 million in grant funding for the advanced manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and semiconductor computer chips.









This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.

Attachment
OTTAWA, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Todays ruling from the BC Court of Appeal in the Cambie Surgeries Corporation (CSC) case has upheld the BC Supreme Courts September 2020 decision that protected key principles of public health care in Canada.



The court found that the provisions of the Medicare Protection Act challenged by Cambie Surgeries are necessary to preserve a publicly funded system delivering necessary services based on need and not ability to pay, and that suppressing all private care is necessary to meet that objective. This decision comes at a time when all efforts need to be made to strengthen and enhance our public health care system rather than dismantle it.

CEO of CSC Dr. Brian Day and his powerful allies have been dealt yet another blow in their more than a decade-long attempt to use the courts to undermine public health care in Canada and usher in a profit-driven health care system.

As a group of patients, doctors and health care advocates, we became involved in this case in order to defend and protect public health care and our resolve remains as strong today as the day it started, said Tuesday Andrich, Co-Chair of the BC Health Coalition. With todays ruling confirming the strength of the BC Supreme Court decision, we can get back to the important work of improving our health care system with public solutions that address the real challenges our health care system is facing.



The Court has upheld BC Supreme Court Justice Steeves conclusions that the evidence at trial showed that duplicative private health care would increase wait times as well as his conclusions about the harm this would cause to vulnerable people who depend upon the public system.

There is no question that our public health care system is currently under strain, and we need all hands on deck to work together to strengthen and improve it, said Dr. Melanie Bechard, Chair of Canadian Doctors for Medicare. There are efficient, evidence-based solutions that are proven to reduce wait times and improve the quality of care in an equitable way. Allowing doctors to charge patients as much as they want, and forcing patients to pay out-of-pocket or purchase private insurance is not one of them.

The past two years have underscored just how important it is that our public health care system is there for everyone when they need it. This decision protects our ability to care for one other today and into the future.

For media inquiries please contact:

Katie Arnup, Executive Director of Canadian Doctors for Medicare at 647-289-5205 or katie@canadiandoctorsformedicare.ca

Usman Mushtaq, Coordinator with the BC Health Coalition at 604-379-3600 or usman@bchealthcoalition.ca

About the Intervenors:

The BC Health Coalition and Canadian Doctors for Medicare, along with two doctors and two patients, are Intervenors in this case.

The BC Health Coalition (BCHC) advocates for evidence-based improvements to our public health care system, stimulates public education on health care issues, and drives positive change to our health care system through campaigns across the province.

Canadian Doctors for Medicare (CDM) provides a voice for Canadian doctors who want to strengthen and improve Canada's universal publicly-funded health care system. We advocate for innovations in treatment and prevention services that are evidence-based and improve access, quality, equity and sustainability.
Chicago, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to Ariztons latest research report, the Australia elevator and escalator market is growing at a CAGR of 4.67% from 2022 to 2028. Increasing urbanization, rising demand for high-rise structures, and government focus on infrastructure in key economic cities have propelled Australias elevator business to new heights. The smart city plan is also one of the initiatives taken up by the government to develop and create more opportunities in all regions.



Australia Elevator and Escalator Market Report Scope

REPORT ATTRIBUTES DETAILS MARKET SIZE BY NEW INSTALLATIONS (2028) 6.4 thousand Units MARKET SIZE BY NEW INSTALLATIONS (2021) 4.6 thousand Units CAGR (2021-2028) 4.67% MARKET SIZE BY INSTALLED BASE (2028) 218.4 thousand Units MARKET SIZE BY MODERNIZATION (2028) $2.2 billion BASE YEAR 2021 FORECAST YEAR 2022-2028 MARKET SEGMENTATION BY CARRAIGE TYPE Passenger and Freight MARKET SEGMENTATION BY CAPACITY 2-15 Persons, 16-24 Persons, 25-33 Persons, and 34 Persons and Above MARKET SEGMENTATION BY END-USER Commercial, Residential, Industrial, and Others MARKET SEGMENTATION BY TYPE Hydraulic and Pneumatic, Machine Room Traction, Machine Room Less Traction, and Others

Click Here to Download the Free Sample Report

Key Highlights

In 2020, the Australian government established Building 4.0 CRC as part of its cooperative research center initiative. Building 4.0 CRC will drive the construction industry into an efficient, connected, and customer-centric future through deep collaboration and emerging 4th industrial age technology.

The Australian Government's Smart Cities Plan outlines the government's vision for cities and a strategy for maximizing their potential. The Australian government will contribute $50 million to help with planning and implementation, and construction works of big infrastructure transformation projects.

The Australian government has indeed established a $1 billion Clean Energy Innovation Fund, which will invest up to $100 million annually in the smart, green technologies and enterprises in Australia. The National Energy Productivity Plan includes several measures to improve the ecological sustainability and resilience, including the National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) and Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) for appliances, and updates accordingly to the National Construction Code.

According to Fire and Rescue New South Wales (NSW) data, elevator rescue number has rose by 80% from 2014. 1,620 people across the New South Wales state were rescued from elevators in 2018. This is a sign that elevators need to undergo regular maintenance to avoid accidents.

The long-term growth potential of the elevator modernization market in Australia is driven by digital economy approach by integrating emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Cyber security and supporting SME digitization.

The key players in Australia Elevator & Escalator market are KONE, Otis, TK Elevator Mitsubishi Electric, Schindler, Hitachi, Hyundai Elevator. Top four prominent vendors including KONE, Otis, Schindler and TKE account for 32% of market share in Australia.

Future Cities Planning to Create Long-Term Demand for Elevators and Escalators

The growing urban population compels governments to create policies and plans to build infrastructure, public transit, commercial and housing projects.

Australia might require 6.9 million houses, around 3,300 schools, and 1,400 cinema screens and supermarkets each by 2050.

Urban renewal programs to redevelop existing areas of remaining land and abandoned buildings across cities for commercial or residential construction.

Melbourne is estimated to cross Sydneys population in the future to become Australias largest city.

Australias population is still growing at a substantial pace due to the impact of COVID-19 and is expected to reach 28 million by 2029.



Key Vendors

OTIS

Kone

Schindler

TK Elevator

Hitachi

Mitsubishi Electric

Other Prominent Vendors

Toshiba

KLEEMANN

WITTUR

Stannah

LML Lift Consultants



Market Segmentation

Type

Hydraulic and Pneumatic

Machine Room Traction

Machine Room Less Traction

Others

Carriage Type

Passenger

Freight

Person

2-15

16-24

25-33

34 and Above

End-User

Commercial

Residential

Industrial

Others

Explore our industrial machinery profile to know more about the industry.

Click Here to Download the Free Sample Report

Read some of the top-selling reports:

About Arizton:

Arizton Advisory and Intelligence is an innovation and quality-driven firm, which offers cutting-edge research solutions to clients across the world. We excel in providing comprehensive market intelligence reports and advisory and consulting services.

We offer comprehensive market research reports on industries such as consumer goods & retail technology, automotive and mobility, smart tech, healthcare, and life sciences, industrial machinery, chemicals, and materials, IT and media, logistics and packaging. These reports contain detailed industry analysis, market size, share, growth drivers, and trend forecasts.

Arizton comprises a team of exuberant and well-experienced analysts who have mastered in generating incisive reports. Our specialist analysts possess exemplary skills in market research. We train our team in advanced research practices, techniques, and ethics to outperform in fabricating impregnable research reports.

Click Here to Contact Us

Call: +1-312-235-2040

+1 302 469 0707


TORONTO, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (TSX: PFIA, PFSS) Picton Mahoney Asset Management announced today that it has declared the July 2022 monthly cash distribution of $0.0360 per unit for the ETF units (ETF Units) of the Picton Mahoney Fortified Income Alternative Fund.



Picton Mahoney Asset Management announced today that it has declared the July 2022 monthly cash distribution of $0.0661 per unit for the ETF Units of the Picton Mahoney Fortified Special Situations Alternative Fund.

Unitholders of record of the ETF Units, at the close of business on July 22, 2022, will receive a per-unit cash distribution payable on July 29, 2022.

About Picton Mahoney Asset Management

Picton Mahoney Asset Management specializes in differentiated investment solutions and rules-based volatility management. Picton Mahoney helps its clients fortify their portfolios based on experience honed over the years through different market cycles and investing environments.

Founded in 2004 and 100% employee-owned, Picton Mahoney is a portfolio management boutique entrusted with over $9.0 billion (as at May 31, 2022) in assets under management. Pioneers of Authentic Hedge investment principles and practices in Canada, the firm offers a full suite of investment solutions, including mutual and alternative funds, to institutional and retail investors across the country.

Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees, performance fees and expenses all may be associated with mutual fund investments. Please read the prospectus before investing. Mutual funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently, and past performance may not be repeated. Alternative funds can only be purchased through a registered dealer and are available only in those jurisdictions where they may be lawfully offered for sale.

For further information please contact:

Arthur Galloway

Picton Mahoney Asset Management

Tel: (416) 955-4108

Web site: www.pictonmahoney.com

Email: service@pictonmahoney.com
The organisation of the Dutch Grand Prix has heard with disgust how some of the fans misbehaved in Austria. General Manager Robert van Overdijk has a clear message for spectators who intend to repeat this in Zandvoort.

Article continues under ad

Van Overdijk first of all states that such behaviour does not belong in sport. "This does not really belong anywhere," he says in interview with the AD. The Brabander thinks the behaviour is in no way justifiable and wants to make clear in advance that it will not be tolerated during the Dutch Grand Prix.

Read more Mercedes and Ferrari fear approaching competitive advantage for Red Bull Racing

Bad apples not welcome in Zandvoort

Van Overdijk realises that many Dutch people who were present in Austria will also come to Zandvoort, with one important difference: here many will bring their wives and children, as Zandvoort presents itself as a 'pure family event'. Yet that does not mean that it cannot happen in Zandvoort. However, Van Overdijk also stresses that this was a typical example of a couple of bad apples spoiling it for the rest and that the risk is always present where large crowds gather.

In order to prevent this kind of scene, the organisation is, just like last year, appealing to the visitors themselves to keep an eye on things. In addition, extra security will be deployed and all volunteers will receive special instructions. "As far as I am concerned, there is only one measure for misbehaviour. You have to remove these people from the site. No tolerance, no pat on the back. You just don't want those people here,' says Van Overdijk.
GREENWICH  A Greenwich woman in the backcountry was surprised to see a man sitting in the drivers seat of her 2011 Ferrari coupe when she walked out of the house on an April morning.

She let out a scream, according to court papers filed in state Superior Court in Stamford, and the suspected car thief bolted from the Ferrari and jumped into a nearby getaway car, a Mercedes G-Class SUV (which was also stolen).

The surprising moment for a local woman on Alpine Drive near the Merritt Parkway ended up in crash in Yonkers, N.Y., and now three suspects alleged to have been involved in a car-theft ring, based in New Jersey, are facing felony charges in Connecticut.

According to the arrest warrant application, officers spotted the Mercedes, as well as a Dodge Durango, as they raced through the backcountry on April 20. New York law enforcement authorities were also notified about the attempted theft, and Westchester County Police units picked the Mercedes and the Durango driving south on the Hutchinson River Parkway in New Rochelle, N.Y. The county police made an effort to stop the vehicles after they merged onto the Cross County Parkway.

The getaway cars crashed while attempting to escape capture, the affidavit stated. The suspects all jumped into the Mercedes and attempted to flee, but police apprehended them, a total of five suspects.

Inside, the Mercedes, according to the court papers, police recovered a loaded handgun and two purses that were later found to have belonged to two women from Greenwich. New York authorities charged all five with the criminal possession of stolen property in the second degree and criminal possession of a loaded firearm.

Three of the suspects, a man and two women, were extradited on July 9 to Greenwich to face charges for alleged crimes committed in Connecticut.

Arrested and charged with first-degree criminal conspiracy to commit larceny, a felony, were: Darren Troupe, 30, of East Orange, N.J.; Aliyah Richardson, 20, of Newark, N.J.; and Taliah Durham, 20, of Newark. Bail was set at $200,000 for all of them. The two other suspects in the April 20 incident have not yet been extradited and charged in Connecticut.

Troupe, Richardson and Durham were being held in Connecticut state custody as of Friday, in lieu of the $200,000 bail.

The arrest warrant application said the attempted theft followed a common pattern: The NJ auto theft group travels to Greenwich in multiple stolen cars with numerous occupants. ... The other vehicles and occupants remain in the area as lookouts and getaway vehicles.

The Dodge Durango was stolen in New Jersey on April 19, and the Mercedes was stolen in South Salem, N.Y., on April 20, the morning of the attempted theft in Greenwich, the affidavit stated. The crew started their work at midnight in Newark, according to the court papers.

Police said all three suspects had previous arrest records for stolen car cases. For example, Troupe was driving a stolen Audi on Oct. 4 in Newark when he struck another vehicle and injured the driver before fleeing the scene, according to New Jersey State Police.

Police say many of the stolen cars coming from Greenwich and other suburbs in the region are placed onto cargo ships at the Port of Newark and shipped to Africa for sale.
These are the best offers from our affiliate partners. We may get a commission from qualifying sales.
One-inch main camera

It's no secret what's the main attraction here - the Xiaomi 12S Ultra's main camera with a 1" sensor. It's not the first phone to have one - in fact, it's the third, but this one has none of the compromises of the previous two.

The Japan-only Sharp Aquos R6 was the pioneering one-incher, launched in mid-2021. A proper flagship with the then-current Snapdragon 888 and an unmatched for its refresh rate 240Hz display (albeit LCD), the Aquos never got to our doorstep, so we're not intimately familiar with its performance.

What we do know of the Sharp, is from the Xperia Pro-I, the second phone to feature a 1" sensor - Sony marketed the Pro-I as the first phone with a one-inch camera sensor and phase detect autofocus. So, then, the Sharp didn't have phase detection.

Well, the Xperia did, but Sony was particularly misleading in its promo materials. Indeed, there was a 1" sensor inside the Pro-I, one that came more or less straight out of the company's compact camera division. However, only a center portion of it was used to capture an image - equivalent to a 1/1.3" sensor, of which there were already a bunch in circulation at the time, plus there was the Mi 11 Ultra with a larger 1/1.12" imager. We're still sour about how Sony communicated that to consumers.

Which brings us to the Xiaomi 12S Ultra we have here now. It has a 1" sensor (coincidentally, a Sony-made IMX989) with phase detect autofocus, and its entire area is used for image capture. That could count as a first.

You may note that the above definitions of firsts do not take into account a certain Panasonic Lumix from 2014, itself equipped with a 1" sensor. That's, in part, because of the year of its release which is practically in another era of smartphones, and, in part, because that device was camera first, smartphone second. That's how our reasoning goes, and we stand behind it.

Before we move on with the 12S Ultra, a few words on what 'one inch' means when it comes to digital camera sensors. It's not a physical dimension of the sensor - you can't grab your calipers and find something that's 25.4mm across (or if you do, not all of it will be photosensitive bits anyway). That term denotes the imager's 'optical format', also called 'sensor type', and refers to the diameter of the video camera tube needed to project an image that would cover the size of the sensor. It's a legacy concept and designation, and it's about time the industry as a whole abandoned it, but here we are.

The correlation between that optical format and actual sensor size isn't strict, but it's roughly 1.5 times the physical diagonal of the sensor. The 'type' and 'optical format' terms are often dropped for brevity and are assumed from context, but we figured all of this is worth putting into words for those of you only now encountering this long-standing if somewhat ridiculous designation.

OK, so the IMX989 sensor that's the core of the Xiaomi 12S Ultra's primary camera has a 8,192x6,144px effective resolution - let's call it 50MP, and the pixel pitch is 1.6m. The effective sensor area is then 13.11x9.83mm, and the diagonal works out to 16.39mm. Multiply that by 1.5, and you get 24.85mm - or roughly one inch. Mind you, we haven't seen an IMX 989 whitepaper (nor have we seen a Sony smartphone sensor whitepaper in a while), so the above numbers are just us working with what we have - we could be slightly off one way or another, slightly.

Adopting the same approach, we can calculate the Mi 11 Ultra's 1/1.12" sensor size at 11.42x8.57mm (14.28mm diagonal), and it's then easy to calculate that the new sensor's area is a little over 30% larger. That's not a little.

It's even more impressive when you consider the 12S Ultra's sensor is 86% larger than the one used in the Galaxy S22 Ultra's main camera - rounding that to 'twice as large' isn't that big of a stretch. It's also roughly three times larger than the iPhone 13 Pro Max's main camera sensor.

Now, that 50MP sensor has what Sony calls a Quad Bayer color filter array. It's the dominant sensor design in recent years, and in it, four adjacent pixels are under a common color filter (red, green, or blue), as opposed to each pixel having its own. The practical end result of that is that you get those 50MP binned 4-to-1 into 12.5MP images. There are further nuances about what having four separate photodetectors can do for image quality better than one single pixel with the same resulting size, but you can still think of the pixel size as 3.2m and those are some big pixels.

The sensor features Octa-PD autofocus, Sony's Dual Pixel implementation for Quad Bayer sensors.

So there you have it - the Xiaomi's main camera has better sensor hardware than the Sharp's and better than the one on Sony's fanciest Xperia itself.

In front of that sensor, Xiaomi has placed an 8-element lens with aspherical element(s?) and stabilization. The lens has a 23mm equivalent focal length and an f/1.9 aperture.

The other two rear cameras are carried over from the Mi 11 Ultra, with the tele dating even further back to the Mi 10 Ultra. That's no bad thing in itself since the hardware remains pretty impressive even today. An IMX586 does the capturing for each camera (48MP, 1/2", Quad Bayer), the stabilized periscope tele has a 120mm equivalent focal length and an f/4.1 aperture, while the AF-capable ultrawide is specified as covering a 128-degree field of view and has an f/2.2 aperture.

The auxiliary bits under the huge glass circle include a laser autofocus emitter/receiver combo and a dual LED flash.

Over on the front, the 12S Ultra does get a new camera, and it's not a Sony, for a change. It's based on the OmniVision OV32C, a 32MP sensor with a 1/3.14" optical format, 0.7m pixels and a 4-cell filter array (OV's Quad Bayer). The 25mm equivalent lens has an f/2.4 aperture, and its focus is fixed.

Camera app

The camera app on the 12S Ultra is more or less the same as on other Xiaomis, but with a twist - the accent color here is red, presumably in honor of the Leica collaboration.

Another Leica-related touch is the processing 'mode' you need to choose the first time you launch the camera. The two options are Leica Vibrant and Leica Authentic, and once you're past the welcome screen, you can switch back and forth between them all you want. You do have to be in one or the other - there's no 'generic' non-Leica auto mode. There is an 'AI' toggle in addition to that, because of course there needs to be.

Aside from that, the app functions like on any other recent Xiaomi. Basic operation for changing modes works with side swipes as expected, and you can also tap on the modes that you can see to switch to those directly. You can add, remove, and rearrange modes in the main rolodex by going to the More tab and navigating to the edit button, and you can access that from the settings menu as well.

At the far end of the viewfinder, you have a flash mode switch, an HDR switch, and the AI toggle. There's also the hamburger menu which contains additional options like aspect ratio, self-timer and grid lines, plus the shortcut to the settings. You won't find an option to set the output resolution for any of the cameras (not that we particularly care), besides the 50MP mode that outputs at full res.

On the near end, you have the camera zoom switch that operates in one of two fashions. The first one is simply tapping on one of the three dots that represent the ultra-wide, primary, and 5x zoom options. Or you can tap on the active magnification and reveal even more zoom modes - 2x, 10x, and 120x (because why stop at a sensible digital zoom magnification).

There's a nicely capable Pro mode, where you can tweak the shooting parameters yourself. You get to pick one of 4 white balance presets or dial in the light temperature with a slider, there's a manual focusing slider (with peaking as an option), and shutter speed and ISO control with ranges depending on which camera you're using - yes, you can access each of the three cams in Pro mode.
The governors complex in Adelup is shown in this file photo. For the first time since 2013, the main operational account for the government of Guam is showing a surplus of revenue, according to the Office of Public Accountability.
Legislation to give residential and commercial ratepayers a $500 power bill rebate got the OK from government financial heads during a Thursday public hearing and is expected to move forward quickly for passage by lawmakers during an upcoming emergency session.

During the hearing, governors office employee Jose Chargualaf told lawmakers his primary task was now to try and help families who had their utilities disconnected set up payment plans, because the rising costs of power and water is just way beyond their financial means.

Sen. Joe San Agustins Bill 325 would provide ratepayers a $100 credit on their power bills from July through November. The measure will require the Legislature to adjust the fiscal year 2022 budget upwards by $25.3 million and provide the money to the Guam Power Authority.

According to Bureau of Budget Management Director Lester Carlson, the General Fund was moving closer to tracking $95 million in excess revenue by the close of the fiscal year and could absorb the cost of the power rebate.

He did caution that a series of other proposed bills looked to tap into the excess revenue, however, and would collectively add up to about $132 million in potential costs.

Several lawmakers, including Speaker Therese Terlaje and Sen. Chris Duenas, wanted to know why the remaining American Rescue Plan money under the governors purview couldnt be used for the rebate when $15 million had already been given to GPA last year to mitigate power rate increases.

According to Director of Administration Ed Birn, federal guidance on the ARP stipulated it go specifically to disadvantaged populations, and using the money would require another lengthy round of income-based verification that went in place for the All-RISE and other stimulus programs.

Carlson said using local dollars for the rebate would avoid a I got mine par, did you get yours situation.

The final $25 million price tag on Bill 325 may have to be tweaked to account for customers like the roughly 2,000 condo households who fall under one power bill with their building owner, according to GPA General Manager John Benavente.

San Agustin read testimony from the operators of the Alupang Cove Condominiums, who asked for clarification on how the rebate would be handled for their 214 residents, who together rack up a $61,000 monthly power bill.

Benavente said that a customer like Alupang Cove with one master meter counted as a single account eligible for the $500 rebate. He said lawmakers could address the issue by having condo owners certify the number of residents they service.

Responding to a question from concerned resident Sedfrey Linsangsan, Benavente said that customers with multiple accounts with GPA would receive the rebate for each account they held under the proposed bill.

Terlaje has already committed to calling an emergency session on Bill 325 soon after it is heard, and Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero has said she would sign off on a rebate measure.
Galvanized into action after hearing about survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, teens involved in a police community affairs program have launched a project to gather donations to help them.

The Anisi-Ayuda project Helping Survivors Persevere team started gathering donations of feminine hygiene and baby products Friday morning that will be donated to Catholic Social Services.

Its about helping the community and Catholic Social Services, especially people who survived domestic violence and sexual assault. Its just to help and to know them, and to know what they went through said Taylor Mendiola, of Yona, who is one of the team interns.

We are just trying to give back to our community as a team, so basically we are just trying to gather feminine products from donations, added another intern, Vincent Cruz, of Hagat.

Both are part of a summer youth intern program with the Guam Police Departments community affairs section called Project U.

The main goal of this recent project is to gather donations, particularly feminine hygiene products, to help those who have been affected by sexual assault and domestic violence.

Our goal here really with the kids is that they want to help build the pantry at Catholic Social Services in the event there is a need for the feminine hygiene products, baby products, said Sgt. Paul Tapao, GPD community affairs coordinator.

These are bare essentials that we take for granted, and these kids saw the need and understand their social responsibility learning from the project here.

Tapao emphasized that the project was created and operated by the youth summer interns.

It really is important they understand how they can actually help their community, its actually empowering them to be better stewards in our  community, said Tapao.

The interns themselves want to continue helping their community.

It feels good to help the community and to make them know that were here, said Mendiola.

You know, just giving back it feels good, Cruz added.

For those interested in donating, they will be set up again 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday at Guam Premier Outlets.
You have permission to edit this article.

Edit Close
The team of Del. Michael San Nicolas and Sabrina Salas Matanane released their gubernatorial platform Friday, focusing on the cost of living, public safety, education, economic growth, health care and government reform.

We believe in presenting to the people a platform that they can expect to get done, we have the proven track record of getting things done, and these standards we are setting will be completed in our first term  done, San Nicolas said.

The San Nicolas-Salas Matanane team is challenging incumbent Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero and Lt. Gov. Joshua Tenorio in the Democratic primary. The Primary Election is set for Aug. 27, and early in-office voting begins July 28 at the Westin Resort Guam.

The winning ticket will face the Republican team of former Gov. Felix Camacho and Sen. Tony Ada in the November General Election.

Cost of living

San Nicolas said he and Salas Matanane will reduce housing costs and rents by accomplishing the mandates of the CHamoru Land Trust, focusing tax and manpower incentives to grow affordable housing inventory, reduce utility bills with proper hedging of the fuel costs that run our power plants and lowering the price of gas with aggressive policies to balance fair profits, the platform states.

The team also wants to eliminate taxes on food and medicine with necessary debt restructuring, and plans to lower food costs by building our capacity to feed our people locally.

Public safety

In one term, San Nicolas and Salas Matanane plan to:

Increase the police force to over 320 officers with clear career paths, so officers can advance in the ranks.

Build a new correctional facility, and provide Guam Police Department with its own facility.

Bring down drugs with solid federal partnerships combined with aggressive support of Guam Customs.

Education

The San Nicolas-Salas Matanane team plans to bolster the number of educators and improve education facilities on Guam. The plan calls for:

Restoring the Yamashita Educator Corps Scholarship.

Strengthening retention of educators.

Enhancing school guidance counselor effectiveness with stronger cross-agency support.

Completing construction and repairs of school facilities.

Focusing more on personnel support in classrooms.

Giving students and families a clear outlook on student futures.

Economic growth

The candidates say they will in one term grow and diversify our economy with basic fixes in GovGuam licensing and permitting processes so it doesnt take weeks or months what should get done in hours if not days.

Among the plans:

Provide a working, reliable public transportation system.

Support the visitor industry by fixing broken and dilapidated public restrooms and parks.

Loading up our small businesses with money to start up and expand with an equity capital market.

Attract high-paying industries with a School of Technology at the University of Guam and a financial education curriculum in the school system to make the workforce more attractive.

Health care

We will accomplish in one term a restoration of community faith in medical professionalism, a sustainable improvement in the number of nurse professionals, provide a clear path for careers and advancement for nursing assistants, work in partnership with local clinics to recruit much-needed specialists, update Guams antiquated Medicaid State Plan, and improve present-day hospital services in tandem with progress on delivering a new long-term medical facility.

Government reform

One of the points in the San Nicolas-Salas Matanane platform is titled Fix the Government, which focuses on improving customer support and service for people dealing with the government of Guam.

The team promises to improve government services with the direct on-site presence of the governor and lieutenant governor at government agencies to directly impact service quality, centralize government operations and communications so agencies better support each other, and eliminate customer redundancy.

They plan to use surge teams to tackle lines and answer phones, fill gaps in disability and veteran services, and implement real technology solutions.

One and done

Throughout the teams platform, San Nicolas and Salas Matanane emphasize that they will reach their goals in one four-year term.

Every gubernatorial election sees our people presented with pages upon pages of platform initiatives that have left us facing unresolved problems, and claims that but another four years is needed, only to find more of the same, the platform stated.

We present to you a concise platform. Achievable in one term. That brings relief and results to all the people of Guam. One and done.

During the first 100 days, the team plans to appoint a secretary in health, education and public safety to evaluate current operations and integrate related agencies.

The team would also establish an inspector general division to investigate waste and fraud, and after 100 days phones will be answered, lines should be a thing of the past, high performers will be empowered  the public will be in control.
Catherine Bejerana Camacho is a Filipino-American attorney raised on Guam and licensed to practice in Guam and California.

She specializes in employment and family-based immigration law, corporate law and family law.




Haiti - FLASH : Seizure of weapons and ammunition imported under cover of the franchise of the Episcopal Church of Haiti





Thursday, July 14, 2022 agents from the Office for the Fight against Narcotics Trafficking (BLTS) accompanied by customs officers searched duty-free containers seized the day before https://www.haitilibre.com/article-37153 -haiti-actualite-zapping.html, in the Saline area, at Caribean Port Service (CPS). These containers arrived in Haiti under the cover of the franchise held by the Episcopal Church of Haiti.



The search made it possible to discover and seize in a first container 18 assault rifles (AK-47, Galil and M4) a 12 gauge rifle, 4 pistols of 9 mm caliber, nearly 20,000 ammunition of different calibers and 120 magazines 1 viewfinder and counterfeit bills in the amount of 50 thousand dollars.



Me Jacques Lafontant, the Commissioner of the Government of Port-au-Prince who was on site, accompanied by a Justice of the Peace, specified that the inventory was partial and that there remained 3 other containers intended for the Episcopal Church of Haiti (according to what is written in the manifesto) which must be searched, which will be done on Friday or Saturday.



A person was arrested and search notices and prohibition to leave the territory were issued against several people including Mrs. Gina J.L Rolls the Customs Commissioner responsible for the reception and clearance of these containers...







Reacting to the mention of his name in this case, the Episcopal Church of Haiti reacted strongly in a press release.



Press Release:

"The Episcopal Church of Haiti denounces the unfounded rumors associating it with the importation of illegal weapons into the country and renews its faith in the pursuit of its spiritual and moralizing work in the country



The Episcopal Church of Haiti is saddened to learn, through rumors, that its name is associated with the duty-free import of containers containing illegal weapons and ammunition at Port-au-Prince customs.



The Episcopal Church of Haiti has no orders for containers and has not undertaken any container clearance procedures at Port-au-Prince customs and is not awaiting the arrival of any products from the foreigner for any of its diocesan institutions.



The Episcopal Church of Haiti, for the edification of all, believes it necessary to point out here the procedure established with the Haitian State for the duty-free customs clearance of products intended for its diocesan institutions:



1-the diocese receives a note from the shipping agency announcing that a container is being shipped in its name.



2- Recovery of these documents by a broker authorized by the diocese after payment of the related costs.



In the absence of the diocesan bishop, only the president of the permanent committee is currently authorized to request a tax exemption for the diocese. What he didn't do. If therefore individuals present themselves at customs to recover containers in the name of the Episcopal Church, it can only be false documents used by criminal networks.



The Episcopal Church therefore enjoins justice to undertake everything to identify, seek out the counterfeiters and submit them to repressive justice so that they answer for their crimes. It pledges its full cooperation to the authorities constituted for this purpose.



The Episcopal Church of Haiti, in accordance with the convention binding it to the Haitian State, renews its determination to continue its spiritual and moralizing work in the fields of education and health, arts and economic, social and cultural development of the Haitian population.



Port-au-Prince, July 14, 2022."



SL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Politic : D-Day, Will China will use his veto for the renewal of BINUH's mandate ?





China has asked the UN Security Council to impose an embargo on small arms and ammunition against Haiti, but the United States has reportedly dismissed this request as formulated, in a draft resolution which should be put as vote this Friday at the end of the day. (but whose content can still be changed).



In its proposals, China also requested that the Security Council be able to impose individual sanctions (asset freezes, travel bans) against gang leaders within 30 days of the adoption of the resolution. The US-Mexico text would consider this possibility but within 90 days...



Another mention wanted by Beijing asking the UN Chief to study with Latin American countries the sending of a regional police force to support the Haitian security forces, does not seem to appear in the last text of Washington and Mexico, according to a diplomatic source...



For its part, the Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights (CARDH), a Haitian civil society organization believes that beyond appearances this is leading a fight behind the scenes, far from the spotlight, between two positions. The first (China and allies) would like Haiti to be returned to Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which would open the door to yet another Mission for Peace (military / police). The second (United States and allies) would like Haiti to remain under Chapter 6 of the Charter, which would allow for a multilateral police force that would oversee the National Police of Haiti (PNH) in its efforts to create elections...



We wonder if the Washington-Beijing conflict (which seems much more important than Haiti) will not push China to veto the text drafted by the United States...



Answer in a few hours...



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-37148-haiti-politic-china-forces-the-postponement-of-the-vote-on-the-extension-of-the-mandate-of-binuh-in-haiti.html



TB/ iciHaiti






















Haiti - News : Zapping...





4 ONA employees released

On Wednesday the four ONA employees kidnapped on July 5 https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-37083-icihaiti-ona-3-inspectors-and-a-driver-kidnapped.html were released by their captors against ransom, after being sequestered for 9 days.



Port-de-Paix : 3rd ammunition seizure

On Wednesday, customs officers in Port-de-Paix seized on board the boat "La Temperance" a barrel full of ammunition. This is the 3rd seizure of ammunition in Port-de-Paix in two weeks



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-37146-haiti-flash-25-000-ammunition-seized-a-trafficker-arrested.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-37108-haiti-flash-seizure-of-120-000-ammunition-me-michelet-virgile-releases-the-alleged-traffickers.html



The CNE qualifies RNDDH's allegations as false

Kington Louis, the head of the National Equipment Center (CNE) qualifies as false the allegations of the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH) which affirms that the heavy machines used by the bandits to destroy the houses in Cite-Soleil are the property and provided by CNE, which Kington Louis asserted FALSE, however, he acknowledges that CNE heavy machinery was stolen and its operator killed last Friday.



Blood bank project for police officers

The National Union of Haitian Police Officers (SYNAPOHA) has launched a project to provide officers with their own blood bank.



Relocation of the Courthouse

In a note dated July 11, the Professional Association of Magistrates (APM), the National Association of Haitian Magistrates (ANAMAH) and the National Network of Haitian Magistrates (RENAMAH) state that they support the proposals of the Office for the Protection of citizen (OPC), with a view to relocating the courthouse. "This position expressed by the Office is in line with our incessant request made to the Government for a very long time, namely the relocation of the Court of First Instance of Port-au-Prince."



July 14 : Message from the PM to France

"On this July 14, National Day of the French Republic, I extend to the French people and government my warmest congratulations. I hope that our bonds of friendship will strengthen and that Haitian-French solidarity will strengthen over time," acting Prime Minister Ariel Henry.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















We Are China

Xinjiang welcomes summer travel peak

Ecns.cn) 11:18, July 15, 2022

Tourists wander through the International Bazaar in Urumqi, capital of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, July 14, 2022. (Photo: China News Service/Liu Xin)

Xinjiang received 8.8578 million tourist during the Eid al-Adha from July 9 - 13, an increase of more than 9.84 percent.

Tourists wander through the International Bazaar in Urumqi, capital of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, July 14, 2022. (Photo: China News Service/Liu Xin)

Tourists select local handicraft at the International Bazaar in Urumqi, capital of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, July 14, 2022. (Photo: China News Service/Liu Xin)

A tourist takes photos of the International Bazaar in Urumqi, capital of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, July 14, 2022. (Photo: China News Service/Liu Xin)

Tourists rest at the International Bazaar in Urumqi, capital of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, July 14, 2022. (Photo: China News Service/Liu Xin)

A tourist learns to play drum at the International Bazaar in Urumqi, capital of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, July 14, 2022. (Photo: China News Service/Liu Xin)

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)
05 JAN 2022 |

Climate Rising

As the impacts of climate change mount, questions have arisen about whether the capitalist economic system we have in place is able to adequately address them. But what if, rather than upending the system, we recognized the power capitalism offers when it is properly regulated? In this episode of the Ask a Harvard Professor podcast, Harvard Business School Professor Rebecca Henderson talks through her own efforts to reconcile the climate crisis with her faith in the ingenuity of capitalism. I believe that at the moment, our capitalism is also neither free nor fair, she says. The free market works when everyone can take part, and prices reflect real costswhen polluters have to pay the cost of emitting fossil fuels. Henderson walks us through her vision for reimagining the system to address climate change by returning to its roots and building just and sustainable capitalism. For transcripts and other resources, visit climaterising.org
(Hier finden Sie die deutsche Version des Beitrags)

About 130,000 clinics and doctors' practices in Germany exchange their health and patient data between themselves and with health insurance companies via a special national telematics infrastructure (TI). Since the data is very sensitive, strict security requirements apply. Specially secured routers  so-called connectors  establish the connection to the TI. Their crypto-certificates expire after five years.

Responsible for the digitalisation of the health care system is the agency Gematik, which is largely controlled by the Federal Ministry of Health (Bundesministerium fur Gesundheit, BMG). According to Gematik and BMG, the certificates cannot be renewed, so the connectors must be completely replaced after five years. The old devices become "electronic waste", as Thomas Kriedel, board member of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (Kassenarztliche Bundesvereinigung, KBV), describes it. We have now opened a connector and checked whether there is another way.

Dispute over certificate renewal

At present, there are three manufacturers that offer connectors: CGM, RISE and Secunet. In 2017, CGM had provided the KoCoBox. 15,000 of these connectors were installed at the time and will have to be renewed this year. The same replacement obligation applies to the approximately 115,000 remaining connectors  including newer models from RISE and Secunet. They will follow in the coming years.

"Old appliances become electronic waste"

The KBV, as one of the shareholders of Gematik, agreed to the exchange: "After sufficient examination, Gematik was unable to offer us a safe alternative, even with the manufacturers of the connectors," Kriedel explained in an interview published by the KBV. With a software solution, the manufacturers could not guarantee that no connector would fail.

The manufacturer CGM wrote in a FAQ about the hardware exchange on its website: "Since the certificates are integral part of the connectors and cannot be removed or replaced for security reasons, their exchange is technically not possible". According to the German Federal Office for Information Security (Bundesamt fur Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik, BSI), a two-year extension of the certificates via software would be sufficiently secure without having to replace the connectors now.

KoCoBox unboxed

We checked the claim of the manufacturer CGM and examined a KoCoBox more closely. To get to the inside of a KoCoBox, we had to remove six security screws of the type "Torx Plus Security". We managed this with a simple blade screwdriver.

In contrast to the card terminals in the doctors' offices, only individual software components of the connector were certified according to the international IT security standard Common Criteria and not the hardware and software as a whole. This may be one reason why the KoCoBox, unlike the terminals, has no electronic protection against manipulation. There are only two adhesive seals on it, which can be easily removed without leaving a trace and can be renewed by a technician during a repair.

The main board of the KoCoBox comes from the company os-cillation. On the left, there are three holders for gSMC-K cards - these contain the expiring crypto certificates. On the right is the orange heat sink of the CPU board - not red gold, as one would expect considering the prices.

Inside the KoCoBox there is a main board on which the power supply, buffer battery, Ethernet access and a driver module for the display are mounted. On the left-hand side are three SIM card holders, in which small device-specific Security Module Cards (gSMC-K) are inserted. The gSMC-K cards are mini smart cards with the same crypto certificates that expire after five years. The crypto tasks were distributed among three Secure Module Cards (SMC) because the processing power of a single SMC would be too weak for the everyday operation of the connector.

We were able to remove and reinsert the three gSMC-K cards together with the backup battery without any problems. The KoCoBox then booted and could be used again. This contradicts CGM's statement that the certificates are hard-wired. When we confronted the manufacturer, they changed the text on their website (in German) to "The certificate on the card and the connector are inseparable. It is possible to physically separate them, but both are subsequently without function." Another FAQ on the KoCoBox MED+ (in German) also still talks about hard-wired certificates.

The three gSMC-K cards with the crypto certificates can be pulled out and reinserted very easily.

Again, we have to disagree: We were even able to reanimate a KoCoBox that no longer booted by briefly removing and reinserting the gSMC-K cards and backup battery. We did not find any security fuses or similar safeguards that would prevent re-pairing of the connector hardware with a fresh set of gSMC-K cards. We asked CGM for such fuses. However, the manufacturer did not want to give us an answer.

According to our findings, it appears that the gSMC-K cards are bound to the connector hardware, but apparently not the connector hardware to the gSMC-K cards. Accordingly, one could create a new set of cards with fresh certificates for the connector and avoid the expensive hardware exchange.

Lesen Sie auch Expensive intensive care for a dead horse: The TI connector replacement

Profitable replacement

For CGM, the complete hardware replacement of the connectors is quite lucrative: according to the official price list, the manufacturer charges between 2161 and 2330 euros net for an on-site replacement of its KoCoBox. Of this, 1586 euros are for the hardware alone. Although the manufacturers RISE and Secunet have not yet named any exchange prices, in the past the manufacturers' prices differed only marginally.

When asked, CGM justified the high prices with the use of "highly secure and highly specialised components" - a statement that does not match our test results. This is because the mainboard largely corresponds to a standard industrial model that os-cillation GmbH from Siegen sells under the name BaseBoard for Qseven modules. For the KoCoBox, only the HDMI and a third Ethernet port were removed and the SMC slot was extended by two more.

The heart of the KoCoBox is this processor board from Congatec. Distributors offer series models at a single board price of 250 euros.

The mainboard includes a Congatec CPU board with the identifier QM6XLC0. It is a slightly slimmed-down special version of the Conga QMX6/QC-2G eMMC4 series model, which is currently available for 250 euros in single quantities. If you add another 150 euros for the other components such as the main board with connections, housing, display, keypad as well as assembly, final inspection and packaging, then 400 euros can be estimated as the upper limit for the manufacturing costs of the connector hardware.

Certificate renewal via software

The connectors from RISE and Secunet also contain gSMC-K cards, but they do not need to be replaced. This is because both connectors support certificate renewal via software.

RISE informed us: "A concept for the exchange was agreed with Gematik and the feasibility was of course possible for RISE. The cryptographic private key on the gSMC-K would continue to be used, and a new certificate would be created for it. This would be sufficient for the connector to continue to be used and meet all requirements."

Avoidable hardware replacement

If we assume a production price of 30 euros for three gSMC-K cards, we would save about 1556 euros per replaced KoCoBox  assuming the same, the labour costs for replacing the cards, installing new firmware, reconfiguring the IT in the doctor's office and the travel time as in the calculation for the CGM connector replacement.

It is incomprehensible why Gematik nevertheless insists on replacing all connectors and makes no distinction between the models of the three manufacturers. Instead of 300 million euros for the exchange of 130,000 connectors, the exchange of the gSMC-K cards of the KoCoBoxes would only cost a fraction. The software extension of the remaining connectors from RISE and Secunet would be significantly cheaper. Asked about the reasons for the complete exchange, Gematik simply replied: "The connectors have to be exchanged", without further explanation.

Doctors could perhaps be left to bear the costs, as the health insurance funds have so far only reimbursed the initial equipment for connection to the TI. However, the doctors' representatives are currently still negotiating with the umbrella organisation of the health insurance funds for a contribution. Nevertheless, the apparently avoidable hardware replacement is unnecessarily depriving the health system of a lot of money.

(hag)
Army starts process to build new training center here

Site of a new U.S. Army training center is outlined in yellow. [CITY OF HENDERSONVILLE ZONING MAP]

The U.S. Army is moving ahead with plans to build a 31,274-square-foot training center on Crest Road where soldiers will drill on weekends.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently submitted an annexation request to the city of Hendersonville for the 20.6-acre site behind Upward Elementary School. The Hendersonville City Council last week set a public hearing on the annexation request on Aug. 4 and the Planning Board on Monday recommended industrial zoning for the site.

The Lightnings Ask Matt column reported last November that armory will replace two outdated facilities  one in Brevard and one in Asheville. There will be space for 12 full-time workers and an equipment maintenance shop for wheeled and tracked vehicles. William Ritter, the 81st Divisions public affairs specialist, said last year that U.S. Army Reserve soldiers train 38 days a year.
The Suns decision to match Indianas offer sheet for Deandre Ayton may take them out of the bidding for Kevin Durant, ESPNs Brian Windhorst suggests on his latest Hoop Collective podcast (hat tip to Real GM).

Ayton cant be traded until January 15 and will have veto power over any deal for the next year. He was believed to be an important part of any package that Phoenix might offer the Nets for Durant.

I think they have, and by the way theyre not alone How do I want to put this? I think the position theyre taking is that theyve made their offer for Kevin Durant. And their offer is their offer. And its not an offer that the Nets are interested in, Windhorst said. Im not even sure the Suns can put together an offer that the Nets would be interested in by themselves. I think this is where the other teams are as well.

Windhorst added that the Durant trade market is stagnant right now because all the interested teams are unwilling to come anywhere near Brooklyns asking price. He adds that the Pacers were trying to take advantage of the situation, gambling that Phoenix would either let Ayton go or agree to a sign-and-trade.

Although the Suns declined to offer Ayton a max extension when he was eligible, they were willing to bring him back under the terms of Indianas offer, possibly with an eye toward trading him later on.

This is them partially saying Were not counting on Kevin Durant. We have a 64-win team. This is going to take us into the tax,' Windhorst added.

Windhorst stated that the Suns should now be considered a longer shot to acquire Durant, although he doesnt eliminate them entirely. He reported that the latest offer from Phoenix doesnt include Mikal Bridges or the teams full complement of future first-rounders and pick swaps.

The developments in Phoenix could affect Durants desire to join the Suns, ESPNs Nick Friedell said in an appearance on Get Up this morning (video link). He adds that the Nets are hoping Durant might become more willing to start the season in Brooklyn and see how things work out.
Rockets small forward JaeSean Tate is not resting on his laurels after signing a new three-season, $22.1MM contract with Houston this summer, writes Danielle Lerner of the Houston Chronicle. The 26-year-old hopes to improve his play all over the court.

With the extension, it just really helped me a lot because it just made me relax and focus on basketball instead of trying to just stress about stuff, Tate said. Since [signing the deal], Ive been even more confident in my overall game. My shooting, my ball-handling, my ability to talk and lead.

Tate indicated he is working out multiple times daily in Houston, including at the Rockets home arena, the Toyota Center. During his second season in 2021/22, the 64 Ohio State alum averaged 11.8 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 2.8 APG and 0.9 SPG across 26.4 MPG for the 20-62 Rockets. He appeared in 78 games, starting all but one.

Theres more out of the Lone Star State:
Andre Fournier, chief commercial officer for CoralTree Hospitality, today announced that Steve Migliara has joined the company's growing leadership team as vice president of sales and marketing operations for the eastern region of the United States. In addition to supporting property sales, marketing and branding efforts on the East Coast, Migliara will oversee the global sales effort and support company development of new business opportunities throughout North America, the Caribbean and Mexico.

Migliara brings more than 20-years of leadership skills to the CoralTree team including experience building award-winning sales teams, developing strong owner relations, new business development, effective hotel openings, seamless transitions and strategic business and marketing plan creation. He's proven to consistently achieve results for owners and investors.

Migliara joined Destination Hotels & Resorts in 2006 in the northeast as a property sales and marketing leader. He grew his career with the company to become regional vice president of sales and marketing for Destination and then was promoted to a sales and marketing vice president when the company became Two Roads Hospitality. In this role, he drove topline revenue generation for 25 hotels and resorts in the brand collections such as Destination Hotels, Thompson Hotels and Joie de Vivre. He most recently worked for Hyatt as a regional vice president in the company's new America's Lifestyle division.

He currently resides in Charleston, South Carolina.
The Ritz-Carlton, Lake Tahoe, a luxury AAA Five Diamond resort, is pleased to announce the appointment of Ernesto Alvarado as the property's new Executive Chef. In this role, he will oversee all culinary operations, menu design, and concept creation, as well as provide guidance and support to the leadership team.

With a career stretching back almost 25 years, Alvarado's experience spans all realms of the kitchen, from his first job as a dishwasher to working as a chef in various luxury resorts such as The Ritz-Carlton, San Juan in Puerto Rico, Kimpton Seafire Resort & Spa in Grand Cayman; and, most recently, at Omni Barton Creek Resort & Spa in Austin, Texas. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, he studied economics at the University of Puerto Rico, but found his true calling in the culinary world. Alvarado firmly believes in August Escoffier's quote, "Good food is the foundation of genuine happiness."
What future hotel trends can we look forward to? That depends on the consumers needs and behaviours as time moves forward. As seen in 2020, cultural shifts can happen from large events that shake up our worldviews. The pandemic brought about many negative factors, but it also drove the technology to move alongside the consumer, allowing new trends to emerge more quickly, such as touchless options for check-in.

The hotel industry needs to be especially interested in consumer behaviour. Since the hotel industry hinges on guest experience, to be successful, hoteliers need to follow new consumer trends closely and move with the trends to provide the best guest experience.

Recent Changes in Consumer Behaviour That Impacted Hotels

Simply put, a change in consumer behaviour impacts a hotel in every way. Since hotels are mainly concerned with guest experience, to continue delivering an exceptional guest experience, hotels must grow with their consumer base.

So, what does this look like in practice? What behaviour changes have we seen and what impact did they have?

Hesitation Toward Travel

The pandemic brought about hesitation toward travelling to new and unknown areas. Due to consumers concerns with public health and varying vaccine mandates, travel nearly came to a halt not long ago. Luckily, this halt was stopped by innovative technology and creative ideas which hoteliers used to pave the way forward.

This newfound hesitation about travel has a sunny side. It prompted new interest in technological developments in the hotel industry, such as:

Touchless check-in and/or check-out

Revised and improved cleaning and sanitation protocols

Optimization of mobile apps and OTA integration

Socially distanced activities and excursions

Although most hoteliers will agree that a global pandemic was not the ideal situation, it allowed the hotel industry to open a pandoras box of new and exciting ways to keep guests engaged and satisfied.

Online For Everything

Since the 1990s, the world has moved increasingly online. With the advent of smartphones and easily accessible Wi-Fi, companies soon realized consumers were looking to do business online instead of over the phone or in person. This is especially true for hotels.

Before the boom of the Internet, hotels would take reservations over the phone or even by walk-in. In 2022, the worldwide market for online hotel bookings is set to exceed 174 million. Its estimated that well over half of all hotel bookings in 2022 are done totally online. Whats crazier is that just 20 years ago, this was impossible.

The hospitality industry saw a clear opportunity when it came to the rise of the Internet. If people want to book online, hoteliers needed to find a way to make that possible, and not only make it possible but make it smooth and seamless for both the customer and the hotel management.

Thats where technology like OTAs (Airbnb, VRBO, Expedia, etc..) meets software hoteliers can use like PMS software and channel managers. By integrating bookings from the hotel across several OTA websites, hoteliers quickly understood they could satisfy guests more easily and make a whole lot more revenue.

This is not slowing down. If anything, the need, and use of property management software is increasing. Almost all large-scale corporate hotels have employed software to meet the needs of their online consumer base. Independent and/or small hotel chains will quickly follow suit to keep up. Sometimes, meeting the consumers behaviour changes is only half the battle. Small hotels may be trying to keep up with large competitors at the same time. Thats even more reason to be an early adapter of time-saving property software.

Looking Forward: How Changes in Consumer Behaviour Impact Hotels

The world is rapidly evolving around us, and as such, so are our behaviours and desires. It can be hard to predict what behaviour changes will happen or why, but there are a few clear trends emerging that every hotelier should be keeping their eye on right now.

The Rise of Remote Work

Figures from the Office for National Statistics found that 13.4 million people worked from home full time in January of 2022. What started as a temporary fix until people could safely go back to the office has quickly become a pillar of work/life balance and true freedom in ones career.

For hoteliers, this switch to remote work is actually a very good thing. People will have more freedom to travel and work at the same time, allowing more travel for the remote and hybrid employees of the nation. For example, someone could take a vacation mid-work week and easily respond to emails from the hotel room or hotel bar.

As far as keeping up with consumer behaviour, this signals that hotels should put more thought into their amenities. Most people might not want to work in their hotel room all day long. This means offering Wi-Fi throughout the property and creating co-working spaces for guests to have a quiet space to work or take calls. Ultimately, hotels that offer such amenities will capture the increasingly large population of remote workers who are looking for a place to merge business and pleasure.

Greater Digital Adoption

Coinciding with the remote work rise, hoteliers will need to adopt more robust digital applications when it comes to successfully running their hotels. In addition to guests looking for on-site amenities, like high-speed Wi-Fi or technology-enriched work bars, they also have a higher standard for convenience now that tech has saturated their everyday lives.

For example, consumers will expect to be able to book a stay at a hotel totally online without ever needing to converse with a hotel representative. If a hotel does not offer online booking, most consumers will simply pick a nearby one that does. Regardless of how unique or luxurious your property is, if the tech isnt there, you will lose customers. Its really that simple in todays day and age!

Technology has shortened our capacity for slowness. Guests expect to check in right when they arrive, regardless of the time. This means hoteliers need to keep up with guests' heightened expectations by employing technology that can expedite the functions of the property, such as cloud-based PMS software and mobile applications.

Conclusion

The guest experience is number one when it comes to the indicators of a hotels success. If the guest experience isnt up to par, or more specifically if the guest experience isnt keeping up with guest expectations based on the developments of the time. As such, its extremely important that prominent professionals lean into trends in consumer behaviour as quickly as possible.

This way, they can provide the most optimal guest experience, without missing a beat (or losing out on revenue)! In an industry so fuelled by consumer actions and trends, its both exciting and difficult to keep up to date with news and emerging trends in data, hoteliers can master the art of impressing guests and gaining new loyal customers!

Hotelogix Editorial Desk

Hotelogix's team of researchers and writers are constantly innovating to share the latest trends from the travel and hospitality space. Got suggestions? Write to us on [email protected]
NewcrestImage has entered a definitive agreement with a joint venture between Highgate and Cerberus to acquire four LaQuinta-branded properties which together total 696 rooms. The properties include the LaQuinta Inn & Suites at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) which marks NewcrestImages first gateway location in California.

Closing is today on one hotel  the LaQuinta Inn & Suites Irving DFW North, located two miles from DFW International Airport  while closing is expected in August for the other three hotels: LaQuinta Inn & Suites Anaheim; LaQuinta Inn Phoenix North; and LaQuinta Inn & Suites LAX.

These properties are uniquely-positioned in strategic destination locations, making them very appealing as we structure a strong investment-based portfolio, said Mehul Patel, Managing Partner & CEO of NewcrestImage.

Highgate is pleased to execute with NewcrestImage on this transaction involving four well-located and well-positioned hotels, according to Mahmood Khimji, Managing Principal of Highgate. We are excited to expand our activities with Mehul and the talented NewcrestImage team, along with our friends at Wyndham  all of whom share Highgates commitment to delivering exceptional guest experiences and operational results.

Geoff Ballotti, President and CEO of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, added, As the worlds largest hotel franchisor, we know theres nothing more powerful than pairing great brands with proven owners who know how to deliver on guest needs. We greatly value our longstanding relationship with NewcrestImage and are proud to continue partnering with Mehul and his team as they continue growing their portfolio with Wyndham.

In late June, Dallas-based NewcrestImage acquired the 175-room Cambria Hotel in Southlake, Texas, located six miles from DFW International Airport and five miles from the Gaylord Texan Convention Center.

The company also owns and operates two legendary historic hotels  the 325-room, 29-floor Magnolia Hotel in downtown Dallas and the 164-room, 17-floor Sinclair Hotel in downtown Fort Worth.

About NewcrestImage

Since its founding in February of 2013, NewcrestImage has completed more than $3 billion in transactions involving more than 200 hotels and 25,000 hotel rooms in 122 communities across the country. The company has transformed the hotel industry, notably by popularizing innovative concepts such as dual-brand properties, adaptive reuse of historic buildings, and "lifestyle hotel campus" neighborhoods.
A small community dotted with cattle ranches and farms outside of Houston is about to get a large luxury new home development filled with five lakes and several trails.

Houston-based Kickerillo Homes is partnering with local businessman Bill Bean to launch a 394-acre gated community in Hockley, an area in unincorporated Harris County about 44 miles northwest of downtown Houston.

Called Stallion Lakes, the community is expected to feature one and two story houses ranging in size from 4,500 to 5,000 square feet. The houses generally will be priced above $1 million once fully built out, said Diane Kingshill, broker associate with the Kingshill Martini Group at Compass Real Estate, the brokerage marketing the properties. Located at 24609 Magnolia Road, Stallion Lakes is planned about 1.5 miles from Oil Ranch, a family-friendly amusement park and ranch.

I own a home in Hockley and can personally endorse the quality of life here. Getting back and forth to Houston is easy, even on a daily basis, Kingshill saidin an email. Kickerillo Companies has been looking for land like Stallion Lakes for years. This property is in a perfect location and the land design offers a beautiful community for the future homebuyers.

THE BID: Guest the cost of this incredible River Oaks mansion

Developers have started selling lots ranging in price from $300,000 to $690,000 in the future community, according to Compass. Those prices for the lot alone will certainly put this community in the luxury category for this zip code, where typical home values currently are about $318,000, according to Zillow data.

For that price, future Stallion Lakes residents would get customizable luxury homes on large lots ranging from 1.5 acres to more than 3.5 acres. The buyers would hire one of five homebuilders to build out the house, including Kickerillo Companies, Jeff Paul Homes, Matter Powers Custom Homes, Morning Star Builders and William David Homes.

The initial lots hit the market for sale Thursday, although a handful of buyers have already scooped up lot sites and will be breaking ground in the next two months, Kingshill said. The 115-home community is rising on site with rolling terrain with much of the space expected to be preserved and integrated into a hiking trail system, she added.

This land truly takes your breath away, added Kelli Kickerillo, CEO of Kickerillo Companies in a statement. It is an escape from the city set on some of the most beautiful property that we have seen.
Because I love my lovely wife very much, I keep a set of Bluetooth, over-the-ear headphones on the end table next to my perch on the sofa. Our entertainment tastes are similar, but there are plenty of TV series I like to watch that she doesnt, so the headphones help keep the peace.

So imagine my surprise last month when I pulled the Anker Soundcore Life Q20 headphones out of their protective bag and some of the plastic crumbled and dropped into my lap. The right joint where the earpiece meets the headband literally just fell apart.

I was stunned. Id owned them just shy of 19 months, and they were perfect for my purposes. Soundcores Q20s are lightweight and comfortable, with sound quality that was good enough for movie and TV audio. They also have decent Active Noise Cancellation, which served to blank out the hum of our central air system, which is working way too hard in this brutal Texas summer.

The headphones never left the house, and were used 8-10 hours a week at most. They were babied, yet still they failed.

MORE FROM OUR TECH EXPERT: Dwight Silvermans columns can be found at HoustonChronicle.com

I mentioned this to my daughter, to whom Id given as a birthday gift a pair of Q20s a few months before I bought my own. Theyre a great value at their $60 list price, and Id picked up hers and later mine at a sales price of around $45. She told me that hers, too, had broken in the same way a while ago. She had dropped hers onto a carpeted floor from about 18 inches, and the headphones came apart at the same spot as mine.

Curious if this was just a coincidence, I began to look at the customer reviews of the Q20 headphones on Amazon and other sites that sell them. There are a lot of consumer ratings for them, almost 39,000 on Amazon. This makes sense, as the Q20s have been around since 2019 and are often ranked among the best choices for Bluetooth headphones in the $50-$100 price range. For example, they are the New York Times/Wirecutters pick for best noise-canceling headphones under $100.

I quickly found numerous other reviews describing the same kind of damage, with Amazon headlines such as Headband + hinges fall apart after 6 months of daily use and Cheap plastic construction, multiple cracks with normal handling, not durable.

It was apparent these headphones had a design flaw. The warranty on them is 18 months, and mine broke 20 days after that. I reached out to Anker Soundcores support and was told they wouldnt replace them, because it was outside the warranty period. They did, however, offer 15 percent off a new pair. But I was not inclined to pay even a discounted price for something that, based on experience, might not be durable.

Still, I liked the product, and I had just reviewed another Soundcore offering, the Liberty 3 Pro earbuds, that had excellent sound. I began to look at other over-the-ear Soundcore headphones, including the pricier Q30 ($80) and Q35 ($130) models. But as I perused reviews there, I found more complaints about plastic cracking and breaking.

Fine, I thought. Ill check other brands in the same price range. But there, too, I found customer reviews that referenced plastic joints and headbands failing. I was dismayed. Could I even replace the Q20s with a reliable alternative at the same price? I was beginning to be skeptical.

I asked Soundcore spokesman Brett White about this issue, and was told the customer service department has not received significant negative feedback on the Q20 headphones overall, but there had been a handful of complaints related to plastic breakage.

Soundcore responded with an upgrade of Q20 headphones using more durable materials, White said, adding that the Q30 and Q35 models also have been upgraded.

Look, I realize that Im exploring a low-end price range in a product category where the state-of-the-art in technology, comfort and build quality can run well over $500. Still, shouldnt even a $50 purchase last longer than 19 months?

Lauren Dragan, senior staff writer for headphones and earbuds at the Wirecutter, said that, in products under $100, breakage isnt limited to any one make, model or country of origin.

Consumers are increasingly demanding more - more features, more battery life, more accessories - for less cost, said Dragan, who has tested more than 1,000 headphones for the Wirecutter. Manufacturers cant trim all costs, she added, citing Bluetooth chips that leave little room for negotiation as an example.

Companies such as Anker and its Soundcore subsidiary are higher profile than the no-name, one-off electronics products they compete with on Amazon, she said, and have marketing and research costs. So, they cut back where they can to compete.

Companies look for other ways to shave a few cents off of every build. Less plastic use in a given design, a less expensive plastic, or lower quality (speaker) drivers, for example, Dragan said.

She said several factors can shorten the life of headphone plastics, including light exposure, moisture and temperature - all issues in a place like Houston - and even facial products. And larger heads can put more stress on over-the-ear headphones.

Dragan recommended seeking out headphones with metal internal construction and longer warranties - which of course also raise the cost.

In the end, I took advantage of Amazons Prime Day sales to pick up a pair of Sony WH-XB910N Bluetooth, noise-canceling headphones. They were half price, at $124, and I got them with Amazon Card points, so they cost me  bupkis. Theyve got a heavy bass sound profile but are adjustable through a five-band equalizer via an app. They sound great with TV/movie audio, and the noise canceling is adaptive and effective.

Ill have a review after Ive lived with them a while.

dsilverman@outlook.com

twitter.com/dsilverman
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

A woman at an Humble grocery store is accused of abandoning her two children in the family vehicle on Monday.

In court records, Avante Latrice Johnson, 32, of Humble, is accused of leaving her two children alone, strapped in child seats, in an unlocked vehicle while she shopped for 35 minutes inside of the store on 12680 W. Lake Houston Parkway.

Children were in the running car with the air conditioning on and the keys still in the ignition, according to court records.

HEAT SAFETY: Harris County boy is second Houston-area child to die in hot car in a month

Security footage from the H-E-B showed her leaving the vehicle.

The children were sweating but didnt seem to be in any distress even though the air conditioning was on, said Pct. 3 Constable Chief Deputy Kirk Bonsal.

The report states there were some signs of overheating for the children. They were not taken to the hospital but were checked out by emergency services on the scene and cleared.

Anything could have happened with the keys still in the ignition. One of them could have bumped the gears, or they could have been kidnapped, Bonsal said.

Deputies located Johnson inside the store and arrested her. She was charged with felony endangerment and abandonment of a child with intent to return. She was taken to Harris County jail.

On Wednesday, Johnson appeared before Judge Amy Martin in the 263rd District Court in a probable cause hearing where bond was set at $10,000. She bonded out on Wednesday.

Her appointed defense attorney, Lucio Montes, said the charge is a low-level state jail felony.

The state will take the case to a grand jury, and she could be indicted on the charges, he said.

He said some reports were wrong, leaving the impression that the air conditioning was off and were in 103-degree heat.

It was that temperature outside, but the car was left running with the air conditioning on. She wasnt trying to hurt her babies. They were asleep and she didnt think she would be in the store for long. She thought shed be in and out, he said.

Montes said Johnson was at the store because she had received a notice that the baby formula she was seeking for her 11-month-old was now in stock.

FORMULA SHORTAGE: Houston moms are struggling to find baby formula. How long will the shortage last?

She thought she could run in and get back out, but it took her longer than she anticipated, Montes said. She made a mistake.

The children were turned over to the grandmother.

A CPS investigation will continue, Montes said.

dtaylor@hcnonline.com
This summer was the summer for traveling. After being cooped up way too long because of the pandemic, like many others, I was ready to get out and go. As someone whose favorite pastime is travel, I too took a trip this month, not so much for fun, exploring new places or meeting new people, but for a time of rest, relaxation and healing after the loss of my mother.

Osgood, Indiana is a place most people have never heard of. It is a small town in southern Indiana surrounded by farms and beautiful country homes. One of those farms belongs to my late husband Pauls, sister, Connie and her husband, O.D. Since Paul was a Hoosier, I have made many trips to Indiana, but I have never spent much time in Osgood.

Their farm is lovely. A pond sits in front of their home. It is full of fish. They feed them, but they dont eat them. There are deer in the woods, but they dont shoot them. They love nature and animals and allow them to live and thrive. They are wonderful people who share their property with family and friends who love to camp out, swim in the pond and just relax and visit.

The quiet beauty of the country was exactly what I needed at this time in my life. It brought me back to experiences from my childhood long since forgotten. I remembered catching lightning bugs in an old Kerr jar. I dont think I have seen lighting bugs since, but I saw them there and watched visiting children try to catch them the way that I did. The days were warm, but the nights were amazing. It was cool enough to sit outside and look at the stars in a dark, open skyline.

I enjoyed riding down beautiful tree-lined country roads. Fields of corn and soybeans reminded me of the importance of our farmers. The farm houses were so neat and inviting; it reminded me of an America that is more and more disappearing.

I also got a chance to visit with a favorite nephew, Brian, a very intelligent young man who lives on the property. I had not seen him for a long time. He and I share a love for books, and I enjoyed our talks about some of the books we had read.

On the Fourth of July more friends and family came to visit, picnic and swim in the pond. Since I dont venture in water where I cant see bottom, I passed up the pond swimming experience. Instead, Connie and I road around the property in their jeep and reminisced about days gone by.

Many us long for that simple life away from all the noise, the freeways, and the hustle, bustle of city life. It is so wonderful to know that there are still places in this big country where there is peace and tranquility. These are places where people know their neighbors and open their hearts and homes to those who just want a little piece of heaven for a while.

I have come home from many vacations, happy for the experiences but so tired I needed a vacation from a vacation. Not this time. I felt rested, relaxed and ready to meet whatever lies ahead for me.

John Denver sang Country roads take me home I wasnt in West Virginia but the sentiment is the same. If we were raised anywhere in the country, be it Texas, Indiana or anywhere else, there is joy and fulfillment in reliving some of the days in places where they still exist.

I thank Connie and O.D. and Brian for giving me that opportunity.

Jean Spillman, a retired teacher and a past guest columnist for the Corpus Christi Caller Times, lives in Montgomery. Jean welcomes e-mail responses at jcspillman@consolidated.net .
Houston Chronicle file

The big story on this day in 1948 was the death of Gen. John J. Pershing, who led U.S. troops to victory during World War I.

In that day's front-page editorial, the Chronicle came out in support of County Judge Glenn A. Perry for reelection. Perry won election to the position in 1944 after defeating incumbent County Judge Roy Hofheinz.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

As Sgt. Kendrick Simpo stalked a gun-slinging man in the Galleria, he assessed his surroundings. He was in the open with nowhere to find distance or cover should his attempt to stop the man take a turn for the worse.

The sergeant, a 14-year veteran of the Houston Police Department, knew that drawing his handgun was not an option and that the encounter he was about to have with gunman Guido Herrera would be physical and dangerous. Prosecutors have credited the sergeant for thwarting what could have devolved into a mass shooting amid a dance competition for young girls.

I could possibly be shot and it was going to hurt but thats when the fight or flight kicked in, 41-year-old Simpo said. I decided to fight.

Read more: Case against 'gun-loving Texan' who posed threat to the Galleria perplexes judge

The sergeant on Friday recalled to the Chronicle how a security officers sighting of a man with a long gun moments before most stores in the Galleria were slated to open led to his apprehension within two minutes.

The sergeant also testified Monday in a misdemeanor disorderly conduct case against Herrera, a charge in the Criminal Court of Law No. 8 that a jury then found him guilty of. Herrera accepted a plea agreement on an unlawful carrying of a weapon charge related to a later incident at the FBI's Houston field office.

Based on radio traffic, he knew where Herrera likely was and calmly headed there with another security officer. Few shoppers were in the mall at the time but it was open to morning strollers and the dance competition, he said.

In those brief moments, he thought out how to handle the hands-on encounter as Herrera walked by the Macys department store, up the escalators and toward the ballroom with purpose. He was about 10 feet from the doors to the competition area.

I walked by him, and as soon as I passed him  I pushed the security officer out of the way and came up behind him and reached for the rifle, said Simpo, who has worked off-duty security jobs at the Galleria for nearly a decade. I caught him off guard.

He apprehended him within seconds and disarmed him of the long gun  a Radical Firearms rifle with 5.56mm ammunition  and a Taurus semi-automatic handgun. Herrera had 120 more rounds of ammunition.

Simpo notes that Herreras intent at that moment was not exactly known but that his presence didnt sit right with me. The gunman said something to him but he was focused on getting the rifle away from him rather than listening, the sergeant continued.

Herrera on Thursday was sentenced to six months in connection to the Galleria incident, a punishment that was stacked onto the one-year sentence for the unlawful carrying of a weapon charge. Herrera, an Argentine national, could be deported upon completion of that sentence.

During the sentencing, misdemeanor judge Franklin Bynum questioned why more serious charges, such as a felony, were not brought upon Herrera. Prosecutors said that no other charges existed that could lead to Herrera's conviction.

Simpo noted that the ability to prosecute him had legal limits.

"The DA's office did the best of their ability to make sure they could keep this guy in jail," Simpo said.

nicole.hensley@chron.com
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Guido Herrera walked into the Galleria with a Bible in one hand and a long gun in the other, making his way so very near to where hundreds of young girls were competing in a weekend dance competition.

Radio traffic warning of an armed man made it to an off-duty Houston police sergeant working a security job. That sergeant quickly found and tackled Herrera to the ground before he could reach the Westin Galleria conference area, a brave act on Feb. 5 that may have thwarted a mass shooting, according to prosecutors. As authorities searched him, they found 120 more rounds for the assault-styled weapon and a loaded handgun among his layers of black, baggy clothing  including tactical pants, gloves and a shirt emblazoned with the vigilante Punisher skull logo.

He had bookmarked the Old Testament scripture he clutched to a Genesis passage about Sodom and Gomorrah, officials said.

The accusation and that of a second gun-related incident at the FBI field office a month later resulted in two misdemeanor charges  disorderly conduct and unlawful carrying of a weapon  both of which landed at random in Criminal Court of Law No. 8, leaving Judge Franklin Bynum on Thursday to decide how to punish Herrera for a crime that harmed no one but threatened public safety.

Bynum, whose fate on the bench is pending a decision from the Texas Supreme Court for complaints of leniency toward defendants and bias against prosecutors, opted for the maximum sentence that he is legally allowed to hand down to Herrera for the Galleria incident: Six months in the Harris County Jail.

'I DECIDED TO FIGHT': HPD sergeant speaks out on stopping potential mass shooter

We have a genuinely dangerous situation with a genuinely dangerous person, Bynum said in court, expressing perplexity that authorities could not secure a more serious charge against Herrera. This situation, where someone is roaming around a federal building and malls with loaded firearms  and youre in front of me? Why?

Out of the thousands of misdemeanor cases in Harris County, prosecutors said they believe Herreras case presented the most risk to community safety. The state brainstormed with the Department of Justice on whether federal charges would be better suited but nothing worked. Authorities were left with very few options on how to charge Herrera because of a lack of prior convictions.

His circumstance kind of fell in the gaps, prosecutor Barbara Mousset said. He took advantage of some technicalities in the law  he had the right to have that firearm and ultimately this was the only charge that we could get him on.

Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

Bynum was poised to force Herrera to undergo several rehabilitative programs during the two years of community supervision that would follow jail time until the state revealed that a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold could return the Argentine national to his home country after finishing the sentence, which could last up to one year and six months for the two crimes.

He then reconsidered the order, noting that the rehabilitative programs may not do Herrera any good.

I dont know what the future holds for you, Bynum told the defendant. But Ive done the most I can do today with the rules I have. I wish you well.

Herrera said nothing in return.

Harris County District Attorneys Office

Gun-loving Texan

Defense attorney Armen Merjanian advocated for his clients right to possess the weapons he had during both arrests  the latter of which was a bond violation. When it came to the defense to argue for a lesser sentence, the lawyer accused the judge of not liking guns  a remark that prompted Bynums ire as inappropriate and inaccurate.

Hes a gun-loving Texan, Merjanian said. He has a right to possess these weapons whether we like them or not.

The Galleria, which is private property, prohibits firearms. Police officials noted in court records that the Galleria outlines its firearm policy on its website and at the mall entrance. Texas law does not necessarily restrict who can carry a long gun  which forced prosecutors to prove that Herrera carried the weapons in a manner to cause alarm.

A Harris County magistrate issued a general order bond for Herreras release soon after that first arrest. He failed to show up for his first court appearance and authorities deemed him a fugitive.

The lawyer, in an attempt to explain Herreras actions, said his client had been fearful of his neighbors and an ex-girlfriend and that he felt that law enforcement had let him down following past 911 calls. That fear led him to the next incident.

Vigilantism is discouraged, Merjanian continued. He felt like his cries were not being heard and thats why he went to the FBI field office.

ON DEATH ROW: Execution date nears for ex-Missouri City cop convicted in wifes murder-for-hire killing

On the morning of March 18, Herrera  wanted for more than a month after failing to appear in court  drove to the FBI field office in northwest Houston.

He arrived around 7:45 a.m. at the security gate at 1 Justice Park for a purported meeting with the FBI Director, a remark that struck Special Agent Torrence White as alarming, he testified, because the director, Christopher Wray, is based in Washington D.C., not Houston.

When asked, Herrera said he did not know the FBI directors name but that he wanted a meeting about returning to Argentina.

A security contractor noticed a handgun in Herreras lap and called for backup. White arrived and ordered Herrera to show his hands and get out of the vehicle  which he did. White then asked Herrera why he brought a weapon to the field office.

He informed me that the weapon was for his protection against police, White testified Thursday during the sentencing.

In the car, authorities found several boxes of ammunition in the trunk. The handgun, which was legally obtained, was purchased online and had been in Herreras possession for about two months, according to court records.

The arrest at the field office prompted Bynum to raise his bail to $100,000 and Herrera has remained jailed since. For the FBI incident, Herrera accepted a plea agreement Monday that sentenced him to one year in the Harris County Jail, with credit for time served. The six months stemming from the disorderly conduct conviction was stacked onto that punishment.

Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

He didnt hesitate

Prosecutors lauded the Houston police sergeant who confronted Herrera for likely stopping violence, noting that the defendant was an arms reach from the door where young dancers were competing.

He didn't hesitate, prosecutor Jacob Salinas said.

The 41-year-old sergeant, Kendrick Simpo, testified Monday about his role in apprehending Herrera.

The 14-year HPD veteran chose to keep his firearm holstered as he searched the Galleria for Herrera to avoid panic. Few shoppers were in the mall but it was open to morning strollers and the dance competition.

Herrera walked by the Macys department store, up the escalators and toward the ballroom with purpose. He was about 10 feet from the doors to the competition area when they crossed paths, Simpo said Friday to the Chronicle.

Simpo chose again not to draw his weapon because it was too late  he would be at a disadvantage, he said. He was in the open with nowhere to find distance or cover should his attempt to stop the gunman take a turn for the worse. The encounter, he knew, would be physical.

I could possibly be shot and it was going to hurt but thats when the fight-or-flight kicked in, Simpo said. I decided to fight.

'HE'S NO MURDERER': Family of man killed by Harris Co. sergeant over Dollar General theft speaks out

At this point, Herrera had already seen Simpo. He and another security officer appeared poised to calmly walk past the gunman when Simpo suddenly pushed the officer out of the way and grabbed the barrel of the long gun from behind. He knew that the rifle could easily fire at any point and strike him but tried to keep it pointed at the ground or his own legs.

Within seconds, Simpo wrestled Herrera to the ground and disarmed him of the Radical Firearms rifle and a Taurus semi-automatic handgun.

I caught him off guard, Simpo continued.

Simpo notes that Herreras intent wasnt known but that his presence didnt sit right with me.

He acknowledged the limitations on prosecuting Herrera.

The DA's office did the best of their ability to make sure they could keep this guy in jail, said Simpo, who is expected to receive a commendation from HPD for his effort that day at the Galleria..

nicole.hensley@chron.com
Houston is making its first foray into developing entire subdivisions, with plans for roughly 700 homes  half of which will be made available at affordable price points.

But the Houston Housing Collaborative, a collection of more than 50 housing advocates, developers and other groups advocating for equitable housing, is concerned that the city has designed the program in a way that spends tens of millions of public dollars but makes no requirement that homes stay affordable for future buyers.

At the heart of the debate is why the city is investing in home ownership for low-income families. Should it be primarily as a way for families to build wealth, with homeowners pocketing a forgivable loan and eventually selling the home at market rate  which wont be affordable for the next family? Or should the focus be providing housing stability, allowing more Houstonians to feel secure at being able to afford the city over the long term and the home itself remains affordable  meaning homeowners will reap smaller profits upon selling?

Its great for the individual homeowner because they can... profit and build wealth that way, said Alan Watkins, executive director of the housing collaborative. But he said building hundreds of homes that would only remain affordable for five years is an opportunity lost because the city is investing in affordable housing stock will eventually disappear.

On HoustonChronicle.com: City of Houston set to buy 27 acres in Willowbend, Sunnyside to add affordable homes to the market

Despite the naysayers, the city is preparing to spend $43 million on land for three developments  240 homes in Willowbend, 240 homes in Sunnyside and 201 homes in the Near Northside.

Under the program, families earning 80 percent of Houstons area median income are eligible for resulting single-family detached houses, townhomes, duplexes or condos. For example, a family of three earning $57,050 or less would currently qualify.

Houston would not only provide qualified residents access to a lower price point. For the 51 percent of homes that would be affordable, the city would also provide downpayment assistance of up to $135,000 per family in the form of a no-interest, no-payment loan. Every year, 20 percent of the loan would be forgiven, so that after five years, the loan would effectively become a grant. After five years, homeowners would also be free to sell the home at market value  a boon for participants in the program, who would be able to build wealth by capturing their homes appreciation, though it also means homes may not remain affordable for more than five years.

In an emailed statement, the Houston Department of Housing and Community Development did not address the pros or cons of designing a program in which homes would remain affordable for longer periods. Instead, the department put that decision in developers hands.

The department said that the developers that the city selects to build the homes could choose to extend the affordability period for the homes beyond the citys mandated five years. We encourage any (developers) to take on the administrative and compliance burden in pursuit of longer term affordability, the statement read.

A Notice of Funding Availability, which outlines the parameters of a project that requires a contractor, has already been issued and filled for the subdivisions in the Near Northside. But such parameters have yet to be issued for the Willowbend or Sunnyside subdivisions.

Curtis Davis, who teaches in the architecture department at both the University of Houston and Rice University and is a member of the Houston Housing Collaborative, pushed back on the idea of the city relying on others to address the long term affordability of its investment. To leave that up to developers or to faith is not, in our point of view, a prudent investment of public dollars, he said.

Watkins urged the city to consider making the affordable homes part of the Houston Community Land Trust, a program that makes a similar investment in individual homeowners, but in a way that keeps the home permanently affordable.

For the land trust, homeowners get up to $150,000 toward the purchase price of the home, and the land is placed in the trust. Since participating homeowners do not have to pay taxes on the land, their taxes are also greatly reduced, lowering monthly payments.

The way homes in the trust are kept permanently affordable is by capping the amount its resale value can rise at 1.25 percent every year. So if you paid $100,000 for a home (after the trust contributed the remaining $150,000 of the purchase price) and own it for 10 years, you could then sell it for $112,500 to another family earning 80 percent of the Houston areas median income.

Watkins called integrating the plans to build subdivisions with the Houston Community Land Trust a win- win.

Youre replacing the housing stock that was lost to Harvey, which is your primary objective  the money the city is investing comes from Hurricane Harvey disaster recovery relief funds. But you would also be increasing the affordable housing supply that is very much needed in the city of Houston... It would be wonderful if the city would press this issue and require some of these things for the developers.

Davis said that another option would be to extend the period before a homeowner could sell a home at market rate from five to 15 years.

He said that both that option and the community land trust option not only create long-term affordability  they also protect homeowners from rapidly increasing tax increases. If a home cannot be sold for market value, tax appraisal districts should appraise their values accordingly.

The way the citys program currently stands, he said, will put low-income homeowners in a tenuous situation.

The Housing and Community Development Department started up its Large Tract Division  which aims to facilitate the development of entire subdivisions  after Hurricane Harveys widespread devastation in 2017 cost the city tens of thousands of homes, said Ray Miller, assistant director at the department.

The division buys land and deeds it over to a developer free of charge in exchange for the developer selling at least 51 percent of its homes at affordable prices.

The 10.7 acres for Hardy Yards in the Near Northside at 850 Burnett St. has already been purchased for $15.8 million in Harvey-related disaster recovery funds. The developer Hardy Yards LLC, headed by Kirby Liu of Lovett Commercial has been selected for the project, which is awaiting City Council approval, a fact sheet provided by the Housing and Community Development Department shows.

Willowbend and Sunnyside developments are both in very early stages  the city has the land under option and is currently conducting due diligence before purchasing the properties. The Willowbend site, which spans 12.2 acres off of Stella Link Road, just north of Harmony School of Ingenuity, is under option for $13.8 million. The Sunnyside site, which encompasses 14.9 acres off of Cityscape Avenue, just south of Terra Bella Health and Wellness Suites, is under option for $13.2 million.

rebecca.schuetz@chron.com

twitter.com/raschuetz
A Houston man on Thursday was ordered to be held in custody until he stands trial for allegedly running a nationwide fraud scheme, in which he was accused of tricking people into online romantic relationships and convincing them to send him millions of dollars.

Kenneth Anim, 38, on July 6 was indicted on five federal felony charges related to money laundering and illegal wire transfers, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. He was arrested on Tuesday

Anim is accused of running a yearslong scheme in which he used fake online personas to trick people into romantic relationships and convince them to send money to business and bank accounts he opened, prosecutors said Thursday at a detention hearing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

The Justice Department described Anim as a money mule  a person who transfers illegally acquired money on behalf of and at the direction of others. Officials said Thursday that there was at least one other unindicted co-conspirator involved in the scheme

The scheme had dozens of victims and involved the transfer of more than $5 million, said FBI Special Agent Alex Rayes, a fraud investigator who testified at Mondays hearing. One victim, a man from Maryland, told investigators he paid more than $1 million to a person he believed was a woman he met on a dating website. Another woman told investigators she met a man on Facebook, and chatted with him on the website and by telephone, Rayes said.

The woman was convinced to send money to help the man get seized gold and cash back from U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, Rayes said. That story about the seized items was a lie, but the woman sent more than $68,000 to a bank account managed by Anim, Rayes said.

The FBI began an investigation into Anim in 2019, Rayes said. The fraud was alleged to have happened from 2014 to 2019.

Anim was arraigned on Thursday. He pleaded not guilty.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter Bray denied Anims request to be released until his trial.

.

Anim was connected to the scheme because his name was on the incorporation documents for the businesses where people sent their money, Rayes said.

Anim is a citizen of both the United States and Ghana, prosecutors said. His parents and children live in Houston, but officials said he spends months at a time in the West African country

Bray said he denied Anims pretrial release because of his previous travel to Africa and because the charges portray him as a person who was very good at tricking people.

Theres an enormous amount of money thats missing that has gone to accounts that are controlled by him, Bray said. Not only does he have contact with a foreign county, but hes quite obviously capable of living there for as long as he wants.

Anims trial was scheduled for Aug. 29. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a possible $500,000 maximum fine.

john.ferguson@chron.com
An East Texas company on Thursday was ordered to pay $275,000, and serve three years probation, for supplying potentially tainted rocket fuel to NASA, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Executives from Anahuac Transport Inc. in February pleaded guilty to fraud, agreed to forfeit $251,401 the company had made from the scheme and to be banned from receiving federal government contracts for two years.

U.S. District Court Judge Alfred H. Bennett, on Thursday imposed the additional fine and probation order. Bennett said the company had abused the privilege of playing a role in the U.S. space program, which has deep connection to Houston because of the Johnson Space Center.

The company in December was accused of taking dangerous shortcuts while transporting rocket and jet fuel for rocket launches to the International Space Station. Anahuac transported the fuel for NASA, the Department of Defense and private companies, including SpaceX, to be used to launch rockets into space.

Federal prosecutors accused the company of fraudulently stating its tankers could safely carry the rocket fuel.

From 2012 to 2020, the company submitted certificates saying its tankers were clean, or hadn't previously carried chemicals that would contaminate the rocket fuel. NASA and Defense Department found that the trucks had hauled incompatible chemicals, and that NASA had used the fuel from those tankers for rocket launches.

The Justice Department didn't say if using the fuel caused any problems for rocket launches during the eight years Anahuac was used as a contractor.

Anahuac executives Gary Monteau and Brant Charpiot pleaded guilty to the charge in February. The company's attorney didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday afternoon.

As of December 2021, the freight trucking company had six employees and makes $1.22 million in sales, according to Dun & Bradstreet, a data analytic firm. A U.S. Transportation Departments Motor Carrier Safety Administration report showed the companys drivers logged 2.2 million miles in 2019. The Better Business Bureau reports the company has been in business since 1996.

john.ferguson@chron.com
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Texas has seen more days with unhealthy levels of smog pollution this year than it has in a decade, state data shows, as vehicle and industrial emissions react with record high temperatures, spiking ozone concentrations.

Since the beginning of the year, Texas air monitors have recorded 43 days as of Tuesday when ozone concentrations were high enough somewhere in the state to be considered unhealthy by the Environmental Protection Agency. Thats double the number of unhealthy ozone days recorded by this time last year, and its the most in the period of January to mid-July since 2012, air monitoring data maintained by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality shows.

Ground-level ozone, a component of whats known as smog, irritates and inflames the lungs, leaving them more susceptible to infections such as the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, and making it harder for people to breathe. Ozone can make lung diseases worse, prompt asthma attacks and cause or aggravate chronic bronchitis. The pollutant is especially concerning when combined with extreme heat, experts said.

Extreme heat is often thought of in this country as an inconvenience rather than a life-threatening danger, but we know that when organ systems in the body are under stress from extreme heat, theyre extremely vulnerable to other assaults from air pollution, said Vijay Limaye, an epidemiologist and senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy nonprofit.

State regulators have issued dozens of warnings this summer across the state advising people with asthma, older adults and others at risk of lung complications to stay indoors on days when smog levels are projected to be high. Those who do not have a preexisting condition should take caution as well, Limaye said, since ozone can contribute to the development of asthma and other lung conditions.

Heat makes the smog worse: On sunny, hot and stagnant days, sunlight and high temperatures accelerate reactions between volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides to form ozone. Climate change  which has increased average temperatures in Texas  has made those conditions even more common.

Were beginning to detect this climate change signature on ozone pollution in which we have higher summertime ozone levels because its hotter outside, Limaye said.

More than 79 million Americans live in areas that do not meet national air quality health standards for smog, according to the EPA. In Texas, at least 12 million people live in a county that doesnt meet the 2008 federal ozone standards, EPA data shows.

High levels of pollution can disproportionately harm Black and Latino children, researchers have found. One 2017 Rice University study showed that 13 percent of Black children in Houston have an asthma diagnosis compared with 7 percent of Hispanic children and 4 percent of white children and Asian children.

But while smog levels spike this summer, Texas politicians and regulatory agencies are fighting the federal government, hoping to block stricter regulations on the pollutant.

In March, the EPA proposed a rule that would require about two dozen states, including Texas, to cut ozone pollution from power plants and industrial sources such as natural gas pipelines and chemical manufacturers that contribute to ozone pollution in neighboring states  strengthening a regulation known as the good neighbor rule.

This good neighbor plan will better protect the health of Americans across the country, EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement when the rule was proposed. Air pollution doesnt stop at the state line.

Texas politicians and state agencies have urged the EPA to withdraw its proposal. At the end of June, Attorney General Ken Paxton argued in a comment on the EPAs plan that the federal agency had overstepped its authority and that the EPA ignored how the regulations would affect electric grid reliability in Texas.

The EPA takes on  however poorly  critical reliability issues and ignores the independent nature of the Texas electric grid, Paxton wrote, stating that it was inappropriate for the EPAs plan to require states to consider shifting electric generation to renewable or lower-emission sources of electricity as a strategy to reduce ozone.

The TCEQ, the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas have all opposed the federal governments plan. The agencies argue that the requirements could force power plants to switch sources from natural gas or coal to renewable energy and that such changes are outside of the EPAs authority and expertise.

The state wants the EPA to instead approve its plan for ozone, which concluded that Texas emissions were not significantly contributing to ozone pollution in neighboring states. The federal agency said earlier this year that it intends to reject Texas plan and analysis, finding that Texas emissions did significantly affect other states.

Environmental groups argue that the EPAs good neighbor plan is necessary because Texas emissions are spilling over into neighboring states.

Texas is a major contributor to not just air pollution in Texas but really all around the country, said Neil Gormley, a senior attorney at the environmental nonprofit Earthjustice.

He added that he thought the EPAs proposal appropriately balanced cutting pollution and maintaining electrical reliability because it allows states to choose from a variety of methods to reduce pollution.

The EPA also recently cracked down on the Houston and Dallas regions for violating national ozone standards, seeking to list the metro regions as severe violators of 2008 federal ozone pollution standards. A final determination is expected in October. The two major metro regions have struggled to meet federal thresholds in recent years after decades of progress.

The Houston region has had the most days with ozone levels considered unsafe so far this year, according to TCEQ data, followed by the Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin areas.

At the same time, the EPA also has announced that it is considering redesignating parts of the Permian Basin  the West Texas and New Mexico oil field that produces more than 5 million barrels of oil per day  as not meeting federal standards on ozone pollution. Doing so would require Texas to take steps to attain lower levels of ozone in the region.

The EPA began to consider the redesignation after the environmental nonprofit group WildEarth Guardians in 2021 petitioned the EPA to take action. At the end of June, Gov. Greg Abbott sent a letter to President Joe Biden, asking him to stop the EPA from proceeding with the plan.

This action could result in draconian regulations imposed by the EPA that would directly attack Americas most prolific oil field, Abbott wrote, arguing that regulations could further increase gasoline prices. He also warned that if Biden didnt respond by late July, Texas will take the action needed to protect the production of oil.

Renae Eze, a spokesperson for Abbott, said in a statement that Biden has not yet responded to the letter from the governor and criticized the president for feigning concern about gasoline prices. Eze reiterated that Texas will take any action necessary to protect (Texas) oil production, but did not specify further what the governor would do.

In a statement, EPA spokesperson Shayla Powell said that if the agency moves forward, it will send a notification letter to the governor soliciting his input on the redesignation and potential boundaries for the area to be regulated.

Victor Flatt, an environmental law professor at the University of Houston Law Center, said hes not surprised the EPA is considering designating the Permian Basin as a nonattainment area for ozone given the recorded measurements of other pollutants like methane.

If theyve got enough evidence to have to respond (to the WildEarth Guardians petition), my instinct would be that theyre going to do it, he said.

He said Texas may choose to sue over the Permian Basin designation or the good neighbor ozone plan, which ultimately will slow reductions in smog.

The EPA never gets to do its work because its always going to be challenged politically, Flatt said. Some states, like Texas, will sue the EPA no matter what. And it delays things.

Disclosure: Rice University and University of Houston have been financial supporters of the Texas Tribune. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism.

The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Public hearings can be long, and crowded, and agonizingly tedious. People only attend when theyre concerned enough, desperate enough to be heard, or if they think they can actually do some good.

You can bet those conditions were met when a crowd of Aldine residents packed the East Aldine Management District building in April to urge the states environmental regulatory agency to intervene over a planned concrete batch plant in a neighborhood that already has too many of those polluting facilities.

The new one, expected to be built near a revamped public park with two community centers, was especially upsetting.

Holding signs that read Dont Make Our Air Quality Worse and No Cement Batch Plants, many in the community were hoping for a contested case hearing, a chance to plead their case formally, according to reporting from the Houston Chronicles Emily Foxhall.

Magdalena Ruiz said she worried about the students at the nearby elementary school. Robert Andrado shared that hed lost family members to cancer and that he worried a new plant would only worsen air quality conditions in the area. Ruben Salazar, who has asthma and lived near the site, said in a comment submitted to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that his health had already suffered from existing plants.

But in the end, it didnt really matter what the folks at the hearing came to say. It was too late. Before they even walked through the door, it was too late. Before they waited hours as people lined up for a chance to speak, it was too late.

No one from the state agency ever told the crowd as much that night, but as it turned out, the deadline to request a contested case hearing had already passed.

Why even hold the hearing that night? Harris County Commissioner Adrian Garcia fumed to Foxhall in an interview.

Good question. Its one many communities across Texas have asked and one that has contributed to faltering trust in TCEQ. From Gunter to Alamo to Aldine, Texans are fighting for better water and air quality. Too often, that has meant fighting the state first.

It shouldnt be that way. And were not the only ones who think so.

The TCEQ is up for whats called a Sunset review, a regular process conducted by a state watchdog body that evaluates the performance and function of state agencies and even whether theyre still needed at all. Among the concerns already identified by the Sunset Commission: public engagement and trust.

(P)eople rely on TCEQ to protect their health and the environment but shortcomings in transparency and meaningful public participation contribute to public distrust of the agency, according to the Sunset report.

The report identifies multiple reasons that the public has lost faith in TCEQ, but moments such as that hours-long exercise in futility in Aldine are the clearest examples. Theres confusion and frustration around what TCEQ does, what it doesnt do, and what it cant do even if it wanted to. It regulates emissions from industrial facilities, for example, but not nuisances caused by light and traffic from those facilities. Too often, the agencys actions look more like rubber stamps for industry than rigorous reviews.

The agency had some 92,000 active air quality permit authorizations in 2021 alone and many of those never saw a public hearing. Most types of concrete batch plants, for example, are considered general or standard permits, according to the Sunset review. For those, TCEQ uses predetermined requirements for applications without individual assessments of the proposed facility.

Given the number of permits, holding a meeting for every single one would be an overwhelming proposition but the Sunset review did suggest adding earlier meetings for permit applications that already require one later on in the process.

Other recommendations include a strengthened public interest counsel, a tweaked compliance rating formula that puts greater emphasis on all types of violations, and public meetings for key agency decisions. If implemented with care, these changes could strengthen the relationship between the public and the agency meant to protect them.

Beyond sunset

In some ways, though, the recommendations dont go far enough.

Take Aldine. TCEQ could do more to weigh the cumulative impacts of industrial activity on such neighborhoods. In a community already home to many industrial plants, even if individually they all meet state standards, one more facility can be toxic.

Its kind of like how one hamburger by itself isnt going to hurt anybody. But one, each week, for a person already suffering from high blood pressure and heart issues, is another matter.

Neighborhoods most affected by the pre-existing conditions, if you will, of industrial pollution deserve clearer answers on how to assess the overall risk to health and how they can protect themselves.

A Houston Chronicle analysis found not only that 54 percent of concrete facilities are located in neighborhoods where the majority of residents are people of color but that plants in largely Black neighborhoods were more likely to be one of several in the area.

The work TCEQ does is highly technical. It involves standards from the federal Environmental Protection Agency as well as state requirements. When a new plant such as Aldines files a permit, public notices are added to an online database but those only include summaries of the application where companies are able to promise good practices but not offer details. Notices are published in local media and mailed to representatives. Individuals can also sign up to be added to those mailings.

The way state Rep. Armando Walle, D-Houston, found out about this particular application, though, was by driving by the site and seeing two small signs on wooden posts stuck into the dirt. He posted a picture of it to Facebook and requested a meeting with TCEQ.

In an emailed response to the editorial board, agency spokeswoman Laura Lopez noted that public meetings are often held by the agency regardless of whether the opportunity for a contested case hearing exists. Lopez called TCEQs public notice requirements robust and informative.

Aldine residents and representatives might use different words.

Next steps

Between the technical language, uncertainty about just what TCEQ can and cannot do, and a public notice system that doesnt seem to be notifying the public, the challenges TCEQ faces in gaining trust are bigger than an additional meeting.

The review process is ongoing for TCEQ and things arent quite over for the East Aldine concrete batch plant, either. The company still needs permits from the county to develop in a floodplain.

As an agency, TCEQ works with federal standards, state requirements and its own rules. The Legislature should act to make sure that when communities such as Aldine speak out, theyre heard.
In an erosion of our constitutional rights, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on June 22 that economic boycotts are not protected free speech under the First Amendment.

With this decision, the court upheld an Arkansas law that permits the state to do business only with contractors that refuse to boycott Israel or the territories it controls. The plaintiff in this case was the Arkansas Times, a local newspaper that does not boycott Israel or engage in any sort of foreign policy, but that refused to abdicate its First Amendment rights by signing the required affirmation in order to receive ad revenue from a state university.

We are both American rabbis who are committed to the safety and security of Israel and to its long-term flourishing side-by-side with a Palestinian state that ensures that Palestinians, like Jews, can fulfill their national ambitions and right to self-determination. Neither of us boycotts Israel or otherwise participates in the global boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.

Yet these laws have sweeping ramifications that go far beyond the question of boycotting Israel or any other country.

We believe that our constitutional right to free speech includes protection of speech with which one disagrees or even finds offensive. Infringing on free speech in order to protect ones own political interests ultimately erodes the First Amendment for all Americans.

We are already witnessing this erosion in Texas where free speech is being limited for political reasons, even beyond the question of boycotting Israel.

Last September, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 19, a law restricting state contracts with companies that discriminate against firearm and ammunition industries. This means that a corporation making the conscientious decision to respond to the horrific massacre of school children in Uvalde (or the less sensational gun violence that on average kills more than 120 Americans each day but rarely makes national headlines) by choosing not to invest in the firearms industry might find itself unable to secure government contracts in Texas.

Indeed, Citigroup, which in 2018 announced that it will not do business with clients who sell guns to those who havent passed background checks, now finds itself choosing between its financial interests and a moral commitment to stemming the proliferation of firearms. Other major banks including JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America are in similar situations.

Faced with losing major contracts with the state of Texas, it is likely that many corporations will abandon their principled objection to investing in firearms. Indeed, one law firm that represents companies in government contracts advises companies to assess the impact of Texas Senate Bill 19 on their government contracting opportunities, and (to) expect and prepare for heightened state regulation of corporate firearm policies.

This is bad news for those who, fed up with the federal and state governments inaction, instead turn to pressuring corporations to divest from the gun industry. And its bad for those of us who believe in the democratic value of the First Amendment, which ensures Americans right to express our values and opinions in public.

The language of this law is a virtual cut-and-paste of the 2017 Texas law which, like the Arkansas law, barred the state from doing business with companies that boycott Israel or Israeli-controlled territory, and which is now being contested in court (Truah, an organization one of us heads, filed an amicus brief with J Street in this case, as well as in the Arkansas case). A federal judge blocked enforcement of the law. Using the same template, in September, Texas also passed a law forbidding the state from doing business with companies that engage in energy discrimination  that is, those that divest from fossil fuels. States including Louisiana, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kansas and South Carolina have introduced copycat legislation, thanks to an organized push by the American Legislative Council, best known for promoting model legislation for some of the nations most conservative state lawmakers.

More than 30 states have, like Arkansas and Texas, passed laws banning or restricting state business with contractors who boycott Israel and/or the territories it controls. The ACLU plans to appeal the decision in the Arkansas case. There have been parallel, though unsuccessful, efforts to pass similar bills in Congress. Although champions of these laws claim to be fighting antisemitism and protecting Jews, the most significant outcome of the laws is success in shutting down constitutionally-protected speech critical of Israel.

While a company that refuses to do business with Jews would certainly be guilty of unlawful discrimination, choosing not to do business with Israel is akin to boycotting Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, or Florida over its Dont Say Gay law, or China over its use of slave labor by Uyghur people. One can choose to participate in or shun such boycotts; both choices are protected by the First Amendment.

A true commitment to the Bill of Rights requires us to defend the principles of free speech even, and especially, in the cases of speech with which we disagree. Anti-boycott laws have already opened the door to laws in Texas and beyond that will keep more dangerous firearms on the street and more fossil fuels polluting our planet. Regardless of ones opinion about boycotting Israel or any other country, we must protect the First Amendment for all of us, lest its crucial protections disappear altogether.

Rabbi Oren J. Hayon is the senior rabbi of Congregation Emanu El in Houston. Rabbi Jill Jacobs is the CEO of Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights.
Subscribing to our services is a three step process. First you have to create an account and then you have to pick if you want to subscribe to digital and or print.

Some people only want to be a digital subscriber to get access online and others want to also receive the print edition.

If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create.
As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content.

When you click get started below it will walk you through creating an online account to attach your print subscription number to.

After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. The page will reload and you will be prompted to enter an account number and a zip code.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE NUMBER OFF OF THE MOST RECENT ISSUE OR ANYTHING AFTER JANUARY 28, 2019 TO GAIN ACCESS!

OLD ACCOUNT NUMBERS WILL NOT WORK

The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those.
Thank you for reading!

Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue.
State Awards $4.6M for Ecological Restoration and Climate Change Projects

BOSTON, Mass.  The state Department of Fish and Games Division of Ecological Restoration is awarding $4,635,000 in grants through three programs that will strengthen community preparedness for large storms, improve climate-ready infrastructure, protect fisheries, wildlife, and river habitats, and restore floodplain habitat and flood storage capabilities.

$1.8 million has been awarded to 13 municipalities through DERs Culvert Replacement Municipal Assistance (CRMA) Grant Program, $600 thousand to support three Restoration Partnerships through DERs Regional Restoration Partnerships Program, and $2.2 million to 15 Priority Ecological Restoration Projects. Additionally, in December 2021, Governor Baker signed a $4 billion federal COVID-19 relief funding spending bill from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA). Funding for this years DER projects have been awarded through the divisions capital budget and funds provided by the ARPA spending plan.

"Since coming into office, our Administration has taken a proactive approach to address climate change, and these ecological restoration grants will further our efforts to address aging infrastructure while enhancing outdoor recreation," said Governor Charlie Baker. "Through these programs, we are investing in our communities future by strengthening the Commonwealths climate resilience, creating jobs, and improving access to nature for residents to benefit from."

"The Commonwealths lands and waters are a crucial part of the states infrastructure in contributing to the safety of our residents and the health of our ecosystems," said Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito. "The strong relationships between our Administration and municipalities have enabled the transformative restoration of many habitats and wildlife that are directly beneficial to our communities and those who live within them."

The CRMA Grant Program supports culvert replacement projects that improve river health and municipal roads in communities across the Commonwealth. Through a competitive process, the program assists municipalities in replacing undersized and deteriorating culverts with crossings that meet improved design standards for fish and wildlife passage, river health, and storm resiliency. The grants also help municipalities deal with the ever-growing cost of aging road infrastructure. Furthermore, DERs Regional Restoration Partnerships Program was established in 2021. This program builds the capacity of local and regional organizations to advance restoration work collaboratively. The Partnerships Program helps non-profit organizations and Regional Planning Agencies to lead and support ecological restoration within their regions. Pairing partner strengths with the state's investments empower networks of partners to restore rivers and wetlands and helps people and nature adapt to climate change.

Recognizing the importance of these investments, the Baker-Polito Administration has proposed utilizing ARPA funding in the FORWARD Act to address the Commonwealths ecological and community resiliency. The bill, which is currently before the legislature, includes $1.4 million for culvert projects.

"The Baker-Polito Administration continues to foster strong partnerships with municipalities to make significant investments that allow communities to restore their roads, streams, and fisheries," said Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Beth Card. "As communities throughout the Commonwealth feel the increasing impacts of climate change, these ecological restoration projects will create an appealing and functional community refuge for residents and wildlife across the Commonwealth."

"Ecological restoration improves habitat, water quality, and public safety, all critical to creating more opportunities for Massachusetts residents and visitors to enjoy outdoor recreation all across the Commonwealth," said Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Ron Amidon. "Importantly, these DER programs will advance significant projects that will greatly benefit local communities, ecosystems, and wildlife."

Additionally, the Priority Projects Program is one of the vehicles by which DER pursues restoration projects that present the most significant benefits. The Priority Projects include dam removal, culvert replacement, river, wetland, salt marsh, and cranberry bog restoration projects, which will restore healthy habitat and provide benefits to Massachusetts communities, such as addressing the expected impacts of climate change. Once completed, these projects will provide significant social, environmental, and economic benefits to the Commonwealth and local communities. To review a full list of active ecological restoration Priority Projects throughout the state, please visit DERs Priority Projects Map webpage.

The Division of Ecological Restoration is excited to support such a wide array of ecological restoration projects to restore wetlands and waterways throughout the Commonwealth, said DER Director Beth Lambert. The Baker-Polito Administration looks forward to working with its partners to move this important work forward.

The following 13 projects were awarded grant funds through the CRMA Grant Program:

Project: Elmer Brook Culvert Replacement, South Hadley

Award: Town of South Hadley, $147,500 ($122,500 DER Capital; $25,000 ARPA)

Summary: The Town of South Hadley will conduct field data collection, design, and permitting for a culvert replacement project along Elmer Brook at Pearl Street. The replacement of the culvert will restore natural stream functions and improve connectivity on Elmer Brook.

Project: Falulah Brook Culvert Replacements, Fitchburg

Award: City of Fitchburg, $143,500 ($125,500 DER Capital; $18,000 ARPA)

Summary: The City of Fitchburg will conduct field data collection, engineering, design, and permitting work on two culvert replacement projects along the Falulah Brook and tributary along Ashby West Road. Replacing these degrading culverts will increase wildlife habitat and passage, reduce flooding hazards and unmanaged runoff and erosion, and improve the Falulah Brook water quality.

Project: Hop Brook Culvert Replacement, Belchertown

Award: Town of Belchertown, $150,000 (ARPA)

Summary: The Town of Belchertown will conduct design, engineering, and permitting work on a culvert replacement project along Hop Brook at Warren Wright Road. Replacing this structure will improve stream connectivity and wildlife access and reduce flooding risk on Hop Brook.

Project: Jones River Culvert Replacement, Kingston

Award: Town of Kingston, $75,000 (DER Capital)

Summary: The Town of Kingston will conduct engineering, design, and permitting work on a culvert replacement project along Jones River at Lake Street. Replacing this undersized crossing will improve natural stream functions and stream connectivity on the Jones River.

Project: Karner Brook Tributary Culvert Replacement, Egremont

Award: Town of Egremont, $26,500 (DER Capital)

Summary: The Town of Egremont will conduct engineering, design, and permitting work on a culvert replacement project along a tributary to Karner Brook at Blunt Road. Replacing this perched and degrading structure will improve stream connectivity and decrease barriers to wildlife passage.

Project: Kickemuit River Culvert Replacements, Swansea

Award: Town of Swansea, $126,000 (DER Capital)

Summary: The Town of Swansea will conduct field data collection and conceptual design work on three culvert replacement projects along the Kickemuit River at Stephen French Road, Burnside Drive, and Lynwood Road. Replacing these undersized crossings will restore stream connectivity, reduce wildlife barriers, and reduce flooding risk on the Kickemuit River.

Project: King Brook Culvert Replacement, Hawley

Award: Town of Hawley, $100,000 (ARPA)

Summary: The Town of Hawley will conduct design, engineering, and permitting work on a culvert replacement project along King Brook at West Hawley Road (8A), as well as explore removing a small stream barrier immediately upstream. Removing these stream barriers will improve wildlife passage on King Brook.

Project: Miscoe Brook Culvert Replacement, Franklin

Award: Town of Franklin, $44,500 (DER Capital)

Summary: The Town of Franklin will conduct field data collection work on a culvert replacement project along the Miscoe Brook at South Street. Replacing this undersized culvert will increase wildlife passage and stream connectivity and reduce flooding hazards on Miscoe Brook.

Project: Noanet Brook Culvert Replacements, Dover

Award: Town of Dover, $60,000 (DER Capital)

Summary: The Town of Dover will conduct field data collection work on two culvert replacement projects along the Noanet Brook at Willow Street and Dedham Street. Replacing these undersized culverts on Noanet Brook will improve the connectivity of over two miles of coldwater fishery for wildlife, including rare species.

Project: Satucket River Culvert Replacement, East Bridgewater

Award: Town of East Bridgewater, $340,000 (ARPA)

Summary: The Town of East Bridgewater will complete construction work on a culvert replacement project along the Satucket River at Pond Street. Replacing this structure will improve stream connectivity and wildlife passage, decrease flooding hazards on the Satucket River, and provide resilience to critical infrastructure.

Project: Savery Brook Culvert Replacement, Washington

Award: Town of Washington, $367,000 (ARPA)

Summary: The Town of Washington will conduct construction work on a culvert replacement project along the Savery Brook at Frost Road. Replacing this partially-collapsed, undersized, and perched structure will increase stream connectivity, improve aquatic habitat, and reduce flooding hazards.

Project: Scott Road Culvert Replacement, Harvard

Award: Town of Harvard, $50,000 (DER Capital)

Summary: The Town of Harvard will conduct field data collection and preliminary engineering work on a culvert replacement project along an unnamed brook at Scott Road. Replacing this undersized and failing structure will reduce flooding hazards and barriers to wildlife passage.

Project: Sucker Brook Culvert Replacements, Pepperell

Award: Town of Pepperell, $190,000 ($120,000 DER Capital; $70,000 ARPA)

Summary: The Town of Pepperell will conduct field data collection work on two culvert replacement projects along Sucker Brook at Sartelle Street and Sheffield Street, as well as construction to replace the failing Heald Street culvert. Replacing these degrading and perched structures will improve stream connectivity, wildlife access, and river function on Sucker Brook.

The following three projects were awarded funds through DERs Regional Restoration Partnerships Program:

Project: Berkshire Clean, Cold, Connected Restoration Partnership

Award: Housatonic Valley Association, $220,375 (DER Capital)

Summary: These funds will be used to assess and prioritize high-priority ecological restoration opportunities, such as road-stream crossing replacements, and to support regional partners contributing to planning and restoration efforts.

Project: Buzzards Bay Watershed Restoration Partnership

Award: Buzzards Bay Coalition, $165,900 (DER Capital)

Summary: These funds will be used to evaluate restoration needs and opportunities, address information gaps, and develop and use a project prioritization model that weighs elements such as ecological benefit, climate resilience benefit, social readiness, and other cultural benefits, and financial feasibility.

Project: Merrimack Restoration Partnership

Award: Merrimack River Watershed Council, $213,725 (DER Capital)

Summary: These funds will be used to support high-priority dam removal projects, the Talbot Mills feasibility study Technical Advisory Committee, and local partners working on the dam removal process and public outreach.

The following 15 projects were awarded funds through DERs Priority Projects Program:

Project: Abbey Brook Restoration & Revitalization, Chicopee

Award: City of Chicopee, $100,000 (ARPA)

Summary: The project is working to restore and revitalize Abbey Brook in Chicopee by removing two dams, replacing an undersized road-stream crossing, and daylighting a portion of the brook that runs underground through a culvert.

Project: Bayview Bogs Restoration, West Yarmouth

Award: Cape Cod Conservation District, $50,000 (ARPA)

Summary: The project is working to restore approximately 90 acres of former cranberry farmland to natural wetlands. Funding will support baseline assessment and hydrologic study of the project site.

Project: Becker Pond Dam Removal, Mt. Washington

Award: The Nature Conservancy, $50,000 (ARPA)

Summary: The project is working to remove the Becker Pond Dam, which will eliminate a public safety hazard, eliminate dam owner liability and future costs, and promote restoration of ecological processes and functions, including restored fish passage, repaired physical processes, and improved water quality. Funding will go towards completing the final designs, permitting, and bid phase services.

Project: Broad Meadow Brook Restoration, Worcester

Award: Massachusetts Audubon Society, $60,000 (ARPA)

Summary: This project will improve water quality and ecological function in the stream and wetland complex. Funding will support hydrologic and hydraulic modeling and the development of conceptual restoration designs that meet project objectives and community needs.

Project: Mattapoisett Bogs Restoration, Mattapoisett

Award: Buzzards Bay Coalition, $75,000 (ARPA)

Summary: This project seeks to re-naturalize 57 acres of retired cranberry bogs, restore aquatic connectivity to Tripps Mill Brook, and improve public access and amenities on the site. Funding will support the final design, bid document preparation, and construction.

Project: Herring River Estuary Restoration, Wellfleet & Truro

Award: Friends of Herring River, $830,000 (DER Capital)

Summary: The project is working to restore natural tidal flow to approximately six miles of waterways and up to 1,000 acres of severely degraded estuarine habitats, which will improve water quality, enhance migratory fish access to hundreds of acres of spawning ponds, restore habitat, and increase coastal resilience to the effects of climate change and sea-level rise. Funding will support permitting, final engineering designs, monitoring, data collection, project management, and coordination.

Project: Ipswich River Restoration, Ipswich

Award: Ipswich River Watershed Association, $40,000 (ARPA)

Summary: The project is working to remove two dams on the Ipswich River, which will open 49 miles of river and provide access to spawning habitat for various diadromous fish species. Funding will support structural and geotechnical investigations to facilitate dam removal design and permitting advancement for the removal of the Ipswich Mills Dam.

Project: Kinne Brook Culvert Replacement, Chester

Award: Trout Unlimited, $25,000 (ARPA)

Summary: The project is working to replace a culvert and remove another on a tributary to Kinne Brook. Replacing the undersized culvert with a larger, safer structure and removing a failed culvert no longer in use will allow full upstream and downstream movement of aquatic species and reduce the risk of road damage and failure in flood conditions. Funding will support the completion of the final designs.

Project: Larkin Road Dam Removal, Newbury

Award: Town of Newbury, $70,000 (ARPA)

Summary: The project seeks to remove the Larkin Road Dam and associated structures to restore fish passage for diadromous and resident aquatic species. Funding will support the development of conceptual and permitting-level engineering designs.

Project: Marstons Mills Cranberry Bog Restoration, Barnstable

Award: Barnstable Clean Water Coalition, $70,000 (ARPA)

Summary: The project is working to restore approximately 56 acres of retired cranberry farmland to natural wetlands with improved water quality. Funding will support restoration project management and restoration design services.

Project: Mill Pond Salt Marsh Restoration, Truro

Award: Town of Truro, $150,000 (ARPA)

Summary: The project is working to address a tidal restriction along Mill Pond Road caused by an undersized culvert by restoring tidal flow to 13 acres of salt marsh habitat and reducing storm flooding and erosion damage to infrastructure. Funding will advance engineering designs and initiate permitting.

Project: Third Herring Brook Restoration, Hanover

Award: North and South River Watershed Association, $85,000 (ARPA)

Summary: The project is working to remove three barriers on Third Herring Brook, a Coldwater Fish Resource, and anadromous fish run in Hanover, which will restore ecological functions of the brook and improve wildlife passage. Funding will support construction and administration.

Project: Town River Restoration, Bridgewater

Award: Town of Bridgewater, $550,000 (ARPA)

Summary: The project brings together the removal of the High Street Dam, replacement of the aging High Street Bridge, and protection and enhancement of surrounding infrastructure and public utilities, which will open 10 miles of river for fish access to historic spawning and rearing habitat, reduce area flood risk, eliminate the threat to public safety posed by sudden failure of the dam, and improve public access. Funding will support the construction phase of the project, expected to occur this summer.

Project: Upper Coonamessett Wetland Complex Restoration, Falmouth

Award: Town of Falmouth, $50,000 (DER Capital)

Summary: The project will restore a healthy, self-sustaining wetland and stream system within over 20 acres of a former commercial cranberry bog and approximately 3,700 linear feet of river channel along the Coonamessett River. Funding will support the completion of the MEPA review of the project and the advancement of the engineering design.

Project: Ware River Restoration, Hardwick

Award: Wheelwright Water District Commission, $10,000 (ARPA)

Summary: The project is working to remove the Wheelwright Pond Dam in Hardwick, which will open 41 upstream river miles, improve habitat for Eastern brook trout and other state-listed species, and restore natural river processes. Funding will support pre-implementation groundwater monitoring by the Wheelwright Water District.

I want to thank the Baker Administration and DER Director Beth Lambert for their commitment to addressing climate change, said Senator Edward J. Kennedy (D-Lowell). These three grant programs support a diverse array of projects, and represent a significant investment by the Commonwealth into climate resiliency.

The Herring River Restoration Project will restore natural tidal flow and critical estuarine habitat to one of the largest saltwater marshes in the Commonwealth, which will reverse the ecological damage to this beautiful area, improve water quality, return marine life and shellfishing to the river and increase coastal resiliency as we face climate change, said State Representative Sarah Peake (D-Provincetown). I want to thank the Baker-Polito Administration for recognizing how important this project is to the Outer Cape.

The mission of the Division of Ecological Restoration is to restore and protect the Commonwealths rivers, wetlands, and watersheds for the benefit of people and the environment. Additionally, the Department of Fish and Game is responsible for promoting the conservation and enjoyment of the Commonwealth's natural resources. DFG carries out this mission through land protection and wildlife habitat management, management of inland and marine fish and wildlife species, and ecological restoration of fresh water, salt water, and terrestrial habitats. DFG promotes enjoyment of the Massachusetts environment through outdoor skills workshops, fishing festivals and other educational programs, and by enhancing access to the Commonwealth's rivers, lakes, and coastal waters.
BCC to Host Three Virtual Information Sessions in August

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  Berkshire Community College will hold three free virtual information sessions in the month of August on Wednesday, August 3 at 4 and Monday, August 15 at 12 p.m.

The 30-minute info sessions, presented by admissions counselors on Zoom, are designed to familiarize prospective students with the application and registration process.

To register for a session, visit www.berkshirecc.edu/openhouse.

Information session participants can ask questions about the admissions process, learn about BCCs financial aid options and hear from staff about programs and student support services.

For more information, contact the Admissions Office at (413) 236-1636.?




iciHaiti - Economy : All about the new 250 Gourdes note





The Bank of the Republic of Haiti (BRH) has unveiled the characteristics and security elements of the new 250 Gourdes note put into circulation on the national market.



Characteristics :

On the front of the note is the portrait of Jean Jacques Dessalines (1758-1806). Emperor Jean Jacques Dessalines, Father of the Fatherland, appears on the 250 gourdes note. General experienced in guerrilla tactics, genius in military strategy, he defeated the French Army and won the independence of Haiti. Symbol of freedom and founder of the first black Republic in the world, Jean Jacques Dessalines remains one of the greatest figures in the history of Haiti and also of humanity.







On the back is Fort Decided, Marchand (Artibonite), one of the defense ramparts of the new state.







Security elements :

Multidirectional and permanent latent image.



Demetallized holographic tape with tactile printing for the visually impaired.



The BRH asks the Haitian population to be vigilant so as not to take any counterfeit notes that may be in circulation.



See also :

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-37100-icihaiti-economy-all-about-the-new-100-gourdes-note.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-36957-icihaiti-economy-all-about-the-new-25-gourdes-note.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-36972-icihaiti-economy-all-about-the-new-50-gourdes-note.html



IH/ iciHaiti


















Smart platform provides quality teaching resources

(China Daily) 13:21, July 15, 2022

A primary school student uses a tablet device to attend a class conducted by Xueersi Online School in February 2020. [Photo/CHINA DAILY]

China's smart learning platform has offered free high-quality digital learning resources to students from primary school to universities and strongly supported students and teachers who cannot attend in-person classes during the COVID-19 epidemic in May.

The Smart Education of China platform-www.smartedu.cn-was launched by the Ministry of Education on March 28. It integrates platforms for primary and secondary school education, vocational education and higher education, and the platform for employment services for college graduates.

"Since its launch in March, more and more high-quality digital resources are provided and the number of views has soared," Xu Mei, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Education, said at a news conference on Thursday.

As of Tuesday, the platform attracted 430 million visitors with 3.03 billion visits.

Some 34,000 resources are provided to primary and middle school students. Since the launch of the platform, the average daily visits to those resources are more than 28.9 million.

In May, when the epidemic hit some regions across China and schools were shut down in areas such as Beijing and Shanghai, the record of daily visits to primary and middle school resources was 89.9 million, which served as an online classroom to assist student education during that time, she said.

In May, psychological health sections were added to the platform, which gained popularity among students, Xu said.

The sections-fights against the COVID-19 epidemic and psychological health-gained 162,000 visits and 833,000 visits respectively. Some courses in the section, such as Mental Health for College Students and Academician Showing You the COVID-19, received very high views, ranking top tier of the views among all resources.

Xu noted that as many schools have started summer vacations, more resources in psychological health sections are added to the platform, such as Guidance for Primary and Middle School Students to Fight the Epidemic at Home.

The platform has not only supported students' learning but also helped teachers to improve their teaching skills.

The platform has launched the sections to boost teachers' professional development in basic, vocational and higher education.

China has 18.4 million teachers, and the platform gathered high-quality resources to serve them, said Ren Youqun, director of the ministry's department of teachers.

At the basic education level, good courses and programs are recorded and offered on the platform. Teachers' online workshops are established for teachers and principals to share resources and make teaching plans together.

"We have invited more than 200 renowned and experienced teachers and principals to open online workshops at the platform and encouraged other teachers to join, especially those from less-advantaged areas in central and western China," Ren said.

"China has about 15,000 to 16,000 teachers and principals with the titles of renowned teachers and principals at the provincial level. If each of them has dozens of apprentices and up to a hundred fans, those good teachers and principals can affect millions of teachers," he added.

The platform aims to promote education equality, bridge the digital divide and promote common prosperity with a wide range of education resources and courses. It is also an online classroom for students and teachers who cannot attend in-person courses due to the COVID-19 epidemic.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Hongyu)
In the center of Highland Park, Illinois, lies Port Clinton Square. Designed in the 1980s as a bid to bolster the local economy of downtown Highland Park, the square acts as a gathering hub for the community and business district, prominently featuring a full-scale map of the city. It's a common sight to see children tracing their fingers on the miniaturized streets until they find their homes.

Today, the map is covered by dozens of flower bouquets, placed in honor of the seven people who lost their lives and over 30 people who were injured after a mass shooter opened fire on an unsuspecting crowd of Fourth of July parade attendees. In the ensuing week, the neighborhood, mainly comprised of small businesses and restaurants, have banded together to lean on one another and navigate how to move forward.

"I was walking over to see if any of my staff were watching the parade. We were supposed to open up about 15 minutes later, and then it happened," says Ryan Gamperl, co-owner of the restaurant Michael's, which has been a Highland Park staple since opening as a tiny hot dog stand in 1977. For nearly 50 years, the restaurant has served as a friendly spot for families, hosted countless bar and bat mitzvahs, and catered hundreds of backyard events in the area.

Michael's, along with a large swathe of the businesses that make up downtown Highland Park, were shut down from July 4 to July 12 as the FBI ran its investigation in the area. In that week, Gamperl says he was forced to throw out $12,000 in food product that had spoiled.

Beyond the financial loss, Gamperl says he was more frustrated that he couldn't provide his community with the comfort food they love in their time of grieving.

Kira Kessler, founder of indie fashion boutique Rock N Rags, says that she wasn't sure if people would return once stores were able to reopen, but quickly had her fears erased once she saw crowds flooding the street again.

"Everybody was shopping and walking their dogs and getting a bite to eat. It was the community's way of saying, 'We're taking back our streets, we won't live in fear,' " says Kessler, who has long ties to local businesses in the community. Her father ran the local music store, CD City, for decades, and after gaining experience in the New York fashion industry, she returned to her hometown just before the pandemic in order to grow the business.

Like Gamperl, Kessler says that the tragedy has only brought the Highland Park business community closer together. Instead of picking up supplies from the local Walgreens, Kessler now is frequenting the nearby general store Ross's and taking her team to lunch breaks at Michael's.

For his part, Gamperl has also experienced a flurry of business since reopening, saying that he's "making up for all the meals we couldn't serve last week."

Efforts are already underway to ensure this new sense of community among the local businesses continues going forward. Kessler says that she's working with her neighbors to organize an event for the community, and is discussing additional ways to collaborate on projects together.
In this article, we explain how GST is charged on the advertising sector in India. In a recent ruling, the Authority for Advance Ruling (AAR) clarified that in India, advertisement through digital media like website, mobile apps, etc. will attract a GST of 18 percent. The GST rate applicable for print media advertisement is five percent.

Recently in a ruling involving e-commerce portal Myntra Designs Pvt Ltd, the Karnataka bench of Authority for Advance Ruling (AAR) clarified that sale of advertisement space on the internet would be liable to 18 percent goods and services tax (GST).

Myntra Designs Pvt Ltd had approached the AAR seeking a verdict on whether providing advertisement space on its portal to foreign entity Lenzing Singapore was liable to GST. The AAR ruled that since the service provided by Myntra to Lenzing entails sale of internet advertising space (except on commission) and is being charged at a fixed rate and not on a commission basis, it will be classified under other professional, technical and business services under the CGST Act, 2017.

How are different advertising platforms charged under GST in India?

In case of advertisement, there are two parties involved  the advertiser and the publisher. While the advertiser is the party who wishes to advertise a product or idea, a publisher publishes these advertisements.

1. GST on advertising through digital media: In this case, the advertiser wishes to advertise a product or idea on a website, mobile application etc., and the publisher distributes these advertisements on their respective digital media like websites, e-mails, or SMS. Advertisement on digital media is liable to GST at the rate of 18 percent.

2. GST on advertisement in print media: In this case, the advertisement is published in print media like newspapers, magazines, etc. Such advertising in print media attracts a GST of five percent.

3. GST on advertisement through advertising agencies: In this case, an advertiser can approach an agency rather than directly approaching the publisher. There are two possibilities under this arrangement:

Advertisement in principals capacity: In this case, the party who wishes to advertise, approaches an advertising agency to advertise their business. The agency acts as a mediator and buys the advertisement from the advertising company in its name. Then the advertising agency resells the same to the publisher. In this case, GST is liable at five percent and 18 percent, respectively, in case of print and digital media.

In this case, the party who wishes to advertise, approaches an advertising agency to advertise their business. The agency acts as a mediator and buys the advertisement from the advertising company in its name. Then the advertising agency resells the same to the publisher. In this case, GST is liable at five percent and 18 percent, respectively, in case of print and digital media. Advertisement in agents capacity: In this case, the business entity approaches the agent for advertising their business instead of the advertiser. The agent buys the space on behalf of the advertiser and charges a commission for that. GST levied would be at the rate of five percent and 18 percent for advertisement in print media and digital media, respectively. The agent would levy 18 percent GST on the commission charges.

4. Advertisement through registered person outside India: GST on the advertising sector is applicable to any supply of service by someone residing in a non-taxable territory to anyone located in a taxable territory. The buyer will be liable to pay GST as a recipient of service.

Can advertising companies claim input tax credit (ITC)?

Under GST, advertising companies can claim the credit of taxes paid on the purchase of equipment and high-end electronic goods that are used for their business. However, these companies cannot charge GST on services offered, including the advertisement shoots carried out at remote locations where they dont have a physical office.

For example, an advertising agency registered in Rajasthan shoots an advertisement in Himachal Pradesh. The hotel would charge CGST + Himachal Pradesh GST for the accommodation of the whole crew. However, the advertising agency cannot avail ITC on the hotel accommodation since it is registered in Rajasthan. The ITC can only be claimed for expenses that are taxable under integrated GST (IGST) and CGST + Home State GST (state in which the entity is registered).

To prevent confusion regarding key tax compliances and reporting requirements, businesses are welcome to reach out to our tax advisors at india@dezshira.com.
Prevent Unauthorized Transactions in your demat / trading account Update your Mobile Number/ email Id with your stock broker / Depository Participant. Receive information of your transactions directly from Exchanges on your mobile / email at the end of day and alerts on your registered mobile for all debits and other important transactions in your demat account directly from NSDL/ CDSL on the same day." - Issued in the interest of investors.

KYC is one time exercise while dealing in securities markets - once KYC is done through a SEBI registered intermediary (broker, DP, Mutual Fund etc.), you need not undergo the same process again when you approach another intermediary.

No need to issue cheques by investors while subscribing to IPO. Just write the bank account number and sign in the application form to authorise your bank to make payment in case of allotment. No worries for refund as the money remains in investor's account."

www.indiainfoline.com is part of the IIFL Group, a leading financial services player and a diversified NBFC. The site provides comprehensive and real time information on Indian corporates, sectors, financial markets and economy. On the site we feature industry and political leaders, entrepreneurs, and trend setters. The research, personal finance and market tutorial sections are widely followed by students, academia, corporates and investors among others.
According to Capital Economics, the Reserve Bank of India's most recent method of settling international commerce directly in rupees, which aims to increase interest in the currency among traders worldwide, is unlikely to be extensively adopted.

"We don't think the new system will significantly increase the amount of commerce concluded in rupees. Since other currencies are typically more expensive to use, the majority of international commerce is handled in dollars and euros rather than other currencies, Assistant Economist Adam Hoyes noted in a note.

"Making it possible for businesses to settle in rupees won't always encourage them to do so unless, for instance, international businesses exporting to India have a need to raise their rupee deposits that they are unable to satiate in another manner. Dollars are a more advantageous and affordable alternative for the majority of businesses due to its depth and liquidity.

Hoyes used the example of the renminbi. Despite the fact that since 2010, it has been able to settle trade with China in renminbi, just 17 percent of goods trade actually uses the currency, a decrease from a few years before.

The rupee settlement method might be employed in commerce with Russia even if it doesn't completely circumvent Western sanctions, according to Capital Economics. The new system will be helpful even if access to roubles for Indian businesses is cut off. Unusually, almost 50% of recent Russian exports to India were paid for in roubles.

However, dealing with a Russian bank or company that has been sanctioned would put an Indian bank at risk of secondary sanctions regardless of the payments channel used, it said. While Russian lenders cut off from the SWIFT messaging system could continue trading with India using ad-hoc messaging arrangements and the rupee settlement channel, it said.

Since the Ukraine conflict, India has purchased more crude from Russia at lower costs, driving up crude oil prices and driving up imports from Russia. Future amounts of commerce over the India-Russia route are anticipated to increase.
1. United States:

There isnt any better place than the United States to start the list. This is easily the largest market in the world and offers practically limitless commercial potential. This is especially applicable to technological and online businesses. Being true to its nickname "The land of freedom" offers international businesses a terrific environment for supporting growth and access to the world's leading economy. You can get a range of additional services of all kinds. But all the 50 states of America have their regulations and policies concerning international company formation.

2. Hong Kong:



3. Singapore: The special administrative region of Hong Kong is a perfect case for company incorporation in Hong Kong . It offers transparency and flexibility together with a target-oriented approach. The region takes a lot of effort for supporting businesses of all kinds both domestically and internationally. You get a relatively stable political and financial environment in Hong Kong. It is considered to be one of the freest economies in the world. Hong Kong is also ranked as one of the top countries in the world in terms of GDP. It is no surprise to anyone that Hong Kong is a business-friendly sector with a solid international reputation.

Singapore is the leading financial center of Southeast Asia. It is a gateway for Western businesses and it is one of the fastest-growing regions of the world. International company formation in the country can provide many benefits to the investors. There are more than 50 comprehensive agreements in place for avoiding taxation in the country with other major markets in the world. There are comprehensive intellectual property laws in place that can be helpful to new businesses in protecting their nontangible assets. Singapore has established many regulations for fostering a perfect atmosphere for new businesses.

4. Switzerland:

Although Switzerland might not be the easiest country to start doing your business, it brings several benefits to your business. The country is ranked number one in Europe for offering economic freedom. You are guaranteed to get an ideal environment for your international company formation. Several factors contribute to the Swiss economy such as a talented workforce, well-established infrastructure, stable political scenario, sophisticated financial markets, lower taxes, and a solid service sector. The financial and banking services of Switzerland are considered to be the most advanced ones in the world.

5. England:

England was recently ranked as the best country in the world for doing business by Forbes. It is one of the ideal places for international business company formation. Britain was the pioneer of the industrial revolution of the world and the country has taken several big strides since then. Even today the country remains an attractive proposition for investors providing several new opportunities. But what makes the U.K an attractive international market is its business policies, taxation system, and digitalization. All this can support your business well in the initial years of its operations. Despite Brexit, the GDP growth rate of Britain is still the largest in Europe. It exceeds other European countries by a big margin. London is still one of the leading financial hubs of the world.

Conclusion All countries in the world have their policies and they offer a range of incentives for foreign investors. Offering help to foreign businesses is a way of attracting foreign investment to these countries. Having said that, many other countries are not especially welcoming to foreign businesses. They do not provide the same support to foreign businesses initially from the start-up stage going on to the operations stage. Apart from the 5 countries listed in the article, other countries offer support for international business formation such as, Vietnam, India, and Canada. There are several alternatives available these days for taking your business overseas.





Advertisements

The world is becoming smaller these days due to the advent of international relations and technological innovations. Not only do the big organizations having a value of billions of dollars can go multinational but some smaller SMEs and start-ups are also making a mark in the international arena. When your home country is not the only alternative available, international company formation is gradually becoming a rising trend. Entrepreneurs all across the world are looking for international jurisdictions that are beneficial to their businesses. Here are the best countries for your international business formation.
1. Sushmita Reacts To Dating Lalit Modi, Tells Trolls Its 'None Of Your Business'

Sushmita Sen has finally broken her silence on Lalit Modi's sensational tweet about their love affair on Twitter. The former Miss Universe and actress has taken to her social media account to address the dating reports that has taken everyone by surprise lately. Sharing a picture of herself with her two adopted daughters, Alisah and Renee, the actress informed her fans that she's still single and haven't got engaged to anyone. However, she did not refute Lalit Modi's claims that he's dating the 1994 Miss Universe.

Twitter

2. Elon Musks 76-Year-Old Dad Has Second Secret Love Child With His 35-Year-Old Stepdaughter

After the shocking revelation, South African engineer Errol Musk bragged, The only thing we are on Earth for is to reproduce. Errol's admission comes a week after it was found that his celebrity son Elon fathered two children with an executive at Neuralink, his artificial intelligence company weeks before he welcomed his second child with ex-girlfriend Grimes

Web Screen Grab

3. Lalit Modi's 9-Year-Old Tweet Telling Sushmita Sen To 'Reply My SMS' Leaves Internet In Splits

Lalit Modi's announcement about his relationship with Sushmita Sen yesterday, July 14, took the internet by storm. It came as a huge surprise for everyone when the businessman shared intimate pictures of him and Sushmita Sen cozying up during a vacation in London. Lalit Modi addressed the former Miss Universe as his 'better half' leaving everyone wondering if they were married. However, Lalit Modi's Twitter post clarified that they are not married but dating one another.

Web Screen Grab

4. Tamannaah Bhatia Lauds Kangana's Indira Gandhi Look In Emergency, Says It's 'Bloody Brilliant'

The teaser of the film was also released on YouTube and Kangana shared it on her Instagram. The teaser received much appreciation from from her friends and fans. Apart from Tamannaah Bhatia, Kangana Ranaut's Dhaakad co-star Arjun Rampal and Divya Dutta also praised the teaser. While actor Arjun Rampal said, superb, actress Divya Dutta commented, brilliant on her Instagram post.

Web Screen Grab

5. Bollywood Celebrities And Their Doppelgangers That Will Make You Wonder If You'll Ever Meet Yours

Meet long lost sisters Jacqueline Fernandez and Amanda Cerny. The two first connected in September in Los Angeles and were shocked to see how similar they looked. While Jacqueline is a huge star, Amanda too is an American actor and famous social media sensation. And now Amanda is in Mumbai to meet her twin Jacqueline. Jacqueline had earlier captioned her post on Instagram, We are convinced we have been separated at birth!!! Youve got to agree the resemblance is quite uncanny!

Web Screen Grab
The Forest (Conservation) Rules, 20Forest Conservation Rules 2022, Forest (Conservation) Act, MoEFCC, Forest Rights Act, Adivasi Community, Indian Adivasi, afforestation, Land rights, Adivasi livelihood, Forest rights, Adivasi rights, Environment news,22 was recently issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEFCC). The Forest (Conservation) Act of 1980's Section 4 grants it, superseding the 2003 Forest (Conservation) Rules.

According to the new regulations, the union government may permit the clearance of a forest without first informing its residents.

The Forest (Conservation) Rules, 2022 have been pushed by the Narendra Modi government to "streamline the process of approvals  for diversion of forested areas for other activities  under the regulations and allow the parallel processing under other acts and rules."

Congress claims that state governments will come under even more pressure to speed up the process of diverting forest land at the expense of the livelihood rights of tribals.

Forest Conservation Rules, 2022

File image

The MoEFCC notified the Forest Conservation Rules, 2022 under the Forest Conservation Act on June 28. This modification, which violates a provision of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), will allow private developers to clear forests without first obtaining the permission of the forest dwellers. It has been referred to as the "ease of snatching" of forest land.

According to the guidelines, it is now the responsibility of the state governments to ensure that Scheduled Tribes have access to their customary forest lands. This is because the Union government is no longer required to collect Adivasi consent before approving a project.

According to NewsLaundry, the new regulations allow the union government to approve the clearance of a forest without first discussing the locals, putting their consent to it fait accompli (leaving them with little choice but to accept it).

What about the consent from forest dwellers

Prior to the approval of private projects, the Union government had to confirm the permission of the forest residents and ensure the protection of their rights to the forest.

Now, even before the state government obtains the approval of the forest residents, the handover of the forest can be granted and the Center can obtain payment for compensatory afforestation from the private developer.

Unsplash

In order to guarantee that the FRAs provisions were followed, the forest ministry had mandated through a circular issued in 2009 to confirm the existence of any ST claimants to the forest area, verify their claims, and grant them possession of the forestland even before the in-principle clearance is given.

The gram sabha will only ask the forest inhabitants for consent to take over their land after all of the claims have been resolved.

This provision has been removed from the new regulation.

The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha will discuss the new rule for 30 working days in one or more sessions.

End the Ease of Living

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted, "Modi-Mitr' Sarkar at its crony best! The UPA's Forest Rights Act, 2006 has been weakened by the BJP government's new FC Rules, 2022 for "easy of snatching" forest land. Congress stands strongly with our Adivasi brothers & sisters in their fight to protect Jal, Jungle, and Zameen.

Jairam Ramesh, the chief spokesperson for the Congress and a former environment minister, wrote on Twitter about how state governments will come under great pressure from the federal government to expedite the process of diverting forest land at the cost of tribal members' rights to their land and other means of subsistence.

If anything demonstrates the Modi Sarkar's TRUE intent on protecting & promoting interests of Adivasis, it is this decision, which will disempower crores of Adivasis & others living in forest areas:https://t.co/QQmjTgEIAa



Sharing INCs statement on #AdivasiVirodhiNarendraModi pic.twitter.com/HRTOqpcnow  Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) July 10, 2022

He writes, This has obviously been done in the name of ease of doing business for a chosen few. But it will end the ease of living for the vast many.The Union Environment and Forests Minister Bhupender Yadav defended the guidelines on Twitter shortly after the Congress voiced its criticism, claiming that the announced rules are not in contradiction with the Forest (Conservation) Act and that compliance can be assured "subsequently."

Watch this video explainer:




Syed Aadil Chishty, a cleric of the Ajmer Dargah who had courted controversy for his video mocking Hindu gods has issued an apology for his comments.

On Thursday he issued a video claiming that this video which had gone viral was misinterpreted and that he had no intention to hurt the religious feelings of Hindu brothers and sisters.

What action Supreme court will take on him?

Sarwar Chishti's son, Syed Aadil Chishti mocks Hidu gods



"333 crore gods...wholesale of gods... few are animals..." pic.twitter.com/VdAdPcr2IH  Sheetal Chopra  (@SheetalPronamo) July 13, 2022

In the video that had earlier gone viral, the cleric was heard asking a rhetorical question to suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma about 33 crore Hindu gods and goddesses.

Screengrab

Earlier, his father Sayed Sarwar Chishti, the Khadim of the Ajmer Sharif Dargah had also kicked up a row with his provocative remarks.

Sarwar Chishti, secretary of the Anjuman Committee, had warned of a movement that would "shake India".

Another Ajmer cleric arrested

On Thursday, another cleric of the Dargah who was on the run after issuing a death threat to Nupur Sharam was arrested.

The cleric Gauhar Chishti along with his friend Munnawar was from Hyderabad.

#WATCH | Rajasthan: Gauhar Chishti and his associate Munavvar reached Ajmer with heavy security from Jaipur airport. They were taken to Kishanganj Police Station in Ajmer and will be presented in court early morning today. pic.twitter.com/l9bI3JC7kr  ANI MP/CG/Rajasthan (@ANI_MP_CG_RJ) July 14, 2022

Gauhar Chishti had been absconding after the case was registered against him for his 'behead Nupur Sharma' threat.

He was hiding at the house of his old friend Munnawar in Hyderabad.

"Gauhar Chishti arrested, he was brought to Ajmer last night in connection with a provocative speech case. His aide who had given him refuge in Hyderabad for about 10 days has been detained. Chishti will be produced before the court, we will seek his police custody," said Ajmer Superintendent of police Chuna Ram Jat on Friday.

ANI

The cleric in a video was seen allegedly raising slogans at the Ajmer Sharif Dargah premises.

Cleric offers his property as reward to behead Nupur Sharma

Last week Salman Chisti, another cleric at the Darga was also arrested by the police after he announced to give away his house and property as a reward to anyone who decapitates Nupur Sharma.

Fiery speeches have economic consequences

Following several controversial comments by the clerics of the Dargha, in the wake of the remarks made by Nupur Sharma, there was a reported fall in devotees coming to the famed shrine.

The income of people has also been affected because of this.

Hotels in Dargah Bazaar, Delhi Gate, Diggi Bazaar and guest houses in Khadim Mohalla, Kammani Gate, Ander Kote and Lakhan Kotri also reportedly suffered heavy losses after many people also cancelled their advance hotel bookings.

"We have a hotel. Our sales were good for the past year but since statements and issues in Udaipur cropped up, it is led to a complete loss of sales. All our rooms are currently vacant, those who had booked prior to their arrival have cancelled," said a hotel owner.

For more on news, sports, and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.
A 33-year-old woman allegedly committed suicide after being forced to undergo abortion 14 times by her live-in partner in a span of eight years, said the police citing her suicide note.

The incident took place on July 5 in southeast Delhis Jaitpur area, they said.

Physical relation on the pretext of marriage

In the suicide note written in Hindi, the woman alleged that she had been in a live-in relationship with a man who made a physical relationship with her on the promise of marriage but refused to marry her and left her with no other option except suicide, police said, adding that she was living separately from her husband.

iStock

A case of abetment of suicide has been registered against the man who works at a software firm in Noida, a senior police officer said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) Esha Pandey said, On July 5, a PCR call was received regarding suicide by a woman at Jaitpur. A police team rushed to the spot where a woman was found hanging in a room. She was immediately shifted to AIIMS where the doctor declared her brought dead. The stool used for hanging and the deceaseds mobile phone were seized. After a preliminary inquiry, it was revealed that the woman had been living separately from her husband for the past seven-eight years, she said.

Her parents residing in Muzaffarpur in Bihar were informed and the body was handed over to them after post-mortem, the DCP added.

Representational Image/iStock

Case registered against the man

One suicide note and viscera were handed over to police by doctors at AIIMS, police said. We have registered a case under sections 306 (abetment of suicide), 376 (rape), and 313 (causing miscarriage without womans consent) of the Indian Penal Code, and further investigation was taken up, the DCP said.

The womans husband who works at a private firm in South Extension was also called for questioning and told the police that he and his wife parted ways around eight years ago, police said.

Raids are being conducted to arrest the accused, they said.

For more on news and current affairs from around the world please visit Indiatimes News.
Women in India have to endure a lot. Whether facing sexism or being harassed and abused, the crime rate in India has always proved that women remain on the suffering end.



Representational Image

In a horrifying incident, a woman in Assam's Karimganj district allegedly died after being forced to consume acid by her in-laws. The incident happened in the Karimganj district's Bhairabnagar neighborhood, part of the Ratabari assembly constituency.



Unsplash

According to reports, the woman passed away after being made to drink acid by her husband and in-laws.

According to a report in The Assam Sentinel, the woman has been identified as Sumna Begum.

Unsplash

Locals claim that the woman was harassed by her husband and in-laws for failing to have a son.

Tribune India/Representational Image

Shakeel Ahmed, the alleged husband, was arrested by police after the incident. The victim, a woman, was rushed to a hospital in the area, but she passed away while getting treatment.



Save Girl Child/Agencies

Padmanabh Baruah, Superintendent of Police (SP) of Karimganj district, told ANI that, as per a complaint lodged by the deceased's family members, she had been physically and mentally tortured by her husband and in-laws for the last few days.



"The woman was taken to the hospital where she succumbed to her injuries. We have arrested her husband and registered a case," Baruah said.

Another Assam Shocker:

Unsplash/Representational Image

A new baby from Assam allegedly died due to a doctor's negligence at the Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Medical College and Hospital (FAAMCH), Barpeta.



According to a report, On July 6, Dharitri Nath (22), the wife of Mantu Nath of Soruharid village in the Sarbhog police area of the Barpeta district, was admitted to FAAMCH.

Unsplash/Representational Image

Her husband allegedly complained that the doctor kept her waiting to carry out a normal birth despite her excruciating pain. The doctor reportedly refused numerous requests from her family for a caesarian delivery from the nurses and doctors.



(With inputs from ANI)

(For more trending stories, click here.)


The Bank of America has been fined a massive amount of $225 million by federal regulators for messing up with various customers' bank accounts amidst the disbursement of state unemployment benefits at the height of the pandemic.



The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) fined the firm $100 million and, in a separate order, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is fining the bank $125 million, as per CNBC report.

The order requires Bank of America to engage in a process that will provide restitution for consumers whose accounts were frozen over what the CFPB called a faulty fraud detection program.

Both fines were announced on Thursday, i.e. yesterday.

Because of a faulty fraud detection program, Bank of America had allegedly frozen accounts and created difficulties for customers who sought to have them unlocked, hence cutting people off from desperately needed funds in 2020 and 2021.

worldatlas

Taxpayers relied on banks to distribute needed funds to families and small businesses to rescue the economy from collapse when the pandemic hit, said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. Bank of America failed to live up to its legal obligations. And when it got overwhelmed, instead of stepping up, it stepped back, as per The New York Times report.



The bank failed these prepaid cardholders by denying them access to their mandated unemployment funds during the height of the pandemic, and leaving these vulnerable consumers without an effective way to remedy the situation, said Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu. Banks must pay attention to the financial health of their customers and conduct their activities in accordance with all consumer protection laws.

Bank of America reportedly had contracts with about 12 state agencies to deliver unemployment and benefit payments through prepaid debit cards. It now has just one, California, which recently extended the relationship. When the pandemic hit and the unemployment rate surged in 2020, these cards were the target of a great deal of fraud.

Also Read: Ernst & Young Fined Largest Ever Penalty Of $100 Million Over Auditor Professionals Cheating

The Banks Statement

shutterstock

In a statement, the bank said that, the states were responsible for reviewing and approving applications and directing [BofA] to issue payments. As such, Bank of America said it helped the government to successfully issue more than $250 billion in pandemic unemployment benefits to more than 14 million people and overall distributed more pandemic relief to Americans than any other bank.



This action arose despite the governments own acknowledgement that the unemployment expansion during the pandemic created unprecedented criminal activity where illegal applicants were able to get states to approve tens of billions of dollars in payments, Bank of America said, adding that it partnered with our state clients to identify and fight fraud throughout the pandemic.

Also, CNBC mentioned that states like California and Nevada saw an outsized share of so-called transaction fraud during the pandemic because, with few exceptions, their unemployment insurance was distributed through debit cards without chips, meaning there was a lower level of security.

Also Read: With $1.4 Billion Networth, 34YO Singer Rihanna Is Americas Youngest Self-made Billionaire Woman



For the latest and interesting financial news, keep reading Indiatimes Worth. Click here.
Mubadala Investment Company led the series D equity raise, though Eurazeo, LGT, Horizons Ventures, OMERS Ventures and Target Global also participated.

Along with the financing, wefoxs valuation has now jumped to $4.5 billion, up from $3 billion over the last year. The trend is contrary to the struggles many other insurtechs are facing in the current marketplace.

This additional investment is a strong validation from the investor community of our indirect model, which allows us to be cash efficient and is another testament to our continuous performance even in turbulent times, wefox CFO and founder Fabian Wesemann said in prepared remarks. wefox has a proven model and a sustainable track record to replicate globally, for which the additional funds will be used.

The insurtech is a fully licensed digital insurance company that sells insurance through intermediaries and not directly to customers. It continues to hire and now has more than 1,300 employees, up from 550 in 2021. Plans call for hitting the 2,000-employee mark by the end of 2022.

Coalition

Coalition said it has raised another $250 million designed to accelerate further growth and fuel an international expansion. The money will also help expand the services it offers to help organizations manage digital risk.

Coalition is a San Francisco-based cyber insurer and security company.

Allianz X, Valor Equity Partners, Kinetic Partners and other existing investors participated in the round, which closed in June.

The companys Active Insurance program combines cybersecurity tools, access to 24/7 digital forensics and incident response, and broad insurance coverage to help organizations identify, mitigate and insure digital risk.

Coalition said it now serves over 160,000 customers.

The new investment boosted Coalitions valuation from $3.5 billion to $5 billion, according to the company.

Noldor

Noldor has raised $10 million in seed funding to help fuel technology that helps carriers, reinsurers and reinsurance brokers connect with program data to optimize performance.

DESCOvery Group led the round. It is the venture studio led by D.E. Shaw, a global investment and technology development firm based in New York City. A number of strategic investors also participated.

This funding was designed to ensure Noldor will continue to grow and adapt to new use cases alongside the enterprises we work with, CEO John Horneff said in prepared remarks. Technology is shifting what the efficient frontier of program administration looks like, so were actively investing to enable the next generation of carriers, MGAs/MGUs and reinsurance brokers.

Noldors data platform is being developed to boost efficiency and reduce expense ratios of all insurance stakeholders with delegate authority, including MGAs, carriers and reinsurance brokers responsible for billions of dollars in gross written premiums.

Zywave

Zywave launched a new technology offering designed to connect brokers with carrier content.

The product  Carrier Content Cloud Distribution  leverages Zywaves Content Cloud to distribute collateral and thought leadership material from insurance carriers to a sizeable network of brokers and agencies servicing the P/C and employee benefits markets.

That network includes more than 110,000 users at 3,500 brokers and agencies. In addition, the product includes comprehensive reporting capabilities, the company said, allowing carriers to seamlessly track impressions, shares and downloads of their uploaded content.

Ivans/Relativity6

Ivans is partnering with Relativity6 in a project designed to enhance commercial lines quoting for agents and carriers.

Ivans uses technology to help insurance agencies, carriers and MGAs connect through technology and find innovative ways to drive their business. Relativity6 is an AI platform that retrieves up-to-the-second information about a business to automatically verify its existence and flag any need-to-know keywords.

Relativity6 is the first insurtech to come out of the Ivans Innovation Lab, an internal incubator focused on building proof-of-concept innovation.

Buckle

Scott Stephenson, the former chairman, president and CEO of Verisk Analytics, has joined the insurtech Buckle as chairman of the board.

Buckle is a digital financial services company that provides insurance for the gig industry. The company is centered around a full-stack insurance-as-a-service platform. It began life as an MGA with a rideshare insurance policy and now offers other gig-related products. It has also acquired and recapitalized three admitted insurance carriers.

Stephenson was president and CEO of Verisk from 2013 to 2021 and is credited with building up the data analytics and risk assessment firm into a major player in insurance and other industries.
Carriers that do not invest in migrating from legacy platforms will either be left over or bought up, according to Aspire Systems insurance practice leader Maha Santaram.

The technology expert recommended that insurance businesses still running on legacy get on board and start to take an incremental approach, else get left behind their peers

Nor can agents rest on their laurels  insurance brokers should be looking to banking, where customers are often able to fill out details on a tablet or phone in-branch to speed up onboarding.

That is the expectation, said the Aspire Systems expert. People rarely go to a bank. This is unlike the insurance industry  we are still seeing a lot of physical forms and manual work used in the overall insurance process.

Aspire Systems has worked with leading names in insurance.

Customers are increasingly looking for a positive digital experience. Expectations have grown since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and have been influenced by strides taken by other financial services industries.

Many insurers are really looking at going digital, especially from the perspective of interaction with the customer, Santaram said.

Where it comes to personal lines, carriers have already started to avail of digital tools and innovation to enhance customers experiences.

Agents too are open to digital innovation, according to the firm.

There are some challenges, though. Carriers are looking to link up with brokers through application programming interfaces (APIs), but with agents on different systems and working with multiple insurers this can pose a cost and skills issue.

Claims

Claims is one area that has benefitted from technology over the past two years.

The pandemic digital drive saw insurers increasingly adopt online claims portals as they sought to work around restrictions.

Aspire Systems has seen instances of insurers that had processed claims close to 100% offline pre-pandemic now using digital claims portals.

Digital device capture, such as for uploading photos and documents, has now become an expectation, according to the technology firm.

The real remembrance of the customer experience, or that connect with the insurer, comes when a claim scenario happens, said Santaram. If I am making a claim, and Im facing difficulties, then Im going to look for a different insurer the next time.

Advanced technologies, such as drones and image recognition, are increasingly being used to drive claims efficiencies.

For commercial lines products, there remains a need for digital adoption.

While personal lines insurance purchasers are, in many cases, able to get a quick online quote and insurers are increasingly improving the claims process, the industry is not yet seeing this same level of innovation on the commercial side due to the complexity of the risks.

Underwriting

However, there are other ways that digital can help, and is helping, where it comes to commercial lines, and it is not just customer experience improvements that can help businesses make gains.

Machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) have the potential to drive underwriting time savings.

When it comes to lines of business such as aviation and marine engineering, more complicated business, complete automation in terms of underwriting continues to be a challenge, the technology expert said.

There is, however, an increasingly redefined mindset that is seeing complex commercial lines underwriters look to automate parts of the process, with efficiency improvements being driven through analytics and data extraction.

The Aspire Systems expert predicted that, with the assistance of ML, AI and analytics, such as predictive diagnostic, it should be ultimately possible to automate processes that would traditionally require human intervention.

For personal lines and life businesses, there are already potentially vast gains to be made, existing case studies have shown.

Aspire Systems recently worked on a project with a life insurer that saw it achieve 97% underwriting automation and cut down processing time from four days to one day.

In terms of building on legacy, carriers are looking for both out of the box and custom solutions.

For property & casualty and life carriers looking to choose a modernisation partner, Aspire Systems top tip is that it is vital that the technology business they choose understands the depth and the breadth of the product.

Maha Santaram has been in the technology business for more than 20 years. As head of insurance practice at Aspire Systems, she has been focusing on strengthening Aspires insurance solutions strategy thereby building out the businesss portfolio and finding solutions for clients thanks to her strong industry knowledge and wealth of experience.
New You can now listen to Insurance Journal articles!

New York City residents are accustomed to warnings about all kinds of potential threats  severe weather, public health, mass shootings.

But a new public service announcement on surviving a nuclear attack has rattled some cages.

Released this week by the citys emergency management agency, the 90-second video advises citizens to stay indoors and wash off any radioactive dust or ash. It opens on a computer-generated street, devoid of life. Damaged skyscrapers can be seen in the background.

Looking into the camera, a spokesperson says: So theres been a nuclear attack. Dont ask me how or why. Just know that the big one has hit.

Many New Yorkers were left asking, Why now?

Christina Farrell, the citys emergency management deputy commissioner, said the video isnt tied to any specific threats. She said its about raising awareness of something most people havent given much thought.

Theres no overarching reason why this is the time we sent this out, Farrell told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Its just one tool in the toolbox to be prepared in the 21st century.

She said the agencys goal is to empower people regarding a scary subject, and despite the mixed reactions to the video, people have thanked us that we are approaching this topic.

I dont know if theres ever the perfect moment to talk about nuclear preparedness, she added, saying city officials have discussed implementing nuclear guidelines for quite some time. New Yorks emergency response program, Ready New York, has been around since 2003.

Mayor Eric Adams has said he doesnt believe the video was alarmist, telling reporters Tuesday Im a big believer in better safe than sorry.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics New York
New You can now listen to Insurance Journal articles!

A judge on Monday rejected an effort by the Loudoun County School Board to shut down a special grand jury investigating the school systems handling of two sexual assaults.

The school board says the special grand jury empaneled by Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares is politically motivated and illegally usurps the mandate in the Virginia constitution giving local school boards authority over educational affairs.

Miyares argues that the special grand jury he empaneled is needed to uncover why the school system allowed a boy who had been accused of sexually assaulting a girl in one high school to transfer to another high school, where he was convicted of sexually assaulting a second girl.

Miyares launched the grand jury after Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, on his first day in office, issued an executive order requesting an investigation by the attorney generals office.

Both Youngkin and Miyares had criticized the Loudoun County board in their successful 2021 political campaigns. They argued the board was not forthcoming in how it handled the case as it revised its guidelines over policies governing transgender students. The assaults attracted national attention in part because the boy  who was convicted of the assaults in juvenile court  was wearing a skirt when he committed at least one of the attacks.

At a hearing Monday in Loudoun County Circuit Court, Judge James Plowman _ who previously served as the countys elected Republican commonwealths attorney _ said the school board essentially lacks standing to try to halt the work of the grand jury. He noted that even if the grand jury issues a report critical of the school systems policies, the school board is under no obligation to respond to the report or change its policies.

Steven Popps, a deputy attorney general in Miyares office, said the school board is making assumptions about the work of the grand jury without all the facts.

The school board does not get to decide the scope of the grand jury investigation, he said. The school board is not above the law.

In a written statement, Miyares called Plowmans decision a win for parents and students across the Commonwealth.

Theo Stamos, the special counsel overseeing the special grand jury, declined comment after Mondays hearing.

In a statement issued after the hearing, the school system said its considering all its legal options, but that no decision has been made on whether to appeal. In court, though, the school boards lawyer, Steven Webster, said one rationale for seeking the injunction to block the grand jurys work was because it provided an avenue to appeal Plowmans ruling.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Legislation K-12 Virginia
New You can now listen to Insurance Journal articles!

New Hampshire homeland security officials said that a siren was inadvertently activated at the Seabrook Nuclear Power Station on Tuesday, and that there is no emergency and no danger to the public.

The state Homeland Security and Emergency Management agency and plant owner NextEra Energy Resources put out statements more than 30 minutes after beachgoers in nearby Hampton and Rye said they heard announcements at about 11 a.m. about the beaches being closed because of a problem at the plant.

We are aware of the sirens calling for an evacuation near Seabrook Station, said Bill Orlove, a spokesperson for plant. The sirens activation was sent in error during testing of the system.

Local authorities have told the public there is no need to evacuate, he said. Seabrook Station is currently operating with no issues that impact the nearby community. We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused.

Police and fire departments in the area said the beaches were not closed.

The Seabrook Station Alert was inadvertent there is NO EMERGENCY, the Hampton Fire Department posted on Facebook.

The plant is about 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of Boston and 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of Portsmouth. It has operated since 1990.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics New Hampshire
This content was produced in Russia where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine.

Kremlin-controlled energy giant Gazprom said on Wednesday it could not guarantee the safe operation of a critical part of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline because of doubt over the return of a turbine from Canada.

Ottawa at the weekend said it had issued a permit to allow the return of the turbine for Nord Stream 1s Portovaya compressor station.

Gazprom does not have a single document that allows Siemens to bring back a gas turbine engine from Canada for the Portovaya (station), Gazprom said in a statement on Wednesday.

In these circumstances, it is not possible to draw an objective conclusion about the further development of the situation on ensuring the safe operation of the Portovaya, which is a critical facility for the Nord Stream gas pipeline.

The German economy ministry declined to comment.

We do not comment on Gazproms statements, a spokesperson for the ministry said.

Canadas weekend announcement said it was issuing a time-limited and revocable permit to exempt the return of the equipment from its Russian sanctions and also announced new measures in response to what Moscow calls a special military operation in Ukraine.

A Siemens Energy spokesperson said on Wednesday its experts were working intensively on all other formal approvals and logistics following the political first step from Canada.

These are processes that are subject to export and import controls. Our goal is to transport the turbine to its place of use as quickly as possible, it said.

Ukraines energy and foreign ministries had urged Canada to reverse its decision that they said amounted to adjusting the sanctions imposed on Moscow to the whims of Russia.

A group representing the Canadian-Ukrainian diaspora also said on Tuesday it was seeking a judicial review of the Canadian governments decision as it sought to try to stop the turbine being returned.

Last month, Russia cut gas flows to 40% of Nord Stream 1s total capacity, citing the delayed return of the turbine.

With annual capacity of more than 55 billion cubic meters, the pipeline is expected to stay idle until July 21 during 10 days of annual maintenance.

Europe fears Russia could extend the scheduled maintenance to restrict European gas supply further, throwing plans to fill storage for winter into disarray and heightening a gas crisis that has prompted emergency measures from governments and painfully high bills for consumers.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaux and Tom Kaeckenhof; editing by David Evans and Barbara Lewis)

Topics Canada
Questions surrounding Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.s role in Chinas largest known cybersecurity breach may fuel Beijings resolve to clamp down on domestic tech giants and accelerate a move away from their private cloud services.

Researchers studying the leaked data of close to a billion Chinese residents earlier this month have noticed hallmarks of Alibabas cloud service, including the domain name of the hosting service. This week, executives of the companys cloud division, known as Aliyun, were summoned by Shanghai authorities in relation to that data dump, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The embarrassing data breach comes as Chinese President Xi Jinping, months away from potentially an unprecedented third term, has stressed the importance of cybersecurity. It has sent a jolt through the Chinese security community, given not only the massive scale of the leak but also because the data in question was managed by Shanghais police, who help to collect data on citizens and enforce the countrys increasingly strict cyber laws.

Officials in Shanghai and from the Cyberspace Administration of China have not publicly commented on the high-profile incident, even two weeks after a hacker sought to sell the vast trove of stolen personal info that includes names, phone numbers, addresses, and criminal records. Alibaba declined to comment.

The companys shares were down as much as 5.8% in Hong Kong on Friday and led a wide swathe of declines among Chinese tech firms operating in related fields. Investors fear the incident will affect Chinese regulations on cloud services going forward, affecting some of the countrys biggest names from Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Baidu Inc. to Huawei Technologies Co.

Even though the incident was only related to Alibaba Cloud, its impact will likely spill over into other private cloud providers such as Tencent and Baidu, said Shen Meng, a director at Beijing-based investment bank Chanson & Co. If Aliyun is indeed found to have flaws in its system, it would deal a heavy blow to the reputation of non-state cloud providers and could even trigger a massive user migration to state-backed cloud systems.

That migration was already underway even before the July hack, as Beijings relentless and widespread crackdown of its formerly high-flying tech giants nudged risk-averse institutions toward state-owned providers. Large-scale businesses like the China Construction Bank and local municipalities in cities such as Nantong were already moving closer to state-backed cloud platforms.

Aliyuns reputation took a hit last year when Chinas Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the countrys powerful tech overseer, upbraided the service provider for not reporting a software flaw to the government in a timely fashion. MIIT then suspended cooperation with Aliyun on a cybersecurity information-sharing platform for six months.

Hackers Record Theft Claim Exposes Dangers of China Data Trove

Multiple security researchers who analyzed the leaked database have said its certification information pointed to it being hosted on AliCloud and that it may have been left unsecured online for months, without a username or password guarding access. Bob Diachenko, from the cyber threat intelligence site Security Discovery, said he had discovered the database in April, and an analysis by LeakIX, which tracks exposed data online, showed that the database may have been publicly accessible since last April.

It is unusual for the targeted organization in a claimed data breach to let so many days pass without offering public comment on the incident, which has created a vacuum of information around it, said Troy Hunt, the Australia-based creator of the Have I Been Pwned? website. In general, it was more likely for a cloud service subscriber to make a mistake in its security and configuration settings rather than for a third-party cloud service provider to have serious vulnerabilities that would be responsible for data breaches of this kind, he said.

Its pretty expected that the owner of the data might call to account the cloud provider, he said. The interesting question is, is this a problem with Alibaba Cloud, or is it a problem with the way that the customer configured it? It is more likely that a single subscriber of the cloud provider, in this case the Shanghai police, made a mistake.

Since the data theft was publicized, security researchers say that access to the database online has been pulled. Alibaba temporarily disabled access and began internally investigating the incident, including reviewing the database architecture and configurations for their contracts with customers, particularly for government agencies and financial institutions, the Journal reported.

Photo: A pedestrian wearing a protective mask walks past the Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. logo displayed in front of the companys building in Beijing, China, on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2020. U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to slap TikTok-style sanctions on more Chinese companies and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., as the largest of them all, may be next in line. Photographer: Gilles Sabrie/Bloomberg

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics Cyber InsurTech Tech China
China has been tweaking its stringent COVID curbs but shows no sign of backing off from its dynamic zero policy, and has lagged in vaccination efforts that would enable it to do so, casting a heavy shadow over the worlds second-largest economy.

The absence of a roadmap out of zero-COVID and expectations that it will persist well into 2023 leaves residents and businesses facing a prolonged period of uncertainty.

Recent scattered COVID flare-ups, the imposition of lockdowns in some cities and the arrival of the highly-contagious BA.5 variant have added to those worries.

On Friday, China is expected to report that gross domestic product (GDP) grew just 1% in the second quarter, with full year growth forecast at 4%, according to a Reuters poll  far short of Beijings official target of around 5.5% for 2022.

In addition to a sharp lockdown-induced slowdown, growth has been weighed down by a sputtering property market and an uncertain global outlook.

This week, Shanghais 25 million people were subject to more mandatory city-wide testing, and fear of tougher measures or getting caught up in Chinas zero-COVID bureaucracy continues to exact an economic toll, including on consumption and jobs. Read full story

Nomura estimated 31 cities were implementing full or partial lockdowns as of July 11, affecting nearly 250 million people in regions accounting for a quarter of Chinas GDP.

As the rest of the world tries to coexist with COVID, China points to the lives saved by its tough measures. President Xi Jinping has touted it as an advantage of Chinas governance system.

Critics say China is hamstrung by the success of an approach that is obsolete now that vaccines have made COVID far less deadly.

Chinas self-isolation also has long-term economic implications.

The rest of the world is reopening and the zero covid policy in China will probably drive export orders and production to other countries during the supply-chain normalization, Ken Cheung, chief Asian FX strategist at Mizuho, wrote on Wednesday.

Businesses have described how they have been badly hurt and find it hard to plan given the possibility of abrupt lockdowns, while international business groups have been especially vocal about the costs of zero-COVID, with members warning of plans to invest elsewhere.

The world is not going to wait for China to improve her herd immunity, said Joerg Wuttke, president of the EU Chamber of Commerce.

HERD IMMUNITY

While China has been spared the ravages of widespread infections and deaths, it therefore lacks herd immunity, with its vast elderly population especially exposed.

However, China has refrained from aggressive vaccination efforts. Last week, the city of Beijing quickly reversed a planned vaccine mandate for entry to crowded places after strong online backlash. nL4N2YP19D

China also has not approved the import of more effective vaccines using mRNA technology or fully developed its own.

The curbs can only be lifted after the country has finished vaccinating the elderly. This might not be before fall 2023, said Wuttke, who has suggested to Premier Li Keqiang that China set up vaccination tents next to its now-ubiquitous testing kiosks.

China has vaccinated nearly 90% of its 1.41 billion population and given around 56% of its population a booster shot. Still, 30 million Chinese elderly are unvaccinated.

Zhang Zuofeng, a UCLA professor of epidemiology, said a lack of data on the safety of Chinas vaccines or their effectiveness against Omicron has undermined government and public confidence in them.

Had China had confidence in its vaccines, with high vaccination rates among Chinese people, it would have already moved from focusing on eliminating COVID infections to mitigation of serious illnesses and deaths, he said.

SOFTENING EDGES

To be sure, China has become increasingly surgical in managing COVID, and few expect a repeat of Shanghais two-month lockdown nightmare.

It is trying to soften the edges of a zero-COVID approach that is grating on a population frustrated by the sluggish economy  youth unemployment is at a record 18.4%  and the third year of pandemic, with no end in sight.

Beijing has warned local officials against needlessly arbitrary enforcement. More refined measures also decrease the likelihood of massive global supply chain disruptions like those caused by lockdowns in April and May, economists say.

Among other recent moves, China slashed centralized quarantine times for inbound travelers to seven days. Domestically, it has reduced scrutiny of recent travel history.

This week, China said local governments no longer need to test some imported goods for the coronavirus, and while chilled and frozen foods will continue to be tested, exporters will not face import suspensions if their goods test positive.

FINAL VICTORY

It is a tricky balance for Xi, poised to secure a precedent-breaking third leadership term later this year, who wants to avoid both a sharp rise in COVID cases and deaths and an abrupt economic downtown. Either would threaten social stability.

Last month in Wuhan, where COVID-19 first emerged, Xi said the zero-COVID policy is correct and effective, and that temporary economic impact is preferable to loss of life.

Xi said it very clearly he wants to achieve final victory against COVID, said Chen Daoyin, former associate professor at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law.

Its not a matter of before or after the 20th Party Congress. Any change to the zero-COVID policy, which would not be made easily, will have to depend on how the BA.5 situation pans out, he said.

(Reporting by Tony MunroeAdditional reporting by Yew Lun Tian, Roxanne Liu and Kevin Yao in Beijing and Samuel Shen in Shanghai; Editing by Kim Coghill)

Topics COVID-19 China
An assistant attorney general in Iowa is suing the city of Des Moines and its police chief over his arrest during a June 2020 racial justice protest, alleging he was tackled, pepper-sprayed and handcuffed for no reason.

The lawsuit filed by Assistant Attorney General Paxton Williams is among at least eight cases filed against the Des Moines police, the Des Moines Register reported. The cases involve protests following George Floyds death in the custody of Minneapolis police.

Paxton, who is Black, alleges police used unnecessary and excessive force in arresting him in front of his home. The lawsuit, filed May 31 in Polk County District Court, says Williams felt the effects of the pepper spray for several days and suffered shoulder, arm and hip pain.

According to court records, a failure-to-disperse citation that Williams received was dismissed under an agreement requiring him to avoid further criminal charges for six months.

A representative for the police department did not immediately respond Tuesday to an email seeking comment about the lawsuit. A spokesperson for the attorney generals office, Lynn Hicks, declined to comment, calling it a personal matter.

Paxton also is suing a police sergeant and 10 unnamed officers. Paxton alleges the sergeant told him hours after his arrest that police video refuted Paxtons claims.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits Law Enforcement Iowa Civil Unrest
New You can now listen to Insurance Journal articles!

The US Justice Department is likely to reject concessions offered by Alphabet Inc., clearing the way for an antitrust lawsuit over Googles dominance of the online advertising market, according to people familiar with the matter.

While Google has made at least one settlement offer to the Justice Departments antitrust division to address its concerns, the agency is poised to file a lawsuit in the coming weeks, two people said, speaking anonymously to discuss a confidential probe.

Google Offers Concessions to Thwart US Antitrust Case

The division has been investigating Googles practices in the ad-tech market since 2019 and in 2020 sued the company over its search operations. The inquiry into the advertising market has accelerated in recent months under the supervision of the antitrust divisions No. 2 official, Doha Mekki, the people said.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment on the Google ad-tech probe or any settlement offers from the tech giant.

Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Jonathan Kanter declined to comment on the Google probe when asked about it at a conference Tuesday. But Kanter stressed the agency is committed to litigating antitrust cases in court, particularly when it comes to monopolization.

We have to bring cases to court, Kanter said, speaking virtually at an Aspen, Colorado conference hosted by Fortune. We dont have the kind of ground rules that existed when antitrust was enforced with regularity, he said, referring to the lack of monopolization cases over the past few decades. If we dont use those muscles, they will start to weaken.

Kanter is potentially recused from the case because of his work for Microsoft Corp., News Corp., Yelp Inc. and other Google opponents in private practice, leaving his deputy Mekki in charge of the probe. In her own public comments, Mekki has stressed that the division will likely reject settlements more often.

Youre going to see a lot more litigation from the antitrust division, Mekki said at an event in April. The divisions position is we are not planning to take settlements. Settlements suggest compromise.

The Mountain View, California-based company owns major pieces of the online ad market, which generated $31.7 billion in gross revenue for the firm last year. It runs an ad-buying service for marketers and an ad-selling one for publishers, as well as a trading exchange where both sides complete transactions in lightning-fast auctions.

Google has proposed splitting part of its business that auctions and places ads on websites and apps into a separate company that would remain under the Alphabet umbrella, according to a person familiar with the matter, who declined to be named discussing confidential matters. That new unit could possibly be valued at tens of billions of dollars, depending on what assets it contained, the person said. The Wall Street Journal first reported the proposed settlement last week.

We have been engaging constructively with regulators to address their concerns, said Peter Schottenfels, a Google spokesperson. As weve said before, we have no plans to sell or exit this business, and were deeply committed to providing value to a wide array of publisher and advertiser partners in a highly competitive sector.

Googles advertising business is already the subject of an antitrust suit by state attorneys general, led by Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. That lawsuit, filed in December 2020, remains ongoing in New York federal court after the search giant successfully petitioned to have it moved from Texas and consolidated with private antitrust cases related to its advertising business.

Google didnt make a settlement offer to the states, said two people familiar with that case, who asked not to be named discussing confidential matters.

Restructuring the portions of the ad business as a separate unit under the Alphabet umbrella wont assuage the industrys concerns about Googles role in the market, said Brian OKelley, who co-founded online advertising firm AppNexus.

What makes us think that this is going to make any substantive difference to how they are operating? Google and Alphabet are the same thing, said OKelley, who is now chief executive officer of Scope3, a software firm focused on emissions data in corporate supply chains.

Dina Srinivasan, a former ad agency executive, has compared Google to a financial exchange that owns both sell- and buy-side operations. In finance, these operations are often required to be run with a firewall of separation and distinct ownership. A Google proposal to place its unit under the same parent company, with the same CEO, without similar remedies wouldnt eliminate any of its monopoly advantages, according to Srinivasan. Its an offer of nothing, basically, she said.

Competitors and publishers have long complained that Google leverages parts of its vast network, like its ad exchange, to benefit other areas and kneecap rivals.

Google disputes that it dominates the ad tech market, arguing that the space is crowded with major companies like Amazon.com Inc., Comcast Corp. and Meta Inc.s Facebook competing for business.

Photo: A worker walks past a logo inside Googles new Bay View campus in Mountain View, California. / via Bloomberg.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics Lawsuits
A man filed a lawsuit Thursday accusing a Texas police officer of using excessive force while restraining him in jail and inflicting injuries that left him paralyzed from the chest down.

The lawsuit on behalf of Christopher Shaw seeks unspecified damages from Beaumont police Officer James Thomas Gillen, the city, the Jefferson County Sheriffs Office and the jails medical contractor.

The lawsuit centers on events from Shaws June 12, 2020, arrest on a misdemeanor public intoxication charge.

According to the lawsuit, after a trip to a local hospital to exclude other reasons for Shaws slurred speech, Gillen took him to the Jefferson County Correctional Facility. At one point when Shaw refused to comply with commands, jailers restrained him against a wall. Gillen grabbed Shaw, flipped him into the air and body-slammed him head-first on the concrete floor, leaving him paralyzed.

A hospital examination showed that Shaw suffered several spinal fractures that have left him paralyzed from the chest down, the lawsuit alleges.

Mr. Shaws life has been greatly impacted in the worst way, said his attorney, Harry Daniels of Atlanta. He was once an able-bodied young man before he was assaulted. He can no longer stand or walk. He is a prisoner of his own body. He spends a majority of his day in bed due to the fact he doesnt have the resources to hire a full-time caregiver.

Additionally, he cannot afford the much-needed physical therapy and treatment that he needs that could give him a chance to make a full recovery, Daniels said.

A spokeswoman for the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, which provides legal representation to law enforcement officers, declined to comment on the lawsuit. The city of Beaumont didnt immediately reply to a message seeking comment.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits Texas
As video taken inside Robb Elementary School puts in full view the bewildering inaction by law enforcement during the May slaughter of 19 children and two teachers, some in Uvalde are shouting: Will police face consequences?

Only one officer from the scene of the deadliest school shooting in Texas history is known to be on leave. Authorities have still not released names of officers who for more than an hour milled in and out of a hallway near the adjoining fourth-grade classrooms where the gunman was firing. And nearly two months after the massacre, theres still disagreement about who was in charge.

A nearly 80-minute hallway surveillance video published by the Austin American-Statesman publicly showed for the first time _ with disturbing and painful clarity _ a hesitant and haphazard tactical response by fully armed officers that the head of Texas state police has condemned as a failure and some Uvalde residents have blasted as cowardly.

But it is unclear whether the actions _ or inaction _ by officers in the school on May 24 will result in more than criticism, even as demands for accountability and anger mount. City and state leaders have urged people to let investigations play out.

There are signs impatience is growing: Hours after the video was published, residents shouted from their seats at a City Council meeting Tuesday, demanding to know whether officers who were at the shooting were still on the force or getting paid. Council members did not respond.

What about the cops? one person yelled.

Police are afforded formidable legal protections, set up with the idea that their jobs often require life-and-death judgment calls under great pressure. Even with the officers hesitation captured on video, policing experts say its difficult to predict how likely they are to face discipline or legal fallout.

Its going to come down to what would a reasonable police officer have perceived in that moment, said Bowling Green State University criminologist Philip Stinson.

The footage from a hallway camera inside the school shows the gunman entering the building with an AR-15-style rifle and includes 911 tape of a teacher screaming, Get down! Get in your rooms! Get in your rooms!

Two officers approach the classrooms minutes after the gunman enters, then run back amid the sounds of gunfire. From there, minutes tick by and more gunshots from the classrooms are heard as additional officers from multiple agencies arrive. More than an hour passes before a team finally advances down the hallway, breaches the classrooms and ends the massacre.

More than a dozen officers _ some armed with rifles and bulletproof shields _ are visible during some points of the video. During the long wait to confront the gunman, one man in body armor and and a vest that says sheriff squeezes a few pulls of hand sanitizer from a dispenser mounted on the wall.

It is a starkly different scene than the one described by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott the day after shooting, when he praised a swift response and officers who showed amazing courage by running toward gunfire. Abbott later said he was given wrong information but did not identify from whom.

Thats just one example of inaccurate and conflicting statements given by authorities in the seven weeks since the shooting. Asked Wednesday if any officers should face discipline for their inaction, Abbott spokeswoman Renae Eze said the governor believes it would be premature to decide any action until investigations are complete.

After the 2018 shooting at Parkland High School in Florida that killed 17 people, a deputy who knew the gunman was loose but refused to go inside was arrested on criminal charges. Legal experts have called that an extremely rare case of someone essentially being charged for not going into harms way and have expressed skepticism about the case, which is set for trial in February.

Former U.S. Attorney Joe Brown, who spent two decades as a Republican district attorney in North Texas, said there is no criminal statute for dereliction of duty and holding police criminally liable under such circumstances carries a tremendous social cost. But he said officers who fail to meet their moral duty to intervene could still face ridicule or firing.

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said it was too early to decide whether any officers should be taken off the force. I dont know they need to step down, he said. But everything needs to be reviewed.

So far, officials have only publicly confirmed one officer on leave: Pete Arredondo, the Uvalde school district police chief who also stepped down from his newly won City Council seat last month. He has disputed state polices characterization that he was in charge of the scene.

A Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman said no troopers who were there have been suspended. Officials with the Uvalde police and sheriffs office did not answer questions about whether any of their officers have been suspended or placed on leave.

Greg Shaffer, a Dallas-based security consultant and retired member of the FBIs hostage rescue team, said at the very least, the officers in the video should switch to a different line of work.

I think everyone in that hallway should reconsider their career choice, he said. If you dont have the courage and the mindset to run toward gunfire, as a police officer, then youre in the wrong profession.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Texas Law Enforcement
New You can now listen to Insurance Journal articles!

Mathis, Tibbets & Mathis, a 36-year-old independent broker of commercial and personal property/casualty insurance, surety bonds and employee benefits plans, based in Memphis, has been acquired by Higginbotham.

Higginbotham, which said it ranks as one of the 20th largest independent brokerage firms in the country, entered the Tennessee market in 2020. The addition of Mathis gives it a sixth location in the state, the company said in a news release.

Mathis principals Gene Mathis and Alex Mathis said that joining Higginbotham provides access to additional insurers and in-house risk management and employee benefits services.

Topics Agencies Tennessee
New You can now listen to Insurance Journal articles!

SterlingRisk Aviation, based in Destin, Florida, has hired Kris Larkin as vice president and senior account executive.

Larkin, who has almost two decades in the aviation insurance business, was previously client service supervisor for Arthur J. Gallaghers aviation practice. She held previous positions with State Farm Insurance and Aviation Services of Illinois. Larkin will oversee accounts and account personnel, facilitate audits and inspections to mitigate client risks, and will coordinate with underwriters and claims representatives.

SterlingRisk Aviation, a division of New York-based Sterling Risk, is an independent insurance brokerage for regional, national and international clients, the company said in a news release. It was founded in 1932.

North Carolina DOI Makes Obusek Chief Deputy Commissioner

The woman behind regulatory concerns that led to bribery charges against a high-flying insurance executive has been named chief deputy insurance commissioner at the North Carolina Department of Insurance.

Jackie Obusek replaces Michelle Osborne, who is leaving to become a professor at Campbell University, Commissioner Mike Causey announced Thursday. Obusek, a 20-year veteran at the department, in 2015 and 2016 raised questions about Carolina insurance magnate Greg Lindberg and his insurance companies inordinate amount of investments in his affiliated companies.

Lindberg then made large campaign contributions to Causey, urging him to replace Obusek with someone more amenable to Lindbergs investment strategy, according to prosecutors and court records. Causey would not play along, then alerted the FBI and recorded conversations with Lindberg and associates. Lindberg was convicted in 2020 on bribery charges, but won a new trial in June.

Obusek in 2017 was named senior deputy commissioner, overseeing financial analysis, licensing, examinations and liquidations. In 2022 she became part of the senior regulatory team overseeing captive insurance companies, Causey said in a news release.

Obusek is a certified public accountant and she holds a bachelors degree from East Carolina University.

Topics Aviation
New You can now listen to Insurance Journal articles!

Three people have been arrested in connection with a fire that destroyed a historic church in West Virginia, state police said.

Braxton Allan Miller, 18, of Charleston; James Dean Elmore, 19, of Beckley; and a juvenile boy were charged in connection with the fire at St. Colman Catholic Church in the Shady Spring area of Raleigh County, police said Wednesday.

The fire was reported Sunday morning but had started the night before, police said.

Miller and the juvenile were charged with arson and conspiracy, while Elmore was charged with accessory after the fact and conspiracy. All were being held. It wasnt clear whether they had attorneys who could comment on their cases.

We are deeply saddened to learn that the fire was considered an act of arson and was intended destroy this historic structure so important to the lives of many in the area, Bishop Mark Brennan of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston said in a statement.

The historic church was built in 1878 on Irish Mountain and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, WCHS-TV reported.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Numbers Virginia
A wildfire that threatened a grove of Californias giant sequoias in Yosemite National Park was burning eastward into the Sierra National Forest on Wednesday.

The Washburn Fire is one of dozens of blazes chewing through drought-parched terrain in the Western U.S. It had increased in size to more than 6.6 square miles (17 square kilometers) and was just 23% contained.

The fire will continue to grow over the next few days, according to a fire update Wednesday night.

The combination of continued warm and dry weather conditions along with the heavy accumulation of large fuels is creating the perfect recipe for the very active fire behavior we are seeing, the update said.

Meanwhile, firefighting preparations had already been underway in the national forest.

Weve brought in Sierra National Forest folks from the get-go, kind of anticipating that this may happen, said Nancy Philippe, a fire information spokesperson.

Containment lines within the park, including along the edge of the grove, were holding, firefighting operations official Matt Ahearn said in a video briefing earlier in the day.

The fire had been entirely within the national park since breaking out July 7, when visitors to the Mariposa Grove of ancient sequoias reported smoke.

Authorities have not said how the fire started and whether it involved a crime or some type of accident.

Park Superintendent Cicely Muldoon told a community meeting this week that it was considered a human-start fire because there was no lightning that day.

Philippe said a park ranger who is a trained investigator was on the scene almost immediately when the fire was reported, and a law enforcement team continues to investigate.

Philippe said she believed they had found the point of ignition, but declined to release further information, citing the active investigation.

The fire in the southern portion of Yosemite forced evacuation of hundreds of visitors and residents from the small community of Wawona, but the rest of the park has remained open to summer crowds.

One firefighter suffered a heat injury and recovered, but no structures have been damaged.

Flames mostly skirted the Mariposa Grove, though it did leave its mark on some of the trees.

The Galen Clark tree, named for the parks first custodian, and three trees that greet visitors when they arrive at the popular destination, were partly charred but none were expected to die because their canopy didnt burn, said Garrett Dickman, a park forest ecologist who toured the site.

Dickman credited periodic intentional burns in the undergrowth beneath the towering trees with helping the grove survive its first wildfire in more than a century.

Small, targeted fires lit over the past 50 years essentially stopped the fire in its tracks when it hit the Mariposa Grove and allowed firefighters to stand their ground and set up sprinklers to further protect the worlds largest trees, Dickman said.

Weve been preparing for the Washburn Fire for decades, said Dickman, who works for the park. It really just died as soon as it hit the grove.

The sequoias are adapted to fire _ and rely on it to survive. But more than a century of aggressive fire suppression has left forests choked with dense vegetation and downed timber that has provided fuel for massive wildfires that have grown more intense during an ongoing drought and exacerbated by climate change.

So-called prescribed burns _ most recently conducted in the grove in 2018 _ mimic low intensity fires that help sequoias by clearing out downed branches, flammable needles and smaller trees that could compete with them for light and water. The heat from fires also helps cones open up to spread their seeds.

While intentional burns have been conducted in sequoias since the 1960s, they are increasingly being seen as a necessity to the save the massive trees. Once thought to be almost fireproof, up to 20% of all giant sequoias _ native only in the Sierra Nevada range _ have been killed in the past two years during intense wildfires.

Fighting fire with fire, which is used in limited applications to reduce threats to property or landmarks, is a risky endeavor and has occasionally gotten out of control.

In New Mexico, firefighters were working Tuesday to restore mountainsides turned to ash by the largest wildfire in the states recorded history that broke out in early April when prescribed burns by the U.S. Forest Service escaped containment following missteps and miscalculations.

The Santa Fe County Commission in an afternoon meeting blasted federal officials and unanimously passed a resolution calling on the Forest Service to conduct a more comprehensive environmental review as it looks to reduce the threat of wildfire in the mountains that border the capital city.

So far in 2022, over 35,000 wildfires have burned nearly 4.7 million acres (1.9 million hectares) in the U.S., according to the National Interagency Fire Center, well above average for both wildfires and acres burned.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Wildfire
Rockledge, FL., July 15, 2022.  Agency Brokerage Consultants, a premier M&A advisory serving the insurance brokerage industry, has been recognized again this year as a Top Firm by M&A Source, an international association for M&A advisors. In addition, the firms advisors were awarded numerous individual awards by M&A Source at its annual conference, held this year in Denver, CO.

The firm has also announced the appointment of Michael Mensch as CEO and the hiring of Larry Adkins as SVP of Business Development. Michael succeeded his co-founder, Lou Vescio, who is formally retiring but will continue to support the company in an advisory role. Mr. Adkins has spent the last 30 years working in the financial services and P&C insurance industries. His career accomplishments include managing a $200M division for a national carrier and completing more than 50 M&A transactions as an agency owner.

Mensch stated Larry brings a tremendous amount of hands-on experience to our team. He has built and managed large sales teams, acquired over 50 agencies, sold one to a PE backed buyer, and his interest in another to a large network that he had partnered with. I know he is excited to share his knowledge with our clients.

We started ABC because we sought to meet the needs of an immensely underserved market. Our mission from the onset was to raise the bar of M&A service to the lower and middle segment of the agency market. When you look at the number of transactions happening without an M&A advisor though, it is evident that agency principals are not maximizing the value of their agency when selling direct to a buyer.

Our objective over the next few years is to promote building value and exiting right by rolling out more educational content, services, and tools. Despite a potential market slowdown in the next 18 months, were making investments in technology and our team against the backdrop of a new corporate office. Our success is and always will be tied to the success of the agency force, so were committed to delivering value to it.

The company is in the process of relocating its headquarters to 930 S Harbor City Blvd, Melbourne, FL 32901. For more information about the firm or employment opportunities, contact Liz Singh, Director of Client Engagement, at 321-255-1309 or esingh@agencybrokerage.com.

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions
News

Global market trend 2022-2029 The accelerated dissemination of BA.5 and BA.4 in the United States and around the world has had an impact on the viral rt pcr kit market by Newsintegra927

On July 13, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved novavax's COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use in people 18 and older, making it the fourth vaccine to receive emergency authorization for use in the US. At the same time, the recent transmission of new subtypes of novel coronavirus omicron strains, BA.5 and BA.4, has accelerated in the United States and globally, setting off a new peak of infections.

Novavax is a recombinant protein vaccine. In addition to novavax, Pfizer, Modena and Johnson & Johnson vaccines were previously authorized for emergency use in the United States.

'Available data show that the known and potential benefits of the vaccine in people 18 and older outweigh the known and potential risks,' the FDA said in a statement. Data from an ongoing randomized, double-blind, controlled trial showed that the vaccine was 90.4% effective overall in preventing mild, moderate or severe cases of COVID-19.

Common side effects of the vaccine include pain, redness and swelling at the injection site, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, joint pain, vomiting and fever, the FDA said. Fda Administrator Robert Califf said in a statement that the emergency authorization for novavax increases the number of vaccine options currently available and helps prevent the serious consequences of COVID-19 infection, including hospitalizations and deaths.

Ba.5 has become the dominant strain in the United States, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the week ended July 2, BA.5 accounted for about 54% of all confirmed cases nationwide, while BA.4 accounted for about 17%. The number of infections caused by the two new subtypes has continued to rise since mid-May.

Stanley Perlman, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Iowa, told Xinhua that repeated infection rates caused by new subtypes are on the rise, and the proportion of BA.5 infections will continue to increase.

Department of the university of California, Los Angeles, school of public health epidemic Zhang Zuofeng, director of the professor told the Xinhua News Agency reporters in an interview, BA. 5 new subtypes have infectivity, short incubation period, transmission speed, asymptomatic infection ratio is high, after a period of time as people vaccination antibody levels gradually decreased, the breakthrough of the virus infection rate will be higher.

Buy high quality and effective DNA & RNA nucleic acid extraction reagent, lab consumables, automatic nucleic acid extractions, real-time PCR equipment and consumables or viral rt pcr kit . Send an email to: info@geneture.com and our professional sales engineer will get back to you within 48 hours.

Overview of market area prospect of viral rt pcr kit

By region, the market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa (MEA). North America is further divided into countries such as the United States and Canada. The European region is further divided into The United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Russia and the rest of Europe. The Asia Pacific region is further subdivided into China, Japan, Korea, India, Australia, Southeast Asia and the rest of Asia Pacific. The Latin America region is further subdivided into Brazil, Mexico and the rest of Latin America, and the MEA region is further divided into GCC, Turkey, South Africa and the rest of MEA.

Analysis and forecast of the market size of PCR diagnostic industry

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a nucleic acid synthesis technology that uses the principle of DNA double-strand replication to replicate specific DNA fragments in vitro. With this technology, the detection equipment can amplify the target gene in a large number in a short time, expanding the target gene fragment to the order of millions to billions, thus achieving high sensitivity detection. At present, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) diagnosis of infectious diseases such as hepatitis, venereal disease, intestinal respiratory disease and tumor single gene detection is an important application field. In 2020, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) diagnostic technology was identified as the "gold standard" for COVID-19 diagnosis due to its high sensitivity and accuracy.

China's PCR diagnostic market is developing rapidly, with the market size growing rapidly from about RMB 2.37 billion in 2015 to about RMB 5.93 billion in 2019, with a compound annual growth rate of 25.8%. China's PCR industry experienced explosive growth due to the huge demand for testing caused by the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, and the market size of China's PCR diagnostic industry exceeded 10 billion yuan in 2020. With the introduction of a large number of PCR diagnostic instruments, the PCR diagnostic industry will enter a new stage of development. It is expected that the PCR diagnostic industry will maintain a double-digit growth rate, and the market size of the PCR diagnostic industry will reach about 23.42 billion yuan in 2030 based on the factory price, and the cagR will reach about 13.3% from 2019 to 2030.

Market Demand of the viral rt pcr kit

The DNA/RNA Extraction Kit market and other viral rt pcr kits are projected to grow at a CAGR of 8.26% during the forecast period 2022-2027.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the viral rt pcr kit market for a short time due to restrictions on different business and research activities for viral rt pcr kits. In addition, diagnostic tests for other diseases and medical conditions in hospitals and other clinical diagnostic facilities have been affected as COVID-19 has led to fewer patients taking tests. However, the high rate of COVID-19 infection and research activities are undertaken by major companies in the field of sequencing to expand their understanding of the virus and its origins, as well as molecular diagnostics of the SARS-COV-2 virus, have led to the development and launch of many DNA - and RNA-BASED COVID-19 kits, The kits proved so important that they were in great demand.

Market drivers for the viral rt pcr kit

The growth of the DNA/RNA extraction kit market is primarily driven by increased investment in R&D activities in different areas, including molecular diagnostics for different chronic and infectious diseases. For example, the US spent $842 billion on R&D activities in 2020, followed by China at $664 billion, according to the ORGANISATION for Economic Co-operation and Development. Technological advances worldwide, new product launches by major market players, and an increase in cancer cases are also likely to complement the growth of the markets under study.

Other factors, such as increased demand for automation of DNA/RNA extraction technologies, new user-friendly and easy extraction kits, and DNA/RNA for analysis of new diseases causing microorganisms, are expected to drive DNA/RNA growth. RNA Extraction Kit market during the forecast period. Therefore, low awareness and availability of the kit and low market penetration in less developed and developing regions around the world are the major factors limiting the growth of the DNA/RNA extraction kit market.

North America is expected to dominate the global viral rt pcr kit market during the forecast period

North America, which holds a major share in the viral rt pcr kit market, is expected to show a similar trend during the forecast period, mainly due to the high level of R&D activity in the region and the presence of major market players in the region constantly developing their products for the markets studied.

In the region, the US is expected to take a major share of the DNA/RNA extraction kit market due to heavy investment in R&D by government and private entities, increased demand for viral rt pcr kits, and the rising prevalence of chronic diseases.

The viral rt pcr kit professional supplier manufacturer -Geneture

Geneture is a professional supplier of Nucleic Acid Extraction Reagent,Automatic Nucleic Acid Extraction,Lab consumables, Real-time PCR, Covid-19 Rapid Test Supplier. Buy high quality and effective DNA & RNA nucleic acid extraction reagent, lab consumables, automatic nucleic acid extractions, real-time PCR equipment and consumables.

Feel free to get a qutoe send an email to: info@geneture.com and our professional sales engineer will get back to you within 48 hours.

Inquery us
News

Global pce powder market trend 2025-2026 12 Kinds of Concrete Additives Used in Refractory Castable, Plastic and Ramming Materials(1) by Newsintegra927

Following the progress in Russia-Ukraine peace talks, the gold price fell more than 1% the next day, hitting its lowest in a month, and palladium prices briefly tumbled by nearly 9%.

"We have seen metal prices going into free fall when the Russia-Ukraine situation is likely to see a major detente, which spurred people's risk preference and optimism that the war could end at a time," said OANDA senior market analyst.

A Russian deputy defense minister says Moscow has decided to sharply curtail its military activities around Kyiv and Chernikov in Ukraine, following talks between Russian and Ukrainian representatives in Istanbul.

Where the prices of metals, natural gas, and commodities like the pce powder will go in the future, is still very uncertain.

The properties and varieties of concrete additives for refractories, especially refractory castables, ramming materials, plastics and other amorphous refractories are different. The role of an concrete additive is also different due to the difference of the amount of concrete additive, the type of binder used, the ingredients and so on. In the production process of amorphous refractories, the concrete additives mainly used can be divided into the following twelve categories according to their uses:



1. Water reducer

Water reducer (or water reducing agent or dispersant) can significantly reduce the mixing water consumption of refractory castables while keeping the flow value of refractory castables basically unchanged. The superplasticizer itself does not react with the material components to form new compounds, but plays a surface physical and chemical role. So they are either a surfactant or an electrolyte. After dissolving in water, they can adsorb on the particle surface, increase the Zeta potential of the particle surface in the solution, increase the repulsive force between the particles, and release the free water wrapped in the agglutination structure composed of microparticles, thus playing the role of wetting and dispersing, so it is also called dispersant. Because it can release the free water in the agglomeration structure, it can reduce the unit water consumption under the condition of keeping the rheological property (workability) of the castable, or increase the rheological property of the material and improve the working performance without changing the unit water consumption. make the material easy to be constructed and shaped.

Among the commonly used water reducers (dispersants) of refractory castables with calcium aluminate cement, bonded clay and oxide micro-powder as binders, there are inorganic sodium pyrophosphate, sodium tripolyphosphate, sodium tetrapolyphosphate, sodium hexametaphosphate, sodium superpolyphosphate, sodium silicate, etc., and organic ones include sodium lignosulfonate, calcium lignosulfonate, naphthalene superplasticizer, water-soluble resin superplasticizer and so on.

2. Plasticizer

Plasticizer (also known as plasticizer) can increase the plasticity of refractory mixture and improve the strain ability of refractory mixture under stress. Plasticizer is a common concrete additive of refractory plastics and refractory ramming materials, and it is also used in other amorphous refractories. Commonly used are plastic clay, bentonite, oxide superfine powder, soybean powder, methyl cellulose, lignosulfonate and so on.

3. Gelling agent

Gelling agents (also known as flocculants) can coagulate colloidal particles (or suspended particles) in colloidal solutions (or suspensions containing solid particles). The gelling agents are mainly inorganic electrolytes and inorganic acids. Flocculants are mainly organic polymers, which are natural and synthetic. According to the functional groups, they can be divided into three types: cationic, anionic and Nonionic. The gelling agent is mainly used in refractory castables which are bonded by clay, sol and ultra-fine powder.

4. Gelatinizing agent

Antigels (also known as anti-flocculants, dispersants) can convert agglomerated or agglomerated colloidal particles (particles) into sol or uniformly dispersed suspended particles. It can turn a thick colloid into a sol that can flow freely, also known as dispersant and colloidal solvent. The action mechanism of gelatinizer is similar to that of superplasticizer. Therefore, the superplasticizer which has the effect of reducing water also has the function of degumming agent. The fluidity of refractory castables bonded with clay, sol and ultra-fine powder can be improved by adding ungumming agent.

Concrete Concrete additives Supplier

TRUNNANO is a reliable concrete concrete additives supplier with over 12-year experience in nano-building energy conservation and nanotechnology development.

If you are looking for high-quality concrete concrete additives, please feel free to contact us and send an inquiry. (sales@cabr-concrete.com)

We accept payment via Credit Card, T/T, West Union, and Paypal. TRUNNANO will ship the goods to customers overseas through FedEx, DHL, by air, or by sea.





Researchers at the Centre for Translational Atomic Materials at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia have developed a new graphene film that absorbs more than 90% of sunlight while eliminating most of the infrared thermal emission losses, a highly efficient A solar-heated metamaterial capable of rapidly heating to 83 degrees Celsius (181 degrees Fahrenheit) in an open environment with minimal heat loss. Proposed applications for the film include thermal energy harvesting and storage, solar thermal power generation, and seawater desalination.

Our company provides graphene pce powder, if you need to buy graphene and pce powder, please feel free to contact us.



Inquery us
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Friday urged Group of 20 major economies to take urgent action to address a short-term food insecurity crisis exacerbated by Russia's war in Ukraine, and avoid market-distorting export restrictions and stockpiling.

Yellen, speaking at a meeting of G20 finance officials in Indonesia, said countries should target fiscal support measures to help those most in need, rather than adopting costly and regressive blanket subsidies.

She also called on G20 members to boost their spending to address existing food security challenges linked to conflict, climate change, and economic shocks from the COVID-19 pandemic that had grown worse due to war-related increases in food, fertilizer and fuel prices.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was "using food as a weapon of war," she said, citing "the destruction of agricultural facilities, theft of grain and farm equipment, and the effective blockade of Black Sea ports."

Yellen said poor households in the poorest countries were the most directly affected, setting back development and undermining efforts to eradicate poverty.

"We must take action to address the short-term food insecurity crisis and, equally importantly, the longer-term drivers of food insecurity, including the nexus with climate change," she said. "The speed and wisdom of our decisions now will make the difference on whether we get the current crisis under control."

Yellen said G20 countries should leverage the existing food security and agriculture architecture, and insist that the multilateral development banks, the Rome-based food agencies and the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) and others respond more urgently.

"We dont need new institutions. We need robust coordination, knowledge sharing, research and development, financing, and action," she said, lauding creation of the Global Alliance for Food Security as a helpful move.

Washington last month said it would commit a further $2.76bn (2.75bn) to tackling food insecurity, on top of $2.8bn (2.79bn) already provided since Russias invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 27.

The United States was also providing funds to an initiative launched by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and would be contributing to the African Development Banks African Emergency Food Production Facility and other initiatives, she said.

Reuters
The Russian ambassador to Ireland has issued a broadside against Taoiseach Micheal Martin over his recent visit to embattled Ukraine.

In a statement issued on Monday evening Yury Filatov categorised Mr Martin among western governments who, he claimed, were moralizing in an attempt to disguise crucial responsibility of the West, including Ireland, for the development of the crisis and ultimately current military conflict in Ukraine".

The recent visit to Kiev [sic] by Taioseach [sic] Micheal Martin has brought to light one of the signature characteristics of the Western attitude towards the situation in Ukraine  an almost universal desire of politicians and media alike to try to adopt high moral ground, depicting Ukraine as a victim of unprovoked and perfidious attack from its neighbor, he said.

It has become commonplace, even obligatory, to accuse Russia, to quote the Taioseach [sic], of illegal and immoral war. That has been the point of departure for the Western governments in their policy towards Russia ever since it began its special military operation in February.

"Such moralizing has been actively used in an attempt to disguise crucial responsibility of the West, including Ireland, for the development of crisis and ultimately current military conflict in Ukraine.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin speaking with local officials while seeing for himself the destruction wrought by Russian invaders in Irpin on July 6 during his visit to Ukraine. Picture: Niall Carson/PA

Claim that Russia did not start war

Mr Filatov then claimed Russia did not start the current war and instead claimed the problem dated from 2014 when an illegitimate regime was installed as a result of a violent overthrow of Yanukovich government.

He also claimed that attempts were made since then to derail the peace process in the Donbass, adding: Refusal by the West to genuinely support peaceful political settlement in the Eastern Ukraine  along with demonstrative ignoring by the US, EU and NATO of Russias proposals on security guaranties in Europe  has left Russian Government with no option other than to end Donbass suffering and protect Russians national security. To deny this sad truth is neither a moral proposition, nor a responsible policy.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Taoiseach Micheal Martin hold a joint press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, on July 6. Picture: Niall Carson/PA

During the visit to Ukraine last week the Taoiseach was thanked by Volodymyr Zelenskyy for Irelands support  something Mr Martin said would continue.

The bombardment and attacks on civilians are nothing short of war crimes, and I will use my visit to express Irelands support for moves to hold those behind these attacks fully accountable, he said.

The spirit and resolve of the Ukrainian people has inspired us all, and Ireland will provide every support for Ukraines path to full EU membership, and continue to welcome and support civilians fleeing this war.
Cotonou, Benin PANA) - Benin has announced the upcoming training of 662 aspiring teachers and student teachers recruited at the beginning of the year to address the shortage of personnel in the sector
Aer Lingus passengers travelling from or via Heathrow face the prospect of further cancellations over the coming weeks due to capacity issues at the world's busiest airport. Heathrow authorities are coming under increasing pressure from airlines since they announced the capping of flights earlier this week.

On Thursday Aer Lingus cancelled two one-way flights from London Heathrow to Dublin and Shannon and said it was awaiting further direction from Heathrow authorities regarding the possible impact on flight schedules in the coming weeks.

It also apologised to the customers whose flights were affected and said it was working on ways to deal with those issues.

It is the latest issue to befall airline passengers in recent weeks, with a Covid-19 outbreak impacting staffing levels, a surge in passenger numbers and other flights out of Dublin Airport also being cancelled.

Heathrow's woes

London Heathrow has also experienced serious issues as the summer season has got into full swing, resulting in the controversial decision to cap passenger numbers to 100,000 per day until mid-September.

In its most recent statement, airport authorities said: "Weve recently experienced a number of challenging conditions at Heathrow that has made it difficult to maintain the quality of service for which we are world-renowned. Therefore, we have made the difficult decision to reduce capacity at the airport with effect from 12 July to 11 September.

"We sincerely apologise to anyone whose travel plans are affected by this. Our aim is that everyone who travels through Heathrow can be confident theyll have a safe and smooth journey through the airport and get to their destination with their bags.

"Similar measures to control passenger demand have been implemented at other airports both in the UK and around the world."

In an earlier statement, Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said staff were "doing the very best they can with the resources available" but that some form of intervention was required.

"Over the past few weeks, as departing passenger numbers have regularly exceeded 100,000 a day, we have started to see periods when service drops to a level that is not acceptable: long queue times, delays for passengers requiring assistance, bags not travelling with passengers or arriving late, low punctuality and last-minute cancellations," he said.

'Unreasonable and unacceptable'

However, the decision to cap passenger numbers until mid-September has been blasted by at least one large airline, with Emirates claiming it was "unreasonable and unacceptable" and it showed a "blatant disregard" for customers.

An Emirates Airbus A380 plane taking off from Heathrow airport in West London. Emirates has rejected an order from Heathrow to cancel flights to comply with a cap on passenger numbers.

It declared that Heathrow now faced "an 'airmageddon' situation due to their incompetence and non-action".

Emirates said it had been given 36 hours to cut departing passenger numbers, and therefore flights, and was threatened with legal action for not complying.

"This is entirely unreasonable and unacceptable, and we reject these demands," it said.

Aer Lingus is one of the biggest users of the airport, operating up to 23 flights to and from Heathrow each day, from Dublin, Cork, Shannon and Belfast. It said it wanted to minimise disruption caused to customers by the cancelled flights, and that they will receive direct communication from Aer Lingus in the coming days.
A man has been arrested after gardai seized 220,000 worth of cocaine and cannabis.

Gardai from the Bridewell Garda Station in Cork carried out the search on Thursday as part of Operation Tara.

The search was carried out at a residence in Cork city at approximately 8.30pm.

Cocaine with an estimated value of 210,000 and cannabis worth 10,000 was seized at the scene. An imitation firearm and 3,100 in cash were also seized.

A man, aged in his 30s, was arrested at the scene and later taken to Bridewell Garda Station where he is currently detained under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act 1996.

All of the drugs seized will now be sent for further analysis.
Taoiseach Micheal Martin will tour Japan and Singapore in a bid to grow Irelands relationship with the region.

Mr Martin will also express his sympathies to the people of Japan after the killing of former prime minister Shinzo Abe.

Mr Abe, one of the longest-serving prime ministers in modern Japanese history, was shot dead last Friday.

The Taoiseach will also meet with Japans current leader, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Speaking ahead of the visit, the Taoiseach said that Ireland had much in common with Japan and Singapore.

I am greatly looking forward to my visit to Japan and Singapore, two nations with which we in Ireland have much in common, he said.

While there, I expect to discuss Russias immoral and inhumane invasion of Ukraine, the impact of which is being felt all around the world.

Well also discuss global challenges, maintaining economic growth, restoring broken supply chains, and how we can work together on climate change.

Our Global Ireland Asia Pacific Strategy seeks to deepen our links across the region, and this trip will be an opportunity to create even more opportunities for our countries to work together.

Mr Martin will also visit the site of the new Ireland House in Tokyo, set to be completed in 2024, under the Governments Global Ireland Strategy.

While in Singapore, he will meet with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, as well as representatives from a number of Irish companies operating on the island nation.
Last week, I was on a beach in Spain, pretending to disconnect from work, news, the world, but secretly catching up on the days news programmes by night. While my family slept, I stealthily sucked up all of the news and opinions to be had, refilling my FOMO cup to the brim.

I dont like to switch off. I honestly love my work and consider myself lucky to have it. So I was stopped in my tracks as I worked my way through RTE Radio Ones schedule in the wee hours, by the voices of some women who had called the Joe Duffy show to talk about their experience of the marriage bar.

For those of you who dont know what the marriage bar was, it sounds like a terrifying and implausible plotline for the next series of The Handmaids Tale, but actually it was a real thing in Ireland between the 1930s and 1973, whereby women who worked in the civil service were forced to give up their jobs upon marrying. It sounds like something out of a Grimms fairytale, doesnt it?

It was a jaw-droppingly discriminatory law that casually, cruelly and effectively clipped the wings of many women. The real clincher was, a lot of these curtailments were only discovered after marriage. While most women knew they would have to stop working when they got married, they could not have guessed at the many insidious downsides their new status of wife would bring.

These only became apparent when they tried to do something like lodge a cheque made out to them to their own bank account, or borrow a sum of money in their own name from their own financial institution. All of these things, and many more, needed the approval, in person, with a signature, of their husbands. These women were effectively reduced to the status of children, wards, people of no status.

One caller described her experience of discovering that her PPS number was no longer the one she had had her whole life, but had instead been changed to her husbands number. She queried it with a civil servant at the time who bluntly informed her Thats your number now. Youre half a person.

Half a person. The phrase struck me as an accurate description of how some women must have experienced life under the marriage bar. Half a person. No longer a person in your own right, but now a person who existed only in relation to your husband, he being the planet where all the action happened, and you being a pale and distant moon that got to orbit him.

As I listened to these women of different generations talking about their loneliness after they stopped working, their sense of the world being out there while they were in here, Alices trapped behind the looking glasses of their semi-ds, I felt an unwelcome sense of recognition.

When I first had children, I also found myself in a very traditional set-up for the first couple of years, where I stayed at home, while my husband went to work. I wasnt comfortable with the dynamic at all.

Ive always been independent and couldnt wait to start working again. I also remember how important work was to re-establishing a sense of familiarity and identity in a turbulent period of transition. It made me wonder how many of those women had had their sense of self and identity erased by the marriage bar.

As caller after caller told their stories of how they had been forced to leave their careers, I should have felt a growing sense of outrage, but the overriding feeling was one of sadness. These women told stories not only of being forced to leave jobs they loved, places of work where they had social lives, freedom and independence, but of being condemned to stay at home in isolation.

There was a sense of life shutting down, opportunities narrowing, and duty, obligation, and boredom setting in. I cant imagine how hard it must have been for these young women, full of hopes, ambition, and vitality to shelve their dreams of careers, creative expression, and adventure and turn their focus instead to the domestic.

Or maybe Im making too much of it. I realise lots of women were and are happy to give up work to focus on home and children when they get married. Good for them. Im all in favour of choice. The point is, there was no choice under the marriage bar.

Its all ancient history now, I suppose, and Im confident that wives are now seen as whole people in their own right, with individual identities, just like husbands, even if they may from time to time still find a letter addressed to them under their husbands name or be seen as an employment risk if they happen to fall into a certain childbearing age bracket.

Perhaps its better to laugh in disbelief, and breathe a sigh of relief that that was then and this is now, but perhaps good to remind ourselves of this bizarre and surreal law from time to time, lest we forget.
Apologise! Do it  say youre sorry. Apologise. Will ya, for the love of God, come out and do the decent thing?

They lined up to extract an apology yesterday at the Public Accounts Committee meeting.

Appearing before the politicians was Dave Walsh, chairman of An Bord Pleanala, an organisation currently up to its oxters in controversy. This was the first public outing for Mr Walsh since allegations began to go like firecrackers in the media two months ago.

The man at the centre of the controversy, former vice chairman Paul Hyde, resigned last Friday, so he was a dead duck as far as the PAC is required.

Former Bord Pleanala vice chairman Paul Hyde.

Mr Walsh was before the politicians in May of last year and he told them that all was hunky dory in the appeals board. Yesterday, some of them were gagging for some mea culpa.

Wheres our apology?

Imelda Munster was up first. She read out the transcript from the last occasion and asked him to apologise. He wouldnt. She went through salaries and such like, and finished up with: Thats some mess you left us with, and you still dont want to apologise?

Matt Carthy wanted an apology. Did you read back the transcript of your last appearance? he asked Mr Walsh.

Were you mortified or embarrassed?

No, he wasnt.

Sinn Fein TD Matt Carthy. Picture: Gareth Chaney/ Collins Photos

High dudgeon informed Verona Murphys questions. You dont feel the need to apologise because there are no results of the [ongoing] review? We have 8.2m in legal fees, and that doesnt warrant an apology? No luck there, and on it went.

PAC hearings can often be a mixture of performative anger and actual probing, and yesterday it was difficult at times to know where one ended and the other began.

Conflicts of interest

The committees ostensible brief is to probe financial issues and, by extension, governance. And it was governance that was the main focus, as that is at the heart of the controversies, which centre on conflicts of interest, deviating from inspectors reports, and the composition of sub boards which made controversial decisions. These are the subjects of ongoing reviews  one external by a senior counsel and another internal by three management figures.

There was some light as well as the angry heat.

On the governance of conflicts of interest, Mr Walsh confirmed that this largely had to be on trust. Board members are required to make a declaration. He pointed out that he was raised in north Dublin and he would recuse himself if a matter came up in the direct neighbourhood of his mothers home, but not, for instance, if it was at the far end of the parish.

An individual will know whether something is too close to them or if its somebody they know or is a connected person, he said.

The code of conduct says where there is any doubt, a matter should be raised and resolved by the chairperson does require trust.

Whether that code was adhered to will be a matter for senior counsel Remy Farrell to decide, as he has been tasked by the Minister for Housing to investigate the matter.

Inspectors reports

The issue of inspectors reports was also raised. The inspector investigates an appeal or planning application, visits the site, correlates all relevant reports, and recommends either yay or nay to the board. It has emerged that Mr Hyde ignored such recommendations on up to 90% of cases in recent years in relation to telecommunications masts. There were also other high-profile cases where he disregarded the recommendation and granted an appeal.

According to Mr Walsh yesterday, ignoring the recommendation would generally occur in around 10% of cases. The apparent discrepancy is outside of normal expectation of the statistical distribution, Mr Walsh replied. It also gives rise to questions that hopefully one or both reviews might answer.

Other queries centred on the composition of sub divisions of the board making decisions. A controversy has arisen over a two-person as opposed to the customary three making the decisions on the communication masts. Most of those involved the same two members of the board  Mr Hyde and Michelle Fagan.

Former Labour Party leader Alan Kelly said that Dave Walsh has once been an assistant secretary in his department.

The former Labour leader Alan Kelly, in the spirit of declaring an interest, told the committee that he was the minister who had ordered a review of An Bord Pleanala to which a number of the committee members had referred, and back in those glory days, Mr Walsh had been an assistant secretary in his department.

He brought up the issue of competency in EU law, asking how many cases involving the board were before the European Court of Justice. These, Kelly pointed out, had mainly to do with interpretations of EU directives on habitat and environmental protection. Unlike other issues around the board, the habitat directive does not have a whiff of cordite about it, but the failure of the board to properly implement it has been very costly to the State, and a drag on good and expedient planning.

On this, Walsh was on safe ground. It was a matter not for his organisation, but the department. He nearly breathed the relief across the room at his former boss.

So it went in the stocks for Mr Walsh, his torture completed after three hours.

He did alright in terms of holding his own, but none of that disguises the big job of work he has in regaining public confidence in An Bord Pleanala.

That will take a lot more than a much-sought-after apology.
Burma Karen Resistance Group Claims Another Victory Over Myanmar Junta Troops

The Cobra Column with arms and ammunition seized this week after fighting near Thone Htat Kwee in Myawaddy Township. / Cobra Column

An estimated eight Myanmar regime soldiers, including a major who was an acting battalion commander, were killed in Myawaddy Township, Karen State, according to the Cobra Column, which took part in the fighting.

On Wednesday afternoon clashes occurred between resistance groups and troops from Infantry Battalion 8 and Light Infantry Battalion 207, who were trying to reach around 30 injured soldiers from Tuesdays fighting at Thone Htat Kwe on the Myawaddy-Waw Lay road.

Approximately 120 regime soldiers were defeated on Tuesday and a battalion commander and his deputy were killed, Cobra said.

The resistance group is fighting alongside the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) in Karen State. The KNLA is an armed wing of the Karen National Union, along with the Karen National Defense Organization (KNDO).

The Myawaddy-Waw Lay road has reportedly been controlled by Cobra since March and is required to send reinforcements to the juntas major Ukayit Hta outpost in Waw Lay and needed to recapture the Thay Baw Boe outpost, which was seized by resistance groups on May 18.

At least eight regime soldiers were killed, including a major. The fighting has stopped. Reinforcements are arriving so heavy fighting will start again soon, Myo Thura Ko Ko of the Cobra Column told The Irrawaddy on Friday.

He said a resistance fighter was lightly injured. The Irrawaddy could not verify the casualty figures.

Regime forces fired shells during Wednesdays fighting but could not call in airstrikes because the fighting was close to the Thai border. The junta recently had to apologize to Bangkok after a fighter jet crossed about 4km into Thai air space in Tak province on June 30 while bombing to defend the Ukayit Hta outpost.

Cobra released photos of dead bodies and seized weapons, including 705 bullets, rocket-propelled grenades, three hand grenades and two 60mm shells, on Wednesday.

Cobra fights with the KNLA and the Venom Column is associated with the KNDO, which has been trying to seize the Ukayit Hta outpost since June 26. Fighting continues at the outpost.

On July 8, Cobra said it killed five regime soldiers, including a Light Infantry captain, who were en route to reinforce the outpost.

On Monday Cobra said five regime soldiers had defected. In videos, the deserters say they are in their late teens and early 20s and were previously deployed in Rakhine State.

More than 1,000 Waw Lay residents had fled across the Moei River to Thailand by June 30 due to the fighting, according to a rescue team in the Thai border town of Mae Sot.
Burma Militia Chief Seized Over Alleged Murder of Myanmar Junta Officers Relative

The body of Ko Min Min allegedly killed by Pyu Saw Htee militia members being retrieved. / CJ

Seven pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia members have been detained by Myanmars regime in Kyunhla Township, Sagaing Region, after they were accused of killing a relative of an army captain and police chief, said residents.

Junta soldiers came to Pyinmamyaing ward in three vehicles and detained the Pyu Saw Htee leader and his team. I heard police have opened a case against them for murder and hiding the body, a Kyunhla resident told The Irrawaddy.

Pyu Saw Htee leader Ko Nyi Nyi and six others were detained by the regime on July 5 for allegedly killing Ko Min Min, a rice mill owner from Padaukpin village in Kantbalu Township.

The victim was reportedly a cousin of a military captain and police captain, according to residents. The Pyu Saw Htee leader was detained due to pressure from the army captain, they said.

The Irrawaddy could not confirm where the two junta personnel were based.

Militia members have been acting arrogantly in the town with their guns. Now they have killed an officers relative. Everyone knows even the police cant touch the soldiers, said a Kyunhla resident.

Ko Min Min, 40, was abducted and killed as he traveled to Kyunhla with a companion to buy equipment for his rice mill. The Pyu Saw Htee militia members allegedly seized 1.5 million kyats, two phones and a motorbike from them and Ko Min Min was shot dead as he tried to run away near a quarry outside the town. His companion escaped, according to residents.

Police have retrieved his body and opened a case against Ko Nyi and his team who are currently being detained at Battalion 6006 in Kantbalu.
Burma Myanmar Regime Convoy Ambushed; Five Soldiers Killed in Southern Myanmar

Fighters of the Dawei Guerrilla Revolutionary Force

At least five Myanmar junta soldiers were reportedly killed on Wednesday in an ambush by a combined force of resistance groups in southern Myanmars Tanintharyi Region.

The ambush followed a night attack on the local office for Military Security Affairs, commonly known as the military intelligence office, in Yebyu Township, Dawei District. The office was burned to the ground, according to the Dawei Guerrilla Revolutionary Force (DGRF).

Regime soldiers and pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia are stationed at the office, but the DGRF couldnt confirm the number of military regime casualties.

Three military vehicles carrying around 40 soldiers on their way to reinforce the office were subsequently ambushed with mines by the Launglon Peoples Defense Force (PDF) and three other resistance groups near Yebyu Bridge.

Five soldiers died on the spot and many more were injured.

These three vehicles came from the western part of Yebyu Town to help the military security affairs office. However, two were stopped and one turned back after our mine attack, a Launglon PDF spokesperson said.

Resistance forces urged the public to avoid police stations and the military office as they will continue to attack junta troops.

We want to request the public to stay away from soldiers, police and their stooges, the Pyu Saw Htee. Moreover, the public shouldnt follow military and police vehicles closely, Launglon PDF added.

Tanintharyi Region is a stronghold of armed resistance in southern Myanmar. There have been frequent clashes between resistance fighters and junta troops in Launglon, Thayetchaung and Yebyu townships in Dawei District.
Burma Myanmars Aung San Suu Kyi Denies Electoral Fraud Charges

State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi checks voter lists ahead of the 2020 general election. / The Irrawaddy

Myanmars detained State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday denied electoral fraud charges at a closed trial inside Naypyitaw Prison, where she has been held since late last month.

Court sources told The Irrawaddy that she told the prison court that she denied charges filed under Article 130(a) of the Penal Code, accusing her of influencing the election commission ahead of her landslide victory in the November 2020 general election.

Detained President U Win Myint and union government office minister Min Thu are codefendants in the trial.

She said she didnt influence the commission and acted legally, a source said.

U Win Myint has also denied the charges during a hearing last week and U Min Thu is due to testify next week.

The military took control on Feb. 1, 2021, after arresting Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, U Win Myint and other NLD leaders, claiming the party cheated in the election. The junta subsequently annulled the election results.

The junta has brought 11 charges against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi that could see her jailed for more than 150 years.

The 77-year-old has already been convicted of corruption, incitement against the military, breaching COVID-19 rules and breaking the Telecommunications Law, with a court sentencing her so far to 11 years.

On June 22, the junta transferred her to solitary confinement in prison from an undisclosed location where she was held for more than a year.

The move to the prison has prompted concerns about Daw Aung San Suu Kyis well-being, especially given her age.
Burma Over 10,000 Civilians Flee Myanmar Junta Airstrikes in Sagaing

Villagers flee on Thursday in Tabayin Township, Sagaing Region after junta helicopter gunships attacked civilian targets. Photo- Tabayin Assistance Group for IDPs.

Myanmars military regime has committed yet another war crime by conducting airstrikes on Thursday on four villages in Tabayin Township, Sagaing Region that killed two civilians and forced over 10,000 people from a dozen villages to flee their homes.

On Thursday afternoon, regime forces arrived by helicopter to raid Namyar Village in the east of Tabayin Township, while two Russian-made Mi-35 helicopter gunships attacked the village for about 40 minutes, according to local news sources.

The junta gunships also attacked three nearby villages, despite not facing any opposition to the raid.

At the same time, another military detachment dropped by helicopters in the township in early July occupied neighboring Nayakan Village.

The airstrikes came hours after a pro-regime Telegram channel posted that many fighters from the ethnic armed organization the Kachin Independence Army had arrived in the villages, an official of Tabayins Brothers, a local group assisting internally displaced people (IDP), told The Irrawaddy on Friday.

50-year-old villager U Khin Maung San and a female resident were killed during the airstrike on Namyar Village. Two other villagers were injured, according to local rights groups.

On Friday, around 100 residents in Namyar Village who had been detained by junta troops were released, said the Tabayin Assistance Association for IDPs.

After leaving Namyar, regime soldiers raided nearby Yin Khyay Village on Friday, opening fire as they did so. At the same time, the second military detachment raided and torched houses in nearby Kone Tel Village, after torching houses in Nayakan Village on Friday morning, according to the IDP assistance groups.

Currently, the IDPs are in urgent need of food and medicine, as residents frequently have to flee their homes due to numerous junta raids and airstrikes, said a member of the Tabayin Assistance Association for IDPs.

The junta are attacking innocent civilians in the townships. Now we face a food shortage due to the increasing number of IDPs. Even the villages that are sheltering the IDPs are now facing a food crisis themselves, he added.

There have been at least five airstrikes on civilian targets in Tabayin Township, said the spokesperson for the Tabayins Brothers group.

As of Thursday, regime forces have burned down over 560 houses during their raids on 26 villages in the township since the coup, said the spokesperson.

During the revolutionary period, almost the whole population are suffering. However, our people must depend on each other as they have no other options, the spokesperson added.

He also requested people to supply the IDPs in the township with food and medicine.

Since last Septembers declaration of a peoples defensive war by the civilian National Unity Government (NUG), regime forces have relentlessly committed atrocities such as arbitrary arrests, indiscriminate killings of civilians, carrying out torture, massacres, burning people alive and using civilians as human shields, air and artillery strikes on residential areas and the looting and torching of homes, especially in Chin, Kachin, Shan, Kayah, Mon and Karen States and Magwe, Mandalay and Sagaing regions.

Last month, the NUGs Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration said that junta forces committed almost 2,800 war crimes across the country from last December 1 to May 31 this year.
Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - Over 500,000 conflict-affected people in northeast Nigeria will be given a lifeline, thanks to a new UN humanitarian and development package, launched on Thursday
Burma Pro-Regime Militia Blamed as Another Member of Myanmars NLD Killed

A junta soldier provides military training to Pyu Saw Htee militia members in Kantbalu Township.

The killing spree targeting National League for Democracy (NLD) members continues with an executive of the partys branch in Kantbalu Township, Sagaing Region being killed on July 8.

U Kyaw Myint was reportedly abducted and killed by pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia members who accused him of acting as an informant in the arrest by the local Peoples Defense Force earlier this month of three men including a son of the Tawkashat Village Pyu Saw Htee leader. U Kyaw Myints body was not returned to the family, but cremated on the orders of the regime.

Though U Kyaw Myint was an NLD executive, he steered clear of political issues after the military coup. He was intentionally killed. Pyu Saw Htee militias have a strong presence in Tawkashat thanks to a nationalist monk called U Wasawa, a resident said.

U Wasawa is a member of a nationalist Buddhist monk organization known by its Burmese acronym Ma Ba Tha.

Local free funeral service providers said they helped cremate U Kyaw Myints body after taking it from the mortuary of the Kantbalu Township Hospital on July 9.

The regime and its affiliates have been killing NLD lawmakers, executives, members and supporters since the coup. Three NLD memberslawmaker U Kyaw Myo Min from Mon States Bilin Township, and party members U Pann Myint and U Ko Ko Maungwere killed by the regime in June.

A spokesman for the NLD said: The chairman of the State Administration Council [the Myanmar regimes governing body] has detained, tortured and killed with hard feelings politicians, activists, defenders of democracy and human rights, and professional journalists. It is very saddening. He fears that he might lose, and he is doing everything he can think of out of desperation.

Some 917 NLD members including lawmakers have been detained since the coup, and 216 have been released. A total of 18 including a lawmaker have died due to torture during interrogation and lack of proper medical treatment in prison, according to the NLD.

According to the NLDs Human Rights Documentation Team, from the day of the coup on Feb. 1 2021 to July 1 this year there were 106 attacks on party offices including its headquarters, and the houses and property of 224 party members including 119 lawmakers were sealed off.

The team said five party members and seven party supporters were killed and their bodies dumped by roadsides as of May 5 by pro-junta vigilante groups including Thwe Thout, Sun Ye, the Nationalist Coalition and the Nationalist Alliance.

The terror group Thwe Thout announced on April 21 that, to counter resistance attacks on junta targets, it was launching Operation Red against members and supporters of the NLD, their families, and supporters of the anti-regime Peoples Defense Force (PDF).

Local sources in Mandalay said that at least 20 NLD supporters have been killed in Mandalay Region since Thwe Thout launched its operation.
Does the monkeypox disease constitutes a public health emergency of international concern, that is what officials at the World Health Organization (WHO) are pondering as they announce a second meeting to assess the outbreak which is endemic in several Central and West African countries.

Monkeypox has now expanded to a total of 139 cases across 12 counties in Florida, with most infections in Broward (90) and Miami-Dade (22) counties, according to state health data. In Florida, the state health department previously reported 105 cases of monkeypox in 10 counties.

On the global scale, the World Health Organization had reported in July two new deaths due to monkeypox since its last update, totaling three deaths from the virus from January 1 to July 4, 2022, according to a WHO report. The group held a meeting June 23 on the public health emergency issue and did not declare an emergency.

Now, with cases and deaths rising and various health advocates concerned, WHO has set a second meeting on July 21.

Both the WHO and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are monitoring the 2022 monkeypox outbreak.

Oftentimes causing a characteristic rash and other symptoms, the monkeypox virus continues to circulate across the nation and worldwide.

If the agency does declare a public health emergency for monkeypox, health officials will propose temporary recommendations on how to better prevent and reduce the spread of the disease and manage the global health response, according to a press release from WHO.

However, the World Health Network, a worldwide coalition of scientists and advocates, has already declared the monkeypox virus a pandemic.

According to WHN, the group declares the monkeypox outbreak a Public Health Emergency of Global Concern, by which it indicates that this outbreak is not limited to a single country or region and should be addressed by immediate actions taken wherever community transmission is taking place in order to ensure that the least effort is needed, and the smallest impact is suffered due to this outbreak.

In addition, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation has urged the World Health Organization not to repeat the past mistake of delaying declarations for COVID-19 and immediately declare the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), according to a report from Business Wire.

Nationwide, California has seen the most monkeypox cases (161), followed by New York (159) and Illinois (152), according to the latest data from the CDC. There have been 11,068 cases in 65 countries, the CDC reported, as of Thursday afternoon.

The number of Floridas CDC cases is lower than the cases posted by the Florida Department of Health.

Meanwhile, the Biden Administration had announced a strategy to combat monkeypox that includes expanding testing capacity using commercial laboratories, as well as other health measures.

On Thursday, the CDC announced that Aegis Sciences began monkeypox testing using the CDCs orthopoxvirus test at its laboratories in Nashville, Tennessee, according to a CDC press release.

Aegis can accept specimens from any location in the country and expects to perform up to 10,000 tests per week, the CDC noted. Other major commercial laboratories currently performing monkeypox testing include Labcorp, Mayo Clinic Laboratories, and Quest Diagnostics.

CDC officials advise that anyone with a rash that looks like monkeypox should consult with their health care provider about whether to get tested for the disease.

Early data suggest that gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men make up a high number of cases, CDC said on its website. However, anyone can become infected with monkeypox if they have been in close contact with someone who has the virus.

The ability of commercial laboratories to test for monkeypox is an important pillar in our comprehensive strategy to combat this disease, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in a written statement Thursday. This will not only increase testing capacity but also make it more convenient for providers and patients to access tests by using existing provider-to-laboratory networks.

This story appeared on the website of the Florida Phoenix, a nonprofit news organization dedicated to coverage of state government and politics from Tallahassee. You can visit them by clicking here.
There is not a better place in Miami-Dade to enjoy a work-week-ending meal - perhaps a burger - than the island, and our participating #tasteofkeybiscayne restaurants are ready to make this Friday, July 15, an enjoyable one.

Costa Med Bistro

Sometimes all you need is a loaded burger and a lot of fries! A Costa Burger is the solution for this Burger--Friday  and the islands place to see and be seen has the best burger in Key Biscayne

Place your takeout order online by clicking here!

Costa Med, a TripAdvisor Traverlers Choice nominated restaurant, is located in the Square Shopping Center. 260 Crandon Blvd. Offering Indoor & Outdoor Dining with expanded seating, Takeout.

Reservations suggested. Call Antonio or Harold at (305) 361-7575

Hours.

Lunch Mon to Sat: Noon a.m. to 4 p.m.

Dinner Mon to Sat: 6 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. / Sun 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

The Golden Hog

Eat Local. Help Local. Shop Safely. Email us your order! Click here.

Want to treat yourself to something truly uniquely delicious? Try our special Burger! Grilled to perfection while you wait!

Todays menu:

Soups & Creams: Chicken Pasta / Lentil / Tomato Basil

Main Course: Asado Negro (Eye Round) / Chicken Cordon Bleu / Salmon Fillet / Pasta with Chicken

Side Dishes: Paella / White Rice / Mixed Veggies / Country Potatoes

The Golden-Hog has a complete line of specialty groceries for delivery.

Golden Hog puts safety first, and has taken steps to ensure the safety of employees and customers, investing in shields, masks and gloves for safety, and the store is set up for social distancing. Shop with confidence.

Call (305) 361-1300 to place a delivery or take out order; you can order online here.

Brasas KB

#burgerfriday special ... delicious Half-Pound Hamburger, with one side and a soda, only $10.99 - loaded it up with a fried egg, bacon, cheese and pickles to make it a "completa '' for only $4 more! Can't beat the quality! Unmatched value!

Have you tried our Peruvian Chicken Rotisserie for lunch or dinner that include 2 sides and sauce of your choice: huancaina, aji amarillo, huacatay and olivas negras peruanas.

Open for Outdoor Dining, Takeout or Delivery.

Call (786) 615-2399 to place a takeout order. Open Noon to 8 p.m.

328 Crandon Blvd, Galleria Shopping Center

DUNE Burgers on the Beach

Beachside dining - Ritz-Carlton - Dune - Perfection!

This Friday, dig into one of our many delicious variations - like our Bleau burger! Best enjoyed beachside with a cold beverage!!

DUNE is the stylish, yet casual, beach lounge at The Ritz-Carlton's beach for global appetizers, gourmet burgers & champagne.

Located in the Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne, 455 Grand Bay Dr, Key Biscayne. You can reach them at (305) 365-4500.

They are open Thursday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

For more information, click here.

Tacopolis

Come in this Friday and learn what a LOADED burger is!!!

Tacopolis was born as an idea in Cancun Mexico with the goal of creating a casual and relaxed atmosphere, serving authentic Mexican dishes

Open 7-days a week, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Open for Outdoor dining, Takeout or delivery

Located in the Square Shopping Center at 260 Crandon Blvd, Key Biscayne.

To place a phone order, call 786) 703-5523 or to order online click here

D'Lite Bistro & Bakery

Who says eating healthy means sacrificing taste and flavor? Not at DLite!

We are a unique and healthy restaurant that serves salads, wraps, sandwiches, bowls, protein smoothies and cold press juices made fresh every morning  including gluten-free, vegetarian and keto options.

Not in the mood for a burger? Try one of our delicious sandwiches, like our Italian sandwich in a freshly baked baguette

We open at 7 a.m. daily and close at 8 p.m. everyday except Sat and Sun when we close at 6 p.m.

DLite is located in the Arcade Mall, 180 Crandon Blvd. To place an order, call (305) 882-9284 or visit us online by clicking here.

Randazzo by Yesenia

Open for Indoor & Outdoor dining, Takeout or delivery. Reservations recommended

Burgers are nice. but enjoy a change of pace this Friday try Yesenia's Homemade Meatball. What is in it? Ground veal, beef, and pork. Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, Italian parsley, garlic, served with fresh ricotta cheese.

Please call (305) 456-0480 to order place an order or make a reservation

Open Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., open until 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. NEW! Now open at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sundays for lunch.

Closed Tuesdays

328 Crandon Blvd Ste 112, Galleria Shopping Center

Delivery service with Postmates or UberEats

32 Degrees by MG

You deserve gourmet meal options that are fast and convenient.

Make it a Meatballs Saturday! Order today, enjoy tomorrow!

Fresh, fully cooked meals from 32 Degrees are a great mealtime option. We provide frozen, ready-prepared meals that are great for the busiest of lifestyles! We shop, prep, cook, and deliver to your doorstep, so you can experience the benefits of gourmet eating without the fuss or hassle.

Our fully cooked meals are created with passion by our chefs using only the freshest ingredients. We never use additives or preservatives. Our meals are ready to eat in the microwave in 5 minutes.

Place your order today by visiting 32-degrees.com.

Use code 32ISLANDER at checkout and receive 15% off* your first order.

*Offer good on orders of $40 or more.

Boaters Grill & Lighthouse Cafe / Bill Baggs

The restaurants inside Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park  the popular Boaters Grill, located at No Name Harbor and accessible by boat, and the beachside Lighthouse Cafe are open and ready to serve.

What says Burger Friday more than a perfectly cooked burger and fries, enjoyed beachside under the shadows of the Lighthouse?

Outdoor dining is our specialty.

Boaters Grill is open Sunday through Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Thursday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Lighthouse Cafe is open 7-days a week, from 9 a.m. to Sunset

The restaurants are located inside Bill Baggs State Park, at 1200 Crandon Blvd., Key Biscayne.

You can reach them at (305) 361-0080

Sake Room

This Friday, we are featuring our new Meat Roll! A must try!

Open for Indoor & Outdoor Dining, Takeout or Delivery.

Or still enjoy Sake quality at home!

FREE* Crunchy Crab Salad!!!

New hours! 3 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Call (305) 456-0488 to place a takeout or delivery order directly

Following all CDC safety protocols

328 Crandon Blvd Ste 108, Galleria Shopping Center

Grub hub  UberEats also available. Please if you can call us first

*Offer good on any $50+ order

Kazumi

Open for Indoor & Outdoor seating, Takeout or Delivery!

Make it a Wagyu Beef Slider Friday! We top it off with a fried egg for perfection!

Modern Japanese fusion restaurant, offering creative treatments & creativity in our dishes for takeout and delivery by our own employees. Available for lunch and dinner.

Open Monday through Saturday from Noon to 10 p.m.

Only accepting credit card payments.

To place an order call (305) 361-2675 or order online here.

La Scala

Fridays are Osso Bucco days at La Scala and ours has the reputation of being the best on the island. Guaranteed.

Open for Indoor & Limited Outdoor Dining (reservations recommended) and Takeout

Come in even if just to say hello!. Please wear a mask when coming into La Scala.

The popular Italian Bistro now offers their delicious meals to enjoy at home and thanks you for the great support from the community while they enjoy La Scala cuisine at home.

To place a takeout order call (786) 773-3633 or visit us online by clicking here.

Check back tomorrow for more specials as we add more restaurants to #tasteofkeybiscayne-To-Go

And please remember to order from the restaurant directly before using one of the apps  this way we support the local restaurants by saving them the commission they are charged, which at times is as much as 30%
Image by Tumisu, please consider  Thank you! ? from Pixabay

A former CIA engineer has been convicted of espionage for leaking documents to WikiLeaks that exposed the agency as engaging in mass surveillance.

The conviction of Joshua Schulte on eight spying and obstruction charges was announced in a Manhattan court on 13 June.

The Vault 7 exploits were released beginning in March 2017 and continued until September that year.

In May 2018, the US named Schulte as a suspect in the theft, but could not immediately charge him due to a lack of evidence.

A computer programmer who helped the CIA design some of its most sensitiveand secretivehacking tools was convicted of handing over troves of internal CIA documents to WikiLeaks in the infamous Vault 7 leak. pic.twitter.com/4aUNzOWV5M  Forbes (@Forbes) July 14, 2022

His initial trial in March 2020 ended in a mistrial with the jury deadlocked.

"Joshua Adam Schulte was a CIA programmer with access to some of the countrys most valuable intelligence-gathering cyber tools used to battle terrorist organisations and other malign influences around the globe," US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

"When Schulte began to harbour resentment toward the CIA, he covertly collected those tools and provided them to WikiLeaks, making some of our most critical intelligence tools known to the public  and therefore, our adversaries.

Moreover, Schulte was aware that the collateral damage of his retribution could pose an extraordinary threat to this nation if made public, rendering them essentially useless, having a devastating effect on our intelligence community by providing critical intelligence to those who wish to do us harm.

Today, Schulte has been convicted for one of the most brazen and damaging acts of espionage in American history.
Telecommunications company Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, Mitsui, PC Landing, and JA Mitsui Leading launches Seren Juno Network, a new company that will construct and operate Juno, a trans-Pacific submarine cable that will run between Japan and the US.

Global internet bandwidth has risen by 29% in 2021, according to analyst firm TeleGeography.

This trajectory is expected to grow driven by 5G and IoT deployment and edge compute technologies.

Juno can meet the increasing demand for global internet bandwidth as existing Japan-US cables are nearing capacity.

With the rapid growth of the global digital economy and an increasing demand for cloud solutions and lower latency, the undersea internet cable sector is quickly becoming more critical to global internet infrastructure, said Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) president and CEO Takanobu Maeda.

This new subsea cable is the latest joint effort NTT has led in a long and proud history of providing reliable global internet infrastructure.

Japan, located midway between the US and key Asian markets, is considered the Data Hub in the Asia-Pacific region.

Juno is critical to support the global internet backbone, and further growth in Asia-Pacific countries and worldwide.

It offers several unique benefits to customers:

1. It will introduce SDM (Space Division Multiplexing) technology, enabling the provision of 20 optical fibre pairs (40 cores) per cable, (conventional technology currently provides a maximum of 16 fibre pairs or 32 cores).

2. It provides the maximum capacity of 350Tbps.

3. It offers resiliency by connecting to two separate landing stations in between Japan and the US, providing additional security and resilience against any potential disturbances due to rough weather conditions, particularly along the coastal areas of Japan.

4. Juno can alter the amount of bandwidth to each branch route according to demand and in response to customers evolving requirements.

5. Seren will provide network services to technology companies, OTTs, telecommunication carriers to strengthen the telecommunications environment in the US and Asia through sales, operations and management support.

This first appeared in the subscription newsletter CommsWire on 14 July 2022.
Today

Mainly sunny to start, then a few afternoon clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 108F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low around 85F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.

Tomorrow

Generally sunny despite a few afternoon clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 108F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The United Nations on Thursday called for the "depoliticisation" of the Libyan National Oil Company (NOC), stressing the importance of having unified, independent and stable institutions in the country, the Libyan News Agency (LANA) reported
Sri Lankan president resigns, PM as interim president

Xinhua) 13:26, July 15, 2022

COLOMBO, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena on Friday announced the official resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will be sworn in as an interim president.

In a media briefing, Speaker Abeywardena said he has received the resignation letter of the president, from this point forth the president has legally resigned from his legal duties and responsibilities.

"Under these circumstances, the constitutional procedure of appointing a new president will now be activated. Until this constitutional procedure is over, according to the constitution the prime minister will function in the capacity of the president overseeing functions, duties, and powers of the office of the president," the speaker said.

The speaker added that parliament will convene on July 16 and he requested all legislators to attend parliamentary sessions on that day.

He requested maximum cooperation for the democratic process of electing a new president and government from all party leaders, state officials, and security forces, and made a special appeal to the citizens of Sri Lanka to create a peaceful environment that would allow all lawmakers to attend parliament freely.

Under such an environment, with the help of all responsible, the speaker said he intends to conclude the process of electing a new president within a short period of seven days.

Sri Lanka has been in the midst of a severe economic turmoil for months, which has led to a shortage of basic supplies such as food, gas and fuel.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Liang Jun)
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
Mother Dairy to hike milk prices by Rs 2 per litre with effect from Wednesday.
Members of the armed units of unrecognized statelets in Eastern Ukraine, the so-called Luhansk Peoples Republic (known as LPR) and Donetsk Peoples Republic (known as c), who decided to fight against Ukraines government troops and were captured after February 24, are being tried before Shevchenkivskyi District Court in Kyiv. According to court material from one of the proceedings, there are at least 40 such citizens of Ukraine who joined the army of the Russian Federation, participated in the invasion of Ukraine under Russian command, and are now prisoners of war (POWs).

In proceedings we attended at the end of June, the defendants took part in the process via video link from "POW Detention Camp West-1, a state institution. They were invited one by one before a judge. Only one and a half months ago POWs from the so-called DPR who faced the same situation were tried in person in Vinnytsia Region courtroom. It was explained to the Sudovyi Reporter that at the time, the camp for the POWs was not properly equipped, and there was no understanding where these men could be kept. Now the situation has become clearer, and all of them could attend remotely. But the camp can connect only up to two prisoners at a time as it has only two equipped courtrooms for such proceedings. On video, we can hear the officer calling one by one the defendants who are waiting in the corridor.

The accused are always accompanied by a lawyer provided by the state, because they cant afford one of their own. Interestingly, all defendants insist on a quick trial by one judge instead of the usual panel of three, and without a jury, as is provided for in cases with the prospect of life imprisonment. The reason is simple: they expect to be exchanged with POWs from the other side and quickly return home. A member of the Law Enforcement Agency told us that natives of Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea [another part of Ukraine occupied by Russia since 2014] previously convicted under similar circumstances may already have been exchanged or are about to be.

Judges take different approaches

On June 27, judge Yevhenii Sydorov held four preliminary hearings one after another. The defendants and their attorneys wanted to conduct the trial the same day as the preliminary hearing. But it was impossible, as the judge had to retire to the judges chambers, and could not consider other cases until a verdict was passed. This was the reason why judge Sydorov scheduled the hearings of these cases over the course of three days.

Yevhenii Sydorov was first an investigator and then a prosecutor at the military prosecutor's office before becoming a judge at the Khmelnytskyi military court. Today he is a judge at the Shevchenkivskyi court in Kiev and publicly advocates the need for military courts in Ukraine.  D.R.

The next day, judges Ovsepian, Buhil, and Slobodianiuk ruled on similar cases. The judges had slightly different approaches. For example, judge Sydorov considered it necessary to examine two or three volumes of written evidence, although the defence was in favour of a simplified examination, meaning without going through this evidence, since the accusation was not disputed. Other judges preferred the simplified procedure and only questioned the defendants and examined evidence on their character.

The explanation of judge Sydorov's particular meticulousness in considering these cases can be found in his background. He is a former judge of the Military Court of Khmelnytskyi Garrison, and prior to that an investigator and prosecutor at the Military Prosecutor's Office. At the end of 2010, military courts were abolished and Sydorov became a judge of Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv. He has publicly argued the need for military courts in Ukraine.

Early convictions

Defence attorneys faced difficulties trying to get some of the documents regarding the family status or the place of work from the defendants relatives in the occupied territories. But all of the defendants had at least character evidence from the POW camp. These documents could shed some light on their habits there. At all the hearings that we could attend, one could hear only positive feedback from the POW camp authorities: the prisoner followed the sanitary rules, kept the bedside cabinet tidy, participated in the improvement of living conditions in the camp, maintained friendly relations with inmates.

Prosecutor Yurii Ushatyi accuses Oleksandr Shpak of having been a contract soldier of the military unit of a terrorist organization.  D.R.

According to the documents, the men had arrived in the camp in May. Prior to this, some of them were kept in pre-trial detention centres or correctional facilities in different regions of Ukraine. In fact, many of the defendants have already appeared before a court. On May 20 and 24 this year, the Pavlohradskyi District Court and Petropavlovskyi District Court in Dnipropetrovsk Region tried such prisoners for their participation in illegal armed units, and for violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine, sentencing them to 8-10 years of imprisonment. It was only afterwards that part of the materials on treason and terrorist activity were sent to Kyiv. It is still not clear why it happened in this way. According to Prosecutor Yurii Ushatyi, who presented the cases in the Kyiv court, this is due to the fact that different crimes were investigated by different law enforcement agencies. In any case, the Kyiv Prosecutor's Office received these cases when the accused had already been convicted in Dnipropetrovsk region.

Most judges would announce the verdict for the next morning. However, on June 28, Judge Buhil held both preliminary and merits hearings in about one hour, briefly interrogated DPR combatant Leonid Huseinov, and 15 minutes later announced a 12-year imprisonment against him with confiscation of assets.

The story of Oleksandr Shpak

Defendants could be divided into at least two groups: those who more or less voluntarily signed a contract on military service with the self-appointed authorities in occupied territories; and those who said they were mobilized forcibly.

Oleksandr Shpak, Yurii Smelik and Serhii Derkachov signed a contract. In January 2022, they became part of the Separate Maintenance Company of the 2nd Separate Rifle Brigade of the 2nd Army Corps of Peoples Police of the so-called LPR. On March 30, they encountered Ukrainian soldiers and surrendered without a fight near Makiivka village, Kremenets District, Luhansk Region.

In January 2022, Oleksandr Shpak signed a contract before joining the Second People's Police Corps of the self-proclaimed LPR. On March 30, he ran into Ukrainian soldiers and surrendered without a fight. :  D.R.

Shpak, 29, considers himself a citizen of Ukraine and has a valid passport. Under his contract he was employed to help tow away broken down military vehicles. On February 9, 2022, Shpaks partner gave birth to twins. The family is also raising two children from the womans first marriage, 8 and 12 years old.

There were rumors about mobilization. I was afraid of being mobilized. We dont have anyone to take care of the children if Im mobilized. So I signed the contract, the defendant explained, switching between Russian and Ukrainian. I was assigned to Maintenance Company. It was like normal work: two days working, two days at home. I was trying to spend more time with the children According to the contract, I would stay in Luhansk and was able to be home every day. Had I been mobilized, I wouldnt know where they would send me

The man says he was paid up to 10,000 Russian rubles (about 160 US dollars). This money was given to him in cash on February 8-9, 2022. The process of payment was also recorded on camera. On February 24, at 5-6 in the morning, Shpak, by order of a senior officer, received a Kalashnikov assault rifle with four cartridge magazines, and left with the Russian troops in the Triokhizbenka direction.

- Why did you get the weapon exactly on February 24? asked the prosecutor.

- The senior officer said that we were going somewhere for three days. They gave out weapons, ammunition, body armour, helmets. No one knew where we were going.

Why did you sign the contract?

I did not partake in armed clashes with the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Shpak continued. When we left on February 24, I was listed as working for an evacuation platoon transporting military vehicles that are out of order. We came and towed them. There were wheeled light vehicles and heavy armoured vehicles. They were towed and transported, before others repaired them."

When he and his comrades were captured, there was no exchange of fire.

- Why did you have a weapon?

- I have never used it. When they apprehended me, when we were captured, we gave up our weapons. I never shot it.

- What documents did you have on you? asked the judge.

- None.

- Passport?

- There was nothing on me.

- And where were your documents?

- At home.

- Was there a battle in the area where you were captured?

- No, it was quiet there.

The defendant said he was sent in the area to pick up a vehicle that had broken down.

- What kind of vehicle was this? What was wrong with it?

- It seems they simply couldn't get it started.

- Broken or what?

- I cannot explain. They said that it simply did not start, and that it was necessary to come and pick it up.

The judge asked whether such testimony was supported by any evidence. The prosecutor replied that the other two detainees told similar stories: the men were asked to evacuate some vehicle from a particular place. They said they engaged in a dialogue with soldiers they considered as being from LPR or the Russian Federation, but while talking found out that the servicemen were from the Armed Forces of Ukraine and so there were no armed clashes, the prosecutor said they had told.

The judge resumed the interrogation of the accused.

- Are you aware that Ukraine has implemented martial law?

- I am now, yes.

- Why did you sign the contract then? You said it yourself, that you signed the contract to avoid mobilization.

- I couldnt leave this republic because my wife was at the hospital. It was impossible for me to avoid that.

- Nonetheless, Shpak, what was the reason behind signing the contract?

- To pass checkpoint safely and peacefully when coming home, to avoid mobilization. Theres a checkpoint on the outskirts of Luhansk. They stop and scare everybody there.

- But you didnt have any papers. You said it yourself that you were not given any papers.

- Are you asking why exactly I signed the contract?

- Yes. What was the reason for you to sign the contract?

- To be home with the children. And to pass [checkpoint] safely.

High treason

During the debates, prosecutor Ushatyi said that it had been established in the court proceedings that the accused was a contract serviceman of a military unit of a terrorist organization; he was first employed to guard duty, and from February 24onwards, he was involved in repairing equipment used in warfare against Ukraine. Therefore, his actions constitute high treason, namely siding with the enemy during armed conflict, and involvement with a terrorist organization.

Defence attorney Vira Karpinets tried to alleviate the attitude of the court towards her defendant.

He lived on the territory of this terrorist organization. Birth certificates of his children were issued by this terrorist organization. The only valuable thing on the territory of this terrorist organization is his family I have no doubts that the only way for him was to sign the contract, and join the maintenance company. His job was limited to evacuation of damaged equipment. He did not take part in combat. He was even arrested without a shoot-out. I insist on not resorting to confiscation of assets Hed like to see his children as soon as possible, the lawyer argued.

I beg of you to understand, to forgive me; I repent. I never planned anything like this, never used a weapon, said Shpak in his closing statement. I even helped the locals when they moved, because there was no electricity in the settlements; we were giving out food, diesel fuel, gasoline for generators. We did what we could.

Judge Sydorov sentenced Shpak to 12 years in prison. Combined with the prior verdict of the Pavlohradskyi District court of Dnipropetrovsk region, the final sentence was 12 years and six months behind bars.

While the judge was deliberating, the prosecutor relocated to another courtroom where one of Shpaks accomplices was facing trial.

Yurii Smelik was born in 1972. He had not completed secondary school, had several criminal convictions to his name  in the early 90s and in 2001. On May 20, 2022, the Pavlohradskyi District court sentenced him to ten years in prison for encroachment on territorial integrity of Ukraine and involvement with an illegal armed formation. In occupied territory, the accused has a wife, three teenage children, and a 22-year-old disabled son who stepped on an anti-personnel mine in 2015 and lost a leg.

Smelik used to be a BMP-1 driver-mechanic in the military unit of the LPR army. On the day of his arrest alongside Shpak, it was he who knew the location of damaged military equipment to tow back.

Smelik pleaded guilty. Judge Tetiana Ovsepian warned that in this case, he would not be able to appeal the verdict on the merits, only the sentence.

- When you signed the contract, did you realize the consequences? the judge asked.

- That we would go to war? I never thought there would be war.

Ruslan Mykhaliov, the forcibly enlisted ordinary working man

Ruslan Mykhalyov, born in 1990 and a resident of Donetsk, says he was forcibly conscripted by the self-proclaimed authorities of the occupied territories.  D.R.

Ruslan Mykhaliov was born in 1990. A resident of Donetsk, he became a miner. According to him, he was forcibly mobilized on February 24 at the Ploshcha Svoboby public transport stop when he was on his way home. I was standing at the stop, on my way home from work. Two people drove over and put me in the car; they were from the commandants office. They took me to the military recruitment office, didnt let anyone out, filled in the paperwork. Then they put me on the bus and took me to the meat processing plant, he said in an interview several weeks prior to the trial.

With a congenital eyesight defect and a certificate of unfitness for military service, he was nonetheless enlisted in the DPR army as a marksman.

We went to the Russian Federation, to the city of Belgorod. On the next day, we were put on a bus and driven to the village of Vesioloie. We spent around two weeks in Vesioloie, doing basically nothing, forming ranks. After that, we were taken to the village of Kutuzivka in Kharkiv region. Two of my associates escaped there. We also managed to flee and hide in the basement. On the 27th, we surrendered to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Another three men surrendered alongside Mykhaliov.

- Do you have a passport as a citizen of the Russian Federation? judge Sydorov asked whilst flicking through the case materials.

- Yes.

- When did you receive it?

- October last year. They said at my work place that I needed to have it. I got it so they wouldnt fire me.

- Did you renounce the citizenship of Ukraine? Did you file a statement? Did you address the president?

- No.

- So you are a citizen of Ukraine, and can confirm it?

- Yes.

- Were you handed a weapon, and what was it? the prosecutor asked.

- Assault rifle.

Mykhaliov confirmed that he and other mobilized men were transported to Ukraine in vehicles driven by the Russian military.

- What were your objectives in Kharkiv region?

- We were not given any. We were told to dig trenches and stand ground.

The defendant said that for around a month they had been checking the papers of people passing through their positions. He claims that they did not detain anyone, since all the passers-by were locals. He also claims he never fired a single shot.

- Did your superiors explain to you the reason behind your stay in Kharkiv region?

- No. We tried to be taken back home. We were told that if we go back, it means ten years [of imprisonment for escape].

- So, if it was to serve in Donetsk region, you would not mind at all?

- I just wanted to go home. I wasnt a draftee. I was just going to my place of work. I never held a weapon in my life. We were just screwed up. We asked to be taken back home. I have a certificate that my eyes are no good. But it was pointless. Nobody wanted to hear me out.

Betraying my motherland

Defence attorney Denys Chekhov asked his client if hed been drafted into active duty. The latter repeatedly claimed that he hadnt, since he was not fit for military service and had a so-called white ticket.

- Did you get salary whilst on active duty in the DPR? the prosecutor asked.

- No.

- Were you promised to get paid?

- They promised to pay something.

- So, you didnt require money? Were you fed there? the judge inquired.

- The food was cooked in the field kitchen.

- Did you partake in looting on the occupied Ukrainian territories?

- No.

- [What about] to feed yourself? Theres plenty of footage of stealing chickens

- No, we did not partake in that.

- When you were in Kharkiv region, did any combat actions and shelling take place?

- Combat actions  yes. We were under shelling, and we heard shooting somewhere far. Dont know who that was.

- You claim that you never even fired your weapon.

- I didnt, we were only digging the trenches.

- Have you communicated with the locals during the period of your stay in Kharkiv region?

- People didnt want to speak to us.

- So, you understood that you were the invaders?

- Yes (unintelligibly).

- Have you tried undertaking any actions, as a citizen of Ukraine, to leave that area? To prevent the armed conflict?

- Two of our guys escaped and I dont know what happened to them.

- Did your unit suffer casualties?

- Yes.

- Can you disclose how many casualties in your platoon and your company?

- I cant say about the platoon, but we lost three men in the company, directly hit.

- How did the replenishment go?

- Replenishment of personnel? There was none.

- Was there any firing on the civilian population, citizens of Ukraine?

- No.

- Are you familiar with such instances in your unit?

- No.

- Are you speaking the truth, defendant?

- I am. I have neverI am a miner, an ordinary man working at the mine. I am an ordinary working man.

- You said you repent wholeheartedly. What do you repent for?

- For betraying my motherland.

- Do you understand it? Do you realize it?

- Yes, I realize it.

- Did you have an opportunity to leave the occupied territory?

- No, no.

- If you are sentenced, will you go back to the Russian Federation-controlled territory [DPR] or stay in Ukraine?

- My wife is in Donetsk.

- Do you understand that you will be sent back to the front lines?

- No, I wont go. Im 100% sure.

- What actions can you undertake so you wont be mobilized? the judge asked.

- I will break my leg.

- Are you familiar with instances of self-harm among your fellow servicemen? Did it happen?

- I heard of [people] shooting themselves in the legs.

- What do people in Donetsk and Luhansk regions feel about the war?

- Nobody wants the war. I know I didnt. Ive been working in the mine since 2010. I just wanted to work.

The prosecution asked for a sentence of 12 years imprisonment for Mykhaliov.

This report is part of a series on war crimes, produced in partnership with Ukrainian journalists. A longer version of this article was published on the "Sudovyi Reporter" website.
Five accomplished stars compete for the Best Actor category at the Blue Dragon Series Awards 2022. Curious if your favorit K-drama actor made the list? Then keep on reading!

Hosted by Jun Hyun Moo and Girls' Generation's YoonA, the ceremony is slated for July 19 at 7 p.m. KST which took place at Paradise City in Incheon.

The first ever Blue Dragon Series Awards aims to honor content like dramas, and variety shows released by streaming services like Netflix, seezn, Apple TV+, WATCHA, Disney+, wavve, Kakao TV, TVING, and Coupang Play.

Interestingly, the upcoming awards show boasts many talented stars competing for the coveted title.

For the Best Actor category, five top stars are battling it out but only one will take home the trophy.

Jung Hae In 'D.P'

The 34-year-old star headlined Netflix's "D.P," where he took the role of private soldier Ahn Jun Ho.

Jung Hae In broke away from his usual boy next door roles and showed his versatility as an actor, landing the role of a soldier who tracks military deserters.

Apart from doing stunts, he also showed Ahn Jun Ho's deep emotions and his military struggles.

In the six-part episode series, Jung Hae In joins Goo Kyo Hwan, Son Seok Koo, and Kim Sung Kyun as the lead stars.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Jung Hae In to Appear in 'Veteran 2'? Here's What the Agency Says

Besides the interesting cast lineup, viewers lauded the chemistry of Jung Hae In and Goo Kyo Hwan as they portray senior and junior who are assigned to look for military fugitives.

Due to the overwhelming response of the public, "D.P" will return with season 2 and will welcome new characters.

Lee Je Hoon 'Move to Heaven'

One of the most talked about Netflix series in 2021, besides "Squid Game," is none other than "Move to Heaven."

The unique storyline and Lee Je Hoon's exceptional acting hooked viewers on this slice-of-life K-drama.

The 38-year-old actor portrayed an underground boxer who unexpectedly meets the person who will change his life.

After his brother died, he was tasked to be the guardian of his nephew, Han Geu Ru (Tang Jun Sang), who was diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder.

Kim Nam Gil 'Through The Darkness'

After his 2019 hit Kdrama "The Fiery Priest," Kim Nam Gil returned with a bang as he starred in the thriller mystery "Through the Darkness."

He took the role of Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Criminal Behavior Analysis team member Song Ha Young.

He captivates the viewers with his undeniable charisma while playing a criminal profiler while illustrating his tough character.

Lee Jung Jae 'Squid Game'

The Best Actor category for Blue Dragon Series Awards 2022 will not be complete without Lee Jung Jae, who took the world by storm with his character in "Squid Game."

The renowned actor played the debt-ridden Seong Gi Hoon, a.k.a player 456, who entered the competition in hopes of helping his family by winning the 45.6 billion won cash prize.

Lee Jung Jae never failed to amaze the audience with his exceptional acting and charm.

Im Si Wan 'Tracer'

Lastly, capping off the nominees for the Best Actor category is Im Si Wan for his Kdrama "Tracer."

The MBC series is his comeback to the small screen after headlining the blockbuster Kdrama "Run On."

Viewers were again hooked on Im Si Wan's character as he played the chief of taxation division 5's Hwang Dong Joo.

READ MORE: Im Siwan Shows Support to Ukraine Victims Through THIS Unique Deed

KDramastars owns this article

Written by Geca Wills
Kim Yo Han's (Kang Ha Neul) revenge continues. Using the slush funds he obtained, he became the manager of Goldman Casino. Keep reading to learn more about what happened in "Insider" episode 12.

Kim Yo Han Takes Over Goldman Casino

In "Insider" episode 12, Kim Yo Han promised Jang Sun Oh (Kang Young Seok), who is bleeding after being stabbed by Yang Hwa, to bring him to the hospital once he confessed that he killed his grandmother. However, Yo Han didn't hear any confession from Sun Oh.

The following day, Yo Han went to visit Do Won Bong (Moon Sung Geun) at the hospital. He Won Bong was purely overjoyed to know that Yo Han secured the slush funds. However, he felt frustrated after he knew that all the money was not transferred to him but another account -- to Minho.

After sending Do Won Bong to the operating room for his surgery, Kim Yo Han met with the giants of Sinseon Dong. He made a partnership with them after promising to give priority to Sinseon-dong.

Yang Hwa (Jung Man Sik) headed to the penthouse with the police to catch Yo Han and Soo Yeon. However, he was surprised when he saw Hong Jae Sun (Kang Shin Hyo) in the scene, who had already cut ties with the villain brothers and initially formed an alley with Kim Yo Han.

Later, Oh Soo Yeon confronted Kim Yo Han and asked what he would do to Jang Sun Oh. At that point, Yo Han told Sun Oh that he should face the law and pay for all the consequences he did before. Though he wants to punish Sun Oh, Kim Yo Han can't make a bad move on him as he still sees him as a friend.

Dong Won Bon Mastermind Behind Jang Sun Oh and Kim Yo Han Miserable Lives

However, Jang Sun Oh was never brought to jail, thanks to Gu Bon Cheol (Hong Seo Joon), who takes care of him. With that, he avoids being punished by the law. He mentioned to Sun Oh that Yo Han had already taken over Shinseon-dong.

Meanwhile, Bon Cheol handed Kim Yo Han a recording file for him to study. It is where Dong Won Bon and Jang Sun Oh can be heard discussing their plans. In the recording, Yo Han found out that Yang Joon, who groomed Sun Oh, was also the man who killed Jang Sun Oh's only father, his only family.

At the end of the episode, it was revealed that Do Won Bong was the mastermind behind the murder of Yo Han's grandmother and Jang Sun Oh's father. Will this hint that the two former allies, Kim Yo Han and Jang Sun Oh, will team up again to take revenge against Do Won Bong?

Let us all find out in upcoming "Insider" episodes, which air every Wednesday and Thursday.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 'Insider' Episode 11: Kang Ha Neul Obtains Slush Funds From Jung Man Sik

For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news and updates, keep your tabs open here at Kdramastars.

Kdramastars owns this article.

Shai Collins wrote this.
The tension builds up as Seo Ye Jin faces two deaths in "Eve" episode 14. With only two episodes left, the latest episode slightly increased ahead of the drama's finale.

'Eve' Viewership Rating

After a continuous dip in viewership rating, the fourteenth episode climbs to an average nationwide rating of 3.782 percent.

To recall, the previous episode fell to an average rating of 3.354 percent.

However, "Eve" failed to keep up with the rating of its competitors and remained at around this figure.

'Eve' Episode 14: Lee Ra El Faces Death of Love Ones

As the revenge drama continues, Kang Yoon Kyum was disappointed and enraged after knowing Kim Sun Bin's identity.

It was after he discovered her hideout where she planned her most awaited revenge. The chairman figured out that she was after the evidence that Gediks was illegally acquired.

In a separate scene, Jang Moon See was held captive by Han Pan Ro and his right hand Kim Jung Chul. The former prime minister was furious after finding out that she was the one behind the case filed by LY victims.

While the duo insists that they will give her a lesson and have her hostage for a while, Han So Ra wants to free Ms. Jang because of Lee Ra El's warning to her.

Han So Ra and her bodyguard tried to sneak Ms. Jang out, but it was too late. Han Pan Ro and Kim Jung Chul caught them and slammed his daughter for disobeying him.

As Ms. Jang tried to escape, Han Pa Ro struck her with a stone causing her death.

Just in the nick of time, as the group was about to get rid of Ms. Jang's dead body, Seo Eun Pyung came with the police but failed to see any traces leading to Jang Moon See.

The following day, Lee Ra El received the devastating news noting that Ms. Jang has died. It was really painful for her given that she treated her as her real daughter.

After getting her belongings, she found a secret recorder in her pocket and heard the whole conversation.

In the latter part of the voice record, Lee Ra El and Seo Eun Pyung heard that they also got rid of her real mother, Kim Jin Sook. This made Lee Ra El push her revenge even more and shatter LY Group into pieces.

Lee Ra El Becomes Representative of the LY Group Victims

Now that Ms. Jang is dead, the victims feared that the case will get dismissed but Lee Ra El steps in and declares war against the influential people of LY Group.

In addition, Seo Eun Pyung also publicized Han Pan Ro's anomalies including the Gediks and murders of people involved in the company.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Seo Ye Ji's K-dramas to Binge-Watch If You Can't Get Enough of 'Eve'



KDramastars owns this article

Written by Geca Wills
A rise in antisemitic activity in Kenosha has spurred community discussion on educating the public on how to combat hate directed toward Jewish people and a proposed formation of a local team that would respond to reported physical and verbal acts against them.

In the last six months, the city has seen an escalation in antisemitic literature dispersed anonymously in several of its neighborhoods, including pamphlets with conspiracies that have falsely tied Jews to COVID-19, among others.

The incidents prompted Thursday nights Courageous Conversation on The Great Replacement Narrative: Connecting Racism and Antisemitism at the Kenosha Civil War Museum. The event was coordinated by the Kenosha Coalition for Dismantling Racism and Congregations United for Serving Humanity.

The two-hour presentation featured a diverse group of panelists including: Chabad of Kenoshas Rabbi Tzali Wilschanski; Eli Douglas, a recent Bradford High School graduate; Beth Hillel Temples Rabbi Dena Feingold; Kai Yael Gardner Mishlove, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation; David Goldenberg, Midwest regional director of the Anti-Defamation League; Kenosha Ald. Jan Michalski; and Kenosha Police Department Capt. James Beller.

Feingold, who has been rabbi more than four decades, said while Kenoshas past is not without antisemitism  into the 1970s, the Elks Club had excluded Jews as did the YMCA, giving rise to the communitys own Kenosha Youth Foundation  most of it had become a thing of the past, she said.

Theyve had the occasional swastika and conversion materials sent to them, she said, but the incidents had been few and far between. Until this year when at least a dozen antisemitic literature drops occurred in the city, according to Feingold.

Felt like a violation

What has caused more worry is that the leaflet drops werent targeting them, rather their neighbors, she said.

And, of course its very troubling and it even felt, I think to me, and I think to many in our community like a violation of our community, not just of the Jewish community, but of Kenosha, she said. Its not a Jewish problem, its community problem.

Wilschanski said in the eyes of God all are equal and equality is a principle upon which America is built.

We are all on that core and thats something that America stands for, in a sense, that we are all equal, we have these indivisible rights because we are equal with God, he said. When someone goes and drops a piece of paper on a driveway and (they) say you are Jewish and, therefore, you dont have a right to be here, thats a statement saying that I do not believe in America. I dont believe in the principles of freedom, principles of equality.

Wilschanski, said, however, that also calls him to act and to stand up against it.

Douglas, who discovered one of the pamphlets at his high school on May 2, said it shocked him.

It was, honestly, a really scary thing, he said. Initially, he thought students had dropped some books when his friend brought one over to him.

Its just terrible. Its all around and Im just  honestly, I was blown away, he said. Like, who would, who would decide to throw these pieces of hate  basically that is what they are  to high scholars? Like, I get that we are impressionable, but it just doesnt make sense.

On his break he reported the incident to the Kenosha Police Department and followed up with the schools resource officer.

Connecting the dots

Antisemitism, said Gardner Mishlove, is a hatred of Jews based on them being Jews and it has morphed over time. Her presentation included examples of Nazi propaganda during the 1930s that depicted Jewish people in derogatory ways, from stereotypes that show them as greedy and materialistic to some of the more recent pamphlets, like the ones that were found in Kenosha, with falsehoods of their involvement in a so-called COVID agenda.

Whether its a vaccine or whether its that it was manufactured by them, the actual disease, we see this now, this is an example with one of the classic ways in which antisemitism manifests, she said. You blame the Jews. Then, you isolate them. And then theres terror that happens as a result. So this is an example of blaming the Jews for COVID.

In recent years, Jews have been blamed by white nationalists for everything from manipulating Black people to seek the removal of Confederate war hero statues that sparked the violence in a Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., five years ago, to fronting the civil rights movement. Citing recent FBI statistics, she said that 55 percent of all hate incidents were based on race, ethnicity or ancestry. And while 14 percent of the hate incidents were religious based, 54.9 percent of those targeted Jews, according to Gardner Mishlove.

Thats a very serious statistic. Keep in mind this is lower than probably what occurs, she said.

The Anti-Defamation League has also tracked a 34 percent increase in hate incidents from 2020, the highest number on record since 1979; a 43 percent increase in harassment and a 167 percent increase in assault. She said 80 percent of those incidents were attributed to known extremist groups and/or individuals.

In Wisconsin, there was a slight decrease from 2020 to 2021.

We think some of that might be because people, because of COVID, were inside, she said. But since 2015, weve seen a 459 percent increase, so we dont want you to think that slight decrease means things are getting better.

The Great Replacement Theory

Goldenberg, whose organization works with authorities to infiltrate extremist networks to stop them, said that behind even the a recent mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y., where a gunman opened fire in a grocery store in a predominantly African American neighborhood, a manifesto uncovered later included the Great Replacement Theory.

The theory is one that relies on the conspiracy that a countrys majority population  in the U.S. that means whites ==are being replaced as non-white populations are brought in.

The theory itself, said Goldenberg, dates back to the 20th Century, but in 2011 it was brought to the forefront by French writer and critic Bernard Camus whose focus was on immigration in France from Muslim countries. Muslims had a higher birthrate than the countrys white population.

It was not initially in these earlier writings antisemitic in nature. It was very anti-immigrant, he said. But the notion of being replaced by a non-white population was adopted by far-right groups in France, Austria and other countries and, soon after, white supremacists in the U.S. From there, it quickly became antisemitic, as well, he said.

Rapid-response team

So, what can you do? Well you came here tonight and thats part of the step. You speak out, whether its at your dinner table, with our colleagues at work who you know; with random people that you may, if youre a bystander, see something happening, said Gardner Mishlove.

Share the facts, she said.

When the next time someone says the Jews are behind COVID or the media is controlled by the Jews, you share facts, she said. And we also show strength by coming together.

The Rev. Kevin Beebe later in the program urged interested individuals to become part of a rapid-response team that will go to neighborhoods affected by antisemitic activity. Residents can also report activity by contacting 844-484-7468 and the police department at 262-605-5200.

Michalski, whose district was among those leafleted, said while the City Council has passed resolutions condemning antisemitism, resolutions and speeches can only go so far.

We got to do this continually and we cannot allow this kind of behavior to proliferate in our community, he said, because ultimately what happened to the Jews during the Holocaust will happen to others if we dont nip it in the bud.

Investigation continues

Beller, who gave an update on the investigation which began with the initial pamphlets were found on Dec. 31, said investigators have been able to track down a suspect. He said there were 21 unique calls from residents regarding the leafleting.

Now our detective is working diligently to try and make contact with the suspect, he said. Were not lucky. Hes not returning our calls.

In the meantime, said Beller, in accordance with federal, state and the local district attorneys offices, it is not likely to result in criminal charges.

Its likely going to be littering tickets, a municipal ordinance, thats going to be issued for each of the events, he said.

For additional information on reporting antisemitic acts, contact the Milwaukee Jewish Community Relations Council at 414-390-5781 and the Anti-Defamation League at 312-533-3870. Access their respective websites at https://www.milwaukeejewish.org/departments/social-action/jcrc/antisemitism/reportantisemitism/ or www/adl.org
Staff from the office of U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wisconsin, will be in Kenosha County next week to assist individuals, families and small businesses with concerns dealing with federal agencies. Steil will not be attendance.

Common issues addressed include Social Security payments, IRS and tax issues, veterans benefits, and Medicare and Medicaid questions. Staff will be available at the following sites on Tuesday, July 19:

Pleasant Prairie Village Hall, 1:30 to 2:30 p.m., 9915 39th Ave.

Twin Lakes Village Hall, 3:15 to 4:15 p.m., 105 East Main St., Twin Lakes,

Individuals seeking assistance but unable to attend can reach out to Steils office at the following locations:

Kenosha County Office: 7511 12th St., Somers, phone 262-654-1901

Janesville Office: 20 S. Main St., Suite 10, Janesville, phone 608, 752-4050

Racine County Office: Racine County Courthouse, Room 101, 730 Wisconsin Ave., Racine, phone 262-637-0510.
28 Shares Share

On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court ruled 63 to uphold Mississippis Gestational Age Act and 54 to overrule Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The political temperature was already heightened because Politico released a leaked draft opinion on May 2, 2022.

The pending ruling threw the United States into an emotional pressure cooker spurred on by heavy (some would say irresponsible) news coverage and social media fervor that burned with the heat of a thousand suns. Roe v. Wade was considered by many as settled law, and this ruling has put many in the pro-choice camp into a heightened state of anger and unease. Conversely, advocates against abortion saw this as a victory 49 years in the making. The Supreme Court, whether you agree or not, has decided the right to abortion is neither codified nor implied nor outlawed in the Constitution of the United States of America. The choice to illegalize abortion and to what measure has now been relegated back to the states and their elected representatives.

As a result of this ruling, the topic of abortion is at the forefront of the minds of legislators, medical professionals, patients, friends, and family members. Abortion is a subject ripe for conscientious debate. This debate should be encouraged and not silenced by either end of the ideological spectrum. However, these discussions can devolve rapidly and become highly unproductive and even hurtful. To keep burned relationship bridges to a minimum, I recommend some ground rules to foster an intelligent discussion with the inherent possibility of changing minds and hearts. I have made suggestions for each side below that could enhance any debate on the subject.

Suggestions for pro-choice advocates:

1. Realize the science of when life begins is settled. We know a new strand of human DNA is formed when the sperm and zygote meet at conception. If left to its own devices in utero, it will continue to develop and be born as a fully formed healthy human in 9 months. There is no refuting this. A more compelling debate is whether or not a developing human is a person. This is often where the actual disagreement lies, as many feel this is what grants a human its inherent value.

2. Stop alluding to expert medical opinion on the rightness or wrongness of abortion. I recently discussed with a former colleague of mine who suggested that legislators were not making abortion policies based on expert medical opinion. I found this to be an interesting point worth exploring. What medical expert can confer value to a developing human life more than a philosopher, politician, or everyman? Medical expert opinion can tell us what the diagnosis is and what can and cant be done, but it cannot tell us what should be done from a moral standpoint. To quote Jeff Goldblums Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park, Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didnt stop to think if they should. Medical expert opinion confers no weight on whether or not abortion is moral or immoral.

3. Stop conflating ectopic pregnancies, medical abortion after miscarriage, and maternal health emergencies with elective termination of a viable unborn human. I am not aware of any legislation in any state where these instances would be made illegal. Most if not all anti-abortion advocates realize that these instances are separate and apart from the abortion debate. Invoking these instances is an attempt to manipulate someone into emotionally caving in on an argument. When the vast majority of abortions in the country do not involve rape, incest, or medical emergencies, it is disingenuous to argue that this is the norm.

Suggestions for pro-life advocates:

1. Realize some very tricky ethical situations cause a lot of tension for both mothers and medical providers. The friend I mentioned earlier brought up some severe instances where she considered abortion a practical good, including congenital malformations incompatible with life, pre-viable pre-eclampsia with severe features, and a mother with CVD/CAD. These instances may not sway your opinion, but it is necessary to consider the gravity of some of these terrible situations and try to understand that tension.

2. Strengthen your arguments beyond what you were taught to believe growing up. I am Christian and have been told I feel the way I feel about abortion because my religion has brainwashed me. In truth, I hope my faith permeates all areas of my life, making this statement accurate on some level. However, for the sake of a robust debate, it is not sufficient to state abortion is wrong, evil, or sinful. It will help to bolster your arguments with organized support through data and higher thought. Put in the work to make a compelling case for why you think abortion is wrong.

3. Realize that there will be downstream effects resulting from more births and fewer abortions. Do not run away from this portion of the conversation. You dont need to agree on every social safety net policy with which you are bombarded. Still, it helps to realize that adjustments in our society need to be made elsewhere to accommodate such drastic societal change.

Suggestions for everyone:

1. Realize our current political environment is far too polarized. We are always only two or three heartbeats away from radical, sweeping socio-political change if we rely on the Supreme Court to legislate for us. If you favor adding seats to the court but would not be willing to confer these seats to judges with constitutional viewpoints opposing yours, then your argument is unproductive. Federal codification or illegalization of abortion should be done at the legislative level.

2. Realize that most people fall between the two extreme sides of the debate, and most of these people are very reasonable. The vast majority of people believe there should be restrictions on abortion but that it should not be made illegal. The media would have you believe the debate is a zero-sum game, but our current government is in no position to codify or outlaw abortion on a federal level. The issue is now left up to the states to vote on the value they place on unborn human life.

3. From a religious perspective, I have a broad view of what I consider evil in this world. However, from a free society standpoint, we need to realize that the vast majority of people on both sides believe they are doing the right thing for society. We may not agree on root causes or solutions, but we need to extend some grace to people trying to do what they feel is right.

I wish you all the best in finding your way through this tumultuous time. May your debates be robust, productive, and informative.

Michael McCutchen is a family physician.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
Local

featured

Key West City Commission to address Dinghy Beach debate

After more than two years of debate, Key West Mayor Teri Johnston and City Commissioner Sam Kaufman have called for a definitive answer as to who owns a small section of waterfront property off North Roosevelt Boulevard called Dinghy Beach.

The Key West City Commission is scheduled to discuss the matter at its Aug. 16 meeting. Johnston called for the Aug. 16 agenda item at the last City Commission meeting when she said the ownership issue needs to be resolved.

The debate first started in March 2020, when the owners of the Marriott Beachside Resort, a Spottswood development company called SH5 LTD., erected the fence without a permit. The code case resulted in an after-the-fact permit being issued and a settlement agreement between the city and SH5. In the agreement, it states that the fence closed off a stretch of property that is owned by SH5 and an additional stretch of property that is accreted land whose ownership is unknown. Robert Spottswood, a principal with the company, believes his company is the owner of the entire piece of property on which the fence currently sits, he said.

For the past couple years, local resident Christine Lininger has been lobbying Key West government officials that the owners of the Marriott Beachside Resort do not own that small sandy beach area to the southwest of the resort and had no right to erect a black metal fence there, which keeps the public from using it. In addition to flooding the mayor, city manager and city attorney with documents and correspondence, Lininger has regularly protested outside of the resort.

City Attorney [Shawn] Smith and the city have supported the blatant violation of (state statute) 161.053 the preservation of public beach access by allowing the city/Spottswood 2021 Settlement/Agreement, Lininger stated in a letter to City Commissioner Greg Davila on Thursday. I have, on numerous occasions, cited both the above-listed laws to the city (you included) since Spottswood illegally annexed this public property, and yet the city has refused to acknowledge the violations, instead, the city and city staff have even supported the violations to the benefit of Robert Spottswood and the detriment of the city.

Legally, I believe you will agree, not only from the aspect of the survey, but from the aspect of these laws and rulings, when it comes to this public beach, Robert Spottswood doesnt have a beach to stand on and the good people of Key West clearly do.

A city-contracted company, Reece & Associates, completed a boundary survey on June 13 that shows some property lines for the resort, Florida Department of Transportation and the city, but there is no text in the survey stating who actually owns the beach in question. There is a section of a map that lists the property in question as sandy beach and is outlined in a purple color, setting it off for the rest of the land.

The survey does not go far enough in determining who owns Dinghy Beach, Commissioner Kaufman said. Kaufman would like to have seen a written opinion attached stating who owns the beach, he said.

On Wednesday evening, Assistant City Manager Todd Stoughton sent the Keys Citizen an email outlining the citys research and concerns with the Dinghy Beach ownership dispute.

There are several cases within the state of Florida regarding riparian lines, and accreted lands, which are lands or beaches built over time by tides, Stoughton wrote. In most cases reviewed, the accretion or reliction  the gradual recession of water leaving land permanently uncovered  to soil passes with the title to the land to which accretions are appurtenant, he said.

Beachside Marriott has provided background information on the development of its property, which included the addition of soil to their property from dredging near the Cow Key Channel, Stoughton wrote. This land has continued to grow in accumulation from the resort property toward the west along North Roosevelt Boulevard, and it is assumed that additional soil will continue to accrete over time to the west, Stoughton said.

FDOT and FDEP have both denied ownership of the accreted lands, Stoughton said. Multiple surveys have been conducted starting with the Frederick H. Hildebrandt survey on April 12, 2007, followed by a study and opinion letter from Avirom & Associates dated Dec. 9, 2021, and lastly Reece & Associates completed a boundary survey on June 13, 2022, Stoughton said. All three surveys demonstrate riparian lines, and the Reece & Associates boundary survey clearly demonstrates a property line on the sea wall that denotes city property lines on the upland side, Stoughton said.

The Avirom survey concluded: I can state that the lands that were created by the filling of the former submerged lands are in fact man-made and have no significance as a historic beach, wrote Keith Chee-A-Tow, who conducted the survey and authored a report.

The claim of a prescriptive easement for public access is prevented by the actions of the owners by the restriction of public access and the exclusive use of the property for owners and guests, Chee-A-Tow wrote. The subject property borders sovereign submerged lands and is coincident with navigable waters, with riparian rights inuring to the upland owner. Florida common law established that the riparian landowner is entitled to ownership of accreted lands. In Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund v. Sand Key Assoc., riparian owners have the common law right to receive accretions to their lands, so long as the deposits were not of the riparian owners own doing.

A legal argument may be made that the filling of the former submerged lands being man-made created the accreted deposit; however, this is a legal matter on which I cannot opine, but I strongly feel that the upland owner would prevail in court.

In the close of the email to the Keys Citizen, Stoughton outlined a few concerns regarding Dinghy Beach.

City Resolution 15-230, was created to provide for a prohibition for standing, sitting, climbing, et cetera., on seawalls as stated in Exhibit A of the resolution, paragraph 10, Stoughton said. Although Dinghy Beach is not considered a park, under Sec 26-96 of the city code specifically states any public open space owned by city, county, state or federal government, he wrote. This would cover the Dinghy Beach accretion.

Beaching or tying off a dinghy is also prohibited in our code under Sec. 82-31 It is unlawful to tie, moor, anchor, beach or attach in any way a vessel to public or private property, including seawalls, structures, other vessels, waterway markers, signposts or fence posts, vegetation (trees, bushes, plants) and submerged lands, without prior written permission from the owner within the city limits, Stoughton wrote. Additionally, a request of the City Clerks Office resulted in nothing found regarding a public beach next to Beachside Marriott or any beach referred to as Dinghy Beach. The City Commission will direct staff as to how they want to proceed at the August 16 meeting.

Robert Spottswood has maintained his familys company owns the beach and has the right to place the fence there. He also made the accreted lands argument, saying the lands go to the upland owner, which is his company. He argued the land that the resort sits on and the beach was made by fill from the dredging of Cow Key Channel.

The land in question has never been a public beach, Spottswood said.

tohara@keysnews.com
On July 21, Belgium and friends of Belgium will enjoy their national day or Independence Day which celebrates the investiture of the countrys first monarch, King Leopold I and the separation of Belgium from the Netherlands.

Ireland traditionally has many links to the state and the bonds of friendship between Ireland and Belgium are deep and enduring.

Senator Joe O'Reilly recently highlighted an unusual link that binds the two nations and particularly Brussels and Kilkenny together. The Fine Gael spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and Trade in the Seanad outlined:

"Our enduring friendship is grounded in historic connections from the era of the saints, including Dymphna, Bridget and Faolan, and scholars at the Irish college in Leuven, our shared values, including around the table at the EU and UN, and our creative artists and enterprises.....

"Many thousands of Irish people have chosen to study, live, work and retire in beautiful Belgium, where they have found a warm welcome and, more recently, Kilkenny limestone in much of the paving of the city streets beneath their feet. If they have not found gold, they have found Kilkenny limestone."

Many streets in central Brussels are indeed paved with Kilkenny limestone since 2019 when a major urban renewal project saw local company Kilkenny Limestone send over 400 lorry loads of our native limestone to Brussels. That both Brussels and Kilkenny share a medieval history and architectural heritage makes this bond seem even more appropriate. In total, Kilkenny Limestone shipped over 13,000m of traditional Irish Blue Limestone which is just over the equivalent size of Croke Park pitch (145 x 88m).

So if you visit Brussels and find yourself walking across its public spaces this summer, remember that there are 35-thousand square metres of Kilkenny Limestone slabs and 4 kilometres of kerbing, adorning the centre of Brussels that have Kilkenny DNA all over them.

From the citizens of Kilkenny to the citizens of Brussels: "Happy Independence Day."

You have our limestone and we have your Leonidas chocolates.
A levy could be imposed on the construction sector to help pay for works on thousands of defective apartments, Labour leader Ivana Bacik has said.

She said around 100,000 apartments built between 1991 and 2013 are in need of remedial works.

Speaking on RTEs Morning Ireland on Friday, she said in Britain the cost of remediation works on defective apartments is being met through a levy on construction sector, and she said the same should happen in Ireland.

I think thats the sort of measure that needs to be looked at here. And I imagine government will move on that, she said.

The Labour leader also told the Dail on Thursday that up to 80% of apartments built between 1991 and 2013 may be affected by defective construction..

"We all know that people are living in fear about safety in their homes," Deputy Bacik told the Dail.

A report on defective homes, which is due be concluded next week, will show that up to 100,000 apartments have been affected by fire safety and other defects  with up to 44,000 in the process of being remediated right now, said Bacik.

Tanaiste Leo Varadkar said there will have to be Government assistance for people who, through no fault of theirs, purchased apartments that are in buildings where there are defects and those defects have to be repaired.

With an average remedial cost of over 25,000, it has been estimated that the bill could come in anywhere between 1.7 billion and 2.8 billion for repairs.
Former Fianna Fail TD for Carlow Kilkenny Bobby Aylward has died.

He was a deputy for the Carlow-Kilkenny constituency between 2007 and 2011, and then made a memorable comeback in the 2015 by-election, serving again from 2015 to 2020.

He was also a former member and chairman of Kilkenny County Council, as well as a farmer. He was popular in his native Mullinavat and was also heavily involved in his local Shamrocks GAA Club, which paid tribute to him.

"In addition to being a family man and having a public career Bobby was a also a great community man and a fantastic GAA and clubman. As a mark of respect the club grounds will be closed over the next few days. Ar dheis De go raibh a hanam," they posted.

1/2 Our Club Chairman Bobby Aylward passed away this evening. Our thoughts are with Helena, Bob, Mark, Triona and all their families, and to all Bobby's Family & friends. pic.twitter.com/kWyWkVPbQD  Shamrocks (@BallyhaleGAA) July 14, 2022

Taoiseach Micheal Martin was among the first to pay tribute, saying he had continued the strong Aylward tradition of hard work, delivery and representation for his constituents and gave a tremendous amount to the people of Carlow-Kilkenny over the years.

I am deeply saddened to learn of the death of my very good friend Bobby Aylward. Bobby was a deeply committed public representative," said the Taoiseach.

"He was a proud Mullinavat man, rooted in his community, and personified the legendary spirit of his club, Ballyhale Shamrocks. This great sense of place gave Bobby a wonderful authenticity and made him the man he was.

"On the council, and later as a national politician in Dail Eireann, Bobby displayed an unending commitment to, and passion for, his constituents.

"He was tireless in his efforts to improve their lives and was continually advocating for them. Bobby continued the strong Aylward tradition of hard work, delivery and representation for his constituents and gave a tremendous amount to the people of Carlow Kilkenny over the years.

"He had a special bond with his constituents, tirelessly representing and campaigning for them.

I warmly remember campaigning with Bobby during the 2015 byelection campaign. I particularly remember his infectious energy and enthusiasm, and the warmth in which he was held by the people of Carlow Kilkenny and his tireless campaigning for them during the campaign, and thereafter.

"I got to know Bobby particularly well during those busy weeks and saw a man who displayed the best attributes that a public representative should possess: passion, sincerity, empathy, a commitment to his people and his place, a man of great honesty and integrity along with being a tireless campaigner and champion on behalf of his people and his place.

"Bobby loved his people and they clearly loved him. He loved his county, his country and his Party and left his mark on each. Bobby was passionate about agriculture and community and rural development.

Bobby was a proud and valued member of Fianna Fail and our party was stronger for having him as one of our representatives. He was a wonderful campaigner and organiser. I remember his energetic contributions at parliamentary party meetings."

Mr Ayward is survived by his wife Helena, his children Bob, Mark and Triona, his brothers Liam, Eddie, Pat, Maurice, Sean, sisters Claire, Margaret and Kathleen, his grandchildren and extended family, friends and community in South Kilkenny and beyond.
fire broke out at a restaurant in Delhi's Connaught Place area on Friday. The fire reportedly occurred at a furniture in the restaurant 'Cafe High5' in Connaught Place.

A video from the site showed thick black smoke billowing out of the restaurant's building. Six fire tenders are at the spot trying to douse the blaze.

"A fire call was received at 5:32am from a restaurant in Outer Circle Connaught Place, opposite Alka Hotel. Total 6 fire tenders were rushed to the site. Fire is brought under control and so far no one is injured," Delhi Fire Service said in a statement.n
Long serving Fonterra Director Donna Smit has confirmed she will retire from the Fonterra Board when her current three-year term ends at the Co-operatives Annual Meeting on 10 November 2022.

Smit was first elected to the Fonterra Board by her farming peers in 2016. She is also currently a Fonterra appointed Director of FSF Management Company Limited, Manager of the Fonterra Shareholders Fund a role she will also retire from in November this year.

Smit says she has been honoured to serve her fellow farmer shareholders for the past six years and thanked farmers for their support.

Im proud of the progress we have made as a Board over the past six years and my contribution as part of that team.

While theres always more that can be done, I believe the Co-op is in a relative position of strength compared to when I joined the Board. Its the right time to support another farmer to come through and make a contribution to our great Co-op.

We have an incredible pool of diverse leaders within our farmer base and Id encourage them to consider putting themselves forward, says Smit.

On behalf of the Co-operatives farmers, Fonterra Chairman Peter McBride thanked Smit for her contribution through a period of significant change for the Co-op.

Donna has been a valued member of our Board at a critical juncture for the Co-op as we have overseen the reset of the Co-ops culture, long-term strategy, governance and risk settings, and our capital structure.

Donna cares deeply about the outcomes for farming families. She is a passionate and hard-working Director, having made a contribution as a Member of the Audit and Finance Committee, Safety and Risk Committee, Co-operative Relations Committee and a Fonterra appointed Director of the FSF Management Company Limited and Fonterra Farmer Custodian Limited, says McBride.

Smit lives and farms at Edgecumbe and has built and owns five dairy farms in Eastern Bay of Plenty and Oamaru.

Her retirement creates a vacancy for a farmer elected Director at this years Fonterra director elections. Sitting farmer director, Andy Macfarlanes current three-year term also ends in November and he has confirmed his intention to re-stand for a third term. Nominations for Fonterras director elections open on 5 August.

Fonterras Board will announce Smits replacement as a Director of FSF Management Company Limited, Manager of the Fonterra Shareholders Fund at a later date.

-ENDS-

Donna Smit to retire from Fonterra Board

Comments from our readers

No comments yet

Add your comment:

Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process.

Related News:

CMC - Retirement and Appointment of Directors

Senior Leadership Team Changes

CHI - Half Year Results and Audio Conference Details

Mercury results reflect transformative year

PGW - Annual Results Announcement to 30 June 2022

August 16th Morning Report

Manawa Energy considers retail bond offer

Greenfern NZ's Toitu carbonzero medicinal cannabis company

My Food Bag - FY23 Trading Update

Meridian and Contact Agree Swaption and CfD Deal


Four women are accusing a nurse at an ICE detention center of sexual assault
Ukraine's First Lady Olena Zelenska made an emphatic appeal for unflagging global solidarity behind her country's struggle against Russia's aggression during her written interview with Yonhap News Agency, Thursday. Courtesy of Presidential Office of Ukraine



Ukraine's First Lady Olena Zelenska made an emphatic appeal Thursday for unflagging global solidarity behind her country's struggle against Russia's aggression, stressing the "democratic values of the entire world" are at stake in the prolonged conflict.



In an exclusive written interview with Yonhap News Agency, the first of its kind with the Korean press, Zelenska cautioned against any apathy toward the war touched off by Russia's Feb. 24 invasion and delivered an impassioned message: "Do not get used to the war."



"I would like to emphasize that there is no place for a neutral position in this war," the wife of President Volodymyr Zelensky said. "You cannot dismiss it as something distant and irrelevant, because this war threatens not only Ukraine but also the democratic values of the whole world."



She then stressed Ukraine is in need of "everything," ranging from humanitarian aid and weapons to assistance for its post-war reconstruction.



The interview came as global attention appears to have relatively diminished compared with the initial stage of the war when the entire world was acutely aghast at the biggest conflict on European soil since the end of World War II in 1945.



Zelenska accentuated the importance of media attention, saying, "Indifference kills (people) indirectly."



"This is my message to the media  give Ukraine maximum coverage and do not stop," she said.



As part of her plea for Seoul's support, Zelenska drew a comparison between South Korea's experience of the 1950-53 war and the ongoing tragedy in Ukraine, saying the two countries have "a lot in common."



"You, like us, know what it's like to live next door to a neighbor who constantly threatens not only you, but the entire world with nuclear weapons," she said. "In the 1950s, the Western world came together to help South Korea win its war for freedom. Now the Western world has also united around Ukraine."



Since the outbreak of the war, Zelenska has been at the vanguard of efforts to spread information about the devastating repercussions of Russia's invasion and drum up global backing for Ukraine's grueling fight against an invading Russia and for its post-war rehabilitation.



Her current role marked a shift from the traditional first-lady activities centering on humanitarian and cultural realms, she said.



"Before the war, we worked to improve food at schools to make it healthier and more balanced, but now we have to think about how to protect our children from famine," she said. "Who would have thought that in the 21st century a first lady in a country in the center of Europe would face such tasks?"



"Humanitarian crises" are serious in Ukrainian cities occupied by Russia, she pointed out.



"I am simply scared to even imagine what is happening now in the occupied Ukrainian cities," she said. "The Russians create humanitarian crises ... so that people are forced to collect rainwater so that they don't die of thirst, so that people simply stop feeling like people."



Those crises have obviously taken a significant toll on children. Zelenska cited instances of a girl with gunshot wounds getting behind the wheel to drive four adults to safety and a women's youngest son taking care of his mother and older sister in the hospital.



"This is what we see every day in our news. All Ukrainian children instantly became adults on Feb. 24," she said.



Watching such ordeals, the first lady, a mother of two children herself, vowed to "fight for every child" and help the young generations overcome their "enormous trauma" inflicted by the ongoing tragedy.



"I would tell the children that we fight this war for the right to live in our own home, to speak our own language, to invite whoever we want as a guest," she said. "This is a fight for the right to be a free person."



Zelenska plans to host the virtual "First Ladies and Gentlemen Summit" on July 23 to discuss a wide range of issues related to the conflict, such as displaced people, education, children and women.



The transcript of her interview was written in Ukrainian and translated unofficially into English. (Yonhap)






The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) said Thursday that it suspended talks with the ruling People Power Party (PPP) over parliamentary committee formations that have left the National Assembly in limbo.





Earlier this month, the rival parties voted to elect Rep. Kim Jin-pyo of the DP as new National Assembly speaker, but they have failed to narrow differences on how to form parliamentary committees.





Rep. Lee Soo-jin of the DP said it suspended talks with the PPP over parliamentary committee formations, criticizing the ruling party for a "lack of sincerity."





Kim's election came after the DP accepted a proposal from the PPP that it would cooperate for the election of the parliamentary speaker and vice speakers on condition the DP promises to select parliamentary committee chiefs based on agreement between the two sides.





Earlier, the DP offered to hand over the chairmanship of the judiciary committee, a key Assembly panel that has the power to approve bills before they are put to a plenary vote, to the PPP in exchange for the PPP's cooperation for the launch of a special committee on judiciary reform.





Hours before the DP's Lee announced the suspension of talks with the PPP, the ruling party's floor leader, Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, said the rival parties agreed on details of the special committee on judiciary reform.





The impasse in committee formation negotiations has left the Assembly idling for more than a month, forcing a halt in legislation and Cabinet member confirmation hearings. (Yonhap)


By Ramu Damodaran





Until a few years ago, July was one of the quieter months at United Nations headquarters, very few meetings peopling the calendar of conferences. That changed in 2013 with the first annual meeting of the "High Level Political Forum," or HLPF, whose 2022 session concludes this week. Perhaps not the most lyrical of names, but its very idea was something relatively unthinkable at the time its predecessor, the Commission on Sustainable Development, was established. HLPF was imagined as, and successfully proved to be, a forum where governments voluntarily presented a review of their national progress toward the sustainable development goals.



The idea of voluntary "soft" international accountability for national actions had earlier found reflection in human rights and disarmament treaties, committing to their provisions those nations who chose to join them and, by the power of their example and success, drawing others into their fold. At the turn of the century it extended to the Millennium Development Goals accepted by the entire U.N. membership as a compact between governments and their citizens as much as between governments themselves.



Revolutionary though the "MDGs" were, and they were revolutionary indeed, there remained areas which were firmly outside its ken and it was precisely the energy the goals animated that inspired new processes of thought and change that were to culminate in the definition of a new set of ambitions "for people, planet and prosperity" through sustainable development.



The HLPF became the convening body for nations to share their successes and concerns with each other. What made it a remarkable innovation was precisely the political nature of its being; as the co-chair of the negotiations that led to its in inception as part of the sustainable development agenda.



Ambassador Kim Sook of the Republic of Korea, stated unequivocally to governments in 2011, "We must be mindful of the task that was asked from us: to deliver a focused political document." That said, he was quick also to note that the sustainable development goals would need to be a "people's agenda."



Just two weeks before Kim spoke, the fourth high level forum on aid effectiveness concluded in Busan with a partnership agreement which, among other provisions, affirmed that "development depends on the participation of all actors, and recognizes the diversity and complementarity of their functions and that development co-operation must be transparent and accountable to all citizens."



The agreement proved an effective pacesetter for the HLPF, moving politics out of the exclusive realm of elected officials to extend to those who elected them in the first place and , in that process , restoring the word "political" to its original Greek meaning relating to the concerns of citizens. At the global level, it manifested what President Suh Seoung-hwan of Yonsei University described, at the "Remember our Common Future" conference that his institution cosponsored earlier this year, as "inclusive international cooperation."



It is that spirit of inclusion that has prompted many governments to broaden the scope of their voluntary national reviews to sub-national and local reviews as well and, in their conduct, involve an informed citizenry including civil society, academics and the private sector. Their collective wisdom has spurred imaginative initiatives; soon after the 2021 HLPF, Benin, which presented its national review for the third time, launched an SDG bond issue program designed to mobilize international investors to finance public spending in the country which had a high SDG impact, the first country in Africa (and, with Mexico, the only one globally) to do so.



Forty four countries presented national reviews at this year's HLPF, two of them  Togo and Uruguay  for the fourth time. Both countries are emblematic of development partnerships; Togo was home to the Lome Convention on cooperation between the then European Economic Community and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries while Uruguay hosted the multilateral trade negotiations, known by its name, which concluded agreements on nontariff barriers.



At the end of last year, the Korea Foundation (KF) Gallery in central Seoul hosted "Gauchos," an exhibition titled for the legendary horsemen of Uruguay with prints by the country's leading photographer, Luis Fabini, in cooperation with the Uruguayan Embassy to Korea. Speaking to The Korea Times, Stefany Romero Veiga, charge d'affaires in the Embassy said: "Of course, one must not think that everyone in Uruguay's countryside is a gaucho or has a gaucho lifestyle, as it can't be further from the truth, in fact, gauchos are a minority. However, what I am trying to express here is that their lifestyle has permeated to society as a whole, and with its shades, many of its idiosyncrasies remain in force to this day. For instance, how we cook beef, how we enjoy lighting a fire and share a meal in the open air and the communion with horses."



In that vivid imagery lay also the truth and the strength of the HLPF, accommodating and nurturing styles of life without imposing them, allowing creative shades and idiosyncrasies to enrich the staid prose of customary political discourse, lighting fires to illuminate unintended darkness, savoring the breath of clean open air, respecting, and communing with, life and nature in all its forms.





Ramu Damodaran is a senior fellow at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress, New Delhi, India. He served as the first director of the United Nations Academic Impact, an initiative linking universities around the world with the United Nations.




Angola, IN (46703)

Today

Sunshine and a few clouds. High around 80F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 56F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.
Sporadic COVID-19 resurgences in China will not stop economic recovery: expert

(Global Times) 13:35, July 15, 2022

Photo taken on July 2, 2022 shows the view of a commercial street in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province. In recent years, Hubei Province has striven to combine its night economy with culture and tourism in innovative ways, thus enhancing the vitality and attraction of nighttime consumption.(Photo: Xinhua)

China reported 86 domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases as some cities see sporadic resurgences, but analysts are optimistic that the country's overall economic recovery will not be affected as cities have gained experience in epidemic prevention.

The strong resilience of China's economy, complete industrial layout, fast-developing digital economy and large markets are sources of confidence for the country's economic recovery in the second half of 2022, despite Western media bad-mouthing.

Some cities in China have experienced COVID-19 flare-ups related to the Omicron subvariant BA.5 in recent days. Among the 86 domestic cases registered on Wednesday, 36 were in Northwest China's Gansu Province and 32 in South China's Guangdong Province. Jiangxi, Hainan, Jiangsu, Henan, Chongqing and Shanghai also reported cases.

Lanzhou in Gansu Province put four districts under a seven-day control procedure starting on Monday, asking people to stay inside their residential compounds.

The sporadic outbreaks raised questions on prospects for the country's economy, which just started to recover from the impact of outbreaks in megacities Shanghai and Beijing, as well as smaller cities.

"The latest sporadic resurgences across China may influence certain industry chains in some cities, but they won't affect China's overall economic recovery," Cao Heping, an economist at Peking University, told the Global Times.

Cao noted that the previous outbreaks in Shanghai and Beijing - two of China's most populated cities -- taught the country lessons about dealing with Omicron. Cities have improved screening, tracing and treatment of cases with more precise and targeted measures, said Cao.

In good news, Beijing had no high-risk areas as of Thursday and Anhui Province, which was battered by a sudden outbreak last week, reported zero cases on Thursday.

Western media seize every virus resurgence in China as a chance to criticize China's dynamic zero-COVID policy and keep bad-mouthing China's economy. Reuters reported on Thursday that China "has been tweaking its stringent COVID curbs but shows no sign of backing off," which leaves businesses "facing a prolonged period of uncertainty."

But according to Cao, who visited dozens of Chinese cities in coastal and inland areas since April, the dynamic zero-COVID policy helps create a better environment for an economic recovery and the resilience of the country's economy is stronger than many had predicted.

China will release second-quarter GDP growth data soon, and some foreign media predicted it to be just 1 percent. Cao predicted that GDP growth for the first half of the year may stand between 0.7 and 2.7 percent, and the economic recovery in the second half may speed up.

"In Kunshan, a city close to Shanghai that was affected by the outbreak in Shanghai, local officials and companies told me that export-oriented parts of the economy started to recover since June. The dynamic zero-COVID policy makes exports from China virus-free and clients are also assured about this ... overseas orders have been restored and increased," said Cao.

China's industrial layout is complete, meaning that an epidemic in one city or area may temporarily affect production but that can be compensated for through adjustment in other links of the manufacturing process, Cao said.

In response to pessimistic Western predictions, Cao said that in world history, countries with better resilience, complete industrial chains and a bigger economic scale usually had quicker recoveries after global strikes.

China's fast-developing digital economy, e-commerce platforms and large domestic market - all of these mean China's economy can survive and thrive, Cao said.

On Thursday, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) held a press conference on the economic situation in the first half of 2022, and it said that China suffered economic fluctuations between March and mid-May due to the domestic epidemic resurgence, supply shocks, the Ukraine crisis and other unexpected factors. But with the effective COVID-19 prevention measures in key areas and the release of steady economic policies, the economy turned upward in June.

The Purchasing Managers' Index in June was 50.2, increasing 0.6 points from May.

Foreign trade has also grown fast since June, according to the NDRC, which predicted the economy in the second half of 2022 will maintain an upward trend with the highly effective COVID-19 control policy and macroeconomic policies.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Liang Jun)
As soon as ITZY's "SNEAKERS" came out, the title track became a hot topic in an online community. Currently, it is receiving mixed opinions.Continue reading to know what people are saying about the track.

ITZY's "SNEAKERS" Garners Mixed Opinions- With Some Saying It Sounds Like B-Side Song

On July 15 at 1 p.m. KST, ITZY officially dropped their fifth mini-album "CHECKMATE," together with the music video for the title song "SNEAKERS."

"SNEAKERS" is about following one's heart instead of putting your focus on what other people say. The track was composed by Sebastian Thott, Didrik Thott, and Jessica Pierpoint, and the lyrics were penned by Friday and OGI of GALACTIKA, together with Didrik Thott and Jessica Pierpoint.

Apart from "SNEAKERS," ITZY's "CHECKMATE" also includes five B-side songs, such as "Rac3r," "What I Want," "Free Fall," "365," and "Domino." An English version of "SNEAKERS" is also included in the mini-album.

Shortly after its release, ITZY's "SNEAKERS" MV was shared on the popular online community the qoo. The post quickly drew attention, garnering more than 28,000 views as of this writing.

While the user who shared the MV didn't leave any comment on the new release, the other netizens who saw the post took to the comments section to express what they think about the title track- and their reactions significantly vary.

Some netizens found ITZY's "SNEAKERS" good, saying,

"I like the fact that this song is easy to listen to." "Seriously, it's so good.' "The chorus, the choreography is all good." "I think it's a perfect song to listen to." "I like it. I've been hooked since the teasers came out."

On the other hand, other netizens were not satisfied. One online community user said, "Is that their title song? The chorus is fine, but it sounds like a B-side song. It doesn't give the title track vibe."

Another one stated, "Ah... so only the teaser was good, but the rest of the sounds give off a B-side vibe."

Since their debut, ITZY has been releasing title songs with powerful and catchy beats, such as "WANNABE" and "LOCO" just to name a few. Netizens are comparing the group's latest title track "SNEAKERS" to their previous ones as they deemed the latter boring.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: ITZY Charyeong Prevents Celebrity Diseases Rumors - Here's How

One netizen said, "I think 'DALLA DALLA' is ITZY's best track. 'SNEAKERS' didn't exceed my expectations."

Meanwhile, another user commented, "The song is way too weak. It's even whinier than 'ICY.'"

Some netizens paid attention to ITZY's "SNEAKERS" MV, and some say that the concept in the video doesn't go well with the song's message. A few comments are "The music video concept and the song is different from each other" and "The song is good, but the MV has a separate concept."

Here are other comments on the song:

"It's too whiny. It sounds like they just wanted to have a TikTok challenge." "The song is boring." "This song isn't particularly bad, but it's not particularly good either. It's just not good enough to make you dance." "I seriously don't know about JYP anymore. The MV and the song are a miss."

What can you say about ITZY's "SNEAKERS?" Does it fit to be the album's title track? Comment down below!

ITZY's Upcoming Activities

ITZY will hold a two-day concert in Seoul this coming Aug. 6 and 7 before kicking off the North American leg of their "CHECKMATE" world tour. Their U.S. tour will run from late October to mid-November.

Moreover, the quintet is scheduled to appear at KCON 2022 this Aug. 19 to 21, where they will perform alongside other artists such as ENHYPEN, STAYC, CRAVITY, NMIXX, WJSN, The Boyz, and many more.

For more K-Pop news and updates, keep your tabs open here at KpopStarz.

KpopStarz owns this article

Written by Maria Scott
Raceland, LA (70394)

Today

Partly to mostly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 93F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low near 75F. Winds light and variable.
By Naveen Kapoor

New Delhi [India], July 15 (ANI): Vendors and telemarketing companies making unsolicited calls to consumers may soon be required to pay heavy penalties to the victim consumers.

Also Read | Christian Eriksen Joins Manchester United on a Three-Year Deal.

According to reliable sources, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs has initiated a consultation on imposing fines on those engaging in unsolicited commercial communication.

Ministry source told ANI that it is mooted that caller engaging in unsolicited calls will have to pay heavy penalties which can go up to Rs 100 per call. The money will not go into the government coffers but will be credited to consumers who received unsolicited calls.

Also Read | Sankashti Chaturthi July 2022 Wishes & Lord Ganesha HD Images: WhatsApp Messages, Quotes, SMS, Wallpapers and Greetings To Send on Sankatahara Chaturthi.

Despite clear norms laid by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on unsolicited communication, consumers are still facing unwanted calls from vendors and telemarketers.

Although the TRAI has somehow controlled the problem of pesky calls and unwanted SMS with the DND (Do Not Disturb) registry.

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs recently put a lid on service charges levied by hotels and restaurants. It recently also cracked the whip on fake reviews driven and promoted by some ed-tech companies. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi [India], July 15 (ANI): As many as three people have been arrested for allegedly raping a 16-year-old girl in the Vasant Vihar area of the national capital, police said.

The incident took place on July 6 and police received the complaint on July 8.

Also Read | OpenSea Lays Off 20% of Its Employees, CEO Devin Finzer Calls It 'Sad and Difficult Decision'.

Based on the complainant's statement, a case against all the three accused-- aged 23, 25, and 35 years-- has been registered under relevant sections of Rape in the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

Police said that the victim had gone for a ride with all the three accused persons in their car at around 8.30 pm on July 6.

Also Read | Instagram Rolls Out Subscriber Chats, Exclusive Posts & More for Creators.

"A PCR call from S.J. Hospital was received around 4 am on July 8 where the caller informed about the incident of harassment with the minor," Delhi Police said.

"On examination with the counsellor, the girl disclosed that two known men met her near Vasant Vihar market on July 6 and offered for a joy ride, where all the four went to Mahipalpur and consumed liquor. Thereafter, they went to a lonely place where the men raped her inside the car," police said.

However, no external injuries to the victim have been reported.

Further investigation into the matter is underway. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Karbi Anglong (Assam) [India], July 15 (ANI): Security forces on Friday seized 477 kg of ganja from a truck and arrested the driver of the vehicle in the Bokajan town of the Karbi Anglong district of Assam.

The arrested person has been identified as 57-year-old Ram Chandra Yadav.

Also Read | Court Said Accused Mohd Zubair Cant Leave the Country Without Prior Permission of the   Latest Tweet by ANI.

After receiving confidential information, a temporary check-post was set up at Khakrajan in the Bokajan town under the Barpathar police station by the police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel.

Tha Ganja packets were seized under the physical supervision of John Das, SDPO Bokajan.

Also Read | Mahek Chahal Falls Prey to Online Fraud, Naagin 6 Actress Files FIR Over Cyber Crime With Bandra Police.

"At about 6:30 am, a truck coming from Dimapur side of Nagaland was intercepted. After a thorough investigation of the vehicle, 46 packets of ganja weighing 477 kgs have been recovered which were found concealed in the external cabin hood of the truck," SDPO Das said.

In recent times, the Karbi Anglong district police have seized huge quantities of contraband drugs including heroin, brown sugar, Yaba tablets, and ganja worth several crores of rupees, and arrested as many as 20 persons in separate drug-busting operations. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Guwahati, Jul 15 (PTI) Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Arunachal Pradesh counterpart Pema Khandu on Friday signed an agreement to end border issues between the two states and decided to "restrict" the number of disputed villages to 86 instead of 123.

Chief ministers of the two North-eastern neighbours met at Namsai in Arunachal Pradesh and signed the agreement.

Also Read | Honor Pad 8 Reportedly Spotted on Bluetooth SIG Certification Website.

"We have decided to restrict the 'disputed villages' to 86 instead of 123. Based on our present boundary, we'll try to resolve the rest by September 15, 2022," Sarma tweeted.

He said that he is immensely happy to announce the signing of 'Namsai Declaration at the Chief Minister's level meeting between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. "Inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and guided by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, we could achieve this landmark in resolving our long-pending border disputes. This is a milestone in the history of our friendship and brotherhood," Sarma added.

Also Read | Cryptocurrency Investing Platform CoinSwitch and Startup Karnataka Launch Blockchain Hackathon Building Future Cities; Register Here.

The declaration was signed by the two CMs in the presence of several cabinet ministers of both states.

The two states share an 804.1 km-long border. The grievance of Arunachal Pradesh which was made a union territory in 1972 is that several forested tracts in the plains that had traditionally belonged to hill tribal chiefs and communities were unilaterally transferred to Assam.

After Arunachal Pradesh achieved statehood in 1987, a tripartite committee was appointed which recommended that certain territories be transferred from Assam to Arunachal. Assam contested this and the matter is in the Supreme Court.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Ajmer, July 15: Dargah Khadim Gauhar Chishti, who was arrested for raising objectionable slogans against suspended BJP leader Nupur Sharma, will be produced in court where police will seek his custody. The police official, however, denied any contact with the NIA in the matter so far.

Notably, NIA is probing the brutal killing of tailor Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur and chemist Umesh Kolhe in Amravati for supporting Nupur Sharma. Chishti was absconding and was held in Telangana's Hyderabad on Thursday. The police have detained the person who aided him in his stay in Hyderabad.

"Gauhar Chishti arrested, he was brought to Ajmer last night in connection with a provocative speech case. His aide who had given him refuge in Hyderabad for about 10 days has been detained. Chishti will be produced before the court, we will seek his police custody," said Ajmer Superintendent of police Chuna Ram Jat on Friday while addressing a press conference. Haryana Man Arrested for Allegedly Offering Rs 2 Crore Reward for Nupur Sharma's Tongue.

"No contact with NIA in this matter yet. Probe is on," he added. Earlier last night, Gauhar Chishti and his associate Munavvar were taken to Kishanganj Police Station in Ajmer. The cleric in a video was seen allegedly raising slogans at the Ajmer Sharif Dargah premises. Three Khadim (cleric) of the Dargah--Gauhar Chisthi, Aadil Chisthi and Sarwar Chisthi-- have given provocative statements against Nupur Sharma.

His statement comes against the backdrop of now-suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma's remarks on Prophet Mohammad that had led to widespread violent protests across the country and also drew condemnation from some Gulf countries.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Panaji, Jul 15 (PTI) The Goa tourism department wants to explore new international markets such as South Korea and western Europe to attract high-spending tourists to the beach destination, state Minister Rohan Khaunte said on Friday.

Also Read | 'Hindu Religion Most Tolerant': Delhi Court Grants Bail to Alt News Co-Founder Mohammed Zubair.

Speaking to reporters, the state tourism minister said a public relation agency will soon be roped in to explore newer international markets.

Also Read | Onion Prizes Unlikely To Skyrocket in Upcoming Lean Season As Centre Procures 2.50 Lakh Tonnes of Onions for Stock.

At present, Goa largely dependents on the UK and Russia for international foot falls, he said.

"If there are any issues in these markets, the international arrivals to the state drop and we need to work on this situation," he said.

Khaunte said that the department will soon be exploring newer markets such as South Korea and Western Europe.

The minister also welcomed the Goa police's action asking its personnel to stop vehicles only if there is a visible traffic violation.

There were complaints about harassment of tourists by the traffic police in the state, he said.

"During my first meeting with the director general of police, I had raised this issue of harassment of tourists by the police," he said, thanking Chief Minister Pramod Sawant for taking prompt action on the issue.

Tourists arriving here should always go back with good memories, he said, adding that the state government will now act against touts and businesses operating without permission.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi, Jul 15 (PTI) The Income-tax department has found that a Delhi and Mumbai based business group-- engaged in hospitality, marble selling and real estate-- and its promoters allegedly "parked" black money abroad and created undisclosed offshore assets.

The CBDT, the administrative body for the department, issued a statement on Friday stating that it has seized Rs 2.5 crore of "undeclared" jewellery from the group, that has not been identified.

Also Read | China Deploys Driverless Police Cars for Surveillance of Uyghurs in Xinjiang's Karamay.

The raids on the group, that also deals in lights trading, were launched on July 7 and a total of 17 premises in Delhi, Mumbai and Daman were covered, it said in a statement.

Documents seized "indicate that the group has parked its undisclosed money abroad in certain low tax jurisdictions."

Also Read | Goa Shocker: 22-Year-Old Murdered on Birthday, Five 'Friends' Held.

"The group, through Malaysia-based web of companies, has finally invested the funds in its hospitality business in India and it is estimated that the quantum of such funds exceeds Rs 40 crore," the CBDT said.

The group has invested in a few companies abroad, which have been incorporated specially for commodity trading, it said.

The net-worth of one such company including its profits earned has not been disclosed by the group in its ITRs (income tax returns) for the relevant period, the statement alleged.

"Further, it has been detected that the promoter of the group has invested in an immovable property in foreign jurisdiction which has also not been disclosed in his ITR," the CBDT said.

Certain offshore entities, it said, set up for commodity trading, have been identified, which have also "not been declared."

The CBDT alleged the group was involved in "out-of-books cash sales" in its domestic operations.

"In its trading business of marble and lights, seized evidences indicate unaccounted cash sales to the extent of 50-70 per cent of the total sales.

"Undisclosed excess stock of Rs 30 crore has also been found," the statement said.

The Board said in the hospitality business, unaccounted sales have been detected, more specifically, in banquet division.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Bhopal, Jul 15 (PTI) The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Friday issued an orange alert warning of heavy to very heavy rainfall in Narmadapuram division of Madhya Pradesh, where railway tracks were inundated, affecting the movement of trains.

Also Read | #WATCH The Dalai Lama at His Residence in Leh After He Arrived Here on a Month-long Visit   Latest Tweet by ANI.

The orange alert warned that heavy to very heavy rainfall, ranging between 64.5 to 204 mm, is likely to lash isolated places of the Narmadapurman division, which comprises Narmadapuram, Harda and Betul districts.

Also Read | Goa Shocker: 22-Year-Old Murdered on Birthday, Five 'Friends' Held.

The IMD has also issued two yellow alerts forecasting likely heavy rains at isolated places in 21 districts, including Bhopal and Jabalpur, and thunderstorms with lightning in eight divisions, including Bhopal and Indore.

The alerts are valid till Saturday morning.

According to officials, rail traffic to Nagpur in neighbouring Maharashtra was affected after water gushed onto the tracks in the Kiratgarh-Betul section of Nagpur division of the Central Railways, as a result of the downpour.

Some trains heading towards Nagpur were either stopped at Itarsi and Hoshangabad stations in Narmadapuram district or diverted, they said.

A MEMU train from Amla in Betul district to Itarsi in Narmadapuram and vice versa were cancelled on Friday, they said.

As per the IMD data, Pachmarhi, the lone hill station of Madhya Pradesh, Ujjain, Indore, Bhopal and Jabalpur received 68.2 mm, 48.0 mm, 30.4 mm, 10.4 mm and 3.5 mm rainfall respectively in 24 hours ending 8.30 am on Friday.

Several other districts of the state also received showers, it stated.

The rainfall activities are likely to abate in western Madhya Pradesh, as the low-pressure area over coastal Odisha has weakened slightly, said Ved Prakash Singh, senior meteorologist at IMD's Bhopal office.

However, the rainfall in eastern parts of the state is expected to increase due to a well-marked low area over northeast Arabian Sea, he said.

As a result of these factors, the state will continue to receive rainfall for the next five days. Bundelkhand and Vindhya regions are expected to receive good showers after July 19, Singh said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi [India], July 15 (ANI): An IndiGo flight from Delhi to Vadodara was diverted to Jaipur on Thursday night as a precautionary measure following vibrations in the engine for a fraction of a second.

An alternate aircraft was arranged for the onward journey of the passengers.

Also Read | Who is Barshashree Buragohain? Assam Student Jailed Under UAPA For Anti-National Poem Gets Permission to Appear BSc Exams.

The IndiGo spokesperson said, "An IndiGo flight 6E-859, operating between Delhi and Vadodara was diverted to Jaipur on 14 July 2022."

The spokesperson added, "There was a caution message indicated to the pilot en route. As a precaution, the pilot diverted the aircraft to Jaipur for further checks. The passengers were accommodated on an alternate aircraft for their onward journey."

Also Read | Samsung Galaxy M13 5G, Galaxy M13 Launched in India; First Sale on July 23, 2022.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said that they have ordered a probe into the matter.

During the last six days, a sizeable number of the airline's aircraft maintenance technicians have gone on sick leaves to protest against their low salaries and demand restoration of salaries that were slashed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amid the mass sick leave protest, IndiGo on Wednesday said it is in the process of addressing issues related to its employee remuneration.

IndiGo also released a statement saying that they are in constant dialogue with its employees to take care of any issues or grievances.

IndiGo's statement read, "As a responsible employer, IndiGo is in constant dialogue with its employees to take care of any issues or grievances. The aviation industry has undergone a difficult phase over the last 24+ months. As business recovers, we are in the process of addressing some of the issues related to employee remuneration. This is an ongoing activity and we will continue to take employee feedback in the process."

IndiGo also said that the airline's operations will continue to be normal, with the addition of several new destinations to their network.

"Meanwhile, our operations continue to be normal, while we add several new destinations to our network and look forward to welcoming customers from across India and the world," it added.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) also said that they are keeping a close watch on the situation that emerged after maintenance technicians of airlines went on mass sick leave. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Bengaluru, Jul 15 (PTI) The ruling BJP's Karnataka unit on Friday started its brainstorming session to discuss strategies to win the 2023 state Assembly elections.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, BJP national General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka Arun Singh, state party president Nalin Kumar Kateel, Karnataka ministers, and other senior party functionaries are taking part in the day-long brainstorming meet at a private resort off Devanahalli in the city, party sources said.

Also Read | PM Narendra Modi Was Target of Terror Module Busted in Patna, Bihar Police Probe Indicates.

Former state chief ministers B S Yediyurappa, Jagadish Shettar, and D V Sadananda Gowda are also participating in the party session.

"The meet, which about 50 senior party leaders are attending, is aimed at strengthening the party base and chalk out strategies to win the upcoming election, which is hardly 10 months away," a party office-bearer told PTI.

Also Read | Facebook To Soon Let You Add Up to 5 Profiles via Single Account: Report.

According to him, there will be discussions on better coordination between the party and the government, so that the outfit's cadres can be involved more in taking the government programmes to the grassroots level and help them reach the beneficiaries.

Also, the ministers and legislators will be told to give time to the party workers to understand the challenges, address their grievances, if any, and coordinate with them to work at the booth level.

The brainstorming is also aimed at tackling the discontent among some party workers and legislators.

A few legislators had often expressed their displeasure over not having been made ministers despite some Cabinet berths lying vacant for a long time.

Against the sanctioned 34 ministerial posts, there are 29 ministers presently, while five are vacant.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], July 15 (ANI): Ahead of the Monsoon Session of the Parliament, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao will hold a meeting of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MPs on Saturday at 1 pm to discuss the party strategy for the upcoming session.

The monsoon session of the Parliament is slated to begin on July 18.

Also Read | The #TamilNadu Pollution Control Board Has Commenced Monitoring the Air Quality   Latest Tweet by IANS India.

According to the Chief Minister's Office, KCR will give directions to the MPs to raise several key issues and adopt a strategy in both houses of Parliament.

"CM KCR will direct the MPs to fight against the union government in the Parliament for meted out injustice to Telangana in all sectors," said a statement by the CMO.

Also Read | OpenSea Lays Off 20% of Its Employees, CEO Devin Finzer Calls It 'Sad and Difficult Decision'.

"The MPs will be asked to lodge protests in the Parliament during the session," added the statement.

The Chief Minister will further "advise the MPs to expose the Centre" in the Parliament for "creating economic hurdles to Telangana".

"The CM will ask MPs to raise the issue of centre's anti-farmer policies by not purchasing Paddy from farmers and Miller and created the problem to them," said the CMO.

Noting the "falling of rupee value against US dollar", KCR will advise the MPs to raise this issue inside the House.

"The chief minister asserted the TRS should also join other party MPs who are ready to fight against the centre's anti-people policies and to protect democratic values. The CM will call upon the TRS MPs of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha to fight against the BJP-led Union Government in the Parliament against their policies in tomorrow's meeting," said the CMO.

Meanwhile, ahead of the Monsoon Session of Parliament which is slated to begin from Monday, Rajya Sabha Secretariat has once again reiterated the ethical code of conduct applicable for the members.

"Members are informed that the Committee on Ethics in its Fourth Report presented to the Council on the March 14, 2005 and adopted by it on April 20, 2005 had inter alia considered the Code of Conduct for Members enumerated by the Committee in its First Report which was also adopted by the Council. The Committee felt that the Code was quite comprehensive and endorsed the same. It recommended that the Code of Conduct may be published in Bulletin Part II on the eve of each Session for information of and compliance by the Members," a Rajya Sabha communication read.

The code of conduct states, "Members of Rajya Sabha should acknowledge their responsibility to maintain the public trust reposed in them and should work diligently to discharge their mandate for the common good of the people. They must hold in high esteem the Constitution, the Law, Parliamentary Institutions and above all the general public. They should constantly strive to translate the ideals laid down in the Preamble to the Constitution into a reality." (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Raipur (Chattisgarh) [India], July 15 (ANI): The Presidential candidate of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Droupadi Murmu on Friday arrived in Raipur to garner the support of the party legislators of the state for the presidential polls set to take place on July 18.

As part of her campaigning, she has been visiting different states. She also went to Mumbai on Thursday and interacted with the state MLAs and MPs of Shiv Sena, BJP, and NDA.

Also Read | Gujarat Police Arrests Youth After Video of Them Doing Dangerous Car Stunts in Nyari Dam Goes Viral.

Murmu also has the support of the YSR Congress Party, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Akali Dal.

The Congress-led opposition has fielded former union minister Yashwant Sinha against Murmu for the presidential election on July 18.

Also Read | OpenSea Lays Off 20% of Its Employees, CEO Devin Finzer Calls It 'Sad and Difficult Decision'.

Murmu is a former Governor of Jharkhand and a former Odisha minister. If elected, she will be the first tribal President of India and the country's second female President.

Born in a poor tribal family in the village of Mayurbhanj, a backward district in Odisha, Murmu completed her studies despite challenging circumstances.

Murmu is the first presidential candidate from Odisha of a major political party or alliance.

The voting for the next President of India will start on July 18 while counting will take place on July 21. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi, Jul 15 (PTI) Over 13.3 lakh precaution doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered to beneficiaries in the age group of 18-59 years till 10 pm on Friday, with a majority of those being free under a special 75-day drive launched by the government.

The "COVID Vaccination Amrit Mahotsav" to provide free precaution doses of the vaccines to everyone aged 18 years and above at government vaccination centres commenced on Friday.

Also Read | Uttar Pradesh: Bodies of Two School Students Found on Railway Tracks Near Suthni Village, Police Suspect Suicide.

The drive, aimed at boosting the uptake of precaution doses among the eligible population, is being held as part of the government's "Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav" to celebrate 75 years of the country's independence.

The total number of Covid vaccine doses administered in the country has gone past 199.69 crore.

Also Read | Supreme Court Bench Begins Hearing an Hour Before Usual Time; Justice Uday Lalit Says, If Kids Can Go to School at 7 AM Why SC Cant Start at 9 AM.

More than 20 lakh (20,98,849) vaccine doses were administered till 7 pm on Friday. The daily vaccination tally is expected to go up with the compilation of the final reports by late night.

The total number of precaution doses given to the beneficiaries in the 18-59 age group has crossed 90 lakh, according to the Union health ministry.

The number of vaccine doses given to the beneficiaries aged 60 years and above has gone past 2.78 crore.

So far, over 3.78 crore children in the 12-14 age group have been administered the first dose, while more than 6.08 crore adolescents in the 15-18 age group have received the first dose.

The countrywide vaccination drive against the viral disease was rolled out on January 16 last year with healthcare workers getting inoculated in the first phase. The vaccination of frontline workers started from February 2 last year.

The next phase of Covid vaccination commenced on March 1 last year for people over 60 years of age and those aged 45 and above with specified comorbid conditions.

Vaccination of all people aged above 45 years began on April 1 last year. The Centre then decided to expand the ambit of the vaccination drive by allowing everyone above 18 years of age to be inoculated against Covid from May 1 last year.

The inoculation of adolescents in the age group of 15-18 years commenced on January 3 this year.

India began administering the precaution doses of the vaccines to healthcare and frontline workers and those aged 60 years and above with comorbidities from January 10.

The country began inoculating children aged 12-14 from March 16 and also removed the comorbidity clause, making everyone aged above 60 years eligible to receive the precaution dose.

On April 10, India began administering the precaution doses of the vaccines to everyone aged above 18 years.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Noida, Jul 15: A Muslim man in western Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district is all set to participate in his sixth Kanwar Yatra, and in an apparent departure from the past he has informed the district authorities about this.

Wakil Malik, 42, says he follows Islam but has faith in Lord Shiva too.

Every year, during the auspicious month of Shravan, many Shiva devotees visit Haridwar, Gaumukh and Gangotri in Uttarakhand to fetch the waters of the Ganga. This holy water is then offered by these kanwars to Lord Shiva.

"I have been on Kanwar Yatras to Haridwar five times in the past but like others I couldn't go during the Covid pandemic. I want to take part in the Yatra and make it my sixth trip," Malik, who lives in Bhaiswal village of Shamli's Garhipukhta tehsil, told PTI. Maharashtra: 'Will Quit Politics if a Single MLA Loses Polls', Says CM Eknath Shinde.

"I have faith in Mahadev. During my previous Yatras there has not been any problem and both the Hindu and Muslim communities in my village have no issues with my practice," he said.

Malik, who has four daughters, a son and a wife at home, said he works as a daily-wage labourer. He said his family does not mind him taking part in the Hindu procession. Rubaiya Sayeed, Daughter of Former Jammu and Kashmir CM Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, Identifies Yasin Malik As Her Abductor in 1989 Kidnapping Case.

"They know I like going on Kanwar Yatra and I do it on my own. There's no pressure on me to do it. I don't do it with an ill-intention towards anyone. 'Galat nahi karte kisi ka... Prabhu ka naam lete hain' (I don't wrong anyone, I just chant the name of the Lord)," he added.

Malik said he has given it in writing to the district administration and the local police that he would undertake the Yatra this time also and sought their assurance so that "nothing unnecessary or untoward happens to me or my family".

This is the first time he has taken this step. He said local police officials have assured his safety.

He said he did not want his Yatra to cause any unnecessary Hindu-Muslim religious row.

That is why I have informed officials. The local police officials have shared their phone numbers with me and told me I can call them anytime I need," he said.

Malik estimates that he would have to walk over 250 km on foot.

"I will leave on July 22 and hope to reach Haridwar. I will take the holy Ganga water from there and start for Pura Mahadev temple on the Meerut-Baghpat border," he said.

The Pura Mahadev temple is where I will offer Ganga water to Lord Shiva and then return to my village in Shamli and offer the holy water at the local temple," Shiva's Muslim devotee added.

He said has even got the 'muhurat' (auspicious time) for offering the Ganga water at Pura Mahadev. That's 7.17 pm on July 26.

Meanwhile, Shamli district administration's nodal officer for Kanwar Yatra Arvind Kumar said he is not aware of Malik's case, and added that everyone has religious freedom in the country.

"There is no restriction on anybody as such for participating in the Kanwar Yatra. It is a matter of faith for people and everyone has the freedom of religious practice," Kumar, the additional district magistrate, told PTI.

He said all preparations for the Yatra, taking place after two years due to the pandemic, have been made.

Shelter camps have been set up along two 60-km road stretches in Shamli for pilgrims and potholes and hanging power cables fixed to ensure a hassle-free Yatra, the officer said.

"Meat shops along the routes will remain shut while the operation of liquor vends will be discouraged by us during the Yatra period. No unauthorized 'bhaang' shops will be allowed on the routes," he added.

Lakhs of devotees are expected to cross through Shamli during the Kanwar Yatra this year, the official said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Thane, Jul 15 (PTI) Thane district in Maharashtra has reported 168 new coronavirus positive cases, which took its overall infection count to 7,32,105, a health official said on Friday.

Also Read | A Team of #Lucknow Municipal Corporation Has Seized the Pitbull Dog That Mauled Its   Latest Tweet by IANS India.

With this addition, there are now 1,518 active cases in the district, he said.

Also Read | Twitter Begins Testing New Custom-Built Timelines Feature: Report.

The death toll rose by one to reach 11,918, while the recovery count stood at 7,18,623, the official added.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi, Jul 15 (PTI) A delegation of traders from different markets of north Delhi on Friday met the city municipal corporation's Special Officer Ashwani Kumar and demanded roll back of the hike in health trade licence fees and registration charges.

Representatives of many traders' bodies, including Kamla Nagar Traders Association, Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh, Jawahar Nagar Kamla Nagar Market Association and Kolhapur Traders Associations, were part of the delegation.

Also Read | 'Rupee Could Break Rs 80 Mark Against US Dollar Next Week', Says Jateen Trivedi.

Nitin Gupta, the president of the Kamla Nagar Traders Association said that in the meeting traders apprised Kumar of the hike in trade licence fees, house tax, transfer duty and also the extra burden on the business fraternity due to these.

"We also told him about problems being faced by traders in accessing municipal services online such as health licence, trade licence and in submitting conversion charges and parking development charges. The special officer assured us of the cooperation," Gupta told PTI.

Also Read | 'Hindu Religion Most Tolerant': Delhi Court Grants Bail to Alt News Co-Founder Mohammed Zubair.

He added the special officer was also apprised of the stray cattle menace and the problem of encroachment in markets. The public health department of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has revised the rates of one-time registration fee and annual license fee for 94 categories of health trades. Under the new policy, a one-time registration fee for a health trade license for banquet halls with a capacity of up to 250 seats has been fixed at Rs 10,000 and an annual license fee of Rs 15,000. The registration and license fees for health trade of banquet halls with a capacity of more than 250 seats have been fixed at Rs 20,000 and Rs 25,000, respectively. Meanwhile, to oppose the hike in health trade licence by the MCD, a "mahapanchayat" of traders under the aegis of the Chamber of Trade and Industry (CTI) began here on Friday.

In the "mahapanchayat" traders will deliberate on the MCD's decision to rationalise licence and registration fees for running various establishments such as banquet halls and eateries in the city.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Thiruvananthapuram, Jul 15 (PTI) The Kerala Assembly adjourned for the day following heated protests staged by opposition UDF members over ruling CPI(M) legislator M M Mani's controversial remark against RMP MLA K K Rema that she became a widow as it was her fate.

As the question hour session began, the Congress-led UDF members raised the issue alleging that Mani had insulted womanhood and so he should withdraw his statement and tender an apology on the floor of the House.

Also Read | Facebook To Soon Let You Add Up to 5 Profiles via Single Account: Report.

They also raised placards and a banner which read "M M Mani who insulted womanhood should resign".

However, Law Minister P Rajeeve said what Mani had meant was that the ruling CPI(M) had no role in the murder of Rema's husband T P Chandrasekharan, a rebel leader.

Also Read | Karnataka Traders Stage Bandh To Protest Against 5% GST on Rice, Foodgrains.

Leader of Opposition V D Satheesaan reiterated that Mani's statement was "anti-woman" and it was surprising to see that the ruling benches including the Chief Minister had justified him.

When Speaker M B Rajesh tried to commence the question hour, the opposition members continued their protests forcing him to adjourn the House for the day.

The UDF members later walked out of the House and staged a sit-in at the portal of the hall before marching out of the Assembly complex.

Rema's husband, T P Chandrasekharan -- a CPI(M) rebel -- was hacked to death in May 2012 after he floated a parallel Left outfit called the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) in his home turf Onchiayam in north Kerala.

Mani, while participating in the House discussions on fund requests by the police on Thursday, alluding to Rema said a "mahati" (great person), who spoke against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the LDF, became a widow and that was her fate.

"We (Left front) are not responsible for that," he said.

The statement invited the ire of the opposition which raised a point of order and demanded that he withdraw his remarks and apologise for the same.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi, July 15: Vendors and telemarketing companies making unsolicited calls to consumers may soon be required to pay heavy penalties to the victim consumers.

According to reliable sources, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs has initiated a consultation on imposing fines on those engaging in unsolicited commercial communication.

Ministry source told ANI that it is mooted that caller engaging in unsolicited calls will have to pay heavy penalties which can go up to Rs 100 per call.

The money will not go into the government coffers but will be credited to consumers who received unsolicited calls.Supreme Court Bench Begins Hearing an Hour Before Usual Time; Justice Uday Lalit Says, If Kids Can Go to School at 7 AM Why SC Cant Start at 9 AM.

Despite clear norms laid by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on unsolicited communication, consumers are still facing unwanted calls from vendors and telemarketers.

Although the TRAI has somehow controlled the problem of pesky calls and unwanted SMS with the DND (Do Not Disturb) registry.

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs recently put a lid on service charges levied by hotels and restaurants. It recently also cracked the whip on fake reviews driven and promoted by some ed-tech companies. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Jalaun (UP), Jul 15 (PTI) Elaborate arrangements are underway for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to inaugurate Bundelkhand Expressway here on Saturday under which around five km area of the venue has been taken in the security cordon.

Also Read | 'Hindu Religion Most Tolerant': Delhi Court Grants Bail to Alt News Co-Founder Mohammed Zubair.

The foundation stone of the four-lane expressway, which will connect Chitrakoot with the Lucknow-Agra Expressway, was laid by Modi in February 2020.

The project took 28 months to complete.

Also Read | Onion Prizes Unlikely To Skyrocket in Upcoming Lean Season As Centre Procures 2.50 Lakh Tonnes of Onions for Stock.

"The government has been committed to enhancing connectivity across the country, a key feature of which has been the work towards improvement in road infrastructure," an official statement issued here said.

The 296-km, four-lane expressway constructed at a cost of around Rs 14,850 crores, under the aegis of Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA), can later be expanded upto six lanes as well.

Extending from National Highway (NH)-35 at Gonda village near Bharatkoop in Chitrakoot district to near Kudrail village in Etawah district, where it merges with the Agra-Lucknow expressway, it passes through seven districts, viz. Chitrakoot, Banda, Mahoba, Hamirpur, Jalaun, Auraiya and Etawah.

Along with improving connectivity in the region, the Bundelkhand Expressway will also give a major boost to economic development, resulting in the creation of thousands of jobs for the local people. Work on the creation of an industrial corridor in Banda and Jalaun districts, next to the expressway, has already been started.

Jalaun SP Ravi Kumar said that with a view to ensure proper security during the PM's programme, around five km area of the venue has been taken in the security cordon and the administration has asked all the security personnel to remain stationed at their respective points of deployment in view of the PM's programme.

An art gallery is also being set up in which the fort of Mahoba, Jagmanpur fort of Jalaun and the defense corridor have been shown. Besides the RAF (Rapid Action Force) and PAC (Provincial Armed Constabulary), policemen have been deployed in the area, he said.

Intensive checking campaign is being conducted in all the hotels and restaurants of Orai, the district headquarter. Bomb disposal squad has also been camped.

To help the beneficiaries of different government schemes reach the public meeting site, roadways buses have been made available at the municipal and nagar panchayat headquarters of the district. Apart from this, buses will also be provided at the development block and village level to take the beneficiaries from the rural areas to the meeting place, the SP said.

Bundeli artistes of Bundelkhand will perform their art at the function.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Amaravati, July 15 (PTI) Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu said here on Friday that certain forces were conspiring to damage the sovereignty and integrity of India by provoking internal strife and expressed anguish over some recent incidents in different parts of the country.

Also Read | 'Hindu Religion Most Tolerant': Delhi Court Grants Bail to Alt News Co-Founder Mohammed Zubair.

Also Read | Onion Prizes Unlikely To Skyrocket in Upcoming Lean Season As Centre Procures 2.50 Lakh Tonnes of Onions for Stock.

Addressing a gathering after releasing a book on the works of eminent poet Damaraju Pundareekakshudu at the Swarna Bharat Trust at Atukuru, the Vice-President noted that certain posts on social media denigrating our culture were apparently fuelling unrest among various sections of the society.

This is not Bharatiyata. This is not acceptable. Everyone should protest and prevent such things. People of the country should unite and defeat the evil designs, Venkaiah Naidu said.

He observed that religious tolerance was ingrained in our hearts for generations.

We should carry this spirit forward and be part of the efforts to build a powerful India. We should go ahead to build a new India through social and economic reforms. Elimination of gender discrimination should be our first priority, he added.

The Vice-President recalled several poets and writers who spread nationalistic fragrance through their literary works in varied forms during the freedom struggle and played their role in the nationalist movement.

Their every letter, every slogan echoed the voice of crores of Indians and inspired them towards the freedom struggle. Their works also portrayed the sacrifices of the freedom fighters, he noted.

As the nation celebrated Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, it was time to read and appreciate the lives of our freedom fighters.

Venkaiah Naidu paid tributes to Damaraju Pundareekakshudu, who wrote an inspiring Telugu play on Gandhiji during the freedom struggle.

He felicitated Yallapragada Mallikarjuna Rao, Telugu lecturer who authored the book on Pundareekakshudu, on the occasion.

The Vice-President later went round the Trust and interacted with the trainees. He gave away certificates to those who completed skill development training.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi [India], July 15 (ANI): Taking a dig at the Centre over the new booklet listing out unparliamentary words and expressions, Rajya Sabha MP and Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh on Thursday said 'all words used by the Opposition to describe the reality of Modi Sarkar now to be considered 'unparliamentary'.

Taking to Twitter, he wrote, "All words used by the Opposition to describe the reality of Modi Sarkar now to be considered 'unparliamentary'. What next Vishguru?"

Also Read | Finance Ministry Issues SOP for E-Commerce Exports of Jewellery Through Courier.

In another tweet, he wrote, "Clarification from @ombirlakota about 'unparliamentary' words doesn't mean much. In all discussions, the media seems to have overlooked that they can't report on these comments in their dispatches. Also, print media will have to think twice before using these words in their articles."

Following the opposition's criticism of the 50-page compilation of words deemed unfit for use in Parliament released by the Lok Sabha secretariat, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday said that "no words have been banned."

Also Read | Narendra Modi Government Makes Necessary Info on QR Code Compulsory on Packaging of Electronic Goods From July 15.

Earlier on Thursday, a major row erupted over a 50-page compilation of words deemed unfit for use in Parliament, ahead of the Monsoon session beginning July 18.

Earlier on Thursday, amid the row over the questioning of the Lok Sabha secretariat by the Opposition over words listed as "unparliamentary", top sources in the Lower House said that such removal of words has been taking place since 1954 under various political dispensations.

Amid the row over the questioning of the Lok Sabha secretariat by the Opposition over words listed as "unparliamentary", top sources in the Lower House on Thursday said that such removal of words has been taking place since 1954 under various political dispensations.

Earlier, several senior members of Parliament had criticized the report of the Lok Sabha Secretariat which had released a list of words that have been designated as "unparliamentary".

Lok Sabha MP and West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury urged Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and sought withdrawal of the new booklet listing out unparliamentary words and expressions.

The Congress leader also pointed out that this 'sensitive matter' should have been discussed in the Rules Committee, where all the political parties are represented.

"I wish to bring to your kind attention a matter of serious Parliamentary concern. The Lok Sabha Secretariat has come out with a new booklet regarding a list of wards deemed unparliamentary. The list includes words like 'ashamed', 'abused', 'betrayed', 'corrupt', 'drama', 'hypocrisy', 'incompetent'," wrote Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

"I would like to point out that there are so many common words used in our day-to-day conversation which have been included in the fresh list. If these words are taken out of the general vocabulary, the very essence and the impact of expression would be minimised. Further, the Lok Sabha Secretariat should have mentioned the substitutes for these banned words so that it would have been easier for all of us to use the substitutes," he added.

"I may also like to point out that sensitive matter should have been discussed in the Rules Committee where all the political parties are represented. None of the political parties have been consulted on this sensitive matter," he said.

He further requested the Lok Sabha Speaker to put this latest list of unparliamentary words in abeyance and asked the final list to be prepared in consultation with all political parties.

Following the opposition's criticism of the 50-page compilation of words deemed unfit for use in Parliament released by the Lok Sabha secretariat, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday said that "no words have been banned."

Earlier on Thursday, amid the row over the questioning of the Lok Sabha secretariat by the Opposition over words listed as "unparliamentary", top sources in the Lower House said that such removal of words has been taking place since 1954 under various political dispensations.

Taking a dig at the Centre, Aam Admi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha on Thursday said it is good to know that the Government of India knows "adjectives that accurately describe its performance".

He said that the Government of India is fearful of the truth and that words like 'jumlajeevi' became unparliamentary while 'andolanjeevi' remains there.Amid the row over the questioning of the Lok Sabha secretariat by the Opposition over words listed as "unparliamentary", top sources in the Lower House on Thursday said that such removal of words has been taking place since 1954 under various political dispensations.(ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi, Jul 15 (PTI) A report on the asset accounts capturing details of 34 major minerals, 58 minor minerals and all fossil fuels will be published shortly, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India said on Friday.

Government Accounting Standards Advisory Board (GASAB), constituted by the CAG in 2002, had prepared a concept paper on Natural Resource Accounting (NRA) envisaging short, medium and long-term goals starting from 2020.

Also Read | Honor Pad 8 Reportedly Spotted on Bluetooth SIG Certification Website.

The first goal was the preparation of asset accounts on mineral and energy resources, more importantly of the non-renewable and finite resources, which would ultimately aid in building resilience to environmental issues like climate change.

As per the action plan envisaged in the concept paper, GASAB prepared the templates for the asset accounts for mineral and energy resources, field tested it in three states through pilot studies.

Also Read | WhatsApp May Soon Let You Post Voice Notes As Your Status: Report.

They were then reviewed by the experts in the consultative committee. The templates were, thereafter, distributed to the states for the preparation of asset accounts.

To date, all 28 States and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir have prepared the Asset Accounts for 2020-21, the CAG said, and added they are being verified and validated by various stakeholders including the state governments.

"The Asset Accounts captured details of 34 major minerals, 58 minor minerals and all four fossil fuels. A report of the asset accounts will be shortly published and an electronic dashboard with information will be hosted on the web," the apex auditor said in a statement.

The work to compile the Asset Accounts for 2021-22 is already underway, it added. To ensure automated collection and compilation of data from 2022-23, GASAB has also developed SOPs for guiding the states.

Besides the dataflow, the guidelines/SOPs also suggest recommendations for end-to-end mapping of supply and use of resources which would help the states in mopping up due revenues due from these resources and also plug the leakage and wastage, the CAG said.

India is a signatory to the UN General Assembly resolution titled, Transforming our world; the 2030 agenda for sustainable development with the approval of more than 190 countries which requires the preparation of Natural Resource Accounts.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi, Jul 15 (PTI) Tata group firm Voltas on Friday said it sold close to 1.2 million units of residential ACs in the first half of 2022, registering a 60 per cent growth helped by an intense summer and expansion of sales network.

"The company sold close to 1.2 million AC units in H1 CY 22, ever highest by any player in the industry, Voltas said in a statement.

Also Read | Honor Pad 8 Reportedly Spotted on Bluetooth SIG Certification Website.

The company registered over 60 per cent volume growth in AC sales during the period H1 CY22, and a "triple digit volume growth" in Q1 FY23, it added.

"The performance was attributed to an increase in demand for cooling products given the intense summer experienced across the country coupled with the company's strong online and offline distribution network, strongest brand equity, and innovative range of products, it said.

Also Read | WhatsApp May Soon Let You Post Voice Notes As Your Status: Report.

This is the seventh year in a row, when Voltas is witnessing over one million AC milestone, the statement said.

"The brand is now gearing up to further expand its retail and distribution network, to cater to its ever-growing product portfolio, to get an additional edge over the competition, said Voltas.

Commenting on the performance, Voltas Managing Director & CEO Pradeep Bakshi said the summer of 2022, has helped to gain extra momentum in the market as well as in market share.

"We believe that our wide presence, focus on the emerging channels, excellent distribution network, strongest brand equity and attractive consumer offers, have helped the brand stay ahead of the industry," he said.

Voltas' significant penetration in Tier II,III and IV markets and its marketing strategies have always given the company the highest reach and counter share, he added.

"In addition to 25,000+ customer touch points, Voltas also has a network of hundreds of exclusive brand outlets (EBOs) and plans to launch many more Brand Shops and Experience Zones by the end of FY 23, the statement added.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Washington [US], July 15 (ANI): New reports suggest that American tech giant Microsoft will be adopting a three-year OS release cycle, with the next release marked for 2024.

According to GSM Arena, the report by Windows Central stated that it's unclear whether the update will be Windows 12 or a version number of Windows 11. At the same time, Microsoft will increase the release of new features to the existing in-market Windows users.

Also Read | National Ice Cream Day 2022 Quotes & HD Images: Funny Instagram Captions, GIF Images and HD Wallpapers To Celebrate the Day!.

Starting with Windows 11 22H2 (codenamed Sun Valley 2), Microsoft introduced what it internally calls 'Moments', which allows engineers to seed big features to existing users without the need for a major update.

The 'Moments' system was what allowed Microsoft to release the weather button on the taskbar in Windows 11. The company has reportedly been working on a release, codenamed Sun Valley 3 for 2023, but that has been scrapped and is now expected to be retooled into the 2024 release.

Also Read | Christian Eriksen Joins Manchester United on a Three-Year Deal.

This new way of updating Windows would allow current users to get access to new features quicker, without the need to wait for the next major OS version, while at the same time allowing developers more time to test it for issues prior to release, as per GSM Arena. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Colombo, Jul 15 (PTI) Gotabaya Rajapaksa, once considered a "war hero" by the Sinhalese Buddhist majority for crushing the LTTE and ending the nearly 30-year civil war, is now detested by the same people who dramatically stormed his official residence over Sri Lanka's worst economic crisis following which he fled the country in the middle of the night.

The 73-year-old politician and younger brother of former prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, is a former military officer who attended the counter-insurgency and jungle warfare school in Assam in 1980. He was the first person with a military background to be elected as Sri Lanka's President in 2019 with a huge mandate.

Also Read | Youth In China Wants To Leave Their Country, Here Is The Reason Why.

His resignation comes days after thousands of protesters stormed his official residence, blaming him for the island nation's unprecedented economic turmoil since its independence from Britain in 1948.

The economic crisis is caused in part by a lack of foreign currency, which has meant that the country cannot afford to pay for imports of staple foods and fuel, leading to acute shortages and very high prices.

Also Read | Economic Growth in China Falls to 0.4% Amid COVID-19 Shutdowns.

Under mounting pressure, President Rajapaksa first dropped his older brother Chamal and the eldest nephew Namal from the Cabinet in mid-April. Later, Prime Minister Mahinda also resigned after his supporters attacked anti-government protesters, triggering violence against the Rajapaksa family loyalists in many parts of the country.

President Rajapaksa tried to tackle the crisis for a few weeks along with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe before he was forced to flee his official residence in the face of massive protests over the economic crisis that has brought Sri Lanka to its knees.

From an undisclosed location, President Rajapaksa informed Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena about his decision to step down late Saturday night.

He, however, fled to the Maldives without resigning from his office. From Maldives, he went to Singapore which "allowed" him to enter into the city-state on a "private visit".

President Rajapaksa sent his resignation letter to the Speaker after reaching Singapore.

Rajapaksa, who served as the defence secretary during his elder brother Mahinda's tenure as president from 2005 to 2014, was voted to presidency by Sri Lankans who became worried about Islamic extremism in the Buddhist-majority country following the Easter bombings on April 21, 2019 that killed more than 250 people.

Though dubbed as the "war hero", the role of Rajapaksa in ending the conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) with the death of its supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran in 2009 is quite divisive as he stands accused of violating human rights, a charge he vehemently denies.

Rajapaksa took oath as president at the sacred Buddhist temple Ruwanwelisaya in Anuradhapura - an ancient temple built by Sinhalese King Dutugemenu who is best known for defeating an invading Tamil king.

His swearing-in ceremony indicated the president's leaning towards Sinhalese Buddhist dominance in the island where Hindus and Muslims together constitute approximately 20 per cent of the total population.

Rajapaksa is accused of overseeing torturing and indiscriminate killings of both civilians and combatants, and later of political assassinations.

He and his brother Mahinda are also accused of condoning sexual violence and extrajudicial killings allegedly by Lankan security forces during the war.

Rajapaksa, who was a top target of the Tamil Tigers, survived an assassination attempt in December 2006 by an LTTE suicide bomber.

He is also considered to be tilted towards cash-rich China.

During his brother Mahinda's regime, China started investing heavily in infrastructure projects in the island nation as Lanka faced international isolation at the tail end of the civil war.

Critics say it was due to Mahinda that the country has fallen into the "Chinese debt trap".

The Hambantota port, which was funded by a Chinese loan during Mahinda's regime, was leased to Beijing in a 99-year debt-for-equity swap in 2017 after the country failed to pay off the debt.

Sri Lanka has historically been an important commercial hub along maritime routes due to its strategic position in the Indian Ocean, where China is increasingly making its inroads.

Born on June 20, 1949, in Palatuwa in Matara district, Rajapaksa, who hails from a high-profile political family, is the fifth of nine siblings.

His father D A Rajapaksa was a prominent politician in 1960's in the Wijeyananda Dahanayake government and also a founding member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.

Rajapaksa obtained his primary and secondary education at Ananda College in Colombo and obtained a postgraduate degree in Information Technology from the University of Colombo in 1992.

He joined the Ceylon Army as a Cadet Officer in 1971.

In 1983, he also gained a masters in Defence Studies from the University of Madras.

In 1991, he was appointed Deputy Commandant of the Sir John Kotelawala Defence Academy and held the position until his early retirement from the army in 1992.

During his 20 years of military service, Rajapaksa received awards for gallantry from three Lankan presidents - J R Jayewardene, Ranasinghe Premadasa and D B Wijetunga.

Following his retirement, Rajapaksa pursued a postgraduate diploma in Information Technology from the University of Colombo. Later he joined Informatics, a Colombo-based IT firm as its marketing manager. Subsequently, he migrated to the US in 1998 and worked at the Loyola Law School in Los Angeles as an IT professional.

In 2005, he returned to Sri Lanka to assist his brother Mahinda's presidential election campaign. During that time, he obtained dual citizenship from Sri Lanka.

He was appointed to the post of defence secretary in November 2005 by then newly elected president Mahinda. In this capacity, he oversaw the military operation which eventually defeated the LTTE in May 2009 and earned him the tag of a "war hero".

Rajapaksa is married and has a son.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New Delhi [India], July 15 (ANI): The 16th round of Corps Commander-level talks between India and China will be held on the Indian side at Chushul-Moldo Meeting Point on July 17, sources said on Friday.

The talks are in continuation with the discussion on disengagement along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh, the sources added.

Also Read | Sri Lanka Economic Crisis: Supreme Court Bars Overseas Travel of Mahinda Rajapaksa and Basil Rajapaksa Till Jul 28.

India will be represented by Fire and Fury Corps Commander Lt Gen A Sengupta in the talks.

The 15th round China-India Corps Commander-Level Meeting was held on March 11 this year.

Also Read | Pakistan: Shehbaz Sharifs Cabinet Approves Committee Over Filing Treason Charges Against Former PM Imran Khan.

During the meeting, the two sides carried forward their discussions from the previous round held on January 12 this year for the resolution of the relevant issues along the LAC in the Western Sector.

They had a detailed exchange of views in keeping with the guidance provided by the State Leaders to work for the resolution of the remaining issues at the earliest.

They reaffirmed that such a resolution would help restore peace and tranquility along the LAC in the Western Sector and facilitate progress in bilateral relations.

The two sides also agreed to maintain the security and stability on the ground in the Western Sector in the interim. They agreed to maintain dialogue via military and diplomatic channels to reach a mutually acceptable resolution of the remaining issues at the earliest.

India and China have been engaged in a standoff since April-May 2020 over the transgressions by the Chinese Army in multiple areas including the Finger area, Galwan Valley, Hot springs, and Kongrung Nala. The situation worsened after violent clashes with Chinese troops in Galwan Valley in June 2020.

The talks have led to disengagement from some areas including the North and South Banks of Pangong Tso and Galwan but some friction points remain. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Kathmandu, Jul 15 (PTI) India on Friday handed over consignments of flood and disaster-relief material to Nepal, reflecting New Delhi's continued support in bolstering Nepal's efforts in building a disaster-resilient nation.

Indian ambassador to Nepal Naveen Srivastava, during a Ministry of Home Affairs ceremony here, handed over the relief material, including 3,000 tents and ten motor inflatable boats, to Home Minister of Nepal Bal Krishna Khand, according to the Indian Embassy statement.

Also Read | Pakistan: Shehbaz Sharifs Cabinet Approves Committee Over Filing Treason Charges Against Former PM Imran Khan.

In his remarks during the event, Srivastava expressed hope that this timely supply of relief material is optimally utilised by concerned agencies to ensure its maximum benefit by timely distribution and efficient utilisation.

Home Minister Khand thanked the Indian government for the timely delivery of the relief material and appreciated ongoing disaster relief-related cooperation between India and Nepal.

Also Read | Dijon Mustard Crisis: Heres Why Frances Most Prized Condiment Has Left Chefs and Ordinary Shoppers Scrambling.

India and Nepal -- neighbours with shared history and culture -- cooperate on wide-ranging issues in various fields, the statement said.

The Indian Embassy statement said the relief material aid reflected the continued support of India in bolstering the Himalayan nation's efforts in building a disaster-resilient country.

Natural disasters such as floods and landslides often hit Nepal as well as India, resulting in loss of life and property.

Both the countries have a coordination mechanism for years on minimising the damage caused by such natural calamities, the Ambassador said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Tehran [Iran], July 15 (ANI/Xinhua): Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Friday that the Islamic republic will never back down from the rights of the country's people in the talks on the revival of a 2015 nuclear deal.

Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks in a tweet in reaction to a joint declaration signed by US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid in Jerusalem on Thursday, in which they vowed to stop Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Also Read | Donald Trump Escapes Impeachment but Speaker Nancy Pelosi Orders 9/11-Style Commission To Investigate Capitol Riots.

Iran will continue the path of "sustainable development and making honourable efforts" to remove the sanctions with strength and logic, Amir-Abdollahian noted.

He said Iran's goal is to reach a "good, robust and lasting agreement" in the nuclear negotiations.The US-Israel Strategic Partnership Joint Declaration was signed on the second day of Biden's Middle East trip, and the United States pledged not to allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon even at the cost of using "all elements of its national power."

Also Read | Sri Lanka Economic Crisis: Ruling Party to Nominate Interim President Ranil Wickremesinghe for Presidency.

The U.S. affirmed its commitment to work together with other partners "to confront Iran's aggression and destabilizing activities, whether advanced directly or through proxies."

Iran signed the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to curb its nuclear program in return for the removal of sanctions on the country. However, former US President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement in May 2018 and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Iran, prompting the latter to drop some of its commitments under the pact.

The talks on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal began in April 2021 in Vienna but were suspended in March this year because of political differences between Tehran and Washington.After a three-month pause, the talks resumed recently in the Qatari capital Doha but failed to result in any agreement to settle the remaining differences. (ANI/Xinhua)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Islamabad [Pakistan], July 15 (ANI): A day after the Pakistan Supreme Court's judgement on the former National Assembly Deputy Speaker's ruling on the no-trust move against ex-Premier Imran Khan, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry called the verdict more of a "political decision".

Taking a dig at the establishment, the leader, while addressing media in Lahore on Thursday said that Supreme Court's decision was becoming more prone to and regularly taking such political decisions.

Also Read | Donald Trump Escapes Impeachment but Speaker Nancy Pelosi Orders 9/11-Style Commission To Investigate Capitol Riots.

"Let political decisions be taken in the political arena," he said.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court of Pakistan issued a detailed judgement explaining the reasons behind its decision to set aside a controversial ruling by the National Assembly Speaker on April 3 that dismissed the no-confidence motion against then Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Also Read | Sri Lanka Economic Crisis: Ruling Party to Nominate Interim President Ranil Wickremesinghe for Presidency.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Cabinet approved the formation of a committee which will deliberate whether treason proceedings under Article 6 should be initiated against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's top leadership, including chairman Imran Khan.

During a press conference after a post-cabinet meeting, Minister for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb said that the cabinet approved the formation of a committee under Minister for Law Azam Nazeer Tarar.

She said that the cabinet welcomed the Supreme Court's detailed judgment in a suo motu case related to the ruling by former National Assembly deputy speaker Qasim Suri on the no-confidence motion against then-Prime Minister.

According to the top court, Imran Khan had violated the constitution. Earlier also, the federal minister hinted that Imran Khan can face treason charges for abrogating the constitution of the country.

Additionally, Justice Mazahar Alam Khan Miankhel observed that President Arif Alvi, then Prime Minister Khan, then Nation Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser, ex-deputy speaker Suri, and former law minister Fawad Chaudhry had violated their authority, and left it up to the parliamentarians to decide whether their acts could be prosecuted under Article 6. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Kyiv, Jul 15 (AP) Rescue teams with sniffer dogs combed through the debris Friday in a central Ukrainian city looking for people still missing after a Russian missile strike a day earlier killed at least 23 people and wounded over 100 others.

Russian forces, meanwhile, pounded other sites in a relentless push to wrest territory from Ukraine and try to soften the unbending morale of its leaders, civilians and troops as the war nears the five-month mark.

Also Read | Sri Lanka Economic Crisis: Supreme Court Bars Overseas Travel of Mahinda Rajapaksa and Basil Rajapaksa Till Jul 28.

Thursday's cruise missile strikes on the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia launched by a Russian submarine were the latest incidents to take civilian lives and fan international outrage since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion on Feb. 24.

Even as the fighting raged, Russia noted signs of progress in talks on a possible deal to allow Ukraine to export millions of tons of grain via the Black Sea that could help feed a world facing higher food prices.

Also Read | Pakistan: Shehbaz Sharifs Cabinet Approves Committee Over Filing Treason Charges Against Former PM Imran Khan.

Alluding to talks in Istanbul this week among Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Nations, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said a final document had been prepared and Russian proposals to help ease grain shipments through Ukrainian ports have been largely supported by other participants.

He said work on a document called Black Sea initiative was set to be completed in the nearest time. The Russian proposal would allow shipments of food while excluding the use of those logistical chains for the deliveries of weapons and military equipment to Ukraine. He also said the plan seeks to "prevent any provocations.

About 22 million tons of grain have been stuck in Ukraine because of the war.

That was most extensive Russian comment yet on the grain talks, which mostly involved military officials. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Russia and Ukraine had taken a critical step to ensuring exports of the desperately needed grain to help ease a global food crisis  but said more technical work toward finalizing a deal was needed.

Russia's military campaign now has been focusing on Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, but Russian forces regularly fire upon targets in many other parts of the country too.

Ukraine's Interior Ministry said Friday that Russian forces had conducted more than 17,000 strikes on civilian targets during the war, killing thousands of fighters and civilians and driving millions from their homes. The invasion has also rippled through the world economy by hiking prices and crimping exports of key Ukrainian and Russian products like grain, fuel and fertilizer.

More than 73 people  including four children  remained hospitalized and 18 people were missing after Thursday's strike, said Oleksandr Kutovyi, spokesman for the emergency service in the Vinnytsia region. Search teams were poring over two sites on Friday  an office building with a medical center, and a concert hall near an outdoor recreation area where mothers with children often stroll.

Vinnytsia Gov. Serhiy Borzov said only 10 people among the dead had been identified so far.

Russia deliberately hit civilians and all those responsible for the crime must be brought to account, he said, denouncing the barbaric behavior by Russia that tramples on international humanitarian law.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a deputy head of the Ukrainian president's office, said three missiles were used.

There is no answer to the question why yesterday, and why in Vinnytsia, Tymoshenko said. We expect every second and minute that this could happen in any corner of Ukraine.

After initial silence after the strikes on Vinnytsia, Russia's Defense Ministry said Friday that its forces had struck an officers' club  which the concert hall was known for back in Soviet times.

Konashenkov, the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, said the Kalibr cruise missiles landed as that military facility hosted a meeting between Ukrainian air force command and representatives of foreign weapons suppliers. He said attendees were discussing prospective supplies of warplanes and weapons as well as work to repair Ukrainian aircraft.

Participants of the meeting were eliminated in the strike, Konashenkov said.

His claim couldn't be independently verified. Ukrainian authorities have insisted the site had nothing to do with the military.

Overall, Ukraine's presidential office said Friday morning that 26 civilians were killed and another 190 were wounded by Russian shelling over the past 24 hours. That included three other victims in the Donetsk region, which along with neighboring Luhansk  nearly totally controlled by Russian forces  makes up the broader Donbas region.

The situation in the Donetsk region is exacerbating every day, and civilians must leave because the Russian army is using scorched-earth tactics, Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said. It appeared that the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk were next in line for Russian forces, but it wasn't at all clear how soon such a push could begin.

Elsewhere, authorities in Mykolayiv said there were at least 10 explosions in the southern city overnight, accusing Russia of hitting universities. Vitaliy Kim, the head of Mykolaiv's military administration, posted a video of smoke rising over the strikes.

Separately, the Russian news agency Tass, citing Russian-backed separatists, reported Friday that two civilians were killed and six others were injured after Ukrainian forces allegedly shelled a bus terminal in the city of Donetsk a day earlier.

Also Friday, Daria Morozova, the human rights ombudsperson for the Moscow-backed separatist leadership in Donetsk, said a British mercenary died in captivity on Sunday. She said the man, whom she identified as Paul Urey, had died of chronic illnesses and stress.

From our side, he was given the necessary medical assistance despite the grave crimes he committed, she said. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
New York [US], July 15 (ANI/Xinhua): The United Nations on Thursday called for an urgent settlement after the military government in Mali ordered a suspension of the rotation of peacekeepers.

"The UN Mission in Mali, MINUSMA, was informed this morning by the Malian authorities of a coordination meeting to be held between the relevant Malian structures and MINUSMA prior to the planned rotation of contingents," said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Also Read | Sri Lanka Economic Crisis: President Gotabaya Rajapaksa Sends Resignation Letter to Speaker Through Email From Singapore; Formal Announcement on Friday.

"The mission takes note of this communication and stands ready to participate in the discussions without delay," he said.

Haq said the rotation of contingents is crucially important for the mission's operational effectiveness and the safety and security of personnel. "All efforts must be made for an urgent settlement, especially since some of the staff concerned should have been relieved several months ago."

Also Read | Rishi Sunak on Winning Streak As Five Left in UK PM Race.

Regular rotation of peacekeeping forces serving in one of the most dangerous peacekeeping missions was interrupted by the government apparently in retribution for sanctions imposed on it following the August 2020 military coup by which it came to power, according to published reports.

The action blocks fresh troops from replacing peacekeeping contingents, some of whom suffered high casualties from extremist forces staging deadly attacks, mainly in the Sahel region of Mali. (ANI/Xinhua)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Washington [US], July 15 (ANI): The United States on Friday announced more than USD 592 million in humanitarian assistance for Africa through the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

"The United States, represented by Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration Julieta Valls Noyes, announced today in Kampala, Uganda more than USD 592 million in humanitarian assistance for Africa through the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)," said a State Department press release.

Also Read | Donald Trump Escapes Impeachment but Speaker Nancy Pelosi Orders 9/11-Style Commission To Investigate Capitol Riots.

This assistance will provide lifesaving support to refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons, stateless persons, forcibly displaced and persecuted people across Africa, including those affected by crises in the Horn, the Sahel, and other emergency situations.

Throughout Africa, response efforts to address under-recognised humanitarian crises are facing dire funding constraints. This assistance will enable our humanitarian partners to help the over seven million refugees and asylum seekers currently hosted across Africa as well over 25 million internally displaced persons.

Also Read | Sri Lanka Economic Crisis: Ruling Party to Nominate Interim President Ranil Wickremesinghe for Presidency.

"Uganda remains the largest refugee host on the continent with more than 1.5 million refugees and asylum seekers. This announcement includes more than USD 82 million for humanitarian assistance in Uganda, including more than USD 61 million in humanitarian assistance from the State Department and USD 21 million from USAID."

The Department's funding consists of more than USD 41 million to the United Nations Refugee Agency and nearly USD 20 million to other programs supporting essential services such as health, education, protection, and income-generating activities.

USAID's USD 21 million will support general food assistance and comprehensive nutrition programming for refugees as well as complement ongoing food security support in the Karamoja sub-region of Uganda.

Refugees and asylum seekers are particularly vulnerable to the food insecurity impacting much of the continent, especially in countries with a reliance on Russian and Ukrainian imports and a vulnerability to price shocks.

"The United States is concerned by the diminished global attention to humanitarian crises in Africa, including in Uganda, where the growing number of new arrivals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan reached over 71,000 since the start of the year," it added.

The US urged other donors to provide additional support to the growing humanitarian needs on the continent. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Gov. Lee recognizes local amature radio club

The Smokey Barn News reports that, along with amateur radio operators across the state of Tennessee, the Robertson County Amature Radio Club has been honored by Governor Bill Lee.

In the event of a natural disaster, amateur radio operators are a critical lifeline to a host of emergency services and information.

The Resolution, NO. 1646 by Senator Crowe and Representative Reedy, honors Tennessees amateur radio operators. Channeling the historic spirit of the Volunteer State, the 19,835 licensed amateur radio operators who reside in Tennessee provide invaluable services to their fellow citizens during emergencies and natural disasters, the resolution reads.

Numerous Tennessee amateur radio clubs, organizations, and groups promote and advocate for the role of technology in the art of radio communications. Such worthy organizations provide a membership base through which new operators are trained, both locally and through TEMA, in emergency communications. These organizations and individual operators have developed a statewide infrastructure of communications resources at their own expense and generously made it available for emergency use. The members of the Amateur Radio Emergency Service devote their time, expertise, and equipment in support of local, State, and federal agencies during times of crisis.

Read the ful Smokey Barn News article at:

https://smokeybarn.com/gov-lee-recognizes-local-amature-radio-club/
By Reena Bhardwaj

Washington [US], July 15 (ANI): The US House of Representatives on Thursday approved legislation that recommend an India-specific waiver under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), thus deepening defence ties between both the democracies and help deter aggressors like China.

Also Read | Sri Lanka Economic Crisis: President Gotabaya Rajapaksa Sends Resignation Letter to Speaker Through Email From Singapore; Formal Announcement on Friday.

The House approved the measure, offered by Democratic Representative Congressman Ro Khanna, an Indian-American Congressman and a member of the House Armed Services Act, as an amendment to the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) by 330 to 99

However, this amendment is several steps from becoming law. After the House passage of the NDAA - the Senate must approve its version. Then lawmakers must reach a compromise version of the legislation, which authorizes more than $800 billion in defense spending, before voting again later this year.

Also Read | Rishi Sunak on Winning Streak As Five Left in UK PM Race.

This monumental amendment marks the most significant piece of legislation for US and India relations out of Congress since the US and India nuclear deal, according to a statement released by Khanna.

"The United States must stand with India in the face of escalating aggression from China. As Vice Chair of the India Caucus, I have been working to strengthen the partnership between our countries and ensure that India can defend itself along the Indian Chinese border," said Rep. Khanna.

"This amendment is of the utmost importance, and I am proud to see it pass the House on a bipartisan basis."

He said that the India-US partnership, rooted in shared democratic values, is critical in order to advance United States interests in the Indo-Pacific region; and this partnership between the world's oldest and largest democracies is critical and must continue to be strengthened in response to increasing threats in the Indo-Pacific regions, sending an unequivocal signal that sovereignty and international law must be respected.

"The amendment is a good signal to the Biden administration on what the house thinks of CAATSA and India", an analyst told ANI

This amendment is the latest effort by members of Congress to underscore a strong defence partnership between India and the United States, highlighting China's threat to India's security.

Furthermore, in Khanna's amendment, there is a section titled "Border Threats from China and reliance on Russian weapons", which proposes that the Congress recognise that India faces "immediate and serious regional border threats from China, with incessant military aggression by the Government of China along the India-China border".

It emphasized that the United States should take additional steps to encourage India to accelerate its transition off Russian-built weapons and defense systems while strongly supporting India's immediate defense needs.

While addressing the House of Representatives, Khanna lauded the US-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (ICET) which was announced during the Tokyo summit between President Joe Biden and President Narendra Modi as an essential step" to formulate closer ties between the two nations in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, biotechnology, aerospace and semiconductor manufacturing.

While India faces an immediate need to maintain its heavily Russian-built weapons systems, a waiver to sanctions under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act during this transition period is in the best interests of the United States and the United States-India defense partnership to deter aggressors in light of Russia and China's close partnership.

Under the CAATSA, the US imposes sanctions on those countries that have "significant transactions with Iran, North Korea or Russia".

India had inked the USD 5.43 billion deal with Russia for five squadrons of S-400s in October 2018. Although as per a top official under President Joe Biden's administration earlier, the United States has not made a final decision on sanctions on India for its acquisition of the S-400 missile system from Russia under the CAATSA.

The American politician with Indian heritage pointed out that a strong United States-India defence partnership is rooted in shared democratic values and is critical in order to advance United States interests in the Indo-Pacific region. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
United Nations/Geneva, Jul 15 (PTI) Be prepared for fresh COVID-19 waves, WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan has warned, amid the onset of new variants that are more transmissible, immune evasive and growing concerns about greater hospitalisations.

There is mounting evidence that suggests that Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5  are infecting people who have been vaccinated.

Also Read | Sri Lanka Economic Crisis: Ruling Party to Nominate Interim President Ranil Wickremesinghe for Presidency.

We need to be prepared for these #COVID19 waves -- each new #variant will be more transmissible & immune evasive -- higher numbers infected will translate into greater hospitalisations & sickness. All countries must have a data driven plan to quickly respond to changing situations, Swaminathan tweeted on Thursday.

She was tweeting in response to a Twitter thread by Senior Advisor at World Bank Group Philip Schellekens who said that we are seeing a global U-turn in COVID-19 mortality. Following months of decline, it has started to rise again, which did not come as a big surprise given properties of BA.5, relaxed attitudes towards infection control and 3/4 of the world not being up-to-date on vaccination.

Also Read | Sri Lanka Economic Crisis: Supreme Court Bars Overseas Travel of Mahinda Rajapaksa and Basil Rajapaksa Till Jul 28.

Schellekens said the pandemic is intensifying in high-income countries and upper-middle-income countries are also seeing an up-tick in new cases.

He noted that the US, France, Italy, Germany and Japan are the drivers of the global surge among high-income countries and Brazil, an upper-middle-income country, is leading the developing world.

Mortality rates have started to edge up slightly, he said, adding that the US and Brazil are currently the main contributors to global mortality.

WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, at a press conference earlier this week, said he is concerned that cases of COVID-19 are climbing -- putting further pressure on stretched health systems and health-care workers.

I am also concerned about the increasing trend of deaths, he said.

The WHO chief noted that the sub-variants of Omicron, like BA.4 and BA.5, continue to drive waves of cases, hospitalisation and death around the world.

Surveillance has also reduced significantly  including testing and sequencing  making it increasingly difficult to assess the impact of variants on transmission, disease characteristics, and the effectiveness of counter-measures.

The virus is running freely and countries are not effectively managing the disease burden based on their capacity, in terms of both hospitalisation for acute cases and the expanding number of people with post COVID-19 condition -- often referred to as long-covid, he said.

New waves of the virus demonstrate again that the COVID-19 is nowhere near over. As the virus pushes at us, we must push back, Ghebreyesus said.

The WHO COVID-19 Weekly Epidemiological Update, released this week, said that globally, the number of weekly cases increased for the fifth consecutive week, after a declining trend since the last peak in March 2022.

During the week of July 4 to 10, over 5.7 million new cases were reported, a 6 per cent increase as compared to the previous week.

The number of new weekly deaths was similar to the figure reported during the previous week, with over 9800 fatalities reported to the WHO.

As of July 10, just under 553 million confirmed cases and over 6.3 million deaths have been reported globally.

These trends should be interpreted with caution as several countries have been progressively changing COVID-19 testing strategies, resulting in lower overall numbers of tests performed and consequently lower numbers of cases detected, it said.

At the country level, the highest number of new weekly cases were reported from France (7,71,260 new cases; 6 per cent), the United States of America (7,22,924 new cases; -6 per cent), Italy (661,984 new cases; 30 per cent), Germany (561,136 new cases; -9 per cent), and Brazil (396,781 new cases; -3 per cent).

The highest number of new weekly deaths were reported from the US (1987 new deaths; -19 per cent), Brazil (1,639 new deaths; 11 per cent), China (692 new deaths; -8 per cent), Spain (619 new deaths; 98 per cent), and Italy (574 new deaths; 33 per cent).

The update said that the South-East Asia region has been reporting an increasing trend in cases since early June, with over 164,000 new cases reported, a 5 per cent increase as compared to the previous week.

Four of the 10 countries for which data were available showed an increase in the number of new cases of 20 per cent or greater, with some of the greatest proportional increases observed in Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The highest numbers of new cases in the region were reported from India (120,222 new cases; a 7 per cent increase), Indonesia (17,388 new cases; +29 per cent), and Thailand (14,938 new cases; -6 per cent).

The number of new weekly deaths in the region increased by 23 per cent as compared to the previous week, with over 400 new deaths reported.

The highest numbers of new deaths were reported from India (229 new deaths; +15 per cent), Thailand (135 new deaths; +25 per cent), and Indonesia (42 new deaths; +31 per cent).

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
The hunt to bring down Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein is on in the first trailer for She Said, a dramatic adaptation of the book by Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor. The two journalists reignited the #MeToo movement with their New York Times expose on the Hollywood film producer, which included the first wave of sexual harassment and abuse allegations against him, reports Variety. She Said: Universal Unveils First Look of Harvey Weinstein Movie at 2022 CinemaCon.

Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan star in the film as the two journalists. The official She Said synopsis reads: "Two-time Academy Award nominee Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan star as New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, who together broke one of the most important stories in a generation -- a story that helped propel the #MeToo movement, shattered decades of silence around the subject of sexual assault in Hollywood and altered American culture forever."

Weinstein was eventually sentenced to 23 years in prison on charges of sexual assault and third-degree rape. She Said is directed by Maria Schrader, whose credits include the Netflix limited series Unorthodox. Rebecca Lenkiewicz adapted the screenplay.

Joining Mulligan and Kazan in the ensemble cast are Patricia Clarkson, Andre Braugher, Samantha Morton, Jennifer Ehle, Tom Pelphrey and Adam Shapiro.

The trailer finds Kazan's Kantor on a mission to evaluate sexual harassment across business sectors and discovering that show business is rampant with misconduct and criminal assault. Oscar-Nominated Carey Mulligan Reveals How Patiently She Waits for Good Roles.

Pairing with Twohey, the women must use all of their reporting muscle and know-how to convince traumatised women across multiple generations to do the impossible -- speak on record and expose the systems that protect abusers. She Said Universal Pictures is set to open in theatres on November 18.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 15, 2022 05:07 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
New Delhi, July 15: Crypto investing platform CoinSwitch on Friday announced a Blockchain hackathon in association with Startup Karnataka, a state government initiative, along with BJP MP Tejasvi Surya.

The Building Future Cities' hackathon, also supported by Sequoia India, is aimed at recognising and stimulating Blockchain-based solutions to everyday problems faced by billions of people in the country. Visa Hackathon, Singaporean Teen Sweeps the Board in Global Finance Competition

Centered around the themes of smart city, digital governance and supply chain, Building Future Cities' aims to kickstart a Web3 innovation cycle tailored and customized for India, the company said in a statement.

"This hackathon enables Karnataka to carry this success story to the next frontier of technology -- Blockchain -- and empowers young innovators to utilise the power of Blockchain for public good," said Higher Education and IT-BT Minister, C.N. Ashwathnarayan.

The hackathon will challenge participants to envision a Blockchain-powered India, with a focus on smart mobility, energy credits and trading, decentralized waste management, secure digital identity and certificate management, efficient and transparent vaccine distribution, and farm supplies and supply chain management.

"We are now ready for the next big technological leap, to build a Blockchain-powered India. I am delighted to partner with CoinSwitch for a first-of-its-kind Blockchain hackathon and sow the seeds of India's future in Bengaluru," said Surya.

The hackathon will be held in Bengaluru on August 5-6.

The winners will be rewarded with Rs 3 lakh, with the total prize pool of the hackathon set at Rs 6 lakh. Participants can enter the competition individually or in a team of up to four members.

"At CoinSwitch, we have always believed that India will be the launchpad of a Web3 world. The hackathon is a step to realise this goal. I am excited to see what the young and smart minds of India bring to the table," said Ashish Singhal, Co-Founder and CEO, CoinSwitch.

Registrations for hackathon are open at https://skillenza.com/challenge/24-hr-hackathon-by-coinswitch.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 15, 2022 05:09 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Mumbai, July 15: On Friday, the Council of Architecture announced the National Aptitude Test in Architecture 2022 Phase II exam results. Candidates who appeared for the NATA Phase II examination can visit the official website of NATA at nata.in to check their results.

This year, the NATA Phase II examination was held on July 7, 2022. The NATA Phase II exams were held for admission to the First Year of 5- year B.Arch. Degree Courses at architectural institutions across the country. UPSC CAPF 2022: Admit Card for UPSC CAPF 2022 Examination Released at upsc.gov.in; Check Details.

The Phase II exams were held in two shifts across 137 centres in the country and 7 international centres. The NATA Phase II exams were held in a Computer-based Test (CBT) mode. Direct link to check NATA 2022 results.

The NATA Phase II examination consisted of 125 questions for 200 marks. The qualifying marks for NATA 2022 is 70 marks out of 200 marks.

Steps to download NATA Phase II Exam Results:

Visit the official website of NATA at nata.in

On the homepage, click on the Phase-II result link

Enter your login details and submit

Your NATA Phase II scorecard will appear on the screen

Take a printout for future reference

It must be noted that candidates can appear for up to 3 NATA tests. While the first two tests are over, the third test is scheduled to be held on August 7, 2022. For more details, check the official website of NATA.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 15, 2022 07:02 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
New Delhi, July 14: Just three days ahead of the Presidential election scheduled on July 18, the joint opposition nominee for the top post, Yashwant Sinha, faced a major setback after the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) officially announced its support for NDA Candidate Draupadi Murmu.

The announcement came close on the heels of Shiv Sena declaring support for Murmu. The JMM issued a statement signed by its founder Shibu Soren, which said that after Independence, this is the first time that a tribal woman is contesting for the top Constitutional post and all the MPs and MLAs of the party will vote for Murmu.

The announcement came as a setback for Sinha, who was banking on the JMM because he hails from Jharkhand and had represented the state in the Lok Sabha for many years. Presidential Election 2022: Election Commission of India Starts Distribution of Ballot Box, Materials for Poll.

The Shiv Sena had on Tuesday announced that it will support NDA's Presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu. Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray made the formal announcement after a series of consultations with the party MPs, MLAs and other leaders, including tribals.

"There have been absolutely no pressures from the MPs, as claimed in the media. However, many Sena leaders and office-bearers from tribal communities have requested us we take a decision to support Draupadi Murmu for the President's post," Thackeray said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 15, 2022 09:09 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Sources said that they were reportedly planning to carry out an attack on PM Modi during his recent visit to Patna during the centenary year celebration of Bihar Vidhan Sabha. The Prime Minister had visited on July 12 and Athar Parvez and Mohammed Jalaluddin were arrested on July 11 from Phulwari Sharif. They also held a "secret meeting" on July 6 and 7.
Pakistans federal cabinet approved today formation of a Committee that will deliberate whether treason proceedings under Article 6 of Pakistans constitution should be initiated against PTIs top leadership, including partys chairman, Imran Khan: Pakistans GEO News



(File pic) pic.twitter.com/wAtxn7IAKK ANI (@ANI) July 15, 2022

(SocialLY brings you all the latest breaking news, viral trends and information from social media world, including Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. The above post is embeded directly from the user's social media account and LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body. The views and facts appearing in the social media post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY, also LatestLY does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)
The United States on Friday said that it would resume flights to the International Space Station with Russia despite its attempts to isolate Moscow over the invasion of Ukraine, reports AFP News Agency.

Check tweet:

The US said it would resume flights to the International Space Station with Russia despite its attempts to isolate Moscow over the invasion of Ukraine: AFP News Agency  ANI (@ANI) July 15, 2022

(SocialLY brings you all the latest breaking news, viral trends and information from social media world, including Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. The above post is embeded directly from the user's social media account and LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body. The views and facts appearing in the social media post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY, also LatestLY does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)
New York, July 15: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced her plans to establish a 9/11 style independent commission outside the Congress to probe the January 6, 2021 Capitol Hills insurrection, even as bipartisan Senators voted 57-43 to impeach the former president, but failed to get the support of 17 Republicans to have the 2/3rd majority required to convict Trump.

Trump was free to go on impeachment in the second vote of the senate. Donald Trump Knew US Capitol Rioters Were Armed, Scuffled With Bodyguard: Aide

Even as Trump got this reprieve with his 'Trumpification' of the Republican party, Pelosi announced plans for Congress to establish an outside and independent commission to investigate "the facts and causes" related to the attack on the US Capitol last year.

In a letter to her Democratic colleagues on Monday, the California Democrat said the commission will be modelled on the commission established after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

President Joe Biden responded to the Senate's acquittal of Trump by reminding Americans that truth must be defended, saying the impeachment of the former President was a stark illustration of the danger posed to democracy by lies, misinformation and extremism.

And Biden said that although Trump was acquitted, his actions in the lead-up to the Jan 6 riots were not "in dispute".

"This sad chapter in our history has reminded us that democracy is fragile. That it must always be defended. That we must be ever vigilant. That violence and extremism has no place in America. And that each of us has a duty and responsibility as Americans, and especially as leaders, to defend the truth and to defeat the lies," Biden said in a statement.

Biden's statement was preceded by Pelosi noting the recent work of retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who has "been assessing our security needs by reviewing what happened on January 6 and how we must ensure that it does not happen again".

"As we prepare for the Commission, it is also clear from General Honore's interim reporting that we must put forth a supplemental appropriation to provide for the safety of Members and the security of the Capitol," Pelosi wrote.

Such a move will require legislation and will likely tee up partisan difficulties, NPR WNYC quoted her as saying.

Her letter to colleagues came several hours after four House Republicans sent a letter to Pelosi suggesting she may be responsible for the delay in the deployment of National Guard troops ahead of and during the insurrection.

The letter did not mention Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who on January 6 was still the Senate majority leader and would have also had a say in the Capitol's security posture.

"Many important questions about your responsibility for the security of the Capitol remain unanswered," the letter read.

Drew Hammill, Pelosi's deputy chief of staff, called the Republicans' letter a "transparently partisan attempt to lay blame on the Speaker".

"The Speaker has and will continue to take action to ensure accountability and enhance the security of the Capitol," he said in a statement.

"Following the insurrection, the House Sergeant at Arms, the Senate Sergeant at Arms and the Chief of the Capitol Police were removed from their positions. It is the job of the Capitol Police Board, on which these three individuals sat, to properly plan and prepare for security threats facing the US Capitol."

Senator Chris Coons, a close ally of President Biden, told ABC's 'This Week' that he supports a September 11-style commission to probe further into the events leading up to the attack.

"There's still more evidence that the American people need and deserve to hear," the Delaware Democrat said.

"The 9/11-style commission is the way to make sure that we secure the Capitol going forward, and that we lay bare the record of just how responsible and abjectly and violating of his constitutional oath President Trump really was."

Following the January 6 attack, heightened security measures were deployed around the complex, including the requirement of members to walk through metal detectors and various forms of fencing secured around the Capitol's perimeter.

Trump, facing conviction and impeachment in the Senate committee probing the Capitol insurrection, escaped impeachment as the Senate voted 57-43 to acquit former him during his second impeachment trial.

Even though the yearlong hearings by the Senate committee gathered mounting evidence to convict Trump, it had no legal powers to do so as it's only a fact-finding commission that can recommend a trial.

That's why Pelosi has quickly moved to appoint a 9/11 style commission that's independent of Congress and from the outside to find the causes of the riots. Trump is up against the wall again.

Seven GOP Senators voted with Democrats -- the most bipartisan impeachment vote in US history -- but fell short of the 17 needed to convict the former Ppresident, according to CNBC news. .

Of those seven Republicans, two are retiring and only one -- Alaska's Lisa Murkowski -- faces her state's voters in the next election cycle in 2022.

Following Trump's second acquittal in an impeachment trial, House Democratic managers are defending their decision not to forge ahead with seeking witnesses to help make their case.

Members on both sides of the aisle were anticipating a surprise Senate vote to allow witnesses threatened to upend the speedy trial. But after a two-hour break, the House managers relented, and they and Trump's defence team reached a deal that would prevent them from going down the prolonged path of seeking to add witnesses to the trial.

Instead, they allowed a statement released by Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, in which she relayed a conversation she said the House GOP leader had with Trump, to be entered into the trial record.

The House impeachment managers defended that choice, arguing that continuing the trial with witnesses wouldn't have been strategically advantageous.

"We have no regrets," lead House impeachment manager Jamie Raskin, told NBC's 'Meet the Press'.

"We left it totally out there on the floor of the Senate, and every Senator knew exactly what happened. We could have had a thousand witnesses but that could not have overcome the kinds of silly arguments that people like McConnell and Capito were hanging their hats on," he added.

Senator Stacey Plaskett was vitriolic in saying the Trump trial needed "More Senators with spines, not more witnesses".

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell West Virginia GOP Senator Shelley Moore Capito both cited constitutional concerns in their decision to vote to acquit Trump.

The Senate vote raises further questions about Trump's role in the Republican Party going forward. In a statement after the verdict, Trump said: "Our historic, patriotic and beautiful movement to 'Make America Great Again' has only just begun."

Senator Lindsey Graham, an ally of the former President, told Fox News that he had spoken with Trump, and that he's eager to help the GOP win the House and Senate back in 2022.

But Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, who was one of the seven Republicans who broke ranks with their party in voting to convict the trump, told ABC's 'This Week' that Trump's "force wanes" in the GOP.

Cassidy is facing backlash in Louisiana over his vote, including the state GOP voting to unanimously censure him. But he said people want to hold their leaders accountable and that's what his vote to convict was based on.

"I have the privilege of having the facts before me, and being able to spend several days deeply going into those facts. As these facts become more and more out there, if you will, and folks have a chance to look for themselves, more folks will move to where I was," he explained.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell excoriated Trump for his actions on the day of the attack on the US Capitol, calling them a "disgraceful dereliction of duty".

But he said ultimately he did not vote to convict the former President because of constitutional concerns. "There's no question, none, that President Trump was practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day," McConnell said shortly after the 57-43 Senate vote that ended in the former President's acquittal.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 15, 2022 10:48 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
The expanding use of private military and security companies in recent years suggests that they may take a leading role as the Ukraine conflict develops.

by John P. Ruehl

Since the turn of the century, private military and security companies (PMSCs) have played an increasingly important role in conflict zones. Because the lines between private military companies and private security companies are often blurred, the all-encompassing PMSC term is used to describe them.

While PMSCs became more prominent in the immediate post-Cold War era, it was the U.S.-led war on terror that saw them become major actors in warfare. During the peak of the U.S. military campaign in Iraq in 2007, for example, the 160,000 troops deployed by Washington were outnumbered by more than 180,000 contractors working there. Additionally, contractor deaths exceeded those of U.S. military personnel during the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan.

But following several high-profile incidents involving U.S. PMSCs, particularly the company formerly known as Blackwater, which is now called Academi, Western PMSCs came under heavier public scrutiny. The 2008 Montreux Document, since signed by almost 60 countries, was put forward to regulate the growing PMSC industry and provided limitations on their use in armed conflicts.

Russia is one of many countries that is yet to sign the document, but Russian PMSCs have existed for decades. The earliest modern Russian variants developed in the late 1980s as the Soviet Union underwent economic reform. Amid the rising criminal and militant activity, the crumbling Soviet security state was unable to manage privatization and enforce financial agreements, leading to further acceleration of this process as security structures were significantly downsized following the Soviet collapse.

Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin granted Russian security and detective firms increased weapons and arrest powers throughout the 1990s and by the end of the decade, there were 6,775 private security firms and 4,612 armed security services registered in Russia. Often, Russian PMSCs were little more than protection rackets run by organized crime.

But though PMSCs were legalized in Russia for domestic purposes, their use in conflict zones was not. The Kremlin sought to avoid creating friction with the countrys armed forces, as well as potentially balkanizing Russias security structures into smaller factions. To bypass this, Russian PMSCs were simply registered overseas. Russian PMSCs sent thousands of personnel to fight in the Yugoslav wars and in conflicts across the former Soviet Union, but their effects were limited.

The Kremlin reestablished a strong security state in Russia after Vladimir Putin was elected president in 2000. But observing the use and legitimization of PMSCs during the war on terror, the Kremlin again began to entertain the possibility of using PMSCs to promote Russian foreign policy. While not committing to legalization, Putin stated in 2012 that such companies are a way of implementing national interests without the direct involvement of the state. By avoiding legalization, Russia also did not have to admit it was employing PMSCs or did not need to publish about their deaths.

Russias major resource companies had also already been granted exemptions from employing PMSCs abroad. In 2008, Transneft and Gazprom were permitted to use armed force to protect their assets with some limitations concerning the kind of weapons these forces might use.

The Kremlins first major experiment with PMSCs under Putin was in Syria. The Moran Security Group had been aiding the Syrian government after the start of the countrys civil war in 2011, and set up a new entity, the Slavonic Corps, to fight ISIS in 2013. Its mission, however, proved unsuccessful, and the Slavonic Corps was disbanded shortly after.

But following the initial outbreak of the war in Ukraine in 2014, the Kremlin leaned heavily on Russian PMSCs to support its war effort. The Wagner Group, a Russian PMSC believed to have been created that year, took a central role in taking Crimea. And as Russia attempted to downplay its role in the war in the Donbas region, Russian PMSCs became notable for operating on the frontline.

Russian PMSCs have recruited citizens from across Europe and beyond to fill their ranks. In addition, Wagner personnel were used to help keep other pro-Kremlin militias operating in Ukraine in line, granting them the nickname the cleaners.

The success of Wagner and other Russian PMSCs in Ukraine played heavily into the Kremlins decision to redeploy them to Syria in 2015. Shortly after the beginning of the Russian military intervention, Wagner personnel began to be deployed on Russian military planes, and they have become integral to the Kremlins war effort.

In one instance in 2018, hundreds of Wagner personnel were killed by a U.S. air strike in Syria after they attacked a base occupied by the U.S. and allied militants. Despite this setback, Wagner has managed to find significant success in the war. Its contractors were essential to retaking the city of Palmyra in Syria and have been granted partial rights over Syrian oil and gas facilities that were reclaimed from ISIS and other rebel groups.

Russian PMSCs have also helped Russia expand its presence in Africa, a continent typically dominated by British, French, American, and Chinese interests. In Libya, Russian PMSCs have supported Libyan military commander General Khalifa Haftar and helped the Kremlin expand its influence in the country. Sudan, Mali, the Central African Republic, and other African countries have also hosted and employed Wagner personnel and those from other Russian PMSCs.

As Russia significantly escalated its military involvement in Ukraine in 2022, it again turned to PMSCs to achieve its objectives. Wagner has recruited across Syria and beyond to bring troops to fight in Ukraines Donbas region, with the companys ranks swelling by the thousands since the beginning of the invasion.

But this suggests that other countries may seek to help Ukraine by sending their own PMSCs. Ukraine has used its own private military companies to fight back against Russian forces for years, while the U.S. and European contractors have also shown renewed interest in deployment opportunities in Ukraine since February.

The risks of clashes between the West and Russia through PMSCs should not be overlooked. Besides the battle between the U.S. military and Wagner in Syria in 2018, close to 100 Wagner troops were sent to Venezuela in 2019 to help support President Nicolas Maduros government. Erik Prince, the creator of Blackwater, meanwhile, suggested using U.S. PMSCs to topple Maduro, according to a 2019 Reuters article, demonstrating the increasing likelihood of interference by such companies in trying to influence policy decisions as the profiles of PMSCs continue to grow.

Preparing for confrontation (and de-escalation) between Western and Russian military forces and PMSCs should therefore be a priority for political and military leaders. Failing to do so could result in the war in Ukraine spiraling into a more direct conflict between nuclear powers as private actors increase their roles in the war.

This article was produced by Globetrotter.

John P. Ruehl is an Australian-American journalist living in Washington, D.C. He is a contributing editor to Strategic Policy and a contributor to several other foreign affairs publications. He is currently finishing a book on Russia to be published in 2022.
Islamabad [Pakistan], July 15: Shehbaz Sharif-led Pakistan cabinet on Friday approved the formation of a committee which will deliberate whether treason proceedings under Article 6 should be initiated against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's top leadership, including chairman Imran Khan.

During a press conference after a post-cabinet meeting, the country's Minister for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb said that the cabinet approved the formation of a committee under Minister for Law Azam Nazeer Tarar, Geo tv reported. Dijon Mustard Crisis: Heres Why Frances Most Prized Condiment Has Left Chefs and Ordinary Shoppers Scrambling.

She said that the cabinet welcomed the Supreme Court's detailed judgment in a suo motu case related to the ruling by former National Assembly deputy speaker Qasim Suri on the no-confidence motion against then-Prime Minister.

According to the top court, Imran Khan had violated the constitution. Earlier also, the federal minister has hinted that Imran Khan can face treason charges for abrogating the constitution of the country.

Additionally, Justice Mazahar Alam Khan Miankhel observed that President Arif Alvi, then Prime Minister Khan, then Nation Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser, ex-deputy speaker Suri, and former law minister Fawad Chaudhry had violated their authority, and left it up to the parliamentarians to decide whether their acts could be prosecuted under Article 6, as per Geo tv.

"A special committee has been formed under the chairmanship of law minister Azam Nazeer Tarar... which will present its suggestions in the next meeting of the federal cabinet," said Aurangzeb during the briefing.

The relevant provisions of the constitution based on which Khan can face treason charges include Article 5(1) under which "loyalty to the state and obedience to the constitution and law" is an inviolable obligation of every citizen.

Another article included in the petitions -- Article 6 -- states that any person who abrogates or attempts to abrogate the constitution by use of force shall be guilty of high treason, adding that an act of treason cannot be validated by any court including the Supreme Court.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump took to social media on Thursday to share a heart-wrenching tribute to their mother, Ivana Trump, following her death.

Ivanka took to Twitter to post a picture of her when she was little, with her mother, looking gorgeous and pretty in a shiny black mini dress. She then shared in the tweet that she was heartbroken about Ivana Trump's passing.

Ivanka then expounded on her mom's positive traits.

"Mom was brilliant, charming, passionate, and wickedly funny. She lived life to the fullest - never forgoing an opportunity to laugh and dance," Ivanka said.

Former President Donald Trump's daughter then ended her message to her mother by saying that she will miss her and keep her memory alive in their heart.

Ivanka Trump's brother, Eric Trump, took to Instagram to post a slideshow of photos with their family and announce the passing of their mother.

"Our mother was an incredible woman - a force in business, a world-class athlete, a radiant beauty, and caring mother and friend," Eric said about his mom.

Eric went on to say that their mother taught them about grit, toughness, and compassion. He ended his tribute to Ivana Trump by saying that she will be missed by her mother, her three children, and 10 grandchildren.

READ NEXT: Amber Heard's Mistrial Motion on Johnny Depp Case Denied by Judge

Donald Trump Wife: Ivana Trump Dead on Thursday

The tribute of Ex-President Donald trump's children came the same day when the death of his ex-wife was announced. According to CNN, her death was announced on truth Social on Thursday.

Ivana Trump, who died at 73, reportedly met her demise in her home in New York City.

It was not yet clear what caused her death, but the New York Fire Department mentioned that they responded to a report about an individual suffering from cardiac arrest at the residence. This matched a report from the New York Police Department (NYPD) that they responded to a 911 call about an "aided individual" at about 12:40 p.m.

The Emergency Medical Service then pronounced Ivana Trump dead at the scene. Police sources told ABC News that Ivana was found unconscious at the bottom of a set of stairs in her apartment.

The police are now reportedly investigating whether she fell on the stairs, or if the fall contributed to her death.

Reports claimed that a medical examiner is now set to determine Ivana's cause of death.

Meanwhile, the NYPD underscored that any criminality did not appear to be related to Ivana Trump's death.

Donald Trump Wife: Who Is Ivana Trump?

Ivana Trump, who was born in Czechoslovakia, partnered with ex-President Donald Trump on some of his most prominent real estate projects. The two married in 1977.

In his book "Trump: The Art of Deal," the former president referred to Ivana as a "great manager." He also described his ex-wife as "demanding and very competitive."

Ivana Trump was appointed as the CEO of Trump's Castle, one of the former President's hotel casinos in Atlantic City. She also authored some best-selling books and opened her clothing line.

However, the duo decided to go their separate ways in 1992 in the light of the revelation that the former president had an affair with Marla Maples, who eventually became his second wife.

READ NEXT: Gas Prices in the US: Joe Biden Pleads for Price Drop Amid Decline in Crude Oil Costs

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written By: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Ivana Trump, Ex-Wife of Former President Donald Trump, Dead at 73 - From CBS News
The Biden administration recently released new guidance that warned that health workers and hospitals which refuse patients who need abortion treatment could land in legal trouble. However, it is getting some major pushback, especially in Texas.

To challenge this new guidance from the government, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration. Paxton's lawsuit argued that it violates the rights of doctors who choose not to participate in terminating a pregnancy. It also alleges that the guidance also impedes state rights to regulate abortion within its own borders.

Lawsuit Claims Memo Forces Hospitals to Commit Crimes

The Texas lawsuit claimed that the new guidance will force "hospitals and doctors to commit crimes" and, in turn, risk their licenses to operate under Texas law.

Politico reported that more conservative states are likely to join Texas in filing a lawsuit against the memo, which conservative advocates are calling a "radical new policy." However, the Biden administration argued that these policies are not new at all.

The memo reminds healthcare providers that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act is still in place despite the overturning of Roe V. Wade. However, the lawsuit argued that the memo includes new requirements for providing abortions that "do not exist under federal law."

The White House merely brushed off the lawsuit, saying that this was just another example of an "extreme and radical Republican elected official."

READ MORE: Texas State Supreme Court Rules Against Abortion, Texas Clinics Halt Abortions After

What Was the Biden Memo About?

According to Politico, the Biden memo on abortion was made to protect those seeking emergency abortions. Hospitals that refuse to conduct emergency abortion procedures where the life of the mother is truly in danger if the pregnancy goes through would face either a fine or get their Medicare status stripped.

The guidance sought to clarify questions about whether treatments for serious medical conditions related to pregnancy, such as ectopic pregnancy, hypertension, and preeclampsia are still protected under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA). According to the memo, they are still protected under the law.

The most notable part of the memo was that it reminded hospitals and doctors that violating EMTALA may carry stiff penalties, including fines and potential termination from the Medicare program. It also provides doctors a wide berth in using their judgment on which circumstances would an emergency abortion be needed.

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra stressed that when they passed the memo, they expected healthcare providers to continue offering emergency care to the women who need it. It also reminded these service providers that "federal law preempts state abortion bans when needed for emergency care."

The Trump-appointed Judge James Hendrix will be hearing the case. If appealed, it will then go to the right-leaning 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, before going to the majority-conservative Supreme Court which struck down Roe V. Wade.

READ MORE: Mexican Feminist Groups Are Helping US Women Gain Access to Abortion After Roe v. Wade Overturned

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: EMTALA Laws - Dirty Medicine
At least 89 people from Haiti died on Thursday as gang violence escalate in the country's capital, Port-au-Prince.

According to BBC, the latest gang fight in Haiti's capital erupted Thursday last week, when two rival groups are seeking control of Port -au-Prince.

The said rival gangs are specifically from Cite Soleil, which is an impoverished and densely populated neighborhood of Haiti's capital, per France 24.

Cite Soleil mayor Joel Janeus confirmed that the rival gangs fighting in the area of the capital are known as G9 and G-Pep.

The number of people killed in the crossfire between the gangs was from a local human rights group, known as RNDDH. The government has not yet given an official death toll in connection to the gang violence in Port-au-Prince.

RNDDH also noted that 47 of those killed have been identified as gang members. Meanwhile, the remaining 42 victims were reportedly civilians who were caught in the crossfire between the rival gangs.

Sixteen people were also reported missing in connection to the gang violence in Haiti. Furthermore, at least 74 people were reportedly injured.

READ NEXT: Ivanka Trump Shares Heartbreaking Reaction After Mom's Death; Eric Trump Pays Incredible Tribute to Ivana Trump

Other Effects of Haiti Gang Violence

According to Doctors Without Borders, an isolated part of Cite Soleil, known as Brooklyn, was heavily affected by the violence caused by Haiti's gangs.

According to Doctors Without Borders head of local mission, Mumuza Muhindo, their group has operated an average of 15 people per day since last Friday.

He also noted that his colleagues witnessed burned and rotting corpses along a road leading to the Brooklyn neighborhood, contending that the area is a "real battlefield."

"They could be people killed during the clashes or people trying to leave who were shot... It is not possible to estimate how many people have been killed," Muhindo noted.

On Wednesday, Muhindo urged the combatants to allow medics to safely enter Brooklyn.

Aside from the rate of hospitalizations, a fuel crisis also loomed in Haiti's Port-au-Prince, as Cite Soleil is known to be the home of an oil terminal that supplies the capital and all of northern Haiti.

Gas stations in Haiti's capital do not have any gas to sell, prompting prices on the black market to heighten. Furthermore, residents were allowed to travel within the neighborhood using their motorcycles, after outraged drivers placed barricades on some of the city's main roads on Wednesday.

Hunger Looms Amid Haiti Gang Fights

Another issue faced by Haitians in the light of the violence caused by gangs is hunger.

On Tuesday, United Nations (UN) Worlds Food Program (WFP) reported that the violence in the country also contributed to more difficult food access the country. The agency noted that gangs have also blocked roads leading to the country's southern peninsula, prompting it to utilize sea routes to distribute food assistance.

On Thursday, thousands of residents from Brooklyn were reportedly hungry and thirsty, as the trucks that deliver water and food supply to them were completely cut off by gang violence.

The issues arose after rival gangs, G9 and G-Pep, stepped up their rivalry. The clashes began when G9 stormed a territory held by G-Pep to unseat its leader, Ti Gabriel.

Both groups formed alliances with local gangs heightening their strength in terms of weaponry, manpower, and resources.

Haiti's G9 is known to be led by former police turned criminal Jimmy Cherizier also known as Barbecue.

READ NEXT: Texas Truck Tragedy: 8 Bodies of Mexicans Found Dead Transported to Their Home Country; More Bodies of Migrants To Be Returned

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written By: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Nearly 90 Dead in Haiti Gang Violence - From FRANCE 24 English
A letter given to the January 6 committee and obtained by The Intercept noted that the Secret Service deleted text messages before and on the day of the Capitol riot itself.

According to the outlet, the letter was originally sent by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General to the Senate and House Homeland Security committees.

The letter said that the Secret Service deleted text messages from January 5 to January 6, 2021. It noted that the erasure of text messages took place shortly after the January 6 committee requested the agency's electronic communications.

The Secret Service claimed that the text messages were lost due to a "device-replacement program." The federal law enforcement agency has played a key role in the Capitol riot.

Former Vice President Mike Pence was at the Capitol to certify the 2020 election results when the Secret Service tried to take him away from the scene at a time when rioters breached the building.

Pence reportedly told the Secret Service that if he gets in the vehicle, "you guys are taking off."

A congressional official who is unauthorized to speak publicly told The Intercept that the public needs to understand that if Pence had listened to the Secret Service, the situation "could have turned out a whole lot worse." The official noted that it could have been "a successful coup."

READ NEXT: Donald Trump Tried to Retain Presidency Illegally, Should Be Charged With Crimes- Half of U.S Adults in New Poll

Secret Service Deleting Text Messages

DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari said the Secret Service deleted the text messages after the records of electronic communications were requested by the agency's Office of Inspector General as part of their review of events on January 6, according to The Hill report.

Chairman of the House select committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson, said they had just received the letter and did not immediately know who erased the messages.

He added that if there is any way that they can reconstruct the text, they will do it. A Secret Service spokesman commented on the matter late Thursday.

In a statement, Anthony Guglielmi, the agency's spokesman, said the insinuation that the Secret Service maliciously deleted text messages following a request was "false."

Guglielmi admitted that several data was lost on mobile phones earlier this year due to a "pre-planned, three-month system migration," but this happened before an inspection had started.

When reached for comment, a spokesperson for the DHS Office of Inspector General told The Intercept that they do not discuss their ongoing reviews or communications with Congress to "preserve the integrity" of their work.

Secret Service on January 6 Riot

A Washington, D.C. police officer had corroborated details about former President Donald Trump's heated exchange with his Secret Service detail. This happened when Trump was told he could not go to the Capitol after his rally.

A source told CNN that the officer with the Metropolitan Police Department was in the motorcade with the Secret Service for Trump on January 6. The said officer detailed what he had seen to committee investigators.

Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson noted that Trump had tried reaching up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel as he was so enraged at his Secret Service detail.

Hutchinson said former White House deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato had described in conversation with her that the former president then used his free hand to lunge toward his then Secret Service lead agent.

Donald Trump had reportedly grabbed the bodyguard's throat when he learned he was being taken back to the White House instead of to the Capitol to join the mob of his supporters.

READ MORE: Donald Trump Admits He Didn't Win Presidential Election 2020 During Interview With Presidential Historians

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Inspector General: Secret Service Deleted Requested Jan. 6 Texts - From MSNBC
The White House has released the results of a new study they conducted about cocaine production in Colombia. The study claimed that the illegal substance is still being produced in the South American country at near record levels in 2021.

According to the Associated Press, this new information will be racing the stakes for the new leftist government led by President-elect Gustavo Petro and his bilateral cooperation with the United States. Petro promised to rethink Colombia's drug policy and prioritize development programs rather than completely eradicating cocaine production.

Most of Colombia's Cocaine Exported to the United States

U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy released the findings in a press release. It stated that approximately 972 tons of cocaine were produced in Colombia in 2021. The report also stated that most of the cocaine the country produced was exported illegally to the United States.

It is also estimated that last year, 234,000 hectares of the country were used to plant coca, which is used in manufacturing cocaine.

ABC News pointed out that this year's figures are slightly lower than 2020's numbers, but they are still significantly higher than previous numbers when the country only produced an estimated 273 tons of cocaine ten years ago. Last year, an estimated 994 tons of cocaine was produced in Colombia, with 245 hectares being used to grow coca.

However, the White House still noted Colombia's efforts in fighting cocaine production. The release stated that Colombian armed forces eradicated 103,000 hectares of coca, as well as seized over 750 tons of cocaine. It emphasized that Colombia remains a close ally to the United States in terms of fighting the illegal drug's production.

READ NEXT: Colombia: Celebrity Designer Nancy Gonzalez Arrested for Smuggling Crocodile Handbags

President-elect Gustavo Petro Aiming To Change Farmers' Crops and Shift From Coca

Gustavo Petro is Colombia's next president, and he is also a former leftist rebel who might pose a challenge to the U.S. efforts in combatting cocaine in Colombia. As a member of the opposition, Petro criticized the policy of manually eradicating coca crops. He said that these policies often create conflicts between farmers who live in remote areas and the Colombian army.

According to Petro, coca farmers have used the crop as their main source of income. He campaigned to change that and aimed to boost development programs that will shift the crops that these farmers often grow. He currently aims to get farmers to grow more legal products as they voluntarily eradicate their coca fields. With this, he also wants to renegotiate a free trade agreement with the United States. Perto said that this agreement made it harder for Colombian farmers to sell their crops, which in turn made them grow coca.

Petro is also a vocal critic of the efforts to fumigate coca crops. These efforts are backed by the United States. He argued that while the spray is harmful to the crops, it is also harmful to the humans and the environment.

However, the United States government has shown willingness to work with the incoming Petro administration, according to the Washington Post. They will be sending the National Security Council's director for the Western Hemisphere, Juan Gonzalez, to speak with Petro and members of the incoming government.

READ NEXT: Colombia Elections: Ex-Rebel Is Now Colombia's First Leftist President

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: More than 2,800 pounds of cocaine disguised as potatoes seized by Colombian authorities l ABC7
A brush fire near a city in Shasta County in California erupted on Thursday, prompting evacuations to different areas near Redding.

According to Los Angeles Times, the brush fire on Thursday was named Peter Fire.

Cal Fire noted that the said brush fire has burned 200 acres and is still 0% contained.

As of 4:57 P.M., the Shasta County Sheriff's Office issued evacuation orders due to the Peter Fire, per KRCR. Evacuation Orders were issued for La Colina Terrace at Beacon Dr., Streets between Peter Pan Gulch to Twyla, Peter Pan Gulch at Olinda Road, 3rd Street at SR-273, All Roads West of SR-273, and NW to Anna Road and Spring Gulch Road.

KCRA noted that when an evacuation order is issued, there is an immediate threat to livelihood. However, the outlet pointed out that the evacuation order does not mean a mandatory evacuation of the area. Instead, it recommends people be ready to leave at a moment's notice.

However, as of 6:20 p.m., the 3rd street at Highway 273, including all roads west of the highway to the northwest was subjected to mandatory evacuations. The Sheriff's office also noted that Anna and Spring Gulch Roads were also subjected to the same level of evacuations.

The American Red Cross opened an evacuation at West Valley High School, located at 3805 Happy Valley Road in Cottonwood.

Meanwhile, a large animal and a livestock evacuation center were made available at the Redding Rodeo Grounds. The said evacuation center for animals is located at 715 Auditorium Drive in Redding, California.

READ NEXT: Haiti Violence: Nearly 90 Killed as Gangs Fight in Port-au-Prince Over Control of Country's Capital

Other Effects of Shasta County Fire

Evacuations were not the only aftermath of the Shasta County Fire in California. According to The Sun, the Peter Fire has also burned multiple structures in its trail.

Cal Fire Spokesperson Cheryl Buliavac confirmed and echoed that there were structures destroyed by the Shasta County Fire. However, the spokesperson did not mention the total number of structures destroyed by the said fire.

In addition, a dispatcher from Cal Fire underscored that Peter Fire is threatening additional structures.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has also cut the power to nearly 1,800 residences due to the threat of the Shasta County Fire.

Shasta County Fire: Peter Fire

The Shasta County Fire, also known as Peter Fire, started at the Peter Pan Gulch Road and Olinda Road in Anderson.

The city of Anderson is located 10 miles south of Redding and 138 miles north of Sacramento. The said city is known to be home to over 11,000 people.

Fire crews first responded to the fire on Thursday afternoon, and authorities are utilizing and implementing air resourcing to contain the blaze.

Peter Fire was initially reported to burn 15 acres, but it grew to 200 acres on Thursday afternoon.

There were no reports of casualties in connection to the Shasta County Fire.

READ NEXT: Ivanka Trump Shares Heartbreaking Reaction After Mom's Death; Eric Trump Pays Incredible Tribute to Ivana Trump

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written By: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Peter Fire Forces Evacuations in Shasta County - From KCRA
The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) has issued an Amber Alert for a 10-day-old baby identified as Ryder Williams.

According to KXAN, the baby boy was last seen in Coffee City in East Texas on Thursday, wearing a sky blue onesie with blue sharks on it.

Authorities said they were also looking for Michelle Wolf and Ricky Williams. The two reportedly failed to surrender custody "as the court ordered."

The Coffee City Police Department said the pair are wanted after they fled with their child that was turned over to Child Protective Services (CPS), which was awarded custody of the boy.

Authorities noted that the two suspects were last seen driving a white truck in Coffee City "on or around July 5." Texas DPS said they were seen in Tyler around noon of July 11.

The CPS noted that Ryder has tested positive for narcotics. Authorities feel that the child is in "grave or immediate danger."

READ NEXT: Retired Texas Couple Could Lose Home After Facing a HOA Lawsuit for Feeding Ducks

Amber Alert for 10-Day-Old Baby in Texas

The Coffee City police were informed late Thursday that the infant's mother was going to surrender to authorities in Hunt County and turn the baby over to CPS. According to CBS News, Ryder is reportedly unharmed.

Wolf is described as 5'8 with brown hair and blue eyes, while Ricky is 5'6 with blond hair and blue eyes. The 10-day-old baby Ryder is 19 and a half inches long with brown hair and blue eyes.

Coffee City is on the shores of Lake Palestine near Athens and Tyler in East Texas. Anyone who has seen the suspects is encouraged to contact CPS at 903-203-7709 or CCPD at 903-516-2063.

They can also speak with Kayla Mullins at 903-876-4946. AMBER Alerts are activated in the most serious child-abduction cases, with the goal of having the community assist in the search and safe recovery of a missing child.

AMBER Alerts are usually broadcasted through radio, TV, road signs, cellphones, and other data-enabled devices. The alert system is being used in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Indian County, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and 27 other countries.

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) manages the AMBER Alert Secondary Distribution Program. NCMEC is also notified and re-distributes the alert to the appropriate distributors.

A total of 114 children have been recovered as of May 1 due to AMBER Alerts, while 123 are due to Wireless Emergency Alerts.

U.S. Child Abductions

In the U.S., a child goes missing or is abducted every 40 seconds, based on the Child Safety fact sheet. Around 840,000 children are reported missing each year, with many involving situations where a child goes missing permanently or for an extended period of time.

Family kidnappings make up half of all reported abductions in the country, which usually involve parents. The case of family abductions can be complicated for law enforcement as the child may be unwilling to leave his or her abductor and other family members involved in the kidnapping.

Meanwhile, acquaintance abductions make up 27% of all child abductions, which are usually done by a high number of juvenile offenders.

READ MORE: Texas Police Shoot, Kill Gunman at Youth Summer Camp After He Opened Fire

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Amber Alert for 10-Day-Old Boy, Parents Wanted in Abduction - From KXAN
The son of former Honduras President Porfirio Lobo Sosa was killed on Thursday by a group of armed men who blocked their exit in a parking lot.

According to Associated Press, Lobo's son who died in the attack was Said Lobo Bonilla. TeleSUR English reported that the son of the former Honduras chief executive was 23 years old.

Three other people, including 23-year-old Luis Zelaya, the nephew of Honduras' ex-Defense Minister Romeo Vasquez Velasquez, also died in the attack. According to Daily Mail, a certain Salomon Vasquez and Lobo Bonilla's driver and security agent, Norlan Rodriguez, were also among the fatalities.

Attorney General's Office spokeswoman Lorena Calix confirmed the death of the son of the former president. The victims were reportedly shot dead as they left a nightclub in Tegucigalpa City at around 2 a.m. local time.

At least five gunmen blocked the parking lot exit ramp and pulled out Lobo Bonilla and three others from two vehicles. In a surveillance camera footage, the gunmen, who wore vests from a police anti-gang squad, can be seen forcing the men to stand facing a wall. The video is then cut off.

Asi frenaron el paso a uno de los hijos del expresidente de Honduras, Porfirio Lobo Sosa; en el crimen murieron tres personas mas pic.twitter.com/RP4f9ryldf  Diario El Heraldo (@diarioelheraldo) July 14, 2022

Local media reported that each victim, including the son of the former president, was shot in the head. When the attackers fled the crime scene, one appeared to be wounded and had to be carried into the vehicle.

"The murder of four youths, including a son of former president Porfirio Lobo Sosa, is attributed to members of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13). The intention is to cause chaos, instability, and terror," Honduras' National Police Director Gustavo Sanchez said.

The two vans used by the victims were left abandoned at the exit of the said parking lot. The shooting specifically occurred at the Torre Morazan building.

READ NEXT: Shasta County Fire Prompts Evacuation

Honduras' Ex-President Porfirio Lobo Sosa on His Son's Death

The former president of Honduras immediately went to the crime scene, where he confirmed the death of his son to the press.

"I couldn't see my son, but these are things that hurt... My son is hanging out with some friends. We don't know if it was ordered or what," said Lobo, who served the country from 2010 to 2014.

The former president noted that the gunmen who killed his son were "not rookies" but trained people. Lobo said his youngest son, Luis, 19, avoided being killed because he was driving another vehicle when the incident occurred.

Honduras Officials on the Death of Former President's Son

Honduras President Xiomara Castro sympathized and expressed solidarity with the former president, and his wife Rosa Bonilla, and the other victims' families.

"Solidarity with former President Porfirio Lobo, Rosita, and relatives of vilely murdered young people. I condemn death squads that have operated for years in Honduras with impunity. We won't rest until we dismantle them," Castro wrote on Twitter.

Solidaria con ex Presidente Porfirio Lobo, Rosita, y familiares de jovenes asesinados vilmente. Condeno escuadrones de la muerte que operan hace anos con impunidad en Honduras. No descansaremos hasta desmontarlos @SSEGURIDADHN y @PoliciaHonduras.  Xiomara Castro de Zelaya (@XiomaraCastroZ) July 14, 2022

The National Police director noted that they will not rest until they find out who committed the attack and those who ordered them.

Sanchez noted that authorities are now investigating and looking into "the clothing the criminals were wearing."

READ MORE: Ivanka Trump Shares Heartbreaking Reaction After Mom's Death; Eric Trump Pays Incredible Tribute to Ivana Trump

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Joshua Summers

WATCH: A Son of Former Honduran President Porfirio Lobo Is Shot Dead- From Noticias Telemundo
Labeled as one of Mexico's most dangerous drug cartels, the Jalisco cartel recently released a video where they beheaded three individuals from a rival gang.

According to Daily Star, the Jalisco cartel hitmen's killing style in the video reminisces how the infamous Islamic State also beheaded its victims.

The drug cartel seemed to mimic ISIS and Taliban propaganda videos. However, the practice itself is not new. Borderland Beat reported that the victims were members of the rival Pajaros Sierra gang.

In the video, the three Pajaros Sierra members can be seen kneeling down before the Jalisco cartel members. One of the Jalisco cartel members said this would be the fate of every Pajaros Sierra member and vowed that they would come after them.

They then proceeded to behead each of the three men. The first victim to be beheaded can be heard groaning in pain as his head is being removed by a Jalisco cartel hitman holding a seven-inch knife in his hand.

Jalisco Cartel Leader 'El Mencho' Urged Rival Mexican Drug Cartels to Stop Targeting Priests

The video surfaced just days after a man who identified himself as Jalisco cartel leader Nemesio "El Mencho" Oseguera Cervantes made a plea to rival gangs to avoid killing innocent people.

In another video, El Mencho asked rival Mexican drug cartels to stop targeting priests, doctors, nurses, and teachers. The Jalisco cartel boss invited rival gangs to attack his group instead of going after priests and civilians.

El Mencho said they must make the war between themselves and not interfere with those they should not interfere with. He appeared in the video wearing a mask while also surrounded by 15 of his men, who were all brandishing military-grade weaponry.

His plea to "stop the violence" against civilians came after the high-profile killings of two Jesuit priests in Chihuahua state. The two priests were violently killed when they tried to help a man who sought refuge inside their church.

Several gunmen appeared and killed the man and the two priests. The UN said the priests were doing important humanitarian work in the area and condemned the killings.

In the video, El Mencho said he believes that priests deserve special respect as they have been helping those who need it. The Jalisco cartel boss also stressed not to interfere with doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers.

It is still not verified if it is indeed El Mencho who was speaking in the video. However, according to Daily Mail, many believe it was really him.

READ NEXT: 25 Bodies Found in Mexico's Lakeside Tourist Destination Reportedly Turned Into 'Narco Cemetery' by Jalisco Cartel

El Mencho and the Jalisco Cartel of Mexico

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel or Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) has an estimated 5,000 members, with operations not just around Mexico but internationally as well. The CJNG is known for making mass graves, kidnappings, acid baths, and video recording beheadings.

The Jalisco cartel had risen to power after former Sinaloa Cartel capo Ignacio Coronel, known as "Nacho," was killed in July 2010 by Mexican security forces.

Nacho's death resulted in the split of the Sinaloa Cartel into two factions - "La Resistencia" and "Torcidos." The "Torcidos" became what is now the Jalisco cartel, which has since expanded rapidly in Mexico.

El Mencho, who currently heads the Jalisco cartel, continues to evade capture, and the U.S. government offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his arrest. He remains to be the most elusive criminal, and he is reportedly hiding in Mexico.

READ MORE: Jalisco Cartel Leader 'El Senoron' Who Receives Orders From Boss 'El Mencho' Arrested in Mexico

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Who Is El Mencho? Cartel Boss Behind One-Third of Drugs in the U.S. - From CBS Evening News
Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA / Key word(s): Quarter Results

RICHEMONT ANNOUNCES DOUBLE-DIGIT SALES GROWTHFOR THE FIRST QUARTER ENDED 30 JUNE 2022



15-Jul-2022 / 07:30 CET/CEST

Release of an ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



Highlights Positive start to the financial year with double-digit sales growth both at actual exchange rates (+20%) and constant exchange rates (+12%)

Strong performance driven by higher sales in Europe, Americas, Japan and the Middle East and Africa more than offsetting lower sales in Asia Pacific; the US, Richemonts largest single market for the quarter, comprising 22% of Group sales

Growth led by retail, now accounting for 58% of Group sales compared to 55% in the prior year period

Sales growth across all channels and business areas, both at constant and actual exchange rates:

- Jewellery Maisons delivering sales growth of 20% at actual exchange rates (+12% at constant rates)

- Specialist Watchmakers growing by 18% at actual exchange rates (+10% at constant rates)

- Online Distributors increasing by 8% at actual exchange rates (+2% at constant rates)

- Other business area progressing strongly by 36% at actual exchange rates (+28% at constant rates)

April-June 2022 2021 % change 2022 vs 2021 m m constant rates actual rates By region Europe 1 290 905 42% 43% Asia Pacific 1 780 1 933 -15% -8% Americas 1 344 955 25% 41% Japan 421 240 83% 75% Middle East and Africa 429 364 6% 18% By distribution channel Retail 3 051 2 421 18% 26% Online retail 910 809 5% 12% Wholesale & royalty income 1 303 1 167 4% 12% By business area Jewellery Maisons 3 015 2 515 12% 20% Specialist Watchmakers 1 002 849 10% 18% Online Distributors 691 637 2% 8% Other 600 440 28% 36% Inter-segment eliminations -44 -44 -6% - Total 5 264 4 397 12% 20%

Review of trading in the three-month period ended 30 June 2022 versus the prior year, at constant exchange rates



All channels and business areas, as well as most regions, generated sales growth versus the prior year period notwithstanding an uncertain environment and demanding comparatives following a 129% sales rebound in the prior year comparable period. The 12% sales growth delivered in the quarter ended June 2022 was driven by strong double-digit increases in Europe, the Americas and Japan. Sales in Europe grew by 42% sustained by robust domestic demand and a return in tourist spending, primarily from American and Middle Eastern clients. Growth was strong across markets, particularly in France where sales increased by triple digits. In Asia Pacific, the strict enforcement of a zero covid policy led to double-digit sales declines in mainland China and Macau SAR (China) and to a single-digit sales reduction in Hong Kong SAR (China). Sales in mainland China were 37% lower for the quarter, although the rate of decline softened to 12% in June when restrictions were progressively eased. The solid momentum across most other Asian markets, notably in Australia, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand, partially mitigated the decline of sales in the region, with sales in Asia Pacific overall contracting by 15%. In the Americas, sales rose by 25% notwithstanding demanding comparatives against the prior year period, driven by strong domestic spending. As a result, for the quarter the US was Richemonts largest single market, accounting for 22% of Group sales. Japan posted the strongest regional performance with an 83% growth in sales, supported by strong local demand. Sales in the Middle East and Africa increased by 6% on demanding comparatives, reflecting solid domestic and tourist spending, notably in Dubai and Qatar. All channels recorded sales growth, with retail posting the strongest relative channel performance. Retail sales rose by 18%, driven by double-digit increases across all business areas, and noteworthy performances in Europe, the Americas and Japan. Online retail sales increased by 5%, reflecting muted sales progression at the Groups Online Distributors and strong growth at our Jewellery Maisons and Specialist Watchmakers. Direct sales to clients for the Group as a whole represented 75% of Group sales, a circa 200-basis points increase over the prior year period. Sales in the wholesale channel increased by 4% as higher sales at our Other business area more than offset lower wholesale sales at our Jewellery Maisons and Specialist Watchmakers which were impacted by ongoing Covid-related restrictions in China. Despite the disruption experienced in China, the Jewellery Maisons generated a 12% sales growth benefitting from thriving retail sales and solid jewellery and watch sales at Buccellati, Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels. Sales progressed in all regions and channels, excluding Asia Pacific and wholesale. The Specialist Watchmakers sales increased by 10%, driven by online and offline retail sales, which together contributed to 53% of the business area sales. Growth was achieved in most Maisons and regions with an ongoing outperformance of A. Lange & Sohne, Panerai and Vacheron Constantin. The Groups Online Distributors recorded a 2% sales progression and continue their shift towards a hybrid business model. The Groups Other business area, mostly composed of our Fashion & Accessories Maisons, posted the strongest sales increase at +28%, supported by strong retail and wholesale sales with sustained demand across most Maisons and regions. Peter Millar continued to deliver a robust performance while Delvaux posted a strong contribution, and the renewed creativity supported by new designers at Alaia, Chloe and Montblanc positively impacted sales. The Groups net cash position at 30 June 2022 was  5.4 billion (2021:  3.6 billion), reflecting the quarters strong trading as well as replenishment of inventories. Corporate calendar



The annual general meeting will be held on Wednesday 7 September 2022 in Geneva. The interim results for the current financial year will be announced on Friday 11 November 2022. About Richemont



At Richemont, we craft the future. Our unique portfolio includes prestigious Maisons distinguished by their craftsmanship and creativity, alongside Online Distributors that cultivate expert curation and technological innovation to deliver the highest standards of service. Richemonts ambition is to nurture its Maisons and businesses and enable them to grow and prosper in a responsible, sustainable manner over the long term. Richemont operates in four business areas: Jewellery Maisons with Buccellati, Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels; Specialist Watchmakers with A. Lange & Sohne, Baume & Mercier, IWC Schaffhausen, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Panerai, Piaget, Roger Dubuis and Vacheron Constantin; Online Distributors with Watchfinder & Co., NET-A-PORTER, MR PORTER, THE OUTNET, YOOX and the OFS division; and Other, primarily Fashion & Accessories Maisons with Alaia, AZ Factory, Chloe, Delvaux, dunhill, Montblanc, Peter Millar including G/FORE, Purdey and Serapian. Find out more at www.richemont.com. Richemont A shares are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange, Richemonts primary listing, and are included in the Swiss Market Index ('SMI') of leading stocks. Richemont South African Depository Receipts are listed in Johannesburg, Richemonts secondary listing. Investor/Analyst and media enquiries



Sophie Cagnard, Group Corporate Communications & Investor Relations Director

James Fraser, Investor Relations Executive Investor/analyst enquiries: +41 22 721 30 03; investor.relations@cfrinfo.net

Media enquiries: +41 22 721 35 07; pressoffice@cfrinfo.net; richemont@teneo.com

End of ad hoc announcement
A Michigan man killed his girlfriend and his stepfather and stabbed his mother before dropping his baby out of a window days after he was released on bond.

According to Crime Online, Jonathan Welch, 23, who was initially detained for torturing his girlfriend, was released on Friday after his mom secured a bail bond.

A judge reportedly issued a $100,00 bond, and his mom was able to pay $10,000 or 10 percent to get her son out of jail. Welch was also released under the condition that he wears a GPS monitoring device.

But on Sunday night, police in Harper Woods, Michigan, were dispatched to his mom's home, where a caller reported that someone was being held inside the house.

Responding officers determined that Welch had barricaded himself inside the home that started at around 8:14 p.m. Sunday and stretched until early Monday morning, Click on Detroit reported.

Welch's 42-year-old mother, who had been stabbed with a butcher's knife, was able to free herself and ran into a neighbor's home.

Neighbor Ruth Tabone told the outlet that she saw Welch's mom collapsed, with the knife still in her back, prompting her to help her. The mom was rushed to a hospital with critical injuries.

Neighbors said they also saw the Michigan man drop a baby from the window. Officers later found Welch's one-year-old son in the home's backyard. The child was then transported to a nearby hospital for treatment.

Authorities said Welch fired multiple gunshots at police officers throughout the standoff and started a fire inside the house before appearing in the front doorway.

Fire crews from Grosse Pointe Woods extinguished the flames, and police discovered the bodies of Welch's girlfriend, Zlayiah Frazier, 22, and his stepfather, Robert Bray Jr., 70, inside the home.

Police said Frazier was also the mother of Welch's son. Authorities noted that both Frazier and Bray had been killed by blunt force trauma.

READ NEXT: Shasta County Fire Prompts Evacuation

Sister of Michigan Man's Girlfriend Blames the 'System' for Her Death

Zlayiah Frazier's sister, Breonna, previously blamed the "system" that let Jonathan Welch get out of prison on bond. He said the system was "definitely broken."

"They let him out of jail. He killed my sister. He killed my sister... They should've never let him out of prison... I don't have nothing else to say," Breonna noted.

Judge Kenneth King of the 36th District Court told Click on Detroit that this was "the court's worst nightmare" and the "worst possible scenario that could happen."

King said the witness was killed after the defendant was placed on bond and given the benefit of being placed on bond with house arrest. Welch has been ordered to live at his mother's house.

The Michigan man is now facing charges of two counts of first-degree murder, four counts of assault with intent to murder, seven counts of felonious assault, one count of second-degree arson, and six felony firearm violations. This time Welch has no bond.

Michigan Man Tortured His Girlfriend

On June 2, Jonathan Welch allegedly attacked his girlfriend. The Michigan man reportedly strangled the woman with an extension cord, poured gasoline on her, burned her using a scalding spatula, and sexually assaulted her with a pole.

Welch was arrested, and he was charged with seven crimes, including torture, criminal sexual assault, and assault.

READ MORE: Haiti Violence: Nearly 90 Killed as Gangs Fight in Port-au-Prince Over Control of Country's Capital

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Barricaded Gunman Suspect Who Killed 2 Was Out on Bail - From Fox 2 Detroit
The first wife of Donald Trump, Ivana Trump, died in her home in New York City, leaving behind her three children, Don Jr., Ivanka, and Eric. She was 73.

Fox News reported that the former president announced the passing of his ex-wife on his Truth Social platform. According to reports, Ivana was found unconscious on a staircase in her East 64th Street home Thursday.

Police and paramedics arrived at her place after receiving an emergency call at around 12:40 p.m. regarding a person who went into cardiac arrest.

Ivana was pronounced dead at the scene. Donald Trump said Ivana Trump was a "wonderful, beautiful, and amazing woman, who led a great and inspirational life."

READ NEXT: Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner: Former White House Power Couple Still Inseparable Even After More Than a Decade of Marriage

Donald Trump and Ivana Trump's Marriage

Donald Trump and Ivana Trump were married for 15 years. The Czech-born former model was married to the former president from 1977 to 1992. Their marriage dissolved amid revelations that Donald was having an affair with Marla Maples, who later became his second wife.

Ivana reportedly encountered Maples while on a family holiday vacation in Aspen, Colorado. In an interview with Barbara Walters, she said she first discovered their relationship while Donald was on a phone call with Maples in Aspen.

When she asked Donald who Maples was, Ivana said he told her that Maples was only a "girl" who had been going after him for the "last two years." The next day, Ivana said she warned one of Maples' friends to leave her husband alone.

However, she noted that Maples suddenly came up to her and declared her love for Donald, prompting her to scream at Donald's mistress to "leave" her husband alone.

Donald and Ivana separated in February 1990, and their divorce was finalized in 1992. Ivana said she had forgiven her ex-husband.

However, she noted that she never forgave Maples, whose affair with her husband scattered on the New York tabloids. Ivana said Maples ruined her family and her marriage, ABC News reported.

According to Ivana, she was taken by the real-estate mogul's looks and mind when they first met in the 1970s. Ivana said Donald told her that she would be ruining her life if she did not marry him.

The couple wed with six of Ivana's friends from Montreal, where she lived before the wedding, and 600 people from New York. She said she did not know most of them.

Ivana noted that her ex-husband told her they could not name their son Donald Trump Jr. due to one concern: he worried his son could be a "loser."

She said it was the same scenario with Ivanka, whom Donald wanted to name Ivanka Tiffany because of "the heir rights for the Trump Tower from [luxury retailer] Tiffany."

In the end, Donald and Ivana named their only daughter Ivanka, but Donald would go on to have another daughter, named Tiffany, with Maples.

Ivana Trump wrote a memoir entitled "Raising Trump." She said it was about her children and raising her kids, and his ex-husband had not read the book.

The former model added that Donald Trump was in the book as he was the father of her children. However, she said she "did not ask him for permission."

Ivana Trump's Other Marriages

In November 1971, Ivana Trump married her first husband, Alfred Winklmayr, in Prague when she was 22 years old, according to Page Six.

Winklmayr was a model and an Austrian ski instructor. He and Ivana were married for two years. Ivana's attorney noted in 1990 that the union was a "Cold War marriage" that was "never consummated."

Ivana reportedly only wanted freedom from Czechoslovakia's former communist regime when she married Winklmayr. After her marriage to Trump, Ivana married Italian businessman Riccardo Mazzucchelli in November 1995. The international entrepreneur initially proposed a 10-carat diamond unsuccessfully.

He then presented her years later with a massive Burmese sapphire, which she accepted. The two divorced in 1997. After their divorce, Mazzucchelli told People that she loved Ivana "a lot," did his "very best," and "did for her more than Donald ever did."

Ivana later sued Mazzucchelli for $15 million for allegedly violating the confidentiality part of their prenuptial agreement. The Italian businessman died in 2017 at the age of 74.

Ivana's last marriage was to Italian actor Rossano Rubicondi. In 2007, the two married at Mar-a-Lago, a club and resort owned by Donald Trump.

The pair got divorced in 2009. Ivana attributed their separation to long distance, saying that Rubicondi spent a lot of time in Italy while she was in New York, Miami, and St. Tropez.

But even after their divorce, they continued to see each other until 2019. At that time, Ivana Trump said her relationship with Rossano "just ran its course. Rubicondi died at the age of 49 last November.

READ MORE: Donald and Melania Trump Marriage: How Do the Former White House Couple Manage to Stay Together for Over a Decade

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Ivana Trump, First Wife Of Former President, Dies At 73 - From CBS Sacramento
South Africa: Social Development proposes amendment to R350 SRD grant regulations

The Department of Social Development says it is concerned by the low number of approved applications for the R350 special COVID-19 social relief of distress (SRD) grant.

The department said that this follows the implementation of the new regulations, including the checking of applicants bank accounts against the income threshold of R350.

Out of 11.4 million applicants for the month of June, only 5.2 million beneficiaries were approved. This represents less than 50% of the applications, the department said in a statement.

In line with the undertaking that the Department would review the threshold should the numbers indicate this, Minister Lindiwe Zulu has now published draft regulations to amend some of the qualification criteria for public comments for the period, 1 March 2022 to 31 March 2023.

The key proposed amendments relate to the maximum allowable income, the application of the bank verification and the requirement for applicants to confirm their need for the grant after every three months.

In this regard, the Department is proposing to increase the maximum allowable income from R350 to the food poverty line of R624, meaning that SASSA will decline any applicant who receives more than R624 into their bank account for each relevant month, the department said.

The department stated that the assessment will be conducted monthly, and should the income received into the account in a particular month fall below the R624; such an applicant will then qualify for the grant.

The value of the grant itself remains R350 per person per month for the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023.

The second amendment seeks to remove the requirement for applicants to indicate if they require the grant after every three months, with the department saying applications are in any case assessed every month.

The third amendment is aimed at removing the clause that places the bank verification process as the main criteria for determining eligibility for the grant.

The department said that this is to ensure that SASSA applies all the different database checks, including the bank account income checks before making the decision to approve or decline the application.

The Department reminds applicants that, as in the previous dispensation, they must submit an appeal in each month for which they have been declined.

However, the appeal is now lodged directly with the Appeals Tribunal and no longer with SASSA. The new website for appeals is https://srd.dsd.gov.za

The Department wishes to reiterate the request for all stakeholders to take this opportunity and submit comments on the draft regulations, to ensure that the most vulnerable individuals can benefit from the SRD grant, the department said.

The Department has also extended its sincere apologies for the long delay in assessing the April and May applications saying': We are doing everything in our power to fast track the assessments, especially the bank verification processes that are currently required by the regulations.

During the month of July, the department said it will be finalising the outstanding payments for those who were approved for June, and complete the approvals and payments for the April applications.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2022-07-15. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Riyue Bay in south Chinas Hainan becomes surfing mecca for Chinese youngsters looking for chance to ride the waves

People's Daily Online) 16:03, July 15, 2022

Tourists enjoy surfing in Wanning, a coastal city in south Chinas Hainan Province. (Photo/Courtesy of Wanning municipal bureau of culture and tourism)

Riyue Bay in Wanning city, south Chinas Hainan Province, is attracting an increasing number of tourists who enjoy riding the waves.

In recent years, more and more tourists have flocked to the coastal city to learn surfing skills or indulge their passion for the sport. Endowed with unique geographical and climate advantages, Wanning has made surfing a shining calling card of its tourism industry. The rapid development of the citys surfing industry has benefited many local villagers, who have increased their income by engaging in such businesses as surfing training, restaurants and homestay hotels.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
2022 marks two decades since the birth of the Route 66 Challenge which has seen over 750,000 miles accumulated and 5 million raised for Ireland's children's hospitals.

An exciting new book, spearheaded by award-winning photographer Darren Kennedy, will document the journeys behind the miles travelled -- all through the lens of visual storytelling.

This September, Darren plans to join an equally philanthropically minded group to embark on the bi-annual Route 66 trip -- becoming the first Irish photographer to produce a book about the experience.

It will mark the dual realisation of a long held dream and personal goal for the Clonaslee-based photographer. Since childhood, Darren has dreamed of travelling the famed route.

From its depiction in John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath and classic movie Easy Rider, to the vast terrain and sweeping sights through Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California, Darren's book will offer a window into the legendary locations, people and history along the highway.

Over two weeks and four time zones, Darren will chronicle each step of the way with an ethos he has nurtured throughout his career.

"Photography is not something I produce, it's something that produces a change both in myself and my clients. In all my years and thousands of photo shoots, I have yet to finish a project and not look at the world in a new way. The camera lens captures what the human eye leaves behind. I consider myself nothing less than a chronicler of the human condition, for better or worse. When you see my photos, I think you'll agree," he says.

Darren's photography spans commercial and portraiture photography. From family occasions, to fashion spreads and headshots, Darren takes a tailored approach to each shoot.

He is a member of the Irish Photography Association, and clients have described his work as "amazing" and "technically superb".

The Route 66 journey is any photographer's dream. For Darren, it is a multi-pronged endeavour with a desire to give back at its core. Emerging from lockdown, Darren was determined to play his part in supporting Temple Street and utilised his skills and time to make a significant impact. A firm believer in 'helping yourself by helping others', Darren has been a committed advocate for Temple Street for years, most recently co-organising a High Nelly Club fundraiser in the village of Clonaslee, Co. Laois in support of the children's hospital which raised 20,000.

Undertaking the mammoth project of a book feels like a natural extension of his efforts to date, and Darren feels privileged to have the opportunity to challenge himself for a cause he is passionate about. The Offaly-born Kennedy has always had a natural affinity with children and, as a proud uncle, considers the heartbreaking realities families all over the country are facing when their child requires acute care. Witnessing the plight of incredibly young children during his previous efforts for Temple Street has brought a tear to his eye.



Proceeds from Darren's book will support the acute paediatric hospital which provides care for over 140,000 children every year. Since 1872, Temple Street has been providing critical care at times when families need it most. Today, their work and research is just as essential as it was when they first opened their doors.

Their more than 30 patient specialities include neonatal and paediatric surgery, neurology, neurosurgery, nephrology and orthopaedics. Donations are always needed for continued ground-breaking research, the purchase of vital equipment, patient care and parental supports which allow patients to enjoy their childhoods with play therapy and fun activities despite undergoing treatment.

For decades, new and innovative means of fundraising for Ireland's children's hospitals have been underway. This book is a means of continuing to back the ongoing effort and a chronicle of those who revved their engines and took to the highway for Ireland's little heroes. Given the scale of the project, there are multiple expenses involved. All donations to assist in getting this book to print are immensely appreciated.

A link to Darren's Go Fund Me page: Fundraiser by Darren Kennedy : Route 66 book for children's hospital (gofundme.com)
Laois people are being urged to apply for funding to make homes out of vacant and derelict properties according to a Laois Minister who says it could be an important way for first time buyers to find a home.

Sean Fleming who is Minister of State in the Department of Finance welcomed the Governments new 50 million Croi Conaithe (Towns) Fund which he said is aimed at support people to live in towns and villages by providing a grant to refurbish vacant and derelict properties.

"This scheme can be of major benefit in a number of towns and villages throughout Laois where there are many such properties," he said.

The Fianna Fail TD said the basic grant is up to 30,000 to refurbish a vacant property and an additional 20,000 is available if the property is derelict. He explained that this gives a maximum grant of 50,000 under this scheme and applicants can also get the SEAI Better Energy Home Scheme that covers works up to 26,750.

He urged people to apply.

"We all know vacant and derelict properties in towns and villages throughout the county. I would encourage people to apply for these grants as soon as possible. This grant scheme is available in towns and villages with a population of over 400 people.

"Very importantly, this scheme is available to First Time Buyers and to people who are moving from their current home which they are selling or have sold and want to live in a town or village. It is also available to people who previously had a home but may no longer have a legal interest in that home due to for example: divorce, separation, insolvency or bankruptcy.

"A priority for me in Government is our Housing For All Plan which specifically encourages refurbishment of vacant and derelict properties to boost housing supply locally.

"I believe there will be a strong appetite for this new scheme in County Laois which will support people acquiring a home and also at the same time breathe new life into our towns, villages and communities in Co Laois," said the TD.

The following are key points about the Croi Conaithe (Towns) Fund.

Properties considered for inclusion must be vacant for two years or more and built before 1993.

Confirmation of vacancy can be validated and verified by the use of, for example, Utility Bills which can help determine vacancy periods (e.g. pattern of usage or disconnection) or such other proofs as are available to the satisfaction of the local authority.

The scheme is exclusively available to individuals or households for which the property will be their principal private residence.

It is not available to undertakings and/or developers, etc.

A Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) Better Energy Home Scheme Grant may be available in combination with this grant. Works covered by SEAI Better Energy Homes Scheme will therefore not be covered.

Proof of both vacancy and ownership will be required to support the grant payment.

In terms of ownership, it is a matter for the applicant to confirm ownership with the local authority.

A local authority may give approval in principle to a grant application where the applicant is able to provide evidence of active negotiations to purchase a property i.e. confirmation of engagement from the estate agency or owner of the property and where the owner provides such evidence as to vacancy as is required under the scheme on behalf of the applicant.



The following categories of works will be eligible for grant assistance, subject to a reasonable cost assessment by the local authority and to any limits for specific works:

Substructure works, including works to foundations, rising walls, floor slabs, damp-proofing and underpinning

Structural works to superstructure, including walls, party walls, chimneys, suspended timber floors, structural timbers

Works to internal walls, stairs, and landings, and internal wall completions including doors, windows, and applied finishes

External walls completions including doors, windows, sills, and applied finishes

Roof completions, including flashings, fascias, soffits, gutters, downpipes

Building services including plumbing, heating, ventilation, electrical services, telecommunications,

Painting and decoration required because of works carried out

Extension within the ambit of exempt development under planning regulations, as part of a wider refurbishment

Necessary external works and site development works carried out within the curtilage of the site

Professional services associated with works



The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage says there are over 500 towns and villages in Ireland with a population of over 400 people. It is intended that the Croi Conaithe Fund will apply in all such towns, and also to some smaller villages, which may not be defined towns or villages for the purposes of the CSO Census mapping but with sufficient provision of services and amenities.



While initially the Fund will not apply to towns within the city and suburb boundaries of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Laois and Waterford, as defined by the CSO Census mapping, the potential for inclusion of such towns within cities and suburbs will be further considered during the initial phase of the programme.

Towns outside of the city and suburb boundary in the CSO Census are defined as a separate town and will therefore be eligible, e.g. Balbriggan.



Applicants may only avail of the grant once in keeping with the requirement that it be their principal private residence.
Electric Picnic is once again welcoming Transmission to earth in Stradbally and they want you to join your extra-terrestrial friends for an intergalactic experience like no other.

Festival Republic is promising thumping vinyl beats and gleaming pulsating light displays when the mothership lands for its fifth year following a festival hiatus and promises to deliver its unique blend of art and music to Electric Picnic which has become a must for the whole galaxy.

Return to a psychedelic space bursting with theatrical magic where you can party like its 2099. This year, picnickers can dance among extra-terrestrial life under the gleaming lights of Electric Picnics very own Stargate  an otherworldy portal from outside realms waiting to transport the enlightened traveller across space and time. Who knows from where, or from what time, our fellow revellers will be!

Other installations nestled amongst the trees are Stargate a 13ft diameter portal positioned above the entrance to Transmission through which extra-terrestrial beings can access earth. And Moon a 5ft fiberglass moon and satellite suspended high in the canopy of the woods. This year a new UFO has landed on top of the Mothership, what new beings will arrive with it  join us in the woods to find out.

Irish DJ Furlong is a regular at Transmission and will bring his unique energy to the floor. Catch him grooving behind the decks with beats influenced by techno, house and tribal. DanceNasty pilots Transmission to hyperspace again for his fourth year, regular passengers will already have heard this underground DJ's beats, jacking, deep, grooving, funky and sometimes tech but always uplifting. This DJ promises to be just another surprise to be found at this years Transmission...

Multi-talented DJ, producer and songwriter Daniel Mathews goes under the moniker Dr.Owz33 born in Dublin raised by wolves in Croydon 'London' where he started to DJ and Mc. Now back in Ireland he will bring his love of electronic music to your alien experience! DJ and producer Mark Fitz has been mixing and making tracks since 2011. Expect a mix of techno/house not to mention some of his own tracks. DJ Victor Beasley started organising gigs but seeing DJs play the crowd inspired him to learn the craft and find his own groove. Taking inspiration from various genres he's been over the last 15 years he will bring his own flavour to this versatile mix of artists.

Vibez will be returning for his third EP this year, bringing his usual all vinyl set. With a style straddles Funky House to Techno, with that oldskool feel, youll be compelled to join him and dance under the UFO on a journey into the vinyl frontier. Mad Gab is both visual artist and genre hopping vinyl DJ, a driving force on the Wexford scene and a dedicated collaborator, she will incorporate her own art into the visuals. Take Mad Gab's 303 techno roots, add some of her grimey Soundclown basslines and a pinch of Mad... that's Gab. Trippy and bangin!.Chuckens has crafted the soundtrack of the underground dance scene since he was 15. What to expect? Moody dark techno & 303. There may be thunder "Know what i'm saying!"

Transmission is the brainchild of artist Ali Kemal along with a team of under the radar artists and DJs. Transmission will create all the euphoria and wonder of an alien encounter.
The Irish Prison Service has opened its recruitment campaign for prison officers as over 300 are to be hired this year and next.

Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee welcomed the opening of the 2022 campaign for the position of Recruit Prison Officer in the Irish Prison Service. She urged people, especially those in minority and new Irish communities, to consider the Irish Prison Service as a career.

The competition is being run by the Public Appointments Service on behalf of the Irish Prison Service. The Irish Prison Service intends to recruit up to 144 Recruit Prison Officers in 2022 with an additional 200 in 2023.

Minister McEntee said: I am delighted that the 2022 Recruit Prison Officer competition has now opened, allowing people the opportunity to join this frontline service. Being a Prison Officer is a very challenging and rewarding role.

Prisoners will look to you, as the most accessible people they have in their lives, as figures of authority and also as people to learn from. You will have the opportunity to help prisoners see their time in custody as an opportunity to change their lives for the better and as a fresh beginning. As a Prison Officer you will be best placed to provide corrective experiences and demonstrate a good way of behaving, she remarked.

Director General of the Irish Prison Service Caron McCaffrey said: The 2022 Recruit Prison Officer competition is very much welcomed and demonstrates our commitment to expanding our workforce. The role of Prison Officers can be both challenging and rewarding and our training will provide applicants with a greater understanding of the complex role a prison officer will face, which combines the provision of safe and secure custody, with care and rehabilitation of our prisoners.

">

The last recruitment competition was held in early 2019 and classes have continued right throughout the pandemic. The 2022 Recruit Prison Officer Competition is open until Thursday, August 4, 2022 at 3pm.

As of February 1 the following salary scale applies to Recruit Prison Officers who are required to complete three years before becoming established prison officers: Year one: 31,337, year two: 32,545 and year three: 35,379.

Information on the competition can be found by visiting the Public Appointments Service website at https://www.publicjobs.ie/en/.
Minister Sean Fleming and Laois Offaly TD Charlie Flanagan have welcomed the opening of recruitment of 344 prison officers.

Welcoming the news that the Irish Prison Service has opened a new campaign, Minister Fleming said: This Recruit Prison Officer competition I would see as being particularly of interest to people in Laois and surrounding counties with possible opportunities to work in the prison services in Portlaoise. Such posts would offer people the opportunity to live and work locally with this frontline service.

Also welcoming the announcement, Deputy Flanagan encouraged people to consider a career as a prison officer. Deputy Flanagan has encouraged people to consider the Irish Prison Service as a career. I am delighted that the 2022 Recruit Prison Officer competition has now opened, allowing people the opportunity to join this frontline service. Being a Prison Officer is a very challenging and rewarding role, he remarked.

He said: Prisoners will look to you, as the most accessible people they have in their lives, as figures of authority and also as people to learn from. You will have the opportunity to help prisoners see their time in custody as an opportunity to change their lives for the better and as a fresh beginning.

Deputy Flanagan said: The role of Prison Officers can be both challenging and rewarding and training will provide applicants with a greater understanding of the complex role a prison officer will face, which combines the provision of safe and secure custody, with care and rehabilitation of our prisoners.

">

The competition is being run by the Public Appointments Service on behalf of the Irish Prison Service. The Irish Prison Service intends to recruit up to 144 Recruit Prison Officers in 2022 with an additional 200 in 2023.

Details around the Job Details, eligibility, educational qualifications, pay are available on https://www.publicjobs.ie/en/
A Graiguecullen school has been granted planning permission for an extension.

Minister of State in the Department of Finance, Sean Fleming was pleased to confirm that St Fiaccs National School, Killeshin Road, Graiguecullen has been granted planning permission for four new general classrooms.

This is indeed very welcome news for this school in an area of growing population. There has been a strong demand for new permanent classrooms for St Fiaccs National School because of the growing population in Graiguecullen and surrounding areas over a long number of years, said Minister Fleming.

He explained that the planning permission approved by Laois County Council is for four new general classrooms and the central activity area of two outdoor play safe and the provision of additional car parking spaces. It also involves the demolition of two temporary accommodation structures that are currently on the site.

">

"The interesting thing is that this school actually crosses the boundaries of Co Laois and Co Carlow. Laois County Council have granted planning permission with 11 planning conditions and separately there is a concurrent planning application with Carlow County Council which I expect will be completed very shortly, added Minister Fleming.

He said: Overall, I want to thank the Board of Management, the Principal and all the staff in the school for their work on behalf of the students. The parents of the students in this school will be very pleased with this and ultimately the school is a vital service for all the local community.

I now look forward to the preparation of the documents to go out to tender with a view to construction commencing as soon as practical, Minister Fleming concluded.
A woman who was arrested for being intoxicated at Portlaoise Hospital has been fined.

Margaret Connors, 29, of 207 St Brigids Place, Portlaoise, who appeared via video link, admitted being intoxicated at the hospital on December 26 last.

Sgt Michael Tarpey told a sitting of Portlaoise District Court that gardai attended the hospital at 5.25pm on the date and arrested the defendant for being intoxicated. He said she had 127 previous convictions.

Solicitor Aonghus McCarthy said his client was originally from Dublin and had been in a relationship with a local man who was about 20 years her senior and had been introduced to heroin.

Mr McCarthy said she was in custody now and is fresher than I have seen her in weeks for a woman who would have suffered an awful lot of abuse. He explained that she is linking in with her drug counsellor.

Noting the facts and the large number of previous convictions, Judge Patricia Cronin fined the woman 100 with two days in prison in case of default.
Bank of Ireland is warning customers around a new wave of fraudulent text messages in circulation, where fraudsters are using customers card details to set up Apple/Google Pay.

The Bank has experienced a spike in smishing, where fraudsters send fake text messages appearing to be from delivery services including An Post or Government agencies including the HSE and Revenue.

Customers who click the links in the text messages are then directed to fake websites where they are asked for their card or online banking login details.

The fraudster uses these details to set up Apple/Google Pay on the customers card or to set up the customers online banking on a new device.

If the customer gives away the genuine One Time Passcode sent by Bank of Ireland to confirm the set-up, the fraudster can then access the customers account.

During the last month, the number of smishing cases detected by Bank of Irelands Fraud Prevention team has increased by 50% since the introduction of this tactic.

How the current scam operates:

- Customer receives a fraudulent text purportedly from An Post or alternatively HSE or Revenue  for example: Your parcel is ready for delivery. Please pay the outstanding charge on this link ----" or Youve been a close contact of someone with Covid. Please follow the instructions here to order a test -----"

- The customer clicks the link, is brought to a fake website and gives some personal information and their credit / debit card number.

The fraudster will then:

- Use the customers card details to set up Apple Pay or Google Pay.

- The customer then gets a genuine One-Time Passcode from Bank of Ireland to confirm Apple Pay or Google Pay set-up, but then gives away the code to the fraudster on the phishing website.

Or

- Based on the card number the customer has given, the fraudster directs the customer to a spoofed online banking login page. The customer gives their online banking login details and then gets a genuine One-Time Passcode to set up online banking on a new device.

- The customer gives that code away on the phishing website, which allows the fraudster to set up online banking and make payments from the customers account.

- Where customers have stopped part of the way through the scam process, they may then get a phone call claiming to be from Bank of Ireland in an attempt to get banking details and the One-Time Passcode. Those calls will often look like theyre coming from genuine Bank of Ireland numbers as the fraudster can spoof the number that appears in your display.

Edel McDermott, Head of Fraud, Bank of Ireland said:

Fraudsters tend to use a range of tactics that have been the subject of regular warnings for some time. When a new variation on a familiar theme crops up, this is a cause for real concern, and we are warning customers to be extra vigilant.

Text messages appearing to be from third parties like delivery companies or Government agencies should be treated with caution and verified accordingly.

Following fraudulent links in these texts is leading to customers disclosing card details, and then having Apple or Google Pay set up on their card, generating a genuine One-Time Passcode from their bank.

When this Passcode is then disclosed, this allows fraudsters full access to the customers account.

Customers should never share this Passcode with anyone, even if they say they are from Bank of Ireland.

Bank of Irelands advice to customers in response to the current activity:

Do not click on links or respond to any SMS text messages which are designed to appear as if sent by the bank or other businesses and service providers.

Remember that Bank of Ireland will never send you a text with a link to a website that asks you for your online banking login details or any One-Time Passcodes that weve sent to you.

Do not share your One-Time Passcode to set up Apple/Google Pay on your card WITH ANYONE even if you the person advises they are from Bank of Ireland

If you get a suspicious text, please email a screenshot of the text to 365Security@boi.com and then delete the text.

If you think you may have given away any of your banking details, please call our 24/7 Freephone line 1800 946 764 immediately.

Remember, Bank of Ireland will never:

Send you a text or email with a link directly to the login page of our online banking channels to confirm banking details or ask you to update their banking details.

Ask you to click a link in an email with an urgent warning about suspicious activity on your account.

Ask you to transfer money out of your account to protect you from fraud.

Ask you to tell us any One-Time Password or code that you have received from us by text.

Where customers receive a text appearing to be from Bank of Ireland, the Check Your Text service (Security Zone - Bank of Ireland Group Website) is available and is outlined in the Report Fraud section.

For more advice and information on fraud, visit www.boi.com/security or www.fraudsmart.ie
Irelands environment minister has said that a ban on the commercial sale of smoky coal and turf approved by Cabinet on Thursday will save lives, and that the Attorney General was useful in providing clarity to parliamentarians concerns.

Earlier this year, several Fine Gael and Fianna Fail TDs raised concerns about a move to clamp down on turf burning this autumn at a time when fuel bills are rising sharply.

In particular, concerns were raised about how the regulations would affect small-scale turf cutters who sell peat to friends and neighbours.

What this is about is regulation at the retail end  stopping the mass distribution of smoky coal, wet woods, turf through retail premises, Environment Minister Eamon Ryan told reporters in Dublin on Thursday.

It wont be regulating in the home or policing that way.

Mr Ryan added that the plans approved by Government had not changed from the original draft plans, but the wording may have been clarified.

I think it was a question of hearing (everyone) out and providing real clarity and getting the wording on that, Mr Ryan said.

I think the Attorney General provided a very useful role because the final wording, as I said, you draft several times. So yes, we did listen.

But a year ago, six months ago, three months ago, I was outlining these regulations in the way that theyve now been delivered. And Im glad that that has the support of other parties, mostly independents Ive talked to, so I think we can introduce them now and see the benefit.

Mr Ryan added: We did look at variations  that idea of villages of 500 people or more having different rules.

The approval comes after Taoiseach Micheal Martin and Tanaiste Leo Varadkar discussed the turf ban at their respective parliamentary party meetings on Wednesday night.

We listened to our colleagues and government, Mr Ryan said. I think weve ended up with a solution that, from my talking to colleagues and other parties, they think is the right balance, and I do too.

I think its a really significant day for looking after our environment, improving public health. Having cleaner air right across our country is fundamental to good health and local environment.

The regulations will come into effect from October 31, the minister said.

The industry has been prepared, they were told last September this is what were going to do. Theyve already bought forward expecting this, so its not going to be a surprise.

This will save lives.

This is a particularly important public health measure for anyone who is suffering from asthma or anyone with a heart condition, anyone with a lung condition. This is good news today.

When asked whether there had been any climb down on what was agreed, Mr Ryan said: Were delivering a solid fuel regulation, which restricts the sale of smoky fuels, which delivers whats been promised for how many years? How many ministers have come to the (fence) and then didnt jump the fence? Weve just jumped the fence and Im very pleased to have done that.
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has said he would be happy to travel to Carrickfergus to speak to community representatives after images of female politicians were hung from a bonfire.

Hanging effigies of Sinn Fein president and vice president Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle ONeill as well as Alliance Party leader Naomi Long were pictured on the Eleventh Night bonfire in the Co Antrim town on Monday.

The PSNI has launched an investigation into the incident.

Sir Jeffrey called on the people responsible to desist, saying that political protest should not be mixed with cultural expression.

He told the BBC: Displaying effigies of serving political leaders with the inference that they should be hung for their political views is wrong, it is unjustifiable, it is indefensible and it has no part in my culture as someone who is proud of my Ulster-British identity.

He said: I will be very clear with anyone I speak to that it harms our culture, it harms our identity, it harms our political position when you engage in activities that draw attention away from the positive aspects of our culture.

At the same time is offensive to others and I think even threatening to others.

Meanwhile, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar condemned the burning of the effigies as hatred not culture.

Addressing the Dail, Sinn Fein Finance Spokesperson Pearse Doherty called the burning a hate crime.

Over the past few days, we have seen effigies of my party colleagues Mary Lou McDonald, Michelle ONeill, along with Alliances Naomi Long  in addition to our national flag  being burned on unionist bonfires, he said.

This isnt culture, it is a hate crime. And it is unacceptable.

He said that Taoiseach Micheal Martin had failed to condemn the incident.

Shockingly, we have heard nothing from the Taoiseach, he said.

An effigy of the leader of the opposition burned in a bonfire 90 miles up the road and no official reaction from government.

This isnt good enough Tanaiste, its not good enough also from unionist political leaders, and also not good enough from the PSNI. And its not good enough for political leaders in this state.

He asked Mr Varadkar to join with him in unequivocally condemning the effigy-burning.

I did actually speak on this, on Newstalk yesterday, but happy to repeat what I said yesterday, he said.

Its not often that you and I agree 100%, but on this occasion I do agree with you 100%.

What we saw happen in Northern Ireland, effigies, posters of politicians, Michelle ONeill, Naomi Long, others, mainly female politicians  but not always  being burned is unacceptable.

The tricolour, the Palestinian flag, you name it, being burned on bonfires in Northern Ireland.

He said he respected orange culture, and that he had attended an orange order parade in Enniskillen years ago.

But he added: But burning images of other people, burning other countrys flags, that isnt culture  that is hatred.

It is absolutely wrong, and on behalf of the Government I absolute condemn it.
The French ought to keep their minds at ease over summer, although they have been warned: The new school year will be marked by the "hunt for energy waste." While the war in Ukraine is likely to last and a gas shortage looms over Europe, the government will be preparing its "plan for energy efficiency," as Emmanuel Macron said during his speech on July 14, in order to "get through winter's peak."

"Russia uses energy as a weapon of war," the president said, adding that, while France was less dependent than some of its European neighbors, it now needed to "prepare for a scenario where we can fully do without Russian gas." While France has already planned to increase supplies from other trading partners  Norway, Qatar, Algeria and the United States in particular  and stocks are on track to reach a target of 100% this autumn, this diversification is not enough to guarantee quiet winters ahead without power cuts.

Read more Macron sticks to his guns in July 14 national holiday interview

In order to reduce the need for gas and electricity, Mr. Macron is therefore calling on people to change their behavior, for the first time. How? By being simultaneously "exemplary and responsible," he said. He urged public authorities and companies to consume less, for example by "paying attention to lighting at night."

"I believe in collective responsibility," he insisted. He said the plan would require "organizing our lives differently [and trying] to flatten peaks of consumption that put extra pressure on our energy networks."

His comments on July 14 were both a call to action and a way of getting people ready. On June 23, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and energy minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher announced their plan: "To reduce energy consumption by 10% within two years compared to 2019." To achieve this goal, the government has set up three working groups: for the administration, businesses and establishments welcoming the public.

Offset

Despite the urgency of climate change, France is far from being ahead in the way it's tackling the topic. In Germany, for example, the Bundestag recently voted in favor of an energy-saving plan that included limiting heating in individual offices to 20C in winter. In his speech, Emmanuel Macron justified the difference by saying that France was less dependent on Russian fossil fuels. In the opposition, however, as well as in the business world, there is already a sense of impatience.

On Wednesday, July 13, representatives of the Economic Affairs Committee at the Senat expressed concern after interviewing the heads of the main French energy companies (Engie, EDF and TotalEnergies), claiming that "the government has not appreciated what is at stake." A few days earlier, on June 26, the company executives had jointly called on citizens to reduce their consumption in order to prepare for winter in the best possible way in an article published in the Journal du Dimanche.

We are interested in your experience using the site. Send feedback

For the moment, the war in Ukraine and its consequences are cited as the primary motivation for these future savings. But the president did concede that the reduction in consumption should also meet the requirements of the fight against climate change. "It is an emergency and it is already here," Mr. Macron said. To face it, "the first thing is saving energy; the second is to develop renewable energy." On this last subject, he promised to accelerate the pace. "This summer, we will pass an emergency law to reduce [project completion] times," he said.

Read more The need for public leadership on energy sufficiency

Marjorie Cessac Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.
A HIGH Court judge will rule later this month on an application by the mother of murdered Limerick boxer Kevin Sheehy for permission to bring a challenge aimed at preventing her son's killer from being transferred to a UK prison.

Tracey Tully, whose 20-year-old son was killed at Hyde Road Limerick on July 1, 2019 is seeking a High Court order preventing Logan Jackson, who is serving a life sentence for Mr Sheehy's murder, being repatriated back to England.

She has brought a judicial review action challenging Justice Minister Helen McEntee's decision to sanction the transfer.

Ms Tully claims the Minister's decision amounts to a breach of her rights as a victim of a crime.

The matter came before Ms Justice Siobhan Phelan this Friday.

The High Court previously directed that Ms Tully's application for permission to bring her challenge be heard on notice to the Minister.

Lawyers representing the Minister and Jackson, who is a notice party to the proceedings, claim that Ms Tully has not met the minimum threshold that would allow the court to grant permission and that the action should be dismissed.

Jackson is currently detained in Limerick Prison, and his proposed transfer has been put on hold pending the outcome of the action.

Following the conclusion of legal submissions from the parties Ms Justice Phelan reserved her decision.

She said that she intends to give her judgment on the leave application before the current legal term concludes at the end of July.

Mr Sheehy, an Irish champion boxer, died after being repeatedly struck by a vehicle driven by Logan Jackson of Longford Road, Coventry, England.

Last year Jackson was convicted of Mr Sheehy's murder by a jury at the Central Criminal Court and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Following his conviction 31-year-old Jackson successfully applied to the Minister for Justice for a transfer from Ireland so he can serve out his sentence in an English prison.

Ms Tully claims that the Minister's decision and seeks an order from the court quashing the transfer.

She claims that if the transfer goes ahead, she fears she will not have any say, nor be able to make any submissions to the UK authorities when Jackson applies for parole.

She claims that if the transfer goes ahead any decision on a parole application by her son's killer would be in the hands of the authorities in another jurisdiction.

She claims that the Minister's decision to allow the transfer to go ahead is unconstitutional and an "abdication of the Irish state's responsibility to determine when a person serving a life sentence may be paroled."

In her action she seeks declarations including that the proposed transfer breaches her rights under the 2017 Victim of Crime Act and was made outside of the Minister's powers under the 2019 Parole Act.

She further seeks a declaration that the decision to transfer Jackson is unconstitutional as it removed the jurisdiction for sentencing Jackson from the Irish state and handed it over to another state.

Ms Tully's counsel Ciaran O'Loughlin SC with Arthur Griffin Bl, said it was their case that Ms Tully would have no say and that her rights under the 2017 legislation would be gone if Jackson's proposed transfer proceeds.

Counsel added that Irish legislation gives victims the right to be consulted on parole applications by their wrongdoers.

It is Ms Tully's case that those rights would be extinguished by Jackson's transfer to the UK, counsel added.

Anne-Marie Lawlor SC, with Elva Duffy Bl for the Minister, rejected the applicant's claims, and argued that the legal threshold to allow the court grant leave had not been met in this case.

It was denied that Ms Tully's rights have been breached.

Counsel also said that the Minister, who had sympathised with Ms Tully over her terrible loss, had lawfully approved Jackson's transfer. Ms Lawlor said the systems regarding the rights of victims regarding sentenced prisoners in Ireland and England do not mirror each other.

However, the UK system does allow input from victims of crime in relation to their wrongdoer's parole applications if they so wish, counsel said.

Counsel said that various agreements, including a European Convention, allows prisoners to be transferred from one country to another once that individual's sentence has been finalised.

Counsel said that Jackson's sentence has been finalised and disagreed with Ms Tully's counsel that it has not been finalised.

Ms Lawlor said that once transferred the management, administration and enforcement of those sentences' rests with the host country. She further submitted that under the UK system the cases of transferred prisoners go before a Judge in the English High Court.

That judge, based on the circumstances of each individual case, will set a minimum tariff or period that a transfer prisoner must spend in prison.

Counsel said that in the UK those given life sentences can only apply for parole after they have served 15 years in prison. Under the Irish system those serving life sentences can make a parole application after 12 years, counsel added.

Jackson, who is represented by Mark Nicholas SC, said his client agreed with the Minister's submissions, and said that the transfer had been legally and properly granted by the Minister.
THE UNIVERSITY of Limerick has paid tribute to one of its students after she sadly passed away in a road traffic collision earlier this week.

Shauna McGrath was travelling home from a nightshift at University Hospital Waterford when her car was involved in a collision with a lorry.

The 22 year-old's vehicle collided with the lorry at 8:30am on Tuesday. She was sadly pronounced dead at the scene.

The Waterford native had been on placement in her hometown and was due to graduate from UL soon as a midwife.

President of the University of Limerick, Professor Kerstin Mey described Shauna as a "cherished member of our community".

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to Shaunas family especially to her parents Sean and Eleanor and her sister Cadhla, to her extended family, her midwifery classmates and to her many fellow UL students and friends."

Shauna is predeceased by her grandfather Noel Fleming and deeply mourned by her heartbroken parents Sean (Hiker) and Eleanor, sister Cadhla and her partner Joey, her beloved boyfriend Liam Power, grandparents John and Breda McGrath and Ann Fleming, aunts, uncles, extended family, neighbours and a wide circle of friends.

A post on Rip.ie read: "Reposing at home (Eircode X35 PF58) on Friday, 15th July, from 3pm to 8pm.

"Funeral Mass on Saturday, 16th July, at 11am in St. Augustine's Church, Abbeyside. Burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery".
LIMERICK hurling supporter and former Ahane GAA Chairman Seamus Walsh wouldnt miss attending his 47th All-Ireland final in Croke Park for the world.

Seamus has been attending Croke Park for the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Final since the great Limerick win in 1973, when he was just nine years old, the Treatys first win in 33 years and has rarely missed one since.

He described Limericks 1973 win as a great thing at the time: When we won the Munster final [that year] it was like our All-Ireland final, we had a bad run of it in the 1960s with Tipperary beating us, Cork beating us, everyone beating us. So we thought the All-Ireland final was just a big day out, no one actually thought wed win.

There is no doubt in Seamus mind who will win on Sunday this time around, however: Limerick will definitely win it. We were going to beat Galway in the semi-final and Clare in the Munster final, I cant see them being beaten. Theyll do it by five or six points.

The former Ahane GAA chairman umpired at the All-Ireland final in 1999 which proved to be a fierce battle between Kilkenny and Cork which saw the latter take home the Liam MacCarthy Cup with just 1 point in the difference.

He also umpired at the 2001 All-ireland final between Tipperary and Galway and the 2003 All-Ireland final between Kilkenny and Cork again.

In my eyes everyone is bigging Kilkenny up because they beat Clare well but they played a very bad Clare, they werent the same team we saw in the Munster final, Seamus said confidently.
THE PEOPLE of Kilmallock are asking why there is no giant flag in support of the Limerick hurlers on the towns Kings Castle.

The massive showcase of pride in the countys hurlers had gone down a storm in recent years when erected on the castle by members of Kilmallock Tourism Development CE Scheme.

The 40 foot by 30 foot flag even garnered local and national media attention ahead of last years All-Ireland final.

However, earlier this week, a message was posted on the Kilmallock Tourism Development Facebook page. It reads: "They stopped us putting up the big flag. But they won't stop us from putting up our colours. C'mon now Kilmallock show your support for our lads - get your green and white out. Hon Limerick."

Locals have been left scratching their heads as to why the flag hasn't been erected this year.

"No one owns that castle, it belongs to the town. We should start a campaign to bring back the flag," one local posted on Facebook.

"It was up for a couple of days, the castle has stood," posted another in reference to previous years. "It was beautiful up there," they added.

When Limerick Live contacted local councillor Mike Donegan - who is also chair of Kilmallock Tourism Development - he explained that on Monday, July 4 - the day after Limerick beat Galway in the All-Ireland semi-final - he received communication from The Office of Public Works (OPW) via a senior officer at Limerick City and County Council.

"They advised us, as a community, not to put the flag up due to the condition of King's Castle. They said it was for health and safety reasons and for fear of causing any damage to the structure," said Cllr Donegan.

Cllr Donegan said the OPW - who manage Kings Castle - advised them to take the flag down last year.

"They had safety concerns," said Cllr Donegan.

Consequently, if there was an insurance claim, Kilmallock Tourism Development wouldnt be covered, he said.

Executive Archaeologist at Limerick City and County Council, Sarah McCutcheon, made contact with Cllr Donegan on behalf of the OPW.

"I would see as part of my role, liaising with the national monument section of the OPW and the national monument service of the Department of Heritage. They tend to come to me occasionally in these kind of situations.

"They (OPW) came to me informally because they were worried about the effect of the banner on the structure. I asked around and I contacted people I thought might have knowledge of where it came from and how it got it up there," said Ms McCutcheon.

She stressed that the "OPW have been nothing but co-operative".

"Anytime we have asked to use King's Castle in the past, not only have they allowed us to do it but they have gone in and been rigorous in making sure it was clean, tidy, and beautifully presented and any of of the other buildings as well. They have been nothing but co-operative.

"When I have been helping communities organise events in Askeaton or anywhere where there are national monuments owned by the State and maintained by the OPW they have bent over backwards to assist and open and beautifully present the structures," said Ms McCutcheon.

Cllr Donegan said there is a lot of disappointment that there is no giant flag on King's Castle this year.

"A lot of people have contacted me about it. Some have made the argument that there are giant flags on King Johns Castle in the city and the Fullers Folly building in Newcastle West but they are owned by the council. Kings Castle in Kilmallock is under the jurisdiction of the OPW," said Cllr Donegan.

He hopes that an alternative site may be found for the flag in the town. Cllr Donegan said he will also be asking the OPW to carry out a survey of Kings Castle.

"As a councillor I want to make sure it is safe for people to be walking under it," said Cllr Donegan.

in a statement issued on Thursday, a spokesperson for the OPW stated: "The Office of Public Works has no record of receiving a request for permission to fly a flag on the structure in Kilmallock. Therefore, OPW never refused or advised them not to do so."

In a follow-up query from Limerick Live on Thursday, the OPW were asked what their decision would be if a request for permission was issued to them.

In reply, a spokesperson said: "A very large banner was erected on Kings Castle in 2021, the fixing of which endangered vulnerable masonry. Fixing a banner to a monument is in breach of National Monuments legislation and is illegal. There are procedures in place within the OPW for the community to use the Castle to support Limerick. All such requests must initially be directed through the OPW Press Office. Given the lateness of the request, it is not possible to facilitate any request of this nature this year, but the advice is to engage with us as soon as possible if the community wish to support their team next year."
Police are to investigate an incident in which four prisoners gained access to the roof of a building at Maghaberry Prison.

The incident in the Co Antrim prison occurred on Wednesday and was brought under control without injuries.

A spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Prison Service said: The Prison Service has confirmed that an incident at Maghaberry yesterday, during which four prisoners gained access to a roof in the Mourne complex within the prison, has ended.

The situation was brought under control without injury to staff or prisoners.

The rest of the prison was unaffected.

The area will be assessed to ascertain how the prisoners were able to access the roof.

The four prisoners will be charged under prison rules and their actions will be referred to the PSNI for investigation.

Maghaberry Prison is Northern Irelands only Category A high-security unit, housing adult male long-term sentenced and remand prisoners in both separated and integrated conditions.
A new fund to refurbish vacant properties around Ireland has been announced by the Minister for Rural and Community Development.

Heather Humphreys announced details of the fund - which offers applicants up to a maximum of 50,000 - today (Friday July 15) along with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O'Brien.

The fund will provide grants of up to 30,000 for the refurbishment of vacant properties for occupation as a principal private residence.

Where refurbishment costs exceed the standard grant, a maximum top-up amount of up to 20,00 will be available if the property is confirmed to be derelict (structurally unsound and dangerous).

Minister Humphreys said, "This is a hugely important scheme for individuals and families throughout the country who are trying to secure a home. It will also play a decisive role in addressing the issue of vacancy and dereliction which faces many rural communities.

"By supporting people to renovate vacant properties as Minister OBrien is enabling through this new Fund, we not only support more people to live, work and raise families in rural areas, but we also revitalise our rural areas for the benefit of everyone.
A minister has defended the governments assertion that the UKs Rwanda policy has caused an increase in the number of asylum seekers travelling to Ireland.

It comes after Irish premier Micheal Martin said the UK Governments Rwanda scheme may have resulted in an increase in international protection applicants in the Republic.

The Taoiseach made the comments after it emerged on Wednesday night that Ireland had a severe shortage of state accommodation for Ukrainian refugees.

Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration, and Youth Roderic OGorman was asked on RTE News at One why he thought there had been such a substantial increase in the number of people seeking international protection.

I think, probably, there were pent-up demand there following Covid, he said.

I think the impact of changes in policy in the United Kingdom in terms of migration have had a significant impact.

Ireland has taken in around 40,000 refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine  the majority of them women and children.

Asylum seekers from other countries also continue to seek sanctuary in Ireland through the International Protection Service.

Mr Martin added that around 70% of those at the refugee reception centre at Citywest in Dublin are not Ukrainian citizens.

Earlier on Friday, Enda ONeill, head of office with UNHCR Ireland, told RTEs Morning Ireland that he had not seen any evidence that supported that the Rwandan policy had impacted the numbers seeking asylum in Ireland.

I havent seen any strong evidence to suggest its a major factor, he said.

The Government may be able to point to data that it has to support that.

But I think its probably best understood in the wider context of this is one policy in a number over recent years on asylum in the UK which contrasts favourably to a much more open approach that weve been taking in Ireland.

He said that while it was almost twice 2019s figures over the same period, it would not be outside the norms of what Ireland has received in years gone by.

I suppose we have to be conscious of the fact that were coming on the back of two very difficult years during Covid when travelling was very difficult, he said.

So if you go back to 2019, and compare it to that period, its a little under double the figures for that period. So for Ireland, it is a significant increase in comparison to last year, but it wouldnt be outside the norms of what we have received in years gone by or in other European countries.

Mr OGorman was asked about Mr ONeills comment that there wasnt any strong evidence that the Rwanda policy was a factor.

I think the the approach being adopted by the UK is having a difference, he said.

And we are seeing across Europe, significant increases in the number of people seeking international protection.

Certainly our sense is that the change in approach by the UK government is having an impact.
Regulators are poised to extract about $1 billion or 8 in fines from the five biggest US investment banks for failing to monitor employees using unauthorized messaging apps.

Morgan Stanley disclosed on Thursday that it expects to pay a $200 million fine, the same amount JPMorgan Chase & Co. paid as authorities use that settlement as a yardstick for the industry. Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank of America Corp. also have had advanced discussions with the regulators to each pay a similar figure, according to people with knowledge of the talks who asked not to be identified because the matter isnt public.

The discussions have not yet concluded and the penalties could still change.

The grand total represents a rare escalation from regulators looking into such an issue, with fines tending to be significantly lower in the past. The sweeping civil probes rank among the largest-ever penalties levied against US banks for record-keeping lapses, dwarfing a $15 million penalty imposed on Morgan Stanley in 2006 over its failure to preserve emails.

Finance firms are required to scrupulously monitor communications involving their business to head off improper conduct. That system, already challenged by the proliferation of mobile-messaging apps, was strained further as firms sent workers home shortly after the start of the Covid-19 outbreak.

In December, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission imposed $200 million in fines on JPMorgan, saying that even managing directors and other senior supervisors at the bank had skirted regulatory scrutiny by using services such as WhatsApp or personal email addresses for work-related communication.

The probes spearheaded by the SEC and CFTC could net an even bigger haul, as the regulators have also sought information from other firms such as HSBC Holdings Plc and Deutsche Bank AG.

The German lender earlier this year reminded employees that deleting messages is forbidden and is rolling out new software on corporate mobile phones that archives WhatsApp messages, Bloomberg has reported. The members of the management board have also agreed to take a pay cut of about $80,000 each to take responsibility for the widespread use of texting and WhatsApp among staff.

Representatives for Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America declined to comment Thursday. Representatives for the CFTC and the SEC also declined to comment.

Unapproved Devices

Morgan Stanleys expected fine was related to a specific regulatory matter concerning the use of unapproved personal devices and the firms record-keeping requirements," the New York-based bank said Thursday, announcing second-quarter results.

When JPMorgans fine was disclosed, Sanjay Wadhwa, deputy director of enforcement at the SEC, said that the New York-based banks failures hindered several commission investigations and required the staff to take additional steps that should not have been necessary."

Firms should share the mission of investor protection rather than inhibit it," he said.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.
Click here to read the full article.

Bros, one of the first romantic comedies from a major studio to feature an almost entirely 2SLGBTQIA+ cast, will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The film stars Billy Eichner of Billy on the Street fame. Eichner wrote the script for Bros with Nicholas Stoller, who also directs. Stoller also directed Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek, and, like those films, Bros is produced by Judd Apatow. Universal is distributing the movie, which centers on two gay men with commitment issues who find themselves gradually falling in love. Luke Macfarlane (Killjoys) plays the object of Eichners affection. In another milestone, Eichner is the first openly gay man to co-write and star in his own major studio film.

Bros opens in theaters on Sept. 30, 2022. Toronto runs from Sept. 8 through Sept. 18 and is looking to return in-person with a major Hollywood presence. Last year, the festival resumed screenings inside, but COVID concerns resulted in smaller crowds and fewer appearances by major stars. The festival has begun the unveil its lineup, which so far includes Sanaa Lathans directorial feature debut On the Come Up and Rian Johnsons Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which will debut in TIFF before it starts streaming on Netflix.

The ensemble of Bros includes Amanda Bearse (Marriedwith Children), Guy Branum (The Other Two), Guillermo Diaz (Scandal), Dot-Marie Jones (Glee), Miss Lawrence (The United States vs. Billie Holiday), Eve Lindley (Dispatches from Elsewhere), Ts Madison (The Ts Madison Experience), Jim Rash (The Way Way Back) and Monica Raymund (Chicago Fire).

Josh Church produced the film along with Apatow and Stoller. It is executive produced by Eichner and Karl Frankenfield.

Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
By Miguel Angel Asturias. Translated by David Unger

Penguin Classics. 282 pp. Paperback, $17.99

- - -

If you've used one of those online translation tools, you probably quickly figured out that simply generating the literal meaning of a string of words can produce an incomprehensible pile of mush.

Language defies such two-plus-two-equals-four formulism. Instead, it demands a more complex equation, a fusion of literal meanings with an understanding of what the original author was trying to say.

This is one of the many challenges David Unger overcame in his masterful translation of "Mr. President," a classic but often overlooked novel by Miguel Angel Asturias. In making this work accessible, Unger didn't just swap Spanish for English. He also navigated a work that draws from the vernacular of a country where half the residents do not speak Spanish, instead primarily communicating in one of more than 20 Indigenous Mayan languages.

Unger, a self-proclaimed "Guategringo" (born in Guatemala; raised and educated in the United States), spells out his task in a fascinating "Note on the Translation" that gives readers a peek into his artistry. Even a pair of Guatemalan aficionados of Asturias were stumped by some of the 250 questions he needed to check with them.

Unger's note is one of three - three! - introductory sections to this Penguin Classics translation, which is an obvious tell that some context and buildup were needed to prime the reader for this seminal work of the Latin American dictator genre. In a foreword, the famed Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa - author of one of the best Latin America dictator books, "The Feast of the Goat," based on the Dominican despot Rafael Trujillo - calls "Mr. President" "qualitatively better than all previous Spanish-language novels."

Then, in an introduction, Gerald Martin, a professor emeritus of modern languages at the University of Pittsburgh, declares that it was Asturias - not Gabriel Garcia Marquez as generally believed - who invented magical realism. Martin tells the gripping origin story of "Mr. President," a novel that Asturias partially wrote in Guatemala in 1922 and finished a decade later in Paris in 1932 after he fled political persecution in the country of his birth. Fourteen years more would pass before the book was finally published, in 1946, in Mexico - the delay necessitated by the threat of more political persecution because Asturias, no longer able to afford to live abroad, had been forced to return to Guatemala. The book was a flop.

It wasn't until "Mr. President," which is set in the early 20th century, was republished two years later in Argentina that it became an "overnight sensation," Martin writes. In later years, Asturias, who died in Madrid in 1974, became a Guatemalan diplomat but went into exile after a coup surreptitiously supported by the United States. He once again achieved great literary acclaim in 1967, sealing a reputation as one of the greats of the region, by becoming the first Latin American novelist to win the Nobel Prize.

The prize renewed interest in "Mr. President," which draws from the autocratic reign from 1898 to 1920 of the Guatemalan dictator Manuel Estrada Cabrera. The book, which even its translator adjudges to have prose that "is often overly poetic, and at times repetitious and redundant," revolves around the murder of a colonel known as "the Man with the Tiny Mule."

The search for his killer is manipulated by a callous president, who is never named, and his confidant, a slippery and ultimately tragic figure named Miguel Angel Face, who "like Satan" was "both good and evil." Face warns one suspect not to "ask whether you're innocent or guilty. . . . An innocent man, without the president's support, is worse off than a guilty person."

Asturias fills the novel with beggars, the idle rich, simpering aristocrats and political sycophants. There are dungeons, vicious beatings, a capricious execution - all in service to a president fawningly known as the "Supreme Godfather," the "Benefactor of the People" and the "Defender of the Studious Youth."

In the president's erratic regime, even his closest allies are at risk. Betrayal is the norm. In one military honcho's household, the maid is spying on the general and the cook, while the cook is spying on the general and the maid.

Given such oppression and mistrust, it only follows that the novel's characters would be plagued by hallucinations and nightmares, each a manifestation of the traumas they face in their real lives. At times, the graphic gruesomeness and despair in the novel can be hard to stomach. But Asturias knew how to moderate those horrors by, thankfully, releasing the tension with absurd or scathingly mocking scenes. During one such moment, a beggar's hallucination includes what has to be one of the longer compound words ever printed: "Curveofacurveinacurveofacurveinacurveofacurveinacurve." (The beggar was in agony, but when I came upon that crazy word I couldn't help but chuckle.)

Reading "Mr. President," it's impossible not to think about the current, sad situation in Guatemala, where endemic corruption, lawlessness, savage drug traffickers, heartless human smugglers and staggering economic inequality - combined with climate change-induced agricultural woes - have driven hundreds of thousands of Guatemalans to attempt risky illegal entry into the United States. (Guatemala consistently is rated among the most corrupt countries by international good-government advocates.)

As "Mr. President" descends deeper into a chasm of injustice, violence and despair, a prisoner embarks on a long lament that almost reads like a premonition: "We are a cursed country. Heavenly voices shout when it thunders: Vile, filthy creatures! Accomplices of wickedness!"

- - -

Manuel Roig-Franzia is a Washington Post staff writer who has served as the paper's bureau chief in Mexico City and Miami.
Following the arrest of a man for allegedly raping and impregnating a 10-year-old girl, conservatives are attacking the doctor who treated her for allegedly not reporting the procedure. The Indiana Star reported on Thursday, however, that Dr. Caitlin Bernard did report the procedure. Conservatives simply didnt bother to actually check up on it before waging their smear campaign, just as they didnt bother to check up on the facts behind the 10-year-olds rape and subsequent abortion before alleging it was fake news.

Todd Rokita, Indianas Republican attorney general, announced Wednesday night on Fox News that his office is investigating Bernard, the Indiana doctor who provided abortion services to the child, who traveled from Ohio to Indiana to terminate a pregnancy after being raped. He also in a letter urged Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb to aid in investigating Bernard

Indiana AG now says they are looking into the doctor pic.twitter.com/MMFsvBRRXs  Acyn (@Acyn) July 13, 2022

First of all this is an illegal immigration issue, Rokita told Jesse Watters. Then we have the rape and then we have this abortion activist acting as a doctor with a history of failing to report. So were gathering the information. Were gathering the evidence as we speak, and were going to fight this to the end, including looking at her licensure. If she failed to report it in Indiana, its a crime for  to not report, to intentionally not report.

The network aired Bernards name and photo, a tactic previously wielded against abortion providers by longtime Fox News host Bill OReilly.

Bill OReilly and Fox did this to Dr. George Tiller for months until anti-abortion activists killed him https://t.co/7GfV2FUnec? https://t.co/te9AOrlFwh  Christopher Mathias (@letsgomathias) July 14, 2022

Rokita went on to blame the situation on Marxists and socialists and those in the White House who want lawlessness at the border, and characterized Bernard as an abortion activist who along with the lamestream media, the fake news wants to politicize the girls assault.

If so-called doctors are covering up child rape, they need to be prosecuted, Watters said.

There was no cover-up. The Star identified public records indicating that Bernard did in fact file a report with the Indiana Department of Health and the Department of Child Services disclosing the abortion. The report was filed July 2, two days after the procedure to terminate the pregnancy was performed and within the timeframe mandated by Indiana law. A separate report was filed to Franklin County Children Health Services in Ohio, who then contacted law enforcement, on June 22. Bernard recieved a refferal from an Ohio child abuse doctor on June 27, and performed a medical abortion for the girl on June 30.

Kathleen Delaney, an attorney representing Bernard, told the Star that Bernard is considering legal action against individuals attempting to smear her and misrepresent her role in the case. She has not violated any law, including patient privacy laws, and she has not been disciplined by her employer, said Delaney.

In a Wednesday night tweet, Bernard said that her heart breaks for all survivors of sexual assault and abuse. I am so sad that our country is failing them when they need us most. Doctors must be able to give people the medical care they need, when and where they need it.

My heart breaks for all survivors of sexual assault and abuse. I am so sad that our country is failing them when they need us most. Doctors must be able to give people the medical care they need, when and where they need it.  Caitlin Bernard (@drcaitbernard) July 14, 2022

Days before the arrest of 27-year-old Gerson Fuentes, Ohio Attorney General David Yost appeared on Fox News to say there was not a damn scintilla of evidence that the case was real, and attempted to shame the Star for running this thing on a single source who has an obvious axe to grind. Yost claimed that we dont know who the originating doctor in Ohio was, if they even exist, but the bottom line is that it is a crime if youre a mandated reporter to fail to report. Following Fuentess arrest, Yost did not acknowledge his previous comments, instead releasing a statement expressing condolences to the girl and indicating his support for law enforcement in their investigation.

Yost did not mention the doctor after the arrest, but other conservatives did. So a 10-year-old girl was raped in Ohio by an illegal alien and couldve gotten a legal abortion in the state bc it threatened her life but the doctors didnt report it to the police, shipped her over to Indiana, and turned it into a media story to sell abortion to the public, wrote commentator Greg Price.

At this time Rolling Stone could not identify any credible reporting indicating the doctors involved in treating the girl failed to alert authorities to the situation.

The rape case drew international attention in the immediate aftermath of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which rendered abortion in Ohio illegal past the point of fetal heartbeat detection, with the only exception being scenario where the is an emergency threatening the pregnant persons life or bodily health. According to the Columbus Dispatch, law enforcement was made aware of the pregnancy on June 22 through a referral from Franklin County Children Services. Detective Jeffrey Huhn testified at Gerson Fuentess arraignment that DNA samples confirmed that Fuentes was the contributing party to the pregnancy.

In the weeks leading up to the arrest, prominent right-wing pundits and government officials attempted to discredit the story as a liberal pro-abortion fantasy. Prominent media outlets, both fringe and mainstream, jumped at the emerging narrative. After President Joe Biden alluded to the case in a speech last Friday, The Wall Street Journal called the story fanciful under the headline An Abortion Story Too Good to Confirm.

Now that the man allegedly responsible for the assault has been arrested and provided law enforcement with a confession, many who intentionally threw dirt on the veracity of the story are attempting to pivot public attention away from their own mistake by focusing on Fuentes alleged undocumented status, and vilifying the doctor who provided potentially life saving treatment to a child in a horrific situation.
Click here to read the full article.

If we were going to borrow the terminology of one pop-culture juggernaut, Star Wars, for another, BTS, we might call this phase of the career of one of the groups members BTS, Episode II: A New J-Hope. At least, J-Hope himself considers this the beginning of a second chapter in the ensembles career as well as a fresh start for his own, as today he releases Jack in the Box, the first of in a series of solo albums that each member of BTS is expected to be putting out in the months to come.

It makes sense that the artist known offstage as Jung Ho-seok would be the first band member to release a full solo project during what is being characterized as a refueling between group endeavors. Since hes known primarily as a rapper, there will necessarily be fewer comparisons drawn between his solo material and the last couple of years of BTS pop earworms like Dynamite and Butter. But in another sense, theres risk involved in coming right out with something that bears quite so little similarity to anything that would have recently been described as a BTS signature sound, even if a different side of hip-hop has been a constant flavor in the groups eight-year discography. The potential reward is certainly worth that risk  the payoff of planting a more significant flag in the ground for South Korean solo rappers with as impressive and credible a hip-hop album as Jack in the Box turns out to be.

A few days before the release of Jack in the Box (and just before wed had a chance to sample the album beyond its first single, More), Variety spoke with J-Hope via Zoom  and via a translator  about how he hoped to show off a different side of himself with the new record, which he described as one that definitely reveals a little darker side of me than anything hes produced with BTS to date. And, after the announcement of the solo projects nearly set off a minor global panic about the groups future, he set the record further straight about just how little worry the world should have about that, in his view.

With all the group members now known to be making solo albums, youre the first out of the gate with one. Can that be taken as any indication that you were the most eager of all, to be ready to go kind of so soon after that announcement?

Actually, the order didnt really matter to us. Even when I worked on BTS group projects all along, I have always thought hard and long about what type of music I can show to the world as J-Hope; I actually consistently thought about that. And the timing worked out really well, so I just happened to be the first one to go solo among my team members. But at the same time, because Im the first one to release a solo album. I do feel the weight on my shoulders. And I do want to start off successfully for all of our team members as well. I was a little bit worried, and I dont want to risk or undermine our reputation as a team with BTS. However, overall, Im very confident and content with the album. I really poured everything into this album and conveyed the messages that I wanted to convey. So no matter what the feedback or the reaction is like, I have no regrets, and Im willing to take any type of feedback as well. Im open-minded to that.

After putting out a mixtape, Hope World, so many years ago, you had the song Chicken Noodle Soup with Becky G out in 2019 as your most recent solo activity. Have you been working on stuff ever since then, or was that a one-off in hour mind, and its really just a recent flurry of activity where you worked on this album?

The theme of Jack in the Box is a theme that has been running in my head for a long time. I thought about this theme for a long time because it has to do with my stage name, J-Hope. So I always wanted to reflect the story about my stage name in my music. But it is true that after the pandemic started, I definitely focused more on producing my solo album. During the pandemic, I realized that life goes on despite all these challenges, and I should not do nothing. I actually got to have a little bit more individual time, me time, so I definitely decided to be a little more productive despite the pandemic going on. So thats when I started focusing on producing my individual music along with BTS music. And in the past I released Hope World and Chicken Noodle Soup, and during those times I definitely planned the right timing for these pieces, because [I thought], This is the right time that I highlight my dance moves, that I showcase my dance performance. This album called Jack in the Box is the moment that I want to highlight my artistry in music. So Ive Ive thought a lot about this theme  this has been my long-term plan.

More, the first single was a real change of pace, and something it would have been hard to do within the context of BTS, with rap verses and then a rock band coming in in the chorus, as seen in the video. Is that is one style out of many on the album, or a real indication of where the rest of the album goes?

There is definitely a clear reason why I chose More as the first track to be released. I wanted to express a little bit of a darker side of me, as J-Hope, as an individual. This song is very powerful, and actually the feeling that you might have got when you first listened to this song is probably definitely reflected on all the other tracks in the album. Im not saying that rap sound is the main theme or the focal point of my album. However, the overall flow or style is kind of consistent throughout all the tracks. Youll probably understand better once you hear the full tracks after the album is released in a few days. This album is full of this type of particular style, and it definitely reveals a little darker side of me, a different aspect of myself. But I ask for your great support once its released.

What can you say about the song Arson, which will be the second song to have a video? The photos being released from the video show you looking pristine in all white, but then singed from what looks like an automotive explosion of some kind.

If you look at the names on the track list, there are many songs with very interesting titles, such as Equal Sign and There Are No Bad People in the World [aka STOP (   )] and especially Arson. The title imagery definitely fits the visual concept that I chose for this song. This is a song about J-Hopes own ignition of my own passion. I ignited a passion for myself, to pursue my career, to pursue my music. But looking back, it kind of went out of control, and the whole world around me is on fire. I have released a lot of songs and music, and I have gotten to receive love and support from all around the world. So now, the fire or the ignition of the passion is not easy to put out anymore. So I wanted to visually express and convey that message through this song titled Arson. And this song is also about how now Im at a crossroads  a point of choosing between whether I want to put out this fire that I started, or do I want to continue and make it flame even more? I believe personally that this song Arson is even more powerful than More in terms of the style and the visual concept as well as the impression it will make. Im very excited about what I will see in terms of reactions and feedback once this song is released.

Do you feel like you have kind of secret influences, or influences that people are not well known to people, that youre really getting to exercise with this album, musically?

Youll probably understand this better when the album is released and you listen to all of the tracks. There are no featured guests in my album; all the tracks are filled with my voice only. Because I wanted to convey my own narrative, my own story as an individual, I thought that featured guests are not necessary in this album production, and I believed that filling all these songs with my own voice only would make this album very authentic. So, when you ask me what kind of influences Ive got, I think the influence that Ive had when working on the album was my inner self  my identity as an individual. The inner self, and my thoughts while working as part of BTS and of the history of my life, have been the influences.

And if you ask musical influences that I had when working on the album, because my career first started based on street dance, I believe that the music that I used to dance to definitely laid the foundation for my music. So you will hear a lot of old-school hip-hop as the basis of the music style in this album.

You have a performance coming up as a headliner at the Lollapalooza festival at the end of July. Can you offer a preview of what your performance style will be like? Because since you have been so associated with dance in the past, people might think that, without the group members to accompany you, you might still have a set of dancers with you, and itll be highly choreographed. But in the More video, there are no dancers in that, and so that kind of suggests that maybe you might be going in a different direction with your onstage performance style as well. Can you describe what your live performances will be like as a solo artist?

Actually with the album Jack in the Box, I decided that I want to highlight the craft and artistry in the music by producing this album, releasing this album. So Im not relying on my usual skill [of dancing]. I can say that I picked up a different, new weapon that I want to use  a different skill that I want to show to people. So this album might leave a very new impression of myself on the audience and listeners. And even when performing at Lollapalooza, I think my intention with producing this album will be reflected in my live performances as well. So Im preparing many different things, so that the solo performance wont be too loose. So Ill be filling this performance with many different aspects and things. It will be great if you can really see it yourself. And I think once you listen to the whole album, youll better understand why I chose to perform at Lollapalooza, and why I decided to take on this huge challenge of performing at a festival as a solo performer.

There was some concern among fans, naturally, when the solo projects were announced, that even though there were assurances that BTS would go on, it could spell a longer split. But then on July 7 it was announced that, even amid this flurry of solo activity, BTS will be doing a concert in October in Busan to boost the idea of South Korea hosting the 2030 World Expo. Do you think that concert announcement set peoples minds about any worries they had about the future of BTS?

When we talked about the temporary break, or focusing on solo projects, we really just were trying to be honest with how we feel and what we want to pursue going forward. I was a little surprised that people took it in a different way than what how we expected them to receive or understand that news. I think there was a little bit of loss in translation as we conveyed that message. And definitely were not on hiatus. The team is going to remain active.

We just learned a lot and we grew together as a team over the last decade, and I believe that was the Chapter One for BTS. So for BTS to sustain longer and to even leap forward, we thought that Chapter Two was definitely needed. So although we grew together and we worked together as a team for the last 10 years, now perhaps it is our time to grow and to pursue what we wanted to do as individuals and focus more on personal growth as individuals. So we would like to embrace and experience many different things as we work on solo projects.

But that does not mean we are putting a stop on BTS group projects, of course. So we expect that after gaining all these experiences and having individual projects, we will have a greater synergistic effect as a team, and we believe that that is the sustainable and healthy way for us to grow as a team. So I think we are on the verge of starting the Chapter Two for BTS  and going forward, we will definitely be working on group projects as well as solo projects. As you mentioned, that there will be a concert in October, and this event will be very meaningful to us as well. So I just hope that theres no misunderstanding about where we are going and what kind of directions were taking as a team.

Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Click here to read the full article.

A contestant on the second season of Netflixs Love Is Blind reality series is suing the streamer and the shows producers, charging them with a string of labor-law violations, including fostering inhumane working conditions and paying cast members less than minimum wage.

The lawsuit, filed by Jeremy Hartwell, alleges Love Is Blind producers plied the cast with alcohol and deprived them of food and water  while paying rates that were below Los Angeles Countys minimum wage. The suit, filed in California Superior Court in L.A., names as defendants Netflix, production company Kinetic Content and Kinetics casting company Delirium TV.

Mr. Hartwells involvement in Season 2 of Love is Blind lasted less than one week. Unfortunately, for Mr. Hartwell, his journey ended early after he failed to develop a significant connection with any other participant, Kinetic said in a statement to Variety. While we will not speculate as to his motives for filing the lawsuit, there is absolutely no merit to Mr. Hartwells allegations, and we will vigorously defend against his claims.

Hartwell, who is director at a mortgage company in Chicago, claims he spent several days recovering from the effects of sleep deprivation, lack of access to food and water and copious amounts of alcohol that he was provided. Love Is Blind Season 2 premiered on Netflix in February 2022.

According to the lawsuit, Love Is Blind contestants should have been classified under California state law as employees rather than independent contractors because producers dictated the timing, manner and means of their work. During the production, producers paid contestants a flat rate of $1,000 per week  despite forcing them to work up to 20 hours per day, seven days per week. That works out to as little as $7.14 per hour, well under the minimum wage in Los Angeles County of at least $15 per hour, according to the complaint.

Producers of the show intentionally underpaid the cast members, deprived them of food, water and sleep, plied them with booze and cut off their access to personal contacts and most of the outside world. This made cast members hungry for social connections and altered their emotions and decision-making, said attorney Chantal Payton of Payton Employment Law, the L.A.-based firm that is representing Hartwell.

Hartwells suit seeks class-action status on behalf of all participants in Love Is Blind and other non-scripted productions created by the defendants over the past four years. Payton Employment Law estimates the potential size of the plaintiff class to number more than 100 individuals.

According to Hartwells suit, the shows contracts required contestants to agree that if they left the show before shooting was completed, they would have to pay $50,000 in liquidated damages. The lawsuit alleges that reality show cast members either have a genuine fear of retaliation and harm to their reputation for any resistance to the orders of those holding the purse strings or they arent aware of their rights.

Payton said in a statement provided by his attorneys, Reality show production and casting companies exert a lot more control over the contestants than the law allows for a worker to truly be considered an independent contractor, especially in shows where cast members are supposedly searching for love.

Kinetic Content, in addition to Love Is Blind, also produces the reality shows The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On, which debuted this year on Netflix, and Married at First Sight, which was created in 2014 and airs on Lifetime and streams on Netflix.

In Love Is Blind, the contestants  15 men and 15 women  meet their dates from separate pods and converse through speakers, unable to see each other. Two contestants must get engaged before they are allowed to meet face-to-face, which for some participants leads all the way to an on-screen marriage and for others a wedding-day breakup. Love Is Blind just picked up a 2022 Primetime Emmy Awards nomination for structured reality program (and earned Emmys two noms in 2020) and has spawned Brazilian and Japanese versions.

Season 3 of Love Is Blind, shot in Dallas, is slated to hit Netflix later this year.

The combination of sleep deprivation, isolation, lack of food, and an excess of alcohol all either required, enabled or encouraged by defendants contributed to inhumane working conditions and altered mental state for the cast, reads Hartwells complaint. At times, defendants left members of the cast alone for hours at a time with no access to a phone, food, or any other type of contact with the outside world until they were required to return to working on the production.

Hartwells lawsuit seeks unpaid wages plus, financial compensation for missed meal breaks and rest periods, plus unspecified monetary damages for unfair business practices and civil penalties for labor code violations.

The suit was filed June 29 in the Superior Court of California for the County of Los Angeles. The case number is 22STCV21223. The court has scheduled a Sept. 16 initial status conference.

Emily Longeretta contributed to this report.

Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Click here to read the full article.

Scrubs co-executive producer Eric Weinberg has been arrested for alleged serial sexual assault, the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to Variety.

Weinberg was arrested on Thursday at 12 p.m. at his residence in Los Feliz for several sexual assaults including rape, the LAPD said in a press release. His bail has been set at $3.225 million. According to the police, Weinbergs arrest is related to several alleged sexual assaults in the Los Angeles area between 2012 and 2019.

In the press release, the LAPD wrote that Weinberg appears to have targeted women in grocery stores, coffee shops, and other public places. He would approach the women who were in their 20-30s, under the guise of being a photographer and would set up photo shoots with them, the LAPD said. Once the women were in his residence, he would sexually assault them during the photo shoot.

Representatives for Weinberg were not able to be reached at the time of publication. When reached by Variety for comment, Weinbergs former manager said he no longer represents him.

LAPD detectives believe that there may be victims dating back to the early 1990s. Anyone with information on the case can contact LAPD at (323)561-3272 or 39284@lapd.online.

According to his IMDb page, Weinberg has not worked in Hollywood since 2016, when he was an executive producer on two episodes of Epixs Graves. He served as a co-executive producer on 92 episodes of comedy Scrubs and also worked as a producer on series Veronicas Closet, Californication, Death Valley, Men at Work and Anger Management.

Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Courtesy/Webb County Sheriff's Office

A man crashed his vehicle into his girlfriends car because she did not want to have sex with him, according to an arrest affidavit.

Cesar Avelino-Morfin, 37, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, assault-family violence and fail to identify by giving false or fictitious information.
During the Monday Webb County Commissioners Court meeting, a hiring freeze was implemented on the Precinct 1 Constables Office as the year moves closer to the election of the new precinct constable in November.

This is not the first, second or third (time) that this happens and all the other ones weve frozen, this one I just think we felt (the need) to freeze, County Judge Tano Tijerina said.

According to Tijerina, this is a long-standing practice as it would allow the incoming elected official to begin hiring their new deputies instead of the interim director. As it stands, the newly elected constable will begin their post in January 2023, in which the hiring freeze would end.

However, current Interim Precinct 1 Constable Claudia Cantu said while she believes her office is doing a great job, the hiring freeze would be an obstacle. She said while it may just be one position, the freeze keeps one more officer off the streets.

Its that one person we dont have serving documents or protecting our courts. Even if the incoming constable would have the opportunity because the person would still be on probation if we were to hire in August, Cantu said.

Cantu believes the incoming elected official would still have time to review and evaluate the employee and decide if the August hire can continue in the department. Regardless of her plea, the commissioners court believed the elected official should have the opportunity to hire the officer and avoid any turnover at that point in time.

Tijerina said that freeze should have been implemented at the time of Cantus shift to interim constable but was overlooked. When asked, Cantu said there may be one potential vacancy as an officer got a better offer in another city.

Former Constable Rodolfo Rudy Rodriguez Jr. retired suddenly in April when he was charged on Feb. 9 with one count of enticing an individual to travel in interstate of foreign commerce to engage in prostitution. The charge carried a jail sentence of up to 20 years and a $250,000 fine; five years to life of supervised release.

According to court documents, the incident leading to the coercion and enticement charge occurred between June 1 and Sept. 26, 2019.

Rodriguez was charged by U.S. Attorney Jennifer B. Lowery stating Rodriguez did knowingly attempt to entice an individual to travel in foreign commerce to engage in prostitution, to wit: an act which would be in violation of Section 43.02(b) of the Texas Penal Code.

Rodriguez had won re-eelction in 2020 with 57% of the vote, besting a pair of candidates in Juan Rendon Jr. (27.4%) and Ricardo Romo (15.7%). His term was set to end Dec. 31, 2024. He had been in the position for more than 17 years. He had been re-elected to his post on five straight occasions.

LMT reported in March that due to the nature of the Precinct 1 Constable vacancy, the court was advised there could be no action implemented to designate another officer as an interim or acting lead over the precinct. Thus, they would take no action, allowing the only path forward being the constable precincts second-in-command or first deputy take on the responsibility after Rodriguezs resignation.

The Precinct 1 office is in charge of serving civil process court orders, enforcing tobacco laws, doing random checks on retailers for the sale of tobacco to minors, assisting Union Pacific Railroad Police with operation Life Savers, enforcing railroad crossing laws and providing traffic control for area schools during the school year, amongst other responsibilities.
Federal law enforcement officials have arrested one convicted sex offender and two accused child molesters, authorities said.

The first case unfolded July 10 when U.S. Border Patrol agents were following foot signs in a south Laredo ranch. Agents then encountered Francisco Zepeda, a 48-year-old Guatemalan national. A records check revealed he had a prior felony conviction for sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a minor out of the New York Police Department.

Agents announced on July 12 that a second apprehension occurred in south Laredo. Agents said they encountered Samuel Luna-Estrada, a 30-year-old Mexican citizen, in a private Laredo ranch attempting to evade apprehension from Border Patrol.

A records check revealed that Luna-Estrada was arrested in 2018 for first-degree sexual assault of a child by the Lexington Police Department.

Laredo Sector agents work diligently to prevent dangerous criminals from illegally entering our country. Border security is essential to increase the safety of our country, and our communities, Border Patrol said in a statement. Significant arrests such as these reflect the tremendous efforts made to ensure the safety of all citizens.

A third apprehension occurred July 15. A man identified as Miguel Angel Robles de Leon arrived at a Laredo international bridge. Further inspection revealed that Robles de Leon had a warrant out for his arrest for indecency with a child by sexual contact out of the Round Rock Police Department, court documents show. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers took custody of Robles de Leon and transported him to the Webb County Jail, where he awaits extradition.
Courtesy/Webb County Sheriff's Office

A man has been arrested in relation to a maquinitas establishment operating without permits and violating health codes during the pandemic in a case dating back to 2020, according to Laredo police.

In August 2020, police carried out an undercover operation at Polanco Executive Nightclub on 5517 McPherson Road. A previous investigation revealed the location had no permits issued by the City of Laredo Building Department. Authorities said the maquinitas violated the health and safety guidelines established by the City of Laredo to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The Consulate General of Mexico and Texas A&M International University strengthened their alliance Tuesday by supporting Mexican students at the institution as they renewed their support for the ninth time with the Institute of Mexicans in the Exterior Program (IME-Becas).

IME-Becas is a financial support program for Mexican undergraduate and postgraduate students allowing them to continue with their academic development.

Consul General of Mexico in Laredo, Juan Carlos Mendoza Sanchez and TAMIU President Dr. Pablo Arenaz signed a Memorandum of Understaing (MOU) reaffirming their commitment to the IME-Becas program, as well as Miguel Conchas, president of the Mexican Cultural Institute, and Eduardo A. Garza Robles, CEO of Uni-Trade Group.

This year, TAMIU received a total of $7,000 in scholarship funds from the IME Beca Program which will be matched by TAMIU. Additional funding includes: $5,000 from Ermilo Richer, CEO of Richer Customs Agency, and $10,000 from Uni-Trade Forwarding through the Mexican Cultural Institute.

Since 2013, the program has awarded $221,690 to Mexican students residing abroad in the United States by providing them with additional educational resources.

The initiative of the private sector, such as the contribution of Eduardo Garza, president of Uni-Trade Forwarding and the Richer Family of the Richer Agencia Aduanal, helps these scholars by multiplying the funds. This helps students by providing more resources for them to succeed and perform as Mexican nationals abroad.

This scholarship will help me finish my degree. I am studying education and in order to work in Texas you need to pass exams. These exams represent extra costs that you have to pay, so this scholarship will help me pay for those exams to graduate as a certified teacher, Rebeca Reyes, an elementary education student at TAMIU, said. "These contributions from the school, the Mexican government, and the private sector are very important, because in an institution such as TAMIU, sometimes the number of scholarships for international or Mexican students can be limited."

Emmanuel Reyes Corona, a communications student with a passion for the cinemagraphic arts, echoed those sentiments.

This scholarship will help me cover my tuition expenses, and since my career is communication, this will also lighten the burden on my family of purchasing materials, books, and equipment to develop in my career, he said. I think that many people have the stigma that if someone is enrolled at TAMIU it is because they have enough money, but sometimes one tries too hard to be able to achieve success in a university like this.

It's not easy to get in and it's not easy to stay. Scholarships like this one, contributions and financial aid are vital for Mexican students like us to be able to continue and achieve our goals. The priority focus of TAMIU is to be international, so there are many students from other countries, scholarships like these reaffirm the internationality of the institution. On this occasion, Mexican students were supported, and it is very good that they continue with this.

karol.garcia@lmtonline.com
The Texas House of representatives will reveal results of their investigation into the May 24 mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas to families of the 21 victims this weekend, Gov. Greg Abbott said during a Thursday press conference.

"It's important for the families to learn firsthand what that investigation has turned up so far," Abbott explained.

However, the governor cautioned that the results of the House's investigation should not be considered exhaustive. "We do know that it will take a while before all of the investigations are complete," he said.

According to Abbott, the House's investigation is one of at least six ongoing inquiries into the massacre at Robb Elementary and law enforcement's response to it, which was dubbed an "abject failure" by Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw.

"When you compare the notes from all of these different investigations, you will see all the facts come together," Abbott said.

Abbott's comments came during the Q-and-A portion of a brief press conference focused on Texas' response to a rise in Fentanyl overdoses and an increase in the drug's distribution across the state. Upon opening the floor for questions, however, Abbott was immediately pushed for new developments related to the Uvalde shooting.

Thursday's press conference followed publication of footage Tuesday by the Austin American-Statesman showing heavily armed officers waiting in the halls of Robb Elementary School as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos carried out his killing spree. About 84 minutes elapsed between when officers first arrived on the scene and when Border Patrol agents finally shot Ramos and ended the carnage.

Abbott reiterated Thursday that the new footage contradicts the account of the shooting he initially received from law enforcement.
News photos of Jupiter just dropped and they're out of this world. On Tuesday, NASA released mind-blowing full-color images of the universe as it has never been seen before taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), sending the internet into a frenzy.

However, as part of Webb's preparation for the galactic photoshoot, scientists first tested how the telescope tracks objects through our solar system. And the results turned out better than expected, with detailed images from JWST's near-infrared camera (NIRCam), which uses different filters to focus on different wavelengths of light, capturing Jupiter and its rings, as well as three of its moons: Europa, Thebe, and Metis.

One of the stand-out images shows the shadow of Europa just to the left of Jupiter's infamous Great Red Spot, a storm scientists say is "big enough to swallow the Earth."

"Combined with the deep field images released the other day, these images of Jupiter demonstrate the full grasp of what Webb can observe, from the faintest, most distant observable galaxies to planets in our own cosmic backyard that you can see with the naked eye from your backyard," said Bryan Holler, a scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore who helped plan the observations, on a NASA blog.

NASA, ESA, CSA, and B. Holler and J. Stansberry (STScI)

"I couldnt believe that we saw everything so clearly, and how bright they were," added Stefanie Milam, Webbs deputy project scientist for planetary science based at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "Its really exciting to think of the capability and opportunity that we have for observing these kinds of objects in our solar system."

The images were released this week in a JWST commissioning report, which detailed the tests Webb underwent. According to the report, the telescope photographed nine targets, and Jupiter was the largest and slowest moving, but also apparently the most stunning. The test demonstrated that JWST was able to track objects, even around a planet as bright as Jupiter bouncing.

NASA, ESA, CSA, and B. Holler and J. Stansberry (STScI)

The telescope can also photograph fast-moving objects, with one of the images showing an asteroid called 6481 Tenzing, located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter during commissioning. GIFs shared on Twitter by NASA show the asteroid moving against a background of stars.

"The key outcome of six months of commissioning is this: JWST is fully capable of achieving the discoveries for which it was built," the commissioning report said. "JWST was envisioned 'to enable fundamental breakthroughs in our understanding of the formation and evolution of galaxies, stars, and planetary systems. We know with certainty that it will."
If you do not have a current print subscription to the Lodi News-Sentinel, but want to view unlimited articles for the month, please choose this option.
The parents of a young north Longford man who tragically took his own life over three years ago have spoken of their hope at how a charity fundraiser which amassed almost 50,000 will help raise awareness and foster a wider debate on mental health.

John and Johanna OHara were reacting this week to the recently held and aptly named Walk a Mile in Memory of Niall that garnered over 47,500 for suicide support charities Youth Suicide Prevention Ireland (YSPI) and Healing Untold Grief Groups (HUGG).

It was an appeal which brought with it as much ebullience as it did unbridled emotion as Longford folk turned out in their droves to remember the much loved and ultra talented Granard youngster.

The 20-year-old Maynooth students tragic passing in March 2019 cast a deep shadow over a community he and his family have become synonymous with and a parish which over seven action packed and gruelling days covered some 150km of ground in his memory.

It has been very difficult to put into words what our Walk in memory of our beloved Niall, has meant to us as a family, said Johanna.

Sometimes words dont seem adequate. Some things in life must be felt. Some things must be experienced and our walk was no exception to that.

Moving words they may be, they are sentiments which illustrate the inescapable level of unselfishness and benevolence communities like Granard can exude in times of unquantifiable grief.

A perfect example of that could, perhaps, be best summed up in how a GoFundMe campaign which had initially been designed to raise 3,000 is now touching the 48,000 mark.

It was an opportunity to reconnect, added Johanna.

To have conversations, important conversations, difficult conversations which somehow always seem a little easier when walking side by side surrounded by nature.

It was so emotional with lots of tears  tears of sadness but also many, many tears of joy. It was everything that covid wasnt, human connection and big warm hugs.

Many of those embraces Johanna alluded to are very much fresh in the memory, just over a week on from the culmination of a walk the OHara family are still coming to terms with.

From the family home in Muckerstaff to Maynooth where Niall was a well respected student for three years, no fewer than 20 different landmarks were bypassed on a journey that climaxed with a special mass at St Marys Church in Granard last Saturday week (July 2).

Both Johanna and John told of how they had been left dumbfounded at the amazing asset Longfords greenway had provided in making the event such a memorable occasion.

A warm, friendly and obliging couple, Johanna and John are everything and more that would expect from loving and devoted parents.

The pair, you get the distinct impression, were not just patiently waiting for Nialls memorial fundraiser to arrive, but were overawed at the sheer level of goodwill when it eventually did.

It is impossible for us this side of heaven to fully understand our present situation, but what we do know for certain is that Niall, loved his family, his friends, St Marys GAA, and the time he spent at Maynooth University, said John.

We had the support of all those people that Niall loved on our journey but also so much more. Our entire community and beyond came out and joined us. So many people travelled long distances to be with us. Strangers met us and embraced us along the way like we were old friends.

Family and friends of Nialls joined us from all over the world, doing their own walks in New York, California, San Diego, Vancouver, New Zealand, Australia, and Lebanon. The entire journey was filled with so much genuine love.

Feeling the connection of so many amazing people made the entire walk so incredibly special. Every step was filled with love and a huge sense of community spirit.

Its a feeling which has unsurprisingly raised the prospect of whether the fundraiser could become an annual event.

And while Johanna said replicating the success of Nialls inaugural memorial would be easier said than done, the chance of holding a more localised walk in the future remains a possibility that has yet to be fully explored.

For now though, the OHaras are just focusing on the positives, the unwavering decency that can exist in humanity and the five figure sums which will enable two of Irelands leading suicide support groups erase the stigma around a topic which, for too long, has ignored rather than challenged.

The huge amount of money so generously donated to our charities www.hugg.ie and www.yspi.ie will allow them the opportunity to reach out and help so many more people, said Johanna.

That money is going to make an enormous difference to the lives of others. We as a family found a sense of peace and experienced a joy that we thought would never be possible again.

We are so very grateful to the many people that made that happen for us.

There are way too many to thank individually right now but over the coming months we will try our absolute best to do just that.
A full garda investigation is underway this afternoon after a fire ripped through a family home in Longford town last night.

Gardai have launched an investigation into the circumstances behind a house fire in Longford town last night barely two weeks after it, together with 40 other social housing units, was opened by the Government.

A view of the scene in Farnagh this afternoon

The blaze at a two bedroom property in the Alderfield estate, Farnagh, Longford town, broke out at around 10:30pm.

Emergency services rushed to the scene in an effort to wrestle control of the fire and prevent it spreading to adjoining houses.

Several neighbours and other locals surrounded the house not knowing whether a father and his young son, who reside at the property, were inside as smoke billowed into the night sky.

The scene itself was cordoned off this morning ahead of a full garda forensic investigation being carried out.

A garda spokesperson said gardai and emergency services attended a fire at a house that occurred at Farnagh Hill, Longford shortly after 10:30pm last night.

A number of locals gather at the scene last night

A number of local residents expressed their dismay at the incident.

Luckily he (owner) wasnt there, said local man Shane Collins.

His sister sometimes comes and stays with him and looks after the child but they were up in Dublin apparently when the guards phoned him.

Its very unusual. I spoke to his neighbour last night and he said he is a nice fella and didnt see any trouble.

"We were concerned there was somebody in it because we kept ringing the fire brigade but the fire really took hold a couple of minutes after that. You could see a fire in the bedroom, we didnt see it anywhere else.

Another local resident spoke of her relief at how no one was inside when the fire broke out.

People were running to see if anyone was trapped inside because a little boy lives there. There was nothing anyone could do as the whole thing just went up so fast.

The incident comes a little over two weeks since Junior Housing Minister Peter Burke officially opened the 10.8m estate as part of a 17.4m investment under the States Social Housing Capital Investment Programme (SHCIP).

Longford Municipal District Cathaoirleach Cllr Gerry Hagan said he had been left extremely disappointed at how such an incident could have occurred so soon after the estate was officially opened to the public.

Its very disappointing to see a house which was opened by the Minister for Housing only last Monday week being burned to the ground like this, he said, while expressing his delight that no one was injured as a result.

Longford County Council will await the outcome of the garda investigation which will now follow and to try and establish what caused the fire.
Irish premier Micheal Martin will tour Japan and Singapore in a bid to grow Irelands relationship with the region.

Mr Martin will also express his sympathies to the people of Japan after the killing of former prime minister Shinzo Abe.

Mr Abe, one of the longest-serving prime ministers in modern Japanese history, was shot dead last Friday.

The Taoiseach will also meet with Japans current leader, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Speaking ahead of the visit, the Taoiseach said that Ireland had much in common with Japan and Singapore.

I am greatly looking forward to my visit to Japan and Singapore, two nations with which we in Ireland have much in common, he said.

While there, I expect to discuss Russias immoral and inhumane invasion of Ukraine, the impact of which is being felt all around the world.

Well also discuss global challenges, maintaining economic growth, restoring broken supply chains, and how we can work together on climate change.

Our Global Ireland Asia Pacific Strategy seeks to deepen our links across the region, and this trip will be an opportunity to create even more opportunities for our countries to work together.

Mr Martin will also visit the site of the new Ireland House in Tokyo, set to be completed in 2024, under the Governments Global Ireland Strategy.

While in Singapore, he will meet with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, as well as representatives from a number of Irish companies operating on the island nation.
Local News, Crime

By Long Island Published: July 15 2022

The Third Squad reports the arrest of a Mineola man for multiple incidents of Criminal Mischief that occurred on various dates and different locations in Nassau County.

The Third Squad reports the arrest of a Mineola man for multiple incidents of Criminal Mischief that occurred on various dates and different locations in Nassau County.

Third Squad Detectives were investigating incidents of Criminal Mischief that occurred on five separate occasions from May 11, 2022 to July 11, 2022. According to detectives, the investigation led to the identity and location of Manuel C. Reis, 59, of 36 Berkley Road. Police discovered that Reis intentionally placed tire spikes in the roadway near Nassau County Police facilities, resulting in the damage to multiple

Nassau County Police Department vehicles, as well as a female victims personal automobile.

Manuel C. Reis was placed under arrest at his residence on July 14, 2022 at 1:43 pm in Mineola.
(Alliance News) - CPPGroup PLC on Friday said it expects results for first half of 2022 to be in line with the board's expectations.

CPPGroup "continues to record good growth in its key Indian and Turkish markets. Blink, the group's InsurTech platform servicing the global travel sector, is starting to build a credible proposition around its travel disruption services," explained the Leeds-based company, which provides products and services for financial services customers.

The company is currently focused on a change management programme, under which its Indian business will receive a new IT platform. It will take until early 2025 to complete, CPPGroup said.

The firm will release its results for the six months that ended June 30 on September 26.

Shares in CPPGroup were unchanged at 194.00 on Friday in London. The stock is down 60% in the past 12 months.

By Tom Budszus; tombudszus@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - DP Poland PLC on Friday reported a "strong" sales performance in the past month and a half, and said the reorganisation of an acquisition will complete before the planned date.

Shares were up 6.9% at 6.20 pence each on Friday in London.

The franchise in Poland for Domino's Pizza said system sales were significantly above pre-Covid levels in June.

The company saw like-for-like system sales increased by 24% compared to a year ago and by 23% compared to June 2019. Total system sales were up by 21% compared to June 2021 and 15% compared to June 2019.

In the first 10 days of July, LFL system sales increased by 33% on a year before.

Cash stood at GBP800.000 as at June 30, down from GBP1.8 million as at December 31. "The decrease in cash balance results from capital expenditure for two new stores openings, purchase of 6 new ovens, 30 new fuel scooters, 50 e-bikes and covering working capital needs," DP Poland explained.

Chief Executive Officer Piotr Dzierzek said: "I am delighted to see the strong sales performance achieved in the first half of 2022 continuing which is a consequence of our hard work in prior months and investment in customer acquisition."

DP Poland announced on June 15 that it had agreed to buy All About Pizza DOO, trading as Domino's Croatia, for about GBP2.4 million, through the issue of 29.8 million shares at 8p per share.

On Friday, the company said it expects this to complete ahead of the previously planned date of July 29.

As part of the deal, Domino's Croatia Chief Executive Nils Gornall will take over as CEO of all of DP Poland.

By Xindi Wei; xindiwei@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC on Friday said it plans to raise GBP653 million in equity, after rejecting a GBP1.3 billion investment offer, which will make Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund its second-largest shareholder.

The Gaydon, England-based luxury carmaker proposed an equity raise of GBP653 million, led by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund. Also taking part are Lawrence Stroll's Yew Tree Consortium and fellow car maker Mercedes-Benz Group AG, and in total the three are expected to invest GBP335 million.

The investment would make Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund the company's second largest shareholder. Stroll, Aston Martin's executive chair, remains the car maker's largest shareholder.

Formed in 1971 to support the Saudi economy, Saudi Arabia's PIF - one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds - has around USD620 billion in assets under management.

Aston Martin will raise the funds through a placing of 23.3 million shares at a price of GBP3.35 each for GBP78.0 million to PIF, followed by an underwritten rights issue to raise GBP575 million.

Aston Martin shares rose 19% to 440.90 pence each in London on Friday morning, giving the company a market capitalisation of GBP504.3 million - meaning the total proposed equity raise is worth more than its current market value.

Proceeds from the fundraise will go towards the repayment of existing debt, improvement of the company's cash flow generation and to provide a liquidity cushion for what remains a challenging operating environment, Aston Martin said.

"The board believes the proposed capital raise will serve to further support the company's re-affirmed medium-term targets of about 10,000 wholesales, about GBP2 billion revenue and about GBP500 million adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation by 2024/25, and strongly positions it for positive free cash flow generation from 2024," it explained.

At the end of June, industry publication Autocar reported that Aston Martin was seeking to raise funds, but due to GBP1.2 billion of outstanding loans and bank drafts, it would be unable to raise funds by taking on more debt. Autocar also reported that the fundraising could include bringing a significant new investor in, potentially offering a position on the company's board as an inducement.

On Friday, Aston Martin said PIF will be given two seats on the board, assuming it has a 10% stake in the company following the equity raise. Meanwhile, the Mercedes stake will slip to 9.7% from 11.7% currently, despite it taking up its full entitlement of shares.

Aston Martin also confirmed that it rejected an offer from Investindustrial Group Holdings and Geely International Hong Kong - collectively the Atlas Consortium - for an equity investment of up to GBP1.3 billion, comprising a GBP203 million firm placing and subsequent GBP1.11 billion underwritten rights issue.

"The board of Aston Martin believes that the proposal markedly overestimated the company's new equity capital requirements, would have been heavily dilutive for existing shareholders, and comprised a number of execution obstacles," the company stated.

The capital raise will help the company's pipeline, as Aston Martin set out plans for a fully electrified grand tourer/Sport and SUV portfolio by 2030.

Meanwhile, the carmaker reaffirmed its outlook for 2022 as it continues trading in line with expectations, seeing "strong demand trends continuing". It delivered 27 Valkyries in the half-year.

The company will release its interim results on July 29.

By Tom Budszus; tombudszus@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Friday and not separately reported by Alliance News:

----------

Premier Miton Group PLC - London-based asset manager - Total assets under administration closed third quarter at GBP11.31 billion, sliding from GBP12.8 billion three months earlier. Records GBP300 million in net outflows during the quarter. Blames "uncertainty" caused by geopolitical events led to reduction in assets. "Investors remain cautious about committing to new investments, as highlighted by ongoing outflows across UK public equities, and we saw net outflows of GBP300 million in the period. These were primarily from European and UK equity funds, reflecting softer client sentiment. The outflows were partially offset by inflows into our fixed income funds and the Diversified multi-asset funds," Chief Executive Mike O'Shea adds.

----------

Henderson Diversified Income Trust PLC - Janus Henderson managed fixed income-focused fund - Net asset value per share ends April 30 at 79.55 pence each, sliding from 91.87p at the same point a year prior. It recorded an annual dividend of 4.40p, unchanged on the year before. NAV total return in year to April 30 negative 9.0%, underperforming benchmark which returned negative 7.0%.

----------

Infrastructure India PLC - Isle of Man-based closed-ended investment company focused on assets in India - Grants extension to long stop date for Indian Energy Ltd asset sale. Notes IEL holds two wind farm assets within separate special purpose vehicles, Theni and Gadag, which are its only assets. The GBP5.8 million sale to AVSR Constructions is expected in the coming weeks. It adds: "The company's creditors continue to be supportive, however, should the outstanding conditions not be met by IEL and consequently the sale not proceed, the company will not have adequate funding to meet its liabilities when they fall due and will need to identify other sources of financing."

----------

Warehouse REIT PLC - real estate investment trust focused on warehouses - Draws GBP63.0 million from revolving credit facility with existing lenders to help fund acquisition of Bradwell Abbey Industrial Estate in Milton Keynes. Now has total debt facilities of GBP345.0 million, and facility runs through to January 2025, with an option to extend for a further two years.

----------

Roquefort Therapeutics PLC - London-based biotechnology company - Shares start trading on the OTCQB Venture Market in the US. Notes it will continue to trade on its primary listing, on the Main Market in London. "Cross trading on the OTCQB market allows the company to access one of the world's largest investment markets to expand its reach into a broader pool of investors. Roquefort Therapeutics shares will be available to US investors during US working hours and priced in US dollars and thus has the potential to enable greater liquidity in the company's shares on the London Stock Exchange by easing cross-border trading for potential US investors," it adds.

----------

HealthBeacon PLC - Dublin-based digital therapeutics company developing project for managing injectable medications - Launches new Smart Scale product, which it says is an integrated solution that forms part of its Injection Care Management System. Adds: "The HealthBeacon Smart Scale enables patients to add weight monitoring to its ICMS, as the connected weight scale tracks weight progression, providing clinical teams with insights on specific medication outcomes." Expects Smart Scale will become available to patients this autumn.

----------

N4 Pharma PLC - Derbyshire, England-based pharmaceutical company - In a pre-clinical study of delivery system Nuvec with TNF-alpha, known as Medicines Discovery Catapult, there is clear tumour suppression with 10 micrograms of TNF-alpha loaded into Nuvec, a lower dose than used in earlier studies. Biochemical analysis of blood and tissue samples show that treatment led to an increase in circulating plasma TNF-alpha levels. "We continue to make good progress in understanding how Nuvec can be used in the oncology space," says CEO Nigel Theobald.

----------

Global Invacom Group Ltd - Whitstable, Kent and Singapore-based satellite communications equipment and electronics firm - Says wholly-owned subsidiary Global Invacom Manufacturing (Shanghai) Co Ltd is now dissolved. "The dissolution does not have any material impact on the consolidated net tangible assets per share or earnings per share of the group for the financial year ending December 31, 2022," it adds.

----------

Crossword Cybersecurity PLC - Richmond, England-based cybersecurity solutions company - Issues GBP550,000 of convertible loan notes, with expiry date of July 2025, at a price of 26.1 pence. Notes outstanding loan notes now valued at GBP1.9 million, with GBP225,000 to be repaid in December 2022 and January 2023. Chief Executive Tom Ilube says: "It is pleasing that Crossword is being supported in strengthening its working capital with the extension of current convertible loan notes and issue of additional convertible loan notes with new investors in Crossword."

----------

Doric Nimrod Air One Ltd - Guernsey-based investment company that leases aircraft - Reaches agreement to sell aircraft to Emirates airlines at end of lease, expected to be December 16, for GBP25.3 million. Will distribute sale proceeds to shareholders. "It is currently anticipated that the process for liquidation of the company will commence as soon as practicably possible thereafter, following payment of monies to shareholders," it adds. Liquidation expected in early in the first calendar quarter of 2023. Shareholder return to be about 66 pence.

----------

Mineral & Financial Investments Ltd - Cayman Islands-based investment company - Grants extension to the terms of the earn-in and call option agreements with Ascendant Resources Inc for a 50% interest in Redcorp Empreendimentos Mineros. Ascendant has the option to earn an additional 30% interest in Redcorp, for a total 80% interest. Ascendant now has to complete feasibility study on Lagoa Salgada by June 2023, as well as make a final payment to firm of USD2.5 million. Ascendant expects to complete the study by 1Q 2023.

----------

TomCo Energy PLC - London-based oil explorer in the US state of Utah - Wholly-owned subsidiary, Greenfield Energy LLC, awarded 10-year marginal tax reduction for planned Tar Sands site located in the Uinta Basin, Utah. Says tax reduction could results in savings of up to USD76.3 million. Company can buy up to 90% of Tar Sands site before end of 2022. "We believe our proposed development project in Uintah County is based on an exceptional deposit with tremendous potential. We continue to make good progress with our plans for the TSHII site and continue to advance the previously announced due diligence exercise being undertaken by a potential financing party currently interested in backing our plans for Greenfield," Chief Executive John Potter says.

----------

Challenger Energy Group PLC - Isle of Man-based oil and gas company focused on the Caribbean and the Atlantic-margin - Timothy Eastmond resigns as chief financial officer, effective immediately, for personal reasons. Current Chief Commercial Officer Gagan Khurana to take over CFO role on interim basis, until a suitable permanent replacement is found. Notes Eastmond's 160 million share options under executive option plan to cancel as he has not met performance criteria for the vesting.

----------

Curzon Energy PLC - investor and developer in US based natural gas projects - Continues discussions with Poseidon Enhanced Technologies over potential reverse takeover. Wants to extend exclusivity rights to September 30. "While there can be no certainty at present that these rights will be formally extended, the Company believes that productive discourse continues and will update the markets with any outcome of these discussions in due course," company adds.

----------

Ironveld PLC - South Africa-focused exploration and development company - Raises GBP500,000 from broker option in recent equity raise. Granted Turner Pope Investments ability to buy up to GBP1.0 million in shares in broker option alongside placing. Gross proceeds from placing, as a result, now GBP4.5 million. Says net proceeds will be used to complete the acquisition of FCF and the refurbishment of its existing smelter located in Rustenburg, South Africa.

----------

By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Thursday and not separately reported by Alliance News:

----------

Shield Therapeutics PLC - Newcastle, England-based commercial-stage pharmaceutical company - Its Accrufer-Feraccru iron deficiency treatment gets new drug submission approval from Health Canada. "Health Canada are expected to complete their regulatory review in mid-2023 and a successful outcome will allow KYE to market Accrufer in Canada. Shield will be responsible for all manufacturing and supply to the Canadian market," it adds. Company nets GBP250,000 milestone payment for approval and eligible for an additional GBP600,000 in milestone payments upon the achievement of specified calendar net sales targets.

----------

PureTech Health PLC - Boston, Massachusetts-based clinical-stage biotherapeutics firm - Subsidiary Akili Interactive Labs Inc's Systemic Lupus Erythematosus treatment, AKL-T01, sees significant improvement in motor speed and executive functions in study. The study results were published in the medical journal Lupus, it notes. Akili Chief Medical Officer Anil Jina says: "The results of this study in patients with SLE are consistent with the cognitive improvements seen in other studies after using our digital therapeutic. We are excited to see this continued validation of our technology platform as we advance our pipeline to deliver clinically meaningful cognitive and quality-of-life improvements across patient populations."

----------

Audioboom Group PLC - London-based podcast producer - Renews partnerships with "key" podcasts including Dark History, Murder Mystery & Makeup and No Such Thing As A Fish. Also plans to expand "creator network" through new commercial agreements with two podcasts, Fair Game with Leah Remini and The Roman Atwood Podcast.

----------

Angle PLC - Surrey, England-based medical diagnostics company - Proposes placing equal to 10% of existing issued share capital through placing and subscription. Says net proceeds will be used to help its commercialisation plans for its Parsortix system. Number of shares to be placed, and the price, will be determined after the bookbuild closes. Hopes to raise about GBP20 million.

----------

Greatland Gold PLC - mine developer and explorer in Western Australia - Renegotiates obligations for consideration due under the original 2016 acquisition of the Havieron project. Initial deal sees payment of AUD25,000 cash and issue of 65.5 million shares and further 145.5 million shares conditional upon Greatland's ownership interest in Havieron reducing to 25% on a decision to mine at Havieron. Says Five Diggers, who is receiving the shares, now agrees to take 4.5% reduction in shares, now totalling 139.0 million and equals GBP14.5 million saving, and agrees to 2-year restriction on dealing.

Shaun Day, managing director of Greatland Gold, says: "This is an excellent outcome, simultaneously removing the uncertainty of this long-standing share issue, reducing shareholder dilution by decreasing the number of shares being issued and introduces a two-year restriction on dealing with the shares."

----------

MGC Pharmaceuticals Ltd - Perth, Australia-based medicinal cannabis company - Sees "successful results" of clinical study into the influence of its ArtemiC Support on patients with post-acute Covid Syndrome, also known as long Covid. "ArtemiC Support, has demonstrated the ability of the supplement to improve the symptoms of long Covid," it says.

----------

Panther Metals PLC - mineral exploration in Canada - "Delighted" with "stunning" drilling results from Burtville East gold project and Eight Foot Well prospect in Western Australia. Notes result finds 1 metre at 79.90 grammes per tonne gold from 27 metres and 1 metre at 478.00 grammes per tonne from 28 metres, both coming from hole BVE006. Chief Executive Darren Hazelwood says the results reinforce the case for further exploration at Burtville East.

----------

Premier African Minerals Ltd - British Virgin Islands-based minerals and metals project developer - Sees "impressive" results from Zulu lithium and tantalum project. "The work to date has provided the level of confidence we needed internally to support the pilot plant concept as recently announced. In fact, what we are now understanding about the Zulu deposit is entirely complementary to the use of sensor-based ore sorting and in time is likely to result in a most efficient and effective process," Chief Executive George Roach says.

----------

Capital Ltd - mining services company - Wholly-owned subsidiary MSALABS expands partnership with Chrysos Corp. Tie in will see MSALABS deploy 21 Chrysos PhotonAssay units across its project by 2025. Notes revenue guidance for MSALABS in 2022 remains about USD30 million. Following the rollout of the further 15 units across 2023 and 2024, in conjunction with the expansion of the existing geochemistry business, MSALABS anticipates generating revenues in excess of USD80 million per annum.

----------

By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - The biggest rail workers' union in the UK has announced two further strikes this summer in the worsening dispute over jobs, pay and conditions.

Members of the Rail, Maritime & Transport union at Network Rail and 14 train operators will walk out on August 18 and 20.

The union previously announced a strike for July 27, the day before the Commonwealth Games opens in Birmingham.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: "The rail industry and the government need to understand that this dispute will not simply vanish.

"They need to get serious about providing an offer on pay which helps deal with the cost-of-living crisis, job security for our members and provides good conditions at work.

"Recent proposals from Network Rail fell well short on pay and on safety around maintenance work.

"And the train operating companies have not even made us a pay offer in recent negotiations.

"Now Grant Shapps (Transport Secretary) has abandoned his forlorn hopes for the job of prime minister, he can now get back to his day job and help sort this mess out.

"We remain open for talks, but we will continue our campaign until we reach a negotiated settlement."

Andrew Haines, chief executive of Network Rail, said: "By announcing even more strike dates, the RMT has dropped any pretence that this is about reaching a deal.

"It's clear the best interests of passengers and our staff are taking second place to the union's bosses' political campaign."

The companies involved in the RMT strikes are: Network Rail, Chiltern Railways, Cross Country Trains, Greater Anglia, LNER, East Midlands Railway, c2c, Great Western Railway, Northern Trains, South Eastern, South Western Railway, Transpennine Express, Avanti West Coast, West Midlands Trains and GTR (including Gatwick Express).

The drivers' union Aslef earlier announced its members at eight train companies will strike on July 30 in the same dispute.

By Alan Jones, PA Industrial Correspondent

source: PA

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Flooding is one of the most prevalent and devastating disasters in Liberia. It happens every year in many parts of Liberia. And it has significant social and economic impacts. It threatens sustainability because it negatively affects the economy, health, social life, and environment. The extent and nature of Liberias flooding are such that the actual figures for displacements, losses, and fatalities cannot be truly ascertained due to poor record and reporting, however, according to the United Nations Office for Partnership (UNOP), around 2.2 million people are exposed to floods, 320,000 to coastal erosion and 2.1 million to windstorms in Liberia.



Causes of Flooding in Liberia

According to a 2021 study from the UN University, the academic and research arm of the UN, human activity is the common link between natural disasters around the world. Unlike some natural disasters, rainfall flooding can be controlled with proper planning and the provision of necessary infrastructure. Liberiasflooding is mainly human-induced with poor urban planning practices and inadequate environmental infrastructure as contributing factors.



Poor or non-existent drainage systems are a major cause of flooding in Liberia. Many residential areas have no drainage system and rely on natural drainage channels. Increasing urbanization also means more areas are built with concrete and cannot absorb water, increasing runoff. The country's poor waste management is another recognized factor. Citizens poor attitude toward waste disposal and non-provision of waste disposal services by city authorities contribute to flooding. It is not uncommon to have drains blocked by huge piles of trash in Monrovia and its environs.



Due to high unemployment in rural Liberia, the country is experiencing unregulated urban expansion. The country is experiencing high urbanization rates without commensurate provision of urban infrastructure and amenities. Swamplands are increasingly being converted to residential areas to accommodate housing needs. It seems that Liberia has no planning law. One consequence of this is that there have been construction projects on natural floodplains and stormwater paths. This has exacerbated flooding.



Corruption is also a factor. It is not uncommon for city planning officials to accept bribes and overlook issues. These may include unauthorized use of land and alteration of approved construction plans. While some citizens also capitalize on the loophole of ineffective development control and extend their buildings over the approved areas. Sometimes they go as far as building over drains.

Liberias President Weah's response to flooding is typical of Liberian politicians. He used the flooding national disaster to score photo ops every time these floodings occurred in Liberia. Like most Liberian politicians, President Weah gets out of his luxury car and promises to build new homes for flood victims. But what is missing is appropriate action to mitigate the flooding. The Liberia National Disaster Risk Management policy provided by the National Disaster Management Agency of Liberia (NDMA) does not put more emphasis on flooding management. The lack of flood management policy is an indication of the low importance given to controlling and managing floods in Liberia.

What needs to be done?

Historically, politicians have been more focused on post-disaster flood response for photo ops than control. Reducing and addressing exposure to flooding risk is now a national priority in the Liberian governments disaster risk agenda. However, nothing concrete has been achieved. Also, the NDMA, an agency responsible for all disaster management in Liberia is less funded. In the 2022 budget, while the Presidency was given US$20 million and the Legislature US$64.3 million, the NDMA was allocated USD 846,386. This raises questions about the political will to achieve the goals of tackling floods in the country.

Questions: Does the government of Liberia have research institutions and agencies with the skills to design a flood risk management strategy? Does the National Disaster Management Agency of Liberia have a department of planning utilizing geographical information systems to work on flood data? In Liberia, there are no effective national early warning systems in place for floods at the national and local levels.



Crafting flood risk management policy and integrating spatial planning is the way to go. Sustainable urban planning and green infrastructure could also be combined with information and communication technology tools. Citizens can use these to communicate with the relevant authorities at the onset of flooding. Addressing Liberias perennial flooding is important for the country to make progress. The human-induced causes of flooding should be addressed urgently. Not doing this will delay its journey to sustainable development.


It is my greatest honor to be able to write to you with the satisfaction and foresight that you will someday realize, if not now, that you are regarded in the highest esteem! Your youth is a full representation of what is good in us; it gives us hope and inspiration we intend to leverage to birth a Liberian Renaissance for the transformation of our homeland. Brace yourselves future generations, we have work to do. It is only you who can ensure that that work is completed in the direction that removes this self-imposed shame and disgrace of backwardness that has plagued our country for some 200 years! Immortality calls, which one of you will answer?



You live in an age of great endeavors, and your generation is presented with the greatest opportunity to drastically alter the direction of our homeland; your stance in the moment will define the future you inherit. This period calls on you to think differently, be forceful on good governance issues, read relentlessly and expand your curiosity; do not be fearful of failure. You must tirelessly push to up your standard of living and achieve what seems like an impossible dream  a country rescued from the depths of despair and hopelessness, and transformed into a nation that is self-reliant, guided by institutions and truly independent.



Stand firmly and united in your position, be smart but most importantly, allow nothing to shake the foundation of your aspirations. Clearly define the nation you want and embrace national struggles with the fearless innocence of your youth. Do not fragment your revolution for change, include all, especially your well-positioned compatriots in the diaspora. They will be your voice to the outside world. Moreover, you must do so with total control and only allow the most prepared, the most discipline, the best and brightest amongst you to lead and define your principles and the direction of our society.



Know this to be true: You are the main agents of change and progress for our society. Have a scornful contempt for national failure, mediocrity, tribalism, manipulative political divisions, and that blood-sucking beast called corruption. Your stance must always side with meritocracy, judicial morality, impartiality, and a commitment to excellence and industry. No task is too small not to be accorded the highest degree of due diligence; each of you should pay attention to the details and play your roles to the best of your abilities.



Only allow what benefits the larger society to be accepted as a norm  avoid impropriety and be unwavering in your moral principles. Elevate the noble tenets of Liberian Customs and Traditions  persistently shun unsolicited outside influence.



The youth must endure great pains now to gain the comforts of modernity for you and your children, but most importantly, to elevate your country to a place of dignity, pride, and true sovereignty. Your generation is the only one who can do this. Corrupt politicians and their opportunistic foreign handlers thrive in the current chaos that is Liberia  it maximizes their loots to the detriment of the greater population. Fight against amoral behaviors without ceasing!



Be willing to lay down everything for the country you need, or you will be laid down for the chaos they desire! The former may be abrupt, but the latter is always slow and extremely painful. Always choose the former and stand on your principles. Remember to do this as a united front and never separately, for you are weak as individuals but strongest in your union. To be successful, you must bond as one to get the society you deserve. Always keep in mind that you must give up something of value to gain something of greater value. This is the only way.



Where the decks are stacked against you and the government makes peaceful assembly impossible, denies you social reforms and every opportunity for redress, and becomes heavy-handed, punch the air with thunderous fists as Jonathan Larson proposes: Anarchy! Revolution, Justice, Screaming for Solutions, Forcing Changes, Risk, and Danger, Making Noise, and Making Pleas! No matter what happens, you must win the day together, or you will lay the wreath separately. Dont allow yourselves to get too weak to stand and face your tormenters; use your youth to strengthen your position so that no man is tempted to subjugate you against your will and deny you what is naturally yours.

Your youth is the catalyst for social reforms. Self-determination and self-belief must be the engines that drive your need for a transformative change of Liberia. The country and renewal we seek must first be birthed in the spirits of each one of us; be it a political, social, or economic revolution, there must be a oneness of vision contrary to the old traditions of bad governance that have kept our society so far behind.



Single Individuals working selfishly for individual reasons will not help the cause. Individual-minded people are your enemies! You must think and act as a group. Your generation must effectuate change en masse and push your national vision en masse for it to take root.



Each of you is unique in his own glory; you must combine your individual glories and struggle in oneness and create a singular purpose that forever binds you and creates in you that patriotic spirit that brings about the egalitarian style of self-governance you deserve.



Struggle in truth, in love, and in reverence of each other, and never forsake your kind for another. Your ideology must lay its foundation in loyalty, discipline, and allegiance to your country and to each other; your obligations must put the groups interests far above that of the individual. You must always subscribe to this belief: Country over everything! Sharpen your skills and remove every form of inferiority complex and doubt about what you can achieve; you are way more capable than what you give yourselves credit for. Apply yourselves more.



One cannot stress the importance of education more than what you already know. Aggressively push to develop your technical skills. Learn the skills of your tormenters and surpass them. This is the only way you can protect yourself against their tactics. Know that these tricks are constantly evolving and stay ahead of the curve. Your push for total independence and modernity is not a one-day affair, this is a life-long battle. There are forces constantly pushing against you, always have a fortified position  developing your mind is the greatest fortification of them all! Get comfortable with going on the offensive. Stop always defending; it puts you in a venerable position.



Keep your heads held high and stop pandering to people who work for you, or multinationals who come to your country to exploit you. Demand what is yours and do not rest on your laurels; build upon them. It is okay to make sure competitors have a respectable fear of you. Make them think twice before they attempt to cheat you. Ensure your youthful exuberance of carelessness and quick to action keep them in line and fair in their dealings; be willing to lawfully or forcefully act against anyone who conspires to torment and exploit you.



It is crucially important that you take a firm stance on national matters, because where you stand as a young man/woman will determine where you sit as an old man/woman, as the African proverb goes. You hold your future in your hands, guard it with your lives and make the devil himself fear your wrath if he attempts to destroy a worthwhile future for you and your generations.



Do not miss a vote, no matter how insignificant that election appears. Never hesitate to dissolve any government that operates outside the guidelines of the laws  amend your constitution where it does not meet the high, moral standards you have set for your society. It is just, constitutional, and necessary for the stability of our society, our safety, and our own sanity.

Gain strength knowing that our ancestors will stand in awe and jubilation were you to bring about the Liberia they prayed and dreamt about all their lives. Heaven is watching and hoping you rise to the occasion. You have it in you to be the generation that turns this all around. Pick up the pieces and enjoy this poem to help awaken the patriotic spirit in you:
Flash floods kill 5 in Afghanistan's Ghanzi province 16 Aug 2022 | 2:03 PM KABUL, Aug 16 (UNI) Five persons including three children and two adults were confirmed dead after a passenger bus was trapped in a flash flood in Afghanistan's eastern Ghazni province on Monday, the state-run Bakthar news agency reported Tuesday. see more..

20 dead in bus-oil tanker collision in Pakistan's Punjab province 16 Aug 2022 | 12:21 PM Islamabad, Aug 16 (UNI) At least 20 people were killed and six injured after a bus collided with an oil tanker in the wee hours of Tuesday near Jalalpur Peerwala district in Pakistan's Punjab province, according to local media reports. see more..

1 killed, 10 injured as building collapses in Karachi 16 Aug 2022 | 12:02 PM ISLAMABAD, Aug 16 (UNI) At least one person was killed and 10 others injured after a building collapsed late Monday night in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi, rescue workers told media on Tuesday. see more..

India a true friend of Madagascar: PM Christian Ntsay 16 Aug 2022 | 11:30 AM Antananarivo, Aug 16 (UNI) Speaking on the close ties that New Delhi shares with the island nation, Madagaskar Prime Minister Christian Ntsay says "India is a true friend" as he greeted the country on her special day.

Ambassador Abhay Kumar handed over 15,000 bicycles to Ntsay on Monday in an event organised at Prime Ministers Palace here in the capital. see more..
Township in E Chinas Jiangsu gains international reputation thanks to decades of accumulated experience in violin manufacturing

People's Daily Online) 16:52, July 15, 2022

Photo shows violin maker Lyu Guanbao holding a violin in his hands. (Photo/Lyu Yifei)

Huangqiao township in Taixing city, east Chinas Jiangsu Province has been dubbed Chinas violin production base. Sixty years ago, it produced violin parts for manufacturers in Shanghai, and nowadays, it has emerged as a major violin production base that enjoys an international reputation.

Huangqiao accounts for 70 percent of Chinas total violin production and over 50 percent of the worlds total violin production. Every year, about 700,000 guitars are also produced there. There are over 230 enterprises linked to violin manufacturing in Huangqiao, and of the townships total population of over 200,000, more than 30,000 local residents are engaged in violin manufacturing.

In 1962, two workers from the Shanghai Violin Factory returned to Huangqiao township and started to teach violin manufacturing skills to locals. In those days, a person could earn 0.5 yuan ($0.074) by carving a violin head, a salary that enabled workers to support their families during a time when everyone was living a difficult life.

In 1971, a musical instrument factory was established in a township near Huangqiao, which served as a supplier of violin parts for manufacturers in Shanghai. Li Shu, as a young man, came to the factory the next year and became an apprentice. Li mastered the skills after two months of diligent learning. Normally, it would take a worker half a year to become a skilled worker.

In 1980, Li was promoted to become a head of the factory in charge of manufacturing. Li bought a violin and started to think about how to make more money by manufacturing a completely assembled violin, instead of just producing the violin parts as a supplier. In 1983, Li became head of the factory. To improve the operations of the factory, which was in debt at that time, Li contacted the Shanghai Violin Factory and expressed his hope to begin manufacturing violins at the factory. He also said that his factory could reduce the costs associated with making a violin by two thirds.

In 1985, the musical instrument factory near Huangqiao became a branch factory of the Shanghai Violin Factory, and the two signed a 10-year contract. The sales volume of the branch factory exceeded 2 million yuan that year, and the profit was more than 300,000 yuan. Seeing this, local farmers started to actively join the factory. As the industry prospered, the incomes of local farmers who were involved in the trade increased as well.

While producing violins, the people of Huangqiao township were able to demonstrate their diligence and hardworking spirit. They even worked during their off-duty hours in an effort to skillfully master the techniques.

In 1995, the violin factory became an independent factory. In the same year, the factory produced over 60,000 violins, outpacing some of the best violin manufacturers in Shanghai and Guangzhou and becoming the biggest violin producer in the country.

During this time, the factory also started to embrace the international market.

In 1992, Li went to Frankfurt, Germany, to participate in an international musical instrument exposition. He brought a violin made by his factory, but in the end he didnt show it off because he discovered that the violins made by foreign manufacturers were of super quality compared with his product, fearing that his Chinese-made violin would be overshadowed by the foreign ones. After the expo, Li brought home some violins made by foreign manufacturers for staff members at his factory to learn the various manufacturing techniques and other details that had been adopted in their manufacturing.

When Li participated in another international musical instrument expo, he confidently introduced his violin to various producers and told them that the product was priced at just $15, and it could meanwhile generate a profit margin that was between 30 to 40 percent of the products final price. The violin from Huangqiao township impressed those in attendance at the global musical instrument expo.

In 1995, the Finelegend Musical Instruments Co., Ltd. was established as a Chinese-foreign joint venture.

By embracing international cooperation, the company was able to sell half of its products to markets in the U.S. and Europe. Meanwhile, international standards for violin manufacturing were introduced to and adopted by the company.

At the peak of its production capacity, the Finelegend Musical Instruments Co., Ltd. had more than 1,100 staff members, who could produce over 300,000 violins in one year. Some British companies even set up their own violin factories in Huangqiao township.

At an international violin manufacturing competition held in China in 2010, violin makers from Huangqiao were astonished by the price gap between a home-made violin and an imported one. Made from the same raw materials and using the same techniques, the asking price for a violin made in Huangqiao was just over 1,000 yuan, while an imported violin might typically sell for at least 2,000 euros.

Wu Jianxin, head of a violin company in Huangqiao, believes that it is necessary that violins used for performance purposes should be made to become akin to works of fine art, which are otherwise quite expensive and with the number produced being comparatively small. However, although the violins used by learners are still products that are bought and sold, they generate fewer profits despite the violins being produced at a massive scale.

To capture shares of the medium and high-end market segments, Wus company produces over 20,000 high-end violins a year and gradually has built stable sales channels in the U.K. and the U.S., with the violin brand earning a good reputation in local markets.

Xu Xiaofeng, a native in Huangqiao, is a young craftsman of violin manufacturing. He has been engaged in the business for over one decade and is a well-known violin maker in the industry. The violins made by Xu are widely applauded for their exquisite manufacturing details, and one violin made by Xu was once sold for hundreds of thousands of yuan at an auction. Xu could have run a profitable business of his own by opening a workshop in first-tier cities in China or in major cities abroad. However, the man finally chose to go back to his hometown instead in order to lend a helping hand with industrial upgrading there.

Xu opened a workshop with the Jiangsu Finelegend Musical Instrument Group, teaching the skills he picked up over the years to a younger generation of workers, all of them working hand-in-hand to pass on the craft while incorporating the latest innovations.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
New Delhi, July 15 (UNI) As an advisory issued to MPs against staging dharnas in the Parliament House precinct stirred a controversy, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Friday said the circular is a routine matter.

Speaking on the issue of circular requesting Members not to use the precincts of Parliament for any demonstration, dharna, strike or fast etc, Birla said that this is a routine matter and such Circulars are issued before every Session.

He requested Members of Parliament and political parties not use routine parliamentary information for creating news. The Speaker further requested that the dignity of Parliament as an institution may be maintained.

Lok Sabha Secretariat sources said similar notices are shared before every session, and also referred to copies of similar circulars issued earlier.

An advisory to MPs not to stage protests or hold religious ceremonies in the the Parliament House precincts, drawing Opposition's criticism.

A Bulletin issued by Rajya Sabha secretariat said "Members cannot use the precincts of the Parliament House for any Demonstration, Dharna, Strike, Fast, or for the purpose of performing any religious ceremony."

Reacting to it, Congress' media department head Jairam Ramesh said, "Vishguru's latest salvo  D(h)arna Mana Hai!"

Replying to him, Trinamool Congress MP Derek O'Brien said Opposition will continue to protest through democratic means. He also said a religious ceremony was held in the Parliament precinct recently, indicating towards the ceremony where Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday unveiled the national emblem cast on the roof of the new Parliament building in national capital

"Every year they issue these notices in Parliament bulletins. Demonstrations, dharnas, strikes, fast are part of legitimate Parliamentary tactics to register protest. No stopping us," said O'Brien.

" However, can you please update me. Didnt someone conduct a religious ceremony recently?" he said.

The bulletin is among over a dozen advisories issued by the Rajya Sabha secretariat ahead of the Monsoon Session of Parliament. An official said the advisories are customary and issued ahead of every session to facilitate Members.

UNI AO SHK1918
When you think of domestic violence, your brain instantly conjures images of women being beaten by men, and crying for help. For years, weve read news reports of men being violent against women for the smallest of things. Naturally, we associate domestic violence with men being the aggressors and women at the receiving end of the stick.

In April 2022, a man reportedly murdered his wife for putting extra salt in his food. In January, another man was detained for murdering his wife as she refused to serve him food. In June, a man reportedly murdered his wife for not serving salad with his lunch. The reasons just get weirder and more trivial with each incident.

 T-Series

However, this isnt even the tip of the iceberg.



The most alarming part of Indias domestic violence cases was revealed by the National Family Health Survey (NFHS5). Apparently, 40% of women and 38% of men said it was acceptable for a husband to beat his wife if she ignored her household duties, mistreated her in-laws, rejected sex or went out without informing him.

In 2018, a survey conducted in Telangana revealed that 84% of women agreed that men were justified in perpetrating domestic violence against women

 T-Series

Just imagine, those being beaten up are the ones saying, Yes, this is totally okay. I deserve it.



How messed up is that? What kind of world are we being brought up in where people think domestic violence is acceptable? When did it become okay to say yes to being beaten and justify such heinous crimes?

The answer is painfully simple  its a world that upholds regressive patriarchal values.

 YRF

Patriarchy teaches us that men are superior to women and must wield absolute control over their lives. If women disobey them, they must be punished and women must stay mum and accept this punishment as a learning experience to not repeat their mistake. These acts of violence are a way for men to remind women of their place in society.



Patriarchal codes decide the things that make a man masculine or a woman more feminine. This dichotomy of power puts undue pressure on not just women, but also men to act according to certain social codes to maintain their reputation.

 YRF

This plays out wonderfully in Ranveer Singhs Jayeshbhai Jordaar, where he loves his wife but whenever his father asks him to beat as a display of his masculinity, he has no choice but to agree and finds hilarious alternatives behind closed doors to protect her. Its a scene that makes us laugh but in the back of our minds, were aware of how this is wrong on multiple levels.



If he doesnt beat his wife, he wont be considered manly and face rebuke from his father. If he shows too much love or cares towards her, hell be seen as weak and effeminate.

 YRF

So, he protests silently in his own way by drawing a line between his fathers wishes and his own decisions. He refuses to beat his wife, but they both come up with a way to create fake wounds to satiate his fathers ego.



This is exactly why patriarchy is harmful for men, too. It creates a social code for them where their self-worth, masculinity and ego depends on the way they control their women.

However, all men are not raised this way. All men are not abusers.

In fact, violence against men mostly goes unreported because of this patriarchal image of a man being the powerful aggressor. It has no room to accommodate male victims of domestic abuse.

Its why most cases of domestic abuse against men go unreported. Neither are they protected by the law, nor by society.

A study documenting gender-based violence against men in Haryana revealed that out of the 1000 men they studied, 51.5% experienced violence at the hands of their wives/intimate partner at least once in their lifetime. Most men reported emotional abuse (51.6%), followed by physical (6%) and sexual violence by women.

Out of the 60 males who reported physical abuse, slapping was the most common form of abuse (98.3%). Among those who reported emotional abuse, 85% said they were criticised, 29.7% were insulted in front of others, and 3.5% were threatened or hurt.

Earlier this year in May, a CCTV video went viral, showing a woman hitting her husband with a bat. The man, a school principal, lodged a domestic violence complaint against his wife. In Madhya Pradesh, a wife beat her husband publicly on Valentines Day because he lodged a police complaint against her for locking him out of the house every day.

Surprisingly, India ranks third in the world for the highest number of wives beating their husbands after Egypt and the UK.

The biggest example of violence against men that has emerged this year is Johnny Depp and Amber Heards defamation case. Depp gained a volley of supporters during the trial where pictures and audio recordings revealed that Heard had been abusive against the Pirates of Caribbean star.

 Reuters

You might be wondering, why does this article have so many statistics?



Its because people still dont believe that men can be victims of domestic violence. For them, men are strong beings who control everything, so how can they be victims of abuse? How can a man get beaten up by his wife when its usually the other way around?

Instead of believing male victims of abuse, their masculinity is questioned. Complaining against such incidents is seen as feminine behaviour. As a result, most of these cases go unreported, hidden in a corner of their minds as they deal with this trauma alone.

When will this change?
New Delhi, July 15 (UNI) Delhi government has tied up with the PUSA research institute to train the general public in the techniques of urban farming, officials said on Friday.

Sources said the agricultural experts will train the trainers who will further provide training to the general public in the techniques to practise urban farming.

"The programme will roll out next month. Camps will be set up across the city in coordination with RWA," a senior govt official informed.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Three Huron County men were arrested earlier this week thanks to the efforts of a multi-agency task force targeting individuals who seek sex from minors and human trafficking.

Representatives from the agencies involved in the sting operation held a joint press conference on the task force at the Huron County Sheriffs Office in Bad Axe on Friday morning.

Huron County Sheriff Kelly Hanson, Huron County Prosecutor Tim Rutkowski, Bad Axe Police Detective Sgt. Kevin Knoblock, Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson and Sanilac County Sheriff Paul Rich gathered in the shadow of the Huron County Jail, where the suspects caught up in Tuesdays operation in Bad Axe are currently being held.

Daniel R. Horetski, 45, of Port Austin; Kevin A. Manor, 56, of Sebewaing; and Jeremy J. Susalla, 40, of Ubly were charged Wednesday in Huron County 73B District Court with one count each of production, distribution or possession of child sexually abusive material; using a computer to commit a crime; and accosting a child for immoral purposes, all felonies.

The men are all being held in the Huron County Jail on $500,000 bond.

Hanson said this weeks efforts stemmed from a 2021 operation in Sanilac County that resulted in the arrest of Alexander S. Kundinger, 26, of Sandusky. With the assistance of Swanson and the Genessee County GHOST team, or Genesee Human Oppression Strike Team, law enforcement officials in Huron, Sanilac and Tuscola counties have partnered to form their own task force to target human trafficking and child predators.

In my 40 years in law enforcement, Ive never been part of an operation with so much eye-opening success, Hanson said.

Tuesday's operation involved members of the Huron, Genesee, Tuscola and Sanilac sheriffs' offices, the Bad Axe Police Department, the Sanilac County Drug Task Force and the FBI, as well as the Huron County Prosecutors Office.

Swanson said as of Friday, his GHOST team has worked with 42 counties throughout Michigan to fight human trafficking. The problem is so pervasive he said he views GHOST as an ideology as well as a crime-fighting task force."

"It shows there are no boundaries," Swanson said. "It's happening in Bad Axe, it's happening in Sandusky. It's a community issue."

Deputies from the GHOST team coordinated and directed the sting with support from the other agencies involved and the FBI. The 10-hour operation was based in an undisclosed location where team members used internet sex and prostitution sites.

The suspects literally "shopped" at the sites, according to a task force press release, then communicated with who they believed were minors and arranged a meeting for sex. The "minors" were, in fact, members of the GHOST team.

Officers set up a meeting place at a Bad Axe hotel, where young law enforcement officers acted as decoys as the suspects arrived and were taken into custody.

According to the task force, all three suspects acknowledged their intentions during post-arrest interviews, with two admitting they sought sex with underage females and the other stating he sought sex with an underage male.

Officers seized several items, including cell phones, cash and vehicles, which may be subject to forfeiture.

Hanson declined to identify the hotel where the operation took place, which he said was chosen at random and was not a place where illegal activity occurs. He added management was supportive of the task force's effort when they were informed of the operation after the fact, and he emphasized the incident did not involve actual underage individuals.

The tri-county task force consisting of Huron, Tuscola and Sanilac counties plans to conduct similar operations in the future, and Hanson asked Thumb residents to be on the lookout and report suspicious situations that may involve human trafficking to their local law enforcement agency.

"Seekers of underage sex victims beware," Hanson said.

Swanson said there are steps parents can take to protect their children from being targeted by child predators or "sextortion," a situation in which a teen or adult may be persuaded or coerced into providing nude photos to someone over the internet. He urged families to closely monitor their childrens online activity and remain vigilant.

Huron County Prosecutor Tim Rutkowski echoed Swansons sentiments, praising interagency cooperation and stressing that human trafficking is a problem even someplace like the Upper Thumb.

"It's an issue that affects all of us  protecting our children," Rutkowski said.

Sanilac County Sheriff Paul Rich credited Swanson and his GHOST team for their training and support to law enforcement agencies in the Thumb and the formation of the tri-county task force.

"We have to be proactive," Rich said.
HARTFORD  When renowned Connecticut chef Tyler Anderson was approached by a community group to help start a pay-what-you-can restaurant in the Parkville area, he admittedly thought it was crazy.

On Thursday, though, Anderson stood outside the grand opening for Gather55, Connecticuts first restaurant of its kind.

Ive always wanted to turn all of my restaurants into pay-what-you-can restaurants, he said. Unfortunately, I have business partners, and they didnt like the idea at all. So its nice to have business partners like this that let us do it and want to do it.

The project was spearheaded by Hands on Hartford, a local non-profit that works on projects for underserved communities in Hartford. Gather55 takes the place of a traditional soup kitchen, promising food from a rotating host of professional chefs with a space designed to bring together Hartford residents of varying socioeconomic backgrounds.

With no pay-what-you-can restaurants in the area, Hands on Hartford Executive Director Barbara Shaw and her team traveled around the country to look at similar restaurants and learn more about what made them successful. The key, Shaw said, is cultivating a consistently diverse set of diners throughout the restaurant. Organizers expect that about 25 percent of diners will not be able to pay for meals.

They also lean heavily on a large group of volunteers who help with serving, cooking and dishwashing.

The restaurant had a soft opening in May and held its official grand opening Thursday morning. Dinner service is expected to start in October and will include a rotating cast of guest chefs, starting with Anderson. The Simsbury native said hes already heard from friends across the country who are interested in getting involved.

Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin said the restaurant will help contribute to the development of the Parkville area.

It is building a restaurant that belongs to everybody, he said. Thats accessible to everybody. That makes healthy, fresh, delicious food available to everybody and allows you to pay what you can.

The building, at 55 Bartholomew Ave., previously housed a cafe that closed at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Gather55 is open Monday through Thursday with breakfast and lunch service.

Donessia Harris, community day program specialist for Hands on Hartford, said she knows almost every diner by name at this point. But shes hoping with the grand opening and more attention for the restaurant, theyll continue to diversify their clientele and shell have a few new faces to interact with, in addition to the strong base already there.

It is incredibly exciting, Shaw said after the grand opening. Ive worked in the non-profit world for almost 40 years, and this is really one of the most amazing and energizing and inspirational programs I think Ive ever been part of.

jonah.dylan@hearstmediact.com, @TheJonahDylan
New Delhi, July 15 (UNI) As the Telangana Rashtra Samithi continues to work on positioning itself in the opposition block at the national stage, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has held talks with several opposition leaders including leaders from AAP, TMC, NCP, DMK, RJD and other parties.

KCR has also called for a meeting of the TRS MPs at 1 pm on Friday to give instructions for the upcoming session.

Sources said KCR talked to West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC Chairperson Mamata Banerjee, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal on Friday morning.
House lawmakers have signed off on a plan aimed at preventing military suicides by offering gun safes, locks or other safety devices to troops to store their personal firearms.

Under a measure proposed by Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., the Pentagon would run a six-year pilot program to furnish "secure gun storage or safety devices for the purpose of securing personally owned firearms when not in use" to service members who volunteer to participate.

The pilot program would be available at five installations, to be chosen by the Pentagon within two years of the bill passing. When the pilot program is completed, the department would have to give Congress a report on whether it helped reduce suicides.

Read Next: How 2 American Veterans Ended Up in Ukraine, Prisoners of Russian-Armed Militants

"The experts are saying to us, if we have the simple process by which, voluntarily, service members can request a gun safe or a firearm lock and have it paid for, that will save lives because ideations can come and go so quickly," Speier said on the House floor, citing expert testimony to the House Armed Services Committee. "We have an obligation to address this extraordinary rate of suicide in the military. This is one modest step."

The plan was approved by the House in a 226-203 vote as an amendment to the annual defense policy bill being debated this week.

The full defense bill, called the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, must still be approved by the House and then reconciled with the Senate's version of the bill before the gun safe pilot program could become a reality.

The version of the NDAA advanced by the Senate Armed Services Committee last month already contains a similar provision, increasing the likelihood some form of the pilot program will remain in the version of the bill that becomes law.

In 2020, firearms, most of which were personally owned, accounted for 64% of the 384 active-duty suicide deaths that year, according to the Defense Department's most recent annual report on suicide released in October. Firearms were involved in an even greater percentage of Reserve and National Guard suicides, at 75% and nearly 80% respectively.

Firearms have also been the leading method of suicide for military family members, accounting for 55% of deaths in 2019, the most recent year data is available.

The Biden administration has leaned into gun safety as a way to curb suicides among service members and veterans, unveiling a strategy in November that called on the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs to craft a "plan for addressing lethal means safety awareness, education, training and program evaluation" including safe storage of weapons and medications that could be used in a suicide.

In line with those efforts, the Pentagon announced in May that service members can ship empty gun safes to their next duty station without it counting against household goods weight allowances.

During floor debate on her amendment, Speier highlighted that the National Rifle Association, a fierce opponent of gun control that Republicans are loath to cross, is "satisfied with this amendment."

Still, most Republicans opposed the pilot program, with just seven voting with Democrats in support of the amendment.

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, argued it should not be the Defense Department's responsibility to provide safety devices for personal firearms.

"This should be the responsibility of the service member who owns the firearm," he said on the House floor. "Most firearm manufacturers provide gun locks with the sale of the firearm. They are also available at very low cost at many sporting goods stores around the country."

If you or someone you know is experiencing thoughts of suicide, the Veterans/Military Crisis Line is available 24/7, 365 days a year. Call 1-800-273-8255, and press 1; text to 838255; or chat online at VeteransCrisisLine.net/Chat.

-- Rebecca Kheel can be reached at rebecca.kheel@monster.com. Follow her on Twitter @reporterkheel.

Related: Suicides Among US Troops Rose 15% in 2020, With Firearms Closely Tied to Deaths
VINNYTSIA, Ukraine  Rescue teams with sniffer dogs combed through debris in a central Ukrainian city on Friday looking for people still missing after a Russian missile strike a day earlier that killed at least 23 people.

Russian forces, meanwhile, pounded other sites in a painstaking push to wrest territory from Ukraine and try to soften unbending morale of its leaders, civilians and troops as the war nears the five-month mark.

The cruise missile strikes on Vinnytsia launched by a Russian submarine on Thursday were the latest incidents to take civilian lives and fan international outrage since President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion on Feb. 24. The campaign now has been focusing on Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, but Russian forces regularly fire upon targets in many parts of the country too.

Ukraine's Interior Ministry claimed Friday that Russian forces had conducted more than 17,000 strikes on civilian targets during the war, driving millions from their homes, killing thousands of fighters and civilians and rippling through the world economy by hiking prices and crimping exports of key Ukrainian and Russian products like foodstuffs, fuel and fertilizer.

More than 73 people  including four children  remained hospitalized and 18 people were missing after Thursday's missile strike, said Oleksandr Kutovyi, spokesman for the emergency service in the Vinnytsia region. Search teams were poring over two sites on Friday  an office building with a medical center inside, and a concert hall near an outdoor recreation area and park, where mothers with children often stroll.

Vinnytsia Gov. Serhiy Borzov said only 10 people among the nearly two dozen killed had been identified so far.

Russia deliberately hit civilians and all those responsible for the crime must be brought to account, he said, denouncing the barbaric behavior by Russia that tramples on international humanitarian law.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a deputy head of the presidents office, said three missiles were used.

There is no answer to the question why yesterday and why in Vinnytsia, Tymoshenko said. We expect every second and minute that this could happen in any corner of Ukraine.

After initial silence after the strikes on Vinnytsia, the Russian military said Friday its forces had struck an officers club  which the concert hall has been known for back in Soviet times. Ukrainian authorities insisted the site had nothing to do with the military.

Overall, Ukraines presidential office said 26 civilians have been killed and another 190 were wounded by Russian shelling over the past 24 hours. That included three other victims in the Donetsk region, which along with neighboring Luhansk  nearly totally controlled by Russian forces  makes up the broader Donbas region.

The situation in the Donetsk region is exacerbating every day, and civilians must leave because the Russian army is using scorched earth tactics, Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said. It appeared that the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk were next in line for Russian forces, but it wasn't at all clear how soon such a push could begin in earnest.

Elsewhere, authorities in Mykolayiv said there were at least 10 explosions in the southern city overnight, accusing Russian fire of hitting universities. Vitaliy Kim, the head of Mykolaivs military administration, posted on social media a video of smoke rising over the strikes.

Separately, the Russian news agency Tass reported Friday, citing Russian-backed separatists, that two civilians were killed and six others were injured after Ukrainian forces allegedly shelled a bus terminal in the Voroshilovsky district of the city of Donetsk.

Also Friday, Daria Morozova, the human rights ombudsperson for the Moscow-backed separatist leadership in Donetsk, said a British mercenary died in captivity on Sunday. She said the man, whom she identified as Paul Urey, had died of chronic illnesses and stress.

From our side, he was given the necessary medical assistance despite the grave crimes he committed, she said.
This week in the military, the path from Alabama to Russian-separatist prison became a little more clear as Military.com dug into the circumstances that led Alexander Drueke, 40, and Andy Huynh, 27, both veterans, to be captured while volunteering in Ukraine. Woody Williams, the last WWII Medal of Honor recipient, lay in honor at the U.S. Capitol this week. The House of Representatives pushed through a measure designed to prevent gun-related suicides that would offer troops gun safes in which to store their personal weapons. The Navy expanded its policy on sexual assault to allow sailors to confidentially report instances of assault even if they have already notified their chain of command.

Military.com launched its new podcast, Fire Watch, this week. The first episode, Making a Space Troop, examines the Space Forces new role in the 21st century space race as recruits participated in the first ever all-Space Force basic training.

Commander-in-Chief's (CinC) Guard soldiers with the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment perform a bayonet charge on July 13, 2022. (Sgt. 1st Class Jon Soucy/Army)

Related: Arlington's Caisson Horses Still Lack Space and Sanitary Conditions, Alabama Senator Says

Eight F-35s fly in formation over the Yellow Sea, South Korea, on July 12, 2022. (Senior Airman Trevor Gordnier/Air Force)

Related: Fighter Jet Blown Off Carrier Deck in Unexpected Heavy Weather

Air Force cadets are exposed to CS gas during Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosive materials (CBRNE) training. (Trevor Cokley/Air Force)

Related: Air Force to Promote Fewer Noncommissioned Officers as Worries About Inexperience Grow

An AH-64E Apache helicopter in flight with Mount Rainier in the background near Tacoma, Washington, on July 11, 2022. (Capt. Kyle Abraham/Army)

Related: AH-64 Apache Longbow

Flag bearer Chief Aviation Electronics Technician Jennifer Warzecha, from Portland, Connecticut, bows her head in prayer during a burial at sea ceremony on July 12, 2022. The remains of 30 service and family members were committed to the sea. (Caption & Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jackson Adkins/Navy)

Related: Burial at Sea: A Time-Honored Tradition

-- Drew F. Lawrence can be reached at drew.lawrence@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @df_lawrence.
At the start of World War II, Japan's Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter was the most vaunted and feared weapon in the enemy arsenal. Lightweight and maneuverable, the Zero was able to outfly and outshoot every aircraft the Allies were flying in the early 1940s.

That all changed when Japan attacked the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. On June 3, 1942, a Japanese fleet launched a two-day aerial assault on Dutch Harbor. Having broken Japanese naval codes, the Americans knew they were on the way and put up a wall of anti-aircraft fire.

The Japanese were largely fought off, but they returned the next day. A combined force of Nakajima B5N2 "Kate" torpedo bombers and Zeros bombed and strafed Dutch Harbor. This attack was much more effective, but the American defenders took their toll on the attackers.

One of the downed Japanese airmen and his Zero would change the course of the war in the Pacific for the Allies by shattering the myth of the Zero's supremacy.

A 19-year-old flight petty officer named Tadayoshi Koga took off from the Imperial Japanese Navy carrier Ryujo to join the June 4 attack on Dutch Harbor. He and his strike group of three IJN Zeros strafed Dutch Harbor that day. Koga would never return to the Ryujo.

His Zero was hit by American anti-aircraft guns defending the harbor, cutting his oil line and causing a trail of smoke as he flew to nearby Akutan Island. It was there that he found what he thought was a placid green field in which he could land his plane, but it turned out to be a bog. When Koga lowered his landing gear, the wheels hit the mud, flipped the plane and killed the pilot.

U.S. military personnel inspect a Japanese Zero aircraft piloted by Tadayoshi Koga that crashed on Akutan Island after bombing Dutch Harbor on June 4, 1942. (U.S. Navy)

It's not known why his wingmen didn't attempt to destroy Koga's downed plane, which was their orders for any intact Zero that might have been taken down by the Americans. Instead, they flew back to their carrier, leaving the plane relatively intact in the mud.

The reason the Japanese Navy wanted to ensure that every Zero taken down intact was destroyed was because the Zero was the preeminent fighter of the day. It could easily outmaneuver British and American planes and had a greater range than any German-made aircraft.

If anything, the Japanese Zero was the weapon that won most of Japan's early battles in World War II. If the Allies were going to beat the Japanese in the Pacific, they would need to learn everything they could about their enemy's fighter plane. An intact Zero captured by the Americans was the worst thing that could happen -- and one was sitting in an Alaskan bog undefended.

The next month, a U.S. Navy Catalina seaplane spotted the wreck on Akutan Island. When they finally made it to the island to take a closer look, they realized the intelligence coup they now had. After more than a month of multiple salvage attempts in knee-high mud, they finally got the plane out of the bog and back to San Diego's Naval Air Station North Island.

There, the Navy uncovered every secret of the Japanese Zero. It was a simple but well-made plane with easily opened maintenance plates, folding wings and a lightweight construction that gave it its range and agility in combat.

Once the Navy took it up for a test flight in September 1942, naval aviators almost instantly figured out its weaknesses. The Zero lost most of its maneuvering ability at 200 knots because the ailerons, a component of its wings that controls lateral balance, freeze up at those speeds. It also rolled more easily to the left and its carburetor forced the engine to shut off during negative acceleration. It gave the Navy a standard tactic to use against the Japanese.

When unable to escape a pursuing Zero, naval aviators could go into a vertical power dive, using negative acceleration if possible to open the range while the Zero's engine was stopped by the acceleration. At about 200 knots, they would roll hard right before the Zero pilot could get his sights lined up.

Once outmaneuvered, the unarmored Zeros were easy pickings for Allied pilots. The Navy sent the new tactic to the pilots flying in the Pacific Theater, which immediately leveled the playing field. It also sent the intelligence to Grumman Aircraft, which began designing an F6F Hellcat fighter that could meet the needs of pilots dogfighting the Zero.

The new Hellcat incorporated a new 18-cylinder engine and a redesigned airframe that increased its overall performance using this tactic. American fighter aces would later say that knowledge gleaned from the captured fighter saved their lives in combat. Adm. William Leonard, himself a fighter ace, said, "No other captured machine has ever unlocked so many secrets at a time when the need was so great."

A Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighter at the NACA Langley Reserch Center in Hampton Virginia (USA), in March 1943. This plane had been captured at Akutan Island, Alaska, in August 1942. It was repaired in September 1942 and after limited flying on the U.S. West Coast, the Zero arrived at Langley for installation of test equipment prior to in-depth flight testing by the U.S. Navy at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland. (U.S. Navy)

The captured Zero was destroyed in a training accident in 1945, but the damage to the Japanese fleet was already done by then. As for Tadayoshi Koga, its original pilot, he was given a burial ceremony on Akutan Island in 1942, but his remains were moved to Adak Island after the war. In 1953, the remains of hundreds of Japanese troops were repatriated to Japan, where they were cremated.

-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can also be found on Twitter @blakestilwell or on Facebook.

Want to Learn More About Military Life?

Whether you're thinking of joining the military, looking for post-military careers or keeping up with military life and benefits, Military.com has you covered. Subscribe to Military.com to have military news, updates and resources delivered directly to your inbox.
New Delhi, July 15 (UNI) Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Friday stressed on strengthening anti-defection law, as he chaired a meeting of Presiding Officers of Legislative Bodies in India in Parliament House Complex today.

Deputy Chairman, Rajya Sabha and Presiding Officers from 17 States and UTs participated in the meeting.

The Lok Sabha secretariat said in a statement that issues like strengthening anti-defection law, awards to outstanding legislatures and minimum number of sittings of legislatures were also discussed in the meeting.
The Dodgers have agreed to a deal with right-hander Hansel Robles, reports Mike Rodriguez of Univision (Twitter link). Its a minor league contract, tweets Juan Toribio of MLB.com. Robles was released by the Red Sox earlier this week.

Robles, 32 next month, has long been a tantalizing late-inning arm whos been prone to inconsistent performance despite possessing impressive raw stuff. The right-hander averaged 96.2 mph on his heater with the Red Sox this season, which ranks in the top 15 percent of MLB hurlers, and has fanned more than a quarter of his opponents in 427 1/3 innings scattered across parts of eight big league seasons. However, Robles logged a career-low 18.9% strikeout rate this year against a career-high 12.6% walk rate, and the resulting 5.84 ERA through 24 2/3 innings prompted the Sox to eventually move on.

Walks have always been an issue for Robles (career 10.2%), but at his best hes shown the ability to miss bats in bunches, thanks to that power fastball and a pair of secondary offerings in his changeup and slider. The changeup has long rated as the better of the two pitches, per FanGraphs run values, and thats all the more true in recent seasons. Opponents slugged .594 against Robles slider this season, ripping a pair of doubles and three home runs off the pitch.

The Dodgers bullpen isnt at full strength right now, so its only natural that theyd be intrigued by a veteran power arm who has, at times, looked like a very capable late-inning reliever. Blake Treinen has been shelved for the past three months due to shoulder troubles, while Daniel Hudson  whod been one of the teams best setup options  suffered an unfortunate ACL tear when fielding a grounder last month. Flamethrowing sinker specialist Brusdar Graterol hit the injured list just yesterday due to a shoulder issue, and the team has yet to announce the results of todays followup imaging. Right-hander Tommy Kahnle has been out since May due to a bone bruise in his right elbow.

Robles is far from the first veteran pickup whom the Dodgers have opted to stockpile in the minors. Theyve also added righties Pedro Baez and Dellin Betances, although Betances has struggled in Triple-A, while Baez is only just building back up with the Dodgers Rookie-level club after a shutdown period. Hes thrown three scoreless innings but is presumably not an option in the very near term.

Robles seems likely to join Betances in Oklahoma City, and if he can get on track in a hurry, there could be a bullpen opportunity before long  particularly if Graterol is to miss an extended period of time. The Dodgers will, of course, be active in the weeks leading up to the trade deadline, so its certainly possible  if not likely  that theyll add some more established help to an injury-depleted relief corps in the next 18 days.
A Nigerian actor has been found guilty of sexually assault of a minor between 2013 and 2014.

The trial of Olanrewaju Omiyinka at a special offences court in Lagos lasted a year.

The 49-year-old is popularly known as Baba Ijesha in Nollywood  as Nigerias film industry is called.

The judge ruled that Omiyinka should be sentenced to 16 years in total for the four charges of which he was found guilty.

However, as he is to serve the sentences at the same time, he will spend a maximum of five years in prison.

Two counts of sexual assault were dropped because of a lack of sufficient evidence.

Last year, Omiyinka admitted in court to molesting the victim, but said it was in the context of a role he was playing in a film campaigning against child sexual abuse.

Women and child rights activists say the ruling will serve as an example to anyone intending to take advantage of a child.

His lawyers are planning to appeal against the judgment.

Source: BBC
Van Vicker, Ghanaian actor

15.07.2022 LISTEN

The influx of social media and the quest to be the first to break every story has overridden fact-checking among many people nowadays.

A few days ago, social media was rife with a Tiktok post claiming that seasoned Ghanaian actor, Joseph Van Vicker, better known as Van Vicker had been involved in a fatal accident and died.

The actor himself, in an Instagram post on Thursday, July 14, rubbished the reports urging people to treat it as false.

"PLEASE IGNORE news that is making the rounds on several social media platforms proclaiming my demise," he wrote.

In a video following the post in which he described the viral picture as false, he is seen walking majestically, thanking God for his life and well-being and scolding the fake news plotters as well.

The mischievous nitwits are back at it. They shall wallow in their vandalism. By HIS GRACE, I am ALIVE & WELL, "his post reads.

Responding to his posts were some fans who were also shocked upon seeing the fake news. They thanked God and asked him to sue the people behind the post.

Check his post and the replies below as well.
15.07.2022 LISTEN

The Ashanti Regional Chief Butcher of the Kumasi-Abattoir and National Vice-chairman of the Ghana Meat Sellers Association, Sarikin, Alhaji Ibrahim Wahab Tikuma said the law enforcement agencies are failing to enforce laws governing the rearing of livestock such as cattle, goats and sheep in the urban and rural areas.

He said the situation has led to stray animals taking over some streets and major roads in Kumasi.

Speaking to this reporter in an interview, Chief Wahab indicated that it is common these days to see cattle and sheep among other domestic animals crisscrossing busy streets in town.

He noted that some cattle owners allow their animals to destroy the backyard farms of people and go unpunished.

Chief Wahab Tikuma the action of cattle ranchers is creating a nuisance in the metropolis.

According to him, the Ashanti Regional Security Council should be blamed for the situation.

He noted that RESEC has failed to impress on the various District Assemblies to deal with the offending ranchers whose actions are also causing environmental pollution.

"How can Assembly work up to satisfaction when the authorized supervisor or checker been the Regional Security Council allegedly fails to discharge its mandate," the Chief Butcher quizzes.

To reverse the trend, he passionately appealed to the occupant of the Golden Stool, Asantehene Otumfour Osei Tutu II and the Regional Security Council to as a matter of national interest come together and strategize measures to discourage not only stray cattle menace but also the cattle owners who allow their animals to graze at unauthorised public space.

He also called on the authorities to close down all unlawful slaughterhouses in the region to help curb unwholesome meat production in the metropolis.

According to Chief Wahab Takuma, his outfit would soon collaborate with the Food And Drug Authority, City Managers, Veterinary Services, Media and other security agencies to clamp down on illegal slaughters and butchers who refused to abide by the laws on meat production and consumption.

He further urged them to come on board and register with the professional butchers at Kaase to become members and channel their grievances for redress if they have any.
French President Emmanuel Macron has asked the French military to do more to bring on Universal National Service (SNU) for young people, in order to mobilise "the whole of French society" to face modern challenges. But the armed forces need convincing.

"I ask you to do more by giving our reserves new ambition and by investing more and better in the great SNU project I'm backing," Macron said in a speech at the Ministry of the Armed Forces on the eve of the Bastille Day military parade.

"It's not a question of militarising young people and even less so society," he said, "but at a time when the nation needs to rediscover the deep meaning of its history [...] the Republic needs you to do more."

SNU was one of Macron's promises during his 2017 election campaign. A pilot programme involving 2,000 volunteers aged 15 to 17 was launched in 2019, nearly two decades after France phased out conscription for men.

The 2020 programme was cancelled due to the health crisis, but last summer some 15,000 young people took part in "cohesion courses" throughout France.

This year, SNU aims to reach around 50,000 youngsters.

Sarah El Hairy, named State Secretary for Youth and National Service, is charged with upscaling the programme. It will ultimately be mandatory for all male and female citizens aged 16 to 25

Transmission and discipline

The war in Ukraine and France's withdrawal from Mali is forcing France to rethink how it deploys its forces.

Macron said he wanted the army to help ensure SNU's "full deployment"  around 800,000 per year.

It lasts for a month and can be performed in both civil and military facilities.

Teenagers begin with a two-week "integration phase" living communally outside their home region where they learn skills like first aid and map reading.

They then have to complete a two-week assignment, either with a charity, local government or uniform-wearing corps such as the army.

"These training schemes are opportunities for the young people you are entrusted with, Macron said.

"It is an essential path for the coming months and years ... We must move forward."

Reticence

SNU does not have the full support of the armed forces, who are occupied on a number of fronts.

France has not sent soldiers to Ukraine but French troops and fighter pilots are present in other eastern European countries such as Poland, Romania and Estonia.

And while France is completely withdrawing its troops from Mali, its Barkhane forces remain active in anti-terror operations in the Sahel region, notably in Niger and Burkina Faso.

The armed forces are concerned about SNU's potential cost and the challenge of accommodating and supervising hundreds of thousands of young people a year.

The government underlines the additional support it has given its armies.

Under Macron, it has committed to increasing armed forces personnel by 6,000 from 2019-2025.

French military spending has gradually increased to reach 41 billion euros this year, and is scheduled to hit 50 billion euros in 2025.

But the armed forces are not yet won over.

"The armies don't want to be used for something that would take them too far away from their mission," Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu told Le Figaro daily on Wednesday.

"But if the SNU is a way of cultivating a culture of resilience, learning first aid, having a military culture, the armies will be more open to it."

Macron is the first French president not to have been called up to serve. He came of age after the compulsory 10 months of military service for school-leaving men was abolished by ex-president Jacques Chirac in 1997.
Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has said Ghana now prides itself as a country leading in the digital space in Africa after 17 times of running to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout.

According to him, Ghana did not have today's technological advancements in all the 16 times it went to IMF.

Speaking at the Accra Business School on July 14, he describes Ghana as a new country.

I should note that Ghana has been to the IMF for a programme 17 times since independence and after each IMF programme the underlying system and structure of the economy is still the same. After each of the 17 IMF programmes Ghana did not have a National ID card, no functioning national property address system, only 30% of the adult population had a bank account, inefficiency and bureaucracy at the ports and delivery of government services,

No digitalization at the passport office, DVLA, births and deaths, no motor insurance data base, no credit scoring for credit reference agencies, less than 4% of the population had Tax Identification Number, there was no integration of data bases of the GRA, SNNIT, Controller and Accountant general, NHIS, passport office, DVLA, immigration, bank accounts, there was no such integration.

There were no drones to deliver medical supplies, no universal QR codes, no national scale e-pharmacy, no unified common platform for property taxation, no gold purchase programme by the Bank of Ghana with the first right of refusal by the central bank for all gold mining in Ghana, no focus on TVET education, no industrial policy like 1D1F, no agricultural policy like planting for food and jobs and no Free Senior High School education, he eulogized.

He added that, we are talking about a different Ghana, a Ghana that is being rapidly transformed. The underlying systems are being dramatically changed through digitalization and other policies that will transform the structure of the economy.

He added that with hard work and good decisions, the country should emerge stronger than it has from previous IMF bailouts.

With enhanced fiscal discipline and structural reforms to restore debt sustainability and growth we should emerge stronger than we have in the previous 17 IMF programmes, but it will take hard work and difficult decisions, he emphasised.
Operations have resumed at the Tema Port following the restoration of calm after agitations from Local Labour Unions.

On Tuesday, July 12, and Wednesday, July 13, the Local Labour Unions of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) staged an industrial action over the handling of 20% of container traffic.

Thanks to successful engagements between the management of the port and the aggrieved labour unions, calm has returned to the Port of Tema and vessel activities have resumed.

This has been confirmed by Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority in a press release issued today.

The Authority through the press release says it regrets the hold-up of vessel operations in the port and extends its apologies to all stakeholders including the Shipping Lines.

That Management has given the assurance to all staff of its commitment to ensuring effective implementation of the ceding of the handling of the 20% gateway container traffic to GPHA for two years effective 1st August 2022.

That the Authority reiterates its resolve to continue delivering efficient services in a safe and secure environment to its valued stakeholders, the release from the GPHA concludes.

Find more in the press release below:
15.07.2022 LISTEN

The Airport Police Command has arrested a young lady who was seen in a viral video attacking a car park attendant at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).

According to the management of the Ghana Airports Company Limited, the lady parked at the pedestrian crossing at Terminal 3 departure frontage.

Her refusal to move led to the clamping of her vehicle.

She subsequently got down from the vehicle, removed the clamp, and threw it at the Car Park attendant, injuring him in the process.

A statement by the Ghana Airports Company management said On Wednesday, July 13, 2022, at about 10:45 am, a female foreigner parked on the Pedestrian crossing at Terminal 3 departure frontage, Kotoka International Airport (KIA). She was requested by the car park attendant to move her vehicle, but refused. Consequently, the vehicle was damaged.

In a fit of rage, she got down from the vehicle, removed the clamp, and threw it at the car park attendant, injuring him in the process. She was subsequently arrested by Police Personnel deployed at the Airport and handed over to the Airport Police Station, it added.

Read the full statement here:

---Citinewsroom
The Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin has stated that Parliament is working towards the creation of a Museum and an Archival Department to enable the institution to preserve and share with citizens, relics of the Legislature.

Speaker Bagbin said this when he received three hundred copies of a supply chain application book from the Author, Professor Douglas Boateng.

The Rt. Hon speaker bemoaned the fact that readding culture among the youth is at an all-time low. He referred to Ghanaian scholars, who in the past stood shoulder to shoulder with world leaders. He said this was only made possible because they took knowledge acquisition very seriously.

Speaker Bagbin urged Members of Parliament to read more, in order to improve their knowledge in new trends of politics and parliamentary practices.

The Deputy Minority Chief Whip, Ahmed Ibrahim, emphasized the need for libraries in the country to be digitalized, in line with what pertains in other parts of the world.

He said, this need is underscored by the fact most of the new knowledge that is available on academic subjects can be found online and books that cannot be found in large quantities for distribution could easily be uploaded by the libraries for anyone interested in them.

The Deputy Majority Chief Whip, Hon. Habib, speaking in a similar vein, said books should be made more easily available for those who need them. He expressed his appreciation for the supply chain principle and described how those principles, when applied in economics and politics enhance efficiency.

The author and donor of the book to Parliament, Professor Douglas Boateng, indicated that over fifty thousand copies of the book have been supplied to institutions worldwide, including Harvard university.

He said application of the supply chain principles results in efficiency and incremental gains, as policy makers are able to plan in stages and execute these plans, knowing and appreciating the effect of one stage on the other.

He indicated that the book, which is in English and has a French version, will soon be uploaded on an APP that will be launched in August.
Former President, John Dramani Mahama visited the Japanese Embassy in Accra to express his condolences for the death of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, on Thursday, July 15.

During his visit to the Embassy, the leading political figure in the country took time to sign a book of condolence for the late Prime Minister who was assassinated last week.

Taking to his Facebook page after visiting the Japanese Embassy, the 2020 presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) said, I signed a book of condolence for the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the Japanese Embassy in Accra today.

According to him, it was a shock hearing the sad news of his assassination.

He describes the deceased former Japanese Prime Minister as an international statesman.

It was a pleasure working with him to restore the Yen Loan Portfolio to Ghana, expand the NMIMR at Legon, and other joint cooperation projects with Japan. May his soul Rest In Peace, ex-president John Dramani Mahama added in his post.
A member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Abraham Amaliba has bemoaned the worsening state of the Ghanaian economy.

Speaking to TV3 on the New Day programme, he wonders why the NPP government has refused to accept responsibility.

In his view, government officials including President Nana Akufo-Addo and Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia must take responsibility for the challenges facing the country.

They fail to take responsibility. Their actions have always caused the challenges we are facing in the country, Abraham Amaliba stressed.

He further questioned, Was it the NDC that asked them [the NPP] to borrow?

On Thursday, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia partly blamed the erstwhile Mahama administration for the current economic challenges facing the country.

While arguing that Covid alone is not the cause of the problems, he said the ruling NPP government is seeking support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) because the economy has been hit with a quadruple whammy.

With the challenges on accessing the capital market, balance of payment support was needed to bridge this financing gap, stabilize the economy and create the space to implement structural reforms and restore debt sustainability and this is really the reason why Ghana had to go to the IMF.

I should again note that Ghana has been hit with a quadruple whammy. The energy sector excess capacity payments. Banking sector cleanup, Covid-19, and the Russia-Ukraine war. If you take out this quadruple whammy Ghana will not be going to the IMF, H.E Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia emphasized.
Member of Parliament for the North Tongu constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has queried the National Cathedral Secretariat why it has refused to rey letters received by the board of trustees.

He said the revered men of God (Board of Trustees) have been asking questions and the Secretariat has been dodging and avoiding them.

In a tweet on July 15, he stated that, he said Bishop Dag Heward-Mills of the Light House Chapel International who sits on the Board had written countless letters to the National Cathedral Secretariat and has still not received a single response from the leadership.

To provide further irrefutable insight: how many letter do they expect the venerable Bishop Dag Heward-Mills to write before the National Cathedral Secretariat offers him at least one reply? he queried.

According to him, many of the Men of God called on by President Akufo-Addo to serve as Trustees for the National Cathedral project have been demanding answers on the latest revelations regarding the project.

Mr. Ablakwa urged government to come clean to its Board of Trustees and the Ghanaian people.

He stressed that the Board of Trustees more than deserve to know the truth.

Government and its National Cathedral Secretariat must come clean to its own Board of Trustees and then to the Ghanaian people; the Trustees deserve some respect, and they are more than entitled to know the full truth, he adviced.

The National Cathedral, a perosnal pledge by President Akufo-Addo to God should he win the 2016 election was registered as a private company, however documents revealed by Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa show that government has released GHS200 million and even more towards the construction of the National Cathedral.

The many exposes have left the public wondering if the Board of Trustees, who are revered Men of God are aware of the use of the public purse to fund the project.

Last month, Mr. Ablakwa expressed his wish for these Men of God to speak out.

They havent since then.
Director of Research at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Dr John Kwakye has said it is a fact that Covid-19 and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war impacted negatively on the Ghanaian economy.

Also, he said, it is a fact that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration inherited economic challenges from the previous National Democratic Congress (NDC) government.

But, he indicated that the country had gone to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a programme under the NDC administration, a programme which the NPP extended and subsequently exited.

Exiting, he said, meant the countrys economy was in the best of shape therefore, he finds it surprising that the Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia continues to blame events of five and half years ago for the current challenges.

His comments come after Dr Bawumia has said that analysts who say that Covid spending alone cannot be the reason for the increase in Ghana's public debts are right.

Dr Bawumia said the banking sector cleanup exercise, as well as the excess energy capacity payment by the government, are also contributing factors to the rising debt.

He said these while justifying the decision by the government to go to the IMF for support. He explained while speaking at the launch of the Accra Business School IT programme in Accra on Thursday, July 14 that an amount of 17billion was spent in paying for the excess energy that Ghana did not need but had to pay for due to the agreement signed by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration.

Some commentators and analysts have argued that the Covid 19 expenditure by the government alone could not be the reason for the increase in the fiscal deficits and the debt stock. In fact, they are right, Covid 19 expenditures alone were not the reasons for the large increase in Ghana's debt stock by the end of 2021.

In fact, as I stated in my April 7 lecture, this year, in addition to Covid-19, there are two major items of expenditure that are critical in understanding the evolution of the fiscal deficits and the debt stock. These two items are the banking sector cleanup and the Energy Sector excess capacity payment.

The excess capacity payment of 17bn cedis relates to the legacy of take-or-pay contract that saddled our economy with annual excess capacity charges of closed to 1bilion US dollars a year. These were basically contracted to supply energy to Ghana in excess of our requirements at the time. We were obligated to pay for the power whether we used it or not.

The excess capacity payment of this 17billion includes the 7 billion cedi payment for gas resulting from signing of an off-take agreement for a fixed quantity of gas with ENI, Sankofa on take-or-pay basis which was way in excess of what we needed at the time.

Speaking on the public address by the Dr Bawumia in an interview with Eric Mawuena Egbeta on the Hot Edition on 3FM, Thursday July 14, Dr John Kwakye said I can grant some of them, the impact of Covid 19, the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war. Of course, the NPP came to meet a channeling economic situation when they took over in January 2017, there were a lot of arrears, the energy sector arrears, arrears to contractors and then of course they implemented the financial sector bailouts which also brought additional cost to the budget .

But we were in an IMF programme and then we exited from the programme, so one would have thought that when we exited at least we were in a pretty comfortable position, that is why we exited. So I am not comfortable that we have to go back five and a half years and bring things that happened so many years ago to the present.

3news.com
Clement Abass Apaak, MP for Builsa South has raised concerns about the quality of food served students under the free SHS policy.

He said the food is not far from being described as poison.

During an interview with TV XYZ in Accra monitored by ModernGhana News, the lawmaker claimed that each student is being fed 97pesewas a day, an amount which is insufficient to even feed a cat.

"Is what they are eating not poison? what's the quality? what's the quantity?"

How can you be feeding the future leaders of this nation this way? Even the cat at the president's house, can you feed them with 97 pesewas?" Dr. Apaak fumes.

According to him, Parliament had approved about GHS2.3 billion for the funding of the program and yet the story is still the same.

"Parents and the headmasters, as you have started speaking, don't go back to sleep. The money must be put to work and let the students eat well," he emphasised.
Challenging Heights has, over the weekend, rescued 11 more children from Lake Volta. The children rescued are made up of Nine (9) males, and two (2) females, and are between the ages of eight (8), and sixteen (16). Most of these children have worked as child fishermen for several years without attending school and are subjected to various forms of abuse.

This adds to the over 1,700 boys and girls the organization has rescued from slavery in the fishing communities in Ghana since its establishment in 2003.

Challenging Heights is a local Ghanaian antislavery organization with the long-term goal of safeguarding the rights of children to education, particularly those affected by human trafficking and modern slavery.

The organization, which recently released a comprehensive report on child labor, says it remains resolute in its fight against child labor exploitations, especially in the fishing industry in Ghana. The report, titled Hidden in Plain Sight: A report on child labor in the fishing industry of Ghana, concludes that 60% of all children on Lake Volta are child labourers.

Globally it is estimated that there are over 40million human beings caught up in slavery, and the slave traders generate over $50billion annually. In Ghana, the Global Slavery Index put the number of people in slavery at 133,000 (Walk Free Foundation, 2018).

This current rescue contributes to reducing the problem of child labor on Lake Volta.

We would like to thank all our partners, especially the Ghana Police Service, the Department of Social Welfare, and the Navy, for their leadership and support in bringing freedom to these children.

James Kofi Annan

(President)
Marietou Thiam's slender figure twists and twirls, suspended in mid-air by a hoop, under the spellbound gaze of onlookers at Dakar's first-ever circus festival.

Thiam is the artistic director -- and one of only two women members -- of Sencirk, Senegal's premier circus troupe, which organised the festival.

The 29-year-old first moved to Dakar for her studies, but left that life behind to join the circus.

Thiam limbering up at her home in Ngor village. By CARMEN ABD ALI (AFP)

Her family has never approved of the decision. But when she is on stage, Thiam has no regrets.

She is carried by the magic of the moment -- and the importance of Sencirk's mission.

That's because the circus company also functions as a place of learning for orphans and children from low-income families.

It offers them a chance to learn new skills, find a sense of community -- and have some fun.

One of the teachers, Malick, says Sencirk has changed his life.

Malick, a 30-year-old acrobat from Guinea, trains on a Dakar beach. By CARMEN ABD ALI (AFP)

The 30-year-old came to Senegal from Guinea in 2015 and was living on the streets until he stumbled upon the company.

Now, through teaching, he can afford to rent an apartment in Ngor, a village-like neighbourhood in Dakar.

On a clear May afternoon on Ngor beach, Malick leaps into the air and looks as though he will fly away, head over heels, his feet appearing to touch a bright, white sun.

Malick, at the top of his pyramid. By CARMEN ABD ALI (AFP)

One acrobatic feat leads to another, and suddenly Malick is forming a human pyramid with his troupe.

He is both an artist and a teacher, sharing his passion with children in need -- children who could one day take up Malick and Marietou's mantle.

Soon it will be their turn to ascend the pyramid and reach for the stars.
Political science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Legon, Professor Ransford Gyampo has indicated that the NPP is to be blamed for the current hardships in the country.

According to him, the ruling government imposed candidates in the lead up to the 2020 elections.

Sharing his thoughts on Facebook on July 15, he indicated that the imposition of candidates by the NPP for the 2020 general elections created a hung parliament.

He admitted that although the hung parliament was beneficial, it can be used as a tool to frustrate government in hard times.

Blame the current hardships also on the imposition of candidates by the NPP in the lead up to the 2020 elections, that created the current hung parliament, which though beneficial, can also be used to frustrate governance in difficult times, he asserted.
Former Deputy Information Minister, Felix Kwakye Ofosu has taken a swipe at Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia following his latest argument on the reason why Ghana is seeking support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

He said claims by the Vice President described as a quadruple whammy are just outright lies and comical.

The Vice Presidents claims are a combination of outright lies and a comical performance. Indeed in any self-respecting jurisdiction, he will be long gone from office after such a catastrophic display of appalling incompetence. After he has supervised the collapse of the Ghanaian economy he should be long gone as head of the Economic Management Team.

He should not come and pour insult on the suffering of Ghanaians with such comical display. There is no serious, reasonable, knowledgeable finance and economic analyst who will accept these comical claims, Felix Ofosu Kwakye told Citi News in an interview.

On Thursday, July 14, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia delivered a speech at an event held at the Accra Business School where he explained the decision by the ruling government to go to the IMF for a bailout.

While apportioning some blame on the erstwhile John Dramani Mahama-led government, Dr. Bawumia said the Covid-19, financial sector cleanup, energy sector debt financing, and the Russia-Ukraine war are to blame for the economic challenges facing the country.

With the challenges on accessing the capital market, balance of payment support was needed to bridge this financing gap, stabilize the economy and create the space to implement structural reforms and restore debt sustainability and this is really the reason why Ghana had to go to the IMF.

I should again note that Ghana has been hit with a quadruple whammy. The energy sector excess capacity payments. Banking sector cleanup, Covid-19, and the Russia-Ukraine war. If you take out this quadruple whammy Ghana will not be going to the IMF, H.E Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia emphasized.

He further charged Ghanaians to brace themselves for tougher times as his government works to turn things around.
Islamabad, July 15 (UNI) Pakistan's federal cabinet on Friday gave it's go ahead to the formation of a committee to decide whether treason proceedings under Article 6 of the Constitution should be filed against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's top leaders, including ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Speaking to the press after the cabinet meeting, Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said that formation of a committee has been approved under Minister for Law Azam Nazeer Tarar.

Aurangzeb said the cabinet welcomed the Supreme Courts detailed judgment in a suo motu case related to the ruling by former National Assembly deputy speaker Qasim Suri on the no-confidence motion against then-PM Khan, Geo News reported.
15.07.2022 LISTEN

Education think tank, Africa Education Watch, is hopeful of a review of the Free SHS Policy after comments by the IMF's Resident Representative to Ghana.

According to the Executive Director of the think tank, Kofi Asare, the move will save the country a substantial amount of money.

In a Citi News interview, Mr. Asare says the government can invest the funds saved to improve infrastructure at the basic level.

My expectation is that at the end of the IMF process, the government of Ghana should agree that we adopt a means testing approach where we are able to identify parents who can pay their fees and parents who cannot pay their fees so that those who can pay will be allowed to pay then we will save money, he said.

Mr. Asares comments come after assurances by the IMF's Resident Representative to Ghana, Dr Albert Touna-Mama, that the Free SHS policy will not be cancelled.

But Dr. Touna-Mama acknowledged concerns about the efficiency of the policy and said there need to be conversations about how to make it more sustainable.

Aside from infrastructure challenges over the course of its implementation, the Free SHS policy has struggled with feeding.

High schools are currently consenting to a shortage of food items because of funding and supply challenges.

These issues have led some schools to consider shutting down because they struggle to feed their students.

By Citi Newsroom
Fix the country convener, Oliver Barker-Vormawor has asked Professor Ransford Gyampo to explain further his assertion of the hung parliament in Ghana.

Professor Gyampo had earlier today indicated that, although the hung parliament is beneficial it can be used to frustrate governance in difficult times.

He posited that blame the current hardships also on the imposition of candidates by the NPP in the lead up to the 2020 elections that created the current hung parliament, which though beneficial, can also be used to frustrate governance in difficult times.

Commenting on the Professor's post on Facebook today, Mr. Barker-Vormawor asked Professor Gyampo to name an instance where the hung parliament has frustrated governance.
H.E Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has been described as a Vice President who is obsessed with comical claims.

This is a view shared by former Deputy Minister of Information under the erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, Felix Ofosu Kwakye.

Reacting to claims by Dr. Bawumia that the Ghana government has gone to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout because it has suffered a quadruple whammy including the Covid-19, Felix Ofosu Kwakye said they are false.

According to him, such a claim is an indication that the Vice President believes in comedy more than substance.

He should not come and pour insult on the suffering of Ghanaians with such comical display. There is no serious, reasonable, knowledgeable finance and economic analyst who will accept these comical claims.

How does a government that has been in power for six years going into its seventh year blame the previous administration for its mismanagement? His Covid-19 excuse is a joke that must be put aside, Felix Ofosu Kwakye told Citi News in an interview.

The former Deputy Information Minister added, We have a reckless irresponsible government whose Economic Management Team presided by a Vice President who believes in comedy more than substance. He runs away when the economy takes a tailspin and then he emerges all of a sudden to make outlandish claims.

In his quadruple whammy argument, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia shared that besides Covid-19, the Russia-Ukraine war, the financial sector cleanup, and energy sector debt financing have affected the prowess of the Ghanaian economy.

He said it is because of these and the mismanagement of the former government that the NPP government has been forced to seek support from the IMF.
15.07.2022 LISTEN

Nero was famously accused of fiddling while Rome burned. Today, some leaders are doing worse. They are throwing fuel on the fire. Literally. As the fallout of Russias invasion of Ukraine ripples across the globe, the response of some nations to the growing energy crisis has been to double down on fossil fuels  pouring billions more dollars into the coal, oil and gas that are driving our deepening climate emergency.

Meanwhile all climate indicators continue to break records, forecasting a future of ferocious storms, floods, droughts, wildfires and unlivable temperatures in vast swathes of the planet. Our world faces climate chaos. New funding for fossil fuel exploration and production infrastructure is delusional. Fossil fuels are not the answer, nor will they ever be. We can see the damage we are doing to the planet and our societies. It is in the news every day, and no one is immune.

Fossil fuels are the cause of the climate crisis. Renewable energy is the answer  to limit climate disruption and boost energy security. Had we invested earlier and massively in renewable energy, we would not find ourselves once again at the mercy of unstable fossil fuel markets. Renewables are the peace plan of the 21st century. But the battle for a rapid and just energy transition is not being fought on a level field. Investors are still backing fossil fuels, and governments still hand out billions in subsidies for coal, oil and gas  some US $11 million every minute.

There is a word for favouring short-term relief over long-term well-being. Addiction. We are still addicted to fossil fuels. For the health of our societies and planet, we need to quit. Now. The only true path to energy security, stable power prices, prosperity and a livable planet lies in abandoning polluting fossil fuels and accelerating the renewables-based energy transition.

To that end, I have called on G20 governments to dismantle coal infrastructure, with a full phase-out by 2030 for OECD countries and 2040 for all others. I have urged financial actors to abandon fossil fuel finance and invest in renewable energy. And I have proposed a five-point plan to boost renewable energy round the world.

First, we must make renewable energy technology a global public good, including removing intellectual property barriers to technology transfer. Second, we must improve global access to supply chains for renewable energy technologies components and raw materials.

In 2020, the world installed 5 gigawatts of battery storage. We need 600 gigawatts of storage capacity by 2030. Clearly, we need a global coalition to get there.

Shipping bottlenecks and supply-chain constraints, as well as higher costs for lithium and other battery metals, are hurting deployment of such technologies and materials just as we need them most.

Third, we must cut the red tape that holds up solar and wind projects. We need fast-track approvals and more effort to modernize electricity grids. In the European Union, it takes eight years to approve a wind farm, and 10 years in the United States. In the Republic of Korea, onshore wind projects need 22 permits from eight different ministries.

Fourth, the world must shift energy subsidies from fossil fuels to protect vulnerable people from energy shocks and invest in a just transition to sustainable future.

And fifth, we need to triple investments in renewables. This includes multilateral development banks and development finance institutions, as well as commercial banks. All must step up and dramatically boost investments in renewables.

We need more urgency from all global leaders. We are already perilously close to hitting the 1.5C limit that science tells us is the maximum level of warming to avoid the worst climate impacts. To keep 1.5 alive, we must reduce emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 and reach net zero emissions by mid-century. But current national commitments will lead to an increase of almost 14 per cent this decade.

That spells catastrophe.

The answer lies in renewables  for climate action, for energy security, and for providing clean electricity to the hundreds of millions of people who currently lack it. Renewables are a triple win.

There is no excuse for anyone to reject a renewables revolution. While oil and gas prices have reached record price levels, renewables are getting cheaper all the time. The cost of solar energy and batteries has plummeted 85 per cent over the past decade. The cost of wind power fell by 55 per cent. And investment in renewables creates three times more jobs than fossil fuels.

Of course, renewables are not the only answer to the climate crisis. Nature-based solutions, such as reversing deforestation and land degradation, are essential. So too are efforts to promote energy efficiency. But a rapid renewable energy transition must be our ambition.

As we wean ourselves off fossil fuels, the benefits will be vast, and not just to the climate. Energy prices will be lower and more predictable, with positive knock-on effects for food and economic security. When energy prices rise, so do the costs of food and all the goods we rely on. So, let us all agree that a rapid renewables revolution is necessary and stop fiddling while our future burns.
Henry, KYEREMEH

15.07.2022 LISTEN

The Supreme Court of the United States of America recently dealt a severe blow to global efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The Court, in a 6-3 majority, voted to limit the oversight responsibility of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the appropriate use of technology in power generation in the U.S.

On behalf of some selected local power generation companies, West Virginia State brought the case against EPA - a federal agency- suggesting that the EPA did not have the power to determine the energy mix or change the power generation sources at the State level. It further contended that the authority to shift energy generation mix is solely of Congress and not EPA.

The Court astonishingly held the argument by West Virginia and ruled in their favour, curtailing the power of EPA on climate change. Until this ruling, the EPA ensured that concerns about deteriorating city air, natural areas debris littering, and urban water supplies contamination with dangerous impurities were addressed. Yet, despite the work of EPA in protecting the environment and averting severe drought, famine, floods, heatwaves, and pollution, the conservative Court thinks that regulation on U.S. ecology should not be in the hands of "unelected technicians."

The Court argued that bureaucrats mustn't be allowed at any point in time to reshape the economies of States by limiting their pollution. Rather, such power must rest with Congress, who are elected representatives of the citizens. Unfortunately, however, elected representatives do not at all times have the requisite knowledge to handle such matters.

The June 30th ruling could potentially become a major hamstring to the U.S. government's efforts at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector. Not only that, but it could become a major setback to the global efforts at limiting carbon dioxide emissions as agreed under the Paris pact. It could also become grounds for "free riding, " especially for countries that pay a heavy price for implementing climate change actions. The enormous benefits of "free ride" may incentivise some countries to jettison their National Determined Commitments (NDCs) - efforts by each government to reduce national emissions - for short-term economic gains, if possible. Already many countries are way off-track in meeting their NDCs.

Given that climate change is trans-national, any attempt to free ride by other countries could make it harder to achieve the expected goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels by 2030 and also reach net zero emission by 2050. It is particularly true for the high emitting G20 Countries. Moreover, it will thwart global efforts to create a healthy and livable planet for the next generation. Certainly, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision may not have taken cognisance of the ramifications of their decision beyond their jurisdiction.

Whist the ruling may be right in the sense of U.S domestic law and great news for the Conservative Americans, it is utterly wrong in science and bad for the rest of the world. It misses the complex and delicate balance between law, science and sociology, thereby elevating the existential threat of climate change. It is no secret that the ruling makes it easy for electricity generation companies to choose less optimal technologies for carbon sequestration. Also, the incentive for businesses to invest in new technologies may run dry and become less of a concern to business owners from now on.

It could also occasion a hostile legal conundrum concerning Federal Agencies' ability to carry out State-wide activities in the future. Nevertheless, the Biden administration has described the ruling as devastating. Moreover, the administration is working around the clock to ensure that the verdict does not adversely militate against their good efforts to limit pollution in America and, ultimately, global ecology.

The Achilles heel of the ruling is that it quickens ecological disruption and slows global climate action. Since climate change is borderless, the impact of this decision potentially will be felt far and near. For example, pollution from coal-fired plants in Charleston- West Virginia could affect the people of Cape Coast in Ghana and vice-versa. It is essential to underscore that human's susceptibility to climate change is graver than they were a few decades ago. However, the stark difference this time is that the impact of ecological disruption may differ between developing and advanced countries due to improved mitigation and adaptation systems in advanced countries.

To meet the Paris Pact would require re-doubling of efforts by all countries who have signed up to the accord. It demands the group of developed industrialised economies, in addition to their NDCs, to support developing countries already reeling from climate change with technological know-how and adequate climate mitigation and adaptation funding.

Many wealthy nations accumulated their sustained wealth at the expense of massive environmental damage during the so-called industrial revolution. As a result, the little these industrialised countries in particular- the United States- could do is undertake programmes that positively impact global ecology, not those that potentially suffocate international efforts. Rightly so, this proposition aligns appropriately with the United Nation's unrelenting call on wealthy nations to do more if we are to meet climate change targets.

The United States of America is the biggest per capita emitter of CO and second to China in nominal emission terms. The high emission levels of the U.S. make it a critical pillar in the fight against climate change. In this regard, the onus responsibility of the U.S. to contribute towards greenhouse gas emission reduction must be absolute and resounding. After all, the net cost of embarking on such climate actions may be minimal for the U.S compared to emerging economies that still have sizeable infrastructure deficits. The U.S., as a global hegemony, must bring their leadership to bear in dealing with global commons such as climate change. Failure on the part of the U.S. to step up to the task may inhibit global efforts and devastate generations today and tomorrow.

Should the U.S. fail to devise means to go run the ruling, there is a high possibility that other countries may enact similar retaliatory policies to decrease their climate efforts in return for economic gains. That will damage the multilaterally agreed NDCs adopted for the collective climate action under the Paris Accord. Such a situation will be direr for the world with an excessively far-reaching impact on people living in developing countries. Given the U.S.'s role in sharpening the world's geopolitical landscape, any action that leads other countries to adopt "free riding" to climate change may be unfortunate and unacceptable.

The ruling of the Court could also escalate the precarious situation of the global economy. The world economy has been upended significantly by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to the UNDP, the pandemic has heightened healthcare insecurity worldwide. It has also accelerated extreme poverty to unprecedented levels, with additional 71 million people in the world's poorest countries pushed into extreme poverty. Climate inaction by the world today will only intensify the trajectory of poverty through famine, droughts, flooding, and heatwaves. The poor people will be the hardest hit, especially in countries with weak social safety systems. Such a scenario could dangerously lead to unnecessary global conflicts, demonstrating a complete failure of development economics.

As much as the U.S. is a single country, and their climate inaction may not make or break the rest of the world in securing healthy and livable earth, their action certainly dampens the efforts of other countries. Fortunately, many large responsible U.S. corporations have committed to actions that positively impact the global climate. The world's consolation in their singular determination affirms that all is not lost, and we [the world] could still save the planet from the worse impact of climate change if we "make our little effort" to step up our climate action. So let the rest of the world together save the world even without the U.S. However, if the U.S. changes course and comes to the table, it will be better for global climate action.

Henry, KYEREMEH

[email protected]

Co-Founder, iWatch Africa
15.07.2022 LISTEN

News value is the editorial or publication value the media attaches to issues based on a hierarchy of worthiness, importance and impact. The value is what determines whether an issue becomes news or not. It also determines how an issue would be placed in terms of space and time allotments, and frequency of appearance. Also, news value of issues is influenced by the elements of timeliness, proximity, prominence, out of the ordinary events, relevance of the issues to the public and also how conflictual an event is to our social values and belief systems. Furthermore, the public interest, the bizarre and negativity attached to an issue could also influence the value placed on issues by journalists and editors. News value is therefore the currency of importance editors attach to issues during editorial decisions which are further influenced by the agenda the media intend to set. It must however be stated that news might not directly be influenced by the aforementioned factors alone but the systematic process of sorting and selection of topics which may be seen as realities facing society. News topics or categories about children in Colorado are therefore likely to be influenced by the above factors.

In any case, news worthiness of an event, issue, or topic is always a complex journalistic decision process of making certain issues (voice) more salient than the other in order to achieve a particular agenda and a social change perspective. Thus, the media has the power to induce a particular moral attention and action based on how it selects its news topics. Simply, the media gives a degree of voice to news considered to be worthy. Similarly, the Colorado media may assign more salient voice to certain children related news categories than the other hence the rhetoric of; When is the Childs Voice News in Colorado?

Colorados Child Voice  Does it Matter?

Certainly, the voice of every child matter and so is the child in Colorado. The Well Being of every child in Colorado is of important concern to the society. Hence, Colorado Childrens Campaign, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization urges the promotion of every chance for every child. The chance for every child translates into every childs voice or issues affecting children in the community. Children, fragile as they may be, are the vital engine of societys future and growth. For how a childs voice is nestled today bears a direct impact on how Colorado community becomes in the future. Policy makers, media and nongovernmental agencies recognizes children as vital backbone of the society and the need for public investments in childrens development initiatives. For instance, Colorado legislatures Early Childhood Educator Tax Credit and the implementation of universal preschool for every four-year-old in Colorado from 2023 seeks to promote childrens Well Being.

Much is also expected from the media as an agent for social change in the promotion of child voice by making issues affecting children more salient in its agenda setting role. It is against the medias function as an agent for social change this study on how children in Colorado are presented in the media was conducted. The studys objective is to ascertain what constitute Colorado child-news-value in the media from January to June 2022. The study focused only on news headlines and news on Colorado children. The study serves as a pointer for future studies since it is limited by the study period. The study analysed 174 news stories from 49 online media. Methodology used was news content analysis with intercoder validity at 85%. The study revealed the following coverage order: Covid-19 issues 15%, Sexual Abuses 10%, Education 7%, Nutrition 6%. The least covered issues were: School Bully 1%, Suicidal Attempts 1%, Affordable 1%, and many more.

Fig 1. Colorado Child News Values: Most Covered News Categories:

Fig2. Colorado Child News Values: Most Least Covered News Categories

Childs News Values Reporting Implications for Advocacy in Colorado

The study results suggest that certain sensitive issues affecting children were least covered. Affordable Care issues recorded 1% coverage although Child Care Aware of America ranked Colorado as the third-least affordable state in the U.S. for center based infant care.

Secondly, School Bullying had 1% coverage in spite of National Center for Education and Bureau of Justices (2019) data of 19% students in grades 9-12 report being bullied whilst 15% of all absenteeism is directly related to fears of being bullied.

Furthermore, according to the American Community Survey Statistics (2019), 4.3% of the under 18 population in the United States had disability an increase of 0.4% from the 2008 data. In spite of the data, the media gave Disability Support related issues only 1% coverage.

In addition, although the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), estimates that suicide is the second leading cause of death, only 1% coverage was given to Child Suicidal attempt issues.

This primary interpretation suggests that, there is not effective correlation between editorial news selection and U.S. or Colorado state departments development data.

For any media to act as an advocate for social change, there should be a scientific baseline of what the news value categories are and subsequently juxtaposing that with the communitys development pointers and available data projections.

It is therefore very important for advocacy agents to employ continuous scientific media content monitoring instruments and analysis to measure how policy pointers, community development issues are being projected in the media.

On the other hand, the media deserves commendation for acting as agent for change in the society in spite of its numerous economic, profit edge and editorial challenges.

Further, it is recommended that news reporting on children in Colorado should be driven more by communal or state development agenda approach than conventional news selection values. Such an advocacy clarion call is important for media equity in the dissemination of Colorado childrens issues.

In addition, to maximize the media as an advocacy agent, there should be a functional tripartite convergence of intended developmental agendas of Colorado state policy agenda, the public agenda and the media agenda. This type of convergence allows both public and state agendas to influence editorial decisions to some extent.

The intent of this study is not to critique the media, but to draw advocacy agents and states policy makers attention to the medias role in the promotion of issues affecting children in Colorado and how effective collaboration could contribute to child development across the Colorado communities.

Going forward, the media should be seen as a critical change maker in children development initiatives. For instance, a new form of media engagement which recognises the media as a dichotomy of profit and social change agency is required by policy makers and advocacy partners. A new partnership known as Colorado State Media Advocacy Agenda (CSMAA) should be evolved.

It is only in these contexts of medias social dichotomy can the media through appropriate scientific instruments be well appreciated and harnessed as a force for social change towards the voice and Well Being of children in Colorado. Again, children advocacy communication strategists should make media monitoring data as a baseline for media interventions measurements and also ensure the correlation between policy advocacy strategies and news making values in order to be patrons of Save the Childrens initiative of Be a Voice for Colorados Kids

About the Author:

Messan Mawugbe (PhD) is a strategic corporate communication consultant and a lecturer.

The Meadows, Castle Rock: Colorado

Email: [email protected]
15.07.2022 LISTEN

Member of Parliament for Akatsi North, Peter Nortsu Kotoe, has said as of today Friday July 15, the Government of Ghana has still not finished paying the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) for the conduct of the 2021 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

He said the Government owes a balance of Fifteen Million, Seven Hundred and Ninety Thousand and Seventy-Two Ghana Cedis (GH 15,790,072.00) for the WASSCE and Seven Million, Two Hundred and Twenty-One Thousand and Seven Hundred and Fifty-Five Ghana Cedis (7,221,755.00) for the BECE.

This makes a total outstanding debit of Twenty  Three Million, Eleven Thousand, and Eight Hundred and Twenty-Seven Ghana Cedis (GH 23,011,827.00) on the two examinations for 2021, he added.

Making a statement on the floor of Parliament, Mr Nortsu-Kotoe said the greatest problem facing the WAEC in the discharge of its mandate is the inadequate release of funds to the Council.

Mr. Speaker, the situation has become dire as no money has been released to WAEC for the conduct of the 2022 WASSCE and BECE. WAEC immediately needs a total of Ninety-Six Million, Six Hundred and Ninety-Four Thousand, Four Hundred and Thirty -Two Ghana Cedis and Forty Pesewas (GH 96,694,432.40) to engage in a number of pre -examination activities, transportation, and allowances for examiners, supervisors, invigilators and depot-keepers.

Mr. Speaker, it is disheartening to know that persons who supervised and invigilated the BECE for school candidates as well as script checkers for 2021 are yet to be paid the allowances due them.

Mr Speaker, I want to use this opportunity to appeal to the Minister of Finance to as a matter of urgency release money to the West African Examination Council for a smooth conduct of this years examination.

3news.com
Irate residents of Boankra in the Ejisu Municipality of the Ashanti Region are seething with anger over the delays in the commencement of the inland port project.

Residents want to organize a massive demonstration to register their displeasure about the delays in having the project to boost economic activities in the area.

The angry residents told Accra 100.5 FMs 6:00 am news on Friday, July 15, 2022, that when the government broke ground for the construction of the project during the reign of former president John Agyekum Kufour, many were those who moved to the area to purchase properties in readiness for the take off the inland port project.

They said decades down the line nothing has been seen by way of infrastructure for the project in the area.

The residents said what is worrying is that all the properties purchased in the area by private individuals have been abandoned because of the governments delays in kick-starting the project.

They said the area has turned into a ghost town because the majority of the youth have left to seek greener pastures in Kumasi and its surrounding areas.

Assemblyman for Wiriso Boankra Electoral area, Samuel Fordjour said they have started the processes to seek the needed permission from the police administration to enable them to register their protest about the governments decision to delay the project for over a decade.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on November 5, 2022 cut the sod for the commencement of work on the US$330 million Boankra Integrated Logistics Terminal project, popularly referred to as the Boankra Inland Port Project, which has been on the drawing board for some 18 years.

The idea of the Boankra Integrated Logistics Terminal project has been in the pipeline since the days of the Government of the 2nd President of the 4th Republic, John Agyekum Kufuor. In attempting to bring it into fruition, it encountered a number of challenges, a significant one being the exit of the NPP government in 2009.

Cutting the sod for the construction of the Port on Thursday, 5th November 2020, the President explained that the Boankra Inland Port project has been initiated to provide service to importers and exporters in the middle and northern parts of the country, and also to act as a major conduit for the efficient transportation of transit traffic to and from our neighbouring landlocked countries of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

Classfmonline.com
Key ministers from France and Niger met on Friday as French forces revamp their mission in the Sahel following a planned pullout from Mali.

Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna and Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu arrived in the Nigerien capital late Thursday.

Their joint visit aims to "represent the combined civilian and military" support given by France, a French diplomat said.

The talks take place as French forces complete a pullout from Mali, placing the spotlight on Niger as a frontline state in the fight against jihadism, and as the unstable region struggles with a string of military coups.

"The democratic regression in West Africa is extremely worrying," Colonna told French MPs ahead of her trip.

"However, in spite of these events (and) the withdrawal from Mali, France will continue to help West African armies fight terrorist groups."

"We are currently in consultation with our partners to determine with them, in line with their requests and needs, the kind of support that we are able to provide."

Niger is one of the biggest recipients of French aid, receiving 143 million euros (dollars) last year.

The two sides will sign agreements for a French loan of 50 million euros and a grant of 20 million euros.

The French ministers will also meet President Mohamed Bazoum and visit a base at Ouallam, north of Niamey, which oversees joint operations on Niger's western border by several hundred French and Nigerien troops.

Sahel problems

Niger, the world's poorest country by the benchmark of the UN's Human Development Index, has been badly hit by the jihadist insurgency that began in northern Mali in 2012 and then swept to neighbouring countries.

Thousands of civilians have been killed across the region and more than two million have fled their homes.

Niger itself is facing insurgencies both on its western border with Mali and Burkina Faso and on its south-eastern frontier with Nigeria.

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna and Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu held talks with Niger's Foreign Minister Hassoumi Massaoudou and Defence Minister Alkassoum Indatou. By BERTRAND GUAY (AFP)

It hosts tens of thousands of internally displaced people, as well as refugees from Burkina Faso, Mali and Nigeria.

French forces who have been supporting Mali for nearly a decade are expected to complete their pullout in the coming weeks after France and the Malian junta fell out.

The roots of the dispute lie in a military takeover in August 2020, which was followed by a second coup in May 2021.

Friction developed over the junta's delays in restoring military rule and escalated when Mali brought in Russian paramilitaries -- personnel described by France as "mercenaries" from the pro-Kremlin Wagner group.

Coups followed in Guinea last September and in Burkina Faso in January.

French in Africa

Niger. By (AFP)

At its peak, France's Barkhane mission had 5,100 troops among five Sahel allies, all former French colonies -- Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.

The forces have provided key support in air power, troop transport and reconnaissance. In Niger, France notably has an air base at Niamey where it has deployed drones.

After the Malian pullout, the mission will have "around 2,500" troops, Barkhane commander General Laurent Michon said in an interview this month.

The reconfigured mission will emphasise "more cooperative operations," he said.

These operations will be "determined more strictly by requests from the African countries and will take the form of 'in support of' and not 'in replacement for'" the local military, he said.

More than a thousand troops will be deployed in Niger, providing air support and training, French sources say.

French troops are also in Gabon, Ivory Coast and Senegal, as well as in the east of Africa in Djibouti.

On Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macon said he had asked the government and military chiefs to "to rethink our overall presence on the African continent by the autumn."

He called for "a presence that is less static and less exposed" and "a closer relationship" with African armed forces.
A professor with the University of Ghana (UG), Legon, Prof. Lord Mensah has expressed displeasure about how the government has managed the Ghanaian economy in the last two years.

The Ghanaian economy is currently not doing well, considered among the poor-performing economies in the world.

According to government officials including President Akufo-Addo and Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the economy is in a bad state due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Reacting to such claims, Prof. Lord Mensah has indicated that if the government has been managing the economy well, the country will not be where it is.

Speaking to Joy News, he stressed that a good economic manager is one who can convert liability into assets.

If you want to assess whether an economic manager is good or not, you assess them on how they manage the economy on things they don't have control over.

A good economic manager is the one who can convert liability to assets, the University of Ghana lecturer said.

Prof. Lord Mensah added, Sometimes we spend so much in an election year that when we get out of elections it will take us 2 years to get the economy back on track.

On Thursday, July 14, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia delivered a speech at an event held at the Accra Business School where he explained the decision by the ruling government to go to the IMF for a bailout.

While apportioning some blame on the erstwhile John Dramani Mahama-led government, Dr. Bawumia said the Covid-19, financial sector cleanup, energy sector debt financing, and the Russia-Ukraine war are to blame for the economic challenges facing the country.

With the challenges on accessing the capital market, balance of payment support was needed to bridge this financing gap, stabilize the economy and create the space to implement structural reforms and restore debt sustainability and this is really the reason why Ghana had to go to the IMF.

I should again note that Ghana has been hit with a quadruple whammy. The energy sector excess capacity payments. Banking sector cleanup, Covid-19, and the Russia-Ukraine war. If you take out this quadruple whammy Ghana will not be going to the IMF, H.E Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia emphasized.
New Delhi, July 15 (UNI) The Rajya Sabha Secretariat issued an advisory to MPs not to stage protests or hold religious ceremonies in the Parliament House precincts, drawing intense criticism from the opposition.

A bulletin issued by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat said: "Members cannot use the precincts of the Parliament House for any demonstration, dharna, strike, fast or for the purpose of performing any religious ceremony."

Reacting, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said mockingly of Prime Minister Narendra Modi: "Vishguru's latest salvo -- D(h)arna Mana Hai!"

Trinamool Congress member Derek O'Brien said the opposition will continue to protest through democratic means. He also said a religious ceremony was held in Parliament recently, referring to Modi on Monday unveiling the national emblem cast on the roof of the new Parliament building.

"Every year they issue these notices in Parliament bulletins. Demonstrations, dharnas, strikes, fast are part of legitimate parliamentary tactics to register protest. No stopping us," said O'Brien.

"However, can you please update me. Didnt someone conduct a religious ceremony recently?" he asked.

The bulletin is among over a dozen advisories issued by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat ahead of the Monsoon Session of Parliament. An official said the advisories were customary.

In the winter session of 2021, 12 Rajya Sabha members were suspended from the Upper House for their unruly and violent behaviour after they staged a protest in the House premises.

UNI AO MR
A section of Ghanaians on Twitter has expressed their displeasure over the comments made by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia on the Ghana Card.

They took to Twitter to vent their spleen.

The Vice President, delivering a speech at the Accra Business School on July 4 stated that he would always choose the Ghana Card over having 1,000 interchanges.

His follows his excitement over Ghana Card and how it had recently been certified by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) for citizens to use as a travel document.

However, Ghanaians do not share in his excitement.

In anger and trolls, some have questioned the essence of that statement.

According to some users, it doesn't make sense for one to choose Ghana Card over infrastructure.

In a series of sarcastic tweets, some Ghanaians have interpreted his comments as the Ghana Card being the new panacea to the countrys problems.

Some users asked whether the Ghana card will now fill car tanks with petrol.

Another user opined that Ghanaian leaders ought to learn the art of asking for forgiveness from angry citizens.

Essentially, the bulk of Ghanaians on twitter are appalled by Bawumias recent statement.
The Elections Committee of the Private Newspaper Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG) has assured of its readiness to hold the polls next month.

As reported by Modernghana News last month, PRINPAG will go to the polls next month to elect new executives to serve for the next three years.

READ MORE: PRINPAG to elect new executives on August 12

Ahead of the elections scheduled to be held on Friday, August 12, 2022, a three-member committee has been appointed to oversee the elections.

The Committee is made up of Mr. Ben Assorow, Managing Editor of the Catholic Standard as Chairman, Mr. Gyamfi Boaten former Editor, Christian Messenger, and Mr. Desmond Darko, of the Catalyst Newspaper as members. Kenteman Nii-Laryea Sowah serves as the Secretary to the Committee.

In the weeks leading to the election, the Committee says it will work to deliver fair and credible polls.

The Elections Committee has promised to deliver a fair and credible election to keep the PRINPAG brand glowing in the eyes of all Publishers and Owners of private newspapers and online media portals as well as the general public, this is contained in a press release issued by PRINPAG on July 12.

PRINPAG on July 4, paved the way for the picking of Nomination Forms. All persons interested in various positions must ensure their forms are picked by the close of today, July 15, 2022.

Find more in the PRINPAG press release today.
Conflict and climate change in West Africa's Sahel region have prompted nearly five million to flee their homes, the UN's refugee agency says.

At the end of June, 4.8 million people had fled in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, the UNHCR said in a press release to trail a visit by the agency's chief to the troubled region.

Of these, nearly three million of those people were displaced within their own countries, it said.

"The worst-affected country is Burkina Faso, where there are nearly two million internally displaced," the High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said in a two-day visit to camps in Chad, which hosts more than a million people.

Grandi on Thursday visited the Kalambari camp, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of the capital N'Djamena, where some 8,000 refugees from neighbouring Cameroon live.

"Two years ago, we registered 500,000 people in Mali and Burkina Faso, which already seemed huge to me," Grandi had told journalists in N'Djamena.

"It's worrying. The countries that cause the most concern are Burkina Faso and Mali. This is due to the actions of armed groups that terrorise populations, empty villages and drive people towards big cities," he said.

"But it is also due to the unduly strong reaction of governments," Grandi added.

Even before the emergence of jihadist groups affiliated to the Islamic State group and al-Qaeda, the affected Sahel nations were already among the poorest in the world.

Grandi said governments typically responded to jihadism with security measures, when the fight also needed to tackle poverty and under-development in such areas as education.

"All this will weaken extremism. Military action alone is not enough," he stressed.

"Added to this is the climate emergency, which deprives communities of resources and promotes conflicts," he said. "We need more humanitarian aid for all the countries of the Sahel."

Monthly food aid eaten in a week

The impoverished, volatile region is struggling with a jihadist campaign that sprang up in northern Mali in 2012.

Three years later, it spread to the centre of the country, an ethnic powder keg, and then to Niger and Burkina Faso.

In the case of Chad, attacks by Nigeria's Boko Haram jihadists began in the Lake Chad region in February 2015.

Food aid finished in a week

Around 100 camp residents took part in a protest as Grandi arrived on Thursday, holding up placards saying "No-one listens to our problems" and "We are tired of all the tricks".

He spent time listening to complaints.

"The roofs of the houses aren't strong enough and we badly lack bedding," said Gabriel Mati, secretary of the camp committee.

"Each month, they give us 5.75 kilogrammes (12.67 pounds) of sorghum, 1.75 litres (3.7 pints) of cooking oil and 1.5 kilos of beans -- the food is finished in a week."
The European Commission took Hungary to court on Friday to contest a Hungarian law banning the provision of LGBTQ content to minors.

Hungary's so-called "anti-paedophilia" law which, among other things, bans the "promotion" of homosexuality and gender reassignment to under-18s, came into effect last year, despite warnings from Brussels and EU leaders.

"The Commission considers that the law violates the internal market rules, the fundamental rights of individuals (in particular LGBTQ people) as well as . . . EU values," a statement said.

The EU Court of Justice can impose fines and financial penalties for non-compliance with its decisions.

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen described the legislation as a "disgrace" and the EU executive launched the procedure in July 2021.

Hungary's nationalist and conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orban claims that the law is not homophobic and is simply intended to "protect the rights of children".

The Commission is also suing Hungary over the national regulator's decision to take independent radio station Klubradio off the air. This was seen as a further blow to media pluralism in the country.

"In the EU, the world's leading democracy, no free radio station should be taken off the air for non-objective reasons on the basis of a discriminatory administrative procedure," said EU commissioner Thierry Breton.

Hungary was again singled out in the Commission's latest report on the rule of law in the EU, presented on Wednesday.

Brussels has also triggered a procedure that could lead to the suspension of European funds to the country, because of failures by Budapest to fight corruption.

(With AFP)
The Minority has asked Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia to take responsibility for the economic woes the country is experiencing under his watch as the head of the Economic Management Team.

According to the Minority, they are not surprised the Vice President is blaming the National Democratic Congress administration led by the former president John Dramani Mahama for the challenges of the economy.

The Minority further described Dr Bawumia as a failure adding that the NDC is not to be blamed for Ghana's return to the IMF.

The Minority in Parliament rejected assertions by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia that the Mahama administration is partly to blame for the country's return to the IMF.

Dr. Bawumia in his address on the economy on Thursday, 14 July 2022, apart from identifying Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war also cited the banking sector clean-up and energy sector debt as legacies of the Mahama administration that have carried the current government to the Bretton Woods Institution again for a bailout.

The Minoritys spokesperson on Finance, Mr Cassiel Ato Forson speaking to the media today, Friday, 15 July 2022, argued that the terrible economic realities of today are solely the doing of the Nana Akufo-Addos administration.

The former deputy Finance Minister asked the Vice President who heads the Economic Management Team to humbly accept his failures and move on.

Ranking member for the Mines and Energy Committee, John Abu Jinapor, further accused the government of diverting over GHS24 billion accrued to the ESLA to pay a GHS9 billion debt.

Source: Classfmonline.com
A member of the communication team of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Prince Henry has admonished President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to sack the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta for causing financial loss to the state.

He said Ken Ofori-Atta plunged the economy into a deep crisis or seemingly bottomless chasm.

His reactions follow the poor food supply shortages experienced across Senior High Schools in the country.

The schools affected are Accra Academy, Cape Coast in the Central Region, Kumasi, Ashanti Region, Bolgatanga, Upper East, and Ho in the Volta Region where students are fed up with a repeated menu.

The schools in the Central Region include Mfantsipim School, St. Augustines College, Adisadel College, and Ghana National College.

Some parents have raised concerns over the quality of food served to their wards in the affected schools.

The Eastern Regional Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) is making a strong push for a shutdown of schools.

The heads insisted that running the schools has become a herculean task.

According to CHASS, it is also considering proposing to parents to provide meals for their wards.

However, Prince Henry said the economic challenges give the government a good opportunity to review its flagship programme, the Free SHS.

In a Twitter post, he said Ghanaians are not against free SHS, what we are saying is review it and ask parents who can pay, pay for their wards.

The current form of free SHS isnt sustainable ooooo Nana Addo!!!

He believes the President has lost absolute control in running the affairs of the country adding that In a serious country with a determined and ambitious Prez., Mr. Ken Ofori Atta should be sacked and facing trial for causing financial loss to the state but under the leadership of the mother serpent of corruption it will never happen.
The European Union will target Russian gold exports in an upgrade of the bloc's sanctions against Moscow, due to be announced on Friday.

The EU has so far approved six packages of sanctions against Russia. The most recent one, passed in June, imposed a ban on most Russian oil imports.

The EU will look into ways of sanctioning gold, which is an important commodity for exports from Russia, Maros Sefcovic, deputy head of the European Commission, said in Prague.

The move follows a ban on gold exports from Russia agreed by the world's leading industrialised nations at a G7 meeting at the end of June.

Sefcovic said the European Commission would announce the update on Friday and member states would discuss it next week.

"As soon as we reach an agreement at the level of member states, we will publish it," he said ahead of an informal meeting of European affairs ministers held by the Czech presidency of the 27-nation bloc.

"We want to harmonise our sanction regime with the measures recently adopted by the G7," Sefcovic said, adding the EU was constantly monitoring the implementation and effect of its sanctions.

"We also continuously update the lists of people targeted by the sanctions," he said.

New sanctions

The EU seeks to "tighten the sanctions to help end the war as soon as possible and to make the economic price paid by the Russian Federation for its aggression as high as possible," Sefcovic added.

On the eve of the Prague meeting, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Stefanishyna urged the EU to adopt new sanctions against Russia.

"Nothing makes Russia so far feel accountable for (its) crimes," she told reporters.

"We hope the next, seventh package of sanctions will have a strong restrictive potential and will be taken without further delay and as soon as possible," said Stefanishyna.

Sefcovic added the EU would also seek to "close all exit routes for those wanting to bypass the sanctions" in the proposed update.

"It is of course a very complex mechanism, so we need to not only set up but also check, monitor and close the places that would create platforms for an exit in some way," he said.

He waved aside any thoughts of fatigue among EU members helping Ukraine, which Russia invaded on 24 February.

"I have never seen so strongly demonstrated unity and effort from all member states to look for all possible reserves, whether we talk about financial aid or arms supplies," Sefcovic said.

"Even though it's really difficult, we will continue because it's the Ukrainians fighting for their freedom who are in the most difficult situation," he added.

(With AFP)
15.07.2022 LISTEN

WHEN FIVE-year old Shamsiya Dahamani was sent to her grandmother for fostering at Walewale, in the West Mamprusi Municipality of the North East Region, her parents hoped she would get the needed care and education.

Shamsiya was enrolled into school while she stayed with her grandmother and then moved to live with her aunty and her husband where sheattendedthe Ebenezer Presbyterian School in Walewale till she reached her final year and registered for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).

And so, it all seemed well till a few months to the start of the BECE, when Shamsiya returned to her father's house in Zangumyakura, a community in the municipality.

I was at home when my daughter came by herself. I was worried and disturbed when I saw her, because no one told me about her coming, says Dahaman Seini, Shamsiya's father.

But it did not take long for Shamsiya's parents to know what brought their daughter home eventhough she was supposed to be preparing to sit her final exams for her junior high school education in Walewale.

A family meeting was called and when I went, they told me that my daughter was pregnant, Shamsiya's father recalls. I was very sad and devastated about the news.

I did not know I was pregnant, it was my grandmother in Walewale who saw me and asked who impregnated me and I told her it was my aunty's husband, Yusif, but she did not believe me, and he also denied being responsible for the pregnancy, Shamsiya says. So, after some time I left them and came to my father's house.

The unfortunate situation put 15-year-old Shamsiya's education in limbo as she could no longer continue her studies at the Ebenezer Presbyterian School in Walewale.

I didn't want her to go to school here because I didn't want anyone in the community to see that my daughter was pregnant, Shamsiya's father recounts. But, Shamsiya wanted to go back to school even though she was pregnant and more importantly sit for her BECE. She also wanted Yusif to take responsibility for the pregnancy.

When we heard about Shamsiya's case, she had already left Walewale, which meant she had stopped schooling, says Nancy Yeri, Project Manager for the Adolescent Safe Space Project, funded by UNFPA-UNICEF and implemented by the Northern Sector Action on Awareness Centre (NORSAAC).

The project, which is being implemented in six districts in the North, creates the platform for adolescents to discuss their issues with mentors and trained officers who can support them with the goal of preventing teenage pregnancy and sexual violence.

Ms Yeri states that NORSAAC reported the case to the social welfare department of the West Mamprusi Municipality which in turn referred it to the girl child officer at the Ghana Education Service (GES) District office.

Ms Yeri says an officer of the GES met with Shamsiya's family to discuss how best she could be reintegrated into school to complete her education and that was when, she realised, Shamsiya wanted to go back to school.

So, with the assistance of the GES District Officer, Shamsiya enrolled at a new school, Zangu JHS School in Zangumyakura, to continue her education.

Her new school teachers and classmates supported her till she was delivered of her baby girl in May 2020, and continued to write her BECE in September, 2020.

Also, we referred her to the UNICEF Safety Net Programme which assigned an officer to monitor her progress. The Social Welfare Department also mediated a meeting between the two families where Yusif took responsibility for the pregnancy and is now supporting Shamsiya and her baby girl, Mr. Yeri adds.

Shamsiya hopes to continue her education so she can become a teacher in future. I would want to empower my child with quality education. I would want to be a teacher in future so that I can educate my children, she says.

Head of the Social Welfare Department of the West Mamprusi Municipality of the North East Region, Alhaji Abdul Wahab Ibrahim, says strengthening stakeholder engagement and referral system for child protection is a priority for the department.

Alhaji Wahab Ibrahim, who in the past, has dealt with various issues of child protection, says the effective implementation of these two pillars goes a long way to improve the welfare of the child in the municipality.

For us, as an institution, we are in constant education engaging the various stakeholders especially, in the implementation of child welfare policies, for them to understand that child welfare issues are matters of concern to the nation, and if children's rights are abused, they should try to move outside the family for institutions to come and play their role instead of shielding it in the name of the family, he indicates.

Alhaji Ibrahim adds that the department has been engaging communities with the child protection tool kits provided by UNICEF adding We demonstrate to them the dangers involved in some of these things. So, the sensitisation is still ongoing and sometimes people from other communities help others to report their cases because, we visited that community with the UNICEF child protection tool kit.

He attests to the impact the UNICEF tool kit has had in communities. Initially, people were not reporting such cases at all, but nowadays, once a while parents come in with their children and ask us to counsel them; sometimes, changes come, he adds.

BY Jamila Akweley Okertchiri


Digital labour platforms are rapidly transforming the world of work. Many governments in the global south have welcomed platforms that bring businesses, workers and consumers together, creating opportunities to reduce unemployment. But what happens when jobs are turned into tasks? Workers are increasingly managed by apps that allocate these tasks and monitor their performance. Platform workers face low pay, poor working conditions  and algorithmic surveillance.

The number of digital platforms has expanded rapidly over the past decade, a trend accelerated by COVID-19. Most are concentrated in just a few locations , among them the US, India and the UK. There is also a significant imbalance between the demand for digital workers based in the global north and the supply of workers in need of income opportunities, in the global south.

There are two broad types of digital labour platforms. The first are location-based. They mediate tasks carried out in person at particular locations: delivering food, taxi services, domestic work and care services. The second are online web-based. They mediate tasks such as data categorisation and translation and editing services that can, in theory, be performed anywhere via the internet and remotely.

While digital labour platforms create new opportunities for income, they also threaten to extend informality into new sectors through algorithmic insecurity.

Claimed advantages

Platform work is often seen to create opportunities that better suit workers' skills, interests and schedules. This increased flexibility is said to provide workers, particularly women who have to balance paid and unpaid care work, with income opportunities and greater autonomy over their work. However, a growing body of evidence shows that the flexibility of many of these jobs comes at a cost to workers' economic security and control over the work process.

Many people are drawn to platform work because they aspire for the greater autonomy and control that comes from not having a boss. Yet, as Brazilian historian Lucas Santos shows in his research with food delivery workers in Sao Paulo, Brazil, riders soon realise that the feeling of freedom they associate with working for an app is more aspiration than reality.

Read more: For workers in Africa, the digital economy isn't all it's made out to be

Indian sociologist Gayatri Nair's research shows that many gig workers in India are attracted to the initial facade of formality and respectability. Many women workers in India's beauty sector see digital mediation via an app as creating a form of respectability that was not there before. But, Nair shows, earnings are meagre and many workers lack autonomy and control over their work. Digital labour platforms, she argues, are creating new forms of algorithmic insecurity in the form of surveillance, ratings, and arbitrary changes to remuneration.

The reality of algorithmic control

Digital labour platforms often deny any employment relation. They insist that they act simply as a mediator between businesses, workers and consumers. What distinguishes them from a traditional labour market intermediary is that what they mediate is a single task, activity or service rather than a job in the traditional sense. And though platforms are never fully autonomous, they manage workers and tasks using algorithms (computer programmed procedures). In so doing they minimise human interaction.

Read more: The Fourth Industrial Revolution: a seductive idea requiring critical engagement

This process of automating work processes and the coordination of tasks is often referred to as algorithmic management or algorithmic control.

For example, food delivery workers in Sao Paulo and Johannesburg , South Africa receive automated instructions on their mobile phones about where to collect and drop off the food, and the route via GPS map they should take. South African sociologists Eddie Webster and Fikile Masikane show that digital labour platforms not only assign tasks: they also assess performance and determine pay. They have the power to deactivate or disconnect a worker from the platform, unilaterally terminating employment.

Algorithmic management is invisible and inaccessible. It also controls all aspects of the work process. As Colombian sociologist Derly Yohanna Sanchez points out, this control extends to more than just the supply and demand for digital work. Platforms also control aspects of the work that are, she says, external to the digital market such as personal information and human resources.

This can produce anti-competitive or discriminatory outcomes, or both. For example, platforms give customers, as Nair put it, full power to rate and review workers. This algorithmic disciplining of workers via customer ratings has minimised transparency and accountability. It has also created perverse information asymmetries, as noted by communications scholar Sai Amulya Kommarraju . These make it nearly impossible for workers to contest customer ratings or challenge the forms of algorithmic control they are subjected to.

Resistance

Although algorithmic control appears insurmountable, there is some evidence that workers are beginning to push back and fight for greater transparency and improved worker conditions.

In December 2020, Uber drivers in Johannesburg, South Africa launched a protest by disabling the Uber app and not accepting requests for rides. Among the drivers' complaints were the obscure way in which their accounts were blocked by Uber and the inequitable way in which the fees earned by drivers were unilaterally decided and implemented by Uber.

There are also examples of workers forming platform cooperatives and demanding collective user rights over their data .

If digital labour platforms are here to stay it is an imperative to build platforms and algorithms that prioritise the interests and needs of workers , not only business. Giving workers the right to access and have control over their data is, International Labour Organisation economist Uma Rani argues, one of the most important ways to empower worker control over algorithmic management. This will require both regulation and pressures from below, by consumers and workers.

The Future of Work(ers) Research Programme at the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies, University of the Witwatersrand is hosting a seven-part dialogue series. The aim is to generate public debate on the relationship between digital technologies, the changing nature of work(ers) and the implications for inequality.

The upcoming dialogue on Automation, labour-replacement and labour market restructuring will take place on 19 July from 3:30 to 5:00pm, SAST. To register click here .

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

By Hannah J. Dawson, Senior Researcher, Southern Centre for Inequality Studies, University of the Witwatersrand And

Ruth Castel-Branco, Research Manager, University of the Witwatersrand
The Atebubu-Amantin Municipal Assembly has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Association of Local Government Authorities (NALAG) under the Partnership for Municipal Innovation-Women in Local Leadership (PMI-WILL) project.

The 5-year project which will also run in Saboba, Tema, Kwahu West and Nandom districts is implemented by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities in partnership with local government authorities. It is funded mainly by the Canadian government through Global Affairs Canada.

According to Mr. Sheriff Amarh, the National Coordinator of the project which is being implemented in 4 other countries namely, Sri Lanka, Zambia, Benin and Cambodia, it has the objective to enhance the enjoyment of rights for women and girls particularly those from marginalized groups.

He painted a picture of the disparity between men and women in leadership positions at national, regional and local levels against the backdrop of the last population and housing census which showed that women dominate men in terms of numbers. He added that the objective of the project would be achieved through an increase in women participation and capacity to lead in local governance and also an increased local government capacity to deliver inclusive gender-responsive services.

Mr. Amarh hoped that the five implementing districts will by the end of the project becomes models from which other districts can learn.

Participants drawn from trade groups, traders, assembly members, teachers, political parties, the physically challenged and the media were oriented on how they can motivate and support women and the physically challenged to take up leadership roles in society. They also shared ideas on how to advance the cause of the project.

The Atebubu-Amantin Municipal Coordinating Director Mr. Joseph Tang signed for his outfit while Mr Amarh appended his signature to the document on behalf of NALAG.

Present were the Bono East Regional Representative of NALAG Hon. Gariba Issa, Mr. Emmanuel Abbey and Madam Esi Benewaa Otoo, program officer and gender equality officer both of NALAG as well as Hon. Najat Ibrahim the Presiding Member of the Atebubu-Amantin Municipal Assembly.

The function was chaired by Nana Kwabena Poku, Nifahene of the Amantin traditional area.
New Delhi, July 15 (UNI) The South East Asia (SEA) Region of the World Health Organisation(WHO) raised alarm on Friday following the reporting of the first case of Monkeypox in India.

The Region has been on alert for monkeypox. Countries have been taking measures to rapidly detect and take appropriate measures to prevent the spread of monkeypox, Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO SEA, said via a statement.

The case in India is also the first in the SEA region.
Several cars and signs celebrating Tunisian-Algerian friendship marked the reopening Friday of land borders between the two countries, more than two years after they closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Authorities expect more than a million Algerian visitors, most of them tourists, to enter Tunisia during the summer months.

After two years of closure, nine border crossings between the two countries reopened at midnight on Thursday.

The decision to reopen the crossings was announced by Algeria's President Abdelmajid Tebboune to his Tunisian counterpart Kais Saied, on July 5, during Algiers' independence day celebrations.

The Melloula border post, near Tabarka where an AFP team was deployed, traditionally sees the most traffic, according to Tunisian national guard official Jamel Zrig.

In 2019 it saw between 15,000 and 16,000 daily arrivals and accounted for a quarter of incoming traffic from Algeria.

"Long live Algerian-Tunisian fraternity," read a large banner at the border.

Visitors showed vaccination certificates and other Covid-related documents to customs officials in a building adorned with the inscription: "Welcome to our Algerian brothers, in their second country, Tunisia."

Jana Galila, an Algerian pensioner, said she was "very, very happy" to return to Tunisia.

"We had been waiting for (the border to reopen)... with impatience," she told AFP as she prepared to enter Tunisia for holidays.

Nearly three million Algerians travelled to Tunisia in 2019, equating to one third of foreign visitors in a year that signalled a recovery in Tunisia's tourism sector after it was hit by a string of jihadist attacks in 2015.

Following the onset of the Covid pandemic, border crossings between the two countries were closed on March 17, 2020, remaining open only for emergencies.

Algerians typically travel to Tunisia for tourism, visiting the popular seaside resorts of Annaba and Constantine, to visit family or to undertake medical treatment.

Relations between the two North African countries have been historically warm since Algerian independence from French colonial rule in 1962.
The Former Deputy Minister of Information, Felix Kwakye Ofosu has added to his voice to many Ghanaians registering their displeasure at Vice President Bawumia's Ghana Card-1,000 Interchange comment.

According to him, the claims by the Vice President were ridiculous.

Speaking on Joy News AM show on July 15, he indicated that the Vice Presidents comment that he would pick the Ghana Card over 1,000 interchanges mock the widely known technology updates in public service delivery.

He noted that the comment by Dr. Bawumia seeks to create the impression that technology update was the sole accomplishment of national life.

It was tinged with very bizarre and ridiculous claims. This claim that he will pick the Ghana Card over 1,000 interchanges, its just making mockery of the whole concept of technology updates in the rendering of public services.

Of course, there is a place for injecting technology and IT services into public service delivery, but to create the impression that, that is the be all and end all of our national life and that after that nothing else matters and that you dont need roads is most ridiculous, he emphasized.

He added that there is no basic comparison of infrastructure and technology as they both have specific roles to play in the country.

In delivering a speech at the Accra Business School on July 14, the Vice President stressed that if given the choice he will choose the Ghana Card over 1,000 interchanges.

In his view, technology has come to stay and Ghana must take full advantage of the fourth industrial revolution.
The call for the ministerial reshuffle in these trying times has been heightened following the IMF bailout move.

Many Ghanaians believe some lazy ministers in the current administration are partly to blame for the current economic crisis and need to be reshuffled.

However, the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party, Benard Antwi Bisiako, also known as Chairman Wontumi, thinks otherwise.

Speaking on the Accra-based Metro TVs 'Good Evening Ghana' show on Thursday, July 14, monitored by Modernghana News, he said God only speaks to a leader, not a follower.

God doesn't speak to a follower, he speaks to the leader alone, so they should be mute, he noted.

He further cited the era of Moses in the Bible when he had an elderly brother (Aaron) but God spoke to him alone because he was the leader, asking critics to keep mute.

The host further asked him why the NPP including himself kept criticizing John Mahama when he knew God speaks to a leader alone.

He replied, But unfortunately for Mahama, the anointing wasn't on him, that is why we were criticizing him...God spoke to him in parables but he couldn't understand because Ghanaians only voted for him for the sympathy for Atta Mills death and his (Mahamas) handsomeness.

He added, So they should leave Nana Addo alone when God speaks to him he will do the reshuffle.
15.07.2022 LISTEN

The Minority in Parliament has lambasted the Vice President of the Republic, H.E Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia for blaming the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the NPP government's decision to seek support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

On Thursday, July 14, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia delivered a speech at an event held at the Accra Business School where he explained the decision by the ruling government to go to the IMF for a bailout.

While apportioning some blame on the erstwhile John Dramani Mahama-led government, Dr. Bawumia said the Covid-19, financial sector cleanup, energy sector debt financing, and the Russia-Ukraine war are to blame for the economic challenges facing the country.

With the challenges on accessing the capital market, balance of payment support was needed to bridge this financing gap, stabilize the economy and create the space to implement structural reforms and restore debt sustainability and this is really the reason why Ghana had to go to the IMF.

I should again note that Ghana has been hit with a quadruple whammy. The energy sector excess capacity payments. Banking sector cleanup, Covid-19, and the Russia-Ukraine war. If you take out this quadruple whammy Ghana will not be going to the IMF, H.E Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia emphasized.

Addressing the media in Parliament today on the back of the claims by the Vice President, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson who is the Minority spokesperson on Finance said Dr. Bawumia has lost focus.

He said the Vice President must focus on his core duties and stop making his office look irrelevant.

The Vice-President, Dr. Mahmoud Bawumia must concentrate on his core duties as head of the economic team and allow the Minister of Information to perform his duties as prescribed by convention.

"From all indications, the Vice-President president has clearly lost focus and therefore making his office look irrelevant while demeaning the standards expected of a Vice-President, Dr. Ato Forson emphasised.
Virtually no pupil attended school today, Friday, July 15 in most of the public basic schools in the Kumasi Metropolis of the Ashanti region.

Although some of the teachers reported after they called off their strike action over the payment of Cost of Living Allowance (COLA), they have virtually no pupils to teach.

On a visit to St. Cyprians Anglican Primary and Junior High School as well as the Asem Cluster of schools, some of the teachers reported to school, but none of the pupils attended.

The classrooms were closed except for the staff common rooms and the head teachers' offices.

The situation was not different at Yaa Achiaa M/A Girls' as few of the pupils attended school.

Some of the teachers expressed worry about the situation.

One of the teachers at St. Cyprian's Anglican JHS told Class 93.1FMs Elisha Adarkwa that they had been in the school with their head teachers since 6: 00 am but none of the pupils turned up.

Some teachers have attributed the absence of pupils to the late announcement of the suspension of the strike.

The strike was called off on Thursday night after the government agreed to pay 15% COLA to organised labour.

Source: Classfmonline.com
Former Deputy Minister of Information in the erstwhile Mahama administration has expressed his displeasure over Vice President Bawumias Ghana card-1,000 Interchange comment.

According to him, technology and infrastructure have different roles to play in developing the country.

In delivering a speech at the Accra Business School on July 14, the Vice President stressed that if given the choice he will choose Ghana Card over 1,000 interchanges.

In his view, technology has come to stay and Ghana must take full advantage of the fourth industrial revolution.

Commenting on the Vice Presidents speech on Accra-based Joy News on July 15, Felix Kwakye questioned if Vice President after his speech drove on the Ghana Card to his destination or home.

He describes Bawumias comment as ridiculous and makes mockery of the concept of technology updates in improving public service delivery.

The reason why I say it is ridiculous is that there is no basic comparison of the two. A lot of things come together to ensure our development as a country.

So there is a role for technology and its update in the rendering of public services, but to tell me that apart from that nothing else matters and that you will pick the Ghana Card over interchange is the most ridiculous idea.

The Vice President when he finished his programme and he sat in his fleet of vehicles did he drive on Ghana Card to his destination or home? Did he not drive on road? he stated.

He noted that if investments had not been made on roads Bawumia would not have been able to journey to and from the event.
Egypt will "temporarily suspend" its participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations in Mali after seven of its troops died in attacks this year, the UN mission MINUSMA said on Friday.

Egypt signalled its concerns at UN headquarters in New York this week, the mission said in a statement.

"We have been informed that, in consequence, the Egyptian contingent would temporarily suspend its activities in MINUSMA from August 15," said the statement, without detailing how long the suspension would last.

MINUSMA -- the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali -- was launched in 2013 to help one of the world's poorest countries cope with a bloody jihadist campaign.

It is one of the UN's biggest peacekeeping operations, with 17,609 troops, police, civilians and volunteers deployed as of April, according to the mission's website.

It is also one of the most dangerous UN missions, with 275 fatalities from attacks, accidents or other causes, according to the website.

Of these, 177 deaths have come from hostile acts, 10 of them since January.

The latest attack against the Egyptian contingent was on July 5, when two peacekeepers were killed and five seriously hurt near Gao, in northern Mali.

A UN official in Bamako said Egypt contributed 1,035 out of the total 12,261 UN peacekeeping troops in Mali.

"It is one of the mission's biggest contingents," he said.

Crisis

The announcement comes at a time when Mali's ruling junta is wrestling with a bloody jihadist insurgency and friction with international partners.

The UN Security Council renewed MINUSMA's mandate for one year on June 29, although the junta opposed requests to allow freedom of movement for rights' investigators with the mission.

On Thursday, Mali announced it was suspending all rotations by MINUSMA troops and police for reasons of "national security".

Troops from France's Barkhane operation are due to complete their pullout from Mali in the coming weeks -- a departure sparked by a bustup between Paris and the junta which took power in September 2020.

The junta stirred French anger over delays in its pledge to restore civilian rule, and then wove closer ties with the Kremlin, bringing in paramilitaries that France says are mercenaries from the controversial pro-Kremlin Wagner group.

The French withdrawal is likely to have an operational impact for MINUSMA, as French air power has been a major source of support.

'Hindrances'

A western diplomat whose country supplies troops to MINUSMA said that the "hindrances" to the mission "are clearly going to make several contributing countries question their commitments."

"Some contingents were present in Mali because Barkhane was there," Ornella Moderan, a researcher at the South African-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS) told AFP in February.

Mali. By (AFP)

"With the French troops going, will the Germans, the English or the Swedes be staying?" shed asked.

Mali's security problems began with a regional insurrection in the north in 2012 that was abetted by Islamist militants.

The jihadists, after being scattered by French military intervention, regrouped to move into the centre of the country, inflaming long-standing ethnic resentments, and mounting cross-border raids into neighbours Burkina Faso and Niger.

Across the region, the violence has claimed thousands of lives, prompted more than two million people to flee their homes and inflicted devastating economic damage on three countries that rank among the poorest in the world.
The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Benard Antwi Bosiako popularly known as Chairman Wontumi has taken a swipe at Akufo-Addos critics over calls for a ministerial reshuffle.

He said President Akufo-Addo is an anointed leader God speaks to.

According to him, at the appointed time, the President will reshuffle his government only when God speaks to him.

"God doesn't speak to a follower, he speaks to the leader alone. Akufo-Addo is anointed, so they should be mute," he noted.

Chairman Wontumi said this during a discussion on whether Akufo-Addo should listen to the calls by the public, especially the opposition members, to embark on a ministerial reshuffle when he appeared on the Accra-based Metro TVs Good Evening Ghana show on Thursday, July 14, monitored by this portal.

When asked why he and NPP members criticised the previous Mahamas administration while in opposition despite knowing God only speaks to a leader alone, he argues that Mahama wasn't anointed like President Akufo-Addo, a reason they constantly criticised him.

But unfortunately for Mahama, the anointing wasn't on him. That is why we criticized him when he was in power," he intimated.

Chairman Wontumi argues that Mahama could not get the anointing of God because he could not understand the parable languages God wanted to communicate with him.

According to him, Mr Mahama's victory in the 2012 elections can be tied to the sympathy Ghanaians developed for him following the death of the late President Professor Evans Atta Mills and also, his handsome looks.

God spoke to him through parables, but he could not understand because he was voted into power based on sympathy for Atta Mills death and his handsome looks, he emphasised.
President Nana Akufo-Addo has reiterated government's decision of not compromising the flagship free Senior High School (SHS) programme despite the current economic challenges.

Speaking at a grand durbar to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the University of Health and Allied Sciences in Ho, President Akufo-Addo said government will continue to intervene and provide free education to the Ghanaian child.

Government will continue to intervene and remain responsible for the provision of free, quality basic and secondary education for all. Education should be a right for all of Ghana's youth. Education is the equalizer for opportunities. I want every child to be in school not only for what they learn in the books but also their life experiences.

The University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ho, was established by an Act of Parliament, Act 828 in December, 2011, and envisioned to become a pre-eminent research and practically oriented health educational institution dedicated to community service.

The university which started operations in September, 2012 with 154 students, currently has over 7,000 students.

UHAS is the first public university to be established in the Volta Region of Ghana and is so far the only state university wholly dedicated to the training of healthcare professionals in Ghana.

Speaking at a grand Durbar to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of the institution, His Excellency, Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo said, despite the current economic crisis, his government will continue to provide free and quality education to the Ghanaian child.

According to the president, education is the equalizer to opportunity and wants every child to be educated to be able to achieve their dreams.

Nana Akufo-Addo also commended the outgoing Vice Chancellor and Registrar of the University of Health and Allied Sciences for their efforts in the steering the affairs of the institution and charged the incoming officers to continue to build upon the works of their predecessors.

In his address, the Vice Chancellor of UHAS, John Owusu Gyapong noted that, UHAS has contributed significantly to the testing of COVID-19 in the country.

He however noted that, although resources were provided for the testing of COVID-19 in the Volta region and other regions, the region remains the lowest in vaccination against COVID-19.

He urged the public to get vaccinated to end the pandemic.

The president also commissioned a new hostel with over 2000 bed-capacity for the university.
The remains of the late John Akparibo Ndebugre arrived at his hometown, Timonde in the Bawku West District of the Upper East Region amid heavy downpour.

Some residents say for the past 26 days, the district had not witnessed such heavy rainfall.

The rains which lasted for two hours started immediately after his remains was laid in his room and filed passed by family members.

Most residents say the rain was a sign of honour to the late Ndebugre for his good deeds in the Kusaug kingdom.

The arrival of the remains of the late former Member of Parliament for Zebilla threw the entire community into a state of mourning.

Both foster and biological children, all in black, were sobbing, rolling on the ground and the men hitting the walls of the house crying out loud. "My husband, my husbandyou have left us," Nsira, the wife of late Ndebugre weeps uncontrollably.

The late Ndebugre's remains was escorted by representatives from the Paramount Chief of the Kusaug Traditional Area Bawku Naba Asigri Abugrago Azoka II, the divisional chief of Zebilla Naba Azumbilla Ndaugo III, the Divisional Chief of Timonde and father of late John Ndebugre Akparibo, Naba Atiah Anyagre II, government officials, some Members of Parliament, members of the Ghana Bar Association and sympathisers.

The remains of the late Ndebugre will be laid to rest on Saturday, July 16, 2022, at Timonde.

A memorial and thanksgiving service will also be held at the St Charles Lwanga Catholic Church at Zebilla in the Upper East Region on Sunday, July 17, 2022.

A burial service was held for the late John Ndebugre at the forecourt of the state house in Accra on, July 14, 2022.

The President, Nana Akufo-Addo was joined by his Vice, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, and former President John Dramani Mahama to pay their last respects to the departed senior citizen.

Also in attendance were the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, and the Chief Justice, Kwesi Anin Yeboah.

The death of the former Member of Parliament for Zebilla was announced on Friday, May 6, 2022.

Mr. Ndebugre passed on at his residence in Zebilla on Friday afternoon, May 6, 2022.

Watch more images below:


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.
President Nana Akufo-Addo has said the Free Senior High School programme will not be cancelled despite the economic challenges.

He said he wants every child to be in school.

Government will continue to intervene and remain responsible for the provision of free, quality basic and secondary education for all. Education should be a right for all of Ghana's youth.

Education is the equalizer for opportunities. I want every child to be in school not only for what they learn in the books but also the life experiences that they will gain, he said at the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS), in Ho, on Friday July 15 when he attended the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the University.

UHAS is pursuing aggressively the realisation of its agenda of becoming our nation's pre-eminent health learning and teaching institution, dedicated to research and community service.

Mr Akufo-Addo said the evidence is in the great strides it has chalked in health research, in being ranked amongst the top three (3) Universities in Ghana, and, also, being named number one in the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings 2022 in the SDG-3 category in Ghana.

The President in a Facebook post after the event said I also inspected ongoing work on $60 million Phase Two Expansion Project of the University, whose sod I cut in September last year.

As a demonstration of our commitment to this project, Government has made available GH6.2 million of counterpart funding for the preliminary works, which covers extension of electricity, municipal water supply, construction of storm and waste drains, and all ancillary services required for the project implementation.

Eight months on, I am happy to note that the Phase II Project, which will accommodate the Central Administration of the University and the School of Nursing and Midwifery, is progressing steadily according to schedule.

Some thirty six percent (36.3%) of work has been completed, and, at this rate, I am convinced that work will be completed on time.

---3news.com
ASX lithium stock, AVZ Minerals [ASX:AVZ] will remain in a voluntary suspension a while longer as it continues to work through regulatory issues surrounding its Manono mining licence.

Its been two months now since AVZ entered voluntary suspension as it seeks a mining licence for its flagship Manono Lithium Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Yet the suspension is set to continue until at least 29 July as AVZ continues to reach a resolution.

Source: Tradingview.com

AVZs mining licence update

AVZ Minerals reappeared with an update pertaining to its voluntary suspension and trading halt, while the company awaits its mining licence for its flagship Manono Project.

The company saw fit to suspend all trade until it had worked through the grant of its mining licence, a process which has been ongoing since the start of May.

The miner said that it has been actively engaged with the highest levels of the Government with respect to the grant of the Mining Licence.

AVZ expressed its confidence that there will be a positive outcome.

The company said:

To provide for sufficient time to allow a decision to be made with respect to the grant of the Mining Licence and an update regarding its exploration rights for the Manono Project, the Company has requested a further extension to the voluntary suspension from the ASX until the commencement of trade on 29 July 2022 or an earlier announcement to the market regarding its mining and exploration rights for the Manono Project.

Operations recommence

Despite the status of its mining licence, AVZ separately revealed that diamond drilling has started up again at the Manono Project.

The drilling program at Roche Dure has been extended  15,000 metres of area to cover ore targets 200 metres deep.

The companys reverse circulation drilling at Manono is soon to commence, a project focusing on tin and tantalum deposits.

AVZs Managing Director, Mr Nigel Ferguson, said:

I am pleased to confirm that drilling has recommenced at Roche Dure. Drilling at the north-east end of the known orebody, in areas previously inaccessible due to surface water, is aimed at significantly increasing the known lithium-rich ore resources in this area. This will underpin our future plans to extend the stated mine life at Manono, should this drilling campaign prove to be successful. The Companys confidence in the Manono Project and continuing lithium-ion battery demand, provides a significant opportunity to further increase the known reserves at Roche Dure, which is designed to add long term value for our shareholders and underpin the Projects credentials as the largest global undeveloped hard rock lithium deposit.

Source: AVZ

AVZ fights for mining licence

In May, the Australian Financial Review quoted short-focused hedge fund research firm Boatman Capital, who was sceptical about AVZ reaching a favourable resolution to the regulatory mire it finds itself in.

According to Boatman Capital:

We believe that AVZ Minerals is in the process of being outmanoeuvred by a group of powerful Chinese battery manufacturers, who are plotting to take control of the Manono lithium project. We think that, at best, AVZ faces months or years of legal fights to block Zijin Mining and to claim shares from [vendor] Dathomir Mining Resources. At worst, AVZ will lose control of Manono and be left with just 36 per cent of the project. We have obtained evidence that makes us think the likely outcome will be negative for AVZ.

Clearly, AVZ wants to prevent any such outcome  even if it means remaining in voluntary suspension for months.

Investors will be following this story with interest.

Now, while lithium stocks have been hit hard lately, the world where most of us drive EVs is still in the future, and the world will need plenty of battery materials to get us there.

Our small-cap expert Callum Newman recently penned a report on three battery material stocks.

Callum thinks that one of the three battery stocks in his latest report could be one of the most exciting nickel projects in the world.

To find out more, read Callums latest battery materials report, Elons Chosen Ones, here.

Regards,

Kiryll Prakapenka

For Money Morning
Lithium producer Pilbara Minerals [ASX:PLS] released the latest results from its BMX lithium auction, securing an implied price of US$6,841/dmt for its spodumene concentrate.

The digital auction was held via Pilbaras Battery Material Exchange (BMX).

While the producer has been able to capitalise on a strong lithium market, the stock hasnt been able to avoid the wider correction in the sector.

Year-to-date, PLS shares are down more than 20%.

Source: Tradingview.com

Pilbaras latest BMX auction

PLS conducted another spodumene concentrate auction held via its digital BMX platform.

PLS was offering cargo of 5,000dmt at a target grade of ~5.5% lithia, with delivery expected from August 2022.

Pilbara said it received strong interest in both participation and bidding by a broad range of qualified buyers.

Pilbara received 41 bids during a 30-minute auction window.

The lithium producer said it will accept the highest bid of US$6,188/dmt (SC5.5, FOB Port Hedland basis).

On a pro rata basis for lithia content, this roughly equates to a price of US$6,841/dmt (SC6.0, CIF China basis).

5,000dmt at the targeted 5.5% lithia grading cargo has been scheduled for delivery by the end of August.

Pilbara indicated that it has every intention to accept this offer, in which case the bidder will then have 48 hours to complete their sales contract.

PLS will receive a 10% deposit and expects a letter of credit actionable by late July to seal the deal.

Pilbaras latest auction sees modest price drop

In Pilbaras previous BMX auction, the winning bid for Pilbaras spodumene concentrate was more than US$7,000dmt.

Meaning this weeks auctions bid came in about 2.5% lower.

Is this just short-term volatility or an indication of a faltering lithium price?

If lithium prices are levelling off, Pilbara can still offset this with rising production volume.

In June, PLS announced that FY22 annualised production is expected to be in the range of 373,000 to 377,000dmt, a 33% increase on FY21.

Now, 2021 was definitely the lithium sectors year.

Eight of the top 10 best-performing stocks on the All Ords were lithium stocks.

But  as is often the case  mean reversion kicked innot to mention souring market sentiment triggering selling of risk-on assets.

Lake Resources [ASX:LKE] is emblematic of the sell-off. LKE shares are down more than 70% from their all-time high reached in April.

So is the run over?

Or are there lithium stocks worthy of consideration?

While the easy money has been made in the lithium sector, you can still find quality stocks  but you have to be careful, diligent, and picky.

In our recent Money Morning report, we profiled three overlooked lithium stocks that are best-placed to enjoy the strong secular demand for the critical battery tech metal.

To read the free research, access it here.

Regards,

Kiryll Prakapenka,

For Money Morning
Hundreds morn victims of tavern shooting in S. Africa's Soweto

Xinhua) 17:03, July 15, 2022

JOHANNESBURG, July 15 (Xinhua) -- A memorial service for 16 people killed in a random shooting was held in South Africa's Soweto township, close to Johannesburg.

Around 200 people, including family members of the deceased and some politicians, came to mourn the victims on Thursday nearby the tavern where the shooting happened.

A participant whose nephew was killed in the shooting said the tragedy left her family traumatized. "I'm pleading for help as guns are used day and night," she said.

A group of men armed with rifles and 9 mm pistols entered the tavern in the early hours of Sunday morning and started shooting randomly at customers sitting inside, killing 12 people on the scene and injuring 11 others. Four people later died from their wounds.

Police are investigating the incident; no arrests have been made so far.

(Web editor: Wu Chaolan, Liang Jun)
July 15, 2022 NYT Continues To Report 'Strikes On Civilians' That Somehow Happen To Hit Military Targets Just last week the New York Times reported of a Russian strike 'on civilians' in Chasiv Yar even as its own reporter at the location acknowledged in a detailed separate report that the apartment complex that was hit was mostly housing military forces. Yesterday a Russian missile strike hit the town of Vinnytsia in western Ukraine. The New York Times is again lamenting about a damage to civilian buildings even as the main target was obviously a military one. Strikes on Civilians Deep in Ukraine Show Russias Lethal Reach VINNYTSIA, Ukraine  A volley of missiles hit a shopping center, a dance studio and a wedding hall in central Ukraine on Thursday, killing at least 23 people and setting off a frantic search for dozens more missing in the rubble, in the latest strike to hit civilian targets far from the front line. Seventy-one people, including three children, were hospitalized after three missiles hit the center of Vinnytsia, a typically sleepy provincial capital, leaving behind a harrowing scene of smoking ruins. The attack used cruise missiles fired by a Russian submarine in the Black Sea, President Volodymyr Zelenskys office said. It said three children were among those killed in the strike on Vinnytsia, about 240 miles inland from the coast. Every day, Russia destroys the civilian population, kills Ukrainian children, directs rockets at civilian objects, Mr. Zelensky said. What is this, if not an open act of terrorism? The Times leads its write up with this picture.

bigger There is a distinctive monument in the picture of a fighter jet flying through some ring and a neoclassic building behind it. Here is a satellite picture of the area.

bigger The photographer who took the NYT picture was standing near the top left of the satellite picture and took the photograph towards the mid bottom of the satellite picture. The fighter jet installations that was photographed is marked by Google as 'Monument in Honor of the Air Force of Ukraine'. The neoclassic building is the U-shaped one on the left marked as the 'House of Officer's'. The NYT even mentions the 'House of Officers' but only describes it as a 'potential target' and only in the sixth paragraph: The missiles hit a military officers club, a potential target, though one in a densely built-up central neighborhood of the city. However video taken shortly after the strike shows that The 'House of Officers' was completely destroyed and thereby obviously the main target of the attack.

bigger The video the above picture is clipped from was taken from a car driving on the bottom left road visible in the satellite picture towards the center of it. While the House of Officers external walls are still standing the roof is gone and one can see through the building. Here is another picture of it.

bigger A civilian high rise building that the NYT also pictured is visible on the top of the satellite image labeled 'Kredo Bank'.

bigger The building shows no damage from a direct hit by a missile. It had its windows blown out by the shockwave of the explosion at the nearby House of Officers and it is blackened from a fire that had been burning in its lower left part. Here is a video with an overview of the plaza showing the damaged House of Officers and the fire with very dark smoke at the high rise north of it. Here is another one showing the fire. It was reported that 50 cars on a parking lot had also burned there. The shopping center, a dance studio and wedding hall that the NYT laments in its opening paragraph were likely all in the 1st floor of the high rise building. They were not targeted. Air defense weapons were also fired. They might have caused additional damage: Ukraine's national police said three missiles hit an office building and damaged nearby residential buildings in Vinnytsia, which is about 167 miles southwest of the capital, Kyiv. The missile strike ignited a fire that expanded to engulf 50 cars in an adjacent parking lot. The governor of the Vinnytsia region, Serhiy Borzov, said Ukrainian air defense systems shot down another four missiles over the area. The 'office building' that the Ukraine's national police claims was hit was in fact the 'House of Officers' owned by the Ukrainian military. There were also an unusual number of people in military clothing helping with the casualties.

bigger The Times continues to play a shell game when it claims hits 'on civilians' even as the targets are clearly military ones: The strike came amid other recent attacks on populated civilian areas.

...

And in the eastern village of Chasiv Yar, in Donetsk, the State Emergency Service said the death toll from a strike on an apartment complex over the weekend had risen to 48, making it one of the deadliest attacks since the war began. More deadly attacks are happening every day at the front line where Russia artillery takes out any larger grouping of Ukraine's military. As for the dead in Chasiv Yar here is again what the Times Carlotta Gall reported from that location: [A resident of Chasiv Yar village, Oleksandr, 31,] said that about 10 civilians, mostly women on pensions, were living in the building at the time of the strike, but that members of the military had come to lodge there two days earlier. A Russian strike hit the apartment building. Only 10 civilians were living there, but at least 48 people have died in the strike. 38 of the dead must thus have been 'members of the military' who were lodging there. That they did so made the apartment complex a legitimate military target. Now let's see what the Russian military claims to have hit in Vinnytsia: On July 13, Kalibr high-precision sea-based missiles were launched at the House of Officers of the garrison in Vinnitsa. The facility hosted a conference of the Ukrainian Armed Force command with representatives of foreign armament suppliers aimed at discussing the issues on sending another batch of aircraft, destruction means, as well as on organising the reparation of Ukrainian aircraft. The attack has resulted in the elimination of the conference participants. On July 14, shortly after news of the strike in Vinnytsia had come out, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine issued a new Security Alert  Missile Threat Awareness for U.S. citizens: Avoid large gatherings and organized events as they may serve as Russian military targets anywhere in Ukraine, including its western regions. Well, what gave them the idea to say that? Posted by b on July 15, 2022 at 14:12 UTC | Permalink Comments next page  next page 
Marilyn Nieves/Getty Image

A Keller businessman and owner of a Midland-based proppant company was sentenced Thursday to 14 years in prison and ordered to pay over $14 million in restitution for operating a Ponzi scheme.

Marco Perez Jr., 37, used his company, Permian Basin Proppants, Inc., between 2017 and 2022 to perpetuate a Ponzi scheme by soliciting investor money based on misrepresentations, according to a press release from the United States Attorneys Office Western District of Texas.
" " Travelers wait at Newark Liberty International Airport as thousands of flights are canceled across the U.S. Jeenah Moon/Getty Images

While air travel is making a comeback from historic lows in 2020, passengers are still experiencing plenty of turbulence  and most of it is happening before they board.

We're talking major flight delays and numerous cancellations. On July 14 alone, more than 6,800 flights were canceled in and out of the U.S., and 23,000-plus were delayed according to FlightAware, which tracks these stats in real time.

At London's Heathrow Airport, the hassle has gotten so severe that the U.K.'s busiest airport is capping the number of passengers at 100,000 a day until Sept. 11, 2022, and asking airlines to sell fewer tickets, all of which is likely to result in more canceled flights.

But what rights  if any  do you have if your flight is canceled or delayed? And are there ways to avoid travel turmoil in the first place?

Advertisement

No Guarantees, Few Consumers Rights

Travelers often assume that purchasing an airline ticket comes with certain guarantees, like actually boarding the flight, taking off or arriving at your destination  on time. The truth is, in the United States, airlines don't guarantee their schedules. They don't even guarantee you a spot on the plane because it's legal for them to sell more tickets than there are seats.

But you paid for one, so what happens when the airline overbooks? You'll get your money back, right? Not necessarily. The only time an airline is legally bound to compensate you is if you're involuntarily bumped from an oversold domestic flight within the United States.

On oversold flights, the Department of Transportation (DOT) requires airlines ask ticketed passengers to voluntarily give up their seats in exchange for some sort of compensation before they bump other passengers unwillingly. But there is no mandated amount the airlines are required to give passengers who volunteer their seats.

Most airlines typically start by offering volunteers a seat on a later flight, but in today's chaotic environment that's not a good idea. Instead, if your schedule is flexible and you can give up your seat, negotiate for a specific dollar amount.

"Do not volunteer your seat in exchange for perks or a voucher," says Rosa Garcia, senior legal counsel at AirHelp, a company that advocates for air passenger rights. "If you do, you could be giving up your right to any additional compensation. Of course, if the airline makes a compelling enough offer, you may prefer to take it. The final decision is up to you, but weigh the pros and cons against the compensation you could be eligible to claim."

This "additional compensation" only becomes your right if the airline bumps you unwillingly.

If you're involuntarily bumped, the DOT requires the airline offer you a written statement describing your rights as a passenger. And the airline must, by law, provide you compensation in the form of check or cash. But you must have written confirmation from the airline that you were bumped from the flight involuntarily, so be sure to ask for it.

The amount they must give you depends on the original cost of your ticket and the length of time you were delayed. That amount can be as much as 440 percent of your one-way fare or $1,150, whichever is lower. Keep in mind, however that if the airline can rebook you and get you to your destination within one hour of your original arrival time, you won't be reimbursed.

" " Thousands of international flights have been canceled, too, but passengers have a few more rights when it comes to those flights. STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

Advertisement

Traveling Internationally

If your flight is between the U.S. and an international destination, or within an international destination, the laws of that nation are slightly different.

"Many Americans don't realize that they are protected by European laws in the case of disruptions on international flights," Garcia says. "Instead, most Americans believe that because U.S. national law does not offer much protection for avoidable travel disruptions, they are unable to seek compensation or support."

Under European law EC 261, Garcia explains, travelers are eligible for up to $700 per person from airlines for avoidable flight disruptions, including delays of more than three hours, cancelations or overbooked flights. Travelers can make claims for up to three years.

For example, if you are traveling from the United States to Paris on a carrier licensed in a European Union country and the flight is canceled, you are entitled to reimbursement for at least the full cost of your ticket. In some cases, you can get your money back from meals while you wait to be rerouted. The EU provides a helpful link online to see if you're eligible.

Advertisement

What to Do When Your Flight's Canceled

So now you know some of your passenger rights, but what else can you do if your flight is canceled?

Regardless of your destination, you should start rebooking your flight immediately, but don't do it at the airport counter. "If your flight is canceled, rebook on your airline app," says Melanie Musson, a travel expert with Clearsurance.com, an insurance education website. "Customer service representatives on the phone tend to be backed up by several hours and there's usually a long line to speak with a representative face-to-face, so you'll typically be able to reschedule faster online." That means have the app downloaded on your phone ahead of time.

Also check with your credit card company. Some premium cards have travel insurance that might help you cover expenses like food and a hotel. If you booked through a third-party travel site like Expedia or Travelocity, reach out directly to them for help.

You can also try communicating with the airlines via their social media. You might be surprised at the response (if you're nice).

" " If your flight is canceled, rebook immediately via your airline's app, not at the airport counter. McLittle Stock/Shutterstock

Advertisement

Avoid the Travel Chaos Altogether

Obviously, the best thing is avoiding this madness entirely. Is that even possible? Sort of. First, don't wait for a delay or cancellation to be announced by the airline. Instead, use a website like FlightAware so you can see an overview of flight travel in real time. Opt-in to email notifications to receive information about your flight, too. In addition, check the website of the air carrier and get their email notifications, too.

Here are some more tips to increase your odds of taking off and landing successfully this summer.

three hours is necessary for layovers this summer. One-hour won't cut it. Fly direct. If you must make a connection, leave plenty of time to change planes. A flight attendant wrote in The New York Times thatis necessary for layovers this summer. One-hour won't cut it.

Fly in the morning. These flights are less likely to be canceled. Midday and late-night flights are more likely to be canceled, says Oberon Copeland, CEO of VeryInformed.com . "This is typically a time when there are fewer passengers and less flexibility with rebooking."

Choose flights during the week if possible. "If you're flexible with your travel dates, it's best to book during the week rather than the weekend," Copeland says.

Watch the weather, as it will impact flights.

Get to the airport early.

Follow your departure airport's website and Twitter, as they usually give useful information about long security lines.

Check in to your flight as soon as you can, which is usually 24 hours in advance.

Advertisement

What's Causing the Chaos?

So what's behind these flight delays and cancellations anyway? There's no clear answer, but instead a lot of finger pointing. Many airlines say there's a pilot shortage, but the Airline Pilots Association (ALPA) disagrees and says there are more than enough pilots to meet the current demand. Airlines for America, an industry trade group, blames the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for a shortage of air traffic controllers.

But in a statement to USA Today July 5, the FAA denied that saying: "While there have been staffing issues for a few hours at a few facilities due to COVID-19 and other factors, there is not a system-wide air traffic controller staffing shortage." Some blame the airlines for cutting flights and ending services to less profitable destinations. Regardless of who or what is at fault, the passengers are the ones feeling the pain.

Now That's Interesting Adding travel insurance, either when booking with an airline or through a third-party vendor, can help guard against financial losses while traveling by air. In most instances, the coverage that comes with flight insurance is limited to unexpected events such as canceled flights. These insurance benefits are in addition to compensation you may receive directly from an airline.
Macoupin County Sheriff's Department

CARLINVILLE  A Girard man is headed to prison for his role in the January theft of a Northwestern school district van.

Macoupin County State's Attorney Jordan J. Garrison said Gregory A. Bolino, 34, of Girard was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in the theft of a van in Palmyra from the Northwestern Community School District. Judge Joshua A. Meyer delivered the sentence and ordered Bolino to pay $5,800 in restitution to the school district.
The owners of a church in the 100 block of North Marion Street in Meredosia will be getting a warning from the village to clean up the property and tear down the remainder of the building after one of the walls collapsed earlier this month.

Village President David Werries said it was brought to the board's attention that the church wall was bowed about July 1.

"We had our safety officer examine it and notify them of the bowing," Werries said. "We are lucky it collapsed on itself and not outward onto other property or buildings."

Within four days from the notification, the south wall of the church fell.

Now, the building has partially collapse and is showing signs of more collapsing, which could endanger traffic and neighboring properties.

"It could fall into the roads, on the sidewalks or onto the garage next door," Werries said. "It is a huge safety concern. The north wall is starting to bow now. The steeple looks OK for now."

Though he isn't sure when the building was built, he said other trustee members said the interior of the building has some good, salvageable parts, had the company taken immediate steps to fix the problems.

TSA Holding Group based in San Francisco owns the property and was notified of the condition originally and again once the wall fell.

Werries said the village has not received any communication of plans for the property since.

"Their original idea was to take out the pews and some other salvageable things," Werries said.

The village has contacted a company they may hire to remove the building if TSA Holding Group does not reply or make an6y moves to fix the issue.

If the village takes that route, Werries said they would bill TSA for the cost.

"We would rather they take care of it, because if we do it, that's taxpayer money on the line," Werries said. "We'll do it if we have to."

Werries wanted to clarify that the church that is collapsing is not the same church that was recently purchased by the village to be turned into a community center of sorts.
On what should have been a morning of joy, I could not escape the darkness. Churches have been vandalized. Pro-life clinics have been fire-bombed. Supreme Court justices have been targeted. A president has called millions of Americans enemies to women and our health. The air is heavy with unspoken threats, and the summer promises heat and violence. The victory is real but as fragile as a Faberge egg.

Fifty years of conflict will do that. There was no expectation that the cancellation of Roe would be a moment of universal happiness. There was no possibility that the cheers from pro-lifers would rise to the heavens, clarion clear and singular like the voices of the Whos at the end of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. To think that this day would bring unanimity is to think that the soldiers at Gettysburg could have found a truce. Its impossible, unreachable, beyond the wildest imaginings of the most hopeful optimist.

And pro-lifers know that. This day, one that was anticipated, legally strategized and prayed for over a period of five decades, was also going to be a day of reckoning. And that day will stretch far into the coming years. Any suggestion that the fight is over is a sign of amnesia. The blood spilled on social battlefields is replenished every time there is a victory for one side, over the other.

It reminds me of this country after the Civil War. We had an attempt at piecing the torn factions back together, sewing up the scars on our body politic. Restoration was that attempt at union, at a filling in of the divide. But that failed miserably and gave way to the laws of Jim Crow and retribution. I wish I could say that we were a different group of people now, but recent history has shown that not to be the case.

Whether it be the violence of the George Floyd riots, or the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, each in their own way indicated that Americans were no longer willing to coexist with those who disagreed. There is no longer an ability to sit at the table, as William F. Buckley did with his liberal opponents, and hash out the issues of the day with wise words and witty aphorisms. There is no longer even an attempt to view the other side as human.

And so we are now at a point that many of us have longed for since we were young, and others went to their graves despairing. We are at a crossroads that I personally never believed wed reach, even in my most fevered dreams. There is a strange paralysis at this moment, the kind of thing that happens when you reach the summit of a mountain that loomed large against a far horizon. When the horizon is inches from your eyes, you feel uneasy.

They are already beginning to mobilize. As I said before, churches have been vandalized, with the vilest graffiti sprayed across sacred stones. Pro-life pregnancy centers have been attacked when all they do is counsel women to keep their babies and promise them assistance along the difficult way. Public officials who allegedly serve us all have turned to demonize those Americans who exult at the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson.

The people who attack churches, Supreme Court justices and women who stand in front of Planned Parenthood clinics are remnants of an American history that used reactionary tactics whenever milestones of justice were achieved.

And they will be active, but they will not win. The arc of justice is wide and became wider on June 24.
Tuolumne County Public Health reports the death of a man in his 80s due to Covid. There are 271 new lab-confirmed community cases and 42 Sierra Conservation Center (SCC) inmate cases, with 13 hospitalizations from Saturday, July 9th to today, Friday, July 15th. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reports 50 active cases at SCC. There are 252 active community cases up from 206.

The newly reported Covid-19 community cases this week include 21 cases age 17 and younger and 104 cases age 60 or older. The new Covid cases demographics: 12 girls and 7 boys age 0 to 11, 2 girls age 12 to 17, 21 women and 18 men age 18 to 29, 25 women and 22 men in their 30s, 19 women and 8 men in their 40s, 20 women and 12 men in their 50s, 13 women and 12 men in their 60s, 21 women, 17 men and 1 other in their 70s, 11 women and 10 men in their 80s, and 14 women and 6 men age 90 or older.

The total current case rate, a 14-day average for Tuolumne County increased to 55.4 from 49.8 per 100,000 population. A total of 221 more are counted as released from isolation, in all 12,235 have been released from isolation. The 7-day test positivity rate is 21.4% up from 21.1%.

Protect yourself and those around you from COVID-19:

Get vaccinated; contact your healthcare provider or pharmacy about flu vaccine

Wear a mask in public, especially indoors

Stay home when sick!

Keep your distance and avoid crowds when possible

Wash hands and clean surfaces frequently

Monkeypox Tuolumne Public health states there are 250 probable and confirmed cases in California, (up from 141 last week) none so far in Tuolumne County. The risk to the general public is considered low at this time. For more information, including about preventing monkeypox, go here.

Calaveras Public Health updates weekly on Tuesdays. They report the death of a man in his 80s from COVID-19. There are 103 new lab-confirmed cases from July 6th to the 12th. The number of cases is up from 66 new lab-confirmed cases among residents the week before. They report 61 active cases, last week there were 24 active cases and one death. There is a current total of 129 residents of Calaveras who have passed away due to Covid-19 since the pandemic began. There is one active Covid hospitalization to report.

Calaveras is identified by the CDC as having a medium (yellow) Community Covid Level with other Mother Lode counties in the highest (orange) level of the three tiers determined by the higher of the new hospital admissions and inpatient beds metrics, based on the current level of new cases per 100,000 population in the past 7 days. Community Transmission remains high in nearly all counties.

COVID-19 Testing If you test positive or have been exposed to COVID-19  Isolation instructions (click here) To make an appointment for testing at the testing site visit: https://lhi.care/covidtesting

The Mother Lode testing is open 7 days a week from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. with closures for meal breaks between 11 am  12 pm and 4 pm to 5 pm. The State testing site at the Mother Lode Fairgrounds launched Test to Treat operations as detailed here.

At-home test kits can be ordered for free at https://www.covid.gov/tests.

Families with school-age children may obtain free kits by contacting the Tuolumne County Superintendent of Schools office.

A limited number of free at-home kits are available at the Public Health Department (note, as a healthcare facility, masks are required at all times in our lobby).

At-home test kits are also available for purchase at pharmacies.

Testing sites at other locations near the area can be found by visiting: https://myturn.ca.gov/testing.html

COVID-19 Vaccine children aged 6 months to 5 years are now eligible for COVID vaccination. The Tuolumne Public Health team has added vaccinations for this age group to our clinic schedule beginning next week or families can check with their childs healthcare provider. Appointments for June 27, June 29, or July 1 at the health department on Cedar Road in Sonora are available at myturn.ca.gov. For more information click here: https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavirus-covid-19-update-fda-authorizes-moderna-and-pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccines-children

More information about Covid Vaccine booster shots can be found at: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/clinical-considerations/covid-19-vaccines-us.html. Appointments in Tuolumne and Calaveras can be made through myturn.ca.gov or by calling 833-422-4255 or through local pharmacies, more details are here.

County

Date

New

Active (Hospital)

Est. Total 2022 All Cases (All Deaths) Amador

7/6 to 7/11 84 95 (3) 2,395 6,571

(78) Calaveras 7/6 to 7/12 103 61 (1) 3,304 7,939

(129) Mariposa 7/8 to 7/14 54 11 (2) 2,065 3,801

(36) Mono

7/9 to 7/14 0 N/A 1,135 3,081

(9) Tuolumne 7/9 to 7/15 313 252 (13) 7,173 15,458 (186) Colors indicate CDC Community Level: Green-low, Yellow-medium, Orange-high
Department of Justice View Photo

Fresno, CA  A Los Angeles man has been charged with assaulting two Yosemite National Park rangers over the 4th of July weekend.

The charges came down today after a federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment today against 23-year-old Robert Anthony Mendoza Jr., of Pico Rivera, according to U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert of the Eastern District of California. He has been charged with assaulting a federal officer resulting in bodily injury and assaulting a federal officer with physical contact.

Park law enforcement rangers on July 3rd responded to a report of a fight in the campground known as Housekeeping Camp. When they arrived, they saw Mendoza Jr. fighting with his father, Robert Mendoza Sr. A violent confrontation began when the rangers tried to arrest Mendoza Jr. According to court documents, Mendoza Jr. hit one ranger multiple times in the face, resulting in pain, swelling, and bruising to the rangers head, jaw, and neck.

Once subdued, Mendoza Jr. was restrained in the back of a patrol vehicle, according to the court documents that went on to detail, He [Mendoza Jr.] became violent again and slipped out of his restraints. When the rangers stopped to secure him, he began fighting with them and headbutted a second ranger.

If convicted, Mendoza Jr. faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for assault on a federal officer resulting in bodily injury and up to eight years in prison and a $250,000 fine for assault on a federal officer with physical contact.
A burglary was reported on July 6 at the 400 block of S. I-27. The incident is believed to have occurred the night before. Responding officers observed signs of a forced entry through the back door.

Plainview police arrested a 22-year-old man on July 6 at the 4000 block of W. 13th St. during a traffic stop. The individual was charged with three warrants  one for violation of promise to appear, one for display of an expired license plates and one for speeding.

A burglary was reported at the 2900 block of W. 4th St. on July 6 at the Plainview Country Club. Cash was reported missing. A suspect was observed in a surveillance video but the individual has not yet been identified.

Fraudulent use of credit cards was reported on July 6 at the 100 block of W. 9th St.

Damaged property was reported on July 6 at the 500 block of S. I-27. Officers observed damage to three doors at the Bill Wells Chevrolet house. The damage is valued to $1,000 per door.

Police arrested 34-year-old Simon Flores on July 6 at W. 6th St. and N. Broadway. Officers responded to a report of a reckless driver at the location and conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle matching the description. After identifying the driver, he was found to have an active felony warrant out of Randall County for assault, family violence.

A hit-and-run crash resulting in vehicle damage was reported on July 6 at the 2200 block of W. 19th St. No injuries were reported.

A 17-year-old man was arrested on July 6 at the 1100 block of N. Columbia during a traffic stop. He was issued with an active warrant for driving with no license and an additional citation for the same charge.

A stolen vehicle was reported on July 6 at the 600 block of W. 5th St. Police were dispatched to the location (the Sands Motel) in reference to a female who reported her vehicle stolen. The suspect had left the scene by the time officers arrived. A further investigation revealed an assault had occurred prior to the theft. No arrests have been made.

July 7

A theft was reported at the 600 block of N. Broadway. The Salvation Army reported a missing propane tank that had been hooked on a forklift.

A bike theft was reported at the 500 block of N. Date St. at an Allsups location.

July 8

Damaged property was reported at the 1300 block S. I-27 on July 8. Officers initially responded to the location in reference to a burglary alarm. A window was discovered to have been tampered with but there was no entry made to the building.

Police arrested 20-year-old Christian Lee Resendez on July 8 at the 1200 block of N. Columbia St. during a traffic stop. Resendez was charged with possession of a controlled substance, which is a felony.

Vehicle damage was reported during a traffic stop at the 600 block of N. I-27 on July 8.

July 9

Shoplifting was reported at the 3700 block of Olton Road on July 9. An unknown man took property and left the location in a dark-colored SUV.

A crash resulting in vehicle damage was reported on July 9 at E. 5th and Ash St.

Disorderly conduct was reported on July 9 at W. 5th and N. Broadway. A man was reported to be riding on an electric scooter chasing cars and yelling obscenities.

Officers were called to the 1800 block of E. 5th St. on July 9 in reference to an assault. Two juveniles were reported to have taken the phone and AirPods of a third juvenile then they attacked the individual.

July 10

An assault was reported on July 10 at the 1400 block of Independence St. Officers met with a man with injuries sustained from multiple unknown suspects and generated a report.

A 21-year-old man was arrested on July 10 at the 900 block of Joliet St. during a traffic stop. The driver showed signs of intoxication and was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated.

A 26-year-old man was arrested on July 10 at the 2000 block of Joliet St. He was charged with criminal mischief and with three active warrants including one for driving with no license, one for public intoxication and one for failure to appear/bail jumping.

A crash resulting in an injury was reported on July 10 at the 2500 block of N. Columbia St.

Another crash was reported at N. Columbia and W. 24th St. Vehicle damage was reported.

Property damage was reported on July 10 at the 200 block of E. 24th St.

July 11

An aggravated assault was reported on July 11 at the 1100 block of Independence St.

Theft from a yard was reported on July 11 at the 1300 block of Ennis St.

Theft was reported at the 1200 block of Raleigh St. on July 11.

A 27-year-old man was arrested on July 11 at the 200 block of SE 1st St. The man was charged with public intoxication.

Trespassing was reported at the 310 block of W. 5th St. A 36-year-old man was charged with criminal trespass.

Trespassing was reported at the 100 block of Ash St. on July 10.

July 12

Theft of parts from a vehicle was reported on July 12 at the 1300 block of W. 6th St.

Damaged property was reported at the 1300 block of Utica St. on July 12. Damage to a vehicle was reported.

A crash resulting in private property damage was reported on July 12 at the 3100 block of Olton Road.

Shoplifting was reported at the 3200 block of Olton Road on July 12.

A 46-year-old man was arrested on July 12 at the 700 block of N. Columbia during a traffic stop. The individual was found to have three active warrants  one for an expired drivers license, one for speeding and one for failure to appear/bail jumping.

July 13

Theft was reported at the 600 block of N. Columbia St. on July 13. A person reported stolen money.

A sexual assault was reported on July 13.

An assault was reported on July 13 at the 100 block of W. 9th St. The victim reported an ex-boyfriend had assaulted her leaving bruises and scratches.

Police arrested 22-year-old Aaron Wayne Shackelford on July 13 after a hit-and-run crash at the 1700 block of W. 5th St. Shackelford was charged with intoxicated assault with a vehicle with serious bodily injury, which is a felony.

July 14

A crash resulting in an injury was reported at the 800 block of N. I-27 on the west frontage road.
(Editors note: This project is a collaboration between the Plainview Herald and Saint Francis Ministries to showcase kids who are cleared for adoption.)

Annabel is a strong and determined, yet loving teen girl. Shes quite active and loves to use any pent-up energy to swim or play outside.

On a rainy day, Annabel enjoys nothing more than a movie and one on one time with those she cares for. She enjoys playing with other children, but also likes to be the center of your attention.

The 15-year-old values affection and close relationships with her care givers.

Annabel is a special girl that is constantly working to overcome adversity. She enjoys seeing the product of her hard work and progress, whether thats at school or home.

Annabel has a strong desire to be adopted and loved by her forever family. Do you have enough room in your heart for this youthful girl?

---

Annabel is among the children listed on the Texas Adoption Resource Exchange (TARE) website. Visit https://www.dfps.state.tx.us/Application/TARE/Home.aspx/Default for more details.

Saint Francis Ministries is a nonprofit organization and a community-based care provider for the Texas Department of Family Protective Services Region 1. This region includes 41 counties across the Panhandle and South Plains.

To learn more about fostering or adopting, those interested are encouraged to attend one of the monthly virtual meetings hosted by Saint Francis Ministries and other child placing agencies. The meetings provide information about how to get started, the basic qualifications and more, in addition to providing opportunity for attendees to ask questions.

Those interested can visit Saint Francis Texas on Facebook @SFMtexas to register for the online meetings, which can also be found below:

The meetings are scheduled for the second Thursday of the month (Lubbock area  https://lubbock-area-foster-care-adoption.eventbrite.com) and the third Thursday of the month (Amarillo area  https://amarillo-area-foster-care-adoption.eventbrite.com).
A Cheshire native is in Sierra Leone training for a stint with the Peace Corps in hopes of fulfilling her plan to teach children in this rural area of southwest Africa. While her journey there has not been smooth, she remains optimistic that she can fulfill her mission.

Anne Wnuck, a 2015 Cheshire High graduate, earned a degree in international development at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. In February 2020, she went to Nepal with the Peace Corps, to serve as an English education teacher for two years.

Those plans were derailed by the pandemic, a public health crisis that initially wasnt fully understood by Peace Corps members in Nepal due to limited communication channels. Ultimately, the situation resulted in the Peace Corps evacuating more than 7,000 volunteers when the organization suspended all operations overseas in March 2020.

Wnucks two-year mission ended just two months in.

Ever since I was young, Ive had a great affinity for the Peace Corps and its mission, Wnuck said in an interview with The Cheshire Herald before her Nepal adventure.

Its taken two years for Wnucks plans to get back on track but her resolve never faltered. Her commitment to improving conditions in less advantaged areas of the world is currently taking shape with three months of training in Sierra Leone. Shell commence her work there in September.

The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs, currently lists Sierra Leone at a Level 2 travel advisory, meaning exercise increased caution due to crime and civil unrest.

Wnuck says shes learning about the history of the area including the connection it has to slavery in America and around the globe. Freetown and other areas were refuges for formerly enslaved peoples who migrated there in the 18th and 19th centuries. While English is the official language, Krio is the most widely spoken language, derived from creole English common in parts of the American south. That history is just something that you cant ignore, nor should you, Wnuck said.

The rural area where Wnuck will work may have limited electricity, as well as unreliable internet. She is concerned about how that might affect her work in the classroom. However, If theres one thing the Peace Corps teaches you, its to be flexible, she said.

President Kennedy signed an executive order establishing the Peace Corps on March 1, 1961. Since then, according to the Peace Corps, nearly a quarter million volunteers have served in 143 countries.

Overcoming a two-year pause on a plan that even in the best of times includes big challenges is no small feat. Keeping that commitment alive and following through is a testament to Wnucks determination. With her latest involvement, Wnuk may finally have a chance to make the contribution she envisioned.
Bob Owen /Staff file photo

San Antonio's Toyota production plant is joining the statewide push to conserve energy. As temperatures continue to reach 100 degrees and hotter throughout the state, including San Antonio, ERCOT is asking residents to reduce energy usage to help avoid emergency conditions like rolling blackouts.

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas (TMMTX) is answering the call by cutting back on production, spokeswoman Luisa Casso confirms in an email sent to MySA.com on Thursday, July 14. The production plant, which is located on the Far Southside, makes Tundra and Tacoma trucks.
Long before OpenDoor decided that three Far Westside zip codes were some of the "hottest" neighborhoods in the U.S., it was obvious to anyone habitually stuck in Alamo Ranch traffic. Not to mention our food team, which has written about a list of restaurants moving into the booming side of San Antonio.

A variety of options including fried chicken, Mediterranean, desserts, and breakfast stops have either just opened or are moving in. A few coffee shops are also brewing plans. With the exception of Tripoli's, a beloved Southside institution moving west, all are chain restaurants.

Catch up on what's new or coming soon with the roundup below.

The beloved chicken tender chain opened its first San Antonio proper location in July in Alamo Ranch. The farmhouse-style location includes a double drive through and dine-in to serve the area.

Located at: 11903 Alamo Ranch Parkway

Courtesy, Dave's Hot Chicken

The spicy bird company that started in Los Angeles as a pop-up is setting up its first San Antonio shop in Westover Hills. It will be part of Wender Plaza, a shopping center which has Sprout's as a confirmed tenant.

Located at: Highway 151 and Hunt Lane

Courtesy, Bombshells

San Antonio is now home to Bombshells, the Houston-based chain of military-themed restaurants with pin-up inspired waitresses. The massive restaurant is located off Highway 151 near SeaWorld.

Located at: 8410 Highway 151

Courtesy Cinnaholic Pearland

Another Cinnaholic location is rolling into San Antonio. Alamo Ranch is set to get an outpost of the create-your-own cinnamon roll brand soon. The franchisee was not immediately available to comment on the plans, but a dedicated Facebook page is active and telling fans that an opening date will be revealed when it is confirmed.

Located at: 5519 W Loop 1604 North

Madalyn Mendoza, MySA.com

The Austin-based burger chain continued its San Antonio expansion by opening a Far Westside restaurant in May.

Located at: 327 W Loop 1604

Courtesy, Marissa Simon Photo/@marissasimonphoto

In June, the longtime Mediterranean restaurant announced its move from the Lackland area to Alamo Ranch. The relocation is expected to take place fall 2022.

Located at: 1726 Alamo Ranch

Madalyn Mendoza, MySA.com

San Antonio is now home to two Maple Street Biscuit Company locations. The the first opened inside the Quarry Village in March, while Alamo Ranch welcomed the second restaurant on April 11.

Located at: 10650 Culebra Road

Courtesy, Tilson PR

San Antonio's Far Westside will soon be home to a new fast-casual Mediterranean restaurant. The Great Greek Grill will add an Alamo City location to a chain that dots the U.S., from California to Virginia. The restaurant offers traditional gyros, made-to-order feta fries, rice bowls, customizable Greek salads, as well as lamb, steak, and chicken skewer platters. An opening date has not been announced.

Located at: 11647 Culebra Road

It's not just food. The coffee scene is booming as well.

Dutch Bros, PJ's Coffee, and Black Rifle are all making plans to open on the Far Westside.
Postino is giving San Antonio something extra to wine about. The Phoenix-based brand of wine cafes is adding San Antonio to its list of locations nationwide, not only at The Rim but also near Pearl.

Last week, Postino confirmed a Rim location, a 5,000-square-foot cafe, slated to open next spring, but it appears a second Postino is planned on Broadway. Representatives for Postino were not available for comment. However, plans submitted to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation show Postino is working on a 4,000-square-foot installment at 2600 Broadway, which is less than a mile away from Pearl.

Grace Stufkosky

The building previously housed home decor and furniture store Summer Classics, which moved out in January and relocated to The Vineyard, a Stone Oak-area shopping center, in February.

JENN DUNCAN

Becca Wright

JENN DUNCAN

The all-day restaurant and wine cafe brand has a cult-like following with current and upcoming locations throughout Texas, California, Georgia, Colorado, and Arizona. Postino prides itself on its warm, eclectic atmosphere where drinking wine at lunch is not a crime.

Customers can expect to sip on 30 boutique wines by the glass and craft brews as well as bites like bruschetta, paninis, salads, and lineup of charcuterie boards and shareables. Postino also offers brunch with $6 mimosas and wine cocktails.

Postino Co-Founder and CEO Lauren Bailey previously told MySA.com that she is from San Antonio, so adding cafes to the city felt like a natural fit.

Becca Wright

Upward Projects

Feeling a connection and alignment with a community is what drives us to open our doors and a new location, Bailey said. Honestly, it comes down to a feeling in my gut that this is our next home. I was born in San Antonio, so its a part of my personal roots. There is so much to love about the city.

The Postino plans join a list of upcoming additions to the area.

Ladino, a Mediterranean grill house, is opening soon at Pearl, along with the massive Carriqui restaurant and Stable Hall, a new music venue. Big Animal, a laid back hangout with burgers and hot dogs, is preparing to take over the former home of Hello Paradise.

Carpenter Carpenter Hospitality is opening a sushi restaurant, Southern comfort food spot, and boutique fish market in the neighborhood. Santa Diabla, the first U.S. concept for a Mexican restaurant group, is moving into what was once Cerveceria Chapultepec.

Another established local restaurant group known for Costa Pacifica and 1902 is planning to open Lunatique, Easy Baby, Amelia, Hook, and Creme at The Creamery, a new mixed-used development near Pearl.
San Antonio just got a lot sweeter. Sugar Factory American Brasserie is now open at The Shops at Rivercenter, making the location the second Texas location in a chain that spans the country.

Even if it's your first time seeing a Sugar Factory in person, you've likely seen the restaurant's over-the-top goblet-size cocktails, extreme milkshakes, very extra eats, and celebrity guests on social media. Now, you'll get to see the entire glitzy menu in person.

The River Walk restaurant takes up a 7,900-square-foot space at the downtown mall, and that's just the main dining room. There's also a retail space where sugar savants can stock up on more than 50 kinds of tantalizing treats displayed on Sugar Factory's floor-to-ceiling candy wall.

Courtesy, Sugar Factory

Courtesy, Sugar Factory

We may be spoiling dinner talking about the candy first, so let's refocus. While Sugar Factory is known for its candy offerings, the company also has a full food menu for brunch, lunch, and dinner. Those include items like the Cookie Jar Buttermilk Pancake Stack made with Oreo cookie crumbles, chocolate chips, and cookie bits topped with an ice cream cone and a Hershey's Cookies 'N Cream chocolate bar. There's also the 24K Gold Burger Meal served with fries (dusted in gold) and a milkshake topped with a glitzy donut. Sugar Factory also offers a spicy spaghetti plate served with shrimp and a whole Maine lobster tail.

The drink menu includes "Insane Milkshakes" which are blended with irresistible flavors like Nutella and garnished with doughnuts, Kit Kat bars, and other candies. There's also an adults-only version called the "Campfire Spiked S'mores Milkshake," which includes whiskey.

Courtesy, Sugar Factory

Courtesy, Sugar Factory

If you're looking for a menu that's strictly 21-and-up, there's an extensive list of celebrity designed and tested goblets for $39. For example, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson created the "Soul Man," which is a blend of peach and pineapple topped with triple sec and Hennessey.

Since opening in Las Vegas in 2010, the brand has become a celebrity and tourist favorite. So many stars have stopped by the extra confectionery shop and restaurant combo that the website has a searchable database of photos from their visits.

But the stars aren't the only ones snapping photos. Sugar Factory prides itself on being inherently 'gram worthy. Partner Larry Rudolph says the picture-perfect setting plays into the lure of it all.

Courtesy, Sugar Factory

For over a decade, Sugar Factory has delighted guests of all ages with our internationally recognized fun, high energy brand delivering memorable experiences in a family-friendly atmosphere," Rudolph says in a statement. "We are excited to introduce San Antonio and its approximately 34 million annual visitors to our signature desserts, savory dishes, beautiful photo op walls, and friendly staff."

Courtesy, Sugar Factory

Sugar Factory is also open late. Check out these hours: 11 a.m. to midnight, Monday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday; and 10 a.m. to midnight on Sundays.
Guido Mieth/Getty Images

A growing coffee shop chain is expanding its java foot print in the Hill Country. Construction for On The Grind's 15th coffee shop is underway in Boerne.

According to a Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation filing, the $125,000 stand alone coffee drive-thru store will be at 1357 S Main Street in Boerne. The construction on the 639-square-foot building began on February 1 and was supposed to be completed on May 2, according to the filing.
To better control the price and size of its chickens, Costco decided to wean itself off major poultry producers and build its own supply network in the Midwest, where the company created an entire infrastructure from scratch. It was a half-billion-dollar gamble that some worried would hurt the warehouse club's reputation, even as it kept the company supplied with millions of chickens that Costco roasts in-house and sells at a loss to attract new members and more foot traffic.

Last year, not even 24 months into its poultry experiment, Costco was the target of an undercover investigation by Mercy for Animals, which showed a Nebraska barn crowded with birds, some with open sores, sitting in their own feces because they were too top-heavy to walk. The investigation led to a Nicholas Kristof opinion piece in The New York Times. It also led to news stories in Nebraska, where Costco built a $450 million poultry complex in Fremont, as well as a petition to urge the company to adopt better chicken welfare practices.

What it didn't lead to, according to a lawsuit filed this month in Seattle, were changes with Costco and its poultry operations, which the plaintiffs claim still violate animal welfare laws in Nebraska and Iowa. They're suing Costco's executives and the directors for breach of fiduciary duties, which they claim "could subject the Company to significant liability." The plaintiffs are represented by two firms that specialize in animal welfare and cruelty laws.

Plaintiffs Krystil Smith and Tyler Lobdell are Costco shareholders. They accused Costco's leaders of being addicted to cheap poultry - to the detriment of the company, the shareholders and the animals slaughtered in the name of the massively popular Kirkland Signature rotisserie chicken, which sells for $4.99 a bird.

"If Costco continues its illegal mistreatment of chickens, it risks undermining its long-running and successful traffic-generation strategy," the lawsuit states. "As more consumers learn of the mistreatment of Costco chickens, the benefits reaped using loss-leading rotisserie chickens to drive customer traffic and purchases  will vanish or greatly diminish because consumer preferences to not buy products made illegally or unethically will trump the lure of a 'cheap' chicken."

Richard Galanti, Costco's chief financial officer and executive vice president, said via email that the company would have no comment. Galanti is one of the 17 named defendants, which also include Ron Vachris, president and chief operating officer; W. Craig Jelinek, chief executive; and Hamilton James, a billionaire businessman who is chair of Costco's board.

In an interview, Smith said that as a Costco shareholder, she felt "complicit" in the abuse of farm animals after watching the Mercy for Animals video. She says she doesn't have any special affinity for animals, though she has been a vegan for 15 years and studied animal law in law school.

"But I don't think you need to have a special affinity for anything to not harm them, or certainly to defend the law," Smith, a practicing attorney in Maryland, told The Washington Post.

Lincoln Premium Poultry was established in 2016 to serve as the management company of Costco's vertically integrated poultry operations, whose sole purpose is to supply chickens to the retail giant. The main complex in Fremont includes a hatchery, a feed mill and a 400,000-square-foot processing plant with a controlled-atmosphere stunning system, which uses gas to incapacitate birds before they're slaughtered. Animal behaviorist Temple Grandin has endorsed the gas method as more humane to birds than electrical stunning.

The Mercy for Animals investigation did not target the Fremont complex but focused on an unnamed barn, one of hundreds in Nebraska and Iowa operated by farmers contracted by Costco to raise chickens for the retailer. According to Smith and Lobdell's complaint, Costco and Lincoln Premium Poultry recruited about 120 people to become contract growers; their farms sometimes faced stiff opposition from neighbors who didn't want the operations (expected to raise as many as 190,000 chickens every six weeks) fouling their air and water.

"Most of the individuals whom Costco contracted to raise chickens had never raised chickens before they started working with Costco," the lawsuit alleges. "As a result, Costco is responsible for training these growers on how to raise chickens and how to care for animals, and for setting the animal welfare standards that these growers follow."

In these contract barns, the plaintiffs allege, farmers raise tens of thousands of chickens "that are bred to grow unnaturally fast," which leads to health issues, such as dead muscle tissue because the birds have trouble circulating blood and oxygen throughout their enlarged bodies. Chickens can be so heavy that, when they fall, they cannot get back up. Others may be too heavy to move, so they sit in one place, losing feathers and exposing their skin to the filthy barn floor. This can lead to ammonia burns.

These immobile chickens, the complaint alleges, may not be able to access food and water. Others may be too weak or injured to feed themselves. Costco, the plaintiffs claim, fails to provide the birds with individualized veterinary care.

At these farms, the lawsuit alleges, "disabled birds slowly die from hunger, thirst, injury, and illness. Costco's directors and officers cause and are aware of these illegal practices; and have chosen to ignore red flags plainly illuminating Costco's illegal behavior."

These practices, Smith and Lobdell claim, violate the Nebraska Livestock Animal Welfare Act and the Iowa Livestock Neglect Law. The plaintiffs devote a significant chunk of their 50-page lawsuit to laying out the ways in which Costco's officers and directors were aware of the alleged animal welfare violations - but disregarded them.

The suit notes that Costco released a statement in September regarding the welfare of its chickens. The company defended its operations, including the practice of raising fast-growing birds, and pointed out that the "minimum standards followed in these barns are based on those developed by the National Chicken Council."

Mercy for Animals wants more from Costco. The organization, which aims to end industrial animal agriculture, wants the retailer to join more than 200 companies that have already signed the Better Chicken Commitment, which calls for higher animal welfare and processing standards. Popeyes, Chipotle, Subway, Shake Shack, Burger King and other chains have signed on, but according to Consumer Reports, Costco has not.

Smith and Lobdell allege that Costco's leaders can't let go of their $4.99 chicken, no matter what it means to the company's reputation or the welfare of the birds. They claim the retailer sells more than 100 million of those rotisserie birds annually, increasing foot traffic and profits along the way.

Smith said that, as a shareholder, she was attracted to Costco's professed values, including those around animal welfare. She says it doesn't matter if improvements to animal welfare cause Costco to raise the price of its rotisserie chicken, which has remained at $4.99 for more than a decade. This is about the law.

"Costco knows the law is being broken in this case. They've got to course correct," she said. "Nobody is above the law."
The nationwide hotline for mental health emergencies switches to a simple 988 number on Saturday, a transition that is expected to bring millions more calls, chats and texts into a system where readiness to handle the surge varies from place to place.

At the same time, advocates hope the renewed focus on emergency assistance, and the spending that has accompanied it, will prompt expansion of other mental health services that are in desperately short supply in many communities.

"I look at 988 as a starting place where we can really reimagine mental health care," said Hannah Wesolowski, chief advocacy officer for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, a nationwide grass roots group. "We're really looking at a fundamental tide shift in how we respond to people in mental health crisis."

The network of more than 180 local call centers, drastically underfunded throughout its history, fielded 3.6 million calls, chats and texts in fiscal year 2021, according to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Officials expect that to jump to 7.6 million contacts in the coming year, as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline - 800-273-TALK (8255) - gives way to 988. The 800 number will remain active indefinitely. (The expected increase in contacts doesn't include a hotline option reserved for veterans.)

The hotline in Tucson, Ariz., for example, is widely considered the gold standard for comprehensive care of people suffering mental health crises. When someone calls that city's hotline, trained counselors help resolve the emergency on the phone 80% of the time. If they can't, one of 16 "mobile crisis teams" is dispatched to the caller's door - or any other location - day or night.

And those who need even more assistance can be brought to the city's "stabilization center," where psychologists, doctors, nurses and other specialized personnel provide everything from urgent mental health care to drug treatment medication.

The arrangement keeps people who may be considering suicide or have other acute mental health needs out of emergency rooms and jails, reduces police and EMT involvement in behavioral health cases and speeds aid to the people who need it.

"We have the space, we have the staff, we have the training," Margie Balfour, chief of quality and clinical innovation at Connections Health Solutions, the company that runs the Tucson stabilization center.

SAMHSA organized what had been a collection of individual call centers into a nationwide network in 2004, awarding the contract to operate and grow the system to the nonprofit Vibrant Emotional Health (then known as the Mental Health Association of New York City).

The call centers are funded by local, state and federal resources, creating wide variation in each center's ability to handle its call volume. When local centers are swamped or unstaffed, centralized backup centers across the country respond. There are 14 now and as many as 17 will be operating by August.

But local centers are preferable, because staff there are better acquainted with nearby mental health resources, officials said. Their ability to handle capacity varies substantially by location.

In the first quarter of 2022, for example, North Carolina was able to handle 90% of its calls in-state while Illinois responded to just 20%, according to Vibrant data.

The overall network's capacity was able to address 85% of calls, 56% of texts and 30% of chats, according to a government report, citing a December 2020 analysis. Already, increased hiring and spending has improved call centers' ability to keep up with demand, said John Draper, executive vice president at Vibrant.

"988 will work if the states are committed to it," Xavier Becerra, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said in a briefing for reporters this month. "It won't work well if they're not. There is no reason, no excuse, that a person in one state can get a good response and a person in another state will get a busy signal."

A lack of resources can be dangerous: The Wall Street Journal calculated recently that one in six callers hangs up without reaching anyone.

Research has repeatedly confirmed that call-in lines are highly effective in their mission. A trained counselor who listens to and empathizes with a caller or texter can help him or her past a short-term crisis on the phone in the vast majority of cases.

Staff and volunteers also are taught how to separate a person with thoughts of suicide from whatever might be used to commit harm, send family or friends to help, arrange follow-up care or contact law enforcement if necessary.

"Suicidal crisis callers report significant reductions in intent to die, hopelessness, and psychological pain over the course of their crisis call," Columbia University researchers Madelyn Gould and Alison Lake wrote in a September report on 988 and suicide prevention to the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors.

They added that "crisis counselors are able to secure the caller's collaboration on an intervention on over 75% of imminent risk calls."

SAMHSA has spent more than $280 million to bolster the system and Congress allocated $150 million more.

"Our goal is to make 988 like 911," Becerra said. "If you are willing to turn to someone in your moment of crisis, someone will be there. 988 won't be a busy signal. 988 will get you help. That is the goal." But he made clear that the states, not the federal government, will have to fund call centers on a continuing basis.

The number of suicides in the U.S. rose steadily from 29,350 in 2000 to 48,344 in 2018, before declining to 45,979 in 2020, according to the National Center on Health Statistics. In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and other factors, government and health officials agree that the country is in the grip of a mental health crisis, especially among younger people, with sharply rising rates of depression and anxiety.

Tucson's continuum of services grew over 20 years, a collaboration of the state, county and private participants, Balfour said. Now officials around the country point to its program as a model for other locales.

Dispatchers for the mobile crisis teams sit with 911 dispatchers and sometimes redirect calls for police to pairs of clinicians instead, Balfour said. Police are trained to bring people to the stabilization center instead of hospitals or jails when appropriate. They can be in and out in minutes, rather than spending hours with patients in an emergency room. There is a dedicated entrance at the facility for law enforcement so officers don't have to remove and store their weapons, she said.

Available slots for follow-up care at mental health clinics are entered into the hotline's computer, easing access to help. The hotline handles about 10,000 calls per month, Balfour said. The stabilization center handles about 1,000 adults per month as well as 200 to 300 children and teens, she said.

It has an observation area with chairs for 34 adults and 10 younger people and an adult inpatient unit with 15 beds, where patients can stay three to five days, she said, including while they withdraw from drugs and begin medically assisted treatment. The beds help prevent hours and days "boarding" in emergency rooms untreated while hospital personnel search for a bed in an appropriate facility.

The center strives for "90 minutes from door to doc" and turns away no one, including walk-ins, Balfour said. Patients may be suicidal, violent, intoxicated, psychotic or detoxifying.

"Our model is we take everybody," she said. "We want the people that typically get denied at other places. We want those high-acuity, potentially violent people."

If you or someone you know needs help, visit suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to Twitter Wednesday to call out a heckler who filmed himself verbally harassing the Democrat on the U.S. Capitol steps in a video that went viral this week. In the selfie-angled clip, Dallas-based right-wing social media personality Alex Stein makes lewd remarks about Ocasio-Cortez from afar, calling her his "favorite big booty Latina" and accusing her of wanting to "kill babies."

At one point in the video, Ocasio-Cortez walks over to Stein and is heard sarcastically saying, "Why don't we do a little selfie?" She flashes a peace sign before she continues up the Capitol steps.

"I posted about a deeply disgusting incident that happened today on the Capitol steps, but took it down [because] it's clearly someone seeking extremist fame," Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter. "It's just a bummer to work in an institution that openly allowed this, but talking about it only invites more. Just really sad."

Ocasio-Cortez also posted the video of the incident in a subsequent tweet, which has been seen more than 3.2 million times as of Thursday afternoon. "I was actually walking over to deck him because if no one will protect us then I'll do it myself but I needed to catch a vote more than a case today," she wrote.

In a clip shared on Instagram, Ocasio-Cortez claimed the incident happened in front of a Capitol police officer who did nothing. "This institution is not designed to protect people," she said. "It's really hard and it's really sad that my only recourse is just to let you know about it but that's the institution for you."

Stein responded to Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter, writing "If you really love me you would of at least tagged me." He was also reportedly blocked by the Democrat but still shared memes about the encounter and thanked Ocasio-Cortez for "making [him] trend on Twitter."

On Wednesday, Stein posted other videos from the Capitol steps, including one where he approached Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and called him a "fake RINO Republican" and "scumbag," among other insults. He also approached Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and asked if "Hunter Biden has good taste in prostitutes."

Stein is not new to such Internet antics. Earlier this year, he went viral for urging people to get vaccinated in a rap he performed while dressed in scrubs in front of members of the Dallas City Council. Last month, he filmed himself heckling Rep. Dan Crenshaw and Sen. Ted Cruz at the Texas Republican Convention.
Update: 9:30 a.m., Friday, July 15: The CPS Energy outage map shows 46 people without power due to 19 outages.

Original story

Thunderstorms rolled into San Antonio on Thursday, July 14, knocking power out for thousands of CPS Energy customers.

At 7:10 p.m., the CPS Energy outage map reported more than 13,000 customers were out of power due to 72 separate outages. In a tweet, CPS Energy said that crews are "en route to the outages."

The National Weather Service issued a statement Thursday afternoon that a strong storm was detected near Sea World moving south at 20 mph. The storm is capable of wind gusts up to 55mph and nickel-sized hail, and the weather service warned that residents should secure outdoor objects and furniture. The storm could impact parts of western Bexar County and east central Medina County until 7:45 p.m.

The rain chances will stick around through Friday in the Hill Country with the possibility of stronger storms, a forecast said early Thursday morning. The NWS said that "above normal temperatures" are expected to last through at least Wednesday.

The record-breaking temperatures have prompted ERCOT to ask Texans to minimize electricity consumption during peak hours to avoid rolling blackouts. In June, ERCOT announced that electricity demand records were broken on a consistent basis with no end in sight as July has continued to warm up. The NWS also said in June that San Antonio was on pace to break the all-time record for 100-degree days in a year.
In the days following the May 24 tragedy at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, the nation came to know the 21 lives that the teachers and young students lived before they became victims of one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history.

Ellie Garcia loved Encanto; Amerie Jo Garza was a Girl Scout and a hero who dialed 911 as the shots rang out; and Alithia Haven Ramirez wanted to make people happy with her artwork.

Before she was killed, Alithia submitted a drawing for the Doodle for Google national search. The application process opened in January and closed in March.

The Google competition challenged young artists to create a design for its Google Doodle, which greets internet users when they visit the search engine with a query. A panel of judges including Selena Gomez, Elyse Fox, and Juliana Urtubey were tapped to pick the winners.

The 10-year-old's parents told reporters soon after the shooting that the 4th grader had submitted a drawing for the contest.

Photo by Gabriel Romero

Now, as the search narrows down to five finalists who will be decided on Thursday, July 28, Google is holding space for Alithia. A banner at the top of the contest page greets website visitors.

"Doodle for Google honors 2022 contestant Alithia Haven Ramirez and all of the victims of the Uvalde, TX tragedy," the note reads.

A separate page dedicated to Alithia holds her artwork and photo. Alithia's submitted sketch is a cozy scene of a girl curled up on a sofa with balls of yarn and her pet. Google is spelled out in a set of framed art hanging on the wall.

The memorial page also includes a quote from the little girl's entry.

I want the world to see my art and show the world what I can do, I want people to be happy when they see my passion in art," she wrote.

Google did not say if Alithia's artwork will be used at a later date, but extended their condolences to all victims and residents of Uvalde in a statement provided to MySA.

Our deepest condolences go out to the family and friends of victims and to the community of Uvalde, Texas. In Alithia Ramirezs 2022 Doodle for Google submission, she described her desire to show the world her art and everything she can do, and were committed to honoring those wishes and her legacy," Colette Garcia, a spokesperson for Google, says. "Her story and art profoundly touched us, and we wanted to honor her family's request to share her unique talents that were so tragically taken as a result of senseless violence.
Michael Barera

Officials located the reported deceased body floating in Lady Bird Lake in Austin on Thursday, July 14 afternoon. Austin-Travis County EMS tweeted about its rescue team heading out to the water around 2:46 p.m.

Austin-Travis County EMS, Austin Fire, and APD Lake Patrol responded to the report. Medics were alerted to the incident near 9 East Avenue around 2:37 p.m.
Josie Norris / San Antonio Express-News

The upcoming midterm election on November 8 could sway the tide of Congress and the Texas government with multiple key races, including governor. On Friday, July 15, the public is only 100 days away from early voting.

Until then, there are a few dates that voters should know about if they intend to cast their ballot by mail or vote in person.
(Natural News) Car theft has effectively been decriminalized in London after it was revealed that less than one per cent of vehicle thefts in the capital lead to criminal charges.

(Article by Paul Joseph Watson republished from Infowars.com)

Out of the nearly 55,000 thefts from vehicles in London last year, Scotland Yard only solved 271, representing just an 0.5 per cent success rate, according to an analysis of Home Office data conducted by The Telegraph, reports Breitbart.

According to the broadsheet, only two major police forces faired worse than London in successfully charging car thieves, with the West Midlands and Surrey police forces only maintaining a 0.4 per cent charging rate.

Responding to the figures, the head of the Police Foundation think tank Rick Muir said car thefts had been effectively decriminalized and that this had emboldened criminals to commit more of the same crimes, knowing they are unlikely to be apprehended.

There are certain things the public expect of police, one of which is that they will at least investigate these bread and butter crimes, said Muir.

Policing is going to have to look at these levels and decide if it has got it right. Where the charge rates are at that level, there is no deterrence to commit these kinds of offences and it might encourage people to commit them in future, he added.

As we have exhaustively highlighted, while real crimes go unpunished, authorities in the UK have plenty of resources and enforcement power when it comes to punishing people for offensive speech.

Last month, a man was jailed for 20 weeks for the crime of posting offensive George Floyd memes in private WhatsApp and Facebook group chats.

Last year, a 50-year-old mother in Scotland was charged with a transphobic hate crime after she retweeted an image of a suffragette ribbon.

After contacting his employers, Humberside Police interrogated a man and told him to check his thinking after he posted a limerick that offended a transgender person.

Harry Miller told police he did not write the limerick and merely retweeted it, but was told by an officer, Ah. But you liked it and promoted it. Its not a crime, but it will be recorded as a hate incident.

In 2017, it was reported that British police had arrested 3,395 people for offensive online comments in the space of a year.

People in the UK are routinely investigated and sometimes charged by police for hate crimes that have become so broad, anyone from a minority group who claims they were offended is enough for authorities to treat and record it as a hate incident.

Back in 2015, the head of the National Police Chiefs Council said that due to a lack of resources, officers would be unable to attend some burglaries. In 2018, it was revealed that two thirds of burglaries are not even investigated.

As we highlighted last year, Merseyside Police were forced to respond after officers took part in an electronic ad campaign outside a supermarket which claimed being offensive is an offence, with authorities later clarifying that it is in fact not an offense.

Read more at: Infowars.com
(Natural News) Emails from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed that the health agency changed its definition for both vaccine and vaccination. The move was triggered by officials citing peoples comments that the definitions do not apply to the efficacy of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) jabs.

The emails were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

CDC official Alycia Downs wrote in an email dated August 25, 2021: The definition of vaccine we have posted is problematic, and people are using it to claim the COVID-19 vaccine is not a vaccine based on our own definition.

Since at least 2011, vaccine has been defined by the CDC as a product that triggers immunity, whereas vaccination was described as an injection preventing a disease.

However, the agency was flooded by email inquiries on the definitions due to the fact that the COVID-19 vaccines have been increasingly ineffective against infection by the virus.

Our question is how is the CDC and the rest of the world allowed to call the shot a vaccination when it doesnt even meet your own definition, one person wrote to the CDC.

Another one wrote: Is it true that this shot for COVID is not actually a [sic] vaccine per your definition? Does this shot make you immune to the COVID virus? If not, why should I get the shot?

Based on the email thread, Downs and colleagues Allison Michelle Fisher, Cynthia Jorgensen, Valerie Morelli and Andrew (no last name given) worked on changing the definitions. The changes for vaccine and vaccination definitions were pushed through on Aug. 31, 2021, and Sept. 1, 2021, respectively.

The new definitions below can also be found on the CDC website:

Vaccine : A preparation that is used to stimulate the bodys immune response against diseases. Vaccines are usually administered through needle injections, but some can be administered by mouth or sprayed into the nose

: A preparation that is used to stimulate the bodys immune response against diseases. Vaccines are usually administered through needle injections, but some can be administered by mouth or sprayed into the nose Vaccination: The act of introducing a vaccine into the body to produce protection from a specific disease.

Observers believe that the CDC changed the definitions because of the waning effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines. At the moment, the agency is attempting to downplay the broad difference in the definitions assigned to both vaccine and vaccination.

A CDC spokesperson told the Epoch Times that the slight changes in the wording did not alter the overall definition. The agency representative added that the previous definition at Immunization Basics | CDC could be interpreted to mean that vaccines were 100 percent effective, which has never been the case for any vaccine, so the current definition is more transparent, and also describes the ways in which vaccines can be administered.

Analysts view the unannounced changes as the CDCs attempt to hide the fact that COVID-19 vaccines are not 100 percent effective at preventing coronavirus infection.

CDC quietly changed the definition to support Big Pharmas initial six-shot plan

The said quiet move to change the definition of the significant terminologies last year seemed to have been intentionally done in time with President Joe Bidens announcement of his strategy to combat the COVID-19 delta variant last year. Biden presented his six-pronged strategy to fight the proliferation of the said variant and increase U.S. COVID-19 vaccination rates.

Also, the change came a few weeks after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the rollout of the Pfizer vaccine and just days after CDC Director Rochelle Walensky admitted that the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines is waning.

We are seeing concerning evidence of waning vaccine effectiveness over time and against the Delta variant, Walensky said during a White House press briefing last year. Reports from our international colleagues, including Israel, suggest increased risk of severe disease amongst those vaccinated early.

The said Israeli study reported in August 2021 that the vaccine was only 16 percent effective against symptomatic infection for those individuals who had two doses of the shot in January 2021.

The CDC recognized the reported waning effectiveness so they promoted administering the booster shots. According to leaked documents, Pfizers initial plan involved a total of six jabs, proving that two shots are really not enough nor effective. (Related: Worldview Report: Pfizer knew all along its mRNA vaccine cant protect people from COVID  Brighteon.TV.)

The FDA seemed convinced that Pfizers original six-shot plan is the best way to protect the population, so the agency gave emergency use authorization for a second booster dose of COVID-19 vaccines for older and immunocompromised individuals.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, wanting to push his luck, suggested that an annual shot of the COVID-19 vaccine is the best way to go.

A vaccine that will be taken once a year is way easier to administer and we should have the population be compliant with it. We are working on that, he said.

Watch the below video that talks about the changes in vaccine and vaccination definitions.

This video is from the Justin Trouble channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

CDC manipulated definition of vaccines to usher in covid jabs.

CDC falsely claims severe reactions caused by dangerous COVID vaccines are rare.

CDC: Covid vaccine official death toll reaches 4,647, setting new 22-year VAERS record

Walensky says CDC may change definition of fully vaccinated to include booster shots.

Sources include:

DocumentCloud.org

100PercentFedup.com

TheEpochTimes.com

CDC.gov

NationalFile.com

FDA.gov

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Dr. John Diamond believes the Deep States deep pockets allow them to control everything.

The Deep State or the swamp basically control the politicians, the media, the churches and the schools. They control everything because they have all the money and thats always the problem. Power and money always consolidate in the hands of a few and it has to be kind of torn apart in order for things to get fixed, Diamond said during the July 12 episode of America Unhinged on Brighteon.TV.

Diamond was joined by historian and author Larry Schweikart who talked about his book Dragon Slayers.

Schweikart, a former rock and roll drummer and history professor at the University of Dayton, said six American presidents waged war with the swamp or Deep State: Abraham Lincoln, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump.

According to the historian, these presidents took on different heads of the same swamp creature.

Lincoln was totally successful in killing the slave swamp while Cleveland was partially successful with the spoils swamp who were in the practice of giving away government jobs.

Roosevelt had to battle with the trust swamp that was made up of about three to five companies that owned almost 80 to 85 percent of every industry in America. Roosevelt also staved off a socialist revolution in America by enacting laws on the big corporations.

Kennedy saw the threat posed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), but he needed the agency to do what he wanted to get done. Reagan campaigned against the swamp but he also needed the swamp to defeat the Soviet Union and aggressively reduce the size of government.

Trump takes on the entire swamp

And then theres Trump.

Schweikart, author of more than 25 books, said that Trump had to take on the entire swamp: the Big Tech, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the intel agencies, the state department, the hidden military and the Department of Defense, among others.

He noted that the entire government was aligned against Trump when he engaged in any kind of reform and reduction of the Deep States power. (Related: Deep state boasts of conspiracy against Trump in 2020 election.)

The historian urged Americans to keep the pressure on the Deep State to score a massive win in the coming midterm elections.

Diamond said the Americans know victory is within their grasp. The American people understand that the Democratic Party is basically the Communist Party of America and that even diehard Democrats are no longer on board with them, Diamond said.

Nobody trusts the media. Nobody trusts Hollywood and Disney. They have lost absolutely every bit of control of the power and the narrative. The only thing that they have left is possibly crashing the economy.

Thats a horrible thing to do, but these Democrats are prepared to do everything to stay in power. Diamond said Americans who intentionally hurt and destroy their fellow Americans are violating federal law that is punishable by death.

Americans should hold these people accountable to the law and punish them according to the law so that a lot of the suffering that America is going through would end, Diamond said.

For more stories about the swamp, visit DeepState.news.

Watch the July 12 episode of America Unhinged below. Catch new episodes of America Unhinged with Dr. John Diamond every weekday at 9 a.m., Sunday at 9 p.m. and Saturday at 8 a.m. on Brighteon.TV.

More related stories:

Medical deep state continues to lie about ivermectin.

The deep states stealthy, subversive, silent coup to ensure nothing changes.

Alex Newman: War advances Deep State objective of one world government.

Newly uncovered document reveals left-wing deep state elites battle plan against American Christians.

Confirmed: The CIA is running Ukraines fight against Russia.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

WildWorldofHistory.com
(Natural News) Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information request submitted by a member of the Dutch House of Representatives revealed that the Dutch government is colluding with the World Economic Forum (WEF) to implement the Great Reset.

Pepijn van Houwelingen, a member of the Dutch House of Representatives, asked 42 questions that led to the release of the documents. The documents, which circulated on Twitter, indicated that the Dutch government was involved in discussions focused on shaping policies post-COVID-19 under the theme the Great Reset.

These documents also expressed that the Dutch governments contribution to the work of the Great Reset is especially critical at the annual meeting.

Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Tom De Bruijn provided answers to van Houwelingens questions 10 and 12.

De Bruijns response included seven sets of attachments consisting of WEF correspondence with: Prime Minister Mark Rutte (2016-2021); Foreign Affairs Minister Koenders, Minister Zijlstra and Minister Blok (2017  2018); Minister Ploumen, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Minister Kaag and Minister De Bruijn (2016-2021); Public Health, Welfare and Sport Minister Schippers and Medical Care and Sport Minister Bruins (2016-2021); Economic Affairs and Climate Minister Wiebes and Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality Minister Schouten (2019-2021); Finance Minister Hoekstra (2017-2021); and Infrastructure and Water Management Minister Van Nieuwenhuizen, State Secretary Van Veldhoven and State Secretary Van Weyenberg (2019-2021).

The Netherlands is funding food innovation hubs

Meanwhile, leading European food innovation hub Foodvalley said in an article that the Netherlands is proud to host the Global Coordination Secretariat (GCS) for the worldwide network of food innovation hubs.

It was great to have support for the initiative by Foodvalley members Mengniu Dairy, DSM and Unilever this week at the online WEF Davos panel session on the transformation of food systems, said Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in January.

More than 20 organizations are already working together as Food Innovation Hubs in Colombia, India, Europe, Southeast Asia and several other countries in Africa. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has also provided multiyear support for the development of a food innovation hub in India. Several private and public sector partners have committed in-kind resources to support the development of the hubs in different regions.

What Foodvalley did not mention, however, is that the Netherlands is planning to fund the said hubs. (Related: Livestock producers now just DAYS away from running out of animal feed due to supply chain disruptions.)

It also failed to mention that the initiative has special attention for development and implementation of key enabling technologies. This included digitalization, artificial intelligence, internet of things, biotechnology and micro- and nanotechnology in the agri-food sector.

The Dutch government also wrote a letter to WEF on behalf of the Dutch Ministers of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy and Agriculture, Nature and Food quality together with the Regional Food Agency Oost NL before the official signing of the letter of intent.

We strongly believe that establishing the GCS in the Netherlands will be mutually beneficial and proof of great benefit to the efficacy and impact of the global network of food innovation hubs, the letter stated.

This letter of intent was signed by Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy Eric Weibes back in December 2020, and by WEF on January 5, 2021.

Other things cited in the letter include the Dutch innovation and agricultural policy, which are very much in line with the topics considered crucial by the WEF for food system transformation.

The letter of intent also stated that the outcome for both participants would include the establishment of the WEF GCS in the Netherlands. In May 2021, Wiebes granted WEF funding of EUR 651,000 ($652,419) to establish and develop the GCS in the Netherlands.

Dutch farmers to suffer because of Netherlands-WEF collusion

By following the recommendations of WEF and going through with the proposed nitrogen policy to meet greenhouse gas emission targets, the Netherlands will have to slash livestock numbers by 30 percent, hitting farmers hard in some provinces.

With nitrogen being labeled as a pollutant, it is used as a decoy by the WEF to put farmers out of business and take control of the food supply. (Related: Fertilizer price hikes prompt soaring food prices and global shortages.)

With the Dutch government following the recommendations of the WEF, farmers and truckers realize that the globalists are trying to take their land and control food supply. And those that control the food supply control the population completely, said Michael Yon, a war correspondent currently on-ground in the Netherlands to cover farmer protests.

Dutch farmers know that if they lose, they will also lose their livelihood, and the consequences of their losses will be felt for many generations.

The farmers are rising up. They know theyre going to be put out of business  which would put all of Europe on its knees, Yon said.

Visit FoodSupply.news for more information on how the WEF plans to control the food supply.

Watch the video below to know more about the WEF Great Reset agenda and how Dutch farmers are being affected by it.

This video is from the InfoWars channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Farmers across EU rise up against tyrannical green mandates that threaten food supply.

European farmers protest spread to Poland and Italy in huge backlash against the globalists depopulation and starvation schemes.

Tensions escalate as Dutch farmers protest after police discharged firearms over threatening situation.

Dutch farmers protest governments plan to ban cattle emissions.

Sources include:

Expose-News.com

Twitter.com

TheEpochTimes.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Somewhere, Liz Cheney is shrieking.

(Article by Elizabeth Stauffer republished from WesternJournal.com)

Following former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinsons explosive June 28 testimony, Vice Chair of the Jan. 6 Committee Liz Cheney was sure she had her smoking gun. Her star witness had delivered the goods on former President Donald Trump.

Upon closer scrutiny, however, it was discovered that certain facts didnt add up. As time went by, the chasm between Hutchinsons statements and reality began to grow.

The Secret Service quickly disputed Hutchinsons allegations that Trump had lunged at his driver and tried to grab the steering wheel and said agents were ready to say so  under oath.

Moreover, it turned out that the committee never tried to corroborate Hutchinsons accusations, which, had it been conducting an impartial  and ethical  investigation, would have been its first course of action.

Hutchinson claimed in her testimony to have written a recommended statement for Trump on a notecard on Jan. 6, which read, Anyone who entered the Capitol without proper authority should leave immediately, according to The Washington Examiner.

However, a representative for former White House attorney Eric Herschmann told ABC News last week that Herschmann had written this note. All sources with direct knowledge and law enforcement have and will confirm that it was written by Mr. Herschmann, the representative said.
(Natural News) A pre-print study concerning two adjacent North Dakota school districts found that there are no significant differences in COVID cases between those that mandate masks and those that dont.

Funded by the University of Southern California, the study noted that the randomized data about the effectiveness of mask mandates in children is still lacking. Researchers noted that while observational studies on school mask mandates showed conflicting results, randomized studies have failed to detect the impact of masking on participants under 50 years of age.

They used a unique natural experiment to study school-based mask mandates by analyzing data from two Fargo, North Dakota school districts: Fargo Public Schools (FPS) and West Fargo Public Schools (WF). Both districts have very similar demographics, with WF having slightly higher percentages of minority and low-income families.

Both districts had similar COVID-19 mitigation policies, testing options and staff vaccination rates, although FPS had stricter rules for quarantining close contacts of COVID-positive students.

The only significant difference between the districts approach to the virus was that at the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year, FPS required its students to be masked throughout the day, while WF did not. On January 17, FPS also made masks optional. This allowed researchers to compare the case rates when the districts had different policies and when they had the same. (Related: Yale professor scoffs at the idea that mask mandates are based on science.)

They found that from Aug. 26, 2021, to Jan. 17, 2022, the cumulative incidence in the mask-compulsory school district (12.9 percent) was almost identical to the cumulative incidence in the mask-optional district (13 percent).

Post-Jan. 17, when both districts had mask-optional policies, case rates were also not significantly different  with FPS having a 5.3 percent rate and WF having 5.1 percent.

The researchers stated that the K-12 school mask mandates were not associated with significantly lower COVID-19 student case rates, which is consistent with adult randomized data on community cloth masking, multiple observational studies of school mask mandates and a systematic review of medical or surgical cloth masking for influenza.

They posited that studies of school-based mask mandates are particularly prone to bias as cases detected within the student population may be at least 20 times more likely to have been contracted outside of school than in. Other observational studies also reported a negative association between mask mandates and COVID cases, although there may have been important methodological limitations to the studies as well. (Related: Medical professionals, students decry mask mandates and other Covid measures in schools.)

Study has strengths not seen in randomized trials

The study was not a randomized trial, but it did have its strengths. For instance, the two school districts have similarities and theres a relatively long study period with data from both the delta and omicron waves of the COVID-19. It also has partial crossover data for when FPS dropped its own mask mandate.

While there are no official data on the masking rates in either district, parents and administrators told the researchers that masking was near-universal in the district with a mask mandate and five percent or less in the district where it is optional.

Thus, the researchers concluded that the school mask mandates were not associated with significantly lower COVID-19 case rates. They added that their findings are consistent with a growing body of scientific literature that should be taken into consideration and weighed with the harms and discomfort of masking in an educational setting.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), meanwhile, admitted in its own study from 2020 that the 21 percent lower incidence in schools that required mask use among students was not statistically significant compared with schools where mask use was optional. For their study, the CDC analyzed some 90,000 students in 169 Georgia elementary schools in November and December.

However, the CDC buried its findings and chose not to include them in the reports summary. University of California, San Francisco professor Vinay Prasad commented that the masking requirement for students failed to show that independent benefit is of great interest. It should have been included in the summary, he said.

Still, evidence continues to grow suggesting that the mask mandates are not effective at reducing the spread of COVID-19.

Watch Anthony Fauci admits mask mandates are about preserving authority over people.

This video is from the TruthParadigm channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Newsweek op-ed written by Yale professor blasts fake news media, leftist politicians for rejecting hydroxychloroquine.

Harvard professor urges parents not to give children coronavirus vaccines because risks outweigh any benefit.

At least half of new coronavirus infections now happening in vaccinated people as vaccine failure phenomenon worsens.

Its dangerous to ignore proof that hydroxychloroquine can save high-risk patients lives, doctor warns.

Yale doctor calls out CDC for committing large scale medical fraud and hiding covid cases among the vaccinated.

Sources include:

TheNewAmerican.com

ResearchSquare.com

CDC.gov

TheMaineWire.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) The group New Zealand Doctors Speaking out With Science (NZDSOS) has published an open letter calling for a comprehensive investigation into the wave of deaths occurring in New Zealand among the fully vaccinated for the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19).

A redacted version is available for the public to read, while an unredacted version is still being carefully prepared for law enforcement to ensure it contains all of the necessary information for a proper investigation to be conducted.

According to the group, there is a shockingly large burden of deaths and injuries following the Covid-19 vaccine, of itself and compared to any other treatment or vaccine in modern times.

We report many cases that DEMAND proper investigation, as befits any medication lacking safety studies, the letters executive summary further states.

NZDSOS says the countrys surveillance systems, which would otherwise catch these injuries and deaths, have been disabled in order to hide the extent of harm.

Adverse event reporting is NOT COMPULSORY, and this alone undermines any attempt to portray the injections as safe, the group further explains.

CARM (New Zealands version of the U.S.-based Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) was never designed to early warn about experimental drugs rolled out to massive numbers.

Post-covid injection deaths are the elephant in the room that nobody wants to address

Perhaps most concerning are the large numbers of young children who after getting shot are suffering cardiac injuries that used to only occur among the elderly  though many elderly people have mysteriously died post-jab as well.

Seeing as how children have a zero percent risk of dying from covid, let alone getting sick from it in the first place, jabbing them is arguably the worst crime against humanity that has occurred in modern times.

We believe we are being lied to, says NZDSOS. We appeal AGAIN to the Police, headed by Andrew Coster, and our MPs (members of parliament), to intervene to protect the People.

Halfway through the letter, a long list of cases is presented showing that post-injection injuries and deaths are anything but rare. They are disturbingly and obviously common when looking at the data, though few are brave enough to actually look.

A summary of some 500 post-injection deaths is included in the letter, as recorded in the Citizens Database. A community group of volunteers with backgrounds in healthcare, information technology and science help to maintain it with the support of epidemiology and database professionals.

It has been built mainly from notifications by relatives, friends and health workers of people who have died following the covid-19 shots, the letter explains.

Scientific accuracy forbids the use of the word vaccine, since it does not prevent the disease nor its transmission. Some information has been gleaned from social media posts, newspaper reports and obituaries. Has anyone noticed how many there are? Taken too soon, sudden and unexpected adorn the pages.

Because the so-called authorities refuse to even look into the situation at all is a huge red flag all on its own. If the jabs really are safe and effective as claimed, then there should be no problem looking through each case in order to debunk it as unrelated to the injections, right?

This is the elephant in the room that almost nobody in any position of power is willing to address, and NZDSOS is demanding once again that someone step up to the plate and take the matter seriously on behalf of public health.

Whatever the actual truth, NZDSOS and many others are certain that the true number of dead and injured people is very elevated, and not made clear to the public, who thus continue to sleepwalk into a treatment that is much more dangerous than the disease it purports to prevent, especially for the young, the group says.

The latest news coverage about Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccine injuries and deaths can be found at ChemicalViolence.com.

Sources for this article include:

NZDSOS.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) There is still a possibility that Russian President Vladimir Putin will launch a nuclear bomb at New York City, according to Mayor Eric Adams. And New Yorkers need to pack a bag and know where your medicines are located just in case.

Lets be prepared, Adams stated, referring to a public service announcement (PSA) video that the Big Apple released the other day with advice about what to do in the event of a radioactive blast.

These are just smart things to do, Adams said about the video. And many of us, we think about covid and other things that have been on the forefront, but were still one of the top terrorist threats.

According to Adams, NYC is not necessarily on high alert for a nuclear attack. He somewhat back-peddled on the PSA, saying that residents can use the information presented in it, including a duck and cover approach, to also deal with natural disasters such as hurricanes or flooding.

There are no imminent threats to the city that we know about, but we always have to be prepared as New Yorkers, he added.

Are they predictively programming an impending nuclear attack on NYC?

When asked whether the PSA is alarmist in suggesting that New Yorkers need to know how to destroy clothing that may have been exposed to radioactive dust, for instance, Adams responded in the negative.

Im a big believer in better safe than sorry, he stated before the press.

Because Putin invaded Ukraine, Adams went on to say, preparing for nuclear war in NYC is just taking necessary steps.

Back in May, in case you missed it, Russian state media featured a segment about how easy it supposedly would be for Russia to wipe the United States completely off the map.

Just four of Russias new Sarmat 2 nuclear weapons, two aimed at each coast, would result in there being nothing left of America, stated Alexei Zhuravlev, a member of Putins parliament.

The resulting mushroom clouds, Zhuravlev went on to state, would be visible from Mexico.

Zhuravlev was in part responding to a CBS News piece from back in late April that he says calculat[ed] incorrectly what a nuclear attack on NYC would actually look like.

Reporter Tony Dokoupil simulated an attack on the Big Apple using a bomb the size of the one that was dropped on Hiroshima back in 1945. Based on that, a mushroom cloud would consume the Empire State building and destroy much of Manhattan.

Guys, youre so funny  what methods are they even using? Zhuravlev mocked about the simulation.

I will competently tell you, that to destroy the entire East Coast of the U.S., two Sarmat missiles are necessary and two missiles for the West Coast. Four missiles, and there will be nothing left. They think the mushroom cloud will be taller than a high rise.

Zhuravlev went on to warn that Americans should not delude themselves into thinking that a Russian nuclear attack will be small or isolated to just one city or area of a city.

What should be said is that therell be nothing left, he warned. No one harbors any illusions about it, that everyone will be fine in case of nuclear war. No one will be fine, but calculate it correctly.

Should a nuclear war between Russia and the United States actually happen, some research suggests that it will trigger a Little Ice Age lasting several thousand years.

The reason Russia keeps making these types of statements, by the way, is because the Biden regime will not stop sending weapons and billions of dollars in cash to Ukraine, which is goading Russia into nuclear war.

You will find more stories like this one at NuclearWar.news.

Sources for this article include:

DailyMail.co.uk

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Michele Swinick thinks America is under attack.

All of these things that are happening at the border like the drugs are by design, on purpose, to destroy the country and kill people and make money for them against We the People,' Swinick said during the July 8 episode of Lets Talk America on Brighteon.TV. Swinick, along with Matt Thayer, subbed in for regular host Alan Keyes.

The founder and host of the Everything Home talk show noted that nothing is going to change and it is something that people need to get in their heads.

With drugs coming in at will through the border, the U.S. is losing approximately 300 kids a day to fentanyl. Filmmaker Nicole McCaw, who was the guest in the show, said that 107,000 American children died because of fentanyl last year. The drugs were produced in China, brought into the U.S. through the Mexican border and sold by the cartels to American families and children.

Swinick said the Joe Biden administration has made life easier for the cartel by leaving the U.S. borders wide open.

Public officials are involved in cartel operations

The Everything Home talk show host lamented that nobody is addressing the corruption and sex trafficking in Arizona because Governor Doug Ducey himself is part of the problem.

The establishment here gets money from the sex slave trafficking, the human trafficking. They get money from the cartels. They work with the cartels. They get money from the drugs. That part of what youre probably exposing during your documentary is the people that are in the elected and selected elite positions. They are a part of the operation which is why nothing happens, said Swinick, referring to McCaws upcoming documentary film about the cartel titled Border Wars.

In 2014, McCaw noted, Texas Governor Greg Abbott had a bill on his desk to DNA match the children coming into the border. Abbott vetoed the bill, raising concerns that hes also involved in cartel operations. (Related: Abbott deploys Operation Lone Star at Texas-Mexico border to fight illegal immigration.)

And this is why we must do our best to save America, save our children and keep exposing this demonic force thats happening in our nation, McCaw said.

Thayer, the owner and creative director of Spero Pictures, mentioned that the people sneaking over the border and getting a social security number and drivers license are making themselves available to vote. Most likely it will be done through the mail-in ballots.

Swinick said this is nefariously brilliant, just like the engineered Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) plandemic.

The hosts also talked about Roe v. Wade.

Thayer said Roe v. Wade is not just about life, but also about the flow of authority in America that has been misaligned. He noted that with the Supreme Court reversing the Roe v. Wade decision, the American people declared two things: They are on the side of life and on the side of proper authority.

So authority is a big deal. And the proper flow of authority in this country is that its God first, then its We the People. Literally, we are. There is nothing else between us and God. So the flow of authority comes through us and then properly to our delegated authorities, Thayer explained.

Follow OpenBorders.news for more news about Americas border crisis.

Watch the July 8 episode of Lets Talk America below. Catch new episodes of Lets Talk America with Dr. Alan Keyes from Monday to Friday at 1-3 p.m. on Brighteon.TV.

More related stories:

As border crisis worsens, over 118,000 migrants got away from Border Patrol in less than six months.

Doug Billings: America needs to secure its border  Brighteon.TV.

WATCH: Biden regime actively assisting illegal immigrants in crossing border so they can claim asylum and stay forever.

Southern border could be under COMPLETE CONTROL of cartels if Title 42 ends, Border Patrol union head warns.

Biden committing another impeachable offense by refusing to assert operational control over U.S.-Mexico border: Report.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

EverythingHomeTalkShow.com

LinkedIn.com
(Natural News) Armed protesters gathered at the funeral of Jayland Walker, a 25-year-old man shot by the police 60 times following a car chase in Akron, Ohio. Local police said they attempted to pull Walker over for a traffic and equipment violation, but he refused.

Authorities released a photo showing an unloaded handgun, an ammunition clip and what appeared to be a wedding ring on the drivers seat of his car. Walkers fiancee was killed a month earlier when a truck hit the back of a van she was riding in, tossing her from the vehicle on Interstate 71 outside Cincinnati. She was then struck by another vehicle that immediately fled the scene.

On July 3, the city of Akron released body cam footage in which no gun was visible in the victims hands. Protests against the police in Ohio have intensified since the release of the video.

During Walkers funeral, protestors armed with AR-15s and other weapons were seen manning the venue. They claimed that they want to teach the black community how to protect themselves and police their own communities.

The city has been under curfew since the incident happened and officials warn of roaming protestors targeting police and the city itself. According to Akrons chief of police, bounties have been placed on the heads of the police officers involved in the shooting.

The armed protestors have so far not committed any violent or destructive crimes, but the locality is placed in potential violence and clashes between protestors, police and residents.

During his funeral, mourners filled Akron Civic Theatre and passersby sounded horns in sympathy as family and friends shared their memories of Walker.

When I think about Jayland, I think about someone who had the biggest heart, said Robin Elerick, Walkers cousin. He was so sweet and so authentically genuine and thats what Ill always remember about him.

The victims best friend Dupri Whatley recalled how they were like brothers and listened to music together, including one of Walkers favorite rappers, Jadakiss. I dont want anybody to try to make it seem like my best friend was a bad dude. Because he was not. If it wasnt for him, I probably wouldnt be where Im at now, he tearfully stated.

Bishop Timothy Clarke of the First Church of God in Columbus said that Walkers death, and the deaths of other men and women, cannot be normalized. We must not try to act as if this is all right. Theres nothing right about this. We should not be here, and Jayland should not be in that box, the preacher said.

The city of Akron declared July 13 a day of mourning.

Law firm says a UN group will conduct an independent probe on the shooting

DiCello Levitt Gutzler, the law firm that represents Walkers family, said at a news conference that that a new United Nations (UN) group plans to investigate the incident.

Lawyer Bobby DiCello said the UN group, named the International Independent Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in Law Enforcement, has already reached out to the law firm.

DiCello added that the said group will appoint independent investigators after the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation concludes its inquiry into the shooting. After the independent examination, the team will make recommendations to federal and state governments.

One of the most important changes that can be implemented now, that we are calling upon the city to take care of immediately, is the implementation of dashcams, he said. A very simple and important change that would have provided clarity to this situation and to countless situations where Black Americans have been arrested and stopped at traffic stops.

The Walker family do not know the names of the eight officers who shot the victim. (Related: The Sentinel Report: StopHate.com founder David Sumrall says police brutality is over the top and people need to see it  Brighteon.TV.)

Find more stories like this at PoliceViolence.news.

Watch the below video about how to fight police brutality.

This video is from the Stefan Molyneux channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Televised brutality: Cops raid mans home for benefit of TV cameras.

Uvalde mayor sounds alarm, admits there was a cover-up in police response to shooting.

Law enforcement allowed Texas shooter to commit mass murder by BLOCKING parents from saving their children.

Anti-vaccine protesters in Amsterdam brutalized by law enforcement, police dogs.

Sources include:

100PercentFedup.com

ABCNews.go.com

TheGuardian.com

USAToday.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Three former employees of The Walt Disney Company filed a complaint alleging that the media giant rejected religious exemptions to Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination.

The plaintiffs  Barbara Andreas, Stephen Cribb and Adam Pajer  accused Disney of violating their religious liberty protections. They were terminated for declining to be injected with the COVID-19 vaccines, even though they filed exemption forms clearly stating that taking these injections would violate their deeply-held convictions.

The three plaintiffs, who hailed from Florida, indicated in their June 29 lawsuit that they first reported Disney to the office of Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody prior to their termination. They accused the media conglomerate of violating an edict by Gov. Ron DeSantis that banned employers from imposing vaccine mandates on their workers. Andreas, Cribb and Pajer subsequently pointed out that Disney fired them in retaliation to their complaints.

[While] Disney has brought wonder and magic into the lives and homes of millions, [it] had cast itself as the villain, the lawsuit stated, adding that a shadow has come over Disney during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the three, Disney announced to its entire U.S. cast a vaccinate or terminate policy on July 30, 2021. Employees were given a deadline of Sept. 30, 2021, to present proof of full vaccination  two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and Moderna or one dose of the Janssen vaccine  as a condition of continued employment.

The vaccine mandate initially applied to non-union employees as unionized Disney workers were able to exempt themselves through collective bargaining agreements. Disney later expanded this mandate to encompass all employees after negotiation with multiple staff unions.

The June 29 lawsuit also indicated safety protocols for COVID-19 Disney put in place in its parks. The media giant closed its amusement parks in California and Florida on March 15, 2020 and reopened four months later. These precautions involved social distancing for cast members and guests, double masking and the use of face shields and goggles depending on proximity to guests.

Andreas, Cribb and Pajer are seeking damages for lost wages, employee benefits and lawyer fees  alongside a request for a jury trial.

Fired cast members fighting for health freedom

Earlier, the three plaintiffs announced their intent to sue Disney during a press conference in Kissimmee, Florida. They were accompanied by longtime Disney employee Nick Caturano and their respective attorneys. (Related: Cast members to sue Disney for its COVID-19 vaccinate or terminate mandate.)

Our lawsuit against these discriminatory practices will bring to light that the happiest place on earth has normalized blatant discrimination, terrorized families, threatened livelihoods and coerced permanent, medical decisions  injections that cannot be taken off at the end of a work day like a costume or pair of shoes, Caturano said during the press conference.

The plaintiffs asserted during the press conference that liberty is fragile and must be protected in the instance when mass fear is bred, adding: When human life is less important than your job, you know that society has a problem.

Caturano, who has been with the media giant for almost two decades, penned an open letter questioning Disneys decision to make COVID-19 vaccination compulsory.

When the vaccines were announced, I was skeptical about taking something that had no long-term data and was amazed at how quickly everyone claimed it was safe and effective. My position  lets wait and see how this plays out  seemed a reasonable position to take. I also respected and understood why many of my neighbors, friends and family members decided to get vaccinated, he wrote.

We were all hopeful for anything that would work. But unfortunately, its evident that this vaccine and the people in charge of protecting Americans health and freedom have failed miserably, Caturano concluded his letter.

Watch Nick Caturano below discussing his fight against Disneys vaccine mandates on Lawfare with Tom Renz.

This video is from the BrighteonTV channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Vaccinated employees test POSITIVE: Disneys first test cruise delayed because of inconsistent coronavirus tests.

Magic Kingdom of TYRANNY: Disney now ARRESTING its own guests who refuse covid temperature checks.

Disney World employee talks about fighting vaccine mandates with Tom Renz  Brighteon.TV.

Disney goes full authoritarian, demands mask obedience even while youre walking and eating.

Sources include:

LifeSiteNews.com

WBTW.com

UncoverDC.com

GoofyVaccine.com

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Two former female-to-male (FTM) trans teens expressed regret over the gender reassignment procedures they underwent while still young. The two detransitioners expressed hope that their stories will dissuade others from making decisions that will have irreversible and lifelong effects.

Helena Kerschner

Helena Kerschner from Cincinnati, Ohio first experienced gender dysphoria at age 14. A falling-out with friends at school led her to find an online community on Tumblr that welcomed her. Transgender activism blogs on the platform drove her to an FTM transition procedure.

I was going through a period where I was just really isolated at school, so I turned to the internet, she recounted. My dysphoria was definitely triggered by this online community. I never thought about my gender or had a problem with being a girl before going on Tumblr.

A trip to Planned Parenthood when she turned 18, which culminated in a testosterone prescription, kick-started her FTM transition. According to Kerschner, a nurse practitioner gave her four times the typical starting dose of testosterone  without ever seeing a doctor. But the procedure had serious consequences, as she experienced emotional instability that ended with two hospitalizations for self-harm.

Kerschner realized while in the hospital that her decision to undergo FTM transition was a mistake, leading her to detransition at 19 years old.

I just came to the conclusion that I was born in the wrong body and that all my problems in life would be solved if I transitioned. I saw a montage of photos of me, and when I saw how much my face changed and how unhappy I looked, I realized  I shouldnt have done it, said the 23-year-old Kerschner.

Chloe Cole

California student Chloe Cole was initially exposed to a lot of LGBT content and activism on Instagram when she was 11 years old. She later came out to her parents at age 13, and she was given puberty blockers and testosterone that same age.

I saw how trans people online got an overwhelming amount of support, and the amount of praise they were getting really spoke to me because, at the time, I didnt really have a lot of friends of my own, Cole recounted.

She underwent a double mastectomy as part of the FTM transition process at age 15, which left a large scar across her chest. Less than a year later, she realized her mistake and decided to detransition at 16 years old. Despite this, the effects of the gender transition process remained  broad shoulders, a sharper jawline and increased body and facial hair.

Aside from her inability to breastfeed, fertility issues also hounded her. While she wants to have children someday, years of testosterone injections appear to have compromised the viability of her eggs.

Because my body didnt match beauty ideals, I started to wonder if there was something wrong with me. I thought I wasnt pretty enough to be a girl, so Id be better off as a boy, commented the 17-year-old Cole. (Related: Former FTM transgender teen supports Florida ban on using Medicaid funds for transgender medical interventions.)

Experts: Detransition trend reflects bigger issues

Brown University professor emeritus Dr. Lisa Littman pointed to the role of social media in convincing teenagers to undergo gender reassignment procedures. Her August 2018 study published in PLOS One, said parents of transgender children reported that along with the sudden or rapid onset of gender dysphoria, their child either had an increase in their social media/internet use or belonged to a friend group in which one or multiple friends became transgender-identified during a similar timeframe.

These findings, Littman said, raise the possibility of social and peer influences  as seen in Kerschners interaction with transgender groups on Tumblr and Coles exposure to LGBT content on Instagram.

In the past decade, there has been an increase in visibility, social media and user-generated online content about transgender issues and transition, which may act as a double-edged sword, Littman said.

Clinical psychologist Dr. Erica Anderson, a male-to-female (MTF) trans individual, expressed worry that physicians are pushing for medical intervention to address personal or mental health factors without proper restraint or oversight.

Im concerned that the rise of detransitioners is reflective of some young people who have progressed through their gender journey very, very quickly, said Anderson. When other issues important to a child are not fully addressed [prior to transition], then medical professionals are failing children.

Watch this video below that features a former MTF trans individual expressing regrets with the transition process.

This video is from the InfoWars channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

British whistleblowers reveal horrors that come following trans surgeries.

Trans psychologist who helps kids through gender transition now says its all gone too far.

Depopulation twofer: Youth suicide rates are HIGHER now that children are being pushed to go trans.

MUTILATION NATION: Transgender organization says children should be allowed to transition at age 14.

Sources include:

NYPost.com

Journals.PLOS.org

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Some 57,000 rail workers across the United States are slated to walk off the job on July 18 in protest against low wages and poor working conditions.

According to reports, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) voted by a resounding margin of 99.5 percent to authorize a strike if such action becomes legal and necessary to secure a contract worthy of their consideration.

As we reported previously, a strike like this threatens to halt all train movement across the country, which is about the last thing the already battered supply chain needs.

In a statement, BLET National President Dennis Pierce said that this is the first nationwide strike vote since 2011, but that it is necessary because railroads used and continue to use their economic strength to steamroll their employees, their customers and the nation, all for the sake of their bottom line, and it is clear that they have no intentions of changing.

In the third year of the national contract negotiation process, he added, the rail carriers have never made a contract proposal to our union that their employees, our members, would accept.

Even if Biden does intervene, that will only add another 60 days maximum of buffer time before a nationwide strike occurs anyway

The Railway Labor Act requires a 30-day cooling period, which is currently underway, since the two sides failed to reach an agreement in talks before the National Mediation Board. That cooling period ends on July 18.

Unless fake president Joe Biden intervenes by naming a Presidential Emergency Board to investigate the dispute and release recommendations for a settlement, Americas trains will stop in less than a week.

That would block a work stoppage for another 60 days  30 days while the board investigates and makes its report, and 30 days after the report issued, reports Trains.com about what a Biden intervention would accomplish.

The National Railway Labor Conference is expecting that Biden will name a board, and various business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are calling on the regime to do the same.

It is imperative that the administration act to prevent any disruption to Americas rail service, wrote Chamber CEO Suzanne Clark in a letter to Biden earlier this month.

In his own statement, BLETs Pierce criticized the railroads for using the Railway Labor Act to hide and avoid having to treat their employees fairly.

Rest assured, he added, our Brotherhood is now prepared to take the next steps in the process as we fight to reach a contract settlement that our members will accept.

In the comments at Trains.com, one person wrote that it is duplicitous of Suzanne Clark to have remained silent when railroad executives were cutting their operations to the bone in an effort to maximize profits.

On one hand, its great to maximize profits, even if that comes at the price of operational flexibility and customer service, this person further wrote. On the other hand, its a disruption when the folks doing the actual work with boots on the ground ask to be treated fairly.

Railroading is a very difficult lifestyle. Yes, lifestyle, because that it is what it is, 24/7/365-1/4. Without people accepting that lifestyle, railroading will come to a halt. That lifestyle becomes more onerous when the people doing the work are treated as a budget line item like motive power, rolling stock, rail, ties or OTM.

Someone else, responding to this, explained that the railroads have simply run out of people willing to work under such conditions, especially for low pay and poor benefits.

More related news about the disintegration of America can be found at Collapse.news.

Sources for this article include:

Trains.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Every person who left his immune system alone now has permanent immunity to the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19), a new study has found. But every person who got vaccinated now has acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, also known as AIDS.

Researchers in Qatar looked at data from the Qatari National digital-health information platform, which covers the countrys entire population. Nearly 90 percent of the country is expatriates from over 150 countries, so the data is expansive.

They determined from this data that everyone in the country who tested positive for covid and later recovered still has the same amount of immunity to the disease. Not even one percent of their natural immunity waned.

Conversely, everyone in the country who took the jabs like Tony Fauci and Rochelle Walensky told them to is now in a developing state of immune degradation. Over time, the fully vaccinated, as they call them, are losing their ability to fight off any kind of disease, including covid.

The paper in its entirety is available for viewing and analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

So natural immunity provides non waning 97.3% long term protection against severe, critical or fatal infection for at least 14 months and by extrapolation  indefinitely, reported Expose News, which analyzed the findings.

Whereas mRNA vaccine immunity wanes to 55.6% at some time after 7 months. Perhaps around 12 months?

Theres a reason why nobody in the industry wants to talk about vaccine effectiveness after six months

The new findings corroborate with earlier ones concerning the development of vaccine-induced AIDS, or VAIDS, in people who take the jabs.

It appears that the more people get injected for the Chinese Virus, the worse off their immune systems become at fighting it off. Meanwhile, those who skipped the jabs are generally in good health with normal, fully functioning immunity.

The Expose, which focuses primarily on data out of the United Kingdom, has been saying for a while now that the fully jabbed are more prone to getting sick and dying while the unvaccinated have long since moved on from all the covid hysteria. This new Qatari paper only further supports that narrative.

Most of the scrutiny for the jabs, which is slim to begin with, only looks at their immediate impact. If a person seems fine in the days or weeks following injection, then they are declared to be a success  but what about the effects after, say, six months?

Nobody seems to want to talk about that because the data almost universally shows that vaccine effectiveness quickly turns negative. This means that over time, immune function wanes to the point that boosters are needed in order for a person to continue living.

Early warnings about VAIDS were shrugged off as a wild conspiracy theory, but now it is becoming clear that fully jabbed people have to continue getting jabbed if they want to live  otherwise there is a good chance that they will die upon exposure to anything, including the common cold.

The timeline for immune degradation will vary from person to person, but once it runs its course it seems to be game over for those who believed Fauci and Walensky and obeyed their commands.

We predicted in October of 2021 that vaccinated people would have VAIDS by the end of the year, the Expose says. We deduced that from the 5% increase in initial infection rates in the doubly vaccinated every week compared to the unvaccinated.

The results of this type of VAIDS have been these ridiculous surges in Covid19 infections right in the middle of summer when people do not normally get the flu. What the Qatari data shows, and what any trained virologist or immunologist is taught ab initio, is that acquired immunity does not wane (other than through HIV or some immune disorder).

The latest news about Fauci Flu shots can be found at ChemicalViolence.com.

Sources for this article include:

Expose-News.com

NEJM.org

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) The world is getting closer than it has since the early 1960s to a full-scale nuclear war that would lead to the end of all life on our planet.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted in a statement earlier this week that the United States and its NATO allies are now teetering on the edge of war with her country as it is, and if something were to jump off, at least some U.S. officials believe that the conflict will involve nuclear weapons.

After provoking an escalation of the Ukrainian crisis and unleashing a violent hybrid confrontation with Russia, Washington and its allies are dangerously teetering on the brink of an open military confrontation with our country, which means a direct armed conflict between nuclear powers. Clearly, such a confrontation would be fraught with nuclear escalation, she said in a statement, which was published by Russian news agency Tass.

She went on to blast what she claimed were Japanese attempts to portray Russia as having made nuclear threats in the recent past.

It is unacceptable to try to distort the logic of deterrence, which is what Russias official statements on nuclear issues are based on, for propaganda reasons, as well as to depict us as a country threatening to use nuclear weapons, she said.

Zakharova noted further that the tone and focus of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishidas comments regarding nuclear weapons were confusing.

We have taken note of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishidas recent anti-Russian remarks, including his controversial statements on the nuclear weapons issue. Their focus and tone are puzzling, she said.

In particular, in order to justify the move to choose Hiroshima as the host city of a G7 summit, a remark was made that there was no better alternative to the city in a situation where Russias use of nuclear weapons and nuclear threats are becoming a reality, her statement continued.

Russia and Japan have a long-simmering disagreement over islands currently occupied by the former.

The two countries have been locked in a territorial dispute over a group of islands known as the southern Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan for more than 75 years. The Soviet Union seized the disputed islands in the final days of World War II, expelling thousands of Japanese residents, Bloomberg News reported recently.

The Northern Territories are inherent territories of Japan that are currently under illegal occupation by Russia, the Japanese foreign ministry said in a report, which was published in April on its website. The inherent territories wording had also been absent from the so-called blue book since 2011, the ministry said in an email, according to Bloomberg.

Last month, Moscow suspended a fishing deal with Tokyo after the Russian government claimed the Japanese failed to make payments under the agreement, Al Jazeera reported.

In the current situation, we are forced to suspend the implementation of the 1998 Agreement until the Japanese side fulfills all its financial obligations, Zakharova said in a statement at the time.

Meanwhile, some U.S. officials obviously believe that a nuclear exchange is becoming increasingly possible. New York City out of the blue published a video explaining to residents what to do and how to respond to a nuclear attack earlier this week.

As reported by The Associated Press:

Released this week by the citys emergency management agency, the 90-second video advises citizens to stay indoors and wash off any radioactive dust or ash. It opens on a computer-generated street, devoid of life. Damaged skyscrapers can be seen in the background.

Looking into the camera, a spokesperson says: So theres been a nuclear attack. Dont ask me how or why. Just know that the big one has hit.

Many New Yorkers were left asking, Why now?

NYC Emergency Management Deputy Commissioner Christina Ferrell claimed that the video was not linked to any specific threats, and that it was released to simply raise awareness for a potentiality that most Americans (and New Yorkers, apparently) havent given a lot of consideration.

Theres no overarching reason why this is the time we sent this out, Farrell told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Its just one tool in the toolbox to be prepared in the 21st century.

I dont know if theres ever the perfect moment to talk about nuclear preparedness, she added.

Sources include:

News.Yahoo.com

Tass.com

Bloomberg.com

YouTube.com
Aerial photo taken on Aug 23, 2021 shows the scenery of Saihanba forest farm in North China's Hebei province. [Photo/Xinhua]

China's forest and grassland chiefs, who cover nearly all provincial regions, have helped curb illegal damage to forests and mitigate natural disasters like fire, according to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

Forest and grassland chiefs are tasked with looking after different tracts of forest or grassland across the country.

Xu Jide, head of the administration's resources department, told a news conference on Wednesday China now has nearly 1.2 million forest or grassland chiefs.

With the aid of their efforts, last year the number of nationwide administrative cases in forests or grasslands dropped by 21 percent year-on-year. The number of forest fires dropped by 47 percent and the area of damaged forests decreased by 50 percent, he said.

The chiefs have been appointed among leaders from governments and Party committees at all levels who hold both duties as officials and chiefs, he said.

In some provinces, cooperative work systems have been set up so that chiefs can work with procurators and police to tackle issues faced by forests and grasslands, he added.

In 2017, Anhui was the first province to start a trial of the role of forest chief, which was later rolled out across the country.

In 2020, a guideline to implement the forest chief program nationwide issued by the general offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council urged that the program should be fully rolled out by the middle of this year.

"The goal has been achieved in due time," Xu said.

"And over the years, local governments have done a lot to allocate workforces, ensure funds, build smart management platforms and make favorable policies," he said.

Indicators measuring the performance of forest chiefs include forest coverage, forest stock volume, comprehensive vegetation coverage of grassland and area of desertified land restored, while specific targets are tailored in accordance with local conditions, according to the administration.

Xinhua contributed to this story.
(Natural News) Apparently unfazed by the U.S. Supreme Courts recent decision striking down a New York law that put unconstitutional restrictions on residents seeking to obtain a concealed carry permit, Senate Democrats are moving to double down on the partys war against the Second Amendment.

According to Law Enforcement Today, Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Bob Menendez of New Jersey and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut have introduced a measure that would amend Chapter 44 of Title 18, U.S. Code in a way that would gut the Americans constitutionally protected and largely unfettered right to own guns.

In our nation, gun violence has become eerily routine, and weve done little to stop the horrific mass shootings that devastate the lives of victims and their loved ones, said Booker in a statement on his Senate website.

Accepting this shameful status quo will continue to lead to deadly consequences. We need to adopt proven, common-sense measures that will address the scourge of gun violence and make our communities safer. This bill moves us in the right direction and is based on a simple concept  if you need a license to drive a car, you should need one to buy and possess a gun, he added.

Except, modes of transportation were not mentioned in the Constitution, but our founding document specifically protects the right to keep and bear arms. Rather, the founders believed such issues such as obtaining a license to ride a horse would be left to the states and thats what the Tenth Amendment deals with.

According to a draft of the legislation, which was published by POLITICO, Americans would be subjected to the whims of the U.S. attorney general, in this case the overtly politicized Merrick Garland, by requiring his office to write rules and guidelines based on the language of the legislation.

Those guidelines are less about procedure and more about restriction and limiting the absolute freedom provided by the Second Amendment, Law Enforcement Today reported.

In a tweet, Gun Owners of America said the measure calls for written tests, fingerprinting and a minimum age of 21 for all gun purchases.

RT if you agree: these requirements are a direct attack on the Second Amendment and are blatantly unconstitutional: -Written tests

-Fingerprinting

-Minimum age of 21 We will fight back. https://t.co/YEm2tQjVEd  Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) May 19, 2022

Among the requirements  a federal firearms license for everyone who wishes to purchase a single gun. Current law requires that new gun purchases be facilitated through someone who has that license, Law Enforcement Today reported, adding that the change means every gun purchaser would also have to obtain a Federal Firearms License (FFL).

The Federal Firearms Licensing Act begins: IN GENERAL.Except as provided in subsection (d), it shall be unlawful for any individual to purchase or receive a firearm unless the individual has a valid Federal firearm license.

No FFL? Well, then under this measure, you cant buy a gun, ever.

To obtain that license, should the bill become law, an individual would have to apply, submitting to all requirements and fee structures, the outlet reports, going on to list those requirements: complete firearms safety training, which will include written exams to demonstrate knowledge of applicable firearms laws and hands-on testing, to include firing testing to demonstrate proficiency and accuracy; complete background and criminal history investigations; proof of identity; fingerprints as part of background; all necessary qualifying information of the intended gun purchase, to include make, model, serial number and the identity of the individual selling the gun.

But the requirements get even more stringent.

These licenses will either be approved or denied within 30 days of their submission. Once you obtain the license, you must make your gun purchase within 30 days of the issue date of the license. If you receive the notification of issuance via mail, you will have less than the prescribed timeframe, Law Enforcement Today added.

But the 30 days begins the day the letter is sent. If you dont get it for a week to 10 days, which is common for government agencies, you will have much less than 30 days to buy your gun.

The license is for five years, but only one gun could be bought within that timeframe. And the AG could deny those FFLs for a whole range of reasons.

This measure is patently unconstitutional, and if by some chance it passes, it will be immediately challenged in court  successfully.

Sources include:

NaturalNews.com

LawEnforcementToday.com

Booker.Senate.gov
(Natural News) The European Unions regulator for medicines added severe allergic reaction to the list of side effects caused by the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine from Novavax.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said in a July 14 update: The product information of [the] Nuvaxovid [vaccine] will be updated with severe allergic reaction and unusual or decreased feeling in the skin as new side effects. It added that following the assessment of the EMAs Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee, anaphylaxis (severe allergic reaction) will be included in the EU product information as a side effect of Nuvaxovid.

According to the EMA, a few cases of anaphylaxis linked to the Novavax shot were reported  but the regulator refused to disclose the actual figure.

Generally, cases reported spontaneously by a patient or healthcare professional concern suspected side effects  i.e. medical events that have been observed after vaccination  but which are not necessarily related to or caused by the vaccine.

The Epoch Times contacted the Maryland-based vaccine maker for comment, but did not receive a response as of writing.

According to The COVID Blog, the Novavax sub-unit protein vaccine delivers the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein using an insect virus. It also utilizes saponin from the soap bark tree (Quillaja saponaria) native to South America to trigger an immune response in the body.

FDA grants EUA for the Novavax vaccine despite cardiac inflammation warning

Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency use authorization (EUA) to the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine on July 13.

Authorizing an additional vaccine expands the available vaccine options for the prevention of COVID-19, including the most severe outcomes that can occur such as hospitalization and death, FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said in a statement. He added that the EUA gives people another vaccine choice that meets the agencys rigorous standards for safety, effectiveness and manufacturing quality.

The July 13 EUA issued by the regulator permitted the use of the two-dose vaccine, with an interval of several weeks, on adults aged 18 and up. In petitioning the FDA for an EUA, Novavax said it would market its vaccine to individuals who did not want to get the COVID-19 vaccines already authorized in the United States. Currently, the two-dose mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna and the single-dose adenoviral vector vaccine from Johnson & Johnson are authorized for use.

The vaccines product label in the U.S. warned against injecting it to people with a history of allergic reactions to any of its components. But even before it was granted EUA, staffers at the FDA pointed out that the vaccine increased the risk of myocarditis. (Related: FDA warns of CARDIAC INFLAMMATION risk linked to the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine.)

In documents released June 3, staff members at the regulator cited four events of myocarditis  inflammation of the heart muscle  that occurred during clinical trials of the vaccine. Novavax conducted trials of its sub-unit protein vaccine on almost 30,000 patients between December 2020 and September 2021.

These events raise the concern for a causal association with this vaccine, similar to the association documents with mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, they noted.

Data from passive surveillance during post-authorization use in other countries also indicate a higher than expected rate of myocarditis and pericarditis [heart lining inflammation]  associated with the vaccine. Further evaluation is needed to inform the risk of myocarditis and pericarditis, and their outcomes, as additional data emerge over time.

Watch the video below as Dr. Jane Ruby warns against the dangers of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine.

This video is from the Truth or Consequences channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

IMPOSSIBLE SCIENCE: Novavax says it will have a new vaccine ready in just two weeks for the Omicron variant, which appeared just last week.

Operation Warp Speed gives $1.6 billion in taxpayer funding to Novavax for coronavirus vaccines.

3 Aussie women experience SERIOUS REACTIONS after getting Novavax COVID shot.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

EMA.Europa.eu [PDF]

TheCOVIDBlog.com

FDA.gov 1

FDA.gov 2

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) War is a very scary concept, and most people are righteously terrified of nuclear bombs and missiles that can destroy entire nations of people in one fell swoop. Weapons of mass destruction are available to many countries around the globe, and have been used to kill and maim millions of people, mostly civilians, with no choice in the matter. What most people do not realize is that vaccines are biological weapons of mass destruction, used to kill and maim millions of people around the globe on a regular basis, and right now more than ever. Whats worse is that people DO have the choice to not be injected with these WMDs, yet still, they choose to participate in their own demise. Why? One simple answer: Misinformation.

Weapons of Mass Destruction: Nuclear bombs, ballistic missiles, and weaponized vaccines

Welcome to the VACCINE WARS of 2022, where the majority of civilians in America have no clue they are under full-scale attack by the politicians in Washington DC who are in cahoots with the highly corrupt FDA, CDC, and WHO. The vaccine industrial complex has been in existence for nearly a century, and the carnage is greater than every war added together, including both World Wars, Vietnam, Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Natural health advocates are on the front lines right now, getting blood on their hands in the fight against the allopathic adversaries of the evil tri-fecta (FDA, CDC, WHO). Whistleblowers, including doctors, scientists and journalists, are making headway exposing the vaccines as the WMDs they really are, but virus mania has brainwashed over 270 million Americans into submission, and the bodies are already stacking up.

From Hitlers gas chambers to the CDCs gene therapy suicide injections

Just as Adolf Hitler used propaganda to persuade and coerce millions of Germans into believing in his war dogma, the communist Biden Regime and the US regulatory agencies have coerced 270 million Americans into accepting the use of WMDs on themselves, in the fight against the pandemic. Its a slow walk into the gas chambers, but instead of pesticides infesting the lungs, its spike protein prions infesting the vascular system.

Thanks to a century-old, deep-seeded misinformation campaign full of fear-mongering propaganda, two-thirds of Americans are supporting a war that kills themselves, instead of the (fake) enemy they think is out there somewhere (floating around as viral particles). Its like an entire nation of soldiers falling on their own swords in an effort to protect themselves and their families. At least 750,000 Americans have already died in the vaccine wars, as they volunteered to be experimental guinea pigs for Big Pharma.

Vaccines are weapons of mass destruction, causing heart attacks, strokes, cancer, autism, myocarditis, blood clots, and sudden adult death syndrome. The ammunition is either a payload of spike proteins (or mRNAautomatic weapons that never stop firing bullets that mimic virus particles) that invade the entire blood supply, causing auto-immune destruction and a wave of sicknesses, disorders, and disease.

Vaccine Wars of 2022 and Beyond: Top 7 ways American sheeple have been manipulated into fighting for their own demise

#1. Sheeple have been brainwashed by the safe and effective mantra thats a bold-faced lie, but has been repeated so many times by the CDC and MSM that most people believe it.

#2. Because the homeopathic theory of vaccines works, they dont suspect that the US government and CDC have turned them into bioweapons for population reduction.

#3. People believe, and dont question the establishment, because theyre all already dumbed down enough by the heavy metal toxins in vaccines, fluoride in tap water and pesticides in conventional produce and grains.

#4. People go along because theyre terrified by germs, viruses, bacteria and pathogens that are all part of the virus mania propaganda pandemic.

#5. Fake and faulty clinical trials by Big Pharma are published and easy to find in Google.

#6. Mainstream media, including the TV, newspaper, shill websites and thousands of quack medical doctors and nurses, constantly and fervently recommend them.

#7. People believe because the FDA approves them (or says theyre okay for (EUA) emergency use authorization).

Bookmark Vaccines.news to your favorite independent websites for updates on experimental vaccines that cause blood clots, myocarditis and severe, chronic inflammation.

Sources for this article include:

TruthComesToLight.com

Pandemic.news

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), urged people to wear face masks once more amid a purported rise in Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) infections.

He defended the necessity of face coverings against COVID-19 in public remarks delivered July 12, during the WHOs COVID-19 media briefing that day. As transmission and hospitalization [rates] rise, governments must also deploy tried and tested measures like masking, improved ventilation and test-and-treat protocols, said Tedros, adding that diagnostics, treatments and vaccines are not being deployed effectively.

There is a major disconnect in COVID-19 risk perception between scientific communities, political leaders and the general public, according to the WHO head. Thus, he acknowledged the dual challenge of communicating risk and building community trust in health tools and public health social measures like masking, distancing and ventilation.

Tedros call for re-imposing mask mandates stemmed from his apparent concern about the continued rise of COVID-19 cases and deaths. These, he mentioned, put further pressure on stretched health systems and health workers.

Epidemiologist and former Trump administration advisor Dr. Paul Alexander blasted Tedros in a Substack post. He wrote: Does [Tedros] not know the clear evidence that the masks never worked and will never work for this respiratory virus?

Masks are so very ineffective  and [are] actually harmful, especially to our children. We are damaging our children and will continue to damage their developing innate immune systems with these insane, specious, illogical, irrational, absurd, non-sensical corrupted unsound COVID-19 policies.

Alexander added that nothing worked of the many COVID-19 measures put in place by governments worldwide.

Not one lockdown, school closure, mask mandate, business closure, nothing. They all failed. All of our governments failed  and all they did was [make] money, [steal] emergency powers and [harm] us.

Ironically, Tedros was photographed during the G7 Summit weeks prior  devoid of a face mask and clearly disregarding physical distancing protocols, in a clear case of rules for thee, but not for me. (Related: Florida governor calls out hypocrisy of elites who flout mask mandates while insisting those around them wear masks.)

Tedros also pushing for more vaccines

The WHO director-general also took the opportunity to promote vaccines during the July 12 COVID-19 media briefing.

Vaccines have saved millions of lives, said Tedros. Its important for governments to focus on boosting those most at-risk communities, finding the unvaccinated so as to build up the wall of immunity toward the 70 percent vaccination target.

During the G7 Summit where he was photographed without a face mask, Tedros warned that the one billion COVID-19 vaccine doses pledged by G7 leaders were too small for the 11 billion doses needed to vaccinate the world. He insisted that to truly end the pandemic, 70 percent of the worlds population must be injected with the vaccine.

Tedros continued that planning and tackling COVID-19 should also go hand-in-hand with vaccinating for killer diseases like measles, pneumonia and diarrhea. This endeavor, he remarked, is not a question of either-or as its possible to do both. He also urged the introduction of vaccines for malaria and HPV.

Alexander also slammed Tedros insistence on vaccination to end the pandemic in his Substack post, calling the health official a devil and a beast.

The epidemiologist wrote that Tedros, just like Dr. Rochelle Walensky of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha, knows full well that the vaccine is actually responsible for the pandemic. The shots, Alexander said, place sub-optimal immune pressure on the [SARS-CoV-2] spike protein, driving (the) emergence of variants and expanding the pandemic.

The pandemic will last 100 more years if this continues, warned Alexander.

Watch WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanon Ghebreyesus delivering his opening remarks at the July 12 media briefing below.

This video is from The Prisoner channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

WHO backtracks on coronavirus vaccines, admits they wont work.

Face masks offer no protection from the coronavirus to the people who wear them  study.

The WHO wants to push COVID-19 vaccines on billions of people as part of Accelerator program.

WORTHLESS MASKS: We always knew the masks were about control, not safety now weve been proven right.

Sources include:

InfoWars.com

WHO.int

PAlexander.Substack.com

Euronews.com

Brighteon.com
This picture taken on April 7, 2021, in Brest, western France, shows a fragment of the meteorite Erg Chech 002. - Scientists believe they have identified a meteorite formed in the first million years of our solar system, making it the oldest known meteor of volcanic origin. The space rock, which began its journey some 4.5 billion years ago, has already proved an "exceptional" witness to the building blocks of the planets. Known as Erg Chech 002, the meteorite was discovered in May 2020 by meteor hunters in the Algerian Sahara desert. It had rested undisturbed for "at least 100 years", according to a geochemist at France's Brest University. (Photo : Photo by FRED TANNEAU/AFP via Getty Images)

The world's earliest Martian meteorite was dubbed Black Beauty and discovered over 4.5 billion years ago, adding scientific proof that Mars was capable of ife.

The Oldest Martian Meteorite

The renowned giant asteroid discovered in Africa's western Sahara constituted component of a primeval barrier that held seas of liquid. A multinational committee has since established its precise location. They utilized a microprocessor to monitor its formation on the red planet's Terra Cimmeria-Sirenum region.

The site in the planet's southern pole features multiple valleys that might possibly be formed by running streams. Black Beauty has a higher water content than comparable Martian meteorites.

Moreover, the meteorite Black Beauty is decided to name upon Karratha, a metropolitan area in Western Australia's Pilbara region known for its amazingly maintained geological structures.

In his interview, principal investigator Dr. Anthony Lagain of Curtin University in Perth, Australia told Science Alert that during the first period, experts have finally recognized the geomorphological background of the sole brecciated Martian specimen accessible on Earth.

The expert panel further wants NASA to actively pursue the region surrounding Karratha Crater as a potential Mars crash premises. Tenacity arrived on Christmas Day and is actively searching for preceding evidence of life.

Discovering the area where 'Black Beauty' space rock emanates is essential since it encompasses the ancient Martian shards ever unearthed, dating back 4.48 billion years, and it demonstrates resemblances among Mars' extremely old crust, dating back 4.53 billion years, and todays modern Earth land masses, the Newsweek reported.

The location we pinpoint as the genesis of this one-of-a-kind Martian meteorite specimen is a real opening in to oldest known surroundings of the planetary systems, along with Earth, which our planet forfeited due to geological processes and weathering.

The discovery, published in the journal Nature Communications, provides previously unknown information on the Black Beauty, also referred academically as NWA 7034.

It is the sole brecciated Martian specimen on the planet, which means it is made up of directional shards of numerous boulders solidified altogether. All the others are made up of mono forms.

Also read: Scientists Refute Claims of Huge Ozone Hole Over the Tropics

Martian Meteorite from 4.5 Billion Years Ago





Roughly 90 million affect depressions were recognized using a computer vision or AI (artificial intelligence) software. The expiratory site of Black Beauty was discovered by assessing thousands of high-resolution photographs from various Mars expeditions.

While as to The Guardian, the Karratha crater was established 5 to 10 billion years earlier when an asteroid collided with Mars. It launched a portion of antiquity Martian crust into earth orbit, where it collapsed into the African wilderness.

In 2011, the fragments of Black Beauty were found in Western Sahara, Africa. It was created when both the Earth's and Mars' croutons were still fresh.

Scientists may therefore examine the development of the two planetary systems now that they grasp the origin. The method will be used to determine the origin of other Martian meteorites as well as billions of surface features on Mercury as well as the Moon.

It lays the groundwork for the discovery of the discharge sites of additional Martian meteorites, allowing for the fullest comprehensive study of the Red Planet's earth record. Far over 300 Martian meteorites were discovered on Earth.

While according to co-author Professor Gretchen Benedix of Curtin University researchers too are extending the technique which was employed to determine Black Beauty's location of expulsion from Mars to unveil similar mysteries from the Moon and Mercury.

This will enable to disentangle their natural background and respond lingering queries that will aid prospective Planetary System exploration including the Artemis program, which aims to dispatch individuals to the Moon by the final moment of the decade, or the BepiColombo mission, which will orbit Mercury in 2025.

As per SWNS, Black Beauty is around 11 ounces and far less than 2 inches in length. It is the property of a local businessman and is worth up to $118,900.

Related article: Chinese Space Sail to Remove Debris from the Earth's Orbit
HITHADHOO, MALDIVES - DECEMBER 14: The Indian Ocean laps against Eedhigali Kilhi wetlands on December 14, 2019 in Hithadhoo, Maldives. The neighbouring Koattey and Eydhigali Kilhi wetlands are among the largest wetlands in the Maldives and have become integral to the countrys EU and Australia-funded Climate Change Adaptation Project to preserve and manage the wetlands and utilise them as a natural defence against floods and rising seas. The wetlands can store several tens of million cubic meters of water, act as barriers against rising sea levels and flooding caused by extreme weather events, they also contribute to waste water management, groundwater recharge, freshwater storage, and purify water that flows through their systems. Plants found here are critical in controlling erosion. Along with coral reefs, wetlands are the primary defence that a small island nation like the Maldives has against climate change. (Photo : Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

A sailboat staff's description of a bizarre white sea in 2019 is now being publicly verified and validated by aerial photos.

Satellite Imagery of the 'White Sea'

Staff workers aboard the Ganesha superyacht reported gazing out to ocean in the summer of 2019 and suddenly observed the ocean had gone white, nearly to the extent where they appeared to be cruising through ice, The Daily Mail reported.

As per recording of occurrences released in PNAS and the statement of once crewman, neither the hue and degree of the light was equivalent to glow-in-the-dark stars/stickers, or some sees that had luminous sections on the hands, a very gentle illumination that was pleasant on the eyesight.

The bright light popped up to radiate by about 30 feet below the ocean top, according to the commanding officer of the sail boat. So-called "milky seas" are an extremely uncommon occurrence that had heretofore been only explained by hearsay from ocean explorers.

Moreover, Steven Miller, the study's writer and a university lecturer of atmospheric science at Colorado State University claimed that it is easy to assume that hardly a bunch of individuals alive today even saw one. As the occurrent is not really very prevalent since they're not generally proximate to coast, so you must be in the suitable location at the perfect moment.

The Ganesha team was able to obtain several extremely low-quality photographs of the milky sea phenomena, that are used to confirm the narrative with aerial photographs collected of the Java Sea, south of Indonesia, over the corresponding timeframe, and which Miller published in the journal Nature in 2021.

The milky waters spanned 39,000 square kilometers in these photos. Milky seas are created by uncommon light - producing microorganisms that light white rather than blue or green.

Prevailing scientists theorize as shown in National Geographics that this remarkable brightness is caused by an epiphytic connection among bioluminescent bacteria and an organism of microalgal species conveying on a global level, with the bioluminescent reactions being stimulated when a predefined fertility rate threshold or quorum is attained.

Oddly, when the Ganesha staff got a pail data set of the milky ocean brine and mixed it thoroughly, the illumination became darker, as per the evidence compiled in PNAS. When other emission spectra are impeded, the bright light normally becomes brighter.

Also read: Strange Aquatic Creature from 518 Million Years Ago Could be the Relative of the Earliest Known Vertebrate

How the Sea Turned White

According to The Guardian, David Gruber, a professor of biology at City University of New York states that it adds a different collection of nutritional and crosswinds for this to result in a substantial bioluminescent slick lingering night.

Signaling pathway is the process by which these bioluminescent microbes transform on their bioluminescence just upon reaching a definite cell concentration.

The Milky Seas or Burning Seas are the consequence of trillions upon trillions of luminescent microbes, every cell transmitting a comparatively soft light. However, when they are united, their light is observed from satellite via sensor networks, and sprouts of 15,000 square kilometers have been observed.

The issue of why the white light seems to act in the reverse way as bioluminescence has yet to be answered; one hypothesis is that the phytoplankton genus may have a magnesium protective layer, causing the glow to look whiter.

"It could be [Emiliania huxleyi]," Jan Geert Hiddink, senior lecturer at Bangor University's School of Ocean Sciences, informed Newsweek. "It has a calcareous exterior, which appears white."

In any case, the fact that milky oceans can be detected by aerial photographs implies that researching and resolving their secrets will be simpler in the foreseeable.

Related article: Radioactive Material in Pacific Ocean Corals Could Mark New Epoch
Jim Dale, a senior meteorologist with the British Weather Services, told Express.co.uk that only residents in the UK's north and northwest will feel the mild reprieve.

Locations including Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, and Merseyside are included in this.

However, Dale was unable to provide particular timeframes owing to the dispersed and minor nature of the rains.

He added that citizens will only get sporadic rains in the north and northwest any time today.

Showers in UK

According to weather projections, rain may spread south from Scotland and hit places like Newcastle by lunchtime, as per Express.

By around 6 o'clock, sporadic showers may move further west, over the Lake District.

The scenario seems to persist throughout tomorrow, with some rain beginning to fall around the north east coast by 3 p.m.

This week's high temperatures, which will reach the mid-20s to early-30s, have caused a heat health advisory to be issued for the majority of the nation.

However, the scenario is expected to deteriorate by Sunday, July 17, when temperatures rise into the mid-30s, creating a serious risk to the populace.

An amber weather warning for excessive heat will cover much of the UK, including the north, for three days.

The western and northern Isles of Scotland may be the exception, according to Met Office deputy chief meteorologist Dan Harris, where maximum temperatures have been well above normal practically elsewhere in the UK this week.

The following several days will see temperatures that are closer to normal and locally very mild before the warm weather gradually picks back up this weekend, perhaps peaking early next week.

Also Read: UK Weather Prediction: A Scorching 23-Degree Heat Wave Strikes Today, as Brits Suffer Horrific Record Heatwaves This Summer

Warm weather will experience after

The highest temperature ever officially recorded in Britain was 38.7 degrees Celsius (101.6 degrees Fahrenheit) on July 25, 2019, and the likelihood that record-breaking temperatures wouldn't be set there seemed so remote that the Royal Meteorological Society recently made a worst-case scenario prediction.

The agency stated last month that temperatures in the UK had never topped 40 Celsius since records have been kept.

However, around the end of June 2022, for the first time ever, weather prediction models began to indicate that it may occur in mid-July.

The Met Office, Britain's national meteorological agency, warned on Wednesday that while some computer models indicated temperatures may reach the 40 Celsius threshold, more likely scenarios indicated temperatures that were a little lower but still quite high.

Numerous cities in eastern and southern China were expected to see temperatures that were higher than 104 degrees Fahrenheit this week.

High heat and drought are wreaking havoc on Italy, forcing water restrictions.

The sweltering heat is a reflection of a global trend of more frequent extreme weather events brought on by climate change.

the UK's hottest recorded temperatures. likely to arise when air masses from continental Europe or North Africa, as they will be this weekend, impact our weather, according to a statement from Dr. Mark McCarthy, director of the Met Office National Climate Information Centre.

Related article: Sunny Weather Expected for Queen's Platinum Jubilee Weekend in UK
Some North American bird species have not entirely changed their ranges in response to current climate change.

The habitats of these birds have gotten increasingly disconnected from their ideal climatic conditions, while other aspects of the ecosystem have become more restrictive.

This tendency of climate decoupling is especially evident for habitat specialists and decreasing species.

These are the findings of research published in Nature Ecology & Evolution by the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Leipzig University, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), and the Doana Biological Station.

Climate decoupling caused by continuing climate change may put additional strain on many bird species and accelerate population reductions.

North American bird adjustment to changing climate

Plants and animals face a multitude of issues as a result of climate change. For example, when the climate changes, many species' acceptable climatic circumstances vary, and others may perish entirely, as per ScienceDaily.

This is likely to worsen when the climate changes in tandem with some other human-caused changes, including land usage for agriculture or other purposes.

Climate decoupling occurs when there is a growing divergence here between climatic conditions favorable for a given species and its abundances throughout time.

A research team led by iDiv, Leipzig University, and MLU examined the best available evidence on bird population changes over time from the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS), and discovered that at least 30 of 114 species of North American birds, or 26%, have become less well adapted to their climate over the last 30 years.

This means that throughout time, their distributions and abundances became progressively detached from climate.

The causes may range depending on the species.

Some animals may choose to stay in regions where they have previously resided.

Meanwhile, some species may be hampered by climate-independent resources and habitats.

Furthermore, certain species may be diminishing as a result of global changes and hence unable to adapt to changing climate.

Around 10% of the species investigated showed positive time trends in climate matching, indicating that they were more related to climate through time.

There was less support for substantial temporal changes in climate matching for the other species, suggesting that the adjustment of their abundances and ranges to climate remained more stable across time.

Climate decoupling was found to be more common among habitat specialists than among generalists, according to the researchers.

In increasingly altered environments, these specialists may have a more difficult time locating the proper mix of acceptable habitat and climate conditions.

Also Read: Large Mammals Can Play a Major Role in Reducing Effects of Climate Change

Animal adaptation we can learn

According to Thor Hanson, a biologist, in this period of fast change, he believed that generalists with adaptable habits and the ability to roll with the punches will thrive.

They have a significant advantage over specialized species that only perform one thing, as per Brightly.

Since specialized species cannot adapt as easily as generic ones, they become susceptible. However, there is an advantage to determining which species are endangered: experts can devise strategies to assist them.

According to Hanson, humans, like animals, adapt to changes in the environment.

Consider the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2004.

The city and the citizens who remained after the disaster worked hard to adjust to life in a hurricane-prone area. For protection, they constructed a new seawall.

However, migration is another aspect of nature, and many New Orleans citizens fled the city because the environment wasn't any longer acceptable to them.

Read More: Animal Adaptation: Lizards Adjust For Arid, Limited Environment
The Caribbean's fire corals have a unique survival mechanism that can endure even if the rest of the reef is destroyed due to hurricanes, diseases, and global warming.

Fire corals can be a scuba diver's worst nightmare. An unintentional bump against a fire coral can be excruciatingly painful. However, they might also contribute to the preservation of Caribbean reefs, which are under threat from hurricanes, disease, global warming, and an excess of algae.

According to a long-term study, fire corals (Millepora) are flourishing there even as other corals are dying off. This could help preserve some of the 3D environment that makes reefs such excellent homes for fish and other organisms.

Colleen Bove, a marine ecologist at Boston University, says that Because they can withstand these stresses, fire corals are going to be crucial habitat providers. Bove was not a part of the project.

Peter Edmunds started conducting annual surveys of the marine life off St. John, one of the U.S. Virgin Islands, thirty years ago. A 20-meter transect along a reef under the ocean was marked out by a marine biologist from California State University, Northridge. He has taken pictures of the vegetation that grew there every summer, including a 40-meter expanded transect.

Edmunds has tracked how algae and different corals have fared through warming sea temperatures, hurricanes, and other environmental stresses by looking at the abundance of each organism in these "photo quadrats."

Caroline Dube, a marine biologist at Laval University who studies plasticity in Pacific fire coral, says that Edmunds has accomplished something truly amazing. Since coral reefs are experiencing so many disturbances, more needs to be done in this area.

Fire corals

Despite looking like typical stony corals, fire corals are closely related to jellyfish, which accounts for their painful sting. They can develop into "trees," sprouting upward with a stem and branches, or into sheets, expanding as a flat coating across rocks and other surfaces. Jeremy Jackson, an ocean biologist with the American Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, first suggested more than 40 years ago that fire corals would have an advantage as the Caribbean reefs were subjected to hurricanes and global warming. Now, Edmunds believes Jackson was correct.

Overall, Edmunds' long-term data shows that numerous species of macroalgae, which are multicellular algae, have taken over Caribbean reefs. However, Edmunds reports today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B that fire corals quickly invade and encrust surfaces if hurricanes or other factors decimate the macroalgae. To survive in confined spaces and provide an upright structure that other organisms can eat, live in, or use in other ways, fire coral sprouts into its branching tree form when the reef becomes overpopulated.

Read also: Great Barrier Reef Experienced Another Mass Bleaching Event for the Sixth Time

The corals occasionally lose their green algal partners and die as a result of abnormally warm water, allowing macroalgae to repopulate the area. The branches of the tree form are also lost during hurricanes. However, Edmunds discovered that the fire coral quickly resurfaces in one way or another. As a result, the abundance of this coral has been able to maintain itself and possibly even grow slightly.

According to Edmunds, the fire corals' stony coral friends don't do a great job of producing sheets and trees. Fire corals are therefore prepared to take over the shallow reefs in a world with frequent storms and fierce competition for space on the bottom.

Jackson expresses satisfaction in the fact that Edmunds' extraordinary tenacity allowed him to observe the ups and downs of fire coral dynamics. Sadly, Edmunds' data also indicate that other corals are becoming progressively more scarce. As a result of coral bleaching and marine heat waves, millepora might take their place.

Bad News for Reefs

Nikolaos Schizas, a marine scientist at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, cautions that because fire corals rarely form reefs that are meters high and wide, they might not be able to save reefs. Schizas emphasized the need to be reasonable about the scope of that potential.

Terry Hughes, a marine scientist from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, pointed out that although the fire corals were repeatedly destroyed by hurricanes and other disturbances, according to Edmunds' data, the fire corals will fare better than most other corals.

Related article: Ocean Burial: You Can Now Turn Into Corals and Help Combat Climate Change After Death
Reporter

Mary Schenk is a reporter covering police, courts and breaking news at The News-Gazette. Her email is mschenk@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@schenk).
White said he has served on the village board for three years. He said he has not decided if he will run for the office when a special election is held in nine months.
A study led by researchers from Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center has found that the addition of brentuximab vedotin to standard chemotherapy treatment improves overall survival in patients with Hodgkin Lymphoma, when compared to the current standard of chemotherapy alone. Results of the research were presented by Stephen Ansell, M.D., Ph.D., at the 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting (ASCO) in Chicago and were published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Dr. Ansell says that contrary to what was previously thought, research now shows that the selection of an initial therapy that includes brentuximab vedotin, has a positive impact on overall survival in patients with advanced stage Hodgkin lymphoma, regardless of other treatments administered later in the course of care.

Our randomized study showed that the addition of an antibody drug conjugate, brentuximab vedotin, to standard chemotherapy in patients with advanced stage classical Hodgkin lymphoma improved overall survival for patients with Hodgkin Lymphoma, when compared to patients who received standard chemotherapy alone." Dr. Stephen Ansell, M.D., Ph.D.

"Brentuximab plus AVD chemotherapy was previously reported to improve progression-free survival in patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma, so its impact on overall survival was not completely surprising," says Dr. Ansell. However, he says patients who relapse are often successfully treated with additional treatments so previous comparative studies of other drug combinations failed to show an overall survival benefit. "The impact on overall survival with brentuximab vedotin plus AVD chemotherapy is somewhat surprising but it confirms that the use of novel agents in the frontline treatment of patients with Hodgkin lymphoma has a long-term impact," says Dr. Ansell.

Dr. Ansell and his colleagues also evaluated long-term toxicities of brentuximab vedotin. They found that neuropathy from the addition of the drug to treatment was found to resolve over time. In addition, the number of subsequent pregnancies were not negatively impacted with the addition of the new agent. "Surprisingly, second malignancies including other lymphomas were less frequently seen in the brentuximab vedotin +AVD arm of the trial," says Dr. Ansell.
Integrating telephone-based smoking cessation and lung screening programs not only have the potential to maximize long-term health benefits, but they can also be cost-effective in the long term, according to a University of Michigan-led study.

We hope the results will inform discussions about the integration of cost-effective cessation approaches for smokers receiving lung cancer screening. Pianpian Cao, lead author, research fellow, U-M School of Public Health's Department of Epidemiology

Cao and colleagues used data from a national, randomized trial conducted by investigators at the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center to evaluate the short- and long-term societal cost-effectiveness of interventions, including phone counseling with nicotine replacement therapy among individuals receiving lung cancer screenings. They used a well-established model developed by the Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network to project the lifetime impact of the program to conduct an economic analysis of these cessation interventions.

According to the researchers, the cost for delivery of the programs was $380 and $144 per person for the eight-week and three-week protocol, respectively, while quit rates were 7.14% and 5.96%. They also found differences in quality-adjusted life-years or QALYs, a measure of the value of health outcomes often used in economic evaluations of health interventions.

While the three-week program was less expensive per person than the eight-week approach, the latter was most cost-effective, with an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of $4,029 per quality-adjusted life-year vs. the three-week program.

Investigators say this is the first study to conduct an economic evaluation of a large, national clinical trial of a telephone counseling intervention for smokers at the time of lung cancer screening and to use that data to project lifetime costs and effects.

According to early recommendations by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, about 8 million people in the United States are eligible for screening and about half of those are current smokers. The task force recently upgraded the recommendations, but data to guide the implementation of smoking cessation programs is still limited.

Screening can be a teachable moment, providing the opportunity to motivate individuals who currently smoke to quit, but until now the data to guide implementation of smoking cessation programs in lung cancer screening settings is limited, said the studys senior author Rafael Meza, professor of epidemiology and global public health at U-M's School of Public Health.

These results provide important evidence for the value of smoking cessation in the setting of lung cancer screening and underscore the need to maintain reimbursement policies supporting this approach for the millions of screening-eligible smokers in the U.S.

Because of the studys limited scope, the results should be taken as a conservative estimate of the net benefits, the researchers say. The analysis did not include sufficient numbers of racial/ethnic minorities to assess subgroup effects. Also, adherence to lung cancer screenings vary widely by state and race, differences that need to be evaluated in future studies.

That being said, the results strongly support implementing telephone counseling and other effective cessation interventions within lung cancer screening, Cao said.

The study appears in this months Journal of the National Cancer Institute. It was supported by the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health.
People with a learning disability and autistic people will receive better and more focused community care as part of plans to reduce the number in specialist inpatient care.

The Building the Right Support Action Plan published today brings together in one place commitments from across government and public services to ensure there is suitable community support available for people with a learning disability and autistic people. This supports government plans to reduce reliance on mental health inpatient care.

Measures brought together in the action plan include:

Speeding up discharges for people with a learning disability and autistic people supported by additional targeted funding of more than 90 million in 2022/2023 including:

A 40 million investment from the NHS Long Term Plan to continue to improve the capacity and capability of crisis support for autistic people and people with a learning disability in every area of the country and 30 million of funding to continue putting key workers in place for children and young people with the most complex needs

A 21 million Community Discharge Grant to local authorities which will help people with a learning disability and autistic people to be discharged

Limiting the scope under which people with a learning disability and autistic people can be detained by reforming the Mental Health Act to improve how people are treated in law

Building on specialist training for health and care staff to ensure they have the skills to better care for people with a learning disability and autistic people

The plan focuses on keeping people safe now and also delivering long term change for people with a learning disability and autistic people. It aims to ensure people are treated with dignity and respect, experience personalized care and treatment, and can live an ordinary, independent life in their own home as part of the community.

Minister for Care and Mental Health Gillian Keegan said:.

For too long autistic people and people with a learning disability have remained as inpatients in mental health units not necessarily because it was the best place but because of failings in the system and a lack of community facilities to support them. I am committed to driving further, faster progress to ensure people with a learning disability and autistic people, of all ages, receive high quality health and social care support in their communities when they need it."

The plan prioritizes safety and quality of life and includes the proposal in the draft Mental Health Bill that neither a learning disability or autism can be considered mental health disorders requiring compulsory treatment.

Where people would benefit from inpatient care, the plan seeks to improve the quality of care in mental health hospitals. This includes taking steps to ensure care review recommendations are followed, reducing restrictive practices, and targeted support for people in long term segregation to move into the community or a less restrictive setting as appropriate.

This work will be supported by increasing the availability and choice of specialist and supported housing options.

The Health and Care Act 2022 introduced a new requirement for registered providers to ensure their staff receive specific training on learning disability and autism, which is appropriate to their role.

There are also proposed new duties on commissioners to ensure there are the right community-based services in their area and there is better monitoring of risk of crisis at a local level.

Early intervention is key to ensuring people get the right support throughout their lives, which includes improved experiences of education and early diagnosis. The government will build on the 10.5 million Covid-19 Mental Health Recovery Fund and 2.5 million NHS Long Term Plan investment, with a further 2.5 million to support the delivery of the Long Term Plan commitment to improve autism diagnosis pathways for children and young people.
Forget covid-19, monkeypox, and other viruses for the moment and consider another threat troubling infectious disease specialists: common urinary tract infections, or UTIs, that lead to emergency room visits and even hospitalizations because of the failure of oral antibiotics.

There's no Operation Warp Speed charging to rescue us from the germs that cause these infections, which expanded their range during the first year of the pandemic, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. In the past year, the FDA declined to approve two promising oral drugs  sulopenem and tebipenem  to treat drug-resistant UTIs, saying it needed more evidence they work as well as current drugs.

In the meantime, some UTI patients "have to get admitted and get an IV treatment for a bladder infection that typically would be treated with oral antibiotics," said Dr. Sarah Doernberg, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California-San Francisco Medical Center.

Rebecca Clausen, an office worker in Durham, North Carolina, was prescribed several courses of a cheap oral antibiotic for a persistent UTI earlier this year, but it "just seemed to keep coming back," she said. Doctors considered a six-week treatment with an intravenous drug, ertapenem, that would have cost her about $2,000 out-of-pocket, but decided it probably wouldn't help. For now, she's simply hoping the infection won't worsen.

While specialists say they are seeing more urinary tract infections that oral antibiotics can't eliminate, the problem is still thought to be relatively rare (federal health officials don't directly track the issue). However, it's emblematic of a failure in the antibiotics industry that experts and even U.S. senators say can be fixed only with government intervention.

The CDC report, released July 12, showed that after mostly declining during the previous decade, the incidence rates of seven deadly antimicrobial-resistant organisms surged by an average 15% in hospitals in 2020 because of overuse in covid patients. Some of the sharpest growth occurred in bugs that cause hard-to-treat UTIs.

Although nearly 50,000 Americans  and about 1.3 million people worldwide  die of resistant bacterial infections each year, the FDA has not approved a new antibiotic since 2019. Big Pharma has mostly abandoned antibiotics development, and seven of the 12 companies that successfully brought a drug to market in the past decade went bankrupt or left the antibiotics business because of poor sales.

That's because of a central paradox: The more an antibiotic is administered, the quicker bacteria will mutate to get around it. So practitioners are aggressively curbing use of the drugs, with 90% of U.S. hospitals setting up stewardship programs to limit the use of antibiotics, including new ones. That, in turn, has caused investors to lose interest in the antibiotics industry.

A pipeline of new drugs is vital, given the implacable capacity of bacteria to mutate and adapt. But while resistance is an ever-present danger, some 90%-95% of fatal infections involve microbes that are not multidrug-resistant but difficult to treat for other reasons, such as the delicate condition of the patient, said Dr. Sameer Kadri, head of clinical epidemiology at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Centers Critical Care Medicine Department.

"As bad as antibiotic resistance is, it's bad against a minority of people," said Jason Gallagher, a professor and infectious diseases pharmacist at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia. Since clinicians usually can't quickly determine a bug's resistance level, they start with the old drug most of the time. "That makes anti-infectives a pretty tough investment from a drug company perspective," he added. "You're going to develop your drug and people are going to do their best to not use it."

As antibiotics companies disappear, so does their scientific expertise, said Dr. David Shlaes, a retired pharmaceutical industry scientist. Should a particularly deadly pattern of resistance develop with no drug pipeline, it could cause destruction on a hair-raising scale, he said.

"Antibiotics are an essential part of civilization," said Kevin Outterson, a Boston University law professor who leads a public-private fund that helps companies develop antimicrobials. "They must be renewed every generation or we will slip back into the pre-antibiotic era."

The roadblocks to approval of the UTI drugs tebipenem and sulopenem illustrate the complexity and regulatory challenges of the antibiotics arena.

In a big clinical trial completed last year, Iterum Therapeutics' sulopenem was far better than an older drug, ciprofloxacin, at reducing UTI symptoms, but it didn't seem as adept at killing bacteria, which the FDA considered to be an equally important measure of success. At a June 3 workshop, FDA officials indicated they might be willing to change their standard in future trials.

Another company, Spero Therapeutics, published what looked like a successful trial for oral tebipenem in the New England Journal of Medicine in April. But FDA officials rejected Spero's application for licensure because a species of bacteria included in the analysis was deemed irrelevant to the drug's efficacy.

A lifeline for patients

Though new oral drugs against UTIs are sorely needed, IV drugs can still conquer most routine UTIs. But the broader threat of a future without new antibiotics is particularly frightening to patients with serious chronic diseases, who are permanently engaged in struggles with bacteria.

Two or three times a day, Molly Pam, a 33-year-old chef and patient advocate in San Francisco, inhales nebulized blasts of colistin or aztreonam. These are antibiotics that the typical person stays away from, but for the 30,000 U.S. cystic fibrosis patients like Pam, deadly bugs and powerful drugs are a fixture of life.

Several times a year, when fever or exhaustion signals that the bugs colonizing her damaged, mucus-clogged lungs are getting overly procreative, Pam heads to a clinic or hospital for IV treatment. In 2019, just as she was approaching resistance to all antibiotics, the drug Zerbaxa received FDA approval.

Pseudomonas and MRSA bacteria have colonized Pam's lungs since she was a child, their mutations requiring frequent antibiotic updates. In 2018, she was struck down with a drug-resistant, tuberculosis-like bacteria that required a year of three-times-a-day IV drug treatments on top of her other drugs. Last year, she was airlifted to Stanford Medical Center after she began coughing up blood from a damaged lung.

Doctors test Pam's sputum four times a year to determine which bugs she's harboring and which antibiotics will work against them. She's always only a few mutations from disaster.

"I absolutely depend on new drugs," Pam said.

Steering stewardship programs

The development and testing of these new molecules is hardscrabble terrain, featuring frequent conflicts between the FDA and industry over how to measure an antibiotic's effectiveness  is it patient survival? Symptom improvement? Bacteria count? And over how long a period?

Meanwhile, Congress has aided the industry with patent extensions, and federal agencies have poured in hundreds of millions in grants and partnerships. The World Health Organization and the drug industry in 2020 created a $1 billion venture capital fund to support worthy antibiotics companies.

Still, stewardship of antibiotics arguably has had the biggest influence in reducing the threat of resistance. A 2019 CDC report found an 18% reduction since 2013 in deaths caused by drug-resistant organisms, and a 21% decline in infections of MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, once a leading medical bogeyman.

But progress can make it harder to test new drugs. With highly resistant bacterial infections still relatively unusual, clinical trials for new drugs generally measure their effectiveness against all bacteria in the relevant class, rather than the most resistant bugs.

And since new drugs often gain approval simply by showing they are roughly as effective as existing drugs, infectious disease doctors generally shun them, at least initially, skeptical of their relatively high prices and questionable superiority.

"There aren't that many people with antibiotic resistance," said Dr. Emily Spivak, who leads stewardship programs at the University of Utah and VA Salt Lake City hospitals. "When people get these infections, it's horrible. But there aren't enough to make the kind of profits the companies want."

For example, hospitalized patients with MRSA-related pneumonia often can be treated with vancomycin (starting at about $15 per day), said Spivak, who chairs the Infectious Diseases Society of America's antimicrobial resistance committee. She sometimes turns to a newer alternative, ceftaroline ($400 a day), which can have fewer side effects. "But even so, we are not cranking through these drugs, and we never will, because luckily we can do other things to prevent MRSA, such as cleaning skin before surgery and keeping catheters clean."

Time for 'warp speed'?

In the early days of covid, many hospitals desperately threw antimicrobials at the mysterious virus, and the pandemic crisis strained stewardship teams, Spivak said. The new CDC data showed that clinicians gave antibiotics to 80% of hospitalized covid patients in the first eight months of the pandemic, although such drugs have no impact on covid infection.

But the uptake of new antibiotics has been slow. A report on 17 new antibiotics marketed in the United States over the past five years showed only three with sales over $100 million per year. The 17 averaged sales of about $44 million for the 12 months ending in June 2020.

A few of the new drugs, such as a combination antibiotic marketed in the U.S. as Avycaz, have gradually replaced colistin, a highly toxic 1950s compound that was brought back in 2000 because of its efficacy against certain resistant bacteria.

Yet even that transition, recommended by infectious disease specialists, was gradual. That's not surprising since colistin costs about $140 for a 10-day treatment, while a course of Avycaz might set a hospital back $14,000 to $28,000, noted Dominic Chan, chief of pharmacy services at Legacy Health in Oregon.

Medicare reimbursement for treating hospital infections is low, Chan said, "so there's no incentive for the hospitals to invest that type of capital into bringing these agents in  other than doing the right thing."

In most cases, hospitals do appear to be doing the right thing, however. Recent CDC data shows that 90% of U.S. hospitals have stopped using colistin, said agency spokesperson Martha Sharan.

Executives from the dwindling number of antibiotics makers complain that stewardship programs are too stingy, to the detriment of patients. In part, they blame Medicare programs that pay hospitals a lump sum for treatment of a given condition. A congressional bill filed in 2019 and resubmitted last year would require Medicare to pay for new antibiotics separately. Democrats blocked the bill, but antibiotics producers argue it would incentivize hospitals to use their drugs.

Holding back on the new antibiotics allows resistance to old drugs to grow worse, and "that makes it harder and harder for a new antibiotic to do its job," said Ted Schroeder, CEO of antibiotics maker Nabriva and leader of an industry interest group.

But the bottom line is that most patients don't need the newest drugs, Kadri said.

In a 2020 NIH study that the FDA helped fund, Kadri and his colleagues reviewed records from 134 hospitals from 2009 to 2015 to find examples of difficult-to-treat, highly resistant bacteria of the gram-negative type  a key area of concern. Of about 139,000 gram-negative infections, only 1,352 fell into the difficult-to-treat category  roughly 1%.

"There are just not enough cases" to create an adequate market for new antibiotics, Kadri said.

Extrapolating from the study, the market for new antibiotics against highly resistant gram-negative bacteria would range from $120 million to $430 million a year, compared with the average $1 billion needed to develop a single drug, wrote Drs. Neil Clancy and Minh-Hong Nguyen of the Veterans Affairs Pittsburgh Healthcare System.

In the absence of a viable market, infectious disease experts, drug companies, and patient groups have rallied behind the PASTEUR Act, introduced by Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Todd Young (R-Ind.) last year. The bill would create a fund of up to $11 billion over 10 years to award promising antimicrobials that were close to or had received FDA approval. The government would guarantee payments of up to $3 billion for each drug, removing the incentive for overuse.

PASTEUR has 40 co-sponsors in the Senate. Experts think its passage is crucial.

"Even though, on a population basis, the need for new drugs is small, you don't want to be that patient" who might need them, Kadri said. "If you are, you want to have an array of drugs that are safe and effective."
A major trade summit exploring opportunities for data driven healthcare to improve health worldwide will take place at UK House: The Commonwealth Business Hub, during the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games on Monday 1 August 2022.

The one-day Data Driven Healthcare programme, taking place at the University of Birminghams Exchange Building, will address:

The healthcare challenges faced across the world and the critical issues governments, industry and communities must work together to address.

The road to healthcare equality and sustainability: from better access to care and patient empowerment to the power of big data

How the Midlands is driving innovation in translational medicine, clinical trials and regulatory innovation

Speakers confirmed include:

Lord Bilimoria CBE, Chancellor of the University of Birmingham

Alastair Denniston, Consultant Ophthalmologist at University Hospitals Birmingham and professor at University of Birmingham

Professor Theodoros Arvanitis, Chair of Digital Health Innovation & Director of Institute of Digital Healthcare at University of Warwick

UK-based businesses may also register to attend a series of market briefings and networking reception to learn more about how to enter healthcare markets in the United States, India, Singapore and Australia. DIT and commercial experts will share their knowledge about market entry, trends and health policy priorities and support available from the Department for International Trade.

UK House is a platform that will build on the cooperative spirit of the Commonwealth Games and the UKs climate leadership at COP26. It will bring together business, key decision makers and healthcare leaders to discover opportunities for international partnership, trade and innovation, with a view to delivering sustainable growth.

The UK is taking a lead in data-driven research and innovation to tackle some of healthcares global challenges and to deliver better, more equal care provision worldwide. Home to world-leading clusters in biotech and biopharma, including the Midlands, the UK is a global hub for life sciences, with the second highest level of government spending on health R&D across all G7 countries. Dr Mike Short, Chief Scientific Adviser, Department for International Trade

Lord Bilimoria, Chancellor of the University of Birmingham said:

Health is the foundation of wellbeing and economic growth. Through true collaborative partnerships between government, academia, the NHS and healthcare industry leaders, we can meet the dual ambitions of making the UK a global science superpower and providing equality of healthcare access for all.

The UKs healthcare ecosystem offers a connected and forward-thinking industry cluster, linking investors with customers, collaborators, supply chains, and innovation partners. The West Midlands boasts eight hospitals, 35 centres of clinical research, with one in five of all UK clinical trials taking place in the region. Its healthcare proposition is centred on digital, data, diagnostics and devices. Whether testing and implementing new healthcare interventions or helping businesses prototype, test and commercialise cutting-edge products and services, the region takes innovation from bench to bedside.

Spaces for the Data Driven Healthcare summit at UK House are extremely limited. Business leaders, healthcare experts and regional exporters are invited to register now to attend the summit, market briefings and the networking reception in person or online: www.ukhouse2022.co.uk

BATP is sponsored by E.ON, Airbnb, Reckitt, University of Birmingham, Bruntwood and Gowling WLG.
KHN's Noam N. Levey talks with Sasha-Ann Simons of WBEZ about Americas sprawling medical debt crisis. Levey explains that the problem is only partially addressed with recent moves by the three major credit reporting bureaus to remove some medical debt from consumer records. A lot of this debt never reaches the credit bureaus, he says, because it is tucked away on credit cards or paid with personal loans from friends or family.

Click here to hear Levey on WBEZs Reset with Sasha-Ann Simons on July 12.

Levey also talks with Kate Archer Kent at Wisconsin Public Radio about the cost of health care in light of the Democrats' most recent plan to allow Medicare to regulate prescription drug prices. Levey describes key insights from a KFF poll conducted for KHN's Diagnosis: Debt project: The poor and uninsured carry a burden of medical debt, but so do a large proportion of people who make more than $100,000 a year. And, he says, most people in America who have medical debt have health insurance. Half of adults polled said they dont have $500 to cover an unexpected medical bill. So when you combine that, Levey says, with the fact that more people are in health insurance plans that require thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket spending before coverage kicks in, youre going to have a problem.

Click here to hear Levey on Wisconsin Public Radios Morning Show on July 13.

Related Story

The U.S. health system now produces debt on a mass scale, a new investigation shows. Patients face gut-wrenching sacrifices.
Bailee Tordai, who was 33 weeks into her pregnancy, barely made it to the prenatal checkup. Her clunky old Jeep couldn't complete the 2-mile trip from her house to the University of Iowa's outreach clinic in her southeastern Iowa hometown. It was a hot June day, and a wiring problem made the Jeep conk out in the street.

A passerby helped Tordai, 22, push her stricken vehicle off the road and into a parking lot. Then she called her stepdad for a ride to the clinic.

Jaclyn Roman, a nurse midwife, walked into the exam room. "I heard your car broke down."

"Yup. You want to buy it? Five bucks!" Tordai joked.

Her lack of reliable transportation won't be a laughing matter in August, when her baby is due. She will need to arrange for someone to drive her about 40 miles northwest to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City. She can't give birth at Muscatine's hospital because it shuttered its birthing unit in 2020.

Roman is part of an unusual effort to minimize the harm caused by such closures. She's one of 11 certified nurse midwives from the University of Iowa who travel regularly to Muscatine and Washington, another southeastern Iowa town where the local hospital closed its birthing unit. The university's pilot project, which is supported by a federal grant, doesn't aim to reopen shuttered birthing units. Instead, the midwife team helps ensure area women receive related services. Last year, it served more than 500 patients in Muscatine and Washington.

Muscatine is one of hundreds of rural areas in the U.S. where hospitals have dropped birthing services during the past two decades, often because they lack obstetricians and other specialized staff members.

Hospital industry leaders say birthing units also tend to lose money, largely because of low payments from Medicaid, the public health insurance program that covers more than 40% of births in the U.S. and an even greater share in many rural areas.

The loss of labor-and-delivery services hits especially hard for women who lack resources and time to travel for care.

Muscatine, which is on the Mississippi River, has more than 23,000 residents, making it a relatively large town by Iowa standards. But its hospital is one of 41 Iowa facilities that have closed their birthing units since 2000, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health. Most were in rural areas. Just one has reopened, and only 56 Iowa hospitals now have birthing units.

The nurse midwife team's work includes crucial prenatal checkups. Most pregnant people are supposed to have a dozen or more such appointments before giving birth. Health care providers use the checkups to track how a pregnancy is progressing and to watch for signs of high blood pressure and other problems that can lead to premature births, stillbirths, or even maternal deaths. The midwives also advise women on how to keep themselves and their babies healthy after birth.

Karen Jefferson, director of midwifery practice for the American College of Nurse-Midwives, said the University of Iowa team's approach is an innovative way to address needs in rural areas that have lost hospital birthing units. "How wonderful would it be to see a provider in your town, instead of driving 40 miles for your prenatal visits  especially toward the end of pregnancy, when you're going every week," said Jefferson, who lives in rural New York.

Midwives can provide many other types of care for women and for babies. In theory, they could even open rural birthing centers outside of hospitals, Jefferson said. But they would need to overcome concerns about financing and about the availability of surgeons to do emergency cesarean sections, which she said are rarely needed in low-risk births.

The University of Iowa midwives focus on low-risk pregnancies, referring patients with significant health issues to physician specialists in Iowa City. Often, those specialists can visit with the patients and the midwives via video conference in the small-town clinics.

The loss of a hospital obstetrics unit can make finding local maternity care harder for rural families.

Tordai can attest that if patients must travel far for prenatal appointments, they're less likely to get to them all. If she had to go to Iowa City for each of hers, repeatedly taking three hours off from her job managing a pizza restaurant would be tough, she said. On that June day her Jeep broke down, she would have canceled her appointment.

Instead, she wound up on an exam table at the Muscatine clinic listening to her baby's heartbeat on a monitor and watching as Roman measured her belly.

"Nice job being perfect," the midwife told her during the checkup.

Roman asked Tordai to describe her baby's movements. "Constant," she replied with a smile.

Roman asked whether she planned to breastfeed. Tordai said she didn't have much luck with her first daughter, Aspen, now 4.

"Have you thought about a breastfeeding class?" the midwife asked.

"I don't have time for that," Tordai replied. Roman continued to coax her, noting where a breastfeeding class is available online.

Near the end of the appointment, Tordai asked Roman whether she could schedule an induced birth at the University of Iowa hospital. The midwife told her that, in general, letting labor begin on its own is better than artificially starting it.

But there was the matter of unreliable transportation. Tordai explained that scheduling the birth would help her arrange to have her mother drive her to the hospital in Iowa City. Roman agreed that transportation is a legitimate reason and arranged for an induced labor on Aug. 10.

The University of Iowa midwife team started offering services in 2020 in a clinic about 2 miles from Trinity Muscatine hospital. The hospital is owned by UnityPoint Health, a large nonprofit hospital system that blamed a lack of available obstetricians for the closure of the Muscatine birthing unit. At the time, UnityPoint leaders said they hoped to reopen the unit if they could recruit new obstetricians to the area.

Kristy Phillipson, a UnityPoint Health spokesperson, told KHN in June that the company has continued to try to recruit physicians, including for the Muscatine hospital. Although it has not reopened the birthing unit, the company regularly sends an obstetrician and other staff members to provide prenatal care and related services, she said.

Most pregnant patients from the area who choose UnityPoint for their care wind up giving birth at the system's hospital in Bettendorf, a 45-minute drive to the east.

The University of Iowa midwife team has no plans to open its own birthing centers. But it hopes to expand its rural clinic service to other underserved towns. To do so, the university would need to hire more nurse midwives, which could be a challenge. According to the Iowa Board of Nursing, 120 licensed nurse midwives live in the state of 3 million people.

The University of Iowa plans to address that by starting the state's first nurse midwife training program in 2023. The master's degree program, which will emphasize rural service, will train registered nurses to become nurse midwives. It eventually could graduate eight people per year, said Amber Goodrich, a University of Iowa midwife helping lead the effort.

Those graduates could fill gaps throughout rural areas, where even more hospitals may shutter their birthing units in the coming years.

"This crisis is going nowhere fast," Goodrich said.
Prior to Ohio's new six-week cutoff for legal abortions, about 9 in 10 people seeking care in Ohio had abortions later than the current law allows, new research suggests.

In a study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, researchers from The Ohio State University found that 1 in 4 patients didn't know they were pregnant before six weeks of gestation. Among those who did know they were pregnant before six weeks, 86% still had their abortions after the six-week mark.

The findings come from a survey conducted in 2020 and 2021 that included 1,141 abortion patients. Since then, following this summer's Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, Ohio has banned abortions after six weeks, or 42 days of pregnancy.

Lead author Abigail Norris Turner, a professor in the colleges of medicine and public health at Ohio State, said the study suggests that a large percentage of pregnant people who want to terminate a pregnancy will now not be able to do so in Ohio.

Regardless of when pregnancy is discovered, six-week bans disrupt care for nearly all patients. Obviously everyone who doesn't know they're pregnant until after six weeks gestation can't get an abortion in our state. But when you also consider the requirement of at least two clinic visits, a mandatory 24-hour waiting period, staff shortages and high demand, among other factors, some people who know they are pregnant before six weeks are likely still not going to be able to get abortions before the six-week limit." Abigail Norris Turner, professor in the colleges of medicine and public health at Ohio State

The researchers also wanted to understand whether people who knew they were pregnant before six weeks had a different "deliberation window" than those who learned they were pregnant later. Their findings showed that the two groups of patients reported approximately the same number of days -; two to three -; between finding out they were pregnant and contacting the abortion clinic.

The median gestation when a person discovered a pregnancy was 34 days -; about a week before the current ban renders abortion illegal in Ohio. The median time between pregnancy discovery and termination was about triple that -; 22 days.

The study also found that later pregnancy discovery was more common for those who had fewer educational and financial resources.

"Many people choose abortion because they don't have enough money or want to pursue higher education before raising children. We learned in this study that those same factors are associated with not knowing you are pregnant until after six weeks -; so people in this position are trapped," Norris Turner said.

The findings underscore the importance of keeping pregnancy tests on hand, taking them early and scheduling any pregnancy-related appointments as soon as possible, said study co-author Alison Norris, associate professor public health and medicine at Ohio State.

It is also important to inform patients that abortion providers are striving to accommodate those who have only a short window before the six-week mark, she said, adding that for those who learn they're pregnant too late for an abortion in Ohio, funds that help with out-of-state travel, child care and overnight accommodations are essential.

"There is no public health or medical reason to have a six-week ban on abortion, and it isn't what patients need or want. Such a ban will have lasting harmful impacts on the people who need to travel for an abortion or who are forced to carry a pregnancy to term," Norris said.

The research was done as part of the work of the Ohio Policy Evaluation Network, or OPEN, a multi-university reproductive health care research group that Norris co-leads.
As the coronavirus waves keep coming and cases are on the rise once again, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently launched a $577 million effort to develop antivirals against COVID-19 and other viruses with high pandemic potential.

Texas Biomedical Research Institute Professor Luis Martinez-Sobrido, PhD, an expert in virology, vaccines and antiviral research, has been recruited to collaborate with three of the nine Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) Centers for Pathogens of Pandemic Concern announced this spring. Dr. Martinez-Sorbrido has more than 25 years of experience working on numerous viruses, from influenza, coronavirus, hemorrhagic fever viruses, and developing vaccines and antiviral therapies against them.

NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is funding the AViDD centers over the next three years. The specific goals and research of each center will vary, but priority has been placed on developing antivirals that can be taken in an outpatient setting. Dr. Martinez-Sobrido and his laboratory will be working with the Center for Antiviral Medicines & Pandemic Preparedness at Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California; the Antiviral Countermeasures Development Center (AC/DC) at Emory University and Georgia State University in Atlanta; and the QBI Coronavirus Research Group Pandemic Response Program at University of California, San Francisco.

Richard Plemper, PhD, a professor at Georgia State University is co-principal investigator of the center delightfully known as AC/DC, with George Painter, PhD, a professor at Emory University. Dr. Plemper is a long-time collaborator with Dr. Martinez-Sobrido and recruited him to be part of AC/DC.

"We have identified a group of foremost subject experts on viral pathogens and pioneers in new, advanced methodology," Dr. Plemper says in a press release from Georgia State University. "This formidable group is a major strength of the center. Drug development literally takes a village, and what we have brought together are leaders in this village who can move things forward."

Dr. Martinez-Sobrido and his lab members will bring their expertise in developing fluorescent reporter viruses to easily identify and characterize drugs with broad antiviral activity. The modified SARS-CoV-2 reporter viruses glow, making it far easier and faster to screen a large array of antiviral candidates. The glowing reporter viruses make it possible to physically see which antivirals are effective and which are not. Simply put, no glowing = no virus present = antiviral worked.

Using reverse genetics approaches developed in his laboratory, Dr. Martinez-Sobrido and his team will also generate certain SARS-CoV-2 variations containing different mutations to better understand how antiviral drugs interact with the virus, and to assess the potential for the mutations to escape the antivirals.

We want to make sure the virus cannot escape, rendering the new drug ineffective. Part of the strategy will be to develop and test drugs that target two or more different mechanisms against the virus. That way we can begin to expand the options available to attack this and future coronaviruses." Luis Martinez-Sobrido, PhD, Professor, Texas Biomedical Research Institute

Martinez-Sobrido Lab members who will participate in the AViDD projects include Staff Scientist Chengjin Ye, PhD; post-doctoral fellow Ahmed Khalil, PhD; research associate Elizabeth Holguin; and UT Health San Antonio graduate students Ramya Sithaveni Barre, Desarey Morales Vasquez, Nathaniel Jackson and Kevin Chiem.

When announcing the AViDD centers in a press release, NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, MD, stressed that the ongoing pandemic has underscored the need for a wider variety of treatment options, especially antiviral drugs that can be taken at home when symptoms are mild.

"Decades of prior research on the structure and vulnerabilities of coronaviruses greatly accelerated our response to the COVID-19 pandemic and we hope that similar research focused on antivirals will better prepare us for the next pandemic," Fauci says.
Parkinson's Disease affects 10 million people worldwide and its symptoms include tremors in the fingers and hands, small handwriting, loss of smell, walking difficulties, dizziness, and others. As these symptoms worsen over time, monitoring and treating PD is crucial to preserve the patients' autonomy and enhance their quality of life.

This is precisely the goal of a group of Portuguese researchers. The project iHandUapp extended the iHandU project to the full cycle of the PD. It resorts to mobile and wearable proprietary technologies to monitor PD patients' symptoms, with the possibility of sharing the data with their doctors in real-time, including quantitative automatic evaluation of the symptoms, medication or even disease-related events.

James Parkinson was an English surgeon, geologist and political activist born in 1755. After almost being arrested due to his political career, he directed his attention to Medicine, following the steps of his father. As a strong advocate of the underprivileged, Parkinson focused on improving the general health of the population. The peak of his career in Medicine was the publication of An Essay on the Shaking Palsy, in which he described six patients with similar symptoms of unintended shaking. The disease that today bears his name was coined by the French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot about 60 years after.

We have learned a lot about Parkinson's Disease (PD) since the 18th century. PD is characterized by uncontrollable movements and rigidity of the arms and legs that are known to worsen over time. In the basal ganglia, a region of the brain that regulates movement, nerve cells get impaired and/or die, which results in the most noticeable signs and symptoms of PD. These nerve cells, or neurons, normally produce a crucial brain chemical called dopamine. It seems that movement issues linked to the disease are caused by decreased dopamine production, as a result of the neurons' degeneration and death. The reason why neurons degenerate in the first place is still unknown.

Parkinson's Disease affects 10 million people worldwide, and family members are usually those who notice the first signs of the disease. These include tremors in the fingers and hands, small handwriting, loss of smell, walking difficulties, dizziness, and others. As these symptoms worsen over time, monitoring and treating PD is crucial to preserve the patients' autonomy and enhance their quality of life.

This is precisely the goal of a group of Portuguese researchers. The project iHandUapp extended the iHandU project to the full cycle of the PD. It resorts to mobile and wearable proprietary technologies to monitor PD patients' symptoms, with the possibility of sharing the data with their doctors in real-time, including quantitative automatic evaluation of the symptoms, medication or even disease-related events. This technology displays the information on a web platform, providing doctors access to the evolution of the symptomology of their patients, and allowing them to prescribe new tests and change medication remotely.

The system includes a hybrid mobile application for Android and iOS devices, through which patients can manage their medication and perform tests to monitor symptoms associated with the disease, at home or during medical appointments, while keeping the healthcare professionals informed about relevant events that may occur. Moreover, iHandUapp features a specialized dashboard so that healthcare professionals can monitor the medical history of patients and a cloud-hosted database that displays information in real-time." Duarte Dias, researcher and coordinator of the Biomedical Engineering Research Centre at the Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science (INESC TEC)

The system works best with the information provided by external components called appcessories. iHandU is a wearable device with embedded electronics integrated into a patented technology that can measure wrist rigidity, one of the PD symptoms. INESC TEC has been developing this technology since 2015 and led to the creation of a spin-off in 2019, dedicated to evolving the technology to the market - InSignals Neurotech.

"The first iHandUapp prototype is a promising proof-of-concept that will add value to the monitorisation of Parkinson's Disease. The app and its features have been analysed in collaboration with the Hospital Centro Hospitalar Universitario de Sao Joao (CHUSJ), taking into consideration the health professionals' problems and needs. So far, the feedback has been very positive, which reinforces the usability, simplicity and suitability of our solution", added Duarte Dias.

The technology is also being used during deep brain stimulation surgeries, a therapy proposed to suppress motor symptoms when medication is no longer effective. A crucial part of the surgical procedure is choosing where to place electrodes in the patient's brain, and neurosurgeons typically use rigidity as feedback to optimise electrode placement. Currently, this crucial step is carried out based on human perception, but the wearable device developed at INESC TEC provides quantitative data free of human bias with an impressive 80% accuracy.

The iHandUapp was publicly announced in June 2022, during the IEEE MELECON conference that took place in Italy. Duarte Dias and his team presented the work "PDapp: A Companion Mobile Application with Appcessories for Continuous Follow-up of Parkinson's Disease Patients", which received the Best Paper Award, demonstrating the solution's scientific, technological and clinical impact.

The award-winning paper was authored by researchers Nuno Oliveira, Joana Silva, Duarte Dias and Joao Paulo Cunha, a professor at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto and senior researcher at INESC TEC - the team responsible for the development of the iHandUapp system. They were supported by Dr. Joao Massano, a neurologist at CHUSJ, who was essential in designing a system adapted to clinical needs. The system has been evolving and will be used in a clinical study already approved at CHUSJ, now with two other researchers involved: Eduardo Campos and Adriana Arrais. The goal is to commercialize this promising technology via INESC TEC's spin-off company InSignals Neurotech.

Scientists are exploring ways to identify biomarkers for PD that can lead to earlier diagnosis and more adapted treatments to slow down the disease process and, one might hope, even find how to cure it. In the meantime, this technology is ready to help patients and doctors to better manage the disease, helping to increase the quality of life of those affected by it.
Viral DNA can be frequently detected in different clinical samples from monkeypox-infected patients, including saliva and semen, according to a new study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by the "la Caixa" Foundation, and the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona. The study, published in Eurosurveillance, contributes to a better understanding of how this emerging disease is transmitted.

The current monkeypox outbreak represents another zoonotic disease that has crossed borders. In the last six months, more than 9000 cases of monkeypox have been reported worldwide in countries where the disease is not endemic. Initial cases were detected in Britain, Portugal and Spain, mainly in men who have sex with men. However, the disease has spread to many other countries and there is concern that it may spread to vulnerable populations, such as immunocompromised patients or children.

The disease is known to be transmitted by direct contact with the lesions of an infected patient or by surfaces contaminated by these lesions, but little is known about the possible presence of virus in other biological samples, such as saliva, urine or semen.

In this study, the team led by Mikel Martinez, ISGlobal researcher, and Jose Luis Blanco (Hospital Clinic), investigated the presence of genetic material of the virus in different biological samples, collected at different times, from 12 patients with confirmed monkeypox infection. At the time of diagnosis, a high viral DNA load was detected in the skin lesions of all patients. In addition, DNA was detected in the saliva of all cases, some of them with high viral loads. Only one previous study had tested saliva, in one single patient. Viral DNA was also detected in rectal (11 of 12 patients), nasopharyngeal (10/12 patients), semen (7/9 patients), urine (9/12 patients) and faecal (8/12 patients) samples.

A couple of previous studies had already shown occasional presence of viral DNA in some samples and in some patients, but here we show that viral DNA is frequently present in various biological fluids, particularly saliva, during the acute phase of the disease, and up to 16 days after the onset of symptoms in one patient." Aida Peiro, first author of the study

The authors point out that the presence of viral DNA does not necessarily mean infectious virus, and that the next step will be to try to isolate infectious virus from such samples. However, the high viral load detected in saliva or semen suggests that such fluids have infectious potential, they add.

"The results of our study contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms and dynamics of virus transmission, as well as the possible role of sexual transmission," Martinez concludes.
In a recent study posted to the medRxiv* preprint server, researchers described the role of local governments in responses to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic across 25 cities.

Background

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was initially detected in the Wuhan city of China toward the end of December 2019 and has demanded responses from all government strata (including governments of states, provinces, districts, and the nation). Responses to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic have underpinned the importance of local government involvement in pandemic management.

The substantial societal risks posed by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic have been recognized by public health communities. Due to the presence of a dense population and high connectivity, cities can be considered a gateway to enhancing or limiting the transmission of infectious organisms. Therefore, understanding infectious disease detection, responses, and management in cities is a key public health concern.

About the study

In the present survey-based study, researchers described the involvement of local governments in 25 global cities in SARS-CoV-2 pandemic responses to improve understanding of the implementation and coordination of activities in cities for responding to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

The study included local public health authorities of cities which were in partnership with healthy cities (PHC) for (i) understanding the government levels that were accountable for particular activities as part of COVID-19 pandemic responses; (ii) documenting the implementation of activities for pandemic response; (iii) characterizing the challenges in performing activities as part of pandemic responses; and (iv) inquiring about preparedness for the pandemic and epidemics.

In particular, seven cities were included to ensure diversity of context, which were: Addis Ababa, Accra, Bandung, Bengaluru, Kampala, London, and Lima. A questionnaire was developed for surveying and characterizing the coordinated efforts in activities performed for responding to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the implementation of response activities for the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, and the level of challenge in performing pandemic response activities.

The questionnaire comprised 30 questions in several formats such as free-responses, Likert scale-based questions, matrices-based questions, and questions with multiple choices for the answer. The questionnaire was translated to Spanish and French for improved comprehensibility and distributed to local authorities in June 2021.

Responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed (RACI) matrices were used, and descriptive statistical analysis was performed to summarize urban experiences in the COVID-19 pandemic responses. In addition, few study participants were interviewed online from June 2021 to August 2021 to improve the validity of the study findings.

Responsible was defined as the government level in which work required for activity completion was implemented; accountable as the government level which oversewed thorough and correct activity completion; consulted as the government level that engaged in communications (two-way) for providing necessary data for activity completion; and informed as the government level updated in terms of a particular activity.

Results

The cities that completed the surveys were Addis Ababa, Accra, Amman, Athens, Bandung, Bangkok, Barcelona, Bengaluru, Buenos Aires, Cali, Colombo, Guadalajara, Kampala, Kigali, Kumasi, Lima, London, Lusaka, Medellin, Ouagadougou, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, Santo Domingo, Vancouver, and Yangon. RACI matrices analysis showed several coordinated structures for responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In cities like Santo Domingo, Amman, and Kumasi, national-level governments were primarily authoritative. In cities such as Vancouver, Buenos Aires, and Santiago, the primary authority lay with subnational-level governments. For cities like Medellin, Bengaluru, and Kampala, the local governments were primarily authoritative.

National-level government authorities were responsible for most pandemic response activities; however, local-level governments were also responsible for key pandemic response activities, particularly the communication of risks and coordination with civil society organizations and community-setting organizations.

Further, the majority of activities as part of pandemic responses were implemented following the confirmation of COVID-19 in cities, many activities were challenging for local-level governments, and almost all local governments envisioned greater engagement in COVID-19 preparedness and responses to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Regarding pandemic preparedness, local governments were involved with communication of risks, mandating behavioral changes in individuals, and coordinating with civil society and community-based organizations. Local governments implemented activities such as mandating the closure of schools and businesses, imposing lockdowns, providing diagnostic SARS-CoV-2 testing, providing quarantine services, contact tracing, improving surging care, and conducting vaccination campaigns. Of the activities, mandating the closure of businesses and behavioral changes such as social distancing and facemask use were considered the most challenging. In addition, local governments reported to be open to financial, technical, material, and personnel assistance.

Conclusion

Overall, the study findings highlighted the increasing importance of involving local authorities in managing the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings could be an essential contribution to the expanding literature, which emphasizes improving responses to the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and potential future SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks.

*Important notice

medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
(Newser)  In some countries where BMW sells cars, buying a model with, say, heated seats has become more complicatedif not more expensive. Heated front seats are a subscription service now, for which the consumer pays a Netflix-like $18 per month, the Verge reports. Other options are offered the same way, including automated traffic camera alerts and map updates, in a system that keeps the vehicle generating revenue for the automaker long after it's driven off the lot. Subscriptions launched in South Korea and are offered in the UK, Germany, New Zealand, and South Africa, but not the US yet.

Automakers have always charged more for optional features, but thisa system of microtransactionsis different. The abundance of software in cars now makes it all possible. All the vehicles already have the hardware to heat the front seats, but BMW has the system blocked by software. When consumers pay up, BMW unblocks the software governing front-seat heating. The fact that they've already paid for a vehicle with all the equipment has increased buyers' irritation, per the Verge, though the company tells buyers the installation was at "no extra cost." BMW does offer deals on the options: The heated seats can also be turned on for $180 a year, $300 for three years, or $415 for perpetuity. If payments are missed, CNN points out, BMW will turn the heat off. (Read more BMW stories.)
(Newser)  It's no secret that living in New York City isn't cheap, but the borough of Manhattan just logged an eye-popping first. WABC reports that the average monthly rent there exceeded $5,000 last month, a record-breaking figure that's up almost 30% compared to 2021. Looking for a three-bedroom place? That average rent will run you almost $9,500. This is all according to a report from Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman, per CNBC, which notes that things don't look to be cooling off on this front anytime soon.

"There are no signs of a slowdown, at least not yet," Miller Samuel CEO Jonathan Miller tells the outlet. And yet the rental market is still booming, with residents flocking to rental open houses and staying away from higher mortgage rates amid fears that the housing bubble may soon burst. "The spike in mortgage rates has immediately tipped people on the margin into the rental market," Miller tells the Real Deal, via Curbed. "And the rental market was already tight before rates began to jump."

And tight means tightonly 6,400 apartments, or less than 2% of all the ones available in Manhattan, have the "vacancy" sign out, a 46% decrease from last year. "At the end of the day, they want to be in New York," a Serhant broker tells CNBC of those who are willing to break the bank for a Manhattan ZIP code. "When a good rental comes on the market, especially downtown, there are lines down the block." (Read more New York City stories.)
(Newser)  Update: An indoor mask mandate scheduled to take effect Friday in Los Angeles County won't, after officials decided the number of new coronavirus cases has dropped enough to make it unnecessary. Hospitalization rates also have improved, the Los Angeles Times reports. Criticism of the reimposition increased as Friday neared. Masks will still be the rule in indoor transit areas, including airports and taxis, as well as at nursing homes, jails, and other places that require them. California reports statewide cases are in decline, as well, though totals are still high. Our original story from July 14 follows:

Nick Barragan is used to wearing a mask because his job in the Hollywood film industry has long required it. So he won't be fazed if the county that's home to Tinseltown becomes the first major population center this summer to reinstate rules requiring face coverings indoors because of another spike in coronavirus cases, the AP reports. "I feel fine about it because I've worn one pretty much constantly for the last few years. It's become a habit, said Barragan, masked up while running errands Wednesday. Los Angeles County, home to 10 million residents, faces a return to a broad indoor mask mandate on July 29 if current trends in hospital admissions continue, health Director Barbara Ferrer said Thursday.

Ferrer conceded that "for many, this will feel like a step backwards," but requiring masks again is among the "sensible safety precautions" during a jump in cases that's reminiscent of the Delta variant-fueled surge last summer. "We are not closing anything down. We are not asking people not to gather with the people they love," Ferrer said in a public briefing. "We're asking you to take a sensible step, when there's this much transmission with a highly transmissible variant, to go ahead and put back on a well fitting, high-filtration mask when you're indoors around others." Nationwide, the latest COVID-19 surge is driven by the highly transmissible BA.5 variant, which now accounts for 65% of cases, with its cousin BA.4 contributing another 16%. The variants have shown a remarkable ability to get around the protection offered by vaccination.

With the new omicron variants again pushing hospitalizations and deaths higher, states, and cities are rethinking their responses, and the White House is stepping up efforts to alert the public. Some experts said that effort is too late. "It's well past the time when the warning could have been put out there," said Dr. Eric Topol, head of the Scripps Research Translational Institute. He has called BA.5 "the worst variant yet." Global trends for the two mutants have been apparent for weeks, experts said. Yet Americans have tossed off their masks and jumped back into travel and social gatherings. And they have largely ignored booster shots, which protect against COVID-19's worst outcomes. "We learn a lot from how the virus is acting elsewhere, and we should apply the knowledge here," said Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington. Federal health officials need to push harder on masks indoors, early detection, and prompt antiviral treatment, Mokdad said.

(Read more mask mandates stories.)
(Newser)  Update: A Seattle man who was arrested, then released, after allegedly threatening to kill Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal earlier this month has been charged with felony stalking. Prosecutors said Brett Forsell, 49, was charged after new evidence emerged, Fox reports. After his July 9 arrest, authorities said there wasn't enough evidence to charge him with a hate crime. Neighbors said Forsell, who was armed, shouted obscenities and threats including "Go back to India, I'm going to kill you" outside Jayapal's home. Prosecutors say he was armed with a deadly weapon and had stalked Jayapal due to her position as an elected official. Our original story from July 15 follows:

A man accused of threatening to kill Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal was released from jail after prosecutors failed to file charging documents in time. Neighbors heard the 48-year-old man shout "Go back to India, I'm going to kill you" as he stood outside Jayapal's Seattle home with a holstered handgun at his waist Saturday night, according to a police report. A neighbor told police that the same man drove past Jayapal's home three times that night yelling obscenities, KING5 reports. In a 911 call at 11:25pm, the lawmaker told police that unknown people outside her home were using "very obscene language" and her husband thought they might have fired a pellet gun.

The suspect, a Seattle resident, was released Wednesday night because charging documents were not filed within 72 hours of the incident, MyNorthwest reports. King County prosecutors say the investigation is ongoing but they don't have evidence at this time that a hate crime was committed, reports the Seattle Times. Police have obtained an Extreme Risk Protection Order requiring the man to surrender his firearms. The suspect's mother told police he had been struggling with mental health issues and she was worried he might harm himself.

King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office spokesperson Casey McNerthney tells the Times that the incident was "disturbing and unacceptable" and prosecutors are taking it very seriously. McNerthney said the office is working with police to "make sure we understand the full extent of the suspects actions to build the strongest case possible." Jayapal, 56, came to the US from India 40 years ago and has been an American citizen since 2000. In the 2016 election, she became the first Indian American woman to serve in the House of Representatives. (Read more Pramila Jayapal stories.)
(Newser)  There was plenty of scrutiny applied to the story of a 10-year-old rape victim in Ohio who needed to travel out of state for an abortion following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. But now that it's been proven true, scrutiny is falling on those who cast doubt on the story. "A girl was assaulted, and then she was punished again by her government, and then she was doubted by journalists whose job it is to seek truth, and then she was used as a political pawn by politicians who were inconvenienced by the implications of her situation," writes Washington Post columnist Monica Hesse. More:



Many pointed out that the Indianapolis Star's initial report on the case cited a single source: Dr. Caitlin Bernard. But "in every other medical story I can think of, a doctor sharing the story of a patient would be considered highly credible," writes Hesse. Indeed, "if a surgeon describes removing a tumor for a broader article on new surgical techniques, we do not demand to talk to the cancer survivor."

The Wall Street Journal's editorial board on Tuesday described the report as "fanciful," adding "no one has been able to identify the girl or where she lives." But Bernard, bound by privacy rules, couldn't just name "an underage sexual assault victim," Hesse writes. And doubtful journalists could have investigated further, as reporters with the Indianapolis Star and Columbus Dispatch ultimately did.

Ohio's Republican Attorney General Dave Yost on Tuesday called the story a likely "fabrication," noting prosecutors and police officerswhose arrest of a suspect in the rape wasn't made public until Wednesdaywouldn't leave a rapist "loose on the streets." But "it's not rare that 10-year-olds are assaulted, it's rare that their attackers are actually caught and punished," Hesse writes. According to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, only 30% of sexual assaults are reported to police and fewer than 1% end in conviction.

"The country needs to find a rough consensus on abortion now" and "one way to help is to make sure that stories about abortion, from either side of the debate, can be readily confirmed," according to the WSJ editorial board. But "in America after the end of Roe v. Wade, one brave source, on the record, is often the best we are going to get," writes Laura Hazard Owen at NiemanLab. "Countless abortion stories will never be told at all," not because they're lies, but "because patients and doctors and staffers and volunteers will face arrest for coming forward."

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita launched an investigation to determine whether the doctor reported the abortion and sexual assault. The Star reported Thursday that Bernard did report the abortion to the Indiana Department of Health and the Department of Child Services on July 2 as required by state law. Informed of that reporting, Rokita told CNN that the investigation "remains open."

It's fine to withhold judgment on a single-source story "until more information emerges. But that's not what happened here. Instead there was sneering incredulity, as if a raped 10-year-old being denied an abortion wasn't an inevitable consequence of an abortion ban without a rape exception," writes New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg.

Some have claimed the girl would've qualified for an exemption to the Ohio abortion law. It states abortion is permitted in order to prevent death or irreversible bodily harm that "delay in the performance or inducement of the abortion would create." "But if you were an abortion provider in Ohio, would you stake your career, and perhaps your freedom, on prosecutors like Yost giving you the benefit of the doubt?" asks Goldberg. She adds, "If none of this is what anti-abortion lawmakers intended, nothing is stopping them from amending their laws."

Jim Bopp, general counsel for the National Right to Life Committee, tells Politico that the girl would have been forced to carry the pregnancy to term under the model legislation he's authored for state legislatures considering more restrictive abortion measures "unless her life was at danger." "We don't think we should devalue the life of the baby because of the sins of the father" and "we would hope that she would understand the reason and ultimately the benefit," he says.

(Read more abortion stories.)
(Newser)  A man acquitted in a terrorist bombing that killed 329 people aboard an Air India flight in 1985 was slain Thursday in a possible targeted shooting, Canadian authorities say. Officials said the victim was Ripudaman Singh Malik, who with co-defendant Ajaib Singh Bagri was found not guilty in March 2005 of murder and conspiracy in that Air India bombing and a failed second one on June 23, 1985. A witness who works a car wash in Surrey, British Columbia, said he heard shots Thursday morning and ran outside to find Malik unconscious in his car, the AP reports.

In a statement, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said: "We are aware of Mr. Maliks background, though at this time we are still working to determine the motive. We can confirm that the shooting appears to be targeted and there is not believed to be any further risk to the public. Police said shortly after the attack that a vehicle believed to be used in the shooting was found engulfed in fire a few blocks away. In Malik's trial, British Columbia Supreme Court heard that a suitcase bomb was loaded onto a plane at Vancouvers airport and then transferred in Toronto to Air India Flight 182. The aircraft crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ireland, killing 329 passengers and crew.

About an hour later, a bomb destined for another Air India plane exploded prematurely at Tokyos Narita Airport, where two baggage handlers died. Sikh extremist Inderjit Singh Reyat, the only man convicted in the bombings, testified for the prosecution at Malik and Bagris trial and was later convicted of perjury. "The media will always refer to him as someone charged with the Air India bombing," Malik's son, Jaspreet Malik, wrote on Facebook. The media and RCMP never seemed to accept the courts decision and I pray todays tragedy is not related.

(Read more Canada stories.)
(Newser)  Hustlers and Crazy Rich Asians star Constance Wu returned to Twitter Thursday with a heartfelt post explaining why she's been away from social media for three years. Wu said she took a break from social mediaand her Hollywood careerto focus on her mental health after the backlash to her negative remarks about the renewal of Fresh Off the Boat caused her to attempt suicide in 2019, reports NBC. "I felt awful about what Id said, and when a few DMs from a fellow Asian actress told me I'd become a blight on the Asian American community, I started feeling like I didnt even deserve to live anymore," Wu wrote.

"Looking back it's surreal that a few DMs convinced me to end my own life, but that's what happened," Wu wrote. "Luckily, a friend found me and rushed me to the ER." In 2019, Wu said she was upset and "literally crying" after the ABC sitcom she starred in was renewed for a sixth season. She later retracted her remarks, saying she loved being part of the show and was grateful for its renewal, People reports. She said she had been having a rough day and was briefly upset after finding out she would have to give up a movie role she was passionate about and had been "chasing for a while."

In her tweet Thursday, Wu said she had written a book, Making a Scene, made up of essays on issues including trauma and being Asian in Hollywood. She said she wants to "reach out and help people talk about the uncomfortable stuff in order to understand it, reckon with it, and open pathways to healing." The book will be out in October. "Even though I'm scared, I've decided that I owe it to the me-of-3-years-ago to be brave and share my story so that it might help someone with theirs," wrote Wu, who also tweeted a link to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. (Starting Saturday, anyone in the US will be able to reach the lifeline by calling 988.)
(Newser)  Why don't woodpeckers knock themselves loopy when bashing their head against a tree? For years, the prevailing wisdom has been that they have some kind of natural shock absorber in their skulls to protect their brains, explains NPR. But a new study in Current Biology refutes the idea. By analyzing video of woodpeckers in action, the researchers have concluded that no such protection exists. The old idea doesn't actually make much sense upon close inspection anyway, writes Ed Yong at the Atlantic. "If what you need is a hammer, why strap a cushion onto its head?"

The researchers pored over video to look for telltale signs of such a cushion. "If something in a woodpeckers skull were absorbing these shocks before they reached the brainthe way a cars airbag absorbs shocks in an accident before they reach a passengerthen, on impact, a woodpeckers head would decelerate more slowly compared with its beak," per the New York Times. The researchers discovered that no such difference in deceleration was taking place. If that's the case, then how do they avoid brain damage? Lead researcher Sam Van Wassenbergh of the University of Antwerp in Belgium suggests the answer is deceptively simple.

"We forget that woodpeckers are considerably smaller than humans," he tells the Times. "Smaller animals can withstand higher decelerations. Think about a fly that hits a window and then just flies back again." Essentially, the woodpeckers' brains are so small and light that they can withstand the blows. Using computer models, the researchers determined that the birds would have to hammer a tree at twice the speed they normally do to sustain any damage. The researchers also discovered something else: The bird closes its eyes upon impact, likely to avoid splinters. (Read more woodpeckers stories.)
(Newser)  A weekend fishing excursion on Oklahoma's South Canadian River turned deadly, and in a bizarre twist, Bigfoot comes into play in the case. According to an arrest affidavit from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, Larry Sanders and his buddy Jimmy Knighten set out Saturday afternoon to catch some catfish with their bare handsan activity called noodlingand a fight soon ensued that turned physical and then fatal, reports NBC News. The conversation that allegedly jump-started the fight is drawing attention.

The affidavit explains: "Larry claimed that while at the river, he discovered Jimmy intended to feed him to Sasquatch/Bigfoot. Larry indicated Jimmy attempted to get away from him so that the Sasquatch could eat Larry. Larry would not let Jimmy get away." The document adds that Sanders then punched Knighten and hit him with a stick, and that Sanders eventually confessed to "choking [Knighten] to death near the river." Pontotoc County deputies were said to have gotten wind of the crime after Sanders allegedly told his daughter about it, who in turn told her mother, who then alerted the authorities.

The affidavit notes that on Sunday, investigators found a body believed to be Knighten in a wooded area after Sanders drew them a map, per the Oklahoman. The two men were old high school classmates who'd recently become reacquainted, Knighten's ex-wife tells KFOR, which adds that Sanders' daughter had been dating Knighten's son, according to court records. The outlet also notes it isn't clear if drugs or alcohol were somehow involved. Sanders is being held without bond at the Pontotoc County Jail on charges of first-degree murder, with an upcoming court date of July 26, per a jail spokesperson. (Read more weird crimes stories.)
(Newser)  Wildlife officials in Idaho are scratching their heads over an "unusual case" involving a gaggle of dead geese. A release from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game is asking for the public's health in IDing the person or persons who, sometime over the Fourth of July weekend, apparently mowed down "multiple adult Canada geese" and their unable-to-fly goslings with their vehicle, at three different spots along a 200-yard span of Bloomington Bottoms Road, near Bloomington. Not only that: "The heads of many of the dead geese were removed and taken from the scene," the release goes on to note, showing pics of some of the decapitated birds (warning: graphic).

The department says it learned of the geese after a tipster called the Citizens Against Poaching hotline, per Live Science. "This is such an unusual case for this agency," IDFG spokeswoman Jennifer Jackson tells the outlet, calling it a "horrible display of truly unusual human behavior." And it definitely was carried out by a human: Jackson tells KSL that the cuts made to sever the goose heads were too precise to have been done by an animal. She adds that hunting Canada geese is legal in the state, following certain well-spelled-out rules, but that it's clear a hunting trip was not what took place here. "This was the act of a wildlife violator, not that of an ethical hunter," she tells Live Science.

She notes that whoever's responsible could be facing several misdemeanor charges, including killing the geese illegally (i.e., with some kind of vehicle), killing the geese outside of the legal hunting season; and leaving waste behind. If convicted, the perp, or perps, could see up to six months behind bars, a fine of up to $1,000, and a possible three-year revocation of their hunting, fishing, and trapping privileges. "It's hard to fathom why someone could do such an awful thing," Jackson says, adding that locals have been "expressing their disdain and disgust" at what happened. The IDFG is asking anyone with information to call a conservation officer at 208-204-3921, or the Citizens Against Poaching hotline at 800-632-5999. Calls can be made anonymously, though the department says there will be a reward for any info that leads to an arrest. (Read more geese stories.)
(Newser)  Jayland Walker, the 25-year-old Black man killed in a hail of police gunfire in the Ohio city of Akron last month, was shot or grazed 46 times, according to a preliminary autopsy report released Friday by the Summit County medical examiner's office, per the AP. Akron police have acknowledged initial findings showed more than 60 wounds on Walker's body. A spokeswoman for Summit County tells the Washington Post it's "very possible" that multiple entrance wounds could be caused by one bullet. The June 27 pursuit began when officers tried to pull Walker over for equipment violations. Authorities say Walker fired a gunshot from his car 40 seconds into the chase, though police note that he wasn't armed when officers shot him.

An attorney for Walker's family says there was no need for officers to kill him. The NAACP has made a direct plea to Attorney General Merrick Garland for the Justice Department to open a federal civil-rights investigation into the shooting death. Police body camera footage shows Walker, wearing a ski mask, jumping out the front passenger door of his still-moving car and then running into a parking lot, where police opened fire. That blurry footage doesn't clearly show what authorities say was a threatening gesture made by Walker before he was shot. An unloaded handgun, an ammunition clip, and what appeared to be a wedding band were found on the front driver's seat of Walker's car, authorities said. The officers involved are on paid leave while the state investigates the shooting. Seven of those officers are white, and one is Black.

None of them has a record of discipline, substantiated complaints, or fatal shootings, according to the police department. The local police union has said the officers thought there was an immediate threat of serious harm, and that it believes their actions and the number of shots will be found justified in line with their training and protocols. Police in neighboring New Franklin Township had tried to stop and then chased a car matching Walker's for the same minor equipment violations less than 24 hours before the Akron chase. A supervisor there called off the pursuit when the car crossed the township's border with Akron. Bobby DiCello, an attorney for Walker's family, has said Walker didn't deserve to die. He added that after Walker's funeral service, he'll hold police accountable for every round fired from their guns.

(Read more Jayland Walker stories.)
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain yesterday secured nearly $100 million in funding from Abu Dhabi firms for enhancing the water transmission capacity of Al Dour Station. The project, part of the second phase of Al Dour station, will see the capacity of its water transmission networks increased to 50 million gallons -- a reserve capacity suitable for satisfying the everyday needs of the residents there for at least three days.

The station will also serve construction, investment and industrial projects, thereby supporting EWAs water strategy until 2030, which aligns with the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Under the agreement, Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) committed funding of $41 million and ADEX $51 million. Shaikh Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, the Finance and National Economy Minister, signed the deals with Mohammed Saif Al Suwaidi, the ADFD Director-General, and Khalil Fadel Al Mansoori, the ADEX Acting Director-General, who are currently visiting Bahrain.
South Korea hopes a high-level visit to Tokyo next week will kickstart talks aimed at a breakthrough in historical disputes despite concerns the death of former Japanese premier Shinzo Abe could disrupt efforts to mend ties, Seoul officials said.

Relations between the two North Asian U.S. allies have been strained over disputes dating to Japan's 1910-1945 occupation of Korea. Washington has been pressing for Tokyo and Seoul to mend fences in the face of the North Korean nuclear threat and the rising influence of China.

Officials with the administration of new South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office in May vowing to improve ties with Japan, told Reuters they feel emboldened by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's recent election victory which could give him more scope to advance his policy agenda for another three years.

Foreign Minister Park Jin will visit Tokyo as early as next week, a trip which a senior official handling Japan policy said is aimed at "turning on the tap" for serious negotiations on issues relating to forced labour, which stalled under Yoon's predecessor.
A 27-year age difference hasnt stopped a former idol from marrying her much older fan in Japan.

Yuki Tomoe first met her now-husband Mitsuo when she was 17 and he was 44, according to Nikkan Spa

It was 2020 and Tomoe debuted as a new member of an idol group in Osaka. Tomoe used to be just an alternate member.

Mitsuo, who was a supporter of the existing group members, transitioned to become a big fan of Tomoe, reported sina

Although he lived in Oita, he would travel to Osaka every week to attend her performance, and he would never miss the online live events either.

Tomoe took the initiative and eventually confessed her feelings to Mitsuo.

Tomoe graduated from the idol group around the same time they started dating, reported sina

While dating, the two traveled long distances as Tomoe lived in Osaka, which is a five-hour train ride or eight hours by car from Oita.

Tomoe has since moved to the town of Oita and the two are currently on their honeymoon in Japan. ...continue reading
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

NEW MILFORD  The mayor has fired the company performing roof work at the high school, following the second roof fire at the high school since December.

The decision to fire United Roofing & Sheet Metal, Inc. in Brookfield comes after the fires, with the contractors also blamed for a pipe falling and a ladder hitting a town truck. The cause of the second fire has yet to be determined, but the fire marshal has said a December fire originated due to the roof work.

The company could not be reached for comment Thursday morning.

The July 5 fire caused substantial damage and forced summer programs scheduled at the high school to move to other locations.

Bass said Thursday he handed United Roofing a letter terminating their contract at Wednesdays Municipal Building Committee meeting. United Roofing accepted the termination letter, Bass said.

Bass said time is of the essence, and he doesnt think the town should have seek bids to complete the rest of the $4.76 million renovation of the roof project.

We want to get kids back in school, Bass said.

Dean Petrocelli, the architect of the roof project, has told Bass that two contractors could start working on the project in September. Bass didnt share the names of the two contractors.

Bass said he has asked state Rep. Bill Buckbee, R-New Milford, to assist the town in avoiding the rebidding process. Part of the project is being paid with state funding.

Buckbee told Hearst Connecticut Media on Thursday that he has reached out to the lieutenant governor's office.

We're looking into the legality of if we're allowed to do that  to receive the funding without going back out to bid," he said. Since everyone's still not at the Capitol every day, it's a matter of tracking down all the people that are in place and talking to them.

He added the town is doing everything it can on both sides of the aisle, working with people in Hartford trying to see if we can allow this to happen, so we can go without having to wait any longer than they need to.

At last weeks Municipal Building Committee, Bass said United Roofing workers were responsible for a pipe falling on the ground during the work, and a ladder hitting one of towns Community Emergency Response Team trucks. These incident occurred prior to the fire.

The work the contractors were performing involved using a propane torch. The torch was responsible for a December fire at the high school, Bass said, when the same contractors were on the roof.

Portable classrooms

On Thursday, Board of Education Chairman Wendy Faulenbach said the district is striving to have portable classrooms sent in for the start of school.

For the actual instructional piece, that is the priority, to provide in-person learning with portable classrooms  and that is still a work in progress, she said.

She said the district is racing the clock to make that happen, but safety comes first, and accommodating students. There are a tremendous amount of pieces to this. There's curriculum, there's transportation, there's extracurriculars.

She added to prepare schools for a normal opening is challenging enough, but now add this in. And so, that's the magnitude of really what we're up against. We all have the same goal, and I'm proud of that. I hope we achieve this. But it's literally all hands on deck.

She has asked the New Milford community for patience.

The community as a whole recognizes that remote learning would be the last resort and we're doing everything possible for you have that opportunity, she said. We ask the parents patience, and most importantly, we appreciate the community support. It's a team effort.

When the fire broke out, about 30 students were loaded onto buses. Staff in the building evacuated.

Had the fire occurred one day later  on Wednesday, about 375 students would have been in the building in summer programs.
Workers at a construction site of the high-speed railway linking Hefei in Anhui province to Xinyi in Jiangsu province. [Photo/Xinhua] Green light for the NDRC plan shows government resolve to stabilize growth The State Council, China's Cabinet, has approved a plan to implement relief work programs on major projects to help people find jobs close to home and boost incomes. Experts said the new plan showcases the government's firm determination to stabilize growth amid downward pressure. Policy stimulus, notably infrastructure investment, will play a crucial role in boosting domestic demand and driving economic recovery in the second half of the year, they said. The plan, proposed by the National Development and Reform Commission, said the implementation of relief work programs for major projects will mark a key move to boost effective investment, stabilize employment, ensure basic living needs, spur consumption in counties and stabilize the overall economy. The plan urges all regions and departments to implement key government-invested projects through employment-for-grant programs as much as possible, with a key focus on fields like transportation, water conservation, energy, agriculture, rural affairs, urban construction, ecology, environment and recovery and rebuilding from disasters. Zhou Maohua, an analyst at China Everbright Bank, said the plan will help boost effective investment, stabilize employment, increase people's incomes, support a recovery in domestic demand and add momentum to future economic development. As China's economy is on track to recovery, the government needs to continue to step up fiscal, monetary and industrial policy support, especially for hard-hit sectors and enterprises, micro and small business, manufacturing and the green economy, Zhou said. Luo Zhiheng, chief economist at Yuekai Securities, said downward pressure still exists in the economy despite the gradual recovery from recent COVID-19 shocks. He said China still faces pressures from shrinking demand, supply shocks and weakening expectations, which calls for more efforts to step up cross-cyclical and countercyclical policy adjustments. Referring to the new plan, Luo said launching relief work programs for government-invested key projects will give full play to the crucial role of infrastructure investment in expanding effective investment and stabilizing growth. "That will provide jobs, especially for migrant workers and those recently lifted out of poverty, and thus help boost consumption, stabilize employment and ensure basic living needs," he said. Data from the Ministry of Transport showed that as of the end of May, China's highways and ordinary national and provincial highways that will span 87,000 kilometers were under construction by way of more than 2,000 projects. Considering recently released incremental policies, investment in infrastructure will likely maintain a relatively high growth rate in the second half of the year, and the full-year infrastructure investment may expand by 10 percent year-on-year, Luo said. Looking ahead, with the better containment of the COVID-19 pandemic and the gradual resumption of work and production, China's economy is set to be back on track with a gradual pickup in demand, smooth supplies and stable expectations, Luo said. To further prop up the growth, it would be advisable to issue special treasury bonds and allocate the 2023 quota for local government special bonds in advance, Luo said. Chen Chuanglian, deputy director of the Southern China Institute of Finance at Jinan University in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, spoke highly of the government's recent moves to speed up infrastructure construction, saying such moves will help stabilize growth this year. On Tuesday, the NDRC released a new plan to expand its national road network to around 461,000 kilometers. Experts said construction of the national road network will also play a key role in stabilizing investment and economic growth as well as boosting connectivity between China and other markets along the Belt and Road. Yang Jinghao, chief economist at Concat Data Technology (Hangzhou) Co Ltd, said China will build new expressways stretching at least 30,000 km before 2035, which will help support stimulus-driven economic growth in the future.
The authorities were notified on Thursday that up to three persons, among them a retired Jharkhand police officer, had been detained for engaging in anti-Indian activities.

We monitor these institutions regular operations. We were on high alert as the Prime Minister approached, and in the interim, we learned about these individuals offices and began carefully researching them. Three persons have been arrested out of the 26 total people against whom a FIR has been filed, Manish Kumar, an ASP (Assistant Superintendent of Police) from Bihar.

Notably, on July 12, Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to Patna and Deoghar.

Two suspects were taken into custody by police on Wednesday after they dismantled a probable terror cell with ties to the Popular Front of India (PFI), an extremist group. Mohammad Jallauddin, a retired Jharkhand police officer, and Athar Parvez, a former SIMI member who currently belongs to the PFI and the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), are the two.

An example from the accuseds eight-page pamphlet titled India Vision 2047, according to Kumar, talks of subjugating coward majority group and taking back the glory.

After SIMI was outlawed, Kumar had stated that Parvezs younger brother was imprisoned for the bombings that occurred in the state in 2001-2002.

According to the police officer, Parvez also raised money in lakhs. He said that the accused encouraged others to engage in religious violence and that locals were trained to wield swords and knives in the name of martial arts.
Dr. Adish Aggarwala, Chairman of the All India Bar Association, has stated that Congress chose not to disclose about an international conference on terrorism and the government should launch an investigation into the matter as it relates to national security and espionage, adding a new twist to the controversy over the BJP asking former Vice President Hamid Ansari to come clean on claims of a Pakistani journalist that were refuted by him and the Congress.

Senior attorney Aggarwala claimed in a press release that former vice president and Congressman Jairam Ramesh had made reference to the International Conference of Jurists on International Terrorism and Human Rights, which took place on December 11 and 12, 2010, in Vigyan Bhavan, rather than the International Conference against Terrorism hosted by Jama Masjid United Forum, which took place at the Oberoi Hotel in New Delhi on October 27, 2009. He said that Dr. Farooq Abdullah, the chairman of the National Summit, Hamid Ansari, and other Muslim leaders also attended the 2009 conference.

Hamid Ansari and his companions, according to Aggarwala, were hanging out with Pakistani journalist Nusrat Mirza at the Jama Masjid United Forums Conference.

Earlier on Wednesday, the BJP had urged Ansari and Congress to deny media allegations that Pakistani journalist Nusrat Mirza had been invited to India by Ansari. Mirza said that he had given Pakistans ISI access to the data gathered during the trips.

However, former Vice President Ansari said that the Bharatiya Janata Partys official spokesman and many media outlets have spread a long list of untruths against him.
Dalai Lama, a spiritual leader in Tibet, stated on Friday that India and China must negotiate a peaceful resolution to their border conflict.

In light of a standoff between the two nations along the Line of Actual Control in the eastern Ladakh sector and the Galwan conflicts of 2020, the Dalai Lamas comments came ahead of the 16th round of Corps Commander-level negotiations between India and China, which are anticipated to begin on July 17.

After making a pit break in Jammu, where he had landed on Thursday from his headquarters in Dharamshala, the 14th Dalai Lama today departed for Ladakh.

Since both China and India are rival countries and close neighbours, this issue must eventually be resolved amicably and via dialogue. Military action is no longer appropriate, told Dalai Lama.

The 87-year-old spiritual leader claimed yesterday during a press conference in Jammu that most Chinese citizens understand his desire for meaningful autonomy and the preservation of Tibetan Buddhist culture rather than independence inside China.

Some Chinese hardliners view me as a separatist, but not most Chinese people. More and more Chinese are now realising that the Dalai Lama is not pursuing independence but rather genuine autonomy within China and the preservation of Tibetan Buddhism declared Dalai Lama.

The spiritual head of Tibet was answering a query on Chinas objections to his journey to Ladakh.

In addition, Dalai Lama said that more Chinese people are becoming interested in Tibetan Buddhism. Some Chinese scholars have noticed that Tibetan Buddhism is a very scientific religion that is rooted in tradition and knowledge.

The spiritual head of Tibet is in Jammu & Kashmir and the Union Territory of Ladakh for a two-day formal visit. Since the COVID-19 pandemics emergence in 2020, the Dalai Lama has not made an official trip outside of his home base in Dharamshala. Additionally, this is his first trip to the area since Jammu and Kashmirs Article 370 was repealed.

India and China have been at odds from April to May 2020 about Chinese Army violations in the Finger region, Galwan Valley, Hot Springs, and Kongrung Nala, among other places. After intense battles with Chinese forces in the Galwan Valley in June 2020, the situation deteriorated.
A terrifying document that discusses intentions to create an Islamic government in India by the 100th anniversary of the nations independence has been discovered by Bihar Police.

After Bihar Police on July 13 busted a potential terror module with ties to the extremist group Popular Front of India (PFI) and detained two suspects from the Phulwari Sharif neighbourhood of Patna for engaging in anti-Indian activities, they discovered the eight-page document titled India 2047- Towards rule of Islam in India. Today saw the arrest of a third defendant. Currently, a member of the PFI and SDPI, as well as a previous member of the outlawed organization Students Islamic Movement of India, the detained pair of Mohd Jallauddin and Athar Parvez, are both retired Jharkhand police officers.

Excerpts from an internal paper marked not for dissemination claim that the PFI is certain it can subjugate the majority community to its knees and restore back the grandeur of Islam in India, even if just 10% of the countrys Muslims support it.

It continued, To accomplish this purpose, this roadmap has been established to be kept in mind by all PFI leaders and appropriately guide the PFI cadres, in particular, and the Muslim community, in general, towards this goal.

The goal of all of our frontal organizations, including the Party, should be to grow and bring in new members. We would start by hiring and training members for our PE department, where they would receive instruction in offensive and defensive strategies as well as how to utilize swords, rods, and other weapons read the PFI report.

PFI reports, which the Bihar police were able to identify, also listed intentions to appoint loyal Muslims to jobs in the administrative and judicial branches of government, as well as the Police and the Army. PFI also intends to create a breach between RSS and SCs/STs/OBCs by portraying itself as a group primarily concerned with the welfare of upper caste Hindus, according to the paper.

The manifesto states that individuals who work against their interests must be eliminated.

According to the statement, These PE cadres would also serve as a protection against the manipulation of security forces by our adversaries. Establishment of Grievances, mass mobilization-inclusiveness, outreach, and engagement (mobilization), a PFI in every home, member recruitment and training, and information gathering against Sangh/Parivar officials were among the documents actionable elements.

The report stated that In the event of a full-fledged clash with the State, we would want assistance from sympathetic Islamic nations in addition to our trained PE cadres. PFI has established cordial ties with Turkey in recent years, an Islamic nation. In several other Islamic nations, efforts are being made to foster trustworthy relationships.

A portion of the eight-page pamphlet that was found during the raid and the arrest of the two suspects, according to Assistant Superintendant of Police (ASP) Phulwari Sharif Manish Kumar, talks of subjugating coward majority people and returning back the glory.

Two people were detained for engaging in anti-Indian actions. The accused received visitors from different states during the previous two months. Those arriving changed their names when reserving their hotel rooms and flights, a police officer stated. According to him, an FIR has been filed against a total of 26 individuals, of whom 3 have been taken into custody.

Kumar claimed that after SIMI was outlawed, the younger brother of the captured Parvez was sentenced to prison for his role in the states bombings in 20012002.

According to the police officer, Parvez also raised money in lakhs. He said that the accused encouraged others to engage in religious violence and that locals were trained to wield swords and knives in the name of martial arts.

Locals were instructed in the use of swords and knives on July 6 and 7, all in the guise of martial arts. They inspired others to engage in violent religious protest. We have both witness testimony and CCTV footage. Parvez also raised thousands of dollars, and ED is working on the matter Kumar stated.
Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, the speaker of Sri Lankas parliament, announced on Friday that Gotabaya Rajapaksas resignation as president had been accepted despite widespread demonstrations that have continued around the island nation.

Yes, the Presidents resignation has been accepted, and the legal procedure will now begin Tomorrow, members will be invited to vote for the president  stated Abeywarden.

Abeywardena addressed the news conference and stated that as of July 14, the President has formally resigned from all of his legal obligations.

Ranil Wickremesinghe, the prime minister of Sri Lanka, would be sworn in as president pro tempore until the results of the Parliaments election of a new leader, he added.

According to Abeywardena, the Special Provisions Act No. 2 of 1981s guidelines and Article 40 of the Constitution shall be followed in the selection of the President.

Speaker stated I want to go through this process quickly and effectively. The conclusion of this process in a transparent and democratic manner would be a turning point not just in Sri Lankan history but also in the history of democracy worldwide, as Sri Lanka is the oldest democracy in the South Asian area and holds democratic traditions holy.

He asked for their support in this democratic process from the party leaders, government representatives, and security forces.

Abeywardena made a specific plea to Sri Lankas esteemed residents to foster an atmosphere of peace so that lawmakers can convene freely and act in accordance with their consciences.

The presidential election process would be over in just seven days, according to the Parliament Speaker. He said that he had invited the Parliamentarians to attend tomorrow so they may vote for the new President.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Singapore, Rajapaksa has been permitted admission into Singapore for a private visit, and he has not requested nor been given asylum.
Viktoria Sundqvist / Hearst Connecticut Media /

HARTFORD  A 20-year-old who authorities say was an armed drug dealer in New Haven pleaded guilty Thursday to a gun and drug charge in federal court, a U.S. Attorney spokesperson said.

Luis Salaman, of East Haven, pleaded guilty via videoconference to possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime before U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas O. Farrish in Hartford. Salaman also is known as J, Lou Benz, Louie Benz and Benz, according to U.S. Attorney spokesperson Tom Carson.
Actor Yomi Fabiyi says his colleague, Olanrewaju James, aka Baba Ijesha, has the right to appeal the judgement of the Ikeja court which se...

Actor Yomi Fabiyi says his colleague, Olanrewaju James, aka Baba Ijesha, has the right to appeal the judgement of the Ikeja court which sentenced him to jail over sexual assault of a minor.

Recall that the embattled Nollywood actor, Olanrewaju James, alias Baba Ijesha, was on Thursday found guilty and sentence by an Ikeja Special Offences Court for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.

Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo, in a two-hour judgement, sentenced Baba Ijesha to 16years in jail.

Speaking after the court verdict, Fabiyi on his Instagram, said Baba Ijesha has the right to appeal the judgement after he pleaded not guilty.

His post read: Baba Ijesha was not NOT found guilty of The defilement (rape) with CAR KEY as charged (1&6) for lack of evidence, which he still denied ever committing but has been found guilty of few other charges bothering on sexual assault.

Fabiyi noted that despite his support for Baba Ijesha, he is agains abuse of children and will never support such.

He, however, stated that parents of such children abused should be punished equally for parental negligence.

CHILDREN ARE MEANT TO BE PROTECTED. And I will insist that PARENTAL NEGLIGENCE is equally punishable under section 30(3) Child Rights Act. It is an imprisonment for ten years!

Im still committed to the frontiers of HUMAN RIGHTS and that all accused are innocent until proven guilty by the court of law. I thank the JUDGE for not punishing the defendant (Baba Ijesha) before today, until verdict is reached.
President Muhammadu Buhari has denied that he got advice against the Bola Tinubu-Kashim Shettima ticket. The former Lagos governor a...

President Muhammadu Buhari has denied that he got advice against the Bola Tinubu-Kashim Shettima ticket.

The former Lagos governor announced the ex-Borno governor and Senator as his running mate after visiting Buhari in Daura, Katsina state.

On Friday, Peoples Gazette reported that the Department of State Service (DSS) warned about the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

But the President through spokesman Garba Shehu debunked the information in a statement.

The media aide advised Nigerians to ignore a laughably puerile report by an apparently pirate online newspaper seeking to sow division and chaos on the choice of Governor Kashim Shettima as the Running Mate of our Partys Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

It was reported that senior security agents fear that the Tinubu-Shettima ticket may lead to renewed sectarian crisis that could destabilise Nigeria.

The DSS document was said to have been forwarded to the President through the National Security Adviser, NSA, Babagana Monguno.

It cautioned Tinubu to consider the security implications of his selection before making it public.

Our understanding is that the alliance will destabilise Nigeria and embolden attacks on Christian citizens from their fellow Muslim citizens.

The distrust Christians are likely to harbour against a presidency occupied by two Muslims wont make our work easy at national security level, an intelligence operative was quoted saying.

The official added that Buhari was not involved in the talks that led to Tinubus announcement of Shettima.

The intelligence report was reportedly commissioned after Tinubu commenced consultations on a Muslim running mate after he emerged as the APC presidential flagbearer early June.
Chelsea manager, Thomas Tuchel, has said that he never asked Romelu Lukaku to leave the club this summer. Tuchel told The Telegraph th...

Chelsea manager, Thomas Tuchel, has said that he never asked Romelu Lukaku to leave the club this summer.

Tuchel told The Telegraph that there was never a time he said he wanted Lukaku out of Stamford Bridge.

Never the German said, adding that he was always clear on the matter, insisting he was willing to help the Belgian star to become a better player if he stayed.

It was always a possibility he stayed, but Romelu made it very clear he wanted to leave and the owners took the decision to make the decision straight away.

Disappointed is the wrong word. I dont know a better word in English. It feels like I take it personally  its never personal. I am not happy that we couldnt bring more out of him.

Maybe it would have just taken a bit more time. A bit more fitness, a bit more adaptation in our game. Who knows? But we will not find out. Once Romelu gave his clear opinion on the situation and there was a solution on the table, the owners made their choice and had my blessing.
There was heavy gunfire at Old Garage in Osun on Friday as thugs allegedly working for the Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport ...





There was heavy gunfire at Old Garage in Osun on Friday as thugs allegedly working for the Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, Oroki Branch, Osogbo, Kazeem Oyewale exchanged bullets with the Army.





It was reported that the Oyewale was later arrested after the gun duel with operatives.

Details later...
President Muhammad Muhammadu Buhari said Nigerians now eat local rice after the closure of the nations borders. Buhari lauded the n...

President Muhammad Muhammadu Buhari said Nigerians now eat local rice after the closure of the nations borders.

Buhari lauded the nations farmers for the record production of rice and other food commodities.

The President expressed delight that his agricultural policies of the administration are working to good effect.

He spoke in Katsina on Friday at a meeting with elected Local Government Council chairmen in the state.

Buhari said he has a good understanding of Nigeria and its people, hence the formation of tailored agricultural plans.

I said we must grow what we eat and eat what we grow. This is a country that was once dependent on foreign rice.

We closed the border to foreign rice. I said why cant we eat Nigerian rice, and with the policies put in place, Nigerians are eating home grown rice.

Buhari noted that the implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) helped the government to curtail unscrupulous government officials.

I found a tough man (Hamid Ali) for the job at Customs. He came to me and said they had intercepted 20 fuel tankers about to cross the border.

I said to him, sell the fuel and the tankers and put the money in TSA. That money would have found its way to the numerous mysterious government accounts, he added.
The Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) is set to immortalize officers and soldiers of the Nigerian Army (NA), who paid the supreme sacrifice du...

The Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) is set to immortalize officers and soldiers of the Nigerian Army (NA), who paid the supreme sacrifice during peacekeeping operations in the country.

The Nigerian Army in a statement signed by its Director of Public Relations, Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu, said the Chief of Staff (COS), Armed Forces of Liberia, Major General Prince Charles Johnson III disclosed this on Friday, July 15, 2022, during a courtesy call on the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Faruk Yahaya at the Army Headquarters, Abuja.

Nwachukwu said during the visit, the COS conveyed the appreciation of the Armed Forces of Liberia for the sacrifices rendered by Nigerian troops to the people of Liberia, in restoring peace during the internal strife experienced in the country.

According to him, He eulogized the NA for the technical assistance rendered through the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS), support team, which he said has ushered in a new Armed Forces of Liberia. The Liberian Armed Forces Chief called for more collaboration and bilateral relations in the area of training.

The director of Army Public Relations stated that responding, the Chief of Army Staff(COAS), Lieutenant General Faruk Yahaya noted that the NA will continue to leverage on the experiences gathered during peacekeeping operations in Liberia, in the discharge of its constitutional roles.

He assured the visiting Chief of Staff, AFL of continuous support, especially in the area of capacity development, adding that the NA has a long standing relationship with the Liberians and will continue to extend the warm hands of friendship to the AFL, the statement added..

The event was witnessed by Principal Staff Officers of the Army Headquarters,.

The highlight of the visit was the exchange of souvenirs by the COAS and the AFL Chief of Staff.
Watertown, NY (13601)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this morning will become overcast during the afternoon. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 84F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Overcast. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low near 60F. Winds light and variable.
This is the long, complicated follow-up story to an earlier complicated story about a beautifully preserved, circa 1845, pastel drawing of two gentlemen that was purchased last year by The Historic New Orleans Collection, a French Quarter museum, for $704,000. The artwork is a rendering of a 19th century odd couple.

One of the dudes appears to be old and White; the other appears to be young, and maybe Black. Based on their clothes and jewelry, theyre both wealthy. But their relationship is a mystery. Theyve long been considered a White father acknowledging his mixed-race son, which would have been rare at the time, in an artwork or anywhere else. But some observers believe the men might have been a romantic pair.

The identity of the artist is also a mystery. For years, the renowned lithographer, photographer and portraitist Jules Lion was thought to be a so-called free man of color, part of the community of African-Americans in antebellum New Orleans who were able to conduct business, own property and otherwise enjoy liberties not available to most Black people.

But, relatively recent research by an art historian named Sarah Picard has seemingly shown that Jules Lion was really a Jewish immigrant from France, which pulled the rug out from under decades of presumption.

If youre the sort of reader that requires a high degree of clarity and certainty, it may be time to scroll on down to some other section right now. But for those readers who appreciate that sometimes questions are way more interesting than answers, then  as Kermit Ruffins might say  ALL ABOARD!

'That's a gay couple'

Drew Ward is certainly interested in the mysterious $704,000 pastel double portrait. But hes not certain of anything else. Ward, who is a linguist, a former candidate for New Orleans City Council, and a self-styled historical researcher, said that to his eye, the double portrait may not depict a father and son, as broadly believed.

Instead, Ward said, My first thought was: Thats a gay couple.

True, the artwork may depict a May-December romance, but thats not unheard of, then or now. Gay relationships were mostly kept on the down low during Jules Lions era, of course. So, the mystique of the artwork may have as much to do with forbidden love as the acknowledgment of racial blending.

In the pastel, the body language feels too intimate and there seems to be a lot of intentional attention drawn to that giant ruby ring on the younger mans hand, Ward wrote via text.

Is it possible that the conspicuous ruby ring in the drawing is a symbol of bonding, like a wedding ring in an era when same-sex weddings were unthought of? Is it possible that a previous owner of the artwork considered destroying it in the early 20th century because it represented a violation of a sexual taboo (more about this later)? And is it possible that Jules Lion was the perfect artist to render a relatively intimate portrait of a gay couple, because he may have been gay too?

It has to be considered. After all, the whole LGBTQ population was seen but unseen at the time.

Doppelgangers, separated by decades?

But, what may be Wards most remarkable observation had nothing to do with either the sexual or racial identity of the sitters. As Ward studied the faces in the June 2 NOLA.com story about the double portrait, it struck him that the older gentleman, Moses, may not look especially like his presumably adopted son Achilles. But he looks an awful lot like Jules Lions brother Achille. At least he looked like Achille might have looked in later life.

When Ward carefully compared Jules portrait of Achille and Moses, the similarities couldnt be denied.

Look at the eyes. Notice that theyre not symmetrical, Ward wrote. Nothing about them are, not the brows nor the shapes of the eyes themselves. These two both have matching flaws at the bend of that left eyebrow.

Once you study the two faces together, you just cant unsee the similarities. But, like everything else about this pastel, that only makes understanding it more difficult. Are Achille Lion and Nathan Moses doppelgangers, separated by decades? Or maybe the date of the artwork is incorrect and the gentleman on the right is Jules brother as an older man? If so, how does the younger, seemingly darker man fit in?

Truth is, nothing about this portrait fits in.

Meet Regenia Alfreda Perry

Dr. Regenia Perry is the person who first put Jules Lions double portrait on the radar, so to speak. Perry, who was born in North Carolina, is 81 now. She said shes not 100% sure what a Wikipedia page is, but shes been told she has one.

Deservedly so. Perry was, as her Wiki entry announces, one of the first African-American women to receive a Ph.D. in art history.

That was back in 1966. Nine years later, she became the first African-American guest curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, when she was asked to select the paintings, sculptures and crafts for an exhibit titled Selections of Nineteenth-Century Afro-American Art.

19th-century nervous breakdown

Perry doesnt pull any punches when she describes the sometimes-painful challenge of being a 35-year-old Black woman stepping into a mostly White mens domain. The Met did everything in their power to give me a nervous breakdown, she said, laughing grimly. For instance, she said, the Met management was convinced that the cover of the exhibit catalog should be decorated with a beautiful but  in her view  benign quilt.

Instead, Perry insisted that Lions double portrait  which was considerably more sociologically charged  was put on the cover. She said it was nonnegotiable. They could have their quilt or their curator, but not both.

The pastel drawing by Lion had a special place in Perrys heart. A few years earlier, shed begun making regular pilgrimages to Melrose plantation in Natchitoches, which she considered an intoxicating touchstone of African-American history. There, she befriended an art lover named Francois Mignon, who lived in one of the buildings on the property and owned the striking Lion double portrait, which hung over his fireplace.

Cracking the case

Mignon told Perry hed purchased the artwork with Lyle Saxon, a popular journalist and chronicler of early 20th-century New Orleans culture. When Saxon died in 1945, it became Mignons alone. For some reason, Perry said, Mignon was always uncomfortable about discussing the pastel or its previous owner. He did, however, provide a couple of clues that hed learned from Saxon.

Perry said that Mignon told her that the older man in the drawing was a merchant who had adopted his Black, illegitimate son. Mignon confided that the owner of the artwork had considered destroying the century-old drawing, presumably because of the sensational nature of the subject matter.

Armed with that information, Perry said she scoured documents in  of all places  the library of The Historic New Orleans Collection, the very place the artwork would find a home a half-century later. There, she discovered the story of Asher Moses Nathan, the antebellum dry goods merchant whod made history when he legally adopted his mixed-race son by a special act of the Louisiana Legislature. Nathan and his son Achile were surely the pair depicted in the drawing, Perry concluded.

Francois (Mignon) gave me enough to go on, she said. I cracked that case based on what Lyle Saxon told him.

Perrys identification of the sitters has accompanied the artwork ever since.

Like practically everyone else in the early 1970s, Perry believed that the artist Jules Lion was either Black or of mixed race, because he was identified as a free man of color in 19th-century city directories. Sarah Picards 21st-century research that indicates he was a French Jewish immigrant who was misidentified as a free Black man, possibly because he was married to a Black woman, hasnt changed Perrys mind whatsoever.

From an African-American perspective, Perry said, no 100%, solid white man would allow his race to be listed as a free man of color, no matter what his wife or mistress or companion was.

And anyway, in Perrys opinion, the picture is more important than the race of the artist.

Great-, great-, great-grandpa Jules

The recent, rather public discussion of Jules Lions racial and religious identity has shaken Rhonda Michel Graffeos family tree to the roots. Graffeo, 63, is Jules Lions great-, great-, great-granddaughter. Growing up, she said, her mom told her that they had ancestors by the name of Lion, but she didnt know much more.

Ethnically speaking, Graffeo said she was taught that, like lots of people in the New Orleans area, her pedigree was some combination of French, Spanish, Italian, and Irish, and the family was Catholic.

The extended familys renewed interest in grandfather Jules began when art historian Picard contacted one of Graffeos cousins to discuss her conclusion that the renowned artist/photographer had descended from a Parisian Jewish family. The NOLA.com | Times-Picayune story about one of grandfather Jules drawings selling for almost three-quarters of a million bucks further grabbed the attention of Graffeos kin.

When that story came out, I said, Thats him, thats him! Graffeo said.

Heinz 57

Several family members attended a June reception at The Historic New Orleans Collection, where they got a closeup look at their distant relatives handiwork and were touched by some of his glory and mystery. Of course, Graffeo said, everyones excited to have a famous artist in the family.

Graffeo is a former dental office worker who now devotes her time to grandmothering. Over the past few years, shes become interested in her family genealogy, so she naturally took one of those mail-order DNA tests.

The test determined that were such a Heinz 57, she said, a reference to the multi-flavored condiment. The test determined that shes more than 40% French, but she also had ancestors scattered all over Europe. The test showed that there are some Jewish forebears in the mix. But, she said, there were no African ancestors.

Based on her research, Graffeos believes her family branch sprouted from the marriage of Jules Lion to Marie Emma Munoz, her great-, great-, great-grandmother, in 1856. She has a couple of pictures of their son Emilien Jules Lion, who is her great-, great-grandfather.

Courageous Lion

According to Graffeos research, Jules had been married previously to a woman named Marie Charlotte Armantine Broyard, who was described as a mulatto in the segregationist lingo of a 19th-century New Orleans census. Graffeo imagines that Jules marriage to a mixed-race woman somehow led to him being bureaucratically considered a free man of color.

But who knows? And what does it matter, really? Whoever Jules Lion was, she said, he had the courage to toy with the taboos of his time, when he drew the mysterious artwork.

You still had slavery, she said. And I think (creating the portrait) may have been frowned upon. I know a lot of artists like to push the envelope, and cause controversy, and cause discussion. Im proud of him. Good for you, grandpa.

Le Musee de F.P.C.

What makes Jules Lion an especially mystifying historical character is that we dont know what he looked like. Or maybe we do.

Le Musee de f.p.c., a history museum dedicated to free people of color at 2336 Esplanade Ave., has been illustrating the complicated racial relationships in antebellum New Orleans since long before Lions double portrait became a cause celebre. The museums collection includes a precise watercolor painting, smaller than a sheet of loose-leaf notebook paper, that may be a self-portrait of Jules Lion.

The dapper, bright-eyed young man in the painting wears a pencil mustache, parted raven hair and a knotted cravat. Tellingly, he cradles what seems to be a daguerreotype photo in his hands. Who but Lion  the man credited with introducing photography to New Orleans  would be depicted holding a daguerreotype?

The tiny painting seems to be signed by Jules Lion. But, of course, that doesnt prove its a self-portrait. It could be a painting of any good-looking young dude who wanted his portrait to demonstrate that he was onto the avant-garde technology of the time, photography.

Truth is, theres not a lot of proof of anything, anywhere in this story.

New Lions?

Historic New Orleans Collection chief curator Jason Wiese said that after The Times-Picayune's story about the Lion double portrait ran, a New Orleans area resident sent the museum pictures of two more Lion pastel portraits that have long been family heirlooms.

Wiese said these two rare drawings  depicting a White family group and a White young woman  had been unknown to scholars. But, he said, they seem strikingly similar to ours, in technique and, particularly, in the style of the signature. It remains to be seen what the new Lions may tell us about the magnetic Mr. Lion.

Were still working on it, Wiese said of the myriad mysteries.

The Lion double portrait is on display at The Historic New Orleans Collections 533 Royal St. location. Admission is free, with hours from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30, Tues-Sat, and 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 on Sundays.

+3 Race, paternity, identity and $704,000  the story of Louisianas most intriguing painting The trouble with this story is you cant really be sure of anything. A famous 19th-century artist was long thought to be a free Black man, con

+6 Mysterious 1837 painting of enslaved teen goes on display at the Ogden You read all about it in the newspaper last fall. Now you can lay eyes on the painting called Belizaire and the Frey Children in person, at 

+3 Famous portrait of someone who is not Marie Laveau sells for almost $1 million If you close your eyes and try to visualize Marie Laveau, theres a pretty good chance youll summon up frontier artist George Catlins 1837 p

+14 A beloved French Quarter statue is back where she belongs, with marks of vandalism removed The bronze statue of a languid young woman seated on the edge of a small fountain near Decatur Street, carted off after being vandalized nine 
NARRAGANSETT, RHODE ISLAND  Last month some 50 south Louisianans gathered in this small, New England port town, preparing for a breezy day trip through the Atlantic waters. The mood was light and there was an air of excitement  with some jokes about the chilly 70-degree weather compared to the triple digits back home as they ferried toward the Block Island Wind Farm.

This wasnt just a joyride, however. It was a chance to show off Americas first commercial offshore wind farm, largely built and assembled by several Louisiana companies.

We wanted to go to Rhode Island to allow people to see, touch and feel how Louisiana could create jobs building wind farms for the nation, says Michael Hecht, president and CEO of the New Orleans economic development agency GNO, Inc.

When we were informed that the wind farm in Block Island was largely engineered, assembled, constructed and serviced by Louisiana companies, it was an aha moment.

Hecht also organized the trip to build enthusiasm and connect more industry leaders working toward getting offshore wind farms into the Gulf of Mexico.

As a growing number of academics, industry leaders and policymakers have been pushing to get these underway, Hecht views it as a brilliant opportunity. Its a natural fit for Louisianas workforce, which is already primed for offshore activity.

There is economic opportunity for Louisiana to become the supply chain for offshore wind in the entire nation, Hecht says. Whats exciting about that is that instead of looking for gold, were selling the shovels to the gold miners.

He and other local experts are particularly enthused about the process, because its a way to mitigate climate change while improving the states economy.

When we see an opportunity where industry, government and environmental organizations all agree on an opportunity, thats something we should pursue, Hecht says.

Logan Atkinson Burke, executive director of the Alliance for Affordable Energy, says she also is pleased with the widespread support the notion of offshore wind is receiving locally.

This is one of the first times Ive seen leaders on either side of the aisle leaning into real solutions, so thats particularly exciting to see, she says.

HARNESSING WIND POWER

Louisiana and Rhode Island arent often compared to one another, aside from perhaps an affinity for seafood and their respective jazz festivals.

But both coastal states  along with the rest of the country  are dealing with accelerating climate change and the need to diversify power grids to accommodate renewable energy mandates and guidelines.

For some Louisiana workers, the Block Island wind farm was a practice run for whats to come.

The five-turbine wind farm began fully operating in 2021 and supplies renewable energy to the 17-mile Block Island and other parts of Rhode Island. Its success has also paved the way for similar projects currently in development along the East Coast and in Louisiana in the coming years  and on a much larger scale.

It wasnt an easy process to get the New England pilot project underway. But it eventually solved an annoying problem for residents of the island, in addition to creating more than 300 jobs, says Stacy Tingley, deputy head of market affairs at Orsted, the Danish company that owns the wind farm.

Block Island, which she fondly calls the jewel of New England, has about 2,000 full-time residents, but the population can swell up to 18,000 from summertime tourism. The surging demand for electricity had caused rolling blackouts, and residents were fed up with their unreliable power grid.

On top of that, their power was supplied the dirty way, says Tinsley: by burning millions of gallons of diesel annually and churning out carbon emissions.

In the face of climate change worsening, she says, People were like, we have to do something.

In 2006, Rhode Islands then-Gov. Donald Carcieri first introduced the concept of harnessing the states coastal winds to generate clean, renewable energy.

He established the RIWINDS program and announced a goal to get the state to generate 15% of its electrical supply from wind power.

[Carcieri] was like, I want offshore wind energy for Rhode Island. I want it for climate change, but I also want it for economic development, says Jennifer McCann, director of the U.S. Coastal Programs at the University of Rhode Islands Bay Campus in Narragansett.

Carcieri had the university conduct a multi-year, comprehensive study on the best practices and ways to get offshore wind farms developed.

This involved years of outreach, research and constantly surveying Rhode Island residents about their attitudes surrounding the project. While residents were largely supportive of it, they did have concerns.

For one, the waters are a popular spot for sailing and fishing, so it was necessary to get feedback on setting up the rigs in areas that that would minimally impede on this.

This area (of water) is really crowded, McCann says. This is the fishing industry. There are navigational channels, ordinances, transportation  all sorts of things  People were concerned about how this is going to affect their environment? Will there be collisions with our commercial and recreational fishing?

It also required studying everything from underwater geological structures to the ecosystem of the waters to current wind blade technologies. Believe it or not, she jokes, We made scientists talk to stakeholders.

Tracey Dalton, director of the Rhode Island Sea Grant and a professor of marine affairs at URI, says there were technical challenges but also human ones.

When you have a 600-foot structure, putting it in the middle of this busy ocean, youve got fishing, marine mammals, endangered species seeding and spawning. And you have to think about people and how they are going to relate to it, Dalton says.

One study she conducted showed recreational fisherman reacted more positively to the wind farms development because the underwater structure. They said there were increases in fish abundance and they were seeing different types of species at the site. On the other hand, the commercial fisherman were concerned that it was increasing recreational activity at the site.

Louisiana will have to face similar issues and conversations, though industry leaders are confident that support for it, like in Rhode Island, will be abundant. That there is already infrastructure in the Gulf waters doesn't hurt  people are already accustomed to offshore activity.

And many of the potential wind farms could be several miles offshore, where there is not as much recreational boat traffic to worry about.

Though it was a time-consuming process, the Rhode Island professors say their outreach paid off, and construction began in earnest in 2015.

Thats when Louisiana companies, like Keystone Engineering, Edison Chouest and others brought their Cajun ingenuity up north, Hecht says.

Where Rhode Island had the academic and economic support, what they lacked was a significant workforce to actually fabricate the parts and coordinate logistics of building the rigs.

Hecht compares some of the innovations made by south Louisianans to the Higgins boat, the amphibious vessel used in World War II that was famously developed by New Orleanian Andrew Higgins. The boat saved the free world, Hecht says. We will no doubt see that happen in offshore wind.

DIFFERENT ISSUES FOR LOUISIANA

Although Louisiana has not traditionally been known for leading the way in solutions to climate change, Gov. John Bel Edwards, in line with the Biden administration, released a state climate plan earlier this year with help from a bipartisan task force.

The plan sets a goal of generating 5 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2035, with the potential to supply millions of homes with clean wind energy.

The goal is also part of a larger recommendation to reduce greenhouse gases and reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Greenhouse gas reduction is one reason (to implement offshore wind), says Don Pierson, secretary of Louisiana Economic Development. But as we proceed, potential corporations that will want to grow or relocate to our state will ask us, what is your blend of power vs. fossil fuels? We dont want to say were 100% fossil fuels. We need to move as the world is moving.

The guidelines, as well as other state legislation that allows for offshore development, solidify the Gulf region as a hospitable place to do business in the renewable energy sector. But the state will certainly have some different issues than the ones faced by Rhode Island.

Rhode Islands farm, for example, is in shallower state waters, so dealing with the federal regulations wasnt necessary. At least some of Louisianas windmills, which will be far larger than the ones powering Block Island, will need to be in federal waters.

Louisiana is working with the federal government to figure out which areas in the Gulf could be developed for offshore wind. And that's likely to be a lengthy permitting process because it would be the first projects in the country of that size and scope. Plus, the rigs will be much bigger to accommodate hurricane-force winds.

Leaders are hoping to make Louisiana a national hub  not just capable of powering a small vacation spot like Block Island, but for millions of homes across the state and country.

And Hecht also points out that the state will be additionally able to sell green hydrogen generated from wind power, which could curb carbon emissions while still feeding the industrial corridor.

Theyre very new to permitting wind farms and wind activities, so theres no established rules, regulations and guidelines to follow, per se, Pierson says. Theyre now being developed. Its a slower process and thats one of the challenges we might face beyond three miles out (in federal waters).

However, Hecht of GNO Inc. doesnt necessarily think offshore wind farms will take as long as Rhode Islands project, in part because the workforce is already here, the support is already widespread and technology has significantly improved over the last decade, which could help make the process more efficient. (Offshore wind) is an evolution, not a revolution, Hecht says.

Neither does James Martin, CEO of Gulf Wind Technologies, think the process needs to be dragged out too long. His company is in the planning stages of developing massive blades that dwarf the ones in Rhode Island, to accommodate hurricane-force winds.

In [Rhode Island] they said their process took a long time, he says. "Louisiana can say, OK we havent done wind before, but we have done thousands of drilling assets. Theres no reason why Louisiana cant leverage its experience in oil and gas.

And companies like his  which is preparing to manufacture blades for the Gulf offshore wind farms  are already planning and developing new technology to fabricate supplies.

When the permitting goes through, Martin says they will be ready to take nearly immediate action, though one lesson learned from Rhode Island was to install the turbines when theres no wind. So what we need to do in the Gulf is choose the right time of year  not during hurricane season," says Martin.

Weve got a little lead time to get everything ready, he adds. Its almost like building a house if you think about a developer, you have to secure the land, you have to do the surveys, (identify) the shrimping areas, the fishing areas. Then you plan the house, so to speak, buy the pieces and then you install it.

BRINGING IT HOME

A new law in New Orleans also sets a clear and strict path forward for the regions transition into renewables.

A City Council ordinance last year, authored by Council President and Climate Chair Helena Moreno, forces Entergy New Orleans to shift away from its heavy reliance on oil and gas and use renewable and clean energy instead over the next several years. The policy requires 100% net zero carbon emissions by 2040.

While the states climate plan is more of a set of recommendations that has not been enacted into law, the citys legislation entices growth in the wind sector.

And the council has been working closely with business leaders like Hecht to help solidify the city as a hospitable place for offshore wind businesses.

Additionally, the American Clean Power Association released a study earlier this year that said as many as 17,500 new jobs could be created if two proposed wind farms take shape in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Texas and Louisiana. According to the Times-Picayune, the industry group estimated that it could create more up to 14,700 construction jobs and about 2,800 permanent positions for wind farm operations and maintenance.

Andrew Tuozzolo, chief of staff for Moreno, says the council will continue incentivizing businesses to set up shop here.

We will need hundreds of megawatts of new renewables over the next decade, and wind will play an important role here, Tuozzolo says. This (legislation) is the true catalyst.

Reflecting on the boat ride to Block Island, Hecht says the diversity of those aboard the ferry to the wind farm was an especially good sign for the states future as a wind hub.

We had the bayou regions, Lafayette, New Orleans, Baton Rouge  a large part of south Louisiana, he says. All who understand they can be a part of it ... The two points were to inform and to inspire. Without question, both those goals were met.

Tuozzolo also felt that the trip hammered in how capable and well-positioned the state is to bring these projects to the Gulf.

South Louisiana already does the work, he says. Now lets bring it home in a big way.
Marie Fazio writes for The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate as a Report For America corps member. Email her at MFazio@theadvocate.com or follow her on Twitter @mariecfazio.

To learn more about Report for America and to support our journalism, please click here.
Three more cases of monkeypox have been identified in residents from metro New Orleans, Louisiana health officials said Friday.

That brings the total to six cases identified so far in Louisiana. But, officials said there are likely more undiagnosed cases of monkeypox in the state than have been formally tested and identified.

Related: Here's what you need to know about monkeypox in Louisiana

Monkeypox is a potentially serious viral illness that typically involves flu-like symptoms, swelling of the lymph nodes and a rash that includes bumps that are initially filled with fluid before scabbing over, according to the Louisiana Health Department. Most infections last two to four weeks.

The new individuals in Friday's announcement are from the state's region one, which is made up of Orleans, Plaquemines, Jefferson and St. Bernard parishes. Authorities did not provide any other information, including how the patients are doing.

State health officials said they are working with the CDC and the patients' healthcare providers to identified and notify individuals who may have been in contact with them while they were contagious.

+2 Monkeypox has been identified in Louisiana. Here's what you need to know. The Louisiana Department of Health on Thursday identified the first case of monkeypox in a Louisiana resident. Here's what you should know abo

Here's what you need to know about monkeypox via the Louisiana Health Department.

What are the symptoms of monkeypox?

Symptoms of monkeypox can include:

Fever

Headache

Muscle aches and backache

Swollen lymph nodes

Chills

Exhaustion

A rash that can look like pimples or blisters that appears on the face, inside the mouth, and on other parts of the body, like the hands, feet, chest, genitals or anus.

Sometimes people get a rash first, followed by other symptoms. Others only experience a rash. Some cases in the current U.S. outbreak have experienced only isolated rashes in the genital region or other body parts.

How is monkeypox spread?

Monkeypox spreads in different ways, officials said. Monkeypox virus is most often spread through direct contact with a rash or sores of someone who has the virus.

It can also spread through contact with clothing, bedding and other items used by a person with monkeypox, or from respiratory droplets that can be passed through prolonged face-to-face contact, including kissing, cuddling or sex.

People who do not have monkeypox symptoms cannot spread the virus to others.

According to the CDC, early data suggest that gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men make up a high number of cases. However, anyone who has been in close contact with someone who has monkeypox is at risk.

NOLA Business Insider The biggest stories in business, delivered to you every day. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

What should individuals with concerns do?

People can take basic steps to prevent the spread of monkeypox. Anyone with concerns that they have been exposed or infected should refrain from intimate or close personal contact and seek medical attention. If you do not have a healthcare provider, visit a parish health unit near you. Laboratory testing for monkeypox is now widely available, officials said.

How widespread?

Since May 2022, 1,470 monkeypox cases have been identified in 44 states and Washington, D.C. Globally, more than 11,689 cases have been reported from 65 countries.

There have been no deaths in the U.S. to date, officials said.

Treatment option?

Treatments and vaccinations are available for monkeypox, but physicians say bureaucratic red tape is hindering their ability to respond to and contain the outbreak.

The monkeypox treatment, TPOXX, is only available to patients and doctors under a special CDC status because it is usually used to treat smallpox, not monkeypox.

The expanded access status requires physicians to go through more than 100 pages of paperwork each time they prescribe it, and between the forms and administrative requirements, a patient visit to initiate this medication can take between one and three hours.

As a result, many people who need the drug are not receiving the necessary treatment  and the bureaucratic hurdles are hitting uninsured and minority communities particularly hard, said Mary Foote, the medical director for emergency preparedness and response in the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Vaccine for monkeypox?

Bavarian Nordic's Jynneos is one of two vaccines that can be given in the U.S. to prevent monkeypox. The government has many more doses of the other vaccine  an older smallpox vaccine called ACAM2000 that is considered to have a greater risk of side effects and is not recommended for people who have HIV. So its the Jynneos vaccine that officials have been using as a primary weapon against the outbreak.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the vaccine for people who have already been exposed to the virus and their presumed contacts. That includes men who have recently had sex with men at parties or in other gatherings in cities where monkeypox cases have been identified.

The CDC estimates that about 1.5 million American men are eligible for the vaccine based on their HIV status and other risk factors.

Good news came Wednesday when federal health officials said thousands more doses of Bavarian Nordic's vaccine are expected to soon begin shipping soon.

The U.S. government has purchased more than 1.1 million completed doses of the vaccine produced by Bavarian Nordic in Denmark. But the company said earlier this week it needed authorization from an on-site FDA inspection before it could begin sending most of them to the U.S.

State and local officials in the U.S. say the limited vaccine supplies arent keeping pace with the growing number of people seeking appointments.

Wire reports from The Associated Press and CQ-Roll Call via the Tribune Content Agency were used in this story.
Indianas attorney general said on July 14 that hes investigating whether the doctor who first made public that a 10-year-old girl who was raped in Ohio and received an abortion in Indiana reported the crime.

Dr. Caitlin Bernard was named as the source of a July 1 story by the Indianapolis Star. Bernard told the paper that she was contacted by a child abuse doctor in Ohio who had a 10-year-old patient and that the patient was pregnant. The article suggested Bernard, who performs abortions, performed an abortion.

An illegal immigrant was arrested about two weeks later for allegedly raping the girl in Columbus.

Aside from the horror caused here by illegal immigration, we are investigating this situation and are waiting for the relevant documents to prove if the abortion and/or the abuse were reported, as Dr. Caitlin Bernard had requirements to do both under Indiana law, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, a Republican, said in a statement.

The failure to do so constitutes a crime in Indiana, and her behavior could also affect her licensure. Additionally, if a HIPAA violation did occur, that may affect next steps as well. I will not relent in the pursuit of the truth.

HIPAA, or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, is a federal law that governs the disclosure of details about patients.

Indiana law requires physicians to report to child services or law enforcement the pregnancy of a girl under the age of 15 because of the potential for child abuse. Failure to report is a class B misdemeanor. A doctor who aborts the pregnancy of a young girl must file a report with the Indiana Department of Health and Indiana Department of Child Services within three days.

The phone number listed for Bernard on the website of the Indiana University School of Medicine, where she is an assistant professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology, was not working on Thursday. A spokeswoman for the university has not responded to requests for comment.

My heart breaks for all survivors of sexual assault and abuse, Bernard wrote on Twitter this week. I am so sad that our country is failing them when they need us most. Doctors must be able to give people the medical care they need, when and where they need it.

Mother Reported Rape

According to a Columbus Police Department detective, the girl was raped in May and received an abortion in Indianapolis on June 30.

Gerson Fuentes was arrested on July 12 and charged with rape of a child under the age of 13.

The rape was reported to the Franklin County Children Services by the victims mother, the detective said during a court hearing.

A probable cause statement obtained by The Epoch Times says Fuentes confessed and the detective said that the girl identified him as the babys father.

A public defender representing the man told the court that these allegations are very serious and Mr. Fuentes takes these allegations very seriously, but argued his client should not be denied bond, as prosecutors requested.

The judge ultimately granted a $2 million bond, but Fuentes remains held behind bars, according to jail records.

From The Epoch Times
Franciscan Healths Mobile Markets will provide nutritious meals to the public at its hospitals in Hammond and Crown Point.

The Franciscan Health Foundation and Food Bank of Northwest Indiana team up to bring the trucks filled with healthy food that can be picked up by residents and families in need as a way of combating food insecurity in the community.

A mobile market will take place at 3 p.m. July 19 in the hospital parking lot near the helicopter pad at Franciscan Health Crown Point at 1201 S. Main St. Another mobile market will take place at 3 p.m. July 27 at Franciscan Health Hammond at 5454 Hohman Ave.

The truck will be parked in the parking lot across the street from the hospital next to the Centier Bank branch on Hohman Avenue.

"Provided in partnership with Food Bank of Northwest Indiana, each mobile market truck offers participants a selection of free grains, fruits, vegetables and protein," Franciscan Health said in a press release. "Food will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis until supplies are gone. Recipients must show valid proof of Indiana residency."

Franciscan Health's Mobile Markets are drive-through only. The health care system asks people not to arrive before 2:30 p.m. on any of the pickup dates.

Anyone interested in donating to fight food insecurity in Northwest Indiana can call 219-661-3401 or visit FranciscanHealthFoundation.org.

For more information, visit foodbanknwi.org.
Tinley Park native Joel Lee has found himself smack dab in the middle of a dog treat business.

His main job is as an engineer at Illinois Tool Works in Frankfort, where he has worked for 22 years, most recently as an innovation engineer.

He helped come up with an idea that could make some canines happy.

Lee and co-worker Tom Chlystek have a side gig creating and selling Rx Bone dog treats, which Lee says are healthier than many of the treats on the market today.

When we went to the store, we noticed a hole in the market for premium bones, he said. You can get dog bones on the lower end  like cookies for kids. They have fillers and things like that. Were trying to keep those away from our animals. We put the recipe together, and the dogs love it. So, we decided to start selling it.

The business started to get serious shortly before almost everything in the world was shut down in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lee, his wife, Michelle, and Chlystek, a senior project engineer who lives in the western suburbs, were ready to head out to events in the summer to get the word out on their new products. But COVID had other ideas as 2020 had very few public events .

Now they are giving it another go.

Last December, everything started to loosen up, Joel said. So, we decided to move forward.

The Rx group has plans to go to pet shows, dog parks and festivals throughout the south suburbs. Events in Frankfort and Tinley Park are on the docket. In one of their earliest appearances, it gave out free samples of the bones at a Law Enforcement Appreciation Day at Firemen's Park in Monee on May 21.

The treats are available at the Cornerstone Coffee House in Peotone, but Rx will soon be launching a website where the treats can be purchased.

Michelle Lee, an Oak Forest native who is working on the website and helping to make the treats, was more than receptive when her husband presented the idea of a dog treat business.

I love the idea, she said. When they first told me about it, I thought it was great especially because there is a lot out there with fillers.

A lot of people are more into their dogs, and its like their family and they want to take care of them.

Joel Lee, a Tinley Park High School graduate who went to Prairie State College and James Madison University, said that there was a little hit-or-miss before coming up with the right combination.

We wondered what could we do to get back to the basics? he said. We came up with some recipes and tried them out with our own dogs. We have real bone in every bone and no fillers. Real meat. All natural.

Joel Lee said his healthy treats are good for dogs of all ages.

Dog owners who are into nutrition like the fact that there are no fillers at all, he said. Its all natural and thats good for the dogs muscles and joints.

Young dogs need that to grow and old dogs need that when their joints are achy. These are easy to digest.
Comedian George Lopez will take the stage at the Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana this fall.

Lopez will bring his OMG Hi! Comedy Tour to the casino at 5400 W. 29th Ave. in Gary's Black Oak neighborhood at 7 p.m. Sept. 29.

"Like many African-American comedians before him, George Lopez broke ground for Latino comics by embracing his ethnicity and confronting racial stereotypes head-on. He is currently performing stand-up in arenas across the country on his 'OMG Hi! Comedy Tour, through 2022,'" Hard Rock Casino said in a press release. "Lopez begins shooting the pilot for his upcoming NBC comedy Lopez vs Lopez featuring his real-life daughter, Mayan Lopez later this fall. The sitcom about a blue-collar family is set to premiere in 2022."

He's been a television star and toured around the world.

"His original comedy special 'Well Do It For Half' for Netflix premiered globally in the summer of 2020. Prior to that, Lopez joined Eddie Griffin, D.L. Hughley, and Cedric the Entertainer onstage for The Comedy Get Down which inspired a scripted comedy series based on the tour for BET. In 2017, Lopez completed a nationwide tour for 'The Wall World,'" Hard Rock Casino said in a press release.

Lopez has filmed four HBO specials and been nominated for several Grammy Awards.

Tickets start at $59.50 for the 21+ show. They go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday.

For more information, call 219-228-2383 or visit hardrockcasinonorthernindiana.com.
In  Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, a middle-aged woman of very limited means in post-World War II London dreams of owning a Christian Dior gown. In 1957, however, at the height of Diors New Look renown, this was not a straightforward proposition. There was no London store or catalog to order from. There wouldn't even be a ready to wear line for another 10 years. Everything was custom made couture. The only way Ada Harris could own one herself, as the title suggests, was to drop in on the House of Dior at 30 Avenue de Montaigne.

The film, which opens in theaters nationwide Friday, is a colorful, romantic fairy tale starring Lesley Manville as Mrs. Harris, a war widow who only discovers Dior while cleaning one of her wealthy clients homes, and Isabelle Huppert as the snobbish gatekeeper Madame Colbert, who bristles at the idea of a woman like Ada wearing Dior. It is, director Anthony Fabian hopes, a film that will delight and inspire audiences not just for its aspirational qualities but for the dignity with which it treats its heroine.

I think everyone has an aspiration for something that seems unattainable, Fabian said. We are very ground down by a very complicated time that were living in right now, and something that offers the possibility that you can fulfill your dreams is a very uplifting message.

Fabian had been introduced to the story about a decade ago. He wasnt familiar with Paul Gallicos 1958 book (Mrs. Arris Goes to Paris) or the Angela Lansbury, Omar Sharif and Diana Rigg TV movie from 1992, but a producer thought of him to direct, and as someone who has lived in both Paris and London, he knew he could bring something unique to the story. When the rights to the book lapsed, Fabian picked them up and started on his own version of the script, which would elevate the story from just being about a dress to one thats about a woman who society disregards getting a second chance at life and love.

It doesnt really explain why Mrs. Harris wants this dress, other than in the most frivolous and superficial terms  it had to be more profound, Harris said. I wanted to suggest that Ada Harris heart is healed by going on this journey.

But it was all going to hinge on who would play Mrs. Ada Harris and Manville was, for him, the perfect combination of character actor and leading lady.

It is a little bit of a Cinderella slipper of a role, he said. Its not going to fit many people.

The House of Dior even agreed to help by opening their archives and supplying blueprints for its original townhouse and atelier, which were recreated in detail by the production. But it would take some postwar scrappiness to bring it to life on a very, very limited budget during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, including doing much of the filming in Budapest.

It helped that Fabian was able to enlist some of the top film craftspeople in the world, including costume designer Jenny Beavan and production designer Luciana Arrighi. Both women are Oscar-winners who met on the set of James Ivorys Howards End and went on to work together many more times including on The Remains of the Day and Sense and Sensibility. In the 1960s, Arrighi was a model for Yves Saint Laurent for several years and brought with her an intimate understanding of the world of mid-century haute couture.

Luci has always had the most divine taste, Fabian said. She was the one who said, I think Jennys the right person for this. It is a bit of a costume designer's dream. I was able to aim quite high.

Beavan, who has won Oscars for A Room with a View, Mad Max: Fury Road and, earlier this year, Cruella, had also worked with Manville before and thought Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris was just the most charming story.

I just love characters," Beavan said. "I dont mind whether theyre cleaners or Dior models."

But, she said, she was, Slightly seduced into thinking that Dior would be doing the Dior part of it.

When Beavan mentioned this after a beautiful afternoon exploring the Dior archives and meeting with their chief curator, she was met with a horrified non, non! Beavan and her team, including a fellow Merchant Ivory veteran John Bright and her Cruella collaborator Jane Law, would be the ones making the dresses.

Physical dresses from that era of Dior are scarce, however, and Beavan had to rely on photos, drawings and several reproductions made in the 80s and 90s for reference. The gowns called Dior Diablotine and Miss Dior would be the inspiration behind the scarlet and emerald frocks that catch Mrs. Harris's eye in Paris.

Getting hold of enough fabric was tricky, though. With lockdowns and travel restrictions and zero costume houses in Budapest, they relied on samples in the mail, zoom approvals and friends in Paris to help fit their French cast.

I felt a lot of pressure because we had so little money to do it all, and yet we were recreating a very high fashion moment. I just wanted to honor Dior. I wanted to make sure that they felt what we were recreating was very possible, Beavan said. In the end we did make it, Dior approved of it and couldnt have been more helpful all the way.
Jerry Davich Jerrys career began in 1995 as a political cartoonist/columnist with The Times of NWI, writing thousands of columns and stories through narrative storytelling, or shining a light on societys darkest corners, or provoking unpopular conversations. Follow Jerry Davich Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

Tom Colbert is convinced that his crack team of cold case experts has pulled the ripcord to the truth about D.B. Cooper, the infamous jetliner pirate who has since become an American folk legend.

Colbert, whom Ive known since 2018, is one of the first cold-case experts to be interviewed for the new Netflix four-part series, D.B. Cooper: Where Are You?! which debuted Wednesday. My one-word review: fascinating.

The documentarys tagline teases viewers with this intriguing description: In 1971, a skyjacker parachutes off a plane with a bag of stolen cash  and gets away with it. Decades later, his identity remains a compelling mystery.

This true-crime saga is considered the Holy Grail of cold cases in our country, in part because it has yet to be officially solved by the FBI or anyone else. But also because D.B. Cooper, whose name was bungled from the start by sloppy reporters, immediately parachuted into American pop culture, and has continually fascinated generations of Cooperites, as theyre called.

With that said, the D.B. Cooper case has not gone worldwide until now, Colbert told me before the documentarys global release. For many people around the planet, this is the first time theyre hearing about this case.

If you recall, a man with an alias of Dan Cooper hijacked a Northwest Orient Airlines flight on Nov. 24, 1971, and later parachuted to a shadowy fate with $200,000 in ransom money. His remains were never found. And neither was his identity.

A few Cooperites give their own theories in the documentary, with their own suspects, but our team of experts is convinced we know his true identity, said Colbert, who was 12 when Cooper skyjacked that jet and seemingly vanished into mid-air.

Colbert, who lives in Ventura, California, has a unique connection to Northwest Indiana regarding this case, which marked its 50-year anniversary in 2021. In 2015, he reached out to a Vietnam War veteran from Wheatfield to tap into his decades-old decoding skills.

Its like your Social Security number. Once you learn it, you never forget it, Rick Sherwood told me in 2018. The Army drilled Morse code and other codes into my head, and Ive never forgotten them. I just never thought Id have to use it again.

Sherwood, a soft-spoken military veteran with no desire for publicity, welcomed me into his home to discuss his role in helping to break this cold case. (Read this 2018 column on my Facebook page.) The Gary native hadnt used his code-breaking skills since his 26-month tour of duty while serving in the covert Army Security Agency.

Colbert reminded Sherwood that he served briefly in Vietnam alongside a helicopter pilot named Robert Rackstraw, who served only temporarily in Sherwoods radio research team. During that war, Project Left Bank was a highly classified mission involving the interception of airborne radio communications with specially-equipped helicopters. Sherwood took part in this code-breaking mission.

Colbert, a former researcher at CBS News, shared with Sherwood a series of six cryptic letters, claimed to be written by a Dan Cooper, shortly after the 1971 hijacking, each one including a series of seemingly random numbers.

The letters were written in part to taunt the FBI, which opened a full-scale investigation after the crime, yet those random numbers were never decoded. In 2016, the FBI ended its massive investigation, dubbed NORJAK, for Northwest Hijacking. That same year, Colbert released his book, The Last Master Outlaw, which identified Rackstraw as Cooper.

He is one of the slickest cats on the planet, one source told viewers in the first episode of the Netflix documentary, which I watched Wednesday.

Colbert told me, Its being advertised as a fun hunt for audiences around the globe. But our greatest adversary in this 10-year quest wasn't the skyjacker, but the FBI, who we had to sue in federal court for the sealed Cooper file.

Colbert said Freedom of Information Act memos revealed that Rackstraw outfoxed the FBI up to nine times over the course of decades.

The further that our elite team of investigators went down his trail, the more they exposed his shadowy world of espionage, and this made the intelligence community very nervous, Colbert said.

He leads a nonprofit organization called The Case Breakers, a 40-member task force of seasoned investigators from across the country. (In a future column, I will explore other cold-case mysteries his team is investigating, including the Zodiac Killer, the burial location of Jimmy Hoffa and the Atlanta child murders.)

My wife, Dawna, and I led the historic fight for the truth, but Im just the ringmaster with this group. Our experts are the lions and tigers, Colbert said.

Four years ago, the FBI told me in a prepared statement, During the course of the 45-year investigation, the FBI exhaustively reviewed all credible leads, coordinated between multiple field offices to conduct searches, collected all available evidence, and interviewed all identified witnesses.

In other words, Rackstraw was never officially identified as Cooper. He died in 2019, at 74.

The reason he was never charged is that he was a CIA pilot around the globe, and a four-time felon with 35 criminal titles when in the United States. Any time he screwed up, the CIA gave him a get-out-of-jail card, Colbert said.

The Netflix documentary reveals only a handful of hundreds of suspects who were believed to be Cooper. The series focuses as much on the Cooperites as it does the confounding case, which remains the only unsolved skyjacker case in U.S. history.

The daring hijack and disappearance remain an intriguing mystery  for law enforcement and amateur sleuths alike, the FBI states on its website.
HAMMOND  Another member of the Latin Dragons is going to prison for shooting rival street gang members.

U.S. District Court Judge Philip P. Simon imposed a 17-year sentence Thursday on 27-year-old Joshua B.J. Harris-White.

Harris-White pleaded guilty two years ago to taking part in a racketeering conspiracy as well as being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.

He is among 19 people a federal grand jury first indicted in 2017 with trafficking illicit drugs as a member of the Chicago-based street gang, that also operates in Hammond and other parts of the Region.

He was facing up to 20 years imprisonment when he waived his right to a jury trial and admitted his involvement in several gang activities dating back to 2007 when he was age 13.

He admitted in his guilty plea he shot and wounded two people he considered rival gang members Dec. 30, 2012 near Calumet Park in Chicago.

He illegally sold a firearm and illicit marijuana Aug. 13, 2018 to an undercover agent of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

It was illegal for Harris-White to possess a firearm because he previously had been convicted of a felony.

Harris-White and other Latin Dragons members rode in a truck July 10, 2011, to rival Latin Kings territory in Chicago where they confronted a man and woman.

He shot the man in the neck with .40 caliber handgun. While the victims attempted to run away, fellow Latin Dragons member Manuel Diaz ran them down with a truck.

Diaz is one of 16 gang members previously convicted in recent years through the work by the U.S. Attorneys office. Diaz is serving a 35-year sentence.

Harris-Whites defense attorney, James N. Thiros, argued in a memo he previously had written the court that his client was a school dropout, abused illicit drugs and was drawn to gang life at an early age because of a lack of parental supervision.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael J. Toth argued in an earlier court memo that Harris-White has been arrested 14 times between 2007 and 2018 and has six previous convictions as an adult.
HAMMOND  A 24-year-old Portage man has been sentenced in federal court to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to having a 16-year-old girl repeatedly produce sexually explicit photos and videos with a 4-year-old girl, United States Attorney Clifford D. Johnson said.

Additionally, Romio Xavier Hawkins admitted to law enforcement that he possessed more than 1,000 images and 300 videos containing child pornography, including materials featuring toddlers and infants, according to Johnson.

Hawkins was sentenced Thursday by United States District Court Judge Philip P. Simon to 240 months in prison followed by 5 years of supervised release.

According to documents in the case, Hawkins instructed the young girl to produce the sexually explicit material on multiple occasions between January and February 2021.

The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the Indiana State Police, Johnson said. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Abizer Zanzi.
GARY  When Nate George graduated high school he told himself he would never go back to Gary.

"I grew up in the '80s, '90s, and those of you who were here around that time, you understand why. It was a rough era, I started losing friends at the age of 14," George told a crowd of community members, elected officials and public safety personnel that filled the City Council Chambers Wednesday night.

George ultimately did return to his hometown and is now raising his children in Gary. Though he loves the city, George said the recent uptick in gun violence feels all too familiar.

"Every summer it's like clockwork," George said during the community meeting held by the Gary Public Safety Committee. "We have these discussions, we go away and that's it. Then next summer we come right back around again."

City Councilman and Public Safety Committee Chairman Ron Brewer, D-At-Large, called the community discussion after a rash of high-profile shootings in the city. A panel of Public Safety Committee members and local law enforcement officers shared ideas, then about a dozen residents spoke.

Last week, three people were killed and seven injured after a shooting at an Independence Day celebration, and on Monday two men were injured in separate drive-by shootings. In early June, two people were injured after a shooting broke out at the U.S. Steel Yard after the West Side Leadership Academy graduation, and just a week later two people were killed and four were injured in a shooting at Playo's Night Club.

"I won't gloss over the fact that this country and this community is experiencing an epidemic of violence," Gary Police Chief Brian Evans said. "There is no safe haven anymore ... these things happens in every situation  movie theaters, churches, now parades."

Every summer, the Gary Police Department prepares for an increase in violence. Between May 14 and May 27 of this year, Gary PD tried to make arrests for all of the department's violent felony warrants.

"We arrested 57 people in anticipation for the summer. We shouldn't have to do that ... and you see where we are. We cannot arrest our way out of our issues," Evans said.

The Gary Police Department is the busiest in the Region. Evans said officers answer about 1,400 service calls every week.

The issues Gary Police are facing are mirrored across the country. In 2020, more Americans died of gun-related injuries than in any other year on record. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that 45,222 Americans died from gun-related injuries, up 14% from 2019.

While the most recent CDC data on gun-related deaths is from 2020, Evans said "everyone is feeling that the violence has increased" this summer. The chief also noted that in the U.S., there are now more guns than people. A report from the Small Arms Survey estimated there were about 400 million guns in the U.S.

As of July 1, gun owners in Indiana who are over 18 and are not otherwise prohibited from possessing a firearm will be entitled to carry a handgun in public without needing to obtain a state permit.

"We're also dealing with free-for-all gun laws in this state," Evans said. "The new law really limits what we can do when it comes to combating crime. We can't even approach someone now if they have a gun on them unless they are doing something that is out of the ordinary that will give us probable cause."

Early intervention

The individuals behind the trigger are "younger and younger," Evans said. Last week, charges were filed against a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old who were both arrested after the shooting at the West Side graduation.

"We need to stop our own children from hurting us, Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter said. We have to focus on that family unit, we have to focus on principles."

Several panelists and residents brought up the idea of mentoring youth. Some speakers suggested programs that involve law enforcement, they said positive interactions between youth and police could help build trust.

Gary educator Jeremiah King said many of his students and peers feel like they don't have a good understanding of the city's history. King said he would like to see mentorship programs "that make a genuine effort to bridge that gap" in historical knowledge. Carter agreed that a better understanding of Gary's past could help current generations feel more connected to their community and increase cultural pride.

Shortly after the shooting at the West Side graduation, state Sen. Eddie Melton, D-Gary, sent a letter to Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb. Melton Asked Holcomb to call a special session of the Indiana General Assembly to give lawmakers an opportunity to repeal the state's permitless handgun carry law.

"If they are going to pass guns laws that are going to be negatively impacting communities of color and low-income communities, there should be an investment on the back end, knowing that there is going to be repercussions when that happens," Melton said during the Wednesday night meeting.

Melton also said he would like to see more financial support for school programs. He recalled that when he was growing up in Gary in the early 1990s, schools stayed open during the summer, serving as a safe place for recreation activities.

Systemic issues, such as poverty, need to be addressed to ensure children are raised with more support and resources, Melton said. According to the U.S. Census, 33% of Gary citizens live in poverty, compared to the approximately 16% of Lake County residents who live in poverty.

"Intergenerational poverty. That is the root of it all," George said.

Wraparound care

Witnessing a shooting is a traumatic experience, that has a deep, lasting impact on you as a human being, Council President William Godwin, D-1st, said.

The room of panelists and residents agreed: deterring crime will require more resources and support directed at Gary youth, but what happens after a crime is committed?

"When you have young people that see a mass shooting in the middle of the night, police (are) called, bodies laying on the ground. They have to go home and try to sleep," Brewer said. "They have to go home and in some cases get ready for work, (in) a lot of cases get ready for school the next day."

If witnesses and victims don't receive proper therapy and support, "the cycle repeats ... the cycle is: revenge, don't tell, revenge," Brewer said. Gary Police and the organization Gary 4 Life both follow-up with residents after violent crimes, offering social services. However, Evans said some witnesses are afraid to talk to police because they fear retaliation.

He urged residents to contact the department's anonymous tip line at 866-274-6347, to report information.

Gary has launched multiple public-safety initiatives in recent months in an effort to tackle crime.

In April, the city announced a partnership with Indiana State Police. ISP Major Jerry Williams is currently working in Gary, evaluating the entire police department to see what resources are needed. While no concrete plans have been released, Williams said he is looking to "leverage state and federal resources" to assist Gary PD.

In June, the city announced the "Operation Safe Zone" program, where local businesses can register their security cameras with the city, allowing Gary police to access a livestream of the cameras.

The Merrillville-based security firm American Eagle Security, Inc. has also donated the use of two mobile solar camera systems. One will be used by the Gary Community School Corp. at events and the other will used at different Gary beaches. The devices provide a a bird's-eye view of the surrounding area and can easily be moved.

Though a date has not been set, the Public Safety Committee plans on holding a follow-up meeting in August. Melton said he would like to see some of Gary's young people "brought to the table" for the next discussion.

You cant police your way out of it, you cant fund your way out of it, but all of those are tools, Melton said.
HAMMOND  Almost three years ago, city leaders and residents gathered at the Towle Theater to hear an ambitious plan for the redevelopment of downtown Hammond.

Now construction workers and safety cones fill the partially torn-up road right outside the historic theater  the reimagination of downtown Hammond has begun.

Located at 5205 Hohman Ave., the Towle Theater, formerly the Towle Opera House, sits on the edge of downtown Hammond. Once lined with an array of movie theaters, department stores and hotels, Hohman Avenue storefronts began to empty in the 1950s as malls became more popular.

Past revitalization efforts have largely been focused on bringing businesses back to the downtown, said Hammond Director of Economic Development Anne Anderson.

However, when the city hired Massachusetts-based urban planner Jeff Speck in 2018, redevelopment plans shifted to look at the importance of residential development.

"Businesses would come but not stay because no one was down here," Anderson said. "We realized that we need residential."

Though Hammond's downtown is bordered by neighborhoods, there are no apartment buildings located right in the heart of downtown. Downtown housing creates a strong customer base for local businesses.

Three upcoming development projects hope to fill the city's rental gap.

Walkable urban housing

"Todays housing market shows that people want to live in downtowns, as opposed to the suburbs," Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. wrote in a letter included at the beginning of the 132-page Downtown Hammond Master Plan.

Over the next few years, some 360 market-rate rental units will be coming to downtown Hammond.

The former Bank Calumet building, at 5231 Hohman Ave., is slated to undergo a $24 million redesign that will include over 100 residential units and 7,000 square-feet of retail. Anderson said construction will likely begin this fall and last a year to 18 months.

Construction on Tailor Row, a $25 million apartment complex coming to an underutilized parking lot off Hohman Avenue, will also start this fall. Tailor Row will have 208 units, a bottom floor filled with commercial space and an outdoor plaza.

The final apartment complex, Madison Lofts, is planned for the northeast corner of Sibley Street and Hohman Avenue. The development will be five stories tall and consist of about 55 residential units and 87,000 square-feet of retail.

Anderson said both Tailor Row and Madison Lofts will likely be completed by the spring of 2024.

The residential development, paired with the South Shore Line's West Lake Corridor expansion, is "a recipe for success," Anderson said.

The South Shore project will create a direct line to Chicago. It will include two Hammond stations: a South Hammond station off of 173rd street and the Hammond Gateway station, located about three blocks west of the city's current South Shore station.

The city has also committed to constructing a third station downtown near the federal courthouse once the train is running.

To ensure residents, commuters and visitors feel welcome, the city is working to make the downtown more pedestrian-friendly with two major projects: the Rimbach realignment and the Hohman redesign.

The leg of Rimbach Street that intersects with Hohman Avenue used to be swooped, aligning it with Fayette Street, encouraging speeding. Construction crews are currently working to straighten the curve.

Once complete, the outdoor plaza planned for the Tailor Row complex will sit at the new intersection of Rimbach and Hohman.

The large Rotunda Fountain sculpture that was located at the former intersection of Rimbach and Hohman will be relocated to the outdoor plaza, where it will be surrounded by benches and storefronts.

Construction has also started on the west side of Hohman Avenue. Once complete, the Hohman redesign will bring the street down to one travel lane in each direction with a shared bike lane and add 40 spaces of angled parking down the center of Hohman, parallel parking on both sides of the street, 8-foot and 11-foot sidewalks on either side of Hohman, decorative lighting with banner arms, and large, fast-growing trees along curb lines and down the center of Hohman.

Both the Hohman and Rimbach projects are expected to be largely complete by the end of this year.

Preparing for transformation

Nearby businesses are already preparing for Hammond's new downtown.

Though deals have not been finalized, Anderson said the developers for all three apartment complexes are "in talks" with different businesses looking to locate in the ground floor retail spaces.

The nearby Strack & Van Til grocery store is completing a $1 million exterior renovation with help from the city's facade rebate program, and the Hammond Development Corporation is looking to bring more businesses to its rental office space.

The HDC operates two buildings with rental office space along Hohman: The HUB and the Business Center. After receiving a $75,000 grant from the Hammond Redevelopment Commission, the HDC is launching a rent subsidy program for any technology-related businesses that want to locate downtown.

For the first six months, program participants would pay just 20% of the rent. The cost will increase 20% every six months for two years, until tenants are paying the full price.

HDC Executive Director Jennifer Bussey said the goal is to get companies to invest in the downtown area. The subsidized rent will help businesses get on their feet and establish a client base.

With so many projects underway, downtown Hammond "looks a little messy" for the time being, Anderson said, but the end result will be "completely transformative for our downtown."
Who should call the hotline?

Anyone experiencing a mental health or substance use issue can call 988. Counselors on the other end of the hotline are trained in handling a wide range of mental health issues, including self-harm, addiction and suicidal ideation, said Hannah Wesolowski, chief advocacy officer at the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

If someone has been through a traumatic event and is struggling to process it  and there are traumatic events happening throughout this country  this is a place to turn to, she said.

You can also call on behalf of someone else. Counselors can offer guidance on helping a friend or loved one navigating a mental health emergency, and experts advise that people reach out particularly if a loved one reveals a plan to hurt themselves.

While some people struggling with mental health issues may not think their problem is severe enough to merit using the hotline, experts said that anyone who thinks they might need help should reach out.

If youre unsure, call, said Dr. Robert Trestman, chair of the American Psychiatric Associations Council on Healthcare Systems and Financing.

What happens when you call the hotline?

Ideally, when someone calls 988, they will first be connected to one of 200 local call centers, which can help connect them to community resources or dispatch emergency services if necessary. If those call centers are busy, the caller will be automatically directed to a national backup center.
Why does Iran want to be closer to Russia?

So that Iran can align itself with a world power. It provides security for the regime in the Islamic Republic and creates an alliance that protects Iran militarily and economically. And it can also give this perception to other nations that You can sanction us, you can do anything you want, but were not isolated.

But with the Iranian public, this is an extremely unpopular endeavor.

Iranians by and large are very suspicious of Russia. They dont trust Russia because of the history of the two countries. They dont trust that Russia has Irans best interests in mind.

So there is a lot of animosity and mistrust. And the Iranians are very sympathetic to Ukraine. They see Russia as a force thats protecting their oppressor, the Iranian regime.

Every time there are official visits between the countries, there is a lot of brouhaha, with Iranians debating, Are we becoming a Russian colony?

Also, one of the slogans of the Islamic Revolution in 1979 was No to East, No to West, Yes to Islamic Republic. And even among the revolutionaries and conservatives in Iran, they are questioning why the regime is sticking to the No to the West part, but kowtowing to the East and allying with Russia.

What is the downside for Iran?

Iran could find itself in a predicament. Russia could dictate to it and ask things of Iran that would not be in the countrys best interest. Russia has the upper hand in this relationship.
In May, Li Keqiang, Chinas premier, called an emergency meeting and sounded the alarm about the need to gin up economic growth to more than 100,000 officials from businesses and local governments. The stark warning cast doubt about Chinas ability to reach its earlier growth target of 5.5 percent for the year.

Chinas slowing growth complicates an already fragile global economy. Surging inflation has heightened the risk of recession in the United States, while Russias invasion of Ukraine has pushed up energy prices and disrupted supply chains across Europe. In previous moments of economic crises, China alleviated financial pressures with access to cheap manufacturing and a largely untapped market of consumers eager to spend.

But China is no longer growing by leaps and bounds. The Covid restrictions and policies carried out in recent years  such as cracking down on speculation in real estate and curbing the power of Chinas tech giants  have combined to exacerbate the slowdown. So far this year, Starbucks, Nike and Hilton have all warned that weak spending in China had brought down sales.

While much of the world has learned to live with the coronavirus, China has adopted a zero-Covid policy to do whatever necessary to prevent infection. Under that policy, residents of an entire apartment building can be confined to their homes for weeks if a single tenant is infected. A few positive cases could cause an entire section of a city to lock down.

Even as the toll from those policies has become apparent, Mr. Xi has not flinched. He has said he is willing to endure some temporary economic pain in order to keep Chinese citizens free from Covid.

The most recent economic malaise hit in April and May, when Shanghai, Chinas largest city, went into lockdown for nearly two months and the impact rippled through the economy. Office buildings were closed, and workers were ordered to remain at home. Throughout China, hundreds of millions of consumers were shut in  leaving stores, restaurants and service providers to carry on without customers.
But conservative politicians raised doubts about whether the victim was real. They pointed out that reporting had relied on a single source, a doctor who had treated the patient. They noted that Dr. Bernard was not answering questions from other news organizations about the case, and that there did not appear to be any public records to confirm it. Some declared it fake news.

Ohios attorney general, Dave Yost, fanned doubts about the case this week when he said in an interview on Fox News that he had found no evidence of such a victim and told the USA Today Network Ohio bureau: Shame on the Indianapolis paper that ran this thing on a single source who has an obvious ax to grind.

Steve Krakauer, who writes a media newsletter called The Fourth Watch, which is owned by The First, a conservative media outlet that counts former Fox News host Bill OReilly as a host, was among those who tweeted their skepticism, questioning whether there would be any introspection in the media when the 10-year-old abortion story turns out to be this years Jussie Smollett, a reference to the actor convicted of a hate crime hoax.

In an interview, Mr. Krakauer said he regretted the wording of his tweet. He said everyone would benefit from slowing down and not jumping to conclusions.
Vaccination became a politicized subject in Brazil during the Covid pandemic, she said. The federal government, led by President Jair Bolsonaro, downplayed the significance of the coronavirus even as Brazil had one of the worlds highest death rates and said he would not get his own 11-year-old vaccinated against the virus.

For the first time, the federal government was not recommending a vaccine, and it created a whole environment of doubt that had never existed in Brazil, where vaccination was totally accepted, Dr. Domingues said.

At the same time, anti-vaccination groups that had not had much purchase in Brazil moved into the country during the pandemic, she said, and began circulating misinformation in Portuguese on social media.

And all of this was happening, Dr. Domingues said, at a time when Brazilians were a generation removed from the serious illnesses they were being urged to vaccinate their children against, leading them to question the necessity.

Parents dont know the impact of measles, or of polio, so they start to pick and choose vaccinations, she said. Data showing that acceptance of the pneumonia vaccine is higher than that for polio makes that clear. Parents are choosing not to do polio. They say, Its been 30 years with no polio, so do I need to do this?

And yet they have a clear sign of the risk, she said: A handful of measles cases were found earlier this year in Sao Paulo, six years after Brazil had reported eradicating the disease. Measles is now circulating  that gives us a concrete example of what could happen with diphtheria, meningitis and so many other diseases, she said.
President Biden cited the Ohio girl as an example of the cruelty of abortion bans in some states. Raped, six weeks pregnant. Already traumatized. Was forced to travel to another state, Mr. Biden said last week while signing an executive order on abortion.

Abortion opponents and some right-leaning outlets cast doubt on whether the story was even true. A Wall Street Journal editorial with the headline An Abortion Story Too Good to Confirm asserted that the president had put his seal of approval on an unlikely story from a biased source.

But the speculation ended on Wednesday when it was revealed that a 27-year-old Ohio man had been arrested and charged with the rape. (The Journal later published an editors note atop its editorial.)

The form filed by Dr. Bernard lists the approximate age of the father as 17. Doctors often make their best guess when the pregnancy is the result of abuse, and little may be known about the perpetrator.

The case has also exposed the vulnerabilities of medical professionals, like Dr. Bernard, who continue to care for patients amid a patchwork of state laws regarding abortion. Dr. Bernard herself struck back on Twitter on Wednesday night.

My heart breaks for all survivors of sexual assault and abuse. I am so sad that our country is failing them when they need us most, she wrote. Doctors must be able to give people the medical care they need, when and where they need it.
A Maryland man has been indicted on assault charges accusing him of pretending to be a police officer and spraying five men who he believed were gay with a chemical irritant at a park in Washington, the Justice Department said on Thursday.

The man, Michael Thomas Pruden, 48, was arrested in Norfolk, Va., and charged with five counts of assault on federal land, one count of impersonating a U.S. Park Police officer and a hate-crimes sentencing enhancement, which could increase his sentence if a jury finds that he targeted the men because of their sexual orientation, the Justice Department said.

The attacks occurred from 2018 to 2021 at Meridian Hill Park, which is overseen by the National Park Service. It is informally known in the Washington, D.C. community to be a meeting location for men seeking to engage in sexual encounters with other men at night, according to the indictment.
A judge in New Mexico on Thursday cleared a former police officer who was accused of killing a man by using a chokehold technique, a practice that has come under intense scrutiny in recent years amid calls for police reform.

The former officer, Christopher Smelser of the Las Cruces Police Department, had faced a charge of second-degree murder in the death of Antonio Valenzuela, 40, after the father of four fled from officers in February 2020 during a traffic stop in Las Cruces, a city about 45 miles west of El Paso. The Police Department said that Mr. Valenzuela had an open warrant because of a parole violation and that officers had fired a Taser at him twice as he ran away.

After hearing arguments from the defense and prosecutors on Thursday in a trial that began on Monday, Judge Douglas Driggers of Third Judicial District Court dismissed the charge against Mr. Smelser, 29, who could have faced up to 15 years in prison had he been convicted.
Lawmakers also voted to add to the military policy bill an amendment that would require top national security agencies to report on and combat white supremacist and neo-Nazi activity in federal law enforcement and the armed forces, in a vote in which House Republicans were unanimously opposed.

Such extremism is a threat to us in all segments of society. There is no reason to believe that our military is any different, said Representative Brad Schneider, Democrat of Illinois and the sponsor of the provision. He said that instances of extremism in the United States armed forces are rare, but we must do everything we can to identify them and to thwart them before risks become reality.

Every Republican voted no, but only one  Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona  publicly explained his opposition on the House floor. He argued that the proposal attempts to create a problem where none exists and denigrates our men and women in the service.

Every member of the military who showed an interest or actual participation in a white supremacist or white nationalist group has faced discipline, Mr. Biggs said. The relevant branch either demoted the individual, discharged them or otherwise disciplined the sympathizer.

The vote came as the nation continues to grapple with the fallout from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, which included dozens of current and former service members and which led to efforts at the Pentagon to rid extremism from the armed forces. In December, the Pentagon updated its rules against extremism, including tightening social media guidelines, changing the way it screens recruits and examining how to prevent retiring troops from being targeted by extremist organizations.

The House also approved a provision, led by Representative Kathleen Rice, Democrat of New York, that requires a review of national security agencies compliance with domestic terrorism reporting requirements already established by existing law. Only four Republicans backed it.
WASHINGTON  Text messages sent and received by Secret Service agents around the time of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol last year have been erased, an inspector general said on Thursday, prompting concern from the House committee investigating the assault.

In a letter obtained by The New York Times, the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of the Secret Service, reported that many of the agents texts were erased as part of a device replacement program even after the inspector general had requested them as part of his inquiry into the events of Jan. 6.

The letter was reported earlier by The Intercept.

Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and the chairman of both the Jan. 6 committee and the House Homeland Security Committee, said he received a letter on Thursday from the inspector general informing him of the erased text messages.
On the list of potential political vulnerabilities, ties to New Jersey are rarely a campaign killer; for all the jokes, New Jersey has offered some of the greatest musical, culinary and cultural additions to the country.

But the campaign of John Fetterman, the Democratic candidate for the open Senate seat in Pennsylvania, has been repeatedly nagging his Republican opponent, Mehmet Oz, for living in New Jersey before announcing his campaign in the Keystone State.

In his latest such post on Twitter, Mr. Fetterman enlisted Nicole Polizzi, a cast member of the Jersey Shore franchise better known as Snooki, and a self-described hot mess on a reality show, to chide Dr. Oz for choosing to leave New Jersey to look for a new job.
Early in the pandemic, Bill Burr went on Joe Rogans podcast and got into it about masks. Rogan made fun of them as feminine and weak. Youre so tough with your open nose and throat, Burr snapped back, with an additional curse, pushing Rogan about turning a medical issue into something about manhood. Why does it always become like that?

This viral moment revealed a divide between the two popular comics. On his podcast, Rogan sells a certain aspirational view of masculinity, while in his stand-up, Burr presents a more tortured portrait, giving anguished voice to male resentments and phobias as well as expression to their destructiveness. Along with one of the great deliveries in stand-up comedy, this complexity is what makes Burr a riveting performer.

His messy, rambling, often hilarious new special baits the audience at every turn. Like Bruce Banner, Burr is worried about his temper, but its what weve come to see. And it can be the engine to some daring riffs that dig at both sides of the culture war, even though hes more animated and funnier going after liberals. None of his many peers do this as well. No cliches about lattes and kale here. Describing a privileged white tweeter whos virtue signaling, he imitates, typing out, My heart breaks on my L-shaped couch.

Burr does repeat himself, and for the second special in a row, he speculates that they are running out of men to cancel. His bits are more intricately organized than his act. He closes on one thats not as strong as the bit that came before. The emotional highlight sits awkwardly in the middle when he gets choked up describing the self-loathing of losing his temper in front of his daughter and finding that he is falling into the same mistakes that his father made. Bent down in a hunch, Burr is unexpectedly emotional, the bluster vanished and the rage transformed into tenderness. Its a range that makes you think theres a leading role in a great movie in his future.

Fahim Anwar, Hat Trick

YouTube
I can relate to some of this. A few years back I was diagnosed with PTSD and clinical depression after my life partner, Kate, was diagnosed with a terminal brain disease and died about 18 months later, in 2020. I didnt have much interest in living. Running out of options, my doctor prescribed me a weekly regimen of esketamine, which is a close relative of the dissociative hallucinogen ketamine.

Like many, I had experimented with hallucinogens, including mushrooms and LSD, in my youth. I was partying, not seeking. I never planned to go back there. But the treatment started helping me almost immediately.

Pollan, 67, never did the youthful experimenting. Known primarily as an expert in plants and healthy eating  his latest book, This is Your Mind on Plants, comes out in paperback on July 19  he came to psychedelics late in life. He was too young to indulge in the Summer of Love, and by the 1970s, the war on drugs and anti-LSD hysteria had quashed what had been a fertile period of scientific research in the 50s.

But once he began studying, and experimenting, he became a convert rather quickly.

At this age sometimes you need to be shaken out of your grooves, he says in the Netflix series. We have to think about these substances in a very cleareyed way and throw out the inherited thinking about it and ask, What is this good for?
The narrative of the prosecutions attempt to break the back of the boycott by imprisoning one of its leaders and Grays spirited counterattack against Jim Crow justice is both compelling and revelatory. Indeed, the stirring tale of how an inexperienced 25-year-old lawyer, only two years out of law school, played a pivotal role in Kings emergence as the American Gandhi is a story for the ages.

FROM THE HOOD TO THE HOLLER

A Story of Separate Worlds, Shared Dreams, and the Fight for Americas Future

By Charles Booker

336 pp. Crown. $28.

The author of this combination memoir/manifesto is the other Booker, not Cory Booker, the two-term United States senator from Newark. But like the senator, Charles Booker is an African American who has lived in the hood, in his case an impoverished neighborhood in the west end of Louisville. After practicing law for a decade, he was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 2018, and two years later he entered the Democratic senatorial primary, ultimately losing a close race to the former Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath, who went on to lose to Senator Mitch McConnell in the 2020 general election. Unfazed by his defeat, Booker is currently seeking the nomination to run against Kentuckys other incumbent Republican senator, Rand Paul, in November 2022.

Bookers life story  and the political philosophy that grew out of it  begins in urban Louisville but eventually ranges across the expanses of a predominantly rural state. From the Hood to the Holler is both the title of his book and also the name of a community outreach organization he founded in 2020. Determined to bridge the cultural, economic and racial gaps between urban and rural communities  the separate worlds of the books subtitle  he calls for a new politics that recognizes and encourages the shared dreams of all Americans. Focusing on what unites us rather than what divides us, he refuses to abandon the dream of a nation unified under the banner of democratic inclusion.

A self-proclaimed progressive, Booker supported Bernie Sanders in 2020 and continues to associate himself with left-leaning leaders like Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez  and with a broad array of progressive programs including the Green New Deal, universal health care and a thorough overhaul of the criminal justice system. Clearly, Booker has chosen a hard row to hoe in a deep red state, but as someone who has beaten the odds before, he rejects the conventional wisdom that little can be done to rise above the urban-rural culture war threatening to tear our nation apart.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has reached a settlement with Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for The New York Times Magazine, after a dispute over tenure, the school said on Friday.

The steps taken to resolve the lingering potential legal action posed by Ms. Hannah-Jones will hopefully help to close this chapter and give the university the space to focus on moving forward, David Boliek, chair of the universitys board of trustees, said in a statement.

The settlement was for less than $75,000, Mr. Boliek told The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C.

In April 2021, Ms. Hannah-Jones was announced as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism at the universitys Hussman School of Journalism and Media. She was offered a five-year contract as a professor instead of the usual tenured position, and her appointment drew criticism from conservatives who took issue with her involvement in The Timess 1619 Project, which re-examined slavery in the United States.
The prospects for a proposed sale of Spirit Airlines to Frontier Airlines appear to be under threat as a prominent shareholder advisory firm reversed its guidance on the combination of the two budget carriers, recommending on Friday that Spirits investors reject the deal.

A bidding war has led Spirit to repeatedly delay a shareholder vote as it seeks to garner support for the Frontier deal over an unsolicited bid by JetBlue Airways. The additional time, shifting terms of the deals and market dynamics led the advisory firm, Institutional Shareholder Services, to change its recommendation twice, most recently on Friday.

Frontier said days earlier that it had no plans to adjust its offer and acknowledged that it remained very far from obtaining the support needed from Spirits shareholders. At Frontiers request, Spirit this week delayed the shareholder vote again, to July 27. It had been scheduled for Friday.
If every project currently waiting for approval gets built, we could hit 80 percent clean energy by 2030, said Mr. Rand, the lead author of the report. But wed be lucky if even a quarter of whats proposed actually gets completed.

Three of Vistras battery storage projects in Illinois  at the Havana, Joppa and Edwards coal plants  also benefited from an infusion of grants from a state law, the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, aimed at supporting a just transition for coal-dependent communities toward renewable energy. It was signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker last fall, and also required all fossil-fuel-burning plants to cut their emissions to zero by 2045, which could lead to their closure, though most of the coal plants in Illinois were already poised to shut down within a decade.

The Coal-to-Solar Energy Storage Grant Program that emerged from the legislation also supports two other battery projects, owned by NRG Energy, which will be built at the Waukegan and Will County coal-burning power stations.

The advantage of building renewable energy projects on old coal plants is twofold, said Sylvia Garcia, the director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, which oversees the coal-to-solar program. First, projects benefit from the ease of reusing an existing connection to the grid. Second, its an effort toward trying to reinvest in the communities that have lost those coal plants in the first place, she said.

While the new projects will temporarily create construction jobs, operating a solar plant or battery facility usually does not require as many employees. The Baldwin plant previously employed around 105 full-time workers. And while Vistra has not yet finalized numbers on a site-by-site basis, the nine Illinois projects combined will create 29 full-time jobs annually, the companys communications director, Meranda Cohn, said in an email.
Seven of the largest Bitcoin mining companies in the United States are set up to use nearly as much electricity as all the homes in Houston, according to data disclosed Friday as part of an investigation by congressional Democrats who say miners should be required to report their energy use.

The United States has seen an influx of cryptocurrency miners, who use powerful, energy-intensive computers to create and track the virtual currencies, after China cracked down on the practice last year. Democrats led by Senator Elizabeth Warren are also calling for the companies to report their emissions of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that is the main driver of climate change.

This limited data alone reveals that cryptominers are large energy users that account for a significant  and rapidly growing  amount of carbon emissions, Senator Warren and five other members of Congress wrote in a letter to the heads of the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy. But little is known about the full scope of cryptomining activity, they wrote.
As the monkeypox outbreak grows in the United States, demand for the vaccine is outstripping the nations supply, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a news briefing on Friday.

We dont yet have all the vaccine that we would like in this moment, she said.

When the supply crunch will ease is unknown. The federal government made another 131,000 doses available to states and other jurisdictions on Friday. But the scope of the outbreak remains unclear, in part because diagnostic testing has been slow and limited.

Nearly 1,500 cases have been identified in the United States, primarily in men who have sex with men, and the figure is likely to rise in the coming weeks, Dr. Walensky said. Globally, more than 11,000 cases have been identified in 65 countries, she added.
L.Q. Jones, a hirsute, craggy-faced, swaggering Texan who guilelessly played the antihero in some 60 films and dozens of television series, died on Saturday at his home in the Hollywood Hills area of Los Angeles. He was 94.

His death was confirmed by his grandson Erte deGarces.

A former stand-up comic, Mr. Jones also tried his hand as a bean, corn and dairy rancher in Nicaragua and once described himself as but several hours away from three degrees  one in law, one in business, one in journalism at the University of Texas.

But he was lured to the Warner Bros. studios when a college roommate, Fess Parker, the actor who later played both Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett, persuaded him to audition for a minor role in the 1955 film Battle Cry, directed by Raoul Walsh and adapted from Leon Uriss novel.
Earlier this week I was preparing to write a guest essay with my colleague Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an OB-GYN here in Indiana. We wanted to write about the chilling effect that the overturning of Roe v. Wade has had on medicine in our state and around the country in just a few short weeks. But then Dr. Bernard became a target of a national smear campaign for speaking out about her 10-year-old patient, a rape victim from Ohio who needed an abortion and had to travel to Indiana to receive one, given the restrictions in her home state.

On Wednesday night, our states attorney general said his office would be investigating Dr. Bernard. So Im writing this essay myself  not only to bring attention to the chilling effect on medicine were seeing at this moment but also because Im terrified that I or any one of our colleagues could soon face what Dr. Bernard is going through after delivering care to our patients.

When we talk about the importance of reproductive health care in the lives of our patients, we sometimes weave in patient stories to humanize the often complex legal and medical concepts for the audience. Dr. Bernard told the story of her patient from Ohio as an example of how abortion bans can affect the most vulnerable.
Oil drilling would be particularly damaging in the peatlands, where everything is connected by water. Oil spills and wastewater from drilling could destroy biodiversity, pollute vast areas and poison the water, fish and other natural resources upon which local people depend.

This is certainly dystopian, but Nigerias Niger Delta provides a case study of the wider impacts of drilling for oil in a country with weak governance and high levels of poverty. Here, where Shell and others extract oil and gas under heavily armed guard, oil spills are common. They have left many people, whose livelihoods rely on the land and the water, destitute in a shockingly polluted landscape. (Shell has denied responsibility for any of the spills.) Naturally, there is continuing resistance to this exploitation, including protests, international court cases and armed militants repeatedly sabotaging oil production.

The potential financial payoff for drilling in the Congo rainforest is also becoming increasingly unlikely. The plummeting cost of renewable energy and climate policies to cut the use of fossil fuels are beginning to wean the world off oil. More than one in 10 new cars sold globally in 2021, for example, were electric, double the number sold in 2020. Any oil development in Congos rainforest is likely to one day be a stranded asset.

The predicament for Congos government is obvious. As one of the worlds poorest countries, it needs exports to gain revenue. But opening oil development in the center of the country could create a new region of civil unrest, adding to the long-term armed conflict in the east, potentially destabilizing the whole country.

Is there another way? Yes. Congo has major reserves of extremely valuable metals like cobalt needed for the global energy transition. Well-regulated mining that pays tax can bring the country dependable revenue in the 21st century, without oil.

More broadly, alternative approaches to oil development exist. Congo should map forest-dwellers lands and give them rights to those lands, using the community forest model. Then cut off the drivers of deforestation in line with making a prosperous country. Charcoal for cooking is one source of deforestation, and the charcoal is a major health hazard. Moving to cooking on electric stoves, powered by solar energy, solves both problems and is now price competitive.
Add it all up and you can see why the four most recent Israeli elections ignored the existential threat posed to the Jewish state by its continued West Bank occupation. For most it was: out of sight, out of mind. And no wonder the U.S. withdrew from active involvement in the area  until President Donald Trump gave his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a free hand to push his own plan.

Its a long story, but the short version is that both Netanyahu and the Palestinians rejected Kushners proposal for a two-state solution. Yet rather than allow the whole thing to collapse, the leader of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, inspired by his ambassador to the U.S., Yousef al-Otaiba, proposed full peace, trade and tourism with Israel if Israel agreed not to unilaterally annex territory in the West Bank allotted to Israel in the Trump plan. And thus was born the 2020 Abraham Accords, in which the U.A.E., Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan opened diplomatic relations with Israel.

The U.A.E. did something hugely important catalyzing this deal. The more the Middle East resembles the European Union, and the less it resembles the Syrian civil war, is a very good thing.

But the U.A.E. and its Abraham Accord colleagues have been largely reluctant to involve themselves in Israeli-Palestinian issues. They dont think highly of the Palestinian leadership, and they dont want to be embroiled in the whole mess; they want to do trade and investment deals with Israels high-tech economy to strengthen themselves. When they got Israel to agree to not annex the West Bank, they thought they had given at the office  done.

Which brings me to the Saudis. For Israel, peace with Saudi Arabia is the big prize. It opens the door to peace with the whole Sunni Muslim world and access to an immense pool of investment capital.

But senior Saudi officials have told me that their support will not come cheap. The ailing Saudi monarch, King Salman, has always had a deep emotional attachment to the Palestinian cause. And his son and the de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (a.k.a. M.B.S.), knows that if Saudi Arabia forges a peace with Israel on the cheap, Saudi Arabias archenemy, Iran, will use it to launch a propaganda jihad against Saudi Arabia across the Muslim world. It would be ugly.
To the Editor:

Re Trump Intended to Send His Mob to Disrupt Count (front page, July 13):

Maybe as Donald Trumps loyal followers start to understand how their hero has conned, duped and used them for his own ends, they will start to feel moral outrage about it. He never had any interest in them except as tools for his Big Lie. It must be very hard to hear or accept this if youre a Trump fan. But it would be satisfying to the rest of us  and so just  if their anger would shift from being based on a lie to something real.

Mr. Trump himself is the appropriate target for their rage. Some of them are facing jail time because of his selfish lies. Some have donated their hard-earned money to a con man.

Now they have something real to be justifiably angry about.

Nancy Bennett OHagan

Portland, Maine

To the Editor:

Some have worried that to indict the former president would be inadvisable because it could set off a national crisis, including civil violence. I feel otherwise. We have already entered a national crisis, and we need to realize that. While other than Jan. 6 there has been no widespread violence as yet, the chance of such violence down the road is increased dramatically by letting the president and other perpetrators of Jan. 6 off the hook.
To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

After over a decade of living in the city, I chose the plot of land, a flat patchwork of pine and oak at the base of the Catskill Mountains, for its terrible lighting. The area so dark, I could watch the champagne fizz of shooting stars from my bedroom window; catch a glimpse of the harvest moon while brushing my teeth. Every evening, the night pressed in against my windows in a way that felt visceral, like a velvet blanket tucking me in.

This was by design. When I had my 1,900-square-foot home built  pocketed away from the road, with trees and mountain brush mostly hiding signs of any nearby houses  I chose floor-to-ceiling glass in place of opaque walls. So deep was my desire to connect to the outside, to the night skies, that when the cost of construction threatened to go over my budget, I cut out air conditioning instead of a chance at a view. Since then, Ive never even thought about curtains. Why would I? The dark skies were a salve.
In mid-2020, a team of scientists catching bats in Laotian caves discovered coronaviruses that were strikingly similar to the one that had begun wreaking havoc around the world.

In the months since, some of those researchers have been studying one of these mysterious bat viruses in a high-security laboratory in Paris, hoping to discover clues about how its cousin, SARS-CoV-2, went on to become a global threat that has killed an estimated 15 million people.

Their work has been scientifically fruitful. Last year, the scientists discovered that the bat virus was capable of latching on to human cells, at least in Petri dishes. Last month, the team reported more reassuring news: that the virus is not particularly harmful to lab animals. The finding suggests that SARS-CoV-2 evolved its abilities to spread quickly and cause deadly disease only after the two lineages branched apart on the viral evolutionary tree.
In April, Mr. Rogozin demanded that economic sanctions against Russia be lifted and said that he had submitted a proposal urging the Russian government to leave the space station.

This week, after the European Space Agency formally pulled out of a collaboration with Russia on sending a robotic rover to Mars, Mr. Rogozin said Russian astronauts on the space station would stop using a robotic arm built by the Europeans and lobbed disparaging words at Josef Aschbacher, the director general of the European Space agency, and Josep Borrell Fontelles, a top European Union foreign policy official.

I, in turn, give a command to our crew on the ISS to stop working with the European ERA manipulator, Mr. Rogozin wrote on his Telegram channel. Let Aschbacher himself and his boss Borrell fly into space and do at least something useful in their lives.

Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlins spokesman, insisted that the move had nothing to do with Mr. Rogozins performance and promised that the former director would soon be employed again.
Christine Quinn dipped a mother-of-pearl spoon into the bowl resting in its ice bath. Spreading caviar across a blini, she lifted the bite to her rose gold lips.

That tastes rich, she said. This is giving me rich vibes. This is the classiest breakfast I have ever had in my life.

This was on a rainy Saturday afternoon, the day after Ms. Quinn, 33, a star of the Netflix docusoap Selling Sunset and a woman The Sunday Times of London has described as TVs greatest villain, had just flown in from Paris. She was promoting her first book, How to Be a Boss B*tch, which combines memoir with self-help, advising women how to pull themselves up by their high-heeled bootstraps, just as Ms. Quinn has done.
It took some convincing, but Kenny eventually agreed to go to the emergency room, where we learned that he was in septic shock.

Its the kind of infection that accelerates rapidly, the doctor said. It had attached itself to the hardware in his back and spread throughout his body in a matter of weeks. He would have been dead within 24 hours if you hadnt brought him in.

Kenny immediately went through several surgeries, almost flatlining on the operating table. My mother and I lived in a fog, white knuckling through most of his more life-threatening procedures and swallowing Ativan when we couldnt take it anymore.

Thats when the flashbacks of my fathers death started.

I was standing in the upstairs bathroom of my apartment, examining myself in the mirror, my eyes and head throbbing in strange unison. I saw myself at 16, sitting in the car with my father. He had just picked me up from my job as a restaurant hostess and we were making the 10-minute drive back to our house. My father wasnt a man of many words, and I can recall numerous rides with him that remained quiet, including this final one.

When we pulled into our driveway, I ran inside, closed my bedroom door and went to bed. The next morning, I got dressed, ate some cereal and left for school without saying goodbye. It was early in the day when I was called out of class and asked to take my belongings to the principals office, where my mothers co-worker picked me up and delivered the news on the way to the hospital: I dont know how to tell you this. Your father is dead.
Mr. Musks legal filing was a forceful rebuke of Twitters accusations that he was trying to unjustly end the acquisition. In its lawsuit this week, Twitter said Mr. Musk had knowingly, intentionally, willfully and materially breached his agreement to buy the company by falsely claiming that he was not getting information about the prevalence of fake accounts on the service.

The ensuing legal battle promises to be ugly and prolonged. The back-and-forth between the two sides had already escalated for weeks before landing in court. Mr. Musk has made barbed comments about the company and frequently questioned the prevalence of fake accounts on the platform. Fake accounts are used to spread spam or manipulate Twitters service by falsely boosting trends, and are often automated rather than run by real people.

At one point, Mr. Musk tweeted that the deal with Twitter was on hold. His actions coincided with a slide in the value of tech shares, including those of Tesla, the electric carmaker that Mr. Musk leads and that is the main source of his wealth.

Twitter has maintained that it has worked with Mr. Musk to close the deal and is intent on seeing the sale through. In the deal agreement, Twitter and Mr. Musk have a so-called specific performance clause that allows the company to sue to force the deal through, as long as the debt that the billionaire has corralled for the acquisition is in place.
We want to make sure that we are responding to everybody in crisis, he said.

But less than half of the public health officials responsible for the 988 rollout felt confident that their communities were prepared, according to a recent RAND Corporation survey.

The overhaul of the Lifeline is not just limited to calls, texts and chats. While data shows that hotlines can resolve about 80 percent of crises without further intervention, the vision for 988 is that counselors will eventually be able to connect callers with mobile crisis teams that can come to where they are, as well as short-term mental health triage centers.

Those changes are expected to reduce law enforcement interventions and reliance on emergency rooms, ultimately keeping more people alive, advocates say.

The new Lifeline comes at a time of rising mental illness, including what the U.S. surgeon general has called a devastating crisis among young people. Suicide was the 12th leading cause of death for Americans of all ages in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the second leading cause among those ages 10 to 14 and 25 to 34. A person died by suicide every 11 minutes in 2020. Many believe that the pandemic has exacerbated mental health issues, and the revamped hotline is intended to expand beyond the scope of suicide to help anyone in crisis.

Despite the projected increase in volume, questions remain about long-term sustainable funding for 988. That is partly because the law establishing it, signed by President Donald J. Trump in October 2020 with bipartisan support, left the funding of call centers largely to states.
American hospitals are once again filling up with coronavirus patients  but not with nurses to care for them. The nations chronic shortage of registered nurses is as bad in some parts of the country as it has ever been, experts say, and it is showing signs of getting worse.

Hospitalizations have risen steadily in recent weeks, and the daily average number of people in hospitals who are infected with the coronavirus now exceeds 39,000, the highest it has been since the waning days of the first Omicron surge in early March. The rise is being driven largely by BA.5, a rapidly spreading Omicron subvariant that is the best yet at evading some antibodies from previous infections or vaccines.

But in the face of the growing need, hospitals across the country say they still cannot find enough nurses.
New details of the White House arrangement with Mr. McConnell also came as internal Democratic negotiations over a major tax and energy policy measure fell apart because of objections from Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia. Republicans, who unanimously opposed the measure in the Senate, were celebrating.

In Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, had called the impending nomination indefensible and urged the White House to drop the idea. Representative John Yarmuth, Democrat of Kentucky, was outraged as well. With Mr. Biden in the White House, Democrats assumed they  not their nemesis Mr. McConnell  would be consulted on home-state nominations.

Mr. Beshear also pointed to Mr. Merediths possible connection to pardons issued by former Gov. Matt Bevin that have come under intense scrutiny, saying any role in those pardons would be disqualifying. But Mr. McConnell noted that Mr. Meredith cleared an F.B.I. background check done in preparation for the nomination.

The F.B.I. check confirmed he had nothing to do with it, Mr. McConnell said of the pardons.

The blockade of Mr. Meredith has also disappointed his allies in Kentucky.

He is one of the most ethical people Ive met in terms of watching him in the limelight over the past several years, said April Wimberg, the president of the Louisville chapter of the Federalist Society. I was very surprised that anyone, and especially Senator Paul, would have any opposition to him.

Had it gone forward, the nomination of Mr. Meredith would have been a significant departure from the background of judicial nominees the White House has sent to the Senate over the first years of the administration. In contrast to the corporate lawyers and prosecutors traditionally favored by presidents of both parties, the Biden White House has focused on putting forward minorities historically underrepresented on the bench as well as public defenders and lawyers with experience in civil rights law.
We need two more Democratic pro-choice senators so we can eliminate the filibuster and make this legislation the law of the land, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday on the House floor.

We offer hope to the American people who treasure our freedoms and who are overwhelmingly with us in our mission to defend them, Ms. Pelosi added. What do Republicans have in store next? You cant travel to buy a book? You cant travel to see a concert or a play?

Democrats are also reacting to a groundswell of pressure from progressives in their ranks who were outraged by the Supreme Court ruling last month and by the slow response from their leaders to an opinion that had been expected for weeks.

Republicans hope to win a long-term struggle to change public perceptions about abortion. And they have been trying to paint the Democratic measures as radical proposals that would allow late-term abortions on demand.

How Times reporters cover politics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause. Learn more about our process.

In reality, the Democratic bill allows abortions after viability only in circumstances when a doctor determines that the continuation of the pregnancy would pose a risk to the patients life or health.

Both sides are guilty of dismissing one another, said Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Republican of Washington, dismissing the Womens Health Protection Act as an abortion on demand bill.
The hearing was initially planned to be the last in a series of summer sessions in which the panel would reveal its findings. But the committee has continued to collect new evidence, and lawmakers have hinted that they could add more hearings to the schedule.

Among the new wrinkles, the committee is looking into the disappearance of Secret Service text messages from around the time of the attack.

The committee issued a subpoena to the Secret Service on Friday evening, seeking text messages from Jan. 5 and 6, 2021, that were reportedly erased as well as any after-action reports.

The development came after the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of the Secret Service, met with the panel on Friday and told lawmakers that many of the texts were erased as part of a device replacement program even after the inspector general had requested them as part of his inquiry into the events of Jan. 6.

How Times reporters cover politics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause. Learn more about our process.

The Secret Service has disputed parts of the inspector generals findings, saying that data on some phones had been lost as part of a planned three-month system migration in January 2021, but none pertinent to the inquiry.

The agency said that the project was underway before it received notice from the inspector general to preserve its data and that it did not maliciously delete text messages.
Pennsylvanias top election official, Leigh M. Chapman, a Democrat who is the acting secretary of the commonwealth, sued three counties on Tuesday over their refusal to include undated mail-in ballots in their official tallies from the May 7 primaries.

A state court had directed counties in June to report two sets of tallies to Ms. Chapmans office, one that included ballots without dates handwritten on their return envelopes as required by law and one that did not.

The three counties  Berks, Fayette and Lancaster, which are controlled by Republicans  have prevented the state from completing its final certification of the primary results, state elections officials said.

The lack of dates on ballot envelopes was a point of contention in the Republican Senate primary that was narrowly won by Dr. Mehmet Oz over David McCormick. Disputes over such ballots have resulted in legal action in state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.
The research, published Friday in the journal Science Advances, shows that 42 percent of people with regular menstrual cycles experienced heavier bleeding after vaccination, while 44 percent reported no change and 14 percent reported lighter periods. Additionally, 39 percent of respondents on gender-affirming hormone treatments, 71 percent of people on long-acting contraceptives and 66 percent of postmenopausal women experienced breakthrough bleeding after one or both of their shots.

I think its important that people know this can happen, so theyre not scared, theyre not shocked and theyre not caught without supplies, said Katharine Lee, a biological anthropologist at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and the studys first author.

Dr. Lee cautioned, however, that the study did not compare the results with a control group of people who did not get vaccinated. And it is possible that people who observed changes in their cycles after vaccination may have been more likely to participate in the survey. Still, the findings line up with smaller studies that have reported menstrual changes after vaccination with more robust controls.

Importantly, the new study also found that some demographics may be more likely to experience menstrual changes, and the study may help them be better prepared, Dr. Lee said. A heavier menstrual flow was more likely for those who were older, for instance. Survey respondents who used hormonal contraception, had been pregnant in the past or had been diagnosed with a reproductive condition like endometriosis, fibroids or polycystic ovarian syndrome were also more likely to have heavier bleeding during their periods. People who identified as Hispanic or Latino tended to report heavier bleeding too. And people who experienced other side effects of the vaccines, like a fever or fatigue, also had a higher chance of experiencing erratic periods.
This week I have been reading about the United States in the 1960s and 70s, staying up late going back through Joan Didions Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The White Album, and falling down rabbit holes of oral history interviews.

One needs no excuse to reread Didion. But I think my obsessive focus  I have on multiple occasions found myself paging through my Kindle app and Googling around at 1 or 2 or even 3 a.m.  is not about her legendary prose, but because she was, perhaps without realizing it, providing a vivid chronicle of the upheavals of one stage of American democratization. And now that American democracy is grappling with a new crisis of authoritarianism, including a violent attempt to prevent the handover of power on January 6, 2021, I feel compelled to go back and see how we got here.

In Paths out of Dixie, Robert Mickey, a political scientist at the University of Michigan, argues that the popular understanding of the Jim Crow-era south as racist but democratic is wrong: In fact, the states of the former confederacy were not democracies, but rather enclaves of single-party authoritarianism. He places the turmoil of the 1960s in the context of democratization elsewhere in the Americas, noting that Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil have all had similar processes, and been left with similar pockets of sub-national authoritarian rule. (His book makes good companion reading to Yanilda Gonzalezs work on democratization and policing in the Americas that I wrote about a few weeks ago.)
Las Libres, which receives the medication from pharmaceutical companies based in Mexico and private donors, has built a cross-border network of more than 100 volunteers to hand deliver abortion pills to women in need in the United States. The network often relies on women passing on leftover medication to other women in need.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends mifepristone and misoprostol to induce an abortion up to 10 weeks of pregnancy. In 2021, it approved mail delivery of the drugs from certified providers.

But according to The Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that tracks abortion policy, at least seven states (Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana, Montana, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas) have banned the mailing of abortion pills, effectively pitting state law against federal protections. The new restrictions are currently in place in Arizona, Arkansas and Texas and are expected to take effect in Louisiana in August.

In 2021, Republican lawmakers in Texas made dispensing abortion pills by someone whos not a physician or otherwise enabling another person to induce an abortion a criminal offense punishable by jail time.
MEXICO CITY  A drug kingpin convicted of orchestrating the torture and murder of a Drug Enforcement Administration agent was captured in northern Mexico on Friday, according to Mexican officials, bringing a case that has long been a source of tension with the United States one step closer to resolution.

The drug boss, Rafael Caro Quintero, was captured in a joint operation involving the Mexican marines and the countrys prosecutors office near the town of San Simon in the state of Sinaloa, Mexican officials said. Mr. Caro Quintero was found hiding in the bushes by a search dog named Max, according to a statement from the Mexican marines.

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said the United States would seek his immediate extradition.

Hours after Mr. Caro Quintero was detained, a Black Hawk helicopter crashed outside the nearby city of Los Mochis, killing 14 marines onboard. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Twitter that they had been involved in the mission to capture the former crime lord.
Chinas leader, Xi Jinping, made his first visit to the western region of Xinjiang since he unleashed a campaign of mass detentions of Uyghurs there. His trip amounted to a proclamation of success in his yearslong effort to quell ethnic resistance, in spite of international condemnation.

Mr. Xis four-day visit that ended Friday focused on projecting that Xinjiang had become united and stable under his leadership. After his last visit in 2014, Mr. Xi set in motion drastic policies  widespread arrests, surveillance, indoctrination and labor transfers  to press the regions Uyghurs and other largely Muslim ethnic groups to identify as members of one Chinese nation loyal to the Communist Party.

Every ethnic group in Xinjiang is an inseparable member of the great family of Chinese nationhood, Mr. Xi said while visiting a heavily Uyghur neighborhood of Urumqi, the regional capital of Xinjiang, Xinhua news agency reported. His published remarks did not mention eradicating extremism and separatism, which officials have long cited as the rationale for the partys severe policies.
It wasnt immediately clear how municipal workers in the town felt about the new mandate  or even whether the order was legal. Mr. Aguirre said he expected some resistance.

Definitely there will be some instances when, lets just say, its not always going to be a perfect day for everyone, he said in an interview. But he insisted, It is not that very hard, adding, A smile is very contagious.

Officials and supervisors the world over, of course, have told workers to be more amiable around those they serve, though they tend to stop short of issuing executive orders. Smiles are good for business, titans of industry say. There is some evidence that facial expressions can influence mood, and science has suggested that even an artificially induced smile can spur the same brain changes that emerge during spontaneous moments of joy.

In 1948, George Philips, the mayor of Pocatello, Idaho, a city of 55,000, went so far as to push through an ordinance making it illegal for anyone in the city not to smile. An exceptionally severe winter had dampened the spirit of city employees and citizens alike that year, according to Pocatellos website. The tongue-in-cheek ordinance remains in place to this day and has not been seriously enforced, the city says.
Barbarity is part of every conflict, but the process of documenting the episodes that emerged since Russia invaded Ukraine in February are unusual, in part because of the number of investigators working to do so and in part because investigations, and even prosecutions, have begun while the war is still unfolding.

On top of Ukraines own justice system, an alphabet soup of organizations is investigating possible war crimes, including the International Criminal Court and the United Nations. One aim of the conference is to avoid having those entities trip over one another in their search for evidence and witnesses.

The Dutch foreign minister, Wopke Hoekstra, told reporters that the conference represented a huge step in coordination. Because neither Ukraine nor Russia is part of the International Criminal Court, the Netherlands would also consider setting up an ad hoc war crimes tribunal, he said.

Four trials have already taken place in Ukraine, according to the countrys prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, and thousands more investigations had been opened. Impunity is not an option, she said.
Whether through callousness in targeting or simply by malevolent design, terror has rained down from the skies on shopping malls, apartment buildings, schools and medical facilities, killing dozens of civilians.

Some military analysts have said that Russia, running low on precision weaponry, is firing haphazardly at targets in densely populated areas, heedless of collateral death and destruction. Others, like President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and other Ukrainian officials, say the strikes are part of a terrorist campaign to break the countrys will to resist. The missile strike on Vinnytsia killed 23 people, including Liza and two other children, and wounded 140 others.

Russia continues its policy of intimidation and terrorism, Ukraines prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, wrote in an online post after speaking with Samantha Power, the director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, about the strike in Vinnytsia, and missile and artillery bombardments of Mykolaiv in the south, and Chasiv Yar in the east. That is why it should be recognized as a terrorist state at the international level.

In a statement on Friday, Russias Defense Ministry said it had aimed its strike in Vinnytsia at the military officers club, where members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were meeting with representatives of foreign armament suppliers. The ministrys account, which could not be verified, concluded by noting that the attack resulted in the elimination of the conference participants.
At least 10 Russian missiles slammed into Mykolaiv, local officials said on Friday, hitting two universities, a hotel and a mall in the center of the southern Ukrainian city, which has been in Moscows cross hairs since President Vladimir V. Putins forces invaded in February.

At least two people were injured in the strikes, the mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

The head of the regional military administration, Vitaliy Kim, posted video that he said was of the strikes, showing dark palls of smoke rising above the city. Now they attack our education, he said. The strike took place at 7:50 a.m., he said, adding that the Russians knew full well that there were already many people on the streets at that time.
VINNYTSIA, Ukraine  A volley of Russian cruise missiles hit a shopping center, a dance studio and a wedding hall in central Ukraine on Thursday, killing at least 23 people and setting off a frantic search for dozens more lost in the rubble, in a latest strike to hit a civilian area far from the front lines.

Three children were among the dead, President Volodymyr Zelenskys office said. The attack involved three Kalibr cruise missiles that struck the city at about 10:30 a.m. and were launched from a submarine in the Black Sea, his office said.

More than 70 people, including three children, were hospitalized after the missiles hit the center of Vinnytsia, a typically sleepy provincial capital some 200 miles from the coast, and left behind a harrowing scene of smoking ruins.
RIVNE, Ukraine  A priest doused in green dye during a Sunday liturgy. Another yanked out of his western Ukrainian church as police stood by watching. A church attacked by vandals, who filled it with foam, plastered the walls with portraits of Stalin and later set it on fire.

For centuries, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has been a dominant spiritual force in the country. Now the church is increasingly an object of distrust, largely because its spiritual leadership  at least until May  was in Moscow, rather than Kyiv.

Government officials once courted church leaders. Now they speak openly about suspicions that some priests are collaborating with Moscow and worry that the broader church could be a Trojan horse for pro-Russian views and more.
JERUSALEM  President Biden had contrasting messages for Israelis and Palestinians on Friday before departing Israel for Saudi Arabia, announcing new steps toward Israeli integration within the Middle East while cautioning Palestinians that now was not the time for new peace talks to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Mr. Biden began the day by announcing that Saudi Arabia, the most powerful Arab country, would allow direct flights to and from Israel. After years of clandestine discussions behind the scenes between Saudi Arabia and Israel, that agreement was the first overt step by the Saudis to create a formal relationship.

Hailed by Mr. Biden as historic, it was the latest sign of Israels growing acceptance among Arab leaders after years of regional isolation, as fears of a nuclear Iran  shared by both Israel and several Sunni Arab leaders  have superseded Arab solidarity with the Palestinians.
Tiran and the neighboring island of Sanafir were previously administered by Egypt and, while uninhabited, are strategically important because they sit where the Red Sea connects to the Gulf of Aqaba, near Israels only access to the gulf. The return of the islands to Saudi Arabia required Israeli assent because of its Camp David Accords, with Egypt and the Saudis agreeing to respect Israeli freedom of navigation.

The overflights and island deals fell short of the broader Abraham Accords that established diplomatic relations between Israel and several other Arab states under President Donald J. Trump. But they represented the first tentative steps toward possible normalization of ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, the most influential of the Sunni Arab states in the region, which Mr. Bidens team hopes to complete by the end of his term.

The presidents aides were particularly focused on progress in ending the Yemen war, which has produced one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. In effect, in their view, the meeting was a delayed reward for Saudi agreement several months ago to pause the war and encouragement to work toward a wider settlement.

The last administration walked away from diplomacy when it came to ending the war in Yemen, Jake Sullivan, Mr. Bidens national security adviser, told reporters aboard Air Force One. This president re-engaged on that and now we have a 15-week truce, the longest peaceful period in that conflict in several years.

Mr. Biden also announced new Saudi investments in solar and nuclear energy, among other technologies meant to meet climate change goals. But those long-term efforts are being overwhelmed for the moment by Mr. Bidens request that the Saudis and others in the region boost oil production.
Palestinians protested on Friday in Jerusalem and Bethlehem over President Bidens visit as he met with the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, amid widespread frustration with U.S. support for Israel and the Biden administrations policies toward Palestinians.

On the eve of his visit to Bethlehem, the Biden administration announced hundreds of millions of dollars in new funding to Palestinian services, and said that Israel had agreed to roll out 4G phone reception in Palestinian-run areas of the West Bank.

The funding was hailed by some Palestinian officials, who said it would help revive Palestinian hospitals, in particular. But for some Palestinian protesters, these were piecemeal gestures that did little to advance the prospect of a Palestinian state.
If I were to dismantle the Palestinian Authority, what is the alternative? Mr. al-Sheikh said. The alternative is violence and chaos and bloodshed, he added. I know the consequences of that decision. I know the Palestinians would pay the price.

Among other roles, his office works with Israel to process Palestinian applications for Israeli work permits and coordinate the passage of goods between the West Bank, Gaza, Israel and Jordan. Both those things provide much-needed income for West Bank residents.

Although he was appointed, not elected, to his new position, Mr. al-Sheikh said his background and track record give him the legitimacy to lead.

He was born in Ramallah in 1960 when Jordan controlled the West Bank. His family, who came from a village near Tel Aviv, were among some 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes during the wars surrounding Israels creation in 1948  a mass displacement that Palestinians call the nakba, or catastrophe.

He was 6 when Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war. As a teenager, he joined Fatah, the leading Palestinian militant group at the time. As a result, he spent much of the 1980s in Israeli jails, winning him street credibility.

After the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in the 1990s, he became a colonel in the newly formed Palestinian security services amid hopes that Palestinians were on the cusp of statehood.
A Russian missile strike on a city in central Ukraine on Thursday killed at least 23 people, including three children. Two weeks earlier, missiles crashed into buildings near Odesa, killing 21. And for weeks in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, civilians bore the brunt of Russias assault  killed on their bicycles or while walking down the street, or executed with their hands bound.

Indiscriminate Russian attacks on civilian areas have become a hallmark of its invasion, and this week, an international conference in The Hague sought to coordinate an approach to the overwhelming allegations of war crimes in Ukraine.

But investigators face a formidable challenge, with as many as 20,000 war crimes investigations, multiple countries and international agencies at work, and a high burden of proof to reach a conviction. Complicating matters further, investigations are working while the war is still raging. The Kremlin has denied allegations against its forces, and Russias Defense Ministry has called graphic evidence of atrocities fake.
A museum in the German city of Wolfsburg recently removed a controversial art installation by English artist Damien Hirst after animal rights group PETA filed a complaint about it killing flies.

Flies are generally seen as annoying pests to be exterminated or at least kept at bay, but a controversial art installation featuring a fly-killing UV light has attracted the wrath of animal rights group PETA and sparked a heated debate about the rights of the flying insects. Titled A Hundred Years (1990), the art installation by award-winning artist and entrepreneur Damien Hirst was recently removed from Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg after PETA filed a complaint claiming that it infringed on Germanys Animal Welfare Act, which bans the killing or harming of animals without proper reason. Whether flies fall under that law or not is yet to be determined, but the decision has already sparked controversy in Germany.

Photo: Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg

Killing animals has nothing to do with art, it just shows the arrogance of people who literally will stop at nothing for their own interests, Peter Hoffken, of PETA Germany, told Braunschweiger Zeitung.

Representatives of the museum, on the other hand, said that they didnt think flies were covered by the Animal Welfare Act, adding that they would ask the artist if he would agree to replace the real flies with artificial ones. Doing so, however, would most likely ruin the whole idea of the art installation.

Originally unveiled in 1990, A Hundred Years is a commentary on the fact that many flies die when exposed to public light. It consists of a transparent cube split into two areas  one where the flies hatch and another where a UV lamp is hanging from the ceiling. The flies are attracted by the light, and whenever they fly to it through a small hole between the two areas, they are burned to death. Hirst described the artwork as a life cycle in a box.

Interestingly, a previous version of the controversial art installation featured a dead cow head that attracted the flies, but that was apparently considered too much



Damien Hirst has long been known for incorporating dead animals in his provocative art pieces, with some sources estimating that he has featured nearly one million dead animals in his art, most of them insects.
A blood-filled mosquito squashed in a burgled apartment in Chinas Fujian Province helped investigators catch the mysterious criminal.

It sounds like the plot of a CSI episode, but according to Chinese news sources, authorities in Fuzhou, East Chinas Fujian Province managed to bring a burglar to justice by analyzing the blood stain left on a wall by a squashed mosquito. While examining the crime scene  a burgled apartment in a high-rise residential compound  police noticed that the burglar, who appeared to have breached the home after climbing onto the balcony, may have spent the night there, and after finding a blood stain left by a squashed mosquito on a wall, they decided to have the blood tested for DNA.

According to Global Times, investigators found leftover noodles and cooked eggs in the kitchen, blankets and pillows taken from the wardrobe and left on the bed, burned incense sticks, all clues that whoever broke into the apartment spent some time there. So when they saw a dead mosquito and two bloodstains on one of the walls, they decided the blood was worth analyzing.

DNA tests showed that the blood belonged to a man surnamed Chai who happened to have an extensive criminal record. 19 days after the robbery, Chai was brought in for questioning and confessed to the burglary, as well as three other burglaries he was a suspect in. He is currently being held in custody pending trial.
Becky Nictakis

The Alpine Group, a government affairs consulting firm, launches a comprehensive competitive funding practice. The practice will assist clients with strategic positioning, drafting and submission of compelling funding proposals and applications to win competitive funds. The firm is partnering on the practice with Capitol Funding Solutions, which has a strong track record of identifying competitive funding opportunities, consulting for grant-readiness on the organizational and project level, and writing applications, proposals and concept papers. Capitol Funding Solutions CEO Becky Nictakis joins Alpine as its competitive funding team leader. By bringing together lobbying expertise with competitive funding, the Alpine Group will bring new opportunities in order to help clients achieve their goals, said Alpine Group CEO Les Spivey.

Matter Communications opens a Dallas office to further support the regions global healthcare and high-tech presence, as well as recruit and retain diverse talent. Matter already works with companies in the Dallas area that include Catalyst Health Group, the creator of Texas largest clinically integrated network for primary care providers; software company symplr; Gainwell Technologies, a provider of tech solutions for health and human services programs; and LeadingReach, which helps care teams communicate more effectively. Matter has already hired six Texas-based professionals for full-time positions, with more than a dozen additional Dallas-based roles to be filled.

LaVoieHealthScience announces that the U.S. Patent and Trade Office has recognized LHS ongoing professional use of two proprietary service offerings and granted continued registered service marks for each for the next four years. The two service offerings, core elements of the agencys strategic consulting services, are LHS Immersion and The LHS Fifteen-Slide Presentation. We developed both processes many years ago and have found them, without exception, to provide tremendous value to our clients, said LHS president and CEO Donna L. LaVoie. We are gratified that the USPTO continues to view them as unique offerings in our industry by renewing our proprietary registration marks.
Eric Adams

Are duck and cover drills next? New York Citys Department of Emergency Management sent shockwaves through Gotham on July 11.

It released a PSA on what to do in the event of a nuclear attack on The Big Apple.

Our in-way-over-his-head mayor Eric Adams saw the need for the video after what happened to Ukraine, to give preparedness.

If Russias invasion of Ukraine is Adams reason for the video, perhaps our midnight swaggering leader should pay more attention to world events. Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. Whereve you been, Eric?

And what nuggets of information does the video provide those New Yorkers who are now trembling over the prospect of nuclear vaporization?

The video advises them to get inside, stay there and stay tuned. For what? Inspiring messages from Adams?

The DEM assures New Yorkers that the likelihood of nuclear attack on or near the city is very low.

Adams calls himself a proactive guy who is a big believer in being safe than sorry.

Many New Yorkers are sorry about the results of the last mayoral election.

Head over heels in love with Liz.. Democrats adore Wyoming Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney for her principled stand against the stolen election lies of Donald Trump and for her masterful service on the Jan. 6 House committee probing the Capitol Hill riot.

Some Democrats in the Cowboy State plan to cross over to the Republican party so they can vote in the GOP primary in which Cheney is underdog to Trump-endorsed Harriet Hageman.

Wyoming Democratic Party chairman Joe Barbuto doesnt like the idea of voting in the GOP primary.

He is much less enthralled with Cheney than Democrats outside his state.

Barbuto told the New Republics The Run-Up July 13 newsletter that Cheney voted with Trumps position a little over 90 percent of the time.

At one point in the not-too-distant past, her and colleagues on that side of the aisle are the ones who created and enabled Donald Trump. He existed because of them. So I understand in her case shes changed her opinion now, but I dont want to reward her for doing the right thing when there have been Democrats doing the right thing all along, and I think those are the folks who deserve our support and resources.

Thanks for bringing us back to Earth, Joe.

Wyomings Republican and Democratic primaries are August 16.

Good luck, Liz. And if you go down in defeat, the GOP presidential primary beckons.

Disinformation Jack Not only did General Electric CEO Jack Welch preside over the worlds most valuable company, he also was in the vanguard of the disinformation revolution.

In The Man Who Broke Capitalism, David Gelles noted that lifetime Republican Welch accused the Obama administration of tampering with a good jobs report released in October 2012, a month before the election.

Unbelievable jobs numbers, Welch posted on Twitter. These Chicago guys will do anything cant debate so change numbers.

There was no basis to Welchs charge.

The backlash was swift as the mainstream press and economists dismantled Welchs claim.

Welch appeared the next day to do damage control, appearing on CNN to explain that he did not have any evidence about Team Obama cooking the books.

The right-wing media, ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Welchs position rings true), Donald Trump (100 percent correct) and jobs report truthers jumped on Welchs conspiracy bandwagon.

Welch himself seemed to realize that forging ahead with the lie was a better course than trying to walk it back, wrote Gelles.

Neutron Jack went on to call climate change mass neurosis and suggested that Hillary Clinton was compromised as secretary of state because of the Clinton Foundation.

Gelles noted that while some wrote off the buffoonery and mad musing of Welch and Trump, they understood just how powerful lies could be in the age of social media.

Trump is still at it.
Rubenstein Public Relations picks up New Empire Corp., a New York City-based development and construction management firm. RPR will craft corporate messaging and develop brand positioning for the company. NEC builds residential mixed-use projects in New York City, handling both development and construction management. It is responsible for over 100 completed residential projects. "Based on RPR's expertise in real estate, we believe the firm is well-equipped to help amplify our success in navigating New York City's residential market," said NEC head of marketing strategy Emily Zhu.

Trust Relations adds Reflect, a product that uses biofeedback technology to help customers achieve better holistic wellbeing. The agency was brought on to raise awareness of the Reflect Orb and App, the company's consumer tech solution, and to showcase Reflect's executive leadership team. The Reflect Orb and App use the body's signals to provide color-coded indicators that are intended to reveal the user's unconscious mental state and response to relaxation techniques. "It was time for us to bring greater awareness to our mission to help people better manage their stress and anxiety," said Reflect founder and CEO Noga Sapir.

BizCom Associates signs Salad and Go, a salad drive-thru restaurant chain with more than 50 locations in Arizona and Texas, to its client roster. The agency has been retained to support Salad and Go's growth and evolution with an integrated PR and marketing communications program. The chain is on track to nearly double in size by the end of the year, with locations across Arizona, Texas and Oklahoma slated to open throughout 2022. Salad and Go also donate 4,000 salads each week to those in need. "Salad and Go is revolutionizing the world of fast food, and we're honored to support their philanthropic mission to make fresh food as accessible as possible for all," said BizCom co-founder and COO Monica Feid.

Bianchi Public Relations wins Vitesco Technologies USA LLCthe North America unit of Vitesco Technologies Group AG  an international developer and manufacturer of powertrain technologies for sustainable mobility. Bianchi PR will provide the company with ongoing public relations, media relations and thought leadership support in North America, especially across the automotive, commercial vehicle and related mobility sectors. "We are excited to share our vision and amplify our voice among our customers and within the industry as an innovation leader," said Vitesco North America head of communications Michael R. Stoller.


NC Wine and Grape Council Wants PR Partner Mon., Aug. 15, 2022 The North Carolina Wine and Grape Council is looking for a firm to run a campaign aimed at changing the culture and knowledge surrounding wine produced in the state.
A group of local councillors from Offaly travelled to the European Parliament this week to ensure that the voices and ideas of county and city councillors are heard at the heart of the European institutions.

The councillors travelled on the invitation of Ireland South Fianna Fail MEP Billy Kelleher.

The Offaly delegation consisted of Cllr. Robert McDermott (Edenderry Electoral Area), Cllr. Eddie Fitzpatrick (Edenderry Electoral Area) , Cllr. Frank Moran (Cathaoireach, Offaly County Council), Cllr. Declan Harvey (Tullamore Electoral Area) and Cllr. Danny Owens (Tullamore Electoral Area)

The councillors met with representatives of the EUs Committee of the Regions, the Renew Europe political group, in which Fianna Fail MEPs operate, and officials from various directorates of the European Parliament.

Commenting after the visit, Billy Kelleher MEP said, It was wonderful to be able to bring 30 members of local government from Munster and South Leinster to the European Parliament.

Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, this was the first opportunity for me to welcome my Fianna Fail councillor colleagues, and I believe they gained immensely from the visit, and I hope they can bring what they learned here back to their communities, concluded Kelleher.
Met Eireann has issued a High Temperature Warning as an Azores High set to bring a heat wave to Ireland.

Met Eireann issued the rare warning this morning and it covers from Sunday morning through Tuesday evening.

Met Eireann is warning that on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday exceptionally warm weather will occur over Ireland with daytime temperatures of 25 to 30 degrees generally and possibly up to 32 degrees in places on Monday. Night time temperatures will range from 15 to 20 degrees.

The heat wave will come as a portion of the Azores High will extend from the southwest over Ireland for the weekend.

Maximum Temperature Forecast for Monday and Tuesday

Met Eireann explains that this will bring a rise in temperatures but still hold the warmer air to the south. As the high pressure moves away to the east, the anticyclonic, or clockwise rotation will steer up air from the southeast, but the real contributing factor is how it interacts with a low pressure system developing off the coast of Portugal and gradually meandering northwards. The cyclonic or anticlockwise flow of the low working in conjunction with the anticyclonic flow from the high will generate a strong surge of warm air between both systems thus pushing the warm air towards Ireland, transporting the airmass that has brought exceptional temperatures to Europe, towards Ireland.
The Norwegian government has intervened to halt a strike by oil and gas workers. The move came amid concerns that the strike could have worsened Europe's energy crisis, which is already aggravated by the war in Ukraine.
 2008-2022 One News Page Ltd.

All rights reserved.

One News is a registered trademark

of One News Page Ltd.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that Berlin would be "doubly subject to blackmail" if it were to ease sanctions with the goal of ensuring Russian gas imports. Follow DW for the latest.
NGOs had described Paul Ulrey as a humanitarian volunteer while Russia-backed separatists said he was a soldier. Elsewhere, Germany has rejected the idea of easing sanctions on Moscow. Follow DW for the latest.
Rajapaksa, who had promised to resign, instead appointed Prime Minister Wickremesinghe as the Acting President hours after he fled to the Maldives.
Tamworth Herald 20 Jul 2022

Mr Sunak and Ms Truss have made it through to the final two in the Tory leadership race, with Penny Mordaunt eliminated from the..
Eurasia Review 28 Jul 2022

By Nathalie Goulet *



Paris is still buzzing from the visit of UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, and now..
Eurasia Review 21 Jul 2022

While many in Western news media were busy with the topic of fist bumps, an array of important outcomes of US President Joe..
The financial leaders of the world's leading economies are meeting in Bali as the fallout of Russia's war in Ukraine is being felt worldwide. They are not in agreement on ways to solve the economic threats.
Daily Record 15 Jul 2022

Paul Urey, 45 and who was being held in captivity in the so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) occupied by Russia, died on July..
The US president has used harsh words to describe Mohammed bin Salman's human rights record. But that was before Russia invaded Ukraine and sent oil prices soaring.
The US president has used harsh words to describe Mohammed bin Salman's (MBS) human rights record. But that was before Russia invaded Ukraine and sent oil prices soaring.
A Russian missile strike left 23 dead in the city of Vinnytsia as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for Moscow to be labeled as a terrorist state. The situation comes as European officials convened at The Hague to discuss war crimes in the invasion.
The Homeland Security Inspector General reveals in a startling letter on Thursday that text texts sent by the US Secret Service between January 5 and January 6 of last year had been deleted.
The Department of Homeland Security inspector general, which oversees the Secret Service, said the texts were deleted after his office asked for them.
Rome has been thrown into political chaos after President Sergio Mattarella rejected Prime Minister Mario Draghi's resignation. The latter's statements came after the populist 5-Star Movement announced that it would boycott the confidence vote.
Manchin's vote is key in the evenly divided Senate, and he already rejected President Joe Biden's larger spending package in December.
Jerusalem Post 14 Jul 2022

While flights to the UAE and Bahrain were already allowed over part of Saudi airspace, flights to and from Asia will now be allowed..
Here's the latest for Friday, July 15: President Biden meets with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman; Heat warnings in Britain; Pilot arrested after freeway landing; Tigers get help, new home at zoo.


Civilians in occupied regions of Ukraine say they were tortured during detention by Russia.
In many ways, the Black September attack on the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972 discloses little about the evolution of the..

Eurasia Review 09 Jul 2022
Eurasia Review 21 Jul 2022

(RFE/RL)  Ukraine has a significant potential to advance its forces on the battlefield and needs to increase the intensity..
Newsy 16 Jul 2022

Watch VideoPresident Joe Biden, speaking at a summit of Arab leaders, said Saturday that the United States "will not walk away"..
By Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg *



President Joe Bidens visit to Saudi Arabia is likely to mark a new beginning for US engagement with the region, which has waned of late. While the timing may have been prompted by geopolitical and economic crises elsewhere, the visit should not be looked at as a one-off, transactional meeting....
By C. Todd Lopez



Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III hosted a visit by Italian Minister of Defense Lorenzo Guerini at the Pentagon. The two defense leaders discussed the U.S. and Italian defense relationship, mutual concerns over Russias actions in Ukraine and shared interests outside of Europe, such as operations in...
The simple truth is that, as we speak, children, women and men, the young and the old, are living in terror, International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan said at the opening of the Ukraine Accountability Conference in The Hague on Thursday, with about 40 nations in attendance.



Khan said an overarching...
U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday he would not avoid talking about human rights when he visits Saudi Arabia on the second..

Japan Today 14 Jul 2022
The Papua New Guinea Joint Forces Academy (JFA) has launched its official website to provide information of JFA accessible to staff and trainees administratively and academically.

Lieutenant Colonel Donald Aisuk the Commanding Officer and Chief Instructor of JFA said the academy (JFA) did not have a proper management system for years making information and data scattered and accessibility challenging.

For more than 12 months a team of PNGDF personnel at the JFA Training Development Cell (TDC) was assigned with the approval from PNGDFs Information Technology Directorate to work on the website and put all the vital information of JFA together.

Lieutenant Colonel Aisuk said the (JFA) website was created upon approval of PNGDF headquarters through the IT directorate. In terms of unit (JFA) priorities for this year, they have developed Google Classroom, a social media page and now the website.

The creation of the website is a milestone achievement for JFA and stepping stone for the unit's other priorities for 2022 to be followed through. These include the installation of the Learning Management System (a software called Moodle) that will be trialed with the Joint Forces Commissioning Course (JFCC) and getting JFCC accredited with Department of Higher Education Research Science and Technology (DHERST).

The event also saw the presentation of the certificate from DHERST recognizing JFA as a Registered Training Provider (TVET).

Director of Military Training PNGDF Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Terikian praised the team for the achievement and said the website will be very useful to give publicity to information that can better inform people about JFA history, its achievements, developments and progress.





Source: PNGDF Media/One PNG News





Next: PNG Elections: Tuka leads in New Talasea Open electorate
MGA Games Bring A Portuguese Celebrity To Online Casinos With New Teresa Guilherme Rainha da Persia Slot

Published July 14, 2022 by Arthur M

A Portuguesa celebrity reaches online casinos in the feature-filled Teresa Guilherme Rainha da Persia slot machine from MGA Games.

Teresa Guilherme Rainha da Persia is a new slot from MGA Games that stars a famous Portuguese television presenter and producer. It's a localised version of the popular Queen of Persia slot machine, which launched to great acclaim on 30th May 2022.

Features of this 5-reel, 243 ways to win game include stacked wild symbols and a series of free spins features that unlock when triggered enough times. Players can follow the adventure as Teresa Guilherme takes on the role of a queen of the Persian Empire with a mission to defend her city from the monster that threatens it.

Meet Teresa Guilherme

The domes of a Persian city are in view behind a palace window that holds the 5x3 grid of symbols. Players will find stylish card symbols, treasure chests, knives, and golden cups here, along with Teresa Guilherme dressed as the Persian Queen. She's also a wild symbol who can act as others to complete combinations when needed.

Under the 243 ways to win system, players win from matched symbols across any rows, starting from the left reel and the prize is multiplied by the number of times the symbol is repeated on each.

A random Wild Night feature sees from 1 to 4 reels filled with the wild symbol. Any 3 or more scroll scatter symbols are enough to trigger the Teresa Guilherme Rainha da Persia free spins features. There are 4 different free game rounds, and these unlock gradually as players trigger the round. Once available, they can choose which bonus round they want.

Bonus games play out in different locations around the city, where ancient tombs, a labyrinth, a market, and a temple await. Various prizes and jackpots await at each stage and wins can hit 6,350x the total stake.

Spinners can join in the action for stakes of 0.30 to 6.00 on each spin. It's a high-volatility game that comes in desktop and mobile versions at some of the best MGA Games casinos.

Top MGA Casinos

About MGA Games

MGA Games is one of the biggest suppliers of casino content to the Spanish market and has a strong presence in Europe and Latin America. The range consists of over 100 games and continues to expand with new titles, such as Teresa Guilherme Rainha da Persia and its inspiration, the Queen of Persia, reaching desktop and mobile sites in the last few weeks.
KB Associates is pleased to announce that it is the recipient of the 2018 Historical Diving Society Leonard Greenstone Award. The Award recognises safety professionals, groups, organisations or companies in the fields of commercial, scientific, military or recreational diving. It was founded by, and named after, Leonard Greenstone, in 1974 and supported by NAUI; after which was then deeded to the Historical Diving Society USA (HDS) in 2012 when he 
Birmingham Security Services is one of the most established and trusted security companies in Birmingham, providing manned security guarding services to the whole West Midlands region. They provide construction sites security, property protection & inspection, gatehouse security, reception & concierge , retail loss prevention, logistics & distribution security, manufacturing & industrial security, schools, colleges, universities and campuses security, healthcare security, key holding & mobile patrol and free risk assessment 
The Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational announced the creation of the "Collaborating for Sustainability Community Grant," a competitive grant program for businesses and organizations aimed at helping fund collaborative sustainability initiatives in the Great Lakes Bay Region.

The announcement was made Friday at the third annual Dow GLBI Sustainability Summit.

The Dow GLBI Collaborating for Sustainability Community Grant will provide up to $20,000 in seed money for joint projects aimed at improving environmental, social and/or economic conditions in Michigans Great Lakes Bay Region.

Through past Sustainability Summits, we know our area businesses, educational institutions, non-profit organizations and local governmental entities are committed to working together to advance sustainability in our home region, said Chris Chandler, executive director of the Dow GLBI. Weve already seen great progress and commitment through the Great Lakes Bay Region Sustainability Pledge. This grant will help encourage collaboration and provide resources to jump-start innovative approaches to advancing sustainability in our region.

Applications for the grant must be submitted by two or more organizations with the intent to jointly support the development of a project that will help advance sustainability in any of the following categories: biodiversity and ecology, built environment, clean energy, climate and resiliency, food systems and security, waste and circular solutions, and soil and water.

We are excited about how this grant program can be a catalyst to creating practices and partnerships that could advance climate leadership, a circular economy and other sustainable initiatives in the Great Lakes Bay Region, said Andre Argenton, Dow chief sustainability officer and vice president of Environment, Health and Safety. By drawing on creativity and innovation, we have the opportunity to build the long-term success of our region and reduce our impact on the natural world.

Since its launch in 2019, the Dow GLBI Sustainability Summit has been a forum for area businesses, educational institutions and non-profit organizations to drive adoption of sustainable practices within the Great Lakes Bay Region. Through the summit, a Regional Sustainability Coalition was created and launched the Great Lakes Bay Regional Sustainability Pledge, which is a framework to assist organizations who want to make sustainability a central objective of their values, actions and overall strategy.

This new grant program provides a vital next step in identifying pathways to amplify sustainability in the region, said Dennis Pilaske, executive director of Chippewa Nature Center.

For more information about the grant program, including how to apply, contact Dennis Pilaske at dpilaske@chippewanaturecenter. org
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Three Huron County men were arrested earlier this week thanks to the efforts of a multi-agency task force targeting individuals who seek sex from minors and human trafficking.

Representatives from the agencies involved in the sting operation held a joint press conference on the task force at the Huron County Sheriffs Office in Bad Axe on Friday morning.

Huron County Sheriff Kelly Hanson, Huron County Prosecutor Tim Rutkowski, Bad Axe Police Detective Sgt. Kevin Knoblock, Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson and Sanilac County Sheriff Paul Rich gathered in the shadow of the Huron County Jail, where the suspects arrested in Tuesdays operation in Bad Axe are currently being held.

Daniel R. Horetski, 45, of Port Austin; Kevin A. Manor, 56, of Sebewaing; and Jeremy J. Susalla, 40, of Ubly were charged Wednesday in Huron County 73B District Court with one count each of production, distribution or possession of child sexually abusive material; using a computer to commit a crime; and accosting a child for immoral purposes, all felonies.

The men are all being held in the Huron County Jail on $500,000 bond.

Hanson said this weeks efforts stemmed from a 2021 operation in Sanilac County that resulted in the arrest of Alexander S. Kundinger, 26, of Sandusky. With the assistance of Swanson and the Genessee County GHOST team, or Genesee Human Oppression Strike Team, law enforcement officials in Huron, Sanilac and Tuscola counties have partnered to form their own task force to target human trafficking and child predators.

In my 40 years in law enforcement, Ive never been part of an operation with so much eye-opening success, Hanson said.

Tuesday's operation involved members of the Huron, Genesee, Tuscola and Sanilac sheriffs' offices, the Bad Axe Police Department, the Sanilac County Drug Task Force and the FBI, as well as the Huron County Prosecutors Office.

Swanson said as of Friday, his GHOST team has worked with 42 counties throughout Michigan to fight human trafficking. The problem is so pervasive he said he views GHOST as an ideology as well as a crime-fighting task force.

Deputies from the GHOST team coordinated and directed the sting with support from the other agencies involved and the FBI. The 10-hour operation was based in an undisclosed location where team members used internet sex and prostitution sites.

The suspects literally "shopped" at the sites, according to a task force press release, then communicated with who they believed were minors and arranged a meeting for sex. The "minors" were, in fact, members of the GHOST team.

Officers set up a meeting place at a Bad Axe hotel, where young law enforcement officers acted as decoys as the suspects arrived and were taken into custody.

According to the task force, all three suspects acknowledged their intentions during post-arrest interviews, with two admitting they sought sex with underage females and the other stating he sought sex with an underage male.

Officers seized cell phones, cash and vehicles, which may be subject to forfeiture.

Hanson declined to identify the hotel where the operation took place, which he said was chosen at random and was not a place where illegal activity occurs. He added management was supportive of the task force's effort when they were informed of the operation after the fact, and he emphasized the incident did not involve actual underage individuals.

The tri-county task force consisting of Huron, Tuscola and Sanilac counties plans to conduct similar operations in the future, and Hanson asked Thumb residents to be on the lookout and report suspicious situations that may involve human trafficking to their local law enforcement agency.

Swanson said there are steps parents can take to protect their children from being targeted by child predators or "sextortion," a situation in which a teen or adult may be persuaded or coerced into providing nude photos to someone over the internet. He urged families to closely monitor their childrens online activity and remain vigilant.

"Seekers of underage sex victims beware," Hanson said.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The following article was originally published in the Manistee News Advocate on March 24, 2001.

Henry Starke, a German immigrant who founded Arcadia, achieved success in the new world as marine contractor at Milwaukee.

His first visit to Manistee County was the result of a successful bid for local harbor improvement at the time of the Civil War. He later "retired" in 1880 to a life as a developer and lumbermen at the town which is known today as Arcadia.

By 1887 his project had developed to the point where it could support its own freighter to connect it with the rest of the world; thus, the steam barge Arcadia was built.

The contract for the new vessel was let to the Milwaukee Dry Dock Company in the fall of 1887. Some accounts report the materials for the new vessel were all sawn in the mill at Arcadia in the summer of 1887.

In any case, the new craft was built at Milwaukee the following winter and by early spring it had been launched, ready for the installation of machinery. The small freighter was quite naturally christened Arcadia and had an overall length of 127 feet with a beam of 26 feet.

The Arcadia made its first appearance in Manistee in early May 1888 and a local paper reported: "The handsome new steam barge Arcadia, built and owned by Starke Brothers, came in today. She is a beautiful boat and carries about 225,000 board feet of lumber."

Coincidentally with the construction of the vessel, residents of Arcadia petitioned congress to improve their harbor. This was not done and the Starke family brought their own equipment from Milwaukee to construct and maintain the harbor.

The Arcadia served its builder for 16 years. Its primary use was carrying lumber from the Starke mill at Arcadia to markets in Milwaukee and Chicago, but it also carried goods for local farmers. Whenever Starke did not have cargoes for the freighter for several weeks, it would be chartered to others, frequently carrying lumber or salt from the Manistee mills.

Arcadia Area Historical Museum 3340 Lake St., Arcadia, MI Open Hours: 1-4 p.m. on Saturdays or by appointment: 231-889-4360 Visit: arcadiami.com Contact: 231-889-4360 See More Collapse

Among those who could be recalled in 1955 as having worked on the little steamer were: August Acher, Fred Adams, Peter Adams, S. Ammusen, John Burns, John Beller, Johm Cantwell, John Cooney, John Cook, Will Culver, James Daley, John Eble, John Eagan, Martin Ellison, J. H. Huff, Gus Johnson, John Kirchmeyer, Charles Kupher, Chris Larson, John Mooney, James Mathers, Frank Martin, John Peterson, Theodore Richley, H. E. Roberts, Peter Serta, J. Seymour, Len Swiger, R. Swiger, Joh Weise, R. Walker and John Weitzel.

Henry Starke died in 1898 after which his family continued to operate the business and mills at Arcadia. Then on Aug. 3, 1906, the large mill burned to the ground and the Starke family decided to build a smaller mill to supply a new hardwood furniture factory.

As a result of this decision, the Arcadia was no longer essential to the business and was sold to outsiders the following year never to return to local waters.
TO THE EDITOR:

Real Christianity in action is love and empowerment of other people, not power and control over others.

I am tired of right-wing extremist religious folks branding themselves Christian and complaining about being persecuted. They hide behind a distorted form of Christianity that claims this nation was founded on Judeo-Christian values. They strive to create a so-called "Christian" theocracy with the power to fashion controlling laws and persecute anyone who do not believe and do as they say or what they believe the bible says.

What this amounts to is a claim of being persecuted for not being allowed to control and persecute others who don't buy into their sectarian sentiments and demands.



The basic Judeo-Christian "value" is the sacredness of all that is and all the people within the Web-of-Life. Democracy grows out of and tries to manifest this value to the fullest. But this basic value is at the heart of other religions, even if it is wrapped in other than Christian poetry and practices. So that value, while being expressed by good and true Christian practice, is not exclusively "Christian." Religion that professes and manifests the value of sacredness and respect for others enhances and doe not detract from democracy.



It is with something of this understanding which inspired our forebears to found, not a "Christian Nation" subject to a power grab by any religious group, but a "Secular Nation" which allows people to practice any religion or none but follow a rule of neighborliness and law which values everyone. In this they were enlightened even beyond some of their own practices.

What we as a nation have done is an evolving expansion of love and empowerment for more and more people in fulfillment of our forbears ideals.

Right-wing extremists want to repress and curtail that expansion and revert to a reductionist view and practice. In this they have clothed their wolfish greed for power and control over others in the sheepskin facade of distorted Christianity.

It is not persecution to unmask these religious pretenders and prevent them form throwing out all the accomplishments of democracy in this great American experiment in democracy.

HAROLD SLATER

Midland
TO THE EDITOR:

Please join me in supporting Bill G. Schuette for State Representative in the Aug. 2 Republican Primary.

Bill is a good man who cares deeply for the people of Midland, the 95th District, and Michigan, overall. The hard work and integrity shown throughout this campaign is proof of his allegiance to represent the residents of the 95th District in the Michigan House of Representatives.

Bill has repeatedly committed to fight relentlessly for our freedoms, families, and future. I believe, whole-heartedly, that he will do just that. Bill will rely on his education, service to his country, strength, and inner moral compass to get results and do what is right.

Bill has a strong resume beginning with his local education at H.H. Dow High, followed up with a Georgetown education, and back home with his employment at Dow Inc. Additionally, Bill proudly served our country as an Intelligence Officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency with deployments both to Mexico and the Middle East. After serving in Mexico, Bill was awarded an honorary plaque for his work combating the Mexican drug cartels. While in the Middle East, Bill worked in support of the United States militarys principal counter-ISIS force. Again, Bill was awarded for his dedication and service in the fight against ISIS.

Bills wisdom, experience, and dedication to our country undoubtedly makes him the strongest candidate to represent the 95th District!

Please join me on Aug. 2 as I proudly cast my vote to elect Bill G Schuette.

ASHLEY METHNER-RAPANOS

Midland
Flames rise above the rooftops as a wildfire burns near Bear Creek Regional Park on the west side of Colorado Springs on Nov. 19, 2020. About 235 homes were evacuated near the park as firefighters battled the fire on the ground and in the air. Some westside residents would like the city to test its evacuation plans for the area through a computer simulation so they could understand how long it might take to get out in an emergency.
Director of Content and Operations

Spencer McKee is OutThere Colorado's Director of Content and Operations. In his spare time, Spencer loves to hike, rock climb, and trail run. He's on a mission to summit all 58 of Colorado's fourteeners and has already climbed more than half.
Microchip Technology is among tech businesses in Colorado Springs. The city anked No. 3 among emerging markets in North America for tech talent, according to commercial real estate company CBREs 2022 Scoring Tech Talent report.
We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription.
"The List" is PAPER's definitive roundup of the biggest fashion and art news, launches, capsules and collaborations of the month. Scroll through, below, to see July's newest arrivals.

Tiffany Atrium: New Social Impact Platform See on Instagram On Wednesday, Tiffany & Co. announced a new social impact platform called Atrium, whose mission is to create a more diverse and inclusive jewelry industry by advancing opportunities for historically underrepresented communities. The jeweler marked the launch by commissioning a new artwork from Baltimore-raised artist Derrick Adams called I Shine, You Shine, We Shine which the Tiffany Atrium logo is derived from. It will be auctioned by online art marketplace Artsy July 27 - August 10, with 100% of proceeds benefiting The Last Resort Artist Retreat.

Bernard James Summer 2022 Family Portraits Photography: Cesar Buitrago The next group featured in Bernard James' ongoing Family Portraits series includes designers Christopher John Rogers and Aisling Camps, photographer Quil Lemons and stylists Becky Akinyode and Matthew Henson. Each subject works in the fashion, music, arts and media fields and is a close friend of the jewelry designer. This year's theme is "talent behind talent" and focuses on industry tastemakers who work behind the scenes.

Austin James Smith x Planet i Courtesy of Planet i

Mixed media artist, jewelry designer and NYC nightlife fixture Austin James Smith, known via his social media handle Empty Pools, teamed up with eyewear brand Planet i to create the Spinal Sunglasses, an archive motif from Austin James Smith's Splice collection. It comes in three colors  Shadow, Sport, and Sunrise  and contrasts with reciprocal white, gold and black spinal design of the temple sides. Available now at austinjamessmith.com and planeti.world

SKIMS Swim Campaign With Bella Poarch, Paris Jackson and Madison Bailey Photography: Cobrasnake/ Courtesy of SKIMS

So far, the swim campaigns for SKIMS have had its founder Kim Kardashian front and center, including the most recent one where she channeled an '80s bombshell for its metallics line. But for its latest swim ads, the shapewear brand enlisted a trio of next-gen muses: Paris Jackson, Bella Poarch and Madison Bailey, all of whom star in the LA pool party-inspired campaign shot by alternative party photographer Cobrasnake. The new swim collection is available starting July 28 at SKIMS.com

Brandon Blackwood Launches First Men's Bag Courtesy of Brandon Blackwood Brandon Blackwood has added another bag to his accessories range: the Jordanis Trunk, their first bag designed for men. The boxy style is made of smooth black leather and comes with zipper pockets and an adjustable strap. Available now at BrandonBlackwood.com

Armani Exchange Gets the SmileyWorld Treatment Courtesy of Armani Exchange

SmileyWorld's iconic yellow smiling symbol is all over Armani Exchange's new feel-good capsule collection, part of the SmileyWorld's 50th anniversary celebrations (the company has teamed up with everyone from Moschino to Dior to Loewe). For this collab, Armani Exchanged swapped the eyes with its signature A|X logo, and they also referenced Giorgio Armani's recognizable glasses and smile for the other emoji. Available now at ArmaniExchange.com

ASHYA x t.a. New York Campaign photographer: Myesha Evon Gardner

ASHYA's Shema Slingback, the street-style It-bag that launched exclusively with t.a. New York in 2020 in a bold, red shade, is being released in another exclusive color with the fashion-favorite luxury concept store. The bag, the second collaboration between ASHYA co-founders Ashley Cimone/Moya Annece and t.a.'s Telsha Anderson, now comes in a brushed vegetable-tanned leather style named Trilogy while keeping its signature ring handle and compact, travel-friendly shape. Available now at shop-ta.com

Mr. Porter x Throwing Fits Courtesy of Mr. Porter James Harris and Lawrence Schlossman, founders of menswear podcast Throwing Fits (its tagline is "two grown dirtbags just tryna navigate the male zeitgeist"), have collaborated with Mr. Porter on a new capsule collection featuring 13 brands and over 70 pieces of clothing, shoes and accessories, all handpicked by the duo. There's also an edit of exclusive Throwing Fits merchandise. "Whether we've earned this privilege or it's simply karmic justice for a lifetime spent shopping and thinking more about men's clothing than anyone else on the planet is up to interpretation," the pair said of the partnership. "Either way, consider the bucket list checked. Finally garnering the respect of our friends and loved ones is just icing on the cake. Available now at Mr. Porter.com

Tommy Hilfiger Is Returning to NYFW After Three Years NYFW just got a big boost this season. Tommy Hilfiger will show its next see-now-buy-now collection on September 11 in New York City, its first show during New York Fashion Week in three years. It will also be live-streamed on Roblox with avatars dress in virtual pieces from the collection. "This season is all about the collision of my favorite archival inspirations with new live event concepts and virtual worlds," Hilfiger said. "Its the perfect expression of what we stand for as we pay homage to our roots with a return to NYFW."

Anyone Can Attend Diesel's Next Runway Show For the first time, Diesel is opening its upcoming Spring 2023 show to the public, inviting fashion enthusiasts, students, friends, and fans of the brand to attend. Registration to attend the live show in Milan is on a first come, first serve basis starting September 1 at Diesel.com.

Opening Ceremony Launches Collaboration With LUAR Courtesy of Opening Ceremony

New Luar bags just dropped! Well, in new colors anyway. The brand's popular It-bag, the Ana Mini, seen on everyone from Dua Lipa to Troye Sivan, is releasing two exclusive new colorways thanks to a collaboration with Opening Ceremony  ini tobacco pony hair-effect leather and black-and-cream snakeskin-embossed vegan leather. There's also a sweatshirt with artwork from Bony Ramirez's Feeding a Child of the Ocean." The collab is part of OC's 20th anniversary celebrations, which have included collabs with designer Peter Do and punk-rock band The Linda Lindas. Luar's Raul Lopez and OC's designers Humberto Leon and Carol Lim go way back, when the retailer first stocked Hood by Air (which Lopez co-founded) and then Luar. When I started to take my first steps as a designer, OC was the first store to believe in me and support me, Lopez said. OC will forever be family to me.'' Available starting July 12 at OpeningCeremony.com and Farfetch.com

Acne Studios Musubi Bag Campaign by Talia Chetrit Photography: Talia Chetrit/ Courtesy of Acne Studios

Acne Studios tapped New York-based photographer Talia Chetrit, known for her still lifes and nude portraiture, to shoot a new campaign for their Musubi bag. She shot the bags on male dancers bodies which she chose because they resembled the figurative qualities in the bags.

Eckhaus Latta Launches Shoe Collection Courtesy of Eckhaus Latta/ Thomas McCarthy

Eckhaus Latta's first footwear collection, first seen on the brand's Fall 2022 runway, is here and features a mix of silhouettes (all made in Portugal), heel shapes and colors including the Mike boot and Zoe clog. The range builds upon previous collaborations with UGG and Camper Available now at EckhausLatta.com, Farfetch and Nordstrom

Givenchy Launches 101 Dalmations Capsule Courtesy of Givenchy
Photo: (Photo : Jacqueline Macou/Pixabay )

The father of Jimmie Jay Lee, who went missing after Friday, July 8, 2022, pleads for his son's safe return home.

Jimmie Lee Sr. faced the cameras and asked for help from the public to find his son, whose car, a 2014 black Ford Fusion, was retrieved at a towing company's garage. The elder Lee said that he hopes someone will contact law enforcement if they have information about Jay. The father's video was uploaded online by the Oxford Police, per CNN.

Reports cited that Jay's car was towed in the afternoon of the 20-year-old's disappearance, but the authorities only learned that it was at the towing company on Monday, July 11. Jay apparently left his car at the Molly Barr Trails apartment complex before 6 a.m., where the police believed he was visiting someone. Molly Bars Trails is within an off-campus residential area.

The police said they have followed up on every lead and tip that has come in. Numerous people have been questioned while a dozen search warrants, for both digital and actual entities, have been executed. His vehicle is under process at the crime laboratory. Search and rescue teams have also looked into areas with their K9 units to trace Jay, who was said to be wearing a gold cap, silver robe, and gray slippers.

Read Also: Chrissy Powell Missing: Family Fears for Safety of Texas Mom After Discovery of Disturbing Text Messages

Jay's disappearance is out of character

Lakiowa Milan, a neighbor and friend of Jay, said that his disappearance was highly unusual and out of character. She believes there should be an alert on a kidnapping because Jay would not drop out of the radar like this. She also does not know anyone with reasons to hurt her friend because Jay is friendly, nice, and sweet. He's not shy to talk to anyone.

On the other hand, Jay's father said that his 20-year-old son was working on providing infant formula for needy babies. He didn't care about someone's skin color or background because he would find a way to help anyone.

Tayla Carey, Jay's sister, said that their last communication with him was around 2 a.m. on the day of his disappearance. He sent their mother a text message to wish her a happy birthday. Carey described his brother as a social butterfly. She hopes that someone was able to capture a video of Jay at the apartment complex to provide to the police.

The student is also active in the LGBT community at the University of Mississippi. Close friends said that Jay identifies as he/him but presents himself as feminine. Oxford Mayor Robyn Tannehill also met Jay when the student asked to shadow one of the mayor's staff at City Hall. The mayor described Jay as "one of the kindest folks I've met on campus," per the Clarion Ledger.

Crime Stoppers has agreed to reward $1,000 for leads that will safely bring Jay back home. Information may be relayed to the Oxford police via 662-232-2400 or the University of Mississippi police at 662-915-7234.

Search for missing student cold case resumes

Meanwhile, about 1,300 miles from Mississippi, the New Hampshire police resumed the search for a missing student in a cold case nearly 20 years ago. Maura Murray crashed her car on Route 112 in 2004, but police found the vehicle abandoned, without any traces of the student.

Associate Attorney General Jeffrey Strelzin said they had to release a notice of the search because the area covered was larger than previous searches; thus, it would likely raise the alarm and curiosity, per WMUR. The Murray family has also been informed of the search's resumption. However, the authorities did not detail if they found new information regarding Murray's disappearance.

In 2019, police searched a home's basement near Route 112 after locals said a body could be buried under it. At that time, Strelzin said they did not find anything.

Related Article: Where is Dylan Rounds? Mom Fears Teen Farmer is Murdered, Neighbor Charged With Weapons Crime
Photo: (Photo : Getty images )

The police charged a Georgia mom with murdering her son in 1999 after a tip from a family friend led the authorities to identify the body of a young boy abandoned near a church graveyard.

Teresa Ann Bailey, 45, the mother of the deceased ten-year-old boy, now faces two counts of felony murder, two counts of cruelty to children, aggravated assault, and concealing the death of another.

On February 26, 1999, authorities found the remains of a ten-year-old boy in a wooded area at the corner of Clifton Springs Road and Clifton Spring Church Road in DeKalb County. For many years, authorities named the boy Dennis. With the recent developments, police identified the boy as William DaShawn Hamilton, 6, per 11 Alive.

A breakthrough in a cold case

According to the District Attorney's Office documents, the police found a significantly decomposed body of an African-American boy between five and seven years old in 1999. Police estimated that the boy had died for three to six months before discovering the body.

The boy wore a blue and white plaid shirt, red denim jeans, and brown Timberland boots. At the time, authorities also did not know the cause of the young boy's death. The DeKalb County Police Department (DKPD) and Medical Examiner's Office worked on the case for years, but the boy remained unidentified.

In 2000, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) became involved in the case. The agency provided renderings of the boy and featured his story on the website and social media channels, according to the Law and Crime.

Identifying William DaShawn Hamilton

In 2019, an NCMEC forensic artist completed a new facial reconstruction. The development received media coverage and drew public interest in the case. A year after, a tipster, Ava, who knew Hamilton and Black in 1998, saw the rendering of the unidentified child and contacted NCMEC. The DKPD and the District Attorney's Office reinvestigated the case and followed the lead.

Ava told the police that when she saw the image, she knew it was Hamilton. She screamed and cried and knew without a doubt that it was the boy.

The authorities collected DNA from Black earlier this year, and police were able to link it to the remains of the child. The mom was arrested in Pheonix, Arizona, on June 29 and is now awaiting extradition. A grand jury indicted her on June 28.

Black and Hamilton were living in Charlotte, North Carolina, with a family member when she withdrew Hamilton from school in December 1998 and moved him to Atlanta, Georgia. She returned to Charlotte in late 1999 without the boy and told people different stories about where he was.

Read Also: 16-Year-Old Mom Takes Toddler as Prom Date After Failing to Find Baby Sitter

"Never give up hope"

Angeline Hartmann, Director of Communications of NCMEC, said the case is a perfect example of why they should never give up hope. She added that for over two decades, a woman in Charlotte who knew Black and her son had a gut feeling that something was wrong, and she never gave up looking for him. She added that they are grateful she never stopped her search and gave the police the missing piece to help them solve the mystery.

According to CBS News, Ava said that perhaps, the purpose for her coming to the boy's life was to make sure that he gets justice if someone took his life.

Related Article: Mom Shares Story of How Her 3-Year-Old Almost Died of Sepsis from Cat Bite
Photo: (Photo : JUNO Kwon/Pixabay)

The Department of Transportation (DOT) aims to change airlines' seating policies and practices in the next four months. It could establish regulations preventing airlines from charging extra for seating minors with their parents.

In a notice sent to the Office of Aviation Consumer Protection (OACP), the DOT said that a review of the policies should be undertaken in the next four months amid increasing complaints from parents who do not get to sit next to their young kids on their travels unless they pay additional fees.

Though the DOT acknowledged that such instances did not entail a deluge of complaints, it does not discount the fact that "even one complaint is significant for the impacted travelers." For example, one complaint involved an 11-month-old child who was not seated with a parent.

Thus, by November 2022, the DOT expects the OACP to come up with a report on whether or not airline seating policies for kids 13 and below should be formally regulated.

Read Also: Traveling Solo: 4 Fun Ideas for Mom's Vacation Alone

Airlines respond to the DOT notice

Airlines for America spokesperson Hannah Walden told People that U.S. carriers most often accommodate families who travel together to be seated next to their children or at least have one adult next to a minor. However, the group also recognizes that each airline has its own seating policies based on its business models.

For some carriers, seating issues may arise for basic economy tickets or ultralow-cost carriers, such as Spirit, whose option for guaranteed seats is to pay an extra fee ranging from $1 to $50. Some airlines also provide seat reservations before checking in for those willing to pay extra.

On the other hand, other airlines may not have reserved seating arrangements but encourage families to check in at the airport earlier so they can choose their seats before the other passengers. On United's website, the company's policy is to "strive to seat families together," but it is not guaranteed if the flight is full. On American Airlines, the system will usually detect group travelers and automatically search for seats close to or near each other.

Ensuring parents sit next to the kids without paying more

CondeNast Traveler suggested that families planning travels together must book at the earliest time because there are still plenty of complimentary seats to choose from without the added cost. Reserve all tickets at the same time as well to get the same confirmation code. This way, it will be easy to see in the system that the reservation is for a group.

If the airline provides an online check-in, also do this just as the window is open, usually 24 hours before the plane leaves. However, if you're flying out with a minor, avoid choosing seats in rows next to the exit because there will be last-minute swaps once you get on the plane. A federal regulation bans kids below 15 years old from sitting at the exit row for safety reasons.

Related Article: 3 Summer Travel Splurges Worth the Money for Your Family
This service applies to you if your subscription has not yet expired on our old site. You will have continued access until your subscription expires; then you will need to purchase an ongoing subscription through our new system. Please contact the Parsons Sun office at (620) 421-2000 if you have any questions
Its difficult to buy a computer monitor, graphics card, or laptop without seeing AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync branding. Both promise smoother, better gaming, and in some cases both appear on the same display. But what do G-Sync and FreeSync do, exactly  and which is better?

G-Sync vs. Freesync: The basics

AMDs FreeSync and Nvidias G-Sync seem complex, but the basics are straightforward. Heres what you need to know.

AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync provide smooth gameplay on compatible displays.

All versions of AMD FreeSync, and Nvidias G-Sync Compatible, are based on VESA Adaptive Sync.

Most AMD FreeSync displays can sync with Nvidia graphics hardware, and most G-Sync Compatible displays can sync with AMD graphics hardware. This is unofficial, however.

Nvidia G-Sync and G-Sync Ultimate displays use proprietary Nvidia G-Sync modules that only sync with Nvidia graphics cards.

What is adaptive sync, anyway?

Adaptive sync solves several problems that can seriously degrade the experience of using a PC.

The first problem is screen tearing. A display without adaptive sync will refresh at its set refresh rate (usually 60Hz, or 60 refreshes per second) no matter what. If the refresh happens to land between two frames, well, tough luck  youll see a bit of both. This is screen tearing.

Screen tearing is ugly and easy to notice, especially in 3D games. To fix it, games started to use a technique called V-Sync that locks the framerate of a game to the refresh rate of a display. This fixes screen tearing but also caps the performance of a game. It can also cause uneven frame pacing in some situations.

Adaptive sync is a better solution. A display with adaptive sync can change its refresh rate in response to how fast your graphics card is pumping out frames. If your GPU sends over 43 frames per second, your monitor displays those 43 frames, rather than forcing 60 refreshes per second. Adaptive sync stops screen tearing by preventing the display from refreshing with partial information from multiple frames but, unlike with V-Sync, each frame is shown immediately.

The result? Adaptive sync delivers smooth, consistent motion without screen tearing.

AMD FreeSync vs. Nvidia G-Sync: Which is better?

Enthusiasts can offer countless arguments over the advantages of AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync. However, for most people, AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync both work well and offer a similar experience. In fact, the two standards are far more similar than different.

All variants of AMD FreeSync are built on the VESA Adaptive Sync standard. The same is true of Nvidias G-Sync Compatible, which is by far the most common version of G-Sync available today.

VESA

VESA Adaptive Sync is an open standard that any company can use to enable adaptive sync between a device and display. Its used not only by AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync Compatible monitors but also other displays, such as HDTVs, that support Adaptive Sync.

Put simply: AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync Compatible are the same thing.

AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync Compatible are so similar, in fact, theyre often cross compatible. A large majority of displays I test with support for either AMD FreeSync or Nvidia G-Sync Compatible will work with graphics hardware from the opposite brand.

AMD FreeSync vs. Nvidia G-Sync: Whats the difference?

AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync Compatible are built on the same open standard. Which leads to an obvious question: if thats true, whats the difference?

This is where G-Sync becomes a bit confusing.

This top-tier 1080p gaming monitor supports both freesync and g-sync compatible Acer Nitro XV272 Read our review Best Prices Today:

Nvidia G-Sync Compatible, the most common version of G-Sync today, is based on the VESA Adaptive Sync standard. But Nvidia G-Sync and G-Sync Ultimate, the less common and more premium versions of G-Sync, use proprietary hardware in the display.

This is how all G-Sync displays worked when Nvidia brought the technology to market in 2013. Unlike Nvidia G-Sync Compatible monitors, which often (unofficially) works with AMD Radeon GPUs, G-Sync is unique and proprietary. It only supports adaptive sync with Nvidia graphics hardware.

Its usually possible to switch sides if you own an AMD FreeSync or Nvidia G-Sync Compatible display. If you buy a G-Sync or G-Sync Ultimate display, however, youll have to stick with Nvidia GeForce GPUs. (Heres our guide to the best graphics cards for PC gaming.)

This luxurious quantum dot oled monitor features g-sync ultimate Alienware AW3423DW Read our review Best Prices Today:

This loyalty does net some perks. The most important is G-Syncs support for a wider range of refresh rates. The VESA Adaptive Sync specification has a minimum required refresh rate (usually 48Hz, but sometimes 40Hz). A refresh rate below that can cause dropouts in Adaptive Sync, which may let screen tearing to sneak back in or, in a worst-case scenario, cause the display to flicker.

G-Sync and G-Sync Ultimate support the entire refresh range of a panel  even as low as 1Hz. This is important if you play games that may hit lower frame rates, since Adaptive Sync matches the display refresh rate with the output frame rate.

For example, if youre playing Cyberpunk 2077 at an average of 30 FPS on a 4K display, that implies a refresh rate of 30Hz  which falls outside the range VESA Adaptive Sync supports. AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync Compatible may struggle with that, but Nvidia G-Sync and G-Sync Ultimate wont have a problem.

A 32-inch 4K monitor with AMD Freesync premium pro Dell G3223Q Read our review Best Prices Today:

AMD FreeSync Premium and FreeSync Premium Pro have their own technique of dealing with this situation called Low Framerate Compensation. It repeats frames to double the output such that it falls within a displays supported refresh rate.

Other differences boil down to certification and testing. AMD and Nvidia have their own certification programs that displays must pass to claim official compatibility. This is why not all VESA Adaptive Sync displays claim support for AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync Compatible.

AMD FreeSync vs. Nvidia G-Sync: HDR

AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync include mention of HDR in their marketing. AMD FreeSync Premium Pro promises HDR capabilities and game support. Nvidia G-Sync Ultimate boasts of lifelike HDR.

Nvidia

This is a bunch of nonsense. Neither has anything to do with HDR, though it can be helpful to understand that some level of HDR support is included in those panels. The most common HDR standard, HDR10, is an open standard from the Consumer Technology Association. AMD and Nvidia have no control over it. You dont need FreeSync or G-Sync to view HDR, either, even on each companys graphics hardware.

PC gamers interested in HDR should instead look for VESAs DisplayHDR certification, which provides a more meaningful gauge of a monitors HDR capabilities.

How to use AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync on your desktop

AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync are easy to use with a desktop PC.

Both standards are plug-and-play with officially compatible displays. Your desktops video card will detect that the display is certified and turn on AMD FreeSync or Nvidia G-Sync automatically. You may need to activate the respective adaptive sync technology in your monitor settings, however, though that step is a rarity in modern displays.

Displays that support VESA Adaptive Sync, but are not officially supported by your video card, require you dig into AMD or Nvidias driver software and turn on the feature manually. This is a painless process, however  just check the box and save your settings.

How to use AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync on your laptop

AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync are also available for use with laptop displays. Unsurprisingly, laptops that have a compatible display will be configured to use AMD FreeSync or Nvidia G-Sync from the factory.

The ultra-thin Alienware x14 includes a g-sync display Alienware x14 Read our review Best Prices Today:

A note of caution, however: not all laptops with AMD or Nvidia graphics hardware have a display with Adaptive Sync support. Even some gaming laptops lack this feature. Pay close attention to the specifications.

Laptops can also support AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync when connected to an external display.

Whats next for AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync?

The future of AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync is murky.

VESAs Adaptive Sync is on its way to being the common adaptive sync standard used by the entire display industry. Though not perfect, its good enough for most situations, and display companies dont have to fool around with AMD or Nvidia to support it.

This 4k 144hz monitor supports freesync and g-sync compatible, and has hdmi 2.1 for consoles TUF Gaming VG28UQL1A Read our review Best Prices Today:

That leaves AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync searching for a purpose. AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync Compatible are essentially certification programs that monitor companies can use to slap another badge on a product, though they also ensure out-of-the-box compatibility with supported graphics card. Nvidias G-Sync and G-Sync Ultimate are technically superior, but require proprietary Nvidia hardware that adds to a displays price. This is why G-Sync and G-Sync Ultimate monitors are becoming less common.

My prediction is this: AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync will slowly, quietly fade away. AMD and Nvidia will speak of them less and less while displays move towards VESA Adaptive Sync badges instead of AMD and Nvidia logos.

If that happens, it would be good news for the PC. VESA Adaptive Sync has already united AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync Compatible displays. Eventually, display manufacturers will opt out of AMD and Nvidia branding entirely  leaving VESA Adaptive Sync as the single, open standard. Well see how it goes.
As Burkina Faso battles with one of the worst growing seasons in recent years, Ghana risks facing a tomato shortage as the former controls 90 percent of the commoditys imports into the country.



The growing season in Burkina Faso, over the last two years, has been facing challenges owing to extremely sparse rainfall in around 20 of the countrys 45 provinces  with experts predicting that the situation could persist, and even worsen in the near future.



Data from the Ghana Incentive-Based Risk-Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (GIRSAL) indicate that Ghana currently imports 90 percent of its fresh tomatoes from Burkina Faso.



Tomatoes, according to GIRSAL, currently have a national consumption demand of 800,000 metric tonnes per annum. Local production however continues to slump, unable to meet half of the consumption targets.



Equally, the tomato processing industry in Ghana remains small and relies heavily on imports of raw materials  concentrate and additives.



Meanwhile, processing plants installed in Pwalugwu, Techiman and Wenchi have all been shut down due to the unavailability of quality raw materials at affordable prices.



Ghana is estimated to consume more than 100,000 metric tonnes of tomato mix annually, apart from the fresh fruit.



Why situations in Burkina Faso may impact Ghana



The Burkina Faso Ministry of Agriculture has said almost three million people are suffering from food insecurity, as new weather patterns have already turned 50,000 hectares of farmland into barren fields.



Last year, Burkina Faso experienced a 461,000-tonne grain and cash crop shortage countrywide. Government figures have indicated that more than 450,000 hectares of arable land lay fallow in 2021 owing to rising levels of violence.



In June this year, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in a statement said: Thousands of displaced people in Burkina Faso, facing both a major food crisis and an upsurge in armed violence, have come to rely entirely on government and humanitarian organisations. They are forced to abandon their crops and means of livelihood; these people are now extremely vulnerable.



The Red Cross however noted that over 32,000 people in the Est, Nord and Sahel regions  both residents and displaced people  were given crop seedlings, notable among which were tomato, onion, millet, sorghum and cowpea seeds in order to grow cash crops at the subsistence level.



These happenings, stakeholders have hinted, must be a guiding path for Ghana to begin the right processes to enhance domestic production with deliberate attempts to reduce imports.



Key issues remain with production in Ghana



Low yields continue to remain one of the major challenges for tomato production in Ghana, as most farmers cultivate less than 10 metric tonnes per hectare against the potential of 20 metric tonnes per hectare.



Besides, poor agronomic practices, lack of varieties for commercial agro-processing, as well as farmers still planting local varieties  typically with high water content, many seeds, poor colour and low brix level  have all been identified as key production setbacks.

Source: B&FT









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 United Nations (UN) Eminent Peace Ambassador to Ghana, Dr Samuel Bernard Owusu has urged the Government to invest more into farming after it secures money from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).



That, he said, will fetch Ghana more money aside from the other avenues the country generates money from.



He recalled that during Ex-President Dr Kwame Nkrumah's reign, he initiated state farming where he engaged more farmers at the community level to plant more food.



Although he observed the 'Planting for Food and Jobs' is a good initiative, Amb. Samuel Owusu was of the belief that if the government supports a lot of farmers to grow grains in all communities, there will be enough food for the people, jobs and as well a boosted economy.



In an interview, Dr Samuel Owusu said, "The Government should invest some of the money from the IMF into commercial products or systems, especially farming."



He continued,"Dr Kwame Nkrumah introduced state farming, I am appealing to the president to send us back to state farming. Let us do community farming and give ourselves two years. Let us grow maize everywhere, in all the communities, towns, and regions in the country. Russia and Ukraine grow wheat such that they supply the whole world with wheat."



Dr Samuel Owusu again said,"Planting for food and jobs is a very powerful initiative, let us increase it, the President must focus on that, let us just use maize, grow it everywhere and within a short time, we can supply maize to the whole Africa or even the whole world and we can make a lot of money out of it. We can grow tomatoes and cassava and we will make money from it. The money some countries make from cassava alone is overwhelming, we do not have gold and we are farming too in smaller quantities. Let us do commercial farming. I am asking the President to take us back to state farming, community farming."



Amb. Samuel Owusu added that, "With this IMF money, we are just going to get some money which might not be enough, the government should invest one million dollars from what it is going for from the IMF in farming. For the youth that are unemployed, they should be employed to work three to four hours every morning to plant the food and be given an allowance and after working in the morning, they can go and do other things. I am not influenced by any political party, but we are all seeking the wellbeing of the country."

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
On Tuesday, July 12, 2022, officials from the Ministry of Trade, diplomats and multi-faceted entrepreneurs converged on the Kempinski Hotel for the launch of the Africa World Trade Network (AWTN).



The launch was held under the theme Showcasing Africas Industrialisation Capacities.



In attendance were the Secretary-General of AfCFTA, H.E Wamkele Mene, the Deputy Minister for Trade, Michael Okyere Baafi, H.E Asia Kirabo Kacyira, High Commissioner of Rwanda to Ghana and other diplomats from Africa, Europe and Asia.



In the wake of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), AWTN seeks to lead the way in pursuing tailored trade solutions in the best interest of Africans.



The Secretary-General of AfCFTA, H.E Wamkele Mene, in his speech lauded the initiative and made an audacious call to African leaders to dissolve barriers to free movement of Africans across the continent.



It is inconceivable that in 2022, as Africans, we require visas to enter other African countries, he said.



The signing of AfCFTA should be accompanied with free movement of persons across the African continent. This will boost trade and immensely benefit the continent, he added.



The Deputy Minister for Trade, Michael Okyere Baafi, who spoke on behalf of Alan Kyerematen, Minister of Trade and guest speaker for the launch, pledged the Ministrys unwavering support to AWTN for our collective good.

About Africa World Trade Network (AWTN)

AWTN is a pan-African events and networking platform that specializes in multi-sectoral trade-related programmers.



The platform provide the perfect framework to scaffold private sector actors, government and development partners onto initiatives to spur Africas economic gains with the aim of making the continent globally competitive.

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
Former Chief of Staff in the President Kufuor administration, Kwadwo Mpiani says he would have resigned if he was the Finance Minister following the decision of the government to seek economic support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

According to Mr Mpiani, the utterances of the current Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta before the government decided to seek the intervention of the International Monetary Fund make him unfit for the role.



"Honestly, If I were the Finance Minister (Ken Ofori-Atta) this is not a question of the President dropping me, from my utterances and then what is happening, I would just say Mr President, thank you so much, I think it's time for me to sit back for another person to take over," Mr Mpiani said in an interview with Joy News.



It will be recalled that in February this year, Mr Ofori-Atta said the government had no intention to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout but will resort to available means within the country to generate revenue.



This u-turn by the government which yesterday concluded preliminary engagements with the IMF on an economic support programme has resulted in critics calling for his resignation over his pronouncements on IMF support.



Reshuffle President's prerogative



Insisting that reshuffling Ministers was the sole prerogative of the President, Mr Mpiani said like all Ghanaians he was concerned about the performance of some of the President's appointees.



He said if he had the opportunity to advise President Akufo-Addo, he would urge him to drop some inefficient Ministers.



"It's the prerogative of the President, if he believes that all these people are working well, fine. But a listening President will try and find out what the people think...," he said.



"I would advise him to drop some of the Ministers and bring in some [new ones]".



Stopping short of naming the Ministers who should be dropped by the President, Mr Mpiani stressed that he would have resigned if he was the Finance Minister.

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
Gotabaya Rajapaksa has resigned as president of Sri Lanka after fleeing to Singapore in the face of mass protests at home over his rule.



He is believed to have wanted to leave Sri Lanka before stepping down in order to avoid the possibility of arrest under a new administration.

The cost of food, fuel and other basic supplies has soared for Sri Lankans.



In the capital Colombo, delighted demonstrators greeted news of the president's departure with dancing.



"We are beyond happy but also beyond relieved so we can take a break and go back to our lives," Viraga Perera told the BBC.



"At this stage we are so exhausted because of all the flip-flopping, that we consider this moment substantial enough as a victory."



Mr Rajapaksa arrived in Singapore earlier on Thursday after first flying to the Maldives on Tuesday night. Reports say he is accompanied by his wife and two bodyguards.



Singapore's foreign ministry said Mr Rajapaksa had not asked for asylum or been granted asylum. "Singapore generally does not grant requests for asylum," it added.



The acting president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, does not formally become interim president until he is sworn in.



After that, Mr Wickremesinghe - who was appointed acting president by President Rajapaksa after the latter fled - has 30 days for parliament to endorse him. If they do not, MPs need to hold a vote for a new president.



Read Full Story .... HERE >>> :









Source: Goal









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
Madam Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration has expressed concern about the significant increase in Misinformation, Disinformation and Hate speech (MDH) in peacekeeping settings.



She said it was most worrying on the African continent where six of the 12 Peacekeeping Missions in the world were hosted.



The Foreign Affairs Minister expressed the sentiments in a remark she made at a Security Council High-Level Open Debate on Strategic Communications in Peacekeeping Operations convened under the chairmanship of Brazil in New York.



The Foreign Affairs Ministry in a statement said Ghana, a pioneering and major Troop and Police Contributing Country (TPCC), supported all efforts at promoting strategic communications as an important enabler and multiplier for the reduction of violence and the sustenance of peace.



Madam Botchway further highlighted areas for deepening and embedding strategic communications in Peacekeeping Missions.



The statement said earlier, Madam Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, held bilateral talks with Mr Carlos Alberto Franco Franca, Foreign Affairs Minister of Brazil on the sidelines of the UN Security Council Meeting in New York to deepen the already existing cordial relations between the two countries.



It said the bilateral cooperation between Ghana and Brazil had become necessary following the establishment of the Headquarters of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat in Accra, which had reinforced Ghanas position as a gateway to trade with Africa.





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
Nigerias Inspector General of Police has banned the use of special number plates that grant holders priority on roads and security privileges.



In a statement, police cited abuse of the special plates, locally referred to as Spy, to disregard traffic rules.



It's unclear how many such plates are currently in use countrywide but they have all been revoked indefinitely.



Holders are to revert to their vehicles' original number plate, the statement by police spokesperson Olumuyiwa Adejobi said.



Police officers attached to senior government officials who use Spy number plates have also been ordered "to ensure prompt compliance with this directive or risk being arrested for violation of the order".



"This order is necessary to forestall the continuous disregard for traffic rules and regulations and other extant laws guiding road use by individuals hiding under," the police statement said.



There were no penalties specified for defaulters of the ban but police have been ordered to confiscate all special plates still in use.

Source: BBC









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
The Trust Hospital has unveiled its latest addition to the group, Trust Premium Centre, located at Ringway-Osu in Accra, which is a 3-in-1 healthcare centre that seeks to ease the burden on the three main hospitals in Osu and the other five in different parts of Accra.



The Trust Hospitals Premium Centre consist of the main hospital building, a 30-bed pediatric extension ward and a well-stocked boutique pharmacy aimed at providing quality health care services to clients and the general public.

The hospitals Premium Center will offer services including dialysis, chemotherapy, general practitioner and specialist consultations in oncology, nephrology and urology. The pediatric extension will run child health services including pediatric consultations, admissions and child welfare clinics.



Rooms in the premium facility include general wards, private rooms and semi-private wards with two patients sharing a room.



Speaking at the official launch a well-attended event by policymakers, healthcare experts and other stakeholders Chief Executive Officer for the Trust Hospital, Dr. Juliana Oye Ameh said the 30-bed pediatric extension wards facility is borne out of necessity to serve clients to the end of their care journey and for quality aftercare.



In narrating why she strongly believes that the new location is here to truly offer the best care, she told a story from a few weeks ago about an incident that almost led to a child being denied quality care due to the unavailability of a bed.



We received a call from our Sakumono clinic requesting to refer a critically ill child to our Mother and Child Hospital. Unfortunately, the wards were full. Were we going to send this child to another facility or keep her at our clinic with minimal access to all the essential help the child needed? Or just throw our hands in the air in despair? NO.



We had just finished the structural works in this facility, we quickly mobilized all resources and moved patient round in order to bring a cold case here when we have barely put pillows on the beds. This incident brought the awakening realization of what problem persisted in our hospital and largely Accra. This is the reason why we have this 30- bed pediatric extension wards today. It was borne out of necessity to serve our client to the end of their care journey and for quality after care, she said.



Quality cancer care



She added that new premium facility falls in line with her mission to help improve the lives of people living with cancer. One of my goals as the CEO is to ensure that all our patients that are diagnosed at the pink October breast cancer awareness drive, have access to treatment. This goal of mine fueled my passion to delve into full-fledged oncology service. Cancer prevalence and mortality are increasing in Ghana and we must help every diagnosed case as early as we can, she said.



Prior to the establishment of the chemotherapy unit of the premium center, when patients were diagnosed with cancer, they were referred to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital and others. Now the Trust Hospital, with the help of Roche, a Swiss multinational healthcare company, is going to provide patients diagnosed with cancer full treatment and not left to their fate at other facilities, she noted.



Commendations



Deputy Minister for Health, Tina Mensah, in a speech read on her behalf, commended the management of the hospital for complementing the governments efforts to provide quality health care service to the Ghanian populace.



Since its establishment as a not-for-profit health facility to serve the healthcare needs of staff (and dependents) of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and to enhance their productivity at the workplace, through its transformation into a fully-fledge hospital and opening its doors to the general public  the Trust Hospital has served as the gold-standard the provision of quality cost-effective care, guided by the core values of professionalism, respect, excellence, accountability and teamwork.



Director-General of SSNIT, Dr. John Ofori-Tenkorang commended management of the hospital for always executing professionalism and quality service delivery while urging the newly birthed facility to keep up with the good pace.



Let me emphasize that in this global competitive environment, you may have the best of human capital and equipment but what will distinguish you is excellent customer service. Trust Hospital has over the years carved a niche for itself in the area of quality services delivery and the Premium Centre must leverage this niche to attract the best professionals within the health industry to offer superior service to the public, he said.



SSNIT, through its investment in the hospital, is helping to meet the health needs of workers and pensioners, create employment and generate the needed revenue to pay workers when they retire. We are optimistic that the facility will be maintained well to deliver superior service at all times.







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
The Central Regional Manager of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Emmanuel Ankomah, has cautioned customers to refrain from engaging unprofessional people to work on the companys transformers and other electricity installations in their communities.



He said it was not only dangerous but criminal to work on the companys electricity transformers in an attempt to check for any fault within their communities.



He warned that persons found to be tampering with the companys installations would face prosecution. Mr Ankomah made the call during a public forum organised by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC). The forum was organised by the Greater Accra and Central Regional Offi ces of the PURC at Kasoa in the Central Region last week Tuesday to fi nd ways of addressing the concerns of both utility providers and consumers.



It formed part of the commissions outreach programmes which also focuses on bringing activities of the PURC to the doorsteps of the public. Mr Ankomah called on consumers not to accept any metre from individuals but to contact the ECG if they needed metres.



Certified electricians



He further urged consumers to get certifi ed electricians for the electrical wiring of their buildings before approaching the ECG for connection onto the national electricity grid. He also asked consumers to refrain from engaging in illegal connection and cautioned that those found to have engaged in illegal connection would be dealt with in accordance with the law.



The Greater Accra Regional Manager of the PURC, Gifty Bruce-Nelson, explained that the commission was committed to ensuring that utility companies provided better services to consumers. She lauded the dialogue between the utilities and consumers and said it served a platform for consumers to express their complaints about services by utility service providers.



The Central Regional Manager of the PURC, Kesewaa Apenteng-Addo, in her address, reiterated the important role of the commission towards addressing the concerns of consumers and utility providers in the country.

Tampering with metres



She also cautioned consumers to refrain from altering metres of utility companies or transformers of ECG, explaining that anybody found to have engaged in such acts will be prosecuted according to the law. She urged consumers to pay their bills promptly and stated that consumers were required to pay their utility bills within two weeks after receiving their bills.



Ms Apenteng-Addo expressed the commitment of the PURC to protect the interest of consumers and utility companies. For her part, the Accra West Communications Manager of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), Solace Akomeah, explained that the company was managing the water fl ow situation at Kasoa and its environs.



Touching on new service connection, she urged consumers to avoid illegal connection and refrain from connecting to the main pipeline before approaching the GWCL for metres or to be connected to the main water pipeline. The GWCL, she said, had adopted an electronic payment system and called on consumers to use the platform in the payment of their water bills, saying the introduction of the e-levy does not affect utility payment.



Participants



A resident, Gifty Brown, expressed worry about the handling of complaints made to the utility companies at Kasoa and its environs, stating that the companies did not act promptly when issues were brought to their attention.



Another resident, Yeboah Kissi, mentioned issues relating to the allocation of electricity metres, unstable power and water supply as some of the problems that individuals living at Kasoa and its environs faced.











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
The Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) will begin handling 20 per cent of all container cargoes arriving at the Tema Port from next month.



This is in line with a business retention agreement the government reached with the Meridian Port Service (MPS), operators of the Terminal Three port facility.



It followed what officials said was the signing of a letter of intent ahead of the signing of the operational agreement between the two entities.



The Director-General of GPHA, Michael Luguje, who informed striking workers of the GPHA at the Tema Port yesterday expressed regret that the strike, which went beyond 24 hours, had badly affected the authoritys business, thereby interrupting international trade emerging and terminating in the country.



We have gone beyond the 24 hours mark leaving vessels that are to depart and dock stranded, leaving Ghanas name in the international shipping press for the wrong reasons as a result of the strike, disrupting all the shipping schedules that vessels have, Mr Luguje lamented.



We have to be reasonable and open the port to international trade while we prepare for August 1, 2022, Mr Luguje appealed.



Vessels stranded



The workers union last Tuesday embarked on a sit-down strike which grounded the movement of vessels from anchorage to the various receiving terminals at the Port.



The agitations stemmed from what the unions said were the failure of the management to ensure that the 20 per cent container retention agreement between it and the MPS was implemented, two years after the two parties agreed to the percentage.



The action saw vessels namely, Voileta B, Nikolas, Maersk Cunene MSC Trieste and Zim Pacific remain in anchorage as at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, July 13, 2022, thus leaving many traders who had consignments aboard the above-named vessels stranded when they showed up at the various holding terminals to clear their cargos.



Signed letter



Mr Luguje who was at the Marine Block inside the port and holding a piece of paper which he claimed was the signed letter with the MPS appealed to the workers to call off the strike.



The Daily Graphic has, however, learnt that the said letter communicated the MPSs decision to grant the container retention to the GPHA for a two-year period after which the partners would revert to the original agreement which granted the MPS exclusive rights as the financier and developer of the terminal three facilities to handle container vessels, carrying 200 Twenty Equivalent Units (TEUs) or more.



Mr Luguje, on the other hand, told the workers that by the letter, containerised vessels calling at the port would be apportioned for GPHA to handle 20 per cent.



Goodwill



Based on the letter we have in our possession, our plea is that, you should call off the strike and go back to your respective work stations and begin to allow vessels to come in, the Director-General appealed, to loud jeers from the workers who chanted that they would extend the strike to August 1, 2022, until they saw the agreement implemented.



The Chairman of the Junior Staff Union, Emmanuel Arhin Young, speaking to the media, said the letter they saw did not reflect their demands and they were determined to go the full haul.





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
Police in Kenya has arrested a woman who allegedly stabbed her husband to death during a fight over a mobile phone at a bar in Homa Bay county.



The suspect, Cyndy Trinic, was arrested on Wednesday afternoon, July 13, after killing her 31-year-old husband identified as Charles Okoth Onyango. Onyango was an employee of the county government of Homa Bay. He died at the scene after being seriously wounded on the chest.



According to witnesses, the deceased walked to the bar located along Homa Bay-Kendu Bay Road and ordered some drinks. He was seated alone at a corner when a woman later joined him before she started drinking as well. It turned out that it was his wife.



As both were drinking, an argument ensued between them. It is alleged that the suspect was asking for Onyango's mobile phone. Her intention was to read text messages that the deceased had been receiving. But Onyango is reported to have declined to let go of this phone and instead began faulting the suspect for questioning him.



What started as a simple conversation between the couple later turned out to be a quarrel that attracted the attention of other people who were not interested in listening to their row.



Homa Bay town location Chief Joshua Ochogo, who confirmed the incident said the couple was acting under the influence of alcohol. "They were drunk and their actions were controlled by alcohol," he said.

At the time the argument got to its peak, the woman withdrew a knife and stabbed Onyango on the chest.



She had carried the knife in her handbag and appeared to have been prepared to kill. Mr Ochogo said the suspect stabbed the deceased once before he collapsed and died. Homa Bay Sub county Police Commander Sammy Koskeyi said investigation into the incident is ongoing.



"The suspect is in custody as investigators look into what led to their disagreement," he said. The body of the deceased was taken to Homa Bay County teaching and referral hospital mortuary.













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 articulated driver who crashed the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai and his driver to death last Tuesday has been charged.



He was charged with reckless driving at the Kyebi court on Thursday after his arrest.



He has been remanded and the prosecution has referred the docket to the Attorney-General's office for advice.



Alfred Amoah, the MCE and his driver, Samuel Gyasi died on Tuesday evening after the articulated driver reportedly veered into their lane and crash head-on with their vehicle at Akyem Fisher, near Bunso junction on the Accra-Kumasi highway.



A police situational report (SITREP) which puts the time of the accident at about 5:15pm, said the MCE and driver Gyasi were aboard a Nissan Patrol 44 with Registration Number GC 2060 - 18 belonging to the Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai Municipal Assembly travelling from Accra towards Bibiani direction.



On reaching a section of the road at Akim Fisher on the Accra-Kumasi Highway, a Man Diesel Articulated truck [with registration number] AS 4229-X from Kumasi direction veered off its lane and crashed head-on with the Nissan Patrol 44.



The MCE and his driver got trapped in the vehicle and both suspected died on the spot. With the help of the National Fire Service from Bunso and Kibi the bodies of the deceased were removed and sent to Kibi Government Hospital where they were confirmed dead by the Medical Officer on duty.



Their bodies were deposited at the mortuary for preservation, identification and autopsy. A Man Diesel Fuel tanker No. GN 8540-20 driven by Habibu Adam aged 35 years with an empty tank from Kumasi direction on seeing the danger ahead applied his brakes to avoid a crash.



In the process, he lost control of the steering wheel, veered of his lane and landed into a ditch on the offside when facing Accra direction. Meanwhile efforts are being made to tow the accident vehicles from the scene and effect the arrest of the Articulator truck driver who is currently at large.



The MCE was returning from an official meeting involving government officials and appointees in Accra.



Government officials, including ministers and deputies, metropolitan, municipal and district chief executive officers, chief executive officers appointed by the President and presidential staffers had been attending a five-day retreat on the national economy.

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
Madam Virginia Palmer, the United States Ambassador to Ghana, has paid a courtesy call on Speaker Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin at Parliament House in Accra.



During the meeting, Mr Bagbin reiterated the urgent need for countries on the African Continent to come together to fight terror and extremist attacks threatening the people of the sub-region.



We just want democratic advancement to enhance peace and security both in Ghana and the West African sub-region," he said.



He noted the need for a second look at Ghana's current hybrid system, which did not enhance strict separation of powers, adding, that the time has come for a review of the 1992 Constitution to remedy these challenges.



Speaker Bagbin said Ghana enjoyed an appreciable amount of soft power which needed to be harnessed in a leadership drive to steer Africa to achieve economic and political success.



On her part, Madam Palmer emphasized the importance of the Legislature as the true embodiment of democracy, which must be accorded the requisite respect in the political space.



She commended the Speaker for being an exceptional leader and noted that he made the oversight role of Parliament more meaningful.



Madam Palmer noted that she was intrigued with information about Ghana's security, democracy, and how the country had worked over the years to increase inclusive economic growth.



The Ambassador assured Ghanaians of her country's preparedness to help Ghana in conflict resolution endeavors and to secure the country against extremist terror attacks.



She also mentioned the need for an integrated approach to handling issues related to proper sexual behavior in the context of human rights, adding that Ghana must be mindful of how the world is handling such issues.



Mr Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, the Majority Leader, said the composition of Ghana's Parliament now, had led to many useful lessons on consensus building and negotiation in the business of politics.



He expressed concern about the threat to security in the subregion, citing Libya and Mail as poignant examples.



He said recent skirmishes at some of the Ghanaian borders had been of major concern to government and Parliament and called on the US to help countries in the subregion and Ghana in the efforts at preventing terrorist attacks.



Mr Haruna Iddrisu, the Minority Leader, appealed to the Ambassador to help strengthen Ghana's democratic structures by facilitating the works of such bodies as the Electoral Commission (EC) and the National Media Commission.



He reiterated the need for strengthened political and trade ties between Ghana and US, adding that initiatives like the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) remain relevant for maintaining active trade relations between the two countries.



At the meeting, the delays in Visa processing were discussed with the Ambassador promising that the US Embassy had put measures in place to clear the backlog caused by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic was cleared as soon as possible.

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
Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the Majority Leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, has said it is time for political parties to strictly align their development agenda with that of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC).



Their manifestoes should be woven around the overall development aspirations of the nation, he argued, saying instances where parties took power only to sideline the Commission did not augur well for sustainable socio-economic growth.



The practice has not been helpful to the cause of the nation in terms of continuity and long-term planning in the implementation of policies, programmes and policies.



Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, who was delivering a paper at a public lecture, organised by the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, in Kumasi, contended that, at every point in time, the Commission ought to be the driver of Ghanas development agenda.



The parties vision should not be different from that of the NDPC, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Suame stated.



Speaking on the topic, Constitutional Review; the Perspective of a Legislator, Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said multi-party democracy was meant for the wellbeing of the citizenry.



The ultimate aim is to bring improvement in the living conditions of the citizenry in all aspects of their endeavours.



The lecture looked at the question of the need or otherwise for a review of the 1992 Constitution from the perspective of a legislator, and the spectrum for discussion covered the milieu of the crafting of the Constitution.



It considered previous efforts made at amendment, evidence of demands for amendment from prominent Ghanaians, situating the Constitution in the current global and local context, and taking advantage of the opportune time for a review.



A concept note underpinning the lecture said democracy is an inherently flexible system of government that has an intrinsic capacity to adapt to changing circumstances and priorities.



The Constitution, which is the anchor of any democracy, must, in that regard, be inherently resilient yet adaptable to remain relevant.



Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu observed that it had been three decades since the Fourth Republican Constitution was promulgated, enduring and serving the nation well.



However, it is imperative that some aspects of the document be looked at critically in order to bring provisions under the Constitution to contemporary democratic practices.



The legislator cited the need to amend the Constitution in order to decouple the Office of the Attorney-General (AG) and that of the Minister of Justice.



That, he explained, would allow the AG to work independently devoid of government influence.



Additionally, there was the need to consider the excessive appointing powers bestowed on the President by the 1992 Constitution, the Majority Leader noted.



According to him, in a situation where the President was mandated to appoint about 5, 000 government officials, including appointees to head state agencies and institutions, was not the best.



Some of these prerogative rights, he said, could be left in the care of Committees and Councils, thereby limiting the President in terms of the frequency with which he could appoint and dismiss appointees.



Touching on the legislature, Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu expressed worry at the way new constituencies were created almost every four years.



He warned that, if care was not taken, it would come at a time when the Parliament House could be overwhelmed by the excessive number of seats with its attendant budgetary cost to the nation.



He also lent his support to calls to reduce the number of Ministers of State drastically, arguing that operating a lean government with a limited competent personnel was what the nation should strive for.



Professor Ellis Owusu-Dabo, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor, KNUST, said the public lecture was meant to serve as a platform for public discourse on issues affecting Ghanas development and growth.





Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has released its internal elections timetable to elect new leaders for the next years.



The event was also used to outdoor the partys digital payment platform to collect monthly dues, among other payments.



The www.ghanandc.com and the shortcode *920*25# give members various options from the comfort of their homes.



Addressing the media on Wednesday, July 13, 2022, at the partys Headquarters in Accra to announce the outcome of the Functional Executive Committee (FEC) meeting held on Tuesday, Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketia made it clear that only those who have paid their dues in full qualify to contest any position in the party. The FEC meeting also approved the new payment platform.



The NDC General Secretary also used the occasion to dispel rumors of the party delaying its internal elections. According to him, the opposition NDC has a constitution that spelled out the road map of any elections of party elections.



Digital Payment Platform



According to the Deputy General Secretary, Dr. Peter Boamah Otokunor, a QR code will be posted at all NDC offices and other vantage points to give easy access to members to scan and pay anywhere across the country.



He further added that all transactions across the digital platforms are only accessible when members input their digital membership card numbers and phone contacts in filling in the blanks.



At the launch of a road map for internal elections, the General Secretary of the party, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah said the innovation is to eliminate disagreements that come with filing nominations and this will also help the party keep track of paid-up members.



However, the party maintained its monthly dues at GHc2 and GHc10 as filing fees for aspiring branch executives.





Source: gbc









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
Lawyers for the embattled Assin North Member of Parliament, James Gyakye Quayson, yesterday Wednesday, 13th July 2022, filed a supplement to their statement of the case in the Supreme Court

following the order of the court on Tuesday.



The Assin North MP had been given 14 days to file a supplement to his statement of case by the Supreme Court but filed the day after and has written to the Registrar to have the case listed before the legal vacation.



His lawyers insist that the Supreme Court lacks jurisdiction to entertain the originating writ seeking to invalidate the Assin North 2020 Parliamentary elections.



"The broad ground of the application to strike out the writ is that this court lacks jurisdiction as determined by previous decisions of this court", the Supplement Statement of Case filed for the embattled MP, Mr Quayson indicated.



"The first aspect of this grounds, which is referred to in paragraphs 5 and 6 of the affidavit in support of the application is that this court has previously decided that by virtue of article 99 of the Constitution and section 16 of the Representation of People Act (PNDCL 284), it has no jurisdiction to entertain a suit that involves invalidating the results of a parliamentary election. Even if dressed up as an invocation of the original jurisdiction of this court under article 130 or a suit for the enforcement of the Constitution under article 2, this court does not have jurisdiction. Relying on the case of Yeboah v JH Mensah, Bimpong-Buta vs General Legal Council among others, Mr Tsikata prayed the court to strike out the originating writ before them.



The defendant has also prayed to the court to list the case before vacation.



"In view of the obvious urgency of this case, particularly its significance for the representation in Parliament of Ghanaians in the Assin North Constituency, we respectfully ask the case be listed before the vacation."



James Gyakye Quayson, an NDC candidate got 17,498 votes representing (55.21%) and Abena Durowaa Mensah, an NPP candidate had 14,193 representing (44.79%) in the 2020 elections.



However, the sworn-in MP, Hon Quayson has been petitioned to annul his elections on grounds he holds dual citizenship, of which he has denied as factual.



One Michael Ninfa, a teacher and resident of Yamoransa in the Central Region had filed an interlocutory motion and urged the Supreme Court to bar the lawmaker from holding himself out as MP.



His application originated from the decision of the Cape Coast High Court dated July 21, 2021, that nullify the 2020 Assin North Parliamentary election because Mr Quayson, a Canadian citizen, failed to renounce his Canadian citizenship at the time he picked nomination forms to contest the election.

Your browser does not support iframes.

Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/peacefmonline.com/ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, speaking at the official launch of the Accra Business Schools IT Programmes on Thursday, 14th July 2022 said: with enhanced fiscal discipline and structural reforms to restore debt sustainability and growth, we should emerge stronger than we have with the previous 17 IMF programs.



But it will take hard work and difficult decisions. With great pride and personal pleasure, it is good that we are all part of this launch of three new programmes by the Accra Business School in collaboration with the South East Technical University," he said.



If you take out the fiscal impact of this quadruple whammy, Ghana will not be going to the IMF for support because our fiscal, debt and balance of payments outlook would be sustainable. Of the four factors, two (COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war) were external and the other two (the banking sector clean-up and the excess capacity payments) were the result of policies of the previous government," he added.



He explained why the government is seeking financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) despite earlier claims that the economy was buoyant.



He noted that in the midst of the worsening economic challenges, the governments options for generating enough revenue were limited, forcing the country to run to the IMF for support.



In the midst of this global crisis, Ghanas fiscal and debt sustainability has worsened. Some commentators have argued that the expenditures by government alone could not be the reason for the large increase in the fiscal deficit of the debt stock. In fact they are right.



Covid-19 expenditures alone were not the reason for the increase in Ghanas debt stock by the end of 2021. In fact, as I stated in my April 7th lecture, in addition to COVID-19, there were two major items of expenditure that are critical to understanding the evolution of the fiscal deficit and the debt stock: the Banking Sector Clean-up (GH25 billion) and the Energy Sector Excess Capacity payments (GH 7 billion), he explained.



The Vice President disclosed that government intends to introduce a policy that will authorize the Bank of Ghana to purchase any amount of gold mined in Ghana to generate more revenue.



The IMF concluded its visit to Ghana on Wednesday, July 13, 2022.



IMF again reaffirmed its commitment to support Ghana.





Below is the full text of his speech

Your browser does not support iframes.

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
Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil, has called for the number of Members of Parliament (MPs) to be capped at two per region.



Per the proposal of Mr. Bentil, Ghana will then have thirty-two MPs representing constituents in the sixteen regions.



In a Facebook post, the private legal practitioner also suggested that the number of ministers should be pegged between 19-20.



His call comes on the back of similar advocacy made by Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu.



Its time we Constitutionally cap the number of Ministers to 19 or 20, per Art 76. and also amend the constitution to tie the number of MPs to 2 per Region, so we will only have 32 MPs!! Instead of allowing EC to bloat our Parliament, Kofi Bentil wrote on his Facebook wall.



As long as we establish regions as a unit, we can use that unit system. for eg each region has ONE minister regardless of population. so they can each have 2 MPs regardless, he emphasized while responding to a Facebook user who argued that his advocacy for two MPs per region will not be fair because that won't be representative since some regions are more populated than others.



Background



Delivering a lecture on the topic The Relevance of Ghanas 1992 Constitution Within the Context of Global Democratic Practices in KNUST last Tuesday, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu advocated for a reduction in the number of ministers to 19.



It is my contention that apart from regional ministers, the number of central government ministers may not have to exceed 19, as contained in the Constitution, and that means ministries should also not exceed 19, he said.



The Suame MP also said that ministers under successive governments have not added value to governance which has led to the country getting stuck since the dawn of the 4th Republic.



We are stuck as a nation because many of our ministers do not add value to our governance. I am not talking about the current NPP administration. I refer to all administrations since 1993.



The time has come for us to place in the Constitution an upper ceiling on the number of Ministers of State that we should have, he stated.









Source: ghanaweb.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
Lethbridge Police Chief Shahin Mehdizadeh speaks to the media following a hostage taking in Lethbridge, Alta., Friday, July 15, 2022. Police in Lethbridge, Alta., say a woman has been charged with attempted murder after a worker in a law office was taken hostage and stabbed multiple times in the neck. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
2022 WSOP Main Event Final Table Profile: Aaron Duczak

July 15, 2022 Matthew Pitt Editor

Final Table Profile: Aaron Duczak

Seat: 8 Chip Count: 56,000,000 Big Blinds: 47 Age: 40 Hometown: Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada

Aaron Duczak's Main Event Story

Aaron Duczak is a regular at the World Series of Poker, one with 40 cashes dating back to 2011. However, the upcoming WSOP Main Event is the first WSOP final table that Duczak has reached; he plans to make the most of it.

Some $156,927 of Duczak's $423,887 in career winnings stem from WSOP events. After missing out on the 2021 WSOP, Duczak arrived late in 2022 and scored one cash when he finished 159th in the $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em event for $4,355 before his run to the Main Event final table.

Ten or 12 Canadians are heading to support Duczak on the rail for the final table.

"I've a small contingent of crazy Canadians coming here for sure, maybe 10 or 12. They are probably going to be louder than the Brits for sure."

Now there is a challenge if ever we saw one.

Duczak has remained cool, calm and collected through his Main Event run, although it helps to always have the best hand in key hands.

"The last week and a bit, every time I have had the best and, and each time it held up. I don't think I ever got it in behind. I'm waiting until tomorrow to get it in behind and suck out!

Duczak's Run to the Final Table

Aaron Duczak

Duczak joined the Main Event action on Day 1c and finished with 62,500 chips, enough for 810th place on the leaderboard. Day 2abc and Day 3 were slow affairs for the Canadian before everything exploded into life on Day 2. Duczak sat down on Day 4 with 356,000 chips but ended the night with a top 50 stack worth 2,355,000.

Day 5 saw Duczak finish in the top 40 with 5,035,000 chips, but he was closer to the bottom than the top of the final 35 on Day 6 when he bagged up 8,125,000 chips.

Duczak doubled through fellow finalist Philippe Souki early into Day 7 with jacks versus tens before his stack dwindled again. he later doubled with ace-queen versus the deuces of Jeffrey Farnes, then doubled with aces versus the eights of Matthew Su, and he never looked back. He added more 12 million chips to his stack late into Day 7 when his ace-king held against Vadim Rozin's ace-ten, busting Rozin in 12th place.

Duczak's 2022 WSOP Main Event Journey

Day Finsihing Stack Place Among Remaining Field Day 1c 62,500 810 of 1,376 Day 2abc 216,500 374 of 1,259 Day 3 356,000 570 of 1,299 Day 4 2,355,000 50 of 380 Day 5 5,035,000 40 of 123 Day 6 8,125,000 23 of 35 Day 7 56,000,000 4 of 10

2022 World Series of Poker Hub Bookmark this page! All you need to know about the 2022 WSOP is here. Click here

Philippe Souki in WSOP action.

2022 Main Event Final Table Seating

Seat Player Country Chip Count Big Blinds 1 Philippe Souki United Kingdom 13,500,000 11 2 Adrian Attenborough Australia 50,800,000 42 3 Matija Dobric Croatia 68,650,000 57 4 Michael Duek United States 49,775,000 41 5 Matthew Su United States 83,200,000 69 6 John Eames United Kingdom 54,950,000 46 7 Jeffrey Farnes United States 35,350,000 29 8 Aaron Duczak Canada 56,000,000 47 9 Espen Jorstad Norway 83,200,000 69 10 Asher Conniff United States 29,400,000 25

There will be one hour and 48 minutes remaining in level 38 at blinds of 600,000-1,200,000 with a big blind ante of 1,200,000. All ten survivors will return to their seats at 2 p.m. local time on Friday, July 15, 2022 for the unofficial ten-handed final table.

Once the field is then down to the final nine contenders, they will be on a short break for the official final table pictures before commencing their journey to crown the 2022 WSOP Main Event champion.

2022 Main Event Final Table Payouts

Place Prize 1 $10,000,000 2 $6,000,000 3 $4,000,000 4 $3,000,000 5 $2,225,000 6 $1,750,000 7 $1,350,000 8 $1,075,000 9 $850,675

2022 Main Event Final Table Player Stats

Player Country First Cash WSOP Cashes Career Earnings Biggest Cash Philippe Souki United Kingdom 2010 7 $830,812 $102,214 Adrian Attenborough Australia 2014 8 $1,460,049 $361,660 Matija Dobric Croatia 2017 8 $239,167 $198,550 Michael Duek United States 2017 4 $651,300 $548,015 Matthew Su United States 2014 0 $49,340 $29,230 John Eames United Kingdom 2007 19 $2,196,078 $289,706 Jeffrey Farnes United States 2017 12 $181,550 $61,250 Aaron Duczak Canada 2006 40 $423,887 $51,251 Espen Jorstad Norway 2012 24 $266,860 $74,042 Asher Conniff United States 2009 49 $2,862,290 $973,683

Stats courtesy of WSOP.com and HendonMob.com.
2022 WSOP Main Event Final Table Profile: Adrian Attenborough

July 15, 2022 Matt Hansen Live Reporting Executive

Final Table Profile: Adrian Attenborough

Seat: 2 Chip Count: 50,800,000 Big Blinds: 42 Age: 28 Hometown: Smithfield, Australia

Adrian Attenboroughs Main Event Story

Australian pro Adrian Attenborough had over $1.4 million in earnings prior to his 2022 run in the WSOP Main Event, and he is poised to add to that number in a big way this week. Attenboroughs previous best run at the WSOP was in 2017, when he finished 53rd in the $1,500 No-Limit Holdem event.

The 28-year-old poker pro now resides in Las Vegas and first learned to play poker after being introduced by family and friends when he was just 16 years old.

Prior to his Main Event run, Attenborough had eight WSOP-related cashes totaling $288,248. That included $108,908 for finishing runner-up in the 2019 WSOP International Circuit Sydney $5K Challenge.

According to Hendon Mob, Attenborough had $1,460,049 in career earnings leading up to his 2022 WSOP run. That included a career-best $361,660 for finishing third in the 2017 Bellagio Cup XIII. He also won the 2017 Macau Poker Cup 26 HK$25,000 NLH for $193,172 and took third in the 2017 Asia Poker League Million Sydney Main Event for $91,035.

I am having fun. Its the best spot to be in, Attenborough said in an interview with PokerNews.

The Aussie is usually found in high-stakes cash games, but his approach remains largely the same.

I dont really think about different game formats, I just focus on game theory concepts. Maybe my short stack game is a bit rusty but well see how that goes.

Attenborough, who is looking to become just the second Australian to win the WSOP Main Event behind Joe Hachem (2005) will start the final table with 50,800,000, which will be 42 big blinds.

Attenboroughs Run to the Final Table

Attenborough started slow but remained in the top half of the chip counts over the first three days, and it was on Day 4 that he made his move up the leaderboard with a jump to 2.5 million. He rose to 7.7 million on Day 5 and bagged more than 28 million on Day 6.

But it was on Day 7 that he made two of the gutsiest plays of the tournament.

In the first hand, Matija Dobric raised from the button before the flop with and Attenborough called from the big blind with . The flop was and Attenborough check-raised to 2.7 million after Dobric bet 500,000.

Dobric called and the turn was . Attenborough fired 7.3 with six-high, but Dobric called and the river was . Not fearing the flush, Attenborough shoved his last 12.2 million and Dobric got away from the best hand.

Adrian Attenborough

Later in the afternoon, Attenborough bet 4 million with with on the flop. His opponent was Dobric once again, and the Croatian made it 9.2 million with a bluff of his own.

Attenborough called and the turn was . Attenborough checked to Dobric, who fired another 5.5 million. Attenborough called once again and the river was .

Dobric fired again on the river, this time enough to put Attenborough at risk for his last 23 million. Attenborough called after he spent a great deal of time in the tank and took down one of the biggest pots of the day with the biggest call of his life.

Attenborough's 2022 WSOP Main Event Journey

Day Finsihing Stack Place Among Remaining Field Day 1d 73,500 1,555 of 3,297 Day 2d 200,500 520 of 1,733 Day 3 495,000 389 of 1,299 Day 4 2,540,000 41 of 380 Day 5 7,785,000 15 of 123 Day 6 28,625,000 7 of 35 Day 7 50,800,000 6 of 10

Follow PokerNews Final Table Live Coverage

2022 World Series of Poker Hub Bookmark this page! All you need to know about the 2022 WSOP is here. Click here

2022 Main Event Final Table Seating

Seat Player Country Chip Count Big Blinds 1 Philippe Souki United Kingdom 13,500,000 11 2 Adrian Attenborough Australia 50,800,000 42 3 Matija Dobric Croatia 68,650,000 57 4 Michael Duek United States 49,775,000 41 5 Matthew Su United States 83,200,000 69 6 John Eames United Kingdom 54,950,000 46 7 Jeffrey Farnes United States 35,350,000 29 8 Aaron Duczak Canada 56,000,000 47 9 Espen Jorstad Norway 83,200,000 69 10 Asher Conniff United States 29,400,000 25

There will be one hour and 48 minutes remaining in level 38 at blinds of 600,000-1,200,000 with a big blind ante of 1,200,000. All ten survivors will return to their seats at 2 p.m. local time on Friday, July 15, 2022 for the unofficial ten-handed final table.

Once the field is then down to the final nine contenders, they will be on a short break for the official final table pictures before commencing their journey to crown the 2022 WSOP Main Event champion.

2022 Main Event Final Table Payouts

Place Prize 1 $10,000,000 2 $6,000,000 3 $4,000,000 4 $3,000,000 5 $2,225,000 6 $1,750,000 7 $1,350,000 8 $1,075,000 9 $850,675

2022 Main Event Final Table Player Stats

Player Country First Cash WSOP Cashes Career Earnings Biggest Cash Philippe Souki United Kingdom 2010 7 $830,812 $102,214 Adrian Attenborough Australia 2014 8 $1,460,049 $361,660 Matija Dobric Croatia 2017 8 $239,167 $198,550 Michael Duek United States 2017 4 $651,300 $548,015 Matthew Su United States 2014 0 $49,340 $29,230 John Eames United Kingdom 2007 19 $2,196,078 $289,706 Jeffrey Farnes United States 2017 12 $181,550 $61,250 Aaron Duczak Canada 2006 40 $423,887 $51,251 Espen Jorstad Norway 2012 24 $266,860 $74,042 Asher Conniff United States 2009 49 $2,862,290 $973,683

Stats courtesy of WSOP.com and HendonMob.com.

Sharelines 2022 @WSOP Main Event Final Table Profile: Australia's Adrian Attenborough
2022 WSOP Main Event Final Table Profile: Jeffrey Farnes

July 15, 2022 Matthew Pitt Editor

Final Table Profile: Jeffrey Farnes

Seat: 7 Chip Count: 35,350,000 Big Blinds: 29 Age: 39 Hometown: Dallas, Oregon, United States

Jeffrey Farnes' Main Event Story

Jeffrey Farnes is more used to competing in low-to-mid-stakes tournaments judging by his Hendon Mob profile. His first live cash came in August 2017 when he won over $9,200 in a $1,650 Ante Up Poker Tour event in Lincoln. Farnes followed that deep run wth a second-place finish in a $1,100 WPTDeepStacks event in Reno, which came with a $39,735 score. That prize remained his largest ever until a seventh-place finish in the $2,500 MGM Grand Summer Series Grand Stack event in July 2022, earned him $61,250. Indeed, he has now blown that career-best out of the water because he is guaranteed $675,000 right now and is only nine eliminations away from a $10,000,000 score.

Farnes first cashed at the WSOP in 2019 when he reached the money place in both the Big 50 and the Main Event. Further cashes in the COLOSSUS and Mini Main Event in 2021 were followed by an in-the-money finish in The Housewarming and Mini Main Event this summer.

Now that he has reached the final table, Farnes will be well-supported by An army of friends and family.

"I've got a huge rail coming. I got on the horn layer, I kind of wanted to make sure I reached the final table before I got everybody here. I've got some of my best friends here already. It got loud here yesterday but I have enough people coming that we can compete!"

Farnes started his poker career in 2004, playing $3/$6 Limit Hold'em, which were the only games running where he was back then. He then transitioned to $1/$3 No-Limit Hold'em and progressed from there. Farnes drew inspiration from Daniel Negreanu, particularly his hand reading ability, something that he has incorporated into his own game.

Jeffrey Farnes

Farnes Run to the Final Table

Farnes did not get off to the best of starts in the 2022 WSOP Main Event, bagging up 55,800 on Day 1c, which saw him towards the bottom of the chip counts. However, since then, Farnes found himself at the more favorable end of the chip counts, especially from Day 3 onwards where he has been in the top couple of percent.

Day 3 saw a key hand take place, according to Farnes. He moved tables and on the third hand at this new table he won a substantial pot.

"I had pocket aces and played them pretty quietly. A GTO player played his hand very aggressively, ten-eight suited. There was a ten-ten-seven flop that got heavy into action, the turn was an ace and he shipped in all his chips. That was the turning point because it jumped me up to around 350,000."

Farnes ended Day 3 with 1,075,000 chips, and added another 800,000 or so chips to his stack on Day 4, before going from 1,840,000 chips to 7,720,000 on Day 5. However, it was Day 6 when Farnes knew the final table was within reach because he finished the night with 37,825,000 chips, the most of the remaining 35 players. Farnes busted Alejandro Lococo during Day 6 and even made quad nines to take a chunk of Tzur Levy's stack and soar to 40 million chips.

Farnes went about his business in a quiet and efficient manner on Day 7 and will return to the ten-handed final table in sixth place with 29 big blinds and a dream.

Farnes' 2022 WSOP Main Event Journey

Day Finsihing Stack Place Among Remaining Field Day 1c 55,800 904 of 1,376 Day 2abc 352,000 105 of 1,262 Day 3 1,075,000 69 of 1,299 Day 4 1,840,000 89 of 380 Day 5 7,720,000 17 of 123 Day 6 37,825,000 1 of 35 Day 7 50,800,000 8 of 10

Follow PokerNews Final Table Live Coverage

2022 World Series of Poker Hub Bookmark this page! All you need to know about the 2022 WSOP is here. Click here

2022 Main Event Final Table Seating

Seat Player Country Chip Count Big Blinds 1 Philippe Souki United Kingdom 13,500,000 11 2 Adrian Attenborough Australia 50,800,000 42 3 Matija Dobric Croatia 68,650,000 57 4 Michael Duek United States 49,775,000 41 5 Matthew Su United States 83,200,000 69 6 John Eames United Kingdom 54,950,000 46 7 Jeffrey Farnes United States 35,350,000 29 8 Aaron Duczak Canada 56,000,000 47 9 Espen Jorstad Norway 83,200,000 69 10 Asher Conniff United States 29,400,000 25

There will be one hour and 48 minutes remaining in level 38 at blinds of 600,000-1,200,000 with a big blind ante of 1,200,000. All ten survivors will return to their seats at 2 p.m. local time on Friday, July 15, 2022 for the unofficial ten-handed final table.

Once the field is then down to the final nine contenders, they will be on a short break for the official final table pictures before commencing their journey to crown the 2022 WSOP Main Event champion.

2022 Main Event Final Table Payouts

Place Prize 1 $10,000,000 2 $6,000,000 3 $4,000,000 4 $3,000,000 5 $2,225,000 6 $1,750,000 7 $1,350,000 8 $1,075,000 9 $850,675

2022 Main Event Final Table Player Stats

Player Country First Cash WSOP Cashes Career Earnings Biggest Cash Philippe Souki United Kingdom 2010 7 $830,812 $102,214 Adrian Attenborough Australia 2014 8 $1,460,049 $361,660 Matija Dobric Croatia 2017 8 $239,167 $198,550 Michael Duek United States 2017 4 $651,300 $548,015 Matthew Su United States 2014 0 $49,340 $29,230 John Eames United Kingdom 2007 19 $2,196,078 $289,706 Jeffrey Farnes United States 2017 12 $181,550 $61,250 Aaron Duczak Canada 2006 40 $423,887 $51,251 Espen Jorstad Norway 2012 24 $266,860 $74,042 Asher Conniff United States 2009 49 $2,862,290 $973,683

Stats courtesy of WSOP.com and HendonMob.com.
2022 WSOP Main Event Final Table Profile: Matija Dobric

July 15, 2022 Matt Hansen Live Reporting Executive

Final Table Profile: Matija Dobric

Seat: 3 Chip Count: 68,650,000 Big Blinds: 57 Age: 32 Hometown: Virovitica, Croatia Twitter: @MatijaDobric

Matija Dobric's Main Event Story

This year is different, I am calm, I can sleep, I can get good rest, everything goes smooth.

Croatias Matija Dobric has just under $240,000 in career winnings, and most of it came from his run to 32nd place in the 2021 Main Event. He arrived on Day 7 in 2022 with another shot at the Main Event Final Table and he has taken full advantage of the opportunity.

"I just play hand by hand and whatever happens happens, that's poker - like every other poker tournament, Dobric said to PokerNews while bagging up his chips on Day 6. I mean, it's not like every other event but I play my best every hand and there is nothing special about it.

Matija Dobric

Dobric is bouncing back in a big way after his run in the 2021 Main Event, and the experience has helped him bring a more balanced approach in 2022.

"Last year it was really hard. I couldn't sleep because I was full of adrenaline and when I woke up after four or five hours of sleep, I was trying to stay awake at the table. This year is different, I am calm, I can sleep, I can get good rest, everything goes smooth."

This is Dobrics third cash of the 2022 WSOP after picking up a couple of small scores early in the series. He has been playing poker for more than ten years, mostly in tournaments, with the rare appearance at cash games throughout Las Vegas as he enjoys playing at new casinos.

Dobrics Run to the Final Table

Dobrics run to the final table is full of highlights, but doubling through with quads on Day 5 of the Main Event stands out among the most memorable hands of the entire tournament.

There was over 1 million in the pot and a board of when Dobric check-shoved a 600,000 bet from Martin Stashin with his last 1.9 million chips. Stashin went deep into the tank before he finally called and turned over for deuces full of fives, but Dobric turned over to take the pot with quad fives and start his march to the final table.

How Matija Dobric Got to the Final Table

Day Chips Rank Day 1d 107,200 745/3,295 Day 2d 450,500 47/1,757 Day 3 778,000 153/1,299 Day 4 1,880,000 86/380 Day 5 8,445,000 11/123 Day 6 29,550,000 6/35 Day 7 68,650,000 3/10

2022 Main Event Final Table Seating

Seat Player Country Chip Count Big Blinds 1 Philippe Souki United Kingdom 13,500,000 11 2 Adrian Attenborough Australia 50,800,000 42 3 Matija Dobric Croatia 68,650,000 57 4 Michael Duek United States 49,775,000 41 5 Matthew Su United States 83,200,000 69 6 John Eames United Kingdom 54,950,000 46 7 Jeffrey Farnes United States 35,350,000 29 8 Aaron Duczak Canada 56,000,000 47 9 Espen Jorstad Norway 83,200,000 69 10 Asher Conniff United States 29,400,000 25

2022 Main Event Final Table Payouts

Place Prize 1 $10,000,000 2 $6,000,000 3 $4,000,000 4 $3,000,000 5 $2,225,000 6 $1,750,000 7 $1,350,000 8 $1,075,000 9 $850,675

2022 Main Event Final Table Player Stats

Player Country First Cash WSOP Cashes Career Earnings Biggest Cash Philippe Souki United Kingdom 2010 7 $830,812 $102,214 Adrian Attenborough Australia 2014 8 $1,460,049 $361,660 Matija Dobric Croatia 2017 8 $239,167 $198,550 Michael Duek United States 2017 4 $651,300 $548,015 Matthew Su United States 2014 0 $49,340 $29,230 John Eames United Kingdom 2007 19 $2,196,078 $289,706 Jeffrey Farnes United States 2017 12 $181,550 $61,250 Aaron Duczak Canada 2006 40 $423,887 $51,251 Espen Jorstad Norway 2012 24 $266,860 $74,042 Asher Conniff United States 2009 49 $2,862,290 $973,683

Stats courtesy of WSOP.com and HendonMob.com.

The 2022 World Series of Poker Main Event returns on Friday, July 15 at 2:00 p.m. local time. You can follow the Main Event Final Table via the PokerNews Live Reporting Blog where we'll cover all of the action in our exclusive WSOP Main Event Live Updates.

Sharelines Matija Dobric is looking to become the first Croatian WSOP Main Event champion.
2022 WSOP Main Event Final Table Profile: Michael Duek

July 15, 2022 Matthew Pitt Editor

Final Table Profile: Michael Duek

Seat: 4 Chip Count: 49,775,000 Big Blinds: 41 Age: Hometown: Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States

Michael Duek's Main Event Story

Michael Duek is something of an unknown quantity at the 2022 WSOP Main Event final table, something that could play to his advantage. Until this summer's World Series of Poker, Duek had four cashes, from late 2017 to early 2021, recorded on his Hendon Mob profile. The largest of those was worth $34,929.

Duek decided to enter the $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller at the 2022 WSOP where he finished 31st for a $44,253. Duek then finished in the money in a $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event and in the $5,000 Mixed No-Limit Hold'em/Pot-Limit Omaha tournament, before jumping into the $10,000 WSOP Main Event.

Will coming from a PLO background hinder Duek's chances of becoming the 2022 WSOP Main Event champion?

Michael Duek

Duek Run to the Final Table

Duek will be used to swingy sessions in his usual game of PLO. He endured a rollercoaster ride on his way to the Main Event's final ten. Day 1d have gone better because Duek bagged up 61,500 chips, which paced him 1,934th of the 3,295 survivors. Day 2d went fantastically well for the finalists because he turned his 61,500 starting stack into 509,000, which placed Duek in the top 25 places.

Day 3 turned into something of a grind but Duek still added another 200,000 or so chips to his stack. More progress was made on Day 4 but Duek actually finished Day 5 with fewer chips than when he bag, and found himself languishing in 103rd place with 123 players remaining.

Go big or go home must have been Duek's motto on Day 6 because he went from 1,625,000 chips to a colossal 22,575,000. A huge hand propelled Duek towards the chip counts' summit. During the 100,000/150,000/150,000a level, Cedricc Trevino opened to 375,000, Duek three-bet to 1,050,000 and called when Trevino four-bet to 2,500,000. Trevino then shoved for 4,000,000 on the flop and Duek called. Duek flipped over and was crushed by Trevino's . However, the turn put the ball firmly in Duek's court, and the river busted Trevino.

Duek clashed with Australia's Adrian Attenborough several times on Day 7, but it was a hand with Espen Jorstad that was a key battle. Jorstad opened to 3,500,000 in the small blind with and Duek called in the big blind with . Jorstad bet 1,500,000 n the flop, and Duek called. Both players checked the turn, before Jorstad bet8,000,000 on the river. Duek quickly called and saw the bad news. That hand put Duek down to 31,700,000 and Jorstad over 100 million.

Duek clawed some of his losses back and finished Day 7 with 49,775,000 chips, or 41 big blinds.

Farnes' 2022 WSOP Main Event Journey

Day Finsihing Stack Place Among Remaining Field Day 1d 61,500 1,934 of 3,295 Day 2d 509,000 24 of 1,757 Day 3 714,000 198 of 1,299 Day 4 1,895,000 84 of 380 Day 5 1,625,000 103 of 123 Day 6 22,575,000 9 of 35 Day 7 49,775,000 7 of 10

Follow PokerNews Final Table Live Coverage

2022 World Series of Poker Hub Bookmark this page! All you need to know about the 2022 WSOP is here. Click here

2022 Main Event Final Table Seating

Seat Player Country Chip Count Big Blinds 1 Philippe Souki United Kingdom 13,500,000 11 2 Adrian Attenborough Australia 50,800,000 42 3 Matija Dobric Croatia 68,650,000 57 4 Michael Duek United States 49,775,000 41 5 Matthew Su United States 83,200,000 69 6 John Eames United Kingdom 54,950,000 46 7 Jeffrey Farnes United States 35,350,000 29 8 Aaron Duczak Canada 56,000,000 47 9 Espen Jorstad Norway 83,200,000 69 10 Asher Conniff United States 29,400,000 25

There will be one hour and 48 minutes remaining in level 38 at blinds of 600,000-1,200,000 with a big blind ante of 1,200,000. All ten survivors will return to their seats at 2 p.m. local time on Friday, July 15, 2022 for the unofficial ten-handed final table.

Once the field is then down to the final nine contenders, they will be on a short break for the official final table pictures before commencing their journey to crown the 2022 WSOP Main Event champion.

2022 Main Event Final Table Payouts

Place Prize 1 $10,000,000 2 $6,000,000 3 $4,000,000 4 $3,000,000 5 $2,225,000 6 $1,750,000 7 $1,350,000 8 $1,075,000 9 $850,675

2022 Main Event Final Table Player Stats

Player Country First Cash WSOP Cashes Career Earnings Biggest Cash Philippe Souki United Kingdom 2010 7 $830,812 $102,214 Adrian Attenborough Australia 2014 8 $1,460,049 $361,660 Matija Dobric Croatia 2017 8 $239,167 $198,550 Michael Duek United States 2017 4 $651,300 $548,015 Matthew Su United States 2014 0 $49,340 $29,230 John Eames United Kingdom 2007 19 $2,196,078 $289,706 Jeffrey Farnes United States 2017 12 $181,550 $61,250 Aaron Duczak Canada 2006 40 $423,887 $51,251 Espen Jorstad Norway 2012 24 $266,860 $74,042 Asher Conniff United States 2009 49 $2,862,290 $973,683

Stats courtesy of WSOP.com and HendonMob.com.
WPT Venetian Surpasses $4M Guarantee Halfway Through Final Starting Flight

July 14, 2022 Connor Richards Editor & Live Reporter U.S.

The World Poker Tour (WPT) Venetian Main Event entered its third and final starting flight today and surpassed the $4 million guaranteed prize pool with several hours to go until the close of late registration.

Day 1a of the $5,000 buy-in no-limit Hold'em tournament attracted 176 entries, followed by 241 entries on Day 1b. By Level 5 of Day 1c, more than 480 players had entered the tournament to bring the total number of entries up to 897 for a prize pool of $4.1 million. Those numbers will surely climb with players able to register up until 8:10 p.m. local time.

Some Early Action

By early afternoon, the field had grown to a few hundred as a line of players waiting to register began wrapping around the poker room. Players in line to register included WSOP bracelet winner Justin Saliba and Dragana Mackelprang, who went deep in the 2021 WSOP Main Event and is looking for another big score.

Most of the tournament action took place in the main area of the Venetian poker room, where dozens of poker tables lined up on top of the patterned red and tan carpet.

At one table, WPT Choctaw runner-up Steven Buckner chewed his trademark unlit cigar as he battled against Kyna England, who finished third in this event last July for $448,755.

As WPT staff walked around handing out complimentary hats, the Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) 2021 Player of the Year told the table she wanted one to get a hat to give to her mom.

"If I win a hat, I'm giving it to her for sure," England said. "My mom loves those! She wears them around and tells everyone 'My daughter's a poker player!'"

Kyna England

Unfortunately, there won't be another deep run for England as she was eliminated in the middle of the day when her top pair was no good against the set of Eugene Todd, according to WPT live updates. And, sadly for England's mom, PokerNews can't confirm whether England ever got that hat.

Other players in the main poker room area included Ukraine's Pavlo Veksler, two-time bracelet winner Scott Ball, six-time WSOP Circuit ring winner Matthew Stout and Alabama all-time money leader Shannon Shorr.

Tucked away in the north corner, 2003 WSOP Main Event Champion Chris Moneymaker sat to the left of three-time bracelet winner Kristen Foxen. Close by, two-time WPT champion Tony Tran won a massive pot when he made quad sevens to nearly triple up.

Players seated in the outer overflow area, meanwhile, included Jesse Lonis, Chad Himmelspach, Hye Park, Ugur Secilmis and WPT Season XIX Player of the Year Jacob Ferro.

Best Free to Play Slots

Savage Gets a Face Full

In celebration of WPT's 20th anniversary, WPT staff brought out a cake to share with players during the first break of Day 1c.

After a few words from WPT Royal Flush Crewmember Brenden Johnson, WPT Executive Tour Director Matt Savage stepped outside of the Venetian casino, where he was greeted with a piece of red velvet cake to the face by WPT ambassador Andrew Neeme in a moment of celebration.

Andrew Neeme and Matt Savage

The WPT Executive Director then walked back to the Venetian poker room with a face still covered in frosting as players laughed and took photos of the cake-decorated Poker Hall of Fame nominee.

Good Start for a Qualifer

One of the players who got off to a hot start on Day 1c was Josh Guindon, a ClubWPT qualifier who quickly climbed to third in chips at one point in the afternoon.

Guindon, who works in Salem, MA as an emergency medicine doctor, is married but made the trip out west to Las Vegas alone as he looks for his first big live score. With his over-ear headphones and dark aviators, the medical doctor is indistinguishable from a typical Las Vegas grinder.

Josh Guindon

Guindon has a tough field to battle through as other players who filled the Venetian poker room on Day 1c included WPT champions Phil Laak, Noah Schwartz, Dylan Linde, Tony Dunst and Anthony Zinno.

Those who manage to bag on Day 1c will return with the surviving 98 players from the two other starting flights on July 15 for Day 2, which will get underway at noon. Days 3 and 4 will play out the following days ahead of the next WPT champion being crowned.

WPT Venetian Remaining Schedule

Date Time Session July 15 12 p.m. Day 2 July 16 12 p.m. Day 3 July 17 12 p.m. Day 4

Photos courtesy Joe Giron and WPT
On July 12, Hong Kong officials met with experts from the United Nations Human Rights Committee to determine how the special administrative region has implemented provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Several committee experts expressed concern over rights restrictions under Hong Kongs National Security Law (NSL), which was passed on June 30, 2020, in response to the 20192020 Hong Kong pro-democracy protests.

The Hong Kong delegation sidestepped issues regarding the shrinking space for political and civil participation, claiming that human rights shall be respected and protected under the NSL.

Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang argued that the overhaul of Hong Kongs electoral system with the NSL had made Hong Kong more democratic than ever.

In fact, democracy has taken a quantum leap forward since the return to the motherland in 1997, Tsang said.

The most recent development is the improvement of the electoral system. The new system has enhanced its democratic elements and quality.

That is false.

As Polygraph.info previously reported, mechanisms like Hong Kongs NSL and electoral reform law are not found in democratic countries.

Chinas top legislative body introduced the electoral reform law in March 2021. A largely opposition-free Hong Kong legislature adopted it in May 2021.

The law created a candidate-qualification review committee, which determines who can run for the Election Committee, the Legislative Council and the Chief Executive positions.

That system is meant to ensure that Hong Kong is run by patriots.

Hong Kongs administrators argues that keeping political power in the hands of patriots is a political rule commonly practiced in the world.

But unlike in democracies, it is the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), not the electorate, which decides on a candidates patriotic bona fides. Senior Chinese officials have admitted their definition of patriotism entails love for Chinas current political system, rather than for the country.

Tsang argues that the expansion of the Election Committee (EC), a Hong Kong electoral college that selects the special administrative regions chief executive and lawmakers, and the Legislative Council (LegCo), has helped make them more representative of Hong Kong society and allowed broader public participation in political processes.

He noted the EC had been expanded from 1,200 to 1,500 members, while the the LegCo grew from 70 seats to 90 seats.

But analysis from the Hong Kong Free Press found that only a quarter of candidates were poised to take part in a contested race during the September 2021 Election Committee election.

And while the size of the LegCo was expanded, the number of directly elected seats was slashed from 35 to 20. Whats more, under the amended election system, the EC is responsible for selecting 40 legislative seats. The remaining 30 seats are determined by functional constituencies, representing sectors which are substantial and important to the development of the community.

Critics have long said functional constituency elections give business and professional groups an outsized role in determining the composition of Hong Kongs legislature.

A democratic system is also more than just elections.

Civil liberties, which Britannica defines as freedom from arbitrary interference in ones pursuits by individuals or by government, are protected explicitly in the constitutions of most democratic countries.

Hong Kongs National Security Law (NSL) has gone a long way in eroding those freedoms, undermining the city-states de facto constitution (Basic Law).

As Polygraph.info previously reported, the NSL criminalizes four categories of activities  secession, subversion of state power, terrorism and collusion with foreign entities. The law also gives authorities in Hong Kong and Beijing wide latitude to control the internet, media outlets, schools and other groups. China also claims the NSL has authority over anyone anywhere in the world.

The British-based rights group Amnesty International called the NSL dangerously vague and broad, warning virtually anything could be deemed a threat to national security under its provisions.

Amnesty shuttered its Hong Kong office in October 2021, saying the NSL made it effectively impossible to work freely and without fear of serious reprisals from the government.

New York-based Human Rights Watch, which also left Hong Kong, said Beijing had broken its promise to respect the citys freedoms  a guarantee enshrined in the territorys functional constitution  and rights protected in the Basic Law.

In late June, the Hong Kong Free Press reported at least 58 organizations, including unions, churches, media groups, and political parties, had disbanded since the NSL came into force.

Reporters Without Borders noted that Hong Kongs free press, once one of the most outstanding in Asia, is more threatened than ever.

The Hong Kong government has engaged in an unprecedented campaign against independent journalism in total disregard for the territorys Basic Law, which enshrines the principle of press freedom, wrote Reporters Without Borders (RSF) East Asia Bureau head, Cedric Alviani.

That crackdown on journalism included the forcible closure of two independent media outlets, Apple Daily and Stand News.

The public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) also paired up with Chinese state media to help nurture patriotism.

Hong Kong dropped to 148th place on the 2022 RSF World Press Freedom Index, down from 80th place in 2021.

The founder of Apple Daily, Jimmy Lai, was the first high-profile arrest under the NSL. Lai was sentenced to 13 months in jail for incitement to knowingly take part in an unauthorized assembly during Hong Kongs June 2020 Tiananmen Square candlelight vigil.

The annual event commemorates the 1989 Tiananmen massacre in Beijing.

ChinaFile, an online magazine published by the Center on U.S.-China Relations at Asia Society, says 203 people had been arrested and 123 charged under the NSL as of June 26.

In May, 90-year-old retired bishop Cardinal Joseph Zen, along with four other pro-democracy figures, were arrested on NSL-related offenses, sparking an international outcry.

Earlier this month, the outgoing top U.S. diplomat in Hong Kong warned the "crude and chilling use of the NSL was threatening Hong Kongs status as a global financial hub.
Learning how to code and about cybersecurity was the goal of the Cyber/Coding Patriot camp at the Ruth Patrick Science Education Center this week.

John Hutchens, the director of special programs at the RPSEC, said the camp is for rising sixth through eighth graders. The camp is offered through the National Youth Cyber Education Program through the Air Force Association and teaches students about careers in cybersafety and cybersecurity, along with giving them a chance to work with coding. The students work with VEX Robots and write code so the robots can perform different challenges.

+4 Campers explore their inner inventor at USC Aiken's Camp Invention Kids were able to put their inventor skills to the test this week with Camp Invention at the Ruth Patrick Science Education Center.

This week they started out, (Monday) in the cyber camp they were learning about password protection, file protection, malware, hackers, things that they may not be familiar with with the technology that they're using, Hutchens said. (Monday) in the coding portion they started building their robots. One group built robots, one group worked with the scratch coding program to learn some basics about block coding.

The coding camp is being led by Amber Dobbs, a STEM teacher at Merriwether Middle School. She taught the third, fourth and fifth grade coding camp last year and had a lot of fun.

It's really fun because I get to go a little deeper with certain things and do a little bit more of the fun stuff, not trying to push curriculum as much, Dobbs said. It's more exploring. It's a different kind of set up, so it's really nice.

+12 Aiken career and technology center hosts summer academy Learning the skills to pay the bills is what people in the Aiken County Public School District say students get at the Aiken County Career and

Dobbs said the campers were having a lot of fun. On Tuesday they started working on the code so the robots they built on Monday could move.

A few of them told me 'we've never build a robot before' so they got to build them first and now they're going to get to learn how to make them move, Dobbs said.

Aarush Garg, a rising sixth grader at St. Mary's Help of Christians Catholic School, said he wanted to come to the camp because he wanted to learn about coding.

I've learned a lot about cybersecurity and coding was really just having fun and doing some coding, Garg said.

For Savannah Warren, a rising sixth grader at Mead Hall, she said she's always had an interest in computers and coding, which is why she wanted to come to the camp.

I'm having lots of fun, it's really interesting, Warren said. (I've learned) how to make stronger passwords and I've learned a little bit more about coding so far. I'm learning cybersecurity too.

Hutchens said there are a lot of jobs where cybersecurity and coding are needed.

The need for experience with cybersecurity and coding will only increase due to the growing number of organizations and universities moving into the field of cybersecurity and other technology fields, Hutchens said. There are many tech jobs that go unfilled every day because of the lack of cyber and coding professionals. The CSRA needs a skilled pipeline of professionals to fill huge tech workforce and it's not going to end anytime soon.

The camp is also made possible thanks to a partnership with Savannah River Nuclear Solutions.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect that a decision on a new security contractor has not yet been made.

The next paramilitary security provider at the Savannah River Site has not yet been determined.

The Department of Energy announced Wednesday afternoon that it plans to extend its contract with Centerra Group LLC to provide paramilitary security services at the Savannah River Site for up to 24 months.

In February 2021 and June 2021, the Department of Energy awarded and affirmed a contract for up to 10 years and up to $1 billion to SRS Critical Infrastructure Security to provide paramilitary security services at the site.

However, a spokesperson with the Department of Energy added Friday morning that corrections required by the Governmental Accountability Office are still underway and a new provider has not yet been determined.

The Centerra extension includes a four-month base with five optional four-month extensions. The value of the contract extension is not immediately clear.

The extension is the latest extension in a series of extensions for Centerra after the Department of Energy awarded the paramilitary security contract to SRS Critical Infrastructure Security in February 2021.

Those extensions began in May 2020 when the Department of Energy announced that it planned to extend Centerra's contract for four months beginning in October 2020 with two additional four-month extension options that ran to Oct. 7, 2021.

However, on Feb. 12, 2021, the Department of Energy announced that it had awarded a potentially $1 billion contract of up to 10 years to SRS Critical Infrastructure Security LLC to provide paramilitary security services at the site to begin when the Centerra contract expired in October 2021.

SRS Criticial Infrastructure Security LLC is a joint venture that includes Securitas CIS Inc., K2 Solutions Inc., Spectra Tech Inc. and System Studies & Simulation Inc. (S3I)/Kachemak Bay Flying Service (KBFS).

But, protests from Centerra and another bidder on the contract and the implementation of recommendations from the Government Accountability Office delayed SRS Critical Infrastructure Security's takeover of the contract, and the Centerra contract was extended until Oct. 7.
Aiken, SC (29801)

Today

Variable clouds with scattered thunderstorms. Low 69F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Variable clouds with scattered thunderstorms. Low 69F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
Thomas Blackburn looks forward to his familys weeklong beach vacation at the Isle of Palms every year.

He has been coming to the South Carolina barrier island since he was a child. Now a father with three small children, his family makes the six-hour trek from their suburban Atlanta home every July for a week of sun and fun.

But Blackburns vacation isnt all sandcastles and sunsets. With a growing family, he's has been forced to schlep all the umbrellas, chairs, towels, toys and food from their rental home to the beach.

They load me up every day, Blackburn said with a chuckle. I feel like a pack mule. It takes my back a couple of weeks to recover.

This summer, however, Blackburns load has been lightened considerably by the Shibumi Shade canopy.

Shibumi Shade is a new beach shade design that works with the wind rather than against it. The design is simple: a lightweight canopy attached to a single supportive arch. Unlike traditional beach umbrellas, the canopy is not rigid, which allows the ocean breeze to pass through easily, so the canopy cannot be lifted from the sand or tumble down the beach.

Bringing the umbrellas was the worst part of setting up each day, Blackburn said. They were cumbersome, they were heavy and then it took forever to set them up just right. I saw a couple of the Shibumi Shades last year, talked to the folks that owned them, and then bought one once we got back home. Its light, it sets up easily and it works.

The canopies, which are manufactured in North Carolina and Virginia, sell for $250.

Shibumi Shade is the brainchild of two brothers  Dane and Scott Barnes  and best friend Alex Slater.

Like Blackburn, the Barnes brothers got tired of lugging heavy umbrellas and equipment during their familys annual vacations to Emerald Isle, N.C., when they were growing up.

We loved our family vacations, but we didnt love all the stuff we had to haul to the beach with us, said Shibumi co-founder Dane Barnes. There were times when wed have the umbrellas set up and the wind would pick up and then theyd be flying down the beach.

In 2015, the trio started toying around with the idea of creating something that worked with beach breezes, instead of fighting against them.

We had the idea of like a sheet on a clothesline, Barnes said.

They made their first prototype using a PVC pipe from a local hardware store and were surprised at how well it worked.

Shibumi is a Japanese design concept that means the elegance of simplicity. Its also the name of an apartment building in Chapel Hill, N.C., where all the trio lived while they were undergraduates at the University of North Carolina.

It kind of has a fun double meaning for all three of us, Barnes said.

Emerald Isle beachgoers began to take notice of their design, approaching them while they were on the beach, asking if the product was for sale.

The more and more people came up to us, the more and more we thought this might be a viable product we could sell, Barnes said.

The finished design is a lot more portable than its PVC prototype and weighs less than four pounds. The Barnes brothers and Slater attended UNC, but none were engineers. Dane majored in business, Scott in math and Slater in English.

I think that might have helped us with the design because we did what made sense to us, Dane said with a chuckle.

In the summer of 2016, the first Shibumi Shades were brought to market and the products popularity has grown exponentially ever since.

This summer, the blue and turquoise coverings have invaded the Carolina beaches like kudzu.

Its lightweight and its easy to put up, said Charlotte native Jane Hawkes, who was vacationing with her family at the Isle of Palms. You can put one in your beach bag and its like its not even there.

The trio spent their nights and weekends that first year making every Shibumi Shade on a sewing machine in a spare room. They sold 32 that summer.

The next year, 176 orders were filled. By 2019 that number had swelled to more than 2,000 according to publish reports. Barnes declined to give recent sales statistics or projections for 2022.

By 2019, Barnes knew it was time to quit his day job and concentrate full time on Shibumi Shade.

It wasnt as scary a leap of faith as it may seem, Dane said. I think the way things were going, we had to dedicate ourselves to the Shibumi Shade fulltime.

One of the biggest issues facing a small company like Shibumi Shade is copycat designs. Barnes said the company has had to file lawsuits against competitors who have stolen their intellectual property.

We take those rights very seriously and we expect others to do the same, Barnes said. Thats always a challenge.

Word of Shibumi Shade has spread across the U.S. The product can be found on more than 700 beaches from the Outer Banks to Waikiki, Barnes said.

Two Palmetto State cities  Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach  dont allow the Shibumi Shades on the beaches from Memorial Day to Labor Day, when only traditional umbrella are allowed.

Barnes is hoping that the canopies will be seen up and down the Grand Strand during the peak summer months in the near future.
SULLIVAN'S ISLAND  A beachfront home with ocean views changed hands earlier this month just shy of a record price in this Charleston County seaside town.

The 5,655-square-foot residence at 841 Middle St. sold for $10.4 million, according to Charleston County land records.

It was previously listed for $10.5 million.

Pamela Smith Van Scoy sold the six-bedroom, 6.5-bath house to 841 Middle Street LLC, public land records show.

Built in 2004, the home includes an attached three-car garage, two fireplaces, elevator, 9-foot ceilings and copper roof. A lower porch and upstairs balcony overlook the pool.

The listing agent did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

Sign up for our real estate newsletter! Get the best of the Post and Courier's Real Estate news, handpicked and delivered to your inbox each Saturday. Email

Sign Up!

The record for a single residential transaction in the sea island town was established in June 2021, when Brooke Gordon, ex-wife of NASCAR racing legend Jeff Gordon, sold a 5,844-square-foot spread near Station 19 for $10.5 million.

Earlier this year, buyers paid nearly $11 million for property at 1773 Atlantic Ave., but that deal was a two-fold transaction, with a house on one parcel and a neighboring oceanfront lot.

The home sold for $5.1 million and the neighboring 0.3-acre beachfront lot went for $5.775 million, a record price for a piece of vacant land on Sullivan's, according to William Means Real Estate, which handled the sales for the buyers, a couple from North Carolina.

The buyers plan to keep the vacant oceanfront parcel protected and treasured as an intact beach compound, according to Alex Brener with William Means.

Less than a dozen single-family homes are for sale on Sullivan's, which has been described as South Carolina's wealthiest ZIP code based on its real estate value.

A new record high for the market would be set if at least one of two island spreads is sold at the asking price. A 4,445-square-foot house at 1751 Atlantic is listed for $11.8 million, while the seller of a 4,360-square-foot residence at 812 Conquest Ave. is seeking $11.4 million.

The handful of other single-family residences that are available are priced from $1.995 million to $8.495 million.
A co-owner of a shuttered chiropractic and physical rehabilitation clinic that was implicated in a billing scandal last month is facing federal charges along with a former business partner.

A grand jury in Charleston charged Deeana Burr this week with health care fraud and participating in a conspiracy that charged the government-run Medicare and Tricare insurance programs for services and equipment that were either medically unreasonable or unnecessary.

The alleged activity at Atlantic Coast Integrated Medicine took place over two-and-a-half years, ending in January 2020, according to the indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Charleston on July 13.

Burr is a licensed nurse practitioner who went to work for the company as a supervising clinician in its Summerville office on Trolley Road about six years ago. In September 2017, she paid $100,000 for a 15 percent ownership stake in the business, which opened a Mount Pleasant location the next year, according to a court document.

Burr is the second of three co-conspirators that federal prosecutors have said were part of the scheme.

Heather A. Lambert, founder and chief executive of the company, agreed to plead guilty in June to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. The charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Lambert, a chiropractor, also must repay more than $279,000 after admitting to overbilling the tax-funded health care programs. She is scheduled to appear in court next week to formally change her plea.

In Burr's indictment, the government flagged 16 claims totaling almost $13,000.

Prosecutors said she and the other co-conspirators were warned by staffers that the services and equipment they were charging to Medicare and Tricare were unnecessary.

In one example, the practice had a standardized treatment plan for all patients, regardless of their condition, that called for three weekly visits over four months. It also required unneeded services such as more than a dozen X-rays and diagnostic tests while billing the government programs for unnecessary medical equipment.

In addition, the company would seek payments from the federal programs for teaching patients how to use the equipment. In some cases, the patients never received the equipment or the training, according to the government.

Prosecutors have said the third co-conspirator was a billing supervisor whose identity has not been disclosed.

According to a breach-of-contract lawsuit she filed two years ago, Burr said she was co-owner of Atlantic Coast Integrative Medicine, a slight variation from the name in the indictment. The business included a sister company, Atlantic Coast Physical Medicine.

Burr said in her complaint that agents from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services showed up at the office in May 2019, and that she raised concerns afterward with her partners, including Lambert, about the "seriousness" of the visit. She said she was fired seven months later.

Her lawsuit was dismissed in late 2020, after Burr and her former partners reached a settlement. Terms weren't disclosed.
With the swell of recent releases from authors connected in some way to our fair city, there is plenty to read in the peak of summer  whether you choose to do so on this terra firma or elsewhere.

As a Charleston arts enthusiast, I am never truly off the clock. And since the recent return of live performance to Charleston finds me behind in my personal reading list, I've vowed to make up for lost literary time. I'm planning to do so in an Adirondack chair in the Hudson Valley, with a cool breeze and a cool glass.

True, when it comes to my ambitions, my eyes might be a bit bigger than my reading glasses with the length of my reading list. But here are some contenders for my vacation reading, with the chosen order of enjoying them mainly hinging on which way my mood and the patio wind blows.

Blowfish bound

I've already sneaked a peak at "Swimming with the Blowfish" (Diversion Books). Jim "Soni" Sonefeld's honest, affecting memoir lays down his dizzying days in the glare of global stardom as drummer of Hootie & the Blowfish, as well as those confronting substance abuse and forging a spiritual path. Bandmate Darius Rucker writes the foreword to this new release, and when I ran into Sonefeld recently, he shared that Rucker's mom gets a spotlight, too. The Charleston bona fides are real and this looks to be an absorbing, uplifting read.

Heaping helpings of Charleston history

Stuart Bennett's novel "The Charleston Gambit" was published in the fall by Evening Post Books and has been on my radar and atop my must-read pile for a spell. The lure for me is getting a firmer handle on Charleston history during the Revolutionary War, while savoring a fictional narrative, too. The novel does so through the escapades of a young female patriot in 1780 dreamed up by Bennett, an antiquarian bookseller and novelist. It promises heaps of historic detail and a fine romance, too  just my cup of revolutionary tea.

Out from Evening Post Books this year is "American Landmark: Charles Duell and the Rebirth of Middleton Place." This nonfiction serving of Charleston history by author Virginia Christian Beach charts how descendent Charles Duell inherited Middleton Place in 1969, then determined how to preserve the worse-for-the-wear-and-tear national landmark. Beach covers more than 400 years of the historical record, intertwining stories of both the White and Black individuals integral to the story of Middleton Place.

Poetic interludes

Some languid summer afternoons call for meditations more measured in word counts, and I have two Charleston-related poetry books primed for packing.

Sign up for our new opinion newsletter Get a weekly recap of South Carolina opinion and analysis from The Post and Courier in your inbox on Monday evenings. Email

Sign Up!

Poet Gary Jackson, an associate professor of creative writing at the College of Charleston and a Cave Canem Poetry Prize winner, this year published "origin story" (University of New Mexico Press). This collection of elegiac poems gathers voices of three generations to mine belonging, estrangement, families and nations  a perfect rumination on the American experience.

Charleston native and poet Jerri Chaplin divides her time between her birthplace and Pittsfield, Mass. She's also divided the pages of a book of poetry, "Third Person Singular" (Planet Media). Chaplin and fellow poets Dan Valenti and Paul Kocak equitably contribute precisely 33 poems each to the collection, in a perfect Charleston-meets-the-world conversion of verse.

Read-aloud reverie

For my daughter Beatrice's summer reading list, she has already started the young adult novel "Search for Treasure" (Aladdin), the second edition in The Islanders series by Mary Alice Monroe and Angela May. It is again set on nearby Dewees Island, which we had the chance to visit since the first book in the series. With sessions tackling one chapter at a time, Beatrice reads aloud and then we chat about the latest developments of the three young friends who find camaraderie and a calling to protect the natural treasures of the Lowcountry.

Festival forward

Beatrice isn't the only one gearing up for fall. From Nov. 4-13, the Charleston Literary Festival will once again unleash a thousand words and notions onto the Charleston cultural scene. I've learned from past literary festivals that the way to glean the most from this goldmine of erudition is by attending with a few of the books already under my belt. (Others have been announced, too, which can be found at charlestonliteraryfestival.com.)

I'm already making headway with "Diamonds and Deadlines: A Tale of Greed, Deceit, and a Female Tycoon in the Gilded Age" (Abrams Press), the biography of publishing scion Miriam Leslie. Author Betsy Prioleau has a home in Charleston, so it's a perfect segue for my own Charleston-to-New York summer excursion. And it's one complete with a lavish dollop of publishing world glamour and suffragism, page-turning catnip for the likes of me.

So we'll see which ones from my sizable list grab my attention once I wind down and settle in, but I have ample to keep me occupied this summer. You, too, can round up many of these Charleston-connected books at bookstores like Blue Bicycle Books, Buxton Books, Evening Post Books and Itinerant Literate.

So I'll wrap this up with my official out-of-office alert: You won't be reading this column for the following three Sundays, but with the collective literary output from Charleston-connected authors, you will by no means be at a loss for locally sown words.
Kingstree, SC (29556)

Today

Partly to mostly cloudy with widely scattered showers or thunderstorms possible this afternoon. High 81F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 67F. Winds light and variable.
MURRELLS INLET  Fourteen organizations across Horry and Georgetown Counties were recently awarded more than $74,000 in grants to further their various roles in the community.

The Waccamaw Community Foundation, a Murrells Inlet-based philanthropic organization, awarded the grants as part of its annual Granting Day initiative. The Foundation has given more than $21 million in grants since it was established in 1999.

Our spring Granting Day is one of the most important days of the year for us, said Mike Mancuso, Waccamaw Community Foundations executive director in a news release. We were able to provide vital funds to 13 different organizations and that is at the heart of what we do here at the Waccamaw Community Foundation.

The foundation administers the Elsie Beavers Carver and E. Louise Carver Educational Fund, which awarded $30,000 to four organizations, and the Waccamaw Community Trust, which handed out $44,804.

The Elsie Beavers Carver and E. Lois Carver Educational Fund gives K-12 students better access to education programs in core subject areas including language arts, math, science, social studies, health and physical education and the arts.

Funding is available for equipment and supplies, general operating support and special projects or programs.

Recipients of grants from the Carver Educational Fund were:

Boys & Girls Clubs of the Grand Strand, a $7,500 grant for education and programming.

Freedom Readers, a $7,500 grant for after-school and summer literacy programs.

Georgetown County Family YWCA, a $7,500 grant for after-school programs.

South Carolina Governors School for Science and Math Foundation, a $7,500 grant for STEM summer camp.

The Waccamaw Community Trust Fund awards grants in amounts that range from $1,000 to $5,000. It supports causes that share one goal  improving the lives of individuals and families living in Horry and Georgetown counties.

Funding is available for equipment and supplies, general operating support and special projects or programs.

Recipients of grants from the Waccamaw Community Trust Fund were:

Barnabas Horse Foundation, a $5,000 grant for sponsorship for therapy horses Gage and Compliments.

The Center for Counseling & Wellness, a $5,000 grant for EMDR certification training.

Freedom Readers, a $2,500 grant for in-person programsite operations.

Habitat for Humanity of Horry County, a $4,228 for the Good Start Program.

Helping Hands of Myrtle Beach, a $5,000 grant for operations assistance.

Mobile Meals of the Grand Strand, a $4,000 grant for the Mobile Meals program.

Operation Sight, a $5,000 grant for Restoring Visions, Improving Lives program.

The Period Project, a $5,000 grant for advancing menstrual equity in Horry and Georgetown counties.

S.O.S. Health Care, a $4,076 grant for recreation equipment for S.O.S.s Murrells Inlet Clinic.

United Way of Horry County, a $5,000 grant for Camp United.

For more information on the Waccamaw Community Foundation, visit WaccamawCF.org.
WALTERBORO  A grand jury on July 14 indicted disbarred attorney Alex Murdaugh on charges of killing his wife and son in a 2021 double homicide that has drawn international attention and renewed scrutiny of a prominent family whose name has been synonymous with wealth and power in this rural corner of South Carolina for more than a century.

The 54-year-old scion of an influential family of South Carolina lawyers now faces two counts of murder and two counts of possessing a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. The Colleton County grand jury accused Murdaugh of fatally shooting his wife, Maggie, with a rifle and his son Paul with a shotgun. The indictment documents detail no evidence, motive or other suspects.

The charges carry 30 years to life in prison. State prosecutors could also seek the death penalty, though they have given no clues as to whether they intend to do so.

The allegations arise from the State Law Enforcement Divisions 13-month investigation into the June 7, 2021, killings near a kennel outside the familys 1,772-acre hunting estate on Moselle Road in Islandton. They add to an already thick stack of indictments alleging the once-respected trial lawyer and volunteer prosecutor secretly stole some $8.5 million from legal clients, law partners and others who trusted him.

In a written statement, Alex Murdaugh's defense attorneys, Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, denied the latest charges, criticized the investigation that produced them and vowed to fight back. They accused authorities of prematurely concluding that Murdaugh was responsible for killing his wife and son. They maintained that he lacked "any motive whatsoever to murder them" and pledged to seek a speedy trial to clear his name in connection with the slayings.

"Alex wants his family, friends and everyone to know that he did not have anything to do with the murders of Maggie and Paul," the Columbia lawyers wrote. "He loved them more than anything in the world."

Speculation had been building for months that authorities planned to charge Alex Murdaugh with the killings. But as the anniversary of the double homicide came and went last month without indictments, some began to wonder if the case would ever be solved.

SLED Chief Mark Keel and S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson, whose office guided the probe, praised investigators for working diligently amid all the conjecture to gather the evidence needed to secure the indictments.

All the efforts of our office and the law enforcement agencies involved in this investigation have been focused on seeking justice for the victims families," Wilson, a Lexington Republican, said in a written statement announcing the charges.

Keel said his agents worked "day in and day out to build a case against the person responsible for the murders of Maggie and Paul and to exclude those who were not."

"At no point did agents lose focus on this investigation," Keel said. "From the beginning I have been clear, the priority was to ensure justice was served. Today is one more step in a long process for justice for Maggie and Paul."

The slayings drew eyes from across the globe to the often-overlooked southern tip of the Palmetto State. They also brought unwanted scrutiny to the legal dynasty the Murdaughs built there.

Murdaughs personal unraveling after the killings stoked the firestorm of suspicion and media attention, fueling a drama that played out in headlines, podcast recordings and true-crime documentaries over the past year. He disclosed a two-decade opioid addiction, tried and failed to stage his own murder and was forced to resign from the high-powered law firm his great-grandfather founded in 1910.

A state grand jury and cascade of civil lawsuits then laid bare a decades worth of schemes in which Murdaugh leveraged his powerful name and profession to secretly steal millions of dollars from legal settlements and fees.

But through it all, the slayings of Murdaughs wife and son loomed large.

Murdaugh had been SLEDs only known person of interest since he reported finding the bodies shortly after 10 p.m. June 7, 2021. He told a 911 operator in a hysterical voice that his wife and youngest son had been shot badly and werent breathing.

Soon after the shootings, SLED insisted there was no further threat to the public, fueling speculation that Murdaugh himself was the gunman.

Still, Murdaughs defense attorneys insisted he had a strong alibi  visiting his elderly mother at the estimated time of the shootings  and did not kill Maggie, 52, and Paul, 22.

SLED largely kept a tight lid on its investigation until agents met with Murdaughs family and Maggies relatives July 12 to reveal that they planned to implicate Alex Murdaugh in the killings.

John Marvin Murdaugh, Alex's younger brother, said his and Maggie's family had no further comment on the July 14 indictments. "We just need the truth," he said.

Eric Bland, one of the attorneys suing Murdaugh for stealing from legal settlements, said convictions for killing his wife and son would cement Murdaugh as one of the worst criminals in South Carolina history.

It takes everything Alex did, which was wholly despicable, to really an unbelievable level," Bland said.

State Rep. Justin Bamberg, another lawyer representing several of Murdaugh's alleged financial victims, said the July 14 indictments are evidence that even the state's most wealthy and influential can't escape justice forever.

People are cheering for accountability and the concept that justice in this state can apply to anybody, even if your name is Alex Murdaugh," the Bamberg Democrat said.

Murdaugh, a generous political booster whose donations tended to favor Democrats, has been detained in a Richland County jail since October, unable to afford his $7 million bond. He faced decades in prison even before the new charges.

His fall has blackened the eyes of South Carolinas legal and banking professions and tarnished the family name.

Murdaughs father, grandfather and great-grandfather served one after another for 86 years as the elected top prosecutor for a five-county region in South Carolinas southern corner. Meanwhile, the family simultaneously ran a high-powered civil law firm that built a national reputation for delivering multimillion-dollar verdicts against major corporations.

Alex Murdaugh went into the family business. He served as a volunteer prosecutor for the 14th Circuit Solicitors Office and worked as a trial attorney at the Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth, Detrick law firm.

He formally lost his law license this week. The state Supreme Court suspended Murdaugh in September amid allegations he had stolen untold sums from the PMPED firm. It then disbarred him July 12.

"We take this step today based on our ability to conclude from the public record that (Murdaugh's) untruthfulness and misconduct resulted in significant harm to clients and demands his removal from the practice of law," the high court's five justices wrote.

The saga has left Murdaugh with few defenders.

The Parker Law Group, a new Hampton-based firm created by former partners of PMPED, expressed no sympathy for Murdaugh in a statement describing news of the charges as sad and upsetting.

Our thoughts turn to Maggie and to Paul whom we loved and who we miss, the statement went on. Everyday we grieve for them. Justice must be served. If the charges reported today are true and just, we ask for our judicial system to act swiftly and to bring a conclusion to this heinous situation.

The June 2021 slayings came as the Murdaugh family faced a separate crisis.

A wrongful death lawsuit blaming Paul Murdaugh and his family for the February 2019 boat crash that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach was heading toward a trial and carried the potential of a substantial financial judgment.

The suit accuses a then-underage Paul Murdaugh of drunkenly driving a boat into a Beaufort County bridge piling, ejecting its passengers and killing Beach. It also alleges Murdaugh's family knew about and enabled Paul Murdaugh's alleged drinking and reckless behavior.

An attorney for the Beach family was seeking access to Alex Murdaugh's financial records, disclosures that could have revealed his hefty debts and drawn attention to his money-shifting practices. A state judge was set to hear arguments on that request in mid-June 2021. That hearing was canceled after the June 7 killings.

Murdaugh's bond hearing on the new charges has been set for 10 a.m. July 20 at the Colleton County Courthouse.

Clifton Newman, the state judge who first denied Murdaugh bond and kept him detained last fall, will handle the hearing.
A flash flood warning has been issued for the tri-county area as rain lashed the Lowcountry, with the worst impact expected in North Charleston.

The National Weather Service's Charleston office issued the warning shortly before 9 p.m. July 14 for Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties.

Forecasters warn that "life threatening" flash flooding is expected until 10:30 p.m. in urban areas, highways, and streets.

A flood advisory continued until 11:15 p.m. for Charleston County as thunderstorms combined with high tides were expected to cause water to pool in low-lying and poor drainage areas.

Two to 4 inches of rain had fallen in North Charleston and Ladson before 9 p.m. The region may experience an additional 1 to 3 inches of rainfall tonight, the NWS warned.

Several North Charleston roads had flooded by nightfall, including Rivers Avenue and Northwoods Boulevard, where knee-deep water was stalling cars.

If heavy rainfall persists, water may begin to enter homes and businesses in North Charleston, Goose Creek, Ladson, Hanahan, and Summerville, according to forecasters.

National Weather Service meteorologist Rebecca Shaw advised people to stay put in their homes and to not drive.

"Don't drive through roadways," she said. "It's getting dark so you won't be able to necessarily see if it's flooding."

Though the warning is currently in effect until 10:30 p.m., it could be extended, she said.

Soon after 8:30 p.m., radar picked up a stationary area of thunderstorms with torrential rainfall. The thunderstorms are forecast to continue dumping rain where Charleston, Berkeley, and Dorchester counties meet.
A man was arrested on allegations he sexually assaulted a woman the night of July 14 in a downtown Charleston garage elevator.

Cameron Demarius Butler was booked in Charleston County jail on the charge of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. A magistrate set a $250,000 bail for the 31-year-old Hollywood man at a July 15 hearing.

Charleston police officers were dispatched after 9 p.m. to a parking garage at 63 Mary St., according to an arrest warrant affidavit. A witness had called 911 to report a male appeared to be raping an unconscious woman in a glass elevator in the garage, the affidavit states.

Police found Butler and a 29-year-old woman in the elevator. Officers noted the woman was "grossly intoxicated" and unconscious on the ground when they arrived, the affidavit states.

Emergency responders transported the woman to the Medical University of South Carolina, according to a police report. Butler, who had a knife in his possession as well as a half-gram of a "green leafy substance," was placed under arrest.

Surveillance footage showed Butler having sex with the woman, who fell down on the sidewalk as the man led her into the elevator, the affidavit states.

Butler worked with the victim, Charleston police Sgt. Beth Wolfsen said, and the pair were reportedly drinking together prior to the incident.

The investigation is ongoing.
The tri-county area dried out July 15 after late-night storms trudged through the region, dropping heavy rains that flooded roads and swamped homes.

Scattered showers were forecast to continue through the weekend as an unsettled weather pattern moved across the Southeast, according to the National Weather Service's Charleston office.

Additional rainfall could cause minor flooding, particularly in areas still recovering from rains that drenched the region this week, the NWS reported.

A flash flood warning was issued for Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties around 9 p.m. July 14 as torrential rainfall fell across the region.

By midnight, an estimated 3 to 5 inches of rain had fallen on parts of North Charleston, Ladson, Hanahan and Summerville.

The rain shut down roads in the area, including Rivers Avenue near Eagle Drive and portions of Northwoods Boulevard. Flooding also impacted homes in Dorchester and Berkeley counties, according to authorities.

Summerville police Lt. Chris Hirsch said a resident from Martins Creek Apartment off Old Trolley Road called just before 8 p.m. to report rising waters. She expressed concerns about her vehicle being damaged by the flooding, he said.

At 11:30 p.m., a police officer was dispatched to Creekside off Bacons Bridge Road for reports of flooding in the mobile home park, Hirsch said. The officer attempted to walk around the park to see how deep the water is, but "he could not get far because there were about 8 inches of water," Hirsch said.

As rainfall flooded the roadways, Jerry Crumpler sat inside a mobile home on Wards Lane, celebrating his 55th birthday.

It wasnt much of a celebration.

He had made lunch plans with his 84-year-old father, but once it started raining they decided to call it off, Crumpler said.

Crumpler gets around in an electric wheelchair  he lost one of his legs to diabetes four years ago, he said. Thankfully, the flooding from the roadway only poured out onto the first half of his front lawn, which is slanted toward the road, leaving his house unscathed by the torrential rainfall.

His daughter, who lives with him periodically, was stuck at work until midnight. If the flooding had been worse, it is unclear what he would have done.

Crumpler was not nervous, though.

Oh no, he said. This has happened before and Im sure it will happen again.

Several times, he went out on his porch to watch people whose cars were stuck in the roadway.

Michael Ards white Chevy Cavalier stalled around 8 p.m. near Crumplers house. Ard, 28, had been hanging out with a friend who lives at Creekside and was trying to get home.

When I was coming through it was all fine, but the water had come up too high and it had gotten all into my filter, Ard said. I was stuck.

He was submerged up to his waist in water.

Ard said he took off his tennis shoes and waded through the warm water in socks, shorts, and a t-shirt toward the highway, where a friend picked him up.

The next afternoon, Ard was back at Creekside. The unforgiving sun shined down on the young man's back, as he hunched over the hood of his car, trying to get it to go.

Michelle Mills, spokeswoman for Dorchester County, said the county's emergency management team was still gathering information on damage from the storm, but no injuries or deaths were reported.

She said one resident reported floodwaters entered her home on White Church Lane off Dorchester Road, but she was uncertain how widespread the flooding was in that area.

Jenna-Ley Jamison, spokeswoman for Berkeley County, said emergency management officials received reports of flooding in the College Park and Tall Pines communities, but no reports of injuries or damages.

North Charleston police spokesman Harve Jacobs said the agency had not received any reports of property damage or injuries from the flooding.

City spokesman Ryan Johnson acknowledged drains clogged by debris have particularly been an issue in areas like Northwoods Boulevard and upper Rivers Avenue. The city's stormwater personnel will continue to clear out drains throughout the city to help mitigate flooding, Johnson said.

Emergency management officials in the City of Charleston and Charleston County also received no reports of damages, spokespeople said.

Courtney Maskell, meteorologist for the NWS' Charleston office, said parts of the tri-county area, including Daniel Island and Summerville, have received up to 8 inches of rain since July 10.

More showers and thunderstorms were expected through the weekend, Maskell said, but forecasters did not expect flooding to be as severe.
A few propositions or questions to ponder while I am on hiatus overseas:

 Joe Biden is the best thing to happen to the Republican Party since Jimmy Carter.

 That corporate America has largely surrendered to the wokerati and the catechism of diversity is not news, but a new study concludes that political diversity (the one kind of diversity that the diversicrats purposesly avoid) in the upper ranks of corporate management is likely good for shareholder value. The Wall Street Journal reports: Collaborating with those of differing political ideologies isnt just good for the health of our democracy. Its also beneficial to a portfolios bottom line. The abstract of the study itself is more blunt: Departures of politically misaligned executives are value-destroying for shareholders, implying the increasing political polarization of corporate America may not be in the financial interest of shareholders.

GeeI wonder if greater political diversity on college faculties and administrative staffs might improve their performance, too?

 Remember that constant leftist slogan a few years agoThe Republican War on Women? We dont seem to hear that much any more. GeeI wonder why? Mark Perry has a clue for us:

Cue Emily Litela any time it is convenient.

 Love this headline from Nature magazine:

Climate change: Nature readers say their fears are growing Poll shows that 80% of respondents are more concerned in the run-up to the COP26 climate meeting than they were ahead of the Paris conference 6 years ago.

Just a hunch here, but Ill bet this is because the respondents are reading Nature magazine.

 Curious story from Inside Higher Ed:

Curry College Fires Employee After Probe of Hateful Graffiti Curry College, in Massachusetts, has fired an employee linked to hateful graffiti found on campus this year, WHDH News reported. Curry students found more than a dozen swastikas and racist graffiti in dorm bathrooms, laundry rooms and other areas on campus. One message specifically targeted Black students and mentioned a date in February. College officials ordered remote learning on several dates and offered a $10,000 reward for information. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Milton police determined that one person was likely behind the racist vandalism and identified a person of interest. The college then conducted its own internal investigation and fired an employee. But college rules mean the employee was not identified.

Gee, I wonder why they wont release the identity of the person behind this campus hate crime? Go with the statistically most likely explanation. . .
Judge Patrick Schiltz (my friend and now chief judge of the Minnesota federal district court) has filed a public order concluding his investigation into the illegal leaks of secret grand jury information preceding the indictment of Derek Chauvin by the Biden Justice Department (embedded below). The leaks formed the basis of stories reported in the New York Times and the Star Tribune.

Readers may recall that we have followed the Blue Grand Jury Investigation, as it was denominated, as closely as we could given the confidentiality that shrouded the proceedings. In August 2021 we were afforded an exclusive glimpse into the proceedings. The case has remained under seal since then. Judge Schiltz now reports he came up dry, though not for lack of trying (footnote omitted):

The investigations did not turn up any evidence of any violations of Rule 6(e). Unfortunately, investigators were unable to identify the sources of the grandjury information contained in the newspaper articles. Most likely, the inability of investigators to identify the sources of the information was due (at least in part) to two factors: First, an extraordinarily large number of people were given access to the grandjury material by the DOJ and the Minnesota Attorney Generals Office. Dozens of attorneys were involved in the state and federal prosecutions of Chauvin and his codefendants, and those attorneys were assisted by dozens of lawenforcement officers, investigators, expert witnesses, and others. Second, the DOJ maintains a policy that restricts the use of compulsory legal process to obtain information or records from reporters. Thus, the FBI was blocked from obtaining evidence from the reporters, who, of course, almost certainly knew who had provided grandjury information to them. The Court is disappointed that the sources of the grandjury information were not identified, particularly because one or more of those sources may have committed a crime and may have been a prosecutor or lawenforcement officer who had sworn to uphold the law. At this point, however, the Court reluctantly acknowledges that there is nothing more that can be done to identify the sources of the grandjury material. The Court orders that this matter be closed.

I have focused on the leak to the Star Tribunes Andy Mannix. There was no arguable public purpose supporting the leak. It was simply gratuitous. The Star Tribune knows who the perpetrator is with respect to Mannix, but they arent talking. They are protecting the illegal misconduct of law enforcement from disclosure. In my opinion, the result here represents one more abuse of justice in the dual prosecutions of Derek Chauvin.

In Re Blue Grand Jury by Scott Johnson on Scribd
Gboyega Oyetola assumed office as the Governor of Osun State on November 27, 2019, succeeding Rauf Aregbesola, now Minister of Interior. Both men are of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the ceremony marked the first time in the history of the 31-year-old state that a governor would hand over to another elected on the platform of the same party.

In his inaugural speech, Mr Oyetola outlined what he would do over the next four years.

To reposition the economy of our great state, we shall organise the Osun Economic Summit within the first quarter of our first year in office.

The multi-stage, multi- stakeholders summit will dissect and recommend strategies which will drive meaningful youth employment, enhance food security, agricultural development, activate mining prospects and boost tourism potential of this state. We will showcase Osun as a strategic location for industrialisation.

We are convinced that the peaceful atmosphere, a welcoming people, low crime rate, communal peace and the relative stability of electricity supply (particularly in the capital city) will attract local and foreign investors.

We will develop the free trade zone while strengthening Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as a way to enhance their productive capacity to generate jobs and create wealth. To further boost our local economy and increase the revenue base, we shall make Osun a cultural destination and a tourism enterprise zone in the Southwest.

We shall improve on the Internally Generated Revenue of the state in ways that do not bring additional burden to the people. We will make health and education more accessible. Employment opportunities will be created through industrialisation and expansion of agricultural activities through appropriate incentives.

To boost agriculture and food security, our administration will consolidate on the agricultural land expansion programme (the Land Bank), with an additional target of 20,000 hectares to the Land Bank. We will establish nine new farm settlements (one each per federal constituency) while we push forward on our promise to establish agro-industrial parks and produce markets.

As we promised during the campaign, the era of a mono-cultural economy must end. We will do all within our capacity to explore and fully utilise our stock of solid minerals. We shall re-position the Omoluabi Minerals Company for resource mapping and exploration of minerals, were his anticipations.

Steps forward

As promised, the government went ahead to hold an economic summit in 2019 with the ambitious effort to hone the needed investments that would trigger economic development in the state. Industrialisation is key to job creation, but the will to invest in an environment not fertile for such is deterring.

The investors came with a lot of promises. No fewer than 22 investors, both local and international, indicated interest to partner with the state and invest in it.

They signified their readiness to explore the potential of the state in the areas of agriculture, mining, infrastructure, health, education and Information and Communication Technology.

Besides some achievements in mining with the entrance of the Segilola Gold Project and the Omoluabi Badger Mines, investments in other critical sectors are still being awaited.

READ ALSO:

The states Free Trade Zone in Osogbo, developed by the Olagunsoye Oyinlola administration, is in need of a facelift to meet its capacity to serve the industrial revival in the state.

The state government, however, asserts that it has achieved so much in developing the free trade zone and attracting investors to the facility. The Chief Press Secretary to the state governor, Ismail Omipidan, said a number of industries have been established in the zone, and many more are being developed.

Policy reversed

One of the promises the new governor made was to ensure continuity in government and protect the legacies of his predecessor, whom he served for eight years as chief of staff.

But many of the policies of Mr Aregbesola were novel and controversial, particularly in the education sector. The new governor soon succumbed to pressure to reverse some of the policies.

Mr Aregbesola in 2013 adopted the same uniform for pupils of public schools, merged and renamed some of the schools, reclassified the school system and abolished single-sex schools.

The administration also built mega high schools as part of a comprehensive education infrastructure development scheme spread across the three senatorial districts of the state.

The administration also employed thousands of teachers and procured new technology teaching aids.

However, in 2020, Mr Oyetola ordered the public schools to revert to their old names. He also reversed the single school uniform, the reclassification of the public school system, and the abolition of single-sex schools.

The governor said the review of the policies followed calls for change by educationists, school administrators, religious groups and school owners.

Will voters on Saturday chide the governor over the changes?

Bidemi Adeyemi, an undergraduate student, said Mr Oyetola made the changes to calm nerves frayed by Mr Aregbesola.

It is unlikely that anyone will be angry with the governor, he said. Those who have issues are Aregbesolas sympathisers, who think the governor was not following the pattern laid down by his government.

But the reversal of the policies marked the beginning of the conflict between the governor and the minister of interior.

Oyetola and Aregbesola

The conflict has since worsened and both men have parted ways. This manifested when the minister backed a challenger of the governor in the APC governorship primaries and when Mr Aregbesola refused to support Bola Tinubu in the partys presidential primary.

The former Lagos State governor had played a pivotal role in the election of Mr Aregbesola as governor and is considered a factor in Osun politics.

At the governorship primaries, Mr Aregbesola backed Moshood Adeoti, his former Secretary to the State Government. After failing at the primaries, he supported Mr Adeoti to challenge Mr Oyetolas victory at the primary in court. But on Thursday, the Federal High Court in Abuja threw out the suit.

Notwithstanding its disunity, the APC remains a formidable opponent for the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ademola Adeleke, in his second bid to oust the APC administration.

In 2018, Mr Aregbesola campaigned for the incumbent governor on his achievements in office, virtually leading the campaigns across the state. Not having the backing of Mr Aregbesolas campaign sagacity for his reelection is a major drawback for the governor.

Mr Aregbesola did not turn up at the final rally of the APC on Wednesday in Osogbo. Sola Fasure, his media aide, said the governor did not invite the minister to join him in the campaigns. But Mr Aregbesola could not have campaigned at rallies with the governor while supporting Mr Adeoti to take away the ticket from him through the court.

Workers welfare

There are indications that Mr Oyetola has kept workers calm in the last three and half years through regular payment of salaries. This was unlike the case under his predecessor who modulated salary payment after revenue allocations to the state from the Federation Account began to fall.

Mr Aregbesola paid the workers small percentages of their salaries and promised to pay the arrears when the economic situation improved.

But despite Mr Oyetola being part of that government, he has refused to attend to the backlog with the excuse that it was not his government that was responsible for the debts, a civil servant, who asked not to be named for fear of victimisation, told PREMIUM TIMES in Osogbo.

But he came into office with a promise that he would continue with the legacies of the Aregbesola government and inherited the assets and liabilities. Besides, government is a continuum. His excuse is unacceptable, the civil servant said.

The governor has also lifted an embargo on promotions of civil servants. However, some workers have mocked the promotion exercise, saying it is only on paper.

Most workers have received letters of promotion, but we are still waiting for the payment to back up the new levels attained, another worker said.

Some who received cash backing for their promotions claim the money provided did not meet the actual position attained.

But Mr Omipidan insists that the government had cash-backed the promotions and that a fresh round of promotions was underway.

Pensioners have also been lamenting the failure of the government to pay their dues.

In May this year, Ronke Aderibigbe, the Coordinator of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners, Womens Wing in Osun, bemoaned Governor Oyetola for not paying pension arrears.

We are facing a lot of problems with our pensions in Osun, she said during a prayer session in Osogbo.

For instance, some pensioners who retired in 2008/09 are yet to be remunerated. Gratuity is not forthcoming, 33 per cent is not forthcoming, so are half salary, half pension or quarter pension.

We now notice that our efforts to meet Governor Oyetola have been proving futile. It is like an exercise in futility.

Shortly after that lamentation, the state government announced the release of N500 million for the payment of pensions.

But retirees complained that not all of them were captured and the bulk of the arrears remain unsettled.

In spite of these disenchantments, there are no indications that workers would be voting against the governor on Saturday.

Hameed Oyegbade, a journalist based in the state, said most workers seemed to be satisfied with what the governor has done so far.

I think the workers have not raised any major objections, since the administration is not owing them salaries, except what they were owed before 2018, he said.

Speaking on behalf of the Labour movement at a rally on Wednesday at the Nelson Mandela Freedom Park in Osogbo, the Chairman of the Joint Negotiation Movement, Bayo Adejumo, said the governor had met all the agreements he had with labour.

He said with that score, workers in the state would be voting for his reelection.

However, it is not clear if that position represents the stance of the average Osun worker.

Beyond the figures

Many agree that the administration has constructed some roads, patched potholes, and either continued or completed some projects. For instance, the construction of a flyover in the city centre.

The major bile against the government is the state of the economy. Although the situation is nationwide and not peculiar to Osun State, the ordinary Osun resident blames it on the government of APC whether at the federal or state level.

Joke Ominyi, a trader in Osogbo, said the prices of goods are no longer affordable, blaming it on bad government and leadership.

This government is not concerned at all about what we are going through, but see how much they are spending on elections and campaigns, she said.

The truth is that there is still serious poverty everywhere, and we are not happy about this, Sunday Adeogun, a furniture maker, said. All we want is who will take us out of this mess, whether it is APC, PDP or even Labour Party. Something has to just happen differently.

This is the pervading opinion on the streets. It is the reason, if not the only reason, they are calling for a change if that is all they can achieve in their effort for a better Osun.

Jobs

Mr Oyetola promised to create jobs. Some have reported that the government had a target of 30,000 jobs. He recently promised to provide more jobs through investments in the rail system.

While some jobs have been created through the OYES scheme, the quality of jobs and sustainability have been questioned.

Samuel Agunyai of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, in his research work, Policy, Youth Recruitment and Empowerment in Nigeria: A Case Study of Osun State Youth Empowerment Scheme (OYES), said the scheme, which he described as a palliative measure, needs strengthening to achieve its goal.

His findings showed that while OYES has created a few jobs and empowered some youth in the state, it has not improved the capacity of youth, because the scheme focuses on unskilled menial jobs.

The researcher noted that the implementation of OYES was fraught with challenges, concluding that a gap exists between the expected outcomes and the achievements so far.

The Oyetola government claims it has supported small-scale industries and empowered skilful residents in the production of shoes and clothing such as Adire.

It says this is witnessed in the state governments policy of dedicating a day of the week to wearing such clothing among public officials.

Mr Oyetola and his chances

Mr Oyetola is approaching the polls with a fair rating in the health sector, with very few industrial skirmishes and with a fairly good response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Although issues abound in the health sector, not much anger is coming from that direction.

With an average annual internally generated revenue of N20 billion and federally allocated revenue of N40 billion, and in the face of huge debts facing the state, the governor believes he has prudently managed the state to merit reelection.

The governor himself had said his decision to seek re-election was due to his confidence that the electorate appreciate his contributions in the last three and half years.

Opposition rates Oyetola low

Those in the opposition disagree with his position. The incumbent has performed poorly. The lack of good governance is visible. Just go round the state, you will see clearly the failure of governance, lack of capacity and governance by propaganda. Our people are eager to vote out Governor Adegboyega Oyetola, the PDP candidate, Mr Adeleke, said in a recent interview.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that some APC leaders are not particularly happy with Mr Oyetola for his stinginess and refusal to adequately oil the party machinery.

Party secretariats at the local levels are not getting the financial support that would make them feel they are in power. These muffled complaints are, however, not enough to sway the voters who are ardent adherents of the political party.

Not less than 18 political parties and their candidates are out for the governorship election. However, the PDP and the APC are in a familiar battleground. The campaigns have been intensive and extensive.

Whether the majority of voters understand the issues to guide their choices on Saturday is still contestable. The money factor and vote buying, analysts say, may still influence choices. But the voters will be the decider.
The ECOWAS Court of Justice in Abuja, on Thursday, declared as unlawful last years suspension of Twitter by the Muhammadu Buhari government, ordering the government to desist from such an illegal act in the future.

The court ruled that suspending the operations of Twitter is unlawful and inconsistent with the provisions of Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both of which Nigeria is a state party, according to a statement by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP).

SERAP and 176 concerned Nigerians had filed the suit to challenge the suspension of Twitters operations in Nigeria in June last year.

The ban came after Twitter deleted a tweet by Mr Buhari.

The Nigerian government and officials of Twitter held talks which led to the lifting of the suspension in January this year, ending the ban that lasted about seven months.

While the talks were going on, the Nigerian government locked horns with SERAP and 176 others in a legal battle at the ECOWAS Court.

SERAP and the other plaintiffs alleged in the suit that the ban on Twitter violated their various right to freedom of expression and others.

The Nigerian government, on its part, urged the court to dismiss the suit, saying the regional court lacked the jurisdiction to hear it.

But the ECOWAS Court, in its judgement, on Thursday, affirmed it had jurisdiction to entertain the suit.

The Buhari administration in suspending the operations of Twitter violates the rights of SERAP and 176 concerned Nigerians to the enjoyment of freedom of expression, access to information and the media, as well as the right to fair hearing, the court held.

The court also ordered the Buhari administration to take necessary steps to align its policies and other measures to give effect to the rights and freedoms, and to guarantee a non-repetition of the unlawful ban on Twitter.

The Court also ordered the Buhari administration to bear the costs of the proceedings and directed the Deputy Chief Registrar to assess the costs accordingly.

Suit

SERAP and the 176 other concerned Nigerians had in suit marked ECW/CCJ/APP/23/21, argued that The suspension of Twitter is aimed at intimidating and stopping Nigerians from using Twitter and other social media platforms to assess government policies, expose corruption, and criticize acts of official impunity by the agents of the Federal Government.

They contended that the free communication of information and ideas about public and political issues between citizens and elected representatives is essential, urging the court declare the governments action unlawful.

Drawing the courts attention to the losses being incurred by businesses in Nigeria as a result of the ban, the plaintiffs said, The arbitrary action by the Federal Government and its agents have negatively impacted millions of Nigerians who carry on their daily businesses and operational activities on Twitter.

READ ALSO:

They said Twitters suspension was arbitrary as there is no law in Nigeria today permitting the prosecution of people simply for peacefully exercising their human rights through Twitter and other social media platforms.

The implication of the decline in freedom of expression in Nigeria is that the country is today ranked alongside countries hostile to human rights and media freedom such as Afghanistan, Chad, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe and Colombia.

But the Nigerian government argued in February that with the lifting of the suspension of Twitter operations, the suit had lost its purpose and amounted to an academic exercise.

But the court noted that the lawyers representing the Nigerian government only filed the application for the dismissal of the suit after the suit had been adjourned for judgement.

It added that the Nigerian government did not provide evidence of the agreement it reached with Twitter management as evidence of resolution of the issue.

Background

The federal government, on June 4, 2021, announced the suspension of the platform in Nigeria through the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed.

The government, through the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, subsequently threatened to arrest and prosecute anyone using the microblogging site in the country, while the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) asked all broadcast stations to suspend the patronage of Twitter.

Justifying its action, the government had insisted Twitter was using its platform as a channel for disseminating fake news against Nigerias corporate existence.

After being criticised for bypassing the federal governments ban on Twitter, Mr Malami, denied threatening to prosecute Nigerians still tweeting on the microblogging site.

Mr Malamis denial came days after he unknowingly exposed himself in a Facebook post which showed he too had bypassed the Twitter ban like many other Nigerians.

He, however, reiterated the governments position on the ban.

But our position on Twitter is clear: Anyone, whether individual or corporate institution that enables Twitter to circumvent the ban the Federal Government of Nigeria placed on the company, will be prosecuted.

Reactions to Twitter ban

The suspension of Twitter by the Nigerian government drew criticisms locally and from foreign governments and organisations, among whom were Nigerias allies.

The European Union (EU) and the four countries  the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States of America, and the Republic of Ireland  issued a joint statement through their diplomatic missions in Nigeria expressing their disappointment over the Nigerian governments suspension of the social media platform.

The joint statement added to the growing condemnation which the ban on Twitter and move to impose licensing requirements on other social media in Nigeria attracted.

In their joint statement, the diplomatic missions expressed their support for human rights of free expression and access to information.

According to them, the rights applied both online and offline.

Interim relief

About three weeks after the ban was announced in June last year, the court gave a reprieve to Twitter users.

The court ruling on an interlocutory application issued an interim order restraining the government of President Muhammadu Buhari and its agents from unlawfully imposing sanctions or doing anything whatsoever to harass, intimidate, arrest or prosecute Twitter and/or any other social media service provider(s), media houses, radio and television broadcast stations, the Plaintiffs and other Nigerians who are Twitter users, pending the hearing and determination of this suit.

Twitter ban lifted

After seven months of the ban, the Nigerian government in January, announced it had lifted the restriction on the micro-blogging site.

Before the ban was lifted, the government announced that Twitter had agreed to register as a corporate entity in Nigeria, among other conditions that preceded its reversal of the restriction.

The ban on Twitter, costing Nigerian businesses billions of naira, was condemned by many Nigerians, civic groups and the international community, but the government claimed that many agreements had been reached with the social media platform ready to comply.

The government claimed Twitter had committed to establishing a legal entity in Nigeria during the first quarter of 2022.

The legal entity, it said, will register with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).

Similarly, it said the social media platform has agreed to appoint a designated country representative to interface with Nigerian authorities.

Twitter reportedly agreed to comply with applicable tax obligations on its operations under Nigerian law.

The federal government said the company also agreed to give its officials the ability to take down tweets it considers a threat to the countrys security.

Twitter wrote on its public policy account that it was delighted with the restoration of its services in Nigeria.

While expressing delight at the restoration of its services in Nigeria, it has yet to comment on the governments claims.

The restriction had pushed Nigerians in the country to accessing Twitter with the aid of a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

Following the lifting of the ban, many Nigerians are reacting in different ways, most attributing the decision to lift the ban to the upcoming general election in 2023 and the governments intention to use the platform for its campaign.
President Muhammadu Buhari has said he is happy to leave office in 2023 with a legacy and a reputation of an anti-corruption crusader.

He also promised to support efforts to eradicate corruption in Nigeria and across Africa regardless of his position in or out of office.

The President, who swept to power on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015, promising to tackle corruption, improve on the economy and secure the country, is expected to step down from office after completing his second term of four years in 2023.

He spoke in his recorded remarks played at an anti-corruption forum co-organised by the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) and other anti-corruption agencies in Abuja on Thursday.

The event was organised to mark the 6th African Union (AU) Day of AntiCorruption in commemoration of the adoption of the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption (AUCPCC).

It had the theme, Strategy and Mechanisms for the Transparent Management of Covid-19 Funds, Lessons from the Pandemic.

Mr Buhari, who has less than one year to leave office, restated his avowed abhorrence of corruption and determination to rid the country of graft, while expressing his pride in his legacy of fighting corruption.

Distinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen we must continue to fight for the benefit of the present and future generations. Our youths have nowhere to go and live with dignity but in Africa. As I am leaving office next year, I am proud to leave behind a legacy of fighting corruption among others.

Personally, I abhor corruption and I will render my best in or out office to get rid of corruption in Nigeria and Africa in general. I urge our youths to join me in this noble cause. My fellow African leaders let us work together at whatever level to get rid of corruption in Africa.

Posterity will judge us right if we deal with corruption as appropriate. It is imperative to kill corruption in Nigeria and Africa. It will give our citizens a better life, the president said.

While Mr Buhari acknowledged that the battle against corruption has not been easy, he stated that much work still had to be done in the areas of asset recovery, prosecution, conviction, and arrest as well as anti-corruption laws.

I must admit that the fight has not been a bed of roses. Truly, a lot more work on many fronts is required. For example, civil and public servants must be ethical and professional at all times. The private sector must contribute to curbing corruption.

The international community needs to close safe havens. The judiciary requires more impetus. Perhaps, an International Anti-corruption criminal Court is needed. Family and religious values have to be upgraded, and schools have a lot of work to do for a better society, Mr Buhari said.

Mr Buhari, who raised the hope of many Nigerians about his resolve to tackle corruption and its attendant problems with his mantra, Corruption will kill Nigeria if Nigeria does not kill corruption, in his inauguration speech in 2015, is generally believed to have performed below expectations in that regard.

The recent pardon his administration granted two convicted former governors of Taraba and Plateau states, Jolly Nyame, and Joshua Dariye, respectively, while their jail terms already affirmed by the Supreme Court were still running, was the last straw believed to have exposed the presidents insincerity about his avowed anti-corruption war.

The latest Transparency Internationals 2021 Corruption Perception Index (CPI), released in January, also indicated worsening corruption in Nigeria, with the country scoring 24 out of 100, a point lower than its performance in the previous 2020 CPI report.

Nigerias ranking of 154th out of 180 nations assessed in the report was also five places down five places from its position in the 2020 report.

President Buhari maintained on Thursday that the fight against corruption must be sustained in Africa for the benefit of present and future generations.

Our youths have no place to go and live with dignity but in Africa. As I am leaving office next year, I am proud to leave behind a legacy of fighting corruption among others, he said.

Establish International Anti-Corruption Court

The president also called for the establishment of an International Anti-Corruption court to try offenders, a proposal PACAC had suggested to the administration since its early days of its coming on board.

He urged African leaders to intensify the fight against corruption and create more disincentives for the pilfering of public funds.

Speaking further, the President charged African leaders to empower and allow the Anti-Corruption agencies to deliver on their mandates.

The President also told African leaders that we must get rid of corruption in Africa if the continent is to realise its full potential.

I have come to realise that nations in Africa have to ensure that national resources are not taken to safe havens around the world and we must curtail Illicit Financial Flows in all their ramifications. Also, we must work collectively to recover all resources taken abroad. We must show looters that crime does not pay by depriving them of the proceeds of their crime.

Also, elite greed and irresponsibility must be eradicated in Africa. Again, ethics, decency, decorum and respect for rule of law must be promoted in Africa. It is important to develop strategies for behavioural change in Africa if corruption is to be tamed. This will ensure that national resources are allowed to serve the population and not a tiny few, he added.

MDAs complicit in frauds from COVID-19 funds

In his remarks, the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Bolaji Owasanoye, said his agency enforced Section 6 of the enabling law to investigate the utilisation of the Covid-19 funds.

He also noted that when funds were released to assuage the impact of the pandemic, it observed discrepancies and infractions in some instances in the procurement and payment made by some ministries.

Some implicated MDAs refused the monitoring team access to their records thereby impeding the successful inquiry into their activities. These MDAs are flagged and will be investigated for breaches and infractions of the law and Covid-19 intervention funds guidelines and other procurement abuses, Mr Owasanoye said.

President Buhari lauded his administrations intervention during the COVID-19 pandemic

In Nigeria, we responded to the COVID-19 Pandemic swiftly and having tamed it, we have realized the need for more awareness campaigns on health issues and more investment in the health sector. Again, service delivery requires checkmating corruption, he said.

The UNODC Country Representative, Oliver Stolpe, proposed some specific measures to facilitate the effective implementation of the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act (POCA).

The proposals included the promulgation of unified Standard Operating Procedures for the management of seized and confiscated assets by the various law enforcement agencies.

Mr Stolpe also called for the creation of a shared registry and certification process for court-appointed asset managers, the establishment of a jointly managed storage facility and broadening the interpretation of sections of POCA to allow relevant CSOs to receive allocations from the Confiscated and Forfeited Properties Account.

The programme was co-organised by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), ICPC, and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and other members of the Interagency Task Team (IATT).
The National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) in Abuja on Friday ordered a substantial increment in the salaries of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) and other Nigerian judges.

The trial judge, Osatohanmwen Obaseki-Osaghae, gave this order in her judgement, saying judges have been victims of great injustice and describing their poor salaries as a national shame.

She gave the judgement in a suit filed by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Sebastine Hon, seeking an upward review of the emoluments and salaries of judges in the country.

The salaries of Nigerian judges have remained stagnant since 2008 when they were last reviewed.

Mr Hon sought among others, in his suit, an order compelling the National Assembly, the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to increase the salaries and allowances of judges in the country.

It is unconstitutional and unlawful for the RMAFC to refuse to review the salaries of judges, the judge, Mrs Obaseki-Osaghae, held before granting all the claimants prayers in her judgement on Friday.

She ordered that the judgement is to be served on the 2nd defendant (AGF) immediately, critising the Justice Minister, Abubakar Malami, for arguing that judges have no legal right to have their salaries reviewed upwards.

The court ordered the RMAFC to immediately raise the salary of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) to N10 million monthly from the current N3.4 million per annum, said to be far below what is earned by his counterparts in other countries.

The judge also ordered the RMAFC to review the salaries of other heads of courts and their judges ranging between N9 million to N7 million monthly.

Suit

PREMIUM TIMES reported that Mr Hon had filed the suit seeking an order of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) compelling the defendants  the AGF, National Judicial Council (NJC), the National Assembly and the RMAFC  to increase the salaries and allowances of judges in the country.

The claimant noted that the highest-paid judicial officer in the country  the Chief Justice of Nigeria, currently earns about N3.4 million per annum, far below what is earned by such an officer in other countries.

READ ALSO:

He prayed the court to order the defendants to increase the salaries and allowances of judges in the country.

Mr Hon stated that as a legal practitioner, who has practised in all the levels of courts in Nigeria, I know that poor pay for judicial officers is seriously affecting the quality of judgments and rulings those officers are delivering and the discharge of other functions associated with their offices.

He argued that the current economic reality in the country requires that the salaries and allowances of the nations judges be urgently improved upon.

Mr Hon, who quoted what all judicial officers currently earn as provided under Part IIB of the Schedule to the Certain Political, Public and Judicial Office Holders (Salaries and Allowances, etc) Amendment Act 2008, said the paltry sums have discouraged him from aspiring to become a judge.

He pointed out that it is about 14 years since the salaries and allowances of judges were last reviewed upward in 2008 despite the loss of value of the naira vis-a-vis other global currencies like the U.S. dollar, the British pound sterling and the European Union (EU) euro, etc.

As of November 2008 when the amended Act was in force, the exchange rate between the naira and the U.S dollar was N117.74 to USD1.

The naira has considerably lost its value over time; but judicial officers in Nigeria have been placed on the same salary scale for up to 12 years, namely since 2008, he said.
Voters in Osun State, South-west Nigeria, will on Saturday file out to elect their governor for the next four years, beginning from November when the tenure of the incumbent, Isiaka Oyetola, will end.

But Mr Oyetola has again been presented by his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) for reelection. And his closest rival in 2018, Ademola Adeleke, a former senator and younger brother of the states first governor, Isiaka Adeleke, is also again the candidate of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Three other candidates in the race are also popular. They are Akin Ogunbiyi of the Accord Party; Goke Omigbodun of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Lasun Yusuf, who is flying the flag of the Labour Party (LP).

With the atmosphere charged a day to the contest, PREMIUM TIMES has identified some key issues and developments that may likely determine where the scale of victory may be tilted at the end of the poll.

The situation on the ground indicates that the contest may again be a two-horse race between Governor Oyetola and Mr Adeleke, with the other candidates sharing the leftover votes.

Controversial primaries

Neither the ruling APC nor the opposition PDP has fully recovered from the controversies that marred their primaries.

It was only on Thursday that the governor heaved a sigh of relief after the Federal High Court in Abuja dismissed a suit challenging his nomination by the APC.

In the partys controversial direct primaries held across the state on February 19, a former secretary to the state government, Moshood Adeoti, and Mr Yusuf (who is now the LP candidate), emerged as first and second runners-up.

The controversy was an offshoot of the rivalry between Mr Oyetola and his predecessor, now Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola. The latter supported Mr Adeoti in the primaries and continues to oppose Mr Oyetolas bid for reelection.

Mr Aregbesola is behind The Osun Progressives (TOP), a splinter group of the ruling party that is pushing the opposition against Mr Oyetola in the party.

But with the verdict delivered at the court on Thursday, it is not clear if Mr Adeoti would be appealing the judgement. His suit was predicated on the argument that Mr Oyetola had taken part in the primary without resigning his membership of the ruling partys national caretaker committee then led by Yobe State Governor, Mala Buni.

However, unlike the APC, which organised a single primary with all the stakeholders participating, the PDP conducted two parallel primaries on March 8.

One was held at Women and Children Development Initiative Foundation (WOCDIF) centre, Osogbo, and attended by major stakeholders and founding members of the party. In contrast, the faction led by the Adeleke dynasty held its own at Osogbo City Stadium.

The primary at WOCDIF was attended by two former deputy national chairmen of the party, Shuaib Oyedokun and Tajudeen Oladipo; former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola and his deputy while in office, Olusola Obada; former secretary to the state government, Fatai Akinbade; factional chairman, Wale Ojo, and his predecessor, Soji Adagunodo, and also Mr Adelekes cousin and then governorship aspirant on the platform of the party, Dele Adeleke.

Also at the event were former senator Olu Alabi, and Dotun Babayemi, who won the primary.

But at the stadium where Mr Adeleke was nominated were a factional chairman of the party in the state, Sunday Bisi; former national secretary of PDP, Wale Oladipupo; the senator representing Osun East District, Adenigba Fadahunsi; four-term member of the House of Representatives from Oriade/Obokun Federal Constituency, Wole Oke; former chairman of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), Lere Oyewunmi, among others.

READ ALSO:

This was, however, the faction that hosted both the representatives of the national leadership of the party and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

But since the recognition of Mr Adeleke as the authentic candidate of the party, members of the other faction have not thrown in the towel. Not even a loss of some of the cases challenging Mr Adelekes emergence in court has settled the rift.

Therefore, while APC seems to have been able to manage the crisis relatively better, the PDP, though popular on the streets, could be more affected by the fallouts of its own.

Defections

As a fallout of their acrimonious primaries, the two leading political parties have suffered gales of defections, exchanging prominent members while some other fringe political parties also claimed some of their members. But the casualty on the side of the PDP seems to be higher than that of the ruling party.

Apart from the defection of Mr Yusuf to LP, the only significant member of APC who left for the opposition PDP was the former commissioner for local government and chieftaincy affairs under Mr Aregbesola, Kolapo Alimi.

But while Mr Ogunbiyi left the PDP for the Accord Party, other prominent PDP members including Mr Adelekes running mate in 2018, Albert Adeogun; factional chairman of the party, Wale Ojo; former member of the House of Representatives, Ayodele Asalu, and a House of Representatives aspirant, Soji Ibikunle, among others, defected to the APC.

Religion

Religious sentiments may also be a major factor in the election, especially following the raging war over the choice of a running mate by the presidential flag bearers of the ruling APC. With the stiff opposition of the Christian communities to the Muslim-Muslim ticket, voters in Osun, where Muslims are the majority, may have issues with the candidate of the PDP.

Mr Adeleke introduces himself on his posters as Nurudeen Ademola Jackson Adeleke. Despite the Nurudeen, a Muslim name, Mr Adeleke is seen more as a Christian with his constant appearance in western attire and is popularly known as Jackson. He was never publicly addressed as Nurudeen.

Meanwhile, the choice of Kola Adewusi, a Christian and former chairman of Ife East Local Government Area, may have further stirred the hornets nest.

But on his part, Mr Oyetola, a son of an Islamic cleric from Iragbiji, headquarters of Boripe Local Government Area of the state, has a Christian from Ikire, Irewole Local Government Area, Benedict Alabi, as his deputy. This balance may earn them the sympathy of some voters.

It would be recalled that in 2018, Muslims Rights Concern (MURIC), an Islamic organisation, expressed concern over Mr Adelekes promise to return mission schools in the state to their old owners. MURIC accused the PDP candidate of taking Muslims for a ride in the state.

Governance

Though the governor may not have performed poorly, given the resources available to him and when compared with other state governors, the poor performance of the APC federal government led by President Muhammadu Buhari may affect Mr Oyetolas chances.

The global economic crisis occasioned largely by the plummeting oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic is one of the reasons advanced by the government for not being able to do better.

But the governors aides said he deserves commendation for keeping Osun afloat, especially with the regular payment of salaries to workers, unlike his predecessors.

Speaking with PREMIUM TIMES, the senior special assistant to the governor on students affairs and social mobilisation, Kehinde Ayantunji, said Mr Oyetola promised to pay workers their full wages and has kept the promise.

Despite the dwindling resources and the debt being repaid, the governor has insisted that he would not renege on his promises. He has consistently told those of us working with him to bear the brunt while he fulfils his pledge to the workers and the pensioners, Mr Ayantunji said.

But apart from salary payment, many residents of Osun have claimed times are hard and are seeking a change in power, with the belief that a new leader may lead to a new lease of life.

Education qualification

While many voters may not be unhappy with the incumbent, they are also not impressed by Mr Adeleke, the leading opposition candidate, over his academic qualification and competence.

Each time Mr Adeleke speaks in English in public, social media is awash with derisive posts by members of the public, either ridiculing his pronunciations or grammar.

Mr Adelekes certificate issue had been on the front burner in 2018, forcing the flag bearer to publicly announce his purported graduation from Atlanta Metropolitan College in America in May 2021.

Omisores emergence

Since his intervention in 2018 during the supplementary election between Messrs Oyetola and Adeleke, deploying his third force to give victory to the former in the keenly contested election, Iyiola Omisore, has remained a pillar of the ruling APC.

Therefore, with his emergence as the national secretary of the ruling party, Mr Omisore, a founding member of the Alliance for Democracy, APCs legacy party, before joining the PDP where he won a senatorial election from detention, has never had it so good with the so-called progressives.

It will be recalled that Mr Omisore garnered over 128,000 votes in the 2018 election on the platform of the SDP, thereby contributing greatly to why the election went into a rerun.

The popularity of Mr Omisore may improve the fortunes of the APC after joining its fold as a national leader of the party.

Tinubus emergence as APC presidential candidate

The emergence of Bola Tinubu, a former Lagos State Governor, as the presidential candidate of the ruling APC is another factor that may help the incumbent to retain his seat.

It would be recalled that as soon as he was announced the winner of the partys presidential primary in June, the outgoing governor of Ekiti State and Chairman of Nigerias Governors Forum (NGF), Kayode Fayemi, described him as a game changer.

Many of Mr Tinubus followers and allies who had threatened to work against the candidate of the party at the poll in Ekiti, especially the leadership of the South-west Agenda for Asiwaju (SWAGA), quickly embraced dialogue and worked for the partys candidate following Mr Tinubus intervention.

The same scenario seems to be playing out in Osun already, as some of the members of Mr Aregbesola-backed TOP have sheathed their swords, and have resolved to work for Mr Oyetola.

One of them is the former speaker of the states House of Assembly, Najeem Salaam, who is said to command a large following in Ejigbo, and other major towns in Osun West Senatorial District, where Mr Adeleke also hails from.

With the various realignments in the state, this election is unlikely to repeat the controversy of the last one in 2018, which was decided by 442 votes after Mr Oyetola overtook Mr Adeleke in the controversial supplementary polls conducted in seven polling units.
The Court of Appeal in Sokoto has dismissed a suit seeking the removal of Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State from office over his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The court, in its judgement delivered on Wednesday, affirmed the earlier verdict of the Federal High Court in Gusau, dismissing the case against the governor.

Mr Matawalles lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, shared the details of the Court of Appeals judgement with PREMIUM TIMES on Friday.

A panel of three Justices of the Court of Appeal led by A. A. Gumel, held in its unanimous judgement that a governor cannot lose his seat on the grounds of defection from one party to another.

Citing provisions of Section 40 of the constitution, the court held that a governor can defect from one party to another without losing his office.

The court held that the Nigerian constitution does not provide punishment for a governor who defects to another party.

It said Mr Matawalle cannot vacate his seat because of his defection to another political party of his choice in the exercise of his constitutional right of freedom of association.

The court added that once a governor is sworn in, he ceases to be under the control of the political party which sponsored him, and he can only be removed from office in line with the provisions of sections 180, 188 and 189 of the 1999 Constitution.

All the issues having been resolved in favour of Governor Matawalle, the appeal was dismissed and the judgment of the Federal High Court, Gusau, delivered on the 7th of February, 2022 was affirmed, Mr Ozekhomes statement said.

READ ALSO:

In addition to the N1 million cost earlier awarded in favour of each of the respondents by the trial court, the Court of Appeal awarded another cost of N1 million against the appellants in favour of the governor and his former deputy governor, the first and second respondents, Mahadi Ali, respectively.

Ex-deputy governor loses cross-appeal

The court similarly dismissed the cross-appeal filed by Mr Gusau, the impeached deputy governor of Zamfara State, seeking to be declared the governor following Mr Matawalles defection to the APC.

The court held that Mr Ali cannot succeed Mr Matawalle on account of the governors defection from the PDP to APC.

Background

Mr Matawalle at a grand ceremony in Gusau, the Zamfara State capital, defected to the ruling APC in June last year after months of speculation and denial.

But his deputy, Mr Ali, who refused to defect from the PDP, on whose platform the duo were elected, was later removed from office by the State House of Assembly.

Following Mr Matawalles defection, some aggrieved members of the PDP  Bashir Saleh, Abduhamid Haruna and Ibrahim Turaki  approached the Federal High Court in Gusau, praying the court to sack the governor.

However, the court declined jurisdiction and held that the Nigerian constitution does not provide for the removal of a governor on account of defecting from one political party to the other.

Subsequently, the plaintiffs filed an appeal to challenge the High Courts decision.

The Court of Appeal dismissed their appeal on Wednesday.
Except the Zamfara State Government steps in to stop it, all is set for the coronation of a notorious terror kingpin, Ada Aleru, as the Sarkin Fulani (the chief of the Fulani) of the Yandoton Daji Emirate on Saturday.

Sources in the district, who asked not to be named for safety reasons, told PREMIUM TIMES that the decision to make the terrorist a chief was aimed at finding lasting peace in the crisis-ravaged Tsafe and Yandoton Daji emirates and other areas of Zamfara and Katsina states, which are regularly attacked by Mr Aleru and his subordinates.

Yandoton Daji is one of the two new emirates created by the Zamfara government in May. It was carved out from the Tsafe emirate. The emir of Yandoton Daji is Aliyu Marafa .

The decision to make Mr Aleru a chief followed dialogue between elders of the emirate and the terror leader.

PREMIUM TIMES reported in March that during the dialogue, elders of the emirate appealed to Mr Aleru to stop attacking communities in the emirate.

Aleru has gathered a lot of money and cattle and he knows if this (fight with soldiers) continues, he may end up losing the cattle and his wealth. As the leader of most of the bandits in Yankuzo and Munhaye axis, and to a large extent, Tsafe area, he felt it would be better to reach a truce, one source, a resident of the area, said.

Another source, a civil servant from Tsafe town, said the decision to give Mr Aleru the title was to show appreciation for the relative peace in the areas.

There was a meeting in Yandoto two weeks ago and those who were present saw the commitment of Ada Aleru to the peace accord. He did not beg for the title but the emirate believes if he is given the title, it would tie him down, the source said Thursday.

He added that the bandit observed the Eid prayer with other Muslims in Tsafe on Saturday, which was viewed by many as a sign that he had accepted the peace accord.

I was at the Eid ground too and I saw when he (Mr Aleru) came with his boys and family members. None of them was holding guns, the civil servant said.

He also defended the decision to confer the chieftaincy title on Mr Aleru.

When was the last time we called to tell you that there was an attack on the Tsafe axis? I know that some people would not be happy with this decision, but can the government fight these bandits?

He added that Mr Aleru is expected to come along with other notorious terrorists like Ali Zakwai, Bello Turji, Danboko, Sanata, Isuhu Yelo, Damina, and Mai Shamuwa.

Were certain he (Mr Aleru) will play a key role in making some top bandits leaders embrace peace, said a source at the palace of the emir of the town.

When asked if the state government is involved or had been notified by the emirate council, he said he did not know but he was sure that the ceremony would hold.

Zailani Bappa, the official spokesperson for the Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, and the police spokesperson, Mohammed Shehu, did not respond to calls and SMS sent to them on the issue.

However, the head of protocol (Wakilin Masarauta) of the Yandoton Daji Emirate, Magaji Lawali, told PREMIUM TIMES that the emirate decided to make Mr Aleru a chief as part of efforts to strengthen the ongoing peace accord.

Yes, I can confirm that he is going to be turbaned. Were doing it to help strengthen the peace accord because our people are being killed and or abducted on a daily basis, he told this newspaper on Friday.

The man, Ada Aleru

Ada Aleru was born in Yankuzo village under Tsafe Local Government Area but grew up in the main town.

The 45-year-old leads a group of terrorists that attack communities in Tsafe and Gusau (in Zamfara) and Faskari and Kankara in Katsina State.

Mr Aleru gained notoriety in the area and earned the respect of his fellow criminals for his alleged ruthless execution of his victims.

He was accused of killing the son of the Zamfara State commissioner for security and home affairs, Mamman Tsafe.

Before that attack, Mr Aleru had led a series of attacks on the headquarters of Tsafe Local Government Area.

In 2019, the then Katsina police commissioner, Sanusi Buba, said the command would pay N5 million to anyone who provided information that would lead to the arrest of Mr Aleru.

Mr Aleru is believed to have led the attack on Kadisau Community in Faski Local Government Area, killing 52 residents. That attack was in protest of the arrest of his son, Sulaiman, by the police.

He is also blamed for the abduction of a Nigerian Customs Service officer after which he demanded N10 million as a ransom.

Not the first peace accord

In March, PREMIUM TIMES exclusively reported how a peace meeting between Mr Aleru and some elders in Tsafe Local Government Area led to a ceasefire for some weeks.

But Mr Aleru said he would not spare Magazu and other communities considered too hostile to the Fulanis.

A law enforcement source who asked not to be named because he has no authorisation to speak with the media on the matter told PREMIUM TIMES that leaders of the Magazu community tried to reach a truce with the criminal gangs that operate in the area.

Five or four days ago, there was a meeting between the bandits leaders, especially Ada Aleru and his people on the one side and community leaders on the other where some agreements were made. The community elders sought for a window so that their people could be allowed to work on their farmlands while the bandits demanded a safe route from the community elders, the source said on Thursday.

The source added that the bandit leader also told residents of Magazu to stop killing innocent Fulani.

Thousands of people have been killed in Zamfara and other states in North-west Nigeria by the terrorists, often called bandits by locals.

The attacks have continued despite repeated assurances of security by the federal government.

The Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, recently asked residents of the state to arm themselves and defend their communities. His stance was, however, condemned by the federal government.
An Ikeja Domestic Violence and Sexual Offences Court, on Thursday, sentenced a man, Michake Ogbar, to life imprisonment for raping his three daughters aged 10, 20, and 24.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Justice Abiola Soladoye held that the prosecution proved beyond a reasonable doubt, the charge of rape brought against Mr Ogbar.

Evidence before the court shows that the prosecution has proved the case of defilement and rape before this court.

The defendant, who is the father of the three daughters, is found guilty as charged, as the burden of proof has been discharged.

This is a very sad case, she said.

The judge said it was disheartening that the man raped his daughters for years in the absence of his wife.

It is disgrace to parenthood.

The defendant ravished his own daughters in turn, committing incest. It is rather shameful and most perverted.

The defendant is hereby found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment on count one.

On count two, he is sentenced to life imprisonment and on count three, he is also sentenced to life imprisonment, the judge said.

Mrs Soladoye said the sentence would run concurrently, and ordered that the convict should have his name written in the Lagos State Sexual Offenders Register.

NAN reports that the Lagos State Government, which brought the charge, presented six witnesses during the trial.

It stated that the offences violated Sections 137 and 258(1) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015. (NAN)
A former factional chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Golden Chioma, who dumped the party on Tuesday, has joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

Mr Chioma, who cited poor reward system as reason for leaving the APC, disclosed his next political destination for the first time in an exclusive interview with PREMIUM TIMES Sunday evening.

He was the chairman of Magnus Abes faction of the APC in the state.

He, however, declined comments on whether Mr Abe, a governorship aspirant of the party, would join him in SDP where he can contest the 2023 governorship election.

Beside Mr Chioma, a former acting managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Ibim Semenitari, has also announced her resignation from the APC.

Mrs Semenitari, who served as Commissioner for Information and Communication under the former governor of the state, Rotimi Amaechi, made public her resignation on Sunday.

In her resignation letter dated July 9 and addressed to Ward 5 chairman of the party in Okrika Local Government Area, she appreciated the party for the opportunities it provided her to serve and wished the party well.

APCs reaction

Chris Finebone, the spokesperson of APC in Rivers State, dismissed Mr Chiomas claim that he dumped the party due to poor reward system.

Mr Finebone, who blamed Messrs Chioma and Abe for the exclusion of the party in the ballot in 2019, said Mr Chioma left the party because of his agreement with Mr Abe to move to SDP so that Mr Abe can contest the governorship election there.

On the resignation of Mrs Semenitari from the party, Mr Finebone said the former NDDC managing director said she wants to rest.

He said Mrs Semenitari has not joined any other political party.

Mrs Semenitari, a former ally of Mr Amaechi, worked for Vice President Yemi Osinbajo during the APC presidential primary.

The APC in Rivers State has been torn into two factions as a result of the battle for the control of party structure in the state between Mr Abe and the former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.

The party was barred from filing candidates for the 2019 general elections in the state as the result of the crisis.

However, in 2022, Mr Amaechis faction outmaneuvered Mr Abe to take over the structure of the party in the state.

Mr Abe was pushed out from the APC power structure in Rivers after Tonye Cole emerged the governorship candidate of the party in the state during the May 26 primary.

Mr Abes supporters reportedly boycotted the primary.
A Magistrate court in Lokoja, Kogi State, on Thursday struck out criminal charges against two men accused of defacing government buildings with posters of #BuhariMustGo in 2021.

Their lawyer, Tope Temokun, disclosed his clients court victory via his Facebook page on Thursday.

PREMIUM TIMES had reported how the two men, Emmanuel Larry and Victor Udoka, were arrested and kept in a correctional facility in Kabba, Kogi State, after they participated in a #BuhariMustGo protest staged against the President Muhammadu Buhari administration in Lokoja, the state capital, in April last year.

A viral video captured the moment when the duo was accosted and physically assaulted by the group of youth in a community in Lokoja for carrying placards with the inscription, Buhari Must Go, and scrawling the same message on a roadside structure.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that Messrs Larry and Udoka were subsequently handed over to the police, who secretly arraigned them and obtained an order for their remand in prison, according to one of their lawyers, Benjamin Omeiza, who spoke to one of our correspondents last year.

The state Commissioner of Police, Ayuba Edeh, later confirmed that the two persons were arrested on April 5, 2021, for allegedly embarking on a smear campaign against the President, Mr Buhari, in Lokoja, the state capital.

The men spent well over two months in detention before being released on bail last year.

However, announcing the two mens acquittal on Thursday, Mr Temokun said, Today, 14th July 2022, the Court struck out this inglorious charge, discharging these youth activists.

The lawyer, who blamed the activists travails on Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, and his deputy, Edward Onoja, said the two men were tortured by political thugs and were remanded in Kabba prison for 78 days, to waste away.

He said the Kogi State government embarked, albeit vaingloriously, on heavily investing Kogi citizens scanty resources on prosecuting them in court, through Kogi State ministry of justice.

Appreciations

Congratulating his team of lawyers on the success of the case, Mr Temokun said,

As part of chambers humanitarian outreach, we took up the case pro bono in 2021. We have been in court since then and Benjamin Obilor the counsel representing our office, whom I specially thank and appreciate for his doggedness, had given a good fight through these months of the desperate moves of the Kogi State government to send these youth patriots back to jail.

He also lauded SaharaReporters publisher and activist, Omoyele Sowore, for his roles in the case.

Mr Temokun praised Mr Sowore, who is the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the forthcoming 2023 general elections for standing up for the weak and vulnerable youths across tribes of this country.

Reacting to the court judgement, Mr Sowore, in a post via his Facebook page on Thursday, similarly blamed Governor Bello of Kogi State for the activists ordeals.

These activists were detained for months unending until judicial officers and Nigeria Police Force officers as well as the governor and his deputy involved in their detention were all exposed. Today is another powerful testimony to that time-tested aphorism that power doesnt have a reverse gear until it meets superior power, he stated.
The Alliance for Democracy (AD) on Friday declared support for the re-election of Governor Gboyega Oyetola, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in Saturdays governorship election in Osun.

This is contained in a statement issued by the Chairman and Secretary of the partys Convention Planning Committee, Abdallah Muktar, and Kola Ajayi.

The statement urged members to work for the re-election of Mr Oyetola, being part of the progressive party just like the AD.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that AD, one of the de-registered party by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is not allowed to field candidate for the gubernatorial election.

At the leadership and stakeholders meeting held in Iwo, Osun State on May 01, it was generally agreed that the party should work in agreement and support the candidature of His Excellency Isiaka Adegboyega Oyetola, in the coming elections in Osun State on July 16.

All our members, loyalists and stakeholders are by this declaration hereby directed to go out and vote Gov.Oyetola for a deserved second term in office.

We equally enjoin all the good people of Osun State to vote Gov. Oyetola for continuity in good governance, it said.

Similarly, the party congratulated Bola Tinubu on his emergence as the winner of the APC presidential primaries recently.

The statement recalled that Mr Tinubu was one of the governors on the platform of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in 1999.

According to it, Mr Tinubu remains the only surviving governor on the platform of the AD in the South-west in 2003, and he is the only man standing for progressive politics in Nigeria.

It said that Mr Tinubu, a two-term former governor of Lagos State, fought hard and brought back to the Progressives to other states such as Ekiti, Ondo, Osun and Edo among others.

The statement described Mr Tinubu as a man of ideology, one who believed in party discipline and supremacy as well as in the vision and ethics of the AD.

The leadership of the party, congratulates him (Tinubu) on his well-deserved victory at the APC primaries and his emergence as the partys presidential flag bearer.

The party assures Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of its unalloyed support throughout the length and breadth of the country as one of us, and promised to work tirelessly to ensure victory for Asiwaju at the elections in 2023, it said.

(NAN)
A governorship aspirant in Akwa Ibom State, Bassey Albert, on Friday afternoon, began removing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flags in his campaign office, signaling an end to the relationship between him and the party.

Mr Albert earlier on Friday resigned his membership of the PDP in a letter he sent to the chairman of the party in his ward in Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, immediately after his political supporters lost in their attempt to get a Federal High Court in Abuja to cancel the PDP primaries in the state.

Mr Alberts governorship aspiration in the PDP was a threat to Governor Udom Emmanuels preferred successor, Umo Eno.

Some PDP members in the state, mainly Mr Alberts supporters, had challenged the conduct of an ad-hoc delegates election held on April 30, which they said contravened the partys constitution.

While the Federal High Court in Abuja directed parties in the suit to maintain status quo antebellum pending hearing and determination of the suit, the PDP conducted its primaries in the state.

But Mr Albert refused to take part in the primary, citing the order of the court.

The Judge, Obiora Egwuatu, on Friday, ruled that the plaintiffs, having not taken part in the delegates election, lacked the locus standi to institute the suit.

The court held that the suit lacked merit.

Activities at campaign office

When a PREMIUM TIMES reporter visited Mr Alberts campaign office along Edet Akpan Avenue at about 2:55 p.m. on Friday, some office workers were seen hoisting the flags of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) around the massive building, while removing the PDP flags.

Inside a hall in the building, six supporters of Mr Albert were seen discussing with excitement the expected movement to the YPP.

Wow, I love your cap, please give me one, a woman said to a man wearing a faze cap with the YPP inscription.

Please, I need one too, another person, a young man, also requested the cap.

No, I cant give you, you are a PDP member, the man with cap said to the man who made the request.

Nooo, I am not. I will tear their (PDP) card when I get back home, the man responded.

The activities in the office confirmed the speculations that Mr Albert, a senator representing Akwa Ibom North East District, would defect to the YPP to contest the 2023 governorship election in the state.

The YPP governorship candidate in Akwa Ibom, for now, is Nyeneime Andy, Uyo-based pastor.

Mr Andy is expected to pull out of the contest in order to give way for a new primary.
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, on Friday, cautioned staff members against unethical behaviour ahead of the Osun governorship election.

The July 16 election is one of the eight off-cycle governorship elections in Nigeria and it has 14 candidates jostling for the position.

With the possibility of politicians trying to buy its personnel and subvert the tenets of the countrys democracy, Mr Yakubu, in his message, told Commissions staff to resist such an urge.

He urged them to uphold professionalism and commitment, two of the elements he believes accounted for the commissions successes in the off-cycle governorship elections held in Edo, Ondo, Anambra and Ekiti States.

The sheer determination, resilience, and competence displayed by all of you, our members of staff, made it possible for the Commission to achieve these lofty goals, Mr Mahmood said.

Through the commitment of staff members, the INEC chairman said he hopes to meet Nigerians expectations in Saturdays poll.

ALSO READ: INEC officially extends CVR by two weeks

The people of Osun State and Nigerians will understandably hold us to our promise on election day. They will observe our attitude and behaviour from the opening to the closing of polls. They will particularly observe our management of the election results and measure the extent of our adherence to the extant laws through every stage of the electoral process.

I appeal to you to uphold our Code of Conduct, display your usual sense of commitment and professionalism, remain above board and firmly resist any unethical behaviour. You must also stick to the Oath of Neutrality to which we have all subscribed. I have confidence in your ability to consolidate on our recent successes, Mr Yakubu said.
A Federal High Court in Osogbo has restrained operatives of the Amotekun Corps from deploying officers to polling units for Saturdays election.

The Peoples Democratic Party in Osun State had filed a suit before the court, seeking an order to restrain the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from seeking the assistance of Amotekun operatives for security during the poll.

Justice Ayo Emmanuel issued the order on Thursday, restraining Amotekun Corps as part of the security personnel deployable for the purpose of Osun State guber election.

That the first defendant is hereby restrained from requesting the deployment of the second defendant as part of the security personnel deployable for the purpose of Osun State Governorship election pending the determination of the originating summons filled in this suit.

That the second defendant is hereby restrained from the deploying or volunteering her officers, agents, staff as part of the security personnel deployable for the purpose of Osun State Governorship election pending the determination of the originating summons filled in this suit.

That the applicant should file an undertaking indemnifying the respondent should this application not be granted in the the first place.

Mr Emmanuel adjourned the case till July 20.
Ibom Air has said its passengers will experience flight delays in the coming weeks due to scarcity of aviation fuel and the closure of the domestic runway at the Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos.

In a statement Friday, the Akwa Ibom State-owned carrier said the delays are unavoidable and will be for the next three months.

The Management of Ibom Air regrets to inform the general public and our customers in particular, that despite our best efforts, our passengers will experience flight delays this period, due to two critical factors: The closure of the domestic runway (Runway 18L) at Murtala Mohammed Airport for the next 3 months and the current serious scarcity of aviation fuel, the airline statement read.

The airline said it will try to minimise the impact of these factors on its flight schedule.

Within the past three months, major domestic airline operators have lamented about the sharp increase in aviation fuel and have threatened to halt operations repeatedly. The intervention of the Nigerian government, which promised to resolve the aviation fuel scarcity, has apparently not been felt.

The lingering scarcity pushed airline operators to increase flight base fare to N50,000 and above since February this year, with many Nigerians criticising the move.

Ibom Airs flight figures shows that the airline scheduled a total flight of 1,023 in June. Of this figure, it operated a total of 965 flights, rescheduled 234 flights, delayed 199 flights and cancelled 58 flights.

Fuel availability is a major impediment to schedule reliability and on time performance in June, the airline management said.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been served with the court order which disqualified Sheriff Oborevwori as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Delta State.

Mr Oborevwori, who is also the Speaker of the Delta House of Assembly, was accused of supplying false information and submitting forged certificates in order to take part and emerge as the winner of the PDP governorship primary in the state.

The order, issued on July 7 by Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, was served on INEC in its headquarters in Abuja on Thursday, PREMIUM TIMES learnt.

The order directed the PDP and INEC to replace Mr Oborevworis name with that of the plaintiff, David Edevbie, who scored the second highest votes in the partys governorship primary.

The 1st Defendant (Mr Oborevwori) should and ought to be prohibited, prevented or otherwise restrained from holding out, parading and or advertising himself as the candidate of the 2nd Defendant (PDP) for the forthcoming Gubernatorial elections in Delta State scheduled to hold on 11 March, 2023 by the 3rd Defendant (INEC), Justice Taiwo said in the order.

Mr Oborevwori is said to have used the names Oborevwori Sheriff and Francis Orohwedor interchangeably in his certificates submitted to INEC.

The sacking of Mr Oborevwori has the potential to alter the Delta State politics.

It is an enormous political loss to the Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, who had given his political backing to Mr Oborevwori, who is his ally.

Mr Edevbie, the man who is replacing Mr Oborevwori, is a known ally of a former governor of Delta State, James Ibori.

An influential group in Delta State, Urhobo Progress Union, had endorsed Mr Edevbie for the governorship election prior to the PDP primary which produced Mr Oborevwori.

Mr Oborevwori has gone to the Court of Appeal, Abuja, asking the appellate court to set aside the order which sacked him.
A governorship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Akwa Ibom State, Bassey Albert, has dumped the party.

Mr Albert, who is the senator representing Akwa Ibom North-East District, disclosed this in a letter to his Ward Chairman in Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area dated July 15.

Mr Akpan said his resignation is to enable him to contest in the states 2023 gubernatorial election.

Although Mr Albert did not disclose the platform which he intends to actualise his ambition, it is widely speculated that he will join the Young Progressive Party.

Mr Alberts resignation letter surfaced on various WhatsApp groups immediately after his supporters lost a case at the Federal High Court, Abuja, challenging the ad-hoc delegates election conducted by the PDP in Akwa Ibom.

Background

Mr Alberts governorship aspiration in the PDP was a threat to Governor Udom Emmanuels preferred successor, Umo Eno.

Some PDP members in the state, mainly Mr Alberts supporters, had challenged the conduct of an ad hoc delegates election held on April 30, which they said contravened the partys constitution.

READ ALSO:

While the Federal High Court in Abuja directed parties in the suit to maintain status quo antebellum pending hearing and determination of the suit, the PDP conducted its primaries in the state.

But Mr Albert refused to take part in the primary, citing the order of the court.

The Judge, Obiora Egwuatu, on Friday, ruled that the plaintiffs, having not participated in the delegates election, lacked the locus standi to institute the suit.

The court held that the suit lacked merit.
The Nigerian government and the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) are once again in a war of words over the continued shutdown of public universities.

The strike, which began on February 14, has been rolled over and is now in its sixth month.

While ASUU said it is awaiting the government to sign the renegotiated agreements, the government said it has no collective bargaining agreement with the union.

In a statement, the minister of labour and employment, Chris Ngige, said relevant ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) were absent during the negotiation with Nimi Brigs committee set up by the ministry of education to renegotiate the 2009 agreement.

The 2009 agreement contains the conditions of service which ASUU wants to be improved.

The statement, signed by Olajide Oshundun, the head, press and public relations at the labour ministry, said ASUU had insisted that these relevant advisory MDAs recuse themselves from the sitting of the Briggs-led committee, accusing them of non-cooperation.

The MDAs, according to Mr Ngige, include the ministries of finance, education, labour and employment; Budget Office of the Federation, National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission, and Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation.

He said: All alone with the Prof Briggs Committee, ASUU started fixing their salaries and allowances to the exclusion of the statutory government ministries and agencies that manage the entire annual finances of government, budget and fiscal policies, and the office of the head of civil service that is in charge of ensuring that public service rules and regulations are not undermined in any condition of service offered to public officers in the universities.

But ASUU President, Emmanuel Osodeke, denied the ministers comments when he spoke on Channels Televisions Sunrise Daily on Thursday.

Mr Osodeke said the representatives of the MDAs were present during all the meetings his union had with the Mr Briggs-led committee.

He added that there was no time that ASUU insisted on their exclusion from the meetings.

We want to challenge the minister to show the minutes where it was stated that their members should be walked out Let him show where the people walked out or were asked to leave any of the meetings, he said.

It is so sad that weve gotten to a stage where our children, our young men and women are lamenting at home and the minister of labour is busy churning out fake information and misinforming the public, trying to undermine a union of integrity like ASUUNigerians should hold him responsible for what is happening with the strike today.

Ngiges statement

Mr Ngige also said there is no existing Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the government and the striking lecturers.

He said what is currently on ground is at best a proposal.

He noted that even when such an agreement is produced between unions and the federal government, it is not the President that signs but the ministries, department or agencies, with the conciliating ministry witnessing.

The minister said the clarification became necessary due to ASUUs calls on President Muhammadu Buhari to sign an agreement which ASUU claimed to have reached with the federal government.

He said: It is pertinent to note that that Prof Nimi Brigg Committee, just like the Prof. Munzali Committee it replaced, is an internal committee of the Ministry of Education to receive ASUU demands and renegotiate areas of 2009 Agreement while also receiving briefs from the MDAs mentioned above that act as advisers, before making any counter offer to ASUU and other unions.

Mr Ngige added that the chief of staff to the president, Ibrahim Gambari, and the labour ministry set up an Inter-Ministerial/Agency sub-committee, comprising the affected MDAs under the Minister of State, Budget and National Planning to quickly look into Prof. Briggs Committee report in June.

He said the committee found that the proposal will lead to between 109 and 185 per cent increase in the university wage structure.

The minister further said; The Federal Government will incur an additional N560 billion as salaries alone, on top of the present N412b, less all other allowances such as Earned Academic Allowances and fringe benefits, Teaching Allowance, field trip, responsibility and post-graduate supervision allowances, hazard allowances, which were to gulp another N170 billion.

In all, the sum of N1.12 Trillion will be needed to pay the salaries and allowances of university lecturers and other staff in the university system. At present, the wage bill of the university staff and their colleagues in teaching health systems gulp nearly 50 per cent of the total federal government staff personnel cost/wages.

He, however, noted that the Presidential Committee on Salaries and Wages has finished the review of the Prof Nimi Briggs proposal and will shortly submit it to the president.

ASUU replies

In response to the statement, the ASUU president insisted that the agreements were a collective bargain.

He also accused Mr Ngige of sabotaging reconciliation efforts by his comments.

Its collective bargaining and the position we have accepted, the money we have accepted, is an offer by the government. We have documentation. Whatever was proposed is not from ASUU. We have our proposal but what was accepted by both sides the Nimi Briggs committee representing the federal government and ASUU, is the proposal by the Nimi Briggs committee, Mr Osodeke said.

He added that the minister who is supposed to be a conciliator is the one trying to destroy the process by instructing the ministry of finance to stop the lecturers salaries, among other things.

On the said increase to be incurred by the government, Mr Osodeke said it is a better spending than the N4 trillion used by the government for subsidising petrol.

He said: If Nigeria needed just 1.3 trillion naira to ensure that Nigerian universities compete with any university in the world; to ensure we now have foreign students coming to Nigerian universities, to ensure that the universities is such a way that you have e foreign lecturers coming into the system, which one is more important (between this) and spending N4 trillion to subsidise fuel.

UTAS, U3PS

Commenting on the choice of payment platform by ASUU and other striking university-based unions, the labour ministry said fresh tests have been concluded on ASUUs UTAS and the University Peculiar Payroll Payment System (U3PS) developed by the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities and other Associated Institutions (NASU). He said the results will be made available soon.

He added that the tests on IPPIS are still in the works but that all will be concluded in the next one week.

The minister also urged the unions to suspend their strikes and revive activities in the nations ivory towers, claiming incessant strikes demarket the institutions.

Finally, the Hon. Minister will like to use this opportunity to once more appeal to ASUU and their sister university unions, whose complaints had been looked into except the ongoing renegotiation of their 2013/2014 Agreement, to go back to school, knowing full well that these ceaseless strikes de-market our universities and certificates therefrom, while government labours with their leaders to produce a standard pay rise as soon as possible.

Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has officially extended the Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) by two weeks following a court injunction.

The Commission disclosed this in a statement by its spokesperson, Festus Okoye, on Friday.

Against its earlier interim order late June, the Federal High Court on Wednesday, dismissed the suit seeking an extension of the exercise beyond June 30.

The application was filed by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and 185 other concerned Nigerians.

Having run the exercise for almost two weeks after the initial date was fixed, INEC said the CVR will officially close on July 31.

The Court has affirmed that INEC is at liberty to appoint a date of its choice to suspend the CVR, provided it is not later than 90 days before the date fixed for the General Election as provided in Sec. 9(6) of the Electoral Act 2022.

In compliance with the interim injunction of the Court pending the determination of the substantive suit, and in order to enable more Nigerians to register, the Commission continued with the CVR beyond 30th June 2022. For this reason, the CVR has already been extended beyond 30th June 2022 for a period of 15 days.

The CVR is hereby extended for another two weeks until Sunday 31st July 2022, thereby bringing the total duration of the extension to 31 days (1st  31st July 2022), the statement said.

New changes

With the legal obstacles off its ways, the INEC, at its extraordinary meeting held on Friday, made some adjustments in its operation of the CVR.

According to Mr Okoye, the exercise has been extended to include Saturdays and Sundays as against only weekdays.

The commission also extended the exercise to eight hours daily from 9.00am  5.00pm instead of the current duration of six hours (9.00am  3.00pm) daily.

We appreciate that the timeframe may be tight for many prospective registrants, but there is a lot that the Commission is required to do under the electoral legal framework in relation to voter registration and compilation of the register that will require time to accomplish, he noted.

On INECs successes so far, Mr Okoye said the commission has put measures in motion to clean up its register so as to remove multiple registrants using the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS).

He noted that the commission has a projection of 95 million voters on the basis of 10 voters per page and has to print 9.5 million pages for the display.

The commission, however, complained of a low turnout of registrants at its centres following its compelled extension of the exercise two weeks back.

We observed that following the continuation of the exercise beyond 30th June 2022, many of the registration centres recorded low turnout of prospective registrants. With this two-week extension, we appeal to eligible citizens not to wait until the last few days before they inundate the centres again to register, Mr Okoye said.
The Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, on Friday, visited the Hausa community in Osun State to campaign for the incumbent governor and candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Isiaka Oyetola.

Mr Ganduje was accompanied by Barau Jibrin, the senator representing Kano North District.

The duo urged the community to vote Mr Oyetola so he can continue implementing the developmental projects he initiated.

The closely-contested election will be held on Saturday

Mr Ganduje and his entourage observed the Jumaat prayers at the Hausa community Mosque in the Sabo area of Osogbo. He said they came to the community to canvass support for the APC governorship candidate.

After the event, he told BBC Hausa Service that the community has assured him it will vote overwhelmingly for Mr Oyetola, who is seeking a second term in office.

We came to the Hausa Community where we performed jumaat congregational prayer in Sabo community we solicit for their support, and they (voters) gave us assurance that they will vote for Mr Oyetola, Mr Ganduje said.

Mr Oyetolas main rival in the 2018 election, Ademola Adeleke, a former senator, and the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will be attempting to upstage him on Saturday.

Other candidates in the Saturdays election include Akin Ogunbiyi of the Accord Party; Goke Omigbodun of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and a former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Lasun Yusuf, who is contesting under the banner of the Labour Party (LP).
The presidency has denied a news report that the State Security Services (SSS) has issued an advisory to President Muhammad Buhari on the running mate of Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the ruling party, APC.

Garba Shehu, President Buharis spokesperson described the story as false and advised Nigerians to ignore it.

Although Mr Shehu did not name the platform that published the story, on Friday, an online news platform, Peoples Gazette, published an exclusive report that the SSS warned that a Muslim-Muslim ticket will destabilise Nigeria.

The paper said its report was based on a leaked memo and interview with intelligence officers.

In his reaction, Mr Shehu advised well-meaning Nigerians to ignore a laughably puerile report by an apparently pirate online newspaper seeking to sow division and chaos on the choice of Governor Kashim Shettima as the Running Mate of our Partys Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Mr Tinubu announced Mr Shettima as his running mate on Sunday.

Both Messrs Tinubu and Shettima are Muslims, and many Nigerians including the Christian Association of Nigeria had cautioned against a presidential ticket where the candidate and the running mate would be of the same religion.

However, Mr Tinubu said he picked Mr Shettima not based on his religion but based on his competence.

I believe this is the man who can help me bring the best governance to all Nigerians, period, of their religious affiliation or considerations of ethnicity or region, Mr Tinubu said shortly after announcing Mr Shettima.

The former Lagos state governor said although he is aware of the religious concerns about his choice of running mate, he does not believe that religion should be the deciding factor in choosing a running mate.

May I say this to all of you, especially to those who will be disappointed in my selection based on religious considerations? I will not and cannot ignore the religious concerns and ethnic sensitivities of our people. Taking them into due consideration is an important part of good and able governance.

But religion, ethnicity, and region cannot always and fully determine our path. To forge ahead as a nation toward development and prosperity, we must break free of old binds. We must recalibrate our political calculations to where competence and fairness matter more than reductive demographics, Mr Tinubu said.

Here is where politics ends, and true leadership must begin.
The APC elected a Southern Muslim, while the PDP elected a Northern Muslim with a Southern Christian running mate. It might well be that these choices were activated by the strategic search for winning combinations but for many within the Christian community, the strategies adapted might also have religious connotations It has become very divisive and significant confidence building measures would be necessary to make the case that there is no hidden agenda against the Christian community.

The Muslim-Muslim ticket chosen by the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, has generated controversy since 2015, when he sought to be Muhammadu Buharis running mate. Today, he is the presidential candidate and therefore got the opportunity to implement what he has canvassed for a very long time. It is clear that Bola Tinubu is not a religious bigot and is therefore not making the choice to achieve a religious objective. He belongs to the group of analysts that believes the 1993 victory of the Abiola-Kingibe, Muslim-Muslim ticket was a winning formula. The argument is that a Yoruba candidate from the South-West needs the to generate electoral support from the core Northern Muslim electorate to win. The reasoning in the APC camp is that the 2023 elections might be a close call, with the Labour Party taking significant Southern and Christian votes and Kwankwasos New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) taking a big chunk of the Kano and core Muslim votes.

This is not the only political permutation being circulated. Others have argued that there is a significant Christian vote in Northern Nigeria that would be alienated by the option of a Muslim-Muslim ticket. These votes would therefore be lost to Tinubus APC and go to the Labour Party, or Atikus PDP might emerge as the beneficiary of the calculus. This would also have an impact on many Christian majority states and constituencies where Christians enjoy numerical advantage. The danger is that the very long campaign period that is coming up might have a focus on religious mobilisation along this divide, and that would be very bad for the future of Nigerian democracy because, essentially, issue-based politics would be thrown under the bus as religious affiliation becomes the key signifier of political choice.

The current vice president to Muhammadu Buhari, Professor Yemi Osinbajo is a pastor of the Redeem Christian Church of God and there is no evidence to suggest he was able to use his position to achieve results for the Christian community. The general situation is that Nigerians are very dismissive of the vice presidential position, often arguing that all powers are in the hands of the president, which might not be completely true.

The massive level of heat generated by Tinubus proclivity for a Muslim vice president might seem to suggest that the position is an important one and that therefore the stakes are very high. The current vice president to Muhammadu Buhari, Professor Yemi Osinbajo is a pastor of the Redeem Christian Church of God and there is no evidence to suggest he was able to use his position to achieve results for the Christian community. The general situation is that Nigerians are very dismissive of the vice presidential position, often arguing that all powers are in the hands of the president, which might not be completely true.

The reason why the Muslim-Muslim ticket generates so much controversy is because what is at stake is not the strategic concerns about winning permutations, but real anger within the Christian community, of the imbalance in political appointments under President Buhari. Earlier this week, for example, the Christian political leaders within the APC in the nineteen Northern states met in Abuja on July 11 to deliberate on the issue of the partys Muslim-Muslim ticket and its implications for the country. They argued that the president, the chairman of the party, deputy chairman North, the president of the Senate, the speaker and deputy speaker, and now both the presidential candidate and his running mate, etc., are all Muslims. The narrative is that of the marginalisation of Christian leaders. They also point out that the preamble of the APCs constitution states that it, will guarantee equal opportunity for all, mutual and peaceful co-existence, respect and understanding, eliminating all forms of discrimination and social injustice among Nigerian, and that the Muslim-Muslim ticket appears to have violated this provision. They conclude that: Nigeria is a multi-religious and a constitutional democracy and NOT a theocracy with religion as a major national fault line which cannot be whimsically manipulated without dire political consequences on our peaceful co-existence as a people.

What is new in Nigeria today is the climate of suspicion and fear over what many Christians see as an Islamisation agenda. The emergence of Boko Haram and their Jihadi agenda has always been read to be the spearhead of this agenda. At the same time, there has been significant spread of the farmer-herder conflicts and violence, which has developed into large scale banditry and mass kidnapping, also largely seen as another part of the hidden agenda against the Christian communit

The former secretary to the Federal Government, Babachir Lawal, while expressing his anger at the Muslim-Muslim ticket declared: Now tell me which Christian will vote for APC with the following contraption: Moslem presidential candidate (Lagos), Moslem vice presidential candidate (Borno), Moslem national chairman (Nasarawa), Moslem deputy national chairman (Borno), Moslem president (Katsina); Moslem Senate president (Yobe); Moslem speaker (Lagos); Moslem deputy speaker (Plateau) e.t.c. APC the great! Wu na de try woh! Maybe it is worthwhile reminding ourselves that Chief Obafemi Awolowo of the Unity Party of Nigeria contested the 1979 presidential election with Philip Umeadi as his running mate. Both were Christians and Southerners. Way back during the First Republic, Awolowo promoted an electoral alliance for the 1964 general election, the United Progressive Grand Alliance, in which the two main parties were his Action Group and the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons led by Nnamdi Azikiwe, both Southern Christians. After the elections, Azikiwe refused to form a government with Awolowo and linked up with Ahmadu Bellos Northern Peoples Congress. To go back to the 1979 election, Nnamdi Azikiwe, leader of the Nigerian Peoples Party, also had a Christian-Christian ticket with Professor Ishaya Audu as his vice presidential contestant. Both were Christians; the latter a pastor, while Azikiwe was from the South-East and Audu was from the North.

What is new in Nigeria today is the climate of suspicion and fear over what many Christians see as an Islamisation agenda. The emergence of Boko Haram and their Jihadi agenda has always been read to be the spearhead of this agenda. At the same time, there has been significant spread of the farmer-herder conflicts and violence, which has developed into large scale banditry and mass kidnapping, also largely seen as another part of the hidden agenda against the Christian community. The dominance of Muslim officers in the command and control of the armed forces and security agencies is often cited as proof of this agenda. It is for these reasons that the Christian community has advocated for the next president to come from the Christian community on the basis of the zoning of the presidency to the South. The APC elected a Southern Muslim, while the PDP elected a Northern Muslim with a Southern Christian running mate. It might well be that these choices were activated by the strategic search for winning combinations but for many within the Christian community, the strategies adapted might also have religious connotations. That is where we are on the matter today. It has become very divisive and significant confidence building measures would be necessary to make the case that there is no hidden agenda against the Christian community.

A professor of Political Science and development consultant/expert, Jibrin Ibrahim is a Senior Fellow of the Centre for Democracy and Development, and Chair of the Editorial Board of PREMIUM TIMES.
Allah the Most High said: O you who have believed, shall I guide you to a transaction that will save you from a painful punishment? [It is that] you believe in Allah and His Messenger and strive in the cause of Allah with your wealth and your lives. That is best for you, if you only knew. [Quran, 61: 10-11]

In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy

All praise is for Allah, Lord of all creation, who guided us to Islam and the Sunnah. May the peace, blessings and salutations of Allah be upon our noble Messenger, Muhammad, and upon his family, his Companions and his true and sincere followers.

Dear brothers and sisters! Know that, one of the greatest means of building social harmony in Islam is through generosity, giving and spending. Allah Almighty said:

O you who have believed, spend from that which We have provided for you before there comes a Day in which there is no exchange [i.e., ransom] and no friendship and no intercession. And the disbelievers  they are the wrongdoers. [Quran, 2: 254]

And Allah Almighty said:

Those who spend their wealth [in Allahs way] by night and by day, secretly and publicly  they will have their reward with their Lord. And no fear will there be concerning them, nor will they grieve. [Quran, 2: 274]

And spending in the way of Allah Almighty is one of the biggest challenges faced by man due to his love of and concern for wealth. Allah the Most High said:

And you love wealth with immense love. [Quran, 89:20]

And the Prophet (Peace be upon him) informed about the temptation of wealth. He said:

Verily, there is a Fitnah (trial) for every nation and the trial for my Ummah (nation) is wealth. [At-Tirmizi]

And some have become servants to wealth. The Prophet (Peace be upon him) said:

Wretched is the servant of the Dinar and the servant of the Dirham [Bukhari]

A person who is stingy with what Allah has given him thinks that doing so is better for him and does not pay heed to the Almightys words. Allah Almighty said:

And let not those who [greedily] withhold what Allah has given them of His bounty ever think that it is better for them. Rather, it is worse for them. Their necks will be encircled by what they withheld on the Day of Resurrection. And to Allah belongs the heritage of the heavens and the earth. And Allah, of what you do, is [fully] Aware. [Quran, 3:180]

Respected servants of Allah! Know that wealth is a trust that people were entrusted with. Allah the Most High said:

And spend out of that in which He (Allah) has made you successive inheritors. For those who have believed among you and spent, there will be a great reward. [Quran, 57:7]

These are the ones for whom Allah blesses their wealth and multiplies their reward in the hereafter. Allah Almighty said:

Who is it that would loan Allah a goodly loan so He may multiply it for him many times over? And it is Allah who withholds and grants abundance, and to Him you will be returned. [Quran, 2: 245]

And one of the most important criteria by which a persons faith (iman) is measured is charity. The Prophet (Peace be upon him) said:

And charity is proof. [Muslim]

And it is a great transaction with Allah Almighty and striving in the sake of Allah with ones wealth. And in it is salvation for a person from a painful punishment. Allah the Most High said:

O you who have believed, shall I guide you to a transaction that will save you from a painful punishment? [It is that] you believe in Allah and His Messenger and strive in the cause of Allah with your wealth and your lives. That is best for you, if you only knew. [Quran, 61: 10-11]

And whomever wants to nurture his wealth should spend from it for the sake of Allah Almighty. Allah Almighty said:

Say, Indeed, my Lord extends provision for whom He wills of His servants and restricts [it] for him. But whatever thing you spend [in His cause]  He will compensate it; and He is the best of providers. [Quran, 34: 39]

And in the Hadith Qudsi Allah Almighty said:

Spend and I shall spend on you. [Bukhari]

And whatever a person spends for the sake of Allah Almighty is what they will find in front of them on the Day of Resurrection. And what remains in his balance will be the procession of the heirs. The Prophet (Peace be upon him) said:

For whom among you is the wealth of his heirs dearer to him than his own wealth? They said: O Messenger of Allah, there is no one among us for whom his own wealth is not dearer to him than the wealth of his heirs. The Messenger of Allah said: For indeed his wealth is what he has sent forward (through charity and sadaqah), and the wealth of his heirs is what he retained. [Bukhari]

Some people incorrectly think that they are the true owner of their wealth. Indeed, the wealth is the wealth of Allah Almighty that he directed to them in a manner that they did not expect. Allah the Most High said:

And give them (poor, needy, orphans, widows and less privilege) from the wealth of Allah which He has given you. [Quran, 24: 33]

And through charity Allah Almighty diverts the afflictions from a person. As the Prophet (Peace be upon him) said:

Good deeds ward off destructive evil. And the giving charity secretly quenches the wrath of the Lord. And joining the ties of kinship increases the lifespan. [Sahih Al-Jami]

And charity extinguishes the bad deeds. The Prophet (Peace be upon him) said:

Charity extinguishes bad deeds just as water extinguishes fire. [at-Tirmizi]

Respected brothers and sisters! Indeed spending and giving charity have etiquettes. And from among the most important etiquette is sincerity (Ikhlas) to Allah Almighty in it. For not having sincerity nullifies and reduces its reward. And some give charity for the sake of showing off, reputation, boasting or bragging. And doing this will result in the severe punishment on the Day of Resurrection. The Prophet (Peace be upon him) said:

The person with wealth will be brought (in the hereafter)he will say: I would nurture the ties of kinship and give charity. Then Allah will say to him: You have lied. And the angels will say to him: You have lied. Allah, Most High, will say: Rather, you wanted it to be said that so-and-so is so generous, and that was said. [at-Tirmizi]

And from the etiquettes of giving the obligatory charity (Zakah) is to spend it as prescribed and to not delay it. For if one has to pay zakah on his wealth or crops or trade, then he must pay it at the proper time. And it is from the pillars of Islam. And the most beloved means of getting close to Allah Almighty is to perform the obligations. So to avoids the wrath of Allah Almighty one should not delay it without an excuse.

And from the etiquettes of the obligatory charity is that he should seek out the truly needy. And not give to those whom he does not know. For the zakah is not correct unless it is given to those deserving of it. And Allah Almighty explained the different types of categories that qualify for zakah. Allah the Most High said:

Zakah expenditures are only for the poor and for the needy and for those employed for it and for bringing hearts together [for Islam] and for freeing captives [or slaves] and for those in debt and for the cause of Allah and for the [stranded] traveler  an obligation [imposed] by Allah. And Allah is Knowing and Wise. [Quran, 9:60]

And from the etiquettes is to not nullify the charity through reminders of it or injury. Allah Almighty said:

O you who have believed, do not invalidate your charities with reminders [of it] or injury as does one who spends his wealth [only] to be seen by the people and does not believe in Allah and the Last Day. [Quran, 2: 264]

Rather one should view giving charity as a favour from Allah Almighty because He the Almighty gave him the wealth and blessed him. And saved him from his inner greed. The wise believer views the needy person as the one who has favour over him because he accepted the charity from him and he gave him the chance to gain reward from Allah Almighty. And some of the righteous would say:

By Allah, I see the poor person as having favour over me. And if Allah Almighty did not make him accept my charity I would have been denied the reward from Allah Almighty.

And from the etiquette of giving charity is to view the charity as a grace of Allah upon him that The Almighty enriched him and did not make in need of taking charity. Rather He the Almighty made his hand the upper hand and made him the one who gives and not the one who takes. And it is a great grace that requires striving to be grateful through obedience to Allah Almighty and giving plenty of charity. And having compassion for the poor and needy.

And the one giving charity should conceal it as he is able to do so except if there is a clear benefit in publicising it. Allah Almighty said:

If you disclose your charitable expenditures, they are good; but if you conceal them and give them to the poor, it is better for you, and He will remove from you some of your misdeeds [thereby]. And Allah, of what you do, is [fully] Aware. [Quran, 2: 271]

And the Prophet (Peace be upon him) informed that among the seven people whom Allah, the Mighty and Sublime, will shade with His shade on the Day of Resurrection, the Day when there will be no shade but His is:

A man who gives charity and conceals it, so that his left hand does not know what his right hand is doing. [Bukhari and Muslim]

And from the etiquettes is that the charity should be from good earnings, that is from lawfully earned wealth. As this is a reason for its acceptance and multiplying its reward. Just as the Prophet (Peace be upon him) said:

No one gives charity from good sources  for Allah does not accept anything but that which is good  but the Most Merciful (Allah) takes it in His right hand, even if it is a date, and it flourishes in the Hand of the Most Merciful until it becomes bigger than a mountain and he tends it as anyone of you would tend to his colt (i.e., young pony) or his young (weaned) camel. [Muslim]

And from the etiquettes of charity is to spend the best of wealth in charity and not put forth the low quality food or the corrupt wealth. Allah Almighty said:

O you who have believed, spend from the good things which you have earned and from that which We have produced for you from the earth. And do not aim toward the defective therefrom, spending [from that] while you would not take it [yourself] except with closed eyes. [Quran, 2: 267]

And a person has a greater reward from Allah Almighty if he gives charity with something that he loves from wealth, food or clothing. Allah Almighty said:

Never will you attain the good [reward] until you spend [in the way of Allah] from that which you love. [Quran, 3: 92]

Respected servants of Allah! And from the etiquettes of charity is to give priority to relatives if they are in need and they do not have anyone to help them. For their right is greater than that of others. The Prophet (Peace be upon him) said:

Charity given to the needy is (counted as) charity, and if it is given to relatives it is (counted as) two: charity and nurturing (the ties of kinship). [at-Tirmizi and an-Nasai]

And the higher the degree of kinship, the greater the reward for the giver of charity.

And from the etiquettes of charity is to not take it back. For it is not permissible to take it back from the one it was given to. The Prophet (Peace be upon him) said:

The likeness of the one who gives charity then takes it back is that of a dog who vomits then goes back and eats its vomit. [Ibn Majah]

And from the etiquette of charity is that it is given in a state of health, wellbeing, youth and being in need and fearing poverty. Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that:

A man came to the Prophet and said: O Messenger of Allah, what kind of charity brings the greatest reward? He said: To give in charity when you are healthy and feeling miserly, and fearing poverty and hoping for a long life. Do not wait until the (death rattle) reaches the throat and then say: This is for so and so, and it nearly became the property of so and so (the heirs). [Bukhari and Muslim]

And from the etiquettes of giving charity is to give it with a pleasant soul and not to hate giving it. For among the characteristics of the hypocrites is that:

They do not spend except while they are unwilling. [Quran, 9: 54]

And as far as the believers, Allah Almighty praised them that their eyes welled with tears in sadness because they could not find something to spend. Allah Almighty said:

Nor [is there blame] upon those who, when they came to you for you to take them along, you said, I can find nothing upon which to carry you. They turned back while their eyes overflowed with tears out of grief that they could not find something to spend [for the cause of Allah]. [Quran, 9: 92]

I pray, may Allah make us among those who give charity happily, joyfully, plentifully and freely such that our left hand does not know about what our right hand spends. Indeed, Allah is All Hearing, Answering.

I conclude with this and send prayers of blessings and peace upon our beloved Prophet as your Lord commanded:

Indeed, Allah confers blessing upon the Prophet, and His angels [ask Him to do so]. O you who have believed, ask [Allah to confer] blessing upon him and ask [Allah to grant him] peace. [Quran, 33: 56]

O Allah, guide us with those whom You have guided, grant us well-being among those You have granted well-being, be an ally to us along with those whom You are an ally to, and bless what You have bestowed upon us, and save us from the evil of what You have decreed. For verily You decree and none can decree over You. He whom You support can never be humiliated. Glory is to You, our Lord, You are Blessed and Exalted.

O Allah, We ask You for all that is good, in this world and in the Hereafter, what we know and what we do not know.

O Allah, we seek refuge with You from all evil, in this world and in the Hereafter, what we know and what we do not know.

O Allah, we ask You for the good that Your servant and Prophet has asked You for, and we seek refuge with You from the evil from which Your servant and Prophet sought refuge.

O Allah, we ask You for Paradise and for that which brings one closer to it, in word and deed, and we seek refuge in You from Hell and from that which brings one closer to it, in word and deed. And we ask You to make every decree that You decree concerning us good.

Dear servants of Allah! Indeed, Allah orders justice and good conduct and giving to relatives and forbids immorality and bad conduct and oppression. He admonishes you that perhaps you will be reminded.

Remember Allah, the Great  He will remember you. Thank Him for His favours  He will increase you therein. And seek forgiveness from Him  He will forgive you. And be conscious of Him  He will provide you a way out of difficult matters. And, establish the prayer.

All praises and thanks are due to Allah alone, Lord of the worlds. May the peace, blessings and salutations of Allah be upon our noble Messenger, Muhammad, and upon his family, his Companions and his true and sincere followers.

Murtadha Muhammad Gusau is the Chief Imam of Nagazi-Uvete Jumuah and the late Alhaji Abdur-Rahman Okenes Mosques, Okene, Kogi State, Nigeria. He can be reached via: gusauimam@gmail.com or +2348038289761.

This Jumuah Khutbah (Friday sermon) was prepared for delivery today, Friday, Dhul-Hijjah 16, 1443 AH (July 15, 2022).
Nigeria must now identify middle grounds and compromises. The features that bind must be promoted and made stronger and more rewarding than the features that divide. Winning ethnically motivated political points must be made to seem less attractive alternatives to genuinely all-inclusive projects. If Nigeria must reinvent itself into a nation with a future, the elite must pledge themselves and commit to a common national destiny in which the hegemonic interests of ones ethnic group are not above those of the nation and the other groups.

A Failing Democracy?

Democracy failed early in Nigeria. The first elected civilian administration lasted barely six tumultuous years; it led to two military coups and a civil war that claimed over a million lives. The second attempt lasted only four years of wholesale and high-end corruption; it was overthrown by a vicious dictatorship. In 1993, the third elected government never took off. Failures of elected democratic governments gave the military needed excuses to intervene in governance, again and again  a revolving door for a succession of military rulers and dictators until 1999.

In the journey to nationhood, any effort to analyse how far and how fair the Nigerian state has travelled is likely to be fraught with images of a much-troubled post-colonial nation-state now threatened by a complete failure of the democratic experiment. Todays Nigeria seems perpetually at war with itself, an epitome of unending adversarial contestations among its component sub-nationalities. Religious and ethnic militias are driving the political contests between the politics of identity and citizenship, according to Gore and Pratten. Virtually all major ethnic groups now claim to have been disenfranchised; they speak of oppression, exclusion, or marginalisation.

Nigeria has become an open country for local and foreign terrorists, ethnic militias and vigilantes, and free-base bandits. In Zamfara State alone, one researcher from the University of Sokoto identified over 80 bandit groups roaming about. Killings, kidnapping for ransom and other atrocities are rampart daily occurrences, given much oxygen to continuous and bloody social unrest in all parts of the country. As a result, many small and large ethnic groups now openly invoke the spectre of separatism.

Everyone feels excluded. Segun Joshua, a political scientist, perhaps best expressed the feeling of discontent by virtually all ethnic groups in the nation:

The Ogonis felt neglected, the oil producing states felt cheated, the northern minorities felt left out, the West felt robbed, the core North felt they only held the titles but real power has been elsewhere, the East has always felt oppressed and marginalized.

Question: What makes a person feel a sense of belonging? What earns a nation the loyalty of its citizens?

According to sociologist Nira Yuval-Davis, belonging is central to how the citizens of a nation identify and define themselves. It is about emotional attachment, about feeling at home and, it is about feeling safe. Self or group identity that emanates from a sense of belonging is at the heart of the concept of nationhood. A critical sign of a politically distressed state is the obvious display of battle zone antagonism in which the opposition is an enemy to be annihilated.

What can be deduced from this analysis is that while the media may have done a lot in defending the nation against colonialism and militarism, not enough has been done about building an across-ethnic-national cohesion. The press may have fought against excessive state control, but it has not entirely been freed from the control and manipulations of its elite owners, who surreptitiously use the media to perpetuate ethnic rivalry and division.

Toxic and Divisive Media Conversations

Over half a century after independence, there is no agreement among Nigerians about a most basic concept of governance  federalism; or the elements that informs the Nigerian version, if such exists. All over the media, there are toxic and divisive conversations about nearly everything. There is a general mistrust and suspicion of ethnicity. Yet, there is room for optimism, for deep down most Nigerians desire a fairer, more equitable nation. After all has been said, democracy, however defined or interpreted, is an ideal that rests on the tripod of equality, fairness, and consensus, the same tripod that makes a citizen loyal and feel a sense of belonging to a nation  values that have only been selectively fostered by the press, when and if they serve an ulterior agenda.

What can be deduced from this analysis is that while the media may have done a lot in defending the nation against colonialism and militarism, not enough has been done about building an across-ethnic-national cohesion. The press may have fought against excessive state control, but it has not entirely been freed from the control and manipulations of its elite owners, who surreptitiously use the media to perpetuate ethnic rivalry and division. The press may have proved independent of military captivity, but it has also become a captive of sectional loyalties and of business moguls. Our media have not taken advantage of many opportunities to push the boundaries of independence, when there was room to do so. We have not provided leadership for the nation to engage in the articulation of domesticated ideology. We have failed to invite the nation into a dialogue with itself in a non-partisan, agonistic forum.

The Media: A Forum to Re-imagine the Post-Colonial Nation-state

The giving and receiving of nation-nurturing information is the oxygen of modern democracies, where contentions in politics are not unexpected or inexplicable. According to Professor Larry Diamond, the stability of a democracy depends on its capacity to resolve crises and conflicts effectively. This approach calls for a new and complete orientation on the part of both the media and their elite owners.

Of all the functions of the media in a democracy, the forum function is, perhaps, the most dominant, though mostly unacknowledged. If used responsibly, this function acts as a key guarantor of success. Kwame Karikari credits Robert Hutchins, author of the 1947 Hutchins Commission Report, with a list of five key roles for the press in a modern liberal democracy:

First, the press must be truthful. It must give a comprehensive and intelligent account of the days events in a context which gives them meaning.

Second, the press must serve as a forum for the exchange of comments and criticism.

Third, the press must present itself as a means of projecting the opinions and attitudes of all the groups in society to each other.

Fourth, the press must make available to its reading public, a method of presenting and clarifying the goals and values of the society; and,

Fifth, the press must devise a way of reaching every member of the society with current information, thought, and feeling which the press supplies.

According to Adebanwi, the narratives in the press are critical, even fundamental and indispensable. The indispensability of media narratives is even more reason its forum function should be taken seriously by journalists themselves and academics, equally. Tom Rosenstiel and Bill Kovach tell us that constructive forum function of the press provides an enabling and ennobling environment for democracy to thrive

In true democracies, communication and other forms of information exchange give every segment of society equal opportunity to speak and be heard. This, in turn, creates a feeling of belonging, and a sense of common identity, which make fraternal relationships possible. These are how a community dialogues with itself, defines the self, and maintains the defined identity. As such, the role of the media in mobilising to unite ethnic fragments to build and shape a nation, imagined or not, becomes almost indispensable to the creation, nurturing and survival of that democratic community.

According to Adebanwi, the narratives in the press are critical, even fundamental and indispensable. The indispensability of media narratives is even more reason its forum function should be taken seriously by journalists themselves and academics, equally. Tom Rosenstiel and Bill Kovach tell us that constructive forum function of the press provides an enabling and ennobling environment for democracy to thrive, especially in a large, diverse country like Nigeria. When measured against Hutchinsons forum function, the Nigerian press may have been promoting what they have called the argument culture, which turns politics into an antagonistic, acrimonious, and divisive engagement.

Conclusion

According to Mouffe, the aim of democratic politics is to construct the them in such a way that it is no longer perceived as an enemy to be destroyed. In order for an inclusive nation-state, where all groups feel they belong, to emerge, the elites need to reconcile themselves to the fact that all voices, not sanctioned homogeneous narratives emanating from one source, need to be heard. What this suggests is that the media should champion inclusive and integrative national discourses in which all sub-groups can feel a sense of belonging, without necessarily losing touch with the nations ethnic centres.

Nigeria must now identify middle grounds and compromises. The features that bind must be promoted and made stronger and more rewarding than the features that divide. Winning ethnically motivated political points must be made to seem less attractive alternatives to genuinely all-inclusive projects. If Nigeria must reinvent itself into a nation with a future, the elite must pledge themselves and commit to a common national destiny in which the hegemonic interests of ones ethnic group are not above those of the nation and the other groups. The media must lead this charge!

Richard Ikiebe trained at the Nigerian Institute of Journalism and worked at the Daily Times and Newswatch before serving as media and communication policy adviser under two military administrations. He is the chairman of the Board of Businessday and an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Pan-Atlantic University, Ibeju Lekki, Lagos.
Afraid of what might happen at the expiration of the ultimatum on Wednesday, July 13, the president, who had run to a naval ship when his house was burnt four days earlier, headed to the airport where an AN32 Air Force troop transport plane smuggled him, his First Lady, Loma, and two bodyguards into exile in Male, the capital of the Maldives.

Tidal waves of humanity are sweeping through Sri Lanka. The Tsunami of masses is sweeping away everything in its path. Public buildings, including the Presidency and Prime Ministers, have been submerged or burnt.

The long-time politicians who, for decades, have manipulated the masses using all sorts of divides, especially ethnicity, are begging the people for a respite and prostrating before the opposition and the protesters to join in appointing a new government that would be acceptable to the streets.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, even before fleeing, had been rendered homeless as protesters had, on Saturday, taken over his house, as they did that of the now lame-duck Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

President Rajapaksa, who had deluded himself that he was a popular leader and war hero, was a pathetic figure as he sought to flee the country, like an armed robber desperate to flee a crime scene.

On Monday, the president was prevented, at least twice, by immigration and other patriots from boarding an aircraft, because he refused to join a public immigration queue at the Bandaranaike International Airport.

The next day, protest organiser, Father Jeevantha Peiris, gave the president and his government a 24-hour ultimatum to relinquish power: We want to caution President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Prime Minister and this entire government that 13th is the last day for you to be in power.

Hundreds of protesters are already approaching Colombo this very moment. If by tomorrow such change does not materialise, the peoples struggle that led to this revolution will again be proved, shown through protests, stringent action and people power.

Afraid of what might happen at the expiration of the ultimatum on Wednesday, July 13, the president, who had run to a naval ship when his house was burnt four days earlier, headed to the airport where an AN32 Air Force troop transport plane smuggled him, his First Lady, Loma, and two bodyguards into exile in Male, the capital of the Maldives. But the Maldivian air traffic control refused the aircraft permission to land until the speaker of the Maldivian parliament and former President Mohamed Nasheed, intervened.

The trigger for the protests was Rajapaksa who, with his brothers, had been in power for two decades, running the country down. With massive corruption, mismanagement and the burying of Sri Lanka in debts, the country went bankrupt. The prices of basic needs, including food, fuel and medicines, were out of the reach of many.

But the Maldivians, seeing President Rajapaksa as a leper, immediately protested his presence, accusing their government of colluding with a rogue president to escape justice. Soon, the fleeing president headed for Singapore.

Many Sri Lankans were unhappy the president had fled, preferring he faced justice for ruining the country. A protester, G.P. Nimal, summarised the general feelings: We dont like it. We want to keep him. We want our money back! And we want to put all the Rajapaksas in an open prison where they can do farm work.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, who was left to carry the can, was announced by parliament as acting president. With that announcement, the masses overran his office.

Wickremesinghe, under the illusion that as acting president and prime minister, he had some powers, announced a curfew and state of emergency. When he realised he had made those pronouncements in vain, he quickly withdrew them and asked for a new inclusive leadership in the country. In a show of power, protesters went to the state broadcaster, Sri Lanka Rupavahini, and demanded that news from the government should no longer be broadcast. The station complied by running only cultural programmes.

With dual power in the country, just as President Rajapaksa had begged to flee the country, so also is Wickremesinghe begging to be relieved of the two highest positions.

The trigger for the protests was Rajapaksa who, with his brothers, had been in power for two decades, running the country down. With massive corruption, mismanagement and the burying of Sri Lanka in debts, the country went bankrupt. The prices of basic needs, including food, fuel and medicines, were out of the reach of many. These were made worse by frequent power cuts and a political leadership that seemed to have gone deaf.

The first time I heard about Sri Lanka was in my primary school civics class in 1972/73, when we were taught about heads of state in the world and had to memorise a name I found tough: Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the first female prime minister in the world. The country was then known as Ceylon. She was first prime minister in 1960, then from 1970-77 and then when her daughter, Chandrika Kumaratunga, was president, she was elected a third time as prime minister from 1994 to 2000.

The situation today remains unclear, as the Sri Lankan ruling class, afraid of losing power, has appointed a committee of senior Armed Forces commanders, headed by the Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva, to restore law and order across the nation. This, in plain terms, may be an invitation for a military coup which would preserve privileges and maintain the status quo.

The first time I met Sri Lankans was in 1986, during my first foreign trip. As I passed through immigration at the Madrid Airport, Spain, I saw a group of people assembled and under watch. You could see fear in some of their eyes and apprehension written on their faces. I enquired and was told they were Tamils from Sri Lanka, seeking refuge from a bloody war in their country. The war, which began in July 1983, was one in which prisoners were not taken as the majority Sinhalese tried to pulverise the minority Tamils.

Painfully, as the war was coming to a close in 2009, with the Tamils clearly defeated, the victorious Sinhalese would not accept a ceasefire as they moved to execute what amounted to a genocide. The Sri Lankan leader who led that needless butchery of the defeated Tamils was Mahinda Rajapaksa, whose brother, the now fleeing President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was then defence minister.

Another of the Rajapaksa brothers, Basil, a former finance minister has also fled Sri Lanka and is said to be heading to the United States.

The situation today remains unclear, as the Sri Lankan ruling class, afraid of losing power, has appointed a committee of senior Armed Forces commanders, headed by the Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva, to restore law and order across the nation. This, in plain terms, may be an invitation for a military coup which would preserve privileges and maintain the status quo.

This type of scenario played out in Sudan when a similar civil uprising forced President Omar al-Bashir out of power in 2019 and a cunning military, pretending to be sharing power with the protesters, turned round to massacre them on the streets.

There was the case of the peoples power in the Philippines, which on February 25, 1986 forced President Ferdinard Marcus to flee. He was not just a bloody dictator who killed at will, he also stole over $10 billion from the countrys treasury. Although the late Marcus family, led by his widow, Imelda, has not stopped looting the countrys economy, their son, Marcos Jnr was elected president in May, that is 36 years after his parents fled the country.

So, hunger, anger and protests are not enough to make sustainable change; the masses with a peoples programme would need to seize power and evolve an alternative system.

Owei Lakemfa, a former secretary general of African workers, is a human rights activist, journalist and author.
Today, the entire world is mourning the loss of a far-sighted man whose reach was way beyond his grasp and who left an indelible footprint in the sands of time. It is our hope that when the time for reckoning comes, the State should look beyond the deranged soul that pulled the trigger on July 8. May we also have the courage to address the monumental fraud perpetuated in the name of Christianity by charlatans

On May 1, 1954, an eccentric South Korean by the name, Sun-Myung Moon, founded a religious group he called the Unification Church. Although his teachings were controversial and some would label the group a cult, it soon gained followership in South Korea, Japan and many other Asian countries. In fact, by the late 50s into the early 60s, the Church had established branches in not just Asia, but most of Europe and many cities across the United States. By a weird twist of fate, however, Japan lost her longest serving prime minister in the hands of a man who bore a king-size grudge against Mr Moons church. But we will come back to that a little later.

In the old city of Nara, Japans most influential former prime minister made a campaign stop to bolster the chances of his fellow partymen in the upcoming election to the nations upper house. The Liberal Democratic Party needed a big win to be able to push through some major legislative agenda. And who could do it better than its biggest star?

Mid-speech, Shinzo Abe collapsed on his face and was seen bleeding in the street, shot in the neck. His security detail tackled a man nearby to the ground. Abe was airlifted and quickly attended to by a team of doctors in a nearby hospital. But less than six hours later, Abe, the longest-serving leader in Japans postwar history, was dead at age 67.

The story of Shinzo Abes rise is a textbook picture of a leader born to rule and groomed from birth. He was born into a prominent political family in Tokyo and was the grandson of a former prime minister, Nobusuke Kishi. Having graduated from Seikei University with a bachelors degree in Political Science, he then proceeded to the University of Southern California, United States, where he studied English as a visiting student.

His major entry into politics was when he won an election in 1993 into the House of Representatives. He rose quickly and became Japans youngest post-war prime minister but had to resign just after a year due to challenges from ill health. When his health improved, however, he easily staged a comeback and regained his position as prime minister, which he held between 2012 to 2020. In September 2020, Abe resigned again, citing a relapse of his ulcerative colitis as the reason. At the time of his death, he had presided over a period of remarkable political stability in Japan and decisive electoral victories for his party.

Abes economic policy, later nicknamed Abenomics, sought to remake Japans ailing economy and was largely successful. He did that by embarking on bold monetary and fiscal policies, while at the same time pursuing far-reaching structural changes in the area of energy, corporate governance, the labour market and agriculture.

Prior to his assumption of office, Japan had seen an insane turnover of six prime ministers, each lasting just about a year. Through a series of administrative restructuring, Abe was able to stabilise the political institutions, allowing Japanese leaders to exercise effective leadership.

He was also successful politically, quite unlike his predecessors who struggled to govern Japan and were hampered by internecine struggles and divided governments. Prior to his assumption of office, Japan had seen an insane turnover of six prime ministers, each lasting just about a year. Through a series of administrative restructuring, Abe was able to stabilise the political institutions, allowing Japanese leaders to exercise effective leadership.

Throughout his time, he consistently espoused a vision of the Pacific region that allowed democracy to thrive. Against Chinas wishes, he maintained that Taiwan was a crucial security interest for democratic nations in the Indo-Pacific region and rooted for collective alliance with other world democracies. On June 8, the day Abe was assassinated, Japans naval forces, alongside those of the United States, India, and Australia, were participating in the largest military exercise ever staged in the Pacific Ocean, known as RIMPAC 2022. That was his vision.

Abes negatives mostly had to do with his nationalism, which manifested in his consistent attempt to whitewash history by changing textbooks used in schools and downplaying Japans wartime brutality. Such an attitude damaged his efforts at alliance-building with China and other East Asian allies like South Korea, whose citizens were among the victims of Japanese atrocities.

Even though he failed in his bid due to lukewarm public support, one of the biggest legacies of the former Prime Minister Abe was his effort to change the pacifist constitution that the United States imposed on Japan after World War II. His main goal was to make Japan comfortable again with using military force. With the era of Pax-Americana rapidly winding down and the United States becoming less and less assertive, Abe believed that the only way to fill the void and put despots like Putin in check was to build a heavily militarised democratic alliance.

In the face of a belligerent North Korea and a China with expanding influence, Abe believed that pacifism is self-defeatist. Bullies are only dissuaded by the threat of counter-force and not an appeal to good conscience. Islamic terrorists in Nigeria and the world over can attest to the fact that pacifism is antithetical to the realities of todays world

All around the world, Christian churches are constant targets of brutal attack by Islamic insurgents. Only last month, terrorists wielding AK-47 rifles and improvised explosives devices attacked the congregation at St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, during a mass on Pentecost Sunday. More than 40 human beings were massacred in cold blood, while countless others sustained life-threatening injuries. The very predictable response from the church and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) each time these things happen is to ask for more prayers. Prayers without taking concrete steps to protect oneself is cowardly and lame.

Tetsuya Yamagami, the 41-year-old man who murdered Prime Minister Abe, alleged that the Unification Church forced his mother to make a large donation, after which the family went bankrupt and life became unbearable. Abes sin was in sending video messages to organisations related to the Church, which the assassin interpreted to mean that the former prime minister was in cahoots with the church and helping it spread in Japan.

Christian pacifism tends to propagate the doctrine that any form of violence is incompatible with the Christian faith. They buttress their point by quoting certain passages from the scripture, especially where Jesus warned against An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. Instead, he encouraged his followers to turn the cheek, should someone strike them on the right cheek.

Like pacifists, we must be peace-loving people and should never take delight in going to war. But unlike pacifists, we argue that war is sometimes morally justified and even necessary. Didnt the Bible even admonish that, There is an occasion for everythinga time for war and a time for peace (Ecclesiastes 3:1,8)? With the frequency of attacks ratcheting up every year, Nigerian Christians should consider, at the very least, having armed guards at places of worship. Defending ones life does not suggest a call for war and its certainly unChristian not to do ones part and expect God to come to our defence.

Back to the Unification Church.

The beliefs of the Unification Church hinge on the restoration of humankind through union. The church is world-famous for its mass weddings, in which thousands of couples are married at the same time, and in some cases, the brides and grooms meet each other for the first time on their wedding day. Moon and his wife were believed by Unificationists to have led sinless lives, and that their nine children were the first human beings without the burden of the original sin.

In 1978, a British tabloid, Daily Mail, published an article against the church with the headline: The Church That Breaks Up Families. The Unification Church has been accused of brainwashing its members to part with large sums of money in donations. In 1987, about 300 lawyers in Japan formed an association called the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales, following complaints alleging that the Unification Church had forced them to make unreasonably large donations

Tetsuya Yamagami, the 41-year-old man who murdered Prime Minister Abe, alleged that the Unification Church forced his mother to make a large donation, after which the family went bankrupt and life became unbearable. Abes sin was in sending video messages to organisations related to the Church, which the assassin interpreted to mean that the former prime minister was in cahoots with the church and helping it spread in Japan. He didnt deserve to die in the hands of this lunatic who owned up to his crime and is already in custody.

Today, the entire world is mourning the loss of a far-sighted man whose reach was way beyond his grasp and who left an indelible footprint in the sands of time. It is our hope that when the time for reckoning comes, the State should look beyond the deranged soul that pulled the trigger on July 8. May we also have the courage to address the monumental fraud perpetuated in the name of Christianity by charlatans, who mount the pulpit all across the world.

Till then, goodnight great one. Fare-thee-well Shinzo Abe.

Osmund Agbo, a public affairs analyst is the coordinator of African Center for Transparency and Convener of Save Nigeria Project. Email: Eagleosmund@yahoo.com
Election security, deployment of logistics and voter inducement are some of the concerns that Yiaga Africa, an election observer group, has raised ahead of Saturdays governorship poll.

This was contained in a statement by the Executive Director, Samson Itodo.

While Yiaga commended the electoral umpire, INEC, for making efforts to relocate polling units from palaces, private residents, and other controversial locations, it queried the inadequate information in the public about the relocation of some voters to new polling units  which could potentially disenfranchise voters who may encounter difficulty in locating their polling units on election day.

Yiaga also said that despite the creation of additional polling units, there are oversized units with registered voters above the threshold of 750 registered voters per polling unit.

There are about 246 polling units in the state with over 1000 registered voters, eight polling units with over 2000 registered voters, and one polling unit with over 3,000 registered voters.

This, the group said, may pose a logistical challenge on election day and urged INEC to revisit the expansion of voter access to polling units in order to achieve the desired outcome of the creation of new polling units.

With the tense atmosphere in the state and reports of physical attacks, Yiaga is also worried that the increasing activities of political thugs and cultists in the state could threaten the safety of personnel, materials, and citizens on election day.

Security agencies have also been urged to deploy personnel for the election with the utmost respect for neutrality, transparency, professionalism, competence, and accountability.

Yiaga also hoped that the states local security outfit, Amotekun, will have no role since its not a member of the Inter-Agency Committee on Election Security (ICCES).

On vote trading, the group noted that the legitimacy of the political mandate is steadily declining due to the menace of vote merchandising during elections.

Thus, the social contract between citizens and government is becoming transactional rather than a relationship based on trust, accountability, and demand for good governance. Vote buying in no small way reduces the quality of leadership and, by extension, affects citizens participation in the electoral process due to little or no dividends of democracy.

It also faulted security agencies like the police for failing to arrest political party agents that engaged in vote buying in the Ekiti elections. And in cases where arrests were made, there was limited information on consequential actions taken by the police to prosecute these offenders, it said.

This seeming laxity by the Nigerian Police may embolden party agents to engage in brazen violation of electoral laws regarding voter inducement or vote buying on election day.

While Yiaga noted the marked improvement in the deployment of electoral materials and personnel in the Ekiti election which led to the relatively early commencement of polls, it said Osun State, with a substantially larger number of registered voters and polling units, might pose a bigger challenge to INEC if the logistics for the election are not managed properly.

Already parties and their candidates have rounded off campaigns as voters prepare to troop out to elect their governor for the next four years, beginning from November when the tenure of the incumbent, Isiaka Oyetola, will end.

Mr Oyetola is seeking re-election under his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Ademola Adeleke, a former senator and younger brother of the states first governor, Isiaka Adeleke, is contesting under the platform of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Three other candidates in the race are Akin Ogunbiyi of the Accord Party; Goke Omigbodun of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Lasun Yusuf, who is flying the flag of the Labour Party (LP).

Both INEC and relevant security agencies have not only deployed personnel to the state but have also assured of a free and fair exercise.
The award-winning AI platform enhances its global presence in cooperation with MoRA

JAKARTA, Indonesia, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of its commitment to foster digital education and in line with the UAE's efforts to promote smart transformation in education and knowledge sectors, Alef Education , a leading global education technology provider that empowers 21st-century learning, has partnered with Indonesia's Ministry of Religious Affairs (MoRA), for the extension of its free pilot program, allowing 1.5 million learners to benefit from its award-winning digital learning platform.

From Top Left: Prof. Dr. H. MOH. ISOM, M.Ag - Director of Curriculum, Infrastructure, Institution, and Student Affairs for Madrasah, Ministry of Religious Affairs; Geoffrey Alphonso, CEO, Alef Education; Dr. Aishah Al Yammahi - Board Advisor, Alef Education; Papay Supriatna, SS., M.Pd - Deputy Director of Institutional Cooperation, Directorate of Curriculum, Infrastructure, Institution, and Student Affairs for Madrasah, Ministry of Religious Affairs. (PRNewsfoto/Alef Education)

Alef Education and the Ministry signed an agreement in November 2020 to transform the education sector in Indonesia using advanced education technologies that deliver personalised learning experiences for students and improve learning outcomes. From July 2021, as many as 500,000 grade seven math students had access to the platform.

Based on the positive feedback from both teachers and students, the platform has added Arabic language as a new subject and broadened its content, covering grades 7 to 12, instead of just the seventh class. The platform will now be made available to 1.5 million math and Arabic language learners. Alef's digital math lessons are aligned with the Indonesian curriculum standards and utilize the GASING method to support student achievement. Meanwhile, Arabic language classes are entertaining and interactive, and promote reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills.

HE H. Yaqut Cholil Qoumas, Minister of Religious Affairs, Indonesia, stated: "We thank Alef Education for their continued collaboration and for extending this pilot program to include not only math, but also Arabic language learning across 7-12 grades. The Alef Platform has proven itself as an exceptional tool that can support Indonesian schools as they shift towards modern teaching and learning methods - whether online, face-to-face, or hybrid. Ultimately, we hope that tools like the Alef Platform will support our objective to improve the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) score and numeric literacy for madrasah students under MoRA."

Geoffrey Alphonso, CEO, Alef Education, said: "At Alef Education, we are committed to transforming the global education industry, and our partnership with Indonesia has proven highly successful. We are excited to further extend our services to Indonesia through our ongoing partnership with the Ministry of Religious Affairs and look forward to millions of Indonesian students learning through our fun and engaging platform. We are also delighted to be announcing the Alef Awards in Indonesia where teachers and students who demonstrate exemplary teaching and learning practices will be eligible for prestigious prizes to reward their hard work and dedication."

Alef Education's flagship product, the Alef Platform, also supports teachers with delivering engaging, gamified content that aligns specifically to their curriculum, assisting in grading and student management. The Platform generates real-time data to relay relevant and timely feedback to students and teachers that help enable this transformative process and has been a critical part of the Platform's success. Its centralized dashboard leverages Machine Learning and Big Data to provide actionable data, and intelligent and accurate recommendations to Ministries to enable the improvement of learning outcomes amongst students. Since its inception, Alef Education has impacted the lives of more than 670,000 students from over 4,000 schools in the UAE, Indonesia, and the US, and now an additional 1,500,000 students across Indonesia.

About Alef Education

Alef Education is a leading global education technology company that is at the forefront of using artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to create personalised learning experiences that transform the way the world is educated.

Alef Education, with its three products, the Alef Platform, Abjadiyat, and Arabits, has a growing presence in key education markets worldwide, such as the United Arab Emirates, United States of America, Indonesia, Egypt, and the Netherlands. The award-winning Alef Platform provides AI-powered learning and teaching solutions that leverage real-time data to drive improvements across the education ecosystem. Abjadiyat is an Arabic language learning platform that offers engaging and interactive content from kindergarten to grade 4. Arabits is a complete Arabic language learning system for non-native speakers that helps students of all ages learn, practice, and improve their Arabic-language skills, powered by AI.

For more information, visit www.alefeducation.com or https://alef.co.id/ .

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1859373/Alef_Education.jpg

SOURCE Alef Education
For the first time, consumers will be able to connect in real-time around individual products whether they are shopping online or in physical stores

SCROBLE has launched the "PRODUCT LIVE CHAT" feature within its ongoing open beta programme in Luxembourg as part of its mission to provide shoppers with an immersive and connected in-store product experience

LUXEMBOURG, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Next-gen product experience app SCROBLE today launched its new PRODUCT LIVE CHAT feature, allowing in-store consumers and brands to connect in real-time around individual products. It is a world-first feature for the fashion industry, and provides shoppers with unprecedented access to instant product information and peer-to-peer feedback whether they are shopping online or in physical stores.

For brands, it is the final part of the jigsaw that will bring them complete, 360-degree insight into the customer journey across both digital and 'real world' shopping experiences.

The new 'Phygital' phenomenon - that is the concept of using technology to bridge the digital world and the physical world - is enabling brands to gather valuable intelligence in real-time thanks to SCROBLE's unique platform.

Consumers have always valued the physical aspects of shopping: being able to see, touch, and try on individual fashion items. Now they can simply scan a QR code to instantly access product information, interact with the brand and other users, save and share product information and even pair products with other items to make bespoke 'sets'.

SCROBLE has just launched its open beta version in Luxembourg, working and experimenting with more than 50 fashion brands, and demonstrating fast growth in a small market. The new PRODUCT LIVE CHAT feature launched today will allow stakeholders taking part in the project to communicate in real-time about individual products. For consumers, this adds a sense of community to their shopping experience, while the information delivered to retailers is completely anonymised ensuring customers' personal data is protected.

"I believe in a future of connected and immersive product experiences where only sales-oriented retail will not exist anymore. That's why with our app, the sale is never the primary goal," says SCROBLE Founder and CEO, Anna Salewski. "It is about making shopping more joyful and efficient by connecting products, brands and users instantly, creating a new community where shoppers can learn more about the items they are interested in. For brands, the data generated can be used to better understand demand and drive more sustainable practices by precisely predicting trends. SCROBLE is a technology that the whole fashion ecosystem can embrace."

SCROBLE is due to be launched to European markets in 2022, with North America to follow. Onboarding is now available for a limited batch of brands, who can sign up for access to the SCROBLE platform, and begin digitizing their products in preparation for launch in their market.

Visit https://platform.scroble.com/register-company to sign up now!

For further information, visit https://www.scroble.com/ or contact: sales@scroble.com

About SCROBLE

SCROBLE re-invents the retail environment by creating a dynamic, data-driven ecosystem, delivering a seamless consumer journey that bridges the gap between online and in-store shopping. With the world's first user-centric data and retail platform, SCROBLE creates a mobile 'phygital' shopping experience.

SOURCE SCROBLE S.A.
Increase in investments for sporting the green field airport operations and increase in adoption of advanced technologies including self-services fuel the growth of the global airport operations market.

PORTLAND, Ore., July 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Airport Operations Market by Airport Class (Class A, Class B, Class C, Class D), by Operation (Airside Operations, Landside Operations, Financial Operation, Information Management), by Platform (Hardware, Software, Service), by Airport Category (Commercial Service Airports, Cargo Service Airports, Reliever Airports, General Aviation Airports): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2031." According to the report, the global airport operations industry generated $7.7 billion in 2021, and is expected to reach $13.8 billion by 2031, witnessing a CAGR of 6.3% from 2022 to 2031.

Drivers and Opportunities

Rise in investments to support brown filed and green field airport operations, increase in passenger traffic, and surge in adoption of new technologies that support automation & self-services drive the growth of the global airport operations market. However, the threats of cyber-attacks and data breach restrain the market growth. On the other hand, the adoption of total airport management (TAM) systems to handle the air traffic creates new opportunities in the coming years.

Download Report (360 Pages PDF with Insights, Charts, Tables, Figures) at https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/9415

Covid-19 Scenario

Owing to ban on domestic and international travel during the initial stages of the pandemic, many airport operations were halted and the overall revenue of the global market was impacted.

The lockdown implementation and ban on air travel led to nearly 22.9% decline in the global air traffic during the initial period.

The airport operations began slowly with beginning of vaccinations across the world. The operations at airport are expected to get back on track post-pandemic.

Request for Customization at https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-for-customization/9415

The hardware segment to maintain its leadership status during the forecast period

Based on platform, the hardware segment contributed to the highest market share in 2021, contributing to more than two-fifths of the global airport operations market, and is expected to maintain its leadership status during the forecast period. This is due to rapid technological advancements and adoption of touchless and self-operating systems. However, the software segment is projected to witness the largest CAGR of 6.8% from 2022 to 2031, owing to the integration of technologies such as AI, ML, and cloud operations along with regular updates of the software.

The landside operations segment to maintain its lead position during the forecast period

Based on operation, the landside operations segment held the highest market share in 2021, accounting for more than one-third of the global airport operations market, and is expected to maintain its lead position during the forecast period. Moreover, this segment is projected to manifest the fastest CAGR of 7.0% from 2022 to 2031. This is due to rise in demand to improve passenger experience and support automated operations. The research also analyzes the segments including airside operations, financial operation, and information management.

Interested to Procure the Data with Actionable Strategy & Insights? Inquire here at https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/9415

Asia-Pacific to maintain its dominance in terms of revenue by 2031

Based on region, Asia-Pacific contributed to the highest market share in terms of revenue in 2021, accounting for around two-fifths of the global airport operations market, and is expected to maintain its dominance in terms of revenue by 2031. Moreover, this segment is projected to manifest the fastest CAGR of 6.8% during the forecast period. This is attributed to surge in spending, living standards, and domestic travel in this area. The research also analyzes regions including North America, Europe, and LAMEA.

Leading Market Players

Cisco Systems, Inc.

Honeywell International Inc.

IBM

Indra

QinetiQ

Raytheon Technologies Corporation

Siemens

SITA

Teledyne Technologies Incorporated

Thales

Daifuku Co., Ltd.

Damarel Systems International Ltd.

Amadeus IT Group

Inform GmbH

Aena

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

ES Mobility

Buy Complete Report Now! https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/checkout-final/b65d0abf226e89e1c2b0fb49de2e2ee6

Similar Reports We Have on Airport Industry:

Airport Information Systems Market by Airport Size (Class A, Class B, Class C, Class D), Software (Passenger Systems, Non-Passenger Systems), Function (DCS, AOCC), Operation (Airside, Terminal side), Cost (Procurement, Integration, Operation) - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2014  2030.

Airport Ground Treatment Market by technique (Sand drain method, PVD method, Vibro compaction method, Pneumatic flow mixing method, Jet grouting, Ground freezing, Sand drain method & Pneumatic flow mixing method and Other techniques) - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2017-2030.

Airport Passenger Security Market by Investment Type (New Demand and Replacement), Security Solution (Baggage Inspection Systems, Explosives Trace Detectors, Hand Held Scanners, Fire Safety & Detection System, Walk-through Metal Detectors, Full Body Scanners, Perimeter Intrusion Detection Systems, Video Management Systems, Access Control/Boarding Systems, Bar-coded Boarding Systems, and Cyber security Solutions), and End User (Commercial Airports, Seaports, and Railway Stations): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20202030.

Smart Airport 4.0 Market by End Market (Implementation and Upgrade & Services), Application (Airside, Air Traffic Maintenance, Aircraft Maintenance, Passenger Screening, Digital Video Surveillance & Management, Passenger Experience, Building Management, Intelligent Advertising and Other), System (Wearables, LPWAN & WLAN, Sensors, Tags, Platforms, NFC, RFID & Bluetooth, Wireless and Others), Size (Large, Medium and Small) and Operation (Aeronautical and Non-Aeronautical): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20202030.

Airport Baggage Handling System Market by Airport Class (Class A, Class B and Class C), Service (Self-Service and Assisted Service), Type (Conveyor and Destination Coded Vehicle), and Technology (Barcode and RFID): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2018  2030.

Airport Kiosk Market by Type (Check-in Kiosk, Automated Passport Control Kiosk, Common-Use Self Service, Bag Drop Kiosk and Others) and Component (Hardware, Software and Services): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20202030.

About Us

Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.

We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Allied Market Research CEO Pawan Kumar is instrumental in inspiring and encouraging everyone associated with the company to maintain high quality of data and help clients in every way possible to achieve success. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.

Contact:

David Correa

5933 NE Win Sivers Drive

#205, Portland, OR 97220

United States

USA/Canada (Toll Free):

+1-800-792-5285, +1-503-894-6022

UK: +44-845-528-1300

Hong Kong: +852-301-84916

India (Pune): +91-20-66346060

Fax: +1(855)550-5975

[email protected]

Web: www.alliedmarketresearc.com

Allied Market Research Blog: https://blog.alliedmarketresearch.com

Follow Us on | Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn |

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/636519/Allied_Market_Research_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Allied Market Research
Institution of Engineering and Technology scholarships will help students who have faced challenges enter the industry

LONDON, July 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bechtel has donated an additional 50,000 to the Institution of Engineering and Technology for its Launch Scholarship programme in celebration of the company's 70 years in the UK. The Launch Scholarship supports engineering students, degree apprentices, and apprentices who have faced financial challenges or personal obstacles. Bechtel's donation will support at least eleven students every year for the duration of their education. The donation adds to the 680,000 (US$970,000) that Bechtel has gifted to the IET for its Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics educational outreach over the past decade.

IET Launch Scholarships support engineering students, degree apprentices, and apprentices who have faced financial challenges or personal obstacles. IET scholarships help people like Simone who is a Degree Apprentice studying Electrical and Electronic Engineering and working at Sellafield. Read about Simone: https://bit.ly/3IEa5Og

"Bechtel has been a valued partner of the IET for almost a decade, including our founding sponsor for the FIRST LEGO League," said Sir Julian Young, IET president. "This year's additional donation will enable us to support even more young people on their academic or apprenticeship path into engineering. We thank Bechtel for its continued support of the next generation as they each pursue their dreams."

"Engineering is a fulfilling career that helps tackle some of the world's biggest challenges, including diversifying our energy supply and achieving net zero. We need people from varied backgrounds to help us find the best solutions," said John Williams, Bechtel's UK and Ireland managing director. "We hope that this support will remove some of the obstacles that talented people can face in earning the qualifications needed to join our industry."

Bechtel has supported the IET since 2013, including as a founding supporter of the FIRST LEGO League competition that enables young people between the ages of 4-16 years old to develop STEM skills through hands-on learning. Some 100,000 children have participated in the UK program with over 15,500 children participating in 2020-21 competition. Bechtel also supports FIRST programs in Australia, Chile, and the United States. Read more about FLL in the UK here.

Bechtel's 70th year in the UK coincides with Her Majesty the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, and earlier this year it celebrated the opening of a new railway named in her honor, the Elizabeth Line, through central London. The company's global infrastructure business is headquartered in the UK, from which it has directly supported projects across the UK, Ireland, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, accelerating progress, creating access and opportunity, building a path to net zero, and protecting people and our planet so that future generations thrive.

Notes to editors

IET scholarships help people like Simone who is a Degree Apprentice studying Electrical and Electronic Engineering and working at Sellafield. Read about Simone here.

About Bechtel



Bechtel is a trusted engineering, construction and project management partner to industry and government. Differentiated by the quality of our people and our relentless drive to deliver the most successful outcomes, we align our capabilities to our customers' objectives to create a lasting positive impact. Since 1898, we have helped customers complete more than 25,000 projects in 160 countries on all seven continents that have created jobs, grown economies, improved the resiliency of the world's infrastructure, increased access to energy, resources, and vital services, and made the world a safer, cleaner place.

Bechtel serves the Energy; Infrastructure; Nuclear, Security & Environmental; and Mining & Metals markets. Our services span from initial planning and investment, through start-up and operations. www.bechtel.com

About the IET

We inspire, inform and influence the global engineering community to engineer a better world.

We are a diverse home for engineering and technology intelligence throughout the world. This breadth and depth means we are uniquely placed to help the sector progress society.

We want to build the profile of engineering and technology to change outdated perceptions and tackle the skills gap. This includes encouraging more women to become engineers and growing the number of engineering apprentices.

Interview opportunities are available with our spokespeople from a range of engineering and technology disciplines including cyber-security, energy, engineering skills, innovation, manufacturing, technology, transport and diversity in engineering.

For more information, visit www.theiet.org

Media contact:

Juliet Whitcombe

C : + 44 (0) 7917 722304

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Bechtel
COVINGTON, Ky., July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Commonwealth Hotels announced today that Michael O'Malley has been appointed the general manager of the Courtyard by Marriott Columbus Dublin. Mr. O'Malley brings over 23 years of hospitality experience to his new role as general manager having previously served as the area director of operations and general manager with Sonesta International.

"We are excited to welcome Michael to the team," said Jennifer Porter, chief operations officer of Commonwealth Hotels. "We look forward to his strong leadership of the property's executive team."

Newly appointed General Manager at Courtyard Columbus Dublin

Prior to joining the Courtyard by Marriott Columbus Dublin, O'Malley served in various hospitality leadership roles. Prior to Sonesta, Michael was the general manager for the Residence Inn Lexington North in Lexington, Kentucky for nearly seven years. Prior to joining the Island Hospitality Group, O'Malley served as the hotel manager for both the Residence Inn, Springhill Suites, and Extended Stay Hotel brands overseeing the daily operations and the opening of several properties. O'Malley is a graduate of Columbus State Community College and serves as an executive board member for the Dublin Convention and Visitors Bureau.

About Commonwealth Hotels, LLC

Commonwealth Hotels, LLC was founded in 1986 and is a proven partner in providing hotel management services with superior financial results. The company has extensive experience managing premium branded full service and select service hotels. Commonwealth Hotels currently manages 61 properties with nearly 7,600 rooms. Additional information may be found at www.commonwealthhotels.com.

Contact

Barbara E. Willen

Commonwealth Hotels, LLC

[email protected]

859.392-2254

SOURCE Commonwealth Hotels, Inc.
MEXICO CITY, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Controladora Mabe, S.A. de C.V. (the "Company" or "we") announced today the expiration and final results of its previously announced offer to purchase for cash (the "Offer") any and all of its outstanding 5.600% Senior Guaranteed Notes due 2028 (the "Notes") and the related solicitation (the "Consent Solicitation") of consents (the "Consents") from the holders of Notes to certain amendments to the indenture dated October 23, 2018 (the "Indenture"), among the Company, Mabe, S.A. de C.V. and The Bank of New York Mellon, as trustee (the "Trustee"), registrar, paying agent and transfer agent, governing the Notes (the "Proposed Amendments").

The Offer and the Consent Solicitation was made on the terms and subject to the conditions set forth in the Offer to Purchase and Consent Solicitation Statement dated June 15, 2022 (as amended, the "Statement"). Capitalized terms used in this release but not otherwise defined have the meanings given to them in the Statement.

The Company hereby announces that, in accordance with information received from Global Bondholder Services Corporation (the "Tender Agent and Information Agent"), U.S.$336,210,000 aggregate principal amount of the Notes (the "Tendered Notes") were validly tendered together with the related Consents at or prior to 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on July 14, 2022 (the "Extended Consent Payment and Withdrawal Deadline"), which is equal to approximately 90.87% of the original outstanding principal amount of the Notes.

Accordingly, subject to the terms and conditions of the Offer as set forth in the Statement, the Company has accepted for purchase all Tendered Notes validly tendered together with the related Consents as of the Extended Consent Payment and Withdrawal Deadline and expects that payment for all Tendered Notes validly tendered and Consents validly delivered at or prior to the Extended Consent Payment and Withdrawal Deadline and accepted by the Company will be made on July 19, 2022 (the "Final Settlement Date"). Holders who validly tendered their Tendered Notes and validly delivered their Consents will receive the Total Consideration (which shall include the Consent Payment), which shall be equal to $1,042.50 per $1,000 principal amount of the Tendered Notes accepted for purchase by the Company on the Final Settlement Date. On the Final Settlement Date, the Company will also pay accrued and unpaid interest on the Tendered Notes from the last applicable interest payment date for the Tendered Notes up to, but excluding, the Final Settlement Date.

The Company's obligation to pay for the Tendered Notes is subject to the satisfaction or waiver of certain conditions, which are more fully described in the Statement. See "Conditions to the Offer and the Consent Solicitation" in the Statement. With respect to the New Debt Condition set forth in the Statement, on July 14, 2022 the Company entered into a U.S. dollar denominated credit facility for up to $240,000,000, with among others, certain affiliates of the Dealer Managers (the "Credit Facility"), which is expected to be fully disbursed on July 18, 2022. Once the Credit Facility has been fully disbursed, the New Debt Condition shall have been satisfied.

Furthermore, the Company hereby announces that it has obtained the Requisite Consents (as defined in the Statement) necessary to give effect to the Proposed Amendments. As a result, the Company expects that the first supplemental indenture to the Indenture (the "First Supplemental Indenture") effecting the Proposed Amendments will be executed on July 19, 2022, or promptly thereafter. The First Supplemental Indenture will become effective upon its execution and delivery by the Company, as issuer, and the Trustee, as trustee, and payment in full of the Total Consideration (which includes the Consent Payment).

Global Bondholder Services Corporation has been retained to act as tender agent and information agent for the Offer and Consent Solicitation. Copies of the Statement are available to holders of Notes from the Tender Agent and Information Agent at +1 (855) 654-2015.

BNP Paribas Securities Corp. and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. are acting as dealer managers for the Offer and solicitation agents for the Consent Solicitation. Questions regarding the Offer may be directed to BNP Paribas Securities Corp. at +1 (888) 210-4358 and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. at +1 (212) 723-6106 or +1 (800) 558-3745 (toll-free).

Disclaimer

NO ONE HAS BEEN AUTHORIZED BY THE COMPANY, THE DEALER MANAGERS AND SOLICITATION AGENTS OR THE INFORMATION AGENT TO MAKE ANY RECOMMENDATIONS AS TO WHETHER OR NOT HOLDERS SHOULD HAVE TENDERED THEIR NOTES OR DELIVERED CONSENTS IN CONNECTION WITH THE OFFER OR THE SOLICITATION.

Neither the Statement, this press release, nor any related documents have been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, nor have any such documents been filed with or reviewed by any federal or state securities commission or regulatory authority of any country. No authority has passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of the Statement, this press release, or any related documents, and it is unlawful and may be a criminal offense to make any representation to the contrary.

In addition, neither the Statement, this press release nor any related documents have been filed with or been reviewed or authorized by the Mexican National Banking and Securities Commission (Comision Nacional Bancaria y de Valores, the "CNBV"). The Company has not filed with the CNBV a request for authorization of the Offer and the Consent Solicitation. The Offer and the Consent Solicitation does not constitute a public offering in Mexico and it may not be publicly distributed in Mexico. The Offer and the Consent Solicitation may only be made available in Mexico to investors that qualify as institutional or accredited investors (inversionistas institucionales or inversionistas calificados), solely pursuant to the private offering exemption set forth in article 8 of the Mexican Securities Market Law (Ley del Mercado de Valores) and regulations thereunder. Neither the Statement, this press release nor any related documents may be publicly advertised, marketed, distributed in Mexico. Furthermore, the CNBV has not confirmed the accuracy or determined the adequacy of this Offer.

The Offer and the Consent Solicitation is being made solely on the terms and conditions set forth in the Statement as amended by this press release. Under no circumstances shall this press release constitute an offer to buy or the solicitation of an offer to sell the Notes or any other securities of the Company or any of its subsidiaries. The Offer and the Consent Solicitation is not being made to, nor will the Company accept tenders of Notes from, holders in any jurisdiction in which the Offer and the Consent Solicitation or the acceptance thereof would not be in compliance with the securities or blue sky laws of such jurisdiction.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this press release may be "forward-looking statements," which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Other than statements of historical fact, information regarding activities, events and developments that we expect or anticipate will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements based on management's estimates, assumptions and projections. Many forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "believe, "estimate" and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are predictions only and actual results could differ materially from management's expectations due to a variety of factors. The forward-looking statements that we make in this press release are based on management's current views and assumptions regarding future events and speak only as of their dates and are subject to risks such as described in the Statement. We assume no obligation to update developments of these risk factors or to announce publicly any revisions to any of the forward-looking statements that we make, or to make corrections to reflect future events or developments, except as required by the U.S. federal securities laws.

SOURCE Controladora Mabe, S.A. de C.V.
DALLAS, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As Kimberly-Clark celebrates 150 years of providing Better Care for a Better World, the Kimberly-Clark Foundation announced that it will honor this milestone anniversary by awarding three $150,000 grants to global nonprofit organizations that are working to improve the well-being of people around the world.



Since its inception in 1952, the Foundation has provided over $440 million in financial support to targeted causes that align with the company's social impact goals.

Kimberly-Clark and the Kimberly-Clark Foundation are proud to support Water.org, a nonprofit that has positively transformed more than 45 million lives around the world with access to safe water or sanitation. Credit: Water.org Kimberly-Clark and the Kimberly-Clark Foundation are proud to support Shes the First, a nonprofit that has worked with grassroots organizations to make sure girls everywhere are educated, respected and heard. Credit: Cristallne Randazzo Kimberly-Clark and the Kimberly-Clark Foundation are proud to support Shes the First, a nonprofit that has worked with grassroots organizations to make sure girls everywhere are educated, respected and heard. Credit: Esther Mbabazi

Kimberly-Clark employees selected the grant recipients via online voting from a list of nonprofit organizations that focus their work on the priority areas of the company's brands and the Kimberly-Clark Foundation. The awardees are:

Water.org has positively transformed more than 45 million lives around the world with access to safe water or sanitation;

She's the First has worked with grassroots organizations to make sure girls everywhere are educated, respected and heard; and

Project HOPE has provided nurses and midwives with the skills they need to save the lives of women and babies around the world.

"As Kimberly-Clark celebrates 150 years in business, it was incredibly powerful to partner with our 45,000 employees around the world to help us select the recipients of these global grants," said Jenny Lewis, Vice President of the Kimberly-Clark Foundation. "These grants deepen our commitment to the Foundation's priority areas and build on the momentum of our global social impact programs' continued expansion."

Kimberly-Clark's recent grant initiative contributes to the company's global ambition that aims to advance the well-being of 1 billion people in underserved communities around the globe by 2030  through programs and innovation focused on delivering essentials for a better life. In partnership with the company's trusted brands including Huggies, Kotex and Andrex, the Kimberly-Clark Foundation's recent progress toward this ambition includes:

Celebrating seven years of the 'Toilets Change Lives' program, which has improved access to safe sanitation and clean water for more than 10.7 million people across 15 countries;

Expanding Huggies' 'No Baby Unhugged' initiative into Latin America , which has reached 3.9 million children and more than 3 million caregivers across 15 countries;

Impacting 3.8 million girls since 2020 through menstrual health partnerships with Kotex and global nonprofits to help tackle period stigma and other misperceptions that hold women and girls back.

"We are thankful that Kimberly-Clark's employees chose to support Water.org's efforts to empower families with lasting access to safe water and sanitation," said Michael Mayernik, Head of Corporate Partnerships at Water.org. "This will help thousands of families in need gain access to toilets in their home, giving women and girls privacy, safety and improved health and hygiene."

"Kimberly-Clark's grant funding will provide critical support to our coalition of community-based organizations serving girls in 11 countries around the world," said Christina Martin Kenny, Director of Development at She's the First. "Like Kimberly-Clark, She's the First believes in mitigating any obstacle that keeps girls from attending school. Through our work to build a healthy and thriving ecosystem of girl-centered organizations, we are creating space for girls to choose their own futures where they can be educated, respected, and heard. We are thrilled to have the Kimberly-Clark Foundation partner with us on this important work."

"Collaborative partnerships like this one with Kimberly-Clark allow Project HOPE to meet one of the world's greatest health crises, and the company's support helps us place power in the hands of nurses and midwives to give all mothers and babies a healthy future," said Cinira Baldi, Vice President, Chief Development & Communications Officer at Project HOPE.

Overall, Kimberly-Clark Foundation-funded programs and brand partnerships have positively impacted more than 21 million people over the last seven years.



To learn more about Kimberly-Clark's global 2030 ambition and its social impact efforts, please visit https://www.kimberly-clark.com/esg/.

About the Kimberly-Clark Foundation

Established in 1952, the Kimberly-Clark Foundation is the charitable arm of Kimberly-Clark Corporation and is dedicated to supporting global causes that create lasting social change. supporting and strengthening families around the world. Together with funding from the corporation and employees, its primary focus is on social and community investments that increase access to sanitation, help women and children thrive, and empower women and girls.

About Kimberly-Clark

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB) and its trusted brands are an indispensable part of life for people in more than 175 countries. Fueled by ingenuity, creativity, and an understanding of people's most essential needs, we create products that help individuals experience more of what's important to them. Our portfolio of brands, including Huggies, Kleenex, Scott, Kotex, Cottonelle, Poise, Depend, Andrex, Pull-Ups, GoodNites, Intimus, Neve, Plenitud, Sweety, Softex, Viva and WypAll, hold the No. 1 or No. 2 share position in 80 countries. We use sustainable practices that support a healthy planet, build stronger communities, and ensure our business thrives for decades to come. To keep up with the latest news and to learn more about the company's 150-year history of innovation, visit kimberly-clark.com.

[KMB-S]

SOURCE Kimberly-Clark Corporation
Additional +80 GI Genius units to be donated for a total of 133 to 62 facilities that primarily serve communities with low screening rates or where access to the technology is not currently available

Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia is the first site to receive GI Genius modules through Medtronic's Health Equity Assistance Program

DUBLIN, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT), a global leader in healthcare technology, and the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) today announced they are expanding the Medtronic Health Equity Assistance Program for colon cancer screening in medically underserved communities across the United States, with support from Amazon Web Services's (AWS) Health Equity Initiative. The GI Genius units provided as part of the program have increased from 50 to 133 systems being placed at 62 facilities.

Medtronic GI Genius intelligent endoscopy module Medtronic GI Genius intelligent endoscopy module Colonoscopy with and without Medtronic GI Genius intelligent endoscopy module Medtronic partners with Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia to install GI Genius intelligent endoscopy modules in their endoscopy suites

Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Ga. was the first to receive its donated GI Genius units last month following the launch of the program in February 2022. Gastroenterologists at Grady Memorial Hospital perform more than 7,000 colon cancer screening procedures each year among a predominantly Black community. Accounting for 80% of the specialty's patient population, Black adults are disproportionately burdened by colon cancer, at greater risk of diagnosis, worse outcome and death.

"We are excited to provide this novel technology to our patients. By utilizing GI Genius, we have the potential to increase our adenoma detection rate and reduce the incidence of colorectal cancer in a high-risk and vulnerable population," said Benjamin D. Renelus, M.D., a gastroenterologist at Grady Memorial Hospital. "The hospital's hope is that the thousands of patients receiving colonoscopy cancer screenings each year at our facility will benefit from Medtronic's GI Genius intelligent endoscopy module with the potential for earlier detection and better patient outcomes."

"This endeavor is a unique and inspiring opportunity to contribute enormously to the reduction of colorectal cancer screening disparities in communities where patients are disproportionately uninsured and have historically faced barriers accessing life-saving preventative care, including healthcare technology that can aid in detecting colorectal cancer," said Fola May, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of Medicine, director of Quality Improvement in Gastroenterology, and health equity researcher at UCLA Health.

"Equity in healthcare begins with ensuring access for all to life-transforming therapies," said Geoff Martha, Medtronic chairman and chief executive officer. "It's exciting to see how our new collaboration with AWS can help clinicians detect colon cancer early among some of the highest risk individuals in our country."

The GI Genius intelligent endoscopy module, authorized by the FDA in April 2021, is the first-to-market, computer-aided polyp detection system powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to detect colorectal polyps of varying shapes and sizes automatically in real time which helps diagnose and prevent colorectal cancer. In the first U.S. trial using GI Genius, results published this spring showed a 50% reduction in missed colorectal polyps with AI technology versus standard colonoscopy.

"This initiative is so important because we know that almost half of all cases of post-colonoscopy colon cancer may be attributed to not catching polyps during the index colonoscopy,"1,2 said Dr. Austin Chiang, M.D., M.P.H., chief medical officer of the Gastrointestinal business, which is part of the Medical Surgical Portfolio at Medtronic. "We have seen the impact that AI-assisted colonoscopies can have, and this study unequivocally demonstrates that this technology helps physicians better detect polyps during colonoscopies. The impact of missed polyps could ultimately be the difference between life and death when we consider that 90% of patients with colon cancer can beat it when it's caught early."3

The American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, who led the submission and selection process for this program, recently released their full list of recipients for donated GI Genius units.

About ASGE

Since its founding in 1941, the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) has been dedicated to advancing patient care and digestive health by promoting excellence and innovation in gastrointestinal endoscopy. ASGE, with almost 15,000 members worldwide, promotes the highest standards for endoscopic training and practice, fosters endoscopic research, recognizes distinguished contributions to endoscopy, and is the foremost resource for endoscopic education. Visit Asge.org and ValueOfColonoscopy.org for more information.

About Medtronic

Bold thinking. Bolder actions. We are Medtronic. Medtronic plc, headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, is the leading global healthcare technology company that boldly attacks the most challenging health problems facing humanity by searching out and finding solutions. Our Mission  to alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life  unites a global team of 95,000+ passionate people across 150 countries. Our technologies and therapies treat 70 health conditions and include cardiac devices, surgical robotics, insulin pumps, surgical tools, patient monitoring systems, and more. Powered by our diverse knowledge, insatiable curiosity, and desire to help all those who need it, we deliver innovative technologies that transform the lives of two people every second, every hour, every day. Expect more from us as we empower insight-driven care, experiences that put people first, and better outcomes for our world. In everything we do, we are engineering the extraordinary. For more information on Medtronic (NYSE:MDT), visit www.Medtronic.com and follow @Medtronic on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Any forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties such as those described in Medtronic's periodic reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results may differ materially from anticipated results.

1Zhao S, Wang S, Pan P, et al. Magnitude, Risk Factors, and Factors Associated With Adenoma Miss Rate of Tandem Colonoscopy: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Gastroenterology 2019;156:1661-1674.e11

2Robertson, D.J.; Lieberman, D.A.; Winawer, S.J.; Ahnen, D.J.; Baron, J.A.; Schatzkin, A.; Cross, A.J.; Zauber, A.G.; Church, T.R.; Lance, P.; et al. Colorectal Cancers Soon after Colonoscopy: A Pooled Multicohort Analysis. Gut 2014, 63, 949956.

3National Cancer Institute. Cancer stat facts: colon and rectum cancer. National Cancer Institute Website. http://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/colorect.html. Accessed Feb. 7, 2017.

Contacts:





Sabrina Zimring Ryan Weispfenning Public Relations Investor Relations +1-720-774-3454 +1-763-505-4626

SOURCE Medtronic plc
SHANGHAI, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Pulnovo Medical Limited, a globally recognized device pioneer in the treatment for cardiopulmonary diseases, today announced that it has successfully concluded the first Pre-Sub meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") for its Pulmonary Artery Denervation (PADN) Global Trial.

Dr. Shaoliang Chen, Chair of Pulnovo Medical's Scientific Advisory Board and pioneer of the PADN technology, attended the meeting and presented the company's technology and background studies, pulmonary hypertension patients' clinical needs for PADN products, a series of investigator-initiatedPADN studies ranging from animal studies to long-term efficacy studiesthat encompassed over 400 human cases with a wealth of convincing safety and efficacy data, and the PADN-CFDA registered randomized clinical trial along with the trial data.

Dr. Gregg W. Stone, Chair of the PADN Global Trial's Steering Committee and member of the company's Scientific Advisory Board, provided a detailed introduction to the proposed IDE protocol, and discussed the study design and objectives, trial endpoints for the evaluation of safety and effectiveness, patients selection, biocompatibility, and statistical analysis plan.

The proposed protocol for the U.S. pivotal trial is expected to be highly similar to that of the PADN-CFDA (China FDA) registered randomized clinical trial, which was successfully completed at the end of 2021 and met the primary efficacy endpoint. Patients enrolled in the PADN-CFDA study experienced significant improvements in all study endpoints, hemodynamic standard and physical functioning capacity with no device related adverse events.

Cynthia Chen, Pulnovo Medical's Chairwoman, said: "We are leveraging an accelerated regulatory pathway that is enabled by our FDA Breakthrough Device Designation. This first Pre-Sub meeting with the FDA allowed us to showcase our technological and clinical strengths and helped us gain insights into the IDE process for an innovative device. Having laid the groundwork over more than a decade, we consider this meeting one of the last few steps we needed to take before we formally file our application seeking the FDA's approval for us to begin the PADN Global Clinical Trial. Numerous key opinion leaders, including well-respected cardiologists and pulmonary hypertension physicians across the United States and Europe, have expressed strong interest in participating in the PADN Global Clinical Trial and serving on the trial's Steering Committee."

Jessie Lian, Pulnovo Medical's CEO, said: "Over a decade of clinical evidence provides to FDA an excellent roadmap for what we hope will be a successful pivotal trial and we look forward to filing our IDE application and working with the FDA to obtain IDE approval to begin patient enrollment. We will provide periodic updates regarding Pre-Sub meetings, site selection, IDE approval, and other important milestones related to the proposed global trial as Pulnovo progresses through the IDE approval process."

About PADN Device

PADN is a potential global first-in-class, best-in-class innovative radiofrequency ablation device for treating pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). It received the Breakthrough Device Designation from the FDA in 2021. PADN is a vascular interventional ablation technology that uses radiofrequency ablation to block pulmonary intima sympathetic nerves and reduce pulmonary artery pressure to delay disease progression.

About Pulnovo Medical Limited

Pulnovo Medical Limited, a Global OTM Innovative Platform, is a globally recognized device pioneer in the treatment for cardiopulmonary diseases. Established in 2013 and rooted in innovation, Pulnovo Medical upholds evidenced-based research and translational medicine, and starts our research and development efforts alongside physicians at the operating table with the goal to market our innovative therapeutic solutions and benefit patients around the world.

SOURCE Pulnovo Medical
SubtleMR and SubtlePET will now be offered on Incepto's AI Platform

MENLO PARK, Calif., July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Subtle Medical, a healthcare technology company improving the quality and efficiency of medical imaging, announced they are expanding their partnership with Incepto, a leading platform of artificial intelligence solutions for radiology professionals in Europe, by offering their AI applications, SubtleMR and SubtlePET on Incepto's platform.

"We are excited to deepen our existing distributor partnership with Incepto and be included on their platform. This expansion will provide their existing customer base with quick access to our AI solutions without the long implementation process or IT hurdles," says Subtle Medical's Chief Product Officer, Ajit Shankaranarayanan.

"Today SubtleMR and SubtlePET AI based software products are installed at hundreds of facilities throughout the world making a positive difference everyday in workflow and patient comfort. We could not be more pleased to have our products running on the Incepto platform and providing access to Incepto customers," said Josh Gurewitz, Chief Commercial Officer at Subtle Medical.

Subtle Medical's suite of clinically validated AI-powered software solutions, SubtleMR and SubtlePET, increase the efficiency of image capture by improving the quality of both accelerated and low dose imaging. Subtle's solutions are compatible with all scanner models and field strengths so institutions can see the benefit across their entire scanner fleet.

Incepto will be introducing SubtlePET and SubtleMR on their platform at ECR this week in Vienna, Austria. For more information or our products or partnership, please visit the Subtle Medical booth on-site, booth Expo X2 - #233, or request to meet with us here .

About Incepto

Today, there are hundreds of applications in medical imaging using artificial intelligence already approved for clinical use. With 100+ clinical sites routinely using Incepto's platform and more than a hundred thousand patient's exams screened by AI algorithms every month, Incepto is the leading European platform for artificial intelligence solutions for all radiology specialties. Incepto has two missions: integrate AI solutions from partner AI vendors and develop AI algorithms. On one hand, it provides the full range of technical and clinical services to integrate in clinical routine AI solutions through a unified, secure and interoperable platform. On the other hand, Incepto's scientific and medical teams are developing artificial intelligence solutions on clinical needs not currently addressed by other AI vendors. Our goal is simple: help doctors to make full use of AI technologies to save time, improve diagnosis and ultimately build together with them a more precise and human radiology for the patient.

For more information, please visit incepto-medical.com or email [email protected].

About Subtle Medical

Subtle Medical, Inc. is a healthcare technology company with deep learning solutions that make medical imaging faster, safer, and smarter. It was named CB Insights Top AI 100 and Digital Health 150 company in 2020 and is an Nvidia Inception Award Winner. For more information, please visit subtlemedical.com or email [email protected].

Press Contacts

Ashley Guidace

Marketing Manager

[email protected]

Lucas Delannoy

Head of Marketing

[email protected]

SOURCE Subtle Medical, Inc.
DUBLIN, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Contrast Media Injectors Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2022-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global contrast media injectors market reached a value of US$ 1.46 Billion in 2021. Looking forward, the publisher expects the market to reach a value of US$ 2.16 Billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 6.75% during 2021-2027. Keeping in mind the uncertainties of COVID-19, we are continuously tracking and evaluating the direct as well as the indirect influence of the pandemic on different end use sectors. These insights are included in the report as a major market contributor.



Contrast media (CM) injectors are medical devices utilized to inject CM into the body for enhancing the visibility of tissues for different medical imaging procedures. These procedures include computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET) or magnetic resonance.

CM injectors find extensive applications in radiology, interventional cardiology, ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs), and diagnostic imaging centers across the globe. At present, they have evolved from simple, manual injectors to automated injectors that precisely control the amount of the CM agent used, facilitate automated data collection, and warn about potential hazards, such as air embolisms or extravasations.

Increasing preferences for minimally invasive (MI) medical procedures that offer numerous benefits, such as smaller incisions, less postoperative pain, faster recovery, and shorter hospital stay, represents one of the key factors bolstering the growth of the market.

Moreover, there is a rise in the use of automated CM injectors in cardiac imaging to help enhance patient safety and improve image quality. Besides this, leading players are focusing on offering personalized CM doses to patients using information from an electronic medical record (EMR) or picture archiving and communication system (PACS).

This, coupled with the emergence of syringeless power injectors, which aid in reducing CM waste, is facilitating the growth of the market. Apart from this, there is a widespread prevalence of cancers, including breast, lung, colon, rectum, and prostate cancers, around the world. This, along with the increasing number of regulatory approvals of contrast agents and the significant growth in the healthcare industry, is projected to create a positive outlook for the market in the upcoming years.

Competitive Landscape:

The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined along with the profiles of the key players being APOLLO RT Co. Ltd., Bayer AG, Bracco Imaging S.p.A., General Electric Company, Guerbet, Medtron AG, Nemoto Kyorindo Co. Ltd., Shenzhen Anke High-tech Co. Ltd., Shenzhen Seacrown Electromechanical Co. Ltd., Sino Medical-Device Technology Co. Ltd. and ulrich GmbH & Co. KG.



Key Questions Answered in This Report:

How has the global contrast media injectors market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years?

What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the global contrast media injectors market?

What are the key regional markets?

What is the breakup of the market based on the product type?

What is the breakup of the market based on the injectors type?

What is the breakup of the market based on the application?

What is the breakup of the market based on the end user?

What are the various stages in the value chain of the industry?

What are the key driving factors and challenges in the industry?

What is the structure of the global contrast media injectors market and who are the key players?

What is the degree of competition in the industry?

Key Topics Covered:



1 Preface



2 Scope and Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Introduction

4.1 Overview

4.2 Key Industry Trends



5 Global Contrast Media Injectors Market

5.1 Market Overview

5.2 Market Performance

5.3 Impact of COVID-19

5.4 Market Forecast



6 Market Breakup by Product Type

6.1 Consumables

6.1.1 Market Trends

6.1.2 Key Segments

6.1.2.1 Syringes

6.1.2.2 Tubes

6.1.2.3 Others

6.1.3 Market Forecast

6.2 Injector Systems

6.2.1 Market Trends

6.2.2 Key Segments

6.2.2.1 CT Injectors

6.2.2.2 MRI Injectors

6.2.2.3 Angiography Injectors

6.2.2.4 Accessories

6.2.3 Market Forecast



7 Market Breakup by Injectors Type

7.1 Single-head Injectors

7.1.1 Market Trends

7.1.2 Market Forecast

7.2 Dual-head Injectors

7.2.1 Market Trends

7.2.2 Market Forecast

7.3 Syringeless Injectors

7.3.1 Market Trends

7.3.2 Market Forecast



8 Market Breakup by Application

8.1 Radiology

8.1.1 Market Trends

8.1.2 Market Forecast

8.2 Interventional Cardiology

8.2.1 Market Trends

8.2.2 Market Forecast

8.3 Interventional Radiology

8.3.1 Market Trends

8.3.2 Market Forecast



9 Market Breakup by End User

9.1 Hospitals

9.1.1 Market Trends

9.1.2 Market Forecast

9.2 Ambulatory Surgery Centers

9.2.1 Market Trends

9.2.2 Market Forecast

9.3 Diagnostics Imaging Centers

9.3.1 Market Trends

9.3.2 Market Forecast



10 Market Breakup by Region



11 SWOT Analysis

12 Value Chain Analysis



13 Porters Five Forces Analysis



14 Price Analysis



15 Competitive Landscape

15.1 Market Structure

15.2 Key Players

15.3 Profiles of Key Players

15.3.1 APOLLO RT Co. Ltd.

15.3.1.1 Company Overview

15.3.1.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.2 Bayer AG

15.3.2.1 Company Overview

15.3.2.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.2.3 Financials

15.3.2.4 SWOT Analysis

15.3.3 Bracco Imaging S.p.A.

15.3.3.1 Company Overview

15.3.3.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.4 General Electric Company

15.3.4.1 Company Overview

15.3.4.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.4.3 Financials

15.3.4.4 SWOT Analysis

15.3.5 Guerbet

15.3.5.1 Company Overview

15.3.5.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.5.3 Financials

15.3.5.4 SWOT Analysis

15.3.6 Medtron AG

15.3.6.1 Company Overview

15.3.6.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.7 Nemoto Kyorindo Co. Ltd.

15.3.7.1 Company Overview

15.3.7.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.8 Shenzhen Anke High-tech Co. Ltd.

15.3.8.1 Company Overview

15.3.8.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.9 Shenzhen Seacrown Electromechanical Co. Ltd.

15.3.9.1 Company Overview

15.3.9.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.10 Sino Medical-Device Technology Co. Ltd.

15.3.10.1 Company Overview

15.3.10.2 Product Portfolio

15.3.11 ulrich GmbH & Co. KG

15.3.11.1 Company Overview

15.3.11.2 Product Portfolio

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ik5wyx

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

Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/539438/Research_and_Markets_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Research and Markets
EZHOU, China, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Huahu Airport in central Chinese province Hubei's Ezhou City, the first professional freight hub airport in Asia and the fourth in the world, is scheduled to be put into operation on July 17. By then, departing from Ezhou, passengers and goods can reach the whole country overnight and reach overseas destinations in two days.

Ezhou Huahu Airport

Ezhou Huahu Airport is positioned as a freight hub, passenger transport branch line, public platform and cargo navigation base. It took eight years for the airport to develop from preliminary planning in 2014 to completion and operation in 2022. The investment of the airport project totaled 30.842 billion yuan, and the project package consists of three parts: the airport project, the transshipment center and the SF airlines base project, and the oil supply project, according to Ezhou Converged Media Center.

In August 2015, Hubei international logistics central hub project was listed as the top project in the province. On September 17, 2020, Hubei and the Civil Aviation Administration of China held a working meeting in Wuhan. The two sides decided to jointly promote Wuhan Tianhe Airport to become an international gateway hub in the central region and Ezhou Huahu Airport to become a first-class aviation freight transport hub, forming a dual-hub for passenger and cargo aviation with the two airports in a bid to create "a going-out channel in the sky" in Hubei.

Ezhou Huahu Airport is designed to serve a passenger throughput of 1 million visits and a cargo and mail throughput of 2.45 million tons in 2025. The airport operation support level is 4E. In this phase, two long-distance parallel runways and taxiway systems will be built in the east and west. The runways are 3,600 meters long and 45 meters wide, with a runway spacing of 1,900 meters.

A freight transport transit center with an area of nearly 700,000 square meters, a terminal building with an area of 15,000 square meters and 124 stations will also be built, which can match the Memphis International Airport in the United States.

The test flight was carried out at the end of March, the airport was put into operation in the middle of July, and the cargo function will be fully opened at the end of November.

According to the Hubei International Logistics Airport Co., Ltd., after the airport was put into operation, the 1.5-hour flight circle can cover 90 percent of China's economic aggregate and 80 percent of the population. Huahu Airport will open 7 routes and 9 destinations from Ezhou to Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Xiamen and Kunming in the initial stage of passenger transport.

For cargo transport, the airport will open domestic services first and then international services. Two routes from Ezhou to Shenzhen and Shanghai will be opened in the first phase. After the international cargo transport function is fully in operation, international cargo routes to destinations such as Osaka and Frankfurt will be opened. The airport will gradually grow into a world-class aviation freight transport hub, and strive to build a new logistics highland in China and even the Asia-Pacific region.

As a major national productivity project, Huahu Airport shoulders the responsibility of participating in the global aviation logistics competition on behalf of China, and is the most important project of Hubei Province, according to a senior official in Ezhou. After being put into operation, the airport will surely become the key support for Hubei to build a pioneering area for building a new development pattern in China.

Image Attachments Links:

Link: http://asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=425438

Caption: Ezhou Huahu Airport

SOURCE Ezhou Converged Media Center
Adventure Tourism Market Dynamics

Market Driver: The increasing disposable incomes among consumers across the globe are expected to influence the market growth positively during the forecast period. According to the OECD, household disposable income has increased in all developed and developing countries since 2018. Thus, according to the data published by the Department of Commerce, the US is projected to welcome 95.5 million international visitors annually by 2023. Such will boost the demand for luxurious travel to different destinations across the world, which, in turn, will foster market growth during the forecast period.

Market Challenge: The low penetration rate in developing economies is one of the most critical factors likely to hinder market growth in the forthcoming years. Vendors of adventure tourism mostly focus on tier 1 cities as they have a limited presence in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. In addition, individuals from developing countries engage in outdoor recreational activities only for fitness and other health needs. The phenomenon of solo travel is also at a nascent stage in developing regions such as MEA. Such factors may limit the market growth during the forecast years.

Key Market Dynamics and their Impact Analysis is available at Technavio. Request for Sample

Report Copy Now!

Adventure Tourism Market Vendor Landscape

The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. Key players in the global adventure tourism market have relied on strategies such as product launches and business expansion to expand their market share and stay relevant in the global adventure tourism market.

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.

We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the Adventure Tourism Market, including some of the vendors such as vendors Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the adventure tourism market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

The market players are profusely working on product advancements with plans of launching new trip destinations to ensure market growth. For instance, in January 2020, Austin Adventures, a pioneer multisport and family adventure travel company, offered eighty-plus trips across all seven continents, including a trip for every month in a year

Top Adventure Tourism Market Players are:

Abercrombie and Kent USA LLC

Austin Adventures

BikeHike Adventures Inc.

BOUNDLESS JOURNEYS

Butterfield and Robinson Inc.

Exodus Travels Ltd.

Explore Worldwide Ltd.

G Adventures

Geographic Expeditions Inc.

Intrepid Group

Kensington Tours Ltd.

Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc.

MT Sobek

Passages Exotic Expeditions Ltd

Recreational Equipment Inc.

ROW Adventures

The Walt Disney Co.

Trafalgar Tours Pty Ltd

Travelopia

TUI AG

Want to know about the product offerings and strategic initiatives of contributing

vendors, Download Sample Report

Adventure Tourism Market Segmentation

Type

Domestic Adventure Tourism



International Adventure Tourism

Geographic

Europe



APAC



North America



South America



Middle East And Africa

Get Segment-based Market Share Contribution Insights Coupled with Regional

Opportunities with this PDF Sample

Adventure Tourism Market Scope

Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our adventure tourism market report covers the following areas:

Adventure Tourism Market Frequently Asked Questions

Which is the latest market trend taking the market by the storm?

What are some of the most influential market drivers, restraints, and opportunities (DROs)?

What are the historical and projected revenue values and CAGR percentage?

Which strategic initiatives will influence competitive scenarios and define the market growth potential?

Which regions & segments will garner massive revenue and emerge as market leaders in upcoming years?

Who are the top market share contributors and their latest organizational restructuring plans?

Got more Queries?? To find answers to the most commonly asked questions about the market, Retrieve Sample Report

Related Reports:



Helicopter Tourism Market Growth, Size, Trends, Analysis Report by Type, Application, Region and Segment Forecast 2021-2025

Cultural Tourism Market Growth, Size, Trends, Analysis Report by Type, Application, Region and Segment Forecast 2021-2025

Space Tourism Market Growth, Size, Trends, Analysis Report by Type, Application, Region and Segment Forecast 2021-2025

Wellness Tourism Market Growth, Size, Trends, Analysis Report by Type, Application, Region and Segment Forecast 2022-2026

Culinary Tourism Market by Type and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025

Sustainable Tourism Market Growth, Size, Trends, Analysis Report by Type, Application, Region and Segment Forecast 2021-2025

Adventure Tourism Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 38.87% Market growth 2022-2026 $ 2.50 tn Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 24.26 Regional analysis Europe, APAC, North America, South America, and Middle East and Africa Performing market contribution APAC at 31% Key consumer countries US, China, Japan, Germany, Italy, US, China, Japan, Germany, and Italy Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Abercrombie and Kent USA LLC, Austin Adventures, BikeHike Adventures Inc., BOUNDLESS JOURNEYS, Butterfield and Robinson Inc., Exodus Travels Ltd., Explore Worldwide Ltd., G Adventures, Geographic Expeditions Inc., Intrepid Group, Kensington Tours Ltd., Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc., MT Sobek, Passages Exotic Expeditions Ltd, Recreational Equipment Inc., ROW Adventures, The Walt Disney Co., Trafalgar Tours Pty Ltd, Travelopia, and TUI AG Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID 19 impact and future consumer dynamics, market condition analysis for the forecast period, Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

Table Of Contents :

1 Executive Summary

1.1 Market overview

Exhibit 01: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Overview



Exhibit 02: Executive Summary  Data Table on Market Overview



Exhibit 03: Executive Summary  Chart on Global Market Characteristics



Exhibit 04: Executive Summary  Chart on Market by Geography



Exhibit 05: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Segmentation by Type



Exhibit 06: Executive Summary  Chart on Market Segmentation by Source



Exhibit 07: Executive Summary  Chart on Incremental Growth



Exhibit 08: Executive Summary  Data Table on Incremental Growth



Exhibit 09: Executive Summary  Chart on Vendor Market Positioning

2 Market Landscape

2.1 Market ecosystem

Exhibit 10: Parent market



Exhibit 11: Market Characteristics

3 Market Sizing

3.1 Market definition

Exhibit 12: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition

3.2 Market segment analysis

Exhibit 13: Market segments

3.3 Market size 2021

3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2021-2026

Exhibit 14: Chart on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 15: Data Table on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 16: Chart on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 17: Data Table on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

4 Five Forces Analysis

4.1 Five forces summary

Exhibit 18: Five forces analysis - Comparison between2021 and 2026

4.2 Bargaining power of buyers

Exhibit 19: Chart on Bargaining power of buyers  Impact of key factors 2021 and 2026

4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers

Exhibit 20: Bargaining power of suppliers  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.4 Threat of new entrants

Exhibit 21: Threat of new entrants  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.5 Threat of substitutes

Exhibit 22: Threat of substitutes  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.6 Threat of rivalry

Exhibit 23: Threat of rivalry  Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026

4.7 Market condition

Exhibit 24: Chart on Market condition - Five forces 2021 and 2026

5 Market Segmentation by Type

5.1 Market segments

Exhibit 25: Chart on Type - Market share 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 26: Data Table on Type - Market share 2021-2026 (%)

5.2 Comparison by Type

Exhibit 27: Chart on Comparison by Type



Exhibit 28: Data Table on Comparison by Type

5.3 Domestic adventure tourism - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 29: Chart on Domestic adventure tourism - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 30: Data Table on Domestic adventure tourism - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 31: Chart on Domestic adventure tourism - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 32: Data Table on Domestic adventure tourism - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.4 International adventure tourism - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 33: Chart on International adventure tourism - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 34: Data Table on International adventure tourism - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 35: Chart on International adventure tourism - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 36: Data Table on International adventure tourism - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.5 Market opportunity by Type

Exhibit 37: Market opportunity by Type ($ billion)

6 Market Segmentation by Source

6.1 Market segments

Exhibit 38: Chart on Source - Market share 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 39: Data Table on Source - Market share 2021-2026 (%)

6.2 Comparison by Source

Exhibit 40: Chart on Comparison by Source



Exhibit 41: Data Table on Comparison by Source

6.3 Indirect contribution - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 42: Chart on Indirect contribution - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 43: Data Table on Indirect contribution - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 44: Chart on Indirect contribution - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 45: Data Table on Indirect contribution - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

6.4 Direct contribution - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 46: Chart on Direct contribution - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 47: Data Table on Direct contribution - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 48: Chart on Direct contribution - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 49: Data Table on Direct contribution - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

6.5 Induced contribution - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 50: Chart on Induced contribution - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 51: Data Table on Induced contribution - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 52: Chart on Induced contribution - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 53: Data Table on Induced contribution - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

6.6 Market opportunity by Source

Exhibit 54: Market opportunity by Source ($ billion)

7 Customer Landscape

7.1 Customer landscape overview

Exhibit 55: Analysis of price sensitivity, lifecycle, customer purchase basket, adoption rates, and purchase criteria

8 Geographic Landscape

8.1 Geographic segmentation

Exhibit 56: Chart on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 57: Data Table on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%)

8.2 Geographic comparison

Exhibit 58: Chart on Geographic comparison



Exhibit 59: Data Table on Geographic comparison

8.3 Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 60: Chart on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 61: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 62: Chart on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 63: Data Table on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

8.4 APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 64: Chart on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 65: Data Table on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 66: Chart on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 67: Data Table on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

8.5 North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 68: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 69: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 70: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 71: Data Table on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

8.6 South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 72: Chart on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 73: Data Table on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 74: Chart on South America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 75: Data Table on South America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

8.7 Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 76: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 77: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 78: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

and - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 79: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

8.8 US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 80: Chart on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 81: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)



Exhibit 82: Chart on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)



Exhibit 83: Data Table on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

8.9 China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 84: Chart on China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 85: Data Table on China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 86: Chart on China - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 87: Data Table on China - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

8.10 Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 88: Chart on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 89: Data Table on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 90: Chart on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 91: Data Table on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

8.11 Italy - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 92: Chart on Italy - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 93: Data Table on Italy - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 94: Chart on Italy - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 95: Data Table on Italy - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

8.12 Japan - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 96: Chart on Japan - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 97: Data Table on Japan - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

- Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ billion)

Exhibit 98: Chart on Japan - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

- Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

Exhibit 99: Data Table on Japan - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

8.13 Market opportunity by geography

Exhibit 100: Market opportunity by geography ($ billion)

9 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends

9.1 Market drivers

9.2 Market challenges

9.3 Impact of drivers and challenges

Exhibit 101: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2021 and 2026

9.4 Market trends

10 Vendor Landscape

10.1 Overview

10.2 Vendor landscape

Exhibit 102: Overview on Criticality of inputs and Factors of differentiation

10.3 Landscape disruption

Exhibit 103: Overview on factors of disruption

10.4 Industry risks

Exhibit 104: Impact of key risks on business

11 Vendor Analysis

11.1 Vendors covered

Exhibit 105: Vendors covered

11.2 Market positioning of vendors

Exhibit 106: Matrix on vendor position and classification

11.3 Abercrombie and Kent USA LLC

Exhibit 107: Abercrombie and Kent USA LLC - Overview



Exhibit 108: Abercrombie and Kent USA LLC - Product / Service



Exhibit 109: Abercrombie and Kent USA LLC - Key offerings

11.4 Austin Adventures

Exhibit 110: Austin Adventures - Overview



Exhibit 111: Austin Adventures - Product / Service



Exhibit 112: Austin Adventures - Key offerings

11.5 Butterfield and Robinson Inc.

Exhibit 113: Butterfield and Robinson Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 114: Butterfield and Robinson Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 115: Butterfield and Robinson Inc. - Key offerings

11.6 G Adventures

Exhibit 116: G Adventures - Overview



Exhibit 117: G Adventures - Product / Service



Exhibit 118: G Adventures - Key offerings

11.7 Intrepid Group

Exhibit 119: Intrepid Group - Overview



Exhibit 120: Intrepid Group - Product / Service



Exhibit 121: Intrepid Group - Key offerings

11.8 Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc.

Exhibit 122: Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 123: Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc. - Business segments



Exhibit 124: Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc. - Key offerings



Exhibit 125: Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc. - Segment focus

11.9 MT Sobek

Exhibit 126: MT Sobek - Overview

Sobek - Overview

Exhibit 127: MT Sobek - Product / Service

Sobek - Product / Service

Exhibit 128: MT Sobek - Key offerings

11.10 Recreational Equipment Inc.

Exhibit 129: Recreational Equipment Inc. - Overview



Exhibit 130: Recreational Equipment Inc. - Product / Service



Exhibit 131: Recreational Equipment Inc. - Key offerings

11.11 The Walt Disney Co.

Exhibit 132: The Walt Disney Co. - Overview



Exhibit 133: The Walt Disney Co. - Business segments



Exhibit 134: The Walt Disney Co. - Key offerings



Exhibit 135: The Walt Disney Co. - Segment focus

11.12 TUI AG

Exhibit 136: TUI AG - Overview

- Overview

Exhibit 137: TUI AG - Business segments

- Business segments

Exhibit 138: TUI AG - Key offerings

- Key offerings

Exhibit 139: TUI AG - Segment focus

12 Appendix

12.1 Scope of the report

12.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist

Exhibit 140: Inclusions checklist



Exhibit 141: Exclusions checklist

12.3 Currency conversion rates for US$

Exhibit 142: Currency conversion rates for US$

12.4 Research methodology

Exhibit 143: Research methodology



Exhibit 144: Validation techniques employed for market sizing



Exhibit 145: Information sources

12.5 List of abbreviations

Exhibit 146: List of abbreviations

-By ride type: Water rides: Include a water slide, water pool, water coaster, inflatable floats, speed slide, inner tubing rides, lazy river, and leisure rides;

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

Contact

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com/

SOURCE Technavio
Campaign Highlights Early Symptom Detection and Importance of Seeing a Retina Specialist

CHICAGO, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS) has released its first-ever national television and radio public service announcements (PSAs) to educate the public about protecting their vision from preventable blindness and vision loss due to retinal disease and the importance of expert retina specialist care.

The American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS) urges the public to learn the symptoms of two common adult retinal conditions, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic retinopathy, and seek care from a retina specialist promptly to safeguard vision. To learn more, visit www.SeeforaLifetime.org. La enfermedad de la retina puede robar tu vision, pero no tiene que ser asi. La American Society of Retina Specialists ha lanzado una campana de concientizacion en la que insta al publico a conocer los factores de riesgo de la enfermedad de la retina, conocer las senales y sintomas, y a consultar a un especialista de retina de manera oportuna para tener la mejor oportunidad de prevenir la perdida de vision por AMD o retinopatia diabetica. Mas informacion disponible en SeeForaLifetime.org.

In both English and Spanish TV and radio spots, America's retina specialists urge the public to learn the symptoms of two common adult retinal conditions, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic retinopathy, and seek care from a retina specialist promptly to safeguard vision.

AMD and diabetic retinopathy are two of the leading causes of blindness and low vision in the United States. These conditions combined affect nearly 18 million Americans and vision loss leads to $8 billion in lost productivity annually.

"Millions of Americans are at risk of losing vision and even going blind from conditions a retina specialist can effectively treat when caught early, and we are determined to save the sight of as many people as possible through this critical campaign," said ASRS President Philip J. Ferrone, MD, FASRS. "Our goal is to empower the public to care for their vision, to watch for the symptoms of retinal disease, and to find a retina specialist at the first sign or symptom so they can 'See for a Lifetime'."

The PSAs include 30-second and 60-second videos in English and Spanish, as well as audio versions of the spots. They introduce the audience to symptoms of AMD and diabetic retinopathy, such as straight lines looking wavy or distorted, or floaters in the field of vision, and encourage the public to immediately seek out a retina specialist for treatment to protect healthy vision and experience all of life's most precious moments.

The PSAs will drive viewers to See for a Lifetime (www.SeeforaLifetime.org), the homepage of ASRS's public education initiative See for a Lifetime See a Retina Specialist, which offers comprehensive resources for retina patients, their families, and caregivers, providing easy access to tools and information specific to retinal conditions and on preserving healthy vision for a lifetime. Resources include English and Spanish infographics, patient guides, and condition-specific fact sheets, the Retina Health for Life podcast series, patient stories, a find a retina specialist locator, and more.

"Through our See for a Lifetime See a Retina Specialist initiative and our new PSA campaign, we are striving to make retinal health and early detection of retinal diseases a priority for the public and healthcare providers alike," said Dr. Ferrone. "Don't take your vision for granted, learn more about retinal disease, share the information with friends and family and take action if any symptoms occur so your future can be filled with a clear view of the people and places you love most."

Media can download the TV and radio spots for use at:

English: https://www.broadcastnewsresource.com/news/see-for-a-lifetime-psa-campaign-from-the-american-society-of-retina-specialists

Spanish: https://www.broadcastnewsresource.com/news/campana-de-psa-ver-para-toda-la-vida-de-la-sociedad-americana-de-especialistas-de-la-retina

View the TV spots in English and Spanish at: https://www.asrs.org/patients/see-for-a-lifetime-public-service-announcements

More information and resources can be found at SeeforaLifetime.org.

See for a Lifetime is made possible in part through generous support from the Foundation of the American Society of Retina Specialists, Allergan, Genentech, Novartis, and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

About ASRS

The American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS) is the largest organization of retina specialists in the world, representing more than 3,000 physicians in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and 63 countries. Retina specialists are board-certified ophthalmologists who have completed fellowship training in the medical and surgical treatment of retinal diseases. The mission of the ASRS is to provide a collegial and open forum for education, to advance the understanding and treatment of vitreoretinal diseases, and to enhance the ability of its members to provide the highest quality of patient care. The mission of the Foundation of the American Society of Retina Specialists, the charitable arm of the American Society of Retina Specialists, is to improve the quality of life for all people with retinal diseases through retina health education and awareness activities and to support the education of retina specialists. Learn more at ASRS.org. Like ASRS on Facebook, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and follow us on Twitter for the latest retina health information.

Contact:

Sara Conley

[email protected]

(312) 477-8869

SOURCE American Society of Retina Specialists
PALO ALTO, Calif., July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Arch Systems today announced $15M in new funding led by Two Bear Capital and joined by new and existing investors including seed lead investor Uncork Capital.

Arch, founded by Stanford engineering PhDs, provides leading electronics and discrete manufacturers with an advanced analytics platform for factory-wide and multi-factory operations. On the manufacturing floor, the technology provides best-in-class operational guidance to improve productivity, quality, and maintenance. Across multiple factories, Arch automates global KPI alignment and delivers enterprises tools to drive data-driven action management both at in-house and contracted factories to maximize overall manufacturing performance.

Arch Systems CEO Andrew Scheuermann explained the company's position and traction: "Today our product, ArchFX, is in use in more than 15 countries, analyzing hundreds of unique products with the continuous rich data from well over 5,000 smart factory machines. Arch's enterprise customers are unlocking in the $10 millions, even $100 millions of untapped factory capacity. This is made possible by identifying and solving significant factory-based bottlenecks across enterprise-wide systems that were previously invisible while enabling factory by factory front-line operations with best-in-class, standardized productivity, and quality process control."

About the new financing, the Arch CEO said, "This new funding will accelerate our go-to-market motion both in our core area, electronics manufacturing, and in the adjacent area of high-tech manufacturing including defense and medical manufacturing. Two Bear Capital brings incredible expertise and insight into company building in the deep tech and networking space as well as our domain manufacturing markets. This is a rare and exceptional combination of expertise. We are excited to be partnering with them on this next phase."

Two Bear Capital's investment was led by partner Ida Khodami. "I am beyond excited about our investment in Arch," said Khodami. "Having held engineering and operations leadership roles in the biotech industry for over a decade, I have seen first-hand the tremendous value of factory-wide analytics and the investment required to integrate equipment (smart and legacy machines) in all factories, even in the most sophisticated ones, Arch is changing the integration game for new and existing factory machines by providing accessible, unprecedented analytics tools. We invested in Arch to help fuel their further expansion into biotech, medical devices, electronics and other areas of high-tech and discrete manufacturing."

The funding comes on the heels of significant growth at Arch with more than 300 percent year-over-year growth in business both in active analytics users and connected machines. The company is currently in an active hiring phase and launching two major products in the coming months  Action Management System, an enterprise control room designed around machine data signals and corrective actions for top floor to shopfloor rapid decision making, as well as Production Insights, an ArchFX Core offering that will make a subset of Arch's analytics developed on large enterprise data sets available to individual factories for the first time.

About Two Bear Capital

Two Bear Capital (TBC) was founded and is led by veteran Silicon Valley venture capitalist and philanthropist Michael Goguen. Two Bear Capital seeks to invest in the most promising early-stage companies solving some of today's most urgent problems at the intersections of healthcare, biotechnology, bioinformatics, artificial intelligence/machine learning, cybersecurity, and software infrastructure for enterprise. Two Bear Capital's investment team is based in Whitefish, Montana, the San Francisco Bay area, San Diego, and Boston. To learn more, visit www.twobearcapital.com and follow Two Bear Capital on LinkedIn.

About Arch Systems

Arch works with top-tier global electronics manufacturers to extract data from any machine, both new and legacy, to unlock data governance and drive uniform metrics for enhanced productivity and predictive analytics.

Arch has built the largest collaboration of industry domain experts working hand-in-hand with data scientists to constantly map new signals in the data, adding them to the ever-growing library of operational analytics and recommendations. These signals and recommendations are changing how manufacturers tackle their most complex problems, allowing them to simplify and align actions both on the shop floor and the top floor.

Arch is a recipient of the 2021 Global Technology and Mexico Technology Awards, and a 2022 NPI Award. The ArchFX Platform provides the machine connectivity, data management, and advanced insights needed to achieve digital transformation across the manufacturing organization. For more information, visit archsys.io, or follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter .

Contacts

Arch Systems

Jennifer Davis

435-764-4766

[email protected]

This release is intended for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon to make any investment decision, as it was prepared without regard to any specific objectives, or financial circumstances. This is not a solicitation to buy or sell any securities. This release is not intended to provide, and should not be relied upon for tax, legal, accounting, or investment advice. The forward-looking statements herein constitute an expression of opinion, which may or may not prove to be accurate

SOURCE Two Bear Capital
NEWARK, N.J., July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As per the report published by The Brainy Insights, the global automotive chip market is expected to grow from USD 21.81 Billion in 2020 to USD 60.82 Billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 10.8% during the forecast period 2021-2030.

A chip is made up of semiconductor material cut from a giant wafer of material that is only a few millimeters on one side in electronics. A transistor or integrated circuit can be etched on this chip, but it will only take up one-thousandth of an inch of the chip's surface. Automotive chips are generally used to monitor and regulate the various functions of a vehicle. To complete the jobs, they employ a variety of algorithms.

Get more insights from 230-page market research report @ https://www.thebrainyinsights.com/enquiry/sample-request/12622

As a result, it can provide drivers with a smooth and simple driving experience. The driver can use their voices to control their automobile's navigation and infotainment systems using an automotive car chip. The sensors mounted to automobiles also deliver numerous other facts about the vehicle. It also safeguards automobiles by activating the anti-theft system. Micro supercomputers are another name for automotive chips. These characteristics are likely to become standard in a variety of smart cars.

The rising demand for enhanced automobile connectivity chips that provide high-capacity data networking and new electronic automobiles with enhanced safety features drive market expansion. Miniature computers are another term for these chips. Those produced by companies such as AQAUNTIA CORP and NVIDIA CORPORATION are expected to play a crucial role in the development of smart vehicles. Furthermore, its characteristic of assuring vehicle safety through the deployment of anti-theft, anti-hijack, and smart keys is projected to play a significant role in market expansion. Over the next few years, the predicted development and commercialization of fully automated vehicles, such as driverless taxis, will present a potential for market revenue growth. High-powered automotive chips are positioned to be widely employed in automobiles soon, as fully automated vehicles require real-time data processing from a huge number of sensors installed throughout the vehicle.

Key players operating in the global automotive chip market are Infineon Technologies AG, Microchip Technology Incorporated, Micron Technology, Inc., NVIDIA CORPORATION, NXP Semiconductors, Robert Bosch GmbH, STMicroelectronics N.V. and Texas Instruments Incorporated among others. To enhance their market position in the global automotive chip market, the key players are now focusing on adopting the strategies such as product innovations, mergers & acquisitions, recent developments, joint venture, collaborations, and partnership.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. is planning to acquire NXP Semiconductors, the current market leader, in a deal estimated to be worth more than USD 35.0 billion .

. Renesas Electronics Corporation acquired Integrated Device Technology Inc. in 2018. The company's high-computing electronic systems for the automobile industry are predicted to improve in efficiency and performance.

Custom Requirements can be requested for this Report @ https://www.thebrainyinsights.com/enquiry/request-customization/12622

The logic ICs industry is predicted to achieve a significant valuation by 2030.

The component type segment is divided into microcontrollers & microprocessors, logic ICs, analog ICs, and memory. With the increasing sales of ultra-luxury cars, the logic ICs industry is predicted to achieve a significant valuation by 2030. Soon, drivers would use their voice to operate the whole navigation and infotainment system due to automotive chips. They also ensure that mobility and connectivity are improved.

The passenger vehicles segment led the market with a market share of 71.5% and a market value of around 15.59 billion in 2020.

The vehicle type segment is divided into commercial vehicles and passenger vehicles. The passenger vehicles segment led the market with a market share of 71.5% and a market value of around 15.59 billion in 2020. All personal use transport vehicles, such as luxury vehicles, SUVs, and sedans, are classified as passenger vehicles and are typically designed for the seating of five individuals. Throughout the forecast period, there will be a stronger demand for this vehicle type.

Over the forecasted period, the safety application segment is expected to grow at the fastest CAGR of 11.1%.

The application type segment is divided into powertrain, chassis, safety, body electronics, telematics & infotainment. Over the forecasted period, the safety application segment is expected to grow at the fastest CAGR of 11.1%. This increase can be ascribed to the growing awareness of safety and security while driving among the millennial population. Furthermore, increasing rules and regulations to ensure vehicle safety standards are likely to fuel market demand.

Regional Segment Analysis of the Automotive Chip Market

North America (U.S., Canada , Mexico )

(U.S., , ) Europe ( Germany , France , U.K., Italy , Spain , Rest of Europe )

( , , U.K., , , Rest of ) Asia-Pacific ( China , Japan , India , Rest of APAC)

( , , , Rest of APAC) South America ( Brazil and Rest of South America )

( and Rest of ) The Middle East and Africa (UAE, South Africa , Rest of MEA)

Asia Pacific region emerged as the largest market for the global automotive chip market, with a market share of 34.8% and a market value of around 7.59 billion in 2020. This is due to an increase in the number of significant firms operating in nations such as China, Japan, and India.

Have a question? Speak to Research Analyst @ https://www.thebrainyinsights.com/enquiry/speak-to-analyst/12622

About the report:

The global automotive chip market is analysed based on value (USD Billion). All the segments have been analysed on global, regional and country basis. The study includes the analysis of more than 30 countries for each segment. The report offers in-depth analysis of driving factors, opportunities, restraints, and challenges for gaining the key insight of the market. The study includes porter's five forces model, attractiveness analysis, raw material analysis, supply, demand analysis, competitor position grid analysis, distribution and marketing channels analysis.

Latest Research Reports Published by The Brainy Insights:

Surgical Microscope Market Size by Type (Wall Mounted, On Casters, And Tabletop), Application (Oncology, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Documentations, Neuro and Spine Surgery, Ear, Nose & Throat Surgery, and Urology), End-User, Regions, Global Industry Analysis, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2022 to 2030

Global Medical Tricorder Market Size By Product Type (USB Camera, Wireless, Fiber Optic Camera, Corded, and Others), By Application (Diagnosis, Monitoring, and Others), By End-User (Hospitals, Ambulatory Surgery Centers, and Others), Regions, Global Industry Analysis, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2022 to 2030

Tendon Repair Market Size by Product Type (Screws, Grafts, Implants, Suture Anchor Devices, Tendons Repair Matrix, Scaffolds, & Others), Application (Rotator Cuff Repair, Cruciate Ligament Repair, Biceps Tenodesis, Achilles Tendinosis Repair, & Others), Regions, Global Industry Analysis, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2022 to 2030

Human Augmentation Market Size by Product Type (Exoskeletons, Wearable Devices, Intelligent Virtual Assistants, Virtual Reality Devices, & Augmented Reality Devices), Functionality (Body Worn, & Non-Body Worn), Application, Regions, Global Industry Analysis, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2022 to 2030

About The Brainy Insights:

The Brainy Insights is a market research company, aimed at providing actionable insights through data analytics to companies to improve their business acumen. We have a robust forecasting and estimation model to meet the clients' objectives of high-quality output within a short span of time. We provide both customized (clients' specific) and syndicate reports. Our repository of syndicate reports is diverse across all the categories and sub-categories across domains. Our customized solutions are tailored to meet the clients' requirement whether they are looking to expand or planning to launch a new product in the global market.

Contact Us :

Avinash D

Head of Business Development

Phone: +1-315-215-1633

Email: [email protected]

Web: http://www.thebrainyinsights.com

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1747971/Brainy_Insights_Logo.jpg

SOURCE The Brainy Insights
No More Testing and Insurance Requirements

BELIZE CITY, Belize, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Belize Tourism Board (BTB) announced late last night that the Government of Belize has decided to remove all public health measures at every land and sea point of entry to the country.

Effective immediately, the following guidelines are now in place:

Vaccination and testing: proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test is no longer required for any persons traveling to Belize , at all official land and sea border points, regardless of their vaccination status.

proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test is no longer required for any persons traveling to , at all official land and sea border points, regardless of their vaccination status. Belize Travel Health Insurance: purchase of the insurance is now optional, although still encouraged, as a form of protection against incurring medical and non-medical emergency expenses.

"With the emergence of weaker variants of COVID-19 and with the global trend of restrictions being relaxed, the time has come to take the pressure off of our health systems," said Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health and Wellness for Belize. "We've reached a level where it's now everyone's personal responsibility to decide whether they want to be vaccinated or not."

The government of Belize cautions that in light of the presence of the BA.2 and BA.5 sub-variants in Belize, vaccines still remain the best form of protection against the virus. International visitors are also reminded that they must book their stay at a BTB Gold Standard-approved hotel.

For more up-to-date health and safety information related to COVID-19, please visit www.travelbelize.org.

About Belize Tourism Board

The Belize Tourism Board (BTB) is a statutory body within the Belize Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation, and it is governed by a Board of Directors appointed by the Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation. The BTB works in conjunction with members of the private sector  including the Belize Hotel Association, Belize Tourism Industry Association and Belize National Tour Operators Association  and is dedicated to building tourism in the most economically and environmentally sustainable manner. As a part of its responsibilities, the BTB promotes Belize as a premier tourism destination to both in-country and international consumers. Among its outreach to the international travel market, the BTB markets the country's unique attractions to travelers, members of the travel trade industry and media outlets in key markets. The BTB is also dedicated to developing and implementing tourism programs that will help strengthen and grow the Belizean tourism industry; promote good destination stewardship; and instill high quality standards for accommodations and travel experiences. For more information on the BTB and its services, visit www.travelbelize.org.

CONTACT: [email protected]

SOURCE Belize Tourism Board
SAN FRANCISCO and LONDON, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bosonic, a layer-2 blockchain infrastructure (dFMI) provider for real-time digital assets clearing and settlement, has today announced the appointment of Julie Briand as Head of Client Success and Sarthak Jain as Regional Manager of Institutional Sales. Both roles will be based in London, UK.

As Bosonic experiences a period of significant growth, Julie brings a wealth of industry expertise in managing client onboarding and service delivery, having previously been responsible for several of the largest institutional clients while at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML).

Sarthak joins the business after an already successful career selling institutional enterprise solutions in the UK and Europe for Bloomberg and, most recently, crypto exchange Binance. Having built strong relationships with key institutional participants within the industry, Sarthak will help to grow Bosonic's institutional client portfolio and expand the Bosonic Network.

Jason Nabi, Bosonic's Chief Revenue Officer, said, "We are incredibly fortunate to be scaling our business at pace while attracting some of the top talents in the industry to continue on this trajectory. Julie and Sarthak bring a wealth of experience across multiple continents in the Financial Services industry, having held roles with several major players. We are delighted they have chosen Bosonic to progress their careers, and we look forward to demonstrating the calibre of our services to more global institutional clients."

Julie Briand, Head of Client Success commented: "Traditional finance is increasingly recognising the need to embrace blockchain based peer to peer infrastructure. I'm delighted to be joining Bosonic to bring my institutional expertise to bear in the digital asset world and help foster closer relationships between the two industry segments."

Sarthak Jain, Regional Manager of Institutional Sales added: "The market for infrastructure that eliminates counterparty credit and settlement risk in the Digital Assets space is growing exponentially. I am excited to join Bosonic and help in serving its clients with best-in-class solutions that are demonstrably shaping the future of our industry."

The Bosonic Network is a best-in-class and unique infrastructure for institutional clients, that is both liquidity and custodian agnostic. Bosonic connects clients to exchanges and market makers and enables a Payment versus Payment (PvP) atomic swap for instantaneous settlement on a layer-2 blockchain operated by digital asset custodians.

Media Contact:

The Realization Group on behalf of Bosonic

[email protected]

Tel +44 7792376546

About Bosonic

Founded in 2016, Bosonic is a leading decentralised financial market infrastructure "dFMI" company with offices in San Francisco, New York, and London, providing best-in-class infrastructure that eliminates counterparty credit and settlement risk in Digital Asset markets.

The Bosonic Network provides institutional clients with a patented solution that is liquidity and custodian agnostic, enables tokenisation of assets and collateral, provides liquidity aggregation and DMA to the best Exchanges and Market-Makers, and at the core, runs real-time payment vs payment (PvP) atomic execution and settlement, with cross-margining, cross-custodian net settlement, and payments.

Bosonic Enterprise Solutions is a full front-to-back white-label SaaS deployment of the same technology for use in other regulated FMI, Bank or Broker digital asset platforms. The Bosonic Network and Bosonic Enterprise Solutions deliver best-in-class blockchain infrastructure that's shaping the future of Digital Asset markets by eliminating risk and maximising capital efficiency.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1836813/BOSONIC_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Bosonic
BEIJING, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As the lyrics of a popular folk song in China go, "the brothers and sisters from the 56 ethnic groups belong to the same family."

China is home to 56 ethnic groups, with the majority Han making up around 91.5 percent of the country's population, according to 2021 data. Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has been a multi-ethnic region since ancient times and is home to over 45 ethnic groups.

Xi stresses protecting cultural heritage after watching ethnic performance in Xinjiang

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, stressed promoting ethnic unity and progress and consolidating the sense of community for the Chinese nation during his visit to Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region from Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday morning.

Protecting cultures of various ethnic groups

The extensive and profound Chinese civilization is composed of outstanding cultures of various ethnic groups, said Xi when watching a show called "Manas" from the Kirgiz ethnic minority at the Museum of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The performances have been inscribed as an intangible cultural heritage.

A cultural heritage like "Manas" is a treasure of both the Kirgizs and the Chinese nation, he said, urging better preservation and promotion efforts.

All ethnic groups in Xinjiang have items on the national and autonomous regional representative lists of intangible cultural heritage, and 133 cultural heritage sites are under state protection, according to a white paper released by the country's State Council Information Office last year.

The cultural traditions of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang are well protected, said the paper, giving examples such as folk cultural events, such as the Han Lantern Festival, the Uygur Meshrep, the Kazak Aytes, the Kirgiz Kobuz Ballad Singing Fair, the Mongolian Nadam Fair, and the Hui Hua'er Folk Song Festival, which are still widely celebrated.

Improving livelihood of all ethnic groups

While visiting the Guyuanxiang residential community in the Tianshan District on Wednesday morning, Xi urged local officials to improve community services to benefit residents of all ethnic groups.

The president also traveled on Wednesday afternoon to Shihezi City, where he inspected officials and staff workers at the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), a group whose status he called "irreplaceable."

As an important component of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the XPCC is a special social organization that handles its own administrative and judicial affairs within the reclamation areas under its administration, in accordance with the laws and regulations of the state and the region. It assumes the responsibilities of cultivating and guarding the border areas.

Speaking to XPCC officials and staff workers, Xi said he was pleased about the great progress made by the XPCC in reform and development, and XPCC officials and staff workers themselves should also be proud.

He also learned about the history of the XPCC in cultivating and guarding the frontier areas, as well as the Corps' efforts in strengthening its primary-level organizations, developing specialty agriculture, and promoting the integrated development of the Corps and local areas.

Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has seen continuous economic development with businesses thriving. Xinjiang registered a 7-percent GDP growth in 2021, totaling 1.6 trillion yuan (about $253.2 billion).

A total of 477,400 urban jobs were created in the region, reducing the surveyed urban unemployment rate by 1.1 percentage points to 2.2 percent, according to the Bureau of Statistics in the autonomous region.

Nurturing talent, coordinating COVID-19 response with economic and social development and advancing Belt and Road cooperation were also stressed by the president during the inspection tour.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-07-15/China-urges-better-preservation-efforts-for-ethnic-minority-cultures-1bGeb7a8uu4/index.html

SOURCE CGTN
LIUZHOU, China, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Choubao Luosifen, a Chinese luosifen or river snail rice noodles brand, has announced the launch of its brand cartoon character with the same name as the brand - Choubao - on social media platforms. Choubao's cute and adorable image has quickly gained popularity online.

Choubao Luosifen's brand cartoon character Choubao

The idea for designing the image of Choubao originates from endorphin. Endorphin is an amino compound secreted by the pituitary gland. It is an intracerebral substance that is secreted by the body in response to increased external stimulation, which in turn produces a sense of excitement and pleasure. The character is a "happy fungus" that produces a contented feeling in anyone who enjoys a serving of luosifen. The idea behind the concept is that it can bring happiness to anyone who consumes the tasty food, by releasing the "happy fungus".

Luosifen is a local traditional food originating from Liuzhou, China. With the brand mission of "creating happiness", Choubao luosifen offer ultimate taste stimulation and pleasure through the ingredient-rich food and the fun experience it engenders.

Choubao Luosifen are now sold in dozens of countries and regions.

SOURCE Choubao
Watches by CIGA Design have received 17 international design awards

NEW YORK, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Award-winning CIGA Design, which specializes in mechanical watches, has launched an Indiegogo campaign in support of its new series of watches with transformative mechanism technology inspired by magicians who dazzle audiences with amazing tricks.

CIGA Design's mechanical M Series Magician watches have breakthrough construction created to include one inner movement and multiple external cases, leading to three styles in one watch. The flexible mechanical replacement mechanism allows the case to be switched by pressing just two buttons and this magical mix-and-match design provides wearers with options for various geometric presences on the wrist. The modern mechanical art aesthetics are combined with a precise movement inside.

This design breakthrough changes the single fixed case design used throughout the history of watchmaking and allows wearers to unlock a new, magic-like timepiece.

The freedom to have the watch morph and transform into new shapes encourages a new generation of users to explore new identities. It is a cutting-edge timepiece for people who value innovations and prefer being off the beaten path.

Owners can open up a world of imagination on their wrists.

To support the Indiegogo campaign for the M Series Magician watches, visit https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/--288138/coming_soon/x/29488961.

CIGA Design's 'Blue Planet' series of watches was the Challenge Watch Prize Winner of the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Geneve (GPHG) in 2021 and was the first Chinese watch brand to be awarded the top award in the global watch sector.

With outstanding original designs, the brand has received 17 international design awards, setting a record for the most for a Chinese wristwatch. It has been the recipient of nine awards out of 13 from the Red Dot Design Awards in the national sector. It is also the sole winner of both the Red Dot Grand Prix and the iF Design Gold Award in the domestic industry. In 2019, CIGA Design was shortlisted for GPHG, which is hailed as the Oscar of watches  an unprecedented honor for Chinese brands. In 2021, the brand was again shortlisted as one of the top three brands in the watch/jewelry category in Germany iF 20172021, with Apple and BVLGARI, for its innovative design.

On June 29, 2022, the Blue Planet Collection Ceremony was officially held at the Museum of Art and History (Musee d'Art et d'Histoire, MAH) in Geneva, Switzerland. It is understood that this is the first Chinese watch brand to be displayed by the museum. This donation ceremony was hosted by CIGA Design and the MAH.

The MAH is one of the largest and most important museums in Switzerland, with over 7,000 works of art from the prehistoric to the contemporary period, from locations in Europe, Africa, and Asia. The unique interdisciplinary nature of the collection and exhibition gives it a strong reputation in Switzerland.

To learn more about CIGA Design, visit cigadesign.com.

Contact: Watson Lens, [email protected]

SOURCE CIGA Design
#NATIONALDAYOFMASKING

NEW YORK, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- French luxury skincarebrand Clarins has joined forces with beauty expert Kathleen Jennings to officially declare July 16th, National Day of Masking. Commencing each year on July 16th, the holiday will serve as a source of inspiration that celebrates and encourages the act of normalizing self-care by wearing your skincare mask of choicemark the holiday by sharing your favorite skincare mask and tagging #NationalDayofMasking.

Beauty Expert & Skincare Fanatic Kathleen Jennings

As a former attorney and a mother of three, Texas-based beauty guru Kathleen Jennings has asserted her expertise and know-how within the vast world of beauty and all-things skincare. Having cultivated a loyal online presence and social following, the skincare enthusiast and face mask aficionado has amassed an engaged beauty community. Daily she provides in-depth product reviews, tutorials, and promotions by offering an honest, unfiltered approach to beauty and skincare. Jennings has a unique daily dialogue with her engaged social community, reposting followers who tag HER while wearing beauty products they purchase based on her reviews. To drive home the mission of normalizing self-care and wearing your favorite skincare mask during everyday activities, Jennings, in partnership with Clarins, is proud to announce National Day of Masking.

Jennings' "Holy Grail" beauty product is the Clarins V-Facial Intensive Wrap (better known as the Clarins Depuffing Mask to her online community), praising it's incredible facial depuffing effect. "Whenever I find a product like the Clarins Depuffing Mask, and it actually delivers on its claims, it's like hallelujah! I want to make it a point to share it with the rest of the beauty and skincare world," says Jennings. This award-winning mask is instantly recognizable on social media due to the cream-mousse mask's beard-like appearance which targets key depuffing zones below the eyes and above the neck to combat skin issues brought on by stress, heat, and hormonal changes. This innovative plant-based formula includes Beautyberry & Ginger extracts as well as Horse Chestnut Escin, relieves puffiness and visibly refine facial features, and Lady's Mantle and Alchemilla extracts promote a radiant, even skin tone.

The social media facial de-puffing movementspearheaded by Jenningshas transformed the Clarins V-Facial Intensive Wrap into a top seller for the brand, and is its #1 seller at Sephora. To celebrate and fulfill Jennings's 2021 birthday wish, Clarins is marking her birthday as #NationalDayofMasking. To engage both the brand and Jennings's social communities, Clarins will be hosting product giveaways on social media and encouraging all to post wearing a skincare mask on July 16th, tagging #NationalDayofMasking. This July 16th, Clarins will offer a 20% discount on all Clarins skincare masks clarinsusa.com and Sephora.com will offer 20% off V-Facial Intensive.

About Kathleen Jennings

Kathleen Jennings (@kathleenjenningsbeauty) is a former attorney, mother of three, and self-proclaimed skincare fanatic. Kathleen founded the BeautyNow app for booking beauty appointments, assets of which were acquired by Groupon, Inc. in 2016. Today her site KathleenJenningsBeauty.com and social media handles @kathleenjenningsbeauty (Instagram, TikTok) chronicle her devotion to skincare masking (particularly #carpoolmasking) and honest reviews about beauty products and services.

About Clarins

Founded in a professional Parisian beauty institute by Jacques Courtin-Clarins in 1954, Clarins has become the #1 prestige skincare brand in Europe. More than 65 years later, the brand remains family-owned and is distributed in more than 140 countriesoffering skincare innovations for face and body, men's, and makeup. With unique expertise in phytochemistry, Clarins Laboratories are considered pioneers in the fields of plant science and technology. The brand values are rooted in an ongoing dialogue with women, abiding respect for nature and people, and commitments to sustainable sourcing, including Le Domaine Clarinsour organic farm and open-air laboratory in the French Alps. Clarins is accelerating its sustainable actions to become a Certified B Corporation by 2023. Currently carbon neutral, the company will further reduce its carbon footprint by 30% and become 100% plastic neutral by using 100% recyclable packaging by 2025. Partners include Pur Projet (more than 525,000 trees planted to date), Plastic Odyssey (a three-year expedition across three continents with 30 stopovers to fight against plastic pollution), and FEED (more than 38 million school meals provided to children in need by the end of 2022).

Lucas Petry, Clarins Communications Manager, [email protected]

Melissa Reidhead, Clarins Senior Director, Communications, [email protected]

Remi Barbier, RBPR, [email protected]

www.clarinsusa.com

SOURCE Clarins USA
HUDSON, Ohio, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Diebold Nixdorf (NYSE: DBD) will release 2022 second quarter financial results on Tuesday, Aug. 2 before trading begins on the New York Stock Exchange. Octavio Marquez, president and chief executive officer, and Jeffrey Rutherford, executive vice president and chief financial officer, will discuss the results during a conference call and webcast beginning at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Prior to the call, Diebold Nixdorf will provide a press release summarizing business and financial results, and a shareholder letter containing other highlights from the period. The press release and letter will be accessible by visiting the Investor Relations section of Diebold Nixdorf's website located at http://www.dieboldnixdorf.com/earnings. Live access to the conference call, as well as the replay, will also be available on this website.

To access the call, we encourage you to pre-register at https://ige.netroadshow.com/registration/q4inc/11304/diebold-nixdorf-inc-second-quarter-2022-earnings-call/. After registering, a confirmation will be sent via email and will include dial-in details and a unique PIN code for entry to the call. To avoid long wait times, we suggest registering at least one day in advance to receive your unique PIN code. Registration will be open throughout the live call. You may also access the call and register with a live operator. The conference call will last approximately one hour. Participants should plan to dial in 15 minutes prior to the session. Details on the call are as follows:



Dial-in number Conf. ID Time/Date Conference Call Toll free: 844-200-6205 113233 8:30 a.m. ET; Aug. 2, 2022

International: 929-526-1599





About Diebold Nixdorf

Diebold Nixdorf, Incorporated (NYSE: DBD) is a world leader in enabling connected commerce. We automate, digitize and transform the way people bank and shop. As a partner to the majority of the world's top 100 financial institutions and top 25 global retailers, our integrated solutions connect digital and physical channels conveniently, securely and efficiently for millions of consumers each day. The company has a presence in more than 100 countries with approximately 22,000 employees worldwide. Visit www.DieboldNixdorf.com for more information.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/diebold

Twitter: twitter.com/dieboldnixdorf

Facebook: www.facebook.com/DieboldNixdorf

YouTube: www.youtube.com/dieboldnixdorf

DN-F

SOURCE Diebold Nixdorf, Incorporated
WASHINGTON, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In addition to over 200,000 comments opposing the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) proposed ban on menthol cigarettes, flavored cigars and vapes, Menthol Is Not A Crime has uncovered a grassroots movement opposing the ban, ranging from clergy to law enforcement to farmers to small business owners to everyday current and former smokers. This mounting group of community leaders is growing and becoming increasingly active across the U.S.

Clergy With A Candle, a civil rights organization highlighting inequities in American society, is traveling to Washington, D.C. this month to meet with Georgia's federal lawmakers to outline how misguided the ban is and its historic implications including redlining, stop-and-frisk, and mandatory minimums.

"... 85% of Black and Brown smokers favor menthol cigarettes and a ban targeting this kind of cigarette will potentially create an illegal underground market that disproportionately places Black and Brown Americans in the crosshairs of the criminal justice system," said Rev. Shanan Jones, President of Concerned Black Clergy of Metropolitan Atlanta.

Last month, the National Black Farmers Association held a Fish Fry in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, candidate for Congress, Sandy Smith spoke to over 55 local farmers stating that the ban is, "targeting our Black Community and it's wrong. We have bigger fish to fry."

Francis Armstrong, owner of Blue Riding Tobacco, which has seven stores and employs 39 people, the majority of whom are Black, stated that, "...70% of our sales are from tobacco products and accessories If the regulations were to go into effect, I estimate that we will lose 80% of the sales," and "..we will be forced to shut doors and send our employees to the unemployment line."

The growing dissatisfaction only increases in the law enforcement community that is extremely concerned with how this ban will be implemented.

Corey Pegues, a retired NYPD Deputy Inspector, in speaking about crack and cocaine during the War on Drugs voiced his concern stating, " the Black and Brown community is still dealing with people in jails and families disbanded Police officers will use the menthol ban to start engaging men and women," as a tool of enforcing other crimes.

Only through joining the growing coalition opposing the ban, can we fight for our community. The public has until August 2 to submit a written comment via the FDA website at https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/FDA-2021-N-1349-0001 .

SOURCE Menthol Is Not A Crime
Program Recognizes Growth, Leadership, Achievement, and Community Service

ROCHESTER, N.Y., July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Foundry Digital LLC ("Foundry"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Digital Currency Group ("DCG") focused on empowering a decentralized infrastructure with better capital access, efficiency, and transparency in digital asset mining and staking operations, announced that the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce and its Small Business Council affiliate selected CEO Mike Colyer as a Business Person of the Year Award finalist. The program recognizes outstanding contributions in the areas of growth, leadership, achievement, and community service.

Under Mike Colyer's leadership, Foundry has quickly become the largest digital currency company based in Western New York, providing clients across North America with various mining and staking products and services designed to support a decentralized future. Headquartered in Rochester with an upcoming office opening in Buffalo, its team has grown to more than 170 employees since its founding in 2019.

Before entering the crypto industry, Mike Colyer was an operational and commercial executive for manufacturing and distribution firms for more than two decades. In 2007, Colyer and his wife, Lisa, co-founded the Clairebear Foundation, a non-profit that supports families with sick children.

Colyer said, "I am grateful for this recognition from the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce and the Small Business Council. The true credit goes to the Foundry team for the work it has done in a short time to make a huge impact in the digital asset industry as well as in our community. I also congratulate my fellow finalists for the excellent work you and your companies do across the Rochester and Finger Lakes region."

Small Business Council President Sarah Compter said, "In a city long recognized for a handful of big corporations, it is really the small and midsize businesses that fuel Rochester's economy today. This summer, for the 39th year, the Small Business Council honors executives who lead with passion, grit, and perseverance."

Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Bob Duffy said, "Small and midsize companies make up the majority of businesses in our region, and leadership matters at organizations of all sizes. We congratulate this year's Business Person of the Year Award finalists and honor these people who are doing an exceptional job leading these successful businesses and driving our regional economy."

About Foundry Digital LLC

A subsidiary of DCG, Foundry Digital LLC was created to meet the institutional demand for better capital access, efficiency, and transparency in the digital asset mining and staking industry. Headquartered in Rochester, NY, Foundry leverages its institutional expertise, capital, and market intelligence to empower participants within the crypto ecosystem by providing the tools they need to build tomorrow's decentralized infrastructure. For more information, please visit foundrydigital.com.

About Digital Currency Group, Inc.

Founded in 2015, Digital Currency Group is a global enterprise that builds, buys, and invests in blockchain companies all over the world. Today, DCG sits at the epicenter of the industry, backing more than 200 companies in 30+ countries. In addition to its investment portfolio, DCG is the parent company of some of the leading companies in the industry, including Grayscale Investments, Genesis Trading, CoinDesk, Foundry Digital, Luno, and TradeBlock.

SOURCE Foundry
NEW YORK, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Frederick Wildman and Sons announced today that Marc Hirten has left his position as President and COO of Frederick Wildman and Sons Ltd.

Corrado Casoli, Chairman of Frederick Wildman, and Roberta Corra, CEO, along with all the other shareholders, would like to thank Marc for his contribution over the years to the leadership of the company. Roberta Corra will cover Mr. Hirten's role until a replacement is named.

Frederick Wildman has great pleasure in announcing the appointment effective July 15, 2022 of Mr. Matt Munn in the role of Chief Commercial Officer (CCO). Mr. Munn can boast long and varied experience in the Wine and Spirits sector having worked for over twenty years at leading Suppliers and Distributors such as E&J Gallo, Schieffelin & Somerset (now Moet Hennessy USA) and most recently with Southern Glazer's where he was Senior Vice President and General Manager. The Sales, Logistics and, on an interim basis, Marketing Management teams will report directly to Mr. Munn.

"I am sure that the entire company will benefit from the contribution of this new managerial figure and that he will lend great support to all the Sales team thanks to his professionalism and commercial know-how," states Chairman Corrado Casoli.

"With the arrival of Matt Munn in Frederick Wildman, we are taking a significant step towards continued company growth and all of the French partners wish him every success and much satisfaction," says Laurent d'Harcourt, CEO of Champagne Pol Roger, commenting on behalf of the French shareholders.

The Chairman, CEO and all the shareholders will continue working to ensure that Frederick Wildman is, and continues to be, a benchmark company in the industry.

ABOUT FREDERICK WILDMAN AND SONS

Frederick Wildman and Sons is a New York based fine wine importer offering the leading properties from France, Italy, Spain, Argentina, and other regions. The portfolio includes more than 75 brands, including: Pol Roger, Olivier Leflaive, Pascal Jolivet, Chateau Fuisse, Famille Hugel, Domaine Faiveley, Marchesi di Barolo, as well as Cantine Riunite; CIV's full portfolio, and the fine wines of Gruppo Italiano Vini including Nino Negri, Santi and Re Manfredi. For more information, visit frederickwildman.com.

SOURCE Frederick Wildman and Sons
NOIDA, India, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a new report published by UnivDatos Markets Insights the Genotyping Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 20% from 2021-2027. The analysis has been segmented into Product/Services (Reagents & Kits, Genotyping Services, Instruments, and Bioinformatics.); Technology (PCR, Sequencing, Electrophoresis, Microarray, and Others); End-users (Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology Companies, Hospitals and Clinics, Academic & Government Institutes, Diagnostic & Research Institutions, and Others); Region/Country.

Click here to view the Report Description & TOC

The Genotyping market report has been aggregated by collecting informative data of various dynamics such as market drivers, restraints, and opportunities. This innovative report makes use of several analyses to get a closer outlook on the Genotyping market. Genotyping market report offers a detailed analysis of the latest industry developments and trending factors in the market that are influencing the market growth. Furthermore, this statistical market research repository examines and estimates the Genotyping market at the global and regional levels.

Request for Sample Pages

Market Overview

Genetics is of extreme importance to medical practice as it provides a definitive diagnosis for many clinically heterogeneous diseases. Consequently, it enables a more precise disease prognosis and provides guidance towards the selection of the best therapeutic choices for the affected patients. Much of its current promise comes from its ability to examine the human genome at various stages, from chromosome to single-base changes. Furthermore, Genetic testing assists with developing preventative health plans, reducing health care costs for patients such as chronic disease detection and management in the long run. Health systems reduce health care costs while still providing high-quality care by utilizing resources like Genome Medical.

The global Genotyping market report is studied thoroughly with several aspects that would help stakeholders in making their decisions more curated.

Based on product/services, the market is fragmented into Reagents & Kits, Genotyping Services, Instruments, and Bioinformatics. The reagent & kits segment held significant growth in 2020 owing to the increasing demand for the reagents, sampling, and sequencing process of the genomes. However, during the forecast period, the bioinformatics segment is predicted to have highest CAGR due to the increasing demand for better and improved software in healthcare as well as in the diagnostic sector to store the genetic information of the patient.

Based on technology, the market is segmented into PCR, sequencing, electrophoresis, microarray, and others. The PCR grabbed a major market share in the genotyping market in 2020. This is mainly due to the rapidly increasing incidences of genetic diseases among the population and the continuously developing infrastructure for medical diagnostics owing to the growth of the PCR segment. Furthermore, during the forecast period, the sequencing segment is predicted to have a considerable share in genotyping market due to the continuous enhancement in the sequencing technology and increasing investment in biotechnology.

Based on end-users, the market is fragmented into pharmaceutical & biotechnology companies, hospitals and clinics, academic & government institutes, diagnostic & research institutions, and others. The pharmaceutical & biotechnology companies are held a significant share in the market in 2020. This is mainly due to increasing the need for pharmacogenomics in the drug development process and the increasing demand for specific medicines is responsible for the segmental growth in 2020. During the forecast period, the diagnostic & research institution segment is anticipated to have a significant growth in the genotyping market. The increasing cases of the diseases such as cancer induce the demand for the proper diagnostic tests along with advancements in genetics attributed to the significant market size of the segment in the future.

Have a Look at the Chapters

Genotyping Market Geographical Segmentation Includes:

North America ( United States , Canada , and Rest of North America )

( , , and Rest of ) Europe ( Germany , United Kingdom , Italy , France , Spain , and the Rest of Europe )

( , , , , , and the Rest of ) Asia-Pacific ( China , India , Australia , Japan , and the Rest of Asia-Pacific )

( , , , , and the Rest of ) Rest of the World

For a better understanding of the market adoption of the Genotyping, the market is analyzed based on its worldwide presence in the countries such as North America (United States, Canada, and Rest of North America), Europe (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, and Rest of Europe), Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, India, Australia, and Rest of APAC), and Rest of World. North America constitutes a major market for the Genotyping industry owing to the presence of well-established market players and frequent product launches in the region.

The major players targeting the market include

Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy

GE Renewable Energy

Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P.

Iberdrola SA

JinkoSolar Holding Co. Ltd.

NextEra Energy, Inc.

Orsted A/S

Adani Green Energy Limited

Suzlon Energy Limited

Tata Power

Competitive Landscape

The degree of competition among prominent companies has been elaborated by analyzing several leading key players operating globally. The specialist team of research analysts sheds light on various traits such as global market competition, market share, most recent industry advancements, innovative product launches, partnerships, mergers, or acquisitions by leading companies in the global Genotyping market. The major players have been analyzed by using research methodologies for getting insight views on market competition.

Key questions resolved through this analytical market research report include:

What are the latest trends, new patterns, and technological advancements in the Genotyping market?

Which factors are influencing the Genotyping market over the forecast period?

What are the global challenges, threats, and risks in the Genotyping market?

Which factors are propelling and restraining the Genotyping market?

What are the demanding global regions of the Genotyping market?

What will be the global market size in the upcoming years?

What are the crucial market acquisition strategies and policies applied by global companies?

We understand the requirement of different businesses, regions, and countries, we offer customized reports as per your requirements of business nature and geography. Please let us know If you have any custom needs.

About UnivDatos Market Insights (UMI)

Browse Other Related Research Reports from UnivDatos Market Insights

About UnivDatos Market Insights

UnivDatos Market Insights (UMI) is a passionate market research firm and a subsidiary of Universal Data Solutions. We believe in delivering insights through Market Intelligence Reports, Customized Business Research, and Primary Research. Our research studies are spread across topics across the world, we cover markets in over 100 countries using smart research techniques and agile methodologies. We offer in-depth studies, detailed analysis, and customized reports that help shape winning business strategies for our clients.

Contact

UnivDatos Market Insights

Ankita Gupta

Director Operations

Ph: +91-7838604911

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://univdatos.com/

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1225049/UnivDatos_Logo.jpg

SOURCE UnivDatos Market Insights Pvt. Ltd.
DUBLIN, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Medical Ceramics Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2022-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global medical ceramics market reached a value of US$ 10.1 Billion in 2021. Looking forward, the publisher expects the market to reach US$ 14.0 Billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 5.59% during 2021-2027. Keeping in mind the uncertainties of COVID-19, we are continuously tracking and evaluating the direct as well as the indirect influence of the pandemic on different end use sectors. These insights are included in the report as a major market contributor.



Medical ceramics, or bio-ceramics, refer to biocompatible materials used for various contact and non-contact medical applications. Some of the commonly used medical ceramics include bio-inert ceramics, which are manufactured using alumina and zirconia, bioactive ceramics manufactured using Hydroxyapatite and glass, and bioresorbable and piezoelectric ceramics.

They are processed through hot isostatic pressure (HIP) and injection molding techniques and exhibit high mechanical strength, inherent stability and advantageous electrical properties. They are commonly used for dental and bone implants, prosthetic dentures, diagnostic and therapeutic medical devices, such as heart valves and pacemaker electrodes and consumables.



The increasing prevalence of dental and medical ailments across the globe represents one of the key factors driving the growth of the market. Furthermore, the rising geriatric population, which is more susceptible to such medical concerns and require a greater number of surgical procedures, are providing a thrust to the market growth.

This has also resulted in the increasing preference for alumina-based medical ceramics, which are extensively used to manufacture shoulder, knee and hip implants for orthopedic procedures. In line with this, the widespread adoption of plastic surgeries and advanced wound healing technologies are favoring the market growth.

Additionally, various technological advancements, such as the development of innovative and novel medical ceramics, are acting as other growth-inducing factors. Product manufacturers are developing minimally invasive (MI) implants for dental, orthopedic and cardiovascular applications that cause negligible discomfort and increase the efficacy of the medical procedures. Other factors, including rising expenditure capacities of the individuals, along with significant improvements in the healthcare infrastructure, are anticipated to drive the market further.

Competitive Landscape:

The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined with some of the key players being 3M Company, CeramTec GmbH, CoorsTek, Inc., DePuy Synthes, H.C. Starck GmbH, Kyocera Corporation, Morgan Advanced Materials Plc, NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd., Institut Straumann AG, and Zimmer Biomet.



Key Questions Answered in This Report:

How has the global medical ceramics market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years?

What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the global medical ceramics market?

What are the key regional markets?

What is the breakup of the market based on the type?

What is the breakup of the market based on the application?

What is the breakup of the market based on the end user?

What are the various stages in the value chain of the industry?

What are the key driving factors and challenges in the industry?

What is the structure of the global medical ceramics market and who are the key players?

What is the degree of competition in the industry?

Key Topics Covered:



1 Preface



2 Scope and Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Introduction

4.1 Overview

4.2 Key Industry Trends



5 Global Medical Ceramics Market

5.1 Market Overview

5.2 Market Performance

5.3 Impact of COVID-19

5.4 Market Forecast



6 Market Breakup by Type

6.1 Bioinert

6.1.1 Market Trends

6.1.2 Market Forecast

6.2 Bioactive

6.2.1 Market Trends

6.2.2 Market Forecast

6.3 Bioresorbable

6.3.1 Market Trends

6.3.2 Market Forecast

6.4 Others

6.4.1 Market Trends

6.4.2 Market Forecast



7 Market Breakup by Application

7.1 Orthopedic

7.1.1 Market Trends

7.1.2 Market Forecast

7.2 Implantable devices

7.2.1 Market Trends

7.2.2 Market Forecast

7.3 Dental

7.3.1 Market Trends

7.3.2 Market Forecast

7.4 Surgical and Diagnostic Instruments

7.4.1 Market Trends

7.4.2 Market Forecast

7.5 Others

7.5.1 Market Trends

7.5.2 Market Forecast



8 Market Breakup by End User

8.1 Hospitals and Clinics

8.1.1 Market Trends

8.1.2 Market Forecast

8.2 Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Companies

8.2.1 Market Trends

8.2.2 Market Forecast

8.3 Others

8.3.1 Market Trends

8.3.2 Market Forecast



9 Market Breakup by Region



10 SWOT Analysis



11 Value Chain Analysis



12 Porters Five Forces Analysis

13 Price Analysis



14 Competitive Landscape

14.1 Market Structure

14.2 Key Players

14.3 Profiles of Key Players

14.3.1 3M Company

14.3.1.1 Company Overview

14.3.1.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.1.3 Financials

14.3.1.4 SWOT Analysis

14.3.2 CeramTec GmbH

14.3.2.1 Company Overview

14.3.2.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.2.3 Financials

14.3.3 CoorsTek, Inc.

14.3.3.1 Company Overview

14.3.3.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.4 DePuy Synthes

14.3.4.1 Company Overview

14.3.4.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.5 H.C. Starck GmbH

14.3.5.1 Company Overview

14.3.5.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.6 Kyocera Corporation

14.3.6.1 Company Overview

14.3.6.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.7 Morgan Advanced Materials Plc

14.3.7.1 Company Overview

14.3.7.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.7.3 Financials

14.3.8 NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd.

14.3.8.1 Company Overview

14.3.8.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.8.3 Financials

14.3.8.4 SWOT Analysis

14.3.9 Institut Straumann AG

14.3.9.1 Company Overview

14.3.9.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.10 Zimmer Biomet

14.3.10.1 Company Overview

14.3.10.2 Product Portfolio

14.3.10.3 Financials

14.3.10.4 SWOT Analysis



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/s488c3?

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

U.S. Fax: 646-607-1904

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/539438/Research_and_Markets_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Research and Markets
DUBLIN, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Next-Generation Personalized Beauty Global Market Report 2022" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global next-generation personalised beauty market is expected to grow from $29.25 billion in 2021 to $37.72 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.87%. The market is expected to reach $51.64 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 12.08%.



The next-generation personalized beauty market consists of sales of next-generation personalized beauty services and products by entities (organizations, sole traders, and partnerships) that are involved in personalized beauty. Next-generation personalized beauty includes products and services that are personalized or designed according to the needs of every individual. Next-generation personalized beauty products can be found in various ranges from skincare such as body lotion, creams to haircare and makeup.



The main product types in the next-generation personalised beauty market are skincare, haircare, make-up, fragrances, and others. The next-generation personalised beauty skincare includes personalised skincare products and services. Skincare personalization includes the process of knowing the client's skin better, suiting its needs, and also selecting the products that are suitable for skin in a particular environment. Next-generation personalised beauty is applied through consultations/digital questionnaires, apps, specialised hardware, home test kits, and others.



The growing concern of consumers regarding skin problems such as acne, cold sores, blisters, and hives across the globe is contributing to the growth of the next-generation personalised beauty market. Skin diseases can be temporary or permanent, painless or painful, and situational or genetic. With the increasing number of skin disorders, people are becoming more conscious of their skin and opting for personalised services and products to overcome skin problems.

According to the Medscape report 2020, approximately 50 million Americans suffer from acne each year, with 80 percent of Americans having acne at some point in their lives. Further, around 50 million men and 30 million women are suffering from hair loss due to skin diseases. Skin diseases rank fourth among the most common causes of all human illnesses, which affect around one-third of the world's population. The increase in skin problems among consumers is demanding more personalised solutions, driving the market for next-generation personalised beauty.



Companies in the next-generation personalised beauty market are strategically partnering and collaborating with other companies to broaden their product portfolios and expand their next-generation personalised beauty products. For example, in April 2021, Revieve, a US-based company engaged in offering personalised products, services, and treatments, entered into a partnership with BABOR, a Germany-based company offering customised skin care solutions to its customers.

In July 2021, AptarGroup, Inc., the US-based personal care, beauty, and pharmaceutical company, entered into a strategic collaboration with Yan An Tang, a China-based company that offers customized, personalised skincare products, nursing programs, and one-on-one skincare consultations.



In June 2021, Hims & Hers Health, Inc., a US-based company that offers personalised health and wellness services to customers through a multi-specialty telehealth platform, acquired Apostrophe for an undisclosed deal amount.

Through the acquisition, Hims & Hers expands its capability to provide the most advanced and personalised dermatology treatments to consumers at a fast pace and on a larger scale. Apostrophe is a teledermatology company that offers personalized dermatology services to consumers by connecting them with its dermatologist.



Key Topics Covered:



1. Executive Summary



2. Next-Generation Personalized Beauty Market Characteristics



3. Next-Generation Personalized Beauty Market Trends And Strategies



4. Impact Of COVID-19 On Next-Generation Personalized Beauty



5. Next-Generation Personalized Beauty Market Size And Growth

5.1. Global Next-Generation Personalized Beauty Historic Market, 2016-2021, $ Billion

5.1.1. Drivers Of The Market

5.1.2. Restraints On The Market

5.2. Global Next-Generation Personalized Beauty Forecast Market, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion

5.2.1. Drivers Of The Market

5.2.2. Restraints On the Market



6. Next-Generation Personalized Beauty Market Segmentation

6.1. Global Next-Generation Personalized Beauty Market, Segmentation By Product, Historic and Forecast, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion

Skincare

Haircare

Make-Up

Fragrances

Others

6.2. Global Next-Generation Personalized Beauty Market, Segmentation By Application, Historic and Forecast, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion

Consultation/Digital Questionnaires

Apps and Specialized Hardware

Home Test Kits

Others

7. Next-Generation Personalized Beauty Market Regional And Country Analysis

7.1. Global Next-Generation Personalized Beauty Market, Split By Region, Historic and Forecast, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion

7.2. Global Next-Generation Personalized Beauty Market, Split By Country, Historic and Forecast, 2016-2021, 2021-2026F, 2031F, $ Billion

Companies Mentioned

Ulta Beauty

Proven Skincare

Bite Beauty

Curology

Estee Lauder

Coty

Function of Beauty

Insitu Cosmetics

Fitskin

Krigler

Kiehl'S Apothecary Preparations

Codage

Skinceuticals Custom D.O.S.E.

Skinshift

the Buff

Dermacare Skin

Esalon

Romy Paris

Duolab

Prose

Nomige

Atolla

Ave & Edam

Preemadonna

Labote

Orig3N

Skin Authority

Nu Skin

Ioma Paris

Sephora

Skintelli

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/m7u82k

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

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/539438/Research_and_Markets_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Research and Markets
WASHINGTON , July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- GoodFirms, the universally renowned research, ratings, and reviews platform, recently announced the latest list of Best Accounts Payable Software for larger businesses. Using Accounts Payable software to handle vendor or supplier payments can significantly reduce costs by automating the entire process.

Best Accounts Payable Software listed by GoodFirms:

Recently announced the latest list of Best Accounts Payable Software for larger businesses. Tweet this Best Accounts Payable Software

Sage Intacct, QuickBooks Online, Xero, Bill.com, SAP Concur, Tipalti, Zoho Books, AvidXchange, Stampli, PurchaseControl.

Accounts payable software is an intuitive, versatile tool designed for businesses to handle, track, and record every payment management by leveraging a set of customized instructions to run the AP system securely. The AP tools help complete computations automatically with no mistakes compared to manual accounting, and it certainly improves the efficiency of business bank accounts.

Today, it's challenging for businesses to choose the best AP software as there are numerous providers. Here, GoodFirms has assessed and curated the list of most excellent accounts payable software to transform their account operations digitally by reducing accounts' expected workload, human error, and fraud.

"Accounts Payable Software is the best choice for having complete control over the financial data and operations thereby enabling businesses to obtain optimum productivity, flexibility and scalability," says GoodFirms.

Key features of accounts payable software include Approval Management , Automation, Data Extraction, Expense Management , Invoicing, PO Reconciliation, Payment Management, Reporting & Analysis, Vendor Management, and Tax Calculation. The service seekers can choose those AP software that covers all the features precisely meeting their organization's needs to ensure a smooth transition from this system.

With this listing, GoodFirms aims to assist the service seekers in choosing the proper accounts payable software that helps organizations manage their debts and other financial liabilities. Organizations can also take advantage of the advanced filter options for features, pricing models, devices supported, deployment, business size, etc. Furthermore, they can also verify the most reviewed, top-rated tools and select the suitable system.

GoodFirms follows a strict methodology to conduct thorough research based on quality, reliability, and ability to cater to the needs of service seekers. The AP automation software list was created based on several parameters such as the background of each product, the company, years of experience in the domain areas, online market penetration, client feedback, and much more. Only those companies that attained the maximum score made it to the list.

If you are a software service provider and wish to get listed , you can partake in the GoodFirms research processes. Interestingly, gaining the top position among the best service providers will attract the attention of potential prospects, increase productivity, help generate more sales, and earn more profit.

About GoodFirms:

GoodFirms is a Washington, D.C.-based research firm specializing in identifying the most prominent and efficient IT companies and software providers that can automate the tasks of various industries. GoodFirms' industry-wide research, review & rankings help service seekers leap further and multiply their industry-wide value and credibility.

Contact: Sophia Jayden ([email protected])

SOURCE GoodFirms
NEW YORK, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the latest market research study published by P&S Intelligence, the size of the green ammonia market was $16.4 million in 2021, and it will grow at an enormous rate of about 95%, to reach $6,559.1 million by the year 2030. This is because of the several industrial projects for producing this chemical that are presently underway in Mauritania, Oceania, and Oman.

The 15-metric-ton output of the publicized projects, which is to be attained by 2030, is about 8% of the existing production of ammonia across 54 projects. Fundamentally, the strict emission guidelines are driving the production of NH 3 via clean methods.

Get the sample pages of this report: https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/green-ammonia-market/report-sample

The APAC green ammonia market in 2021 had the highest revenue, of about $7.06 million. This is because of the stringent regulations and the UN commitment to guarantee zero emissions by 2050. Wind and solar energy are the mainstays for carrying out AWE for sustainable ammonia production, in response to the stringent emission laws and zero-carbon goals.

The product demand will be driven by how fast the cost of production of this chemical can be reduced. Pilot utilizations will be more common in the near future because of the cognizance about zero emissions. North America, the EU, and APAC have set primacies, since their main economies have agreed to support the net zero emission target by 2050.

Additionally, there is also an increasing understanding that longstanding sustainable energy stowage and green ammonia usage in making electricity, fertilizers, and other products do not damage the environment. Ammonia is extensively used as a feedstock for inorganic, nitrogen-comprising fertilizers; thus, this category dominates the green ammonia market with an about 55% share.

The usage of green ammonia for making fertilizers is considered a significant part of the decarbonization approach, and it has been accepted by numerous nations for the reduction of GHG. This method can bring about 100% carbon reduction from the agriculture sector, thus helping in attaining eco-friendly goals.

Browse detailed report on Global Green Ammonia Market Trends, Business Strategies, Regional Outlook and Analysis Through 2030

The AWE production method will have the highest growth rate, of 95%, in the coming years. This will chiefly be because of the increase in the count of green hydrogen projects in China, Australia, and Germany, which are robustly investing in the expansion of a hydrogen-based economy. In order, the investments in hydrogen infra will bring prospects for the production of the chemical through this technology, which is traditional, lucrative, and mature.

The major companies in the green ammonia market are experimenting with numerous technologies for this purpose. For example, ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions has fashioned a system that utilizes only air, water, and renewable energy. The corporation has created the AWE procedure taking the chlor-alkali electrode technology as the base, utilizing the EPC experience gained through over 500 projects with a 10-GW installed capacity, globally.

Green Ammonia Market Size Breakdown by Segment

By Production Method

Alkaline Water Electrolysis

Proton Exchange Membrane

Solid Oxide Electrolysis

By End Use

Transportation

Power Generation

Fertilizers

Regional Analysis

North America

U.S.



Canada

Europe

Germany



France



U.K.



Italy

Asia-Pacific

China



Japan



India



Australia



South Korea

Latin America

Brazil



Mexico

Middle East and Africa

and Saudi Africa



Saudi Arabia

Browse More Reports Published by P&S

Hydrogen Market Trends by Production Process, Distribution Method, End User  Industry Size Forecast Report 2030

Green Chemicals Market Size and Share Analysis by Product, Application - Industry Growth Forecast Report 2030

About P&S Intelligence

P&S Intelligence provides market research and consulting services to a vast array of industries across the world. As an enterprising research and consulting company, P&S believes in providing thorough insights on the ever-changing market scenario, to empower companies to make informed decisions and base their business strategies with astuteness. P&S keeps the interest of its clients at heart, which is why the insights we provide are both honest and accurate. Our long list of satisfied clients includes entry-level firms as well as multi-million-dollar businesses and government agencies.

Contact:

Prajneesh Kumar

P&S Intelligence

Phone: +1-347-960-6455

Email: [email protected]

Web: https://www.psmarketresearch.com

Follow Us: LinkedIn Twitter

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1224988/P_and_S_Intelligence_Logo.jpg

SOURCE P&S Intelligence
HONOLULU, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (HEI) (NYSE: HE) will announce its second quarter 2022 financial results on Monday, August 8. In addition, American Savings Bank, F.S.B. (ASB), a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of HEI, will announce its second quarter 2022 financial results on Friday, July 29.

HEI will conduct a webcast and conference call to discuss second quarter 2022 consolidated earnings, 2022 earnings guidance and regulatory and other matters on Monday, August 8 at 10:15 a.m. Hawaii time (4:15 p.m. Eastern time).

To listen to the conference call, dial 1-844-200-6205 (U.S.) or +1-929-526-1599 (international) and enter passcode 638186. Parties may also access presentation materials and/or listen to the conference call by visiting the conference call link on HEI's website at www.hei.com under "Investor Relations," sub-heading "News and Events  Events and Presentations."

A replay will be available online and via phone. The online replay will be available on HEI's website about two hours after the event. An audio replay will also be available about two hours after the event through August 22. To access the audio replay, dial 1-866-813-9403 (U.S.) or +(44) 204-525-0658 (international) and enter passcode 484022.

HEI and Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc. (Hawaiian Electric) intend to continue to use HEI's website, www.hei.com , as a means of disclosing additional information; such disclosures will be included in the Investor Relations section of the website. Accordingly, investors should routinely monitor the Investor Relations section of HEI's website, in addition to following HEI's, Hawaiian Electric's and American's press releases, HEI's and Hawaiian Electric's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings and HEI's public conference calls and webcasts. Investors may sign up to receive e-mail alerts via the "Investor Relations" section of the website. The information on HEI's website is not incorporated by reference into this document or into HEI's and Hawaiian Electric's SEC filings unless, and except to the extent, specifically incorporated by reference.

Investors may also wish to refer to the Public Utilities Commission of the State of Hawaii (PUC) website at dms.puc.hawaii.gov/dms to review documents filed with, and issued by, the PUC. No information on the PUC website is incorporated by reference into this document or into HEI's and Hawaiian Electric's SEC filings.

About HEI

The HEI family of companies provides the energy and financial services that empower much of the economic and community activity of Hawaii. HEI's electric utility, Hawaiian Electric, supplies power to approximately 95% of Hawaii's population and is undertaking an ambitious effort to decarbonize its operations and the broader state economy. Its banking subsidiary, American Savings Bank, is one of Hawaii's largest financial institutions, providing a wide array of banking and other financial services and working to advance economic growth, affordability and financial fitness. HEI also helps advance Hawaii's sustainability goals through investments by its non-regulated subsidiary, Pacific Current. For more information, visit www.hei.com .

Contact: Julie Smolinski Phone: (808) 543-7300

Vice President, Investor Relations & Corporate Sustainability E-mail: [email protected]

SOURCE Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc.
Hyundai's first full electric high-performance model IONIQ 5 N to be launched in 2023

Hyundai Motor today premieres two high-performance concepts  RN22e and N Vision 74

RN22e and N Vision 74 embody Hyundai N Brand's high-performance vision of electrification, though not confirmed for commercial production

BUSAN, South Korea, July 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Hyundai Motor's high-performance N sub-brand is revealing its electrification vision to demonstrate the company's commitment to future-focused zero-emissions technologies. RN22e and N Vision 74 are inspirational examples of N's electrification vision.

Experience the interactive Multichannel News Release here: https://www.multivu.com/players/English/9068651-hyundai-motors-n-brand-unveils-high-performance-ev-concepts-rn22e-n-vision-74/

Hyundai Motors RN22e and N Vision 74 performance film RN22e and N Vision 74 are inspirational examples of Ns electrification vision.

"RN22e and N Vision 74 play an important role in the strategic development of our entire product lineup, especially our electrified, high-performance vehicles," said Thomas Schemera, Executive Vice President and Head of Customer Experience Division at Hyundai Motor Company. "Rolling labs represent the continuous development of our most advanced technologies."

"In just seven years, Hyundai N has become the fastest evolving performance brand," says Till Wartenberg, Vice President of N Brand Management & Motorsport Sub-Division at Hyundai Motor Company. "N is moving forward to set new standards in sustainable high performance."

Introducing RN22e and N Vision 74

RN22e offers racetrack-ready performance by refining and optimizing Hyundai's market-leading E-GMP and packaging it in an IONIQ 6-based streamliner design. As Hyundai N's first rolling lab based on E-GMP, RN22e shows the electrified N brand's vision and direction while opening the possibility of a high-performance EV model in the future.

Inspired by Hyundai Motor's heritage, N Vision 74 is a high-performance hydrogen fuel cell hybrid rolling lab that underlines the company's leadership in sustainable performance technology. N Vision 74 is inspired by both technology and design, rooted in N's sustainable vision announced in 2015 and Hyundai's passion for high performance since 1974.

"N Vision 74's future-oriented design reflects the respect and appreciation we have for the dedication and passion that went into the Pony Coupe concept," said SangYup Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of Hyundai Design Center.

History and Future of Hyundai rolling labs

In 2012, Hyundai embarked on Project RM to showcase its expertise in developing new technology and innovation. N will also stay true to its philosophy in the era of electrification.

As the initial big step, Hyundai Motor's first electric N, IONIQ 5 N will hit the global market in 2023. More details about the first EV N will be unveiled later.

More information can be found at: http://globalpr.hyundai.com

SOURCE Hyundai Motor Company
LUXEMBOURG, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ardagh Group ("Ardagh") welcomes the award to it today of $84 million, including interest and costs, by the ICC International Court of Arbitration.

This award arose from an adverse jury decision in the District Court of Delaware in 2017, affirmed on Appeal in 2019, against Ardagh's North American glass business (formerly called Verallia North America ("VNA").

Ardagh was indemnified by Compagnie de Saint-Gobain, the seller of VNA, and initiated arbitration proceedings to recover losses arising from the US legal proceedings. Today's award, which is final, represents full recovery for Ardagh.

About Ardagh Group

Ardagh Group is a global supplier of infinitely recyclable metal and glass packaging for brand owners around the world. Ardagh operates 65 metal and glass production facilities in 16 countries, employing more than 20,000 people with annualised sales of approximately $10 billion.

SOURCE Ardagh Group S.A.
EV Driven program provides customer incentives that support the state's electric vehicle expansion goals

MORRISTOWN, N.J., July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L), a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE), has launched EV Driven, a new four-year program that provides incentives for electric vehicle charging infrastructure. The program, recently approved by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU), will benefit the state's environment by reducing auto emissions.

"New Jersey is a national leader in clean energy and electric vehicle adoption, and the EV Driven program helps our customers build the charging backbone necessary to reach our state's goal of registering 330,000 electric vehicles by 2025," said James Fakult, president of JCP&L. "We're excited to support New Jersey's efforts to expand the charging station network as we continue providing safe, reliable and affordable service to our customers."

The $39.8 million program has three components:

Residential charging - provides up to $1,500 in incentives for customer electrical upgrades necessary for the installation of up to 2,000 qualified Level Two electric vehicle chargers in JCP&L's service area. Qualified residential customers may also be eligible for up to $5,500 in utility upgrades, such as new poles, transformers and service wires, required to support the chargers. Additionally, bill credit incentives may be available to encourage off-peak-hours charging.

- provides up to in incentives for customer electrical upgrades necessary for the installation of up to 2,000 qualified Level Two electric vehicle chargers in JCP&L's service area. Qualified residential customers may also be eligible for up to in utility upgrades, such as new poles, transformers and service wires, required to support the chargers. Additionally, bill credit incentives may be available to encourage off-peak-hours charging. Mixed-use commercial and multifamily property charging  the mixed-use commercial program provides up to $6,700 per qualified Level Two charger for up to 500 public-access ports, and up to $5,000 per port for a maximum of 100 ports dedicated to workplace use across JCP&L's service territory. Multifamily property owners also can qualify for off-peak charging credits as well as incentives of up to $8,375 per qualified Level Two charger for up to 150 ports in state-designated overburdened communities within JCP&L's service territory, and up to $6,700 per smart charging port for up to 150 ports in non-overburdened communities in JCP&L's service territory. The mixed-use commercial and multifamily property component also covers the costs of utility upgrades at qualifying locations.

 the mixed-use commercial program provides up to per qualified Level Two charger for up to 500 public-access ports, and up to per port for a maximum of 100 ports dedicated to workplace use across JCP&L's service territory. Multifamily property owners also can qualify for off-peak charging credits as well as incentives of up to per qualified Level Two charger for up to 150 ports in state-designated overburdened communities within JCP&L's service territory, and up to per smart charging port for up to 150 ports in non-overburdened communities in JCP&L's service territory. The mixed-use commercial and multifamily property component also covers the costs of utility upgrades at qualifying locations. Public-access DC Fast charging - provides incentives of up to $25,000 per DC fast charger port for up to 248 charging locations accessible to the public across JCP&L's service territory. Additionally, JCP&L will install new underground cabling, transformers, metering connections and poles for up to 124 public DC Fast charging locations at a cost of up to $50,500 per location. To help manage the increased electrical costs of DC fast charging, demand charge discounts are also available.

Customers can find more information on the program and apply for incentives at www.jcp-l.com/evdriven.

Electric vehicles offer a clean, efficient alternative to gasoline-powered vehicles, averaging as low as one-third the cost-per-mile of gasoline. Depending on the battery capacity, EV driving range can vary from about 80 miles up to 280 miles. New Jersey's Energy Master Plan calls for an increase in electric vehicle adoption to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The transportation sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the state, accounting for 46% of the state's net emissions.

JCP&L serves 1.1 million customers in the counties of Burlington, Essex, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren. Follow JCP&L on Twitter @JCP_L, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/JCPandL or online at www.jcp-l.com.

FirstEnergy is dedicated to integrity, safety, reliability and operational excellence. Its 10 electric distribution companies form one of the nation's largest investor-owned electric systems, serving customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, Maryland and New York. The company's transmission subsidiaries operate approximately 24,000 miles of transmission lines that connect the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions. Follow FirstEnergy on Twitter @FirstEnergyCorp or online at www.firstenergycorp.com.

SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.
CHICAGO, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Katten announced today that New York Times bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize finalist Dr. Eric Cervini joined firm attorneys and business professionals in a virtual fireside conversation about the history of LGBTQ+ politics in the United States and the continued battle for LGBTQ+ rights.

Katten hosted Dr. Eric Cervini as its guest speaker during Pride month.

"What history provides us is a guidebook, not just of what worked, for example activists organizing in California, recruiting unlikely allies like Ronald Reagan to come out against the bill [to ban gay teachers and administrators from working in the state's public schools], and so many ways that we were able to be successful, but also how we failed," said Cervini, a historian of LGBTQ+ politics who graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College and was a Gates Scholar at the University of Cambridge, where he received his PhD.

The event, held June 30, was moderated by Katten Financial Markets Litigation and Enforcement partner J Matthew W. Haws, a member of the Lesbian and Gay Bar Association of Chicago and the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association.

With more than 300 anti-LGBTQ+ bills proposed this year across the country, Cervini acknowledged that it is a "dark time." He added, "But as I remind people, we have been through much worse. We have survived the inquisition, the Lavender Scare, the AIDS crisis, and Anita Bryant [who successfully pushed for the repeal of a gay rights ordinance in Florida in the 1970s]. We can certainly get through this. But we need to be studying up, how we were successful and how we failed in the past and then also be recruiting new allies, just as Frank Kameny recruited the ACLU, we need to be recruiting new allies today."

Kameny, an astronomer who lost his federal job because of his sexual orientation, is a central character in the nonfiction book Cervini wrote titled The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America, which is being adapted into an Amazon limited series.

"Discussing the past and current challenges faced by LGBTQ+ persons is important to remind us all of the progress made, as well as the discrimination, hardships and threats to personal liberty that are ongoing for the LGBTQ+ community," said Brandon D. Hadley, co-chair of Katten's LGBTQ+ Coalition. "Now is the time to support one another, use your voice and be an ally to the LGBTQ+ community and every other person facing similar social, political and legal challenges, through continued learning, understanding, empathy and discussion."

As an authority on 1960s gay activism, Cervini serves on the advisory board of the Mattachine Society of Washington, DC, a nonprofit dedicated to the preservation of LGBTQ+ history. He also is the creator and executive producer of the history docuseries The Book of Queer, which premiered in June on the Discovery+ streaming service.

"The reason why I made this show was to prove that actually, if there's anything that queer history teaches us, it's not just how to fight back but also to find joy and love and community despite so much of that darkness," he said.

Throughout the year, Katten supports the LGBTQ+ community in a number of ways, such as through the pro bono work of attorneys representing LGBTQ+ individuals as well as charitable contributions to the National LGBTQ+ Bar Foundation and LeGaL Foundation, which provides legal services to the LGBTQ+ community. The firm recently adopted a firm-wide "opt-in" gender pronoun policy to include gender pronouns in signature blocks as one way to promote LGBTQ+ inclusion and maintain an environment built on acceptance of individualization.

In June, Katten offered "pop-in" sessions to learn more about topics at the forefront for the LGBTQ+ community, including gender pronouns, trans identity and allyship. The firm also sponsors the annual Lavender Law Conference & Career Fair, the largest LGBTQ+ legal conference in the country, and hosts a biennial LGBTQ+ retreat for its attorneys participating at the conference.

Katten is honored to have earned the designation as one of the Best Places to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality by receiving a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's 2022 Corporate Equality Index, the nation's foremost benchmarking survey and annual report measuring corporate policies and practices addressing LGBTQ+ workplace equality.

Katten is a full-service law firm with approximately 700 attorneys in locations across the United States and in London and Shanghai. Clients seeking sophisticated, high-value legal services turn to Katten for counsel locally, nationally and internationally. The firm's core areas of practice include corporate, financial markets and funds, insolvency and restructuring, intellectual property, litigation, real estate, structured finance and securitization, transactional tax planning, private credit and private wealth. Katten represents public and private companies in numerous industries, as well as a number of government and nonprofit organizations and individuals. For more information, visit katten.com .

SOURCE Katten
AUBURN HILLS, Mich., July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --

The Jeep brand is Americas Most Patriotic Brand for the 20th consecutive year in annual Brand Keys survey.

The Jeep brand retains the No. 1 spot as America's most patriotic brand for second consecutive decade in annual Brand Keys survey

survey "Since 1941" is a badge of honor proudly displayed on all Jeep brand vehicles, recognizing the Jeep brand's long-standing military heritage and legendary 4x4 capability leadership for more than 80 years

American flags are prominently positioned on doors of the new Jeep Grand Cherokee, Wrangler and Gladiator Freedom special editions as a tribute to the Americans who design, engineer, build and drive the vehicles

Jeep brand delivers an open invitation to live life to the fullest by offering a broad portfolio of vehicles, including Jeep Cherokee, Compass, Gladiator, Grand Cherokee, new three-row Grand Cherokee L, Grand Cherokee 4xe, Renegade, Wrangler and Wrangler 4xe, as well as the premium extension of the Jeep brand with the all-new Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer

The legendary Jeep brand's off-road capability is enhanced by a global electrification initiative that is transforming 4xe into new 4x4 in pursuit of the brand's vision of accomplishing Zero Emission Freedom. All Jeep brand SUVs will offer an electrified variant by 2025

Jeep Wave, a premium owner loyalty and customer care program that is available to the entire Jeep 4x4 lineup, is filled with benefits and exclusive perks to deliver Jeep vehicle owners the utmost care and dedicated 24/7 support

The Jeep brand, celebrating more than eight decades of freedom, adventure, passion and authenticity, is ringing in another year as America's most patriotic brand. For the 20th year in a row, the Jeep brand is America's most patriotic*, according to Brand Keys Most Patriotic Brands survey. Consumers surveyed based results on brands that best embody the value of patriotism in 2022.

"The Jeep brand is a classic. Its ability to literally own the value of patriotism seems timeless. For the 20 years Brand Keys has conducted the Most Patriotic Brands survey, Jeep has been rated No. 1 by consumers," said Robert Passikoff, president and founder of Brand Keys. "That value, 'patriotism,' is the emotional part of decision-making that accounts for an enormous portion of why consumers have emotionally engaged with the brand. Jeep resonates a degree of allegiance consumers recognize, appreciate and, most importantly, act upon when making a purchase decision. Consumers know there's a difference between wrapping yourself in the flag and being a brand people believe has actually earned that right. Jeep earned it, owns it, and we congratulate them again this year."

To determine the 2022 rankings, Brand Keys surveyed more than 5,800 consumers, 16 to 65 years of age, balanced for gender and political affiliation, assessed 1,172 brands in 131 B2C and B2B categories, using Brand Keys emotional engagement measures. The assessments evaluate brand resonance for the single value of patriotism, and the Jeep brand was identified as the best for meeting today's patriotism challenges.

"The Jeep brand is incredibly proud of its military heritage with origins that date back to 1941  the birth of an iconic 4x4-capable vehicle the U.S. Army specifically requested," said Jim Morrison, senior vice president and head of Jeep brand North America. "The Jeep brand has become synonymous around the world for outdoor adventure and freedom, and being recognized as America's most patriotic brand for two decades running is a testament to our passionate Jeep community and to all those who protect our independence."

As a tribute to U.S. military members, the Jeep brand is offering a military-themed, special limited-edition Freedom package for the 2023 Gladiator and Wrangler, featuring military-themed exterior and interior design cues. The Jeep brand will make a $250 donation to military charities with every Freedom edition sold.

Fans can visit the Jeep Store by Amazon for patriotic Jeep merchandise.

*Based on Brand Keys 2003-2022 Most Patriotic Brands Survey

Jeep Brand

Built on 80 years of legendary heritage, Jeep is the authentic SUV brand that brings capability, craftsmanship and versatility to people who seek extraordinary journeys. The Jeep brand delivers an open invitation to live life to the fullest by offering a broad portfolio of vehicles that continues to provide owners with a sense of safety and security to handle any journey with confidence. The Jeep vehicle range consists of the Cherokee, Compass, Gladiator, Grand Cherokee, new three-row Grand Cherokee L, Grand Cherokee 4xe, Renegade and Wrangler and Wrangler 4xe. Jeep Wave, a premium owner loyalty and customer care program that is available to the entire Jeep 4x4 lineup, is filled with benefits and exclusive perks to deliver Jeep brand owners the utmost care and dedicated 24/7 support. The legendary Jeep brand's off-road capability is enhanced by a global electrification initiative that is transforming 4xe into new 4x4 in pursuit of the brand's vision of accomplishing Zero Emission Freedom. All Jeep brand SUVs will offer an electrified variant by 2025.

Follow Jeep and company news and video on:

Company blog: http://blog.stellantisnorthamerica.com

Media website: http://media.stellantisnorthamerica.com

Jeep brand: www.jeep.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/jeep

Instagram: www.instagram.com/jeep

Twitter: www.twitter.com/jeep

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/jeep

YouTube: www.youtube.com/thejeepchannel or https://www.youtube.com/StellantisNA

SOURCE Stellantis
DENVER, July 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading global messaging provider MessageMedia (https://messagemedia.com/au/)has acquired Melbourne-based Smooth Messenger (https://smooth.tel/), a text messaging application that integrates with Zoho, a leading customer relationship management (CRM) platform.

A Smooth Messenger is one of the most feature-rich SMS integrations within the Zoho CRM platform that allows businesses to seamlessly send two-way messages to their contacts via SMS and MMS. It is currently the second most installed SMS extension application on the Zoho platform, with an average rating of 4.8 stars.

With Smooth Messenger, businesses can easily send and respond to messages in real-time with all interactions recorded on their Zoho CRM account. It's popular among industries including construction, financial services and professional services that want to acquire new leads, set up appointments and provide timely updates to customers. Through highly-customizable automation settings, users can build tailored workflows to deliver timely and relevant communications to customers and prospects following specific actions such as visiting a web page or opening an email.

As part of the integration, Smooth Messenger will be rebranded to SMS for Zoho CRM by MessageMedia. The Smooth Messenger team will join MessageMedia, providing even greater expertise to its in-house research and development capabilities.

MessageMedia CEO, Paul Perrett, said, "With more than 20 years' experience in serving small and medium businesses as one of the world's largest message in providers, we have always been focused on expanding our customer messaging solutions. We seek to do this across a broad range of business platforms and technologies, so the acquisition of Smooth Messenger presented a natural fit for our business. With Smooth Messenger being amongst the best solutions on the Zoho CRM platform, and having grown its user base considerably since inception in 2018, we have no doubt the acquisition will extend our commitment in delivering exceptional customer engagement and strengthen our ecosystem integration."

Founder of Smooth Messenger, Jeremy Nagel, said, "I am excited about the additional value that we can bring to customers on Zoho CRM through leveraging MessageMedia's technology and global expertise. Apart from offering enhanced product features, we are also able to tap into the MessageMedia's 24/7 support resources, which will allow us to serve our customers' needs anytime, anywhere in the world."

Learn more about MessageMedia SMS for Zoho CRM at www.messagemedia.com/zoho

About MessageMedia

MessageMedia (www.messagemedia.com) is a global messaging provider that helps businesses of all sizes  from SMBs to enterprise-level  better connect with customers. With 90 per cent of messages read within 90 seconds and more than 65,000 customers worldwide, MessageMedia drives business success by creating engaging mobile experiences that customers love. Messaging solutions such as alerts and notifications, billing and payments, appointment reminders, marketing, and staff scheduling are used by leading brands in healthcare, education, retail, utilities, and dozens of industries. With offices across the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, and New Zealand, MessageMedia is the number one choice for easy and engaging global business messaging.

About Smooth Messenger

Founded in 2018, Smooth Messenger is one of the easiest to use and most highly rated messaging platforms for Zoho CRM. With Smooth Messenger, users you can send automated and templated SMS/MMS to thousands of contacts for drip marketing campaigns, appointment reminders, or one-off messages. Replies instantly appear against Zoho CRM accounts for seamless communication with customers.

SOURCE MessageMedia
WARSAW, Poland, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Eleventh Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF11) is now history, but we have not been left empty-handed. Hundreds of hours of debates bore fruit in the form of conclusions from which tangible future actions will emerge. Two important documents were presented at WUF11: the new National Urban Policy 2030 and the Action Plan for Cities, the latter already being implemented.

Poland's commitment to urban development is recognised worldwide. This is confirmed by the choice of Katowice as the venue for the WUF11,interna the largest and most important event devoted to urban issues. Numerous discussions on the future of agglomerations were held and two documents produced that set out the direction for the development of Polish cities.

National Urban Policy 2030

The main objective of the National Urban Policy 2030 (NUP) is to create such conditions for cities and their functional areas so that they can develop in a sustainable manner, offering high quality of life to their residents.

"Poland needs policies that respond to the current challenges that cities face. The National Urban Policy 2030 is a government document that aims to guide cities towards sustainable development, to carry out a sustainable transformation towards strong and resilient agglomerations and to provide residents with a welcoming living environment"  said Grzegorz Puda, Minister of Development Funds and Regional Policy.

Action Plan for Cities

On 28 June representatives of central and local government discussed proposals for a new National Urban Policy and 104 Polish local government officials signed the so-called "Action Plan for Cities".

The Action Plan for Cities is a unique programme on a European scale. It brings together more than one hundred Polish cities that are responding in different ways to local challenges related to the Sustainable Development Goals set out in Agenda 2030 and implementing the recommendations of the National Urban Policy 2030.

The initiative is a legacy of WUF11 in the form of a catalogue of good practices in local urban policies. The Action Plan for Cities is the first joint document of so many local governments in Poland. It is a good example of government and local government cooperation for local development.

SOURCE Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy
Operating under the Airedale by Modine brand, Modine secures significant order at new Rockbridge, VA facility

RACINE, Wis., July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Modine Manufacturing Company (NYSE: MOD), a diversified global leader in thermal management technology and solutions, today announced that it has commenced full scale production of chillers for the data center market at their new production facility in Rockbridge, Virginia, and further confirmed a significant order with data center giant, Corscale, with plans for further business in the coming months.

Airedale by Modine is Modine's data center cooling brand. Headquartered in Leeds, UK and with facilities in Consett (UK), Guadalajara (Spain), Dubai (UAE), Rockbridge, VA (US) and Grenada, MI (US), Airedale by Modine products provide energy and water efficient cooling solutions for a data center market that is expanding to meet the demands of a planet increasingly reliant on data.

With Airedale by Modine cooling solutions set to be installed at Corscale's Gainesville Crossing Data Campus, the Company has secured a healthy pipeline for its OptiChill free-cooling chillers, AireWall fan walls & SmartCool ONE computer room air handling units.

Corscale, the exclusive data center platform of Patrinely Group, is focused on delivering sustainability at scale for hyperscale operators and enterprise clients. Following a substantial period of consultation, Corscale appointed Modine due to its history of ground-breaking, free-cooling technology paired with its in-depth knowledge and understanding of the data center industry.

Having worked closely with engineers from Corscale, Modine has developed a specialized data center chiller based on their existing OptiChill range. The Corscale chiller, with enhanced free cooling, has been designed to meet North American safety standards, using American materials and components, to offer a world-class energy efficient solution. Engineering specialists at the chiller plant in Virginia have worked with their colleagues at Modine's center of excellence in Leeds, UK, to deliver a cooling solution that delivers on performance while operating at higher water temperatures and fluid temperature differentials than traditional offerings, enhancing energy efficiency and free-cooling potential.

Prior to the commencement of site deliveries, the team from Corscale will be invited to a witness test at Modine's brand new state-of-the-art laboratories in Rockbridge, VA, where the units will be put through their paces under various conditions and tested at different heat loads, simulating the environment and conditions they will be operational under. The test center at Rockbridge is capable of testing a complete range of air conditioning equipment up to 2.2MW (expanding to 5MW in future for water-cooled chillers), the climate temperature being fully controllable anywhere from 59F to 126F.

Chiller

The new Corscale chiller operates using twin screw compressors and has a number of special features, included to enhance efficiency and performance, including:

High-capacity twin-screw compressors offer reliability and flexibility, with staged capacity control

High water temperatures to suit modern data center designs that prioritize sustainability

Enhanced controls including fast-start, input power limiting and intelligent management of compressors, refrigerant and pumps

An on-board variable speed pump to precisely match cooling demand, reducing waste energy expenditure while maintaining water-side temperature differential and saving on space and electrical distribution requirements

Optimized economizers to provide unmatched free cooling potential

100% contained Glycol loop to isolate the economizer from the cooling loop and increase efficiency of the Airwall units

Enhanced controls platform including redundancy back-up and fast-start mode, to minimize the risk of disruption in the event of mechanical breakdown

On-board active harmonic filtration, ensuring a clean power supply to the data center, while saving on external plant requirements.

AireWall

AireWall is a low energy cooling solution for mission-critical environments. This range of computer room air handlers, which doesn't require a raised floor, has been specially designed for low velocity air cooling and suits high-density data center applications with hot-aisle containment. The units are available in a 4, 6 or 8 fan configuration and have been engineered to the highest design and build standards you would expect from an Airedale by Modine precision unit, with the simplicity and effectiveness of a fan wall. AireWall comprises a filter, fan bank and an optimized high surface area chilled water coil. It includes integrated intelligent controls that enable dynamic cooling output variation based on changing IT loads and operates at low fan power to help achieve low installation PUE. AireWall has been designed to operate in tandem with Airedale by Modine's range of free cooling chillers, delivering a high efficiency cooling solution.

SmartCool ONE

SmartCool ONE is a 35kW to 1MW computer room air handler. An evolution of the multi award-winning SmartCool precision cooling range, it has been developed to meet the increasing demand for ultra-efficient, large capacity precision cooling systems in colocation and hyperscale data centers across the globe. With a cooling capacity of up to 1MW, optimized air and water conditions and an intelligent controls platform to maximize efficiencies and cooling power, SmartCool ONE is the intelligent solution for large scale data center cooling.

"We are delighted to announce our order with Corscale, as we start full-scale production at our first-class facilities in Virginia, the largest data center market in the world," said Jonas Caino, Vice President and General Manager, Data Centers. "Having invested heavily in our US production facilities, ensuring they deliver the same high-quality service and product that our clients have grown to expect and respect from our European production sites, it has been really interesting and enjoyable to work with our American-based colleagues on such a fantastic project and client as Corscale. This order is just the start for our Rockbridge facility, and I am excited to see what the next few years holds."

Nic Bustamante, Senior Vice President, Development at Corscale added, "We selected to work with Airedale by Modine because we wanted something that mirrors our dedication to deliver sustainability at scale. We wanted to work with an established brand that our customers can trust. Airedale products are renowned for their innovative approach and commitment to efficiency, which in turn reduces wastage, and we were impressed by the work they have done across the world with other data centers."

Modine's Rockbridge facility is ideally located to serve the US data center market, with Virginia being the largest data center market in the world. Northern Virginia is home to more than 20% (100) of all known hyperscale data centers worldwide. Alongside chillers, Modine will also manufacture SmartCool ONE CRAHs and AireWall fan walls in the US, offering complete cooling solutions for colocation and hyperscale data center operators.

About Airedale by Modine

At Airedale by Modine, we believe that air conditioning has a critical role to play in an increasingly connected world. We also passionately believe that air conditioning equipment must play a responsible role in an era where sustainability is key to the preservation of our planet.

Airedale by Modine is a global brand providing complete cooling solutions to industries where HVAC is mission critical, like data centers, healthcare, telecoms, education and pharmaceuticals. Our leading-edge products, including chillers, close control and air handling units, are backed up with intelligent software solutions and complete applications & service support. With a strong R&D ethos rooted in sustainability and quality, we are committed to providing experiences, products, service and solutions that support our clients and meet their performance, efficiency and sustainability goals.

About Modine

At Modine, we are engineering a cleaner, healthier world. Building on more than 100 years of excellence in thermal management, we provide trusted systems and solutions that improve air quality and conserve natural resources. More than 11,000 employees are at work in every corner of the globe, delivering the solutions our customers need, where they need them. Our Climate Solutions and Performance Technologies segments support our purpose by improving air quality, reducing energy and water consumption, lowering harmful emissions and enabling cleaner running vehicles and environmentally-friendly refrigerants. Modine is a global company headquartered in Racine, Wisconsin (USA), with operations in North America, South America, Europe and Asia. For more information about Modine, visit www.modine.com.

Kathleen Powers

(262) 636-1687

[email protected]

SOURCE Modine Manufacturing Company
MONROE, Mich., July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Monroe Community Credit Union (MCCU) is excited to share the success of their latest charitable endeavor: Member Match, a community donation program dictated by their new members. The credit union features three local non-profit organizations each business quarter and matches their new members' initial $5 deposit (the amount required to open an account at the credit union) with a $5 donation to the non-profit organization of their choice. In the first half of the year, MCCU members supported Gabby's Grief Center, Monroe County Opportunity Program (MCOP), The Oaks Village, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Monroe County, Habitat for Humanity, and Paula's House. From July  September, new members will get to choose from the Humane Society, the Monroe Family YMCA, and Soroptimist.

Pictured: April Eggert (Marketing Specialist, MCCU), Kate Hall (VP of Marketing and Community Relations, MCCU), David Graves, (President/CEO, Habitat for Humanity of Monroe) Molly Moore (Director of Family Services, Habitat for Humanity of Monroe) Staci Jennings, (Volunteers and Social Media Coordinator, Habitat for Humanity of Monroe).

"As a locally owned and operated business, we're always looking for new ways to support our community." said MCCU Vice President of Marketing and Community Relations, Kate Hall. "The positive impact these local non-profit organizations have on our community is immeasurable and we wanted to create an easy way for our members to be directly involved in supporting their vital work. In addition, Member Match has been a great way for us to help generate awareness and provide education to our new members about organizations we've worked with for decades."

Kaye Lani Rafko-Wilson, Executive Director of Gabby's Grief Center, said, "This gift from Monroe Community Credit Union and their members is greatly appreciated. We are extremely grateful for this wonderful partnership and the generosity of so many! The donation we received from MCCU was applied toward our grief support programs and services, including individual/family grief support sessions, our first annual mass butterfly release (which had approximately 60 people in attendance) where butterflies were released in memory of loved ones, our children/teen grief camp called Camp Fearless, and for our upcoming 'Day at the Movies' family gathering that will take place at the end of July!"

Pastor Heather Boone, Board President for The Oaks Village said, "We give out between 50-75 boxes a week to those in need in the community. The funds donated from the Member Match program helped us purchase more food supplies like can goods, jelly, meat, and bread."

In six months, MCCU's Member Match program has generated $6,155 to support local non-profit organizations. MCCU will continue this charitable giving initiative through the end of 2022. For more information about this program or the local non-profit groups listed above, visit www.monroecommunitycu.org/membermatch.

About Monroe Community Credit Union:

MCCU is a locally owned and operated, not-for-profit financial institution headquartered in Monroe, MI with $330 million in assets, six banking locations and 30,000 members. MCCU's field of membership includes those who live, work, worship, or attend school in the state of Michigan and in the Ohio counties of Fulton, Lucas, or Wood. MCCU was voted Best Credit Union and Best Mortgage Lender in Monroe for 2021.

Contact: Kate Hall

MCCU

Phone: 734-384-2717

Fax: 734-242-6911

www.monroecommunitycu.org

SOURCE Monroe Community Credit Union
PITTSBURGH, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Federated Hermes, Inc. today announced that monthly fund composition and performance data for Federated Hermes Premier Municipal Income Fund (NYSE: FMN) as of June 30, 2022, is now available in the Products section of FederatedInvestors.com. To order hard copies of this data or to be placed on a mailing list, call 800-245-0242 x5587538, email [email protected] or write to Federated Hermes, 1001 Liberty Avenue, Floor 23, Pittsburgh, PA 15222.

Federated Hermes, Inc. (NYSE: FHI) is a global leader in active, responsible investment management, with $631.1 billion in assets under management, as of March 31, 2022. We deliver investment solutions that help investors target a broad range of outcomes and provide equity, fixed-income, alternative/private markets, multi-asset and liquidity management strategies to more than 11,000 institutions and intermediaries worldwide. Our clients include corporations, government entities, insurance companies, foundations and endowments, banks and broker/dealers. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Federated Hermes has nearly 2,000 employees in London, New York and offices worldwide. For more information, visit FederatedHermes.com.

###

SOURCE Federated Hermes, Inc.
WASHINGTON, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Press Club, the world's leading professional organization for journalists, has chosen Katrina Machetta of Houston, Texas, as the recipient of its Richard G. Zimmerman Journalism Scholarship. The award is given to an exceptional high school senior who plans to pursue a career in journalism.

Machetta impressed judges with the quality and breadth of her work. She has been Editor-in-Chief for her high school's Legacy Press newspaper, Senior Reporter for Youth Journalism International, a reporter/contributor for the Los Angeles Times and PBS, an award-winning poet, and more.

The judges appreciated Machetta's ability to speak to multiple audiences and her vision of journalism as a path for social progress.

"To me, journalism is more than just a story. It is about reporting with a keen sensitivity to a multitude of perspectives, cultural backgrounds, and diverse outlooks on a specific situation and relaying it in a way the audience will understand," Machetta said in her application essay.

Stories have the power to shape people's lives, she wrote. "I want to tell stories that matter  and to tell them in a way that inspires and activates change. I want to use the power of my words to empower, uplift, and encourage others."

Machetta models those values, said school counselor Melba Villarreal in her recommendation letter. "Katrina's passion for journalism and helping others has taken her to transform children's lives through mentoring. She has tutored many students to learn advanced concepts in writing, grammar, editing process, and digital platforms to give students more confidence in their writing skills and connection through the power of words and storytelling."

The National Press Club is excited about Machetta's selection.

"Katrina's commitment to community and compassion for others will help elevate journalism and diversify the stories we tell," said Jen Judson, National Press Club president. "We are thrilled to support Katrina as she begins the next phase of her promising career."

The Richard G. Zimmerman Scholarship is named for a long-time National Press Club member who died in 2008 and endowed a scholarship in aid of high school seniors who wish to pursue a career in journalism.

This year's runner-up is Madison Flewellyn of Sacramento, California.

Scholarship winners are awarded one-year complimentary membership to the National Press Club.

CONTACT: Julie Moos, National Press Club Journalism Institute; [email protected]

SOURCE National Press Club
WASHINGTON, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Press Club, the world's leading professional organization for journalists, has chosen Sean Cummings of Portland, Oregon, as the recipient of its 2022 Shirley & Dennis Feldman Fellowship. The award for graduate students is a one-time scholarship of $5,000.

Cummings, a freelance writer, has had work appear in the Santa Barbara Independent, Mountain Journal, and The Stanford Daily, as well as in a few regional environmental newsletters in Southern California. He will pursue a science communication master's degree at the University of California Santa Cruz.

The judges were very impressed with Cumming's writing skills and work portfolio. He holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Environmental Humanities from Whitman College.

"I love that every pitch and assignment lets me admit ignorance and learn something new. I love the puzzle of arranging words to not only describe the scientific process but also the wonder and grief of its discoveriesa crucial responsibility during the climate crisis," Cummings wrote in his application.

As an intern with The Santa Barbara Independent, Cummings has covered a number of environmental issues, including a proposed housing development's potential ecological impacts and the debut of a new whale detection system, designed by scientists and oceanographers to minimize collisions between whales and shipping vessels in the Santa Barbara Channel.

"Sean has the key traits a journalist needs: a strong sense of curiosity, a humble intelligence, the ability to do research and ask smart questions, and the talent to boil down a quantity of information into a good and readable story," wrote Jean Yamamura, intern coordinator for The Santa Barbara Independent, in her recommendation letter. "Sean also displayed the courage a writer needs to tackle an unfamiliar and daunting story. His coverage of an acrimonious city council recall election in Solvang, California, resulted in persistent emails and calls from sources, many of them passionate local characters with hotly conflicting perspectives, tasks he shouldered gracefully."

Cummings turned to writing and reporting after discovering studying science went differently than he'd imagined.

"My first day on the reef during Stanford's Wrigley Field Program in Hawaii rendered me useless

as a scientist. I'd hoped to get a taste for field science and on that day, it meant counting fish," he wrote in his application essay. "I didn't want to count fish. I wanted to follow them around in childish stupefaction, to memorize their shapes, movements and hues. I enjoyed learning about the reefs but proved a sloppy data-gatherer, too fascinated with the sensory euphoria to focus on transect surveys."

Cumming's work as a reporter has unleashed a passion which could well lead him into a significant career in journalism, wrote academic advisor Don Snow in a recommendation letter:

"He sees the profession as a form of public service. As a former journalist  I can readily applaud his motives for wanting to enter into the work of the fourth estate."

Judges said Cummings's background in science would bring a much needed perspective to journalism.

"We are excited to celebrate Sean's direction in science journalism," said Jen Judson, National Press Club president. "With his strong writing skills and desire to show readers how the world works around them, he is poised for success."

This year's runner-up is Mariama Jallow of Salem, North Carolina.

Scholarship winners and runners-up are awarded one-year complimentary membership to the National Press Club.

CONTACT: Julie Moos, National Press Club Journalism Institute; [email protected]

SOURCE National Press Club
CHICAGO, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a new research report "Network Management Systems Market with COVID-19 Impact Analysis by Component, Enterprise Size, Deployment Mode, Business Function (Accounting & Legal, Sales & Marketing, and Procurement & Supply Chain) Vertical and Region - Global Forecast to 2027", published by MarketsandMarkets, the global Network Management System Market size is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 9.4% during the forecast period, to reach USD 14.6 billion by 2027 from USD 9.3 billion in 2022.

Growing demands for of digital transformation across verticals and the increasing adoption of advanced technologies, such as IoT, mobility, and cloud. China, Japan, Australia, and India are the key contributors in terms of the adoption of NMS tools in their network infrastructure. The adoption of virtualization and SDN technology is currently in its nascent phase and is projected to grow exponentially during the forecast period.

Browse in-depth TOC on "Network Management System Market"

315  Tables

36  Figures

286  Pages

Download PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=1041

As per verticals, the government segment to grow at highest CAGR during the forecast period

The network management system market is segmented on verticals into BFSI, IT & telecom, government, manufacturing, healthcare, retail, transportation & logistics, and others (education and hospitality). As per verticals, the government vertical is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. This vertical is one of the major revenue contributors to the NMS market and is expected to be a promising vertical in the future as well. Since businesses are changing, the network infrastructure continues to be a significant backbone, linking users to the necessary IT resources and enabling immediate distribution of information. The change in the government network infrastructure is driving the growth of the NMS market.

On-premises segment to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period

As per deployment mode, On-premises Segment to grow at the highest CAGR for the network management system market during the forecast period. The network management system market by deployment mode is segmented into cloud and on-premises. The on-premises solutions are seen to be in greater demand, due to their wide range of functionalities, such as high-end security, easy deployment, and complete access to network solutions. With advancements in technology, enterprises and service providers are seen to prefer cloud-based network management solutions, as they offer various benefits, such as a pay-per-use model, flexibility, speed inaccessibility, and low installation and maintenance costs.

Request Sample Pages: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsampleNew.asp?id=1041

Some of the major Network Management System Market vendors are Cisco (US), IBM (US), Broadcom CA Technologies (US), Micro Focus (UK), Juniper Networks (US), Nokia (Finland), Ericsson (Sweden), ManageEngine, a Division of Zoho Corporation (US), Huawei (China), LiveAction (US), NETSCOUT (US), Progress (Ipswitch) (US), Paessler (Germany), Cubro Network Visibility (Austria), Kentik (US), VIAVI Solutions (US), Kaseya (US), Extreme Networks (US), eG Innovations (US), Colasoft (China), SolarWinds (US), ExtraHop Networks (US), Riverbed (US), Accedian (Canada), BMC Software (US), HelpSystems (US), and AppNeta (US)

Browse Adjacent Markets: Data Center and Networking Market Research Reports & Consulting

Browse Related Reports

Network Automation Market by Network Automation Tool, Intent-Based Networking, Network Type (Physical, Virtual, and Hybrid), Service, Deployment Mode (Cloud and On-Premises), End User, Enterprise Vertical, and Region - Global Forecast to 2025

WAN Optimization Market by Component (Solution (Traditional WAN and SD-WAN) and Services (Professional and Managed)), Deployment Type (Cloud and On-premises), Vertical, End User (Large Enterprises and SMEs), and Region - Global Forecast to 2025

About MarketsandMarkets

MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions.

Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model  GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve.

MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets.

Contact:

Mr. Aashish Mehra

MarketsandMarkets INC.

630 Dundee Road

Suite 430

Northbrook, IL 60062

USA: +1-888-600-6441

Email: [email protected]

Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/network-management-market.asp

Visit Our Website: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com

Content Source: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/network-management.asp

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660509/MarketsandMarkets_Logo.jpg

SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
WAPATO, Wash., July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Pace International, a leading provider of sustainable postharvest solutions and technologies for the fresh produce industry, is pleased to welcome Julie Smith, as Senior Human Resources Manager. Smith will work to identify, counsel and guide organizational design to meet future business needs.

"We are pleased to welcome Julie to our team at Pace," said Rodrigo Cifuentes, Executive Vice President and COO of Pace International. "Julie brings strong leadership in the development of organizations and in the implementation of policies and initiatives to enhance and develop people's careers while also creating a more diverse and inclusive workplace."

Previously, Smith spent 15 years of professional Human Resources management in both the agriculture and manufacturing industries, where she held leadership positions. Most recently, she served as Vice President of Human Resources for McClarin Plastics and before that she was the Director of Human Resources at Legacy Fruit Packers in Washington.

"In an increasingly competitive market for talent, Julie brings the experience and leadership necessary to enhance Pace's talent development and acquisition efforts, which are essential to support our global expansion and transformational goals," Cifuentes added. "Her experience and career interests align with Pace's mission to create sustainable postharvest protection through the power of our people, technology and nature-inspired solutions."

About Pace International LLC

Pace International LLC is a subsidiary of Valent BioSciences LLC, a Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd. business. Pace collaborates with growers, packers and agricultural organizations to develop innovative solutions to enhance, protect, and preserve fruit and vegetable quality and freshness. Pace is the leading global provider of sustainable postharvest solutions and technologies, equipment and technical services to maximize efficiencies in packing operations and increase the freshness and value of harvested crops. For more information, visit the company's website at paceint.com .

About Valent Biosciences LLC

Headquartered in Libertyville, Illinois, Valent BioSciences LLC is a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd. Valent BioSciences is the worldwide leader in the development, manufacturing and commercialization of biorational products, with sales in 95 countries around the world. Valent BioSciences is an ISO 9001 Certified Company. For additional information, visit the company's website at valentbiosciences.com .

SOURCE Pace International
Technological developments in mobility aids or assistive devices to promote older people's mobility are projected to broaden the scope of personal mobility devices market

An increase in injuries due to traffic accidents is likely to drive the personal mobility devices in Asia Pacific

WILMINGTON, Del., July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The value of the global personal mobility devices market stood at US$ 10.4 Bn in 2021. The global market is projected to rise at a CAGR of 7.1% during the forecast period, from 2022 to 2031. The global personal mobility devices market is likely to surpass value of US$ 20.5 Bn by 2031. The introduction of technologically advanced products and an increase in automobile accidents resulting in impairments are projected to support growth of the global personal mobility devices market. In addition, expanding geriatric populace and the increasing prevalence of chronic illnesses are anticipated to support positive future market outlook for personal mobility devices.

Additionally, it is anticipated that an increase in the frequency of chronic diseases including muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, and arthritis across all age groups is estimated to fuel demand for highly improved mobility aids. The distribution of personal mobility devices is a crucial component of healthcare in nations including the Philippines, South Africa, Cuba, Guyana, Indonesia, Mozambique, and Costa Rica. These devices are given by the Ministry of Health in these countries. The Ministry of Social Welfare is in charge of providing mobility aids in various nations, including Vietnam, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and India. In the near future, it is anticipated that these nations will present development prospects for the global personal mobility devices market.

Personal mobility devices market demand analysis estimates that the wheelchairs category makes up a considerable portion of the global market, which is largely focused on high-income regions and is highly fragmented. Less than half of the global personal mobility devices market is controlled by the top four manufacturers, which are Invacare, Sunrise Medical, Ottobock, and Permobil.

Request Brochure of Personal Mobility Devices Market Research Report  https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=6715

Key Findings of Market Report

The incidence of traffic accidents and serious injuries is driven by poor infrastructure, increasing number of automobiles, and bad roadways. According to a World Health Organization (WHO) estimate, 20 million to 50 million individuals worldwide suffer non-fatal injuries each year due to traffic accidents. As a result, it is anticipated to drive growth opportunities in personal mobility devices market in the forthcoming years.

The number of people over 65 years is growing rapidly all over the world. With aging, one's capacity to do physical tasks declines. The number of elderly people using mobile devices is probably going to rise, mostly due to their fear of falling. This factor is likely to increase demand and present considerable growth opportunities for the key players in the personal mobility devices market.

Medical furniture & bathroom safety devices and medical mobility aids & ambulatory devices now make up two product segments of the global market for personal mobility devices. In 2021, medical mobility aids & ambulatory devices represented a significant market share for personal mobility devices market.

Request for Analysis of COVID-19 Impact on Personal Mobility Devices Market  https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=covid19&rep_id=6715

Global Personal Mobility Devices Market: Growth Drivers

Based on distribution channel, hospital pharmacies accounted for a sizeable market share in 2021, making up over 50% of it. The presence of licensed doctors and the anticipated increase in prescription filling demand at different hospital pharmacies are expected to boost the category. Additionally, the reliability on the quality and pricing of the pharmaceuticals as well as advice from qualified specialists on drug use are anticipated to fuel segment development.

In 2021, North America held a sizable portion of the global market for personal mobility devices, amounting to over 40%. The region's market for personal mobility devices is anticipated to expand steadily over the next years as a result of rising aging-related illness prevalence and rising healthcare costs. Additionally, the market is anticipated to grow due to advances in healthcare infrastructure and attractive reimbursements for purchase or rental of these devices.

Get Exclusive PDF Sample Copy of Personal Mobility Devices Market Report  https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=6715

Global Personal Mobility Devices Market: Key Players

Some of the key market players are

Sunrise Medical (US) LLC

Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc.

GF Health Products, Inc.

Patterson Companies, Inc.

Pride Mobility Products Corp

Stryker Corporation

Make an Enquiry Before Buying  https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=EB&rep_id=6715

Global Personal Mobility Devices Market: Segmentation

Product

Medical Mobility Aids & Ambulatory Devices

Medical Furniture & Bathroom Safety Products

Modernization of healthcare in terms of both infrastructure and services have pushed the healthcare industry to new heights, Stay Updated with Latest Healthcare Research Reports by Transparency Market Research:

Smart Medical Devices Market: The global smart medical devices market is expected to reach the value of US$ 70.1 Bn by the end of 2028 and to expand at a CAGR of 7.5% from 2021 to 2028.

Durable Medical Equipment Market: The global durable medical equipment (DME) market was valued at US$ 153.1 Bn in 2018 and is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 6.2% from 2019 to 2027.

Assistive Technologies for Visually Impaired Market: The global assistive technologies for visually impaired market is expected to exceed the value of US$ 13.9 Bn by the end of 2031.

Elderly and Disabled Assistive Devices Market: The global elderly and disabled assistive devices market is expected to reach the value of US$ 31.6 Bn by the end of 2028.

Home Healthcare Market: The global home healthcare market is expected to reach the value of US$ 499.6 Bn by the end of 2028.

Ambulatory Cardiac Monitoring Devices Market: The global ambulatory cardiac monitoring devices market was valued at US$ 13.5 Bn in 2020 and is projected to expand at a moderate CAGR from 2021 to 2031.

Robotic Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies Market: The global robotic rehabilitation and assistive technologies market is anticipated to reach more than US$ 5.5 Bn by 2031.

Thoracic Drainage Devices Market: The global thoracic drainage devices market is anticipated to reach more than US$ 962 Mn by 2031. The global market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 4.6% from 2022 to 2031.

About Transparency Market Research

Transparency Market Research, a global market research company registered at Wilmington, Delaware, United States, provides custom research and consulting services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insights for thousands of decision makers. Our experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools & techniques to gather and analyze information.

Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.

For More Research Insights on Leading Industries, Visit Our YouTube Channel and hit subscribe for Future Update - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8e-z-g23-TdDMuODiL8BKQ

Contact:

Rohit Bhisey

Transparency Market Research Inc.

CORPORATE HEADQUARTER DOWNTOWN,

1000 N. West Street,

Suite 1200, Wilmington, Delaware 19801 USA

Tel: +1-518-618-1030

USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453

Website: https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Blog: https://tmrblog.com

Email: [email protected]

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1682871/TMR_Logo_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Transparency Market Research
Who are the key vendors in Pharmaceutical Analytical Testing Services procurement market?

Eurofins Scientific SE, SGS SA, and WuXi AppTec Co. Ltd., are some of the major market participants

Eurofins Scientific SE, SGS SA, and WuXi AppTec Co. Ltd., are some of the major market participants What is the expected CAGR of Pharmaceutical Analytical Testing Services procurement market?

The Pharmaceutical Analytical Testing Services procurement market will grow at a CAGR of about 8.29% during 2022-2026.

Get detailed insights on the trends and challenges: www.spendedge.com/report/commercial-vehicle-cabin--procurement-market-intelligence-report

What are the major Pricing models?

Pay per service pricing model, Performance-based pricing model, and FTE-based pricing model

Pay per service pricing model, Performance-based pricing model, and FTE-based pricing model What will be incremental spend in Pharmaceutical Analytical Testing Services procurement?

This procurement market will register an incremental spend of about USD 7.41 Billion , during 2022-2026

Get Your Free Sample Procurement Report Today

Related Reports on Pharma and Healthcare Include:

Smart Procurement Starts Here:

SpendEdge's procurement intelligence platform is the go-to tool for companies looking to access latest procurement research insights and supplier data on an easy-to-use platform.

STARTER PACK

Get 6 Full Reports, View 800+ report samples, Pre-order upcoming reports, Pre-order upcoming reports.

Subscribe Now for FREE

Want to know about various other Subscription packs? Click here

Pharmaceutical Analytical Testing Services Market's Procurement Report Highlights Information on:

This market's top pricing models

Changing price forecasts

Favorability of the current Pharmaceutical Analytical Testing Services's TCO (total cost of ownership)

Key trends and drivers in this market

Table of Content

Executive Summary

Market Insights

Category Pricing Insights

Cost-saving Opportunities

Best Practices

Category Ecosystem

Category Management Strategy

Category Management Enablers

Suppliers Selection

Suppliers under Coverage

US Market Insights

Category scope

Appendix

About SpendEdge:

SpendEdge shares your passion for driving sourcing and procurement excellence. We are the preferred procurement market intelligence partner for 120+ Fortune 500 firms and other leading companies across numerous industries. Our strength lies in delivering robust, real-time procurement market intelligence reports and solutions.

Contacts

SpendEdge

Anirban Choudhury

Marketing Manager

Ph No: +1 (872) 206-9340

https://www.spendedge.com/contact-us

SOURCE SpendEdge
Ping An, one of the largest insurance companies in the world, transformed from traditional P&C insurance business to integrated financial service provider with ecosystems in financial services, healthcare, auto services, and smart city

HONG KONG and SHANGHAI, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Adopting new technologies and their associated cultures has been key to transforming Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (hereafter "Ping An" or the "Group", HKEx:2318; SSE:601318), said Jessica Tan, Ping An Co-CEO, speaking to Swiss business school video magazine I by IMD.

In the interview with IMD (International Institute for Management Development) Business School President Jean-Francois Manzoni, Ms. Tan said Ping An has become Asia's largest insurance company, with more than 223 million customers and 657 million internet users of its lifestyle services. The 34-year-old company sold US$110 billion of insurance premiums last year and has about 300,000 employees and half a million sales agents. Its market capitalization grew fivefold between 2007 and 2019, and currently hovers around US$120 billion to US$130 billion.

Headquartered in Shenzhen, China's leading technology hub, Ping An has also established itself as one of the country's leading digital innovators, especially in the areas of fintech, artificial intelligence and digital healthcare.

Ms. Tan said: "We aim to deliver what we call lifestyle and financial services to all our customers. The way that we think about this is financial services is not a product on its own. Financial services seek to serve a lifestyle need. We believe that financial services and lifestyle services are intertwined very clearly."

Ping An saw the need for integrating various services on a single platform and adopting new technologies, which required talents with different skill sets and backgrounds to join the company around ten years ago. Ms. Tan joined Ping An in 2013 as the company began its technology transformation. "When we started a lot of these tech businesses, we hired a lot of non-financial services folks," said Ms. Tan. "We started off with a very open and embracing culture."

Ms. Tan is Singaporean. "We've been three generations outside of China," she spoke of her own family. "There are lots of executives like myself. There are even executives in our top 100 executives who are even non-ethnic Chinese. We have Koreans, Americans  some of them do not even speak Chinese, they have the interpreters with them all along. We believe that people are what drives us.

"With diversity comes, as I'm sure you know, lots of different views, backgrounds, way of working," said Ms. Tan.

The technology and ecosystem businesses incubated by Ping An, such as OneConnect, Lufax, and Ping An Heath, contributed about RMB80 billion in revenues and about RMB15 billion in profits in 2021.

Today, Ping An's lifestyle services span financial services, such as wealth management and lending, healthcare including elderly home care service, automobile services, and smart city service.

Click here for more details of the interview and the video.

About Ping An Group

Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. ("Ping An") strives to become a world-leading retail financial services group. With over 223 million retail customers and nearly 657 million internet users, Ping An is one of the largest financial services companies in the world. Ping An focuses on two over-arching domains of activity, "integrated finance" and "healthcare", covering the provision of financial and health care services through its integrated financial services platform and ecosystems in financial services, healthcare, auto services and smart city services. The "finance + technology" and "finance + ecosystem" strategies aim to provide customers and internet users with innovative and simple products and services using technology. As China's first joint stock insurance company, Ping An is committed to upholding the highest standards of corporate reporting and corporate governance. The Group is listed on the stock exchanges in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Ping An ranked 6th in the Forbes Global 2000 list in 2021 and ranked 16th in the Fortune Global 500 list in 2021.

For more information, please visit www.group.pingan.com and follow us on LinkedIn - PING AN.

SOURCE Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd.
WASHINGTON, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --

Pony Cars Power Onto Stamps

What: The U.S. Postal Service will commemorate the heyday of the pony car era with five new stamps featuring some of the most famous examples of these youth-oriented vehicles.





The first-day-of-issue event for the Pony Cars Forever stamp will be held at the Great American Stamp Show in partnership with the American Philatelic Society. The ceremony is free and open to the public. News of the stamp is being shared with the hashtag #PonyCarsStamps.



Who: Scott Bombaugh, chief technology officer and executive vice president, U.S. Postal Service.



When: Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022, at 11 a.m. PT



Where: Great American Stamp Show

SAFE Credit Union Convention Center

1400 J Street

Sacramento, CA 95814



RSVP: Dedication ceremony attendees are encouraged to RSVP at: usps.com/ponycars.



Background: In the 1960s, a new breed of vehicle began appearing on our nation's roads. Over the past six decades, fast and fun pony cars have become a uniquely American obsession. Since their emergence, these performance coupes and convertibles have brought a youthful spirit to the automotive world.





In the mid-to-late 20th century, American automakers began catering to a segment of their customer base that was rapidly growing  younger drivers. These drivers craved sporty, affordable cars that looked and felt different from what was in their parents' garages. Several manufacturers initially produced models that fit that description, but the pony car trend did not begin in earnest until 1964.





By the time of the 1970s energy crisis, sales of the once ubiquitous pony cars had begun to decline. But by the end of the decade, the cars had a resurgence. Pony cars were cultural icons; throughout the 1970s, they appeared in many television shows and movies.





Since then, the popularity of pony cars has ebbed and flowed. But over the past two decades, automakers have reintroduced many of the beloved models first launched in the genre's heyday. Today, adventurous young  and young-at-heart  drivers enjoy the thrill of driving pony cars.

Customers may purchase stamps and other philatelic products through the Postal Store at usps.com/shopstamps, by calling 844-737-7826, by mail through USA Philatelic or at Post Office locations nationwide.

The Postal Service generally receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

Please Note: For U.S. Postal Service media resources, including broadcast-quality video and audio and photo stills, visit the USPS Newsroom. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn. Subscribe to the USPS YouTube channel, like us on Facebook and enjoy our Postal Posts blog. For more information about the Postal Service, visit usps.com and facts.usps.com.

Contact: James McKean

202-268-2380

[email protected]

usps.com/news

SOURCE U.S. Postal Service
JAKARTA, Indonesia, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Persero), a state-owned limited liability company established in Indonesia (the "Company"), announces three concurrent, but separate, offers to purchase for cash, upon the terms and subject to the conditions set forth in the Offer to Purchase dated 15 July 2022 (the "Offer to Purchase") and subject to the offer restrictions described in the Offer to Purchase, any and all of (i) the outstanding U.S.$1,250,000,000 5.710% notes due 2023 issued by the Company (the "2023 Notes"); (ii) the outstanding U.S.$1,000,000,000 6.530% notes due 2028 issued by the Company (the "2028 Notes"); and (iii ) the outstanding U.S.$750,000,000 6.757% notes due 2048 issued by the Company (the "2048 Notes"), in each case from each registered holder of Notes (each, a "Holder" and, collectively, the "Holders"). The Company refers to the 2023 Notes, 2028 Notes and 2048 Notes collectively as the "Notes" and to each as a "series" of Notes. The Company refers to the offer to purchase each series of Notes as an "Offer" and the offers to purchase the Notes as the "Offers."

Capitalized terms used and not otherwise defined in this announcement have the meanings given in the Offer to Purchase.

** CASH CAP **

The Company will accept Notes in the order of their respective Acceptance Priority Level (as outlined below), subject to the satisfaction of the Maximum Purchase Price Consideration Condition (as defined below). The Company's obligation to complete an Offer with respect to a particular series of Notes is conditioned on the aggregate Purchase Price Consideration (as defined below) for the Offers, excluding the applicable Accrued Interest, (after taking into account Notes of each series accepted for purchase with a higher Acceptance Priority Level) not exceeding U.S.$1.0 billion (the "Cash Cap"). The Cash Cap may be increased or reduced at the Company's sole discretion, subject to applicable law and regulation.

** FIXED PRICES AND ACCEPTANCE PRIORITY LEVELS **

Series of Notes / ISINs (RegS;144A) / Outstanding Principal Amount (as of 15 July 2022) / Acceptance Priority Level / Fixed Price (per U.S.$1,000 in principal amount of the Notes)

USD 750m 2048 Notes / USY7140WAD03; US74445PAD42 / U.S.$750,000,000 / 1st priority / U.S.$941

USD 1,000m 2028 Notes / USY7140WAC20; US74445PAC68 / U.S.$1,000,000,000 / 2nd priority / U.S.$1,032

USD 1,250m 2023 Notes / USY7140WAB47; US74445PAB85 / U.S.$674,233,000 / 3rd priority / U.S.$1,023

** PURCHASE PRICE CONSIDERATION AND ACCRUED INTEREST **

The consideration (excluding the applicable Accrued Interest) for each U.S.$1,000 in principal amount of each series of Notes, as applicable, validly tendered at or prior to the Expiration Time or the Guaranteed Delivery Date pursuant to the Guaranteed Delivery Procedures (as defined in the Offer to Purchase), and not validly withdrawn (such consideration, the "Purchase Price Consideration"), will be equal to the Fixed Price specified above for each respective series of Notes, in each case unless extended or earlier terminated with respect to an Offer by the Company in its sole discretion, subject to applicable law. In addition to the Purchase Price Consideration, Holders whose Notes of a given series are accepted for purchase will be paid accrued and unpaid interest on such Notes to, but not including, the Settlement Date (such amount, the "Accrued Interest").

** MAXIMUM PURCHASE PRICE CONSIDERATION CONDITION **

The Company's obligation to complete an Offer with respect to a particular series of Notes is conditioned on the aggregate Purchase Price Consideration for the Offers (excluding any applicable Accrued Interest) not exceeding the Cash Cap of U.S.$1.0 billion, unless waived by the Company as provided in the Offer to Purchase. Notwithstanding any other provision in the Offer to Purchase to the contrary, if at the Expiration Time for a particular Offer, the aggregate Purchase Price Consideration payable for such series of validly tendered Notes (together with the aggregate Purchase Price Consideration payable for all validly tendered Notes of each series with a higher Acceptance Priority Level and that are accepted for purchase), is greater than the Cash Cap, then the Company will not be obligated to accept for purchase such series of Notes and may terminate the Offer with respect to such series of Notes (the "Maximum Purchase Price Consideration Condition").

** NO PRO-RATION **

If any series of Notes is accepted for purchase pursuant to the Offers, all validly tendered Notes of that series will be accepted for purchase. No series of Notes will be subject to proration pursuant to the Offers.

** RATIONALE FOR THE OFFERS **

The purpose of the Offers is to optimize financing costs and actively manage the Company's leverage by acquiring the maximum principal amount of Notes for which the aggregate Purchase Price Consideration (excluding the applicable Accrued Interest) for the Notes does not exceed the Cash Cap.

** PARTICIPATION IN THE OFFERS **

Holders must either validly tender their notes via the respective Clearing System or deliver a properly completed and duly executed Notice of Guaranteed Delivery (as defined in and attached to the Offer to Purchase) and other required documents pursuant to the guaranteed delivery procedures described in the Offer to Purchase and in the Notice of Guaranteed Delivery at or prior to the Expiration Time and tender their Notes at or prior to 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on the second business day following the Expiration Time (such date and time, as the same may be extended with respect to an Offer, the "Guaranteed Delivery Date") to be eligible to receive the applicable Purchase Price Consideration for such Notes. Notes validly tendered may be withdrawn at or prior to the Withdrawal Date unless the relevant Offer is extended or earlier terminated, but not thereafter.

** INDICATIVE TIMETABLE FOR THE OFFERS ** (all times are New York City time)

Commencement Date  15 July 2022

Withdrawal Date  5:00 p.m. on 21 July 2022

Expiration Time  5:00 p.m. on 21 July 2022

Tender Results Announcement  as soon as reasonably practicable following the Expiration Time, currently expected to be on or about 22 July 2022

Guaranteed Delivery Date  5:00 p.m. (New York City time) on the second Business Day following the Expiration Time, which is expected to be 25 July 2022

Settlement Date  promptly after the Expiration Deadline (and in any event within three Business Days of the Expiration Time) and expected to be on or about 26 July 2022

Guaranteed Delivery Settlement Date  expected to occur on the Business Day after the Guaranteed Delivery Date, i.e. on 26 July 2022

** DEALER MANAGERS **

BNP Paribas ([email protected]; [email protected] / +852 2108 5228)

J.P. Morgan ([email protected] / +852 2800 8019)

Mandiri Securities ([email protected] / +65 6589 3880)

** THE INFORMATION AND TENDER AGENT **

Morrow Sodali Limited (Email: [email protected] / Tender Offers Website: https://projects.morrowsodali.com/mindid / + 852 2319 4130 / +44 20 4513 6933 / +1 203 609 4910)

Questions and requests for assistance in connection with tendering Notes and participating in the Offers and the submission of a tender instruction should be directed to the Information and Tender Agent. Questions and requests for assistance in connection with the Offers should be directed to the Dealer Managers.

** DISCLAIMER **

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER OR AN INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE IN THE OFFERS. THE OFFERS ARE BEING MADE PURSUANT TO AN OFFER TO PURCHASE, A COPY OF WHICH WILL BE DELIVERED TO HOLDERS OF THE NOTES, AND WHICH SETS FORTH THE COMPLETE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THE OFFERS. NOTEHOLDERS ARE URGED TO READ THE OFFER TO PURCHASE CAREFULLY BEFORE MAKING ANY DECISION WITH RESPECT TO THEIR NOTES.

NEITHER THIS ANNOUNCEMENT NOR THE OFFER TO PURCHASE AN OFFER TO BUY OR THE SOLICITATION OF AN OFFER TO SELL NOTES IN ANY JURISDICTION IN WHICH IT IS UNLAWFUL TO DO SO, AND TENDERS OF NOTES FOR PURCHASE PURSUANT TO THE TENDER OFFERS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED FROM NOTEHOLDERS IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH SUCH OFFER OR SOLICITATION IS UNLAWFUL. IN THOSE JURISDICTIONS WHERE THE SECURITIES, BLUE SKY OR OTHER LAWS REQUIRE AN INVITATION TO TENDER TO BE MADE BY A LICENSED BROKER OR DEALER AND THE DEALER MANAGER OR ITS AFFILIATE IS SUCH A LICENSED BROKER OR DEALER IN SUCH JURISDICTIONS, ANY INVITATION SHALL BE DEEMED TO BE MADE ON BEHALF OF THE OFFER BY THE DEALER MANAGER OR SUCH AFFILIATE, AS THE CASE MAY BE, AND NO INVITATION IS MADE IN ANY SUCH JURISDICTION WHERE THE DEALER MANAGER OR ITS RELEVANT AFFILIATE IS NOT SO LICENSED.

NEITHER THE OFFER TO PURCHASE NOR THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONSTITUTES AS A PUBLIC OFFERING OR PRIVATE PLACEMENT IN INDONESIAN UNDER LAW NO. 8 OF 1995 ON CAPITAL MARKETS AND ITS IMPLEMENTING REGULATIONS (THE "CAPITAL MARKETS LAW") AND OJK REGULATION NO. 30 OF 2019 ON THE ISSUANCE OF DEBT-LINKED SECURITIES AND/OR SUKUK ISSUED BY WAYS OF PRIVATE PLACEMENT ("OJK REGULATION NO. 30"). THIS ANNOUNCEMENT AND THE OFFER TO PURCHASE WILL NOT BE AND MAY NOT BE OFFERED OR SOLD IN INDONESIA OR TO INDONESIAN CITIZENS, WHEREVER THEY ARE DOMICILED, OR TO INDONESIAN RESIDENTS, IN A MANNER WHICH CONSTITUTES A PUBLIC OFFER OR PRIVATE PLACEMENT UNDER THE CAPITAL MARKETS LAW AND ITS IMPLEMENTING REGULATIONS AND OJK REGULATION NO. 30.

SOURCE PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Persero)
Collaboration to focus on flexibility management including Demand Response for distribution utilities, optimization of Distributed Energy Resources such as solar, wind and battery storage assets for generators, distribution companies and large Commercial & Industrial consumers

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Electricity consumption is set to grow dramatically in India, especially for cooling purposes, as the population of the country grows, and more consumers deploy air conditioners and electric vehicles. Demand Response (DR) is a powerful alternative by which utilities can reduce stress on the grid during peak periods while providing customers economic and environmental benefits. DR programs aim to reduce or shift energy consumption from peak hours of the day to leaner demand periods by offering incentives to the consumers for their cooperation. Participating customers can exercise control over their consumption, and voluntarily choose to turn down non-essential loads to reduce total load at peak times thus optimizing their monthly electricity bills.

Additionally, energy generation is set to grow sharply as well; almost doubling by 2030, accompanied by a rise in the share of renewables to around 50% of the total generation mix. The intermittency of renewable generation creates new challenges for power system operators and market participants to manage price volatility and system reliability. To cater to this, a study by CEA suggests the need for battery storage to the tune of 27,000 MW and pumped storage of 20,000 MW. The sharp increase projected in renewable energy, distributed generation, energy storage and need for ancillary services creates opportunities for existing and new players in the power system. The collaboration between PTC and AutoGrid proposes to unlock such opportunities.

Commenting on the initiative, Dr. Rajib K Mishra, CMD PTC said, "Demand is seeing a sharp rise in India due overall economic growth and increasing HVAC loads driven by rising consumer incomes. As a result, the load is getting peakier. Demand Response is a powerful tool for peak load management for Discoms. Additionally, there is a strong technology need to enable higher integration of Renewable Energy into India's grid without creating grid instability. We are looking forward to deploying AutoGrid' s AI-based energy management solution to support PTC's mission of a carbon-free future."

"We are delighted to collaborate with PTC India to bring pioneering solutions to their customer base by leveraging our best-in-class energy-AI platform, said Dr. Amit Narayan, CEO, AutoGrid. "With this collaboration, we aim to demonstrate the pivotal role of DR and DERs in realizing India's ambitions to remain one of the fastest-growing economies in the world while meeting the country's need for energy security and sustainability", he added.

PTC India and AutoGrid have identified the following strategic areas to collaborate on:

Automated Demand Response leveraging Residential Air Conditioning Systems and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system at Commercial and Industrial sites

Integration of Energy Storage, Solar PV, Electrical Vehicles and other DERs for grid support, balancing and decarbonization

Structured Renewable Energy or Hybrid solar/wind/battery storage contracts  for large C&I consumers and utilities

About PTC India Ltd:

PTC India Ltd., a Government of India initiative, is the pioneer in starting a power market in India. The Company has maintained its leadership position in power trading since inception.

The trading activities undertaken by PTC include long term trading of power generated from large power projects as well as short term trading arising as a result of supply and demand mismatches, which inevitably arise in various regions of the country.

The Company is credited with a number of products in the electricity trading market to meet the divergent needs of the customers. Driven by the vision to shape a vibrant power market, PTC has been providing value-focused services to its clients and build trust as a reliable partner. PTC is also the pioneer of cross border trading facilitating trade of electricity with Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh.

PTC is a unique example of a successful public-private partnership with major PSUs of the Ministry of Power, Government of India as promoters and a widely held ownership interest.

To learn more about PTC, please visit www.ptcindia.com

About AutoGrid:

Founded in 2010, AutoGrid's mission is to accelerate access to sustainable energy to mitigate climate change. AutoGrid's artificial intelligence-driven software makes electric vehicles, storage, roof-top solar, utility-scale wind, and other distributed energy resources (DERs) smarter.

By enabling prediction, optimization, and real-time control of millions of energy assets at an unprecedented scale, AutoGrid is making the vision of a decentralized, decarbonized, and democratized new energy world a reality. With over a decade of pioneering experience across the globe, AutoGrid offers fleet owners, energy-as-a-service companies, renewable project developers, utilities, and electricity retailers the ability to build, own, operate, and participate in intelligent and scalable virtual power plants, enabling them to disrupt the dependency on fossil-fuel based energy. AutoGrid's flagship application, AutoGrid FlexTM, manages over 6,000MW of distributed energy assets in 15 countries and is ranked a Leader in all flexibility management categories (DR, DERMS, VPP) by independent research and analysis firm Guidehouse Research.

To learn more about AutoGrid, please visit www.auto-grid.com

Media Contact:

Arup Barat

[email protected]

SOURCE Autogrid Systems, Inc.
LOS ANGELES, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- National probate litigation law firm RMO LLP announced today that Founding Partners Scott Rahn and Sean Muntz have been recognized by the Los Angeles Times as 'Legal Visionaries' in its second annual Business of Law magazine. The feature focuses on legal industry trends and spotlights attorneys recognized as "standouts" based on client results and professional standing.

Driven by the firm's core values: (1) Lead With Empathy; (2) Be Authentic; (3) We're Stronger Together; and (4) Zealous Efficacy, RMO has helped thousands of family members successfully navigate the dysfunction that can arise when a loved one passes or becomes compromised and their legacy becomes the subjection of a contentious probate dispute. A "go to" probate litigation law firm for families, executors, trustees, beneficiaries, and creditors alike, RMO has earned a reputation for getting clients better results more quickly and for less legal spend, all to put clients in a place where they can move on with their lives.

RMO CEO Rahn responded to this latest recognition: "It is an honor to have the LA Times again acknowledge the work we and our team do on the daily to help people in a space (probate disputes) wrought with emotion and where taking care of people and getting them good, fair results matters." Rahn launched RMO in 2015 with a focus on resolving contests, disputes, and litigation related to trusts, estates and conservatorships, while creating peace of mind for clients. He represents heirs, beneficiaries, trustees, executors, charities and creditors, pursuing claims involving incapacity, incompetence, undue influence, breach of fiduciary duty, and other similar areas of dispute, including advising and counseling on the prevention and remediation of financial elder abuse.

The feature emphasizes the firm's top-down focus on taking care of clients: "[Rahn] utilizes his experience to develop and implement strategies that swiftly and cost-effectively address the financial issues, fiduciary duties, and emotional complexities underlying trust contests, estates conflicts, and probate litigation. Driven by a commitment to provide relief to people grieving the loss of a loved one, Rahn collaborates closely with clients."

Sean Muntz joined Rahn shortly after the firm's launch, serves as the firm's Managing Partner, and is an experienced trial and appellate lawyer who represents beneficiaries, professional and corporate fiduciaries (administrators, executors, trustees, conservators, and guardians) in contested trust, estate and probate litigation matters. The partners' collaboration goes back to 2001, when the two shared an office as summer associates, launching a relationship that created the foundation upon which RMO is built, as summarized by Rahn: "Sean and I have known each other for more than two decades, and that relationship, and the trust we have in each other and the way we complement one another has allowed us to help clients and build a team that helps clients in ways that ensures they are not only getting the best bang for their probate litigation dollar, but that they are being treated like people who matter, because they do matter to us, and that's really what all the recognitions acknowledge: our commitment to helping people."

RMO LLP provides personal, cost-effective litigation services to individual and institutional clients. The firm's attorneys focus on litigation contested trust, estate, probate, and conservatorship matters. RMO has offices serving clients with probate disputes throughout California, Florida, Texas, Kansas and Missouri. For more information, please visit https://rmolawyers.com/.

SOURCE RMO LLP
DALLAS FORT WORTH, Texas, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Royal House Partners ("RHP") a leading provider of residential and commercial HVAC, plumbing and electrical services in Texas, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma welcomes the addition of Schuler Plumbing based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to their family of businesses.

RHP was founded in 2021 by CPS Capital, a Toronto-based investment firm, and 1801 Holdings, a Dallas-based group of seasoned home services professionals, who have spent a considerable amount of time developing a residential and light commercial HVAC, plumbing and electrical roll-up strategy.

As a leadership team, we have been busy the last several months acquiring businesses in the HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical & Home Services space. The addition of Schuler allows Royal House Partners to further expand its footprint which marks our fifth acquisition in Oklahoma in the last ten months.

Schuler's service team consists of twelve experienced, licensed journeymen plumbers and licensed apprentice plumbers. In addition to caring for Schuler's loyal residential customers, the company also routinely serves some 50+ area restaurants that rely on Schuler for immediate plumbing service attention. Schuler also meets the needs of many multi-family residences, condominiums, retirement centers, and hotels throughout Oklahoma City.

Paul Adams, Chief Growth Officer & Founder of RHP, notes, "We are super excited to welcome the Schuler team. Russell and Vicki Thorp have carried on the Schuler legacy and further built it to one of the most reputable plumbing operations in Oklahoma."

Russell Thorp, Owner, notes, "Since 1978, our slogan 'Trusted name. Proven reputation.' has been recognized as Schuler's hallmark throughout Oklahoma City and the surrounding cities. As we have advanced the legacy passed to us by the company founder, the business has experienced ongoing exponential growth for the past twelve years. Our desire in partnering with RHP is that Schuler will continue to be a leading service provider in the greater metropolitan area."

Terry Sorrells, Regional Vice President Oklahoma, notes, "We are excited to add Schuler Plumbing to our home services family. This addition will strengthen our plumbing division and give us a stronger reach in Oklahoma City Metro area."

HVAC businesses interested in joining the RHP team should contact Paul Adams [email protected] . For more information about RHP, visit https://www.royalhousepartners.com/home

About CPS Capital:

CPS Capital is a lower middle market private equity firm, based in Toronto, founded by owner-operators who look to partner with business owners to realize their growth and transition goals. CPS Capital is focused on North American opportunities to invest in exceptional businesses in growing industries with attractive characteristics. We look to become value-added partners with every business we work with. We bring significant capability, expertise, and capital to provide business owners with an attractive option compared to traditional financial or strategic buyers.

For more information, please visit us at https://cpscapital.com/

SOURCE CPS Management Corp.
ALPHARETTA, Ga., July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine (SIDM), the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) and The John A. Hartford Foundation (JAHF) are proud to announce the selection of the SIDM Age-Friendly Fellow and the NAM Scholar in Diagnostic Excellence who will both focus on advancing equity and improvements in diagnosis for older adults.

Julie Ngoc Thai, MD, MPH Michael Pulia, MD, MS

The NAM has selected 11 professionals for the 2022 class of its Scholars in Diagnostic Excellence program. Funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, this collaborative program in partnership with the Council of Medical Specialty Societies offers a one-year, part-time experience for exceptional individuals to advance their diagnostic skills, make significant contributions to improve clinical diagnosis at the national level, and accelerate their career development as national leaders in the field. With additional support from JAHF, the program now includes a scholar with a focus on the older adult population.

SIDM has selected nine new Fellows in Diagnostic Excellence for the 2022-2023 cohort, also with support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The one-year fellowship program matches qualified candidates with mentors who are recognized leaders in diagnostic error education, research, or practice improvement to develop and implement a project to improve diagnostic quality and safety. Through support from JAHF, the program also now includes an Age-Friendly Care fellow who will develop and implement a project to improve diagnostic quality and safety for older adults.

Diagnostic errors affect millions of Americans and result in thousands of deaths each year and originate from a wide variety of causes, including inadequate communication between providers, patients, and their families; limited feedback to clinicians about diagnostic performance; a lack of information for patients on navigating the diagnostic process; and a culture that discourages transparency and disclosure of diagnostic errors, which impedes attempts to learn from these events and improve diagnosis. Diagnostic error with older adults is common and frequently arise from contributing factors that are unique to this population, including polypharmacy, cognitive issues such as dementia, mobility limitations, and chronic illnesses. This is a problem our health care system can address and one our SIDM Age-Friendly Fellow and NAM Scholar will work tirelessly to improve.

"Launching a SIDM Age-Friendly Fellowship will contribute to advancing the field of diagnostic excellence among older adults. This partnership with The John A. Hartford Foundation and The National Academy of Medicine addressing diagnostic excellence among older adults underscores SIDM's commitment to advancing solutions to improve diagnosis in medicine among these populations. It also signals our strong commitment to fostering the broad competencies required to attain patient-responsive solutions while improving diagnosis among the aging community. SIDM is pleased to partner with these extraordinary leaders and welcome those committed to diagnostic excellence," said Jennie Ward-Robinson, PhD, SIDM's Chief Executive Officer.

The unique partnership between, SIDM, NAM and JAHF will provide our SIDM Age-Friendly Fellow and NAM Scholar with the time and space to pursue exciting new work at the frontiers of knowledge and practice in geriatric care. With access to all three partners, unparalleled resources, our SIDM Age-Friendly Fellow and NAM Scholar will develop new tools and methods, challenge medical and scholarly conventions, and shed light on the past, present, and future. Throughout the academic year, they will convene regularly to share their work in progress with the community, and also opt to share some of their work in progress with the public.

The 2022 SIDM Age-Friendly Fellow and NAM Scholar in Diagnostic Excellence and their program proposal titles are:

Julie Ngoc Thai, MD, MPH

SIDM Age-Friendly Fellow

Fellow, Stanford University School of Medicine

Geriatric Medicine, Division of Primary Care and Population Health

Dr. Thai has developed a case-based curriculum for medical learners that focuses on improving diagnosis and reducing medical errors in the older adult patient population. Dr. Thai's goal is to explore and incorporate various forms of digital tools in curriculum building to make the learning as interactive and engaging as possible.

Michael Pulia, MD, MS

NAM Scholar in Diagnostic Excellence for Older Adults

Assistant Professor

Department of Emergency Medicine

University of Wisconsin, Madison

Dr. Pulia's proposed program will focus on improving diagnostic accuracy for older adult patients who present to the emergency department with suspected pneumonia. Older adults are particularly vulnerable to misdiagnosis of acute respiratory conditions and resultant harm related to unnecessary or inappropriate antibiotic prescribing. Dr. Pulia's selection as a NAM Scholar reflects the significance of his research into mitigating harmful diagnostic errors, especially as it pertains to antimicrobial stewardship.

"We are proud to support these two outstanding individuals, whose focus on the special complexities of diagnosis in the older adult population will contribute greatly to the field. By connecting these awardees with others from such a wide range of backgrounds and expertise, SIDM and NAM will serve as an incubatora place where fellows and scholars can nurture new ideas and create uncharted paths to improve diagnostic quality and safety for older adults in our health care system," said Terry Fulmer, PhD, RN, FAAN, President of JAHF.

About The Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine (SIDM)

The Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine (SIDM) catalyzes and leads change to improve diagnosis and eliminate harm from diagnostic error. We work in partnership with patients, their families, the healthcare community, and every interested stakeholder. SIDM is the only organization focused solely on the problem of diagnostic error and improving the accuracy and timeliness of diagnosis. For more information visit improvediagnosis.org

Contacts

Media Inquiries:

Sophie Gibson, VIVO360, Inc., 404 784 4688, [email protected]

SOURCE The Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine (SIDM)
Full service DSO doubles footprint over just two years, on pace for 50+ offices in 2022

TREVOSE, Penn., July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Simply Beautiful Smiles, one of the fastest growing dental service organizations on the East Coast, announced it has now surpassed forty office locations, more than doubling the Company's footprint over just two years. By partnering with the highest quality clinical talent in select markets that enjoy demographic and demand advantages, Simply Beautiful Smiles has expanded its reach from its origins in the Philadelphia metropolitan area to support dentists and patients from Virginia to upstate New York.

The Trevose, Pennsylvania headquartered, full service DSO now boasts a presence in five states (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, New York and Virginia). Its latest acquisitions, both in Maryland  Dr. Bradley Olson's "Smile Images" practice in Waldorf and the practice of Dr. Kevin Doring in Edgewater  mark Simply Beautiful Smiles' 40th and 41st locations. The company is on pace to comprise more than 50 individual offices by the close of 2022.

Tim North, President & CEO, Simply Beautiful Smiles, said, "Simply Beautiful Smiles believes in elevating the dentistry experience for both patients and practitioners through an approach that is patient-centric, doctor-focused and staff-driven. Our aggressive growth trajectory is matched only by our practitioners' vision to deliver high quality dental health services through relatable and easily accessible services in their home communities."

Simply Beautiful Smiles was recently named a "Top DSOs to Watch in 2022" by Becker's Dental + DSO Review.

In addition to the company's growth-oriented trajectory, it is also greatly improving the dental experience for both its patients and clinical partners by making investments in new technologies, accepting new payment and insurance methods, consolidating back-end operations, expanding laboratory capabilities and creating employee incentive programs and mentorships for both doctors and office staff.

"Patients looking for a dental service provider focused on their overall health needs will find a wonderful experience for their families with Simply Beautiful Smiles. And doctors who share that philosophy who are looking to join a network of likeminded colleagues can find a home here as well," North said.

Simply Beautiful Smiles

Founded in 2000 by doctors who subscribe to the simple premise that every person deserves to have beautiful smile, Simply Beautiful Smiles believes in elevating the dentistry experience for both patients and practitioners through an approach that is patient-centric, doctor-focused and staff-driven. The company comprises more than 40 office locations run by doctors and hygienists with decades of experience across a full complement of practices including general dentistry, periodontics, endodontics, pediatric dentistry, oral surgery, orthodontics and sleep apnea treatment. The company also features multiple ADA compliant practices that focus on the treatment of hearing-impaired patients and those with limited mobility.

SOURCE Simply Beautiful Smiles
4th Generation Smart Graphic Display Controllers Enable Panoramic and Multi-displays

LANGEN, Germany and MILPITAS, Calif. and YOKOHAMA, Japan, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Socionext, a global leader in the design and development of innovative System-on-Chip products, has announced a new series of smart display controllers, "SC1721/ SC1722/ SC1723 Series", certified with ISO26262 for functional safety. Samples will be available at the end of July 2022.

The automotive industry is currently undergoing major transformations that occur approximately once every 100 years. The E/E (Electrical/Electronic) architecture, which is the system structure of automobiles, is changing from a distributed architecture to a domain/zone architecture. Automakers are adopting integrated cockpit systems linking multiple displays, such as meters, In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI), and head-up displays. Larger display size and screen resolution are also driving the demand for improved image quality. Due to the changes, complying with the ISO26262 functional safety standard is critical for new automotive ADAS and infotainment systems development.

Socionext has been developing smart display controllers for automotive applications for many years. This fourth generation is equipped with an APIX3 SerDes-repeater function that allows daisy-chaining of multiple smart display controllers, enabling up to four display connections in a chain. Compared to the previous generation, this function greatly improves the wiring efficiency of the vehicle and facilitates the cooperation of multiple displays. In addition, the company's proprietary SEERIS 2D graphics IP is integrated with cutting-edge functions, such as LED control and pixel compensation by Local Dimming, and Warping-on-the-fly dynamic interpolation of the Warp Map. Socionext improves vehicle safety by adding a mechanism to monitor external LED driver error detection and internal algorithm, and supports functional safety (ASIL-B) by complying with the ISO26262 development process.

These features enable new architectures, such as panoramic displays for dashboards, to meet a growing trend of larger multi-display applications.

SC1721/ SC1722/ SC1723 Series Main Lineup and Specifications



SC1721AH5 SC1722AK3 SC1723AK3 Package  Pin EP-LQFP-216 TE-BGA-437 TE-BGA-427 Size 24mm x 24mm 23mm x 23mm 23mm x 23mm Video Output

Resolution example 1920 x 1080 3840 x 1080 3840 x 2160 Video Output Dual LVDS, OpenLDI Dual LVDS, OpenLDI eDP 5.4Gbps 4lane APIX3 SerDes-repeater*1 Rx: 2 x 3Gbps with HDCP2.3 Tx: 1 x 3Gbps Rx: 2 x 3Gbps or 1 x 6Gbps with HDCP2.3 Tx: 1 x 6Gbps Rx: 2 x 6Gbps with HDCP2.3 Tx: 1 x 6Gbps Video Input*1 LVDS, OpenLDI LVDS, OpenLDI LVDS, OpenLDI Local Dimming 512 LED block 512 LED block 1024 LED block Warping-on-the-fly Yes No No ISO26262 ASIL-B compliant development process Yes Yes Yes

*1: APIX3 SerDes-repeater or Video Input is exclusive depending on the lineup.

Click here for an image of the SC1721AH5

Click here to view a system configuration image

About Socionext America Inc.

Socionext America Inc. (SNA) is the US branch of Socionext Inc., one of the world's leading fabless SoC suppliers. Headquartered in Milpitas, California, the company provides leading-edge technologies and offers a wide range of standard and customizable SoC solutions. Socionext America meets customers' requirements with quality semiconductor products based on extensive and differentiated IPs, proven design methodologies, and state-of-the-art implementation expertise, with full support.

For product information, visit our website, e-mail [email protected] or call 1-844-680-3453. For company news and updates, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

About Socionext Inc.

Socionext Inc. is a global SoC (System-on-Chip) supplier and a pioneer of a unique "Solution SoC" business model through decades of industry experience and expertise. Socionext contributes to global innovation in advanced technologies including automotive, data center, networking, and smart devices. As a trusted silicon partner, Socionext delivers superior features, performance, and quality that differentiate its customers' products and services from their competition.

Socionext Inc. is headquartered in Yokohama, and has offices in Japan, Asia, United States and Europe to lead its development and sales activities. For more information, visit https://www.socionext.com/en/.

About Socionext Europe GmbH

Socionext Europe (SNEU) plays a major role in the worldwide activities of Socionext Inc., one of the world's leading fabless SoC suppliers. Its Headquarters is in Frankfurt, Germany with offices in Munich, Germany and Maidenhead, UK. The Munich Design and Support Center, a leader in embedded graphic solutions, specializes in hardware and software product development for the automotive sector. Maidenhead supports Socionext's IP Development & Engineering Center with a focus on ultra-high speed data conversion IP. Socionext Europe offers customers a range of innovative Custom SoC solutions for today's state-of-the-art applications with total support from start to finish. For more information please visit our website, email: [email protected] or connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.

All company or product names mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Information provided in this press release is accurate at time of publication and is subject to change without advance notice.

SOURCE Socionext America Inc.
MEXICO CITY, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Stori, a rapidly growing fintech company offering credit card products to Mexico's underserved population, today announced its latest round of financing of $150 million, which values the company at $1.2 billion. As a result of this latest round of financing, Stori now joins a select group of Mexico-based companies to achieve "unicorn" status.

Stori co-founders left to right: GY Liu, Bin Chen, Marlene Garayzar, Nick Chen, Sherman He (PRNewsfoto/Stori)

Stori's latest Series C-2 financing comes just nine months after raising one of Latin America's largest Series C rounds and includes a $50 million equity investment from BAI Capital, GIC, and GGV Capital, along with participation from other existing and new investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, General Catalyst, Vision Plus Capital, Goodwater Capital, Tresalia Capital and Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP. Additionally, Davidson Kempner arranged a $100 million debt facility for the Company.

"Stori's ability to raise this round during a time of economic uncertainty demonstrates the confidence of investors in Stori and its mission," commented Annabelle Long, Founding Partner, BAI Capital. "Stori stands out from its competitors with its strong team, disciplined execution, and unparalleled capacity to serve the underbanked populations."

Founded in 2018, Stori offers credit card products to underserved populations. With more than 1.4 million customers in Mexico, Stori offers every customer the chance to obtain a credit card and build their credit history with no complicated paperwork, no credit history, and no annual fee. The entire user experience - from applying for the card to paying bills - is carried out through the Stori mobile app.

"The Stori team is a rare combination of industry background, hustle and change-the-world attitude. The market demand for inclusive financial products tuned for local markets is clear, and the results are not surprising. We continue to be excited about partnering with the Stori team as they grow across Latin America" commented Hans Tung, Managing Partner, GGV Capital.

Proceeds from this latest round of financing will be used to invest in the growth of the team and extend product offerings beyond the credit card. The company also plans on expanding its geographic reach across Latin America targeting 100 million underserved consumers.

"This new round of investment is a significant milestone and takes us one step closer towards our vision of changing the lives of millions who are currently underserved by traditional financial institutions," said Bin Chen, Stori CEO and Co-Founder. "By addressing key pain points of our customers with a simple and mobile-first experience, we hope to play a major role in democratizing credit access, making our customers' lives easier, and supporting economic growth across Latin America."

Stori joins the ranks of the very few Mexican startups who reached unicorn status, bringing it one step closer to its ambitious goal of serving 100 million underserved customers in Latin America. Marlene Garayzar, Chief Governance Officer and Co-Founder, becomes the first Mexican woman to have founded a unicorn technology startup in the country.

"We are proud to bring financial inclusion to more than 1.4 million customers in Mexico. This important milestone could not have been possible without our incredible teams in Mexico, the US, and Asia, and to all our customers who embraced our brand and product," said Garayzar. "We firmly believe that everyone deserves the opportunities credit and other financial tools can unlock."

From, Stori...

A billion thanks!

About Stori

Stori is building the top consumer fintech in Latin America. With a mission to expand access to credit cards for underserved populations, Stori leverages a mobile-first model and global best practices in product design and underwriting to serve its customers' needs. With Stori, customers have access to not just a universally accepted digital payment card, but also fair credit. For more information, visit here.

For more information on Stori's investors, visit here

SOURCE Stori
GREENSBORO, N.C., July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, Inc. (NYSE:SKT), a leading operator of upscale open-air outlet centers, announced today that its Board of Directors declared a cash dividend of $0.20 per share, payable on August 15, 2022, to common shareholders of record on July 29, 2022.

About Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, Inc.

Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, Inc. (NYSE: SKT) is a leading operator of upscale open-air outlet centers that owns, or has an ownership interest in, a portfolio of 36 centers with one additional center currently under development. Tanger's operating properties are located in 20 states and in Canada, totaling approximately 13.6 million square feet, leased to over 2,600 stores operated by more than 600 different brand name companies. The Company has more than 41 years of experience in the outlet industry and is a publicly-traded REIT. For more information on Tanger Outlet Centers, call 1-800-4TANGER or visit the Company's website at www.tangeroutlets.com .

Investor Contact



Doug McDonald

SVP, Finance and Capital Markets

T: (336) 856-6066

[email protected]

SOURCE Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, Inc.
NEW YORK, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Lanier Law Firm has been honored with the Elite Trial Lawyers Award for 2022 in the area of Governmental Representation by American Lawyer Media, the publisher of The National Law Journal and other regional and specialty publications. An event where the publisher conveyed the award was held on the evening of July 14 in New York City.

The firm was recognized for a growing body of work in representing states, counties, municipalities, and similar agencies in complex litigation.

That success at trial includes representing two Ohio counties in federal multidistrict litigation against national retail pharmacies Walmart, CVS and Walgreens. In November 2021 a jury found that the retailers were responsible for fueling the opioid epidemic in those counties, and the firm served as counsel in a bench trial in May 2022 to determine the associated financial damages in the case. A ruling on those damages is expected this summer.

Earlier this year the firm played a key role in reaching a $1.85 billion settlement with opioid manufacturers and distributors on behalf of the state of Texas, and in 2019 gained a pre-trial $260 million settlement with the nation's three biggest drug distributors and a major drugmaker on behalf of two other Ohio counties in the opioid multidistrict litigation.

The firm is also representing the State of Texas and multiple other state Attorneys General in litigation against Google, alleging that the company has unlawfully maintained monopolies in Internet search and search advertising services.

Also at the event, the firm's founder Mark Lanier received the Keith Givens Visionary Award, which honors a member of the bar who has shown extraordinary creativity in bringing the legal industry together, developing new opportunities for business growth, and supporting the professional development of attorneys across the nation.

Cumulatively, Mr. Lanier has garnered almost $20 billion in verdicts during his highly acclaimed career. In addition to this latest honor, he has been named as one of the Most Influential Attorneys of the Decade by the National Law Journal; as one of the 25 Greatest Lawyers of the Past Quarter Century by Texas Lawyer; and is a recipient of the American Association of Justice's Lifetime Achievement Award.

About the Lanier Law Firm

For more than 30 years, the men and women at the Lanier Law Firm have worked tirelessly, throughout the United States, to find unique and effective solutions for their clients. More than 60 skilled attorneys practice law in a broad array of areas, including business litigation, pharmaceutical litigation, asbestos exposure, oil and gas litigation, personal injury as well as defective and dangerous products, among others. Twice named an Elite Trial Law Firm by The National Law Journal, the Lanier Law Firm has offices in Houston, New York and Los Angeles. To learn more about Mark Lanier and the Lanier Law Firm, visit http://www.lanierlawfirm.com .

Media Contact:

J.D. Cargill

713-659-5200

[email protected]

SOURCE The Lanier Law Firm
Smashes previous Prime Day 2021 record with over 100% sales increase year over year

Company sold more than 1 million units over the two-day event

WALPOLE, Mass., July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Thrasio , the next-generation global consumer goods company, announced today its best Amazon Prime Day ever, with an over 100% sales increase year over year. On a like-for-like adjusted basis, including the prior year's sales of newly acquired brands, overall sales increased by 60%.

Thrasio's China team kicks off Prime Day 2022 Marketing through Amazon Live Shoppable Videos supported Thrasio's Prime Day effort.

"For years, Prime Day has been a platform for Prime members to discover highly-rated products and great savings on things they really want, and it's clear they want Thrasio goods," says incoming CEO Greg Greeley. "Since the company's launch, our family of brands has delighted millions of happy customers all over the world. Whether it's a Subscribe & Save for Angry Orange pet deodorizer or unique gifts like the Perfect Practice putting mat, Thrasio connects Prime members with truly great products all year long."

This Prime Day, records were broken across the Thrasio portfolio, with the home, outdoor, and beauty categories being particularly successful  no surprise as this week's event comes at the heart of summer entertaining, vacation, and wedding & party season.

Thrasio's best-performing products were from both brands recently added to the portfolio and brands that have delighted customers for years:

ChomChom Roller  the cult-favorite pet hair roller seen all over TikTok was also seen all over Amazon's homepage as a No. 1 Trending Deal and No. 1 for the entire pet category, with tens of thousands of rollers getting into the hands of pet owners needing relief from the incessant shedding of their beloved pets;

 the cult-favorite pet hair roller was also seen all over Amazon's homepage as a No. 1 Trending Deal and No. 1 for the entire pet category, with tens of thousands of rollers getting into the hands of pet owners needing relief from the incessant shedding of their beloved pets; Nippies  the retail darling, which boasts placement in brick & mortar Nordstrom, Bloomingdales, Anthropologie, and other stores, maintained its spot as No. 1 Best Seller in the fast-growing category of nipple covers and had its biggest day ever on Amazon, achieving a nearly 150% increase in sales year over year;

 the retail darling, which boasts placement in brick & mortar Nordstrom, Bloomingdales, Anthropologie, and other stores, maintained its spot as No. 1 Best Seller in the fast-growing category of nipple covers and had its biggest day ever on Amazon, achieving a nearly 150% increase in sales year over year; Becky Cameron Home  the best-selling bedding brand achieved 474% year-over-year sales growth and Amazon homepage placement as well as key editorial endorsements in publications like People , Forbes , and Southern Living . Becky Cameron Home pillows are a favorite of creators and influencers all over the internet, and during the two-day event, over 450,000 pounds of pillows were purchased, ensuring some very lucky Prime members will have a truly restful weekend;

 the best-selling bedding brand achieved 474% year-over-year sales growth and Amazon homepage placement as well as key editorial endorsements in publications like , , and . pillows are a favorite of creators and influencers all over the internet, and during the two-day event, over 450,000 pounds of pillows were purchased, ensuring some very lucky Prime members will have a truly restful weekend; Dots for Spots  the vegan, cruelty-free acne patch brand achieved its best day ever on both Amazon's UK and US marketplaces. The brand was expanded into the US marketplace just four months ago and already made up 34% of the brand's sales during Prime Day;

 the vegan, cruelty-free acne patch brand achieved its best day ever on both Amazon's UK and US marketplaces. The brand was expanded into the US marketplace just four months ago and already made up 34% of the brand's sales during Prime Day; Green Bulldog Bags  the foldable, washable, reusable grocery-bag brand shipped 73x the average daily units sold and grabbed the No. 1 Best Seller Badge, replacing over 100,000 plastic bags and reducing shoppers' environmental impact with each grocery run;

 the foldable, washable, reusable grocery-bag brand shipped 73x the average daily units sold and grabbed the No. 1 Best Seller Badge, replacing over 100,000 plastic bags and reducing shoppers' environmental impact with each grocery run; Hotel Sheets Direct  standing out from the thousands of sheet sets on the Amazon marketplace is no small feat, but this brand provides unparalleled quality at an incredible value. Prime Member enthusiasm for Hotel Sheets Direct drove nearly 600% growth year over year and Amazon featured the brand on its Lightning Deals homepage;

 standing out from the thousands of sheet sets on the Amazon marketplace is no small feat, but this brand provides unparalleled quality at an incredible value. Prime Member enthusiasm for drove nearly 600% growth year over year and Amazon featured the brand on its Lightning Deals homepage; Enerplex  the best-selling air mattress brand, which Thrasio's Product Development team recently expanded to include more sizes of mattresses, went on to grow sales more than 70% year over year during the two-day event;

the best-selling air mattress brand, which Thrasio's Product Development team recently expanded to include more sizes of mattresses, went on to grow sales more than 70% year over year during the two-day event; Beard King  the men's grooming product you didn't know you needed did 755% more in sales than during Prime Day 2021 and earned a Best Seller distinction by Amazon;

the men's grooming product you didn't know you needed did 755% more in sales than during Prime Day 2021 and earned a Best Seller distinction by Amazon; Wise Owl Outfitters  the world got wind of next week's National Hammock Day in the U.S. and geared up with purchases of the brand's hammocks & outdoor camping gear, driving a 23% increase in sales over last year's record-breaking Prime Day and earning two new Best Seller Badges.

"The secret to Amazon Prime Day success is of course having great products, but it's also about operational excellence and great team execution,'' explains Thrasio COO Stephanie Fox. "At Thrasio, the prep for Prime Day is just as significant as the actual event, and it's an organization-wide effort. Even in a challenging year where market headwinds and supply chain disruptions dominate the news, our focus remains on how best to serve customers with our powerful data-driven approach, and no one does that better than our experienced and energized team of Thrashers."

"Prime Day is our favorite global holiday at Thrasio," says Brandon Hendrix, SVP Marketing. "With thousands of Lightning Deals and Prime Exclusive Deals planned in 12 countries, Prime member response to our offerings achieved a 55% increase in Best Seller Badges for products throughout the portfolio, which creates a nice ripple effect of sales for the weeks to come. For publishers, creators, influencers and the like, if you weren't part of our partner network for this Prime Day, it's not too late to get in on the action for the remainder of the summer and upcoming holidays."

About Thrasio

Thrasio is the next-generation consumer goods company reimagining how the world's most-loved products become accessible to everyone. We use a deep understanding of rankings, ratings, and reviews to identify and acquire quality brands selling beloved goods and help them reach customers around the globe. With every brand we grow, item listing we improve, or product we develop, our goal is to help people everywhere make the most of every moment. Thrasio operates more than 200 brands and a portfolio of products including Angry Orange pet deodorizers and stain removers , Beckham Hotel Collection bedding , and Dots for Spots vegan acne patches . In an internet-sized sea of choices, we ensure what gets delivered to your door delivers. Thrasio was founded in 2018 by Joshua Silberstein and Carlos Cashman and was named a CNBC Disruptor in 2021 and 2022. How Goods Become Great thrasio.com .

SOURCE Thrasio
MESQUITE, Texas, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The U-Haul of Mesquite store at 2349 E. Hwy. 80 is closing its doors for the final time today after 43 years of serving the local community.

The facility had been serving do-it-yourself moving customers since 1979, when U-Haul built it. The 2.1-acre property was acquired by the state and condemned to make room for the TxDOT freeway expansion project.

Eight Team Members are being let go from the store.

U-Haul intends to open a new full-service moving, self-storage and retail center on the south side of Highway 80 by the end of 2024. The new property has already been acquired and U-Haul is going through the necessary zoning processes.

Local U-Haul Companies are always exploring opportunities for growth as they pursue means to better serve the needs of customers, but sometimes find it necessary to close or relocate stores. Reasons for closures can include: long-term strategic plans; physical plant limitations, including insufficient square footage; shifts in demographics; trends in migration; expansion of the U-Haul neighborhood dealer network; proximity to new or existing U-Haul stores; and external factors.

U-Haul dealers in and around Mesquite continue to meet the needs of DIY movers. U-Haul has partnered with independent dealers to offer rental equipment since 1945. During these challenging times for small businesses, more than 21,000 dealers across the U.S. and Canada are generating supplemental income through their U-Haul partnership. When customers rent from U-Haul dealers, they are directly supporting small businesses in their community. Because no financial investment is required, dealers are not U-Haul franchises. They are simply small businesses committing their lot space for U-Haul equipment and time to meet the mobility needs of customers. Learn more about how to partner with U-Haul at uhaul.com/dealer.

About U-HAUL

Since 1945, U-Haul has been the No. 1 choice of do-it-yourself movers, with a network of more than 23,000 locations across all 50 states and 10 Canadian provinces. U-Haul Truck Share 24/7 offers secure access to U-Haul trucks every hour of every day through the customer dispatch option on their smartphones and our proprietary Live Verify technology. Our customers' patronage has enabled the U-Haul fleet to grow to approximately 186,000 trucks, 128,000 trailers and 46,000 towing devices. U-Haul is the third largest self-storage operator in North America and offers 876,000 rentable storage units and 75.1 million square feet of self-storage space at owned and managed facilities. U-Haul is the largest retailer of propane in the U.S., and continues to be the largest installer of permanent trailer hitches in the automotive aftermarket industry. U-Haul has been recognized repeatedly as a leading "Best for Vets" employer and was recently named one of the 15 Healthiest Workplaces in America.

Contact:

Andrea Batchelor

Jeff Lockridge

E-mail: [email protected]

Phone: 602-263-6981

Website: uhaul.com

SOURCE U-Haul
STOCKHOLM, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On December 2, 2021, it was communicated that the acquisition of HHI is expected to close during 2022. The US regulator continues to review the proposed acquisition of HHI and ASSA ABLOY is working to resolve its potential concerns. It can therefore not be ruled out that the closing of the transaction extends into 2023.

On September 8, 2021, ASSA ABLOY announced it had signed an agreement to acquire the HHI division of Spectrum Brands (NYSE: SPB) for a purchase price of MUSD 4,300 on a cash and debt free basis.

ASSA ABLOY and Spectrum Brands have agreed to extend their agreement for ASSA ABLOY to acquire the HHI division of Spectrum Brands to June 30, 2023.

ASSA ABLOY and Spectrum Brands both remain fully committed to the transaction and confident that they will obtain all required governmental clearances to complete the transaction.

For more information, please contact:

Nico Delvaux, President and CEO, tel. no: +46 8 506 485 82

Erik Pieder, CFO and Executive Vice President, tel. no: +46 8 506 485 72

Bjorn Tibell, Head of Investor Relations, tel. no: +46 70 275 67 68

This is information that ASSA ABLOY AB is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact persons set out above, at 06.00 CET on 15 July 2022.

About ASSA ABLOY

The ASSA ABLOY Group is the global leader in access solutions. The Group operates worldwide with 51,000 employees and sales of SEK 95 billion. The Group has leading positions in areas such as efficient door openings, trusted identities and entrance automation. ASSA ABLOY's innovations enable safe, secure and convenient access to physical and digital places. Every day, we help billions of people experience a more open world.

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/assa-abloy/r/update-on-timing-of-assa-abloy-s-acquisition-of-the-hardware-and-home-improvement--hhi--division-of-,c3601764

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/7333/3601764/1604747.pdf Press release (PDF)

SOURCE ASSA ABLOY
F.A.R.M.S. to Food Bank Program Helps to Fight Hunger for 1 in 5 East Texans

TYLER, Texas, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The national nonprofit Family Agriculture Resource Management Services (F.A.R.M.S.), has developed a new partnership with the East Texas Food Bank (ETFB). F.A.R.M.S. is a charitable organization that offers legal and technical services to aging farmers while reducing hunger in the farmers community through the 30000Acres food bank program. ETFB is the largest hunger-relief nonprofit in East Texas, covering 26 counties. ETFB provides over 25 million meals each year to more than 200 partner agencies and feeding programs.

"East Texas Food Bank is an ideal partner for F.A.R.M.S., since many of the counties that receive services from their food bank are rural," said Jillian Hishaw, founding director of F.A.R.M.S. "This aligns with our mission as 90 percent of F.A.R.M.S. resources are exclusively devoted to rural farming communities."

The F.A.R.M.S. to Food Bank program is an integral part of the organization and is designed to distribute fresh produce in high poverty communities. F.A.R.M.S. purchases fresh produce from farm clients from across the country which are then donated to food banks, pantries, homeless, childcare and eldercare centers.

"We are very excited about our new relationship with F.A.R.M.S.," said Dennis Cullinane, CEO of the East Texas Food Bank. "Our strategic goal is to increase distribution to 32 million meals by 2025. Providing healthy food like fresh produce to help our neighbors struggling with hunger is so important to our mission to fight hunger and feed hope in East Texas."

1 in 5 East Texans, including 1 in 4 children, do not have access to the nutritious food necessary for a healthy life. ETFB's work of food relief makes a significant impact on rural communities across East Texas: In 2021, ETFB distributed 28.5 million pounds of food, including 10.7 million pounds of produce.

"F.A.R.M.S. is elated to know our grant dollars are making an impact on reducing rural child and senior hunger," said Hishaw. "We are happy to provide our food bank services on a larger scale in Texas. We have worked within the state in the past but our new partnership with ETFB allows us to help more rural communities and farmers! In the first few months of working together, F.A.R.M.S has donated 80,000 pounds of cabbage and potatoes to rural residents of East Texas."

Since its inception in 2013, F.A.R.M.S., has purchased and donated nearly two million pounds of produce, provided nearly $500,000 in emergency aid to farmers and has saved rural farms from foreclosure. Recently, the multi-award-winning organization was awarded grant funding from the MacArthur Foundation and the Jrue and Lauren Holiday Foundation.

About F.A.R.M.S.

F.A.R.M.S. is a charitable organization that offers legal and technical services to aging farmers while reducing hunger in the farmers community through the 30000Acres food bank program, and whose services focus on land retention and asset protection services for rural aging farmers to ensure land retention for future family farmers while reducing hunger in the farmer's community. Learn more about F.A.R.M.S. at www.30000acres.org .

MEDIA CONTACT:

Kayla Tucker Adams; KTA Media Group, [email protected]; 214-403-9852 cell

SOURCE Family Agriculture Resource Management Services (F.A.R.M.S.)
KATY, Texas, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. Silica Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SLCA) announced today that it will release its second quarter 2022 financial results before the New York Stock Exchange opens on Friday, July 29, 2022.

Conference Call

This release will be followed by a conference call for investors on Friday, July 29, 2022 at 7:30 a.m. Central Time to discuss the results. Hosting the call will be Bryan Shinn, Chief Executive Officer, and Don Merril, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Investors are invited to listen to a live webcast of the conference call by visiting the "Investors- Events & Presentations" section of the Company's website at www.ussilica.com . The webcast will be archived for one year. The call can also be accessed live over the telephone by dialing (877) 869-3847 or for international callers, (201) 689-8261. A replay will be available shortly after the call and can be accessed by dialing (877) 660-6853 or for international callers, (201) 612-7415. The conference ID for the replay is 13731716. The replay will be available through August 29, 2022.

About U.S. Silica

U.S. Silica Holdings, Inc. is a global performance materials company and is a member of the Russell 2000. The Company is a leading producer of commercial silica used in the oil and gas industry and in a wide range of industrial applications. Over its 122-year history, U.S. Silica has developed core competencies in mining, processing, logistics and materials science that enable it to produce and cost-effectively deliver over 600 diversified products to customers across our end markets. U.S. Silica's wholly-owned subsidiaries include EP Minerals and SandBox Logistics. EP Minerals is an industry leader in the production of products derived from diatomaceous earth, perlite, engineered clays, and non-activated clays. SandBox Logistics is a state-of-the-art leader in proppant storage, handling and well-site delivery, dedicated to making proppant logistics cleaner, safer and more efficient. The Company currently operates 24 mines and production facilities and is headquartered in Katy, Texas.

Investor Contact:

Patricia Gil

Vice President, Investor Relations

(281) 505-6011

[email protected]

SOURCE U.S. Silica Holdings, Inc.
Tourism and Hotel Market in Indonesia Dynamics

Key Driver: The increasing preference for local and authentic experiences is one of the key drivers supporting the tourism and hotel market growth in Indonesia. These tourists prefer buying local products instead of souvenirs and undertaking adventure trips in public transport instead of taxis. Also, having dinner in a restaurant that uses zero-kilometer ingredients, including local, low-impact primary ingredients, such as meat, cheese, and honey. This new form of tourism is expected to become popular among tourists as they are becoming more aware of the environmental impact of tourism. This will fuel the market's growth in focus during the forecast period.

Key Challenge: The factors such as climate change and unexpected weather developments is hindering the tourism and hotel market growth in Indonesia. Tropical hurricanes, floods, and rising sea-water levels pose big problems to Indonesia by severely deteriorating tourism infrastructure, resources, and buildings. Also, rebuilding and maintaining infrastructure could be a highly time-consuming process, depending on the severity of the natural calamity. In contrast, any political unrest takes about 27 months to recover. These factors may impact the market's revenue growth, which is another challenge for the tourism and hotel market in Indonesia during the forecast period.

Key Market Dynamics and their Impact Analysis is now available with Technavio, Request Sample Report

Tourism and Hotel Market in Indonesia Vendor Landscape

The market is fragmented, and the degree of fragmentation will accelerate during the forecast period. Vendors are deploying growth strategies such as price, government licensing, service portfolio, quality, brand, and safety measures to compete in the market.

We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the Tourism and Hotel Market in Indonesia , including some of the vendors such as vendors Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the Tourism and Hotel Market in Indonesia are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

, including some of the vendors such as vendors Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the Tourism and Hotel Market in are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments.

The tourism and hotel market in Indonesia forecast report offers in-depth insights into key vendor profiles. The profiles include information on the production, sustainability, and prospects of the leading companies.

forecast report offers in-depth insights into key vendor profiles. The profiles include information on the production, sustainability, and prospects of the leading companies. Aryaduta Aryaduta Hotel Group, Double-Six Luxury Hotel Seminyak, Grandmas Plus Hotel Airport, Katamaran Hotel and Resort, Kempinski Hotels SA, Le Eminence Hotel Convention and Resort, Pesona Alam Resort and Spa, Pullman Ciawi Vimala Hills Resort Spa and Convention, Puri Sari Beach Hotel, and Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotels Group Co. Ltd. are some of the major market participants.

Vendors such as Aryaduta Aryaduta Hotel Group offers a wide range of hotels such as Aryaduta Menteng, Aryaduta Suite Semanggi, Aryaduta Bandung and others.

Tourism and Hotel Market in Indonesia Segmentation

Tourists

Domestic



International

Market Sizing

Chain Hotels



Independent Hotels

Get Segment-based Market Share Contribution and Regional opportunities, Download Sample Report

Tourism and Hotel Market in Indonesia Scope

Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our tourism and hotel market in Indonesia report covers the following areas:

Tourism and Hotel Market in Indonesia FAQs

Which is the latest market trend taking the market by the storm?

What are some of the most influential market drivers, restraints, and opportunities (DROs)?

What are the historical and projected revenue values and CAGR percentage?

Which strategic initiatives will influence competitive scenarios and define the market growth potential?

Which regions & segments will garner massive revenue and emerge as market leaders in upcoming years?

Who are the top market share contributors and their latest organizational restructuring plans?

Have more queries? Get all your Questions Answered with this PDF Sample

Related Reports:

Cultural Tourism Market Growth, Size, Trends, Analysis Report by Type, Application, Region and Segment Forecast 2021-2025

Wellness Tourism Market Growth, Size, Trends, Analysis Report by Type, Application, Region and Segment Forecast 2022-2026

Culinary Tourism Market by Type and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025

Tourism And Hotel Market In Indonesia Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 11.81% Market growth 2022-2026 $ 21.93 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 6.09 Regional analysis Indonesia Performing market contribution Indonesia at 100% Key consumer countries Indonesia Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Aryaduta Aryaduta Hotel Group, Double-Six Luxury Hotel Seminyak, Grandmas Plus Hotel Airport, Katamaran Hotel and Resort, Kempinski Hotels SA, Le Eminence Hotel Convention and Resort, Pesona Alam Resort and Spa, Pullman Ciawi Vimala Hills Resort Spa and Convention, Puri Sari Beach Hotel, and Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotels Group Co. Ltd. Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID 19 impact and future consumer dynamics, market condition analysis for the forecast period, Customization purview If our report has not included the data that you are looking for, you can reach out to our analysts and get segments customized.

Table Of Contents :

1. Executive Summary

1.1 Market Overview

Exhibit 01: Key Finding 1

Exhibit 02: Key Finding 2

Exhibit 03: Key Finding 5

Exhibit 04: Key Finding 6

Exhibit 05: Key Finding 7

2. Market Landscape

2.1 Market ecosystem

Exhibit 06: Parent market

Exhibit 07: Market characteristics

2.2 Value chain analysis

Exhibit 08: Value chain analysis: Hotels, restaurants and leisure market

2.2.1 Inputs

2.2.2 Inbound logistics

2.2.3 Operations

2.2.4 Services

2.2.5 Marketing and sales

2.2.6 Support activities

2.2.7 Innovations

3. Market Sizing

3.1 Market definition

Exhibit 09: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition

3.2 Market segment analysis

Exhibit 10: Market segments

3.3 Market size 2021

3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2021 - 2026

3.4.1 Estimating growth rates for emerging and high-growth markets

3.4.2 Estimating growth rates for mature markets

Exhibit 11: Global - Market size and forecast 2021 - 2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 12: Global market: Year-over-year growth 2021 - 2026 (%)

4. Five Forces Analysis

4.1 Five Forces Summary

Exhibit 13: Five forces analysis 2021 & 2026

4.2 Bargaining power of buyers

Exhibit 14: Bargaining power of buyers

4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers

Exhibit 15: Bargaining power of suppliers

4.4 Threat of new entrants

Exhibit 16: Threat of new entrants

4.5 Threat of substitutes

Exhibit 17: Threat of substitutes

4.6 Threat of rivalry

Exhibit 18: Threat of rivalry

4.7 Market condition

Exhibit 19: Market condition - Five forces 2021

5. Market Segmentation by Type of tourists

5.1 Market segments

The segments covered in this chapter are:

Domestic

International

Exhibit 20: Type of tourists - Market share 2021-2026 (%)

5.2 Comparison by Type of tourists

Exhibit 21: Comparison by Type of tourists

5.3 Domestic - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 22: Domestic - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 23: Domestic - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.4 International - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 24: International - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 25: International - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

5.5 Market opportunity by Type of tourists

Exhibit 26: Market opportunity by Type of tourists

6. Market Segmentation by Hotel type

6.1 Market segments

The segments covered in this chapter are:

Chain hotels

Independent hotels

Exhibit 27: Hotel type - Market share 2021-2026 (%)

6.2 Comparison by Hotel type

Exhibit 28: Comparison by Hotel type

6.3 Chain hotels - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 29: Chain hotels - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 30: Chain hotels - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

6.4 Independent hotels - Market size and forecast 2021-2026

Exhibit 31: Independent hotels - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million)

Exhibit 32: Independent hotels - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%)

6.5 Market opportunity by Hotel type

Exhibit 33: Market opportunity by Hotel type

7. Customer landscape

Technavio's customer landscape matrix comparing Drivers or price sensitivity, Adoption lifecycle, importance in customer price basket, Adoption rate and Key purchase criteria

7.1 Overview

Exhibit 34: Customer landscape

8. Drivers, Challenges, and Trends

8.1 Market drivers

8.1.1 Increasing preference for local and authentic experiences

8.1.2 Growing affordability and rising disposable income

8.1.3 Growing number of foreign tourists

8.2 Market challenges

8.2.1 Climate change and unexpected weather developments

8.2.2 Increased threat of terrorism

8.2.3 Inadequate infrastructure for travelers

Exhibit 35: Impact of drivers and challenges

8.3 Market trends

8.3.1 Growing Internet access and online testimonials

8.3.2 Self-check-ins to minimize waiting time

8.3.3 Digitalization in the hotel industry in Indonesia

9. Vendor Landscape

9.1 Overview

Exhibit 36: Vendor landscape

9.2 Landscape disruption

Exhibit 37: Landscape disruption

Exhibit 38: Industry risks

10. Vendor Analysis

10.1 Vendors covered

Exhibit 39: Vendors covered

10.2 Market positioning of vendors

Exhibit 40: Market positioning of vendors

10.3 Aryaduta Aryaduta Hotel Group

Exhibit 41: Aryaduta Aryaduta Hotel Group - Overview

Exhibit 42: Aryaduta Aryaduta Hotel Group - Product and service

Exhibit 43: Aryaduta Aryaduta Hotel Group - Key offerings

10.4 Double-Six Luxury Hotel Seminyak

Exhibit 44: Double-Six Luxury Hotel Seminyak - Overview

Exhibit 45: Double-Six Luxury Hotel Seminyak - Product and service

Exhibit 46: Double-Six Luxury Hotel Seminyak - Key offerings

10.5 Grandmas Plus Hotel Airport

Exhibit 47: Grandmas Plus Hotel Airport - Overview

Exhibit 48: Grandmas Plus Hotel Airport - Product and service

Exhibit 49: Grandmas Plus Hotel Airport - Key offerings

10.6 Katamaran Hotel and Resort

Exhibit 50: Katamaran Hotel and Resort - Overview

Exhibit 51: Katamaran Hotel and Resort - Product and service

Exhibit 52: Katamaran Hotel and Resort - Key offerings

10.7 Kempinski Hotels SA

Exhibit 53: Kempinski Hotels SA - Overview

Exhibit 54: Kempinski Hotels SA - Product and service

Exhibit 55: Kempinski Hotels SA - Key offerings

10.8 Le Eminence Hotel Convention and Resort

Exhibit 56: Le Eminence Hotel Convention and Resort - Overview

Exhibit 57: Le Eminence Hotel Convention and Resort - Product and service

Exhibit 58: Le Eminence Hotel Convention and Resort - Key offerings

10.9 Pesona Alam Resort and Spa

Exhibit 59: Pesona Alam Resort and Spa - Overview

Exhibit 60: Pesona Alam Resort and Spa - Product and service

Exhibit 61: Pesona Alam Resort and Spa - Key offerings

10.10 Pullman Ciawi Vimala Hills Resort Spa and Convention

Exhibit 62: Pullman Ciawi Vimala Hills Resort Spa and Convention - Overview

Exhibit 63: Pullman Ciawi Vimala Hills Resort Spa and Convention - Product and service

Exhibit 64: Pullman Ciawi Vimala Hills Resort Spa and Convention - Key offerings

10.11 Puri Sari Beach Hotel

Exhibit 65: Puri Sari Beach Hotel - Overview

Exhibit 66: Puri Sari Beach Hotel - Product and service

Exhibit 67: Puri Sari Beach Hotel - Key offerings

10.12 Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotels Group Co. Ltd.

Exhibit 68: Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotels Group Co. Ltd. - Overview

Exhibit 69: Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotels Group Co. Ltd. - Business segments

Exhibit 70: Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotels Group Co. Ltd. - Key offerings

Exhibit 71: Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotels Group Co. Ltd. - Segment focus

11. Appendix

11.1 Scope of the report

11.1.1 Market definition

11.1.2 Objectives

11.1.3 Notes and caveats

11.2 Currency conversion rates for US$

Exhibit 72: Currency conversion rates for US$

11.3 Research Methodology

Exhibit 73: Research Methodology

Exhibit 74: Validation techniques employed for market sizing

Exhibit 75: Information sources

11.4 List of abbreviations

Exhibit 76: List of abbreviations

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

Contact

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media & Marketing Executive

US: +1 844 364 1100

UK: +44 203 893 3200

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.technavio.com/

SOURCE Technavio
NEW YORK, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Voyager Digital Ltd. ("Voyager" or the "Company") (TSX: VOYG) (OTC: VYGVQ) (FRA: UCD) today announced that common shares of the Company have resumed trading on the OTC Pink Sheets under the new ticker symbol "VYGVQ." Due to the Company's July 5, 2022, bankruptcy filing, Voyager no longer qualifies to trade on OTCQX International.

Trading of the Company's common shares on the OTC was initially halted on July 7, 2022, when Voyager notified the Toronto Stock Exchange (the "TSX") that the Company would voluntarily delist its common shares from the TSX. The Company took this action in response to a notification from the TSX that the TSX would review the eligibility of the Company's common shares for continued listing on TSX as a result of the Company and its main operating subsidiaries filing voluntary petitions for reorganization under Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York.

The resumption of trading on the OTC Pink Sheets and the voluntary delisting of the Company's common shares on the TSX have no impact on the Company's continued business operations.

Additional information regarding the ticker symbol change can be found at www.otcmarkets.com/stock/VYGVQ/security .

Parties with questions about the chapter 11 process may contact the Company's Claims Agent, Stretto, at +1 (855) 473-8665 (toll-free in the U.S.) or +1 (949) 271-6507 (for parties outside the U.S.). They have also set up a website at http://cases.stretto.com/Voyager , which includes court documents and other information.

About Voyager Digital Ltd.

Voyager Digital Ltd.'s (TSX: VOYG) (OTC Pink: VYGVQ) (FRA: UCD) US subsidiary, Voyager Digital, LLC, is a cryptocurrency platform in the United States founded in 2018 to bring choice, transparency, and cost-efficiency to the marketplace. Voyager offers a secure way to trade over 100 different crypto assets using its easy-to-use mobile application. Through its subsidiary Coinify ApS, Voyager provides crypto payment solutions for both consumers and merchants around the globe. To learn more about the company, please visit https://www.investvoyager.com .

Forward Looking Statements

Certain information in this press release, including, but not limited to, statements regarding the restructuring process, the restructuring Plan, available remedies for recovery from 3AC, intended filings as part of the restructuring process, resumption of account access, return of value to customers, the ability of Voyager to continue as a going concern, exploration of strategic alternatives, discussions with third parties in respect of strategic alternatives and the results of those discussions, the temporary nature of the suspension of the platform, future growth and performance of the business, the exploration of strategic alternatives, future adoption of digital assets, anticipated trends and challenges in our business and industry, the regulation of digital assets offerings, the impact of the 3AC default on the Company, the Company's liquidity and ability to satisfy customer orders and withdrawals and the Company's anticipated results may constitute forward looking information (collectively, forward-looking statements), which can be identified by the use of terms such as "may," "will," "should," "expect," "anticipate," "project," "estimate," "intend," "continue" or "believe" (or the negatives) or other similar variations. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Voyager's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any of its future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by forward-looking statements. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks emerge from time to time. It is not possible for our management to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements we may make. In light of these risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, the future events and trends discussed in this press release may not occur and actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. It is uncertain as to the timing or results of the restructuring process or the terms of the final restructuring plan, when account access will resume, the value to be returned to customers, what amount Voyager will be able to recover from 3AC for non-payment or the legal remedies available to Voyager in connection with such non-payment or the impact on the future business, cash flows, liquidity and prospects of Voyager as a result of 3AC's non-payment. Forward looking statements are subject to the risk that the global economy, industry, or the Company's businesses and investments do not perform as anticipated, that revenue or expenses estimates may not be met or may be materially less or more than those anticipated, that parties to whom the Company lends assets are able to repay such loans in full and in a timely manner, that trading momentum does not continue or the demand for trading solutions declines, customer acquisition does not increase as planned, product and international expansion do not occur as planned, risks of compliance with laws and regulations that currently apply or become applicable to the business and those other risks contained in the Company's public filings, including in its Management Discussion and Analysis and its Annual Information Form (AIF). Factors that could cause actual results of the Company and its businesses to differ materially from those described in such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the results of the restructuring process and the terms of the restructuring plan, if such a plan is ultimately agreed to, the results from the exploration of strategic alternatives, the inability to resume trading, deposits, withdrawals and rewards on the platform in a timely manner, an inability to drawdown under the credit facility or access other sources of financing, an increase in customer demands for withdrawals from the platform, any insolvency or similar proceedings with respect to 3AC, our ability to find a strategic alternative, a decline in the digital asset market or general economic conditions; changes in laws or approaches to regulation, the failure or delay in the adoption of digital assets and the blockchain ecosystem by institutions; changes in the volatility of crypto currency, changes in demand for Bitcoin and Ethereum, changes in the status or classification of cryptocurrency assets, cybersecurity breaches, a delay or failure in developing infrastructure for the trading businesses or achieving mandates and gaining traction; failure to grow assets under management, an adverse development with respect to an issuer or party to the transaction or failure to obtain a required regulatory approval. Readers are cautioned that Assets on Platform and trading volumes fluctuate and may increase and decrease from time to time and that such fluctuations are beyond the Company's control. Forward-looking statements, past and present performance and trends are not guarantees of future performance, accordingly, you should not put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, current or past performance, or current or past trends. Information identifying assumptions, risks, and uncertainties relating to the Company are contained in its filings with the Canadian securities regulators available at www.sedar.com . The forward-looking statements in this press release are applicable only as of the date of this release or as of the date specified in the relevant forward-looking statement and the Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after that date or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. The Company assumes no obligation to provide operational updates, except as required by law. If the Company does update one or more forward-looking statements, no inference should be drawn that it will make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements, unless required by law. Readers are cautioned that past performance is not indicative of future performance. There is no assurance that the funds available under the loan agreement will be available or, even if available will, together with any other assets of Voyager be sufficient to safeguard assets.

The TSX has not approved or disapproved of the information contained herein.

Press Contacts

Voyager Digital, Ltd.

Voyager Public Relations Team

[email protected]

SOURCE Voyager Digital Ltd.
Avation PLC (LSE:AVAP) said demand for aircraft is exceeding supply as air travel continues to recover, with leases signed for 17 of the 20 aircraft returned as a consequence of the pandemic.

The remaining three aircraft, two of which are ATR72s and one is a Boeing 737-800, are currently being marketed and have received interest from customers to either lease or purchase, all expected to be completed by the end of December, the company said in a statement on Friday.

As of its 30 June year-end, the London-listed company said it had a commercial aircraft fleet of 39 aircraft that are leased to 17 commercial airlines in 14 countries, with two more aircraft on order and long-term purchase rights over a further 28 fuel-efficient ATR72 aircraft.

Avation said it is conducting a review of the fleet valuation, having taken a cautious approach during the pandemic and twice made an annual impairment to the value of its fleet.

It is our opinion that aircraft valuations will trend upwards as air travel recovers, said executive chairman Jeff Chatfield.

He said the airline industry was experiencing a rapid recovery with activity levels of most of our airline clients close to and in some cases above pre-COVID levels.

The results for the year are expected to reflect that the company has successfully navigated the pandemic and is experiencing improved cash collection rates, higher aircraft valuations and fleet utilisation.

Cash collection rates as at 31 May 2022 were 105% compared to 70% in the year before, with total cash and bank balances of US$118.9mln including restricted cash at the year end. Repayment of US$55.6mln of secured loans during the past six months was also reported.

Chatfield said material receipts are also expected in the coming financial year from sales of aircraft, re-financing of existing planes, distributions from the Virgin Australia (ASX:VAH) administration as well as cashflow from operations.

The company believes that the market has now returned to a position where the demand for aircraft exceeds supply. The current shortage of aircraft is supported by increased passenger numbers, fewer aircraft in the global fleet than pre-pandemic, the removal from the international fleet of approximately 550 aircraft previously on lease to Russian airlines and current aircraft production levels by the major manufacturers which are materially lower than pre-pandemic.

The company both improved its strategic position by transitioning grounded aircraft, maintained liquidity and reduced debt during the financial year.

The company is well positioned to take advantage of increased demand for aircraft in an aviation sector that will evolve into a more sustainable, low CO2 emission fleet."

More than half of Avation's fleet are ATR72 and Airbus A220 aircraft, which it said are "class leaders" in fuel efficiency and emissions.
Copper prices softened to its lowest point since November 2020 as Chinese economic growth stumbled more than expected and mining giant Rio Tinto PLC warned that "headwinds are considerable" due to labour shortages, muted demand, falling commodity prices and the threat of recession.

Known as 'Dr Copper' for its ability to indicate the health of the global economy, the commodity suffered its worst weekly decline since the initial storms of the coronavirus pandemic.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange fell below US$7,000 a tonne on Friday, down by more than a third over the past four months, with the Bloomberg Industrial metals index dropping to its lowest since early 2021.

Copper has given up gains made in the initial wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which had led to traders fearing the conflict would lead to shortages of the metal.

However, the dominant concern is now about the waning global economic outlook and potential for a recession, which Rio Tinto said in a trading update was hitting prices for copper, aluminium and iron ore.

The FTSE 100 mining giant's update came on the same day that China reported vastly slower economic growth for the second quarter of 0.4%, well short of the 1.2% forecast and down from 4.8% in the first quarter.

The aluminium LME price dropped 32% to $2,397 per tonne at the end of the second quarter.

"When markets fall, all the bad news in the world seems to come out to help everything go lower

This summer is no exception as low liquidity and few new buyers allows prices to fall," said analyst John Meyer at SP Angel.

"This week is no exception," he said, pointing to higher inflation in the US leading to expectations of more big rate rises, pushing the economy into a standstill, while in China a new Omicron variant emerged and was met with new lockdowns in some regions.

Further economic fears are gripping the People's Republic, with homeowners threatening to withhold mortgage payments on unfinished apartments, sparking renewed fears of a real estate and banking crisis.

"At some point all the bad news will look like old news and new investment will flow back into equity markets," Meyer said.

He noted some positive signs being signs of a Chinese demand recovery as the country recovers from Covid lockdowns, plus the potential for a stimulus from Beijing, with a further US$45bn committed to infrastructure spending earlier this month.

In the long term, Meyer said the transition to global electrification bodes well for copper, as around 72% of consumption of the metal is currently used in the power and utilities sector.

In a production report for the second quarter, Rio Tino revealed iron ore output and deliveries were up 10% and 12% respectively compared to the first quarter of this year, with mined copper up 1%, but aluminium production was down 1%.

Full-year guidance for iron ore and copper was maintained, as for most metals, but aluminum, alumina and diamond guidance was trimmed slightly. Unit cost guidance for iron ore and copper remained unchanged.
The US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) called into question a May 17 Tweet posted by Elon Musk in a June letter sent to his attorneys at Skadden Arps.

In the Tweet, Musk stated that his proposed US$44bln acquisition of Twitter cannot go forward until the social media platform discloses key data regarding spam and bot accounts.

The SEC scrutinised why Musk failed to amend his public filing to reflect what the regulator saw as a clear intention to renege on the deal.

20% fake/spam accounts, while 4 times what Twitter claims, could be *much* higher.



My offer was based on Twitters SEC filings being accurate.



Yesterday, Twitters CEO publicly refused to show proof of <5%.



This deal cannot move forward until he does.  Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 17, 2022

Attorney Mike Ringler responded to the SEC, stating that Musk did not believe his Tweet triggered any required amendment to his public filing.

The SECs suspicions were justified when Musk officially rescinded his offer on Friday July 8, kickstarting an acrimonious legal battle between Twitter and the worlds richest man.

While Twitter attempts to force the deal through the courts, Musks legal defence rests on Twitters alleged failure to disclose vital information relating to the deal per Musks requests.

TWTR shares tanked 15% in response to the collapsed deal, but have since partially recovered.
Britain and Japan are close to merging their next-generation Tempest and F-X fighter jet programmes, with a deal on a new joint project expected by year's end.

Japan is seeking a non-US partner for a large military programme for the first time, with Tokyo and London collaborating on something bigger than expected five years ago.

Reports indicate Japan is in discussions with BAE Systems PLC (LSE:BA.) to develop the country's sixth-generation F-X fighter airplane.

In accordance with the terms of a memorandum of collaboration signed in December 2021, the UK and Japanese governments are to "continue discussions around potential future fighter subsystem collaboration throughout 2022".

Britain could handle exports to Europe, while Japan would be responsible for Asian markets, reports said, adding collaboration would spread development costs, while exporting would increase production lots and reduce prices per plane, allowing each country to stretch its defence budgets.

BAE is said to be in talks with Japanese companies, including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), about developing these subsystems.

MHI is the main Japanese contractor for the F-X project, which aims to replace by 2035 the F-2 fighter aircraft MHI currently operates.

In a May 5 meeting at 10 Downing Street, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson decided to finalise the joint UK-Japan cooperation on the project by December 2022.

A statement issued by the UK government on May 5 stated that both leaders agreed that "UK and Japan were making significant progress" on the UK's Future Combat Air System (FCAS) and that the initiative could become a cornerstone of bilateral relations between the two countries.

In addition to subsystems, BAE could well participate in the project in a more expansive way.

In August 2020, Tokyo issued a request for information (RFI) to select foreign partners for the F-X development phase, which expected companies to demonstrate "technical readiness level" in capabilities such as fixed-wing aircraft, radars, electronic warfare equipment, sensors, and datalink equipment.
The Financial Reporting Council has written to auditors seeking assurance that professional exam cheating could not happen in the UK.

Its letter follows revelations that three of the big four accounting firms have been sanctioned for cheating in professional exams.

These include incidents at big four accounting firms Ernst & Young LLP, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, and KPMG LLP.

In June, E&Y was ordered to pay US$100mln in penalties after its employees cheated on ethics exams required to maintain Certified Public Accountant licences.

The auditor was also pulled up for withholding evidence relating to the incidents.

It eventually admitted that a significant number of its audit professionals had evaded the ethics component of CPA exams spanning several years.

Perhaps the most egregious example related to cheating on exams designed to test whether employees could ensure financial statements comply with generally accepted accounting principles.

Its simply outrageous that the very professionals responsible for catching cheating by clients cheated on ethics exams of all things, said Gurbir Grewal, director of the Securities and Exchange Commissions enforcement division.

This action should serve as a clear message that the SEC will not tolerate integrity failures by independent auditors who choose the easier wrong over the harder right.

The FRC said it was deeply concerned about these events and the potential impact they could have on audits in Britain.

The body said it had written to top-tier auditors and professional qualifying bodies, urging them to establish and maintain a system of quality control to ensure personnel comply with standards and regulations.

In a letter to chief executives, the council said it had decided to formalise and deepen discussions with audit firms, which have so far verbally consulted with employees to understand what controls were in place to mitigate such risks.

Auditors are required under the Companies Act 2006 to have rules in place to ensure they comply with set standards for professional qualifications.

They must also have adequate arrangements to monitor continued compliance.

Sarah Rapson, executive director of supervision at the FRC, asked firms to formally set out prevention and detection controls before the council.

She is asking them to outline invigilation requirements and other controls they have in place to ensure the integrity of exams and testing of students and members.

The FRC has asked firms to provide these assurances by 22 July.
Openn Negotiation Ltd (ASX:OPN) is confident its new partnership with Australian property focused payment and cash flow solutions group, Realty Assist Australia Pty Ltd, will improve user experience and increase market share.

The collaboration signals the proptechs broader intention to partner with complementary third-party property technology groups and will further Openns ambition to develop deeper data sets for future monetisation.

Realty Assist is a fast-growing property technology business that facilitates efficient settlement of agents commissions and vendor-paid advertising costs. The underwriting of these payments and fees substantially reduces financial risk for agents and has propelled the companys rapid market growth.

Software and market information integration

The deal will see the integration of the two companies software, and their combined market sales information will provide future commercial data analytics opportunities.

Realty Assists access to vendor information complements Openns deep understanding of buyer behaviour and together they create an aggregated database of substantial value to enterprises wishing to leverage vendor and buyer activity.

The agreement will also allow Openn and Realty Assist to cross-market their products to a combined network of real estate agents and offers substantial commercial potential for the two companies and their stakeholders.

Openn managing director Peter Gibbons said: As two of the fastest growing proptech businesses in the Australian and New Zealand markets, it makes perfect sense for Openn and Realty Assist to join forces for this powerful collaboration.

Both groups help to improve the experiences of buyers, sellers and agents in property transactions in different ways and this collaboration allows us to help each other grow market share.

Were always excited to partner with best-of-breed technology groups and see Realty Assist as a great brand for Openn to work alongside for mutual benefit.

Novel proprietary software

Openn aims to improve transparency in real estate transactions for the benefit of stakeholders via the companys novel proprietary software.

The technology has been rapidly adopted in the Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) property markets, with more than $5 billion worth of sales transacted via Openn since 2016.

The company remains focused on capturing a 5% market share for all residential property transactions in the Australian market by June 2024.

Achieving this level of penetration will generate an in-depth statistical set of data which can create multiple revenue streams.

Whats next for Openn?

Openn intends to address a significant unmet need to provide valuable data for the ANZ property sector.

The company is also moving on the lucrative North American proptech market and has multiple pilot programs underway with listing service groups in the USA and Canada.
The diamond drilling program is expected to be completed in two weeks.

Carnavale Resources Ltd (ASX:CAV) has kicked off diamond drilling at the Kookynie Gold Project with the aim of providing detailed textural and structural information for the high-grade Western Australian project.

The company is planning to sink three holes for 500 metres to get a better understanding of the orientation of the mineralising structures and their interaction with the host geology as well as detail on the rock strength and density.

The work will involve:

0-100 metre reverse circulation (RC) pre collar. Diamond drilling (DD) 100 to 320 metres end of hole (EOH) (220 metres of DD) designed to extend the mineralised envelope by more than 40 metres down dip;

0-150 metres RC pre collar. DD 150 to 300 metres EOH (150 metres of DD) designed to extend the mineralised envelope by more than 40 metres down dip; and

0-228 metres RC pre collar. DD 228 to 350 metres EOH (122 metres of DD) designed as a scissor hole to provide extra structural detail around high-grade mineralisation in the centre of the prospect.

Excited to be back

We are excited to be back at Kookynie with the diamond drill rig, CAV CEO Humphrey Hale said.

This will give us important information on the structural controls to the high-grade mineralisation already encountered plus adding depth extents to the known mineralised envelope.

High-grade gold

Carnavale tenement holding with historic deposits.

Reverse circulation (RC) drilling results from McTavish East announced in January this year included:

16 metres at 20.92 g/t from 161 metres, including 10 metres at 31.88 g/t;

4 metres at 17.82 g/t from 78 metres, including 2 metres at 33.55 g/t;

4 metres at 12.94 g/t from 126 metres, including 2 metres at 23.67 g/t; and

4 metres at 6.39 g/t from 114 metres, including 1 metres at 23.30 g/t.

DD program to take two weeks

Three pre-collars for diamond drilling were completed during the RC program in April, and CAV expects the results for these to be delivered in two weeks.

Core from the diamond drilling, expected to be completed in two weeks, will be orientated and logged onsite and transported to Kalgoorlie for cutting and sampling prior to submission to the laboratory.

Assays are expected in 10 weeks, which is the current turnaround time.
Duke Exploration Ltd (ASX:DEX)s Philip Condon speaks with Proactives Elisha Newell about the companys recent assays from its flagship Bundarra project in central Queensland. Results confirm copper grades from the Quorn prospect, while adding elevated gold and silver values. Of the nine RC drill holes, two stood out: BHRC019 and BNRC025 returned 4 metres at 0.93 g/t gold, 1.06% copper and 114 g/t silver and 6 metres at 0.33 g/t gold, respectively. The Quorn Prospect is now a priority for resource delineation drilling in the future and as Condon highlights the gold on top of copper could significantly change the economics of the mineralisation. Drilling has increased the vertical extent of the Quorn mineral system from 100 metres to about 300 metres below surface and improved the companys understanding of elevated gold assays with copper mineralisation as well as showing good correlations with the pXRF results that were previously announced. The DEX managing director also highlights the companys future work program in the next two to three months.
The global crypto markets were up 3.6% to US$928.56bln in Fridays early trade, rounding a topsy-turvy week off on a positive note.

Bitcoin was up 2.62% to US$20,627, while Ethereum added a healthy 8.85% bringing its price to US$1,202.

The strong day-on-day growth outflanked the blue-chip indexes, which saw deepening losses, although performance on a weekly basis remains firmly in the red for now.

Network tokens continued to recover lost ground, with Binances BNB coin up 3.35%, Cardano up 3.23%, Solana up 7.84% and Polkadot up 4.17%.

Ripples XRP payment token enjoyed a 6.07% rally on the back of a decisive win in the long-running securities dispute with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC).

Polygons MATIC token rallied 8.2% following a partnership announcement with Disneys accelerator fund.

The decentralised finance (DeFi) space also posted strong results, with Compound Finance, Uniswap and Curve all posting double-digit gains.

Total value locked across the wider DeFi landscape is currently US$76.38b, down from over US$78bln on Monday.

In the news

Amid the deepening centralised finance (CeFi) crisis battering the crypto markets, CoinFLEX has partially recommended withdrawals at a 10% cap per account.

The news comes after the Seychelles-registered crypto lender imposed a total withdrawal freeze on June 24.

UK and US financial regulators have announced a joint approach to crypto regulation targeting consumer protection, market integrity, data privacy and financial crime.

Nikhil Rathi of the UKs Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said: In the past, innovative firms would have been pleading for less regulation. Now they understand and appreciate that rules are there to help provide certainty.

Matt Damon, Gwynth Paltrow, Reece Witherspoon and other celebrity crypto enthusiasts have been served a roasting in the latest South Park movie South Park: The Streaming Wars Part 2.

The Paramount Plus-steaming animated feature lampoons the actors crypto advertising practices, particularly Damons widely mocked fortune favours the brave partnership with Crypto.com.
CEO Farshad Shirvani is confident that the historical data will hold up once drill results start coming in from the current program at Congress

It may be hard to remember now, but there was a time not so long ago when the gold price was so low that perfectly good mines were shut down because they simply were not economic.

Today, with gold holding steady above US$1,800, companies with formerly producing mines are working hard to get shuttered operations back up and running  and with modern exploration methods opening up new vein systems, theres a lot of blue sky potential.

Casa Minerals Inc (TSX-V:CASA, OTC:CASXF) is focused on the Congress gold mine in Arizona, which was shuttered in 1992. The price of gold was really low and the major mining company working on the project couldnt pay the NSR, so it went into receivership, and they shut it down, Casa CEO Farshad Shirvani told Proactive. It was still profitable at $200 or $300 gold.

Congress has a long and storied history. Located in the Martinez mining district of Yavapai County, Arizona, the property consists of 14 patented mineral properties covering around 260 acres. Beginning in the late 1880s, the Congress mine operated on and off and at one time supported a full-scale mining and milling operation. It has the distinction of being Arizonas largest gold-silver mine with production of about 500,000 ounces of gold.

Casa acquired Congress in a package deal along with another copper-gold property in northern British Columbia that took about 18 months to close. Casa now owns 90% of Congress and its former producing gold mine.

The plan is to collect data on the vein system, which was only looked at in the 1990s. Its really outdated, Shirvani said. We needed fresh GPS data to look at two of the stopes.

One stope was outlined by the previous operator, and the other has been backfilled. Casa is hoping to examine the two stopes and start drilling soon.

An additional porphyry target on the property looks promising as well. An initial sample revealed copper, gold and silver, and other minerals in the porphyry. Shirvani said it could become a very, very large system.

Whats great about Congress is that Casa doesnt need permits to drill  its on patented ground. All we need to do is to take the water truck there and get to work, the CEO said.

This will be the first drill program on the Congress property since the mine was shuttered in the 90s. Its a historic moment for the mine and in Arizona. The mine was very famous in the state, and locals are very excited. People are really excited that this project is opening up again and that it will bring more work to the area.

Casa couldnt have picked a better contractor for the program in Godbe Drilling  the father of the current drill manager was involved in the last drilling campaign at Congress. Hes excited to go back and drill it again, Shirvani said. They are from the area and know the project really well.

When the time comes to permit for further drilling, the process in Arizona is relatively painless. Permitting with the BLM costs around US$150 and in a few days the company receives its permits.

Casa is also backed by strong shareholder support. Around 40% of its shares are held by one institution. We can get funding anytime we want, but currently we are really well-funded for our program, said Shirvani.

The CEO is confident that the historical data will hold up once drill results start coming in from the current program at Congress.

I want to drill it all the way, Shirvani said. This is not NI 43-101 compliant yet. Theres an outline on old map with scribbles showing 400,000 ounces on one side and 500,000 ounces on the other side. I just want to show that we have that amount of gold.

So far, the maps are correct on one item. Every time they said they hit the gold vein, there are (actually) several gold veins in there, Shirvani concluded. They were telling the truth. Now we have to see how the resource calculation looks.

Contact Angela at angela@proactiveinvestors.com

Follow her on Twitter @AHarmantas
The company revealed that its flagship Numinus Wellness Clinic Network contributed $731,064 to quarterly revenue, an 59.5% increase from $458,316 during the same quarter a year earlier

Numinus Wellness Inc posted fiscal third-quarter results that saw its revenue jump 31.8% year-over-year, helped immeasurably by the companys new acquisitions Mindspace and the Neurology Centre of Toronto.

For the period ended May 31, 2022, the Vancouver-based leader in psychedelics-focused mental healthcare, reported revenue of $0.74 million.

The company revealed that its flagship Numinus Wellness Clinic Network contributed $731,064 to quarterly revenue, an 59.5% increase from $458,316 during the same quarter a year earlier.

READ: Numinus Wellness launches new visual brand identity

The firm noted that revenue declined by 5.7% sequentially from the previous quarter, due to shifting strategic priorities at Numinus Bioscience  where analytical testing services for third-party corporate clients have ceased due to changing sector dynamics.

The elimination of this revenue stream was partially offset by 7.5% revenue growth achieved through Numinus' clinic network operations, noted the company.

Meanwhile, Numinus reported gross margin expanded to 24.4% during the quarter, compared to -2.8% in Q3 2021. The company chalked up the improvement in gross margin mostly to the completion of acquisitions between periods, and the offering of higher-margin services.

Additionally, the firms gross profit totaled $180,845 in the quarter, a significant improvement on the gross loss of $15,497 in the corresponding period a year earlier.

Numinus said it logged a loss of $7 million for fiscal 3Q 2022, compared to a loss of $4.8 million in the same quarter in 2021, largely due to corporate development and legal expenses related to the acquisition of Novamind Inc.

The company had a cash balance of $41.8 million as of May 31, 2022.

"Our fiscal 3Q was highlighted by the announcement of our acquisition of Novamind, and the activities leading up to the completion of that strategic transaction on June 10, 2022. Now, with 13 wellness clinics across North America, four clinical research sites and a dedicated psychedelics research facility, Numinus is firmly positioned as a leading mental health care company providing psychedelic-assisted therapies, Numinus founder CEO Payton Nyquvest said in a statement.

We look forward to sharing our combined performance with you when we announce our fiscal 4Q results  which will be the first quarter demonstrating the power of our larger, cross-border platform," he added.

The Numinus boss noted that if one were to take Novamind into consideration, Numinus is one of the highest revenue-producing mental health care companies providing psychedelic and ketamine-assisted therapies, with more than $12 million of combined proforma annual revenues (based on trailing four quarters).

We continue to be excited about the momentum building across our business and our outlook ahead. With significantly strengthened revenue streams, a growing number of client services, and positive regulatory reforms underway, our focus is squarely on reaching profitability as quickly as possible, said Nyquvest. Our strategy to accelerate Numinus' path to profitability also includes expanding higher-margin services, increasing business development activities, and proactively managing our operating costs. Our goal is to achieve operational profitability within two years and corporate positive cash-flow within three years."

Significantly, Numinus saw revenue during the first nine months of fiscal 2022 grow 126.5% year-over-year to $2.3 million, due primarily to the continued post-acquisition growth of Mindspace and the acquisition of the Neurology Centre of Toronto.

During the quarter, clients received 5,634 appointments through Numinus Clinics, up 5.9% compared to clinic appointments in the fiscal 2Q of 2022. The appointments included one-on-one and group therapy sessions, neurology-related appointments, paid group programs, and Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy.

On May 16, 2022, Numinus won Health Canada Special Access Programme (SAP) approval to provide psilocybin-assisted therapy to a patient with treatment-resistant depression. This was the firms first psilocybin-assisted therapy treatment outside of clinical trials.

Investors can read more about the companys lab operations here.

Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com

Follow her on Twitter: @UttaraProactive
British companies struggle to recruit staff remains at record levels and solutions are urgently needed to tackle the crippling labour shortages, which are putting livelihoods at risk and damaging the economy, according to business leaders.

New figures from the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) revealed that 61% of companies were attempting to recruit staff in the second quarter of the year, compared with 60% in the first three months.

However, the survey of 5,700 businesses showed that 76% of firms continue to report recruitment difficulties, against 78% in the first quarter.

The biggest challenges were in the construction sector, with 83% reporting difficulties, followed by production and manufacturing on 79%, logistics on 79% and hospitality on 78%, according to the BCCs Quarterly Recruitment Outlook.

Businesses remain under huge pressure to fill jobs, but record levels of recruitment difficulty are showing no signs of improvement. Solutions are urgently needed, so that firms can keep their doors open throughout these tough times, said Jane Gratton, head of people policy at the BCC.

We have written to the government outlining a three-point plan on how they can work with businesses to solve this.

The BCC said firms must be encouraged to find new ways of unlocking pools of talent, by investing more in training, adopting more flexible working practises and expanding use of apprenticeships, while the government must help employers invest in training by reducing the upfront costs on business and providing training related tax breaks.

It also said the government must reform the Shortage Occupation List (SOL).

There are 1.3 million unfilled jobs in our economy and now fewer people in the workforce than before the pandemic. This is holding back productivity and growth, and employers are at their wits end. It is putting livelihoods at risk and damaging the economy, Gratton said.

The government must reform the SOL criteria to include more jobs at more skill levels to give firms breathing space to invest in their workforce.

Employers cannot wait for a new Prime Minister before this is sorted. Shortages are impacting not only on their ability to service order books but also on the morale and wellbeing of their people.

The economic challenge we are facing is huge and unless we start to fill the hole caused by 1.3 million vacancies, we cannot get back to growth.
GoviEx Uranium Inc (TSX-V:GXU, OTCQX:GVXXF). said that the government of the Republic of Niger has agreed to defer the taxes payable for the surface area of its Madaouela project due later this month by 50%.

According to the terms of the deferment, GoviEx will pay 50% of the surface area taxes amounting to US$2.8 million in July 2022 and the remaining 50% in December 2022.

"Once again, the government of Niger has proven to be an excellent partner and willing to work with GoviEx, company CEO Daniel Major said in a statement.

We welcome the deferment and look forward to further progress with the development of Madaouela. Our feasibility study is due in Q3 and it represents another step towards Madaouela becoming a producing asset," he added.

Madaouela is GoviExs flagship mine-permitted uranium development project jointly owned with the Niger government holding a 20% interest and GoviEx, the majority 80%.

GoviEx is a mineral resource company focused on the exploration and development of uranium properties in Africa. Its principal objective is to become a significant uranium producer through the continued exploration and development of its flagship mine-permitted Madaouela project in Niger, its mine-permitted Mutanga project in Zambia, and its multi-element Falea project in Mali.

Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com
Dhaka, July 15 : Thirty-eight-year-old Shohana Parveen Tuli, who was found dead at her flat in state capital Dhaka, was finally cremated in Jessore.

Sohana's cousin Sumaiya Ruba told IANS that she was buried at the Hunshtala cemetery in Jessore on Thursday evening.

Sohana's body was recovered from her residence in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar at Dhaka's Rayer Bazar on Wednesday morning. She studied Mass Communication and Journalism in the Dhaka University.

She hailed from the Batala area in Jashore and had been residing in Hazaribagh area since 2018, Hazaribagh Police Station Officer-in-charge, Moktaruzzaman confirmed to IANS on Thursday evening.

Moktaruzzaman said that Sohana's death appeared to be suicide.

She graduated from the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism of Dhaka University.

She had previously worked at Daily Amader Shomoy and Daily Kaler Kantho newspapers. She had worked last at Bangla Tribune until 2020.

Sohana was trying to get a job in the media industry for the last two years before becoming an entrepreneur by opening an online shop.

She was a member of Dhaka Union of Journalists and Sub-Editors Council.
United Nations, July 15 : The top UN envoy for Colombia, Carlos Ruiz Massieu, has hailed the encouraging political developments in Colombia and warned against persistent violence as an obstacle to the consolidation of peace in the country.

Over the past few months, Colombians took part in a hard-fought political campaign leading to the election of President Gustavo Petro and Vice-President Francia Marquez, who will be sworn in on August 7, and of a new Congress that will be installed on July 20, Massieu told the Security Council in a quarterly briefing on Thursday.

Electoral outcomes increasingly reflect the diversity of the country's vibrant society. More guarantees exist now for exercising political opposition. And 16 representatives of victims from conflict-affected regions will have their voices heard in Congress. This too will be an unprecedented Congress in that it will include the largest-ever share of women lawmakers of close to 30 per cent of all Congress, he said.

"We hope the new Congress will make considerable progress in the passage of the more than 30 peace-related norms still pending approval, including on key matters such as the comprehensive rural reform and guarantees for political participation," he said, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative and Head of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia.

He warned that violence remains a major obstacle in the way ahead, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Along with the reasons for encouragement we are also reminded constantly of the serious obstacles that remain to the consolidation of peace. Chief among them is the persisting violence against communities, against leaders and former combatants in several departments," he added.

Four more former combatants were killed in the past two weeks, bringing the total number of former combatants killed to 331 since the signing of the peace agreement in 2016, under which the former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia voluntarily laid down their weapons, said Massieu.

"Their security must be guaranteed. A priority for any peace agreement must be to safeguard the lives of those who laid down their arms in good faith with the assurance that they would be protected." Illegal armed actors continue to target local leaders in conflict-affected areas marked by poverty, illicit economies and a limited presence of the state. Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities are among the most seriously affected by the violence and insecurity, he added.

As the incoming administration prepares to take office, President-elect Petro has called for national unity and has expressed his intention to deepen the comprehensive implementation of the peace agreement, as well as to seek negotiated solutions, both political and judicial, with the remaining illegal armed actors, in what he has called the search for "total peace," he said.

"Indeed, the incoming administration has a tremendous opportunity and responsibility to accelerate the implementation of the peace agreement. There are very good reasons for optimism, and I believe the UN and the international community at large should do all they can to lend their support," Massieu added.
Sonbhadra : , July 15 (IANS) Two journalists from leading Hindi newspapers were shot at while they were having tea at a restaurant under Raipur police station in Uttar Pradesh's Sonbhadra district.

The incident took place late Thursday evening and the two journalists were rushed to the BHU Medical College where they were said to be out of danger.

The victims have been identified as Shyam Sundar Pandey and Laddu Pandey, both in their mid-thirties.

Sonbhadra Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP), Vinod Kumar Singh said that the two journalists, Shyam Sundar Pandey and Laddu Pandey, were sitting at a restaurant located in Kaliyari market and having tea.

"In the meantime, two unidentified miscreants, who were on a bike and wearing helmets, reached the spot and opened two to three rounds of fire, injuring the duo, and fled the spot," the ASP added.

The incident triggered off panic and the locals immediately informed the police.

ASP Singh said that the duo were first rushed to community health centre in Vaini area, where the doctor referred them to the district hospital and further to BHU Medical College.

"So far, we have not ascertained the motive behind the incident. The two journalists are out of danger and we will shortly record their statements," Singh added on Friday.

The FIR was being registered in the case while the locals, who were at the tea shop, are also being asked about the registration and identification of the bike used by unknown assailants.
Tashkent, July 15 : Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and visiting Turkmenistan President Serdar Berdimuhamedov held talks to discuss expanding cooperation, especially in the energy sector, between the two neighbouring Central Asian countries, the Uzbek President's press service said.

The Uzbek side expressed interest "in expanding cooperation in the energy sector, including the supply of electricity, gas and oil products from Turkmenistan," it said in a statement on Thursday.

According to the statement, the Turkmen side also proposed diversifying and increasing trade relations, and developing industrial cooperation, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Among the specific industries where our countries have great potential, we single out the agro-industrial complex, energy, chemical and petrochemical industries, engineering, textiles and pharmaceuticals," Berdimuhamedov was quoted as saying.

The leaders added that the decisions taken on the creation of the Uzbek-Turkmen border trade zone and the opening of trading houses in both capital cities will contribute to maintaining positive dynamics and doubling the volume of trade in the coming years, the statement added.

According to the Uzbek Ministry of Investments and Foreign Trade, investment and trade agreements totaling $451 million were signed during the Uzbek-Turkmen interregional business forum held in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, on Wednesday.
Rome, July 15 : Italian President Sergio Mattarella rejected a resignation offer of Prime Minister Mario Draghi, after meeting him.

Draghi decided to formally resign late Thursday evening after the second largest force in his coalition -- the Five Star Movement (M5S) -- boycotted a confidence vote on the government's relief bill to combat soaring prices in the Senate earlier in the day.

In an official statement after their meeting at the Quirinale Palace, Mattarella's office said that "the President has not accepted the resignation".

The President has invited the Prime Minister "to appear before Parliament for communication, in order to have an assessment of the situation ... in its proper forum," the statement said.

Draghi is now expected to address the lower house and the Senate next Wednesday, according to local media.

The crisis broke out after weeks of tensions mounting within the broad coalition supporting the Prime Minister's national unity government, which was formed in February 2021, Xinhua news agency reported.

Draghi, former chief of the European Central Bank, has been enjoying a large political consensus up to the latest months, when infighting focused on what the cabinet's priorities in the short and mid-term should be.

After the M5S refused to take part in the confidence vote on Thursday, the Prime Minister gathered the Cabinet and formally announced to his ministers that he would resign, saying the majority that had supported the government from its creation does not exist anymore.

"Since my inauguration address before the Parliament, I always said the Cabinet would go on only if there was a clear prospect of implementing the government's program ... Such cohesiveness has been crucial to meet the challenges of these months," Draghi said. "These conditions no longer exist."
Lucknow, July 15 : A team of Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) has seized the Pitbull dog that mauled its owner to death, earlier this week, an official said.

The action was taken after the owner of the dog, Amit Tripathi, failed to produce the mandatory licence to keep the pet.

A senior Municipal official said that the Pitbull will be kept in solitary confinement and experts will monitor its nature and behaviour.

"The decision to keep the dog with us or to give it to any animal welfare organisation will be taken after analysis of its behaviour," said Joint Director, Animal Welfare, LMC, Arvind Rao.

The Pitbull has been kept at a LMC shelter home in Indira Nagar.

Earlier, the LMC had given time to the dog's owner till Thursday to produce the licences of the two dogs he owns -- a Pitbull named 'Brownie' and a Labrador called 'Daisy'.

When the Municipal team reached his house on Thursday morning, he could furnish the licence only for the Labrador.

Amit initially resisted handing over the dog to LMC but agreed after much persuasion.

Local residents were also against the killer dog being kept in the vicinity.

Savita Tripathi, 82, had been mauled to death by the Pitbull on Tuesday while her son Amit was away on work.

The neighbours informed Amit when they heard Savita's screams and found her lying in a pool of blood. She died during treatment in a hospital.
San Francisco, July 15 : Leading non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea's co-founder and CEO Devin Finzer announced that the platform is laying off about 20 per cent of its total employees.

On the microblogging site Twitter, the CEO shared a note that said "today is a hard day for OpenSea, as we are letting go of 20 per cent of our team".

"We made an incredibly sad and difficult decision to reduce the size of our team by -- 20 per cent, and today we're saying goodbye to many of our friends and team members across opensea," the note, shared with employees before being revealed on the microblogging site, reads.

"Each of the people leaving has played a critical role in OpenSea's journey. They have supported our users, championed our mission, and worked intensely to build the foundations of the NFT space," it added.

He also mentioned that these employees are talented and committed and they will be missed and "we plan to treat them with great care".

Finzer said he expects that the company will see an explosion in innovation and utility across NFTs during the winter.

"With the hard (but important) changes we made today, we're in an even better position to capture what will soon become the largest market on the planet," he said.

"When the global economy is uncertain, our mission to build the foundation for new, peer-to-peer economies feels more urgent and important than ever. Winter is our time to build," he added.
Kanpur : , July 15 (IANS) The Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up to probe the 1984 anti-Sikh riots has arrested three more accused here.

With this, SIT has so far arrested 22 accused related to different cases of heinous crimes connected to the 1984 riots in the past month.

Those arrested on Thursday included Ram Pal, 67, brother of three-time corporator Kailash Pal and key accused in the murder of seven people of a family in Dabauli.

Ram Pal allegedly accompanied his brother in murdering Vishakha Singh, his wife Simran Kaur, daughter Gurbachan Kaur and four sons.

The case 404/84 was lodged by two surviving sons of Mahendra Singh and Avtar Singh, who had identified the accused and had named them in their complaint.

The SIT had arrested Kailash Pal three days ago.

Deputy inspector general (SIT) Balendu Bhushan Singh said Chandra Pratap Singh,67, and Anil Nigam 65, were arrested in connection with case 188A/84 that involved killings of Swarn Singh and his son Gurmesh Singh in Panki locality.

In this case, Singh's family had named six people in the affidavit filed before the Justice Rangnath Mishra commission. Four of the accused died and two of them were arrested.

The SIT was formed three years ago on the Supreme Court directives.

It has investigated 11 cases of heinous crimes and identified 73 accused. Singh said efforts were underway to arrest the remaining 51 accused.
Bengaluru, July 15 : Ruling BJP in Karnataka has come under pressure as the High Court categorically said that the police sub-inspector (PSI) recruitment scam is "heinous than a murder" and equated it to terrorism.

With clamour for a judicial probe rising, the ruling BJP leaders are worried over its image getting affected since the general elections are less than 10 months away.

The remarks by Justice H.P. Sandesh are going to be embarrassing for state BJP leaders, including Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai who is participating in the crucial chintan-mantan baithak on Friday in Bengaluru to strategise for the upcoming Assembly elections.

Justice Sandesh bench, which took up the bail petition of the accused in PSI Recruitment Scandal on Thursday, stated that "in case of murder one person dies. Here, 50,000 candidates are put to difficulty. If every recruitment is made in the same fashion, do you want the court to sit quiet?" The bench further stated that the scam "is a terrorism unleashed on the society". The remarks of the bench came after the counsel for the accused sought bail by maintaining that the scam is not a murder case.

Public Prosecutor V.S. Hegde maintained that an officer of the rank of Additional DGP has been arrested and it shows the seriousness of the case. "The investigation might reach anywhere. ADGP Amrit Paul, two Deputy Superintendents and three PSI candidates have been arrested and thousands of call details need to be analysed," said Hegde.

"One month is needed to investigate the huge data of mobiles and other devices," Hegde added. He also informed the court that till date the Rs 2.5 crore cash has been seized during the investigation. The court adjourned the hearing of the case to July 20.

Earlier, Justice H.P. Sandesh took the ruling BJP to task with regards to the appointments to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB). After his rap, the ACB arrested Bengaluru Urban DC on charges of corruption.

Justice Sandesh had stated that he was given transfer threat through a High Court judge and he did not care much about it. He also said that he was ready to go back to his farm and carry out agriculture rather than succumbing to pressure.
Kanpur : , July 15 (IANS) A group of four youths have been arrested for allegedly molesting a teenager and trying to abduct her in a car in the Chakeri police area.

The incident happened on Thursday evening. Hearing the screams of the victim, passers-by managed to stop the car and nabbed the accused.

After severe beating, they were handed over to the police.

According to the father of the teenager, his 16-year-old daughter is pursuing intermediate at a local college.

"She had left home to go to the gym. Four youths in the car stopped her near the gym and molested her. On protesting, the accused forcibly made her sit in the car and tried to flee. On raising cries, the passers-by and the local people somehow stopped the car and alerted the police after thrashing the accused," he said.

When the police reached the spot and interrogated the accused, they identified themselves as Akash Dwivedi, Aman Dwivedi, Anubhav Tiwari and Piyush Dixit, he added.

Chakeri police station in-charge Shailendra Singh said the accused are being interrogated. "Along with this, action is being taken on the complaint of the girl's father by registering a case against the accused under relevant sections, including molestation, POCSO Act and kidnapping," Singh added.
Kiev, July 15 : The death toll in Russian strikes in Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia has mounted to 23.

At least 23 people have died and 115 others appealed for help, Ukrainska Pravda reported.

Around 64 civilians have been hospitalised with injuries, including two children.

Of the injured, 34 are in serious condition, and another five are in critical condition, State Emergency Sources said.

Thirty-nine people are missing and search and rescue operations are underway, police said.

Russian forces on Thursday hit the centre of Vinnytsia with rockets, causing several fires to break out.

The Russians attacked Vinnytsia with Kalibr missiles, which were launched from a submarine in the Black Sea, as per the Air Force COmmand.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has termed this missile attack terrorist act.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
Vancouver, July 15 : Ripudaman Singh Malik, who was the main accused in the 1985 Air India Kanishka bombing and later acquitted, was shot dead outside his business office in Surrey near here.

The incident happened on Thursday morning. The 75-year-old, who once supported the demand for Khalistan, was shot three times at about 9.30 a.m. by an unidentified assailant when he reached his business office in his Tesla.

He was shot through the neck, leading to profuse bleeding and death on the spot.

In what appears to be a targeted shooting, the vehicle suspected to be used in the shooting was found engulfed in fire in another part of the city as the assailant reportedly escaped in a getaway vehicle.

Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri were the main accused in the bombing of the Air India Kanishka flight from Toronto to India on June 23, 1985, killing all 331 people, mostly Indo-Canadians, on board.

The mid-air bombing off the Irish coast was carried out in revenge for the Indian Army's action at the Golden Temple in 1984 to flush out Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his supporters from the complex.

While Malik and Bagri were acquitted in 2005, another person -- Inderjit Singh Reyat -- was jailed for making the bomb used in the downing of the Air India Kanishka flight.

Malik, who came to Canada in 1972 and became a successful business in garments, was taken off the Indian government's black list of Sikhs living abroad after Narendra Modi came to power.

Malik travelled to India after he was granted a visa in 2019.

Earlier this year in January, Malik wrote to the Indian Prime Minister, thanking him for addressing the long-pending Sikh demands.

In his letter to Modi, Malik wrote, "I am writing you this to express my deer heartfelt gratitude for the unprecedented positive steps taken by yourself to redress long-reading Sikh demands and grievances, including elimination of blacklists that restricted visit to India of thousands of Sikhs living abroad, grant of passports and visas to asylees and their families, reopening of hundreds of 1984-riots closed cases leading to conviction and jail term for some, declaring 1984-riots as 'genocide' by then Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh on the floor of the House, giving compensation or Rs 5.00 lakh per family of the anti-Sikh genocide victims, (and) opening of Sri Kartarpur Saheb Corridor facilitating pilgrims from India to visit the revered place of our first Master Guru Nanak Dev Ji." In a social media statement, Malik's son Jaspreet Malik said, "The media will always refer to him as someone charged with the Air India bombing.

The media and RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) never seemed to accept the court's decision and I pray today's tragedy is not related."
New Delhi, July 15 : India on Friday reported a marginal decline at 20,038 Covid infections in the last 24 hours against 20,139 cases reported on Thursday, the Union Health Ministry said.

During the same period, the country reported 47 Covid deaths, taking the nationwide death toll to 5,25,604 so far.

The active caseload in the country presently stands at 1,39,073, accounting for 0.32 per cent of the country's total positive cases.

The recovery of 16,994 patients in the last 24 hours took the cumulative tally to 4,30,45,350. Consequently, India's recovery rate stands at 98.48 per cent.

Meanwhile, India's daily positivity rate has also declined to 4.44 per cent, while the weekly positivity rate currently stands at 4.30 per cent.

A total of 4,50,820 tests were conducted across the country in the last 24 hours, increasing the overall tally to more than 86.86 crore.

As of Friday morning, India's Covid-19 vaccination coverage exceeded 199.47 crore, achieved via 2,62,39,248 sessions.

Over 3.78 crore adolescents have been administered with a first dose since the beginning of vaccination drive for this age bracket.
Washington, July 15 : Ivana Trump, the first wife of former US President Donald Trump, has passed away aged 73 at her New York city home.

Ivana, who was a businessowman, model, author and a fashion designer breathed her last on Thursday.

Taking to his social media platform Truth Social, the former president said, "I am very saddened to inform all of those that loved her, of which there are many, that Ivana Trump has passed away at her home in New York City." "She was a wonderful, beautiful, and amazing woman, who led a great and inspirational life," he said.

The couple married in 1977 and divorced 15 years later in 1992, BBC reported.

The couple had three children together Donald Jr, Ivanka and Eric Trump.

"Mom was brilliant, charming, passionate and wickedly funny. She modelled strength, tenacity and determination in her every action. She lived life to the fullest - never forgoing an opportunity to laugh and dance,"Ivanka wrote on Instagram.

"It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved mother, Ivana Trump. Our mother was an incredible woman - a force in business, a world-class athlete, a radiant beauty, and caring mother and friend," Eric, 38, wrote on Instagram.

"Ivana Trump was a survivor. She fled from communism and embraced this country. She taught her children about grit and toughness, compassion and determination. She will be dearly missed by her mother, her three children and ten grandchildren," he concluded.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Kolkata, July 15 : Amid the ongoing debate over the use of certain words during Parliamentary proceedings, the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal has accused BJP legislators of using unparliamentary words against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The state's ruling party feels that there should be some curb on the use of such languages in the state Assembly as well.

According to Transport Minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, certain words are being used in the Assembly by the opposition BJP legislators, including leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari, which are not proper.

"They often resort to personal attacks against the Chief Minister, something which is not acceptable and needs to be curbed," Hakim said.

According to Hakim, Parliament or Assembly are places to protect the democracy of the country.

"There the elected public representatives discuss crucial issues. The opposition has the space there to present its views. But in West Bengal, the manner in which personal attacks are made needs to be controlled. The Trinamool Congress had been in the opposition for a long time. But we have never used such words, especially against the Chief Minister," Hakim said.

However, he did not comment on whether the Assembly secretariat will take any initiative to curb the use of certain words and phrases while the Assembly session is on.

--IANS src/arm

Curbs needed on languages used by BJP legislators in Bengal Assembly: Trinamool

The state's ruling party feels that there should be some curb on the use of such languages in the state Assembly as well.

According to Transport Minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, certain words are being used in the Assembly by the opposition BJP legislators, including leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari, which are not proper.

"They often resort to personal attacks against the Chief Minister, something which is not acceptable and needs to be curbed," Hakim said.

According to Hakim, Parliament or Assembly are places to protect the democracy of the country.

"There the elected public representatives discuss crucial issues. The opposition has the space there to present its views. But in West Bengal, the manner in which personal attacks are made needs to be controlled. The Trinamool Congress had been in the opposition for a long time. But we have never used such words, especially against the Chief Minister," Hakim said.

However, he did not comment on whether the Assembly secretariat will take any initiative to curb the use of certain words and phrases while the Assembly session is on.
Bengaluru, July 15 : The meeting of the RSS and BJP leaders to discuss strategy for the state Assembly elections in 2023 was underway at a resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru on Friday.

State BJP in-charge Arun Singh, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, former CM's B.S. Yediyurappa, Jagadish Shettar, D.V. Sadananada Gowda, State BJP President Nalin Kumar Kateel, BJP National General Secretary B.L. Santhosh and prominent Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leaders from the state are taking part in the meeting.

According to the party insiders, the meeting will discuss launching of important projects and the Hindutva agenda in the state which would enable the BJP to attain power. The Assembly elections will be held in less than 10 months from now.

The meeting will discuss the achievements of the state government, setback in textbook revision process, and comments of the Karnataka High Court on appointments of tainted officers thereby denting the image of the party, sources said.

The evaluation of performance of ministers will also be undertaken in the meeting and clear cut pointers will be given for the ruling BJP to act in the short period of time before elections. The allegations of royal treatment to the accused killers of Bajrang Dal activist Harsha and Hindu organisations' criticism of the ruling BJP will also be discussed at length, insiders explain.

The entry to the meeting is restricted to invitees only. The gunmen and personal staff of any invitee, including CM Bommai have been asked to wait outside. Mediapersons are also not allowed inside the meeting.
New Delhi, July 15 : Leading fintech company Stripe has reportedly taken a huge 28 per cent valuation cut amid tough global macroeconomic conditions that have hit nearly all the sectors very hard as recession fears loom.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal citing sources, payments giant Stripe, last valued at $95 billion, has cut the internal value of its shares by 28 per cent.

The internal share price is now about $29, compared to $40 in the most previous internal valuation, known as a 409A valuation, the company reportedly told its employees in an email.

A 409A valuation is an independent estimate of a startup's fair market value, often used to price stock options to employees.

The development would lower Stripe's valuation to $74 billion, the report mentioned late on Thursday.

A prolonged market sell-off has hit tech companies really hard amid slowed VC funding and layoffs across the spectrum -- from Big Tech like Microsoft to startups, including crypto platforms.

In March 2021, Stripe raised $600 million from a group of investors, and was valued at $95 billion in that round.

Recently, Klarna, the Swedish buy now pay later (BNPL) platform, had its valuation cut by a massive 85 per cent to $6.7 billion from its last round.

Earlier this year, Instacart lowered down its internal valuation to $24 billion from $39 billion, to "help with retention and recruiting by giving employees more potential upside with their options".
Quetta, July 15 : Lieutenant Colonel Laiq Baig Mirza, a high-ranking official of the Pakistan Army, was shot dead by terrorists.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in the night between July 12-13, a group of 10-12 terrorists abducted Lt. Col. Laiq shaheed, who was serving in DHA Quetta, along with his cousin Umer Javed near Warchoom, Ziarat, as they were returning to Quetta after visiting Quaid-e-Azam's residency, Geo News reported.

On receiving information, Army's Quick Reaction Forces were immediately dispatched to chase the fleeing terrorists. They were traced moving to their hideouts in the general area of Mangi Dam.

Following that, a deliberate search operation was launched by the security forces using Special Service Group (SSG) troops and helicopters.

Resultantly, on night July 13, a group of 6-8 terrorists was spotted while moving towards a nullah in nearby mountains by one of the teams of security forces. On sensing their possible encirclement, terrorists shot Lt. Col. Laiq Shaheed and attempted to flee the site, Geo News reported.

In the ensuing exchange of fire, two terrorists were gunned down by the security forces, while a huge cache of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), explosives and ammunition have also been recovered from their hideout.

However, in the process, the remaining terrorists, along with the other abductee Omer, were able to flee for the time being.
Patna, July 15 : The Presidential candidate of the joint opposition, Yashwant Sinha, will be in Patna on Friday to campaign for the Presidential poll scheduled on Monday.

A meeting of the opposition parties, including RJD, CPI, CPI-M and CPI (ML), will be held at a hotel here at 3 pm. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav along with the Left parties have already announced their support to Sinha.

Sinha had met RJD supremo Lalu Prasad at AIIMS Delhi, where the latter is undergoing treatment, a couple of days ago.

The senior politician is contesting against NDA candidate Draupadi Murmu, a tribal leader from Odhisha and former Governor of Jharkhand, Sinha's home state.

The members of Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and Vidhan Sabha are the eligible voters for the Presidential election. In Bihar, 56 MPs and 243 MLAs will cast their vote. The vote value of one MP is 700 while the vote value of an MLA is 173. The total vote value of Bihar is 81,239.

The BJP has 23 Lok Sabha MPs and 77 MLAs in the state. The total vote value of BJP in Bihar is 28,721. JD-U has 22,485 vote value with 47 MLAs and 16 Lok Sabha MPs, RJD has 17,340 vote value with 80 MLAs, Congress has 4,687 vote value with 19 MLAs, the Left parties have 2,768 vote value with 16 MLAs, while the AIMIM has 173 vote values with one MLA in Bihar.
Seoul, July 15 : North Korea said on Friday that Ukraine has no right to take issue with its recognition of two breakaway regions in the war-torn country earlier this week, calling the measure a "legitimate exercise of sovereignty".

On Wednesday, Ukraine announced its decision to sever diplomatic relations with North Korea for formally backing the independence of the pro-Moscow republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, Yonhap news agency reported.

In response to a question by the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) over the issue, a spokesperson for Pyongyang's foreign ministry defended the move and criticised Ukraine.

"Ukraine, which had committed acts quite contrary to impartiality and justice in the state-to-state relations while aligning itself with the US unreasonable and illegal hostile policy toward the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the past, has no right and qualification to take issue with the DPRK over its legitimate exercise of sovereignty," the spokesperson said in a statement carried by the KCNA.

"The DPRK will as ever develop the bonds of friendship and cooperation with all other countries in the world that respect its sovereignty and are friendly to it, on the principles of sovereignty equality, non-interference and mutual respect," the spokesperson added.

North Korea became the third country in the world to recognise the separatist entities, after Russia and Syria. It is widely seen as part of the Kim Jong-un regime's efforts to improve ties with Moscow amid frosty inter-Korean ties and a halt to denuclearisation talks with Washington.
New Delhi, July 15 : The opposition is holding a meeting on Sunday to discuss the strategy for the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament.

This time the opposition ranks will have the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) too. After supporting the opposition presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha, the TRS, which was considered close to the ruling dispensation at the Centre, is likely to join the opposition ranks.

The reason for TRS' distancing from the Centre is the BJP's move to make inroads in Telangana.

It all started over the issue of procurement of parboiled rice and eventually as the BJP escalated its attempt to make itself strong in the state, the (TRS) has now taken an aggressive stance against the BJP.

The relations soured after Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao did not receive Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he arrived for the BJP national executive. Instead, KCR went ahead receiving opposition Presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha.

The opposition parties are meeting on Sunday for a joint strategy for the upcoming Monsoon Session.

In the meeting, the candidate for the post of Vice President will also be discussed. The invite has been extended to TRS.

The opposition unity in the Presidential poll has been exposed after Congress allies like JMM and Shiv Sena have extended their support to Draupadi Murmu.

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) officially announced its support for NDA Candidate Draupadi Murmu.

The announcement came close on the heels of Shiv Sena declaring support for Murmu.

The JMM issued a statement signed by its founder Shibu Soren, which said that after Independence, this is the first time that a tribal woman is contesting for the top Constitutional post and all the MPs and MLAs of the party will vote for Murmu.

The announcement came as a setback for Sinha, who was banking on the JMM because he hails from Jharkhand and had represented the state in the Lok Sabha for many years.

The Shiv Sena had on Tuesday announced that it will support NDA's Presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu.
Islamabad, July 15 : Ethnic tensions flared up in several Sindh districts of Pakistan following the killing of 35-year-old Bilal Kaka at a hotel in Hyderabad a couple of days ago, local media reported.

A 35-year-old man was killed and five of his colleagues were injured in a scuffle at a hotel near Wadhu Wah in Nasim Nagar early on Tuesday morning, drawing angry reaction from nationalist parties who believed the attackers were Afghans nationals, Dawn reported.

Several incidents of violence were reported in the province on Thursday, where shops and hotels owned by Pashtuns were attacked and forcefully closed, allegedly by Sindhi nationalists.

Meanwhile, hotels and shops owned by Pashtuns were attacked and forcefully shut in Dadu, Sehwan, Khairpur Nathan Shah, Kotri and Jamshoro.

Armed men on motorbikes attacked three hotels in Kotri. In retaliation, the owners pelted stones leaving two men, identified as Uzair Soomro and Sadaqat Ali, injured.

A heavy police contingent reached the spot and shifted the injured to Kotri's District Headquarters Hospital, Dawn reported.

Police have also claimed the arrest of seven activists of nationalist parties in Dadu who were forcefully closing the shops.

In the Sakrand area, activists of nationalist parties blocked a section of N5 National Highway at Noonari CNG station Thursday night following reports of disturbances and maltreatment of families by miscreants at Karachi's Sohrab Goth area.

The protest led to long queues of vehicles including buses and heavy vehicles.

Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz-Bashir (JSQM-B) leader Dr Niaz Kalani told Dawn that such protests would also be held in Moro, Ubauro and other areas.

Pashtuns make up a large majority of drivers who drive trucks and goods carriers, moving cargo from ports in Karachi to other parts of the country. A large number of these trucks move on highways in Sindh to enter Punjab and travel further north towards Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Protesters also managed to block roads in Moro. However, a swift police action, led by Moro DSP, dispersed the protesters. Subsequently, traffic was also restored.

On Thursday, several political parties, including JI, MQM-Pakistan, Awami National Party, and nationalist leaders Jalal Mehmood Shah and Ayaz Latif Palijo issued statements, urging both Sindhis and Pashtuns - the two groups at the heart of these tensions - to demonstrate restraint. They also demanded the government take prompt action to defuse the tensions.

In a statement, MQM-P's coordination committee said the killing of a man has been used to instigate disharmony and pit two ethnicities against each other.

While condemning violence, the statement added that all ethnicities should be free to do business all over the country.

The targeting of people on the basis of language and ID cards will weaken the foundations of the country, reads the statement.
Bagalkot, July 15 : In a big embarrassment to Opposition leader Siddaramaiah, a victim of a communal clash refused to take Rs 2 lakh as compensation and threw the money at his vehicle in Karnataka's Bagalkot district on Friday.

The BJP leaders described the incident as the people's answer to the appeasement politics of the Congress party.

The incident took place during a tour of Siddaramaiah, who represents Badami constituency in the district as the Congress MLA. He had gone to meet the persons injured in a communal clash who were admitted to a hospital in Kerur town.

The injured persons belonging to the minority community were admitted to the Asheervada hospital in the town. He gave Rs 2 lakh compensation to the four injured persons. However, the victims and their families refused to take the money and urged him to help improve the law and order situation in the town.

Rajma, a family member of the injured person, took the money but said that she wants peace not money. Though Siddaramaiah sitting in his vehicle tried to console her by holding her hand, she did not budge and threw the money at his vehicle.

Meanwhile, the injured persons from the Hindu community who have also been admitted to a hospital in the town, refused to meet Siddaramaiah. The Opposition leader, who was all set to meet them, cancelled his visit at the last minute.

On July 6, Kerur town witnessed a communal clash following the stabbing of a member of the Hindu Jagaran Vedike. Arun Kattimani was stabbed for objecting to eve teasing. His two friends were also attacked by the miscreants. This led to a clash between the groups and five persons from the Muslim community were injured in the incident.

The police have arrested 18 persons in connection with the incident and are searching for another 15 accused.
Chennai, July 15 : A Sri Lankan airlines flight made an emergency landing at Chennai airport on Friday after pilot detected a technical snag.

The aircraft (UL121), which was bound for Chennai from Colombo, developed a technical snag when it was nearing the city.

Chennai airport sources told IANS that immediately after detecting the snag, the pilot communicated with the Air Traffic Control (ATR) and all the emergency protocols were implemented at the runway.

Ambulance service and crash tenders were placed on the sides of the runway, the sources said.

Sources in the Chennai airport told IANS that the emergency landing did not affect any other services from Chennai.
New Delhi, July 15 : A 22-year-old man was arrested for creating fake Instagram profiles of several girls and threatening them to post their morphed obscene images if they do not make video calls to him, an official said Friday.

The accused, identified as Kapil Kumar, is a cashier by profession in a restaurant at Panipat, Haryana.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (north) Sagar Singh Kalsi said a complaint from a woman was received at Cyber Police Station North District, Delhi alleging that she had been flooded with obscene photos and videos from unknown numbers.

"She further alleged that someone had made two Instagram profiles in her name and many other fake profiles of her female friends. She also alleged that the accused had threatened to post her morphed images if she didn't make video calls to him," DCP Kalsi said.

Accordingly, on the basis of complaint, an FIR under sections 419 (Punishment for cheating by personation), 354-D (Stalking) and 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code read with section 67-A of the IT Act was registered and the police began probing the matter.

During investigation, details of the alleged Instagram profiles were obtained by the police from Instagram and on the basis of the same, IP addresses and email IDs used in the registration of alleged profile was ascertained. Further, technical analysis of IP addresses revealed the mobile number and IMEI No. used in the offence which led to fixing of identity of the accused Kapil Kumar.

The police then conducted a raid and apprehended the accused person from Panipat in Haryana.

The official said that on sustained interrogation of the accused, it was revealed that he initially became a friend of the complainant on Instagram platform through a fake profile in the name of a local celebrity. After some chats, the complainant shared her mobile number as well as her photographs under the belief that she was sharing the same with some female celebrity. Later the complainant got suspicious and blocked the accused.

"Thereafter, the accused persisted to talk with the complainant and when his efforts failed, he created fake Instagram profiles of the complainant and messaged her and started following the complainant's followers and friends of Instagram and thereby defaming and harassing her," the official said. The accused further disclosed that he also used to make fake profiles of girls on social networking sites to increase his followers, the official added.
Washington, July 15 : Former US congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has warned that US President Joe Biden's administration is driving the world towards a devastating nuclear conflict by using the Ukraine crisis to fight a "proxy war" with Russia.

"The American people need to understand the seriousness of the situation that the Biden administration and leaders in Washington have put us in," Gabbard said in a Fox News interview, RT reported.

The Hawaii Democrat, who was among the candidates whom Biden defeated to win his party's 2020 presidential nomination, called for stepping back to focus on "the big picture and the great threat that we face, which is the reality that this war is continuing to escalate".

Biden has led the charge for international sanctions to punish Moscow over its military offensive in Ukraine. The US has approved 70 billion dollars in aid, including advanced weaponry, to help Ukraine fight Russian forces.

During a visit to Israel on Thursday, Biden said Washington will continue to provide such aid indefinitely to ensure that Moscow suffers "a strategic failure" in Ukraine.

"President Biden himself says he has no idea when or how it's going to end, but we know where this escalation leads," Gabbard said.

"It leads us closer and closer to the brink of a nuclear war with Russia", RT reported Gabbard as saying.
New Delhi, July 15 : A Delhi Court on Friday granted bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair in a case related to an "objectionable tweet" which allegedly promoted enmity between religious groups.

Additional Sessions Judge Devender Kumar Jangala of Patiala House Courts granted bail to Zubair on the condition to furnish Rs 50,000 bond with one surety and not to leave the country without the permission of Court.

A detailed order in the matter is expected to be made available later in the day.

The same bench had reserved the pronouncement of the judgement on Thursday. The court earlier noted that the Supreme Court was hearing a separate case in this regard and accordingly, the matter was adjourned earlier.

During the course of the hearing, Zubair's counsel Vrinda Grover reiterated the arguments, in which she questioned "what is so provocative about the 2018 tweet even after four years and also said police are constantly adding improvements to the initial case." New charges invoked against Zubair are under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 35 of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act.

On July 2, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Snigdha Sarvaria at the Patiala House Courts rejected the bail plea of Zubair and granted his 14-day custody as sought by the Delhi Police.

"Since the matter is at the initial stage of investigation and given the overall facts and circumstances of the case and nature and gravity of the offences alleged against the accused, no ground for grant of bail is made out," Sarvaria said, while dismissing Zubair's bail plea.

As per the FIR, accused Zubair had used a screengrab of an old Hindi movie which showed an image of a hotel, with its board reading 'Hanuman hotel' instead of 'Honeymoon hotel'.

In his tweet, Zubair had written, "BEFORE 2014: Honeymoon Hotel. After 2014: Hanuman Hotel.

"The Delhi High Court had earlier issued a notice to the Delhi Police on a plea moved by Zubair challenging the Patiala House Courts' order allowing his police custody and seizure of his laptop in connection with the alleged objectionable tweet.
Seoul, July 15 : South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo held a meeting with ambassadors from European nations on Friday during which he asked them to support South Korea's bid to host the 2030 World Expo in its southern port city of Busan, the prime minister's office said.

During the meeting, Han briefed them on "the Korean government's philosophy of hosting the 2030 Busan World Expo to show that challenges facing humanity and nature can be overcome through the spirit of cutting-edge technology and solicitude," the office said in a statement.

Ambassadors from 16 European nations, including Britain, Germany and Spain, attended the meeting, Yonhap news agency said quoting the statement.

Han and the ambassadors also exchanged views on how to strengthen cooperation in the fields of politics, economy and culture between South Korea and European nations, it said.
New Delhi, July 15 : Crypto investing platform CoinSwitch on Friday announced a Blockchain hackathon in association with Startup Karnataka, a state government initiative, along with BJP MP Tejasvi Surya.

The 'Building Future Cities' hackathon, also supported by Sequoia India, is aimed at recognising and stimulating Blockchain-based solutions to everyday problems faced by billions of people in the country.

Centered around the themes of smart city, digital governance and supply chain, 'Building Future Cities' aims to kickstart a Web3 innovation cycle tailored and customized for India, the company said in a statement.

"This hackathon enables Karnataka to carry this success story to the next frontier of technology -- Blockchain -- and empowers young innovators to utilise the power of Blockchain for public good," said Higher Education and IT-BT Minister, C.N. Ashwathnarayan.

The hackathon will challenge participants to envision a Blockchain-powered India, with a focus on smart mobility, energy credits and trading, decentralized waste management, secure digital identity and certificate management, efficient and transparent vaccine distribution, and farm supplies and supply chain management.

"We are now ready for the next big technological leap, to build a Blockchain-powered India. I am delighted to partner with CoinSwitch for a first-of-its-kind Blockchain hackathon and sow the seeds of India's future in Bengaluru," said Surya.

The hackathon will be held in Bengaluru on August 5-6.

The winners will be rewarded with Rs 3 lakh, with the total prize pool of the hackathon set at Rs 6 lakh. Participants can enter the competition individually or in a team of up to four members.

"At CoinSwitch, we have always believed that India will be the launchpad of a Web3 world. The hackathon is a step to realise this goal. I am excited to see what the young and smart minds of India bring to the table," said Ashish Singhal, Co-Founder and CEO, CoinSwitch.

Registrations for hackathon are open at https://skillenza.com/challenge/24-hr-hackathon-by-coinswitch.
Kolkata, July 15 : The Trinamool Congress leadership has asked all its elected MLAs in West Bengal to ensure that they reach Kolkata by July 17 afternoon, a day before the Presidential polls. Similar instructions have been sent to the party MPs from both Houses of Parliament who have opted to cast their votes at the West Bengal Assembly premises.

Highly placed party sources said that this instruction has been given so that veterans in the party, who have prior experience in voting in the Presidential polls, update the newcomers in Parliamentary politics about the rules and procedures.

A senior party leader and a heavyweight member in state cabinet said on strict condition of anonymity that cancellation of a single vote of any Trinamool Congress MLA or MP will be a great embarrassment for the party. "The opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha was Trinamool Congress's national vice- president, who resigned from the post to contest for the Presidential polls. So, whatever might be the final results, we have to ensure all the votes from our camp go in favour of Sinha and not a single vote is cancelled," he said.

It is learnt that a four- member core team under the leadership of Trinamool Congress secretary general and state commerce & industries minister, Partha Chatterjee, has been formed who will supervise the entire process. The members of the core team have already started reaching out to the legislators from the districts and the MPs reminding them on this count.

As per the latest information available barring the Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member from Asansol and actor-turned politician, Shatrughan Sinha, all the other elected Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members of Trinamool Congress will vote at the state Assembly premises only.

Meanwhile, both BJP and Trinamool Congress have claimed cross-voting in their favours in the forthcoming Presidential polls. According to veteran political analyst and former registrar of Calcutta University, Rajagopal Dhar Chakraborty, even if cross-voting happens there is no option for any party to stop that. "Presidential Polls are conducted in secret ballots and party whips do not work here. So, it is not possible for anyone to know who has voted for whom," he said.
Hyderabad, July 15 : The drama surrounding 'RRR' actor Ram Charan and his wife's personal issues continue. Upasana Konidela, in a response to a media publisher, expressed her dissatisfaction with them, claiming that they misconstrued her remarks about Ram Charan and her not having kids.

During a recent conversation with Sadguru, Upasana expressed her reservations about having children. She revealed her thought process and how others react to it; Sadguru also spoke about it. However, some media outlets have entirely misinterpreted the context of Upasana's comments.

It is assumed that Upasana chose not to have children due to population control concerns. One Instagram post shared the same report, adding that Ram Charan is also opposed to having children because it would distract him from his aim of entertaining fans through films.

However, Upasana clarified the situation. She captioned a screenshot of the news on her Instagram account, "Omg, this is not true. Please view the entire video and read my copy." Ram Charan and Upasana have been married for ten years and have separate life goals. Despite the fact that it was their personal matter, the media repeatedly questioned the couple about having children. Upasana has spoken out on multiple occasions about this. She was always clear that she would have children only when they, as a couple were ready.
San Francisco, July 15 : LinkedIn cofounder and executive chairman Reid Hoffman has supported tech billionaire Elon Musk over his war of words against former US President Donald Trump.

Hoffman shared his thoughts about the Musk versus Trump issue in a Twitter thread and said he wasn't surprised that Musk was being attacked by the former President and compared the two men's reputations, reports Teslarati.

He added that he supports people working to build a better future for the US and the world.

"Not surprised to see Trump's attacks on Elon Musk. Elon's a classic immigrant story - an entrepreneur with a real record of success. Started EV revolution w/Tesla, resurrected US rocket industry w/SpaceX, fighting climate change while promoting American innovation," Hoffman said.

It all started when, recently, the former US President claimed at a rally in Alaska that Musk had told him that he voted for him. Musk responded to the claim on Twitter saying, "not true".

The Tesla CEO pointed out that he did not hate the former President, but also called him out for his drama.

"Yeah, but too much drama. Do we really want a bull in a china shop situation every single day!? Also, I think the legal maximum age for the start of the Presidential term should be 69," Musk said recently.

In response to Musk's comments, Trump shared a bit of a ranting post on his social network, Truth Social. He said that Musk came to him for help with subsidies and that he could have told Elon to drop to his knees and beg and that Elon would have done it.
New Delhi, July 15 : Although women represent 67 per cent of workers in the healthcare sector globally, they are paid 24 per cent less than their male counterparts, according to the first-ever global sectoral gender pay gap report co-developed by the International Labour Organisation and the World Health Organisation.

The report documents a raw gender pay gap of roughly 20 percentage points which jumps to 24 percentage points when factors such as age, education and working time are taken into account.

It noted that Covid-19 shone a light on the critical importance of health and care workers, who were applauded and celebrated. But the pandemic also laid bare the extent of inequalities, notably the gender pay gap, that workers in this highly feminised sector have been facing for decades.

While much of this gap is unexplained, the UN agencies said it is perhaps due to discrimination towards women. The report also revealed that wages in health and care tend to be lower overall when compared with other sectors, which is consistent with the finding that wages often are lower in areas where women are predominant.

"The health and care sector has endured low pay in general, stubbornly large gender pay gaps, and very demanding working conditions. The Covid-19 pandemic clearly exposed this situation while also demonstrating how vital the sector and its workers are in keeping families, societies and economies going," said Manuela Tomei, Director of Conditions of Work and Equality Department at the ILO, in a statement.

The report also found a wide variation in gender pay gaps in different countries, indicating that these gaps are not inevitable and that more can be done to close the divide.

Within countries, gender pay gaps tend to be wider in higher pay categories, where men are over-represented, while women are over-represented in the lower pay categories.

Mothers working in the health and care sector also appear to suffer additional penalties, with gender pay gaps significantly increasing during a woman's reproductive years and persisting throughout the rest of her working life.

A more equitable sharing of family duties between men and women could lead to women making different job choices, according to the report.

Tomei expressed hope that the report will spark dialogue and policy action as there will be no inclusive, resilient and sustainable post-pandemic recovery without a stronger health and care sector.

"We cannot have better-quality health and care services without better and fairer working conditions, including fairer wages, for health and care workers, the majority of whom are women," she said.

--IANS rvt/vd

A
Singapore, July 15 : The two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu registered a thrilling win over China's Han Yue to reach the semifinal, but her compatriots Saina Nehwal and HS Prannoy crashed out after suffering heartbreaking defeats in their respective quarterfinal matches in the Singapore Open 2022, here on Friday.

World No 7 Sindhu came from behind to beat world No 19 Han Yue 17-21, 21-11, 21-19 in the quarterfinals, which lasted for one hour and 2 minutes. With the win, she set up a semifinal clash against Japan's Saena Kawakami, who upset Thai shuttler Pornpawee Chochuwong in her final eight clash.

The Indian shuttler made a slow start and trailed her Chinese opponent 14-11 before scoring four back-to-back points to take the lead. Han Yue, however, continued to trouble Sindhu with her deft touches and went on to win the first game.

The second game, too, started as a tight affair with Sindhu going on the offensive but Han Yue staying on her coat-tails. But with the score at 14-11, the two-time Olympic medallist stepped up and took the next seven points to force a decider.

In the all-important third game, Han Yue raced to a 14-9 lead and put the Indian ace on the backfoot. The Indian ace, however, dug deep and turned the tables with a flurry of seven points and proceeded to wrap up the match.

However, London 2012 bronze medallist Saina failed to join Sindhu in the semi-finals after going down 13-21, 21-15, 20-21 to Japan's Aya Ohori in a closely-fought match.The 32-year old Saina conceded a 19-16 lead in the decider to crash out of the BWF Super 500 tournament.

In men's singles, in-form HS Prannoy won the first game against Japan's Kodai Naraoka but couldn't make the advantage count as he lost 12-21, 21-14, 21-18, in just over an hour.

Meanwhile, men's doubles pair MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila's Singapore Open 2022 campaign also came to a close after losing their final eight clash 10-21 21-18 21-17 against Indonesian second seeds Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan.
Seoul, July 15 : South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin will embark on a three-day trip to Japan next week to discuss areas of bilateral relations and North Korea, Seoul's foreign ministry said Friday.

Park's trip from Monday to Wednesday will be the first by a foreign minister to the neighbouring country under the new South Korean administration led by President Yoon Suk-yeol.

The ministry said Park will "hold a meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and discuss issues of mutual interest, such as Korea-Japan relations and the Korean Peninsula issue." Park will also express condolences over the recent death of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Yonhap news agency reported quoting the ministry.

On Monday, the foreign minister paid his respects to the late Abe in Seoul at the Japanese embassy's public information and cultural center. Park mourned Abe's death and offered his condolences, three days after he was fatally shot during an election campaign speech.

The minister said earlier this week that the Yoon administration will keep striving for a "reasonable resolution" to pending issues between Seoul and Tokyo through various related efforts, including his visit to Japan "at a mutually convenient time."
Chennai, July 15 : The Madras High Court on Friday gave major relief to Tamil superstar Vijay in a case related to his import of a luxury BMW car from the US, ruling that he would be liable to pay the penalty for delayed payment of entry tax only from January 29, 2019, to December 2021 and not from 2005.

A bench of Justice R. Suresh Kumar said that Vijay was liable to pay an entry tax as a division bench of the court had, on January 29, 2019, held that the state government was entitled to levy entry tax.

The bench, however, said that the Commercial Taxes Department should not have demanded a huge amount of Rs 30.23 lakh towards penalty, by levying it since 2005 and that the fine may be levied from January 29, 2019.

Vijay had approached the court in January 2022 and had challenged a notice issued by the Commercial Taxes Department, on September 17, 2021, asking him to pay Rs 7.98 lakh as entry tax along with penalty of Rs 30.23 lakh.

The advocate for the superstar said that he has already paid tax liability of Rs 7.98 lakh in December 2021 and that he was challenging the penalty alone. He said that he had then imported the BMW as there were no dealers for the luxury car in Chennai those days.

The actor had also pleaded to the court to cancel the demand notice and the recovery notice.
Mumbai, July 15 : Actress Tara Sutaria is all set to make her singing debut alongside Ankit Tiwari in the song 'Shaamat' from the movie 'Ek Villain Returns'.

Tara says: "This is such a wonderful moment in my life and an incomparable feeling because 'Shaamat' was the first Hindi song I've ever recorded and also the first track to release of mine in this film. It has a lot of emotions and memories attached to it." The lyrics for the song have been written by Prince Dubey. The 'Student of the Year 2' actress shares further about her character in the film and what she liked about her debut track.

"My character in the film is what really excited me to be a part of it but the music was definitely a driving force. I'm also so happy to collaborate with Ankit Tiwari and very eager to see the response of the audience," shares Tara.

Ankit Tiwari said: "The song 'Shaamat' is very close to my heart and I am glad that people will now get to hear it. Working with Tara on this was great and she put all her efforts into perfecting her art for the vision of this song. Can't wait to see how the audience reacts to it." "Ek Villain Returns" features John Abraham, Arjun Kapoor, Disha Patani and Tara Sutaria. The movie directed by Mohit Suri, and jointly produced by T-Series and Balaji Telefilms, is all set to release on July 29.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
New Delhi, July 15 : A 32-year-old man, convicted of murdering his own sister and absconding after his parole period, was arrested by the Delhi Police from Hyderabad, an official said on Friday.

The convict was identified as Tuntun Dass, a native of Bihar's Samastipur.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, Dwarka, M. Harsh Wardhan said a special drive against parole jumpers and criminals at large was started and a team was also constituted for this purpose.

"The team visited Tihar Jail, Hari Nagar and collected the details of relatives and phone numbers of the visitors of the said parole jumper. On information collected from the relatives of Das, the team carried out raids in Samastipur," he said.

Later, on the basis of technical surveillance. the police team zeroed in that he was in Hyderabad. Accordingly, a Delhi Police team went to Hyderabad and found him there.

"A trap was laid and he was nabbed," the official said.

During interrogation, Das disclosed that he got parole in 2020 during Covid. He had to surrender in Mandoli jail in February, 2021 but to evade arrest, he went absconding and started residing in Hyderabad.

Subsequently, the accused was arrested and produced before a local court which sent him to transit remand of three days. He was then again produced in the court which ultimately sent him to judicial custody.
New Delhi, July 15 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday expressed grief over the loss of lives in the national capital at a wall collapse incident.

"Anguished by the mishap in Alipur, Delhi. My thoughts are with those who have lost their loved ones. I pray that those who are injured recover at the earliest," the Prime Minister said.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the accident that happened in Alipur is really tragic, and he prayed for the peace of the departed souls.

"The district administration is engaged in relief and rescue work. I am personally monitoring it," the chief minister said in a tweet.

As many as five people were killed and several others injured after a boundary wall of an under-construction godown collapsed in the national capital on Friday afternoon.

The rescue operation is still underway as more people are feared to be trapped beneath the debris.
Kiev, July 15 : A British aid worker, who was captured in Ukraine by Russia-backed separatists, has died, media reports said.

Paul Urey, from Culcheth, Lancashire was detained in eastern Ukraine in April and charged with mercenary activity, BBC reported.

Urey died on Sunday "due to illness and stress", Daria Morozova, self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR)official, claimed on Telegram.

"During his first medical examination, Paul Urey was diagnosed with a number of chronic illnesses, including insulin-dependent diabetes, respiratory system failure, kidney failure and several cardiovascular illnesses. Given these diagnoses and the stress, he died on July 10," Morozova said.

The 45-year-old's family were contacted by the UK Foreign Office, says the Presidium Network, a UK non-profit that provides support to communities in crisis to manage humanitarian issues and represent the needs of people.

His mother is "distraught and still in shock", it said.

The UK says it is seeking urgent clarification from Ukraine and the Russian government on reports of a British aid worker's death.
London, July 15 : Health officials in Tanzania have reported a "strange" bleeding disease, with no known cause, that has so far affected 13 people and claimed three lives, media reports said.

The 13 Tanzanian patients, from the Lindi region, showed symptoms similar to Ebola or Marburg -- fever, severe headaches, fatigue and bleeding, especially from the nose, Daily Mail reported.

But according to the country's Health Ministry, preliminary lab test results have ruled out Ebola and Marburg viruses as well as Covid virus from these cases.A The new Ebola-like disease comes days after another African nation Ghana reported two deaths from Marburg virus. The virus is known to kill up to 90 per cent of infected patients.

Tanzania has never before recorded a case of Ebola or Marburg, two deadly viruses known to cause bleeding.

Yet neighbouring countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, have in the past.

According to Tanzania's Chief Medical Officer Aifello Sichalwen, one of the patients had fully recovered while the others were being isolated, the report said.

"The government formed a team of professionals who are still investigating this unknown disease," he added.

Sichalwe has also urged Tanzanians to remain calm as investigations continue, while urging anyone exhibiting similar symptoms to immediately seek medical attention.

Tanzania's President Samia Suluhu Hassan said the "strange" disease may have been caused by "growing interaction" between humans and wild animals.

Both Marburg and Ebola are known to spread between humans, and can be carried by fruit bats.

Experts are baffled by the new outbreak and do not yet know what virus is causing people to become unwell.

A team of doctors and health experts have been sent to investigate the mysterious disease amid fears it could be spreading, the report said.

Meanwhile, a new analysis by the World Health Organization (WHO) showed that Africa is facing a growing risk of outbreaks caused by zoonotic pathogens.

There has been a 63 per cent increase in the number of zoonotic outbreaks in the region in the decade from 2012-2022 compared to 2001-2011, the WHO analysis noted.

Between 2001-2022 there were 1,843 substantiated public health events recorded in the WHO African region.

Ebola Virus Disease and other viral hemorrhagic fevers constitute nearly 70 per cent of these outbreaks, with dengue fever, anthrax, plague, monkeypox and a range of other diseases making up the remaining 30 per cent.

The increase in zoonotic cases may be due to several reasons. Africa has the world's fastest-growing population and there is a growing demand for food derived from animals including meat, poultry, eggs, and milk.

The population growth is also leading to rising urbanisation and encroachment on the habitats of wildlife. Road, rail, boat and air links are also improving across Africa increasing the risk of zoonotic disease outbreaks spreading from remote areas where there are few inhabitants to large urban areas.

As we have seen with the West African Ebola outbreaks, there can be a devastating number of deaths and cases, when zoonotic diseases arrive in cities, the WHO said.

--IANS rvt/vd

A
Islamabad, July 15 : Islamabad High Court's Chief Justice Athar Minallah may not face the brutality which veteran journalist Ayaz Amir was subjected to for calling the Pakistani Generals "property dealers".

Amir was pounced upon by hitmen sent by the army, beaten up and humiliated for calling a spade a spade. Justice Minallah committed the same sin by ruling that it was illegal on the part of the army to directly or indirectly engage in business ventures and claim ownership of public land. In April 2021, the Lahore High Court Chief Justice had been more forthright, calling the army "the biggest land grabbers" in the country.

Amir's fault was that he was a civilian and had no constitutional protection for hitting the Generals where it hurt the most -- owning and distributing land has been one of the most protected privileges among the Generals since Independence.

Noted defence expert, Dr Ayesha Siddiqa, had written in her classic work on the business side of Pakistan Army, Military Inc., that the army owned 12 per cent of arable land in Pakistan and a large part of it is either turned into businesses or gifted to themselves.

Writing in The Friday Times issue of February 3, 2017, Dr Siddiqa drew a shocking picture of an avaricious military: "For a long time, officers of the rank of major general and higher were given 240 or more acres, brigadiers and colonels 150 acres, lieutenant colonels 125 acres, majors and lieutenants 100 acres, JCOs 64 acres and NCOs 32 acres. The acreage was later revised to 50 acres for officers and 12.5 to lower ranks. Additional land is given with gallantry medals, which is why General (retd) Raheel Sharif received 90 acres of agricultural land in Lahore. There is no other government department that rewards its manpower in such a fashion." Using extensive archive materials, Dr Siddiqa discovered that till 2007, the army controlled 12 million acres, of which seven million acres were agricultural. Of these, 6.8 million acres were gifted or sold at exceedingly low prices to serving and retired personnel. In addition, 70,000 to 80,000 acres were handed over to the military's welfare foundations, Fauji Foundation, Army Welfare Trust, Shaheen Foundation, and Bahria Foundation.

More details of land grabbing could be found in the media archives. A former Senator of Pakistan disclosed in his article about facts that emerged during a questionnaire in the National Assembly of Pakistan. The parliamentarians were told that army officers were entitled to up to four plots: the first after 15 years of service, second after 25 years, third after 28 years and the fourth after 33 years of service. The entitlement of the fourth plot was withdrawn later. The Parliament was also informed that while retired army officers were entitled to plots in Defence Housing Authority, Islamabad but not retired Navy and PAF officers.

The scale of land grabbing can be estimated from the case decided by the Islamabad High Court. The matter involved the army's claim on 8,068 acres of land in the Margalla Hills National Park along with a lease agreement signed with a private enterprise, Monal Restaurant. The army could lease out such a large part of a national park, home to leopards and other important animals, to a private enterprise exposes the predatory nature of unmitigated privilege, exactly the reason why Ayaz Amir called the Generals "property dealers", the biggest of them all in Pakistan.
Patna, July 15 : Patna Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Manavjeet Singh Dhillon who found himself in hot soup on Thursday for comparing the PFI with the RSS, on Friday said his statement was wrongly interpreted.

"There is no question of comparing an organisation with another. The meaning of my statement was wrongly interpreted which is absolutely wrong," Dhillon said.

The senior police officer's clarification came a day after the Bihar Police issued show-cause notice to him after he compared RSS with PFI.

Jitendra Singh Gangwar, the ADGP, law and order, had issued the show-cause notice to him and asked him to reply within 24 hours.

He had specifically asked Dhillon to clarify why he had compared RSS with PFI which led to an uproar. The comparison has come under stiff criticism by the BJP leaders.

On Thursday, five persons were arrested in Patna for indulging in anti-national activities following raids in the Phulwari Sharif area, which also led to the recovery of several incriminating documents, including PFI's 'Mission 2047'.

Speaking on the incident, Dhillon at a press conference on Friday said: "Now, I am focusing on the thorough investigation of the Phulwari Sharif incident. The investigation reveals that PM Narendra Modi was not having direct threat." Earlier, it was suspected that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on the radar of the arrested individuals.

Dhillon, after the arrest of 5 persons including a former member of Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) named Akhtar Parvez, a retired sub-inspector of Jharkhand, Jalaluddin and a native of Phulwari Sharif Arman Malik, Tahir Ahmed and Shamim Malik on Thursday for providing training on Islamic extremism and terrorism to the Muslim youth of the country under the umbrella of PFI.

The Patna SSP said that they were providing training in martial arts and physical training similar to the Shakhas (branches) of the RSS.

During the questioning of these accused, it appeared that some individuals including suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma were in the target list of the suspected terror module.

The joint team of Patna police and NIA also conducted raid in a house at Muslim-dominated Sabji Bagh area of Patna, and recovered some objectionable documents.
London, July 15 : Arsenal centre-back Auston Trusty has joined Birmingham City on a season-long loan deal, the club said in a statement on Friday.

Trusty signed for Arsenal in January 2022 from MLS side Colorado Rapids, where the 23-year-old has remained on loan and been a key part of the team since they started their season in February.

However, the centre-back seemingly does not have a path into the Arsenal first team over the likes of William Saliba, Rob Holding, Pablo Mari, Ben White and Gabriel Magalhaes.

Trusty has over 20 caps for the USA's youth sides and has played over 100 games in MLS.

"We wish Auston all the best for his loan spell at Birmingham City and look forward to seeing his continued development," Arsenal said in a statement on Friday.

Meanwhile, the Arsenal players were straight out to work in the Baltimore sunshine after arriving in America for a pre-season tour.

The whole squad were involved in Thursday's training session, and Mohamed Elneny said they have been energised by the change of location.

"Everyone is excited for pre-season in America. We are here for 10 or 11 days and we are going to give everything every day to be stronger. It's been really good so far," Elneny said.

"Sometimes it's good to change the location, be away from the training ground, and get to know each other better. We have met a few fans, signed some autographs, and the weather is different too. I think that's good for us though, it makes us work harder, makes us stronger. When you train when it's humid and really hot it's tougher. It's hard work but it's better for us," he said.

"Our preparations will step up a notch when we take on Everton on Saturday night, before flying to Orlando for two more games in Florida," he added.
Karamay : , July 15 (IANS) China has introduced a new method of surveillance in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region: 20 driverless electric patrol vehicles, RFA reported.

China began testing its first domestically-manufactured, high-tech patrol car in Karamay (in Chinese, Kelemayi), an oil-rich city in the northern part of the region.

Zhao Wenchuan, the secretary for the city's Chinese Communist Party Committee, has said Karamay was chosen as the production and testing base for the smart patrol vehicles because it is the leading digital city in the region.

The unmanned surveillance patrol vehicles are expected to be deployed throughout Xinjiang, according to Chinese media reports.

The cars, dubbed the "Little Patrol", are manufactured by Zhongke Tianji (Xinjiang) Aerospace Information Co. Ltd., according to a March 30 report by the Karamay Daily.

Experts on China's policies in Xinjiang expressed concern about the introduction of self-driving surveillance cars.

"This is just the next step in setting up that perfect police state, ensuring that the police have total power," said Geoffrey Cain, a US journalist who wrote the book "The Perfect Police State: An Undercover Odyssey into China's Terrifying Surveillance Dystopia of the Future", RFA reported.

While China's use of surveillance technology in the XUAR is nothing new, the use of the autonomous police vehicles are meant as another warning to local residents, he said.

"The Chinese government likes to pretend that it is the master of technology, that it has all the best technology, but what it's really doing is scaring the people," Cain told RFA. "It's scaring the Uyghur people by making it look like the technology is sophisticated when the equipment is quite basic and elementary." "It's more like the perception or the idea that the (government) is always watching that makes people scared. It's just that they don't realise when or where they're being watched," he said.

Maya Wang, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the Chinese government's use of driverless patrol vehicles in Karamay is a continuation of its efforts to enhance and expand the police surveillance system in the XUAR.

"The deployment of these cars certainly is part of that intensive investment in policing, surveillance and repression in the region," she said, RFA reported.

"The violation of the right to privacy has knock-on effects on almost every single right - the right to practice religion, the right to freely express yourself, the right to associate and assemble. Those are fundamental rights that Uyghurs and residents of Xinjiang are deprived of because these systems essentially create an all-seeing system that makes the exercising of these rights impossible," Wang said.
Islamabad, July 15 : Pakistan's top court has categorically rejected former Prime Minister Imran Khan's narrative of a foreign conspiracy of a regime change that led to his ouster from power, stating the actions undertaken by then deputy speaker National Assembly, then PM and President as unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan gave its detailed judgment in the deputy speaker ruling case, negating all claims of Imran Khan's conspiracy narrative and declaring the whole narrative based on a false story and baseless political account.

The Supreme Court neither found any cogent, reliable and relevant evidence of the PTI's conspiracy theory nor even found the-then Imran Khan government showing any interest in getting the matter probed and fixing those whom he and his party alleged of being the local handlers and partners to the conspiracy allegedly hatched and planed by the US.

The Supreme Court expressed its surprise to the fact that despite receiving the cipher on March 7, 2022 the government did not bother to bring the matter into any kind of investigation nor did it bring the matter in the sessions of the national assembly of Pakistan on 28th and 31st of March 2022.

"Also, the allegations levelled against the members of the opposition parties were not put to them. It was only on April 3, 2022 when the resolution of no-confidence was fixed for voting as per the orders of the day, that the law minister raised this matter for the first time before the National Assembly and asked the deputy speaker to give a decision on the constitutionality of the Resolution of No-Confidence (RNC)," read the detailed judgment of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

The court judgment also referred to the finding of the National Security Committee (NSC) meeting, which raised reservations over the communication recorded in the cipher was tantamount to foreign interference in Pakistan's internal matters and advised for a suitable response as per diplomatic norms. However, the court judgment highlighted that NSC meeting minutes did not have any mention of RNC being moved by the opposition parties or by persons in Pakistan in conspiracy with a foreign state.

"No inquiry/investigation was ordered into the matter to ascertain the nature or extent of involvement of any person in Pakistan for seeking or receiving the support of a foreign state to move the RNC," read the supreme court judgment.

The Supreme Court judgment is a serious major damage to Imran Khan's ongoing campaign against the sitting government and the military establishment, who he blamed and lashes out in public gatherings for being partner in the international conspiracy of regime change led by the US to oust his government.

Imran Khan's social media campaign and public gatherings are seen with his supporters targeting the government and the military establishment for not supporting and siding with him.

While the court's judgment goes completely against Imran Khan's narrative and demands for early elections; Khan refuses to accept it and vows to continue his narrative until his demands of early elections in the country are met.
Washington, July 15 : The US House of Representatives on Thursday passed a legislation measure that will urge the Biden administration to waive sanctions on India for purchasing Russian S-400 missile defence systems.

The measure passed in a voice vote as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2023 (the defense budget). To make it to President Joe Biden's desk for enactment, it must be a part of the final legislation that comes out of a process called reconciliation in which bills passed by the House and Senate are made into one.

India is potentially facing US sanctions under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) for its purchase of the Russian 3-400s. The 2017 law seeks to punish Russia for the 2016 election interference and other issues by scaring away buyers of its defence equipment with the threat of secondary sanctions. China and Turkey, a NATO ally, are the only two countries sanctioned by the US under this law yet.

India has started receiving these systems, which technically should have triggered CAATSA sanctions, but the Biden administration has not publicly declared its intentions, either way.

The amendment that passed Thursday was introduced by Ro Khanna, an Indian American lawmaker from California who is now widely believed to be considering a run for the White House in 2024 if Biden decides to not run again.

"The United States must stand with India in the face of escalating aggression from China. As Vice Chair of the India Caucus, I have been working to strengthen the partnership between our countries and ensure that India can defend itself along the Indian Chinese border," Khanna said in a statement. "This amendment is of the utmost importance, and I am proud to see it pass the House on a bipartisan basis." The amendment says India relies on Russian weapons because it faces "immediate and serious regional border threats" from China. And the US should take further steps to encourage India to accelerate its "transition off Russian-built weapons and defense systems".

The amendment argues then that it's in the best interest of the US and the US-India partnership to waive the sanction. "While India faces immediate needs to maintain its heavily Russian-built weapons systems, a waiver to sanctions under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act during this transition period is in the best interests of the United States and the United States-India defense partnership to deter aggressors in light of Russia and China's close partnership," it said as approved.

Talk of impending CAATSA sanctions has dogged India-US engagements from the time the law was enacted in 2017, under the Trump administration; it was a bipartisan congressional initiative and then President Donald Trump had no option but to sign. Then Defense Secretary James Mattis and then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had publicly pressed lawmakers to exempt India and other countries that used to be too heavily reliant on Russian military hardware.

Speculation about sanctions picked up in recent months as India began receiving the missiles. But there has been no public indication that the administration is considering them.
Nagchu, July 15 : Chinese police have arrested a 20-year-old woman named Youdon this week for possessing a photograph of the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, a report said.

Youdon was reportedly arrested on July 11, as Chinese authorities ramped up their crackdown on Tibetans in the days surrounding the Dalai Lama's 87th birthday on July 6, which many Tibetans celebrated despite heavy restrictions, the RFA reported.

The police "accused Youdon of acting together with her sister Zumkar for keeping a photo of the Dalai Lama in their home. Youdon is Zumkar's younger sister," the source said. Zumkar was arrested on June 23.

Youdon was arrested in her hometown of Tsarang Township, Amdo County in Tibet's Nagchu region.

The source also told RFA that Youdon is currently being detained in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, but that no further details were available. Zumkar, 27, was the first to be arrested when police found a photo of the Dalai Lama on an altar, a sacred part of Tibetan households where religious objects like statues and scriptures are kept, and prayers are offered.

Another source, living in exile outside of Tibet, also confirmed Youdon's arrest to RFA.

Last year, RFA reported the arrests of 20-30 Tibetans around the time of the Dalai Lama's 86th birthday.

Other residences in the area are also known to have been investigated by the Chinese authorities for having images of the Dalai Lama, who Beijing argues is a separatist leader calling for Tibetan independence, RFA reported.

The Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), which represents Tibetans-in-exile, advocate a political solution where Tibet would remain part of China, but where Tibetans would maintain a level of autonomy over their own cultural and linguistic affairs.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government has intensified its campaigns against Tibetans by punishing them for the possession of banned photographs that include pictures of the Dalai Lama, as well as cracking down on the speaking and teaching of Tibetan language.

Despite increased security, a source told RFA that Tibetans inside Tibet "who write essays and articles in praise of His Holiness the Dalai Lama on the occasion, and the articles are widely read and shared on social media".
New Delhi, July 15 : Even as Covid cases and even deaths are again on the rise globally, the world must be prepared for such Covid-19 waves, World Health Organisation's (WHO) Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan has said.

According to Swaminathan, all new Covid variants in the future will be more transmissible and capable of evading immunity that can result in increased illness and hospitalisations.

"We need to be prepared for these #Covid19 waves- each new #variant will be more transmissible & immune evasive- higher numbers infected will translate into greater hospitalisations & sickness," she wrote on Twitter.

She urged countries to "have a data driven plan to quickly respond to changing situations".

Swaminathan was responding to a tweet from Philip Schellekens, a senior Advisor at the World Bank Group, who stated that the world is witnessing a "global U-turn in Covid-19 mortality. Following months of decline, it has started to rise again".

Schellekens attributed the rise to properties of BA.5., relaxed attitudes towards infection control, and three-fourth of the world not being up-to-date on vaccination.

He said that the US, France, Italy, Germany and Japan are the drivers of the global surge among high-income countries, while Brazil, an upper-middle-income country, is leading in the developing world.

The US and Brazil are currently the main contributors to global mortality. In the US, the new Omicron variants have pushed up hospitalisations and deaths in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, the WHO's weekly review of the Covid-19 pandemic showed that in the last two weeks, Covid cases surged 30 per cent, driven largely by the hugely infectious omicron relatives, BA.4 and BA.5.

The two Omicron sub-variants have shown a worrisome ability to re-infect people previously vaccinated or who have recovered from Covid.

The biggest increases in Covid-19 cases were seen in the Western Pacific and the Middle East, where they jumped by more than a quarter. Deaths spiked by 78 per cent in the Middle East and by 23 per cent in Southeast Asia, while dropping elsewhere or remaining stable, the WHO report said.

Earlier this week, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the pandemic still qualifies as a global emergency and he was "concerned" about the recent spike.

"The virus is running freely, and countries are not effectively managing the disease burden," he said during a press briefing. "New waves of the virus demonstrate again that Covid-19 is nowhere near over." "I am concerned that cases of Covid-19 continue to rise - putting further pressure on stretched health systems and health workers - and deaths are unacceptably high," Ghebreyesus said.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
New Delhi, July 15 : At least 5 persons were killed and 8 others sustained injuries after a boundary wall of an under-construction warehouse collapsed in the national capital on Friday afternoon, an official said.

Delhi Fire Service chief Atul Garg said that they received a call about the incident around 12.40 p.m. at Bakoli village, near Chauhan Dharamkanta in the Narela area after which six fire tenders were immediately pressed into service.

Delhi Police also received a PCR call at the same time at Alipur police station after which the staff rushed to the spot and found that approximately 100 ft long and 15 ft high wall of an under construction warehouse had collapsed.

"Initially, approximately 20 labourers who were digging a foundation just adjacent to the wall were buried under the debris," the official said.

Meanwhile, ambulances and firefighters also reached the spot and collectively, the police and the firemen were able to rescue 13 labourers from the accident site.

"All of them were immediately rushed to Raja Harish Chand Hospital, however, five of them succumbed to their injuries," the official said.

The rescue operation is still underway.

The police have set a perimeter for the people to keep them away from the incident site as an intense rescue operation was going on to save any person who might be still trapped under the debris.

Meanwhile, two JCB cranes and 5 Hydras were deployed to remove the debris of the collapsed wall.The police said they have identified the owner of the land and the contractor under whom all the labourers were working.

"A legal action has been initiated," the official added.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal expressed grief over the tragic incident.

"Anguished by the mishap in Alipur, Delhi. My thoughts are with those who have lost their loved ones. I pray that those who are injured recover at the earliest," the Prime Minister said.

Kejriwal said the accident that happened in Alipur is really tragic and he prayed for the peace of the departed souls.

"The district administration is engaged in relief and rescue work. I am personally monitoring it," the chief minister wrote on Twitter.
Hyderabad, July 15 : Bonalu, which symbolises the unique culture of Telangana, began Friday amid fanfare at Ujjaini Mahankali temple in Secunderabad.

Telangana Animal Husbandry Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav and Labour Minister Chamakura Malla Reddy joined the colourful celebrations by dancing along with 'Potharajus' amid the drum beats.

The two ministers along with Home Minister Mehmood Ali, Mayor Gadwal Vijayalaxmi and other officials inaugurated the temple arch to formally mark the beginning of the annual celebrations.

Srinivas Yadav along with his family members offered first 'Bonam' or offering to the deity. Large number of women with pots on their heads, 'Potharajus' and other devotees participated in the event.

The main celebration of Secunderabad Bonalu will be held on Sunday when thousands of devotees offer special prayers at the historic temple.

The women devotees offer 'Bonam', containing cooked rice, jaggery, curd and neem leaves to goddess Mahankali.

The festival will conclude on Monday with famous 'Rangam' where predictions about the state's future will be made by an unmarried woman, followed by the Ghatam procession. This will be followed by a procession of a caparisoned elephant carrying a portrait of the deity. Smeared with turmeric and vermilion, potharajus dance to rhythmic drum beats in the procession that will pass through various areas.

Bonalu in Secunderabad, or Lashkar Bonalu as it is called, is the second phase of the nearly month-long traditional festival in twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.

The festival began on June 29 at the Jagadambika Temple on Golconda Fort.

The festivities at Sri Simhavahini Mahankali temple in Lal Darwaza and at Sri Akkanna Madanna Mahankali temple in Haribowli in the old city of Hyderabad will be held on July 24.

It is commonly believed that the festival was first celebrated over 150 years ago following a major cholera outbreak. People believed that the epidemic was due to the anger of Mahankali and began offering Bonalu to placate her.

Meanwhile, Hyderabad Police Commissioner C. V. Anand on Friday offered prayers at Lal Darwaza temple in the old city. He noted after a gap of two years due to Covid-19, all the festivals are witnessing participation by a large number of people.

The Commissioner hoped that people will continue to extend all cooperation in smooth and peaceful conduct of the celebrations. He said 1,000 police personnel would be on duty as part of the arrangements for the Bonalu in the old city.

Ashada Bonalu is a festival held in the month of Ashada, according to the Hindu calendar, celebrating goddess Mahankali. Devotees, especially women make offerings in the form of food to goddess Mahankali in specially decorated pots.

During the festival, people also hold 'rangam' or forecasting the future, organise processions and cultural events.

After the formation of Telangana in 2014, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) had declared Bonalu as the state festival. The festivities reflect Telangana culture with performances by the artistes. This year, the government has allocated Rs 15 crore for the celebrations. The money was spent to spruce up the temples for the celebrations and for making all necessary arrangements for the devotees.
London, July 15 : UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is pushing for failed Tory leadership candidates to back "anyone but Rishi" Sunak, it was claimed on Friday, amid reports that the whole team at 10 Downing Street "hates" the former Chancellor for causing the PM's downfall, media reports said.

Johnson, who announced last week that he will step down as party leader when his replacement is decided, has said he will not publicly endorse any candidate or get involved in the increasingly bitter leadership race, the Daily Mail reported.

However, Johnson has reportedly made clear in private discussions with failed leadership hopefuls that Sunak should not be his successor, it said.

Citing a source close to one such conversation, The Times said Johnson appeared to be most enthusiastic about his Foreign Secretary Liz Truss becoming Prime Minister.

Truss has been publicly backed by some of Johnson's closest cabinet allies - including Nadine Dorries, Jabob Rees-Mogg and Attorney General Suella Braverman - but has come third in the two rounds of voting that have been held so far.

Sunak - Johnson's former Chancellor - came out on top of Thursday's voting, and in second was Penny Mordaunt, who was also bearing the brunt of the attacks from rival camps as she gained the most momentum.

The Times reported that Johnson has indicated he would also be open to Mordaunt succeeding him if it meant that Sunak did not win the leadership election.

A source told The Times: "The whole No 10 team hates Rishi. It's personal. It's vitriolic. They don't blame Saj (Sajid Javid) for bringing him down. They blame Rishi. They think he was planning this for months." The former Chancellor resigned last week minutes after Health Secretary Sajid Javid, sparking a slew of further resignations that ultimately led to the PM's downfall.

Another Times source claimed that Johnson had voiced concerns that Sunak would go 'soft' on Vladimir Putin and his war in Ukraine, and ease sanctions on Russia.
New Delhi, July 15 : On World Youth Skills Day, Vedanta Aluminium, India's largest producer of aluminium, reaffirmed its commitment to scaling up skill development programmes for rural youth, helping them learn employable skills and find livelihood opportunities.

Through various skill development initiatives, the company has, till date, helped more than 12,000 youth get trained in solar energy technology, housekeeping, industrial sewing, machine operations, tailoring, food and beverage, electricals, fitting and welding, advanced agriculture etc., and find lucrative employment in various industries.

Speaking about the company's approach, Rahul Sharma, CEO, Vedanta Aluminium, said, "Creating sustainable livelihoods through skill development is fundamental to our vision for sustainable development in the regions where we operate.

"India's future aspirations hinge on its young, talented workforce having the right skills as the future of work evolves rapidly. By creating avenues for the local youth to get trained in such skills, Vedanta Aluminium is helping them seek gainful employment both within their communities and beyond, thereby transforming the socio-economic fabric at grassroots." Earlier this year, Vedanta Aluminium launched a skill development programme for the communities in the vicinity of its alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in Odisha's Kalahandi district.

The first batch of 29 students who underwent this programme are now employed with some of India's top hospitality sector players.

This is significant since Lanjigarh is located in one of the remotest regions of India, with not many education and livelihood opportunities for the youth to chase their aspirations.

The success of Vedanta Aluminium's skill development programme is encouraging many other youngsters to come forward and enrol for subsequent phases of the programme.

Niharika Durga, who was one of the trainees in the programme, said, "I would like to thank Vedanta for providing placement-linked skill training which has opened up a world of opportunities for me. I am very happy to share that I have successfully completed the three-month training programme and got employment with Ramoji film city, Hyderabad, which has consequently brought happiness to my family. I am the first girl in my family to have secured such a good job. My parents are very proud of me." Vedanta Aluminium has established Subhalaxmi Co-operative, one of India's largest rural women's co-ops, at Jharsuguda in Odisha, where the company operates one of the world's largest aluminium smelters.

With a presence across 72 villages in Odisha and over 4100 women members, the co-op enables aspiring women entrepreneurs with micro-finance, skill development, financial literacy and market linkage. More than 1,800 women have already benefited from its skill development programmes in financial literacy, enterprise development, business management, and trades like sewing, animal husbandry, farming, mushroom cultivation, etc.

Similarly, through Jeevika Samridhhi, a land and water management programme being run in Jharsuguda, Vedanta Aluminium has helped more than 300 farmers get trained in advanced agricultural practices such as crop plan, harvest and management, package of practices (PoP), organic farming, natural pest management, etc.

Jeevika Samridhhi aims at increasing farmers' income by encouraging adoption of, and training them in, advanced agriculture practices through agri-scientists from Krishi Vigyan Kendra and other agricultural research institutes.

In Chhattisgarh, Vedanta Aluminium has established three Skill Schools in Korba, Kawardha and Mainpat through which more than 10,000 youth have been trained in various trades.

The Vedanta Skill School provides robust technical education designed as per the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).

Graduates from these schools have found employment with some of India's leading companies in power, steel, automotive, solar and hospitality industries. Vedanta Skill School has been imparting these trainings in convergence with government schemes like Mukhya Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (MMKVY), NABARD, Skill India Impact Bond (SIIB) and National institute of Solar Energy (NISE).
Guwahati, July 15 : The Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati has retained its position in the National Institutional Rankings Framework (NIRF), achieving 7th Rank in 'Engineering' Category this year. The institute, the only such institution in the entire northeastern region set up in 1994, also retained its position in 'Overall' Category, keeping rank 8th in NIRF 2022.

Announcing the NIRF 2022 ranking results on Friday, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, said: "The list of top institutes released in NIRF 2022 showcases the impartial and qualitative assessment done by the Education Ministry." He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had the vision to make sure all Higher Education institutions should be able to highlight their outstanding performance to the young aspirants.

Pradhan said that knowledge based innovation, entrepreneurship, and digitalisation is the way forward for emerging countries. Blended multi-disciplinary programs at institutes like IITs is the need of the hour, he said adding that industry's expectation of engineering technocrats having managerial capabilities is an example of the same and the time has arrived when India will lead the education front globally.

Congratulating the institute on its performance, Prof. T.G. Sitharam, Director, IIT Guwahati, said: "The performance of the institute directly reflects the contribution of the students and the faculty members and we will continue to support their efforts." Highlighting the plans for coming years, Prof. Sitharam said: "The institute is making efforts to promote interdisciplinary research by initiating several academic schools and centres as part of National Education Policy - 2020 implementation." IIT Guwahati is the only academic institution in India that occupied a place among the top 100 world universities - under 50 years of age - ranked by the London-based Times Higher Education in 2014. It continues to maintain its good position even today in various international rankings, an official statement said.

With the current student strength of over 7,000, IIT Guwahati has 11 departments, seven inter-disciplinary academic centres and five schools covering all the major engineering, science and humanities disciplines, offering B.Tech, B.Des, MA, M.Des, M.Tech, M.Sc/MS and PhD programmes.
Hyderabad, July 15 : Over 100 students of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge and Technologies (RGUKT) at Basara town in Telangana's Nirmal district took ill on Friday due to suspected food poisoning.

Students complained of vomiting and loose motions after lunch at PUC-1 and PUC-2 hostels. Some of them fell unconscious.

Authorities at RGUKT, popularly known as IIIT Basara, provided first aid to affected students in the premises by calling doctors from Nirmal and Bhainsa towns.

Those who fell unconscious were shifted to hospitals in Nizamabad.

The students were served egg fried rice for lunch at the two hostels. The food was prepared at the same place.

On learning about the incident, Forest Minister A. Indrakaran Reddy, who comes from the same district, spoke to IIIT Director Satish Kumar The incident came less than a month after students staged a week-long protest, demanding better quality food, drinking water and other amenities.

The students had complained that the food being served in the hostel mess is of poor quality. They alleged that on several occasions, small insects and frogs were found in the hostel food.

They had called off their week-long protest on June 21 after Education Minister P. Sabitha Indra Reddy visited the institute and gave an assurance that their problems will be solved in a phased manner.

The students were demanding appointment of a regular Vice Chancellor and improvement in quality of food and other basic amenities.
Kolkata, July 15 : The West Bengal government is concerned over the reluctance of people in getting Covid-19 booster doses.

In a meeting on the Covid-19 situation in the state at the state secretariat, Nabanna on Friday, it was revealed that over 5.5 crore eligible people are yet to get the booster dose.

As per the statistics provided by the state Health Department till date a total of 62,29,729 persons are yet to receive the Covaxin booster dose. The number in case of Covishield booster dose is 4,85,67,641.

What has kept the state Health Department worried is that reluctance in taking the booster dose has been witnessed more in the state's most densely populated districts of Kolkata, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, and Hooghly. In fact, the fresh rise in the Covid-19 graph in the state had been prominent in these four districts only.

In Friday meetings, it has been decided that district-wise breakup of date relating to those not having booster dose as yet will be forwarded to the District Magistrates and the district health officers and accordingly, they will prepare the roadmap to complete the booster dose vaccination in their respective districts by September 30.

Health Department officials said that there is no possibility of imposing any lockdown-like restrictions in the state. "However, the officials of different state government departments including the police personnel will again start the process of creating mask and social distancing awareness among the people. The problem is that people in general have become careless thinking that Covid-19 phase is over. But that is not really the case," an official said.
New Delhi, July 15 : The India-EU Human Rights Dialogue was held here on Friday and had both sides reiterate their commitment to protecting and promoting all human rights and emphasising their universality, indivisibility, interdependence, and interrelatedness, an official statement said.

India and the EU exchanged views and concerns on civil and political rights, the rights of persons belonging to minorities and vulnerable groups, freedom of religion or belief, freedom of expression and opinion online and offline, women empowerment, children's rights, LGBTQI+ rights, the rights of migrants, the use of technology in the area of democracy and human rights, issues of security and human rights, business and human rights, co-operation in public health, and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, it said.

Both concurred on the importance of safeguarding the freedom, independence and diversity of civil society actors, including human rights defenders and journalists, and respecting freedom of association and peaceful assembly. The EU reiterated its opposition to capital punishment in all cases and without exception.

India reiterated its stand on recognition of the Right to Development as a distinct, universal, inalienable and fundamental human right that is applicable to all people in all countries.

"India and the EU expressed the need to foster greater engagement on human rights issues, based on internationally recognised human rights laws and standards," the statement said Both sides recognised the importance of strengthening national and international human rights mechanisms for the protection and promotion of human rights and the important role of national human rights institutions, civil society actors and journalists.

India and the EU also reiterated their commitment to the shared principles and values of democracy, freedom, rule of law and respect for human rights.

The Human Rights Dialogue was co-chaired by Joint Secretary, Europe (West) in the Ministry of External Affairs, Sandeep Chakravorty, and Ambassador of the European Union to India, Ugo Astuto.
Panaji, July 15 : Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Friday declared that 'Cuncolim Revolt' which took place on July 15, 1583 against the Portuguese colonial rule and emerged as the first revolt in Goa will be included in the history textbooks.

For the last twenty years, people of Cuncolim have been demanding to include this chapter in history textbooks, so the sacrifice of martyrs can reach the future generation.

Cuncolim Congress MLA Yuri Alemao had moved 'Private Member's Resolution' demanding "The Chieftains of Cuncolim" (Cuncolim Revolt) be introduced at the appropriate stage in the school and college curriculum.

Ruling and Opposition benches of the house while supporting this resolution said that it was important to include the particular history in the Textbooks so the future generations come to know about it.

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant also informed that 'Chieftain Martyrs Day' was commemorated at the National War Memorial in New Delhi, where Union Minister Shripad Naik and officials paid tributes to the Chieftain Martyrs in the national capital on Friday.

In this revolt, European Jesuit priest and other priests were killed for converting people and in retaliation Portuguese had executed chieftains of Cuncolim by inviting them on pretext of parley.

While supporting the resolution, Archives and Archeology Minister Subhash Phal Dessai said that commercial film should be produced on the story of 'Cuncolim Revolt'.

"Courage shown by our ancestors should come in the textbooks, so we get inspiration through it. Future generations should also come to know how they fought against Colonial rule. This was the first revolt against colonial rule in Asia," he said.

Phal Dessai said that the content of 'Cuncolim Revolt' should come in the correct form. "There is also a need to produce commercial film over this, so the history reaches to everyone," he said.

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said that the government has started translations of Portuguese documents related to 'Cuncolim Revolt', so it can be correctly included in History textbooks.

"This revolt was much before the 'French Revolution'. Across the world such revolution had not taken place against Colonial Rule. Hence, to remember these Chieftains and to reach this history to future generations we will include it in the textbooks. This resolution has been accepted and will be sent to the education department for further process," Sawant said.
Mumbai, July 15 : Throwing the gauntlet at the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi government which he toppled, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Friday declared that he would quit politics if a single MLA who joined him loses the next Assembly polls.

"I am confident that all these 50 MLAs will win the elections... If any of them lose, I will resign from politics," Shinde said, speaking at a rally by one of his supporting legislators, Abdul Sattar.

He reiterated that in the next state elections, his Shiv Sena and ally Bharatiya Janata Party would jointly bag 200 seats - or he would leave politics.

Referring to the recent dramatic rebellion that led to the collapse of the MVA headed by then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Shinde admitted how he was "worried" over its possible consequences.

"When all that was happening, initially there were some 30 MLAs, then 50 legislators... All of them would encourage and support me. But I was worried, at the back of my mind, I wondered what would happen to them as they had staked their entire political careers with me," he said.

While he spent sleepless nights, his supporters - 40 MLAs from Shiv Sena and 10 others - were 'bindaas' (carefree) and goaded him to go ahead with his plans with their full backing, he added.

Since the rebellion that started quietly on June 20, the MLAs travelled to Gujarat, then Assam and later to Goa before returning to Maharashtra after he took oath as CM on June 30, along with BJP's Devendra Fadnavis as Deputy CM.

Recalling how his group was labelled as dogs, pigs and zombies by various Shiv Sena leaders, Shinde refuted allegations that any of the MLAs were taken away "forcibly" and said they came together for the uprising in the cause of Hindutva and the state's development.

He said that the legislators were inspired by Balasaheb Thackeray and Anand Dighe who always considered the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party as political enemies and felt "suffocated" under the MVA tenure for two-and-half years.
New Delhi, July 15 : In continuation of its efforts at bringing "ease of doing business", the Centre on Friday brought changes to the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification that provides for exemption of environmental clearance to several projects, including defence related/border areas projects, those up to 25 MW thermal plants based on biomass, or expansion of terminal building of airports.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change published the final set of amendments to the EIA notification of 2006 that were first proposed on April 11 and had sought feedback, comments and objections from the public and experts.

Since the last two years, the Environment Ministry has proposed a volley of amendments that have been deemed as "dilution" of the EIA process and criticised heavily by environmental activists.

The current set of exemptions come with the condition that standard environmental safeguards for such projects would be followed by the agency executing such projects or the incremental environmental impacts can be catered by providing for environmental safeguards which can be built into the Environmental Management Plan (EMP) at the time of grant of such clearances.

Currently, thermal power plants up to 15 MW based on biomass or non-hazardous Municipal Solid Waste using auxiliary fuel such as coal, lignite/petroleum products up to 15 per cent are exempted from the requirement of EC. Now, no EC would be required for such thermal plants up to 25 MW.

Taking into account the issues of livelihood security of fishermen involved at fish handling ports/harbours and less pollution potential of these ports/harbours compared to others, and that such exclusive ports cater to the small fishermen whose boats have lesser pollution potential, the Ministry has now increased the exemption threshold in terms of fish handling capacity for ports/harbours which exclusively handle fish from 10,000 Tonnes Per Annum to 30,000 TPA.

The Ministry has also exempted from the requirement of EC for highway projects related to defence and strategic importance in border states within 100 kms of the border that are sensitive in nature and in many cases need to be executed on priority keeping in view strategic, defence and security considerations.

"However, these would be subject to prescribing Standard Operating Procedure along with standard environmental safeguards for such projects for self-compliance by the Agency executing such projects," it said.

The new amendment also exempts expansion of airports up to 20,000 sq metres but only when it involves expansion of terminal building areas. "Most of the expansion activities with regard to existing Airports are related to Terminal Building expansion without increase in existing area of the Airport, rather than expansion of runway, hanger etc., and therefore involves only incremental environmental impacts which can be catered by providing for environmental safeguards which can be built into the Environmental Management Plan at the time of grant of such clearances at the local level," ministry officials said.

Further, the Ministry has also exempted the additional width at toll plaza and junction improvement at intersections from being included in Right of Way for National Highways more than 100 kms.

When the draft amendments were published in April, Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav had then told IANS: "The Ministry is alive to the concerns about proper EMP implementation. We are working out the modalities to address all such issues and will soon come out with a policy regarding the same."
New Delhi, July 15 : A 52-year-old lab assistant at the Jawaharlal Nehru University was arrested for allegedly molesting an 8-year-old girl inside the campus, a Delhi Police official said on Friday.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, Southwest, Manoj C. said information regarding the molestation of a minor girl in Paschimabad, JNU was received at Vasant Kunj North police station on July 11.

"The caller stated that his daughter went to tuition at Paschimabad, JNU, where the accused, who is father of the tuition teacher, inappropriately touched and kissed the cheek of the complainant's daughter," the DCP said.

When the child returned home, she complained to her father regarding the incident and he then intimated the police about it.

The DCP said that the accused was arrested on the same day and legal action, under sections 354 (Assault of criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 354 B (Assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe) of the IPC and relevant sections of the POCSO Act, has been taken against him.

A Delhi Commission for Women counsellor was also informed about the incident, he added.
Karachi, July 15 : Unknown men set a car on fire on Friday in Karachis Sohrab Goth area amid protests over the killing of a youth earlier this week at a hotel in Hyderabad, media reports said.

According to DSP Sohrab Goth Sohail Faiz, armed groups set fire to a vehicle near Al Asif Square after which the police arrested 15 people, The News reported.

Speaking of riots a day earlier, the officer said that 150 people have been arrested.

It may be recalled that hotels were closed in different parts of Hyderabad on Tuesday after the murder of Bilal Kaka following a quarrel at a hotel.

The situation worsened on Thursday as ethnic tension flared up in different parts of Sindh, forcing political leaders to urge their followers to show restraint and stay calm, The News reported.

Urging the citizens to not adhere to rumours, Sindh IG Ghulam Nabi Memon said today that law and order are under control in the province and it is their priority to ensure peace.

Over 100 people are under custody in relation to the Sohrab Goth incident and cases have been registered against the suspects, Memon said.

The top cop added that the situation is normal in Sindh.

Memon said that nine people have been nominated in the Hyderabad incident and two of them have been arrested. Raids are being conducted to nab the other accused as well, the police official added.

Later, speaking at a press conference, Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said that 28 people were taken into custody for forcing hotels shut across the province.
New Delhi, July 15 : Speculation has started doing rounds about the possibility of Jharkhand going the Maharashtra way after recent bonhomie between the BJP and the JMM.

BJP leaders from Jharkhand are camped in the national capital amid recent political developments including Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren meeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah to his Jharkhand Mukti Morcha extending support to NDA presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu in the July 18 Presidential polls.

Earlier this week, Soren shared the stage with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the inauguration of the Deoghar airport in the state.

During the inauguration function of Deoghar airport, Modi did not say anything against the JMM-led Jharkhand government and the Chief Minister Soren too had only words of praise for the Prime Minister.

Chief Minister Soren had said that if they get support from the Centre, Jharkhand will be a developed state within the next five years.

The recent bonhomie between the two parties has fueled speculation that the JMM is getting close to BJP.

"Amid tensions in the ruling alliance, the political circle started buzzing with rumours after last month's meeting of the Chief Minister and Shah in the national capital. The speculation gets stronger with recent developments, but in politics everything is possible and nothing can be ruled out. We can not rule out the possibility of a JMM-BJP government in the state in future," a senior BJP functionary said.

Rajya Sabha member and Jharkhand BJP President Deepak Prakash, however, told IANS that this all are speculations. "Some senior leaders are in the national capital to attend a workshop organised by the party for Presidential polls. I am here to attend the upcoming session of Parliament. These all are speculations," he said.

The rift in ruling alliance came out in open during recent biennial polls of Rajya Sabha, when the JMM has fielded its own candidate, rejecting the Congress' demand for for a seat in the Upper House. Sources said even before this disagreement, the Congress was not comfortable with Soren's government.

In the 81-member Jharkhand assembly, the JMM has 30 MLAs, Congress 16, and the BJP has 25.
New Delhi, July 15 : In a shocking incident in Delhi, a 40-year-old man shot his wife and two minor daughters after intoxicating them and later killed himself, the police said on Friday.

According to the police, the bodies of four people were found in a room on the fourth floor of a building in the Jafrabad area in Northeast Delhi.

Surprisingly, two minor sons of the deceased man identified as Israr Ahmad, aged four and 13 years, were outside the house but Israr did not do anything to them.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northeast) Sanjay Kumar Sain said the preliminary investigation has revealed that the deceased man was in the business of making jeans cloth and was facing massive losses for the past some time.

Sources told IANS that a few months back, Israr had attempted to commit suicide.

The police have sent all the four bodies for post-mortem launched a probe into the matter.
New Delhi, July 15: Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama was accorded a grand welcome upon his arrival in Ladakh Friday afternoon on what is his first trip outside his residence in Himachal Pradesh's Dharmashala since the emergence of the global Covid-19 pandemic and one which could also cause some unease in neighbouring China.

Leh was in a festive mood as people gathered at the Kushok Bakula Rimpochee Airport to welcome the 14th Dalai Lama who is visiting the region after a gap of four years.

Hundreds of Tibetans lined up on both sides of the road as the Dalai Lama's motorcade passed through.

The Dalai Lama has only granted virtual and in-person audiences in Dharmashala until now since the outbreak of Covid-19. The Tibetan exile administration said that in April, he granted an audience to Thiksay Rinpoche of Thiksay Monastery and former MP Thupten Tsewang, Current President of Ladakh Buddhist Association upon whose request he agreed to visit Ladakh.

As he left his residence in Dharmashala at the crack of dawn on Thursday, hundreds of Tibetans and devotees had lined up in queues to catch a glimpse of the Dalai Lama.

On Thursday, Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council Chairman Tashi Gyalson also reviewed the preparation at Lingshed, Skumpata Gongma, Neraks and Photoskar for Yarchos Chenmo - the Summer Buddhist Council - which will be held in August this year under the leadership of the Tibetan spiritual leader.

Ladakh's Member of Parliament Jamyang Tsering Namgyal also conducted an inspection of the teaching ground and Photang Geyphel-ling at Jive-Tsal, Choglamsar to review the final preparations before the Dalai Lama's arrival.

Interestingly, the Dalai Lama's visit to the Union Territory is taking place just before the 16th round of Corps Commander-level meeting between India and China which is likely to be held on Sunday to discuss disengagement from friction points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh.

Last week, as China criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for wishing the Dalai Lama on his 87th birthday, New Delhi had made it clear that it has been a consistent policy of the government to treat the spiritual leader as a guest in India.

The ministry of external affairs (MEA) on Thursday slammed criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi wishing Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama on his 87th birthday a day ago. said it has been a consistent policy of the government to treat the Dalai Lama as a guest in India.

"The PM did speak with Dalai Lama last year also, it has been a consistent policy of our government to treat him as a guest in India and as a respected religious leader who enjoys a large following in India," said Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs.

It is not the first time though that the revered religious leader is visiting Ladakh.

In the past too, Beijing has objected to the Dalai Lama's visit to border areas, especially in Arunachal Pradesh, saying that it causes "serious damage" to the bilateral ties.

India, meanwhile, has clearly stated on several occasions that the Dalai Lama is also deeply respected by the Indian people and no additional colour should be ascribed to his religious and spiritual activities and visits to various states of India.

En route to Ladakh, the Dalai Lama said in Jammu on Thursday that more and more people in China are beginning to realise that he is not seeking independence but meaningful autonomy and preservation of the Tibetan Buddhist culture.

"Some Chinese hardliners consider me a separatist and a reactionary and always criticise me. But now, most of them are realising that the Dalai Lama is not seeking independence and only wishing China meaningful autonomy and preservation of Tibetan Buddhist culture," he said.

He advocated resolution to all disputes through dialogue, saying that all human beings are equal and they need to rise above the narrow-minded approach of "my nation, my ideology" which is the main trigger for fights among people.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative
New Delhi/Pune, July 15 : A brain dead lady's family members donated her organs which saved the lives of two soldiers who were awaiting kidney transplant.

According to the Defence Ministry, a young woman was brought to the Command Hospital (Southern Command) in Pune in the last stages of her life after an unfortunate event. On admission, the vital brain signs of life were not found in her.

Her family members, after discussions with the transplant coordinator at the hospital, said that her organs should be donated to patients who are in dire need of them.

After obtaining the necessary clearances, the transplant team at the hospital was activated and alerts were also sent to the Zonal Transplant Coordination Centre (ZTCC) and the Army Organ Retrieval and Transplant Authority (AORTA).

"Through the night of Thursday and early morning hours of Friday, viable organs such as kidneys were transplanted into two serving soldiers of the Indian Army, the eyes were preserved at eye bank and the liver was given to a patient at Ruby Hall clinic in Pune," a statement said.

"It bolsters the belief that 'don't take your organs to heaven, God knows we need them here'. It also spreads awareness about the invaluable role of organ donation to the needy patients under such circumstances," it added.
Kochi, July 15 : Kerala gold smuggling case prime accused Swapna Suresh, who has taken on Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to expose his and his family's "wrongdoings" , on Friday accused him of hounding all those who are supporting her.

"A poor driver of mine is the latest victim of Vijayan's anger towards me as he has been made an accused in a fresh case. The only crime he did was he was my driver. They were trying to coerce him to testify against me and when he refused, he has been made an accused in a case," she alleged.

Swapna Suresh, in February was given a job by NGO HRDS India, which works among the tribals. However, after she testified before a magistrate in June that Vijayan, his wife and daughter were engaged in smuggling gold and currency, she lost her job, allegedly due to the government's pressure.

Later one of the trustees was picked up by the police in a one year old case and after cooling his heels in the jail for two days, he got bail on Thursday.

Swapna Suresh alleged that ever since she made the revelation last month, a conspiracy case against her has been registered and the police is giving sleepless nights to a few of those who have been helping her.

Police also registered a case against her counsel based on his Facebook post.

Swapna Suresh has vowed that she will not budge and she will continue to "expose" Vijayan and his family, claiming she has all the evidence to prove her statements.
Bengaluru, July 15 : Members of the general public are barred from clicking photographs or shooting videos in Karnataka government offices, a government order issued on Friday stated.

The move comes in response to a plea by the Karnataka State Government Employees Association. The employees allege that people are shooting videos inside government offices with an ulterior motive of harassing and maligning them.

The government order on Friday refers to the employees association petition which claims that certain persons enter government offices during working hours to capture photographs and visuals which are later shared on social media.

"The videos are hurting the dignity of different departments and the government apart from affecting women workers in these offices," the petition contended.

The department of personnel and administrative reforms, in its order dated July 15 noted that "After carefully studying the petition, the government is of the view that prohibiting photography/ videography in all government offices during work hours is essential." However, the order is facing flak from anti-graft activists who claim that the move encourages corruption in government offices.
Amaravati, July 15 : Over 62,000 people in six flood-affected districts of Andhra Pradesh have been evacuated to relief camps while the Godavari river continues to flow above danger mark at Dowleswaram barrage, officials said on Friday.

The third flood level warning remained in force at Dowleswaram and with the water level likely to rise further, the state government has asked officials in affected districts to remain alert for next two days.

According to the Andhra Pradesh State Disaster ManagementA Authority (APSDMA), inflow and outflow at the barrage was 21.32 lakh cusecs on Friday night. This is likely to increase to 25 lakh cusecs on Saturday afternoon.

If the water flow increases, this is likely to impact 628 villages in 44 mandals of six districts.

The APSDMA is continuously monitoring the situation and has alerted all departments concerned.

The floods have already affected 279 villages. A total of 62,337 people have been shifted to 220 relief camps.

Ten teams each of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) were engaged in rescue and relief operations.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy held a video conference on the Godavari floods relief measures with the officials concerned after conducting an aerial survey of the flood-hit districts on Friday.

He directed the authorities to appoint a senior official for each flood-affected district to monitor the situation along with relief measures and cautioned them to stay on high alert for the next 24 hours as the water inflows are likely to increase. He instructed all the secretaries to consider requests of the district authorities and provide them on a war-footing.

The Chief Minister asked the officials to focus on evacuating people from inundated villages, and those adjacent to the banks of Godavari and shift them to relief camps. He told the officials to be prepared with materials like sandbags to put near ridges and flood walls. He directed officials to provide assistance to the families of the flood victims at the rate of Rs 2,000 each along with essential items of 25 kg rice, one kg dal, potatoes, onions, palm oil and milk in the next 48 hours.

He also asked them to use helicopters in emergency services and to take adequate measures for addressing sanitation and drinking water issues. The Chief Minister asked them to take all necessary precautionary measures to prevent damage and ensure that all types of medications, including injections for snakebites, are available at PHCs, Area Hospitals, and District Hospitals, along with generators to meet emergency services without any interruption.

He ordered that due priority be accorded to avoid disruptions in the communication system by supplying diesel to cell phone towers for uninterrupted service. He stressed that quality services have to be provided at the relief camps for the flood victims.
Patna, July 15 : A joint team of Bihar Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday conducted a raid in the city's Sabji Bagh locality and recovered many incriminating documents from the offices of the Popular Front of India (PFI) and Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), officials said.

The raid was conducted just a day after several persons were arrested on Thursday for allegedly indulging in anti-national activities following raids here in the Phulwari Sharif area which also led to seizure of several documents including the PFI's 'Mission 2047' for making India an Islamic state.

During the raids on Friday, the joint team seized posters, banners and a large number of "joining forms" -- which the officials suspect -- hint towards the possibility that a large number of youth were in contact with the PFI and the SDPI.

The joint team of Bihar ATS and NIA have also obtained some crucial leads about the alleged members of these two organisations.

The sleuths are hopeful of making more arrests in the coming days.

A total of seven persons have been arrested so far of which one is a retired sub-inspector from Jharkhand.

One of the arrested individuals, Arman Malik, is facing the murder charge and was also convicted to 20 years jail. He was on bail and was actively participating in the meetings of PFI and SDPI.

The other accused are identified as Tahir Ahmed, Shabbir Malik, Shamim Akhtar and Ilias Tahir a.k.a. Magrub. The accused have been lodged in a special cell of Patna Beur jail amid tight security.

During the questioning, it was revealed that Tahir a.k.a. Magrub has formed WhatsApp and messenger groups, and were adding youth from Pakistan and Bangladesh. Magrub is a native of Phulwari Sharif.

The Patna Police have registered FIR against 26 people and 10 of them are said to be residents of Patna.

Police sources said that they are influential persons operating in the group by changing their identities and names. Some of them are "big businessmen".

Shamim Akhtar, one of the alleged accused was arrested from Sohsarai locality in Nalanda district. He was involved in CAA and NRC protests.

The alleged accused including Athar Parvez, Mohammad Jalaluddin, Arman Malik, Ilias Tahir, Shamim Akhtar, and others conducted a "secret" meeting on July 7.

The joint team on Friday seized 25 pamphlets in Hindi, and 3,050 in Urdu and 49 cotton flags having colours of sky blue, red and green with stars. As the PFI is not banned in Bihar, its members were expanding the organisation in many districts of the state such as Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Katihar, Madhubani, Purnea, Araria, Kishanganj, and other districts.

The joint team has reportedly obtained vital proof after scanning the cell phone of Athar Parvez. The CDR of his mobile phone is being scanned to collect more information that could act as a "proof".

Patna SSP Manavjeet Singh Dhillon said: "The investigation is currently underway and more arrests look possible..." He further said the accused were providing physical training to the youth and trying to radicalize them for anti national activities. He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not their direct target.

Sources said many BJP and RSS members are in the target list of the alleged PFI and SDPI operatives.
New York, July 15 : Former US President Donald Trump celebrated his acquittal by the Senate by calling the entire 'theatre of politics' part of a "witch hunt" by one political party.

The Senate voted 57-43 to impeach Trump on the January 6, 2021 Capitol Hills insurrection, but failed to get the 2/3rd majority required to convict Trump as the procedure required 17 more Republicans' vote, but only seven GOP members voted.

In a statement released shortly after the vote, the former President described the now-concluded proceedings as part of a "witch-hunt" perpetuated against him by "one political party".

But his statement ignored the fact that the vote against him was bipartisan, with 10 Republicans joining the Democrats in the House to impeach and seven Republicans joining with Democrats in the Senate.

The 57-43 vote in the Senate, however, fell short of the two-third majority needed to convict Trump.

Trump thanked his legal team as well as the representatives and Senators who he said "stood proudly for the Constitution we all revere and for the sacred legal principles at the heart of our country".

Absent from the statement was any direct mention of the events of January 6 at the US Capitol building or any condemnation of the violence that occurred that day, media reports from Washington said.

Trump did thank his supporters, saying: "We have so much work ahead of us, and soon we will emerge with a vision for a bright, radiant and limitless American future." "Our historic, patriotic and beautiful movement to Make America Great Again has only just begun," the statement read.

"In the months ahead, I have much to share with you, and I look forward to continuing our incredible journey together to achieve American greatness for all of our people," Trump said.
Patna, July 15 : Opposition's Presidential poll candidate Yashwant Sinha on Friday said that he had repeatedly tried to contact Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar during his campaign but the latter refused to talk to him.

Sinha was in Patna during his presidential election campaign and all the opposition parties including the RJD, Congress, the CPI, the CPI-M, and the CPI-ML unanimously expressed their support.

"When the leaders of opposition parties unanimously announced my name as a joint candidate for the presidential post, I called every leader to get their support and help. Accordingly, I repeatedly contacted Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and also sent text messages to him and said that I want to talk to him but he refused. I believe his political status is bigger than people like me. Hence, he did not talk to me," Sinha said.

"When the NDA announced the name of Draupadi Murmu as a candidate for the presidential poll, Odhisha CM Naveen Patnaik announced his party's support to her as she is a native of his state. Earlier, when Pratibha Patil became a candidate for the presidential election, the Shiv Sena had given support to her as she belongs to Maharashtra. Similarly, I belong to Bihar and hence, I was thinking that Nitish Kumar may support me in the presidential poll," Sinha said.

"I personally believe that he should think about Bihar. If a candidate comes from Bihar, why Nitish Kumar is not coming in his favour is hard to understand. If Nitish Kumar is not thinking about Bihar and thinking of the universe, then I don't know but if he is thinking about Bihar, he should help a candidate who belongs to Bihar," Sinha said.

Trinamool Congress MP Shatrughan Sinha, who was also present, said: "Yashwant Sinha is the most appropriate leader for the presidential poll. He will certainly win the contest. The opposition parties are united in the presidential poll."
Namsai : , July 15 (IANS) The governments of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam on Friday signed an agreement here to resolve the existing border-related disputes between the two neighbouring states.

The pact -- 'Namsai Declaration', was signed at the Chief Ministerial level meeting that was attended by Arunachal Chief Minister Pema Khandu and his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Under the pact, the state governments have agreed to reduce the number of disputed villages.

"We have decided to restrict the disputed villages to 86 instead of earlier 123. This is historic," Assam CM Sarma said.

He further said both the state governments have aimed to solve the complete border disputes within a very short time.

"Namsai Declaration is hugely significant and a landmark progress towards enduring brotherhood, peace and prosperity in the North East," Khandu wrote on Twitter.

The 28 villages that are within the constitutional boundary of Arunachal Pradesh will remain with the state. Three villages from where the Arunachal Pradesh government has withdrawn their claim will remain with Assam.

Further, another six villages could not be located on the Assam side. If the villages exist on the Arunachal side, these will continue with this hilly state.

Around 12 regional committees which were formed earlier, have been assessing the ground situation by holding extensive talks with the villagers.

The committees may submit the first tranche of reports within September 15.

As the committees conclude their deliberations and an agreement arrives between two state governments, the draft MoU will be referred to the Central government for its approval.

Some of the cabinet ministers from both states were also present at the meeting on Friday.

Notably, the border dispute between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh had reached Supreme Court long ago, and in a crucial meeting held in April this year in Guwahati, the two Chief Ministers agreed on an out-of-the-court settlement for the pending boundary issues between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
Guwahati, July 15 : The lemons from Assam will soon hit the UK market, as the first consignment left Guwahati for London on Friday.

As a part of the export agreement between Assam and the UK, the state's much famous lemons of the Baksa district were sent. The district administration processed all the necessary initiatives for this export.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told reporters the first consignment of lemons was despatched on Friday.

He said: "About 600 kg of lemons were sent in the first consignment. Nearly 80 tonnes would be supplied over the next two months." The consignments first reached Guwahati from Baksa district on Friday. It was despatched to Delhi from where lemons would be sent to London.
Bastad : , July 15 (IANS) Dominic Thiem's return from a long injury layoff ended prematurely in the quarterfinals on Friday as he went down to Sebastian Baez of Argentina in the Nordea Open in Bastad.

Baez quelled a second-set comeback by Thiem as he went on to win 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-4 in a hard-fought contest.

The Argentine soaked up Thiem's heavy ball striking and recovered from squandering a match point on the Austrian's serve at 5-4 in the second set to eventually advance after two hours and 51 minutes.

"It was such a tough match. So close," Baez said in his on-court interview after the match.

"Dominic played well today and I hope to see more of him because he is a great player, so I hope he can return to the level we know. I am happy I won today and to stay in the tournament," Baez was quoted as saying in a report by the ATP Tour.

"I think we both played well today, I enjoyed the fight. The tournament and the grounds are good, so I am happy to stay here. The people are so nice, I feel comfortable. I now need to recover as best as I can." The former World No. 3 Thiem earned his first tour-level win in 14 months when he defeated Emil Ruusuvuori in the first round before eliminating fourth seed Roberto Bautista Agut.

However, the Austrian, who missed the second half of last season due to injury, was unable to cope with Baez's intensity in the third set, with the 21-year-old triumphing in his first ATP meeting against the 2020 U.S. Open champion Thiem.

Baez is making his debut in Bastad and will face Andrey Rublev or Serbian Laslo Djere in the last four. The Argentine clinched his maiden tour-level title on clay in Estoril in April and is now up to No. 31 in the ATP Live Rankings.
New York, July 15 : The next hearing of January 6 insurrection on Capitol Hills is expected to be a blockbuster even as former US President Donald Trump walks free from impeachment by the Senate as it fails to muster 2/3rds majority needed to convict him of a dramatic "coup" inciting a mob to attack the Congress building.

The Senate failed even as 10 republicans voted against him in the house and 7 in the senate, but fell short of 17 Republican votes to convict him in just one chamber.

The House select committee's January 6 hearings have so far exceeded all of our expectations. They have told the American people a gripping story of Trump's attempted coup -- one packed with new details that seem to have swayed public opinion.

The committee's task for its next hearing is to continue confronting its toughest obstacle: amassing conclusive evidence of Trump's intent to overturn the 2020 election on January 6, according to an analyst.

"As veterans of congressional investigations with over a half-century of experience between us, our expectations were high before these hearings began. After all, the January 6 committee was addressing the country's first attempted coup led by a president, the first attack on the Capitol since the War of 1812 and the greatest domestic attack on our democracy and country since the Civil War. There could be no more important topic," he said.

"We also had high expectations given the exceptional track record of the committee members, including Reps. Adam Schiff and Jamie Raskin, who led the first and second impeachments against Trump; Rep. Zoe Lofgren, whose experience stretches back to Watergate; the incomparable Rep. Liz Cheney; and the decades-long congressional experience of Chairman Bennie Thompson," he added.

The hearings opened with the baseline of a federal judge's findings that Trump was likely involved in at least two potential crimes: conspiracy to defraud the US and obstruction of Congress.

The hearings have materially advanced the proof of these offenses beyond a reasonable doubt. In the first five hearings, the committee methodically established that Trump knew he lost the election, with the likes of former Attorney General Bill Barr testifying that he told the former president that his claims of election theft were "bulls**t".

The committee showed that Trump sought to procure non-existent votes, with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger testifying about Trump's pressure to get him to "find 11,780 votes".

The hearings substantiated Trump's direct involvement in procuring an alternate slate of fraudulent electors through the testimony of live witnesses like Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers and videotaped ones from Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel.

And they documented Trump's efforts to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify the electoral votes through testimony from Republican stalwarts like Pence's counsel Greg Jacob and his former Chief of Staff Marc Short. All of that was done through witnesses who were Republicans and former Trump allies, they said.

Throughout the first five hearings, the committee drew a striking road map of the elements of Trump's potential crimes. To us, it brought to mind the famous Watergate "road map" that laid out the Nixon administration's transgressions. Then came the John Dean of these hearings, 26-year-old former White House aide, Cassidy Hutchinson.

Her blockbuster testimony in the sixth hearing and the evidence that followed in the seventh introduced a new element to the allegations of conspiracy and obstruction: violent intent.

Hutchinson provided context for Trump's state of mind on January 6, testifying that he wanted to allow armed attendees at his rally at the Ellipse to bypass security and requested that rhetoric calling for supporters to march to the Capitol and effectively fight for Trump be included in his draft speech.

The seventh hearing deepened this story of Trump's violent intent, explaining its origins in a December 18 Oval Office meeting with his most extreme supporters followed by the now-notorious December 19 "will be wild" tweet, which acted as a "siren" setting us on the path to the conflagration that was January 6.
Dhaka, July 15 : An absconding convict, sentenced to life imprisonment for his involvement in the barbaric daylight murder of tailor Biswajit Das during an opposition protest in Dhaka on December 9, 2012, was arrested from Bogra on Friday, police said.

Das was hacked to death near the Bahadur Shah Park in Old Dhaka during a strike called by the BNP-led 18-party alliance. The murder had put the ruling Awami League in a tight spot as most of the accused belonged to the its student affiliate, Bangladesh Chhatra League's Jagannath University chapter.

A speedy trial tribunal sentenced eight people to death and 13 to life in prison in 2013 over the killing. Those got the life term included Alauddin, who was absconding and sentenced in absentia.

The Supreme Court's High Court division in August 2017 upheld the death sentence of Rafikul Islam Shakil and Rajan Talukdar, commuted the death sentence of four to life imprisonment and acquitted four others.

The HC on November 5, 2017 released full text of a verdict that upheld death for two and life in prison for the other accused.

Police told IANS that they got a tip off about the visit of Alauddin, a native of Panchagarh's Atwari, to the Mokamtala Bandar area to visit his in-laws and he was nabbed.

Dipak Kumar Das, chief of Shibganj Police Station, said Alauddin, who had married, was constantly changing his location to evade police. They got jobs in Chattogram and began to stay there.

Shibaganj police were preparing to hand him to Atwari Police Station as an arrest warrant was issued against him at that station.
New Delhi, July 15 : The 16th round of Corps Commander-level talks between India and China will be held on Sunday at Chushul-Moldo on the Indian side in Ladakh, sources said.

The meeting will be held in continuation with the discussion of the disengagement from friction points along the Line of Control (LAC) in the region.

"In continuation with the talks on disengagement along the LAC in eastern Ladakh, the 16th round of talks will be held on the Indian side at Chushul-Moldo Meeting Point on July 17," the source added.

In addition to the focus on disengagement at Patrolling Point 15 in the Gogra-Hot Springs area, the effort would also be to discuss disengagement from Demchok and Depsang, which have been sticking points in the last few rounds of talks, the source added.

The 15th round of the China-India Corps Commander Level Meeting was also held at the Chushul-Moldo border meeting point on the Indian side earlier this year on March 11.

Since the last round of talks, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has visited India in March while he and Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar met last week on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers' meeting in Bali, where they discussed the situation with regard to the LAC.
Bhopal, July 15 : The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Friday issued an orange alert warning of heavy to very heavy rainfall in Narmadapuram division of Madhya Pradesh.

This area has already received heavy rain, where railway tracks were inundated, affecting the movement of trains.

The department has warned that heavy to very heavy rainfall, ranging between 64.5 to 204 mm, is likely to lash isolated places of the Narmadapuram division, which comprises Narmadapuram, Harda and Betul districts.

It has also issued two yellow alerts forecasting likely heavy rains at isolated places in 21 districts, including Bhopal and Jabalpur, and thunderstorms with lightning in eight divisions, including Bhopal and Indore.

Due to heavy rain for the last three days, rail traffic to Nagpur in neighbouring Maharashtra was affected after water covered the tracks in the Kiratgarh-Betul section of Nagpur division of the Central Railways.

Some trains heading towards Nagpur were either stopped at Itarsi and Hoshangabad stations in Narmadapuram district or diverted, officials said.

Senior meteorologist at IMD's Bhopal office, Ved Prakash Singh said that the rainfall activities are likely to abate in western Madhya Pradesh, as the low-pressure area over coastal Odisha has weakened slightly.

However, the rainfall in eastern parts of the state is expected to increase due to a well-marked low area over northeast Arabian Sea, he added.
Itanagar, July 15 : The Naharlagun district administration in Arunachal Pradesh has asked all the hotels and restaurants in the state to remove the word 'beef' from their signboards or else fine of Rs 2,000 would be imposed and their trade licence would be cancelled.

Arunachal Pradesh Youth Congress on Friday protested the decision of the district administration and requested it to revoke the order.

Naharlagun's Executive Magistrate Tamo Dada said in a notification that the district administration of Itanagar Capital Region believes in the secular spirit of Indian Constitution but such open display of the word 'beef' on the signboards of hotels and restaurants may hurt the sentiments of some sections of the community and may create animosity between the different groups.

"Therefore, so as to maintain peace in the community and to continue the spirit of secularism and brotherhood within the community, I hereby direct all such hotels and restaurants, who have written the word beef on their signboards, to remove such word by July 18," the notification said.

"Failing which, a fine of Rs 2,000 and cancellation of such trading licence will be initiated," it added.

Reacting to the district administration's order, the Youth Congress requested it to revoke the same.

State Youth Congress President Tarh Johny in a letter to the Executive Magistrate said that citizens of Arunachal Pradesh have been consuming beef since time immemorial but the issue has never hurt the sentiments of anyone from any community.

"In fact, your sudden and surprising order has created restlessness in the minds of different groups of people in the state, especially in the capital region. The word secularism has nothing to do with the word beef written in signboards. Rather, the order you have passed has created chaos in the minds of different people," the Youth Congress leader said.

The youth Congress urged the magistrate to withdraw the order "to avoid any kind of communal or religious conflicts in the coming days".
Bhubaneswar, July 16 : The Odisha Police's Economic Offence Wing (EOW) has arrested an accused involved in cheating people through a fake loan mobile app, police said on Friday.

Nitin Mallik, director of Good Start Business Services Pvt Ltd, was arrested from New Delhi on July 13, produced before a local court, and brought to Bhubaneswar on transit remand, EOW officials said.

The arrest was made on the basis of the report submitted by EOW Inspector Pranati Senapati, who was enquiring into an allegation of Sakti Prasad Dash of Bhubaneswar regarding the harassment and mental torture by recovery agents of the digital loan app Kredit Gold by sending him abusive messages and morphed photographs etc.

According to police officials, Dash, after downloading the loan app, received the instant loan amount of Rs 9,000. However, after four days, he received whatsapp messages/calls to pay back Rs 15,627.

Thereafter, he received calls and messages from different mobile numbers which were traced to be the number of a company namely Good Start Business Pvt. Ltd. of which Mallik is one of the directors, they said.

The officials said that Good Start Business Pvt Ltd is not registered as Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) with the RBI and illegally operating as a digital lender.

The EOW suspected that Chinese nationals were also involved in the scam. Mallik was in direct and regular touch with at least three Chinese nationals and used to get a huge salary for this job, they said.

The accused was also found to be one of the directors of another company namely Right Start Business Pvt. Ltd. The international gang is running at least 10 such illegal loan apps and there are more than one lakh downloads of the Kredit Gold app alone.

The Odisha Police has seized many incriminating materials like copy of passports of Chinese nationals, agreement copy for virtual space, contract agreements between Chinese and the telecom service providers, Whatsapp chats and emails and several abusive text messages meant for the loanee from the arrested accused.

Mallik, who was allegedly responsible for lending/recovery of loans, is also wanted by different police forces, including Mumbai police, they added.
Bhopal, July 16 : BJP MLA Narayan Tripathi, who had accused his own party of using government machinery for its own benefit during the recent panchayat and urban body elections, was reportedly summoned to Bhopal on Friday.

Accordingly, Tripathi met Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Home Minister Narottam Mishra in the state capital. Sources in the BJP said that Tripathi's statement has upset the senior BJP leaders upset and therefore he was summoned to Bhopal.

However, talking to IANS, Tripathi denied that he was summoned by the top party leadership, adding that his meeting with Chouhan and Mishra on Friday was a routine meeting since he was in Bhopal.

"Let me be clear... I had questioned the government employees and not the BJP. Today I was in Bhopal and being a party MLA, I met the Chief Minister and the Home Minister and there should be no speculation that I was summoned to be here." Tripathi, a four-time MLA from Maihar in Satna district, had said on Thursday that the government employees, right from the patwari to the topmost level, were seen campaigning for the party during the recent local body elections.

"I am not against the BJP, but what is happening actually pains me," Tripathi had said.

Tripathi's remarks also triggered speculation that he might cross-vote for opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha in the July 18 Presidential election.

However, Tripathi made it clear that he will vote for NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu on Monday.

"It is for the first time that a tribal leader is going to become the President of the country. Let me make it clear, I will vote for the party candidate only," Tripathi tweeted along with a picture of him meeting Chouhan and Mishra in Bhopal on Friday.
Patna, July 16 : A total of 80 students in Bihar's Bhojpur district who had appeared for B.Ed examination have been expelled for carrying mobile phone into the exam centre, an official said on Friday.

The students were allegedly carrying cell phones and guess papers.

The 5th paper of B.Ed final year examination was held in HD Jain College, Arrah on Friday. The students had entered the examination centre with mobile phone, "cheat papers", and guess papers.

"We have received an input about cheating on a large scale taking place at HD Jain College. Accordingly, we constituted a team of male and female duty magistrates to conduct raids at the college. When we reached there, we were shocked to see that the examinees were involved in cheating on a large scale. They were carrying mobile phones, cheats, and guess papers. We have seized 100 mobile phones from 80 examinees. They were expelled from the examination. We have also recommended the university to take action against them," said Raj Kumar, District Magistrate of Bhojpur.

The B.Ed final year examination started in HD Jain College on July 8. On Friday, the students belonging to Aryabhatta Knowledge University, Patna, were appearing for the examination of fifth paper.

"During investigation, it appeared that the district administration has not provided adequate police force for the thorough checking of students. Hence, they entered the examination centre with mobile phones and guess papers which are completely banned inside," the district magistrate said.
Chennai, July 16 : The Agriculture Department of Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu has hit upon the idea of online training on new agricultural tips and the latest farm techniques for the farmers of the district.

The farmers are now being educated on innovations in agricultural technologies through digital agriculture mode. Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA), the agency under the state agriculture department is acting as the nodal agency for conducting training for farmers in the online mode.

The online training sessions to farmers of the district are uploaded on YouTube and Spotify keeping the farmers always updated with new videos on agricultural practices and innovations that are introduced in the farm sector.

Officials in Dharmapuri district agriculture department told IANS that the department is aiming for sustainable agricultural development by focusing on educating the farmers on the latest technologies as also techniques and tips for cultivation.

ATMA has roped in researchers and resource persons in the district and training is conducted for farmers for all the eight blocks of the district. New technologies that are emerging in the farming industry are being discussed through YouTube videos and live demonstration is provided by these researchers and resource persons whom ATMA has roped in.

The main idea of the programme being taken into an online platform is to ensure that the programme is reached to a wider audience. The resource persons that the ATMA is roping in for imparting knowledge to the farmers are veteran farmers, agriculture scientists and experts with domain knowledge.

An official with ATMA told IANS that the farmers will be able to watch the videos repeatedly that are uploaded on YouTube and Spotify if they don't understand the content while watching it for the first time.

According to resource persons in ATMA, the farmers are happier when the videos are uploaded in the online mode as repeated watching helps them to have a better understanding of the latest techniques in farming.

Another factor that the proponents of online agriculture classes moot is that through online mode, experts from even outside the country could be roped in as also well-known academics in the industry.

The farmers also said that they were happy with the online training programmes as attending the classes offline was sometimes difficult. The tips given by the online training programmes to eradicate pests have also been of major use to farmers.

Karuppuswamy R., a farmer from Dharmapuri district 6th block, while speaking with IANS, said: "Agriculture department used to conduct physical classes earlier but due to time constraints we were not able to attend them. Now the online classes are highly helpful and we are getting important tips to eradicate the pests that are creating problems in our area." He said that tips given for pest management were of huge help and that one can always watch the uploaded videos on YouTube to effectively implement the tips in the farmlands.
Dhaka, July 16 : The imprisonment day of Awami League President and Bangladesh Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina will be observed in the country on Saturday in a befitting manner.

She was arrested from her residence Sudha Sadan at Dhanmondi in the state capital Dhaka on July 16, 2007, by the military-backed caretaker government led By General Moin U. Ahmed, which assumed power in the political changeover of 1/11 in 2007.

Sheikh Hasina was released from the special sub-jail set up on the premises of the Jatiya Sangsad (parliament) building on June 11 in 2008 after remaining captive there for nearly 11 months.

As she fell sick during her captivity, demands were raised then from different quarters, including the Awami League, and its associate bodies to send her abroad for better medical treatment after releasing her from the jail.

Conceding to the people's spontaneous and repeated demands and pressure from different quarters, the caretaker government was compelled to release Sheikh Hasina from the jail.

Through the release of the Awami League President, the democratic rights of the people were restored and democracy and development flourished simultaneously.

At that time, demanding Sheikh Hasina's release, Dhaka unit of Awami League submitted signatures of 25 lakh people to the then caretaker government.

Paying heed to this demand, the then caretaker military backed government was compelled to release Sheikh Hasina from jail.

Awami League and its associate bodies observe the day as the "Imprisonment Day of Sheikh Hasina". They have taken various programmes, including discussions marking the day.

In the national election of December 29 in 2008, the Awami League-led grand alliance registered a landslide victory with a two-thirds majority in the Jatiya Sangsad and Sheikh Hasina became the Prime Minister for the second term.

After that, Awami League became triumphant in the general elections of 2014 and 2018 and formed the government.

The programmes organised by the Awami League and its associate bodies include offering special prayers in all mosques, temples, churches, pagodas and other religious places of worship seeking Sheikh Hasina's long life and good health.
Tehran, July 16 : Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has rejected a recent US claim that Iran is providing Russia with drones for use in Ukraine as "baseless" and politically motivated.

Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks on Friday in a phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, according to a press release on the Foreign Ministry's website, after US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Monday that "information" indicates Iran is preparing to provide Russia with "up to several hundred" drones, including weapons-capable ones, Xinhua news agency reported.

Such allegations, which came just ahead of the ongoing US President Joe Biden's Middle East tour, are aimed at "achieving specific political goals and purposes," the top Iranian diplomat said.

"Just as we said at the beginning of the (Ukrainian) crisis, we are opposed to war in Afghanistan, Yemen, Palestine and also Ukraine," Amir-Abdollahian told Kuleba.

Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War
The stunning image from the James Webb Space Telescope wraps around this new dress from SvahaUSA. As soon as NASA released the photo, our social media was flooded with requests from our customers to capture the image on a dress, revealed SvahaUSA Founder and CEO, Jaya Iyer. The image is so beautiful; we just had to do it.

As the world watched this week, NASA revealed the dazzling first images from the James Webb Space Telescope capturing the universes splendor and breadth. Now leading STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) fashion brand, SvahaUSA, is making these stunning, groundbreaking images available on a new stellar fashion collection that is truly out of this world. The Webb Telescopes first Deep Field Galaxy Cluster image (released this week) represents a tiny speck of outer space 4.6 billion years ago but graces every inch on Svahas new stunning dress, fashion top and cardigan.

30 years in the making, the infrared full color image from the most powerful space observatory ever built shows the ancient galaxies carpeting the sky like jewels on black velvet and is reproduced in 100% accuracy and beauty on the new Svaha collection.

As soon as NASA released the photo, our social media was flooded with requests from our customers to capture the image on a dress, revealed SvahaUSA Founder and CEO, Jaya Iyer. The image is so beautiful; we just had to do it! So, we created these beautiful designs so that people can wear them and own a piece of history!

The first release in SvahaUSAs James Webb Space Telescope collection includes a stellar galaxies image dress, fashion top and cardigan and will be available in XS through 5XL with a price range from $39.99 to $79.99. Pre-orders are being taken now with shipping the end of September. You can find all three styles at this link - https://svahausa.com/collections/webbs-first-deep-field-collection
The De-orbit Drag Device (D3) is game changing technology enabling satellites to avoid debris, maneuver without propellant, and de-orbit at the end of their mission

Orbotic Systems today announced the successful launch of the De-orbit Drag Device (D3) aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 mission CRS-25. Developed in conjunction with NASA and University of Florida, the D3 can maneuver and de-orbit a satellite without dangerous rocket fuel. This major milestone for Orbotic Systems will provide an inexpensive de-orbiting and maneuvering solution for satellites. Removing dead satellites at the end of their mission is critical to keeping space clean and safe for everyone.

The D3 is game changing technology enabling satellites to avoid debris, maneuver without propellant, and de-orbit at the end of their mission, says Erik T. Long, CEO at Orbotic Systems. The D3 will solve the space junk problem before it ever starts.

The success of this highly anticipated launch comes after a series of recent accomplishments by Orbotic Systems, including:



Architecture of machine learning software and hardware for space situational awareness.

Shape Metal Alloy (SMA) success for CubeSat actuators.

Multiple state of the art NASA technology license deals in 2020 and 2021.

After nearly two years of concerted effort, we are ready to release our first product to mitigate space debris. Unrivaled and unique, our D3 technology will allow satellite operators to inexpensively maneuver, orientate, and de-orbit their spacecraft without any explosive propellant. The D3 does 80% of what rockets do at 10% of the cost.

To learn more about the D3, visit our website at https://orboticsystems.com or e-mail us at admin@orboticsystems.com

About Orbotic Systems: Orbotic Systems was formed to address the growing threat of space debris. After investigating solutions from both a business and technical perspective, Orbotic Systems was born. The goal of Orbotic Systems is to safely advance human progress in space with innovative business methods and new technology.

Orbotic Systems was designated a top ten satellite solution provider in 2021 by Aerospace & Defense Review. The D3 was one of the five winners in the aerospace category of the 2021, "Create the Future Contest."
West Australian skydiving company, Skydive Geronimo, has become the first skydiving operator in the country to commit to offsetting 100% of its aviation fuel carbon emissions.

West Australian skydiving company, Skydive Geronimo, has become the first skydiving operator in the country to commit to offsetting 100% of its aviation fuel carbon emissions.

Glenn Stutt, owner of Skydive Geronimo, said its 2022/2023 Climate Pledge was a major step forward in reducing the companys global footprint and would be achieved through offsetting its Rottnest Island flight carbon emissions through a WA-based carbon neutral programme.

We believe every business and every individual has an obligation to support the United Nations directive that in order to preserve a liveable climate, greenhouse-gas emissions must be reduced by half by 2030 and to net zero by 2050, he said.

The move has been applauded by the Australian Parachute Foundation, with CEO Richard McCooey saying it was no surprise that Skydive Geronimo was the first operator to make a climate pledge for 2022/2023. He congratulated the company for their commitment, saying he hoped the other 50 parachute centres around Australia would follow the example set by Skydive Geronimo and the APF by becoming carbon neutral.

Stutt went on to say that since establishing the business in 2010, Skydive Geronimo has put in place many operational initiatives to continuously improve its sustainability performance, and which preserve the fragile environment in which it operates. These include minimising unnecessary consumption and reducing waste. This new pledge to offset 100% of the carbon emissions from our Rottnest Island Tandem Skydives bolsters our established sustainability programme and will be a hugely positive step in addressing our climate change obligations.

He said Skydive Geronimo was deeply aware of the privilege and responsibility of operating a tourism business on the protected A-Class Reserve and had always been a strong and active supporter of the Rottnest Island Authority (RIA)s Rottnest Island Management Plan. This plan includes several initiatives driving improved environmental sustainability.

The Skydive Geronimo 2022/2023 Climate Pledge is another step in our efforts for continuous improvement in sustainability performance, Stutt added. Our whole team is behind us and theres no doubt it will add an extra dimension to our clients awesome skydiving experience knowing that their jump is carbon neutral!

The Australian Parachute Federation office (excluding the operational aviation component) moved to carbon neutral last year, and on 1 July 2022, offered its 3 500 members the option to offset their skydiving-related carbon emissions for jumps made the previous year (2021/2022). Members can choose this option when renewing their annual membership.

References

https://ria.wa.gov.au/policy-and-reports/sustainability/environmental-sustainability

https://www.un.org/en/actnow/
The National Association for Business Resources (https://nationalbiz.org/) has released their Summer 2022 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For in the Nation: (https://thebestandbrightest.com/events/2022-best-and-brightest-companies-to-work-for-in-the-nation/winners/?winyear=sf2022). Paymerang is delighted to have made the list of 139 winning organizations, from 1,100 nominations, for the fourth year in a row.

The 2022 Spring National winning companies were assessed by an independent research firm which reviewed several key measures relative to other nationally recognized winners. The Best and Brightest Companies to Work For winners are not ranked.

Paymerang is thrilled to have again received this recognition, said Gloria Garber, VP of People and Culture at Paymerang (https://www.paymerang.com/). This award echoes our commitment to living out our values and fostering a unique work culture where employees are both recognized and celebrated for their hard work.

Paymerang is devoted to providing a work environment focused on work-life balance, healthy lifestyles, community engagement, and personal and professional development. The company continues to provide its employees with several benefits, including:



Incredible growth potential

100% employer-paid medical and dental premiums for full-time employees

18 days of PTO + 10 paid holidays

401k retirement plan -- with a 6% non-elective match

Transaction bonus unit plan

Maternity and Paternity Leave

Daily catered breakfast and snacks

"We take great pride in our company culture, said Nasser Chanda, CEO of Paymerang. Our values help create an exceptional work environment for our dedicated team members, which in turn helps us better serve our clients.

The Best and Brightest Companies to Work For in the Nation Winners will be honored during the virtual Illuminate Business Summit week in November 2022 and the spring of 2023. Along with the Elite awards, the 101 highest-scoring national winning companies demonstrating exceptional and innovative human resource practices will also be awarded during the Illuminate Business Summit.

The Elite categories include Compensation, Benefits and Employee Solutions; Employee Enrichment, Engagement and Retention; Employee Education and Development; Recruitment, Selection and Orientation; Employee Achievement and Recognition; Communication and Shared Vision; Diversity and Inclusion; Work-Life Balance; Community Initiatives; Strategic Company Performance, and the Best of the Best: Small Business, Medium Business, and Large Business.

With over 20 years of experience conducting the Best and Brightest competitions, the National Association for Business Resources (NABR) have identified numerous best Human Resource practices and provided benchmarking for companies that continue to be leaders in employment standards.

These 2022 winning organizations have stood out during unpredictable times and have proven they are an employer of choice, said Jennifer Kluge, President and CEO of NABR and The Best and Brightest Program. They continue to keep the needs of their employees first and provide perks that include development, wellbeing, work-life balance, rewards and recognition. In addition, these winning companies offer a fantastic work culture and workplace environment that attracts and retains superior employees.

All 2022 companies that will be selected to be recognized nationally as a Best and Brightest Company to Work For will be featured in the online edition of Corp! Magazine and in the Wall Street Journal.

About Paymerang

For over a decade, Paymerang has helped businesses achieve greater efficiency by providing them with a paperless AP invoice and payment process, which enables organizations to spend more time focused on strategic initiatives instead of manual tasks. Paymerangs streamlined Invoice and Payment Automation solutions bring AP departments into the modern age. Paymerang's solutions save AP departments thousands of hours annually, enhance visibility, increase accuracy, improve efficiency, and earn rebates while reducing paper, fraud risks, and operating costs. Learn more at https://www.paymerang.com/.

About the Best and Brightest Programs

The Best and Brightest Companies to Work For competition identifies and honors organizations that display a commitment to excellence in operations and employee enrichment

that lead to increased productivity and financial performance. This competition scores potential winners based on regional data of company performance and a set standard across the nation. This national program celebrates those companies that are making better business, creating richer lives and building a stronger community as a whole. There are numerous regional celebrations throughout the country such as Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Houston, Milwaukee, San Diego and San Francisco. Nominations are now being accepted for all programs. Visit thebestandbrightest.com to nominate your organization.
Weitmann said, Its all about creating financial and social value. The funds that we invest in the Israel VC space provide many opportunities for innovation and substantial long-term impact on business and society.

Champel Capital, an ambitious and growing Israeli venture capital investment management firm, held an event recently in New York City discussing various Israeli early-stage technology investments. Gilad Erdan, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations and keynote speaker at the event, spoke about how Israel is a differentiated landscape for innovation and how it has transformed into one of the most robust regions for venture investing globally.

During his presentation, Amir Weitmann, Managing Partner at Champel Capital, touched on multiple Israeli businesses that are changing the world, including food tech and traffic efficiency.

Entrepreneurs Arie Benguigui and Amir Weitmann launched their venture capital firm Champel Capital in 2017 and have since invested in seventeen companies.

Israel is a startup nation, with unprecedented opportunities for investing, growing companies, and building wealth, said Ambassador Erdan. Prosperity and capital growth is part of Israels DNA with abundant opportunities for innovation and wealth building.

Israel has recently produced some of the worlds leading tech companies. According to the United States-Israel Business Alliance, a record 26 Israeli-founded unicorns now have their global or U.S. headquarters in New York City.

Outside of Tel Aviv, New York continues to be the city with the most Israeli-founded tech unicorns in the world. All 26 tech companies are concentrated in Manhattan.

Weitmann said, Its all about creating financial and social value. The funds that we invest in the Israel VC space provide many opportunities for innovation and substantial long-term impact on business and society.

He continued, It was a pleasure to welcome Ambassador Erdan to the forum to provide his perspective on how the growth of the Israeli tech sector contributes to the prosperity and future trajectory of the investment industry.

About Champel Capital: Established in 2017, Champel capital is a young and dynamic venture capital company with a spirit of entrepreneurship based in Jerusalem, Israel, and investing in deep-tech Israeli companies. As a leading venture capital fund, Champel Capitals responsibility accompanies every investment. Alongside their global standards for protecting social and environmental elements, they implement active impact investing as part of their asset allocation.
All credit goes to our first-rate design and development team for their work to craft custom-coded websites.

Influx Marketing announced today that it has received the Internet Advertising Competition Award for Outstanding Achievement in Internet Advertising for the Best Healthcare Provider Website in 2022.

"The best work won," noted the IAC in reference to the website Influx submitted for the competition. With an emphasis on custom design and code, Influx built out a dominant online presence for their client, resulting in a website with excellent performance in SEO rankings, increased traffic, and conversion rates.

As Influx CEO Adam Daniells said, "We are honored to receive this award for Best Healthcare Provider Website for 2022. All credit goes to our first-rate design and development team for their work to craft custom-coded websites, along with an acknowledgement to the entire Influx team for everything they do to produce industry-leading work for our clients."

The Internet Advertising Competition was created in 1997 by the Web Marketing Association, a volunteer organization composed of marketing, advertising, PR and design professionals with a shared interest in improving the quality of websites and internet marketing.

About Influx Marketing

Influx is a digital marketing agency focused on plastic surgery and aesthetic medicine. With a clientele that includes some of the top surgeons and medical spas in the nation, the company has built a name for its industry-leading web design and proven patient acquisition strategies. Influx also produces the popular aesthetics industry podcast The Technology of Beauty, hosted by Dr. Grant Stevens. The company was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Park City, Utah with offices in Los Angeles and Tampa.
MAK ONE Spring 2022 Release This release of MAK ONE continues to add out-of-the-box content and features across the air, land, sea, subsurface, and space domains, and makes it easier than ever for integrators to build on our platform to meet project-specific goals, says MAK CTO, Len Granowetter.

MAK Technologies (MAK), a company of ST Engineering North America, today announced the spring 2022 release of MAK ONE, the software platform for modeling & simulating whole-world multi-domain synthetic environments.

The release builds on the mature capabilities of the MAK ONE suite of simulation applications and simulation infrastructure tools to amplify simulation scale, enhance user experience, deliver new content, and more  all with minor impact on migration for existing customers.



Simulation Scale: Achieving the necessary scale for multi-domain operations requires a system level approach  addressing the network throughput, the simulation engines abilities, and the rendering engines technique and performance. Learn more about how this MAK ONE release simplifies scaling simulations.

User Experience: MAK ONE is designed for users at all levels. This release includes application-wide updates like dark mode, which helps reduce eye strain, as well as restyled buttons, toolbars, and menus to make using MAK ONE easier than ever. Learn more about how this MAK ONE release improves the user experience.

Complex Behaviors: The MAK ONE Spring 2022 release makes significant enhancements to the VR-Forces Behavior Engine, a multi-domain tool used to build complex behaviors for collaborative team modeling. Coordinated unit behaviors can be quickly created to model section, squad, platoon, company, and higher echelon engagements. Learn more about the Behavior Engine in the MAK ONE Spring 2022 release.

Extend and Customize: This release refactors and enhances systems for extending and customizing VR-Engage. The Role Refactor gives customers more power to create, edit, and manage custom roles. The Input Refactor simplifies the process of customizing VR-Engage to work with new input/output devices by providing an abstract, named set of run-time functions that can be mapped to various joystick directions, buttons, and other elements. Learn more about improvements to VR-Engage configurations in the MAK ONE Spring 2022 release.

More New Content: Content additions include new particle systems to make effects look more realistic and more specific to the various platforms and weapon systems, as well as hundreds of new models that are fully configured for the simulation engine and are all materially classified for both visual and sensor rendering. Learn more about the new and improved content in the MAK ONE Spring 2022 release.

The products included in the MAK ONE Spring 2022 release include the VR-Forces 5.0 computer generated forces simulator, the VR-Engage 2.0 multi-role virtual simulator, the VR-Vantage 3.0 3D simulation visualization application, and the VR-Link 5.8 simulation interoperability toolkit.

MAK ONE around the World

The MAK ONE spring 2022 release brings to market capabilities and features developed for programs across the globe, including:



MAK ONE is the simulation software platform of choice for governments and contractors around the world largely because of its unmatched breadth and flexibility. This release continues to add out-of-the-box content and features across the air, land, sea, subsurface, and space domains, and makes it easier than ever for integrators to build on our platform to meet project-specific goals, says MAK Technologies CTO, Len Granowetter.

Find the MAK ONE Spring 2022 Release video overview playlist here: http://www.mak.com/tv/playlist/9625027.

*****

ST Engineering North America is the U.S. headquarters of ST Engineering, a global technology, defense and engineering group with a diverse portfolio of businesses across the aerospace, smart city, defense and public security segments. Based in Alexandria, VA, it has major operations across 16 cities in 12 states and employs about 5,000 people providing innovative products and solutions to commercial and government customers across diverse market segments.

MAK Technologies develops software for live, virtual, and constructive simulation. Built upon a strong foundation of COTS products, MAK delivers simulation, gaming, and networking technology in a flexible platform to meet the requirements of training system integrators, experimentation labs, and end users. Our primary users are in the aerospace and defense industries, yet our products and services can help customers anywhere modeling and simulation is needed to train, plan, analyze, experiment, prototype, and demonstrate. MAK is dedicated to serving our customers by building capable products, offering superior technical support, and innovating new ways to build, populate and view interoperable 3D simulated worlds. MAK continues to take advantage of new technologies that further the state of simulation. Our products help users link, simulate and visualize their world. MAK Technologies is a company of ST Engineering North America. Please visit http://www.mak.com for more information.
Ghana has halved the number of its citizens living in poverty and improved chronic malnutrition rates. However, the countrys northern region is home to 75 percent of its poorest citizens, and food insecurity there remains high. To improve nutrition and resilience outcomes for northern Ghanas most vulnerable groupsparticularly women of reproductive age, adolescent girls, and children under 5USAID has awarded Abt Associates a five-year, $21.9 million contract to manage the Resilience in Northern Ghana (RING) II systems strengthening activity.

Through RING II, Abt and three Ghanaian partner organizationsGhana Developing Communities Association (GDCA), Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC), and Youth Advocacy on Rights and Opportunities (YARO)will deliver technical assistance to support the regions systems strengthening, citizen engagement, and stakeholder coordination. The team will also improve public-private coordination across the agriculture, health, nutrition, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sectors, complemented by USAID government-to-government funding. Throughout, Abt will expand gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) by ensuring programs account for GESI in communities, and by mentoring members of vulnerable populations to take on leadership roles within implementation teams.

Were delighted to bring to RING II Abts intersectional capabilities and our proven approach to enhancing local governance systems, catalyzing access to social services, and transforming institutional capacities to scale service delivery, said Bettina Brunner, Abts acting regional vice president for West Africa, Middle East and North Africa. Our team looks forward to working with USAID and Ghanas public and private sectors to bolster the resilience of vulnerable populations in the north.

About Abt Associates

Abt Associates is a global consulting and research firm that combines data and bold thinking to improve the quality of people's lives. We partner with clients and communities to advance equity and innovationfrom creating scalable digital solutions and combatting infectious disease, to mitigating climate change and evaluating programs for measurable social impact. https://www.abtassociates.com
Summer Skate Series

Boarding for Breast Cancer (B4BC), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, saves lives by providing breast cancer education, prevention, and survivor support programs. Summer Skate Series participants are encouraged to create a fundraising team for their nearest in-person Summer Skate event or participate in a virtual fundraising goal by any means of physical activity in their neighborhood - Skate-Bike-Roll-Walk. It is a meaningful way to honor a loved one who has battled breast cancer or to celebrate their triumph!

Supporting B4BC's mission to highlight the importance of a healthy, active lifestyle as the best means of breast cancer prevention has an intangible ripple effect in the communities B4BC serves nationwide! Statistics show that 30 minutes of exercise three-to-four days per week can reduce cancer risk by thirty to fifty percent," said Lisa Hudson, President and Co-Founder of B4BC.

Over the past 18 years, more than 5,000 people have participated in B4BC's Annual Skate The Lake (2004) and Skate The Coast (2007) events locally and virtually. In addition, this year, we brought back Skate the River! All events are a collective ride for breast cancer awareness and prevention for all ages and abilities.

B4BC Three-Part Skate Series - Events and Activities



Event Registration: By fundraising a minimum of $25 to $50 (depending on the event), participants receive an event tee, a goodie bag, and raffle tickets! The top three fundraisers (individuals/teams) for each event win even more prizes.

Virtual participation nationwide is encouraged: Virtual raffle tickets are available for each event in the series. So cruise your local path or trail, and post to social. Tee shirts will be mailed directly to participants and for every $10 fundraised, receive virtual raffle tickets too!

Photo Contest: To get featured on B4BC's social channels, use event-specific hashtags for your chance to win cool stuff! A photo contest winner is selected for each event.

Skate the Lake || North Lake Tahoe, CA || July 23 & 24th

Register and Fundraise: Collective Fundraising Goal: $50,000



18th Annual Skate the Lake & Community Celebration - B4BC will host a Community Celebration Festival at Common's Beach in Tahoe City on July 23 with music, games, food + drinks, a silent auction, raffles, prizes, and more! July 24, the skaters participate in a 28-mile skate-bike-roll along the North Lake Tahoe shores, starting at Sugar Pine Point Park up to Palisades Tahoe or join at the 8-mile drop-in and end at Common's Beach for awards!

Tag @b4bc #SkateTheLake: A chance to be featured on B4BC's channels and win additional prizes

Participating Sponsors: Yeti, Suja, Traeger, Pura Vida, North Face, Sector 9, ProTec, Nutcase, Dragon, Sun Bum, Zumiez, Arbor Skateboards, Impala Skates, Tahoe Daves, Tahoe Longboards, Roxy, Akai Life, Von Zipper, Autonomy, Dakine, GoPro, Vans, Michael Hohl Subaru, Morrison Group Tahoe, Squaw Alpine, Palisades Tahoe, EXL Media, NLTRA, Tahoe City Public Utility District, KTKE101.5, JuneShine, Liquid Death, 22 Bistro

Skate the River presented by MTN DEW|| Des Moines, IA || July 29th-31st

Register and Fundraise: Collective Fundraising Goal: $25,000



The 2nd Annual Skate The River presented by MTN DEW is coming to Des Moines, IA, on the second to last day of the Dew Tour, Saturday, July 30. The skate will start an hour before the Dew Tour Experience (DTE) opening near the Iowa Women of Achievement Bridge, along the Raccoon River to Gray's Lake, and back to the DTE entrance for 6 miles.

Tag @b4bc #SkateTheRiverDSM: A chance to be featured on B4BC's channels and win additional prizes

Participating Sponsors: MTN DEW, Yeti, Traeger, Pura Vida, North Face, Sector 9, ProTec, Nutcase, Dragon, Sun Bum, Merge4, Arbor Skateboards

Skate the Coast || Los Angeles, CA || October 15th & 16th

Register and Fundraise, Collective Fundraising Goal: $75,000



The 15th Annual Skate The Coast is a 16-mile journey of over 200 participants from The Santa Monica Pier to South Redondo Beach. We reach more than 100,000 people in one weekend. On Friday, attend the registration kick-off party at Arbor Venice, with an evening of music, raffles, and art auctions. On Saturday, start at the Santa Monica Pier, ride down the beach cities along the iconic strand, stop at multiple "Hydration Stations" on the way, and cross the finish line at Dive n Surf in Redondo Beach for an awards celebration.

Tag @b4bc #SkateTheCoast: A chance to be featured on B4BC's channels and win additional prizes

Participating Sponsors: Suja Organic, Yeti, Traeger Grills, The North Face, Pura Vida, Sector 9, ProTec, Nutcase, Arbor Skateboards, Zumiez, Dragon, Impala Skates, Welwaze, Akai Life, Dive N Surf, GoPro, Vans, Merge4, Dakine, Sun Bum, Kindhumans, VonZipper, Liquid Death, Goebikes, Autonomy

Download Summer Skate Series Photos + Assets for Editorial Use

Skate the Coast Video

For interview and photo requests, contact: Vanessa Colosio Diaz vanessa@pipelinepepper.com.

For Sponsorship and Auction opportunities, contact: Maggie Gonzalez maggie@b4bc.org.

###

About B4BC

Boarding for Breast Cancer (B4BC) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that advocates for early detection and a healthy, active, and conscious lifestyle as the best means of breast cancer prevention. Founded in 1996, B4BC empowers young people to make positive choices that promote lifelong wellness through grassroots events, educational outreach, sustainability, and survivorship support programs. Visit B4BC.ORG for more information.

B4BC Instagram || B4BC Facebook || B4BC - Amazon Smile
UVeye offers the global standard of vehicle inspection for drivers

Carl Black Orlando, a Buick, GMC and Chevrolet dealership in Orlando, Florida, has adopted UVeye automotive solutions to help streamline the diagnosis process and provide accurate and fast services for their customers. UVeye provides dealerships with full vehicle assessment products which can help diagnose issues and objectively assess the condition of a vehicle.

For customers, this means faster and more accurate vehicle service. UVeyes technology has completely modernized our service lane by creating opportunities that would otherwise be driving out the door. We can now provide valuable data, within seconds, to our advisors and customers that were previously impossible, said Alex Bowsher, Dealer Principal at Carl Black Automotive Group. Drivers will know that the information they receive is objective, because UVeye doesnt allow human error to get in the way.

Drivers in the Orlando area who are choosing what dealership to go to should consider Carl Black Orlando, where they can get streamlined services. UVeye can scan and analyze vehicle underbody issues and give a full body analysis. Drivers who arent sure whats wrong with their car can get a quick diagnosis. The dealership is confident that the new UVeye technology it uses will improve customer experience and keep drivers coming back. Any dealer who wants to thrive and not just survive in the future needs UVeye in the lanes now, said Mike Bowsher, CEO of Carl Black Automotive Group.

To learn more about the dealership or schedule an appointment, drivers can head to the Carl Black Orlando website, carlblackoforlando.com.
Christopher Oehl, ORBITs CEO and Owner, commented on the opportunities presented by this strategic alliance. We are delighted to open up our facility to CICB in this way. Our commitment to the local community here in Phoenix, and to safe crane operations anywhere means this was a natural fit."

CICB and ORBIT Industrial Service & Maintenance are delighted to announce today the signing of a strategic alliance agreement. This alliance includes the opening of CICBs third training center at ORBITs headquarters in Glendale, AZ.

Headquartered in Houston, TX, with a second training center in Orlando, FL, CICB continues to grow both domestically and abroad. With the addition of a third training center in Phoenix, CICB has increased its reach to the west coast.

Camille Singletary, CICBs Open Enrollment Manager, noted the advantage to CICBs extensive customer base. For many years now, we have offered open enrollment classes at various locations in the area. To be able to schedule regular training in the Phoenix, AZ area is a huge win for our clients.

CICB offers training and other services across the United States and globally, onsite at its clients facilities, at their established training centers in Houston and Orlando, or at partner venues nationwide on an ad hoc basis. ORBIT provides inspections, training, repairs, parts, and sales of overhead cranes, hoists, mobile cranes, automotive lifts, dock components, mezzanines, stairs, and fall protection systems in the Arizona, California, and Nevada area.

Christopher Oehl, ORBITs CEO and Owner, commented on the opportunities presented by this strategic alliance. We are delighted to open up our facility to CICB in this way. Our commitment to the local community here in Phoenix, and to safe crane operations anywhere means this was a natural fit. In the end we are all just crane guys and brothers of the hook, and as a community, we need to educate the next generation of operators and inspectors coming in the same way we did. ORBIT Industrial welcomes in any and all that want to become the best through CICBs training curriculum.

CICB will be providing many of their 50-plus course offerings at their new training center in the Phoenix, Arizona area. These will include preparation for CCO certification for Riggers, Signal Persons, Overhead Crane Operators and Inspectors, as well as CICBs programs for Mobile Elevated Work Platforms, Rigging, Mobile Cranes and Overhead Cranes, including Train the Trainer courses.

Christina Epperson, CICBs President & CEO, explained that CICB and ORBIT have been working together for many years. ORBIT has been an incredible host for multiple CICB classes over the last decade. Instructors and students alike consistently comment on the welcome they receive there and the quality of the facility. Chris and his team are a genuine pleasure to work with and so we are very happy indeed to formalize this alliance.

About CICB

Headquartered in Houston, Texas, CICB is a veteran-owned company that provides customized solutions for lifting operations across the world through training, inspections, and support services. CICB is known as the Subject Matter Expert Team that the crane and lifting industry engages as an essential partner for safe and effective practices in planning, supervising, executing, and evaluating crane and lifting operations.

CICB has built lifelong partnerships with thousands of companies for over half a century wherever people interact with lifting equipment, continuously reducing accidents, injuries, deaths, equipment failures, and lost production globally. Our obsessive pursuit to Elevate Your Expertise is what has made CICB the most experienced, most trusted company in the industry.

About ORBIT Industrial Service & Maintenance

ORBIT Industrial Service & Maintenance is a successful crane inspection and repairs business in the Arizona, California, and Nevada area. It specializes in material handling, overhead cranes and hoists, automotive lifts, dock safety systems, mezzanines, stairways, fall protection, and facility maintenance. All the way from sales, service, inspections, load test, training, and consulting we can help you adapt to todays safety needs.
This initial win in the courtroom is a victory for transparency, for government accountability, and for the American people.

On July 12, 2022, the Federal District Court ordered the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to provide the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), all requested documents required under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) before the midterm election(s).

Earlier this summer, several federal agencies failed to respond to FGAs FOIA requests seeking documents related to President Bidens Executive Order 14019. In April, FGA filed a lawsuit against DOJ in federal court seeking an order to compel the agency to turn over the requested documents.

In July, both FGA and DOJ submitted their proposed timelines for the production of the requested documents. FGAs proposed timeline centered on transparency, seeking to receive the documents in advance of the November elections. Meanwhile, DOJs timeline proposed extending the deadline well into next year. According to DOJ, their proposed timeline was generous and providing the documents any sooner than next year would put an undue strain on agency resources

With this latest order, the Court sternly disagreed with DOJ, ordering them to provide all documents required under law to FGA before the midterm elections.

The American people and policymakers alike have a right to the public information FGA has requested under FOIA. If the Biden administration will not follow the law by providing these public documents in a timely manner that we have lawfully requested, then we must use the power of the courts to compel the administration to do so, stated Tarren Bragdon, FGA President and CEO. This initial win in the courtroom is a victory for transparency, for government accountability, and for the American people. Were just getting started.

###

The Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) is a non-profit, multi-state think tank that promotes public policy solutions to create opportunities for every American to experience the American Dream. To learn more, visit TheFGA.org.
Law Office of Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP For more information about the class action lawsuit against See's Candies, Inc., call (800) 568-8020 to speak to an experienced California employment attorney today.

The San Francisco employment law attorneys at Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP, filed a class action complaint alleging that See's Candies, Inc. violated the California Labor Code. The See's Candies, Inc., class action lawsuit, Case No. 22-CIV-02481, is currently pending in the San Mateo County Superior Court of the State of California. A copy of the Complaint can be read here.

According to the lawsuit filed, See's Candies, Inc. allegedly (a) failed to pay minimum wages, (b) failed to pay overtime wages, (c) failed to provide legally required meal and rest periods, (d) failed to provide accurate itemized wage statements, (e) failed to reimburse employees for required expenses, and (f) failed to pay sick wages, all in violation of the applicable Labor Code sections listed in California Labor Code Sections  201-204, 226, 226.7, 233, 246, 510, 512, 1194, 1197, 1197.1, 2802, and the applicable Wage Order(s), and thereby gives rise to civil penalties as a result of such alleged conduct.

Additionally, See's Candies, Inc. allegedly failed to fully relieve employees for their legally required thirty (30) minute meal breaks. Employees were also allegedly required, from time to time, to work in excess of four (4) hours without being provided the legally required ten (10) minute rest periods. The California Supreme Court defines off-duty rest periods as time during which an employee is relieved from all work related duties and free from employer control.

For more information about the class action lawsuit against See's Candies, Inc., call (800) 568-8020 to speak to an experienced California employment attorney today.

Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP is an employment law firm with offices located in San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Riverside and Chicago that dedicates its practice to helping employees, investors and consumers fight back against unfair business practices, including violations of the California Labor Code and Fair Labor Standards Act. If you need help in collecting unpaid overtime wages, unpaid commissions, being wrongfully terminated from work, and other employment law claims, contact one of their attorneys today.

***THIS IS AN ATTORNEY ADVERTISEMENT***
RNL has honored four colleges and universities with awards for their achievements in college student recruitment and marketing, student success and completion, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

RNL, leading provider of higher education enrollment management, student success, and fundraising solutions, has honored four colleges and universities with awards for their achievements in college student recruitment and marketing, student success and completion, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Berry College of Mount Berry, Georgia, is one of two winners of the 2022 Peter S. Bryant Marketing & Recruitment Excellence Award (MREA), which recognizes programs that have made an impact on campus enrollment. Among its many accomplishments, Berry grew first-year enrollment by 48 percent from 2018-21 while also increasing enrollment of students of color by 90 percent. In addition, the college increased the high school GPA of its incoming classes for three straight years.

Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio received the second MREA honor. The university responded nimbly to the enrollment and educational challenges of the pandemic, expanding support for online and graduate students in particular. They also undertook a strategic enrollment planning process to identify opportunities for growth, increase efficiency, and foster collaboration among more than 60 people in a wide variety of academic and administrative departments.

For achievements in student success, Black Hills State University of South Dakota received the 2022 Lee Noel-Randi Levitz Retention Excellence Award (REA). In 2020, the university had a retention rate of 65 percent and is on track to lift retention to 75 percent in the fall of 2022. The university accomplished this by creating a strategic enrollment plan that established many effective student success initiatives.

Virginia Tech received the inaugural Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Excellence Award for its efforts at increasing diversity and serving underrepresented students. The Black student population at Virginia Tech was previously 5 percent even though 20 percent of the Virginia population is Black. The university has since increased its incoming students who identify as Black and two or more races indicating Black to nearly 9 percent. It also has increased its underrepresented and underserved population from 33 to 40 percent while maintaining a strong academic profile.

More than ever, institutions need innovation, data-informed strategies, and determination to succeed, said Andrea Gilbert, senior vice president for client engagement at RNL who has consulted with hundreds of colleges and universities. We honor not only their hard work and creativity, but their dedication to the mission of their institutions and improving the student experience.

The institutions will be recognized during a ceremony at the 2022 RNL National Conference on July 15 at the Gaylord National Resort in the Washington, D.C., area, which attracted more than 1,000 attendees from colleges and universities. Winners were chosen by a panel of RNL enrollment and student success experts. For more information, visit RuffaloNL.com.

About RNL

RNL is the leading provider of higher education enrollment, student success, and fundraising solutions. The firm serves more than 1,900 colleges and universities through data-driven solutions focused on the entire lifecycle of enrollment and fundraising, assuring students find the right program, graduate on time, secure their first job in their chosen field, and give back to support the next generation. With a deep knowledge of the industry, RNL provides institutions the ability to scale their efforts by tapping into a community of support and resources.


Customers Can Now Get Great Deals on New Hyundai Vehicles at Mathews Hyundai

Interested shoppers around Marion, Ohio, can rejoice over amazing discounts on 2022 Hyundai vehicles. Offers from the dealership are undeniably well-liked and are good through Aug. 1, 2022.

The 2022 Hyundai Accent is being offered with a Hyundai Motor Finance Standard Rate Bonus Cash of up to $500. The 2022 Hyundai Accent is a subcompact car that's well equipped with advanced safety, technology and styling features. It has a unique design that makes it stand out from the crowd. The 2022 Hyundai Accent comes with a continuously variable automatic transmission and a four-cylinder engine with 120 horsepower.

Additionally, Mathews Hyundai has put forth the 2022 Hyundai Tucson SEL which can be leased for just $259 per month for 36 months. The redesigned 2022 Hyundai Tucson SEL is a joy to drive and impresses with its roomy five-seat interior and high-end cabin materials.

Customers who are curious about these offers are urged to stop by the dealership at 1793 Marion Mt. Gilead Road/ Route 95, Marion, Ohio, 43302. Customers can call the dealership at 833-331-0082 or log on to the dealerships website https://www.mathewseasthyundai.com/ for assistance with their inquiries. The car dealership takes pleasure in offering customers a stress-free environment where they can buy a car without any hassle.
White Label Crypto Payment Processing Software Cryptos potential as a viable remittance solution has evolved with its rising demand across multiple sectors of the economy. White label crypto payment processors will help financial institutions to offer instant transactions and accept payment in popular digital currencies.

HashCash Consultants has gained global recognition for its cutting-edge white label solutions, including a crypto payment processor used by leading global financial institutions. Recently the company has extended its services to a financial powerhouse in Singapore.

HashCash's white label crypto payment processor comprises state-of-the-art blockchain tech facilitating high-speed payment transfer across the globe. Aimed toward institutional enterprises, the product has already received global recognition, drawing the attention of corporate sectors, financial institutions, large businesses, and top retail merchants in the US. The white label crypto payment processor is an end-to-end product with a merchant account management interface, ticketing, payment dispute management, bitcoin invoicing, and more.

CEO of HashCash Consultants and noted blockchain pioneer, Mr. Raj Chowdhury asserts, Cryptos potential as a viable remittance solution has evolved with its rising demand across multiple sectors of the economy. White label crypto payment processors will help financial institutions to offer instant transactions and accept payment in popular digital currencies.

Research forecasts suggest the demand for crypto payment processors is rapidly progressing and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 22.8%. The major causes of the growth in crypto payment gateway are the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies and the increasing investment in the following field. After the wrath of the covid-19 pandemic, cybercrime has been stimulated over the years. This led to an increase in money laundering and thefts. With cryptocurrencies in the picture, the best way to prevent such scenarios is to adopt a crypto payment gateway and accept digital currency as a mode of payment.

The change is already here, as more and more businesses adopt virtual asset payments, policymakers are preparing a global regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies, that will become the future of finance, concludes Mr. Chowdhury. He has previously highlighted the growing demand for crypto regulations and the innovative Bitcoin architecture.

A global blockchain development company, Hashcash Consultants is based in the USA. The firm has been a frontrunner in crypto innovation and blockchain development with its white label products deployed in over twenty-six countries. The company has contributed its products in the US, UK, Canada, Brazil, etc. The company has also bought two-acre land in Bengal silicon valley and plans to build a HashCash Park at the tech hub. HashCash has also been recognized as the top blockchain development company by a worldwide research firm.

With the help of blockchain technology, the infrastructure allows providers and merchants to accept payments in virtual currency and also ensures high-end security. Moreover, the absence of intermediaries accelerates the process making it quick and cost-effective. Overall, crypto payment processors encourage more people to use digital assets and extend the global crypto community.



About HashCash Consultants:

HashCash is a global software company. HashCash Blockchain products enable enterprises to move assets and settle payments across borders in real-time for Remittances, Trade Finance, Payment Processing, and more. HashCash runs a US-based digital asset exchange, PayBito & digital asset payment processor, BillBitcoins. HashCash offers white label crypto exchanges and payment processor software solutions, ICO services, and customized use cases. HashCash propels advancement in technology through Blockchain101 programs and its investment arm, Satoshi Angels. HashCash offers solutions in AI, Big Data, and IoT through its platforms, products & services. HashCash solves the toughest challenges by executing innovative digital transformation strategies for clients around the world.
Our two new programs for women and Hispanic advisors demonstrate another step were taking to make the financial services industry more inclusive and equitable.

The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) has announced the addition of two programs that will run on Tuesday, August 16th pre-conference to its upcoming Apex event being held in Phoenix, Arizona. The sessions focus on raising awareness for state, interstate, and federal advocacy and stress the importance of financial advisors getting involved, starting with voting, in the political process.

The first session focuses on women working in the financial services industry and emphasizes why now, more than ever, it is critical for women advisors to be the voice of the clients in their care. The session will be co-led by NAIFA and Women in Insurance and Financial Services (WIFS) and features Diane Boyle, Senior Vice President, NAIFA Government Relations, and Toni Gonzales, MBA, LACP, Vice President, Ohio National Financial Services, both of whom are members of both NAIFA and WIFS.

The second session focuses on issues critical to Hispanic advisors and agents. Focusing on the need to get involved in grassroots efforts and build long-term relationships with legislators and regulators, the session will feature Aprilyn Chavez Geissler, NAIFA Trustee and First EVP, Gateway Financial Advisors, and Jose Rodriguez, Jr., Optimized Financial and Insurance Services, as well as Diane Boyle.

NAIFA serves as the advocacy arm for Women in Insurance and Financial Services and the Latin American Association of Insurance Agencies. Supporting diversity in our noble profession is the key factor in creating a formula for sustainable financial security for Main Street Americans, stated NAIFA President, Lawrence J. Holzberg, LUTCF, LACP. Financial security requires access to both knowledgeable agents and advisors as well as access to protection products. The combination of ethical advisors who operate in their clients best interests, access to products, and informed consumers results in a winning formula that allows for generational wealth. We are thrilled to bring these two new programs to our Apex event in August to get the word out about the critical role that agents and advisors play in the financial services industry."

NAIFAs DEI work focused on empowering agents and advisors to get involved in grassroots advocacy culminated in the largest fly-in within the financial services industry this past May. We were thrilled to welcome over 500 advisors to this years Congressional Conference and over 100 to our 7th Annual Diversity Symposium as part of our DEI initiatives for 2022, stated Kevin Mayeux, NAIFAs CEO.

NAIFA supports efforts such as NCOILs recent Recruitment, Retention, and Diversity within the Life Insurance Agent Profession resolution, has provided commentary to NAIC's diversity workstreams, and participates in groups such as the Coalition for Equity in Wholesaling and the Diversity in Government Relations Coalition. Mayeux has taken the pledge offered by CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion. Our two new programs for women and Hispanic advisors demonstrate another step were taking to make the financial services industry more inclusive and equitable," Mayeux added. "Legislators and regulators need to hear from under-represented populations in financial services, and NAIFA is working to make this happen.

The two programs are complimentary and open to all advisors and agents through NAIFAs Talent Development Center. More details can be found at apex.naifa.org/schedule.

ABOUT NAIFA: The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors is the preeminent membership association for the multigenerational community of financial professionals in the United States. NAIFA members subscribe to a strong Code of Ethics and represent a full spectrum of financial services practice specialties. They work with families and businesses to help Americans improve financial literacy and achieve financial security. NAIFA provides producers a national community for advocacy, education and networking along with awards, publications and leadership opportunities to allow NAIFA members to differentiate themselves in the marketplace. NAIFA has 53 state and territorial chapters and 35 large metropolitan local chapters. NAIFA members in every congressional district advocate on behalf of producers and consumers at the state, interstate and federal levels.
"Were thrilled to welcome the Utah Tree Works team to SavATree. The combined expertise of our two companies allows us to continue to provide quality solutions while serving properties with the highest level of care." -Carmine Schiavone, SavATree CEO

SavATree, the industry leader in professional tree, shrub and lawn care, has announced a merger with Utah-based Utah Tree Works. This merger marks SavATrees second office in the state and significantly increases their market share in Salt Lake and Utah counties. SavATree also has an office in Park City.

Utah Tree Works specializes in residential tree care for Wasatch Front residential homes, vacation homes, investment properties, estates, mansions, and ranches across Utah County and nearby communities. They also provide commercial tree services working closely with property owners and managers, making this merger a strategic fit with SavATrees business growth strategy. Owners of Utah Tree Works, Tom Smith and Cory Brian along with their dedicated team, will remain on board with SavATree as part of their ongoing commitment to building and maintaining quality relationships.

We look forward to working with a company that shares our same commitment to professionalism, high quality standards, and sincere care for its customers. Our closely aligned values will help us to continue making educated decisions with our customers at the forefront, and will allow us to provide expanded capabilities in Salt Lake and Utah counties, said Utah Tree Care Owners, Tom Smith and Cory Brian.

"Were thrilled to welcome the Utah Tree Works team to SavATree. The combined expertise of our two companies allows us to continue to provide quality solutions while serving properties with the highest level of care. Building out our footprint in Utah will provide more of our clients with an enhanced portfolio of services as we continue to uphold our environmentally responsible approach to tree, shrub and lawn care, says SavATree CEO, Carmine Schiavone.

About SavATree

SavATree provides environmentally sensible stewardship of valued residential and commercial properties, helping clients care for what they love. Their nationwide team of industry certified arborists and highly trained field specialists delivers professional tree, shrub, and lawn care to their loyal clients, making the intersection between trees and people work. With their innovative science-based programs, SavATree protects and enhances client landscapes. Learn more at http://www.savatree.com
I am looking forward to working with the board and staff to help SkillsUSA continue to champion the future of skilled trades workers

Maureen Tholen, Vice President of Sustainability for 3Ms Safety & Industrial Business Group, was elected to serve as president of the SkillsUSA Board of Directors at the boards June 21 meeting during the SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Conference in Atlanta.

It is my honor to serve as president of the SkillsUSA board of directors, Tholen said. I am looking forward to working with the board and staff to help SkillsUSA continue to champion the future of skilled trades workers.

At 3M, Tholen focuses on sustainability to create business growth for the company and its customers. Her career at 3M began as a technical service engineer, work that fostered her passion and connection to the customer. 3Ms diversity provided opportunity for roles in marketing, business development, sales management, six sigma, strategic planning, commercialization leadership and general management. She is leading the Science for Climate sustainability pillar for 3M at the enterprise level; serves in an advisory role for 3M Womens Leadership Forum supporting leadership development; and is the Inclusion Champion for Safety & Industrial Business Group. She also serves on the CEO Inclusion Council, leading efforts for inclusion of all employees. Tholen is a member of The Raptor Center Advisory Board at the University of Minnesota and the point person working with WorldSkills and NC3 (National Coalition of Certification Centers) programs for 3M. She is also a member of the Sustainability Growth Coalition and past president of the University of Illinois Moms Association. She holds a bachelors degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame and earned an MBA from the University of Minnesota.

SkillsUSA is honored to have Maureen serve as president of our board of directors, said SkillsUSA Executive Director Chelle Travis. Maureen and 3M have taken business and education partnerships from local to global levels, and her work has made such a positive difference for SkillsUSAs mission over many years.

About SkillsUSA

Founded in 1965, SkillsUSA is a nonprofit partnership of students, teachers and industry that empowers its members to become world-class workers, leaders and responsible American citizens. The SkillsUSA Framework of Personal, Workplace and Technical Skills Grounded in Academics inspires work and life success for students while helping industry close the skills gap currently leaving millions of skilled trade jobs unfilled. Through SkillsUSAs career competitions program and curricula, employers ensure schools are teaching relevant technical skills, and with SkillsUSAs credentialing process, they can assess the career-readiness of their future employees. SkillsUSAs membership of more than 330,000 students and instructors encompasses middle schools, high schools and college/postsecondary institutions in every state and three U.S. territories. SkillsUSA programming covers 130 trade, technical and skilled service occupations and is recognized by the U.S. departments of Education and Labor as integral to career and technical education. For more information: http://www.skillsusa.org.
Evolution of The Antler Room Celebration This date marks an evolution in our brand and style, said Goellner. We welcome our friends and neighbors to the celebration to toast both the past and the future of The Antler Room.

The Antler Room is hosting a celebration, inviting friends to reconnect, and welcoming new guests to the Longfellow neighborhood restaurant and bar at 2506 Holmes Street, Kansas City, MO on July 21, 2022.

The Antler Room is inspired by East-West trade routes, showcasing modern culinary traditions of Persia, Asia, and the Mediterranean. The evolving cuisine inspired owners Nick and Leslie Goellner to refresh their menu, brand, and decor.

For one night only, The Antler Room will carry a selection of their sandos from the much loved in the early days of the pandemic. Sandos will be available for both pick-up and casual dining. Orders can be placed for carry out while a casual space for dine-in guests will be offered on a walk-in basis.

This date marks an evolution in our brand and style, said Goellner. We welcome our friends and neighbors to the celebration to toast both the past and the future of The Antler Room.

To further celebrate The Antler Rooms evolution, the Goellners are also featuring a range of natural wines and canned beverages thematic to embracing change and cross-cultural inspiration.

Sandos:



Togarashi hot chicken, Miso aioli, Pickles, House brioche

Pork Tonkatsu, pickles, Katsu Sauce, yuzu kosho, aioli pressed radicchio, house shokupan

Fried Shrimp, Eel Mayo, pickled onions, butter lettuce, house shokupan

Local fried Mushroom, Katsu sauce, pickles, yuzu kosho, aioli, pressed radicchio, house shokupan

Beet poached pear push pops

Drinks



Canned Drink: Bizzaro Spritz

Canned Wine: Txakoli Xarmant

Canned Wine: Broc Cellars Love Rose

Canned Sake: Tozai Nightswim Sake

Bottle Wine: Populous Wabi Sabi 2020 - Red Blend

The Antler Room is auctioning items that were a part of the initial look and feel of the restaurant and 100% of the proceeds will be donated to ALS Mid America. Auction Items including art, candelabras, decanters, and other antler-themed items will be available for auction on July, 21, 2022 at http://www.theantlerroomkc.com

The new brand, designed by Single Wing Creative, was inspired partly by East-West trade routes and the Wolpertinger, a mythical creature from the Bavarian Forest. With a new website, thematic color scheme, menus, brand, and decor, this celebration marks an evolution for The Antler Room.

The Antler Room is an award-winning neighborhood restaurant and bar offering seasonal menus featuring shared plates paired with an international natural wine selection, craft beers, and creative cocktails. The Antler Rooms modern dishes are influenced by East-West trade routes, with complex flavors and textures that have awarded the Goellners multiple James Beard Award nominations, and features in Eater and Bon Appetite. https://www.theantlerroomkc.com/
Melanie Leckie, Regional Manager of Strategic Military Community Relations, Trident University International

Melanie Sanchez Leckie has joined Trident University International (Trident) as Regional Manager of Strategic Military Community Relations. She will be responsible for military outreach activities in Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, and Oklahoma.

In this role she will assist current and prospective students as they work towards their respective educational goals. Additionally, she will work closely with representatives on military bases, other military stakeholders, and community members in helping to support Tridents mission of providing a quality and affordable education. Beyond her work in the field, she will collaborate with key staff members across the University in helping to ensure a positive experience for all students.

Leckie is an energetic, fearless, and motivated leader who is a higher education advocate for members of the military and their families. This drive can be traced back to her parents belief in the power of education.

As someone raised in a household that prioritized learning, I firmly believe that education is the practice of freedom, the greatest equalizer, explains Leckie.

A veteran of the United States Air Force, Leckie completed her undergraduate degree while on active duty in Florida. She is an alumna of Trident, earning a Master of Business Administration (MBA) while living across the continents of Europe and Africa as an active duty Air Force spouse.

Leckie is a first generation American whose parents are from Nicaragua. She is multilingual, with Spanish being her first language.

About Trident University International

Founded in 1998, Trident University International is a member of the American InterContinental University System, which is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (hlcommission.org). Trident uses the EdActive learning approach, which employs case-based learning in an online setting to teach real-world relevant critical thinking skills designed to enhance the lives and education of students. Trident offers quality associate, bachelors, masters, and doctoral degree programs and certificates, led by a qualified faculty team, over 80% of whom have doctoral degrees. Trident has over 32,000 alumni, of which more than 27,000 have a military affiliation, and has received acknowledgements from Washington Monthly, Military Times, and Military Advanced Education & Transition for their dedication to student success. Visit http://www.trident.edu or call at (855) 290-0290 to learn more about Trident's wide range of educational options.
I Am Still Learning: Recollections and What Ive Learned along the Way: a nostalgic look back on a life lived in appreciation. I Am Still Learning: Recollections and What Ive Learned along the Way is the creation of published author Wayne Herivel, a graduate from the University of MichiganDearborn Campus with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering. Herivel served for two years in the Army and married the love of his life, Barbara Jean. While working for IBM, he earned a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota.

Herivel shares, I am still learning is a phrase to always keep in your mind. Difficulties you deal with usually provide learning opportunities. You may have figured out how to solve a problem that you hadnt seen before, or maybe you learned what caused the difficulty in the first place, and now you can prevent it from happening again. Going a little further, if you can learn from other peoples difficulties, you are two steps ahead. Learning what they did to solve the problem may help you with the same problem, and if you are lucky, learning what caused their problem in the first place may enable you to avoid it happening to you.

I am now well into my eighth decade of life. Some days I think Ive seen/solved most of the problems that may yet come up; other days, new problems come as unwanted surprises, so I am still learning too. I thought it was about time to share some of my experiences in the hope that what Ive learned will help you. There are few guarantees in life, but with a little planning and forethought, you can often tip the scales in your favor, or you can change the odds a little more to your benefit. As a result, hopefully you will be able to avoid most major problems and minimize the impact caused by the others.

The trip you are about to take will highlight many experiences from my life, some of which (hopefully) will stay with you, and you will benefit from what I learned without pain to yourself. Ive always tried to see the fun parts of everything, whenever the situation permits. I also try to share what Ive learned, in appreciation to all those before me that shared with me what they learned.

Enjoy the trip. I hope you will find many sections that you will pass along with your own experiences to benefit others. We all are still learning.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Wayne Herivels new book will encourage readers as they consider the careful points made within drawn from the authors many years of experience.

Herivel shares in hopes of imparting some knowledge to the next generation born from a spirit of generosity and a willingness to help others.

Consumers can purchase I Am Still Learning: Recollections and What Ive Learned along the Way at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about I Am Still Learning: Recollections and What Ive Learned along the Way, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
Like the siblings at the center of their new middle-grade graphic novel, Twin Cities, Jose Pimienta grew up in Mexicali, just south of the U.S./Mexico border. In Pimientas follow-up to their debut, Suncatcher, twins Fernando and Teresa differentiate themselves when Teresa chooses to attend middle school in Calexico, on the U.S. side, opening up both opportunities and obstacles. In the book, Pimienta paints a rich border culture and nuanced family life. We spoke with Pimienta about cultural and gender-based double standards, teenage rebellion, and finding a place to call your own.

What were your impressions of life in Mexico vs. the U.S. when you were a kid, and how did you represent them in the book?

The U.S. seemed to be the provider of some cool stuff: music, movies. Back in the 80s and 90s, if you had a TV and you were in Mexico, youd get the Mexican channels, but if you had an antenna, you could get American broadcast channels.

The farther youd go, the more cultural distinctions there were. My mom told me that Americans had a bigger sense of personal space. Once I got very excited about something and rushed to it, and my mom said, Youve gotta slow down.

Twin Cities seems to take place in the 90s. How have things changed since that time for families whose lives straddle the border?

A few years ago, when I was writing draft after draft, that element was more prominent. I wanted to keep it close to the things I remember. [But] someone suggested that if I set it explicitly in the 90s, it would feel dated, and that resonated with me a little bit. Its not super important [to the story].

Crossing the border has gotten more complicated and complex, but the sensations were still there in my time. Keeping that part was very important. [Students like Teresa] develop life hacks around things like being observed by customs officershow theyre looked at, the kind of pressure theyre under.

Alex is rebellious and insightful and complex. How did you develop his character?

Ive met a lot of kids like Alex, who have gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to border politics, and have a very valid argument to feel the way they feelwanting to be proud of where youre from, but having this looming sensation of theres this other culture across the fence that outright says, Were the best country on Earth.

Its common for teenagers to come and drink in Mexico. So of course someone like Alex would feel like, Oh you come over here and do whatever you want. I wanted to give him a certain amount of anger that felt righteous. Some people feel even more extreme. I wanted to do right by him and validate him, even if I dont completely agree with him.

The storyline includes drugs and potential police violence, which are obviously both realities in kids lives. How was that handled in the editorial process?

We went through multiple drafts and tried to make it realistic. Its never clear why their car got taken into secondary revision [when Teresa is accidentally carrying Fernandos marijuana]. But customs officers can behave that way. It can be random.

One person could get a slap on the wrist for holding, vs. someone else putting their entire future at stake. The stakes are different for everybody. You can be told you cant cross again for 510 years. Thats how families can get separated.

How did you develop the sibling and family dynamics?

There were drafts where it was Fernando who was [waiting for his bedroom to be built instead of Teresa]. And someone said it seemed weird, because boys are treated way better in Mexican culture; they would give the bedroom to the boy and decide the girl can wait. Culturally, gender roles are very distinct, and that influenced Teresas arc. That scene where she finally sees her spaceI wanted her to relish that moment. [She is finally getting the message that] You belong here. This is your place.

I wanted to give each character their own mountain to climb. I wanted to take advantage of it being a printed book and to play with the dualism of what happens on one page vs. what happens on the opposing page, to be fair to those different experiences that are both valid.

Twin Cities by Jose Pimienta. Random House Graphic, $20.99 July 19 ISBN 978-0-593-18062-4
Author Kalynn Bayron went on her first in-person tour for her bestselling YA fantasy This Wicked Fate last month. Bayron hit four cities from June 1823 and attended events including book signings, live readings, conversations about the novel, and the opportunity to meet readers. Weve gathered highlights from her appearances.

Bayron (l.) made her first stop at independent bookstore Buffalo Street Books in Ithaca, N.Y., on June 18, where she appeared in conversation with Cornell professor Misha N. Inniss-Thompson (r.) and held a signing.

Bayron preparing to sign plenty of copies for Buffalo Street Books readers.

On June 21, Bayron made an appearance at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Mass. Bayron (l.) spoke with bookseller Kendall (r.), about her latest novel to an audience.

On June 22, Bayron appeared at the Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore in Middletown, Conn., and held a conversation with bookseller Katie Kucharski in which they discussed Bayrons love of Greek mythology, her writing journey, and centering queer relationships in her novels.

Bayron spotted herself featured in an Essence article discussing the state of book banning alongside fellow Black authors.

Bayron outside of indie bookstore Books Are Magic in Brooklyn on June 23.

Wrapping up her tour on June 23 at Word Up Community bookstore in Bronx, N.Y., Bayron read from the first chapter of This Wicked Fate and appeared in conversation with LoMas Lit Book Club facilitator Memphis Washington.
Back in the early 1990s, avid audiobook listener Robin Whitten couldnt have known that her passion for that medium would lead her to a whole new career publishing a magazine devoted to it, but thats exactly what happened. The publication she founded, AudioFile, marks its 30th birthday this summer and she reflected on how the venture initially got off the ground, how it has evolved and where its headed next.

Pre-AudioFile, Whitten would visit her public library in Portland, Me. (where she was a board member) to check out new titles and talk audiobooks with the librarys director. He and I would chat about the great voices we were listening to, she recalled. We realized that when there was any conversation about audiobooks, it was all about the content, the story, and no one ever mentioned the narration; and its really a performance art. The two also agreed that it would be helpful for librarians to have reviews of those audiobook performances so they could purchase and recommend good ones. And, as it was the era of desktop publishing, Whitten soon realized that was something she should doeven though she had another job and didnt know the first thing about producing a newsletter on her computer.

But by 1992 Whitten had researched and experimented with the process, solicited support from some audio publishers, recruited a few fellow listeners, and in June of that year she launched AudioFile with a 12-page issue containing 25 reviews. Fast forward to 2022 and the print edition of AudioFile publishes six times per year with more than 100 reviews in each issue and also contains narrator profiles and feature articles.

Like most print publications today, AudioFile has expanded beyond paper and offers a free digital newsletter as well as two podcasts Behind the Mic, showcasing recommendations from editors and reviewers and bonus material from narrator interviews; and Audiobook Break which allows listening to a book serialized chapter by chapter. In addition, each week, the AudioFile team posts 50 new reviews online via its newsletter and social media accounts. (The best/most interesting/most relevant of these then comprise the print issue.)

As a niche publication, AudioFile has weathered storms that have wiped out lots of other print media. We never depended on newsstand distribution, Whitten explained. We still have quite a good group of publishers who support us with print advertising and also support us with some of the other digital initiatives that we do, whether its sponsoring the podcasts, or webinars, or just the straight up web advertising." An important advertising base remains indie publishers who get exposure in AudioFile that they wouldnt otherwise get, she says.

And shes happy that theres room for various iterations to coexist in the AudioFile ecosystem. My philosophy about the website and other platforms as well, is that its more important to me to have people use and access our recommendations and our reviews, than to try to extract what is really a small amount of money from them in order to do that. So our reviews are open to people, because we want them to see them and read them and use that information to find a good audiobook.

Whittens 30 years at the AudioFile helm have run parallel to a period of enormous change in the audiobook industry. One of the interesting things to me is the flow of publishers, in and out the audiobook space, she says. In 1992, there were a couple of big, independent players, and the Big Five were kind of, maybe were interested, but its sort of a stepsister here and maybe were going to invest but not too much. But that has changed so that the big publishers have invested massively and changed whats available and put all their marketing and business power behind it. As the larger companies got bigger many independent publishers either were acquired or sold, but Whitten says she is seeing a resurgence of smaller publishers and innovators in the audio space. "I think immediately of Pushkin, because they are doing such interesting sorts of work with sound design and programming of all kinds," she says.

Another notable industry change in Whittens view has been the availability of audiobook self-publishing for indies, authors, and small publishers. She notes since its inception, AudioFile has published 55,000 reviews, representing titles released by 1,700 publishers.

Apart from the coming and going of audio publishers, the other seismic shift in the industry is format, she said. I really thank the Audible engineers who figured out how to make the digital files that we now have on our phones, and anywhere, because it was totally revolutionary. That shift broadened the base of who could listen, where you could listen, all of those things.

Whitten sees more innovation coming. The great interest in podcastshow that exactly plays out for the audiobook industry, and plays with it, essentially, is still evolving for us, she says. Whitten is also encouraged by the recent APA statistics that showed much of the industry growth is coming from younger listeners. Thats so important for any industry, to not let your audience age out.

Whitten is also looking forward to change closer to home. Were very excited about the August launch of a new technology for a digital edition of AudioFile from eMags, she said. Its very mobile friendly, readable, and scrollable. Also on the agenda is the official AudioFile anniversary celebration this weekend, which includes an special version of the magazines annual July lobster bake, held in Maine where the company continues to be headquartered. The party comes on the heels of todays release of a 30th anniversary sizzle reel video featuring congratulations from narrators around the globe and the unveiling of a unique blueberry pie created by Stephanie Hockersmith, aka Pie Lady Books, known for her book-cover pie pictures on Instagram and inspired by the cover of AudioFiles June/July anniversary double issue.
For the third year in a row, the American Booksellers Association held its annual meeting virtually, followed by a Town Hall with 268 booksellers and other guests. The meeting, originally scheduled for May 26, had been postponed due to an accident involving ABA CEO Allison Hill.

Board president Christine Onorati of WORD Bookstore in Jersey City, N.J. and Brooklyn touted its accomplishments this past year. Besides a $3 million investment in IndieCommerce, the board established a social responsibility component to the organizations investment policies and a vendor review policy. Its conflict of interest policy was updated, and a more transparent system has been established for CEO oversight. Full recaps of board meetings are also now posted on the ABAs website, and the board holds virtual office hours We have worked hard to be as transparent and accessible as possible as part of our commitment to change, Onorati said.

Board v-p and secretary Kelly Estep, co-owner of Carmichaels Bookstore and Carmichaels Kids in Louisville, Ky.,reported that as of July 1, ABA membership was up 6% over a year ago: there are 2,023 bookstore members operating in 2,506 locations and 207 provisional members. There were 215 ABA member store openings in 2021 and 41 closings, plus 85 stores opened since January.

In her CEO report, Hill recounted the ABA's accomplishments over the last year. Those included fighting back against the book challenges and bannings that have escalated in the past year, supporting anti-trust legislation  including advocating that Congress pass the American Innovation and Choice Online Act -- and promoting DEI efforts within the organization, which included establishing the Advance Access program for Underrepresented Voices.

Concluding her report, Hill noted, Year two of the pandemic proved harder than year one in many ways, in part because, as several of you said to me at the spring regional shows, it's hard to keep going back to a well that's dry. Many of you have told us you feel depleted. I know the news the past few months may have added weight to your already heavy shoulders, and I'd like to tell you that it's going to get easier, but we're not quite there yet. It will get easier though. And the good news is that the disruption you have experienced has revealed your core of creativity, resilience, and commitment, and generated innovation and insight, all of which have positioned this industry for a brighter future."

Town Hall

The meeting was followed by the traditional Town Hall where the ABAs changes to its Ends Policies was one topic of discussion. Sarah Goddin of Quails Ridge Bookstore in Raleigh, N.C. asked if the ABA board plans on revisiting the changes that have been made, or might even poll member bookstores for their opinions. Board member Cynthia Compton of 4Kids Books & Toys and MacArthur Books in suburban Indianapolis assured Goddin of the board's "unwavering" commitment to free speech. She urged booksellers to remain engaged with one another and with the board. Let's keep talking, she said, And let's just keep talking today.

In response to a question by Matt Norcross of McLean and Eakin Bookstore in Petoskey, Mich., the board moved on to another issue that has long concerned booksellers: consolidation within the industry.

Its something were all thinking about, were all concerned about, Danny Caine of The Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kan. responded, noting that the board was taking a global look at where the industry is and where the industry is going and how best to position ourselves. Hill added that the issue of consolidation in the industry goes hand in hand with our antitrust work and is something that were concerned about.

The ABA is completing its annual business meetings with publishers, Hill noted, and will be reporting on them to its membership in coming weeks in Bookselling This Week. She disclosed that at least one publisher who had extended buying terms to indies during the pandemic has experienced significant growth in the indie sector as a result. We've been sharing that with other publishers as kind of a case study and a best practice as far as we're concerned, Hill reported, noting also that publishers are most concerned with supply chain disruptions and discoverability.

During the pandemic, she told booksellers, publishers lost out on the value proposition that you all offer, which is someone coming into your store and discovering a new author, discovering a new book. That's obviously changed as stores have reopened, but there still is some concern around discoverability and how it helps drive sales.

In response to a question by Janet Geddis of the Avid Bookshop in Athens, Ga. as to whether the ABA was collectively over-correcting in terms of limiting discussions of prices and costs, given the size of the industry, Hill emphasized that she had discussed this with the ABAs attorneys and that she had been assured by legal counsel that the organization was doing the right thing. Its not about our size, its about the potential for collusion in the marketplace.

During the year, several ABA board members resigned for different reasons and as the Town Hall wound down, several current board members took the opportunity to testify about how transformative being on the ABA board has been for them and suggested that booksellers might nominate themselves or others.

"It's hard but it's really worth it, and I certainly didn't know that this was going to be the experience I'd have walking into it, and I'm going into my fifth year now," said Angela Maria Spring, owner of Duende District Books, which has pop-up stores in Washington, D.C. and Albuquerque. "I have grown so much as a person, as a bookseller, as a colleague, it has truly been a life changing experience and I don't say that lightly."

Its hard work, but I will say that out of all the things I do, I feel like this is one of the most important, Melanie Knight of Books Inc. in the San Francisco Bay Area declared, It means a lot to me to be on this board. It means a lot to me to have my voice heard."

Editor's note: This story has been revised to fix misquotes and mischaracterizations. We apologize for originally attributing the quote made by Angela Maria Spring to Cynthia Compton.
Premium online access is only available tosubscribers. If you have an active subscription and need to set up or change your password, please click here

New to PW? To set up immediate access, click here.

NOTE: If you had a previous PW subscription, click here to reactivate your immediate access. PW site license members have access to PWs subscriber-only website content. If working at an office location and you are not "logged in", simply close and relaunch your preferred browser. For off-site access, click here. To find out more about PWs site license subscription options, please email Mike Popalardo at: mike@nextstepsmarketing.com.
Russian President Putin signs law on retaliatory blocking of foreign media in Russia

Context State Duma adopts bill on retaliatory blocking of foreign media in Russia

MOSCOW, July 15 (RAPSI)  President of Russia Vladimir Putin has signed a bill empowering Prosecutor General and his deputies to prohibit foreign mass media in Russia in response to unfriendly actions by foreign states regarding Russian media working abroad into law, according to the official website of legal information.

The new law also gives Prosecutor General and his deputies the right to suspend operations of any media in case of dissemination of false information that poses a threat to the life and health of people, public security and operation of certain organizations; fake and damaging information on the work of Russian army and state bodies concerning the maintenance of peace and security.

The grounds for the suspension of media activities may also be the publication of information expressing disrespect for the state, its bodies, official symbols and society.

Under the law, the suspension is up to a period of not more than 3 months, and up to 6 months in case of repeated violation. However, those restrictive measures may be lifted sooner if illegal content is removed. In addition, a media outlet's license may be rescinded if it repeatedly violates the legal provisions.
Searchlight Pictures announced the release date for the upcoming Empire of Light. The film will arrive in theaters Dec. 9.

ADVERTISEMENT

Sam Mendes wrote and directed the movie. Olivia Colman stars in a romance set in a 1980s English seaside cinema.

The Dreamland theme park in Margate, Kent, was transformed into the Empire Cinema. Kent Online reports the set dressing for the film lasted from February through May 15, when the original sign was restored.

Micheal Ward, Colin Firth, Tom Brooke, Tanya Moodie, Hannah Onslow, Crystal Clarke and Toby Jones also star in Empire of Light. Roger Deakins is the cinematographer, who also worked with Mendes on Skyfall.

Empire of Light is Mendes's second screenwriting credit after his previous film, the WWI drama 1917. Mendes also directed American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Jarhead, Revolutionary Road, Away We Go and the James Bond films Skyfall and Spectre.
Paramore is going on tour in 2022.

ADVERTISEMENT

The rock band announced a new North American tour, their first in four years, on Friday.

Paramore will kick off the fall tour Oct. 2 in Bakersfield, Calif., and bring the venture to a close Nov. 19 in Mexico City, Mexico.

Tickets go on sale July 22 at 10 a.m. local time, with pre-sales to begin July 20 at 10 a.m.

Paramore released its fifth studio album, After Laughter, in 2017 and is working on a new album. Frontwoman Hayley Williams discussed the album in an interview with Rolling Stone in January.

"We wrote and tracked something we loved and it actually surprised us," Williams said. "We kept joking it was all downhill from that point, but thank God we've been surprised a lot throughout this whole thing."

"Our output has always been all over the place and with this project, it's not that different. We're still in the thick of it but some things have remained consistent from the start. 1) More emphasis back on the guitar, and 2) Zac should go as Animal as he wants with drum takes," she added, referencing drummer Zac Farro.

Paramore consists of Williams, Farro and Taylor York. The new album will mark the band's first as a trio.
Brattleboro, VT (05301)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun during the morning will give way to cloudy skies this afternoon. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 82F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy with occasional showers overnight. Low 61F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
TOWNSHEND  With a countdown to budget season underway, the West River Education District School Boards long-term planning process is coming to a crucial point.

We have 60 days to make a decision about the operational structure of our buildings and what is that going to look like July 23, and also what is the longer-term work, Superintendent Bill Anton said at the board meeting Wednesday, not only making a decision for the budget but also what is the longer-term goal for structure that the board will be giving to the public.

The next long-term planning meeting is scheduled for Aug. 1 and will include a review of information previously presented by task forces looking at elementary and secondary education in the district, financial implications for closing schools, high school graduation data and school quality information published by the Vermont Agency of Education.

Anton said hes being asked by the board to check in with an attorney to clarify different considerations communities may take in trying to exit the district, as Jamaica residents have suggested. He also agreed to ask how the districts articles of agreement, which merged previously individual school districts together, could be amended to guarantee no school closures to help ensure job security for staff and teachers.

Last year, a committee presented an idea to host a single campus in Townshend and an immersive learning center in Jamaica. In October, the board voted 9-2 to budget for the current building configurations of three elementary schools in the district and Leland & Gray.

Long-term planning continued with public input prioritized. About 20 community members volunteered to serve on task forces and surveyed residents from the district member towns of Brookline, Jamaica, Newfane, Townshend and Windham.

In June, the board heard from the task forces. Presentations touched on the potential of closing an elementary school and Leland & Gray Union Middle and High School.

The board has a tough decision to make and its definitely not going to completely please everyone, board member Lindsey Bertram said at the time. We really need to look for small wins. Theres a lot of things that everyone can get behind, and the more of those things that we can put together, the easier its going to be for everyone to get on board with whatever we choose to do.

Claussen said he thinks the board received some pretty clear guidance at a long-term planning meeting Monday that we are looking for value.

A quality report for the pre-K-12 schools has been identified as a project the district should undertake.

We want to get a third party, Claussen said. I think administration, everybody, agrees thats a fantastic idea to have a third-party review. It just further emphasizes what we do as a school and any necessary improvements.

Anton said Windham Central Supervisory Union hired a group to conduct an operational audit of instruction in 2017. WCSU, of which the district is a member, has used that as a guide over the last five years for making improvements.

Board member Drew Hazelton, who served on the committee pitching the central campus last year, questioned whether the review would pause long-term planning for a couple of years.

Anton said he believes the review of the pre-K-12 schools could occur quickly and be robust. He also didnt see it as requiring the board to stop decision making on operational structure.

Hazelton wanted a clear timeline on deciding whether school buildings would remain structured the same way.

Because weve already kicked it a year, he said. To me, it sounds like were going to have our staff, students and parents hanging out, wondering about the future of Leland & Gray again.

Anton said he sees structural changes and school quality reviews as separate decisions. The latter is simply a deep dive into the value of what is being provided instructionally to our citizens, he said.

I could be wrong, but I would not suggest or want anything that would put off a decision that the board has committed to making by October, he said.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

BRIDGEPORT  When Glenn Pettway Jr. killed himself last month rather than surrender to the crowd of heavily-armed Tennessee police that had surrounded a house there, the Garcia-Dumeng family felt cheated.

Pettway was accused of fatally shooting his former girlfriend, 30-year-old Marisol Dumeng, while out on bond for another murder and the victims family had hoped to confront him in court.

Instead, a large group of family and friends  many wearing T-shirts with Dumengs photograph  gathered in the Golden Hill Street courthouse Thursday morning to see the woman, Melanie Castro, who allegedly helped Pettway escape this area, be arraigned.

Today was Marisols birthday, said her mother, Lorraine Garcia, as she stood with family outside the arraignment courtroom. I just want justice for my daughter.

Others in the crowd could barely maintain their composure.

He (Pettway) got the easy way out, said one woman. And she (Castro) has to face justice for what he did.

Police said Dumeng, who had a protective order against Pettway, was in her Knoll Place home when the 28-year-old Pettway forced his way into her home on the morning of May 28.

The doorbell camera recorded her final words, Im pregnant, as police said Pettway pulled out a gun and shot her in the head, neck, torso and extremities.

The 21-year-old Castro was smiling as she was brought handcuffed into the crowded courtroom Thursday afternoon.

She is charged with being an accessory to murder and second-degree hindering prosecution.

Senior Assistant States Attorney Pamela Esposito asked for a high bond.

Some in the crowd hissed as Castros lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Michael Paris, urged Superior Court Judge Tracy Lee Dayton to release his client to home confinement, arguing that Castro has no prior criminal record.

Im not going to do that, retorted Dayton. The crime is beyond abhorrent, a woman was shot dead in cold blood.

The judge ordered Castro held in lieu of $1.5 million bond and continued the case to Aug. 2.

Pettway was free on $1 million bond for a 2018 murder at a local motel when police said he killed Dumeng. Just days before police said he had made threats that he was going to kill her.

Police obtained a warrant charging him with Dumengs death but by then Pettway had fled the area.

On June 2, U.S. Marshals got a tip that Pettway was hiding out in a house in Jackson, Tenn.

Surrounded by dozens of officers from the Jackson SWAT team, bomb squad and investigations unit, Pettway held a gun to a 9-month-old infant as they tried to convince him to surrender Wednesday evening, said Jackson Police Chief Thom Corley.

After several hours of negotiations, he said Pettway agreed to hand over the child. Pettway then fled into the house where he fatally shot himself, Corley said.

According to Castros arrest warrant affidavit, Castro was Pettways girlfriend and had driven him to Dumengs home so that he could kill the victim and then drove him away. The affidavit states that there are indications Castro had previously planned out Pettways escape route, setting up an initial hiding place for him with her relatives in North Carolina.

Following the shooting, the affidavit states that Castro drove Pettway to North Carolina and then to Jackson, Tenn., before she returned to Bridgeport.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP)  Cariol Horne started her morning outside the Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, placing white roses at a colorful memorial to the 10 Black people slain there two months ago by a white gunman.

Across the fenced-off parking lot, the supermarket chain's president and employees were preparing to lead media on a preview of the refurbished store, a day ahead of its Friday reopening to the public.

Horne, a 54-year-old activist and retired Buffalo police officer, is among those in the neighborhood who say it's too soon.

Were pretty much shopping on peoples blood, she said. I think that this is more about putting people to work rather than letting them heal.  Just two months ago, these people were running for their lives.

Yet even Horne carries the mixed emotions of seemingly everyone in the community, where the store has doubled as a gathering spot for two decades.

Her 97-year-old father, a World War II veteran, lives close enough to the market to shop there on his own. The produce at Tops is fresher than the foods available at smaller convenience stores and bodegas in the neighborhood, she said. She gets it.

How do you decide how, when or even whether to let the site of a mass atrocity return to being what it was before it was a crime scene? How do you help people move forward without erasing the memory of an event that devastated so many?

Its hard enough to answer those questions when its a school, a church, a synagogue. Its a different sort of hard when its a place of business, especially one as central to a community as Tops is to east Buffalo.

It took six months for a movie theater to reopen in Aurora, Colorado, after a mass shooter killed 12 people there in 2012. That was one theater in a 16-screen suburban cineplex.

Tops is the social hub of its neighborhood. That's why frequent shoppers, the stores managers and employees, community leaders and those who lost loved ones in the hail of bullets two months ago tell The Associated Press simply: Its complicated.

On the one hand, residents fought for years to win a grocery store on Buffalo's east side, which had long suffered from disinvestment and lackluster economic activity. The arrival of Tops in 2003 was a godsend to an area that had been considered a food desert.

On the other hand, polishing store fixtures and floors is a far cry from addressing the systemic inequality and unhealed trauma in east Buffalo's Black community, several residents said.

Tops President John Persons said Thursday that the company began hearing from customers, community members and civic leaders the day after the May 14 shooting. Almost immediately, the company started running a free shuttle from the neighborhood to other Tops stores.

Ultimately, the management team felt confident that store associates and most area residents needed and wanted the store to reopen.

Ill be honest, those are the people that we really wanted to listen to, the people that were in the neighborhood, the people that were in the Jefferson Avenue neighborhood and the immediate community to find out what their thoughts were, Persons said.

On Friday morning, store associates handed single carnations to customers as they entered the newly reopening store. Some also received Tops gift cards  the store planned to hand out more than 200 of them, a representative confirmed.

The key to life is to get back to living, said shopper Alan Hall, who lives two blocks away from the Jefferson Avenue store. We're happy that it's open. It looks good. It's well stocked. Of course, there's still that undercurrent of grief, which will never leave. But it's good to be back.

The store has a calming palate of muted grays and greens. Over the entrance are Adinkra symbols, one representing peace and harmony, another hospitality and generosity and a third, farewell and goodbye.

Everything you see here was taken down to the bare walls, Persons said. Its all fresh product. This is all new equipment. All throughout, from the ceiling to the floor has been repainted or redone.

It is also made to be safer, with a new emergency evacuation alarm system and additional emergency exits. Outside, the parking lot and perimeter have new LED lighting.

Fragrance Harris Stanfield, a customer relations employee of Tops, returned to the store Thursday for the first time since the shooting. She initially struggled to get past the foyer, just inside the entrance.

I couldnt really pass the threshold. At that point, it just was extremely overwhelming, very emotional, Stanfield said. But everyone was so supportive and they knew I needed a moment.

What calmed her were the water fountains flanking a memorial and poem displayed in tribute to the shooting victims. At the base of the fountain, a sign reads, To respect the requests of some of the victims loved ones names are not included on this memorial.

Tops says it is working with state, city and community leaders to create a permanent public memorial to be installed outside the store.

Stanfield said she understands why some believe its too soon to reopen.

I think theres still a place of mourning and grieving, she said. Were still kind of in a blaming space, where they need somewhere to focus that energy. And so its just being focused here, which is completely understandable.

Near the stores entrance, signs labeled community counseling hung from pitched tents. On Thursday, residents looked on from behind the fence, some of them angrily, as Tops managers hosted the press event.

Part of the anger stems from a sense that not enough effort was made to seek enough voices from the community.

No ones come door to door to ask the people, who live within a mile, or four blocks, or even two blocks of Tops, Are you comfortable with this? What do you want here? said David Louis, another activist who, like Horne, recognizes that others miss not just the goods on Tops' shelves but the good in its aisles.

This is such a family store, its so close to everyones homes, said Louis, who frequently walked the four blocks to the store wearing Crocs and house pants. When Im in Tops, I know that these people arent judging me.

Robert Neimeyer, director of the Portland Institute for Loss and Transition, said reopening a site of a mass atrocity can be like walking a tightrope. The Buffalo market, in particular, isnt just a typical business, he said.

It really is a kind of linchpin of that community, and so it has enormous cultural and practical significance, Neimeyer said. Its just as important a place to live as it is to mourn.

Still, he said, Not every site of mass homicide in the United States can become a 9/11 memorial, whether its in Uvalde or Buffalo.

He said the store managers would send a strong message to the community if Tops funneled a portion of the proceeds from grocery sales to a scholarship fund.

In that way, even shopping in the store becomes a commemorative act, Neimeyer said.

Mark Talley, the son of Buffalo shooting victim Geraldine Talley, said he grew up going to the Tops on Jefferson Avenue with his mom. Now, hes hoping to honor her memory through advocacy, community service projects and a fledgling nonprofit organization.

The 33-year-old also attended the Tops preview event Thursday and said he understands why there are mixed feelings.

When I was first asked this question weeks after it happened, I said, No, I want the Tops closed. I want it to just be dedicated to all the loved ones there, Talley said.

But if you do that, then you just succumb to defeat, he said. I dont want the east side of Buffalo to seem weak. I want us to become stronger than that. Lets just build it back up.

___

Associated Press writer Carolyn Thompson contributed to this report. Morrison is a New York City-based member of the AP's Race and Ethnicity team. Follow him on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/aaronlmorrison.
Stuart Westmorland / Getty Images

NORWICH  A dolphin was spotted in the Thames River in Norwich on Thursday, according to Mystic Aquarium staff members.

The aquarium received reports of the mammal that morning. The aquarium reached out to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which advised Mystic to monitor it, an animal rescue technician with the aquarium said in a Facebook video.
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, officials in Connecticut and elsewhere spoke proudly of following the science  of making decisions based less on what was easy or convenient and more on what would protect the most people from a spreading pathogen.

But more than two years into the crisis, some experts in virology, epidemiology and medical ethics say the opposite has happened, that top officials have made decisions primarily based on political expedience, with little regard for the science. That, they say, has left Connecticut and the United States ill-prepared to deal with the new, highly infectious subvariants now spreading through the population.

Among other concerns, experts point to a loss of funding for genomic surveillance, making it difficult to track the emergence of new variants; the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventions five-day isolation guideline, which they describe as having limited scientific basis; and the insistence that one is fully vaccinated after two vaccine doses, despite evidence of waning immunity. Some also question whether public officials in Connecticut have effectively conveyed the risk of COVID-19 at the current phase of the pandemic and how best to curb its spread.

Politics got in the way of public health, said Nathan Grubaugh, a professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, who tracks COVID-19 in Connecticut. We see this happen over and over again, on local levels, state levels and at the federal level.

With COVID-19 still spreading in large numbers but most residents hardly seeming to notice, the gap between how medical experts see the pandemic and how state officials and the general public treat it has rarely been larger.

Whereas epidemiologists say masks remain valuable in curbing spread and indoor public spaces are still risky, most residents have long since ditched their face coverings while happily crowding into bars and concert venues. Whereas immunologists say higher vaccination rates are necessary to curb future waves, Connecticuts vaccine push has largely stalled, with low uptake rates for newly eligible groups. And whereas physicians warn that COVID spread can be highly dangerous, with serious costs for individuals and communities, top public officials say theyre focused primarily on hospitalization figures.

Last month, Connecticut announced it would no longer report COVID-19 numbers daily, reflecting the view of state officials that the disease no longer poses a singular risk and can be treated, more or less, like just another virus.

Asked this week whether Connecticut continued to follow the science around COVID-19, Max Reiss, a spokesperson for Gov. Ned Lamont, said 2022 is a completely different world from 2020, citing the states relatively high vaccination rate and the availability of masks, tests and treatments.

I dont think theres one definition of following the science, Reiss said. We have therapies today, we have vaccines today, masks are readily available today.

Reiss said that while the state will continue to provide the tools to fight the pandemic, behavior is very much up to the individual now.

But as the BA.4 and BA.5 variants cause spikes in transmission nationwide  including in Connecticut, where cases, positivity rates and hospitalizations are all trending upward  some experts wonder whether society has moved on too quickly, whether officials have made decisions for the right reasons, and whether the current pandemic fatigue is likely to carry over to future threats, beginning with monkeypox.

We dont know how to message clearly, said Art Caplan a Ridgefield native and founder of the bioethics department at New York University. Or were messaging in a way that tamps down anxiety and results in our being poorly protected and in unnecessary illness.

Containing spread vs. limiting hospitalizations

At the heart of current debates around how to confront COVID spread lies a fundamental question: Amid the spread of highly contagious variants, are cases still preventable (and worth preventing), or is it time to think about the pandemic strictly in terms of serious illness?

Many public officials seem to have decided on the latter approach. As recently as Tuesday, Lamont replied to a question posed on Twitter about N95 masks for people who cant afford them by saying, erroneously, that we are currently seeing infection rates rise, but not hospitalizations. (COVID-19 hospitalizations are currently at their highest level in more than a month, state numbers show, though they remain far lower than during the worst phases of the pandemic.)

In an interview Thursday, Dr. Manisha Juthani, the states public health commissioner, said the Department of Public Health was primarily pursuing a harm reduction strategy.

I would not say that we have given up on prevention of transmission of the virus, said Juthani, who was previously an infectious disease specialist at Yale New Haven Health. However, we know the virus is unfortunately here to stay.

Under this increasingly popular reasoning, young and relatively healthy people can feel comfortable taking greater risks, while older people and those with underlying conditions might choose to take more precautions.

There is still a high rate of community-level transmission, but hospitalization rates have been low, Dr. David Banach, hospital epidemiologist at UConn Health, said last week. Who were seeing hospitalized are generally people with high-risk conditions. So I think everyone is making their own risk calculation.

Other experts, however, arent ready to treat COVID infection as inevitable. They note that letting the disease spread wildly increases the chances it will find its way to elderly and disabled people who remain at high risk, and that the disease will mutate further as infections spread and immunity wanes. They also cite the risk of long COVID, which now affects one in 13 American adults, according to the Census Bureaus Household Pulse Survey.

Do we need to be thinking about the pandemic differently? I think thats what a lot of us are struggling with, Grubaugh said. There is going to be a point where we stop caring about infections so much and were going to care mostly about those cases of severe disease. But are we there yet? Not really.

To Grubaugh, current policy sends mixed messages about whats important. If cases no longer matter, then why are people still required to quarantine when theyre infected? If cases still do matter, why arent officials taking more significant steps to curb them?

If we are just concerned about disease, if were only tracking hospitalizations now, and deaths, then why is there an isolation at all? he asked.

As Caplan sees it, the shift away from a focus on cases has represented a capitulation to COVIDs spread  and the severe illness and death that comes with it.

Part of the response to COVID has been to preserve the health care system, and when that factor diminished, then battling illness or the threat of future challenges diminished too, Caplan said. COVID became a third-rail issue that many of the public didnt want to talk about anymore.

Precautions fall away

When CT Insider recently asked four infectious disease experts about what COVID precautions they continue to take, all said they try to avoid crowded indoor spaces, and three of the four said they regularly wear masks in public.

With young children at home, I continue to mask in public, indoor places, Dr. Scott Roberts, associate medical director for infection prevention at Yale New Haven Hospital, said. I do take my mask off outside, and I think there is a much lower risk of transmission outside. But for indoor events I continue to mask.

And yet visit any restaurant, grocery store or shopping center in the state, and masks are scarce at best. Face coverings are not mandated in any Connecticut town or city, and few businesses require them for patrons. Even health care settings are no longer required by the state to mandate masks, though most still do anyway.

It hasnt helped, some experts say, that the CDC and other federal agencies have provided often confusing, sometimes contradictory guidance. Currently, the CDCs COVID-19 community levels map lists each Connecticut county as having low or medium amounts of risk, while the same agencys community transmission map lists the entire state as having substantial or high transmission.

Meanwhile, the CDCs announcement late last year that people with COVID-19 need to quarantine for only five days before resuming activity was met with raised eyebrows from many experts, some of whom saw the agency as caving to public pressure.

Connecticut officials have often looked to CDC guidance in setting their own COVID-19 policies. As the CDC itself has led factors beyond following the science seep into its decision-making, so has the state.

[The CDC] has always been sort of behind the curve, and theyve always been sort of meek in their pronouncements, said Dr. Howard Forman, a professor of public health policy at the Yale School of Medicine. I think its a hard job that the CDC has, but I am disappointed in our overall federal public health effort.

Meanwhile, officials at various levels of government have often deferred decisions to those below them. The federal government has allowed states to set their own policies. In Connecticut, the state has passed off masking rules to municipalities. In turn, those municipalities have then told individual residents to make their own decisions.

In Connecticut, they punted on a lot of issues to allow every school system has to decide for themselves if theyre going to wear masks, instead of taking it on themselves, Grubaugh said. Often the more difficult decisions are left for [officials] at a smaller and smaller scale.

Over the last six months, as the final Connecticut municipalities have shed their mask mandates, state officials have encouraged residents to make their own decisions about masking and other precautions. Juthani, for example, has said that she makes a personal judgment about when to wear a mask and that others would have to do the same.

When we talk about our toolbox have an arsenal of things that we have to combat COVID-19 masks is one of them, she said Thursday.

Yet with residents left to make their own decisions about masking with limited guidance from public officials, the result has been relatively little masking at all, regardless of what experts say is best, and regardless of what might be necessary to protect vulnerable people from a rapidly spreading disease.

Nobodys wearing a mask, Caplan said, and we have no idea how to message to them to get them to put one on.

Playing politics

At some point during the pandemic, even the leaders who initially prided themselves on prudence and caution began to make concessions, first to economic considerations and eventually to what they perceived as popular opinion. In Connecticut, Lamont and Juthani have often spoken of the need to consider not only which guidance people should follow but also what guidance they will follow.

Forman, from the Yale School of Medicine, said these considerations are understandable, even inevitable, in pandemic response.

Its not enough to say, [Lamont] should have done this, this and this if there wouldve been an enormous backlash that wouldve resulted in the [legislature] removing the emergency order earlier or something, Forman said. Theres a real political calculation that goes on here, and I think he figured out how to balance it properly.

At various points during the pandemic, Lamont faced criticism from Republicans, including current GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowksi, over what they considered heavy-handed COVID restrictions. Now, as Lamont prepares to face Stefanowski in November, the governor may not want to risk reigniting the issue.

[Lamont] is running against a man who is clearly going to make COVID restrictions a central point in his campaign, Forman said. I have no doubt that as we get closer to Election Day, Stefanowski is looking to pounce on him if the governor does anything that riles up the public.

For Carlin, this explanation isnt particularly satisfying. As he sees it, pandemic decision-making has often seemed reactive to criticism, rather than proactive.

This has been the case at the federal level, Caplan said, and has trickled down to states like Connecticut.

Since the thing started, it has been a series of ill-thought-through decisions, and this is both Trump and Biden, with more attention to the politics than public health, leaving us in a situation where were causing potential long-term harm, he said, putting the vulnerable at risk in the name of, I think, very immoral choice to give up.

Now, as monkeypox spreads through the United States, including in Connecticut, Caplan wonders whether COVID fatigue is influencing Americans to take the new threat less seriously than they should.

Meanwhile, COVID continues to infect tens of thousands of people, hospitalize hundreds and kill dozens, all while most of society collectively shrugs.

The virus isnt exhausted, Caplan said, but we are.
DANBURY  For more than a decade, the Tickborne Disease Prevention Laboratory, or Tick Lab, at Western Connecticut State University has focused on the prevention of Lyme and other infectious diseases transmitted by blacklegged ticks in the northeastern United States. Its goal is to help residents avoid illness by managing tick populations and reducing risk of exposure to ticks.

In June, researchers from the WCSU Tick Lab identified Asian longhorned ticks in the parking areas of Penfield Beach and Jennings Beach in Fairfield, and are advising town officials on mitigation strategies.

The innovational labs most recent research effort is a collaboration with the University of Rhode Island TickEncounter Resource Center and was funded by the Centers for Disease Control. The Deer Fence Tick Suppression Study is evaluating whether deer fencing on single residential properties suppresses host-seeking blacklegged (Ixodes scapularis) ticks. WCSU biology students are conducting the field work, research and review along with faculty.

Many of our labs studies look at how tick-borne diseases can be prevented peridomestically, meaning keeping out of ones own yard, by changing patterns of human behavior, interfering with the tick life cycle, or by managing the landscape, said Dr. Neeta Connally of WCSUs Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences. Our study examines whether having a deer fence actually reduces the number of ticks found on residential properties, she said.

Connally, a medical entomologist, founded and oversees the WCSU Tickborne Disease Prevention Laboratory, also known as the Tick Lab.

The Deer Fence Tick Suppression Study evaluates the impact of deer fence on the abundance of blacklegged ticks by comparing half- to six-acre residential properties with deer fence (treatments) to similar properties without deer fence controls in southwestern Connecticut, Westchester County, New York, and southern Rhode Island. Critical to the field work is WCSU student participation. Since 2011, more than 40 undergraduate students have contributed to WCSUs Tick Lab projects. For this study, Sophia Chiaia 24 of Bethel, a WCSU undergraduate honors biology major, and Lin Vitarbo 23 of Newtown, also a biology major, actively worked in the fields and labs during the fall of 2021 and again this summer.

This study is important due to the high risk of tickborne diseases; if we can find out that deer fences help lower the chances of tick populations it could help keep families safer from coming into contact with ticks, said Vitarbo. She also hopes to find a pattern of data that would provide some insight into newer tick control and preventative measures for tick safety for the public.

Both Chiaia and Vitarbo traveled to different study sites to sample the quantity and types of ticks found on the inside edge of the fencing, interior forest areas and outside the fence. The goal was to see if deer fencing makes an impact on tick quantity versus unfenced yards.

Chiaia learned how dangerous the yard can really be, as the risk for tick exposure is extremely high not only in the woods but in people's backyards. She noted that this study is so important to human health and wellness since it will help residents stay informed with what they can do to keep themselves and their families safe. Lyme disease cases continue to rise. It's important we all take the necessary precautions when going outside, even just outside of our homes. This includes doing tick checks, showering within two hours of being outside and wearing clothes that cover us well, she said.

According to Connally, past studies found that the presence of residential fencing has been associated with reduced Lyme disease risk (Connally et al. 2009), possibly by preventing introduction of Ixodes scapularis ticks and reducing the density of host-seeking ticks. A 1993 study of large fenced regions of more than six acres within a private estate in Westchester County, New York, showed 83% fewer I. scapularis nymphs present within fenced areas compared to areas immediately outside of deer fencing, but the impact of deer fencing on the density of host-seeking Ixodes scapularis ticks specifically at residential properties less than six acres in size is unknown; this is what Connallys study hopes to determine, and she expects to share the studys results by the end of summer 2022.

With this study, we hope we to understand the impact of deer fencing on the density of deer ticks in smaller residential properties - that way the CDC can inform residents what precautions to take when going outside and in their yards. This will hopefully decrease the exposure of deer ticks to humans, especially the smaller nymphs that can go undetected for longer periods of time and spread the agent of Lyme disease, student researcher Chiaia added.

Both student researchers indicated that they feel fortunate to participate in the incredible opportunities that WCSU offers biology students and to be a part of something so important and meaningful to human health. To me, biology is a great career path because every day I work toward advancing and helping people by aiding in scientific research for the future while also doing something I love, said Vitarbo.

In the eastern United States, the blacklegged tick is the primary vector of several human pathogens, including those that cause Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, Borrelia miyamotoi disease and Powassan virus disease. Lyme disease alone is estimated by the CDC to account for nearly 500,000 cases of human illness every year in the United States, with the vast majority of cases occurring in the Northeast and Upper Midwest.

Studies in the WCSU Tickborne Disease Prevention Laboratory have been funded by multiple agencies, including the CDC and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Tick Lab researchers collaborate on tickborne ecology and prevention projects with several other academic, scientific, public health and community partners, including the Town of Ridgefield Health Department, Nuvance Health, the CT Department of Public Health, the CT Emerging Infections Program at Yale, the CDC Division of Vector-Borne Disease, the TickEncounter Resource Center at the University of Rhode Island, and several regional land trusts and environmental advocacy groups.

To learn more about WCSUs Tickborne Disease Prevention Laboratory and undergraduate Biology and M.S. in Integrative Biological Diversity programs, go to www.wcsu.edu/biology/ or contact WCSU Public Relations at pr@wcsu.edu
Critics say change to Cambodian Constitution would reduce the power of the National Assembly.

In a file photo, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen (L) poses with his son, Hun Manet (R), during a ceremony at a military base in Phnom Penh.

UPDATED at 2:25 p.m. EDT on 2022-07-15



The body designated with reviewing changes to the Cambodian Constitution gave its OK on Thursday to a proposal critics say will make it easier for Prime Minister Hun Sen to transfer power to his son Hun Manet.

The process for choosing Cambodias leader under Article 119 of the constitution as now written states that the National Assembly must approve a prime minister who has been designated for the role by the countrys king.

The proposed changes to 119, approved by the Constitutional Council of Cambodia (CCC), would eliminate the need for the assembly to approve the designated prime minister, and would only require that he notify the assembly's president of the designation.

Additionally the prime minister could appoint an acting prime minister in times of temporary absence, under a proposed change to Article 125 of the constitution that was also approved by the CCC. Hun Sens Cabinet has previously approved the changes. The changes must still be approved by the assembly, which is now made up entirely of representatives from Hun Sens ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP).

"The amendment makes the National Assembly lose power," Yang Saign Koma, founder of the small opposition Grassroots Democratic Party, told RFAs Khmer Service. This isnt needed. We need transparency. The amendments are not necessary, especially on 125 and 119.

Cambodians should get a chance through a national referendum to vote on the proposed changes, he said. Consideration of the amendments is being rushed to ensure Hun Manet succeeds his father, who has ruled the country since 1985 and is now 69, Yang Saign Koma said.

This is aimed at transferring power after the 2023 general election, he said.

In 2023, Cambodian voters will go to the polls to elect members of the assembly. If the main opposition Candlelight Party were to win a significant number of seats, the transition of power from father and son could be more complicated under the current constitution. The party won about 20 percent of seats in this years commune council elections, making it Cambodias leading opposition to the CPP.

The amendments show that the CPP does not want to relinquish its power, Candlelight Party Vice President Thach Setha told RFA.

Candidates for the CPP won every seat in the assembly in the 2018 election after the Supreme Court dissolved the Cambodia National Rescue Party, which had been the leading opposition party, the previous year. That sparked a five-year crackdown on political opposition by Hun Sen and his cronies.

"The government should wait until there are multiple parties in the assembly after the 2023 election, Thach Setha said. Maybe [the CPP] thinks it would be difficult to do under a new National Assembly. [The amendment] is not necessary. The CPP treats the country as if it has an emergency. This creates a lot of suspicion.

Exiled political analyst Kim Sok told RFA that the amendment makes it unlikely that anyone outside Hun Sens family becomes prime minister after him.

The amendment is to serve Hun Sens power transfer plan for the Hun Dynasty, he said.

Cambodias minister of justice, Koeut Rith, on Thursday defended the proposed amendment, saying that it would close loopholes surrounding high-level government offices in the event of vacancies.

Due to the current situation, it is risky to have the prime ministers position vacant so amending Article 125 will fill the gaps in the constitution, he said.

There are four major points, to appoint an acting prime minister, [clarify] reasons for the vacant prime minister position, as either death and resignation, in order to maintain the legislation continuation through speedy new cabinet appointments," he said.

The proposed amendment would change a total of eight articles. Thursday's approval sends the amendment to the National Assembly for debate.

Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

UPDATE: Clarifies language in clauses of the proposed changes to Article 119.
Five years after the death of Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo from advanced liver cancer during an 11-year prison sentence for subversion, concerns remain for the health of many other free speech advocates who remain behind bars in China, a Paris-based press freedom group has said.



"In China, detained journalists are almost systematically subjected to mistreatment and denied medical care," Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in a statement on the fifth anniversary of Liu's death.



The statement cited the case of political commentator Yang Tongyan who died from an untreated cancer while in detention, and that of Kunchok Jinpa, a leading source of information about Tibet for journalists, who died in 2021 as a result of ill-treatment in prison.



"Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the international community to finally step up pressure on the regime for it to put an end to its policy of censorship and media surveillance," the group said.



Liu's sentence came after he co-authored Charter 08, a document calling for sweeping changes to China's political system that was signed by more than 300 fellow activists on Dec. 10, 2008.



"Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, freedom to choose where to live, and the freedoms to strike, to demonstrate, and to protest, among others," the document demanded.



"Without freedom, China will always remain far from civilized ideals."



Humanitarian China director Wang Jianhong, who founded the Zhang Zhan Concern Group in support of jailed citizen journalist Zhang Zhan, said Zhang's health is a matter of grave concern.



"We have no news about Zhang Zhan in nearly six months, and we are actually very worried about her health there in prison," Wang told RFA.



"While her family saw Zhang Zhan in a video call at the end of January, and said they saw her condition had improved and she could walk by herself, but there was no exact indicator [provided to them], such as her weight," Wang said.



Zhang is currently serving a four-year jail term for "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble" after she turned up in the central city of Wuhan and started reporting from the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, then in its early stages.



At one point, campaigners said she was on the verge of dying after months of partial hunger strike and forced feeding.



Her family have been denied permission for another video call or an in-person meeting, Wang said.



Jewher Ilham, daughter of jailed Uyghur professor Ilham Tohti, says she fears her father could share Liu Xiaobo's fate.



"I always feel that my father and Liu Xiaobo were soulmates," she told RFA. "They have very similar views and expectations, that is, peaceful coexistence; and their experiences are also very similar in that they have been jailed. The experiences of the two of them are also very similar, that is, they were both controlled and detained by the Chinese government."



"On the anniversary of Mr. Liu Xiaobo's death, I am not only heartbroken for Liu Xiaobo and his family, but also very worried about my father," she said.



"I didn't know what happened to Mr. Liu Xiaobo. And what happened to my father?"



"In a Xinjiang prison, with such a high-pressure environment and very poor hygiene, it is really hard to predict what will happen to my father's health," Jewher Ilham said. "I honestly don't think he will be in very good health in there."



RSF published a list of 15 free speech defenders currently behind bars whose health is worsening, including China Rights Observer founder Qin Yongmin, dissident Yang Hengjun and Zhang Haitao, Swedish Hong Kong-based bookseller Gui Minhai and Huang Qi, founder of the 64 Tianwang rights website.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Chinese internet giant Sina Weibo says it is banning the use of puns, homophones and other word-play claiming to be "typos" by people wanting to get around automated blocks and filters and refer to politically sensitive topics behind the Great Firewall.



"In order to clean up cyberspace and maintain a civilized and healthy online community, this site will focus on rectifying violations of the site's policy regarding the use of homophones, variants, and other "typos" to publish and disseminate low-quality content," the platform said in a July 13 statement on its official Weibo account.



Weibo said it will "intensify investigations and ... illegal behaviors" around puns and soundalike phrases, and "standardize the use of Chinese characters."



Mandarin Chinese has tens of thousands of characters but only about 400 pronunciations, lending itself readily to puns and soundalike expressions.



Social media users have long made use of this capacity by substituting in different characters that sound similar to banned phrases, which include references to ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leaders and sensitive keywords like June 4 (for the 1989 Tiananmen massacre) and anything else the authorities don't wish to see online.



"This platform calls on the majority of netizens to express their views in a civilized manner and standardize the use of Chinese characters when participating in community discussions," Weibo said. "If you find relevant illegal content, please report it ... and we will deal with it in a timely manner."



More recently, the phrase "narrow-necked bottle," which uses characters with the sound "xi jing ping" has been used to reference CCP leader Xi Jinping.

Meanwhile, the Chinese name of the Dutch financial institution ABN-AMRO, which directly translates as "Dutch bank" has come to mean "Henan banks," because of the similar sounding Mandarin words for the Netherlands and Henan. The term references recent protests by locked-out depositors in the central Chinese province.

While not a pun, the phrase "535," or May 35th, has also long been used to reference June 4, or the Tiananmen massacre, Hunan dissident Ouyang Jianghua told RFA.



"June 4th is a sensitive word, so we write May 35th," Ouyang said. "Do the math. There are only 31 days in May."



The letter "S" has long been used to express the Chinese word for "death." It was unclear whether acronyms, which often depict expletives or insults, like "NMSL" for "ni ma si le," which means, "your mother is dead," would also be targeted.



Independent political analyst Wu Zuolai said the use of homophones also brings cheer to some people's day.



"This phenomenon is a cultural phenomenon that makes people laugh," Wu told RFA. "Netizens use numbers, homonyms, or other well-known ways to obscure certain expressions."



"It has caused mayhem when it comes to the use of Chinese characters. Nobody uses Chinese characters normally any more," he said. "If you write the truth, you offend the government."



Wu said the move was likely in response to the successful circumvention of censorship during the Henan rural bank protests of recent weeks, as well as the Shanghai COVID-19 lockdown.



"People gathered or protested offline in many ways, which aroused the vigilance of the authorities," Wu said. "The [CCP] 20th National Congress is about to start, and people could use a lot of deformed characters and homophones to poke fun."



"This would deconstruct the authority of the CCP and make a mockery of serious and high-minded mainstream voices," Wu said, adding that he expects people to come up with other ways to communicate their thoughts despite the crackdown on puns.



Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Around 4,000 locals were forced to flee junta airstrikes on around 15 villages in Myanmars northwestern Sagaing region on Thursday. The attacks are part of a three-day scorched-earth campaign that continued Friday. It involved around 100 troops, targeting residents of a township that has fiercely resisted military rule.

Four helicopters carried out raids on the villages in Depayin township, killing a man, identified as Khin Maung San, and injuring another man and a woman.

Khin Maung San died on the spot and the injured woman was critically wounded in the bladder. She was treated by military council forces, a local told RFA on condition of anonymity. The residents fled and didnt return until the military left. The conditions on the ground are very bad.

The local said around 100 residents who could not flee were interrogated and had the contents of their mobile phones searched by the military to check whether they had contacted Peoples Defense Forces (PDFs).

These are not the first air strikes on Depayin this month. Residents said two military helicopters fired on three villages on July 2.

Township residents have fiercely resisted the junta that have been ruling the country since the Feb.1, 2021 coup, offering support to local PDFs. The junta has tried to control opposition by cutting off mobile phone and internet access.

More than 100 residents of Sagaing region were killed by junta forces in the first 15 months after the coup. Casualties across Myanmar have risen above 2,000.

Calls to the military council spokesman by RFA to ask about the raids on Depayin went unanswered on Friday.
Youdon, 20, was arrested earlier this week and is reportedly being held in Lhasa.

Youdon, who was arrested on July 11, 2022, in an undated photo.

Chinese police arrested a 20-year-old woman named Youdon this week for possessing a photograph of the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, a source inside Tibet confirmed to RFA.

Youdon was reportedly arrested on July 11, as Chinese authorities ramped up their crackdown on Tibetans in the days surrounding the Dalai Lamas 87th birthday on July 6, which many Tibetans celebrated despite heavy restrictions.

The police accused Youdon of acting together with her sister Zumkar for keeping a photo of the Dalai Lama in their home. Youdon is Zumkars younger sister, the source said. Zumkar was arrested on June 23.

Youdon was arrested in her hometown of Tsarang Township, Amdo County in Tibets Nagchu region.

The source also told RFA that Youdon is currently being detained in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, but that no further details were available. Zumkar, 27, was the first to be arrested when police found a photo of the Dalai Lama on an altar, a sacred part of Tibetan households where religious objects like statues and scriptures are kept, and prayers are offered.

Another source, living in exile outside of Tibet, also confirmed Youdons arrest to RFA.

Last year RFA reported the arrests of 20-30 Tibetans around the time of the Dalai Lamas 86th birthday.

Other residences in the area are also known to have been investigated by the Chinese authorities for having images of the Dalai Lama, who Beijing argues is a separatist leader calling for Tibetan independence.

The Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), which represents Tibetans-in-exile, advocate a political solution where Tibet would remain part of China, but where Tibetans would maintain a level of autonomy over their own cultural and linguistic affairs.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government has intensified its campaigns against Tibetans by punishing them for the possession of banned photographs that include pictures of the Dalai Lama, as well as cracking down on the speaking and teaching of Tibetan language.

Despite increased security, a source told RFA that Tibetans inside Tibet who write essays and articles in praise of His Holiness the Dalai Lama on the occasion, and the articles are widely read and shared on social media.

The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists around the world, and is a global representative advocating for the protection of Tibetan culture, language, and history.

The Dalai Lama fled Tibet into exile in India in the midst of a failed 1959 Tibetan national uprising against rule by China, which marched into the formerly independent Himalayan country in 1950.

Displays by Tibetans of the Dalai Lamas photo, public celebrations of his birthday, and the sharing of his teachings on mobile phones or other social media are often harshly punished.

Chinese authorities maintain a tight grip on Tibet and on Tibetan-populated regions of western China, restricting Tibetans political activities and peaceful expression of cultural and religious identity, and subjecting Tibetans to imprisonment, torture, and extrajudicial killings.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Written in English by Nawar Nemeh.
Critics say the cars represent another threat to the rights of Uyghurs in the region, experts say.

Municipal police roll out driverless police patrol cars to monitor shopping centers, tourist spots and some residential communities in Karamay in northwestern China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, June 2022.

China has introduced a new method of surveillance in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region: 20 driverless electric patrol vehicles.

China began testing its first domestically manufactured high-tech patrol car in Karamay (in Chinese, Kelemayi), an oil-rich city in the northern part of the region. The self-driving patrol car was first launched there in February with five cars, though the fleet has since been expanded to 20, state-owned news agency Xinhua reported on June 29.

Zhao Wenchuan, the secretary for the citys Chinese Communist Party Committee, has said Karamay was chosen as the production and testing base for the smart patrol vehicles because it is the leading digital city in the region.

The unmanned surveillance patrol vehicles are expected to be deployed throughout Xinjiang, according to Chinese media reports.

The cars, dubbed the Little Patrol, are manufactured by Zhongke Tianji (Xinjiang) Aerospace Information Co., Ltd., according to a March 30 report by the Karamay Daily.

The vehicles are patrolling the citys main shopping centers, tourist spots and some residential communities 24 hours a day, Zhao Guoxin, head of the Karamay municipal police bureau, told Xinhua.

The cars are being used to plug holes in areas that lack surveillance cameras and work in concert with the police officers, drones and other video systems, he said.

When RFA contacted the municipal police bureau for information about the vehicles, a person forwarded the call to the Qurum (Kunlun) Road Police Station out of which the self-driving electric patrol cars operate.

This is the first time a driverless patrol car has been tested. When we remotely control its antenna at our station, it goes on patrolling itself, a Chinese police officer who did not provide a name told RFA.

It has radar installed. If there is an accident or it is interrupted or the police report a signal, it can send a signal to us through that radar, he said.

The driverless patrol cars are equipped with eight surveillance cameras that can rotate 360 degrees, the police officer said before the call abruptly ended.

They also have more than 20 types of special features, including anti-collision sensors, according to a report on Tengritagh (Tianshan), the official website of the Xinjiang government. The vehicles collect data and deliver it with high efficiency, the website states.

The smart patrol cars are also equipped with facial recognition and tracking technology to collect data on suspicious incidents to send to the Integrated Joint Operation Platform, the main system for mass surveillance in Xinjiang.

Its other advantage is that this car can replace one to three police officers and perform a full-time, 24-hour patrol, the report said.

The launch of the Little Patrol has heightened intelligence gathering as it also has reduced spending on police officers, the chief of the Qurum Road police station told reporters in the Karamay Daily article.

Zhang Feng, technical director of Zhongke Tianji, told the newspaper the driverless surveillance cars were first tested in Karamay because the city has excellent data processing capabilities. A smart patrol car manufacturing plant is also located there.

This is the first time a driverless intelligent police patrol vehicle has been used in Xinjiang. After the pilot project in Karamay, these cars will be rolled out across Xinjiang, Zhang Feng was quoted as saying.

'Scaring the people'

Experts on Chinas policies in Xinjiang expressed concern about the introduction of self-driving surveillance cars.

This is just the next step in setting up that perfect police state, ensuring that the police have total power, said Geoffrey Cain, a U.S. journalist who wrote the book The Perfect Police State: An Undercover Odyssey into China's Terrifying Surveillance Dystopia of the Future.

While Chinas use of surveillance technology in the XUAR is nothing new, the use of the autonomous police vehicles are meant as another warning to local residents, he said.

The Chinese government likes to pretend that it is the master of technology, that it has all the best technology, but what its really doing is scaring the people, Can told RFA. Its scaring the Uyghur people by making it look like the technology is sophisticated when the equipment is quite basic and elementary.

Its more like the perception or the idea that the [government] is always watching that makes people scared. Its just that they don't realize when or where they're being watched, he said.

Maya Wang, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the Chinese governments use of driverless patrol vehicles in Karamay is a continuation of its efforts to enhance and expand the police surveillance system in the XUAR.

The deployment of these cars certainly is part of that intensive investment in policing, surveillance and repression in the region, she said.

The violation of the right to privacy has knock-on effects on almost every single right  the right to practice religion, the right to freely express yourself, the right to associate and assemble. Those are fundamental rights that Uyghurs and residents of Xinjiang are deprived of because these systems essentially create an all-seeing system that makes the exercising of these rights impossible, Wang said.

Zhongke Tianji said it plans to produce 3,000 smart cars.

Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
An expert says the trip was meant to show that repressive policies in the region have been successful.

Xi Jinping (C) waves to residents of Urumqi during a visit to the Xinjiang capital, July 12, 2022.

UPDATED at 2:41 P.M. EST on 2022-07-15

Chinese President Xi Jinping made an unannounced visit to the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi this week, state media reported Thursday, marking his second trip in eight years to the region where rights groups and several Western nations accuse him of carrying out a genocide against Uyghur Muslims.

The official Xinhua news agency said Xi inspected Xinjiang University, an international land port area, a residential community, and a museum during his visit, which lasted from Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday morning.

Xi learned about the work in nurturing talent, coordinating COVID-19 response with economic and social development, promoting ethnic unity and progress and consolidating the sense of community for the Chinese nation, among others, the report said.

Other state media reports included images of Xi leading exuberant locals through the streets of the capital, receiving applause during his inspections, and observing ethnic dance performances.

In a report on Friday, Xinhua quoted Xi as having "stressed efforts to fully and faithfully implement the policies of the Communist Party of China (CPC) for the governance of Xinjiang in the new era, highlighting social stability and lasting security as the overarching goal."

Xis visit marked only his second in eight years to the region where Chinese authorities have ramped up their repression of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities since 2017, detaining up to 1.8 million people in internment camps. The maltreatment also includes severe human rights abuses, torture and forced labor as well as the eradication of linguistic, cultural and religious traditions.

Credible reports by rights groups and the media documenting the widespread abuse and repression in the XUAR have led the United States and some parliaments in Western countries to declare that the Chinese governments action amount to a genocide and crimes against humanity.

Adrian Zenz, a researcher at the Washington, D.C.-based Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and expert on the Xinjiang region told RFA Uyghur that Xis visit was likely a bid by Beijing to repudiate allegations of rights abuses and project an image of stability  in terms of ethnic policy and economic development to a global and domestic audience.

He noted the symbolism behind Xis return to Urumqi where, during his last visit in April 2014, the Chinese leader delivered an internal speech changing the direction of Beijings policy in the region to one in which the central government runs Xinjiang as a virtual police state.

Prior to the directive, Uyghurs were permitted a tightly-controlled version of autonomy in the region, but regularly faced discrimination and other forms of repression that prompted members of the ethnic group to carry out sporadic, violent attacks against Chinese rule.

It certainly is a symbol that Beijing feels firmly in control of the region. That there isnt a concern about any attack or instability, said Zenz, who in May published a trove of classified documents detailing the detention of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in the region, known as the Xinjiang Police Files.

On the one hand, it's a message to his domestic constituencies  the Han  that Xinjiang is part of China. Policies are going well. And a very similar message, I think, is being portrayed to the international audience, to the U.S. and others. But also  to countries who've been supporting Beijing's Xinjiang policy or at least been silent on criticism.

Xi's visit prompted concern from the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress (WUC), with the group's President Dolkun Isa noting that the last time the Chinese leader traveled to the region "he laid out the system that would be responsible for the ongoing Uyghur genocide."

"This means even darker days are coming for Uyghurs. The international community cannot turn a blind eye to this," he said.

Isa said that Xi's comments calling on officials to "faithfully implement" Beijing's policies in Xinjiang "should shock the conscience of the international community."

"In fact, Xi Jinping was instructing the Chinese officials in East Turkestan to fully and faithfully implement the party's ongoing genocidal policies against the Uyghur people in full force," he said, using a name preferred by Uyghurs for their homeland.

"It was Xi Jinping who set in motion of Chinas current policy of Uyghur genocide right after his visit in 2014, and now he plans to complete it ... The international community should not simply watch the unfolding genocide but take real and meaningful action to end it as soon as possible.

Ilshat Hassan Kokbore, a political analyst based in the U.S. and vice chairman of the executive committee of the WUC, told RFA that Xis visit was meant to send a message that he doesn't care about the serious concerns of the international community regarding China's ongoing genocide of Uyghurs.

The ruthlessness of his regime is clear from the orchestrated meetings, singings and dancings of the very people who are facing genocide under his watch, he said.

Kokbore added that he believes Xis visit was also meant to reinforce his authority to the people of Xinjiang and to show solidarity with the Chinese officials who are implementing his policies in the region.

Xis visit to Xinjiang marked the first time he had been seen in public for nearly two weeks  his longest absence of the year. Earlier this month, he had traveled to Hong Kong to appoint a new leader there on his first trip outside the Chinese mainland since January 2020 at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

It was not immediately clear why Xis trip to Xinjiang was not announced ahead of time, although public appearances by the leader are often made public days after the event.

Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Updated to include additional state media quotes by Xi Jinping during his visit and comments from World Uyghur Congress President Dolkun Isa.
Project 78 was set up last year to eliminate the Duong Van Minh group.

Police trying to persuade members of Duong Van Minh to denounce the sect.

The police have been working for the past year to eliminate a religious sect based in northern Vietnam, according to a police newspaper.

On Tuesday the Cong an Nhan dan, which is the mouthpiece of the Ministry of Public Security, published an article about Project 78. It said its goal is to "fight, prevent, and proceed to eliminate the illegal Duong Van Minh organization," in Bac Kan province.

There are roughly 8,000 ethnic Hmong practitioners of the Duong Van Minh religion in four provinces in the northern mountains.

The religion is not officially registered and the police article said the government believes the sect is conspiring to "establish an independent Hmong state" and break away from Vietnam.

"The illegal sect Duong Van Minh, which has existed for more than 33 years, is an organization hiding in the shadow of beliefs and religions, propagandizing, gathering mass forces, enticing the Hmong ethnic people, plotting to establish an independent Hmong state, seeking the support of hostile forces, and forming political opposition, the article said.

Followers of the sect have repeatedly denied claims they want independence. Duong Van Minh was founded in 1989 with the stated goal of promoting the elimination of outdated, expensive and unhygienic funeral customs.

Hmong funeral services can last as long as a week before the body is buried. All family members are expected to attend the ceremonies, sacrifice animals and prepare feasts for the guests.

Last December hundreds of police raided the funeral of founder Duong Van Minh, in Tuyen Quang province, citing Coronavirus concerns, despite the official cause of his death being lymphoma.

Police arrested around 35 people, smashed windows in the family home and threatened the family with electric batons.

Nine more people were arrested when they went to the police to protest and another four were later charged with assaulting police officers.

On May 18 this year, a court in Tuyen Quang province convicted 12 followers of "resistance against on-duty state officials, and sentenced them to between two and four years in prison.

Over the years Vietnamese authorities have imprisoned many sect members for abusing freedom and democratic rights and have destroyed dozens of religious structures used as funeral homes.

The abolition of the Duong Van Minh religion was turned into political goal in provinces where members of the sect live. In Bac Kan, the provincial government has set a road map to eliminate the sect by next year.

Another northern province, Cao Bang, has already included the goal of "preventing and eliminating" the sect in its resolution on socioeconomic development for 2020-2025.

A human rights lawyer, who did not want to be named for safety reasons, said the governments plan to abolish the Duong Van Minh sect is a serious violation of the people's right to freedom of belief and religion. It shows that this State does not respect its Constitution and the laws that it promulgates."

Article 24 of Vietnam's constitution stipulates that everyone has the right to freedom of belief and religion, to follow or not to follow a religion. The State respects and protects the right to freedom of belief and religion, the lawyer said.

He added that Project 78 proved that the State had decided to destroy the lives of Duong Van Minh followers.

If it is a state that knows how to take care and think for the people, the government must be responsible for helping and guiding people, he said. They set up such a project obviously to erase [the religion], not to acknowledge the Duong Van Minh sect."

The Vietnamese government has always insisted that it does not suppress religion, and calls Duong Van Minh's sect an "illegal organization".

However, international organizations and foreign governments, including the U.S., have refused to accept the claim and regularly accuse the Vietnamese government of violating the right to religious freedom.

According to the Report on Religious Freedom 2022, released by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom on April 25, the situation of religious freedom in Vietnam is still assessed as negative due to the governments religious persecution.

The organization suggested that the US Government place Vietnam on the list of countries of special concern because of its systematic, persistent and serious violations of religious freedom.
Tehran says Salman Rushdie is to blame for the stabbing that left the award-winning author seriously wounded as Washington slammed Iranian state media for its "despicable" reaction to "this heinous attack."

In its first reaction to the stabbing, Tehran on August 15 "categorically" denied any link with the attack that occurred three days earlier in the western part of New York state.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said freedom of speech did not justify Rushdie's insults against religion. His 1988 novel The Satanic Verses is viewed by some Muslims as containing blasphemous passages.



"[Regarding] the attack on Salman Rushdie, we do not consider anyone other than himself and his supporters worthy of...reproach and condemnation," Kanaani told a news briefing on August 15. "No one has the right to accuse Iran in this regard."

Rushdie was taken off a ventilator on August 14 and was able to speak after suffering serious injuries in a knife attack as he was preparing to speak at a panel on the topic of freedom of creative expression at the Chataqua Institution.

Tehran was initially silent on the attack, but U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned Iran's state media for its reaction.

"Iranian state institutions have incited violence against Rushdie for generations, and state-affiliated media recently gloated about the attempt on his life," Blinken said in a statement issued late on August 14. "This is despicable."

The man accused of attacking the author of the novel The Satanic Verses has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault charges in what a prosecutor called a preplanned crime.

An attorney for Hadi Matar entered the plea on his behalf during an arraignment. A judge ordered him held without bail.

Rushdie, 75, suffered a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm and an eye in the attack. He is likely to lose the injured eye.

Matar, 24, is accused of running onto the stage at the Chautauqua Institution and stabbing Rushdie at least 10 times in the face, neck, and abdomen.

NBC News quoted a law enforcement official as saying that Matar's social media accounts showed him to be sympathetic to Shi'ite extremism and the causes of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

There are no definitive links to the IRGC, but the initial assessment indicates he is sympathetic to the Iranian government group, the official said, according to NBC.

"More than a literary giant, Rushdie has consistently stood up for the universal rights of freedom of expression, freedom of religion or belief, and freedom of the press," Blinken said in his statement.

"While law enforcement officials continue to investigate the attack, I am reminded of the pernicious forces that seek to undermine these rights, including through hate speech and incitement to violence," he added.

The Satanic Verses was banned in Iran. A year after it was published in 1988, Irans leader at the time, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa calling for Rushdies death.

Irans government has distanced itself from Khomeinis decree, but anti-Rushdie sentiment has lingered. In 2012, a semiofficial Iranian religious foundation raised the bounty for Rushdie from $2.8 million to $3.3 million.

Rushdie, who was forced into hiding for many years because of the fatwa, dismissed that threat at the time, saying there was no evidence of people being interested in the reward.

In 1991, a Japanese translator of the book was stabbed to death and an Italian translator survived a knife attack. In 1993, the books Norwegian publisher was shot three times and survived.

Khamenei has never issued a fatwa of his own withdrawing the edict, though Iran in recent years hasnt focused on the writer.

Born in Mumbai, India, Rushdie holds British and U.S. citizenship and has lived in New York since 2000.

Matar was born in the United States to parents who emigrated from Yaroun in southern Lebanon, the mayor of the village, Ali Tehfe, told AP on August 13

Flags of the Iran-backed Shi'ite militant group Hizballah are visible across the village, AP reported, along with portraits of leader Hassan Nasrallah, Khamenei, Khomeini, and slain Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.

With reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters
Britain has expressed shock over the death of a British aid worker while in the custody of Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine and summoned the Russian ambassador to demand an explanation.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss responded on July 15 to reports that British citizen Paul Urey, who was captured by forces fighting against pro-Kyiv troops in Ukraine, died "due to illness and stress" while in detention.

"I am shocked to hear reports of the death of British aid worker Paul Urey while in the custody of a Russian proxy in Ukraine," she said in a statement on Twitter. "Russia must bear the full responsibility for this."

She said Urey was captured while trying to help Ukrainians "in the face of the unprovoked Russian invasion."

A representative of a separatist group in Donetsk announced Urey's death earlier on July 15.

"He died on July 10," the representative, Darya Morozova, said on Telegram. The 45-year-old died "due to illness and stress," she added.

Morozova also said Urey suffered from diabetes.

Urey was detained in April at a checkpoint near Zaporizhzhya along with another British man. They had been operating on their own in the war zone, helping to evacuate civilians.

The Russia-backed fighters described Urey as a "professional" soldier and accused him of "mercenary activities."

Dominik Byrne, co-founder of the charity group Presidium Network, said the Russia-backed separatists in the Donetsk region knew Urey needed a regular supply of insulin to treat his diabetes.

Its obvious that his welfare was not looked after, Byrne said.

The Russian authorities and the separatists denied the Red Cross access to him and the aid group was never able to verify his actual conditions in prison.

Byrne said the Red Cross and other agencies along with the British government tried in vain to secure Ureys release.

We are formally calling for his captors to release his body and help us repatriate it back to the U.K. for his family, he said. We really feel that is of ultimate importance and the least they can do at this stage.

Urey's distraught daughters told Sky News in May that they were "preparing for the worst."

His mother, Linda Urey, said she was "absolutely devastated" to learn of her son's death.

In a message since deleted from Facebook, she accused the separatist leaders of being murders.

She indicated that she had informed her son's captors that he was diabetic.

Based on reporting by AFP, The Telegraph, and The Mirror
For decades, Central Asian governments have kept a tight grip over information. State media dominate and serve as government mouthpieces rather than the public. The few independent outlets face growing financial pressures and efforts to stifle their reporting through a variety of means -- assaults, threats, arrests, and prosecution. Self-censorship is pervasive among journalists and bloggers.

Even in Kyrgyzstan, which boasts a vibrant and pluralistic media environment compared to its neighbors, press freedom has been on the decline. Independent journalists have been detained or harassed by trolls on social media. The ongoing trial of investigative journalist Bolot Temirov on drug charges bears the signs of political persecution, according to his colleagues.

As social media increasingly becomes the main source of news for citizens -- especially young people -- the governments seek to gain more control over those outlets, too. Internet shutdowns and website blocking are widespread, particularly during anti-government protests.

Last year, Uzbekistan made online insult and slander of the president a crime. And Kazakhstan recently passed a law obliging foreign social media networks and messaging apps to register locally, or potentially be shut down.

In a live discussion on July 14, I spoke with Asem Zhapisheva, founder of Masa Media, an independent news website in Kazakhstan that covers human rights, and Nikita Makarenko, a freelance journalist from Uzbekistan, to talk about the tough decisions they have to make in difficult work conditions, the line between journalism and activism, and the future of journalism in their countries.

Key takeaways:

Nikita Makarenko (Uzbekistan): Self-censorship is a question of survival because there is no one actually to protect us. I can't judge anyone, any colleague, who has to stay before the red line and not cross it. And yes, it was very tough for everyone to decide whether to post about the Karakalpakstan [protests] or not, because we've seen those who tried to post -- for example, Gazeta.uz. Their stories were deleted and they were under pressure. Some of us have been directly told not to post about Karakalpakstan.

"Personally, I kept silent for two days, and I was feeling so bad because I love that region. I love its people. After two days, I started to post and felt a huge relief when I started to talk with people about them. I crossed some red lines. It's true. But no consequences so far. This is good.

Asem Zhapisheva (Kazakhstan): I'm not a journalist or a political activist. In the first place, I'm a citizen, and I'm a person who has rights and who wants for some changes to happen. So, as a citizen, I have my right to voice these concerns, and no one can take them from me.... If we look at history, all people who wanted changes were from very different backgrounds. There were doctors, there were workers, mine workers, teachers, students. So I see it as one of my responsibilities as a Kazakhstani citizen to make it better.

"And as it happens, I'm a journalist. And whenever I am at rallies, I never use my license. I never say that I'm a journalist. Whenever I'm detained, I never say that I'm a journalist. I always say that I'm just working. It doesn't matter where I work, or I don't use it as an excuse to avoid any kind of consequences because it would be unethical.

Listen to the full conversation here:

More on the subject from RFE/RL:

Majlis Podcast: Central Asia's Authorities Get Wise To New Media

Karakalpakstan In 'Information Vacuum' As Situation Stabilizes Following Deadly Unrest

'I Can't Handle Lies Anymore!' Kazakh Journalist Quits State TV, Citing Government Control

Uzbek Blogger Critical Of Government Gets Lengthy Prison Term

Inside Kyrgyzstan's Campaign To Silence Journalist Bolot Temirov

Kazakh Online Magazine Says Authorities Exerting Pressure Over Report On Rape Victim

Tajik Court Orders Two-Month Custody For Two Detained Bloggers

Media Watchdog Says Jailed Turkmen Journalist Subjected To Retaliation Over Coverage Of His Case, Calls For His Release

Follow @RFERL on Twitter so as not to miss our regular conversations on life and social change in Central Asia every Thursday at 3 p.m. in Prague/ 9 a.m. in Washington (7 p.m. local time in Bishkek/Almaty/Astana, and 6 p.m local time in Tashkent/Dushanbe/Ashgabat).
The European Commission says it is referring Hungary to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over alleged discrimination against LGBT people, restrictions on media freedom, and gasoline pricing that discriminates against foreign-registered vehicles.

The commission announced the moves in a statement on July 15 as part of its regular package of decisions on infringements that endanger rights, fundamental freedoms, or rule of law among member states.

Entrenched Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been battling Brussels on a range of issues from perceived democratic and rights backsliding, to sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, to enlargement and other EU internal issues.

The LGBT issue has been a particular source of irritation between Brussels and Budapest.

"The Commission is...referring Hungary to the Court for (i) discrimination of LGBTIQ people and (ii) for restricting media freedom and the rights of Klubradio to use radio spectrum," the European Commission said on July 15.

Orban's government passed legal changes in June 2021 that drew sharp criticism from the European Commission, the Council of Europe's Venice Commission, and members of the LGBT community who say they stigmatize sexual minorities and stifle discourse on sexual orientation.

The Hungarian law "discriminates against people on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity," the commission charged again in its infringements update.

The EU's executive arm has balked at taking Orban's government to court on the LGBT legislation over worries its interference could fuel anti-EU resentments.

Orban has repeatedly rejected accusations of discrimination and said the legislation allows parental control of what kind of sex education children receive at school.

Orban has also used his supermajority for more than a decade to exclude independent media and force a consolidation of friendly media owned by allies or under a nonprofit umbrella his party established several years ago.

The Klubradio case stems from a refusal by the Fidesz-dominated Hungarian Media Council to extend that independent broadcaster's license last year.

A Hungarian requirement introduced in May excludes motorists with foreign license plates from a price ceiling introduced last November -- along with other giveaways seen as luring voters ahead of national elections in April that were dominated by Fidesz.

It forces foreign vehicle owners instead to pay market prices for fuel at Hungarian gas stations.

"Finally, to protect the fundamental principles of free movement, which are the cornerstone of the EU's single market, the Commission is launching an infringement procedure against Hungary for having introduced discriminatory fuel prices for vehicles with a foreign number plate," the European Commision said on July 15.

With additional reporting by dpa
The Kremlin has dismissed the controversial head of the Russian space agency Roskosmos, ending a term that was dogged by rampant allegations of corruption and major tensions with other space agencies, including NASA.

Dmitry Rogozin will be replaced as the agency's director general by Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov, who previously served as deputy defense minister, the Kremlin said in its July 15 announcement.

No reason for Rogozins dismissal was given. It was unclear whether he had been pushed out of government entirely or would be given a new position elsewhere.

Rogozin made no public statement after the dismissal. However, a couple hours after the order was published, Roskosmoss press service published a video on its YouTube channel showing highlights of Rogozins tenure. The video concluded with the words: Rogozin. This is just the beginning.

Also not long after the Kremlin order was released, Roskosmos announced a new partnership agreement with NASA, providing for integrated crews on both Russian and U.S. space flights.

NASA has not released any information about a new partnership agreement or commented on Rogozin's dismissal.

A nationalist politician who previously served as a pugnacious ambassador to NATO, Rogozin had overseen Russias storied space agency since 2011, first as a deputy prime minister and then as director general after President Vladimir Putin reorganized the countrys space and military industrial complex.

Roskosmos is a sprawling, billion-dollar state-controlled corporation that inherited an infrastructure and reputation for ambitious space exploration during the Soviet era.

Its also been a key partner in building and operating the International Space Station (ISS), working closely with foreign space agencies including NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) for decades.

Under Rogozins tenure, Roskosmos suffered from a steady stream of critical reports about alleged corruption and theft.

Putin ordered the building of a new spaceport in Russias Far East, but hundreds of millions of rubles have gone missing from the ongoing construction of the facility, called Vostochny Cosmodrome.

Prosecutors have launched criminal investigations into subcontractors, and the head of Russias Audit Chamber, Aleksei Kudrin, has documented more than 30 billion rubles' ($512 million) worth of financial violations at the agency, most recently last month.

Kudrins reports on Roskomoss embezzlement problems have frequently been released publicly in televised meetings with Putin.

Rogozins tenure has also been marked by serious strains with NASA, Russias largest space partner.

Despite a decade of worsening relations between Washington and Moscow, NASA and Roskosmos maintained a working relationship. NASA relied exclusively on Roskosmos to ferry astronauts and supplies to and from the space station after the U.S. shuttle program ended -- a lucrative source of income for Russia.

That began to change in 2020, when the private U.S. company SpaceX successfully flew astronauts to the station, signaling the end of Russias virtual monopoly on transport to the station.

The relationship strained further in 2018 when a small hole was found in the hull of part of the space station. Rogozin suggested publicly that a U.S. astronaut may have drilled the hole deliberately as a way to get back to Earth ahead of schedule.

In 2021, a Russian cargo craft arriving at the station had a misfire, nearly knocking the station out of its orbit.

Later that year, Russia defense officials conducted a test of an anti-satellite weapon, sending a cloud of debris hurtling around the Earth and threatening the ISS. Anonymous officials at Roskosmos said they were unaware of the test, and quietly voiced their own concerns. But the United States responded angrily.

Earlier this month, Roskosmos again drew a rebuke from NASA when three cosmonauts aboard the station posed for photographs with the flags of separatist forces in eastern Ukraine.

The timing of the stunt coincided with Russian claims that its forces completely controlled the Ukrainian region of Luhansk and that its troops were advancing slowly in what appeared to an effort to take all of Donetsk, as well.
SKOPJE -- Lawmakers in North Macedonia have resumed a contentious debate on a French compromise deal to lift Bulgaria's veto blocking Macedonian talks on joining the European Union.

The recent French Presidency's proposal is the only item on the National Assembly's agenda, but arguments could continue into the weekend.

There have been no reports of disruptions or violence.

Thousands of people protested in Skopje and police sealed off the parliament from protesters on July 14 as lawmakers held a raucous first day of debate on the deal, which was recently endorsed by the Bulgarian side.

Opposition deputies inside the parliament chamber blew horns as Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski asked deputies to accept the deal to "move forward, with a protected past, with a certain and stable present, and ultimately a better future."

Deputies loyal to the government applauded him, while some of the opposition shouted, "Traitor! Traitor!"

Rock-throwing and other unrest erupted after reports that Paris floated the compromise late last month.

Bulgaria invoked its veto power on negotiations with would-be members in 2020 to block North Macedonia's candidacy based on accusations that the Macedonian language was simply Bulgarian by another name and that Skopje was disrespecting its shared cultural and historic ties to Bulgarians.

The dispute has underscored regional resentments and risks a further erosion of Balkan faith in the European Union.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen addressed the parliament before the debate on July 14, urging lawmakers to approve the deal.

We want you in the EU, von der Leyen said in the Macedonian language in her speech, telling deputies the Macedonian language is protected in the compromise deal.

The nationalist opposition Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian Unity (VMRO-DPMNE) has led daily protests since the beginning of July over the deal, which opponents say endangers the language and identity of North Macedonia.

North Macedonia has been a candidate for EU membership for 17 years but its approval had been blocked first by Greece over a name dispute and now by Bulgaria, both members of the bloc.

The Bulgarian parliament lifted its veto last month in anticipation of approval in Skopje, also causing unrest in that country and contributing to a no-confidence vote that toppled Kiril Petkov's government.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the EUs foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said last week that in the face of Russias invasion of Ukraine, advancing the path to EU membership for North Macedonia, along with that of Albania, is important to all of Europe.
A special-needs girl was one of at least 23 people killed in a July 14 missile strike on the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsya. Until the very day of the attack, the childs mother had documented the struggles and joy of raising a child with Down syndrome.

These photos of Iryna Dmytriyeva and her daughter Elizaveta were taken in a lavender field near Vinnytsya in early July.

One week after these flower-themed photos were made, several Kalibr cruise missiles struck Vinnytsya, a city to the southwest of Kyiv and far from invading Russian forces.

The missiles killed at least 23 people, including Elizaveta, who was 4 years old. Her mother, Iryna, lost a leg in the attack and is reportedly in a coma.

Iryna wrote that she and her partner learned that Liza was a special-needs child while she was still in the womb.

"When we learned about the pregnancy, we were extremely happy. The perfect picture of the family was immediately drawn in our heads. But fate decided differently," Iryna recalled in an Instagram post. "We were about to go through pain, disappointment in others, humiliation, and fear."

Iryna says she was told by medical experts: "You are young. Why do you need a sick child?"

The couple chose to go ahead, despite knowing their baby would have serious health issues. Both were determined "to show Liza the world, not hide her between four walls."

When Liza was 7 months old, she underwent heart surgery. In the hospital, Iryna described watching "how our girl was taken out of the operating room and transferred to intensive care. Covered in wires, drips.... So small and defenseless." After more than five hours of waiting, the parents were told the operation had been a success.

In June 2019, Iryna announced that "Liza sat down herself! Without support!" She added: "Only a little thing for some, but for us it's incredible. For us, Liza is a fighter and a hero, a strong little girl whom we love to the point of madness."

"For us mothers of special-needs children, every new skill is a great joy -- behind which is a lot of work," Iryna wrote.
Amid concerns over a captured nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the United Nations has dismissed suggestions that it is behind any delays getting international inspectors to the Zaporizhzhye facility, as concerns mount amid reports of shelling around the plant, which Ukraine and occupying Russian troops each blame on the other.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's ongoing invasion, how Kyiv is fighting back, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

Ukrainian and international warnings have intensified as safety crews work at gunpoint and Russians allegedly prepare to divert energy production from Zaporizhzhye, which is Europe's biggest nuclear plant with six Soviet-designed reactors.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in New York on August 15 that the world body's nuclear agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), acts independently but the Ukrainian and Russian sides must agree on a visit.

Dujarric said it was "just not the case" that the UN's executive arm was delaying any trip by IAEA people.

"The UN Secretariat has no authority to block or cancel" a visit to Zaporizhzhya, he said, and moreover has "the security, the logistics capacity" in Ukraine to support it.

"But there needs to be an agreement with Russia and Ukraine," Dujarric added.

The UN comments followed a pledge by Moscow to do "everything necessary" to allow IAEA experts to visit the Zaporizhzhya plant and Russia's defense minister reportedly speaking to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres about the situation at the facility.

Guterres has urged that a demilitarized zone be created around Zaporizhzhya, in southeastern Ukraine near the center of fighting in the five-month-old Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Moscow's overtures came one day after 42 countries from around the world signed a statement urging Russia to withdraw its armed forces from Europe's largest nuclear station, saying their presence posed "a great danger."

Kyiv and some Western leaders have accused Moscow of "nuclear blackmail" in its assaults on Ukrainian nuclear facilities as well as its implied threats to deploy its nuclear arsenal if Ukraine's supporters cross the Kremlin's red lines.

In his nightly video address on August 15, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the international community needs to act to prevent an accident or other catastrophic events at Zaporizhzhya due to Russian actions.

"If now the world does not show strength and decisiveness to defend one nuclear power station, it will mean that the world has lost," Zelenskiy said, according to Reuters. "It will lose to terrorism, and give in to nuclear blackmail."

Zelenskiy warned over the weekend that recent shelling at the plant had increased the threat of a radiation leak. Russia doesn't deny it has troops located at the plant but has disputed claims it has shelled the area. Instead, Moscow blames Ukrainian forces for firing artillery shells there, which officials in Kyiv deny.

The situation at the plant has caused heightened alarm at the United Nations and the IAEA. Both have said IAEA inspectors should be allowed to visit the plant.

"In close cooperation with the Agency and its leadership, we will do everything necessary to make it possible for IAEA specialists to appear at the station," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement on August 15.

Moscow later said that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had spoken to Guterres about the security of Zaporizhzhya.

"Sergei Shoigu conducted telephone negotiations with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres regarding the conditions for the safe operation of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant," the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

It did not elaborate.

Guterres' office did not immediately confirm the conversation or its substance, and it was unclear if spokesman Dujarric's comments reflected any conversation with Shoigu.

On August 14, the statement by 42 countries condemned Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and said the presence of Russian military forces at the plant was preventing authorities from maintaining nuclear and radiation safety obligations.

"It is undeniable that Russias invasion and its continued presence at Ukraines nuclear facilities significantly raise the risk of nuclear incidents and accidents," the statement released on the European Union's website says.

"We urge the Russian Federation to immediately withdraw its military forces and all other unauthorized personnel from the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, its immediate surroundings, and all of Ukraine so that the operator and the Ukrainian authorities can resume their sovereign responsibilities within Ukraines internationally recognized borders and the legitimate operating staff can conduct their duties without outside interference, threat, or unacceptably harsh working conditions.

"Deployment of Russian military personnel and weaponry at the nuclear facility is unacceptable and disregards the safety, security, and safeguards principles that all members of the IAEA have committed to respect," the statement added.

This statement was issued on behalf of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkiye, the United Kingdom, the United States, as well as the European Union.

With reporting by AFP and Reuters
A court in Russia's southwestern city of Krasnodar has handed a four-year prison term to Andrei Pivovarov, the former executive director of the pro-democracy Open Russia movement, on charges of heading an undesirable organization.

The Lenin district court sentenced Pivovarov on July 15 after finding him guilty of leading the Open Russia group. The court also barred Pivovarov from being elected to public office.

In his last statement at trial, Pivovarov said the case against him was trumped up and politically motivated.

"Although those who are calling to stand for the future are being oppressed and jailed, I know that progress is unstoppable, changes for a better life are inevitable, and they are close. See you in our new, desirable, and open Russia. We will make it!" Pivovarov said.

The accusation against Pivovarov stems from a law that has repeatedly been used to target critical voices.

Pivovarov was first detained in May 2021 when he was taken off a Warsaw-bound plane just before takeoff from St. Petersburg.

Leaders of the Russia-based Open Russia dissolved the group more than a year ago after authorities designated it an "undesirable" organization. They said they did so to protect supporters from further "harassment" by the Russian authorities.

Open Russia was financed by Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who moved to London after spending 10 years in prison in Russia on charges widely seen as political revenge for challenging Russian President Vladimir Putin politically.

The "undesirable organization" law, adopted in 2015, was part of a series of regulations pushed by the Kremlin that squeezed many nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations that received funding from foreign sources -- mainly from Europe and the United States.

The Russian State Duma has since dramatically widened the scope of the law, including to bar Russian nationals and organizations anywhere in the world from taking part in activities of such "undesirable" groups.

Putin this week signed into law an expansion of the so-called foreign agents law to allow punishment for anyone deemed to be "under foreign influence," a change that critics say will make it even easier for the state to target its domestic critics.
The United States on July 14 sought to reassure businesses that facilitate Russian food and fertilizer exports that their transactions would not breach sanctions imposed on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

The U.S. Treasury Department issued statements on its website aimed at reassuring banks, shipping, and insurance companies that handle certain Russian commodities that their activities are not restricted by sanctions.

The Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which oversees U.S. sanctions, issued a broad general license to authorize certain transactions related to agricultural commodities, agricultural equipment, medicine, and medical devices.

Enabling exports of Russian food and fertilizer is a key part of attempts by the United Nations and Turkish officials to broker a deal with Moscow that would also allow for shipments of Ukrainian grain that are stuck in silos because of Ukrainian Black Sea ports have been blockaded by the war.

The Treasury Department's announcement says the United States "strongly supports efforts by the United Nations to bring both Ukrainian and Russian grain to world markets and to reduce the impact of Russia's unprovoked war on Ukraine on global food supplies and prices."

The department also issued a fact sheet to further clarify that the United States has not imposed sanctions on the production, manufacturing, sale, or transport of agricultural commodities (including fertilizer), agricultural equipment, or medicine relating to the Russian Federation (Russia).

The U.S. clarification came a day after Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish, and UN officials met in Istanbul for talks aimed at resuming Ukraine's grain exports.

Turkey said after the talks that the parties would return next week to sign a deal.

Moscow has denied responsibility for worsening the food crisis, blaming Western sanctions for slowing its own food and fertilizer exports and Ukraine for mining its Black Sea ports.

Eduard Zernin, head of the Russian Union of Grain Exporters, described the U.S. move as "an act of goodwill" and a "real step in the fight against world hunger."

"We sincerely hope that other countries involved will follow this example and issue the necessary clarifications and licenses in order to remove hidden sanctions that hinder the supply of grain to countries in need," he told Reuters.

The war in Ukraine has sent prices soaring for grains, cooking oils, fuel, and fertilizer, raising concerns that the situation could worsen a global food crisis affecting some of the worlds poorest countries.

Ukraine and Russia are major global wheat suppliers. Russia is also a large fertilizer exporter, while Ukraine is a significant producer of corn and sunflower oil.

With reporting by Reuters
DUSHANBE -- Tajik prosecutors are seeking a life sentence for retired Major General Kholbash Kholbashov for his alleged role in organizing deadly protests in the Gorno-Badakhshan region (GBAO) in May, a charge human rights organizations have called "bogus."

Sources close to law enforcement in Dushanbe told RFE/RL that prosecutors also asked the court to convict and sentence a second defendant in the case, noted journalist and human rights activist Ulfatkhonim Mamadshoeva, to 25 years in prison. Mamadshoeva is Kholbashov's ex-wife.

The trial for the two began on August 3 and is being held behind closed doors on the premises of the State Committee for National Securitys detention center in Dushanbe.

Kholbashov and Mamadshoeva also face several charges of publicly calling for violent change to Tajikistan's constitutional order, organizing a criminal group, murder, attempted murder, and terrorism.

They were arrested on May 18 and later shown on the Tojikiston television channel saying that they, along with opposition politician Alim Sherzamonov and Mahmadboqir Mahmadboqirov, an informal leader in GBAO, had planned and organized the protests. Authorities in the Central Asian nation have claimed those actions were "terrorist" in nature.

The day before her arrest, Mamadshoeva, 65, told RFE/RL that she had nothing to do with the anti-government protests in GBAO's capital Khorugh, and in the district of Rushon.

Authorities say in the footage showing the so-called "confessions" that an unspecified Western country was involved in organizing the unrest. A total of 78 residents from GBAO's Rushon district were arrested at the time.

Mahmadboqirov was killed on May 22 in Khorugh. His relatives say law enforcement officers killed him, while authorities insist he was killed when criminal groups were settling scores.

Sherzamonov told RFE/RL that he had nothing to do with the planning of the riots in GBAO and that he suspects Mamadshoeva and Kholbashov were forced to make their televised statements.

Tajik authorities have said 10 people were killed and 27 injured during the clashes between protesters and police. Residents of the Rushon district, however, have told RFE/RL that 21 dead bodies were found at the sites where the clashes took place.

Deep tensions between the government and residents of the restive region have simmered ever since a five-year civil war broke out shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Still, protests are rare in the tightly controlled nation of 9.5 million where President Emomali Rahmon has ruled for nearly three decades.

The latest protests were sparked in mid-May by anger over the lack of an investigation into the 2021 death of an activist while in police custody and the refusal by regional authorities to consider the resignation of regional Governor Alisher Mirzonabot and Rizo Nazarzoda, the mayor of Khorugh.

The rallies intensified after one of the protesters, a 29-year-old local resident Zamir Nazrishoev, was killed by police on May 16, prompting authorities to launch what they called an "anti-terrorist operation."

The escalating violence in the region has sparked a call for restraint from the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Western diplomatic missions in Tajikistan, and human rights groups.

Gordo-Badakhshan, a linguistically and ethnically distinct region, has been home to rebels who opposed government forces during the conflict in the 1990s.

While it occupies almost half of the entire country, its population is just 250,000. The region is difficult to travel around because of the mountainous terrain, while its economy is wracked by unemployment, difficult living conditions, and high food prices.
Ukraine has touted the effectiveness of international sanctions over Russia's unprovoked invasion after Hungary's leader criticized Europe for "shooting itself in the lungs" with ill-considered financial and economic punishments.

Unprecedented sanctions on business, trade, and travel have been imposed by the European Union, the United States, and other governments since a simmering war with Russia-backed separatists was overtaken by tens of thousands of Russian troops pouring across the border into Ukraine in late February.

"It is not sanctions that are killing the European economy, but Russia's hybrid war," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on July 15.

Earlier in the day, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told an interviewer that if the sanctions aren't rolled back they risk killing off the European economy.

"Initially I thought we had only shot ourselves in the foot, but now it is clear that the European economy has shot itself in the lungs, and it is gasping for air," Orban told Hungarian radio.

He cited rising gas and fuel costs, and called the current situation "unbearable."

Orban predicted a "moment of change" in Brussels and said "the sanctions policy was based on wrong assumptions and it must be changed."

Orban has expanded ties with Moscow while defiantly challenging Brussels in recent years, and he has pushed back hard in negotiations on Russian gas cutoffs with Hungary's fellow EU members.

Moscow has responded to international sanctions with countersanctions and other measures including trying to force previously agreed payments for gas and other goods into rubles instead of dollars or euros.

Orban said the sanctions "don't help Ukraine" and threaten to "kill off the European economy."

"Let me remind you that [sanctions] were introduced in response to the full-scale war launched by Russia against our state, which has already claimed tens of thousands of Ukrainian lives, left hundreds of thousands of critical infrastructure facilities in ruins, and forced millions of people to leave their homes," the Ukrainian ministry countered. "Sanctions help hold the aggressor state accountable for its crimes, as well as weaken its ability to continue waging war."

Orban's national populist Fidesz party won national elections by a wide margin in April to keep him in power for another four years, based in part on a strategy of handouts and caps on some essential goods like fuel.
Residents of the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsya on July 15 mourned the deaths of 23 people killed by a Russian missile strike the day before, while in the east of the country Russian forces pounded other sites in a push to grab more territory.

Among the dead in Vinnytsya were a 4-year-old girl and two boys, ages 7 and 8. They perished in another Russian bombardment of a city located far from the front line that took a heavy toll in civilian lives.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's ongoing invasion, how Kyiv is fighting back, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said air-raid sirens were going off across the country late on July 15, including in Dnipro and Kremenchuk, two cities south of Kyiv along the Dnieper River.



The occupiers are realizing that we are gradually becoming stronger and the purpose of their terror is very simple -- to put pressure on us, to put pressure on our society, to intimidate people, to cause maximum harm to Ukrainian cities, at least while the Russian terrorists are still capable of doing it," he said in his nightly video address to the nation.



The death of the 4-year-old, named Liza, has drawn attention from around the world. She was the daughter of Iryna Dmytriyeva and was born with Down syndrome. Until the day of the air strike, her mother wrote a blog on the difficulties and joys of raising a child with the congenital condition.

Liza's body was found after the attack on Vinnytsya next to a stroller. Images of her pushing the same stroller, posted by her mother on the blog less than two hours before the attack, went viral.



Dmytriyeva, who was severely injured, remains hospitalized in a coma. Doctors said they needed to keep her daughter's death from her because if she found out, "We would lose her."



Zelenskiy's wife, Olena, tweeted that she recognized the girl, who had once been among a group of disabled children who painted Christmas ornaments with the first lady in a holiday video.



Rescue teams searching the rubble in Vinnytsya were trying to locate some of at least 39 people unaccounted for there.

State Emergency Services said at least 52 people were injured in Vinnytsya. The city council there said many of them were in serious or critical condition.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called the attack the "deliberate murder of civilians to spread fear" and said Russia is a "terrorist state."

Russia's Defense Ministry said that it was targeting "a meeting of the command of the Ukrainian Air Force with representatives of foreign arms suppliers."



Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat said it was the third version of Russia's explanation for the attack.



Ignat added that while a building damaged in the air strike belonged to the air force, it served as a de facto cultural institution.



"The largest concerts of Ukrainian stars were held here, dozens of children's clubs, trade unions, and children's organizations worked here," he said. The building included recording studios, a cafe, and a branch of Privatbank, he added.

The Ukrainian State Service for Emergency Situations reported earlier that the Kharkiv Oblast and the regional center were struck with rockets overnight. There were no immediate reports of casualties.



Kyiv has been saying for weeks that Russian forces are trying to make Kharkiv a "frontline city" in the war, which has otherwise shifted heavily to eastern regions around where Russia-backed separatists have held territory since 2014.



The city of Bakhmut also was shelled again on July 15. According to the police, one rocket was fired at the central market of the city in the Donetsk region, two more at a residential quarter.



At least six people were injured in the attack, said Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the regional military administration, on Telegram.



"The city remains one of the hottest spots in the region," Kyrylenko said. He also published a video of the aftermath of the Russian attack.



"The Russians continue to strike along the entire front and in the cities in the relative rear," he said. At least two people were killed and two were injured in the shelling of several towns.



The claims could not be independently verified. Russia denies that it is waging a war of aggression against Ukraine, calling it a "special operation."

As the fighting raged, Russia noted progress in talks on a possible deal to allow Ukraine to use the Black Sea to export millions of tons of grain.



Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov said a final document had been prepared and that other participants had largely supported Russian proposals to help ease grain shipments through Ukrainian ports.



Work on the initiative was to be completed shortly, he said. It would allow shipments of food while excluding the use of those logistical chains for the deliveries of weapons and military equipment to Ukraine. He also said the plan seeks to "prevent any provocations.



Talks on grain exports took place earlier this in Istanbul between Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, and the United Nations. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Russia and Ukraine had taken a critical step toward ensuring exports of the desperately needed grain.

Across the globe, host Indonesia has warned that G20 finance leaders gathering in Bali must make progress tackling the global economic threats sparked by Russia's war on Ukraine or face catastrophic humanitarian consequences.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen condemned Russia's "brutal and unjust war" in Ukraine and said Russian finance officials taking part in the meeting share responsibility for the "horrific consequences" of the war.

During his visit to Israel, U.S. President Joe Biden said on July 14 that "Putins war must be [made into] a strategic failure."
South Africa: Police launch manhunt after 5 killed in Alexandra

Police in Gauteng have launched a manhunt for unknown armed suspects after five people were fatally shot and another five injured at different locations in Alexandra on Thursday evening.

Gauteng South African Police Service (SAPS) spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Mavela Masondo said it was alleged that about four armed suspects went on to rob and shoot people in the area.

Police Minister Bheki Cele is on Friday expected to visit the area.

He said: It is reported that the suspects first met people travelling in a Toyota Etios on Fourth Avenue and Selborne Street and fired shots at them. One person was injured.

The second incident occurred at Eleventh Avenue and Boulevard Street where the suspects found two people sitting in a car charging cell phones as there was no electricity in the area, due to load shedding. The suspects robbed the victims of their cell phones before shooting them. Both victims were taken to medical care centres for treatment.

He said the suspects came across the next victim at Boulevard Street, where he was fatally shot. The next victim was shot at Seventh Avenue where he died on the scene while two people were robbed of their cell phones and shoes.

Masondo said the suspects met and shot three people at Sixth Avenue.

One person was fatally wounded while two victims were taken for medical treatment.

It is reported that the last shooting happened at Sixth Avenue and Roosevelt Road where two people were shot while inside the Toyota Avanza. Both victims died at the scene, he said.

The police have opened five cases of murder, five of attempted murder and armed robberies.

Gauteng Police Commissioner, Lieutenant General Elias Mawela, on Friday strongly condemned the random shootings

He subsequently assembled a team, comprising of different units of the SAPS and other law enforcement agencies, to search for the suspects.

Masondo said one person was arrested after he was found in possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition in Alexandra.

The suspect is still being profiled to establish if he is linked to the shootings. The firearm will be taken for ballistic test to determine if it was used in the commission of crime, he said.

He said police management was concerned about the proliferation of firearms in Alexandra and operations to recover such weapons are continuing.

Police are appealing to anyone who might have information that could help in the investigation or assist in the apprehension of the suspects, to please call the nearest police station or crime stop on 08600 10111 or by giving a tip-off on the MySAPS app. All information received will be treated as strictly confidential, he said.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2022-07-15. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Civilian casualties mount as Russia strikes Ukrainian cities, some close to the front line and some far away. Moscow faces more war crimes accusations, this time over forced deportations and filtration centers. And at home, those who dare speak out against the war face prison terms.

Here are some of the key developments in Russia over the past week and some of the takeaways going forward.

Russian Rockets

Since Russia launched its large-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, civilians have been suffering the consequences: They are dying almost every day, regardless of what the Kremlin says about its targets in the unprovoked war.

This past week offered plenty more proof of that obvious fact, with attacks on several cities and towns in Ukraine killing dozens or possibly hundreds of men, women, and children.

On July 9, Russian rockets destroyed a large section of a five-story apartment building in the town of Chasiv Yar in the Donbas, where fierce fighting has raged for weeks, prompting a frantic search for survivors buried beneath the rubble. The death toll rose to at least 48 as the days passed.

On July 11, a barrage of Russian rockets killed six people in Kharkiv, Ukraines second-biggest city. Russia asserted that the attacks were "pinpoint" strikes on Ukrainian military personnel and "foreign mercenaries," but provided no specific evidence to support that claim.

On July 14, three Russian missiles apparently fired from the Black Sea hit buildings in the heart of the west-central city of Vinnytsya, hundreds of kilometers from the front lines in eastern and southern Ukraine, killing at least 23 people and wounding dozens of others, authorities said.

There were three children among the dead, officials said. Images from the scene appeared to show a dead or badly wounded mother and her small daughter lying in the street. Media reports said the girl was killed and her mother was hospitalized with severe injuries.

Those were only a few of the many attacks in the week after President Vladimir Putin said Russia had not really started anything seriously yet in Ukraine.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that as of July 13, it had recorded 4,432 civilian deaths since the invasion on February 24, including 277 children, but that it believes the actual figures are considerably higher.

Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes, it said.

Of course, deaths, injuries, and physical harm and abuse are far from the only forms of suffering being inflicted on Ukrainian civilians in the war, which had first raged and then simmered in the Donbas for nearly eight years before Putin ordered the large-scale invasion nearly five months ago.

Millions of people have been driven from their homes, many of which have been destroyed. The city of Mariupol has been largely razed to the ground by Russian attacks, and many other cities and towns in the Donbas, in southern Ukraine, and in areas near Kyiv in the north have been partially destroyed.

According to the UN refugee agency, more than 5.6 million refugees from Ukraine have been recorded in Europe since February 24, while more than 7.1 million people are believed to have been displaced within Ukraine.

'A War Crime'

Combined, thats more than one-quarter of the population. And it does not include Ukrainians who have ended up in Russia -- many of them under pressure, entirely against their will, or because escaping from places like Mariupol to Ukrainian government-held territory was prohibitively dangerous or impossible.

On July 13, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that an estimated 900,000 to 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens, including 260,000 children, have been interrogated, detained, and deported from their homes to Russia, including to isolated areas in the Far East, through "filtration" operations.

"The unlawful transfer and deportation of protected persons is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians and is a war crime," Blinken said, calling the Russian actions an apparent effort to change the demographic makeup of parts of Ukraine."

A day later, Human Rights Watch and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe issued reports condemning forced transfers to Russia.

Russian forces in Ukraine have forcibly disappeared civilians and illegally transferred them to Russia, HRW said.

The New York-based group said it had documented the detention of nine civilian men by Russian forces while they occupied Ukraines Kyiv region, and their apparent transfer to detention facilities in Russias Kursk and Bryansk regions when the forces rotated out or withdrew.

An expert mission dispatched by the OSCE in June to examine human rights abuses and the humanitarian effects of Russias war of aggression in Ukraine found clear patterns of serious violations of international humanitarian law attributable mostly to Russian armed forces, the U.S. State Department said.

The missions report expressed "grave concerns" over the alleged mistreatment by the Russian authorities of tens of thousands of Ukrainians who have been forcibly deported from their country and sent to so-called "filtration centers," State Department spokesman Ned Price said.

'Forced Deportations'

Like an earlier expert missions report, this one documents evidence of direct targeting of civilians, attacks on medical facilities, rape, torture, executions, looting, and forced transfer of civilians to Russia-controlled parts of Ukraine and forced deportations to Russia itself, Price said.

It further identifies two new alarming phenomena, namely the establishment and use of so-called filtration centers" and the tendency of the Russian Federation to bypass its international obligations by handing detained people over to its proxies in eastern Ukraine to let them engage in problematic practices, including the imposition of the death penalty, he said.

Russia-backed separatists in the Donetsk region have sentenced two Britons and a Moroccan who were captured while fighting alongside Ukrainian forces to death. Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, has said Moscow would not interfere in the decisions of the separatists, whose self-styled state was recognized by Moscow as an independent country three days before the February 24 invasion.

Kremlin critics and Western governments, none of which recognizes the Russia-backed forces that hold parts of the Donbas, say Moscow's claim of detachment is artificial and have called for the release of the men, who rights groups say must be treated as prisoners of war.

Russian actions in Ukraine have naturally overshadowed the actions of Putins government and the apparatus of the state in Russia itself. While it may not have seemed possible, the months since the invasion have brought a further intensification of a clampdown that began with his return to the presidency in 2012 but had been ramped up in the past two years -- roughly since the near-fatal nerve agent poisoning of the now imprisoned opposition leader Aleksei Navalny.

This past week has been no exception.

For one thing, Putin signed legislation that further expands the reach of Russias foreign agent legislation -- one of the main tools the Kremlin has used to weaken civil society, quash independent media, and silence dissent -- a decade after adopting the initial law.

Speaking Out

Meanwhile, the state made ample use of a law that Putin signed in early March, days after the new invasion of Ukraine, that allows for prison terms of 10 and in some cases 15 years for distributing false information about the Russian military and its activities.

On July 13, a Moscow court sent Ilya Yashin, a former Moscow district council chief, to pretrial detention after he was charged with violating the false information law in statements opposing the war on Ukraine.

The charge apparently stems from a YouTube livestream in April in which Yashin spoke about the killings of civilians in the Ukrainian city of Bucha, outside Kyiv, where survivors have delivered chilling accounts of alleged atrocities and investigators are uncovering evidence of what Ukrainian authorities say were war crimes.

Yashin is one of the few prominent opposition politicians who had remained both in Russia and out of prison -- aside from short stints in jail -- as the clampdown mounted in the wake of Navalnys arrest upon his return to the country in January 2021 following treatment for the poisoning.

Yashin called his jailing and the charge against him absurd, arguing that it is Putin who is harming Russia, not those who have spoken out against the war.

With my statements, I defended Russia. Its interests are being damaged by Putin, who dragged my country into the war, created a dictatorship of thieves, and intimidates everyone who disagrees with him," Yashin wrote on Facebook.

'A New, Dark Page'

On July 8, a colleague of Yashins in Moscows Krasnoselsky district council, Aleksei Gorinov, became the first elected official to be convicted under the false information law and the first defendant to be sentenced to prison under it. He was handed a seven-year term.

At a legislative session in March, Gorinov had criticized the invasion, suggesting it was inappropriate to be holding a local childrens art competition while children are dying every day in Ukraine. At a court hearing in June, Gorinov held up a sign that read: I am against the war.

"Seven years in prison for words, Andrei Pivovarov, a prominent opposition activist who could be sentence to five years in prison on July 15 on a charge of heading an undesirable organization, wrote in a Facebook post condemning the verdict against Gorinov.

A new, dark page of repression in Russia has officially opened, he wrote.

Its a page that may also include a reference to Maria Ponomarenko, a journalist who was arrested in St. Petersburg in April -- also on a charge of spreading false information about the military.

Ponomarenko, now in pretrial detention in the Siberian city of Barnaul, wrote in an open letter published on July 13 that she was forcibly injected with unknown substances at a psychiatric clinic where she was ordered to undergo a mental-health evaluation.

"Three Federal Penitentiary Service officers held my legs and arms, pushing me down on the bed, while a nurse injected me against my will," Ponomarenko wrote. "I have no recollection of three whole days."
"It is true. Yesterday at 11:20 p.m. (he died) due to an issue linked to his age. He would have turned 101 years old; (however,) he faced an imbalance from which he could not get out well," the son told RPP.





During his life, Francisco Morales Bermudez served as Commander General of the Army.





In August 1975, he led the Tacnazo an event that was a coup against former President Juan Velasco Alvarado's regime (1968-1975), which had also taken power through a coup.









Thus, he proclaimed himself President of the Republic Head of State in the Second Phase of the so-called Revolutionary Process of the Armed Forces in Peru.





During his time in office, the return of exiles was authorized and leaders of Accion Popular (Popular Action) party hitherto persecuted for alleged crimes were pardoned.





The reappearance of banned magazines was allowed. However, newspaper-publishing companies confiscated under Velasco Alvarado's regime were not returned to their owners.









During President Morales Bermudez's Government (1975-1980), general elections were called to form a Constituent Assembly, which included the participation of Peru's political forces.





The elected representatives for the Assembly met on July 28, 1978, and chose APRA party leader Victor Raul Haya de la Torre as its chairman. They also discussed and drafted the 1979 Constitution.





In accordance with the new constitutional charter, general elections were called for May 18, 1980. At the event, a new President and representatives for a bicameral Congress were democratically elected. Fernando Belaunde became President of the Republic.









Life sentence





Last February, the Italian Supreme Court confirmed the life sentence issued against Francisco Morales Bermudez, accused of the disappearance of Italian citizens through the Plan Condor (Operation Condor) a repressive plan implemented in Latin America in the 1970s.





Italy began to investigate the murder and disappearance of Italian-Latin Americans by Plan Condor. In 2007, it requested the arrest of a total of 146 military members from the Juntas of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Paraguay, and Uruguay.





Morales Bermudez was not extradited to Italy and did not serve any time in prison over said charges.





(END) GSR/CVC/MVB
A fin de informar sobre las acciones priorizadas para atender el inicio de la cuarta ola pandemica, el ministro Jorge Lopez Pena participo en la sesion ordinaria de la Comision Especial de seguimiento a emergencias y gestion de riesgo de desastres #COVID19 del @congresoperu. pic.twitter.com/b0NlDIEMLf
YEREVAN, JULY 15, ARMENPRESS. Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has stepped down, and his official resignation letter has been received, Sri Lankan parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena told reporters in Colombo on Friday, reports TASS.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa has stepped down legally from his post from the 14th of July 2022, the Newsfist portal quoted him as saying. The speaker demonstrated the resignation letter, delivered to him from Singapore late on Thursday, via the embassy of Sri Lanka.

According to the speaker, the constitutional process of electing a new president will begin from this moment. During the transition period, the presidential duties will be performed by the prime minister, in accordance with the constitution.

The countrys parliament will convene on Saturday to discuss political settlement in the country.

The president tendered his resignation letter via email after arriving in Singapore from the Maldives. Rajapaksa fled his country and flew to the Maldives on Tuesday night after mass protests demanding his resignation broke out last Saturday. On Thursday, Rajapaksa departed to Singapore.

On July 9, protesters in Colombo captured the residences of the president and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. A total of 103 people were injured during the riots.

The popular discontent in Sri Lanka was caused by a sharp decline in living standards due to an ongoing economic crisis. In an interview to TASS, Wickremesinghe said that the state was going through the worst crisis in its modern history. According to the prime minister, Sri Lanka is experiencing an acute shortage of foreign currency, fuel, oil products, fertilizers, food for certain social groups, and medicines. In his opinion, it would take at least three years to fully recover from the economic crisis.
AFRICA

Central African Republic

Expected Council Action

In July, the Council is expected to renew the sanctions measures imposed on the Central African Republic (CAR) pursuant to resolution 2127, which expires at the end of the month. The mandate of the Panel of Experts supporting the 2127 CAR Sanctions Committee, which expires on 31 August, is also expected to be renewed in July.

The mandate of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) expires on 15 November 2021.

Key Recent Developments

On 23 June, the Security Council met to discuss the Secretary-Generals latest report on MINUSCA. Mankeur Ndiaye, the Special Representative for the CAR and head of MINUSCA, and Bankole Adeoye, the AUs Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security briefed the Council. They were joined by Angolan President and Chair of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) Joao Manuel Goncalves Lourenco; the European External Action Service (EEAS) Managing Director for Africa, Rita Laranjinha; and a representative of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS). Speaking to the Council on recent developments in CAR, Ndiaye highlighted the fragile security situation and the worsening human rights conditions in the country. According to the Secretary-Generals 16 June report, there has been an unacceptable and unprecedented increase in hostile threats and incidents by the national security force and bilaterally deployed other security personnel targeting MINUSCA as well as disinformation campaigns that seek to incite hatred and violence, including against international organisations.

The 23 June meeting followed the Councils 7 June discussion on the CAR under any other business at the request of France, the penholder, and the A3 plus one (Kenya, Niger, Tunisia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines). That meeting was requested against the backdrop of what the Secretary-General called in his 16 June report a surge in the number and gravity of violations of the status-of-forces agreement (SOFA) between the UN and the CAR government. During the meeting, Ndiaye outlined a series of violations such as threats against UN personnel and hindering the freedom of movement of MINUSCA patrols and UN personnel. These violations included a 30 May incident during which a delegation led by MINUSCAs Deputy Special Representative was prevented from accessing an area near the CAR border with Chad and Cameroon, where people displaced by fighting were staying and where 20 civilians were reportedly arrested and tortured by the Central African armed forces (FACA) two days earlier. Apparently, Ndiayes briefing suggested that the SOFA violations have been committed by both the FACA and external military forces supporting the FACA. Some Council members apparently alleged that Russian military instructors were involved in the SOFA violations. Russia maintains that its instructors have been invited by the CAR government to work with the CAR armed forces and denied their involvement in any violations.

The accusations echoed a statement made by the US during the Councils separate discussion on 7 June about the activities of the UN Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA), during which it expressed outrage at reports that Russian instructors led military offensives characterized by confrontations with UN peacekeepers, threats against UN personnel, violations of international humanitarian law, extensive sexual violence and widespread looting, including of humanitarian organizations. Russia denied those charges, saying that the US continues to make the same unfounded accusations in an effort to give Russia a bad name and, in particular, to undermine [its] effective efforts aimed at stabilizing the situation.

Despite the acrimony, the Council agreed on press elements on 7 June, noting the importance of ensuring the full and effective implementation of, and compliance with, the status of forces agreement and that attacks against UN peacekeepers may constitute war crimes. The issue of the SOFA violations was also raised with President Faustin-Archange Touadera during a 2-6 June visit to the CAR by Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix and senior officials from the AU, the EU and ECCAS.

As highlighted at the 23 June Council session, the overall situation in the CAR remains tenuous. Reports suggest that the operational capabilities of the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC)a coalition of armed groups that perpetrated the countrys elections-related violence in late 2020 and early 2021has been weakened, but it continues to create instability in several regions of the CAR. One high-profile security incident occurred on 30 May on the border between the CAR and Chad, where Chadian troops clashed with FACA and Russian military instructors. According to international media reports, six Chadian soldiers and three Russian military instructors were killed in the incident. An independent international commission, which includes members from the UN, the AU and ECCAS, was established on 1 June to investigate the incident.

Meanwhile, the countrys ongoing humanitarian crisis continues unabated. Nearly 2.8 million people need humanitarian assistance and protection, and an 11 June OCHA report stated the countrys health system is barely functioning. It further noted that only one-third of Central Africans have access to clean water. These difficulties have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as persistent violence, which has created approximately 729,000 internally displaced persons and driven an additional 695,000 people to flee the country.

Finally, the CARs political environment remains tense despite President Touaderas inauguration. The 2-6 June joint high-level visit to the CAR attempted to reinvigorate the countrys peace process, which remains stalled despite Touaderas stated commitment to it. On 8 June, citing an apparent disinformation campaign against French officials by the CAR government, the French government announced that it was suspending military cooperation and its support to the CAR governments budget.

Human Rights-Related Developments During its 47th session, the Human Rights Council is expected to receive an oral update on 9 July from the independent expert on the human rights situation in the CAR, Yao Agbetse.

Key Issues and Options

Possible amendments to the arms embargo, including its further easing, and the length of the sanctions regime renewal and that of the mandate of the Panel of Experts supporting the 2127 CAR Sanctions Committee, will be the key issues for the Council in July. Council members may want to take account of the Secretary-Generals report on the benchmarks of the arms embargo to assess progress. The Council may also wish to consider the rising number of SOFA violations against MINUSCA, especially given that many of these violations have been committed by elements of the FACA.

Council and Wider Dynamics

The arms embargo remains a highly contentious issue. China and Russia have argued that the Council should ease the arms embargo, with the aim of lifting it completely. During a Council meeting on the CAR on 21 January, CARs foreign minister called for the total lifting of the arms embargo to allow the democratically elected authorities to ensure the protection of the population and to defend [the countrys] territorial integrity. This position was supported by China and Russia, with China arguing that lifting the arms embargo at an early date would help improve the countrys security capacities. During the 23 June Council briefing, the ICGLR and ECCAS briefers also reiterated their support for lifting the arms embargo. Other Council members, including the P3, believe that the government is able to procure adequate arms given numerous exemptions in the arms embargo. Further, they argue that the CAR government has made only limited progress on achieving the benchmarks for progressively lifting or suspending the arms embargo, outlined in a presidential statement in April 2019. Moreover, they contend that lifting the embargo would allow arms to flow to various armed groups, creating further instability.

France is the penholder on the CAR, and Ambassador Abdou Abarry (Niger) chairs the 2127 CAR Sanctions Committee.

UN DOCUMENTS ON THE CAR

This resolution raised the MINUSCA troop ceiling. This resolution extended the mandate of MINUSCA for one year until 15 November 2021. This resolution extended the CAR sanctions regime until 31 July 2021, including an arms embargo with some exemptions, and renewed the mandate of the CAR Panel of Experts, who assist the Sanctions Committee to oversee the sanction measures, until 31 August 2021. This established benchmarks for suspending or progressively lifting arms embargo measures on the government of the CAR. This was the Secretary-Generals latest report.
AFRICA

Central African Republic

Expected Council Action

In October, the Security Council will discuss the Secretary-Generals latest report on the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), which is due by 11 October. Mankeur Ndiaye, the UN Secretary-Generals Special Representative for the Central African Republic (CAR) and head of MINUSCA, an EU representative, and the AU Special Representative and head of the AU Office in the CAR are expected to brief.

The mandate of MINUSCA expires on 15 November. The CAR sanctions regime expires on 31 July 2022, and the mandate of the Panel of Experts supporting the 2127 CAR Sanctions Committee expires on 31 August 2022.

Key Recent Developments

The situation in the CAR has remained volatile since Ndiaye last briefed the Council on 23 June. During that meeting, Ndiaye echoed the Secretary-Generals 16 June report, which raised serious concerns about ongoing military counter-offensives carried out by the national security forces [FACA] and bilaterally deployed and other security personnel. He noted that the counter-offensives against the Coalition des patriotes pour le changement (CPC), an alliance of armed opposition groups responsible for significant violence in the CAR, had contributed to a high level of human rights violations in the country. (Some Council members allege that the bilaterally deployed forces are Russian military instructors and mercenaries. Russia maintains that the CAR government has invited its instructors to work with the CAR armed forces and denies that they have been involved in any violations.)

On 27 July, a series of attacks by the Union for Peace in the CAR (UPC), an armed opposition group, against both FACA and MINUSCA installations, caused injury to one peacekeeper. According to MINUSCA, on the same day, FACA members and bilaterally deployed forces clashed with an unidentified armed group near CARs north-west border, resulting in widescale displacement. According to a 15 September OCHA report, thousands of civilians were forced to flee the fighting. Four days later, fighting between the 3R (Retour, Reclamation et Rehabilitation) armed group and the FACA erupted after an attack on a FACA base in the north-west village of Mann. Carrying out its protection of civilians mandate, MINUSCA deployed both a rapid intervention force and an aerial reconnaissance mission. Seven people were killed in the fighting.

The ongoing insecurity has also had a major impact on the countrys humanitarian situation. According to OCHAs reporting, there were approximately 713,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in the country as at 31 August. While there had been a drop in IDP numbers since early spring, 37,510 newly displaced people were recorded throughout August, due primarily to fighting in the north-west. Overall, the number of Central Africans in need of humanitarian assistance has risen in the past year. At this time last year, 2.36 million people in the CAR were considered food insecure; that number has now grown to over 2.6 million peoplesome 57 percent of the countrys population.

On 15 September, MINUSCA announced the UN Secretariats decision to repatriate immediately all Gabonese military units from MINUSCA. The decision, which was based on credible reports of sexual exploitation and abuse by the Gabonese contingent, will affect 450 Gabonese troops. In making the announcement, MINUSCA highlighted the organisations zero-tolerance policy on sexual exploitation and said that MINUSCAs partners had provided assistance to the victims. Speaking to the media on 17 September, the Secretary-Generals spokesperson announced that the decision and swift action had come as the result not only of recent allegations of sexual abuse but also on top of much older allegations which have not been resolved. The Gabonese defence ministry has also opened an investigation.

MINUSCA has been the subject of previous allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse, notably during 2015 and 2016. In December 2015, an independent panel appointed by the Secretary-General to review how the UN had handled reports of sexual exploitation and abuse by international peacekeeping forces in the CAR released a report that highlighted systemic failures in UN reporting chains and inadequate responses by several UN officials, including by then-head of MINUSCA, Babacar Gaye, who subsequently resigned at the request of the Secretary-General.

Increasingly strong language on sexual exploitation and abuse has been inserted into subsequent MINUSCA mandate renewals. Resolution 2552, which renewed MINUSCAs mandate until 12 November, emphasised the need to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse and to improve the way these allegations are addressed. Resolution 2552 also urges troop- and police-contributing countries to take appropriate steps to ensure full accountability in cases of such conduct involving their personnel.

Human Rights-Related Developments On 4 August, a joint report by the UN Human Rights Office and MINUSCA provided details of the dire and worsening human rights situation over the past year in the CAR. The report, which covers July 2020 to June, documents 526 incidents of abuses and violations of human rights and international humanitarian law across the country, affecting at least 1,221 victims. Among the documented abuses and violations are extrajudicial and summary killings; torture and ill-treatment; arbitrary arrests and detentions; unnecessary and disproportionate use of force; conflict-related sexual violence; and serious violations against children, including their recruitment by parties to the conflict. During its 48th session, the Human Rights Council is expected to hold an interactive dialogue on 7 October with the independent expert on the situation of human rights in the CAR, Yao Agbetse, and consider his report (A/HRC/48/81).

Key Issues and Options

The most pressing issue for the Council will be the renewal of MINUSCAs mandate, which expires on 15 November. As such, Council members will be following closely Ndiayes briefing to assess if there are areas in the mandate that need further strengthening. One possible such area is in connection with sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers. In addition to taking this into consideration during upcoming mandate renewal negotiations, Council members may wish to adopt a presidential statement in October, echoing relevant language on sexual exploitation and abuse from previous MINUSCA mandates as well as resolution 2272, which was adopted on 11 March 2016 and addressed sexual exploitation and abuse in peace operations.

The ongoing violence and slow progress on the implementation of the CARs 2019 political agreement is another key issue for Council members. To help support national reconciliation and reinvigorate the CARs stagnant dialogue process, Council members may wish to express their support for the 16 September call for a ceasefire in the CAR by the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region.

Council and Wider Dynamics

There has been strong overall support amongst Council members for the work of MINUSCA. However, there are growing differences among some Council members on the situation in the country. Key amongst these issues is the role of the Russian instructors and reports of Russian mercenaries in the CAR. Given allegations of Russian actors participation in recent fighting and human rights violations, Council sessions have grown increasingly tense, with some members, including the UK and the US, strongly questioning Russias involvement in the country.

There appears to be wide support for the need to address sexual exploitation and abuse in all peace operations, including through the repatriation of peacekeepers when there is credible evidence of patterns of sexual exploitation and abuse. Resolution 2272 was adopted with 14 votes in favour, and one abstention (by then-elected member Egypt). Gabon is set to join the Council as an elected member on 1 January 2022.

France is the penholder on the CAR and Ambassador Abdou Abarry (Niger) chairs the 2127 CAR Sanctions Committee.

UN DOCUMENTS ON THE CAR

This resolution extended the CAR sanctions regime until 31 July 2022, including an arms embargo with some exemptions, and renewed the mandate of the CAR Panel of Experts, who assist the Sanctions Committee to oversee the sanction measures, until 31 August 2022. This resolution extended the mandate of MINUSCA for one year until 15 November 2021. This resolution addresse d sexual exploitation and abuse in peace operations . This was the Secretary-Generals latest report.
AFRICA

Central African Republic

Expected Council Action

In November, the Council is expected to renew the mandate of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), which expires on 15 November.

Key Recent Developments

Addressing the nation in a 15 October television broadcast, Central African Republic (CAR) President Faustin-Archange Touadera announced that his government would begin implementing a unilateral ceasefire and cessation of all military operations against armed groups across the country effective 16 October.

The announcement came after a flurry of diplomatic activities aimed at ending the ongoing violence in the country. On 16 September, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) adopted a Joint Road Map for Peace for the CAR, which, amongst other key elements, called for the CAR government to declare a ceasefire in its security forces operations to combat armed groups in the country. From 5 to 7 October, Special Representative for the CAR and head of MINUSCA Mankeur Ndiaye, who was joined by Special Representative and head of the UN Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA) Francois Lounceny Fall, visited Luanda, Angola, where they met with Angolan President Joao Manuel Goncalves Lourenco, who is also currently chairperson of the ICGLR. During the meeting, they discussed the overall situation in the CAR and the wider region. On 8 October, Ndiaye and Fall met with Touadera in Bangui to discuss regional initiatives, including the ICGLRs, to bring about the ceasefire and advance the peace process.

On 16 October, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on all parties in the CAR to immediately respect the ceasefire and to take the necessary steps to revitalise efforts to make progress on the 2019 peace agreement. On 18 October, after the Councils regularly scheduled briefing on the situation in the CAR, Council members issued press elements welcoming the ceasefire announcement.

That announcement comes against a backdrop of persistent violence in the country. In his recent quarterly report on MINUSCA (published on 12 October), the Secretary-General said that the security situation remains precarious as the Central African armed forces (FACA) and bilaterally deployed and other security personnelwhich some Council members allege includes Russian military instructors and mercenarieshad engaged in a military offensive before the ceasefire announcement against armed groups that harmed civilians and caused widespread displacement in central and western CAR. At the time of writing, it was not possible to assess whether the ceasefire was holding throughout the country or whether FACA and bilaterally deployed and other security personnel had ended their military operations in accordance with the announcement.

The CARs human rights situation also remains dire as a result of the violence. Since 1 June, MINUSCA has documented 409 alleged and confirmed incidents of human rights violations and abuses and violations of international humanitarian law, affecting 938 victims and causing 228 civilian deaths. According to the Secretary-Generals report, fighting between the FACA and bilaterally deployed forces on the one hand and armed groups on the other has also resulted in 176 civilian deaths, more than double the 82 civilian deaths reported during the previous four-month reporting period. On 1 October, a CAR government-established special investigation commission on human rights violations submitted its findings to the CAR government. Media reports indicated that the inquiry, which covered human rights abuses from December 2020 to April 2021, determined that both the FACA and Russian military instructors had been responsible for 104 human rights violations, including the killing of civilians. Council members 18 October press elements also broadly touched on the human rights situation, encouraging the government to hold accountable those responsible for violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.

According to data from OCHAs most recent situation report, dated 12 October, CARs humanitarian situation has also worsened in recent months. The report notes that the number of people who are considered food insecure continues to rise, with over 2.6 million peopleapproximately 57 percent of the populationaffected. In addition, 691,000 people were internally displaced as at 31 July. There have also been some 344 incidents affecting humanitarian workers between January and September 2021 (compared to 267 such incidents during the same period in 2020). Just over two-thirds of the incidents included theft, robbery, looting, and threats and assaults against humanitarians.

Finally, on 14 September, the government announced that a new electoral calendar had been adopted for municipal, regional and senatorial elections. Local elections, the first since 1988, are now scheduled to take place on 11 September 2022. According to the Secretary-Generals recent report, voter registration will take place from 2 January to 30 April 2022.

Human Rights-Related Developments During its 48th session, the Human Rights Council adopted resolution 48/19 on 11 October without a vote, extending the mandate of the independent expert on the situation of human rights in the CAR for one year (A/HRC/48/L.1). It requested the independent expert to pay particular attention to alleged violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by all parties to the conflict. It also decided to convene a high-level dialogue at its 49th session to assess human rights developments on the ground, with particular emphasis on the reconciliation process and the establishment of guarantees of non-repetition.

Key Issues and Options

The primary issue for the Council in November will be the renewal of MINUSCAs mandate. The Council may underscore the importance of the missions role in assisting the government to prepare for and conduct local elections and in working with the parties to promote the implementation of the peace agreement. During the 18 October Council meeting on the CAR, Special Representative Ndiaye maintained that conducting local elections without delay could help to sustain momentum in the peace process. In the same meeting, CAR President Touadera expressed support for the mission, calling on the Council to unanimously renew the mandate, as it did in 2020.

The announcement of a unilateral ceasefire and its potential positive impact on the implementation of the 2019 political agreement is another key issue for Council members. In renewing MINUSCAs mandate, and building on the press elements adopted on 18 October, the Council may wish to express its support for the ceasefire declaration and call on the government and the opposition to take advantage of the cessation in violence to reinvigorate the peace process.

Council and Wider Dynamics

There is consensus amongst Council members that the unilateral ceasefire is a welcome step and that the country must now build on this momentum to make progress on the political process.

However, differences among Council members on the situation in the country have emerged in recent months, creating tension between some Council members. Key amongst these is the role of the Russian instructors and reports of Russian mercenaries in the CAR.

Though it does not relate specifically to the renewal of the MINUSCA mandate, Council members also continue to express widely divergent views on the need for an arms embargo on the government. Touadera used his Council statement in October to request the Council to reassess the burden that the arms embargo placed on the CARs security forces.

Council members will need to overcome these rifts to successfully negotiate the renewal of MINUSCAs mandate. Touaderas request that the Council unanimously renew the mandate may help improve the Councils dynamics on the CAR, thereby potentially relieving some existing tensions prior to upcoming negotiations.

France is the penholder on the CAR and Ambassador Abdou Abarry (Niger) chairs the 2127 CAR Sanctions Committee.

UN DOCUMENTS ON THE CAR

This resolution extended the CAR sanctions regime until 31 July 2022, including an arms embargo with some exemptions, and renewed the mandate of the CAR Panel of Experts, who assist the Sanctions Committee to oversee the sanction measures, until 31 August 2022. This resolution extended the mandate of MINUSCA for one year until 15 November 2021. This was the Secretary-Generals latest report.
YEREVAN, JULY 15, ARMENPRESS. Lilit Makunts, Armenian Ambassador to the United States, met with Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA), the Embassy of Armenia to the USA said on social media.

Ambassador Makunts presented Armenia's position on regional developments during the meeting with Senator Van Hollen.

Ambassador Makunts referred to the humanitarian issues followed by the 44-day war and emphasized the importance of the repatriation of Armenian prisoners of war and other civilians detained in Azerbaijan.

Joint efforts aimed at further enhancement of Armenian-American relations were discussed with Congresswoman Lee.

Ambassador Makunts handed over Mkhitar Gosh State Awards to US legislators on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and the United States and for significant contribution to the development of Armenian-American relations.
AFRICA

Central African Republic

Expected Council Action

In February, the Security Council will discuss the Secretary-Generals latest report on the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA). The Council will be briefed by Mankeur Ndiaye, the Special Representative for the Central African Republic (CAR) and head of MINUSCA.

The mandate of MINUSCA expires on 15 November 2022. The CAR sanctions regime expires on 31 July 2022, and the mandate of the Panel of Experts supporting the 2127 CAR Sanctions Committee expires on 31 August 2022.

Key Recent Developments

On 12 November 2021, the Security Council adopted resolution 2605, renewing MINUSCAs mandate for another 12 months. Thirteen Council members voted in favour while China and Russia abstained. Negotiations on the text, though tense, were tempered by what appeared to be an improving situation in the country at the time. On 15 October, President Faustin-Archange Touadera announced that his government would begin implementing a unilateral ceasefire. The announcement followed intense diplomatic efforts, including the adoption of a roadmap for the CAR by the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) on 16 September. The roadmap, among other things, called on all armed actors present in the CAR to commit to a ceasefire.

Since the mandate renewal, however, the security situation in the CAR has deteriorated, with frequent reports of ceasefire violations by armed opposition groups, government forces and Russian-backed forces. According to MINUSCA, on 6-7 December 2021, members of pro-government militias attacked the southern town of Boyo, targeting the towns Muslim Fulani community and killing 15 civilians. A series of reprisals by the opposition group Unity for Peace in Central Africa (UPC) followed. On 27 December, MINUSCA peacekeepers reportedly drove out over 200 UPC members from the town. International media reported on 22 January that pro-government militias and CAR armed forces (FACA) backed by Russian forces had undertaken subsequent revenge attacks on the UPC in the area, including reports of a 16-17 January attack on the town of Bria, which resulted in at least 30 civilian deaths. At the time of writing, the CAR government denied any knowledge of the attack; MINUSCA is reportedly investigating it.

According to MINUSCA, 47 incidents of violations of international humanitarian and human rights law were committed against approximately 200 victims from mid-December 2021 to early January. As at 28 December, MINUSCA had determined that armed opposition groups had committed nearly 60 percent of the incidents, while state agents and other security personnel were deemed responsible for the other incidents. Three MINUSCA peacekeepers from Tanzania were wounded on 30 December, and two Bangladeshi MINUSCA peacekeepers were injured on 31 December when their vehicles hit improvised explosive devices (IEDs). On 12 January, the mission announced that there had been a significant uptick in the use of IEDs in the first two weeks of 2022.

On 13 December 2021, the EU imposed a series of sanctions on the Russian private military entity Wagner Group and several individuals connected to it, claiming that the group had recruited, trained and sent private military operatives to conflict zones around the world, including the CAR, to fuel violence, loot natural resources and intimidate civilians in violation of international law, including international human rights law. Two days later, the EUs Training Mission in CAR (EUTM RCA) announced that it was suspending its programmes out of concern that soldiers trained by EUTM could be employed by the Wagner Group.

On 19 November 2021, the CAR government arrested Hassan Bouba Ali, CARs minister of livestock and a former UPC member. He was charged by the CARs Special Criminal Court (SCC) with war crimes stemming from a 2018 massacre of 112 civilians. Bouba Ali is understood to have acted as an intermediary between the government and the UPC. The government released him on 26 November, stirring controversy and prompting the SCC to accuse the government of creating an obstacle to the proper functioning of justice.

The ongoing violence has severely affected the humanitarian situation in the country. On 7 January, OCHA warned that the CARs humanitarian emergency is now at a level not seen since 2015 due to the new conflict dynamics that have developed over the past 12 months. Recurring violence, persistent shocks and the degradation of basic services, OCHA noted, have significantly worsened the living conditions of Central Africans in 2021. By OCHAs estimate, 3.1 million Central Africanssome 63 percent of the countrys populationwill need humanitarian assistance in 2022.

Sanctions-Related Developments On 21 December 2021, the 2127 Sanctions Committee added UPC founder Ali Darassa to its sanctions list. The UPC is accused of killing, torturing and raping displaced civilians, and committing human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law. The UPC has also allegedly engaged in arms trafficking, illegal taxation activities and warfare against CAR defence and security forces. Human Rights-Related Developments In a statement on 9 December 2021, the UN independent expert on the human rights situation in the CAR, Yao Agbetse, called on the authorities to immediately arrest Hassan Bouba Ali. The release of Mr. Bouba Ali obstructs the fight against impunity and the ongoing national peace and reconciliation process, the statement said. It sends the wrong signal to the victims who are waiting for justice to be administered. On 10 December, the G5+ (the AU, the Economic Community of Central African States, the EU, France, MINUSCA, the US, and the World Bank) released a joint statement in Bangui that deplored Bouba Alis release and called on all political actors to take steps against CARs culture of impunity. Women, Peace and Security On 16 November 2021, the Informal Experts Group (IEG) on Women, Peace and Security held a meeting with Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten, the Senior Women Protection Advisers from four UN peacekeeping and special political missions, including MINUSCA, and the Chief of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL). The Senior Women Protection Adviser from MINUSCA welcomed the robust references to conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) in resolution 2605, which was adopted on 12 November 2021, renewing MINUSCAs mandate for 12 months, and provided an update on the missions work on CRSV in the country. The MINUSCA Senior Women Protection Adviser also said that investigation missions documented a spike in cases of CRSV between December 2020 and February 2021 in the areas affected by clashes during that period, adding that MINUSCA had recorded 451 cases of CRSV in the previous 12 months, with the Coalition des patriotes pour le changement and the 3R armed group committing the majority of these violations (29 and 27 percent respectively).

Key Issues and Options

A key issue in February will be ongoing insecurity in the CAR, resulting from the faltering ceasefire and violence against civilians by the government, its supporters and armed opposition groups. The Council could build on its 18 October 2021 press elements on the CAR by issuing a presidential statement that would reiterate the need for all actors to abide by the ceasefire, call on all parties to the conflict to begin implementing the ICGLR roadmap for the CAR, and encourage the government to hold accountable those responsible for violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. It could also underline the Councils strong support for the work of MINUSCA.

Council and Wider Dynamics

While the Council successfully renewed MINUSCAs mandate on 12 November 2021, both Russia and China abstained, arguing that the views of the government in Bangui had not been reflected in the resolution. Moreover, negotiations on the mandate renewal revealed several areas of contention amongst Council members, including how much the mission should prioritise the human rights situation and how to reference various armed elements operating in the CAR.

In their explanation of votes following the adoption, the US and Russia sparred over another key area of contention that has bedevilled the file over the past year, namely the role of the Russian instructors and reports of Russian mercenaries in the CAR. The US contended that Russian-supported actors have committed human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law. Russia maintained that such views are unfounded, egregious accusations.

France is the penholder on the CAR, and Ambassador Harold Agyeman (Ghana) chairs the 2127 CAR Sanctions Committee.

UN DOCUMENTS ON THE CAR

This resolution extended the mandate of MINUSCA for one year until 15 November 2022. This resolution extended the CAR sanctions regime until 31 July 2022, including an arms embargo with some exemptions, and renewed the mandate of the CAR Panel of Experts, who assist the Sanctions Committee to oversee the sanction measures, until 31 August 2022. This was the Secretary-Generals latest report.
AFRICA

Somalia

Expected Council Action

In February, the Security Council will hold a briefing on the situation in Somalia, followed by closed consultations. James Swan, the Special Representative for Somalia and head of the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM), and Francisco Madeira, head of the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), are the expected briefers. Ahead of the meeting, the Council will receive the report of the Secretary-General on the situation in the country and on the activities of AMISOM.

The Council will also hear the periodic briefing by the Chair of the 751 Somalia Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason (Ireland), covering the committees activities during the last 120 days.

Key Recent Developments

The political landscape in Somalia continues to be dominated by the discussion surrounding elections for Somalias lower house (the House of the People) in all federal member states and escalating tensions between President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmaajo and Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble.

When the Council last met on Somalia on 17 November 2021, Swan welcomed the commencement of the lower house elections, with two out of 275 seats filled. He called for the swift completion of the electoral process to ensure that the full Parliament is elected before the end of this year [2021]. By the years end, however, the electoral process had progressed only slowly, and amid the delays, tensions between Farmaajo and Roble re-emerged.

On 26 December 2021, Villa Somalia, the office of the president, published a statement on elections, criticising the delay and slow pace of the Prime Minister in conducting the elections as tasked by the President and asserting that Roble posed a serious threat to the electoral process. The statement called for a consultative meeting between the federal government and its member states to chart a new direction and to agree on capable leadership to advance the process. In a statement released the following day, Villa Somalia announced the suspension of Roble based on allegations that he had misappropriated public land owned by the Somali National Army and announced an investigation into the matter.

Roble dismissed the allegations as a coup attempt aimed at derailing the ongoing elections and demanded that the security forces henceforth respond only to his command. In early January, he convened a national consultative meeting, the forum consisting of representatives from the federal government and its member states, established to bridge electoral differences. The forum concluded with a 9 January statement announcing a revised electoral timetable under which the outstanding elections would be completed between 15 January and 25 February.

The political dispute renewed concerns that the government might lose its focus on the fight against Al-Shabaab. The militant group continued to conduct attacks in wide areas of the country, including several bombings in Mogadishu, causing many casualties. A 16 January suicide bombing injured the government spokesperson, Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu, who was flown to Turkey for treatment.

In a 29 December 2021 joint communique, the government of Somalia and the AU acknowledged the need for a reconfigured AU mission and agreed to finalise by 11 February outstanding tasks towards the implementation of the Somali Transition Plan, the document outlining the gradual handover of security responsibilities from AMISOM to the Somali National Army. During talks in Addis Ababa from 21 to 24 January, Somalia and the AU also reportedly agreed to extend the presence of AU peacekeepers in the country for another 33 months and rename the mission the AU Transition Mission to Somalia (ATMIS).

These steps appear to represent progress in resolving the dispute between the Somali federal government and the AU over the future of AMISOM. Previously the AU had called on the Council to mandate an AU-UN hybrid mission funded by UN assessed contributions, while Somalia had envisioned a reconfigured AMISOM mission as the best option during a transition period leading to its own forces taking over responsibility for security in the country.

The dispute has delayed the development of a joint proposal by the AU, the UN and the Somali federal government on future security arrangements in the country. The Council had requested this proposal in resolution 2568 of 12 March 2021.

In order to allow more time for the AU and Somalia to reach an agreement on security arrangementsand in light of the expiration of AMISOMs authorisation on 31 December 2021the Council adopted resolution 2614 of 21 December 2021, which reauthorised AMISOMs mandate without substantive changes for three months until 31 March. At the time of writing, Somalia, the AU, the EU (as the largest donor to AMISOM), and the UN were engaged in talks at the technical and senior leadership levels with the goal of producing such a proposal.

Sanctions-Related Developments On 10 December 2021, Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten briefed the 751 Somalia Sanctions Committee, noting trends of sexual violence emerging across Somalia. She also presented recommendations on how the committee could counter these trends. On 16 December, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the appointment of five individuals to the Panel of Experts. A sixth candidate, who had been approved by the committee, indicated that she was no longer available to serve on the panel. Recruitment to fill her position is currently ongoing. The appointments followed a prolonged hold by Russia on several expert appointments across sanctions regimes, citing a need for increased geographical diversity among UN experts.

Key Issues and Options

The shape of the future AU security presence in Somalia is a key issue for the Council, as well as for the AU and the Somali government. The AU mission will be expected to counter Al-Shabaab while gradually handing over security responsibilities to the Somali government. With the 31 March deadline for the current AMISOM reauthorisation approaching, the Council could convene an informal interactive dialogue with Somalia, the AU, the EU, the UN and troop-contributing countries to allow for a frank discussion on the efforts to produce a proposal on transitional security arrangements, including possible Council action to best support this process.

The Council is also likely to monitor closely the completion of the lower house elections, which will pave the way for the holding of an indirect presidential election on 25 February. To that effect, Council members could consider issuing a press statement welcoming the progress achieved so far and urging all stakeholders to further advance the electoral process in a way that promotes the full, equal and meaningful participation of women.

Council and Wider Dynamics

Recent developments on the Council and at AU headquarters in Addis Ababa may change Council dynamics. At the beginning of this year, the UAE, which has an interest in Somalia and the region and maintains close ties with some Somali political stakeholders, joined the Council as an elected member. On 7 January, Roble publicly apologised to the UAE for the Somali governments seizure of some $9.6 million in UAE funds at the Mogadishu airport in 2018, ordering the funds to be returned to the Emirates. However, Farmaajo subsequently ordered the Central Bank not to release what he called illicit money and alleged that the funds had been intended to destabilise Somalia. According to the UAE, these funds were intended for training Somali troops.

The agreement reached in Addis Ababa in January between the AU and the government of Somalia may also have an impact on the position of the African Council members. The agreement foresees, among other things, the position of the ATMIS force commander being held by the largest troop contributor. The views of the troop-contributing countries of AMISOM, including Council member Kenya, to the latest proposal by Somalia and the AU is not yet known. Regardless of the new proposal, the financing of the mission may also continue to be an issue.

UN DOCUMENTS ON SOMALIA

This renewed the anti-piracy measures off the coast of Somalia for three months. This resolution renewed for one year the partial lifting of the arms embargo on Somali security forces; the authorisation for maritime interdiction to enforce the embargo on illicit arms imports, charcoal exports, and IED components; and humanitarian exemptions to the regime. The resolution received 13 votes in favour and two abstentions (China and Russia). This resolution renewed the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) until 31 May 2022. This resolution reauthorised the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) for ten months until 31 December 2021. This was the Secretary-Generals report on the situation in Somalia covering developments from 1 August to 4 November 2021. This was a letter from the Secretary-General to the Security Council president requesting an extension of the deadlines to submit a proposal on a reconfigured AMISOM and options for continued UN logistical support to the AU mission, UNSOM and the Somali security forces. This meeting record covered the adoption of resolution 2607, including several explanations after the vote. This was the final report of the Panel of Experts on Somalia, attesting that Al-Shabaab remained the most immediate threat to the peace, security and stability of Somalia.
AFRICA

Sudan

Expected Council Action

In February, the Security Council is expected to renew the mandate of the Panel of Experts assisting the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee.

The mandate of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) expires on 3 June.

Key Recent Developments

Sudan faces an ongoing political crisis following the military coup detat of 25 October 2021. On 2 January, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok announced his resignation after failed mediation attempts between civilian and military leaders. In a televised address, he said that the country is at a dangerous turning point that threatens its whole survival. His resignation came amidst ongoing widespread demonstrations in the country against the October 2021 coup and following the subsequent power-sharing agreement between the civilian and military entities announced on 21 November 2021, which included Hamdoks reinstatement as prime minister. Several parties rejected the agreement, including the main opposition alliance, the Forces for Freedom and Change Coalition (FFC).

On 10 December 2021, the Council received a briefing from Special Representative for Sudan and head of UNITAMS Volker Perthes on the Secretary-Generals 90-day report, while then-Chair of the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee Ambassador Sven Jurgenson (Estonia) provided the quarterly briefing on the committees work. (For more, see our Whats In Blue story of 9 December 2021.) In his briefing, Perthes said that Sudans political transition has been undergoing its greatest crisis to datebut discussions on a way forward have begun. He added that the military takeover ha[d] exposed and deepened the mistrust between the military and civilian components and within the civilian component itself. Jurgenson noted that the security situation in Darfur remained fragile, and referred to the fact that the Sudan Liberation Army/Abdul Wahid faction (SLA/AW) continued to refuse to sign the Juba Peace Agreement.

In a statement on 8 January, Perthes announced the launch of a UN-facilitated intra-Sudanese political process which is aimed at supporting Sudanese stakeholders in agreeing on a way out of the current political crisis. Noting that measures taken to date have not succeeded in restoring the course of this transformation, Perthes said in the statement that all key civilian and military stakeholders, including armed movements, political parties, civil society, womens groups, and resistance committees will be invited to participate. On 12 January, Perthes briefed members on Sudan under any other business. (For more, see our Whats In Blue story of 11 January.) A 16 January UNITAMS statement, following the first week of UN-facilitated consultations, asserted that participants saw the consultations as critical to resolving the ongoing crisis and welcomed the facilitation role played by the UN. However, while the UN initiative has been welcomed internationally, there has been opposition to it from civilian groups in the country, including the Sudanese Professionals Association. On 26 January, several thousand people demonstrated outside the UNITAMS headquarters in Khartoum demanding that the mission be expelled and that Perthes leave the country.

As at 24 January, 76 people have been killed (including seven people on 17 January) and over 2,200 people injured by state security forces during protests since the October 2021 coup, according to the non-governmental organisation the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors. On 18 January, the spokesperson for the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that the human rights situation in Sudan continues to be of serious concern, with peaceful protesters killed or injured on a near-daily basis by security forces, as well as a clampdown on critics of the authorities and on independent journalists. The spokesperson also highlighted the continuing arbitrary arrest and detention of protesters and journalists.

On 11 February 2021, the Council unanimously adopted resolution 2562, extending the mandate of the Panel of Experts assisting the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee until 12 March the following year. As in previous years, it expressed the intention to take appropriate action regarding the further extension of the mandate by 12 February. The resolution requested the Secretariat to produce a report by the end of July 2021 with recommendations for clear and well-identified key benchmarks that could guide the Council in reviewing the sanctions measures on Darfur. It expressed the Councils intention to establish those benchmarks by 15 September 2021. On 31 July 2021, Council members received the report of the Secretary-General recommending four key benchmarks and related targets, namely progress on: political and economic governance issues, transitional security arrangements in Darfur, the National Plan for Civilian Protection, and transitional justice and accountability. (The Council did not establish benchmarks by 15 September 2021; see below for further details.) In January, the Panel of Experts submitted its final report as requested in resolution 2562. (The report was not yet publicly available at the time of writing.)

ICC Prosecutor Karim Asad Ahmad Khan provided the semi-annual briefing on the courts Darfur-related activities on 17 January. Khan stressed that the ICC cases in relation to Darfur are not against Sudan but against individuals for whom the evidence discloses their responsibility in relation to crimes within the courts jurisdiction. He added that Sudan is a partner, not an adversary in the courts work.

Women, Peace and Security

On 23 December 2021, Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten expressed grave concern at reports of sexual violence, including rape, against women and girls perpetrated by security forces during their dispersal on 19 December 2021 of protesters demonstrating against the October coup and the 21 November power-sharing agreement. The protest also marked the third anniversary of the demonstrations leading to the fall of former President Omar al-Bashir. Patten demanded the immediate and complete cessation of all human rights violations and abuses including sexual violence. She called on the authorities to ensure access to medical, psychosocial and legal support for the survivors, as well as to put in place accountability mechanisms in line with the relevant Security Council resolutions, including resolution 2467 regarding women, peace and security. Patten also called on the international community, including the members of the Security Council, to use their good offices with the Sudanese leaders to demand an end to violence and intimidation against civilians, including sexual violence. On 23 January, through its official Twitter account, UNITAMS expressed outrage at the arrest of womens rights advocate Amira Osman and called for her release.

Human Rights-Related Developments

On 21 January, the expert on human rights in Sudan, Adama Dieng, announced that his visit to Sudan, scheduled to take place from 22 to 27 January, had been postponed at the request of Sudanese authorities. The High Commissioner for Human Rights appointed Dieng in November 2021, in line with Human Rights Council resolution S-32/1. I was very much looking forward to having a candid conversation with State and non-State actors, including victims of human rights violations, he said in the statement. He called on the authorities in Sudan to communicate the dates for my next visit as soon as possible.

Key Issues and Options

An immediate issue for the Council is renewing the mandate of the Panel of Experts. Given the ongoing political crisis in the country, another issue is whether it is feasible to consider reviewing the sanctions measures on Darfur, as signalled in past resolutions that renewed the mandate of the Panel of Experts. A further issue is whether to consider establishing clear, well-identified and measurable key benchmarks to guide the Council in reviewing the sanctions measures, an intention expressed by the Council in resolutions 2455, 2508 and 2562. A less likely option is to consider expanding the regimes designation criteria to include acts of rape or sexual violence.

Another key issue is the crackdown on protesters since 25 October 2021. Some Council members may seek to emphasise the need to conduct timely investigations into casualties during the demonstrations and the importance of accountability for this violence.

A further issue is the situation in Darfur, including after looting and attacks against UN facilities, equipment and supplies that took place during December 2021 by unknown armed groups.

Council and Wider Dynamics

There is an overarching divergence of views in the Council regarding the utility of the Sudan sanctions regime, as was seen during negotiations on resolution 2562 in February 2021. (See our Whats In Blue story of 10 February 2021.) The resolution expressed the Councils intention to establish benchmarks to review the sanctions measures by 15 September 2021. The US (penholder on Sudan sanctions) apparently circulated a draft presidential statement in September 2021 that endorsed all the key benchmarks and related targets proposed in the Secretary-Generals 31 July 2021 report. While this was acceptable to some members, apparently other members expressed the view that the benchmarks adopted by the Council should be limited to those focusing only on the situation in Darfur and that some of those contained in the Secretary-Generals report went beyond this scope. Members were unable to agree, and a presidential statement was ultimately not adopted.

The UK is the penholder on Sudan, and the US is the penholder on Sudan sanctions. Ambassador Harold Adlai Agyeman (Ghana) chairs the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee, as of January. The vice-chair for 2022 is Ireland.

UN DOCUMENTS ON SUDAN

This extended the mandate of the Panel of Experts assisting the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee until 12 March 2022. This was the Secretary-Generals report on the UN

Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in the Sudan (UNITAMS) This was a review of the situation in Darfur and benchmarks to assess the measures on Darfur. This was the semi-annual briefing by the ICC prosecutor on the courts work in Darfur. This was a briefing on the situation in Sudan and the work of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS).
AFRICA

Sudan

Expected Council Action

In March, the Security Council will receive a briefing on the Secretary-Generals 90-day report on the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS). Consultations are expected to follow the briefing. The mandate of UNITAMS expires on 3 June 2022.

The chair of the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Harold Adlai Agyeman (Ghana), is expected to provide the quarterly briefing on the committees work.

Key Recent Developments

Sudan continues to face an ongoing political crisis following the military coup detat of 25 October 2021. A power-sharing agreement between the civilian and military entities was announced on 21 November 2021, which included the reinstatement of Abdalla Hamdok as prime minister. Hamdok resigned on 2 January, however, after mediation efforts between civilian and military leaders failed. As at 14 February, at least 80 people have been killed by state security forces in protests against the October 2021 coup, according to the non-governmental organisation the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors.

On 8 January, Special Representative for Sudan and head of UNITAMS Volker Perthes announced the launch of a UN-facilitated intra-Sudanese political process which is aimed at supporting Sudanese stakeholders in agreeing on a way out of the current political crisis. On 13 February, UNITAMS announced the conclusion of the first phase of these consultations, which constituted a month of almost daily sessions with a diverse range of groups including civil society, womens rights organizations, resistance committees, political parties, young women activists, academics, journalists, youth, persons with disabilities, veterans, diaspora, Juba Peace Agreement (JPA) signatories, and national experts. According to the statement, UNITAMS will produce a summary document which will highlight major areas of consensus among various Sudanese stakeholders on contentious matters pertaining to the transition. At the time of writing, this document was not yet available. While the UN initiative has been welcomed internationally, there has been opposition from civil society groups in the country, including the Sudanese Professionals Association, which take the view that the military should hand over power to a civilian government in accordance with the August 2019 constitutional declaration that paved the way for a three-year transition period. On 26 January, several thousand people demonstrated outside the UNITAMS headquarters in Khartoum, demanding that the mission be expelled and that Perthes leave the country.

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the AU have sent delegations to Sudan to discuss the political situation. IGAD conducted a fact-finding mission to Sudan from 29 January to 1 February. A report issued following the mission found that the current political impasse in Sudan is more complicated than widely appreciated and has far-reaching implications for Sudan and the region. It also found mistrust on both sides of externally-led interventions.

On 10 December 2021, the Council received a briefing from Perthes on the Secretary-Generals 90-day report. Council members were last briefed by Perthes on 12 January under any other business. (For more, see our Whats In Blue story of 11 January.)

Human Rights-Related Developments

On 9 February, Sudans human rights record was examined by the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group for the third time. The expert on human rights in Sudan, Adama Dieng, visited Sudan from 20 to 24 February. He met with senior Sudanese government officials, representatives of civil society organisations, human rights defenders, heads of UN entities, and diplomats. The visit had been postponed in January at the request of Sudanese authorities. (The High Commissioner for Human Rights appointed Dieng in November 2021, in line with Human Rights Council resolution S-32/1.) During its 49th session, the Human Rights Council is expected to hold an enhanced interactive dialogue on 4 March on the oral update of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation of human rights in Sudan.

Sanctions-Related Developments

On 10 December 2021, then-Chair of the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Sven Jurgenson (Estonia), provided the quarterly briefing on the committees work. (For more, see our Whats In Blue story of 9 December 2021.) Jurgenson noted that the security situation in Darfur remained fragile and referred to the fact that the Sudan Liberation Army/Abdul Wahid faction (SLA/AW) continued to refuse to sign the Juba Peace Agreement. On 23 December 2021, the Panel of Experts assisting the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee submitted its final report, as requested in resolution 2562. The report said that the general situation in Darfur remained extremely fragile during the reporting period and that many areas witnessed large-scale intercommunal violence and deterioration in the security situation, described by many interlocutors as the worst in recent years. The violence included incidents of sexual assault and rape of women and girls. The report noted that implementation of the JPA has been slow and that the unstable political situation along with economic issues have negatively affected the implementation of the Darfur-related provisions. The Panel of Experts found that violations of the arms embargo continued, with arms being transferred into Darfur without any requests for exemptions being submitted. In addition, implementation of the travel ban and asset freeze remained challenging because of a lack of cooperation by the government and regional countries. On 15 February, the Council unanimously adopted resolution 2620, extending the mandate of the Panel of Experts assisting the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee until 12 March 2023. The resolution expressed the Councils intention to consider by 31 August establishing clear, well-identified and realistic key benchmarks, with readiness to consider adjusting measures to respond to the situation in Darfur, given the evolving situation on the ground. It requested the Panel of Experts to submit an interim report on its activities by 12 August and a final report by 13 January 2023, along with updates every three months on its work. (For more, see our Whats In Blue story of 14 February.)

Key Issues and Options

A key issue is monitoring the political situation in Sudan. In this regard, Council members will closely follow mediation efforts, including the role played by UNITAMS, and it could seek one or more updates from the missions leadership on political developments, in addition to the expected briefing on UNITAMS.

Another key issue is the crackdown on protesters since 25 October 2021. Some Council members may seek to emphasise the need to conduct timely investigations into casualties during the demonstrations and the importance of accountability for this violence.

A further issue is the situation in Darfur, especially after looting and attacks against UN facilities, equipment and supplies that took place during December 2021 by unknown armed groups, as well as the levels of intercommunal violence and insecurity described in the final report of the Panel of Experts.

Council Dynamics

Negotiations on resolution 2620 extending the mandate of the Panel of Experts were difficult. It seems that one of the most challenging aspects of the negotiations pertained to the issue of benchmarks by which to review the sanctions regime, particularly the timeline for their consideration and which benchmarks to endorse. Members such as China, India, Russia, the A3 (Gabon, Ghana and Kenya), and the United Arab Emirates would have liked to see the Council endorse benchmarks as soon as possible. Other members expressed the position that it was not the right time to consider endorsing any benchmarks, given the ongoing political crisis. In an apparent compromise, resolution 2620 set a 31 August deadline for the Council to consider establishing benchmarks. During the negotiations, there were also clear divergences relating to the preambular language, including on how to characterise the situation in Sudan and Darfur, and on what language was deemed appropriate to be included in a resolution renewing a sanctions regime. (For more, see our Whats In Blue story of 14 February.)

Following the adoption, the US said that Sudan must resolve the current political crisis and that a restored transitional government should advance the implementation of the JPA. The statement also highlighted the levels of intercommunal violence in Darfur, adding that violence worsened in 2021 as the Sudans political crisis became protracted. In its statement, China noted that the security situation in Darfur is generally stable but fragile, and it condemned a recent attack against UN staff, calling for it to be investigated. China and Russia both emphasised the need to establish benchmarks by which to review the sanctions regime by 31 August, adding that these should be clear, realistic and achievable.

The UK is the penholder on Sudan, and the US is the penholder on Sudan sanctions. Ambassador Harold Adlai Agyeman (Ghana) chairs the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee, as of January. The vice-chair for 2022 is Ireland.

UN DOCUMENTS ON SUDAN

This extended the mandate of the Panel of Experts until 12 March 2023, and expressed the Councils intention to consider by 31 August establishing clear, well-identified and realistic key benchmarks. This was the Secretary-Generals report on the UN

Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in the Sudan (UNITAMS) This was the adoption of resolution 2620, renewing the mandate of the Panel of Experts. This was a briefing on the situation in Sudan and the work of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS).
MIDDLE EAST

Syria

Expected Council Action

In April, the Security Council is expected to hold its monthly meetings on the political, humanitarian and chemical weapons tracks in Syria.

Key Recent Developments

Syria continues to face the devastating effects of 11 years of civil war. There are no signs of meaningful diplomatic progress that could end the ongoing conflict, and OCHA reports that some 14.6 million Syrians require humanitarian assistance. In an 11 March statement marking the wars 11th anniversary, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres emphasised the need to reach a negotiated political settlement. He lamented that the conflict has exacted an unconscionable human cost and that Syrians have been subjected to human rights violations on a massive and systematic scale. The reauthorisation of resolution 2585 in July, when it is set to expire, is a moral and humanitarian imperative, he said. Resolution 2585 mandates the delivery of cross-line (that is, across domestic frontlines from Syrian government-held areas into areas outside government control) and cross-border humanitarian aid (from Turkey into Syria through the Bab al-Hawa crossing) and welcomes early recovery projects in Syria.

On 25 February, the Council received briefings on the political and humanitarian situations in Syria from Special Envoy Geir O. Pedersen and Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Joyce Msuya, respectively. Pedersen said he had been trying to identify areas where consensus might be found on a series of reciprocal confidence-building measuresthat could be implemented in parallel, step by step by the parties to the conflict. Pedersen has previously noted that confidence-building measures could focus on such matters as abductees, detainees, and missing persons; humanitarian assistance and early recovery; conditions for safe, voluntary and dignified return of refugees; the restoration of better socioeconomic conditions; and diplomatic issues. During her briefing, Msuya noted the importance of cross-line humanitarian aid delivery in Syria while also emphasising that there is no alternative in place now that can match the scale and scope of the massive United Nations cross-border [humanitarian] operation.

On 3 March, Pedersen met with representatives of the League of Arab States (LAS), Egypt, the EU, France, Germany, Iraq, Jordan, Norway, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the UK, and the US in Washington, DC. to discuss the Syria crisis. In a joint statement issued after the meeting, the participating states:

called for a nationwide ceasefire in Syria;

emphasised the importance of unhindered humanitarian assistance through all modalities, including through the re-authorization of cross-border humanitarian aid deliveryas well as cross-line aid and early recovery projects;

took note of Pedersens efforts to build momentum in the peace process through the step-for-step approach;

affirmed their commitment to pursue accountability; and

urged continued support for refugees from Syria and host countries.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) hosted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for a state visit on 17-18 March, the first time an Arab state has hosted Assad since the beginning of the Syrian conflict in 2011. During his visit, Assad met with Mohammed bin Zayed, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, and Mohammed bin Rashid, the Ruler of Dubai. Emirati state media indicated that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed emphasised that Syria is a fundamental pillar of Arab security, and that the UAE is keen to strengthen cooperation with it.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price said that the US, a UAE ally, was profoundly disappointed and troubled by this apparent attempt to legitimize Bashar al-Assad.

High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu briefed the Council on 10 March on the use of chemical weapons in Syria. She reiterated that because of identified gaps, inconsistencies and discrepancies that remain unresolvedSyrias declaration cannot be considered accurate and complete in accordance with the Chemical Weapons Convention.

The seventh round of the Syria Constitutional Committee was held from 21-25 March in Geneva. The parties discussed four principles during the first four days of the session Basics of Governance, State Identity, State Symbols, and Structure and Functions of Public Authorities. On the final day, they discussed their amendments to proposals on constitutional principles. Pedersen released a statement at the conclusion of the session. He said: All delegations offered at least some revisions to some of the texts presented. Some of these embodied amendments indicating an attempt to reflect the content of the discussions and narrow differences. Others contained no changes. Pedersen added: I will do everything I can to bring closer viewpoints among the members through exerting my good offices, which is plainly needed.

On 24 March, Pedersen briefed the Council via videoconference on political developments in Syria, while Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths briefed in person on the humanitarian situation in the country. Assistant Secretary-General of the League of Arab States Hossam Zaki also briefed in person. Pedersen urged participants in the Syria Constitutional Committees seventh round, which was still in session at the time of his briefing, to start to narrow their differences and make compromises. Griffith appealed for financial support for early recovery projects in Syria. Zaki called on the Council to reauthorise the delivery of cross-border aid into Syria in July, prior to the expiration of resolution 2585.

Human Rights-Related Developments

On 18 March, during its 49th session, the Human Rights Council held an interactive dialogue with the Commission of Inquiry on Syria and considered its report (A/HRC/49/77). Based on investigations conducted between 1 July and 31 December 2021, the report documents grave violations of fundamental human rights and humanitarian law across the country. It notes that there were significant levels of violence involving all parties to the conflict and a notable increase in pro-government air strikes and shelling in Idlib. The report also states that the delivery of critical aid was hindered by insufficient funding, the continued closure of additional border crossings [as the Security Council had for several years authorised the delivery of humanitarian aid through four such crossings but currently only authorises one], and impediments to cross-line operations in the northwest.

Key Issues and Options

A key issue for the Council is how it can support the Special Envoys efforts to promote the step by step, step for step formula to build positive momentum on the political track in Syria.

The humanitarian crisis in the country remains an ongoing concern for Council members. The country continues to contend with an ever-worsening economic situation, rising food and fuel prices, and increased unemployment.

One option for the Council is to adopt a statement that supports the Special Envoys efforts to reinvigorate the political track.

Another option would be for the Council to request a briefing from a civil society representative who can speak to the importance of early recovery projects in Syria.

Council Dynamics

There are stark differences in the Council on Syria. China and Russia tend to be sympathetic to the Syrian government, emphasising the need to respect the countrys sovereignty and territorial integrity. They also argue that the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) conducts its work on the chemical weapons track in Syria in a biased manner. On the other hand, the P3 (France, the UK and the US) and others are highly critical of the government for violating international human rights law and international humanitarian law. They underscore the need to hold perpetrators of violence against civilians in Syria accountable and blame the Syrian government for obstructing the work of the OPCW in the country.

While there is general support for the work of the Constitutional Committee, several Council members have expressed deep frustration with its lack of progress since being launched nearly two and a half years ago. Some members, such as Albania, the P3 (France, the UK and the US) and Ireland, tend to accuse the Syrian government of not engaging in the process in good faith. For example, at the Councils 25 February meeting on Syria, Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason (Ireland) said that the committee must achieve substantive progress but cannot do so without meaningful engagement on texts, especially by the Syrian authorities. On the other hand, Russia, a close ally of the Syrian government, has cautioned against imposing artificial deadlines on the committees work.

Although most members have repeatedly emphasised that the cross-border aid mechanism is an essential humanitarian tool in Syria, China and Russia maintain that cross-line deliveries should ultimately supplant cross-border deliveries.

The UAE, which joined the Council in January, has advocated engagement with the Assad government to help resolve the conflict in Syria. In its 26 January Council statement, the UAE said that opening channels of communication and building bridges are the most successful paths to resolving the protracted crisis in a way that alleviates peoples suffering and achieves stability, and that it is important to strengthen and activate the Arab role in a way that is supportive of and consistent with Mr. Pedersens diplomatic efforts. Damascus was suspended from the LAS in 2011, following the start of the Syria conflict; however, sources indicate that a number of LAS member states are in favour of normalising relations with Assad.

Ireland and Norway are the humanitarian penholders on Syria.

UN DOCUMENTS ON SYRIA

This resolution renewed the mandate of the cross-border humanitarian aid delivery mechanism to Syria. This was the first resolution focused exclusively on a political solution to the Syrian crisis. It was adopted unanimously. This was a meeting on the chemical weapons track in Syria. This was a meeting on the political and humanitarian situations in Syria. This was the 60-day report on the humanitarian situation in Syria. This was a report mandated by resolution 2585 on the transparency of UN humanitarian operations in Syria.
In Hindsight: Challenging the Power of the Veto

The veto power conferred by the UN Charter is, after permanency itself, the most significant distinction between permanent and non-permanent members of the Security Council. The UN would not have been founded without the five permanent members having the power of the veto; indeed, the organisation was designed so that all major decisions would require the support, or at least the acquiescence, of the big powers.[1] But from the start, the veto has been a steady source of tension between the permanent members and the wider membership of the UN. Since the end of the Cold War, veto reform has been an element of many initiatives seeking structural reforms of the Council. These initiatives have come from member states that believe that the Council no longer reflects the ways the global order has changed since 1945. Frequently, member states also take up the perceived abuse of the veto in discussions of Council working methods, including during the bodys annual working methods debate.

On 26 April, the UN General Assembly adopted by consensus resolution A/RES/76/262, which calls for the General Assembly to meet whenever a veto is cast in the Security Council. The President of the General Assembly will convene a formal meeting to hold a debate on the vetoed subject within ten working days and, on an exceptional basis, the member or members who have cast a veto will be given precedence in the speakers list.

The vote was the culmination of an initiative led by Liechtenstein and a core group of countries.[2] Eighty-three members co-sponsored the resolution from every UN regional group, including three permanent members: France, the UK and the US. Although there have been veto initiatives in the past, this is the first time a UN body has taken action to modify the use of the veto.

Such initiatives have a history, though. In the mid-2000s, the deadlock over Syria led member states to search for ways to make veto use more difficult. In August 2015, France, with the support of Mexico, launched the Political Declaration on Suspension of Veto Powers in Cases of Mass Atrocity. The aim was to have the permanent membersthe P5voluntarily pledge not to use the veto in cases of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes on a large scale. Among the veto-wielding permanent members, so far only France and the UK have supported this initiative. As at April 2022, 103 member states and two UN observers had signed the declaration.

This voluntary initiative to suspend veto powers has been dogged by the lack of definition of atrocity crimes. This may also explain why it hasnt come to the fore in connection with the current situation in Ukraine, as some members are wary of describing crimes there as atrocity crimes until they have been duly verified.

In a similar vein, in July 2015, the Accountability, Coherence and Transparency (ACT) group, which consists of 27 small and medium-sized states working to enhance the Councils effectiveness by strengthening its working methods, developed a code of conduct for member states regarding Security Council action against genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The code is meant to encourage timely and decisive action by the Council to prevent or end the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. As with the later French-Mexican initiative, the code of conduct urges the permanent members to agree to refrain from using their veto in situations involving mass atrocity crimes, and also invites current and aspiring elected members to refrain from casting a negative vote in such cases, as it envisions the fight against atrocities as a collective responsibility of all member states. The code of conduct had been signed by 122 member states by 10 February 2022, including eight current elected Council members, two permanent members (France and the UK), and two observers.

The current Liechtenstein-led veto initiative was apparently conceived more than two years ago but was put aside as COVID-19 compelled the UN to work remotely. The return to more normal UN functioning, combined with Council deadlock over Ukraine sparking renewed interest in its reform, created the conditions for the initiative to be revived.

Backers of this initiative may also have been emboldened by the Security Councils referral of the situation in Ukraine to the General Assembly on 27 February. For the first time in 40 years, the Council adopted a Uniting for Peace resolution, whereby it refers to the General Assembly a situation on which its permanent members are deadlocked. This followed Russias veto, on 25 February, of a resolution condemning Russian aggression against Ukraine. Since then, the General Assembly has adopted three resolutions directly related to the war in Ukraine. The first, which garnered 141 votes, expanded on the failed Council resolution condemning Russias aggression against Ukraine. The second focused on the humanitarian consequences of Russias aggression against Ukraine, receiving 140 votes. A third resolution, which had the support of 93 member states, suspended Russias membership in the UN Human Rights Council.

Since the UNs founding, all five permanent members (China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US) have exercised the right to veto non-procedural decisions of the Council under article 27 (3) of the UN Charter. They have done so to varying degrees. The USSR/Russia has cast 119 vetoes, with 35 of these related to applications for UN membership in the organisations early years. The US cast the first of its 82 vetoes on a draft resolution on 17 March 1970 (S/9696 and Corr. 1 and 2), at which point the USSR had vetoed 80 draft resolutions. France and the UK have not cast a veto since 23 December 1989 (S/21048) when, in tandem with the US, they prevented the Security Council from condemning the US invasion of Panama. The UK first used its veto on 30 October 1956 (S/3710) during the Suez Crisis and had cast 29 vetoes on draft resolutions before ceasing to use the veto at the end of 1989. France applied its veto for the first time on 26 June 1946 with respect to the Spanish Question (S/PV.49) and cast a total of 18 vetoes on draft resolutions through the end of 1989. Since the Peoples Republic of China assumed the seat previously held by the Republic of China on 25 October 1971, it has vetoed 16 draft resolutions.[3]

Veto usage since 2000 highlights changes in voting patterns among the permanent members. China has used its veto more actively13 of its 16 vetoes have been cast since 2000and, in each of these cases, has done so with Russia. Together with Russia, it vetoed resolutions on Myanmar and Zimbabwe in 2007 and 2008, with its remaining 11 vetoes in this period being on resolutions related to Syria. Since 2000, Russia has vetoed 27 draft resolutions, 16 on Syria and three on Ukraine. It also vetoed resolutions on the 20th anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica, Georgia, Yemen sanctions, Venezuela, and climate and security. The US is the only member of the P3 (France, UK and US) that has continued to use its veto14 times since 2000, with all but two resolutions related to the Israel-Palestine conflict. It vetoed a resolution on Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2002 and its most recent veto was on a counter-terrorism resolution in August 2020.

As these numbers and issues indicate, vetoes affect the Councils ability to address some of the most serious violations of the UN Charter and international law. On Syria, the use of the veto has blocked the Security Councils condemnation of chemical weapons attacks, shut down a chemical weapons investigation mechanism and prevented a referral to the ICC. On Ukraine, the use of the veto has blocked investigations and the establishment of criminal tribunals, as well as condemnation of Russian aggression against Ukraine. On the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, the veto has prevented condemnation of the building of illegal settlements, and the use of violence against Palestinians.

The 2020 US veto of a draft resolution on the prosecution, rehabilitation and reintegration of foreign terrorist fighters and Russias 2021 veto of a draft resolution on climate and security may portend their new readiness to deploy the veto on thematic issues.

With veto abolition appearing unlikely, as the required Charter amendment needs the support of all permanent members, the General Assemblys 26 April decision is nonetheless a way of imposing greater accountability for veto use. Some analysts think its impact will be minimal: members already offer public explanations of their votes in the Council chamber, and simply having to explain their reasons to the larger membership may not act as a deterrent. As well, the mere threat of veto use can serve to block a Council decision and is nowhere recorded or explained. But the initiative breaks the ice on a long-stalled reform discussion. At a time when questions have been raised about the Councils ability to carry out its mandate according to the Charter and multilateralism is under severe strain, the General Assemblys recent actions may be a much-needed shot in the arm and a reminder of its capacity to take action in the face of Council gridlock.

[1] Article 27 (3) of the UN Charter states that decisions on all but procedural matters shall be made by an affirmative vote of nine members including the concurring votes of the permanent members. In the early years of the UN, a norm developed that has held to this day whereby concurring votes included affirmative votes as well abstentions.

[2] Australia, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Malta, Mexico, New Zealand, Qatar, Sweden, and Turkey.

[3] Veto statistics are from the Dag Hammarskjold library: https://research.un.org/en/docs/sc/quick. These numbers are for vetoes on draft resolutions and do not include vetoes on amendments and other proposals.
AFRICA

Somalia

Expected Council Action

In May, the Security Council will hold a briefing, followed by consultations, to discuss the situation in Somalia. Special Representative for Somalia and head of the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) James Swan and an AU representative are the expected briefers. The Council is also scheduled to vote on a resolution renewing the mandate of UNSOM.

Key Recent Developments

At the time of writing, Somalia was in the final stretches of completing its parliamentary elections. By the end of April, all seats for both parliamentary chambers had been filled, ending an electoral process which commenced in 2021. The newly elected parliamentarians convened during the last week of April to vote for their respective speakers, electing Abdi Hashi Abdullahi as Speaker of the upper house (the Senate) and Sheikh Adan Mohamed Nur as Speaker of the lower house (House of the People) on 26 and 27 April, respectively.

Ahead of the vote to elect the speaker of the lower house, disagreements emerged between President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmaajo and Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble regarding security arrangements for the site of that electiona hangar located in the Mogadishu International Airport area and secured jointly by Somali and AU security forces. (The Mogadishu International Airport area is a fortified location hosting the UN and several diplomatic representations). The location was the target of an attack by the terrorist group Al-Shabaab on 23 March. Security concerns prompted Roble to request the AU Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) in a 26 April statement to immediately take over security of the air force hangar. Farmaajo rejected the move, stating that an electoral security committee led by the Somali police with the support of ATMIS would maintain security responsibilities.

There was concern that this disagreement over security issues could cause the vote to be postponed, but the election eventually took place. With both speakers now in place, Somalia is on track to organise its presidential election in the coming weeks. Farmaajo is standing for re-election and will run against former Presidents Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud as well as against former Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire.

On 1 April, the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) transitioned to ATMIS, following the 8 March decision of the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) to reconfigure the mission and the adoption of resolution 2628 of 31 March by the Security Council, authorising the AU presence in Somalia in accordance with the PSCs decision. Similar to its predecessor mission, ATMIS will support the Somali security forces with implementing the Somalia transition plan, with a view to fully handing over security responsibilities to Somalia by 2024. Thus far, the same troop and police-contributing countries that served with AMISOMBurundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Ugandaremain within ATMIS. However, ATMISs mandate foresees the option for additional member states to join. When the mission commenced operations at the beginning of April, its funding modalities remained unsettled. The EU, the largest contributor to AMISOM, announced on 21 April its decision to establish an assistance measure under the European Peace Facility to support AU peace operations with a total budget of 600 million, starting this year until 2024.

The leadership of ATMIS has been the subject of controversy, and the issue showcased the strained relationship between Farmaajo and Roble. On 6 April, Roble ordered the expulsion of the Special Representative of the AU Commission Chairperson (SRCC) Francisco Madeira from the country for acts that are incompatible with his status as a representative of the AU Commission. The move was reportedly based on leaked audio files of Madeira apparently accusing Roble of attempts to actively prevent Farmaajos re-election. Farmaajo opposed the move, stating that the expulsion of accredited diplomats was not within the purview of the prime ministers office. Madeira, who was outside Somalia on 6 April, has not returned to the country. Media sources indicate that the AU may soon appoint a new representative to Somalia.

Within this turbulent political and security environment, Somalia has continued to grapple with a severe drought that has caused some 81,000 Somalis to face extreme food shortages, according to a 12 April joint FAO, OCHA, UNICEF and WFP statement. The war in Ukraine has exacerbated the situation, causing a spike in food prices.

Key Issues and Options

A key issue for the Council continues to be the finalisation of Somalias electoral process. With the conditions now in place to elect a new president through Somalias indirect voting model, the focus of the Council is likely to be on the holding of the presidential vote. That election is expected to take place before a crucial 17 May deadline, when the new government is expected to endorse the IMFs programme for Somalia or risk losing vital IMF support.

With the completion of the electoral process, the Council may refocus its attention on stabilising the security situation, consolidating the federal model, promoting national reconciliation and addressing the dire humanitarian situation.

In resolution 2592 of 30 August 2021, which renewed the mandate of UNSOM until 31 May, the Council requested a strategic review of the mission after the electoral process has concluded. With the renewal date of UNSOMs mandate approaching, the presidential election still forthcoming, and taking into account that a new government may require time to appoint ministers and formulate its programme, the Council may consider a short technical rollover of UNSOMs mandate to ensure the mission is best positioned to support the needs of a new administration.

Council and Wider Dynamics

The outcome of the presidential elections may also affect Council dynamics. Throughout Somalias electoral period, the Council was united in calling on the Somali government to prioritise the conduct of elections within the agreed timelines. Divisions had emerged, however, over the Councils role in promoting the process, with some Council members preferring sustained Council involvement and others preferring that the Council provide space for Somalia to address any issues hampering the electoral process.

The A3 (Gabon, Ghana and Kenya) may continue to advance the AU position on sustainable and predictable funding for ATMIS to preserve the gains made in Somalia. Kenya may want the successor government to place a sustained focus on the fight against Al-Shabaab and may also wish to re-discuss the maritime border dispute with a new administration, the case having strained its relations with Farmaajo.

In terms of the wider regional dynamics, how the new government will position itself in the neighbourhood will have implications in terms of realignment of regional politics and may affect the tripartite alliance of Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia. The outcome of the election will also affect Somalias relations with Gulf countries. Qatar is said to have supported Farmaajos re-election, whereas the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has maintained ties with Roble and some of the federal member states.

UN DOCUMENTS ON SOMALIA

This resolution endorsed the decision by the AU Peace and Security Council to reconfigure the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) into the AU Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS). The resolution authorises, for the period of one year, AU member states to deploy uniformed personnel in the country to carry out ATMIS mandated tasks. This renewed the anti-piracy measures off the coast of Somalia for three months. This report was on the situation in Somalia, covering developments from 6 November 2021 to 31 January 2022. This was the Secretary-Generals annual report on the situation regarding piracy and armed robbery off the coast of Somalia. This was a letter from the Security Council in response to the Secretary-Generals request for an extension of the deadlines to submit a proposal on a reconfigured AMISOM and options for continued UN logistical support to the AU mission, UNSOM, and the Somali security forces.
ASIA

Afghanistan

Expected Council Action

In June, the Security Council will hold its quarterly meeting on Afghanistan. An official from the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) and a representative of Afghan civil society are expected to brief. The Council is also scheduled to receive a briefing from Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths. This briefing will cover the delivery of humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan.

Key Recent Developments

On 7 May, Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Talibans supreme leader, issued a decree requiring Afghan women to cover their faces in public. According to media reports, the decree, which was announced by an official from the Talibans Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice at a news conference, said that women, unless they are very young or very old, must cover their faces except for their eyes whenever they meet a man to whom they are not related. The decree also said that they should wear a chadori [head-to-toe burqa], as it is traditional and respectful and encouraged women to stay home, advising that the best way to observe hijab is to not go out unless its necessary. Several punishments for male relatives of women who fail to comply are outlined in the decree, including possible jail time and termination or suspension of employment for those who work for the Talibans administration.

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) expressed deep concern about the decree in a 7 May statement, which said that this decision contradicts numerous assurances regarding respect for and protection of all Afghans human rights, including those of women and girls, that had been provided to the international community by Taliban representatives during discussions and negotiations over the past decade. UNAMAs information suggests that the decree is a formal directive that will be enforced, the mission said.

The decree is one of several measures introduced by the Taliban directed at women and girls. On 23 March, the Taliban announced that girls high schools would be closed, thereby preventing girls above the sixth grade from attending school. The announcement was an abrupt reversal of the Talibans 21 March decision to reopen all schools at the beginning of the spring semester, and reportedly came hours after high schools for girls had reopened for the first time in months. On 27 March, Council members issued a press statement that expressed deep concern regarding this decision and called on the Taliban to respect the right to education and adhere to their commitments to reopen schools for all female students without further delay, among other matters. On 19 May, the Taliban announced that it had asked television broadcasters to ensure that female presenters on local stations cover their faces when on air.

In guidance issued on 26 December 2021, the Talibans Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice prohibited women from travelling more than 72 kilometres from their homes unless accompanied by a close male relative. A similar restriction was introduced on 27 March, when the Taliban sent airlines in Afghanistan a letter directing them to prevent women from boarding without a male chaperone. According to media reports, the Taliban have also prevented women in some parts of the country from receiving medical treatment unless accompanied by a male guardian.

On 12 May, Council members convened for closed consultations to discuss the increased restrictions on the human rights and freedoms of girls and women in Afghanistan that have been imposed by the Taliban. Lyons briefed, and it appears that she provided an update regarding her recent engagement with the Taliban, including the meeting that took place in the week commencing 9 May. In a 10 May tweet, UNAMA noted that Lyons had met with the Taliban and called for womens rights to be expanded not curtailed, for secondary schools to reopen to girls and for women to be able to fully participate in work and public life.

On 24 May, Council members issued a press statement which expressed deep concern regarding the erosion of respect for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and girls in Afghanistan by the Taliban and emphasised that the restrictions imposed contradict the expectations of the international community and the Talibans commitments. The press statement also called on the Taliban to swiftly reverse these policies and practices and addressed other issues, including terrorism, drug trafficking, and the humanitarian and economic situation in the country.

The Talibans decision to prevent girls from returning to high school prompted the World Bank to announce that it was suspending four projects worth $600 million focusing on agriculture, education, health, and livelihoods. On 19 April, the World Bank said that it had resumed work on the projects concentrating on health, agriculture, and livelihoods but that it would continue to withhold $150 million from education projects.

Afghanistan continues to face an ongoing humanitarian crisis. According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report on Afghanistan, which was issued on 9 May, 19.7 million Afghans, or 47 percent of the population, are currently facing high levels of acute food insecurity. In a 9 May statement, the international NGO Save the Children said that approximately 9.6 million children in Afghanistan are going hungry every day due to a dire combination of economic collapse, the impacts of the war in Ukraine and the ongoing drought. On 31 March, the Secretary-General convened a high-level pledging conference to help fund the Afghanistan Humanitarian Response Plan 2022, which calls for $4.4 billion in aid to allow humanitarian organisations to reach 22.1 million people with life-saving multi-sectoral assistance. According to media reports, donor countries pledged $2.44 billion during this conference. In his opening remarks, the Secretary-General appealed to donors to provide unconditional and flexible funding as soon as possible.

The economic situation in Afghanistan remains dire. In its April development update on Afghanistan, the World Bank said that there had been a 34 percent decline in per capita income in Afghanistan between the last four months of 2020 and the last four months of 2021. The update also noted that growth will remain stagnant under current conditions and suggested that widespread poverty will pose important displacement, extremism, and fragility risks. On 14 May, the Talibans Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi announced that Afghanistan faces a $501 million budget deficit for this financial year.

In a 16 May announcement, the Taliban said that it had dissolved five entities established by the former government, including the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, the Independent Commission for Overseeing the Implementation of the Constitution of Afghanistan, and the High Council for National Reconciliation.

The security situation in Afghanistan appears to be worsening. A spate of terrorist attacks has taken place in different parts of the country in recent weeks, including the 29 April bombing of a mosque in Kabul that killed more than 50 people. The Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh), the Islamic State in Khorasan Province, claimed responsibility for several of these attacks. Council members issued four press statements between 20 April and 30 April condemning a number of the attacks.

On 16 April, at least 47 people were reportedly killed by air strikes in the eastern provinces of Khost and Kunar, near the border with Pakistan. On the same day, a Taliban official claimed that the strikes were carried out by Pakistan, a claim that Islamabad denies. In a 17 April statement, Pakistani authorities said that Pakistans security forces were increasingly being targeted in cross-border attacks from Afghanistan and called on the Taliban to prevent the attacks. On 18 May, the Taliban announced that it had mediated a temporary ceasefire between Pakistan and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a Pakistani militant group allied with the Taliban that is seeking to establish an Islamic caliphate in Pakistan under sharia law.

On 7 May, a spokesperson for the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF), an insurgency against the Taliban based in Panjshir province in northern Afghanistan, said it had liberated three districts in Panjshir. The Taliban subsequently denied this claim.

Human Rights Related Developments

The special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, undertook his first visit to the country from 15 to 26 May. He engaged with the de facto authorities and a broad range of stakeholders to assess the situation of human rights, including with regard to the implementation of obligations under international human rights instruments ratified by Afghanistan, and to offer assistance to address and prevent violations and abuses. The special rapporteur will deliver his findings in a report to the Human Rights Council (HRC) and the General Assembly later this year. In a 26 May statement, Bennett said that Afghanistan faces serious human rights challenges and urged the Taliban to take the path that brings stability and freedom to all Afghans, especially women.

In a 25 April statement, a group of experts from the special procedures of the HRC called on the US to unfreeze more than $7 billion of assets belonging to the Afghan central bank currently held in the US. The statement noted that states have an obligation under international human rights law to guarantee that activity in their jurisdiction or under their control does not result in human rights violations, and urged the US, in line with this obligation, to reverse this unilateral measure and decisively contribute to international efforts to address the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

Key Issues and Options

The situation of women and girls in Afghanistan is an important issue for the Council. Council members could hold an informal meeting with an official from UN Women and women from Afghan and international civil society to discuss what the Council can do to help women and girls in Afghanistan.

The humanitarian and economic crises in Afghanistan are another issue for the Council to consider. An informal, closed meeting with humanitarian organisations working in Afghanistan could enable Council members to engage in dialogue with these organisations and learn more about the challenges facing those working to deliver aid in the country.

The rising incidence of terrorism in Afghanistan is also a major concern for the Council. The Council could request a briefing from a counter-terrorism expert, which would provide an opportunity for Council members to discuss the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan and help generate ideas for bolstering the Councils work in this area.

Council Dynamics

Council members appear to be divided regarding Afghanistan. During the negotiations concerning UNAMAs mandate, which took place in March, China and Russia apparently contended that UNAMA should focus primarily on assisting with efforts to address the humanitarian and economic crises in the country. A majority of other Council members strongly supported a more robust mandate for UNAMA spanning several additional areas, including the protection of human rights and the promotion of inclusive governance and gender equality; these components were ultimately included in UNAMAs mandate.

Another key difference that emerged in the negotiation related to the language used to describe the Taliban. It seems that China and Russia preferred referring to the Taliban as the de facto authorities, with both members suggesting that this term accurately reflects the situation on the ground. It appears that other members, including the US, were not comfortable with this language and argued that it may imply de facto recognition of the Taliban regime. As a compromise, the resolution refers to all relevant Afghan political actors and stakeholders, all relevant Afghan political actors, and all relevant Afghan stakeholders. China objected to these formulations but nonetheless voted in favour of the resolution.

Council members also differed over risk management and the oversight of aid. It seems that some Council members, including France, India, the UK, and the US, favoured a strong risk management role for UNAMA and argued that its activities in this area should consider the potential diversion of aid. China and Russia, however, apparently expressed concerns regarding this aspect of UNAMAs mandate and questioned whether there is a need to closely monitor the provision of UN assistance in Afghanistan. The final resolution directs UNAMA to coordinate the overall risk management approach of the UN in Afghanistan and monitor risks related to the assistance coordinated by the UN in Afghanistan, including the risk of aid diversion.

China and Russia also sought to include language that attributed the economic crisis in Afghanistan to sanctions, the cessation of development aid, restrictions on the financial system and the freezing of assets belonging to the Afghan central bank. This proposal was rejected by other Council members, some of whom argued that the Talibans takeover is the real cause of the countrys economic woes, and it was not incorporated into the resolution.

The negotiations on the 24 May press statement were also difficult. Norway, the penholder on the file, initially circulated a draft presidential statement ahead of the closed consultations on 12 May. Despite general support for this draft from other Council members, it seems that China and Russia took issue with the text proposed by Norway, with both states arguing that it was unbalanced and focused too heavily on human rights and the situation of women and girls. Both members apparently suggested adding language on other issues to the draft, including the humanitarian and economic crises, the security situation, terrorism, and the effect of asset freezes and sanctions, and also resisted the inclusion of previously agreed language, such as text relating to the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). It appears that China and Russia repeatedly broke silence over multiple revised drafts of the presidential statement because of these issues. Ultimately, consensus could not be reached, and a press statement was pursued instead.

China and Russia have also demonstrated a greater willingness to work with the Taliban without preconditions. On 24 March, the day after the Taliban prevented girls from returning to high school, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Kabul to discuss political and economic ties. On 31 March, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that Russia had accredited a Taliban diplomat in Moscow. Conversely, in a 9 May statement, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that the US will increase its pressure on the Taliban if the group fails to unwind its decisions concerning women and girls.

UN DOCUMENTS ON AFGHANISTAN

This resolution extended the mandate of UNAMA until 17 March 2023. In this press statement, Council members expressed deep concern regarding the reported decision by the Taliban to deny girls above the sixth grade access to education in Afghanistan.
AFRICA

Central African Republic

Expected Council Action

In June, the Security Council will discuss the Secretary-Generals latest report on the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA). Special Representative for the Central African Republic (CAR) and head of MINUSCA Valentine Rugwabiza will brief the Council for the first time since her appointment on 24 February.

The mandate of MINUSCA expires on 15 November 2022. The CAR sanctions regime expires on 31 July 2022, and the mandate of the Panel of Experts supporting the 2127 CAR Sanctions Committee expires on 31 August 2022.

Key Recent Developments

The Security Council met on 22 February to discuss the situation in the CAR. During the meeting, some Council members accused the Wagner Group, a Russian private security company, of committing serious human rights abuses, including the summary execution of 30 people in Aigbando, Haute-Kotto Prefecture, in January. Russia, however, said the accusations against Russian instructors in the CAR were based on unverified information.

In a report released on 3 May, Human Rights Watch accused Russian linked forces of committing grave abuses against civilians in CAR, including arbitrary detention, torture and summary execution, based on what it said was compelling evidence gathered through interviews with victims and witnesses between February 2019 and November 2021.

On 21 February, four MINUSCA peacekeepers were arrested by the CAR gendarmerie in Bangui while escorting a senior military officer of the mission. The peacekeepers were accused on social media of planning to assassinate President Faustin-Archange Touadera, which the UN strongly denied. The Secretary-General condemned the arrest in a statement and pointed out that the CAR authorities did not follow the 2014 status of forces agreement with the UN, which outlines specific procedures in cases where peacekeepers are suspected of committing an offence. He called on the CAR authorities to respect the agreement and release the peacekeepers unconditionally and without delay. The peacekeepers were subsequently released, but the incident was seen as an indication of the prevailing mistrust between the CAR authorities and the mission. In his previous reports, the Secretary-General highlighted disinformation campaigns against MINUSCA as a major challenge posing a threat to the safety and security of peacekeepers.

Civilians continue to suffer the brunt of the ongoing conflict and violence in CAR. OCHAs report, issued in May, described the increasing threat of explosive devices to civilians. The report also noted that the number of internally displaced persons surged by 2.8 percent in March compared to February because of increasing military activities by armed groups in certain localities. On 27 April, a regional ministerial conference was held in Yaounde in collaboration with UNHCR that aimed to find a solution to the displacement of more than one million Central Africans in the protracted conflict in the CAR. The conference concluded with the adoption of a declaration that underscored the need for a regional approach to the challenges facing refugees, internally displaced persons, and returnees from CAR.

The long-awaited republican dialogue, promised by President Touadera after his re-election in 2020, was finally held from 21 to 27 March in Bangui. The process was marred by controversy, however, as opposition parties boycotted the dialogue and armed groups were not invited. Media reports indicated that the dialogue, which was supposed to advance peace, concluded without achieving this result. During the dialogue, it seems a proposal for a constitutional amendment to allow the president to run for a third term had created tension but was later withdrawn, according to media reports. The participants in the dialogue issued recommendations at the end of the meeting; among them was a call for the lifting of the arms embargo imposed on CAR by the Council.

Local elections are supposed to be held in September, but media have quoted CAR authorities as saying that the elections could be postponed because of a lack of funds.

The CAR Special Criminal Court, established in 2015 with the objective of investigating and prosecuting grave violations of human rights committed in the CAR, started its first trial on 19 April with three suspects from the Return, Reclamation, Rehabilitation (3R) armed group, who are accused of committing serious crimes in the countrys northwest in May 2019. This was considered an important milestone in fighting impunity in the country. The first hearing was adjourned on 25 April, reportedly because the defence lawyers, who had complained about insufficient fees, were not present. The court met again on 16 May to hear from the first defendants.

On 14 March, Chadian authorities surrendered Maxime Jeoffroy Eli Mokom Gawaka, who belonged to the anti-Balaka movement supportive of former CAR president Francois Bozize, to the ICC. The court had issued an arrest warrant on him in December 2018 for allegedly committing war crimes and crimes against humanity between December 2013 and December 2014. On 22 March, Mokom appeared before the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber.

Human Rights-Related Developments

On 30 March, during its 49th session, the Human Rights Council (HRC) held a high-level interactive dialogue on the human rights situation in the CAR with the participation of the independent expert on the human rights situation in the CAR, Yao Agbetse, and representatives of the government, the UN, the AU, the CARs Truth, Justice, Reparation and Reconciliation Commission, and civil society. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet briefed and noted that the increasing number of incidents involving serious human rights violations and abusesand the rising role of the nations defence forces and their allies in those violationsare matters of utmost concern.

Sanctions-Related Developments

Although the Council decided to extend the mandate of the Panel of Experts until 31 August through the adoption of resolution 2588 on 29 July 2021, Russia placed a hold on the appointment of panel members for several months, calling for increased geographical diversity. On 18 April, the Secretary-General appointed three panel members. They are from Costa Rica, the Republic of the Congo and Kenya.

Key Issues and Options

A major preoccupation for Council members is how to advance peace and reconciliation in the CAR through the implementation of the 2019 peace agreement and the joint roadmap of the International Conference for the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR). Council members could be interested to hear about the republican dialogue held in March. They will also be keen to know more about the state of preparations for local elections, expected to be held in September for the first time in more than 30 years. One option could be to hold a closed informal meeting (such as an informal interactive dialogue or a closed Arria-formula meeting) with CAR government officials and representatives of other political parties for an exchange of views on how to advance the peace process.

How to address the continued insecurity in CAR and reduce the threats to civilians is another key challenge for Council members. The Council could, in this respect, consider asking for a briefing from the Department of Peacekeeping Operations on the effects of the Wagner Group on the overall security environment in the country.

An additional issue for Council members is how to promote accountability and justice in the face of grave violations of human rights committed by various actors in CAR. They may continue to support the role of national courts, the hybrid special criminal court and the ICC in the country.

Council and Wider Dynamics

Council members are supportive of regional efforts on CAR and have underscored the need to implement the joint roadmap of the ICGLR. But the role of the Wagner Group and its alleged involvement in human rights abuses has been a contentious issue. Russia has consistently rejected such accusations and says that calls for investigations by some Council members are hypocritical. In this regard, at the 22 February Council meeting, Russia asked why these members have not demanded the results of investigation on airstrikes in Afghanistan and Iraq that led to casualties.

There is also no agreement on CARs request for the lifting of the arms embargo. African members, China and Russia support the request, but France, the UK and the US oppose it in the face of increasing violence and the spread of arms.

France is the penholder on the CAR, and Ambassador Harold Adlai Agyeman (Ghana) chairs the 2127 CAR Sanctions Committee.

UN DOCUMENTS ON THE CAR

This resolution extended UNIPSILs mandate until 31 March 2013. This extended the CAR sanctions regime until 31 July 2022, including an arms embargo with some exemptions. Resolution 2588 also renewed the mandate of the CAR Panel of Experts, who assist the sanctions committee in overseeing the sanction measures, until 31 August 2022. This was a Secretary-Generals report on the situation in the CAR.
AFRICA

Libya

Expected Council Action

In June, the Council will hold a briefing, followed by consultations, on the situation in Libya. As the Secretary-General has yet to appoint a Special Envoy, a representative of the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs may brief the Council. The chair of the 1970 Libya Sanctions Committee, Ambassador T.S. Tirumurti (India), may also brief on the committees activities.

The Security Council is also expected to vote on a draft resolution renewing for one year the authorisation for member states, acting nationally or through regional organisations, to inspect vessels on the high seas off the coast of Libya, bound to or from Libya, that they have reasonable grounds to believe are violating the arms embargo. The current authorisation expires on 3 June. The Secretary-Generals annual report on the implementation of the measures was issued on 28 April.

Key Recent Developments

The Security Council first adopted the measures in support of the full implementation of the arms embargo on Libya in resolution 2292 of 14 June 2016. The interception of vessels bound to or from Libya was intended to curb the flow of arms to the country and to support the two-way arms embargo imposed on the country in resolution 1970 of 26 February 2011. The UK, the penholder in 2016 for resolution 2292, said in its explanation of vote that adopting those measures was a sign of support for the then-Government of National Accord (GNA) to facilitate its extension of state authority across the country. The UK also acknowledged that the arms embargo had not fully stopped the flow of weapons into the country, saying that resolution 2292 detailed concrete steps to curb the flow of arms.

The GNA has since been succeeded by the interim Government of National Unity (GNU), whose prime minister, Abdul Hamid Mohammed Dbeibah, was elected in February 2021 by the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF)an assembly consisting of 75 participants representing the main Libyan geographical, social and political constituencies, which was responsible for charting the way towards elections. Dbeibahs leadership, however, is currently being challenged by a rival prime minister. On 10 February, the Tobruk-based House of Representatives appointed former Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha prime minister, following the indefinite postponement of presidential and parliamentary elections that had been scheduled for 24 December 2021 under Dbeibahs leadership. The stand-off culminated when violent clashes erupted in Tripoli on 17 May between forces loyal to Dbeibah and those supporting Bashagha, as the latter attempted to move his parallel government to the capital. After Bashagha abandoned his attempt, the situation in Tripoli returned to calm, as it remains at the time of writing. (Bashagha has appointed a parallel cabinet, which held its first meeting on 21 April in Sirte, where Bashagha has established his seat.)

The Secretary-Generals report on the implementation of the inspection authorisation (published in late April before the violent clashes in Tripoli) attests to its continued validity. Amid ongoing efforts by the UN to foster agreement among Libyas state institutions on a constitutional basis for holding the postponed elections, the report says that the arms embargo can continue to help facilitate a conducive environment for advancing the political process. The report also references the finding of the 1970 Libya sanctions committees Panel of Experts that while fewer violations of the arms embargo had occurred during the 4 June 2021 and 28 April reporting period, armed groups active across Libya had acquired new types of military equipment.

The EU naval operation EUNAVFOR Med Irini has remained the only regional organisation acting under the authorisation to inspect vessels. EUNAVFOR Med Irini reported that between 16 April 2021 and 15 April 2022, it conducted 3,642 hailings (calling on other vessels), 141 friendly approaches (consensual visits to vessels that can be carried out without flag state approval and without the use of enforcement measures), and 11 vessel inspections. It attempted, but did not carry out, three additional inspections because of an explicit refusal of consent by the flag state of the respective vessels. (The authorisation requires good-faith efforts to first obtain the consent of the vessels flag state prior to any inspections and calls upon all flag states to cooperate with such inspections.) None of the inspections resulted in the identification of prohibited cargo.

In his current report, the Secretary-General has expressed his appreciation for the efforts of the EU, through Operation Irini, to contribute to the full implementation of the arms embargo. He also highlighted the information the mission shares with the experts as an important contribution to the implementation of the arms embargo.

On 29 April, the Council adopted resolution 2629, renewing the mandate of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) for three months. The resolution shortened the reporting cycle from 60 to 30 days. The Council last met on the situation in Libya on 26 May to receive an updated account of developments and UN activity. Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo briefed, noting a persisting political deadlock which hampered progress on the political, security and economic fronts, despite sustained UN mediation efforts.

Sanctions-Related Developments In June, the Security Council is expected to receive the final report of the Panel of Experts, which is due before 15 June. The 1970 Libya Sanctions Committee met with the panel on 20 May to discuss the report and its recommendations. Following its submission to the Council, the document will be published.

Key Issues and Options

The recent clashes in Tripoli attest to the precarious security situation rooted in the absence of a unified political front. A key concern for the Council will be how to foster common political ground between the two rival governments so that they can agree on a constitutional framework to pave the way for the holding of Libyas long-delayed elections. The Council may consider increasing UNSMILs advisory capacity with additional experts on constitutional and electoral matters.

Since the Council first authorised inspections in 2016 to enforce the arms embargo, the annual renewals have been through a short text with technical updates. Given the continued need for full implementation of the arms embargo, the Council may consider another 12-month technical renewal.

How to fully implement the Libya arms embargo has been a long-standing issue for the Council. One option is for the Libya sanctions committeewhich like all sanctions committees consists of the 15 members of the Councilto consider briefing interested member states on the inspection authorisation and other arms embargo measures to raise awareness and build capacity for their implementation. In addition, Council members could encourage member states to increase inspections authorised by resolution 2292 to complement the efforts of the EU operation.

Council Dynamics

Council dynamics regarding Libya continue to be difficult. Different views among Council members regarding the role of UNSMIL, its leadership appointments, and its structure have resulted in several short renewals of the mandate since September 2021. The core mandated tasks, however, have been maintained as set out in resolution 2542 of 15 September 2020 and paragraph 16 of resolution 2570 of 16 April 2021.

The Councils authorisations to inspect vessels suspected of violating the arms embargo have always been unanimous. However, Russia has voiced concerns over the implementation of these resolutions, including cautioning that the measures may be used to broaden the activities of the EUNAVFOR operations. As one example, Russia disagreed with the finding that jet A-1 fuel, seized in December 2020 from the vessel Royal Diamond 7 travelling to Libya from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), was likely to be used for military purposes and fell under the arms embargo. Others, including the European Council members, maintained that the seizure was in line with relevant Security Council resolutions.

It has become regular practice for the Council to have an informal interactive dialogue (IID) ahead of the renewal of the authorisations to discuss their implementation. This years IID took place on 24 May. Stefano Tomat, the Director of the Integrated Approach for Security and Peace Directorate of the European External Action Service, participated in the meeting and briefed Council members on the recent activities of Operation Irini.

European member states have traditionally held the pen for the renewal of the measures. This year the penholder is France.

UN DOCUMENTS ON LIBYA

This resolution renewed for 12 months the authorisation for member states, acting nationally or through regional organisations, to inspect vessels on the high seas off the coast of Libya bound to or from the country that they have reasonable grounds to believe are violating the arms embargo. This was a resolution providing a one year authorisation for member states to inspect, in the high seas off the coast of Libya, vessels bound to or from Libya. This resolution referred the situation in Libya to the ICC, imposed an arms embargo and targeted sanctions (assets freeze and travel ban) and established a sanctions committee. This report covered developments in Libya between 18 January and 20 May. This was the annual report on the implementation of resolution 2578. This letter contained the final report of the Panel of Experts on Libya established pursuant to Security Council resolution 1970.
YEREVAN, JULY 15, ARMENPRESS. On July 15, a meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani experts took place in Moscow with the support of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations of the Russian MFA and the Russian International Affairs Council.

ARMENPRESS reports, citing Interfax, the meeting was opened by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Andrey Rudenko.

A number of issues of the normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations were discussed at the meeting on the basis of the trilateral agreements between the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia of November 9, 2020, January 11 and November 26,2021, including issues of unblocking regional transport communications, border delimitation issues, prospect for peace treaty negotiations, as well as humanitarian issues and the possible steps to build confidence between the sides. There was also a discussion about the role and importance of expert dialogue in the process of normalization of relations between the two countries. The participants agreed to continue contacts and joint work within the trilateral expert platform "Dialogue for Peace".
AFRICA

Mali

Expected Council Action

In June, the Council is expected to renew the mandate of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), which expires on 30 June. Earlier in the month, the Council will hold its quarterly briefing on Mali, followed by closed consultations. Special Representative and head of MINUSMA El-Ghassim Wane is expected to brief.

Key Recent Developments

Uncertainty persists over the establishment of a new transition timetable in Mali to restore constitutional order following coups detat in August 2020 and May 2021. Meanwhile, the security landscape has changed significantly as Malis relations with traditional ally France and neighbouring Sahel states have deteriorated, and transition authorities have reportedly partnered with the Wagner Group, a Russian private security company.

Concerns mounted over reported increases in human rights violations by Malis security forces and the Wagner Group in counter-terrorism operations in central Mali. In the worst such incident, Wagner and Malian forces allegedly executed about 300 civilians and suspected terrorists in the village of Mourah from 27 to 30 March. Mali claimed to have killed 203 terrorist combatants during an operation from 23 to 31 March in Mourah.

Malis military prosecutor in Mopti announced on 6 April that it was opening an investigation into the incident. However, the Malian authorities have denied MINUSMA access to Mourah. This comes at a time when MINUSMAs relations with the host country have become more difficult, with the mission facing increasing restrictions on its air and ground movements and areas of access, especially where Mali has been conducting military operations. On 22 March, a Malian armed forces helicopter fired rockets close to a MINUSMA patrol near Tessit. According to Wanes Council briefing on 7 April, there were no casualties, but the UN was investigating the incident.

On 11 April, the EU decided to suspend the military training that the EU Training Mission in Mali provides to Malis armed forces due to the transition authorities cooperation with the Wagner Group and recent civilian killings. This followed the decision in February by France and other European countries to withdraw their counter-terrorism operations, Operation Barkhane and Takuba Task Force, from Mali because of the Wagner Groups deployment. Despite concerns that Germany might end its participation in MINUSMA, the German parliament approved on 20 May the governments decision to remain in the mission, including an increase in its contribution by 300 troops. That same day, Benin, which has around 400 troops and police in MINUSMA, announced that it would end its participation in November. Benins move occurred amid the rising threat of Sahelian terrorist groups to coastal West African countries.

On 19 April, France handed over its military base at Gossi to Malis armed forces. Following the handover, Mali said that it had uncovered a mass grave near the base, while France released aerial video footage that it said had been recorded on 20 April showing Wagner and Malian security personnel burying bodies that were transferred to the site. On 2 May, Mali informed France that it was terminating the Defence Cooperation Treaty between France and Mali and its Status of Forces Agreement. France responded by saying that it would continue the orderly withdrawal of its forces. Council members discussed the Gossi developments on 3 May under any other business at the request of Russia after Mali sent a letter to Council members accusing France of espionage.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a 5 May interview with French radio station RFI that an AU-authorised African force with a peace enforcement mandate may be more appropriate than MINUSMA, considering the security situation in Mali. In the same interview, however, Guterres stressed that he would not recommend ending the UN operation because the consequences would be terrible.

On 15 May, Mali announced that it was withdrawing from all institutions of the Group of Five for the Sahel (G5 Sahel), including the G5 Sahel joint force (FC-G5S). Chad, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger founded the G5 Sahel in 2014 and created the FC-G5S as a regional counter-terrorism force in 2017. Mali said that it made the decision after some G5 members blocked its assumption of the bodys rotating presidency, which had been due to start in February. In a statement, Mali also criticised a state outside the region for desperately seeking to isolate Mali.

Two days later, Mali announced that it had foiled an attempted coup detat on the night of 11 and 12 May, which it claimed had been supported by a Western state.

Mali and ECOWAS have remained at an impasse in talks to establish a new transition timeline. In March, ECOWAS rejected Malis proposal for an additional two-year transition, calling instead for a 12-to-16-month extension. On 5 May, the foreign ministers of Mali and Togo announced that Togos President Faure Gnassingbe would mediate between Bamako and ECOWAS.

In addition, implementation of the 2015 Mali Peace and Reconciliation Agreement between the government and northern armed groups has been at a standstill. During his 7 April Council briefing, Wane said that the past three months had been marked by worrisome actions and rhetoric, not in line with the spirit of the Agreement.

Key Issues and Options

The renewal of MINUSMAs mandate and how the Council should update it to reflect the changing environment in which MINUSMA must operate is the key issue facing the Council during June. This includes assessing MINUSMAs role in supporting the implementation of the 2015 peace agreement and the political transition. The lack of progress on the former has increased concerns about the risk of hostilities resuming between the government and northern armed groups. The transition is complicated by the continuing absence of a new timetable after Mali failed to meet the original ECOWAS-brokered 18-month period.

The mandate renewal process also involves considering the effects on MINUSMA of the departure of Operation Barkhane and the Takuba Task Force, which the Secretary-Generals last report asserted creates a security gap. MINUSMA was established in 2013 to carry out good offices and stabilisation activities and to protect civilians while parallel French forces would conduct counter-terrorism operations. Since then, the situation has evolved, and MINUSMAs role has expanded to address not only the crisis in the north but the situation in central Mali, where the greatest amount of violence, including civilian casualties, occurs. Related to this are persistent challenges for MINUSMA of capability shortfalls, such as air assets, and national caveats of troop- and police-contributing countries on how their troops may be used.

A further key issue is the deteriorating human rights situation, which MINUSMA is mandated to monitor and report on. MINUSMAs increasingly difficult relationship with Malian authorities and the authorities position on the mandate renewal are important issues. The presence of the Wagner Group, which has a history of difficult relations with the UN peacekeeping operation in the Central African Republic, is another key issue.

In renewing MINUSMAs mandate, the Council could request that an independent strategic review of the situation in Mali be conducted in light of MINUSMAs new operating environment. The Council may further decide to identify areas where MINUSMA can concentrate its efforts. It may call on MINUSMA to place greater emphasis on supporting implementation of the 2015 peace agreement, the protection of civilians, and human rights reporting and monitoring.

With Malis withdrawal from the FC-G5S, the Council is likely to adjust MINUSMAs mandate of supporting the joint force. Under the current mandate, MINUSMA provides engineering support and casualty and medical evacuation in Mali and the provision of life consumables, such as rations and fuel, for all FC-G5S contingents.

Council Dynamics

Council discussion on Mali has become increasingly polarised since reports emerged last fall about the possible deployment of the Wagner Group. Previously, the Council followed ECOWAS lead and supported its positions on Malis political transition, but Council members are no longer united over this approach, with Russia and China expressing sympathy with the Malian authorities over the challenges of holding elections because of the security situation and the risk of further political instability if elections take place prematurely.

The P3 and other European members criticise the Wagner Groups deployment, citing its history of human rights abuses, and are concerned about the risks it presents to MINUSMA and of MINUSMA indirectly supporting its activities. Russia and Mali deny the groups presence, claiming that Russian personnel in Mali are there as military instructors as part of their bilateral cooperation. Many members are further concerned about the increasing reports of human rights abuses by security forces and have called for independent investigations, while Russia and China have pushed back against such allegations. Several members have appeared frustrated that MINUSMA, at the time of this writing, had not yet released its quarterly report on human rights, usually published in April, and by the UNs caution in reporting on other obstructions by Malian authorities. Such dynamics prevented agreement on statements on Mali in the Council in January on the political transition and in April on the incident in Mourah. They also played out at the 3 May meeting on Gossi.

Ghana is the West African Council member and champions ECOWAS positions, with the support of the other African Council members, Gabon and Kenya. Its president, Nana Akufo-Addo, currently chairs the ECOWAS Authority.

France is the penholder on Mali. Ambassador Juan Ramon de la Fuente Ramirez (Mexico) chairs the 2374 Mali Sanctions Committee.

UN DOCUMENTS ON MALI

This resolution renewed the Mali sanctions regime until 31 August 2022 and the mandate of the Mali Panel of Experts until 30 September 2022. This resolution renewed the mandate of MINUSMA until 30 June 2022. This was the Secretary-Generals quarterly report on Mali. This was a briefing on Mali.
AFRICA

Somalia

Expected Council Action

In June, the Chair of the 751 Somalia Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason (Ireland), will deliver her 120-day periodic briefing to the Council on the activities of the committee.

Somalia sanctions measures expire on 15 November, and the mandate of the Panel of Experts assisting the Somalia Sanctions Committee expires on 15 December.

Key Recent Developments

The Council last met to receive a briefing by the Chair of the 751 Somalia Sanctions Committee on 24 February. The late Deputy Permanent Representative of Ireland, Ambassador Jim Kelly, delivered the briefing on the committees activities between 21 October 2021 and 24 February. This was the first time the chair had reported to the Council since the adoption of resolution 2607 (15 November 2021) renewing the Somalia sanctions measures.

The Secretary-General appointed the Panel of Experts to the Somalia Sanctions Committee on 16 December 2021. The panel presented its work programme to the committee on 11 February. During that meeting, the coordinator of the panel, Ahmed Himmiche, noted that the panel will focus its work on the structure and financing of the armed terrorist group Al-Shabaab, the smuggling and trafficking of weapons and military equipment into Somalia, weapons and ammunition management within Somalia, the implementation of the charcoal ban, and child recruitment and gender-based violence perpetrated by Al-Shabaab.

Disrupting the activities of Al-Shabaab has been a key focus for the Council. On 18 February, the committee designated Ali Mohamed Rage, the spokesperson for Al-Shabaab, for engaging in or providing support for acts that threaten the peace, security or stability of Somalia, including acts that threaten the peace and reconciliation process in Somalia, or threaten the Federal Government of Somalia or [the AU Assistance Mission in Somalia (AMISOM)] by force.

The Secretary-Generals 13 May report, covering the situation in Somalia between 1 February and 6 May, said that 236 security incidents had occurred in the country, most of which were attributed to Al-Shabaab. The report also noted an increase in Al-Shabaab attacks with the acceleration of the electoral process, including a 23 March attack on the Mogadishu International Airport area, where elections for the speakers of Somalias upper and lower houses took place several weeks later. (The Mogadishu International Airport area is a fortified location hosting the UN and several diplomatic representations). On 3 May, Al-Shabaab attacked a base of the recently formed AU Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), the successor mission to AMISOM. Several Burundian peacekeepers lost their lives in the attack. In February, three weeks of sustained hostilities by Al-Shabaab caused over 17,000 persons to flee their homes in Somalias South-West State.

On 15 May, Somalia completed its long-delayed electoral process with the election of Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who served as the countrys leader between 2012 and 2017, as president. In an 18 May media interview, Mohamudreferring to security in the countrysaid, We will ask for support and collaboration from anyone who is willing to help us to ensure the security. Mohamud assumed office on 23 May and is now in the process of constituting a government.

On 16 May, US President Joe Biden approved the deployment of some 500 US troops to Somalia to further support Somalia in degrading Al-Shabaab and eventually take sole responsibility for its safety in accordance with its Transition Planthe document that foresees the gradual handover of security responsibilities from international to Somali security forces. The previous US administration had decided to withdraw the troops. Somalias newly elected president has welcomed the latest decision to redeploy US troops.

On 27 May, the Somalia Sanctions Committee met with Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba. Resolution 2607 requests Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict to share relevant information with the committee. The Secretary-Generals report in that regard notes that from 1 February to 31 March, the UN had verified 372 grave violations against 368 children, 217 of which were attributed to Al-Shabaab.

Key Issues and Options

How to defeat Al-Shabaab and equip the Somali government with the means and capacity to establish and maintain a stable security environment is a key concern for the Council. The text of resolution 2607 focused on the need to target Al-Shabaabs finances, improve maritime domain awareness, prevent illicit revenue generation, including from the sale of charcoal, and reduce the threat posed by [improvised explosive devices (IEDs)]. Effective weapons and ammunition management by the Somali government would be an important step towards building the capacity of Somali security forces to counter Al-Shabaab and for the Council to review the arms embargo. To that end, the Council requested in resolution 2607 that the Secretary-General undertake a technical assessment of Somalias weapons and ammunition management capabilities and provide recommendations by 15 September to improve them, including benchmarks that could assist the Council in reviewing the arms embargo. The Council could consider calling for the international community to strictly comply with the sanctions measures and for sustained support in building Somalias security capacity.

Council and Wider Dynamics

Although resolution 2607 was adopted with two abstentions (China and Russia), the Council is united in its support for the sanctions measures. Disagreements during the sanctions renewal that led the two members to abstain were related to references in the text to the unresolved border dispute between Djibouti and Eritrea. The relationship between Djibouti and Eritrea has been addressed in Somalia-related sanctions resolutions since the adoption of resolution 1907 of 23 December 2009, which linked Djibouti-Eritrean relations to the peace process in Somalia. Although the Council lifted sanctions on Eritrea and terminated the mandate of the Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group to establish a Panel of Experts solely focused on Somalia in resolution 2444 of 14 November 2018, several Council members hold the view that the Council should continue monitoring the rapprochement between Eritrea and Djibouti.

The election of Mohamud may also affect regional dynamics. For Council member Kenya, which shares land and sea borders with Somalia, degrading Al-Shabaab has been a priority issue. However, the relationship between the two countries has been strained, including due to an ongoing maritime border dispute. On 16 May, Kenyas President Uhuru Kenyatta congratulated Mohamud and assured him of Kenyas cooperation.

UN DOCUMENTS ON SOMALIA

This resolution endorsed the decision by the AU Peace and Security Council to reconfigure the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) into the AU Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS). The resolution authorises, for the period of one year, AU member states to deploy uniformed personnel in the country to carry out ATMIS mandated tasks. This resolution renewed for one year the partial lifting of the arms embargo on Somali security forces; the authorisation for maritime interdiction to enforce the embargo on illicit arms imports, charcoal exports, and IED components; and humanitarian exemptions to the regime. The resolution received 13 votes in favour and two abstentions (China and Russia). This was the Secretary-Generals report on the situation in Somalia covering developments from 1 February to 13 May. This was a letter from the Secretary-General to the Security Council president requesting an extension of the deadlines to submit a proposal on a reconfigured AMISOM and options for continued UN logistical support to the AU mission, UNSOM and the Somali security forces. This meeting record covered the adoption of resolution 2607, including several explanations after the vote. This was the final report of the Panel of Experts on Somalia, attesting that Al-Shabaab remained the most immediate threat to the peace, security and stability of Somalia.
MIDDLE EAST

Syria

Expected Council Action

In June, the Security Council will hold its monthly meetings on the political and humanitarian tracks in Syria. The briefing on the chemical weapons track will not take place this month.

Key Recent Developments

The EU-sponsored sixth Brussels Conference, titled Supporting the future of Syria and the region, was convened on 9-10 May. The conferencewhich was intended to support the UNs efforts to find a political solution to the war in Syria and mobilise financial support for Syrian refugees and their host communitiesincluded 55 countries and various UN entities, among other international organisations. The EU did not invite Russia to participate, which led to the UNs decision not to co-host the meeting with the EU. At a 10 May press briefing, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said that Russia has not been invited because we are inviting those partners who have a genuine, a real interest to contribute to peace in the world. And Russia, with its aggression against Ukraine, has shown that clearly it has not such interest, to maintain peace in the world.

Conference participants pledged $4.3 billion for 2022 and $2.4 billion for future years. Loans of $1.8 billion were also pledged by international financial institutions. The amount pledged was higher than last years annual Brussels conference, but less than the $10.5 billion the UN has said is required to assist Syrians in need in 2022. In this regard, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths told participants that $4.4 billion of that is for the response inside Syria, and another $6.1 billion for the refugees and host communities in the region. Special Envoy Geir O. Pedersen also addressed the delegates, reiterating his commitment to continue to engage all key actors, Syrian and international, on the importance of contributing not only to alleviating suffering but to confidence-building and a political path out of this crisis.

On 16 May, the UN conducted a cross-line delivery of humanitarian aid in northwest Syria (that is, across domestic frontlines from Syrian government-held areas into areas outside government control). This was the fourth cross-line delivery since the July 2021 adoption of resolution 2585, which mandated the delivery of cross-line aid as well as cross-border humanitarian aid from Turkey into Syria through the Bab al-Hawa crossing.

Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Joyce Msuya visited Syria from 16-18 May, where she met with families dealing with the humanitarian consequences of the conflict, humanitarian service providers, and Syrian officials. An 18 May OCHA statement said that during her visit, she discussed possible ways to expand humanitarian access to reach communities in need, protect civilians and help affected Syrians envision a better future with Syrias Minister of Foreign Affairs, Faisal Mekdad, and Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bashar Jaafari. It also quoted Msuya as saying that she was struck by the courage and incredible resilience of Syrian people she met on her visit.

On 20 May, the Council held a briefing on the humanitarian situation in Syria. Griffiths and Farida Almouslem of the Syrian American Medical Society briefed. Griffiths said that cross-line operations cannot under current conditions replace the size or the scope of the massive UN cross-border operation, adding that failure to renew the [cross-border] authorization would disrupt life-saving aid for people living in the northwest. Almouslem described her experience working as an obstetrician-gynaecologist in Aleppo from 2011 to 2016, echoing Griffiths emphasis on the importance of cross-border humanitarian assistance in Syria.

In a 29 April press statement, Council members marked the 25th anniversary of the entry into force of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction (CWC). Council members reaffirmed their commitment to exclude completelythe use of chemical weapons anywhere, at any time by anyone, as well as to the complete destruction of chemical weapons. They also reaffirmed that the development, production, and use of chemical weapons, as prohibited by the Convention, remain a clear threat to international peace and security.

Council members held a meeting on the Syria chemical weapons track on 27 May. High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu provided the briefing.

The Syria Constitutional Committees eighth round began in Geneva on 28 May and was expected to end on 3 June. Following the conclusion of the seventh round (21-25 March in Geneva), which failed to achieve meaningful progress, Pedersen said, I will do everything I can to bring closer viewpoints among the members through exerting my good offices, which is plainly needed.

At the time of writing, Pedersen was scheduled to brief Council members on the political situation in Syria on 31 May.

Key Issues and Options

The humanitarian crisis in Syria remains an ongoing concern for Council members. The country continues to contend with an ever-worsening economic situation, rising food and fuel prices, water scarcity, and high unemployment. One option for Council members is to hold a closed Arria-formula meeting with civil society representatives who can speak to the importance of early recovery projects in Syria and provide their input on the types of projects that would be most beneficial to the welfare of Syrians. Given the upcoming expiration of the cross-border aid mechanismand the difficult nature of the negotiations in recent yearsCouncil members may decide to begin negotiations in earnest during the current month.

Another key issue is the ongoing stalemate in the work of the Constitutional Committee. If little progress is made in the eighth round of meetings of the committee, the Council could consider adopting a presidential statement that supports the Special Envoys efforts to reinvigorate the political track.

Council Dynamics

There are significant differences on Syria among Council members on all three areas of Council engagement: the political, humanitarian and chemical weapons tracks. On the political front, while there is general support for the Constitutional Committees work, several Council members have expressed frustration with the lack of progress since its launch two and a half years ago. Some memberssuch as Albania, Ireland and the P3 (France, the UK and the US)tend to accuse the Syrian government of not engaging in the process in good faith. On the other hand, Russia, a close ally of the Syrian government, has cautioned against imposing artificial deadlines on the committees work.

Although most members have repeatedly emphasised that the cross-border aid mechanism is an essential humanitarian tool in Syria, China and Russia maintain that cross-line deliveries should supplant cross-border deliveries sooner rather than later, and India has argued that the cross-border aid mechanism violates Syrias sovereignty. (The delivery of cross-border aid authorised by the Security Council does not require the consent of the Syrian government.) There is likely to be considerable focus on the cross-border aid mechanism in the Council as the July expiration of resolution 2585 approaches. (The penholders on humanitarian issues in Syria have traditionally been elected members of the Council, including current penholders Ireland and Norway.)

Council members also continue to hold starkly different views on the chemical weapons track in Syria, disputing the evidence regarding responsibility for the use of chemical weapons in the country and the credibility of the work of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). While several members have consistently expressed support for the OPCWs work, maintaining that it is credible and essential, other members, such as China and Russia, claim that its work is biased and politicised.

UN DOCUMENTS ON SYRIA

This renewed the mandate of the cross-border humanitarian aid delivery mechanism to Syria. This was a meeting on the humanitarian situation in Syria. This is a press statement marking the 25th anniversary of the entry into force of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction (CWC).
MIDDLE EAST

Yemen

Expected Council Action

In June, the Council is expected to hold its monthly briefing on Yemen, followed by closed consultations. Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg and an OCHA official will brief. Major General Michael Beary, the head of the UN Mission to Support the Hodeidah Agreement (UNMHA), is expected to brief during consultations. The mandate of UNMHA expires on 15 July.

Key Recent Developments

The truce that started on 2 April between the Yemeni government and the Houthi rebel group has largely held, marked by a sharp reduction in civilian casualties and a continued pause in cross-border attacks. With the truce set to expire in early June, attention has focused on securing its extension.

On 11 May, the UN and the Netherlands hosted a pledging event in The Hague for a UN-facilitated plan to resolve the threat posed by the FSO Safer, an ageing oil tanker off the Houthi-held port of Ras Isa that has served as floating storage and offloading facility since the 1980s. The vessel is at risk of breaking up or having a major oil leak or explosion due to lack of maintenance. The UN-facilitated plan requires $144 million, including $80 million, to immediately begin and complete its first phase, which involves transferring the oil from the Safer to a temporary vessel before more volatile winds and currents return in October, which increase the risks to the Safer and make the operation more difficult. The conference fell far short of this goal, generating $40 million.

On 16 May, the first commercial flight in almost six years took off from Sanaa airport, travelling to Amman, Jordan, and carrying 130 Yemeni passengers. The flight was in keeping with the truce agreement, which allows two commercial flights per week in and out of Sanaa airport to Egypt and Jordan. The resumption of flights was initially delayed because of a dispute over Houthi-issued passports. The government eventually agreed to allow Yemenis in rebel-held territories to travel using the Houthi-issued passports.

Council members held their monthly meeting on Yemen in closed consultations on 17 May. Grundberg told members that the truce is largely holding and that his priority is to secure agreement to extend it. In addition to the resumption of civilian flights, he noted the increased flow of fuel imports through Hodeidah ports. At a press conference after the meeting, Grundberg said that since the truce began, the Yemeni government had cleared 11 fuel ships to enter through Hodeidah, bringing more fuel than had arrived during the previous six months.

In the meeting, Grundberg also highlighted the importance of implementing the other elements of the truce agreement in order to secure its extension, including the re-opening of roads around Taiz. Taiz has been under Houthi siege for years, with access limited to one dangerous, mountainous road. During the press conference, Grundberg reported that the government had appointed representatives for a meeting under UN auspices on re-opening roads, which the UN will organise in Amman as soon as the Houthis appoint their representatives. He also continued to engage the parties on the establishment of a military mechanism to support the truce and on his framework for an inclusive, multi-track political process.

OCHA Acting Operations Director Ghada Eltahir Mudawi also briefed members during the consultations, reportedly highlighting that the truce had brought significant improvements in the protection of civilians and the humanitarian situation, including increased humanitarian access to hard-to-reach areas. Despite the overall improvements, she noted low-intensity fighting in Marib and Taiz, including recent Houthi shelling that had killed civilians in Taiz. General Beary informed Council members that UNMHA had reached an agreement with the government to establish a permanent presence for the mission in Mocha city.

In press elements issued after the meeting, Council members welcomed all parties efforts to uphold the truce, highlighting the Yemeni governments flexibility in enabling the entry of fuel ships into Hodeidah and enabling flights between Sanaa and Amman. Members encouraged the parties to continue fulfilling the terms of the truce, especially in meeting to discuss opening roads to Taiz. They further urged the parties to extend the truce in coordination with the UN Envoy.

From 25 to 28 May, Yemeni government officials and Houthi representatives met under UN auspices in Amman, Jordan, to discuss options for opening roads in Taiz and other governorates. The meeting did not result in an agreement. In a statement at the talks conclusion, Grundberg called on the parties to conclude their internal deliberations urgently and deliver positive results to the Yemeni people.

Key Issues and Options

The two-month truce agreement is set to expire on 2 June, and a priority is securing its extension. As the UN Special Envoy has suggested, a key issue for an extension is progress on re-opening roads in and around Taiz.

A further key issue is making progress on restarting a political process, as the truce will be unsustainable without a process in place for a comprehensive political settlement. Grundberg has been developing a multi-track framework for an inclusive political process that he had hoped to present this spring, though it seems that, with the creation in April of the Yemeni governments new eight-member Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), completing this framework will take more time. Council members could encourage the parties continued engagement with the UN Special Envoy to strengthen the truce and urge Grundberg to continue his consultations with Yemeni stakeholders to complete his framework for a political process, which the Council could then endorse.

Notwithstanding the truces positive impact on Yemens humanitarian crisis, key issues remain, such as preventing famine, improving humanitarian access, supporting the economy, and raising funds for relief operations. Rising global food and energy prices since the start of the war in Ukraine present significant threats to efforts to ease Yemens humanitarian crisis. Members could encourage donors to contribute to the UNs 2022 Yemen humanitarian response plan, which remains underfunded, as well as to fulfil remaining funding requirements to begin implementing the UN-facilitated plan for the FSO Safer.

Council Dynamics

Council members have remained generally united over Yemen despite the increased polarisation in the Security Council since the start of the war in Ukraine. The P5 ambassadors to Yemen (China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US) have maintained coordination in support of the UN envoys efforts. In the Council, members have encouraged the parties to uphold and extend the truce. They also want the parties to make progress towards starting a political process for a comprehensive settlement to end the war. Members have also welcomed the formation of the PLC, viewing its diverse representation as important to the Envoys approach for a more inclusive political process, despite some concerns among members over Saudi Arabias reported pressure on the unpopular president, Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, to step down. The United Arab Emirates, an elected Council member, is closely involved in the war as a member of the Saudi Arabia-led coalition that backs the government and will strongly push for its views to be reflected in Council products.

The UK is the penholder on Yemen. Ambassador Ferit Hoxha (Albania) chairs the Yemen 2140 Sanctions Committee.

UN DOCUMENTS ON YEMEN

This resolution renewed the Yemen sanctions regime for one year and added the Houthis as an entity to the Yemen sanctions list, subject to the measures of the targeted arms embargo in resolution 2216. This extended the mandate of UNMHA until 15 July 2022. This was a briefing on Yemen. This press statement welcomed the creation of and the assumption of responsibilities by the Presidential Leadership Council of the Yemeni Government .
AFRICA

Central African Republic

Expected Council Action

In July, the Council is expected to extend the sanctions measures imposed on the Central African Republic (CAR), which expire at the end of the month, and renew the mandate of the Panel of Experts supporting the 2127 CAR Sanctions Committee, which expires on 31 August.

The mandate of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) expires on 15 November 2022.

Key Recent Developments

On 22 June, the Security Council met to discuss the Secretary-Generals latest report on MINUSCA. Valentine Rugwabiza, the Special Representative for the CAR and head of MINUSCA, briefed the Council, highlighting the steps that she took upon assuming her responsibilities in April to rebuild trust with the CAR government, remobilise regional and international partners in support of the revitalisation of the political process, and reposition the mission in effectively implementing its mandate.

Rugwabiza noted the strategic review meeting that took place in Bangui on 4 June, which promoted national ownership through the participation of all the relevant national stakeholders under the leadership of President Faustin-Archange Touadera. The meeting also helped in remobilising regional partners, she said, through the participation of the Angolan and Rwandan foreign ministers and representatives of the AU, the International Conference for the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS). Rugwabiza requested the Council to support the follow-up of the review meeting, which has contributed to reinvigorating the political process.

In their interventions, Council members appreciated Rugwabizas leadership in improving relations between MINUSCA and the CAR government and her efforts in trying to inject renewed momentum into the political process. They also welcomed the remobilisation of regional partners and backed the regional approach to assist progress in the implementation of the roadmap adopted by the ICGLR in support of the 2019 Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in the CAR.

Sanctions-Related Developments

The Council adopted resolution 2588 on 29 July 2021 to extend the CAR sanctions regime and renew the mandate of the Panel of Experts. There were 14 votes in favour and one abstention by China. In its explanation of vote, China said that the text failed to fully respect the wish of the Government of the Central African Republic for the lifting of the embargo. Following the adoption of the resolution, five individuals with expertise in armed groups, arms, finance/natural resources, humanitarian issues, and regional issues were nominated to serve on the Panel of Experts. Russia placed a hold on the appointments for several months, however, calling for increased geographical diversity. On 18 April, the Secretary-General appointed three of the panel members from Costa Rica, the Republic of the Congo and Kenya with expertise on humanitarian affairs, regional issues and arms, respectively. The Secretariat has been in the process of recruiting two additional members. A natural resources/finance expert from the Netherlands was appointed on 1 June, and an armed groups expert is expected to be appointed soon. The panel was supposed to present a mid-term report in January pursuant to resolution 2588, but could not, as three of the experts only started work in April. They were able to travel to Bangui and talk to the CAR authorities, however. Their final report, circulated to Council members last week, is expected to be discussed by the 2127 CAR Sanctions Committee on 24 June. According to the Secretary-Generals latest report on MINUSCA, released on 16 June, armed groups continue to pose serious security threats in the CAR. MINUSCA recorded 374 violations of the political agreement during the reporting period, most of which were committed by an armed group known as the Unite pour la paix en Centrafrique (UPC); the national defence forces and other security personnel have also committed several violations. On 21 December 2021, the 2127 CAR Sanctions Committee added Ali Darassa to the sanctions list; Darassa is the founder and leader of the UPC, which is accused of committing serious abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law in the CAR. CARs Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sylvie Baipo-Temon, has apparently written a letter to the Council reiterating her countrys request for the arms embargo to be lifted to allow the CAR to enhance the effectiveness of its defence and security forces. CARs representative reflected the same position at the last Council meeting on the CAR on 22 June.

Human Rights-Related Developments

During its 50th session, the Human Rights Council is expected to hold an interactive dialogue on 6 July on the oral update of the independent expert on the situation of human rights in the CAR, Yao Agbetse.

Key Issues and Options

The discussion of the arms embargo is likely to continue to be a key issue during the upcoming negotiations on renewing the 2127 CAR sanction regime. CAR will try to solicit the support of some Council members, including the three African members, China and Russia, in pushing for lifting the arms embargo. However, other members oppose this move in the face of increasing violence and the spread of arms.

One possible option is for the Sanctions Committee to facilitate a discussion with the CAR government on the implementation of the National Program for Disarmament, Demobilization, Reintegration and Repatriation (PNDDRR) and putting in place an effective weapons and ammunition management system based on the Secretary-Generals recommendations in his letter of 15 June 2021.

The operation of the Panel of Experts, whose members appointment was delayed for several months, is another important issue. Several Council members had expressed concerns over the delay and underscored the need to allow the panel to do its work.

Council Dynamics

The arms embargo imposed on CAR in 2013 continues to be a controversial issue. In their joint statement during the Council meeting on 22 June, the African members supported CARs request for lifting the arms embargo. Russia called for easing the arms embargo until it is finally lifted, while China supported lifting the embargo at an early date.

On the other hand, France and the UK argued against lifting the embargo, maintaining that it does not prevent the CAR government from acquiring military equipment. The decision should, in their view, be based on progress towards achieving the benchmarks set out by the Council, such as the implementation of the PNDDRR and the management of weapons and ammunitions. Furthermore, they indicated that it is difficult to think of introducing any changes to the sanctions regime in the face of continued human rights abuses in the country. Ireland and Norway stressed the importance of addressing delays in the appointment of the Panel of Experts assisting the work of the sanctions committee. Some of these views could be reflected during the upcoming negotiations in July.

France is the penholder on the CAR, and Harold Adlai Agyeman (Ghana) chairs the 2127 CAR Sanctions Committee.

UN DOCUMENTS ON THE CAR

This resolution renewed MINUSCAs mandate for another 12 months. Thirteen Council members voted in favour, while China and Russia abstained. This extended the CAR sanctions regime until 31 July 2022, including an arms embargo with some exemptions. Resolution 2588 also renewed the mandate of the CAR Panel of Experts, who assist the sanctions committee in overseeing the sanction measures, until 31 August 2022. This was the Secretary-Generals report on the situation in the CAR. This was a Council meeting on the situation in CAR
THEMATIC ISSUES

Children and Armed Conflict

Expected Council Action

In July, the Security Council will hold its annual open debate on children and armed conflict. Brazilian Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Fernando Simas Magalhaes is expected to chair the meeting. Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba is expected to present the Secretary-Generals annual report on children and armed conflict, which is due in early July. Other speakers are likely to include Executive Director of UNICEF Catherine Russell and a civil society briefer.

Brazil, as Council president in July, has outlined three themes for this years annual open debate: children who are refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and stateless; abduction of children, including the different effects on girls and boys; and reintegration of children formerly associated with armed forces and groups, with a focus on the possible contribution of reintegration to peacebuilding efforts.

Background and Key Recent Developments

In 2022, as the children and armed conflict mandate marked its 25th anniversary, worrying trends of grave violations committed against children globally demonstrated the mandates continued relevance. On 18 January, the Office of the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict issued a study to mark the 25th anniversary of this mandate. The study notes that since the mandates inception, over 170,000 children have been released from armed forces and armed groups and reintegrated into society and hundreds of thousands of children have benefited from improved protection. It further says that the signing of joint action plans between the UN and parties to conflict has critically, although not quantifiably, prevented violence against children in situations of armed conflict in multiple contexts. To date, 39 such action plans have been signed, the most recent of which was signed on 18 April with the Houthi rebel group in Yemen.

The situation of children in Afghanistan and Ukraine, among other places, has gripped international attention since the Talibans takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021 and Russias invasion of Ukraine in late February.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban announced on 23 March that girls high schools would be closed, thereby preventing girls above the sixth grade from attending school. The announcement was an abrupt reversal of the Talibans 21 March decision to reopen all schools at the beginning of the spring semester. On 27 March, Council members issued a press statement that expressed deep concern regarding this decision and called on the Taliban to respect the right to education and adhere to their commitments to reopen schools for all female students without further delay, among other matters. The Taliban has not reversed its decision.

With regard to Ukraine, as at 27 June, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) confirmed that at least 330 children have been killed and 489 injured since Russia invaded the country. In a 1 June statement, UNICEF said that almost two out of every three children had been displaced by fighting in Ukraine. Three million children inside Ukraine and 2.2 million children who have fled to neighbouring countries are in need of humanitarian assistance.

While Ukraine is not on the children and armed conflict agenda and information about the situation is not included in the Secretary-Generals annual report, some Council members have sought to remain abreast of the effects of the war on children by calling for dedicated Council meetings on the issue on 11 April and 12 May. (For background, see our 10 April and 11 May Whats in Blue stories.) An issue underlined in these meetings has been the vulnerability of children in the context of the war, including the increased risks of sexual violence and human trafficking faced by children fleeing the war. Speakers also warned about the effects of attacks on civilian infrastructure on which children depend, such as schools and hospitals.

The briefers and some Council members in these meetings underscored the applicability of the recently adopted resolution 2601 of 29 October 2021 on the protection of education in conflict, which urges all parties to cease attacks and threats of attacks against schools. This resolution, which is the first to focus on the link between education and peace and security, also calls on member states to facilitate the access to education of refugee and displaced children and emphasises the need to facilitate the continuation of education in situations of armed conflict, including through distance learning and use of digital technology.

At the 12 May meeting, several Council members (Albania, France, Ireland, Mexico, and the US) called on the Secretary-General to include Ukraine as a situation of concern in his 2022 annual report on children and armed conflict. If the Secretary-General chooses to do so, his future reports will include information on the situation in Ukraine in the narrative of the report under other situations of concern. Further investigation can then be undertaken by the Secretary-General and his special representative to determine which parties are responsible for committing grave violations and whether they should be listed in the annexes of his reports. The annexes list parties that have committed grave violations against children (their recruitment and use, killing and maiming, abductions, rape and other forms of sexual violence, and attacks on schools and hospitals).

Even prior to the invasion in February, civil society organisations had called on the Secretary-General to include Ukraine as a situation of concern in his annual report. Since 2014, the fighting between the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian separatists in the two breakaway provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine has led to violations being committed against children, including killing and maiming and attacks against schools. In a report published in April, the organisation Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict called on the Secretary-General to add Ukraine as a situation of concern in his upcoming report, along with Ethiopia, Mozambique and Niger.

The Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict has held four formal meetings and 11 informal meetings in 2022. On 5 May, the working group adopted conclusions on the Secretary-Generals report on Yemen. Negotiations on conclusions on several other country situationsincluding Afghanistan, Myanmar, and Syriaare ongoing and have been difficult. In the case of Myanmar, it appears that some Council members have suggested that the conclusions on Myanmar should reflect the situation of children since the 1 February 2021 takeover of the government by the Myanmar Armed Forces (also known as the Tatmadaw), although they are beyond the scope of the 30 June 2020 cut-off date of the Secretary-Generals Myanmar report.

Key Issues and Options

A key issue for the Council is having the Secretary-Generals annual reports serve as an effective tool in supporting the implementation of the children and armed conflict agenda.

Concerns have been raised that if parties that do not appear to have stopped committing violations against children are nonetheless taken off the annexes, the credibility of the Secretary-Generals report may be called into question.

This became an issue of serious concern for some Council members and civil society organisations following the Secretary-Generals decision in his 2020 annual report to de-list the Saudi Arabia-led Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen for the violation of killing and maimingdespite the fact that the annual report showed that it had committed 222 such violations in 2019and to de-list the Tatmadaw for the violation of recruitment and use, although they were responsible for eight cases of new recruitment and 197 cases of use in 2019. In the 2021 annual report, the Tatmadaw were re-listed for the recruitment and use of children. The Saudi-led coalition was not re-listed, even though the report showed it was responsible for killing and maiming at least 194 children in 2020.

Council members could call for the consistent and transparent application of the criteria for listing and de-listing parties, which were set out in the Secretary-Generals 2010 annual report. That report said that a party would be de-listed if the UN had verified that it has ceased commission of all the said grave violations for which it was listed.

Another issue is how to sustain continued attention by the Council and the wider UN membership to the children and armed conflict agenda. While the situation of children in country-specific situations and cross-cutting trends in the agenda are consistently discussed by the working group on children and armed conflict throughout the year, the Council as a whole and the wider UN membership usually address the issue only once a year, during the annual open debate. Members may consider ways to incorporate systematically opportunities to discuss the issue throughout the year.

An option is to adopt working methods commitments, such as those adopted by several Council members on women, peace and security. Such commitments can include:

holding at least one additional meeting a year, besides the annual open debate, which addresses a cross-cutting issue relating to the children and armed conflict agenda (such as prevention of grave violations, reintegration of children, trends in specific grave violations);

identifying Council meetings on country-specific or cross-cutting issues that can benefit from a perspective on the situation of children and inviting relevant briefers (such as the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict or a UNICEF representative);

incorporating a focus on children and armed conflict in Council statements at meetings on country-specific situations; and

committing to systematically seek first-hand accounts from children regarding the situation in their countries.

On this last point, Council members have on several occasions benefitted from interventions by child briefers, such as during the annual open debate held in 2020 during Frances June presidency. Inviting children to brief the Council, whether in person or virtually, is a challenging issue in light of security concerns. As such, other ways to receive these inputs can be explored, such as playing a recorded video message at Council meetings.

Council Dynamics

There is strong support overall for the children and armed conflict agenda among Council members. However, political sensitivities in the Council over issues such as Myanmar and Syria have filtered down to the subsidiary body level, resulting in protracted negotiations before consensus can be reached on some conclusions in the working group.

The direct involvement of some members in conflict situations has also complicated the working groups activities. For example, since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, several members have expressed a wish to receive a briefing from the Special Representative for Children and Armed on the situation of children in Ukraine during formal and informal meetings of the working group. However, Russia has opposed the request on several occasions, before eventually agreeing to such a briefing during a 5 May meeting. In addition, it seems that dynamics around the working groups conclusions on Yemen were difficult, in part due to objections raised by the United Arab Emirates regarding references to the Saudi Arabia-led coalition.

Ambassador Mona Juul (Norway) chairs the Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict.

UN DOCUMENTS ON CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT

This resolution condemned attacks and threats of attack against schools, educational facilities and civilians connected with schools. It further emphasised the need to facilitate the continuation of education in situations of armed conflict. It was co-sponsored by 99 member states. This was the Secretary-Generals annual report on children and armed conflict. This letter contained the statements made at the annual open debate on children and armed conflict, which was held virtually on 28 June 2021.
AMERICAS

Colombia

Expected Council Action

In July, the Security Council is expected to receive a briefing from Special Representative and head of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia Carlos Ruiz Massieu on recent developments and the Secretary-Generals latest 90-day report on the mission, dated 27 June. Francisco de Roux, the head of Colombias Truth Commission, and a civil society representative are also expected to brief at the meeting, which will have a transitional justice-related focus.

The verification missions mandate expires on 31 October.

Key Recent Developments

Several major developments have occurred in recent months in Colombia, including a significant shift in the political landscape and crucial progress on transitional justice processes. On 19 June, Gustavo Petro of the left-wing Pacto Historico coalition was elected president with over 50.4 per cent of the vote, marking the first time that the country has elected a leftist president. Petro served as Bogotas mayor from 2014 to 2015 and was formerly a member of the guerrilla organisation 19th of April Movement (M-19), which demobilised and became a political party in the late 1980s. Environmental activist Francia Marquez was his running mate. She will become the first Afro-Colombian woman to serve as Vice President in Colombian history. Petro and Marquez will assume office on 7 August.

The Secretary-General noted in his latest report on Colombia that the elections were held in a generally peaceful manner. He also welcomed commitments expressed by the President-elect to further the implementation of the 2016 Final Agreement for Ending the Conflict and Building a Stable and Lasting Peace between the government of Colombia and the former rebel group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejercito del Pueblo (FARC-EP).

Petro and Marquezs campaign platform addressed several matters relating to the implementation of the peace agreementwhich they pledged to makecome true in its entirety, with the help of Colombian society and the international community. The overall focus of their campaign was on socioeconomic issues such as the eradication of poverty and food insecurity, and their platform indicates a certain focus on the implementation of provisions of the agreement that can contribute to these goals, including the comprehensive rural reform and the National Crop Substitution Plan. With regard to transitional justice and security, Petro and Marquez have pledged to support the components of the Comprehensive System of Truth, Justice, Reparations and Non-Repetitioncomprised of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (SJP), the Truth Commission, and the Unit for the Search for Persons Deemed as Missingand reactivate the work of the National Commission on Security Guarantees, which is charged under the peace agreement with developing a public policy for dismantling criminal organisations and their support networks.

During the campaign period, some civil society actors called on the candidates to include in their political agenda the holding of peace talks with the armed group Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN). Petro has expressed a willingness to negotiate with the ELN, with the aim of reaching a peace agreement that will draw lessons from the 2016 peace agreement with the former FARC-EP. In a 20 June statement, the ELN noted that while it maintains its system of political and military struggle and resistance, the group is also willing to engage with the incoming administration in peace negotiations, continuing the peace process that began with former President Juan Manuel Santos in Quito, Ecuador, in 2017. The process concluded without agreement in August 2018, when President Ivan Duque assumed office. Throughout his term, Duque refused to conduct dialogue with the ELN, setting as preconditions for engagement with the group the release of all hostages and the end of ELN kidnappings and attacks.

A milestone in the peace process was reached on 28 June, when the Truth Commission issued its final report, which aims to set out the truth about the armed conflict in Colombia between 1958 and 2016. The report identifies human rights violations committed by both parties during the conflict, provides a narrative of the conflicts lasting effects on various groups in societyincluding ethnic groups, children, women, and LGBTI personsand outlines recommendations on next steps relating to national reconciliation. The commission will work on familiarising the public with the report until its mandate expires on 27 August. Following the end of the Truth Commissions mandate, a committee is set to be established to follow up on the reports recommendations.

In another crucial development during the reporting period, the SJP for the first time held public hearings on acknowledgement of truth and responsibility within Case 01 (on crimes committed by the FARC-EP such as hostage-taking and other serious deprivations of liberty) and Case 03 (on killings and forced disappearances presented by state agents as combat casualties, also known as false positives). During the hearing on Case 03, which took place in April, ten former members of the militarywho had already recognised their responsibility in writing last yearlistened to the accounts of 35 victims. While recognising the contribution of the indicted former members of the security forces to the truth, the victims asked for further information on the responsibility of higher-ranking officials. Over the course of three days (31 May, 2 June and 6 June), former top FARC-EP commanders listened to the accounts of 29 victims and their families, acknowledged their responsibility and asked for forgiveness. Following these hearings, the SJP is expected to determine whether the acknowledgement of responsibility and contributions to the truth by the indicted make them eligible for restorative sentences. (In accordance with the 2016 peace agreement, those who are not eligible will be subject to the Colombian penal code and may face imprisonment of up to 20 years.)

Key Issues and Options

Colombia stands at an inflection point where the shift in government and the progress on transitional justice can create both opportunities and challenges to the implementation of the 2016 agreement. An issue for the Council is to determine how it can play a constructive role in helping Colombians overcome such challenges and promoting the comprehensive implementation of the agreement.

Members can consider issuing a press statement encouraging the incoming administration to fulfil its stated commitments regarding the implementation of the peace agreement and referencing specific steps that the incoming administration could take during and after the transition period. One such recommendationput forward by the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, which tracks progress in the implementation of the 2016 peace accordis for the incoming government to create a task force to establish dialogue with the Truth Commission and jointly outline an action plan for the reports socialisation period (that is, until 27 August) and for the committee that will follow up on the reports recommendations. This task force could include representatives from the education, cultural and human rights sectors.

Another option for the Council is to consider a visiting mission to Colombia, where it can interact with local actors, including civil society, to hear their views about ways to overcome potential challenges to the peace agreement. Previous Council visiting missions to Colombia, which took place in May 2017 and July 2019, signalled the Councils political support for the implementation of the agreement.

Concurrent with recent developments on transitional justice processes in the country, Council members have explored opportunities to interact informally with actors on the ground. On 27 April, Ireland, Norway and the UK organised a virtual meeting between Council experts in New York and representatives of the Truth Commission. It seems that the discussion explored ways for the Truth Commission to present its findings to the Council, among other things. Following next months quarterly meeting on Colombia, Ireland will convene an Arria-formula meeting on transitional justice in Colombia; this can also allow interaction between Council members, victims and civil society organisations. Members may use this opportunity to derive good practices from the case of Colombia and identify their relevance to other situations on the Councils agenda which are undergoing transitional justice processes.

Council Dynamics

Council members are united in their support of the peace process in Colombia. However, members attitudes towards the governing administration in the country have at times affected Council dynamics on the file. Russia, for example, has often rebuked the Duque government for insufficient implementation of the peace agreement and its refusal to conduct dialogue with the ELN. More recently, Duques public condemnation of Russias invasion of Ukraine led to Russia adopting a particularly critical tone at the Councils 12 April meeting on Colombia, in which Duque represented his country. Following the meeting, members were not able to agree on a press statement, apparently due to objections raised by Russia. (The issuance of a press statement following the Councils quarterly Colombia meetings has become standard practice for Council members.) It remains to be seen how the inauguration of a new administration in Colombia may influence this dynamic.

To date, Russia has been the most vocal in calling on the government to conduct dialogue with the ELN, while other Council members have rarely raised the issue in the open chamber. In light of the incoming administrations expressed willingness to engage with the group, other members may consider referencing the issue in their public statements.

Unusually, the 12 April Council meeting did not include a civil society briefer, a choice by the UK (penholder on Colombia and the Council president in April) criticised by many Colombian actors, including civil society and members of the Comunes party (which is comprised of former FARC-EP members). At the meeting, Russia lamented the fact that civil society was not able to present its views on the implementation of the peace agreement. Mexico noted that civil society briefers had given important perspectives on the situation in Colombia at previous Council meetings. It added that [t]he participation of civil society in all UN platforms, including the Security Council, establishes a favourable balance that cannot and should not be ignored.

UN DOCUMENTS ON COLOMBIA

This was the Secretary-Generals 90-day report on the UN Verification Mission in Colombia. This was the Security Councils quarterly meeting on Colombia, which was held on 12 April 2022.
EUROPE

Cyprus

Expected Council Action

In July, Security Council members are expected to receive a briefing in consultations on the situation in Cyprus. Special Representative and head of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) Colin Stewart is expected to brief. The Council is expected to renew UNFICYPs mandate ahead of its 31 July expiry.

Background and Key Recent Developments

The UNFICYP mandate renewal in July will take place against the backdrop of a lack of meaningful developments on the political front. The unification talks have remained at an impasse in the five years since the collapse of negotiations at Crans-Montana in July 2017. Efforts to reinvigorate the political process and find common ground for the resumption of talks have failed to establish agreement between the two delegations to proceed with formal negotiations. Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades remains firmly committed to a settlement based on a bi-communal, bi-zonal federation (BBF) with political equality, as stipulated in previous Security Council resolutions, while Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar insists on a two-state solution based on sovereign equality.

Negotiations on the appointment of a UN envoy on Cyprus to succeed Jane Holl Lute, who resigned in September 2021, also remain at a deadlock. Following an informal meeting between Anastasiades and Tatar, hosted by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on 27 September 2021, the two leaders expressed divergent positions on the specific role and mandate of the envoy. According to media reports, Tatar objected to the appointment of a UN special envoy, preferring a personal envoy. (Special envoys are usually assigned to undertake special missions related to matters of which the Security Council or the General Assembly are seized, while personal envoys undertake missions at the Secretary-Generals initiative.) Tatar reportedly argued that while a special envoy would be constrained by having to operate strictly within the framework of the BBF with political equality, a personal envoy would have greater autonomy to explore new ideas, including his proposed two-state solution. Anastasiades reportedly reiterated the need to appoint an envoy during a meeting with Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas Miroslav Jenca on 12 April.

The issue of irregular crossings of asylum seekers, the majority of whom arrive at the Turkish Cypriot side of the island before crossing the UN-administered buffer zone, continues to be a source of tension between the sides. In 2021, over 80 percent of asylum seekers entered the Greek Cypriot Republic of Cyprus through the buffer zone. The Republic of Cyprus has the highest number of asylum applications per capita among EU nations, with asylees making up roughly five percent of its population. According to Greek Cypriot Interior Minister Nicos Nouris, the number of asylum applications doubled to roughly 10,000 from January through May compared to the same period in 2021. After visiting the Pournara migrant reception centre on 18 June, European Commission Vice President Margharitis Schinas reportedly said that the Turkish Cypriot authorities must also assume their share of responsibility and that the EU will find a way to remind them.

In addition, the war in Ukraine has led to concerns that the global food insecurity exacerbated by the war could lead to new waves of migrants from Africa and the Middle East arriving in southern Europe. On 4 June, the interior ministers of Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, and Spain called for a more robust EU policy on migration. Criticising the EUs voluntary policy on burden-sharing, which does not legally oblige EU members to assist each other in the area of asylum and immigration, Nouris said that solidarity in our minds cannot be voluntary.

Between 29 May and 2 June, the Greek Cypriot national guard and the Israeli armed forces conducted joint military drills in Cyprus as part of the countries bilateral defence cooperation programme. Spokesperson of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkiye, Tanju Bilgic reportedly issued a statement on 4 June criticising the military exercise as destabilizing the region. The Republic of Cyprus and Turkiye remain locked in a dispute over the exploration of hydrocarbon resources off the coast of Cyprus. Greece, Israel and Cyprus signed a deal in January 2020 to build a pipeline delivering natural gas from the eastern Mediterranean to Europe. On 14 June, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi reportedly expressed hope during a visit to Israel that natural gas supplies from the eastern Mediterranean, possibly liquified by Egyptian processing plants, could help alleviate the effects of European dependence on Russian energy given the ongoing war in Ukraine. Russia significantly reduced natural gas supplies to Europe on 17 June.

Women, Peace and Security

Despite stalled progress on the political front, effective cooperation between the sides through the Technical Committee on Gender Equality resulted in agreement on an action plan to ensure womens full, equal and meaningful participation in peace talks. To this end, the action plan proposes that all delegations in meetings leading up to and taking part in the settlement process include no more than two-thirds of any gender. This principle also applies to the appointment of co-chairs and members of working groups and technical committees supporting the peace talks. The plan also recommends that delegations include a gender expert to guarantee that a gender perspective is fully integrated at all levels.

The action plan also seeks to enhance engagement with civil society, including women and youth organisations, to solicit their views on the peace talks. In this regard, the Technical Committee on Gender Equality is responsible under the plan for regularly engaging with civil society in advance of and throughout the settlement process. In addition, the action plan encourages public outreach and information-sharing to inform the public of the benefits of a settlement and to improve the public atmosphere for negotiations to secure a settlement. The action plan recommends that the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot delegations develop a joint communication strategy to that end.

On 13 April, Anastasiades and Tatar attended the official launch of the action plan at a UN compound inside the buffer zone. The plan was embraced at the inauguration ceremony as an important step forward in helping revive the stalled peace talks.

Key Issues and Options

Since the collapse of the 2017 unification talks, the key issue for the Security Council has been the lack of meaningful progress on the political front and the diminishing prospects for reaching a political settlement of the Cyprus problem. Given the current deadlock, the Council could take several actions to revive the peace process.

In renewing UNFICYPs mandate in July, the Council may wish to urge the parties to reach an agreement regarding the Secretary-Generals proposal to appoint a UN envoy on Cyprus. While the Council may reiterate its firm commitment to a peaceful settlement based on a framework of BBF with political equality, it could also reassure the parties that the envoy will not be constrained in their search for common ground for the resumption of talks.

To improve the public atmosphere for negotiating a peaceful settlement, the Council may call on the leaders to develop a joint communication strategy and urge the implementation of the action plan to promote womens full, equal and meaningful participation in the peace process. In this regard, they may also encourage robust engagement with women and youth organisations, led by the Technical Committee on Gender Equality, to broaden the inclusivity of the peace talks and advance reconciliation and peacebuilding objectives.

Another key issue for the Council is establishing a direct military contact mechanism between the parties, facilitated by UNFICYP. In his latest report on the mission, the Secretary-General said that such a mechanism would allow the parties to effectively alleviate day-to-day tensions in and around the buffer zone. Positions on the mechanisms composition, however, remained far apart and hardly bridgeable, as the Greek Cypriot authorities believe that the mechanism should only involve the Turkish military as opposed to Turkish Cypriot forces. In renewing UNFICYPs mandate in July, the Council may decide to encourage the parties to approach negotiations on the basis of engagement without recognition and undertake significant confidence-building measures, which could help facilitate the resumption of negotiations.

Council Dynamics

Cyprus remains a low-intensity issue on the Councils agenda. Council members with a vested interest in Cyprus include France, Russia and the UK. In addition to being a guarantor power, the UK also serves as the penholder on this issue.

While the Council is united in its support for the political process, members diverge on the conditions and timeframe for the unification talks. Some members have previously supported a comprehensive strategic review of the mission and timed benchmarks for an exit strategy tied to the political process. Russia remains adamant that there be no external interference or attempts to enforce solutions and schedules to influence the peace talks. While relations between the Republic of Cyprus and Russia have soured since Russias invasion of Ukraine, Russias ministry of foreign affairs posted on Twitter on 18 May that it continues to advocate for a settlement based on the BBF-with-political-equality model.

The Council is unlikely to initiate drastic changes to the missions mandate and size. Council members will encourage the Secretary-General to continue working with the parties to find common ground for formal negotiations to commence.

UN DOCUMENTS ON CYPRUS

This renewed the mandate of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) for another six months, until 31 July 2022. This presidential statement reaffirms the status of Varosha as set out in previous resolutions and condemned the announcement in Cyprus by Turkish and Turkish Cypriot leaders on 20 July 2021 on the further reopening of a part of the fenced-off area of Varosha. This was a report on UNFICYP. This was the report of the Secretary-General on the UNs good offices mission in Cyprus. This was a letter from the Republic of Cyprus to the UN containing, inter alia, allegations of the illegal use of closed ports and airports by Turkish naval and air forces.
AMERICAS

Haiti

Expected Council Action

In July, the Security Council is expected to renew the mandate of the UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) ahead of its 15 July expiry.

Key Recent Developments

The Council last discussed Haiti in a 16 June meeting, during which it was briefed by Special Representative and head of BINUH Helen La Lime and Arnoux Descardes, Executive Director of the NGO Volontariat pour le Developpement dHaiti. La Lime outlined the key findings of the Secretary-Generals latest report on Haiti, dated 13 June, which describes in stark terms the multidimensional crises facing the country.

The briefers and Council members lamented the ongoing political stalemate and emphasised the importance of a broad and inclusive inter-Haitian dialogue to pave the way toward elections and constitutional reform. Two main political factions are competing for power and have charted opposing plans to lead Haiti out of its political crisis: a group supporting Prime Minister Ariel Henry and his plan to hold a constitutional referendum followed by elections by the end of 2022, with Henry leading the country until then; and the so-called Montana Group, for whom the constitutional referendum is not a priority and who seek a two-year transitional government under different interim leadership, with elections to be held in 2023.

Many speakers took note of the formation on 31 March of a tripartite committeecomposed of representatives of academia, faith-based organisations and the private sectorthat aims to broaden consensus towards national elections. By May, the committee had begun a process of nationwide consultations focused on five main themes: security, elections, constitutional reform, governance arrangements, and humanitarian issues. Speakers also noted that Henry recently held a series of direct talks with leaders of the Montana Group, who proposed new modalities for the relaunching of formal negotiations. Descardes underlined that [o]nly an inter-Haitian dialogue can build a broader consensus and therefore urged political actors to go beyond statements of good intentions.

The escalation of gang violence in recent months remains a major concern. On 24 April, fighting erupted between the two rival gangs Chen Mechan and 400 Mawazo in several communes of Haitis capital Port-au-Prince (Croix-des Bouquets, Tabarre and Cite Soleil) and has since spread to additional communes in the capital. Between 1 January and 31 May, the Haitian National Police recorded 540 kidnappings and 782 intentional homicideswhich represent an increase of 36.4 percent and 17 percent, respectively, compared with the final five months of 2021. The Secretary-Generals report notes that 198 kidnappings and 201 homicides were recorded in May alone.

At the 16 June meeting, many Council members emphasised the detrimental effects of the surging violence on civilians, particularly women and children. Most Council members referenced the high incidence of sexual and gender-based violence. Partial data collected by BINUH paints an alarming picture, indicating an average of 98 victims of sexual violence per month between January and March in Port-au-Prince, mainly in gang-controlled areas. The Secretary-Generals report says that women, girls and LGBTI persons are particularly exposed to sexual violence, including rape and sexual slavery, while men and boys are also affected by such violence.

In a 23 June statement, UNICEF outlined the effects of the recent spike in violence on childrens education in Haiti. An assessment conducted by the Haitian Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training and UNICEF in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area in April and May revealed that more than 500 out of 976 schools were dysfunctional or inaccessible due to clashes between armed groups, among other things. In addition, eight percent of the assessed schools are occupied by armed gangs or by displaced families.

Human Rights-Related Developments On 30 June, during its 50th session, the Human Rights Council considered and adopted the final outcomes of the Universal Period Review of Haiti (A/HRC/50/15). The report contains 221 recommendations to be examined by Haiti.

Key Issues and Options

The key priority for the Council in July is to renew BINUHs mandate. Members are expected to reflect on how the missions mandate can best support Haitian authorities in addressing the governance and security issues in the country. They are likely to consider if and how to incorporate the recommendations put forward in the strategic assessment of BINUHs mandate, which Council members received on 29 April. The Council requested the assessment in resolution 2600 of 15 October 2021 to determine whether and how the missions mandate could be adjusted to address Haitis challenges and to increase the effectiveness of the mission. The assessment determined that BINUH is well placed to create space for political dialogue and called for the continuation of the mandate.

Among other things, the assessment warned that gangs could develop an almost insurgent capability if left unchecked, while outlining the many challenges that the Haitian National Police (HNP) faces in addressing the security situation, including difficulties in recruiting and vetting police officers, and endemic corruption. In this regard, it advised that BINUH should receive adequate resources to scale up its advisory support to strengthen the capacity of the national police to fight gangs, reopen police commissariats in areas affected by gang violence and stem illicit financial flows. Subsequently, the Secretary-General recommended in his 13 June report on Haiti to increase BINUHs ceiling of authorised police advisers from 30 to 42. He further called for a 12-month renewal of BINUHs mandate.

To inform deliberations ahead of the mandate renewal, it seems that Brazil had sought to schedule a Council visiting mission to Haiti during its July presidency. At the 16 June meeting, Brazil noted that it had decided to postpone the visit because of the precarious security conditions in Haiti and BINUHs insufficient resources to guarantee the safety of the visiting mission. Until conditions permit an in-person visit, members may consider holding informal virtual meetings with Haitian actors to hear their views about various aspects relating to BINUHs mandate and the UNs work in the country. Such an informal practice has developed in the Councils work on Colombia.

The dire effects of the insecurity on children are a matter of concern. Haiti is not on the Security Councils agenda on children and armed conflict, and as such, the Secretary-Generals annual report on children and armed conflict does not contain information on the situation of children in the country. In light of the alarming incidence of grave violations committed against children in Haitiincluding cases of sexual violence and abductionsmembers may consider inviting a UNICEF representative to brief the Council in its next meeting on Haiti.

Council Dynamics

BINUHs mandate has been contentious since the missions inception in October 2019. Although united in the view that Haiti faces grave political, economic, security, and humanitarian challenges, Council members hold different opinions on how these should be addressed. China has argued that the UN system has provided large amounts of funding without the desired effect and that synergies with the UN agencies funds and programmes or regional organisations should be explored. Other members are of the view that BINUHs mandate should be strengthened to better position the mission to address the many challenges facing the country.

During the most recent negotiations on BINUHs mandate, which took place in October 2021, China advocated a six-month mandate renewal and requested the strategic review with a view to identifying a strategy for the missions drawdown, placing emphasis on the governments primary responsibility for addressing the countrys difficulties. However, other members opposed Chinas suggestions, preferring instead the customary one-year mandate renewal. As a result of the contentious negotiations, which included the tabling of a competing draft by China, resolution 2600 renewed BINUHs mandate for nine months, shorter than the usual period.

During the 16 June meeting, many members indicated their positions regarding BINUHs upcoming mandate renewal. Albania, Brazil, Mexico, Ireland, and the A3 members (Gabon, Ghana and Kenya) called for the strengthening of BINUHs mandate to ensure that the mission is fit to address the multidimensional challenges plaguing Haiti. Among other things, these members advocated the strengthening of the missions human rights component, including by deploying additional personnel specialising in sexual and gender-based violence. France, Mexico and the US called for a 12-month renewal of the mandate, with France also expressing its support for raising the ceiling of the missions authorised police advisers to 42.

Brazil addressed other issues not mentioned by other Council members, arguing, for example, that BINUH should be given a mandate to support the Haitian authorities in controlling illicit financial flows. It further noted that there is a lack of trust in BINUH among the local population, which is partly attributable to misconceptions about the missions role in the country, and advocated a focus by the mission on strategic communicationsthe topic of one of Brazils signature events during its presidency.

China did not spell out its position on the mandate renewal but noted that the Council should use the opportunity to explore more effective ways for BINUH to provide Haiti with support. It added that the mission should use a regular review mechanism to assess the implementation of all mandated tasks and make timely adjustments in order to optimize such implementation.

Some speakers highlighted the nexus between security and development at the 16 June meeting, arguing that efforts to stabilise the security situation should go hand in hand with initiatives aimed at addressing the dire socioeconomic conditions in the country. The A3 called on the UN country team in Haiti to support economic development through a focus on employment and womens empowerment to offer young people opportunities that will prevent them from joining gangs. The United Arab Emirates noted that efforts to improve the security sector will be more effective if they are accompanied by community violence-reduction programmes.

The US and Mexico are co-penholders on Haiti.

UN DOCUMENTS ON HAITI

This resolution renewed the mandate of the UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) for nine months, until 15 July 2022. It also requested the Secretary-General to conduct an assessment of BINUHs mandate within six months of the resolutions adoption. This was the Secretary-Generals latest 120-day report on Haiti. This was a letter from the Secretary-General to the Security Council conveying the findings of a strategic assessment of BINUH. This was a meeting on the situation in Haiti.
AFRICA

In Hindsight: The Security Council and Unconstitutional Changes of Government in Africa

There has been a string of military takeovers in Africa in the last two years. Since August 2020, power has changed hands unconstitutionally six times in five countries: Burkina Faso (January 2022), Sudan (October 2021), Guinea (September 2021), Chad (April 2021), and Mali (August 2020 and May 2021). Two other African countries saw thwarted coup attempts in this period, Niger in March 2021 and Guinea-Bissau in January 2022, the latter of which led to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) deploying a force to the country.

The African Union held an extraordinary summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, on 28 May, which focused on unconstitutional changes of power and the ongoing threat of terrorism in Africa. At the summit, African leaders discussed possible measures to address the significant increase in military takeovers on the continent based on the outcome of an AU Reflection Forum held in Accra, Ghana, from 15-17 March, which recommended an in-depth analysis of gaps in the AU normative frameworks on unconstitutional changes of government. The forum recognised the deeper structural problems faced by some African countries, including governance and socioeconomic difficulties and challenges related to terrorism.

Speaking to the media on 26 October 2021, following the military takeover in Sudan, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke of an epidemic of coups detat and pointed out the lack of effective deterrence from the Security Council, noting that the Council has lots of difficulties in taking strong measures.

Several patterns have developed over time in the Councils efforts to address unconstitutional changes of power. One is that it appears easier for the Security Council to discuss a coup detat when the country concerned is already on its agenda, such as in Mali, which hosts a UN peacekeeping operation, or Guinea-Bissau, which had a UN special political mission when the military carried out a coup in April 2012. Some members tend to be wary of discussing issues not already on the agenda, justifying this by citing the principle of non-interference in internal affairs. For example, the Council did not discuss the coup detat in Guineawhich is not on its agendaeven though the AU Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) expressly called on the Security Council to support the ECOWAS decision for the restoration of constitutional order in that country. In the case of Guinea, it appears that a Security Council member from the region was sensitive about such a discussion, even though the position of the African members (A3) is generally in line with AU decisions.

When an African country that has experienced a coup detat is not on the agenda and the Council does decide to engage, it has tended to use one of its broader agenda items such as Peace and security in Africa or Peace consolidation in West Africa to consider the situation. This appears to be a useful way of discussing abrupt unconstitutional changes of power without the perceived stigma associated with naming a country as an agenda item. For example, Council members held consultations on 8 February to discuss the coup detat in Burkina Faso under Peace consolidation in West Africa.

In addition, the Council has at times discussed coups detat under any other business in closed consultations, which bypasses the use of an agenda item altogether and avoids any mention of the issue on the Councils monthly programme of work. After the military takeover that followed President Blaise Compaores resignation in 2014 and the subsequent coup attempts against the transitional authorities, the Council held several meetings on Burkina Faso under any other business.

There is no general practice discernable in the type of outcome the Council adopts following coups detat. Products have ranged from press statements, a relatively weak instrument in the Councils toolkit, to stronger outcomes such as presidential statements and, in one case, a resolution imposing sanctions. The resolution adopted after the April 2012 coup in Guinea-Bissau remains among the Councils most robust such responses in Africa, and established a travel ban that would be applied against leading officers involved in the coup. According to Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo, who spoke at the 7 February Security Council debate on general issues related to sanctions, these punitive measures are believed to have contributed to facilitating the eventual restoration of constitutional order (elections were organised in the spring of 2014) and to have had a deterrent effect on military intervention during subsequent political crises in the country. Renewed concerns about the militarys role in Guinea-Bissau surfaced in the aftermath of the disputed outcome of the 2019 presidential election, in addition to this years attack on the presidential palace.

The Council is often supportive of regional and sub-regional organisations responses to military takeovers. This has been notable in West Africa. ECOWAS has often led international responses to unconstitutional seizures of power in the region in ways that the Security Council has largely supported, also coordinating its messaging with the subregional body and the AU. Following the August 2020 coup detat in Mali, after issuing an initial press statement expressing strong support for ECOWAS and AU initiatives and mediation, the Council adopted a presidential statement in October 2020 backing ECOWAS-brokered arrangements for an 18-month national Malian transition. Renewing the mandate of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) in June 2021 and the Mali sanctions regime in August 2021, the Council reiterated its support for ECOWAS role and an 18-month transition period.

The Councils broad support for ECOWAS and the AU in response to military takeovers can vary, however, depending on the strategic interests of influential Council members and their interpretation of these changes in power. For example, since the end of last year, the Councils support for ECOWAS with regard to the political situation in Mali has shifted, as Russia has become closer to Malis transitional authorities. The result has been less clear messaging from the Council. After ECOWAS imposed new sanctions on the country in January over delays in organising elections, Council members were unable to agree even to press elements, which simply provide a verbal account of a Council meeting, following their quarterly meeting on Mali. Russia and China reportedly blocked the press elements, unwilling to back some of ECOWAS positions, including with regard to sanctions on Mali.

Reflecting shifting dynamics in the Council, its statement in February did not condemn the coup in Burkina Faso but, expresse[d] serious concern about the unconstitutional change of government and only took note of the decisions of ECOWAS and the AU. This struck a notably different tone from the Councils past endorsements of ECOWAS efforts in Burkina Faso in 2014 and 2015 (when Council members issued five press statements) and its initial response to the August 2020 and May 2021 coups detat in Mali.

The Councils reaction to last years military takeover in Sudan was also less assertive than that of the AU, reflecting differing interpretations of the crisis among Council members. Following the events of 25 October 2021when the military suspended the transitional institutions, declared a state of emergency and detained Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and other civilian members of the transitional governmentthe AUPSC suspended Sudan until the civilian-led transitional authority would be restored. When the Security Council met to discuss the situation on 26 October 2021, a legal debate ensued during which some permanent members questioned whether the developments in Sudan could be characterised as a coup detat. Council members issued a press statement on 28 October 2021, which expressed serious concern about the military takeover but did not condemn it, even as they also called upon Sudans military authorities to restore the civilian-led transitional government.

Security Council members are broadly united in their concern over the threat of terrorism, which can affect the Councils response to military takeovers. In the case of Chad, both the Security Council and the AU were aligned in their recognition of the countrys important counter-terrorism role. Following the AUPSCs lead, the Council did not respond to the unconstitutional takeover of power by a Transitional Military Council after the death of President Idriss Deby on 20 April 2021 during fighting with rebels. Instead of suspending the country from the AU, the AUPSC stated in its communique of 14 May 2021 that it was mindful of Chads pivotal role in fighting terrorism in the Lake Chad Basin and the Sahel regions. While this approach apparently reflected the views of countries of the central Africa region, some analysts criticised the AUPSCs selective criteria and the Security Councils subsequent inaction for sending the wrong signal to militaries across the continent.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Council went for two years without a visiting mission, taking away one tool that it can use to understand the political dynamics in countries going through delicate political transitions. In October 2021, the Security Council visited Mali. Members conveyed messages on the need for the country to return to constitutional order, though this was also when early signs of fissure in Council support for the ECOWAS position began to surface. As the Council struggles with consistent messaging around coups and coup attempts, first-hand information about developments on the ground will remain importantif not necessarily decisive.
YEREVAN, JULY 15, ARMENPRESS. The great French writer Victor Hugo called before his death to bring to end the French Revolution and start a human revolution. Exactly 233 years ago, July 14, 1789, the storming of the Bastille began the great French Revolution, and the human revolution, by all appearances, is yet to come. Anyway, that day went down in human history as the beginning of the great French Revolution, and in France July 14 is celebrated as a National Day. The correspondent of ARMENPRESS reports on July 14, the Embassy of the Republic of France in Armenia organized a grand reception on the occasion of the National Day of France, inviting representatives of state authorities, the political field, accredited diplomatic missions in Armenia, many famous figures of the Armenian society and simply friends of France.

Photos by Hayk Manukyan

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of France to Armenia Anne Louyot was very excited, because the last time the French National Day was celebrated in the "existing format" was three years ago, in 2019. During this period, Armenia went through a very hard and cruel path of war and pandemic. The Ambassador's thoughts are with those who lost their lives during this time. In her speech, Anne Louyot recalled the ongoing wars and threats to democracy in many regions of the world, stressing her country's commitment to universal, democratic values and the principles of international law. And July 14, according to the Ambassador, is a good occasion to remind about all that, also about the fact that France is a "deeply European country".

"July 14 is also an opportunity to remember the fraternal ties between France and Armenia, the French and Armenians, and our common commitments. For the sake of democracy, Armenia has resolutely chosen that path and is courageously pursuing reforms aimed at strengthening the rule of law, banning the attempts to be diverted from that goal. We welcome this commitment, as well as the quality and sincerity of our dialogue with the Armenian government. We all know that democracy is the result of a long process and dialogue with all segments of society. You know that we stand with you in this process necessary for the future of Armenian youth and the security of the country," the French Ambassador said.

According to the Ambassador, July 14 is not only a historical fact, it is also a symbol of the future and will.

"Armenia is a natural crossroads, a bridge between spheres of influence, cultures, and commercial markets. We are determined to help Armenia restore this tradition," Anne Louyot said.

The Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Mher Grigoryan also gave a speech, warmly congratulating on behalf of the Government and himself on the occasion of the National Day of France and emphasized the historical and universal significance of the political processes that began with the Storm of the Bastille.

"More than two centuries ago, the French people opened a new path for the future based on human rights and democracy. Since then, the high universal values of the French Revolution have become an exemplary guide for many countries," the Deputy Prime Minister noted.

Speaking about the Armenian-French friendship, Mher Grigoryan emphasized that it has a centuries-old history.

"The Armenian and French peoples have been together in many important moments of their history full of trials. We will never forget that at the beginning of the 20th century, France extended a fraternal hand to tens of thousands of Armenians who survived the genocide and found their second homeland.

The friendship between our two countries became an important basis for establishing a high-level political dialogue, as well as effective and close cooperation in all key areas," said Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan.
MIDDLE EAST

Lebanon

Expected Council Action

On 21 July, Security Council members expect to receive a briefing in consultations on the Secretary-Generals report on the implementation of resolution 1701. Adopted in 2006, resolution 1701 called for a cessation of hostilities between the Shia group Hezbollah and Israel. Briefings are expected from Special Coordinator for Lebanon Joanna Wronecka and Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix.

Key recent developments

On 15 May, parliamentary elections were held in Lebanon with nearly half of the registered voters participating. A significant development was that Hezbollah and its block lost the parliamentary majority they had held since the 2018 elections. No group won a majority of seats. Another development was the election of a notable number of candidates considered to be in opposition to the establishment (13, according to Lebanese news outlet LOrient-Le Jour). Overall, eight women were elected to the 128-seat body, the highest number to date in Lebanon.

Several electoral observation bodies reported instances of violations, including disputes and altercations in electoral centres, intimidation and vote buying practices, as well as a lack of accessibility for elderly voters and people with disabilities. According to a preliminary statement of the EU Election Observation Mission, although the electoral campaign was vibrant and the atmosphere was mostly calm, vote buying and clientelism distorted the level playing field and seriously affected the voters choice.

On 25 May, Council members issued a press statement welcoming the holding of the elections and calling for the rapid formation of an inclusive government and the urgent implementation of reforms. In what appears to be language resulting from compromise between differing positions, Council members took note of the findings and recommendations made by observer missions. The statement also encourages measures to enhance womens full, equal and meaningful political participation and representation, including in the new government.

During its first session on 31 May, the new parliament elected Speaker Nabih Berri to occupy this position for the seventh time, although with fewer votes than in the past. On 23 June, the parliament designated caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati as the new head of government tasked with forming a cabinet; however, any newly formed government will automatically enter caretaker status once the term of President of the Republic Michel Aoun expires in October, leaving only a short window for the Lebanese political leaders to form a government and undertake reforms.

On 7 April, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that a preliminary agreement had been reached with the Lebanese authorities to potentially support Lebanon for 46 months with around $3 billion, on the condition that Lebanon implements a series of reforms. In a 26 June statement calling on political actors to form a government, the International Support Group (ISG) for Lebanon said that the Lebanese authorities must deliver on the commitments made to the IMF, including budget laws, capital control, banking secrecy, banking resolution, government and central bank decisions on banking resolution and exchange rate unification. (The ISG is composed of the UN, China, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, the UK, and the US, as well as the EU and the Arab League.)

The Lebanese population continues to face the consequences of a severe socioeconomic crisis, with added concerns deriving from the effects of Russias invasion of Ukraine, in particular the availability of wheat.

On 21 June, Lebanon and Egypt signed an agreement for the provision of Egyptian gas to Lebanon through a pipeline running through Jordan and Syria to alleviate Lebanons energy crisis.

Indirect talks between Israel and Lebanon on the demarcation of the maritime border restarted in June, facilitated by US Senior Advisor for Global Energy Security Amos Hochstein. The resumption of the talks was prompted by tensions between the two countries following the arrival of a floating production storage and offloading vessel to extract gas for Israel at the Karish natural gas field. Israel says that the Karish field is located in its exclusive economic zone, while Lebanon maintains that the gas field is partly located in a disputed area.

The situation of refugees and displaced people in Lebanon also remains a source of concern. On 20 June, the UN and Lebanese authorities launched the 2022-2023 Lebanon Crisis Response Plan. The plan aims to provide assistance to 1.5 million displaced Syrians, more than 209,000 Palestinian refugees from Syria, and 1.5 million people from host communities in Lebanon.

The situation in UNIFILs area of operations remains volatile. In late April, a rocket was launched from southern Lebanon towards Israel, resulting in retaliatory fire from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). On 17 May, the IDF said it had shot down a drone belonging to Hezbollah, which had crossed into Israels territory.

More recently, Israeli media have reported that, according to the IDF, Hezbollahacting under the guise of an environmental protection organisationset up around a dozen new intelligence-gathering posts along the Blue Line, a border demarcation between Israel and Lebanon. According to these reports, Israel presented documentation about these new posts to UN staff and representatives of France and the US during a recent meeting at the UN headquarters in New York. The Secretary-Generals report on the implementation of resolution 1701, due on 13 July, is likely to provide an update on these and other developments in southern Lebanon, including ongoing issues with the restriction of UNIFILs freedom of access and movement.

On 16 June, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) unanimously sentenced Hezbollah-linked Hassan Habib Merhi and Hussein Hassan Oneissi to life imprisonment for being accomplices to intentional homicide, among other crimes. Merhi and Oneissi, both tried in absentia, were convicted in March, when the STL reversed on appeal its earlier acquittal of the two men, who remain at large. (The STL, a tribunal composed of Lebanese and international judges, began operating in 2009 to try those accused of carrying out the February 2005 bombing in which former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 21 others were killed.)

Human Rights-Related Developments A delegation of the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) visited Lebanon from 4 to 10 May. In a 12 May statement, the SPT expressed serious concern at the persistent problems in the administration of justice, prolonged pre-trial detention, overcrowding and deplorable living conditions in many places of deprivation of liberty. On 26 June, a group of international and national civil society organisations issued a joint statement saying that while Lebanon has strengthened its anti-torture protections on paper, in practice, torture remains prevalent. The statement calls on the Lebanese authorities to promptly and impartially investigate all allegations of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment. Women, Peace and Security At the time of writing, a visit to Lebanon by members of the Informal Experts Group on Women, Peace and Security (IEG) was expected to take place from 28 to 30 June. This will be the first time that members of the IEG undertake a country visit.

Key Issues and Options

The lack of implementation of resolution 1701, including through a permanent ceasefire, and the substantial amount of weaponry held by Hezbollah and other non-state actors in Lebanon remain key issues for the Council. In August, Council members will discuss the renewal of UNIFILs mandate ahead of its expiry on 31 August.

Another key issue for the Council is to provide UNIFIL with the means to carry out its tasks. At the July meeting, Council members may be interested to hear an update from the briefers on the security situation in southern Lebanon.

The potential extension of the temporary and special measures outlined in resolution 2591 in August 2021 is likely to be one of the issues that Council members will consider during the negotiations of UNIFILs mandate. Resolution 2591 requested UNIFIL to support the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) through temporary and special measures consisting of non-lethal material (fuel, food and medicine) and logistical support for a period of six months. This provision was driven by concerns about the impact of the socioeconomic crisis on the LAFs capacity to adequately carry out its functions in UNIFILs area of operations.

In this regard, Council members may be interested in receiving an update from the briefers on the impact of the temporary and special measures on the LAFs operational capacity. The March Secretary-Generals report on resolution 1701 said that, in light of the LAFs need for additional urgent support to increase their capacity to undertake joint operations with UNIFIL, the extension of these measures could help to address challenges such as the continued impact of the economic crisis on Lebanese security institutions and the risk that non-State armed groups could exploit any security vacuum.

Ongoing socioeconomic instability is a further issue. An 11 May report by the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter, found that: The Lebanese State, including its Central Bank, is responsible for human rights violations, including the unnecessary immiseration of the population, that have resulted from this man-made crisis. An option could be for Council members to invite De Schutter for a briefing.

An important additional issue for some Council members remains how best to support womens participation in political and peacebuilding processes in Lebanon. The members of the IEG who participated in the visit to Lebanon may consider sharing their findings from the trip during the 1701 meeting in July and through a publicly available summary letter.

Council Dynamics

There is broad consensus among members in support of Lebanons sovereignty, territorial integrity and security. Despite this general unity, differences remain. While some members distinguish between Hezbollahs political and military wings and have designated only its military wing as a terrorist organisation, other members, including the UK and the US, have listed the Shia group in its entirety as a terrorist organisation. In sharp contrast to the US and the UK, Russia sees Hezbollah as a legitimate sociopolitical force.

France is the penholder on Lebanon.

UN DOCUMENTS ON LEBANON

This resolution expanded UNIFIL by 15,000 troops and expanded its mandate. This was the most recent Secretary-Generals report on the implementation of resolution 1701.
AFRICA

Libya

Expected Council Action

In July, the Council is expected to hold a briefing, followed by consultations, on the situation in Libya. The Council is expected to vote on a resolution renewing the mandate of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), which expires on 31 July, in accordance with resolution 2629. The Council may also vote to renew the mandate of the Panel of Experts assisting the 1970 Libya Sanctions Committee by 15 July, and measures related to the illicit export of petroleum from Libya, in accordance with resolution 2571.

Key Recent Developments

Following the postponement of the national elections planned for 24 December 2021, a stand-off has persisted between two rival political factions in Libya. One faction is led by incumbent prime minister Abdul Hamid Mohammed Dbeibah, elected in February 2021 to head the interim Government of National Unity (GNU) by the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF)an assembly consisting of 75 participants representing the main Libyan geographical, social and political constituencies, which was responsible for charting the way towards electionsand the other by former Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha, who was elected interim prime minister by the House of Representatives (the Libyan legislature based in Tobruk) on 10 February.

The impasse between the factions led by Bashagha and Dbeibah, who is insisting on handing over power only after elections take place, led to violent clashes in Tripoli on 17 May, when Bashagha attempted to move his parallel government to the capital. Tripoli returned to relative calm after Bashagha abandoned his attempt, but the security situation remained unstable. A 10 June UNSMIL statement said that the mission received reports of clashes in Tripoli last night between armed groups, which endangered the lives of civilians, and separately of mobilization of armed groups, along with heavy weapons, from areas surrounding Tripoli.

UN Special Advisor on Libya Stephanie Turco Williams, who at the time of writing was expected to leave the post at the end of June, initiated a dialogue forumhosted in Cairoto accelerate holding Libyas long-delayed elections and promote dialogue between the rival political factions, which have put forward competing electoral roadmaps. Participating were members of the House of Representatives and of the High Council of State (the executive institution and constitutional authority established by the 2015 Libyan Political Agreement that is mandated to propose policies and recommendations on various political issues).

In relation to the dialogue forum in Cairo, two rounds of negotiations were held in April and May to discuss the constitutional basis for holding elections; the participants agreed on several provisions of the draft constitution. The third and final round of negotiations took place from 12 to 19 June to address outstanding issues. In a 20 June press statement, Williams said that the Joint Committee achieved a great deal of consensus on the contentious articles in the Libyan Draft Constitution but that differences persist on the measures governing the transitional period leading to elections. She called on the Presidencies of the two Chambers to meet within ten days at an agreed upon location to bridge outstanding issues. On 23 June, Williams announced on Twitter that Speaker of the House of Representatives Aguila Saleh and President of the High Council of State Khaled Al-Mishri have accepted my invitation to meet at the UN Office at Geneva 28-29 June to discuss the draft constitutional framework for elections.

Since September 2021, the Council has renewed UNSMILs mandate four times through short-term extensions because of disagreements among Council members concerning the length of the mandate, the restructuring of the mission, and language regarding the appointment of UNSMILs leadership. (For background, see our 13 September 2021, 1 October 2021, 31 January and 29 April Whats in Blue stories.) Most recently, on 29 April, the Council adopted resolution 2629, renewing the mandate of UNSMIL until 31 July. The resolution maintained UNSMILs core mandated tasks, as set out in resolution 2542 of 15 September 2020 and paragraph 16 of resolution 2570 of 16 April 2021. It authorised the missions restructuring, replacing the Geneva-based Special Envoy with a Tripoli-based Special Representative, supported by two Deputy Special Representatives. It also shortened the reporting cycle from 60 to 30 days. (At the time of writing, the search continues for a Special Representative.)

On 20 June, Council members discussed Libya under any other business, at the request of Russia. The meeting focused on the LPDF road map with a briefing by Assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific Mohamed Khaled Khiari. The LPDF roadmap set 22 June as the expiration date of the transitional period. In a 22 June press briefing, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General Farhan Haq noted that the roadmap set 22 June as the deadline provided that presidential and parliamentary elections are held by then, which has not been the case. Ahead of the 20 June meeting, Russia circulated a draft presidential statement that, among other issues, noted the end of the timeline set out by the LPDF roadmap on 22 June and called on the Secretary-General to appoint his Special Representative before the expiration of UNSMILs mandate on 31 July. At the time of writing, it seemed unlikely that the presidential statement would be adopted.

The Council last met on the situation in Libya on 27 June to receive an updated account of developments and UN activity. Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo briefed. She emphasised that the UNs priority in Libya remains to facilitate a return to the electoral process, based on a sound and consensual constitutional basis for elections. Bushra Alhodiri, Operation Manager of the Fezzan Libya Organisation, briefed as a member of civil society via video teleconference from Libya. (For more, see our Whats in Blue story of 24 June.)

Human Rights-Related Developments

A 28 March press statement on the release of a report of the Independent Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) on Libya (A/HRC/49/4) noted that continuing serious human rights violations and a culture of impunity prevailing in different parts of Libya are impeding the transition to peace, democracy and the rule of law. During its 50th session, the Human Rights Council (HRC) is expected to hold an interactive dialogue on 6 July with the FFM on Libya and consider its report (not yet available at the time of writing) on the situation of human rights in Libya (A/HRC/50/63). The HRC is expected to consider adopting a resolution on the extension of the mandate of the FFM on Libya before the end of the session on 8 July.

Sanctions-Related Developments

On 24 May, the Panel of Experts assisting the 1970 Libya Sanction Committee transmitted its final report to the Council. Among other things, it noted that most of Libya is controlled by armed groups; designated terrorist groups continue to be active in the country; and while there was a decrease in military hostilities, serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law persisted on a large scale with impunity. The report found that the arms embargo continued to be violated with impunity, the assets freeze was not uniformly implemented and there was one alleged attempt to illicitly export crude oil during the reporting period. On 26 May, Ambassador T.S. Tirumurti (India) briefed the Council on the committees activities. On 3 June, the Council adopted resolution 2635, renewing for one year the authorisation for member states to inspect vessels on the high seas off the coast of Libya by a vote of 14 in favour, with Russia abstaining. (For more, see our Whats in Blue story of 2 June.)

Key Issues and Options

A key issue remains the precarious security situation linked to Libyas uncertain electoral path. A related concern for the Council will be how to foster common political ground between the two rival governments so that they can agree on a constitutional framework to pave the way for the holding of Libyas long-delayed elections. Council members could consider holding a closed Arria-formula meeting with Libyan civil society representatives to help generate ideas on how to promote dialogue between the rival political factions in Libya and support an inclusive political process leading to elections. When renewing the missions mandate, options Council members might consider could include increasing UNSMILs advisory capacity with additional experts on constitutional and electoral matters. Another option would be to increase the missions capacity in relation to economic issues and human rights.

Another issue for the Council remains the missions leadership. The departure of Williams, who led mediation efforts on the ground, is coming at a politically sensitive time in the country. No successor has yet been identified to succeed former Special Envoy Jan Kubis, who resigned in November 2021, or for the position of Special Representative that is expected to replace the Special Envoy, as decided in resolution 2629.

Council Dynamics

Council dynamics on Libya are difficult, leading to challenging negotiations on the UNSMIL mandate renewal resolutions in recent months. During negotiations on resolution 2629 in April, disagreements apparently centred on the length of the missions mandate and the duration of the Secretary-Generals reporting cycle. The UK (as penholder) initially circulated a short draft text that would have renewed the missions mandate for one year and maintained the regular 60-day reporting period. Russia, however, expressed a preference for a shorter text and insisted on a three-month renewal and a shortening of the reporting period, which the penholder eventually reflected in the draft.

On 29 April, following the unanimous adoption of resolution 2629, 14 Council members (all except India) delivered explanations of vote. Many Council members, including the US and European Council members, expressed regret over the Councils inability to agree on a substantive resolution and a longer mandate renewal. Russia, on the other hand, noted the need for a short-term mandate renewal to maintain pressure on reforming UNSMILs leadership structure and called for the prompt appointment of a Special Representative.

At the briefing on 27 June, members such as the UK and US expressed their preference for a longer extension of the mandate, and Mexico and France called for a substantive mandate renewal.

UN DOCUMENTS ON LIBYA

This resolution extended UNSMILs mandate until 31 July. It maintained UNSMILs core mandated tasks while authorizing a restructuring of the mission. This report covered developments in Libya between 18 January and 20 May. This was the final report of the Panel of Experts.
Overview

In July, Brazil will hold the presidency of the Security Council.

Brazil plans to organise two signature events. The first signature event is a ministerial-level open debate on strategic communications in peacekeeping. Brazilian Foreign Minister Carlos Alberto Franco Franca is expected to chair the meeting. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will deliver remarks. The anticipated briefers are Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix; Force Commander for the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) General Marcos De Sa Affonso Da Costa; and Jenna Russo, Director of Research and Head of the Brian Urquhart Center for Peace Operations at the International Peace Institute (IPI). A presidential statement is a possible outcome.

The second signature event is the annual open debate on children and armed conflict. The Brazilian Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Fernando Simas Magalhaes is expected to chair the meeting. Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba, Executive Director of UNICEF Catherine Russell, and a civil society representative are the anticipated briefers.

In July, the Security Council will also receive a briefing on the annual report of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC).

African issues on the programme of work in July are:

West Africa, briefing and consultations on the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS);

Central African Republic, renewal of the 2127 CAR sanctions regime and of the mandate of the Panel of Experts assisting the CAR Sanctions Committee;

Libya, briefing and consultations on the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), extension of the mandate of the mission, and renewal of measures related to the illicit export of petroleum from Libya and of the mandate of the Panel of Experts assisting the 1970 Libya Sanctions Committee; and

Sudan, the semi-annual briefing by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on its Darfur-related activities.

Middle East issues on the programme include:

Syria, possible reauthorisation of the cross-border aid mechanism and meetings on the political, humanitarian and chemical weapons tracks;

Yemen, monthly meeting on developments and renewal of the mandate of the UN Mission to Support the Hodeidah Agreement (UNMHA);

Lebanon, consultations on the Secretary-Generals 1701 report; and

Middle East, including the Palestinian question, the quarterly open debate.

The Council is expected to meet on two European issues in July. A private meeting on Ukraine is expected to take place early in the month. The Council will also hold consultations on Cyprus and renew the mandate of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP).

On the Americas, there will be a briefing and consultations on Colombia. The Council is also expected to renew the mandate of the UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH).

There will also be consultations on the work of the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA) late in the month.

Other issues could be raised in July depending on developments.
PEACEMAKING, PEACEKEEPING AND PEACEBUILDING

Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace

Expected Council Action

In July, the Security Council will hold a briefing on the annual report of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC). Ambassador Osama Abdelkhalek (Egypt), who served as PBC chair last year, is expected to present the PBCs annual report on its fifteenth session from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2021. The incoming ambassador of Bangladesh, who is replacing Ambassador Rabab Fatima (Bangladesh) as the current PBC chair, will also brief, focusing on the Commissions work programme for 2022. (Ambassador Fatima is expected to end her tenure as PBC chair soon, following her appointment in June as UN High Representative for Least Developed, Landlocked Countries, and Small Island Developing States.)

Key Recent Developments

On 27 and 29 April, the General Assembly convened a high-level meeting on financing for peacebuilding, organised pursuant to the twin resolutions adopted by the General Assembly and the Security Council, A/RES/75/201 and S/RES/2558, respectively, at the conclusion of the 2020 UN Peacebuilding Architecture Review. These resolutions noted that peacebuilding financing remained a critical challenge, and they called for the high-level meeting during the General Assemblys seventy-sixth session to advance, explore and consider options for ensuring adequate, predictable and sustained financing for peacebuilding. The resolutions affirmed a commitment to pursuing action-oriented outcomes.

Ahead of the meeting, the Secretary-General submitted a report to the General Assembly and Security Council, dated 28 January, on financing for peacebuilding. According to the report, there has been too little progress on adequate, predictable and sustained financing for peacebuilding. The report underscored that current financing for prevention and peacebuilding remains inadequate despite the ability of such investments to reduce what have become unsustainable costs of responding to crises.

In a separate 1 March report to the General Assembly, the Secretary-General requested the General Assembly to appropriate a total of $100 million to the Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) for the 12-month period from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023. Providing the PBF with access to assessed contributions, which was originally proposed by an independent Advisory Group of Experts for the 2015 Review of the Peacebuilding Architecture, has emerged as the only viable means for providing the [PBF] with a consistent baseline level of funding to complement the voluntary contributions provided by donors, according to the Secretary-Generals 1 March report. Donor contributions to the PBF in 2020 and 2021 totalled around $180 million and $178 million, respectively, far short of the Secretary-Generals call since 2017 to increase the capacity of the PBFrecognised as a useful catalytic source of peacebuilding financingto $500 million annually.

UN member states, however, are still not in agreement on using assessed contributions. The high-level meeting on peacebuilding financing concluded with a decision to set up a process of intergovernmental negotiations, which Kenya and Sweden will co-facilitate.

Regarding the PBC, its annual report to the General Assembly and the Security Council, released in February, outlines its activities and trends. In 2021, the PBC held 29 meetings, reflecting the bodys increased activity in recent years (though this was a decline from the PBCs 2020 peak of 40 meetings amid the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic). Meetings last year included discussion of 13 different countries and regional issues. These ranged from situations that the PBC has traditionally considered, such as Liberia and Burundi, to new issues, such as the political transition in Chad and Gulf of Guinea piracy. Cross-cutting and thematic discussions made up 40 percent of its meetings, compared to about 15 percent of its meetings in 2018.

Reflecting the PBCs comparative advantage as a convening body that can bring together diverse stakeholders, non-UN representatives comprised 67% of all PBC briefers, including national and local governments, regional and subregional organisations, international financial institutions, civil society, and the private sector. The Secretary-General envisions an expanded role for the PBC, which is mandated to address the multidimensional threats to development, peace and security, as he said when briefing the Commission last year on his vision for future global cooperation and multilateralism in his September 2021 report Our Common Agenda.

During 2021, the PBC advised the Council a total of nine times, according to the annual report. It did so through PBC chair briefings at Council meetings on the Great Lakes region and the Group of Five for the Sahel Joint Force, and as a participant at Council open debates on UN transitions and post-COVID-19 recovery in Africa. In the lead-up to this last meeting, the PBC convened an informal-informal interactive dialogue with the president of the Security Council on promoting post-COVID recovery in Africa. The PBC chair participated in an Arria-formula meeting on Haiti, sharing perspectives on the role and contributions of the PBC in other countries that benefitted from inclusive approaches to national reconciliation and sustaining peace. The chair also briefed at a meeting of the Security Council Ad Hoc Working Group on Conflict Prevention and Resolution in Africa. Following the open debate on UN transitions, the Council adopted resolution 2594, which strongly encouraged the PBC to facilitate the development of joint objectives and priorities prior to transitions and, in that connection, requested the Secretary-General to liaise with the PBC in advance of relevant reporting to the Council, with a view to facilitating the provision of complementary and timely advice from the Commission to the Council. It also sent two letters of advice to the Council, on the Central African Republic (CAR) and on Women, Peace and Security (WPS).

A notable trend so far in 2022 has been an intensification of the PBC practice of submitting letters or notes of advice ahead of Security Council meetings. This practice began in 2018 when the chair of the PBCs CAR configuration wrote to the Council with recommendations ahead of the mandate renewal of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA). This year the PBC has submitted advice to inform a press statement on Burkina Faso, and ahead of Council meetings on WPS, COVID-19, the Great Lakes region, and Central Africa.

Key Issues and Options

The practice of briefing on the PBC annual report had stopped in recent years, after taking place annually from 2012 to 2018. A key issue is to update the Council on the PBCs activities.

Another issue is assessing the impact of the PBCs work, both for the countries it engages with and its advice to the Council. The PBC must negotiate and achieve consensus among its 31 members on its letters of advice before sending them to the Council. Preparing and agreeing earlier on these letters of advice could be helpful, as they are often approved only on the same day as the relevant Council meeting. Council members could highlight that to be more impactful, the PBC should submit the advice several days ahead of the relevant Council meeting, so that they have more time to consider the advice as they prepare their statements and positions. A new practice agreed in March to improve the PBCs advisory role has been to provide PBC members with advance copies of relevant Secretary-Generals reports.

The underfunding of peacebuilding remains a key issue. Since the 2015 review of the peacebuilding architecture, which ushered in various reforms of UN peacebuilding, this has been the most difficult issue for the UN and member states to make progress on.

Council Dynamics

Brazil is organising this session as part of its Council presidency during July. It has long been a proponent of the PBC, and since 2008, Brazil has chaired the PBCs country configuration for Guinea-Bissauwhich is one of four remaining country configurations, as the PBC has sought to have its primary, 31-member state body, called the Organizational Committee, be the main forum to discuss its new country, regional and thematic issues.

Kenya is the Councils informal coordinator with the PBC, convening meetings of Council members that serve on the PBC every six months to review the PBCs advisory role. In this capacity, Kenya also identifies upcoming opportunities for PBC engagement with the Council and has shepherded new initiatives such as sharing advanced copies of relevant Secretary-Generals reports with the PBC.

Currently, nine Council members serve on the PBC. Seven PBC seats are allocated to the Security Council, which always include the P5 (China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US). Kenya and Mexico hold the other two Council-allocated seats. Brazil serves on the PBC as one of the seven member states that the General Assembly elects. India is one of five PBC members selected for being a major troop and police contributor to UN peace operations. The issue of authorising assessed contributions for the PBF is being considered in the General Assembly. Two of the UNs large financial contributors continue to oppose considering the use of assessed contributions for the PBF.

UN DOCUMENTS ON PEACEBUILDING

This resolution was on the 15-year review of UN peacebuilding, welcoming progress and encouraging continued actions to implement the 2016 resolutions on the ten-year review of UN peacebuilding. This was a presidential statement on the Peacebuilding Commissions advisory role to the Council, initiated by Sweden. This was a presidential statement that outlined elements related to peacebuilding and sustaining peace to be considered when reviewing the mandates and configuration of peacekeeping missions. This was a Secretary-Generals report requesting the General Assembly to appropriate assessed contributions to the Peacebuilding Fund. This was a Secretary-Generals report on financing for peacebuilding. This was a PBC letter of advice to the Security Council for a 27 April meeting on the Great Lakes region. This was a PBC letter of advice to the Council for its 11 April meeting briefing on the implementation of resolution 2532 for a global ceasefire and resolution 2565 on COVID-19 vaccines.
Status Update since our June Forecast

Strengthening Accountability and Justice for Serious Violations of International Law

On 2 June, the Security Council convened for a high-level open debate on strengthening accountability and justice for serious violations of international law (S/PV.9052). The meeting was a signature event of Albanias presidency and was chaired by Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama. The briefers were President of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Judge Joan Donoghue, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, and Oxford University Professor of Public International Law Dapo Akande. Fortyeight member states participated in the meeting under rule 37 of the Councils provisional rules of procedure. Charge daffaires ad interim of the Delegation of the European Union to the UN Silvio Gonzato and the Permanent Observer of the Observer State of Palestine to the United Nations also took part in the meeting.

Sudan

On 3 June, the Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 2636, renewing the mandate of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) for one year, until 3 June 2023. In its explanation of vote, the UK said that it would have preferred the adoption of a substantive resolution that would have updated UNITAMS priorities to reflect Sudans own request for traditional support on issues such as disarmament, demobilization and reintegration; transitional justice; and civilian protection (S/PV.9054).

Syria

On 3 June, an Arria-formula meeting was held on Syrian Womens Voices on Detainees and the Disappeared in Syria. The meeting was organised by the US, together with Albania, France and the UK, with additional co-sponsorship by several non-Council members (Belgium, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Qatar and Turkiye). The meeting was held with the support of the Syrian Negotiations Commission (SNC), which represents the Syrian opposition, and in partnership with the EU. The briefers included: Mariam Alhallak, founder of the Caesar Families Association; Najah Malak, co-founder of the Kurdish Womens Union in Syria  Rhodes; Alise Mofrej, head of the Detainee Committee of the SNC and co-founder of the Syria Political Womens Movement; Joumana Seif, Syrian lawyer and human rights activist; Badr Jamous, head of the International Affairs Committee of the SNC; and Haytham Al Hamwi, chairman of the Syrian British Council.

UNOCA (Central Africa)

On 8 June, the Security Council received a briefing (S/PV.9058) on the Secretary-Generals semi-annual report on the UN Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA) and the implementation of the UNs regional strategy to combat the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) (S/2022/436). The Council was briefed by: Assistant Secretary-General for Africa in the Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee; President of the Commission of the Economic Community of Central African States Gilberto Da Piedade Verissimo; and Ms. Jeanne-Danielle Nicole Nlate, Vice-President of the Coalition des organisations de la societe civile dAfrique centrale pour la preservation de la paix, la prevention des conflits, la resolution et la transformation des crises.

Iraq

On 8 June, the Security Council convened for a briefing on the UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Daesh/ISIL (UNITAD) (S/PV.9059). Special Adviser and Head of UNITAD Christian Ritscher briefed. Iraq participated in the meeting under rule 37 of the Councils provisional rules of procedure.

Mali

On 13 June, the Security Council held its quarterly briefing on Mali, followed by closed consultations. Special Representative and head of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) El-Ghassim Wane briefed, as did civil society representative Sadya Toure, Director of Mali Muso (S/PV.9061). Wane presented the Secretary-Generals latest report on Mali (S/2022/446), which recommended a one-year extension of MINUSMAs mandate. He also referred to the Secretary-Generals decision to undertake a review of the situation in Mali and present recommendations to the Council within six months on how the mission can best continue to fulfil its priorities, as outlined in his recent report on Mali. During the session, members also considered the Secretary-Generals bi-annual letter (S/2022/448) on the missions challenges, performance and transition planning. On 7 June, Council members held a meeting with troop-contributing countries to MINUSMA.

On 29 June, the Council adopted resolution 2640 extending the mandate of MINUSMA until 30 June 2023. Thirteen Council members voted in favour, while China and Russia abstained. Earlier in the month, Council members issued a press statement on 1 June condemning an attack that day that killed one Jordanian peacekeeper and wounded three others in Kidal. On 3 June, Council members issued another press statement condemning an attack that day that killed two Egyptian peacekeepers and injured one near Douentza. Council members also issued a press statement on 20 June, condemning a 19 June attack on MINUSMA that killed one Guinean peacekeeper near Kidal.

International Criminal Tribunals

On 14 June, the Security Council held its semi-annual debate on the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) (S/PV.9062), with briefings by the IRMCTs president, Judge Carmel Agius, and its prosecutor, Serge Brammertz. At the meeting, Agius updated the Council on the status of the IRMCTs remaining three cases. Prior to the debate, on 13 June, the Informal Working Group on International Tribunals met with Agius and Brammertz. On 22 June, the Security Council adopted resolution 2637, extending Brammertzs term for another two years, until 30 June 2024, by a vote of 14 in favour and one abstention (Russia).

Women, Peace and Security

On 15 June, the Security Council held an open debate on women, peace and security (WPS) entitled Keeping the promises: the role of regional organizations in implementing the women, peace and security agenda in the face of political turmoil and seizures of power by force (S/PV.9064). Albanian Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Olta Xhacka chaired the meeting and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres provided opening remarks. The briefers were: UN Women Executive Director Sima Sami Bahous, EU Ambassador for Gender and Diversity Stella Ronner-Grubacic, Secretary-General of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Helga Maria Schmid, Special Envoy on WPS of the Chairperson of the AU Commission Bineta Diop, and Assistant Secretary-General of the League of Arab States (LAS) Haifa Abu Ghazaleh.

EU-UN Cooperation

On 16 June, the Security Council held its annual meeting on EU-UN cooperation under the agenda item Cooperation between the United Nations and regional and subregional organizations in maintaining international peace and security (S/PV.9065). At the meeting, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell briefed Council members on strengthening the EU-UN partnership during what he described as a rise in power political competition that is placing the multilateral system under pressure as never before.

South Sudan

On 20 June, the Security Council was briefed on South Sudan (S/PV.9067). Special Representative and head of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) Nicholas Haysom briefed on the Secretary-Generals latest 90-day report on South Sudan (S/2022/468). OCHAs Acting Director of the Operations and Advocacy Division Ghada Eltahir Mudawi and Lorna Merekaje, a South Sudanese human rights defender, also briefed. Closed consultations followed the briefing.

Somalia

On 21 June, the Security Council received a briefing (S/PV.9071) from the Chair of the 751 Sanctions Committee (Somalia), Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason (Ireland), on the Committees work from 25 February to 21 June. Nason informed the Council that the Committee met twice during the reporting period to receive a briefing from Virginia Gamba, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, on the trends and patterns of grave violations against children in Somalia and to hear the midterm updates from the Panel of Experts on Somalia.

UNDOF (Golan)

On 21 June, Council members held consultations on the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF). Assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific in the Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations (DPPA-DPO) Mohamed Khaled Khiari provided the briefing. On 27 June, the Council unanimously adopted resolution 2639, renewing the UNDOF mandate for six months.

Afghanistan

On 23 June, the Security Council convened for an open briefing, followed by closed consultations, on Afghanistan (S/PV.9075). The briefers were: Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths; Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan Ramiz Alakbarov; Afghan womens rights activist Yalda Royan; and BBC journalist Yalda Hakim. Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan participated in the meeting under rule 37 of the Councils provisional rules of procedure.

The Relationship between the ICC and the Security Council

On 24 June, an Arria-formula meeting entitled 20th anniversary of the entry into force of the Rome Statute: reflections on the relationship between the International Criminal Court and the Security Council took place. The meeting was organised by Ireland and co-sponsored by Council members Albania, Gabon, Ghana, France, Mexico, Norway, and the UK, as well as incoming Council members Ecuador, Japan, Malta, and Switzerland. ICC Prosecutor Karim Asad Ahmad Khan, Director of the Coalition for the ICC Secretariat Liz Evenson, and President of the International Peace Institute Zeid Raad Al Hussein briefed.

Working Methods Open Debate

On 28 June, the Security Council held its annual open debate on its working methods (S/PV.9079). Albania, the chair of the Informal Working Group on Documentation and Procedural Questions, produced a concept note ahead of the meeting. The briefers were Karin Landgren, Executive Director of Security Council Report and Loraine Sievers, co-author of The Procedure of the UN Security Council (4th edition). Thirty-five members states, other than Council members, took the floor.

Democratic Republic of Congo

On 29 June, the Security Council held a briefing (S/PV.9081), followed by closed consultations, on the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The briefing was based on the Secretary-Generals latest report, covering the period from 17 March to 16 June (S/2022/503). Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) Bintou Keita and President of the Solidarite Feminine pour la Paix et le Developpement Integral (SOFEPADI) Julienne Lusenge briefed the Council. The deteriorating security situation in eastern DRC was the focus of the meeting. Council members supported ongoing regional initiatives to address this security challenge and promote lasting peace in the region. On 30 June, the Council met (S/PV.9084) to adopt resolution 2641 extending the 1533 DRC Sanctions regime until 1 July 2023 and renewing the mandate of the Panel of Experts until 1 August 2023.

Morocco-Spain

On 29 June, Council members discussed during consultations under any other business the violent treatment of African migrants who tried to cross the Moroccan border into Melilla, Spain on 24 June, which resulted in the killing of at least 23 people. Kenya requested the meeting. Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ilze Brands Kehris briefed.

Non-proliferation

On 30 June, the Council convened for its biannual briefing on resolution 2231 of 20 July 2015, which endorsed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Irans nuclear programme (JCPOA) (S/PV.9085). Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo briefed on the Secretary-Generals latest report on the implementation of resolution 2231, which was issued on 10 June (S/2022/482). The Councils facilitator for the implementation of resolution 2231, Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason (Ireland), reported on the Councils work in relation to resolution 2231. The head of the EU delegation to the UN, Olof Skoog, briefed on the work of the JCPOAs Joint Commission. Germany and Iran participated in the meeting under rule 37 of the Councils provisional rules of procedure.
AFRICA

Sudan (Darfur)

Expected Council Action

In July*, the Security Council will receive the semi-annual briefing of the ICC Prosecutor, Karim Asad Ahmad Khan, on the ICCs Darfur-related activities.

*The briefing has been moved to August per the ICC Prosecutors request.

Key Recent Developments

Sudan is not a state party to the Rome Statute of the ICC. The Security Council referred the situation in Darfur, Sudan, to the ICC through the adoption of resolution 1593 of 31 March 2005. (Algeria, Brazil, China, and the US abstained on the resolution.) The Council invited the ICC Prosecutor to update it every six months on actions taken pursuant to resolution 1593. The investigations regarding Darfur focus on allegations of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur since 1 July 2002.

Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman (also known as Ali Kushayb) was transferred to the ICCs custody on 9 June 2020 after he surrendered voluntarily in the Central African Republic. On 9 July 2021, Pre-Trial Chamber II confirmed all 31 charges against him, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, murder, rape, torture, and attacks against the civilian population in Wadi Salih and Mukjar, Darfur.

More than 15 years after the Security Council referred the situation to the ICC, the first trial opened on 5 April with the case of Ali Kushayb. In a 6 April statement, Khan said that this was precisely the kind of case for which [the] ICC was created, adding that with this case, he was confident that the first few drops of justice will land on what has hitherto been a desert of impunity in Darfur.

Four ICC arrest warrants remain outstanding against former President Omar Al Bashir, Ahmad Muhammad Harun, Abdel Raheem Muhammad Hussein and Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain. Since July 2020, Al Bashir has been on trial in Sudan for charges relating to the 1989 military coup that brought him to power, including charges of undermining the constitutional order and the use of military force to commit crimes. Harun and Hussein have been under arrest in Khartoum since April 2019. Banda remains a fugitive from the Court, and his whereabouts are unknown. The Office of the Prosecutor is in an ongoing dialogue with the government of Sudan aimed at ensuring accountability for the ICC suspects and justice for the victims in Darfur. Sudan remains under an obligation to surrender the four remaining suspects in the Darfur situation to the Court, pursuant to resolution 1593 and the subsequent orders of ICC judges.

Regarding the current situation in Darfur, the Secretary-Generals most recent report on Sudan dated 17 May said that levels of insecurity, including intercommunal clashes, armed conflict and criminality continued to pose a significant challenge for the authorities and that escalating violence in Darfur had resulted in a growing number of fatalities and significant new forced displacements. It noted some progress on the start-up of the Darfur Permanent Ceasefire Committee as well as progress in relation to the joint security-keeping force in Darfur, which was agreed to in the Juba Peace Agreement and is planned to number 12,000 troops. During the reporting period, approximately 2,000 signatory armed movement personnel assembled to be trained by the Sudanese Armed Forces, according to the report.

Khan last briefed the Council on 17 January. He referred to the memorandum of understanding signed with the Sudanese government in August 2021 in relation to the Ali Kushayb case and the four cases for which ICC judges have issued warrants. He noted that since the October 2021 military coup, the landscape changed, and that has not been particularly helpful. He informed the Council that in December 2021, Sudanese military leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had reassured members of his Office that the memorandum of understanding remained valid, that he was looking at cooperation, and that it was essential to have justice for the victims in Darfur. Khan noted that the challenge now was to make sure those assurances were translated into concrete, tangible partnerships and accountability. In this regard, he called for safe and secure access to all parts of Sudan, including to archives and mass graves, as required by the memorandum of understanding, resolution 1593, and the Juba Peace Agreement.

Human Rights-Related Developments

During its 50th session, the Human Rights Council (HRC) held an enhanced interactive dialogue on 15 June on the report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation of human rights in Sudan (A/HRC/50/22). The report, which covers 25 October 2021 to 10 April, concluded that the coup had undermined many of Sudans achievements under the transitional government in improving respect for and protection of human rights, including in the areas of legal and institutional reform, transitional justice, civic space, equality and non-discrimination, and womens rights. It called the pattern of human rights violations since the coup extremely worrying. In relation to Darfur, it said that increased intercommunal violence and a lack of state capacity to fill the gap left by the departure of the AU/UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) continue[d] to expose serious gaps in the protection of civilians. On 30 June, the HRC adopted the final outcomes of the Universal Period Review of Sudan (A/HRC/50/16).

Women, Peace and Security

On 23 May, the Informal Experts Group (IEG) on Women, Peace and Security met to discuss the situation in Sudan. IEG members were briefed by Deputy Special Representative for Sudan Khardiata Lo NDiaye. One of the issues discussed during the meeting was womens participation in the meetings of the trilateral cooperation mechanism with political parties and armed groups. (In May, the mechanismwhich consists of the UN, the AU and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development [IGAD]launched indirect intra-Sudanese talks to end the political crisis.) The three organisations have called on all stakeholders to ensure that women constitute at least 40 percent of the delegations to the meetings with the trilateral cooperation mechanism. The 23 May meeting was the third time the IEG discussed the situation in Sudan. Previous meetings were held on 14 December 2020 and 16 December 2019.

Sanctions-Related Developments

On 21 June, the chair of the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Harold Adlai Agyeman (Ghana), provided the quarterly briefing on the committees work.

Key Issues and Options

An underlying key issue for the Council is how to promote justice and accountability for past atrocities committed in Sudan. A related issue for the Council is how to support enhanced cooperation between the ICC prosecutor and the government of Sudan.

In addition to receiving Khans briefing, Council members supportive of the ICCs work could consider holding an informal meeting with the prosecutor to facilitate a dialogue on ways in which his Office could strengthen its cooperation with the Sudanese government.

Council members could also hold a joint press stakeout encouraging improved relations between the Sudanese government and the ICC.

Council and Wider Dynamics

The Council is divided on the work of the ICC. Albania, Brazil, France, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Ireland, Mexico, Norway, and the UK are states parties to the Rome Statute of the ICC, while China, India, Russia, the UAE, and the US are not. These distinctions, however, do not necessarily reflect how members view the Courts work on Sudan. For example, the US, which is not a party to the Rome Statute, has long supported the ICCs efforts with regard to Sudan. Among the wider membership of the UN, African countries have long expressed concerns about the Courts disproportionate focus on Africa.

At the last semi-annual briefing on 17 January, a range of views were expressed on the ICCs work in relation to Darfur. Gabon emphasised its full support for the efforts of the Prosecutor and his Office. In its statement, Ghana expressed hope for a balanced and global approach to the investigation of crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court, devoid of the perceived region-centric approach. Ireland, noting that it remains a strong advocate for the work of the Court and the Prosecutors Office in the Sudan, said that the violence in Darfur today was a reminder of the need to break the cycle of impunity. Mexico expressed its support for the work of the Office of the Prosecutor and the ICC and said that the impact of last Octobers coup on cooperation with the Court was of great concern. Russia expressed the view that against the backdrop of ongoing political instability, the main objective is national reconciliation, adding that the Sudanese will be able to deal with [the provision of justice] on their own. The UAE emphasised its commitment to the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and national unity of Sudan. The UK (the penholder on Sudan) expressed regret about the setback due to the military coup and urged the Sudanese authorities to cooperate fully with the Court. The US expressed its support for the ICCs efforts to advance accountability and welcomed the Prosecutors position that situations referred by the Council must be given greater prioritization in his Offices work.

The UK is the penholder on Sudan, and the US is the penholder on Sudan sanctions. Ambassador Harold Adlai Agyeman (Ghana) chairs the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee.

UN DOCUMENTS ON SUDAN

This resolution referred the situation in Darfur to the International Criminal Court. This was the 90-day report on UNITAMS. This was the semi-annual briefing by the ICC prosecutor on the courts work in Darfur.
MIDDLE EAST

Syria

Expected Council Action

In July, the Security Council is expected to hold meetings on the political, humanitarian and chemical weapons tracks in Syria. The Council is also expected to vote on renewing resolution 2585, which expires on 10 July, and provides the authorisation for cross-border humanitarian deliveries through the Bab al-Hawa crossing on the Syrian-Turkish border. The resolution also encourages efforts to improve cross-line deliveries of humanitarian assistance (that is, across domestic frontlines from Syrian government-held areas into areas outside government control) and welcomes early recovery projects in Syria.

Key Recent Developments

The Syria Constitutional Committees eighth round was held in Geneva from 30 May to 3 June. The following issues were discussed: Unilateral coercive measures from a constitutional standpoint; Preserving and strengthening states institutions; The supremacy of the constitution and the hierarchy of international agreements; and Transitional justice. During the first four days of the session, the committee spent one day on each issue, discussing a draft constitutional text. On the final day, the parties submitted and discussed their revisions to these texts. In a statement at the end of the session, Special Envoy for Syria Geir O. Pedersen said that while there were areas of potential common ground on some matters, on others the differences remained significant. He added that the slow pace of work and the continuing inability to identify and conclude concrete areas of provisional agreement are issues which require further improvement. Pedersen indicated that the ninth round of the Constitutional Committee would be convened in Geneva from 25-29 July.

On 16 June, Griffiths and the other UN humanitarian principalsExecutive Director of UNICEF Catherine Russell, Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) Natalia Kanem, Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Antonio Vitorino, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) David Beasley, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, and Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesusissued a statement in which they urged the Council to renew resolution 2585 and re-authorise cross-border assistance for an additional year.

The Council held a briefing, followed by consultations, on the humanitarian situation in Syria on 20 June. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivered introductory remarks and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths and Iyad Agha, the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Forum Coordinator for Northwest Syria, provided the briefings. Guterres and Griffiths urged the Council to renew resolution 2585 for another 12 months, while Agha called for a renewal of at least 12 months. Griffiths noted that five crossline convoys had reached northwest Syria since the adoption of resolution 2585, with these convoys delivering food to more than 43,000 people; however, he added that the difficulties of receiving security guarantees and approvals for such cross-line deliveries made it imperative for cross-border access to continue. According to Griffiths, 90% of the 4.4 million people in Syrias northwest are in need of humanitarian assistance, and in the past year, 2.4 million of these people have received aid each month as a result of cross-border aid.

Syria accused Israel of airstrikes that damaged two runways and a terminal at Damascus International Airport on 10 June, leading to the airports closure until 23 June. Media reports have suggested that Israel initiated the attack due to concerns that Iran was using civilian flights to the airport to ship arms to Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based militant group. In a 13 June statement, Imran Riza, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria, said that the closure has severe humanitarian implications and could result in additional negative consequences for vulnerable Syrians, as it had led to the suspension of UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) flights in the country. In his 20 June briefing to the Council, Griffiths echoed Rizas concern, maintaining that the suspension of UNHAS operations in Syria has direct implications on the delivery of essential aid and movement of essential staff. Russia reportedly circulated a draft press statement to other Council members condemning the airstrikes as a violation of international law, but the text did not gain traction.

On 29 June, the Security Council received a briefing, followed by consultations, on the political situation in Syria. The briefers were Special Envoy Pedersen and Omar Alshogre, the Director for Detainee Affairs at the Syrian Emergency Task Force. Pedersen appealed to the Council for the renewal of the cross-border aid mechanism and said that the Constitutional Committee was scheduled to reconvene in Geneva on 25 July. Alshogre criticised Russia and Iran for their support of the Syrian government and the US for inaction with regard to the crisis in Syria.

Human Rights-related Developments

On 29 June, during its 50th session, the Human Rights Council (HRC) held an interactive dialogue on the oral update of the Commission of Inquiry on Syria. On 30 June, the HRC received a presentation of the report of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on civilian casualties in Syria (A/HRC/50/68).

Key Issues and Options

The key issue for the Council this month on Syria is a decision on the renewal of the cross-border humanitarian aid mechanism. If the Council reauthorises this mechanism, the resolution could emphasise the following elements:

the life-saving effects of the cross-border mechanism;

the need to step up cross-line aid deliveries; and

the importance of enhanced support for early recovery projects in Syria.

Council members could also consider holding a closed Arria-formula meeting with civil society representatives who can speak to the importance of early recovery projects in Syria and provide their input on the types of projects that would be most beneficial to the welfare of Syrians.

Another key issue is the ongoing stalemate in the work of the Constitutional Committee. Given that little progress was made in the eighth round of meetings of the committee, the Council could consider adopting a presidential statement that supports the Special Envoys efforts to reinvigorate the political track in advance of the next session of the Committee.

Council Dynamics

There are significant differences on Syria among Council members on all three areas of Council engagement: the political, humanitarian and chemical weapons tracks. On the political front, while there is general support for the Constitutional Committees work, several Council members have expressed frustration with the lack of progress since its launch two and a half years ago. Some memberssuch as Albania, Ireland and the P3 (France, the UK and the US)tend to accuse the Syrian government of not engaging in the process in good faith. On the other hand, Russia, a close ally of the Syrian government, has cautioned against imposing artificial deadlines on the committees work.

Negotiations on the cross-border aid mechanism have traditionally been difficult. When the Council initially authorised the cross-border mechanism in resolution 2165 in July 2014, it approved four border crossings; in January 2020, only two crossings were renewed through resolution 2504, and since resolution 2533 of July 2020, a single crossing point has been authorised for humanitarian deliveries. The negotiations early this month to renew the cross-border aid mechanism are once again expected to be challenging. Most Council members support the cross-border aid mechanism in Syria as an essential humanitarian tool; however, China and Russia have expressed concern about cross-border aid being hijacked by terrorist groups and believe that this form of aid was an extraordinary measure that should give way to stepped up cross-line assistance. In the 24 June Council meeting, Russia also argued that it is possible to organise the delivery of aid in coordination with Damascus to all parts of Syria.

Furthermore, Council members continue to hold starkly different views on the chemical weapons track in Syria, disputing the evidence regarding responsibility for the use of chemical weapons in the country and the credibility of the work of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). While several members have consistently expressed support for the OPCWs work, maintaining that it is credible and essential, other members, such as China and Russia, claim that its work is biased and politicised.

UN DOCUMENTS ON SYRIA

This resolution renewed the mandate of the cross-border humanitarian aid delivery mechanism to Syria. This was a briefing on the humanitarian situation in Syria. This was the 60-day report on the humanitarian situation in Syria.
The Middle East, including the Palestinian Question

Expected Council Action

In July, the Security Council expects to hold its quarterly open debate on The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland is expected to brief.

Key Recent Developments

In a major development, on 20 June, Naftali Bennett and coalition partner Yair Lapid, who then served as Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, respectively, announced their decision to hold a vote on dissolving the Knesset (parliament). The eight-party coalition co-headed by Bennett and Lapid was formed in June 2021 in opposition to former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Coalition members included the United Arab List (the first Arab party in Israeli history to be part of a governing coalition), the left-wing party Meretz, and several right-wing parties.

Following the 30 June vote in favour of dissolution, Lapid assumed the function of caretaker prime minister. Parliamentary electionswhich will be the fifth in Israel in less than four yearsare expected to take place in early November.

The decision to dissolve parliament was taken once it became apparent that the government would not be able to secure a majority to extend the expiring emergency regulations, which, following the 1967 Six-Day War and the beginning of the occupation, apply significant portions of Israeli domestic law (instead of military law) to Israelis in the West Bank. Once the Israeli parliament is dissolved, however, these emergency regulations are automatically extended. Earlier in June, a vote on this issue failed to gain a majority. According to media reports, while some parliamentarians belonging to the governing coalition oppose the regulations out of principle, Netanyahu rallied his party, Likud, and other opposition parliamentarians to oppose the measureswhich they would otherwise supportwith the objective of destabilising the government.

The Security Council last held a meeting on The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question on 27 June. Wennesland briefed on the latest Secretary-Generals report on the implementation of resolution 2334, which was issued on 22 June, as well as developments after the reporting period. Adopted in 2016, resolution 2334 stated that Israels establishment of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), including East Jerusalem, constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and called for immediate steps to prevent violence against civilians, including acts of terror. The report says that the period from 19 March to 16 June has seen the highest number of settlement units advance since October 2020. The report also states that daily violence throughout Israel and the oPt has increased during the reporting period. (See also our 24 June Whats in Blue story.)

In response to a wave of deadly terror attacks in Israel, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have intensified security operations in various locations across the West Bank, resulting in the death and injury of several Palestinians. On 11 May, Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead while reporting on one such operation in the Jenin refugee camp (see our 25 May Whats in Blue story). In a 13 May press statement, Security Council members strongly condemned Abu Aklehs killing, calling for accountability and for an immediate, thorough, transparent, fair, and impartial investigation. On 24 June, the spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Ravina Shamdasani, said that an OHCHR probe into the killing found that the shots that killed Abu Akleh came from Israeli Security Forces and not from indiscriminate firing by armed Palestinians.

Although the security situation in the Gaza Strip has remained relatively calm, on 18 June, a rocket was fired from Gaza into southern Israel and was intercepted by Israels Iron Dome air defence system. In response, the IDF said it had targeted Hamas sites in the Gaza Strip. However, Al Jazeera reported that, according to Palestinian media, the strikes fell on agricultural land in Gaza.

The 21 of June marked 15 years since the start of the Israeli blockade of Gaza. According to OCHA, almost 80 percent of the population in Gaza relies on humanitarian assistance, [l]argely due to the blockade, poverty, high unemployment rates and other factors. During a press briefing on 21 June, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric said: More needs to be done to alleviate the humanitarian situation, with the eventual goal of a full lifting of the Israeli closures, in line with Security Council resolution 1860 of 2009. Wennesland regularly stresses the need to fully lift the Gaza blockade in his monthly briefings to the Security Council.

Resolution 2334 also called upon states to distinguish in their dealings between the territory of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967. The Secretary-Generals report includes updates on food labelling decisions by Norway and Canada in fulfilment of this aspect of resolution 2334. For instance, it notes that Norway announced that foodstuffs originating from the oPt sold in Norway must bear an indication of their territory of origin, including whether they are from the settlements.

The Ad Hoc Committee for the purpose of announcing voluntary commitments to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) met on 23 June. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini addressed the meeting. Guterres encouraged states to reflect on how investing in UNRWA means investing in stability in the region, including against terrorism. Lazzarini said that the agency is chronically underfunded at a time when it faces increasing costs and demands. Lazzarini highlighted the discrepancy between UNRWAs current financing model, which obliges the agency to rely on unpredictable voluntary contributions, and its mandate, which assigns it government-like functions, such as the provision of education and health services.

From 13 to 16 July, US President Joe Biden is expected to travel to Israel, the West Bank and Saudi Arabia, where he will attend a summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council plus Egypt, Iraq, and Jordan (GCC+3). According to media reports, the visit to Israel will go ahead notwithstanding the collapse of the coalition government and Biden is likely to meet with caretaker Prime Minister Lapid and other Israeli leaders.

A key issue that the Palestinian Authority may discuss with Biden is the status of the US diplomatic mission to the Palestinians in Jerusalem. During the Trump administration, the US Consulate in East Jerusalem was closed and downgraded to the Palestinian Affairs Unit within the US Embassy in Israel. (In a highly controversial move, former US President Donald Trump moved the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2018.) In June, the US announced that the Palestinian Affairs Unit was being renamed the US Office of Palestinian Affairs and that it will report to Washington on substantive issues while continuing to operate under the US Embassy in Jerusalem. The Israeli news outlet Haaretz has reported that senior Palestinian officials are not satisfied with the change as it falls short of reopening the consulate in East Jerusalem, a move Israel strongly opposes.

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz announced on 20 June that Israel had been working with the US on a regional partnership named the Middle East Air Defense Alliance which, he said, had already enabled the successful interception of Iranian attempts to attack Israel and other countries. On 31 May, Israel and Council member the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a major free trade agreement which will remove tariffs on many products, including food, cosmetics and medicines.

Human Rights-Related Developments During its 50th session, the Human Rights Council (HRC) held an interactive dialogue with, and considered the first report of, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the oPt, including East Jerusalem, and Israel (A/HRC/50/21). The Commission reviewed the findings and status of the implementation of recommendations of previous UN fact-finding missions and commissions of inquiry on the situation, and those of other UN human rights bodies. The Commission found that the key findings and recommendations linked to the underlying root causes of recurrent tensions, instability and protraction of conflict have not been implemented, and that this lack of implementation is at the heart of the systematic recurrence of violations in both the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel. (The Commission was established by HRC resolution S-30/1 adopted on 27 May 2021.) Women, Peace and Security On 24 June, the Informal Experts Group on Women, Peace and Security (IEG) held a meeting on The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question. Wennesland briefed. This was the first time the IEG met on the situation in Israel and the oPt.

Key Issues and Options

The overarching issue for the Council remains determining how it can better support the resumption of political negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians to move towards a resolution of the conflict and achieve a two-state solution. In the absence of progress towards this, ongoing issues include preventing new escalations of violence, the expansion of settlements in the oPt, and other developments that undermine the viability of a two-state solution. Current Council dynamics and recent developmentssuch as the uncertainty about the outcome of the upcoming Israeli electionsmake it unlikely that the Council will adopt a product to, for instance, condemn recent plans for settlement expansion and stress the importance of further relaxing and ultimately lifting the Gaza blockade.

In March, the HRC appointed Francesca P. Albanese to the role of Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, taking over from Michael Lynk. In a 16 May statement, Albanesetogether with the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, Cecilia Jimenez-Damary, and Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this contextcalled for stopping the forced evictions, arbitrary displacement and forcible transfer of Palestinian communities from a cluster of villages in the West Bank known as Masafer Yatta.

An option would be for the Council to meet in a closed meeting format with Albanese, Jimenez-Damary and Rajagopal to engage in a frank discussion on the international humanitarian law prohibition of forcible transfers as it applies to the oPt and the consequences of this practice for both the communities at risk of being forcibly displaced and the wider resolution of the conflict.

Council Dynamics

The press statement on the killing of Abu Akleh represented a rare show of consensus in the Councils work on the situation in Israel and the oPt. It is unlikely, however, that this consensus will carry over into the Councils engagement on the political aspects underpinning the divide. In the context of the April clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces at the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount site in Jerusalems Old City, some Council members held preliminary discussions on issuing press elements calling for a de-escalation. However, divisions among members on whether and how to mention the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount sitewhich reflect divisions between Israelis and Palestinians regarding this siteprevented agreement on the proposed text.

In addition, it appears that Russias invasion of Ukraine is further complicating Council dynamics on this file. During Mays monthly meeting on The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, the US referred to how Russias unprovoked war of aggression in Ukraine is affecting food insecurity in the region, adding that Russia is blocking food exports and actively impeding Ukrainian farmers. Ambassador Vasily Nebenzia (Russia) countered that these accusations were misleading and lamented the decision of the organisers of the 9-10 May meeting of the Ad-Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) not to invite Russia. Nebenzia said: Any attempt to exclude Russia from the process of resolving the Palestinian question, the situation in Syria or any other Middle East crisis would be counterproductive. (The AHLC is a 15-member committee that coordinates development assistance to the Palestinian people at policy level and is chaired by Council member Norway.) During the April monthly meeting, Russia expressed disappointment at the fact that its Quartet colleagues again and again refuse[d] to cooperate on resuming the Middle East peace process.

UN DOCUMENTS ON THE MIDDLE EAST, INCLUDING THE PALESTINIAN QUESTION

This was a resolution that condemned Israeli settlements and was adopted with 14 votes in favour and a US abstention. This was the twenty-second Secretary-Generals report on the implementation of resolution 2334.
EUROPE

Ukraine

Expected Council Action

In July, the Security Council is expected to hold a private meeting on the situation in Ukraine. The meeting will focus on the ongoing efforts to negotiate an agreement to allow the safe and secure export of Ukrainian food through the Black Sea and unimpeded access of Russian food and fertilisers to global markets.

Additional meetings on Ukraine are possible, depending on developments on the ground.

Key Recent Developments

The Security Council remains actively engaged on the situation in Ukraine. However, the frequency with which the Council has convened meetings on Ukraine has steadily declined since the start of the war on 24 February. In March, the Council held six formal and informal meetings on Ukraine. This dropped to four in April, with meetings more narrowly focused on the wars detrimental effects on specific vulnerable groupsincluding women, children and refugees. The number of meetings continued to fall in subsequent months, reaching four in May and three in June.

On 6 June, the Council held an open briefing on conflict-related sexual violence and human trafficking in the war in Ukraine. There was also a briefing on Ukraine on 21 June, which focused on incitement to violence leading to atrocity crimes. On 28 June, at Ukraines request, the Council convened for an open meeting to discuss the recent shelling of areas in Ukraines centre, including a 26 June missile launch on Kyiv. The assault, which was the first such attack on Kyiv in weeks, hit a residential building, killing one person. Council members also discussed a 27 June attack on a crowded shopping mall in the central Poltava region, which resulted in at least 20 deaths. The UN condemned the attack on 27 June as utterly deplorable. (For more information, see our 3 June and 20 June Whats in Blue stories.)

In addition to these briefings, the war in Ukraine has been referenced during several other Council meetings. Notable in this regard was the high-level open debate on strengthening accountability and justice for serious violations of international law on 2 June and the annual meeting on strengthening EU-UN cooperation on 16 June.

Hostilities in Ukraine remain concentrated in Donetsk and Luhansk as Russian forces pursue control of the entire Donbas region in eastern Ukraine. In Luhansk, Russian troops made slow but considerable advances in June, and now control over 90 percent of the region. Russian forces most recently captured the city of Sievierodonetsk, where hundreds of civilians had reportedly taken shelter from Russian shelling at the Azot chemical plant. In Donetsk, Russian forces continue to advance south towards Sloviansk from Izium. In the northern Kharkiv region and the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, Russian troops appear to be seeking to maintain defensive positions against Ukrainian counterattacks.

The intense fighting in the eastern and southern parts of Ukraine continues to prevent vital aid from reaching those in need. On 13 June, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric said that the UN and humanitarian partners have been unable to reach critical areas affected by the war, including Mariupol, Kherson and Sievierodonetsk because of insecurity and bureaucratic obstacles, despite continued engagement to negotiate access. He noted that the last time a UN convoy with supplies reached Sievierodonetsk was on 5 April. In the south, a critical shortage of medicines persists in Kherson, and Mariupol is said to be at risk of a major cholera outbreak.

Human Rights-Related Developments

On 16 June, during its 50th session, the Human Rights Council (HRC) held an interactive dialogue on the oral update provided by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet regarding the grave human rights and humanitarian situation in Mariupol, as requested in HRC resolution A/HRC/S-34/L.1 of 12 May. On 5 July, the HRC is expected to hold an interactive dialogue at which Bachelet will present orally the findings of the periodic report of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on the situation of human rights in Ukraine. Also on 5 July, the HRC will consider the Secretary-Generals report on the situation of human rights in the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine (A/HRC/50/65).

Key Issues and Options

A key issue for the Security Council is determining what role it can play in facilitating an end to the conflict. Agreement on Council products on Ukraine is difficult because of the direct involvement of a permanent member and members sharply diverging positions. Members can continue to hold regular open briefings on the situation in Ukraine with the aim of keeping the international community abreast of developments on the ground. Brazils choice to convene a private meeting on Ukraine perhaps indicates that members are also considering formats with restricted attendance and no meeting records, which could also include an informal interactive dialogue or a closed Arria-formula meeting, to allow for a frank exchange of ideas between Council members on more politically sensitive issues.

Another key issue for the Council is determining how it can support ongoing efforts to negotiate an agreement on Ukrainian and Russian food exports to global markets. The war in Ukraine has led to a cost of living crisis marked by escalating price shocks in the global food, energy and fertiliser markets. According to an 8 June report of the UN Global Crisis Response Group (GCRG), a continued reduction in Russian and Ukrainian exports will result in an additional 19 million people experiencing chronic undernourishment in 2023. (The GCRG was established in March to develop strategies and recommendations in response to the Ukrainian wars impact on food, energy and financial systems.) Efforts involving Turkiye and the UN to negotiate an agreement between Russia and Ukraine to allow their food to reach global markets have been underway for several weeks. During next months scheduled private meeting on Ukraine, Council members will be apprised of the status of negotiations. Should an agreement between the parties be reached, an option for Council action would be a vote on a resolution or the drafting of a presidential statement endorsing the agreement and establishing the parameters of a potential UN monitoring role.

Council members remain concerned about the detrimental effects of the war on women, children and other vulnerable groups, including persons with disabilities. Members have expressed growing concern about reports of forced deportations of children. While UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet noted on 15 June that OHCHR cannot yet confirm these allegations, the Commission of Inquiry established by the HRC confirmed on the same day that there is a significant number of children disappeared in temporarily occupied territories. According to media reports, as at 18 June, over 307,000 children have been evacuated to Russia since 24 February. An option for Council action could be to organise a briefing on this issue, during which Council members may recall HRC resolution A/HRC/S-34/L.1, which requested Russia to provide UN staff with safe access to persons who have been transferred from conflict-affected areas and are held on Russian territory or areas occupied by Russian troops in Ukraine.

Council and Wider Dynamics

The Security Council remains starkly divided on the situation in Ukraine, with Russia justifying its invasion and several Council membersincluding Albania, France, Ireland, Norway, the UK, and the USfirmly intent on condemning Russia for what they consider an unprovoked war. Members of the latter group have consistently called for the immediate cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.

As Council discussions increasingly examine the wars ripple effects on global commodity and financial markets, major divisions have surfaced over the primary causes of rising global food insecurity. The US and European Council members have accused Moscow of weaponising food supplies by leveraging its blockade of Black Sea ports and the withholding of its own food and fertiliser exports to persuade Western countries to lift sanctions levelled against the Russian economy. These members have also accused Russia of targeting grain silos and agricultural infrastructure and stealing Ukrainian grain supplies; however, the UN has not been able to verify these allegations.

For its part, Russia denies that it has hindered the export of grain from Ukrainian ports, maintaining that it has created the conditions for the safe operation of maritime humanitarian corridors in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Russia argues that navigation in Ukrainian territorial waters and the use of its ports have been made impossible by Kyivs mining of the Black Sea. Ukraine has reportedly been unwilling to demine without security guarantees that Russia will not pursue a military offensive to capture the southern port city of Odesa.

Russia also argues that Western sanctions are contributing to the crisis by causing supply chain disruptions. The US and Council members from Europe have justified the use of sanctions, emphasising that Russias agricultural sector has remained exempt. Nonetheless, some elected Council members have expressed concerns over sanctions. For example, during the 19 May open debate on conflict and food security, Brazil said that unilateral economic measures have had a secondary impact on markets, leading to increasing costs and hampering the availability of foodstuffs and fertilisers. At that meeting, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) stressed that countries must ensure that sanctions do not impact the flow of essential commodities in any way.

Many African countries also worry about the harmful humanitarian effects of sanctions. During an EU summit on 31 May, the current AU Chairperson and President of the Republic of Senegal Macky Sall said that our countries are very worried about the collateral impact of the disruptions caused by blocking the Swift payment system as a result of sanctions. After meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on 3 June, Sall issued a Tweet calling on all partners to lift sanctions on wheat and fertiliser. Ukraine and its allies have sought to convey to African member states that Russia is solely to blame for the rising levels of food insecurity. Following weeks of requests to address the AU, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reportedly told African leaders during a private meeting on 20 June that Russia is trying to use the suffering of the people to pressure Western countries to lift sanctions on its economy.

Despite Western sanctions and efforts to isolate Moscow, Russias earnings from fossil fuel exports are expected to increase this year as a result of record-high prices and increased trade with India and other Asian countries. According to a 13 June report of the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, several Council membersincluding China, France, India, and the UAEincreased imports of discounted Russian fuels in the first 100 days of the war.

UN DOCUMENTS ON UKRAINE

This was a briefing on Ukraine, which focused on Incitement to violence leading to atrocity crimes. This was a briefing on Ukraine, focused on conflict-related sexual violence and human trafficking.
PEACEMAKING, PEACEKEEPING AND PEACEBUILDING

UN Peacekeeping

Expected Council Action

In July, the Security Council will hold a high-level debate on strategic communications in peacekeeping. Brazilian Foreign Minister Carlos Alberto Franco Franca is expected to chair the meeting. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will deliver remarks. Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix; Force Commander for the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) General Marcos De Sa Affonso Da Costa; and Jenna Russo, Director of Research and Head of the Brian Urquhart Center for Peace Operations at the International Peace Institute (IPI), are the anticipated briefers.

A presidential statement is a possible outcome.

Key Recent Developments

Several UN peace operations are deployed in increasingly volatile security environments, and the changing technological landscape can further complicate their task. As much as digital technologies offer new capabilities to enhance the effectiveness of UN peace operations, they are also creating difficulties by shaping the conflict environment and influencing public opinion against UN peace operations. In his remarks at the Security Council open debate on technology and peacekeeping on 18 August 2021, Guterres noted that new technologies are changing the scale and speed of attack, as well as the character and nature of violence and destruction in war, with an indelible impact on civilian populations.

These changes have added challenges to several UN peace operations. In the case of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), there has been a significant increase in disinformation activity, which is increasingly systematic and orchestrated, and synchronized on an industrial scale to utilize local and pan-African networks as well as social media, according to the Secretary-Generals 31 May report. In the Central African Republic, disinformation campaigns by platforms and individuals close to the ruling party have continued to target the UN and other domestic and international actors in the country, as indicated in the Secretary-Generals 15 February report on the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA). In his latest report on MINUSCA released on 16 June, while the Secretary-General noted a downward trend in the targeted disinformation campaign against the mission, he expressed his continued concern about persistent disinformation campaigns that seek to incite hatred and violence, particularly those on local and social media targeting minorities and political opposition. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the UN has recently documented several instances of alleged hate speech and disinformation, stoking tensions and exacerbating conflict in the volatile eastern provinces. These and similar challenges not only pose serious risks to the safety and security of peacekeepers but also further complicate their responsibility to protect civilians.

The UN has recognised the significance of strategic communications to effectively engage with local populations, conflict parties, regional and other international actors, and partners on the ground. The 2015 High-Level Independent Panel on UN Peace Operations (HIPPO) stressed the need to prioritize the development of tailored and dynamic communications strategies that support mandate implementation and maximize relevant communication tools for particular audiences, including radio, social media and other platforms.

The UN Secretariat has identified strategic communications as one of the key priorities under the Action for Peacekeeping Plus (A4P+) initiative, citing it as an important enabler and multiplier across all mandated areas to help accelerate progress in the reform of UN peace operations. In this context, the UN aims to promote successes, manage expectations, and help address disinformation, misinformation and hate speech by engaging with all key stakeholders at the local, regional and international level. In this regard, it developed a Strategy for the Digital Transformation of UN Peacekeeping, dated 17 September 2021, which seeks to help missions in implementing their mandates effectively by harnessing the potential of digital technologies and mitigating their risks.

In May, Brazil organised a side event on the Protection of Civilians in UN Peacekeeping Missions: Strategic Communications as a key enabler during the annual Protection of Civilians (PoC) week. The meeting facilitated a discussion about how peacekeeping missions can communicate effectively at all levels for the successful implementation of PoC mandates and exchanged lessons and best practices from the field in promoting community engagement by using new communication technologies. The high-level open debate in July will have a broader focus, as set out in the concept note Brazil has prepared to help guide the discussion, which underscores the key role of strategic communications in peacekeeping mandate implementation and specifically its contribution to protecting civilians; promoting the safety and security of peacekeepers; and advancing the Women, Peace and Security agenda.

Key Issues and Options

The key issue for Council members is how to enhance the effectiveness of peacekeeping by using strategic communications as an important tool for mandate implementation. In relation to this, Brazil would like Council members and the wider UN membership to address the following issues:

the effectiveness of the UN Secretariat and peacekeeping missions in communicating with key audiences;

the internal and external challenges faced by UN peacekeeping operations in terms of strategic communications and how these challenges can be addressed;

the potential for the Strategy for the Digital Transformation of UN Peacekeeping to contribute to improving the communications capabilities of missions;

the role of the UN Secretariat and peacekeeping missions to better monitor and evaluate the impact of strategic communications on mandate implementation and the safety and security of peacekeepers;

the ways in which the Security Council, the UN Secretariat, peacekeeping missions and troop- and police-contributing countries (T/PCCs) can increase the impact of strategic communications on the protection of civilians and the advancement of the Women, Peace and Security agenda;

the role of strategic communications in the context of peacekeeping transitions;

concrete measures the Security Council could take to improve strategic communications within peacekeeping operations; and

the contributions of T/PCCs to improving missions communications with relevant stakeholders, notably local communities.

A possible option for Council members is to adopt a presidential statement on the significance of strategic communications in peacekeeping.

Council and Wider Dynamics

This is the first time the Security Council will be discussing strategic communications in peacekeeping. Council members are likely to be broadly supportive of a discussion about this issue, given the challenges that peace operations are facing on the ground. It remains to be seen, however, whether Council members will be keen to agree on a related product.

The issue of strategic communications has resonated with the wider UN membership. The Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operationsa subsidiary body of the General Assembly that consists of more than 150 UN member states and is mandated to deal with the question of peacekeeping operations in all their aspectsrecommended in its 2021 report that the Secretary-General, in consultation with United Nations country teams and other relevant stakeholders, establish a framework for strategic communication in peacekeeping, including how to address the issue of anti-United Nations propaganda, which encourages attacks against peacekeepers and United Nations personnel in the field.

UN DOCUMENTS ON PEACEKEEPING

This presidential statement highlighted the significance of existing and new technologies in supporting not only the safety and security of peacekeepers but also the protection of civilians by enabling effective and timely decision-making, including through early warning and response. This was a Security Council meeting on the use of technology in peacekeeping. This was the report of the High-level Independent Panel on Peace Operations.
Every Friday, The Citizen features a pet available for adoption from the Finger Lakes SPCA of Central New York. This week, we spotlight Celine.

AGE: Guesstimating 2-3 years

BREED: Calico, long hair

COMMENTS: Celine has been with us for several months. She arrived with five kittens. Physically, she was in dire straits. She was nearly bald. She was bordering on emaciated. She needed  and she got  immediate attention. If she had not been removed from her living situation when she was, she would not have survived.

In the months following her arrival, Celine has made an amazing recovery. She has gained much-needed weight. Her beautiful calico coat has grown back and she continues to thrive. Happily, her all of her five beautiful kittens have been adopted and are safely home. It's time for Celine!

Celine has been tested for FIV/FeLV and is negative. She is fully vaccinated (rabies, distemper, feline kennel cough), has been treated for the variety of parasites she had, and is spayed. She is ready to move on. She's waiting for her new family to discover her and take her home. Please don't let her wait any longer.

Q: Who is your best friend?

A: So, I don't even know Sara the trainer! All my dog buddies are claiming her as their BFF. That's cool and I think she loves all the attention. However, my BFF is Paula! She lives in my condo room with me and we have become BFFs almost overnight. We have a lot in common, No. 1 being that we are both looking for our new forever homes. If calicos are not to your liking, please check out my Paula. I think you will love her.

Q: What is your favorite toy?

A: One of our wonderful volunteers bought us a Floppy Fish! My people charge it up and let it do its thing. It gives us quite a workout. Just wish Floppy Fish didn't run out of juice so quickly.

Q: What has been your worst experience?

A: So, I'll be brief, but I'll give you a good idea. I came here as part of what they call a cruelty case. I had lost most of my hair and was very thin  almost emaciated. I also had five kittens who depended on me. I believe I was found in the nick of time, otherwise the outcome would have been disastrous. All of my babies have now been adopted. I've done my job. It's my turn to go home and relax.

Q: What characteristics are you hoping to find in your new family?

A: First and foremost I am looking for love. That's what all of us are looking for. Then, responsibility, knowledge, humor (which goes a long way!), patience, dedication and compassion. I think that covers it. I'll keep thinking about this. If I come up with more I'll let you know.

Q: How would you describe yourself?

A: I am very beautiful. My picture is awesome, but you really do need to see me up close and personal. I am also very sweet. One of my shelter people was loving on me today and I really enjoyed that and all the attention I was getting. So I am people-friendly, and I get along quite well with my condo-mates too. I am neat and fastidious about litter box use, and when I am in my condo room I keep it very neat and clean. What more could you ask for?

Q: If you could meet someone famous, who would that be?

A: I would love to meet Monty the Cat! Never heard of Monty? He is an Instagram star with over 690,000 followers! Monty was adopted from an animal shelter in 2013, he has chromosome abnormalities and he was born with a sunken nasal bridge, leading to him looking different from other felines. His family uses his social media to show others what a character he is and encourage people not to judge on first appearances and to adopt animals from shelters. I would love to meet Monty  he is very cool!

Q: Do you have an interesting fact to share?

A: I do! So, this is going back a ways  just about 50 years. Do you remember the gray, striped tabby on Vito Corleone's ("The Godfather") lap? Well that cat was not in the original script. Director Francis Ford Coppola found the cat as a stray near the Paramount studio and handed him to Marlon Brando as a last-minute addition. The cat became a favorite on "The Godfather."

Q: Do you have any advice for our readers today?

A: I do! My good shelter peeps and our good friends at the Cayuga County Health Department are hosting a free rabies clinic today! Yes, you read that right, today! It will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. right here at my shelter home. All well-behaved dogs, cats and ferrets that are at least 12 weeks old are invited to attend. If you will be requesting a three-year certificate you must provide proof of a prior vaccination. Otherwise, a one-year certificate will be given. Thank you for protecting our dogs, cats, ferrets and community members by rabies vaccinating. Much love, many purrs and licks, Celine and friends.
ASIA

UNRCCA (Central Asia)

In July, the Special Representative and head of the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia (UNRCCA), Natalia Gherman, is expected to brief the Security Council on UNRCCAs work in closed consultations.

Key Recent Developments

Gherman last briefed Council members in closed consultations on 27 January. Among other matters, she provided an update on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic throughout Central Asia, and UNRCCAs activities pertaining to counter-terrorism, transboundary water management, border demarcation, and the empowerment of women and youth. Gherman also discussed the situation in Afghanistan, including its impact on Central Asia, her interactions with the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), the anti-government protests that took place in Kazakhstan in January, and the ongoing border dispute between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

Since Ghermans last briefing, there has been significant unrest in the Gorno-Badakhshan region of Tajikistan, an autonomous region in the countrys east that borders Afghanistan, China and Kyrgyzstan. Gorno-Badakhshan is ethnically and linguistically distinct from the rest of Tajikistan and accounts for approximately 45 percent of its territory and about three percent of its population.

Tensions have run high in Gorno-Badakhshan since November 2021, when a protest was sparked by the alleged torture and killing by Tajik security forces of Gulbiddin Ziyobekov, a local resident accused of killing a deputy prosecutor. Government troops reportedly opened fire on the demonstration, killing three people and wounding 17 more. Dozens of protesters were arrested following this incident, and many received substantial prison sentences.

The most recent bout of unrest began on 16 May with a series of protests that started in the regions capital, Khorugh, before spreading to other areas. According to media reports, the protests were sparked by anger over the killing of Ziyobekov and the subsequent arrests of activists and others who participated in the November 2021 protests. Protesters also reportedly demanded the resignation of both the regional governor and the mayor of Khorugh. The protests quickly turned violent after police killed a 29-year-old protester on 16 May. Tajik authorities subsequently announced that they had commenced an anti-terror operation in the region. During the ensuing violence, Tajik security forces reportedly used rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas against the protesters. In a 20 May statement, the UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues said that as many as 40 people were allegedly killed in the Rushon district of Gorno-Badakhshan during this operation. Tajik authorities continued to target demonstrators and leaders in the Gorno-Badakhshan region in the following weeks.

On 19 May, Stephane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, said that the Secretary-General was concerned at the reports of increased tension and violence in the [Gorno-Badakhshan region], including the reported loss of life. Dujarric also said that the Secretary-General calls for restraint and for all efforts to be made to resolve the current situation by peaceful means. On the same day, the diplomatic missions of the EU, France, Germany, the UK, and the US to Tajikistan issued a statement that called on all parties to spare no effort to de-escalate, exercise restraint, and refrain from excessive use of force and incitement to violence, among other matters.

Several skirmishes between Kyrgyz and Tajik troops have taken place along the Kyrgyz/Tajik border in recent months. In late January, a dispute over a blocked road erupted into fighting between the two sides. Tajik authorities claimed that two people were killed and a further ten wounded during the clash, while Kyrgyz authorities said that 12 were wounded and more than 24,000 civilians were evacuated from the area. According to media reports, on 12 April, the Kyrgyz Border Guard Service said that Kyrgyz and Tajik forces exchanged fire near Maksat village in Leilek district after Tajik border guards entered Kyrgyz territory. A Tajik border guard was killed and two Kyrgyz border guards were wounded during the shootout. On 3 June, Kyrgyz authorities announced that Tajik and Kyrgyz forces had exchanged fire in the Bulak-Bashy district of the southern Batken region and that troops had been wounded on both sides.

On 5 June, Kazakhstan held a referendum on proposed changes to its constitution. Among other matters, the amendments decentralised decision-making in the country and stripped former Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev of special privileges that gave him influence over the political process after leaving office. The Kazakh electoral commission said that 77.18 percent of voters supported the amendments, and that turnout was 68.06 percent.

The conflict in Ukraine has had a ripple effect throughout Central Asia. Kyrgyzstans banking regulator, for example, has reportedly predicted that remittance payments from migrant workers in Russia will decline by 20 percent in 2022, while the World Bank has recently projected that Kyrgyzstans economy will contract by five percent in 2022, primarily due to an anticipated 33 percent decline in remittance inflows. The price of food and other goods has also risen in the region. According to media reports, the price of palov, Uzbekistans national dish, has increased by approximately 70 percent since December 2019. In mid-April, Kazakhstan announced a limit on wheat and flour exports following Russias decision to suspend the export of wheat, rye, barley, and maize until 30 June. On 26 June, Russian state television reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to Tajikistan and Turkmenistan to attend high-level meetings during the last week of June. The visit is believed to be Putins first foreign trip since Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Relations between Tajikistan and the Taliban have deteriorated in recent months. On 10 May, the Taliban closed the Afghan border with Tajikistan and reportedly seized the vehicles of Tajik truck drivers stranded by the closure. The move followed the 8 May announcement by the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP) that it had fired rockets into Tajikistan the previous day, a claim denied by Tajik authorities, who said that ISKP fired bullets and not rockets into its territory.

On 6 June, UNRCCA, UNESCO and Tajikistan convened a conference on water and mountains towards sustainable development. The conference was held within the framework of the second high-level international conference on the international decade for action water for sustainable development 2018-2028 and UNRCCAs strategy in support of cooperation between the states of Central Asia in the field of water, energy, environment and climate for 2022-2025. Gherman underlined the importance of undertaking practical, scientific, and educational work at the regional level to support joint efforts to address glacier melt.

Gherman also continued to focus on increasing the participation of women in public life in Central Asia. On 21 April, she participated in a round table on Topical issues of women, peace and security in Central Asia with members of the Kazakh parliament and representatives of international organisations and the diplomatic community. In her remarks, Gherman emphasised the importance of implementing resolution 1325 on women, peace and security and highlighted important UN practices for promoting gender equality. She also discussed the role of the Central Asian Women Leaders Caucus in promoting gender-oriented policies and programmes in the region.

Key Issues and Options

One of the main issues for the Council is how to make the best use of UNRCCAs expertise and whether there is anything else the Council could do to support UNRCCAs efforts to facilitate preventive diplomacy and regional cooperation.

Council members will also be following recent events in Gorno-Badakhshan and the disputes on the border between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Members are likely to be interested in learning more about the effect that these incidents might have on stability in the region.

The situation in Afghanistan and its impact on Central Asia is another issue for the Council. The Council could consider inviting a representative of UNAMA to participate in the consultations and provide information regarding developments in the country that may affect the wider region.

Council Dynamics

Council members are generally supportive of UNRCCA and view it as an important tool in promoting cooperation in Central Asia. Until 2015, Council members issued a press statement following the consultations, encouraging increased cooperation and coordination among the Central Asian countries, UNRCCA, and relevant regional organisations. In September 2015, however, Russia, the penholder on UNRCCA, sought to add specific references to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), as well as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the EU. The P3 (France, the UK and the US) opposed these additions, seeing the CIS, the CSTO and the SCO as vehicles for enhancing Russian influence in the region. As a result, a press statement could not be agreed upon for more than two years.

Kazakhstan was able to overcome these difficulties during its 2017-2018 term as an elected member by proposing compromise language. Press elements were issued in February 2017, and a press statement was agreed upon in January 2018. Since then, however, Council members have again been unable to reach agreement on a UNRCCA press statement owing to disagreements about referring to regional organisations. The conflict in Ukraine is likely to exacerbate these differences.

UN DOCUMENTS ON UNRCCA

This was a letter from the Secretary-General on the establishment of a United Nations Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy in Ashgabat. This was a press statement welcoming further cooperation and coordination between UNRCCA, the Central Asian States, and relevant regional organisations, including those organisations of which the Central Asian States are members.
AFRICA

West Africa and the Sahel

Expected Council Action

In July, the Security Council will hold its biannual briefing on West Africa and the Sahel. The Special Representative and head of the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), Mahamat Saleh Annadif, is expected to brief. Also expected to brief is the chair of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) Ambassador Rabab Fatima (Bangladesh), who will be leaving this role later in the month to be UN High Representative for Least Developed, Landlocked Countries, and Small Island Developing States.

Key Recent Developments

In January, Burkina Faso became the regions most recent country to experience a coup detat. Amid rising public anger over insecurity caused by Al-Qaida and Islamic State-affiliated groups, soldiers from the previously unknown Patriotic Movement for Preservation and Restoration (MPSR) deposed Burkinabe President Roch Marc Christian Kabore on 24 January. On 8 February, Security Council members held closed consultations on the situation with Annadif. In a 9 February press statement, Council members expressed serious concern about the unconstitutional change of government in Burkina Faso and their support for regional mediation efforts.

The coup leader, Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, was sworn in as transition president on 16 February. On 1 March, Damiba signed a charter outlining a 36-month transition. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) rejected a three-year transition period, demanding that Burkina Faso develop an acceptable transition timetable, and on 25 March threatened to impose sanctions. At an ECOWAS summit in Accra on 4 June, ECOWAS appointed the former president of Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou, as ECOWAS mediator for Burkina Faso.

Violence has intensified in Burkina Faso, despite the militarys ouster of Kabore. On 11 June, Burkina Faso suffered one of its worst massacres during the seven-year jihadist insurgency when militants killed at least 79 people in the northern town of Seytenga. Previously, on 25 May, about 50 people were killed in Madjoari, eastern Burkina Faso, reportedly by extremist groups.

ECOWAS also continues to lead international efforts to promote the restoration of constitutional order in Mali since the coups detat in August 2020 and May 2021 and in Guinea after a coup detat in September 2021. ECOWAS has maintained the economic and financial sanctions it imposed on Mali on 9 January after the transitional authorities failed to comply with the initial 18-month calendar for organising elections that they had agreed with ECOWAS. On 25 March, ECOWAS rejected Malis proposal for a two-year extension of the transition, but transitional president Assimi Goita signed a decree on 6 June extending the transition by this period, with effect from 26 March. While expressing regret over this decision, ECOWAS said its mediator would engage with the Malian authorities to find a mutually agreed timeline.

Tensions between Malis transitional authorities and France, partly over the authorities alleged partnership with the Wagner Group, the Russian private security company, came to a head in February when France and other European countries decided that over the following six months they would withdraw their counter-terrorism operations in Mali, Operation Barkhane and Takuba Task Force. In a 17 February joint statement on the planned departure, France, Canada and 23 other European and African countries said that they would continue their joint action against terrorism in the Sahel region, focusing on Niger and West African coastal countries, and that they had begun consultations to determine the form of this cooperation.

On 15 May, Mali announced it was ending its participation in the Group of Five for the Sahel Joint Force (FC-G5S) that Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger (G5 Sahel) formed in 2017 to combat terrorist groups in the region. According to transition authorities, Mali was withdrawing from the FC-G5S because, since February, some G5 countries had blocked its assumption of the rotating presidency of the G5 Sahel. At the time of writing, Council members were negotiating the mandate renewal of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).

The military junta in Guinea, whose members have been subject to ECOWAS financial and travel ban sanctions since last year, said it would not enforce the new ECOWAS sanctions on Mali. Guineas National Transitional Council, established on 22 January as an interim legislative body, approved a 36-month transition period on 11 May. At its 4 June summit, ECOWAS expressed serious concern about tensions between the military junta on the one hand and civil society and the political opposition on the other over the management of the transition. It also said it was concerned about the three-year transition period and demanded the finalisation of an acceptable timetable.

Nigeria is facing multiple security crises. Around 2.2 million Nigerians are internally displaced because of the protracted conflict in the Lake Chad basin with the terrorist group Boko Haram and a splinter group, the Islamic State, in the West Africa Province. Banditry and intercommunal violence have driven an emerging food crisis in northwest Nigeria. There has also been heightened concern about terrorist groups increasing their presence and recruitment in northwest Nigeria amid this insecurity.

Concerns continue to grow about the increasing threat that Sahel-based terrorist groups pose to coastal West African states. In an 11 May attack, the Al-Qaida-affiliated Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims killed eight Togolese soldiers and wounded 13 in an attack on an army post in the town of Kpekankandi in Togo near the border with Burkina Faso. It was the first deadly attack by jihadist groups in Togo.

Overall, violence and rising global food prices are driving a deteriorating humanitarian situation in much of the region. As at 20 May, up to 18 million people in the Sahel are expected to face severe food insecurity over the next three months, according to OCHA, which warned of alarming levels of food insecurity in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, and Niger, during the lean season between June and August.

The UN, the AU, ECOWAS, and the G5 Sahel have launched a joint strategic assessment of security and governance in the Sahel. Former President Issoufou of Niger is leading the assessment team, which held its inaugural meeting in Niamey on 21 June. On 31 May, the Council adopted resolution 2634 on piracy and armed robbery in the Gulf of Guinea, which Council members had been negotiating since January. The resolution requests a Secretary-Generals report on Gulf of Guinea piracy within five months, including analysis on any possible and potential linkages with terrorism in West and Central Africa and the Sahel.

Key Issues and Options

Political developments and trends in West Africa and the Sahel region, including concerns about democratic backsliding, are key issues during Council meetings on UNOWAS. ECOWAS is expected to hold its regular ordinary summit on 3 July, during which it will further consider the situations in Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali.

The threat of terrorism facing the region is another key issue. Intercommunal and herder-farmer conflicts, often aggravated by terrorist groups, and piracy in the Gulf of Guinea are other security concerns. There are several regional initiatives to counter terrorism, which include the FC-G5S; the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) fighting the Boko Haram insurgency in the Lake Chad Basin; the Accra Initiative, launched in 2017 by Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote dIvoire, Ghana, and Togo to prevent the spillover of terrorism from the Sahel; and the still-developing plans to reconfigure Operation Barkhane and increase cooperation between France, other European countries, Niger and littoral states.

In addition to security responses, a key issue is addressing the structural causes of instability, such as underdevelopment, poor governance, and climate change, through the implementation of the UNs Sahel Strategy, the G5 Sahel Priority Investment Programme, and the Lake Chad Basin regional stabilisation strategy.

The Security Council may adopt a presidential statementusually proposed by the UNOWAS penholders following these biannual meetingsthat addresses recent developments in the region and reiterates calls for a comprehensive approach to tackle the security, peacebuilding and development challenges of the region.

Council Dynamics

Council members support UNOWAS good offices role. They also recognise the importance of a holistic approach to addressing insecurity in the region, often stressing the need for greater coherence in the activities of the UN system and other regional stakeholders. Despite this, members were not able to agree earlier this year on the traditional presidential statement that the Council usually adopts following its biannual briefings because of disagreement over language related to climate change.

Ghana, as the West African Council member, often champions ECOWAS positions. In the past, the Council has tended to follow ECOWAS lead and endorse its positions on political crises in the region, but Council discussion on Mali and the Sahel has become more polarised since the end of last year. Russia and China have not been willing to back some of ECOWAS positions on the transition timeline and sanctions on Mali. Russia also apparently softened language in the initial press statement drafted by the A3 (Gabon, Ghana and Kenya) on the coup detat in Burkina Faso, which kept it from more closely echoing ECOWAS and AU positions on the crisis.

Ghana and Ireland are co-penholders on UNOWAS.

UN DOCUMENTS ON WEST AFRICA AND THE SAHEL

This presidential statement addressed security trends in the region and expressed concern about deteriorating situations in some countries. This was a briefing on West Africa and the Sahel and the activities of UNOWAS. This press statement expressed serious concern about the unconstitutional change of government, took note of the decision of ECOWAS and the AU to suspend Burkina Faso, and expressed support for regional mediation efforts.
MIDDLE EAST

Yemen

Expected Council Action

In July, the Security Council will hold its monthly briefing and consultations on Yemen. UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg, the head of the UN Mission to Support the Hodeidah Agreement (UNMHA), General Michael Beary and a representative of OCHA are expected to brief. The Council is expected to renew the mandate of UNMHA, which expires on 15 July.

Key Recent Developments

On 2 June, the parties to Yemens conflict agreed to a two-month extension of the truce agreement, which had been in effect since 2 April and was set to expire later that day. Security Council members issued a press statement welcoming the extension and expressing the hope that the truce could be translated into a durable ceasefire.

Ahead of the truce extension, Grundberg organised a meeting of representatives of the Yemeni government and the Houthi rebel group in Amman, Jordan, from 26 to 28 May to discuss options for opening key roads in Taiz and other governorates. Improving movement in and out of Taiz city, which has been under a Houthi siege, is an important element of the truce agreement. At a second meeting, held from 5 to 6 June, Grundberg shared an updated proposal with the parties for the phased opening of roads, including the main route from Taiz city to the Hawban area east of the city. The proposal also contained plans for an implementation mechanism and commitments to the safety of civilian travellers.

On 28 May and 6 June, the Office of the Special Envoy for Yemen also convened the first two meetings of the military coordination committee in Amman. These meetings brought together military representatives of the Yemeni government, the Saudi Arabia-led coalition, which supports the government and the Houthis. The committee agreed to meet monthly and set up a joint coordination room to address issues of concern in a timely manner, according to Grundbergs briefing at the Councils 14 June meeting on Yemen.

On 13 June, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen David Gressly launched a crowdfunding campaign to help raise the $80 million required to start the first phase of a UN-facilitated plan to transfer the oil on the decrepit FSO Safer oil tanker, which is moored off Houthi-held Ras Isa port in the Red Sea, to a temporary vessel. Recent pledges from the US and Saudi Arabia of $10 million each brought total donor commitments to about $60 million. The crowdsourcing campaign seeks to raise an additional $5 million in individual donations for the operation to prevent a catastrophic oil spill if the vessel breaks up.

During the 14 June briefing, Grundberg highlighted positive effects of the truce. Civilian casualties have declined significantly, though there has been a rise in victims of landmines and unexploded ordnance as more people have begun to move around. Eight commercial round-trip flights have transported 2,795 passengers from Sanaa to Amman and Cairo since the truce agreement, and more fuel entered Hodeidah ports in April and May than during all of last year, alleviating Yemens fuel crisis. Grundberg reported that the Yemeni government had responded positively to his proposal for the phased opening of roads in Taiz and other governorates, but that he was still waiting for the Houthis response. Grundberg said that over the following six weeks his focus would be on promoting the implementation and consolidation of all the elements of the truce. He also planned to initiate negotiations on the economic and security tracks of the multitrack framework that he has been developing for an inclusive political process to end the conflict.

OCHA Acting Operations Director Ghada Eltahir Mudawi also briefed during the meeting. Despite the truce, Yemens humanitarian crisis could worsen because of the rise in global food prices, to which Yemen is particularly vulnerable since it imports nearly all its food. Mudawi flagged an increase in restrictions on the movement of aid agencies in recent months and misinformation campaigns, both of which make relief work more difficult. She also noted that the 2022 Yemen humanitarian response plan is only funded at 26 percent.

Beary delivered his first in-person briefing to members in closed consultations. In a letter dated 14 June, the Secretary-General submitted his annual review of UNMHA to the Council. It highlighted that the mission is operating in a significantly changed military and political landscape since the withdrawal in November 2021 of the Yemeni government-affiliated Joint Forces from Hodeidah city and the establishment of new frontlines about 100 kilometres further south. The letter noted several future critical functions for the mission. These include maintaining the civilian nature of Hodeidahs ports and for UNMHA to continue increasing its monitoring of the ports. Given the new frontlines, UNMHA should expand its footprint to the south, according to the review, and the mission has an agreement with the Yemeni government on establishing a permanent presence in the Joint Forces-held city of Mokha. Another key role, according to the review, will be to enhance its coordination of mine-action activities.

In press elements after the meeting, Council members welcomed the parties discussions about the truces implementation and reiterated their call for urgent progress in negotiations on Taiz.

During June, news reports said that the Houthis and Saudi Arabia had resumed virtual talks, facilitated by Oman, on future relations under any peace deal and security along the Yemen-Saudi Arabia border.

Sanctions-Related Developments

In a 17 May letter, the Secretary-General informed the Council that he had appointed three members to the Yemen Panel of Experts, nationals from Germany, India and Liberia as the arms, finance and international humanitarian law experts, respectively. The two other experts, on armed groups and on regional matters, would be appointed as soon as possible, according to the letter. On 10 June, the 2140 Yemen Sanctions Committee held consultations with Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba.

Human Rights-Related Developments

In a 3 June press briefing, a spokesperson for the High Commissioner for Human Rights noted that for the past two months, a truce has meant the people of Yemen have seen violence and hostilities decrease. Between 2 April and 1 June, the UN Human Rights Office in Yemen gathered preliminary information indicating that at least 19 civilians had been killed and 32 injured in some 20 incidents of conflict-related violence, with the majority of casualties being caused by landmines, the spokesperson said. The spokesperson also urged the parties to make serious efforts to ensure that roads into the city of [Taiz] are reopened.

Women, Peace and Security

Ahead of the 14 June meeting on Yemen, Ambassador Ferit Hoxha (Albania) delivered a press statement on behalf of a group of Council members that have committed to implementing a set of pledges on women, peace and security during their respective Council presidencies. (The group comprises Albania, Brazil, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, Norway, the United Arab Emirates, and the UK.) The statement expressed support for Grundbergs efforts to consult with a diverse group of actors, including Yemeni women, and called on all parties to ensure the full, equal and meaningful participation of women in the peace process in Yemen. Among other issues, Hoxha expressed concern at the impact of the war in Ukraine on the global food market, which, through growing shortages of basic foods and rising prices, affects the economic situation of women, especially in rural areas. He also expressed deep concern at the evidence of a Houthi policy to target politically active women and urged all conflict parties to adopt commitments to prevent and address conflict-related sexual violence. Azal Al-Salafi, protection and advocacy officer at The Peace Track Initiative, briefed the Council during the 14 June meeting on Yemen, providing additional perspective on gender issues. Among other recommendations, Al-Salafi urged the Council to continue to call for inclusive peace talks and to support the creation of a permanent Gender Advisor post in the Special Envoys office, appointing an expert with strong feminist values.

Key Issues and Options

The implementation and consolidation of the truce, including reaching agreement on the reopening of roads in Taiz and other governorates, is a key issue. A further key issue is making progress on restarting a political process based on Grundbergs multitrack framework, as the truce will be unsustainable without a process in place for a comprehensive political settlement. Council members could encourage the parties continued engagement with the UN Special Envoy to strengthen the truce and urge Yemeni stakeholders to hold continued consultations and negotiations on his framework, which covers political, security and economic tracks.

Notwithstanding the truces positive impact on the humanitarian situation, key issues remain, such as preventing famine, improving humanitarian access, supporting the economy, and raising funds for relief operations. Rising global food and energy prices since the start of the war in Ukraine present significant threats to efforts to ease Yemens humanitarian crisis. Members could encourage donors to contribute to the UNs 2022 Yemen humanitarian response plan and fill the remaining funding requirements to begin implementing the UN-facilitated plan for the FSO Safer.

Another issue for July is the mandate renewal of UNMHA and whether the mandate requires changes, considering its new operating landscape. The Council may renew UNMHA for another year while largely maintaining its mandate, including its role in monitoring the 2018 Hodeidah governorate ceasefire agreement. The Council could reiterate the importance of UNMHAs freedom of movement and of preserving the civilian nature of the Hodeidah ports while endorsing the Secretary-Generals recommendation to expand UNMHAs footprint.

Council Dynamics

Council members have remained generally united over Yemen despite the increased polarisation in the Security Council since the start of the war in Ukraine. The P5 ambassadors to Yemen (China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US) have maintained coordination in support of the UN envoys efforts. In the Council, members have encouraged the parties to uphold and extend the truce. They also want the parties to make progress towards starting a political process for a comprehensive settlement to end the war. The United Arab Emirates, an elected Council member, is a member of the Saudi Arabia-led coalition and will strongly push for its views to be reflected in Council products.

The UK is the penholder on Yemen. Ambassador Ferit Hoxha (Albania) chairs the Yemen 2140 Sanctions Committee.

UN DOCUMENTS ON YEMEN

This resolution renewed the Yemen sanctions regime for one year and added the Houthis as an entity to the Yemen sanctions list, subject to the measures of the targeted arms embargo in resolution 2216. This extended the mandate of UNMHA until 15 July 2022. This was a Secretary-Generals review of the UN Mission to Support the Hodeidah Agreement (UNMHA). This was a Council briefing on Yemen. This press statement welcomed the 2 June extension of the truce in Yemen.
Security Council Elections 2020

To view the full report, please download the PDF here.

On 17 June, the 74th session of the UN General Assembly is scheduled to hold elections for the Security Council, in a manner resulting from the global COVID-19 pandemic which compelled the closure of the UN headquarters in mid-March. According to the General Assembly decision adopted on 29 May, member states would cast ballots during designated time slots at the General Assembly Hall due to limitations on large gatherings at the UN due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Casting of ballots will be covered live on the UN webcast and the President of General Assembly will oversee the process on site. The same method would be used for additional rounds of balloting, if required.

The five seats available for election in 2020 according to the regular distribution among regions will be as follows:

one seat for the African Group (currently held by South Africa);

one seat for the Asia-Pacific Group (currently held by Indonesia);

one seat for the Latin American and the Caribbean Group (GRULAC, currently held by the Dominican Republic); and

two seats for the Western Europe and Others Group (WEOG, currently held by Belgium and Germany).

The Eastern European Group is not contesting any seats this year as its seat, held by Estonia through 2021, comes up for election every other year.

The five new members elected this year will take up their seats on 1 January 2021 and will serve until 31 December 2022.

Click here to view a comprehensive review of elections for non-permanent members of the Security Council, 1946-2019.
City

 Kea'mar L. Jackson, 23, 11 Burt Ave., was charged July 11 with fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, endangering the welfare of a child, seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, fourth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

 Ariel I. Bowman, 23, 17 Cottage St., Apt. 4, Auburn, was charged July 11 with third-degree falsely reporting an incident.

 Steven M. Rudick, 41, 115 Franklin St., Auburn, was charged July 12 with petit larceny.

 Ryan S. Kelsey, 31, 65 Genesee St., Downstairs Apt., Auburn, was charged July 12 with third-degree assault.

 Gerald A. Dale, 43, 5 Church St., Apt. 3, Auburn, with resisting arrest.

 Dorothy K. Joseph, 43, 101 Hickory Drive, Shohola, Pennsylvania, was charged July 13 with second-degree reckless endangerment.

 Brittany C. Ludwig, 32, 90 York St., Auburn, was charged July 13 with possession of a mislabeled dangerous drug.

 Tiffany I. Sabb, 30, 40 South St., Apt. 1, Auburn, was charged July 14 with third-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

 Benjamin J. Maywalt, 37, 86 Van Anden St., Auburn, was charged July 14 with driving while intoxicated with a previous conviction in past 10 years.

 Frank Calescibetta, 60, 58 Holley St., Auburn, was charged July 14 with fourth-degree criminal mischief and criminal obstruction of breathing.

 Tyler S. Bovee, 28, 37 William St., Auburn, was charged July 14 with second-degree criminal trespass and seventh-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

County

 Jesse A. Confer, 34, 2106 State Route 80, Georgetown, was charged July 12 with fourth-degree welfare fraud and fourth-degree grand larceny.

 Christina Cummings, 107 Hatch St., Syracuse, was charged July 14 with third-degree criminal trespass and petit larceny.

State

 Erick Bertonica, 45, Auburn, was charged July 12 with second-degree falsely reporting an incident.

 Ejarias Burgin, 19, Syracuse, was charged July 13 with third-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
After animal rights demonstrators lay down on the racetrack at Golden Gate Fields in March 2021 and chained themselves together, briefly bringing horse racing to a halt, the track owners sued not only the protesters but also an activist group that allegedly had recruited them. The group sought to dismiss the suit, citing freedom of speech, but a state appeals court says the case can proceed, at least for now.

The organization, Direct Action Everywhere, denied involvement in the protest and contended the real motivation of the suit was its signature-gathering and ongoing campaign to shut down the north Berkeley track. But the First District Court of Appeal said Wednesday that the language of the owners lawsuit  the only issue at this stage of the case  referred to the organizations alleged involvement in the illegal trespass, not its speech or petitioning activity.

The track owners have not offered evidence to support their accusations, and their suit could be dismissed without a trial if they fail to do so, Presiding Justice James Humes said in the 3-0 ruling. But he said Direct Action Everywhere was not entitled to dismissal under a California law that seeks to discourage meritless suits by penalizing the plaintiffs.

The 1992 law known as anti-SLAPP, or Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, applies to suits that are aimed at suppressing free speech and have no substantial likelihood of success. If a judge makes those findings, the suit will be quickly dismissed and the plaintiff must pay the defendants attorney fees and legal costs.

More than half the states have enacted anti-SLAPP laws. Media organizations and free-speech advocates filed arguments supporting Direct Action Everywheres request for dismissal, and a lawyer for those groups said the ruling weakens Californias law.

It allows plaintiffs to avoid the anti-SLAPP statute by slapping a label (on the suit) and saying somebody conspired with somebody else, said attorney David Loy of the First Amendment Coalition, whose clients in the case included the California News Publishers Association and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Even if the animal rights group eventually gets the suit dismissed, Loy said, it will still undergo the time and costs of defending the case, a potential chilling effect on free expression. He said the ruling could come back to bite a newspaper  for example, in a suit alleging that a paper helped to instigate a destructive protest by sending a photographer to the scene.

But Michael Betz, a lawyer for the racetrack owners, Golden Gate Land Holdings, said the ruling struck a proper balance between free expression and responsibility for wrongdoing.

We sued individuals and Direct Action Everywhere for trespass and wrongful interference with property, Betz said. We did not sue them for free speech, for holding picket signs. ... They cant get immunity, a get-out-of-jail card by claiming free speech.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

The four demonstrators climbed a fence to enter Golden Gate Fields and, according to the track owners, set off smoke flares and then lay down with pipes connecting their arms, and were not removed for hours. One race was canceled and others were delayed.

The protesters were arrested, but Betz said they have not been criminally charged. They were also sued by the track owners but were not part of the appeal that the court considered.

Like the demonstrators, Direct Action Everywhere contends thoroughbred racing is cruel and destructive to horses. The organization has continued to protest at Golden Gate Fields, where, according to the California Horse Racing Board, 19 horses have died during the 2021-22 season.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Federal health officials on Friday said thousands more doses of monkeypox vaccine will be delivered across the country in the coming weeks, and priority will be given to states and jurisdictions with the most cases  which could put California and San Francisco high on the list to receive more doses than most other regions.

Since the first monkeypox cases in the United States were detected in May, the federal government has distributed 156,000 doses of the Jynneos vaccine. It is now making an additional 131,000 doses available for states and jurisdictions to order, officials said Friday, and the doses could be delivered as soon as Monday.

During a call with reporters Friday, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, acknowledged that demand for vaccine exceeds current supply and said the government is working to acquire more from the manufacturer, Bavarian Nordic. About 7 million doses of Jynneos, a two-dose vaccine given 28 days apart, will be available by mid-2023.

San Francisco health officials said last week theyre running critically low on vaccines after receiving about 2,300 doses the week before. Dozens of people seeking a shot lined up outside San Francisco General Hospital, one of 10 sites in the city administering the vaccine. The San Francisco Department of Public Health said Friday it expects to receive about 4,200 doses this week  less than we hoped for, but well take it.

Federal officials did not specify how many doses would be allocated to each state or jurisdiction, but said they will prioritize areas with the highest number of cases. California has 250 confirmed cases, second only to New York. And within California, about a third, or 86 cases, have been reported in San Francisco, according to state and local figures.

As of Friday, there have been 1,470 monkeypox cases detected in 44 U.S. jurisdictions, and the vast majority are among gay or bisexual men who were believed to be exposed through sexual contact with someone who was infected. Among the 700 cases for which federal health officials have demographic data, the median age of someone with monkeypox is 36.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Monkeypox has been endemic in West Africa for years, but its spread outside the region  in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere  makes the current outbreak unusual. Monkeypox, a less severe cousin to smallpox, spreads through skin-to-skin contact, including intimate contact, and by touching objects that an infected person has touched, such as sheets or towels.

The risk of contracting monkeypox in the general population remains low, health officials say. Communities at highest risk are gay and bisexual men who have multiple sexual partners, and they are being targeted in the earliest rounds of vaccination. Because vaccine supply is scarce, close contacts of people with a known monkeypox infection are being prioritized, along with people who have attended events where a known monkeypox exposure has occurred.

Catherine Ho (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Cat_Ho
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

San Franciscos new school board is following through with a vow to focus on whether children are reading, writing and ready for college, rather than what critics have called three years of political theater that prioritized murals and school names over student performance.

That shift, however, requires the board and the districts new superintendent to dive into data that offers a grim assessment of where students are and how far that is from where they should be.

And theyll start that process this weekend.

The board and new Superintendent Matt Wayne have scheduled a special meeting starting at 9 a.m. Sunday  not only to pore over student data but also to take a long, hard look at themselves and how to lead effectively.

That starts with a very clear belief system, officials said.

School systems exist to improve student outcomes, according to background documents attached to the agenda. That is the only reason school systems exist.

The data shows that all students arent getting what they need to succeed academically, and the San Francisco community expects better from their public schools and district, said school board President Jenny Lam, adding that the board will draft a vision, goals and guardrails for the district Sunday. This is the beginning of a process to establish the districts North Star goals for student outcomes.

Currently, the outcomes arent boastworthy, with some post-pandemic declines adding to the work ahead.

According to the districts performance analysis, just 58% of students were proficient in reading last year and 71% were proficient in math. But the outcomes varied greatly by race, with 34% of Latinos and 9% of Black students reading at grade level, compared with 85% of white students and 70% of Asian Americans.

In math, 81% of white and Asian American students were proficient, compared with 41% of Black students and 55% of Latino students. Information from previous years was not immediately available.

The numbers are the first student performance data available since the pandemic, reflecting internal assessment data rather than state standardized testing, which was suspended for two years.

Such vast racial disparities are common in public schools across the state and country and are related to a range of issues, including socioeconomic inequality and uneven funding and resources in schools, including teacher experience, parent fundraisers and other inequities.

Yet San Franciscos achievement gap is wider than most other districts and has persisted despite a laundry list of interventions, as well as an infusion of funding from city and philanthropic sources.

The data review is the first step in what could be a long process directed at addressing problems that have weighed on the district  and have eluded efforts of San Francisco school boards  for decades.

District officials also said the percentage of children ready for kindergarten fell to 58% last year, down from 63% in 2019, with significant differences as well among race and ethnicities. The assessment measures students readiness as they enter school.

At the other end of a public education, less than 58% were ready for college or a career in 2020, the most recent data available. Some students again lagged further behind, with just 25% of Black students and 32% of Latino students classified as college- or career-ready.

The data also showed the district is grappling with a significant spike in chronic absenteeism  with 28% of students missing at least 18 days of the 180-day school year in 2020-21, compared with 12% before to the pandemic.

Supporters of the school board recall said this is exactly what the districts leadership should be doing.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Extended school closures left our kids in a deep pit that we havent yet emerged from, said recall organizer Siva Raj. Were really glad that the school board is transparently reviewing student outcomes. This should be their primary focus to improve and the yardstick they judge all interventions against.

Lam, elected as board president after the recall, has said that it will be critical for the districts elected officials to adhere to a standard of behavior and follow protocols to minimize distractions and debates unrelated to what students need to be successful in school and after they graduate.

That includes learning how to govern better, with Lam suspending regular committee meetings to make time to participate in training workshops on how to become an effective school board.

The public will probably see that play out in the coming months in shorter school board meetings, more conversations about student performance, and a clear distinction between the boards responsibilities and the superintendents role.

In the past few years, the school board was criticized for micromanaging the district, creating a range of new staff positions; hiring or firing top administrators; delaying return to school during the pandemic; and publicly berating staff and the previous Superintendent Vincent Matthews.

A year ago, Matthews agreed to delay his retirement only after the school board contractually agreed to alter its behavior to minimize divisiveness and let the superintendent focus on the budget, reopening amid the pandemic and running the district. Those conditions were regularly violated, including board members proposing policy changes that were unrelated to the priorities.

City officials, who have criticized the district for its $125 million budget shortfall and low literacy rates, applauded the renewed focus on kids.

This is what weve been waiting for, a leadership team that has urgency around the really worrisome academic achievement scores of our students, said Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who is working on a ballot measure to provide $60 million annually to the district to be used only to improve student achievement and emotional wellness. If we have a Board of Education and a superintendent that are focused on those very outcomes, then were aligned finally as a city and a school district, and I know we can make change.

This is they first time in a very long time all the stars are aligned.

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday granted emergency use authorization to the COVID-19 vaccine made by Novavax.

If the vaccine is recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, which the agency could do as soon as next week, it would be the fourth COVID-19 vaccine option available for adults in the U.S.

The vaccine from the Maryland drugmaker is used overseas but is a latecomer to the U.S. field occupied for more than a year by Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson  and it differs in several ways from those three now-familiar brands.

Art Reingold, a UC Berkeley epidemiologist and member of the FDA vaccine advisory committee that gave Novavax the thumbs-up in June, provided insights about the vaccine to The Chronicle. Here are some of his comments, and other key details to know.

What is the Novavax vaccine and how does it work compared to the other COVID vaccines?

The COVID-19 vaccine made by Novavax is a two-dose regimen for people 18 and older that uses a more conventional protein-based approach than the three vaccines currently used in the U.S., which deploy genetic material instructing host cells to make the coronavirus spike protein.

Two of the three approved versions, made by Pfizer and Moderna, are mRNA vaccines, which use messenger RNA to deliver instructions to cells to make a protein that triggers the production of antibodies that protect against coronavirus infection.

The third vaccine, made by Johnson & Johnson, is a viral vector vaccine that uses a harmless modified version of a different virus to trigger an immune response.

The Novavax approach is an established technology, Reingold said. There are a number of vaccines we routinely use that use more or less the same process, he said. They include inoculations for hepatitis, shingles and the flu, among other illnesses and infections.

Developed by Novavax and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, the vaccine directly delivers purified pieces of the COVID-19 spike protein, which are unable to cause disease, combined with a substance called an adjuvant to help increase immune response.

Unlike the mRNA vaccines, which need to be stored at freezing temperatures, the Novavax vaccine can be stored at standard refrigeration temperatures.

What is its effectiveness?

Associated Press

Clinical trials in the U.S. and Mexico included about 30,000 adults, two-thirds of whom received the Novavax vaccine and one-third of whom received a placebo, Reingold said. The results showed 90.4% effectiveness at preventing symptomatic infection.

The trials took place before the omicron was circulating, however, so its unknown how well the vaccine protects against that highly infections variant and its subvariants, which are now dominant across the world.

The virus changes so quickly, Reingold said. Its one of the limitations with the study  and the results, but the hope is that it will provide a reasonable level of protection against omicron.

Where is the vaccine currently being used?

The Novavax vaccine, in development since early 2020, was first authorized for emergency use in Indonesia in November 2021. It has since been authorized in the Philippines, India, the European Union, South Korea, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and other countries. It has also been validated by the World Health Organization.

A number of other protein-based COVID vaccines have been authorized around the world including in Taiwan, China and Russia.

Why has Novavax authorization taken so long in the U.S.?

With about three-quarters of adults in the U.S. already inoculated against COVID-19, Novavax has been outpaced by the larger, more experienced and wealthier Pfizer and Moderna, the Wall Street Journal reported. Novavax has grappled with manufacturing problems that hindered its rollout globally and pushed back the start of a large U.S. study, though CEO Stanley Erck has said the production issues have been resolved.

Novavax submitted its request for FDA approval in January, but federal health officials have described the application as complex. The vaccine was created in the Novavax research lab, but it is produced by the Serum Institute of India and other factories, which also must satisfy FDA inspections, NBC reported.

The delays have elicited frustration from supporters on social media  sometimes called Novastans  eager for the traditional vaccine option, and from people with medical conditions that prevent them from using the currently approved versions.

Reingold attributed the lengthy U.S. approval process for Novavax to extremely rigorous FDA requirements to approve new vaccines and drugs, which he said are among the most cautious in the world. He said if U.S. regulators werent as careful and rushing through the process, people would be concerned and it could risk safety.

We need to balance the urgency of a pandemic with the legitimate concern that the benefits outweigh the risks of anything we recommend to a large number of people, he said.

What steps are left for full U.S. approval?

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

The CDCs Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is scheduled to meet Tuesday and could make its recommendations for the Novavax vaccine then. The committee has not yet publicly released what it plans to discuss that day, but many health officials expect the committee will decide whether to recommend Novavax. Finally, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky will need to sign off before the vaccine can be distributed and administered. Novavax says it plans to seek authorization later for its shot to be used as a booster for people who previously had shots from Pfizer, Moderna or J&J, which would broaden its market.

Western regional and California state health officials also typically weigh in, and have usually followed the CDCs lead very quickly.

What side effects have been reported from Novavax?

The reported short-term reactions after Novavax shots are similar to the other vaccines, including soreness at the injection site, fatigue, headache and muscle pain, which usually resolve within 12 to 24 hours, Reingold said.

The FDA flagged a possible risk of developing inflammation of the heart after four instances of myocarditis, a rare heart condition also associated with mRNA vaccines, occurred in young men. However, the overwhelming majority of myocarditis cases after vaccination are resolved completely, Reingold said.

Its rare, he said. I would argue the benefits of vaccination still greatly outweigh that risk.

On Thursday, the European Medicines Agency added severe allergic reaction, or anaphylaxis, to the list of possible side effects of the Novavax vaccine. The FDA has not done this but, as it has with other vaccines, said in authorizing documents that it should not be given to people with a known history of severe allergic reactions to any components of the vaccine.

What considerations would you keep in mind when picking which vaccine to use?

The mRNA vaccines are safe, Reingold said, and any concerns raised about their safety are not supported by science.

But he said the Novavax vaccine would be a good alternative to anyone who is unsure about the newer mRNA technology.

Look carefully at getting this new vaccine if its approved, he said. We have used this technology before in other vaccines, and it is used in large numbers of people outside of the U.S.

Kellie Hwang and Catherine Ho are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com, cho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KellieHwang, @Cat_Ho
The state Supreme Court has left intact a ruling that blocked a proposed hillside housing development in Livermore and could require local governments considering such projects to show why they aren't instead using available funds to preserve the land for plants and animals.

The ruling in March by the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco rejected Livermore officials 2019 approval of the Garaventa Hills project, which would build 44 homes on 32 acres near a wetlands preserve that is home to nine legally protected wildlife species. The developer and the city said the project, scaled down since it was first proposed in 2011, had adequate environmental safeguards, but the court said Livermore had failed to properly consider using available preservation funds to keep the land free of development.

The city and organizations of local governments and builders asked the states high court to withdraw the appellate ruling as a standard for future cases, saying it could interfere with future developments by making environmental review more difficult. But the court let the decision stand Wednesday, leaving it as a binding precedent for trial courts statewide.

This is a good day for environmental advocates and advocates of transit-oriented dense development, said Jessica Blome, attorney for Save the Hill, the group that challenged the Livermore project. In a court filing, Blome said real estate groups and local governments wanted the ruling withdrawn as a precedent because they do not want to tell the public or decision-makers that mitigation funding for conservation exists and may be available as an alternative to development.

The courts action gave a voice to the unheard, said Bianca Covarelli, founder of Save the Hill. This is a very rare ecosystem, and the legal decision means the city must now use its available conservation funds to preserve it, she said.

The League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties told the court the appellate ruling wrongly required local governments to analyze the option of canceling a development project, and explain why that would not be a reasonable alternative, even when the project has no significant and unavoidable impacts. The developer, Lafferty Communities, also sought to remove the ruling as a legal precedent but said it would comply with the courts standards.

Lafferty Communities remains fully committed to its in-fill housing project in the city of Livermore which will offer needed excellent and affordable housing to the community, attorney Alicia Guerra said Thursday.

Some Livermore officials joined environmental advocates in questioning the project in its early stages. The City Council rejected an initial proposal in 2015, and after it was scaled back, some council members asked whether the city could preserve the land by buying it from the developer.

But the court said City Attorney Jason Alcala warned that any attempt to cancel the development would lead to a lawsuit accusing Livermore of violating the companys property rights. The citys environmental impact report said preserving the land was infeasible because of housing needs and because the land was zoned for housing.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

The appeals court said, however, that zoning can be changed, and that environmental reports must fully evaluate the no-build option. And in this case, the court said, Livermore had millions of dollars available for land purchase and preservation from two previous settlements with other developers  a fact not mentioned in the citys EIR.

Lafferty has never had the absolute right as owner to develop Garaventa Hills, Presiding Justice Teri Jackson said in the 3-0 ruling. She said the existence of two funding sources for the citys potential acquisition of environmentally sensitive land is the type of information that California law intended to provide to those charged with making important, often irreversible, environmental choices on the publics behalf.

The case is Save the Hill v. Livermore, S274754.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko
People experiencing emotional distress or feeling suicidal can now call or text a mental health crisis hotline at 988 in a service that began Saturday.

The three-digit number is the dialing code for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, a network with more than 200 crisis centers across the country.

Anyone experiencing a mental health crisis can dial 988 to reach a trained counselor at a local crisis center who will then provide additional support and resources.

The networks current phone number (1-800-273-8255) will remain active, according to the networks website.

The launch comes two years after federal lawmakers passed the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act. Mental health advocates had been pushing for a phone number easier to remember and more accessible, according to Vibrant Emotional Health, the nonprofit that has operated the network since 2005. The network is funded by Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

California has 13 crisis centers, six of which are in the Bay Area.

Heres what Bay Area residents need to know about 988, the new mental health crisis hotline:

Where are the crisis centers located in the Bay Area?

There are six crisis centers across the region: San Francisco Suicide Prevention Felton Institutue in San Francisco; Crisis Suport Services of Alameda County in Oakland; Contra Costa Crisis Center in Walnut Creek; Buckelew Suicide Prevention Program in Novato; StarVista in San Carlos; and Santa Clara County Suicide and Crisis Services in San Jose.

A team of trained staff and volunteers will serve as counselors at each center. Phone calls will be routed to a center based on the callers area code number.

For example, if someone calls from a 510 number, their call will come here to our center in Oakland, said Narges Zohoury Dillon, executive director of the Crisis Support Services of Alameda County.

This is, I think, one of the most important parts of 988. Callers might be imagining a large call center somewhere in the middle of the country but really 988 is a network of 200 local crisis centers that are getting calls from their local communities forwarded to them, she added.

But that also means people would get directed to the crisis center based on their area code, not where they live. For example, someone who moved from New York to Oakland but still has a 212 area code would get directed to a center in New York rather than the one in Oakland.

Who can call the hotline?

The hotline is meant for anyone who is in emotional distress, experiencing a mental health crisis, is worried about their substance use, as well as loved ones who might be worried about someone in their life who is going through any of those things, Zohoury Dillon said.

When can I call the hotline?

The hotline is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Will I be able to text 988?

Yes. However, the texting service wont be available at all centers, according to Zohoury Dillon. For example, the Oakland facility is expected to provide texting services by Sept. 1, she said.

When that happens, you will be able to text 988. You will then be asked to complete a short survey to let the counselor at your local crisis center know more about your situation, according to the networks website.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

The counselor will then interact with you to better understand your situation, provide support and connect you with any help or resources.

You can also chat with a counselor on a web browser via https://988lifeline.org/chat.

Will there be a long wait time?

Zohoury Dillon said it is hard to predict what the call volume will be like, but her Oakland office was prepared to receive a lot of callers on Saturday, some of whom may have simply wanted to better understand the service.

How is it funded?

The crisis centers will be funded by a combination of federal and state money. The Biden administration is investing a total of $432 million  through both the 2022 budget and the American Rescue Plan  to scale up crisis centers, back up center capacity, and provide special services, such as a network for Spanish speakers.

California has also dedicated $28 million to support the centers.

But long-term funding is less clear. A California bill, AB988, would support the centers by adding a fee to phone lines  both landlines and cell phones  that would be capped at 80 cents per line, per month, but the bill is still winding through the Legislature. A federal bill introduced in March would also add funding for the program if passed.

Jessica Flores (she/her) and Danielle Echeverria are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jessica.flores@sfchronicle.com, danielle.echeverria@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jesssmflores , @DanielleEchev
Where theres fire, theres smoke.

But in California, some insurance companies are trying to treat wildfire smoke damage as separate from fire damage so they can illegally limit coverage for it, according to nonprofit advocate Consumer Watchdog and the California Department of Insurance. California insurance companies denied the allegations and said they follow all applicable laws.

With wildfires growing in severity and frequency, insurers are modifying policies to restrict investigations into the scope of wildfire damage, narrow the benefits they pay under the policy, and create often insurmountable hurdles for homeowners seeking payment for their legitimate claims, said Up in Smoke, a report released this week by Consumer Watchdog, which monitors the insurance industry.

California law requires insurers to cover all losses from fire.

The California Department of Insurance wrote a critical report in late May about limits on smoke-damage claims at the Fair Plan, Californias insurer of last resort for homeowners who cannot find policies in the private market, a growing problem for people in wildland-urban interface areas. The agency said it is actively pursuing this issue with Fair.

In addition, it said it has found and addressed multiple instances where other insurers inserted illegal provisions to limit smoke claims. However, it disputed Consumer Watchdogs claims that it had turned a blind eye to insurers practices, and objected to some of the specific claims in its report.

For people whose homes were affected by Californias conflagrations, the fine print in insurance policies can become a gotcha.

Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

Thats what happened to Sarah Mapel, 37. The minute she saw the 1898 house nestled in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Mapel felt she was home. She bought it in 2018  the first home she had owned  and fixed it up, doing her best to preserve the history, beauty and uniqueness, she said. It was her haven during the pandemic.

Then came the August 2020 CZU Lightning Complex Fire.

Her home in Boulder Creek (Santa Cruz County) survived, but many of her neighbors houses did not. Smoke, ash and debris from burnt homes and trees permeated Mapels house. She was out of town for her fathers funeral. When the evacuation order was lifted after about three weeks, she returned to the house with an inspector from Fair, her insurance company. The power was still out, so they used flashlights.

Everything was covered with ash; you could see debris in the air, she said. Being in there for any amount of time made me feel sick.

The Fair report took months to arrive and said that the house just needed cleaning and an ozone odor treatment, according to a lawsuit Mapel has filed against Fair. The insurer sent her $1,150.79 and closed her case.

Provided by Sarah Mapel

But the house still made her feel sick, Mapel said. She hired a public adjuster and an industrial hygienist, who both said it needed extensive remediation, including replacing all the insulation. Fair rejected those reports, she said, pointing to policy language that limits its smoke coverage to damage visible to the unaided human eye and detectable to the unaided nose of an average person.

Fairs refusal to consider expert reports or pay for laboratory testing is the ostrich approach to investigating insurance claims; its saying, We just dont want to know, said Dylan Schaffer, an Oakland lawyer representing Mapel.

Fair said it cannot comment on pending litigation.

The Fair Plan will pay to remediate direct physical loss caused by a covered peril at properties it covers, it said in a statement. Our policy language in this matter was negotiated with and approved by the California Department of Insurance.

However, that department detailed multiple issues with Fairs policy language.

Fair may have obtained approval of policy changes by mischaracterizing and/or omitting relevant material facts, said a letter sent by Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara to Fair in January 2021. The letter noted that while Fair told the department it had made changes that would not affect smoke coverage, it told its brokers something entirely different.

These changes are substantive and, in some circumstances, there has been a reduction of limits and elimination of coverage, Fair told the brokers, according to Laras letter.

The insurance departments report on Fair said it had received 173 complaints from 2017 to early 2021 about Fairs handling of claims for smoke damage. Among them, it found 59 instances when Fair illegally denied or limited coverage for smoke damage, it wrote.

Issues about smoke coverage are not just with Fair, however.

The house in Bonny Doon (Santa Cruz County) where Emily Mastellone-Snyder lived with her partner, two young children and elderly mother was also infused with smoke from the CZU Lightning Complex wildfires, which burned many of her neighbors houses as well as trees and outbuildings on her property.

There was black soot everywhere, she recalled of seeing the house weeks later when evacuation orders were lifted. Smoke had just billowed in. It was the most putrid smoke, not like sweet campfire smoke, but nasty, acrid, chemical, plastic-y smoke. Within a couple of minutes I felt ill and nauseated with a headache; it was horrible.

Provided by Emily Mastellone-Snyder

Fire Tracker Follow wildfires across the state Latest updates on wildfires burning across Northern and Southern California

Her insurer, Nationwide, paid for cleaning and smoke remediation, but she said that proved inadequate, as the smells were still terrible.

We felt ill every time we went to the house, Mastellone-Snyder said. She hired outside experts who recommended that they tear out and replace all the insulation; seal the attic, subfloors and ceilings; and paint the interior. Nationwide said it would not cover those expenses.

In its denial letter, Nationwide said it would not cover any type of smoke, soot, char, ash, particles, matter, material, other byproducts or debris, or odor that is produced, emitted or released during or directly resulting from or following a wildfire or brushfire event that is undetectable by unaided human senses.

Nationwide did not comment on Mastellone-Snyders case but reacted to the Consumer Watchdog report.

This report appears to be based on an incomplete sampling of outdated policy language filings, it said in an email. We are fully committed to complying with all laws and regulations in the states where we do business.

The Personal Insurance Federation of California, the industry trade group, sent an almost identical response to the document.

The report is also based on an incomplete sampling of outdated policy language filings, it said. Regardless, PIFC members are fully committed to complying with all laws and regulations in the states where they do business.

Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

Both Mapel and Mastellone-Snyder said they spent countless hours managing their homes situations and begging their insurers for help. Both ended up paying tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket to remediate their homes, and then sold them to recoup some of their expenditures and because they no longer felt comfortable living there. Both think they got lower prices because of their homes smoke histories.

We felt like we were forced to sell our dream home, Mastellone-Snyder said. We had the heartbreaking decision, if insurance is not going to support us in getting this house clean, were never going to feel comfortable bringing our small kids and my mom back here.

Both women also had to discard almost all their possessions because they were too contaminated to salvage. Mastellone-Snyder said her daughter, now 7, broke down crying the other night when she had to dispose of a ChapStick, saying, Ill never get it back, just like my favorite stuffed animal Pearl.

Both former homeowners are now living in rentals  and as housing costs have escalated, both think they may never be able to afford to buy a house in their dream location again.

I probably would have been better off had my house burned down in a wildfire because that would have clearly been covered, Mapel said. The amount of trauma and pain (to fight for compensation) was like having any foundation and stability just ripped out from under your feet.

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid
Stephen Lam / The Chronicle

The Washburn Fire burning in Yosemite National Park was held to about 4,375 acres Thursday while firefighters increased containment to 27% by evening, national park officials said.

The blaze was no longer expected to damage the giant sequoias at Mariposa Grove, according to the National Park Service.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Californias premier data portal for all things criminal justice remains down more than two weeks after a major data breach involving anyone who tried to get a permit to carry a concealed gun in the state during the past decade.

There is no time table for when a portal frequently used by researchers, journalists and the public will be back up.

Two spokespeople for the California Attorney Generals Office confirmed on background Thursday that the offices OpenJustice web portal  a repository for annual statistics on everything from the number and types of crimes and arrests to the geography and jurisdiction of police-force incidents and deaths in custody  will remain offline indefinitely as a full-scale review of the offices technical services, policies and procedures continues.

OpenJustice glitched out on June 28, which happened to be the same day Attorney General Rob Bonta held a news conference to say the number of reported hate crimes in the state rose to their highest level since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. As Bonta soberly discussed 2021 increases in reported hate crimes across most protected categories of race, ethnicity and religion, the link to the report that contextualized his statements went down. (The report can now be found at another link.)

More for you California DOJ publicized personal information of all of the states concealed carry permit holders

But it was a massive data breach tied to something earlier in the week that prompted the attorney general and the California Department of Justice that he oversees to pull the curtain on OpenJustice.

On June 27, the same day Bonta announced a Firearms Dashboard Portal had premiered on OpenJustice, his Justice Department learned of the unauthorized release of a trove of personal data  including names, birth dates, addresses and in some cases drivers-license numbers  of individuals who were granted or denied a permit to carry a concealed weapon between 2011 and 2021.

In some cases, internal codes relating to the reason someone was prohibited from owning a firearm were also leaked, Bontas office acknowledged two days after the breach.

In a statement, Bonta called the unauthorized release of personal information unacceptable and said he immediately launched an investigation that would result in strong corrective measures where necessary.

We acknowledge the stress this may cause those individuals whose information was exposed, Bontas statement added. I am deeply disturbed and angered.

State justice officials havent indicated whether foul play was suspected in the data breach or whether it occurred because of an internal lapse or external cause, saying only that the agency was made aware of a disclosure of personal information that was accessible in a spreadsheet on the portal.

The fallout consumed other transparency projects that can help the public keep tabs on crime and police accountability in their cities and counties, including visual data representations of domestic violence crimes and the racial disparities behind police stops.

Data and technology have the power to dramatically increase transparency and accountability in our criminal justice system, then-Attorney General Kamala Harris said in a statement when the state Legislature passed the bill that created the OpenJustice portal in August 2016. I applaud the California Legislatures passage of this legislation, which will bring criminal justice data reporting into the 21st Century.

Raheem Hosseini is a San Francisco Chronicle editor. Email: raheem.hosseini@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @raheemfh
Steve Wells launched his campaign for the 22nd Congressional District seat with help from donors and a significant investment out of his own pocket.

The Cazenovia Republican reported receipts totaling $602,251 in the second quarter, a hefty sum considering he entered the race in May  the halfway point of the fundraising period.

He raised $245,251 from individual donors, including $5,800 from Neil Goldberg, president of furniture chain Raymour & Flanigan, and $5,800 from Daniel Loeb, an investor who is active in politics and has given to Democrats and Republicans. The Oneida Indian Nation contributed $5,800.

Wells also received $7,000 from political action committees and other groups. The Republican Governance Group/Tuesday Group PAC gave $5,000. U.S. Rep. John Katko, whom Wells is hoping to succeed in Congress, is a co-chair of the Republican Governance Group. Katko hasn't made an endorsement in the 22nd district race.

The New York Renewal PAC, which is led by former U.S. Rep. John Faso, donated $2,000.

Wells jumpstarted his bid for Congress with a $350,000 loan, records show. The loan accounted for nearly 60% of his total receipts. His campaign spent $3,310 and has $598,940 in the bank.

Brandon Williams, who is also vying for the GOP nomination in the 22nd district, raised $64,656, all from individuals. His campaign disbursements totaled $40,514. He has $112,348 cash on hand.

Williams is from Cayuga County  he lives in the town of Sennett  but opted to run in the 22nd district after the maps were redrawn. The district includes all of Onondaga, Madison and Oneida counties, plus a sliver of Oswego County.

Wells has been endorsed by the GOP chairs in the district, while Williams has the backing of the Conservative Party.

The primary election will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 23. The winner will face the victor of the four-way Democratic primary featuring Francis Conole, Sarah Klee Hood, Chol Majok and Sam Roberts.
Editors note: The Chronicles new cooking column, Modern Vegetarian, brings a fresh voice from the author of the Mumbai Modern cookbook.

One winter vacation, in the city of Mumbai, in India, at the tender age of 9, I picked up a Tarla Dalal (the Julia Child of India) cookbook. I took it upon myself to make a new dish from the cookbook every day of my two-week break. Most of the dishes turned out well; a couple did not, and I was upset  for a brief moment. My gentle mom, ever so generous with her praises, offered words of encouragement. I was right back in the kitchen, making new dishes for the rest of my vacation. That was one fun winter break.

My mother was a lover of cookbooks. She had a huge collection. Having received her education in home science, she was well versed in making all the so-called exotic dishes from the Western world in the 1980s: pastas, baked dishes, pizzas, souffles, eggless cakes, puddings, ketchups and shrubs from scratch. So on and so forth. She had a reputation for being an amazing cook! She could whip up dishes for a party in no time, serving anywhere from five to 25 people.

My mother passed at the young age of 57. It has been my greatest loss  to lose my confidante, my cheerleader, my teacher, my best friend, my kitchen partner who taught me everything she knew about cooking and baking.

My love for cooking and baking started in her kitchen, by her side. I learned to make a full Gujarati thali meal when I was in my single digits. Thali, which literally translates to plate in Hindi, means a plate filled with curries, vegetables, flatbreads, savories and sweets, alongside a salad and pickles. I have the fondest memories of holding the end of her sari as a little girl, watching her work her magic in the kitchen, getting the whiffs and fragrances of the freshly ground spices, the aromas of daals and curries being prepared, and her swift hands, rolling out a stack of rotlis or flatbreads within mere minutes.

Gujarati food comes from the Western part of India, and its a beautiful amalgamation, a sensory experience of sweet, salty, spicy, bitter and sour  all in a bite. My mother would show me how to make shaaks, or stir-fried masala vegetables. Put a little bit of the cumin powder, then a little bit of the coriander, then the turmeric, and red chile powder, and finally a pinch of the garam masala, she would say. There were no measurements whatsoever; it was a taste-and-go, put-more-spices-if-required kind of learning. That is how cooking was taught and passed down generation after generation, and there is really nothing like a simple home-cooked meal made lovingly by mothers.

I came to America in 1999 to work on my masters degree in computer science. I landed a job in Northern California after my graduation and fell in love with the fresh produce at the farmers markets. I got married, and had my firstborn  my dear daughter  in 2009. With my intent of providing fresh seasonal meals to her on a daily basis, I started visiting the farmers market religiously every Sunday. It was my ritual, my me time to be able to visualize, feel and taste the produce at the market. Eat seasonally, eat reasonably became my motto. I had my son shortly after, and feeding my children fresh produce, even as babies, in puree form, became my norm  my way of life. I can proudly say that my kids are generally not picky eaters and are open to trying new dishes that I make for them.

Courtesy Amisha Gurbani

Being thousands of miles away from my homeland, my food blog Jam Lab was born as a way to showcase Indian and Gujarati food and baking, which has been an integral part of my life. I wanted to have a place where I could share and preserve these recipes. I offered unique flavors, inspired by my heritage and my family. I told stories about my childhood, living in Mumbai at Juhu Beach, because food relates to our background and family, and food brings us together in unimaginable ways. I was known by my followers as a flavor queen because I would come up with beautiful flavor combinations that would weave together in my bakes. Flavor profiles came naturally to me.

When my mom passed, I had made her a promise that one day I would write a cookbook that would be dedicated to her, preserving her recipes and sharing stories about her and all the delicious food I grew up with. After years of hard work and love, Mumbai Modern, my debut cookbook, was published last year.

My kitchen and my dishes are inspired by what I get from the farmers market. Cooking is a joy. It can be a slow process. It is an experience: The prepping, chopping, tempering, smells and colors awaken our senses. It can be therapeutic for the mind and soul. I personally love a long recipe, a recipe with steps, because it gives me time to put my heart into it, making it a meal to enjoy with my loved ones.

We build memories around food. It triggers emotions and evokes deep-rooted memories. When I see corn at the local farmers market, it takes me right back to my childhood on Juhu Beach, Mumbai, when I would visit the street vendor who was cooking it over charcoal. I stood by with my family, listening to the ocean waves and watching the vendor turn the corn at regular intervals to char it all around. He would then take a lime, dip it in a bowl filled with a mixture of salt and red chile powder, and rub it all over the corn, put it in a husk and give it to us. That first bite  warm, sour, sweet and spicy  was absolute bliss!

With this column, I am excited to showcase different, vibrant dishes highlighting the gorgeous bounty from Northern California with a touch of my heritage. My sincere hope is that you will enjoy my stories and recipes and share the love of food with your loved ones.

Amisha Gurbani is a Bay Area food writer, author of Mumbai Modern and blogger behind the Jam Lab. Email food@sfchronicle.com

Courtesy Amisha Gurbani

Corn Pakoras With a Peach, Nectarine & Heirloom Tomato Salad

Serves 6

Come summer, stone fruits and corn are consumed on repeat in our home. I love coming up with easy ideas to make backyard dining fun like these corn pakoras on a peach, nectarine and heirloom tomato salad. The corn pakoras are an ode to my childhood with corn and spices in a chickpea and rice flour batter, which makes them crispy and delicious. They are also gluten-free. The peaches and nectarines are super sweet, and so are the heirloom tomatoes. The basil vinaigrette brings the whole dish together with its freshness from the basil and lemon juice. Look for chaat masala at Indian grocers. You can also find it on Amazon.com.

Basil Vinaigrette

1 cup packed coarsely chopped basil

3 tablespoons lemon juice

 cup + 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, divided

2 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon Maldon salt

1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

3 tablespoons finely chopped shallot

 jalapeno, seeded

Corn Pakoras

2 cups packed corn kernels

 jalapeno (optional)

1 piece ginger,  inch long

 cup finely chopped red onion

4 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro

4 tablespoons chickpea flour

6 tablespoons rice flour

1 teaspoon table salt

 teaspoon red chile powder

 teaspoon ground turmeric

 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

 teaspoon chaat masala (see headnote)

Vegetable oil for frying

Salad

4 heirloom tomatoes, cut into half, and then into thirds

2 to 3 just-ripe peaches, cut into half, and then into thirds

2 to 3 just-ripe nectarines, cut into half, and then into thirds

2 balls of burrata

Garnish

Maldon salt

Coarsely ground black pepper

Basil leaves

For the vinaigrette: In a blender, add all the ingredients, except the 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, and puree on high speed, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides of the blender. Transfer to a small bowl, and top it off with 1 tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil and set aside. Clean the blender jar.

For the pakoras: To the blender, add 1 cup of the corn kernels along with the chile, if using, and ginger. Blend on high speed into a coarse paste.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the rest of the corn kernels, the paste and the remaining ingredients. Thoroughly mix until the batter comes together. You should be able to form balls with your hands. If the dough seems too wet, add a tablespoon or two of rice flour. If it seems too dry, add a tablespoon or two of water.

In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, place about 2 to 3 inches of oil for frying and heat to 350 degrees. This will take about 5 to 7 minutes.

Place a baking tray fitted with a wire rack aside to drain the excess oil off the pakoras.

Scoop out about 2 tablespoons of the batter and form it into a patty, about 1 inches in diameter. Set it on a large plate or platter. Repeat with the rest of the batter. You should have about 15 pakoras. Working in batches of 3 at a time, to avoid bringing down the temperature of the oil, fry the pakoras for about 1 minutes on each side, or until golden brown in color. Remove the pakoras with a spider skimmer and place on the wire rack to drain while you assemble the salad.

To assemble the salad: Arrange the tomato, peach and nectarine wedges on a large platter. Tear each ball of burrata into 3 pieces and nestle the cheese among the fruit. Arrange the pakoras on top of the salad.

Using a spoon, drizzle about  cup of the basil vinaigrette over the salad.

Garnish with basil leaves. Season with Maldon salt and coarse black pepper. Serve immediately with the remaining vinaigrette.

Note: Leftover basil vinaigrette can be stored in a glass jar, in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Top off the vinaigrette with a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil to preserve.

Zucchini, Summer Squash & Corn Tart

Courtesy Amisha Gurbani

Makes one 10-inch tart

Come summer, our family meals are inspired by the beautiful produce at the farmers market. This tart has sweet corn, fresh zucchini and summer squash encased in a pastry shell filled with cheese, dry spices including smoked paprika and garlic powder, and fresh herbs  all giving this tart a beautiful taste and texture. I like to serve it with a simple arugula salad dressed with a lemony vinaigrette.

Dough

1  cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

1 stick (4 ounces) cold, unsalted butter cut into 1-inch cubes

1 egg, separated

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar mixed with  cup cold water

Filling

1 tablespoon salted butter

 cup finely chopped red onion

 cup corn kernels

 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped

 cup whole milk

1 egg

 teaspoon salt

 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

 teaspoon smoked paprika

 teaspoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro

1 tablespoon finely chopped chives

1 tablespoon finely chopped oregano

1 zucchini, cut into 1/8- inch thick slices

1 yellow squash, cut into  -inch thick slices

 cup Gruyere cheese

 cup Fontina cheese

2 tablespoons cotija cheese (optional)

Garnish

Finely chopped chives

Microgreens

For the dough: In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt and pepper. Whisk to combine. Add the butter cubes and, using a pastry blender, cut through the butter and flour, until the butter is the size of a pea.

Add the egg yolk (reserve the white), and mix with the pastry blender.

Add 6 tablespoons of the cold water-vinegar mixture, setting the rest aside, and work it in with the pastry blender until the dough begins to form.

Empty the contents of the bowl on a clean surface. Using your hands, frisage the dough, which means to push the dough with the palm of your hand, away from your body, to mix the dough and spread the butter throughout.

If the dough seems dry, add a tablespoon or more of the water-vinegar mixture to bring the dough together. Once it is combined, form the dough into a disk, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

Set aside a 10-inch pie dish or 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom.

Dust a clean surface with flour. Roll out the dough, using a rolling pin, into a 12-inch round. Place the rolled dough onto the pie or tart pan and gently press the dough into the pan. The dough will hang over the edge of the pan. Tuck it underneath the edge of the pan, working your way around to form a nice ring around the edge of the pan.

Place it in the refrigerator for an hour to chill while you make the filling.

For the filling: In a medium saucepan, on medium heat, add the butter. Once melted, add the red onions, corn and jalapeno. Cook the mixture for 3 to 4 minutes, until the corn is slightly browned. Cool completely.

In a bowl or large measuring cup, whisk together the milk and egg until combined. Add the salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, herbs and whisk to combine. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

To assemble the tart: Remove the tart shell from the refrigerator. Using a pastry brush, brush the entire shell with the reserved egg white.

Spread the corn mixture on the bottom of the pan. Layer in half of the zucchini and summer squash slices, alternating between the two in concentric circles.

Pour half of the savory milk mixture over the vegetables. Distribute half of the Gruyere and Fontina on top. Repeat with the rest of the zucchini and summer squash slices. Pour the remaining milk over the vegetables.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

Distribute the remaining cheese on the top. Sprinkle the cojita cheese all over. Cover with foil.

Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees. Place the pan on a baking sheet and place it on the lowest rack in the oven. Bake for 45 minutes.

Remove the foil carefully, and bake for another 30-45 minutes, until a darker brown in color. The crust should be a darker brown in color, too.

Remove from the oven, let cool for at least a half-hour.

Garnish with microgreens and finely chopped chives and serve

Note: The leftover tart can be stored in the fridge for up to 2 days. Warm it in the oven before serving.

Roasted Peach Masala Chai Tiramisu Cups

Serves 6

This is my take on a tiramisu as an easy no-bake summer dessert that can be prepped a day ahead. The masala chai comes together quickly with coarsely ground whole spices and loose black tea. Roasting the peaches with cardamom and saffron brings out the best flavors. Combined with the masala chai-soaked lady fingers and creamy rose-scented mascarpone mixture, this dessert will knock anyones socks off!

Masala Chai

 stick cinnamon

5 cloves

8 black peppercorns

3 cardamom pods

1 star anise

1 piece fresh ginger, -inch long

2 cups water

1 tablespoon loose-leaf black tea

 cup granulated sugar

Roasted Peaches

4 small to medium peaches, cut into small pieces

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon freshly ground cardamom

 teaspoon saffron

1 tablespoon melted unsalted butter, cooled

Cream Mixture

1 cup heavy cream, chilled

 cup confectioners sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 teaspoon rose water

1 tub (8 ounces) mascarpone, cold

12 lady fingers or Savoiardi

3 tablespoons dark rum (optional)

2 peaches, 1 diced into tiny cubes, 1 cut into thin slices

 cup raw pistachios, finely ground into a powder

Edible gold leaf for decoration (optional)

For the chai: Add all the whole spices to a mortar and coarsely grind them to release the oils. Add the ginger to the mixture and grind again. Set it aside.

In a medium pan, on medium to high heat, add the water and bring to a boil. Next add all the spices to the boiling water and boil for a minute.

Stir in the black tea and granulated sugar, and boil the mixture for 3 to 4 minutes.

Remove from heat. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a container. Let it cool completely.

For the peaches: Preheat the oven to 420 degrees. In a quarter sheet pan, add the peaches, granulated sugar and cardamom. Lightly crush the saffron between your fingers and mix it in. Add the butter. Toss it to mix well.

Place the tray in the middle rack of the oven and bake the mixture for 20 to 22 minutes. Toss the mixture around halfway through.

Once the peaches are roasted, let the mixture cool completely. Using a rubber spatula, lightly press the peaches to make a slightly mushy texture.

For the cream mixture: In the bowl of a stand mixer, with a whisk attachment, add the heavy cream, confectioners sugar, vanilla extract and rose water. Whisk for about 2 minutes, until the heavy cream reaches soft peaks. Do not overwhip.

Add the mascarpone, and whisk until just combined. Make sure to remove all the cream mixture off the whisk attachment.

Add the roasted peaches mixture to the cream mixture and fold in with a rubber spatula, to evenly distribute throughout.

Spoon the cream mixture into a 16-inch pastry bag attached with a round tip. Seal the top and set aside.

To assemble: Set aside six 6- to 8-ounce glasses. Add the dark rum, if using, to the masala chai mixture. Set the lady fingers nearby.

Pipe a layer of the cream mixture into the bottom of each glass. Smooth it with a small rubber spatula.

Quickly dip a lady finger into the chai mixture, break into half and quickly dip again. Place the halves, side by side, into the glass. Repeat for the remaining 5 glasses.

Pipe a layer of the cream mixture on top of the lady fingers in each glass. Smooth with the spatula.

Distribute the finely chopped peaches evenly into each glass.

Repeat the process with the lady fingers for all 6 glasses.

Pipe a final layer of the cream mixture on top of the lady fingers in each glass. Smooth the tops with an offset spatula.

Chill the tiramisu cups for at least 6 hours to overnight.

To serve: Just before serving, sprinkle the pistachio powder on top with a fine sieve. Garnish with the sliced peaches, and edible gold leaf, if desired.
Surveys of coronavirus levels in Bay Area wastewater suggest that the regions relentless spring COVID surge probably rivals the winter omicron wave in terms of the number of people currently infected  in fact, this surge may be the largest yet in some places. But capturing the scale of disease, and conveying to the public the relative risk of getting sick, is becoming increasingly tricky, health experts say.

The huge winter surge peaked in the Bay Area at more than 20,000 reported COVID cases a day in mid-January. Currently, the region is recording far fewer cases  roughly 3,500 a day as of this week  but experts believe the actual number of infections may be anywhere from 2 to 10 times higher, as so many more people use home tests, the results of which are not reported to county or state public health authorities.

In all previous surges, the level of coronavirus detected in wastewater closely matched case counts when plotted on a curve. In the omicron winter, for example, both wastewater virus levels and reported case counts started to spike sharply in mid-December, peaked over a period of a few days, then quickly plummeted.

This spring surge broke that pattern  for the first time, case counts and viral levels have diverged. Over the past two months in particular, viral levels in the wastewater shot up again, while reported cases have climbed at a much slower pace.

The two metrics and their disparate portraits of whats happening in the Bay Area underscore the challenges of tracking COVID as the region lurches through its third year of the pandemic, health experts say. People must take into account an array of data points  from wastewater surveillance and case counts to hospitalizations and even anecdotal reports among friends  to understand their personal risk of becoming infected and decide what precautions to take.

Wastewater surveillance says theres lots more disease out there than what we see in the case counts, said Dr. George Rutherford, an infectious disease expert at UCSF. People should be interpreting this as there is risk out there, and if they enter crowded indoor settings or even very crowded outdoor settings  Im thinking of the Stern Grove (Festival)  they need to be careful. Pick and choose what you want to do. Use your mask.

Studying the amount of virus found in wastewater began early in the pandemic in some places, and has become an increasingly widespread surveillance tool across the United States over the past two years. Its still not a perfect measure of how much the disease is spreading in a community, and scientists have not yet worked out a formula for consistently translating wastewater viral levels to community infection rates.

But as other metrics  and especially reported cases  become less reliable, wastewater surveillance is winning over many experts as a relatively stable, unbiased marker of COVID transmission.

This surge really highlights the utility of wastewater, said Alexandria Boehm, a wastewater surveillance expert at Stanford who has led surveys of sewage around the Bay Area. If you look at the data, the current surge is the same order of magnitude as the first omicron surge in December and January.

Scientists develop the wastewater metric by studying the concentration of viral RNA in sewage. Boehms team at Stanford, for example, analyzes wastewater samples from about a dozen locations in and around the Bay Area for several key mutations, including two that are found in all coronavirus variants currently circulating.

Wastewater surveillance is considered more reliable than other means of tracking COVID, in part because theres no human interference  some amount of virus is excreted when a person is infected, and everyones poop ends up in the sewage. Tracking the virus in wastewater isnt dependent on people deciding to get tested, or where they do it.

Other metrics, like COVID hospitalizations and the rate of tests coming out positive, can also be used to gauge the size of a surge, but they also have shortcomings. Hospitalizations lag behind cases by as much as a week or two, so arent great for understanding what is happening in the moment. And they paint an incomplete picture of how many infections are actually in the community, especially now that so many fewer COVID patients end up in the hospital thanks to vaccines. The positive test rate is somewhat more reliable, but it too can be influenced by human bias  people are more likely to get tested if they have symptoms, for starters, or if they already have a positive result on a home test.

Currently, both hospitalizations and the positive test rate show the Bay Area in the midst of a significant surge, though not quite as large as the winter wave.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Whether this surge has surpassed the omicron wave in terms of daily infections remains unclear. Rutherford guessed cases now were about 60% of the omicron peak, but that may just be me putting on my happy face, he said. Health officials in Santa Clara and Alameda counties said they dont think this wave has quite hit omicron levels  but they added that they too cant know that for sure.

The wastewater tells us that were still steady at really high levels of COVID transmission  very similar to where we were in January earlier this year, said Michael Balliet, deputy director of Santa Clara County Public Health. I dont think were quite at that same level, but were certainly pretty close.

Its important for people to continue to practice all of the strategies  testing, wearing face coverings, getting vaccinated and boosted if you havent already  to reduce their risk, he said.

Dr. Nicholas Moss, the health officer for Alameda County, said he uses multiple metrics to get a sense of whats happening in his community, but he appreciates that many people dont have the time or interest to pay such close attention. Thats becoming increasingly true as the pandemic drags on and people have other priorities in their lives to distract them from COVID. With that in mind, he said simply relying on social networks to keep tabs on the virus may be the best way for many people to assess their own risk.

Honestly, I find in some ways the easiest way for people to get a sense of how much COVID is around is just: Are you hearing about lots of people getting COVID? Thats a good sign that for you theres a lot of COVID around, that there is a risk and you should be careful, Moss said. Its very unscientific, but people really relate to it. If the person across the street has COVID and my aunt has COVID and we heard about a cluster of cases at the local day care  that kind of signal, people should pay attention to it.

Erin Allday is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: eallday@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @erinallday
The morning after I interviewed for a Rhodes Scholarship, my older sister reminded me that I was loved for who I am  not what Ive achieved. Thank you, I kept repeating over the phone. Thank you.

I didnt get the scholarship. The odds were always long, and I had done everything I could to prepare. Still, fighting back tears, I struggled to separate my failure from myself.

Like many young Americans, I carry the inaccurate notion that my accomplishments determine my worth. Im stressed that Im doing too much and stressed because I think Im not doing enough. And I feel burnt out. I recently caught COVID and was actually excited to lie in bed for a few days.

When you greet a dangerous disease with relief, its a good sign that something bigger is wrong.

Throughout college, I treated my life as a vehicle to maneuver me toward success. I received good grades and won occasional awards. That excellence, however, frequently came at a cost to my well-being.

Too often, I told myself that I just needed to finish the next assignment, exam or quarter and then everything would be OK. This cognitive analgesic got me through frenetic periods like finals. Sure, my work-life balance was off. But at some point, I hoped, Id be on the other side looking back.

Unsurprisingly, I never arrived at the magical other side.

Then COVID offered a glimpse of guilt-free rest.

Taking extra time after testing positive is, at least for now, the social norm  and it felt freeing. I could treat being sick as a reason to rest in part because I knew others would also see it as a legitimate excuse. It took a global pandemic to create common empathy, even as, in other ways, COVID splintered any conception of shared reality and responsibility.

A recent survey of Ohio State students found that 71% of them feel burnt out. Part of the problem is that grind culture is a type of false utopianism. It dangles an ideal future state of prestige, influence and success. And it justifies present pain as acceptable and even necessary to reach that future.

I have only recently realized, as I approached graduation, that this is the wrong way to think  and I struggle to envision any future potent enough to be worth the routine sacrifice of present well-being.

As my high school history teacher once quoted from the Bible, For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole word, and lose his own soul?

I should clarify: I appreciate hard work and the drive to create. I do not pine for the perennial right to mold into my couch while my eyes strain from too much TV  though sometimes, Ive needed that kind of slothfulness. Rather, Ive come to believe that we should also prioritize relationships and rest. Academic and career excellence should not preclude every other part of our lives.

Before we even arrive to campus, many students create four-year plans that detail every course they want to take. Some students lock down internships over a year in advance.

Planning can be useful, and many students lack the financial security to improvise their careers. But the discomfort with uncertainty runs deeper. Theres a subtle, passive aggressive snark in the innocuous questions about what comes next: You mean you havent charted out your lifes course? And some students have a disturbing sense of superiority that conflates concrete plans with human worth.

While colleges cant eradicate stress or competition, they can mitigate the worst parts of a culture of excellence and overwork that corrodes students mental health.

A class I recently took called Stanford Loves: The Theory and Practice of Conscious Relationship offers a template. In one exercise, students shared negative self-thoughts with a classmate who offered empathy. As I aired my concerns about productivity, I found out they were mutual. Even a few words of validation  that I deserved some rest  eased my conscience.

Taking the class right after my luckily mild case of COVID helped me begin to foster healthier expectations for myself as I graduate and enter the working world. I dont expect to escape disappointment when I fail. But I do feel that I can be kinder to myself in the face of disappointment and honest about when I need a break.

Culturally, we can work against the false perception that fulfillment only comes by grinding our way to success. We should encourage people to recharge. We should support people as they figure out their plans. And we should be open about the costs of excellence  which, yes, can push students to attain perfect grades and conduct breakthrough research, but at a price we should be more reluctant to pay.

At an event during my first year at Stanford, I wrote a letter to my future self. Three weeks ago, right before commencement, I opened it for the first time since I had written it. Its the rare piece of advice I think my younger self identified correctly:

I hope that wherever you are and whoever youre surrounded by that you have found a semblance of happiness. I hope that you have sight of a path, a conception of a vision of what your role in this world turns out to be. But if you dont, youll find something. Be patient. Give yourself room for error.

Nadav Ziv is a recent graduate of Stanford University. Twitter: @nadavsziv
Khadijah Rose Britton, a member of the Wailaki tribe, was last seen four years ago in Covelo, a small town 180 miles north of San Francisco. Witnesses told law enforcement she was forced into a car at gunpoint by her ex-boyfriend. Her family is still searching for answers.

Im still fighting, said Ronnie Hostler, Brittons grandfather. Im still trying to get the Mendocino County Sheriffs Department to explain to me why theres not a motive, why shes still missing.

Brittons case is not a novel one, said Assembly Member James Ramos, D-Highland (San Bernardino County). Ramos grew up on the San Manuel Indian Reservation in San Bernardino County, where he has been hearing about cases of missing and murdered Native American people for years now, he said.

In the U.S., more than 2,300 Native women and girls are missing, the Sovereign Bodies Institute, which maintains a database of missing Indigenous women and girls, reported in 2020.

Ramos wrote AB1314, a bill that would introduce a new emergency notification system for missing Native persons. If signed into law, AB1314 would enable law enforcement agencies to request that the California Highway Patrol activate an Endangered Missing Advisory  a Feather Alert  if a missing Indigenous persons case meets four criteria:

 The person was involuntarily abducted or kidnapped.

 The agency investigating the case exhausted all available local/tribal resources.

 The person is missing under inexplicable or suspicious circumstances.

 The advisory would give the public information helpful in finding the person.

A Feather Alert would be issued through existing infrastructure used for Amber Alerts, which are notifications sent to the public when a child is determined to be missing and endangered, Ramos said. Signs along state freeways would light up with information about the missing person. Those who already receive Amber Alerts in the form of phone notifications and text messages would also receive Feather Alerts.

Ramos bill was passed by the state Assembly in May and is likely to be heard by the state Senate in August.

Similar efforts are underway in other Western states. This month, Washington became the first state to start a statewide emergency alert system for missing Indigenous people, and a similar bill is making its way through the Colorado Legislature. Ramos said he studied both states bills, hoping to ensure a successful program for California.

Its not going to solve everything, and we need to fine-tune certain things down the road, Ramos said. But the big thing is that now, with the support that were getting outside of Indian country here in the state of California, were able to move forward on pieces of legislation.

Hostler said he thinks AB1314 would help families facing situations like his, especially since 11 days passed before Brittons ex-boyfriend, Negie Fallis, was arrested. Criminology experts say the first 72 hours in a missing person case are the most important, ABC News reported.

Fallis was arrested and charged with assault and kidnapping in connection with Brittons disappearance, according to a 2018 news release from the Mendocino County Sheriffs Office. But those charges were dropped later that year, The Mendocino Voice reported. Fallis is currently in jail for firearm-related charges unrelated to Brittons disappearance.

The Mendocino County Sheriffs Office did not respond to requests for comment.

A 2021 survey of Indigenous communities in Northern California revealed that 47% of its respondents felt uncomfortable or unsafe calling 911 for help.

This bill will hopefully begin the first step of rebuilding trust between our communities, that when one of us goes missing, the case is taken seriously, investigated and brought to justice, said Annabella Hernandez, a tribal youth leader with the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians. Hernandez spoke on AB1314 at a news conference last month.

AB1314 is supported by the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, the California Tribal Families Coalition and the California State Sheriffs Association.

Time is of the essence, said San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus of missing Indigenous persons cases. The sooner we can get information out there, the quicker we can help.

Dicus, speaking on behalf of the California State Sheriffs Association, said the bill would streamline investigations and facilitate communication between county law enforcement and tribal law enforcement.

We certainly went to respect their sovereignty, he said of local tribes. But as a result of this, sometimes it takes a little while to get to the bottom of what were dealing with  getting access to tribal members, witnesses and things of that nature.

There is so far no official opposition to the bill, though Sovereign Bodies Institute Executive Director Annita Lucchesi said she has concerns about the Feather Alert system because much of it relies on negligent and unaccountable local law enforcement agencies.

While the idea of this bill has merit, I am concerned about implementation, especially in California, where incidents on tribal lands are at the discretion of county law enforcement, Lucchesi said. Theres very little oversight at the state level and very little system of accountability.

Both Lucchesi and Ramos agree that the issue requires multi-faceted, long-term solutions and the cooperation of law enforcement and Indigenous communities.

Unfortunately, there isnt going to be a one-size-fits-all solution  or you know, one bill thats going to fix it all. Its a lot of small fixes that all add up to something bigger, Lucchesi said.

Camryn Pak is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: camryn.pak@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @camrynpak
UPDATE: S.F. D.A. Brooke Jenkins fills more key positions. Here's who will investigate police misconduct

In her first major move as San Franciscos district attorney, Brooke Jenkins on Friday launched a massive staff overhaul, firing at least 15 employees and announcing the selection of four new lieutenants who will help lead her management and transition teams.

The expected shake-up, which may position the office to seek stricter punishments for criminal suspects, comes a week after Jenkins was sworn in as the citys top prosecutor  the culmination of the historic recall of her progressive former boss, Chesa Boudin, an effort in which she played a major role.

Jenkins new top hires  Ana Gonzalez, Nancy Tung, Tiffany Sutton and Rani Singh  have spent several years as prosecutors in the Bay Area, and some have sparred publicly with Boudin in the past. Gonzalez is a former San Francisco assistant district attorney who Boudin fired in his own purge after he took office in January 2020.

Fridays hirings and firings became the latest chapter in the often hostile debate over the direction of criminal justice in San Francisco. Boudins allies attacked the moves, while Jenkins  the choice of moderate Mayor London Breed  suggested she was moving strongly in response to the wishes of recall voters.

I promised the public that I would restore accountability and consequences to the criminal justice system while advancing smart reforms responsibly, Jenkins said in a statement.

Today, I made difficult, but important changes to my management team and staff that will help advance my vision to restore a sense of safety in San Francisco by holding serious and repeat offenders accountable and implementing smart criminal justice reforms.

Employees fired Friday included high-ranking advisers to Boudin as well as prosecutors, investigators and other staff members whose work included city corruption probes, the prosecution of police, the resentencing of people found to be innocent or given excessively long sentences and data transparency.

The District Attorneys Office had a staff of 320 people, 136 of whom were attorneys, officials with the agency said Friday. Twelve of the 16 people fired Friday were attorneys.

Rachel Marshall, Boudins director of communications and a policy adviser, was among the first to be fired. A Stanford Law School graduate who worked for nearly a decade as a public defender, she said she joined Boudins team to fight for criminal justice reform, and that DA Jenkins approach differs dramatically from my values.

That battle has never felt more urgent, Marshall said in a statement. My passion for the mission to reform our legal system is stronger than ever and I am eager for the next opportunity to effect change.

Arcelia Hurtado, a chief attorney who oversaw the offices post-conviction unit along with diversity efforts and training, said she was disappointed but not surprised to be terminated. Hurtado said Jenkins told staffers she wouldnt fire prosecutors solely because they were hired by Boudin, and that she would be meeting with managers individually to assess whether they were a good fit for her team. Those meetings, Hurtado said, never took place.

I was hopeful that she would be true to her word ... and this seems to be a complete political massacre at this point, Hurtado said. She lined us up, essentially, one by one today, 15-minute phone calls, and fired us all without cause, and would not state any reason for why we were fired.

Marshall Khine, chief assistant district attorney, and Kasie Lee, chief of the victim services division, were both demoted.

Jenkins said her newly hired management team will include the addition of three women of color, with decades of prosecutorial experience at the highest levels (who) will help our office deliver on that promise. I have full faith and confidence that these women will promote and protect public safety while delivering justice in all of its various forms.

The second-in-command position in the D.A.s Office will go to Gonzalez, who led the offices gang unit until she  along with six others  were fired by Boudin after he took office. Gonzalez will serve as Jenkins chief assistant, meaning that she will be the offices lead managing attorney.

Tung, an Alameda County assistant district attorney, will be the chief of special prosecutions, taking on and overseeing sensitive cases. She will also serve as the lead liaison for the the offices community partnerships across San Francisco.

Like Jenkins and Gonzalez, Tung has a history of conflict with Boudin. She ran against him in 2019, coming in third in the citys ranked-choice contest. She was seen then as the candidate most in favor of stricter penalties for people accused of crimes.

Tung also publicly supported Boudins recall, and was rumored to be Breeds second-choice pick for district attorney. This year, prior to Boudins recall, Tung told the San Francisco NAACP that she would seek the office again if Boudin was ousted.

Sutton, the director of the crime strategies division at the San Francisco Police Department, will now lead the D.A.s juvenile division and alternative programs and initiatives, which focuses on collaborative courts and reforms. Sutton is also a veteran of the District Attorneys Office, having spent 12 years there as an assistant district attorney after being hired by Kamala Harris.

Leading the offices transition team will be Singh, who spent 22 years as a city district attorney before becoming assistant chief legal counsel for the San Francisco Sheriffs Office earlier this year, according to her LinkedIn bio. While at the District Attorneys Office, Singh served as a managing attorney for the misdemeanor trial unit, the collaborative court and mental health unit and the domestic violence unit.

Gonzalez, Tung and Sutton are all expected to take on cases in addition to their managerial roles.

By stocking the office with law enforcement officials and more traditional prosecutors potentially amenable to stricter penalties for people accused of crimes, Jenkins choices represent a marked departure from Boudins progressive philosophies.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

During his two and a half years in office, Boudin hired a slate of former defense attorneys and prioritized diverting offenders to rehabilitation, thinning jails and prisons and holding police officers accountable for misconduct. Recall supporters said San Francisco had become too permissive in dealing with suspected robbers, burglars and drug dealers.

By Friday afternoon, The Chronicle confirmed many other firings, including Kate Chatfield, Boudins chief of staff; Kelsey Russom, Boudins executive assistant; Ryan Khojasteh, a felony prosecutor in the general felonies unit, who also helped implement reforms in the juvenile unit; and Dana Drusinsky, an assistant district attorney who worked in the post-conviction unit, focused on re-sentencing rehabilitated people and those who were given excessive terms in prison.

Drusinsky said she had court hearings scheduled Friday and next week in which victims were scheduled to appear via Zoom or to fly into San Francisco from other countries, and that their case statuses were left unclear. Everyone who knows anything about these cases has been fired, she said.

An official with the D.A.s Office said Jenkins put a chief on the case Friday, and that prosecutors communicated with the victims services advocate to pass along information about the change of attorney to the victims family.

The official added that the defense filed a continuance for the hearing Friday, and that Jenkins has reinstalled on the case an attorney who had previously worked on it.

Mikaela Rabinowitz  director of data, research, and analytics, who created the offices first public-facing data tool that allowed the general public to view case resolutions  was also fired. Ive done nothing to undermine the new administration, Rabinowitz told The Chronicle. Given the quality of my work ... I can only speculate that (the new administration) doesnt share my commitment to transparency.

Others fired included Tal Klement, assistant chief of general crimes, who oversaw the felony and misdemeanor units; Dylan Yep, the offices most senior data analyst; and Rebecca Young, an assistant district attorney with the Independent Investigations Bureau, who prosecuted cases of police accused of misconduct. Young said her colleague Lateef Gray was also terminated.

Judging from the people Jenkins let go, it certainly seems like a pivot away from reform and progressive prosecution and a return to the failed practice of mass incarceration, Klement said. I dont see how she can call herself a progressive prosecutor after gutting the office like this.

Young, who is running to be San Franciscos public defender, said that firing two of the three attorneys who do police accountability work ... belies her public promise to maintain police accountability.

It was not immediately clear how the offices specific units might be affected by the firings.

Jenkins has not officially rolled back any of Boudins policies, which have sharply limited or done away with cash bail, the use of gang enhancements, the charging of juveniles as adults and the use of Californias three strikes law for repeat offenders. She has, however, criticized these policies as too lenient, and last week announced she may be withdrawing some plea deal offers in pending drug cases made under Boudins administration.

Clarification: In an earlier version of this article, The Chronicle misattributed a statement about Nancy Tungs role.

Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy
Bill Hutchinson/The Chronicle

San Francisco police closed several streets in the Bernal Heights neighborhood Friday while they investigate an incident involving a man they believed was armed and suffering a mental health emergency.

Police said crisis negotiators are talking with the man in the area of Powhattan Avenue and Bradford Street, where they incident began shortly before 11 a.m. A number of streets in the area were closed.
Last week, I wrote about Salesforce cutting back on its office space in downtown San Francisco, another sign of tech companies downsizing as workers stay remote during the pandemic.

South of Market resident Abraham Woodliff read the headline and saw it as another sign of corporate and tech wealth abandoning the city. He recorded a furious reaction accusing city leaders of screwing over artists, the LGBTQ community and residents in favor attracting businesses with policies like the 2011 payroll tax break in Mid-Market, which Twitter benefited from.

The disastrous result, in his opinion: San Francisco has some of the most expensive living costs in the country and some of the most drug-ridden and poverty-stricken streets, and now residents and businesses are departing.

The money that you sold all these people out for is leaving too. Now San Francisco is just a big piece of s. Its just a bunch of fentanyl addicts ... in the street and just throwing feces, he said in the video. Wow. Im really glad Ed Lee gave all those tax incentives. Its really working out you fing morons. And clearly theyre very loyal to the city, considering theyre all fing leaving cause you made it hell.

Such criticisms of San Francisco arent new, but Woodliffs passionate words resonated with people on social media as the city grinds its way through the third year of the pandemic.

The 50-second video, posted to Woodliffs @realbayareamemes pages, has racked up over 117,000 views on Instagram and nearly 50,000 on TikTok as of Friday. The Instagram video has over 7,132 likes and 300 comments  itself another example of how potent tech is in influencing public discourse.

SF traded culture for money and this is the result, said one comment. Tired of the rich running natives out of their own homes, said another.

But Woodliff didnt read the story hes responding to, which reports that Salesforce isnt leaving the city, just shrinking its office space in a building that it owns. Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff is a fourth generation native San Franciscan and donates millions annually to support local schools and homelessness assistance efforts.

Salesforce hasnt received local tax breaks and Benioff and Salesforce spent $8 million in 2018 to support a ballot measure that raised taxes on large employers, including themselves, to fund homelessness services. (Hearst, owner of The Chronicle, also saw a tax increase.) Salesforce didnt have immediate comment when contacted Friday.

Despite the omissions, Woodliffs anger and despair over the state of the city reverberated widely.

Woodliffs frustration is genuine, but said in an interview with The Chronicle that his video persona incorporates dark humor and outrage, boiling down complex issues into short clips. He didnt prepare a script for the video and was speaking in a stream of consciousness.

Online, Im way more spicy than I am in real life, he said.

Woodliff started his meme page on Facebook in 2016. He saw people were stealing his posts, so began posting on Instagram in 2019. He said he only sporadically makes money from his Instagram account through sponsored posts.

Woodliff said his goal is highlighting the hypocrisy of the citys stated progressive ideals and the brutal realities on the street.

The reality of life here is terrible, he said, citing homelessness, crime, the pandemic and occasional toxic smoke from wildfires. It really feels like were in hell.

And yet, its still way too expensive, he said. The citys massive $14 billion budget contrasted with the poor quality of life is, in his view, evidence of incompetence and corruption.

Woodliff said his rhetoric in the video was based on real experiences: He saw someone throwing feces near the Powell Street BART Station before the pandemic, and in the past few months he said he has seen two dead bodies, which may have been from drug overdoses.

He said last week he had to intervene to protect his neighbor, who is blind, from being attacked by a homeless person.

It cant keep going like this, he said.

For all his criticisms, Woodliff cant imagine leaving the Bay Area. His family is in San Francisco and his mom grew up in the Mission. Woodliff was born in Walnut Creek and has experienced the Bay Areas inequality firsthand, previously living in a homeless shelter in Concord and public housing in Martinez.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

Hes worked in tech for a year, as a sales development representative for Prime Trust, a financial technology company that works with cryptocurrency. He was living in Oakland, but the pay raise from starting his tech job enabled him to move to South of Market.

Woodliff, who also writes for Broke Ass Stuart and SFGATE  which is also owned by Hearst but operates separately from The Chronicle  said he doesnt blame tech workers for leaving or for driving up rents. Hes more upset about city officials not doing more.

He wants the city to mandate that all homeless people are provided health and support services and apartments, where they are allowed to do drugs. If they refuse to accept shelter, Woodliff thinks they should be arrested. Letting people die on the street is a far worse approach, he said. However, a similar city program to house the homeless saw 166 residents die from overdoses and many residents ended up back on the street, a Chronicle investigation found.

Woodliff hopes that in the future, the city never gives companies concessions like tax breaks to attract them.

I dont think governments job in any capacity is to placate businesses, he said. Governments job is to monitor businesses.

Im fine with making money and doing well, he said, but you shouldnt make the world hell by rigging the system.

Woodliff said the Salesforce video was the first time hes done a reaction video to a news story. The response was so strong that he plans to continue.

His second reaction video, posted last week, referenced a KGO story about new District Attorney Brooke Jenkins plans.

I didnt read this article, but let me guess whats going to happen... he said.

Roland Li is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: roland.li@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rolandlisf
Manik Suri is a Harvard grad from Delhi who worked both on Wall Street and in the Obama White House. But its in a palm-sized, radio-controlled device that can control temperatures in industrial cooling systems that he sees his future.

Suri, CEO and co-founder of Therma, is an energy efficiency enthusiast who is betting his San Francisco startup has cracked a way for large hotels, restaurants, hospitals and schools to save millions on refrigeration costs, and help reduce load on their local utility grids at the same time.

We think of refrigeration as a battery. Energy in the form of cold storage, Suri told me recently on the roof deck of his classic San Francisco startups office, sitting atop a sushi house in the Mission. It turns out you can tap that battery. If we can lower or turn off refrigeration for a short period of time, we can save energy.

More than 16% of the estimated 50 billion tons of greenhouse gases emitted by global economies comes from electricity used in buildings, including industrial ones. Cooling systems are a prime culprit. By reducing temperatures and saving electricity at scale, energy efficiency can greatly reduce emissions.

Therma is one of several companies approaching the cooling issue, albeit from a unique angle. Spun off from a previous startup in 2018, the company has raised about $15 million to date and is planning a $20 million Series A round later this summer. Suri and his partner, Aaron Cohen, employ about 60 people, mostly remote, but with concentrations in San Francisco and Suba, a tech hub in the Philippines.

Smart refrigerators have been around a long time, but mostly they are scheduling devices that allow users to coordinate dinner menus, look up recipes and alert users to expiration dates of things like eggs and milk. They work at close range using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

But at long range, those frequencies cant operate well through refrigerator walls and doors. Therma cracked this issue using long-range radio waves to transmit from its monitors to a router directly to phone apps. The technology makes it possible for large industrial customers like restaurants or supermarkets to monitor temperatures from afar and be ready to act in case of brownouts or equipment failure.

That was one of our early advantages, that we could get the signal out of refrigerators and freezers, he said.

The Series A is in part to help Therma introduce a new product next year, one that actually lets users control temperatures of their cooling systems from afar, saving energy at crucial times, such as midsummer. Imagine a schools refrigeration system, operating at the same temperature all year long. By turning temperatures down just 5% or so during the summer, when its not occupied, real electricity savings develop. Not to mention cost savings for the school.

Its archaic, said Ardith Alexander, marketing director at Therma, describing the current state of cooling. Everyone wants to work on EVs, but the real problem is the massive food waste and emissions that all these old assets are driving.

Therma has signed up more than 1,000 customers, mostly to small contracts, Suri said. They include McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Marriott, Hilton and even Vail Resorts, according to the companys website. Also, a dozen or so universities, including Cornell and University of Southern California, and a few hospitals.

Revenue is in the single millions, Suri said. Half is from customers paying for the Therma monitors and half is from utilities, in the form of capacity payments. Those are payments made to customers whose usage comes in under what is determined by utilities to be the peak amount of energy needed for each customer.

By dynamically controlling cooling temperatures at such large operations, Suri imagines a system where companies can work with struggling electric grids to control usage, and costs, during down hours.

Energy prices are constantly varying, utilization is constantly varying, Suri said. Were trying to shift load to when its cheaper and cleaner. So much electrification is happening that the utilities dont have the infrastructure to keep up with it.

When utilities see demand exceeding supply, they are required to activate secondary plants called peaker plants, which operate mostly on dirty oil and coal energy. So, reducing this need keeps the lights on and prevents usage of more dirty energy.

For Suri, who studied political economy at Harvard and tried his hand on Wall Street at D.E. Shaw Group, and then at the National Economic Council at the White House in 2011, the idea of becoming an entrepreneur and working on climate change issues sprang from a relationship with co-founder Cohen, a serial entrepreneur in digital ad technology.

The two met at The Governance Lab at New York University, which was dedicated to bringing technology to government, but Suri noticed that smart people would come and work there for a few years and then go on to the private sector. The two went into business in 2015 with an early company, Collaborative Inspect, which invented the Therma device as an early product. They spun it into a new company four years ago.

Suri says Therma sees the same issues all startups have this summer:difficulties getting employees to come into the office, concern about raising money due to tough financial markets. But looking out from the roof deck toward San Franciscos Twin Peaks neighborhood, he gets excited about what things might look like when COVID is over, and people are back in the office and using the deck.

Its a long way from the White House, but every entrepreneur in Silicon Valley knows the feeling.
San Francisco has a love-hate relationship with Whole Foods.

The grocery store chain has been on an expansion spree in The City, opening two new locations in the last year alone and getting ever more San Franciscans hooked on kombucha and artisanal soaps. But Whole Foods growth has also fueled criticism about its labor practices and the activities of its parent company, Amazon.

So when it came time to approve The Citys tenth Whole Foods, hate trumped love.

In November, 2020, the Board of Supervisors unanimously voted in favor of an appeal of a Whole Foods at the City Center mall near the corner of Geary and Masonic, overruling the Planning Departments determination that the store would not cause significant environmental impacts. The vote requires Whole Foods to undertake a full environmental impact report, which is just now getting underway.

The net result is that the Whole Foods store, which signed its lease and filed its planning applications in early 2019, likely wont be open for business until six years later, in mid-2025. The former Best Buy storefront that Whole Foods intends to take over, which has been vacant since 2017, will remain vacant in the interim.

While the appeal that caused the delay is ostensibly on environmental grounds under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), no environmental activists or organizations were involved. Neither were neighbors, who were nearly unanimous in their support for the project. Instead, the appeal, and virtually all of the opposition to the project, came from organized labor.

"We were not opposed just because Amazon Whole Foods is a non-union grocer. We were opposed, because they wanted to bypass a public vetting process that everyone else has to go through, said Jim Araby, a spokesperson for United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 5, which filed the appeal. Amazon has structured Whole Foods to be another node in their delivery center. So we think it's disingenuous to say that this is just another grocery store, given that there'll be a lot more trips coming in and out of that area that's already highly impacted by traffic.

But for Chris Carr, an environmental attorney for the firm Paul Hastings in San Francisco, the Whole Foods saga represents an all too familiar scenario. For most people in California, the connection between a labor dispute and environmental impacts isn't readily apparent, he said. You have here a situation where CEQA is being weaponized to try to deal with a dispute and concerns that are really unrelated to environmental impacts.

In its appeal, UFCW Local 5 argued that the cars and trucks visiting the Whole Foods store each day constitute a significant environmental impact that needs to be studied and mitigated in a full environmental impact report under CEQA. The 23 trucks and five-to-ten thousand cars estimated to visit the store each day could have a significant adverse impact on air quality, they argued.

The Planning Department disagreed. In their analysis, the department found that the car and truck emissions generated by the project would not rise to levels considered significant by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. Planning also found that the impacts on transit, traffic and emergency vehicles wouldnt be significant according to the standard metrics The City uses.

As such, Planning determined that the project qualifies for a common sense exemption to CEQA, meaning it would not require an environmental review.

For members of the public in opposition to the project at the November 17, 2020 appeal hearing, these environmental questions were not the main subject of interest. All but two public commenters who spoke out against the project were affiliated with organized labor groups, and most of their criticisms were related to labor practices at Whole Foods, which is one of few non-unionized grocery store chains in San Francisco.

Amazon is not a fit for San Francisco, a progressive town, a union town, Tony Vargas, one of the appellants and a member of UFCW Local 5, said at the hearing. A company that does not stand by its employees in regard to COVID-19 health and safety precautions, who doesnt provide livable wages or good healthcare should not be allowed to do business in our town.

The callers in favor of the Whole Foods, who outnumbered opponents three to one, werent particularly interested in the projects environmental impacts either. They talked about how the store would ease crowding and congestion around the nearby Trader Joes on Masonic and the closest Whole Foods on Franklin; the benefits of 200 new jobs coming to the community, including 60 through a local hire program; and the convenience of having a new grocery store in walking distance of the Kaiser hospital complex. (Whole Foods did not respond to a request for comment.)

But, in a preview of their delay of the apartment tower on Stevenson Street the following year, the Supervisors were unconvinced by the Planning Departments work. The rub, it turned out, was the common sense exemption from CEQA. Reading from prepared remarks, Supervisor Catherine Stefani, whose district at the time encompassed the site, said, Under CEQA law, a common sense exemption can only be used when it can be seen with certainty, and were talking certainty, that a project will not have an impact. We are bound by CEQA law. The rest of the Board followed her in upholding the appeal and requiring the project to do a full environmental impact report.

From a strictly legal perspective, Stefani and the rest of the Board were probably right.

If you just think of it based on the plain language it would make sense to allow this grocery store supported by the community. Unfortunately, how CEQA thinks about the common sense exemption is not in the communal plain language way, said Erin Poppler, an environmental attorney with the firm Edlin Gallagher Huie and Blum in San Francisco. It comes back to having to show that there's no possibility that this grocery is going to have a significant effect on the environment.

Poppler and Carr both highlighted the importance of CEQA for protecting the environment, but said that circumstances like this demonstrate that the law needs reform. So far, those reforms have proven elusive, with the state legislature only willing to approve narrow exemptions to the law in response to situations like the environmental lawsuit that nearly caused UC Berkeley to rescind the applications of thousands of admitted students.

Besides environmental groups, many powerful interest groups in Sacramento have come to rely on CEQA to gain leverage on development projects, including labor groups, neighborhood associations, and rival companies hoping to stave off competition, Carr said.

The Whole Foods saga could represent a new CEQA side-effect, exacerbating the plight of cities plagued by retail vacancies, according to Carr. This type of situation presents a real challenge for urban areas that have suffered through a bad economy, he said, if this is the paradigm for any proposed development where you're trying to bring the neighborhood back to life or provide what could be viewed as essential services.
One hundred and forty New York Army National Guard Soldiers assigned to the Syracuse-based 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team deployed Friday on a mission that will take them to Germany to help train Ukrainian military personnel.

According to a news release, the soldiers will replace 160 Florida Army National Guard Soldiers from the 53rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team's Task Force Gator, who are deployed in support of the Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine mission.

Those troops had been training Ukrainian personnel at the Combat Training Center-Yavoriv near Lviv in western Ukraine since November 2021.

They were ordered to leave Ukraine for Germany in February 2022 prior to Russia's invasion. The Florida team is now leading the training of Ukrainian troops in Germany and other locations.

The farewell ceremony took place at the Thompson Road Armory on Hancock Field Air National Guard Base north of Syracuse.

The New York team will train at Fort Bliss, Texas, before deploying to Germany. They are expected to replace the Florida team to support the Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine mission in September.

In 2017, the New York National Guard sent 220 Soldiers to Ukraine for a 10-month rotation training Ukrainian Soldiers at the Combat Training Center-Yavoriv.

The team was headed by the 2nd Squadron, 101st Cavalry, which is headquartered at Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station, but included soldiers from across New York.

They replaced a team from the Oklahoma Army National Guard's 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team in November 2017. The New York Army National Guard team was replaced by Soldiers from the Tennessee Army National Guard's 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment in August 2018.

The Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine has been and continues provides training and advisement to Ukrainian military forces since 2015.

Army National Guard brigade combat teams provide the main support to the Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine mission in nine-month rotations as part of the army's rotational model.

Other nations that have supported the JMTG-U mission while it was at Combat Training Center-Yavoriv include Canada, Lithuania, Denmark, Poland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
A Northern California man remains missing days after his camping companion, a 14-year-old whose father was the mans close friend, was found dead by an embankment in Plumas National Forest.

Christopher Stephenson, a 57-year-old man, remains missing after he was first reported missing during a camping trip near the Bald Rock Trailhead in Plumas National Forest. Stephenson was accompanied by his friend and the friends 14-year-old son.

On Wednesday, the Butte County Sheriffs Office said in a press release, the father reported Stephenson and his 14-year-old as missing after the two were separated from him during the trip. After the call, sheriffs deputies, a search and rescue team and an office helicopter went to Berry Creek to conduct the search. Later that evening, the 14-year-olds body was found near the bottom of a steep rock embankment.

KOVR reports that officials do not suspect foul play.

The area has been recently ravaged by three wildfires: the North Complex Fire in 2020 and the Beckwourth Complex and Dixie Fires in 2021. Both created riskier-than-usual conditions in tandem with possible rainfall due to increased potential for flash flooding, soil erosion, debris flows, falling trees, and rockfalls, the Forest Service says. Roads and trails on the forest, primarily in the the Feather River Ranger District, are still closed off for the public.

A resident in the area told Sacramentos KOVR about the challenges of hiking the area.

Absolutely, 100% it would be difficult, Rob Shipley told the station. Almost insane.

Officials are continuing to search for Stephenson  and the investigation surrounding the teens death is active and ongoing. Anyone with relevant information about Stephensons whereabouts is urged to contact the Butte County Sheriffs Office at (530) 538-7322.
Google Maps

A San Francisco firefighter fell down an elevator shaft while battling flames at a waterfront mansion in the city's exclusive Sea Cliff neighborhood early Friday, officials said.

The firefighter was rescued after the fall and was taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, the San Francisco Fire Department said.
This article, Amazon Drone Deliveries Coming to Texas City as Prime Air Expands, originally appeared on CNET.com.

Amazon said Friday it'll begin delivering packages to residents of College Station, Texas, later this year, the second location in the United States for its Prime Air delivery service and the latest in an expansion of the technology that emerged this week.

College Station, about 80 miles northwest of Houston, is home to Texas A&M University, which has a drone research program that's already several years old. The e-commerce giant in June also announced plans to begin drone deliveries in Lockeford, California, near Sacramento.

Amazon helped kick off the drone delivery idea with the 2013 announcement of Prime Air. But abundant challenges slowed the technology's arrival: safety, regulatory approval, autonomous navigation, bad weather, cost, and finding a good way to hand off packages.

Now drone delivery is picking up, promising one-hour delivery times for thousands of items in Amazon's warehouses and other options from drone delivery rivals. This week, Zipline announced medical package delivery plans near Tacoma, Washington, and Alphabet's Wing debuted new drone designs for larger and smaller packages. With partner DroneUp, Walmart expects to deliver packages via drone in Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Texas, Utah and Virginia for a $4 delivery fee. UPS, Flytrex, Manna and others also are delivering packages around the world.

After testing many models, Amazon settled on drones that use a hexagonal design and take off vertically. They tilt in flight so some struts of the hexagonal frame become wings that generate lift and improve range. They fly 400 feet above the ground at speeds up to 50 mph carrying packages up to 5 pounds.

Amazon's drones have a 15km range -- about 9 miles.

The US Federal Aviation Administration has certified Amazon's operations, but Amazon is working with FAA and local authorities overseeing its Lockeford and College Station projects, Amazon spokesperson Av Raichura Zammit said.

Delivery drones can raise hackles among people concerned about safety, privacy and noise.

To address those kinds of concerns, Amazon has been talking to local residents and plans events to get community feedback and show them what's planned, Zammit said.
The message on WhatsApp got straight to the point.

I want to bring a sister from Brazil and her daughter, the sender wrote in Portuguese, according to federal court documents.

For her and her daughter to come alone, when I say alone I do not mean they will come alone, its $15,000 for the trip, Fagner Chaves De Lima typed in response, according to federal court filings.

De Lima told the person on the other end of the message chain that if the sister and daughter were smuggled into the United States with one of his passengers posing as a stepfather, the price would be $10,000, the documents show.

If they couldnt pay that amount right away, he suggested they put up property as collateral, according to the documents.

He boasted of his experience smuggling people, saying hed been doing it for 20 years, according to the messages contained in the documents.

The only thing I care about is the passenger and the money. You understand? he wrote, according to the documents.

On June 29, federal authorities arrested De Lima, 41, of East Hartford, charging him with one count of attempted human smuggling.

The person on the other end of the WhatsApp message chain had been an undercover agent, posing as someone hoping to smuggle his family into the U.S., according to the federal filings and the Department of Justice.

De Lima now faces up to 10 years in federal prison if convicted, according to the U.S. attorneys office for the district of Massachusetts, which announced his arrest last month.

In mid-June, De Lima traveled to Worcester, Mass., where he received two checks for $15,000 to move the supposed family members, the U.S. Attorneys Office said.

During the meeting at a Dunkin Donuts that was captured on audio and video, the undercover agent handed over the checks, which were made out to a company where De Lima was an officer, the court filings stated.

De Lima also asked the undercover agent for a copy of the sisters Brazilian passport and Social Security number, according to the charging documents filed in federal court.

The undercover officer promised to get those in order, and they agreed that the plan was for the sister to be smuggled at the end of June, an affidavit attached to the criminal complaint stated.

Federal authorities further alleged that after De Limas clients made their way to the U.S., he would extort them for even more money.

For a steep price, Mr. De Lima allegedly made arrangements for victims to travel from Brazil to the United States, and then extorted the vulnerable victims and their families for more money, even threatening harm, Rachael S. Rollins, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, said in a statement.

Joseph R. Bonavolonta, the special agent in charge of the FBIs Boston office, called the allegations against De Lima disgraceful.

In attempting to smuggle human beings into the United States for his own financial profit and then allegedly extorting them for more money, under the fear of harm, he has demonstrated a deliberate disregard for the safety of their lives, and our countrys laws that are in place to ensure the publics safety, he said.

Prosecutors have moved for De Lima to remain in custody. A hearing to discuss his detention has been scheduled for July 21, the U.S. attorneys office said.

If you believe that you or someone you know may be a victim of human smuggling/trafficking, contact the National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline at 888-373-7888, or Text 233733.
A total of 450 teenagers and adults drove to Manistee Sunday from 13 states, and as far away as Alabama. These teen church youth groups came with the sole goal of helping repair homes of elderly and low income residents of Manistee County over the course of the next week. Volunteers from Manistee were present along with Group Workcamp workers with an anonymous donation by a Manistee resident who helped the local volunteers purchase food for campers to eat once they registered.

40 YEARS AGO

Helminski to chair parade

Joseph Helminski will chair the Labor Day Parade being held as a part of holiday activities planned by the Manistee County Federation of Labor. Helminski chaired the recent Manistee National Forest Festival Parade. The parade will start at 10:30 on Sept. 6.

Fair planning

More classes to enter, Dial-A-Ride shuttle service and increased 4-H auction offerings are on hand for this years fast approaching Manistee County Fair set for Sept. 1-6 at the Onekama fairgrounds. Planning for the event has been underway since last year with preparations made for entering, judging and making the fair an enjoyable experience.

80 YEARS AGO

Rotary conference

Manistee was accorded a high honor yesterday afternoon at the annual assembly of the 151st District of Rotary International when the city was unanimously chosen as the scene for the 1943 annual conference of the district. Between 600 and 700 persons attended the district conference this year downstate and a similar crowd is expected next year.

Leaves to join armed forces

The Rev. Father Gabriel Waraksa, first assistant pastor at St. Josephs Church here, will leave tonight for Milwaukee to visit his parents and other relatives before entering the U.S. Army as a chaplain. He will return here to say the 11:30 a.m. mass at St. Josephs Church Sunday, and then will leave Monday for Camp Edwards, Massachusetts. He will be commissioned as lieutenant in the Army.
A new three-digit suicide-prevention hotline will launch on Saturday for people seeking mental health services.

Starting July 16, people can call 988 to access counselors and response teams at the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

Calls will be redirected to the current number, 1-800-273-8255, which will stay operational during and after the 988 expansion.

While some areas may be currently able to connect to the lifeline by dialing 988, this dialing code will be available to everyone across the United States starting on Saturday.

When people call, text, or chat 988, they will be connected to trained counselors that are part of the existing National Suicide Prevention Lifeline network. These trained counselors will listen, understand how their problems are affecting them, provide support, and connect them to resources if necessary.

The new number is intended to make it easier for those in a crisis to reach out to someone who can help, and the federal agency in charge of the hotline expects the number of callers to double from what it was in 2020.

The lifelines network of over 200 crisis centers has been in operation since 2005.

988 is not yet active across all communications access points in the United States. If you or anyone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, there is help. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 .

CNN contributed to this report.


ALBANY  U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, the Republican nominee for governor, is unlikely to run on the Independence Party line after the state Board of Elections invalidated nearly 13,000 signatures that were included in his petitions.

Zeldin's campaign operation had submitted about 52,000 signatures, well above the 45,000 needed to get his name on the third party line, but the disqualified signatures left him well short following the board's ruling. The filing period ended May 31.

Zeldin's petitions were challenged by officials with the New York Libertarian Party, who not only contested the signatures were invalid but also noted that about 11,000 of them were photocopied duplicates.

"Republicans talk a lot about election integrity, but the Zeldin campaign attempted to fly under the radar and submit over 11,000 fraudulent signatures in an attempt to get a third line on the ballot," Andrew Kolstee, secretary of the Libertarian Party, said in a news release Thursday.

Kolstee, who was the objector to the signatures, claimed that the Libertarian Party officials and the campaign of Diane Sare for U.S. Senate found 900 sheets with 11,000 signatures that were photocopies of the original sheets filed by the campaign.

A spokesman for Zeldin's campaign said that if there was an error it was due to the workload handled by volunteers.

"All five statewide candidates, scores of legislative and local candidates and a massive amount of each campaigns' volunteers collected tens of thousands of signatures from throughout New York," said Katie Vincentz, a spokeswoman for the Zeldin's campaign. "Being nearly an entirely grassroots effort, we haven't reviewed all of the petitions nor the specific objections associated with them. In the final few days leading up to the filing deadline, tens of thousands of signatures from all over the state had to be immediately turned into the Board of Elections. While the Zeldin for New York campaign is not aware of photocopies, we certainly didn't make any photo copies."

The Board of Elections does not make determinations on fraud related to petition signatures. The issue is pending in court. A spokeswoman for the board said it does not comment on pending litigation.

A judge could potentially overrule the board's decision, which would leave Zeldin with an outside shot of still appearing on the Independence Party line.

The board ruled Tuesday that 12,868 signatures were invalid, leaving Zeldin with 39,228.

Prior to changes pushed by then-Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in 2019 that made it more difficult to get onto a statewide ballot for a third party, it was 5,000 signatures needed every four years.

Zeldin's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Zeldin's campaign website, it requests people join "Team Zeldin's Election Integrity Task Force."

"Our team will be working around the clock now and into November to ensure we have fair elections, but we can't do it alone," the campaign's website states.

In December 2020, Zeldin tweeted that "ballot integrity always matters regardless of the circumstances and regardless of whether the issue impacts one vote or thousands." He recommended a series of changes, including "signature verification with campaigns able to participate." His comments came as then-President Donald J. Trump was contesting the results of the election. Zeldin subsequently voted against certifying the results of the presidential election.

Following a recent decision out of a lower court in New York on whether to allow non-citizens the ability to vote in New York City elections, Zeldin issued a statement through his campaign stating that "one person, one vote belongs to U.S. citizens, and no one else!"

"I'm honored to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the leaders across our state who stood up for election integrity and the rule of law to put an end to it," Zeldin said last month.

Zeldin is set to face Gov. Kathy Hochul, the Democratic nominee, in the general election on Nov. 8. Zeldin is to appear on the lines of the Republican and Conservative parties while Hochul is set to appear on the Democratic and Working Families Party lines.

"Zeldin submitting 11,000 fake signatures just emphasizes his hypocrisy and proves he is willing to sell New Yorkers another 'big lie' to benefit his failing campaign," state Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs said in a statement. He noted to Zeldin's backing of Trump's election fraud concerns in the 2020 presidential election.

Other candidates who were also invalidated that sought to run on the Independence Party line by the board was Zeldin's running mate, Republican nominee for lieutenant governor Alison Esposito, as well as the Republican candidates for comptroller, Paul Rodriguez, attorney general, Michael Henry, and U.S. Senate, Joe Pinon.
Earlier this week, NASA revealed the first images from its new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The result? The deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe so far. Other images from the world's largest and most powerful space telescope captured groundbreaking observations that will enable investigations of the universe to advance rapidly, including projects taking place in the Bay Area.

For the JWSTs first year of operation, the program offered 6,000 precious observing hours. More than a thousand proposals from 44 countries requested a total of 24,500 hours, but only 286 proposals were approved, including seven Bay Area scientists'.

One of these Bay Area scientists is Richard Cartwright, a research scientist at the Carl Sagan Center for Research at the SETI Institute in Mountain View. Cartwright and his team are trying to understand the processes that are modifying the moons of Uranus. Their research project seeks to gain an understanding of the evolution of these celestial objects and determine whether or not they are ocean worlds by looking at their surface composition.

Specifically, the main thing they hope to determine is whether CO2 ice and ammonia are present on the moon surfaces.

If we see the signature of ammonia on their surfaces, it may have originated in their interior, Cartwright explained to SFGATE. And so that goes to the story that these moons could be ocean worlds [and] they might have liquid water in their interiors.

The JWST provides the opportunity to make these discoveries without the challenges that Earths atmosphere poses.

By getting above Earths atmosphere, we can get above gases in the atmosphere that absorb really strongly at certain wavelengths, Cartwright said. Those wavelengths can be really important for getting at stuff thats on the surface of icy satellites at Uranus.  We cant do these measurements from the ground. During that wavelength range, its totally blocked by Earths atmosphere."

NASA

An hour north of the SETI Institute, Andrew Mayo and his research group at UC Berkeley were also granted use of the JWST. Mayo, who will be starting the final year of his Ph.D. program at the UC Berkeley astronomy department, is primarily concerned with an exoplanet by the name of WASP-166b. He and his team's project will investigate the atmosphere of the structure to reveal more about how planets form and evolve.

Im hoping to learn how this planet formed and where specifically in the solar system, Mayo said. This planet in particular is a very unusual type of planet. Its located in something called the hot Neptune desert. Essentially, there are plenty of hot, Jupiter-sized planets very close to their stars and there are plenty of Earth-sized planets very close to their stars. But there arent a lot of Neptune-sized planets like that.

Using the JWST will be instrumental in making observations of planets such a size. Having his proposal approved for observation time excites Mayo because he understands how impactful such an instrument is in his research.

The JWST is absolutely far and away the best instrument to do this kind of observation, Mayo said. To date, only about half a dozen Neptune-sized planets have very basic observations of their atmospheres. But with James Webb, a whole new realm of atmospheric characterization is now open. We can start looking at planets that are a lot smaller: Neptune-sized planets, and potentially even Earth-sized planets.  We can start to understand what exactly Neptune-sized planets outside of our solar system look like.

Space Telescope Science Institut/NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, and The E

Beyond just assisting their research, the capabilities of the JWST are thrilling for scientists like Cartwright and Mayo.

I cannot express how much excitement Ive felt in the community about the first images, Mayo said. Peoples breath has been taken away by some of these images. And the coolest part about these new images is that this is just the first taste of what the JWST is going to be able to do for us.

The introduction of the $10 billion instrument is sure to revolutionize astronomy research.

The beautiful diversity and incredible detail of the Webb telescopes images and data will have a profound impact on our understanding of the universe and inspire us to dream big, said Greg Robinson, director for the James Webb Space Telescope program, in a press release.
BRIGHTON  Diane Brandt saw a lot of complaints about a year and a half ago on the Brighton Neighbors Facebook group about cats overrunning yards, streets and subdivisions. A Macoupin County board member even proposed a daily limit for shooting stray cats.

Having seen a female feline in heat repeatedly attacked by five male cats on her block, and a female in a "winter home" being terrorized by males, Brandt said she could no longer take it. She and her friend, Cristy Marshall, both of Brighton, formed the Brighton Spay and Neuter Alliance.

"When the momma came out she was being attacked by males, so we got the babies, then was able to trap the momma and took them to a rescue," Brandt recalled about the "winter home" situation.

"When we were doing the feral cats, one of the babies was only four months old and pregnant," she said. "That's very common around here.

"Different cities will grab cats and bring them out here and dump them. We see that a lot, and definitely on Miles Station Road," she said. "My motivation is, I want to protect the cats and the kittens."

The alliance humanely traps and takes feral cats for spay/neuter surgery, as well as individuals' personal pet cats. The group also relocates cats, if possible, as needed, finds rescues for them, or returns them to their original location but no longer able to reproduce. The mobile spay and neutering effort is supported through donations and Brandt's own money.

Brandt had been doing strictly trap neuter release (TNR) work until the alliance was formed.

"That's all I did," she said. "We made the spay/neuter group and then we started taking donations around Brighton, and a few in Godfrey because they know my group. Cristy recently went back to work; she helped me get it up and going."

Brandt now partners with Maggie Wisnasky of Brighton who helps with trapping, spay/neuter appointments, and pre- and post-surgery care and placement. Wisnasky got involved because she had a family member who needed their cat fixed. The two work in conjunction with Carol House Furniture's Carol House Quick Fix Pet Clinic and are planning two days of appointments, July 28-29, at the Carol House clinic for five cats each day.

"That's a total of 10 cats that will get done those two days," Brandt said. "So the 27th we are going to be trapping, and we already know the areas and what cats we're going to try to get those days because of people who call. We go to more severe places first, or elderly residences first."

The family-owned Carol House Furniture store is at 2332 Millpark Drive in Maryland Heights, Missouri. The Carol House Quick Fix Pet Clinic, which provides low-cost spaying and neutering, along with other services, is at 1218 S. Jefferson in St. Louis.

Carol House Quick Fix Pet Clinic's mission is to reduce pet overpopulation by providing effective, accessible and affordable pet services. Brandt's mission is pretty much the same.

Once cats are spayed/neutered, they undergo 24 hours of care, observation and recovery by the Brighton Spay and Neuter Alliance. Then feral cats are returned by the alliance to the colony from which they came, or homes or no-kill rescues. The alliance works closely with Partners 4 Pets based in Troy and the Metro East Humane Society.

"As we've gone on with us doing this, we came across so many kittens and cats, and the rescues are being bombarded," Brandt said. "So what we do now is networking with a bunch of different rescues. Kittens and cats that people call us on, we get them into rescues."

In one year the alliance has placed about 25 felines into rescues.

"We call non-feral cats 'friendlys,'" Brandt said.

She said the cat overpopulation problem in Brighton has been somewhat alleviated, noting support from Brighton Mayor Matt Kasten, Brighton Police and the community.

"Our mayor stands behind everything we do," she said. "In fact, I rent the old dog kennels from the village for $12 per year.

"When you have a town this size, it's a work in progress," she said. "We always get dumped cats, and this year we're getting a lot of calls on dumped cats. I myself have rescue cats I've taken in.

"We have been accused of dumping cats because we bring them back, but those people just want them all gone," Brandt said. "They say we are bringing them back and dumping, and that's not what we're about at all. Our No. 1 goal is protecting and finding homes for these cats."

Brandt keeps the trapped feral felines in kennels at Brighton's old dog kennel behind Betsey Ann Park. She also will pick up people's personal cats and take them to appointments at the Carol House clinic where the cost of services is income-based.

"Maggie and I will give a them food and water, and they have to have a quiet place for 24 hours," she said. "Then the cats are checked the next day. If they are eating, going to the bathroom, drinking, then we release the ferals back out to the colonies where they cannot reproduce. We only release them to the colony that they came from.

"People say, 'Why can't you release them somewhere else?'" Brandt said. "Because, that cat will find that original colony."

She noted one case in which the alliance re-homed five cats to a Palmyra horse farm.

"It had been a hoarding situation," she said. "After I took them to Carol House, I re-homed them to a horse farm. For a good few weeks, those cats have to get accustomed to their new location and their new caretaker. There's very few people who can do that. It takes patience.

"When rescues go out to do TNR, a big thing they say is they do not relocate," Brandt said. "They just let them go somewhere and that puts those cats in a dangerous situation of getting hurt and getting killed off. We do the best we can and find the best place we can to relocate them. One of those five cats, right off the bat, immediately bonded with one of the horses, but it took a lot of patience and the caregiver wanting to take care of them and watch after them."

The alliance has caretakers who keep an eye on heavily cat-populated areas and former trapping areas. Brandt said she has one location where she has to park down the street because the cats recognize her van.

"A caretaker touches base with me, and I ask them what they're seeing now," Brandt said. "They will let me know; we have quite a few."

Not all rescues are feral, such as a female Siamese this past winter whose owner had moved.

"She left the pregnant cat outside in wintertime, and people contacted me," Brandt said, adding Partners 4 Pets took three of the cat's four kittens, and it, too, was adopted. "She was only a year old. She became pregnant at four months."

The alliance work takes courage and confidence.

"Some of the feral cats we get are definitely not friendly cats," Wisnasky said.

"They are wild," Brandt said. "Some we don't hardly dare. They're wild and they will rip your hands apart. But once trapped and in kennels where it's quiet, and we keep them covered, they realize we're not there to hurt them."

The pair feed kenneled cats up to the night before their appointments, taking food and water away at 10 p.m. so the animals are ready for surgery. The kennels are lined with newspaper. Kenneled cats are driven to appointments in a van that Brandt's boyfriend bought her for the alliance.

"We have little bowls we stick in the kennels once they are in there and calmed down," Brandt said. "You have to figure they just got trapped; they're stressed, upset."

Some cats also have fleas or ear mites. Brandt pays the Carol House clinic fee for spay/neuter is $20 per feral cat. Flea medication is an extra $5; ear mite vaccinations are another $20.

"If they're really bad, you have to use flea medication that covers fleas, ticks and ear mites; it's a combo," she said. "They also get a $20 rabies shot, which is required in the state of Illinois.

"It takes a lot of patience and, to be honest, if I didn't have Maggie to help me, I don't know what I'd do," Brandt said. "I do a lot of running, a lot of catching, in all kinds of weather."

"We've we done it in the snow and the rain," Wisnasky said.

Since the alliance began, only two cats have had to be euthanized. One arrived at its appointment very sick, and one had an abscess ulcer on its tongue on which it kept choking.

"We are eliminating problems, but we also are taking care of them and that is on us," Brandt said.

The alliance also has handled two cat hoarding situations.

"We get all the cats out," Brandt said. "There is another colony, all outside, and there are a lot, all feral.

"We got a majority of them; it's a work in progress, but don't let it drop," she said. "You have to give that area a rest; these cats are smart."

The alliance is creating a community dubbed "Feral City" at Brighton Auto which will be a food station and networking system about homes and information.

"We are now looking for more people," she said. "Maggie works full time. We are looking for volunteers who will go through a training and must have the passion and patience like we do.

"The passion has got to be there," she said. "The more volunteers we have, the more we can get done. The more donations we get, the more we can accomplish and go to the outer communities."

The alliance's goal is to go beyond Brighton to Bunker Hill and Jerseyville. Both towns are "bombarded" with cat overpopulation, Brandt said. Another subdivision they focused on last year was Piasa Lake, she said.

To donate mail a check to Brighton Spay and Neuter Alliance, P.O. Box 76, Brighton, 62012 or visit https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=ZZ49UGVFHV5XY.

Message the Facebook Brighton Spay and Neuter Alliance TNR Group (set to private but able to receive messages, and the group will get back to you) to contact Brandt, Wisnasky or Marshall. For details about the Carol House Quick Fix Pet Clinic, visit www.stlspayneuter.org.
WOOD RIVER  In the two weeks since US Steel announced its plans to cease operations in Granite City, Madison County officials are looking at how the closure will impact its workforce and communities.

We may not know everything that is happening just yet, Chairman Kurt Prenzler said. But what we do know is this closure will be a loss for Madison County. The impact this will have on the workforce, their families and local communities will be felt throughout the Metro East.

On June 28, U.S. Steel announced its plans to sell and repurpose the blast furnaces at its Granite City Works facility. The company signed a non-binding letter of intent with SunCoke Energy Inc., a raw material processing and handling company, to acquire the two blast furnaces and construct a new 2-million ton facility to produce pig iron.

It will take approximately two years to complete the new facility, which will end all steelmaking operations and at that point officials expect the majority of workers will be laid off.

The United Steelworkers Union reported as many as 1,400 workers could be laid off from the mill. US Steel would need 100 to maintain a small coating operation and SunCoke could hire around 400, leaving 900 workers without jobs.

The thought of losing a job is stressful, Prenzler said. Although there may be some workers hired by SunCoke, its not even half the workforce that is expected to be let go. We want workers to know there is help to include finding out about the current job market or preparing to change career paths.

Madison County and the state will offer services once workers are laid off, however Prenzler said employees can reach out now to Madison County Employment and Training Department to get a look at the job market and also get help with resume writing.

The Employment and Training Department offers assistance to employees during layoff transitions.

Director of Employment and Training Tony Fuhrmann said the objective of the services is to help workers transition from notification of layoff to re-employment as quickly as possible. He said the countys role when US Steel does announce layoffs will be to offer retraining of its workforce or assist in finding them other jobs.

Prenzler said there are current opportunities in the county for those seeking another job.

Alton Steel-ASI has 51 job openings and World Wide Technology needs to fill 300 positions, Prenzler said.

Alton Steels starting pay is $18 per hour, with an increase in two months to $19, and a total employee compensation packages (health, dental and overtime) that is equivalent to $47/hour.

WWT is paying $18-25/ per hour to experienced workers.

Visit Madison County Employment and Training www.co.madison.il.us/departments/employment_and_training/index.php to find out more.

Director of Madison County Mental Health Board Deborah Humphrey said although the announcement of the closure provides as much time as possible for the workforce to prepare for transition, it doesnt prepare them for the emotional ups and downs.

Coping with a job loss can negatively impact mental health, Humphrey said. Coping with unemployment is difficult and can lead to anxiety, depression, and isolation. Job loss can create financial pressures and adversities that create family stress and difficulties.

Humphrey said two mental health board funded community mental health centers  Centerstone of Illinois and Chestnut Health System  can assist with counseling as well as a number of other mental health and community providers. Visit www.centerstone.org or call 618-462-2331; or www.chestnut.org or call 618-877-4420
Dow Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jim Fitterling was kneeling down, helping young brothers Jack and Matt Brodhag navigate an escape room at the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational on Wednesday afternoon.

Specifically, it was a mobile trailer called "Creators Wanted Immersive Experience Escape Room" that encourages young people to explore careers in manufacturing by allowing them to exercise teamwork, communication and problem solving to find their way to the exit.

The fact that Fitterling, the leader of a Midland-based international materials science company that employs more than 35,000 people, was ready to literally get down to kids' level and engage them in career exploration underscores the urgency of the manufacturing labor shortage.

Fitterling and three other manufacturing leaders  National Associaton of Manufacturers President and CEO Jay Timmons; The Manufacturing Institute President Carolyn Lee; and Michigan Manufacturers Association President and CEO John Walsh  explained the drive behind Creators Wanted, a national campaign, during a brief media session in the Midland Country Club prior to a tour of the escape room.

The four shared some eye-opening projections:

 800,000 manufacturing jobs are available in any given month in the United States.

 Four million manufacturing jobs in the country will have to be filled by the end of this decade, and 2.1 million of them will go unfilled based on current trends.

 This would result in a loss of one trillion dollars to the gross domestic product of the United States.

They also posed the question of how the United States get to the point of falling so far short of filling its manufacturing workforce.

One answer was that parents and schools began steering students more toward college after high school and less toward skilled trades and manufacturing.

"We need to let them know there are alternatives to college," Walsh said. "We need to help students connect to training."

"We devalued these jobs that should be held with pride and dignity," Timmons said.

At the same time, the four speakers spelled out the benefits of working in manufacturing:

 The average manufacturing wage is $29 an hour.

 The average Michigan manufacturing employee takes home more than $82,000 in pay and benefits, according to National Association of Manufacturers.

"You can make six figures in manufacturing," Fitterling said, adding that it's an inclusive workforce. "Women working in manufacturing at Dow have been very successful. We have a military equivalency degree that we started last year at Dow. That has opened another pathway (into manufacturing)."

Facing a daunting labor shortage, manufacturing leaders are joining forces to promote the idea of becoming a "creator."

Creators Wanted is a national campaign launched by the National Association of Manufacturers and The Manufacturing Institute to grow the manufacturing workforce of today and tomorrow.

"Today, manufacturing is the future," Timmons asserted. "It was manufacturing that helped us through COVID. That set off a light bulb (and made people take a second look at manufacturing careers)."

Lee said The Manufacturing Institute has started an initiative called "35 by 30" that aims to grow the percentage share of women in manufacturing from the current 29% to 35% by 2030.

For their part, Jack and Matt Brodhag said they had fun solving challenges and taking the lead to help the accompanying adults break out of the escape room.

"We're going to do it again," Jack said.

The escape room is free and is open on Friday from noon to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Beijing (Gasgoo)- Chongqing Sokon Industry Group Stock Co., Ltd. (Sokon Group), the auto group owning the new energy vehicle brand SERES, expects a net loss in the first six months of 2022.

AITO M5; photo credit: AITO

According to the companys financial preannouncement, its total revenue in the first half of the year should sum up to RMB12 billion-RMB12.6 billion ($1.78 billion-$1.87 billion), representing a 62.5%-70.63% hike over a year ago.

At the same time, Sokon Groups net loss attributable to shareholders is forecasted to stand at RMB1.6 billion-RMB1.76 billion ($237.2 million-$260.9 million). After non-recurring deductions, the automakers net loss is estimated at RMB1.61 billion-RMB1.75 billion ($238.66 million-$259.4 million).

In comparison, in the first half of 2021, Sokon Groups net loss attributable to shareholders stood at RMB481.2 million ($71.33 million), while its net loss after non-recurring deductions amounted to RMB1.13 billion ($166.89 million).

The group attributed the widened loss to the constant investment in SERES R&D of new energy vehicles and fixed asset investments. With more SERES vehicles going on sale, the cost of marketing and human labor also surged.

With that being said, the companys semi-annual gross margin of new energy vehicles also climbed up from a year ago.
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville is doing its part to help local businesses take advantage of the opportunities offered by international trade.

Tom Dustman, international sales director for Sunnen Products Company, is coordinating and facilitating the second annual Export NOW program that will begin in late August with the first of three virtual training sessions.

Export NOW, which had its inaugural sessions in the spring of 2021, is sponsored by the Illinois SBDC International Trade Center at SIUE. The program is designed to help southern Illinois businesses grow their sales through exporting.

Sunnen Products Company, located at 7910 Manchester Road in Maplewood, Missouri, is a 98-year-old family-owned machine tool manufacturer. Its focus is on bore finishing, commonly called honing, and international trade is a major part of its business.

"The manufacturing process of honing is a secondary operation, and there has to be a work piece that has a hole in it," Dustman said. "When there is a requirement for ultra-high precision, honing is utilized.

"We like to say we perfect the hole. We make that hole very round and very straight and we impart a surface texture that allows lubrication to be attached to the walls of the hole."

Dustman is among the many international trade experts featured at Export NOW, which is a three-day series of workshops.

"We take a strategic look at the world," Dustman said. "We work with companies to create an export business plan for international trade. The plan is created with the assistance of people like me who have experience and knowledge on the topic."

The first session, on Wednesday, Aug. 24, is "International Outlook."

"For Session 1, I have recruited speakers from my network around the United States, plus a gentleman from the (United Kingdom)," Dustman said. "Well talk about how to select the country where you want to export. Its not always something like choosing Canada because its close and because they speak English.

"There may be other countries where the opportunities are much greater, but you need to have language skills or knowledge about business activities and customs. You also need to decide if youre going to sell direct, work through a distributor or find other means through a third party to represent your company."

Session 2, on Wednesday, Sept. 7, is "Export and Import 101," while the third and final session, on Wednesday, Sept. 21, is "Planning for Success."

"In each of those sessions, well talk about exporting and importing, including the dos and donts and the things you need to plan for," Dustman said. "In the last session, we will review the business plan for each of the invited companies."

Each session, which is virtual training via Zoom, runs from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., with a break from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The Export NOW series is being offered at no cost to five Illinois small businesses, with the $900 per company scholarship being fully covered by CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act funding.

As of Wednesday, spots were still available for two companies.

"This isnt something hypothetical  it will help you create a marketing strategy," Dustman said, "We have presenters from the Small Business Administration and the U.S. Commercial Service as well as people who will talk about digital payment methods that exist now as opposed to more traditional methods like a letter of credit.

"We have people who can help you create a website in another country so you can market your product or your service appropriately. Our mentors are all practitioners, like myself, who deal with exports every day."

Sunnen Products Company, meanwhile, provides an example of how a company can thrive and grow thanks to international trade.

Dustman noted that Sunnen, which employs about 500 people, has a global reach with 14 international subsidiaries, soon to be 15. It also has a sales network of about 35 independent distributors around the world.

"The normal question is, what kinds of parts are honed, and examples include internal combustion chainsaw engines, string trimmer engines and leaf blower engines," Dustman said. "They are all honed to very accurate dimensions to ensure that there is the power necessary to function, but also to minimize the pollution from exhaust.

"If you have an internal combustion engine in your car, all of the engine cylinder bores are honed so that the engine runs efficiently and provides all of the horsepower that is needed. Hydraulic cylinders on excavators and dump trucks are all products that are honed. The landing gear on aircraft are honed, such as the flight control valves, so that when the pilot flips the switch, the gears will always work."

Another example of honing is a diesel fuel injector.

"All of those fuel injectors are honed on Sunnen honing equipment and we sell that equipment to companies such as Caterpillar and Cummins," Dustman said. "Those injectors are typically honed to a bore straightness tolerance of about one micron, which is 1/175th of a human hair."

Dustman added that Sunnen has been exporting for about 85 years, with 45% of its annual revenue coming from international sales.

"Its a privilege for me to be responsible for all of the sales activity outside of the United States," Dustman said. "Im knowledgeable about normal business activities related to exporting, such as how you are going to get paid, in U.S. dollars or local currency, and how youre going to be ensured to get paid rather than sending your goods to some foreign country and hoping you get paid.

"Different countries have different standards for safety, and we have to know about those as well. U.S. compliance with export law is another area of regulation and its something you need to be constantly aware of. International trade documentation is also important, and you need to have total accuracy."

The sheer scope of international trade opportunities provides another reason for local companies to export their products and services.

"The United States represents only 5% of the worlds economy and the other 95% rests outside the United States," Dustman said. "There is a lot of activity out there that people can take advantage of if they want to export."

To apply and pre-register for Export NOW, send an email to international-trade-center@siue.edu with your company name, Illinois address, number of employees, website, and contact information for the representative of your company who would commit to attending all three sessions. Once the SBDC International Trade Center receives your email, it will be in touch to discuss eligibility, in order to be admitted as a participant in the program.

"The obvious benefit for companies in southern Illinois is to provide economic benefits for the future, including jobs for people," Dustman said. "When you look at a company like Sunnen with 500 employees and nearly half of our sales are international, if we just depended on the U.S. market, we would be half the size.

"There are good opportunities outside the United States because many countries prefer to buy from American companies. They know about the reliability of American companies, and they know that they can trust American suppliers and that the goods will arrive on time and that they will work. They feel there is no risk working with a U.S. company."
A former New York man was sentenced to five years in prison on Wednesday for sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl years ago on separate occasions, including in Greenwich.

Keenan Houston, 52, pleaded guilty to fourth-degree sexual assault, risk of injury to a minor and illegal sexual contact with a minor in May as a part of a deal with prosecutors in state Superior Court in Stamford.

In return for his guilty pleas, Houston received a 15-year prison sentence, suspended after a mandatory five years in prison. He was also placed on 20 years of probation and put on the sex offender registry for life.

Houston was first arrested in Greenwich in 2014 on charges of fourth-degree sexual assault and risk of injury when police learned he had confessed to sleeping with a then-8-year-old relative, Supervisory States Attorney Michelle Manning said.

While Houston was in jail awaiting trial, the victim and her family moved to Ohio. But when Houston was released after posting bond, he allegedly followed the family across the country, which violated the conditions of his release, and sexually assaulted the child again, Manning said.

Houston was arrested in Ohio on a charge of gross sexual imposition and later convicted, Manning said. After serving four years in prison on that charge, Houston returned to Connecticut to face charges here.

Lawyer Mark Sherman, who represented Houston, said his client has many issues, but said the plea deal and his sentencing allows Houston to accept responsibility and show contrition for his actions.

He does not want to put this family through any more pain than he has, and he wants the court to know that, Sherman said.

In addition to the sentence, Judge Gary White imposed a standing criminal protective order for the victim and her family that will last until 2062.

Houston will also be required to undergo sex offender evaluation and screening as a part of his probation.
CARLINVILLE  A Girard man is headed to prison for his role in the January theft of a Northwestern school district van.

Macoupin County State's Attorney Jordan J. Garrison said Gregory A. Bolino, 34, of Girard was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in the theft of a van in Palmyra from the Northwestern Community School District. Judge Joshua A. Meyer delivered the sentence and ordered Bolino to pay $5,800 in restitution to the school district.
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Great Wall Motor ("GWM") said earlier this week it expected to gain a net profit attributable to shareholders of 5.3 billion yuan-5.9 billion yuan ($785.802 million-$874.761 million) for the first half of 2022, rising 50.2%-67.2% compared to the corresponding period of 2021.

Excluding the impact of certain non-recurring gains and losses, GWM's semi-annual net profit belonging to shareholders were likely to reach 1.8 billion yuan-2.3 billion yuan ($266.876 million-$341.009 million), sliding 19.07%-36.66% from the previous year.

Haval Shenshou; photo credit: GWM

The automaker said the net profit should be mainly credited to the improvement of its product structure and the increase in price per car, gross profit, gross margin, as well as exchange earnings.

Additionally, the company stressed its steadfastness in the transition towards being a global intelligent technology company, and the development of automotive electrification and intellectualization, resulting in the year-on-year increase in R&D investment and stock ownership incentives for the first six months of this year.

From January to June this year, GWM sold 518,525 vehicles cumulatively, representing a 16.12% decline from the year-ago period. Nevertheless, its BEV-dedicated ORA and the off-roader brand TANK still posted a two-digit year-on-year leap in their Jan.-Jun. sales.
MANISTEE  After years of record high water levels on the Great Lakes, a recent decline in 2022 is welcome news for residents of coastal communities who have seen their property overwhelmed by erosion brought on by the rising water.

A report issued Friday by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers shows that Lake Michigan and Huron reached just over 580 feet recently  around 2 feet lower than where they were in July 2020 and down about 7 inches from July 2021.

The report states all of the Great Lakes are still above the 100-year average, but significantly lower than they were in 2021 or 2020.

Even as water levels on Lake Michigan recede, they remain about 9 inches over the long-term monthly average for July, according to data from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Each inch represents nearly 790 billion gallons of water.

Water levels typically follow a seasonal pattern, with rising levels in the spring due to melting ice, increased precipitation and runoff from snow melt, according to Mark Breederland, Michigan Sea Grant educator. Water is typically lost through evaporation in the fall and winter months

Generally, all the lakes are down from the highs of 2020 and 2021, Breederland said in a prior interview. The lakes are starting their seasonal rise from winter into spring and theyll peak in summer.

From May to June, all the lakes, with the exception of Lake Ontario, experienced a rise in water levels.

Highlights from the U.S. Army Corps lake level report  Water levels on Lake Michigan-Huron are at 580.12 feet, Lake Superior at 602.46 feet, Lake St. Clair at 575.89 feet, Lake Erie at 572.90 feet and Lake Ontario at 245.90 feet as of July 15.  Lake Superior rose 5 inches, while lakes Michigan-Huron, St. Clair and Erie rose by 2, 2, and 1 inches respectively, since June.  Lakes Superior and Michigan-Huron are 4 and 9 inches higher than their respective July averages, while Lakes St. Clair and Erie are 12 and 11 inches above their respective monthly means. Lake Ontario is currently 2 inches below its long-term monthly average for July.  Each inch represents nearly 790 billion gallons of water.  U.S. Army Corps of Engineers anticipates a 1 inch decline of water levels on Lake Michigan between July and August. See More Collapse

Lake Superior rose 5 inches, while lakes Michigan-Huron, St. Clair and Erie rose by 2, 2, and 1 inches respectively, the report stated.

Forecasted water levels for July 15 indicate that Lake Superior has continued its seasonal rise since June, while Lake Michigan and Huron remain at near the same level, according to the report. Levels on Lake Michigan and Huron are also projected to drop another inch by Aug. 15.

Lake levels are determined by the combined influence of precipitation, upstream inflows, groundwater, surface water runoff, evaporation and diversions into and out of the system, according to documents from the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy

Because of the vast water surface area, water levels of the Great Lakes, even with large variations in precipitation and runoff, remain remarkably steady, with a normal fluctuation ranging from 12 to 24 inches, states Great Lakes Trends: Into the New Millennium, a report prepared by Office of the Great Lakes, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality in May 2020.

Higher lake levels in recent years have been associated with things like flooding and coastal erosion. Since 2019, higher than average levels on the Great Lakes have contributed to millions of dollars in damages from flooding and shoreline erosion.

Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, Lake St. Clair and Lake Superior all set new record high water levels during summer 2019, while lakes Huron and Michigan were within an inch or less of their 100-year highs set in October 1986.

In Manistee County, rising water levels have encroached on lakeside properties, overwhelmed sewage systems, wreaked havoc on public infrastructure and roads, and even endangered one of the Manistee's oldest local landmarks.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has water level records from 1918 to the present, which shows that Lake Michigans levels have tended to fluctuate in three to 10-year cycles.

Exceptionally low levels were experienced in the mid-1920s, mid-1930s and early 1960s. High levels were recorded in 1929-30, 1952, 1973-74, 1985-86, 1997-98 and 2019-2022.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

NEWTOWN  Family, friends, colleagues and community members came together Friday to honor and remember Sandy Hook Fire Chief Bill Halstead, who died last week at the age of 73.

So many in this community have been enriched by his life, Pastor Robert E. Weiss said during Halsteads funeral mass service at Saint Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church that morning.

The churchs pews were filled with people mourning but also celebrating the life of the man, whose dedication to public service has left a lasting impact on the community he served for over half-a-century. Following the mass, Sandy Hook Fire and Rescue planned a vehicle procession to the cemetery.

After joining the fire department at the age of 16 in 1965, Halstead became chief of the Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company in 1978, and he held that position for the remaining 44 years of his life.

Halstead died July 8, shortly after returning home from a call, according to officials.

The cause or manner of death have not been officially released, but Weiss said during Halsteads funeral mass that the chief died of a heart attack.

Bill, from a very early age, decided what he was going to do. He was going to be involved in the lives of other people to keep them safe, to keep them healthy and to serve them, Weiss said. Theres no mystery why he died of a heart attack  he gave his heart for so many years to all of us.

Weiss extended his condolences to Halsteads wife, children, grandchildren and Sandy Hook Fire & Rescue family, and not only encouraged them to honor and carry on his legacy, but remember how blessed they are to have had Halstead in their lives.

If we use everyday, as Bill did, for the good of other people, it doesnt matter how many days we have, he said. He was a tough guy but one of the best, and he certainly brought the best out of each one of you  and as a result, brought out the best in our community.

In addition to his decades of service as Sandy Hooks fire chief, Halstead was Newtowns director of emergency management and a former town fire marshal.

His firefighting work did not go unnoticed. Halstead was inducted into the Connecticut State Firefighters Association Hall of Fame in 2011, and named Connecticuts Firefighter of the Year in 2019.

Weiss said Halsteads many achievements and recognition were well deserved and that the battered condition of his helmet, which was placed on a cloth-covered table near his casket, speaks to his dedication to public service.

He was proud to put that helmet on  and get out there to help, he said. I hope in the end, every one of us has a crown like that and that it can be said of us, as is being said of Bill, that we made a difference. Certainly, if we live the legacy that he gave us, we will.

Sandy Hook firefighter Mark DeWolfe recalled his first encounters with Halstead more than 30 years ago.

After joining Newtown Hook & Ladder in the early-1980s, DeWolfe said he hated responding to calls in Sandy Hook.

I was always fearing the loud, sharp voice of Chief Halstead. He was so tough on the fire ground, but little did I know that I had mistaken his passion for fury, he said, describing Halstead as someone who always gave it his all and simply wanted the best for his firefighters.

DeWolfe said a long-term friendship started years later after Halstead befriended his 5-year-old son, who later became a firefighter himself.

I can honestly say that during his life, Chief provided the foundation for dozens of young men and women to choose careers in the fire service, said DeWolfe, who joined Sandy Hook Fire & Rescue in 2016, and responded to calls beside his son under Halsteads direction.

Bill and I were friends for many years, and his drive and passion were unstoppable, he said. Everybody may remember him a little bit differently  but I hope that every single one of you will always remember what a wonderful man he was.
With Gasgoo Daily, we will offer daily important automotive news in China. For those we have reported, the title of the piece will include a hyperlink, which will provide detailed information.



BYD reportedly plans to proprietary develop autonomous driving-dedicated chips

BYD has a plan to develop proprietary autonomous driving-dedicated chips, according to a local media outlet. The report said this project is led by BYD Semiconductor, which has already delivered its demands to design companies. As of press time, BYD has not commented on this information yet.

Photo credit: BYD

EVE Energy sets up subsidiary in Yuxi

According to the corporate data provider Qichacha, Yuxi EVE Energy Co., Ltd. was incorporated on July 15 in Yuxi city, Yunan Province, with a business scope that covers battery manufacturing, and sales of NEV battery swapping facilities and NEV production testing equipment.

Shanghai to put first autonomous-driving-test-dedicated lane to use next week

Shanghai's first lane dedicated to autonomous car tests will be put into operation from July 18.



Tesla newly adds 32 supercharging stations on Chinese mainland in June

In June 2022, Tesla newly launched 32 supercharging stations and 120 Superchargers in 25 cities and counties on the Chinese mainland, the U.S. automaker said on July 15.

Great Wall Motor's H1 2022 net profit expected to leap 50.2%-67.2% YoY

Great Wall Motor ("GWM") said earlier this week it expected to gain a net profit attributable to shareholders of 5.3 billion yuan-5.9 billion yuan ($785.802 million-$874.761 million) for the first half of 2022, rising 50.2%-67.2% compared to the corresponding period of 2021.

JAC Group expects net loss of RMB707 million in H1 2022

JAC Group is expecting a semi-annual net loss of RMB707 million ($104.8 million) in the first half of 2022, according to the groups unaudited financial projections.

BAIC BluePark forecasts net loss for first half of 2022

BAIC BluePark New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (BAIC BluePark), the parent company of Chinese NEV maker BAIC BJEV, expects to record a net loss attributable to shareholders of 1.8 billion yuan-2.2 billion yuan ($266.876 million-$326.182 million) for the six months ended June 30, 2022, according to an announcement it released on July 14.

Huawei's auto partner Sokon Group predicts widened net loss in H1 2022

Chongqing Sokon Industry Group Stock Co., Ltd. (Sokon Group), the auto group owning the new energy vehicle brand SERES, expects a net loss in the first six months of 2022.


Just four months before Election Day, misinformation and disinformation, threats toward election workers, and a lack of voter confidence in America's democratic system are the top concerns among state election leaders.



The National Investigative Unit interviewed top election officials from 19 states during the annual summer conference of the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), held this year in Louisiana's state capital.

The interviews provide the latest evidence that falsehoods about the 2020 election are still roiling U.S. politics nearly two years after the presidential election, which Joe Biden won. Federal agencies  including those helmed by appointees of former President Donald Trump and now, President Joe Biden, have repeatedly said there was no widespread fraud that would have changed the results of the election, which they deemed "secure." In February 2021, secretaries of state from both parties told Hearst Television there was no fraud of sufficient scale and scope to have altered Biden's victory in their states. Not one secretary disagreed.



Yet, Trump and many of his supporters continue to falsely insist otherwise  to the detriment of some voters' belief in the fairness of American elections and the administration of electoral contests across the country.

Election leaders cite top concerns



Asked about their top concern during interviews for this story, several secretaries of state singled out the metastasizing effects of so many false claims.

"Misinformation and disinformation," said New Jersey's Secretary of State Tahesha Way, the new president of NASS and the first African American to hold that position.

"This cloud of disinformation," echoed Steve Simon, secretary of state in Minnesota.

"Trust," Oregon's secretary of state, Shemia Fagan, said bluntly.

Some voters are "listening to the MyPillow guy," Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer of Alaska said with exasperation, referring to company founder Mike Lindell, "more than they were listening to us  local election officials who actually know what they're doing."

"It's voter confidence," said Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, as to his top concern.

"Decline in voter confidence," New Hampshire's secretary of state, David Scanlan, agreed.

Some election leaders stated that undermining a foundation of American governance has had other consequences  including discouraging some people from volunteering to staff polling precincts.

Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams said, "we've seen a drop in poll worker recruitment."

Maine's top election official, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, said her primary concern is the "election security of our local election officials and our poll workers."

Those workers will be essential to keeping Election Day smooth. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, whose state has seen long lines in some past elections, said in an interview, "We feel pretty confident that we'll be ready for a big turnout."

Only Mac Warner, the secretary of state in West Virginia, expressed no worries going into the general election. "I don't have any concerns in West Virginia. We're doing great."

DOJ: 'Dozens' of threat investigations

Threats against election workers are the focus of a task force at the Department of Justice, created in 2021. Rob Heberle, director of the Election Crimes Branch that oversees the task force's work, briefed election leaders in Baton Rouge on the progress of "dozens of open investigations."

Heberle said four prosecutions have commenced so far, with more likely on the way.

"We are committed to ensuring that anyone who engages in violence or unlawful threats of violence against election workers is held criminally accountable," Heberle said during a presentation to a nearly full ballroom of election stakeholders.

However, those open investigations by Heberle's task force are still just a tiny fraction of the threats reported to federal authorities, which led to a public rebuke by Colorado's secretary of state, Jena Griswold, who questioned Heberle at the conclusion of his presentation Friday.

"Move faster," she told him, as several television cameras recorded her pointed comments. "We need support. And we need to see prosecutions so that those who are trying to destroy this country through destabilizing American elections are held accountable, and we disincentivize election deniers."

Lack of urgency?

When asked in separate interviews, top election leaders were split on whether law enforcement in their state is moving with sufficient urgency to investigate threats against election workers  and against leaders like themselves.

"I believe so," said Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose.

"Without a doubt," said John Merrill, the secretary of state in Alabama.

Law enforcement has been "extremely responsive," Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams said.

"I feel supported; our team does," said Connecticut Deputy Secretary of State Scott Bates.

"I think absolutely, in Florida," said that state's secretary of state, Cord Byrd.

Other top state election leaders agreed with Griswold that the pace of investigations has been lacking.

"No. No," answered Shemia Fagan, Oregon's secretary of state, when asked if law enforcement was investigating with adequate urgency.

"There is more that they could be doing," Arizona Deputy Secretary of State Allie Bones said.

"They don't have enough resources to get what they need to get done," said Paul Pate, Iowa's secretary of state. "I think they need to step it up."

"We probably have higher urgency," said Kyle Ardoin of his state, Louisiana, where he's secretary of state and the immediate past president of NASS.

"Justice is never quick," cautioned Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab.

More threats forwarded to FBI

And some threats have gone beyond local law enforcement to involve federal authorities.

Arizona's office of secretary of state has reported "over 200 threats to the FBI and our local law enforcement," Dep. Sec. Bones said.

Acting Secretary of State Leigh Chapman of Pennsylvania said her office has also submitted threat reports to the FBI.

In New Mexico, Maggie Toulouse Oliver, the secretary of state there, said the threats are recent, made since that state's primary elections.

"They are new threats (and) they're resulting from the same perpetuation of the big lie from 2020," Toulouse Oliver said.

In a statement sent to the National Investigative Unit for this story, Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Criminal Division at the Justice Department, addressed concerns about whether the election threats task force is moving with enough speed.

"Many of the most egregious and explicit threats are made anonymously," he said, "often employing overseas service providers or unregistered devices, making attribution a challenge."

"Nonetheless, due to the sustained efforts of our prosecutors and law enforcement agents, we are progressing in these investigations and we anticipate additional prosecutions," Polite said in the statement.

Threats against election workers 'need to stop'

To help counter the threats, some election leaders and law enforcement have formed a new group called the Committee for Safe and Secure Elections.

Ben Hovland of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and former Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar are part of the new effort. In a joint interview, Boockvar was asked whether election workers are in danger right now. She responded, "I wish I could say no, but I do."

"We need to have their backs just like they have ours," Boockvar said.

Hovland added, "The threats, the harassment: totally unacceptable and needs to stop."

Their concern was echoed at the NASS conference by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's top cyber leader, Jen Easterly, who, at a media availability with reporters, listed a litany of dangers to our elections across a "landscape of threats."



"Threats we see coming from nation states like Russia, China, Iran, North Korea," said Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. "So cyber security threats, obviously. I am very concerned about things like physical threats, particular physical threats to election officials, which I think is really a terrible thing and we want to make sure that they are safe."

Mark Albert is the chief national investigative correspondent for the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit, based in Washington D.C. April Chunko, Tamika Cody, and Hudson Miller contributed to this report.



If you know of election security concerns you want us to investigate, send confidential information and documents to the National Investigative Unit at investigate@hearst.com.

WATCH FULL INTERVIEWS WITH SECRETARIES OF STATE FROM ACROSS THE COUNTRY:



Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill





Alaska Lieutenant Governor Kevin Meyer





Arizona Assistant Secretary of State Allie Bones

Connecticut Deputy Secretary of State Scott Bates





Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate

Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab





Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams

Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows







Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon





New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan

New Jersey Secretary of State Tahesha Way





New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver





Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose

Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan

Pennsylvania Acting Secretary of State Leigh Chapman





West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner





WATCH THE HEARST TELEVISION NATIONAL INVESTIGATIVE UNITS ONGOING SERIES ON ELECTION SECURITY:
CHATSWORTH, Calif.Performer Randy, who worked exclusively for gay studio Sean Cody while active from 2013 to 2019, died last weekend after being admitted to a Massachusetts hospital with kidney problems, multiple news outlets have reported. He was 33.

The news was first broken by industry outlet Str8UpGayPorn.com, which called Randy "the most prolific Sean Cody star of all time" and "one of the greatest and most popular gay porn stars of the last decade."

"A family member of Randy's has confirmed with Str8Up that the beloved performer died yesterday," the site's July 10 report disclosed. "The exact cause of death is not known at this time, but Randy himself did launch a GoFundMe six days ago asking for help from his hospital bed."

On his GoFundMe page, launched July 4, Randy wrote, "Hello, I am in need of help for when I recover from my injury. I woke up deathly ill and finally went to the hospital and my kidney function was at 21% amongst a couple other issues but the kidneys being the most serious. I am feeling better. I have been in the hospital for 5 days now and as most of you know I am in recovery and I was living in a halfway house." He went on to share, "I have been in recovery since November 9, 2021. Life has gotten much better and I am so happy to have made it this far. Unfortunately, I have this setback with my health. ... To all my fans who still support me and follow me, I love you all!"

Str8UpGayPorn also published a statement in its report from director Walden Woods, which read, "My heart is broken to hear about the passing of Randy. I met him on set almost 10 years ago. He was always a good guy to be around, and had some amazing energy and authentic charm that was undeniable. From some amazing behind-the-scenes moments to Puerto Rico and Palm Springs, I had a great time every day he was on set. Its incredibly sad to hear of his passing. You were a giant Randy, rest in peace."
A steam shovel found embedded in the bottom of Wixom Lake in October 2020 is well on its way to being fully restored.

Mike Oberloier, of Beaverton, who now owns the shovel, recently displayed parts of the 1901 type O Thew model steam-powered shovel at the Midland Antique Engine Associations annual show July 7-10, where it garnered interest from attendees.

Restored parts on display included the shovels lower frame, a wheel and the bucket. In addition, Oberloier displayed the boom and three steam engines which still require work. The wooden shed on top of the frame had mostly deteriorated while the shovel lay at the bottom of Wixom Lake for 95 years, but Oberloier found some wooden planks that he identified as the top of the shovels coal box.

Besides the steam shovel, he brought along a horse-drawn road grader that was also found at the bottom of Wixom Lake.

I had permission from Boyce Hydro to take anything antique I found down there, Oberloier said.

Oberloier began the restoration process shortly after the Midland Antique Engine Associations 2021 show. This year, Oberloier has focused on restoring the steam shovels lower frame, working from the ground up. He has replaced the beams and steel components, sandblasted and painted the metal. He also has been working on the chain steering mechanism.

Weve been making pretty good progress so far, Oberloier said. Im just tinkering on it.

Supply chain issues, including paint shortages and rising prices for steel, have created obstacles in the restoration process. Oberloier, who travels around the state repairing machinery, has been able to find parts on his travels and has received monetary donations. He appreciates the support he has received from his family, friends and fellow antique engine enthusiasts.

Its big for the community and the lake, Oberloier said.

Oberloier expects it will take two to three years to complete renovations. He continues to post updates about the steam shovel on Facebook. Those interested in tracking the progress can visit www.facebook.com/WixomSteamShovel

The Wixom steam shovel is also a rare type of shovel, as there are only two surviving type O Thew model steam-powered shovels in the world; the second is owned by Bob Kelly in Pennsylvania. This August, Oberloier will travel to Pennsylvania to help Kelly operate his steam shovel at an antique show. He said the opportunity to run the shovel will further ignite his passion of fully restoring the Wixom shovel.

(Bob Kelly) has been supportive and helped out, Oberloier stated. Any questions Ive had, Ive been able to talk with him.

Oberloier believes that the type O Thew model steam-powered shovel was the smallest in the fleet of machines used to build the Edenville Dam in the 1920s. He explained that the shovels uniqueness is due to its horizontal prow, which allowed the bucket to travel straight out, then up; this let the bucket scoop up a load without damaging the dock or the ground beneath it.

The Wixom steam shovel was left behind after the dam was completed and was underwater for 95 years. For a time, the top part of the shovel could be seen when Wixom Lake levels were drawn down. However, one of the supports holding the shovels boom broke, causing the boom to collapse and sink deeper into the lake. Oberloier recalls how his dad kept looking for it in 1975; Oberloier himself kept the search on until the shovel resurfaced two years ago.

Ever since I was little and I would go to the Henry Ford Museum, Ive always wished that I was born earlier so I could work on older equipment, Oberloier said. To have this fall in my lap is like a dream come true. I never thought I would work on something like this, let alone own it.
SAN RAMON (BCN)

Students at separate high schools in San Ramon were selected as two of only four students statewide to participate as California's delegates at the National Youth Science Camp, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced Thursday.

Aadity Sharma, a student at Dougherty Valley High School, and Meghana Balabhadruni, a student at California High School, joined a student from Orange County and another from San Diego County as the state's four delegates at the camp, which is happening virtually this year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, state Department of Education officials said.

Sharma has interned for a nonprofit in India, collecting and analyzing data about regular flooding there, co-founded a nonprofit called One Step at a Time to provide free tutoring to middle and elementary school students online, and is a member of the San Ramon Teen Council, a panel appointed by the City Council to advise it on issues surrounding youth, according to the Department of Education.

Balabhadruni was awarded first place in a HOSA-Future Health Professionals competition on the topic of public service announcements and is the president of Science Alliance, an after-school program in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District that allows fifth graders to be mentored by high school students, education officials said.

Balabhadruni will be attending University of California, Davis, while Sharma will be attending University of California, Santa Cruz.

More information about the National Youth Science Camp, which before the pandemic was held annually in Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia, can be found at https://www.nysf.com/w/programs/nyscamp/.

Copyright  2022 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.

Copyright  2022 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.
Despite broad public skepticism, Joe Biden continues to push for the adoption of renewable energy at the expense of traditional sources, like petroleum and natural gas.

Biden's ongoing hostility to the conventional energy mix is a major reason the price we pay at the pump is rapidly becoming unaffordable for many American families. Meanwhile, the proponents of green energy cheer, perceiving any decline in fossil fuel consumption as leading to a reduction of greenhouse gasses.

Music to their ears. Yet while they are calling the tune, we pay the piper. Most Americans are all for doing something about climate change, but theyre not willing to pay very much to do it. If its a problem, it is a global one the United States cannot fix by itself, let alone afford to. Every nation must participate, but many cannot afford to.

Some, countries like China, simply refuse. Its use of coal to power its industrial sector is rising so quickly that it easily eliminates the benefits of any reduction of U.S. carbon emissions  but thats only part of the problem.

Most Americans dont realize how reliant on China the Biden administrations plan for future U.S. energy production is. The renewable energy strategy doesnt work if, for example, cheap Chinese solar components are not allowed into the United States. Thats why the White House moved rapidly to allow them to continue to unfairly compete with U.S.-made products by moving to suspend tariffs on some products coming from China.

That was a move several steps in the wrong direction. First, it takes U.S. energy resources off the board and stifles the innovations of producers working to supply Americans with cleaner, more affordable energy. Former Congressman Harold Ford, a Democrat from Tennessee, got it right when he urged President Biden to stop vilifying U.S. energy producers, many of which are leading the development of technologies to mitigate carbon emissions and make the transition to cleaner energy.

Second, the president is signaling his administration is willing to turn a blind eye to human rights abuses in pursuit of the green dream. Almost 40% of the global production of polysilicon important to the manufacture of solar panels comes from Chinas Xinjiang region, where, according to the U.S. Department of State, genocide and slave labor are prevalent.

Nowhere do these two points come into focus more than in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where a prime example of what one watchdog group has dubbed a Solar Boondoggle is about to begin. In March, Virgin Islands Gov. Albert Bryan announced his intention to transition the territorys power production completely to solar.

To have any chance of making this solar pipe dream a reality, the economics of the move require Bryan and the Virgin Islands to use cheaper Chinese components, regardless of the impact on American industry or the possibility they could be benefiting from slave labor. Now replicate this model in counties, cities, and states across America and think of the mess it will cause.

The Democrats are moving to bring their dream of an America that runs on renewable energy to life. And theyre doing it despite the realities of the marketplace, the scientific barriers yet to be overcome, and the global challenges inherent in such an effort. In pursuit of its green objectives, the Biden administration is ignoring why its wise to avoid China because it needs China to do what it wants. Congressional China Task Force Chairman Michael McCaul, a Republican from Texas, says the suspension of the tariffs amounts to giving amnesty to products that the administration admitted are linked to genocide and slave labor.

So, in addition to being a colossal waste of tax dollars, the Biden Solar Boondoggle is a blot on Americas record on human rights well all pay for, one way or another.
By now everyone in this region knows that U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) referred to Alton and Elijah Lovejoy during the July 12 broadcast of the Jan. 6th hearings. I learned of it when I read a friends post on Facebook. Alton, Illinois made it into the J6, she wrote. Not in a good way, of course.

Specifically, Raskin mentioned the murder of Elijah Lovejoy, the abolitionist newspaper editor, which occurred on Nov. 7, 1837 here in Alton. Raskin got it wrong, however. He said the mob broke into Lovejoys newspaper office to kill him. Its a matter of record that Lovejoy and a handful of allies were inside the Godfrey-Gilman warehouse on Altons riverfront, where they were defending the Alton Observers latest printing press from a mob intent upon destroying it. Lovejoy was gunned down when he emerged from the warehouse to prevent the mob from setting fire to the buildings roof.

When I was asked last year to write a review of First to Fall, Ken Ellingwoods new biography of Lovejoy, I opened with this bold assertion: The struggle against slavery defines American history prior to 1865. The saga of Elijah Lovejoy, the abolitionist newspaper editor who in 1837 was killed by a mob enraged by his editorials condemning slavery, defines the Mississippi River city of Alton. I then informed readers that one of the inscriptions on our citys Lovejoy Monument reads in part: Lovejoy and Alton: Names as Inseparable and as Dear to the People of Illinois as Those of Lincoln and Springfield, Grant and Galena.

Its not as though Lovejoy is Altons only claim to fame. This city hosted any number of Underground Railroad stations that harbored fugitive slaves who managed to make their way across the Mississippi River. Life-size statues of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas stand at the site of the last debate between these two statesmen during their 1858 campaign for a U.S. Senate seat. Visitors to Alton typically make a point of seeing the statues of jazz great Miles Davis and worlds-tallest human being Robert Wadlow, both of whom were born in Alton.

Alton is also the birthplace of another American whose infamy secured his place in history: James Earl Ray, the confessed assassin of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. While acknowledging our city as the location of his birth, we Altonians will never raise a monument or install a commemorative plaque that bears this murderers name. Readers of my book Murder and Mayhem in Southwestern Illinois are usually astounded to learn about Rays life before killing our nations greatest civil rights leader. He was a small-time crook, chronic jailbird and inveterate loser who stalked and shot King in the hope of collecting a bounty that had been placed on his head by a clique of white supremacists.

I stand by the assertion I made in that review. The saga of Elijah Lovejoy  his condemnation of slavery and his murder for doing so  indeed defines my hometown of Alton. But in order to understand Altons complex relationship with Lovejoy, one must know the controversy surrounding the 1897 dedication of the Lovejoy Monument in Alton Cemetery. Thomas Dimmock, the principal speaker at the dedication ceremony, delivered a speech in which he felt compelled to deny that Lovejoy had ever been an abolitionist.

Why? The United States in 1897 had repudiated the idealism of abolitionists such as Lovejoy. Many Americans mistakenly blamed slaverys opponents for causing the Civil War, which claimed the lives of 620,000 soldiers. The Supreme Court in 1896 had legalized segregation in its Plessy v. Ferguson decision. That same court in 1898 disenfranchised blacks living in the South by its decision in Williams v. Mississippi.

Ive always found it ironic that our Lovejoy monument was dedicated in the same year that Alton Mayor Henry Brueggman and the city council, as well as Alton Public School Superintendent Robert Haight and the school board, decided that our city would have segregated schools in open defiance of state law. And segregation in Alton wasnt limited to schools. For example, Black Altonians werent allowed to dine at the lunch counter at Kresges Variety Store and forced to sit in the balcony of the Grand Theater.

While the 1897 monument indeed honors Lovejoy, I contend that his memory was better honored by those local activists who fought for integrated schools and an end to racial discrimination in Alton businesses. But the struggle to achieve justice and equality in Alton is in no way finished. Lovejoys work must continue, both in our city and across our nation.
LATEST, July 15, 5:40 p.m. Jenkins fired 16 members of the office on Friday. You can read an updated story from SFGATE here.

July 15, 11:25 a.m. Exactly one week after assuming office, new San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins has formally begun the "reshuffling" she hinted at in a meeting with senior staff last week.

On Friday morning, Jenkins, the successor to the recalled Chesa Boudin, announced the hirings of three senior members of her team. Ana Gonzalez, who worked in the DA's Office previously but was fired by Boudin in 2020 because she did not align with his vision for the office, will be Jenkins' second in command; Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Nancy Tung, who ran against Boudin in 2019 and was considered for Jenkins' job, will be Jenkins' chief of special prosecutions; and Tiffany Sutton, the director of crime strategies division for the San Francisco Police Department, is joining in a yet-to-be-specified position.

"I am thrilled to announce new members of my management team of experienced prosecutors that will help our office deliver on my promise to improve public safety, hold offenders accountable, advocate for victims, and enact smart criminal justice reforms," Jenkins tweeted.

With hirings also come firings. Multiple office sources not authorized to speak publicly said Jenkins has scheduled calls with several existing members of the office Friday.

Tensions in the DA's Office have been simmering since Jenkins was sworn in last week. Attendees of her first meeting with senior staff told SFGATE the conversation was "uncomfortable," and Jenkins publicly spoke out after someone present recorded her without permission.

Mayor London Breed, who appointed Jenkins, said earlier this week that "previous DAs have always had challenging starts to the beginning of their term," and that there are people in the office "who aren't necessarily interested" in "talk[ing] about ways to move the office forward."

Just two days after taking office in January 2020, Boudin made a series of firings.
Image via Yelp user Tony J.

The largest owner of hotel properties in San Francisco is close to finalizing the sale of a 99-year-old boutique hotel near Union Square.

Pebblebrook Hotel Trust is selling the 236-room Hotel Spero to an affiliate of Memphis-based real estate management firm Fairwood Capital LLC, the San Francisco Business Times reported. News of the sale was found through a liquor license application.
BURBANK, Calif.  The 25th anniversary of the international pleasure products trade show, the American Novelty Manufacturers Expo, took place July 11-13 and it did not disappoint.

Gathering for the first time since the January 2020 show because of the pandemic, the enthusiastic crowd of retailer, etailers, distributors, writers and many more, got to hold products in their hands, taste the new flavors of lubricants, and be in the company of the adult pleasure products family.

Featured companies included ANME Founders CalExotics, Nasstoys, and Doc Johnson with other large booths presented by Satisfyer, Blush, Sportsheets and three rooms full of smaller manufacturers, some for their first time at the show. For the first time in two-and-a-half years, many products made their appearance to touch and feel since products released during the pandemic had been restricted to virtual tradeshows.

Highlights of the show included the many new lines from CalExotics such as their male-oriented Admiral line and the expansion of the California Dreaming line, complete with a dedicated booth specifically to feature their expanding styles. They also showed off their new personal care brand, LuvMor, with natural ingredients that pair with the massagers under the same name. Susan Colvin, Cals founder, was also honored with a lifetime achievement award during the annual awards dinner on the last night of the show.

Nasstoys released a wall full of new products, perfect for any gender. Their booth featured them within their wide range of distinct designs which allowed buyers to increase product offerings in their stores.

Doc Johnson presented their color-coded, In A Bag line, with opaque bags holding varied treasures for vulva owners, penis owners and couples. The clever packaging makes a statement that no other company has done before: eco-friendly and extremely travel friendly.

XR continued to impress buyers with the depth of products they are known for, which is now more than 1000 SKUs. Their larger sized and intricately sculpted Creature Cocks were one of their more popular lines at the show.

SHOTS presented a large wall of their full line, including the new GLOW harnesses and products, catching the eye of buyers when shown in their darkroom-lit display room.

Longtime lubricant manufacturer, ForPlay, reintroduced their spermicidal lube which has seen a spike in demand since the repeal of Roe.

Wicked Sensual Care rolled out their new flavored lubes in their Simply line, which are all sugar free and use Stevia as their sweetener.

One of the many highlights of the show was the new, soon-to-be-available line from Channel 1 Releasing (home to Boneyard Toys and the well-established Rascal line), Scruffy, plush dog toys in the shape of popular sex toys, complete with squeakers! They call it Plushie Smut for the Naughty Mutt!

Icon Brands released the hefty Darth Invader dildo, which made its debut as a 3D printed prototype at the show. Needless to say, the packaging is worth the price alone!

Long time lubricant company, California Fantasies, the sole manufacturer of the 40-plus year brand, ForPlay, featured new sizes of products as well as bringing to attention their spermicidal lubricant, which has gained popularity with the recent Roe decision.

Hott Products continued their dominance with their creative and zany novelty items which join their unique vibrators and dildos that were rolled out especially for this show.

New York-based Sub Sensuals premiered their one-of-a-kind, magnetic nipple and clit jewelry for the first time at ANME. Boutique owners were impressed with the depth of variety of their unique designs.

Screaming O released a remote-controlled, dual purpose bullet vibe, which can tune into its own radio frequency so when using the remote in a room with other My Secret O, one wont turn the whole place into a vibrator frenzy! Not that that would be a bad thing!

Wicked Sensual Care debuted a new line of flavored lubricants, all sugar free and sweetened with stevia. Featuring several unique flavors such as salted caramel and pear, these pure and lightly flavored lubes with add plenty to the market.

While foot traffic seemed to be lighter than in previous years, the buyers were enthusiastic, and the vendors pleased with the orders for those in attendance. Its almost back to normal in the pleasure products industry and everyone cant wait to meet again at the AVN Adult Novelty Expo in Vegas in January!
After a rough couple days, intermittently losing their video and audio feed during New York Mets broadcasts, Sportsnet New York stepped up and delivered one of their best segments ever.

The life of a field reporter isnt always glamorous, and during Thursday nights Chicago Cubs-Mets broadcast on SNY, Steve Gelbs was sent into center of Wrigley Fields bleacher bums to learn about the beer snake. SNY waited until the seventh-inning for the segment, because to create the beer snake, you first need a lot of beer consumption. Waiting until the seventh-inning for a beer snake segment also means putting a lot of fans, who just consumed a lot of beer, on live TV.

Hey, Jake, can you explain how the cup snake begins? Gelbs asked of his new friend.

As soon as Jake referred to Gelbs as Stevie, the SNY audience knew they were about to be entertained. But before discussing the beer snake, Jake rattled off a list of family members as if he just spun the Big Wheel on The Price is Right.

What is it, the eighth inning? Ninth inning? Jake asked as Gelbs informed the beer-filled fan that it was only the seventh.

Basically the eighth, Steve, Jake responded in what was the line of the interview.

But as the seventh inning came to a close and SNY headed into a commercial break, disaster occurred. The snake collapsed. Not so surprisingly, it was the architect of the snake who was to blame, Steves good friend Jake. Jake took his eyes off the snake for a moment and seconds later he was left to clean up the mess of cups that were piled on the floor a few feet in front of Gelbs.

A few things: 1. I did not break the cup snake, Jake in the bleachers did. 2. Jake in the bleachers made up for it with a fantastic interview explaining the cup snake. 3. The Mets won 8-0.  Steve Gelbs (@SteveGelbs) July 15, 2022

Surely, they will rebuild. But it will have to wait until Saturday, with Fridays game getting rained out. Think of how big the snake can get with a doubleheaders worth of beer cups! Assuming Jake doesnt take his eyes off it this time.

[SNY]
Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting has announced its foray into packaged food business in India. The company has appointed Anil Chugh, currently the India & SAARC head of the Wipro Consumer Care business, to head the vertical. Also, Neeraj Khatri, head of Wipro Consumer Cares Philippines entity, has moved to the role of India & SAARC head of Wipro Consumer Care business.

Vineet Agrawal, CEO of Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting, said: Our decision to enter the packaged food business would complement our existing categories in personal care, thus building a complete offering in the FMCG space in India.

Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting had recorded a revenue of Rs 8,634 crore for the financial year ended March 31.

It operates in personal wash products, toiletries, facial care, wellness, home care, electrical wire devices, domestic and commercial lighting, and seating solutions.

Our leadership changes align with our ambitions of being a significant and leading player in the FMCG space in all the markets we operate in, said Agrawal.

The company owns popular brands such as Santoor, premium personal care brand Yardley, Enchanteur, Hygienix, Chandrika, Glucovita, Safewash, Softouch, Giffy Maxkleen along with LED lights brand Wipro Garnet and male grooming brand Aramusk.
upGrad Rekrut, a 100% subsidiary of edtech unicorn upGrad has acquired WOLVES India, a recruitment and staffing company for an undisclosed amount.

According to the companies, WOLVES India will continue to operate independently under the leadership of its founder Raghu S.

Founded in 2015, WOLVES India helps with talent recruitment across tech startups in the country, along with multiple mid and large organisations in India and abroad. The company claims to have closed more than 5,000 placements in tech and product roles. WOLVES India offers a proprietary product, Quasara, to help global businesses to set up offshore offices.

Mayank Kumar, upGrad cofounder & MD, said, Our acquisitions reflect our commitment to drive career outcomes for our learners. While with upGrad Rekrut we saw our learners receiving record-breaking CTCs during FY22, the joining of WOLVES India will give us an edge in the tech ecosystem. It shall foster wider employment opportunities for our learners in the form of highly paid tech roles and enhanced career acceleration.

According to upGrad, Indias tech industry will continue to see demand for skilled talent and is expected to become a $350 Bn market by FY26.
The US is Indias most strategic partner and strong ally, and cooperation among these nations is crucial to resolving global issues. Therefore, new agendas to strengthen the relationship must be widely focused on moving forward to the next decade

The India-US relationship has developed into a global strategic partnership by extending convergence of interests and cooperation in multiple sectors such as trade, defence, multilateralism, intelligence, cyberspace, civil nuclear energy, education, and healthcare. As both nations are bound to keep the Indo-Pacific region free and open, they are expressing new agendas for the coming decade.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indo-US relationship has diverted into looking at potential future developments in regional and global geopolitics through the production and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines, humanitarian aid, disaster relief, peacekeeping, education, and so on. The salient aspects of strong relationships in the coming years include emerging technologies, national security, defence cooperation, counterterrorism, and trade.

At the same time, the two multilateral strategic dialogues, the Quad grouping and the West Asian Quad have gained prominence in building the India-US relationship. The Quad grouping helps the nations to achieve targeted multilateral cooperation based on shared democratic values, and the West Asian Quad focuses on technology cooperation, carrying similar potential. India-US counterterrorism cooperation is also likely to expand since Americas military withdrew from Afghanistan and reduced dependence on Pakistan for supply routes. Thus, the nations should collaborate to insist on renouncing support for terrorist groups.

As India and the United States are looking forward to strengthening global value chains (GVCs), it is necessary to upgrade the two-way foreign direct investment (FDI) and provide incentives for the private sector to undertake investments that support integrated GVCs. A few recommendations to enhance their relationships are as follows:

1. As data management, information sharing, and privacy protection are crucial to preserving national security, the nations must cooperate in the emerging technological developments.

2. Strengthen multilateral cooperation and focus on international issues and multilateral strategic dialogues such as the Quad and the West Asian Quad.

3. Increase counterterrorism cooperation for managing Taliban-led Afghanistan and put pressure on Pakistani military intelligence to reject aid for terrorist groups such as the Taliban, Haqqani Network, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Lashkar-e-Taiba.

4. Strengthen bilateral trade by integrating GVCs using FDI in each others economies and also encouraging participation in these efforts from global firms.

5. Intensify cybersecurity coordination among line ministries to discern relevant counterparts on particular issues.

6. Emerging technologies must imbibe security and defence issues to focus on finding common agendas for defence applications of artificial intelligence.
With the new amendment proposed in the NDAA, the US government decides to grant a CAATSA sanctions waiver to India over the S-400 missile deal with Russia

Indias purchase of the S-400 missile defence system from Russia has invoked a crucial discussion in the US. The US has always been upset at India's reliance on Russian defence systems, which has now even grown with the delivery of the S-400 missile. However, the US House of Representatives passed a legislative amendment by voice vote that approves a waiver to India against the severe actions of the Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) sanctions in order to prevent aggressors like China.

The amendment was passed on Thursday in a single unit amendment during floor consideration of the National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA). During his speech on the NDAA amendment, Ro Khanna, an Indian-American Congressman, remarked on the significance of the US-India relationship. The amendment, which was written by him, urges the Biden administration to exercise its power to grant India a CAATSA waiver to help deter aggressors like China.

The CAATSA law passed in 2017 empowered the US government as a result of Russias annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential elections. It is a strict law to impose penalties on any nation engaging in transactions involving defence equipment and intelligence sectors of Russia.

However, the amendment is a significant conclusion that was passed on a bipartisan basis, broadly focusing on the US-Indian relationship and defence aid against Chinese aggression. Although the US has imposed CAATSA sanctions on Turkey, there arent any decisions on waivers to India under the law regarding S-400 missile purchases from Russia. Despite warnings from the then-Trump government, India has already signed a USD five billion deal with Russia. The Ministry of External Affairs stated that Indias defence acquisitions are solely based on its national security interests and pursuing an independent foreign policy.

The legislation also stated that the US-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (ICET) is essential to enhance the relationship between the countries' different sectors. It also addresses the advances in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, biotechnology, aerospace and semiconductor manufacturing. Therefore, maintaining harmonious relationships is crucial for both nations to nurture technological developments which continue to outperform Russian and Chinese technology.
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!
Monsoon rains that fell on the Pipeline Fire burn scar resulted in downstream flooding and road closures east of Flagstaff on Thursday, and more rain and flash flood activity is expected before monsoon activity peters off through the weekend.

At around 10:30 a.m. Thursday, early monsoon activity caused the National Weather Service (NWS) to issue a flash flood advisory for portions of Coconino County, including the areas of Timberline, Pine Mountain Estates, Hutchinson Acres, Macann Estates, Government Tank Wash, Little Elden Springs Horse Camp, and Highway 89 between mile markers 423 and 427.

Doppler radar and rain gauges indicated that heavy rain was falling on the Pipeline Fire burn scar. Rainfall was especially concentrated on the Government Tank Watershed, which the county had previously identified as an area with high risk for post-fire flooding.

Its estimated that by 10:45 a.m., three quarters of an inch of rain fell on the watershed in about 15 minutes.

By 11:30 a.m., NWS reported that 2 inches of rain had fallen over the burn scar. It issued flood advisories for areas in west Flagstaff, including Fort Valley and Bellemont, while flash flooding began beneath Government Tank. By noon, floodwaters up to 8 inches deep flowed over Highway 89 and had begun impacting houses in the Timberline, Swede Acres and North Fork road area.

Authorities closed Highway 89 north of Silver Saddle Road to protect travelers as mud and debris covered the highway. As traffic backed up, it was unclear how long the road would be closed.

Theyre telling us that its going to be until 4 p.m. before we can get home, said Jennifer Brawley, a Timberline resident with a home on Campbell Avenue. Thats three hours. I have five kids in the car, so were probably going to go to a friends house to wait it out.

Within the Timberline neighborhood, Henry Drive resident Lani Leonard said she was surprised to see floodwaters flowing down Highway 89.

When I heard the water, I thought that it should be coming from the mountain. Leonard said. It was coming down the highway.

According to Leonard, most of the floodwaters in her area stayed within flood mitigation channels and could be seen flowing into a detention basin built by Coconino County following the 2010 Schultz Fire flooding.

[Water] didn't come into the neighborhood at all, Leonard said. It went around it.

Leonard also reported that county crews and officials from the sheriffs office were very quick to respond to the area with closures and heavy machinery that began clearing debris from the roadways as soon as floodwaters had subsided.

They were in almost instantaneously, Leonard said. I guess they were planning on it.

Heavy machinery was also deployed to Government Tank Road and the areas near North Fork Road where floodwaters had covered the roadway with mud and debris. Provider Road was covered in a pool of standing water.

Farther north up Highway 89, residents of Wupatki Trails also battled floodwaters. Diana Sagney, who was retrieving sandbags at Silver Saddle Road, reported that Wupatki Trails homes were underwater. She said that the pyramid barriers in the area seemed to be mitigating some flooding and that residents were working together to protect each others homes.

At the meeting they told us to get flood insurance but also to get our friends, she said. Get our neighbors and help each other out. Thats all we have to do. We just have to help each other.

The same was true at Johnson Ranch Road, where resident Brandon Clark reported that neighbors were working together to defend against the floodwaters.

We kind of saw it coming, Clark said. One of the neighbors came by and helped us to move some more sandbags in front of the garage. We just had good people around. The neighbor across the street got a dozer and helped dig out a neighbor over there, push some of the water and re-route the drainage away from his house. He did the same thing over here for me.

Enough floodwater had subsided by 2 p.m. for authorities to reopen Highway 89. As traffic slowly but steadily made its way through, county crews and residents continued to clean up debris from the area.

Flash flood warnings for the area were lifted at 3:30 p.m.

Friday is expected to be another "very active day" of monsoons and potential flash flooding, said NWS meterologist Brian Klimowski. While higher winds can cause storms to concentrate on one side of the San Fransisco Peaks or another, light winds similar to Thursdays are likely to produce "slow-moving storms.

"When we have slow-moving storms, there's more opportunity for heavy rain to accumulate and cause the flash flooding," Klimowski explained. "The Peaks will be a source of initiation for thunderstorms."

Through the weekend and into early next week, monsoon activity is anticipated to be "low to moderate. The forecast currently calls for an 80% chance of precipitation on Friday, but after that the odds dwindle to 30-40% each day through Thursday.
Recently departed Booktopia chief executive Tony Nash has taken to social media to defend his legacy after being ousted by the board of the company he founded and asked to serve his notice period away from the office.

In a fresh LinkedIn post from late Thursday, Nash said he was looking forward to a holiday after he was given his notice by the Booktopia board this week. The move came after an investigation by this masthead into problems at Booktopia, which has suffered a steep decline in its share price and market value over the past year.

Booktopia CEO Tony Nash in happier times. Credit:Steven Siewert

Today I got terminated by the Booktopia Board. FYI this is the same company that I co-founded 18 years ago.

I am now on gardening leave for 6 months. After running my own companies and paying myself a salary for 26 years I am now on a forced break. Thats a bit freaky for an obsessive entrepreneur.
If you visit Barangaroo Houses rooftop bar or Chiswick in Woollahra this month, you can order from a special menu of cocktails that will never give you a hangover, no matter how many you knock back.

Stroll into a Dan Murphys or a BWS and you might be offered a non-alcoholic beer or wine and see them featured more prominently in store displays.

Smoke at Barangaroo House and Chiswick have partnered with Lyres Spirit to bring customers an alcohol-free cocktail menu for Dry July 2022. Credit:Solotel

During Dry July, bars, pubs and liquor stores drum up buzz to support consumers going booze-free for a month, and has become an established cultural movement that counts everyone from niche craft breweries to up-scale cocktail bars and Australias biggest retailers as proponents who say its popularity is all-year round.
In the letter, the FBI claimed NWAs music encouraged violence against police officers. The bureau didnt threaten either the group or the record label, but said music plays a significant role in society and therefore the concerns of law enforcement were worthy of attention. That same summer, NWA members were arrested after a riot broke out during one a show in Detroit, as the group was performing F*ck The Police on stage. No charges were laid, but the police had made their view on the song, and NWA more broadly, very clear.

The letter, dated August 1, 1989, was sent to the director of Priority Records, the label responsible for distributing the music of West Coast hip-hop group NWA. The rappers had recently released their debut album, Straight Outta Compton, featuring the provocatively titled single F--- Tha Police, inspired by their experiences with law enforcement as young black men in America.

In the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, theres a framed letter from the FBIs assistant director for public affairs hanging on the wall.

It was dramatised in the 2015 film Straight Outta Compton, and it foreshadowed a long-term battle between the hip-hop community and those who claim a link between rap lyrics in violence.

In 1997, rapper Tupac Shakurs label was sued after a Texas state trooper was shot by a man listening to Shakurs music. The family of the slain trooper claimed the lyrics had advocated violence but a landmark court decision found that, even if that was the case, the song was protected by the first amendment. The battle between hip-hop and the police hasnt let up in the US, and has even intensified in recent years, but Americas commitment to freedom of speech has helped to protect the rights of artists to tell their stories, regardless of how provocative.

More than 30 years after NWA burst out of Compton, Australia is living through its own war between police and sections of the hip-hop community. The parallels between whats happening here and the skirmishes in the US in the 90s are pretty clear  but the lack of freedom of speech protections in this country mean our equivalents of NWA and Tupac are on the back foot.

NWAs record Straight Outta Compton.

This week the NSW Police Force confirmed it would attempt to remove certain songs from streaming platforms such as Spotify and YouTube if they believed the lyrics incited violence. Police dont actually have the power to force those companies to remove songs, but the fact they believe its within their remit to deplatform music they believe poses a danger to the community is quite extraordinary.
This story is part of the July 16 edition of Good Weekend. See all 14 stories.

Maine is the American north-eastern coastal state where people rich enough to summer as a verb like to do it. The less said about the colder months, the better  theres a reason locals call it the lobster tundra.

Lobster rolls were dreamt up by lobster fishermen wanting to use up leftovers from the days catch. Credit:Getty Images

Lobster is synonymous with Maine. Visiting the state for the first time recently, I was excited to try the lobster roll in its native habitat. Though technically invented in Connecticut and popularised at Pearl Oyster Bar in New York City, its Maine that has made the lobster roll its own. Recipes vary, but the gist is, chunks of crustacean are tossed with mayonnaise and chives and stuffed into a buttered, white-bread roll.

Loading

The market price of a lobster roll is $US30 ($44), sometimes even $US40 ($59), and the cost is as steep in Maine as it is in Manhattan. Curiously, a dish now symbolic of summer hedonism was dreamt up by lobster fishermen. They were looking for ways to use up less than perfect specimens from the days catch.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size In late February, the biggest flood in recorded history hit Lismore and its surrounding region, leaving four dead and tens of thousands of people without homes, electricity and access to fresh water. Just weeks later, Lismore found itself under water again, and a fifth life was lost. Lismore flooding Credit:Mark Stehle The whole country was looking at photos and footage of people huddled on rooftops as the water inched higher and the rescues by neighbours in tin boats and on paddleboards. But as floodwaters started to abate for the second time, we started asking if there was more to the story. In April, Mark Stehle, who heads The Age and the Heralds visual stories team, asked me and data guru Matt Malishev to see what sort of evidence we could find on the disaster and after a few weeks of digging, we found a trove of information and spatial imagery from international satellites, NASA, the weather bureau, Lismore council, the State Emergency Service and police. Loading Senior journalist Heath Gilmore, who grew up in Lismore and had friends and family who were affected by the latest floods, started looking at the intricacies of what went wrong with the warnings and response both before and after the life-altering events. Having been reporting on the floods from Sydney since they began, Heath went to Lismore to find out how the town was faring after the back-to-back disasters and learn more from the council and residents. Senior reporter Catherine Naylor, who was in Lismore during the March floods, added invaluable on-the-ground, real-time knowledge. In the meantime, Matt and I had found everything from the amount of rain that fell in the days preceding the first flood to the water level of every river and creek, the timing and content of every warning issued by authorities, satellite imagery and spatial data showing the extent of flood waters on each day of the two flooding events and the locations of properties that were inundated.

Advertisement

I was surprised at both the level of detail we found in the data, which included rainfall and river levels at 15-minute intervals, and the gaps in the information public agencies were able to provide. NSW and federal government agencies responsible for disaster management were unable or unwilling to provide local data that would allow us to map the extent of the flooding to supplement similar data that was being collected and made easily accessible by international sources including the European Space Agency and NASA. We were also unable to access data on historical flood extents, which should be a critical resource for making sure communities are able to prepare for future disasters. But ultimately, the depth of data that was available enabled us to do what we strive for as a data-driven team  tell visually rich stories that, in this case, hopefully helped readers understand the scale and intensity of the horror experienced by those in Lismore. It shaped up to be one of the more challenging stories Ive worked on in my seven years at The Age and the Herald because of the sheer amount of data and number of different elements involved. It was also one of the most fulfilling and allowed us to tell an important story in a unique way. I was moved by the things we found and the fact that the people in Lismore who I spoke to were all grateful that the rest of the country hadnt forgotten what had happened while some of them were still living without homes and power.

Advertisement

Once we had collated all the information, we began the process of verifying it, breaking it down and analysing it to develop a fuller picture of what had occurred. At that point, we also had to figure out how to tell an information-rich story in an accessible way. Loading Eventually, Mark and developer Daniel Carter created an interactive map and 3D model that would allow people to see at a glance how much rain fell each day and how quickly the water had risen as they scrolled through a timeline of all the key events around the two floods. Matt conducted in-depth topographical analyses and calculations to reveal the extent of the flooding and created 3D visualisations of Lismore and its surrounds throughout the disaster. Months of detailed 3D modelling work by developer Richard Lama also reconstructed the inundation of Lismores St Carthages Cathedral, which is located well above the highest flood level ever recorded before February, and Fawcett Bridge, a key entry point into the towns CBD. One of the main stories in our series, Anatomy of the Lismore disaster, was the product of months of hard work by journalists, designers and developers from the visual stories team as well as reporters Heath and Catherine, head of creative video Tom Compagnoni, photo editor Daniel Adams and editors Alex Rowe and Nick Ralston. Our analysis and visualisations showed the full extent of the disaster as well as official failures before the February deluge and missteps during the two flooding events. It also provided a step-by-step account of each aspect of the disaster and the breadth of flood-related damage.

Advertisement
Amanda travelled to Paris for the launch, her first time out of Australia, along with two of Sally Gaboris great-granddaughters, Narelle and Tori. Sue Lee went too, to help smooth the bumps of international travel.

Its a big year for the Gaboris  not only has their mother been named a Queensland Great, she is starring in her first major international exhibition, in Paris at the prestigious Fondation Cartier pour lart contemporain, which was opened by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on July 1.

I meet Amanda, 56, and Dorothy, 64, at their Brisbane hotel with their helper, the gentle Sue Lee, whos known the family for more than a decade and was with them by Gaboris side when the artist died in 2015, aged 91.

Sally Gabori has been named one of this years Queensland Greats, and her daughters are here in Brisbane in early June to represent their large extended family, which includes five surviving children (of 11) and so many grandchildren and great-grandchildren that the sisters have stopped counting. Theres more coming, Dorothy, says with a grin as she finishes her eggs on toast. Amanda adds, deadpan: It goes on and on and on, too many too count.

At last theyre here, to receive an honour on behalf of their late mother, Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori, whose tale of painting prolifically through her 80s, and finding national and international acclaim in the process, is one of the most remarkable Australia has seen.

Its been an exhausting couple of days for Dorothy and Amanda Gabori. Theyve made the taxing 1800-kilometre journey by plane from their homes on Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria all the way to Brisbane, facing delays, a cancelled flight and an unscheduled night in Cairns.

The debate about whether the Gabori paintings that Evans unlawfully sold should continue to be traded and hung goes to the heart of some of the key tensions in the commercial art world: who has the right to say whether a genuine work should be traded, and by whom; what happens when the gatekeepers dont all agree, or dont agree with the family; and who has the right to say that a work of art that nobody says is fake should or should not exist in the public sphere?

This is not the first time the art trade has been racked by scandal and it wont be the last. But this scandal is different. It doesnt involve fakes, or the grubby deals of so-called carpetbaggers who exploit Indigenous artists by getting them to paint in sweat-shops and under other unsavoury conditions. It centres on ethically produced art dishonestly sold, a celebrated artist denied her due, and what happens to the market for her work as a result.

Evans is in jail in Brisbane, but his crime continues to reverberate. Some of the paintings he improperly sold ended up in the private collections of the rich and famous, bought in good faith by people with no knowledge of his crimes but now caught up in its aftermath.

Brett Evans was the long-standing manager of the Mirndiyan Gununa Aboriginal Corporation, commonly known as the Mornington Island Art Centre, where Gaboris painting life began in 2005. Evans played a central role in promoting Gaboris early career, but in February this year he was sentenced by the Mount Isa District Court to four-and-a-half years jail for fraudulently selling 176 of her paintings while she was still alive and pocketing the money rather than distributing it between the artist and the art centre, as required by the centres terms of business.

But this year of triumph for Sally Gabori has a tragic subplot, of the kind all too often associated with successful Indigenous artists from remote communities. In her final years, Gabori was cheated by the very person paid to safeguard her interests.

They are over the moon, says Dorothy, who is not fond of flying and stayed home. Tori cant stop talking about Paris.

Name changes were the least of the Kaiadilts troubles. In an all too common strategy, the Kaiadilt were forbidden to speak their language and their children taken from them and placed into dormitories. As Nicholas Evans writes in his essay for the Fondation Cartier, the Kaiadilts despair was so great that for several years after the move, no newborns survived. It was during this difficult time that Sally Gabori became a mother. She lost her first three children in infancy, but eventually had eight more.

In her 20s, Gabori would face the greatest upheaval of her life. From the early 1940s, the Presbyterian missionaries on Mornington Island had been trying to persuade the Kaiadilt to move to the mission. The Kaiadilt wanted nothing of it. But in 1948, in the aftermath of a cyclone and tidal wave that contaminated Bentinck Islands freshwater supply, they had little choice, and the 63 surviving Kaiadilt people were evacuated to the much bigger island to their north, Mornington Island. There, Mirdidingkingathi became Sally, the name bestowed on her by the missionaries. Gabori is believed to be a corruption of her husband Pats name, Kabararrjingathi.

Born around 1924 on the Gulf of Carpentarias Bentinck Island, the traditional lands of the Kaiadilt people, her name, Mirdidingkingathi, means born at Mirdidingki, a small creek in the islands south, while Juwarnda refers to her conception totem, the dolphin. Gabori lived a traditional life, doing womens work such as repairing the islands stone-wall fish traps, finding shellfish and gathering plant food. As a teenager she fell in love with Kabararrjingathi Bulthuku Pat Gabori. Her older brother, King Alfred, forbid their relationship, following which Pat led an attack on King Alfred, killed him and claimed Sally as his fourth wife. The couple lived together until Pats death in 2009, and, Im told, had an enduring love.

Before then, Gabori was known foremost as a shy grandmother with a talent for weaving. Belonging to the last coastal-living Aboriginal people to come into contact with Europeans, she barely spoke English and could not write her name.

Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori was around 80 years old when she first picked up a paint brush. Absolutely everyone was surprised when, all of a sudden in 2005, she took off, says Nicholas Evans, a linguist at the Australian National University with a long connection to Gabori and Mornington Island (and no relation to Brett Evans). It really came out of nowhere.

Seven months after her first painting workshop, Gabori had her first solo exhibition, at the Woolloongabba Art Gallery that same year. Her canvases jostled with tightly-packed, colourful circles that referred to the glistening schools of fish on Bentinck Island: big black mullet, mangrove jack, black bream, yellow fish. There were paintings, too, of a turtle nest, a crocodile, rock cod swimming, hunting grounds, all rendered in big, bright, blocks of colour.

Despite her initial reticence, Gabori was hooked. She would eagerly wait for the bus to pick her up from the aged care hostel at 8.30am every weekday to take her to the art centre, and if the bus were late, she would set off on foot, determined to walk the kilometre or so.

Gaboris first painting, My Country, is small, 60cm by 30cm, and somewhat ungainly, but it hints at whats to come: paint thickly applied with assertive brush strokes, confident blocks of contrasting colour, a spontaneity and freedom that marks the beginnings of the radical abstract style for which she would become famed.

Sally Gabori wasnt all that interested in painting and asked instead to be taken out bush to gather grass to spin and weave. But Brett Evans, the art centre co-ordinator at the time, gave her a small canvas and convinced her to try. With that small gesture, he changed the course of Gaboris final years and released one of the most original Indigenous artists Australia has seen.

At this advanced age, most people would happily wind down, but Gabori would soon find expression in the most vital and startling of ways. In 2005, the Mornington Island Art Centre began holding painting workshops in collaboration with Brisbanes Woolloongabba Art Gallery. At first, it was the senior Lardil men who were invited to the workshop, but the manager of the old peoples home pointed out that the women needed something to do as well.

The traditional owners of Mornington Island are the Lardil people, and the Kaiadilt believed they were only moving there temporarily. They would not return to Bentinck Island until the 1990s, however, when a small housing development was established on the island, at Nyinyilki, following land rights battles. Sally and Pat Gabori were among those who returned and resumed their traditional way of life. But their homecoming was short-lived. In the early 2000s, the lack of healthcare and funding for the community at Nyinyilki forced them back to Mornington Island, where Sally and Pat entered an old peoples home.

In 2016, following the artists death, Knight became the art agent for the Gabori estate. Beverly was like a second mum to us, and a sister to mum, Dorothy Gabori says.

Knight held a solo Gabori exhibition practically every year after that and could be rightly said to have built the market for the artist, who she has represented as her primary dealer from late 2005. Weve never not had a sell-out exhibition of Sallys work, Knight tells me.

With the exhibition in tow, Evans approached respected art dealer Beverly Knight, director of Melbournes Alcaston Gallery, to tell her about the dynamic new artist on his books. Knight flew up for the Brisbane exhibition and was immediately taken by what she saw. The following year she exhibited Gabori at the Melbourne Art Fair, and in 2007 she held the artists first major solo show at Alcaston.

She may even be accused of starting to dress like an artist and shows definite signs of eccentricity, wearing her stylish hats to the art centre.

In the catalogue is an essay by Brett Evans, who warmly describes Gaboris transformation from being too shy to look at people, to interrogating anyone who came into the studio. He continues: She may even be accused of starting to dress like an artist and shows definite signs of eccentricity, wearing her stylish hats to the art centre.

When I visit the Woolloongabba Art Gallery, a modest space on a busy road in inner Brisbane, the director, Bob Mercer, a chatty, easy-going man in his 70s, describes Gaboris first exhibition as incredible. He gives me a copy of the catalogue, which features the artist on the cover, standing in front of one of her vibrant canvases with a big smile, wearing a polka-dotted skirt, patterned shirt and jaunty, checked bucket hat.

As Gaboris confidence grew, so did her canvases, becoming larger and bolder. Within the space of a decade, the small, unassuming woman had become an art world sensation, shown at international fairs and galleries from the Venice Biennale to Londons Royal Academy of Arts, acquired by prominent private collectors such as Annabel and Rupert Myer, of the department store dynasty, by major state galleries and international institutions including Pariss Musee du Quai Branly, and commissioned by the Queensland Supreme Court and Brisbane Airport for site-specific work.

Whats all the more extraordinary about Gaboris meteoric rise is the Kaiadilt do not have a tradition of rock or bark painting, and their body painting is simple. From the very beginning, Gabori was inventing a visual language of her own, joyously mapping her ancestral land in seemingly abstract works, using acrylic paint largely unmixed. Nicholas Evans suggests that Gaboris native language, Kayardilt, which defines space in topographical blocks, deeply influenced her idiosyncratic vision.

In the year after her death, Gabori was honoured with a retrospective at the Queensland Art Gallery, which subsequently travelled to the National Gallery of Victoria. Since then, no other Aboriginal artist has explored the immediate power of paint more than her, writes Judith Ryan, a former long-time senior curator of indigenous art at the NGV, in the Fondation Cartier catalogue.

Judith Ryan, a former senior curator of indigenous art at the NGV, says that since Gaboris death, No other Aboriginal artist has explored the immediate power of paint more than her. Credit:Thibaut Voisin

Brett Evans is a hefty, bald, bearded man whose looks have been likened to that of media personality Rex Hunt. Hes variously described to me as lazy, flighty, erratic, a poor communicator, and someone whose office was always out of bounds.

A qualified teacher, Evans arrived on Mornington Island in 1982 from Grafton, NSW, and taught for a couple of years before holding various other jobs. He started at the art centre in 1990, when it was still known as the Woomera Aboriginal Corporation. In 2005, he was appointed its co-ordinator, a role that required him to work closely with artists, supplying and preparing their materials, managing their sales and promoting their work. By 2009, he was promoted to manager, and four years later he was chief executive officer. But Evans did not see out his two-year contract as CEO; he left the art centre in 2014, as details about financial mismanagement started to emerge.

In March 2017, the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations (ORIC), a federal government body set up in 1978 to oversee the running of Aboriginal corporations and ensure that they operate within the law, launched an investigation into Evans. Three years later, charges were filed by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions in Brisbane Magistrates Court, charging Evans with 35 counts of using his position dishonestly to gain an advantage for himself. Twenty-eight of those charges related to the sale of 176 paintings by Gabori, amounting to $415,128.

Loading

Community-run art centres are meant to be safe havens for remote Indigenous artists, places where theyre shielded from exploitation. Art centre artists generally receive 50 to 60 per cent of the sale price of their works, with the remainder going to the centre to pay for materials, documentation, travel and other expenses such as staff and rent. But Evans siphoned the money for those 176 works into his own bank accounts.

Gabori was not the only artist he robbed: he dishonestly sold the artworks of seven other women too, including Gaboris daughters, Amanda and Elsie. But Gabori was the most celebrated of the artists and, as Evans himself acknowledged in court, she accounted for 90 per cent of the centres sales.

Gabori was prolific, producing more than 2000 paintings in the last 10 years of her life. But not all of these were considered suitable for sale. Beverly Knight, in consultation with Brett Evans, had set aside paintings deemed low quality or too experimental to be sold. Its not unusual for a primary dealer to control when and how an artists work will be sold, strategically releasing artworks for sale as a way of protecting an artists status and market price.

Gabori was prolific, producing more than 2000 paintings in the last 10 years of her life. But not all of these were considered suitable for sale.

Gaboris lesser quality paintings were stored in a shipping container on Mornington Island, where they were to remain until Knight determined what to do with them. But that container proved too much of a temptation for Evans, who sold the works in it cheaply. What he did with the money is unclear. There are rumours he gambled it away.

Evans claimed Gabori gave him the paintings in gratitude for all the work hed done for her over the years. The court rejected this story. It found that from August 2011 to September 2014, in the final years of Gaboris life, Evans faked invoices and certificates of authenticity, so that buyers thought they were paying the Mornington Island art centre for Gaboris works, not Evans himself.

In February this year, aged 62, Evans was sentenced to four-and-a-half-years jail with a non-parole period of 20 months. He pleaded guilty to all 35 charges, sparing a lengthy and expensive trial. The court ordered him to repay the $421,378.20 owed to the artists and art centre, but that hasnt happened. Many doubt it ever will.

Brett Evans ran the Mornington Island Art Centre where Gabori painted  and stole from her. Credit:

People are angry, says the art centres new manager, John Armstrong, who took over in 2018 and has had to deal with the emotional and economic fallout. The most common response I have had is, He only got four-and-a-half years, he should have got 14-and-a-half, because he was in the community for so long, he had family here, he was initiated here, he had kids. People felt really betrayed. And it was not just what he did to Sally, its what he did to the other artists as well.

Brett Evans is married to a local artist, Emily Evans, a Lardil woman with whom he has three children. Without excusing the crime, Nicholas Evans offers another perspective on the man. He was someone who was helping things happen, Evans says. As the art centre co-ordinator, he took some decisive early steps which meant that not only Sally but that whole Kaiadilt art movement took off, encouraging her, giving her a paint brush, saying, Look, this could work. Not that hes any form of art connoisseur at all; hed be the first to say that.

These were all really positive things about Brett, and the terrible thing about Bretts story is that its just like, you know, a Shakespearean tragedy, of someone who starts off with a couple of flaws, like we all have, and circumstances just amplified them, and some rotten things happened because of that and its hurt people in the community and its hurt him.

Then there was this other thing with the famous shed with all of the unsold canvases, which, yeah, its a sort of Pandoras Box waiting to be opened at some point in the future. Thats what did happen and thats when the top blew off it all.

The aftershocks keep coming, with differing opinions on whether the paintings Brett Evans dishonestly sold should be returned to the Gabori estate. For Dorothy and Amanda Gabori, the issue is clear-cut. When I meet them in Brisbane they tell me the works were stolen and should be given back. They describe Evans crime as elder abuse. What Evans did remains deeply hurtful to the sisters, and its not something they like to talk about. He took advantage of an old lady, Dorothy tells me in a near whisper.

Significantly, the court made no ruling on whether the paintings should be returned to the Gabori estate. Nor will ORIC be taking any further action. ORIC investigated the fraud associated with the sale of the artworks; ownership was never in question, the organisation wrote to me in February, when I sought clarification of the issue.

But the law is one thing, perception another. In the art trade, provenance  an artworks sales history  is paramount, and for some collectors the knowledge that these paintings were initially sold dishonestly may dampen their enthusiasm for owning one. As Judith Ryan puts it, Once we have someone jailed for such an offence, it means that the works that changed hands as a result of this are tainted, so collectors would not necessarily want those on their walls.

Ryan, who is now a senior curator at the University of Melbourne art museums, takes a strong stance. People will say they didnt know that this is what happened, but thats why when you have a betrayal like this, its so undermining of all art centres and artists. Its exploiting the vulnerable members of the community, which is not to be countenanced.

Philanthropist Pat Corrigan was one of the biggest buyers of Gaboris works. Credit:Wolter Peeters

Almost half the works Brett Evans dishonestly sold were bought by one of Australias biggest collectors of Indigenous art, well-known Sydney philanthropist Pat Corrigan, who made his fortune in the freight business. Corrigan, who bought the paintings from Evans in several lots before the crimes came to light, feels like the whipping boy in the whole Brett Evans saga. Evans did the crime, but Corrigan feels hes in the firing line.

Why is all the focus on me all the time? he asks when we meet in Sydney. I suggest its because he bought so many Gabori paintings from Evans, at bargain-basement prices. Why arent they focusing on the other people? he responds.

Court documents show that among the other buyers of the Gaboris from Evans are a medical practitioner, Andrew Clift, who travelled to Mornington Island between 2009 and 2011 as part of his work with the Mount Isa Base Hospital. Over two years, Clift bought a total of 60 works, paying $90,000 in total (an average of $1500 a piece). Theres also Hobart gallery Art Mob, which bought 15 works over two years, paying $52,681 (an average of $3512); the Yaama Ganu Gallery, in the regional NSW town of Moree, which bought 12, also over two years, paying $43,000 (an average of $3583); and a few other individuals, including Pat Corrigans art adviser, Adam Knight (no relation to Beverly), who bought two works for himself at a total cost of $6000.

Corrigan is a likeable fellow. He has an ease about him, and a mischievousness that seems to act as a kind of foil. He manages to be candid and circumspect all at once. Approaching 90, controversy is the last thing he needs, especially after a lifetime building a reputation as a generous supporter of the arts. He texts me several weeks after we meet, hoping my story will be All. Joy and pleading with me to Leave. Be. Controversy. Still, Corrigan didnt hesitate when I asked whether I could visit him in Sydney to discuss the Evans case and his entanglement in it.

At about midday on a sunny, crisp Saturday in June, Corrigan picks me up from my hotel in his small white Suzuki. He looks dapper in a long black coat and a pair of black leather slip-ons with white sneaker-like soles. He may be almost 90, but hes not skimping on style. He puts on a pair of black designer sunglasses with mirror lenses and off we drive toward his part of town. First, theres lunch at his favourite Double Bay cafe, followed by a gallery tour. Wherever we go, people warmly greet him by name and he relishes the attention.

When we finally make it to his apartment in Darling Point, several hours later, the winter sun is beginning its descent over Sydneys towers. Corrigans apartment is a shrine to his joyfully Catholic taste for contemporary art. On display is a cacophony of styles, shapes, mediums, colour: Ken Whissons scratchy abstract paintings on the wall; Alex Setons marble palm trees on the coffee table; a Ben Quilty painting of a hamburger in one of the halls; the fabulously garish ceramics of Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran on a side table.

No sign, though, of paintings by Gabori  theyre in storage, he tells me  although a Perspex box housing three paint-stained brushes that belonged to her is sitting on the coffee table. The brushes are surprisingly small, about the thickness of a big thumb. Looking at Gaboris works, one imagines she used huge house-painting brushes, but thats not the case at all.

According to the court documents, from March 2013 to June 2014 Corrigan purchased 83 paintings by Gabori from Evans, although he emphasises to me that he never dealt with Evans directly, leaving Adam Knight to do business for him.

Corrigan paid a total of $214,447 for those 83 paintings, an average of about $2600 a piece, which Beverly Knight says is well below the wholesale price. She told ORIC that the total wholesale price for those 83 paintings should have been about $1 million at the time of purchase, an average of about $12,000 a piece. (The Australian and New Zealand Art Sales Digest, which records the results of art auctions, shows that from 2011 to 2014, the time of Brett Evans offending, prices for Gaboris paintings ranged from about $4500 to $36,000.)

Loading

Its not unusual for dealers to buy art in bulk in order to negotiate a better price and maximise profits when they on-sell. I ask Corrigan whether this was why he bought so many.

No, he says, sounding slightly hurt by the proposal. Its because I wanted to do the book.

I am not a dealer, he insists. Im a collector, and Im a bit of a nutty collector. I ask if the very low price of the works, relative to Gaboris market price, raised any suspicions in him. If Adam had started offering me some of these for $50 or $75  I would have got suspicious and pulled out of the deal, he says. [But] I paid the normal price.

The book he refers to is a hardback, 222-page tome commissioned at Corrigans expense and published under the Macmillan imprint in April 2015, two months after Gaboris death. Titled The Corrigan Collection of Paintings by Sally Gabori, it cost Corrigan $150,000 to produce and was launched at a succession of high-profile events across the country, by prominent figures including Rupert Myer, then chair of the Australia Council for the Arts, in Melbourne, and former governor-general Quentin Bryce, in Brisbane.

Beverly Knight was unimpressed when she got hold of The Corrigan Collection of Paintings by Sally Gabori a week after its Melbourne launch. Within it, she recognised many of the Gabori paintings shed set aside not to be sold. Thats when she realised something was awry on Mornington Island. Knight was so disturbed by the book that she rang all the public art gallery bookshops in Australia, asking them not to stock it. Only the National Gallery of Victoria agreed. Knight continues to condemn the book and wants any remaining copies pulped. Corrigan finds her reaction difficult to fathom.

This was a fun thing to do, he says. Cant some people work out  certainly Beverly cant  theres got to be some fun in this whole art thing? The whole thing is meant to be a happy venture. He proudly shows me the letter from ORIC thanking him for his co-operation in the investigation.

US comedian Steve Martin, a serious collector of Indigenous art, owns work by Gabori. Credit:Getty Images

I ask Corrigan what he thinks about the quality of the paintings sold by Evans. As proof of their artistic merit, he tells me that some were bought by American comedian Steve Martin, a serious collector of Australian Aboriginal art. Martin is one of the major clients of ambitious Melbourne art dealer DLan Davidson, former head of Aboriginal Art at Sothebys Australia who has been vigorously growing his business in the secondary market for Aboriginal art, forging ties with big international players such as mega-gallery Gagosian. Corrigan sold some of his Gabori paintings through Davidsons gallery, DLan Contemporary, which is where Steve Martin acquired one.

When I ring Davidson to ask, among other things, whether I can speak with Martin about the Gabori paintings, hes incensed that I even have the nerve to ask. Davidson is a keen self-promoter, but this is not the kind of attention he wants.

In her 70s, with silvery bobbed hair and dressed in layers of black, Beverly Knight has a brusque manner and a reputation for being territorial. After so many years promoting Gabori, and building a relationship with the family, shes protective of her patch.

It was when this book came out that I knew there was a problem, Beverly Knight tells me as we sit in her third-floor office in Market Street, Melbourne, around the corner from her gallery, with a copy of Corrigans book on the table. I was knocked off my feet because a lot of the works in the book were works I had put away, she says.

I had no evidence up until then what was going on. All I knew was that there were occasional poor works appearing on the market, and people were thinking they were fakes.

And then getting Sally when she was near death, Knight adds, pointing to the photos of the artist in the book. Some of the photos are just appalling, really heartbreaking.

Beverly Knight, the Melbourne gallery director who became Gaboris primary art dealer and art agent of her estate. Credit:Thibaut Voisin

Knights office glows with the works of Gabori. In the entrance hang some particularly strong examples, such as Dibirdibi Country, 2012, sweeps of yellow, orange, magenta and white sparring with each other.

I ask Knight to point out some of the paintings in Corrigans book that she considers of lower quality. She indicates a couple, and to my eye they dont seem radically different to those shes sold, Gaboris work being in

essence raw and spontaneous. Might she have sold such work in the future, though? Maybe, Knight says. It wouldnt be up to me, because the estate owns them. I dont own them.

Artists works are open to reassessment, Knight explains, and part of the process a dealer goes through entails returning to certain works and looking at them afresh.

Knights decision to publicly criticise the paintings in Corrigans book has created friction in the art trade, foremost between her and the younger dealer snapping at her heels, DLan Davidson, a strikingly tall and confident 40-something. Knight asked Davidson not to sell any works from Corrigans collection while the Brett Evans case was pending. Davidson sought his own advice. In this exceptional circumstance, we made direct contact with the lead investigative body of the case  ORIC  and we relied on the information that they provided to me personally, Davidson says.

In December 2020, Davidson launched an exhibition of 10 works by Gabori, eight of which were from the Corrigan collection. Prices ranged from $14,000 for smaller works to $88,000 for large works, with two works being price on application, including one that Corrigan had bought from Beverly Knights gallery, and had pictured on the cover of his book. This painting Knight had pointed to as an excellent example of Gaboris work. I believe in those paintings, Davidson tells me. We put them up for sale because we did everything right, we did our due diligence, we paid copyright ($3400) and resale royalty ($18,053), and we were proven right.

When I ask what he means by proven right, he says that the paintings were purchased legally and have clear title.

Gaboris paintings on display at the Fondation Cartier exhibition. Credit:Thibaut Voisin

Knight disagrees. She defines clear title as a direct line from the point of sale back to the artist, and since Gabori was not paid for the Evans works, Knight says there is no direct line with them. She tells me shes been contacted by several international collectors concerned about the provenance of their Gabori paintings. One collector asked Davidson for a refund, which he duly provided. As it turned out, this was for a Gabori painting that had nothing to do with the batch that Brett Evans unlawfully sold, highlighting how easily buyer confidence can be undermined when theres a hint of scandal surrounding an artist.

Knight also asked the auction house Deutscher and Hackett to check in with her on any Gabori paintings from Corrigan that might be coming up for sale while the Brett Evans case was ongoing. It agreed. Navigating the situation was delicate for auction house co-founder Chris Deutscher, who has dealt with Pat Corrigan for 40-odd years. I think the works are great, there is nothing wrong with them, Deutscher tells me. When I saw DLans catalogue, I was envious. How come Pats selling his Gaboris? I didnt think he ever wanted to sell them  there are some very good examples. Some of them are verging on the spectacular.

Amid this stand-off, Davidson went on the offensive and pitched for Knights job, offering his services as art agent for the Gabori estate. I ask the Gabori estates lawyer, Jeneve Frizzo, whether change is likely. She responds via email: Beverly Knight Art + Business is the Agent for the Estate. The Estate is very grateful to the Agents ethical and skilled stewardship of the artists legacy. The estate is not considering changing agency arrangements.

Loading

The court case may be over, but the Gabori estate holds the trump card: from now on it can refuse copyright for any of the paintings Brett Evans unlawfully handled, prohibiting them from being illustrated in auction house or dealer catalogues, thereby hampering their sale. Thats the instruction from the estate, Knight tells me. Copyright is denied for any works listed in the [Evans] court documents.

Whether all this affects the prices for the Evans-sold works if and when their current owners want to trade them remains to be seen, as, too, whether the controversy around them has a dampening effect on Gaboris entire market. As to legal avenues for the estate to seize the Evans works, it is not known if any exist and, if so, whether they are being pursued. In the meantime, Frizzo writes that the estate would be grateful to any person in possession of such works who would return them to the estate.

On the other side of the world, far from the power plays of Australias commercial art world, Sally Gaboris name is writ large on the glass facade of the Fondation Cartiers spectacular Jean Nouvel-designed building in Montparnasse. Beverly Knight jubilantly texts me photos from Paris: Narelle, Tori and Amanda, standing in front of the massive poster bearing their mother and grandmothers name; another of Amanda, inside the exhibition, in front of one her mothers vast ice-cream works, painted in luscious pastels.

The Fondation Cartier was established in 1984 by the French luxury goods company to present contemporary art in its broadest sense, including painting, photography, design, performance, video and fashion. Its long-standing director, Herve Chandes, has exhibited the biggest names in contemporary art, among them Damien Hirst, Takashi Murakami, Matthew Barney and Australians Ron Mueck and Marc Newson. But nothing prepared him for Sally Gabori. When Chandes was first shown a catalogue of Gaboris work several years ago, his reaction was visceral.

I said to myself, immediately, and to everyone around me at the Fondation, Lets do it!  Chandes tells me by video from Paris. I was completely overwhelmed  by the colours, by the composition, the scale, the size, the beauty, the space. Really, it was shocking. Shocking! And so beautiful.

Gaboris exhibition, the first of an Australian Indigenous artist at the Fondation, is a milestone as significant as that experienced by another late-flowering artist, the much-lauded Emily Kame Kngwarreye, who was honoured with a comprehensive solo exhibition in Tokyo, Japan, in 2008, also posthumously.

Thirty of Gaboris paintings are being exhibited across the Fondations two floors, as well as three collaborative paintings created with other Kaiadilt artists including her daughters, Amanda and Elsie. The subterranean floor is exclusively for Gaboris monumental canvases, those measuring two metres by six metres, which Judith Ryan, who also travelled to Paris for the opening, tells me reminds her of stepping into the room of Monets Water Lilies at the Musee de lOrangerie in Paris. Following its four months in Paris, the Gabori exhibition will travel to Italy for the Milan Triennale early next year.

Shes not here, but somewhere, we are talking to her. And the show is her show  its not her memories, shes alive! And its for the family, its for the community.

I ask Chandes whether he thinks many French people will have heard of Sally Gabori. Except us, no one, he says flashing a charming smile. Thats the idea, to introduce her work with a solo exhibition and a fantastic selection of artwork. Our wish is to make something important for Sally Gabori. First, for Sally Gabori herself. We are talking to her. Shes not here, but somewhere, we are talking to her. And the show is her show  its not her memories, shes alive! And its for the family, its for the community.

Sally Gaboris Queensland Supreme Court mural was commissioned more than a decade ago, but Amanda and Dorothy Gabori have never seen it. On a cool June morning, we make our way along Brisbanes Roma Street to the courts, the fresh breeze skipping around the Gabori sisters colourful skirts.

On a curved wall in the public square before the buildings entrance, Japanese artist Yayoi Kusamas Thousands of Eyes installation sizes us up. Sally Gabori is in good company. We pass through security, take a lift to the third floor and go searching for the Banco Court, where the mural is housed, only to find the room is locked. A barrister in long, black robes points us to a judges associate who might help. Her face lights up when we explain why were here. What an honour it is to meet you, I love that artwork, she tells the sisters.

She swipes her card against the court doors lock and in we go. In the hush of the empty court room, I hear Dorothy and Amanda draw breath. Oh, its so beautiful, they murmur in unison.

Amanda and Dorothy Gabori in front of their mothers mural at the Supreme Court in Brisbane. Credit:Sue Lee

The murals scale and energy takes us all by surprise  its four metres high and 16 metres wide, sweeping across the entire back wall. Vigorous white brush strokes dissolve into the primary colours layered beneath, giving the painting an ethereal sea light.

Artists Jeph Neale and Hilary Jackman were entrusted with transferring Gaboris artwork to the Banco Court, travelling to Mornington Island in June 2010 to meet the artist, by then in her mid-80s, and learn first-hand her method of paint application. They have done a superb job; the mural radiates Gaboris spirit. We all struggle to hold back tears.

Could I go and touch it? Dorothy asks shyly. She walks quietly towards the wall, past the judges bench, until she is face-to-face with the painting. She reaches up to the mural and holds her right hand against it. Her long, elegant fingers rest there for a sustained stretch of time. Dorothy stands, silent, hand tenderly pressed against the mural as though summoning her mothers spirit, connecting with her ancestral lands. The moment feels too sacred, too private, to watch. It is a moment of clarity in the complicated story of Sally Gabori.

To read more from Good Weekend magazine, visit our page at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times.
Matthew Riser was sentenced to a year of probation Wednesday in Flagstaff after pleading guilty to lighting a fire on the Coconino National Forest.

Riser had lit toilet paper on fire in the forest June 11 and the first report of the Pipeline Fire happened around 10 a.m. the next day.

An investigation into the fires cause is still underway, meanwhile, and the events of Wednesday's hearing will not affect future charges related to its findings, and both the U.S. and defense attorneys stated that it does not currently appear that the burned toilet paper is connected to the start of the Pipeline Fire.

In a call with the Arizona Daily Sun on Thursday, defense attorney Daniel Kaiser said Riser's toilet paper and the Pipeline Fire are not linked at all, a misconception he's seen in reporting on the case.

"There was no evidence of burning anywhere near where that incident was. There was no evidence of spreading fire or anything else from that," he said of the fire Riser to which pleaded guilty. "That's what I want to make sure was clear, because everyone keeps making a mistake that what happened that day somehow caused the fire the next day."

Kaiser added: "Those two are separate incidents, and he was never charged for anything relating to the Pipeline Fire, nor did he plea to anything with that. ... They use the word connection, but he wasn't arrested for anything that would suggest that he caused the Pipeline Fire. That was the big misconception."

Riser was initially charged on three counts: possession of marijuana, lighting a fire on the national forest during restrictions and residing on the national forest. He pleaded guilty to the second count.

The first count had been dismissed without prejudice at a previous hearing. The third count, meanwhile, was dismissed on Wednesday without prejudice, meaning both have the potential to be filed again.

Riser said during the hearing that he had lit the toilet paper after flipping up a rock and that he had monitored the fire until it had gone out, at which point he replaced the rock.

And it was a big rock, he said.

The only reason I did that is I dont litter, he later added. It was a bad mistake.

While Kaiser said there was some question" as to whether Riser had seen the signs advising of fire restrictions, there were several along the roadways he would have used to enter the forest.

In his sentencing recommendation, Kaiser asked the court to consider what has typically been done in similar circumstances. He told the Daily Sun that he hadn't had a fire restrictions case before, as they usually don't require attorneys.

"Someone who has an illegal campfire, usually my understanding is that it's more of a collateral forfeiture or something that's handled generally without attorneys. That's probably why I've never seen one," he said.

In his sentencing recommendation, he again noted the impact of Risers time in detention and that Riser had been open with law enforcement.

If there was no Pipeline Fire, I dont know if wed even be sitting here, he said.  ... I think everything thats gone on [at] this time is significant enough and punishment enough.

During Thursday's call he said "the only reason why it was handled the way it was is because of the big fire and there just wasn't enough information at the beginning of the case."

When making the decision, Judge Camille Bibles referenced 2019s Cottonwood Creek Fire, which charred 64 acres of the Grand Canyon after a backpacker burned toilet paper.

I dont want to downplay the significance of having any type of fire in the forest [during restrictions], particularly during drought, she said.

In addition to his probation, Riser has been banned from five of Arizonas national forests, including the Coconino National Forest.
The mother of an 11-year-old girl, who was killed by a drunk driver together with three of her cousins, says she is devastated after the offenders jail sentence was dramatically reduced on Friday.

Samuel Davidson, 31, was drunk, drugged and driving more than 130km/h when his ute ploughed into a group of seven children who were walking along a footpath in Sydneys north-west to buy ice-cream on February 1, 2020.

Bridget Sakr (left) at Samuel Davidsons sentencing last year. Credit:Kate Geraghty

Veronique Sakr and her cousins  siblings Antony, 13, Angelina, 12, and Sienna Abdallah, 8  died in the Oatlands tragedy. The other three children were injured, one boy suffering from permanent brain damage.

Davidson was jailed in April 2021 for 28 years with a non-parole period of 21 years for a raft of charges, including four counts of manslaughter.
Lynda Greenwood had bright pink house keys so she could find them quickly to get inside in case her violent ex-partner was waiting to ambush her.

But they were no help just after midnight on October 20, 2020, when Jason Lloyd bludgeoned and stabbed her to death as she walked to her front door.

Jason Lloyd and Lynda Greenwood in an undated image. Credit:Facebook

In the NSW Supreme Court on Friday, Justice Geoffrey Bellew jailed him for 25 years and six months with a non-parole period of 19 years and one month.

The 41-year-old had pleaded guilty to murdering his 39-year-old on-off partner outside her townhouse at Como in Sydneys south.
Shore School headmaster Tim Petterson has been dismissed after the schools governing council said a review of culture had found new leadership was needed.

Former St Andrews Cathedral School head John Collier has been appointed interim headmaster while a new principal is found.

Tim Petterson is just the eighth headmaster of Shore School in more than 130 years.

The decision comes amid deep divisions among staff and parents at the 133-year-old Anglican school over Pettersons educational leadership and management style. Since he began in 2020, more than 90 staff members have left.

Earlier this year, Petterson admitted his leadership had left teachers sad, angry and fearful in a long apology to the schools staff, saying he had been unintentionally disrespectful, insensitive and unwise.
Sydney has clocked its wettest July on record despite being just halfway through the month, with more rain expected to be dumped on the city in the coming weeks.

As of 9am on Thursday, Sydneys Observatory Hill weather station reported 342.2 mm of rain since the start of the month, making this July the wettest in history with records dating back to 1858.

The previous wettest July was 1950 with 336mm. The usual average rainfall in July for Sydney is 96mm.

Weatherzone senior meteorologist Brett Dutschke said La Nina had been a major player in the amount of rainfall recorded in Sydney this year.
Three teenagers have been charged with murder after a 17-year-old boy was stabbed to death at Sydneys Royal Easter Show this year.

Police and paramedics were called to Sydney Showground about 8pm on April 11 after reports of a brawl in the carnival ride section of the show. They found a 17-year-old boy in a critical condition with a stab wound to the chest, and a 16-year-old boy with a stab wound to the leg.

The older boy died on the way to hospital.

On Saturday, NSW Police announced two 18-year-olds and a 14-year-old had been charged with murder over the incident, after detectives overcame the wall of silence they encountered in the initial stages of the investigation.
Sydney publican banned for life after assaults

Were sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. Were working to restore it. Please try again later.

Dismiss
The Hepburn Shire Council had grand plans for Daylesfords heritage theatre. A new cinema, library and space for council offices. They were told it could be done for less than $1 million.

But the theatre, known as The Rex, has been shuttered for more than four years and has not screened a movie since 2017 after the redevelopment costs blew out and construction was abandoned.

Hepburn Shire chief executive Bradley Thomas (left) and mayor Tim Drylie inside The Rex in Daylesford. Credit:Jason South

The council is now preparing to sell the theatre, sparking fears among Daylesford residents that The Rex, which was run by volunteers before the failed refurbishment began, may be lost forever.

We had a cinema, and theyve taken it from us, said Jules McDonald, president of Hepburn Matters.
A teacher shortage, exacerbated by illness and a flood of resignations, has forced the principal of one of Melbournes biggest schools to cancel or merge senior students classes and consider a return to remote learning.

The Wyndham Vale school did not have enough teachers to run several secondary classes this week, or to create a senior timetable before the start of term. Students missed out on some core VCE subjects, triggering complaints from parents and resulting in different subjects being grouped together.

Manor Lakes P-12 College has experienced staffing shortages in the first week of term 3. Credit:Joe Armao

Manor Lakes P-12 College principal, Stephen Warner, told families on the first day of term this week that the school was already under some staffing duress. He said 60 to 70 of the schools 320 staff were absent, many due to COVID-19 infections, the flu or caring for their own sick children.

The supply of teachers has been seriously undermined during the COVID restrictions and the changes to work after two years of lockdown and personal situations has resulted in a substantial number of staff opting to resign, he wrote in a note to families on Monday.
On Thursday, NSW, Victoria, Queensland, the ACT and Tasmania all joined in calling for the end to the payment to be reversed or at least reconsidered, as tens of thousands of people catch COVID-19 each day and are obliged under state laws to isolate for a week. A spokesman for the SA government said the decision to bring together national cabinet on Monday was welcome and that the state would work collaboratively with the Albanese government regarding assistance and support for those people impacted by COVID including pandemic leave payments and access to free [rapid antigen tests]. National cabinet will meet for the second time with Anthony Albanese as prime minister. Credit:Rhett Wyman The state government would support a short extension of the COVID-19 Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment to help workers who have no sick leave entitlements, the spokesman said. NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said it was unfair for governments to end financial support as long as public health orders require people with COVID to isolate.

Perrottet on Friday said he was willing to have all discussions at Mondays snap meeting of national cabinet about funding support, including splitting costs down the middle with the federal government, vowing to advocate for casual workers. Im very open to doing everything we can at the state level to support our people through this next phase of the pandemic, he said. I think it is unfair that when the state imposes public health orders on people to restrict their liberty and their capacity to work, for the government to not provide financial support. The premier backed the need to maintain support, particularly through winter, after the reinfection period for COVID-19 was reduced from 12 weeks to 4 weeks. Theres not one time in the pandemic that we have set and left policies in place. Weve always tailored the circumstances, he said.Having said that, weve also got to be balanced because the financial implications and the budget positions at both a Commonwealth and state level are clearly under pressure. ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr has also called for the payment to be restored until the end of winter by the federal government.

The South Australian government is still supplying free rapid antigen tests to close contacts of COVID cases and the NSW government has announced it will supply them for free to vulnerable groups. Federal Health Minister Mark Butler, who has warned of millions of new cases across Australia by the time winter ends in six weeks, defended the axing of the payment and the decision to stop providing free rapid antigen tests to concession-card holders from July 31 in an interview on ABC Radio National on Friday. This is the time it was intended to come off, this is the time it needs to come off ... we are looking to do everything we can to reduce incidents of severe illness, he said. As you move to a new phase that doesnt have the same level of mandates around peoples behaviour ... inevitably you have to start looking at these very large emergency payments that have been coming out of the budget. The health minister conceded it was a tough decision to end the payments during a third Omicron wave, saying there were a range of points that could lead to a decision to review a return of pandemic payments.

Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley criticised Albanese for breaking a promise to leave no one behind. Loading At the heart of this is a leave payment that is there for people who just dont have finances to fall back on. And as we walked to the studio today, past the people who clean the train stations, who set up the coffee shops, $750 is a lifeline for them, she told Sunrise. And what we dont want is them feeling forced to come to work to protect their family, to put food on the table. And that is this is just not good enough. More than 47,000 COVID-19 cases and 78 deaths were recorded in Australia on Thursday while 4512 people were hospitalised with the virus.
Why did you come here? What for? Why did you come here to liberate us? she asked them, tears streaming down her face.

Eventually, they told Natalia she was free to go. But they took her husband away.

Natalia watched as Yevhen was forced to his knees at gunpoint, while the Russians seized their mobile phones, computer, camera, gold and jewellery. Looting is a war crime, but the soldiers didnt appear to care.

Natalia still doesnt know for sure whether Yevhen is dead or alive. Credit:Kate Geraghty

It was March 18, three weeks into the invasion, when the Russian soldiers arrived at the door of their home armed with machine guns.

I think they might have told him that theyd do something to me unless he talked, Natalia Kulakivska says from her home in Bucha.

The Russian soldiers were pointing at Yevhen Kulakivskiys wife Natalia when he started talking.

In a four-part investigation, we go inside Ukraine to reveal how prosecutors will build their case for a prosecution against Russia. See all 10 stories.

In a four-part series, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age are revealing new details of apparent war crimes committed in Ukraine  including enforced disappearances, torture, unlawful killings and indiscriminate bombings  based on first-hand accounts of victims, witnesses and forensic investigators.

Enforced disappearance is a crime against humanity. Many of the practices associated with making someone disappear  torture, depriving them of a fair trial and inhumane treatment  are also war crimes under the Geneva Conventions.

Natalia Kulakivska with her missing loved ones. From top right: nephew Vladyslav Bondarenko; brother-in-law Serhiy Lyubych and husband Yevhen Kulakivskiy, Bondarenko is now confirmed dead. Credit:Kate Geraghty

Yevhen is among thousands of Ukrainians who have disappeared since Russia invaded on February 24. It is still difficult to know exactly how many, but Ukraines national police has received more than 9000 missing person reports since Russia invaded.

Your government doesnt want to give them to us, the soldier said.

But you already have. What are you doing here ? Natalia responded.

No, we didnt come here to liberate you, we came here to take the Crimea and Donbas from you, one soldier said.

Thats only a fraction of the actual number of cases, she warns. The Russian side has not spoken, they have not given figures on how many people they hold.

Matilda Bogner, an Australian who heads the United Nations human rights mission in Ukraine, says her agencys investigators have documented 270 cases of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance committed by Russian forces so far. It has also identified 12 cases committed by Ukrainian authorities.

According to Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Iryna Venediktova, Russia has committed more than 22,500 war crimes and crimes of aggression against Ukraine since the invasion. For its part, Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians.

While it is impossible at this stage to say exactly how many war crimes have been committed in Ukraine, stacking up and prosecuting each case will be a long and arduous process for investigators.

The International Criminal Court has described Ukraine as a crime scene and deployed its largest ever team of detectives to the country to assist in multiple investigations.

Eleven days after Natalias brother-in-law went missing, her husband was taken right in front of her. Hours later her nephew Vladyslav Bondarenko, 20, also went missing. He is now dead.

By March 12, Russia had complete control of the city.

The battle for Bucha, a Kyiv satellite city of about 37,000 residents, was still raging and nobody could find out anything. Fearing the worst, the family evacuated the couples two children with a stranger.

Yevhen, 42, wasnt the first to disappear in Natalias family. Her sisters husband Serhiy Lyubych, 37, had gone to collect water for neighbours on March 7, as the town was already cut off from electricity, gas and running water. He never came back, leaving his wife Snizhana wondering what happened to him.

It is a form of torture or ill-treatment of the families as well, by keeping them in the dark, she says. And thats one of the key elements of enforced disappearance  the family becomes the victim as well.

Bogner says enforced disappearances are terrifying not only for the person but for their family.

Since then, the Russian Red Cross has confirmed that Serhiy is alive in a prison near the city of Bryansk, but there has been no news about her husband.

Days after learning of her nephews death, Natalia heard from other released Ukrainians that Yevhen and Serhiy had been taken to prisons in Russia.

The man, who doesnt wish to be identified, was held with her husband and nephew in large freezers at an airport in the nearby town of Hostomel, before they were shipped to Belarus on March 22. On the way, Vladyslav panicked and tried to escape from a truck. He was shot dead by Russian soldiers. His body was buried by strangers.

A man is dwarfed by the ruins of one of the many buildings impacted by Russian shelling and missiles in Bucha. Credit:Kate Geraghty

Then on April 20, weeks after the Russians had fled Bucha, a man turned up in her street who had been released by Russia as part of a prisoner exchange.

For more than a month, Natalia had no idea where they were. They checked basements and morgues but found nothing.

Three men were taken from my family. We will never see one of them again, Natalia says.

I dont know who can influence the Russians, I dont know who can influence those who decide the fate of my relatives and loved ones and thousands of other people, Natalia says. But I am begging  begging  if there is a chance, to reach their hearts and for this to end.

More than 1300 civilians in Bucha and its surrounds were killed by Russian soldiers. Credit:Kate Geraghty

Crimes must be investigated

After Ukrainian soldiers liberated Bucha on March 31, authorities had to exhume a mass grave of 117 people in the grounds of the citys Orthodox church. Many had been carried there by relatives and friends after they were shot in the street or beaten to death.

Father Andriy Halavin stands at the rear of the church, in front of the memorial and plaque at the site of the mass grave of civilians killed by Russian soldiers. Credit:Kate Geraghty

Andriy Halavin, the priest at the Church of the Holy St Andrew the First-Called, says many residents still dont know what happened to their relatives.

Loading

Its twofold. On the one hand, they cant find the bodies. On the other hand, a lot of people have been forcefully taken to Belarus and then deported to Russia, he says.

Justice wont come overnight, the priest says, but it is important the crimes that have been committed here  the murders, the looting, the rapes  are investigated and the criminals prosecuted.

In response to a series of questions on these cases and others, the Russian embassy in Australia said many of the allegations of war crimes were unverified and were being fed by Ukrainian propaganda.

Nadiya Kuksenko weeps as she talks of the pain they have suffered in Bucha. She says the hardest part is collecting prayer messages residents write at the church as she takes on the pain of each prayer. Credit:Kate Geraghty

"With no substantiation, lack of identifying data or at least indication of sources, most of your questions hardly deserve consideration," the embassy said.

I spent a night under a dead body

Tradesman Boris Popov, who was held for weeks in a Russian prison with Natalias brother-in-law Serhiy, has some of the answers.

Popov has provided the full account of what happened to Ukrainian prosecutors and the UN body investigating war crimes in Ukraine. Now he wants to tell his story to the world, partly in a bid to secure the freedom of men such as Yevhen and Serhiy still stuck in Russian prisons.

Willing to testify: Boris Popov has been through an unimaginable ordeal. Credit:Kate Geraghty

On March 5 Boris was on his way to Vorzels town centre, about six kilometres from Bucha, to fetch water. His wife, also called Natalia, would not see him again for almost two months.

Four Russian soldiers in camouflage emerged from the forest and ordered him to strip naked and lie on the ground. They broke his nose, smashing his face with their guns, then blindfolded him with tape and tied his hands. The next morning they threw him in a room with about 30 Ukrainian prisoners in the nearby town of Hostomel.

One by one, the men were taken to be interrogated and tortured. Shots rang out. They put a gun to Boris head, asking him where the Ukrainian military was positioned.

I told them that I really didnt know and that I was a civilian. But in the last moment, they took the gun away and shot over my ear.

Boris Popov stands in the forest glade where he was captured by the Russians. Credit:Kate Geraghty

The soldiers told Boris they would release him; he could go back to his home in Vorzel. At a cemetery on the outskirts of his town, the soldiers let the prisoners untie themselves and walk across a field.

As Boris began to run, grenades exploded and gunfire whistled overhead. The prisoners were surrounded by more than 50 Russian armoured vehicles.

I felt like I was being hunted down like an animal just for fun, Boris says.

Black bags were pulled over their heads and the Ukrainians were taken to a dugout in the forest where theyd been captured.

Then, he says, the most terrible things started to happen.

He saw a man tied to a tree trunk, who he later learnt was a lieutenant colonel with Ukraines intelligence agency, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). Days earlier, hed grabbed an old grenade launcher from his house in Bucha and tried to fire on the Russian convoy, but it had jammed.

Boris watched as a young Russian commander slammed a wooden peg deeper and deeper into the lieutenant colonels skull. But the officer, knowing he would die, was taunting his attackers.

The other prisoners were beaten with wooden hammers and made to lie on the ground with their legs and arms spread before being kicked under the ribs. Months later, Boris left ribs still ache; he is sure some of them were broken.

The soldiers ordered Boris to finish off the colonel with an axe.

Put him out of his misery, they said.

Guys, I am afraid of blood, I just cant, Boris replied.

The soldiers threw Boris blindfolded into a hole and pretended to shoot him multiple times. The bullets whistled past his head and into the ground.

I was an atheist before, but I started to remember prayers. I started talking to God, Boris says.

Then all the other prisoners including the lieutenant colonel  about 30 men  were thrown into the hole with Boris, who was stripped to his underpants in sub-zero temperatures.

While they were beating me I didnt care about the weather in the heat of the moment, but as the night was closing in I started to freeze, Boris says.

The soldiers also made the men shout Hail Russia! every 15 to 20 minutes, and if they failed one of the soldiers would hit them over the head with a wooden hammer.

Around midnight, the lieutenant colonel asked for a doctor as blood gushed from his head.

A doctor or paramedic, who Boris says was drunk, then came and said: You f---ing Ukrainian bastards dont need a doctor.

He gave the lieutenant colonel half a pill, which Boris believes was aspirin.

Boris then asked for a blanket, but the soldiers said one more word out of him would lead to his certain death.

The prisoners huddled for warmth. Boris thought the colonel had fallen asleep, but then noticed his mouth was open and full of soil. The colonel was dead.

At first it was very frightening. But then a thought came to me that I should cover myself with the corpse, so I dont freeze to death, Boris says. I managed to push myself underneath him and the rest of the night I spent under a dead body.

A stick marks the grave of the former colonel who died in the pit next to Boris. Credit:Kate Geraghty

At about 11am the next morning, the soldiers put a bag over Boris head and allowed him to put his clothes back on.

The prisoners were taken to a locked room back in Hostomel, where they drank from a puddle of muddy water to slake their thirst.

Then Boris and nine other men were locked in a freezer chamber, six metres long and 2.5 metres wide. Thats where Boris met Serhiy, Natalias brother-in-law.

In those terrible nights, when suffering triggered hallucinations and men died around them, Boris and Serhiy and some of the others became what Boris calls a circle of comrades.

Boris and Serhiy began to plan an escape by pulling one of the radiators out of the wall.

There were about 20 men alive in the chamber when the Russians brought in a former Ukrainian general in his late 70s. The former general told the Russians it was against the Geneva Conventions to force 20 prisoners to sleep on the concrete floor.

He also told the Russian captain that he recently had COVID-19 and he needed medicine and vitamins. Later, a new body bag appeared. The former generals body was inside it.

On March 17, 12 days after they were captured, the men were told they would be moved to Russia. Instead, they were taken to a warehouse in Belarus, whose president Aleksandr Lukashenko is a staunch ally of Vladimir Putin.

The beatings werent as bad in Belarus, Boris says  just enough to show us whos boss.

The Belarusian soldiers, identifiable by their accents and dark green uniforms, took photos of every prisoner and showed them documents stating they were prisoners of war rather than civilians.

Boris says Serhiy was handcuffed when worsening back problems meant he failed to comply with an order to put his head down.

After two days in Belarus, Serhiy was moved to Russia. Boris was taken a day later, on March 20. This meant neither man witnessed the murder of Serhiys nephew, Vladyslav.

On the seven-hour drive to Russia, Popov says he passed out from low blood sugar and woke when a Russian soldier burnt his fingers with a lighter.

At some point near the end of the trip, he managed to lift the tape over his eyes and saw a sign that read Bryansk Jail No. 3  a jail in the Russian town of Novozybkov.

In the prison cell, still blindfolded, he heard Serhiys name and knew his comrade was there.

Every morning, in cell 47, Boris had to greet the warden with: Comrade citizen, my name is Boris Popov. The Russian anthem would play over the speakers followed by other patriotic songs.

Dizzy from low blood sugar, Boris was frequently made to strip naked and squat on his toes as the guards beat him over the heels with batons.

The prisoners also walked through a tunnel of soldiers as they beat them.

They stand on both sides and just beat you as much as they can. And you have to pass this tunnel while they are beating you, he says. Then you get an ice-cold shower.

On a good day, Boris had a light beating to his head and ribs.

When its a bad day they take you to the hallway and three people just beat the shit out of you, he says.

Prisoners were beaten with wooden hammers to make them obey. Credit:Kate Geraghty

On a good day, Boris says he would only be beaten around the head and ribs. Credit:Kate Geraghty

The head doctor was one of the worst, Boris says, a bulky woman in her mid- 40s whose uniform indicated she was a major in the Russian military.

Ukrainians like to get sick a lot, she would grumble.

Boris complained to her about his ribs. The doctor, flanked by three special forces soldiers, told him: Our guys could never do such a thing. She looked at the soldiers, who then kicked him in the chest.

Do you understand now that our guys could never do such a thing? You have probably fallen somewhere in your Ukrainian trenches or something. Do you understand? the doctor asked.

Boris demonstrates the stress position he had to hold while soldiers beat him. Credit:Kate Geraghty

Yes, certainly, no problem, Boris responded. I understand now.

In the middle of April, things started to change.

Boris, stripped naked, was assessed for injuries by a doctor who gave him pills and injections. A few days later, the prisoners were allowed to go for short walks. Boris suspected the Russians might be preparing them for release.

On April 29, soldiers told Boris and his cellmates to get ready to be exchanged.

They were flown to the town of Taganrog in the north of Russia, where more Ukrainian prisoners boarded the plane, which then headed to Crimea, a region in southern Ukraine illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

There they were put in a farm truck and driven to the Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhya. At a bridge, he and 14 other Ukrainians were exchanged for five Russian soldiers.

As he crossed the bridge, Boris said the sun began to shine brighter to me, the sky was bluer and everything was simply better.

Natalia Popova embraces Boris Popov. Credit:Kate Geraghty

The Russian soldiers headed in the other direction appeared to be in good condition, Boris noticed, while he weighed 57 kilograms and was severely injured after almost two months of beatings.

The Russians had clean clothes, were well fed, fresh-faced and were looking at us with contempt, he says.

But later I analysed it all and realised that we would be taken home in a comfortable van while these clean and tidy Russians will have to get in a truck used for pigs, he says. This is the difference between us.

When Boris returned to Vorzel, neighbours didnt recognise him.

They hid behind the curtains in their house because they didnt want him to see them crying over the poor state he was in, his wife Natalia says. He didnt look like himself.

Boris still doesnt know what happened to his friend Serhiy.

With Fedir Sydoryk

Read part two of this series here.

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on whats making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.
Tin is a rare raw material, but widely used

The heavy metal tin is quite valuable, especially for future technologies and of interest to investors.

In everyday life, pewter is encountered in many areas. In the past, tin cans were made of pure tin. Today, it is used primarily for alloys and in the soldering of electronic components. As a result, tin is finding its way into green energy solutions and electromobility. The topic of decarbonization is a driving factor for rising raw material prices, and tin is part of this. Tin is built into screens or as a stabilizer in PVC. Certain tin compounds can be used as disinfectants and fungicides because they are highly toxic. A ton of zinc currently costs just under 26,000 US dollars.

Like other metals, tin has fallen in price, but experts expect demand to remain robust. Exports from Indonesia, the world\-s largest tin exporter, have returned to the previous year\-s level after a weak start to the year. In April 2022, the average price of a ton of tin on the LME was just under US$43,000. By the end of 2022, the US$40,000 per ton of tin could also be reached again. The largest refined tin production reached China in 2020. Tin is therefore needed worldwide for modern technologies, for the transition to green energy production and thus for the fourth industrial revolution.

Since much of the tin produced worldwide comes from conflict areas associated with high political risk, First Tin  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImTYW5Cy9QM -, for example, is appealing. The company has advanced tin projects in Australia and Germany and is also well financed. Two tin mines are to be started up within the next three years.

TinOne Resources  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh0stFKsYwk  also has its projects in prime mining regions in Tasmania and in New South Wales in Australia. A private placement will inject fresh money into its coffers.

Current corporate information and press releases from First Tin (- https://www.resource-capital.ch/en/companies/first-tin-plc/ -).

In accordance with A34 WpHG I would like to point out that partners, authors and employees may hold shares in the respective companies addressed and thus a possible conflict of interest exists. No guarantee for the translation into English. Only the German version of this news is valid.

Disclaimer: The information provided does not represent any form of recommendation or advice. Express reference is made to the risks in securities trading. No liability can be accepted for any damage arising from the use of this blog. I would like to point out that shares and especially warrant investments are always associated with risk. The total loss of the invested capital cannot be excluded. All information and sources are carefully researched. However, no guarantee is given for the correctness of all contents. Despite the greatest care, I expressly reserve the right to make errors, especially with regard to figures and prices. The information contained herein is taken from sources believed to be reliable, but in no way claims to be accurate or complete. Due to court decisions, the contents of linked external sites are also co-responsible (e.g. Landgericht Hamburg, in the decision of 12.05.1998  312 O 85/98), as long as there is no explicit dissociation from them. Despite careful control of the content, I do not assume liability for the content of linked external pages. The respective operators are exclusively responsible for their content. The disclaimer of Swiss Resource Capital AG also applies: https://www.resource-capital.ch/en/disclaimer/
11th Swiss Payment Forum: Our Future in the Metaverse

The Metaverse is predicted to have a great future: Gartner forecasts that 25% of all people will spend at least one hour a day in the Metaverse already from 2026. Bloomberg estimates the metaverse to have a market size of 800 billion US dollars in 2024, half it flowing into the gaming market. Whether the development will be so positive also depends on if payment processes run smoothly, the access to payment solutions in the Metaverse is possible seamlessly and perhaps even traditional means of payment are accepted.

This is an exciting topic for the payment industry, which will also be addressed at the Swiss Payment Forum in Zurich on November 21 and 22. The latest payment topics such as instant payment, DeFi, SWIFT and crypto transactions, Secure Swiss Finance Network and the development of the Metaverse will be discussed.

A very special highlight is the keynote by futurologist Lars Thomsen. In his presentation, he will talk about the seven most important megatrends of the coming decade and about incremental and disruptive innovations.

For more than 10 years now, the Swiss Payment Forum has established itself as a meeting place of the industry. As the central event for the financial services industry in Switzerland, it offers excellent opportunities to learn from top-class presentations and to make valuable contacts.

More information on www.swisspaymentforum.ch

Vereon AG organises leading-edge seminars, conferences and workshops addressing current business issues. Distinguished experts in research, science, industry and politics regularly present practical solution approaches and pioneering trends. Leaders and specialists from all sectors appreciate these information platforms to build knowledge, exchange experience and make valuable new contacts.
That was the theme of the international conference held by the University of Tourism  Hue University in collaboration with Africa and Middle East Research Institute on the morning of July 14. Attending the conference were the leaders of departments, units, and businesses in the provincial area.

Leaders of departments, businesses and experts discussing at the international conference

According to the experts, in the period of 2015  2019, the number of international tourists to Vietnam witnessed an increase of 2.3 times, from 7.9 million tourist arrivals up to 18 million tourist arrivals, reaching an average rate of growth of 22.7% per year. However, the number of tourists from North Africa  Middle East countries accounted for a negligible proportion, especially Halal tourists.

Tourists from North Africa  Middle East countries, especially the countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are VIP tourists with high spending capacity and long staying days. Halal tourism will be one of the fastest developing tourism sectors in the world and Halal tourists will be one of the main segments of tourism market as Muslim population is expected to reach 2.2 billion people in 2030. To catch the trend, creating the driven green economic growth and sustainable development for the country in the coming time, Vietnam tourism needs to be better in taking advantage of the available advantages, applying the new approaches to attract more tourists from the North Africa  Middle East.

Leaders of the Tourism Department informed that in 2022, the province has fully opened up to welcome international tourists and carried out the process of tourism restoration and stimulation in the provincial area. In Thua Thien Hue, Halal products in particular and the service for Muslims in general are still limited.

Through this conference, management agencies, training institutions, and service providers will get the opportunities to know more about Halal and Halal products, at the same time, finding solutions to promote the development of Muslim-friendly tourism service in Vietnam. This is also an opportunity to connect the businesses at home and abroad and with local businesses to strengthen cooperation and investment in Halal products.

By Huu Phuc
Gage County was selected as one of 12 recipients of funds through the Nebraska Children and Families Foundation to enhance child care in the area.

The NGage economic development group announced this week that Gage County will receive a contract for $78,500 for additional child care. These funds were made available through CRRSA (Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations) dollars and are aimed solely at increasing high-quality, licensed child care availability in communities where there aren't enough spots for the children who need them.

This is an incredible opportunity for our Gage County communities, Andrea Schafer, NGage Board President, said in a press release. We are looking forward to seeing the impact these dollars will have on our communities and, most importantly, their children and families. Finding quality available child care is a very real concern for many families in Gage County and one that has a direct impact to our employers. Helping to address these concerns is top of mind for NGage.

The funds cannot be used to build a new structure, but can be distributed to help child care organizations or private individuals expand or improve their abilities.

Communities were selected based on their high need for capacity building in early care and education, their involvement with the Communities for Kids initiative, and that have momentum already in place for community collaboration around their gap in available care.

Technical assistance for implementation and ongoing support will be provided by Nebraska Children and Families Foundations Communities for Kids initiative, which was created in response to community requests for assistance with addressing shortages and lack of accessibility to high-quality early childhood care and education programs in Nebraska communities.

These shortages impact childrens optimal development and pose a challenge for communities hoping to attract and retain the viable workforce they need to thrive.

NGage was instrumental in applying for and receiving a Communities for Kids grant from the Nebraska Children and Families Foundation in late fall 2021. This program aims to amplify voices in rural communities seeking to solve challenges related to early childhood care and education, positioning communities for future success by investing in their children. As the fiscal sponsor, NGage put together a Core Team of providers, educators, businesspeople, and community members to direct the funding and overall mission of Gage County C4K. The CRRSA funding, paired with the $30,000 from Nebraska Children for C4K, awards Gage County over $100,000 to invest on increasing child care capacity and for providing families with better access to early childhood resources and education.

Nebraska Children and Families Foundations Communities for Kids initiative is excited to continue their work with the community of Gage County, using a collective impact approach to address their child care capacity needs, said Lindsay Bartlett, Assistant Vice President of Early Childhood Programs at Nebraska Children and Families Foundation.

Current child care providers and community members interested in being a part of this community effort and conversation should contact Gage Area Growth Enterprise (NGage) by phone at 402.228.5869 or via email at info@ngagegroup.org. To learn more about Nebraska Children and Families Foundations work, visit www.NebraskaChildren.org.
Frenkie de Jong is reportedly still refusing to Manchester United, who have now reached a full agreement over a 73m fee with Barcelona.

Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong is reportedly still resisting a summer transfer to Manchester United.

The Red Devils have spent several weeks trying to convince La Blaugrana to part ways with the midfielder, who burst onto the scene at Ajax under Erik ten Hag.

With De Jong under contract at Camp Nou until 2026, Barcelona have been under little pressure to sell him for a cut-price fee despite his contract situation.

Man United are now understood to have reached a full agreement with Barcelona over a fee for the 25-year-old, who will cost the 20-time English champions an upfront fee of 63m potentially rising to 73m with add-ons.

Barcelona are now pushing to get De Jong out of the door in order to boost their transfer kitty and are supposedly prepared to leave the Netherlands international out of their squad for their pre-season tour of the USA.

 Reuters

However, Sport now claims that De Jong's agent has made it clear to Manchester United CEO Richard Arnold that De Jong has no intention of leaving Barcelona for Old Trafford this summer.

The Red Devils are yet to agree personal terms with the former Ajax protege, and De Jong's stance has supposedly not changed in spite of the fee agreement between the two clubs.

The midfielder and his wife are said to be settled in Catalonia, and he does not want to drop down to the Europa League after helping Barcelona qualify for the Champions League last season.

The report adds that De Jong would not be totally against an exit from Barcelona in the coming weeks, but he is 'flatly refusing' to reunite with Ten Hag at the Theatre of Dreams.

De Jong is said to have been left 'disgusted' by Barcelona's attempts to push him out of the door this summer, but the Dutchman still intends to remain put at his 'dream club'.

 Reuters

Xavi and Ronald Koeman both ensured that De Jong was an integral part of their plans last term, as he hit four goals and five assists in 46 outings for the Blaugrana in all tournaments.

De Jong has totalled 13 goals and 17 assists in 139 games for Barcelona since his 77.4m from Ajax in 2019, but he has only won one Copa del Rey over the past three years.

Barcelona have already added to their midfield ranks this summer with the signing of Franck Kessie, who will compete with Gavi, Pedri and Sergio Busquets for spots in the engine room next term.

Meanwhile, Man United confirmed the signing of Christian Eriksen on a three-year deal on Friday afternoon, with the Danish playmaker following Tyrell Malacia to Old Trafford as the Red Devils' second summer acquisition.

Ten Hag's side - who claimed a 4-1 friendly win over Melbourne Victory on Friday - are also thought to be on the verge of signing Ajax centre-back Lisandro Martinez after Arsenal cooled their interest in the 24-year-old.
STAMFORD  A city teenager is being accused of attempting to sexually assault a stranger in broad daylight in a city park and fracturing her ankle in the process.

Sgt. Sean Boeger said police responded to reports of a 67-year-old woman injured during an attempted sexual assault at Cummings Park around 6 p.m. on July 5.

Boeger said the incident began when a young man put his hand up under the womans dress and tried to pull down her underwear. As the victim tried to evade the man, Boeger said she fell to the ground and fractured her ankle in the process.

The man then fled the scene on a mountain-style bike with distinctive large tires, Boeger said.

As police and emergency services arrived to aid the woman, Boeger said city dispatchers received a second report from the other side of Cummings Park.

In the second incident, which happened about 15 minutes after the first, a 40-year-old woman reported that she was walking along Soundview Avenue when a man fitting a similar description came up behind her and lifted her skirt, Boeger said.

Boeger said when the woman turned and screamed, the man struck her in the face with his palm and fled back down the street toward Cove Avenue.

Though police were unable to track the suspect down on July 5, a patrol officer spotted someone fitting his description riding a similar bike a few days later.

During an ensuing interview, the man  later identified as 19-year-old Juver Humberto Galicia-Rivera  made incriminating statements in which he admitted to be being at the park at the time of the incident and interacting with at least one of the victims, Boeger said.

Galicia-Rivera was arrested on a warrant Friday in connection to the first incident. He was charged with criminal attempt at fourth-degree sexual assault, third-degree assault on an elderly victim and breach of peace.

Galicia-Rivera is being held on a $150,000 court-set bond. He is expected to be arraigned at state Superior Court in Stamford on Monday.

Boeger said police expect to obtain another arrest warrant for Galicia-Rivera in connection to the second incident.

In the wake of the two back-to-back incidents, police are also asking anyone who may have been similarly assaulted to contact the Stamford Police Department. Anyone with any information on these attacks or any similar incidents is asked to contact Investigator Damein Rosa at 203-977-4417.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Monkeypox should be a manageable pandemic. A close relative of the already eradicated smallpox, there have been vaccines for monkeypox manufactured for years.

The virus is currently largely confined to a specific population that could be inoculated against the virus, thereby controlling the spread, though some experts fear that might not be the case for long.

A 2003 monkeypox outbreak infected only 71 people in the United States before being contained. There are currently 11,689 confirmed cases globally, 1,470 cases in the U.S., 11 of those so far in Connecticut.

So, why is monkeypox vaccine so difficult to obtain?

State Department of Public Health Commissioner Manisha Juthani said the problem is one of supply. She has been unable to give away the vaccine she can obtain, and has not yet been given the vaccine people want.

There are people whove said, New York has this clinic and Massachusetts has that clinic, and we are working towards that type of model should we need it, she said. The problem is, we didnt have cases for longer, so we didnt we didnt have vaccine that we could do that. New York and Massachusetts had cases before us, so they could implement that earlier based on this federal allocation.

There are two vaccines available for monkeypox: Jynneos and ACAM2000. As Paulo Verardi explained, the two vaccines are very different.

Developed originally to combat smallpox, ACAM2000 is a live-attenuated vaccine, containing a weakened form of the virus itself.

You will get it and actually youll get a big lesion, said Verardi, a University of Connecticut virologist specializing in pox viruses. Thats the one that we mostly have in our stockpile right now.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administrations fact sheet on ACAM2000 warns that health complications can occur after receiving the vaccine.

And ACAM2000 creates a risk of transmission. The FDA wrote that serious health problems, including those that are life-threatening, can also occur in unvaccinated people who are accidentally infected by someone who has recently received the vaccine.

If you get vaccinated with this virus, you should not be engaging in behaviors for two weeks that could transmit this virus to somebody else, Juthani said.

Any health care providers who distribute ACAM2000 vaccines must themselves be vaccinated, which means they must knowingly be injected with smallpox. For that reason, very few health care providers and academics are traditionally vaccinated against pox viruses.

Researchers like myself, some health care workers, and people in the military that are deployed overseas, they are required to get vaccinations, Verardi said.

Juthani said there was always one person in the state public health lab who had been vaccinated with ACAM2000 because we needed to have somebody who had that.

The Jynneos vaccine also contains live virus, but it is considered to be far safer because it does not actually replicate. That vaccine, Juthani said, is in far shorter supply.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said at the beginning of the month that they would be ordering an additional 2.5 million doses of the safer Jynneos, in addition tot he 500,000 doses that were already on hand.

Of the 132,074 Jynneos doses that have been distributed nationwide, Connecticut has received just 30.

Compare that to ACAM2000, of which the federal strategic stockpile is in possession of 100 million doses, according to an ABC report citing CDC sources.

Juthani been asking health care workers and clinics if theyd like the state to order ACAM200. Shes had few takers, if any.

There is more ACAM2000 available, Juthani said. We have been polling people and saying do you want it? I dont want to withhold it from anybody. Let us know. Do you want it? Nobodys asking for it.

The stakes are high. Experts worry what could happen if and when the monkeypox virus is allowed to spread uncontrolled. Currently, the virus is not causing many deaths, but that could change.

Zika was thought to be a very mild infection, said Yale researcher Nathan Grubaugh. When we first found that in Brazil, it was kind of a meh thing. Well, when it causes millions of infections, and all of a sudden this rare phenotype of causing birth defects is revealed, now it becomes something really dangerous.

Its not only that the virus will evolve or adapt, but its currently impacting a very specific community, predominantly men who sleep with men. If its allowed to expand unchecked outside that population into other populations, there is no telling the result.

What happens when this starts getting into kids? Grubaugh asked. Theres a lot of different things that could potentially happen.

Juthani is aware of those concerns, and wants to avoid those possibilities. So she offers the vaccine she has.

Im continuing to ask, Do you want ACAM2000? Ive got limited Jynneos, were giving it out as best we can. You want it? You want ACAM2000? Let us know providers. You want it in your clinic? Let us know You want to get vaccinated? Let us know. Please do, because I can order it if we want ACAM2000, she said. But do no harm. Im very reticent to do something in the name of prevention that ends up causing more harm than good. So, that is the balance that were trying to weigh.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Westport Library will host a conversation with Westport resident Steve Parrish and Politico co-founder John Harris in the Trefz Forum at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

Register to attend in person at https://www.eventbrite.com or register to watch a livestream on Zoom.

Harris previously spent two decades with The Washington Post before going to Politico. He is considered one of the most influential people and journalists in Washington, D.C.

Parrish is the founder of the Steve Parrish Consulting Group, LLC, specializing in crisis management, corporate social responsibility, public affairs and communications for senior executives of corporations, law firms and non profit organizations.

The library is located at 20 Jesup Road in Westport.

Westport promotes planner

Planning and Zoning Director Mary Young recently announced the department promoted Amanda Trianovich to serve as the new land use planner for the town.

As planner, Trianovich is responsible for a variety of tasks, including acting as the towns coordinator for coastal area management projects, preparing analyses of pending land use applications for consideration by the Planning and Zoning Commission, and facilitating the implementation of the towns affordable housing plan and Plan of Conservation and Development.

Trianovich graduated with honors from Salve Regina University, with her bachelors of science degree in information systems. She next gained her customer service skills working for Marriott where she was recognized as Associate of the Year.

She joined the Westport Planning and Zoning Department in August 2019 and was promoted to zoning official within a year, where she was responsible for processing zoning permits, variance requests and zoning complaints.

Southport Family Dental practice relocating to Southport Crossing building

The Southport Family Dental practice is relocating to the third floor of the Southport Crossing building, at 3530 Post Road in Southport.

The practice is run by Dr. Colleen Randall and Dr. Pamela Gibson. They earned their Doctor of Dental Medicine degrees from the University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine.

Westport attorney elected secretary in Connecticut Bar Association

Verrill attorney Tom H. Wilkeson was recently elected as secretary of the Connecticut Bar Associations Business Law Section for a two-year term. He is based in the firms Westport office.

Wilkeson will be joining Chair Ken Lerman, First Vice Chair Matt Gaul,Second Vice Chair Mark Klein, Treasurer Rob Feiner, and Legislative Liaison Danielle Edwards.

Wilkeson is a member of Verrills Business Law Group, where he counsels clients regarding a wide range of matters, from the purchase and acquisition of multi-million-dollar companies to the successful formation of federally recognized 501(c)(3) charitable organizations.

Visit https://www.verrill

-law.com for more information.

Historical society hosts rhythm and blues event

The Old School Revue band will play a concert as part of a Golden Age of American Rhythm and Blues event from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on July 24 at the Weston Historical Society, 104 Weston Road in Weston.

Its part of the historical societys Music at the Barn Outdoor Concert Series. It will move indoors if it rains.

The Walrus + Carpenter Food Truck will be on site selling barbecue. Outside food should be limited.

Historical Society members are $15 per person. Member families are $50, which includes two adults and two children.

Non-member tickets are $20 per person $60 per family.

Tickets can be purchased at the door or https://www.

westonhistoricalsociety.org.

The Historical Society parking lot in accessed from High Acre Road in Weston.

Visit http://oldschool

musicproductions.com/Old

_School_Revue.html for more information on the band.

Westport residents to take part in biking challenge

Tina Cerrito, Adam Drake, Tom Epes, Tony Howell, Bill Loftus, Scot Parnell and Christopher Powers, all of Westport, are among 6,000 bicycle riders who will take part in the 2022 Pan-Mass Challenge fundraising event Aug. 6 and 7.

The event raises funds for cancer research and treatment at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

The bikeathon offers one- and two-day routes ranging from 25 to 210 miles that are designed to cater to all levels of ability and fundraising amounts.

There are 158 Connecticut residents participating in the fundraiser.

This years goal is to top 2021s record-breaking gift and raise $66 million for cancer research and patient care.

Visit https://www.pmc.org to make a donation or call 800 WE-CYCLE.
Spring rains atop deep snowpack fueled mid-June floods that inundated hundreds of homes, forced more than ten thousand tourists to evacuate, and caused millions of dollars worth of damage in the Yellowstone region, especially in southern Montana. Weeks later, the effects on the ecosystem were just beginning to emerge.

A week and a half after the historic floods, I walked down a gravel road in Montanas Paradise Valley with geomorphologist Karin Boyd, who runs a private consultancy in Bozeman focused on restoring river systems. We entered a normally bustling fishing-access site, closed due to the flooding. With no anglers or campers, it felt like a ghost town. The Yellowstone River was still high and muddy, around 30% above the average flow for this time of year.

You dont want to come out here and celebrate when people are hurting, Boyd said. But, she said, there is a lot to celebrate. Big floods  even if devastating to human communities  can help ecosystems like this one thrive.

As Boyd and I walked, we could see evidence of both destruction and regeneration. A waterlogged roof truss bobbed next to the bank. Caramel-color sediment, cracked like alligator skin, covered the top of a picnic table  an indication of how high the floodwaters had risen. Nearby, otter and beaver footprints dotted the ground. A red-tailed hawk soared overhead, and mergansers drifted down the turbid water.

A little giddy, Boyd pointed at depressions in the earth, still saturated with water, where riparian vegetation might be seeding. Willows and cottonwoods, man, those are just incredible in systems that get disturbed, she said. Cottonwoods release seeds during a narrow window each year, just after peak runoff. They need flood-scoured areas, where rushing water has deposited nutrient-rich soil and distributed seeds, to reproduce. Floods like this one can be crucial to creating and maintaining lush, diverse riverside habitat.

But the floods impacts arent all visible yet, Boyd said, and not all of them are positive. The success of those cottonwood seeds depends on the water receding gradually in the weeks to come; a sudden drop could leave the water table too low for their roots to reach. Meanwhile, the same water that deposited those seeds could also have carried their competitors  weeds and invasive plants  into new areas.

At the same time, the region is facing other, much greater challenges  mainly climate change. An assessment of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem speculates that the region could warm another 5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100, meaning more drought, more floods and more wildfire.

And yet, Boyd says, despite everything, shes optimistic about the future here.

THE YELLOWSTONE is the longest major undammed river in the Lower 48 and part of one of the largest river systems in the world. Its also a Blue Ribbon river, known for its world-class trout fishing. Anglers in the area generally target rainbows, brown trout and Yellowstone cutthroats.

Floods are horrible and devastating to humans and infrastructure when (the water) comes out of those riverbanks, said Scott Opitz, a fisheries biologist with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Its almost the opposite for fish.

Opitz explained that all trout have adapted to flooding to some extent. They generally hang out in slack water near the riverbanks and rise with the water. Surging water deposits woody debris that can provide new safe havens for fish throughout the river. Floods also move and clean gravel and cobblestone, creating ideal new spawning grounds.

Back at the closed fishing-access site, Id seen these processes in action. The floodwaters had eaten away at the outside edge of a horseshoe-shaped bend in the river, gashing the earth within a couple feet of the road. Even over a week after the flood, cobblestones and gravel trickled  sometimes cascaded  from the incision into the river below. Elsewhere, bare cottonwood roots fanned out over deep pools near the riverbank  prime trout habitat.

Opitz said the flood could impact different species in different ways. Browns and rainbows, for example, were both introduced by anglers over a century ago and arent adapted to the regions cycle of runoff; brown trout spawn in the fall and rainbows generally reproduce in the spring, just before peak flows. Opitz speculated that the high, turbulent water could hurt both species reproduction.

Native Yellowstone cutthroat, he said, are a different story. Their populations have been struggling in many areas, in large part due to warming waters from climate change and competition from nonnatives like browns and rainbows. But theyve evolved to tolerate large-scale floods like this one. Cutthroats spawn after peak flows, as the water begins to recede. By rejuvenating habitat and gravel beds in which to spawn, Opitz said, the flood might actually help Yellowstone cutthroats thrive.

BIG FLOODS CREATE habitat for more than just fish. For more than 40 years, Ric Hauer, professor emeritus of systems ecology at the University of Montana, has studied gravel-bottomed rivers like the Yellowstone. These are the major sites of biological activity and biodiversity  for birds, for ungulates, for wolves chasing them, Hauer said. Bears, eagles. Everything is focused on the floodplain.

Hauers research shows that about 70% of the bird species in the Yellowstone area depend on streamside, or riparian, habitats in floodplains  the habitats created by those cottonwoods. Smaller creatures, too, rely on the dynamics of flooding rivers. As floodwater rushes downstream, ripping up sediment in some places and depositing it elsewhere, water filters through the rivers gravel bottom and back up again. Microbes living beneath the surface attack organic matter in the river, releasing nitrogen and phosphorus, creating what Hauer calls hot spots for more productivity, where algae flourish. Aquatic insects feed on that algae, and fish in turn feed on those insects.

Its an amazing, amazing system, Hauer said.

A few days after meeting with geomorphologist Karin Boyd, I hiked the road that runs from Yellowstone National Parks North Entrance, along the Gardner River. It was still closed to vehicles, and with no cars or people in sight, the park felt eerily silent. Salmonflies the size of my pinky finger perched lazily on tall grasses. Elk tracks dotted the still-wet floodplain. White, fuzzy puffs of cottonwood seeds floated in the air. Eventually, I arrived at an area where the river had reclaimed the roadway: The pavement ended in a sharp plunge to flowing water about 30 feet below. Marveling at the floodplain, I almost stepped over the roads jagged edge.

The juxtaposition of the human and natural landscape here reminded me of something Id discussed with Boyd. In the Yellowstone, were so blessed with this, shed said, gesturing to the flowing, muddy water and the distant cottonwoods. She told me that shes worked in areas where rivers and creeks have been confined, channelized and generally controlled in the name of protecting human infrastructure and development. Now, as plans to rebuild take shape, people in the Yellowstone area are figuring out what comes next.


This page requires Javascript.

Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.
A Billings man was sentenced Wednesday to nearly 27 years in prison for drug and sex trafficking crimes.

William Maurice Newkirk, 42, pleaded guilty earlier this year to sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, use of a facility in interstate commerce in aid of racketeering, possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking and transportation of person with intent to engage in prostitution. His sentencing in U.S. District Court concludes an investigation into a trafficking ring that spanned nearly a decade and involved several women and girls supplied with drugs while they engaged in commercial sex that profited Newkirk. The investigation resulted in prison sentences for him and four other men.

For years, Newkirk ruthlessly wielded abuse, threats, violence and drugs to force women and girls to work in commercial sex, all so he could make money, U.S. Attorney for the District of Montana Jesse Laslovich said in a statement released Wednesday. Far too many victims suffered, including one who tragically died as a result of Newkirks reprehensible actions.

The death of a young woman in 2019 exposed law enforcement to the breadth of Newkirk and his codefendants sex and drugs racket. Several people were beating a woman in a car parked in a Billings trailer park in June of that year. During the struggle, a shot rang out. A 21-year-old was shot and died two days later. Also in the car, according to court documents, were Newkirk and Djavon Lamont King. The victim of the assault was later treated for wounds to her face.

That same victim told police she met Newkirk a few months prior, and that hed been pressuring her to date him and engage in commercial sex, court documents say. That pressure included him taking pictures of her and posting them in ads online offering sex. Six months later, Newkirk and four other men were indicted on multiple counts of drug and sex racketeering.

At least as early as 2010, according to federal court documents, Newkirk was driving women and girls to various hotels in Billings for them to be paid for sex. He would then pocket the money. This continued despite him spending time in and out of custody on drug charges throughout the following decade.

His most common tactic in recruiting, Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Hargrove said at Wednesdays sentencing, was befriending the most vulnerable victims, and providing them with drugs or alcohol to either feed or create an addiction. Victims told investigators Newkirk then coerced them into sex with himself, one of his co-defendants and eventually with strangers for money.

Newkirk entered into a "relationship" with a victim who sent him revealing photos. Those photos ended up online, Hargrove said, in ads for commercial sex. He took the money paid to that victim in exchange for cocaine and physically threatened her on at least one occasion. He gave another victim, who was a minor at the time, cocaine and alcohol before forcing her to perform oral sex on him.

One victim told investigators Newkirk fronted her the money she needed to repair her car, then pressured her into a commercial sex date that he orchestrated. She said she gave most of the money that she earned to Newkirk.

The pattern of Newkirk wringing every drop of profit that he could from victims persisted for years, Hargrove said. It reached its zenith in 2019, and ended with a woman snared in Newkirks sex trafficking network shot and killed.

Newkirk was always interested in making himself money at whatever costs, federal prosecutors wrote in their sentencing recommendation. In doing so, he preyed on societys most vulnerable members  youthful, severely drug-addicted young women, who shared challenging backgrounds, had very limited education and experience, no social resources, no money, nor even places to live. Newkirk identified these vulnerabilities and aggressively and cruelly exploited these young women for his profit and gratification.

One of Newkirks defense attorneys, Cammi Woodward, spoke at his sentencing. She disputed that any of the victims were forced into sex work, and said Newkirk still maintains that none of them were minors. She said prosecutors unfairly compared Newkirk to Louis Gregory Venning, who was sentenced last month to 30 years for operating a sex trafficking network that targeted vulnerable young women and girls.

Mr. Newkirk is not Mr. Venning, Woodward said, and asked presiding U.S. District Judge Susan P. Watters for the mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Woodward and Newkirk, who spoke prior to Watters issuing a sentence, stressed his impoverished upbringing in Eerie, Pennsylvania for the judge to consider. Newkirk grew up abused by almost every male figure in his life, she said. He saw firsthand the death of his mother, and later the shooting death of a cousin. Despite the trauma, child protective services never found him a stable home in which to live.

Newkirk, father to three daughters, told Watters he accepts responsibility for helping women engage in sex work, and for doing drugs with them. He insisted that he never forced them into prostitution, and denied ever raping a woman.

I apologize to any woman I might have victimized, he said. There were no victims who testified at Wednesdays sentencing.

Judge Watters acknowledged that no child should live through the childhood that was forced on Newkirk. There was no doubt, however, that he did traffic his victims through force and coercion. She sentenced Newkirk to 26 years and 10 months in prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release. He will not be eligible for probation.

You are a victim. They are victims. The system failed you. The system shouldnt fail them, Watters said.

Newkirk is the last of his co-defendants indicted by the federal government on drug and trafficking charges to be sentenced. Djavon Lamont King was sentenced to nearly nine years in prison after pleading guilty to drug and firearm possession charges. Dejon Anthony Duncan was given time served after he pleaded guilty to cocaine possession. Mario Juan Drake was sentenced to a little over 10 years for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and ecstasy, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense and two counts of use of a facility in interstate commerce in aid of racketeering. Anthony Marcos Chadwell was given two years in prison after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and with use of a facility in interstate commerce in aid of racketeering.

Newkirk and Chadwell still have ongoing cases in Yellowstone County District Court, including charges of rape and assault to which both have pleaded not guilty. Newkirk is scheduled to appear in district court for a status hearing next week.

The sentencing of Newkirk and Venning in the past month are the culmination of two of the largest investigations into sex trafficking in Montana over the past few years. Agencies who contributed to those investigations included the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Montana Division of Criminal Investigation and the Billings Police Department.

If you believe that you or someone you know may be a victim of human trafficking, please contact the National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline at 1-888-373-7888, or Text 233733.
The Republic of Moldova must not be and will not be alone in the effort to carry out the reforms it needs, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bogdan Aurescu, said on Friday, at the end of the 2nd edition of the Ministerial Conference of the Support Platform for the Republic of Moldova.

The head of the Romanian diplomacy said that the platform is useful for the neighbouring country's efforts to join the European Union and is a "permanent tool." Aurescu also said that the support funding for the Republic of Moldova, raised during the conference, in various forms, is estimated at 600 million euros.
Participants in the second edition of the ministerial conference of the Support Platform for Moldova called for an end to the war in Ukraine as soon as possible, Romania's Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu said on Friday.

"We are all affected by this war and we must never forget that it has to stop. We have to continue to call on the Russian Federation to end this unjustified, unprovoked, illegitimate war of aggression against Ukraine that is hurting Ukraine, hurting the region, Europe, the whole world and, last but not least, is hurting Russia itself. Therefore, our call here in Bucharest today was the war has to stop as soon as possible," Aurescu told a news conference at the end of the meeting.

Germany supports Ukraine financially, economically, energetically, but also militarily, said Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who co-chaired the meeting in Bucharest with Bogdan Aurescu and France's Secretary of State for Development, Francophonie and International Partnerships Chrysoula Zacharopoulou.

"We need support on all fronts. As I've said, if it's a hybrid war, then the answer has also to be hybrid, in different dimensions. So, we are not only supporting Moldova, but also Ukraine financially, with regard to economic support, with regard to energy support, but also with regard for example, with demining, because, as we have heard in the last weeks one of the problems is the mines all around the country, especially in cities and villages which have been freed again. The mines are still there. So, we are supporting Ukraine on different dimensions, but obviously also military-wide and we are in permanent discussion within the German government but also within our partners to provide more military assistance (...) We will provide Ukraine with the most advanced air defence system we can get, which is coming quite soon, but we are also looking in different parts with regard to further support of also armoured vehicles," she said.

AGERPRES
Colonel Christophe Degand, Commander of the NATO Battle Group in our country, led by France as a framework-nation, declared on Thursday that his battalion's main mission is deterrence, but it is ready for "anything".

He took part in the Bastille Day reception, hosted by the diplomatic mission in Bucharest. He mentioned that some of the group's military are stationed in Cincu, and others in the Mihail Kogalniceanu military base."The mission is to contribute to the deterrence and defence of Europe's eastern border. We were warmly welcomed here and all the activities that we have along our Romanian colleagues show their training. Romanians support us," said Degand.He said that the battalion is ready for "anything"."We are here to help with the deterrence of any attack, but, if needed, we are ready to defend. That is our mission. We are ready for anything. We are intensively training with our Romanian and NATO partners," Degand specified.Lieutenant-colonel Clement, who is part of the Engineer Battalion that is building the base for the Battle Group's soldiers, at the Cincu base, declared that the works, which should be finished by winter, are on track. The base will host approximately 1,000 soldiers "for the battalion to be consolidated on the Eastern Flank"."We don't have much time, but the works are going according to schedule. The French, Dutch, Belgians and Romanians are helping us be on track and everything is alright until now," he said, adding that the place where the construction is taking place, in the middle of the mountains, has a "fantastic view".Another soldier from the same battalion said that his challenges were the cold and mud around the construction site, despite the fact that they were dispatched in the month of May, when he was expecting warm weather.Several French servicemen dispatched in our country took part in the Bastille Day reception.France is present with over 750 soldiers in our country. They are divided into three detachments, the most visible one being the NATO Battle Group, with its headquarters in Cincu. For the moment, some of the servicemen are in Cincu and others, at the Mihail Kogalniceanu base. Roughly 360 soldiers are French, joined by Belgians, and Dutch soldiers as of August.Next is the detachment that is handling the ground-to-air defense system, MAMBA, deployed in Capu Midia, with approximately 100 French soldiers, also under NATO command. The third detachment, a multinational unit, consists of technical staff, 150 French, 60 Dutch, 30 Romanian engineers and as of August 50 Belgians will join them. This detachment is led by France as framework-nation and they are building the camp in Cincu for hosting and lodging the Battle Group. He added that as of November the battle group will be at Cincu in full group, once the works for the military base are completed.
Romania's Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca on Friday welcomed visiting German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock to assess regional security amid the ongoing war in Ukraine, as well as the strategic importance of the Black Sea region and its role in energy policy and European connectivity.

Baerbock's visit to Bucharest included taking part in the in the second meeting of the Ministerial Conference of the Support Platform for Moldova, jointly orgnaised by Romania, Germany and France, and the 30-year anniversary of bilateral relations between Romania and Germany.

According to a Romanian government statement, Ciuca commended Germany for its role and active involvement in making operational the Support Platform for Moldova, an international format that provides the assistance that Moldova needs to overcome an accumulation of crises.

Ciuca underscored the importance of coordination in the development of the infrastructure needed to facilitate the export of grains from Ukraine, an essential objective for global food security.

He mentioned the measures taken by Romania regarding the transit of Ukrainian cereals, appreciating the active interest of the German side in providing support.

The two officials also appreciated the quality of the Romanian-German bilateral relationship.

Ciuca encouraged German investors to develop projects in Romania, mentioning the opportunities offered by the energy sector.

He also underlined the importance of the support offered by Germany to Romania's achieving its goal of joining the border-free Schengen area and the simplification of European evaluation instruments in terms of justice and the rule of law.

AGERPRES:
Two men were charged in Yellowstone County District Court this week with attempting to pay for sex with minors.

Yellowstone County prosecutors filed separate charges of child prostitution against Mark Samuel Baker and Andrew James Ricci, alleging both men tried to pay cash for sex with teenage girls in Billings.

Baker, 55, pleaded not guilty to the charge Friday at an arraignment before District Judge Ashley Harada. On July 11, according to court documents, Baker allegedly started messaging someone he thought was a 15-year-old girl through an ad posted online. As they texted each other back and forth over the next two days, Baker said he was cool with her age, and agreed to pay $80 to have sex with her.

The two arranged to meet at a location in Billings on July 13. When Baker arrived at that location, he was arrested by law enforcement. Baker refused to give a statement to police, and during a search, investigators allegedly found him carrying $375 in cash, condoms and a hotel key card. He was booked into Yellowstone County Detention Facility that same day.

Judge Harada set Bakers bond at $100,000 during his arraignment Friday. Baker, who according to his defense attorney is a resident of Virginia and an employee with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, will be required to surrender his passport to the court if he makes bail.

Also on July 11, Ricci allegedly began to message someone he believed to be a 13-year-old girl whose number he found in a social media ad. Over the next three days, court documents said, Ricci badgered the girl for pictures and asked if she wanted to meet in person. On July 14, he asked what she was doing. When she responded that she was with a 15-year-old girl, Ricci allegedly again asked to meet with her. He offered first pay $50 then $75 to each girl after he was told the 15-year-old was an escort. Ricci did not specify what exactly he wanted in exchange for the cash, charging documents said, but he allegedly texted he would bring drugs and party favors with him.

Later that night, police arrested Ricci when he reached the location where he thought hed be meeting two teens. He consented to let officers search his vehicle, inside of which investigators allegedly found condoms, sex toys, substances suspected to be amphetamines, erectile dysfunction medication and a gun.

Ricci agreed to speak with police, and during that conversation is alleged to have admitted to all of the text exchanges with the underage girl. The 42-year-old Billings man said he agreed to meet the two girls and pay them $75 in exchange for sex, but he denied that he would have actually gone through with it. He wanted to make sure the older girl was not taking advantage of the 13-year-old, he said, and would have only offered the two a ride. He said the drugs, condoms and sex toys were not intended for the two minors, court documents said.

A review of the Defendants voluminous text messages to the minor female revealed that his default conversation style appeared to be nothing short of degrading, harassing, lewd, and generally repugnant, prosecutors wrote in charging documents.

Ricci was booked into YCDF on February 14, and is scheduled to be arraigned in district court on Monday.

If convicted of prostitution in which the victim is a child, Baker and Ricci could face up to 100 years in prison without the chance for parole or a deferred sentence for the first 25 of those years. Both men have also been charged with an alternative count of attempted prostitution, a felony which comes with similar consequences in terms of possible prison time.

The FBI and Montana Division of Criminal Investigation conducted the investigations which lead to the arrests and eventual charges filed against Baker and Ricci.
Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca asked the ministries to create on their websites a section presenting data on possibilities to access European funds and other useful information to come to the support of Romanians in the diaspora, particularly of those who want to he return to the country.

"We had a discussion and for this matter I turn to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I (...) talked to several ambassadors, either when they came to the country or on other occasions, and of course, with the Romanians in the diaspora. Every ministry must take measures to the effect I will communicate to you now. Romanians in the diaspora need data and information about the possibilities and facilities in place for accessing European funds, for them to have a picture of all the measures and developments at the level of the Romanian government. There are Romanians who want to return home, and for this they need data and information. As such, each ministry shall create on its website a window to place all this information into, and of course, we will have points of contact, as well as structures tasked with providing this information at the level of embassies and consulates. If we need to supplement funding for the necessary staff, please let us have a discussion, an analysis and take the due decisions in this regard," Nicolae Ciuca declared on Friday at the beginning of the government meeting.
As many as 4,107 new cases of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 were recorded in the last 24 hours in Romania, by 114 more than on the previous day, on over 18,000 RT-PCR and rapid antigenic tests performed, the Health Ministry informed on Friday.

Of the new cases, 856 were in re-infected patients who tested positive more than 90 days after the first time they recovered from the disease.Most of the newly confirmed COVID-19 cases in Romania since the previous reporting were recorded in Bucharest City - 1,123, and in the counties of Ilfov - 258, Cluj - 255, Constanta - 248, Brasov - 190 and Timis - 167.The 14-day COVID-19 notification rate, at national level, is 0.86 cases per thousand population. The highest incidence is in Bucharest - 3.68, followed by the counties of Ilfov - 2.42, Cluj - 1.92, Brasov - 1.9 and Sibiu - 1.85.As of Friday, 2,958,051 cases of people infected with the novel coronavirus were confirmed in Romania.- Hospitalisations -As many as 1,693 people with COVID-19 are hospitalised at specialist care facilities across the country, by 146 more than the day before; 259 of this total are children (by 21 more than on the previous day).Out of the total number of hospitalised patients, 101 are in ICUs, by 2 more compared to the previous day. Of the ICU patients, 73 are unvaccinated for COVID-19.- Deaths -According to the Ministry, there were three Covid deaths in the past 24 hours - three men, two aged over 70 and one over 80, unvaccinated and who suffered from underlying conditions.Since the beginning of the pandemic, 65,802 people diagnosed with the SARS-CoV-2 infection have died in Romania.
Aisha Sultan Aisha Sultan is home and family editor for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Aisha Sultan Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

Lyla McCarty, a fifth-grader in Arnold, had been eagerly waiting for more than a year to be admitted into Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center.

In April, when she finally walked into the rehabilitation program designed for children suffering from severe chronic pain conditions like herself, she didnt expect it to look so much like, well, a hospital.

I didnt think it would be actual hospital rooms, she said.

Lyla, then 10, would end up spending a month in this hospital  away from her dad, older sister and beloved pet pig, Ollie. Her mom, Heather McCarty, stayed in Cincinnati during her treatment.

Her parents had fought their insurance company, UnitedHealthcare, for months trying to get Lyla into this Functional Independence Restoration Program after she was diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. The pain had derailed her life.

Lylas plight attracted the attention of a social media influencer whose efforts helped raise around $150,000 in a GoFundMe for her medical expenses. They gave her a mini Juliana pig, Ollie, who quickly became the center of Lylas world. Charlie Rockets dream team also started an online cookie business for her. The site made around $160,000 from November to January, which was also donated to the McCartys. The site is temporarily on pause, while the family figures out what to do next.

Right now, their priority is helping Lyla get better. When the insurance company denied Lylas preapproval for admission again, the McCartys decided to use the donations to pay out-of-pocket for Lylas treatment.

When Lyla finally got to the hospital, she realized getting better was going to be harder than she expected and may not look like what she imagined.

Dealing with CRPS

Lylas sudden onset of severe pain in her foot took months to diagnose. CRPS is a rare type of chronic pain that often affects an arm or leg. Not a lot is known about what causes it or how bad it might get. For some people it can improve over time, although there is no specific cure. Lyla has tried different medications, physical therapy and desensitization therapy. She has missed many days of school and started having panic attacks. Having an invisible illness, not outwardly apparent to others, led to some disbelieving she was sick and taunting her.

The goal of Lylas treatment is to decrease and manage the pain, improve function in her foot and help restore her quality of life.

The schedule at the hospital was intense. She would start with an hour of occupational therapy, followed by an hour of physical therapy. Then she spent time on her school work, followed by a daily pain psychology session. After lunch, she did another hour of OT and PT, followed by a different set of activities every afternoon to early evening.

It was such a rigid schedule, her father, Derek McCarty, said. He and their older daughter, Addison, visited Lyla once during Easter weekend. He noticed an immediate improvement. She was walking better and able to place her entire foot on the floor with each step.

But the separation from her family and difficulty of the program were also weighing on her. She would Facetime her father, sister and Ollie every night.

The hospital reassured her that she was there to treat a real medical condition, but they had a rule that patients were not allowed to talk about their pain during their weeks-long stay.

Theres research they shared with me as to why that is, Heather McCarty said. But that didnt make it any easier to go through for a 10-year-old.

If her pain flared during the exercises or activities, she had to reframe it. For example, instead of saying This hurts or Im in pain, she was supposed to say, Im frustrated because I dont think I can do this right now. She had to learn strategies of how to get through the burning and stinging sensations in her foot. That feeling could last for minutes or hours.

One thing that helped during her stay was talking about Ollie with her newfound friends also in rehab. Everyone loved to hear stories about her pig.

Ollie the pig

Ollie came to live with the McCartys and their two dogs when he was 6 weeks old. He became fast friends with Huey the Frenchie and Cyrus the pug.

He loved to be chased, and he got zoomies just like the dogs. He refused to go on walks unless Huey came, too.

He had a big personality and would get sassy.

I watched lots of YouTube videos to train him, Lyla said. He loved to snuggle with her. Sometimes if she was lying in bed in a big bathrobe, he would crawl into the back of her robe, snuggle against her back, give a little oink and fall asleep next to her.

She was excited to be reunited with her 9-month-old pet when she got home. A few days later, she noticed he couldnt get up when he lay down next to her. Then, he started throwing up.

They started calling around looking for a vet who would treat a pig. By the time they found one the next day, Ollie had to be rushed into emergency surgery. His bladder was damaged, and his abdomen was filled with urine. The bladder might have gotten nicked when he was neutered, the vet said, but they couldnt be sure.

The next day, on Lylas birthday, the vet called and said Ollie had survived the surgery and was recovering.

Lyla was so relieved. She finally felt like celebrating her 11th birthday. Fifteen minutes later, while she was opening her gifts, the vet called again.

The infection had overtaken Ollies little body.

He died on her birthday.

I dont talk about it, Lyla said.

The road to recovery

When Lyla and her mom were driving home from Ohio, she felt the pain flare up in her foot. She could see her foot start to swell, turn red and get hot.

She was wearing nail polish that would change colors in different temperatures  it stayed green on one foot and turned blue on the other.

Heather noticed that her daughter kept her composure as the pain radiated in her foot. Before the treatment, she wouldnt have been able to do that.

Lyla said her overall pain has lessened some since the in-patient treatment, but the flare-ups in her foot have become more frequent. She will continue to go for follow-up visits at the hospital.

Last month, the entire family was invited to attend a four-day pediatric pain warriors camp hosted by the U.S. Pain Foundation. The entire camp was accessible, and they met other families with children with CRPS.

The hospital treatment and the camp, those two experiences have strengthened us, Derek said. They are learning about treatments and techniques that have helped other children.

Lyla will start sixth grade in the fall. I asked her if she feels better equipped to take on school now. She paused for a minute and thought about it.

Yes, she said, finally. I do.
COLLINSVILLE  Ian Maue chases race cars.

The 20-year-old from Collinsville launched his business, Metro East Drone Aerials, after his first semester of college. Hes paying for school by tailing stock cars with his tiny aircrafts, producing snippets of video that give a birds-eye survey of the high-octane sport.

Its a new view that hasnt been around racing, Maue says. Its just something that people are eager to see.

The drone-service industry has taken off since the Federal Aviation Administrations 2016 rule opened the skies to quadcopter entrepreneurs and hobbyists. The compact flyers have become easier to customize and control. Cameras are sharper. Battery life is longer. And experienced operators, like Maue, are showing the range of industries they can serve. The worldwide commercial drone market is expected to surpass $500 billion in revenue by 2028 from less than $21 billion last year, according to Grand View Research.

Custom-built drones

Maue was in middle school when an uncle gave him his first toy drone. When he was 17  aided by a YouTube tutorial, a 3D printer and pocket money from a part-time job  Maue spent two months building one from scratch.

For 10 incredible seconds, it hovered obediently. Then, his baby crashed.

Then I started to get serious about it, Maue says. He experimented with different configurations of motors, propellers and camera systems and earned his FAA license.

Through a friend, he learned about drones expansion into car racing  where they could capture the skidding drifts, near-misses and hold-your-breath hits from multiple viewpoints. The professional racing circuit added drones to its TV coverage in 2016 and ramped up use three years later.

Maue decided to start small.

In January 2021, he approached Tammy Gundaker, who owns Tri-City Speedway near Granite City with her husband. In the offseason, the Gundakers host go-kart races at a horse barn in Lake Saint Louis.

He walked in, introduced himself and said, Im new to this. Im trying to get my feet wet, Gundaker recalls.

She was intrigued.

Those first go-kart shots were a little unpolished: The barns roof limited the drones elevation, and Maue was using an analog signal, which is prone to interference. But the effort showed him the possibilities.

It was a learning experience, Maue says. It made me a better pilot.

He built up his drone fleet to 17, cherry-picking all the components. Most of the drones have 5-inch frames and weigh less than a pound and a half. His fastest can top 130 mph.

If you program it yourself, you can get it to do what you want, he said. If something breaks, you know how to fix it.

Professional drone operators, like Maue, often favor first-person-view drones, which require more finesse to fly than recreational ones. Goggles let him see what the drone is seeing, but they also make for an almost-blind takeoff and landing.

A full days work

By spring of last year, Maue was ready to try his hand at super late model races on the 8-mile track at Tri-City. The Gundakers hired him to produce videos they could push out on their social media channels. Fans were blown away  and so were drivers.

Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Illinois, grew up on a dirt track and has been touring professionally since 2018. He had never seen anything like the drone footage Maue sent him last summer of one of his races at Tri-City.

The drone stalks the cars as they slalom around turns and nip at the boards. Their aluminum frames tremble. Dirt billows.

I thought, man, thats badass, Pierce says. Thats a view you can only see in a video game or something.

The whole thing lasts just a couple of minutes: The batteries flatline quickly. But Maue keeps a queue at the ready, sending a fresh drone up as soon as one peters out.

On race nights, Maue arrives at the track two to three hours early. He stakes out a spot where the grandstands wont interfere with the signal, chitchats with the drivers, takes a couple of test flights. When hes working for a streaming service, he routes a maze of adapters through a computer the size of a credit card.

It gets technical pretty fast, Maue says.

All the prep is worth it, says Michael Rigsby, a vice president at FloSports. The Austin, Texas-based streaming service began regularly hiring drone operators to cover motorsports three years ago.

It truly gets one of the most positive reactions from subscribers of anything we do, he says. You really feel what the drivers are feeling.

Eight hours of work yields about 30 minutes of footage from Maue. Early on, he charged $250 a day. Now, he makes twice that. Hes one of just a few independent operators in the United States staking out this niche, he says. Its taken him to 20 tracks in more than a half-dozen states.

Drivers use the footage to review what went right and wrong during a competition. Drones have also opened up a new revenue source for them. Sponsors traditionally limited themselves to the hood or doors, but with the drones agility, every corner of the car is visible to fans.

Gordy Gundaker of St. Charles, the son of Tri-Citys owners, has been racing professionally on the national circuit since 2016. After he hired Maue, he gained three sponsors, emblazoned across the top of his firecracker-orange roof.

Business savvy

In the past decade, drones have become a commonplace tool in real estate, construction, mining, agriculture and law enforcement. Now, they are used for everything from delivering pizza and cleaning windows to tracking populations of endangered animals.

Theres a tremendous opportunity for people who are looking to do jobs with drones, says Michael Robbins of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, a trade organization based in Washington. As the technology evolves, its feeding the imagination of entrepreneurs.

Xeo Airs drones assess critical infrastructure and the aftermath of disasters. But CEO Bronwyn Morgan said St. Louis-based Xeos true purpose is analyzing data that couldnt be gathered in any other way. The 3-year-old company recently won a $25,000 American Express grant to purchase equipment and improve its digital platform.

Rob Haller of south St. Louis County founded a video-production company, Haller Concepts, 40 years ago. He added drones to his fleet in 2014, providing overhead footage for homeowners putting their houses on the market. Now aerial jobs make up a quarter of his business. Haller has used them to take inventory at construction sites, uncover rooftop irregularities and livestream the grand opening of a Lions Choice.

Its a good market to be in, Haller says. Its changing all our lives, for sure.

As for Maue, he has jobs lined up every weekend through September. In the fall, hes transferring to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville to finish the last two years of his business degree. He started Metro East Drone Aerials as a college job. But he plans to try to make a go of it full-time after graduation.

It just kind of spun out of control and never really slowed down, Maue says. I love every second of it.
ST. FRANCOIS COUNTY  As a noon deadline approached Thursday, and sheriffs deputies stood in the gravel driveway, Jason Uhlmansiek, 32, swung back and forth in an outdoor swing as his grim reality was being discussed.

We gave them 30 days notice on June 14, said Calle Melkersman, director of waivers at Sunnyhill, a nonprofit organization that works with the Missouri Department of Mental Health to provide protective oversight for people with developmental disabilities.

Sunnyhill had been Uhlmansieks service provider for nine years. But for some reason on Thursday, they were pulling out of his home here at Lake Timberline. Efforts to find a replacement over the past month were unsuccessful.

Now it was deadline.

So theres no other place for him to go? asked St. Francois County sheriffs Deputy Bruce Momot.

Shes the legal guardian, Melkersman said.

He hasnt lived with me for 22 years, said Donna McCluskey.

McCluskey said shes unable to care for him. She said hes incapacitated, has the temperament of a 5-year-old in a mans body. As part of an independent supported living contract through the state, she said Uhlmansiek is supposed to have two men with him at his home at all times. Three when he goes to the hospital or dentist.

He did nothing wrong to deserve this, said McCluskey, who adopted Uhlmansiek from a Romanian orphanage when he was 18 months old.

She pleaded with Deputy Momot to do more to keep Sunnyhill from abandoning care on Thursday, saying the firm received government funding. Momot told her to file a complaint for that.

Right now, thats not going to do any good, Momot said.

I know, thats why I called you, McCluskey said.

He acted pretty violent when I pulled up, Momot said.

They talked some more about calls that had been made to mental health providers that couldnt do anything fast enough to keep Uhlmansiek in his home on this day.

McCluskey walked away, to a picnic table where her sons many medications were being sorted for transfer. But transfer to whom? And how? There was concern that an ambulance would alarm Uhlmansiek.

Momot spoke to Melkersman.

This is not my problem either, Momot said. I am a deputy sheriff. I dont deal with mental health. I deal with criminal law. What you agreed on in the contract is between you guys.

Momot thought it through some more.

I cant have somebody running loose out here, he said. He needs his own facility to go to. Sticks us in a bind. Theres financing in the city, not in the rural areas.

At that point, a reporter asked Melkersman why Sunnyhill couldnt stay put until a successful transition could take place for Uhlmansiek in his home. Melkersman declined to comment. She walked over to the swing to visit with Donny Mitchell, Sunnyhills chief operating officer, who was part of a team calming Uhlmansiek. Mitchell referred questions to attorney Derrick Good.

There are things in this story that could help everybody understand some of the challenges for him and service providers, Good told the Post-Dispatch by telephone. But due to privacy concerns, he wouldnt elaborate.

A DMH spokeswoman didnt respond to a request for comment.

Vincent Heitholt, an attorney for Missouri Protection & Advocacy Services, told the Post-Dispatch by email that Sunnyhills abandonment of its client is a form of neglect. He said the case is indicative of many other people with disabilities who cant get appropriate residential treatment in the state. He said they are waiting in hospitals, nursing homes and less safe places.

Because of the current staffing crisis, 30 days is not sufficient time to arrange for replacement services when a provider chooses to back out of its contract, he said. Further, because of the lack of provider options, DMH seems reluctant to hold any providers accountable ... parents of consumers are reluctant to advocate for their childrens rights out of fear that a provider will retaliate by terminating services that the children desperately need.

Its unclear what motivated Sunnyhill to discontinue service with Uhlmansiek. Heitholt said the firm wouldnt negotiate an extension even though there wasnt a replacement plan. Heitholt said there have been several disputes over the maintenance of the property.

McCluskey said Uhlmansiek and his 31-year-old sister own the home. Also disabled, she was transferred to a nursing home on Wednesday. Uhlmansiek is lower functioning. In 2004, he was awarded $950,000 in a settlement with the state stemming from abusive care at Marshall Habilitation Center. He was among eight boys believed to have been victims of a wide range of abuse, including being slammed against floors and made to attack each other.

They failed him once, McCluskey said. They failed him again.

Instead of leaving it up to an ambulance crew to sort out on Thursday, Sunnyhill ended up taking Uhlmansiek by van from his home to Parkland Health Center in Farmington. Momot, the deputy, said he couldnt stay at the hospital long, but it was the best case scenario for the time being.

They are going to find a safe place for him, he said.

Posted at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 14.
CHICAGO  Wisconsin medical providers are traveling across state lines to provide abortions in Illinois, expanding access to the procedure

after the recent fall of Roe v. Wade.

Several new abortion clinics are also expected to open soon in Rockford and Carbondale, parts of the state with a dearth of abortion providers.

Two new clinics are planned for Rockford  which hasnt had an abortion provider in about a decade  and a third clinic could begin providing medication abortions as soon as next month in Carbondale, the home of Southern Illinois University.

Reproductive rights advocates hope the new clinics and additional medical providers will help Illinois handle the recent influx of out-of-state abortion patients, following the U.S. Supreme Courts June 24 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which had established the right to terminate a pregnancy nationwide since 1973.

Abortion opponents, however, lament that Illinois is becoming an abortion mecca, said Eric Scheidler, executive director of the Pro-Life Action League.

The overturning of Roe v. Wade has turned Illinois into ground zero in the fight to protect unborn children, he said.

Planned Parenthood officials in Illinois and Wisconsin have launched a partnership to increase abortion access post-Roe, which includes physicians and other staff members from Wisconsin coming to Illinois to work at an abortion clinic in north suburban Waukegan.

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin suspended abortion services after the Supreme Court ruling. Wisconsin has an 1849 law that almost entirely bans abortion, but the law was previously unenforceable under Roe.

During this time, weve seen a tenfold increase in patients from Wisconsin coming for care to Illinois, said Jennifer Welch, Planned Parenthood of Illinois president and CEO, at a news conference on Thursday. This is clear evidence that abortion restrictions and bans do not stop people from having abortions. Restrictions and bans only make it harder for people to access essential reproductive health care where they live.

Wisconsin abortion providers began working in the Waukegan clinic last week. All Wisconsin clinicians who are traveling there to work will be licensed in Illinois, Planned Parenthood officials said.

The majority of the team in Wisconsin providing abortion care have stepped up to travel to Illinois to serve that patient need, said Kristen Schultz, chief strategy and operations officer at Planned Parenthood of Illinois, during the news conference.

A Planned Parenthood of Illinois spokeswoman would not say exactly how many Wisconsin physicians, clinicians and other employees would be working in the Waukegan clinic, citing security reasons; she would not elaborate on what those security concerns were.

Wisconsin providers will also offer abortion services via telehealth appointments in Waukegan, but patients must physically be in Illinois during the visit, Planned Parenthood officials said.

Planned Parenthood affiliates in both states are also providing designated abortion navigators who help patients with travel arrangements, finding funding to cover the cost of the procedure and other resources.

During the news conference, Welch described the case of one patient who had an abortion scheduled at a Planned Parenthood in Wisconsin the day after Roe was overturned. Her appointment had to be canceled but she still needed care quickly. The patient, a single mom with young twins, had to coordinate child care in addition to travel arrangements, Welch said.

Planned Parenthood was able to get her an abortion appointment a few days later at the Waukegan clinic. Wisconsin provided support for transportation and gas money, and Illinois provided financial assistance for the abortion, Welch said.

So that patient got the care she needed, Welch said. Sadly, this story is not unique. Weve seen a tremendous increase in patients coming from Wisconsin to all Illinois Planned Parenthood health centers.

A Wisconsin doctor recently bought two Rockford buildings  a former acupuncture office and a former veterinary clinic  with plans to turn the sites into abortion clinics, according to The Associated Press. The physician, Dr. Dennis Christensen, did not immediately respond to Tribune requests for comment.

The Rockford Family Planning Foundation, a nonprofit that incorporated in Illinois a few days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe, is overseeing plans for the new abortion provider at the converted veterinary clinic site. The foundations president, Jeanne Bissell, said that abortion clinic is expected to open in roughly three to six months.

We wanted to make sure there was a safe, legal place for people in Wisconsin to get abortion care, she said. Its an essential part of health care.  Its lifesaving care. I also think pregnant folks will go to any length to get an abortion. Its really scary what will happen if we dont have safe and legal care.

Plans for the new clinics drew anti-abortion protests to Rockford on Wednesday.

This community does not want to be plagued again by the specter of abortion, said Dolores Pribble, outreach director of the Rockford Family Initiative. Were fighting to keep Rockford abortion-free.

Another abortion clinic could be opening as soon as next month in Carbondale.

Choices Memphis Center for Reproductive Health recently announced plans to establish that clinic, which is expected to first provide medication abortions and in a later phase add procedures. The abortion provider will be about three hours from the Tennessee cities Memphis and Nashville.

There are now roughly two dozen abortion clinics in Illinois, though most are located in the Chicago area. Eleven of the 102 counties in Illinois have at least one abortion provider; in five of those counties, only medication abortions are available, which is restricted to the first 11 weeks of pregnancy, according to Planned Parenthood of Illinois.

In the absence of Roe, the matter of abortion rights is now decided by individual states. Illinois established abortion as a fundamental right in the 2019 Reproductive Health Act. But nearly every other state in the Midwest is expected to either prohibit or nearly ban the procedure; some nearby states, like Wisconsin, have already done so.

Planned Parenthood of Illinois has predicted 20,000 to 30,000 more patients will be traveling to Illinois each year to terminate a pregnancy now that Roe has fallen.

That influx is on top of the thousands of patients that already cross state lines to come to Illinois to terminate a pregnancy. In 2020, nearly 10,000 patients from other states traveled here to have an abortion, according to the most recent data from the Illinois Department of Public Health; the number of out-of-state abortions has increased annually since 2014.

In preparation for more out-of-state travel, Planned Parenthood of Illinois in 2018 opened an abortion clinic in south suburban Flossmoor, near the Indiana border. The Planned Parent affiliate in the St. Louis area in 2019 opened another abortion clinic in Fairview Heights, close to the Missouri border.

The Waukegan clinic, which is just a few miles from Wisconsin, opened in 2020.

The proximity to Wisconsin  a state that poses stringent legal barriers to abortion  was a critical factor in choosing the location, Welch had said in a statement at the time.

2022 Chicago Tribune. Visit chicagotribune.com.
Joe Holleman Joe Holleman is a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Joe Holleman Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

Never let it be said County Executive Sam Page forgets his allies.

Brad Bakker, former treasurer of Pages political action committee (Page PAC), has landed a four-year appointment to the Metropolitan Zoological Park & Museum District Board. The move became official June 30, Page told the County Council.

Bakker, a lawyer, was the treasurer when Page PAC made a $10,000 donation to Unified Democratic Townships LLC, a political action committee connected to Tony Weaver, a Page ally and former county employee indicted last month on federal fraud charges.

Bakker could not be reached Friday for comment.

The Page donation was made May 31; the Weaver indictment was disclosed June 7; Bakker resigned his post June 13; and the Weaver group (whose treasurer is Chevon Weaver, Tony Weavers daughter-in-law) reported the donation June 30.

The Page-to-Weaver donation was called out July 5 on social media by state Rep. Raychel Proudie, a Ferguson Democrat who pointed out on Twitter that the contribution may have violated state campaign law requiring donations of more than $5,000 to be reported within 48 hours.

On Friday, Proudie said she mailed a complaint July 8 to the Missouri Ethics Commission, which declines to comment on pending actions.

Editor's note: A previous version of this story incorrectly named the board to which Bakker was appointed.
Tony Messenger Tony Messenger is the metro columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Tony Messenger Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

A federal lawsuit filed in St. Louis recently seeks an answer to a vexing question for people of faith.

If a Catholic school takes federal money from taxpayers, does it have to follow the guidelines set out in federal law?

The question takes on added importance in the wake of two recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions that seem to cloud the constitutional separation of church and state. One of those decisions required states to allow religious schools to receive taxpayer-funded grants if the same grants are available to private, non-religious schools. The second decision supported an active right to public prayer in public schools.

Neither of those decisions likely will have a direct bearing on the case titled F.B. et al vs. the Archdiocese of St. Louis. But interplay between church and state  specifically the idea of whether federal regulation follows federal money  is the underlying issue in the case.

It involves a Washington, Missouri, family whose children were kicked out of Our Lady of Lourdes School in 2018. One of the couples daughters was diagnosed with learning disabilities when she was 10. Working with a psychologist and various special education experts in 2016, the family developed a plan to improve their daughters ability to function in school. Heres how the lawsuit characterizes it:

The Parents provided the evaluation to Lourdes, and in a meeting with the Principal and a special education teacher, Lourdes accepted the evaluation and agreed to provide services and accommodations to (the student). Lourdes provides such services and accommodations to students with disabilities through a Learning Plan.

All was well. The daughters grades improved. Then, a year later, the school changed principals. The new principal, according to the lawsuit filed by attorney Ken Chackes, decided to stop following the special plan for the girls education. Her grades suffered. The parents complained, and, according to the lawsuit, ended up in conflict with both the principal and the church pastor, the Rev. James Theby, including an allegation that the students father threatened to assault the principal.

Eventually, the lawsuit contends, Theby informed the family their children were no longer welcome at Lourdes. The lawsuit alleges that the refusal to follow the daughters learning plan was a violation of Section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act. The law protects people from discrimination based on their disability.

As a private educational entity that offers special educational services, the Archdiocese and Lourdes are required to comply with certain requirements of Section 504 in addition to the requirement to provide reasonable accommodations, the lawsuit contends.

In court documents, attorneys for the archdiocese deny that the school has received federal money or that the provision cited by Chackes applies to the school or the church. They also argue that the claims made in the lawsuit are barred by the federal and state Religious Freedom Restoration Act because enforcing them would impinge upon the churchs autonomy.

The plaintiffs in this lawsuit were not discriminated against, said Gerard Carmody, the attorney representing the archdiocese and the school. The actions taken relative to them were a product of the threatening behavior of the childrens father. That conduct included threats of physical assault against the schools principal.

After the younger children were kicked out of Lourdes, the family from Washington home-schooled them for the rest of the year. The family filed a lawsuit, the girls mother said in an emailed statement, because I was not going to let these people do this to my girls, or to anyone elses kids, ever again.

The question for the courts is whether the federal law that requires accommodations for students with disabilities applies to private, religious schools. If they receive federal money, theres no question the law applies to them, Chackes says.

It also requires schools to provide procedures for parents to voice their concerns and forbids retaliation against parents who advocate for their childrens rights, Chackes said. While most educators and some parents know about Section 504, many do not realize that it applies to religious and other private schools because they get federally funded low-cost meals and participate in other similar programs.

Be careful what you wish for, the lawsuit seems to suggest. If federal money flows to religious schools, then the long arm of federal regulation will not be far behind.
KANSAS CITY, Mo.  Former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens is scheduled to testify Wednesday in his ongoing child custody dispute with his ex-wife Sheena Greitens.

At a court hearing in Columbia on Friday, Boone County Associate Circuit Judge Leslie Schneider ruled that she will oversee a deposition hearing in the case at 11 a.m. Wednesday. The ruling means that attorneys for both parties will be able to question Eric and Sheena Greitens under oath. However, the hearing will be behind closed doors instead of a public trial.

Helen Wade, the lawyer for Sheena Greitens, likely will ask the former governor about allegations that he abused his ex-wife and their young children in 2018. It could expose damaging information about the U.S. Senate candidate just weeks before the Republican primary on Aug. 2.

The deposition scheduled for Wednesday will be the first time Eric Greitens, who stepped down as governor in 2018 following claims that he had blackmailed a woman to keep her quiet about an extramarital affair, answers questions under oath since his ex-wifes abuse allegations were made public in March.

Quite frankly, (Sheena Greitens) cant keep coming up here to do this, Wade told Schneider Friday. Sheena Greitens now lives in Texas. I understand that Mr. Greitens does not want to give a deposition prior to the primary. I understand that. But we want this case to be over with.

Sheena Greitens was in the courtroom Friday. Eric Greitens attended the hearing by video.

Gary Stamper, the attorney for Eric Greitens, and Wade said Friday that Liz Magee, who serves as the guardian to oversee the interests of the former couples two children during the case, expressed concern that a public hearing would hurt the children. A closed-door deposition is in the best interests of the Greitens young children, Wade told Schneider Friday.

At the hearing, Stamper said he didnt think it was necessary to hold a deposition in the case. However, he ultimately agreed to it and said he would talk to Eric Greitens.

Asked after the hearing whether he would question Sheena Greitens under oath, Stamper said it was a game time decision. He said he did not plan to contest Wednesdays deposition.

Sheena Greitens, a professor at the University of Texas-Austin, is seeking to move the case to Texas. Stamper told The Star Friday that the attorneys will likely file a transcript of the deposition with the court. Schneider is expected to rule on whether to move the case to Texas based on arguments laid out in the deposition.

The child custody case has received intense scrutiny since March after the former Missouri first lady filed an affidavit accusing her ex-husband of physical and emotional abuse against her and their children.

Eric Greitens, through Stamper, has painted the abuse allegations as a broader political conspiracy orchestrated by establishment Republicans.

Copies of Sheena Greitens communications shared with The Star rebut the former governors claims and show that she made the same allegations to a therapist and a lawyer in 2018.

In the communications and her sworn statement, Sheena Greitens references several times where her ex-husband was physically and emotionally abusive to her and their children. They include a time where the former governor allegedly hit one of his sons in the face while he was sitting in his booster seat. In another incident, Sheena Greitens said her son told her that the former governor grabbed him by the hair. She also wrote that her ex-husband pushed and knocked her over and took away her phone.

The former governor has not filed any sworn statements in the case, but has used social media and campaign emails to cast his ex-wife as a liar.

Greitens campaign tactics made their way into the child custody dispute last month in the aftermath of a campaign video that showed Eric Greitens hunting his perceived political enemies. Wade said Sheena Greitens received threats after the videos release.

2022 The Kansas City Star. Visit kansascity.com.

Updated at 3:15 p.m. Friday, July 15.
Updated at 2 p.m. Sunday with more details from police.

ST. LOUIS  A 25-year-old man was fatally shot in the chest Saturday evening in a south St. Louis home, according to police.

Police were called about 6:30 p.m. to the 4400 block of Michigan Avenue in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood.

They then found a 25-year-old man with a gunshot wound in the chest. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.

He was identified Thursday as Akeem Williams, of the 4400 block of Pennsylvania Avenue.

The homeowner was taken into custody for questioning and released pending further investigation, St. Louis police said Sunday.

St. Louis police ask anyone with information to call the homicide division directly at 314-444-5371. Anyone with a tip who wants to remain anonymous can call CrimeStoppers at 866-371-8477.
Editors note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said anyone found illegally camping on state-owned land could face a felony charge. The penalty is a $750 fine or a Class C misdemeanor charge punishable by up to 15 days in prison.

_____

JEFFERSON CITY  Gov. Mike Parson ignored the concerns of one of his cabinet members about a new law targeting Missouris homeless population.

In a May letter obtained by the Post-Dispatch, Missouri Department of Mental Health Director Valerie Huhn told the governors budget office that the law will have negative impacts on people living on the streets and could exacerbate the problems, rather than fix them.

When people experiencing homelessness have criminal justice histories, it is difficult to find housing, Huhn wrote.

Parson, who announced Huhns selection as director in December, signed the Republican-backed measure into law in June.

The law, which goes into effect Jan. 1, 2023, makes it illegal to sleep on state-owned land, such as under highway overpasses and bridges. After one warning, anyone found illegally camping on state-owned land could face a $750 fine or a Class C misdemeanor charge punishable by up to 15 days in prison.

The law authorizes the state attorney general to sue cities that dont enforce the ban. It further penalizes cities with rates of homelessness higher than the state average by taking away state funding for unhoused services.

The measure also bars cities and organizations from using state and federal grants to build permanent housing for the unsheltered. Rather, that money must be directed to build temporary camps.

People wanting to stay at the temporary camps must submit to mental health and substance-use evaluations, which contradicts the current federally backed Housing First model, which says no one should have to meet requirements to seek shelter.

Huhn has a long history as an administrator in state government, having worked at the Office of Administration, the governors budget office, the Department of Social Services and the Department of Health and Senior Services. She joined DMH as chief of its Division of Developmental Disabilities in 2014 and was named the departments deputy director in 2020.

Her concerns echo a long list of opponents to the legislation, which was sponsored in the House by Rep. Bruce DeGroot, R-Ellisville.

DeGroot argued that his approach, based on a similar law in Texas, would get people off the streets.

In her letter, Huhn said the focus on short-term housing fails to provide an adequate level of support for people seeking to have stability in their housing.

Private landlords statewide may choose not to lease to persons experiencing homelessness for a variety of reasons, such as no rental history, no credit or poor credit, or criminal justice histories, she wrote. Stable housing is a key component of successful recovery.

The new law also puts limits on how the state can use funding for homelessness programs.

In a separate letter from the staff of the Missouri Housing Development Commission, of which Parson is a member, officials also raised concerns about the new law, saying it will heavily impact the states urban areas.

The commission letter, dated May 23, also said the law could limit the uses of state and federal funds in building permanent housing for the homeless.

Many activities in the bill are not currently funded through existing programs and are too vague to make a determination of eligibility, the MHDS document notes.

Parsons signature on the legislation marked the second law he signed over the objections of his agency directors.

In May, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources said a law barring the release of information about polluters could reduce the publics ability to ensure environmental laws are being enforced equitably.

The homeless legislation is included in House Bill 1606.

Posted at 11 a.m. Friday, July 15. Updated Monday, July 18, to clarify penalty for sleeping on state-owned land.
ST. LOUIS  A St. Louis man who fled police in a stolen SUV and then killed a woman by crashing into her car in 2019 was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison.

Michael A. Moses Jr., 36, reached an agreement with prosecutors by pleading guilty to a reduced charge of involuntary manslaughter as well as resisting arrest by fleeing police, unlawful gun possession and child endangerment. Circuit Judge Clinton Wright accepted Moses' plea deal.

Moses was originally charged with second-degree murder, also known as felony murder, which means someone died during the commission of a felony crime.

Moses admitted fleeing a police officer from the Swish Wash car wash at 1042 Vandeventer Avenue in a stolen Chevrolet Suburban after 7 p.m. July 22. Authorities said he had an outstanding bench warrant for failing to show for drug court and drove off as a city officer came to the car wash to investigate a reported stolen vehicle.

He sped up to 70 mph and struck a blue Chevrolet Cobalt driven by Jovanna Young at Finney Avenue and North Sarah Street, police said. Young, 24, of the 6300 block of Saloma Avenue, was pulled from wreckage by firefighters but died at the scene.

Police said Moses ran from the crash scene. Using dogs, police found him hiding in bushes in an open field near West Belle Place and Whittier Avenue. A woman and child inside the stolen Chevy Suburban were injured, police said. Officers found a loaded .22-caliber assault rifle inside the SUV.

Moses' lawyer declined comment.
Following a five year hold because of changing agency priorities, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has restarted its comprehensive conservation plan for several sites in south-central Montana.

The units being reviewed include the Charles M. Russell Wetland Management District, Hailstone Waterfowl Production Area and National Wildlife Refuge, Grass Lake NWR, Lake Mason NWR, and War Horse NWR. The planning is not related to the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge nor its conservation plan.

The process provides refuge managers with a 15-year plan for achieving refuge purposesconsistent with sound principles of fish and wildlife management, conservation, legal mandates, and our policies, the agency stated in its Federal Register notification.

The Fish and Wildlife Service uses the process, via public comments, to evaluate management goals and objectives that will ensure the best possible approach to wildlife, plant and habitat conservation, while providing for wildlife-dependent recreation opportunities that are compatible with each refuge unit's establishing purposes, the agency stated.

Written comments on the plans are being taken through July 29. Comments and questions can be submitted by email to: Alice Lee, at alice_lee@fws.gov or by mail to: Alice Lee, Conservation Planner, Branch of Refuge Planning, P.O. Box 25486, Denver Federal Center, Denver, CO 80225.

The Charles M. Russell WMD is located in south-central Montana and includes parts of five counties: Golden Valley, Musselshell, Petroleum, Stillwater, and Yellowstone. The WMD includes three WPAs and several types of easements. The Clark's Fork WPA is a 271-acre tract of land located along the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone River. Spidel WPA is a 1,246-acre tract of land located nearly three miles northeast of Broadview, Montana. The Tew WPA is 692 acres, and is located 15 miles northeast of Broadview in Musselshell County. Additional information about these WPAs is available at https://www.fws.gov/refuge/charles-m-russell-wetland-management-district.

Hailstone WPA and NWR were established primarily as breeding grounds for waterfowl and other wildlife. The Service purchased 1,988 acres of easement in 1979 to create the Hailstone WPA. Hailstone WPA and NWR are part of the Lake Basin area and are managed as a flowage and refuge easement. The current size of the flowage easement at Hailstone is 760 acres.

Grass Lake NWR is a 4,318-acre refuge that is one of the most productive migratory bird areas in central Montana. This refuge is currently closed to all public use.

Lake Mason NWR consists of three separate tracts of land in central Montana: the Lake Mason Unit, Willow Creek Unit and North Unit. With the exception of the northern half of the Lake Mason Unit, the refuge is open to hunting of migratory game birds, upland game birds and big game, as well as hiking and wildlife observation. The northern half of the Lake Mason Unit is closed to all public access, in order to increase the security and attractiveness of this area to migratory birds.

War Horse NWR consists of three separate land units: Wild Horse, 440 acres; War Horse, 1,152 acres; and Yellow Water, 1,640 acres. War Horse NWR was established in 1958 as a refuge and breeding ground for migratory birds and other wildlife through a transfer of lands by the authority of the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act. More information on the above NWRs can be found at https://www.fws.gov/refuge/charles-m-russell.
KANSAS CITY, Mo.  Leaders in largely Democratic Kansas City, Missouri, dont control the citys police department, hire the police chief or determine how the department spends its tax dollars. A 1930s-era law gives that power to a five-member board largely appointed by the Missouri governor, who since 2017 has been a Republican.

A longstanding dispute over that arrangement is erupting this summer. The two sides are preparing for a statewide vote in November on a constitutional amendment that would give the Republican-majority Legislature even more authority to set police funding.

A key legislative backer says Kansas City police need the support because some Democrats want to defund the force  a charge city leaders vehemently deny.

A local civil rights leader sued on behalf of city taxpayers, arguing that allowing the state to control the citys police force amounts to taxation without representation and discriminates against Kansas Citys large Black population, which experiences much of its violent crime.

Mayor Quinton Lucas, who is the only person on the Board of Police Commissioners not appointed by the governor, has indicated the proposal will be challenged in court.

The debate echoes recent confrontations between Republican state officials and Democratic leaders of larger cities elsewhere over issues including voting rights, mask mandates and recognition of the Juneteenth holiday. And it comes as the nation continues to wrestle with racial injustice in policing.

Last year, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas and Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia signed restrictive election laws that opponents claimed targeted Democratic strongholds. And school boards in largely Democratic areas defied governors in Florida, Texas and Arizona who sought to ban mask mandates during the height of the pandemic.

Kansas City, with a population of about 508,000, about 28% Black, is the only Missouri city without local control of its police force. Its believed to be the largest city in the U.S. in that situation, the mayors office said.

After racial injustice protests in 2020 sparked calls for more police accountability, Lucas and some City Council members passed two ordinances that would have given city officials some control over how $42.5 million of the police departments $239 million budget for 2021-2022 fiscal year would be spent. The money would have been used to emphasize social service and crime prevention programs.

Critics, including the police union and former police chief, said the proposal was a roundabout way of defunding the department and would leave it with insufficient money to make it through the year.

Shortly after the ordinances passed, the state-appointed police board sued the city to undo them and won. The judge said state law gives the board exclusive authority over the police budget.

The fight prompted legislators to pass a bill requiring the city to increase police funding from 20% of its general revenue budget to 25%. Republican Gov. Mike Parson signed the bill June 27.

But there was concern the move would run afoul of a state constitutional ban on unfunded state mandates for cities. So lawmakers put an amendment to address that on the November general election ballot.

Lucas tweeted that the bill represents the raw exercise of power by state lawmakers over the people of Kansas City, and would be challenged in court. He and other officials have noted the city already routinely funds the police department above the 20% requirement.

State Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer, a Republican who represents counties in suburban Kansas City, said he sponsored the legislation to stand with law enforcement during a time of radical attempts across the country by city councils to defund the police.

Melissa Robinson, a Democratic Kansas City Council member, said the current arrangement disenfranchises Kansas City taxpayers by allowing outsiders to decide how their tax dollars are spent.

She said supporters are strategizing how to persuade residents outside the city that the issue on the November ballot is centered on local control, a principle frequently lauded by Republicans.

This is not about divisive conversations about blue lives and Black lives, she said. Its the basic question of how government should work. ... We never said we wanted to decrease funding, we just wanted to separate out some money and ask questions about better ways to address crime.

Luetkemeyer said all Missourians should care about how the Kansas City police department operates because the city is one of the main economic drivers in the state.

If Kansas City sees a dramatic increase in crime because police are defunded, thats going to have a ripple effect across the entire economy in the state of Missouri, he said.

According to police department crime statistics, reports of the most serious crimes, such as homicides, sex assaults, robbery, fraud and weapons violations decreased 6% from 2020 to 2021.

Homicides in the city have fluctuated between 151 in 2017 to 157 in 2021, with a high of 179 in 2020. The statistics show 78% of homicide victims in the city in 2021 were Black men and women.

Gwen Grant, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City and the civil rights leader who filed a lawsuit over the funding issue, said the current arrangement is steeped in racism.

During the Civil War, Missouri was sharply divided between Union and Confederate supporters, with much of the Union support centered in St. Louis and Kansas City, which had larger Black populations than elsewhere in the state.

In 1861, Missouri Gov. Claiborne Fox Jackson, who supported the Confederacy, persuaded the Legislature to pass a law giving the state control over the police department in St. Louis. Missouri voters in 2013 approved a constitutional amendment returning that department to local control.

The state took over the new Kansas City Police Department in 1874. That changed in 1932, when the Missouri Supreme Court ruled the appointed boards control of the agency was unconstitutional.

But the state took back control in 1939 at the urging of another segregationist governor, Lloyd Crow Stark, in part because of corruption under highly influential political organizer Tom Pendergast. In 1943, a new law limited the amount a city could be required to appropriate to a police board to 20% of its general revenue in any fiscal year.

Grant said she did not expect supporters of state control to acknowledge the racist elements of the situation.

You cant sidestep that, she said. Thats the big elephant in the room ... We are the only city of our size in the country that does not have control of its police department. If state control is so great, why is it that we are the only people with it?

Ballentine reported from Jefferson City, Missouri.
ST. LOUIS  The Board of Aldermen on Friday gave final approval to spending $1 million in federal money to help St. Louis women get abortions in Illinois and other states where the practice remains legal.

This is an opportunity for St. Louis to lead, to show that we are not interested in backing down after the recent Supreme Court reversal of the Roe v. Wade decision, said the bills sponsor, Alderman Annie Rice, 8th Ward.

Shortly after the boards 15-8 vote, Attorney General Eric Schmitts office reiterated his intention to file a lawsuit to challenge the measure.

Opponents on the board repeated complaints that additional American Rescue Plan Act money assigned in the bill to other city Health Department purposes could be delayed by a lengthy court battle over the abortion-related money.

That includes $1.64 million for additional COVID testing, treatment and vaccination at local health clinics and $500,000 for a new round of $100 gift cards to be used as an incentive to obtaining coronavirus shots.

I dont understand a strategy of putting at risk any ARPA funds that I want to see in my community, said Alderman Sharon Tyus, 1st Ward.

Tyus, an abortion rights supporter herself, said the abortion-related money should have been split off into a separate bill.

Opponents also said the city shouldnt allocate money for such activity when its had problems providing some basic services lately.

Weve got potholes, we dont have (enough) police, our trash is not being picked up, complained Alderman Joe Vaccaro, 23rd Ward. Is it proper to tie this money up in court? Last week he called the bill a political stunt.

The abortion access money would go to a new Reproductive Equity Fund in the Health Department, which would contract with private groups to spend the funds.

The money could be used for transportation, child care and other logistical help for women getting abortions outside Missouri, where a state ban on nearly all abortions was activated by the Supreme Court decision.

Rice has said most such women getting such assistance likely would go to abortion facilities in nearby Fairview Heights and Granite City but that because of increased demand recently, its possible they may have to travel farther.

The new city fund also would get $500,000 for other reproductive health services such as access to doulas and lactation support and $250,000 for administrative oversight and evaluation.

Mayor Tishaura O. Jones has said she will sign the bill and that its among several measures passed Friday that will help make St. Louis a safer, stronger and fairer city.

Also applauding the boards action was Yamelsie Rodriguez, president and CEO of the local Planned Parenthood affiliate, which operates one of the Metro East facilities.

St. Louisans need abortion access logistics help, postpartum support and assistance at every stage of pregnancy now more than ever, she said. She said the bill will help curb the impending public health crisis.

Sam Lee, director of Campaign Life Missouri, said the measure is clearly unlawful and an affront to the taxpayers of Missouri who do not want to be forced to assist or participate in abortion in any manner.

Schmitt, the attorney general, has cited a state law prohibiting public money from being used for performing or assisting an abortion not needed to save the mothers life.

Rice, the bills sponsor, contended during the boards videoconference meeting that the state law cited by Schmitt doesnt apply to federal funds. And even if it does, she said, the word assist means helping with the abortion procedure itself.

Tyus disagreed. Assisting, for me, is a great amount of things, including transportation, she said.

The bill passed with the minimum amount of favorable votes needed, 15. Casting a key yes vote was Jimmy Lappe, who was just elected 11th Ward alderman in a special election on Tuesday.

Alderman Jack Coatar, 7th Ward, who voted for the bill last week when it was given preliminary approval, didnt take part in Fridays meeting following the birth of his son Thursday.

Joining Tyus and Vaccaro in voting against the bill were acting board president Joe Vollmer; Brandon Bosley, 3rd Ward; Dwinderlin Evans, 4th Ward; Carol Howard, 14th Ward; Tom Oldenburg, 16th Ward, and Pam Boyd, 27th Ward. Voting present was Marlene Davis, 19th Ward.

Other spending OKd

Aldermen on Friday also approved other bills allocating federal pandemic aid.

Among the outlays are $35 million for emergency rental assistance, $10 million to expand violence prevention programs to additional city neighborhoods and $3.6 million on youth programs.

Agency to probe alleged police misconduct

Aldermen also voted 17-3 to pass legislation setting up a new civilian agency to investigate allegations of police misconduct. (A separate story is posted here.)

Updated at 4:50 p.m. Friday, July 15.
Ken Schmidt doesn't view recent motor problems on his boat as a bad omen for the 2022 North Dakota Governor's Walleye Cup on Lake Sakakawea.

The defending champ knows there are many more hurdles that he and fishing partner Mark Jones will need to overcome this weekend to become a three-time winner of the 47-year-old tournament.

"It's just one of many things that could go wrong," Schmidt said of the "messed-up water pump" that he thinks is now fixed. "You never know."

Schmidt, 47, of Glasgow, Montana, and Jones, 58, of Billings, Montana, won the tournament in 2014 with a weight of 32.51 pounds and in 2021 with a weight of 40.44 pounds. The tournament hasn't seen a back-to-back winner since the late Joe Schneider of Bismarck and his son, Terry, won the first two events in the mid-1970s.

Schmidt joked that he has "zero" confidence in repeating, especially given that he and Jones have to once again beat out 259 other teams.

"I can't believe we won it twice in seven years," he said. "That's an amazing feat. There are so many good anglers out there. (Repeating) is tough to even think about. If you can get into the Top 30, that's an accomplishment in my opinion."

The Bismarck duo of Ricky Schumacher and Kerry Wentz won the 2019 tournament. When they tried to repeat last year -- the 2020 event was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic -- they finished 110th. They're back in the field again this year. The 2021 runner-up team of Jeff Enzminger, of Bismarck, and Gary Cayko, of Mandan, also is back.

The Governor's Cup is generally considered the most prestigious fishing trophy in the state. The tournament is based out of Garrison and nearby Fort Stevenson State Park, with daily weigh-ins Friday and Saturday at Garrison City Park. The majority of anglers who compete are from North Dakota or surrounding states, though about a dozen states are typically represented.

The tournament pays down to 42nd place, with a top prize of $15,000.

The event also features inductions into the North Dakota Fishing Hall of Fame. Kyle Agre of Fargo is this year's honoree. He is a longtime member of FM Walleyes Unlimited, youth education coordinator and director of the Devils Lake Angler Young Angler Tournament, and founder and president of the Lake Agassiz High School Fishing League.

Mussel dogs

New this year will be zebra mussel-sniffing dogs.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is partnering with Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife wardens who will employ their professionally trained K-9s to detect the presence of any invasive zebra mussels on boats being launched in the tournament.

Zebra mussels compete with native species, clog water intakes, and can even sink docks and buoys with their weight. They've been documented in eastern North Dakota but not in the west, and state fisheries officials are working to keep it that way.

"By taking proactive measures we can prevent the introduction of zebra mussels and other aquatic nuisance species into Lake Sakakawea, said Ben Holen, aquatic nuisance species coordinator for North Dakota's Game and Fish Department.

Tournament Chairwoman Joyce Pfliger called the addition of the dogs "fantastic."

Hopefully, with bringing these dogs to North Dakota, it will open up the possibility of having ANS dogs here permanently," she said, using the acronym for aquatic nuisance species.

A different lake

A wet spring means Lake Sakakawea is higher than it was during last summer's drought.

"The lake has come up some, and we are happy about that," Pfliger said. "I think the fishing will be good, and the fish are so healthy."

Schmidt has fished the tournament for 15 years, eight of them with Jones. He said the different lake characteristics won't change the fishing tactics they use.

"Every year you have to relocate the fish," he said. "I don't think there's any year where we've fished in the same spot ... we just start over every year."

Luck also plays a role.

Last year, "We just found the right quality fish," Schmidt said. "When we got the bites, we made them count. We weren't catching a ton of fish, but the ones we were getting were nice.

"We don't like to sit on a spot where you get one good fish and that's it. We like to find where you're getting numbers of quality fish," he said. "You might not get the biggest fish of the tournament, but if you can get good quality and be consistent for two days, that's usually the key to being successful."
Regarding Kevin McDermotts column Weapon-themed campaign ads highlight the candidates inadequate  policies (July 10): In my opinion, Republican Senate candidates Eric Greitens and Eric Schmitt despise Missouri voters. They pander to a stereotype of Missourians as ignorant hicks unable to engage in an intelligent discussion of issues, the same stereotype that they accuse Democrats of having. Greitens and Schmitt arent leaders, they articulate no vision, they offer no path forward and their cartoonish antics demonstrate nothing but contempt for Missourians.
After more than a decade of efforts by Poland and other new NATO members in eastern Europe, the United States has agreed to move its U.S. Army 5th Corps (aka as Fifth or V Corps) headquarters to Poland and build support facilities, including storage for prepositioned military equipment that enable U.S. combat brigades to fly in their personnel and use the prepositioned equipment to be combat ready within 24 hours. The 5th Corps headquarters will assume many of the functions it performed for decades in Germany during the Cold War. In 1950 the U.S. reactivated 7th Corps to assist in command-and-control of American forces in Germany or ready to move to Germany if there was a major war. That never happened and the Cold War abruptly ended in 1991 when the Soviet Union dissolved. During the 1990s American forces in Europe were reduced and 7th Corps was deactivated in 1992, with any remaining responsibilities transferred to 5th Corps. After September 11, 2001 the 5th Corps left Europe and served in Iraq and Afghanistan as a combat zone headquarters. In 2012 5th Corps was deactivated with its responsibilities in Afghanistan, like those in Germany, assumed by higher headquarters. In 2020 5th Corps headquarters was reactivated but kept in the United States with forward elements stationed in Germany to handle the smaller number of combat units the U.S. was assigning to NATO control. In 2022 the entire 5th Corps operation was moved to Germany temporarily while a new base was built in Poland, where 5th Corps would gradually move to Poland over the next year as facilities were ready.

The new NATO members in eastern Europe have spent years resolving administrative problems that would otherwise make it impractical to put a major NATO headquarters in Poland.

When NATO expanded eastwards a unique set of logistical problems were encountered. These new problems were not fully appreciated until 2015 when the United States decided to send military units by road (and railroad) to the easternmost new NATO members. NATO gained a lot of new members in East Europe between 1999 (when Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic joined) and 2004 (when Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia joined). Unlike the original members of NATO, who were all in West Europe or on the Mediterranean (Greece and Turkey), many of the new members could not be reached quickly by sea or air transports carrying reinforcements because of their proximity to Russian naval and air forces. Moreover, during the Cold War most of the combat forces needed to confront the major threat (Russian invasion of West Europe, mainly West Germany) were already in place, as were weapons and equipment (but not personnel) for additional American REFORGER combat divisions. Regular REFORGER exercises tested the ability of the troops to be flown in and take possession of their prepositioned equipment. Some of the eastern NATO members asked the United States and NATO to establish bases or token forces in the most vulnerable (to Russian attack) new members. Some of that was done but for the most exposed new members NATO established a rapid reaction force of 30,000 troops and the first of those to be sent east, by land, was a Spearhead Force with 5,000 troops plus hundreds of vehicles (including armor and artillery). When this was first tried in 2015 it was a disaster because NATO forces had never had to move a ground force, in peacetime across so many national borders. The biggest obstacle turned out to be the red tape. It took three years of strenuous efforts to fix it.

While the armed forces available to NATO far outnumber those of Russia, there is a major impediment to assembling and moving those forces by road to the aid of NATO nations bordering Russia. That enemy is the ancient bureaucracies that control the movement of foreign troops crossing borders, even those forces coming to your aid. This was demonstrated in early 2015 when a U.S. Army mechanized battalion made a very well publicized road march from Poland, Lithuania and Estonia back to its base in Germany. The American battalion required hundreds of hours of effort to complete the paperwork and get the permissions required to cross so many borders in military vehicles.

The pile of paperwork and weeks required to handle it were used as very concrete evidence to persuade the East European nations to streamline the process, or have themselves to blame if reinforcements did not arrive in a timely fashion. As usual a compromise was worked out and by 2016 six NFIUs (NATO Force Integration Units) were organized, each consisting of 40 troops trained and equipped to handle the paperwork and traffic control measures required to get military convoys across eastern borders as quickly as possible to specific countries (Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania). The NFIU work out of embassies and stay in constant touch with the border control bureaucracies of the East European nations involved. NFIUs also arrange for rest areas and resupply for the convoys.

NFIUs also ensure that the routes used have roads and bridges that can handle the heavy trucks and armored vehicles involved. This is a crucial matter in East Europe. Since the 1950s West European nations have constantly upgraded and maintained roads and bridges to handle heavy vehicles, but East Europe had not, at least until the 1990s, and the deferred upgrades, after 35 years of communist misrule, are still underway. The dozens of Russian divisions stationed in East Europe until 1990 were brought in piecemeal over decades, often transporting heavy equipment by ship or rail. Moreover, NATO heavy equipment is heavier than their Russian counterparts so even East European bridges built to handle Russian tanks often cannot deal with heavier M1s and Leopards.

The NFIUs maintain a new database on 15,000 kilometers of East European roads and hundreds of bridges. Available cross-country routes have also been mapped and put into the database. Because of such road and bridge restrictions, the original 2015 test force used 20-ton Stryker wheeled armored vehicles and not the heavier 63 ton M-1 tanks and 27 ton M-2 infantry fighting vehicles that usually accompany Strykers.

The 2015 test was called Operation Dragoon Ride and it rolled through Central Europe to send a message to Russians. From March 20th to April 1st, a U.S. Army squadron returning from Atlantic Resolve NATO exercises took an unusual route back to its base in Germany, after spending three months in training facilities in Poland, Lithuania and Estonia. The unit involved was the 3rd Squadron (battalion) of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry Regiment. This unit refers to itself as dragoons (an ancient term for horse-mounted infantry) and the apparent reason for Dragoon Ride was to demonstrate to the locals as well as the Russians that American armored units could reach the East European NATO nations by road, as well as by ship, aircraft or rail. Dragoon Ride purposely rode close to the Russian border, often in full view of Russians and Russian media. The American troops frequently stopped in towns and villages so the locals could meet their allies, take pictures and quietly enjoy the pain this demonstration was causing the increasingly aggressive Russians. What Dragoon Ride was really about was to test the feasibility of using this route for the much larger Spearhead Force and their heavier vehicles.

While that test aspect was not publicized, the Russian government knew full well what Dragoon Ride was really all about and that this road movement took the efforts of hundreds of unseen troops and bureaucrats to deal with the paperwork. For all of 2015, it required nearly 6,000 travel documents to be prepared, filed and approved to get foreign military vehicles across East European borders. Some of these documents take several weeks to get approved, operations like Dragoon Ride required hundreds of them, and nearly as many NATO local government personnel were involved with this paperwork as were actually participating (500 troops) in the actual Dragoon Ride (of 120 vehicles). While all these rules and approvals would not stop invading Russians they would, in theory, slow down reinforcements from the West. The Russians also know that even with NFIUs the movement of these troops is a slow and frustrating process and are ready to take advantage of it. NATO continued to battle the bureaucracies to speed up the flow of reinforcements. It took the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine to motivate all East European NATO members to make quick access by NATO ground forces a priority.
Violence from Islamic terrorism, tribal conflicts and banditry hit record levels in 2021. The five states with the highest number deaths were; Zamfara (in the northwest near the Niger border) saw 848 deaths while Kaduna (in the north) had 550 and Borno (in the northeast) 481, Benue (central Nigeria) 381 and Niger (in the west) 332. So far in 2022 Benue States has dropped out of the top five, replaced by Plateau state in Central Nigeria.

Until the last few years Borno State was the most violent. Since 2011 over 35,000 have died from Boko Haram and Islamic terrorist violence. This was the majority of the 60,000 deaths suffered nationwide because of Islamic terrorist activity since 2011.

The government established an amnesty program for Boko Haram members and their families. Over the years Boko Haram men had married and had families, who lived with them in remote camps. This is what made the amnesty program so effective. For every Boko Haram man surrendering there were five or six family members, most of them children.

While religious and tribal violence grows in northern and central Nigeria, down south there has been some good news. So far this year there have been no pirate attacks off the Nigerian coast. In September 2021 the coalition of international shipowners associations declared the Nigerian coast and the surrounding Gulf Of Guinea a HRA (High Risk Area). Pressure from the ship owners recognizing that piracy now had gone from nuisance to a major threat for ship owners who deliver goods and take away mineral and oil exports along the West African coast. The piracy threat was mainly in the Gulf of Guinea, including the Nigerian coast. The new HRA off West Africa that will encompass over 3.2 million square kilometers (910,000 square miles). Within the area the risk is rising and some shipping companies refuse to send their ships into waters near the Niger River Delta, an area controlled by Nigeria that has experienced the most attacks. Some crews are demanding double pay to enter this area. While the Nigerian Navy has established guarded anchorages and purchased coastal patrol UAVs the risk remains. Nigeria will not allow any armed security teams on merchant ships, as has become common in the Somali HRA. This makes the crews feel even more vulnerable. There were no attacks so far this year, in part because of the HRA designation. Up until 2021 about half the piracy attacks in the new HRA were off the Nigerian coast. The Nigerian pirates are still there and will probably manage to resume their attacks before the end of the year, but so far this year the piracy problem belongs to the other nations in the HRA.

As the Gulf of Guinea piracy became a major problem shipping companies warned of sharp increases in maritime ship insurance and other piracy related costs that will be passed on to consumers in Nigeria and neighboring countries. Off the Nigerian coast the pirate activity is increasing despite growing Nigerian efforts to curb the threat.

Nigeria will not get as bad as Somalia, which was the only place in the world where pirates could, for nearly a decade, take a large ship and anchor it off a small coastal town controlled by pirates. With no threats from local authorities, the pirates threatened to murder hostages, especially the ones taken ashore, if the anti-piracy patrol attempts to take back the ship. This lack of any Somali coast guard or government control of the entire coast was why Somalia was the only region seriously enough threatened by pirates that armed guards were allowed on large commercial ships passing through the most dangerous areas. In the other pirate hotspots, like Nigeria/Gulf of Guinea, the Strait of Malacca between Malaysia and Indonesia, and parts of the Caribbean, local police, navies and coast guard keep the pirates under control and usually forbid armed guards on ships. The main risk outside Somali waters is nighttime raids by local pirates who rob the crew of valuables and the ships of anything portable.

These robbery tactics escalated in Nigeria since 2016 because the pirates realized that kidnapping key crew members and holding them for ransom was safer and more lucrative than hauling away portable valuables. Kidnapping was slow to catch on because initially local security forces could locate the kidnappers hideouts and free their hostages. That changed in Nigeria because pirates made deals with local political and military officials to share the large ransoms paid for kidnapped foreign sailors. Once these ransom sharing deals were in place it became more difficult to find the pirate hideouts where hostages were held. This corrupt profit-sharing arrangement is nothing new in Nigeria and has been a component of the crippling corruption Nigeria has suffered since independence in the 1960s. Currently about five million dollars in ransoms are being paid each year and that is increasing. This is what is threatening to raise ship insurance rates and the cost of shipping anything in or out of the Gulf of Guinea. Ultimately the customer pays, otherwise shippers could not continue doing business in high-risk areas.

These robberies and kidnappings are common in areas where a lot of large ships have to anchor off a busy major port and await their turn to dock for loading or unloading cargo. What enabled the Nigerian pirates to become more of a menace was the entrenched gangster culture in the Niger River Delta. This is where most of Nigerias oil is produced. More of the oil is coming from offshore rigs and these became attractive targets for pirates. The seemingly entrenched gangster culture is made possible by the culture of corruption among local politicians and local security forces. Many politicians adopt a local gang to provide muscle for ensuring voters select the most corrupt candidates. Nigeria has been undergoing increasingly vigorous and effective reform efforts since 2000 but the gangster culture is so pervasive and entrenched that progress is slow in the more profitable areas. Nigerian leaders dont like being compared to Somalia, but there are similarities. One difference is that there is more to steal in Nigeria and that many Nigerians, unlike Somalis, consider the outlaw culture a flaw instead of a feature. All that made the absence of pirate attacks so far this year remarkable. Months before the new HRA was declared in 2021, Nigeria had already began a major operation to improve security from piracy off the Nigerian coast and that effort was showing results at the end of 2021 and that trend continued, The shipping companies have warned crews to remain alert because past experience has shown that if ships reduce the security measures the local pirates will notice and resume attacks.

July 5, 2022: In central Nigeria (the capital Abuja) ISWAP (Islamic States West Africa Province) Islamic terrorists led the attack on the Kuje medium security prison using bombs, grenades and assault rifles, killing one guard and wounding eight others. Four inmates were killed and 16 wounded. The attackers spent over two hours in the prison compound, releasing 879 inmates before police reinforcements arrived. All Boko Haram and ISWAP members in the prison escaped. About half the escapees were quickly recaptured. The rest disappeared into the city of nearly six million people.

Among those who were not quickly recaptured were over a hundred senior Boko Haram and ISWAP members as well as some prominent gangsters who apparently had made plans to evade recapture. Over half those who escaped were imprisoned for belonging to or providing support for Boko Haram. Many of those who escaped were awaiting trial on serious charges that would have put them in a high-security prison for a long time. Currently about 60,000 known or suspected Boko Haram members are in Nigerian prisons and jails. The government is investigating the possibility of corruption among some of the prison staff. In the last three years there have been dozens of major and minor jailbreaks that set loose over 5,000 inmates. Investigations of these incidents often find corruption among police and prison staff a factor. In some cases, gangsters or Islamic terror groups intimidate prison staff by kidnapping family members to ensure cooperation in a jail break. Kuje was considered well protected for a medium security facility because it holds many prominent criminals awaiting trial in the capital.

The increase in prison breaks coincided with the nationwide protests against police violence and lawlessness that began in 2020 and continued to escalate despite, or perhaps because of, violent police responses to the large gatherings. People are angry at the government's failure to build or maintain infrastructure (roads, sanitation, power distribution). Since 1980 the poverty rate, as in the percentage of people living on less than $400 a year, has gone from 28 percent to over 60 percent today. For over four decades, the oil money has been going to less than twenty percent of the population, leaving most of the rest worse off today than they were in the early 1960s, before the oil exports began. The cost of corruption is too visible to ignore and a growing number of Nigerians fear corruption more than government threats of increased violence to suppress the protests.

A side effect of the protests has been accompanied by criminal groups getting involved. The gangs use the protests as a cover for looting, robbery, kidnapping and large- scale jailbreaks. These are the normal activities of the many gangs in Nigeria and with the police preoccupied with what began as the anti- SARS (Special Anti-Robbery Squad) demonstrations the Islamic terrorists and criminals took advantage of the distractions.

The SARS protests were triggered by 2020 revelations about widespread illegal, and often fatal for victims, behavior by SARS units nationwide. Police violence and corruption are nothing new and SARS was originally formed to deal with that problem. Soon SARS became part of the problem. Government promises to deal with this were unconvincing. Police misbehavior has been around for decades and survived multiple efforts to reform it. The government has to come up with something new to calm things down, especially since many of the protests have also pushed for a reduction in corruption and an increase in government competence. These issues are what got Boko Haram going in the north. First Boko Haram was non-violent but that changed when the security forces began killing large numbers of Boko Haram leaders and members.

The government response involved more police violence, as well as identifying and arresting protest leaders, or anyone suspected to be a protest leader. In addition, the government ordered banks to freeze the accounts of people the government believed were leading the protests. This was regarded as another example of corruption and encouraged more protests. Its not just the corruption, but some other government failures as well. This includes the inability to eliminate the Boko Haram violence in the northeast and the growing tribal violence in northern and central Nigeria.

Dozens of SARS policemen are being expelled from the national police and many of them are being prosecuted. Many doubt that SARS will stay disbanded. SARS was created in 1992 to go after those responsible for the more outrageous forms of robbery, kidnapping and abuse of power in general. SARS was given wide powers to investigate and arrest suspects. Like the rest of the national police, SARS soon went bad and became notorious for extortion, false arrest, kidnapping and so on. SARS has already been purged and reformed many times but the current uproar was generated by a 2020 scandal that triggered renewed interest in the many past SARS transgressions that were captured by cellphone photos and videos. While the nationwide demonstrations focused on SARS it was also about the similar depravity and corruption found throughout the security forces (police and military). Decades of popular protests have called for needed reforms. Politicians promise reforms but those reforms never happen. The popular attitude is that the government will allow the police to quietly reconstitute SARS, probably under a different name.

SARS is but one small part of the 360,000 strong national police. SARS, and similar specialist units, were formed since the 1990s to create less corrupt specialist police who would be more reliable in dealing with specific problems. These specialist units were supposed to be monitored more closely to keep the corruption in check. Since there were SARS detachments in each of the states, there were differences and in some states the SARS unit was less corrupt than other SARS units as well as the police as a whole. Its the violently corrupt SARS units that get the most attention. Such bad behavior is common throughout the national police and several major reform efforts over the last three decades have failed to solve the problem. In part this is because corruption is so pervasive and entrenched throughout Nigeria, especially among politicians and government employees. The increased number of jail breaks since 2020 is seen as further evidence of the corrupt police response to reform efforts.

In the northeast (Borno State) soldiers encountered five heavily armed Boko Haram men near a rural village. The Boko Haram men opened fire and all were killed.

June 29, 2022: In the west (Niger State) a large force of Boko Haram gunmen near the Shiroro hydroelectric power plant, ambushed an army convoy headed to a village reportedly under attack by Boko Haram. Several soldiers and policemen were killed. There were more security force casualties at a nearby mining construction site where Boko Haram abducted four Chinese working on the construction project.

The power plant began operation in 1990 and currently produces 620 megawatts to the national power grid and is the sole supply of electric power for nearly 2,000 towns and villages, most of them in Niger State. The presence of the power plant has brought in a lot of foreign workers as well as well-paid Nigerian specialists working at the power plant. This is a tempting target for local gangers and Boko Haram groups. Another factor is the increasing number of refugees (Nigerians displaced by Boko Haram activity). The refugee camps are often taken over by criminal gangs or Boko Haram and serve as bases for attacks on local targets, like new construction projects and the power plant.

June 27, 2022: In the southeast (Anambra state), across the border in Cameroon, there has been several days to violence between two tribes in the Southwest Region of Cameroon. Over thirty civilians were killed and there were accusations that local separatist militias were hired to carry out the attacks to settle a land dispute. Some of the wounded Cameroonian civilians were taken to Nigeria for medical care. There are Nigerian and Cameroonian refugees on both sides of the border because of separatist violence.

There are close links between Igbo separatists and nearby like-minded Anglophone (English speaking) Cameroonian separatists has grown during the last decade as both separatist movements grew despite efforts of local political and military forces to shut down these increasingly violent movements.

The Nigerian Igbo want a separate Igbo state of Biafra, while the Cameroonians want a separate state of Ambazonia, consisting of terrain in southwest Cameroon dominated by the English-speaking minority of largely Francophone (French speaking) Cameroon. Unlike Biafra, which has never existed legally, Ambazonia was separate from French speaking Cameroon as one of the two former German colonies that France and Britain administered from 1919 (the end of World War I) until 1961 when it was agreed by Britain, France and the UN that the two Cameroons could either merge as one Cameroon or the smaller (and less economically developed) Ambazonia could choose to join either Nigeria or Cameroon as one of the federal states each nation was using for their new governments. Most Ambazonians would have preferred to be an independent state. Ambazonia was considered too small (42,000 square kilometers), poor and sparsely populated (under a million people) for independence. French Cameroon offered more autonomy and economic assistance and that persuaded most to vote for joining Cameroon. The language difference was not believed to be a problem because the English speakers tend to treat the language as a tool, not something more. The Ambazonians soon discovered that adopting the French language meant a more hostile attitude towards other languages, especially English. By 1972 the French speaking majority removed most of Ambazonias autonomy and were vigorously trying to get the Ambazonians to adopt French. That caused more resentment and by the 1980s the two million Ambazonians were getting more enthusiastic about regaining their autonomy, or even independence. Now there are nearly four million Ambazonians and they have a substantial separatist movement going.

An independent state of Biafra, dominated by Igbos and consisting of the southeastern states of Ebonyi, Enugu, Anambra, Imo and Abia is once again an issue. Local politicians told the federal government that the best, and most possible, solution to the Biafra/Igbo separatist movement threat was to offer some autonomy instead. The Biafra (separatist) movement was revived in 2015 and at first the government ordered police to crack down. By 2016 nearly 200 Igbo had been killed by police attacks on demonstrators and anyone suspected of separatist activity. The violent response was obviously making it worse and after 2018 a gentler approach was tried.

The pro-Biafran separatists have been around and increasingly active since the 1990s. Back in the 1960s the Igbo (or Ibo) people of southeastern Nigeria considered establishing a separate Igbo state called Biafra. A brutal war followed before the separatist movement was crushed and the Igbo were warned not to try it again. Separatist attitudes were silenced but not extinguished. Pro-Biafra groups began to appear again in the late 1990s, trying to revive the separatist movement. Since then, over a thousand separatists have been killed, and many more imprisoned, while the government continues to insist that Biafra is gone forever. But as details of the extent of government corruption during the last few decades came out, Biafra again seemed like something worth fighting for. Senior government officials, including president Buhari, are paying attention, and seeking to work out a compromise with the Igbos. The Fulani are less amenable to any compromise, especially since the Fulani are Moslem and consider themselves defenders of Islam against non-believers like the Christian Igbo.

In response to the threats of violence, a major pro-Biafra organization IPOB (Indigenous People of Biafra) took the lead in protecting Igbo from anti-Biafra violence. In areas where peaceful defense measures do not work IPOB formed an armed security component, the ESN (Eastern Security Network), to defend Igbos in Imo State from Fulani and government violence. The government has responded by sending a battalion of infantry to an area thought to be a base for ESN members. This was unpopular with the locals as Nigerian soldiers are notorious for their violent behavior. These troops had been ordered to behave but that proved difficult for them to do so in the face of Igbo contempt and hostility.

Many Igbo politicians urge IPOB to become more political than militant to achieve their goals. The Igbo, because of their higher education levels and entrepreneurial skills are a growing presence in the national economy and senior civil service. Many prominent Igbo see the possibility of an Igbo president of Nigeria because there is an Igbo politician running in the next presidential election in February 2023. This would do more for the Igbo than another war for an independent Biafra. Not all Biafrans agree with that assessment, but most see a Biafran president of Nigeria as a good thing. The 2023 election has a religious aspect to it because one of the leading candidates is Moslem and selected another Moslem to run for vice-president. For decades the Nigerians custom was to always have a Moslem president elected with a Christian vice president and vice versa. Anglophone Cameroonians dont stand much of a chance in the Cameroonian national elections because most Cameroonians speak French and are fine with that.

June 24, 2022: In the northeast (Borno State), across the border in Cameroon, several hundred Cameroonian soldiers have arrived in an area near the Nigerian border where an incursion by Boko Haram has caused over 40,000 villagers to flee from their homes. Boko Haram continues to operate in the area, often attacking refugees.
LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- AM Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of a- (Excellent) of StarStone Insurance Bermuda Limited (SIBL) (Bermuda) and StarStone Insurance SE (SISE) (Liechtenstein). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable.

The ratings of SIBL reflect its balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its marginal operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management (ERM). The ratings of SISE reflect its balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its marginal operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate ERM. Both companies ratings benefit from the support of their ultimate parent, Enstar Group Limited (Enstar), which has a track record of providing them with financial assistance and operational support.

Both companies ceased writing new business in July 2020, and SIBL has since disposed of its U.S. subsidiaries. SIBL bears the liabilities of business written prior to the disposal date of these companies through reinsurance agreements. A wholly owned subsidiary of SIBL also ceased its participation in Lloyds Syndicate 1301 at the end of 2020 but retains the liabilities of the business written during the 2020 and prior Lloyds underwriting years of account.

SIBLs and SISEs balance sheet strength assessments are underpinned by risk-adjusted capitalisation at the strongest level, as measured by Bests Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR), at year-end 31 December 2021. AM Best expects risk-adjusted capitalisation for both entities to remain at the strongest level over the medium term, based on their run-off plans.

SIBLs balance sheet strength is supported by a relatively conservative investment portfolio and significant reinsurance protection that includes loss portfolio transfers (LPTs) provided by Enstar group entities. Although historical reserve volatility is an offsetting factor, the company has demonstrated positive reserve development on a gross and net basis in 2020, and on a gross basis in 2021 where a proportion of positive development was ceded to Enstar group affiliates through LPTs. SISEs balance sheet strength is supported by a conservative investment portfolio and low underwriting leverage due to the high level of cessions to its parent company, SIBL.

The companies marginal operating performance assessments reflect their poor historical performance. Their limited business profile assessments consider their significantly reduced scale as a result of corporate disposals and the decision to cease writing new business.

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Bests website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Bests Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Bests Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Bests Credit Ratings, Bests Performance Assessments, Bests Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Bests Ratings & Assessments.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specialising in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright  2022 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220715005350/en/

Marving Lopez

Associate Financial Analyst

+44 20 7397 4389

[email protected]

Christopher Sharkey

Manager, Public Relations

+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5159

[email protected]

Will Keen-Tomlinson

Associate Director, Analytics

+44 20 7397 4395

[email protected]

Jeff Mango

Managing Director,

Strategy & Communications

+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5204

[email protected]

Source: AM Best
AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Brigham Minerals, Inc. (NYSE: MNRL) (Brigham Minerals or the Company), a leading mineral and royalty interest acquisition company, plans to announce second quarter 2022 operating and financial results after market close on Thursday, August 4, 2022. In conjunction with the release, Brigham Minerals will host a conference call to discuss its results on Friday, August 5, 2022, at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time (8:00 a.m. Central Time).

Brigham Minerals Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call

Friday, August 5, 2022, at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time (8:00 a.m. Central Time)

Pre-register by visiting:

https://ige.netroadshow.com/registration/q4inc/11359/brigham-minerals-second-quarter-2022-earnings-conference-call/

Listen to a live audio webcast of the call by visiting the Companys website https://investors.brighamminerals.com

A recording of the webcast will be available on the Companys website after the call

About Brigham Minerals, Inc.

Brigham Minerals is an Austin, Texas based company that acquires and actively manages a portfolio of mineral and royalty interests in the core of some of the most active, highly economic, liquids-rich resource basins across the continental United States. Brigham Minerals assets are located in the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico, the SCOOP and STACK plays in the Anadarko Basin of Oklahoma, the DJ Basin in Colorado and Wyoming, and the Williston Basin in North Dakota. The Companys primary business objective is to maximize risk-adjusted total return to its shareholders by both capturing organic growth in its existing assets as well as leveraging its highly experienced technical evaluation team to continue acquiring minerals.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220715005485/en/

At the Company:

Brigham Minerals, Inc.

Blake C. Williams

Chief Financial Officer

(512) 220-1500

[email protected]

Source: Brigham Minerals, Inc.
SAVANNAH, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Today, Foundation Automotive Corp has acquired 4 new dealerships in the Savannah and Humboldt-Jackson areas in Tennessee from the Jones Motor Company. This new acquisition, the first in Tennessee for Foundation, includes the companys first Nissan dealership and the implementation of Jones best-in-class used car platform to Foundations now 35 stores.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220715005410/en/

Foundation Automotive Corp has acquired 4 new dealerships in the Savannah and Humboldt-Jackson areas in Tennessee from the Jones Motor Company. (Photo: Business Wire)

Nissan is a very welcome addition to our growing group. They have built such a strong and consistent brand in the USA over the last 65 years, said Kevin Kutschinski, CEO/President of Foundation Automotive. Were always eager to continue to build our relationship with Buick, GMC, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram. The used car platform they have built at Jones Motor Company is second-to-none, and we are fortunate to have Chad Jones on board to help expand it to all of our stores.

Foundation Automotive was a great fit for us because they are very much like our family and what we believe in. Theyre all about taking care of customers and building the community, which is what we have always strived for, said Chad Jones, prior owner of Jones Motor Company. Chad will continue to work with Foundation Automotive as an executive under the expansion of the used car platform for all of Foundations 35 dealerships.

Having built a deep relationship within the community over the years, Jones Buick GMC, Jones Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram, Jones Chevrolet Humboldt, and Jones Nissan will continue to carry the Jones name.

Arguably the fastest-growing automotive dealership group in North America, Foundation is looking forward to its expansion into the Tennessee market. We are so excited to be part of the Savannah and Humbolt/Jackson communities and have the Jones employees join the Foundation Family. We will continue to grow our partnership with local schools and community leaders, said Chuck Kramer, COO of Foundation Automotive, Tennessee is known as the volunteer state, which fits perfectly with Foundations culture.

Foundation Automotive Corp. is a growing international automotive group with stores in Canada and the United States. They are focused on consistently elevating employee and customer experience through trust, transparency and innovation. Find more information on their website www.foundationauto.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220715005410/en/

Jaclynn Sciberras

[email protected]

403.860.4594

Source: Foundation Automotive Corp.
LONDON & NEW YORK CITY & TEL AVIV, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President of Strategic Alliances from Pyramid Analytics (Pyramid), a pioneering decision intelligence platform provider, will deliver main stage presentations with Chandana Gopal, Research Director, Future of Intelligence, IDC and Cristina Martin Greysman, WW Head of SAP on AWS Partner & Alliance Strategy at Amazon Web Services, at SAPinsider 2022, July 19  21 in Las Vegas. Register for SAPinsider 2022 with our discount code: PYRAMIDVIP.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220715005414/en/

(Graphic: Business Wire)

Key Points:

Avi Perez, Chief Technology Officer, Pyramid Analytics and Chandana Gopal, Research Director, Future of Intelligence, IDC will discuss whats possible in their session, Decision Intelligence: Whats Next in Data and Analytics for SAP BW and HANA . Day 1: Tuesday, July 19. 11:30 a.m.  12:20 p.m.

. Day 1: Tuesday, July 19. 11:30 a.m.  12:20 p.m. Take Your SAP Investment to the Next Level with Pyramid Analytics with Kevin Kratzer, Solutions Engineer, Pyramid Analytics. Day 1: Tuesday, July 19. 3:30 p.m.  3:50 p.m.

with Pyramid Analytics with Kevin Kratzer, Solutions Engineer, Pyramid Analytics. Day 1: Tuesday, July 19. 3:30 p.m.  3:50 p.m. I Have Data Outside SAPHow Can I Get a Complete View of My Business Without Moving All My Data Around? with Matt Chapin, Solutions Engineer, Pyramid Analytics. Tuesday, July 19. 4:00 p.m.  4:20 p.m.

with Matt Chapin, Solutions Engineer, Pyramid Analytics. Tuesday, July 19. 4:00 p.m.  4:20 p.m. Dave Henry, Senior Vice President of Strategic Alliances, Pyramid and Cristina Martin Greysman, WW Head of SAP on AWS Partner & Alliance Strategy at Amazon Web Services, will present The Beyond ERP Challenge: Maximizing the Use of SAP with Your Companys Data Lake. Day 2: Wednesday, July 20. 11 a.m.  11:50 a.m.

Take Action:

Request a 1:1 meeting for a personalized discussion.

Request a demo of the Pyramid Decision Intelligence Platform.

About Pyramid Analytics

Pyramid is whats next in analytics. Our unified decision intelligence platform delivers insights for anyone to make faster, more intelligent decisions. The Pyramid Decision Intelligence Platform provides direct access to any data, enables governed self-service for any person, and serves any analytics need in a no-code environment. The Pyramid Platform uniquely combines Data Prep, Business Analytics, and Data Science in a single environment with AI guidance, reducing cost and complexity while accelerating growth and innovation. The Pyramid Platform enables a strategic, organization-wide approach to Business Intelligence and Analytics, from the simple to the sophisticated.

Pyramid Analytics is incorporated in Amsterdam and has regional headquarters in global innovation and business centers, including London, New York City, and Tel-Aviv. Our team lives worldwide because geography should not be a barrier to talent and opportunity. Investors include H.I.G. Growth Partners, Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), Sequoia Capital, and Viola Growth. Learn more at Pyramid Analytics.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220715005414/en/

Chas Kielt

Vice President of Global Corporate Communications, Pyramid Analytics

617.687.3371

[email protected]

Source: Pyramid Analytics
Former Fieldpoint Private Managing Director Tom Hakala Joins Snowden Lanes New York City Headquarters

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Snowden Lane Partners, an independent, advisor-owned, wealth advisory firm dedicated to providing client-focused advice in a values-driven culture, today announced that veteran wealth advisor, Tom Hakala, has joined the firm as Partner and Managing Director.

With 30 years of wealth management experience, Hakala serves high-net-worth families and individuals and oversees $180 million in client assets. He will join Snowden Lane in its New York City headquarters.

We are excited to welcome Tom to Snowden Lane, as he is a proven expert in the high-net-worth space and a world-class advisor, said Lyle LaMothe, Chairman of Snowden Lane Partners. I am continually humbled when high-quality advisors express interest in joining our team, and I know Tom will fit seamlessly into our firms culture.

Ive been very fortunate to enjoy a 30-year career in financial services, and Im looking forward to beginning the next phase of my professional journey at Snowden Lane, said Tom Hakala. I have the utmost confidence that the firms values and culture, coupled with its proven platform, will allow me to continue delivering top results for my clients.

Prior to Snowden Lane, Hakala served as a Managing Director at Fieldpoint Private and Wilmington Trust. He is an attorney, CPA, and Personal Financial Specialist, with expertise in the design and implementation of sophisticated financial strategies for high-net-worth clientele. Over the course of his career, Hakala has also held positions with KPMG, UBS and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

I know Tom will be a valuable addition to the Snowden Lane team, and Im appreciative that our value proposition continues to resonate with advisors, said Greg Franks, Snowden Lanes Managing Partner, President & COO. The interest we have received from the wealth management community is the ultimate testament to our culture and Im proud of the momentum Snowden Lane has built this year amid the current recruiting landscape.

Rob Mooney, Managing Partner & CEO of Snowden Lane Partners, added, An advisor of Toms caliber is a natural fit at our firm and Im excited to officially welcome him to the team. We have tremendous respect for Fieldpoint Private, and I was thrilled when Tom expressed interest in joining Snowden Lane for the next chapter of his career.

Since its founding in 2011, Snowden Lane has rapidly built a national brand, attracting top industry talent from Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, UBS, JP Morgan, Raymond James, and Wells Fargo, among others.

The firm has 125 total employees, 71 of whom are financial advisors, across 12 offices around the country: Pasadena and San Diego, CA; New Haven, CT; Coral Gables, FL; Chicago, IL; Pittsburgh, PA; Baltimore, Salisbury and Bethesda, MD; San Antonio, TX; Buffalo, NY, as well as its New York City headquarters.

The Financial Times named Snowden Lane to its elite FT 300 list for six straight years, recognizing it as one of the top independent RIA firms in the U.S. The firm was also included in the Barrons 2021 and 2020 Top 100 RIA Firms ranking, and many of the firms advisors have been recognized as FT 401 Top Retirement advisors, and a number by Forbes/Shook as Forbes Best-In-State Wealth advisors.

About Snowden Lane Partners

Snowden Lane is a nationally branded, open-architecture, hybrid registered investment advisor and broker-dealer that provides wealth advisory services to high net-worth individuals, families, and institutional clients.

Snowden Lane is led by an experienced team of industry executives, including Lyle LaMothe, Chairman of the Board of Managers, Rob Mooney, Managing Partner & CEO, and Greg Franks, Managing Partner, President & COO, who are dedicated to building a client-focused, nationally branded, boutique wealth advisory partnership.

Snowden Lane is headquartered in New York City and operates an SEC registered investment adviser and a broker-dealer. Snowden Lane provides a multi-custodian, multi-currency platform, with aggregated performance reporting and leading analytical tools for clients and advisors. It further provides full operational, finance, compliance, human resources, and financial advisor transition support to its financial advisors.

For more information about Snowden Lane, please visit www.snowdenlane.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220715005390/en/

Kevin Santo

Water & Wall

516-506-8560

[email protected]

Source: Snowden Lane Partners
FREMONT, Calif. & CLEARWATER, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Today, TD SYNNEX Corporation (the Company) announced the final results of the Company's offer to exchange the Company's outstanding unregistered notes for new registered notes (the "Exchange Offer").

Under the Exchange Offer, the Company offered to exchange up to (i) $700,000,000 aggregate principal amount of new 1.250% Senior Notes due 2024, (ii) $700,000,000 aggregate principal amount of new 1.750% Senior Notes due 2026, (iii) $600,000,000 aggregate principal amount of new 2.375% Senior Notes due 2028 and (iv) $500,000,000 aggregate principal amount of new 2.650% Senior Notes due 2031 (collectively, the Exchange Notes), the issuance of which has been registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), for a like principal amount of its unregistered (i) $700,000,000 aggregate principal amount of its outstanding 1.250% Senior Notes due 2024 (the Outstanding 2024 Notes), (ii) $700,000,000 aggregate principal amount of its outstanding 1.750% Senior Notes due 2026 (the Outstanding 2026 Notes), (iii) $600,000,000 aggregate principal amount of its outstanding 2.375% Senior Notes due 2028 (the Outstanding 2028 Notes) and (iv) $500,000,000 aggregate principal amount of its outstanding 2.650% Senior Notes due 2031 (the Outstanding 2031 Notes and, together, with the Outstanding 2024 Notes, the Outstanding 2026 Notes and Outstanding 2028 Notes, the Outstanding Notes). The terms of the Exchange Notes offered in the Exchange Offer are substantially identical to the terms of the respective series of the Outstanding Notes, except that the Exchange Notes are registered under the Securities Act, and certain transfer restrictions, registration rights, and additional interest provisions relating to the Outstanding Notes do not apply to the Exchange Notes.

The Exchange Offer expired at 5:00 p.m. New York City time, on July 14, 2022 (the "Expiration Date"). As of the Expiration Date, (i) $700,000,000, or 100.00%, of the aggregate principal amount of Outstanding 2024 Notes, (ii) $698,970,000, or 99.853%, of the aggregate principal amount of Outstanding 2026 Notes, (iii) $600,000,000, or 100.00%, of the aggregate principal amount of Outstanding 2028 Notes and (iv) $499,975,000, or 99.995%, of the aggregate principal amount of Outstanding 2031 Notes, had been validly tendered and not validly withdrawn.

The Company accepted all of the Outstanding Notes which were validly tendered and not validly withdrawn as of the Expiration Date and issued a like principal amount of Exchange Notes in exchange for such Outstanding Notes. The Company did not receive any proceeds from the Exchange Offer. The settlement of the Exchange Offer is expected to occur on July 15, 2022.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

This press release is for informational purposes only and is neither an offer to exchange or sell, nor a solicitation of an offer to buy or exchange, the Exchange Notes. The Exchange Offer is made solely pursuant to the prospectus dated June 14, 2022, including any supplements thereto. The Exchange Offer is not being made to holders in any jurisdiction in which the making or acceptance thereof would not be in compliance with the securities, blue sky, or other laws of such jurisdiction.

ABOUT TD SYNNEX

TD SYNNEX (NYSE: SNX) is a leading global distributor and solutions aggregator for the IT ecosystem. Were an innovative partner helping more than 150,000 customers in 100+ countries to maximize the value of technology investments, demonstrate business outcomes and unlock growth opportunities. Headquartered in Clearwater, Florida, and Fremont, California, TD SYNNEX 22,000 co-workers are dedicated to uniting compelling IT products, services and solutions from 1,500+ best-in-class technology vendors. Our edge-to-cloud portfolio is anchored in some of the highest-growth technology segments including cloud, cybersecurity, big data/analytics, IoT, mobility and everything as a service. TD SYNNEX is committed to serving customers and communities, and we believe we can have a positive impact on our people and our planet, intentionally acting as a respected corporate citizen. We aspire to be a diverse and inclusive employer of choice for talent across the IT ecosystem.

 2022 TD SYNNEX Corporation. TD SYNNEX, the TD SYNNEX Logo, and all other TD SYNNEX company, product and services names and slogans are trademarks of TD SYNNEX Corporation. Other names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220715005440/en/

Liz Morali

Investor Relations

510-668-8436

[email protected]

Bobby Eagle

Global Corporate Communications

727-538-5864

[email protected]

Source: TD SYNNEX
Weatherstrip manufacturer TG Zheng Ao moves to a larger plant in a new location

KIYOSU, Japan--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd. (TOKYO: 7282) Group company Hubei Toyoda Gosei Zheng Ao Rubber and Plastic Sealing Technology Co., Ltd. (TG Zheng Ao) held an opening ceremony on July 13 to celebrate its move to new and larger plant.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220714005288/en/

Opening ceremony (Photo: Business Wire)

Toyoda Gosei President Toru Koyama, participating in the ceremony online, said With the establishment of this new plant we can meet our customers needs for production increases in central China. We hope to make a greater contribution to the regional economy through growth of the business as a company rooted in the community.

TG Zheng Ao became a Toyoda Gosei Group affiliate when the Group invested in Hubei Rock*, an independent supplier of weatherstrips (automobile door and window sealing products) in Central China, in December 2018. Later, to handle the growing sales of weatherstrips in the same region, the previous plant was moved to a neighboring industrial park and expanded in June 2021. Productivity at the plant was improved by adopting a more efficient production layout.

*TG Zheng Ao and its predecessor Hubei Rock have a history of providing weatherstrips to Dongfeng Motor Corporation (one of Chinas Big Three automakers) and other automakers, and it has become a core location for business expansion of the Toyoda Gosei Group in the Chinese interior.

Outline of TG Zheng Ao

Name Hubei Toyoda Gosei Zheng Ao Rubber and Plastic Sealing Technology Co., Ltd. Location Shiyan, Hubei, China Established April 1995 (became Toyoda Gosei subsidiary in December 2018) Capital CNY46 million Shareholders Toyoda Gosei (China) Investment Co., Ltd. 60% Hubei Zhengao Automotive Accessories Co., Ltd. 40% Products Opening weatherstrips, door weatherstrips, glass runs, more Land area Plant area Approx. 14,000 m2

 After move approx. 60,000m2 Approx. 17,000 m2

 After move approx. 34,000m2 No. employees 302 (as of May 31, 2022)

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220714005288/en/

Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd.

Public Relations

Chihiro Suzuki

[email protected]

Source: Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd.
HANGZHOU, China--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- During the 3rd Silk Road Week in July 2022, the China National Silk Museum held three exhibitions consecutively in Hangzhou, Dulan, and Samarkand, namely Qinghai Path: The Silk Roads in the 6th-8th centuries, Forty Years of Archaeology at the Reshui Tombs in Dulan, Silk and Silk Roads: from Hangzhou to Samarkand. These exhibitions successfully reproduce the dusty history of the Qinghai Path from the 6th to the 8th century. Dr. Feng, the chief curator of the three exhibitions from the China National Silk Museum, said that the three exhibitions were the first to review the 40-year process of Tuyuhun and Tubo archaeology in Qinghai in the form of exhibitions. It restores the history of the people of Tuyuhun who dominated Qinghai from the 4th to the 7th century and presents the cultural exchange on the Qinghai Path.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220713006004/en/

Figure. Left: The gilt-silver crown and the gold cup excavated in the tomb; right: The gilt-silver crown and the gold cup made by 3D modeling in the exhibition. (Photo: Business Wire)

Tuyuhun originally belonged to the Murong Xianbei ethnic group in northeast China. In the early 4th century AD, under the leadership of Murong Tuyuhun (c. 245-317), he had a long trek to Qinghai, where his descendants Ye Yan formally established the Tuyuhun kingdom in 329. In its heyday, it owns a land area of 4,000 miles from east to west and 2,000 miles from north to south and completely took over the Qinghai area. Its prosperity comes with the well-known story of "Broken Arrow Legacy". In 426, when the ninth king of Tuyuhun, A-za, was deathly ill, he gathered his 20 sons to take an arrow each. He asked Muliyan, the younger brother, to take one arrow and break it, and he broke it; and then let him take and break the other 19 arrows, but he failed to do so. The king then said, "Do you know, A single one is easy to break, but a crowd is hard to break. If you work together, you will be able to secure the society." He then passed away.

But at the beginning of the 7th century, Tuyuhun was defeated by the Tubo from the southern Tibetan Plateau and the Tang Dynasty from the east, and finally defeated by Tubo in 663. Tuyuhun was divided into two branches, one pro-Tang and one pro-Tubo. The king of Tuyuhun, Murong Nuohobo, and his relatives, Princess Honghua and thousands of households, fled to Liangzhou and submitted to Tang Dynasty, but Tuyuhun in Qinghai was captured and ruled by Tubo.

The Qinghai Path exhibition is divided into four sections: a brief introduction to Tuyuhun tribe, the life of Tuyuhun people, cultural exchanges on the Qinghai Path, and Tuyuhun-Tubo archaeology. Tuyuhun's life includes four major contents: clothing, food, housing, and hunting. Not only the short sleeve garment, head wrapper, embroidered shoes, and accessories from Murong Zhi's tomb, but also gold leaf carvings with figures in costumes unearthed from the tombs of Reshui, as well as a weaving loom were on display. The food showcase consists of mostly utensils, including golden bottles, silver bowls, agate cups, clay pots, and silver chopsticks and spoons. The hunting part is mainly made of various gold harnesses, saddles, horse belts, buckles and so on. This section also restores a set of scenes with tents, costumes, hunting, and feasting scenes where the Tuyuhun people lived around the 8th century.

Qinghai has always been an important passage of the Silk Roads. It was developed very early, but its prosperity peaked in the 6th to 8th centuries, and it was called "Tuyuhun Road" in history. On the one hand, Tuyuhun had inseparable communication with the Eastern Central Plains because they are located in the East. On the other hand, they had direct interactions with the farther Central Asian countries, especially the Sogdians. The Sogdians mainly resided in the Zerafshan River basin, which in present-day, is Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. They were well-known for their business and handicrafts and history records that the Sogdians lived in the territory of Tuyuhun, probably in Qiemo, southern Taklamakan Desert. In the mural in the ambassador hall of the ancient Afrasiab ruins in Samarkand, among the envoys who came to congratulate King Varkhuman of Sogdian, three were from Tuyuhun according to research. The "Silk and Silk Roads: from Hangzhou to Samarkand", was located just above the exhibition hall of the mural hall on the Afrasiab site of Samarkand State Museum-Reserve of Uzbekistan, vividly restores a grand event around 658-661 AD. At that time, Emperor Gaozong of Tang Dynasty Li Zhi (628-683) conferred the Sogdian king Varkhuman the governor of Samarkand and a large number of Tang Dynastys envoys went to Samarkand to deliver silkworm cocoons, silk threads, and fabrics, as well as envoys from Tuyuhun and neighboring Tashkent.

A large number of objects displayed in Hangzhou exhibition all reflect the cultural exchanges between the East and the West unearthed on the Tuyuhun Road, such as Sassanian silver coins, with Roman-style gold belt, silver plates with Greek mythological elements, silk fabrics with statues of sun gods and so forth.

Among them, there is an unremarkable gilt silver plate with a particularly large size and heavy weight, with a diameter of 43 cm, a residual height of 1.8 cm, and a wall thickness of 0.2 cm. Although it is heavily corroded and folded on one side, three figures can be recognized initially. In the center of the plate is a vine, under the tree, there is a woman with long hair squatting naked with fabric wrapped around her body. On the left is a young man in a cloak with a dagger on his shoulder who holds against the woman with his left knee and grabs the woman. On the right side of the plate is an old man with tendrils, also wrapped in fabric, leaning over and bending, holding a stick in both hands and leaning against it. The subject matter of the silver plate picture evidently comes from Greek anthropology, although different scholars have different interpretations. Tong Tao believes that the image may represent Dionysos, the gods of wine, Ariadne, and Silenus, an old and drunken attendant. An Italian scholar Matteo Compareti indicates a Greek story of Ajax and Cassandra in the Trojan War. Feng Zhao pointed out that another male on the silver plate shows that the combination of characters in Greek anthropology has changed on the silver plate, hence, the origin of the silver plate is no longer in Greece, but more likely in the Persian or Byzantine area, and ended up in the Tuyuhun area through trade with the Sogdians.

The "Forty Years of Archaeology at the Reshui Tombs in Dulan" exhibition held in Dulan, the core area of Tuyuhun-Tubo archaeology. In 1982, Xu Xinguo and his colleagues from the Qinghai Archaeological Team came to Dulan, Tuyuhuns homeland, which was under Tubos rule later, to investigate the frescoes around the Chahan Wusu River. Many important cemeteries were found on both sides of the river at night, including the Nine-layer Demon Tower and the Reshui Tomb No. 1 called by the locals. The tomb sits the north and faces the south, with a height of 30-35 meters and a base of 160 meters wide at the bottom. Since then, Dulan kicked off the archaeology of the Reshui and Xuewei tombs. Xu Xinguo has been excavating in the local area for over 10 years till now. Later, there were joint archaeological investigations by the School of Cultural and Museology of Peking University and the Shaanxi Institute of Historical Archaeology until the excavation of the Xuewei Tomb and the Quangou in Wulan conducted by the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 2018. A series of tombs of the Tubo period have been discovered here, and many exquisite cultural relics have been unearthed, most of which are cultural relics of Tuyuhun nobles under the Tubos rule in the 7th and 8th centuries AD. It's worth noticing that the newly discovered tomb of Murong Zhi (691) in Tianzhu, Gansu Province in 2019 is a miniature of the Tuyuhun nobles returning to the Tang Dynasty.

As an archaeological exhibition, the China National Silk Museum not only restored the models of the Reshui Tomb No. 1 (Nine-layer Demon Tower) and Xuewei No. 1 Tomb in 2018 but also restored the original Quangou No. 1 Tomb under the guidance of Dr. Tao Tong. This tomb was excavated in 2018-19, and although it has been stolen, it is well preserved. It is a rectangular brick and wood mixed structure multi-chamber tomb with a tomb passage. The pillars, beams, and wood on the top of the room are painted with colors, and there are exquisite murals painted on the walls of the two rooms. It is the first tomb with murals in the Tubo period discovered on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. There are also painted lacquer coffins in the tomb and a sealed secret compartment was found in the tomb, in which a gilt crown and a gold cup were placed. This was a major archaeological discovery of the Tubo period on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in recent years and was selected as one of the Top Ten New Archaeological Discoveries in China by the National Cultural Heritage Administration of China in 2019 and the Six New Archaeological Discoveries by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The excavation of this tomb is of great value for the study of the integration process of the Han and Tibetan and the grand cultural exchanges along the Qinghai Path.

Through research, the exhibition reproduces the gilt-silver crown with 3D modeling. The main body of this crown is mainly made of four pieces of gilt silver with turquoise inlaid. The crown surface combination is in a square bucket shape. The bottom surface of the crown is square, with each side 17.5 cm long, the top 37 cm high, and the maximum width of 36.5 cm. The pattern on the front and back is 2 dragons frolicking, with a phoenix standing on a lotus pedestal on each side. The neck guard pattern on the back is a pair of lions facing one another. The interior of the crown is made of brocade and silk, and there is a network of pearls in front of the crown, which may be the same as that of the emperors of the Central Plains.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220713006004/en/

Media

Contact: Jinfang Li

Company Name: China National Silk Museum

Contact: 73-1, Yuhuangshan Road, Xihu District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

Website: www.chinasilkmuseum.com

Email: [email protected]

Source: China National Silk Museum
MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- U.S. Bancorp reported its second quarter 2022 results today. The earnings release, business line schedules and slide presentation can be accessed online at ir.usbank.com/investor-relations/financial-information.

At 8 a.m. Central Time, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Andy Cecere and Vice Chair and Chief Financial Officer Terry Dolan will host a conference call to review the financial results. The conference call will be available online or by telephone. To access the webcast and presentation, visit U.S. Bancorps website at usbank.com and click on About Us, Investor Relations and Webcasts & Presentations. To access the conference call from locations within the United States and Canada, please dial 866-374-5140. Participants calling from outside the United States and Canada, please dial 404-400-0571. The PIN code for all participants is 56931119#.

About U.S. Bank

U.S. Bancorp, with approximately 70,000 employees and $587 billion in assets as of March 31, 2022, is the parent company of U.S. Bank National Association. The Minneapolis-based company serves millions of customers locally, nationally and globally through a diversified mix of businesses: Consumer and Business Banking; Payment Services; Corporate & Commercial Banking; and Wealth Management and Investment Services. The company has been recognized for its approach to digital innovation, social responsibility, and customer service, including being named one of the 2022 Worlds Most Ethical Companies and Fortunes most admired superregional bank. Learn more at usbank.com/about.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220715005032/en/

Investor contact: Jennifer Thompson, U.S. Bancorp Investor Relations

[email protected], 612.303.0778, @usbank_news

Media contact: Jeff Shelman, U.S. Bancorp Public Affairs and Communications

[email protected], 612.303.9933, @usbank_news

Source: U.S. Bancorp
Insights by Dr. Andrew Lawlor draws on data from 2022 Career Optimism Index study

PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- University of Phoenix College of Doctoral Studies announces the release of a whitepaper exploring online education as a method for meeting workers desire for reskilling or upskilling: Online Education and American Workers Perceptions.

Drawing upon data from the 2022 University of Phoenix Career Institute Career Optimism Index study, Andrew Lawlor, Ph.D., faculty with the University of Phoenix College of Doctoral Studies and Center for Educational and Instructional Technology Research (CEITR), discusses how American workers, despite the desire and a variety of opportunities present for reskilling or upskilling, have challenges with an online format for professional development. Lawlor provides a brief review of technology-mediated education, along with current modes of online instruction. In the paper, Lawlor explores the benefits and disadvantages of online education for employees and employers, as well as the barriers for employees in participation and skill attainment.

American workers want educational opportunities for reskilling and upskilling, states Lawlor. Online education is appealing to employers and employees due to the cost containment, flexibility and convenience, and can meet that need, but there needs to be awareness of potential barriers as well as the ability to address and support workers in their access and success with education and upskilling opportunities.

Lawlor's career has encompassed K-16 education, educational technology services, academic program management, institutional research support, and the role of Chief Information Officer. Currently, he is a consultant for CampusWorks, Inc., and most recently served as the Chief Information Officer at an eastern community college. Previously, he was vice president for Information Technology Services & CIO at Bucks County Community College. Prior to that, he served in several capacities at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, culminating as the Chief IT Officer.

Lawlor has focused his scholarly activity on student and faculty use of technology, the application of technology for improving institutional processes, and leadership development, and has been a faculty member with the University of Phoenix since 2004.

The full whitepaper is available at the Career Institute webpage or as a direct link here.

About the College of Doctoral Studies

University of Phoenixs College of Doctoral Studies focuses on todays challenging business and organizational needs, from addressing critical social issues to developing solutions to accelerate community building and industry growth. The Colleges research program puts students in the center of an effective ecosystem of experts, resources and tools to help prepare them to be a leader in their organization, industry and community. Through this program, students and researchers work with organizations to conduct research that can be applied in the workplace in real time.

About the Career Optimism Index

The Career Optimism Index study is one of the most comprehensive studies of Americans personal career perceptions to date. The University of Phoenix Career Institute will conduct this research annually to provide insights on current workforce trends and to help identify solutions to support and enhance American careers and create equity in the workplace. For the second annual study, more than 5,000 U.S. adults were surveyed about how they feel about their careers at this moment in time, including their concerns, their challenges, and the degree to which they are optimistic about core aspects of their careers and their future. The study was conducted among a diverse, nationally representative, sample of U.S. adults among a robust sample to allow for gender, generational, racial, and socioeconomic differences and includes additional analysis of workers in the top twenty media markets across the country to uncover geographic nuances. This year, the study also explored insights from 500 U.S. employers who are influential or play a critical role in hiring and workplace decisions within a range of departments, company sizes and industries to provide comparison between the workforce and those who hire, train and retain them.

About University of Phoenix

University of Phoenix is continually innovating to help working adults enhance their careers in a rapidly changing world. Flexible schedules, relevant courses, interactive learning, and Career Services for Life help students more effectively pursue career and personal aspirations while balancing their busy lives. For more information, visit phoenix.edu.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220715005066/en/

Sharla Hooper

University of Phoenix

[email protected]

Source: University of Phoenix
Medtronic plc (NYSE: MDT) and the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) today announced they are expanding the Medtronic Health Equity Assistance Program for colon cancer screening in medically underserved communities across the United States, with support from Amazon Web Services's (AWS) Health Equity Initiative. The GI Genius units provided as part of the program have increased from 50 to 133 systems being placed at 62 facilities.

Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Ga. was the first to receive its donated GI Genius units last month following the launch of the program in February 2022. Gastroenterologists at Grady Memorial Hospital perform more than 7,000 colon cancer screening procedures each year among a predominantly Black community. Accounting for 80% of the specialty's patient population, Black adults are disproportionately burdened by colon cancer, at greater risk of diagnosis, worse outcome and death.

"We are excited to provide this novel technology to our patients. By utilizing GI Genius, we have the potential to increase our adenoma detection rate and reduce the incidence of colorectal cancer in a high-risk and vulnerable population," said Benjamin D. Renelus, M.D., a gastroenterologist at Grady Memorial Hospital. "The hospital's hope is that the thousands of patients receiving colonoscopy cancer screenings each year at our facility will benefit from Medtronic's GI Genius intelligent endoscopy module with the potential for earlier detection and better patient outcomes."

"This endeavor is a unique and inspiring opportunity to contribute enormously to the reduction of colorectal cancer screening disparities in communities where patients are disproportionately uninsured and have historically faced barriers accessing life-saving preventative care, including healthcare technology that can aid in detecting colorectal cancer," said Fola May, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of Medicine, director of Quality Improvement in Gastroenterology, and health equity researcher at UCLA Health.

"Equity in healthcare begins with ensuring access for all to life-transforming therapies," said Geoff Martha, Medtronic chairman and chief executive officer. "It's exciting to see how our new collaboration with AWS can help clinicians detect colon cancer early among some of the highest risk individuals in our country."

The GI Genius intelligent endoscopy module, authorized by the FDA in April 2021, is the first-to-market, computer-aided polyp detection system powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to detect colorectal polyps of varying shapes and sizes automatically in real time which helps diagnose and prevent colorectal cancer. In the first U.S. trial using GI Genius, results published this spring showed a 50% reduction in missed colorectal polyps with AI technology versus standard colonoscopy.

"This initiative is so important because we know that almost half of all cases of post-colonoscopy colon cancer may be attributed to not catching polyps during the index colonoscopy,"1,2 said Dr. Austin Chiang, M.D., M.P.H., chief medical officer of the Gastrointestinal business, which is part of the Medical Surgical Portfolio at Medtronic. "We have seen the impact that AI-assisted colonoscopies can have, and this study unequivocally demonstrates that this technology helps physicians better detect polyps during colonoscopies. The impact of missed polyps could ultimately be the difference between life and death when we consider that 90% of patients with colon cancer can beat it when it's caught early."3

The American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, who led the submission and selection process for this program, recently released their full list of recipients for donated GI Genius units.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Agra Ventures Ltd. (AGRA or the Company) (CSE: AGRA) (OTC: AGFAF) (FRA: PU30), a growth-oriented and diversified company focused on the international cannabis industry, announces the resignation of Brian ONeill as Director of the Company, effective immediately. The Company would like to thank Mr. ONeill for his time and service to AGRA and wish him well with his future endeavours.

About Agra Ventures Ltd.

Agra Ventures is a growth-oriented and diversified company focused on the international cannabis industry. The company is dedicated to the cultivation, distribution and marketing of high-quality cannabis and cannabis-infused products worldwide. Agra Ventures primary asset in Canada is Boundary Bay Cannabis located in Delta, BC, which is one of the largest cannabis greenhouse facilities focused on the cost-optimized cultivation of high-potency cannabis. Abroad, the companys wholly owned subsidiary, Farmako GmbH, is focused on becoming Europes leading distributor of medical cannabis. Farmako currently has active product distribution operations in Germany and is fully licensed in the United Kingdom.

For more information about Agra Ventures, please visit www.agraventures.com and its profile page on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORSNick Kuzyk, Investor Relations E: [email protected]T: (800) 783-6056

The CSE and Information Service Provider have not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or adequacy of this release.

Forward-looking Information Cautionary Statement

Except for statements of historic fact this news release contains certain 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. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates at the date the statements are made and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements including but not limited to delays or uncertainties with regulatory approvals including that of the CSE. There are uncertainties inherent in forward-looking information including factors beyond the Companys control. There are no assurances that the business plans for Agra Ventures described in this news release will come into effect on the terms or time frame described herein. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information if circumstances or managements estimates or opinions should change except as required by law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties that could affect financial results is contained in the Companys filings with Canadian securities regulators which are available at www.sedar.com.

SOURCE: Agra Ventures Ltd.

Source: Agra Ventures Ltd.
BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Verde AgriTech Plc (TSX: NPK) (OTCQB: AMHPF) (Verde or the Company) today announced that its President and Chief Executive Officer, Cristiano Veloso, established an automatic securities disposition plan (ASDP) in accordance with applicable Canadian securities legislation and the Companys internal policies.

The ASDP permits trades to be made in accordance with pre-arranged instructions given when Mr. Veloso was not in possession of any material undisclosed information. The ASDP will be effective on the second trading day following the date on which the Company has filed its interim financial statements for the quarter ending June 2022. Sales of the shares under the ASDP may only commence two trading days after the release of such interim financial statements.

Up to 3,000,000 shares, representing approximately 5% of the issued and outstanding shares of the Company, may be sold under the ASDP implemented by Mr. Veloso. 874,621 shares would be issued upon the exercise of options to acquire shares held by Mr. Veloso, such options forming part of Mr. Velosos compensation for services as President and Chief Executive Officer of Verde. The ASDP is designed to allow for an orderly disposition of the shares to be issued upon the exercise of the options at prevailing market prices over the course of the 12-month period that sales under the ASDP are expected to take place.

Mr. Veloso has provided pre-arranged instructions in writing to the independent agent administering the ASDP, including the number of securities to be sold and setting out minimum trade prices. The minimum sale price is $9 per share. The number of shares that may be sold on a daily basis at a particular sale price will be limited based on daily trade volumes. The limitations range from 1% of daily volume for sale prices between $9 and $10 up to 15% for sale prices above $12 per share. The limitation on daily volume doesnt apply to block trades greater than 50 thousand shares providing no more than 500 thousand shares are sold at each of the different price ranges.

The ASDP prohibits the agent administering the ASDP from consulting with Mr. Veloso regarding any sales under the ASDP and prohibits Mr. Veloso from disclosing to the agent any information concerning the Company that might influence the execution of the ASDP. The ASDP has been authorized and established in the form approved by the Company and contains meaningful restrictions on the ability of Mr. Veloso to amend, suspend or terminate the ASDP.

ABOUT VERDE AGRITECH

Verde is an agricultural technology company that produces potash fertilizers. Our purpose is to improve the health of all people and the planet. Rooting our solutions in nature, we make agriculture healthier, more productive, and profitable.

Verde is a fully integrated Company: it mines and processes its main feedstock from its 100% owned mineral properties, then sells and distributes the Product.

Verdes focus on research and development has resulted in one patent and eight patents pending. Among its proprietary technologies are Cambridge Tech, 3D Alliance, MicroS Technology, N Keeper, and Bio Revolution.1 Currently, the Company is fully licensed to produce up to 2.8 million tonnes per year of its multinutrient potassium fertilizers K Forte and BAKS, sold internationally as Super Greensand.2 By the end of 2022, it plans to become Brazil's largest potash producer by capacity.3 Verde has a combined measured and indicated mineral resource of 1.47 billion tonnes at 9.28% K2O and an inferred mineral resource of 1.85 billion tonnes at 8.60% K2O (using a 7.5% K2O cut-off grade).4 This amounts to 295.70 million tonnes of potash in K2O. For context, in 2021 Brazils total consumption of potash in K2O was 7.92 million5.

Brazil ranks second in global potash demand and is its single largest importer, currently depending on external sources for over 96% of its potash needs. In 2021, potash accounted for approximately 2% of all Brazilian imports by dollar value.

CORPORATE PRESENTATION

For further information on the Company, please view shareholders deck:

https://verde.docsend.com/view/avq2niw575sjyh7a

INVESTORS NEWSLETTER

Subscribe to receive the Companys updates at:

http://cloud.marketing.verde.ag/InvestorsSubscription

The last edition of the newsletter can be accessed at: https://bit.ly/InvestorsNLMay2022

CAUTIONARY LANGUAGE AND FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

All Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resources estimates reported by the Company were estimated in accordance with the Canadian National Instrument 43-101 and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum Definition Standards (May 10, 2014). These standards differ significantly from the requirements of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Mineral Resources which are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.

This document contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This information and these statements, referred to herein as "forward-looking statements" are made as of the date of this document. Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect current estimates, predictions, expectations or beliefs regarding future events and include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to:

the estimated amount and grade of Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves; the PFS representing a viable development option for the Project; estimates of the capital costs of constructing mine facilities and bringing a mine into production, of sustaining capital and the duration of financing payback periods; the estimated amount of future production, both produced and sold; timing of disclosure for the PFS and recommendations from the Special Committee; the Companys competitive position in Brazil and demand for potash; and, estimates of operating costs and total costs, net cash flow, net present value and economic returns from an operating mine.

Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "expects", "anticipates", "plans", "projects", "estimates", "envisages", "assumes", "intends", "strategy", "goals", "objectives" or variations thereof or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, or the negative of any of these terms and similar expressions) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements.

All forward-looking statements are based on Verde's or its consultants' current beliefs as well as various assumptions made by them and information currently available to them. The most significant assumptions are set forth above, but generally these assumptions include, but are not limited to:

the presence of and continuity of resources and reserves at the Project at estimated grades; the geotechnical and metallurgical characteristics of rock conforming to sampled results; including the quantities of water and the quality of the water that must be diverted or treated during mining operations; the capacities and durability of various machinery and equipment; the availability of personnel, machinery and equipment at estimated prices and within the estimated delivery times; currency exchange rates; Super Greensand and K Forte sales prices, market size and exchange rate assumed; appropriate discount rates applied to the cash flows in the economic analysis; tax rates and royalty rates applicable to the proposed mining operation; the availability of acceptable financing under assumed structure and costs; anticipated mining losses and dilution; reasonable contingency requirements; success in realizing proposed operations; receipt of permits and other regulatory approvals on acceptable terms; and the fulfilment of environmental assessment commitments and arrangements with local communities.

Although management considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to be incorrect. Many forward-looking statements are made assuming the correctness of other forward looking statements, such as statements of net present value and internal rates of return, which are based on most of the other forward-looking statements and assumptions herein. The cost information is also prepared using current values, but the time for incurring the costs will be in the future and it is assumed costs will remain stable over the relevant period.

By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and risks exist that estimates, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not be achieved or that assumptions do not reflect future experience. We caution readers not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements as a number of important factors could cause the actual outcomes to differ materially from the beliefs, plans, objectives, expectations, anticipations, estimates assumptions and intentions expressed in such forward-looking statements. These risk factors may be generally stated as the risk that the assumptions and estimates expressed above do not occur as forecast, but specifically include, without limitation: risks relating to variations in the mineral content within the material identified as Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves from that predicted; variations in rates of recovery and extraction; the geotechnical characteristics of the rock mined or through which infrastructure is built differing from that predicted, the quantity of water that will need to be diverted or treated during mining operations being different from what is expected to be encountered during mining operations or post closure, or the rate of flow of the water being different; developments in world metals markets; risks relating to fluctuations in the Brazilian Real relative to the Canadian dollar; increases in the estimated capital and operating costs or unanticipated costs; difficulties attracting the necessary work force; increases in financing costs or adverse changes to the terms of available financing, if any; tax rates or royalties being greater than assumed; changes in development or mining plans due to changes in logistical, technical or other factors; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; risks relating to receipt of regulatory approvals; delays in stakeholder negotiations; changes in regulations applying to the development, operation, and closure of mining operations from what currently exists; the effects of competition in the markets in which Verde operates; operational and infrastructure risks and the additional risks described in Verde's Annual Information Form filed with SEDAR in Canada (available at www.sedar.com) for the year ended December 31, 2021. Verde cautions that the foregoing list of factors that may affect future results is not exhaustive.

When relying on our forward-looking statements to make decisions with respect to Verde, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. Verde does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time by Verde or on our behalf, except as required by law.

For additional information please contact:

Cristiano Veloso, Founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

Tel: +55 (31) 3245 0205; Email: [email protected]

www.investor.verde.ag | www.supergreensand.com | www.verde.ag

1 Learn more about our technologies: https://verde.docsend.com/view/yvthnpuv8jx6g4r9 2 See the release at: https://investor.verde.ag/2-5-million-tonnes-per-year-potash-mining-concession-granted-to-verde/ 3 See the release at: https://investor.verde.ag/verde-to-reach-3-million-tonnes-potash-production-capacity-in-2022/ 4 As per the National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects within Canada (NI 43 -101), filed on SEDAR in 2017. See the Pre-Feasibility Study at: https://investor.verde.ag/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/NI-43-101-Pre-Feasibility-Technical-Report-Cerrado-Verde-Project.pdf 5 Union of the Agricultural Fertilizers and Correctives Industry, in the State of Sao Paulo (SIACESP, from Sindicato da Industria de Fertilizantes e Corretivos Agropecuarios, no Estado de Sao Paulo).

Source: Verde AgriTech PLC
BOSTON, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

This week, with support from community partners at Aletheia House, Bicycle Health flew clinical staff to Alabama to host hundreds of in-person meetings with patients.

Bicycle Healths Alabama Airdrop is a stop-gap effort to protect patients in recovery from losing their access to OUD treatment and medication, while the company works out a longer-term patient transition plan with partners at Aletheia House.

Since the passage of Act No. 2022-302 in the state of Alabama, Bicycle Health has worked with state-level partners to transition hundreds of patients to in-person care.

Despite best efforts, with less than a month to go before the Acts July 11 deadline, over 80% of Bicycle Healths patients had not found an alternative provider that could treat them in-person.

These in-person meetings will enable Alabama patients to continue their Medication for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) in Alabama for up to twelve additional months through Bicycle Health.

Bicycle Health, the leading provider of virtual opioid addiction treatment, today announced it will partner with Aletheia House, an Alabama-based non-profit, to create a long-term plan to transition patients to in-person care as mandated by Alabama state Act No. 2022-302. To protect patients in recovery who would otherwise lose access to treatment, Bicycle Health also initiated an Alabama Airdrop, by flying clinical staff with Alabama state licenses into the state to meet patients in-person so that their recovery could continue with Bicycle Health for up to one more year.

In April, the Alabama legislature passed Act No. 2022-302, which prohibits clinicians from writing prescriptions for controlled substances and other medications via telemedicine without an in-person visit. Since that time, Bicycle Health has worked with in-state organizations to help patients transition to in-person care.

According to the Alabama Department of Mental Health, opioid overdoses increased more than 20% in Alabama in 2020, resulting in the state being one of 25 with the highest increase during the time period  reflecting a dire need for treatment options. In line with this data, as of a week before the July 11 deadline, less than 20% of Bicycle Healths patients had managed to find another doctor to continue their treatment inside the state. Feedback from patients shows that location constraints, work commitments, and fear of recognition have contributed to this struggle.

Through encouragement from leadership at Aletheia House to develop a creative solution to the problem, Bicycle Health made the decision to fly members of its medical staff, including two physicians, to Alabama to host hundreds of in-person meetings with patients.

In spite of our best efforts, weve been unable to help hundreds of patients in recovery find an in-person treatment option in Alabama, said Brian Clear, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Bicycle Health. While working with patients to transition their care, several told us they were considering moving to another state if they were unable to find a local doctor to continue their treatment. This drove home the sad reality that many of our patients had no other options and that we had to find a way to continue to treat them ourselves, while complying with the new law.

Clear continued, Were proud of the people on our staff who volunteered to drop everything and fly to Alabama to care for patients. Were also grateful to our partners at Aletheia House for their encouragement to find a creative way to keep these patients from losing access to treatment while we work on a long-term solution.

As a longtime provider of substance abuse treatment in Alabama, we see the firsthand impacts of opioid addiction and the challenges that access to treatment creates for patients in recovery, said Gloria Howard, Chief Operating Officer at Aletheia House. Bicycle Healths Alabama Airdrop will prevent the discontinuation of care for hundreds of patients and continue to support their journey toward recovery  an honorable mission that is good for patients and for the state of Alabama.

Bicycle Health has stopped adding new patients in the state of Alabama. However, for existing patients, a single in-person visit with a Bicycle Health physician will allow them to continue with their virtual care for another twelve months before they need to find an in-person treatment option. Bicycle Healths virtual care model combines telehealth visits, medication management, behavioral health support, and regular in-home diagnostic testing.

In a recently published peer-reviewed study, Bicycle Healths care model yielded exceptional retention rates compared to traditional in-person care  as evidenced by 86% of insured patients still in treatment at 30 days and 75% for a mixed population of insured and self-pay in the same time frame. The company has served more than 17,000 patients across the country to-date and prevented an estimated 355 overdoses in 2021.

About Bicycle HealthBicycle Health offers confidential evidence-based virtual care for opioid use disorder, from the comfort of your home. We provide access to a highly trained team of medical experts, a customized treatment plan, same-day prescription refills for medication management, and access to peer support groups and therapy. Our mission is to provide high-quality, affordable, convenient, and confidential opioid use order treatment for those in need, with a vision to help anyone with a chronic disease live a happy, healthy, and fulfilling life.

ContactLaunchSquad for Bicycle Health[email protected]

Source: Bicycle Health
BOISE, Idaho, July 12, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PlexTrac, the premier cybersecurity reporting and collaboration platform, and Boise State University's Institute for Pervasive Cybersecurity announced their new partnership to supply PlexTrac to students and participants in the Cyberdome Project. PlexTrac is pleased to donate its platform for students performing critical cybersecurity work through this program to benefit rural Idaho organizations in managing their security posture.

The Cyberdome is Boise State's newest cyber initiative, a collaborative hub for competency-based training, with the mission of reducing cyber risk in rural communities and helping expand the cyber workforce in sync with Idaho's business, technology and government sectors.

PlexTrac is the number one platform for managing all phases of penetration testing so organizations can identify and prioritize risks and make measurable progress in becoming more secure. Users of PlexTrac cut penetration test reporting time in half and deliver more value to clients through better collaboration and remediation tracking. Additionally, PlexTrac supports offensive and purple teaming engagements so organizations of any size can measurably improve their security posture.

PlexTrac's mission is to ensure cybersecurity teams win the right security battles. PlexTrac's founder and CEO Dan DeCloss is an Idaho native and sees this partnership as a perfect opportunity to give back to the local community in a way that aligns with PlexTrac's mission and values. The partnership will both improve the cybersecurity posture of Idaho organizations and level up the skills and marketability of the Boise State students preparing to enter the workforce as cybersecurity professionals.

"The constant threats from adversaries impacting communities throughout Idaho requires a new approach to developing a 'ready for work' cyber workforce. This includes strong engagement with industry partners like PlexTrac to leverage their fantastic reporting and management platform while enabling our students to engage in competency-developing efforts," said Edward Vasko, CISSP, Director, at the Boise State Institute for Pervasive Cybersecurity. "Further, the belief that our rural community partners, irrespective of size and budget, all deserve to have cyber advocates working on their behalf is a shared belief between Boise State and PlexTrac and is the critical reason for this partnership."

"We are thrilled to partner with the Cyberdome project through Boise State University. PlexTrac is an ideal platform for their initiatives as they work to educate students while making a demonstrable impact on rural communities," said DeCloss. "We are thrilled to offer PlexTrac to Boise State University students and partners through this program to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of security practitioners and programs everywhere  particularly in our own Idaho community."

Visit plextrac.com to learn more about the Boise-based scale-up company that secured a $70 million Series B round in February 2022.

Resources PlexTrac Platform PlexTrac Customer Testimonials  PlexTrac Blogs

About Boise State University's Institute for Pervasive Cybersecurity

Boise State University's Institute for Pervasive Cybersecurity (https://www.boisestate.edu/cybersecurity/) is a leader of innovative cybersecurity research and advancement in Idaho and the region. The Institute welcomes and facilitates strategic partnerships with industry, higher education, business and government to improve cybersecurity for Idaho and the nation. The Institute also works to commercialize ground-breaking research and tools, and educate graduates to become the change-makers and forward-thinkers of the 21st century.

About PlexTrac, Inc.

PlexTrac, Inc. (plextrac.com) is a fast-growing cybersecurity software company driven by a mission to improve the security posture of organizations and security teams of all sizes. The PlexTrac platform is focused on streamlining the reporting and remediation of cybersecurity risks and aiding efficient collaboration within security teams. Supporting organizations using a purple teaming paradigm, PlexTrac serves as the central communication hub to aggregate all of the components of an organization's cybersecurity program.

PlexTrac Contact: Angie O'HaraDirector of Marketing(208) 274-5322[email protected]

Boise State University Contact: Mike SharpDirector of Media Relations208-426-1597[email protected]

Related Images

Image 1: PlexTrac logo PlexTrac, Inc. company logo

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.

Attachment

PlexTrac logo PlexTrac logo

Source: PlexTrac, Inc.
OTTAWA, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canadas unions are celebrating todays decision from the BC Court of Appeal in the Cambie Surgeries Corporation (CSC) case. Protecting and strengthening our public health care system is critical, especially with the current crisis in health care across our country. Todays decision by the court upholds the BC Supreme Courts September 2020 decision that safeguarded the key principles of public health care.

For years, Dr. Brian Day and his well-financed powerful allies have used everything in their arsenal to try to erode key tenets of our universal health care system and threaten universal and equal access health care in our country, said Bea Bruske, President of the Canadian Labour Congress. Thank you to the many organizations and activists who worked so hard for this victory. Your work has been critical in defending our universal health care system.

The BC Court of Appeal decision comes following the earlier court decision in the Cambie case which put Canadas public medicare system on trial and threatened the principle of universal and equal access to health care.

The push for profit-driven care in this country was delivered another significant blow today. But we know the fight isnt over. While we expect this case will continue to the Supreme Court and Canadas unions stand ready to defend our universal, single-payer health care system, continued Bruske. Repairing and strengthening the public health care system will take the combined efforts by all levels of government. Canadas Premiers have called for a First Ministers Meeting on the topic of health care in Canada and Canadas unions are calling on our political leaders to improve our health care system for everyone, not just for the people with the ability to pay.

Bruske added that it is important to remember that the 2020 decision by the BC Supreme Court, at over 800 pages, was one of the most comprehensive verdicts in BC Supreme court history.

Canadian courts and citizens have already ruled on this issue. Canadians do not want us to usher in a profit-driven, multi-payer health care system. If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything  it is precisely how critical our universal, equally accessible health care system is. Now is the time to strengthen it

To arrange an interview, please contact:CLC Media Relations[email protected]613-526-7426

Source: Canadian Labour Congress
Late North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem's state email account was deleted shortly after his death earlier this year with the approval of his former deputy, according to his successor.

Additionally, former Chief Deputy Attorney General Troy Seibel's email account also was deleted in May. He had resigned in March when new Attorney General Drew Wrigley made clear his intentions to appoint his own deputy.

The deleted email accounts came to light Friday in response to a Bismarck Tribune open records request.

Seibel told the Tribune Friday he doesn't recall a conversation about Stenehjem's email account. Seibel also said he had no control over how his email account was handled after he resigned.

Wrigley took office Feb. 9 upon Gov. Doug Burgums appointment of him to fill the remaining months of Stenehjem's term after the longtime officeholder died Jan. 28 at age 68 from cardiac arrest. Wrigley must win election in November to continue serving beyond 2022.

A statement from Wrigley's office Friday said he and Deputy Attorney General Claire Ness learned of the account deletions in early July while fulfilling the Tribune's records request, and "directed that all possible attempts be made to retrieve the email accounts."

The Tribune sought email correspondence from Stenehjem and Seibel related to a $1.8 million construction cost overrun for a building leased in south Bismarck. Wrigley had notified lawmakers of the cost overrun last month in a public meeting; two interim legislative panels are probing the cost overrun. The state auditors office is assisting.

Seibel previously has disputed much of Wrigley's narrative regarding the cost overrun, notably of when he was first aware of the issue.

Stenehjem's "entire state email account" was deleted Jan. 31 -- days before his Feb. 3 funeral -- "at the instruction of a nonsupervisory, non-attorney employee of the Attorney Generals Office who stated the action was approved by then-Deputy Attorney General Seibel," according to Wrigley's office.

Wrigley said Seibel gave verbal approval to the employee, who relayed it to IT staff.

Seibel's entire email account was deleted May 23 "at the instruction of the same nonsupervisory, non-attorney employee of the Attorney Generals Office," according to the office.

Wrigley said the deletion was done "without authorization."

Seibel's emails had been "culled through extensively to see whether there were loose ends, some work, some follow-up that needed to be done," a kind of "triaging" that ended after two weeks, concluding with the account's deletion, Wrigley said.

Wrigley declined to name the employee or say whether he or she were disciplined, citing an "internal personnel matter," but said he will disclose those details "eventually."

He said he and Ness did express their "surprise and disappointment" to the employee.

Wrigley said the deleted accounts bring no "legal implications" for any pending records requests and no violations of office policy. He said his office will formalize a policy for preserving the emails of the attorney general, deputy and office division directors.

"They will never be deleted," Wrigley said.

He said he "saw no evidence of what I would call a bad intent or a nefarious intent" in the accounts' deletion. He said he sees "no indication of anything that would lead me to conclude that there would need to be an outside criminal investigation."

The prevalence of deleted email accounts "is much more common in state government than I ever knew was possible," Wrigley said.

"I would hope this would lead everyone to evaluate these policies in their offices because I think there's an expectation that it would be otherwise," he said.

The timing of the deletion of Stenehjem's email account -- the Monday after his Friday death -- "does strike me. It was rapid," Wrigley said.

Ness and other staff worked with the attorney general's Information Technology Division and the state IT Department "to ensure every effort was made to retrieve the emails," but "regrettably, this office has now been informed the accounts are unretrievable," according to the statement.

Some emails received by other staff from Stenehjem's and Seibel's accounts do exist, and IT staff found some emails from Seibel's account in a cached file on his former laptop.

Ness said it's unknown how many emails were deleted.

"We don't know what the size of those accounts were, at least that I've been able to discover," she said.

Seibel said the email accounts could have been deleted as standard procedure for when people leave the office. Maintaining every office record would pile up more documents to sift through for answering open records requests, he added.

Emails are deleted in 30 days after a state government email account is disabled, according to IT Department spokeswoman Jecca Geffre, who said, "Its a (Microsoft) Outlook policy, not an internal setting, we cant change it."

Seibel said he's not sure why Wrigley is bringing these issues to light, but, "I think what he's indicated publicly is he just wants to bring transparency to the process, which I appreciate that, and I guess I never really thought there wasn't transparency."

Wrigley said transparency guided his decisions around disclosing the cost overrun to state lawmakers and detailing the circumstances of the deleted email accounts in response to the Tribune's records request.

Wrigley faces Democrat Tim Lamb in November.

Democratic House Majority Leader Josh Boschee told The Associated Press the issue shows the need for some sort of statute or policy to make sure we protect the integrity of state officials' emails.

The attorney general's office is involved with many legal matters on behalf of the state and we see how many lawsuits they sign on to with other states ... as well as issues with North Dakotans in the state, Boschee said. So you would think wed want to have access to that information, whether it's to the benefit or the detriment of the state.
SANTA MONICA, CA, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Oliveda International, Inc. (OTC Pink: OLVI) subsidiary Olive Tree People Inc. today announced that Oliveda, the number one waterless skincare brand from Europe, is now starting exclusively with up to 3,875 beauty salons and spas in the United States. For its exclusive U.S. partners, Olive Tree People offers exclusivity within the salons or spas ZIP code, participation in all online sales generated in that ZIP code, the beauty salon or spas will be advertised by exclusively by Olive Tree People every week, among other benefits.

Olive Tree People regularly contacts 225 million potential customers for its exclusive zip code partners. The brands treatment concepts are unique worldwide and their effectiveness has been confirmed by conventional medicine. Read our book The Olive Tree Therapy 10 Years in 14 Days.

Waterless beauty was cited as the next big thing in articles in US Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, InStyle, Elle, as well as many others industry outlets, and by Mintel, a world-leading institute for future research. Gigi Hadid and many other celebrities are already Oliveda fans and support its success.

Register now for exclusivity in your ZIP code by emailing [email protected]

About Oliveda International, Inc.Founded by German real estate investor Thomas Lommel, Oliveda International, Inc., listed under the stock symbol OLVI, has subsidiaries including Olive Tree People Inc. and Oliveda Deutschland GmbH, which have over 20 years of experience in the manufacture and distribution of cosmetic and holistic waterless products. The company also has wearable beauty and health technology unique in the world. In addition to online sales and a worldwide branch network of 650 retail stores, Oliveda Deutschland GmbH operates flagship stores, the Olive Tree Pharmacy, in Berlin and Dusseldorf. Overall, the company assumes that it will be able to operate a total of 60 of its own flagship stores worldwide in the next five years and increase the branch network to 1,200 worldwide. Through its subsidiaries, Olive Tree People is the largest investor in organic certified mountain olive trees as well as the largest conservationist in Arroyomolinos de Leo, Spain. Additional information about the Company is available at http://www.oliveda.com, https://us.oliveda.com and http://www.olivetreepeople.com.

Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release may contain statements, estimates or projections that constitute "forward-looking statements" pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. federal securities laws. Generally, the words "believe," "expect," "intend," "estimate," "anticipate," "project," "will" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, which generally are not historical in nature. Forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, which may be found in the Companys filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's historical experience and present expectations or projections. Investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation or intention to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements unless otherwise required by law.

Source: Oliveda International, Inc.
COLOGNE, Germany, July 14, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Maleth Program is the first space bioscience project led by Professor Joseph Borg of the University of Malta. The second mission under the Maleth Program, or Maleth II, was launched on the July 15th, 2022.

"Maleth II boarded a SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft for the launch as part of Commercial Re-supply mission 25 (CRS25) destined for the International Space Station and will stay in orbit for around 60 days", said Prof. Borg.

Singleron Biotechnologies, a single cell multi-omics company based in Cologne, Germany, proudly supports this exciting project along with the Ministry for Foreign and European Affairs, the Ministry for Education of Malta, and MeDirect  Maltas first digital Bank. The mission is being facilitated by the Research, Innovation, Development Trust (RIDT) that will be supporting University of Malta students.

The Maleth II biocube will once again be remotely controlled from Malta, by Arkafort Ltd. in collaboration with Prof. Borg and can have real-time telemetry data on the running experiment on board the space station. "Alongside the human skin tissue samples to study microbiome involved in diabetic foot ulcers, is also a yeast sample that forms part of an ongoing mini-project supported by Singleron Biotechnologies to detect at a single cell level all the genetic changes inside the yeast cells when exposed to low earth orbit conditions", explained Prof. Borg.

Singleron is proud to be a partner in this exciting research project from Europe and believes that single cell analysis can be a powerful tool to understand the impact of space trips on biological organisms ranging from yeast to human.

About SingleronFounded in 2018, Singleron develops and commercializes single-cell multi-omics products that can be used in both research and clinical settings. Its current product portfolio includes instruments, microfluidic devices, reagents, software analysis and database solutions that facilitate high-throughput single-cell analysis. The company currently has offices, laboratories, and manufacturing facilities in Germany, Singapore, China, and the US. Its products are used in over 1,600 laboratories in hospitals, research institutes, and pharmaceutical companies.

Media ContactShaun CordesEmail: [email protected]

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ce9ced24-9d7e-4544-b73b-c489a4cbffa4

Singleron is collaborating with Project Maleth and the University of Malta on MALETH II. Logos for MALETH II, the University of Malta, and Singleron.

Source: Singleron Biotechnologies Pte. Ltd.
TORONTO, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Slate Grocery REIT (TSX: SGR.U) (TSX: SGR.UN) (the REIT), an owner and operator of U.S. grocery-anchored real estate, announced today the closing of its previously announced acquisition (the Acquisition) of a US$425 million grocery-anchored real estate portfolio (the Portfolio). The Acquisition significantly increases the REITs exposure to the rapidly growing Sunbelt Region of the United States with a portfolio of properties comprised of a wide range of high-performing grocers, including Publix, Ahold Delhaize, Albertsons, and Walmart. Following the closing of the Acquisition, the REITs portfolio comprises 15.7 million square feet and US$2.4 billion of essential grocery-anchored real estate.

The REIT also announced today the closing of its previously announced investment from Slate North American Essential Real Estate Income Fund L.P. (the NA Essential Fund), a vehicle managed by Slate Asset Management (Slate), which has resulted in the formation of a strategic joint venture (the Joint Venture). The NA Essential Fund completed its initial investment of US$180 million into the REITs assets (the Investment) through the purchase of partnership interests in two REIT subsidiaries. Proceeds from the Investment were used immediately to fund the Acquisition.

The closing of this Acquisition and Joint Venture marks an exciting milestone in Slate Grocery REITs growth, said Blair Welch, Chief Executive Officer of Slate Grocery REIT and Founding Partner of Slate. We have significantly increased the REITs exposure to high-quality grocery-anchored real estate in some of the fastest-growing markets in the U.S. and unlocked a new, efficient source of capital through the REITs partnership with the NA Essential Fund. With a highly-resilient portfolio, a best-in-class management team, and a well-established structure for growth, we are better positioned today than ever before to deliver value to our unitholders.

For more information, please refer to the REITs website for both the most recent investor presentation as well as a presentation summarizing the Acquisition, available at slategroceryreit.com/investor-presentations. Additional information regarding the Joint Venture, the Investment and related terms can be found on www.sedar.com.

About Slate Grocery REIT (TSX: SGR.U / SGR.UN)Slate Grocery REIT is an owner and operator of U.S. grocery-anchored real estate. The REIT owns and operates approximately US$2.4 billion of critical real estate infrastructure across major U.S. metro markets that communities rely upon for their daily needs. The REITs resilient grocery-anchored portfolio and strong credit tenants provide unitholders with durable cash flows and the potential for capital appreciation over the longer term. Visit slategroceryreit.com to learn more about the REIT.

About Slate Asset ManagementSlate Asset Management is a global alternative investment platform targeting real assets. We focus on fundamentals with the objective of creating long-term value for our investors and partners. Slates platform has a range of real estate and infrastructure investment strategies, including opportunistic, value add, core plus and debt investments. We are supported by exceptional people and flexible capital, which enable us to originate and execute on a wide range of compelling investment opportunities. Visit slateam.com to learn more.

This announcement by the Slate Grocery REIT (TSX: SGR.U) (TSX: SGR.UN) is not, and should not be construed as, an offer to investors for units in Slate North American Essential Real Estate Income Fund L.P.

SGR-AD

For Further InformationInvestor Relations+1 416 644 4264[email protected]

Source: Slate Grocery REIT
Progress continues apace with multiple trials expected to enter clinic later this year

First US patent granted

LONDON, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Small Pharma Inc. (TSXV: DMT) (OTCQB: DMTTF) (the Company or Small Pharma), a biotechnology company focused on short-acting psychedelic-assisted therapies for mental health conditions, has today published its financial results for the quarter ended May 31, 2022. A full copy of the results can be found under the Companys profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Unless otherwise indicated, all currency references are in Canadian dollars.

Financial Highlights

Cash on hand as of May 31, 2022 was $32.0 million. Cash is net of an unrealized loss of $2.3 million arising from foreign exchanges incurred due to a strengthening of the Canadian dollar against the British pound sterling ( GBP ) during the quarter; however, as most of the Companys operating costs are incurred in GBP, the loss has little impact on the underlying cash burn of the Company.

) during the quarter; however, as most of the Companys operating costs are incurred in GBP, the loss has little impact on the underlying cash burn of the Company. Cash used in operating activities was $6.3 million for the three months ended May 31, 2022.

Operating expenses for the three months ended May 31, 2022 were $5.8 million.

Business Highlights (including post-period events)

Ultra Short-acting Psychedelic Program

Progress continues in the Phase I/IIa clinical trial of the Companys lead program, SPL026 intravenous ( IV ) N,N-dimethyltryptamine ( DMT ) assisted psychotherapy for Major Depressive Disorder ( MDD ). Phase IIa patient dosing is expected to complete in the coming months. Updates on trial completion and topline data timing are anticipated throughout H2 2022.

) N,N-dimethyltryptamine ( ) assisted psychotherapy for Major Depressive Disorder ( ). Phase IIa patient dosing is expected to complete in the coming months. Updates on trial completion and topline data timing are anticipated throughout H2 2022. Drug interaction Phase Ib study in MDD patients CTA submission complete; study expected to commence in H2 2022. Assessment of safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of DMT-assisted psychotherapy when administered with serotonin reuptake inhibitors ( SSRIs ).

Preparation is ongoing for the Phase IIb international multi-site clinical trial.

Short-acting Psychedelic Programs

Phase I study evaluating SPL026 intramuscular ( IM ) is planned for H2 2022 to compare the treatment profile of IM and IV modes of administration.

) is planned for H2 2022 to compare the treatment profile of IM and IV modes of administration. Phase I study evaluating SPL028 deuterated DMT-assisted psychotherapy is planned for H2 2022.

Corporate Activity

Strong IP Portfolio with 8 granted patents and 75 patent applications pending across the Companys psychedelic and non-psychedelic portfolio. Two new patent grants in July 2022: One patent received is a US patent that strengthens the companys portfolio surrounding certain salt forms of 2R,6R-hydroxynorketamine ( 6-HNK ), including SPL801B. Second patent received is a European patent providing protection for high concentration oral dosage forms of 6-HNK salts, including SPL801B.

with 8 granted patents and 75 patent applications pending across the Companys psychedelic and non-psychedelic portfolio. Continued participation in key investor events such as the PSYCH Symposium London, Jefferies Healthcare Conference and HC Wainwright Mental Health Conference.

Peter Rands, Chief Executive Officer of Small Pharma, said: The remainder of 2022 is expected to be a busy one for our team as we approach the latter stages of the SPL026 Phase IIa clinical trial and prepare to progress a number of new planned trials into the clinic. Although across the world, our industry is facing challenging markets right now, we believe that Small Pharma remains in a strong position with our world-class team, robust pipeline and strong cash position as we strive to change the therapeutic paradigm for these much under-served patients with the option of better mental health treatments.

About Small Pharma

Small Pharma is a biotechnology company progressing a pipeline of short-acting psychedelics with therapy for the treatment of mental health conditions, with a current focus on depression. Small Pharma initiated a clinical program into DMT-assisted psychotherapy in February 2021. This program includes a Phase I/IIa trial on the Companys lead candidate alongside the development of a pipeline of proprietary preclinical assets.

About DMT

DMT is a naturally occurring psychedelic tryptamine found in plants and in the brain of mammals. Scientific evidence suggests DMT offers the potential for rapid-acting and long-lasting antidepressant effects. DMT is differentiated by its short psychedelic experience (

For further information contact:

Small Pharma Inc.Peter RandsChief Executive OfficerEmail: [email protected]Tel: +44 (0)20 7112 9118

Investor Relations Contacts:Eric RibnerLifeSci AdvisorsEmail: [email protected]Tel: +1 (646)-889-1200

Kristi PapanikolawKCSA Strategic CommunicationsEmail: [email protected]Tel: +1 (212) 682-6300

Media Relations Contact:McKenna MillerKCSA Strategic CommunicationsEmail: [email protected] Tel: +1 (949) 949-6585

Rest of WorldJaber MohamedMHP CommunicationsEmail: [email protected]Tel: 0+44 (0)7720 326 847

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains statements that constitute forward-looking information (forward-looking information) within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking information and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that discusses predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as expects, or does not expect, is expected, anticipates or does not anticipate, plans, budget, scheduled, forecasts, estimates, believes or intends or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results may or could, would, might or will be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements in this news release include statements regarding the Companys continued progression of Phase IIa clinical trials of SPL026 IV, including the expected timeline for completion of patient dosing, trial progress and the release of the Phase IIa data; the expected timeline for commencing a drug interaction patient study assessing the impact of SSRIs; the Companys preparation for the international multi-site Phase IIb clinical trial of SPL026; the Companys plans, expectations, timelines and possible outcomes with respect to its anticipated SPL026 study comparing IM versus IV modes of administration as well as the Companys Phase I study of SPL028 deuterated DMT-assisted psychotherapy; the Companys ability to pursue novel treatments to provide better mental health treatments; and the Companys ability to develop solutions to effectively address depression through DMT-based therapies.

In disclosing the forward-looking information contained in this press release, the Company has made certain assumptions. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking information are reasonable, it can give no assurance that the expectations of any forward-looking information will prove to be correct. Known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include but are not limited to: compliance with extensive government regulations; domestic and foreign laws and regulations adversely affecting the Companys business and results of operations; the impact of COVID-19; and general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking information contained in this press release. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information to reflect actual results, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions, changes in factors affecting such forward-looking information or otherwise.

Small Pharma makes no medical, treatment or health benefit claims about its proposed products. The U.K. Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (the MHRA) or other similar regulatory authorities have not evaluated claims regarding DMT-assisted therapies and other next generation psychoactive compounds. The efficacy of such therapies has not been confirmed by MHRA-approved research. There is no assurance that such DMT-assisted therapies and other psychoactive compounds can diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease or condition. Vigorous scientific research and clinical trials are needed. Any references to quality, consistency, efficacy and safety of potential therapies do not imply that Small Pharma verified such in clinical trials or that Small Pharma will complete such trials. If Small Pharma cannot obtain the approvals or research necessary to commercialize its business, it may have a material adverse effect on Small Pharmas performance and operations.

The TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV) has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Source: Small Pharma Inc.
TORONTO, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (TSXV: TVC) (OTCQB: TVCCF) Three Valley Copper Corp. (Three Valley Copper or the Company) today announced that the Chilean courts response to the filing of a Judicial Restructuring Procedure (JRP) by Minera Tres Valles SpA (MTV), the Companys 95.1% Chilean copper mining subsidiary, is delayed.

MTV commenced reorganization proceedings by filing a JRP in Chile on June 13, 2022, to seek protection from creditors to give MTV a further opportunity to seek a long-term financing solution to ensure MTVs continuity of operations. This is similar to filing for creditor protection under the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act in Canada.

The initial court order sought is expected to provide a stay of creditor claims and the exercise of contractual rights providing the necessary protection to allow MTV to continue its focus on sourcing a long-term financial partner that will encourage its creditors to restructure their debts leading to a secure financial foundation to grow MTVs business.

MTV has been notified that there is a procedural delay in granting the court order and expects the Chilean courts to issue the initial court order by the end of July 2022. If the initial court order is not granted, it is expected that MTV could be forced to liquidate or be sold, which could adversely impact the Companys ability to recover any or all of the Companys investment in MTV. The public company, Three Valley Copper, is expected to continue as a going concern even if a liquidation event occurs at MTV. If MTV is successful in restructuring its existing debt and in sourcing additional financing, there will likely be a material dilution to the Companys ownership interest in MTV, including the possibility that the Company would no longer hold majority control of MTV.

To date, Anglo American Marketing Limited and a fund managed by Kimura Capital (the Senior Lenders to MTV) have not reached agreement between themselves to further support MTV in the future nor has longer-term capital been sourced. The Company remains in constant dialogue with the Senior Lenders and discussions continue on how to best support MTV with the goal of sourcing additional longer-term capital.

MTV has initiated a full care and maintenance program with over half of its 200 direct employees being terminated thus far and its underground contractor demobilized. MTVs current projections provide for its cash resources to be extended into August 2022.

The Company will provide a further update on the JRP as the application proceeds.

About Three Valley Copper

Three Valley Copper, headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada is focused on copper production from its primary asset, Minera Tres Valles. Located in Salamanca, Chile, MTV is 95.1% owned by the Company and MTV's main assets are the Minera Tres Valles mining complex and its 46,000 hectares of exploratory lands. For more information about the Company, please visit www.threevalleycopper.com.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements in this news release, contain forward-looking information (collectively referred to herein as the "Forward-Looking Statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. The use of any of the words "expect", "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe", "plans", "intends" and similar expressions are intended to identify Forward-Looking Statements. In particular, but without limiting the foregoing, this news release contains Forward-Looking Statements pertaining to: expected cash flow and capital resources; ability of the Company to continue as a going concern; expectations regarding the timing and grant of the JRP and the affects of any potential order; and expectations regarding debt restructuring and additional financing.

Although TVC believes that the Forward-Looking Statements are reasonable, they are not guarantees of future results, performance or achievements. A number of factors or assumptions have been used to develop the Forward-Looking Statements, including: the availability of certain consumables (including water) and services and the prices for power, sulfuric acid and other key supplies; expected labour and materials costs and available supply; certain tax rates, including the allocation of certain tax attributes, being applicable to MTV; the continued availability of quality management; expected ability to repay the indebtedness of MTV; the JRP is a procedure available to MTV; and MTV will be able to maintain sufficient staff to continue processing operations.

Actual results, performance or achievements could vary materially from those expressed or implied by the Forward-Looking Statements should assumptions underlying the Forward-Looking Statements prove incorrect or should one or more risks or other factors materialize, including: (i) possible variations in grade or recovery rates; (ii) copper price fluctuations and uncertainties; (iii) delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing; (iv) risks associated with the mining industry in general (e.g., operational risks in development, exploration and production; delays or changes in plans with respect to exploration or development projects or capital expenditures; the uncertainty of estimates and projections relating to mineral reserves, production, costs and expenses; and labour, health, safety and environmental risks) and risks associated with the other portfolio companies' industries in general; (v) performance of the counterparty to the ENAMI contract; (vi) risks associated with investments in emerging markets; (vii) general economic, market and business conditions; (viii) market volatility that would affect the ability to enter or exit investments; (ix) commodity price and foreign exchange fluctuations and uncertainties; (x) risks associated with catastrophic events, manmade disasters, terrorist attacks, wars and other conflicts, or an outbreak of a public health pandemic or other public health crises, including COVID-19; (xi) those risks disclosed under the heading "Risk Management" in TVCs Managements Discussion and Analysis for the period ended December 31, 2021; and (xii) those risks disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" or incorporated by reference into TVCs Annual Information Form dated March 3, 2021. The Forward-Looking Statements speak only as of the date hereof, unless otherwise specifically noted, and the Company does not assume any obligation to publicly update any Forward-Looking Statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be expressly required by applicable Canadian securities laws.

Cautionary Note to United States Investors Concerning Estimates of measured, indicated and inferred mineral resources

This news release may use the terms "measured", "indicated" and "inferred" mineral resources. Historically, while such terms were recognized and required by Canadian regulations, they were not recognized by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC). The SEC has adopted amendments to its disclosure rules to modernize the mineral property disclosure requirements for issuers whose securities are registered with the SEC under the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act). These amendments became effective February 25, 2019 (the SEC Modernization Rules) with compliance required for the first fiscal year beginning on or after January 1, 2021. The SEC Modernization Rules replace the historical property disclosure requirements for mining registrants that were included in SEC Industry Guide 7, which will be rescinded from and after the required compliance date of the SEC Modernization Rules. As a result of the adoption of the SEC Modernization Rules, the SEC now recognizes estimates of measured, indicated and inferred mineral resources. In addition, the SEC has amended its definitions of proven mineral reserves and probable mineral reserves to be substantially similar to the corresponding Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum definitions, as required by NI 43-101. Investors are cautioned that "Inferred mineral resources" have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence, and as to their economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under Canadian rules, estimates of inferred mineral resources may not form the basis of feasibility or other economic studies. United States investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of measured or indicated mineral resources will ever be converted into mineral reserves. United States investors are also cautioned not to assume that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource exists or is economically or legally mineable.

For further information:

Michael StaresinicPresident and Chief Executive OfficerT: (416) 943-7107E: [email protected]

Renmark Financial Communications Inc.Joshua Lavers: [email protected]T: (416) 644-2020 or (212) 812-7680www.renmarkfinancial.com

Source: Three Valley Copper Corp.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Source: Three Valley Copper Corp.
LACEY, Wash., July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TwinStar Credit Union and Northwest Community Credit Union (NWCU) are excited to announce their plans to merge pending regulatory approval and NWCU membership vote. If approved, credit union locations would continue to be designated as "Northwest Community Credit Union Branch" or "TwinStar Credit Union Branch" while they work collaboratively to determine what the credit union's unified name would be in the future.

While notable that the credit union's combined assets would be approximately $4 billion, the board and leadership of both credit unions are most passionate about the opportunity to serve more than 245,000+ members with 36 branches throughout Oregon and Washington together. With a competitive physical presence and their combined strengths in product, services, and technology offerings, this merger is a great example of the impact credit unions can have when they pursue a cooperative partnership with a like-minded organization.

NWCU Chief Executive Officer John D. Iglesias states, "My hope is that as the merger process continues, our members, employees, and the communities we serve are excited about the additional opportunities this partnership would allow us to provide those we serve." Iglesias adds, "We put thoughtful care, consideration, and months of due diligence into this to ensure a merger with TwinStar made sense, and at every step, it has. The vision for the future of both credit unions' boards of directors is 100% aligned."

Northwest Community Credit Union was recently named 2022 Best Credit Union in the state of Oregon by Forbes Magazine. Both organizations have received many similar accolades over the last few years.

"I think it's pretty amazing that two like-sized, like-minded credit unions are coming together collaboratively," says Jeff Kennedy, Chief Executive Officer of TwinStar Credit Union. Kennedy goes on to say, "People have asked, and are going to continue to ask us, why merge? To be frank, it goes beyond just one reason. It's because we would gain economies of scale; it's because we'd grow to 36 branches across two states; it's because with that growth comes more opportunity. Ultimately, however, we are pursuing this merger because we believe we can provide more member, employee, and community value together and we've found a great partnership."

TwinStar's Jeff Kennedy would be the Chief Executive Officer of the new organization and NWCU's John Iglesias would be the President.

As Member-owned cooperatives, and under the guidelines of the National Credit Union Association, a successful merger is contingent upon NWCU Member approval. NWCU members would vote to accept the organization's plan to merge under the authority of the State of Washington's charter. TwinStar members are currently under the Washington state charter authority. Upon that membership approval, the entities would become one sometime in 2023.

More information, including FAQs regarding the merger, can be found on both TwinStar www.twinstarcu.com/better-together and NWCU websites www.nwcu.com/better-together.

TwinStar Credit UnionEstablished in 1937 by teachers at Olympia High School as Thurston County Teachers Credit Union, TwinStar Credit Union has been providing affordable loans, excellent deposit rates, and great service to its members for over 80 years. Instead of enriching stockholders like banks, TwinStar is committed to serving and returning the most value to members as a not-for-profit, member-owned financial institution. Community commitment is also at the heart of TwinStar. It believes that healthier and happier people make great communities. TwinStar stands behind its brand promise: Realizing Financial Dreams Together. Its vision is to be a leading community-conscious organization by providing a lifetime of solutions to create financial peace of mind.

Northwest Community Credit Union (NWCU)NWCU is headquartered in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1949 by six members of Weyerhaeuser, a wood products corporation, NWCU has grown to serve a diversified membership of more than 107,000 members with 15 locations in 11 Oregon cities. NWCU is proud to support community and educational outreach, provide emergency relief, and gave more than $250,000 in direct support in 2021. NWCU is committed to providing superior service, compassion, and loyalty to their members, their employees, and the communities they serve.

Media Contact: Jessica Richardson-Isenegger, Infusion GroupPhone: (734) 552-5192Email: [email protected]

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.

Source: TwinStar Credit Union
FILE PHOTO: The company logo is pictured on a Tesla Model X electric car in Berlin, Germany, November 13, 2019. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

BERLIN (Reuters) - A Munich court has ordered Tesla Inc to reimburse a customer most of the 112,000 euros ($112,884.80) she paid for a Model X SUV because of problems with the Autopilot function, Der Spiegel reported on Friday.

A technical report showed the vehicle did not reliably recognise obstacles like the narrowing of a construction site and would at times activate the brakes unnecessarily.

This could cause a "massive hazard" in city centres and lead to collisions, the court ruled.

Tesla lawyers argued Autopilot was not designed for city traffic, according to Der Spiegel, to which the court said it was not feasible for drivers to switch the feature on and off manually in different settings as it would distract from driving.

Tesla was not immediately available for comment and declined to comment to Der Spiegel. The court was not immediately available for comment.

U.S. safety regulators are investigating Tesla's Autopilot function after reports of 16 crashes, including seven injury incidents and one death, involving Tesla vehicles in Autopilot that had struck stationary first-responder and road maintenance vehicles.

Tesla says Autopilot allows vehicles to brake and steer automatically within their lanes but does not make them capable of driving themselves.

Musk said in March that Tesla is likely to launch a test version of its new "Full Self-Driving" software in Europe later this year, depending on regulatory approval.

"It's quite difficult to do full self-driving in Europe," he told workers at Berlin factory at the time, saying much work needs to be done to handle tricky driving situations in Europe where roads vary a lot by country.

($1 = 0.9922 euro)

(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee; Editing by Miranda Murray and Jonathan Oatis)
Morganton, North Carolina--(Newsfile Corp. - July 15, 2022) - Blue Ring Investors LLC, which helps busy professionals to invest in real estate, has announced it is under contract on a 75-unit property in Port Arthur, Texas. With the contract, the company adds to its growing portfolio of investment-grade commercial properties in multifamily, senior housing, and student housing asset classes.

Blue Ring Investors, founded by President Sanjay Hegde and co-managed by his partner Dr. Jeannette Bimbach, specializes in asset management and raising capital while helping busy professionals from healthcare and other industries to invest in commercial real estate. Started in 2021, Blue Ring Investors now has over 190 multifamily units under management and 700 self-storage units under construction. The company partners with an established network of vetted, successful real estate acquisitions teams in whose deals it invests on its clients' behalf. The new contract with the 75-unit property, Blue Ring Investors states, is its latest step in growing its portfolio so that it can assist more clients.

"We are very excited about our Port Arthur contract," Mr. Hegde says. "It represents the incredible growth of Blue Ring Investors in just over a year, and we are proud to offer it as a possible investment opportunity for our clients."

Blue Ring Investors focuses both on CRE investments as well as education about the industry. It explains that to help investors better understand the pros and cons of owning multifamily assets, it has begun doing a monthly webinar, "Strategic Multifamily Investing with Dr. Jeannette and Sanjay." The company also offers a podcast page on its website that is regularly updated.

"It has been very successful thus far," Blue Ring Investors says. "We have talked with many potential and existing investors about multifamily syndication. What we have found is that people have a strong desire to better understand alternative investment opportunities so that they can have the potential to diversify their assets. For some, owning multifamily assets can be a good option."

While helping the Blue Ring Investors team with the Port Arthur contract, Mr. Hegde spoke at the GOB Network Conference at the Westin O'Hare in Chicago on July 13-14, 2022. "We support the conference's mission: to eliminate all obstacles that prevent individuals from being successful real estate investors," says Mr. Hegde. "I had a wonderful time being on the Passive Investing Panel and sharing what I have learned through my own experiences at Blue Ring Investors to help more people potentially save for retirement."

Next on the horizon for Mr. Hegde will be the Middle East Investors Summit in Dubai, which he will attend on behalf of Blue Ring Investors from November 14-15. "It will be an assemblage of global leaders in real estate, infrastructure, hedge funds, private equity, and other sectors, and I am looking forward to networking and strategizing with all of them," Mr. Hegde states.

Blue Ring Investors brings together sophisticated investors who, with the company's leadership, can leverage the group's combined financial resources to invest in carefully chosen commercial real estate deals. The company works to identify qualified vendors, partners, and advisers to give it a competitive advantage as it enters new markets.





Sanjay Hegde is Founder and President of Blue Ring Investors LLC and has more than 15 years' experience establishing customer relationships and managing multimillion-dollar corporate accounts for companies in the U.S. and abroad. An Acquisitions Specialist, Funding Specialist, Property Asset Management Specialist, and Underwriting Specialist, Mr. Hegde is connected to a deep network of operational, tax, and legal experts focused on commercial real estate investing.



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8668/131065_0f204e6f44a6ea11_002full.jpg





Dr. Jeannette Birnbach has been running a successful practice for the last 24 years in the Pacific Northwest. Realizing the potential of multifamily investments, she purchased three small multifamily properties on her own, which led to discovering the power of passive syndication for larger properties. Now working as a general partner at Blue Ring Investors, she guides other healthcare practitioners to learn about passive real estate investing.



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8668/131065_0f204e6f44a6ea11_003full.jpg

For more information about Blue Ring Investors, please contact:

Sanjay Hegde

828-391-4805

[email protected]

Blue Ring Investors | Facebook

Blue Ring Investors (@blueringinvestors) " Instagram photos and videos

(99+) Blue Ring Investors: Overview | LinkedIn

Blue Ring Investors - YouTube

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/131065
CSE leads domestic exchanges with 16 IPOs during first half 2022

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - July 15, 2022) - The Canadian Securities Exchange ("CSE" or "the Exchange") today announced its market statistics for the month of June 2022.

June 2022 Operating Statistics

Trading volume of CSE-listed securities totaled 1.2 billion shares;

Trading value of CSE-listed securities was $539 million;

CSE issuers completed 62 financings that raised an aggregate $169 million; and

The CSE welcomed listings from 15 new companies, including one fundamental change of an existing issuer, bringing total listed securities to 794 as at June 30, 2022.

"The Canadian Securities Exchange maintained its leading position in Canadian initial public offerings in the first half of 2022," said Richard Carleton, CSE Chief Executive Officer. "We had 16 companies go public via IPO on our exchange. That accounted for more than half of all IPOs completed on Canadian exchanges during this period, according to CPE Analytics.[1] We are delighted that entrepreneurs from around the world continue to recognize the significant benefits of a CSE listing."

What's On at the CSE

Tech Tuesdays recently wrapped up the first half of its second season. The 19 episodes featured interviews with executives from cutting-edge technology companies involved in diverse industries such as telehealth, data security, medical devices, mining, AgTech and much more. The episodes can be viewed on CSE TV, the Exchange's YouTube channel. Tech Tuesdays will return in the fall for the second half of Season 2, so the summer is a great time to catch up on any episodes of interest!

The CSE is pleased to be sponsoring and participating in the 27th annual Canadian Security Traders Association (CSTA) Conference, taking place in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario on August 18-21. Conference panelists will tackle issues including diversity in investing, trading digital assets, regulation, and fintech innovations. Further information, including registration details and a preliminary conference agenda, is available here.

New Listings in June 2022

Yellow Stem Tech Inc. (YY)

G2 Energy Corp. (GTOO)

The Gummy Project Inc. (GUMY)

Avila Energy Corporation (VIK) - Fundamental Change

Arctic Fox Minerals Corp. (FOXY)

Tana Resources Corp. (TANA)

Li-FT Power Ltd. (LIFT)

Terra Balcanica Resources Corp. (TERA)

Great Republic Mining Corp. (GRM)

X1 Esports and Entertainment Ltd. (XONE)

Carmanah Minerals Corp. (CARM)

Copper Ridge Exploration Inc. (COP)

Clear Sky Lithium Corp. (POWR)

Origin Therapeutics Holdings Inc. (ORIG)

Miza II Resources Inc. (MIA)

About the Canadian Securities Exchange:

The Canadian Securities Exchange is a rapidly growing stock exchange focused on working with entrepreneurs to access the public capital markets in Canada and internationally. The Exchange's efficient operating model, advanced technology and low fee structure help companies of all sizes minimize their cost of capital and maximize access to liquidity.

The CSE offers investors in Canada and abroad access to a multi-sector collection of growth companies through a liquid, reliable and highly regulated trading platform. The Exchange is dedicated to entrepreneurship and has established itself as a leading hub for discourse in the entrepreneurial community.

STAY CONNECTED WITH THE CSE

=============================

CSE TV on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/csetv

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/canadianexchange/

Linkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/company/canadian-securities-exchange

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CanadianSecuritiesExchange/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CSE_News

Blog: https://blog.thecse.com/

Website: https://thecse.com/

Contact:

Richard Carleton, CEO

416-367-7360

[email protected]

[1] Excluding Capital Pool Companies and Special Purpose Acquisition Companies.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/131021
Wide Zone of Basement-Hosted Uranium Mineralization 6 Km South of 42 Zone

Faulted Graphitic Conductor with Mineralization 100 m Below Unconformity

Extensive Summer Drill Program Continuing on West McArthur Project

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 15, 2022) - CanAlaska Uranium Ltd. (TSXV: CVV) (OTCQB: CVVUF) (FSE: DH7N) ("CanAlaska" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has intersected a wide interval of basement-hosted uranium mineralization along a newly defined exploration trend on the West McArthur project (Figure 1).





Figure 1 West McArthur Property Location Map

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/2864/130957_7356fbe5347f2a0a_002full.jpg

Drill hole WMA067 was the second regional test of the current summer drilling program. The drill hole intersected a broad, 6.3 metre-long interval of elevated radioactivity (> 300 counts per second (cps) on a handheld CT007-M scintillometer). The broad interval includes several metre- to sub-metre-long intervals of moderate to strong radioactivity, one of which is 3.5 metres long (> 5,000 cps on the CT007-M). WMA067 is located 6 kilometres along strike to the southwest of the Company's 42 Zone mineralization (Figure 2). The uranium mineralization is characterized by pitchblende and yellow uranium secondaries with associated clay and hematite alteration in faulted basement rocks approximately 100 metres below the unconformity.





Figure 2 2022 West McArthur Drill Program Update

To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/2864/130957_7356fbe5347f2a0a_003full.jpg

CanAlaska CEO, Cory Belyk, comments, "The CanAlaska team has delivered a new uranium intersection in a new area of the West McArthur project with its second drill hole of the summer program. With multiple recently announced build-outs of small modular reactors ("SMRs") in the Canadian market alone, the need for more uranium discoveries that can lead to increased production has never been more apparent. The West McArthur project, strategically located next to critical mine and mill infrastructure in the eastern Athabasca Basin, continues to respond positively to targets generated by the geological team providing additional opportunities for discovery for our shareholders. This is an important and exciting result early in the 2022 drilling program."

Drill hole WMA067 was designed to test a strong conductor anomaly identified during the 2022 winter geophysical program. The drillhole penetrated 52.8 metres of overburden followed by Athabasca sandstone to 803.8 metres. The lower 80 metres of the sandstone column is strongly bleached with several fault zones containing limonite alteration and de-silicification. Two major metre-scale fault zones in the basal sandstone, the lowermost of which straddles the unconformity, are associated with strong clay, limonite, and strongly de-silicified core resulting in approximately 30% core recovery. The basement of WMA067 consists of a wide package of graphitic and non-graphitic pelitic metasediments, explaining the conductive response. In the immediate 30 m below the unconformity, the metasedimentary package is overprinted by strong clay, chlorite, and hematite alteration associated with multiple fault zones that contain clay gouge, broken core, and cataclastic breccias. The remainder of the basement intersection is variably clay and chlorite-altered, increasing in intensity around intervals of increased fracturing as damage zones to graphitic fault zones. The intensity of the basement alteration increases with depth, leading up to the basement-hosted uranium mineralization. The mineralization is structurally-controlled within a broad graphitic shear zone that hosts several re-activated faults. The mineralization, starting at 906.3 m, is characterized by massive to semi-massive, vein-controlled, and disseminated pitchblende and yellow uranium secondaries that are associated with bleaching, clay, and hematite alteration (Figure 3). Core recovery throughout the basement intersection is 100%. The radioactive intervals are summarized in Table 1.





Figure 3 Drill Core Photographs of WMA067

To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/2864/130957_7356fbe5347f2a0a_006full.jpg

Table 1 - Radioactive Interval Summary

DDH From

(m) To

(m) Length

(m)4 Interval

Radioactivity

(cps)1,2,3 Maximum

Radioactivity

(cps)1,2,3 WMA067

Easting: 477,282 mE

Northing: 6,396,397 mN

Elevation: 604 m A.S.L.

Azimuth: 325

Dip: -75.7U 906.3 912.6 6.3 > 300 39,000 Radioactivity is total gamma from drill core measured with a CT007-M gamma-ray spectrometer/scintillometer in cps (counts per second). Measurements of total gamma cps on drill core are an indication of the presence of radioactive materials (uranium, thorium, and/or potassium), but may not directly correlate with uranium chemical assays. Total gamma cps readings are preliminary and may not be used directly to quantify or qualify uranium concentrations of the rock samples measured. The Company considers all CT007-M readings greater than 300 cps to constitute elevated radioactivity, with background radioactivity measuring between 50 to 125 cps. All reported depths and intervals are drill hole depths and intervals, unless otherwise noted, and do not represent true thicknesses, which have yet to be determined.

Future Plans

The Company is continuing its drilling program on the West McArthur uranium project. The program is part of the approved $5 million 2022 exploration program. The West McArthur drilling program is focused on continued expansion of the 42 Zone mineralization, exploration within the 1.8 km 42 Zone extension target area, and testing of multiple new targets generated during the winter geophysical program. The West McArthur project is operated by CanAlaska, who currently holds a 77.12% ownership in the project.

As drill holes are completed, drill core samples are shipped to the Saskatchewan Research Council Geoanalytical Laboratories (SRC) in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in secure containment for preparation, processing, and multi-element analysis by ICP-MS and ICP-OES using total (HF:NHO 3 :HClO 4 ) and partial digestion (HNO 3 :HCl), boron by fusion, and U 3 O 8 wt% assay by ICP-OES using higher grade standards. Radiometric assay samples are chosen based on downhole probing radiometric equivalent uranium grades and scintillometer (CT007-M) peaks and comprise 0.3 to 0.8 m continuous split-core samples over mineralized intervals. The SRC is an ISO/IEC 17025/2005 and Standards Council of Canada certified analytical laboratory. Blanks, standard reference materials, and repeats are inserted into the sample stream at regular intervals by CanAlaska and the SRC in accordance with CanAlaska's quality assurance / quality control (QA/QC) procedures.

Other News

On the Company's Manibridge project, its partner Metal Energy is actively completing the phase two summer drill program. The drilling is focused within the shadow of the past-producing Manibridge Nickel Mine that produced 1.3 million tonnes at an average grade of 2.55% nickel and 0.27% copper from 1971 to 1977, in the Thompson Nickel Belt, Manitoba.

About CanAlaska Uranium

CanAlaska Uranium Ltd. (TSXV: CVV) (OTCQB: CVVUF) (FSE: DH7N) holds interests in approximately 300,000 hectares (750,000 acres), in Canada's Athabasca Basin - the "Saudi Arabia of Uranium." CanAlaska's strategic holdings have attracted major international mining companies. CanAlaska is currently working with Cameco and Denison at two of the Company's properties in the Eastern Athabasca Basin. CanAlaska is a project generator positioned for discovery success in the world's richest uranium district. The Company also holds properties prospective for nickel, copper, gold and diamonds. For further information visit www.canalaska.com.

The qualified technical person for this news release is Nathan Bridge, MSc., P.Geo., CanAlaska's Vice President, Exploration.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

"Peter Dasler"

Peter Dasler, M.Sc.

President

CanAlaska Uranium Ltd.

Contacts:

Cory Belyk, Executive VP and CEO

Tel: +1.604.688.3211 x 306

Email: [email protected]

Peter Dasler, President

Tel: +1.604.688.3211 x 138

Email: [email protected]

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-looking information

All statements included in this press release that address activities, events or developments that the Company expects, believes or anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions made by the Company based on its experience, perception of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors it believes are appropriate in the circumstances. In addition, these statements involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will prove inaccurate, certain of which are beyond the Company's control. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, the Company does not intend to revise or update these forward-looking statements after the date hereof or revise them to reflect the occurrence of future unanticipated events.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/130957
I dont think we can emphasize enough the serious nature of this situation, calling the hit-and-run of Erwin Geigle horrific, unprovoked and random.

-- South Central District Judge Douglas Bahr after sentencing Wade Bison on lesser felony charges before handing down the sentence of life in prison without parole.

q q q

This is a budget that for the first time in probably three years, nothing really jumps out at me. Were addressing public safety, that's our goal. And if we can maintain that and not raise mill, I don't have a problem with it.

-- Bismarck City Commissioner Greg Zenker speaking about the citys proposed 2023 budget that commissioners unanimously voted to move forward.

q q q

The city is very optimistic about new development opportunities and what we have to offer to people in Mandan."

-- Mandan Principal Planner Andrew Stromme, on the citys recent uptick in residential and commercial development.

q q q

"By taking proactive measures we can prevent the introduction of zebra mussels and other aquatic nuisance species into Lake Sakakawea.

-- Ben Holen, aquatic nuisance species coordinator for North Dakota's Game and Fish Department.

q q q

This is where the ducks are born and raised.

-- David Borlaug, co-director of The Capital Gallery in Bismarck, on this year's Federal Duck Stamp Contest being held at the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum in September.

q q q

"That increase we saw is not a regular occurrence, so it does seem that its due to the extra efforts that took place in the last six months. I know our team worked really hard early in the year to boost that number by targeting drivers with an expired license and then offering additional time slots for drivers to take the CDL knowledge test."

-- Nicole Peske, NDDOT spokesperson, on the increase of CDL drivers to ease shortage woes.

q q q

I think the solutions are attainable if we have the political will. I would question if we have that political will in North Dakota. Do you really want to do this, or do you think homelessness is OK? We are very judgmental here in North Dakota -- you have to be deserving of help in order to get help. Thats part of the problem."

-- Cheryl Kary, executive director of the Mandan-based Sacred Pipe Resource Center, discussing homelessness in North Dakota.

q q q

"We have faced relentless attacks from North Dakota lawmakers who have long wanted us gone. But we will fight this draconian ban like the other outrageous bans and restrictions that came before it."

-- Tammi Kromenaker, director of the Fargo-based Red River Women's Clinic, which is suing over the state's abortion ban set to take effect July 28.

The gift of this land is just the start of a mutually beneficial relationship as interdependent neighbors and partners."

-- Tim O'Keefe, chair of the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation, which has donated 3.5 acres of land to the presidential library planned in honor of the 26th president who ranched and hunted in the area in the 1880s.

q q q

There are a lot of really fascinating stories behind the different sites in Bismarck that need to be told. These two projects will allow people who may be very familiar to Bismarck, or those who are experiencing our city for the first time, to get a sense of the rich history that is all around us.

-- Senior City Planner Will Hutchings, as the city unveiled walking map brochures and a self-guided audio tour of local historic sites as part of the summerlong celebration of Bismarck's 150th anniversary.
By Steve Holland and Jarrett Renshaw

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden gave a fist bump to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Friday, state television showed, during a trip to Saudi Arabia that is being watched for body language and rhetoric as Washington seeks to reset relations.

White House officials had worked hard on the optics of the meeting between Biden and the crown prince, known as MbS, who Biden has criticized for his role in the killing of Washington Post journalist and political opponent Jamal Khashoggi.

In the end, it was a fist bump and wordless exchange in front of the king's royal palace in Jeddah that is likely to be the defining image of the visit by the U.S. president, who once promised to make Saudi Arabia a "pariah" state.

The president's aides suggested before he landed in Israel - the first leg of his trip - that Biden would avoid handshakes during his trip due to the rapidly spreading new coronavirus subvariant  but within minutes of his arrival in Israel Biden dispensed with the rules and was shaking hands.

He continued shaking hands during the Israel visit before heading to Saudi Arabia.

"For some reason, Biden's political team thinks a fist bump is less of a statement of friendship than a handshake and planned to have him fist bump everyone in order to make it less notable that he wasnt shaking MbS' hand," said Kristen Fontenrose, a fellow of foreign relations at the Atlantic Council and a former Trump administration official.

During the Saudi visit, Biden is expected to discuss human rights, one of several issues that strained ties after U.S. intelligence concluded the crown prince directly approved the 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The crown prince denies having any role in the killing.

On arrival in the Saudi port city of Jeddah, Biden was greeted by Prince Khalid al-Faisal, the governor of Mecca province and not by the crown prince, the kingdom's de facto ruler, or the elderly king.

Typically, the White House releases names before landing of foreign officials who will welcome the president, but this time details only came out after Biden left the airport.

When former U.S. President Donald Trump, who enjoyed close ties with MbS, visited Saudi Arabia in 2017 he was greeted by King Salman, who has made few public appearances recently.

The Mecca governor met France's president when he visited Jeddah late last year.

Biden departed for Israel late on Tuesday after spending part of the late afternoon and early evening shaking multiple hands on the White House South Lawn during a congressional picnic.

(Reporting by Steve Holland, Aziz el Yaakoubi, Maha El Dahan and Jarrett Renshaw; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Catherine Evans)
MEXICO CITY, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Grupo Aeromexico, S.A.B. de C.V. (together with Aerovias de Mexico, S.A. de C.V., "Aeromexico") (BMV: AEROMEX) is pleased to announce, following our prior relevant event of June 30, 2022, that the transaction (the "PLM Transaction") to obtain total control over Aeromexico's loyalty program, Club Premier, has closed. By consummating the PLM Transaction, Aeromexico has achieved a key long-term goal as PLM, the owner and operator of Club Premier, will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Grupo Aeromexico, S.A.B. de C.V. Aeromexico thanks Aimia for a long and successful partnership, and is excited for the future of Club PremierMexico's leading airline loyalty program.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements that reflect the current views and/or expectations of the Company and its management with respect to its performance, business and future events. We use words such as "believe," "anticipate," "plan," "expect,", "intend," "target," "estimate," "project," "predict," "forecast," "guideline," "should" and other similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements, but they are not the only way we identify such statements. Such statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions. We caution you that a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the plans, objectives, expectations, estimates and intentions expressed in this release. The Company is under no obligation and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About Aeromexico: Grupo Aeromexico, S.A.B. de C.V. is a holding company whose subsidiaries are engaged in commercial aviation in Mexico and the promotion of passenger loyalty programs. Aeromexico, Mexico's global airline, has its main operations center in Terminal 2 of the Mexico City International Airport. Its destination network has reach in Mexico, the United States, Canada, Central America, South America, and Europe. The Group's current operating fleet includes Boeing 787 and 737 aircraft, as well as the latest generation Embraer 190. Aeromexico is a founding partner of SkyTeam, an alliance that celebrates 20 years and offers connectivity in more than 170 countries, through the 19 partner airlines. Aeromexico created and implemented a Health and Hygiene Management System (SGSH) to protect its clients and collaborators at all stages of its operation.

www.aeromexico.com www.skyteam.com

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/aeromexico-announces-the-closing-of-the-plm-transaction-301587614.html

SOURCE Grupo Aeromexico S.A.B. de C.V.
Institution of Engineering and Technology scholarships will help students who have faced challenges enter the industry

LONDON, July 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bechtel has donated an additional 50,000 to the Institution of Engineering and Technology for its Launch Scholarship programme in celebration of the company's 70 years in the UK. The Launch Scholarship supports engineering students, degree apprentices, and apprentices who have faced financial challenges or personal obstacles. Bechtel's donation will support at least eleven students every year for the duration of their education. The donation adds to the 680,000 (US$970,000) that Bechtel has gifted to the IET for its Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics educational outreach over the past decade.

"Bechtel has been a valued partner of the IET for almost a decade, including our founding sponsor for the FIRST LEGO League," said Sir Julian Young, IET president. "This year's additional donation will enable us to support even more young people on their academic or apprenticeship path into engineering. We thank Bechtel for its continued support of the next generation as they each pursue their dreams."

"Engineering is a fulfilling career that helps tackle some of the world's biggest challenges, including diversifying our energy supply and achieving net zero. We need people from varied backgrounds to help us find the best solutions," said John Williams, Bechtel's UK and Ireland managing director. "We hope that this support will remove some of the obstacles that talented people can face in earning the qualifications needed to join our industry."

Bechtel has supported the IET since 2013, including as a founding supporter of the FIRST LEGO League competition that enables young people between the ages of 4-16 years old to develop STEM skills through hands-on learning. Some 100,000 children have participated in the UK program with over 15,500 children participating in 2020-21 competition. Bechtel also supports FIRST programs in Australia, Chile, and the United States. Read more about FLL in the UK here.

Bechtel's 70th year in the UK coincides with Her Majesty the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, and earlier this year it celebrated the opening of a new railway named in her honor, the Elizabeth Line, through central London. The company's global infrastructure business is headquartered in the UK, from which it has directly supported projects across the UK, Ireland, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, accelerating progress, creating access and opportunity, building a path to net zero, and protecting people and our planet so that future generations thrive.

Notes to editors

IET scholarships help people like Simone who is a Degree Apprentice studying Electrical and Electronic Engineering and working at Sellafield. Read about Simone here.

About BechtelBechtel is a trusted engineering, construction and project management partner to industry and government. Differentiated by the quality of our people and our relentless drive to deliver the most successful outcomes, we align our capabilities to our customers' objectives to create a lasting positive impact. Since 1898, we have helped customers complete more than 25,000 projects in 160 countries on all seven continents that have created jobs, grown economies, improved the resiliency of the world's infrastructure, increased access to energy, resources, and vital services, and made the world a safer, cleaner place.

Bechtel serves the Energy; Infrastructure; Nuclear, Security & Environmental; and Mining & Metals markets. Our services span from initial planning and investment, through start-up and operations. www.bechtel.com

About the IET

We inspire, inform and influence the global engineering community to engineer a better world.

We are a diverse home for engineering and technology intelligence throughout the world. This breadth and depth means we are uniquely placed to help the sector progress society.

We want to build the profile of engineering and technology to change outdated perceptions and tackle the skills gap. This includes encouraging more women to become engineers and growing the number of engineering apprentices.

Interview opportunities are available with our spokespeople from a range of engineering and technology disciplines including cyber-security, energy, engineering skills, innovation, manufacturing, technology, transport and diversity in engineering.

For more information, visit www.theiet.org

Media contact:Juliet WhitcombeC : + 44 (0) 7917 722304Email: [email protected]

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bechtel-boosts-education-support-to-celebrate-70-years-in-the-uk-301587212.html

SOURCE Bechtel
The project will support the country's access to cleaner, greener, and safer energy

TAICHUNG, Taiwan, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Bechtel, CPC Corporation, and MRY broke ground on the project to design and build LNG tanks for the CPC Taichung Phase III LNG import terminal in Taichung, Taiwan.

To meet increasing demand for natural gas and to enhance the stability of natural gas supplies in Taiwan, CPC is expanding its facility to include two full containment tanks and associated regasification facilities.

Bechtel will execute engineering, procurement, and construction of two 180,000 m3 full containment LNG tanks, Taiwan's largest storage tanks ever built.

CPC is leading the way for Taiwan in meeting the country's clean energy aspirations by rapidly expanding the country's LNG import terminals to support the move from coal to natural gas as their primary transitional source of energy for the near future.

"Today marks another important step toward meeting the increasing demand for natural gas. Together with CPC Corporation and MRY, we are delivering cleaner, greener, and safer energy to Taiwan, supporting both their energy growth and security" said Paul Marsden, president of Bechtel Energy. "To power the needs of the world, we need LNG and storage capability which is what we are doing here on this site today, by celebrating the start of construction on the largest storage tanks ever to be built in Taiwan". Hear more from Marsden in this video.

American Institute in Taiwan Director Sandra Oudkirk expressed her support for Bechtel's partnership with CPC on the new LNG storage facility in Taichung. Oudkirk underscored the importance of the U.S.-Taiwan economic relationship and a commitment to reliable and clean energy that supports economic development and protects the environment.

As the need for LNG continues to grow, Bechtel stands ready to support governments and communities around the world in pursuit of carbon reduction.

About Bechtel

Bechtel is a trusted engineering, construction and project management partner to industry and government. Differentiated by the quality of our people and our relentless drive to deliver the most successful outcomes, we align our capabilities to our customers' objectives to create a lasting positive impact. Since 1898, we have helped customers complete more than 25,000 projects in 160 countries on all seven continents that have created jobs, grown economies, improved the resiliency of the world's infrastructure, increased access to energy, resources, and vital services, and made the world a safer, cleaner place.

Bechtel serves the Energy; Infrastructure; Manufacturing & Technology; Mining & Metals; and Nuclear, Security & Environmental markets. Our services span from initial planning and investment, through start-up and operations. www.bechtel.com

Media contact:Nicole Connolly C: 412-251-8313[email protected]

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bechtel-starts-construction-on-taiwans-largest-lng-storage-tanks-301587594.html

SOURCE Bechtel
Watches by CIGA Design have received 17 international design awards

NEW YORK, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Award-winning CIGA Design, which specializes in mechanical watches, has launched an Indiegogo campaign in support of its new series of watches with transformative mechanism technology inspired by magicians who dazzle audiences with amazing tricks.

CIGA Design's mechanical M Series Magician watches have breakthrough construction created to include one inner movement and multiple external cases, leading to three styles in one watch. The flexible mechanical replacement mechanism allows the case to be switched by pressing just two buttons and this magical mix-and-match design provides wearers with options for various geometric presences on the wrist. The modern mechanical art aesthetics are combined with a precise movement inside.

This design breakthrough changes the single fixed case design used throughout the history of watchmaking and allows wearers to unlock a new, magic-like timepiece.

The freedom to have the watch morph and transform into new shapes encourages a new generation of users to explore new identities. It is a cutting-edge timepiece for people who value innovations and prefer being off the beaten path.

Owners can open up a world of imagination on their wrists.

To support the Indiegogo campaign for the M Series Magician watches, visit https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/--288138/coming_soon/x/29488961.

CIGA Design's 'Blue Planet' series of watches was the Challenge Watch Prize Winner of the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Geneve (GPHG) in 2021 and was the first Chinese watch brand to be awarded the top award in the global watch sector.

With outstanding original designs, the brand has received 17 international design awards, setting a record for the most for a Chinese wristwatch. It has been the recipient of nine awards out of 13 from the Red Dot Design Awards in the national sector. It is also the sole winner of both the Red Dot Grand Prix and the iF Design Gold Award in the domestic industry. In 2019, CIGA Design was shortlisted for GPHG, which is hailed as the Oscar of watches  an unprecedented honor for Chinese brands. In 2021, the brand was again shortlisted as one of the top three brands in the watch/jewelry category in Germany iF 20172021, with Apple and BVLGARI, for its innovative design.

On June 29, 2022, the Blue Planet Collection Ceremony was officially held at the Museum of Art and History (Musee d'Art et d'Histoire, MAH) in Geneva, Switzerland. It is understood that this is the first Chinese watch brand to be displayed by the museum. This donation ceremony was hosted by CIGA Design and the MAH.

The MAH is one of the largest and most important museums in Switzerland, with over 7,000 works of art from the prehistoric to the contemporary period, from locations in Europe, Africa, and Asia. The unique interdisciplinary nature of the collection and exhibition gives it a strong reputation in Switzerland.

To learn more about CIGA Design, visit cigadesign.com.

Contact: Watson Lens, [email protected]

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ciga-design-launches-magician-inspired-watch-series-on-indiegogo-301587324.html

SOURCE CIGA Design
#NATIONALDAYOFMASKING

NEW YORK, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- French luxury skincarebrand Clarins has joined forces with beauty expert Kathleen Jennings to officially declare July 16th, National Day of Masking. Commencing each year on July 16th, the holiday will serve as a source of inspiration that celebrates and encourages the act of normalizing self-care by wearing your skincare mask of choicemark the holiday by sharing your favorite skincare mask and tagging #NationalDayofMasking.

As a former attorney and a mother of three, Texas-based beauty guru Kathleen Jennings has asserted her expertise and know-how within the vast world of beauty and all-things skincare. Having cultivated a loyal online presence and social following, the skincare enthusiast and face mask aficionado has amassed an engaged beauty community. Daily she provides in-depth product reviews, tutorials, and promotions by offering an honest, unfiltered approach to beauty and skincare. Jennings has a unique daily dialogue with her engaged social community, reposting followers who tag HER while wearing beauty products they purchase based on her reviews. To drive home the mission of normalizing self-care and wearing your favorite skincare mask during everyday activities, Jennings, in partnership with Clarins, is proud to announce National Day of Masking.

Jennings' "Holy Grail" beauty product is the Clarins V-Facial Intensive Wrap (better known as the Clarins Depuffing Mask to her online community), praising it's incredible facial depuffing effect. "Whenever I find a product like the Clarins Depuffing Mask, and it actually delivers on its claims, it's like hallelujah! I want to make it a point to share it with the rest of the beauty and skincare world," says Jennings. This award-winning mask is instantly recognizable on social media due to the cream-mousse mask's beard-like appearance which targets key depuffing zones below the eyes and above the neck to combat skin issues brought on by stress, heat, and hormonal changes. This innovative plant-based formula includes Beautyberry & Ginger extracts as well as Horse Chestnut Escin, relieves puffiness and visibly refine facial features, and Lady's Mantle and Alchemilla extracts promote a radiant, even skin tone.

The social media facial de-puffing movementspearheaded by Jenningshas transformed the Clarins V-Facial Intensive Wrap into a top seller for the brand, and is its #1 seller at Sephora. To celebrate and fulfill Jennings's 2021 birthday wish, Clarins is marking her birthday as #NationalDayofMasking. To engage both the brand and Jennings's social communities, Clarins will be hosting product giveaways on social media and encouraging all to post wearing a skincare mask on July 16th, tagging #NationalDayofMasking. This July 16th, Clarins will offer a 20% discount on all Clarins skincare masks clarinsusa.com and Sephora.com will offer 20% off V-Facial Intensive.

About Kathleen Jennings

Kathleen Jennings (@kathleenjenningsbeauty) is a former attorney, mother of three, and self-proclaimed skincare fanatic. Kathleen founded the BeautyNow app for booking beauty appointments, assets of which were acquired by Groupon, Inc. in 2016. Today her site KathleenJenningsBeauty.com and social media handles @kathleenjenningsbeauty (Instagram, TikTok) chronicle her devotion to skincare masking (particularly #carpoolmasking) and honest reviews about beauty products and services.

About Clarins

Founded in a professional Parisian beauty institute by Jacques Courtin-Clarins in 1954, Clarins has become the #1 prestige skincare brand in Europe. More than 65 years later, the brand remains family-owned and is distributed in more than 140 countriesoffering skincare innovations for face and body, men's, and makeup. With unique expertise in phytochemistry, Clarins Laboratories are considered pioneers in the fields of plant science and technology. The brand values are rooted in an ongoing dialogue with women, abiding respect for nature and people, and commitments to sustainable sourcing, including Le Domaine Clarinsour organic farm and open-air laboratory in the French Alps. Clarins is accelerating its sustainable actions to become a Certified B Corporation by 2023. Currently carbon neutral, the company will further reduce its carbon footprint by 30% and become 100% plastic neutral by using 100% recyclable packaging by 2025. Partners include Pur Projet (more than 525,000 trees planted to date), Plastic Odyssey (a three-year expedition across three continents with 30 stopovers to fight against plastic pollution), and FEED (more than 38 million school meals provided to children in need by the end of 2022).

Lucas Petry, Clarins Communications Manager, [email protected]Melissa Reidhead, Clarins Senior Director, Communications, [email protected]Remi Barbier, RBPR, [email protected]www.clarinsusa.com

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/clarins-launches-national-day-of-masking-301587493.html

SOURCE Clarins USA
CHICAGO, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Katten announced today that New York Times bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize finalist Dr. Eric Cervini joined firm attorneys and business professionals in a virtual fireside conversation about the history of LGBTQ+ politics in the United States and the continued battle for LGBTQ+ rights.

"What history provides us is a guidebook, not just of what worked, for example activists organizing in California, recruiting unlikely allies like Ronald Reagan to come out against the bill [to ban gay teachers and administrators from working in the state's public schools], and so many ways that we were able to be successful, but also how we failed," said Cervini, a historian of LGBTQ+ politics who graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College and was a Gates Scholar at the University of Cambridge, where he received his PhD.

The event, held June 30, was moderated by Katten Financial Markets Litigation and Enforcement partner J Matthew W. Haws, a member of the Lesbian and Gay Bar Association of Chicago and the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association.

With more than 300 anti-LGBTQ+ bills proposed this year across the country, Cervini acknowledged that it is a "dark time." He added, "But as I remind people, we have been through much worse. We have survived the inquisition, the Lavender Scare, the AIDS crisis, and Anita Bryant [who successfully pushed for the repeal of a gay rights ordinance in Florida in the 1970s]. We can certainly get through this. But we need to be studying up, how we were successful and how we failed in the past and then also be recruiting new allies, just as Frank Kameny recruited the ACLU, we need to be recruiting new allies today."

Kameny, an astronomer who lost his federal job because of his sexual orientation, is a central character in the nonfiction book Cervini wrote titled The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America, which is being adapted into an Amazon limited series.

"Discussing the past and current challenges faced by LGBTQ+ persons is important to remind us all of the progress made, as well as the discrimination, hardships and threats to personal liberty that are ongoing for the LGBTQ+ community," said Brandon D. Hadley, co-chair of Katten's LGBTQ+ Coalition. "Now is the time to support one another, use your voice and be an ally to the LGBTQ+ community and every other person facing similar social, political and legal challenges, through continued learning, understanding, empathy and discussion."

As an authority on 1960s gay activism, Cervini serves on the advisory board of the Mattachine Society of Washington, DC, a nonprofit dedicated to the preservation of LGBTQ+ history. He also is the creator and executive producer of the history docuseries The Book of Queer, which premiered in June on the Discovery+ streaming service.

"The reason why I made this show was to prove that actually, if there's anything that queer history teaches us, it's not just how to fight back but also to find joy and love and community despite so much of that darkness," he said.

Throughout the year, Katten supports the LGBTQ+ community in a number of ways, such as through the pro bono work of attorneys representing LGBTQ+ individuals as well as charitable contributions to the National LGBTQ+ Bar Foundation and LeGaL Foundation, which provides legal services to the LGBTQ+ community. The firm recently adopted a firm-wide "opt-in" gender pronoun policy to include gender pronouns in signature blocks as one way to promote LGBTQ+ inclusion and maintain an environment built on acceptance of individualization.

In June, Katten offered "pop-in" sessions to learn more about topics at the forefront for the LGBTQ+ community, including gender pronouns, trans identity and allyship. The firm also sponsors the annual Lavender Law Conference & Career Fair, the largest LGBTQ+ legal conference in the country, and hosts a biennial LGBTQ+ retreat for its attorneys participating at the conference.

Katten is honored to have earned the designation as one of the Best Places to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality by receiving a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's 2022 Corporate Equality Index, the nation's foremost benchmarking survey and annual report measuring corporate policies and practices addressing LGBTQ+ workplace equality.

Katten is a full-service law firm with approximately 700 attorneys in locations across the United States and in London and Shanghai. Clients seeking sophisticated, high-value legal services turn to Katten for counsel locally, nationally and internationally. The firm's core areas of practice include corporate, financial markets and funds, insolvency and restructuring, intellectual property, litigation, real estate, structured finance and securitization, transactional tax planning, private credit and private wealth. Katten represents public and private companies in numerous industries, as well as a number of government and nonprofit organizations and individuals. For more information, visit katten.com.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/katten-celebrated-pride-month-with-featured-speaker-dr-eric-cervini-301587638.html

SOURCE Katten
HOUSTON, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Meriplex, a nationwide leader in managed cybersecurity and IT solutions, is pleased to announce the asset acquisition of Louisiana-based managed service provider, Verma Systems.

For over 31 years, Verma Systems has been a leading and trusted IT and consulting partner for businesses in Baton Rouge and across Louisiana. They provide personalized solutions to their clients allowing them to leverage IT and technology to enhance business efficiency.

"Verma Systems is an excellent addition to the Meriplex organization," said David Henley, CEO of Meriplex. "With their talented team and longstanding reputation in the Louisiana market, we will be able to provide more innovative technology and service offerings to their clients and work towards our goal of being the number one MSP/MSSP in the nation."

"For me, it has always been about the customer and our employees," said Mitch Verma, President of Verma Systems. "Joining forces with Meriplex means we have more resources at our fingertips including additional IT experts, new product lines, and the capability to offer more well-rounded technical solutions. I know the people behind Meriplex, and we share the same core values and work ethic. With their expertise, size and seasoned approach, I am confident we can provide more for our clients and our employees."

As a fast-growing managed services provider, Meriplex focuses on strategically acquiring businesses in leading markets in order to establish a regional presence and acquire talent to support their increasing large organic and inorganic growth. If you are interested in learning more about our M&A process, please reach out to us here.

About Meriplex:

Meriplex is a managed cybersecurity, IT, and SD-WAN solutions provider that enables transformation by combining secure, innovative technology with advanced expertise. As a trusted partner, we deliver business-driven solutions that provide the scalability and support needed to power growth for organizations. To learn more, visit www.meriplex.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

About Verma Systems:

Established in 1991, Verma Systems is a Baton Rouge IT services company specializing in business technology tailored towards the SMB market. With our highly talented and experienced team, we know how to meet business needs by incorporating the right technology solutions to help your company be successful. Our mission is focused on hard work, smart work, and superior customer service. To learn more, visit www.vermasystems.com

Media Contact:Macy Kirk[email protected]

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/meriplex-acquires-louisiana-based-msp-verma-systems-301587595.html

SOURCE Meriplex Communications
11th Circuit opinion finds chemical giant subject to state's warning label laws

Nachawati Law Group trial lawyers gearing up for next Roundup cancer trial in August

ATLANTA, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Thousands of people who developed cancer following exposure to Monsanto's Roundup herbicide secured an important victory Tuesday when a federal appellate court halted Monsanto's latest attempt to secure dismissal of valid state court lawsuits and removal of the claims to federal court.

The ruling provides clarity for other pending lawsuits against Bayer (OTCMKTS: BAYZF, BAYRY) and its Monsanto subsidiary. It also means a Georgia man diagnosed with a type of cancer called fibrous histiocytoma after using Roundup on his lawn for 30 years can have a Georgia jury evaluate Monsanto's history of failing to warn users about the dangers of their glyphosate-based herbicide.

Senior U.S. Circuit Court Judge Gerald Bard Tjoflat authored the opinion rejecting Monsanto's argument that such failure-to-warn lawsuits could only be filed in federal courts. According to the ruling, initial safety determinations made by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which resulted in approval of Monsanto's proposed label and registration of Roundup for sale, do not carry the force of law necessary for such federal preemption, particularly where pesticide manufacturers have a perpetual duty to adhere to federal labeling requirements and to report any new adverse effects to the EPA.

The opinion notes that Congress created wide latitude for state regulation in the context of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), allowing a state to regulate the use of any federally registered pesticide or device so long as the regulation does not permit any sale or use prohibited by FIFRA. Additionally, a state agency may ban the sale of a pesticide if it later finds that one of the product's label-approved uses is unsafe.

"The 11th Circuit saw right through Monsanto's attempts to avoid accountability for its dangerous product and its long history of refusing to place a simple warning label on Roundup," said trial lawyer Majed Nachawati, whose Dallas-based firm represents more than 5,000 cancer victims in litigation against Monsanto.

The case is Carson v. Monsanto Company, No. 21-10994, in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

Mr. Nachawati has been an outspoken voice against Monsanto's attempts to circumvent the settlements of thousands of related lawsuits consolidated in multidistrict litigation. Three federal bellwether trials have produced multimillion-dollar verdicts after finding that exposure to the herbicide in Roundup caused cancer. The verdicts have withstood appeal, including a $25 million verdict that Bayer took all the way to the United States Supreme Court.

The Nachawati Law Group represents individuals in mass tort litigation, businesses and governmental entities in contingent litigation, and individual victims in complex personal injury litigation. One of the largest and most diverse products liability law firms in the nation, the Nachawati Law Group ranks No. 1 nationally in federal court products liability filings over the past three years, according to Lex Machina. For more information, visit https://www.fnlawfirm.com.

Media Contact: Robert Tharp 800-559-4534 [email protected]

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/monsanto-must-face-georgia-state-jurors-in-lawsuit-over-cancer-causing-roundup-herbicide-301587550.html

SOURCE Nachawati Law Group
NEW YORK, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Planet Green Holdings Corp. (the "Company") (NYSE American: PLAG) announced today that on July 15, 2022, the Company has entered into a Share Exchange Agreement with Xianning Xiangtian Energy Holdings Group Co., Ltd. ("Target") and the shareholder of the Target (the "Seller"). Pursuant to the Share Exchange Agreement, the Company will acquire 30% of outstanding equity interests of the Target. The Target is a company that holds LNG production facilities through its subsidiary, and owns other assets.

Pursuant to the Share Exchange Agreement, the company will issue 12,000,000 shares of common stock of the Company to the Sellers in exchange for the transfer of 30% of the equity interest of the Target. The transaction is subject to closing conditions that are customary for transactions of this type.

Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "believe", "expect", "estimate", "plan", "outlook", and "project" and other similar expressions that indicate future events or trends or are not statements of historical matters. These statements are based on our management's current expectations and beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions concerning future events.

Such forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other important factors, many of which are outside of our control and all of which could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any subsequent date, and we do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in forward-looking statements can be found in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available, free of charge, on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov.

For more information please contact: Ms. Lili Hu Chief Financial Officer Phone: 718 799 0380 Email: [email protected]

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/planet-green-holdings-corp-enters-into-share-exchange-agreement-301587639.html

SOURCE Planet Green Holdings Corp.
Ransomware Protection Comprehensive Data-Centric Protection Look through this data sheet for an overview of NetApp's data protection services, and discover the cyber resilience solution that is right for your organization.

Worried About Ransomware Attacks? Eliminate More Threats with ONTAP Innovations Check out this blog post for a look at the 3 newest ONTAP features dedicated towards combatting ransomware attacks, and learn how your organization can take critical steps towards improved cyber resilience.

NetApp Video 1 Watch this video to learn how NetApp can help your organization stay one step ahead of ransomware attackers by identifying the detection and recovery tools right for your organization.

NetApp Video 2 Take a quick look at the anatomy of a ransomware attack in this video, and discover how NetApp Cloud Insights can help you detect the common warning signs.

How to Build Cyber Resilience Across Your Hybrid Cloud Take a look at this infographic to find out where your organization may be suffering from ransomware vulnerabilities, and learn about the data protection solutions NetApp provides.

Ransomware: Prevention is Better Than Cure Dive into this blog post for a checklist of the critical steps in a solid ransomware recovery strategy, and learn how NetApp can assist you in achieving the protection level you need.

Combatting Ransomware with Primary Storage Read through this white paper to learn how positioning the production storage environment as a core component of your ransomware resiliency strategy can help IT operations better prevent and recover from ransomware attacks.

Cyber Resilience: The Need for High Availability Take a look at this blog post to learn how NetApp helps customers prepare for modern cyberattacks, and examine a portfolio of security solutions designed to address the pressing challenges of data protection.

Is Your IT Environment Impacting Your Business? Learn about a new fully Data Fabric-ready converged infrastructure designed to deliver high-performance, agile, and flexible storage across on premise, public, or hybrid cloud environments.

Assure Long-Lasting Quality IT Performance For Your Business Meet your company's IT demands with a multi-functional solution guaranteed to deliver efficient results.

How IT is Getting the Flexibility and Ease It's Looking For IT has been introduced to a valuable product. Learn about this modern solution and why it's gaining so much attention.

Giving Your Business the Infrastructure It Deserves Learn about the latest technology improvement and why it's a reliable, innovative solution for your business.

Today's IT Trends Take a look at today's IT trends, the challenges they bring and the latest product that offers the right solutions.

A Leap Forward In Digital Education Learn how Western Oregon University supports 10 times the number of concurrent users in 95% less processing time.

Reduce Backup Time From Days to Hours Find out how the Zoological Society of London boosted storage capacity and replaced an outdated archiving system.

Transforming Education with Technology See how one of the largest US public education systems uses technology to help students realize their full potential.

Denver Broncos Optimize Fan Engagement With Technology Discover how the Denver Broncos accommodate escalating performance and capacity demands to enhance the fan experience.

More Efficient Healthcare With Flash-Enabled EMR Learn how St. Luke's Hospital enabled EMR systems to respond 30% faster and reduced help desk calls with IT staff.

4 Ways to Improve IT Operations With All-Flash Storage Learn how to deploy 10x more virtual desktops and reduce latencies to less than one millisecond with all-flash storage.

Flash makes Apache's Data Sets Easy to Manage Apache's modeling applications generate massive amounts of data sets. Find out why they turn to NetApp for solutions.

Accelerate Database Applications Discover how to maximize revenue generating transactions while reducing response times and total cost of ownership.

System Set-Up and Provisioning of AFF systems with ONTAP 9 This technical how-to video demo illustrates the simplicity of deploying storage for your applications with ONTAP 9.

Deutscher Wetterdienst's Flash Accelerated Weather Forecasts See how DWD reduced weather forecast application response time from 15 seconds to 1 with NetApp All Flash FAS.

UZ Leuven Supports Mission-Critical SAP Data with Flash Learn why UZ Leuven relies on Flash technology to support their mission-critical SAP data.
WASHINGTON, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The NASA International Space Apps Challenge  the world's largest annual hackathon  returns this year with the theme "Make Space," which emphasizes NASA's commitment to inclusivity. This year's challenge will focus on Earth and space science, technology, and exploration. Participant registration for in-person and virtual events is now open through Oct. 2.

Space Apps provides a platform where everyone across the globe with a passion for creativity and innovation can use their unique perspectives to tackle challenges created by NASA experts. The challenges range in skill level, expertise, subject matter, and objective, and span a spectrum of disciplines and interests that range from artificial intelligence and software development to art and storytelling.

"Each year, Space Apps allows thousands to engage with NASA and its partners' open data during the hackathon," said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for the agency's Science Mission Directorate. "It has been rewarding to see the innovative projects created by Space Apps Challenge participants and observe their potential to generate meaningful contributions toward solving some of the most difficult challenges studied by NASA on Earth and in space."

Space Apps provides a positive and safe environment that fosters collaboration and a growth mindset. Whether participants are exploring a challenge, learning to be creative, defining team roles, learning a technical skill, or learning to cope with hiccups that arise during challenge weekend, the innovative and flexible structure of this event allows participants to walk away enriched, motivated, and excited about learning.

"Talent is everywhere, but scarcity of opportunity leaves so much talent unused and potential untapped," said Karen St. Germain, director of NASA's Earth Science Division. "There are so many positive stories resulting from this challenge that underscore the value of 'making space' for everyone."

Since its inception in 2012, Space Apps has created and steadily grown a global community held together by the common interest of solving problems and creating impact. The success stories directly resulting from these challenges range from the creation of new products and business ventures, innovative upgrades to existing products, and has helped connect people socially and professionally, giving them access to expertise and insight they otherwise would not have. By connecting teams to challenges and experts from space agencies across the world, participants have access to new opportunities and knowledge that can impact them for a lifetime.

This year NASA is excited to announce the addition of the Indian Space Research Organization and Mexican Space Agency to the roster of space agency partners supporting Space Apps. Valued partners returning from last year include Australian Space Agency, Brazilian Space Agency, Canadian Space Agency, ESA (European Space Agency), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, National Space Activities Commission of Argentina, National Space Science Agency of Bahrain, Paraguayan Space Agency, and the South African National Space Agency. Space agency partnership encourages more extensive global collaboration and provides a broader platform for participants to contribute to the fields of Earth and space science and technology through Space Apps.

Space Apps is managed by NASA's Earth Science Division in the agency's Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. It is organized in collaboration with Booz Allen Hamilton, Mindgrub, SecondMuse, and the NASA Open Innovation Applied Sciences Program. Learn more about Space Apps and how to get involved on their website.

For more information about Space Apps and to register for an in-person or online event on Oct. 1-2, 2022, visit:

https://www.spaceappschallenge.org/

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/registration-now-open-for-nasa-2022-international-space-apps-challenge-301587526.html

SOURCE NASA
STOCKHOLM, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sandvik has appointed Richard Harris as President of business area Sandvik Rock Processing Solutions (SRP) and new member of the Sandvik Group Executive Management, effective October 1, 2022. He succeeds Anders Svensson, who as previously announced is leaving Sandvik to become President and CEO of Konecranes. Richard Harris is currently President of Walter, a division within business area Sandvik Manufacturing and Machining Solutions.

"Richard Harris is an experienced international leader with a very strong operational background who has proven great performance management and execution skills during his years at Sandvik. In addition, he has successfully driven an active growth and acquisition agenda. I am convinced that he will be a very good fit as business area President for SRP and a great addition to the Group Executive Management," says Stefan Widing, President and CEO of Sandvik.

Richard Harris was born in 1970 and is a British national. He has been with the Sandvik Group since 2002 in various senior positions within Sandvik Machining Solutions (SMS). Before becoming President of Walter in 2019, he was President of the Wolfram division. Previous positions also include several different Supply and Production Director roles within SMS.

Anders Svensson will leave Sandvik on October 14, in connection to completing the report for the third quarter.

For further information, contact Louise Tjeder, VP Investor relations, phone: +46 (0) 70782 6374 or Johannes Hellstrom, Press and Media Relations Manager, phone: +46 (0) 70721 1008.

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/sandvik/r/sandvik-appoints-new-president-of-business-area-sandvik-rock-processing-solutions,c3601698

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/208/3601698/1604827.pdf Sandvik appoints new President of business area Sandvik Rock Processing Solutions https://news.cision.com/sandvik/i/richard-harris,c3071086 Richard Harris

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sandvik-appoints-new-president-of-business-area-sandvik-rock-processing-solutions-301587327.html

SOURCE Sandvik
ielsen Norman Group announces the winners of its 21st annual intranet design contest and shares design trends from the leading intranets.

FREMONT, Calif., July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Marking the 22nd anniversary of its annual intranet design contest, user experience research firm Nielsen Norman Group today announced the 2022 world's 10 best intranets. The 540-page report Intranet Design Annual 2022: The Year's 10 Best Intranets shares design trends, 184 images, and detailed case studies of the 10 winners:

Banner Health (US)

BNY Mellon (US)

DBS Bank (Singapore)

The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. (US)

International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) (US)

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) (US)

Princeton University (US)

Publicis Sapient (US)

Sorigue (Spain)

Webuild S.p.A. (Italy)

"Intranets unify corporate offices, teams, and individuals," said UX pioneer and expert Jakob Nielsen, principal, Nielsen Norman Group.

Some common themes among this year's designs are:

Accessibility and Inclusive Design: focus on the needs of people with disabilities; plus background, race, gender, sexual identity, mental health, and wealth of employees

focus on the needs of people with disabilities; plus background, race, gender, sexual identity, mental health, and wealth of employees Sustainability: campaigns related various environmental concerns

campaigns related various environmental concerns Measuring Success at All Project Phases: quantitative and qualitative methods to track and measure ROI

quantitative and qualitative methods to track and measure ROI Continued Rapid Development: teams took between six and 45 months to create their intranets, average time at 22.7 months

teams took between six and 45 months to create their intranets, average time at 22.7 months Eight Industries Represented: consumer packaged goods, education, engineering and construction, finance, insurance, nonprofit, professional services, and technology

consumer packaged goods, education, engineering and construction, finance, insurance, nonprofit, professional services, and technology Still a Strong Microsoft Presence: half of the winners primarily used Microsoft applications (SharePoint and Office 356)

Nielsen Norman Group's Intranet Design Annual 2022: The Year's 10 Best Intranets, co-authored by Maria Rosala, Anna Kaley, Patty Caya, and Kara Pernice is available to download for $268 (group license $528) from Nielsen Norman Group's website: http://www.nngroup.com/reports/intranet-design-annual/

About Nielsen Norman Group

Nielsen Norman Group (http://www.nngroup.com) in an evidence-based user experience, training and consulting firm that advises companies on how to improve the bottom line through human-centered design of products and services. NN/g founders Jakob Nielsen, Don Norman, and Bruce "Tog" Tognazzini are world-renowned user experience experts who were advocating for human-centered design and user experience long before it became popular to do so. Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Silicon Valley, NN/g evaluates interfaces of all kinds and guides the critical design decisions that make websites, applications, intranets, and other enterprise apps and products achieve their full potential for businesses and their users.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-worlds-10-best-intranets-promote-inclusivity-accessibility-and-unity-in-2022-301587554.html

SOURCE Nielsen Norman Group
UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 6-K

Report of Foreign Private Issuer

Pursuant to Rule 13a-16 or 15d-16 of the

Securities Exchange Act of 1934

For the month of July, 2022

Commission File Number 1-15106

PETROLEO BRASILEIRO S.A.  PETROBRAS

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Brazilian Petroleum Corporation  PETROBRAS

(Translation of Registrant's name into English)

Avenida Henrique Valadares, 28  19th floor

20231-030  Rio de Janeiro, RJ

Federative Republic of Brazil

(Address of principal executive office)

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant files or will file annual reports under cover Form 20-F or Form 40-F.

Form 20-F ___X___ Form 40-F _______

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant by furnishing the information contained in this Form is also thereby furnishing the information to the Commission pursuant to Rule 12g3-2(b) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

Yes _______ No___X____

Petrobras on the sale of refining and logistics assets



Rio de Janeiro, July 15, 2022  Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.  Petrobras, following up on the release disclosed on 06/27/2022, informs that it has extended the deadlines for participation in the sale processes of Refinaria Abreu e Lima (RNEST), in Pernambuco, Refinaria Presidente Getulio Vargas (REPAR), in Parana, and Refinaria Alberto Pasqualini (REFAP), in Rio Grande do Sul, as well as the logistics assets integrated to these refineries.

Potential buyers will have by July 29, 2022 to express interest in participating in the sales processes, and must sign the Confidentiality Agreement and Compliance Statement by August 12, 2022.

The teasers, which contain key information about the assets and the eligibility criteria for the selection of potential participants, with the new dates are available on Petrobras' website: https://www.investidorpetrobras.com.br/en/results-and-notices/teasers .

The main subsequent steps of the sale processes of these three refineries will be informed to the market in due course.

This material is being provided pursuant to Brazilian regulatory requirements, does not constitute an offering, under the U.S. securities laws, and is not a solicitation, invitation or offer to buy or sell any securities. The information on our website is not and shall not be deemed part of this report on Form 6-K.

www.petrobras.com.br/ri

For more information:

PETROLEO BRASILEIRO S.A.  PETROBRAS | Investor Relations

e-mail: [email protected]/[email protected]

Av. Henrique Valadares, 28  19th floor  20031-030  Rio de Janeiro, RJ.

Tel.: 55 (21) 3224-1510/9947 | 0800-282-1540

This document may contain forecasts within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (Securities Act), and Section 21E of the Securities Trading Act of 1934, as amended (Trading Act) that reflect the expectations of the Company's officers. The terms: "anticipates", "believes", "expects", "predicts", "intends", "plans", "projects", "aims", "should," and similar terms, aim to identify such forecasts, which evidently involve risks or uncertainties, predicted or not by the Company. Therefore, future results of the Company's operations may differ from current expectations, and the reader should not rely solely on the information included herein.

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.

Date: July 15, 2022

PETROLEO BRASILEIRO S.APETROBRAS



By: /s/ Rodrigo Araujo Alves

______________________________

Rodrigo Araujo Alves

Chief Financial Officer and Investor Relations Officer
TABLE OF CONTENTS As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 15, 2022  Registration No. 333-    UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20549 FORM S-3 REGISTRATION STATEMENT

UNDER

THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933 DAKOTA GOLD CORP. (Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)  Nevada   85-3475290   (State or other jurisdiction of

incorporation or organization)   (I.R.S. Employer

Identification Number)  106 Glendale Drive, Suite A

Lead, SD 57754

Telephone: (605) 717-2540 (Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of registrants principal executive offices) Jeff N. Faillers, P.C. 241 Ridge Street Ste 210

Reno, NV 89501

Telephone: (775) 786-9494 (Name, address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of agent for service) Copies of all communications, including communications sent to agent for service, should be sent to: Michael J. Hong

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

One Manhattan West

New York, NY 10001-8602

(212) 735-3000  Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to the public: From time to time after this Registration Statement becomes effective. If the only securities being registered on this Form are being offered pursuant to dividend or interest reinvestment plans, please check the following box:  If any of the securities being registered on this Form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933, other than securities offered only in connection with dividend or interest reinvestment plans, check the following box:  If this Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, please check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.  If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.  If this Form is a registration statement filed pursuant to General Instruction I.D. or a post-effective amendment thereto that shall become effective upon filing with the Commission pursuant to Rule 462(e) under the Securities Act, check the following box.  If this Form is a post-effective amendment to a registration statement filed pursuant to General Instruction I.D. filed to register additional securities or additional classes of securities pursuant to Rule 413(b) under the Securities Act, check the following box.  Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of large accelerated filer, accelerated filer, smaller reporting company and emerging growth company in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.  Large accelerated filer      Accelerated filer      Non-accelerated filer      Smaller reporting company            Emerging Growth company     If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act.  THE REGISTRANT HEREBY AMENDS THIS REGISTRATION STATEMENT ON SUCH DATE OR DATES AS MAY BE NECESSARY TO DELAY ITS EFFECTIVE DATE UNTIL THE REGISTRANT SHALL FILE A FURTHER AMENDMENT WHICH SPECIFICALLY STATES THAT THIS REGISTRATION STATEMENT SHALL THEREAFTER BECOME EFFECTIVE IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION 8(a) OF THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933, AS AMENDED, OR UNTIL THE REGISTRATION STATEMENT SHALL BECOME EFFECTIVE ON SUCH DATE AS THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION, ACTING PURSUANT TO SAID SECTION 8(a), MAY DETERMINE.  

TABLE OF CONTENTS The information in this prospectus is not complete and may be changed. We may not sell these securities until the registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, of which this prospectus is a part, is effective. This prospectus is not an offer to sell these securities and it is not soliciting an offer to buy these securities in any state where the offer or sale is not permitted.

SUBJECT TO COMPLETION, DATED JULY 15, 2022 PROSPECTUS Dakota Gold Corp. $250,000,000 Common Stock Warrants Units We may offer and sell from time to time, in one or more series or issuances and on terms that we will determine at the time of the offering, any combination of the securities described in this prospectus, up to an aggregate amount of $250,000,000. We will provide specific terms of any offering in a supplement to this prospectus. Any prospectus supplement may also add, update, or change information contained in this prospectus. You should carefully read this prospectus and the applicable prospectus supplement as well as the documents incorporated or deemed to be incorporated by reference in this prospectus before you purchase any of the securities offered hereby. These securities may be offered and sold in the same offering or in separate offerings; to or through underwriters, dealers, and agents; or directly to purchasers. The names of any underwriters, dealers, or agents involved in the sale of our securities, their compensation and any over-allotment options held by them will be described in the applicable prospectus supplement. See Plan of Distribution. Our common stock is listed on the NYSE American stock exchange (the NYSE American) under the symbol DC. On July 14, 2022, the last reported sale price of our common stock as reported on the NYSE American was $3.37 per share. We recommend that you obtain current market quotations for our common stock prior to making an investment decision. We will provide information in any applicable prospectus supplement regarding any listing of securities other than shares of our common stock on any securities exchange. You should carefully read this prospectus, any prospectus supplement relating to any specific offering of securities, and all information incorporated by reference herein and therein. Investing in our securities involves a high degree of risk. These risks are discussed in this prospectus under Risk Factors beginning on page 2 and in the documents incorporated by reference into this prospectus. Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or passed upon the adequacy or accuracy of this prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense. The date of this prospectus is , 2022.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABOUT THIS PROSPECTUS This prospectus is part of a registration statement on Form S-3 that we filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission using a shelf registration process. Under this shelf process, we may, from time to time, sell any combination of the securities described in this prospectus in one or more offerings up to a total amount of $250,000,000. This prospectus provides you with a general description of the securities we may offer. Each time we sell securities, we will provide a prospectus supplement that will contain specific information about the terms of that offering. We may also add, update or change in a prospectus supplement any information contained in this prospectus. To the extent any statement made in a prospectus supplement or a document incorporated by reference herein after the date hereof is inconsistent with the statements made in this prospectus, the statements made in this prospectus will be deemed modified or superseded by those made in the prospectus supplement or the incorporated document. The prospectus supplement to be attached to the front of this prospectus may describe, as applicable: the terms of the securities offered; the public offering price; the price paid for the securities; net proceeds; and the other specific terms related to the offering of the securities. You should only rely on the information contained or incorporated by reference in this prospectus and any prospectus supplement or issuer free writing prospectus relating to a particular offering. No person has been authorized to give any information or make any representations in connection with this offering other than those contained or incorporated by reference in this prospectus, any accompanying prospectus supplement and any related issuer free writing prospectus in connection with the offering described herein and therein, and, if given or made, such information or representations must not be relied upon as having been authorized by us. Neither this prospectus nor any prospectus supplement nor any related issuer free writing prospectus shall constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy offered securities in any jurisdiction in which it is unlawful for such person to make such an offering or solicitation. This prospectus does not contain all of the information included in the registration statement. For a more complete understanding of the offering of the securities, you should refer to the registration statement, including its exhibits. You should read the entire prospectus and any prospectus supplement and any related issuer free writing prospectus, as well as the documents incorporated by reference into this prospectus or any prospectus supplement or any related issuer free writing prospectus, before making an investment decision. Neither the delivery of this prospectus or any prospectus supplement or any issuer free writing prospectus nor any sale made hereunder shall under any circumstances imply that the information contained or incorporated by reference herein or in any prospectus supplement or issuer free writing prospectus is correct as of any date subsequent to the date hereof or of such prospectus supplement or issuer free writing prospectus, as applicable. You should assume that the information appearing in this prospectus, any prospectus supplement or any document incorporated by reference is accurate only as of the date of the applicable documents, regardless of the time of delivery of this prospectus or any sale of securities. Our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may have changed since that date. As used in this prospectus, unless the context otherwise indicates, the terms we, our, us, or the Company refer to Dakota Gold Corp., a Nevada corporation, and its consolidated subsidiaries taken as a whole. ii



TABLE OF CONTENTS

CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This prospectus, each prospectus supplement and the information incorporated by reference in this prospectus and each prospectus supplement contains or may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 concerning our anticipated results and developments of our operations in future periods, planned exploration and development of our properties, plans related to our business and other matters that may occur in the future. These statements relate to analyses and other information that are based on forecasts of future results, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions of management. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as expects, anticipates, plans, estimates or intends, the negatives thereof, variations thereon and similar expressions, or stating that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause actual events or results to differ from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation: 

risks associated with lack of defined resources that are not SEC S-K 1300 Compliant Reserves, and may never be,  

risks associated with our history of losses and need for additional financing,  

risks associated with its limited operating history,  

risks associated with its properties all being in the exploration stage,  

risks associated with its lack of history in producing metals from its properties,  

risks associated with its need for additional financing to develop a producing mine, if warranted,  

risks associated with its exploration activities not being commercially successful,  

risks associated with ownership of surface rights at its properties located in the Homestake District of South Dakota,  

risks associated with increased costs affecting its financial condition,  

risks associated with a shortage of equipment and supplies adversely affecting its ability to operate,  

risks associated with mining and mineral exploration being inherently dangerous,  

risks associated with mineralization estimates,  

risks associated with changes in mineralization estimates affecting the economic viability of its properties,  

risks associated with uninsured risks,  

risks associated with mineral operations being subject to market forces beyond its control,  

risks associated with fluctuations in commodity prices,  

risks associated with permitting, licenses and approval processes,  

risks associated with governmental and environmental regulations,  

risks associated with future legislation regarding the mining industry and climate change,  

risks associated with potential environmental lawsuits,  

risks associated with its land reclamation requirements,  

risks associated with gold mining presenting potential health risks,  

risks associated with possible amendments to mining laws, mineral withdrawals of similar actions,  

risks associated with any material weaknesses that have been identified in our internal controls over financial reporting,  iii



TABLE OF CONTENTS



risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic,  

risks associated with cybersecurity and cyber-attacks,  

risks related to title in its properties,  

risks related to competition in the gold and silver mining industries,  

risks related to economic conditions,  

risks related to its ability to manage growth,  

risks related to the potential difficulty of attracting and retaining qualified personnel,  

risks related to its dependence on key personnel,  

risks related to its SEC filing history, and  

risks related to its securities.  This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect our forward-looking statements. Although we have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. We caution readers not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Except as required by law, we disclaim any obligation subsequently to revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events. We qualify all the forward-looking statements contained in this document by the foregoing cautionary statements . iv



TABLE OF CONTENTS

DAKOTA GOLD CORP. We are engaged in the business of acquisition and exploration of mineral properties within the Homestake Gold District of the Black Hills of South Dakota. To date, while no development or mining activities have commenced, our strategy is to move projects from exploration to development and finally into production as results of exploration may dictate. Our management and technical teams have extensive mining and exploration experience, much of it in the Homestake District, and we intend to leverage our experience together with our business presence in South Dakota to create value for our stakeholders. Our principal executive offices are located at 106 Glendale Drive, Suite A, Lead, South Dakota, 57754 and our telephone number at that address is (605) 717-2540. Our web site address is www.dakotagoldcorp.com. Information on our website is not incorporated in this prospectus supplement and is not part of this prospectus supplement, unless otherwise stated. Dakota Gold Corp. is a Nevada corporation that was formed in British Columbia, Canada in 2017 and continued to Nevada in 2020. 1



TABLE OF CONTENTS

RISK FACTORS Investing in our securities involves risks. Before you decide whether to purchase any of our securities, in addition to the other information, documents or reports included or incorporated by reference into this prospectus and any prospectus supplement or other offering materials, you should carefully consider the risk factors in the section entitled Risk Factors in any prospectus supplement as well as our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K or Current Reports on Form 8-K filed subsequently to the Annual Report on Form 10-K and in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, which are incorporated by reference into this prospectus and any prospectus supplement in their entirety, as the same may be amended, supplemented or superseded from time to time by our filings under the Exchange Act. For more information, see Where You Can Find More Information. These risks could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition and could result in a partial or complete loss of your investment. 2



TABLE OF CONTENTS

USE OF PROCEEDS Unless we specify another use in the applicable prospectus supplement, we will use the net proceeds from the sale of the securities offered by us for general corporate purposes, which may include, among other things, working capital, capital expenditures, project development activities, exploration activities and investments. We may temporarily invest the net proceeds or use them to repay short term debt until they are used for their stated purpose. We will not receive any proceeds in the event that securities are sold by a selling securityholder unless otherwise indicated in the applicable prospectus supplement or other offering material. 3



TABLE OF CONTENTS

DESCRIPTION OF CAPITAL STOCK The following description of common stock summarizes the material terms and provisions of the common stock that we may offer under this prospectus, but is not complete. For the complete terms of our common stock, please refer to our articles of incorporation, as amended, and our amended and restated bylaws, as may be amended from time to time. As of July 11, 2022, our authorized capital stock consisted of 144,302,330 shares of common stock, par value $0.001 per share. As of June 25, 2022, there were 71,994,644 shares of our common stock issued and outstanding. Common Stock Voting Rights The holders of our common stock are entitled to one vote per share with respect to all matters required by law to be submitted to stockholders. The holders of common stock have the sole right to vote. Election of directors requires the affirmative vote of a plurality of shares represented at a meeting, and other general stockholder action (other than an amendment to the Articles of Incorporation) requires the affirmative vote of a majority of shares represented at a meeting in which a quorum is represented. Dividends The holders of common stock are titled to receive dividends, if declared by our board, out of funds legally available. Liquidation In the event of liquidation, dissolution or winding up of our affairs, the holders of common stock are titled to share ratably in all assets remaining available for distribution to them after payment or provision for all liabilities. Rights and Preferences Holders of our common stock have no preemptive, conversion, subscription or other rights, and there are no redemption or sinking fund provisions applicable to our common stock. The transfer agent and registrar for our common stock is Odyssey Trust Company. Its address is 350  409 Granville St, Vancouver, BC, V6C 1T2, Canada. Our common stock is listed on the NYSE American under the symbol DC. Nevada Anti-Takeover Law, Provisions of our Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws Anti-Takeover Effects of Provisions of Nevada State Law We may be, or in the future we may become, subject to Nevadas control share laws. A corporation is subject to Nevadas control share law if it has more than 200 stockholders, at least 100 of whom are stockholders of record and residents of Nevada, and if the corporation does business in Nevada, including through an affiliated corporation. This control share law may have the effect of discouraging corporate takeovers. As of July 11, 2022, we have less than 100 stockholders of record who are residents of Nevada. The control share law focuses on the acquisition of a controlling interest, which means the ownership of outstanding voting shares that would be sufficient, but for the operation of the control share law, to enable the acquiring person to exercise the following proportions of the voting power of the corporation in the election of directors: (1) one-fifth or more but less than one-third; (2) one-third or more but less than a majority; or (3) a majority or more. The ability to exercise this voting power may be direct or indirect, as well as individual or in association with others. The effect of the control share law is that an acquiring person, and those acting in association with that person, will obtain only such voting rights in the control shares as are conferred by a resolution of the 4



TABLE OF CONTENTS

stockholders of the corporation, approved at a special or annual meeting of stockholders. The control share law contemplates that voting rights will be considered only once by the other stockholders. Thus, there is no authority to take away voting rights from the control shares of an acquiring person once those rights have been approved. If the stockholders do not grant voting rights to the control shares acquired by an acquiring person, those shares do not become permanent non-voting shares. The acquiring person is free to sell the shares to others. If the buyer or buyers of those shares themselves do not acquire a controlling interest, the shares are not governed by the control share law. If control shares are accorded full voting rights and the acquiring person has acquired control shares with a majority or more of the voting power, a stockholder of record, other than the acquiring person, who did not vote in favor of approval of voting rights, is entitled to demand fair value for such stockholders shares. In addition to the control share law, Nevada has a business combination law, which prohibits certain business combinations between Nevada publicly traded corporations and interested stockholders for two years after the interested stockholder first becomes an interested stockholder, unless the corporations board of directors approves the combination in advance. For purposes of Nevada law, an interested stockholder is any person who is: (a) the beneficial owner, directly or indirectly, of 10% or more of the voting power of the outstanding voting shares of the corporation, or (b) an affiliate or associate of the corporation and at any time within the previous two years was the beneficial owner, directly or indirectly, of 10% or more of the voting power of the then-outstanding shares of the corporation. The definition of business combination contained in the statute is sufficiently broad to cover virtually any kind of transaction that would allow a potential acquirer to use the corporations assets to finance the acquisition or otherwise to benefit its own interests rather than the interests of the corporation and its other stockholders. The effect of Nevadas business combination law is to potentially discourage parties interested in taking control of the Company from doing so if it cannot obtain the approval of our board of directors. Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws Provisions of our articles of incorporation, as amended, and amended and restated bylaws may delay or discourage transactions involving an actual or potential change in our control or change in our management, including transactions in which stockholders might otherwise receive a premium for their shares, or transactions that our stockholders might otherwise deem to be in their best interests. Therefore, these provisions could adversely affect the price of our common stock. Among other things, our articles of incorporation and bylaws: 

provide that the authorized number of directors may be changed only by a resolution adopted by a majority of the whole Board;  

provide that all vacancies, including newly created directorships, may, except as otherwise required by law, be filled by the affirmative vote of a majority of directors then in office, even if less than a quorum;  

do not provide for cumulative voting rights (therefore allowing the holders of a majority of the shares of common stock entitled to vote in any election of directors to elect all of the directors standing for election, if they should so choose);  

provide that special meetings of our stockholders may be called only by the board of directors; and  

provide advance notice provisions with which a stockholder who wishes to nominate a director or propose other business to be considered at a stockholder meeting must comply.  5



TABLE OF CONTENTS

DESCRIPTION OF WARRANTS We may issue warrants for the purchase of common stock. We may issue warrants independently or together with common stock, and the warrants may be attached to or separate from these securities. We will evidence each series of warrants by warrant certificates that we may issue under a separate agreement. We may enter into a warrant agreement with a warrant agent. Each warrant agent may be a bank that we select which has its principal office in the United States. We may also choose to act as our own warrant agent. We will indicate the name and address of any such warrant agent in the applicable prospectus supplement relating to a particular series of warrants. We will describe in the applicable prospectus supplement the terms of the series of warrants, including: 

the offering price and aggregate number of warrants offered;  

if applicable, the designation and terms of the securities with which the warrants are issued and the number of warrants issued with each such security or each principal amount of such security;  

if applicable, the date on and after which the warrants and the related securities will be separately transferable;  

in the case of warrants to purchase common stock, the number or amount of shares of common stock purchasable upon the exercise of one warrant and the price at which and currency in which these shares may be purchased upon such exercise;  

the manner of exercise of the warrants, including any cashless exercise rights;  

the warrant agreement under which the warrants will be issued;  

the effect of any merger, consolidation, sale or other disposition of our business on the warrant agreement and the warrants;  

anti-dilution provisions of the warrants, if any;  

the terms of any rights to redeem or call the warrants;  

any provisions for changes to or adjustments in the exercise price or number of securities issuable upon exercise of the warrants;  

the dates on which the right to exercise the warrants will commence and expire or, if the warrants are not continuously exercisable during that period, the specific date or dates on which the warrants will be exercisable;  

the manner in which the warrant agreement and warrants may be modified;  

the identities of the warrant agent and any calculation or other agent for the warrants;  

federal income tax consequences of holding or exercising the warrants;  

the terms of the securities issuable upon exercise of the warrants;  

any securities exchange or quotation system on which the warrants or any securities deliverable upon exercise of the warrants may be listed or quoted; and  

any other specific terms, preferences, rights or limitations of or restrictions on the warrants.  Before exercising their warrants, holders of warrants may not have any of the rights of holders of the securities purchasable upon such exercise, including, in the case of warrants to purchase common stock, the right to receive dividends, if any, or, payments upon our liquidation, dissolution or winding up or to exercise voting rights, if any. Exercise of Warrants Each warrant will entitle the holder to purchase the securities that we specify in the applicable prospectus supplement at the exercise price that we describe in the applicable prospectus supplement. Unless we otherwise specify in the applicable prospectus supplement, holders of the warrants may exercise the warrants at any time 6



TABLE OF CONTENTS

up to 5:00 P.M. eastern time, the close of business, on the expiration date that we set forth in the applicable prospectus supplement. After the close of business on the expiration date, unexercised warrants will become void. Holders of the warrants may exercise the warrants by delivering the warrant certificate representing the warrants to be exercised together with specified information, and paying the required exercise price by the methods provided in the applicable prospectus supplement. We will set forth on the reverse side of the warrant certificate, and in the applicable prospectus supplement, the information that the holder of the warrant will be required to deliver to the warrant agent. Upon receipt of the required payment and the warrant certificate properly completed and duly executed at the corporate trust office of the warrant agent or any other office indicated in the applicable prospectus supplement, we will issue and deliver the securities purchasable upon such exercise. If fewer than all of the warrants represented by the warrant certificate are exercised, then we will, if required by the terms of the warrant, issue a new warrant certificate for the remaining amount of warrants. Enforceability of Rights By Holders of Warrants Any warrant agent will act solely as our agent under the applicable warrant agreement and will not assume any obligation or relationship of agency or trust with any holder of any warrant. A single bank or trust company may act as warrant agent for more than one issue of warrants. A warrant agent will have no duty or responsibility in case of any default by us under the applicable warrant agreement or warrant, including any duty or responsibility to initiate any proceedings at law or otherwise, or to make any demand upon us. Any holder of a warrant may, without the consent of the related warrant agent or the holder of any other warrant, enforce by appropriate legal action the holders right to exercise, and receive the securities purchasable upon exercise of, its warrants in accordance with their terms. Warrant Agreement Will Not Be Qualified Under Trust Indenture Act No warrant agreement will be qualified as an indenture, and no warrant agent will be required to qualify as a trustee, under the Trust Indenture Act. Therefore, holders of warrants issued under a warrant agreement will not have the protection of the Trust Indenture Act with respect to their warrants. Governing Law Unless we provide otherwise in the applicable prospectus supplement, each warrant agreement and any warrants issued under the warrant agreements will be governed by New York law. 7



TABLE OF CONTENTS

DESCRIPTION OF UNITS We may issue units comprised of one or more of the other securities described in this prospectus or any prospectus supplement in any combination. Each unit will be issued so that the holder of the unit is also the holder, with the rights and obligations of a holder, of each security included in the unit. The unit agreement under which a unit is issued may provide that the securities included in the unit may not be held or transferred separately, at any time or at any times before a specified date or upon the occurrence of a specified event or occurrence. The applicable prospectus supplement will describe: 

the designation and the terms of the units and of the securities comprising the units, including whether and under what circumstances those securities may be held or transferred separately;  

any unit agreement under which the units will be issued;  

any provisions for the issuance, payment, settlement, transfer or exchange of the units or of the securities comprising the units; and  

whether the units will be issued in fully registered or global form.  8



TABLE OF CONTENTS

PLAN OF DISTRIBUTION We may sell the securities offered pursuant to this prospectus from time to time in one or more transactions, including, without limitation: 

to or through underwriters;  

through broker-dealers (acting as agent or principal);  

through agents;  

directly by us to one or more purchasers (including our affiliates and stockholders), through a specific bidding or auction process, a rights offering or otherwise;  

through a combination of any such methods of sale; or  

through any other methods described in a prospectus supplement or free writing prospectus.  

The distribution of securities may be effected, from time to time, in one or more transactions, including:  

block transactions (which may involve crosses) and transactions on the NYSE American or any other organized market where the securities may be traded;  

purchases by a broker-dealer as principal and resale by the broker-dealer for its own account pursuant to a prospectus supplement or free writing prospectus;  

ordinary brokerage transactions and transactions in which a broker-dealer solicits purchasers; sales at the market to or through a market maker or into an existing trading market, on an exchange or otherwise; and  

sales in other ways not involving market makers or established trading markets, including direct sales to purchasers.  The applicable prospectus supplement or free writing prospectus will describe the terms of the offering of the securities, including: 

the name or names of any underwriters, if, and if required, any dealers or agents;  

the purchase price of the securities and the proceeds we will receive from the sale;  

any underwriting discounts and other items constituting underwriters compensation;  

any discounts or concessions allowed or re-allowed or paid to dealers; and  

any securities exchange or market on which the securities may be listed or traded.  We may distribute the securities from time to time in one or more transactions at: 

a fixed price or prices, which may be changed;  

market prices prevailing at the time of sale;  

prices related to such prevailing market prices; or  

negotiated prices.  Only underwriters named in the prospectus supplement are underwriters of the securities offered by the prospectus supplement. If underwriters are used in an offering, we will execute an underwriting agreement with such underwriters and will specify the name of each underwriter and the terms of the transaction (including any underwriting discounts and other terms constituting compensation of the underwriters and any dealers) in a prospectus supplement or free writing prospectus. The securities may be offered to the public either through underwriting syndicates represented by managing underwriters or directly by one or more investment banking firms or others, as designated. If an underwriting syndicate is used, the managing underwriter(s) will be specified on the cover of the prospectus supplement. If underwriters are used in the sale, the offered securities will be acquired by the underwriters for their own accounts and may be resold from time to time in one or more transactions, including negotiated transactions, at a fixed public offering price or at varying prices determined 9



TABLE OF CONTENTS

at the time of sale. Any public offering price and any discounts or concessions allowed or re-allowed or paid to dealers may be changed from time to time. Unless otherwise set forth in the prospectus supplement or free writing prospectus, the obligations of the underwriters to purchase the offered securities will be subject to conditions precedent, and the underwriters will be obligated to purchase all of the offered securities, if any are purchased. We may grant to the underwriters options to purchase additional securities to cover over-allotments, if any, at the public offering price, with additional underwriting commissions or discounts, as may be set forth in a related prospectus supplement or free writing prospectus. The terms of any over-allotment option will be set forth in the prospectus supplement or free writing prospectus for those securities. If a dealer is used in the sale of the securities, we, or an underwriter, will sell the securities to the dealer, as principal. The dealer may then resell the securities to the public at varying prices to be determined by the dealer at the time of resale. To the extent required, we will set forth in the prospectus supplement, document incorporated by reference or free writing prospectus, as applicable, the name of the dealer and the terms of the transactions. We may sell the securities directly or through agents we designate from time to time. We will name any agent involved in the offering and sale of securities and we will describe any commissions we will pay the agent in the prospectus supplement. We may authorize agents or underwriters to solicit offers by institutional investors to purchase securities from us at the public offering price set forth in the prospectus supplement or free writing prospectus pursuant to delayed delivery contracts providing for payment and delivery on a specified date in the future. We will describe the conditions to these contracts and the commissions we must pay for solicitation of these contracts in the prospectus supplement or free writing prospectus. In connection with the sale of the securities, underwriters, dealers or agents may receive compensation from us or from purchasers of the securities for whom they act as agents, in the form of discounts, concessions or commissions. Underwriters may sell the securities to or through dealers, and those dealers may receive compensation in the form of discounts, concessions or commissions from the underwriters or commissions from the purchasers for whom they may act as agents. Underwriters, dealers and agents that participate in the distribution of the securities, and any institutional investors or others that purchase securities directly for the purpose of resale or distribution, may be deemed to be underwriters, and any discounts or commissions received by them from us and any profit on the resale of the common stock by them may be deemed to be underwriting discounts and commissions under the Securities Act. No FINRA member firm may receive compensation in excess of that allowable under FINRA rules, including Rule 5110, in connection with the offering of the securities. We may provide agents, underwriters and other purchasers with indemnification against particular civil liabilities, including liabilities under the Securities Act, or contribution with respect to payments that the agents, underwriters or other purchasers may make with respect to such liabilities. Agents and underwriters may engage in transactions with, or perform services for, us in the ordinary course of business. To facilitate the public offering of a series of securities, persons participating in the offering may engage in transactions in accordance with Regulation M under the Exchange Act that stabilize, maintain, or otherwise affect the market price of the securities. This may include over-allotments or short sales of the securities, which involves the sale by persons participating in the offering of more securities than have been sold to them by us. In addition, those persons may stabilize or maintain the price of the securities by bidding for or purchasing securities in the open market or by imposing penalty bids, whereby selling concessions allowed to underwriters or dealers participating in any such offering may be reclaimed if securities sold by them are repurchased in connection with stabilization transactions. The effect of these transactions may be to stabilize or maintain the market price of the securities at a level above that which might otherwise prevail in the open market. Such transactions, if commenced, may be discontinued at any time. We make no representation or prediction as to the direction or magnitude of any effect that the transactions described above, if implemented, may have on the price of our securities. 10



TABLE OF CONTENTS

Unless otherwise specified in the applicable prospectus supplement or free writing prospectus, any common stock sold pursuant to a prospectus supplement will be eligible for trading as listed on the NYSE American. Any underwriters who are qualified market makers to whom securities are sold by us for public offering and sale may make a market in the securities in accordance with Rule 103 of Regulation M, but such underwriters will not be obligated to do so and may discontinue any market making at any time without notice. In order to comply with the securities laws of some states, if applicable, the securities offered pursuant to this prospectus will be sold in those states only through registered or licensed brokers or dealers. In addition, in some states securities may not be sold unless they have been registered or qualified for sale in the applicable state or an exemption from the registration or qualification requirement is available and complied with. To the extent required, this prospectus may be amended or supplemented from time to time to describe a specific plan of distribution. 11



TABLE OF CONTENTS

LEGAL MATTERS The validity of the securities offered by this prospectus will be passed upon by Erwin Thompson Faillers. Certain legal matters in connection with the offered warrants and units will be passed upon for us by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, New York, New York. EXPERTS The consolidated financial statements of Dakota Gold Corp. as of and for the years ended March 31, 2022 and 2021, incorporated in this Prospectus by reference from the Dakota Gold Corp. Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2022, have been audited by Ham, Langston & Brezina, L.L.P., an independent registered public accounting firm, as set forth in their report thereon incorporated herein by reference, and have been incorporated in this Prospectus and Registration Statement in reliance upon such report and upon the authority of such firm as experts in accounting and auditing. WHERE YOU CAN FIND MORE INFORMATION We are subject to the informational requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and in accordance therewith file annual, quarterly and current reports, proxy statements and other information with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Securities and Exchange Commission maintains a website that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding registrants that file electronically with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The address of the Securities and Exchange Commissions website is www.sec.gov. We make available free of charge on or through our website at www.dakotagoldcorp.com our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with or otherwise furnish it to the Securities and Exchange Commission. We have filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission a registration statement under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, relating to the offering of these securities. The registration statement, including the attached exhibits, contains additional relevant information about us and the securities. This prospectus does not contain all of the information set forth in the registration statement. You can obtain a copy of the registration statement for free at www.sec.gov. The registration statement and the documents referred to below under Incorporation of Certain Information By Reference are also available on our website, www.dakotagoldcorp.com. We have not incorporated by reference into this prospectus the information on our website, and you should not consider it to be a part of this prospectus. 12



TABLE OF CONTENTS

INCORPORATION OF CERTAIN INFORMATION BY REFERENCE The Securities and Exchange Commission allows us to incorporate by reference the information we have filed with it, which means that we can disclose important information to you by referring you to those documents. The information we incorporate by reference is an important part of this prospectus, and later information that we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission will automatically update and supersede this information. We incorporate by reference the documents listed below and any future documents (excluding information furnished pursuant to Items 2.02 and 7.01 of Form 8-K) we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission pursuant to Sections l3(a), l3(c), 14 or l5(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, subsequent to the date of this prospectus and prior to the termination of the offering: 

our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 28, 2022;  

our Current Reports on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 7, 2022 and July 13, 2022; and  

the description of our common stock contained in our Registration Statement on Form 8-A filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 31, 2022.  All filings filed by us pursuant to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, after the date of the initial filing of this registration statement and prior to the effectiveness of such registration statement (excluding information furnished pursuant to Items 2.02 and 7.01 of Form 8-K) shall also be deemed to be incorporated by reference into the prospectus. You should rely only on the information incorporated by reference or provided in this prospectus. We have not authorized anyone else to provide you with different information. Any statement contained in a document incorporated by reference into this prospectus will be deemed to be modified or superseded for the purposes of this prospectus to the extent that a later statement contained in this prospectus or in any other document incorporated by reference into this prospectus modifies or supersedes the earlier statement. Any statement so modified or superseded will not be deemed, except as so modified or superseded, to constitute a part of this prospectus. You should not assume that the information in this prospectus is accurate as of any date other than the date of this prospectus or the date of the documents incorporated by reference in this prospectus. We will provide without charge to each person to whom a copy of this prospectus is delivered, upon written or oral request, a copy of any or all of the reports or documents that have been incorporated by reference in this prospectus but not delivered with this prospectus (other than an exhibit to these filings, unless we have specifically incorporated that exhibit by reference in this prospectus). Any such request should be addressed to us at: Dakota Gold Corp.

Attention: Corporate Secretary

106 Glendale Drive, Suite A, Lead, South Dakota, 57754

(605) 906-8363 You may also access the documents incorporated by reference in this prospectus through our website at www.dakotagoldcorp.com. Except for the specific incorporated documents listed above, no information available on or through our website shall be deemed to be incorporated in this prospectus or the registration statement of which it forms a part. 13



TABLE OF CONTENTS   $250,000,000 Common Stock Warrants Units  PROSPECTUS   

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART II INFORMATION NOT REQUIRED IN PROSPECTUS Item 14. Other Expenses of Issuance and Distribution. The fees and expenses payable by us in connection with this registration statement are estimated as follows:  Securities and Exchange Commission Registration Fee    $ 23,175    Accounting Fees and Expenses     15,000    Legal Fees and Expenses     50,000    Printing Fees and Expenses     5,000    Total    $ 93,175   Item 15. Indemnification of Directors and Officers. Section 78.7502(1) of the Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS) provides that a corporation may indemnify any person who was or is a party or is threatened to be made a party to any threatened, pending or completed action, suit or proceeding, whether civil, criminal, administrative or investigative (except an action by or in the right of the corporation) by reason of the fact that such person is or was a director, officer, employee or agent of the corporation, or is or was serving at the request of the corporation as a director, officer, employee or agent of another corporation, partnership, joint venture, trust or other enterprise, against expenses (including attorneys fees), judgments, fines and amounts paid in settlement actually and reasonably incurred in connection with such action, suit or proceeding if such person: (i) is not liable for a breach of fiduciary duties that involved intentional misconduct, fraud or a knowing violation of law; or (ii) acted in good faith and in a manner which he or she reasonably believed to be in or not opposed to the best interests of the corporation, and, with respect to any criminal action or proceeding, had no reasonable cause to believe his or her conduct was unlawful. NRS Section 78.7502(2) further provides that a corporation may indemnify any person who was or is a party or is threatened to be made a party to any threatened, pending or completed action or suit by or in the right of the corporation to procure a judgment in its favor by reason of the fact that such person is or was a director, officer, employee or agent of the corporation, or is or was serving at the request of the corporation as a director, officer, employee or agent of another corporation, partnership, joint venture, trust or other enterprise, against expenses, including amounts paid in settlement and attorneys fees actually and reasonably incurred in connection with the defense or settlement of the action or suit if such person: (i) is not liable for a breach of fiduciary duties that involved intentional misconduct, fraud or a knowing violation of law; or (ii) acted in good faith and in a manner that he or she reasonably believed to be in or not opposed to the best interests of the corporation. Indemnification may not be made for any claim, issue or matter as to which such a person has been adjudged by a court of competent jurisdiction, after exhaustion of all appeals therefrom, to be liable to the corporation or for amounts paid in settlement to the corporation, unless and only to the extent that the court in which the action or suit was brought or other court of competent jurisdiction determines upon application that in view of all the circumstances of the case the person is fairly and reasonably entitled to indemnity for such expenses as the court deems proper. To the extent that a director, officer, employee or agent of a corporation has been successful on the merits or otherwise in defense of any action, suit or proceeding referred to in subsections (1) and (2) of NRS Section 78.7502, as described above, or in defense of any claim, issue or matter therein, the corporation shall indemnify him or her against expenses (including attorneys fees) actually and reasonably incurred by such person in connection with the defense. The amended and restated bylaws of the Company provide that the Company shall, to the fullest extent permitted by law, indemnify every person who is or was a party or is or was threatened to be made a party to any action, suit or proceeding, whether civil, criminal, administrative or investigative (an Action), by reason of the fact that such person is or was a director or officer of the Company, or is or was serving at the request of the Company as a director, officer, trustee, plan administrator or plan fiduciary of another corporation, II-1



TABLE OF CONTENTS

aggregate, the changes in volume and price represent no more than a 20% change in the maximum aggregate offering price set forth in the Calculation of Registration Fee table in the effective registration statement; (iii)

To include any material information with respect to the plan of distribution not previously disclosed in the registration statement or any material change to such information in the registration statement;  provided , however , that the undertakings set forth in paragraphs (a)(1)(i), (a)(1)(ii) and (a)(1)(iii) above do not apply if the information required to be included in a post-effective amendment by those paragraphs is contained in reports filed with or furnished to the Commission by the registrant pursuant to section 13 or section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that are incorporated by reference in the registration statement, or is contained in a form of prospectus filed pursuant to Rule 424(b) that is part of the registration statement. (2)

That, for the purpose of determining any liability under the Securities Act of 1933, each such post-effective amendment shall be deemed to be a new registration statement relating to the securities offered therein, and the offering of such securities at that time shall be deemed to be the initial bona fide offering thereof.  (3)

To remove from registration by means of a post-effective amendment any of the securities being registered which remain unsold at the termination of the offering.  (4)

That, for the purpose of determining liability under the Securities Act of 1933 to any purchaser:  (i)

If the registrant is relying on Rule 430B (230.430B of this chapter):  (A)

Each prospectus filed by the registrant pursuant to Rule 424(b)(3) shall be deemed to be part of the registration statement as of the date the filed prospectus was deemed part of and included in the registration statement; and  (B)

Each prospectus required to be filed pursuant to Rule 424(b)(2), (b)(5), or (b)(7) as part of a registration statement in reliance on Rule 430B relating to an offering made pursuant to Rule 415(a)(1)(i), (vii), or (x) for the purpose of providing the information required by section 10(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 shall be deemed to be part of and included in the registration statement as of the earlier of the date such form of prospectus is first used after effectiveness or the date of the first contract of sale of securities in the offering described in the prospectus. As provided in Rule 430B, for liability purposes of the issuer and any person that is at that date an underwriter, such date shall be deemed to be a new effective date of the registration statement relating to the securities in the registration statement to which that prospectus relates, and the offering of such securities at that time shall be deemed to be the initial bona fide offering thereof. Provided, however, that no statement made in a registration statement or prospectus that is part of the registration statement or made in a document incorporated or deemed incorporated by reference into the registration statement or prospectus that is part of the registration statement will, as to a purchaser with a time of contract of sale prior to such effective date, supersede or modify any statement that was made in the registration statement or prospectus that was part of the registration statement or made in any such document immediately prior to such effective date.  (ii)

If the registrant is subject to Rule 430C, each prospectus filed pursuant to Rule 424(b) as part of a registration statement relating to an offering, other than registration statements relying on Rule 430B or other than prospectuses filed in reliance on Rule 430A, shall be deemed to be part of and included in the registration statement as of the date it is first used after effectiveness. Provided, however, that no statement made in a registration statement or prospectus that is part of the registration statement or made in a document incorporated or deemed incorporated by reference into the registration statement or prospectus that is part of the registration statement will, as to a purchaser with a time of contract of sale prior to such first use, supersede or modify  II-3



TABLE OF CONTENTS

any statement that was made in the registration statement or prospectus that was part of the registration statement or made in any such document immediately prior to such date of first use. (5)

That, for the purpose of determining liability of the registrant under the Securities Act of 1933 to any purchaser in the initial distribution of the securities: The undersigned registrant undertakes that in a primary offering of securities of the undersigned registrant pursuant to this registration statement, regardless of the underwriting method used to sell the securities to the purchaser, if the securities are offered or sold to such purchaser by means of any of the following communications, the undersigned registrant will be a seller to the purchaser and will be considered to offer or sell such securities to such purchaser:  (i)

Any preliminary prospectus or prospectus of the undersigned registrant relating to the offering required to be filed pursuant to Rule 424;  (ii)

Any free writing prospectus relating to the offering prepared by or on behalf of the undersigned registrant or used or referred to by the undersigned registrant;  (iii)

The portion of any other free writing prospectus relating to the offering containing material information about the undersigned registrant or its securities provided by or on behalf of the undersigned registrant; and  (iv)

Any other communication that is an offer in the offering made by the undersigned registrant to the purchaser.  (b) The undersigned registrant hereby undertakes that, for purposes of determining any liability under the Securities Act of 1933, each filing of the registrants annual report pursuant to section 13(a) or section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (and, where applicable, each filing of an employee benefit plans annual report pursuant to section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934) that is incorporated by reference in the registration statement shall be deemed to be a new registration statement relating to the securities offered therein, and the offering of such securities at that time shall be deemed to be the initial bona fide offering thereof. (c) Insofar as indemnification for liabilities arising under the Securities Act of 1933 may be permitted to directors, officers and controlling persons of the registrant pursuant to the foregoing provisions, or otherwise, the registrant has been advised that in the opinion of the Securities and Exchange Commission such indemnification is against public policy as expressed in the Act and is, therefore, unenforceable. In the event that a claim for indemnification against such liabilities (other than the payment by the registrant of expenses incurred or paid by a director, officer or controlling person of the registrant in the successful defense of any action, suit or proceeding) is asserted by such director, officer or controlling person in connection with the securities being registered, the registrant will, unless in the opinion of its counsel the matter has been settled by controlling precedent, submit to a court of appropriate jurisdiction the question whether such indemnification by it is against public policy as expressed in the Act and will be governed by the final adjudication of such issue. II-4



TABLE OF CONTENTS

SIGNATURES Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, the registrant certifies that it has reasonable grounds to believe that it meets all of the requirements for filing on Form S-3 and has duly caused this registration statement to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized, in the City of Vancouver, Province of British Columbia, Canada, on July 15, 2022.     DAKOTA GOLD CORP.      By:   /s/ Jonathan Awde  Name: Jonathan Awde Title:

Chief Executive Officer (Principal Executive Officer) and Director   POWER OF ATTORNEY KNOW ALL PERSONS BY THESE PRESENTS, that each person whose signature appears below constitutes and appoints Jonathan Awde and Daniel Cherniak and each of them, his or her true and lawful attorney-in-fact and agent, with full power and substitution and resubstitution, for him or her or its and in his or her name, place and stead, in any and all capacities to sign any and all amendments (including, without limitation, post-effective amendments) to this Registration Statement and any registration statement filed under Rule 462 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and to file the same, with all exhibits thereto, and other documents in connection therewith, with authority to do and perform each and every act and thing requisite and necessary to be done in and about the premises as fully to all intents and purposes as he might or could do in person, hereby ratifying and confirming all that said attorney-in-fact and agent, or his substitute or substitutes, may lawfully do or cause to be done by virtue hereof. Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, this registration statement has been signed by the following persons in the capacities and on the dates indicated:  Signature   Title   Date   /s/ Jonathan Awde  Jonathan Awde   Chief Executive Officer,

(Principal Executive Officer) and Director   July 15, 2022   /s/ Shawn Campbell  Shawn Campbell   Chief Financial Officer

(Principal Financial Officer and Principal Accounting Officer)   July 15, 2022   /s/ Gerald Aberle  Gerald Aberle   Chief Operating Officer and Director   July 15, 2022   /s/ Robert Quartermain  Robert Quartermain   Director   July 15, 2022   /s/ Stephen ORourke  Stephen ORourke   Director   July 15, 2022   /s/ Jennifer Grafton  Jennifer Grafton   Director   July 15, 2022   /s/ Amy Koenig  Amy Koenig   Director   July 15, 2022   /s/ Alex Morrison  Alex Morrison   Director   July 15, 2022  II-5



Exhibit 5.1

ERWIN THOMPSON FAILLERS

241 RIDGE STREET, SUITE 210 OFFICE (775) 786-9494 RENO, NEVADA 89501 DIRECT (775) 825-4300 THOMAS P. ERWIN FAX (775) 786-1180 FRANK W. THOMPSON [email protected] JEFF N. FAILLERS renolaw.com July 15, 2022 Board of Directors Dakota Gold Corp. 1588-609 Granville Street Vancouver, BC V7Y 1G5

Re: Registration Statement on Form S-3

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen:

We have acted as counsel to Dakota Gold Corp., a Nevada corporation (the  Company ), in connection with the Registration Statement on Form S-3 (the  Registration Statement ) filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the  Commission ) on July 15, 2022, under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the  Securities Act ), to which this letter is attached as an exhibit.

The Registration Statement relates to the issuance and sale from time to time by the Company on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 of the General Rules and Regulations ( Rule 415 ) promulgated under the Securities Act of up to an aggregate amount of $250,000,000 of: (i) shares of the Companys common stock, par value $0.001 per share (the  Common Stock ); (ii) warrants to purchase Common Stock (the  Warrants ); and (iii) units consisting of any combination of the foregoing securities (the  Units ). The Common Stock, Warrants, and Units are referred to herein each as a  Security  and collectively as the  Securities . The Securities may be issued and sold or delivered from time to time as set forth in the Registration Statement, any amendment thereto, the prospectus contained therein, and any prospectus supplements, and pursuant to Rule 415 for up to an aggregate amount of $250,000,000.

The Warrants will be issued under one or more warrant agreements (each a  Warrant Agreement ) between the Company and a counterparty or counterparty identified therein or a financial institution identified therein as the warrant agent (each a  Counterparty ). The Units may be issued under one or more-unit agreements (each a  Unit Agreement ), each to be between the Company and a counterparty or counterparties identified therein (the  Unit Counterparty ).

In connection with this letter, we have examined originals or copies certified or otherwise identified to our satisfaction as being true copies, only of the following: (1) the Articles of Incorporation of the Company, as amended to date; (2) the Amended and Restated Bylaws of the Company, as amended to date; (3) the Registration Statement; and (4) the resolutions of the Board of Directors of the Company relating to the approval of the filing of the Registration Statement and transactions in connection therewith. We have also examined originals or copies, certified or otherwise identified to our satisfaction, of such records of the Company, such agreements, certificates of public officials, and certificates of officers or other representatives of the Company, and such other documents, instruments, certificates and records as we have deemed necessary or appropriate as a basis for the opinions set forth herein.

Dakota Gold Corp.

Registration Statement on Form S-3

July 15, 2022

Page 2

In our examination, we have assumed: (i) the legal capacity of all natural persons; (ii) the genuineness of all signatures; (iii) the authenticity of all documents submitted to us as originals; (iv) the conformity to the original documents of all documents submitted to us as certified, conformed, photostatic or facsimile copies and the authenticity of the originals of such documents; (v) the truth, accuracy and completeness of the information, representations and warranties contained in the records, instruments, certificates and other documents we have reviewed; and (vi) the absence of any undisclosed modifications to the documents reviewed by us. As to various questions of fact material to this opinion which were not independently established or verified by us, we have relied upon representations or certificates of officers and other representatives of the Company and others whom we have further assumed were authorized to make such statements and representations.

We have also assumed that (i) at the time of execution, issuance, and delivery of the Warrants, the related Warrant Agreement will be the valid and legally binding obligation of each Counterparty thereto; and (ii) at the time of execution, issuance, and delivery of any Units, the related Unit Agreement (if any) will be the valid and legally binding obligation of the applicable Unit Counterparty.

In rendering the opinions expressed herein, we have assumed further that: (i) the Registration Statement, and any amendments thereto, will comply with all then applicable laws and regulations and such effectiveness will not have been terminated or rescinded; (ii) an applicable prospectus supplement will have been prepared and timely filed with the Commission describing the Securities offered thereunder; (iii) all Securities will be issued and sold in compliance with then applicable federal and state securities laws and in the manner stated in the Registration Statement and the applicable prospectus supplement; (iv) with respect to an underwritten offering, a definitive purchase, underwriting or similar agreement with respect to any Securities offered thereunder will be duly authorized and validly executed and delivered by the Company and the other parties thereto; (v) there will be sufficient shares of Common Stock authorized under the Articles of Incorporation of the Company as in effect at the time of the offering of Securities and not otherwise reserved for other issuance; (vi) the consideration for the Common Stock is not less than the par value thereof, and (vii) with respect to any Securities offered, any other proceedings that are required by then applicable laws will be timely and properly completed in connection with such offering.

Based upon the foregoing, and subject to the qualifications, assumptions and limitations stated herein, we are of the opinion that:

1. With respect to the Common Stock, assuming (a) the taking by the Board of Directors of the Company or a duly constituted and acting committee of such Board of Directors (such Board of Directors or committee being referred to herein as the  Board ) of all necessary corporate action to authorize and approve the issuance of the Common Stock, the terms of the offering thereof and related matters, and (b) due issuance and delivery of the Common Stock, upon payment therefor in accordance with the applicable definitive purchase, underwriting or similar agreement approved by the Board, or, if the Common Stock is issued upon exercise of Warrants, in accordance with the applicable Warrant Agreement, the Common Stock will be validly issued, fully paid and nonassessable.

Dakota Gold Corp.

Registration Statement on Form S-3

July 15, 2022

Page 3

2. With respect to the Warrants, assuming (a) the taking of all necessary corporate action by the Board to authorize and approve the execution and delivery of any related Warrant Agreement, the terms of the offering thereof and related matters, and (b) the due execution, countersignature, issuance and delivery of such Warrants, upon payment of the consideration for such Warrants provided for in the applicable definitive purchase, underwriting or similar agreement approved by the Board and otherwise in accordance with the provisions of the applicable Warrant Agreement and such agreement, such Warrants will constitute valid and legally binding obligations of the Company enforceable against the Company in accordance with their terms.

3. With respect to the Units, assuming (a) the taking of all necessary corporate action by the Board to authorize and approve (1) the issuance and terms of the Units, the terms of the offering thereof and related matters, (2) the execution and delivery of any related Unit Agreement, and (3) the issuance and terms of the Securities that are a component part of the Units, the terms of the offering thereof and related matters, and (b) the due execution, countersignature, authentication, issuance and delivery of each Security that is a component of Unit, in each case upon the payment of the consideration therefor provided for in the applicable definitive purchase, underwriting or similar agreement approved by the Board and otherwise in accordance with the provisions of the applicable Unit Agreement (if any) and such agreement, such Units will constitute valid and legally binding obligations of the Company enforceable against the Company in accordance with their terms.

Our opinions set forth in paragraphs 2 and 3 above are subject to the effects of (i) bankruptcy, insolvency, fraudulent conveyance, reorganization, moratorium and other similar laws relating to or affecting creditors rights generally, (ii) general equitable principles (whether considered in a proceeding in equity or at law), and (iii) an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.

We express no opinion under, or view with respect to, either directly or indirectly, laws other than the law of the State of Nevada and the federal law of the United States. The Securities may be issued from time to time on a delayed or continuous basis, and the opinions expressed herein are limited to the foregoing laws, including applicable rules and regulations, as in effect on the date hereof, which laws are subject to change with possible retroactive effect and to the facts as they presently exist.

We hereby consent to the filing of this letter with the Commission as an exhibit to the Registration Statement. We also hereby consent to the use of our name under the heading Legal Matters in the prospectus which forms a part of the Registration Statement. In giving this consent, we do not thereby admit that we are within the category of persons whose consent is required under Section 7 of the Securities Act or the rules and regulations of the Commission promulgated thereunder. The opinions in this letter are expressed as of the date hereof unless otherwise expressly stated, and we disclaim any undertaking to advise you of any subsequent changes in the facts stated or assumed herein or of any subsequent changes in applicable law.

Very truly yours, /s/ Erwin Thompson Faillers Erwin Thompson Faillers

Exhibit 5.2

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom llp

One Manhattan West

New York, NY 10001 FIRM/AFFILIATE OFFICES ________ ----------- TEL: (212) 735-3000 BOSTON FAX: (212) 735-2000 CHICAGO www.skadden.com HOUSTON LOS ANGELES PALO ALTO WASHINGTON, D.C. WILMINGTON ----------- BEIJING BRUSSELS July 15, 2022 FRANKFURT HONG KONG LONDON MUNICH PARIS SAO PAULO SEOUL SHANGHAI SINGAPORE TOKYO TORONTO

Dakota Gold Corp.

106 Glendale Drive, Suite A

Lead, South Dakota, 57754

RE: Dakota Gold Corp.

Registration Statement on Form S-3

Ladies and Gentlemen:

We have acted as special United States counsel to Dakota Gold Corporation, a Nevada corporation (the Company), in connection with the automatic registration statement on Form S-3 (the Registration Statement) to be filed on the date hereof by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the Commission) under the Securities Act of 1933 (the Securities Act). The Registration Statement relates to the issuance and sale by the Company from time to time, pursuant to Rule 415 of the General Rules and Regulations of the Commission promulgated under the Securities Act (the Rules and Regulations), of (i) shares of common stock, par value $0.001 per share, of the Company (Common Stock); (ii) warrants to purchase shares of Common Stock (Warrants), which may be issued pursuant to one or more warrant agreements (each, a Warrant Agreement) proposed to be entered into by the Company and one or more warrant agents to be named therein; (iii) purchase units of the Company ("Purchase Units"), each consisting of Common Stock and/or Warrants, which may be issued pursuant to one or more agreements (each, a "Purchase Unit Agreement") proposed to be entered into by the Company and one or more purchase unit agents to be named therein; and (iv) such indeterminate number of shares of Common Stock as may be issued upon conversion, exchange or exercise, as applicable, of any Warrants or settlement of any Purchase Units, including such shares of Common Stock as may be issued pursuant to anti-dilution adjustments determined at the time of offering (collectively, Indeterminate Securities). The Common Stock, Warrants, Purchase Units and Indeterminate Securities offered pursuant to the Registration Statement are collectively referred to herein as the Securities.

This opinion is being furnished in accordance with the requirements of Item 601(b)(5) of Regulation S-K under the Securities Act.

In rendering the opinions stated herein, we have examined and relied upon the Registration Statement.

We have also examined originals or copies, certified or otherwise identified to our satisfaction, of such records of the Company and such agreements, certificates and receipts of public officials, certificates of officers or other representatives of the Company and others, and such other documents as we have deemed necessary or appropriate as a basis for the opinions stated below.

In our examination, we have assumed the genuineness of all signatures, including electronic signatures, the legal capacity and competency of all natural persons, the authenticity of all documents submitted to us as originals, the conformity to original documents of all documents submitted to us as facsimile, electronic, certified or photostatic copies, and the authenticity of the originals of such copies. As to any facts relevant to the opinions stated herein that we did not independently establish or verify, we have relied upon statements and representations of officers and other representatives of the Company and others and of public officials.

We do not express any opinion with respect to the laws of any jurisdiction other than the laws of the State of New York (Opined on Law).

As used herein, Transaction Documents means the Warrant Agreements, the Purchase Unit Agreements and any applicable underwriting or purchase agreement.

The opinions stated in paragraphs 1 through 2 below presume that all of the following (collectively, the general conditions) shall have occurred prior to the issuance of the Securities referred to therein: (i) the Registration Statement, as finally amended (including all necessary post-effective amendments) has become effective under the Securities Act; (ii) an appropriate prospectus supplement or term sheet with respect to such Securities has been prepared, delivered and filed in compliance with the Securities Act and the applicable Rules and Regulations; (iii) the applicable Transaction Documents shall have been duly authorized, executed and delivered by the Company and the other parties thereto, including, if such Securities are to be sold or otherwise distributed pursuant to a firm commitment underwritten offering, the underwriting agreement or purchase agreement with respect thereto; (iv) the Board of Directors of the Company, including any duly authorized committee thereof, shall have taken all necessary corporate action to approve the issuance and sale of such Securities and related matters, and appropriate officers of the Company have taken all related action as directed by or under the direction of the Board of Directors of the Company; and (v) the terms of the applicable Transaction Documents and the issuance and sale of such Securities have been duly established in conformity with the articles of incorporation of the Company so as not to violate any applicable law, the articles of incorporation of the Company or the bylaws of the Company, or result in a default under or breach of any agreement or instrument binding upon the Company, and so as to comply with any requirement or restriction imposed by any court or governmental body having jurisdiction over the Company.

Based upon the foregoing and subject to the qualifications and assumptions stated herein, we are of the opinion that:

1. With respect to any Warrants offered by the Company (the Offered Warrants), when (a) the general conditions shall have been satisfied, (b) the Common Stock, and/or Preferred Stock for which the Offered Warrants are exercisable have been duly authorized for issuance by the Company and (c) certificates evidencing the Offered Warrants have been duly executed, delivered and countersigned in accordance with the provisions of the applicable Warrant Agreement, the Offered Warrants, when issued and sold or otherwise distributed in accordance with the provisions of the applicable Transaction Document upon payment of the agreed upon consideration therefor, will constitute valid and binding obligations of the Company, enforceable against the Company in accordance with their respective terms under the laws of the State of New York.

2. With respect to any Purchase Units offered by the Company (the "Offered Purchase Units"), when (a) the general conditions shall have been satisfied, (b) the Common Stock and/or Warrants included in such Offered Purchase Units have been duly authorized for issuance by the Company and (c) certificates evidencing the Offered Purchase Units have been duly executed, delivered and countersigned in accordance with the provisions of the applicable Purchase Unit Agreement, the Offered Purchase Units, when issued and sold or otherwise distributed in accordance with the provisions of the applicable Transaction Document upon payment of the agreed-upon consideration therefor, will constitute valid and binding obligations of the Company, enforceable against the Company in accordance with their respective terms under the laws of the State of New York.

The opinions stated herein are subject to the following qualifications:

(a) we do not express any opinion with respect to the effect on the opinions stated herein of any bankruptcy, insolvency, reorganization, moratorium, fraudulent transfer, preference and other similar laws or governmental orders affecting creditors rights generally, and the opinions stated herein are limited by such laws and orders and by general principles of equity (regardless of whether enforcement is sought in equity or at law);

(b) we do not express any opinion with respect to any law, rule or regulation that is applicable to any party to any of the Transaction Documents or the transactions contemplated thereby solely because such law, rule or regulation is part of a regulatory regime applicable to any such party or any of its affiliates as a result of the specific assets or business operations of such party or such affiliates;

(c) except to the extent expressly stated in the opinions contained herein, we have assumed that each of the Transaction Documents constitutes the valid and binding obligation of each party to such Transaction Document, enforceable against such party in accordance with its terms;

(d) we do not express any opinion with respect to the enforceability of any provision contained in any Transaction Document relating to any indemnification, contribution, non-reliance, exculpation, release, limitation or exclusion of remedies, waiver or other provisions having similar effect that may be contrary to public policy or violative of federal or state securities laws, rules or regulations, or to the extent any such provision purports to, or has the effect of, waiving or altering any statute of limitations;

(e) we do not express any opinion with respect to the enforceability of any provision of any Transaction Document to the extent that such section purports to bind the Company to the exclusive jurisdiction of any particular federal court or courts;

(f) we call to your attention that irrespective of the agreement of the parties to any Transaction Document, a court may decline to hear a case on grounds of forum non conveniens or other doctrine limiting the availability of such court as a forum for resolution of disputes; in addition, we call to your attention that we do not express any opinion with respect to the subject matter jurisdiction of the federal courts of the United States of America in any action arising out of or relating to any Transaction Document;

(g) we have assumed that the laws of the State of New York will be chosen to govern any Warrant Agreements and Purchase Unit Agreements and that such choice is and will be a valid and legal provision;

(h) to the extent that any opinion relates to the enforceability of the choice of New York law and choice of New York forum provisions contained in any Transaction Document, the opinions stated herein are subject to the qualification that such enforceability may be subject to, in each case, (i) the exceptions and limitations in New York General Obligations Law sections 5-1401 and 5-1402 and (ii) principles of comity and constitutionality.

In addition, in rendering the foregoing opinions we have assumed that:

(a) the Company (i) is duly incorporated and is validly existing and in good standing, (ii) has requisite legal status and legal capacity under the laws of the jurisdiction of its organization, and (iii) has complied and will comply with all aspects of the laws of the jurisdiction of its organization in connection with the transactions contemplated by, and the performance of its obligations under, the Transaction Documents to which the Company is a party;

(b) the Company has the corporate power and authority to execute, deliver and perform all its obligations under each of the Transaction Documents to which the Company is a party;

(c) neither the execution and delivery by the Company of the Transaction Documents to which the Company is a party nor the performance by the Company of its obligations thereunder, including the issuance and sale of the applicable Securities: (i) conflicts or will conflict with the articles of incorporation or bylaws, (ii) constitutes or will constitute a violation of, or a default under, any lease, indenture, agreement or other instrument to which the Company or its property is subject, (iii) contravened or will contravene any order or decree of any governmental authority to which the Company or its property is subject, or (iv) violates or will violate any law, rule or regulation to which the Company or its property is subject (except that we do not make the assumption set forth in this clause (iv) with respect to the Opined on Law); and

(d) neither the execution and delivery by the Company of the Transaction Documents to which the Company is a party nor the performance by the Company of its obligations thereunder, including the issuance and sale of the applicable Securities, requires or will require the consent, approval, licensing or authorization of, or any filing, recording or registration with, any governmental authority under any law, rule or regulation of any jurisdiction.

We hereby consent to the reference to our firm under the heading Legal Matters in the prospectus forming part of the Registration Statement. We also hereby consent to the filing of this opinion with the Commission as an exhibit to the Registration Statement. In giving this consent, we do not thereby admit that we are within the category of persons whose consent is required under Section 7 of the Securities Act or the Rules and Regulations. This opinion is expressed as of the date hereof unless otherwise expressly stated, and we disclaim any undertaking to advise you of any subsequent changes in the facts stated or assumed herein or of any subsequent changes in applicable laws.

Very truly yours, /s/ Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP MJH

Exhibit 23.3

CONSENT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

We hereby consent to the incorporation by reference in this Registration Statement on Form S-3 and related Prospectus of Dakota Gold Corp. of our report dated June 28, 2022, relating to the consolidated financial statements of Dakota Gold Corp. appearing in the Annual Report on Form 10-K of Dakota Gold Corp. for the year ended March 31, 2022.

We also consent to the reference to our firm under the heading Experts in such Prospectus.

/s/ Ham, Langston & Brezina, L.L.P.

Houston, Texas

July 15, 2022

Exhibit 107

Calculation of Filing Fee Tables

Form S-3

(Form Type)

Dakota Gold Corp.

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in its Charter)

Table 1: Newly Registered Securities

Security Type Security

Class Title Fee

Calculation

Rule Amount

Registered Proposed

Maximum

Offering

Price Per

Share Maximum

Aggregate

Offering Price Fee Rate Amount of

Registration

Fee Fees to Be

Paid Equity Common Stock, $0.001 par value per share Other Warrants Other Units Unallocated (Universal) Shelf 457(o) (1)(2) (3) $ 250,000,000 $92.70 per $1,000,000 $ 23,175 (4) Fees

Previously

Paid Total Offering Amounts $ 250,000,000 $ 23,175 Total Fees Previously Paid  Total Fee Offsets  Net Fee Due $ 23,175

(1) There are being registered hereunder such indeterminate number of shares of common stock, such indeterminate number of warrants to purchase common stock, and such indeterminate number of units as may, from time to time, be issued at indeterminate prices. Any securities registered hereunder may be sold separately or as units with the other securities registered hereunder. The proposed maximum offering price per unit will be determined, from time to time, by the registrant in connection with the issuance by the registrant of the securities registered hereunder.

(2) Pursuant to Rule 416 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, the shares we are registering under this registration statement include such indeterminate number of shares of common stock as may be issuable with respect to the shares we are registering as a result of stock splits, stock dividends or similar transactions.

(3) The proposed maximum offering price per security will be determined from time to time by the registrant in connection with, and at the time of, the issuance of the securities and is not specified as to each class of security pursuant to General Instruction II.D. of Form S-3, as amended.




SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

_____________





SCHEDULE 13G/A





(Rule 13d-102)





INFORMATION TO BE INCLUDED IN STATEMENTS FILED PURSUANT

TO  240.13d-1(b), (c) AND (d) AND AMENDMENTS THERETO FILED

PURSUANT TO  240.13d-2





(Amendment No. 2)*



Polypid Ltd.

(Name of Issuer)

Ordinary Shares, no par value

(Title of Class of Securities)

M8001Q118

(CUSIP Number)

Ilan Lior General Counsel

Aurum Group

16 Abba Hillel Road

Ramat Gan 5250608, Israel

Tel +972-3-576-2424

(Name, Address and Telephone Number of Person

Authorized to Receive Notices and Communications)

March 7, 2022

(Date of Event which Requires Filing of this Statement)

Check the appropriate box to designate the rule pursuant to which this Schedule is filed:

 Rule 13d-1(b)

 Rule 13d-1(c)

 Rule 13d-1(d)

* The remainder of this cover page shall be filled out for a reporting person's initial filing on this form with respect to the subject class of securities, and for any subsequent amendment containing information which would alter disclosures provided in a prior cover page.

The information required on the remainder of this cover page shall not be deemed to be filed for the purpose of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the  Act ) or otherwise subject to the liabilities of that section of the Act but shall be subject to all other provisions of the Act (however, see the Notes).





CUSIP No. M8001Q118 13G/A Page 2 of 7 Pages

1. NAMES OF REPORTING PERSONS



Aurum Ventures M.K.I. Ltd. 2. CHECK THE APPROPRIATE BOX IF A MEMBER OF A GROUP

(See Instructions) (a)  (b)  3. SEC USE ONLY



4. CITIZENSHIP OR PLACE OF ORGANIZATION



Israel

NUMBER OF SHARES BENEFICIALLY OWNED BY EACH REPORTING PERSON WITH 5.



1,891,152 SOLE VOTING POWER 6. SHARED VOTING POWER



0 7.



1,891,152 SOLE DISPOSITIVE POWER 8. SHARED DISPOSITIVE POWER



0

9.



1,891,152 AGGREGATE AMOUNT BENEFICIALLY OWNED BY EACH REPORTING PERSON 10. CHECK IF THE AGGREGATE AMOUNT IN ROW (9) EXCLUDES CERTAIN SHARES

(see instructions)  11.



10.1% (1) PERCENT OF CLASS REPRESENTED BY AMOUNT IN ROW (9) 12. TYPE OF REPORTING PERSON (see instructions)



CO





(1) Percentage is based on 18,756,570 ordinary shares of the Issuer that were outstanding as of February 28, 2022, based on information contained in the Issuers Annual Report on Form 20-F, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 28, 2022.





CUSIP No. M8001Q118 13G/A Page 3 of 7 Pages

1. NAMES OF REPORTING PERSONS



Morris Kahn 2. CHECK THE APPROPRIATE BOX IF A MEMBER OF A GROUP

(See Instructions) (a)  (b)  3. SEC USE ONLY



4. CITIZENSHIP OR PLACE OF ORGANIZATION



Israel

NUMBER OF SHARES BENEFICIALLY OWNED BY EACH REPORTING PERSON WITH 5. SOLE VOTING POWER



0 6.



1,891,152 SHARED VOTING POWER 7. SOLE DISPOSITIVE POWER



0 8.



1,891,152 SHARED DISPOSITIVE POWER

9.



1,891,152 AGGREGATE AMOUNT BENEFICIALLY OWNED BY EACH REPORTING PERSON 10. CHECK IF THE AGGREGATE AMOUNT IN ROW (9) EXCLUDES CERTAIN SHARES

(see instructions)  11.



10.1% (1) PERCENT OF CLASS REPRESENTED BY AMOUNT IN ROW (9) 12. TYPE OF REPORTING PERSON (see instructions)



IN





(1) Percentage is based on 18,756,570 ordinary shares of the Issuer that were outstanding as of February 28, 2022, based on information contained in the Issuers Annual Report on Form 20-F, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 28, 2022.

Item 1.



(a) Name of Issuer

Polypid Ltd. (b) Address of Issuers Principal Executive Offices

18 Hasivim Street Petach Tikva 495376, Israel

Item 2.

(a) Name of Person Filing: This Amendment No. 2 (this  Amendment No. 2 ) to the Statement of Beneficial Ownership on Schedule 13G, filed on February 24, 2022 (the  Statement ), as amended by Amendment No. 1 thereto, filed on February 24, 2022 ( Amendment No. 1 ), is being filed by each of:

(i) Aurum Ventures M.K.I. Ltd. (the  Reporting Entity ); and (i) Aurum Ventures M.K.I. Ltd. (the ); and (ii) Morris Kahn (the  Reporting Individual,  and, together with the Reporting Entity, the  Reporting Persons ). The Reporting Individual is the ultimate sole beneficial shareholder of the Reporting Entity, as the outstanding shares of the Reporting Entity are held indirectly by a trust for which the Reporting Individual is the settlor and the sole ultimate beneficiary. Consequently, the Reporting Individual may be deemed to share beneficial ownership of the Ordinary Shares (as defined in Item 2(d) below) held by the Reporting Entity. The Reporting Individual does not make day-to-day voting or investment decisions with respect to the Ordinary Shares held by the Reporting Entity and therefore disclaims beneficial ownership of them except to the extent of his pecuniary interest therein. The Reporting Entity and the Reporting Individual are referred to herein collectively as the  Reporting Persons . This Amendment No. 2 reports the acquisition of an additional 150,000 shares of the Issuer by the Reporting Entity on March 7, 2022.

(b) Address of Principal Business Office or, if None, Residence: The principal business office of each of the Reporting Persons is c/o Aurum Group, 16 Abba Hillel Road, Ramat Gan 5250608, Israel (c) Citizenship:

The Reporting Entity is organized in Israel. The Reporting Individual is a citizen of the State of Israel. (d) Title of Class of Securities

Ordinary Shares, no par value per share ( Ordinary Shares ) (e) CUSIP Number

M8001Q118

Item 3. If this statement is filed pursuant to 240.13d-1(b) or 240.13d-2(b) or (c), check whether the person filing is a:

(a)  Broker or dealer registered under section 15 of the Act (15 U.S.C. 78o). (b)  Bank as defined in section 3(a)(6) of the Act (15 U.S.C. 78c). (c)  Insurance company as defined in section 3(a)(19) of the Act (15 U.S.C. 78c). (d)  Investment company registered under section 8 of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (15 U.S.C. 80a-8). (e)  An investment adviser in accordance with 240.13d-1(b)(1)(ii)(E); (f)  An employee benefit plan or endowment fund in accordance with 240.13d-1(b)(1)(ii)(F); (g)  A parent holding company or control person in accordance with 240.13d-1(b)(1)(ii)(G); (h)  A savings associations as defined in Section 3(b) of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act (12 U.S.C. 1813); (i)  A church plan that is excluded from the definition of an investment company under section 3(c)(14) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (15 U.S.C. 80a-3); (j)  Group, in accordance with 240.13d-1(b)(1)(ii)(J).

Not applicable.

Item 4. Ownership.

Provide the following information regarding the aggregate number and percentage of the class of securities of the issuer identified in Item 1.

With respect to each of the Reporting Persons:

(a) Amount beneficially owned: 1,891,152 Ordinary Shares (b) Percent of class: 10.1%* * Such percentage is based on 18,756,570 Ordinary Shares of the Issuer that were outstanding as of February 28, 2022, based on information contained in the Issuers Annual Report on Form 20-F, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 28, 2022. (c) Number of shares as to which the person has: (i) Sole power to vote or to direct the vote: Reporting Entity: 1,891,152 Reporting Individual: 0 (ii) Shared power to vote or to direct the vote: Reporting Entity: 0 Reporting Individual: 1,891,152 (iii) Sole power to dispose or to direct the disposition of: Reporting Entity: 1,891,152 Reporting Individual: 0 (iv) Shared power to dispose or to direct the disposition of: Reporting Entity: 0 Reporting Individual: 1,891,152



By way of his beneficial ownership of all outstanding shares of the Reporting Entity, the Reporting Individual exercises shared voting and dispositive power with respect to all 1,891,152 Ordinary Shares that are beneficially owned by the Reporting Entity and that are reported in this Amendment.

Item 5. Ownership of Five Percent or Less of a Class.

If this statement is being filed to report the fact that as of the date hereof the reporting person has ceased to be the beneficial owner of more than five percent of the class of securities, check the following .

Item 6. Ownership of More than Five Percent on Behalf of Another Person.

If any other person is known to have the right to receive or the power to direct the receipt of dividends from, or the proceeds from the sale of, such securities, a statement to that effect should be included in response to this item and, if such interest relates to more than 5 percent of the class, such person should be identified. A listing of the shareholders of an investment company registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940 or the beneficiaries of employee benefit plan, pension fund or endowment fund is not required.

Not applicable.

Item 7. Identification and Classification of the Subsidiary Which Acquired the Security Being Reported on By the Parent Holding Company.

If a parent holding company or control person has filed this schedule pursuant to Rule 13d-1(b)(1)(ii)(G), so indicate under Item 3(g) and attach an exhibit stating the identity and the Item 3 classification of the relevant subsidiary. If a parent holding company or control person has filed this schedule pursuant to Rule 13d-1(c) or Rule 13d-1(d), attach an exhibit stating the identification of the relevant subsidiary.

Not applicable.

Item 8. Identification and Classification of Members of the Group.

If a group has filed this schedule pursuant to Rule 13d-1(b)(ii)(K), so indicate under Item 3(k) and attach an exhibit stating the identity and Item 3 classification of each member of the group. If a group has filed this schedule pursuant to Rule 13d-1(c) or Rule 13d-1(d), attach an exhibit stating the identity of each member of the group.





Not applicable.

Item 9. Notice of Dissolution of Group.

Notice of dissolution of a group may be furnished as an exhibit stating the date of the dissolution and that all further filings with respect to transactions in the security reported on will be filed, if required, by members of the group, in their individual capacity. ( See Item 5)

Not applicable.

Item 10. Certification.

Not applicable.

SIGNATURE

After reasonable inquiry and to the best of my knowledge and belief, I certify that the information set forth in this statement is true, complete and correct.

AURUM VENTURES M.K.I. LTD. By: /s/ Nir Dror-Darwish Name: Nir Dror-Darwish Title: Authorized Signatory Date: July 15, 2022 By: /s/ Ilan Lior Name: Ilan Lior Title: Authorized Signatory Date: July 15, 2022





/s/ Morris Kahn MORRIS KAHN Date: July 15, 2022




YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan  The Air Force has expressed condolences a second time for the death of a family dog at a military passenger terminal in the Pacific.

A transportation specialist discovered a French bulldog dead in its travel crate Thursday at the Kadena Air Base terminal on Okinawa, Col. Damien Pickart, a spokesman for Air Mobility Command told Stars and Stripes by email Friday.

Overnight Air Mobility Command leadership learned of a new pet death on an AMC Patriot Express mission, the command said in a post Friday on its official Facebook page. We extend our deepest condolences to the family.

The dog is the fourth family pet found dead in connection with a Patriot Express flight in the Pacific since June 5. The July 1 death of a Pomeranian mix prompted the command to express condolences and make a series of changes to ensure its passengers pets are handled safely during flights in the summer heat.

The Air Force general in charge of Air Mobility Command wrote an alert Friday to say he ordered a review of every aspect of Patriot Express pet travel following the deaths of three dogs in the past two weeks.

As a pet owner with five overseas tours, Im intimately aware of the risk, expense, and extreme concern when it comes to these important members of our families, wrote Gen. Michael Minihan.

Air Mobility Command acknowledged two dogs had died since July 1 and mentioned a third found dead June 5. Minihans mention of a third since July 1 adds up to four dogs since June 5.

We will hold ourselves accountable to a high standard and will positively influence every service agency involved in the pet movement enterprise, he wrote.

However, pet owners must consider the risks involved in their pets air travel, Minihan said.

It is imperative you understand that the process we are improving cannot completely mitigate risks associated with certain health, breed, and sedation challenges, he wrote.

In the bulldogs case, its owners were traveling from Kadena to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport aboard the Patriot Express, Pickart said. The Patriot Express is a government-contracted air service between the U.S. and its overseas military bases. It flies to passenger terminals administered by Air Mobility Command.

The bulldog was inside an air-conditioned terminal area while being processed for travel, except for 10 minutes while the crates were loaded aboard the aircraft, the command said Friday. The Patriot Express is typically a civilian aircraft like a Boeing 777, 767 or 747.

During the loading process, the specialist noticed the dog was not breathing, then unloaded the crate and notified the on-call veterinarian, Pickart said.

The 733rd Air Mobility Squadron immediately notified and comforted the family and assured them the pets remains would be delivered to them at their final destination, he said.

The French bulldog is a snub-nosed breed that Air Mobility Command considers a high-risk for air travel.

Besides the heat and stress of air travel, there have been commonalities amongst some of the recent fatalities that you need to be aware of now, said Mininhans statement on the command website. Pet health, age, breed, and sedation appear to be factors.

The command also expressed condolences on its Facebook page Wednesday for Kolbie, a Pomeranian mix found dead July 1 aboard the Patriot Express during a layover at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, after a flight from Seattle.

That dog died of heat stroke, according to his owners, Amber Marie and Gunnery Sgt. Christopher Panko. Amber Panko in a Facebook post said she gave Kolbie a prescription sleep aid, trazadone, approved for dogs before the flight left Seattle.

Gen. Mike Minihan, Air Mobility Command commander, and the commander of the 730th Air Mobility Squadron, personally reached out to the Panko family to extend their condolences at the loss of Kolbie, get additional details on what occurred, and assure them that all measures are being taken to ensure AMC Patriot Express missions are as safe as possible for families traveling with pets, said Wednesday's post.

A pug, also a snub-nosed dog, died June 5 on a Patriot Express flight from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, a passenger on that flight, Julie Barker, told Stars and Stripes on Wednesday.

Air Mobility Command referred to that incident in its Facebook post Friday but offered no further details.

It said that of 46,000 service members pets carried by the command since 2017, only 16 have died during the process and 14 of those were snub-nosed breeds.
The U.S. and Japan sent 52 military aircraft aloft in exercises over the seas surrounding Japan in the days and weeks after Russian and Chinese warships plied the same area.

Three days of aerial exercises July 6, 11 and 12 demonstrated tactical coordination between the allies, the Japan Air Self-Defense Force said Thursday in a news release. The exercise took place over the Sea of Japan, the East China Sea and the Pacific Ocean, according to the Self-Defense Force.

Thats probably no coincidence, James Brown, an international affairs expert at Temple Universitys Japan campus, said to Stars and Stripes by email Friday.

Between June 12 and July 1, three Chinese naval vessels effectively circumnavigated Japan. A flotilla of seven Russian warships completed a similar journey between June 15 and June 21.

On July 5, two Chinese coast guard vessels came within 12 miles of the Senkaku Islands, a disputed island chain administered by Japan but also claimed by China and Taiwan. Chinese and Russian vessels were also spotted near the Senkakus the previous day.

The Chinese and Russian excursions had clearly been intended to intimidate Japan, Brown said.

The aerial exercises by Japan and the U.S., while commonplace, demonstrate the ability to respond to intimidation, he said.

They show that Japan is not isolated and will not be bullied into changing its policy on the issues of Ukraine and Taiwan, Brown said.

Japan backs Ukraine in its war against Russia, which invaded in February. Japan appeared to shift toward clearer support for Taiwan when a deputy defense minister in June 2021 said Japan should help the U.S. defend the island democracy in the event of a Chinese attack.

The recent three-day air force exercise included 31 U.S. Air Force aircraft: 12 F-22 Raptors and four F-35A Lightning IIs, both fifth-generation stealth fighters and bombers; three F-15C Eagles, an E-3 Sentry and a KC-135 Stratotanker. A U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon patrol and anti-submarine warfare aircraft also took part.

The Japan Air Self-Defense Force sent 20 fighters: 12 F-15J Eagles and eight Mitsubishi F-2s.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Navy and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, conducted a surface warfare exercise with P-8A Poseidon and a P-3C Orion surveillance aircraft near the Ryukyu Islands, which include Okinawa and stretch from Kyushu, the southernmost of Japans four main islands, toward Taiwan.

Professional engagement with our long-standing alliances, such as the Japan Self-Defense Force, with our Joint forces allows us the opportunity to build upon existing, strong relationships and learn from each other, U.S. 7th Fleet spokesman Lt. Mark Langford said Thursday in an email to Stars and Stripes.

Beyond Japan, four Air Force B-2 Spirit stealth bombers flew July 10-12 to Royal Australian Air Force Base Amberley, Australia, as a bomber task force.

Its important for us to demonstrate that we can accomplish that mission from diverse locations in the largest combatant command in the world, and thats exactly what were doing here, said Lt. Col. Andrew Kousgaard, commander of 393rd Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, in a Tuesday news release from Pacific Air Forces.
FORT DRUM (Tribune News Service)  Fort Drum could be selected for a new military installation that could add another 3,000 soldiers and dozens more civilian jobs.

Fort Drum is competing for the Armys new Multi-Domain Task Force  or MDTF, a strategy to deal with the national security threat from China and Russia. Advocate Drum is organizing a letter-writing campaign in support of Fort Drum getting the MDTF.

David J. Zembiec, Advocate Drums chairman and CEO of Jefferson County Economic Development, said the goal is to get local elected officials, community groups, area chambers of commerce and economic development leaders to send letters to the Army in support of Fort Drum.

The Army will be selecting two new MDTF installations, he said. Three have already been selected.

Advocate Drum officials have put together a template of the letter that will be used in the local campaign.

They want as many as we can get, Zembiec said.

Fort Drum is among 13 military installations competing for the MDTFs, Zembiec said.

He thinks Drum has a fairly good shot at being selected.

Local officials heard about the possibility of landing the MDTF around the Fourth of July holiday and met last week to discuss how to respond.

Two MDTF stationing alternatives are being considered by the Army, according to the Advocate Drum letter.

The full MDTF investment will mean millions in additional infrastructure at Fort Drum, along with 3,000 additional soldiers, and dozens of additional civilian positions. The base MDTF would mean adding up to 400 soldiers and civilians, with a small investment.

The investment will also enhance the long-term sustainability of Fort Drum, ensuring that the north country remains the best place on Earth to house and train soldiers to ensure the Army retains its position as the globally dominant land power.

Advocate Drum would like to send letters in a package to the Army, but individual groups can forward their own letters.

If they do that, Advocate Drum wants a copy of the letter, Zembiec said.

Advocate Drum wants the letters by July 19. The Army has a July 22 deadline.

Congress has expressed concern about the threat to U.S. national security posed by Russia and China.

The Army has put together a strategy to deal with the threat through MDTFs, according to the Congressional Service Report.

The Army contends in order to address the Russia and China threat, it must be able to operate in a multi-domain  air, land, water, space, cyber, information environment  requiring new operational concepts, technologies, weapons, and units, according to the congressional report.

The MDTF is the Armys self-described organizational centerpiece of this effort.

The Army describes the MDTF as theater-level maneuver elements designed to synchronize precision effects and precision fires in all domains against adversary anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) networks in all domains, enabling joint forces to execute their operational plan (OPLAN)-directed roles.

Advocate Drum implemented the same kind of local campaign to convince the Department of Defense that Fort Drum should be the preferred location for an East Coast missile defense site, although DoD has yet to make a determination if the project will proceed.

Former Watertown Mayor Joseph M. Butler, Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army, said that the new MDTF soldiers would be separate and distinct with special capabilities.

They would be housed and trained at Fort Drum, but their deployments would come from higher up in the army.

(c)2022 Watertown Daily Times (Watertown, N.Y.)

Visit Watertown Daily Times (Watertown, N.Y.) at www.watertowndailytimes.com
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan  Skyla Scher-Luna, an Air Force spouse, was newly pregnant in December 2020 when she and her husband moved into housing tower 3220 on the west side of this airlift hub in western Tokyo.

On day two in their new home, Scher-Luna, 38, a native of Los Alamos, N.M., recognized they had a roach problem. After a month, she notified the base housing office, but waited while nothing was done. As time passed, she worried how the infestation would affect their newborn.

It was beyond stressful to have to worry about leaving her on the floor too long or leaving clothes on the floor, Scher-Luna said. I am already a very clean person, but I had to be immaculate, but I just felt dirty all the time no matter what I did.

In May, the Yokota Military Housing Office relocated six families out of the tower to permit maintenance crews to rid the units of cockroaches, according to Lt. Col. Timothy Scheffler, commander of the 374th Civil Engineer Squadron. Scher-Lunas was among the families moved to two other housing towers, she said.

The Housing Office provided six families government-funded moves in order for maintenance and entomology crews unfettered access for thorough inspections of eight units, Scheffler said in an email June 24 to Stars and Stripes. We wanted to inspect above and below units as well as along a shared utility corridor which required all eight units to be vacated.

The units will be reopened once the infestation is completely eradicated, he said.

Air Force spouse Lex Sistrux, 26, of Pocatello, Idaho, whose family also relocated, identified the affected units as A and B on the first four floors of nine-story tower 3220.

Before Sistrux and her family moved to Japan in August 2021, she discovered on Facebook that their future home was infested with cockroaches, she told Stars and Stripes on June 16.

I saw community posts about it, and I was like Oh, boy, but Im sure theyve taken care of it because these posts were from a year ago, Sistrux said. So, I was like, No big deal, it is going to be fine.

She discovered three cockroaches on the day she moved in, she said.

They were good size ones, you know, not like itty bitty ones that are like somewhat manageable, Sistrux said. Ive lived in very, like, urban places where roaches are an issue and, like, places that have been infested with roaches. Ive never lived in something like this before.

Cockroaches, or gokiburi in Japanese, are common in Japan and active from June to September during the hot, humid summers, according to the gogonihon blog. The site recommends insecticide, roach traps and bug bombs as remedies, but prevention starts with basic cleanliness.

Scher-Luna said the base entomologists gave her roach traps and poison. Not anything was really done, they just kept putting Band-Aids on it, she said.

Roaches are hard to kill. Their eggs are covered with a hard shell that resists pesticides, according to Earth Corp., a Japanese maker of household products. A cockroach lays 22-28 eggs at a time and about 500 eggs in a lifetime.

Scher-Luna and her husband put mesh on open light fixtures where cockroaches gathered. They also covered the shower drains and stopped using their master bathroom.

We did a lot of stuff on our own which kind of stopped the flow of cockroaches, Scher-Luna said. But for the first seven to eight months, it was at least two or three cockroaches a day we would see or have to kill. I lost count after 100.
BRUSSELS - The European Commission on Friday proposed additional sanctions on Russia for the war in Ukraine, as well as measures to tighten existing sanctions, according to E.U. officials.

The maintenance and alignment package takes aim at imports of Russian gold and includes measures aimed at better implementing and enforcing the sanctions.

The package clarifies a number of provisions to strengthen legal certainty for operators and enforcement by Member States, according to an E.U. statement. It also reiterates the Commissions determined stance to protect food security around the globe.

The proposal could still change and must be approved by all member states. E.U. diplomats said the hope is that countries will formally approve the measures next week. If that happens, it will be the blocs seventh round of sanctions since Russia launched its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

Russias brutal war against Ukraine continues unabated, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement published Friday. Therefore, we are proposing today to tighten our hard-hitting EU sanctions against the Kremlin, enforce them more effectively and extend them until January 2023. Moscow must continue to pay a high price for its aggression.

Although E.U. sanctions have hurt Russias economy, the country continues to generate revenue by exporting energy, including natural gas and oil. The seventh package is not expected to include measures on gas or any additional measures on oil, ensuring that cash keeps flowing to the Kremlins coffers.

Though some E.U. countries have called for a full and immediate energy embargo, many member states worry that such a move would destabilize the global economy and push Europe even closer to a recession.

The United States is pushing for a new global price cap on Russian oil as a way to diminish Russias massive revenue from energy sales. E.U. diplomats said the idea is being discussed but is unlikely to gain traction before autumn, if at all.

Paolo Gentiloni, European commissioner for economy, told reporters Thursday that the commission is reviewing the proposal on price caps but that such measures would only be considered in extraordinary future scenarios.
JERUSALEM - President Joe Biden devoted the last hours of his Israeli visit to restoring the ties with Palestinians severed by his predecessor, visiting a Palestinian hospital Friday in East Jerusalem and crossing an Israeli military checkpoint to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem.

The president called for a full accounting of the May killing of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh during an Israeli raid in the West Bank, the first time he has publicly mentioned the incident during his visit.

Bidens two events produced no progress toward renewed talks in the long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process. But the White House did announce a range of measures meant to improve the situation at a time when Palestinians are hurting, you can just feel it, Biden said after his meeting with Abbas.

I know that the goal of the two state [solution] seems so far away, while indignities like restrictions on movement and travel or the daily worry of your childrens safety are real and immediate, the president said. So even if the ground is not ripe at this moment to restart negotiations, the United States and my administration will not give up on trying to bring the Palestinians and the Israelis closer together.

The administration approved $316 million in new aid for Palestinians, including $100 million for a hospital network that serves patients from the West Bank and Gaza. Another $200 million will go to the United Nations agency that supports Palestinian refugees, funding that was largely eliminated by the Trump administration. Biden, who has pledged to renew support for Palestinians, began restoring Washingtons contribution soon after taking office.

The White House also announced $15 million in emergency aid to help the territories during grain shortages caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as an initiative to speed the rollout of 4G technology in the West Bank and Gaza. The administration said it was also pressing Israel to ease travel restrictions on Palestinians by streamlining the crossing between the West Bank and Jordan.

Its an honor to see first hand the quality of care you provide to the Palestinian people, Biden said after touring Augusta Victoria Hospital, the leading advanced-care facility available to residents of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, most of whom need Israeli permission to travel there.

Palestinians and Israelis deserve equal measures of freedom, security, prosperity and dignity, the president said, announcing the new hospital funding. And access to health care when you need it is essential to leading a life of dignity.

Biden traveled to East Jerusalem without any Israeli officials to accompany him, leading some right-wing politicians to complain that the president was undermining Israels sovereignty over the entire city, including its Palestinian neighborhoods.

Biden, who has declined to reverse President Donald Trumps shift of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, said that his solo trip to the hospital did not signal a shift in policy. He reiterated the official view that Jerusalem is Israels capital during his meeting with Abbas, according to the White House. But he said the citys ultimate boundaries must be determined through future negotiations.

The presidents meetings with Palestinians follow two days of warm embraces from Israeli officials, during which Biden made his support for the Jewish state clear and laid claim to the label of Zionist.

His reception on the other side of the security wall has been less enthusiastic, reflecting disappointment that Biden hasnt done more to pressure Israel to resume peace talks and improve its treatment of Palestinians under occupation.

Some protesters in Ramallah held up Biden Go Home posters during a demonstration Thursday. An Israeli advocacy group, BTselem, mounted billboards near the 26-foot-high separation wall in Bethlehem reading Mr. President, This is Apartheid, a characterization Biden has rejected.

In Bethlehem, Biden again affirmed his support for a peace agreement that would end the Israeli occupation and create an independent Palestine, as he did during stops in Israel, but also he saw no prospects to restart talks. He had indicated his intention to reopen the U.S. Consulate in East Jerusalem, but has so far hasnt in the face of Israeli objections.

So far in his presidency, Palestinians dont see Biden as their champion, according to pollsters.

Palestinians see it as a positive thing that this president has restored some of the funding and talks to Palestinian leaders, but overall the feeling about this trip and the last year and a half is one of disappointment, said Khalil Shikaki, a pollster and director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. The hope that he would be very different from Trump has faded. Now they see him as only slightly different.

After Biden met with Abbas, the Palestinian leader asked the president in front of reporters to pressure Israel to halt the expansion of settlements and acts of violence by settlers against Palestinians, as well as the policy of demolishing Palestinian houses and frequent Israeli raids and arrests in Palestinian towns.

Abbas also asked Biden to reopen the East Jerusalem consulate, the Washington office of the Palestine Liberation Organization and to remove it from the list of designated terror organizations.

We are not terrorists, said Abbas, who is chairman of the organization.

Abbas also asked Biden to press for more investigation into the killing of Abu Akleh, the journalist who was killed in the West Bank city of Jenin while reporting on an Israeli raid.

Israel, after initially saying Abu Akleh was likely killed by a Palestinian gunman during a firefight, now says it cannot be determined who was responsible. The Biden administration, after brokering a joint ballistic analysis earlier this month, has accepted the finding that the shot likely came from an Israeli soldier.

In Bethlehem, Biden called her death an enormous loss to the vital work of sharing with the world the story of the Palestinian people.

The United States will continue to insist on a full and transparent accounting of her death and will continue to stand up for media freedom, he said.

With the liberal wing of the Democratic Party increasingly aligning with Palestinian causes, many here expected Biden to engage with the conflict more forcefully than he has, Shikaki said.

Hes not even doing as much as Obama did, Shikaki said. That they cant even do something as small and symbolic as opening the consulate is seen as a real lack of courage or will or ability.

Some Palestinians see Bidens events in the West Bank, slotted between his days in Israel and his departure for Saudi Arabia, as a footnote to his real priority: deepening Israels ties with other Arab nations in the region. The Saudis gulf neighbors Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates are among the countries that have recently entered formal relations with Israel despite their long-standing pledge not to do so without a resolution to the Palestinian conflict.

The Saudi government announced Friday that it was opening its airspace to Israeli commercial flights, ending a traditional blockade that will save hours on flights between Israel and parts of Asia. Biden and Israeli officials hailed the shift as a step toward warmer relations between the two countries.
A former soldier stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison for assaulting military police who responded to the barracks after he fired a weapon during a drunken fight last year.

Ricardo Manuele Davila-DeJesus, 29, pleaded guilty on March 22 in a Waco federal courtroom within the Western District of Texas to two counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers, according to the Justice Department. The incident began after Davila-DeJesus became drunk and argued with several people inside of a Fort Hood barracks at about 12:50 a.m. on Feb. 6, 2021, according to court documents.

Military police were called to the barracks when the argument spilled into the parking lot and Davila-DeJesus retrieved a Glock 30  a .45-caliber handgun  and pointed it directly at a soldier who is not named in the court documents.

The soldier, who was in fear for his life, ran back toward the barracks building and heard three gunshots. Davila-DeJesus was disarmed by others at the scene and police soon arrived.

During transport to the police station, Davila-DeJesus struck an officer and spit in the face of another, according to a Justice Department statement. He continued to resist arrest by repeatedly kicking the back door of the patrol vehicle.

Davila-DeJesus was initially indicted for a federal charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, which carried a possible sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

Immediately following the incident last year, Fort Hood announced increased security measures for access to the base, which are still in place. All civilians must show identification to enter Fort Hood. Previously, those with base access could vouch for adult passengers.

Davila-DeJesus was separated from the Army in May 2020 after misconduct that included drug use, domestic violence and driving under the influence, according to base officials. His arrest on base last year led officials to review whether former soldiers who were separated for misconduct should have access to Fort Hood.

Base officials said Thursday that the review resulted in a policy that does allow them to limit access to the base for some former soldiers depending on their type of discharge.
AUSTIN, Texas  A Texas Army National Guard soldier assigned to a state-sponsored mission at the border with Mexico died Thursday in an incident not related to the deployment, state military officials said.

The soldiers death is under investigation and the name of the deceased is being withheld until 24 hours after next-of-kin notification.

Officials for the Texas Military Department did not respond to questions about where the death occurred or the circumstances. They also did not say what agency is investigating the soldiers death.

Nearly 6,000 troops are deployed on the state mission known as Operation Lone Star, Maj. Gen. Thomas Suelzer, commander of the Texas National Guard, told state lawmakers this week. The mission is under the command of Gov. Greg Abbott and began in March 2021. At its peak earlier this year, 10,000 troops were assigned to the mission.

The troops work alongside state police to patrol the border for illegal activity such as trespassing, drug smuggling or human trafficking. Troops are also building fences along the border.

The Texas National Guard has confirmed the deaths of two other soldiers this year  one was related to the mission and the other was not.

Spc. Dajuan Lester Townes, 19, died in February in the town of Brackettville after being accidentally shot with a personally owned firearm.

Sgt. Bishop Evans, 22, died in April while on duty along the Rio Grande in the city of Eagle Pass. The soldier jumped into the river to rescue a migrant who was struggling to swim and he was swept away too. Guard officials later confirmed Evans did not have access to water safety equipment or a flotation device because it was on back order.
Two Flagstaff, Arizona police officers went undercover to massage parlors, took their pants off, and allowed themselves to be fondled. One of the officers, Dustin Eberhardt, repeated this eight different times at various massage parlors over a 48-hour period. The other officer, only identified as "Officer Hutchinson," went to some of the same massage parlors and repeated these same actions five different times.

The officers were part of a months-long investigation in 2019 conducted by Homeland Security Investigations and Flagstaff Police Department that focused on human trafficking, sex trafficking, and prostitution. However, "not a single trafficking victim" was identified at the end of the investigation; instead, the investigation has raised numerous ethical and legal concerns. Investigative reporter Zach Crenshaw has been covering the case for ABC15.com and has written a thorough and damning article about it.

Crenshaw describes at least three ways in which these activities are illegal and problematic:

Defense attorneys, trafficking experts and even other law enforcement tell ABC15 there are a litany of issues with how this operation was conducted. For starters, state law clearly outlines that what the officers detailed in their reports is illegal. Second, experts say the fondling was not necessary for police and prosecutors to pursue prostitution charges. Third, investigators repeatedly said they were looking into "sex trafficking" and then proceeded to pay for sex acts from potential victims.

So, these officers engaged in sex trafficking, not once or twice, but EIGHT and FIVE times each. And yet, they are not currently being charged with anything. Flagstaff Police Chief Dan Musselman not only is not going to prosecute his officers but has the gall to claim that the officers are actually the victims here. Crenshaw reports that Chief Musselman stated: "Quite the opposite happened, the subject fondled Officer Eberhardt thereby making him the victim of Sexual Abuse under 13-1404."

Zach Crenshaw will continue to keep us updated on this incredibly disturbing case; for now you can read his initial reporting here.
WASHINGTON  Four American veterans who served in the Army during World War II and fought in Europe were recently awarded Frances highest honor for their service.

Benjamin Portaro, 101, and J. David Bailey, 100, fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Ernest Marvel, 98, helped liberate the Dachau concentration camp in Germany. Leslie Simmler, 97, took part in the attack on the Parroy Forest in France.

We're all 96 or 97, or so forth, Bailey said. But we have to keep the history of World War II prevalent. We saved the world from fascism. The reason I get involved and do a lot of work in promoting the veterans issues is because to keep the story alive of that war.

Bailey, Simmler and Marvel were at the French Embassy in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to receive that nations Legion of Honor for their service during the war. Portaro was unable to attend the ceremony.

French Ambassador Philippe Etienne said the award was created in 1802 to honor the people who displayed special merits and courage in the military and the civilian domains.

So it is more than normal that we express our gratitude to the American soldiers who came to liberate France in World War II, and we have been doing this for years, he said. We are still really very happy that we could, we can still have some veterans [who] are 98, 99, 100 years, who are still there, and we can also express to them our gratitude for having liberated friends, for having risked their lives. There was a great sacrifice.

Bailey, who was a corporal, said when he joined the Army in November 1942, he wanted to be in the infantry.

I wasn't a Boy Scout or anything like that, he said. But you will find that the best soldiers are not the big muscular type, but the little runts like me, who have a little bit of strength, and perseverance, and so forth.

Marvel said he still suffers with post-traumatic stress from his time in service. His unit took part in the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp in April, 1945. Marvel said they discovered box cars on railroad tracks near the camp. When they opened, they discovered the box cars were filled with dead bodies.

It's something you never get over, he said. As long as your mind works, you'll never get over it.

Leslie Simmler said his unit landed at Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, in September 1944.

I looked at those cliffs, and I said, I don't know how those guys ever got off of that beach, he said. I looked at [those cliffs] and I said, 'Oh, man. I know they took a beating.

His unit attacked and captured the Parroy Forest in France. Simmler was wounded in the battle.

No more wars, that's all I can say, he said. What did we solve? Nothing.

Wendy Sherman, the U.S. deputy secretary of state, attended the ceremony to honor the veterans. She said the event was important to her because her father served in the Marine Corps during World War II and her father-in-law was a medic who fought in France.

And so to have France honor these three gentlemen who fought as Americans, for the freedom and liberty of France, and for the world in World War II, is incredibly meaningful, Sherman said.
The two men are due to stand trial later this year accused of the murder of Kinahan associate David Byrne at the Regency Hotel in 2016.

The two men are due to stand trial later this year accused of the murder of Kinahan associate David Byrne at the Regency Hotel in 2016.

They had sought to have the charges dropped, under Section 4E of the Criminal Procedure Act 1967, on the grounds that there is an insufficient case to put them on trial.

However, the Special Criminal Court first had to determine if it had jurisdiction to hear the application.

The State argued that the section is clear in its literal meaning and that it is only available to accused persons who have been sent forward for trial.

As the defendants were charged directly before the non-jury court and not sent forward for trial, the prosecution said they did not fall under the terms of the section.

The defence claimed that such an interpretation would result in unequal and discriminatory treatment to the accused.

Jonathan Dowdall

Ms Justice Tara Burns, presiding, today said that the literal meaning of Section 4E reflects the intention of the Oireachtas.

This, she said, prohibits an accused person charged directly before the Special Criminal Court from bringing an application to have the charges dismissed.

The non-jury court said that it does not have jurisdiction in this regard and that it is not appropriate to examine the matter any further.

All five defendants were present in court today as well as Sadie Byrne, the mother of David Byrne.

After the ruling Mr Grehan informed the court that he was bringing an application to have certain evidence in the case ruled inadmissible.

He said that this evidence comprises a "major if not substantial" part of the case made against Mr Hutch.

Ms Justice Burns said given the scope of the application it would seem inappropriate to have a separate hearing on the matter.

The court said it could be dealt with in a pre-trial hearing and adjourned the matter to October 3.

Mr Hutch and Mr Dowdall were joined in the preliminary hearing of the Section 4E application by their three co-defendants.

Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch (58), of The Paddocks in Clontarf, is charged with the murder of David Byrne at the Regency Hotel on the Swords Road in Whitehall on February 5, 2016.

Former Sinn Fein councillor Jonathan Dowdall (43), with an address on the Navan Road, Cabra, is also charged with Byrne's murder.

His father Patrick Dowdall (65), also of the Navan Road, Jason Bonney (51) of Drumnigh Wood, Portmarnock, Dublin 15, and Paul Murphy (60) of Cherry Avenue in Swords, are each accused of a single offence contrary to Section 72 of the Criminal Justice Act 2006 as substituted by Section 6 of the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Act, 2009.
The Garda Representative Association have long called for both mandatory sentencing for all attacks on frontline emergency workers

The Garda Representative Association is disappointed and dismayed about the sentences handed down to two criminals brothers who tried to butcher a garda like an animal in what the GRA tonight called a senseless attack.

It is understood that Garda Alan Murphy is still trying to come to terms with the horrific ordeal he suffered on the night of March 30, 2020.

Earlier this week Gavin (28) and Lee (27) Quinn received combined jail time of just over four years at the Central Criminal Court.

One of the pair, Gavin Quinn, will be out of prison in just six months when the backdated and suspended elements of his sentence are taken into account.

His brother, Lee Quinn, could be out of prison in three-and-a-half years.

This is despite the judge noting that both men have a propensity for violence, and the fact that they had originally been due to stand trial for Garda Alan Murphys attempted murder.

Instead of a jury trial for attempted murder, they were re-arraigned at the Central Criminal Court on March 1 after the DPP accepted guilty pleas to the lesser charges.

During the incident, Garda Murphy was stabbed in the head and Lee Quinn tried to stab him in the eye with a six-inch kitchen knife.

The GRA represents 11,500 rank and file gardai and in a statement this evening the organisations Interim General Secretary Philip McAnenly said they would remain steadfast in ensuring Garda Murphy and his colleagues receive the necessary supports.

THIS week's sentencing of two men in relation to the savage attack on one of our members once again highlighted the dangers faced by ordinary frontline members of An Garda Siochana on a daily basis, Mr McAnenly said.

The terrifying evidence given in court told of the life-threatening attack on Garda Alan Murphy and had it not been for the brave intervention of our colleagues in the Dublin Fire Brigade, I believe this attack may have resulted in a far greater tragedy.

The GRA have long called for both mandatory sentencing for all attacks on frontline emergency workers, but also a fair and appropriate punishment for those convicted of such offences.

The Garda Representative Association wishes to thank members of the Dublin Fire Brigade for saving the life of Garda Alan Murphy and putting their own bodies between Garda Murphy and two individuals who clearly had no regard for human life and no respect for those garda members who have responsibility for enforcing the law and protecting the public.

We owe our colleagues in the Dublin Fire Brigade an enormous debt of gratitude, he added.

The Central Criminal Court was previously told that the garda was responding to reports that a man had been stabbed in Inchicore, Dublin 8, when he was attacked by the Quinn brothers.

During the incident, Gavin Quinn (28) pinned Gda Murphy to the ground as his younger brother, Lee Quinn (27), tried to stab the uniformed officer in the eye and later slashed him across the head, the court was told.

Gavin Quinn, of Tyrone Place, Inchicore, Dublin, later pleaded guilty to assaulting a peace officer in the execution of his duty, contrary to Section 19(1) of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994, at St Vincents Street West, Inchicore, Dublin 8, on March 30, 2020.

Lee Quinn, of Keeper Road, Drimnagh, Dublin, pleaded guilty to attempting to cause serious harm to Garda Murphy on the same date at the same location.

Lee Quinn, said the judge, had been assessed as being at high risk of reoffending and had a propensity for violence.

He has previous convictions for making threats to kill and threatening and abusive behaviour in public.
Gardai have seized a top-of-the-range Audi car valued at 45,000 that was bought with cash.

The man in his late 20s was arrested on Wednesday as part of a major operation mounted in relation to the scam, which involved the personal details of employees who worked in a north Dublin business.

The PUP payments totalling 49,500 was stolen in the welfare fraud after a criminal organisation obtained the employees details from either an internal or external data breach at the company they worked for.

The stolen money was then paid into bank accounts set up with false passports that featured the suspects photo.

Some of that cash was later laundered into his own personal account.

Separately, an estimated 120,000 was stolen in online fraud and paid into these same bank accounts.

The investigation is being carried out by the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB) and is part of Operation Skein, which targets money-laundering linked to international invoice redirect fraud.

The suspect, who is aged in his 20s, was arrested as part of the planned operation in Swords, north Co Dublin, on Wednesday in which GNECB detectives were backed up by gardai on secondment to the Department of Social Protection.

During the course of the search, laptops, phones, documentation, a quantity of cash and a car were seized, a garda spokeswoman said

He has since been released and a file will now be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

A source said the suspect had been displaying trappings of wealth, and gardai have seized a top-of-the-range Audi car valued at 45,000 that was bought with cash.

Fraud squad detectives also believe the man recently bought a house and believe he is strongly connected to gangs involved in scams.

This case is slightly unusual in that the money this individual was obtaining was not being sent elsewhere, a source said. It appears he was keeping it all for himself.

Sources said the suspects links to wider criminal organisations can be seen by the fact that an estimated 120,000 stolen in an online fraud was paid into the bogus bank accounts he set up with his own image on the false passports.

This money was obtained from a business email compromise scam.

It is understood the man, arrested earlier this week, is a close associate of a suspect who was charged with a sexual assault, but is now believed to have fled the country after being granted bail.

Gardai said Operation Skein has led to 200 arrests for mainly money-laundering offences over the past two years.

Detectives have established that around 32m has been laundered through Irish bank accounts by criminals who have been working for the international Black Axe crime network.

This organisation originated in Nigeria, and the suspect was born there, but is now an Irish citizen.

In Ireland, the Black Axe syndicate is manned by wholesale fraudsters, targeting businesses and individuals primarily in invoice redirect fraud, smishing text messages and online romance scams.

Smishing is the fraudulent practice of sending text messages purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords or credit card numbers.

It has not yet been established whether the man arrested this week is part of that organisation.

Operation Skein has been so successful that other EU police forces are planning on using it as a best practice model, with senior GNECB detectives giving presentations on the investigation to international police forces.
Derek Boyd was initially charged with unlawful possession or control of five rounds of 9mm Luger calibre ammunition and a Kahr CW9 semi-automatic pistol at his sister's home address on March 19.

A DUBLIN man accused of firearms offences after the death of his sister Sandra Boyd has been further charged with killing the mother of five.

Derek Boyd appeared before Judge Victor Blake at Cloverhill District Court today.

Sandra, 36, was fatally wounded in a suspected accidental shooting incident at her house in Collins Place, Finglas, Dublin, shortly before 9 pm on March 19

Emergency services rushed her to the Mater Hospital, but she was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.

Her younger brother Derek, 27, also from Collins Place, was initially charged with unlawful possession or control of five rounds of 9mm Luger calibre ammunition and a Kahr CW9 semi-automatic pistol at his sister's home address on March 19.

He did not apply for bail when he faced an emotionally charged hearing on March 23. He has remained in custody since while gardai sought directions from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

Sandra Boyd

In June, Detective Sergeant Damien Mangan told the court: "It's a complex case, there will be a substantial file submitted to the DPP on this matter, and we are asking for further, more serious charges."

Today, Detective Sergeant Mangan charged Mr Boyd with unlawfully killing Sandra.

He then brought him to appear before Judge Blake to give evidence of arrest, charge and caution.

The visibly upset accused replied, "I am sorry," when the manslaughter charge was put to him.

Judge Blake noted that the DPP directed trial on indictment in the Circuit Court.

Family members were in court for the latest developments in the case, but there was no application for bail.

The accused was remanded in custody pending the preparation of a book of evidence. Mr Boyd will appear again on July 22.

At his first court appearance in March, Detective Sergeant Mangan said the accused had "no comment" to the ammunition charge, and in response to the gun possession offence, "he made no reply".

At the outset of the proceedings, the defence said the firearms charges "relate to a terrible accident" and a "heartbreaking tragedy". Furthermore, lawyers said they did not anticipate any bail application.
On this day, in 1916, at the first Dada soiree at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, Hugo Ball read his Dada manifesto. While it is debatable when actually Dada began, this event is often heralded as the birth of this anti-art movement  which embraced irrationality, nonsense, surreality and rejected logic, reason, and the aesthetics of capitalism. Dada would go on to have a profound impact on all the arts and culture throughout the 20th century.

"How does one achieve eternal bliss? By saying dada. How does one become famous? By saying dada. With a noble gesture and delicate propriety. Till one goes crazy. Till one loses consciousness. How can one get rid of everything that smacks of journalism, worms, everything nice and right, blinkered, moralistic, europeanized, enervated? By saying dada. Dada is the world soul, dada is the pawnshop. Dada is the world's best lily-milk soap. Dada."  Hugo Ball

In the above video, a clip from the 1978 documentary, Europe After the Rain, actor Nickolas Grace plays Dadaist Tristan Tzara explaining how to write a Dada poem.

Bonus track:
The judge said that while Belling said his wife, who has been missing since 2017, was the driver of the scheme, he would take that explanation with a pinch of salt.

Daniel Belling (49) of Kilkee House, Clarke Village, Coolock, Dublin 17, pleaded guilty on his trial date to one count of dishonestly inducing the Bank of Ireland to providing a mortgage loan of 112,500 on 13 March 2014.

On five other occasions, Belling used false documents on dates between July 1, 2013 and January 27, 2015 to attempt to apply for loans, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard.

Passing sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today, Judge Martin Nolan said this offence was a classic white-collar crime.

The judge said that while Belling said his wife, who has been missing since 2017, was the driver of the scheme, he would take that explanation with a pinch of salt.

Judge Nolan said that Bellings wife, who is the mother of his children, has disappeared and I must consider if I should jail this man.

Judge Nolan said he had reluctantly decided not to jail Belling. He sentenced him to three and a half years but suspended it fully.

Xing Li (38) disappeared after her, Mr Belling and their two children boarded cruise ship MSC Magnifica in the Italian port of Civitavecchia in February.

Mr Belling returned to Ireland in 2018 after 14 months on remand in an Italian jail in relation to the disappearance.

His solicitor persuaded authorities to release him from custody and he returned to the home he shared with his wife in Clarehall, Dublin.

In July 2020, Italian investigators announced that their probe into Ms Xing's disappearance had determined that computer programmer Mr Belling killed his wife while on the ship and disposed of her body in the sea.

In May of this year, a murder trial in his absence began in Italy.

Daniel Belling

In court today, Detective Garda Niamh Seberry told Garrett McCormack BL, prosecuting, that Belling, who has German citizenship, used fake documents, including a German ID card with an incorrect date of birth, payslips overstating his salary as 90k, bank statements with incorrect information and an altered P60.

In July 2013, Belling was successful on his fourth attempt at applying for a mortgage with Bank of Ireland. He used this mortgage of 112,000 to buy a house on Malahide Road, which was then rented out to tenants to cover the mortgage.

However, the documents used by the accused to access the mortgage had been falsified, and gardai were alerted.

When Belling was interviewed by appointment on September 18, 2018, the court heard that he exercised his right to silence and answered: No comment in respect of each allegation put by gardai. He has no previous convictions.

Det Gda Seberry told Roisin Lacey SC, defending, that Belling is the primary carer for his two sons, aged nine and 10, both born in Ireland. The court heard Belling was born in Germany and lived there for much of his life.

Murder trial of Dublin-based man whose wife vanished from cruise liner begins

Man whose wife vanished from luxury Med cruise liner to face trial in September

Ms Lacey told the court that Belling had an exceptional work ethic and had worked in technical support for companies including Xerox, Canada Life, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft and most recently Apple, where he worked from 2012 to 2017.

The court heard Belling had a degree in computer science from DIT and had also done some training to be a nurse.

Ms Lacey said her client has been unemployed since 2017 and home-schools both his children.

He is not on social welfare in Ireland but claims welfare allowances from Germany as he is a German citizen.

A psychiatric report handed to the court showed that Belling had been an inpatient for depressive illnesses in Berlin as a result of suicide ideation and that although treatment had been successful, he still suffers from long-term depressive disorders and passivity.

Ms Lacey said the report showed that Belling had been subjected to conditioning from both a domineering mother and a domineering wife. His father died when he was two years old, and his mother remarried an alcoholic.

She said Bellings wife had been listed as a missing person since 2017 and that both Belling and his wife had obtained safety orders against each other during the course of their 17-year marriage.

Their relationship was tempestuous, said Ms Lacey.

She said although Belling has taken full responsibility for his crimes, the plan to dishonestly gain mortgages had emanated from his wife, who knew Chinese people involved in forgery and liaised with them to forge the fake documents, payslips and ID card.

Ms Lacey said Bellings wife planned to buy more and more properties and place tenants in them to pay off the mortgages.

Ms Lacey said her client told his wife that the scheme wouldnt work and was reluctant, but he later told gardai, It was my fault. I shouldnt have done it.

The court heard that Belling had fallen into arrears on his mortgage repayments on the house on Malahide Road because the clients had failed to pay the rent.

Ms Lacey said the house still has 96,000 outstanding on the mortgage and that Belling borrowed 46,000 from his sister in order to pay the arrears, which have been settled in full.

Ms Lacey said a hearing has been scheduled before the Private Residential Tenancies Board later this month to deal with the tenants of the house, after which Belling intends to sell it.

She said Belling plans to use the money from the sale to pay off the mortgage and repay the loan to his sister.

The court heard Belling is at low risk of reoffending. He wrote a letter of apology to the court and is fully aware of how his actions have impacted on his children, the court heard.
Its very disappointing to see a house which was opened by the Minister for Housing only last Monday week being burned to the ground like this

Gardai have launched an investigation into the circumstances behind a house fire in Longford town last night barely two weeks after it, together with 40 other social housing units, was opened by the Government.

The blaze at a two bedroom property in the Alderfield estate, Farnagh, Longford town, broke out at around 10:30pm.

The house after the fire

Emergency services rushed to the scene in an effort to wrestle control of the fire and prevent it spreading to adjoining houses.

Several neighbours and other locals surrounded the house not knowing whether a father and his young son, who reside at the property, were inside as smoke billowed into the night sky.

The scene itself was cordoned off this morning ahead of a full garda forensic investigation being carried out.

A garda spokesperson said gardai and emergency services attended a fire at a house that occurred at Farnagh Hill, Longford shortly after 10:30pm last night.

A number of local residents expressed their dismay at the incident.

Luckily he (owner) wasnt there, said local man Shane Collins.

His sister sometimes comes and stays with him and looks after the child but they were up in Dublin apparently when the guards phoned him.

Its very unusual. I spoke to his neighbour last night and he said he is a nice fella and didnt see any trouble.

"We were concerned there was somebody in it because we kept ringing the fire brigade but the fire really took hold a couple of minutes after that. You could see a fire in the bedroom, we didnt see it anywhere else.

Another local resident spoke of her relief at how no one was inside when the fire broke out.

People were running to see if anyone was trapped inside because a little boy lives there. There was nothing anyone could do as the whole thing just went up so fast."

The incident comes a little over two weeks since Junior Housing Minister Peter Burke officially opened the 10.8m estate as part of a 17.4m investment under the States Social Housing Capital Investment Programme (SHCIP).

Longford Municipal District Cathaoirleach Cllr Gerry Hagan said he had been left extremely disappointed at how such an incident could have occurred so soon after the estate was officially opened to the public.

Its very disappointing to see a house which was opened by the Minister for Housing only last Monday week being burned to the ground like this, he said, while expressing his delight that no one was injured as a result.

Longford County Council will await the outcome of the garda investigation which will now follow and to try and establish what caused the fire.
Slator of Carnlough Road, Cabra, Dublin 7, had pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Barr at the Sunset House pub on Summerhill Parade in Dublin 1 on April 25, 2016.

DNA evidence on a mask and a pair of runners found in the back of a car used by the men who shot Michael Barr dead at the Sunset House pub in 2016 is enough to convict a third man of the murder, the Special Criminal Court has found.

Christopher Slator (37) had denied Mr Barr's murder and his lawyers argued that the prosecution had failed to prove that there was no innocent explanation for how his DNA ended up on the mask and runners.

The three-judge, non-jury court today rejected their arguments, saying there is no rational explanation for his DNA being on those items other than that he is guilty of murder.

The court also found that Slator fled the jurisdiction the following day by booking flights to Dubai with Eamon Cumberton, who has previously been convicted of Mr Barr's murder.

The two men returned to Ireland together about one month later. Ms Justice Tara Burns said the flight was "extremely unusual" given that it was booked three hours ahead of departure and neither Cumberton nor Slator had any luggage or even a backpack or rucksack.

She said the DNA evidence alone was enough to convict Slator but the "highly suspicious" flight provides further support for the conviction.

Gardai at the scene of Michael Barrs killing

On the night of April 25, 2016, father-of-five Mr Barr was socialising at the pub, where he was a manager, when he was shot seven times - five times in the head. Two armed males had burst in wearing what were described as 'Freddy Krueger', or Hallowe'en style masks.

The trial heard there was "chaos and screaming" in the aftermath of the gun murder, which took place during a raffle for the families of Republican prisoners.

Slator will be sentenced to the mandatory term of life imprisonment later today.

Slator of Carnlough Road, Cabra, Dublin 7, had pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Barr at the Sunset House pub on Summerhill Parade in Dublin 1 on April 25, 2016. He is the third man to go on trial in relation to the murder.

In November 2020, David Hunter (43) of Du Cane Road, White City, London, was also jailed for life for the murder of Mr Barr. Eamon Cumberton, of Mountjoy Street, Dublin 7 was jailed for life for the murder in 2019.

A fourth man, Martin Aylmer (36) of Casino Park, Marino, Dublin 3 was sentenced to a little under four years after he pleaded guilty to buying mobile phones for the gang who murdered Mr Barr. His sentence was later increased to six years by the Court of Appeal.
The film adaptation of the best selling novel is set to hit the big screen on July 19th.

The author of the best-selling novel Where The Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens, is wanted for questioning as a witness with a 1996 murder.

The 73-year-old Zoologist and Conservationist was featured in a 1996 ABC documentary Deadly Game: The Mark and Delia Owens Story about elephant poaching.

Filming took place in North Luangwa, Zambia, where Delia and her husband Mark had lived since 1974.

Due to a spike in poachers targeting elephants during the late 70s and early 80s, some countries, including Kenya, adopted a shoot-to-kill policy for poachers.

Where The Crawdads Sing (2018)

Zambia however had no such official policy despite being heavily affected by ivory poaching.

According to journalist Jeffery Goldberg, during filming documentary makers captured footage as a man, only identified as an alleged trespasser, was shot and killed.

Footage which made the final cut showed the man being shot three times while lying collapsed on the ground after having already been shot down.

The person who fired the shots was not identified in the film.

Owens, her ex-husband Mark and Marks son Christopher are all wanted for questioning by Zambian authorities.

In an interview with New Yorker Magazine in 2010, the documentary cameraman Chris Everson accused then 25-year-old Christopher Owens of being the one to fire the final shots that killed the man.

I dont know what was going on in Chriss mind. He had a rush of blood to the head. I dont know why he shot him in the first place. I dont, Everson said.

He explained that the cameras began to roll after Owens fired the first shot, with another man firing a second shot before Owens fired three final shots.

I should never have allowed it to happen, Everson continued.

When asked why the documentary did not identify the shooter, he said he did not know.

A murder probe was sparked after Zambian officials saw a tape of the documentary.

However, the documentary crew and the Owens family had long left the country.

Biemba Musole, the Zambian detective in charge of the investigation said it was concluded that Mark Owens, with the help of a scout, placed the victims body in a cargo net, attached it to his helicopter, and then dropped it into a nearby lagoon.

Lillian Shawa-Siyuni, the countrys Director of Public Prosecutions told The Atlantic: There is no statute of limitations on murder in Zambia.

They are all wanted for questioning in this case, including Delia Owens.

There is currently no extradition agreement in place between the United States and Zambia, which will make it harder for authorities to prosecute.

Daisy Edgar Jones plays Kya

The killing has made headlines around the world as the film adaptation of Owens first novel Where The Crawdads Sing is set to be released in cinemas later this week.

The story follows Marsh Girl Kya (Daisy Edgar Jones), a six-year-old girl who watches as her family is abandoned by her mother. Soon, all of her siblings leave due to her fathers violent nature.

Eventually, he vanishes too, leaving the young girl to live alone in an isolated marsh in North Carolina.

Alienated from the townspeople as she grows up, Kya befriends Tate (Taylor John Smith) who teaches her how to read and write.

The story picks up years later when Kya turns 19 and begins a romance with Chase Andrews (Harris Dickinson).

Drawn to the two young men, Kyas world opens up but when one of them turns up murdered, she is the main suspect.

As the case unfolds, the truth about what really happened becomes more unclear.

Directed by Olivia Newman the film also stars Harris Dickinson, Michael Hyatt, Sterling Macer, Jr. and David Strathairn.

The book, which has sold more than 12 million copies, was adapted for the big screen by Reese Witherspoons production company Hello Sunshine and is set to hit the big screen on July 19th.
The 26-year-old, who has since been surrendered to the Netherlands, also changed addresses regularly to avoid being discovered

A 26-year-old man arrested in Barcelona on suspicion of involvement in the murder of the veteran Dutch crime reporter Peter R de Vries, lived like hermit, Spanish police have revealed.

Cops said the Dutch suspect barely left his his hideaway and other people were ordered to bring him food and groceries.

The suspect, who has since been surrendered to the Netherlands, also changed addresses regularly to avoid being discovered.

A special arrest team, the Special Operations Group, that included two Dutch officers from the National Police had travelled to Spain because of the "highly dangerous nature of the suspect" and the "strict security measures of the person under investigation".

They had arrived from the Netherlands to participate in the arrest and subsequent search of the suspect's home that was located in a building that houses a pharmacy.

The 26-year-old suspect was handed over to the Dutch authorities after he was escorted into an airplane under heavy police guard.

Simultaneously, two more suspects were arrested in the Netherlands and Curacao as part of the same international police operation.

Earlier this month, a 27-year-old Polish man was detained on suspicion of organising the killing and "directing those who carried out the murder".

According to local media, the suspect is already in custody on suspicion of another murder in October.

De Vries was fatally shot almost a year ago in broad daylight in central Amsterdam after leaving a television studio.

He died of his injuries nine days later, prompting a nationwide outpouring of grief and anger.

Two men are currently on trial for the murder - a 21-year-old Dutch national identified only as Delano G. and a 36-year-old Polish national, Kamil E.

Both men are facing a life sentence if convicted. The investigation into de Vries' death is ongoing.
However, women aged 39 can enjoy 100ml or beer, or two tablespoons of wine

Young men are advised not to drown their sorrows as it was revealed that those under 40 shouldn't have more than a shot glass of beer per day, accord go the its health advice.

The safe daily limit for younger men is just one small, 38ml shot glass of beer per day, a new UK study suggests, which is substantially lower than first thought.

However, women aged 39 can enjoy 100ml or beer, or two tablespoons of wine.

In Ireland, the HSEs recommended weekly low-risk alcohol guidelines are less than 11 standard drinks for women and 17 standard drinks for men

A standard drink has about 10 grams of pure alcohol and consists of a small glass of wine (12.5% volume) or a half pint of normal beer.

The HSE also advises not drinking more than six standard drinks on any one occasion.

However, the UK stud fund that for those aged over 40, a drink or two can help ward off heart disease, strokes and diabetes.

And for over 65s, the risks of "health loss from alcohol consumption" are only reached from the fourth standard drink onwards.

Researchers are now calling for stronger guidance to warn younger adults of the health dangers posed by drinking.

They say there should be tailored alcohol guidance to depend on a person's age and where they live in the world.

The study found that three-quarters of harmful drinkers were men.

And a total of 59 per cent of those who drank harmful amounts were aged 15 to 39, and

They said alcohol poses risks including injuries relating to drinking or car accidents, suicides and murders.

Senior author Dr Emmanuela Gakidou, professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington's School of Medicine in the US, said: "Our message is simple - young people should not drink, but older people may benefit from drinking small amounts.

"While it may not be realistic to think young adults will abstain from drinking, we do think it's important to communicate the latest evidence so that everyone can make informed decisions about their health."

Researchers looked at the risk of alcohol consumption on 22 health outcomes, including injuries, cardiovascular diseases and cancers using 2020 Global Burden of Disease data.

They used the information to estimate how much alcohol a person can drink before taking on excess risks to their health compared with someone who does not drink any alcohol.

They found the level of alcohol that can be consumed without increasing health risks rises throughout a lifetime.

"This is driven by differences in the major causes of death and disease burden at different ages," the authors wrote.

"Any level of drinking leads to a higher probability of injuries, while small amounts of alcohol decrease the risk of some conditions prevalent in older ages, such as ischaemic heart disease and diabetes."
tomb-foolery | Ancient Neolithic site in Meath is damaged in arson attack
It is suspected the deceased slipped and became stuck on the rocks.

THE death of a woman aged in her eighties, whose body was recovered from the North Beach in Arklow on Thursday morning, has been described by a local Councillor who was her friend as a terrible tragedy.

Four youngsters alerted the Gardai at 11 a.m. having spotted what they suspected was a body near to the slip-way.

The scene was closed off by the Gardai and the body was removed by Arklow RNLI and brought back to the Lifeboat Station, where she was pronounced dead.

It is suspected the deceased slipped and became stuck on the rocks.

The body was brought to Loughlinstown Hospital for a post-mortem.

Named locally as Anne Kearon, the womans sudden passing has rocked the small community of Arklow with local Councillor Tommy Annesley, Cathaoirleach of Wicklow County Council, describing the death of his friend as a terrible tragedy.

He was also quick to praise the volunteer crew of the Arklow RNLI who responded swiftly to bring her to shore.

"It's a terrible tragedy, he said. She was a personal friend of mine. I'm absolutely devastated, for her husband and her extended family. I'm still in shock to be honest. She was such a lovely lady. She was very well known and well liked locally.

"I had the pleasure of her company for two hours a number of weeks ago. We chatted in her living room, had tea and solved all the world's problems.

"I'd like to extend the families appreciation to the RNLI. The lifeboat crew was very professional as always.

Fellow Councillor Sylvester Bourke was on Friday also still trying to come to terms with the loss and extended his condolences to her family.

He said: I'm stunned. I knew her well. She was a very well-known member of the Arklow community. My thoughts are with her family and friends.

There are no funeral details at this time.
Terror veterans want answers as Winkies link to top cop is revealed

Veteran members are calling on the leadership to come clean about events surrounding the arrest of top loyalist and alleged UVF chief Winston Winkie Irvine, demanding answers and calling for an internal inquiry over the alleged movement of weapons.

The calls come off the back of explosive details revealed during a bail application for Irvine this week.

Irvine, who in the past has been named as a member of the terror group and the commander of UVF B Company on the Woodvale area of Belfast  claims he has denied  is facing a raft of charges after police recovered a cache of weapons from his car last month.

A High Court judge granted Irvine bail with few restrictions.

But it is the assertions made during his bail application that has alarmed the membership.

There had been growing disquiet from the moment his car was intercepted by the PSNI who had allegedly observed him taking delivery of a holdall which contained a number of weapons and several hundred rounds of ammunition.

This week the court heard Irvine had been in regular contact with PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Bobby Singleton.

ACC Singleton had previously denied a claim he had been talks with Irvine the day before the weapons seizure but it was conceded this week the pair have been in contact in relation to other matters.

Irvine was described in court as a peacemaker and it was suggested the weaponry was being transported as part of a prior agreement.

UVF veterans on the Shankill are now demanding an inquiry into Winkies engagement with the PSNI after it was revealed in court he was in regular contact with ACC Singleton.

They are saying that either Winkie is claiming he was decommissioning when he wasnt, which they believe is throwing the whole organisation under the bus to save his own skin, or else he was taking weapons for decommissioning with the knowledge of the Brigade staff.

There are questions to be answered, is the leadership involved in acts of decommissioning? one veteran told us this week.

If they are, command staff are in the dark, there has been no discussion about actively engaging in acts of decommissioning.

He said that never in all the years of the Troubles did a UVF man stand up in court and claim he was working with the police and think that was a good thing.

How could anyone in the organisation trust anyone who has publicly stated he is working with the police?

We want answers as to what is going on the top of the organisation and whether Brigade staff authorised Winkie to run the defence he has.

During the course of Irvines bail hearing his counsel Joe Brolly referred to a significant publication that had been delayed because of his clients arrest, but which, when published would have significant consequences for the wider community.

What is that publication? said our source. Members are demanding answers as to what the significant publication is that was referred to in court and want answers from Brigade staff as to whether the UVF is secretly engaged with government in acts of decommissioning that the command staff hadnt been told about.

There is also concern surrounding a sensitive issue that was talked about in private between judge and barristers.

Men are being kept in the dark and this is arousing suspicion.

UVF Chief of Staff John Bunter Graham is now facing demands for a new leader of B Company to be put in place while an internal inquiry takes place and the Sunday World understands they have nominated a paramilitary veteran who was active during the Conflict as far back as the 70s.

In the past, a former B Company commander was stood down amid allegations of weapons going missing.

So why, this time, isnt the Brigade Staff putting in place a inquiry into the seizure of these weapons?

Every time a prisoner on UVF wings in jail they had to hand their depositions over to the jail commander to be checked, so people are questioning why Irvine is able to get away with the defence he has adopted without any scrutiny from the top of the organisation.

Irvine was granted bail on Wednesday after a judge was told his DNA was not present on a holdall containing guns in his car.

References were also provided for the Shankill loyalist  who was arrested on June 8 with a number of weapons and ammunition in his car  by senior figures, the court was told, including a Northern Ireland minister.

NIO minister Conor Burns has moved to clarify that a letter sent to Irvine related to separate matters and that similar communiques were sent to other community activists.

Forty-seven-year-old Irvine of Ballysillan Road in Belfast, is accused of possessing a firearm and ammunition in suspicious circumstances, possessing a prohibited firearm, possession of a handgun without a certificate, and having ammunition without a certificate.

A second man, Robin Workman (51), from Shore Road in Larne, is in custody on the same charges.

Police claim Workman, who works as a joiner, transported the haul of guns to a meeting with his co-accused in the Glencairn area.

In a previous court hearing it was stated DNA samples were found on the handles of the holdall but this week it was revealed Irvine is not forensically linked to the bag.

A former Policing Board chair also provided a character reference, as a did a number of other people who were not named.

It was previously alleged in court that a PSNI chief held discussions with the leading loyalist about decommissioning weapons.

Assistant Chief Constable Bobby Singleton later confirmed no telephone conversation took place between himself and Mr Irvine on the day before a bag containing guns and ammunition was found in the boot of Mr Irvines car.

During the hearing it was said that the Assistant Chief Constable had confirmed regular contact between the pair, but not in relation to the matters before the court.

When asked if internet access should be a condition of bail, the defence indicated a statement was about to be released of significant importance.

My Brolly said: It is important that he does. My Lord will be aware of very sensitive material. My Lord is also aware that a witness has attended today who had asked to give evidence anonymously to the court.

There is going to be a publication once Mr Irvine is released  that was delayed  which might have fundamental importance in our society as a whole and it will be important that he has internet access, he added.

Loyalist sources say speculation is rife as to the identity of the anonymous character witness who attended but not called.

Mr Justice OHara said: I am going to grant bail to Mr Irvine. Whatever the police concerns about him, he is a man who is now 47, he has a very limited criminal record and, whatever the risk, I think they can be managed.

He was released on 750 bail.

richard.sullivan@sundayworld.com
The TV star confessed he would rather have a broken leg

The 32-year-old took to Instagram this week where he answered questions sent into him by his followers.

One person asked: Do you ever have problems with your mental health? You just always seem so happy all the time.

So I generally, luckily, am quite happy all the time, the podcaster began.

However, Ive horrendous anxiety, but its weird because my anxiety doesnt make me feel sad.

My anxiety is really physical, he confessed.

I got really violent panic attacks over the past few years that I kinda learned how to deal with and I dont really get them anymore.

I was doing loads of things to try curb the anxiety. I started to do yoga, I started to do meditation, but my anxiety was just so violent it almost made me feel like I was about to die.

James said that anxiety often made him feel physically sick.

Id get shortness of breath, Id feel sick, Id actually sometimes feel dizzy from anxiety. It was really bad. So I went to my doctor, discussed the options, and hes put me on this medication which Ive found really great.

The TV personality admitted that his anxiety was so bad at one stage that would rather have a broken leg.

You know that in a few months its going to heal. But with the anxiety, you just feel so lost.

Exercise really helps me as well, he added.

I really dont like exercising, Im not a fan of it, but I do it regularly enough and it really helps.

The Dublin native recently left his hometown and moved to Cork with his long-term partner William.

Asked if the pair were considering having children, James said it was not something that would happen in the near future.

Its not on the agenda, but never say never. I used to be like Im never having pets, dont want them, and now I couldnt survive without [my cat] Diana.

Couldnt imagine life without her, he added.

Id have to have a good bit of money though because Id love a full-time nanny, Im going to be honest here. So not for a very long time Id say.

Ahead of his upcoming 33rd birthday, the couple recently returned from a stunning holiday in Barbados.
Frozen food heir and He-Man Woman Hater's Club president Tucker Carlson goes on a rant wherein Putin is awesome, and US leadership is awful. Putin's #1 also took a shot at AOC because he clearly has some issues there.

Crooks and Liars:

"Is Vladimir Putin more communist than Sandy Cortez [AOC]?" Tucker asked. "Is Putin throwing Americans in jail for attending political rallies at the Capitol? Is he trying to confiscate the rifles from your bedroom?"

The armed Jan. 6 insurrection wasn't a political rally at the Capitol. No one is going through random Americans' homes to confiscate their firearms. Tucker knows this. He's just playing to his viewers. Putin is a mass murderer. Tucker is again playing to his viewers. Republicans should just move to Russia.

Carlson's evidence for his excuses for Russia's appalling actions consists only of the Fox News host's use of sarcasm.
Alasdair Abernethy recalls the day, five years come November, that he first told Whakatane District Council it would never work and was dangerous.

The council is now close to revealing its next move to improve the tidal pool at The Heads.

Alasdair first saw the pool when contractors removed the security fencing from around the freshly poured concrete box, near the mouth of the Whakatane River.

"I walked to the edge, and I nearly fell in, he says.

I looked down and the slope was so steep, I almost lost my balance. I realised that this was a dangerous structure. And that was the beginning of it.

The 91-year-old has been campaigning against the failed tidal pool since its construction, with communications to the council and letters to the editor of the newspaper.

The council spent $870,000 on constructing the pool in 2017 to solve the tensions between boaties and swimmers jumping from the wharf near the boat ramp. Close to one third of the cost was donated by community funding agencies.

Criticism of the facility began soon after its opening because of the debris that was collecting in the pool and the dimensions of the steps leading to the water.

Adjustments have been made to the steps to the pool and it requires regular cleaning. The pool has recently been allowed to fill with sand.

The latest plan involves creating a ramp leading into the pool area and easing the slope of the steps.

But Alasdair is adamant the site can never be home to a successful pool, regardless of the council does.

The Edinburgh-born, retired civil engineer already had a long history of correspondence in the Beacons Letters to the Editor pages.

His championing of the correct use of the English language has made his name one to be feared by junior reporters and sub editors for decades and he has not been shy with his opinions on matters of global and local concern - from questioning the evidence of climate change deniers to suggesting solutions for out-of-control children.

Approaching his front door with trepidation, it was a delight for this reporter to discover a friendly, quietly spoken and humble gentleman, with a hint of a Scottish lilt to his speech.

He left Scotland for Sydney, Australia, with his parents and brother and sister in 1947 when he was 16.

He gained a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the University of Sydney in 1954 and spent time in Papua New Guinea in the 1950s with Brisbane company Hornibrook working on the creation of a small hydro-electric plant to supply Port Moresby.

After this he worked for large civil contractors McDonald Constructions in the B.H.P. steelworks in Newcastle and, in Melbourne, as branch manager.

Later he became chief engineer for a group of overseas companies constructing a large plant for the manufacture of polyethylene at Altona, near Melbourne, then as chief engineer at the Kelloggs factory in Sydney and later to become plant manager with a workforce of 600.

Then in 1983 we moved to New Zealand and became farmers, he says.

He and his wife, Althaea, bought a 10-acre lifestyle block near Taneatua, later selling up to move into town in Whakatane when Althaea died in 2012.

Alasdair says he has been told by another campaigner against the tidal pool, Sandy Milne, that the owner of the contracting firm who poured the concrete had warned the council there would be problems with the pool.

He told the project manager, Mike Naude, that it wouldnt work. He was told make it work.

He says it will never work.

Not in that vicinity, because of the curve in the river. It is always going to fill with debris and polluted water on the outgoing tide and then on the incoming tide it will fill with sand. The water is only about 400mm deep at low tide, so it was only for toddlers. The bigger kids will still jump in front of the boats.

Its frustrating because they have never admitted that they got it wrong. They just keep throwing good money after bad.

He recalls the date of November 24, 2017, when he first met with Mike.

He just flatly refused to listen. It was too late anyway because the concrete was all poured. There was a big concrete box there.

He has suggested bringing the low walls higher, to walkway level, and capping the pool to create an area for more play equipment. This suggestion has never been acknowledged.

As well as having his say to the council, and in letters, Alasdair has taken the matter to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and to Ombudsman New Zealand, which handles complaints and investigates the administrative conduct of state sector agencies but has had no success.

I have been out of touch with anybody in the council for quite some time, he says.

A letter he received from chief executive Stephanie OSullivan in March 2020 says staff will no longer respond to his emails.

"She put a ban on communication with me, claiming that they were spending too much time on answering my questions, which is a lot of nonsense.

Alasdair was invited to join the Tidal Pool Reference Group, made up of a variety of community representatives including local hapu Ngati Hokupu, Bay of Plenty Regional Council, Te Runanga o Ngati Awa, waka ama participants, and commercial users of the harbour, but wasnt interested.

I knew at that stage that they were not going to listen to me anyway and I was quite cynical about the whole thing. Theyve only ever had one meeting to the best of my knowledge anyway and I dont think anybody listened to what they said.

In mid 2020 they engaged a consulting firm and had an open meeting on site, where they got all sorts of ideas from various groups there, but theyve never used any of it. I cant see them ever being successful the way they are going, because they are still trying to make it into a pool, but it is collecting sand.

-Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
Tauranga Sport Fishing Clubs annual Take A Kid Fishing competition tomorrow is not just a fun family day out, and is hoped to spark a lifetime love of fishing amongst youngsters.

Pardon the pun, says club manager Barry Brown but we really hope to get more kids hooked on the pastime.

We expect to get kids entering who will catch a fish for the very first time. The beauty of this tournament is that every entrant goes home with a prize of some description.

Eight-year-old Oscar Monks is excited to get out on the water.

I like going fishing because I get to go on my friend Lees big boat and we catch lots of fish.

There are rods, reels and tackle-boxes up for grabs as prizes for the heaviest fish in each category.

Off the rocks or the piers, they might catch kahawai, spotties or mackerel  and if they go out on a boat deep sea fishing with mum and dad, they may land a snapper or trevally, says Barry. Its that unknown factor that appeals to me  you never know what youre going to reel in.

First Mortgage Trust is the events main sponsor. Theyve jumped on board to support the tournament because they can see the value in teaching kids how to fish, says Barry.

They may lose interest for a few years when other interests catch their attention, but hopefully theyll come back to fishing in the future. Its great for kids and adults to get rid of stress with the serenity of the water.

The competition doesnt have a pre-comp briefing  just get fishing from 7.30am to 2pm on July 16  either on land or boat  and aim for Kahawai, Mackerel, Snapper, Spotties and Trevally.

Weigh-in is 2pm-3.30pm at Tauranga Sport Fishing Club, 66 Keith Allen Drive, Sulphur Point. Age-groups are three-five years, six-nine years, and 10-13 years, with each angler able to enter one fish per species; and two species per angler. Entry is $10 per angler.

Barry says at weigh-in kids will get something to eat at the club and can have fun dressing up as pirates, with lucky draws and spot prizes on offer. Prizegiving begins 4.30pm.

Our Take a Kid Fishing event is family focussed, so wed love to get at least 100 kids entered with their mums, dads, caregivers along for the day. Were relaxed about how much the parents help the kids. Its just a fun day out and after all, who doesnt love dressing up as a pirate!

Find out more at: tsfc.co.nz
Taurangas Grace Hospital is expanding with the addition of two operating theatres.

The new theatres will compliment the seven existing operating theatres, complete with a range of technologies designed to raise the standard of healthcare delivery in New Zealand.

Evolution Healthcare and Southern Cross Healthcare (Southern Cross) commissioned the operating rooms in a continued demonstration of their commitment to meet the Bay of Plentys increased demand for elective surgical procedures.

In 2020, Grace Hospital was the first hospital in New Zealand to install Wilhelms AirFRAME cleanroom system into an operating theatre, delivering a uniform blanket of filtered air that is 1000 times cleaner than conventional systems.

In Grace Hospitals two new operating theatres, Evolution Healthcare and Southern Cross have chosen to add Wilhelms Indigo-Clean visible light disinfection system that continually disinfects the air and surfaces in the operating room.

This technology further reduces the likelihood of infections occurring post-surgery due to its enhanced features.

Grace Hospital general manager Janet Keys welcomes the new developments within the hospital.

The two new operating theatres opened at our hospital demonstrate the commitment we have to our Bay of Plenty community, meeting the increased demand for elective surgical procedures, enabling more people to access quality healthcare and providing for the future needs of our local residents.

According to Wilhelm managing director Chad Wilhelm Grace Hospitals joint venture partners, Evolution Healthcare and Southern Cross, have been ideal partners to work with, as their commitment to innovation is second to none.

Evolution Healthcare and Southern Cross share our goal of delivering the ultimate in safety and infection control technologies for clinicians and patients.

These are some of the most advanced operating theatres in New Zealand and follow similar developments at Evolutions Royston Hospital and Royston Day Surgery in Hawkes Bay.

Evolution and Southern Cross Grace Hospital new operating theatres eight and nine with Wilhelms Indigo-Clean.

Evolution Healthcare chief executive officer Sue Channon says their group strives to provide continued excellence in the health and wellbeing of all people in theirr care.

The investment in these advanced technologies for our comprehensive hospitals demonstrates our commitment to being a leading private healthcare provider and delivering the very best in care and outcomes for our New Zealand patients.

Other technologies installed in Grace Hospitals new operating theatres are Wilhelms advanced pendants and lights and 4K Caresyntax digital health solution.

This platform enables simple and easy integration with the hospitals information systems and equipment, allowing clinicians access to all patient information on one platform known to improve patient outcomes and enhance operational efficiency.

Were very proud to see the two new operating theatres opening this week, says Southern Cross Healthcare chief executive Chris White.

This is a very positive move toward meeting the increased demand for elective surgeries in the Bay of Plenty and will ensure more local residents will now have access to quality healthcare.

Evolution Healthcare and Southern Cross are committed to the continued expansion of Grace Hospital with planned developments underway including more operating theatres, increasing inpatient ward capacity, CSSD (Central Sterile Services Department), and support services.
Doctors say if new Covid-19 measures fail to work, they could be faced with making drastic decisions about which urgent patients to treat.

The government has announced plans to try to reduce a predicted peak of 1200 Covid-19 patients in hospital a day to 900.

But some doctors say the moves don't go far enough and, even at 900 a day they will still be under huge stress.

Under the newly announced plans, people will have access to free masks from Rapid Antigen Test collection centres, free RATs would be available much more widely and there would be wider access to antiviral drugs.

A campaign to encourage people to wear masks and to stay home when sick is about to begin, but people will not be required to wear masks in more places.

New Zealand Association of General Surgeons president Rowan French says if cases hit 1200, everyone who needs urgent care may not be able to get it, leaving doctors with difficult ethical decisions.

But even at the lower peak of 900, it will be very difficult, he says.

"Where I am, we have got two full [Covid-19] wards and we are just in the process of converting a cardiac ward to a full Covid ward because if we get to 900 that is absolutely going to be required. So, it still leaves things in a fairly desperate situation."

Even though mask mandates are unpopular, increasing the places where masks have to be worn, even just for a couple of months, will help, he says.

There are currently 765 people in hospital.

In the past 24 hours, Christchurch Hospital has suspended specialist appointments, Southland and Whangarei hospitals are restricting visitors, and hundreds of people around the country have missed out on operations.

The Ministry of Health hopes the new measures will stop daily case numbers peaking at 21,000 keeping them at 18,000 instead.

Urgent care physician Dr Kelvin Ward says his teams are at their limit and daily cases are about 11,300.

The plan will make very little difference and the government should be bolder, he says.

"It seems as though it is aimed primarily at making sure the hospital, the health system is not overwhelmed but that is still a huge number of cases - the health system will still be significantly stressed at that level," he says

The free masks should be the much more protective N95s and there should be more ventilation required in busy indoor places, he says.

Surgeons and specialists are not the only ones cancelling routine appointments.

ProCare GP Jodie O'Sullivan's practice is so busy, it's only taking appointments for half of the day, so it was free to see urgent patients.

It's now up to people to step up and take responsibility when it comes to wearing masks, she says.

People should think ahead about the things they want and need to do, like visiting their grandma or going on holiday or to a wedding, and take precautions to avoid getting Covid-19.

All three doctors say urgent steps need to be taken immediately to hire and train more medical workers.

Whangarei Hospital emergency medical specialist Dr Gary Payinda says masking is a simple, cheap and effective way of preventing Covid-19 spread and should be required in schools and workplaces.

"The reality is we never should have let kids go back to school unprotected, let workers go back into crowded densely-packed indoor rooms breathing and re-breathing each others' air.

"We know that we don't have good ventilation or good filtration. We had a simple cheap easy thing that we could use to prevent Covid spread and that's face masks and we've really failed at it."

Schools and workplaces should also be using CO2 monitors to understand what risk they're facing.

-RNZ/Rowan Quinn.
Today the Ministry of Health are reporting 10,470 community cases, 773 current hospitalisations, and 16 deaths.

The seven-day rolling average of community case numbers today is 9,994.

"Today we are sadly reporting the deaths of 16 people with COVID-19. All these deaths occurred in the past 11 days," says a Ministry of Health spokesperson.

"The Ministry of Health and Te Whatu Ora  Health NZ are closely monitoring the continued increase in COVID-19 positive cases and hospitalisations as part of our ongoing review and updating of the response to the current community outbreak.

"The increase in cases and hospitalisations emphasises the importance of everybody doing the basics well to help prevent infection and serious illness. In particular, people should stay home if they are unwell, take a rapid antigen test (RAT) and upload the result on My Covid Record, and isolate if positive or while still symptomatic.

"If youre heading out to pick up free RATs and masks, please check the Healthpoint website to find your nearest participating pharmacy  as not all pharmacies are providing this service. People can also continue to request free COVID-19 RATs kits online.

"It is important to ensure you are up to date with all vaccinations, including COVID-19 vaccinations. Many are now eligible for a second booster dose, and flu vaccinations, which are free for many people."

Mask up for added protection

"Wearing a mask remains one of the best measures to reduce transmission of infectious respiratory illnesses, including COVID-19.

"The more layers of protection people put in place - such as mask wearing, vaccinations, and staying home when sick - the more they reduce the risk of spreading respiratory viruses.

"Even if youre fully vaccinated, or have had COVID-19, continuing to wear a face mask is important in keeping you, your whanau and your community safe.

"As a general rule, the Ministry urges people to wear a mask in public indoor settings outside the home and in poorly ventilated spaces, or when it is hard to physically distance from other people.

"You must wear a mask on public transport and at transport hubs like airports and bus stations, inside public venues like museums and libraries, when visiting a health care service, and inside retail businesses like supermarkets and shopping malls.

"Masking up is particularly important when around more vulnerable members of the community, especially those who are older, those in aged residential care and healthcare settings where appropriate.

Wider availability of antiviral treatments

"From Monday 18 July 2022, the access criteria for three antiviral treatments for COVID-19 will be widened to include a wider group of people at risk of severe illness from COVID-19 infection. This includes all people aged 75 years and over and those who have been admitted previously to an Intensive Care Unit directly as a result of COVID-19.

"Nirmatrelvir with ritonavir (branded as Paxlovid), molnupiravir (branded as Lagevrio) and remdesivir, an infusion treatment (branded as Veklury) are antivirals used in the community and hospitals to treat people with early COVID-19 at risk of severe illness.

"These antivirals reduce the risk of severe illness, which helps takes pressure off our health system.

"Among other things, this means GPs will be able to provide back pocket prescriptions so that people at risk of acute respiratory illnesses can have their prescription ready should they test positive and can then start taking the medicine promptly."

COVID-19 hospitalisations

COVID-19 cases in hospital: total number 773: Northland: 22; Waitemata: 141; Counties Manukau: 56; Auckland: 102; Waikato: 63; Bay of Plenty: 38; Lakes: 16; Hawkes Bay: 24; MidCentral: 31; Whanganui: 18; Taranaki: 15; Tairawhiti: 4; Wairarapa: 12; Hutt Valley: 29; Capital & Coast: 30; Nelson Marlborough: 13; Canterbury: 102; West Coast: 1; South Canterbury: 14; Southern: 42.

Weekly COVID-19 hospitalisations - 7 day rolling average: 700 (This time last week 499)

Average age of current COVID-19 hospitalisations: 64

Cases in ICU or HDU: 14

Vaccination status of new admissions to hospital*: Unvaccinated or not eligible (52 cases); partially vaccinated <7 days from second dose or have only received one dose (4 cases); double vaccinated at least 7 days before being reported as a case (74 cases); received booster at least 7 days before being reported as a case (382 cases).

*These are new hospital admissions in the past 7 days prior to yesterday who had COVID at the time of admission or while in hospital, excluding hospitalisations that were admitted and discharged within 24hrs. This data is from Districts with tertiary hospitals: Auckland, Canterbury, Southern, Counties Manukau, Waikato, Capital & Coast, Waitemata and Northland.

COVID-19 vaccinations administered

Vaccinations administered in New Zealand

Vaccines administered to date: 4,028,897 first doses; 3,981,503 second doses; 33,632 third primary doses; 2,692,730 first booster doses: 152,812 second booster doses: 264,973 paediatric first doses and 139,250 paediatric second doses

Vaccines administered yesterday: 55 first doses; 39 second doses; 67 third primary doses; 1,028 first booster doses; 16,298 second booster doses; 64 paediatric first doses and 508 paediatric second doses

More detailed information, including vaccine uptake by District, is available on the Ministry website.

Tests

Number of PCR tests total (last 24 hours): 3,413

Number of Rapid Antigen Tests reported total (last 24 hours): 17,560

PCR tests rolling average (last 7 days): 3,351

Number of Rapid Antigen Tests dispatched (last seven days as of 14 July 2022): 2.9 million

COVID-19 cases

Total number of new community cases: 10,470

COVID-19 re-infection in community cases 412, of which 130 were cases between 29 and 90 days of a previous infection

Number of new cases that have recently travelled overseas: 333

Seven day rolling average of community cases: 9,994

Seven day rolling average of community cases (as at same day last week): 8,310

Number of active cases (total): 69,924 (cases identified in the past seven days and not yet classified as recovered)

Confirmed cases (total): 1,474,875

Location of new community cases by district over past 24 hours

You can also view a detailed breakdown of daily case numbers for each district since the beginning of the pandemic by clicking the download button on the right hand side of this page: New Zealand COVID-19 data.

Please note, the Ministry of Healths daily reported cases may differ slightly from those reported at a district or local public health unit level. This is because of different reporting cut off times and the assignment of cases between regions, for example when a case is tested outside their usual region of residence. Total numbers will always be the formal daily case tally as reported to the WHO.

COVID-19 deaths

Todays reported deaths take the total number of publicly reported deaths with COVID-19 to 1,776 and the seven-day rolling average of reported deaths is 16.

Of the people whose deaths we are reporting today: three were from the Auckland region, one was from Waikato, one was from Bay of Plenty, one was from Lakes, one was from MidCentral, two were from Whanganui, five were from the Wellington region, one was from South Canterbury, and one was from Southern.

One person was in their 60s, one was in their 70s, six were in their 80s and eight were aged over 90. Of these people, four were females and 12 were males.

"This is a very sad time for whanau and friends and our thoughts and condolences are with them. Out of respect, we will be making no further comment on todays reported deaths."
Two Tauranga men are on a mission to make bus travel more attractive while reducing carbon emissions.

Architect Mark Wassung and Kiwi Bus Builders managing director Richard Drummond have been working together for four years on 23-seater electric bus prototypes that they hope will be trialled in Tauranga.

Wassung told Local Democracy Reporting he was driven to take up the project after using a lot of the buses and bus routes in the city and speaking to drivers.

It's come out of seeing what's out there and looking at how to do things smarter and differently, he says.

I think there's a place for a smaller bus.

The fully electric buses could be built at Drummonds factory in Tauriko and would be smaller and lighter than the handful of electric buses the Bay of Plenty Regional Council currently has in its fleet.

Drummond says infrastructure would also be required to ensure the network was as efficient as possible and in service charging would reduce the size of the batteries required.

His company is currently building 31 electric buses for Wellington that only need a 120-kilowatt battery because of in-service charging.

With an eight-minute charge they can run 20 hours a day, he says.

Other electric buses require 400 kilowatt batteries.

Drummond says the buses would cost between $600,000 and $700,000 each so it has been difficult to get funding for a trial.

Members of the joint transport committee formed by the regional council and Tauranga City Council, have shown interest in the pairs ideas during their presentations, which is heartening says Drummond.

Our drive was to try and create vehicles that were more useful, more usable and people and would prefer to travel on them, which is basically the opposite of where we are now, he says.

A render of the 23-seater electric buses. Photo: Design Engine Architects.

Both Drummond and Wassung agree the current bus system is underutilised and large buses often drive around with very few passengers on board.

Wassung says: It's no good having all these big yellow buses running around that are empty or there's two or three people in there.

They're not really consistently accessible [either], so some of them have platforms, some of them drop down. I'm suggesting here that the accessibility is really important.

The 23-seater electric buses would have a different layout than current buses enabling better accessibility.

What I brought to it as an architect is to treat it like the floor plan of a building, says Wassung.

You could modernise it and change it, so I suggested a more open floor plan to allow for mobility scooters, prams, surfboards, et cetera, so you have a less standardised approach than having bucket seats.

Wassung has suggested colour coding the buses and routes to simplify the network and increase usability.

All of our buses are yellow and one of the ideas that I'm suggesting is that we could colour code our loops or lines.

So, for seniors and for kids, it'd be easier. It'd be easy to see all the red buses are Cameron Road, for example, and all the bus shelters and the buses would be red.

The prefabricated bus shelters could be customised to include a toilet or coffee shop. Photo: Design Engine Architects.

Wassung also designed prefabricated solar bus shelters that could be customised to have a toilet, coffee shop or bike hub.

The multi-modal hubs would be built from aluminium and high impact acrylic and have proximity lighting and heaters.

He would like to see the shelters trialled at the same time as the bus prototypes.

Were just trying to make the whole system more user friendly.

Both Wassung and Drummond have put their own time and money into designing these projects.

The pair have also worked with Max Lewis, who provided the perspective of seniors needs for the bus network.

Three concerned residents that have different backgrounds have come together to put something to together that's innovative  fast, frequent, reliable, nimble, and accessible says Wassung.

Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.
In a letter sent to Congress, Amazon has admitted that its doorbell-cam company, Ring, sends footage to law enforcement without a warrant or the consent of the owners, and has done so 11 times so far in 2022. CNN Business:

The July 1 letter responding to questions by Sen. Ed Markey and made public by his office on Wednesday shows that Ring frequently makes its own "good-faith determinations" as to whether to provide surveillance data to law enforcement absent a warrant or the consent of the doorbell owner. Under its policies, Ring "reserves the right to respond immediately to urgent law enforcement requests for information in cases involving imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to any person," the letter read. The company also requires police to fill out a special "emergency request form" if there is an urgent need to bypass the normal law enforcement process, according to the letter.

It has long been apparent that the police (and others) have access to Ring camera footage, but the admission makes clear that the access is systematic and that users have no say in the matter. Amazon also declined to "commit" to not using voice and face recognition technology with Ring cameras, according to CNN Business.

Years ago here, Cory wrote about how Amazon's PR people would deny earlier reports of warrantless police cooperation to him, yet refuse to answer why police ended up with access to information they could not possibly know without access to Ring cameras and metadata.

For example, when I published this story, an Amazon PR person wrote to tell me that the statement that "Amazon provides their local law enforcement with comprehensive dossiers on everyone who activates a Ring doorbell, including 'where they live, the MAC addresses of each of their devices, and how to reach them by email or phone'" was incorrect, but could not explain why a public records request showed that the cops had all that information. At first, they said that the Ring owners must have provided it voluntarily to law enforcement, but when I asked if they really believed that someone had found the MAC address for their surveillance doorbells and painstakingly entered the long hexadecimal number into a website or dictated it over the phone, they said "We defer to law enforcement for questions about their process and operations."



One common thread in the PR spin I get on this story is that any access that law enforcement gets to Ring footage is a result of the cops asking  via Amazon  whether Ring customer will voluntarily provide it. They do not mention that if a Ring customer refuses a law-enforcement request, the cops can just tell Amazon that they need it for their investigation and obtain it that way.

I switched from a Ring-like system (the dismal Arlo) to a Reolink system years ago (this one, albeit an older model) and it's much better. The footage is clearer, especially at night, it's stored on a hard drive in the basement with no cloud shenanigans required, though it backs up automatically wherever you want to send it. It's not a doorbell, though. (If you want to avoid a manufacturer that the CCP gets to meddle with, Geovision is made in Taiwan.)

Correction: 2022, not 2020
Current Print Subscribers will be prompted to either login to their current site user account or to create a new one. A confirmation email will be sent when a new user account is created, which must be confirmed within three days in order to provide uninterrupted online access through your Print Subscription.

Once the email address is confirmed please provide your Account Number to activate your Print Subscription Service.
A man and his family of nine were set to take a vacation on the island of St. Vincent when he checked his phone app on July 4th and noticed a problem: American Airlines had not only rebooked his flight home to Denver, but had changed the departure location as well. The plane would now be leaving from another country  the island of St. Lucia.

When he told American Airlines this was unacceptable, customer service told him he was in "an overbooked situation," according to Yahoo!, and that the airlines had informed him of this change in April (by burying it in an email). Re-ticketing the trip would cost him nearly $30,000 and would delay the departure by one week.

From Yahoo!:

Sam Taussig told the broadcaster [Denver7] he was checking the seating arrangements on the airline's app on July 4 when he realized the flight had been changed from what he booked in January. "We were flying out of St. Lucia instead of St. Vincent, and I thought that was really strange. It must have been a mistake. The customer service agent said, 'Yes, I'm sorry, sir. You're in an overbooked situation, and we have moved your flight from St. Vincent to St. Lucia,' which is about 100 miles away as the crow flies and five islands north. And I said, 'Well that's insane. We have to change this back. This is not acceptable.'" He added: "Then, they're going to charge us exorbitant change fees and reticketing fees and split reservation fees totaling almost $30,000 to bring us home a week later."

After eventually rebooking a flight home from Barbados and filing a 19-page complaint, American Airlines decided last night to fork over $2,000 to pay for the Barbados leg of the trip, which started today. A trip that this family needs more now than ever, I'm sure.
A new Joker malware-like virus is allegedly spreading on Android apps. This new security exploit is alarming because researchers claim that the new malware has infected applications with millions of downloads.

(Photo : Rob Hampson from Unsplash )

Experts say that the returning Joker malware is back with a malicious scheme to the victims.

Now, imagine if hackers take advantage of this new virus. Maxime Ingrao, a French cybersecurity expert, working for Evina security firm, was the one who confirmed the appearance of the new malware.

He announced his findings via his official Twitter post on July 13.

"Found new family of malware that subscribe to premium services. 8 applications since June 2021, 2 apps always in Play Store, +3M installs," said the security expert via his latest tweet.

Found new family of malware that subscribe to premium services 



8 applications since June 2021, 2 apps always in Play Store, +3M installs 



No webview like #Joker but only http requests



Lets call it #Autolycos #Android #Malware #Evina pic.twitter.com/SgTfrAOn6H  Maxime Ingrao (@IngraoMaxime) July 13, 2022

New Joker Malware-Like Virus Affects Google Apps!

According to Phone Arena's latest report, the new Autolycos malware is quite similar to the Joker malware. This means that this Android virus can also steal money from Google users without them knowing they are already breached.

(Photo : Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

In this photo illustration, an image of the Google logo is reflected on the eye of a young man on August 09, 2017 in London, England. Founded in 1995 by Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Google now makes hundreds of products used by billions of people across the globe, from YouTube and Android to Smartbox and Google Search.

Also Read: Google Chrome Hack: New Update Released, but Windows, Android Users Still at Risk

Ingrao explained that one of the differences between the Joker and Autolycos malware is the virus' lack of webview. Instead, Autolycos only uses HTTP requests.

He added that hackers could promote the new malware by creating Facebook pages that run infected FB and IG ads. Ingrao further explained that Autolycos can retrieve a JSON on the C2 address "68.183.219.190/pER/y."

To promote the applications, fraudsters create several Facebook pages and run ads on Facebook and Instagram.



For example, there were 74 ad campaigns for Razer Keyboard & Theme malware pic.twitter.com/lLl9faZjQI  Maxime Ingrao (@IngraoMaxime) July 13, 2022

After that, it will execute the URLs and return the results to include the requests. Thanks to this, Autolycos will not generate webviews, enabling it to be more stealthy compared to the Joker malware.

Delete These Google Apps Now

If you don't want to get infected by the new Autolycos malware, then you should delete the following Google apps:

Vlog Star Video Editor

Creative 3D Launcher

Gif Emoji Keyboard

Razer Keyboard & Theme

Freeglow Camera 1.0.0

Coco camera v1.1

Funny Camera

Wow Beauty Camera

You can remove these apps in two methods. The first is searching their names on the official Google Play Store platform and clicking the uninstall button.

The second one is finding the actual app on your device. After that, just long-press the application until the uninstall button appears.

In the app list above, the Vlog Star Video Editor and Creative 3D Launcher are the most dangerous ones since they already have more than one million downloads.

You can visit this link to see more details about them.

Recently, security experts discovered fake Windows 11 downloads that spread the Vidar malware.

On the other hand, four Google apps were found to be infected by the notorious Joker malware.

For more news updates about the new Autolycos malware and other security threats appearing on the official Google Play Store, keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: Scammers Are Using Google Reviews to Extort Money From Restaurants | Here's How to Spot Fake Reviews

This article is owned by TechTimes

Written by: Griffin Davis

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Meta is now testing the new Facebook multiple account option. This means that users can soon create more than one profile.

(Photo : CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty Images)

In this illustration photo taken in Los Angeles on October 28, 2021, a person watches on a smartphone Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveil the META logo.

For the past few years, Facebook users can only use their real identity for one account. Although this is the case, there are still some individuals who can make other FB profiles.

However, they need to create a new Yahoo or Gmail account and use other names, contact numbers, and other user information.

Now, this situation once Meta launches the new Facebook enhancement it is working on.

Meta Testing Facebook Multiple Account Option!

According to The Verge's latest report, Meta is working on a new Facebook enhancement that will allow users to create new accounts linked to their original profile.

(Photo : CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty Images)

This illustration photo taken in Los Angeles on October 28, 2021, shows a person using Facebook on a smartphone in front of a computer screen showing the META logo. - Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday announced the parent company's name is being changed to "Meta" to represent a future beyond just its troubled social network.

Also Read: Facebook NFTs Slowly Rolls Out to Select Creators, Cross-Posting Coming Soon

Tech geeks familiar with the tech firm's works explained that the upcoming FB option allows users to have different accounts for various purposes.

For example, they can use their original account for their families and other relatives. On the other hand, they can create new profiles specifically for their friends.

"To help people tailor their experience based on interests and relationships, we're testing a way for people to have more than one profile tied to a single Facebook account," said Facebook spokesperson Leonard Lam.

When it comes to rules, CNET reported that the new profiles created using the new feature are still required to follow Facebook's existing policies.

Multiple Facebook Account Options Catch

Since Meta clarified that its policies will still be applied to the new accounts, users need to be extra careful when posting content that may violate the tech firm's regulations.

Now, here's the catch. Meta explained that consumers could use other names for their new accounts. Of course, this may encourage other people to post inappropriate content on their other profiles.

But, the tech firm said that if one of your accounts violates the social media platform's policies, the penalties will apply to the original profile and all the accounts under it.

If you want to see more details about the new Facebook multiple account options, you can visit this link.

On the other hand, Meta said it would update the Facebook Community Feedback Policy and remove fake business page reviews.

Meanwhile, Facebook and Instagram recently took down posts linked to abortion pills.

For more news updates about Facebook and its upcoming enhancements, keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Related Article: Facebook Now Allows Users to Change Ad Preference and Post Audience

This article is owned by TechTimes

Written by: Griffin Davis

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Meta released its human rights report for the world to see and know about its actions on the platform, especially after its many issues that involved disputes on people's online usage. There were previous problems in Facebook before it rebranded to Meta, and it mostly boils down to the mental health of the public, which the company said it would change.

Fast forward to almost a year later, is Meta, the same company with just a different name?

Meta Human Rights Report: Did It Tackle its Past Issues?

(Photo : FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)

Meta released its first Human Rights Report, which will be an annual publication by the company from now, as it aims to address many issues from within for the public's knowledge. It talks about what the company did to improve several issues and problems that it faced, especially with the many difficulties it encountered in the past.

The massive social media company also released an 83-page Human Rights report for 2020 and 2021, covering its annual take on the past years. However, a report from TechCrunch claims that Meta did not discuss any of its past issues in the report, and it is primarily a "self-congratulatory" report on the company's past months.

Not all are convinced with Meta's release regarding its human rights actions.

Read Also: Instagram Creator Marketplace: Now Available, But There's a Catch on its Access

Meta and Human Rights on the Platform

Meta said it is going big on human rights. The company even made a newly-updated "Human Rights Policy" that will address specific issues and tackle problems in the platform. It is unknown what Meta plans to do in the future with its new claims and focus now, but it will be toward human rights, as per the company's promise.

Meta's Issues in the Past

Meta is famous for many things, from its products and online features available worldwide to its many issues that put the company on the front pages of news and the internet. In the past, a lawsuit focused on Facebook, Meta's Former name, talked about how Instagram's platform is harmful to teenagers' mental health.

Facebook also faced a lawsuit before in Texas regarding the company's facial recognition issue, and it put Meta in a delicate state among the public eyes and regulators. The company allegedly violated policies on facial recognition stemming from 2010 to 2021, and it is a massive breach of its operations and people's privacy.

Nevertheless, Meta said that it had changed its ways since then and these are all detailed in the human rights report of the company.

However, it is not something that several reports believe, and that is with the claims that Meta made on its platform and company, which mostly talked about its shift to focusing on human rights. The Meta report did not venture much on their past issues and what they did to address and change them for the world now, which is a massive breach.

Related Article: Meta Testing Facebook Multiple Account Option! But There's a Catch: Limitation, Rules, and Other Details

This article is owned by TechTimes

Written by Isaiah Richard

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Windows 12 is coming in 2024, and some reports claim this will come in the next two years from Microsoft, with a chance to replace the current version of Windows 11 that was released to the world. Speculations claim that it is the supposed "Sun Valley 3" major update for Windows 11 that will come next year but was canceled.

Microsoft to Release Windows 12 in 2024? Reports Claim

(Photo : Unsplash/ Windows)

According to XDA Developers, a new report regarding a new Windows version will replace the current one after three years since it was last released. Microsoft brought the world the Windows 11 in 2021, and its subsequent development cycle would be in 2024 with a speculated new version for the computer OS.

Zac Bowden from the Windows Central said that this is part of Microsoft's Windows roadmap that will release new versions of the operating system every three years, as it would update the world with its offers. Of course, these versions would see a significant release from the company, and it would bring major updates in its new versions.

Every three years for the new version, Microsoft would bring update drops to its OS in between.

Read Also: Microsoft Releases Warning for 'Raspberry Robin' Threat: Infected Networks Objectives Unknown

What About Windows 11 in the Coming Years?

The reports said that despite a Windows 12 speculated for the year 2024, Windows 11 would not be left behind or something that would not see any developments from the company. Still, if Windows 12 is releasing in two years, Windows 11 will receive its support from Microsoft and develop until the company phases it out like past versions.

Windows and its Versions

One of the most significant versions of the Windows 11 is the 2H22, and it brings the latest major update from Microsoft for the famous computer operating system to service the world. Windows 11 is the latest and present operating system that Microsoft has developed for the world, and it gives everyone the chance to access their computers for work and leisure.

(Photo : JOSEP LAGO/AFP via Getty Images)

A Microsoft logo is displayed at the MWC (Mobile World Congress) in Barcelona on March 2, 2022.

Some users cannot upgrade to Windows 11 but were given the Windows 10 LTSC Enterprise to use for their needs, and it brings a stable version of the old OS for all users. The new version brings an absolute one that would give the public an older version of Windows without the necessary updates that would bug them frequently.

Now, there is an upcoming Windows 12 that will replace the computer operating system in 2024, and it will be three years old by then since its first release in 2021. There are no concrete promises for Windows 12 now, but its speculations say that it will have significant improvements in the future version if it comes out.

Related Article: Microsoft Office Backtracks its Security Move to Block Macros! But Why

This article is owned by TechTimes

Written by Isaiah Richard

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
(Photo : Lockheed Martin)

The US Air Force just got its first fighter-mounted laser weapon, a military advancement that can destroy missile electronics while indicating prospects for the development of offensive air-to-ground capabilities.

The US defense contractor Lockheed Martin gave the US Air Force its first Laser Advancements for Next-generation Compact Environments (LANCE) airborne laser weapon in February, according to a report this month by The Warzone.

What Can Lance Do During Combat?

The LANCE, according to Lockheed Martin, who developed the weapon, is one-sixth the size of the earlier laser weapons the company made for the US Army and has lower power needs, allowing it to be deployed inside a fighter belly pod.

Although the maximum power of the LANCE has not been revealed, The Warzone calculates that it is less than 100 kilowatts.

If LANCE is rendered successful in its defensive objectives, it might be possible that it can aid the development of various offensive-based laser weapons, such as those that can combat drones and aircraft at greater ranges compared to aiming for fast anti-aircraft missiles coming from the ground or air.

In addition to being significantly smaller and lighter than other previous weapons, LANCE also uses less power, which is important for a fighter-based laser since it can be deployed inside of a pod.

The National Interest notes that fighter jet laser weaponry will be far faster than air-to-air missiles since they move at the speed of light, allowing for quicker attacks.

A laser weapon could be programmed to destroy or just disable and cripple an enemy aircraft absolutely. Laser weapons are also capable of performing various forms of optical surveillance.

Asia Times said that LANCE's estimated power output might indicate that it will be used as a defensive weapon for disabling air-to-air missiles by damaging their sensitive seeker heads.

Read also: US Military's 'World's Only Reusable Spaceplane' Has Been Flying for 781 Days - New Endurance Record Achieved!

Is LANCE Good for Missile Defense?

LANCE might be effective against approaching air-to-air missiles, but it might not be adequate for missile defense, particularly in light of the growing threat posed by China's and Russia's hypersonic weaponry, as noted by Asia Times.

Bahman Zohuri writes in his 2016 book "Directed Energy Weapons" that an air defense laser weapon intended to shoot down enemy missiles, helicopters, and aircraft should be in the megawatt range and must accurately target sensitive components.

Additionally, the laser weapon must be able to deliver sustained fire until the target has been successfully demolished.

Although the LANCE's mountable aircraft type is not yet known, Lockheed Martin concept art shows the weapon installed on an F-16 fighter.

According to The National Interest, the F-22 and F-35 stealth fighters may be equipped with LANCE or other future weapons of a similar nature.

LANCE was created by a contract signed in November 2017 and is a component of the Air Force's larger Self-protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator, or SHiELD.

Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman are working jointly on SHiELD. Northrop Grumman is in charge of the beam control system that places the laser on its target and maintains it there, while Boeing makes the pod that holds LANCE, which Lockheed Martin provides.

Related Article: U.S. and Germany Will Supply Ukraine With Advanced Rockets and Anti-Aircraft Missiles

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The last time anyone saw 32-year-old Jeffrey Merriweather alive was in early June of 2019. Two weeks later, his body was found behind a house in Atlanta, always completely skeletonized. By the time the corpse was discovered, it only weighed 34 pounds.

Authorities believed that Merriweather was killed in a drug-related shooting  but that didn't explain his shriveled remains. In hopes of finding an answer, the Fulton County Medical Examiner's office shipped the corpse via FedEx to a lab in St. Louis for additional testing.

And somehow, FedEx lost the package.

Three years later, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution published an update on the situation (although it's more of a recap of events since the body is still messing). The newspaper's Twitter account shared the link, as tends to happen on social media. And this time, a plucky FedEx customer service rep responded!

I am truly sorry you went through this experience.



Please send a direct message so I can continue assisting you.



-Gaby.  FedEx Help (@FedExHelp) July 15, 2022

As of press time, the mysterious skeletonized body is still unaccounted for. As the Journal-Constitution also notes, FedEx may also be liable for a felony:

The bizarre episode also may have violated the law. Human bodies are traditionally transported across state lines by airline. FedEx said using its services to send human remains is prohibited, a fact that's stated in its user manual. The U.S. Postal Service is the only mailing service legally qualified to carry human remains across the country and then only under strict guidelines. The Fulton medical examiner has not responded to questions about why the remains were sent with FedEx.

I look forward to the eventual true crime miniseries about whatever happened here.

Man's body still missing 3 years after Georgia medical examiner shipped it via FedEx [Asia Simone Burns / Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

Image: PxHere
As weird and awesome as it may sound, a UTV body was mounted on top of two high-performance jet skis, making it the world's first aquatic utility vehicle, according to a report by GearJunkie.

The vehicle is named " Shadow Six Typhoon" and was developed by Shadow Six.

The Shadow Six Typhoon

Shadow Six said only the body panels are from an RZR, although GearJunkie claimed they are aftermarket RZR widebody panels.

The titanium frame was custom-made for corrosion resistance and is also lightweight. It is worth noting that the vehicle still has suspension, so the twin hulls are connected to a shock and spring assembly for every corner.

What this means is that the vehicle's suspension system will help dampen the impact of the waves to enhance the user's riding experience.

The twin jet ski hulls are also made in-house, out of carbon composite, and are positioned to long-travel Fox shocks front and rear that look like they belong on a UTV.

It must also be noted that this vehicle is worth a quarter-million-dollar machine, so any normal engine does not power it. It is propelled by two Yamaha GP1800 R SVHO engines deployed in each hull.

Within these two hulls are two 1.8-liter turbo-charged Yamaha GP1800R SVHO jet-ski engines, each producing 250 horsepower (186.5 kW). If the user feels that 250 hp is insufficient, they can select stage 1, 2, or 3 Riva Racing performance kits to be equipped before delivery.

Riva won't specify the power increase but says a pair of Stage 3 kits will increase the Typhoon's standard 68 mph (109 km/h) top speed to 80 mph (129 km/h)

Shadow Six also said that only about 300 pounds of its 2,300-pound dry weight are above the waterline, which significantly improves stability. Inflatable collars at the waterline also help improve its ability to withstand rough water.

The 2,365 lb (1,073 kg) Typhoon appears to be capable of slicing through the water despite its heavy combination of parts. It can catch bulk air from waves and can smoothly change directions, as noted by News Atlas.

Although Shadow Six's videos of the vehicle only show it riding through calm water, Ryan Goldberg claimed that they had tested it in a variety of surf conditions along Florida's coast.

Read also: 2023 Toyota Crown Will Be A Fusion of Sedan and SUV With 340 Horsepower!

When Will the Vehicle Be Available?

For the time being, the aquatic vehicle only has two seats. The company does intend to build a four-seat model with a back seat to provide more space, but this would necessitate a new model with a different and longer chassis.

Production models are expected to arrive in Q1 or Q2 of 2023, depending on Shadow Six's ability to deconstruct Yamaha PWCs for the vehicle's components.

Shadow Six is collaborating with Riva Motorsports, the world's largest PWC dealer, which could help the company strengthen its supply.

The company said its objective is to develop 30 aquatic utility vehicles next year, which will be limited by supply rather than demand. Shadow Six adds that the prices should start at around $250,000.

Related Article: 'World's Most Durable E-Motor': MAHLE's Motor Can Run Indefinitely At Over 90% Peak Output!

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
In TikTok, anything can be viral, especially those videos that exhibit pranks and humanitarian service. However, not all you see on the internet is true, and this is a fact.

The "acts of kindness" videos do not always translate to positive reactions. While some content creators have good intentions to help other people, others are only filming them for fun/profit.

'Random Acts of Kindness' Trend on TikTok

There will come a time when a stranger will approach you and invite you to chitchat. Later, this man/woman will reward you for answering the question, right? It sounds familiar, isn't it?

Sometimes, you can see a person giving food to random people on the streets. Others will hand you a bouquet of flowers without knowing their intentions.

For a typical person, these acts of kindness can be easily understood because of the presents. However, it's not always about butterflies since there's a mystic reason why content creators resort to that thing.

According to PetaPixel, a TikTok content creator who goes with the name Harrison Pawluk has recently filmed an Australian woman without her consent.

The viral video has thousands of views on TikTok at the moment. The caption reads, "I hope this made her day better." Although many people think that it's a sweet gesture to do to an elderly woman, Maree, the subject in the video, does not think the same.

According to the woman, the TikTok influencer filmed her without her consent. Maree said that Pawluk interrupted her. She added that he's just doing it for the sake of money.

"It's the patronizing assumption that women, especially older women, will be thrilled by some random stranger giving them flowers," Maree said in an interview with ABC Radio.

This example is only one of many videos all over the internet which might easily fool the viewers into knowing that it's doing more good than harm.

Related Article: TikTok Challenge: Khaby Lame Surpassed Charli D'Amelio with Social Media Subscriptions

'Acts of Kindness' Videos Are Dehumanizing

It's been a long time since these videos existed on social media, but people only pay attention to the positive light. This is one of the reasons why this kind of clip continues to exist to date.

The random "acts of kindness" video could involve providing a seat to an old woman, filming a mentally-impaired person in public, and more.

This trend might sound good, but in fact, it's the other way around. According to Dr. Crystal Abidin, a digital anthropologist from Curtin University, it's all about the "money shot" for the creators, per The Guardian.

Abidin continued that the "random acts of kindness" videos have already evolved into "humanitarian dramas." The lack of context on the posted videos makes it more terrible to understand further.

The next time you encounter a man or a woman who wants to give you food, money, or flowers, remember the concept behind "random acts of kindness." It may seem pleasant, but in reality, it's not what you can really think of.

Read Also: Tiktok Trend: Women Share Videos of Them Removing IUDs, But is it Safe?

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Joseph Henry

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
In an attempt to promote healthier workplace conditions throughout Japan, the country's Koyoju Gohan KK and Itoki Corp are joining forces to develop and distribute so-called "nap boxes," or vertical cupboards that act as comfy resting pods in the office. Both firms have already signed a license agreement, penned on Thursday, July 14, with Koyoju Gohan now in the process of designing the nap box for sale.

"I think a lot of Japanese people tend to work continuously with no breaks," explains Itoki communications director Saeko Kawashima. "We are hoping that companies can use this as a more flexible approach to resting."

The culture of overwork in Japan has pervaded the workforce in that region since the 1970s and has only intensified since. Japan's overwork problem has led to a multitude of deaths, the first of which was reported in 1969 when a 29-year-old male working in the shipping department of Japan's largest newspaper succumbed to a stroke. Since then, the Japanese have termed the phenomenon of overworking oneself to death as "karoshi."

A probe led by Japanese authorities into 24,000 companies last year proved to highlight 37%, or around 9,000, had violated the country's overtime laws. According to Statista, an average of about 2,000 or so workplace-related suicides occur in Japan each year since 2012. And, while that number might seem quite large, Wired's Elle Hunt ascribes the annual death toll via karoshi to about 10,000, according to so-called "campaigners."

Related Article: Japan is World's Number One Robot Maker

A probe led by Japanese authorities into 24,000 companies last year proved that 37%, or around 9,000, had violated the country's overtime laws. According to Statista, an average of about 2,000 or so workplace-related suicides have occurred in Japan each year since 2012. And while that number might seem quite large, Wired's Elle Hunt ascribes the annual death toll via karoshi to about 10,000, according to so-called "campaigners."

Related Article: Japan is World's Number One Robot Maker

A probe led by Japanese authorities into 24,000 companies last year proved that 37%, or around 9,000, had violated the country's overtime laws. According to Statista, an average of about 2,000 or so workplace-related suicides have occurred in Japan each year since 2012. And while that number might seem quite large, Wired's Elle Hunt ascribes the annual death toll via karoshi to about 10,000, according to so-called "campaigners."

Related Article: Japan is World's Number One Robot Maker

Japan's overwork culture has proven to be a rather tricky catch-22. Various initiatives have sprung up throughout the years in an attempt to curb the metastasizing issue to little or no avail. HBO's VICE News published a video in 2017 on Japan's 'Premium Friday,' a campaign launched by the Japanese government that encouraged workplaces to give staff a half day on the last Friday of each month. Unfortunately, the concept never truly caught on.

But both Koyoju Gohan and Itoki Corp vie to amend the situation or at least challenge it via the promotion of power naps. The country already has a set term for such a thing: inemuri, which essentially describes a short sleep period in the day to facilitate long working hours or extended commutes. Inemuri can literally be translated to "sleeping while present," which, to no one's surprise, has become a major phenomenon in the region likened to FOMO, or the Fear of Missing Out.

"In Japan, there are a lot of people who will lock themselves up in the bathroom for a while, which I don't think is healthy," says Kawashima. "It's better to sleep in a comfortable location."

The partnered firms' forthcoming nap box, which has no available price or availability just yet, stems from this very concept of inemuri. Users would step into the nap box and sleep standing straight up, akin to a flamingo. All of the necessary bodily parts are comfortably supported, including the rear, knees, and head, in order to guarantee that a user won't fall over while asleep.

While napping in the daytime to bolster cognitive performance at work still remains uncertain as to its overall viability, a plethora of research exists positing that it does aid in alertness, but results vary depending on the age of the individual. As to both Itoki and Koyoju Gohan's nap box, the imperative behind the design is certainly virtuous, but the campaign itself will come down to Japanese employers also catching on to the nap box movement.

Read Also: Japan Increases Cyberbullying Fine to $2,200! But, Experts Say This Can Affect Free Speech

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
After Dr. James Whitfield, Colleyville High School's first Black principal, wrote a letter to the school community about police brutality in the wake of the George Floyd murder, in 2020, he was fired. At a recent meeting of Republican school board members hosted by the RNC, Tammy Nakamura, an elected trustee on the Grapevine-Colleyville school board, point blank admitted Whitfield was fired for being anti-racist and that such teachers are "just poison."

Daily Beast:

"I went in last week and read the whole file," she said during the meeting.

"That's the straw that broke the camel's back that got him fired," Nakamura said, referring to the letter Whitfield sent to parents about targeting racism and hate, which she claimed showed an activist agenda. "There is absolute proof [of] what he was trying to do," she said.

Though Nakamura didn't elaborate on the contents of Whitfield's letter, she was adamant that she had a list of other educators in the school system with similar motives.

"They have to be stopped now," she added. "We cannot have teachers such as these in our schools because they're just poison, and they're taking our schools down."
Son "genetic mismatch" that was hard to get through a test tube... Loss of contact with the person in charge
Kaleida Health's flagship hospital has found its next leader.

Beth Hughes has been named president of Buffalo General Medical Center/Gates Vascular Institute in Buffalo after a national search, Kaleida announced Friday. Hughes will start Oct. 3.

Hughes most recently served as president of MercyOne's Western Iowa region, where she provided strategic, operational and financial direction for MercyOne Siouxland Medical Center, three critical-access hospitals, a primary care network and specialty clinics, among other facilities. MercyOne, based in Des Moines, Iowa, is a $3 billion health system that operates 18 hospitals and 23 affiliated facilities while employing more than 18,000 employees.

"Beth is a proven health care leader with a history of driving cultural and operational change in hospitals and health systems," new Kaleida Health President and CEO Don Boyd said in a statement.

"She brings a wealth of leadership experience in many different areas of health care, including service line leadership, physician services, ambulatory care, and operations," Boyd said. "Her focus on growth, transparency, inclusivity and team building will help BGMC/GVI continue to grow and evolve in the ever-changing healthcare landscape."

Kaleida kicked off a search for its next Buffalo General president after Christopher Lane in mid-January announced he was leaving the post to become president and CEO of Virginia Hospital Center, a health system in Arlington, Va. Lane remained at the helm of Buffalo General until mid-March, when retired Kaleida executive Cheryl Klass came back to serve as the interim president of Buffalo General/Gates Vascular on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.

Kaleida said Klass has committed to staying for a period of time to work with Hughes and to ensure a smooth transition.

While Kaleida did not provide Hughes' age or where she grew up, the health system noted that she spent the early part of her career as administrator of the cardiac program at Millard Fillmore Hospitals before it became part of Kaleida.

Hughes holds a bachelor's degree in music from Northwestern University and a master of health administration from Xavier University.

For Kaleida, the hiring of Hughes is just the latest move in its rapidly changing executive ranks.

New Kaleida Health CEO Donald Boyd has 'enormous challenges facing him' Among the obstacles for the new CEO are labor negotiations, financial effects from the pandemic and the rapidly changing nature of the health care industry.

Other recent changes for Western New York's largest health system:
A Clarence contracting and development firm plans to clean up and reuse a largely vacant and polluted site along the Niagara River in North Tonawanda for a new five-story apartment building.

Lucian Visone Jr.'s VisoneCo.  which also includes Visone Enterprises and Rock One Development, and previously developed the $20 million River's Edge complex at 600 River Road  wants to construct a 111-unit apartment building at 624 River Road, on 3.7 acres of land that it owns through its DLV Properties LLC.

Sign up for the Buffalo Next free newsletter The News' Buffalo Next team covers the changing Buffalo Niagara economy. Get the news in your inbox 5 days a week.

The site contains a dated 17,000-square-foot medical office building that was constructed in 1997 and is 70% empty. Visone would replace that with a 148,000-square-foot market-rate apartment complex, after completing a brownfield cleanup of the property that is already underway.

The $20 million building  first unveiled earlier this year  would feature studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments, ranging in size from 750 to 1,300 square feet. It would also include a partially covered parking area on the first floor. Construction is expected to take about 18 months.

Visone plans to ask the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency for $4.98 million in tax breaks for the $23.09 million project. That includes $4.02 million in property tax relief through a 10-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, $814,836 in sales tax breaks for purchases and $145,955 in mortgage-recording tax abatement.

The firm submitted an application for the tax breaks but withdrew it for now, with plans to refile later, according to NCIDA officials. According to the agency, the residential project would qualify because it's a brownfield and aligns with local planning and development efforts.

Project costs will include $19.31 million for construction, $865,000 for the cleanup, $527,990 for furniture and fixtures, and $2.38 million for professional fees. Funding will come from $19.46 million in bank loans, $3.46 million in equity and a $165,000 Niagara Brownfield Development Loan, according to the initial application that had been submitted.

"The development of this property will be economically unfeasible without your assistance and partnership in this matter due to the high cost of site infrastructure, current and future brownfield monitoring and remediation costs which heavily burden the project," Visone wrote in the application to the NCIDA.

Visone is already constructing a separate 13,700-square-foot building on the property with nine apartments and two commercial spaces, each about 2,000 square feet in size. It also received a tax break last summer for that $2.9 million mixed-use building.

Santora's Pizza Pub & Grill had been slated to go in there, but abandoned those plans in favor of opening at Walden Galleria instead.

Both of the new buildings will be connected to the previously constructed 88-unit apartment and townhouse complex at River's Edge by a public riverfront path.
A vehicle drives into the school zone on LA-16 Tuesday Feb. 15, 2022, in French Settlement, La. The story is about cities and towns that rely heavily on fines and forfeitures to support their government functions. The villages of Port Vincent and French Settlement illustrate this point since their fines and fees make up 70% and 40%, of their respective budgets through data analysis of audit reports. The Ospeed trapO designation for the hamlets has yet to be determined.
Once, Adrian McKinty and his family were visiting a small island off the Australian coast. It was hot, there was nothing much to see. The locals carried shotguns to hunt rabbits and seemed vaguely threatening. On a race to get back to the last ferry, their car almost hit a woman on a bicycle who appeared out of the blue. Still shaken, McKinty joked to his wife that if they had hit her, they would never leave the island alive.

Cut to lockdown in New York, McKintys present home, where he was suffering from writers block. On the phone chatting to his agent, Shane Salerno, he told him about their near miss. You did hit her, Salerno said. Thats the book.

Janet Evanovich, Harlan Coben and Adrian McKinty spoke at BAD Sydneys International Online Festival.

That indeed is The Island, the second international bestselling thriller from the Belfast-born and one-time Australian resident, in which an American family visit Dutch Island and mayhem ensues. I watched McKinty talk about it via BAD Sydneys International Online Festival, in one of four interview sessions with top crime writers. The others were Janet Evanovich, Harlan Coben and Mick Herron (the fifth session with Don Winslow was postponed).

They were all promoting their latest books, but also had plenty to say about their long and prolific careers, which were by no means overnight success stories. Before his breakthrough into thrillers, McKinty wrote six noir crime novels about his Belfast cop Sean Duffy, which were well received but never sold more than 2000 copies in a year. Noir is still his favourite style: he can have the music-obsessed Duffy go off on a rant about Bono or Robert Plant and readers will stay with him. But you cant get away with that in a thriller.
We meet for lunch at Tsuru, a tranquil Japanese restaurant in Little Collins Street. Outside, the street looks like a building site. Inside it is ordered and calm, with soothing music playing. We each order a classic sushi set, which arrives with a collection of plump parcels of kingfish, salmon, tuna, scallops and scampi on rice, with side dishes of miso soup, cucumber salad and braised vegetables. It is light, fresh and plentiful. My partner doesnt like Japanese food, but I adore it, she says. He would prefer to eat a steak. She gestures the size of a large steak with her hands, pulls a mock grimace and laughs. The classic sushi set from Tsuru. Credit:Wayne Taylor OConnor literally sparkles in a glittery black and oil-slick coloured knit and red cardigan warding off a chilly Melbourne winters day. She is determinedly feminine, a diminutive woman dripping in sparkling jewellery. But only a fool would underestimate her. I think its genetic, coming from my fathers side, she says of her resolve. He was a very strong person and so was my grandfather  [I have the] same kind of enormous energy and fearlessness.

Just when it threatens to sound like a job interview in which the applicant insists their biggest failing is that they work too hard, she adds with a laugh: And, sometimes, ill-founded confidence. For more than a decade, OConnor has campaigned against the practice of dowry in Australia. Dowries can be seen as a way of sending wealth with a daughter, who brings it with her to her new life with her husband and his family. But too often, OConnor argues, they skew power relationships. This sometimes leads to the abuse of those power relationships, demands for more money or gifts, young brides being cut off from their birth families, and mental and physical abuse. Daughters of Durga by Manjula Datta OConnor. Since 2008 OConnors focus as a clinical psychiatrist has been working with South Asian women who have suffered domestic abuse and also, to a lesser extent, with the men who perpetuate that abuse. For the past seven years, she has also been working on her first book, Daughters of Durga.

Durga is one of Hinduisms major deities; a warrior goddess who is a symbol of motherhood and female strength, as well as power, war and destruction. Men pray to her, she writes. Women hope to imbibe her power. Durga stands, in OConnors assessment, in contrast to Sita, the consort of Lord Rama in Valmikis Ramayana, who symbolises submissiveness, obedience and modesty, and who represents the ideal of Indian womanhood. In Daughters of Durga, OConnor cites Turkish writer Deniz Kandiyoti, who writes of the patriarchal bargain at the heart of traditional Indian culture: Women suffer at the hands of the patriarchy, yet pray to have sons and will give them preferential treatment over daughters in the hope they will get power back from their association with their son. If she is widowed, she will once again become a burden to her son and his family  Living alone as a single or widowed woman is a serious safety risk for many in India. OConnor hastens to add there can be no sweeping generalisations about India, a highly complex and diverse country of 1.4 billion people, comprising 28 states and 22 officially recognised languages.

But structural issues do remain across the subcontinent. In 2005, OConnor was asked to give a speech to a group of psychiatrists on Indian suicide rates. Researching the topic, she was shocked to learn that suicide rates among Indian women are the highest in the world. Manjula Datta OConnor. Credit:Wayne Taylor She points to 2008 figures showing Indian women in India suicide at more than twice the rate of Australian women. And suicide is not the only way women disappear: they also disappear though sex selection in the unborn. Australian mothers from India had boys at a rate of about 104 to 100 for their first child (the natural ratio), but for their second child, almost 122 boys were born to every 100 girls, OConnor writes.

Why is there such an obsession for having sons? There are many answers to this question ... but perhaps the most important one lies in Indias patrilocal culture, whereby daughters have to give up their biological family on marriage, relocate to their husband and in-laws home, and serve their new family. One of OConnors greatest inspirations is Amartya Sens The Argumentative Indian, in which he describes the missing women in India who would be alive were it not for foeticide, infanticide and dowry murders (Sen estimated in 1990 that 100 million women were missing worldwide). It changed the trajectory of her life. I felt such guilt, shame and embarrassment that I didnt know any of that, OConnor recalls. It was a very strong emotional reaction. The more I looked into it, the more I was so distressed by it because even though I grew up in Delhi I really had no idea about the life of people around me. Loading

OConnor doesnt claim that the oppression of women is peculiar to Indian culture: Violence against women is a wicked global problem, not confined to any class, religion [or] country. The question is what tools or tactics are used, by whom and in what context. Rather, she argues India should return to traditions of the past; before colonisation and before the Manusmriti, an ancient legal text laying out the rights, duties and expectations of Indias higher castes, which became used by the British colonisers to enforce rigid laws and moral codes, and which have been credited with undermining Indian womens standing in society. The bill at Tsuru. Credit:Bianca Hall Theres no doubting OConnors enormous drive, which she attributes to having a strong neuronal energy. Between her psychiatry practice, her research work, her role as chairwoman of the Royal Australian New Zealand College of Psychiatrists Family Violence Psychiatry Network and her advocacy, she works seven days a week. OConnor has the brisk and self-contained nature of a mental health professional, giving little away about her inner workings.
HISTORY

Russia: Revolution and Civil War, 1917-1921

Antony Beevor

Weidenfeld & Nicolson, $55

Charles Dickens almost exact contemporary, the Russian thinker Alexander Herzen (1812-1870), once predicted that one day Genghis Khan will return with the telegraph. As can be seen today in the former Soviet Union, modern weapons and means of control are far more powerful and destructive than in Herzens time.

With Russias bloody invasion of Ukraine now in its fifth month, any resemblance between Genghis Khan and Vladimir Putin might still seem a tad far-fetched. Even so, Genghis Khans Golden Horde has now been supplanted by hoarders of gold, with Putin and his associates well to the fore.

A Bolshevik rally in St Petersburg in 1917. Credit:

It is unlikely that Antony Beevors latest book will please Putin and his acolytes. To be sure, the anti-communists  or even non-communists  do not emerge universally well from this account of the first four years after the overthrow of the Tsarist regime in February 1917. While liberals, non-Russian minorities and non-Bolshevik socialists differed among themselves, they had to contend with an array of deluded and often inflexible  indeed, sometimes deranged  reactionaries on their right. The White forces, Beevor declares, all too often represented the worst examples of humanity. For ruthless inhumanity, however, the Bolsheviks were unbeatable.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Book critics Lucy Sussex and Steven Carroll cast their eyes over recent fiction and non-fiction titles. Here are their reviews. Non-fiction pick of the week

Credit: Hard Joy: Life and Writing

Susan Varga, Upswell, $29.99 Susan Vargas distinctive memoir (incorporating her taut but resonant poetry) comes over as an effortless blend of the epic and intimate, and easy to read  but it was hard won. You finish with admiration both for the book and for the writer. Born in Hungary in 1943, she fled after the war, with her mother, sister and step-family (her father dying in a Nazi labour camp) to Sydney, where at university she entered the daunting, mostly male-dominated Sydney Push. Sex followed, relationships and marriage, until she met the woman with whom she fell in love. She started writing, was happy, was unhappy, and at 68 had a stroke. Hard Joy, global in its sweep but deeply personal, was written in its shadow. Beguilingly simple, she draws you in, covering the emotional and intellectual highs and lows of living  and of the writing life.

Advertisement

Credit: 52 Ways to Walk

Annabel Streets, Bloomsbury, $29.99 The cold snap much of the country is experiencing at the moment is, according to the aptly named Annabel Streets, the perfect time to drag yourself from the heater and go walking. Walking in the cold is good for you: it stimulates brown fat (good fat). Even better if you can walk amid trees, the terpenes released by trees being highly therapeutic on all levels. Streets discourses on one type of walk for each week of the year. Theres walking to improve your gait (Simone de Beauvoir being a role model), wet walking, smelling as you go walking, breathing only through the nose walking (favoured by Kant), walking as a stimulant to memory and, among other ways, walking to experience a Wordsworthian sublime, and not necessarily in the Swiss alps. Written for the reader to dip into, its entertaining and surprisingly informative. Credit: Of Marsupials and Men

Alistair Paton, Black Inc., $32.99 One of the more bizarre exploits of World War II (described by Gerald Durrell as magnificently idiotic) occurred in 1943 when Churchill asked then-prime minister John Curtin to send him six platypuses. The PM sent one, appropriately named Winston, which died of depth-charge concussion during a U-boat attack.

Advertisement

But, as Alistair Paton details in this fascinating and often wryly observed study, it was all part of an ongoing practice that in the 19th century was known as acclimatisation  a two-way freeway of animals coming from Europe to Australia and vice versa. But the emphasis is on overseas fascination with our bizarre creatures (Dante Gabriel Rossettis pet wombat, kangaroos in London and platypuses touring New York) as well as the gallery of naturalists who studied and advanced our understanding of the animals. Credit: Life with Birds

Bronwyn Rennex, Upswell, $29.99 The ordinary events of suburban living are apt to go overlooked, but not in Bronwyn Rennexs poetic family tale. Its grand themes of life and death constantly rub shoulders with the incidentals such as watching a TV soap character die, giggling through her teenage christening, or sitting in front of a mirror creating multiple images of herself that disappear into infinity. The key event, the before and after of her young life, is the sudden death of her father when she was 15. She delves into his past, mostly his military service in occupied Japan and Vietnam, at one point shocked to learn that her kind father taught troops jungle warfare. The birds? Among other things, theyre symbolic of resilience and not being able to control everything in life and nature. A deceptively simple combination of meditation and suburban family portrait. Fiction pick of the week

Advertisement

Credit: Dele Weds Destiny

Tomi Obaro, Hodder Studio, $32.99 Afrofuturism is currently fab. So is Afro-realism. Dele Weds Destiny is a first novel about Nigerian womens lives. Zainab, Enitan and Funmi first met at university, staying in touch despite distance and differences in tribe and religion. Now they are reuniting at the wedding of Funmis daughter. The novel is immersive, no glossary or similar concessions made to Anglo readers. You dive in, as if attending a rich African wedding feast. Obaro depicts recent Nigerian history and herstory acutely, an education in itself. The trio marry, emigrate, survive, theres even political violence and crime gangs. They become very different, and yet remain friends, as WhatsApp replaces letters. If they have made mistakes, will their daughters do the same? Vibrant and assertive. Credit: The Faculty

John Dale, Brio, $29.99 Satire is like etching: it requires acid and a deft hand. Political is the most common, less so academic satire, a very rich subject. Heroine Sarah is delighted with her first casual contract, with a Sydney university. What she finds is a neoliberal madhouse, with maladministration, management jargon and scanty funding.

Advertisement

Part of the fun of the book is spotting Geoffrey Blainey, slightly disguised, or wondering which humanities dean in particular has been transmogrified. It begins by spoofing woke activism, then more surely moves into an attack on the humanities. John Dale, being a crime writer, knows narrative and violence. The content is tragic, but even in the darkness Dale shows the way out. It just happens to be quite nefarious. Sure to cause conniptions or much joy in academe. Credit: The Golden Swift

Lev Grossman, Bloomsbury, $16.99 Lev Grossman has stated that it took 17 years of writing before he discovered he was a fantasy novelist, with the Magicians series. Now his new series is for children. It contains much that is familiar, child-friendly, and with the unusual twist of eco-activism. Siblings Kate and Tom are conductors on a magical train that rescues animals in peril. They talk, of course. The intent is very serious, mixed with high adventure. Inevitably the danger is didacticism, leavened here by much action. The younger reader learns about reintroduction of species such as beavers, and rewilding. Cassowaries and bushfires feature (Grossman married an Australian). It is nothing new, perhaps, but fun enough. For the junior eco-warriors in the family.

Advertisement
Some of the novels most moving passages evoke education in pre-revolutionary Afghanistan as a prized asset. A girl walks a long way to get to school; a mother who can barely read and write but who has taught herself to manage household finances vows that her sons bride will be educated; a law professors office with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves is described as a temple dedicated to the worship of knowledge.

Ghanis imagined homeland evoked is early 1970s Herat, which is portrayed as a place of arranged marriages, tea ceremonies and natural beauty. There are also witty touches of the contemporary: one character, a public prosecutor, has labradors named Nixon and Johnson.

If Edward Said is right, and our age is the age of the refugee, then Zaheda Ghanis novel of belonging and exile is a book for our times. This panoramic novel evokes Afghanistan before the Taliban, before the Soviet invasion, and before the one-party state, and it follows three characters as they make the transition through turbulent times from noble beginnings in Herat to their refugee status in Sydney.

It is this recollected image of Afghanistan and its lost possibilities that haunts the novel. Soon after a coup installs a one-party state, many of the characters abandon their homes and try to start again in Iran and India. The birth of a child is a deciding factor in seeking a new life, but the decision to leave their homeland is filtered through the lens of Afghanistans traditional culture. And so the lost possibilities of home transform into the challenge of exile and resettlement.

Pomegranate and Fig has three sections, each of which represents a different phase of the characters lives. A short middle section portrays the brutality of war and the dislocation of the people trying to outrun it. There is gunfire after curfew, residents hide in their storage rooms and receive intimidating visits from the ruling party. Meanwhile, farmers flood their fields at night in the hope the bombs and bullets of the mujahideen and the Soviets will hit them instead of their homes.

Ghani knows what shes talking about when it comes to refugees. In 2017 the author was appointed to the UNHCR board in Australia. Her landscape of exiles is based on real human hopes and frustrations.

The frustrations are illustrated, in particular, by the male characters. Working in a tea house in central Tehran, one character contemplates the difficulties of social mobility in a society where he feels like an outsider. We feel the stifling heat and see him cleaning himself with a dirty rag, a powerful signifier of deprivation and despair. When another character reports that he cannot visit his sister in India and later Australia, for the shame of his meagre existence, the heart breaks.

Ghani creates waves of sympathy for people trying their hardest to start a new life in the most frustrating circumstances. It proves more difficult than the characters first thought to begin afresh.
Kate Bush surprises Brisbane choir with email praising their cover of Running Up That Hill

Were sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. Were working to restore it. Please try again later. Dismiss

Our network

Open Navigation Menu The Age Subscribe
After all his effort on the design and completion of the space, it feels like another beating-down of his legacy. You wouldnt see changes like this happen to an old concert hall in Europe, she said. Son Henry Hall, a creative director, said he appreciated the tricky situation the Opera House was in, that it needed to move with the times to cater for rock, hip hop and acoustic concerts as well as symphonies in the Concert Hall. The textured box fronts in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall. Credit:Nick Moir In the almost 50 years it has been open I can appreciate the acoustic requirements and function of the room have changed. It was designed to deliver optimal symphonies acoustics. There are so many more genres and styles performing in that space now. You do have to wonder, though if this was, say, another architect and not Peter Hall, would they have dared touch it? he said.

Opera House CEO Louise Herron said the Concert Hall upgrades were developed and delivered with the utmost care and respect for the Opera Houses state, national and World Heritage significance and are in keeping with their Conservation Management Plan, which safeguards the heritage values of the work of Jorn Utzon and Peter Hall. We did this by consulting widely with a number of experts and stakeholders, including the Opera Houses Design Advisory Panel, Conservation Council and Building & Heritage Committee, all of whom have been engaged throughout design, planning and construction, she said. Peter Hall completed the designs for the Sydney Opera Houses Concert Hall. Credit: Rhett Wyman I understand that any change to the Concert Hall is difficult for Peter Halls family. We have involved them throughout the project. We are committed to better recognising Peter Halls significant contribution  both in the way that we speak about the work of Hall, Todd and Littlemore [Peter Halls company] but also through physical recognition on site. I look forward to welcoming the Hall family to the Opera House next week for the reopening

concerts, so they can experience the transformative impact of these works, particularly acoustically,

which will secure the future of the Concert Hall and the legacy of their fathers work for many years

to come, she said.

John Rourke, a spokesman for OpusSOH, the team of architects, interior designers, and consultants who worked for Hall, Todd and Littlemore in completing the Opera Houses original interiors, said the renovations to the Concert Hall were enabled by technology that was not existent when they worked on the building in the 1960s. In the brief for the architecture when Jorn Utzon left, we were asked to turn a multi-functional hall into a symphonic hall. Now we have gone the other way around - back to the original design brief, said Rourke, who helped to decide the seat size in the Concert Hall. Willy Hall, son of Opera House architect Peter Hall. Credit:AAP Both OpusSOH and the Hall family are hoping the Sydney Opera House Trust will grant their request to rename the Drama Studio the Peter Hall Playhouse, in the manner the Utzon Room has been named in honour of the original Danish architect who dreamt up the building. The Drama Theatre would not have been there were it not for Peter - it was the under the stage machinery space for the original hall Utzon designed, and when we were told to remove the machinery he suggested we turn it into another space for drama, Rourke said.

Peter Hall, who took over from Jorn Utzon as lead architect for the Sydney Opera House. Credit:Ronald Leslie Loading When Hall reluctantly took on the job of completing the building in the 1960s at the request of the then NSW Government Architect Ted Farmer, he did so with the belief he would be following Utzons original plans, or at least working with him in consultation. If such plans existed, Hall and his team at Hall, Todd and Littlemore were not given access to them after Utzons departure. At the request of the then NSW Askin government, Halls team were ordered to change the main hall from a multi-purpose hall for opera, ballet and symphony, to one focused mainly on symphony concerts, to cater for the needs of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra which was then run by the ABC.
Dr Kean-Seng Lim, a GP in Mount Druitt in western Sydney, said the vulnerable were slipping through the cracks in the online reporting of rapid tests and symptom-checker surveys in the current wave, which he says seems to be infecting more older people. I recently had an elderly patient whos immunosuppressed with diabetes and lung disease who was not contacted by NSW Health at any time at all during their illness, so we were calling them daily, he said. General practitioner Simon Benson, who runs a major respiratory clinic in Footscray, in Melbournes west, said, now is not the time to be messing around with important health assets. Benson feared taking away free rapid tests could result in elderly pensioners and disadvantaged families missing out on specialised coronavirus care and trigger floods of people who could not afford to buy tests to arrive at hospital emergency departments.

Loading Having free or very low-cost access to RATs, has in my view, never been more critical, he said. If you take away free RATS and the childrens emergency department is rammed with people who could have done a RAT test at home and spoken to their own GP in a safe environment then that service is not there for those kids and families that really need it, he said. Federal Health Minister Mark Butler has repeatedly defended the decision to cease the rapid test scheme for vulnerable Australians, telling Melbournes 3AW radio station earlier this week that supply shortages earlier this year have ended and the price of individual tests has dropped. They were running on average at $24 or $25 per test if you could get them in January, theyre now down around about $8 a test, he said.

In another interview he said there are other ways every Australian pensioner or concession cardholder will still be able to access free tests. We continue to fund on a 50:50 basis with all of the states across the country, free COVID testing arrangements and that is not going to change. If you need to visit a loved one at an aged care facility which requires a RAT test to go in, there will be free RATs supplied by the Australian Government there. Recent cuts to telehealth have also meant that telephone voice consults that go for longer than 20 minutes with a GP have been slashed from Medicare, despite pleas from doctors that not all patients have access to the internet or the means to make video calls for appointments. Were basically creating a two-tiered system that says people who are affluent enough to have reliable devices and internet can have longer and more quality care, Munoz said. Those that dont simply go without.

Loading Butler met with Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president Karen Price and Australian Medical Association president Omar Khorshid on Friday to discuss the pressures on doctors. The groups urged him to restore Medicare rebates for telehealth phone consultations of longer than 20 minutes, saying GPs needed to be able to speak with complex and at-risk patients about their eligibility for antiviral medications. Voice-only calls are permanently covered by Medicare for short and standard consults up to 20 minutes and the government estimates six out of seven telehealth consults fall into this category. Melton GP Alastair Stark does not have a free appointment until the end of next week. Each day, he attempts to squeeze in as many patients as possible and works hours of overtime, amid concerns he could miss treating a vulnerable patient who is critically unwell with coronavirus and needs urgent access to antiviral medication.

Last Friday, Stark called an ambulance for patient who was too unwell to go home, but delays in paramedics arriving at the outer suburb of Melbourne, meant he ended up driving the patient to hospital himself. We are now having great trouble getting an ambulance to come and pick up patients, Stark said. We had another crisis again a few days ago when a patient had been sitting here waiting for the ambulance and paramedics have been tied up at other callouts. Melton GP Alastair Stark does not have a free appointment until the end of next week. Credit:Justin McManus NSW Australian Medical Association president Dr Michael Bonning said there was an anxiety underpinning many of the consultations at his Balmain practice in Sydneys inner-west, as doctors try to prescribe, locate and arrange the pick-up of oral antivirals for elderly patients. Its very rare that a new medicine is first rolled out through general practice. Primarily when there is a new listing of a medicine on the PBS [Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme], it goes through a specialist pathway, like a diabetes medication is prescribed by an endocrinologist, he said.
There are pleas to restore the pandemic leave payment. With falling oil prices, why not restore the full excise early to pay for the more targeted measure? Richard Ure, Epping It is very disappointing that the Labor Party now appears to be on the right of the Coalition in its approach to fighting the pandemic. Surely, in the current context, the federal government should be doing everything to support vulnerable workers? Alan Morris, Eastlakes Tale wagging the god Your correspondents (Letters July 14 and 15) are wrong. God cannot be a woman, because a woman does not have time to rest on the 7th day. Helen Bersten, Lindfield Regardless of whether God was male or female, mankind has been left to make its own decisions. Given the state of the world, we could do with some divine guidance. Dennis Suttling, Newport Beach

A bit biffy It is no surprise that this weeks Origin biffo was a turn-off, but recruits flocking to soccer may be wishful thinking (Letters, July 15). A glance at Australian stadium attendance figures shows tens of thousands of fans for AFL and NRL high numbers are mere aberrations, but football is a distant last  surely a turn-off for potential recruits. Joy Nason, Mona Vale Maybe your correspondent might like to try AFL instead of rugby league? AFLs got all the skills, body contact and excitement that Australians like in their sport, without any of the over-the-top thuggery. I switched support during the Super League war and havent been tempted to return. Peter Jones, Rathmines State of Origin violence may be overstated. As one US sports commentator said: I went to a fight and a game of ice hockey broke out. Alan Johnson, Seaforth Human ingenuity cannot solve poverty and unrest

Your correspondent (Letters, July 15) asks why human ingenuity and energy cant solve the global problems of poverty and unrest. Probably because humans have countervailing impulses to self-interest and acquisitiveness. That explains why enough Australians voted for the federal Coalition in 2019 to retain their negative gearing. Now the global problem of poverty and unrest is an acutely Australian problem too, with thousands locked out of being able to buy a property or afford to rent decent accommodation. Kate Lumley, Hurlstone Park Image from NASAs James Webb Telescope. Credit:NASA Your correspondent questions why we can build and launch the James Webb Space Telescope but not solve climate change or world poverty. The latter are infinitely more complex, lending themselves very well to the definition of wicked problems. Lewis Kaplan, Birchgrove If not with the Webb Telescope then perhaps with its successor humanity will be able to witness the Creator setting off the Big Bang and the beginning of at least one universe (Letters, July 15). Cornelius van der Weyden, Balmain East Climate consensus a must

Sadly, climate policy continues its role as a political football (Greens slam emissions bill as Labor digs in on mandate, July 15). A 43 per cent emissions reduction by 2030 is not nearly enough to limit warming to 1.5 degrees and the International Energy Agency is clear that to achieve net-zero by 2050, there can be no new fossil fuel projects. Thus, the Greens are scientifically and ideologically correct. We need, however, a legislated target to move us forward on this most vital issue. Please le this be the moment that our leaders finally achieve some form of sensible consensus. Amy Hiller, Kew (Vic) I hear the theme music starting for the 2009 blockbuster Sink the ETMS and Rudds ALP Government, starring Bob Brown, directed by the Greens and produced by Tony Abbott and right-wing media. However, this is a new production starring Adam Bandt manning the torpedoes, but he still has high hopes of tearing down Anthony Albaneses ALP in another attempt to further the Greens cause at any price. Will we return to the era of Planet of the Apes? Alan Carruthers, Artarmon Can some tough nuts bang a few heads together so Labor, the Greens and new independents sing in harmony on emissions reductions? Step forward, David Pocock and teal independents, and explain to Labor that if you want to win the climate change wars you must act fast and furiously on reducing emissions. The stoush between Albanese and Bandt must end. Jim Lavis, New Lambton Maths equation Why is maths not compulsory  like English  for the HSC (Girls schools buck aversion to maths, July 15)? It would have an immediate impact, providing sufficient suitably qualified teachers could be found  but that is another challenge for governments. So much continues to be written about encouraging girls to study STEM through expensive programmes. If all students are expected to navigate English, it seems fair and logical all are expected cope with maths. Young people expect to compete on the basis of meritocracy in the labour market. Having a fundamental education in maths for all is the right start. Janet Spence, Mosman

Credit:NESA If only improved results in STEM subjects by girls was simply a matter of more girls schools. Girls high schools are predominantly selective state schools or independent girls schools. They tend towards educational, social and cultural advantage which could also explain their academic performance. Gender biases are not simply absent in single sex schools. Vanessa Tennent, Oatley Calling for more girls schools to combat a perceived aversion to STEM by girls is simplistic and problematic. For many girls in regional and rural Australia there is no choice except boarding school and local single-sex schools are student number prohibited and cost restricting, even in our larger cities. The solution must come from within our comprehensive system, with inclusive teacher practices, promotion of single-sex classes where appropriate, and the promotion and inclusion of careers for women that involve STEM study. Often the problem for girls is that they have so many interests and talents it is difficult to master everything. Janice Creenaune, Austinmer Your author Loren Bridge believes that teachers favour boys and are more likely to direct them towards STEM careers. I find this odd, especially when you consider the majority of teachers are female. Peter Miniutti, Ashbury Danger on our doorstep

Cancelling all flights to and from Indonesia will cost travellers, the airlines and the economy (Minister pleads with Bali tourists to help keep foot and mouth at bay, July 15). But the amount lost will be a drop in the ocean compared to the devastation of an outbreak of foot and mouth disease. Stephanie Edwards, Roseville Sir Les Patterson (Barry Humphries) Credit:Penny Bradfield Australia must do more to screen travellers from Bali, even if it means dousing every single passenger and their luggage. This is a disease that will do more damage than COVID. Jenny Greenwood, Hunters Hill Right man for the job Im sure Barry Humphries Sir Les Patterson could offer valuable insight into being offered overseas postings for certain types of men of a certain age (Only ICAC can find the truth behind Barilaro job, July 15).

Paul Brennan, Woollahra

Time to incentivise for better COVID outcomes Waleed Aly writes about government conflict regarding COVID (Contradiction in the COVID age, July 15). Are we or are we not expected to go about our ordinary lives, should the government provide more financial help, or RATs, or do we just depend on common sense? If we are to do that, then how do we cope with major incidents such as allowing infected cruise ships to ply their trade in Australian waters? Do we or the government really care? Nola Tucker, Kiama Evidence suggests that the approach to COVID is all about incentives. Mandates are a crude form of incentive, but the downsides now seem too great. But other motivations might be just as effective. Australians got their second dose of vaccine because they had an incentive. By contrast, the take-up of a booster has been slow. Increasing availability might remove an impediment, but just because you can have a booster doesnt mean that you will. The issue of incentives is also important when considering government subsidies and compensation. For example, are RATs even still needed? Maybe we should be looking at how to motivate better behaviour, rather than assume it is a given.

David Rush, Lawson Postscript This week started briskly with religion, a guaranteed crowd puller. The main aspect was the treatment of women in Christianity. Most writers agreed current treatment is terrible (the word appalling appeared frequently as well). Past treatment was also enthusiastically discussed. Views ranged from Its always been bad to Once were women with authority.

Religion continued in a more light-hearted way as well, left over from last week, that is, what position should Jesus play in any version of football? Writers have moved from on-field positions to suggest coaching and catering, or referee (what a sin bin Hell have, eh?).

There was discussion about what to do with excess water, not something you usually expect in NSW. Should the Warragamba Dam wall be raised? Writers on the whole think not, seeing it as a waste of time and money and suggest that, in future, the flood gates be opened much earlier.

The John Barilaro affair got a good going over, starting early and staying late in the week. Writers thought that an ex-politician getting the job was unconscionable, the idea of giving anyone the job as a present was indefensible and what was the ICACs number again? Writers also enjoyed casting the movie that should surely be made of the shemozzle.

COVID discussion waxes and wanes on the letters pages, depending on the current news. This week it grew again, starting slowly about yes or no to masks (strongly yes and against relaxation) and moving on to strong disapproval about the removal of free RATS and payments to people who have to take leave to isolate, or who are ill.

Harriet Veitch, acting letters editor
Queensland teen jailed for car jacking, dragging woman hundreds of metres

Were sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. Were working to restore it. Please try again later.

Dismiss
I deployed to Afghanistan that July and was back home for a few days in November when I got a call from an army mate saying Fuss had been on a foot patrol clearing landmines when he stepped on one [dying instantly]. I remember sitting on the couch, crying. I was gutted. I learnt that a medic who came on the scene quickly, despite the risk of other IEDs, had done everything he could for Fuss, but his injuries were catastrophic. The medics name was James.

JOHN: Our story began on November 27, 2008, when my good friend, Lieutenant Michael Fussell, was killed in Uruzgan Province [north of Kandahar Province] by an improvised explosive device [IED]. Fuss and I had been at Canberras Australian Defence Force Academy together before being posted to Holsworthy Barracks in Sydney in 2008.

John Bale, 38, and James Millis, 47, became great mates following the death of a mutual friend in Afghanistan in 2008. Today they both work in organisations supporting the wellbeing of veterans and first responders.

Later, I started to wonder if Fuss had survived the explosion, what we couldve done to support him and his family. Who was supporting all the other servicemen and women affected by incidents like these? That was the genesis of Soldier On (SO), a support organisation for veterans and their families that I co-founded in 2012.

I met James in 2014 at an SO-organised surfing weekend, near Batemans Bay [on the NSW South Coast]. Hed read about it in the paper and is a super-keen surfer, so he and his wife, Emma, came. He was introduced to me as the medic whod tried to help Fuss. He was pretty guarded, with that classic digger folded-arms stance and distant look in his eyes, but when he learnt Id been to school with Fuss, he started to relax.

James saw danger everywhere, was upset by loud noises and quick to anger; this weekend, hed seemed happier.

We talked about what a great mate Fuss had been and how proud hed be of what SO was achieving. We didnt go too much into the details of his death  it was too painful for both of us  but the next day we went surfing. As James helped me  Im not much of a surfer!  he was like a different person. At the end of the weekend, Em came to me in tears, saying it was the first time theyd been away in years. James saw danger everywhere, was upset by loud noises and quick to anger; this weekend, hed seemed happier. It was the start of our friendship.

James lives on the NSW Central Coast and I live in Canberra, but were constantly on the phone. He and Em were both paramedics and we began to talk about how their careers were affecting their mental health. Paramedics can be a bit of a closed shop, only talking to each other about the trauma they witness daily, but wed built a rapport, so in 2019 I co-founded Fortem [an organisation supporting the mental health and wellbeing of civilian first responders].
Opinion Opinion

New Englanders may have a sceptical view of pleasure, but those they do allow themselves  such as the famous lobster rolls  are hard to argue with.
The tight housing market is showing signs that it is starting to loosen up.

But that doesn't mean it's cooling off quite yet.

The number of homes for sale across the Buffalo Niagara region during June was up 8% from a year ago. It was the second straight month that listings were higher than they were a year ago, and just the second time since January 2019 that housing inventory had grown.

The increase is a sign that the shortage of homes for sale has started to ease a bit, though the supply of homes for sale remains at its second-lowest level in at least 24 years.

So far, that hasn't slowed the rise in home prices, which are up nearly 16% over the past year and are not showing any signs of weakening, according to June data from the Buffalo Niagara Association of Realtors.

The median sale prices of homes sold during the first half of this year reached $215,000, roughly $30,000 more than the same period last year, the real estate group said.
When Keita Matsumoto promised students in his science classes that if they worked hard they would have a bright future, he didnt want his words to sound hollow.

Until recently, Matsumoto taught at Traralgon College in the Latrobe Valley, a disadvantaged region with a cloud over its future as the coal-fired power stations that support its economy close down one by one.

Latrobe Valley teacher Keita Matsumoto is going to Harvard University with a Ramsay postgraduate scholarship, to study coalmining communities in economic transition. Credit:Simon Schluter

Matsumoto, 30, who has studied neuroscience at Australian National University, teaching at Deakin University and philosophy and meditation with the Dalai Lama, moved to the Valley six years ago.

For me, it was about going to where the need was greatest and so coming to understand the significant challenges in the Latrobe Valley area, thats where I wanted to be, where I could be part of the community and have a real influence on students, he said.
Labors climate target is not based on the best scientific and economic advice, experts say, arguing it falls short of Australias commitment to the Paris Agreement, will lead to more severe damage from global warming and cost the economy more than deeper, earlier pollution cuts would.

A leaked draft of Labors Climate Change Bill, obtained by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, revealed proposed legislation that would enshrine Labors target to cut emissions 43 per cent by 2030, based on 2005 levels, and to hit net zero by 2050.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese greets Samoa Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa at the Pacific Islands Forum this week. Credit:.

International think tank Climate Analytics found that at that, if emissions reduction is consistent with international action, the Albanese governments planned emissions reductions would cause average global temperature to rise above 2 degrees.

Labors 43 per cent emissions reduction target is not science-based, said Murdoch University climate scientist and chief executive of Climate Analytics Bill Hare.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will sign off on restoring the $750 pandemic isolation payment, reversing course on his earlier stance to let the payment lapse over winter.

National cabinet has been brought forward by two days to Saturday morning by Albanese in a snap decision that underscores the urgent need to address the growing number of COVID cases in Australia.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Premier of New South Wales Dominic Perrottet. Credit:Louie Douvis

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet on Friday led the states campaign to reinstate the $750 payment for casuals and others with no access to sick pay, and the premiers will continue to push for free rapid antigen tests for concession-card holders.

He also backed a debate about reducing the current seven-day isolation period to five days, though he insisted he did not want that to happen while Sydney faced a challenging flu season and a surge in COVID cases.
When Anthony Albanese won the federal election in May, Chinas Premier Li Keqiang, the second most powerful Chinese official behind President Xi Jinping, was quick to congratulate Australias new prime minister. After a two-year diplomatic freeze at a ministerial and prime ministerial level between Canberra and Beijing, the message was an unexpected olive branch from the Chinese government.

After many years of mutually beneficial ties, the relationship was one in disrepair. China had imposed more than $20 billion in trade sanctions on Australia in response to legitimate national security decisions taken by the Coalition government, including the banning of Chinese telco Huawei from the 5G network, new foreign interference laws, calling out Beijings human rights abuses in Hong Kong and Xinjiang and an appeal for an independent inquiry into COVID-19.

Foreign ministers Penny Wong and Wang Yi met in Bali during a G20 summit. Credit:Johannes Christo

Relations between the two nations reached a low ebb during this years federal election campaign, when the then defence minister, Peter Dutton, warned during an Anzac Day television interview that Australia needed to prepare for war in light of the looming threat from China. While Duttons bellicose language appeared more about inciting a debate with Labor over national security, it still set off alarm bells over the future security of the Indo-Pacific region.

From that point, it was always going to be a long road back to normalising ties, even if normal wont be the same as before China embarked on a more aggressive, and repressive, path. That was evident when Albanese, several days after receiving Beijings letter of congratulations, was adamant that nothing would change until China removed its sanctions on Australian products. And despite Beijings overtures, the strategic competition between China and Australia was on display soon after the election, when Foreign Minister Penny Wong was forced to counter a bid by her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, who, during a 10-day tour of the Pacific, unsuccessfully tried to sign up 10 nations to a Solomons-style security deal.
But, more peculiarly, for the political right masks have become a culture war rather than a matter of effectiveness. Stephen Reicher, professor of psychology at the University of St Andrews, writing in The Guardian, argues that some who hold a certain world view see masks as a potent symbol of control: they are muzzles. What these people reject is less the mask and more the political and scientific establishment that proposes it. Given current public opinion, the mandating of mask-wearing will stay limited. But in view of their place in the anti-COVID tool box, it would be helpful if politicians remembered to lead the way when appropriate. We have reached a hinge point in the pandemic, and the weeks ahead present a huge challenge for political leaders. The community has moved on from COVID. But COVID has not moved on from the community. It has dug in. A mind reset is needed. But thats hampered by many in the public and in the political class being unwilling to accept that we havent pushed through to live with COVID in a safe sort of way. To the extent we are living with COVID we are accepting a crisis in the hospital system and a level of deaths that, if it had occurred in 2021, would have generated a massive reaction.

Loading The earlier wisdom was that when the population was highly vaccinated, the situation would be under control. But it hasnt worked out like that. Vaccination is limiting the seriousness of the illness for most; it cuts deaths in relative terms. But it hasnt been successful against transmission, which means the virus is spreading like wildfire (currently hundreds of thousands have it). In absolute numbers, many people are getting quite sick, and there will be a good deal of long COVID. The Albanese government has launched initiatives, including a campaign to urge boosters and action on anti-virals. But its like chasing a fleet-footed tiger.

And the government has refused to extend the emergency payment for workers forced to stay home, or the free RATs for concession card holders. It cites the budget. But we can imagine what Labor would be saying if it were still in opposition. There is some stirring within Labor ranks, with NSW Opposition Leader Chris Minns and federal backbencher Mike Freelander (a doctor) saying the emergency payment should be restored. Loading The new situation has caused havoc with what in 2020 was that (mostly) widely welcomed line from politicians that we follow the expert advice. Its been a roller coaster for the experts. Lauded and leaned on initially, they then ran into rougher times. They argued among themselves. They were dragged into the politics and demonised by critics who thought the politicians were listening too much to them. Now were seeing the politicians grabbing back their agency, as the experience of the Victorian health official showed. More problematic, the politicians, including federal Health Minister Mark Butler, are making it clear the experts have to operate in the real world of where were up to with community opinion.

While this seems sensible at one level, things become complicated. When we get a piece of expert advice, do we assume its unadulterated, or a sort of shandy  containing a dash of real world lemonade? There is also some counter-intuitive action at the expert level. With large numbers of deaths occurring in aged care homes, the NSW chief health officer, Kerry Chant, this week signed a public health order making it no longer mandatory for visitors to these facilities to be vaccinated. This is in line with the situation in Victoria and Queensland but the timing seemed odd. NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant made changes to aged care facility mandates. Credit:Photo Louise Kennerley SMH It came as the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC), consisting of federal and state chief officers, last week reminded individuals, employers and governments of their shared responsibility to minimise the impact of COVID. The question is whether political leaders have either the will or the ability to inject new urgency and potency into the fight against COVID, given the only practical weaponry in this time of pandemic fatigue is light touch ammunition.

Brendan Crabb, director of the Burnet Institute, who is highly critical of how the pandemic has been allowed to run away, says leaders and health ministers at national and state levels should admit the mistakes of this year. Loading For the last six months we just tried to protect the old and the immunocompromised, he says. We didnt address transmission. Any sort of mea culpa mightnt be so hard at the federal level, where the new government can blame the former one, but its another matter in Victoria and NSW, where governments face elections soon. Beyond that, Crabb is essentially arguing for more energy to be put into the struggle against transmission. He points to the Biden administration intensifying its efforts, and the AHPPCs exhortation.
Alumni include Hollywood actor Errol Flynn, media mogul Frank Packer and former prime minister John Gorton. A quarter of students are sons or grandsons of old boys. It is attended by sons of Sydneys high-flyers, who can afford fees of up to $37,000 a year. While many former principals came from grammar schools, Petterson began at Shore in 2020 after leading the Port Stephens campus of the St Philips group of Christian schools, which had half as many students, and a much smaller budget. The Shore School headmaster has left amid deep divisions over his management style. Credit:Flavio Brancaleone Some feared he did not have enough experience to drive a modernisation agenda at such a conservative school. He did meet a key criterion for a Sydney Anglican school head, which is to subscribe to the citys brand of the faith  a type that is more evangelical and socially conservative than that of other dioceses. Some parents say the school has become more religious.

New principals always ruffle feathers and Petterson faced unusual challenges, such as COVID-19 and the Shornament scandal, a widely publicised muck-up day prank in which year 12 students gave each other points for spitting on a homeless person and defecating on a train. Yet opposition to his leadership style, which began when he initiated major changes to the rugby program within his first few months, persisted and deepened during his tenure. He didnt read the room and take people with him, said one critic, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Kanishka Raffel at St Andrews Cathedral. Credit:James Brickwood By the end of last year, about 90 staff members had left, including highly experienced and long-serving HSC maths teachers. Morale was plummeting. There were concerns that Petterson focused too much on finance and administration, and not enough on teaching and learning. The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Kanishka Raffel, whose role as president of the council is usually ceremonial, was approached to intervene.

Tensions boiled over earlier this year after an information night for parents of year 12 students, at which Petterson went through the reasons that so many staff members had left, naming many of them and, teachers felt, misrepresenting the motivations of some. The Common Room voted to take its concerns to the schools council. In March, Petterson apologised to staff, admitting his leadership had left teachers sad, angry and fearful, and conceding his words and actions had contributed to sadness and anger. When the Herald reported the apology, Warburton sent a letter to the school community, saying the headmaster had the support of council. We support the way he is evolving the school. Yet, it also commissioned consultant Rhonda Brighton-Hall, who runs a company called mwah, or Making Work Absolutely Human, to conduct a review of the schools leadership and culture and examine the reasons behind the division. She held interviews, ran anonymous surveys of staff, and took submissions, with advisers to help her understand the context of Anglican schools. They included former Sydney archbishop Glenn Davies.

Her report was handed to council late last term, and staff expected to be briefed on its contents next Monday. Instead, staff meetings and a strategy workshop planned for the weekend were cancelled. On Friday, Pettersons departure was announced. This decision is not based on any suggestion of improper conduct on his part, Warburton said in a letter to parents. However, council has concluded that in the interests of unity within the school, leadership renewal is required. While council appreciates the significance of a change in leadership, we believe that it is in the best interests of the school and its students. Given Pettersons departure, few expect the reports contents will ever be released. In a letter to parents on Friday, Collier acknowledged the turbulence experienced by the school, but said Shore had no intention of standing still.

I wish to honour and respect the past and move forward into the future to maintain Shores position at the leading edge of schools in Australia, he said. I dont intend to be distracted by the media, politics (state or church), or inconsequential matters. Loading The decision to appoint Collier made staff very happy, said one of the teachers who left. However, he said the experience had inflicted incredible damage ... to staff morale, the calibre of the teachers, unity in the common [staff] room. One long-serving former member of staff at Shore, the Reverend Antony Weiss, said it had been an unprecedented period of great turmoil and instability for the school. Hopefully through this process the school will be able to rebuild, regather, and particularly build up the confidence in the common room so once again it can really shine as one of the great schools of the city and nation.
Melbourne isnt Tokyo, but Japans dynamism is present in a new Collins Street restaurant offering.

Instead of bustling crowds, there is a quietness when walking down a laneway to reach Yakimonos front door at 80 Collins Street. That moment passes once you breach the threshold of this Japanese-style restaurant.

About 85 per cent of the kitchen is visible to patrons, with the stainless-steel edge wide enough to allow for plating and service of dishes. Credit:Tim OConnor

Inside is a sense of the vibrancy of downtown Japan, with its neon lights and pop music.

Completed at the same time as Society, and also operated by restauranteur Chris Lucas, the animated screen and inverted staircase in the lobby establishes a new world of dining experience.
Jeddah: Joe Biden began a visit to Saudi Arabia on Friday by giving Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman a fist bump and shaking hands with King Salman as energy and security interests prompted the US president and his aides to reverse course and embrace the Gulf oil giant.

Biden once pledged to make the kingdom a pariah on the global stage over the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi but is looking to reset the relationship between the two countries, also aware that Saudi Arabia has been strengthening ties with Russia and China.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, right, greets US President Joe Biden with a fist bump in Jeddah. Credit:Saudi Royal Palace via AP

At the start of Bidens Middle East trip which began in Israel, officials said he would avoid close contacts, such as shaking hands, as a precaution against COVID-19. But the president ended up engaging in hand-shaking during the first leg of the tour.

After meeting the king, Biden and his team met the prince and Saudi ministers.
The York Theatre Company will present the world premiere of Hoagy Carmichael's Stardust Road this holiday season, running November 22-December 31 at the Theatre at St. Jeans.

Conceived by Susan H. Schulman (director), Michael Lichtefeld (choreography), and Lawrence Yurman (musical supervisor), Stardust Road is a new musical told through Carmichael's songs, and tells the story of six friends and the one man who brought them together during four decades of American history.

Carmichael, who died in 1981, is the beloved composer of hits like "Georgia on My Mind," "Heart and Soul," "The Nearness of You," "Skylark," and many others.

Further information about the production is still to be announced.
CHILDREN'S

The Lucky Ones by Linda Williams Jackson; Candlewick Press, 320 pages ($18.99). Ages 8 to 12.

...

Linda Williams Jackson, author of "Midnight Without a Moon" and sequel "A Sky Full of Stars," offers an engaging portrait of a boy who dreams of becoming a lawyer or teacher as a way to lift his family out of poverty in this novel inspired by Robert F. Kennedy's 1967 "Poverty Tour" of the Mississippi Delta.

11-year-old Ellis Earl Brown lives with his widowed mother, eight siblings and a niece in a leaky shack at the end of a long road that sometimes stays flooded for days at a time. Ellis appreciates the lunch his teacher serves the students every day and especially appreciates learning about Thurgood Marshall and civil rights activist Marian Wright Edelman. He is thrilled to be among the students invited to greet Sen. Kennedy at the airport. But will his family's dire financial situation mean he has to quit school to help support the family as his older siblings have?

The author paints a vivid portrait of what it was like to be this poor: gnawing hunger, threadbare clothing, only pallets to sleep on, no indoor plumbing, no money for a doctor for Ellis' brother, Oscar. Ellis' loving mother wears herself out working for pennies as a maid for white women, leaving 14-year-old Jeannette in charge of the kids.

The author also offers an engaging portrait of a loving family's day-to-day concerns, of sibling rivalries and squabbles, a mother's worries, Ellis' annoyance with his little sister for broadcasting every detail of his family's business. The novel begins with Ellis' hilarious negotiation with 8-year-old Carrie Ann over how to split the two Moon Pies left over from the afternoon snack at school.

The trip to welcome RFK to Mississippi gives the children a shocking look at the ugly realities of a segregated South including racist protesters at the airport and hostility from staff at a restaurant where they stop for breakfast.

The author explains the storybook ending she came up with for this novel in an afterword. She grew up in the Mississippi Delta in a family helped by Head Start, food stamps and Aid to Families With Dependent Children, but says she wanted a more hopeful, stigma-free outcome for Ellis and his family. Hence the success of the Brown Blues singing group.

YOUNG ADULT

Forging Silver Into Stars by Brigid Kemmerer; Bloomsbury, 542 pages ($18.99) Ages 13 to 17.

...

This thrilling first book of a new series is set in the fantasy world of Brigid Kammerer's marvelous Cursebreaker series, after the events of "A Vow so Dark and Deadly," and can be appreciated even without having read those books. Kemmerer offers appealing characters, swashbuckling action, compelling political intrigue, a slow-burning romance and marvelous fantasy touches including the bird-humanlike scravers.

Magic had been banished in the land of Syhl Shallow but is made legal again when the Syhl Shallow queen marries Emberfall's king, a magesmith or practitioner of magic. Distrust of magic lingers in Syhl Shallow and a rebel faction known as Truthbringers plots the assassination of King Grey.

In the remote Syhl Shallow village of Briarlock teenage neighbors Callyn and Jax are distrustful of magic but are too busy earning a living to have strong allegiance to either side of the debate. Magic killed Callyn's parents: her soldier mother during war and her father during a violent protest at the royal palace, leaving Callyn alone to run her family's bakery and care for her younger sister. Despite an accident that cost him a foot, Jax works as a blacksmith at his family's forge, enduring physical and verbal abuse from his bitter, alcoholic father.

Desperate for money, Jax agrees to a stranger's offer of silver to hold messages for anti-magic forces. Then 19-year-old Tycho, the dashing courier tasked with investigating the threats against the king, arrives in Briarlock. The compelling narration alternates between Callyn, Jax and Tycho, and the explosive finale leaves the reader eager for the next installment.

PICTURE BOOK

Alone Like Me by Rebecca Evans; Anne Schwartz Books/Random House, 40 pages ($17.99) Ages 4 to 8.

...

A little girl moves with her parents from the mountains of China to a big city and is desperately lonely until she makes a friend in a neighboring apartment in this poignant picture book featuring delicate pencil and watercolor illustrations by debut author-illustrator Rebecca Evans.
Q: I purchased my condo in July 2021. Since then, the condo board put through a special assessment for $120 per month for the next 84 months to pay for unsafe balcony repairs. This was not disclosed at the time of my closing.

Ive made two payments so far, and no work has begun, nor has there been any update furnished by the board. My attorney said there wasnt enough money involved for him to pursue it. Also, a neighbor across the hall is paying a special assessment in case the roof needs to be repaired. My seller assumed that assessment of $5,000 at my closing.

We currently have no board president; [the previous one] resigned due to threats made to her. And another board trustee also resigned. There are two buildings with 12 units in each, and the monthly HOA fee is $280.

Is this a mess, or what? Id appreciate your opinion. Thank you.

A: We certainly cant say whether its a mess or not. Were not living there. But we can share our perspective on what might be happening.

What we know from your question is that your association is going through with repairs to the building. On the positive side, its good that a building intends to maintain and keep their building in good shape. Weve seen with the Surfside condominium collapse what can happen if a property does not maintain itself. On the other hand, owners get cranky about ongoing special assessments that never end.

Before you purchased the home, you knew the building was in the middle of repairing the roof. We know you knew because the seller put up the cash to cover their share of the cost. So, why didnt the special assessment for the balcony repairs come up? The question for you is whether you should have known or found out about the balcony repairs when doing your due diligence.

We cant know for sure what the particular facts are of your situation. Its possible that the association had been talking about the balcony repairs for some time. But its also possible that fixing the balconies just rose to the top of the list as other items were completed.

In prior columns, weve mentioned that buyers looking to purchase a condominium unit should do several things before committing to the purchase. One important thing to do is to have your home inspector take a look around at the common elements of the building: the roof, exterior walls, common plumbing, heating and air conditioning units, hallways and stairways, basements and other areas.

Many inspectors might only inspect the individual unit, but many others will look over other parts of smaller association buildings to give the buyer a sense of the buildings condition.

Along these lines, a buyer should look into the associations minutes, budgets and financial statements. The minutes may indicate what the buildings board of directors is discussing relating to repairs or problems with the building. The budget will show where the association is spending money. And, the financial statements will show how much money the building has on hand for future repairs.

Smaller building HOAs tend to run informally and you might not have board minutes. But you should find out where they are spending money and how much money they have in reserves. Sam has seen some smaller buildings where the building has no reserves and the owners pool money together each time they have to make a repair or need to spend money.

If you have no reserves or the building collects money as it goes for all repairs, you should expect to pay more than the usual monthly assessments from day one after you buy into that association.

In your situation, youre expecting to pay around $10,000 for the balcony repairs. Wed like to know whether you had an inspection of the unit and whether the inspector noted problems with the balcony. Wed also like to know whether there were any board minutes discussing problems with the balconies. Lastly, wed want to know whether the state in which your condominium is located has any seller disclosure requirements that would place a burden on the seller to inform you of the balcony issue  if the seller was aware of the problem.

Sam has many clients that never participate or care about how their condominium buildings are run. They simply live in their units and leave the management of the building to others. It would be hard to go after that seller if they did not know of a problem with their building. Others are intimately involved with their buildings and let buyers know of any problems with their buildings.

Should your seller have told you about this issue? Does it meet the threshold for a seller disclosure case? To find out, you might need to talk to a different attorney about your situation. Some state seller disclosure statutes allow you to sue the seller for the failure to disclose and would allow you to recover the attorneys fees you incur if you win. That would be something to talk about with an attorney on this issue.

Finally, living with and running a self-managed small condominium association can be a thankless job. Unit owners resent having to pay for repairs. Volunteer owners who run the affairs of the building take the brunt of the anger unit owners have when assessments go up or a special assessment is levied.

Unfortunately, buildings need maintenance, repairs, upkeep, upgrading and redecorating, among other things and that cost money. You may live in a building that needs substantial repairs, and the volunteer officers of the board feel that they are better off not dealing with the many angry unit owners. But that just leaves the building in worse shape. We hope that the unit owners can come together and determine what needs to be done and how fast and moves to get it done as best they can.

On a separate point, if the association does not have sufficient money on hand to make repairs, it will need to collect money; and once it has sufficient funds, the association can hire a contractor to take care of the balconies. As you can imagine, the contractor wont want to do the work and wait six years to get paid. If the building has obtained a loan from a bank to pay for the repairs, we suspect they will borrow that money, undertake the repairs and then use the money that comes in from the special assessments to pay down the loan. Again, this takes time.

We suggest that you go to the board meetings and familiarize yourself with the people running the building. See if you can help them. Consider running for the board yourself. It may be time-consuming, but it will certainly help you understand where your property is, as well as the good and bad of owning a unit in a small condominium association.

(Ilyce Glink is the author of 100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask (4th Edition). She is also the CEO of Best Money Moves, an app that employers provide to employees to measure and dial down financial stress. Samuel J. Tamkin is a Chicago-based real estate attorney. Contact Ilyce and Sam through their website, bestmoneymoves.com.)
News Updates

Would you like to receive our newsletter? Get local, Wyoming, and national news, the weather forecast, and more, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.


An employee of the Buffalo Public Works Department was charged with possession of drugs and an assault-style rifle after Buffalo police searched his home Thursday.

Daryl G. Voigt, 43, of Buffalo, is accused of possessing narcotics with the intent to sell them, according to Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn.

Police executed a search warrant at his Heussy Avenue home shortly before noon Thursday. Investigators recovered about 10 ounces of suspected cocaine, which was submitted to the Erie County Central Police Services laboratory for testing.

Buffalo police said they also recovered a loaded M4/AR-15-style rifle, 10 additional rifles and $4,600 in cash. Investigators also found a digital scale and packaging materials, according to Flynn.

Voigt was charged with first-degree and third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and three counts of second-degree criminally using drug paraphernalia.

He has been suspended without pay from his city job.
The Buffalo firefighters responded to a medical emergency call just before midnight Thursday and headed into a residence on the 500 block of Main Street.

When the crew of four came back out, their fire truck was gone. Someone stole it.

"I've been with the Buffalo Fire Department since 1982, and it's never happened," said Buffalo Fire Commissioner William Renaldo.

Yassin A. Abdikadir, 25, faces two felonies and five misdemeanors over the stolen Engine 1.

The Erie County District Attorney's Office also said he faces two felonies and a misdemeanor stemming from a burglarized downtown restaurant fewer than 24 hours earlier.

He's accused of driving the fire truck from the intersection of Main and West Huron streets and then hitting and damaging three parked vehicles before abandoning the truck at Delaware Avenue and Allen Street, about a mile away. The police report indicated the suspect struck several signs, including a stop sign and an NFTA bus stop sign, Renaldo said.

Buffalo police arrested Abdikadir less than a half-hour later. He was found hiding inside a garbage tote, Renaldo said.

The fire commissioner said fire trucks are left running, in park and with the air brake engaged when crews respond to a call. Depending on the nature of the emergency, sometimes all members of the crew enter a residence or building. Firefighters did not deviate from policy in this case, Renaldo said.

Due to the damage caused to the fire truck's brakes, Renaldo said the suspect likely left the air brake engaged and may have abandoned the truck because it was overheating.

Abdikadir faces felony counts of fourth-degree grand larceny and fourth-degree criminal possession for the fire truck incident, and he is charged with third-degree burglary and fourth-degree grand larceny for allegedly taking more than 50 bottles of alcohol, valued at roughly $2,000, from Deep South Taco, at 291 Ellicott St., in the early morning Thursday.

If convicted of the highest charge, he faces a maximum sentence of seven years in prison. Abdikadir was arraigned Friday morning before City Court Judge Carrie Phillips. He is scheduled to return to court for both cases on Aug. 26. He was released on his own recognizance because under state law judges do not have the ability to require bail for those charged with nearly all misdemeanors and low-level felonies.
Tonja Williams received something akin to a heros welcome Thursday evening as the Buffalo School Board voted unanimously to make her the districts permanent superintendent.

She vowed to work tirelessly on behalf of the students.

We will become a model district for this country, she said. We will have equity in everything that we do.

The schools will be welcoming to all, overcoming low expectations and inspiring excellence, she said.

And we will be results driven, Williams said. Theres accountability for everybody, me included.

The mayor, the Common Council president, clergy members, union leaders, retired administrators and parents packed the Council chambers in City Hall to show their support for Williams, hailing her as the hometown hero who will bring excellence to Buffalo schools.

Even the state education commissioner showed up to offer kudos.

I am so thrilled that you are taking this action tonight, Commissioner Betty Rosa told the School Board, via Zoom. This is an incredible choice. Dr. Williams is going to really commit to a high quality education for all the students in Buffalo.

Rosa and many others on Thursday pointed to Williams intimate knowledge of Buffalo as reason to believe that she would be able to achieve positive results that eluded many previous superintendents.

Dr. Williams is the right fit for this district, said East District Board Member Kathy Evans-Brown. We all felt the same way. Because shes homegrown, she has a passion for this district. We look forward to better days, and we also look forward to supporting Dr. Williams in this tough, tough role as superintendent.

In the past four months as interim superintendent, board members said, she has dramatically improved communication between the superintendents office and the School Board, as well as with the community at large.

She has been upfront not only about what is going well, but about what needs improvement, said Larry Scott, an at-large board member.

Dr. Williams is Buffalo. She is one of us, he said. She is the right leader at the right time for the Buffalo Public Schools.

An alumna of Riverside High School who grew up on the East Side, Williams said she understands the city and its students.

I am them, and they are me, she said.

I want to thank my family for sharing me and giving so much of my time to support and help my 31,000 other children, she said. Ive got two biological, but Ive got 31,000 in this district.

Williams ticked off a list of highlights from her 96 days as interim superintendent: reinstating the afterschool program, hiring security guards, hiring bus aides, negotiating three union contracts, resuming meetings with the Parent Congress.

We are doing a lot, she said. We have successfully closed out a school year in spite of Covid, in spite of a mass shooting, in spite of a shooting at a school.

Williams was hired in the district 32 years ago as a school counselor and rose through the ranks. In early March, the board tapped her to serve as interim superintendent when Kriner Cash resigned.

Cash was not mentioned by name during the 90-minute board meeting. But several people who took to the microphone to offer congratulations to the new superintendent alluded to the previous one, who was widely criticized for his lack of engagement with the community.

And before Cash, the board had recruited several other superintendents from out of town who failed to make improvements dramatic enough to impress some people.

This board has kissed a few frogs, said the Rev. James Lewis, chaplain of the Buffalo Police Department.

Williams offered gratitude to all of her supporters. And she acknowledged that some people fault the board for not conducting a national search for a permanent superintendent.

Because Im a lady, I will respect that, she said. But I will ask that you step off and stand to the side as we get to the business of moving this district forward.
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Remembering the courageous people who refused to be silenced

Over the past two decades, countless people of faith have lost their lives in communist China. And tens of thousands of them are still being persecuted there, every single day. These people face endless abuse and torture for displaying moral courage in the face of oppression.

Here, we remember 10 of these moral bravehearts, from all walks of life, who were killed for their faith.

Though the 5,000-year-old Chinese civilization was founded on faith and tradition, these very virtues are what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aims to uproot. Since the year 1992, over 100 million law-abiding spiritual believerswith their resolute faith in the universal values of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearancehave been quietly turning back the destructive tide of atheism, merely due to their undeniable existence in this totalitarian society.

Fearful of the soaring popularity of Falun Gong, former head of the CCP Jiang Zemin decided to initiate an unprecedented campaign of persecution on July 20, 1999, to eradicate the peaceful practice.

Falun Gong practitioners at Wuhan Municipal Childrens Palace, China, on May 1, 1996. (Courtesy of Minghui.org)

Falun Gong (or Falun Dafa) is based on the universal values of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, or in Chinese, zhen  shan  ren . (The Epoch Times)

Rooted in traditional Chinese culture, Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a self-cultivation practice consisting of meditative exercises and moral teachings. It was introduced in China 30 years ago, in 1992, and became hugely popular by the end of the decade, owing to its moral appeal and health benefits. According to official estimates at the time, 70 million to 100 million people were practicing Falun Gong in China. Today, Falun Gong is thriving outside China and is practiced in over 80 countries. Its adherents endeavor to be honest and virtuous, and uphold the age-old traditional thoughts of good begets good and heaven accepts only kindness.

However, the communist regime perceived Falun Gongs presence too intimidating for the Partys totalitarian ruleespecially because the practice is bringing about a tangible rise in spirituality and restoring traditional culture, which is exactly what the Party has been persistently destroying since coming into power.

During this past 23 years of relentless persecution, countless Falun Gong adherents in China have been subjected to arrest, imprisonment, forced labor, torture, and even forced organ harvesting. Countless have been expelled from school, or fired from jobs. These people of faith usually make the majority of the CCPs forced labor workforceworking for as long as 20 hours per day, often without pay, making export items like chopsticks, toys, Christmas lights, etc. Minghui.org, a U.S.-based website that reports on the spiritual practice and its persecution, confirmed that over 4,600 Falun Gong practitioners have died from the persecution, but that the actual death toll is likely much higher.

Many global news media, the United Nations, the U.S. Department of State, and Amnesty International, have reported on the severity of the persecution.

Falun Gong practitioners holding banners as they walk along Spring St., Melbourne, Australia, during a commemoration event on July 9, 2022. (Chen Ming/Epoch Times)

Falun Gong practitioners gathered at Washington D.C. to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of persecution in China on July 16, 2021. (Li Sha/The Epoch Times)

1. Body Cremated 11 Years After Death

Qin Yueming, from Yichun City, Heilongjiang province, was sentenced to 10 years in 2002 for refusing to give up his faith. On Feb. 25, 2011, the Jiamusi prison authorities force-fed him, and the feeding tube ended up being inserted into his lung. He was moved into an isolated room where he died the next day. When his family saw his body, they found blood in his mouth and nose, and his facial expression showed as if he was in extreme pain. His wife and daughter were persecuted for their years-long efforts to seek justice for his death. Eventually, the prison authorities were able to pressure his octogenarian father to sign a consent form to cremate his body, which had been kept in the prison for more than a decade after his death.

Qin Yueming, whose body was cremated 11 years after his death. (Courtesy of Minghui.org)

2. A Retired Colonel Persecuted

Gong Piqi, a 66-year-old retired colonel and former deputy chief of staff at Shandong Province Reserve Artillery Brigade, from Qingdao City, Shandong province, was reported to have died in Jinan Prison in April 2021; he had been sentenced to 7 1/2 years for refusing to stop practicing Falun Gong. The prison authorities informed the family that he had died of a stroke. However, when the family members saw his body, there was blood in his ears, and his head was injured and swollen.

Gong Piqi, a retired colonel. (Courtesy of Minghui.org)

3. Elderly Lady Dies 2 Hours After Arrest

Cui Jinshi, 88, from Harbin City, Heilongjiang province, was arrested for studying Falun Gongs teachings with other adherents on April 13 this year. She died just two hours after her arrest. When her son first saw her dead body, he found that her throat was cut open. The police didnt allow the rest of the family members to see her body but took the initiative to call up a local funeral home. As the police have withheld her death certificate, the family is finding it hard to get an independent autopsy done. At the time of writing, her body is still kept at the funeral home.

Cui Jinshi. (Courtesy of Minghui.org)

4. A Hospital President and His Oncologist Wife

Li Yanchun, a 68-year-old retired hospital president from Qinhuangdao City, Hebei province, was imprisoned in August 2021 for 7 1/2 years, despite his dangerously high blood pressure. His wife, an award-winning oncologist, was incarcerated for her faith in 2019. The couple were sentenced for distributing informational materials exposing the CCPs persecution of Falun Gong.

Li Yanchun, a retired hospital president. (Courtesy of Minghui.org)

5. A Retired Engineer

Wang Liuzhen, a retired metallurgical engineer in the Changan No. 2 Factory in Chongqing, in her 80s, died on Jan. 1 after a decade of persecution. She faced around-the-clock surveillance after authorities built a sentry box right outside her house; the security personnel often abused and beat her. At one point, she was also forcefully injected with drugs, which damaged her liver and left her blind. The constant harassment and beatings had reduced her to skin and bones before passing away.

Wang Liuzhen was often abused and beaten by the personnel monitoring her. (Courtesy of Minghui.org)

6. Man Dies After 12 Years of Torture

Ge Zhijun, 42, from Zhuozhou City, Hebei province, died after enduring gruesome torture for a total of 12 years, leaving behind a grieving 9-year-old daughter, wife, and paralyzed father. He was subjected to extreme abuse which lead to his mental collapse. Handcuffed and shackled, he was once locked in a tiny 3-foot-long, 1-foot-wide cell for 15 days. Prison inmates who wanted to have their sentences reduced assisted the guards in torturing him; they would often throw him on the ground and then stand on his legs, press his chest so hard that he was unable to breathe, and burn his body with cigarettes.

Facing prolonged torture, his memory declined, and he developed a host of health issues, including hypertension and heart and liver problems. He was last released from prison in 2019. When he returned home, he mostly stayed silent and locked himself in a room, before passing away on Nov. 29, 2020.

7. A Manager Under Forest Bureau

Ma Shufang, 69, a former household affairs department manager under Tongbei County Forest Bureau Police Department, died of brain hemorrhage days after an appeals court upheld her three-year sentence in early June this year. She was arrested in August 2020, but later released on bail due to high blood pressure; she was indicted in August 2021 and sentenced to three years in a virtual trial in December 2021. After her appeal was rejected, she suffered a brain hemorrhage on June 4 and passed away six days later.

8. A Professor Falls Into Coma, Dies

Xing Wenzhen, 79, a professor at Northwestern Polytechnic University in Xian City, Shaanxi province, faced persecution for over 20 years before dying in October 2021. She was forced to retire early and was held in a brainwashing center for 102 days. Since the 2008 Beijing Olympics, surveillance cameras had been installed outside of her home to monitor her. In September 2021, the police harassment began again and the elderly lady couldnt bear it anymore with her weakened body; she fell into a coma, and died in October that year.

9. A Retired Middle-School Teacher

Li Jingxia, 85, a retired middle-school teacher from Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang province, died three months after being detained in July 2020 after police monitored her phone calls. Prior to her last arrest, she had faced years of brutal persecution: The police burned her ears with a lighter, beat her with a belt until it cracked, pulled her hair, threatened to rape her, and covered her head with a plastic bag before hitting her with a thick club. In 2020, the police once again started harassing her. Faced with constant mental pressure, her health deteriorated, and she died in October that year.

Li Jingxia. (Courtesy of Minghui.org)

10: Reportedly Declared Dead While Still Alive

Liu Qingfei, 74, from Shenyang City, Liaoning province, was arrested on Aug. 28, 2021, after police broke into his home, claiming they were there to give him a COVID-19 vaccine. He was detained for eight months and persecuted, before being pronounced dead on April 24 this year. When the family saw his body, they felt he didnt look like a dead person; the police told them that he had died after developing a sudden, acute condition. The family suspect that Liu might have been pronounced dead while he was still alive. Lius body is currently in a funeral home, the family is seeking justice.

Liu Qingfei. (Courtesy of Minghui.org)
In a dam deadlock lasting months, it took a sickening, rotten-egg stench to bring Williamsville and Amherst together.

Village officials on Thursday agreed to join their town counterparts in paying for emergency repairs to put the aging Ellicott Creek dam into operation this summer.

The town and village will split the $41,555 cost of the work, which could start and wrap up this month, Williamsville Deputy Mayor Dan DeLano said.

"We understand this is essentially a Band-Aid, but it's reached an emergency status," DeLano said Thursday at a hastily arranged Williamsville Village Board meeting.

The vote marks an abrupt reversal for the Village Board. In April, the village rejected an offer from the town for the town to pay the full cost of repairs to the dam because village officials wanted a thorough structural analysis performed first.

Williamsville's decision to leave the dam open this year has left much of the creek channel along the western side of Island Park dried out, frustrating town officials and creekfront home and business owners.

The standoff eased earlier this week, after Amherst Supervisor Brian J. Kulpa wrote to Williamsville Mayor Deb Rogers to point out that sharply lower water levels in the channel had produced a strong stench of sulfur under and behind the Amherst Municipal Building.

This smell made some town employees ill, Kulpa said. And nearby businesses reported seeing more vermin.

Kulpa acknowledged some of the sulfur smell stems from the geothermal system that cools the Municipal Building. The well water the system takes in, and the water discharged into Ellicott Creek, contains naturally occurring sulfur.

With the creek channel at a normal level, the sulfur dissipates into the water without issue. But with the dam not in operation, Kulpa said, sulfur in the discharge and in the creek bed is more exposed to air.

This week Rogers and Kulpa engaged in back-and-forth messages about the situation.

"I'm not saying, hey, look it, the village caused this problem for the town, entirely, right? I'm saying, yeah, I got it, the way we operate is part of the problem. So I'll be part of the solution," Kulpa said in an interview. "And more importantly, moving forward, the town needs to have some ownership in this thing. Because, you know, it's an important fixture."

It was DeLano, not Rogers, who called the special Village Board meeting. He said the stench and presence of rats created a public safety issue and the Williamsville Fire Department relies on creek water as a backup option if it can't access hydrant water.

Rogers, who did not attend the meeting, said afterward she doesn't support making the emergency repair.

Cheryl Meyer, a resident, said putting the dam into operation raises the risk of flooding for upstream homeowners like her.

The Village Board didn't allow public comment at the meeting, scheduled 24 hours in advance, but Meyer engaged in an at-times-contentious debate with trustees.

"We're going to flood," Meyer said. "We need your help."

Crews dammed Ellicott Creek, near Island Park, about 90 years ago to prevent damaging flooding downstream in the village. The dam requires personnel to stand on a narrow gangway to manually lower or raise five heavy gates that slide along steel tracks.

When the gates are lowered, Ellicott Creek backs up and fills a channel that runs around the western side of Island Park before it meets the main creek north of the dam and continues under Main Street and over Glen Falls.

Williamsville officials in March announced the dam's structural concrete and metal gate tracks had deteriorated so much it wasn't safe for village Public Works employees to lower the gates this year.

Several homes on South Cayuga Road, as well as a municipal parking lot, sit along the western channel. Further, Britesmith Brewing and the Irishman Pub and Eatery have patio sections backing up to the section of the creek that, this summer at least, largely offered a view of exposed creek bed, stones and dried algae.

Village Board members had said safety concerns far outweighed aesthetic considerations and on April 25 confirmed their desire to seek a study before performing any repairs. However, since that meeting, DeLano and another trustee won election to the Village Board, creating a new working majority ready to take short-term action.
Students walk around the University of New South Wales campus in Sydney, Australia, on Dec. 1, 2020. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

26 Percent of Australias Student-Visa Holders Outside the Country

More than a quarter of Australias student-visa holders remain overseas despite efforts to revive the countrys $37.6 billion pre-pandemic industry.

Figures from the Department of Education, Skills and Employment show that as of July 4, there were 420,369 primary student visa holders in Australia, 26 percent of whom were overseas.

China ranks first on the Top 10 country list of international students in Australia. About 116,113 Chinese students hold student visas, 49 percent of whom were outside Australia.

Reasons for students staying overseas include slow visa approval, passport replacement, local lockdown, expensive air tickets, fear of COVID-19, the high cost of living in Australia, and getting used to taking classes remotely.

International students pose for a photograph with university representatives after arriving at Sydney Airport in Sydney, Australia, on Dec. 6, 2021. (AAP Image/Bianca De Marchi)

Education Minister Jason Clare said that the number of Chinese students at Australian universities fell 24 percent in the first quarter of this year, with fear of COVID and a shortage of flights being the main reasons students are not returning.

This is our biggest export that we dont dig out of the ground, and its been smashed by COVID, Clare told Sky News in June.

Universities Australia, the sectors peak body, predicted that Australian universities will lose $16 billion by 2023 because of the loss of international students.

We cant pretend that wont have a big impact, Universities Australia Chief Executive Catriona Jackson said in a statement.

Not only does that revenue support the staff and facilities to educate the next generation of skilled workers, it also pays for much of the research and innovation that keeps Australia internationally competitive.

If theres less research on campus, we will be less equipped to deal with crises like COVID-19 and bushfires in future.

Expert: Chance to Reset Reputation of Australian Universities

However, there is also a voice from the sector calling to make university funding independent from international student fees.

International students are a critical part of a healthy, prosperous Australia for all, said Alex Chevrolle, a director of international education provider Study Group Australia.

We have a chance to reset our reputation as a leading education destination, but it will require changing the way we view these studentsnot as economic commodities, but as individuals who make a significant contribution to Australian society.

This is echoed by Gabriel Moens, an emeritus professor of law at the University of Queensland.

Chevrolles plea is thus a timely and strong message, which should be heeded by the university sector, Moens wrote in an opinion article for The Epoch Times.

As the COVID-19 emergency is winding down, Australian universities have indeed an opportunity to reset their reputation by conducting neutrality-free research and teaching and providing international students with outstanding and imaginative educational experiences.

Only then will their fees be well spent.
Gas prices are displayed in Carleton Place, Ont., on May 17, 2022. In June, gas prices hit record highs in various cities across Ontario. (The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick)

Albertans Will Receive First Carbon Tax Rebate This Week

Albertans will receive their their first carbon tax rebate this week as the federal government releases the initial instalment of the Climate Action Incentive (CAI) payment.

Canadians who have filed their tax returns and are eligible for the quarterly-based payment, will receive the first round of the rebate with a double-up payment that returns proceeds from the first two quarters of the 2022-2023 fuel charge year, according to the Finance Departments website. Two more quarterly payments are expected to be provided on Oct. 15, 2022 and on Jan. 15, 2023.

Those who get their tax returns by direct deposit will also receive their CAI payment this way. For those who have a tax debt with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), the rebate will be applied to amounts owing, or to amounts owing to other federal or provincial government programs.

Single adults will receive $269.50. For a couple, or in the case of a single parent, the first adult or the single parent will also receive $269.50, while the second adult in the couple or the first child of the single parent will receive $135.

Additional children under 18starting with the second child in the case of single parentswill receive $67.50 each.

Under the federal governments carbon pollution pricing system, a price is slapped on provinces that do not have their own system that meets the federal benchmarkspecifically Alberta, Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan.

The federal government will return proceeds of the pollution pricing to the province of origin through the CAI payment; about 90 percent of the direct proceeds will be rebated to residents, while the other 10 percent is being used to support small businesses, farmers, and indigenous groups.

Those who have not received their CAI rebate on the expected payment date are asked to wait 10 working days before contacting the CRA.

PBO Report

The federal government says that in the four provinces where Canadians receive CAI payments, most households will receive more than they pay, but the Canadian Taxpayers Federation disagrees, pointing to a report from the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) that says the government is using magic math, and the carbon tax will come at a higher cost for the average household.

The PBO report, released in March, demonstrates that the federal carbon tax will cost the average Alberta household $2,004 this year whereas they will receive $1,333 in rebates. Accounting for the rebates, the carbon tax will still cost the average Alberta household a net total of $671 in 2022. Similarly, the average household will spend an extra $360 in Ontario, $299 in Manitoba, and $390 in Saskatchewan after the rebates.

Families are still paying hundreds of dollars in carbon taxes every year even with the rebates, said CTF federal director Franco Terrazzano in a July 14 press release.

He noted that in addition to the carbon tax, the federal government also charges a sales tax and fuel excise tax on gasoline. Ottawa is also planning to impose a second carbon tax through fuel regulations in 2023, which will not include a rebate.

The federal carbon tax is currently $50 per tonne in Canada, and is set to gradually increase to $170 per tonne by 2030. Right now, Canadians pay about 11 cents per litre on gasoline and 13 cents per litre on diesel.

According to a CTF analysis, in the provinces where Canadians will receive the CAI, the cost of the extra carbon tax to the average household will accumulate significantly in the coming years.

The CTF estimates that from 2022 to 2030, the carbon tax will cost the average household a net total of $13,041 in Alberta, $8,091 in Saskatchewan, $8,059 in Ontario, and $6,439 in Manitoba.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (L) poses for a selfie with staff and students during a tour of the Australia Pacific Training Coalition centre (APTC) after attending the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), in Suva on July 15, 2022. (William West/AFP via Getty Images)

Australia to Shore up Pacific Ties With Expanded Migration Program

The Australian government will expand its labour program to bring more Pacific Islander workers to the country in a bid to shore up relations with the region.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility program, which already assists around 25,000 workers, will be expanded to include the services sector, notably aged care, tourism, and hospitality.

Traditionally, it has been in areas such as agriculture, and in meatworks, and other blue-collar industries that have tended to mean that men from the Pacific have participated in the scheme, he told reporters on July 15.

This is good for our Pacific Island neighbours, because what it enables is more women to participate in the scheme. But its also good for Australia, because these are areas in which there are massive skill shortages.

The prime minister reiterated his governments commitment to provide 215 minutes of care per day for every aged care resident.

Further, he said the average Pacific worker in Australia remitted around $6,000 a year to their country of origin.

So, its a way of boosting the economy here, whilst making a real difference back in Australia.

Shoring Up Ties As Beijing Ramps Up Pacific Push

Albanese has been in Fiji attending the Pacific Islands Forum.

The prime minister has promised to bring positive energy to the event and touted his governments openness to listening to the Pacifics concerns on climate change.

Ive spoken about treating countries with respect. What that means is not just talking but listening, he told reporters on July 13. We have, as human beings, two ears and one mouth for a reasonbecause we should use the ears twice as much as we use our mouth. If you do that, youll learn from each other.

Albanese also declared on July 14 that he was very confident that Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare would keep his word that a recently signed security deal with Beijing would not result in militarisation of the region.

In May, details of the contentious deal between Sogavare and Beijing emerged, which could allow the Chinese Communist Party to station troops, weapons, and naval ships in the Pacific country.

I sat with him at dinner last night. One of the things we need to do is build personal relations between Australia and our friends in the Pacific, Albanese told Channel Nine. We need to be prepared to listen to what they have to say, be prepared to assist in their development. But also be prepared to advocate, as my government is, action on issues of concern to them.
This picture taken shows a man inspecting cattle in Bandar Lampung, Indonesia, on June 16, 2022. (Perdiansyah/AFP via Getty Images)

Australian Government Provides $1.5 Million for Indonesias Foot and Mouth Vaccine Program

The Australian government will give financial support for foot and mouth disease (FMD) vaccinations in Indonesia to prevent the disease from spreading to Australia and wreaking havoc on the agriculture sector.

Following a formal request for assistance from the Indonesian government after FMD spread to Bali, the Australian government has agreed to contribute $1.5 million (US$1.01 million) to provide a least a million vaccine doses to the Southeast Asian country.

Earlier on July 13, Agriculture Minister Murray Watt flew to Indonesia and had a discussion about support with his Indonesian counterpart in Jakarta a day later.

He said Australia offered to share expertise on emergency disease management and biosecurity under a two-pronged approach that also involved enhancing biosecurity measures at the Australian border.

Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said the vaccine support highlighted Australias commitment to Indonesia.

Safeguarding the biosecurity of our region is a shared concern for Australia and Indonesiathis was something confirmed during the recent Indonesia-Australia annual leaders meeting, she said.

FMD broke out in Indonesia in May for the first time after 36 years, raising the alarm for Australian agriculture.

On July 5, Indonesian authorities confirmed that the highly contagious disease appeared in livestock in Bali, a popular holiday destination receiving over 100 flights from Australia every week.

After receiving the news, Australian authorities immediately tightened biosecurity and adopted a number of prevention measures.

Nationals Call For Tougher Restrictions

Currently, Australian authorities advise travellers arriving from Indonesia to ensure their clothes and shoes are not contaminated with soil or manure.

However, the National Party of Australia has called on the federal government to take one step further and implement compulsory shoe decontamination and a two-day ban from returning to regional Australia for all travellers coming back from Bali.

I am strongly urging the government to introduce compulsory shoe decontamination on all travellers coming back from Bali  a move it has seemingly rejected, National MP Kevin Hogan said.

I have also asked them to consider that all travellers returning from Bali spend two days in the city before returning to the regions.

Hogan also said that if FMD broke out in Australia, there would be a ban on red meat exports that could last for years and cause great damage to the countrys livestock and meat processing industries.
Sandbags enforce the end of a boat ramp due to low water levels on the Macquarie River on September 16, 2019 in Dubbo, Australia. (David Gray/Getty Images)

Australian Regional Citys Water Supply Undrinkable as Works to Drain Contamination Continue

A boil water alert for the New South Wales (NSW) regional city of Dubbo and some surrounding areas has remained in place for more than a week following recent flooding that caused turbidity to exceed safe levels.

The alert was issued at 8 a.m. on July 7 and covers the areas of Dubbo, Firgrove, Wongarbon, Eumungerie, Ballimore, Mogriguy, and Brocklehurst.

This follows recent flooding in the Macquarie-Wambuul River that caused turbidity levels in Dubbos water to exceed the maximum of 0.5, which triggered the boil alert on July 7.

In a statement published on July 14, Dubbo Regional Council (DRC) said both the council and NSW Public Health are working to expedite the dilution of the citys reservoirs in order to lift the boil water alert as soon as possible.

DRC have engaged Public Works Advisory and an independent consultant to analyse the dilution targets in the attempt to reduce the disruption to the community.

Bottled water was reported to have been stripped bare from local supermarkets within an hour of the boil water alert being issued on July 7.

According to Luke Ryan, Dubbos director of infrastructure, getting the water back to safe drinking levels will occur in a zoned approach, with each area given the all-clear at different times.

In terms of diluting the water, that means weve actually got to add water to the reservoir and then drain it all the way back down, Ryan told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

The ABC also reports that this is the first time Dubbo had experienced a boil-water alert since November 2016, when one of its reservoirs was contaminated with bird excrement that caused a high risk of E. Coli contamination.

Further Testing

Dubbo Regional Council said it is also working with Sydney Water to test for Cryptosporidium on top of its regular microbiology testing.

Cryptosporidium is a parasite that causes Cryptosporidiosis, a diarrhoeal disease that affects the intestines, according to NSW Health.

While there are no reports of gastro illness in the Dubbo region, Priscilla Stanley from the Western NSW Local Health District said locals should be on the lookout for symptoms, the ABC reported.

[cryptosporidiosis] can cause a catastrophic outcome  people need to keep boiling and cooling their water to keep themselves out of a dire situation, Stankley said.

The Dubbo Regional Council recommends residents bring water for drinking or food preparation to a rolling boil to make it safe. But tap water may be used for showering and bathing, washing dishes and clothes.

Coastal Cities Better At Adapting to Water Supply Issues

According to Stuart Khan, a water expert at the University of New South Wales, coastal cities are able to adapt to water supply issues as they have a number of sources to draw from, compared to rural and regional areas that often have one supply reported The Guardian.

Additionally, Dubbo has been expanding the number of bores to make the region more drought and flood resilient, The Guardian reported.

During the recent floods in Sydney, the Orchard Hills Water Filtration Plant struggled to produce water and its serviced areas were asked to conserve drinking water. But this pressure was relieved by ramping up Sydneys seawater desalination plant.

The NSW government has announced a further $369.6 million investment in the Safe and Secure Water Program in the 2022-23 Budget, where it intends to help to continue work with local water utilities to fund vital water and sewerage infrastructure projects in the regions.
A supplied image shows the HMAS Adelaide approaching the port of Nuku'alofa in Tonga, Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022. (AAP Image/Supplied by the Department of Defence, Robert Whitmore)

Australian Telco Finalises $1.6 Billion Buyout of Digicel to Keep It out of Chinese Hands

Australian telecommunications giant Telstra, with backing from the federal government, will finalise its purchase of major Pacific mobile network provider Digicel Pacific.

In October 2021, the previous Morrison government launched the bid to keep out potential Chinese suitors from gaining control over Digicels data networkthe largest in the Pacific region.

Current Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the transaction reflected Australias commitment to building a stronger Pacific family through investment in its infrastructure.

Telecommunications and digital access are critical to sustainable economic growth and development outcomes into the future, she said in a statement.

Telstra CEO Andy Penn said the company would come under the Telstra International brand.

We are very pleased the deal has completed and we welcome Digicel Pacific to the Telstra family, he said in an investor update.

Digicel Pacific is the largest mobile service provider to Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Nauru, and Papua New Guinea (just north of Australia)it currently has around 1,700 employees, 2.8 million subscribers, and generates around US$466 million in service revenue.

The deal will see the Australian government provide a US$1.33 billion loanvia Export Finance Australiato Telstra, who will top it up with another $270 million (AU$361 million). Telstra will own 100 percent of Digicel Pacific.

Acquisition Purely a Strategic Move

Rob Nicholls, associate professor of regulation and governance at the University of New South Wales, said the deal was purely a strategic play because it made little business sense for Telstra.

There is no indication that the Australian government sought to put this opportunity out to tender. Part of the issue here is that the other two major Australian telcos are respectively Singapore-controlled (Optus) or controlled by a combination of the United Kingdom and Hong Kong interests (Vodafone), he previously told The Epoch Times.

Geopolitical wrangling in the region has ramped up in recent months following the signing of a security deal between the Solomon Islands and the Chinese Communist Party, which could open the door for troops, weapons, and naval ships to be stationed in the regionjust 1,700 kilometres from Australias northern city of Cairns.

Further, Beijings Foreign Minister Wang Yi also visited the region in May, signing a swathe of bilateral deals with 10 Pacific nations.

Democratic governments have pushed hard to assert influence in the region to force Beijing out.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced on July 12 that the Biden administration would dispatch Peace Corps to the region, establish embassies in Kiribati and Tonga, appoint the first-ever U.S. Envoy to the Forum, and look at reestablishing a U.S. Agency for International Development Regional Mission for the Pacific to deal with natural disasters and humanitarian aid.
Dr. Brian Day sits for a photograph at his office in Vancouver on Aug. 31, 2016. (The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck)

BC Court of Appeal Rejects Private Health Care, Says Charter Violation Can Be Overruled

The B.C. Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by a Vancouver surgeon who challenged that a lower court erred in judgement in rejecting his claim that patients have the charter right to pay for private medical care when wait times in the public system are too long.

In a ruling on July 15, Chief Justice Robert Bauman and Justice David Harris wrote that while some patients rights to security of the person were impeded by the lengthy wait times, which prevented them from timely access to medical treatment, this deprivation accorded with the principles of fundamental justice.

The panel of three Appeal Court justices found that the breach can be overruled by Section 1 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which says rights can be limited if its shown to be justified in democratic society.

Bauman and Harris concluded that the fundamental purpose of the the Medicare Protection Act (MPA) is to ensure that access to medical care for everyone whos eligible in the public system is based on need, not a patients ability to pay.

The court recognizes that the provincial law is upheld at the cost of real hardship and suffering to many for whom the public system is failing to provide timely and necessary care, wrote Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon, who ruled separately that provisions in the act do breach charter rights, but its justified under Section 1.

The judges ruling pertains to the Cambie Surgeries Corporation vs. British Columbia case, in which Justice John Steeves from the B.C. Supreme Court in September 2020 rejected Dr. Brian Days challenge against the MPA, which bans extra billing and private insurance for medically necessary procedures. Day filed a notice of appeal in early 2021.

Given the July 15 ruling, the charter challenge launched by Day in 2009 is expected to reach the Supreme Court of Canada.

Day opened the Cambie Surgery Centre in 1996, saying he wanted to create more operating-room time for surgeons who couldnt get it in hospitals. After the case was launched, it landed in the B.C. Supreme Court in 2016 with support from four patients as co-plaintiffs.

Specifically, the plaintiffs argued that patients should have the choice to access private medical care at their own expense or by using private insurance when wait times in the public system are too long, which resulted in them suffering prolonged pain, deterioration, or irreparable harm from their conditions.

In other words, not allowing patients the option to do so is a violation of Section 7 of the charter: the right to life, liberty, and security of the person, the plaintiffs claimed.

The plaintiffs sought to overturn the impugned provisions of the MPA that prohibits duplicative private healthcare, and which they say deprive patients Section 7 rights in a manner that is not consistent with the principles of fundamental justice.

The attorney-generals of B.C. and Canada, on the other hand, together with several intervenors, argued that the case is of pecuniary interest to the plaintiffs, and that a two-tier system would favour those who can afford to pay privately and upend Canadas universal system.

During the trial, which lasted 194 days, the lower court judge heard evidence from 17 patients, 36 physicians, 17 health authorities/ministerial agents, and 75 lay witnesses. A total of 590 exhibits and 40 expert reports were admitted.

In his 880 page judgement in September 2020, Steeves reasoned that the impugned provisions did not violate the Section 7 rights as there is no evidence of any deaths caused by waiting in British Columbia.

He also wrote that duplicative private health care does not reduce wait times.

There is expert evidence that wait times would actually increase, Steeves said. This would cause further inequitable access to timely care.

In response to Steevess ruling, Day said the decision by the judge will be detrimental to the well-being of patients.

I think its very disappointing. I think the court made a decision thats harming patients, Day said at the time.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
By Helaine Fendelman and Joe Rosson

From Tribune News Service

Dear Helaine and Joe:

Might you be able to help us determine the approximate value of this Mobo horse? We would also like to know a little of its history.

Thank you for your help,

K. P.

Dear K. P.:

Ride em, cowboy! The phrase echoed through the minds of many boys and girls (ride em, cowgirl!) during the early years of television.

Many of us can remember lying on our tummies in front of the television watching shoot-em-ups as long as Mom and/or Dad would let us.

Merchandise associated with these Westerns was in toy boxes in many homes in America. In many more cases, more generic-themed toy riding horses took up floor space in bedrooms, playrooms and almost any other room in the house where there was a TV.

Mobo Toys were made in Erith, Kent, England, between 1947 and 1973 by D. Sebel & Co. David Sebel immigrated to England from Russia about 1912 and went into business as a wheelwright. Over the years the business developed into making such things as fronts for motion picture theaters, milk churns and cleaning carts.

During World War II, the company made aircraft and tank parts, plus parts for bridge building and air raid shelter bunk beds. After the war, there was a surplus of labor and a shortage of the kind of work they had been doing, which led Sebel and his brother Henry to begin making metal furniture and toys.

Shortly after the initial startup, the toy division was moved to the old Vickers Gun Works in Erith, and when the name Mobile Toys was rejected, Mobo was chosen instead. The symbol for the new company was a circus clown, and in later advertising, there was Mr. Mo and Miss Bo.

The piece in todays question is Bronco, which was Mobos most popular product. First made in 1947, it is said that schoolchildren chose the color scheme of red and yellow. Initially Bronco could only be ridden straight ahead, but in 1950, magic steering was introduced that allowed Bronco to be ridden straight ahead and steered either left or right.

In the photographs of K. P.s Mobo Bronco, we see the emblem on the horses chest, and we think there is a banner above that says It Steers, which signifies this example was made after 1950. Unfortunately this model stayed in production until 1971, so we cannot narrow the time frame further.

The condition of this example is exceptionally good. K. P. still has the instruction pamphlet and we see some scattered spots of rust, but overall, the condition is above average assuming that Bronco still works. Insurance replacement value is in the $350 to $450 range.

Helaine Fendelman and Joe Rosson have written a number of books on antiques. Do you have an item youd like to know more about? Contact them at Joe Rosson, 2504 Seymour Ave., Knoxville, TN 37917, or email them at treasures@knology.net. If youd like your question to be considered for their column, please include a high-resolution photo of the subject, which must be in focus, with your inquiry.

2022 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
President Joe Biden is welcomed by Mecca province governor Prince Khaled al-Faisal (white robe) and Princess Reema bint Bandar Al-Saud (L), Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington, at the King Abdulaziz International Airport in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah, upon his arrival from Israel, on July 15, 2022. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Biden Meets With Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Amid Energy Security Concerns

President Joe Biden arrived on July 15 in Saudi Arabia, giving Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman a fist bump and shaking hands with King Salman, after previously pledging during his presidential campaign to make the kingdom a pariah on the world stage.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on July 15 that the trip follows the monumental decision to open Saudi airspace to all civilian carriers without discrimination, a decision that includes flights to and from Israel.

Energy and security interests prompted Biden and his aides to decide not to isolate the Gulf oil giant that has been strengthening ties with Russia and China. Biden, who said he would discuss human rights during the visit, was met by Prince Khalid al-Faisal, the governor of Mecca province, which includes the Red Sea city of Jeddah.

When opening statements were completed, several American reporters, including NBCs Peter Alexander, shouted questions about the death of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the prince. Will you apologize to his family? one shouted to the prince. Is Saudi Arabia still a pariah? another asked. Bin Salman didnt respond as reporters were led from the room.

 | HRH Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman receives #US President at Al-Salam Palace in #Jeddah. pic.twitter.com/oVy7igzDWw  Foreign Ministry  (@KSAmofaEN) July 15, 2022

Biden will discuss energy security with leaders of Gulf oil producers and hopes to see more action by OPEC+ to boost output, but there were unlikely to be any bilateral announcements from the talks, national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters en route to Jeddah.

We believe any further action taken to ensure that there is sufficient energy to protect the health of the global economy, it will be done in the context of OPEC+, Sullivan said. We are hopeful that we will see additional actions by OPEC+ in coming weeks.

He added that Biden will talk about energy security with the kingdoms leadership.

The president discusses it when hes in Europe, when hes in Asia. And he certainly will be discussing here in the Middle East and here in Saudi Arabia, Sullivan said.

Ahead of the visit to Saudi Arabia, the kingdom announced it would open its airspace to all air carriers, including flights to and from Israel. Biden visited Israel and Palestinian areas this week as part of a broader trip to the Middle East.

The White House said it welcomes and commends the historic decision by the leadership of Saudi Arabia to open Saudi airspace to all civilian carriers without discrimination.

This decision paves the way for a more integrated, stable, and secure Middle East region, which is vital for the security and prosperity of the United States and the American people, and for the security and prosperity of Israel, the statement reads.

Reuters contributed to this report.
President Joe Biden (L) is welcomed by Israeli caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid after arriving at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport in Lod near Tel Aviv, on July 13, 2022. (Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)

Biden Welcomes Saudi Arabia Opening Airspace to Israel

President Joe Biden has welcomed Saudi Arabia opening its airspace to all air carriers, including flights to and from Israel, marking an end to a ban on flights from the latter and a step toward normalizing relations between the two countries.

Biden is set to visit Saudi Arabia on Friday where he will meet with King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.

A statement from White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on July 14 said that Biden welcomes and commends the historic decision by the leadership of Saudi Arabia to open Saudi airspace to all civilian carriers without discrimination which he said is the result of Bidens persistent and principled diplomacy with Saudi Arabia over many months.

This decision paves the way for a more integrated, stable, and secure Middle East region, which is vital for the security and prosperity of the United States and the American people, and for the security and prosperity of Israel.

The president is expected to deliver further remarks on the move later on Friday after he embarks on a historic flight directly from Israel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia announced late Thursday that it would open its airspace to all carriers ahead of Bidens visit to the kingdom.

The Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) said in a statement that the countrys airspace is now open to all carriers that meet the requirements for overflying in line with the Chicago Convention of 1944, which stipulates that there should be no discrimination between civil aircraft used in international air navigation.

Shorter Flight Times

The decision will complement the efforts aimed at consolidating the kingdoms position as a global hub connecting three continents and to enhance international air connectivity, GACA added in its statement.

It will also culminate in shorter flights from Asia to Israel, as airlines serving those flights had previously had to take longer routes that included a detour around Saudi Arabia while en route to Israel, adding up to three hours to the journey time.

Israel and Saudi Arabia have no diplomatic relations, and the Kindom does not recognize Israel as independent, despite its allies Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates doing so in 2020 as part of a broader diplomatic push by then-President Donald Trumps administration to formalize relations between the countries.

A key issue at play is a resolution to the IsraeliPalestinian conflict and the creation, or rather lack of, a two-state solution.

GACAs statement on Thursday stopped short of referring to Israel by name.

However, Saudi Arabia has allowed IsraelUnited Arab Emirates flights to cross its airspace since 2020, following Trumps push to establish diplomatic relations, although Israel was restricted from using it for other commercial flights.

Air India flights are also allowed to fly over the Kingdom on journeys to and from Israel.

Both Saudi and Israel have also increasingly engaged in security cooperation against what they both see as a mutual threat in Iran.

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid praised the move in a statement, which he said came after a long road of intense and covert diplomacy with Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Lapid also noted that this is only the first step and that his government will continue working with [the] necessary caution, for the sake of Israels economy, security and the good of our citizens.

During his visit to the Kingdom on Friday, Biden is widely expected to help elicit the help of Saudi Arabia and other Arab allies in getting OPEC to increase oil production as U.S. gas prices continue to soar.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Say Yes Buffalo officially opened Thursday its new office at 1166 Jefferson Ave., just a few blocks away from the Tops supermarket where 10 people were killed two months ago.

David Rust, CEO of Say Yes Buffalo, said the organization planned the move to Jefferson Avenue prior to the mass shooting at Tops, but also said the move takes on a greater importance following the tragedy.

"We wanted to be in the neighborhood, so the relocation was intentional," Rust said. "Obviously, it's more meaningful after 5/14 to be an anchor in this community and on the streets."

Say Yes celebrated the occasion with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, including an African drum and dance performance by the African American Cultural Center.

Say Yes Buffalo is a nonprofit that provides Buffalo Public School students with a comprehensive K-12 support system and locally funded scholarships to public and private colleges.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said it is important for Say Yes to invest in communities like East Buffalo that have not received many resources.

"The move of Say Yes to this community is symbolic on the future of our community and our great city," Poloncarz said. "The county can only be as strong as all of its communities are. That's why we need to have strong communities all across Erie County."

The new office took four years to develop. Rust credited New York Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes with securing $1 million in state funding to help Say Yes with the build-out and help keep its rent control. Say Yes partnered with People Inc., which is providing affordable housing above the new office space.

"Say Yes has been a huge advantage to our opportunity in the city of Buffalo to work with our students," Peoples-Stokes said. "There's nothing more important than education."

Temara Cross, a recent University at Buffalo graduate, said Say Yes is committed to combating educational inequities in the community.

"Say Yes Buffalo moving to Jefferson has shown me that it's dedicated to this work and is continuously committed to doing this work," Cross said. "It shows me that I can be the change that I wish to see in my community."
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson addresses the nation as he announces his resignation outside 10 Downing Street on July 7, 2022. (Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)

Boris Johnson Ordered to Hand Documents to Parliamentary Committee Probing Partygate Scandal

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been ordered to hand over a cache of documents to MPs investigating whether he lied to Parliament over the so-called partygate scandal.

Johnson, who is set to step down as prime minister in early September, still faces an inquiry by the Privileges Committee into whether he deliberately misled Parliament with his repeated assurances that CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus rules were followed in Number 10 Downing Street.

These assurances have been proven to be false after the Metropolitan Police issued over 100 fines to Downing Street staff members, including Johnson and his wife Carrie, for attending gatherings in violation of COVID-19 regulations during the lockdowns.

Harriet Harman, the senior Labour MP chairing the investigation, wrote to Johnson and Cabinet Secretary Simon Case on July 14 demanding details relevant to its inquiry to be handed over by the deadline of Aug. 15.

Diaries and Entry Logs

The requested documents include Johnsons diaries for eight days during the lockdown period when parties occurred, email invites, resignation emails and WhatsApp messages, and Number 10 entry logs.

The request for Johnsons diary entries relate to dates between May 2020 and January 2021 when numerous rule-breaking gatherings were held in Downing Street and Whitehall.

The request for Number 10 entry logs on June 19 and Nov. 13, 2020, centre on Johnsons birthday gathering, over which he was fined, and an event in his Downing Street flat.

All photos by the prime ministers official photographer Andrew Parsons on the dates in question were also requested.

Electronic invites for the events were demanded, as were briefing notes for appearances in the House of Commons where Johnson may have misled the House and records of civil servants being disciplined.

So too were details of any relevant documents that may have been deleted.

The committee said the list of documents requested may be expanded later if required.

Oral evidence sessions are expected to begin after the return of the Parliament in September after the summer recess.

Downing Street could not guarantee it would provide the committee with all the requested evidence.

A Number 10 spokesman said: You will appreciate that we have recently received those letters and requests which well now take a proper look at.

As weve said before, we will assist the committee in their inquiries but once weve had the time to look at the letters and requests well set out our response to the committee.

PA Media contributed to this report.
British Aid Volunteer Captured in Ukraine Has Died, Report

A British aid worker detained by Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine since April has died, according to an official in the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic (DPR).

Daria Morozova, the Ombudsman in the self-styled DPR, wrote on Friday on a Telegram channel that Paul Urey died on July 10 due to illnesses and stress, Russian state media, including TASS and RIA, reported.

In April, British charity Presidium Network said Urey, 45, and fellow British volunteer, 22-year-old Dylan Healy, were captured on April 25 at a checkpoint in Zaporizhzhia, southern Ukraine, when they were trying to help evacuate a woman and two children.

Presidium Network, which helps to get aid into Kyiv, said Urey and Healy traveled to Ukraine on their own accord, and they were in contact with the charity but were not working for it.

The charity also said Urey didnt qualify for the army because he is a family man with children.

But Morozova accused Urey of being a professional soldier, claiming he had led military operations, recruited and trained mercenaries for Ukrainian troops, and fought in other conflicts.

On our part, despite the severity of the alleged crime, Paul Urey was provided with appropriate medical assistance. However, given the diagnoses and stress, he died on July 10, Morozova wrote.

Urey and Healy have both been charged with mercenary activities, the same charges that led to the death sentences of Britons Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner.

According to TASS, Morozova said Urey was detained in a local penal facility, and was diagnosed with several chronic illnesses including type 1 diabetes, respiratory system and kidney disorders, and cardiovascular diseases.

Morozova also said Urey was depressed due to indifference to his fate in his homeland.

She accused British officials of not responding to Ureys capture and not providing the necessary medical supplies through the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross].

Responding to the news on social media, Ureys mother Linda Urey said she is absolutely devastated.

A spokesman for Downing Street said the Foreign Office is urgently investigating the clearly alarming reports.

Our thoughts are obviously with his family and friends, he added.

A Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office spokesperson said, We are urgently seeking clarification from the Russian government on media reports that a British aid worker has died in Ukraine.

In April and June, British veterans Scott Sibley and Jordan Gatley were killed in Ukraine.

Andrew Hill, 35, was also charged with mercenary activities last month.

The DPR is a Russian-backed breakaway area in East Ukraine, which has been recognized by Russia, Syria, and North Korea.
California State Budget Includes a Move to Close Another Prison

Buried in the recently passed California state budget bill is a provision to close a state prison in the small northern city of Susanville by exempting state correctional facilities from environmental reviews.

Assembly Bill (AB) 200 designates state public safety spending for the 20222023 fiscal year and sets a closure date of June 30, 2023, exactly one year after the budget signature, for the California Correctional Center (CCC).

The legislative move follows a lawsuit the City of Susanville filed in July 2021 to stop the prison closure.

What happens at the tail end of the budget process is a bunch of policy getting put in place by the legislature and the governor that may have very little to do with the budget specifically, Lanhee Chen, a Stanford University professor and candidate for State Controller, told The Epoch Times on July 8.

The suit against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and Governor Gavin Newsom claimed that the prison closure violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and California Penal Code. A Lassen County Superior Court judge granted a preliminary injunction in August 2021 to pause the closure.

[AB 200] changed the rules so that the City of Susanville will not have standing now in their lawsuit, Senator Brian Dahle (R-Bieber), whose senate district encompasses Susanville, told The Epoch Times on July 13. Basically, Gavin Newsom did an inrun on the previous law and changed the law.

A sign by the road leading to California Correctional Center in Susanville, Calif. (Courtesy of City of Susanville)

Lack of Communication

Despite Newsom signing the budget bill into law on June 30, Corrections department spokeswoman Dana Simas told The Epoch Times that the courts preliminary injunction is still in place.

The departments closure activities for CCC continue to be on hold at this time due to ongoing litigation, Simas wrote in an email statement. We will notify our staff, incarcerated population, and stakeholders of any updates or changes.

CDCR began its environmental review under CEQA earlier this year with plans to prepare an environmental impact report on CCCs closure. The initial review notice said the closure would likely reduce air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and energy use, among other resources.

Susanville City Administrator Dan Newton told NTD Television last year that the city and prison employees did not receive prior notice regarding the decision to close CCC. The city filed for a public records request to understand why the prison was selected, but city residents and officials said they have not yet received the requested documents.

We havent had any luck getting any answers, but we know its more political than it is anything else, Dahle said. Whats really unfortunate is that it really hurts the community. Its the main driving force for income.

Prison employees in Susanville, who are represented by SEIU Local 1000, protested the closure at the state capitol last year, criticizing CDCRs lack of communication in selecting which facilities to close.

According to the CDCRs July 6 report, the CCC holds 2,300 inmates and is capable of employing 3,487 people. CCC is one of ten state prisons that are currently holding fewer prisoners than its designed capacity.

Susanville Mayor Mendy Schuster waits to speak at a rally in Sacramento, Calif., on Aug. 27, 2021. (Cynthia Cai/The Epoch Times)

A Loss of Jobs and Firefighters

Newsom advocated for reducing the states prison population to avoid overcrowding and limit COVID-19 transmission during the pandemic. His administration successfully closed the Deuel Vocational Institution (DVI) in Tracy this past September.

In addition to DVI and CCC, the state could soon close three more prisons, according to Newsoms budget blueprint from earlier this year. He has not yet identified which prisons may be selected, but the California Legislative Analysts Office (LAO) had recommended closing a total of five state prisons by 2025, a move that could save the state $1.5 billion per year.

However, the LAO suggested the state avoid closing prisons with specialized missionswhich would include CCC with its fire conservation camps missiondue to the impacts such closures could have on statewide operations. CCC works with several fire camps, including the nearby Antelope Conservation Camp, to train low-level inmates to become firefighters.

Those inmates can get out of prison and go get a job with CalFire, said Dahle. Thats a great way to change their lives.

State legislators pointed out at the beginning of June that the state has seen a decrease of about 4,200 inmate firefighters over the past decade.

In the same LAO report, of the 12 oldest state prisons, CCC was listed low on the list at 11th in terms of cost for repairs and maintenance.

The prison is one of the main economic resources for Susanville. Mayor Mendy Schuster told The Epoch Times last year that CCC is the second largest employer, which means losing the prison could result in the city shrinking even more in population and economic stability.

The corrections department has said that some employees could be transferred to the nearby High Desert State Prison, a high-security state prison.

CCCs closure is set to happen unless further legislation is passed during next years legislative session.

The Epoch Times has reached out to Governor Newsoms office for comment.
A person casts their voting ballot during the June Primary Election at Brooklyn Museum in New York City, on June 28, 2022. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

CCP Continues to Interfere With US Election: Chinese-American Congressional Candidate

Following the U.S. State Departments offer of a $10 million reward for information on foreign election interference, Xiong Yan, who is currently running for Congress in the 10th District of New York, told The Epoch Times that the Chinese communist regime has continued to interfere with his campaign due to his dissident background.

The U.S. Department of Justice charged five men on March 16 for acting as agents of the Chinese regime, collecting information on dissidents, harassing, smearing, and even planning violent attacks targeting a candidate running for congress.

In 1989 he had been a student leader on Tiananmen Square before the movement was violently crushed by the Chinese regime.

One of the men, Qiming Lin, worked for the Ministry of State Security (MSS). The MSS is the Chinese regimes civilian intelligence and secret police agency.

In September 2021, Lin hired a private investigator (PI) in New York to disrupt the campaign of a Brooklyn resident currently running for U.S. Congress (the Victim), including by physically attacking the Victim.

In December 2021, Lin allegedly left a voicemail for the PI where he said, in the end, violence would be fine too.  Beat him until he cannot run for election.  Car accident, [he] will be completely wrecked, right?

On July 13, Rev. Xiong Yan, a retired major who served in the U.S. Army for 27 years, revealed to The Epoch Times that he was the unnamed congressional candidate that was targeted by the Chinese regime.

He said that fortunately the U.S. government prevented the attacks.

Xiong Yan is running for Congress in New Yorks 10th congressional district in July 2022. (Cai Rong/The Epoch Times)

Yan said that after the indictment of the Department of Justice was released, the Chinese regime did not stop interfering with his campaign. His campaign office opened on March 19 with a large dinner party originally scheduled. The Chinese consulate contacted the leaders of several Chinese American groups and told them not to support me: do not donate money or vote for me, he said.

The Fujianese and Cantonese people who were previously confirmed to attend the dinner party told me that the Chinse consulate called a meeting with them before it, saying that they could not support Xiong Yan and could not let him be electedYou guys want to go to China to do business, or support him in the election? They are too scared to come, he said.

The tenth congressional district in New York City includes two major Chinese communities, Manhattans Chinatown and Brooklyns Eighth Avenue. Some Chinese Americans there also told The Epoch Times that the chairman of a Fujian Chinese expat group said that the Chinese consulate informed the group that its not allowed to support Yans campaign.

CCPs Long Arm

As for why the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) interfered with his running for congress, Yan said that it was obvious because he was a leader of the Tiananmen Square democratic movement in 1989 (which was violently suppressed on June 4, 1989, also known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre).

Although he did not highlight this background, and instead downplayed it in order to draw support from as wide a range of people as possible.

Despite that he is still regarded as a dissident by the CCP, and they continue to interfere with his running for office in the United States.

The arm of the Chinese consulate is too long, he said.

Yan Xiong (2nd R), one of the 21 most-wanted Tiananmen Square protesters from 1989, speaks with local pro-democracy leaders before taking part in a demonstration on the streets of Hong Kong on May 31, 2009. (Samantha Sin/AFP via Getty Images)

This kind of interference and manipulation of U.S. elections is felony in the U.S. and will jeopardize the fate of most Chinese Americans, Yan said.

He said the Chinese agents will run back to China when their term of office expires or when the situation turns bad. Or they will have diplomatic immunity.

However, the Chinese community leaders in the United States who are pro-CCP and who are brainwashed and obey the Chinese consulate will become the ultimate victims Yan said.

When the Chinese set foot on the land of freedom and democracy in the United States, they chose freedom, democracy, human rights, the rule of law, and universal values, Yan said. However, many people are still affected by the CCP and [are] under its authoritarian control.

The CCP takes advantage of the relatively free, democratic, and human rights-oriented social environment in the United States to plant a large number of their agents among the six million Chinese living in the country.

Yan suggested that overseas Chinese should cherish the free environment, stand on the side of universal values, cleanse out all the toxins of the CCP and be reborn as a free person.

The National Counterintelligence and Security Center of the United States warned on July 6 that as tensions between the United States and China grow, the CCP are trying to manipulate state, local and business leaders to support Beijing-friendly policies and advance CCP geopolitical interests.

Linda Lin contributed to the report.
Lawrence Sellin, Ph.D., a retired U.S. Army Reserve colonel who previously worked at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. (Courtesy of Lawrence Sellin)

China Advances Its Biowarfare Program Through Infiltration of US Virus Labs: Retired US Army Colonel

Chinese scientists, with military links, infiltrate American virology research institutions and feed the research results to the Chinese military to benefit Chinas development of biological weapons, said retired U.S. Army Reserve colonel Lawrence Sellin, Ph.D.

In China, there is no difference between military and civilian research, and in 2016 the Chinese regime even mandated the fusion of both types of research even if they are carried out by different institutions, Sellin said in a recent interview on EpochTVs Crossroads program.

Chinas biological warfare program exists at three levels.

The first level is the secret military level and this is composed of military research centers and military hospitals.

The second layer, which is fused to the first layer, are Chinas universities, their so-called civilian research centers like the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and also some of the biotech companies in China.

The third level is comprised of international universities and research labs, he said.

The second level, civilian research, accesses this third level and then feeds the results from the collaboration on international programs between Chinese scientists residing abroad and local scientists, back into the first levelthe military level, Sellin explained.

The collaboration on research between American institutions and Chinese institutions started in 1979 with the agreement signed by then-President Jimmy Carter and the Chinese regime leader Deng Xiaoping, which allowed Chinese scientists to come to the United States to study and work, Sellin said.

Many in the first wave of Chinese scientists who came to the United States to get trained were from the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), the Chinese military, he said. Some of them stayed in the United States, even becoming permanent residents or citizens, he added.

During this time, they maintain collaboration with scientists in mainland China, including scientists from the Peoples Liberation Army, so I call it scientific chain migration. Those in the initial wave, who established themselves in laboratories in the United States began inviting other scientists from China, again, from the Peoples Liberation Army and also other research centers in China, to the United States.

Over the last 30 years, theyve created a critical mass of scientists who continue to work with scientists back in mainland China.

Chinese Bio Warfare Research in America

Some research of certain scientists with the dual U.S.China affiliation has been funded by The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), headed by Dr. Anthony Fauci, said Sellin, who previously worked at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.

This dual affiliation is often stated in their publications in scientific journals, he said.

For example, Shibo Jiang conducted a study with another Chinese scientist, which was directly funded by the Chinese government and a private Chinese biotech company, while Shibo Jiang was also funded by NIAID to conduct U.S. biodefense research, Sellin said in his newsletter.

In 2014, Shibo Jiang co-authored a scientific paper as an affiliate of both the Key Lab of Molecular Virology of the Shanghai Medical College and the Kimball Research Institute of the New York Blood Center.

One of the hotbeds of Chinas infiltration of U.S. universities is the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, which also has a U.S. defense research center there and a level four biosecurity lab as well.

There have been many Chinese scientists, some of whom came from the Peoples Liberation Army, who have worked there.

The Galveston National Laboratory was conceived and funded in 2003 by Faucis NIAID in response to biothreats that emerged in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. It began collaborating with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in 2013 on training WIV scientists and conducting joint research programs.

There are also Chinese scientists with ties to the Chinese military working in the U.S. military scientific institutions doing research in various fields, and holding very sensitive positions, Sellin said. Its been going on for years. He questioned two people in authority about this situation but had not received any response.

Those scientists maintain contact with scientific institutions in China, visit China, and give presentations at universities there, Sellin said.

Variety of Biological Weapons

Theres a spectrum of biological weapons, some of which are very lethal while others less so, Sellin explained. According to Chinese military doctrine, biological weapons, which are highly infectious but with low lethality, can be used in pre-war conditions to debilitate a society or to debilitate another military.

The COVID-19 virus is a prototypical biological weapon that China has been trying to develop since 2004, Sellin said.

COVID-19 is a disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus.

Chinese military documents also state that these weapons should be designed, such that you have plausible deniability, that the presence of these viruses can be blamed on nature, he said. Thats the whole story of the COVID-19 virus.  The research that Chinas doing, even the publicly available research, points back to a biological warfare program.

China is waging a war against the United States, and COVID-19 was a type of biological weapon that was designed for pre-war conditions.

Regardless of whether its release was accidental or intentional, it debilitated the United States economy for two years, and caused enormous disruption and social discord in the country, Sellin said. The country is weakened, which allows China to take advantage of the situation in a war-like state, he added.

I think Chinas military learned a great deal about our response to [the COVID-19 pandemic] or our lack of response to it, and the effect it had on our society. 23:06

Since the Chinese regime plans to take over the world, it also works on much more lethal viruses as well, which can cause death rates of up to 70 or 80 percent of the population, Sellin said. They are developing a wide variety of biological weapons to be used under certain circumstances.

Recipe for COVID-19 Funded by American Taxpayers

The American taxpayers are actually funding Chinas research programs to the point that one can think of Americas virus research programs today as merely an extension of Chinese programs, in particular, their biological warfare program, Sellin said.

In 2018, Peter Daszak of the EcoHealth Alliance and Zheng-Li Shi of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, dubbed the bat woman, submitted, along with two other scientists, an application for a research grant to the U.S. Department of Defenses Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Sellin said.

He said that the description of proposed research in that application reads like a recipe for creating COVID-19.

The application was rejected by DARPA because it involved dangerous gain of function experiments that would create new human-infecting viruses, and the research had the clear potential for dual use within a bioweapons development, Sellin wrote. DARPA, however, left the door open for partial funding.

Gain of function research is defined as when a naturally-occurring virus is genetically or otherwise manipulated to make it either more contagious, more lethal, or both.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), admitted in a letter that it funded gain-of-function experiments at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, according to Jeff Carlson and Hans Mahncke, hosts of Truth Over News on EpochTV.

Sellin said that he considers the 2018 research application the smoking gun of the laboratory origin of the COVID-19 virus because the experiments described in the application include the insertion of a furin protease cleavage site into new viruses that would be created in these experiments.

This furin protease cleavage site does not exist in any virus from which the COVID-19 virus could have evolved, Sellin said. It is unnatural insertion into COVID-19.

The furin protease cleavage site is a very small structure in the virus that facilitates its infectivity and lethality, Sellin explained.

Eva Fu contributed to this report.

Ella Kietlinska Reporter Follow Ella Kietlinska is a reporter for The Epoch Times focusing on U.S. and world politics.
China Is USs Most Lethal, Dangerous Adversary: Former Defense Secretary

Chinas communist regime is the greatest foreign threat facing the United States, according to former U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who also said that it should be considered an adversary.

Today, I would describe [the Chinese regime] as our adversary, Esper said during a July 14 talk at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank. To me, its clear thats what they are.

Esper said that there are innumerable potential conflicts that could erupt in the IndoPacific, many of which could involve China and would carry global significance if allowed to boil over. As such, he said, the United States needs to maintain vigilance in its mission to deter aggression by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

China is still our most lethal, dangerous adversary out there, he said.

Global Flashpoints

Notably, Esper said that northeast Asia could be the most volatile place on earth because of the intermingling of complex and powerful economic, diplomatic, and military actors. The United States, China, and Japan, he noted, are the three largest economies on earth.

Any type of conflict involving those three countries is going to ripple globally, he said.

He added that Taiwan and South Korea are both bastions of technological advancement in their own right. China and North Korea, meanwhile, are both nuclear-armed communist powers looking to expand their influence.

The greatest strategic flashpoint in the world is northeast Asia, Esper said.

We have to look at that and pay attention to it and keep it under control as best we can.

To that end, Esper said that its imperative the United States take a proactive role to manage and deter the most pressing scenarios for potential conflict.

Taiwan in a Fight for Survival

The No. 1 scenario, of course, is Taiwan, Esper said.

Although the CCP, which currently rules mainland China as a one-party state, maintains that Taiwan is a breakaway province, the island has been self-governed since 1949 and has never been controlled by the CCP.

While relations between the two powers have never been friendly, Esper said that recent efforts by the CCP to press expansionary claims in the region are a cause for concern. Specifically, he said that the regimes efforts to behave as if there were no international waters between the two entities is worrying and reflects a broader conflict between Taiwans democratic way of life and Chinas communist aggression.

This comes down to communism versus democracy, to the international rules and norms and values that we all share as democracies and a different view being perpetrated by China on the world, he added.

Esper said he doesnt believe China is capable yet of making a direct amphibious assault on Taiwan but that the danger is growing. He said that he would visit the island state soon, to encourage Taiwans leadership to continue investing in asymmetric weapons systems and broaden its conscription practices in order to better deter CCP aggression.

He added that a majority of the islands people consider themselves to be Taiwanese rather than Chinese, and that any war over Taiwans independence would necessarily be a war for the survival of the Taiwanese people.

I want to believe that any people will fight for their own survival, and a Chinese invasion would be for survival, because theres no such thing as one country, two systems,' Esper said. Thats already been disproven by Hong Kong.

Unlike Ukraine, if you get invaded by a big neighbor, theres no crossing over into Romania or Poland or somewhere. Youre on an island.

Strategic Ambiguity No Longer Useful

In terms of what the United States can do to prevent such a disastrous war from erupting, Esper said that strategic ambiguity, the longstanding U.S. policy of neither confirming nor denying whether it would defend Taiwan from an invasion, has run its course.

As such, he said, Congress should debate the issue and hold a vote to end the policy. Further, he said, its vital that the United States stake out an unambiguous stance against tyranny to dissuade further expansionary aggression by the CCP.

At the end of the day, if you dont stand up to countries, autocracies like China, they read it as a green light, Esper said.

At some point, youve got to stand up and say were not putting up with this anymore.

When asked whether he believed regime change would be required in China before peaceful relations could be assured, Esper said that the person currently leading China is of greater importance than the form of government that exists there.

CCP leader Xi Jinping has taken China in a much darker direction since coming to power in 2012, Esper said. Positive relations arent likely to be renewed between China and the United States until Xi is out of power, he said.

Esper believes the Chinese people deserve the same rights and freedoms as are enjoyed in the West, and that a representative form of government would do more to preserve the rights and culture of the Chinese people than communism.

Strategy Must Address Threats, Not Challenges

Esper commented on the legacy of the 2018 National Defense Strategy, which first identified China as the nations pacing threat. That language, he noted, apparently was watered down by the Biden administration, which has thus far refrained from casting the CCP as a U.S. adversary.

When I became secretary of defense in 2019, my focus was warfighting, Esper said. Thats the mission of the United States military: to fight and win our nations wars.

Current Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has continued the notion of China as our pacing threat, although they now call it the challenge,' Esper said.

Current leadership still carries important parts of the Trump administrations groundwork for a China strategy forward in spirit, he said, but could do more. National strategies, he said, are easy to write well, but only implemented with great difficulty.

Youve got to give the Trump administration credit, I think, for finally consolidating and forming consensus within the United States government that China was our strategic competitor, he said.

Still, given the stakes, Esper said the current administration isnt delivering fully on the promise of the strategy.

Too often, strategy documents get caught up in buzzwords and catchphrases that dont have much meaning. Its hard for people to understand and implement, he said.

To that end, he criticized the current administrations failure to release an unclassified version of its own defense strategy, which has only been briefly described publicly by way of congressional testimonies.

You havent seen it. I havent seen it, he said. Theres a page and a half document online where you can read what it says.

I dont have a good sense of what the lines of effort are. Theres talk about campaigning and integrated deterrence, but those are just words. Youve really got to dig deeper.

He said that its integral to make known the nations overall strategy to ensure that its people and allies understand whats being sought strategically and why the government and military are making their decisions.

Most importantly, Esper said, the administration needs to be clear on its strategy for contending with China, in terms of ensuring peace and pursuing continued U.S. success.

We shouldnt be looking for a fight with China, he said. What we should be looking to do is to shape Chinas ascent in a way thats more positive for the Indo-Pacific region and globally.

Pentagon officials didnt respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.
This combination of file pictures shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (L) being broadcast on a large video screen in Tokyo; Chinese leader Xi Jinping (C), and U.S. President Donald Trump (Fred Dufour, Brendan Smialowski, Toru Yamanaka/AFP/Getty Images)

China Uses North Korea as Buffer State to Distract US in Region: Mike Pompeo

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on July 13 that China deters North Korea from participating in denuclearization efforts pursued by the U.S. government because Beijing benefits from Chairman Kim [Jong Un] continuing to hold his nuclear weapons.

During a video interview at the Asian Leadership Conference (ALC) in Seoul, South Korea, a summit hosted by South Korean media Chosun Ilbo, Pompeo said that the Chinese regime uses Pyongyang as an important buffer state, because Washington then has to spend energies to defend East Asia against North Koreas nuclear weapons systems.

Kim is a puppet of the Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Pompeo believes. He said that Kim has limited degrees of freedom.

Pompeo is one of the key persons that made the historical Trump-Kim summits. Then U.S. President Donald Trump met with Kim three times in Singapore, Hanoi, and South Korea in 2018 and 2019. At the last summit, Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to step foot in North Korea.

President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un walk together south of the Military Demarcation Line that divides North and South Korea on June 30, 2019. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)

The United States and North Korea couldnt reach an agreement on Pyongyangs denuclearization at any of the three summits. Pompeo said on Wednesday that the obstacle was the Chinese regime.

Not a single one of the meetings that I had with Chairman Kim, nor any meeting that President Trump had with Chairman Kim was not preceded by [Kim] meeting with Xi Jinping, Pompeo said. There were times I had serious conversations with Chairman Kim only to find that right after my departure, a call from Xi Jinping came in and said: Dont you dare head down that path with that Secretary of State, reported United Press International (UPI) on July 13.

Pompeo said that Kim was savvy and wanted to give up nuclear weapons in exchange for greater economic engagement from the United States. However, the Chinese regime didnt allow him to take that direction.

The former Secretary of State, CIA director, and congressman didnt give details about the source of the intelligence about the phone calls between Kim and Xi.

From public records, Kim visited China before or after each of these three summits, and had met with Xi in person on each of these trips. On June 20, 2019, Xi made his first and only North Korea trip as Chinese leader, in which he discussed with Kim the third Trump-Kim summit that was to be held in 10 days.

A Beijing newspaper featuring a front-page photo of Chinese leader Xi Jinping (L) riding in a limousine with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (R) during Xis visit to North Korea in Pyongyang, on June 21, 2019. (Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images)

Possible Solution

In 2022, Kims regime again became active in weapons development. On June 5, it fired at least one ballistic missile off its east coast. A South Korean study estimated that Pyongyang had conducted 18 missile launches involving 33 ballistic missiles in the first five and a half months this year, at a cost of $400 million to $650 million.

Pompeo said that Kim might want to take the path that the United States requests of him, but Xi is the person who controls Kims actions.

In some ways, you can look at the North Korean nuclear weapons as simply an extension of the Chinese nuclear weapons program, Pompeo added.

The former Secretary of State said that the solution to forcing North Korea to stop its provocative use of weapons is increased enforcement of sanctions against Pyongyang, an approach tthat was verified by the Trump administration.

In this undated file photo that was provided by the White House, CIA director Mike Pompeo (L) shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang, North Korea. (The White House via Getty Images)

China-North Korea Relations

The Chinese regime and North Korean regime are autarchic communist regimes. In 2021, only five countries in the world were ruled by communist regimes: China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam.

The Beijing and Pyongyang administrations have supported each other even before they controlled their respective countries in the late 1940s, according to former Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen. In the 1950s, Beijing fought for Pyongyang during the Korean War.

Today, China is North Koreas most important trading partner. According to South Koreans Aju Business Daily, over 97 percent of North Korean imports and exports were traded with China in 2019.

[The Beijing regime] has helped sustain Kim Jong-uns regime, and has opposed harsh international sanctions on North Korea in the hope of avoiding regime collapse and a refugee influx across their 870-mile border, the U.S. think-tank Council on Foreign Relations said in June 2019.
Health workers wait to test people for the Covid-19 on a street next to a residential area in the Jing'an district of Shanghai on July 5, 2022. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

Chinas Q2 GDP Slows to 0.4 Percent as Lockdown Bites

The economic growth in China slowed sharply in the second quarter, underscoring the price of the regimes zero-COVID policy and challenging Beijings whole-year target.

Gross domestic product (GDP) grew 0.4 percent from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on July 15. The official figures marked the worst performance since the country began recording data in 1992, excluding a 6.9 percent contraction in the first quarter of 2020, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On a quarterly basis, Chinas economy contracted 2.6 percent from the January to March quarter.

The downward pressure on the economy has increased significantly since the second quarter, Fu Linghui, the spokesperson of NBS, told reporters at Fridays press conference. Fu blamed the slump on the risk of stagflation in the world economy, tightening monetary policies of major economies, and domestic COVID-19 outbreaks.

During the second quarter, Chinese cities, from the prosperous east coast to border towns in the west, had been through partial or full lockdown under the regimes zero-COVID policy. The largest city-wide closure was in Shanghai, with 25 million being sealed in their homes for two months. The shutdown of Shanghai, the countrys wealthiest city and home to the worlds biggest port, halted factory production, ravaged global supply chains, and even disrupted health care services in the United States.

The strict COVID-19 curbs have taken a toll on the economy. Output in Shanghai shrank 13.7 percent year-on-year in the second quarter, official data show. Beijing saw a contraction of 2.9 percent in the same quarter from a year earlier, though the capital city avoided a Shanghai-style lockdown.

Challenging Full Year Target

For the first half of the year, GDP grew 2.5 percent from a year earlier. Analysts suggested that the Chinese regime is likely to miss its growth target in 2022, even though official data in June offers a sign of recovery after many COVID-19 curbs across the country were eased.

According to CNBC, the median GDP forecast among investment banks was 3.4 percent as of late June. Its far lower than Beijings target of around 5.5 percent, the lowest level in nearly three decades.

But missing the economic target poses a political test for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which is set to hold its twice-a-decade party conclave this autumn. During which, the Party leader Xi Jinping is expected to secure an unprecedented third five-year term in office.

A man walks past a closed shop during a COVID-19 lockdown in the Jingan district of Shanghai on May 30, 2022. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

Fridays data showed industrial output in June grew by 3.9 percent from a year earlier, quickening from a 0.7 percent increase in May. Fixed asset-investment, a driver Beijing is counting on to shore up growth, grew by 6.1 percent in the first six months of the year from a year earlier.

Retail sales also increased, up 3.1 percent from a year ago in June and marked the quickest growth in 4 months, after authorities reopened Shanghai on June 1.

Despite improvement in Junes economy, the CCPs unwavering commitment to its zero-COVID policy means the threat of new lockdowns and mass testing still exists. On July 11, officials placed Lanzhou, a city of 4 million in the northwestern province of Gansu, under partial lockdown, with four districts being sealed off.

As of July 11, thirty-one Chinese cities that accounted for 25.5 percent of GDP are in some form of lockdown, according to an estimate by Japanese bank Nomura, affecting over 247 million people.

Hard Grind

Chinas official economic data, which have long been under scrutiny from analysts, already show warning signals.

Chinas unemployment rate reached 5.5 percent in June. Though it eased from 5.9 percent in May, the jobless rate for youthaged 16 to 24climbed to a record of 19.3 percent in June.

In addition, a shaky recovery in Chinas capital-starved property sector is being pressured further by a growing number of homebuyers across the country halting mortgage payments until developers resume construction of pre-sold homes, further denting buyers confidence in a market downturn.

Data on Friday showed that home prices growth stalled in June on a monthly basis, while property investment contracted for a fourth straight month and sales extended their declines by another whopping 18.3 percent.

A peeling logo of the Evergrande Oasis, a housing complex developed by Evergrande Group, is seen outside the construction site where the residential buildings stand unfinished, in Luoyang, China on Sept. 16, 2021. (Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)

Song Haixia, a shopkeeper who sells food and cigarettes in the northern city of Taiyuan, said sales have fallen by up to 70 percent to as little as 300 yuan ($45) a day. She said migrant workers who were among her customers were driven away by anti-virus measures.

People are just not making money, Song, 45, a mother of two children, told The Associated Press. I am not very optimistic about future prospects.

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to the report.
People hold banners and chant slogans during a protest at the entrance to a branch of China's central bank in Zhengzhou in central China's Henan Province, on July 10, 2022. (Yang/AP Photo)

Chinese Authorities Promise Repayments After Violently Crushing Bank Deposit Protestors

After more than three months of frozen accounts, rural bank depositors in Henan Province, China, held a large protest that was crushed with physical violence. The public was outraged with the police brutality and forced the officials to promise to repay qualified customers.

On July 11, Henan provincial authorities promised they would repay some customers starting on July 15.

Multiple media reports show that protesters encountered harassment by local authorities and the possible involvement of local gangs in violently ending a large-scale protest at a branch of Chinas central bank in Zhengzhou, Henan Province on July 10.

Analysts believe the incident could initiate a chain reaction that could threaten the Partys dictatorship.

Likely an Empty Promise

The local banking regulator and the finance supervision bureau promised in a joint statement to reimburse the clients who had deposits of 50,000 yuan (about $7,440) or less. Those with larger amounts would be processed on a later date.

Chinese netizens are doubtful about the pledge being met. One wrote, Without a set date, it means no money will be returned.

Another said, Depositors with under 50,000 yuan are the true revolutionary and proletarian class, who would really fight with their lives. Any death of the officials would affect Xi Jinpings reelection. These people need to be pacified first.

People holding banners and chanting slogans stage a protest at the entrance to a branch of Chinas central bank in Zhengzhou, Henan Province on Sunday, July 10, 2022. A large crowd of angry bank depositors faced off with police, and some were reportedly injured when they were roughly taken away. This case has drawn attention because of earlier attempts to use a COVID-19 tracking app to prevent people from getting to the bank. (Yang/AP Photo)

Forceful Update of Bank App

The Epoch Times reported in May that customers of four rural banks in Henan Province found that their accounts were restricted when they tried to make regular withdrawals on April 18. The banks claimed they were doing system upgrades and maintenance, and so had suspended internet banking and mobile banking services.

Customers continued to experience irregular banking update and maintenance notices while various scales of protests were staged in Henan.

On July 7, customers reported a mandatory bank app upgrade had occurred. The newly updated app was missing the functions of withdrawal and transfer, as reported by multiple Chinese media.

After the news broke out, one Chinese netizen said, They could have just robbed you directly, but they used an app to do it.

Police or Triads?

During the violent suppression of the protest on July 10, groups of people, dressed in white and black, violently dragged and beat many of the demonstrators.

Some of the angry and helpless bank clients sought help through the official Weibo account of the U.S. Embassy, hoping to gain the attention of foreign media.

One depositor said, I am sorry that I have insulted you before. But please help Henan [protestors].

Another post read, Could you help to report the Henan police attacking depositors? The domestic media has been blocked, and we can only count on you.

It is unclear who the groups of white- and black-clothed people are, but the Chinese netizens called them the Henan triads!

Protesters are beaten and dispersed by agents dressed in black and white in front of the provincial government of Henan on May 23, 2022. (Courtesy of the interviewee)

Outsourcing the Police Force

In the book, Outsourcing Repression: Everyday State Power in Contemporary China, author Lynette Ong gave some insight into the regimes control over society by using thugs-for-hire.

According to Ong, Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto, thugs-for-hire are an expedient extension of the states formal coercive capacity.

In the interview with Made in China Journal, Ong warned that by outsourcing violence, the state has voluntarily ceded its monopoly on violence.

This usually comes with severe consequences, such as excessive and undisciplined use of violence, and de-legitimization of state authority, said Ong.

Threat to the Regime

Wen Zhao, a political commentator with The Epoch Times sister media NTD News, discussed in his program the impressive organization of the protest.

Based on the banners in the protest, the depositors made their demands and target loud and clear, he said.

One banner targeted Lou Yangsheng, the leading cadre of Henan Province, and his oppressive three-zero policy: zero petitions, zero accidents, and zero casesin Henan.

Another banner opposed Lous measures to ensure his policy of detaining village petitioners, disciplining and oppressing dissidents in detention centers, and turning depositors health codes red in Henan to restrict thier travel and gathering. Currently, the regime uses a health code as a measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Wen believes it was indirectly targeting the suppressive policy of the regime and its leader Xi Jinping.

A banner in the middle of the group demanded human rights, freedom, equality, rule of law, etc.

Among the banners in the last row, one read, Oppose the beating of depositors by the Henan provincial government in collusion with local gangs.

In between the Chinese banners, an English banner was displayed to get international attention. Against the corruption and violence of the Henan government, the banner read.

Wen believes that the depositors had let go of their fear and staged a rarely seen peaceful protest that could be just the beginning of the nightmare for the regimes dictatorship.
A Great Wall 236 submarine of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy, billed by Chinese state media as a new type of conventional submarine, participates in a naval parade to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of China's PLA Navy in the sea near Qingdao, in eastern China's Shandong province on April 23, 2019. (Mark Schiefelbein/AFP via Getty Images)

Chinese Military Allegedly Shadows Australian Warship in International Waters

The Australian defence minister has said the department of defence will not discuss a recent allegation that the Chinese military shadowed an Australian warship as it sailed through international waters on its way to perform military exercises with the Japanese navy.

This comes after the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on July 14, alleged that a defence source told the media outlet that an Australian naval vessel was shadowed by a nuclear-powered submarine, a warship, and several aircraft during this period.

Formal challenges have occurred, such as telling us that were entering Chinas territorial waters, the source allegedly told the ABC. The most intense activity occurred as HMAS Parramatta was in the East China Sea.

The ABC report alleged that the HMAS Parramatta was closely followed by a Type 052C Luyang II guided-missile destroyer and a Type 093-A Shang II nuclear-powered attack submarine when it passed through the South China Sea, the East China Sea, and then Taiwan.

Australian Defence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles declined to give more information on the incident when speaking to the ABC on Thursday.

I wont go into details around that, other than to say that what our military does, what our navy, does in the South China Sea is routine, Marles told the ABC.

Its been doing it for decades, and it is focused on asserting the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea: freedom of navigation, freedom of overflight, the global rules-based order, which Ive been describing as being so important for our national interest.

Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on Dec. 7, 2020. (Sam Mooy/Getty Images)

However, the Minister did note the government may make a public disclosure of the incident at a later time.

That may happen in the future again, but what we are focused on first and foremost is doing the activity because thats in our national interest, he said.

The Australian Department of Defense also did not confirm any details about the alleged incident to The Epoch Times.

HMAS Parramatta is currently undertaking a Regional Presence Deployment, conducting a number of Navy-to-Navy activities with Australias regional partners and participating in various maritime exercises, a departmental spokesperson said in an email to The Epoch Times.

Regional deployments form part of Australias longstanding contribution to an open, inclusive and resilient Indo-Pacific.

For operational security reasons, Defence does not publicly disclose specific details of operations.

Leaving Australia in late May, the Australian navys frigate HMAS Parramatta visited Vietnam and South Korea before sailing through the South and East China Seas to Japan.

It arrived at a port in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan, on June 28 after conducting military exercises with Japans Self-Defense Forces.

HMAS Parramatta arrived in Danang, a port city of Vietnam, on June 5 and left the country a week later for the Busan Naval Base, according to the Australian Embassy in Vietnam.

During their time in South Korea, #HMASParramatta sailed in company with @ROK_Navy ship Gyeongnam and conducted a cooperative activity  Engaging with our regional friends and counterparts is an important part of building on our existing Navy-to-Navy relationships.  #AusNavy pic.twitter.com/17BC3Lmqra  Royal Australian Navy (@Australian_Navy) July 4, 2022

The alleged incident comes after Marles revealed on June 5 that an Australian military plane was intercepted by a J-16 Chinese military jet when conducting maritime surveillance in international airspace in the South China Sea, triggering an exchange of words between Beijing and Canberra.

The jet released flares as it flew close to the side of the Australian P-8 aircraft while the P-8 was on its regular maritime surveillance flight in international airspace.

A J-16 fighter jet performing in the sky during the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Air Force Aviation Open Day in Changchun in Chinas northeastern Jilin Province, to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Air Force, China, on Oct. 17, 2019. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

The Chinese jet then accelerated and cut across the nose of the Australian plane before releasing a bundle of chaff containing small aluminium pieces, some of which were ingested into the P-8s engine.

Quite obviously, this is very dangerous, Marles said at the time.

But he noted that the incident will not deter Australia from engaging in surveillance activity that is within our rights in international law.

Other countries do the same, Marles said. We are deeply invested in the rights of freedom of navigation in the South China Sea  This is a body of water that is deeply connected to Australia because of our trade, which goes through there.

Victoria Kelly-Clark contributed to this report.
After Roe v. Wade was overturned, Rep. Kevin McCarthy declared, This great nation can now live up to its core principle that all are created equal. He paused, then added, Not born equal, created equal. Born equal. Created equal. Have it your way congressman, but the stark reality is that children are born into a world of inequality. Some are born into immense privilege. Others are born into abject poverty. Most are situated somewhere in between and learn to negotiate lifes inequities. I am not suggesting that every expectant mother needs to be a woman of means when deciding to bring a child into the world; there are other considerations such as her age and health, her support system, and her access to adequate health care. The abolishment of Roe has widened the chasm between those who have and those who have not, yet McCarthy had the audacity to emphasize the word equal.

Considering how the decision was rendered and the ramifications that will now ensue, this word is highly inappropriate. How are we equal when a woman in New York State can readily access an abortion with impunity while an impoverished woman in Mississippi finds herself without the funds necessary to travel across state lines to receive the same reproductive health care as her blue state counterpart? Where was equal representation when the Supreme Court was stacked by a president who attained power with less than half of the popular vote? Moreover, how are we equal when we have a system that permits an elite few to render a decision that disproportionately affects the poor?

There will be a day of reckoning. McCarthy and his fellow Republicans will discover that they enjoyed a pyrrhic victory. The projected elephant stampede in November will be blunted by the mobilization of various reproductive rights groups. Democrats may even hold the Senate.

Now, Sen. Mitch McConnell, the engineer of the current make-up of the Supreme Court, faces another daunting challenge: the onslaught of women voters from all walks of life who will race to the polls as if their lives depend on it. In some dire cases, their lives just might.

Theresa Desmond

Buffalo
COVID-19 Health Emergency Extended Across US

The Biden administration announced Friday it has extended the COVID-19 public health emergency for three more months.

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra officially renewed the emergency declaration. The order was extended to Oct. 13, 2022, as a result of the continued consequences of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic, Becerra said in the order.

The health emergency declarationwhich allows some Americans to get free COVID-19 testing, vaccines, and treatmentwas widely anticipated. Unnamed officials earlier this week told Bloomberg and other news outlets that the White House would extend the order.

The Public Health Emergency declaration continues to provide us with tools and authorities needed to respond, a Biden administration official told CNN this week. The [order] provides essential capabilities and flexibilities to hospitals to better care for patients, particularly if we were to see a significant increase in hospitalizations in the coming weeks.

Those reports prompted pushback, including from the Wall Street Journals editorial board, which accused the administration of wanting a perpetual emergency to maintain and expand its powers.

The Biden Administration claims the declaration provides critical regulatory flexibility. But emergency-use authorizations for vaccines and treatments are governed by a separate statute. The Health and Human Services Department could also make permanent other regulation flexibility such as Medicare coverage for telehealth services, the editorial board wrote.

Republicans have called on the Biden administration to end the emergency declaration.

Today we call on your administration to do what so many states and other countries already have: accept that COVID-19 is endemic, recognize that current heavy-handed government interventions are doing more harm than good, and immediately begin the process by which we unwind the PHE so our country can get back to normal, GOP members of Congress wrote in a letter in February.

And in March, the Senate passed a bill to terminate the national emergency by a 48 to 47 party-line vote, which Biden threatened to veto. The effort was backed by Republican lawmakers.

The robust powers this emergency declaration provides the federal government are no longer necessary and Congress must debate, and ultimately repeal them, in order to begin the process of unwinding the powers the government took hold of during the peak of the crisis, Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), who sponsored the measure, said on the Senate floor at the time.

Some health care groups such as the American Hospital Association, meanwhile, urged the administration two months ago to keep the emergency intact.

The administration previously said it would give states 60 days notice before ending the COVID-19 emergency declaration.

According to data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), COVID-19-related deaths in the United States have remained steady, hovering between 300 and 350 per day. Thats down significantly from the Omicron variant-related peak in February 2022, where the U.S. reported 3,000 daily deaths on several occasions, the data show.

COVID-19 is the illness caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.
Doctor Reported Ohio 10-Year-Olds Abortion but Listed Illegal Immigrant Rapist as Teenager

The Indiana doctor who performed an abortion on a 10-year-old Ohio girl properly reported the procedure to authorities but listed the age of the father as 17 despite the man allegedly being 27, according to documents made public on July 14.

Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an assistant professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology at Indiana University, performed the abortion at the universitys hospital on June 30, according to the documents, which were obtained by The Epoch Times.

Bernard correctly listed the pregnant mothers age as 10 but placed the fathers age as 17, the forms show.

The man arrested in Columbus for the rape of the girl is actually 27 and is in the country illegally, according to local and federal authorities.

Bernards lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. All contact information for Bernard has been removed from her university profile and the university has not responded to inquiries.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, a Republican, had said this week that he was investigating whether Bernard complied with state law governing reporting by health care providers.

Any abortions performed on a girl younger than 16 in Indiana must be reported by the abortionist to the Indiana Department of Health and child services within three days of the abortion.

Bernard complied with the requirements, according to the documents. She filed the terminated pregnancy report on July 2.

Its unclear whether Bernard reported the suspected abuse with the Indiana Department of Child Services. The agency declined to comment and has not filled a public records request.

As we stated, we are gathering evidence from multiple sources and agencies related to these allegations. Our legal review of it remains open, Rokita told The Epoch Times in an email.

Followed All Relevant Policies

Kathleen DeLaney, a lawyer representing Bernard, told news outlets that the doctor took every appropriate and proper action in accordance with the law and both her medical and ethical training as a physician.

She followed all relevant policies, procedures, and regulations in this case, just as she does every day to provide the best possible care for her patients, Delaney said, adding that Bernard did not violate any laws and has not been disciplined by her employer.

Rokita had also said that Bernard has a history of failure to report. Indiana Right to Life, a pro-life group, in 2018 filed complaints against Bernard and other doctors who perform abortions for alleged failure to report. Its unclear if any action was taken. The attorney generals office declined to say whether it investigated the complaints.

Dr. Caitlin Bernard. (Indiana University School of Medicine)

Bernard first spoke about performing the abortion on the 10-year-old to the Indianapolis Star, which included it in a July 1 story about patients from other states needing to go to Indiana to get an abortion.

Ohio law prohibits abortions beyond six weeks of pregnancy but contains an exception for abortions to prevent a serious risk of the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, a Republican, has said the case would fit within the exception.

The girls mother reported the rape to child services in Franklin County, which alerted the Columbus Police Department, a police detective said during the arraignment for Gerson Fuentes, the man accused of raping the girl.

Fuentes is an illegal immigrant, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official told The Epoch Times. He is reportedly from Guatemala.

There are questions about the mans identity, the police detective said, with no indication Fuentes is in the country legally.

Police say the girl identified Fuentes as the man who impregnated her and that Fuentes confessed.

Fuentes faces life in prison if convicted.

A woman who described herself as the girls mother told Telemundo that the girl is well and everything they are saying against [Fuentes] is a lie.
Young adults should not drink at all, as even limited alcohol consumption poses a risk, according to a new global study.

An analysis of estimated alcohol use in 204 countries in 2020 by the Global Burden of Disease, published in The Lancet, suggests that for young adults aged 15 to 39, drinking alcohol gave no health benefits.

For people aged 40 and over, the authors found that consuming a small amount of alcohol may decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease.

However, any level of alcohol consumption also increased risks for various cancers, intentional and unintentional injuries, and infectious diseases.

Overall health risks from drinking differs from person to person depending on age and geographical location.

Based on these findings, the researchers believe that global guidelines for alcohol consumption would be more effective if they emphasised age instead of sex.

Our research suggests that current alcohol use guidelines are too high for young individuals, Dana Bryzaka, a researcher at the University of Washingtons Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), said.

Even guidelines that suggest that individuals on average drink one drink or less per day, these guidelines are too high for young people.

In every region, young males were the largest segment of the population drinking unsafe levels of alcohol, with 60 percent of alcohol-related injuries occurring among this group.

While it may not be realistic to think young adults will abstain from drinking, we do think its important to communicate the latest evidence so that everyone can make informed decisions about their health, Professor of Health Metrics Sciences Emmanuela Gakidou said.

Alcohol is an alluring solution to so many of lifes problems. It numbs our minds and drowns our hearts but its momentary relief comes with consequences. (gresei/Shutterstock)

Young males in Australasia, Western Europe, and Central Europe were particularly noted to consume harmful amounts of alcohol.

The authors acknowledged the limitations of the study as it failed to take into account patterns of drinking and was based on self-reported levels of consumption.

Alcohol Impacts on the Brain

Another large-scale study found growing evidence that drinking negatively impacts a persons cognitive function.

Published in PLOS Medicine, researchers from the Oxford Population Health set to investigate whether moderate drinking increased iron accumulation within the brain. Very heavy alcohol consumption has already been associated with the condition.

Lead researcher Anya Topiwala said the study represented the largest investigation of moderate drinking and brain iron accumulation to date.

Our results indicate that greater brain iron levels could be a potential mechanism for alcohol-related cognitive decline, she said.

People who consumed more than 56g (2 oz) of pure alcohol weekly were found to have higher brain iron.

In Australia, one standard drink contains 10 grams of pure alcohol.

People who never drank alcohol comprised 2.7 percent of participants and appeared to have the lowest levels of iron in the brain.

This is in keeping with our earlier work indicating there may be no safe level of alcohol consumption for brain health, the study said.

Those with higher level of iron in the brain were slower at completing problem-solving tasks and had slower reaction speed. However, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear.
Dutch farmers are protesting against what they see as harsh measures to cut down nitrogen emissions. (PMVfoto/Shutterstock)

Dutch Nitrogen Scientist Questions Basis of Government Climate Mandates

'We now treat farmers as polluters ... which is a very strange perspective'

Jaap Hanekamp is skeptical of the received wisdom in science. He wont stop asking a simple question: But is this true?

When it comes to the Dutch governments calculations of ammonia and nitrogen oxide depositionthe basis of climate mandates that would slash livestock numbers and put many farmers out of workHanekamp is especially critical of the science. He thinks it relies on vague definitions, excessive deference to expert judgment, and a narrow focus on costs rather than both costs and benefits.

We now treat farmers as polluters, end of story, which is a very strange perspective, he said.

Hanekamp, an associate professor of chemistry at University College Roosevelt in the Netherlands, made the comments in an interview with Roman Balmakov, host of EpochTVs Facts Matter.

A 2019 Dutch court decision that hindered the construction of livestock facilities triggered a round of protests by farmers. A Science article on the protests described some of the harms attributed to nitrogen emissions.

In 118 of 162 Dutch nature reserves, nitrogen deposits now exceed ecological risk thresholds by an average of 50 percent.

In dunes, bogs, and heathlands, home to species adapted to a lack of nitrogen, plant diversity has decreased as nitrogen-loving grasses, shrubs, and trees move in.

Hanekamp said, Nitrogen chemicals are nutrientsyou need them for growing plants.

He believes that the government has focused on nitrogen almost to the exclusion of other factors that affect nature, such as the location of groundwater relative to the surface.

Hanekamp also questioned whether the ecosystem shifts prompted by greater nitrogen deposition can be properly defined as damage.

Is a change in biodiversity bad in itself, or is it just change? he asked.

He pointed out that the Netherlands is far from pristine wilderness. Much of the land is artificial, reclaimed from the sea over recent centuries because of the ingenuity of man.

Hanekamp has scrutinized a term used in government ecological research: nitrogen critical load.

Below its critical load, a substance isnt thought to pose a significant environmental threat.

In a recent paper, Hanekamp and co-author William Briggs described some problems with the evidence used to define nitrogen critical loads in the Netherlands.

They dont believe the definitions of nitrogen critical loads are sufficiently precise. They also think there havent been enough large-scale, long-term studies on nitrogen deposition.

Hanekamp stressed that models can be usefultaking 100,000 measurements across the country wouldnt exactly be easy or cheap. Yet modeling uncertainty makes it challenging to translate activity on a particular farm to exact patterns of nitrogen flow.

That didnt stop the Dutch nitrogen minister from unveiling detailed, area-specific nitrogen reduction targets in June. The release was the impetus for the latest round of protests by farmers.

One dairy farmer interviewed by The Epoch Times would have to slash his livestock numbers by 95 percentso much that he expects hell need to shut down.

We have created the illusion of certainty with respect to emission and deposition. Thats definitely a mirage of policymaking, Hanekamp said. The problem is that the Dutch government decided that these critical loads are definitive with respect to the quality of the habitats we have. And thats a very strange approach to this issue.

He worries that a comprehensive, societal risk-benefit analysis hasnt occurred. He thinks the ultimate outcome of the governments climate proposals remains deeply uncertain.

If we would implement these and we would kick out, say, one-third of the farmers, we still dont know what the result would be related to these critical loads, which doesnt make any sense, Hanekamp said. Yeah, we [would] know that one-third of the farmers [are] gone, and that basically, were reducing production and income as a country, but the return of investment in the focused nature? We have no idea.
Similac and Enfamil products on largely empty shelves in the baby formula section of a Target store in San Diego on May 25, 2022. (Bing Guan/Reuters)

Enfamil Maker Reckitt Flies Baby Formula to US From Singapore

LONDONEnfamil maker Reckitt on Wednesday afternoon flew 65 tonnes of baby formula to Chicago from its plant in Singapore, aiming to end a months-long shortage in the United States by late summer, a senior executive said.

Similac maker Abbott Laboratories in February recalled dozens of types of baby formula, taking the countrys biggest industry player off the market and creating one of the biggest U.S. food shortages in recent American history.

The amount Reckitt imported on Wednesday is equivalent to 2 million 8-oz servings and is expected to hit supermarket and drug store shelves in early August.

We can play a significant role in putting an end to this by late summer, Robert Cleveland, senior vice president, North America, and Europe Nutrition at Reckitt, told Reuters in an interview. Thats the timeframe we think were on right now.

Abbott will eventually ramp back up again and of course there have been other options the government has pursued as well.

In July, Reckitt will bring into the country about 192 metric tons of baby formula, equal to more than 5.9 million 8-oz servings, the company said.

Reckitt also has the Food & Drug Administrations (FDA) approval to import the equivalent of 66 million servings between now and November, it added.

Wednesdays shipment of infant formula base powder will arrive from Reckitts Tuas, Singapore, facility and will be transported to the companys Wanamingo facility in Minnesota for finishing and packaging that meet FDA standards. The product goes through a number of quality tests that can take anywhere from 510 days before it can be sent to stores.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, speaks in Washington on June 16, 2022. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

EXCLUSIVE: Anti-Title 42 Messages Popular With CDC Director Before She Terminated Policy, Emails Show

Messages urging the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to end Title 42 were shared by the agencys director with colleagues in the weeks leading up to her decision to terminate the policy, emails obtained by The Epoch Times show.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director, shared three different messages with other top officials at the agency that urged her to end Title 42, a public health order that enables quick expulsion of illegal immigrants because of concerns they have COVID-19 amid the pandemic.

The calls from the American Bar Association and two other groups claimed that Title 42 was illegally preventing asylum seekers from seeking protection and that the order violated both national and international law.

Walensky announced on April 1 that she was ending the policy, claiming that it was unnecessary due to the increasing number of people who have received COVID-19 vaccines and the availability of treatments for the disease.

Based on the public health landscape, the current status of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the procedures in place for the processing of covered noncitizens, taking into account the inherent risks of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in congregate settings, CDC has determined that a suspension of the right to introduce such covered noncitizens is no longer necessary to protect U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, lawful permanent residents, personnel and noncitizens at the ports of entry (POE) and U.S. Border Patrol stations, and destination communities in the United States, Walensky, an appointee, of President Joe Biden, said at the time.

SARS-CoV-2, also known as the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, causes COVID-19.

A federal judge later stopped the administration from ending Title 42.

Only Opposition

In the weeks before announcing the decision, Walensky did not send any calls to keep Title 42 in place to colleagues, the emails show.

On March 19, Walensky forwarded a report by a nonprofit called Human Rights First that found nearly 9,900 reports of violent attacks against people who were in Mexico because of expulsions from Title 42. She sent the report to Sherri Berger, the CDCs chief of staff.

On March 25, Walensky forwarded a perspective published in the New England Journal of Medicine by four doctors who claimed that the government was misusing public health as a pretext to end asylum.

To discuss Walensky wrote to Berger.

On March 30, Walensky forwarded the American Bar Association letter (pdf), which urged the ending of Title 42 due to its purportedly violating federal and international law, to Berger and Tiffany Brown, the CDCs deputy chief of staff.

The emails were obtained by a Freedom of Information Act request. The search triggered by the request spanned from March 18 to April 1.

Mark Morgan, the commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) during the Trump administration, said he was not surprised by the apparent imbalance of views considered by the Biden administration.

Morgan, now a visiting fellow in the Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation, told The Epoch Times that the current administration has only been considering the views of a very select few individuals who were clearly aligned ideology-wise with respect to what they wanted the outcome to be.

All my sources have said since day one, the administration has really dismissed the career folks that have been doing this their entire adult lives, he added.

The CDC did not respond to a request for comment.

Pressure

Walensky and other officials, including her boss, Health Secretary Xavier Becerra, faced increasing pressure to terminate Title 42.

Declared in March 2020 by then-CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield, the order was imposed because the existence of a communicable disease in a foreign country or place creates a serious danger of the introduction of such disease into the United States and the danger is so increased by the introduction of persons from the foreign country or place that a temporary suspension of such introduction is necessary to protect the public health.

The Public Health Service Act, or Title 42, enables the CDC director to impose such restrictions.

The order enabled immigration officers to quickly expel illegal immigrants from the United States.

In the following months, illegal immigration plunged, in part because many illegal aliens were rapidly removed. Expulsions under Title 41 were much more common than arrests under Title 8, or federal law governing immigration enforcement, CBP statistics show.

Once Biden took office, illegal immigration exploded to unprecedented numberseven with Title 42 in place. But more and more outside groups, like the American Bar Association, urged the administration to end Title 42, arguing it wasnt effective at preventing the introduction of COVID-19, that it was inconsistently applied, and that it illegally prevented immigrants from asking for asylum.

Both domestic and international law compel the U.S. to protect persons fleeing persecution or torture. The current Title 42 policy prevents the United States from meeting its obligations while affording no meaningful public health benefits, Reginald Turner, president of the association, wrote to Walensky, adding that the government should rescind the application of Title 42 and resume screening all asylum seekers at the border.

On the other hand, other outside groups, virtually all Republicans, and a number of Democrats called for keeping the order in place.

Given the impacts that changes to Title 42 could have on border communities, border security, and migrants, we urge your Administration not to make any changes to Title 42 implementation until you are completely ready to execute and coordinate a comprehensive plan that ensures a secure, orderly, and humane process at the border, Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Krysten Sinema (D-Ariz.) wrote to Biden on March 24.

After the order was terminated, critics noted that the Biden administration has maintained the Trump-era emergency declaration over COVID-19, even as metrics like case numbers have dropped, and other pandemic-era restrictions.

The Biden administrations continued efforts to roll back Title 42, one of our last defenses against becoming an open-border countryon the grounds that the pandemic is overwhile claiming the pandemic is ongoing are hypocritical at best. Even as the Biden administration has declared the pandemic over at the border, many federal restrictions remain in place for healthcare workers, our military, legal travelers, and even critical H-2A visa holders, which has created challenges for our farmers who are already hurting for labor, Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), a member of the House Northern Border Caucus, told The Epoch Times via email.

The fact that the CDC and White House are set on ending Title 42 shows the politicization of the CDC and Bidens commitment to open border policies that put American communities at risk. Americans want a secure border, and it is time for the Biden Administration to listen to the American People, Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), ranking member of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee, added.

Border Patrol agents apprehend a large group of illegal immigrants near Eagle Pass, Texas, on May 20, 2022. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

White House Edits

The CDC did not act alone in ending Title 42, the newly published emails show.

The Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs suggested edits to the justification for terminating the order, and at least some of the proposals were accepted.

The process started on or before March 24, a week before the document was unveiled to the public, according to the emails.

Thanks for debriefing with us earlier! Attached is the latest draft. It has not been through CDC clearance but we understand you would like to preview this version with a few folks. We plan to start CDC clearance in the morning, Julia Charles, a CDC official, wrote to Paul Rodriguez, a lawyer with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), on March 24.

Rodriguez later shared fresh legal comments from the Department of Homeland Security and proposed edits to the documents executive summary from the White House. The flurry of emails also showed that multiple calls were held on the matter, including a call involving Charles and the Department of Justice.

The proposed edits were redacted.

The document was signed by Walensky and there was no indication given inside that anybody else worked on it.

Then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters in April that terminating the order was coordinated with the Secretary of Homeland Security and through an interagency process, and theres been planning in the works for months for this possibility that the CDCto take this action, she said.

Title 42 was slated to end on May 23, but U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays ordered the administration to keep it in place, first entering a temporary restraining order and then a preliminary injunction after the states of Arizona, Louisiana, and Missouri sued.

The CDC did not explain why it ignored the Administrative Procedure Act and issued the termination order without notifying the public and soliciting public comment, Summerhays, a Trump appointee, ruled.

Given the impact of the Termination Order on the Plaintiff States and their showing that the CDC did not comply with the [act], the Court concludes that the public interest would be served by a preliminary injunction preventing the termination of the CDCs Title 42 Orders, he said.
Premiers mingle during a photo op while at the summer meeting of the Canada's Premiers at the Fairmont Empress in Victoria, on July 11, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Chad Hipolito)

Federal Government Sends $2B in Health Transfers, Other Funding to Provinces

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says the provinces, territories and municipalities have now received more than $2.85 billion promised months ago for health care, transit systems and classroom ventilation.

Most of it is a $2-billion health transfer top-up the federal government pledged for provincial and territorial governments in March mainly to help relieve surgical backlogs.

Freeland says the funds can now be transferred because the budget bill that contained them passed June 23.

But the transfer also comes days after premiers were heavily critical of the federal Liberals for not shouldering enough of the weight of health-care costs.

Thursdays transfer fulfils a Liberal election promise to give provinces and territories another $100 million to improve air quality in classrooms.

It also includes the $750-million pledged in February for municipal governments to manage plunging public transit revenues as a result of the pandemic.

The transit funding requires provinces and territories to provide matching dollars, and is also contingent on them building more homes to address rising housing costs.

The one-time top-up to health funding was promised by Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos March 25, and he and Freeland co-sponsored a bill to enable that spending the same day.

But that bill was never debated and instead the Liberals included the funding in their budget bill, which was introduced a month later.

Duclos said in March the money was to help provinces expedite surgeries. Wait lists for most surgical procedures ballooned during COVID-19, as hospitals delayed non-urgent surgeries because of an influx of COVID-19 patients.

Duclos said earlier this week letters were being signed with each province to finalize the payments as the premiers met in British Columbia.

The premiers have said these one-time top-ups are not enough to repair the damage the pandemic has caused to their health-care systems, and they want the federal government to increase its share of health funding on a permanent basis.

By Sarah Ritchie
Policies that restrict the use of chemical fertilizers would likely lead to crop failures and could cause a dust bowl like that seen during the Great Depression. This has become a growing concern as countries including Canada and New Zealand look to adopt such policies.

According to Kelly Walker, a former USDA soil scientist, soil needs a transition process that can take years if farmers move from chemical to organic fertilizers. If this process is done too quickly, however, the soil isnt able to adjust, and crops will lack key nutrients for their growth.

We speak with Walker about this issue, as well as other risks faced with the extreme environmental policies targeting the worlds farms.

Subscribe to the new Crossroads newsletter and stay up-to-date!

* Click the Save button below the video to access it later on My List.

Follow Crossroads on social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Crossroads.Josh

Twitter: https://twitter.com/crossroads_josh

Rumble: https://rumble.com/user/Crossroads_JoshuaPhilipp

Truth Social: https://truthsocial.com/@crossroads_josh

Gettr: https://www.gettr.com/user/crossroads_josh

Gab: https://gab.com/Crossroads_Josh

Telegram: https://t.me/Crossroads_josh
Khiara Bridges, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley speaks during a hearing in Washington on July 12, 2022. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

For Americas Progressive Elites, Science Is Violence

Commentary

Americas progressive elites have transitioned from Follow the Science to Science Is Violence.

Their senior-most judges will not define what a woman is, nor will their celebrated scholars acknowledge that only a woman can give birth. In fact, to even assert the latter, in our betters view, is to render one a dangerous societal menace.

Thats one of the takeaways from the recent dumbfounding exchange between Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and University of CaliforniaBerkeley law professor Khiara Bridges during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the legal consequences of the Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and returned the question of abortion to the states.

The back-and-forth, provoked in part by Bridgess unwillingness under earlier questioning to refer to those who are pregnant as women, went as follows:

Hawley: Professor Bridges  youve referred to people with the capacity for pregnancy. Would that be women?

Bridges: Many women, cis-women have the capacity for pregnancy. Many cis-women do not have the capacity for pregnancy. There are also trans men who are capable of pregnancy, as well as non-binary people who are capable of pregnancy.

Hawley: So this [abortion] isnt really a womens rights issue 

Bridges: We can recognize that this impacts women while also recognizing that it impacts other groups. Those things are not mutually exclusive, Senator Hawley.

Hawley: Your view is, is that the core of this right, then, is about what?

Bridges: I want to recognize that your line of questioning is transphobic and it opens up trans people to violence by not recognizing them.

Hawley: Wow, youre saying that Im opening up people to violence by asking whether or not women are the folks who can have pregnancies?

Bridges: I want to note that one out of five transgender persons have attempted suicide

Hawley: Because of my line of questioning? So we cant talk about it?

Bridges: Because denying that trans people exist, and pretending not to know that they exist

Hawley: Im denying that trans people exist by asking you if youre talking about women having pregnancies?

Bridges: [After repeatedly interrupting Hawleys question with Are you?] Do you believe that men can get pregnant?

Hawley: No, I dont think men can get pregnant.

Bridges: So you are denying that trans people exist.

The exchange reflected a level of condescension, arrogance, and bad faith on the part of Bridgesan apparent radical left academic and activist who has spent much of her career (pdf) teaching on critical race theory and reproductive justicethat was nearly as striking as its substance.

What Bridges illustrated is that progressivism requires one to ignore science, our basic humanity, and what we know to be true, and subordinate it all to a secular regressive anti-faith, of which radical gender ideology has become a sacred and integral part.

Should one dare to call out the insanity of being unwilling to recognize that women and solely women can bear children, such dissent must be treated as hateful, and the dissenters cast as dangerous. To recognize reality must not be permitted. Submit or you are a transphobe with blood on your hands, the professor tells us.

This tactic is both cheap and low, but its brazen usage here constituted something of a public service. It made clear that devotees of radical gender ideology cant debate openly and honestly. When challenged, they drip with contempt, dodge, and resort to ad hominem. This is the best that one can expect from the best they have: academics with the most sterling of credentials, hand-picked by U.S. senators to best represent their position.

The notion that words with which the left disagreesor truths that if broadly acknowledged would hamper their agenda and undermine their power and privilegeconstitute violence, and that therefore those articulating them must be chastised if not punished using force of law or worse, of course arises from the academy. And were all living on the campus now.

This can be seen in the whole-of-ruling class War on Wrongthink under which were currently suffering, whereby those dissenting from the prevailing orthodoxy over draconian coronavirus policies, critical race theory indoctrination in schools, and on matters of election integrity, immigration, or climate are targeted for censorship and silencing if not treated as domestic terror threats by the worlds most powerful national security and intelligence apparatus.

As conditions in America get worse, and the ruling classs worldview grows ever more radical, expect the censorship to get worse.

What else can you do when the most ardent adherents of your political movement reject biological sex, promote abortion up to the point of birth (infanticide), celebrate drag queen story hour, indoctrinate kids into believing America is a bastion of racist evil, support the freeing of violent criminals while disarming the law-abiding and throwing the book at them should they seek to defend themselves, throw wide open our borders, and cripple the energy industry on which modern life and prosperity reliesand all to predictable, disastrous effect?

For normal people seeking a normal society, this is indefensible. Silencing and punishing the ever-growing chorus of critics is the only option.

This is precisely why its incumbent upon those who reject such a worldview to speak ever more openly, honestly, and boldly. To remain silent in the face of such crybullies is to be complicit in their totalitarian efforttotalitarian in the sense of its expansive aspiration to control every aspect of our society, starting with our speech, and in the means used to achieve it.

For progressives, its clear that every norm and civilizational pillar must be transgressed.

Their fragility is best demonstrated in their every effort to stop you from calling them out on it.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Louisiana state Sen. Karen Carter Peterson speaks onstage at the 2016 ESSENCE Festival Presented By Coca-Cola at Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans on July 1, 2016. (Paras Griffin/Getty Images for 2016 Essence Festival)

Former Louisiana State Senator Charged With Wire Fraud

She allegedly used campaign funds to fund her gambling addiction

Former Louisiana state Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, a Democrat, was charged with one count of wire fraud by federal prosecutors on July 14 for her alleged role in a scheme involving using campaign funds to fund her gambling addiction.

Peterson served as Louisiana state Senator for the 5th District from 2010 until 2022 and as the Chair of State Political Party A between 2012 and 2020.

According to prosecutors, Peterson formed and maintained the Karen Carter Peterson Campaign Fund (KCPCF) to solicit and raise campaign funds from individual and corporate donors under the pretext that those funds would be used to help in her reelection for state senator.

However, prosecutors said that Peterson instead diverted, and caused her friends and associates to divert, campaign funds from the KCPCF to the lawmakers own personal use.

These activities took place over nearly seven years, according to prosecutors, and the scheme saw Peterson write out checks on the KCPCF account to her friends and associates before directing them to cash the checks and return most or all of the money back to her, prosecutors said.

Peterson then used the money for personal expenses unrelated to her campaign, including to pay gambling-related expenses, prosecutors said.

She is also accused of filing false or misleading campaign finance reports that mischaracterized expenses as legitimate campaign-related purchases when they were instead unrelated to the campaign and for her personal use.

The former Louisiana state Senator told Louisiana television station WWL-TV in March that she had a gambling addiction.

Ive Been Suffering

Ive been suffering with this disease for over 25 years and there have been peaks and valleys in the recovery phase, Peterson said. There is a lot of guilt and shame and embarrassment associated with it.

Peterson resigned from the Louisiana Legislature in early April, citing her battles with depression and gambling addiction as reasons for the move.

The former Senator was charged Thursday, and if found guilty will face a maximum of 20 years behind bars, a fine of up to $250,000, and up to three years of supervised release.

In a statement on social media on July 14, Peterson apologized for her actions.

Today marks an important step in my life-long recovery as I continue to address my gambling addiction. I sincerely apologize for the impact from my compulsive behavior resulting from this addiction.

I have made full repayment of funds used as a result of my addiction and I will continue to make amends, she continued. Staying true to the steps of my ongoing recovery, I have been forthright, honest, and fully cooperative with the US Attorneys Office in their investigation.

The Louisiana Democratic Party also released a statement following the charges against Peterson, noting that she has signed a plea deal and that they are confident that any wrongdoings will be brought to justice.

Since September of 2020, we have worked tirelessly to increase transparency and transform operations to turn this into an organization that will stand the test of time, the statement read. Restitution has been made on behalf of Senator Peterson, which allows us to close that chapter of the Louisiana Democratic Party as we work to restore public trust and move into a more promising future. We are proud of the progress we have made so far, and we believe we are well on our way to becoming the Democratic Party that Louisiana deserves.
Why arent our federal, state and local officials doing more to prevent mass shootings and gun violence in general? Maybe they dont know how big the problem is. Maybe their constituents havent let them know how they feel.

The Gun Violence Archive (GVA), which collects information about fatalities and injuries linked to incidents involving discharged firearms, categorizes incidents in which four or more people, excluding the shooter, are killed or wounded by gunshot as mass shootings. The GVA counted the Highland Park, Ill., shootings on Independence Day as the 309th mass shooting this year, adding that there were at least another 11 mass shootings during the holiday weekend. CBS News reported that more than 220 people were shot and killed in gun violence over the holiday weekend. The Highland Park incident was widely reported. What about the other 11 or more incidents? Arent the victims of those incidents as worthy as those of Highland Park?

Maybe media outlets ought to report on every mass shooting incident in the country. (They can come up with their own definition of a mass shooting if they dont like GVAs categorization.) If enough outlets did so it would be hard for our officials to feign ignorance of the scope of the problem. And maybe more of us would be shocked enough, sorrowful enough or angry enough to demand that something be done now.

Paul Shemkovitz

West Seneca
TAMPAWhen captain Dan Peretz found out his best friend, Art Nicholson, had been diagnosed with brain cancer in 2011, the two did what they had always done. They went out for a sail.

They took Peretzs 41-foot yacht, the Phoenix. It was the same boat Peretz and Nicholson had sailed on for three decades, the boat where Nicholson and his wife, Nina, had exchanged their vows in 1977 and spent their honeymoon.

Nicholson used to run seven miles on the beach every morning and race Olympic-class catamarans. Now his speech slurred, and he needed Nina and Peretz to prop him up as he walked onto the boat.

As they sailed into Boca Ciega Bay, Peretz placed his friends hands on the steering wheel, and a big smile spread across Nicholsons face.

It was like, all of a sudden, he was his old self, Nina said.

He died a couple months later at age 63. But in 2012, after seeing how the sail put him at ease, Peretz, Nina and a couple other friends founded Soothe Our Souls, a nonprofit that provides free sailboat rides for seriously health challenged people and their caretakers.

Over the past decade, the group has organized more than 100 trips for thousands of guests, adopting an expansive definition of seriously health challenged. Theyve hosted survivors of domestic abuse, people who lost loved ones and those trying to overcome drug or alcohol addiction  anyone who might benefit from a morning on the water.

You can see the stress melting away, a lot more smiles, Peretz said. You dont completely forget, but you put it away to the side, what the persons dealing with.

Captain Dan Peretz. (Angelica Edwards/Tampa Bay Times/TNS)

Peretz, who owns Dolphin Landings Charter Boat Center in St. Pete Beach, provides the sailboats for the nonprofit. On the first Sunday of every month, he and a group of volunteers and guests launch into Boca Ciega Bay for a two-hour trip that often includes sessions with volunteer wellness professionals on meditation, yoga, reflexology or nutrition.

For the 72-year-old captain, every ride carries memories of his old sailing partner.

Its hard not to think of him, and its not in a bad way or a sad way, Peretz said. Sometimes I think to myself, Look at what you created, Art.

Born in Tampa, Peretz grew up in Riverview and attended the University of South Florida for electrical engineering. He dropped out with one semester left and learned to sail by reading books.

His first sailboat was small, a 26-footer. In the 1970s, he and his wife started working at a coffeeshop in a St. Pete Beach hotel and would go sailing after work.

When Peretz realized that people would pay for boat rides, he started doing sailing charters full time and opened Dolphin Landing in 1986.

Peretz acquired the Phoenix in 1976, around the time he met Nicholson, who would often be sailing near Sunset Beach in an uber-fast Tornado catamaran. As a professional woodworker, Nicholson helped refurbish Peretzs boats. The two started sailing together, venturing as far out as the Bahamas. They became inseparable  closer than brothers. They even looked alike, with the same bushy mustaches and beards.

Then one morning in 2011, Nicholson passed out during a run and woke up lying on the sand.

Soon after, Nina noticed him dragging his foot when he walked. A doctor said he had a glioblastoma, a malignant brain tumor. Nicholson had about four months left to live.

Part of you just doesnt believe that can happen to somebody that close to you or somebody thats as healthy as he was, Peretz said.

As Nicholsons symptoms worsened, he became zombie-like, Nina said. But on the water with his friends, he returned to his old self, grinning, carefree, at home in the wind and waves.

After he died, Nina and Peretz organized a sailboat ride for a friend with terminal pancreatic cancer and noticed the calming effect it had  on her and on her friends, family and caretakers.

Thats when Sooth Our Souls was born.

Peretzs charter business, with its three sailboats, provided a natural base for the organization, which rapidly expanded as Nicholsons friends spread the word.

People sign up by filling out a form on the Soothe Our Souls website or over the phone. Then a staff member from Dolphin Landings Charter Boat Center will ask about the applicants background and explain the mobility requirements to ensure guests can board a boat.

If the weathers nice, one trip might draw a dozen volunteers and 30 guests ranging from children to retirees, said Beth Cole, a volunteer who teaches yoga for Soothe Our Souls.

People onboard the Magic, the largest sailboat in the Soothe Our Souls fleet, do yoga on Sunday, July 3, 2022. (Angelica Edwards/Tampa Bay Times/TNS)

Peretz and his team organize yearly fundraisers. The organization also generates money through a facility in Treasure Island where people can rent out space for birthday parties or other events. Once a month, the facility hosts wellness classes that are donation-based, said Kerry Kopasek, marketing director for Soothe Our Souls and the groups only paid staffer.

Peretz had to put the rides on hold during the pandemic, but they have started to bounce back in recent months.

On a Sunday morning in early July, Peretz hopped around the 51-foot Magic, hoisting sails and guiding the boat into the bay. Nine guests and a handful of volunteers crouched in their seats, bathed in wind and sunlight. Behind the Magic, the Phoenix and the Fantasea rolled over the waves with another dozen guests.

Cole led the group in a breathing exercise, and everyone closed their eyes. They heard waves lapping against the hull and the occasional caw of a seagull.

One guest, 53-year-old Maureen Boland, has been a Soothe Our Souls regular since 2015. Her husband is a volunteer. For Boland, who developed viral meningoencephalitis during college and has difficulty walking and speaking, sailing is about freedom.

I get a break from the (wheel)chair, she said. Sometimes you can just sit and just be quiet. Its just a way to reset yourself.

Another guest, Barbara Ramos, 64, chatted with some of the volunteers at the bow. Retired from law enforcement, she lives alone in St. Pete Beach and has been craving company. Sailing seemed like a perfect way to get out of the house.

Im tired of being alone, she said. I talk to my dog, and shes sick of me.

Ramos, Boland and the other guests took turns at the helm, gripping the large metal wheel to guide the Magic. Peretz stood next to them, his blue visor tucked over a shock of silver hair, at times yelling out if they needed to correct course.

But mostly he watched. He saw them smile and thought of his friend Art.

2022 Tampa Bay Times. Visit at tampabay.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom visited the White House on Wednesday while President Joe Biden arrived in Israel.

Newsom is seen by some to be a possible candidate to replace Biden in the 2024 presidential election. A poll released Monday found that 64 percent of Democratic voters would prefer a new candidate in 2024, with many listing Bidens age, 79, as their reason for wanting someone else.



* Click the Save button below the video to access it later on My List.

Follow EpochTV on social media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/EpochTVus

Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/EpochTV

Truth Social: https://truthsocial.com/@EpochTV

Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/epochtv

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EpochTVus

Gab: https://gab.com/EpochTV

Telegram: https://t.me/EpochTV
Georgia District Allow Some Non-Police Officers to Carry Guns on Campus

A large school district in Georgia will allow some employees who are not certified police officers to carry guns on campus, but the policy does not include teachers and staff whose primary responsibility is supervising classrooms.

During a school board meeting on Thursday, members of the Cobb County Board of Education voted 42 to approve the policy, which is intended to hire more people and improve security in Georgias second-largest school district.

Schools in the state have been able to arm teachers and other personnel under a state law passed in 2014. After a 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, a handful of Georgias 180 districts, all with much lower enrollments, had approved policies to arm non-officers on campus.

Cobb County Superintendent Chris Ragsdale told board members that the 106,000-student Cobb school district, among the nations 25 largest, is struggling to fill vacancies on its police force because the competition to hire officers is intense.

If the board gave me a blank check and said go hire a school resource officer for every school in Cobb County, I could not do that, Ragsdale said, explaining that the district only has 67 officers currently for its 114 schools.

Ragsdale is a supporter of hiring retired military and law enforcement officials to fill the positions, but he doesnt back the idea of arming teachers. The latest measure would have originally allowed teachers to be approved to carry weapons if they had unique qualifications, but the superintendent removed that part of the proposal.

I was not in favor of arming teachers, but I was in favor of exploring all possibilities of being able to enhance and increase the number of school resource officers that we have, Ragsdale said during the districts board meeting, FOX5 reported.

The policy says background checks, psychological evaluation, and training similar to certified school resource officers will be required for people taking on the job. Ron Storey, the school districts police chief, will have the final say on applications.

Quite simply, this policy gives us other opportunities to enhance and increase the number of school resource officers, Ragsdale said.

The measure is explicitly a response to the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in May, when a gunman opened fire at an elementary school, killing 19 students and two teachers.

Just before the vote, roughly a dozen protesters, including gun control activists, began shouting to delay the vote, prompting a board recess. When the board returned, four Republicans rejected the proposed delay and pushed through with the measure.

Jaha Howard, a Democratic board member, argued that there was no proof that the plan would work. Several others in opposition to the policy pointed to the Uvalde school shooting, during which armed and fully trained officers stood by for more than an hour as the gunman continued his rampage.

I have yet to see any data or evidence that more gun-carrying professionals means our kids or staff will be safer, Howard said, who was among protesters who tried to delay the vote.

Cobb Countys school board is split into four Republicans and three Democrats.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

From NTD News
GOP Senators Call Out NEA for Creating Enemies List That May Target Concerned Parents

A group of Republican Senators called out the president of the National Education Association (NEA), the largest teachers union in the United States, this week over alleged plans to spend thousands of dollars to create a so-called enemies list.

Lawmakers James Lankford (R-Okla.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), and Steve Daines (R-Mont.) sent a letter NEA President Becky Pringle on July 13 demanding answers on the NEAs alleged plan to spend $140,000 to research opposition groups, which may include concerned parents.

According to the lawmakers, the unions list of enemies would consist of individuals who have been identified as actively working to diminish a students right to honesty in education, freedom of sexual and gender identity, and teacher autonomy.

The measure allowing the teachers union to create such a list was reportedly passed at the NEA 2022 Representative Assembly in Chicago last week, the senators said.

NEA, which has over 3 million members working in public education, approved the resolution for $140,625 and the fact sheets will be distributed to NEA state affiliates, according to Education Week.

Specifically, the NEA will research and create fact sheets on at least 25 organizations, according to a convention business item seen by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The lists will include information about the organizations funding sources, their leaders within the organizations and connections to known entities that are seeking to dismantle public education, according to the business item cited by reports, while the fact sheets to be sent out will help affiliates be armed with information.

Advancing a Social Justice Agenda

In their letter to Pringle, the Senators noted how the COVID-19 pandemic had drastically impacted learning for millions of children, and that the need to focus on children and their education was now more critical than ever.

The GOP lawmakers said they were disturbed to know that the NEA seems more concerned with advancing a social justice agenda instead of meeting the needs of children and students who are experiencing catastrophic learning challenges.

Lawmakers in their letter also noted that the so-called list, known as business item 15, cannot be viewed by the public on the NEAs official website, unlike new business items that are typically published on the website every year by the union.

The Republicans said this appeared to be an effort designed to protect the union from public scrutiny.

Accordingly, we are requesting a copy of the contents of New Business Item 15. Moreover, please identify what purposes the enemies list will serve, and describe how it will be used, lawmakers wrote.

The letter comes as a number of states across the country have opted not to renew their memberships with the National School Boards Association (NSBA) following the fallout over a letter sent to the Biden administration likening concerned parents at school board meetings to domestic terrorists.

A string of school boards have cut ties with the NSBA since 2021, including in North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Missouri, Nebraska, and Minnesota, due to its apparent political agenda.

Sowing More Division In Our Country

Suzanne Bates, senior writer and researcher at Americans for Fair Treatment, told the Daily Caller that the NEA should be focusing on supporting teachers who are still struggling with the aftermath of COVID-19 when it comes to classroom teaching.

The researcher also said that the NEA, which has opposed bans on critical race theory, and states that combating institutional and structural racism is at the forefront of its vision, is becoming inherently more political as opposed to a membership organization.

According to an Americans for Fair Treatment report, NEA gave $66 million to political organizations in the 20212022 school year, up from $51 million the year prior. NEA members typically pay $200 a year in membership fees, excluding local and state charges, which the report says can often add up to a final cost of around $1,000 a year.

Instead, they are spending their members dues on sowing more division in our country. The NEA already spends $2 on politics for every $1 they spend representing members. At some point, they either need to admit they are a political organization, not a membership organization, or they need to get back to the important work of supporting teachers.

The Epoch Times has contacted NEA for comment.
People holding mobile phones are silhouetted against a backdrop projected with the Twitter logo in this illustration picture taken in Warsaw, Poland, on Sept. 27, 2013. (Kacper Pempel/Reuters)

Judge in Twitter v. Musk Once Made Rare Ruling: Ordering a Deal to Close

The judge overseeing Twitter Inc.s $44 billion lawsuit against Elon Musk has a no-nonsense reputation as well as the distinction of being one of the few jurists who has ever ordered a reluctant buyer to close a U.S. corporate merger.

Kathaleen McCormick took over the role of chancellor or chief judge of the Court of Chancery last year, the first woman in that role. On Wednesday, she was assigned the Twitter lawsuit which seeks to force Musk to complete his deal for the social media platform, which promises to be one of the biggest legal showdowns in years.

She already has a track record of not putting up with some of the worst behavior that we see in these areas when people want to get out of deals, said Adam Badawi, a law professor who specializes in corporate governance at the University of California Berkeley. She is a serious, no-nonsense judge.

She is known as soft-spoken, approachable, and amiablebut a person who also stands her ground. She advocates respect among litigants and integrity at legal conferences.

Weve always had each others backs, weve always gone out for drinks after arguments and maintained this level of civility, she told a gathering at the University of Delaware this year.

After weeks of confrontational tweets suggesting Twitter was hiding the true number of fake accounts, Musk said on July 8 he was terminating the $54.20-per-Twitter share acquisition, worth $44 billion. On Tuesday, the social media platform sued.

McCormick on Friday scheduled the first hearing for July 19 in Wilmington, when she will consider Twitters request to expedite the case and conduct a four-day trial in September.

Shares of Twitter were up about 2 percent to $37.11 in midday trading on Friday, but still more than 30 percent below the deal price.

Judges have ordered reluctant buyers to close corporate acquisitions only a handful of times, according to legal experts and court records. One of those was McCormick.

Last year, McCormick got the attention of Wall Street dealmakers by ordering an affiliate of private equity firm Kohlberg & Co LLC to close its $550 million purchase of DecoPac Holding Inc., which makes cake decorating products.

She described her ruling as chalking up a victory for deal certainty and rejected Kohlbergs arguments that it could walk away because of a lack of financing.

The case has many parallels to the Twitter deal. Like Musk, Kohlberg said it was walking away because DecoPac violated the merger agreement. Like Musk, Kohlberg argued in part that DecoPac failed to maintain ordinary operations.

There are also differences. Musks deal is magnitudes bigger, involves a publicly traded target company in Twitter and might have implications for Tesla Inc., the electric vehicle maker that is the source of much of Musks fortune.

Tesla shares were trading up slightly on Friday at $718.04, down from around $1,000 when the Twitter deal was announced.

In other cases, she has come down on the side of shareholders when they clashed with management.

Last year, she prevented energy company The Williams Cos Inc. from adopting a so-called poison pill anti-takeover measure, saying it breached their fiduciary duty to shareholders.

Last month, she said shareholders of Carvana Co. could sue the board for a direct offering of stock to select investors when the share price was depressed during the early pandemic.

A graduate of Notre Dame Law School, McCormick started her career with the Delaware branch of the Legal Aid Society, which helps low-income people navigate the court system.

She went into private practice mainly for financial reasons, she told the Delaware Senate during her confirmation hearing, joining Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, one of the states main firms for business litigation.

She joined the Court of Chancery in 2018 as a vice chancellor and became the first woman to lead the Court of Chancery last year.
Elon Musk's Twitter profile on a smartphone placed on printed Twitter logos in this picture illustration taken on April 28, 2022. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

Hindenburg Goes Long on Twitter, Bets Against Musk

Short-seller Hindenburg Research said on Wednesday it had taken a long position in Twitter Inc. shares, sending the stock up about 8 percent, a day after the social media firm sued Elon Musk for backing out of his $44 billion deal.

On Tuesday, Twitter sued Musk for violating his $44 billion deal and asked a Delaware court to order him to complete the merger at the agreed $54.20 per Twitter share.

Musk, chief executive officer at Tesla Inc and SpaceX head, backed out of the deal on Friday, saying Twitter had violated the agreement by failing to respond to requests for information regarding fake or spam accounts on the platform.

Hindenburg did not elaborate on the threat the lawsuit poses to Musk, but legal experts have said that from the information that is public Twitter would appear to have the upper hand.

We have accumulated a significant long position in shares of Twitter. Twitters complaint poses a credible threat to Musks empire, Hindenburg said in a tweet.

Twitter was not immediately available for a comment.

The legal face-off is the latest twist in the months-long saga that began after Musk in April bought a stake in Twitter and later offered to buy the company.

Then in May, he put the buyout on hold until Twitter proved that spam bots account for less than 5 percent of its total users, even as he had gathered investors to fund a portion of his deal.

We believe Twitter does appear to have the upper hand ahead of the start of the trial, CFRA analyst Angelo Zino said, questioning Musks motives.

Twitters shares rose about 8 percent to $36.82 in mid-day trading.

Hindenburg, which earlier had a short position on Twitter, had said in May that Musks offer could get repriced lower if he walked away from the deal.

By Nivedita Balu and Medha Singh
House Democrats Pass Bill Codifying Roe v. Wade

The same bill has been passed by the House once before and failed in the Senate

On July 15, Democrats in the House of Representatives voted to advance a bill that would codify the Supreme Courts (SCOTUS) 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade into law, sending it to the Senate where it is likely to fail.

The bill, dubbed the Womens Health Protection Act (WHPA), passed the House in a 219210 vote. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), the only pro-life Democrat in the lower chamber, alone defected from his party in opposition to the bill.

In a floor speech defending the bill, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said: As extreme Republicans continue their assault on reproductive rights, our Ensuring Womens Right to Reproductive Freedom Act will ensure that the fundamental right to travel and obtain needed health care remains in the hands of the American people. And our Womens Health Protection Act will once again make the protections of Roe v. Wade the law of the land.

However, despite marketing the bill as a codification of Roe v. Wade, this bill goes further.

In the standard set out by Roe, states were prohibited from restricting abortion before the so-called viability linean arbitrary line defining the point at which a baby can survive independently outside of his mothers womb, and which even top biologists in favor of abortion contest the definition of.

But the WHPA has faced criticism in the past for going beyond codifying the standard set out in Roe v. Wade.

The bill, said House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) in a speech opposing the bill on the House floor, goes way further than Roe under the guise of codifying Roe to push some of the most extreme  pro-abortion legislation that weve seen.

Under Democrats WHPA, Scalise noted, the U.S. would join the thin ranks of countries like China and North Korea who share a radical, abortion on demand up until birth policy.

With the bills passage through the House it will now go to the Senate for consideration, where it is likely to fail.

Like almost all legislation, the WHPA will first need to receive the support of 60 senators to overcome the filibuster threshold and come to the floor for a simple-majority vote. However, this is highly unlikely.

In March, when Democrats brought the bill to the Senate floor for the first time, it was filibustered and shot down by a bipartisan vote of 4648. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.), who had expressed reservations to the bill, joined Republicans in striking it down.

The revised WHPA, Manchin said at the time, goes well beyond the bounds of Roe v. Wade.

Were gonna be voting on a piece of legislation which I will not vote for today, Manchin told reporters.

I would vote for a Roe v. Wade codification if it was today, I was hopeful for that, Manchin explained. But I found out yesterday in caucus that wasnt gonna be.

Manchin is one of only two Democrats in the Senate who have expressed some pro-life sentiments. The other, Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), ultimately ended up voting in favor of the bill.

Moderate Republicans too expressed opposition to the bill at the time.

In a floor speech on the bill in March, swing-voting Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said that while she supports allowing some abortions, the WHPA goes too far.

It would broadly supersede state laws and infringe on Americans religious freedoms, Murkowski said.

Thus, the bill seems unlikely to win the support it will need to pass through the Senate, as Republicans have remained staunchly opposed to the legislation.
The download page for the TikTok app is displayed on an Apple iPhone in Washington on Aug. 7, 2020. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

House GOP Lawmakers Launch Investigation Into TikToks Data Sharing Practice in China

Two senior GOP House lawmakers are probing popular Chinese video-sharing app TikTok over concerns that its non-public user data could be accessed by its China-based parent company ByteDance, which has ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

TikTok has gone on record numerous times claiming that they do not share Americans user data with the Chinese government, CCP, or any Chinese state-owned entities. We now know that is not the case, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), ranking member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, wrote on Twitter on July 14, announcing the probe.

The investigation is being carried out jointly with Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform Ranking.

TikTok is allowing China-based employees of its parent company, ByteDance, to access sensitive data belonging to Americans, Comer wrote on Twitter.

China acquiring Americans biometrics & location data is a troubling, massive national security risk.

Ranking member Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) speaks at a hearing with the House Committee on Oversight and Reform in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington on Nov. 16, 2021. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The two lawmakers requested documents and communications between TikTok and ByteDance, in a letter (pdf) dated July 14 to TikToks CEO Chew Shouzi. They want Chew to supply the information by July 28.

Data Sharing

TikToks permission to allow data sharing in China has placed the safety and privacy of millions of U.S. citizens in jeopardy, according to the letter.

Their letter pointed to a report published by BuzzFeed in June. One key revelation in the report said that engineers in China had access to U.S. data between September 2021 and January 2022, at the very least, based on statements made by nine different TikTok employees.

Just as troubling, U.S. employees did not have the knowledge or permission to access data on their own, going so far as to say, everything is seen in China, the letter said, citing the outlets report.

The bigger concern, the lawmakers wrote, is how Beijing can legally require companies to share data according to the Chinese national intelligence law.

The law, which went into effect in 2017, requires individuals and organizations to support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts and protect national intelligence work secrets they are aware of.

Following the BuzzFeed report, in a letter (pdf) to a group of GOP senators, TikTok admitted that data of its U.S. users can be accessed in China but only under robust cybersecurity controls and authorization approval protocols.

TikTok also admitted that ByteDance engineers may assist in developing TikToks algorithms.

A 2021 report by the think tank Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) found an oddity in how TikTok videos were ranked.

A video with the caption Free Uyghur and 2,831 likes was ranked 129th on the Xinjiang hashtag page in March last year, according to the report. Meanwhile, three videos showing Xinjiangs beautiful scenery were ranked in the top 10, with fewer than 600 likes each.

Comer and Rogers said TikToks letter to senators did not address several key questions and, in fact, raises others, hence their request for more information from TikTok.

Aside from supplying the information before the deadline, the two lawmakers also want Chew to make arrangements to brief their committees staff before July 21.

Some of the questions that Chew must answer, according to the letter, include the following: How many China-based employees have access to U.S. users data? What corporation are the employees in (a) affiliated with? How many times did a China-based employee use this access? What is the purpose of this access?

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 13, 2022. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) applauded Comer and Rogers for investigating TikTok.

TikToks own disclosures acknowledge a threat to the protection of our data and Chinas ability to gain access to it. The company appears to have misled American government officials leaders about this for years, McCarthy wrote in a statement.

I commend the House Republican Committee Ranking Members who are stepping up to stop this exploitive behavior and also demand that the executive branch take a hard position in protecting the data of all Americans and pushing back against the reckless behavior of this company, he added.

House Republicans take privacy seriously and will make every effort to protect user data.

The Epoch Times has reached out to TikTok for comment.
Education opportunities abound for the entire family

Marked by fireworks and barbecues across the country, Independence Day takes on a special significance when one lives near Washington, D.C. This year will mark our eighth holiday in the D.C. area, and our family will be continuing our tradition of visiting a site of historical significance on July 4th. For our family, Independence Day is a time of remembrance in which to reflect on stories of our nations founding, and we emphasize with our children the insights of gifted men in forming a government that has been a beacon of liberty and freedom to the world ever since. We also remind our children of sacrifices that were made by previous generations, which secured freedoms and liberties that we all too often take for granted today. We look for opportunities to visit sites of historical significance so that our sons can learn the stories that unite us all as Americans.

Our first July 4th in the D.C. area found us at Mount Vernon, where we experienced daytime fireworks over the Potomac River just after receiving a warm welcome from George and Martha Washington, who spoke from the veranda of their home. We observed a reenactment of a Revolutionary War battle on the green in front of the mansion while sitting beneath a tree planted while Washington lived at Mount Vernon. As the time for the fireworks approached, we walked around the main house in time to observe a swearing-in ceremony for newly naturalized U.S. citizens. It was a powerful moment to witness, and it was inspiring to consider that these new citizens would now have such a personally meaningful reason to celebrate our nations founding with the gathered crowd.

The following year, we visited Fort McHenry, where we spoke with Frederick Douglass before entering the grounds to participate in a flag raising ceremony. This is a truly spectacular event at Fort McHenry; all guests are invited to partake in a hands-on experience as they unfurl the flag prior to attaching it to the flag pole to raise over the Fort. It is all the more impactful when the weather permits the crowd to raise a flag equivalent in size to the one that inspired Francis Scott Key to write The Star-Spangled Banner. Key penned his famous poem after seeing the stars and stripes still flying after an overnight battle with the British during the War of 1812. This flag had 15 stripes and 15 stars, and it was 30 by 42 feet in size. (For comparison, most flags that are flown over garrisons today are 20 by 38 feet. In times of stormy weather or high winds, the flag over Fort McHenry is 17 by 25 feet.)

Another enjoyable Independence Day foray was our visit to Fort Washington, located across the river from Mount Vernon. An active fort through World War II, it was built in 1809 to defend the river approach to Washington, D.C. Because this is a significantly less-visited site than others in the metro area, my family had the run of the fort to explore, and we had a fabulous time pretending to use the cannons against the imaginary boats attempting to descend on our nations capital.

While these are some of the most enjoyable activities my family has had over the years, one will never run out of opportunities for such visits in the D.C. area, which pulls out all the stops for Fourth of July celebrations. With free admission every day of the year, Independence Day is a wonderful time to take advantage of the many museums that make up the Smithsonian in D.C. It is a particularly fitting time to visit the National Museum of American History, where you can visit the very flag that flew over Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore. Its size has been reduced to 30 by 34 feet due to decay over time, and it is now kept in an environmentally controlled chamber to preserve what remains of this impressive flag.

Another meaningful visit might include a visit to view the American Presidents exhibit in the National Portrait Gallery. I remember how awestruck I was when I first saw the famous Lansdowne portrait of George Washington, which Dolly Madison removed from its frame and rolled up when she fled the White House as the British approached in 1814. This event during the War of 1812, in which the White House was set afire, was a retaliation for the American burning of the Canadian capital, and it marks the only instance in history when the American capital was captured (and occupied) by a foreign entity.

The National Archives traditionally hosts a Fourth of July celebration, and I cant imagine anything more memorable than viewing the original remnants of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution on Independence Day. Surrounded by the incredible portraiture in the rotunda in which these founding documents are housed would only add to the majesty of such an experience.

The cornerstone of the Washington Monument was laid on Independence Day in 1848, and it would be a wonderful site to visit on the National Mall in anticipation of the Independence Day fireworks that are preceded by the annual A Capitol Fourth concert.

If you live in the D.C. area, then you have no limit to the options you can choose for celebrating this sacred moment in our nations history. Sites of historical significance are to be found all over the country, though, and I encourage you to seek one out to visit on Independence Day this year. While you are there, be sure to share stories of our nations founding with your children, and emphasize to them the rich heritage we share as fellow Americansand urge them to preserve it.

This article was originally published in American Essence magazine.
A 1997 image of the hands of a monkeypox case patient in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), formerly Zaire. (CDC via AP)

India Reports First Case of Monkeypox

35-year-old Kerala man found infected after returning from United Arab Emirates

One case of monkeypox has been identified in Indias Kerala state, a government official confirmed on Thursday.

Kerala State Health Minister Veena George said that a 35-year-old man who returned from the United Arab Emirates on July 12 has tested positive for the monkeypox virus.

The patient was in stable condition and had been placed in isolation.

There is nothing to worry about or to be anxious about. All the steps are being taken and the patient is stable, George was quoted as saying by Zee News.

The patients primary contacts, including his parents and 11 passengers who sat near him on the flight, have been identified and will be monitored.

George said the patient had close contact with a monkeypox-infected person abroad and developed symptoms. The National Institute of Virology received his samples on Thursday and confirmed that his test result was positive.

India deployed a multi-disciplinary Central team to assist the state health authorities in investigating the outbreak and instituting requisite health measures, according to a memorandum published by ANI news agency.

Monkeypox is a zoonotic diseasethe virus spreads from animals to humanswith symptoms similar to those of smallpox patients, but its clinically less severe, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Symptoms of monkeypox include headache, fever, chills, sore throat, malaise, fatigue, rash, and swollen lymph nodes.

Monkeypox Not a Global Concern: WHO

The WHO has previously concluded that monkeypox does not constitute a public health emergency of international concern, which is defined as an extraordinary event that requires a coordinated international response.

But WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday that a meeting with the relevant committee will be held next week to assess the trends of the outbreak and decide whether it poses a global threat.

The Emergency Committee for monkeypox will reconvene next week and look at trends, how effective the counter-measures are, and make recommendations for what countries and communities should do to tackle the outbreak, he said.

Cases have shot up 77 percent since the last report to 6,027, the WHO said last week, with the bulk of them reported in the European region. However, three deaths attributed to the disease have been reported in Africa, the report showed.

The update also showed that over 99 percent of the cases for which gender information was available were among men.

The outbreak continues to primarily affect men who have sex with men who have reported recent sex with one or multiple male partners, suggesting no signal of sustained transmission beyond these networks for now, it said.

Not an Airborne Disease

Rochelle Walensk, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said in June that the virus is not airborne, but rather spreads primarily through face-to-face or skin-to-skin contact with an infected persons bodily fluids or sores.

Monkeypox spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids or sores on the body of someone who has monkeypox or with direct contact with materials that have touched these bodily fluids and sores such as clothing or linens, Walensky told reporters in a briefing on June 10.

It may also spread through respiratory secretions when people have close, sustained face-to-face contact.

In the United States, New York has seen the most monkeypox cases with 414 cases, followed by California with 180 cases, and Illinois with 160 cases, according to the data provided by the CDC. The majority of reported cases are attributed to international travel.

Reuters and Meiling Lee contributed to this report.
In the 1980s, I lived in Bishop Manor on Franklin Street in Allentown. On a sunny day in February, a Buffalo day when false spring paid a visit, melting a foot of snow like magic, I was shot in the face.

My brother Michael and I went for a walk up Allen Street past Delaware, and were in front of a dusty antique store near the theater, with ice dripping off the awnings onto our heads. I felt a sharp sting to the left of my nostril, and asked Michael if an icicle cut my cheek. He examined the wound exclaiming, Theres a hole in your face!

We rushed into Holly Farms where I used the bathroom to wash off the blood. A store clerk gave me clean bandages and a kindly taxi driver buying coffee drove us to Buffalo General Hospital. I barely noted the police and commotion on the street where other people were shot, but an officer followed us to the ER and took my statement, indicating that someone with a BB rifle was shooting pedestrians from atop of a building across the street from our incident. Most of them were hit about the torso. Wearing coats was an advantage that day.

The doctors in the ER numbed my face and covered it with a gauze mask trying in vain to remove the pellet. But it was in my sinus cavity and, after little success, they had to call a plastic surgeon to assist. When he arrived, I heard him comment to the attending physician, If you told me what she looked like, I wouldve given you the answer myself.

He told me that he could make an incision to remove the BB and I would have a scar or he could leave it alone and I would simply weigh a couple of grams more. I accepted the latter, then filled out some Crime Victim forms. The perpetrator was never found, but some days later, a man was shot through the face with a BB gun from a moving vehicle near Richmond Avenue, knocking out some of his teeth.

My BB remains lodged in the place where I was shot, and on rainy days I feel a piercing pain that eventually subsides with ice packs and Excedrin. Although I have no scar, I lament the day my late brother and I never finished shopping. More so, Im grateful that the rifle was only firing BBs. How terribly weve regressed!

And how terrible that a parade on the Fourth of July in a docile neighborhood like Highland Park, Ill.  a place like Allentown  becomes a battleground. Even a report of a toddler found laying beneath his bloody, bullet-ridden parents repeating, shots, shots, cannot move the masses. No one can stand and declare No more assault weapons!

My wound would have been a decapitation under the power of an AR-15. The people fired upon behind me would be dead. Yet we cant relinquish a violent hobby that endangers the whole of us. What is the pastime value of destruction? And where is the empathy of our fellow American citizens?

It was rumored that the BB shootings were directed at the gay community in Allentown. Imagine the mayhem today in light of this violent hobby of armed imaginings. But of course, we already know. Forty-nine souls were murdered at Pulse Night Club in Orlando, Fla., on June 12, 2016.

Then it happened here. Then it happened there. And we grieve like a comatose nation, unable to take effective action.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on the first day of the G7 summit in Germany on June 26, 2022. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Japanese Prime Minister Says Japan Must Activate More Nuclear Reactors to Prepare for Winter Energy Crunch

Japans Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has urged the Japanese trade industry minister to have nine nuclear reactors operational by the upcoming winter season as he warned of a potential power crunch.

There are concerns that [power] supply and demand will be tight again this winter. We must prevent such a situation at all costs, Kishida said at a press conference on July 14.

The new nuclear reactors will cover about 10 percent of Japans total energy consumption and accommodate peak hours, he said.

Kishida also directed the ministry to secure 10 additional thermal power generation units to help stabilize Japans power supply.

If these are realized, we will be able to secure the maximum supply capacity compared to the past three years, he added.

Japan had only allowed 10 of the 33 operable nuclear reactors to restart after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. But rising energy prices and the threat of a power shortage during a heat wave have pushed the government to reactivate some nuclear reactors.

On June 27, the ministry issued a warning about the tight power supply as Japan endured an extreme heat wave. It said that Japans power supply would still be insufficient despite electric suppliers increasing capacity.

If there is an increase in demand or a sudden power supply trouble, the reserve margin will fall below the minimum required of 3 percent, and there is a possibility that a power supply and tight demand will occur, the ministry said.

Japan also issued an energy warning in March 2022 due to cold weather and power plant outages caused by an earthquake near Fukushima Prefecture.

Power Shortages in the United States

The North American Electric Reliability Corp (NERC) warned in May 2021 that energy shortfalls were possible that summer in California, Texas, New England, and the central United States due to an extreme heat wave in those regions.

Of greatest concern [during extreme heat] is California, where up to 11 gigawatts of additional transfers are expected to be needed in late afternoon to offset reduced solar output, versus just one gigawatt on a normal day, NERC said.

One gigawatt can power about one million U.S. homes on average, but on a hot summer day, that number can plunge to just 200,000 homes when consumers crank up their air conditioners.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) on July 13 initiated a rarely used emergency program that can be activated when supplies fall below a critical safety margin.

The council urged residents to reduce power usage and warned of a risk for rolling blackouts. The notice came after ERCOT began paying suppliers an average of $5,000 per megawatt hour to keep generators running, the highest price the grid operator has paid so far.

With temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius), higher than the average for this time of the year, Texas projected peak demand to hit 78,762 megawatts.

Reuters contributed to this report.
LA Sheriff Responds to Supervisors Attempt to Remove Him

LOS ANGELESSheriff Alex Villanueva called the countys board of supervisors efforts unconstitutional and a power grab as officials moved ahead with plans this week to draft a ballot measure that would allow them to remove him from office.

The LA County Board of Supervisors passed a motion Tuesday, July 12, to direct county attorneys to draft an ordinance for Novembers ballot that would allow the board to remove an elected sheriff.

The motion passed 41 with Supervisor Kathryn Barger voting against it. The issue will still need to return to the board for final passage before it goes before voters in November.

The ill-advised measure from yesterday is unconstitutionala massive power grab from the board of supervisors. As if they do not have enough power, Villanueva said on Facebook Live Wednesday.

Under the motion, supervisors would be allowed to remove a sheriff for causewith such cause defined as a violation of any law related to the performance of their duties as sheriff; flagrant or repeated neglect of duties; a misappropriation of public funds or property; willful falsification of a relevant official statement or document; or obstruction of any investigation into the conduct of the sheriff by the Inspector General, Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission, or any government agency with jurisdiction to conduct such an investigation.

The sheriff and supervisors have exchanged barbs over the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Villanueva also accused them of defunding the Sheriffs Department. He also rebuffed subpoenas to appear before the countys Civilian Oversight Commission.

The current sheriff has been openly hostile to oversight and transparency and has tested the functionality of existing oversight structures by consistently resisting and obstructing these systems of checks and balances, reads the supervisorss motion.

The motion also refers to previous sheriffs Lee Baca, who was sent to federal prison on corruption charges, and Peter Pitchess, who resisted any involvement in the first internal investigation of deputy gangs from outside the department.

Villanueva disputed a claim by supervisors who said the sheriffs department does not have oversight.

I had to laugh at one supervisor in the third district discussing about the power of the sheriff, Villanueva said. I rely on the board for their budgets. They have the power and the authority to appoint an inspector general, an oversight commission. They can hound me relentlessly for my entire first term in office.

Supervisor Barger said in a statement after the vote the proposal created a slippery slope for the Board of Supervisors to override the will of the voters.

I remain concerned that this action, as approved by the board today, dilutes the voice of Los Angeles County voters and deepens voter apathy, Barger said.

In contrast, Supervisor Mitchell took to Twitter after the vote, saying the motions approval is a step toward stronger accountability, which is needed for public safety.

Supervisor Sheila Kuehl said that the board probably would not have brought up the proposal had Villanueva not been so egregious in his behavior.

The sheriff, a Democrat, is running for a second term in November. All five county supervisors and the countys Democratic Party have endorsed his opponent former Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna.

Luna did not return a request for comment by press time.

The sheriff said in a letter to supervisors this week that the motion was an attempt at intimidation and the supervisors were using their political offices to willfully affect the outcome of an election.

If passed, this unprecedented motion would allow corrupt Board members to intimidate sheriffs from carrying out their official duties to investigate crime, Villanueva said. This motion is a recipe for public corruption, particularly when cause remains so broad and undefined. Allowing political appointees with an agenda to determine cause is fundamentally flawed.

In the letter, the sheriff said the motion was illegal. His department did not return a request for comment by press time asking if he planned to file legal action against it.

Los Angeles Sheriffs Department is the largest county sheriffs office in the U.S., patrolling 200 Southern California cities and one of the worlds largest jail systems.
General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington, on April 7, 2022. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Lawmakers Say Mark Milley Needs to Answer Report He Broke Trumps Chain of Command

Congressional lawmakers have asked Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley to respond to claims that he cut off the chain of command while serving under the Trump administration in early 2021.

The Republican lawmakers letter was issued in response to allegations in last years book, Peril, that he made phone calls to a top Chinese Communist Party counterpart twice in early 2021 to tell him that the United States had no plans to attack China. Republicans, including Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), have suggested that his calls usurped the statutory chain of command.

Milley has yet to respond to their now months-old questions. Lawmakers have been seeking clarity on this serious potential breach of the American democratic order since the publication of the book, said Grassley and Banks in a release on Thursday.

The book also alleged Milley told top-level military officers not to follow then-President Donald Trumps orders unless he approved them beforehand. One of the calls to the CCP official allegedly occurred two days after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach, according to the book, which was authored by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.

If those books and all attended press coverage of those books, had contained gross misrepresentations. We would have heard about it a long time ago. He would have hammered the authors and corrected the record, Grassley said in a speech on the floor of the Senate, according to a transcript. However, to date, not a peep from the general. His silence speaks volumes.

Grassley added that the generals alleged actions strike at the heart of our democracycivilian control of the military.

He may have stepped out of his lane as the presidents principal military adviser and into the statutory chain of command, where law doesnt allow him to go, Grassley continued. By law, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has no command authority.

Response

In response to the claims last year, Milley told a congressional hearing that two calls were made to Chinese Gen. Li Zuocheng, a member of the CCP since the early 1970s, on Oct. 30, 2020, and Jan. 8, 2021. They were coordinated with former Defense Secretary Mark Espers and former acting Defense Secretary Chris Millers staff, he said.

Chinas Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) General Li Zuocheng (L) and U.S. Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley (C) review an honor guard during a welcome ceremony at the Bayi Building in Beijing on Aug. 16, 2016. (Mark Schiefelbein/AFP via Getty Images)

My task at that time was to de-escalate, Milley told senators last September, saying that the objective of his calls with Li was generated by concerning intelligence which caused us to believe the Chinese were worried about an attack by the U.S.

I believe that was faithfully executing the intent of the president of the United States at the time, because I knew with certainty that President Trump was not going to attack the Chinese just out of the blue, Milley also said.

But Grassley said Thursday that Milley has yet to clarify whether some of the books other claims, including whether he usurped presidential power, are accurate.

The Epoch Times has contacted the Joint Chiefs of Staffs office for comment.
Michigan Republican gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley speaks to conservative activists outside the state capital in Lansing on Feb. 8, 2022. (Jake May/The Flint Journal via AP)

Lawsuit Seeks to Boot GOP Michigan Gubernatorial Candidate From the Ballot Over Jan. 6 Arrest

A Michigan man has filed a lawsuit against Republican gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley aiming to prevent Kelley from appearing on the ballot in November over his alleged participation in the Jan. 6 Capitol breach.

Kelley is already on the ballot for the Aug. 2 primary and is considered the frontrunner to win the Republican nomination to challenge incumbent Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in the November general election.

The lawsuit (pdf) was filed in the Michigan Court of Appeals on July 14 by Michigan resident Lee Estes, with the support of the Democratic advocacy organization Progress Michigan.

Kelley was arrested on June 9 and charged with four misdemeanor offenses related to the Capitol breach on Jan. 6, 2021, according to court documents (pdf).

The charges include knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted area without lawful authority, disorderly conduct, knowingly engaging in physical violence in a restricted area, and willfully injuring or committing depredation against federal government property.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The lawsuit filed on June 14 states that Kelleys participation in the events of Jan. 6 makes him ineligible to serve as a candidate for Governor for the State of Michigan, adding that he presents a clear and present danger to democracy in Michigan.

The lawsuit cites section three of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits individuals who have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the [United States], or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof from serving as a senator or representative in Congress, an elector of the president and vice president, or any other position in government.

The lawsuit also cites an oath to support the Constitution of the United States, which Kelley took in 2019 when he was appointed to his local planning commission.

Kelley Remains Top Candidate

In the suit, Estes asks Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, and the Board of State Canvassers to declare that Kelley has violated the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment and is thus ineligible to be a candidate for governor. The lawsuit also asks Benson to advise voters that Kelley is ineligible to hold office and that votes cast for him in the Aug. 2 primary will not be counted.

A criminal complaint by federal prosecutors noted that Kelley didnt actually enter the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, but video footage and images allegedly showed Kelley on restricted grounds at the Capitol.

Kelley issued a statement on July 14 in which he said the lawsuit is an attempt to distract from serious issues such as Michigans handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the energy crisis currently plaguing the country.

Radical left groups like Progress Michigan are trying to keep me off the ballot and manipulate voters with dishonest claims because they know that I am best suited to take on Governor Whitmer in November, and bring Michigan back from her and Bidens disastrous policies, Kelley said.

Yes, I am on the ballot August 2. Yes, I will be on the ballot November 8, said Kelley, adding that he will defeat Gretchen Whitmer and return Michigan to freedom, liberty, and prosperity.

Despite Kelleys June arrest, a poll conducted by the Detroit Free Press and research firm EPIC-MRA from June 10 to June 13 showed that Kelley appeared to get a boost in support, with 17 percent of Republicans surveyed stating that he is their preferred candidate, the highest percentage of the five candidates.

Jack Phillips and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Brian Horton of Southlake Orthopaedics at his lab in Birmingham, Ala., on July 10, 2022 (Jannis Falkenstern/The Epoch Times)

Limb Maker Changing Lives, One Prosthetic at a Time

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.A workplace accident changed Christopher Thorntons life, but he found hope through the miracle of prosthetics and one limb maker, Brian Horton.

Thornton was involved in a forklift accident almost three years ago, he told The Epoch Times in an interview on July 10. After three operations, he was faced with a life-altering decision: an amputation.

He forced himself to watch his children from the sidelines as they participated in school activities, not being able to help them practice for a little more than two years, he said.

I was on crutches for 2 1/2 years, he said with tears welling in his eyes. I lost 2 1/2 years of my life.

Its not fun being on crutches, especially not if you have an active style family. I missed out on a lot of things because I just physically couldnt do things.

Brian Horton (L) adjusts Christopher Thorntons prosthetic at Southlake Orthopaedics in Birmingham, Ala., on July 10, 2022. (Jannis Falkenstern/The Epoch Times)

However, Thornton elected to have his injured foot amputated, and thats when he met Horton of Southlake Orthopaedics, whom he credits with giving him his life back.

Before his accident, Thornton said he was an avid hunter and fisherman.

He said with Hortons help he has learned to adapt and has found new ways to enjoy old hobbies.

I started back hunting. Im starting to fish again, he said of his changed life. Getting in the boat was trickybut I figured out how to do it.

He admitted most of his successes with learning how to manage a prosthetic have been trial and error and finding his new normal.

You do one thing, you know, you figure it out, he said. You do it right the next time.

Thornton has a goal to get back into a deer stand by the fall and winter deer hunting season. Stands can range from 15 to 20 feet high in trees in the deep Alabama woods where, he said, no one can hear you scream for help.

He said none of the things that hes able to do now would be possible without the miracle of his prosthetic.

The Amputee Coalition estimates more than 2 million Americans live with limb loss, and another 28 million are at risk of amputation surgery each year.

They attribute this to three main causes, the most common being vascular disease, which affects 54 percent of those with diabetes, peripheral arterial disease (PAD), and blood clots.

Any of these results in poor blood flow to the limbs, the coalition says on its website.

This can cause pain, tissue damage, and wounds that dont heal correctly, which over time, may lead to amputation, the website states.

Black Americans are up to four times more likely to face amputation than white Americans because of an increased risk of diabetes and PAD.

The other two causes of limb loss are trauma, which affects 45 percent of amputees, and cancer.

Brian Horton makes adjustments to a prosthetic leg at his lab in Birmingham, Ala., on July 10, 2022. (Jannis Falkenstern/The Epoch Times)

Horton estimates that 185,000 amputations occur in the United States each year and another 3.6 million people will be living with limb loss or amputation of an arm or leg by the year 2050.

He said he began his work with prosthetics in the late 1980s when amputees were pretty much relegated to crutches and wheelchairs.

But a group of doctors visiting the small hospital where he was working at the time came armed with prosthetics that closely emulated missing limbs.

I was working in a hospital setting for a vascular surgeon with amputees, he recalled during an Epoch Times visit to his office in Birmingham. I was doing strengthening and wound care when I met those guys.

He said the prosthetic group would visit the small hospital once a week, and Horton found himself working with them on a regular basis.

Thats how I learned, he said. Prosthetics was made for me, or either I was made for prosthetics. I cant imagine doing anything else.

I knew right then thats what I wanted to do.

Seeing patients bedridden from one day to the next weighed on Horton, and he began to see the difference that prosthetics were making in peoples lives, especially teenagers, he said.

As a teenager and losing their leg, youre thinking, man, this is bad, he said. But, with prosthetics, its just really a new beginning, and its really not the end of anythingjust a new way of living.

Hortons goal for patients who have lost limbs is to allow them to live a normal life, and said that as technology progresses, so does the world of prosthetics.

He encourages those who are looking to help others to lead a more productive life after losing a limb, to look into the world of prosthetics and orthotics.

It can be lucrative both financially as well as personally rewarding, he said.

The demand for orthotists and prosthetists is high. Baby boomers are going to physicians in large numbers due to arthritis and diabetes.
Trust in the press is at an all-time low. But without a free press, you cant have a free country. mericans need a real media to communicate with each other and make important decisions about their lives, families, communities, and country. In this provocative episode of Over The Target live, CEO of Truth Social Devin Nunes speaks with Lee Smith about the future of U.S. media and American freedom.

* Click the Save button below the video to access it later on My List.

Follow EpochTV on social media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/EpochTVus

Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/EpochTV

Truth Social: https://truthsocial.com/@EpochTV

Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/epochtv

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EpochTVus

Gab: https://gab.com/EpochTV

Telegram: https://t.me/EpochTV
A man wearing a protective face mask walks past a sign requiring face masks posted on a storefront in Los Angeles on March 2, 2022. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

Los Angeles County May Reinstate Indoor Mask Mandate July 29

Los Angeles County will reinstate its indoor mask mandate on July 29 unless COVID-19 hospitalization numbers fall, according to Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer.

While its never too late to reverse course, Ferrer said, Its hard to imagine that two weeks from now the hospital data metric will drop.

As of Thursday, the average daily rate of COVID-positive patients being hospitalized in the county rose to 10.5 per 100,000 residents. That topped the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDC) threshold for high virus activity. The county was previously in the medium category.

Ferrer has warned over the past month that if the county remains in the high community level for two consecutive weeks, it will re-impose a mandatory indoor mask-wearing mandate.

Ferrer said there will likely be public resistance to mandatory masking and renewed concerns about who would enforce it.

Our hope is people will go ahead and make every effort to come into compliance, Ferrer said, adding that there would be no exemptions for businesses such as gyms or yoga studios.

Masks are already still mandated in some indoor spaces: health care facilities, transit hubs, on transit vehicles, airports, correctional facilities, and shelters. A universal mandate would spread the requirement to all indoor public spaces, including shared office spaces, manufacturing facilities, retail stores, indoor events, indoor restaurants, bars, and schools.

If the mask mandate takes effect July 29, it will remain in effect until the county falls back to the medium virus-activity category for two weeks, Ferrer said.

Orange and San Diego counties were also moved into the CDCs high virus-activity category on Thursday, but neither of those counties plan to respond with a mandatory mask mandate or other significant public health measures, even though both have a higher hospitalization rate than Los Angeles County.

According to the CDC, Orange Countys average daily rate of COVID hospitalizations is 15.2 per 100,000 residents, while San Diego Countys is 11.5 per 100,000.
Man Charged With Attempting to Assassinate Supreme Court Justice Wants Confessions Thrown Out

The California man accused of planning to kill a Supreme Court justice is asking the court through his lawyer to suppress his confessions and any other statements he made to law enforcement.

Nicholas John Roske, of Simi Valley, waived his rights to an attorney and to remain silent and confessed on June 8, shortly after he was arrested, to planning to kill Justice Brett Kavanaugh, according to court documents.

Roske allegedly confessed to two law enforcement officersa Montgomery County, Maryland police detective and an FBI agentin addition to sharing his intent to harm the justice with a 911 dispatcher.

But the confessions may have been obtained in violation of Roskes right to a lawyer and his right against self-incrimination, public defender James Wyda said in the new filing.

Wyda asked U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte, a Clinton appointee overseeing the case, to hold a hearing regarding the purported statements.

If, at such hearing, the government fails to establish that such statements were not obtained in violation of Mr. Roskes privilege against self-incrimination, nor his right to counsel as guaranteed by the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the United States Constitution, nor the Supreme Courts holding in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), and were not otherwise involuntary  such statements should be suppressed, the lawyer wrote.

Prosecutors have not yet responded to the motion.

Roske, who has pleaded not guilty, was due to appear in court on Aug. 23 but Messitte recently removed the date, as well as a pretrial conference. He also extended deadlines to file various documents to Sept. 6.

Motivation

Roske flew to Maryland in order to kill Kavanaugh, according to court documents and his comments to the 911 dispatcher.

After reaching Chevy Chase in the early hours of June 8, Roske had a taxi drop him off outside Kavanaughs home, which he said he knew the location of due to pictures that were published online.

Roske spotted two U.S. Marshals outside and walked down the street.

After texting with his sister, he called 911.

And you said you came from California. Do you know someone down here? the dispatcher asked. Brett Kavanaugh. The Supreme Court justice, Roske said.

What were you coming to do? Just to hurt yourself and him, or what was going to happen? the dispatcher asked. Correct, Roske said.

Police officers rushed to the scene and took Roske into custody without incident.

According to an FBI affidavit, Roske informed officers at a nearby station, after waiving his rights, that he was upset about a leaked draft Supreme Court decision that indicated the court meant to strike down Roe v. Wade, the abortion ruling. He also expressed support for gun control and said he feared Kavanaugh would rule against gun control laws.

ROSKE stated that he began thinking about how to give his life a purpose and decided that he would kill the Supreme Court Justice after finding the Justices Montgomery County address on the Internet, the document says.

Kavanaugh later joined the majority in striking down Roe and ruling against a strict gun law.
Hundreds of gather around the California State Capitol to protest against the statewide lockdown in Sacramento on April 20, 2020. (Laurie Gorham/The Epoch Times)

Measuring the Efficacy of Californias, Floridas COVID-19 Policies

Commentary

In their attempt to control the spread of COVID-19, California and Florida followed sharply different strategies.

While California used a wide array of restrictive mandates, Florida used a targeted approach that focused on those segments of society more vulnerable to the lethal effects of COVID-19. The conventional wisdom is that Californias strategic response to COVID-19 came at a high economic cost, but as compared to Florida, it resulted in many lives saved. That wisdom is only half correct.

Theres no doubt that Californias broad-based use of mandates led to a sharper loss in overall economic activity than Floridas more targeted approach. The extent to which each state used mandates can be quantified by referring to Oxford Universitys Stringency Index, which measures on a daily basis, using a scale from 1 to 100, 11 different statewide policy interventions.

Over the period of January 2020 to July 2022, Californias average Oxford University Stringency Index score was 43, placing it fourth highest of all 50 states. In sharp contrast, Floridas average index was 27, placing it far lower at a rank of 40. Not surprisingly, in light of its significantly higher average stringency, California lost more jobs than Florida on a relative basis. Californias non-farm job total is still lower than its pre-recession high, while Floridas is 3 percent higher. That translates to California losing 43,000 jobs, while Florida gained 280,000 jobs over the same time period.

Even more striking is a comparison between the two states when the gap in their stringency scores was at its widest. In January 2021, when Californias stringency index hit a high of 63, the state had shed 10 percent of its jobsdouble the 5 percent loss in Florida, which had a stringency index of 32, roughly half of Californias. During that month, Californias unemployment rate was 9.2 percent versus Floridas 6.1 percent.

It should be noted that in spite of the fact that California experienced a greater relative job loss, Florida has a higher proportion of workers than California in the job sector hardest hit by the pandemic: leisure and hospitality.

These findings arent unique to California and Florida. In other research Ive done, I showed that the 10 states with the lowest stringency scores between January 2020 to March 2022 had, on average, 1 percent more jobs than pre-recession levels. In sharp contrast, the 10 most stringent statesa group that includes Californiahad, on average, 2 percent fewer jobs.

Many would argue that in spite of these job losses, the tougher mandates followed by California were justified, given its lower COVID-19 death rate than Floridas. Indeed, a comparison of the raw COVID-19 death rates between the two states initially seems to support that argument. The raw cumulative COVID-19 death rate through July is 242 per 100,000 people in California, compared to a much higher 328 per 100,000 people in Florida. That difference suggests that Californias tougher broad-based mandates saved the lives of 35,000 people in the state compared to Florida.

These comparisons using unadjusted COVID-19 death rates, however, are highly misleading. Californias population is the seventh-youngest out of all 50 states, at a median age of 37 in 2020. That compares to Florida, which ranks as the fifth-oldest state with a median age of 43 years.

When it comes down to the incidence of COVID-19 deaths, age mattersit matters big time. Although only 16 percent of the U.S. population is older than the age of 65, that age cohort accounts for almost 75 percent of all COVID-19 deaths. The fact that California has 15 percent older than the age of 65 while Florida has 21 percent clearly makes Florida more vulnerable to the lethal effects of COVID-19.

To adjust for these age differences, statisticians use age-adjusted data that basically convert statewide differences in ages so that they conform to the age cohorts of the United States. When I used that procedure to adjust Californias and Floridas COVID-19 death rates, Californias age-adjusted death rate of 261 per 100,000 was roughly the same as Floridas rate of 267 per 100,000.

Using an alternative age-adjustment statistical metric that measures excess deaths as a percentage of expected deaths over the period of March 2020 to March 2022, researchers found that California and Florida had the same excess death rate of 18.8 percent.

These empirical results suggest that Californias use of broad-based mandates as compared to Floridas more targeted strategya strategy that came at a great economic cost to Californiahad no measurable impact on lives saved.

An example of Floridas targeted strategy is its tough lockdown on visits to the states long-term care facilities, a policy that effectively placed these facilities in quarantine. The impact of this approach can be seen in statistics that show the cumulative COVID-19 death rate for those 75 to 84 years old was 1,606 per 100,000 in California as compared to a lower 1,279 per 100,000 in Florida. Even more dramatically, the COVID-19 death rate for those 85 years and older was 4,055 in California versus 3,087 in Florida. Floridas more stringent targeted strategy for safeguarding the elderly largely explains why California and Floridas age-adjusted COVID-19 death rates are roughly the same.

An example of the ineffectiveness and the high cost of Californias broad-based lockdown strategy is its closing of almost all of its public schools. A ranking of the percentage of cumulative in-person education shows that California ranked last of all 50 states at 19.2 percent. That compares to Floridas 96.2 percentthe third highest in the nation (pdf).

An Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development estimate puts the COVID-19 era losses in lifetime earnings for a student denied in-person education at 3 percent (pdf). These losses in foregone earnings will have their greatest negative impact on students from low-income families, a loss that came with no discernable benefit in lives saved. Total COVID-19 deaths in the 5 to 14 age range cohort were 23 in California and 27 in Florida. Compare those numbers to the COVID-19 deaths for those 85 years and older of 23,116 in California and 17,319 in Florida.

Even though Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was widely attacked for what many claimed to be the states lax stringency mandates, a careful examination of the data suggests that Floridas policies were more effective than Californias. An important lesson that emerges from this comparison is that targeted state regulations that more carefully evaluate their potential benefits and costs are more effective than broad-based policies that have more indiscriminate effects.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Paul Pelosi and Nancy Pelosi attend the TIME 100 Gala 2019 Cocktails at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City on April 23, 2019. (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for TIME)

Nancy Pelosis Husband Makes Big Round of Stock Trades, Including Apple, Nvidia, Visa

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) disclosed that her husband, Paul Pelosi, invested millions in Nvidia Corporation and sold large quantities of Visa and Apple stocks and call options in June.

The congresswoman reported three new stock and stock option trades made by her husband last month in a disclosure filed with the House of Representatives on July 14.

According to the filing, Paul Pelosi exercised 200 call options, or 20,000 shares, of Nvidia at a strike price of $100 and expiration of June 17, 2022, worth between $1 million and $5 million.

On that same date, her husband also sold 50 call options in Apple at a strike price of $100, with the transaction listed with a value of between $100,000 and $250,000.

Call options are a contract between a buyer and a seller to purchase a certain stock, bond, commodity, or other assets at a certain price up until a defined expiration date.

Her financier husband, who is estimated to be worth in excess of $100 million, also sold 10,000 shares of Visa worth between $1 million and $5 million on June 21, according to the filing.

Earlier last month, Pelosi disclosed that her husband had purchased options to buy shares of Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. worth upwards of $2 million.

Paul Pelosi owns and operates a San Francisco-based real estate and consulting firm.

He was charged last month with driving under the influence and causing injury after being arrested in May.

Debate Stalls Over Trading In Congress

The stock disclosures come as Congress stalled its debate over whether lawmakers and their spouses should be allowed to buy, sell, and hold individual stocks.

Pelosi initially opposed the move to bar lawmakers from trading stock, telling reporters in December last year, We are a free-market economy, and that they should be able to participate in that.

However, the Democrat signaled in January that she might be willing to advance such legislation.

Ive said to the House Administration Committee, review all the bills that are coming in and see which oneswhere the support is in our caucus, Pelosi told reporters in January, If members want to do that, Im okay with that.

An Insider analysis from 2021 found that Pelosi is the 14th wealthiest member of Congress with an estimated net worth of at least $46 million.

At the time of the analysis, her husband had holdings in a number of corporations including Tesla, Visa, Salesforce, PayPal, Alphabet, Facebook, Netflix, and more.

Meanwhile, Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.) was ranked the wealthiest, thanks to his vast holdings in stocks, bonds, and private-equity funds among others.

Unusual Whales, a company that sells financial data, also said that Scott was No. 1 in stock trading last year, while Pelosi placed sixth in stock trading among congressmembers in 2021.

A 2012 law known as the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, or the STOCK Act, bans lawmakers from using non-public information from their work in Congress for their personal benefit.

It also requires them to disclose stock transactions by themselves or family members no later than 45 days after such a transaction is made.

However, Kedric Payne, general counsel for the Campaign Legal Center, which aims to advance democracy through law, told NPR in January that his group has filed complaints with the Office of Congressional Ethics and Senate ethics committee over alleged violations of the current law.

Members of Congress are finally seeing that the public wants to know that they are not acting in their own personal interests when they make official decisions, Payne said.

Payne claimed that there have been over 50 occasions where lawmakers have failed to disclose their stock trades within 45 days in the past year.

Jack Phillips contributed to this report.
The Best Unknown Vacation Spot in Iceland

Visiting Iceland? Consider Trendy and Wellness-Focused Reykjanes

Its no surprise that Iceland continues to top travelers must-visit bucket lists, especially in summer months where hiking and camping are less grueling without snow and with a forgiving sun. The country is stunning with Mars-like volcanic rock formations, black sand beaches, and a happiness index ranking that proves its still one of the most stress-free places on earth.

But so much attention has been placed on The Golden Circle (a scenic road that borders the entire country) and Icelands capital of Reykjavik that tourists may ignore the gems of off-the-beaten-path destinations that are more than deserving of a spot on vacation itineraries.

RELATED: The Best Wellness Hotels and Resorts in the U.S.

Nearby Reykjanes, Reykjaviks little sister, captures Iceland's other-wordly charm and landscape, but with less of the hustle and bustle found in a touristy city. In fact, you can spend an entire week in the town with an agenda customized for any type of traveler, like riding Icelands famous horses for the adventure-seeker or enjoying Blue Lagoon spa treatments for the guy who appreciates a little pampering.

Here are five reasons why you shouldnt rule out Reykjanes during your next trip to Iceland, which is quickly emerging as one of the country's most wellness-minded regions (and only a short flight from the East Coast through budget airlines like Play or Icelandair).

The Traditional Pool Culture

One of Icelands most beloved traditions is gathering around the town swimming pools for a dip to converse with locals before starting your day. Whether you like your water hot, cold, or somewhere in between (a dunk in each type is said to strengthen your immune system), there is a body of water for everyone and its brimming with all of the juicy gossip. Hitting up the YMCA-like pools is a custom that will make you not feel like a tourist, but be sure to shower before entering if you want to avoid the looks of scorn and disgust from fellow bathers.

The Diversity of Outdoor Activities

Traveling during the summer will sacrifice a view of Icelands famous Northern Lights, but outdoor activities in Reykjanes will showcase its surrounding beauty with mild temperatures and a light sea breeze as the backdrop. Check out historical sites like the Bridge Between Two Continents, a footbridge over a major fissure that illustrates the diverging plate that likely connected Europe and North America. Its also a short trip from the steaming and active Gunnuhver geothermal area, which makes Yellowstones Old Faithful look like amateur hour compared to its impressive geysers.

For travelers who are a bit more adventurous, a volcano hike at Fagradalsfjall is an absolute must to survey the jagged rock formations from lava that spewed and cooled a little over a year ago. And if you have water on the brain, you can snorkel at nearby Lake Kleifarvatn to observe bubbly geothermal activity that resembles a poured glass of Champagne.

The One-of-a-Kind Spa Experiences

Iceland has quietly surfaced as an international beauty destination, joining the ranks of Korea, Italy, France, and the United States in offering treatments and locally sourced products to encourage relaxation and youthfulness. Since we take our beauty routines seriously at AskMen (check out our 2022 Grooming Awards, which feature two products from the island), wed be remiss to not recommend a stop at the famous Blue Lagoon. Lather your face with its award-winning Silica Mud Mask, which deep-cleanses and strengthens skin as you soak. You can also book a floating massage session at The Retreat Spa where therapists will scrub your body as they gently drift you through a private pool. Its an experience unlike anything youve felt before as you embrace your inner mermaid and let nature be your primary guide.

The Locally-Foraged Cuisine

Depending on who you ask, perception of Icelandic food may vary. But the restaurants in Reykjanes thrive with local, typically ocean-derived ingredients that arrive from source to plate in mere hours. A few highlights include a stop at Villabar (formally known as Pulsubarinn) for a famous Icelandic hot dog  crunchy, comically long, and topped with a sweet brown mustard called pylsusinnep. Wash it down with a creatively brewed beer from Litla Brugghusi and book dinner at lighthouse-adjacent El Faro, which shines in its own way through Mediterranean-inspired dishes like a croqueta platter and patatas bravas, both fried to golden perfection.

For a traditional and decadently creamy and surprisingly herbaceous lobster soup (said to be Sigourney Weavers favorite!), hit up harbourside Bryggjan Grindavik or nosh at health-minded Hja Hollu for the islands best cod served with a savory peanut salsa and miso soy butter.

Of course, you should also treat yourself to more luxurious dining experiences at KEF Restaurant with a fiery wasabi mayo-topped beef carpaccio that sets the tone, or wander towards Blue Lagoons The Retreat for a reservation at Moss or Lava. The former boasts a tasting menu that presents Icelands cuisine at its best, from green curry scallops to tender Icelandic lamb with peas.

The Astonishingly Luxurious Accommodations

With so much to do and nearly 21 hours of daylight during summer months, sleep is of the utmost importance.

Hotel Berg, only a short drive away from Icelands Keflavik Airport, offers modern, spacious rooms and is situated next to a picturesque and sleepy marina. Its an ideal place to start and end your trip, especially with a rooftop jacuzzi to ease any aches and pains.

Blue Lagoons Silica Hotel and The Retreat provide more luxe options with ice blue pools and rooms that back up directly to them. These private oases allow guests to get a more personalized experience with the hot springs by not having to wade through hordes of other tourists. The attention to detail, both in simplistic design and construction, has also attracted A-list celebrities from all over the world to relish the sensation of escapism and being on a different planet.

And with the world in the state that it is in right now, we could all use a little respite. Consider Reykjanes.

You Might Also Dig:
Former President Donald Trump and his first wife, Ivana, pose aboard a new luxury yacht on East River in New York City, on July 4, 1988. (Marty Lederhandler/AP Photo)

New York Attorney General Responds After Ivana Trumps Death

New York Attorney General Letitia Jamess office said it would grant former President Donald Trumps family a request to delay depositions following the death of Ivana Trump, the former presidents first wife.

The family confirmed Ivana Trump died in New York City on Thursday. She was 73.

In light of the passing of Ivana Trump yesterday, we received a request from counsel for Donald Trump and his children to adjourn all three depositions, which we have agreed to. This is a temporary delay and the depositions will be rescheduled as soon as possible. There is no other information about dates or otherwise to provide at this time, a spokesperson for James told news outlets Friday.

The office had planned to hold depositions for the former president, Donald Trump Jr., and Ivanka Trump as part of its investigation into the Trump Organizations business practices. Trump has said that the inquiry is politically motivated.

City officials told local media that its believed she died of natural causes after reports indicated first responders were called to her home on the Upper East Side after an individual suffered cardiac arrest.

Authorities found her unconscious near the bottom of a staircase at her residence and pronounced her dead at the scene, officials told Fox News. Its not clear if she fell to her death.

On Thursday, former President Trump wrote on Truth Social that his first wife and mother of three children had died. The pair were married between 1977 and 1992.

I am very saddened to inform all of those that loved her, of which there are many, that Ivana Trump has passed away at her home in New York City, Trump said in a statement. She was a wonderful, beautiful, and amazing woman, who led a great and inspirational life.

Meanwhile, Ivanka Trump posted on Twitter that she was heartbroken by the passing of (her) mother, before saying: Mom was brilliant, charming, passionate and wickedly funny. She lived life to the fullestnever forgoing an opportunity to laugh and dance. I will miss her forever and will keep her memory alive in our hearts always.

Eric Trump wrote on Instagram that his mother was a force in business, a world-class athlete, a radiant beauty, and caring mother and friend.

In 2017, Ivana Trumpwho was born in the former Czechoslovakiatold CBS News that she was offered to be the ambassador for the Czech Republic but turned it down.

I was just offered to be the American ambassador to Czech Republicand Donald told me. He said, Ivana, if you want it, I give it to you, Ivana Trump said in the interview. But I like my freedom. I like to do what I want to do, go wherever I want to go with whomever I want to go. And I can afford my lifestyle.
A commercial housing community under construction in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu Province on April 15, 2022. (Costfoto/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

Over 40,000 Homebuyers in China Threaten to Boycott Mortgage Repayments for Stalled Projects

More than 40,000 homebuyers have threatened to cease paying their bank mortgages for pre-sold yet unfinished apartments unless developers resume construction.

The distressed homebuyers have informed mortgagees of their decisions to boycott payments for stalled development projects via letters, some of which have been circulated online.

The homebuyers said they have taken such measures after months of waiting and frustration. They said they have tried many times to communicate with developers, banks, and housing and construction authorities, but problems remain unanswered.

Data shows mortgage boycotts have occurred in 106 residential developments, according to a study by a Shanghai-based research center at CRIC, a big data application service provider covering Chinas property sector.

Capital-starved property developers, including giants like Evergrande, Sinic Holdings, and Shimao, are among those who have uncompleted projects.

A visitor poses for pictures at Castle Hotel on the man-made Ocean Flower Island, an integrated resort development by China Evergrande Group, in Danzhou, Hainan Province, China, on Jan. 7, 2022. (Aly Song/Reuters)

The crisis, which first broke out in the city of Jingdezhen, eastern Chinas Jiangxi Province, on June 30, has spread to at least 20 cities, including the capitals of Henan, Hebei, Shanxi, and Hubei.

In China, up to 1.5 trillion yuan ($220 billion) of mortgage loans are linked to unfinished Chinese residential projects, ANZ has estimated in a report.

In China, unlike in the United States and many other countries, buyers are usually required to pay a monthly mortgage even prior to the completion of their projects as long as they reach a deal with banks.

Homebuyers in Despair

A Wuhan resident Li Mingyu (alias) told The Epoch Times on July 13 that she had to pay more than 6,000 yuan ($888) each month as part of her mortgage. She said her down payment was 500,000 yuan ($74,050), which she had borrowed from her family and relatives.

However, the building of her apartment, which was scheduled to end in December 2021, remains unfinished.

Li said the resumption deadline that she and other fellow buyers gave the developer is Nov. 1. If it really refuses to reopen then, theres no way I would keep paying money, Li said.

Buyers say they are fully aware of possible legal consequences they face, including the likelihood of being added to the so-called List of Dishonest Persons, which may undercut their credit points and cause restrictions on their travel and purchasing activity.

When our survival is at risk, when we feel desperate, credit [impact] would be a paper tiger, a fetter that can be thrown into a dust bin anytime, a group of buyers from Zhengzhou, the capital city of Henan Province, declared in a July 12 statement.

This is our voice, a desperate call for attention from thousands of us, they said.

A housing complex by Chinese property developer Evergrande in Beijing on Oct. 21, 2021. (Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images)

Banks Criticized for Inadequate Oversight

While blaming developers for delayed work, angry buyers are also upset with lenders, claiming that they have not strictly performed their duties to properly monitor developers escrow accounts.

In a statement dated July 7, buyers in Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei Province, slammed lenders for inadequate supervision of the developers use of funds.

As lenders, they granted [the developer] mortgage loans before the main structure of the project is closed, the statement wrote. As lenders, they transferred mortgage funds into non-escrow accounts disregarding relevant regulations.

Chinas Unstable Property Sector The sweeping crisis suggests financial cracks have emerged in multiple elements in the countrys housing market, Toronto-based China expert Wen Zhao commented on YouTube. It seems increasingly difficult to rein in Chinas whole property sector from crashing, he warned. Uncontrollable chain reactions are underway. He said the crisis would severely batter would-be buyers interest in pre-sold apartments; meanwhile, developers would inevitably face greater pressure in getting back their investment. Seemingly, this issue couldnt be solved unless [first] an all-out financial crisis erupts and unleashes structural pressure [in the sector], he added.

Reuters, Lin Cenxin, Gu Xiaohua, and Hong Ning contributed to this report.
Philadelphia District Attorney Lawrence Krasner during a press conference at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, Pa., on Nov. 6, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Pennsylvania Lawmakers Form Committee to Investigate Philadelphia Progressive Prosecutor

Pennsylvania State House lawmakers formed a bi-partisan committee on July 11 to investigate the troubling crime spree in Philadelphia, the states largest city.

The Republican-controlled House empowers the committee to subpoena witnesses and documents from Philadelphia District Attorneys Office.

The office is at the helm of Larry Krasner, a frontline figure in the national progressive prosecutor movement. Under Krasner, Philadelphias murders jumped to 353 in 2018, 356 in 2019, 499 in 2020, and 562 in 2021the deadliest year ever recorded in the citys history.

This year, Philadelphias violent crime has risen by 8 percent and property crime by 30 percent, compared to 2021, according to the latest crime data by Philadelphia Police Department.

The newly formed committeeformerly called the Select Committee on Restoring Law and Orderis directed by House lawmakers to make evidence-backed recommendations up to the impeachment of Krasner.

The newly appointed committee chair Rep. John Lawrence, a Republican, said in a press release, I do not enter this work with any predetermined outcome in mind. The committee will review the facts and follow them wherever they lead.

On top of investigating Krasners office, the committee will also look into judges sentencing decisions and city halls spending on law enforcement, according to the same press release.

The committees formation grew out of a Republican-led effort to impeach Krasner, which came at the heels of San Francisco voters ousting their progressive prosecutor Chesa Boudin.

In mid-June, days after Boudins recall, three Pennsylvania Republican House representatives, Josh Kail, Torren Ecker, and Tim ONeal, started to solicit support to introduce Articles of Impeachment against Krasner.

Progressive Policies Blamed

ONeal told The Epoch Times in a previous interview that he thinks Krasners progressive prosecution policies directly led to the crime spree in Philadelphia.

This move to remove the liberal district attorney is a national movement. Chesa Boudin is certainly a good example of that. In Los Angeles, voters are also working to recall George Gascon. In Pennsylvania, we dont have recall elections. So the impeachment really is the method for removing a sitting elected official, he said.

Krasners signature policies include lowering the bar for diversion programs, no prosecution of a slew of low-level crimes, categorically downgrading certain charges to lower offenses, no cash bail recommendations for a wide range of misdemeanors and felonies, and reduced sentencing guidelines in plea bargains, according to a review of the offices policy memos.

The overarching goal of these policies is to drive down the number of people behind bars.

A pedestrian walks past bullet holes in the window of a store front on South Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 5, 2022. (Kriston Jae Bethel/AFP)

Danilo Burgos, one of the two Democrats to serve on the Committee on Restoring Law and Order, told The Epoch Times that he didnt think Krasners policies were the determining driver of the crime spree.

As a representative of the crime-ridden 197th district in North Philadelphia, Burgos has long held that a lack of investment is the ultimate driver of poverty and crime.

He acknowledged that his Republican colleagues do not see eye to eye with him on crime, but he said he is confident they can work together to find common-ground solutions.

I hope this committee isnt about a politician, and I disagree with the impeachment idea. Krasner was elected in a democratic process that we shouldnt be circumventing, Burgos said.

Issue of Accountability

Martina White, a Republican lawmaker representing the 170th district in Northeast Philadelphia, told The Epoch Times, All elected officials should be held accountable for their actions while in public office. If theres misbehavior in Krasners office, as it pertains to him abusing his prosecutorial discretion, that should be addressed.

All civil officials up to governor can be impeached for misbehavior in office, according to the Pennsylvania Constitution. The constitution grants the sole power to impeach elected civil officers to the House of Representatives. Following the impeachment by the House, the Senate must hold a trial, after which two-thirds of votes are required to convict.

Currently, Republicans hold a majority in both the State House and Senate. They need five non-Republican votes to reach the two-thirds threshold in the Senate.

The committee is expected to conduct investigations throughout the summer and produce a report in the fall, ahead of the November general election.

The Epoch Times reached out to Krasners office for comments but received no reply by press time. Krasner said in a June press release that the Republican-led impeachment effort was an attempt to overturn an election that they lost.

Historically, impeachment rarely succeeded in Pennsylvania state politics. The last successful impeachment happened in 1994 when state supreme court justice Rolf Larsen was removed from office for forging false medical subscriptions to hide his mental health problems. Before that, it was the year 1811 when district judge Thomas Cooper was removed from office.
The Industrial Park of Hoechst in Frankfurt, Germany, on June 23, 2022. Germany is in the process of activating an emergency plan for natural gas supplies to ward off a crisis this coming winter. Europes energy shortages are a direct consequence of the incremental acceptance of green ideological hogwashery since the 1960s. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Peter Stockland: The Tide May Be Turning on Progressivisms Ascension

Commentary

To serve up a mangled metaphor that fits our topsy-turvy times, the tide might be turning on self-identified progressivisms long march through the institutions.

Certainly, in the bigger picture, recent events signal more than a sea change of political seasons evident in indicators such as this weeks polling numbers showing Prime Minister Trudeaus bottomless fall from the updrafts of winged powers pinnacle (OK, OK, Ill stop).

True, close to half of Canadians surveyed in a Postmedia-Leger poll said the PM should resign before the next election (49 percent) or offered only the back-handed support of saying they didnt know what he should do (21 percent). More than 60 percent of those who participated in the online survey, conducted between June 30 and July 3, said the younger Trudeau has been a divisive force in Canada. Fifty-five percent disapprove of his performance, 32 percent strongly and 23 percent somewhat. A mere 17 percentabout one in six Canadiansthink hes made the country a better place.

When you take the results  in their entirety, one cant help but think the progressive coalition that elected Trudeau to his majority in 2015 and contributed to his back-to-back minorities is significantly strained, if not broken, Postmedia quoted Andrew Enns, an executive vice-president of Leger polling company.

Should the numbers hold, and Ennss nuanced prophecy actually prove prophetic, it would mean, of course, only that a new name will appear on Justin Trudeaus former office, and potentially that the furniture in the Prime Ministers Office will change to Tory blue from Liberal red. Obviously, that is not nothing. Au contraire, peaceful transition of power is the heart of our parliamentary, and therefore democratic, life. The genius of our system is providing new blood without spilling real blood.

But its one thing to shuffle the deckchairs of personality and partisanship. Its another to overturn ways of thinking that were entrenched before many current political actors were born. In past months, not one but two international events have unfolded that repudiate more than a half-century of such thinking. They may lead, with Canada the laggard as usual, to very different ways of affirming truth at the institutional, and consequentially personal, level.

The two events are environmental moralism running head first into the brick wall of the Russian bear (sorry) in Europe, and the prevarications of pro-choice legalism being swatted into non-existence by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs. Both promise to restore to our world what was once the enduring rule of public and private life: You cannot just make stuff up.

The long march of progressives through the institutions, enabled by their alternatively grim-faced and gleeful defiance of that ancient code, stands checked by restitution of the old order. We can wait in joyful hope for the checking to become a rout.

In Europe, the Putin invasion of Ukraine, with the devastating turmoil it has created for world energy markets, gives the lie to the sacramental professions of the green movement, which from its inception has shielded itself in a self-serving aura of moral purity. Whatever its illusions and delusions and nose-stretching, it could cavalierly spread the big lie everywhere that at least it was a force for good; the good, no less, of saving the planet.

Saving the planet, you say? How about saving the millions of Europeans at risk of freezing to death this winter because of energy shortages that are a direct consequence of the incremental acceptance of green ideological hogwashery since the 1960s? At a less urgent level, how about saving the faces of politicians across Europe currently kicking environmentalist nostrums to the curb in the rush to reactivate coal plants and nuclear power? Beyond that, just think how much of the worlds wasted time could have been saved if very real environmental concerns had been addressed from the last half of the 20th century until now with realism, pragmatism, equilibrium and, oh yeah, not making stuff up?

The same question arises out of the U.S. Supreme Courts Dobbs decision. Imagine the amount of time, energy, money, anger, hostility, polarization, and, yes, violence, would have been spared if Roe v. Wade had been answered honestly back in 1973, i.e., there is not, and never has been, a Constitutional right to abortion in American law, tradition, or history, and it is a matter for the states to democratically decide for themselves. Put another way, what world might we live in now if the Court, 49 years ago, had simply told the truth and not made stuff up?

Whether one is fervently pro-life, implacably pro-choice, or somewhere in the zone that says abortion when necessary but rarely necessarily abortion, even those with minimal historical awareness must agree it would be a far better world than what weve lived through since. It would, after all, have made progress itself genuine and pragmatic by requiring proof of its need rather than relying on lies to embed progressivism institutionally and privately.

Fortunately, the sands of time appear to be running out on the progressive tide. That alone is worth many a mangled metaphor, is it not?

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Catholic priest Franco Mella sits as he begins his three-day protest in which he pledged not to eat, outside Shek Pik Prison in Hong Kong on July 14, 2022. (Lam Yik/Reuters)

Priest Begins Protest Outside Hong Kong Prison Against Detentions of Activists

HONG KONGA Catholic priest launched a three-day protest on Thursday in sweltering heat outside a Hong Kong maximum security prison, demanding the release of activists and democratic politicians held under a sweeping national security law.

Milan-born missionary Franco Mella, a longtime rights activist in the Chinese-ruled city, vowed to refuse food as he stood on a dam wall overlooking the Shek Pik prison on an isolated stretch of Hong Kongs Lantau Island.

The 74-year-old, who took part in the mass pro-democracy protests in 2019 that roiled the global financial hub, told reporters Hong Kong people would be more confident in the future if authorities released the detained activists.

The weather is so hot. So they are suffering inside. And the messages (are) we are with you, dont lose hope. Lets continue to fight for everybodys freedom.

Mella pledged not to eat for the entire period of his action, a challenge made harder by temperatures of more than 30 degrees Celsius (86F).

The Hong Kong government did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

About 200 people have been arrested under the national security law since the Chinese communist regime imposed it on the former British colony in June 2020 to suppress the 2019 protests. Demonstrations have been small and rare since the law came into force, in part due to government COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings.

International critics, including some governments, have warned the law has been used to effectively silence opposition politicians, civil society, and some media groups.

Responding to Reuters questions on Thursday, a Hong Kong government spokesperson said all law enforcement action was based on evidence and carried out lawfully.

The top U.S. diplomat in Hong Kong on Monday warned that the crude and chilling use of law was threatening Hong Kongs long-standing role as financial centre.

The national security arrests condemned by Washington include that of another important Catholic figure in Hong Kong, 90-year-old Cardinal Joseph Zen.

Mella was among more than a dozen Christian representatives who publicly petitioned then-Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam in January to grant an amnesty to media tycoon Jimmy Lai and other political activists who are jailed or in custody.
On July 1, 2022, after the news went viral on social media, BANG BANG announced to cancel a celebratory event which was scheduled on July 21, 2022. (Photo of The White Horses)

Pro-CCP Restaurant Owners Planned to Celebrate on Hongkongers Day of Trauma

Owners finally canceled the celebration due to backlash

BANG BANG Oriental Foodhall, a food court owned by Hong Kong restaurateurs in North London, received backlash recently after the restaurant group announced in early July that it would hold its fifth-anniversary celebratory event on July 21.

The incident was greeted with surprise within the Hongkongers community in the United Kingdom, as July 21 is a sad day for many Hongkongers. Netizens suspicion was justified when it was later found that the food hall owners turned out to be related to Heung Yee Kuk NT (HYKNT), a powerful pro-establishment advisory body for rural villages and towns in the Hong Kong New Territories. The exposure of this information eventually led to the cancellation of the planned celebration.

Based on the information shared by a UK-Hongkonger group (The White Horses), the BANG BANG Oriental Foodhall in the north London Borough of Barnet opened its doors on July 10, 2017.

The White Horses were confused: why would the food court choose July 21, a rather sad day for Hongkongers, to celebrate their anniversary?

The fact that the event was planned to be held on July 21 raised a lot of suspicions.

The Hongkonger group and its followers began to wonder if the restaurant owners had any ill intention toward Hongkongers.

After further investigation, Hongkongers online uncovered the close relationships between the food court owners and HYKNT.

Spraying Salt on Hongkongers Wounds

July 21 is a yearly reminder of one of the most excruciating memories during the 2019 anti-extradition movement.

On July 21, 2019, over 500 men dressed in white ran inside the Yuen Long MTR station, armed with weapons such as bamboo sticks and pipes. The group, linked to Heung Yee Kuk, indiscriminately attacked passengers in the station.

No one anticipated the attack. Some people returned home after attending an assembly on Hong Kong Island that day. The triads in white were hitting every passenger they saw with their weapons. Many people were injured, including journalists, a LegCo councilor, and a pregnant woman. Millions of Hongkongers saw one of the terrifying events on a live stream. Many people did not understand why the group of men would beat up unarmed and innocent civilians.

Men in white T-shirts and carrying poles talk to riot police in Yuen Long after attacking anti-extradition bill demonstrators at the MTR station in Yuen Long, Hong Kong, on July 22, 2019. (REUTERS/Tyrone Siu)

Who was Responsible for the 721 Attack?

After the attack, local news agencies reported that the triad members in white shirts were called by an official of the Hong Kong Liaison Office. In leaked video footage, the official asked HYKNT members to drive out any protesters who would show up in Yuen Long that night.

Junius Ho Kwan-yiu, a member of the Legislative Council (LegCo), was recorded shaking hands with the attackers that evening. Ho is known for his Pro-CCP stance and connection with local triads.

In the video, Ho thanked and praised the white-clad attackers for a job well done. That same week, local triad members vandalized the grave site of Hos parents, as he failed to pay them in full for the job they did on July 21, 2019.

In the 721 Yuen Long Attack, civilians trapped in the MTR station called the police dozens of times. The police never responded. They shut their doors on the innocent citizens and hung up on anyone who called for help that night.

In a press conference, the media asked whether the Hong Kong Police Force had orchestrated the attack with the local gangsters. Although the police spokesperson denied the allegation, the press caught the police being friendly with men in white outside the HYKNT office in Yuen Long.

The White Horses followers believed that anyone who would celebrate such a traumatized day would be someone involved in the attack.

Bang Bang Owner is an HYKNT Member

The White Horses mentioned that Dynasty Group operates BANG BANG Oriental Foodhall. The owner of the group, Lam Du-ming, once served on the Overseas Advisory Committee of HYKNT. Lam is also a current member of the Heung Yee Kuk London Office.

The White Horses called Lam a thug for the Hong Kong government and the CCP, who always stands against Hongkongers.

Besides the food court, The White Horses also listed several dim-sum restaurants in which the Dynasty Group operates.

After the news went viral on social media, BANG BANG announced to cancel the scheduled event. They stated the reason to cancel was they had other public engagements on the said day, July 21, 2022.

The White Horses groups organizer said the group never intended to play detectives. However, they thought Hongkongers in the UK should know how bad CCP infiltration is. The group wanted to warn others to stay alert and away from the powerful influence the CCP has overseas.
A Texas mom of two miracle babies who were conceived one week apart in a very rare event has shared an update on her boys as they pass the 7-month mark, claiming that theyre such easy babies now, despite the rocky start.

At 7 months old, digital creator Cara Winholds baby Colson weighed a healthy 23 pounds (10.4 kg) and was wearing clothes for 18-month-old babies. His tiny twin brother, Cayden, weighed 18 pounds (8.1 kg) and wore clothes for 6- to 9-month-olds.

They both start doing things at different times, and its usually Cayden first, even though hes developmentally younger, Cara, 30, wrote on Facebook. But Colson is trying to start to crawl and stand while Cayden is just happy rolling everywhere.

Cara with her three children. (Courtesy of Cara Winhold)

Smiley, sociable Cayden is having fun and speaking his first words, Mama, Dada, and Baba, while serious, cautious Colson isnt even interested, said Cara. Colson loves to eat and is not picky, while his brother is content with the bottle.

Cara, who also has a 3-year-old son, Wyatt, with her husband, Blake Winhold, 33, found out she was pregnant in March 2021 after having three devastating miscarriages, with one having been a near-fatal experience for her when she almost bled out as the tissue had gotten stuck in her cervix and she needed two blood transfusions.

Cara underwent emergency surgery during this time in order to save her life. After this experience, she had to go to therapy in order to understand what she had just been through. Needless to say, Cara was afraid to conceive again.

Colson and Cayden. (Courtesy of Cara Winhold)

Seven weeks into her pregnancy, in April 2021, she and Blake were told there was a second baby. Cara remembers feeling happy, scared, and confused all at once.

When the tech told us there was another baby, we thought it was a joke at first, and laughed until we saw the super tiny sac up on the screen and heard his heartbeat, she told Fox 13. Once they left the room to give my husband and I some time to process, I just remember laying on the table and breaking down in tears.

Meanwhile, her husband was completely stoic on first learning the news.

He told me later he was in total shock and all he could think about was, How are we going to do this? Cara said.

Due to the size of the babies amniotic sacs, doctors determined they had been conceived one week apart, a phenomenon that can result from a process called superfetation, when a new or second pregnancy occurs during an initial pregnancy. A second egg is fertilized and implanted soon after the first conception, according to Healthline.

These babies are often considered twins, and may be born during the same labor.

I 100 percent believe it was a miracle, just because of everything that happened in my pregnancy journey, Cara told Daily Mail. I like to believe that it was my way of getting back the two babies that I lost and kind of them helping out in a way.

I cant think of any other explanation for having twins; it was 100 percent natural, and they dont run in my family. It was a total surprise.

Colson and Cayden were born six minutes apart, at 35 weeks and 2 days, on Oct. 25, 2021. Months later, at home in North Richland Hills, Texas, Cara is celebrating her twins amazing progress.

While the babies are fully aware of each other, 3-year-old Wyatt still amuses his parents by failing to tell his brothers apart.

Wyatt knows who Cayden is, wrote Cara. He thinks theyre both Cayden, actually; he knows there are two babies, but when you ask him what his brothers names are, he says Cayden and baby.'

The close-knit twins seek each other out when its time to sleep, said Cara. If one is crying, the other comforts him, and they have even started trying to share a pacifier. These sweet, funny moments are a far cry from the heartbreak of Caras journey to conceive.

She reflected: Life is definitely an adventure, and Im so grateful my job allows me not to miss it!

Share your stories with us at emg.inspired@epochtimes.com, and continue to get your daily dose of inspiration by signing up for the Inspired newsletter at TheEpochTimes.com/newsletter
U.S. Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) speaks during the Senate Finance Committee hearing on the nomination of Chris Magnus to be the next U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner, on Capitol Hill in Washington on Oct. 19, 2021. (Mandel Ngan/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Republican Sen. James Lankford Blocks Democrats Travel for Abortion Bill

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) on Thursday blocked a bill proposed by Democrats seeking unanimous consent to prevent pro-life states from restricting women from interstate travel to obtain an abortion.

Democrats proposed the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act of 2022 (pdf) legislation in response to, in some cases, the introduction of bills in some state legislatures, and in other cases, some draft bills proposed to lawmakers by special interest groups.

Lankfords office said in a release that the Democrats bill promoted traveling across state lines to obtain an abortion. Standing up to object to the proposed bill, Lankford poured water on some of the Democrats claims.

To be very clear: no state has banned interstate travel for adult women seeking to obtain an abortion. No state has done that, Lankford said on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

Lankford called the bill misinformation and said it was another effort to inflame and raise the what-ifs.

In bringing the bill to the Senate, Democrats cited reports in the Washington Post about Republican state legislators pursuing bills that would limit women from traveling interstate to access abortions.

Dismissing those concerns, Lankford noted that there are thousands of bills filed in the Senate, and how many of them are actually going to move? he asked.

Now, am I confident there are some people that are out there talking? Yes, he said, going on to note that those measures would protect females being trafficked.

So, while theres conversation about how to put a piece of legislation out that may very well protect individuals that are being trafficked to go to other states to get an abortion or all kinds of other issues that are there, he said, I come back to the most basic thingthere is a child in this conversation, and maybe this body should pay attention to children as well, and to wonder what their future could be to travel in the days ahead as well.

I look forward to the day when we are talking more about that little girl and less about misinformation. I object, he said.

Democrats Position

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) said that the bills and draft bills proposed by state legislators in certain states were blatantly unconstitutional.

Today, Republicans blocked vital legislation to protect women seeking critical health care, Cortez said in a statement. By objecting to my legislation, theyre allowing state legislators to reach across state lines to control not just what happens in their states, but what happens in every state across this country and to punish women for exercising their fundamental rights. Its absolutely outrageous. I wont stop fighting for womens freedom.

Democrats pointed to reports in the Washington Post that state lawmakers and conservative legal groups are drafting legislation to ban travel for abortion.

Although no law exists to ban travel for abortion, the Democratic senators sought to preemptively amend the law.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) echoed Mastos sentiments, accusing Republican lawmakers of ripping away the right to travel for women.

Lets be really clear what that means: they want to hold women captive in their own states. They want to punish womenand anyone who might help themfor exercising their constitutional right to travel within our country to get the services they need in another state, Murray said.

Masto and Murray introduced the proposed bill alongside Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), and a string of Democratic colleagues.
New U.S. citizens recite the Pledge of Allegiance during their naturalization ceremony at George Washingtons residence in Mount Vernon, Virginia, on July 4, 2022. (Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

RNC to Help Immigrants Prepare for Part of Naturalization Test

The Republican National Committee (RNC) announced on Thursday a new program to help immigrants prepare for the civics section of the naturalization test that is part of the process of legally obtaining U.S. citizenship.

The initiative is the latest in the committees efforts to reach out to potential future voters ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

Dubbed the Republican Civics Initiative, permanent legal residents seeking citizenship will be offered a 10-hour course divided into four sections.

Lawful permanent residents will learn basic U.S. civics and history based on questions that could appear on the civics portion of the naturalization test like When was the Declaration of Independence signed? and How many branches of government are there?' reads a press release from the RNC.

RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said the committee is growing the Republican Party through purposeful education and engagement.

Chair of the Republican National Committee Ronna McDaniel addressing the Republican National Convention at the Mellon Auditorium in Washington, on Aug. 24, 2020. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Our commitment to provide opportunities for all to live out the American dream is broadening our base because our ideas transcend all backgrounds, she said in a statement.

Unlike Democrats, Republicans do not take minority communities for granted and we will continue to work to earn each vote ahead of November.

Civics Curriculum

Training materials in the program are adapted from the civics curriculum of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). RNC staff who have received certification to be USCIS instructors will administer the course.

In addition to working with USCIS, the RNC will be working with nonprofits across the country, including Civics Fundamentals, as it delivers the civics curriculum, the RNC announced.

The first of the training courses was held on Thursday at the RNC Hispanic Community Center in Doral, Florida.

More training courses will be held in battleground states ahead of the midterms, including in Texas, Georgia, Nevada, California, Pennsylvania and more.

According to the RNC, as of January 2021, there are more than 9.2 million lawful permanent residents in the United States who are eligible to become citizens.
Secret Service Deleted Jan. 6 Text Messages: Inspector General

U.S. Secret Service text messages sent on the day the U.S. Capitol was breached were deleted, a watchdog said this week.

A number of texts from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021, were erased as part of a device-replacement program, Joseph Cuffari, the Department of Homeland Securitys inspector general, told lawmakers in a July 13 letter was obtained by The Epoch Times.

The department, or DHS, is the Secret Services parent agency.

The deletions were done after Cuffaris office (OIG) requested the records as part of its evaluation of the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to Cufarri, a Trump appointee.

Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the Secret Service, said in a statement that the insinuation that the Secret Service maliciously deleted text messages following a request is false.

The service in January 2021 started resetting mobile phones to factory settings as part of a pre-planned system migration, according to Guglielmi. In the process, data on some phones was lost.

DHS OIG requested electronic communications for the first time on Feb. 26, 2021, after the migration was well under way. The Secret Service notified DHS OIG of the loss of certain phones data, but confirmed to OIG that none of the texts it was seeking had been lost in the migration, the spokesman said.

Cuffari said that personnel from across DHS told inspectors from his office that they could not provide records directly to OIG without a review by government attorneys. That has led to a weeks-long delay in the watchdog obtaining records and created confusion over whether all records had been produced, he said.

Guglielmi challenged that allegation, saying the Secret Service has been fully cooperating.

The DHS did not respond to a request for comment.

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) in Washington on June 14, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Deeply Concerned

Cuffaris letter went to the chairmen and ranking members of the House of Representatives and Senate committees for homeland security.

I am deeply concerned by the letter I received from the DHS Inspector General documenting the Departments delays in producing materials to the Inspector General and its deletion of records following requests by the Inspector General. It is essential that the Department be transparent with its inspector general, Congress, and the American public, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement.

Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), who chairs the panel, and Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.), the top Republican on the House committee, did not respond to requests for comment.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chair of the House panel, and chair of the special committee investigating the Jan. 6 breach, declined to immediately comment.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a top former aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testifies during the sixth hearing by the House January 6 committee on the U.S. Capitol in the Cannon House Office Building in Washington on June 28, 2022. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Hutchinson

The revelation about the deleted messages comes after Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide, testified to Thompson and others on the special committee.

Hutchinson said that, according to a Secret Service agent she spoke to, then-President Donald Trump lunged at an agent and then the wheel in the car an agent was driving on Jan. 6.

The effort came because Trump was frustrated that the Secret Service refused to allow him to join supporters at the Capitol protest because the area had not been secured, the former Mark Meadows aide alleged.

Former Trump chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, who preceded Meadows, said he believed Hutchinson, but others cast doubt on the claim.

The story is sick and fraudulent, very much like the Unselect Committee itself, Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

The Secret Service has not yet publicly commented on the claims.

The secondhand story, among others Hutchinson told, would not have been allowed in a real court, attorney Wally Zimolong told The Epoch Times.

Its classic hearsay, he said.

Joseph Lord and Beth Brelje contributed to this report.
BOISE, Idaho, July 14, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Albertsons Companies, Inc. (NYSE: ACI) (the "Company") today announced its Board of Directors has declared a cash dividend for the second quarter of 2022 of $0.12 per share of Class A common stock. The cash dividend is payable on August 10, 2022, to stockholders of record as of the close of business on July 26, 2022.

About Albertsons Companies

Albertsons Companies is a leading food and drug retailer in the United States. As of February 26, 2022, the Company operated 2,276 retail stores with 1,722 pharmacies, 402 associated fuel centers, 22 dedicated distribution centers and 20 manufacturing facilities. The Company operates stores across 34 states and the District of Columbia with 24 banners including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's, Acme, Tom Thumb, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Pavilions, Star Market, Haggen, Carrs, Kings Food Markets and Balducci's Food Lovers Market. The Company is committed to helping people across the country live better lives by making a meaningful difference, neighborhood by neighborhood. In 2021, along with the Albertsons Companies Foundation, the Company contributed nearly $200 million in food and financial support, including approximately $40 million through our Nourishing Neighbors Program to ensure those living in our communities have enough to eat.

Important Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements regarding the Companys expectations, perspectives and projected financial performance, are forward looking statements. The words "expect," "believe," "estimate," "intend," "plan" and similar expressions, when related to the Company and its subsidiaries, indicate forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements are based on the Companys current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. The Company cautions that actual results could differ materially from the expectations described in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements include those related to the COVID-19 pandemic, about which there are still many unknowns, including the duration of the pandemic and the extent of its impact. The Company also cautions that undue reliance should not be placed on any of the forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. The Company undertakes no responsibility to update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this report or to reflect actual outcomes. Certain potential factors that could affect our business and financial results and cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements are described in the "Risk Factors" section or other sections in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on April 26, 2022, and in reports subsequently filed with the SEC and available at the SECs website at www.sec.gov.

Story continues

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220714005057/en/

Contacts

For Investor Relations, contact investor-relations@albertsons.com



For Media Relations, contact media@albertsons.com
The Premier of South Australia Peter Malinauskas (L) and Deputy Leader Susan Close (R) listening to the Governors speech for the opening of the South Australian Parliament in Adelaide, Kaurna Yerta, Tuesday, May 3, 2022. (AAP Image/Morgan Sette)

South Australia Joins Push for Ongoing Pandemic Payments

South Australia has joined eastern seaboard state leaders in calling on the federal government to reinstate pandemic leave payments, which ended on June 30.

This comes as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese defended his decision not to extend the pandemic leave payment, citing the trillion dollar debt his government inherited from the Morrison government.

Well give consideration to all of these issues, but we inherited these decisions, Albanese told reporters in Suva, Fiji, on July 15.

And thats something that was not our responsibility. There was enormous waste there in the budget, he said, adding that there are companies who are good employers who are providing sick leave payments.

The idea that no one is getting any sick leave at the moment, its just not the case. Good employers are recognising that people are continuing to work from home whilst they have COVID and are receiving, therefore, payments through that, he said.

Snap Cabinet Meeting

On Monday, July 18, state and territory leaders will meet with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in a snap national cabinet meeting to discuss extending the payment for workers needing to isolate after catching COVID-19.

Acting South Australian Premier, Susan Close, said she also expects some discussion about the continued free supply of rapid antigen tests to concession card holders, which the federal government will cease at the end of July.

But she did not indicate whether the state government would step in and provide the tests. The South Australian government already provides free tests to anyone regarded a close contact of a positive case.

We are expecting an interesting and lively discussion as the pandemic reaches yet another difficult phase, Close said on July 15.

South Australias Premier Peter Malinauskas is currently on leave but is expected to take a break from his holiday to attend the cabinet meetings.

States Respond to Albaneses Stance

Albanese has recently been under pressure over his governments refusal to continue pandemic leave payments.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said on July 15 that it would be unfair if the federal government were going to enforce seven days of isolation for positive COVID cases.

I think it is unfair that when the state imposes on people that restrict their liberty and their capacity to work for the government to not provide financial support and thats the issue, Perrottet said.

So if there werent public health orders in place, then I dont believe theres a need for the government to step in.

If the state is imposing those health orders, then the state should also be there to provide financial support to help people get through.

Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff said it was not the right time to end the payment.

Were all in this together. Tasmania is well and truly pulling our weight when it comes to supports for the community. We expect the federal government to do the same, Rockliff said.

However, Federal Health Minister Mark Butler, who said there would be millions of COVID-19 cases by the time winter ends, defended his governments decision to stop the pandemic payment, including the supply of free rapid antigen tests to concession-card holders from July 31.

This is the time it was intended to come off; this is the time it needs to come off  we are looking to do everything we can to reduce incidents of severe illness, he told ABC Radio National on July 15.

As you move to a new phase that doesnt have the same level of mandates around peoples behaviour  inevitably, you have to start looking at these very large emergency payments that have been coming out of the budget.

More than 47,000 positive COVID-19 cases were recorded in Australia on Thursday.

AAP contributed to this report.
Southwest Airlines, Union Ordered to Pay $5.3 Million to Pro-Life Former Flight Attendant

Christian employee resigned from union after learning her union fees were being spent to promote pro-abortion cause

A federal jury in Texas ordered Southwest Airlines and its union on July 14 to pay a former flight attendant who opposes abortion $5.3 million after she was fired for sending pro-life messages to her unions president.

The jury determined that the airline and Transport Workers Union of America (TWU) Local 556 violated Charlene Carters rights as an employee to speak out against the union. The airline was ordered to pay Carter $4.15 million for back pay, and pain and suffering. The union was ordered to pay Carter a separate $1.15 million, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation, which represented Carter in court, was elated at the verdict.

Its a good day for courage and its a good day for individual freedom and liberty. Its exciting. Its been a five-year odyssey for Charlene, and for our legal team, Mix told The Epoch Times in an interview.

Carters story goes back to 1996 when, as a Southwest employee, she joined TWU Local 556. A pro-life Christian, she resigned from the union in 2013 upon learning her union dues were being spent to promote social causes that violated her conscience and religious beliefs.

Despite exiting the union, Carter was still forced to pay fees in lieu of union dues as a condition of her employment. State-level right-to-work laws dont exempt her from forced fees because airline and railway employees fall under the federal Railway Labor Act (RLA), which allows union officials to have a worker fired for refusing to pay union dues or fees. Despite this, the RLA protects the rights of employees to remain nonmembers of the union, to criticize the union and its leadership, and to advocate for changing its leadership.

Pro-Abortion Event

When Carter discovered in 2017 that TWU Local 556 President Audrey Stone and other union officials used union dues to attend a pro-abortion event in the nations capital and that the company had accommodated local members wishing to attend by rearranging their work schedules, she took to social media to challenge Stones leadership. The airline demanded a meeting with Carter, informing her that Stone felt harassed by Carters issue advocacy.

A week later, the airline fired Carter. Not long after, Carter sued.

Mix said Carter objected to her forced union fees being used for political purposes such as attending a Planned Parenthood rally and the Womens March. She also didnt like that the union sent out notices to all union members saying they should oppose the national right to work law, which he said she supported.

Sponsored by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the proposed National Right-to-Work Act (S. 406), is currently pending in Congress. It would repeal provisions of the National Labor Relations Act and the Railway Labor Act that allow employers to make an agreement with a labor union to require employees to join that union as a condition of employment.

In this case, the union complained to the airline about Carters political views and got her fired, Mix said. Under current law, the employee is represented in grievance proceedings by the union when a firing takes place, he said.

Both the union and the employer are required to make accommodations for sincere religious beliefs, Mix said. The union was in breach of the duty of fair representation and this is the problem with union monopoly bargaining: when you have a dispute against the union, who do you go to to represent yourself in front of your employer?

This is one of those cases where Southwest for some reason decided to really go hard against Charlene, Mix said, adding she had no blemishes on her employment record.

The idea that the money shes compelled to pay in order to keep her job was used for political and ideological causes that have nothing to do with her workplace is really an injustice.

This is a pretty good indication that both companies and unions need to watch out if theyre going to violate employee rights, Mix said. If the cases go to jury trials, there is a punishment for that, and today we saw that.

Southwest Airlines officials didnt respond by press time to repeated requests by The Epoch Times for comment.
SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks during a conversation with legendary game designer Todd Howard (not pictured) at the E3 gaming convention in Los Angeles on June 13, 2019. (Mike Blake/Reuters)

SpaceX Starship Booster Probably Returning to Pad After Explosion: Elon Musk

WASHINGTONThe Starship rocket booster SpaceX plans to use for an inaugural flight to orbit will probably return to its launch mount in Texas next week following a testing explosion on Monday, the companys chief executive, Elon Musk, told Reuters.

Damage is minor, but booster will be transferred back to the high bay for inspections, returning to the launch stand probably next week, Musk said in an email.

The booster, the towering first half of SpaceXs next-generation Starship rocket system, was undergoing pre-launch tests on a stand on Monday when its engine section burst into flames, sending a shock wave miles across the South Texas facility.

SpaceX has launched early prototypes of Starships top half some 6 miles above ground a handful of times in the past, but never has the company launched the fully stacked, nearly 400 foot-tall rocket system to orbit, a significantly more challenging task.

The company has targeted the end of summer for the debut orbital flight, aiming to achieve a long-delayed pivotal milestone in the rockets development, but Mondays explosion called that timeline into question.

The Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees launch and rocket re-entry safety, said it was in close contact with SpaceX following the explosion, but that it would not open a formal investigation because the incident did not occur during a formal launch campaign.

Musk, SpaceXs founder and chief engineer, has previously said the space company will wheel the rocket booster back to its hangar for a closer inspection of its 33 rocket engines, called Raptors.

Musk posted on Twitter Wednesday that the orbital Starship test could fly as soon as next month if testing goes well.

Starship is the centerpiece of Musks aim to ferry humans and cargo to the moon and Mars. The rocket was picked by NASA last year to send the first crew of astronauts to the surface of the moon since the U.S. Apollo program.

SpaceX has developed Starship at its sprawling Boca Chica, Texas, facilities, and in the future plans to launch the rocket from the companys operational launch pads in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

By Joey Roulette
Starbucks CEO Admits Stores No Longer Safe in Major US Cities

The head of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, admitted that the chains stores are no longer safe in a number of major U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, Portland, Philadelphia, and Washington.

American cities have abdicated their responsibility in fighting crime, Schultz said in a video published this week.

I must say, in my view at the local, state and federal level, these governments across the country and leaders, mayors and governors, city councils have abdicated their responsibility in fighting crime and addressing mental health, Schultz said.

A company spokesperson confirmed that it would shut down 16 locations in Seattle, Los Angeles, Portland, Philadelphia, and Washingtonall of which are run by Democrats.

It has shocked me that one of the primary concerns that our retail partners have is their own personal safety, Schultz said in the video during a recent internal company meeting. America has become unsafe. The recent closures, he said, are just the beginning and there are going to be many more.

I dont have to spend too much time on whats going on in the country and how America has become unsafe, Schultz said. But you all read the press release last couple of days about the fact that we are beginning to close stores that are not unprofitable.

Company officials also heard the stories that go along with it about what happens in our bathrooms; the issue of mental illness, the issues of homelessness and the issues of crime, Schultz said.

Business Decisions

Starbucks sent out a letter to its employees on Monday, promising to improve their experience while on the job. That memo was disseminated before a spokesperson announced the closure of locations.

FILE PHOTO: Starbucks cups on a counter in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, on Feb. 16, 2022. (Reuters/Carlo Allegri)

Safety, welcoming and kindness for our stores. In a world that is increasingly isolating and often divided, we can operate in a way that knits together the fabric of our neighborhoods, the memo states. We can expect to protect each other, respect and include each other, and work together to create the kind of safe and welcoming environment we need at work.

The company will also give store managers the authority to close down bathrooms or limit seating options amid safety concerns, the spokesperson told news outlets earlier this week.

Last month, Schultz announced he would consider ending the companys open bathroom policy to provide a safe environment for our people and our customers.

We have to harden our stores and provide safety for our people, the executive added. I dont know if we can keep our bathrooms open.

Earlier this week, 7-Elevens corporate headquarters encouraged local franchises in Los Angeles to shut down after five armed robberies at locations in the area left two people dead.

Schultz, who spent decades as the chief executive of the coffee chain, was named interim CEO in April. With an estimated worth of about $3.8 billion, Schultz was long associated with the Democratic Party before becoming an independent in 2019. He endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016.

The Epoch Times has contacted Starbucks about Schultzs comments.
Nearly 100 middle school students set up a chain to protest at the gate of the School to support a female teacher, who was not renewed by the school because she did not stop students from playing "Glory to Hong Kong" during the music examination. June 14, 2020. (Sung Pi-lung/The Epoch Times)

Study Tours: United Front Work Extended to Hong Kong Secondary School Students

Commentary

On July 7, which was the 85th anniversary of the humiliating Marco Polo Bridge Incident, the Education Bureau (EDB) took the opportunity to announce the mainland study tour scheme under the new subject of Citizenship and Social Development (CSD). The scheme allows students to experience the history and culture of China and its latest developments. (from Facebook of Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin).

The 57-page document says that all students are required to go to mainland China once during their three years of study in the subject, and all expenses are paid by EDB. 21 trips ranging from two to five days are offered to schools.

Students read in their classroom in the Yang Dezhi Red Army elementary school in Wenshui, Xishui County in Guizhou Province, China, on Nov. 7, 2016. In 2008, Yang Dezhi was designated a Red Army primary schoolfunded by Chinas red nobility of revolution-era communist commanders and their families, one of many such institutions established across the country. Such schools are an extreme example of the patriotic education Chinas Communist Party promotes to boost its legitimacybut critics condemn it as little more than brainwashing. (Fred Dufour/AFP via Getty Images)

Study tour is an essential tool of the united front work of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Reports of industrial and business tours to Beijing could be seen in the press on the eve of the Sino-British negotiation. One of the earliest tours for academia after the founding of communist China was organized in 1955 by Chan Kwan-Po, a professor of the Chinese Department of the University of Hong Kong, and was received by Premier Zhou Enlai.

In the 1970s, such mainland tours became popular among university students; a widely known example is that Carrie Lam, Lee Wing-tat, and Sin Chung-kai joined the same tour to Tsinghua University then. When I was an HKU student in the late 1980s, I joined tours to Beijing and Guangzhou, designed and accompanied by the Hong Kong Xinhua News Agency staff, the precursor to the Hong Kong Liaison Office.

As time goes by, the CCPs united front work extends to the grassroots and now comes to secondary school students and is made mandatory.

Since it is mandatory and each tour will be huge as there are as many as 170 students in each grade in every school, I believe such tours will only offer standard itinerary items without any exciting experiences. How exciting could it have been? I was told by a friend who joined a teacher exchange tour that one night the host took all the Hong Kong teachers to a nightclub to show off the local socialist construction achievements; some female teacher participants could not bear such cultural shock and cried, but to no avail as they were requested by the school principal to respect the arrangements made by the host. In my trip to Tsinghua, we were invited to a karaoke club on campus.

Speaking of Tsinghua, why are the CSD study tour destinations confined to four provinces, namely Guangdong, Fujian, Henan and Guizhou, but not Beijing? There is nowhere more effective than going to Beijing to fulfill the superimposed tasks of scraping the bone and treat the poison (gua gu liao du, a Chinese metaphor for removing unpatriotic education) by gaining first-hand experience in the capital of our socialist motherland. Think about it: it takes seven hours to Guizhou by high-speed rail, and only two more hours to get to Beijing. Why not go to the best place if one has to visit anyway?

To be fair, the design of these study tours is reasonable. Reasonable does not mean free of brainwashing. The CSD curriculum explicitly disallows the adoption of positive and negative dichotomy andas expectedemphasizes positive value, so the curriculum design aims to let students think from a single perspective. Reasonable means that there is no blatant insertion of communism-related stuff, except understanding the history of the development of the CCP under the item Zunyi Meeting site in the Guizhou tour, while other tours cover heritage items of the late Qing Dynasty, Republic of China, and communist China achievements.

It is interesting to note that EDB officials may not have had a full grasp of the itineraries as listed in the document. An example concerns Shamian complex in Guangzhou and Kulangsu in Xiamen. For the former, the document states that students are to visit Shamian, which was once a British and French concession, and see the European-style architectures, through which to understand foreign encroachment in China at the time and homeland security as an indispensable part of maintaining national security. For the latter, it merely states that students are to appreciate the classical Chinese and Western buildings on the island and learn about their architectural features.

As Hong Kong government now never misses a chance to talk about imperialism in the past and national security, the lack of mention about Kulangsus shameful history may imply the EDB officials ignorance of it an international settlement, with 13 countries having their consulates there.

All media, including the leftist ones, ignored the fact that the document gives equal weight to the CSD curriculum and the national security education framework when describing every single tour. In other words, it is more proper to name them as CSD and national security education tours.

The about 400 secondary schools in Hong Kong will send more than forty thousand students to the mainland under the scheme each year. For such a large number of tours, no matter how strictly controlled the plan is, the unexpected may always happen, as there is a popular saying in China that plans cannot keep up with change. What interesting things will be waiting for them? Something like the recent Henan bank protest? Or another June Fourth Massacre?

I hope that all students can see the real communist China using their inner eyes.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Police crime scene tape closes off a parking area following a shooting at a 7-Eleven store in Brea, Calif., on July 11, 2022. (Eugene Garcia/AP Photo)

2 Suspects Arrested in Probe of Deadly 7-Eleven Shootings

LOS ANGELESAuthorities said Friday that two suspects have been arrested in a series of deadly robberies at Southern California 7-Eleven convenience stores where two people were killed and three wounded.

The Orange County District Attorneys Office announced the arrests on social media. A press conference is scheduled for 5 p.m. No other details were immediately available.

Police have been seeking a masked gunman suspected of robbing six Southern California stores. It was not immediately clear who the second person arrested was.

The attacks took place on July 11or 7/11, the day when the company celebrates its anniversary. However, investigators havent said whether the date may have played a role in the attacks.

Officials investigate after officers found two victims with gunshot wounds following a robbery at a 7-Eleven in La Habra, Calif., on July 11, 2022. (Paul Bersebach/The Orange County Register via AP)

A clerk, Matthew Hirsch, 40, was shot and killed at a Brea store, and Matthew Rule, 24, was gunned down in the parking lot of a Santa Ana store during a five-hour string of holdups.

Hirschs father, Jim Hirsch, told The Associated Press that his son had gotten sober more than a year ago after a longtime drug addiction. He had landed a stable job working overnight shifts at the Brea location, lived with his girlfriend in a nearby apartment and spoke to his father every day.

He hadnt had time to enjoy a normal life, his father said. He goes through a struggle for goodness and it ends in a shooting.

Police in Ontario, Upland, Riverside, and La Habra have said they believe the 7-Eleven robberies there also are linked.

A customer was shot in the head and gravely wounded at a Riverside store, and two people, one of them a clerk, were shot in La Habra but were expected to survive.

Russell Browning was shot in the face as he sat in his car outside the La Habra store, he told FOX 11. Browning said he saw the suspect and the clerk come out of the store.

He was taller than my car, so I didnt get a good look at him. And then all of a sudden, he just lifted the gun and shot, he told the TV station.

The Riverside shooting victim was identified by his family as Jason Harrell, 46. He was breathing on his own and was no longer in a coma, his brother David Makin told KNBC-TV earlier this week.

Both of the La Habra victims were released from a hospital on Wednesday, KNBC-TV reported.

The 7-Eleven convenience store chain on Wednesday offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the masked gunman. It was not immediately clear whether anyone had called police with tips that led to the two arrests.

By Stefanie Dazio and Brian Melley
Sydney Opera House Gets a Facelift

During the two years of concert cancellations amid a pandemic, the Sydney Opera House has undergone extensive renovations and will be ushering in a new epoch before turning 50 next year.

Sydneys World Heritage landmark will be unveiling a historic transformation of its largest performance space, the Concert Hall, to the public on July 20.

The facelift is the largest and final project in the Opera Houses decade-long upgrade before its 50th anniversary.

The renovation is funded by the New South Wales (NSW) government and will total almost A$300 million (around US$202 million).

Reinstalling the 2,000 chairs in the Concert Hall auditorium. (Anna Kucera)

Minister for the Arts Ben Franklin described the Concert Hall as the beating heart of the Opera House whose upgrade will secure our nations most significant cultural icon for the next generation.

Sydney Opera House CEO Louise Herron AM said that she was excited for performers and audiences to experience the enhanced acoustics from the new installations.

Artists and audiences are set to experience world-class acoustics in a venue that is more accessible, safer and better equipped to present the full breadth of 21st-century performance, she said.

We have been working towards this moment for a long time and are incredibly grateful to the NSW Government and to everyone else involved in making this once-in-a-lifetime project possible.

Cutting-Edge Acoustics and Improved Accessibility

Since the venue closed for renovations in Feb. 2020, hundreds of construction workers, acousticians, architecture, and heritage experts have installed 18 new magenta petal acoustic reflectors above the stage that synchronise with the music being placed.

Sydney Symphony Orchestra testing the acoustics in the new Concert Hall at the Sydney Opera House. (Daniel Boud)

The stage has also been lowered by 400mm to improve the line of sight for audiences and create more intimacy between artists and audiences.

For the first time, a new lift and passageway will be available for wheelchair users and people with limited mobility to independently access all levels of the Concert Hall. The number of accessible seating will also be doubled.

The make-over will be unveiled on Wednesday with a performance by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO).

Concertmaster of SSO Andrew Haveron said that the place where an orchestra performs is just as important as the instruments and musicians that are on stage.

It shapes the way we sound and how an audience experiences live performances with us, he said.

Every great orchestra around the world has a symbiotic relationship with their home venuethey become synonymous with the space.

The extraordinary acoustic improvement of the Sydney Opera House Concert Hallwhich has far exceeded any of our expectations means that finally, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra can be heard at its finest!
How a group of architects classical designs became the blueprint for Washington, D.C.

The Capitol ought to be upon a scale far superior to anything in this Country. George Washington to Thomas Jefferson in 1792

James Hoban was born in 1762, in Callan, Ireland. As a boy, he was an apprentice to a carpenter and a wheelwright. He later trained in the neoclassical style of architecture at the Dublin Society School. Just after the Revolutionary War, Hoban immigrated to South Carolina. There, he designed the old state Capitol building in Columbia. At the suggestion of George Washington, Hoban entered the competition for the design of the Presidents House in 1792. Not only did he win the design competition, but he received the commission to build the house as well.

The Capitol dome at dusk. Architect of the Capitol

The architectural design for the White House by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, 1807.Public Domain)

The Presidents House in America was inspired by Leinster House in Dublin, where the Irish Parliament meets, as well as by James Gibbss Book of Architecture (published in 1728). The presidential mansion would be constructed between 1793 and 1801. At the same time, James Hoban was also enlisted as one of the supervisors of the construction of the United States Capitol.

A drawing of the dome with elevation markers by Thomas U. Walter, 1859. Pen, ink, and watercolor. (Architect of the Capitol)

Cross section of the revised dome design for the Capitol building by Thomas U. Walter, 1859. Pen, ink, and watercolor. (Architect of the Capitol)

The Capitol was the design of physician and amateur architect Dr. William Thornton. He won the design competition in 1793. The prize was $500 and a building lot in the new federal city. Thornton had been born in the British West Indies and studied medicine at the University of Aberdeen. He became a United States citizen in 1787, moved to Washington in 1794, and was later appointed head of the Patent Office by Thomas Jefferson.

The design for the Corinthian columns by Thomas U. Walter, 1859. Pen, ink, and watercolor. (Architect of the Capitol)

Drawings by Thomas U. Walter depict the details of the inner dome. (Architect of the Capitol)

The north wing of the Capitol was constructed first. The Capitol and the Presidents House were both built of Aquia Creek sandstone, quarried near Stafford, Virginia. The government-owned quarry provided most of the stone for the early construction in Washington. Though the soft, porous rock was not ideal for constructing great public buildings, it was a wise and economical choice at the time. Rising above a pastoral landscape, the Presidents House and the Capitol represented the promise of the new republic.

The original design for the Washington Monument by Robert Mills, 1846. (Public Domain)

On August 24, 1814, British troops marched into Washington and set fire to both the Presidents House and the Capitol Building. Fortunately, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, who actually supervised the building of the Capitol, had specified fireproof materials inside. Though ravaged by fire, the structure remained

The Peace Monument was erected in 1878 by Franklin Simmons to commemorate naval deaths during the Civil War. The personification of Grief mourns on the shoulder of History, with Victory standing beneath. (dkfielding/iStock/Getty Images Plus 119)

An architectural stone design on the grounds of the Capitol, by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. (Architect of the Capitol)

This article was originally published in American Essence magazine.
Tony Blair Proposes Digital ID to Tackle Illegal Immigration

The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change has recommended that the government takes advantage of new technologies to introduce a digital identity-verification system in a new report on fixing the asylum system in the UK.

The proposal follows that 4,540 people from January to March 2022 were recorded arriving in small boats reaching the UK across the English Channel. Also in 2021, the number of overall asylum applications reached 48,540, the highest number since 2003, though still just over half the peak of 2002.

Digital Identification

In the report, called Fixing the Asylum System: A Workable Plan (pdf), the former UK Labour Prime Ministers non-profit organisation set out a plan that included a systematic focus on clearing asylum-case backlogs, speeding up processing and as well as deterring dangerous boat journeys by negotiating an agreement with the E.U.

The Institute also suggested dealing with the demand side of irregular migration with a system of digital identification for all citizens. This would ensure that those who want to work and access benefits will need to be able to demonstrate they have a legal right to reside.

We recommend that the government takes advantage of new technologies to introduce a digital identity-verification system, the report wrote.

This would combine some aspects of a traditional physical identity card with the functionality to digitally authenticate users with employers and government services, and issue digital signatures on necessary documents, it added.

Polling conducted by J.L. Partners for the Tony Blair Institute also claimed that a significant majority of the population were in favour of introducing a form of digital ID verification to make it harder for asylum seekers whose claims had been rejected to work and settle. Fifty-five percent polled were in favour and 28 percent were opposed.

While such a system would represent a shift from the status quo, it is less of a leap in a world where citizens are increasingly used to verifying their status, particularly post-pandemic (with millions having already been required to demonstrate proof of vaccination in order to travel), it concluded.

Labours Identity Cards Bill

Blair has long sought to bring in plans for ID cards. Labours Identity Cards Bill was introduced into the House of Commons by the government in 2004. But following a change of government in 2010, the Identity Documents Act 2010 was passed by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition government. The Act cancelled ID cards and enabled the disposal of information recorded in the national identity register (pdf).

The former PM was vocal in wanting to introduce digital ID during coronavirus.

In June 2021, a paper by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, called for a globally interoperable system of health passes that is usable both by national border authorities and other organisations within countries.

The paper were putting out today is saying we should really distinguish between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, Blair said at the time.

The paper called for the government to allow businesses and organizations to operate with no restrictions if they restrict entry to those who have been fully vaccinated or have had a recent negative lateral flow test.

Large public-private initiatives on digital ID include the World Banks ID4D programme and ID2020.

Lily Zhou contributed to this report.
A sign is posted on the exterior of Twitter headquarters in San Francisco, on April 27, 2022. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Twitter Reinstates Doctor It Suspended for Sharing Study That Shows Pfizer Vaccine Impacts Semen

Twitter reinstated a doctor it recently suspended for sharing a study that showed Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine impacts semen.

Dr. Andrew Bostom was informed late July 14 that access to his account was restored.

After further review, we have unsuspended your account as it does not appear to be in violation of the Twitter Rules, the message from Twitter stated.

Bostom told The Epoch Times in an email that his account never should have been suspended.

Twitters arbitrary COVID-19 Lysenkoism must cease, permanently, if it is to be considered a true free speech platform for the sharing of information, and ideas, he said.

Twitter did not respond to a request for comment.

Study

Researchers in Israel discovered that men who received Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine experienced a reduction in motile count, or number of sperm, sperm concentration, and semen volume.

Their research was published by Andrology following peer review.

The decline in sperm and semen was described by Dr. Itai Gat as temporary, but a table in the study showed that while the semen volume bounced back over 145 days after the vaccine, sperm concentration and total motile count were nowhere near the pre-vaccination levels.

Bostom, with the Brown University Center For Primary Care and Prevention, shared the study on Twitter on June 19.

Twitter permanently suspended him, citing an alleged violation of its policy against spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19.

Legal Threat

James Lawrence III, a lawyer representing Bostom, sent Twitter a letter on July 14 warning of legal action if Bostoms account was not restored.

Dr. Bostom did not violate Twitters policy. At a minimum, nothing in our clients tweet was demonstrably false or misleading, nor was it likely to impact public safety or cause serious harm,' Lawrence wrote, citing Twitter policy.

Dr. Bostom tweeted findings from a peer-reviewed study, and he summarized its content within the 280 character limit Twitters platform allows, he added.

Lawrence said Twitter violated its five-strikes policy on suspending accounts that supposedly spread COVID-19 misinformation and pointed to a recent case he brought on behalf of journalist Alex Berenson, where the judge said Twitter did not follow its rule when it banned Berenson.

Lawrence asked for an account restoration by July 21.

While our client trusts that litigation will be unnecessary in this case, he is prepared to sue Twitter if necessary, Lawrence said.

Hours later, Twitter restored the account.

Your account is now unsuspended. We appreciate your patience and apologize for any inconvenience, Twitter wrote to Bostom.

Berenson

Berenson, a prominent critic of COVID-19 vaccines, reached a settlement with Twitter in early July and was reinstated on July 6.

Berenson was assured by a Twitter executive that he wasnt in danger of being suspended but was anyways, according to court documents.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup, a Clinton appointee, said in a ruling rejecting Twitters attempt to dismiss the lawsuit that Berenson plausibly avers that Twitters conduct here modified its contract with plaintiff and then breached that contract by failing to abide by its own five-strike policy and its specific commitments set forth through its vice president.

Berenson, before Bostom was reinstated, asked Twitter why the doctor had been suspended.

Bostoms post looks like an entirely factual and accurate description of the Israeli study on sperm counts post-mRNA vaccination, Berenson wrote on Twitter. He later posted his own summary of the study, and was not punished.

Bostom thanked Lawrence and Berenson for their efforts.

Berenson called the restoration another huge victory for Twitter users.

Each time Twitter backs down, it acknowledges fair enforcement of those rules is integral to its terms of service and opens the door wider to breach-of-contract lawsuits for violating them. Unless it tosses its rules entirely it has no choice but to enforce them honestly, he added.
Evergold Corp.

TORONTO, July 14, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Evergold Corp. (Evergold or the Company) (TSX-V: EVER, OTC: EVGUF). The Company announces that notwithstanding a strong cash position of approximately $1.9 million, cost concerns and exceptionally poor market conditions necessitate postponing the planned drill program at the remote but promising Golden Lion project in north-central B.C. Construction this summer of a bridge and extension of the road north across the Toodoggone River to Thesis Golds adjacent Ranch project will provide drive-on access to within kilometres of the GL1 Main Zone target, reducing the requirement for helicopters and decreasing costs for the next phase of drilling at Golden Lion, which will now take place when conditions allow. Tempting new targets are emerging from recent fieldwork at both the Companys Holy Cross, B.C. and Rockland, Nevada properties, and first-ever drilling at the drive-on, year-round accessible Holy Cross Property, is being considered for September this year. A drill permit for Rockland is anticipated in the August-September timeframe.



Market Conditions:

Market conditions in the junior mining and exploration space have deteriorated as 2022 has progressed, and are presently as challenging as they have been in a generation. Market trading volumes are exceptionally low, investors have an overriding risk off attitude, are not responding to positive news, and available capital is limited. In this difficult environment management is conserving capital and operating with a heightened degree of caution.

Golden Lion Property, GL1 Main Zone Target

Over the past several years the Company has advanced the GL1 Main Zone target area with successive programs of geochemistry, geophysics (magnetic and induced polarization (IP) surveys), geological mapping, drilling and 3D-modeling, to the point where it has been demonstrated to extend along some 2.7 kms of strike, to have system true widths exceeding 100 metres, and to consist of a broad envelope of shallow, low-to-moderate grade Au-Ag mineralization, locally encompassing high grades over underground-style widths (see news, November 16, 2021, and January 17, 2022).

Story continues

The project warrants a substantial next phase of drilling that is both large enough to materially advance geological understanding, and large enough also to drive down costs per metre of drilling, which are presently high given the helicopter-accessible-only location and relatively small scale of the Companys drill programs to date. Exploration costs should significantly decline with the construction by other operators of a new bridge this summer over the Toodoggone River, and extension of the road north across the river to Thesis Golds nearby Ranch camp. The Company intends to take advantage of these improvements to local infrastructure to return to the GL1 Main zone target, operating at lower cost, when conditions allow.

Holy Cross Property

The 100% owned Holy Cross Au-Ag property, located in central B.C. south of Fraser Lake, has been held by the Company since its founding, has drive-on access (skid-mounted drills can be used, helicopters are not required), is largely treeless and has moderate topography. Moreover, hotel accommodation is available in nearby Fraser Lake, eliminating the need for an on-site camp. For all these reasons exploration dollars go much further, and costs per metre drilled are low.

The property hosts a robust siliceous and pyritic alteration system and carries silver, gold, and copper values over a large area that is underlain by felsic volcanic and/or high-level intrusive rocks. The alteration and mineralization are closely associated with the felsic rocks, which are interbedded with subordinate feldspar phyric volcanic rocks of intermediate composition, conglomerate and fine-grained sedimentary rocks. Work by the Company and previous operators, including IP, magnetic, and audio-magnetotellurics (AMT) surveys, along with mapping and rock and soil geochemical sampling completed earlier this year, has revealed attractive coincident geochemical and geophysical anomalies. The Company plans to carry out an additional roughly 30 line-km induced polarization survey in July or August, preparatory to finalizing drill targets, with drilling to be carried out later in the field season. Further details will be announced when plans are complete.

Rockland, Nevada Property

The Company has methodically advanced the Rockland, Nevada Au-Ag property, optioned in 2021, using a spectrum of exploration techniques including soil and rock geochemical sampling, drone-borne magnetics in 2021 and, in 2022, a 21 line-km controlled-source audio-magnetotellurics (CSAMT) survey, a 14 line-km IP survey, and hyperspectral sampling of select historical reverse circulation (RC) drilling chip samples to help determine alteration mineralogy. Much of this work has been focused on the Rockland East area and is currently being modelled in three dimensions. Both the CSAMT and IP survey have returned intriguing results, including attractive new coincident chargeability and resistivity anomalies of significant scale that are complemented by surface showings and geochemical anomalies. A draft plan of operations for Phase 1 drilling at Rockland East is currently under review by permitting authorities. Permit receipt is anticipated for August or September.

Evergold has several very fine property assets that have the potential to make shareholders money in the medium term, says Kevin Keough, President & CEO. In the meantime, we must manage through the current really tough markets. This entails husbanding our capital, and deploying what we have to maximum advantage. We will provide a further update on plans, including proposed drilling at Golden Lion and Holy Cross, as the summer progresses.

Quality Assurance and Quality Control

Charles J. Greig, P.Geo., a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical information in this news release.

About Evergold

Evergold Corp. is a Canadian explorer with four wholly-owned precious metals projects in B.C. (Golden Lion, Holy Cross, Snoball and Spanish Lake), and a single project under option in Nevada (Rockland). Company management is proven, with a track record of exploration success, most recently the establishment of GT Gold Corp. in 2016 and the discovery (see SEDAR / news, July 25 and Dec. 15, 2017 respectively) of the Saddle South epithermal vein and Saddle North porphyry copper-gold deposits near Iskut B.C., which hold more than 20 million ounces of gold equivalent in all categories (Saddle North NI 43-101 Technical Report, August 20, 2020). GT Gold was acquired in 2021 by Newmont Corporation.

For additional information, please contact:

Kevin M. Keough

President and CEO

Tel: (613) 622-1916

www.evergoldcorp.ca

kevin.keough@evergoldcorp.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 Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release includes certain forward-looking statements which are not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking statements include estimates and statements that describe the Companys future plans, objectives or goals, including words to the effect that the Company or management expects a stated condition or result to occur. Forward-looking statements may be identified by such terms as believes, anticipates, expects, estimates, may, could, would, will, or plan. Since forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Although these statements are based on information currently available to the Company, the Company provides no assurance that actual results will meet managements expectations. Risks, uncertainties and other factors involved with forward-looking information could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, the Companys objectives, goals or future plans, statements, exploration results, potential mineralization, the estimation of mineral resources, exploration and mine development plans, timing of the commencement of operations and estimates of market conditions. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to failure to identify mineral resources, failure to convert estimated mineral resources to reserves, the inability to complete a feasibility study which recommends a production decision, the preliminary nature of metallurgical test results, delays in obtaining or failures to obtain required governmental, environmental or other project approvals, political risks, inability to fulfill the duty to accommodate First Nations and other indigenous peoples, an inability to predict and counteract the effects of COVID-19 on the business of the Company, including but not limited to the effects of COVID-19 on the price of commodities, capital market conditions, restrictions on labour and international travel and supply chains, uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, changes in equity markets, inflation, changes in exchange rates, fluctuations in commodity prices, delays in the development of projects, capital and operating costs varying significantly from estimates and the other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry, and those risks set out in the Companys public documents filed on SEDAR. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law.




Twitter Suspends Pro-Abortion Group Publicizing Justices Home Addresses

After two months of protests outside the homes of conservative justices, Twitter suspended on Thursday the activist group that had leaked their residential addresses.

Ruth Sent Us, a pro-abortion group named after the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, publicized in May a map containing the locations of the six GOP-appointed Supreme Court justices residences on its website, before inciting far-left activists to protest there. It was in the wake of a leaked draft majority opinion from the high court to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion decision, which had granted a federal right to abortion nationwide since 1973.

Our 6-3 extremist Supreme Court routinely issues rulings that hurt women, racial minorities, LGBTQ+ and immigrant rights, the group claimed online at the time. We must rise up to force accountability using a diversity of tactics.

Since then, leftist groups have targeted and walked by the homes of Justices John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.

Although Ruth Sent Us said it was committed to non-violence, many protesters yelled obscenities at justices and their families. The online publicity has already led to a would-be attacker being arrested for attempted murder near Kavanaughs house, who had brought a firearm and ammunition after finding the justices address online.

Ruth Sent Us then highlighted on Twitter the daily routine of justices on the morning of June 8, including Barretts church and the school her children attend.

If youre in the DC metro area, join us. Our protests at Barretts home moved the needle to this coverage, the group said in a June post, which has since been deleted. Falls Church is a People of Praise stronghold. She sends her seven kids to a People of Praise school that she sat on the Board of Directors for. She attends church DAILY, the post reads.

The group had also pushed for protestors via Twitter to disrupt Catholic masses on Mothers Day.

Twitter did not specify which post was the last straw that touched its red line, but such moves appeared to breach the platforms official policy that prohibits doxxing.

You may not publish or post other peoples private information without their express authorization and permission. We also prohibit threatening to expose private information or incentivizing others to do so, the rules state.

Protesters march past Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaughs home in Chevy Chase, Maryland on June 8, 2022. (Nathan Howard/Getty Images)

Conservative critics have questioned the fair enforcement of Twitters policy of banning those who purportedly incite violence. Former President Donald Trump was permanently banned from the platform two days after the Jan. 6 Capitol breach for arguing the 2020 election was not legitimate.

When the Supreme Court handed down the reversal of Roe v. Wade at the end of June, Ruth Sent Us reposted a map on its website listing the justices home addresses, suggesting a new round of onsite demonstrations.

Although Facebook banned the group from its platform soon after the reversal, their new account still functioned as recently as this week.

Were starting fresh here, but were on week 10 of sustained protests at the Justices homes, and were growing and adapting. Please share widely! the group stated via its new page on Monday.
People walk past Big Ben at the Houses of Parliament in London, on July 15, 2022. (Dominic Lipinski/PA Media)

UK Met Office Issues First Red Warning for Extreme Heat

The UKs Met Office has issued its first ever red warning for extreme heat, as it warned of a potentially very serious situation in parts of England that could pose a risk to life.

During the ongoing heatwave that is set to peak on Tuesday, the Met Office said, there is an 80 percent chance of the mercury topping the UKs record temperature of 38.7C (101.7F) set in Cambridge in 2019, and there is a 50 percent chance of temperatures reaching 40C somewhere in the UK.

The red warning, the first of its kind ever issued, covers an area from London up to Manchester and then up to the Vale of York, said Met Office spokesman Grahame Madge, adding: This is potentially a very serious situation.

Penny Endersby, Met Office chief executive, said in a sombre video shared online: The extreme heat that were forecasting right now is absolutely unprecedented.

Stay out of the sun, keep your home cool, think about adjusting your plans for the warning period, she said.

National Emergency

The UK Health Security Agency has increased its heat health warning from level three to level four, which indicates the situation amounts to a national emergency.

Level four is reached when a heatwave is so severe and/or prolonged that its effects extend outside the health and social care system At this level, illness and death may occur among the fit and healthy, and not just in high-risk groups, it said.

Englands chief medical officer, Professor Sir Chris Whitty, asked people on Twitter to look out for each other.

He said: Please remember the signs of heat exhaustion and heatstroke especially for older and medically vulnerable people. Early intervention to cool people down and rehydrate them can be lifesaving.

A Number 10 spokesman said railway speed restrictions may be needed on some parts of the network next week to manage the hot weather and to avoid any potential damage.

Network Rail has warned people to travel only if absolutely necessary amid the high temperatures forecast on Monday and Tuesday.

Meanwhile, motorists have been advised to try to make their journeys outside of the hottest periods of the day, particularly if they have older cars.

Tim Doran, from the RNLI Water Safety Team said the service was anticipating a busy weekend for its lifeboat crews and lifeguards.

If you are planning on going to the beach, we would encourage you to visit a lifeguarded beach and swim between the red and yellow flags, he said.

PA Media contributed to this report.
Undated handout file photo issued by Presidium Network of Paul Urey, who was reported to have been detained by Russian forces while working as a humanitarian aid volunteer in Ukraine. Downing Street has expressed alarm at reports that the British aid volunteer has died while being detained by Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine. Issue date: Friday July 15, 2022.

UK Summons Russian Ambassador Over Reported Death of British Aid Worker

The UKs Foreign Office summoned Russian ambassador Andrey Kelin on Friday following reports that a British aid volunteer died in detention.

Paul Urey, 45, died due to illnesses and stress, according to Daria Morozova, the Ombudsman of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic (DPR)a Russian-backed separatist region in Ukraine thats recognised by Russia, Syria, and North Korea.

Urey was captured in April while trying to help evacuate a woman and two children. He was detained by the DPR and accused of being a mercenarya crime punishable by death under the regimes law.

In a statement issued following the reports, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: I am shocked to hear reports of the death of British aid worker Paul Urey while in the custody of a Russian proxy in Ukraine. Russia must bear the [sic] full responsibility for this.

Paul Urey was captured while undertaking humanitarian work. He was in Ukraine to try and help the Ukrainian people in the face of the unprovoked Russian invasion. The Russian government and its proxies are continuing to commit atrocities. Those responsible will be held to account, she said.

Truss added her thoughts are with Ureys family and friends at this horrendous time.

Sir Tim Barrow, Second Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office, is expected to urge Russia to clarify Ureys status.

Barrow will demand Russia meet all its obligations under International Humanitarian Law, including by respecting and protecting all civilians.

Hes also expected to clarify that the UK does not recognise the DPR, the self-styled Luhansk Peoples Republic, and other non-government controlled areas of Ukraine as independent states, and therefore holds Russia responsible for the safety and welfare of civilians in these regions.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss meeting European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic for talks in central London on Feb. 11, 2022. (Rob Pinney/PA)

In April, British charity Presidium Network, which helps to get aid into Kyiv, said it was in contact with Urey and another British volunteer, 22-year-old Dylan Healy, who went to Ukraine on their own accord.

The charity said the pair were captured on April 25 at a checkpoint in Zaporizhzhia, southern Ukraine, when they were trying to help evacuate a woman and two children.

It also said Urey didnt qualify for the army because he is a family man with children.

But Morozova accused Urey of being a professional soldier, claiming he had led military operations, recruited and trained mercenaries for Ukrainian troops, and fought in other conflicts.

According to TASS, Morozova said Urey was detained in a local penal facility, and was diagnosed with several chronic illnesses including type 1 diabetes, respiratory system and kidney disorders, and cardiovascular diseases.

Morozova also said Urey was depressed due to indifference to his fate in his homeland.

She accused British officials of not responding to Ureys capture and not providing the necessary medical supplies through the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross].

Urey and Healy have both been charged with mercenary activities, the same charges that led to the death sentences of Britons Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner and a Moroccan.

Another Briton, Andrew Hill, 35, is also facing the same charges.
University Removes Anti-Racist Statements as Floridas Stop WOKE Act Takes Effect

The University of Central Florida (UCF) has taken down statements endorsing anti-racist ideology from the websites of several academic departments after the states Stop WOKE Act came into effect.

The statements were developed and adopted in the wake of the death of George Floyd and subsequent Black Lives Matter riots in the summer of 2020. In those statements, the UCF departments pledged to incorporate the Marxist ideology into their teaching and research, and to challenge established structures and canons allegedly influenced or shaped by systemic racism and white supremacy.

One of such statements removed was from the English department, which declared that unconscious bias and white fragility are pervasive throughout society and also exist among faculty.

We have many students of color in our department, but we recognize that we have not systematically made sure they feel welcome. We have work to do, the department said. Our discipline of English has been disfigured by an appalling history of complicity in perpetuating colonialist and racist practices and power structures. Our field has for too long upheld a canon of literature that is exclusive, elitist, and blindingly white.

In another recently removed statement, the anthropology department said it recognizes the role anthropologists played in supporting early forms of scientific racism and assisting colonial powers in their subjugation and elimination of native populations worldwide.

We understand that this legacy is part of our cultures ongoing struggle with difference and has contributed to the reproduction of white supremacy, adding, We decry this history, commit ourselves to rectifying it, and stand with those working to build an antiracist future for our nation.

These statements disappeared from the UCF departments websites after July 1, with the English department explicitly saying this was meant to avoid violating the newly-enacted Stop WOKE law.

Signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in April, the law prohibits businesses and schools across Florida from compelling employees and students to believe that they are personally responsible and must feel guilt or shame for past actions of members of their race. It also bans teaching that anyone is either privileged or oppressed just because of his or her race.

UCF Assistant Vice President Chad Binette insisted that the statements were taken down because they created a space that could feel unwelcoming to some people.

The university recently removed some departmental statements that could be seen as potentially inconsistent with our commitment to creating a welcoming environmentone where faculty objectively engage students in robust, scholarly discussions that expand their knowledge and empower them to freely express their views and form their own perspectives, Binette said. In an effort to more clearly communicate that commitment, we will be working with departments to ensure statements better align with our university values.

The Stop WOKE Act took effect on July 1 as scheduled after surviving a legal challenge. Judge Mark Walker, Chief Judge in the Northern District of Florida, in late June dismissed a request filed by teachers and a student to block the laws enactment, saying that they failed to prove injury and therefore had no standing to sue.
The study of American Sign Language

When Shelby Harrison went to college, she walked onto the William Woods University campus with plans to be an education major and work as a classroom teacher the way two of her aunts did. Along the way, Harrison needed a foreign language in order to complete her degree requirements, and her academic adviser encouraged her to take American Sign Language (ASL).

Thats when Harrisons life story changed. Her first ASL teacher at WWU was a member of the deaf community. Harrison said, I will never forget how much time and care he put into his classes. He is the reason I decided to change my major from education to interpreting!

When Harrison stepped into the world of ASL, she became part of a rich language tradition. I was fascinated by sign language and felt like it was a great fit for me, so I decided to change my major to interpreting/deaf studies. And I am forever thankful to the deaf/hard of hearing (HOH) community for everything they have taught me regarding ASL and learning their beautiful language.

History of ASL

American Sign Language originated in the early 1800s after Thomas Gallaudet returned from France, where he had met with Laurent Clerc, a deaf instructor of sign language. Gallaudet convinced Clerc to come to the United States, and together they founded the American School for the Deaf in West Hartford, Connecticut. Here, they established a sign language unique to the United States.

Since that time, ASL has developed into what is considered a natural language, meaning a language which has developed naturally without conscious planning.

Today, ASL is an organized, three-dimensional visual language that is complete unto itself and used by as many as 500,000 people. In addition to the deaf/hard of hearing community and their families, ASL is used by many non-verbal individuals.

Learning ASL

When asked whats the best way to learn American Sign Language, Jessica Brown, Assistant Professor of ASL English Interpreting at William Woods University, doesnt hesitate. Brown, who is deaf herself, said by far the easiest way to learn ASL is by taking in-person classes. I acquired ASL at the early age of 3 years old, learning from teachers at Texas School for the Deaf. Because ASL is a 3D language, its easier to show in person. Video portrays me as flat 2D, and I have to rotate and pan in and zoom out to show one sign.

In-person classes make a huge difference in being able to pick up the language quickly. As she studied ASL, Harrison quickly discovered a depth she hadnt anticipated. Theres a misconception out there that ASL is just a few signs or letters that make up some random gestures. This could not be further from the truth, Harrison said.

The 26 signs in the American Manual Alphabet each correspond to an A-Z letter, but to become fluent, there are thousands of individual signs to learn, each based on one of the 18 different hand shapes integral to ASL. As far as becoming fluent in ASL, Harrison quickly pointed out, ASL is its own language entirely; it has syntax, a special grammatical structure when producing sentences. Its a very detailed, complex language with many pieces and linguistical features that make it unique and challenging to learn. In most cases it takes several years for a hearing person to learn ASL as a second language and become fluent. It is not something that can be learned overnight.

And even beyond learning the individual signs, acquiring ASL is also about understanding the non-manual markers of ASL, meaning the facial expressions, body or eye shifts, head tilts, raised eyebrows, and other body language that add meaning to the signs being used.

Thats the reason Harrison is adamant that anyone learning ASL as a second language also spend time interacting with native speakers. When youre learning ASL, its vital to be immersed in the deaf community and socialize with deaf individuals because ASL is their language. Harrison said, Members of the deaf and hard of hearing and deaf-blind community are the best way to learn the language and to gain valuable feedback from those who know the language the best. Deaf culture is truly amazing to learn about, and to be invited in as a hearing individual learning their language is a privilege.

ASL as Foreign Language

Still, there are many people who question whether ASL is a real foreign language.

Jessica Brown is quick to say: Yes! Brown said, ASL should be considered a foreign language in K12 actually. Some high schools are implementing it, and I think thats great! But I still think K12 benefits from it more.

Just like with learning any second language, the earlier the language acquisition occurs the easier it is. Brown said, ASL is beneficial to all babiesones that can hear and ones that dont. Medical professionals encourage babies to acquire speech before trying ASL. Brown disagrees. The population who can hear promotes ASL instruction for babies who can hear. We need to educate others on this. Our future generation rely on us to educate others and keep ASL and deaf culture alive and thriving.

Brown also said that while ASL can be considered a foreign language, it is not an international (universal) language. ASL has its own set of grammar structure, syntax, and grammatical rules belonging to ASL, in America. Other countries have their own signed languages, that are different from ASL. They even have several signed languages in different regions!

From her position as an assistant professor, Brown is able to see all the ways learning ASL benefits people. William Woods University is proud to say, We have students who graduated [with ASL degrees] who went off to be interpreters, law enforcement officers, lawyers, social workers, teachers, and the list goes on.

Samuel Johnson said, Words are but the signs of ideas, and when it comes to learning American Sign Language, this is doubly true.

As Jessica Brown so passionately said, ASL is for alldeaf and those who can hear.

This article was originally published in American Essence magazine.
Trains with cargo containers prepare to leave the Port of Long Beach, Calif., on Jan. 11, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

US, Kenya Begin Trade and Investment Partnership Talks

The United States and Kenya have created a new investment and trade partnership covering a wide range of industries and aiming to tackle corruption and protect the rights of workers, among other issues.

The United StatesKenya Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership (STIP) was announced during a virtual meeting between U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Kenyan Development Cabinet Secretary Betty Maina.

Both nations agreed to foster sustainable agricultural practices and create an environment for the development of innovative agriculture technologies that will help farmers and ensure food security, as well as address climate change concerns, according to a July 14 statement from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

The United States and Kenya will discuss integrating micro, small, and medium enterprises into international trade. Theyll also initiate periodic technical best practices exchanges and roundtables on these enterprises.

Simplifying trade and customs procedures, promoting the use and development of secure digital infrastructure, and pursuing measures related to climate change adaptation and mitigation will be discussed as part of the partnership.

Both countries plan on advancing and protecting labor rights and tackling the issue of forced labor in global supply chains. Special focus will be given to supporting the participation of youth and women in trade. Washington and Nairobi will seek to prevent and combat corruption and bribery.

I look forward to working with the Kenyan government over the next few months to build out this partnership and grow our trade and investment relationship in a way that promotes resilience and facilitates sustainable and inclusive economic growth that benefits our workers and our planet, Tai said in a statement.

Bilateral Trade

In 2021, the United States exported goods worth $561.6 million to Kenya, with the biggest export items being wheat, plastics, machinery, and aircraft. Kenya exported $685.1 million worth of goods to the United States last year, with top items including titanium ores, coffee, tea, macadamia nuts, and apparel.

An attempt to negotiate a trade deal with Kenya began in 2020 under the Trump administration. However, no concrete progress was made over the past two years, with the Biden administration failing to resume these talks until now.

The newly announced STIP deal between the two nations doesnt mention any reduction in tariffs or enhancement of market access.

Kenya is one of the nations that has made the utmost use of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)a trade preference program that gives sub-Saharan African nations duty-free access to the U.S. market.

In 2021, more than 75 percent of goods from Kenya entered duty-free under the AGOA program. In 2018, Kenya had the second-highest utilization rate among all the beneficiary African nations. AGOA is set to expire in September 2025.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo testifies before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies during a hearing on expanding broadband access on Capitol Hill in Washington on Feb. 1, 2022. (Sarah Silbiger/Pool via Reuters)

US Lawmakers Look to Carve Off Chips Funding to Speed Passage: Raimondo

WASHINGTONU.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said on Wednesday that lawmakers appear to be moving to carve off $52 billion in semiconductor chips manufacturing subsidies from a larger bill on boosting U.S. competitiveness with China.

Things seem to be coalescing around the path of chips, or maybe chips plus a thing or two, and getting it done this month, Raimondo told Reuters in a telephone interview. It seems like thats what Congress is coalescing around.

A smaller bill could also include investment tax credits for semiconductor manufacturing, she said, but emphasized that discussions are very fluid. That is a good outcome because the worst outcome is getting nothing done by Aug. 4, when Congress leaves for summer recess, she said. Better to get chips plus a little done than nothing done.

Raimondo, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, and Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks are conducting a classified all-senators briefing at 4 p.m. EDT on Wednesday as Democratic lawmakers and the White House make a concerted effort to win approval for chips legislation.

This is a grave national security threat, Raimondo told Reuters. If you dont get this done by August 4 there is irreparable harm to the United States economy and the United States military operations. So you have to at least get this done now.

The Senate legislation, passed in June 2021, included $52 billion for chip subsidies and authorized another $200 billion to boost U.S. scientific and technological innovation to compete with China. The House version, passed in February, is similar but nearly 3,000 pages long and includes a number of trade proposals.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday he saw two paths forward: the House could pass the Senate bill or another option is to spin off the chips part of it and pass it.

Raimondo cited McConnells comments and noted that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday had ruled out passing the Senate bill. I think that Congress understands the real sense of urgency to get the chips portion done, Raimondo said.

A persistent shortage of chips has disrupted the automotive and electronics industries, forcing some companies to scale back production. Many companies think the shortage will last at least until late 2023 if not longer. Lawmakers warn some major investments in new U.S. chip production could be jeopardized without action from Congress.

After the interview, Raimondo said in a statement sent by her office that CHIPS only is an option and wed prefer a more robust bill, but everything is on the table.

By David Shepardson
A B-52H Stratofortress carrying an AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon, or ARRW, takes off from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on May 14, 2022. (U.S. Air Force/Matt Williams via Reuters)

US Successfully Tests Pair of Lockheed Hypersonic Missiles

WASHINGTONThe United States successfully tested two Lockheed Martin Corp. hypersonic missiles recently, the Pentagon said on Wednesday, amid growing concerns Russia and China have had more success developing their own hypersonic weapons.

The U.S. Air Force confirmed it successfully tested its Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) booster on Tuesday off the California coast. Reuters reported the ARRW test earlier on Wednesday in which the booster was carried aloft under the wing of a B-52H before it was launched. In previous tests, the weapon did not detach from the plane.

This second successful test demonstrates ARRWs ability to reach and withstand operational hypersonic speeds, collect crucial data for use in further flight tests, and validate safe separation from the aircraft, Lockheed said in a statement.

Air Force Brigadier General Heath Collins, program executive officer, Armament Directorate, said, We have now completed our booster test series and are ready to move forward to all-up-round testing later this year.

The all-up-round includes the booster and the warhead.

Hypersonic weapons travel in the upper atmosphere at more than five times the speed of sound, or about 3,853 miles per hour.

In a separate hypersonic weapon test, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) confirmed it successfully performed the first test of its Operational Fires hypersonic weapon.

The test was conducted at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

The successful tests show progress among the myriad U.S. hypersonic weapons development efforts, which have in cases been beleaguered by failed tests, growing questions about cost, and increasing concerns the United States is falling behind in what has become a superpower arms race.

Operational Fires is a ground-launched system that will rapidly and precisely engage critical, time-sensitive targets while penetrating modern enemy air defenses. DARPA has requested and received $45 million for OpFires in fiscal year 2022.

One of Lockheed Martins concepts for the DARPA weapon is to use an exiting High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launcher, like those sent to Ukraine, to launch the weapon.

These successful tests come after a failed June 29 test flight of a different type of hypersonic weapon, the Common Hypersonic Glide Body, at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii.

Defense contractors hope to capitalize on the shift to hypersonic weapons not only by building them, but also by developing new detection and defeat mechanisms.

Arms makers like Lockheed, Northrop Grumman Corp., and Raytheon Technologies Corp. have all touted their hypersonic weapons programs to investors as the worlds focus shifted to the new arms race for an emerging class of weapon.

By Mike Stone
Former Kwai Tsing District Councilor, Daniel Kwok Tsz-kin warns fled Hongkongers: Do not go back to Hong Kong. (Courtesy of Daniel Kwok)

Wanted Student Arrested on His Return to Hong Kong Is Now Held in Jail

Former councilor warns Hongkongers who fled: Do not return to Hong Kong.

On July 13, a 20-year-old student wanted for rioting was arrested by the Hong Kong Police Force upon his return to Hong Kong. The police shot the arrested student with a live round two years ago. That was also the first live round fired in the 2019 Hong Kong Protests.

The victim was shot in the chest but charged with assaulting police.

Tsang Chi-kit, a 20-year-old student, also known as Little Kit by Hongkongers, who recently returned to Hong Kong, was the arrested student.

On the early morning of Oct 1, 2019, a traffic police officer shot Tsang with a live round in the chest in Tsuen Wan. Tsang was wearing black clothing that morning. The police officer pulled out his gun and pointed it at Tsangs chest before he pulled the trigger. Tsang fell to the ground with severe bleeding and was hospitalized.

The authorities charged Tsang with one count of rioting and two counts of assaulting police officers.

Like other Hong Kong protesters, feeling concerned for his safety and future, Tsang fled Hong Kong for almost two years. The court issued a warrant for Tsangs arrest as he did not appear in court since December 2019.

Police got a tip that Tsang was returning to Hong Kong. They arrested Tsang upon his return to Sai Kung.

Tsang was escorted to court the following day with chains around his feet. The case resumes on September 13. Tsang is currently detained in prison.

Councilor: If you Flee, Do Not Return to Hong Kong

Former Kwai Tsing District Councilor, Daniel Kwok Tsz-kin, resides in the UK and understands young protesters like Tsang. He warns Hongkongers who fled: Do not return to Hong Kong.

He elaborated on the risks young fleeing Hongkongers face if they ever decide to return to Hong Kong. Kwoks advice echoed like many other Hongkonger-run organizations. He warned Hongkongers to be cautious about taking the risk of returning to Hong Kong.

Seeking UK Asylum is Difficult

Kwok said many protesters settled in the UK because of the lifeboat scheme for BNO passport holders.

He said, Some people find the UK easier to adapt to because of familiarity, as there are many Hongkongers around.

According to data from the UK Home Office, by the end of 2021, 184 people from Hong Kong had sought political asylum in the UK.

Of those applications, only a handful was granted asylum; 15 applications of the 184 were approved, while 30 were rejected.

No Choice But to Go Back

Kwok described the process of seeking asylum in the UK as tricky. Right now, about 140 people are waiting for approval or appeal. About 50 of them have dropped out of their applications. Some changed their destinations to other countries.

Kwok showed concern that some siblings have no other option but to return to Hong Kong.

Trouble Awaits Returning Protesters

During the 2019 Hong Kong Protests, Hong Kong Police Force collected citizens data. Personal information such as names, identity card numbers, and addresses. Kwok said that the list of data is most likely well-kept by the authorities.

While he could not predict how the authorities would use the data on the list, Kwok cautioned, The moment you buy your ticket, book your hotel or enter Hong Kong, the National Security Bureau will already be onto you.

National Security Bureau is The Big Brother

When asked how long the list could be, Kwok said that Hong Kong has already become a vast prison. You dont have to ask or think twice. The National Security Police has already put every Hongkonger under their surveillance.

Kwok described Hong Kong as a city which is no longer any different from China.
Watchdog Says Fed Officials Did Not Violate Laws, Ethics Rules in Recent Financial Trades

Recent financial trades by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and former Vice Chair Richard Clarida were determined by the central banks independent watchdog to have not violated any laws or ethics rules.

The Office of the Inspector General said it is closing its investigation into the pairs investment activities from 2019 to 2021.

We did not find evidence to substantiate the allegations that former Vice Chair Clarida or you violated laws, rules, regulations, or policies related to trading activities as investigated by our office, Inspector General Mark Bialek said in a July 11 letter (pdf) to Powell. The letter was released on the OIG website on July 14.

Bialek said in his letter that the investigations continue into the presidents of two regional Federal Reserve banksRobert Kaplan of the Dallas Fed and Eric Rosengren of the Boston Fedboth of whom retired from their posts after financial disclosure forms in September 2021 showed they had been extensively engaged in the financial markets in 2020. Both had said they were in compliance with then-current ethics rules.

The OIG report was criticized by Dennis Kelleher, the president and CEO Better Markets, a nonprofit watchdog group that advocates for stronger financial regulation. In a statement, he said the report was very narrow, omits key information, and is not credible.

Trades Amid Pivotal Fed Decisions

The OIG opened separate investigations into several Fed officials in late 2021 after financial disclosures and public reporting showed they had bought and sold stocks, real estate investment funds, and other securities amid turbulence in the market in the spring of 2020, after the COVID-19 pandemic emerged.

The trades took place when the senior officials were privy to discussions about Fed decisions that would likely affect those markets.

The central bank in 2020 launched rescue programs and bond purchases to stave off the economic fallout from the pandemic, sparking questions from critics about potential conflicts of interest because the officials could have profited from the Feds actions.

In response to the revelations of the questionable trades, the Federal Reserve in October 2021 adopted sweeping rules on the investing and trading activities of Fed officials, stipulating that they would be blocked from investing in individual stocks and bonds, have to give 45 days advance notice of any trade and obtain prior approval from ethics officials, and have to hold the investments for at least a year.

Clarida

Clarida had stepped down from his post on Jan. 14, just two weeks before his term was due to expire.

In a statement after the letters publication, Clarida said that he was gratified by the conclusions. The investigation determined conclusively that I did not violate any statutes, rules, regulations, or standards, he added.

The inspector generals report said that Clarida acknowledged in the fall of 2021 that he had inadvertently omitted four trades from required financial disclosure forms, one from calendar year 2019 and three from calendar year 2020. Clarida then filed amended forms with the federal governments Office of Government Ethics. The office concluded that the trades in several index-style investment funds did not constitute conflicts of interest.

The amendments he had made to these disclosures, along with his original report, showed he had sold at least $1 million of shares of a U.S. stock fund on Feb. 24, 2020, and later purchased shares in the same fund three days later on Feb. 27, 2020.

Just a day later, on Feb. 28, 2020, Powell announced that the COVID-19 pandemic poses evolving risks to economic activity. He added that the Fed was closely monitoring developments and their implications for the economic outlook and will use our tools to support growth.

The report from the OIG did not specifically address the issue of the timing of Claridas trades, but stated that overall, the trades did not violate any laws, regulations, or policies.

Tony Fratto, a spokesman for Clarida, said on July 14 the sale was intended as a pre-planned rebalancing of his portfolio. But after the initial sale, Clarida decided to buy the shares back instead of shifting the funds into other investments. Fratto said the fund Clarida invested inan iShares exchange-traded fund managed by asset manager BlackRockwas approved by the Fed and would be acceptable even under its current, more stringent rules.

An unnamed Fed spokesman had told Reuters in October 2021: Vice Chair Claridas financial disclosure for 2020 shows transactions that represent a pre-planned rebalancing to his accounts, similar to a rebalancing he did and reported in April 2019. The transactions were executed prior to his involvement in deliberations on Federal Reserve actions to respond to the emergence of the coronavirus and not during a blackout period. The selected funds were chosen with the prior approval of the Boards ethics official.

Powell

Powells own investment portfolio came under scrutiny over his transactions in December 2019, prompting the OIG to investigate, Bialek said in his letter.

The investigation found that a financial adviser for the Powell family trust carried out five trades on Dec. 11, 2019, during a sensitive period around a Fed policymaking meeting when senior officials arent supposed to trade.

But the inspector general concluded that the trades were conducted by a financial adviser and that neither Powell nor his wife were aware of them.

We found no evidence that you or your spouse had contemporaneous knowledge that the five transactions were executed during the blackout period. As such, we found that you did not violate the [Federal Open Market Committee] trading blackout rule, Bialek wrote.

OIG Report Not Credible: Better Markets President

Kelleher issued a lengthy statement in a press release on the Better Markets website, saying that the inspector general ignored a list of what he called the Feds applicable policies that Powell and Clarida appear to have violated.

One policy on the list said that Fed officials should carefully avoid engaging in any financial transaction the timing of which could create the appearance of acting on inside information concerning Federal Reserve deliberations and actions.

He noted that both Powell and Clarida had possessed material nonpublic information.

Kelleher further noted that the inspector general is hired by and reports to the Fed chair, rather than is independently appointed.

A person like the Chair asking a subordinate like the IG to investigate his boss is simply not credible, particularly, where, as here, the boss has already repeatedly stated publicly that no laws or rules were broken, he said. An after-the-fact investigation by the subordinate concluding that the boss prior public statements were accurate is not a credible investigation.

Kelleher commented on the OIGs investigation into Powell saying that while it had reviewed Powells December 2019 transactions, it did not review the ones Powell made in the middle of the Feds pandemic response on October 1, 2020 when he sold between $1 million and $5 million worth of stock from his personal account, apparently one of his largest trades ever.

The Better Markets president also disputed the inspector generals conclusions with regard to Claridas February 2020 transactions, with regard to claims that it was a pre-planned rebalancing effort.

[I]t was disclosed many months later that there was an undisclosed sale of the same stock just days before, on Feb. 24, 2020, which would seem to prove that the trading was not a rebalancing and not pursuant to any preplanned program. That trading and those contradictory claims are not mentioned by the IG, Kelleher wrote.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
G20 talks overshadowed by Ukraine war as host Indonesia seeks consensus G20 finance ministers, central bankers and senior officials meet in Bali

By Fransiska Nangoy and Stefanno Sulaiman

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) - G20 finance leaders meeting in Bali must make progress tackling the global economic threats sparked by Russia's war in Ukraine or the humanitarian consequences would be catastrophic, host Indonesia said on Friday.

Some Western ministers blasted Russian officials attending the talks, with U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen saying Russia's "brutal and unjust war" was solely responsible for the economic crisis the world now faces.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which the Kremlin calls a "special military operation", has overshadowed recent G20 meetings, including last week's gathering of foreign ministers.

Host Indonesia's Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the world had high hopes the G20 could find a solution to the threat of war, rising commodity prices and the spillover effects on the ability of low-income countries to repay debt.

"We are acutely aware that the cost of our failure to work together is more than we can afford. The humanitarian consequences for the world, and especially for many low-income countries would be catastrophic," she said.

G20 members include Western countries that have imposed sanctions on Russia and accuse it of war crimes in Ukraine - which Moscow denies - as well as nations like China, India and South Africa, which have been more muted in their response.

Sri Mulyani urged members to "build bridges between each other" to deliver more technical decisions and concrete action.

She also called for a joint forum involving G20 finance and agriculture ministries to come up with concrete action to tackle growing food insecurity and a looming fertilizer supply crisis.

Indonesia's G20 deputy for finance, Wempi Saputra, told Reuters Friday's discussions were productive and members did not walk out during Russia's address as they have done previously.

Russian Deputy Finance Minister Timur Maksimov addressed the meeting in person, while Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov was participating virtually, a source familiar with the matter said.

Story continues

"It's no secret that there were very frank statements being made (in the meeting), yet what matters is we are at the moment of enormous distress and disruption in our global economy as well as our geopolitical context," Achim Steiner, UNDP administrator, who attended one of the sessions, told Reuters.

Wempi said the group is still discussing the possibility of issuing a communique for this meeting.

But Western countries have repeatedly said G20 meetings cannot be "business as usual" due to Russia's presence.

Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland told Russian officials that she held them personally responsible for "war crimes" committed during Russia's war, a Western official told Reuters.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov walked out of one session of a G20 meeting with his counterparts in Bali last week, following what he called "frenzied criticism" of his country over the war. That meeting ended without a communique or any announcements of agreements.

EU economy commissioner Paolo Gentiloni via video-link said the global economy faces a "major setback" because of the war.

"Most of the key risks to the global outlook  increasing commodity prices, food shortages and prolonged supply chain disruptions  are dependent on the evolution of the war started by Russia."

Yellen said one of her key objectives was to push G20 creditors, including China, to finalise debt relief for countries in debt distress.

(Reporting by Fransiska Nangoy and Stefanno Sulaiman, Andrea Shalal, Zahra Matarani in Nusa Dua, additional reporting by Francesco Guarascio in Brussels; Editing by Martin Petty, Ed Davies, Michael Perry and Kanupriya Kapoor)
By Lois K. Solomon

From South Florida Sun Sentinel

Dear Lois:

We will be in the Boca Raton area for two days next month. Do you have any suggestions for us on where to go? We would like a day for outdoor activities, such as hiking or kayaking, and a day for cultural activities, such as museums.  Joanne, Potomac, Maryland

Joanne, you are very brave to want to explore the outdoors in our scorching weather. Temperatures have been in the high 80s/low 90s daily, with extreme humidity levels that prompt us locals to spend much of each mid-day in our air-conditioned indoors.

Hopefully youre an early riser and can enjoy some outdoor activities before or after the daily temperature peak, from about 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

If you like to walk, Ive created a list of easy strolls through South Florida neighborhoods that combine nature with really cool architecture and downtown sights. I especially love the walk through eastern Boca Raton, with lots of architecturally interesting houses and an emerging and distinctive downtown. For a taste of Florida nature, head for Palm Beach Countys sliver of the Everglades, the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, at 10216 Lee Road, west of Boynton Beach, home to a boardwalk through a knee-deep cypress swamp and a section of the Great Florida Birding Trail. Its about 20 minutes from central Boca by car.

If you want to hang out near the ocean, you have to shell out $25 to park at one of the citys three beaches for the day. Theres also metered parking not far from the beach if you want to spend just a couple of hours. Options include South Beach Pavilion (Palmetto Park Road), Red Reef Park West and Spanish River Boulevard (just west of State Road A1A).

If youre at the beach, youre near Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, a beloved marine educational hub at 1801 N. Ocean Blvd. thats dedicated to sea turtles, mangroves and other aquatic and plant life that used to be plentiful along South Floridas coast. They have canoeing and kayaking sessions and also offer sea turtle walks and talks, aquarium feedings and science seminars all summer. Try to make it to an evening sea-turtle scouting mission; its a thrill to watch a colossal loggerhead turtle lay her eggs and return to the water. Cost: $20.

For some culture, try the eastern side of town. If youre here on a Saturday, check out yoga studio owner Leslie Glickmans 9 a.m. Saturday classes in Sanborn Square, 72 N. Federal Highway. The free sessions are outdoors and attract dozens of people spread out in the grass among the trees. (Dont forget your mat!) You may enjoy brunch after class at one of the many nearby cafes; I recommend Saquella Cafe, 410 Via De Palmas, or Cote France, 100 Plaza Real S.

Then get to Mizner Park, at 327 Plaza Real, where there are stores, restaurants, boutiques and the excellent Boca Raton Museum of Art. The museum has a really fun exhibit now called the Art of the Hollywood Backdrop, with 20 selfie-friendly authentic and gigantic backdrops from movies made from the 1930s to the 1960s, including The Sound of Music, Singin in the Rain and North by Northwest. The museum has a rotating schedule of exhibits, lectures, classes and tours.

There are free concerts in the Mizner Park Amphitheater every Friday night through the end of July as part of Boca Ratons Summer in the City series. Theyre playing Baby Boomer favorites, including songs by Chicago on July 22 and Queen on July 29. These outdoor shows are entertaining and relaxing; bring your folding chairs or a picnic blanket. And be prepared for unpredictable weather. In summer, you never know when youll find yourself drenched under a single rain cloud. One thing we can guarantee: It wont get colder than about 75 degrees on a summer evening.

2022 South Florida Sun Sentinel. Visit at sun-sentinel.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
NEW BRITAIN  COVID-19 meant a two-year break from school uniforms for local students, but the Board of Education has voted to bring them back in the fall.

The New Britain school boards decision Tuesday has drawn mixed reactions from local parents.

During the pandemic, allowing our kids to attend school in what clothing they had that was seasonally appropriate was made so much easier, said Jessie Read Bouclier, who has two elementary-aged children in New Britain schools. I appreciated it immensely not having to worry about making my kids change the second they got home so their pants didnt get dirty.

Parents had two months to submit feedback on the proposed policy before the school boards vote.

In a statement, New Britain Schools Superintendent Anthony Gasper said the majority of those who provided feedback supported the decision. Gasper highlighted some of the benefits of uniforms such as reducing distractions, minimizing disruption and enhancing school pride.

The implementation of uniforms ensures that schools provide a solution for some social disparities, provides an equal opportunity within the educational setting and maintains the focus of academic achievement, Gasper said.

Both of Jess Vargas children attended New Britain and Hartfords CREC schools and were required to wear uniforms prior to COVID-19. She said she supports the policy change.

I think parents talk about the expense of uniforms, but you are going to buy clothes anyway, Vargas said. It just makes them easier to get dressed in the morning and get their days going.

The new uniform requirement is slightly different than pre-COVID expectations. The universal K-8 school uniform is a solid white, navy blue, red or yellow collared polo top, and khaki, navy blue or black dress slacks, skirts, dress shorts or skort bottoms.

The previous attire policy included school-specific color choices that Gasper said may have made it more difficult for families who may change schools throughout the year or pass on clothes to others.

Financial burden of uniforms

In her experience purcashing school uniforms, Vargas said its best to find options that are on sale. It was more expensive when her kids went to CREC because the shirts had to be embroidered.

Buying uniforms may be cheaper for some families, but Bouclier said the costs of keeping up with their growing children adds up.

You need to purchase between two and three sets in the span of a year, Bouclier said. The tops are usually $5 to $15 and bottoms anywhere between $10 to $30, then multiply that by how many children you already have. We are talking for just one set of clothing for two children $125 to $250. Then add in the changes in season and growth, and it becomes a bit much.

During the two years without uniforms, Lori Neilander, who has a son in New Britain Schools, felt a financial burden was eased. Now, she is out of work for the summer, her rent is going up and uniforms are one expense she cannot afford.

She sent the Board of Education an email explaining her situation and asking for help.

My son already has an entire wardrobe that fits him, Neilander wrote in the email. It is completely pointless for me to have to go out and buy him a whole new wardrobe and double my laundry.

In response, the Board of Education said in the coming days the board would have information for families financially burdened by the uniform requirement.

Concerns about gender inclusivity

The high school dress code will prohibit some clothing items such as skirts of a certain length.

Bouclier raised concerns about the uniform policy providing different clothing options for boys and girls.

Much of the motivation for these, particularly as they get older, is related to young women's effect on pubescent young men, rather than teaching said young men the importance of respecting themselves and others, and therefore keeping their thoughts to themselves, Bouclier said.

While Bouclier said her children identify as heterosexual and cisgender, she fears the policy will have a negative impact on the LGBTQ community.

Sometimes their only individuality expression options are their clothing and taking that away really opens up some potentially harmful perspectives, Bouclier said.

Gasper said The Consolidated School District of New Britain will continue to abide by the federal and state statutes protecting transgender and gender non-conforming students from discrimination.

Administrative regulations are commonly revised subsequent to any board policy change and this case is no different, Gasper said in a statement. We will work on revising the regulations that accompany the School Attire board policy.

New Britain is not the only area public school district that requires uniforms. East Hartford Schools have required uniforms for boys and girls since the 2011-12 school year and there is no separate policy for students who identify as non-binary, according to a spokesperson for the superintendent.

Some parents, like Vargas, said there are other ways for students to express individuality and the benefits for low-income families outweigh the downfalls of the policy, especially since many schools accept donations of used uniforms for those in need.

emily.disalvo@hearstmediact.com
NORWALK  The police department will soon be on the hunt for a qualified social worker to help serve residents experiencing mental health or addiction crises.

A one-year pilot program contracting with a mental health provider was approved during this weeks meeting of the Common Councils Public Safety and General Government Committee.

The pilot program will be funded with $216,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds, according to city documents. The city will partner with Recovery Network of Programs to bring a mental health clinician to the Norwalk Police Department.

As you know, there was a lot of discussion over the past year and half, two years, with police responding to mental health calls and the negative impacts that have occurred sometimes with those calls, Norwalk Police Chief Thomas Kulhawik said during Tuesdays meeting. Around the country, many departments were looking at other options and other solutions to that issue by getting social workers or other folks to respond either with the police or instead of the police, or after the police, to deal with some individuals that had ongoing issues that werent being properly dealt with in the system thats currently in place.

Looking at various programs and options, the department opted for Recovery Network as Stamford police also have a contract with the non-profit and had success, Kulhawik said.

In Stamford, a social worker was embedded in the department and helped respond to calls dealing with substance abuse and mental health emergencies, Kulhawik said. For Norwalk, the social worker will also connect the individuals with other services in the city to help treat the problem.

A lot of these people, as we know, are frequent callers or guests of the police, so to speak, and we have trouble dealing with them and unfortunately the services just arent there, Kulhawik said. They will embed a social worker in our department. Theyll have access to our reports, files, officers, to be able to discuss on-going cases. I have four to five individuals who regularly contact me over there but they dont realize theyre mental health issues, but they are, and they havent received the proper service that I wish they could get.

While the first year is funded through ARPA, a limited supply, Kulhawik is confident they will be able to find money in the police departments budget to keep the program going if the first year is successful.

Additionally, there is the possibility of receiving grant funding for future years, as Stamford secured, Kulhawik said.

Its a benefit not only for the community but for police. I know its frustrating for officers who have some training but theyre responding to the same individual time and time again and they cant really offer much services other than quelling a particular issue at the time, Kulhawik said. Its OK to call because youre going to get the help you need. Were going to find the right person with the right skill set thats going to deal with it in the right manner.

As the Public Safety Committee was the first in a series of approvals required for the program to be finalized, the contract with Recovery Network has to be signed off by the Finance and Claims Committee and the entire Common Council.

Once final approval is granted, the law department will authorize the contract and the Recovery Network can begin looking for a suitable social worker to fill the role, Kulhawik said.

Recovery has their feelers out. I would expect it to be three months to six months to recruit and hire. We have to do background vetting and be on-the-ground running, Kulhawik said. This is something that will pay for itself in police response, getting people out of the system, drug and alcohol issues, homelessness. It covers so many areas that people are looking for help and need help that were responding to on a daily basis.

The citys Community Services Department will work with the police department on the partnership and informing the embedded social worker of the citys mental health and addiction services providers, Chief of Community Services Lamond Daniels said.

Daniels, who is a licensed clinical social worker, said the research around this model of treatment shows significant positive impacts on a community.

Some program specifics, including where a resident would be sent for inpatient treatment should it be required, have yet to be determined.

When they (the social worker) come in contact with a referral, they will look internally. What do we have in the city? But if that service is not available, our residents will now have direct access and preference to their wide network of services, Daniels said. If the service does not exist locally, we want to partner with an entity that can connect families and residents with services.

abigail.brone@hearstmediact.com
Pasta Dinner at the Edwardsville American Legion EDITORS NOTE: The Intelligencer requests briefs be submitted at least 10 days prior to the...

Edwardsville man indicted in two separate cases An Edwardsville man was indicted on several charges in two separate cases last week. Christopher...

Second Street to open in time for Saturday's Criterium Construction crews spent Aug. 13 pouring and prepping cement on North Second Street, which has...
FILE PHOTO: ikh activist Ripudaman Singh Malik smiles as he leaves Vancouver court after verdict in Air India ...

By Ismail Shakil

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian police confirmed on Friday that a man shot dead in British Columbia on Thursday was Ripudaman Singh Malik, a Sikh businessman acquitted in connection with the 1985 Air India bombing that killed 329 people.

Police said they have not established a motive for the killing or have evidence to suggest whether the incident was connected to the airline attack.

Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, a worker in British Columbia, were acquitted in 2005 of charges related to the attack on Air India Flight 182, which exploded over the Atlantic Ocean in 1985 in one of history's deadliest bombings of a commercial airliner.

"We understand this is a high-profile international story. However, we urge not to speculate as to the motive as our homicide investigators will be following the evidence," Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sergeant David Lee said at a news conference.

Lee, from the RCMP's homicide investigation team, said the killing is believed to be targeted and sought dash-cam footage or any other information the public might have on the incident.

On Thursday morning, police, responding to a reported shooting, had found a man, now confirmed as Malik, suffering from gunshot wounds that resulted in his death at the scene in Surrey, British Columbia.

Lee said CCTV footage shows that a white Honda CRV arrived near the scene of the incident shortly before the shooting and waited for Malik, 75.

Police found the car burned and left on a nearby street.

Canadian police were criticized for their investigation of the Air India attack, and the government formally apologized in 2010 to families of the victims, saying authorities failed to act on information that could have prevented the attack or catch those responsible.

Authorities in Canada and India have alleged the attack was plotted by Sikh extremists living in Canada as revenge on India for its storming of Sikhism's Golden Temple in Amritsar in 1984.

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
Nairobi, July 12, 2022  Tanzanian authorities should allow the DarMpya online news outlet to resume operations without further interference and reform the countrys online content regulations so they cannot be used to muzzle the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.

On July 1, the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) ordered DarMpya to suspend publication immediately, according to news reports and a copy of TCRAs July 1 letter.

The letter cited the TCRAs June 28 inspection of the outlets office in the commercial capital of Dar es Salaam, where authorities found that the outlets license had expired in 2021, and it was therefore publishing in breach of the Electronic and Postal Communications (Online Content) Regulations.

A person familiar with the matter, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity citing safety concerns, said that DarMpya had applied for its license renewal shortly before the suspension. On July 6, DarMpya tweeted that it had ceased publication until it could renew its license.

The letter said the inspection followed complaints about DarMpyas coverage of a protest, but did not specify the reporting in question. In a since-deleted tweet seen by CPJ, DarMpya alleged that a June 17 protest against alleged Kenyan interference in the Tanzanian governments plan to evict members of the Maasai community from lands in northern Tanzania was staged. The person who spoke to CPJ said that the inspection was in response to that tweet.

Tanzanian Information Minister Nape Nnauye told CPJ via messaging app that DarMpya had been under scrutiny for allegedly unbalanced content, but said the outlets suspension had nothing to do with its journalism and was solely due to its failure to comply with licensing requirements.

Tanzanian authorities are using a repressive set of regulations to control who may and may not express themselves online. The suspension of the DarMpya news outlet shows how such regulations can become tools of censorship, said CPJ Sub-Saharan Africa Representative Muthoki Mumo. Authorities should allow DarMpya to resume operations without interference, cease using harsh regulations to police speech on the internet, and urgently reform the countrys laws to nurture, rather than limit, press freedom.

DarMpya publishes national news and commentary on its website, on YouTube as DarMpya TV, where it has about 809,000 followers, and on Twitter as DarMpya Blog, where it has over 309,000 followers. It has not published news content on those channels since July 2.

Tanzanias online content regulations were first issued in 2018, and at the time CPJ called on authorities to scrap the regulations, as they threatened the diversity and robustness of online media.

A new version of the regulations was issued in 2020, and those rules were amended earlier this year, narrowing the scope of the licensing requirements, but news blogs, online television broadcasters, and online radio stations must still register with the TCRA and comply with content restrictions.

Nnauye told CPJ that the Tanzanian government was engaging with local journalists about reforming media laws, but while the regulations remain on the books, the government will enforce them.

We cant close our eyes and say the law isnt there, he said. As long as the law is there, it is not suspended, it is not changed. I am sworn to stand and make sure these laws are followed. If it is changed, then we will follow the new one.

Under President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who took office last year, Tanzania has committed to reforming its media laws, as CPJ has documented. However, at least two other publicationsRaia Mwema and Uhuruwere suspended last year, as CPJ has documented.

In a phone call today, a representative of the TCRA said they would follow-up on emailed queries CPJ had sent about DarMpyas case. CPJ had not received a response at the time of publication.
"Dont mind PDP and other mushroom parties  parties like Labour; they will labour till they die.

 Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, APC Gubernatorial Osun rally, July 12, 2022.

We are under-policed and we are competing with armed robbers and bandits to recruit from the youths who are unemployed 33 per cent unemployed? Recruit 50 million youths into the army, what they will eat cassava, corn, yam, will grow here.

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, 12th Bola Tinubu Colloquium held in Kano, March 29, 2022.

And they call one man Obi, in one party, saying he will create jobs. He has not been able to tell us how we can make brake parts for those vehicles, how we can make wheel spanners on our own for those vehicles. And he said maybe he can go and expand the port in Benin Republic so we can clear our cargoes faster. I call that container economy, Obi China.

 Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, APCs presidential rally in Lagos February 8, 2019.

For an-agbado-eating-frog-eyed-son-of-nobody who doesnt appreciate labour to attack youths and political opponents with swear language and insulting lingo is not just worrisome, it is calamitous when you consider that that fellow wants to be the President of Nigeria.

The cuss, mushroom parties, by Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a dart that stemmed from the false majority claims of the Muslim population in the north of Nigeria which shall be addressed at the end of this conversation.

Many people living in the north I interviewed in the course of this article provided sufficient data to show that there are more Christians in Nigeria than any other religion and a greater number of that demographic will vote for Peter Obi in 2023 despite Bola Ahmed Tinubus hobbledehoy tongue.

Bola Ahmed Tinubus lexical exertion is a pointer to an underlining complex that a President of Nigeria should never have. His profanity expressed often in his choice of diction signifies his indolence, which is burdensome as well as disgraceful.

At Abeokuta on the 2nd of June 2022, he publicly claimed he made Dapo Abiodun the governor of Ogun State: It has been over 25 years now that I have been serving them. This one sitting behind me, Dapo, can he say he can be the Governor without me? I was the one that handed the flag to him. He knows that he cannot be the governor without the help of God and my support.

This one sitting behind me.

God and my support?

Alas! APC gave the presidential ticket to a man who equates himself with God, a man who pushed aside his promises to the entire Christian population in the APC and chose a Muslim as his running mate. Nigeria is facing an imminent implosion with this fellow who abuses others, and as well easily fails on his promises.

The syntactic versatility of his linguistic expressions, the superiority complex, and his curse lexis are boundless, conveniently imitating the pattern of biblical and traditional dictators who deploy obscenity in their semantics in the bid to objectify other lesser opponents and targets.

Just imagine the profane Marc Antony hovering over the bloodied corpse of Caesar, rather than expressing Shakespeares poetic and nostalgic quotation, Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood might otherwise say, Screw the bastard who did this crap.

If a profane Marc Antony had made that choice, that would clearly depict him as one of those illegitimate men being raped for defecation, or those who employ an MC Oluomo rather than a strategic consultant to manage parks and markets. For such profanity would have been less accurate, a less poignant depiction than the original, which inspires desire for revenge against the murderer whose callous hand spilled the blood of the mighty Caesar.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu referred to a sitting governor as This one sitting behind me, to the millions of youth in the Labour Party They will labour till they die, and to Peter Obi, Obi China. This kind of expression should not be heard from touts he always deployed during elections even. It signifies a mental state that is rather dangerous for him and for his party, if they attempt to rig him into Aso Rock. He will throw rocks everywhere, like a mad man, until everyone is wounded in his whims and caprices.

Sadly, inappropriate swearing can be observed in frontal lobe damage, drug abuse, Tourette's disorder, aphasia, terrorism, schizophrenia, and insanity.

Just like the Nigerian President that called his own people lazy youths during a visit abroad, and later forgot everything he promised the country including jobs, industrial revolution, power production, education, I doubt that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is disciplined, recollective enough to be president or leader in the 21st century. He doesnt sound responsible at all. His use of language shows he doesnt have any regard for youths, the opposition and will likely not keep any promises to them just as his predecessor. He would be too sectional to lead a country such as Nigeria.

The media has created a newspeak that panders perpetually to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubus braggadocio without ever considering the gestaltism behind his personality disorder because he is the idol of the Southwest mainstream media.

Take a look at Lagos State, a state behind civilization; take a look at Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubus gasconade you can see he is the personage of anachronism, as well as a disappointing character incapable of rationalization, good speech and critical thinking.

Even former presidents such as Olusegun Obasanjo or Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida wouldnt be allowed Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubus privilege. Has he come for any interview since 2022 on Television? Is he shying away from more profanities? I take umbrage at the way the media has failed in addressing Bola Ahmed Tinubus gasconade.

If he does a situational assessment of his age, mental health, antecedents as a leader, he would adhere to his friend David Babachirs admonition that he should rescind his Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket or better still resign from partisan politics before he destroys himself and this nascent democracy former president Olusegun Obasanjo and his colleagues labored to build.

Bolas profanities stench of hubris, so much for a man who buys crowds at political rallies, buys votes for his stooges, engages the services of Agbero with their marabouts, and as well paid his way to APC presidential candidature, and now is flagging a Muslim-Muslim ticket against the wishes of the entire democratic multireligious populace, and many of his party chieftains who were behind him during the primaries.

On the Muslim/Muslim ticket Babachir Lawal said, I would love for Bola to be our next President. But I am afraid a Moslem-Moslem ticket will be Dead on Arrival. And the arrival date according to INECs election timetable is 25th February 2023. This ticket will drag down the whole APC members to the pit. We all should reject it.

On the Muslim/Muslim ticket Bishop Hassan Kukah said, It is annoying to me that some people are whinning as if APC is the only party in Nigeria. In fact, if I were the only Nigerian, the party should not even be on the ballot in 2023 because of the pain it has inflicted on Nigerians.

That it took the choice of a Muslim/Muslim ticket by Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the largely silent northern Christian population to arise is an interesting development. When Chibok girls were kidnapped the uproar they raised wasnt this instigating. Are they seeing what other Nigerians are not seeing?

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a person who's not just egotistical or arrogant, but also has the ownership, terrorist mentality of the current cabal in power as well as those who kidnapped Chibok girls so as to blackmail and remove former president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan from office. They prefer shortcuts than well-planned actions that are directed at the common good of the society.

His arrogance in sidelining the entire northern and southern Christian population in his choice of deputy is as devastating as his profanities.

A court of competent jurisdiction should try this matter. Has he no comprehension of what federal character means? This is a federal case. Even President Mohammadu Buhari could not attempt this unconstitutionality despite his popularity up north.

Who has emboldened and bewitched Bola Ahmed Tinubu? Arent his profane expressions and actions indicative of a looming problem that would practically implode Nigeria forever?

The recent prison break in Kuje, FCT Abuja by ISWAP which was never decisively challenged or prevented by the security forces is an example of the mentality that has been exhibited by the likes of Bola Ahmed Tinubu in recent times. An attitude that respects everyone else except the emotions of the Christian community. Would the government become this lax if a Christian group broke a prison in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory?

That the government is yet to explain to the people why the military forces that are attached to the Kuje Medium Security Prison were ordered to be off at the time of the attack is worrisome. What the Christian population thinks about this development doesnt count. This is a Christian population that has experienced the greater brunt of terrorism.

That Bola Ahmed Tinubu has not explained to the entire Christian population of Nigeria why he thinks they cant be represented in his ticket is unimaginable. It appears he doesnt mind and doesnt think there will be repercussions.

Nigeria has 20 Christian governors and 16 Muslim governors. The FCT mayor is a Muslim. The heads of the government and security council are majorly Muslim in a multireligious society? No one has been queried or sacked for the Kuje prison break. Is this a democracy?

This is the kind of braggadocio that instigated Bola Ahmed Tinubus Muslim-Muslim ticket in the first place. He has been lied to that there are more Muslims than Christians in Nigeria and that no matter what he can do without Christianity. This is awkward. This is unacceptable.

It is better for Bola Ahmed Tinubu to accept the advisement by Mr David Babachir Lawal seriously and rescind on the ticket the APC is currently flying because it will spell doom wether they win or not. It is not because the APC is the only party, but because it is the ruling party. It is a party that wouldnt have defeated the Goodluck Jonathans led Peoples Democratic Party in 2015 if not for the overwhelming support of the northern Christian population, and the Southern Christian population who were tired of Goodluck Ebele Jonathans massive corruption and failure.

The reason we have APCs current Muslim-Muslim ticket, constant Boko-Harams kidnapping, radical banditry, ISWAPs prison attacks that are not fully challenged by the government is because the Christian population in Nigeria are not well represented in the government, they are yet to awake to the fact that they hold the majority, and no matter their tribe and region, they are a group that truly needs to come together and speak with one voice over Nigerias federalism in 2023.

Prior to the new democratic dispensation of 1999 in Nigeria, states such as Nasarawa, Benue, Gombe, Plateau, Abuja, Kogi, Adamawa, Borno, Taraba, Niger, and Kaduna were heavily populated by a good number of indigenous Christians, and are still majorly populated by Christians despite the terror attacks targeting Christians and the lies about Muslim majority in the north of Nigeria.

In 2015 these states voted for the APC. And APC won because of the additional vote and financial support of Rivers State government, Imo State, and other Southwest states. When these states with largely Christian votes withdraw from the APC, how can the Muslim votes shared by Rabiu Kwankwaso, Atiku Abubakar and Bola Ahmed Tinubu, give APC the victory it needs in 2023 when the Christian population are going back to their tents?

The greatest lie ever told about Nigeria by some publications and media organizations is that Christianity isnt the dominant religion and the most populated faith in Nigeria.

Christianity remains the dominant religion in Nigeria and that population will speak loud and clear in 2023, and many Muslims who understand equity, fairness and justice will follow their Christian brothers to salvage Nigeria from Bola Ahmed Tinubus satanic dream.

Today, Christian subjugation in Nigeria made conspicuous in the APC government, and its choice of candidature for 2023 presidential election, can not be described accurately because of the alarming levels of political relegation and degradation.

Today, Bola Ahmed Tinubu represents crass disdain and disregard for people of other faith in a country dominantly Christian, a fact denied by local media and the government.

The rise of impostors such as Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Nigerias political history shows how the indigenous Christian population in Lagos and in Nigeria have been cardinally misquantified giving other minority and aggressive groups a kind of false knowledge.

The false claim on competency bandied by Asiwaju has been fanned further by that erroneous census data which his new found friends had presented to him.

How could the APC delegates elect a man who is currently clothed, fed, washed by his wife, over three Nigerian Christians healthy, more educated, stronger and more vibrant?

How could APC leaders and their lapdogs after looking at the four governors from the north of Nigeria; leaders like David Babachir, Mustapha Boss, Yakubu Dogara; and thousands of Christian professors; politicians and democrats; against all reasonable doubt, still picked Mr Kashim Shettima who has been accused of sponsoring terrorism in the Northeast of Nigeria?

I was born in Lagos, I am a grandchild of Awolowo; I have lived in Lagos for 30 years, I own properties in Lagos; from Badagry to the borders, from Epe, Agege, Apapa, to the major parts of Lagos, Christians are a majority. I give it 60% Christians. Many of them are tired of Bola Ahmed Tinubus pattern of rulership, one of my Interviewees said.

If you visit Kano you will be shocked that within 2 kilometers there are 2 local governments without up to 5000 people. Thats why you see underaged voters there. I was born in Maiduguri. We have 70% population of Christians in Borno State. I lived in Kano. If you come to Borno now with a lot of violence we have been dominated in government but not in population. I work in the civil service and I can tell you that this 2023 our people will vote Peter Obi. Can you imagine that Zulum that is hailed by some ignorant people is an extremist too? Not many commissioners in my state are Christian.., another interviewer said.

57 percent of Christian population in places like Lagos, Borno, Nasarawa, Bauchi, buttresses the fact the ruling party has made a huge mistake.

The fact is 57 percent of Nigerians are Christian, indigenous people who live and serve their God, who are accommodating and extraordinarily welcoming to other visitors and tribes that unfortunately are making every move to consolidate their cynical ruination and violent displacements via audacious but myopic political games, and violent attacks that will definitely end in futility as history unfolds. Attacks that will be intensified by a Muslim-Muslim presidency.

Citing the cases of Lagos State, Nassarawa State, Kogi State and Gombe State, you can see vividly what has kept Nigeria grossly tumultuous in the last 23 years culminating in APCs choice of a Muslim-Muslim ticket.

This tumultuous choice is fanned by both a dangerous religious politics with its attendant socioeconomic despoliation, and a sectional mentality that deludes its insecure perpetrators.

Bola Ahmed Tinubus two Christian deputies all were forced out of his government in Lagos State. He could not carry them along and they forcefully left him to wallow in his braggadocio. Lagos has been under the leadership of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a southern Muslim, who has never treated Nigerian Christians with utmost respect, has never handled the resources of Lagos State as he should, because he was never an indigene, and a man of grace, integrity, with sense of equity, justice and truth.

Since 1999 Bola Ahmed Tinubu has cornered the commonwealth of Lagos State by singlehandedly selecting and supervising the state governors, honorable members, staffers of the judiciary and several other machineries and institutional infrastructures of government. That is not the only factor that propelled his choice of a northeast muslim as Vice President, as you will find out here.

You can trace the degradation of Christian influence in Nigeria from the 1914 amalgamation, to the 1960 selection of Sir Ahmadu Bello as the Prime Minister, to the civil war that was mainly fourth by the dominant northern Christian tribes and the Igbo who are 99% Christian.

Yakubu Gowon was used by the powers that be to fight his own Christian brothers in the South, with the help of the Yoruba Christians such as Olusegun Obasanjo. It was simply a war between Igbo Catholics and Tiv Catholics, Arewa and Yoruba Christians.

How many Muslims soldiers participated or died in the Biafran War? It was simply political manipulation. The Biafra war weakened the Christian bases of the north and south. Today, those reaping the spoils of the war are not Christians. After that war the two largest groups namely the Igbo Christians and the Northern Christians are today considered politically unimportant and also unreliable because of the fear that when they get to power they would rearrange the lies and rebuild the nation.

Kogi state has three dominant tribes which are

Ebirra (40% Christians population), Igala (57% of Christian population), and the Okuns (with over 90% Christians). Kogi State has a 57% Christian population who are tired of terrorism and attacks by Islamic groups who are against education and the Christianity.

If Boko Haram and ISWAP are fighting against education alone why are they not killing Muslim professors and teachers; why are they killing pastors and attacking Christian in churches?

This is why Christians are asking for equal representation in the APC. An APC that has been taken over by a religious bigot. He is the silent bigot who has never learnt.

It was Solomon Lar, the leader of the middle belt movement who gave Senator Abdulahi Adamu his utmost leverage when he was vying for the gubernatorial seat in Nasarawa State in 1999. This was because Abdulahi Adamu was his deputy as the governor of old Plateau State. They were friends. At that time Solomon Lar recommended Abdulahi Adamu over his Christian brother, and namesake Solomon Ewuga.

Today, Abdulahi Adamu has never supported any Christian governor in Nasarawa State, a state that has over 70% Christian population. He disappointed Solomon Lar. Abdulahi Adamu swore that over his dead body would he allow a Christian to rule Nassarawa State. When a Christian won the election in 2015, he was denied his right to lead.

Labaran Maku, former minister of Information contested in the governorship election of Nassarawa State in 2015 under APGA.

In his confession to the Cable he stated that Both (Abdullahi Adamu and Al-Makura) of them know that they didnt win election, both of them they know that they are sitting on a sit that they did not win, they know it and they have been confessing it in recent times of this crisis. They know Maku won the election but they upturned it now there is crisis.

According to The Cable of September 27, 2018 1:59 PM titled Maku: Senator Adamu, Al-Makura fighting over my stolen mandate, The former minister said from 2015 till date, things have turned worse in the state.

In the period of this four years that the mandate was stolen, things have gotten worse in Nasarawa state, killings have multiplied. In many communities today people cannot go to farm, Maku said.

The government has been run in the most criminal way, N390 billion have been collected in this seven years but there is nothing substantive on the ground.

The claims that killings have multiplied have been substantiated. It was in Nasarawa along Gitata-Keffi Highway that they killed the Alex Badeh, Former Chief of the Air Staff of Nigeria, on December 18, 2018. He was a Christian. Many farmers have been sacked in the state due to the eagerness of Muslim extremists to dominate the state.

This brings one to the reason for this Muslim domination and Bola Ahmed Tinubus Muslim/Muslim ticket. Is it not to displace Christians and Christianity in Nigeria? Why shouldnt anyone think so?

For example Abdulahi Adamu is an Afo man. Now, go to Afo villages and towns all over Keffi & Nasarawa LGAs, and count the number of Christians & Muslims, Christians clearly outnumber Muslims 70-30!

There are over 70% Christians in Nasarawa State. Yet the state is governed by a Muslim clique that has no plan to improve the life of the people. It appears as if the plan is to hold onto power and do nothing with it.

The main ethnic groups in Nasarawa State are Aguta, Alago, Basa, Ebira, Eggon, Gbagyi, Gwandara, Kanuri and Tiv. There are 29 languages spoken in the state, the major ones being: Agatu, Basa, Eggon, Gbagyi, Gade, Goemai, Gwandara, Ham, Kofyar, and Lijili. 70% of this groups are Christians.

How else can you convince me that amongst the 29 ethnic groups in Nasarawa State such as the Bassas who are 70% Christians, those that live in Karu, Akwanga, Kokona, Eggon who are 90% Christian, that no competent Christian leader can ever emerge in their state since 1999?

Because there is an Abdulahi Adamu who became a governor in Nasarawa State in 1999, and has vowed that the largely Christian state will never produce a Christian governor. This is for no justifiable reason whatsoever. Plain stupid domination. The state is in utter chaos and ruin for it. The same way Lagos has been in completely disastrous flood and poor standard of living, but still the most taxed enclave in Africa.

Today, the same Abdulahi Adamu has brought the same domination in the APC at the federal level through his partner Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He has given Bola Ahmed Tinubu the Nasarawa template of Dominate the Christians.

It is the same case in Adamawa State and Kaduna.

Most of Adamawa tribes are either entirely Christian, overwhelmingly Christian or predominantly Christian. Adamawas largest indigenous tribe is the Bwatiye (Bachama & Batta). They are over 90% Christian. There is no single Bwatiye village or Hamlet that is muslim majority. Finding a Bwatiye Muslim is like finding a needle in a haystack.

In Nigeria Adamawa is the eighth largest in area but the thirteenth least populous with an estimated population of about 5.5 million as of 2020. The state capital is Yola and there are over 78 tribes in Adamawa state. Some of the tribes includes: Fulani, Kilba, Chamber, Kanuri, Gude, Waja, Vere, Tangale, Wurkun, Michika, Bura, Tera, Sawa, Mafa, Margi, Hausa and Yungur.

These tribes are 60% Christians in Adamawa State and even in the entire core of the North East, thats why the terror groups are agitating so as to dominate the Christians by rampant killing.

There is no truth in using the term Christian minority in Adamawa State. Most of the indigenous tribes of Gombi & Song (Yungurr, Lala, Ganda, Ngwahi, Ngwaba, Bura) are 90% Christian. The tribes that are mixed in Adamawa are Kanakuru, Kilba, Chamba, Marghi, Mumuye, Verre, Fali, Gude & Nzanyi.

On May 21, 2014, Vanguard published an article titled Im not a religious bigot  Nyako, where the then Governor of Adamawa State

Murtala Nyako claimed that he is not denying Christian groups right to acquire Certificates of Occupancy, stating that The term Christian minorities is a misnomer in Adamawa State because we have 21 local government areas and about one-third is predominantly Moslim populated; another one-third predominantly Christian dominated while the remaining one-third has nearly equal populations of both.

Three of my sources in the state recorded that the state is 60% Christian. Currently the has two Christian senators.

This is why I am sure Babachir Lawals advice to the APC to withdraw the Muslim/Muslim ticket is valid. He is from Adamawa State. He is a liberal democrat and leader who supported Mohammadu Buhari with all his followers in Adamawa politics.

Is it not a political miscalculation for the APC to disregard the entire Christian population in Nasarawa, Adamawa, Borno, Bauchi, Plateau, and Gombe, who can gather over 10 million votes for the party. It amounts to religious domination founded on a dangerous ideology.

In Plateau State majority of the indigenous people are Christians.

In Bauchi Stare majority of the indigenous people are Christians.

In 2011 the Sayawa people of Tafawa Balewa expelled Hausa fulanis from Tafawa Balewa town because of the continuous killing and war against the Christian hosts.

That opened the eyes of many that when Christians rise they can reclaim their country the same way the indigenous people of Sri Lanka arose and reclaimed their country from impostors.

Kaduna State has over 55% of the indigenous population who are Christians but its people has been seriously injured and made uncomfortable by the current government of the state by its Muslim/Muslim representative at the state level followed by current killings and mass violence. Will this not be replicated at the federal level?

Benue, Plateau, Kogi, Tararaba, Adamawa, Nasarawa and FCT are clearly Christian majority states.

Gombe, Niger & Kwara states are at least 50% Christian.

Borno, Bauchi & Kebbi states are about 50% Christian.

The southern parts of these states are majorly Christian.

In Southern Katsina state about 6 LGAs, Kafur, Malumfashi, Funtua, Bakori, Kankia & Dutsin-Ma are heavily christian. Most of the rural areas and villages in these LGAs are Christian.

If you combine this date with the entire South of Nigeria that is 90% Christian you will be clearly shocked that the strategy of misinformation about the number of Christians in Nigeria would lead Bola Ahmed Tinubus political future to a brutal end.

Even if he rigs the election, he would meet the greatest turbulence in the history of West African politics. Everything he does would be dismissed.

The government will definitely fail.

Isnt it obvious that the Christian population is alarmed and no one would succeed in stealing their voices on this one?

Therefore, whether the APC changes its Vice presidential candidate or not, forgive Bola Ahmed Tinubus gasconade, focus on Babachirs recommendations and Nigerias Christian majority, alongside the growing number of Obi-centric Muslims who desire an equal, fair and just society.

Dr Chinonso Ndukwe is a (Lecturer at the National Open University and the CEO of Smartsoft Projects Ltd.
The National Industrial Court sitting in Abuja has ordered the Federal Government to commence moves in order to make an immediate review of the salaries and allowances of the judicial officers in Nigeria.

The judge, Justice Osatohanmwen Obaseki-Osaghae, while issuing the order, held that the current salaries and allowances of judicial officers in the country are abysmally low and embarrassing.

The order was delivered in consonance with a suit filed against the Federal Government by Chief Sebastine Hon (SAN).

Justice Obaseki-Osaghae ordered the Federal Government to commence a monthly payment of N10 million to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, N9 million to other Justices of the Supreme Court, N9 million to President of Court of Appeal.

Other Justices of the Appellate Court would get N8 million; Chief Judges of both Federal and States High Courts (N8 million), while Judges of the Federal and States High Courts would receive N7 million.

The Judge held that the refusal of the government to review the judicial officers salaries and allowances for 14 years was unconstitutional, unlawful and should be compelled to do the action.
Cloud

U of South Carolina Boosts IT Agility with Cloud Data Center Move

The University of South Carolina has replaced its data center with a custom cloud-based Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) solution from digital infrastructure provider DartPoints. The move to the cloud will "significantly improve the university's IT agility," according to a news announcement, as well as reduce capital expenditures and provide better functionality, reliability and security.

"We needed a reputable provider that was readily available to ensure our team always has access to the critical data that keeps our campuses running across the state," explained Dan Schumacher, executive director of infrastructure services at UofSC, in a statement. "DartPoints is the ideal partner for our university and its solution is easy to use, highly configurable, and provides the comprehensive services we require."

The university will also benefit from improved disaster recovery capabilities and the protection of critical applications in the face of a catastrophic event, Schumacher noted. With compute and file share services hosted in the cloud, he added, IT can respond to issues more quickly, bypassing the long shipping times or equipment shortages that have plagued organizations during the pandemic.

"The university had a number of factors that needed to be addressed, including latency, data location, cost and technical expertise," shared DartPoints CTO Brad Alexander. "We were able to work with UofSC's team to develop a customized solution that addresses all of their needs"
Voice of the Earth Initiative (VOTE) and Edo Civil Society Organization (EDOSCO) hosted a one day seminar on the 11th July 2022 at Udo Community, Ovia South West LGA, entitled Sustainable Development and Security. Various stakeholders from surrounding communities, security agencies such as the DPO from the Nigeria Police Force, Iguobazuwa, and the Commandant Edo State Security and Vigilante Network, as well as management from the Okomu Oil Palm company Plc attended the discourse.

Sunday Ajele, the spokesperson for VOTE, in his opening address said the maiden meeting had become necessary due to recent developments widely reported on all media which is painting inhabitants and companies in bad relationship.

Using the already resolved 4th May 2022 AT&P and Okomu Oil Palm issue brokered by the selfsame Divisional Police Officer (DPO) who was present at the seminar as basis for his organization to step into a matter involving two parties, this despite the seminar being themed Sustainable Development and Security in general. He then detailed Okomus apparent complaints against the AT&P community, and complaints by unnamed communities and indigenes, which centered on similar unfounded allegations observed in earlier online blogs since 2014 by Ajele.

It will also be recalled that the allegations were also debunked by an investigative committee set up by the Governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, following a petition sent to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by Ajele in 2019.

As far as sustainability and development was concerned, participants acknowledged Okomus highly proclaimed Corporate Social Responsibility programme (CSR) that has been active within all communities under the companys footprint, including those of AT&P, Okomu Community, Markilolo and Udo. Communities have received the likes of schools, town halls, bursaries, roads, boreholes, amongst others, over the past 10 years of the companys CSR programme. No one was more vocal about this than Mr. Friday Aragua, the Chairman of Udo Community, who also made it clear that Marioghinoba Community, popularly known as AT & P, was a village under Udo and they (Udo) oversaw this community. Therefore, it behooves upon them (Udo) alone to resolve an issue emanating from the community, which they have done, he responded. Mr. Festus also from Udo Community, further questioned the essence of the seminar and wondered if the NGO was trying to close the company. He queried why the NGO did not proffer solutions to the constant stealing of the companys products by elements within the neighbouring communities.

The Communication Officer for Okomu, Mr Fidelis Olise, raised the point that there was no reference between general development and security, as captioned in the invitation letter or in the banner of the seminar, and that the gathering was seemingly initiated to malign Okomu and nothing more. He also countered Ajeles allegation of maltreatment of the communities by the company, backing Araguas assertions to the audience.

Co-convener of the seminar, Mr. Augustine Enabulele, the Chairman of EDOSCO emphasized the need for peace and dialogue, stating that communities would not benefit from the company in an insecure and acrimonious environment. He also suggested the need for ongoing dialogue between both the company and the communities in the pursuit of lasting peace.
Stop dumping trash in Phuket Town canals, mayor urges

PHUKET: Public works on clearing and improving water flow in canals has resulted in good results in the three flood-prone areas in Phuket Town, Phuket City Mayor Saroj Angkanapilas has announced.

constructionenvironmentpollution

By The Phuket News

Friday 15 July 2022, 11:51AM

The three key areas are on Amphur Rd near the intersection on the way to Koh Siray, in Samkong and along Sakdidet Rd, Mr Saroj said.

Despite heavy rain during the past week, there have been no problems of flooding in the areas, he said.

Phuket City Municipality targetted the three areas as local residents had been repeatedly affected by the canals overflowing during periods of heavy rain, Mr Saorj explained.

Mr Saroj gave specific thanks to the Phuket Governor. He has regularly visited the areas to help take care of the flooding problem in Phuket Municipality, he said.

He also thanked the provincial office of the Department of Public Works and Town & Country Planning.

All relevant authorities rushed to resolve the problem in the three key areas, which are now considered very successful, Mr Saroj said.

The coordinated efforts saw the canals being cleared of all natural  and unnatural  debris.

The canals were dredged and unused beams were removed for better water flow, which helped to resolve the problem, he said.

Mayor Saroj noted that Phuket City officials were monitoring other areas to help prevent flooding, and were continually removing trash from the canals to reduce the amount of waste impeding water flow.

We ask all residents to use the bins that the municipality has available to reduce the amount of waste [found in the canals], Mr Saroj said.
Thai cities top mid-year healthcare index

BANGKOK: Several cities in Thailand are among those gaining the highest healthcare scores, according to a global cost of living database, as the Thai government hopes to turn the country into a regional medical hub.

healthtourism

By National News Bureau of Thailand

Friday 15 July 2022, 09:45AM

Wat Phra That Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai always attracts millions of visitors each year. Photo: Bangkok Post / file

Chiang Mai, Bangkok, and Pattaya have gained the top spots on Numbeos Health Care Index 2022 Mid-Year, with Chiang Mai holding the top position, followed by Bangkok at the third and Pattaya at fourth. These rankings were based on a survey of website visitors on the overall quality of the healthcare system, reports NNT. Chiang Mai tops other cities thanks to its popularity among foreign nationals, due to the lower cost of living, convenience, local culture, and high-quality public health system at an affordable price. Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha thanked all sectors and healthcare workers who have made the country well known around the world for its good health system. He highlighted the governments objective to upgrade the countrys medical industry towards becoming a major medical hub. The government hopes this development will help create more jobs, create connectivity between businesses, and help the country achieve its post-pandemic recovery goals.
A Mt Eden Bottle-O worker, Neil, told The Guardian, Its a pain all right. Theres a shortage of bourbon at the moment. We can't get anything from out of America apparently.

A pain indeed Neil.

Bourbon and Cola RTDs are a staple for Kiwis enjoying a night out - Billy Mavs, Codys, and Diesels are some of the most popular drinks in NZ and have been for a while, and Neil is fully aware of this.

Bourbon RTDs are like our bread and butter theyre very popular here.

You're God damn right Neil.



Robert Brewer, a chief executive at Spirits New Zealand called the issue an unfortunate perfect storm.

Another aspect of that perfect storm is the CO2 shortage in the country going on at the moment.

Our only CO2 producer is currently doing a bit of admin so have had to slow down their supply.

C02 adds fizz to RTDs and soft drinks and also helps preserve chicken nuggets, which have been lacking in supermarkets lately.
A Brooklyn man charged last week with the vehicular hit-and-run death of an Oregon man who was jogging along a rural road was ordered to stand trial Thursday after a preliminary hearing.

Timothy W. Pritchett, 38, also pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, which include hit-and-run resulting in death and homicide by negligent driving, both for the death of Logan Gueths, 30, whose body was found June 8 near the intersection of Highways MM and A in the town of Oregon.

A criminal complaint filed last week alleges Pritchett admitted he "maybe" was using FaceTime to talk with someone on his cellphone when the crash occurred. Investigators also found that a van Pritchett was driving had sustained damage, and that Pritchett had gotten the windshield replaced in Rockford, Illinois, within days of the crash.

An autopsy found Gueths died from blunt force trauma to the head, torso and extremities, according to the complaint.

Pritchett was ordered to stand trial by Circuit Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn after testimony by three Dane County Sheriff's Office detectives.

According to the complaint:

On June 8, shortly after 5 p.m., a semitrailer truck driver found Gueths' body in the ditch along the side of the road. Investigators found vehicle parts scattered nearby.

A roommate of Gueths told a sheriff's detective that Gueths had left for a run about 9 p.m. the night before and did not return.

Searching a part number found on one of the pieces left in the road, investigators found it was from the passenger side front corner marker light lens of a Chevrolet Express van, made between 1996 and 2002.

After the sheriff's office issued a press release asking for help finding a possible vehicle of interest, it received a tip about a dark-colored van parked at a garage on Douglas Drive in Brooklyn. Detective George Mayerhofer visited the home and left his business card after getting no answer at the front door, and on June 10 he received a call from Pritchett.

"If this is regarding the incident around my house, I've been pulled over multiple times already," Pritchett said on the voicemail. "There's no damage on my vehicle. You're welcome to see it."

The next morning, Pritchett called to say he was coming to the police station. In a phone conversation with Mayerhofer, Pritchett said he thought he had hit a deer on Highway MM the night of June 7, after leaving work in Rockford. He said he thought he hit the deer between 9:40 and 10 p.m.

Pritchett said when he struck the deer he stopped and looked around but didn't see anything. He picked up a mirror that had come off the van and left. Pritchett agreed to come to the Public Safety Building in Madison to speak to Mayerhofer. When he arrived for the interview, investigators noticed damage in the area near a plastic light cover like the one found at the crash scene.

During an interview, Pritchett said he had also had his windshield replaced at Rockford Auto Glass in Rockford.

The van, which was towed from the Public Safety Building parking lot, also carried what investigators described as a strong odor of spray paint and had what appeared to be spray paint on the front passenger side.

Visiting Rockford Auto Glass, detectives were shown the old windshield from Pritchett's van, with damage that it had sustained in the crash. A technician who had done the work said the damage was a "bowling ball" size compression on the passenger side, with some other damage on the driver's side.

Investigators also looked at data from Pritchett's cellphone and found that its camera had been on and connected to FaceTime between 9:32 and 9:37 p.m. on June 7, which investigators believe, based on other data recovered from the phone, is the time period that the crash occurred.

Asked who he was speaking with by FaceTime, Pritchett said it was someone called "Fussy" in Washington. He said he didn't remember whether he was using FaceTime when the crash occurred, but after being asked several times added that he was "maybe" on FaceTime during the crash.
Montreal, CA (H4T1V6)

Today

Sun and clouds mixed. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 29C. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Considerable cloudiness. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 18C. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.
EDWARDSVILLE  An Alton man was charged Thursday with carjacking in an incident earlier that day in East Alton.

Stacey T. Samuels, 43, of Alton, was charged July 14 with vehicular hijacking, a Class 1 felony, and domestic battery (second subsequent offense), a Class 4 felony.

The case was presented by the East Alton Police Department.

According to court documents, on July 14 Samuels allegedly took a vehicle from a household or family member by use of force, including spitting on the victim and throwing her to the ground.

Samuels has prior convictions for domestic battery out of Madison County in 2010 and 2019.

Bail was set at $75,000.

Other felony charges filed July 14 by the Madison County States Attorneys Office include:

 Donald L. Cook, 47, of Caseyville, was charged with aggravated assault, a Class 4 felony; and resisting a peace officer, a Class A misdemeanor. The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. According to court documents, on July 13 Cook allegedly threatened and pushed a Madison County sheriffs deputy, knocking the officers body camera to the ground, and resisted the officers attempts to place him under arrest. Bail was set at $15,000.

 Terence R. Whitfield, 32, of Granite City, ws charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. On July 12 Whitfield allegedly had an Iver Johnson 7.62 mm revolver without a valid Firearm Owners Identification Card or concealed carry permit. Bail was set at $30,000.

 Trevor D. McClure, 30, of St. Charles, Missouri, was charged with aggravated fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Brooklyn Police Department. On June 25 McClure allegedly was driving a BMW sedan when he fled from a Brooklyn police officer, reaching speeds in excess of 21 miles above the posted speed limit. Bail was set at $50,000.
EDWARDSVILLE  A jury on Friday found a longtime criminal guilty of first-degree murder and other charges after prosecutors presented evidence of the defendants DNA on gloves and a Taser probe.

William A. Jenkins, 45, of Madison was convicted of killing Andre Hutson of St. Louis on Dec. 7, 2021, in Madison during an attempted robbery at a home. Jenkins' DNA was found on a Taser probe that landed in Jenkins chest. A similar probe was removed from Hutsons body after the crime.

A pathologist also testified that residue on the victims body indicated the shooter was close to the victim.

Gloves containing Jenkins' DNA were also found near a trash can, not far from the murder scene. The jury also heard an interview with Jenkins in which he claimed that some other man did the crime.

Prosecutors argued Jenkins claims during the police interview did not fit the evidence.

Authorities did not say that Jenkins co-defendant  Larry Lovett, 40, of Madison  fired the Taser which hit two people. But Lovett was charged with unlawful possession of a weapon, a Taser.

Lovett was also shot during the confrontation, but it is not clear who shot him. Lovett is awaiting trial in the Hutson killing and the alleged murder of a Granite City man. His bond is $8 million.

In addition to murder, Jenkins was also found guilty of attempted armed robbery.

The penalty for murder is 20 to 60 years. The jury also found the killing was with a firearm, which could add up to 15 years to Jenkins' sentence.

Associate Judge Neil Schroeder ordered a pre-sentencing investigation and said sentencing will be set at a later date.

"We are glad that with this murder conviction a violent criminal is taken off the streets, said Madison County State's Attorney Tom Haine. The victims family is in our prayers today as they continue to mourn the loss of a friend and family member.

Haine praised the speed with which the case developed.

Swift and effective justice is key to making our community safer," he said. "Here, only seven months elapsed between the murder and this trial and full conviction. We will continue to push cases ahead as swiftly as possible to obtain justice for victims.

This conviction was accomplished because of excellent police work by the Major Case Squad," he said. "In addition, thank you to the Madison County Sheriffs Department, the Granite City Police Department, Illinois State Police, Madison County Coroners Office, Madison Police Department, and many other responding units for their hard work."

He also thanked Assistant Madison County States Attorneys Morgan Hudson and Mike Stewart.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 John Badman Show More Show Less 2 of 3 John Badman Show More Show Less 3 of 3





ALTON  People this week continued to remember Yvonne Campbell, the owner of My Just Desserts who died Wednesday following a van-truck accident in Jamaica.

A memorial outside of her business on Broadway in Alton took on an unexpected twist Friday. In addition to flowers, candles and stuffed animals, several boxes of cake mix were left in front of the business.
The City of Columbus and its neighboring villages will benefit from Platte County's American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding. Most of the support will be used for broadband and housing in Columbus and infrastructure.

On July 5, the Platte County Board of Supervisors approved the funds in the first of possibly several rounds of ARPA funding for the county.

In regards to the broadband fund, up to $1 million is allowed for such, should it become a strong possibility. Board Chairman Jerry Micek said there aren't currently any concrete plans for this, however.

"What we did there was allocate a million dollars for broadband. We have no specific plans on how to get that distributed or taken care of at this time," Micek said.

Micek added that broadband has been in discussion for some time, and that ARPA funding seemed like a worthwhile way to help move that along some.

"Broadband, we talked about that way before ARPA came about, but when it did come about, we thought it could be used for that," Micek said.

Funds were allocated based on the approval of the board following a selection process by a separate committee, who reviewed applications and chose those they felt were properly filled and filed.

"The committee goes through it and sends it to the board. I set up a committee with the deputy county attorney to make sure they meet the criteria of 'do you qualify?'" Micek said.

Up to $500,000 were allotted to the villages of Duncan and Monroe, and up to $176,580 for Lindsay.

Village of Duncan Chairperson Jeff Oppliger said the funds are welcome and appreciated, as they will largely go toward improving water infrastructure in Duncan.

"We have a large project we've been wanting to get done for years, with looping the water mains," Oppliger said. "With looping the water main lines on the north and south side, our goal is to eliminate dead ends that can cause low water pressure."

Oppliger added that this will be one more way Duncan can improve life for its residents. They also plan to use some of the funding for general maintenance of the water system, though the main loop is paramount.

"We're just going through the sewer lines, making sure everything is up to the current standard, getting rid of any old small lines," Oppliger said. "For any small town, water and streets are usually a main priority."

Oppliger said the funds are very much needed and appreciated, given Duncan's recent growth.

"We're growing at a fast pace here, we can't build houses fast enough. We've wanted to do this for years and the opportunity is there now. We're very thankful for ARPA funds," Oppliger said.

Habitat for Humanity of Columbus was awarded up to $270,000 for its New Hope 2 subdivision on the south part of Columbus. Executive Director Lori Peters said the funds there will also go toward infrastructure-related costs.

"Our intent for our ARPA funds was for it to be used for our New Hope 2 addition, our subdivision on the south end of Columbus," Peters said.

Peters said Habitat has built one house of the subdivision so far and that necessities such as plumbing and power have to be installed new.

"We had to put in everything. It was an alfalfa field before this, so we had to put in everything from plumbing to electrical, paving, sewer. I've learned a lot about those since we started," Peters said.

Peters also expressed appreciation for the funding, as the project has been in the works for some time. She added that they plan to announce its formal opening soon with a ribbon-cutting on July 22.

Funds were also allocated to the Platte County Sheriff's Office and Emergency Management for up to $413,000 for their radio tower and equipment costs.
ALTON  Each week award-winning photographer John Badman of The Telegraph captures images of the Riverbend.

Here is a sampling of his photographs from this week. They also appear in the weekend issue of The Telegraph.
Overcoming obstacles to deals and floats in current uncertain times is a huge challenge. Latest quarterly results from the big beasts of Wall Street showing disappearing earnings from investment banking are a case in point.

On top of that, Chinese growth fell in the second quarter, Italy is fracturing confidence in the eurozone and Sri Lanka has opened a window to struggles in the developing world.

Amid all of this the scheduled split and IPO of Haleon on Monday, the healthcare arm of pharma GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), is a pivotal event. It marks the end of a delicate four-year reorganisation by chief executive Emma Walmsley, designed to focus GSK as a vaccine and pharma innovator.

World-class?: In spite of the Covid setback GSK remains ahead of its rivals in delivering vaccines and is transforming the lives of HIV patients

The task was not made easier by the aggression of activist investor Elliott or GSK's early failure to come up with a Covid vaccine. The idea is to give GSK a clearer run at rejoining the pharma elite.

Post-split, its shares will sell at a discount to much of the sector, offering upside to long-term investors.

The risk is that, with a valuation of 84billion, it could become a takeover target. Haleon, home of Advil, Sensodyne and the Centrum vitamins, as a 33billion or so stand-alone healthcare firm, carrying 10billion of debt, also could be an attractive target. It already has seen off interest from Unilever and Nestle.

Does GSK have what it takes to become world-class again?

In spite of the Covid setback it remains ahead of its rivals in delivering vaccines and is transforming the lives of HIV patients. But some of those HIV patents will fall away later in this decade.

At present, shringrix, which combats shingles, is a star performer.

The big prize is GSK's work on RSV vaccines for respiratory illness. Results from trials suggest a RSV vaccine is promising. Critical data is scheduled for autumn release. Achieving GSK's challenging targets of 5 per cent earnings and 10 per cent sales over each of the next few years is tough.

Walmsley is putting some heft into the process with a 1billion investment in research and development for infectious diseases in poor countries. This month it unveiled plans for a research campus in Stevenage.

It is doubling down on vaccines with the 1.75billion purchase of Boston-based biopharma concern Affinivax. And it is seeking to address its gaps in cancer treatments with its purchase of Sierra Oncology.

The lack of debt on its reshaped balance sheet gives GSK the opportunity to strengthen through deal-making.

It may not seem the ideal time for Haleon to come to the London market. An overwhelming vote in favour from shareholders, together with confidence from the financial groups involved in the rebuild, should mean a fair wind despite choppy waters.

Italian job

If Mario Draghi with all his experience and silky skills couldn't fix Italy's financial ills, who can?

It is one of life's mysteries that Italy, with its mastery of cuisine, design, fitting cruise ships, sunglasses and much else is such a basket case.

Draghi's resignation as prime minister leaves a hole at a delicate time. The eurozone's third-largest member is struggling under 2.5trillion (2.1trillion) of debt.

That is bigger than that of Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Spain, the countries at the vortex of the last euro crisis, combined.

Those countries have since knuckled down and pushed through reforms. Italy has struggled to put together a workable coalition capable of reforming labour and product markets, and shrinking the state.

As the globe faces sluggish growth, the market for Italian bonds is showing serious strain. Yields stand at 3.5 per cent in latest trading, opening up gap of more than two percentage points with German bonds.

Britain has a productivity problem. Italy's is much worse.

Speed bumps

Aston Martin has survived more death-defying scrapes than its most famous user, James Bond.

But it is gradually falling into safer hands. It now has three cornerstone investors  the Saudi Public Investment Fund, Lawrence Stroll's Yew Tree and Mercedes-Benz.
My family and I went on holiday to Portugal in early June. We had a great time. When it was time to head home, we arrived in the small and very busy airport, and were set to fly with easyJet from Faro to Liverpool, at 10:30pm on a Friday.

Shortly before we were due to board, we started hearing rumours from passengers that our flight had been cancelled. There were no easyJet staff around to answer our questions, just rumours of an email from easyJet about how to rebook.

Eventually, an airport staff member began handing out sheets of paper with information on how to rebook our flights and what kind of compensation we would be owed, so we collected our suitcases.

EasyJet has reportedly cancelled 10,000 flights before the end of the summer holiday season, which could leave millions of passengers stuck in airports and missing their trips

We made the decision to get our flights refunded and rebook ourselves, rather than letting easyJet handle it for us. The next available flight with easyJet wasn't until Monday evening, so we got a hotel for the night and booked a flight with Jet2 on Saturday morning.

We did receive our refund reasonably quickly, but I haven't heard anything back about my expenses, which came to 2,500 including the hotel, transfers, food, and replacement flights for four people, or my compensation claim.

I'm starting to regret asking for a refund, as easyJet just seemed to wash its hands with us once they cancelled the flight, and offered no support. I'll never be flying with easyJet again.

I can't help but think that if I'd let easyJet sort my return flight, I wouldn't have been left with thousands of pounds of credit card debt just to get home. Did I do the right thing by asking for a refund and booking my own return flight home? S.S. via email.

Emilia Shovelin of This Is Money replied: It's been a long summer already when it comes to flight cancellations, with tens of thousands of flights across numerous carriers getting cut since the start of the holiday season.

So sadly, the fact that you were left to fend for yourself at almost midnight in a foreign country isn't surprising, but I'm sorry you've had to deal with this stressful situation over the last month.

I contacted easyJet on your behalf to discuss what was going on, and to find out why you had yet to be refunded for your reasonable expenses.

While the majority of flights being cancelled at the moment are due to staff shortages and strike action, easyJet said your flight had been cancelled due to a 'bird strike' on the journey your plane took to get to Faro airport.

This is when the aircraft makes contact with a bird or multiple birds whilst in the air, which can often result in significant damage to the aircraft.

Unfortunately, it means you aren't entitled to compensation.

According to European regulation, passengers have the right to be financially compensated if their flight is delayed or cancelled, but, there are 'exceptional circumstances' where airlines don't have to pay out.

Airlines have long argued that events such as bird strikes are beyond their control, and in May 2017, the EU regulation added that a bird strike did count as 'exceptional circumstances', meaning passengers can't claim compensation.

Passengers face long queues at check in desks and sleeping on airport floors as a mix of staff shortages and strikes continue to make air travel difficult leaving thousands stranded

The easyJet spokesperson said: 'We are sorry the inconvenience caused by the cancellation of flight from Faro to Liverpool due to the aircraft experiencing a bird strike on its previous flight.

'We provided customers with options to rebook or receive a full refund, along with information on how to arrange this online or via the app.

'We also offered customers hotel accommodation and advise customers who were required to book their own that they will be reimbursed.

What compensation am I entitled to if my flight has been cancelled? Less than 14 days notice of cancellation with no 'exceptional circumstances' Distance Compensation Less than 1,500km Up to 220 1,500km to 3,500km Up to 350 More than 3,500km Up to 520 Read our guide for more information:

What are your rights if your flight is cancelled?

'Our customer service team are available for extended hours to help support impacted customers and help get them to their destination as soon as possible.

'Unfortunately, Mr S's expense claim was initially not to be processed as not all of the correct information was submitted, however our team are in contact with Mr.S to resolve this and reimburse him.'

You then told me that easyJet had contacted you to discuss your expense claim. You received 225 to cover the difference in costs for your flight, as well as a full refund for your accommodation, food and transfers.

Frustratingly though, you were not given the appropriate support in the airport in order to arrange a return flight with easyJet and as the airport was closing, this left you with no other option but to arrange for the refund and book yourself.

> Read our guide to everything you need to know about travel insurance

The easyJet spokesperson said that they had an available flight on Sunday morning, but when checking the app yourself, you could only find a flight option for Monday morning.

Despite that, there were available flights with other carriers available on the Saturday, which easyJet did not offer to you.

Which? have recently found that easyJet was directing passengers to the 'manage my booking' section of its app and website following cancellations. This only allows them to rebook an easyJet flight.

EasyJet cabin crew and staff based in Spain are expected to go on strike throughout July, as passengers are warned to expect disruption, long queues, and cancelled flights this summer

Airlines are required by law to offer passengers new flights to their destination at the 'earliest opportunity,' even if this means offering them a flight with an alternative airline - which easyJet has been accused of failing to do.

When Which? asked easyJet why it was not offering passengers the option to book alternative flights with other airlines, the firm suggested that passengers were better off booking these alternative flights themselves.

EasyJet appears to be encouraging passengers to apply for a refund by not offering them the next available flight, and leaving them to fend for themselves.

Travel tips: pay by credit card and check the small print Take out comprehensive travel insurance: Check the policy small print to ensure it covers the cost of all travel failures. Make sure the cover includes 'scheduled airline failure insurance'. You may have to pay extra for this as a bolt-on  but it is money well spent. Pay for your travel with a credit card: It means you may be able to claim under 'section 75' of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 if an airline or holiday company goes bust  or the travel trip paid for using this card is unexpectedly cancelled. Know your rights: Do not allow airlines to fob you off with 'extraordinary circumstances' excuses. The Civil Aviation Authority has full details of when and how to claim. If your airline rejects a claim you may take the case to AviationADR.

And as you did not receive an update from easyJet to let you know about the errors in your expense claim, it looks as though airlines are simply hoping that you would give up pursuing your claim.

I'm glad to hear that you finally received your refund on your expenses, but I'm appalled at the lengths that passengers are needing to go to just to get their money back.

As for whether you would be better off applying for the refund, or getting your airline to arrange another flight for you, this seemingly depends on the circumstances.

If easyJet had rebooked you onto another flight, you likely would have needed to stay in Portugal for an extra day and got the Sunday morning flight home.

You told me that your wife had run out of essential medication, so this wasn't an option for you. A refund was likely your best chance to get home safely and quickly.

You did the right thing in applying for a refund instead of asking easyJet to organise your flight home.

But for those who can't afford to pay their way home upfront, it is incredibly frustrating that easyJet are leaving their passengers in the dark and scared to fly because of the lack of customer service support.

Travellers should always have a back up plan for their trip in case they can't make it home, as airlines have been showing how unreliable they can be of late.

Make sure you take out appropriate travel insurance with disruption cover, and have a credit card that you can use in case of emergency.

And if you are worried about how quickly the airlines are refunding you, make sure you book your flights on a credit card. This can give you extra protection if the airline refuses to refund you.
The disruption to global supply chains and bouts of Covid in China will be among the key issues facing Tesla when it delivers its second-quarter earnings on Wednesday.

The electric car maker, run by the world's richest man Elon Musk, saw its quarterly production and vehicle delivery numbers fall short of expectations in an update this month.

Issues with the supply chain and Covid have hurt its ability to ramp up production. The Shanghai factory has been hit by Covid, resulting in strict lockdown measures, while new plants in Texas and Berlin are fighting soaring costs.

The second-half outlook will be closely watched, particularly if Tesla cuts a target of making 1.5million cars in 2022.

Also looming large will be Musk's impending legal battle with Twitter after he pulled out of a deal to buy the social media platform for 37billion.

Musk derives most of his wealth from his near-16 per cent stake in Tesla. But its shares have taken a battering in the wake of the spat, dropping 27 per cent since Musk's bid was revealed, as investors fear his pursuit of Twitter is distracting him from the car firm.

With predictions the row will mean a nasty, long and costly court battle should Musk lose, an outcome that many on Wall Street consider likely, shareholders may be hoping for some crumbs of comfort in the quarterly results.

Shareholders may also be on the lookout for any plans that Tesla has to try to shield itself from the fallout of Musk's antics elsewhere.
A new networking group is aiming to better serve seniors in the Columbus and surrounding communities.

Made up of health care professionals in the senior service field, the Senior Industry Networking Group had its first meeting in June.

Nicki Woznick of St. Croix Hospice said she had the idea for the group a couple of months ago when the COVID-19 pandemic started declining.

It's definitely been something that has (been) much needed in our community, Woznick said. I've been in Columbus for two-and-a-half years, and we haven't had any kind of collaboration like this.

Woznick said she contacted Kari Hofer at Emerald Nursing and Rehab in Columbus about collaborating for the group. The first gathering was a happy hour meet and greet at Cork and Barrel.

Kari and I reached out to different hospitals, the geriatric psych part of the hospital, hematology and oncology, cancer centers, dialysis, nursing homes, assisted livings and independent livings, and then home care agencies, all in the Columbus area, just to kind of get everybody together so that people could put a face to a name, Woznick said.

Last Thursday, July 7, the second gathering was held at the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce by Right at Home.

They kind of expanded a little bit and invited more of where their population serves. So the Norfolk, Genoa, Albion areas as well. And they talked about their services, and then we were able to kind of sit together and troubleshoot some different ideas that we have.

The Senior Industry Networking Group is one of several such gatherings regularly hosted at the chamber.

We were happy to host them. It's always great to see industries working together, and any way the chamber can be involved with that we're always excited to, said Columbus Chamber President Dawson Brunswick.

It's a good way to get out of the work environment and just network with others to see what they're doing. Because ultimately, everybody can improve.

The first couple of meetings went well, added Hofer.

"I can say we all made different connections in these first meetings and the comradery was enlightening," Hofer said.

"This networking group is definitely going to help each healthcare organization grow. I can say that Emerald Nursing & Rehab is excited to be a part of this group and is looking forward to working with the different area health care facilities and organizations."

The group will meet the first Thursday of every month with each involved entity taking turns planning and hosting. The type of meeting will depend on the host  it can range from breakfast to lunch to happy hour get-togethers, Woznick said.

Those interested in joining the group can contact Woznick at 402-860-1882 or nwoznick@stcroixhospice.com.

Woznick noted that there are available resources out there that senior health care workers may not know about, even if theyve been in the field for several years.

What we're going to be able to find and navigate through is how different agencies can really work off of one another, to benefit the senior population, she added. Definitely right now with a staffing crisis, in all areas and all spectrums, it's incredibly important that different agencies work together to benefit the senior population.

If one facility can't provide a certain service, hopefully another can, Hofer said, adding this is a way for health care facilities to work together, not against each other.

The hope is also to locate more resources and care for seniors in the Columbus area community.

We've seen that people are staying at home longer, or they're in different care settings, Woznick said. We just want them to always know what their resources are, no matter what setting they are in. This group is all about spreading awareness and education to our community.
Britain's accounting regulator has written to the industry's largest firms asking them to stop their staff cheating in exams.

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said it was 'deeply concerned' by fines levied against the likes of EY, PwC and KPMG.

It is the latest blow for the audit industry, which has repeatedly been criticised for sloppiness and even outright misconduct.

Worry: The Financial Reporting Council said it was 'deeply concerned' by fines levied against the likes of EY, PwC and KPMG

Auditors are supposed to rubber-stamp companies' accounts, so they can be trusted by employees, suppliers and shareholders  but their negligence and oversights have contributed to the collapse of firms such as Patisserie Valerie and outsourcer Carillion.

In a recent letter to chief executives, FRC executive director of supervision Sarah Rapson said the FRC had spoken to firms to understand controls they had in place.

She said: 'Given the importance of this issue, we have decided that we need to formalise, deepen and accelerate these discussions.'

Rapson has asked the seven largest accountants  EY, PwC, KPMG, Deloitte, BDO, Grant Thornton and Mazars  to set out how they are presenting and detecting exam cheating. She cited a recent scandal where EY's US arm was fined 84.5m for cheating on exams.

Rapson also mentioned cases where PwC's Canadian branch was slapped with a 129,000 penalty for failing to prevent 1,200 staff gaming internal tests, and KPMG Australia was fined 257,000 for failures over internal training.

She has asked the likes of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales to set out how it ensures exam integrity.
More than a third of people anticipating an inheritance are depending on this late influx of cash to see them through old age, new research reveals.

Relying on a future legacy is most prevalent among 55 to 64-year-olds, women - who tend to have smaller pensions - and parents with children still at home.

'This is a risky gamble, because life and relationships are far too complicated to stake our future on,' warns Hargreaves Lansdown, which carried out the study.

Expecting an inheritance: Relying on a future legacy to fund retirement is most prevalent among 55 to 64-year-olds

Some 29 per cent of adults expect an inheritance or have already received one, and among those still waiting 38 per cent need the money to fund retirement, according to the survey.

The most common age at which today's 20 to 35-year-olds will inherit is age 61, but inheritances become more common as people age, with a peak in both receipt and amount among those aged 55 to 64, official statistics show.

Many people choose to start passing on wealth before their death to younger generations of their family, to help them out financially or mitigate inheritance tax, but often wait until they are in their 70s to begin making gifts.

Research among financial advisers from M&G Wealth found 71 per cent expect client demand for assistance with wealth transfers to rise in the next three years.

10 ways to avoid inheritance tax legally Read a This is Money guide here, explaining how to stop HMRC grabbing some of your estate from your loved ones.

Some 67 per cent said clients were focused on limiting inheritance tax liabilities, and 65 per cent said they had money available to gift.

Meanwhile, Hargreaves found that 45 per cent of people who both expect an inheritance and need one are parents with children still at home, reflecting the enormous cost of bringing them up, which often takes priority over saving for retirement.

Some 41 per cent are women and 35 per cent are men, probably because women have smaller pensions due to lower pay and doing unpaid caring work.

Hargreaves surveyed 2,000 people, weighted to be representative of UK adults in terms of income and location.

What are the pitfalls of relying on an inheritance?

'Were banking on an inheritance to fund our retirements, and we could be in for a nasty surprise,' says Sarah Coles, senior personal finance analyst at the firm.

'We cant accurately predict how life will turn out for our loved ones. They might end up needing expensive care, which will eat through an inheritance in no time.

'Alternatively, they may want to spend their money enjoying their retirement to the full. It could leave you with far less than you were expecting, and in some cases, you could end up with nothing at all.'

Coles says plenty of people change their mind about who they leave money to for various reasons, such as changes in relationships with potential beneficiaries, meeting someone they want to prioritise, or deciding to give money to charity.

Your relatives might also have less to leave than you thought anyway, if they have used equity release to dip into the value of their home, or the taxman takes a slice of their estate, she adds.

'Even if you receive every penny you expect, you have no idea when it might arrive. If they live well into their 90s you could be 70 before you see a penny.

'The last thing you want is to be waiting for the death of a loved one to let you do the things you want during your golden years.'

What can you do to reduce dependence on a future inheritance?

Sarah Coles: 'Were banking on an inheritance to fund our retirements, and we could be in for a nasty surprise'

'If you expect inheritance to play a part in your retirement plans, you need to ensure its not a pivotal role, so the show can go on if doesnt materialise,' says Hargreaves.

'It may seem awkward, but you should also talk to your family to find out if they actually plan to leave you something  and how much it might be.

'It may feel like a tricky conversation to have with your loved ones, but you cant base your planning on a vague assumption and crossed fingers. You may even find theyre happy to make lifetime gifts, which could be more tax-efficient.'

The firm also says you should try to ensure your pension will cover your essential expenses in retirement, regardless of whether or not you get an inheritance, which should it arrive will only help pay for extras to make life more comfortable.

If a combination of the state pension, workplace and personal pensions and any other investments will fall short without an inheritance, you need a robust plan B youre prepared to use, according to Hargreaves.

'This could include downsizing your home, working longer, or working part time in retirement.'
For Philicia Muldrow-Lewis, the idea of success sounded like something a person achieved on ones own. But with her new business, shes hoping to share that experience with family and old friends.

Muldrow-Lewis opened Mood Swings, an event planning and catering business at 1 N. Hanover St., in downtown Carlisle earlier this month at the former Carlisle Vault. By her side are her sister and CFO, Selena Griffin, and childhood friends Nadinah Thompson and Elexis Bellamy-Layton as president and COO, respectively.

Its been amazing so far; the things weve been able to accomplish and working with everyone, Muldrow-Lewis said of running the business with her new partners.

The four friends grew up together in Harrisburg, and Muldrow-Lewis initially started an event planning business when she moved to Georgia. She came back to the area to take care of her father, working in Mechanicsburg before settling on opening the new business in Carlisle.

Muldrow-Lewis group will be leasing the Vault space from 1 North Hanover LLC, which is comprised of Shaun and Rebecca Foote along with John and Nadeen Bogonis. The building owners endeavored to rehabilitate and adaptively re-use the historic former bank building that had been vacant for nearly three years when they purchased it in 2010.

The Footes ran the Carlisle Vault as an event and office space, and Party of Four, Ross Morris restaurant group, leased the space for a few years starting in 2016 to hold and cater events.

The former Carlisle Vault as a setting was a perfect opportunity, Muldrow-Lewis said. Theres a lot of history ... and its on the main strip. It was perfect.

Built in 1816, the building had been home to the Carlisle Bank until 1846 when it became the Carlisle Deposit Bank & Trust Co., whose name is inscribed upon the buildings facade. The building closed its doors as a banking establishment in 2007.

The location off the Square in Carlisle fits what the four women want to do with their business.

Our main goal is to have a place for people to relax and enjoy an evening out, she said. I started opening up after COVID when people wanted to go out again. After COVID, you want to enjoy life while you still have it.

Muldrow-Lewis said they plan to offer up the location for events, including weddings, as well as help get residents connected with other venues should their space be booked at the time.

Though their initial goal was to simply offer a space for residents and groups to have events, shes also embraced the importance their business could have in a diverse Carlisle community. Running a business operated by four Black women, Muldrow-Lewis said she became interested in that aspect after talking to more people in the Carlisle community.

Were first looking at booking more events, she said. Were also just promoting ourselves and getting us out there.

She started that by offering small events in the afternoon and evening where residents and visitors can drop by and see the space. Mood Swings has monthly activities for networking and for trying some of the food it can offer as a catering business.

Muldrow-Lewis and Griffin are the cooks for the catering side of the business, each having learned from their mother.

I love to do soul food, but Im very [adept] in most cuisine, like Italian and Jamaican, she said.

The first big event for the business will be a Mood Gala, which takes place Saturday night and feature a three-course meal, music and formal attire. The event is presented as their opening night, with tickets available for $50 to $60 depending on seating on the ground level or in the balcony. RSVP and ticket purchases must be made by noon Friday given the constraints on meal planning.

For more information about Mood Swings, check out its website at msatthevault.com or by calling 717-906-5072.
Sri Lankas Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as the countrys acting president on Friday, a government official said.

Wickremesinghe had already taken on the role after former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country on Wednesday following months of anti-government protests.

Sri Lankas parliament has accepted ousted president Gotabaya Rajapaksas resignation, ending rule by a family that wielded power for nearly 20 years.

Rajapaksa quit after fleeing to Singapore amid mass protests over his mismanagement of the economy.

Sri Lanka is in the grip of economic chaos as it faces an acute shortage of food, fuel and other basic supplies.

Rajapaksas resignation paves the way for the country to begin the process of electing a new president.

Sri Lankas speaker of parliament, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, said on Friday that he accepted Rajapaksas resignation, which he received late on Thursday.

SOURCE: REUTERS AND AGENCIES
The following is an excerpt from Chris Churchill's weekly newsletter. To have a copy delivered to your inbox every Friday morning, sign up here.

A broken clock, as they say, is right twice a day. Train 1,000 birds to poke at typewriters and one of them will eventually peck out a few words of Shakespeare. And if Carl Paladino spouts his hot air for long enough, he will eventually be right about something.

If you live far from Buffalo and ignore New York politics, you may just remember Paladino as the guy who got slaughtered by Andrew Cuomo in the 2010 race for governor. If you follow the news a bit more closely, you may also know Paladino as the misanthrope who says bigoted and dumb things, such as his recent proclamation that America could use a leader like Adolf Hitler.

Paladino also happens to be a candidate for Congress  God help us  who is facing state GOP Chairman Nick Langworthy in an upcoming Republican primary. In recent days, Paladino has made headlines for two reasons.

1. He has a convicted pedophile on his staff.

2. He has filed a lawsuit targeting New York's new gun law, which was enacted after the Supreme Court struck down state rules that made it nearly impossible for residents to carry concealed weapons. Paladino says the new law is also unconstitutional and under the standard set by the court, he's probably right.

The new rules make it so hard to carry a concealed weapon that it's possible to argue, as this Wall Street Journal editorial does, that the state is willfully defying the court's ruling that the right to bear arms extends outside the home for self-defense.

Paladino, in particular, is challenging the constitutionality of a rule that bars people from bringing weapons into private businesses unless the owners put up signs saying guns are welcome. The lawsuit says the "patently absurd" rule violates the First, Second, Fifth and Fourteenth amendments.

Whether or not he's right about that, Paladino's lawsuit will not be the only challenge to the law  and not all of the criticism of it is coming from the right side of the political aisle. The Times Union editorial board, for example, recently knocked the law's promise to review the social media accounts of gun-permit applicants as an attack on the First Amendment.

Some readers, I know, will say New York is right to defy a law that may put public safety at risk. But the composition of the court isn't going to change anytime soon, and the state is ultimately going to lose the fight. Its lawyers will be kept busy, though.
Rhode Island is best known for its petite parameters. The countrys smallest state is trotted out so frequently for geographic comparisons  to everything from active wildfires to the worlds largest comet  that it would be easy to dismiss it as too Lilliputian to possess anything of interest.

But Rhode Islands compact size is one of its greatest charms. Its easy to get to from the Hudson Valley  which, in case youre wondering, could fit the entire state within its borders five times  and comparatively quick to navigate once youre there. Rhode Islands coast is so packed with sights and activities, from scenic drives along its 40-mile length to outdoor recreation, culture, dining, and more, that it provides plenty to fill a summer weekend.

Find more weekend road trips: Lower Adirondacks | Cape Ann, Massachusetts

How to get to Rhode Island

Driving from the Hudson Valley takes about three hours. From Poughkeepsie and points south, take I-84 East into Connecticut, where you can connect with I-91. From points north, including the Capital Region, take I-90 East to 1-91 South. From there, you have two options: a scenic coastal route along I-95 East, or a more direct shot via CT-2 East to I-395.

There are no nonstop flights from Albany to Providence, making for a longer travel time than if you drive. The fastest non-car option is Amtraks 1.5-hour Acela service from New Haven, Connecticut. Of course, youll need to rent a car or take a taxi once you arrive.

Day 1: Sandy beaches, crispy clam cakes and historical splendor

Spend the morning in Watch Hill, a coastal village in Westerly, on the states southwestern tip. Popular with the Gilded Age set who used summer as a verb, its still home to a number of Victorian cottages.

Watch Hill has two views-for-miles sandy beaches, East Beach and Napatree Point. The public access to East, via Bluff Avenue, has a storybook feel, covered in lush greenery and fragrant wildflowers. Parking close to the beaches is scarce, so its best to find a spot near the downtown and walk. Currents are strong and can be dangerous here.

Downtown Watch Hill is picturesque, with cedar shake-clad boutiques, galleries, and cafes. Its also home to the countrys oldest continually operating carousel, a flying horse style built in 1867. Its steeds are so hardy that they survived the Great New England Hurricane of 1938, which decimated coastal Rhode Island.

Robin Catalano

Hop on Route 1 East to 108 South in Narragansett. Here youll find a number of lunch options. While local politicians want you to believe calamari is the states appetizer  it made a quirky appearance during roll call at the 2020 Democratic National Convention  the true state starter is the clam cake, a crispy-on-the-outside fritter with a cakey interior containing chunks of fresh clam. Other New England states have attempted to duplicate the alchemy of Little Rhodys, and none compare. Get a taste at Aunt Carries (1240 Ocean Road, Narragansett) or Iggys Doughboys and Chowderhouse (1151 Point Judith Road, Narragansett), which also serves superb lobster rolls.

Robin Catalano

Cross the Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge onto Conanicut Island, worthy of a stop in its own right, if you have time. On the eastern side, the Claiborne Pell/Newport Bridge takes you straight into the action in Newport.

Erin McGinn

You might be familiar with the citys opulent oceanfront mansions, which have made appearances in everything from the 1974 film The Great Gatsby to the current HBO series The Gilded Age. Explore them via the Cliff Walk, a 3.5-mile path that overlooks the Atlantic Ocean and winds through the backyards of several mansions. Some portions are paved, while some have tricky footing. The Elms, Marble House, and Rosecliff rival the most famous, The Breakers, in grandeur. All offer an eye-opening look at how the early 20th-century one percent lived.

John W. Corbett

Downtown Newport, especially around Bowens Wharf, is filled with shops. The Newport Historical Society (127 Thames St., Newport) hosts walking tours around the city, including two on the history of enslaved and free Black people. The brand-new Sailing Museum (365 Thames St., Newport) focuses not on mercantile history, but on the sport of sailing. Choose a boat avatar to guide you through the museums exhibits, on everything from the physics of sailing to its legends, including Olympic and Americas Cup champions. One of the Sailing Museums goals is to make the sport more accessible, both to people of varied socioeconomic backgrounds and the differently abled.

Courtesy of Discover Newport

For dinner, The Mooring (1 Sayers Wharf, Newport) is a 35-year-old institution beloved by locals and visitors alike. Dont skip the award-winning New England clam chowder, or the Bag of Doughnuts  a lobster-and-shrimp take on the clam cake, served with chipotle-maple aioli. Giusto (4 Commercial Wharf, Newport) benefits from both its location off the main drag and its top-notch cocktails. The freestyle Italian portions are on the smaller side but are well prepared.

Day 2: Water recreation, a state park and a quaint hamlet

The breakfast menu at Corner Cafe (110 Broadway, Newport) is impressive, from overstuffed omelets to breakfast burritos, and avocado toast. The Portuguese French toast, stuffed with berries, bananas and sweet cream, is so rich that itll keep you full till lunch.

Then go boating and sailing in Narragansett Bay. Or cross back over the bridges into the village of Wickford for kayaking and stand-up paddleboarding. The Kayak Centre offers rentals of both, as well as guided tours.

Courtesy of 12 Meter Charters

Nineteen percent of Rhode Island residents claim Italian ancestry, and you should take advantage of the culinary heritage this presents. While not in a scenic part of the city, Antonios Bakery (2448 West Shore Road, Warwick) is a must for connoisseurs of cannoli, zeppole, pignoli and more. Pick up some party pizza, a Rhode Island specialty: rectangular slices of tomato-slathered focaccia dough, topped with a sprinkling of herbs and parmesan and served  always  at room temperature.

Robin Catalano

Take your pizza to Rocky Point State Park (1 Rocky Point Ave., Warwick), a beloved former amusement park-turned-nature area. Picnic, walk or bike the trails, fish off the pier, or pull up on some bench on the cliffs overlooking Greenwich Bay.

Robin Catalano

End your explorations seven miles north in small but sweet Pawtuxet Village, a best-kept secret in coastal Rhode Island. Located on a peaceful, flower-strewn waterfront along the Pawtuxet River, this historic hamlet, established in 1638, is one of the countrys oldest. The village has a handful of restaurants and shops, including Noon Designs (18 Post Road, Warwick), which stocks housewares and gifts with nautical flair.

Robin Catalano

For dinner, head to Basta (2195 Broad St., Cranston), a contemporary take on classic Italian fare. The lobster risotto and the Sophia pizza, topped with San Marzano tomato sauce, roasted eggplant, fresh mozzarella and crispy basil, are standouts.

Robin Catalano

Where to stay in coastal Rhode Island

You wont find much in the way of bargains on the coast proper. Campers will have an easier time; this yurt in Newport or this RV-friendly property in Middletown are solid choices.

For a moderately priced stay in a great location, try this cottage suite in Pawtuxet Village. This small but cheerful in-law apartment, also in the village, is affordable and has excellent reviews.

Robin Catalano

Among the regions newer lodgings, the Brenton Hotel (31 Americas Cup Ave., Newport) and Hammets Hotel (4 Commercial Wharf, Newport) are luxury boutique properties with harbor and/or city views.

Robin Catalano

If youre in the mood for a splurge, you cant do much better than Ocean House (1 Bluff Ave., Watch Hill). A boutique hotel created in the style of a Victorian seaside inn, it has sweeping views of Block Island Sound and a host of complimentary extras, from daily activities like cooking classes to access to the hotels fleet of Mercedes-Benz convertibles, and a fully loaded in-room snack bar.
SCHENECTADY  Police are looking into a shooting early Friday morning at the Saw Mill Tavern that sent two people to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Patrol officers responded to the business on South Avenue around 2:15 a.m. where they found a man suffering from a gunshot wound to the leg, police said.
FILE PHOTO: Small toy figure and gold imitation are seen in front of the Barrick logo in this illustration

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chile's Supreme Court on Thursday ratified the definitive closure of Canada-based Barrick Gold's controversial $8.5 billion Pascua Lama gold and copper mining project, previously ordered to shutter by the country's environmental regulator in 2018.

The Andean site along the border between Chile and Argentina was the subject of an extensive legal dispute, leading the firm to halt operations before opening due to increased costs and criticisms from shareholders.

The court upheld the three charges from the environmental regulator, despite Barrick's allegations the regulator had acted outside of its powers, it said in its ruling.

The country's environmental regulator had said the project damaged native flora and fauna, did not fully monitor melting rates of nearby glaciers and dumped acidic waters into a local river.

Barrick appealed the 2018 ruling, though in 2020 an environmental court affirmed the decision, which included a fine of more than 7 billion pesos ($6.72 million).

Environmental organizations and local communities had strongly opposed the project, located in Chile's Atacama region, on the grounds that it reduced the availability of water in the area and impacted nearby glaciers.

(Reporting by Fabian Cambero; Writing by Kylie Madry; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
ALBANY  In February, when the second-highest ranking prosecutor in Albany County left the office after 23 years for a state post, it was more than the latest example of turnover in an often-changing and unpredictable legal field.

It was part of a trend in the office of District Attorney David Soares  and, according to Soares and his fellow elected prosecutors in the Capital Region, one seen around the state due to justice reforms.

Five prosecutors either left Soares' office or have given notice since the beginning of June. That's in addition the departure in February of Chief Assistant District Attorney David Rossi to become a deputy director at the state Department of Public Service. The next month, Soares' chief of staff, Heather Orth, an aide since 2007, left for a job at the state Department of Civil Service.

Soares' longtime spokeswoman, Cecilia Walsh, a 15-year office veteran, left in late 2021 for a job at the Department of Labor. And that followed the previous departure of his former chief investigator, Christian D'Alessandro.

The recent departures are in the wake of an audit from Albany County Comptroller Susan Rizzo, which found the district attorneys office withheld some $360,000 in forfeiture funds that was earmarked for the states Office of Addiction Services and Supports. That audit followed findings by Eamon Murphy, an auditor Soares hired in September 2020. He left the office last year.

Soares attributed the departures to criminal justice reforms that took effect on Jan. 1, 2020, which he contends have left prosecutors overworked, overstressed and demoralized.

"In short, an exponential increase in work load during a short period, with woefully inadequate resources to continue to serve the People, has led, and will continue to lead, to departures from this office, and district attorneys offices statewide,"Soares' spokesman Darrell Camp told the Times Union in a statement.

The prosecutors who have left Soares' office recently include Assistant District Attorney Michael Shanley, who was with the office since 2007 and went into private practice, and Assistant District Attorney Shannon Corbitt, who began in 2001. She went to the county attorney's office. Assistant district attorneys David Szalda, Michael Wetmore and Daniel Bulger are among other departed or soon-to-leave staffers.

In Sararoga County, District Attorney Karen Heggen said four prosecutors have left her office this year, including Assistant District Attorney Adele Kurtz, who left to become a law clerk for County Judge James A. Murphy III. Heggen noted that this year alone, she has hired three people who had worked in other offices.

In Rensselaer County, District Attorney Mary Pat Donnelly said five prosecutors have left her office since April, including Assistant District Attorney Nick Dorando, the office's chief vehicular crimes prosecutor who left for a job with the state attorney general's office.

"I think it's a two-prong issue," Donnelly said. "The state is offering nine-to-five attorney jobs that pay significantly more than any DA's office can pay ... I think you combine that with discovery (which) is crippling DA's offices."

The changes drew much attention for requirements involving bail. Judges now cannot detain or set bail for defendants charged with many misdemeanor and felony offenses unless they are "qualifying offenses," such as murder, rape, all cases that result in death and a number of other crimes.

But prosecutors are just as rankled by requirements for their offices to disclose evidence to defense lawyers under a far quicker timeframe than prior to Jan. 1. 2020. Even after changes adopted a year later to increase that legal clock, prosecutors still have between to 20 to 35 days, depending on whether the defendant is in custody, to share evidence from the date of an arraignment.

"District Attorneys offices all over our state are struggling to retain and recruit qualified assistant district attorneys." Washington County District Attorney J. Anthony Jordan, president of the District Attorneys Association of the State of New York, said in a statement to the Times Union.

"Increasing caseloads, expanded discovery requirements, pandemic backlogs and stagnant salaries are resulting in resignations of ADAs at unprecedented numbers. It is frustrating that our assistants are so overwhelmed, overworked and underpaid that they are looking elsewhere for better salaries and healthier work-life balances. Additional funding for staff is needed for prosecutors offices at all levels to keep up with the increasing demands and workloads.

Camp told the Times Union: "Specifically, discovery reform has led to a work load increase of approximately 20 times, or a 1,900% increase compared to the workload pre-2020.... while in some cases, the members of the office have left for opportunities that better suit their long-term interests, the vast majority of departures are a function of the additional stresses put on the office by the increased work load of the past two and a half years, and a lack of necessary resources to handle said responsibilities."

Donnelly said the the state enacted reforms that place strict burdens on prosecutors' time and ability to meet new requirements but did not provide enough funding to help those offices hire staff to handle it.

"I really think when it comes to the attorneys (leaving), it's the tremendous amount of work that's now been placed on their shoulders and the fact they're looking at each other and saying, 'Why would I not go work for the state?'" Donnelly said.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

ALBANY  A judge sentenced Natural Wise Joseph to 18 years to life in prison Friday for the murder of 39-year-old Lashon Turner, but first scolded the defendant for his heartless demeanor  a sign of what the judge called the banality of evil  as the victims fiancee tearfully spoke about her loss.

Maybe you can stop yawning for just a moment, Mr. Joseph! acting Supreme Court Justice Roger McDonough said as the defendant sat before him in the judge's third-floor courtroom.

On May 21, 2021, Joseph shot Turner  an Albany native and father of five children known to friends as "Shock" or "Shocka"  outside 71 Central Ave.

McDonough told Joseph that while he has presided over numerous murder cases during his 16 years on the bench, he was still taken back by Josephs lack of care as Xzavier Ortiz, the fiancee of the dead man, detailed her pain and struggle to raise children and go on without Turner.

Whats striking to this court is your absolute disconnection from own actions, Mr. Joseph. Whats striking to the court is the banality of evil of your actions, McDonough said, noting the defendant had appeared just as uninterested when Assistant District Attorney David Szalda read a victim statement from another person close to Turner.

You were yawning; you were looking up at the sky. It was if someone was lecturing on advanced microbiology, a subject that you may be totally disinterested in, the judge told Joseph, who was sitting beside Assistant Public Defender Vincenzo Sofia.

McDonough reminded the killer that Ortiz and the victims family wished him to spend every day possible in prison haunted by their pain.

I dont know if you can even understand the pain that they feel. You certainly seem unconcerned by it, the judge said. If you dont know what 'banality' means, you can ask Mr. Sofia. It just means a disregard, a complete emotional detachment, a complete disinterested or disconnection from the evil of your acts.

McDonough continued: Sir, your act was evil. You killed a man. That man will never breathe again on this planet.

Joseph declined to speak when given the chance. He appeared to mutter something at the end of the judges tongue-lashing.

Take this defendant away, McDonough said in a disgusted tone.

Ortiz, wearing a shirt with Turners image, had tearfully recalled the day she learned that he was shot. She said she believed the sentence of 18 years to life was not enough punishment for Joseph.

Pausing to compose herself, Ortiz said Turner was her fiance but also a father, friend, protector and superhero for his children.

He was my other half, she said.

Instead of picking out a wedding dress, she shopped for clothes to put on her fiance in his casket, she said.

Every time she drives down Central Avenue near the crime scene, she said, she experiences post-traumatic stress disorder.

Ortiz said she cannot fully grieve because she needs to take care of her children. The one person who she could always count on is gone because of Joseph, she said.

You did this, she told Joseph, telling him that in 18 years he will be eligible for parole but she will still be in pain. She promised to attend every parole hearing.

When you pulled that trigger, did you consider any of what I mentioned? she asked.

Joseph faced 25 years to life if convicted at trial of second-degree murder. The plea bargain he reached in May to the same charge shaved seven years off the low end of that sentence. He was also facing charges of felony possession of a weapon and drug possession.

Turner was one of Albany's six homicide victims in May 2021. That same day he died, grocery store worker Sharaf Addailam, 35, a bystander, was shot at Quail and First streets in West Hill. The incidents were unrelated.

On Friday, McDonough highlighted the wave of violence in Albany that he said has resulted in more murder cases before him than any other time since taking the bench.

Whats happened in the last two years is absolutely tragic, the judge told Joseph. This community is eating itself. Youre from Albany; Lashon Turner was from Albany. This community is destroying itself.  This is Albanians killing Albanians. Youre destroying yourself. Youre destroying your community. This community is destroying itself.

Its got to stop," he continued. " And the only I can stop or try to stop it is sentencing you to every bit of that 18 years to life.
Albany police department

ALBANY  Police said they arrested a city woman who they say pointed a loaded handgun at her ex-boyfriend and got her 10-year-old son to stab the man.

Police said the woman, 31, was involved in an argument with her ex-boyfriend outside North Manning Boulevard Tuesday night when she pulled the 9 mm gun and pointed it at her ex-boyfriend. The man, 40, knocked the gun out of her hand and restrained her while police were notified. While restrained, the woman told her son to stab the man and he stabbed him in the arm, police said.
In the summer of 1971, President Richard Nixon's administration began drawing up what would come to be known as the "enemies list." The idea, explained White House Counsel John Dean in a memo, was to "use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies."

The administration intended to use the power of the federal government to harass and hurt people, including subjecting them to Internal Revenue Service audits.

The tactic comes to mind 51 years later amid revelations that two figures whom former President Donald Trump publicly treated as enemies were subjected to special, intensive audits normally done on only about 5,000 U.S. taxpayers annually, around three one-thousands of 1 percent of the total.

The targets were former FBI Director James Comey, whom Mr. Trump had fired for failing to shut down an investigation into the Trump campaign's possible collusion with Russia in its interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and Mr. Comey's deputy, Andrew McCabe, who led the agency after Mr. Comey's firing and approved an investigation into possible obstruction of justice by Mr. Trump. Mr. McCabe was fired, too  hours before he planned to retire  by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He later sued, charging that his firing was politically motivated and illegal. The Justice Department settled and allowed him to formally retire and collect full benefits.

What, one wonders, are the odds that two figures so much in a vindictive president's sights would just happen to be selected for so rare an audit? The New York Times, which broke the story, also ran an article trying to figure that out, an exercise so filled with nuance that the odds could range anywhere from one in 12,000 to one in 950 million. Suffice it to say the chances are minuscule.

The IRS has since asked the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration to investigate the matter, as well it should. And Congress should double-check the IG's work. Parsing odds is a distraction from the central question: How was it that Mr. Comey and Mr. McCabe came to be singled out?

Sign up for the Observation Deck newsletter Read the latest Times Union opinion, perspective and letters to the editor on Mondays by signing up for our Observation Deck newsletter.

This was an administration, after all, whose corruption tainted and compromised a broad swath of federal agencies. Mr. Sessions and William Barr treated the Justice Department as Mr. Trump's personal law firm. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy was accused of trying to slow down mail in the 2020 election to benefit Mr. Trump's reelection. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross tried to tinker with the 2020 census. Mr. Trump used the Border Patrol to pursue his persecution of immigrants, and the military to go around Congress in trying to build a border wall. Scandals embroiled the heads of Housing and Urban Development, Labor, Interior, Veterans Affairs and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Back in Mr. Nixon's day, the IRS commissioner, Donald Alexander, refused to go along with the plan to audit people on the enemies list. We would hope that the IRS showed the same integrity under Mr. Trump. But pardon us if the odds, and the record, leave us skeptical that the audits of Mr. Comey and Mr. McCabe are just amazing coincidences.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

COLONIE  TJ's Cafe, a mainstay of comfort food since late 1996, has closed permanently, with the chef-owner citing pandemic-related financial strain and a reprioritizing of values after the April death of his father, who helped him start the restaurant.

Writing on Facebook, Todd Leach said, "We cannot, in good conscience, for the sake of ourselves, our health and our family, continue swimming against this current."

Describing as "insurmountable" the staffing shortages, supply-chain issues and sharply increasing cost of food and supplies faced by the restaurant, Leach said, "We have been burning the furniture to stay warm since the pandemic began, and we have thrown the last chair into the fire."

Writing the farewell note, Leach told the Times Union in an overnight message, was "almost as hard as the eulogy for my father."

James Ronald Leach, widely known as Ron, was president of the former Terminal Hardware, which was located on Central Avenue near the distinctive A-frame building at 1133 Central that became TJ's and for generations has been restaurants, including FrostTop, the A-Frame and Macri's. Ron Leach died at age 85.

Now 55, Leach told the Times Union, "Since the death of my father, I question the amount of effort for the realized return." Mentioning weddings, family events and weekend gatherings that have been missed over the years, Leach said, "A better balance needs to be found." He and his wife, Joelle, who met when he hired her to work at the restaurant, have two children, Tyler and Abby, now in their mid-teens.

Employed as a barback and bartender from his teens through late 20s, Leach was 28 and sitting with his mother on a beach in Florida, where his parents had retired, when she asked him, "What are you going to do with your life?"

He decided he wanted his own restaurant, and his father, who had sold his hardware store and was speculating in real estate, agreed that buying a building was better than renting. After touring a rundown place on Central Avenue, they adjourned to a restaurant in the distinctive A-frame building across the street to discuss what they'd just seen. Serendipitously, the A-frame was for sale.

TJ's Cafe opened on Dec. 26, 1996.

"I wanted a place where you could come in dressed like I like to dress  blue-collar casual, every day  and have a sandwich, or a steak dinner if you wanted, and not feel underdressed," Leach said.

"I'm proud that it's still like that today," he told the Times Union for a March story about the 25th anniversary of TJ's.

Although he had not intended to cook at the restaurant, Leach took over the kitchen when he lost his head chef, teaching himself new dishes over the years to the point that his menu grew to include what have become signatures, including top sirloin, chicken Francaise  and lots and lots of chicken Parmesan. A weekly special that typically sold 200 orders, it became such a takeout favorite during the pandemic that one night saw 315 chicken Parms go out the door.

It was not immediately clear what will happen to the property. For the March story, Leach said that if some young person happened to be sitting with a parent at a TJ's table and talking about going into the restaurant business, he might sell.

"The beach is beckoning," he said in an interview that took place about a month before his father's death, "but I'm really good at what I do, and I still love it."

TJ's was closed for the past two weeks for its annual summer vacation, with the family spending time on their beloved Lake George.

"It was a great time (with) awesome weather," Leach told the Times Union earlier this week.

The restaurant was supposed to reopen Friday. Instead, Leach notified employees and, early Friday, said his goodbyes to customers in his farewell note.

He told the Times Union, "I just hope we will be well remembered."

In its first nine hours online overnight and Friday morning, the closure announcement drew more than 1,200 reactions, comments and shares.

Unused gift cards may be mailed to the restaurant for full reimbursement of the unused amount: TJ's Cafe, 1133 Central Ave., Albany NY 12205. Leach said those seeking to arrange for an in-person exchange should send a private message via the restaurants Facebook page .
I agree with the program

I don't agree with the program

I like the idea, but feel the current proposal is too broad

Let me park where I want!

Vote

View Results
The big debate amongst politically engaged Kansans considers the cost of a recent and highly publicized deal.



Of course . . . KCUR is playing up the tech manufacturing coup . . . Check-it . . .



"Kansas is giving Panasonic $829 million in incentives to build a $4 billion electric vehicle battery plant that promises 4,000 employees. Other states have spent more, on average, to lure employers."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .
Otis Weah, a former All-American running back at the University of North Dakota who recently committed to play football at Missouri State, was accused of sexual assault at his former school and banned from the university for five years after a Title IX investigation, multiple sources told the News-Leader.

Missouri State recently rescinded its offer to Weah after learning about the accusations, according to sources who spoke to the News-Leader on the condition of anonymity. The timing of Weah's recruitment, along with state and federal privacy laws, suggest that Missouri State and its football coaching staff would not have known about the accusations until Weah arrived on campus or voluntarily disclosed the information.

Through an athletics department spokesperson, Missouri State said it could not comment on Weah because he had yet to submit his National Letter of Intent documents. The NCAA prohibits schools and coaches from publicly commenting on players unless they are signed to the university.

More: Our 5 biggest takeaways from what we saw from Missouri State football in the spring

North Dakota's Otis Weah dodges South Dakota State players on Saturday, November 20, 2021, at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium in Brookings.

Weah was never listed on the Missouri State football team's online roster. Also, MSU couldn't confirm whether Weah was ever enrolled at the school because that information is not available until after the census date for each semester  which is June 27 for this summer's first session.

Family members of a former North Dakota student who accused Weah of sexually assaulting her reached out to the News-Leader following its initial reporting of Weah's announcement that he was transferring to Missouri State. The family members said no police reports were filed in the case because the accuser was fearful that doing so would result in her name being made publicly available. She instead reported the incident through UND's Title IX office.

It is the News-Leader's policy not to name victims of sexual assault or their family members if doing so would identify the victim.

Story continues

More: Here are some of Missouri State's new transfers including Florida State corner, Minnesota receiver

North Dakota running back Otis Weah (26) dives in under James Madison linebacker Diamonte Tucker-Dorsey (2) for a touchdown during the first half of a quarterfinal game in the NCAA FCS football playoffs in Harrisonburg, Va., Sunday, May 2, 2021. (Daniel Lin/Daily News-Record via AP)

According to a Title IX office determination letter provided by the family, Weah was suspended from attending North Dakota for five years starting Jan. 2022 and ending in Jan. 2027 after an investigation into a formal complaint against the running back alleging sexual assault in violations of UND's Sexual Misconduct Policy and Code of Student Life.

Multiple experts who deal with Title IX documentation reviewed the letter for the News-Leader and said it looked similar to documents they've investigated, with no indication it was not legitimate. The letter does not describe in detail the allegations against Weah.

The University of North Dakota declined to confirm Weah's suspension, citing state and federal privacy rules. North Dakota said it does not disclose information about a current or former student apart from basic "directory information" without the written consent of the student. UND confirmed Weah was no longer enrolled at the school and hadn't been since the fall 2021 semester.

More: Missouri State baseball wanted to return to prominence. The Bears think they succeeded.

Otis Weah

"We wish Mr. Weah well in whatever his future pursuits may bring," UND said in a statement. "At this time, UND has no other information to provide about Mr. Weah."

Before the News-Leader published its story, Weah denied that he had received a ban or was being investigated by North Dakota and declined to comment further. After the publication of the story, Weah contacted the News-Leader and admitted to being involved in the investigation and being suspended from North Dakota while denying the allegations.

Weah was a talented running back at North Dakota, where he broke out during the 2021 spring season. He led the team in rushing with 730 yards on 7.16 yards per carry. He scored a touchdown in every game he played and had nine on the season. He finished fifth in Walter Payton Award voting for the nation's top offensive player and was named an All-American.

He followed with a 2021 fall season in which he ran for 818 yards and nine touchdowns. He rushed for 156 yards and three touchdowns in a loss against the Bears  a game in which, while trying to put the game away, he fumbled with 1:39 remaining to give the Bears the ball leading to MSU's game-winning touchdown with 15 seconds left.

More: Missouri State football scores touchdown with 15 seconds left to top North Dakota in thriller

Sources say MSU was unaware of allegations when they made offer

Because of previous NCAA rules and new policies that have yet to be fully implemented across the country, the timeline of Weah's recruitment to Missouri State suggests the disclosure of any potential wrongdoing would not have been available to the university or the Bears' coaching staff until Weah arrived on campus or was forthcoming.

A USA TODAY Network four-part series published in 2019 looked at how athletes can often enter the transfer portal after being expelled, suspended or criminally convicted for sexual offenses and return to the field in a year or less. When approached for the investigation, several athletic departments claimed no knowledge of past offenses.

Under the new NCAA Board of Governors Campus Sexual Violence policy, which will go into effect on Aug. 1, all schools will be required to report information for every incoming student-athlete. Missouri State said it is finalizing a policy and process at the institutional level.

More: Missouri State football adds future dates with Arkansas, Kansas, Kansas State and Tulsa

Missouri State already requires all student-athletes to complete an annual Title IX disclosure form before being cleared to play. This form requires a student-athlete to disclose any past incident of sexual or dating violence or other violent acts.

Missouri State said it does not recruit, offer or roster student-athletes with a known history of sexual misconduct.

Missouri State University policies and processes can be made available, as can certain aggregate statistical data related to Title IX violations. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) prohibits the release of identifiable student information (including conduct matters) to third parties absent an authorization signed by the parties, a subpoena or a court order.

A timeline of Missouri State's recruitment of Weah backs up claims made by sources that the school and coaching staff was unaware of Weah's sexual assault accusations and alleged Title IX sanctions until after he was offered a scholarship.

More: Who might be the next Missouri State, Southwest Missouri football players to get drafted?

Because he had yet to sign with the school, it is likely that Weah had not completed his Title IX disclosure form to Missouri State. Any information about possible wrongdoing would have had to be voluntarily disclosed by Weah before he completed his disclosure form upon arriving at campus.

Timeline of Otis Weah's recruitment

Nov. 20  Weah plays final game at North Dakota

Dec. 1  Weah announces he's entered the transfer portal

Feb. 3  Date of letter issued to family of alleged victim

April 25  Weah's first contact with News-Leader regarding transfer to MSU

May 31  Weah announces transfer to Missouri State

June 1  News-Leader contacted by family members of the alleged victim

June 10  Multiple sources tell the News-Leader that Weah's offer has been rescinded

Weah, 22, previously said he was contacted by Missouri State early in the recruiting process and received an offer from by the Bears in February. He is a native of Moorhead, Minnesota, which is located just east of the Red River separating it from Fargo, North Dakota.

Missouri State begins its third season under head coach Bobby Petrino on Sept. 1 at Central Arkansas. The Bears are scheduled to visit North Dakota, Weah's former school, on Oct. 1.

More: Missouri State football adds future dates with Arkansas, Kansas, Kansas State and Tulsa

Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or Twitter at @WyattWheeler_NL. He's also the co-host of Sports Talk on Jock Radio weekdays from 4-6 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri State football rescinds offer to Otis Weah, sources say
Again . . .

We contend that getting kicked out of art school was probably the best thing that ever happened to this provocateur.

Now that he's back in art school . . . His parents will be forced to pay top dollar for a degree path with very little upside potential.



However . . . Here's a peek at his argument for social media free expression -- An art form even lower on the scale of public respect than mimes . . . Take a peek . . .



When we have an art school investigating and punishing students for their artistic expression, we have a real problem, said FIRE program officer Sabrina Conza. Ash should have never had their academic future threatened because an art school didnt like the type of art they shared on their personal social media account.



Mikkelsen retweeted sexually explicit Japanese-style cartoons, known as hentai, on their personal, pseudonymous Twitter account. Allegedly, the art institute investigated Mikkelsen for sexual harassment in response to the complaint of another student, who found the account and told administrators about the images. Though Mikkelsen did not tag anyone from the university community in their Twitter posts or send messages related to the account to anyone , KCAI expelled Mikkelsen for their artistic expression  and banned them from ever re-enrolling.



Im relieved that the school has recognized its mistake and rectified its actions, Mikkelsen said. Knowing that standing up for free expression will now allow other students to consume fictitious content without fearing punishment is icing on the cake.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

VICTORY: Art institute reverses expulsion for student who retweeted sexual art KANSAS CITY, Mo., July 14, 2022 - A student expelled from Kansas City Art Institute for retweeting sexual art won their appeal Tuesday, notching a victory for free expression. KCAI reversed the expulsion decision against student Ash Mikkelsen after a demand from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
This evening our elected officials offered a pleasing statement in solidarity with denizens of the LGBT community.



However . . .

HAD THEY BEEN PAYING ATTENTION, MAYOR & COUNCIL MIGHT NOTICE THAT KANSAS CITY GANG GRAFFITI & TAGGING HAS BEEN GETTING WORSE!!!

Again, this is a detail that has garnered consistent resident complaints over the years . . . And many locals can't help but notice silence from city hall when there's not a political payoff for speaking up.

Still . . . This statement is warm & fuzzy . . . Check-it . . .



The Kansas City Council condemned the vandalism in an unanimous vote approving a resolution reaffirming its commitment to diversity, inclusion, and creating a safe and welcoming city for all residents, commuters, city employees and visitors.



Councilwoman Andrea Bough, District 6 at-large, said it was important to her that the city reaffirm its commitments.



When a symbol of love and inclusion in Brookside, in the heart of the sixth district, was vandalized, Bough said, the community, led by the youngest of our community, these children, came out and said, were not going to stand for this; we are going to show that we are a city of diverse, inclusive and a welcoming community.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .
Some of the smarter denizens of our blog community warned about this impending Grand Blvd Bike lane disaster earlier in the week and now it's news fact . . .



COUNCIL DUDE ERIC BUNCH STAYS WINNING CASH TO TURN KANSAS CITY'S GRAND BLVD INTO BIKE LANE TRASH!!!

Check the news on his latest achievement for his bike supremacy cult . . .



"The money for the Grand Boulevard bike lane is part of a $1.1 million contract awarded to Veenstra and Kimm . . . The plan calls for building a protected, two-way bicycle lane for the eight-block stretch between Truman Road and Pershing Road similar to the one recently completed along Gillham Road."

The quote from a developer hack is important because . . .

GILLHAM ROAD & NEARBY ARMOUR BLVD EARN CONSTANT COMPLAINTS FROM RESIDENTS OVER LACKLUSTER BIKE LANE PLANNING & IMPLEMENTATION!!!

Sadly, the mayor & council are so disconnected from the public on this issue that they approved the sketchy designs and will now work to impede traffic and create sketchy "accommodation" for cyclists.



Developing . . .
Here's the upshot that local newsies are afraid to report . . .

KANSAS CITY ACTIVISTS AREN'T LIKELY TO WIN MANY MISSOURI VOTES AGAINST POLICE FUNDING LEGISLATION!!!

That's not rocket science but it's something that locals keep denying.



In the meantime, Mayor Q and many of his allies on council are talking up a new lawsuit after LOSING their last effort . . .



Two sides are preparing for a statewide vote in November on a constitutional amendment that would give the Republican-majority Legislature even more authority to set police funding.



A key legislative backer says Kansas City police need the support because some Democrats want to defund the force  a charge city leaders vehemently deny.



A local civil rights leader sued on behalf of city taxpayers, arguing that allowing the state to control the citys police force amounts to taxation without representation and discriminates against Kansas City's large Black population, which experiences much of its violent crime.



Mayor Quinton Lucas, who is the only person on the Board of Police Commissioners not appointed by the governor, has indicated the proposal will be challenged in court.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .
Right now we take a moment of pause and consider the real world implications of intense feelings and often callous conversation about immigration & foreign policy . . . Instead, we notice locals sharing sympathy with a nearby family after recent tragedy . . .



Tonight, the KC Muslim Civic Initiative (KC-MCI) is hosting an 8 p.m. vigil within the Colonnade at Concourse Park, in conjunction with vigils in seven major U.S. cities in a shared call for justice.



Bill Fleischaker, the Kohistanis family lawyer, was recently provided a police report contradicting information provided by community members. Neither Webb City School District nor local law enforcement have yet investigated the bullying Rezwan experienced.



I dont know all the facts around Rezwans death, which is the reason we are calling for a proper investigation, says KC-MCI organizer Waleed Al-Shaikhli. What I do know, being a Muslim refugee from Iraq, is that being a Muslim child in America is tough. There is so much hate targeted toward Muslims that bullying and Islamophobia are normalized. Schools rarely intervene to stop it.





Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com links . . .

Resettled Afghan refugee Rezwan Kohistani found dead in rural Missouri, vigil tonight in KC Rezwan Kohistani's family continues to fight for answers to the 14-year-old's death. // Courtesy KC Muslim Civic Initiative After fleeing Afghanistan in August 2021, the Kohistani family was resettled in Webb City, Missouri by the U.S. government. Less than a year later, their eldest son 14-year-old Rezwan, was found hanged at Webb City High School May 5, 2022.

Developing . . .
The fine print in family court law is always messy.

For instance . . . Most clueless dudes don't know that a divorce will basically doom them to poverty for the rest of their lives.

Similarly . . .

This week there's outcry amongst Missouri progressives over a significant inconvenience that threatens to delay prospective hookups of recently divorced ladies but, apparently, provides ample proof of Red State lady persecution.

Life is give & take.



Check-it . . .



"According to the American Pregnancy Association, a non-profit focused on reproductive health and pregnancy wellness, Missouri is one of four states (along with Arizona, Arkansas, and Texas) where courts will not grant a divorce if the woman is pregnant.



"Its state law, covered in Chapter 452.310 of Title XXX, under Dissolution of Marriage. When a person files a petition for divorce (be it the husband or the wife), they must include certain information in their paperwork  eight items specifically. Item five specifically states the petitioner must identify whether the wife is pregnant.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com links . . .

Pregnant Women Can't Get Divorced in Missouri December 2020 was a turbulent month for Danielle Drake, 32, of Lake of the Ozarks. On December 1, her husband said he was going out with a friend, but he lied. He was actually having an affair. She filed for a divorce less than a week later, on December 7.

Can pregnant women get divorced in Missouri? ST. LOUIS - Nearly every morning, our Fox2Now.com staff will check Google Trends to see what people are searching for in St. Louis, Missouri, and beyond, or potential story ideas. On Thursday, we discovered a lot of people were searching to see if pregnant women could get divorced in Missouri.

Pregnant in Missouri and filing for divorce? It can't be finalized until the child is born In Missouri, the law requires that a petition for divorce list a handful of things, including whether the wife is pregnant. That's not so unusual, but with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, claims have been circulating on social media that a divorce can't be finalized while one party is pregnant.

You decide . . .


The Kansas City plan to address worsening violence in Westport is now dependent on police manpower and tech tracking.



Here's a peek at a statement from authorities . . .



The main goal with the contingent of officers we have in this plan isnt enforcement  its more of a presence," a lead KCPD official explained Thursday while speaking during a KCMO City Council meeting.Department leaders said in addition to officers, signs are located throughout Westport to alert crowds of cameras. Let people know that, 'Hey, there is cameras here for maybe a little bit of comfort to know or security,'" the official added. "Also to maybe deter some of the people, bad apples, that they want to do certain things.

And so, given a few more perspectives about this topic we'd like to address, we ask readers . . .

WILL INCREASED KANSAS CITY LAW ENFORCEMENT SURVEILLANCE DETER MASS SHOOTINGS IN WESTPORT?!?!

There is a bevy of data to show that cameras by themselves aren't effective at preventing violence but prove more useful when combined with increased security on the ground.



Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .
Her watercolours were sought after by institutions and collectors. The Hollywood actor Vincent Price once bought 25.
Lesley Manvilles Mrs. Harris falls in love with a Dior dress belonging to a client, which sets off an international jouney to procure a Dior gown of her very own.
Ive long lamented the demise of federalism, a founding principle of our system of government.

According to the precepts of federalism, the national government should limit itself to matters enumerated in the Constitution. All other matters should be handled by state and local governments.

A subsidiary precept is that the federal government shouldnt take on matters that can be addressed at the state and local level.

This division of governmental responsibilities has gone the way of the quill and inkwell.

Republicans occasionally make a pretense of invoking federalism principles, when it offers a convenient talking point against some Democratic initiative they oppose. But they have no qualms about harnessing the power of the federal government contrary to the principles of federalism to advance an initiative they favor.

Democrats make no pretense of regarding anything as not the business of the national government.

Traffic safety isn't a federal budget item

U.S. Senators Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema

This vitiation of federalisms principles can occur on matters small.

Recently, Arizona U.S. Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly put out a press release bragging about a $7 million federal grant Phoenix received to improve traffic safety at two intersections with railway crossings, 43rd Avenue and Camelback Road, and 19th Avenue and McDowell Road.

The money will be used to put in gate arms and widen streets and crosswalks. The city of Phoenix will pony up 30% of the cost.

Now, traffic safety is a quintessential local matter. Local governments have ample reason to make it a priority. The city of Phoenix is a $5.6 billion enterprise. If these two intersections are too dangerous, it shouldnt take a federal grant for the city to take steps to make them safer.

The vitiation can occur on matters big as well.

Some parts of Senate gun deal make sense

Elise Schering, 7, displays a message during a National Gun Violence Awareness rally at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., on Thursday, June 2, 2022. California is spending $11 million on education programs promoting wider use of "red flag" orders.

The recent spate of mass shootings has resulted in renewed calls for Congress to do something about them.

Under the principles of federalism, there would be an argument for federal action if some form of gun control was the proposed remedy, such as banning certain weapons or limiting the number of bullets in a magazine.

Story continues

The argument would be that a national law was required to prevent leakage. If one state or city adopted such a ban but others didnt, the forbidden item could be purchased where legal and transported to where illegal.

However, such gun control measures couldnt pass the Senate. That would probably be true even without the filibuster rule. But with the filibuster, requiring the support of at least 10 GOP senators to overcome, floor failure would be a certainty.

In an effort to define what might pass, a group of 20 senators issued a joint statement regarding federal action they could support. Significantly, 10 of them are Republicans, enough to overcome a filibuster.

According to Politico, Sinema was a key negotiator of the statement, another example of her walking the walk on bipartisan governance. Kelly also signed on.

There are some items in the proposal that are compatible with the principles of federalism.

The national government maintains a do-not-sell registry, a list of people legally ineligible to purchase a firearm. This is an appropriate role for the national government based upon the same leakage problem that would arise from state maintained lists.

The bipartisan gun violence proposal makes some changes to this national registry, such as for domestic violence perpetrators and an extended review period for purchasers under the age of 21.

But financial incentives to states overreach

The rest, however, consists of things that violate the principles of federalism.

I have long supported so-called red flag laws, a civil process whereby someone exhibiting potential violent behavior could temporarily be put on the do-not-sell registry or have firearms confiscated. While the registry is federal, the civil procedure, for practical reasons, would need to take place in state or municipal courts.

The bipartisan proposal includes federal grants as an inducement for states to enact red flag laws. Cost, however, isnt a barrier to the enactment of such laws. They wouldnt put much of a burden on state and local courts.

Moreover, the finances of the states are markedly healthier than those of the federal government, which is drowning in debt. Theres utterly no reason for the adoption and funding of these laws to be a federal, as opposed to a state or local, responsibility.

Similarly for the other central provisions. There would be increased federal funding for a variety of mental health programs. And increased federal funding for school safety programs.

The national government doesnt care more than state governments about the mental health of their citizens. Nor about the safety of their schoolchildren. There is nothing about improving mental health or protecting schoolchildren that requires a national rather than a state and local response.

And, once again, state finances are generally healthy while the federal government is broke.

The bipartisan proposal may represent a way for national politicians to say that they have done something about gun violence and mass shootings. But it would further erode the principles of federalism that are supposed to guide the governance of the country.

Reach Robb at robert.robb@arizonarepublic.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Senate gun deal overreaches on red-flag laws, school safety
Police seek to ID suspect after man, 27, suffers life-altering injuries in downtown Toronto assault

Toronto police said the victim became involved in an argument with another man and was "assaulted multiple times"
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau is a daring take on H.G. Wells classic by Vancouver writer Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Mexicos Yucatan Peninsula becomes the setting for a retelling of "The Island of Doctor Moreau" that confronts issues of colonialism and the subjugation of Indigenous peoples
For the first time in two years, Big River Chautauqua took place under the big tent in Bonne Terre behind city hall.

Thursday marked the first night of the free three-night event where audience members can learn about the life and history of three different historic people. The theme of this years event is The Times They are A-Changin.

Thursdays historical figure was Robert Francis Kennedy, the seventh of nine children and the younger brother to former president John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Robert was the 64th attorney general, serving from January 1961 to September 1964, and a senator from New York from January 1965 until June 1968.

On Friday night, the guest was Karen Vuranch as Cass Elliot. Saturday's guest is Sherrie Tolliver as Rosa Parks. The event follows the same schedule each day with food available starting at 5:30 p.m., music starting at 6 p.m. with two local musicians, Darren Thomas and Ron Allen.

Robert Kennedy comes to life

Before bringing out the historic figure for Thursday night, Paul Williams, a member of the Big River Chautauqua Committee, thanked the North County School District for providing the stages, chairs, and tables. Williams said without the school providing some of the equipment, the organization would not have the amount of chairs it has, much less the stage.

There are a lot of expenses for an event like this, said Williams, and without the sponsors paying and helping out, expenses would rack up. He thanked the many sponsors.

At 7:30 p.m., master of ceremonies Beth Allen welcomed Jeremy Meier as Sen. Robert "Bobby" Kennedy to the stage. The date was May 31, 1968, and since the middle of March, Robert had been touring the country in pursuit of the Democratic nomination for presidency.

Handing out pins to members of the audience, Robert asked how many people were planning to vote, even joking hes trying to get the government to lower the voting age down to 12 when handing a pin to a young member of the audience.

Youre going to go out and vote Tuesday? Youre going to ring doorbells, tell your neighbors to vote for me, theres a lot of support.

Robert continued on, talking about the experience of climbing the Mount Kennedy in 1965, reminiscing upon the advice he received including not to slip or look down.

Explaining why he was running for the presidency, Robert said he wants the Democratic Party and the United States of America to stand for hope, rather than to stand for despair, and to stand for the reconciliation of men instead of the growing risk of war.

I do not want to oppose any man, but to seek new policies, emphasized Robert, policies to end the bloodshed in Vietnam and in our own cities.

America is a nation seated upon the principal in which everyone is welcomed, but Robert said it has not always been the case. A prime example was his grandparents' experience in immigrating and trying to find a job.

History has placed us, all black and white, under a common border and under a common law, explained Robert, when talking about how he had faced off against governors. We share one possession, the name 'American.'

Filling in information on the Cuban Missile Crisis, Robert had discussed what was learned during the situation, including about the uses and limitations of military power, about the value of having both allies and assets, about the opportunities and dangers that may await the county in many corners of the globe.

The final lesson of the Cuban Missile Crisis is the importance of placing ourselves in other country's shoes, explained Robert, as it showed how vital it is to have allies and friends in the world.

Today, I assume a feeling of isolationism in Congress, and throughout the country, Robert said. I think it would be well to think back in those days in October 1962.

Robert discussed his time in Indianapolis, on the corner of 17th and Broadway streets, where he informed the 3,000 people waiting for him of Martin Luther King Jr.s assassination.

While there were riots around the country on April 4, there was not one in Indianapolis.

Ending the speech with references to the previous comments about climbing Mount Kennedy, Robert claims America is not yet at the summit, and the campaign end will not be the end of the climb, it is not too late to seek a newer world.

Robert said he understood, of course, the anger and hatred which can come from an assassination since his own brother had only been assassinated years prior. Robert said as a country, people can be filled with bitterness, with hatred and a desire for revenge, but it would only lead to more polarization.

The victims of violence are Black and white, young and old, famous and unknown. They are most important, human beings, whom other beings loved and needed.

Robert would go on to win the primary in California on June 4, and just a couple minutes after midnight on June 5, after thanking supporters, he was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan and died in the morning on June 6.

The actor who performed as Robert is Jeremy Meier, who serves on the chair of Fine and Performing Arts at Owens Community College in Northwest Ohio. Throughout the time at the college, Meier has directed 19 student productions at the school, including Shakespeares works, and adapted and directed texts for the stage.

Meier, in addition to the portrayal of Robert, has created original solo performances for the Ohio Humanities on John Dillinger and Oliver Hazard Perry.

In 2017, Meier was awarded a grant by the Ohio Humanities to pilot the states first Chautauqua Training Program who are learning to develop original solo performances based upon historical figures.

When asked if it was difficult to do the Bostonian accent, Meier said originally he is from the Detroit area, and now currently lives in Toledo.

Meier said one of the challenges of performing as someone who has been documented, recorded, and even videoed is the audience already has an expectation of mannerisms and the tone of voice. The challenge can also turn into an advantage though, according to Meier, as he never had to use a dialect tape and was able to watch Roberts speeches.

If youve listened to or watch a lot of these Robert Kennedy speeches, his voice changes a bit, explained Meier.

Meier said Robert had really tried by the time he was campaigning for his chance at the presidency to make his voice a bit more grounded.

Its a challenge, but its an exciting challenge.

Meiers always been a fan of underdogs, and according to him, Robert was as much of an underdog the Kennedy family could have.

Having a former president for an older brother in JFK, his father Joseph Patrick Kennedy Sr. was the first chair of the U.S. Maritime Commission and first chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Joseph Patrick Kennedy Jr. was killed in action in World War II but originally had plans to run for the US House of Representatives after his military service. He said Robert was trying to find his own.

Meier said with Roberts life, theres so many fascinating times in his life coming up in questions and answers, be it the feud with Jimmy Hoffa or the service with Joe McCarthy, running his brothers campaign, being connected to Cesar Chavez, and finally Robert finding his own voice in the later 1960s. Meier had found it interesting and thought the man would be a great character to research.
A Farmington man died in a two-vehicle crash in St. Louis County Thursday afternoon.

According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, at 2:30 p.m. a 2015 Chevrolet Silverado driven by Danny McLaughlin, 72, of House Springs, was turning from eastbound Highway 30 onto West Watson Road and pulled into the path of northbound 2012 Harley Davidson Iron 883 operated by Timothy Minard, 39, of Farmington.

The report states Minard was taken to Mercy Hospital South and was pronounced dead at 2:54 p.m.

Two Cadet residents were injured in a separate crash at 5:20 p.m. Thursday on Rock Hill Road north of Pat Daly Road in Washington County.

According to the patrol report, Kenneth Evans, 38, of Cadet, was driving a 2004 Ford Explorer south. The report states he was traveling too fast and failed to negotiate a curve to the right. The vehicle traveled off the roadway and struck two trees.

Evans received moderate injuries while his passenger, Kathy Overton, 51, of Cadet, received minor injuries. They were both taken to Washington County Memorial Hospital for treatment.

The report shows neither were wearing a safety device. Evans was cited for DWI.
Iconic Events and Kit Promotions have combined to create Iconic Mas on the streets of Tobago
The Republican party is expecting big gains in the House and Senate come November, but those gains could be thwarted by recent events such as the overturning of Roe v Wade and Trumps continued presence in the national spotlight, according to experts cited in Newsweek.

Among those experts is David Niven, a professor in UCs School of Public and International Affairs. "The worst-case scenario for Republicans would be for Democrats to successfully convey the truly extreme nature of the Republican agenda on abortion rights and gun safety," said David Niven.

Nivens research focus is on political campaigns, gerrymandering, political communication and death penalty policy.

UCs School of Public and International Affairs was created out of the former Department of Political Science, which dates to 1914. Experts from the school are regularly cited in national and international media outlets.

The school is widely known for having academic experts in all aspects of the political realm and Niven is a trusted media source often cited for having his finger on the pulse of American politics.

Read the article, which was syndicated to msn.com.

Featured photo at top courtesy of Unsplash.
Hi, my name is Scott C. Waring and I wrote a few books and am currently a ESL School Owner in Taiwan. I have had my own UFO sighting up close and personal, but that's how it works right? A non believer becomes a believer when they experience their first sighting. You witnessed it, your perceptual field changes, so now you need to share it.





I created this site to help the UFO community get a little bit organized. I noticed that there was a lot of chaos when searching for UFO sighting reports, so I hope this site helps. I wanted to support those eyewitnesses who have tried to tell others about what they have seen, yet were laughed at by even closest of friends.





More and more each day the governments of the world leak bits and pieces of UFO information to the public. They have a trickle down theory in hopes of slowly getting citizens use to the idea that we are not alone in universe and never have been. The truth is being leaked drop by drop until one day we look around and find ourselves neck high in it.





The discovery of alien species in existence is the most monumental scientific event in human history, suppression of that information is a crime against humanity.





About me:

I live in Taiwan. I OWN MY OWN ENGLISH SCHOOL, AND ONCE HAD 5 SCHOOLS.

Am Former USAF at SAC base (flight line).

Age: 42

Educ: BA in Elem ed. Masters in Counseling ed.





I had two UFO sightings, (30+bus size orbs) in military and in 2012 personally saw the UFO over Taipei 101 building on New Years Day (and recored it).
Russia showed its attitude towards international law by striking Vinnytsia just when Russias crimes were discussed at the international conference in The Hague.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said this in his latest address, Ukrinform reports.

Zelensky clarified that today he addresses not Ukrainian men and women, as usual, but our partners  the democratic world. He reminded that 23 people, including three children under the age of ten, had been killed in a missile attack on Vinnytsia. This number, unfortunately, may not be final as the rubble is still being removed.

A girl is among the dead today in Vinnytsia, she was four years old, her name was Liza. The child was four years old! Her mother is in critical condition... Russia ended the girl's life just at the time when a conference on Russian war crimes was taking place in the Netherlands, in The Hague. A conference where it was decided what should be done to ensure that every Russian military is punished. Can you think of any other terrorist organization that would allow itself such audacity? To kill just at the moment when its previous crimes are the subject of international discussion. Russia has thus shown its attitude to international law, to Europe, and to the entire civilized world, the Head of State said.

The president added that dozens of people are listed as missing, and heavily wounded are among those hospitalized.

One of the missiles destroyed the Neuromed medical center. There were people inside. Nataliya, she is 40 years old. Tetiana, she is 32 years old. Volodymyr, he is 61 years old. Vira, she is 55 years old. I saw them among the missing. You see, it was not even known what happened to the people who simply went to the medical center. And if someone launched a missile attack on a medical center in Dallas or Dresden, God forbid, what would it be called? Wouldnt it be called terrorism? the President stressed.

As noted, this day once again proved that Russia must be officially recognized as a terrorist state: No other state in the world poses such a terrorist threat as Russia. No other state in the world allows itself to destroy peaceful cities and ordinary human life with cruise missiles and rocket artillery every day.

Zelensky added that no one can now have any doubt that a special tribunal on Russian aggression against Ukraine is needed as soon as possible. Also, a special compensation mechanism must be implemented as soon as possible, with the help of which all Russian assets and funds in all countries of the world must be confiscated and aimed at compensations for the victims of Russian terror.

As reported, on July 14, the Russians hit Vinnytsia city center by Kalibr cruise missiles, launching them from a submarine in the Black Sea.

ol
Over the past day, July 14, the Ukrainian military in the countrys southern regions eliminated 18 Russian servicemen and destroyed seven pieces of equipment and a field ammunition depot.

Thats according to Operational Command South, Ukrinform reports.

"In the morning and afternoon, pairs of enemy helicopters attacked the northern part of Kherson region, trying to hit our positions, but to no avail, being forced to retreat, dodging our fire. The enemy Su-35 fighter tried three times to attack our attack aircraft in the sky over Nova Kakhovka with air-to-air missiles, ultimately causing no damage to our aircraft," the statement reads.

In addition, a pair of enemy Su-24 tactical bombers made an attempt to finish off the remains of Russian military equipment left behind on Snake Island. The enemy plane also returned to reconnoiter the results of the strike. There were no losses on the part of the Ukrainian defenders.

Throughout the day, the residential quarters of Bashtanka were repeatedly shelled by five Smerch MLR systems. No casualties were reported.

The aggressors shelled Zelenodolsk with heavy 152 mm artillery. Hits were recorded in the park zone of a local recreational facility and the lyceum premises. Several households around the area sustained damage. No critical destructions or civilian casualties were reported.

Operating in pairs, Ukrainian helicopters and warplanes carried out four strikes on the enemy manpower and equipment clusters in the area of Pravdyne, Lozova, and Blahodatne.

The confirmed losses on the part of the enemy include 18 soldiers, a self-propelled Gvozdika howitzer, six armored vehicles and trucks, as well as a field ammo depot.

Photo from open sources
The treasurer of an area equestrian club is charged with felony stealing following reports alleging the woman used more than $4,000 of the club's funds for personal expenses. The treasurer told officials that the illegal transactions were a mistake as her personal debit card looks similar to the club's card.

Michelle Lynn Myers, 36, of Fredericktown, was charged this week in Madison County with one count of felony stealing ($750 or more.).

According to a probable cause statement from the Madison County Sheriff's Office, on June 27, at about 7:11 p.m., a deputy was informed by dispatch that a woman had called the sheriff's office requesting to speak to a deputy about a financial issue involving the Madison County Saddle Club, located on County Road 203.

When the deputy called the woman about the reported situation, she explained that she is the president of the Madison County Saddle Club, and it had been recently brought to her attention that the treasurer for the saddle club had made several unauthorized transactions using the club's money. The club president informed the deputy that the treasurer of the club was Myers.

On June 29, the deputy went to the Madison County Saddle Club and met with the club president and her fellow saddle club officers. The president and five other club officers then filled out voluntary statements.

The club president reportedly informed the deputy that the saddle club's account is through First State Community Bank and provided him with the bank account statements from Dec. 1, 2021, through June 27.

The club president explained that Myers had a debit card to the saddle club's account, on which she is an authorized user as the club treasurer. The president said it had been brought to her attention on June 26 that the saddle club's account had significantly less money in it than it should have, according to the report.

The woman reportedly questioned Myers about the unauthorized transactions that had been made. Myers allegedly told the president that she had gotten the saddle club's debit card confused with her personal debit card, so she was using the club's card instead of her own card for personal things.

Copies of the bank statements were reviewed, and the unauthorized transactions were noted. The report states the total amount of the saddle club's money that Myers had allegedly spent over the past few months was $4,311.49.

The club president also provided authorities with a printout reportedly showing where Myers had added the saddle club's debit card onto the Black River Electric Cooperative website to pay her electric bill in the amount of $110. The president handed over to police a photocopied printout showing the card information that Myers was issued from the saddle club.

The deputy then spoke with Myers about the situation. The woman reportedly told the deputy that she had made the transactions by accident, mistakenly using the saddle club's debit card instead of her personal card because the cards looked the same.

After the charges were filed on Monday and an arrest warrant was issued, Myers reportedly turned herself in at the Madison County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday and posted a $5,000 cash-only bond.
Ukrainian forces have successfully repelled enemy assaults in the area of Kodema and Bilohorivka toward Bakhmut, as well as enemy attempts to capture the villages of Spirne and Vershyna. The invaders suffered significant losses, being forced to withdraw.

This is stated in the operational update by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as of 6:00 on July 15, Ukrinform reports.

No significant changes in the situation was observed in Volyn and Polissia directions as regards the Belarus forces activity.

In the Siversky direction, the enemy continues to enforce the relevant section of the Russian-Ukrainian border. In order to demonstrate their continued presence, the enemy periodically opens fire at the positions of Ukrainian troops in the border areas of Chernihiv and Sumy regions.

In the Kharkiv direction, the enemy is focused on trying to hold the gained ground and prevent Ukrainian troops from advancing towards the state border. Enemy tanks, mortars, barrel and jet artillery were active in the areas of Petrivka, Ridne, Sosnivka, Slatyne, Pryshyb, Ruski Tyshki, Pytomnyk, Verkhniy Saltiv, and others. A Russian Orlan-10 UAV drone was spotted on an air reconnaissance missions near Primorske.

In the Sloviansk direction, the enemy is trying to improve their tactical position and undertake offensive action toward Sloviansk. The areas of Dibrovne, Podolivka, Mazanivka, Adamivka, Chepilya, Krasnopillya, Kurulka, and others were shelled with artillery.

In the Donetsk direction, the enemy continues to fire on Ukrainian defense units with artillery and tanks along the contact line, also conducting reconnaissance, trying to find weak spots in Ukraines defense lines. The Russians focused their main efforts on the Bakhmut and Novopavliv directions, triying to advance in the direction of Soledar and Bakhmut.

In the direction of Kramatorsk, the enemy is regrouping in order to resume the offensive toward Siversk. The Kramatorsk, Zakitny, Hryhorivka, and other districts were shelled with barrel and jet artillery. Airstrikes were reported near Verkhniokamiansk.

In the Bakhmut direction, the Russians shelled Ukrainian positions in the areas of Novoluhanske, Pokrovske, Vesela Dolyna, Berestove, Vesele, Maiorsk, and Vershyna. Airstrikes were reported near Semihir, Berestove, and the territory of the Vuhlehirska TPP.

Ukrainian troops have successfully repulsed enemy assault attempts in the area of Kodema and Bilohorivka, as well as attempts to capture the villages of Spirne and Vershyna. The occupiers suffered significant losses and withdrew.

The enemy employed a UAV near Bakhmutske. Also, the enemy is trying to strengthen the air defense system of its rear bases and units.

Read also: Air Force reveals what can significantly help effectively protect Ukrainian sky

In the Kurakhiv, Novopavliv, and Zaporizhia areas, the invaders ran no active missions, continuing to shell Ukraines positions along the contact line. They carried out airstrikes near Kamianka. Ukraines defenders quickly suppressed an attempted enemy offensive near Vodiane, engaging the Russians with precise fire. The enemy launched missile and air strikes on civilian infrastructure in the Vuhledar area.

The occupiers systematically bombarded civilian and military infrastructure in the South Buh direction, launching a missile attack on Mykolaiv and airstrikes in the areas of Velyke Artakove and Olhine.

The enemy UAVs flew on aerial reconnaissance missions, while ground forces continued to fortify positions. A significant threat of missile strikes on critical infrastructure across the region remains in place.

The Russian occupiers, in order to somehow justify the destruction of civilian targets on the territory of Ukraine, keep openly lying about the Ukrainian forces allegedly setting up military bases in kindergartens, hospitals, and churches.

Photo: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
All the details of each missile attack launched by Russia will be clarified, and the perpetrators will definitely be held to account.

Thats according to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who addressed the issue on Telegram, Ukrinform reports.

"We are looking into the details of each missile attack at the territory of our state. Terrorists will be held fully accountable for everything they do," Zelensky stressed.

As the president recalled, 23 people, including three children, were killed in Vinnytsia as a result of a Russian missile strike, which also left 197 injured. Another 11 people are still reported as missing.

In Mykolaiv, four missiles hit a local Pedagogical University, where two people were injured. Another four hits rocked the Admiral Makarov National Shipbuilding University.

"Russia is acting like a terrorist state, firing off at the civilian population. We will do everything to find and prosecute those who give criminal orders and those who perform them," Zelensky emphasized.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, on July 14, Russian troops attacked the center of Vinnytsia with three Kalibr missiles.

On the morning of July 15, more than 10 powerful explosions were reported in Mykolaiv, where Russian missiles targeted the city's two largest universities.
Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, in a call with the head of Iranian diplomacy Hossein Amir Abdollahian, emphasized that Russia must not receive any military aid from any nation.

Ukraines top diplomat reported on his talks via Twitter, as seen by Ukrinform.

"In our call, Iranian FM Hossein Amir Abdollahian expressed condolences to the victims of the Russian strike on Vinnitsya. I emphasized Ukraines position: Russia must not get any military aid from anyone. He assured me Russia wont be able to sell stolen Ukrainian grain to Iran," he said.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, on Monday, July 11, a U.S. President's National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told a briefing that the Iranian government was preparing to hand over several hundred drones to Russia, including strike UAVs, as well as to start training Russian military as early as this month.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani has refuted the claim, stating that his country did not sell hundreds of drones to Russia in the wake of the ongoing aggression toward Ukraine.
The war that Vladimir Putin unleashed against Ukraine is a challenge to the peace and stability worldwide therefore the free world must support Ukraine in defending its democracy.

Thats according to a statement by U.S. President Joe Biden, published on the State Department's Twitter page.

Putins war must be a strategic failure, and the free world must sustain our resolve to help Ukraine defend its democracy, Biden wrote.

Biden called Putins assault on Ukraine a challenge to the peace and stability everywhere in the world. He also noted that the United States would continue to support Ukraine and the Ukrainian people who have been devastated and displaced by the Russian violence.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, on July 14, Russia struck the peaceful City of Vinnytsia with Kalibr missiles, launched from a submarine deployed in the Black Sea. According to latest reports, the strike killed 23 people, including three children. Dozens were hospitalized with injuries of varying severity.

Read also: First Lady says child victim of Vinnytsia strike starred in her Christmas video

Two of the incoming missiles were downed by air defense.
The Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan illuminated its building in the colors of the Ukrainian flag as a sign of support for Ukraine.

A corresponding photo of the Embassy front wall on Pall Mall in London was published by Guildhall, Ukrinform reports.

The move by Kazakhstan was another sign of deteriorating relations with Russia.

On July 13, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry announced plans to expand cooperation with the European Union. First of all, this is about the transport and logistics industry, as well as the sphere of economic and food security.

Also earlier, Kazakhstan withdrew from the 1995 CIS agreement on economic cooperation. The corresponding decree was signed by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

Photo: Guildhall
JEFFERSON CITY  Missouris governor on Thursday shot down a call for a special session by two Democrats seeking to protect access to contraception and a physicians ability to treat ectopic pregnancies, which are not viable.

No, not a special session, because youre talking a very complicated issue thats going to take time to figure out, Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, said in response to a reporters question, KTVI (Channel 2) reported Thursday.

Parson signed the states current abortion law in 2019, and it took effect June 24, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Courts Dobbs ruling, which overturned Roe v. Wade. Missouris law outlaws abortions in all cases except medical emergencies.

Observers have debated how the law affects birth control, with Republican Attorney General Eric Schmitt issuing a statement in June saying Plan B and other forms of contraception were still legal in Missouri.

Questions have also swirled about what constitutes a medical emergency, with hospital officials wondering if law enforcement would second-guess their medical decisions.

House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, specifically mentioned concerns over ectopic pregnancies, which threaten the mothers life, in her call this week for Parson to summon lawmakers back to Jefferson City.

Bureaucrats and attorneys dont need to be the ones deciding on what is life-threatening, Parson said Thursday. Doctors need to have a seat at that table and frankly theyre more qualified to be able to make that decision than anybody else is.

Ive got the ability to trust the doctors ... to make those decisions, you know, and I dont know that theres ever going to be a clear-cut answer on how to do that, he said.

In response, Quade said Thursday that the governor was issuing vague assurances instead of bringing legal certainty to the right of Missourians to access and use birth control.

Its nice to hear the governor finally say bureaucrats shouldnt come between a patient and their health care provider, but hes about three years too late after signing extreme legislation into law that does the exact opposite, she said in a statement.

Parsons comments followed the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services release Wednesday of a one-page document addressing questions about Missouris new abortion ban.

But the DHSS stressed it would not determine whether any abortion is legal, and that charging decisions would be left up to local prosecutors and the attorney general.

State law states medical emergencies are determined based on reasonable medical judgment.

The practical challenge is the interpretation of the law  in real time and on the front lines of care  where clinical judgment matters, Dave Dillon, spokesman for the Missouri Hospital Association, said Wednesday.

The uncertainty of whether that judgment will be second-guessed is the challenge for physicians, he said. It is impossible to know in advance whether a prosecutor or member of law enforcement will agree about a clinician determination of risk to the life of the mother.
Photographer and teacher Aaron Hampton will be the guest speaker at the Tuesday meeting of the East Ozarks Audubon Society. The program begins at 7 p.m. in the Farmington Public Library when Hampton will speak about the magic mix  the Sax-Zim Bog  as well as other nearby birding areas.

A brief social time with light refreshments will precede the program at 6:30 p.m.

Even if you dont like birds, youve got to see this. Whether you are a new or experienced birder, or not a birder at all, you would be wise as an owl to visit the Sax-Zim Bog, near Duluth, Minnesota.

Sax-Zim Bog  designated as an Important Bird Area (IBA)  has been described as a magic mix of habitats, providing a unique blend of species found nowhere else in the United States. Great gray owls and northern hawk owls are sought-after sightings for anyone.

Crex Meadows in Wisconsin and Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge in Minnesota are other nearby areas where one can see thousands of sandhill cranes each October, along with countless other animal and plant species.

Aaron has visited these areas extensively, said Ann Blanchfield. A master photographer, he will share some of his experiences with us. He has worked as the lead keeper of reptiles at Brookfield Zoo and currently teaches science in the Richwoods School District. Aaron is also a long-time advocate for science, nature and conservation. If you dont think you like birdwatching, this program might just change your mind.

Due to COVID concerns, social distancing is required for all participants. Masks are recommended for those who have not been vaccinated and are required for those who havent. The event is free and open to the Public. For additional information, contact Ann Blanchfield at 573-705-8880 You can view some of his work at https://aaronhamptonphotography.zenfolio.com/
For over 30 years the City of Austin has welcomed the tradition of Blues on the Green. Produ Read more
The next chapter in the history of locomotives may be written in California, where Union Pacific Railroad is leading a pilot project to determine the effectiveness of utilizing 100% biofuel with its locomotive fleet.

Four Union Pacific locomotives providing service to a San Bernardino sand and gravel mine are running on 100% biomass-based fuel  the first time in Union Pacifics history that a locomotive is being powered solely by a renewable fuel source made from vegetable and/or animal fats.

The field test will determine the feasibility of using a blend of 80% renewable diesel and 20% biodiesel in Union Pacifics fleet.

Railroads are the most fuel-efficient way to move freight today, and Union Pacific is committed to making railroads even cleaner. We anticipate biofuels will play a pivotal role in helping Union Pacific reach its long-range environmental sustainability goals, said Mark Lutz, assistant vice president-Fuel and Environmental Management, Supply Chain.

Union Pacific published a comprehensive Climate Action Plan last year, outlining its commitment to reduce absolute Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 26% by 2030, using 2018 as a baseline. As part of that plan, Union Pacific is committed to increasing its use of low-carbon fuels.

Union Pacific has two key partners in the pilot project underway at West Colton rail yard: Chevron-Renewable Energy Group, the biofuel supplier and Wabtec, the locomotive manufacturer.

The data gathered during the tests is expected to demonstrate to Wabtec and Union Pacific that the performance and reliability of their engines are comparable whether operated with biofuel or traditional, petroleum-based diesel fuel.

We have not tested the limits on increasing biofuel blends on our locomotives and how it will impact performance and reliability of the engine. This is an important step to make sure we maintain our locomotives and reduce our GHG emissions, said Grace Olsen, general director-Locomotive Engineering and Quality, Mechanical.

The biofuel being tested is REG UltraClean BlenD, a B20/R80 blend  20% biodiesel and 80% renewable diesel. Both the biodiesel and renewable diesel are produced from vegetable oils, animal fats or greases, but are manufactured differently, with renewable diesel more closely resembling a petroleum-produced diesel product.

Union Pacifics use of biodiesel and renewable diesel is a testament to their commitment to sustainability and provides a pathway to achieve their sustainability targets, said Adam Sander, director of Emerging Markets at Chevron-Renewable Energy Group. REG UltraClean BlenD, our blend of biodiesel and renewable diesel, also enables Union Pacific to decarbonize today using existing assets and infrastructure with no significant capital investments required.

Biofuels is the general term for all fuels made from components other than petroleum-derived products, including human and animal wastes, landfill gases and industrial wastes.

Chevron-Renewable Energy Group is a leading producer of biodiesel, based in Ames, Iowa.

On a life cycle basis, biofuels are nearly carbon neutral. The greenhouse gases absorbed by the plants during their growth cycle offset gases emitted when they are burned for fuel, said Lutz.

The four locomotives being tested are operating out of Union Pacifics West Colton rail yard, transporting sand and gravel from a mine to West Colton.

All four locomotives were put through a series of baseline tests at Wabtecs design and development hub in Erie, Pennsylvania, before making the trip to California in April and May.

Every six months, each locomotive will be evaluated based on emissions data and wear-and-tear on the engine.

The testing plan will allow Union Pacific to understand the fuel efficiency to switch to biofuels and validate its estimates for GHG emissions reductions overall. Increasing its blends of biofuels will decrease the railroads overall GHG emissions by 26% by 2030.

Union Pacific understands that in addition to being a profitable company, we also have to live our environmental values each and every day and do our part to protect the environment for future generations, said Lutz.
ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Jul, 2022 ) :Pakistan's Ambassador to Cambodia Zaheerudin Babar Thaheem Friday said that there were vast opportunities for Pakistan to promote trade with Cambodia, so the business community should intensify efforts to take advantage of these opportunities, while the embassy would extend them all possible cooperation in that regard.

He said that Cambodia imported most of its goods from abroad to meet its needs, so Pakistan could export a number of products to Cambodia including textiles, garments, pharmaceuticals, and chemicals.

He expressed these views while addressing the business community on the occasion of his visit to Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Zaheeruddin said that the Cambodian private sector was keen to promote business relations with Pakistan, so ICCI should consider sending a delegation to Cambodia to explore all untapped areas of mutual cooperation between the two countries.

He said that the construction sector in Cambodia was booming and Pakistan's business community had good potential to export construction materials to Cambodia.

He said that the tourism sector in Cambodia was also developing rapidly and tourists from the middle East visit Cambodia due to which there was a lot of demand for halal meat, so Pakistan should promote the export of halal meat with Cambodia.

He assured that the embassy would cooperate with the business community in promoting trade and exports with Cambodia.

Speaking at the occasion, Muhammad Shakeel Munir, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) said that the close cooperation of embassies with the private sector was important to promote Pakistan's exports.

He said that the Cambodian market was untapped for Pakistan, so the embassy should get information about the demand for Pakistani products in the market and share it with the chambers of commerce so that the business community could take advantage of these opportunities.

He said that various products of Pakistan including marble & granite, engineering goods, surgical instruments and IT products could find a good market in Cambodia.

He said that ICCI was planning to send its trade delegations to several countries and would consider forming a delegation for Cambodia to explore business opportunities for Pakistan in that market.

ICCI Senior Vice President Jamshaid Akhtar Sheikh and Vice President Muhammad Faheem Khan said that trade and economic relations between Pakistan and Cambodia could be better by promoting direct connectivity between the private sectors of the two countries.

They said that embassies had an important role in finding business and investment opportunities for Pakistan in foreign countries and hoped that the Embassy of Pakistan in Cambodia would try to play an active role in that regard.
Rio de Janeiro, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Jul, 2022 ) :Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro and leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva have both taken to wearing bullet-proof vests to campaign rallies ahead of the October elections, with the candidates' security a major concern in an atmosphere of deep political polarization.

The assassination last Friday of Japan's ex-prime minister Shinzo Abe at an election campaign rally sparked a flurry of concern on social media in Brazil that conditions at home were ripe for a similar crime.

Then on Sunday, a Lula partisan was shot dead at a political party event by a policeman shouting pro-Bolsonaro slogans.

Lula blamed the death on "hate speech encouraged by an irresponsible president," while Bolsonaro retorted that violent people should join "the left, which has an undeniable past of violent episodes." The president himself was stabbed in the abdomen during his previous presidential campaign in 2018, by a man later declared mentally unfit to stand trial.

"Political violence in Brazil has a long history," political analyst Oliver Stuenkel of the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Sao Paolo told AFP.

"It has mostly been limited to the municipal level, (but) we now see, in part due to the radical, extreme polarization, that it is reaching the Federal level" of politics.

Historically, dozens of candidates get shot with every municipal election in Brazil.

Bolsonaro is trailing behind Lula in opinion polls ahead of the first round of presidential elections on October 2.

There will be a runoff on October 30 if no candidate gets 50 percent of first-round votes.

Bolsonaro, 67, has had his presidential protection upgraded, but does not avoided crowds on the campaign trail.

Lula, 76, has employed a team of private security guards to reinforce the team of 35 police that political commentator Lauro Jardim told CBN radio already take care of him.

The former president has taken a more cautious stance with his public engagements.

From the official opening of the campaign on August 16, he and all other rival candidates to Bolsonaro will have access to a pool of some 300 federal police members dedicated to election protection.

This "unprecedented" deployment, according to the federal police, could be increased as the risk calculus changes.

Lula and Bolsonaro, leading the rest of the candidate pack, "can both be targeted by extremist individuals, so it is good to see them taking their safety more seriously," said Silvio Cascione, Brazil director for the Eurasia Group consultancy.

"Lula's staff is clearly worried about the risk... Lula will prioritize indoor events with strict security protocols" with open-air events "much less frequent than in previous campaigns," he added.

Last week, at a Lula campaign event on a massive public square in Rio de Janeiro, a man hurled a small explosive device into the crowd.

No one was hurt, but the attack sparked concern as it happened despite restricted access to the event and the use of metal detectors to screen attendees.

According to the University of Rio de Janeiro's Observatory of Political and Electoral Violence, 214 cases of violence ranging from threats to murders have been recorded against politicians since January this year.

About 40 were homicides -- many of the victims candidates or ex-candidates for mayoral office or municipal councils.

The total represented a rise of 32 percent over the first half of 2020, when the country held municipal elections.

Observers say the political climate in Brazil has become deeply polarized since Bolsonaro took office in 2019.

The left and right have both accused each other of inflaming violence.

Stuenkel points to the use of "violent language, especially in pro-Bolsonaro groups, or by the candidate himself." Bolsonaro has repeatedly sought to cast doubt on the credibility of the election system, and there are fears he may reject the outcome if he loses and even foment violence similar to what happened in the United States.

"They are trying to transform the campaign into a war, to instill fear in Brazilian society," Lula charged on Tuesday.

Experts have also pointed with concern to an explosion of 474 percent of private firearm ownership under the Bolsonaro government.

Despite the growing nervousness, observers doubt the candidates will significantly limit their public outreach.

"It is tremendously important (to them) to promote a narrative of broad, popular support for their candidacy," said Stuenkel.
Edinburgh, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Jul, 2022 ) :A gallery in Scotland said Thursday it was "thrilled" to announce the discovery of a previously unknown self-portrait of Vincent Van Gogh, with his ear intact, hidden behind another painting.

The portrait was found on the back of the canvas of "Head of a Peasant Woman", an 1885 work by the Dutch post-Impressionist, covered by layers of glue and cardboard.

It shows a bearded sitter in a brimmed hat with a neckerchief tied loosely at the neck. It was completed before Van Gogh cut off his left ear in 1888.

Visitors to the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh will be able to see it at a forthcoming exhibition, as an X-ray image through a specially designed lightbox.

Longer term, curators are working on safely extracting it from the overlaying canvas without damaging the paintings.

Lesley Stevenson, senior paintings conservator at the National Galleries, said they were "thrilled to bits" at the find.

"When we saw the X-ray for the first time of course we were hugely excited," she said.

"This is a significant discovery because it adds to what we already know about Van Gogh's life.

"There is lots to think about with regards to the next steps, but for us it is another little nugget to get us a little bit closer to an incredible artist."
Frankfurt, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Jul, 2022 ) :A German court on Friday is to hand down its verdict in the bizarre case of a soldier accused of plotting a far-right attack on senior politicians while successfully posing as a Syrian refugee.

The long-delayed trial shone a spotlight on neo-Nazi sympathies in the ranks of the German military and the effectiveness of the security services in standing up to right-wing extremism -- described by the interior minister as the biggest threat facing the country.

"It is the first time in post-war Germany that a member of the armed forces stands accused of planning a terrorist attack," Annette Ramelsberger, veteran court reporter for the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung, said.

Defendant Franco Albrecht, a 33-year-old father of three, has been in the dock before the regional superior court in the western city of Frankfurt since May 2021.

The Bundeswehr lieutenant is accused of plotting "a serious act of violence endangering the state" with cabinet ministers, MPs and a prominent Jewish human rights activist among his alleged targets.

"He wanted to stage an attack with a major political impact," prosecutor Karin Weingast said in closing arguments.

Albrecht is accused of belonging to a loose network of far-right soldiers hoarding weapons and envisioning "Day X" when they would overthrow the German government in an extremist military coup.

Albrecht, who has a full beard and wears his long hair tied in a ponytail, is alleged to have darkened his skin with makeup to pose as a penniless Syrian refugee and hoodwinked immigration officials for 15 months, despite speaking no Arabic.

He was arrested in 2017 while trying to retrieve a Nazi-era pistol he had hidden in a toilet at Vienna's international airport, and his fraud was discovered when his fingerprints matched two separate identities.

"Neither Arabic nor details about my story were necessary," Albrecht testified, describing his conversations with immigration authorities.

Soon after his arrest, then defence minister Ursula von der Leyen, now European Commission chief, said Albrecht's case pointed to a much larger "attitude problem" in the German military.

Von der Leyen's successor Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer ordered the partial dissolution of the KSK commando force in 2020 after revelations that some of its members harboured neo-Nazi sympathies.

Prosecutors said Albrecht planned to use both the pistol and other weapons and explosives he had taken from the German army in order to carry out an attack.

But they backed away for lack of evidence from an accusation that he plotted to use his false refugee identity to pin the crime on a Syrian.

Albrecht's lawyers called for a suspended sentence based solely on weapons law violations, while prosecutors have demanded jail time of six years and three months.

Albrecht told the court he deceived authorities at the height of the 2015-16 migrant influx, in which more than one million asylum seekers entered Germany.

The soldier, the son of a German mother and an estranged Italian immigrant father, posed as a Christian fruit seller from Damascus called David Benjamin.

Albrecht, who repeatedly expressed anti-Semitic, racist and hard nationalist views before the court during his trial, testified that then-chancellor Angela Merkel had failed to uphold the constitution by welcoming the refugees.

Investigations showed he owned a copy of Adolf Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" and stated that immigration was a form of "genocide".

Albrecht had been free on bail as his trial began but was taken back into custody in February of this year when he was found with Nazi memorabilia and further weapons in his possession, including five machetes under his mattress.
(@FahadShabbir)

RAWALPINDI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Jul, 2022 ) :As many as five terrorists of the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) were killed during the follow up clearance operation held on the night of July 14 and 15 to recover the abducted cousin of Shaheed Lieutenant Colonel Laiq Baig Mirza and apprehend the perpetrators.

During the ongoing recovery operation in Ziarat area, a terrorists' hideout was identified and cleared by security forces near Khost in Khalifat mountains, said an Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) news release received here on Friday.

The terrorists opened fire on the closing-in troops, resulting into Shahadat (martyrdom) of Havildar Khan Muhammad, once encircled by the forces.

The BLA terrorists were killed in ensuing heavy exchange of fire whereas the sanitization operation would continue in the area to apprehend the remaining perpetrators and recover abducted Omer Javed.
(@FahadShabbir)

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Jul, 2022 ) :Interior Minister Rana Sanaulllah Khan on Friday contacted Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan on phone call and discussed the security arrangements for by-elections to be held in Punjab.

Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah convened a review meeting at the Interior Ministry for the security of the by-elections, said a news release.

The meeting will be attended by the officials of Interior Ministry, security departments and Chief Secretary Sindh through video link.
The Estonian parliament on Friday authorized Kaja Kallas, the head of the Reform Party and candidate for the office of prime minister, to form a new coalition government after her resignation from the post a day earlier

HELSINKI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th July, 2022) The Estonian parliament on Friday authorized Kaja Kallas, the head of the Reform Party and candidate for the office of prime minister, to form a new coalition government after her resignation from the post a day earlier.

"The Riigikogu (the Estonian parliament) authorised the candidate for PM @kajakallas to form a Government. On Monday at 3 p.m. (00:00 GMT), the new Government will take the oath of office before the Riigikogu," the parliament wrote on Twitter.

The representative body made the decision by 52 votes in favor, 26 against and 23 abstentions.

Following the announcement, Kallas delivered a speech to the Estonian parliament, during which she called Moscow the country's sole enemy and pointed to grave security concerns.

"Estonia is a recognized and respected player in the international arena. We have friends among many states and their leaders, we can be proud of this. We have only one enemy. This is Russia. We cannot accept the fact that it is Russia that has made the world around us much more dangerous than it seemed some time ago," Kallas said.

She further accused Moscow of allegedly causing a sharp increase in energy prices with a view to "bringing instability to the society.

"

On June 3, then Prime Minister Kallas dissolved the coalition government, which was formed in 2021, due to a rift between her right-wing Reform Party and the leftist Center Party. Estonian President Alar Karis approved the dismissal of seven Center Party ministers in the 14-member cabinet, saying that Estonia needs an operational government.

This decision came two days after the Center Party and the Conservative People's Party voted against a Reform-sponsored bill that sought to make the Estonian language compulsory in elementary schools, with Kallas blaming the Center Party for "working inside the government against Estonia's most important core values."

On Thursday, July 14, Kallas announced her resignation, citing the total collapse of the ruling coalition. The entire government resigned along with the prime minister. Karis proposed that Kallas form a new government.

On Friday, leaders of the Reform Party, the Social Democratic Party and the conservative Isamaa (Fatherland) Party signed a coalition agreement. The coalition now needs a majority in the parliament  55 mandates out of 101  to take control of the government.
A German court on Friday sentenced a former soldier to five and a half years in prison for plotting a far-right attack on senior politicians while posing as a Syrian refugee

Frankfurt, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Jul, 2022 ) :A German court on Friday sentenced a former soldier to five and a half years in prison for plotting a far-right attack on senior politicians while posing as a Syrian refugee.

The long-delayed trial shone a spotlight on neo-Nazi sympathies within the German military and the effectiveness of the security services in standing up to right-wing extremism -- described by the interior minister as the biggest threat facing the country.

"The accused is guilty of planning a serious act of violence endangering the state," presiding judge Christoph Koller said as defendant Franco Albrecht listened impassively, his head slightly bowed.

Albrecht, a 33-year-old father of three, had been in the dock at the regional superior court in the western city of Frankfurt since May 2021.

The Bundeswehr lieutenant was found to have cited cabinet ministers, MPs and a prominent Jewish human rights activist among his potential targets. He was also convicted of weapons law violations and fraud.

Koller said Albrecht harboured "right-wing extremist and racist-nationalist views that hardened over several years".

The defendant saw leading public figures as responsible for a welcoming stance towards refugees that he believed would lead to the "replacement of the German nation".

Prosecutors had described the case as the first in the country's post-war history in which a member of the armed forces was accused of planning a terrorist attack.

Albrecht's defence team said he would appeal the verdict. The German military suspended him after he was charged and is expected to discharge him should the conviction be upheld.

- Nazi-era pistol - Albrecht, who has a full beard and wears his long hair tied in a ponytail, told the court he deceived authorities at the height of the 2015-16 migrant influx, in which more than one million asylum seekers entered Germany.

He darkened his skin with makeup to pose as a penniless refugee and hoodwinked immigration officials for 15 months, despite speaking no Arabic, in a bid to expose what he called the deep flaws in the system.

The soldier, the son of a German mother and an estranged Italian immigrant father, posed as a Christian fruit seller from Damascus called David Benjamin.

"Neither Arabic nor details about my story were necessary," Albrecht testified, describing his conversations with immigration authorities.

He was arrested in 2017 while trying to retrieve a Nazi-era pistol he had hidden in a toilet at Vienna's international airport, and his fraud was discovered when his fingerprints matched two separate identities.

Germany's then defence minister Ursula von der Leyen, now European Commission chief, said Albrecht's case pointed to a much larger "attitude problem" in the German military.

Von der Leyen's successor Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer ordered the partial dissolution of the KSK commando force in 2020 after revelations that some of its members harboured neo-Nazi sympathies.

- Five machetes - The court found that Albrecht planned to use both the pistol and other weapons and explosives he had taken from the German army in order to carry out an attack.

But prosecutors during the trial backed away for lack of evidence from an accusation that he plotted to use his false refugee identity to pin the crime on a Syrian.

The defence attorneys had called for a suspended sentence based solely on weapons law violations, while prosecutors demanded jail time of six years and three months.

Albrecht, who repeatedly expressed anti-Semitic, racist and hard nationalist views before the court during his trial, testified that then-chancellor Angela Merkel had failed to uphold the constitution by welcoming the refugees.

Investigations showed he owned a copy of Adolf Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" and stated that immigration was a form of "genocide".

Albrecht had been free on bail as his trial began but was taken back into custody in February when he was found with Nazi memorabilia and further weapons in his possession, including five machetes under his mattress.

Koller said three months already served would count against the sentence.
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th July, 2022) Nigerian Ambassador to Russia Abdullahi Shehu said on Thursday that Nigeria and other African countries are happy with relations with Russia and are looking forward to deepening cooperation in economy and culture.

On Thursday, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art hosted an exhibition dubbed "How I Imagine Nigeria," which was held with the support of Russian oil company Lukoil and the Nigerian Embassy in Moscow.

"The spirit of our partners in this exhibition is the spirit of promoting cooperation between the Russian Federation and African countries. This project allows us to display to Russia and the world the rich African culture and particularly what we have in Nigeria... We have to do this because we know that when we rely on the international media what do you hear about Africa most of the time - it is the reporting of crime and very sad events.

In some cases people will think: well, there is no food in Africa to eat. As you can see, the welfare Africans are here, Africans are happy and we are also happy with our relations with the Russian Federation," the ambassador told journalists at the opening of the exhibition.

Shehu thanked Lukoil for supporting the "initiative in promoting our culture." The company is an important partner in the development of Nigerian energy sources, he said, adding that Lukoil "is involved in the downstream exploration of gas and oil in Nigeria" and is "working on one of the gas projects" in the city of Lagos.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

The head of Russia's space agency, who has made headlines with his bombastic statements and support for Moscow's Ukraine offensive, has been relieved of his duties and will get a new job, the Kremlin said Friday

Moscow, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Jul, 2022 ) :The head of Russia's space agency, who has made headlines with his bombastic statements and support for Moscow's Ukraine offensive, has been relieved of his duties and will get a new job, the Kremlin said Friday.

Dmitry Rogozin, a firebrand nationalist politician and one of the most ardent supporters of Moscow's offensive in Ukraine, was dismissed as head of Roscosmos, a Kremlin decree said.

But President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state news agency TASS that Rogozin, 58, would get a new job "in due time".

Peskov did not provide any details but said his departure from the space agency did not mean the Kremlin was unhappy with his work there.

One independent media outlet said he would be promoted and could be put in charge of occupied territories in Ukraine.

After Putin sent troops to Ukraine on February 24, Rogozin has regularly published gung-ho statements on social media, saying in May that it would take Russia only half an hour to "destroy" NATO countries in a nuclear war.

At Roscosmos, Rogozin was replaced by Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov, who has a military background.

Meduza, an independent Russian-language news site, citing three sources close to the Kremlin, reported this week that Rogozin could soon get a Kremlin job.

Citing the sources, the media outlet said Putin "loves" Rogozin and his eyebrow-raising statements and that Rogozin could be appointed to oversee Ukraine's separatist regions as well as Ukrainian territories taken over by Russia.

Pro-Moscow officials in occupied Ukrainian territories say they are hoping to stage referendums on joining Russia soon.

Putin appointed Rogozin to manage the country's struggling space agency in 2018.

At the time some experts described him as an outsider who lacked the necessary education and expertise to head Roscosmos.

Rogozin also oversaw the space industry as deputy prime minister from 2011 until 2018. Placed under US sanctions in 2014 when Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine he also served as Russia's NATO envoy.

Rogozin has repeatedly raised eyebrows with his statements and behaviour.

After Washington introduced sanctions against Russia over its annexation of Crimea, Rogozin said that US astronauts should use trampolines instead of Russian rockets to get to the International Space Station.

- Cooperation in space - Sending the first man into space in 1961 and launching the first satellite four years earlier are among key accomplishments of the Soviet space programme and remain a major source of national pride in Russia.

But experts say the Russian space agency remains a shadow of its former self and has in recent years suffered a series of setbacks including corruption scandals and the loss of a number of satellites and other spacecraft.

Borisov takes over as head of Roscosmos at a hugely sensitive time.

Raging tensions over Ukraine are beginning to affect space cooperation between Moscow and Western countries and a new arms race in space is emerging as a growing source of concern.

Until now space exploration was one of the few areas where cooperation between Russia and the United States and its allies had not been wrecked by tensions over Ukraine, Syria and elsewhere.

Russia and the United States have worked side by side on the ISS, which has been in orbit since 1998.

Borisov, 65, was deputy defence minister from 2012 to 2018 and oversaw the defence industry as deputy prime minister from 2018 until now.
Encouraging Ukraine to begin meaningful peace negotiations with Russia would be the best help the West could provide to Kiev, Russia's deputy envoy at the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, said on Friday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th July, 2022) Encouraging Ukraine to begin meaningful peace negotiations with Russia would be the best help the West could provide to Kiev, Russia's deputy envoy at the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, said on Friday.

"I think that the best support for Ukraine that Western countries, including the United States, could render would be to bring some reasoning to the policy planning and to the actions of Ukrainian leadership to start meaningful and serious peaceful negotiations with Russia on the conditions of the ceasefire," Polyanskiy told TNT Radio in an interview.

Russia has repeatedly denounced the West for sending Ukraine billions Dollars worth of weapons, noting that it adds fuel to the fire and only prolongs the conflict. Moscow warns any cargo that contains weapons for Ukraine will be a legitimate target for the Russian armed forces.

On February 24, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine after the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics requested help in defending themselves from intensifying attacks by Ukrainian troops. The two countries have since held several rounds of peace talks but failed to reach an agreement.
WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th July, 2022) The United States has approved a possible $950 million sale of advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles (AMRAAM) to Norway, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said on Friday.

"The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Norway of AIM-120 C-8 or D Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles and related equipment for an estimated cost of $950 million," the DSCA said in a statement.

The DSCA delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale, the statement said.

Norway has requested to buy up to 205 AIM-120 D-series AMRAAM missiles; up to 60 AIM-120 C-8 or D-series AMRAAM missiles and four AIM-120D AMRAAM Guidance Sections, the statement said.

"This proposed sale will support the foreign policy goals and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a NATO ally that is an important force for political stability and economic progress in Europe, the statement also said.

"The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region," the statement added.
The US House of Representatives on Friday passed a pair of bills to federally protect women's access to abortions in response to the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the Roe v. Wade ruling and allow state restrictions on the procedure

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th July, 2022) The US House of Representatives on Friday passed a pair of bills to federally protect women's access to abortions in response to the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the Roe v. Wade ruling and allow state restrictions on the procedure.

Lawmakers passed the Women's Health Protection Act in a vote of 219-210 and the Ensuring Access to Abortion Act in a vote of 223-205. Republican opposition to the first bill was unanimous, with one Democrat joining them in voting against its passage. Three Republicans joined all Democrats in passing the second bill.

The Women's Health Protection Act prohibits governmental restrictions on access to abortion services, including restrictions on requirements to consult with providers or disclose reasons for pursuing an abortion before obtaining one.

The Ensuring Access to Abortion Act similarly prohibits state officials from interfering with people's ability to access out-of-state aboriton services, including by preventing, impeding or retaliating against those engaged in interstate travel for the purpose of obtaining or helping someone else obtain an abortion.

The two bills, which are expected to face a greater hurdle to passage in the Senate, came in response to the Supreme Court's decision in June to overturn abortion protections initially granted by the Roe v.

Wade ruling and allow states greater freedom to regulate abortion.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday praised the the bills as landmark pieces of legislation and affirmed Democrats' commitment to abortion rights.

"As we pass this landmark legislation today, Democrats will not stop ferociously defending freedom for women and for every American. And we want everybody to know, women out there who are concerned about their own personal reproductive freedom and what it means to their health, that the message from the House Democrats and our groups here today is: we are not going back," Pelosi said during a press conference.

Pelosi also reiterated US President Joe Biden's call for Americans to vote for pro-abortion Democratic candidates in November midterm elections.

The House next week will bring to the floor the Right to Contraception Act, which would protect women's ability to access and engage in contraception, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer also said on Friday in a statement.
USM Changes Office for Disability Accommodations to Student Accessibility Services

Fri, 07/15/2022 - 09:39am | By: Van Arnold

In an effort to better serve and support students, the Office for Disability Accommodations at The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) has changed its name to Student Accessibility Services (SAS).

SAS Assistant Director Susie Murphy points out the change was sought to better represent the offices mission while also helping to destigmatize disabilities and promote greater accessibility to campus resources.

We asked our students how they felt about a name change as it was important to us that they be a part of this decision-making process, said Murphy. We surveyed the students registered with our office giving them the opportunity to voice their opinion and vote.

The students were presented several name-change options and were allowed to write in a suggestion not on the list.

We also gave them the option to keep the name as Office for Disability Accommodations. The majority vote was to change our name to Student Accessibility Services, said Murphy.

Student Accessibility Services (SAS) is USMs designated office to verify students' eligibility for accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). SAS works with eligible registered students on an individual basis to provide classroom and housing accommodations that are specific to their disability.

Currently, USM has approximately 700 students registered with SAS. The office covers disabilities such as ADHD, anxiety, depression, hearing impairments, visual impairments, chronic medical conditions, learning disabilities, mobility impairments, temporary disabilities, and pregnancies under Title IX.

Murphy notes that the name change will better benefit students and the University as SAS works to promote and facilitate access through outreach, training, collaborative partnerships, and proactive solutions across the Hattiesburg and Gulf Park campuses.

We are striving to destigmatize disability and working toward it being seen as a part of diversity, she said. We are getting opportunities to collaborate with different organizations and departments to bring awareness to and address access concerns. We want to change misperceptions about disabilities and remove barriers through awareness and increasing access.

To learn more about Student Accessibility Services at USM, call 601.266.5024 or visit: https://www.usm.edu/student-accessibility-services/index.php.

About The University of Southern Mississippi

The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) is a comprehensive public research institution delivering transformative programs on campuses in Hattiesburg and Long Beach, at teaching and research sites across the Mississippi Gulf Coast, as well as online. Founded in 1910, USM is one of only 146 universities in the nation to earn the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Educations "R1: Doctoral Universities  Very high research activity designation, and its robust research enterprise includes experts in ocean science and engineering, polymer science and engineering, and large event venue safety and security, among others. USM is also one of only 39 institutions in the nation accredited in theatre, art and design, dance and music. As an economic driver, USM generates an annual economic impact of more than $663 million across the state. USM welcomes a diverse student body of more than 14,000, representing more than 70 countries, all 50 states, and every county in Mississippi. USM students have collected four Truman Scholarships and 37 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships, while also leading Mississippi with 27 Goldwater Scholarships, an honor that recognizes the next generation of great research scientists. Home to the Golden Eagles, USM competes in 17 Division I sports sponsored by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). For more information, visit usm.edu.
The omicron variant of COVID-19 has evolved again, and its latest incarnation will likely create a summer surge of Central Virginia COVID cases, according to a University of Virginia Medical Center official.

Omicrons subvariant BA.5 is quickly becoming the predominant version of the virus to rampage through the world. It is already the number one variant in Europe, according to the World Health Organization.

Were going to see some level of a surge due to this variant of omicron, BA.5, said Dr. Costi Sifri, director of hospital epidemiology at UVa Medical Center. How long it will be and how long it will last is somewhat unknown. We wont be waiting until the fall or winter to see an increase in COVID cases.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, control variant BA.5 appears to be more transmissible than earlier strains and appears to be at least four times more vaccine-resistant. The agency based its statement on a Columbia University study published this week.

BA.5, which accounted for more than 40% of all New York state positive COVID samples sequenced for variants in the latest two-week data set, and BA.4, were at least 4.2 times more vaccine-evasive than their predecessor, CDC officials said on Friday.

The CDC quoted the Columbia University research when it indicated that omicron subvariant BA.2.12.1, which created a surge of hospitalizations in May, sent 87% of all New York state counties into the high-risk territory for community COVID transmission.

That variant, however, was only 1.8 times more resistant to the vaccine.

Sifri said similar increases are being seen locally.

What were seeing is an increase in cases caused by subvariant BA.5 and this is going to be a similar theme to what people have heard previously, in which new variants have replaced old variants, Sifri said. Weve seen these variants are descendants of, or related to, the original omicron variant but they are rather distinct antigenically.

That makes a difference. Sifri said people who have developed some immunity or antigens to the omicron, delta or other variants do not have as much immunity against BA.5.

BA.5 is different enough compared to BA.1 and BA.2 in that reinfection even after a previous infection in the last several months is possible, Sifri said. Because the vax in based on the ancestral strain of the original variant from Wuhan, the amount of neutralizing antibodies is lower to neutralize BA.5 than previous variations of COVID.

Research published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control concurs. The research shows BA.5 is the COVID-causing culprit in 65% of the cases across the country.

The challenge were seeing now is more and more cases of COVID reinfection. People who have had a history of COVID in the past are developing COVID again, maybe even for the third time for some individuals, Sifri said. People who had COVID as recently as January or February are developing COVID again.

That means protection resulting from infection or vaccination is not a strong when faced with the new variant.

But Sifri said that the vaccines do continue to ease the severity of illness caused by the BA.5 variant and its cousins.

The first thing to keep in mind is that if youve had a COVID infection or are vaccinated, you have protection against the serious implications of COVID, including hospitalization and death, he said. By getting a booster vaccine, you are giving a higher level of protection against those implications.

With a potential surge approaching, Sifri recommended getting vaccinations or booster, if eligible.

You want to provide yourself with the highest level of protection going into a surge, and it appears we are not the upslope of that right now, he said.

Exactly how much impact the variant will have on the community or the duration of the surge are unknown, Sifri said.

I dont want to use the Yogi Berraism of predicting things is difficult, particularly about the future, but its true, he said. Were going to continue to see more communities with high levels of transmission caused by BA.5.

Sifri recommends wearing K-95 or KN-95 masks indoors and in crowded public spaces.

Masking is really the exception to the rule in a lot of airplanes and a lot of airports right now; and if you are in those situations, and not wearing a mask, you should anticipate that you will be exposed to COVID, he said.

Sifri said potentially severe outcomes from COVID could occur even in those who are vaccinated. Repeated infections make that worse.

Theres growing evidence that suggests that, if you have multiple incidents of COVID, those consequences to your health may be compounded. There may be a further increase in cardiovascular disease, development of diabetes and long COVID, if you have multiple events, he said.

Its to our benefit to try and prevent exposing ourselves to COVID, he said.

This story has been updated to correct the name of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Director of Caritas Sri Lanka, Fr Mahendra Gunatilleke speaks about the plight of people in the country, many of whom live below the poverty line, as President Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigns from office.

By Lydia O'Kane

Decades of rule by the Rajapaksa family in Sri Lanka came to an end on Friday when the speaker of the countrys parliament formally accepted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's resignation.

He stepped down after fleeing the island nation to escape a popular uprising brought about by a severe economic crisis in the country.

Rajapaksa is now in Singapore, having fled to the Maldives early on Wednesday on a military jet.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will act as the interim president; however, protesters have also called for his resignation.

The economic crisis has seen Sri Lankans facing rising prices and a shortage of basic goods including food, fuel, and medicines.

The conflict in Ukraine has also worsened the situation, as Sri Lanka exports 18 per cent of its tea to Ukraine and Russia, and imports 45 per cent of its wheat from Ukraine.

The people blame the former president and the government for the current situation.

In Sri Lanka, half the population live below the poverty line, and support for education, health and other social services has steadily fallen.

The Catholic aid agency, CAFOD, has worked in Sri Lanka for over 30 years. Through its Church network, it is providing much-needed food relief for families affected by the severe food and fuel crisis.

It is also working with local organisations supporting peaceful calls for urgent improvements to the lives of Sri Lankans.

Father Mahendra Gunatilleke is National Director of Caritas Sri Lanka. Speaking to Vatican Radio, he said the current political and economic crisis marks a very precarious moment in the history of Sri Lanka.

Listen to the interview

Humanitarian crisis

Right now we are going through a humanitarian crisis and this is turning out to be a disaster There are long queues for fuel, gas, and so on, and people cannot reach their working placespeople are finding it extremely difficult to survive, he said.

According to statistics, over one million people in the country have lost their jobs. The United Nations also estimates that out of a population of 22 million, over 5 million are in need of food aid.

Accountibility and trust

Fr Gunatilleke explained that the root of the current protests stems from a lack of trust and accountability in the government and president as a result of bad decisions they made which has brought the economy to its knees.

Economic collapse and its roots

Asked if the war in Ukraine has had a negative impact on Sri Lankas current economic woes, Fr Gunatilleke said the country had already had four bad years.

In 2019 we had the Easter Sunday bombing, and the severe psychosis that crept into society virtually brought society to a standstill. He went on to say that it was not possible to go to school or work which had a knock on effect on the economy.

He also said that the Covid-19 pandemic during 2020 and 2021 didnt help matters. The Caritas director noted that the war in Ukraine has had an indirect effect on the Sri Lankan economy, particularly on oil and gas coming into the country. However, he emphasised that economies in other South Asian nations, such as Bangladesh, are doing well, arguing that the government and former president must take responsibility for the mismanagement of the country.

Read also 14/07/2022 Sri Lankan President flies to Singapore Sri Lankas embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has reportedly left the Maldives and is heading to Singapore after mass protests force him to flee his own country.

Church support

As people continue to face economic hardship, Fr Gunatilleke said the Church is mobilising all its resources to help those in need. He added that Caritas Sri Lanka has been providing meals and sanitation services. The Catholic Church is also working with other religious communities, including Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims to provide aid to the population.
Government officials said Italy might need early elections to break a political deadlock after Prime Minister Mario Draghi tendered his resignation following a mutiny by a coalition partner. Draghis resignation was rejected by President Sergio Mattarella who told the premier to address parliament next week to gain a clearer assessment of the situation.

By Susy Hodges

Italy has been left in a political limbo after Prime Minister Mario Draghi tendered his resignation, saying his coalition government had collapsed. Draghis move came after the populist 5-Star Movement, one of his coalition partners, failed to back him in a confidence vote over his planned relief bill to help Italians cope with soaring energy costs.

The 5-Star had wanted Draghi to do more to help families cope with the cost of living crisis even if it meant a steeper rise in government borrowing.

Draghi has raised the stakes by saying he would not want to lead a government without 5-Star. A technocrat, his broad government of national unity was formed in February 2021 to help Italy recover from the Covid pandemic and the ensuing economic crisis.

5-Star emerged as the largest party in the previous election in 2018 but they have since suffered defections and a loss of public support.

President Sergio Mattarella, the supreme arbiter in Italian politics, urged Draghi to rethink his decision to resign and told him to address parliament next week to gain a clearer assessment of the political situation and what support he can garner.

Divisions among Italys political parties over issues such as the cost of living crisis and how to respond to Russias invasion of Ukraine are being heightened by the approach of a general election due in early 2023.

Several parties on the right are keen on early elections but a period of political uncertainty will jeopardize Italys efforts to tackle a looming energy crisis and a serious drought. The uncertainty also risks undermining Italys efforts to secure billions of euros in European Union funds.
Air pollution levels in Vietnam the past few weeks have reached alarming levels, prompting the government to issue advisories asking people to stay indoors and limit outdoor activities.

While it is common to see people wearing face masks, the advisory mentioned that masks should be worn along with eye glasses when outside. It further warned that levels of Particular Matter (PM) 2.5, which are harmful when breathed, would remain high.

The highest Air Quality Index (AQI) levels were recorded in the capital Hanoi, which recorded an AQI on 272 on September 30, exceeding the unhealthy levels, while Ho Chi Minh City recorded an AQI of 153.

On September 27, Hanoi momentarily was recorded as the most polluted city in the world, as per the IQAir AirVisual monitoring app. Residents complained that Landmark 81, the tallest building in Ho Chi Minh City, which is usually clearly visible, was shrouded in haze. Several media outlets also discussed the topic and recorded several pictures of haze shrouding the city.

But air pollution is more than just a nuisance. When air quality conditions deteriorate, the government will take action to curb polluting industries and practices. Meanwhile, employers need to take additional measures to ensure that their operations and staff are not unduly affected.

Whats causing the air pollution?

At first, the authorities blamed air pollution on crop burning in Indonesia, which was also affecting Singapore. However, authorities later said there was not enough evidence to prove this was from Indonesia, and that it was more like that the pollution was due to low rain and farmers burning crops in Vietnam.

But Vietnam has another problem. Over the past decade, coal consumption has tripled and oil consumption has increased by 70 percent. The situation isnt likely to get better soon, as Vietnam depends on coal-fired plants for electricity. While solar polar plants have come into operation, at present they do not match the capacity of coal-fired plants.

Most of the coal power plants are located in the north of the country, contributing to Hanois deteriorating air quality. In the south, high humidity combined with vehicular pollution and waste from industries results in smog, which commonly occurs between September and October.

Experts say that stationary traffic with idling engines in metropolitan areas make an urban canyon, which are pockets of air pollution trapped by surrounding tall buildings. Rapid urbanization has contributed to this, and the issue is likely to persist as the construction of residential buildings, shopping malls and office building continue at a fast pace.

How does air pollution affect businesses?

The authorities have introduced some steps to alleviate air pollution, including strengthening oversight and enforcement of laws by punishing businesses that flout environmental norms.

At the national level, the government has banned the use of imported used machinery and equipment that is more than 10 years old. This was a plausible move as used and outdated machinery is known to harm the environment further aggravating air pollution.

Apart from this, Vietnam has planned a pilot carbon tax at specific factories in the four provinces of Quang Ninh, Thanh Hoa, Quang Nam, and Thua Thien Hue. The pilot will run from 2020 to the end of 2021 and the result of the pilot program may inspire a nationwide policy in 2022.

The government is working on a draft law which could lead to a tax on greenhouses gas emissions for companies in the steel, cement, electricity and chemical sectors. This includes a plan to reduce pollutants  such as nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides  by 20 percent between 2020 and 2025.

Authorities are also working on regulations to install emission treatment systems at industrial parks by 2025, which would affect operations within the parks, and also increase costs for park operators and their tenants.

In addition, the simplification of business registration and licensing has made it easier for firms to set up production facilities in residential areas, exacerbating the air pollution problem. In the suburban Ho Chi Minh district of Binh Chanh, there are 3,500 production facilities in residential areas. While authorities addressed the issue with fines, they have not ordered businesses to shut down or relocate  this could change if air quality conditions continue to deteriorate.

A possible motorbike ban in Hanoi is still being debated. The motorbike is ubiquitous to Vietnam and banning this would be an extremely unpopular decision given the lack of reliable public transport. Any ban would affect commutes for employees across the city. While Vietnam imposes a higher tax on personal vehicles, a rising middle class has continued to purchase a high number of imported cars.

If the issue worsens, recruiters may find it more challenging to source top-level talent, particularly in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, which typically receive the lions share of foreign investment. Human resource managers that treat duty of care seriously may need to educate staff on air pollution risks, provide face masks, and review sick leave and work from home policies for staff that may be at heightened risks of ill during bouts of severe air pollution.

While pollution levels in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are not at the levels of Chinas capital Beijing and Indias capital Delhi, the health risks are real. The government can be expected to adopt more measures to regulate industries and business practices that contribute to air pollution. In the meantime, the deteriorating air quality in Vietnams most developed cities could lead some business leaders to consider shifting to less polluted cities, such as Da Nang or Nha Trang, which are known for their cleaner environments.
Time may be running out for students and community members to view the four pieces of the collapsed Berlin Wall that have been on display at UVa for eight years.

The [collectors] have been looking at the possibility of moving the installation to another facility, were not sure where, said Jody Kielbasa, Vice Provost for the Arts and Director of the Virginia Film Festival at UVa.

Titled Kings of Freedom, the installation includes four panels from the Wall that stood between the warring sides of the same city. One side of the panelsthe side that faced democratic West Germanyhas graffiti by West German artist Dennis Kaun, while the other sidewhich faced communist East Germanyis blank.

Germans chipped away at the length of the 103-mile wall in peaceful resistance until the Soviet Union fell in 1989.

The installation has been a focal point for a number of years, said Kielbasa. The pieces are significant on our Grounds as a representation of freedom. They are located right next to the Universitys Declaration of Independence, which is also a powerful symbol of freedom.

The Cold War artifact has been on Grounds since 2014, when art collectors and philanthropists Robert and MeiLi Hefner, of the namesake Foundation and Collection, loaned the installation to the University to commemorate the 25-year anniversary of the Berlin Wall removal. The couple originally loaned the Wall pieces for just one year but extended the agreement. The pieces are displayed in front of the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library.

Removing the 16-foot long, 12-foot high, 8,818-pound relic will be a process. UVas Facilities Management employees installed a glass and steel structure with lights to protect the panels and illuminate the artwork.

Likely making their final loan extension, the Hefners are allowing the University to hold on to Kings of Freedom for the rest of this year.

There is an opportunity in the fall and spring to see it for those who havent seen it already, said Kielbasa. We are a state school, which means we are open to the public, so I invite and encourage everyone to come. The exhibit is free and accessible.

The piece of history embodying German oppression, rebellion, and freedom all at once is located next to the Albert and Shirley Small Collections Library on Central Grounds.

UVa Arts does not have a replacement installation lined up at the moment, Kielbasa said.
An Azerbaijani journalist imprisoned on what rights groups believe are trumped-up charges has had his appeal for parole rejected.

The Supreme Court of Azerbaijan on Wednesday rejected the appeal of human rights defender and journalist Elchin Mammad to be freed after serving one-third of his sentence.

Mammad, editor of the news website Yukselish Namine and head of the nongovernmental organization Legal Education of Sumgayit Youth, was arrested in the city of Sumgayit in 2020.

Police at the time said they'd found stolen jewelry in his office. A court in October 2020 convicted Mammad of theft and illegal possession of weapons, and it sentenced him to four years in prison.

Mammad denies the allegations, and journalists and human rights defenders say they believe his imprisonment is arbitrary.

Accusations 'do not seem credible'

Farid Gahramanov, who works for the independent Turan news agency, told VOA he believed the case against Mammad was political.

As a journalist and social activist, Elchin Mammad was engaged in protecting human rights and freedom of expression. We can say that he was arrested precisely for this reason, because the accusations made against him do not seem credible and have not been proven in court, he told VOA.

Mammads website publishes content on human rights, freedom of speech and access to information. And his nongovernmental organization provides legal assistance to low-income families.

Amnesty International reported at the time that the journalists arrest came a few days after he published a report on human rights abuses in Azerbaijan.

According to Amnesty, the journalist said he believed police had planted the stolen goods in his office when it was searched in his absence.

Mushfiq Alasgarli, deputy chair of Azerbaijans Press Council, denied that Mammads arrest was related to journalistic activities.

The self-regulatory Press Council says on its website that it oversees media compliance with legal and professional requirements and works to strengthen relations between the state, public and press.

Even though whenever some people are jailed, it is assumed that its in connection with their occupation, that is not the case with Elchin Mammad. The charges against him are directly related to illegal possession of weapons and theft, Alasgarli told VOA.

Problem for the nation

Alasgarli said, however, that he believed detaining such people creates a problem not only for Elchin Mammad, but also for Azerbaijan as a whole. International organizations report these cases. These facts are used against Azerbaijan.

The deputy chair said that in some cases it could be more effective to free such prisoners.

The Azerbaijan Supreme Court did not respond to multiple calls from VOA requesting comment.

Under Azerbaijans penal code, parole can be offered to people who have served a third of their sentences, provided they complied with prison regulations, Fuad Ahmadli, coordinator of the Center for the Protection of Political Prisoners and Victims of Torture, told VOA.

In October 2021, a district court denied Mammads request to release for parole, arguing that although the journalist had not violated any prison rules, he had not pleaded guilty to the charges brought against him.

The Baku Court of Appeals upheld that decision in December 2021.

An affidavit presented to the court from the penal colony where Mammad is held stated that he does not show sincerity in following relevant norms of behavior, ethical rules, communication with staff and other prisoners.

Detention 'absurd'

Mammads lawyer, Fariz Namazli, told VOA the journalist had followed prison rules and that no disciplinary action was taken against him.

"Moreover, his mother is 68 years old and seriously ill. Two young children of the human rights defender have been left without their father's care, Namazli said.

The detention of Elchin Mammad and the denials by the district, appeal and supreme courts are absurd, rights activist Ahmadli said.

He told VOA that it is illegal for the court to keep someone in prison for absurd considerations such as his negative attitude towards labor, being introverted and not keeping his bed neat.

Mammad himself told the court that the affidavit from the penal colony does not reflect the reality.

The journalist said he believes it was prepared to fulfill the will of the people who ordered his arrest and that they want to keep him in prison for as long as possible.

Turan journalist Gahramanov said cases like Mammads hurt the already restrictive media environment in the country. Azerbaijan has a poor press freedom record, ranking 154th out of 180 countries on the World Press Freedom Index, where 1 has the best conditions.

Such severe punishment of journalists has a negative impact on freedom of expression in the country and serves to create self-censorship among journalists, Gahramanov said.

Amnesty International and other international organizations have condemned Mammads conviction. Local human rights defenders recognize him as a political prisoner.

This story originated in VOAs Azerbaijani Service.
U.S. President Joe Biden is in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the last leg of his trip to the Middle East, flying directly from Tel Aviv on Friday just hours after the Saudi Kingdom announced the opening of its airspace to all carriers, ending the countrys ban on flights to and from Israel.

The decision is a gesture from Riyadh as part of a broader warming of relations between Israel and the Arab world as they align against the threat from Iran. Biden is claiming it to be the result of his administrations push toward a more integrated and stable Middle East region.

While this opening has long been discussed, now, thanks to months of steady diplomacy between my Administration and Saudi Arabia, it is finally a reality. Today, I will be the first president of the United States to fly from Israel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Biden said in a statement.

Biden said the Saudi decision can help build momentum toward Israels further integration into the region, including with the kingdom itself  hinting at a potential diplomatic normalization that would be the most significant expansion of the Trump era Abraham Accords.

At the same time, his administration sought to repair ties with the Palestinians, offering economic and technical assistance as he met with President Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority, in Bethlehem on Friday.

The 2020 Abraham Accords normalized relations between Israel and Gulf state neighbors United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, as well as Sudan and Morocco. Palestinians say their statehood cause is sidelined by the deal, as Arab nations no longer withheld diplomatic relations seeking to pressure Israel to negotiate a two-state solution and improve its treatment of Palestinians in the territories it occupies.



Under the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, Arab nations led by Saudi Arabia conditioned normalization of relations with Israel upon the acceptance of the establishment of a sovereign independent Palestinian state on the Palestinian territories occupied since June 4, 1967, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.



Two-state solution



Receiving Biden at his presidential compound in Bethlehem, Abbas urged Biden to support the two-state solution to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on the 1967 borders  a common reference to the 1949 Armistice Agreements that set demarcation lines after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

Mr. President, after 74 years of the Nakba displacement and occupation, isn't it time for this occupation to end? the Palestinian leader said in his joint appearance with Biden.

Biden reiterated his support for Palestinian statehood, acknowledging what he called the indignities that Palestinians must endure, including travel restrictions enforced by Israeli authorities and the daily worry of your childrens safety.

The Palestinian people are hurting now, Biden said. You can feel  you can just feel it, your grief and frustration. In the United States, we can feel it.

He did not, however, offer a peace plan.

Even if the ground is not ripe at this moment to restart negotiations, the United States and my administration will not give up on trying to bring the Palestinians and Israelis and both sides closer together, he said.

Biden did not criticize Israeli settlement expansion, nor did he announce the reopening of the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem that served as the American mission to the Palestinians, reopening of the Palestine Liberation Organization office in Washington, and removing the PLO from the U.S. State Departments Foreign Terrorist Organizations list  demands that Abbas repeated in his remarks.

As his administration pushes for deeper security and economic ties between Israel and its Arab neighbors, Biden suggested harnessing that same momentum to reinvigorate the peace process between the Palestinian people and the Israelis.

The Biden administrations main goal is keeping open the possibility in future of a two-state solution and managing the conflict so that it doesn't explode, said Jonathan Rynhold, head of the Political Studies Department at Bar Ilan University, to VOA.

In a statement, Biden reiterated the U.S. position that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, and boundaries of sovereignty in Jerusalem must be resolved through final status negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.

Rynhold said the Biden administration and Israeli government are on the same page - neither believes there is a serious opportunity for a diplomatic breakthrough on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Renewing USPalestinian ties

Biden unveiled a fresh package of economic and technical assistance for the Palestinian people, including funding to support hospitals in East Jerusalem as part of a multiyear commitment aimed at helping Palestinian health services.

"Today I'm pleased to announce the United States is committing an additional $100 million to support these hospitals, your staffs that work for the Palestinian people," Biden said during remarks from the Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem.

Last year his administration resumed $235 million in U.S. assistance to the Palestinians, including to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), nearly all of which had been eliminated by former president Donald Trump. On Friday, Biden announced an additional $201 million for the agency to continue delivering services to Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.

Other announcements include initiatives focusing on Palestinian economic development, such as developing 4G wireless networks in Gaza and the West Bank, and working with Israelis to loosen travel restrictions from the West Bank to Jordan.

But other than his rhetoric, in the eyes of the Palestinian public, Biden is no different than his predecessor, Donald Trump, according to Ghassan Khatib, lecturer at Birzeit University and former Palestinian Authority official.

Biden is trying to make it up by replacing political obligations with financial, which is disappointing to Palestinians, Khatib told VOA.

Shireen Abu Akleh

Abbas also demanded accountability for the death of Palestinian American journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot in May as she covered an arrest operation by Israeli Security Forces and clashes at the Jenin refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank.

The Biden administration is accused of trying to shield Israel from taking full responsibility for Aklehs death. An investigation overseen by American and international experts concluded that gunfire from the Israeli Defense Force positions was likely responsible but they found no reason to believe that this was intentional.

Akleh, a U.S. citizen, was performing vital work of democracy and her death is an enormous loss to the essential work of sharing with the world the story of the Palestinian people, Biden said, mispronouncing the journalists name as Alkehli.

The United States will continue to insist on a full and transparent accounting of her death, and we will continue to stand up for media freedom everywhere in the world, Biden said.

At the joint Abbas-Biden press conference, reporters left an empty chair with a poster of the slain journalist in her honor. Her family has demanded to meet with Biden while he is in the region, but no meeting has been scheduled so far.

U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has spoken with her family and invited them to Washington, according to U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
Cariol Horne started her morning outside the Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, placing white roses at a colorful memorial to the 10 Black people slain there two months ago by a white gunman.

Across the fenced-off parking lot, the supermarket chain's president and employees were preparing to lead media on a preview of the refurbished store, a day ahead of its Friday reopening to the public.

Horne, a 54-year-old activist and retired Buffalo police officer, was among those in the neighborhood who say it's too soon.

"We're pretty much shopping on people's blood," she said. "I think that this is more about putting people to work rather than letting them heal.  Just two months ago, these people were running for their lives."

Yet even Horne carries the mixed emotions of seemingly everyone in the community, where the store has doubled as a gathering spot for two decades.

Her 97-year-old father, a World War II veteran, lives close enough to the market to shop there on his own. The produce at Tops is fresher than the foods available at smaller convenience stores and bodegas in the neighborhood, she said. She gets it.

How do you decide how, when or even whether to let the site of a mass atrocity return to being what it was before it was a crime scene? How do you help people move forward without erasing the memory of an event that devastated so many?

It's hard enough to answer those questions when it's a school, a church, a synagogue. It's a different sort of hard when it's a place of business, especially one as central to a community as Tops is to east Buffalo.

Tops is the social hub of its neighborhood. That's why frequent shoppers, the store's managers and employees, community leaders and those who lost loved ones in the hail of bullets two months ago tell The Associated Press simply: It's complicated.

On the one hand, residents fought for years to win a grocery store on Buffalo's east side, which had long suffered from disinvestment and lackluster economic activity. The arrival of Tops in 2003 was a godsend to an area that had been considered a food desert.

On the other hand, it was a far cry from addressing the systemic inequality and unhealed trauma in east Buffalo's Black community, several residents said.

Tops President John Persons said Thursday that the company began hearing from customers, community members and civic leaders the day after the May 14 shooting. Almost immediately, the company started running a free shuttle from the neighborhood to other Tops stores.

Ultimately, the management team felt confident that store associates and most area residents needed and wanted the store to reopen.

"I'll be honest, those are the people that we really wanted to listen to, the people that were in the neighborhood, the people that were in the Jefferson Avenue neighborhood and the immediate community to find out what their thoughts were," Persons said.

On Friday morning, store associates handed single carnations to customers as they entered the newly reopening store. Some also received Tops gift cards  the store planned to hand out more than 200 of them, a representative confirmed.

"The key to life is to get back to living," said shopper Alan Hall, who lives two blocks from the Jefferson Avenue store. "We're happy that it's open. It looks good. It's well stocked. Of course, there's still that undercurrent of grief, which will never leave. But it's good to be back."

The store has a calming palate of muted grays and greens. Over the entrance are Adinkra symbols, one representing peace and harmony, another hospitality and generosity and a third, farewell and goodbye.

"Everything you see here was taken down to the bare walls," Persons said.

It is also made to be safer, with a new emergency evacuation alarm system and additional emergency exits. Outside, the parking lot and perimeter have new LED lighting.

Fragrance Harris Stanfield, a customer relations employee of Tops, returned to the store Thursday for the first time since the shooting. She said she understands why some believe it's too soon to reopen.

"I think there's still a place of mourning and grieving," she said. "We're still kind of in a blaming space, where they need somewhere to focus that energy. And so it's just being focused here, which is completely understandable."

Near the store's entrance, signs labeled "community counseling" hung from pitched tents. On Thursday, residents looked on from behind the fence, some of them angrily, as Tops managers hosted the press event.

Part of the anger stems from a sense that not enough effort was made to seek enough voices from the community.

"No one's come door to door to ask the people, who live within a mile, or four blocks, or even two blocks of Tops, 'Are you comfortable with this? What do you want here?'" said David Louis, another activist who, like Horne, recognizes that others miss not just the goods on Tops' shelves but the good in its aisles.

"This is such a family store, it's so close to everyone's homes," said Louis, who frequently walked the four blocks to the store. "When I'm in Tops, I know that these people aren't judging me."

Mark Talley, the son of Buffalo shooting victim Geraldine Talley, said he grew up going to the Tops on Jefferson Avenue with his mom. Now, he's hoping to honor her memory through advocacy, community service projects and a fledgling nonprofit organization.

The 33-year-old also attended the Tops preview event Thursday and said he understands why there are mixed feelings.

"When I was first asked this question weeks after it happened, I said, 'No, I want the Tops closed. I want it to just be dedicated to all the loved ones there,'" Talley said.

"But if you do that, then you just succumb to defeat," he said. "I don't want the east side of Buffalo to seem weak. I want us to become stronger than that. Let's just build it back up."
Authorities in Cameroon say thousands of vehicles have been halted by a fresh scarcity of fuel caused, in part, by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Cameroon's government says it's been forced to spend nearly half-a-billion dollars in fuel subsidies since Russia's February invasion, as western sanctions have hindered trade with Moscow.

More than 100 drivers pack a filling station in the Etoudi neighborhood of Cameroons capital, Yaounde, Friday, honking their horns to protest a fresh fuel shortage.

The drivers say their incomes have nosedived since Yaounde ran short of fuel this month and the scarcity spread to other towns.

Yves Honore Minka is with the waste disposal company Hygiene and Sanitation of Cameroon (HYSACAM) in Ebolowa, on the border with Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

He says the town of Ebolowa and its surroundings are a mess because his company's waste and refuse collection vehicles have been halted by a lack of fuel. Minka says his company will be able to resume refuse collection only after diesel fuel becomes available.

Cameroons government says several thousand public buses, taxis, and trucks are not in use because of the fuel shortage, the second one to hit the country since April.

Some of the vehicles were destined for the neighboring Central African Republic, Chad, and Gabon, slowing regional trade and transport.

Cameroons energy minister, in a press release Monday, again blamed Russia and its invasion of Ukraine.

Western sanctions for Russias assault have hampered its trade and led to volatile, higher prices for oil and gas.

Cameroon buys more than half its gasoline from Russia, one of the worlds top suppliers of petroleum products, wheat, and fertilizer.

Veronique Moampea Mbio is director general of Cameroons Petroleum Distribution Company (SCDP). Speaking Friday on Cameroons state broadcaster, CRTV, she said Cameroonians should be patient.

Mbio says the shortage of petroleum products is provoked by the inability of marketers to pay the surplus sums of money requested before delivery of fuel. She says banks are reluctant to exceed credit limits to marketers of petroleum products because regular loan repayments may be hindered by unpredictable market prices.

Russias invasion of Ukraine pushed global oil prices above $100 a barrel for the first time since 2014, while those for natural gas and fertilizer have more than doubled. Cameroons government says it has already spent $485 million on fuel subsidies since Russias invasion in February and may need to spend more than $1 billion this year.



Mbio says Cameroons president, Paul Biya, has ordered the government to immediately pay needed subsidies for petroleum products to be imported in coming weeks.
China urged the U.N. Security Council on Thursday to try to cut off the supply of small arms, light weapons and ammunition to gangs in Haiti, which has been unable to stem an upsurge in criminal violence and kidnappings.

Beijing also called for the council to demand an immediate halt to gang violence, criminal activities, roadblocks and the occupation of any public institution.

It also wants the council to express its readiness to impose additional sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, on people who support gang violence or criminal activities, abuse human rights, or undermine Haiti's peace, stability and security.

With the mandate for the U.N. political mission in Haiti ending Friday, the 15 council members were trying to reach agreement on a new resolution to extend the mission. The resolution initially was drafted by the United States and Mexico, and China was proposing revisions supported by its ally Russia.

The revised draft, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, includes another major proposal by China.

It asks U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to consult Haitian authorities, relevant regional countries and regional organizations "on deploying a multinational police unit" to Haiti. It would operate in close coordination with the U.N. political mission "to support the Haitian police's efforts in combating gang violence in order to establish and maintain public safety and law and order and to promote and protect human rights."

The original draft called for beefing up the U.N. mission to include up to 42 police and corrections department advisers, led by a U.N. police commissioner, and staff to ensure that sexual and gender-based violence are addressed.

When the current resolution extending the U.N. mission was adopted in October, Haiti had been contending with the assassination of President Jovenel Moise last July, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake that killed over 2,200 people in August, and escalating gang-related killings, kidnappings and turf wars.

A year after Moise's assassination, gang violence is even worse, and Haiti has gone into a free fall that has seen the economy tumble and many Haitians flee the country to escape the turmoil. At the same time, attempts to form a coalition government have faltered, and efforts to hold general elections have stalled.

This week, officials in Haiti's capital reported that dozens of people had died as a result of days of fighting between rival gangs in the violent Cite Soleil neighborhood. Doctors Without Borders said thousands of people were trapped in the district without drinking water, food and medical care.

A spokesperson for China's U.N. Mission said an embargo on weapons for criminal gangs is "the minimum" the council should do in response to the appalling situation in Haiti.

"Anything falls short of that will not only disappoint the Haitian people, but also means a lost opportunity for the Security Council," said the spokesperson, who commented only on condition of anonymity.

Other council members said an arms embargo would be unenforceable.

The draft resolution revised by China would urge "all Haitian stakeholders," including the U.N. mission and the regional organization Caribbean Community, or CARICOM, to reach an agreement within six months on a Haitian-led political effort for holding "inclusive, peaceful, free, fair, and transparent legislative and presidential elections as soon as security conditions and logistical preparations permit."

Russia supported China's call for revisions to the U.S.-Mexico draft resolution. A spokesperson for Russia's U.N. Mission said that "taking into account the situation in Haiti, we believe we need to have an opportunity to make changes to the mandate of the mission."

The United Nations has been involved in Haiti on and off since 1990, and the last U.N. peacekeeping mission was in the country from 2004 until October 2017. The political mission now there advises Haiti's government on "promoting and strengthening political stability and good governance," including the implementing the rule of law, inclusive national dialogue and protecting and protection of human rights.
With rates of online violence on the rise, a media foundation has developed a free tool to help shield journalists from harassment.

Created by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the TRFilter identifies harmful or abusive comments made in English on a Twitter account, blurs the comments, and provides toxicity scores to help a user decide whether to view the posts.

It works to protect your mental well-being, to protect or minimize your exposure to this barrage of toxicity, Heba Kandil, a senior manager for media freedom at the Thomson Reuters Foundation, told VOA.

Research shows large percentages of female journalists experience online violence, and often struggle to find help in dealing with it.

The Reuters app offers features to address that, including the ability to create reports of harassment that can be shared with third parties such as newsroom editors or authorities.

Women affected disproportionately

It was developed with female journalists in mind, said Kandil, noting that they are affected by online violence at disproportionate rates.

A report released by UNESCO and the International Center for Journalists in 2021 found nearly 75% of the female journalists who responded to a survey had experienced digital harassment.

Media rights organizations say the attacks result in some women switching beats, refraining from covering certain stories, or even leaving the profession.

Lucy Westcott, emergencies director at the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, said she felt unprepared for online harassment directed at her while working as a reporter at a news outlet in 2016.

Shortly after one of her stories was published, Westcott started to receive very nasty language in her Twitter mentions, as well as messages with photos of violent imagery.

Westcott told her editor and a senior colleague about the situation, and was advised to lock [her] account.

She deactivated it for about two months, during which the harassment finally died down.

Westcott called the harassment emotionally devastating and said it made her feel extremely scared and very unprepared.

It made me want to completely disconnect with any kind of social media platform, Westcott said. To this day, I try to not spend much time on [social media] at all.

The experience is one of the reasons she decided to work for the CPJ. The media rights group offers training and security advice on digital and physical attacks.

Minorities are targets

Beyond gender-based harassment, journalists of racial, sexual and religious minorities also face higher rates of online violence, research shows.

The joint UNESCO-ICFJ report found that over half of respondents who identify as Arab were victims of offline attacks associated with online violence, compared with 20% of all women respondents.

Social media can be a dangerous space for journalists because it makes them more visible than they were previously, pre-internet, said Jennifer Henrichsen.

The assistant professor at the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University is an expert in digital and physical threats to journalists.

Henrichsen pointed to a range of possible perpetrators, from everyday citizens to grass-roots collectives to state-sponsored actors.

Maybe they are trying to discredit the journalist because they dont like what that journalist happens to write about, Henrichsen said. Maybe theyre even just trying to slow down the journalists work or prevent the progress of their beat.

Westcott of CPJ said harassment often is an attempt at silencing journalists.

Perpetrators aim to intimidate [journalists], to basically make their lives extremely difficult so they will be dissuaded from reporting the news and reporting really important stories, Westcott said.

'Promising tool'

Westcott has not used TRFilter app yet, but she described its ability to help manage online abuse as useful.

She said it aligns with some advice that CPJ often gives, which is for journalists in the middle of an online attack to hand their devices to friends or colleagues who can read through and report abusive comments.

Henrichsen called the TRFilter a promising tool for journalists, particularly its feature to create reports on abuse.

It can kind of quarantine the hate, but [journalists] also have a repository  an archive of it  so that they can either share that with a platform, or they share that with a researcher ... or an editor, Henrichsen said. Somebody can then help develop a policy or another tool to remedy the situation.

Henrichsen also pointed to other tools to address online violence, such as Block Party, which allows users to filter content and block accounts quickly.

Westcott stressed the importance for journalists to make sure that the least amount of personal information about them is publicly available. Tools such as DeleteMe can remove users personal information from leading search engines and data brokers.

Such tools are helpful, but media safety experts say that news organizations and social media platforms should be involved in addressing online harassment.

The onus cannot be on the individual [journalist], Kandil said. It has to be a collective action.

The Thomson Reuters Foundation partnered in 2021 with international institutes and law firms to develop several practical and legal guides to help newsrooms to protect journalists.

Newsrooms have a responsibility to make sure theres a plan in place before something happens, rather than scrambling after the fact, Westcott said.

Twitter has previously outlined its work to address online hate on the platform.

In response to reports of high levels of violence on its site in June, Twitter told USA Today, "Hateful, abusive conduct has no place on our service, and we're focused on improving on our efforts here.

Westcott acknowledged that Twitter took a helpful and important step in allowing users to limit replies to their tweets, but added, There is definitely space for some more to be done.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli acting Prime Minister Yair Lapid publicly differed on the best approach to counter the threat of Irans nuclear weapons program, as the two leaders signed a joint security declaration. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara is traveling with the president, and she has this report from Jerusalem.
The European Union's executive intensified its legal standoff with Hungary on Friday by taking the country to the EU's highest court over a restrictive law on LGBT issues and media freedom.

The EU had already tried for a year to make Hungary change a law that bans content portraying or promoting homosexuality. The European Commission said it "discriminates against people on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity."

"The Commission considers that the law violates the internal market rules, the fundamental rights of individuals (in particular LGBTIQ people) as well as  with regard to those fundamental rights  the EU values," the statement said.

It was the latest episode in a long political battle in which Brussels perceives Prime Minister Viktor Orban as deliberately stepping away from the cornerstones of Western democracy, while Hungary depicts the European Commission as overly meddling in internal politics and imposing moral standards it considers far too liberal.

Hungary's right-wing governing party last year banned the depiction of homosexuality or sex reassignment in media targeting minors under 18. Information on homosexuality also was forbidden in school sex education programs, or in films and advertisements accessible to minors.

The governing Fidesz party argued the measures were meant to protect children from pedophilia. But the law spurred large protests in the capital, Budapest, and critics, including numerous international rights organizations, said the measures served to stigmatize LGBTQ people and conflate them with pedophiles.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen immediately called the law "a shame" and made it a point of pride to counter it with legal procedures. Friday's decision was the latest step in the drawn-out process.

"The Commission decided to bring the case to court because the Hungarian authorities have not sufficiently addressed the Commission's concerns and have not included any commitment from Hungary to remedy the situation," European Commission spokesman Christian Wigand said.

At the same time, the commission has long criticized the retrenchment of media freedoms in the member state and on Friday it took Hungary to the European Court of Justice because it believes it muscled out a radio station because it refused to toe the government line.

Commercial station Klubradio, which went off the air over a year ago, was one of the last radio channels in Hungary that regularly featured opposition politicians and other critical voices during its news and talk programs.

Critics of the government say the station's liberal stance led to a discriminatory decision by the country's media regulator when it refused to renew Klubradio's broadcasting license.

The station has broadcast only online since losing its radio frequency.

"The [EU] Commission believes that Hungary is in breach of EU law by applying disproportionate and nontransparent conditions to the renewal of Klubradio's rights to use radio spectrum," the EU statement said.


Across Europe, there is a growing uneasiness that Russias invasion of Ukraine is serving to overshadow another critical, even existential threat that could do severe damage to the West while serving the Kremlins interests.

Instability and the rise of terrorism across Africa, according to multiple European and NATO officials, cannot be overlooked no matter how deeply Russian President Vladimir Putin pushes into Ukraine.

And nowhere are concerns growing as fast as they are in the Sahel, the semiarid stretch of land spanning northern and western Africa from Senegal to Sudan.

By sending a couple of thousand Wagner paramilitaries, the Russians are taking over there, Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren told an audience in Washington Thursday. We cannot accept that.

Ollongren is not alone in voicing concerns about the Russian threat from Ukraine, in the east, overshadowing the threat from Africa.

"One of the worst effects this will have on the Western side in my view is that it focused attention of the European member states on the eastern front, lowering the already low level of attention on the south," Lieutenant General Giovanni Manione, the deputy director general of the European Union Military Staff, warned a forum in Washington last month.

"It is a tragic effect. It is a huge mistake," Manione added. "We are keeping resources [in Europe] just in case something happens, forgetting completely that actions should be taken now in another theater."

Manione went even further, suggesting that Putin, as much as he may want to conquer Ukraine, is also adroitly using the fight there as a distraction.



"I'm not sure this is the main target of the Russians," Manione said of Ukraine. "The main target of the Russians could be having people focused on there [Ukraine], forgetting their actions elsewhere."

Russian paramilitary groups in Africa

Other European countries are also sounding alarms.

An Austrian Federal Intelligence Service report issued late last month warned of a belt of instability reaching across Africa, from the Sahara Desert and the Sahel region all the way to Somalia and the Arabian Sea.

This instability is exacerbated by the rise of a grass-roots anti-West movement in the Sahel region and the withdrawal of European armed forces from Mali, the report said. Ostensibly private actors on the ground, such as the Russian Wagner Group, also play an important role here.

Many Western officials view Wagner, a paramilitary company run by Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, as a proxy force for Putin, helping Moscow secure access to natural resources with no regard for human rights.

So far, U.S. military officials have reported the presence of Wagner mercenaries in more than a dozen African countries over the past several years. With recent deployments to Mali sparking renewed concerns, especially after Wagner forces were tied to the slaughter of 300 civilians this past March.



Wagner has also been tied to Januarys coup in Burkina Faso, though U.S. officials have not confirmed the allegations.

Like their European counterparts, U.S. officials agree Russias involvement in Africa, and in the Sahel in particular, is worrisome, warning the payoff for countries turning to Russia, and to Wagner, often fails to deliver on Moscows promises.

We've seen the impact and destabilizing effect that Wagner brings to Africa and elsewhere, and I think countries that have experienced Wagner Group deployments within their borders found themselves to be a little bit poorer, a little bit weaker, a little bit less secure, U.S. Deputy Commanding General for Africa Major General Andrew Rohling told reporters last month.

But U.S. military and intelligence officials, while concerned, question whether Russian forces are capable of threatening Europe from the south.

Theres not necessarily a concrete and cohesive plan, one U.S. official told VOA, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss intelligence.

"They're not a very effective organization, except for extorting money and resources, the official added, comparing Russias strategy in Africa to placing a bunch of bets on a roulette table."

Indirect threat

NATO, in its recently adopted, updated strategic concept, also sees the threat from Russia in Africa as indirect.

NATOs southern neighborhood, particularly the Middle East, North Africa and Sahel regions, faces interconnected security, demographic, economic and political challenges, the alliance document said, adding it enables destabilizing and coercive interference by strategic competitors.

Some experts warn it would a mistake, however, to view Russias actions as incoherent.

Russia is pursuing several strategic objectives on the continent, Joseph Siegle, director of research at the National Defense University's Africa Center for Strategic Studies, told U.S. lawmakers Thursday.

While much of Moscows effort is designed to displace and discredit Western influence, Siegle said that is just the start.

Russia is trying to gain control over strategic territory in North Africa, most vividly seen in Libya. This would provide Moscow with an enduring security presence on NATOs southern border, he said.

Combined with port access that Moscows trying to gain on the Red Sea, this would put Russia in a position where it could disrupt maritime traffic through the chokeholds of the Suez Canal and the Bab el-Mandab [Strait] through which some 30% of global container traffic passes every year, he warned.

Carla Babb contributed to this report.
Muhammad Aziz, one of several men convicted of the 1965 killing of civil rights leader Malcolm X, is seeking $40 million in compensation from New York for the wrongful conviction, according to a case filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn.

After spending 20 years in prison for the murder Aziz, who was a 26-year-old father of six children at the time of his conviction, was paroled in 1985.

In November, the Manhattan district attorney found that the convictions of the now 84-year-old Aziz and a co-defendant were the result of the corrupt behavior of police and prosecutors.

Aziz says he was home in the Bronx with a leg injury when Malcolm X was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan.

Khalil Islam, also convicted in the death, was exonerated posthumously. He was paroled in 1987 and died in 2009.

Another man confessed to the killings and told authorities that Aziz and Islam were innocent.

Last year, the Manhattan District Attorneys office said no physical evidence tied Aziz or Islam to the murder or crime scene.

As someone who has fought for a fairer criminal justice system for my entire career, New York Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement, I believe the overturning of Mr. Aziz and Mr. Islams convictions was the just outcome. We are reviewing the lawsuit.
ORANGEIn a 3 a.m. videotaped interview the morning after she shot and killed her ex-babysitters husband at his home, Briana Cole Knicely told Orange County sheriffs Lt. Becky Jones she didnt know what happened.

He grabbed me  he pulled my hair  I had my gun on me, I pulled it out and I shot him, the 28-year-old Gordonsville woman said of killing James Manning, 38, of Barboursville.

Portions of the three-hour video were shown Wednesday afternoon in Knicelys ongoing first-degree murder trial in Orange Circuit Court. In the video, the defendant appeared tired and rambling at times.

He tried to come after me, Knicely told Jones.

She has pleaded not guilty and is claiming self-defense.

Less than 12 hours before the video interview was done at the Sheriffs Office, in the 4 p.m.-to-4:30 p.m. timeframe on June 16, 2021, the unemployed mother of two drove to the home of James and Jessica Manning on Hamm Farm Road, according to testimony. The home is located off U.S. 33 not far from the village of Barboursville.

The defendant, a former nurse who grew up in Orange County, had a small, .380-caliber automatic Luger pistol in her purse which she used to fatally shoot 36-year-old James Manning three times while he was standing in his front door, according to testimony.

Knicely told Jones on the video that the incident took less than five minutes, and that she was back home by 4:45 p.m.

She further described the purported attack by Manning, saying she did not know him and they had had no prior contact.

He was always at work, the defendant said of the man.

Mannings wife, Jessica, had provided in-home childcare for nearly three years at their Hamm Farm Road address. The child-care arrangement with Knicely terminated two weeks earlier.

Knicely said she went to the house that day to retrieve clothing when James Manning answered the door. Knicely said she asked him if Jessica was home and he replied she wasnt there.

The defendant said she came to get her kids clothes and Manning said to her, what kids?

She said Manning grabbed her. I dont even know you like that  he kept coming after me, he would not stop, Knicely recalled in the taped interview with Jones.

She said she was terrified someone might come after her, and that she did not know Manning was dead until informed by authorities during her taped interview.

The father of three, an honorably discharged Army veteran, died after being shot in the head, chest and groin, according to the medical examiner testimonys Wednesday.

Knicely told investigators she never got in the front door and shot Manning from the front porch after he attacked her.

Near the end of the interview, Knicely said, Im sorry their father was taken from his children but he had no right to go after me like that.

Over the course of the interview shown in court, Knicely also told Jones about a dispute two weeks earlier with Jessica Manning related to a Department of Social Services investigation. Knicely said Jessica Manning told someone something about her kids and, I asked you not to do it.

The defendant, in addition, described past custody disputes with her boyfriend, DSS investigations and disagreements about her children with her mother, Jessica Atkins.

After she shot Manning, Knicely said she went back home and acted like nothing happened.

The defendant stated she stopped at Royal Market for soda and cigarettes. Video footage shown Thursday morning from convenience store on U.S. 33 showed Knicely entering the parking lot around 4:32 p.m. June 16, 2021. Orange County sheriffs Lt. Bryan Seal testified that the market is two miles from the Manning home.

Knicely returned to her own home nearby, switched vehicles to a white Acura TL and went driving around with her kids in the car, according to testimony. Meanwhile, authorities had developed her as a suspect.

The Orange County Sheriffs Office issued a Be-On-The-Lookout for Knicelys vehicle on June 16, identifying her as a homicide suspect.

Just after 1 a.m. June 17, 2021, Culpeper County patrol deputy Michael Mawdsley spotted the defendants vehicle passing by on U.S. 29 and Remington Road in northern Culpeper County, he testified Wednesday.

Mawdsley testified he initiated a traffic stop, Knicely complied, was handcuffed and placed in the back of a patrol vehicle.

In the vehicle that Knicely was driving, two small kids sat in the back seat, Mawdsley said.

Orange County sheriffs Deputy Jesse McPeak responded to the traffic stop a year ago, where he said he observed the childrens grandmother picking them up. The Sheriffs Office took custody of Knicely, he said, took off her handcuffs and started asking questions.

Knicely made statements to McPeak that she was not sure what was going on or why she was stopped. She asked if she should get an attorney, and police told her yes, McPeak testified.

She was looking around a lot, acting nervous, uneasy, he said of her demeanor during the traffic stop.

Orange deputies asked Knicely if she was willing to drive back with them to the Sheriffs Office to be interviewed, and she agreed.

McPeak said she told them she was going to take a nap on the drive back and fell asleep during the transport. Knicely, not yet charged with any crime, arrived in the Sheriffs Office lobby at 2:17 a.m. June 17, the deputy testified.

After her interview, Jones took photographs of Knicelys arms, legs, neck and back. The investigator testified there were no bruises on her arms.

Jones then placed her under arrest and Knicely was transported to Central Virginia Regional Jail, where she has lived for the past year.

Expected to conclude its case Thursday afternoon, the prosecutionrepresented by Assistant Commonwealths Attorney Crystal Hasting and Deputy Commonwealths Attorney Katie Fitzgeraldput on forensics and ballistics evidence Thursday morning.

This followed continued disputes between the prosecution and defense over allowing officials from the Virginia Department of Forensic Science to give opinions about their testimony, as is typical in murder cases.

Orange County Circuit Court Judge David Franzen reaffirmed his Wednesday ruling that opinion testimony would not be allowed from the forensic scientists because the prosecution had failed to qualify them as expert witnesses, as required.

Abbreviated testimony Thursday by four members of the state agency yielded findings such as the presence of gun primer residue on the steering wheel and gear shift of the vehicle that Knicely drove to the Mannings house on the night of his death.

In addition, her DNA was found on the gun used in the fatal shooting, according to testimony Thursday morning.

Cara McCarthy with the Manassas office of Virginia Department of Forensic Science testified about determining distance from muzzle-to-target based on gunshot-residue patterns on a victims clothing. This analysis was not possible to determine in the Manning shooting due to a lack of gunshot residue on his clothing, according to testimony.

In the courtroom, McCarthy held up the sweatshirt and cargo shorts Manning was wearing when he died. She pointed out two defects or holes in the upper left chest area on the sweatshirt and two holes in the right pocket of the shorts.

A neighbor of the Mannings, Steve Laluna and his wife, Eliza, testified briefly about a camera on their garage capturing footage of Knicely leaving the shooting scene.

Eliza Laluna testified she was riding her horse when she saw a vehicle leave the area at a very high rate of speed around 4:20 p.m. or slightly thereafter on June 16. The vehicle was going fast and it spooked her horse, Laluna testified. That could not be seen in the video shown the jury.

The jury also heard evidence Thursday from Orange Sheriffs Office Lt. Bryan Seal about unsuccessful attempts to retrieve footage from a Ring camera installed at the front door of the Manning household during the shooting.

No videos were found from the timeframe requested, Seal testified of several contacts he made with the company to retrieve the footage, which apparently does not exist.

A video of the interaction would have helped the investigation, he said.

The defense was expected to put on its case Thursday afternoon and Friday, the last day of the scheduled four-day trial, prior to jury deliberations.
The URL has been copied to your clipboard

The code has been copied to your clipboard.

More than 80 wounded civilians are hospitalized a day after Russian missiles fired from Black Sea struck Ukraines central city of Vinnytsia, killing 23. An adviser to the Belarusian opposition leader tells VOA that Russian warplanes are using Belarus as an 'aircraft carrier' to attack Ukraine.
South Koreas controversial 2019 decision to forcibly repatriate two North Korean fishermen suspected of murder is receiving renewed attention following the release of photos showing the men being sent across the border against their will.

The pictures, released this week by South Koreas Ministry of Unification, showed the two fishermen struggling desperately as they were dragged and pushed to the North Korean side of the border at the Panmunjom truce village in November 2019.

While the images offered few new details about the deportation, their release renewed fierce domestic political debate over the incident, which tested South Koreas legal commitment to protect fleeing North Koreans.

Many human rights groups condemned the deportation as a violation of international law, saying the men were almost certain to be tortured and sentenced to death without a fair trial in North Korea. They also argue the incident violates South Koreas constitution, which recognizes North Koreans as South Korean nationals.

South Korean officials in charge at the time argued the fishermen were heinous criminals who could endanger South Koreans. They allege it would have been very difficult to secure a conviction in South Korean courts, given the unique details of the alleged murder, which occurred in North Korean waters.

Grisly crime

South Korean naval authorities captured the two fishermen in November 2019, when their small squid fishing boat crossed the eastern sea border.

The men confessed to killing the boats captain and 15 other crew members, and dumping their bodies overboard, South Korean officials said.

While the two men expressed a desire to defect, South Korean authorities rejected the request as insincere and incoherent.

Following a three-day investigation, South Korean authorities decided to return the suspects and their fishing boat to North Korea.

North Korea has not revealed the mens fate, but many activists say it is impossible they received a fair trial, noting the totalitarian countrys well-established record of torture and other abuses.

This is an outrageous and inexcusable human rights violation that should be utterly condemned, and the [South Korean] officials responsible for this decision should be held accountable, said Human Rights Watch Deputy Asia Director Phil Robertson.\

The newly released photos revealed the mens desperate resistance to being sent back to North Korea, Robertson said.

They understood they were fighting for their lives. [Former South Korean President] Moon Jae-in and his officials knew that too, and yet still they sent them back in what was a disgusting and callous disregard for human rights, Robertson said.

Legal questions

According to many rights activists, the deportation violated South Koreas commitments under both domestic and international law.

Under the United Nations Convention Against Torture, which South Korea signed in 1995, individuals may not be deported to places where they likely face torture. South Korea has also signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which recognizes the right to a fair trial.

In theory, South Koreas constitution considers North Koreans as its citizens, and Seoul usually accepts fleeing North Koreans, pending an investigation into their background.

However, South Korean law also allows authorities wide latitude to reject incoming North Koreans, for instance, on national security or criminal grounds.

In the view of those who oversaw the deportation, the fishermens alleged crimes made them ineligible for defector protection under South Korean law.

Even if the men were tried in a South Korean court, conviction would be extremely difficult, since the evidence and witnesses are in North Korea, according to testimony by Kim Yeon-chul, then South Koreas minister of unification.

While the two men did admit to murder, convictions based on confessions alone are difficult to secure in South Korean courts, according to legal analysts. Many worry that raised the chances the two men would have been set free, even if they committed murder.

If someone brutally murdered 16 people and then exploited legal loopholesand was acquitted because of a lack of evidence and witnessesis that really justice? asked Joo Seong-ha, a prominent North Korean defector-turned journalist, in a Facebook post.

Rather than deal with a complicated and uncertain legal battle, the Moon administration returned the fishermen to North Korea, prompting a wave of outrage.

Many of Moons critics alleged he was motivated by a desire to placate North Korea, amid inter-Korean peace talks that by then were faltering. The left-leaning Moon placed a high priority on dialogue with the North.

The dynamic made for a tricky situation for officials at U.N. Command, the multinational military force that oversees the demilitarized zone, including the Panmunjom village where the deportation took place.

While this was a [South Korean government] decision that we were not going to meddle in because of their laws, there was a lot of concern expressed by the [South Korean military] leadership if this was the right decision, said a senior defense official with knowledge of the repatriation.

The general feeling was this was another example of trying to appease the North Koreans and gain some good favor, the official told VOA.

Political payback?

The administration of South Koreas new conservative president, Yoon Suk Yeol, is determined to reassess the incident.

This week, a Yoon spokesperson called the repatriation a crime against humanity. South Koreas National Intelligence Service has also filed a complaint with prosecutors against Moons former spy chief, alleging the investigation into the fishermen ended too soon.

Yoons government is also investigating a separate 2020 incident in which North Korea killed a South Korean fisheries official near the inter-Korean sea border. The Moon administration claimed the fisheries official was killed while attempting to defect to the North, but that determination was reversed last month under the Yoon government.

Some observers worry Yoon is continuing a longstanding pattern in which conservative presidents pursue legal charges against their liberal predecessors, and vice versa.

Yoon Suk-yeol seems determined to perpetuate the cycle of political revenge that has long marred South Koreas democracy, wrote longtime Korea watcher Aidan Foster-Carter in an editorial in NK News, a Seoul-based website.

To be sure, Moon Jae-in played that game too  with a vengeance, he said. Now its payback time for the conservatives.

Lee Juhyun contributed to this story.
Two tribes in South Africa, the Khoi and the San, have received their first payment for the sale of the indigenous rooibos plant, grown mainly for tea. The Rooibos Tea Council, representing businesses, paid the tribes more than $700,000 as part of a benefit-sharing agreement.

The director of the San Council, Leana Snyders, said it took nine years of negotiations before the Rooibos Traditional Knowledge Benefit-Sharing Agreement was signed in November 2019.

She said the Indigenous tribes still use rooibos when babies have teething problems. It is also used for skin conditions like eczema and to alleviate stomach cramps.

Snyders said paying for traditional knowledge should be applied globally.

"If, for instance, I am a company based on the people that lived in the area's knowledge, then I made a product or I used the plant and I sell it and I make a profit as a company, so I would definitely recommend this type of collaborations with industry," she said.

She also said Indigenous people must be taught about the legal process.

"You must stand up for your rights because, in our case, if we did not stand up nine years ago, going to the government and saying, 'But we want our knowledge to be recognized,' if we did not make the first step as the San people, we would not be here, where we are today," Snyders said.

This first annual payment of $700,000 comes from a 1.5% levy on the sale of all rooibos that has been cut and dried. The money has been paid into two trust accounts for the San and the Khoi.

Snyders said the money will be reinvested in the people.

"We going to make sure that it is for upliftment of the San people. And upliftment comes through livelihood upliftment, and the main thing is education. For us it is education, education, education," she said.

A director of the South African Rooibos Council, Dawie de Villiers, said he can't give an accurate estimate of how much the industry is worth. However, he said, the caffeine-free product is exported to over 50 countries, and that number grows every year.

"In fact, it has some good medical studies that identify it as being a good product to use in stress alleviation, and we're seeing it more and more being used in a wide range of applications," de Villiers said. "Not only in herbal teas but also in nutritional supplement formulations, so it is certainly a product for today's times."

Officials say this period is being regarded as the pilot phase of the agreement, and further negotiations will take place to develop a nonmonetary benefit-sharing model.


The simple truth is that, as we speak, children, women and men, the young and the old, are living in terror, International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan said at the opening of the Ukraine Accountability Conference in The Hague on Thursday, with about 40 nations in attendance.

Khan said an overarching strategy is needed to bring those guilty of conducting war crimes in Ukraine to justice.

Ukraine has granted the ICC jurisdiction over the crimes committed within the country, opening the door to the courts investigations, since neither Ukraine nor Russia is an ICC member.

Ukrainian officials said Russian missiles struck the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia on Thursday, killing at least 23 people and wounding more than 100 others.

Police said three missiles hit an office building in the center of the city, located about 270 kilometers southwest of the capital, Kyiv. The strikes, coming from a Russian submarine in the Black Sea, damaged residential buildings in the area and engulfed 50 cars in a nearby parking lot.

This is the act of Russian terror, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the ICC meeting in a video address.

The governor of the Vinnytsia region, Serhiy Borzov, said Ukrainian air defense systems shot down another four missiles over the area.

With a population of 370,000, Vinnytsia is one of Ukraine's largest cities. Thousands of people from eastern Ukraine, where Russia has concentrated its offensive, have fled there since the start of the war in late February.

President Zelenskyy said the dead included a child.

Every day Russia is destroying the civilian population, killing Ukrainian children, directing missiles at civilian objects where there is no military (target). What is it if not an open act of terrorism? Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Russia has denied targeting civilians in Ukraine.

Warfare continues to rage in eastern Ukraine, but the British Defense Ministry said Thursday that despite continued shelling, Russian forces have not made major territorial gains in recent days.

"The aging vehicles, weapons and Soviet-era tactics used by Russian forces do not lend themselves to quickly regaining or building momentum unless used in overwhelming mass  which Russia is currently unable to bring to bear," the British ministry said.

Grain exports

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday there is broad agreement on a deal between Russia and Ukraine, with Turkey and the United Nations, to export millions of tons of Ukrainian grain stuck in silos since Russias invasion on Feb. 24.

Today is an important and substantive step, Guterres told reporters of developments at talks in Istanbul among the four parties. A step on the way to a comprehensive agreement.

The U.N. chief broke his public silence on the negotiations, pointing to a statement from Turkeys defense minister, who said there is agreement on major points, including the creation of a coordination center with Russia, Ukraine and the U.N.; agreement on controls for checking grain at ports; and ensuring the safety of cargo ships carrying the grain out of Odesa.

Of course, this was a first meeting, Guterres noted. The progress was extremely encouraging. Now, the delegations are coming back to their capitals, and we hope the next steps will allow us to come to a formal agreement.

While Guterres would not speculate about when the final agreement would be ready, he said he hoped the parties would reconvene next week and have a final agreement. Whenever it is, he said, he would be ready to go to Istanbul to sign it.

A U.N. official with knowledge of the talks said there was an important meeting of the Russians and the Ukrainians where they were able to make a lot of progress on sticking points.

More than 20 million tons of Ukrainian grain are being stored in silos at the Black Sea port of Odesa, and dozens of ships have been stranded because of Russia's blockade. Turkey said it has 20 merchant ships waiting in the region that could be quickly loaded and dispatched to world markets.

The grain deal has been in the works for months, with U.N. officials raising the alarm nearly immediately after the war started about the consequences for global food security if Ukraine, which is one of the worlds top grain exporters, is unable to get its harvests out.

Truly, failure to open those ports in Odesa region will be a declaration of war on global food security, World Food Program chief David Beasley warned at a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on May 19. And it will result in famine and destabilization and mass migration around the world.

WFP says 276 million people worldwide were facing acute hunger at the start of this year. They project that number will rise by 47 million people if the conflict in Ukraine continues, with the steepest increases in sub-Saharan Africa.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.

The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT.

10:29 p.m.: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday reshuffled his top officials, naming a new head of the state space corporation and giving new broad powers to one of his top ministers, The Associated Press reported.

Putin removed Dmitry Rogozin as the head of the Roscosmos space agency.

He replaced Rogozin with Yuri Borisov, a deputy prime minister who was in charge of weapons industries. Borisov's duties were handed over to Denis Manturov, the minister of industry and trade who was also given the rank of a deputy prime minister.

Manturov has held the ministerial job since 2012 and reportedly has Putin's favor, accompanying the Russian president on most foreign and domestic trips.

Borisov's appointment as Roscosmos chief indicates he hasn't completely fallen from grace despite the weapons procurement issues. There was no immediate word on a new job for Rogozin, who had served as Roscosmos chief since 2018 and became known for his blustery anti-West rhetoric.

9:30 p.m.: United Nations spokesman Farhan Haq offered an update on the attack in Vinnytsia at the daily briefing on Friday in New York.

Our humanitarian colleagues on the ground are supporting people impacted by yesterdays attack, he said.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which has an office in Vinnytsia, reports that the death toll is rising, with at least 23 people confirmed dead, including three children. More than 10 people are missing. Local authorities say more than 400 rescue workers continue to clear the debris and search for survivors.

The World Health Organization (WHO), with support from the Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), has donated trauma kits and other medical supplies to the citys hospital.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) are helping local authorities provide emergency shelter, critical supplies and psychological support.

8 p.m.: The British government summoned the Russian ambassador in London on Friday to demand an explanation after the Moscow-backed separatist leadership in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine said Paul Urey had died in captivity on Sunday of chronic illnesses and stress.

Urey, 45, was detained in April at a checkpoint near Zaporizhzhia, along with another British man, Dylan Healy. The two men had been operating on their own in the war zone, helping to evacuate civilians.

Presidium Network co-founder Dominik Byrne said Urey had diabetes and needed a regular supply of insulin.

"It's obvious that his welfare was not looked after," Byrne said. "The Russian authorities and the Donetsk People's Republic knew he had need of insulin but all the way through this the Red Cross has been denied welfare access to him and has never been able to verify his actual conditions in prison."

7:10 p.m.: At least three people were killed and 15 injured on Friday in a Russian missile attack on the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, the regional governor, Valentyn Reznychenko, said.

"The rockets hit an industrial plant and a busy street next to it," Rezynchenko said on his Facebook page. "We are determining the extent of the destruction."

The Ukrainian military shot down four of the six missiles fired at the city and region in an evening attack, he added.

The dead included a city bus driver, a local transportation official said on his Facebook page.

"The man had finished his workday and was headed to the depot to go back to work at 5 a.m. tomorrow. He didn't make it," Ivan Vasyuchkov wrote. "Two children have been left without a father. A really young guy, my age, he still had so much time to live. There are simply no words."

6:20 p.m.:

5:33 p.m.: A Russian court on Friday sentenced another top opposition figure to a years-long prison term, The Associated Press reported, the latest move in the Kremlin's multipronged crackdown on opposition activists, independent media and rights groups.

Andrei Pivovarov, former head of the Open Russia group, was sentenced to four years in prison by a court in the southern city of Krasnodar. Pivovarov was charged with "directing an undesirable organization," a criminal offense under a 2015 law. He has maintained his innocence and has insisted that the charges against him were brought because of his plans to run for parliament in September 2021.

4:55 p.m.: Russian authorities declared two investigative news outlets undesirable on Friday, outlawing their operation in Russia, The Associated Press reported.

The Prosecutor General's office told Russia's state news agency Tass that the investigative group Bellingcat and the Russian online outlet The Insider, as well as the Czech nonprofit CEELI Institute, "pose a threat to the foundations of the (country's) constitutional order and security."

The Insider, a news outlet registered in Latvia, has worked with Bellingcat on high-profile cases such as the nerve agent poisonings of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and Russian opposition leader Navalny. The websites of both have been blocked in Russia since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.

4 p.m.: Ukraine has received its first delivery of a sophisticated rocket-launcher system, adding to a growing arsenal of Western-supplied long-range artillery Kyiv says is changing dynamics on the battlefield, Agence France-Presse reported.

"The first MLRS M270 have arrived," Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov wrote on social media, without mentioning what country sent them.

"They will be good company for HIMARS on the battlefield," he added, referring to US precision rocket systems recently deployed in the conflict.

3:15 p.m.: If the United Nations, Ukraine and Russia reach an agreement to export Ukrainian grain, it will not lead to Russia-Ukraine peace talks, Leonid Slutsky, a Russian lawmaker who had taken part in peace talks with Kyiv in the past, said on Friday, state news agency TASS reported.

2:22 p.m.: Russian investors will have the right to ask foreign institutions holding their frozen securities to transfer depositary accounting rights to a Russian organization, according to a law signed by President Vladimir Putin late on Thursday, Reuters reported.

Around 6 trillion rubles ($105.1 billion) in foreign stocks are held by Russians and have been frozen through Western sanctions and Russia's own authorities and platforms restricting trading in foreign assets, the central bank has estimated. Apple and Tesla stocks are among the most the popular.

Under the new law, investors have the right to ask for the depositary accounting rights of its foreign-held shares to be transferred to a Russian entity within 90 days from the law's publication, the text of the law said.

1:10 p.m.: Germany plans to give Moldova $40.2 million to help protect one of Europe's poorest countries from inflation as it continues to host Ukrainian refugees, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Friday, according to CNN

''Moldova was in a very critical situation,'' Baerbock said at a donor conference in Bucharest. "This small democratic republic has done everything possible to help refugees from Ukraine."

Moldova, population 2.5 million people between Romania and Ukraine, is hosting more than 70,000 Ukrainian refugees as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

12:24 p.m.: Reuters reports that a Briton who was detained by Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine and accused of being a mercenary has died, an official in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) said on Friday. The death of Paul Urey, 45, was confirmed by a British charity which described him as a humanitarian worker and denied he had any military background.

12:04 p.m.: Sele Murekezi, brother of Suedi Murekezi, a Rwanda-born American who had been living in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson when he was taken captive by pro-Russian separatists in June, said his family was a little relieved to learn he was only captured.

"We were extremely worried. We were hoping that he was arrested for some reason, but because of whats going on in Ukraine, you know, people are dying every day, we feared the worst could have happened. So our best hope [was] that he had been arrested for God knows what," Sele told VOA.

11:30 a.m.: The European Union's executive, the European Commission, formally proposed on Friday new sanctions on Russia, including a new import ban on Russian gold. EU governments must still sign off on the measures, expected as early as next week, Reuters reported.

10:31 a.m.: Ukraine is hurrying to clinch a deal with Russia, Turkey and the United Nations next week to export grain via its Black Sea ports, a senior Ukrainian official source said on Friday, Reuters reported.

10:20 a.m.: The head of the company now running the former McDonald's Corp chain of restaurants in Russia told RBC TV that producers of French fries are refusing to supply to the country and warned that attempts to increase domestic processing are fraught with difficulties, Reuters reported. McDonald's quit Russia after a Western backlash against Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine.

9:44 a.m.: Russian forces pounded other sites in a relentless push to wrest territory from Ukraine and try to soften the unbending morale of its leaders, civilians and troops as the war nears the five-month mark, according to The Associated Press.

9:43 a.m.: Rescue teams with sniffer dogs combed through the debris Friday in a central Ukrainian city looking for people still missing after a Russian missile strike a day earlier killed at least 23 people and wounded over 100 others, The Associated Press reported.

5:43 a.m.: Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban said the European Union has "shot itself in the lungs" with its sanctions against Russia, Al Jazeera reported.

In an interview on public radio, Orban said, "Initially, I thought we had only shot ourselves in the foot, but now it is clear that the European economy has shot itself in the lungs, and it is gasping for air," Al Jazeera reported.

5:04 a.m.: The latest intelligence update from the U.K. ministry of defense said Russian and pro-Russian Luhansk People's Republic separatist forces claim to have entered the outskirts of Siversk. The update notes this has not been confirmed, and that once Siversk is secured, Bakhmut is likely to be the next objective.

4:13 a.m.: The International Skating Union dropped Russia as host of a Grant Prix of Figure Skating event, Al Jazeera reported. The city of Espoo, Finland, will hold the event instead. It's set for Nov. 25-27.

3:13 a.m.: The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S. think tank, said in its latest assessment of the Ukraine conflict that Russia continues to strike Vinnytsia, Kharkiv City, and Mykolaiv City. It's also trying to advance on Siversk and attacking Bakhmut and Slovyansk.

1:06 a.m.: The United States said Thursday that it would not bar the sale of farm equipment to Russia, again denying Moscow's allegations that Western sanctions  not its invasion of Ukraine  are causing the global food crisis, Agence France-Presse reported.

The Treasury Department, in a legal form on sanctions exemptions, said it would not stop US transactions related to the production, sale or transport of agricultural equipment.

In line with previous rules set after the Feb. 24 invasion, the Treasury Department also said it was not prohibiting agricultural commodities such as fertilizer as well as medical devices and COVID-19 tests.

12:02 a.m.: Two months after falling to Russian troops, the eastern Ukrainian town of Popasna, once home to 20,000, has turned into a ghost town with little sign of life, Reuters reports.

Ukrainian troops retreated from Popasna in May after Russian forces launched an offensive along most of Ukraine's eastern flank, with intense attacks and shelling around the town in the Luhansk region.

A Reuters reporter visited Popasna on Thursday and found the town deserted, with nearly all apartment buildings either destroyed or heavily damaged. Barren streets bore no sign of people or animals.

A former resident, Vladimir Odarchenko, stood inside his damaged home and surveyed the debris strewn across the floor.

"I have no idea what I'm going to do. Where to live? I don't know," he told Reuters.

Some information in this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
The World Meteorological Organization says scorching heat waves and wildfires raging in Portugal, Spain and France are forecast to worsen and spread to other parts of Europe in coming days.

The United Kingdom already is wilting under record high temperatures. The UK weather service has issued an amber extreme heat warning for much of England and Wales. It forecasts exceptionally high temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius Sunday and Monday.

In Portugal, where temperatures have reached highs of 46 degrees Celsius, red heat alerts, which warn people of life-threatening conditions, are in effect. Similar warnings are being issued in Spain and France. More than 20 wildfires have been reported in Portugal, western Spain, and southwest France.

Lorenzo Labrador is a scientific officer in the World Meteorological Organizations Global Atmosphere Watch Program. He says the journal Nature Geoscience published a recent modeling study of the likely impact of the expansion of a high-pressure system over the Atlantic. He says the system, known as the Azores high, is leading to the driest conditions on the Iberian Peninsula in the last 1,000 years.

It is worth pointing [out] that the high temperatures is not the only adverse consequence of heat waves. The stable and stagnant atmosphere acts as a lid to trap atmospheric pollutants, including particulate matter, increasing their concentration closer to the surface. These result in a degradation of air quality and adverse health effects, particularly for vulnerable people.

He notes more heat, abundant sunshine, and concentrations of certain atmospheric pollutants can lead to an increase of ozone near the Earths surface. That, he says, has detrimental effects on people and plants.

The World Health Organization reports air pollution is a major cause of premature death and disease and the single largest environmental health risk in Europe. It notes more than 300,000 people die prematurely from air pollution in Europe every year, with that number jumping to seven million premature deaths globally.

Labrador says heat waves are a natural phenomenon. As such, he says it is not easy to attribute any single high-pressure condition and heat wave event directly to climate change. However, what we know and what we have seen is that heat waves are becoming more frequent, more prevalent, and their temperatures are becoming more extreme as well. So, that kind of link over an extended period of timeyearswe can attribute to climate change, he points out.

Labrador says scientists cannot say the current heat waves are a product of climate change. But, he adds, the evidence points toward scorching, record-busting temperatures becoming more frequent and more devastating in the coming years.
Liza, a 4-year-old girl with Down syndrome, was en route to see a speech therapist with her mother in central Ukraine when a Russian missile hit.

She never made it to the appointment. Now the images that tell the story of her life and its end are touching hearts worldwide.

Wearing a blue denim jacket with flowers, Liza was among 23 people killed, including boys ages 7 and 8, in Thursday's missile strike in Vinnytsia. Her mother, Iryna Dmytrieva, was among the scores injured.

After the explosion, the mother and daughter went in different directions. Iryna, 33, went into a hospital's intensive care unit while Liza went to a morgue.

"She remembered that she was reaching for her daughter, and Liza was already dead," Iryna's aunt, Tetiana Dmytrysyna, told The Associated Press on Friday. "The mother was robbed of the most precious thing she had."

Shortly before the explosion, Dmytrieva had posted a video on social media showing her daughter straining to reach the handlebars to push her own stroller, happily walking through Vinnytsia, wearing the denim jacket and white pants, her hair decorated with a barrette. Another video on social media showed the little girl twirling in a lavender dress in a field of lavender.

After the Russian missile strike, Ukraine's emergency services shared photos showing her lifeless body on the ground next to her blood-stained stroller. The videos and photos have gone viral, the latest images and stories from the brutal war in Ukraine to horrify the world.

Olena Zelenska, wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, posted that she had met this "wonderful girl" while filming a Christmas video with a group of children who were given oversized ornaments to paint.

"The little mischievous girl then managed in a half an hour to paint not only herself, her holiday dress, but also all the other children, me, the cameramen and the director.  Look at her alive, please," Zelenska wrote in a note accompanying the video.

When the war started, Dmytrieva and her family fled Kyiv, the capital, for Vinnytsia, a city 268 kilometers to the southwest. Until Thursday, Vinnytsia was considered relatively safe.

Dmytrieva gave birth to her only daughter when she was 29. The girl was born with a heart defect, but doctors saved her. She also had Down syndrome.

"Liza was a sunny baby," her great aunt recalled. "They say that these children do not understand or know how to do everything. But this is not true. She was a very bright child. She knew how to draw, spoke, always helped adults and always smiled. Always cheerful."

For her mother, Liza was the greatest gift of her life.

"She loved her infinitely," said her great aunt.

The explosion site is now cordoned off. People come to leave flowers, candles and teddy bears. Another item at a makeshift shrine is a page from a children's lesson book. Among the mourners are mothers deeply touched by the story of Iryna and Liza Dmytrieva.

"Innocent children die," said Kateryna Kondratyuk, bursting into tears at the explosion scene.

Meanwhile, Iryna is conscious and in intensive care.

"She is a fighter. She will get out. We are all praying for her," her aunt said.

Liza's father was at the morgue Friday, completing the paperwork to receive his daughter's body for burial.
Russia on Friday banned investigative news outlet Bellingcat and its main local partner from operating inside the country, branding them security threats.

Netherlands-based Bellingcat exposed the Russian-backed soldiers behind the downing of Malaysian Airlines jet MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014 and unmasked FSB agents sent to poison Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in 2020.

Russia's Prosecutor General said the activities of Bellingcat its partner The Insider "posed a threat to... the security of the Russian federation."

Both will be added to Russia's "undesirable" list, which bans them from operating in Russia and makes cooperating with them illegal for Russian organizations and individuals, he said in a statement.

Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins dismissed the ban, writing on Twitter: "Bellingcat has no legal, financial or staff presence [in Russia], so it's unclear how Russia expects to enforce this."

The Insider is legally headquartered in Latvia, a move designed to protect it from Russian authorities.

It has worked with Bellingcat on most of the organization's high-profile investigations over the last five years, which also include identifying and tracking the movements of the men behind the 2018 poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Britain.

In a broad move to stamp out opposition and dissent, Russia has labeled dozens of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society groups as "undesirable," and hundreds of domestic groups and journalists that oppose the Kremlin have been named "foreign agents."

The crackdown has intensified since Russia invaded Ukraine in February - a campaign the Kremlin refers to as a "special military operation" - with almost all independent groups outlawed or forced into exile, and new laws that make criticism of the armed forces punishable with up to 15 years in prison.
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is on a state visit to Kenya to strengthen relations after recent tensions over trade and a maritime border.

Relations between Kenya and Somalia have deteriorated in recent years. In December 2020, Mogadishu cut off diplomatic ties and accused Nairobi of meddling in its internal affairs after Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta hosted the political leadership from Somaliland, a breakaway state that Somalia's central government does not recognize.

Sheikh Mohamud's visit to Kenya is the first since the eruption of the maritime dispute, which involves a contested border. The International Court of Justice ruled that the border should be adjusted so that Somalia gets rights to most of an oil-rich part of the Indian Ocean. Kenya rejected the ruling.

Nairobi and Mogadishu agreed in October 2021 that an amicable resolution of the maritime border dispute should be reached soon.

Another point of friction involves khat, a cultivated stimulant commonly known as miraa in Kenya. Somalia is Kenya's biggest market for khat, but it stopped importation of the crop when international flights were suspended because of fear of the spread of COVID-19.

Mogadishu has lifted the ban, but under conditions that are keeping Kenyan khat traders out of business.
Togo's military says one of its aircraft accidentally targeted and killed seven teenagers in the country's north, mistaking them for Islamist militants, who were initially suspected in the attack.

Togos armed forces spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Sama Sousso, in a statement read Thursday night on state Togolese Television (TVT) and carried live on their YouTube channel, confirmed the military accidentally killed seven teenagers.

He says the military expresses its profound regret in the face of the incident and says everything possible will be done to prevent this sort of tragedy from happening again.

Togo's army chief of staff, General Dadja Maganawe, in a written statement, said an aircraft had wrongly targeted the civilians in the village of Margba, in the northern Savanes Regions Tone prefecture.

The statement said the army had intelligence indicating an imminent threat of infiltration by armed groups wanting to attack local communities.

Local media initially blamed the early Sunday morning blast on an improvised explosive device, pointing the suspicion at Islamist militants.

The victims, instead, were teenagers on their way home from celebrating Eid-al-Adha, Islams festival of sacrifice, known in the Wolof language as Tabaski.

Michel Douti, an independent security expert working with Togos Inter-Ministerial Committee for the Prevention and Fight Against Violent Extremism (CIPLEV), praised the army for taking responsibility.

He says it was an act of courage, an act of braveness, an act of transparency, an act caused by the desire and the obligation to be accountable and show what the army is doing in the fight against violent extremism.

Togo declared a state of emergency in the Savanes Region in June after Islamist militants attacked near the border with Burkina Faso, killing eight troops and wounding 13.

An al-Qaida-affiliated group fighting in Burkina Faso and Mali claimed responsibility for the attack.

They were the first recorded deaths from terrorism in Togo, a country of 8 million people on West Africas Gulf of Guinea.
U.S. and Ukrainian officials say U.S. rocket systems provided to Ukraine are having a large impact in the fight against Russia, helping Ukrainian forces to hold off Russias military in the eastern Donbas region.

A senior U.S. military official speaking on the condition of anonymity Friday to discuss the war said U.S.-supplied rocket systems known as HIMARS are having a very, very significant effect in the fight against Russia.

Ukraine's Defense Ministry spokesperson, Oleksandr Motuzianyk, also singled out the role played by the HIMARS long-range rocket systems.

"In the last weeks, over 30 of the enemy's military logistical facilities have been destroyed, as a result of which the attacking potential of Russian forces has been significantly reduced," Motuzianyk said Friday on national television.

The U.S.-supplied rockets are more precise than Ukraine's Soviet-era artillery and have a longer range, allowing Ukraine to hit Russian targets farther back from the front line.

The senior U.S. official said Russian forces are limited to incremental if any gains in the Donbas region and are being held off by Ukrainian forces.

The U.S. official also dismissed Russias claim that it targeted a military meeting in Ukraines central city of Vinnytsia on Thursday in an attack on an office building that Kyiv says killed 23 people, including children.

"I have no indication that there was a military target anywhere near that," the official said.

Russia's Defense Ministry said Friday it was targeting a meeting between military officials and foreign arms suppliers.

In his daily address late Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that after the attacks on Vinnytsia and elsewhere, the occupiers must feel what a fair response to terror means. He said, In particular, it will be felt thanks to sanctions. Of course, the armed forces of Ukraine will certainly provide their part of the answer. The occupiers will have no restful nights.

Much of the fighting in Ukraine is currently centered in the eastern Donbas region. Russian forces, however, also regularly fire on cities in many other parts of the country, including on Thursday in Vinnytsia, hundreds of kilometers from the front lines.

Ukraine said the strike on the central city was carried out by cruise missiles launched from a Russian submarine in the Black Sea.

Among the dead was a 4-year-old girl with Down syndrome, whose image has gone viral. Ukrainian officials say more than 100 people were wounded in the attack.

Rescue teams searched Friday through the debris for people still missing. Residents of the city created a makeshift memorial with flowers and teddy bears.

Late Friday, Russian missiles hit the central city of Dnipro, killing three people and wounding 15 others, governor Valentyn Reznychenko said on Telegram. The governor said a factory and surrounding streets were hit.

Ukraines air force said it intercepted four additional missiles fired at Dnipro.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch.



Broad agreement on deal to export blockaded Ukrainian grain



U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday there is broad agreement on a deal between Russia and Ukraine, with Turkey and the United Nations, to export millions of tons of Ukrainian grain stuck in silos since Russias invasion on February 24. Breaking his silence to speak to reporters at U.N. headquarters, Guterres said important and substantive progress had been made and the parties are getting closer to a comprehensive agreement.

UN Chief Cites 'Broad Agreement' on Ukrainian Grain Exports

Cross-border aid operation into Syrian renewed for six months

On Tuesday, after days of difficult negotiations, the U.N. Security Council renewed for an initial six months the mechanism that allows humanitarians to bring about 800 aid trucks a month from Turkey into opposition-controlled areas of northwest Syria. More than 4.1 million Syrians depend on that assistance, but they will face the possibility of losing it in the dead of winter, when, at the insistence of Russia, the council will have to vote again to extend it.

UN Aid Operation to NW Syria Gets 6-Month Extension

Thousands of children maimed, raped or killed in conflicts last year

The United Nations said Monday that thousands of children in war zones suffered grave abuses last year, including rape, severe injuries and death, and that concerns are growing for children in new regions of conflict, including Ukraine. The secretary-generals report on children in armed conflict verified nearly 24,000 grave violations against children. More than 8,000 were killed or maimed because of conflict; 6,310 were recruited and used in combat; and nearly 3,500 children were abducted, among other violations.

UN: Thousands of Children Suffer Grave Abuses in War Zones

Gang violence driving more Haitians into poverty and hunger

The World Food Program said Tuesday that nearly half of Haitis 11.4 million people are facing hunger because of gang violence and soaring food costs. The violence has killed scores of people and made it more dangerous and difficult for farmers to get produce to the countrys markets. Humanitarians are also having to move food by sea and air to parts of the island nation that are too dangerous to reach by road, making aid more expensive and harder to distribute. The Security Council is due to vote late Friday on a proposed resolution that includes a ban on small arms to Haitian gangs and threatens them with sanctions if they do not end the violence. The U.N. says at least 99 people have been killed in recent days.

Gang Violence, Rising Prices, Send Food Shortages in Haiti Spiraling Out of Control

Worlds population projected to be 8 billion by November

The United Nations projected this week that the global population will hit 8 billion people by November, and that it will gradually increase to 8.5 billion by 2050, and to more than 10 billion by 2080. That growth will come with significant economic and environmental implications. India is soon expected to overtake China as the most populated nation on Earth.

Continued Global Population Growth Creates Challenges, Opportunities

In brief

 Guterres urged leaders in Sri Lanka to embrace a compromise for a peaceful democratic transition, as that country experiences a political and economic crisis that saw President Gotabaya Rajapaksa resign and flee the country this week. Guterres said it is important that the root causes of the conflict and protesters grievances be addressed. The U.N. says humanitarian needs are on the rise, with nearly 5.7 million people in need of assistance.

 Following the deaths of seven of its peacekeepers in Mali this year, Egypt is suspending its participation in the stabilization mission known as MINUSMA, as of August 15. Egypt is one of the largest contributors of troops and police to the mission, with 1,039 personnel. Most recently, on June 28, two Egyptian peacekeepers were killed in northern Mali and nine others were wounded when their convoy hit an improvised explosive device.

 The U.N. refugee agency said Wednesday that nearly two-thirds of refugees who fled Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion in late February plan to stay in their host country in the coming months. That compares with 16% who said they plan to return to Ukraine. Another 9% said they would go to another host country, while 10% were uncertain. Refugees said their most urgent needs are cash, jobs and housing. UNHCR estimates that at the end of June there were at least 5.5 million Ukrainian refugees in Europe, with another 7.1 million people displaced within Ukraine.

 The World Health Organization and the U.N. Childrens Fund, UNICEF, said Friday that 25 million children missed out on one or more doses of routine vaccinations last year. The report attributed the decline to factors including increased misinformation about vaccines and COVID-19-related disruptions. UNICEF said it is the largest sustained disruption in 30 years and the consequences could be deadly for many children.

Good news

Botswana is set to become the first country in Africa to achieve the 95-95-95 target of diagnosing 95% of HIV-positive individuals, providing them antiretroviral therapy and achieving viral suppression. The southern African nation is eight years ahead of the 2030 target date. The U.N. says a recent survey found 93% of people living with HIV in Botswana are aware of their status and 97.9% of them are receiving antiretroviral therapy. Of that group, 98% have achieved viral load suppression to reduce the amount of HIV to an undetectable level, which also helps prevent transmission.

Quote of note

In a world darkened by global crises, today, at last, we have a ray of hope.

 Guterres on Wednesday, welcoming news from Istanbul that a deal is nearing completion on exporting Ukrainian grain that Russia has blocked in the southern Ukrainian port of Odesa.

Next week

Monday, the U.N. will commemorate Nelson Mandelas birthday. Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, will deliver the keynote address in the General Assembly. He will be accompanied by his wife, Meghan Markle. The day is also marked with community service to honor the late South African leader. On what would have been Madibas 104th birthday, U.N. participants will do their good works at the Thomas Jefferson Park in New Yorks neighborhood of East Harlem.
Oksana Poltorak fled Ukraine to bring her family to safety in Greece. Living in a house with two other families, Oksana works hard to create a sense of normalcy for herself and her children. But she longs to return to Ukraine and reunite with her husband and son.
Ukrainian officials said Russian missiles struck the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia on Thursday, killing at least 23 people and wounding more than 100 others.

Police said three missiles hit an office building in the center of the city, located about 270 kilometers southwest of the capital, Kyiv. The strikes, coming from a Russian submarine in the Black Sea, damaged residential buildings in the area and engulfed 50 cars in a nearby parking lot.

The governor of the Vinnytsia region, Serhiy Borzov, said Ukrainian air defense systems shot down another four missiles over the area.

With a population of 370,000, Vinnytsia is one of Ukraine's largest cities. Thousands of people from eastern Ukraine, where Russia has concentrated its offensive, have fled there since the start of the war in late February.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the dead included a child.

Every day Russia is destroying the civilian population, killing Ukrainian children, directing missiles at civilian objects where there is no military [target]. What is it if not an open act of terrorism? Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Russia has denied targeting civilians in Ukraine.

Warfare continues to rage in eastern Ukraine, but the British Defense Ministry said Thursday that despite continued shelling, Russian forces have not made major territorial gains in recent days.

"The aging vehicles, weapons and Soviet-era tactics used by Russian forces do not lend themselves to quickly regaining or building momentum unless used in overwhelming mass  which Russia is currently unable to bring to bear," the British ministry said.

Grain exports

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday there is broad agreement on a deal between Russia and Ukraine, with Turkey and the United Nations, to export millions of tons of Ukrainian grain stuck in silos since Russias invasion on February 24.

Today is an important and substantive step, Guterres told reporters of developments at talks in Istanbul among the four parties. A step on the way to a comprehensive agreement.

The U.N. chief broke his public silence on the negotiations, pointing to a statement from Turkeys defense minister, who said there is agreement on major points, including the creation of a coordination center with Russia, Ukraine and the U.N.; agreement on controls for checking grain at ports; and ensuring the safety of cargo ships carrying the grain out of Odesa.

Of course, this was a first meeting, Guterres noted. The progress was extremely encouraging. Now, the delegations are coming back to their capitals, and we hope the next steps will allow us to come to a formal agreement.

While Guterres would not predict when the final agreement would be ready, he said he hoped the parties would reconvene next week and have a final agreement. Whenever it is, he said, he would be ready to go to Istanbul to sign it.

A U.N. official with knowledge of the talks said there was an important meeting of the Russians and the Ukrainians where they were able to make a lot of progress on sticking points.

More than 20 million tons of Ukrainian grain are being stored in silos at the Black Sea port of Odesa, and dozens of ships have been stranded because of Russia's blockade. Turkey said it has 20 merchant ships waiting in the region that could be quickly loaded and dispatched to world markets.

The grain deal has been in the works for months, with U.N. officials raising the alarm nearly immediately after the war started about the consequences for global food security if Ukraine, which is one of the worlds top grain exporters, is unable to get its harvests out.

Truly, failure to open those ports in Odesa region will be a declaration of war on global food security, World Food Program chief David Beasley warned at a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on May 19. And it will result in famine and destabilization and mass migration around the world.

WFP says 276 million people worldwide were facing acute hunger at the start of this year. They project that number will rise by 47 million people if the conflict in Ukraine continues, with the steepest increases in sub-Saharan Africa.



Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
A privately-owned publication reports that The Zimbabwe Independent newspaper has won a landmark case after it sued state ministers, who refused to reveal details of an agreement that was signed by President Emmerson Mnangagwas government and Landela Investments for the purchase of buses designed for public transportation.

NewsDay newspaper reports that The Zimbabwe Independent and Transparency International cited three ministers as respondents.

According to the newspaper, in his ruling, Justice Joseph Mafusire ordered the Local Government, Finance and Transport ministries to provide reasons why they were refusing to provide the requested information within seven days.

The newspaper reports that in his ruling, Justice Mafusire said, Within seven days of the date of this order, the first and second respondents shall supply the first applicant, through its legal practitioners Atherstone and Cook, with the written reasons for their refusal to provide the information sought by the applicants ZimInd Publishers and Transparency International Zimbabwe through letters to the respondents dated 3 September 2021, 9 September 2020, 2 March pertaining to the procurement of the 64-seater buses consigned to the Zupco.

Justice Mafusire ruled that the ministries had failed to provide solid reasons why they were refusing with the information, according to the newspaper. Lawyers representing the three ministers argued that they are not obliged to reveal any details related to the Zupco deal.

NewsDay cited reports in the Herald which quoted state officials that the government secured some buses from China that were allegedly sold to it at inflated prices.

The Zimbabwe Independent published a story in March 2020, in which it reported that government had initially signed a hire purchase agreement with Landela Investments, but had subsequently decided to pay Landela Investments US$863,2 million for 162 buses.

The newspaper reported that Landela Investments allegedly later sold each bus to government for US$212 962, yet the company had purchased them from China for US$58,900.

Zupco (Zimbabwe United Passenger Company) is owned by the government.

Information secretary, Nick Mangwana, was unavailable for comment.
The South African government has unveiled a crack unit which is expected to stop Zimbabweans from entering the country illegally along the Beitbridge/Musina corridor.

In a statement, Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said the Border Management Authority (BMA) Border Guards are a group of carefully selected and trained people who are physically fit to stop those trying to illegally cross the border.

Whilst the broader integration process is underway, this cohort will be statically deployed at the identified five vulnerable segments of the borderline, working together with members of the South African National Defence Force. The BMA, which is South Africas new, single authority for border management with a single command and control, was established through the Border Management Authority Act of 2020. It will be fully established on 01 April 2023 through the integration of five streams of functions performed by various government departments  Home Affairs; Forestry, Fisheries and Environment; Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development and Health. This includes access control functions conducted by members of the SA Police Service in the ports of entry.

The Authority will tighten border management by implementing an integrated and coordinated approach in the border management environment. This is an improvement on the previous multi-agency approach comprising multiple authorities with different mandates. When fully established, the BMA will play a pivotal role in tackling border security challenges impacting on the country and its neighbours, such as uncoordinated traveller processing, cross-border criminality, illegal crossings and undue delays in the facilitation of movement of goods and services. The BMA model will pave the way for the creation of smart border posts and systems and advance trade facilitation in the region.

Millions of Zimbabweans, some of them illegal immigrants, live in South Africa.
The European Union (EU) says there is slow and limited progress in the implementation of electoral reforms in Zimbabwe following recommendations it made soon after the 2018 general elections.

The EU says there wont be free, fair and credible elections in 2023 if there are no tangible reforms.

The EU deployed an Election Follow-up Mission (EFM) to Zimbabwe to assess the status of the implementation of the recommendations of the EU Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) to the 2018 harmonised elections. The EFM, led by Mr. Elmar Brok, former Member of the European Parliament and Chief Observer of the EU EOM in 2018, also discussed further steps to advance the electoral reform process in the country.

In a statement, the EU said, The Final Report of the EFM notes slow and limited progress in the implementation of the recommendations offered by the EU EOM in 2018. It highlights a number of challenges that, if left unaddressed, might affect the organisation of inclusive, transparent and peaceful elections in 2023. For example, key recommendations designed to improve the campaign environment by promoting a level playing field, accountability and transparency have not yet been tackled.

Positively, the EFM report highlights that several actions to undertake a comprehensive electoral reform were initiated following the 2018 elections, both from the government side and from civil society. Whilst the Covid-19 lock-down delayed the process, an Inter-Ministerial Task Force considered recommendations from the election observers, including the EU EOM, and developed a draft bill to amend the Electoral Act. Should the bill be advanced in its current form, it would bring noteworthy improvements to the election process.

Chief of Mission Mr. Elmar Brok has already underlined the need for the reform process to move forward in a timely and inclusive way to promote credible elections next year.

The EU said in the context of the Election Follow-up Mission, a roundtable took place on 18 May by which 26 representatives from leading civil society organisations and think tanks gathered to discuss priorities for change for the period leading to the 2023 elections.

The discussions centred around four thematic areas: reform of the Electoral Act; election administration and voter registration; campaign environment and political party financing; and the media. One key recommendation coming out of the discussions related to the importance of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) reinforcing its communication strategy and adopting a proactive approach to information-sharing to promote trust in the process ahead.
Taxi drivers call off Rome protests.

Italy faces a two-day nationwide taxi strike on 20-21 July as cab drivers protest against the government's competition bill amid claims that deregulating the sector would lead to the expansion of ride-hailing operators such as Uber.

News of the strike, announced by trade unions representing taxi drivers, comes after several days of wildcat strikes and protests by tassisti on Rome's central Via del Corso, near the seat of government at Palazzo Chigi.

The demonstrations were called off on Thursday evening after prime minister Mario Draghi offered his resignation to President Mattarella (who rejected it), as taxi union leaders suspended talks with government officials.

Thousands of taxi drivers blocked Romes central Via del Corso again on Thursday as protests continue against the governments plan to liberalise taxi services to include ride-sharing operators like #Uber. #tassisti pic.twitter.com/5GtoHLQGV7  Wanted in Rome (@wantedinrome) July 14, 2022

In a statement, the unions thanked taxi drivers for supporting the protests and also paid tribute to police for their "understanding" and for "managing difficult days in a commendable way", reports state broadcaster RAI News.

Italy's taxi unions are firmly against the government's plans to liberalise their sector, claiming that deregulation would favour multinationals over independent drivers.

The strike on 20-21 July comes after Italian taxi drivers held another two-day strike on 5-6 July.

Those travelling to and from airports in Italy next Wednesday and Thursday are advised to take trains or buses.

Photo Corriere della Sera
Ischia wins first place in annual Travel + Leisure survey.

Ischia has been named best island in the world by readers of the American magazine Travel + Leisure in the 2022 edition of The World's Best Awards, the annual international survey for top tourism destinations.

Readers are asked to rate islands according to their activities and sights, natural attractions and beaches, food, friendliness and overall value, with Ischia claiming the top spot with a score of 94.61.

The survey cites Ischia's one-hour proximity to Naples and says there has been renewed international focus on the Italian island after it featured prominently in Elena Ferrante's novel My Brilliant Friend which was adapted into a HBO series.

Travel + Leisure readers were enamoured by Ischia's "picturesque villages, thermal springs, and unspoiled beaches, which include Le Fumarole and its geothermally heated sand".

Luca D'Ambra, president of Ischia's hotel federation Federalberghi, told news agency ANSA that "these are the awards that make us proud and allow us to present our island to the whole world adequately", hailing Travel + Leisure as "a hallmark for global travellers".

In the 2022 top 10 rankings of best islands, Ischia is folllowed by the Maldives, Bali, Milos, Fiji, the Galapagos, Phuket, Dominica, Boracay and Cape Breton.
M5S snub of key vote plunges Italian government into crisis.

Italy's president Sergio Mattarella refused to accept the resignation of prime minister Mario Draghi on Thursday night after the populist MoVimento 5 Stelle (M5S) pulled out of a key confidence vote in the coalition government.

Mattarella has invited Draghi to take stock of the political situation, according to a statement from the president's office, with the premier set to report to parliament next Wednesday.

Draghi tended his resignation after the M5S, led by former premier Giuseppe Conte, failed to back a crucial vote on a 26 billion cost-of-living package in the senate on Thursday.

The decree also included plans for a waste-to-energy incinerator in Rome, a proposal opposed by the M5S, the second largest partner in the national unity government.

In the end Draghi won Thursday's confidence vote, which was passed with 172 votes in favour and 39 against.

However the premier had previously warned that he would not govern without the backing of the M5S and promptly set off to the Quirinal Palace to offer his resignation to President Mattarella.

Draghi's broad coalition, formed in early 2021 after the collapse of Conte's second executive, has had the support of all major parties in parliament with the exception of the right-wing Fratelli d'Italia (FdI) whose leader Giorgia Meloni has called for immediate elections, ahead of the scheduled general election in spring 2023.

Conte claims the government has refused to listen to proposals from the M5S which is opposed to Italy sending more military aid to Ukraine.

Support for the M5S has plunged over the last year and recently the party was split after foreign minister and former leader Luigi Di Maio quit, taking around 60 parliamentarians with him.

Di Maio on Thursday described the move by M5S as an attempt to "launch a nine-month election campaign to improve their standings in the polls".
This account, in previously unreported detail, shines new light on the road to war and the military campaign in Ukraine, drawn from in-depth interviews with dozens of senior U.S., Ukrainian, European and NATO officials.

MORE COVERAGE
Placeholder while article actions load

For more than half a century, conflict between Israel and the Arab nations that surround it has been a defining feature of the Middle East, producing periodic wars, lost opportunities for trade and uncountable hours of fruitless diplomacy. The rift is far from resolved. Yet theres been a shift. Israel made peace deals with four Arab countries in 2020, underscoring that these days its Iran  rather than Israel  thats the common enemy uniting many Arab rulers. Israel has pressed to establish full relations with Saudi Arabia, which so far has held out, though lesser ties have increased between the two.

1. Why were the new accords a big deal?

Egypt and Jordan normalized relations with Israel in 1979 and 1994, respectively, but other Arab nations said for years that they would withhold recognition of the Jewish state pending the formation of an independent country for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, two territories Israel conquered in a 1967 war. Some Arab states developed covert relationships with Israel, but it was still extraordinary when one of them, the United Arab Emirates, agreed to formalize ties in August 2020. Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco followed. The US-brokered agreements telegraphed that Arab relations with Israel are no longer tied to the Palestinian cause. And they clarified the growing focus of Arab leaders belonging to the Sunni branch of Islam on countering the rise of Persian Iran, whose people are mostly Shiite Muslims.

Advertisement

2. What are the prospects of a Saudi-Israel deal?

Saudi officials have downplayed the chances of full normalization anytime soon, stressing their position that it must come after a resolution of the Palestinian problem and not before. However, as part of Israels accords with the other states, the Saudis allowed some flights between the countries to use their airspace. And in July, the Saudis said theyd open their airspace to all airlines that meet the aviation authoritys requirements for overflying.

3. Why is Iran so mistrusted?

Irans influence in the Middle East has grown significantly since 2003, when the US-led invasion of Iraq removed its primary foe, the Sunni-dominated regime of President Saddam Hussein. Iranian leaders have since used their control of militias drawn from Iraqs majority Shiite population to shape governments in Baghdad. In Syria, Iran called on the same Iraqi militias as well as Hezbollah, the militant Shiite Lebanese group, to help preserve its only state ally, President Bashar al-Assad, from defeat in a civil war that began as a popular uprising in 2011. In Yemen, Iran backed Shiite rebels in their fight against forces supported by Saudi Arabia and the UAE in a war that broke out in 2015. The International Institute for Strategic Studies called Irans influence in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen a new normal, a concept once unthinkable even for leaders in Tehran.

Advertisement

4. What role has the US played?

The US facilitated the Israeli-Arab peace deals, rewarding the UAE with advanced arm sales and Morocco and Sudan with diplomatic favors. Starting in 2016, the US under President Donald Trump adopted a more aggressive approach to Iran, withdrawing from the nuclear deal world powers had struck with it in 2015. That agreement had released Iran from punishing economic sanctions in exchange for rolling back its nuclear program. Officials representing Trumps successor, Joe Biden, have worked to revive the nuclear deal, but so far to no avail. Under Trump, the US also dropped its stance of neutrality in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem  claimed as a capital by both sides but controlled by Israel  and downplaying the goal of a two-state solution, under which Israel and the Palestinians were to end their conflict by delineating a new Palestinian state. Bidens administration says its committed to a two-state solution but hasnt committed diplomatic resources to achieving one.

5. Do Iran and its foes fight directly?

Advertisement

Since Iran and Iraq battled each other to a standstill at devastating human and economic costs in the 1980s, Irans theocratic leaders mostly have avoided direct conflict with the US and its allies in the region, a contest in which they would be spectacularly outgunned. Instead, the Islamic regime has become expert at hybrid warfare. Over time that has included the use of terrorist tactics and proxy militias. The US accused Iran of being behind attacks in recent years on vessels in the Persian Gulf, US forces in Iraq and targets in Saudi Arabia, including a huge oil-processing facility. The US struck back in January 2020, killing Qassem Soleimani, the general in charge of Irans foreign operations. For years, Israel and Iran have engaged in a shadow war, quietly attacking each other on land, by air and at sea, in some cases by proxy. They have mostly sought to avoid open clashes that would risk escalation to all-out war, preferring instead to act with plausible deniability. In cases where Iran does not deny involvement, it says it is protecting fellow Shiites and allies from US, Israeli or Gulf state aggression.

6. Apart from Syria and Iraq, are all Arab governments united against Iran?

No. Oman and Kuwait remain friendly with Iran, as does Qatar, with which it shares a gas field. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and transport links to Qatar for more than four years starting in 2017, in part because they said it was too close to Tehran.

Advertisement

7. Where does this leave Palestinians?

With diminished leverage and poor prospects. Palestinian leaders criticized the accords with Israel for giving the country the benefits of peace without requiring it to relinquish its grip over the lands it seized in 1967. The UAE says it helped the Palestinians as part of its agreement by securing Israels promise to freeze a plan to annex part of the West Bank, but for how long is unclear.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

2022 Bloomberg L.P.

GiftOutline Gift Article
Placeholder while article actions load

Everywhere US President Joe Biden has gone in the Middle East this week, he has confronted critical yet near-insoluble challenges, from forging peace between Israel and the Palestinians to thwarting Irans nuclear brinkmanship. Thats all the more reason for the US and its partners to hurry up and fix the easiest problem they face

Less than five nautical miles off the coast of war-torn Yemen sits a rusting oil tanker named the Safer (pronounced saffer). After plying the seas for six years, the ship was converted in 1987 into a floating storage-and-offloading facility  cheaper than an onshore terminal  linked by pipeline to the Yemeni oilfields in Marib. Since 2015, operations have been disrupted by the countrys civil war. A skeleton crew maintains the ship, which is steadily corroding and could break apart at any moment. A system meant to pump inert gas into the tanks to prevent an explosion hasnt worked since 2017.

The Safer holds more than a million barrels of crude oil, four times as much as spilled from the Exxon Valdez in 1989. If it sinks, the consequences could be devastating. A spill would wipe out livelihoods for coastal fishing communities and could disrupt crucial desalination plants along the Red Sea coast. Relief agencies would no longer be able to deliver aid to nearby ports, at a time when 17 million Yemenis desperately need food assistance. Environmental damage would be extensive; fishing stocks could take a quarter-century to recover. Cleanup costs alone are estimated at $20 billion. Shipping disruptions could cost the world economy billions more.

Advertisement

After being initially unhelpful, the Houthi rebels who control the area have finally agreed to a United Nations plan to prevent the worst. A Dutch company will first stabilize the ship, then offload the oil and prepare the Safer for salvage. The UN has agreed to replace the ship with an equivalent, more stable facility  most likely a newer tanker. (Where the proceeds from any sales should go remains to be determined.)

Just under $80 million is needed to launch the first phase of the operation. Donors, including the US and Saudi Arabia, have collectively pledged only $60 million. Wealthy Gulf nations such as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have contributed nothing; neither have big Asian countries such as China and Japan. A month-old UN crowdfunding appeal has brought in a paltry $125,000.

There is little time to waste. The initial salvage operation will require four months, pushing it into the October-December period when seas in the area grow rougher and more dangerous. Delay could also threaten the fragile agreement between the UN and the Houthis. By contrast, a successful operation could bolster the ongoing truce between the rebels and the Saudi-led coalition supporting the Yemeni government.

Advertisement

When he meets with members of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Jeddah this weekend, President Biden should urge them to find the $20 million  approximately as much as Saudi Arabia earns every 30 minutes in oil sales  without delay. Other rich nations should bestir themselves as well, if not for the first phase of the operation then to fund the second, which will require an additional $64 million. Sales of scrap metal from the Safer could offset some of that cost.

In a world awash with looming disasters, its hard to think of one simpler to avert. Missing this opportunity would be indefensible.

More From Other Writers at Bloomberg Opinion:

 The World Must Defuse Yemens Ticking Oil Bomb: Bobby Ghosh

 Biden Can Unite US Allies in the Middle East: Hussein Ibish

 Bidens Gulf Reversal Is the Wrong Kind of Realism: Emma Ashford

The Editors are members of the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

2022 Bloomberg L.P.

GiftOutline Gift Article
Placeholder while article actions load

Real estate matters a lot to China: Construction and property sales have been the biggest engines of economic growth since President Xi Jinping came to office a decade ago. Home prices skyrocketed  surging sixfold over the past 15 years  as an emerging middle class flocked to property as one of the few safe investments available. The boom led to speculative buying as new homes were pre-sold by property developers who turned more and more to international investors for funds. So when Chinese officials ratcheted up steps to reduce the risk of a bubble and temper the inequality that unaffordable housing can create, it touched off a crisis that has sent some major developers into default. A sales slump that began during the pandemic was deepened by aggressive measures to contain Covid-19. Some homebuyers have even refused to pay mortgages on stalled projects, raising pressure on banks. So far, the states intervention has held off a disorderly collapse of the property market that could undermine the financial system and jolt the world economy too.

1. What fueled the real estate boom?

In 1998, when China created a nationwide housing market after tightly restricting private sales for decades, only a third of its people lived in towns and cities. Now almost two-thirds do, increasing the urban population by 480 million. The property sector also expanded rapidly, while struggling to keep up. Boom cities such as Shenzhen became less affordable based on price-to-income ratios than London or New York, frustrating a generation of would-be buyers. Local and regional authorities, which rely on sales of public land for a hefty chunk of their revenue, encouraged more development, which also helped meet the central governments ambitious annual targets for economic growth, which often hit double digits. Debt piled up as builders rushed to meet demand. Annual sales of dollar-denominated offshore bonds -- meaning those sold mainly to foreign investors -- surged from $675 million in 2009 to $64.7 billion in 2020, leading to a swelling interest burden. Developers had some $207 billion in dollar-denominated bonds outstanding as of late last year, accounting for about one-quarter of the total from all Chinese borrowers. Additional, opaque liabilities make it hard to assess true credit risks.

Advertisement

2. What did the government do?

It has for years tried to defuse the debt bomb amid fears an explosion could set off a disastrous financial meltdown. In mid-2020, it began to squeeze new financing to real estate developers to try to reduce the threat, and asked banks to slow the pace of mortgage lending. New borrowing metrics introduced for developers proved to be a gamechanger. Called the three red lines by state-run media, they aimed to reduce reckless borrowing by setting thresholds for a developers liabilities, debt and cash holdings. Annual borrowing would be capped based on how many parameters were met.

3. What happened to the developers?

Those that didnt have enough cash on hand to cover their liabilities found themselves in a bind. At least 18 defaulted on offshore bonds after the crackdown began. China Evergrande Group, once the countrys biggest developer, was labeled a defaulter for the first time in December after it missed payments on several bonds. The establishment of a risk management committee dominated by provincial officials was quickly announced for the firm to stave off a complete collapse. (Bondholders still were left wondering how much they would collect once the dust settles.) Others, including Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd. and Sunac China Holdings Ltd., followed. Fears of further contagion have reverberated throughout the industry and the wider economy, hammering domestic growth, weakening consumer confidence and roiling global markets that have long assumed Chinas real estate titans would be bailed out by the government.

Advertisement

4. Where does this leave the industry?

In a deep slump. Combined sales at the top 100 developers halved in the first four months of this year compared with last. Property loan growth slowed to the weakest pace in over two decades at the end of March. Construction fell 14% in 2021 from the previous year, the biggest fall in six years. All this matters a lot because in China, the real estate sector accounts for almost a quarter of gross domestic product, when nonresidential construction, building materials and related activity such as real estate services are included.

5. How bad could it get?

Across China millions of square feet of unfinished apartments have been left to gather dust as a result of developers facing cash flow problems. Home prices began to fall last September for the first time in six years. A full-bore property crisis could leave millions more homebuyers who put up money in advance in limbo. (Buyer protections commonly used abroad, such as escrow accounts and installment payments, have tended to be weak.) A homebuyer boycott of mortgage payments due that started in July spread to dozens of cities, raising alarm among authorities. Fire sales would further pummel the market, squeezing other developers and rippling through related industries and suppliers. The risk of popular unrest -- more than 70% of urban Chinas wealth is stored in housing -- would rise, unsettling the government. A historic selloff in offshore bonds would spread to the much larger domestic credit market, spreading from lower-rated property companies to stronger peers and banks. Global investors would sell even more.

Advertisement

6. Is there a way out?

The government has tweaked some rules to try to stabilize the situation. For example the central bank stepped up its support for several distressed developers and banks were instructed to ensure growth in both residential mortgages and loans to developers in some areas. Above all, avoiding a Lehman moment  when the failure of the US bank in 2008 sent shock waves through global markets  is a priority ahead of this years Communist Party congress, where Xi is expected to be handed a third term. That political necessity most likely means the government will try to contain the crisis, at least for the near term.

(Adds graphic)

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

2022 Bloomberg L.P.

GiftOutline Gift Article
Placeholder while article actions load

Alphabet Inc. CEO Sundar Pichai sent a surprising memo to his staff this week: Moving forward, we need to be more entrepreneurial, working with greater urgency, sharper focus, and more hunger than weve shown on sunnier days, he wrote, according to tech news site The Verge. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Not only did his message underscore the increasingly challenging outlook for tech firms, it marked a shift to a tougher tone from the tech industry that is poised only to intensify in the weeks ahead. Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerbergs own warning to employees last month was even darker: Realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldnt be here, he said in one of his weekly Q&As with staff. The Facebook founder added that he was pushing for more aggressive goals. Some of you might decide that this place isnt for you, he added, and that self-selection is okay with me.

Its a little jarring to hear a tech CEO turn up the heat in a way that echoes Jack Welchs rank-and-yank approach to culling low performers. Tech companies, after all, have generally operated like employee nirvanas, paying high salaries and offering lavish perks from catered meals and free concerts, to on-site massage and egg freezing.

Advertisement

But the sharper tone is necessary. Tech has entered an unfamiliar era of uncertainty, marked by tumbling shares and hiring slowdowns  challenges that would have been shocking even a year ago. To make matters worse, social media firms like Googles YouTube, Facebook and Instagram are also facing heightened regulatory scrutiny while trying to refashion their products on the fly to fend off competition from ByteDance Inc.s TikTok.

All told, the sunny days of techs unstoppable growth are over, and the latest warnings from Pichai and Zuckerberg suggest not only that second-quarter earnings due later this month could leave investors aghast, but that they are positioning themselves to get tougher on the workforces they have indulged for years.

Zuckerberg is, according to his own reported description, a wartime CEO by nature. He was influenced by the writings of Facebook investor Ben Horowitz, who posits that a peacetime CEO focuses on the big picture, while a wartime CEO cares about a speck of dust on a gnats ass. While a peacetime CEO tries to minimize conflict, a wartime CEO heightens the contradictions.

Advertisement

Relentlessly ambitious and competitive to the point of being paranoid, Zuckerberg has run Facebook with a sense of urgency even when times were good. In 2012 he chased Instagram and bought the company for $1 billion after warning his CFO that the company could be very disruptive to us, according to emails published in antitrust proceedings against the company. Two years later he bought WhatsApp for $19 billion for apparently similar, defensive reasons.

That naturally caught the ire of antitrust regulators, and Zuckerbergs shameless approach to cloning competitors has also earned him accusations of being a copycat. (A running joke is that Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel is Facebooks head of R&D, thanks to all the features Facebook has aped from the smaller company.) But when times are lean, that kind of ruthlessness can also help protect a companys bottom line.

Hes competitive like nobody Ive ever seen before, said Instagrams former vice president of product, Kevin Weil, in an interview with the Big Technology Podcast last week. Even in the times when Facebook was up and to the right, and nothing could go wrong, there was always something urgent, something existential that he would get everyone focused on, and [he had] a way of creating focus and drive when you could be forgiven for being lazy for a little while. Mark always had that thing.

Advertisement

Zuckerberg has, for better or worse, made his job harder by pivoting the entire company to the metaverse, something other tech firms might not have had the guts to do for years, if at all. But his previous big and decisive bets  such as his purchase of Instagram or his shift to mobile for Facebook  have paid off handsomely,(1)and Facebooks shares have more than quintupled in the past decade, even factoring in their more recent, steep decline.

Now as technology giants navigate a potentially perilous moment for their businesses, those with adversarial CEOs will probably fare better in the battle to retain talent, fend off competition and wrangle increasingly disparate hybrid workforces. Its unclear whether Googles Sundar Pichai is a CEO for this more challenging moment: In a 2020 Wall Street Journal profile of Pichai for instance, his leadership team largely agreed that he was nice. Perhaps his recent memo to colleagues shows a willingness to be more confrontational.

Zuckerberg still has much to do to fix the harms Facebooks algorithms have inflicted on society.(2) But when it comes to protecting the companys bottom line, there seems to be no one more committed to the task. He could well become the envy of his peers.

Advertisement

More From Other Writers at Bloomberg Opinion:



Twitter Still Wants Musks Money: Matt Levine



When Data Privacy Became a Startups Nightmare: Andy Mukherjee



Why the IPhone Is Missing From Foxconns Asia Tour: Tim Culpan

(1) Zuckerbergs $19 billion purchase of WhatsApp has yet to prove a major financial benefit to Meta, though. The company has for years said it was planning to bring advertising to WhatsApp, which has not happened, though there are more than 1 million businesses paying it for click to WhatsApp ads. The divisions contribution to revenue is still unclear.

(2) There is only one sign that Zuckerberg is making amends for Facebooks social harms: his shift to the metaverse. Virtual reality is not very addictive and likely wont have the same kind of harmful social impact that Facebook has had.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Parmy Olson is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology. A former reporter for the Wall Street Journal and Forbes, she is author of We Are Anonymous.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

2022 Bloomberg L.P.

GiftOutline Gift Article
Placeholder while article actions load

As former President Donald Trump moves toward formally announcing his 2024 candidacy for another term in the White House, its becoming more and more obvious that he should be prosecuted for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight This isnt something that should be undertaken lightly. Attempting to imprison a former president  especially one who is a leading candidate for the presidential nomination of his party  is something that should be reserved for the gravest circumstances. People will say that the rule of law requires presidents to be prosecuted just as any other citizen would be, but it really is more complicated than that.

The Justice Department says that it investigates crimes, not people, and thats the way it should be. Nobody should want the Justice Department to be turned against the leaders of out-parties for offenses that would never have been charged against anyone else. The justice system depends on prosecutors using their discretion properly, so that the immense power of the government isnt used to hound people over trivial or technical details, and that really needs to apply even more to political leaders  especially from the party that does not control the White House.

Advertisement

Thats why its so awful that Trump encourages chants to lock up his political opponents.

Im also only somewhat impressed by arguments about deterring future presidents from committing crimes. Its not clear to me that the possibility of prosecution and imprisonment would ever be the main thing keeping presidents from breaking the law. Political consequences are paramount to most presidents, who have spent most of their lives trying to reach the White House. Trump may not care that he was impeached twice and provoked the first-ever same-party conviction votes in the Senate, but if so hes probably unique among presidents in that way. I suspect that Richard Nixon cared more that he was driven out of the presidency and politically humiliated than he would have been about a prison term.

And yet 

Advertisement

Trump didnt commit ordinary crimes (well, he probably did, and that weighs on all of this too, but its not the main thing). He attempted to overturn an election that he had lost, and used the presidency to do so. Thats become clearer and clearer as the House committee investigating the assault on the US Capitol of Jan. 6, 2021 has presented its case.

Experts seem to believe that the evidence is there and that conviction is likely for Trumps efforts to pressure election officials to falsify results, to gin up slates of fake electors and to provoke the Capitol mob. And its highly relevant that Trump to this day, long after the election, continues to try to overturn the legitimate result. Prosecutors should take it into account if a person constantly takes to the biggest stages and in effect brags about his crimes and promises to commit them again if he has the chance.

The possibility that Trump supporters would respond to an indictment with violence or political sabotage should not constrain prosecutors. Its one thing to work hard to preserve the ideal of equal justice under the law. Its another to be cowed by extra-constitutional threats.

Advertisement

Theres a fair argument that the proper venue for all of this was Congress, and that impeachment, conviction and disqualification from holding further office would have been sufficient. But whether its correct or not, that ship has sailed.

If all of this sounds as if the ultimate decision by the Justice Department will be political in nature  well, thats correct. Prosecutors have to balance the threat to the nation from indicting a former president against the threat to the nation of not doing so. Given the facts weve seen, its just not that hard a choice. Trumps crimes are too important, and too dangerous, to ignore.

For weekend reading, here are some of the best recent items from political scientists:

 Norman Ornstein on criminal justice and mental health.

 Natalie Jackson on public opinion about transgender rights.

Advertisement

 Seth Masket at Mischiefs of Faction on the Colorado Republicans.

 Georgia Kernell at the Monkey Cage on how the UK Conservative Party will choose a replacement for Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

 Also at the Monkey Cage, John Sides and Robert Griffin on Bidens approval numbers.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics and policy. A former professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio and DePauw University, he wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

2022 Bloomberg L.P.

GiftOutline Gift Article
Placeholder while article actions load

The Supreme Courts recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade will affect much more than womens access to abortions. Decades of economic research demonstrate that, by limiting their power over when and with whom they form families and relationships, it will threaten their livelihoods and even their lives. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Arguably the most telling research has nothing to do with abortion at all. It involves divorce, or more specifically a revolution in family law that occurred nearly 50 years ago, about the time of the original Roe v. Wade decision. Instead of requiring both parties to agree to dissolve a marriage, or one party to prove that the other was at fault, states started allowing either spouse to act unilaterally. This gave women more power to leave unhappy or abusive marriages.

Different states enacted the changes at different times, creating a natural experiment that economists studied to tease out the effects on divorce rates, womens earnings and retirement security. But the most significant and sobering findings involved mortality: 10% fewer women died at the hands of their spouses and 8% fewer committed suicide (there was no effect on men). Reports of domestic violence against women fell as well.

Advertisement

Abortion also gives women the power to exit relationships. If you have a child with someone, you are bound to them for at least 18 years through custody, visitation and child support. In surveys, 31% of women seeking to terminate pregnancies cited a partner-related reason, such as not wanting a child with the man, wanting to end the relationship or believing that the father wouldnt care for the child. Of those, about 8% cited abuse as the primary reason. Twice that many said the partner had physically abused them within the past six months.

Extrapolating to 2020, when almost a million abortions were performed in the US, the survey results equate to about 25,000 directly related to abuse, and about 50,000 in which the mother was recently abused. And those are the ones who survive: Homicide is the leading cause of death among pregnant and postpartum women  16% higher than among non-pregnant women of similar age.

Individuals familiar with contract negotiations will recognize that in the case of both divorce and abortion, the issue at hand is bargaining power and the relevant policy is the ability to exit. Unilateral divorce made it easier to end a marital relationship. The Supreme Courts ruling makes it more difficult to prevent a parental relationship, thus redistributing bargaining power away from women and towards men. This will have dire consequences for womens physical safety and well-being. And while that might be the most severe effect, it wont be the only one.

Advertisement

When abortion access was expanded in the 1970s, the effects were clear: More control over the timing of motherhood improved womens economic outcomes. More recent studies show the economic harms of being denied an abortion: Women who were turned away from an abortion clinic because they were just past the gestational weeks of eligibility had lower employment, more debt, and more public program participation than those who were able to get an abortion.

Policy makers can, at least in theory, mitigate the employment and earnings effects of having a child  by providing universal paid leave, free childcare, mandatory sick time for all workers, the right to part-time work. The US has done none of these. But only the right to have an abortion can shift the balance between men and women in a way that empowers the latter to extract themselves from relationships that possibly neither wants. That door is now closing, state by state.

More From Bloomberg Opinion:

Advertisement



State Abortion Bans Threaten to Limit Drug Access: Lisa Jarvis



How Pro-Choice Advocates Won in Mississippi: Julianna Goldman



Google Should Delete Abortion Search Queries, Too: Parmy Olson

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Kathryn Anne Edwards is an economist at the Rand Corp. and a professor at the Pardee Rand Graduate School.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion

2022 Bloomberg L.P.

GiftOutline Gift Article
Placeholder while article actions load

Baby formula, one of the most important items on grocery shelves, continues to be in short supply in many places in the US. Severe scarcity sent families across the country scrambling in May and June. Despite the restarting of the plant at the epicenter of the crisis and a government effort to fly in from abroad the equivalent of millions of bottles of formula, in many states, demand is still outstripping supply.

1. How bad is the shortage?

Nationwide, the in-stock figure -- measuring the percentage of expected demand that suppliers have available for sale -- was 72% for baby formula powder the week ending July 10, a slight improvement from 70% the week prior, according to data from IRI Worldwide. The figure was below 60% in only one state, Alaska, compared with five states the week ending July 3.

Advertisement

2. Why is there a shortage?

Long-term economic pressures collided with a sudden supply shock. The long-term issues stem from the pandemic, which disrupted supply chains of myriad products -- including ingredients used in baby formula -- and caused labor shortages that are vexing many industries. Then in February, after reports of bacterial infection in several babies, there were recalls of products made by Abbott Laboratories at its facility in Sturgis, Michigan, and the plant was shut down.

3. Which baby formulas were recalled?

Abbott recalled some Similac, EleCare and Alimentum formulas produced at its Sturgis facility. Later, the US Food and Drug Administration announced the recall of Similac PM 60/40, Abbotts specialized low-mineral baby formula. The recalls were connected to the cases of four babies who consumed formula made at the Sturgis plant and were infected with cronobacter, two of whom died, though subsequent complaints have been made and several lawsuits have been filed. Abbott has said its products are not to blame for the illnesses and deaths.

Advertisement

4. What the status of the Sturgis plant?

After reaching a deal with regulators to reopen the facility, Abbott restarted operations in June. But two weeks later, the plant closed again, this time because of flooding amid heavy storms. It reopened a second time on July 1. The company had said earlier that it would take six to eight weeks from a reopening for products to reach shelves.

5. Whats the government done to ease the shortage?

Until the crisis, a combination of tariffs and FDA regulation had largely shut out foreign makers of baby formula from the US market. When the shortage became acute, the agency temporarily eased its rules to allow the government to import supplies from abroad in a program called Operation Fly Formula. Now, the FDA intends to provide a pathway for foreign companies to continue to provision the US after the shortage has eased, to make the supply chain -- now dominated by just a handful of companies -- more robust. In addition, the White House invoked the Defense Production Act, which grants broad authority to the executive branch to intervene in private industry in urgent situations. In this case, US formula makers are able to cut the line to receive materials they need from suppliers such as sugar, corn and oils.

Advertisement

6. Who is most affected by the shortages?

Low-income people are particularly struggling. Without much cash on hand, some families werent able to build up a stockpile and have faced price gouging from secondary sellers or have had to pay for shipping from online retailers. In many states, Abbott Nutrition is the sole contractor for low-income families who get benefits through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC. That means parents shopping for formula have to take the extra step of contacting their local WIC office for alternatives or pay out of their own pockets.

7. Where can you find formula?

Families can contact their pediatricians, who may have samples or some supply. Parents can also check smaller retailers, like convenience stores or pharmacies that may have stock. Community resources like a local food pantry, milk bank or other non-profits may have access to supply. Its safe for most infants to swap to a different commercial brand, including a generic one, according to guidelines on navigating the shortage from the American Academy of Pediatrics. You should not make your own formula using a recipe found online or elsewhere, according to the FDA and the AAP. Homemade formulas can be dangerous, leading to contamination and hypocalcemia, or low calcium, the FDA says. Doctors also advise against diluting formula to stretch it out. It can create nutritional imbalances and serious health problems, the AAP says. For babies older than 6 months, cows milk is an option for a brief period of time, but the AAP cautions it should not become routine due to concerns infants wont get enough iron.

Advertisement

8. Is breast-feeding an option?

For some people, of course. But formula is widely in demand by all sorts of people, including adoptive parents and moms with certain health conditions or limited breast milk supply. By six months, only a quarter of babies in the US are exclusively breastfed, according to CDC data. About 20% of breastfed infants were supplemented with infant formula in their first two days of life, according to the CDC. Relactating -- the process of starting to breastfeed again after a gap -- can be time-consuming and isnt always successful. Research shows that a lack of workplace resources, like a dedicated pumping space or enough breaks, can make a parent quit nursing earlier. The US is the only high-income country that doesnt guarantee paid maternity leave, meaning many moms are back to work soon after having a baby, leaving them little time to acclimate to nursing.

 Blame bad policy and red tape for the shortage, a Bloomberg Opinion editorial says.

 The White House outlines government steps to address the shortage.

 The New York Times delves into the emotionally charged issue of breastfeeding.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

2022 Bloomberg L.P.

GiftOutline Gift Article
Wisetechs shares have jumped more than 3 per cent after the logistics software company announced an improved forecast for the 2022 financial year, underpinned by better-than-expected growth and cost savings.

The Sydney-based group told investors on Friday that it now expected its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the year would be in the range of $310 million to $320 million. It had previously been guiding to an EBITDA of between $275 million and $295 million for the year.

WiseTech CEO Richard White at his home in Sydney. Credit:Natalie Boog

Shares in WiseTech leapt 7 per cent on the announcement, before paring those gains to close up 3.4 per cent at $44.13.

Wisetech chief executive Richard White put the groups improved earnings outlook down to the groups 3P strategy which refers to the companys focus on product, penetration and profitability to attract global logistics companies to its cargo management system.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has built his brand around being a dude who likes music. CBD can even recall the Cool Albo era, when kids queued around the block to hear Labors Tory-fighting cult hero spin a DJ set at a Newtown pub that has now been unfortunately turned into a Holey Moley.

Spinning a tune: Anthony Albanese and Jacinda Ardern. Credit:Shakespeare

As PM, Albanese is still leaning hard into the music dude identity, even flexing it on the world stage. Last month, he gifted his Kiwi counterpart Jacinda Ardern records by Spiderbait, Midnight Oil and Powderfinger.

Arderns fiance Clarke Gayord wasnt too impressed by Albaneses taste, and the PM would hope his album diplomacy went down better with Emmanuel Macron. Yesterday, Spiderbaits Kram told the ABC the French President had also been gifted one of the bands albums.

Which got us wondering where DJ Albo might take this next. Given Indonesian President Joko Widodo is a renowned metalhead, the choice of AC/DC for their next meeting would make sense. Were curious about what the PM couldve given Ukraines Volodymyr Zelensky when the two met during a secret trip to Kyiv recently, although an extra $100 million in military aid probably did more than an album ever could.
They were unlikely childhood friends, the daughters of rival newspaper magnates, born into high Melbourne society in the late 1800s, but determined to forge their own creative paths. Ethel Spowers and Eveline Syme were at the forefront of a modernist revolution in art, but like so many sidelined women artists, their work was long forgotten. It is only now that were learning the truth of their significance, their friendship and their art, thanks to an exhibition at Geelong Gallery.

Spowers and Syme lived in Melbourne but studied abroad together at a time when womens new-found freedoms were opening doors in ways that were previously out of reach. Spowers was born in 1890, Syme in 1888, and while the exact moment they met isnt known, they attended the same prestigious South Yarra school.

Both came from families of six children. Spowers father, William, owned The Argus and The Australasian, while Symes father, Joseph, part-owned The Age. Fortunately, this media rivalry didnt translate into social contest: the families moved in the same social circles and were equally philanthropic, their mothers attentive to charity and social-mindedness  a generosity their daughters would inherit.

From left, Ethel Spowers, The gust of wind, 1930, and Eveline Syme, The Yarra at Warrandyte, 1931. Credit:NGA

But as Sarina Noordhuis-Fairfax, curator of Spowers & Syme, explains, they had something their mothers were denied. Importantly, they were part of the first generation of Australian women able to have a professional career, she says. They were supported and allowed to study.
Over the years, other inventors have been credited in Le Princes stead with inventing motion pictures. In the US, its often Thomas Edison, whose labours previously led to the electric light and the phonograph; or sometimes the British-born Eadweard Muybridge, who invented the zoopraxiscope, which famously captured still photos of horses and human figures in motion.

Inside, theres a still from the first moving images ever shot, a two-second epic showing three members of his family and a female friend moving around outside their home in Leeds. He called it Roundhay Garden Scene. The year was 1888. Two years later, he was gone. While travelling on family business in the South of France, he vanished without trace and his disappearance remains officially unsolved.

Out of the past comes a mystery, one that asks who is responsible for the disappearance of the man who invented motion pictures. The sketch on the cover of Paul Fischers engrossing book introduces him: a man dressed in the style of an 18th-century gentleman, his mutton chops and beard avouching him as a man of the world as he proudly directs his gaze forward, his elbow resting on his box-like invention, a device he called a taker or receiver of animated photographs. His name is Louis Aime Augustin Le Prince.

Inventor of cinematography Louis Le Prince, who vanished under bizarre circumstances. Credit:Getty

In France, its the Lumiere brothers, Auguste and Louis, who made and screened a series of (very) short films in the latter half of the 1890s, including The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station. Brilliantly referenced in Martin Scorseses 3-D Hugo (2011), it lasted for 50 seconds, showing a train heading in the general direction of the camera and reportedly causing audiences to flee for their lives.

Fischer, however, leaves little room for doubt about who was responsible. What makes his book different from a conventional film history is that its essentially a whodunit. It asks: what happened to Le Prince? Was he murdered and, if so, by whom? Or did he commit suicide and end up as one of the many unidentified corpses that used to turn up each year in the Paris morgue?

Drawing on old newspaper accounts, the unpublished memoirs of key participants, the written testimony of Le Princes research team and other witnesses, as well as legal files from the archives, Fischer presents what he reasonably describes as a ghost story, a family saga and an unsolved mystery. The style he brings to it is novelistic, his narrative beginning with Le Princes disappearance and then moving back in time to flesh out the profiles of various individuals who, directly or indirectly, were a part of his life  and who might or might not have been directly involved in what happened to him.

At the heart of it all, though, is the impact on Le Princes wife, Lizzie, of her husbands dedication to his work and his disappearance. The book traces the growth of their relationship as they moved between Paris during la belle epoque and Leeds, where she grew up and they eventually made a home together. Her struggles to cope with the emotional and financial stresses of being the wife of an inventor are at least as important to the story Fischer has to tell as her husbands work.
Girls participation in maths  and indeed all STEM subjects  has long been a topic of global concern. In particular, schools, educators and parents have sought out strategies to keep girls engaged and participating in advanced maths and science in secondary school.

Girls at single-sex schools are 85 per cent more likely to take advanced mathematics than girls in co-ed schools. Credit:Erin Jonasson

Despite efforts to engage girls in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), recent HSC data shows that girls involvement in higher-level maths is steadily declining  yet data from the Victorian Certificate for Education shows that girls at single-sex schools are 85 per cent more likely to take advanced mathematics than girls in co-ed schools.

They are also 79 per cent more likely to study chemistry, 68 per cent more likely to take intermediate mathematics, and 47 per cent more likely to study physics. Across the board, girls schools deliver higher participation in STEM subjects and this is supported by higher levels of engagement, enjoyment and aspiration.

The OECDs Program for International Student Assessment data confirms that girls school students also outperform co-educated girls on PISAs academic measures of science, mathematics and literacy. So, whats happening in girls schools?
The last time the leaders of Pacific Islands Forum met in person was in Tuvalu in 2019 when former prime minister Scott Morrisons dogged insistence on watering down language about climate change in the final communique caused anger and even tears during the talks.

Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama described Morrisons conduct as very insulting and condescending.

Australias renewed climate efforts, backed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, were welcomed at this weeks Pacific Island Forum talks. Credit:Joe Armao

This week things were different.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese backed the groups declaration of a climate emergency and even won support for Australias bid to co-host the United Nations COP29 climate talks in 2024 with Pacific nations.
One of Labors key plans to deliver its climate change promises faces a major challenge as a review kicks off into the $4.5 billion Emissions Reduction Fund, with experts warning the scheme set up under the former government has been selling credits for worthless carbon reduction projects.

Labor plans to ramp up a policy that lay dormant under the former Coalition government, the Safeguard Mechanism, to force big polluters to buy millions of tonnes of carbon offsets that have been purchased from private landholders under the Emissions Reduction Fund.

Labor does not need the support of the parliament to create new laws for climate action, it can implement its pollution reduction schemes without a vote. Credit:

But the designer of the funds carbon credit rules, ANU Professor Andrew Macintosh, on Friday published new analysis that he said reveals grave concerns about the integrity of the scheme.

The safeguard mechanism requires big polluters to cut their emissions  such as by switching from gas boilers to electric heat pumps  or buy carbon offsets under the Emissions Reduction Fund, which includes payments to landholders who prevent trees from being cut down, known as avoided deforestation.
Madrid: The federal government is being urged to overhaul a $44 billion program to buy a new fleet of British frigates after long delays to their delivery, prompting Spanish defence giant Navantia to step up its offer to supply three air warfare destroyers to fill the gap.

Navantia has promised federal officials it can build the three guided-missile warships by the end of this decade at a cost of $2 billion each to give Australia more firepower in the Indo-Pacific region. The warships have a similar design to three destroyers the company built in Spain and South Australia last decade.

Anthony Albanese meets Spanish leader Pedro Sanchez in Madrid in June. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Spanish leader Pedro Sanchez raised the issue with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in their meeting in Madrid two weeks ago, but the Department of Defence is yet to decide how to respond to the delays in the frigate program at BAE Systems in Glasgow.

Navantia director of technology Donato Martinez Perez de Rojas said the company could fill the capability gap caused by the BAE delay because it had a proven design already in use in Australia and could start construction quickly if political leaders made the decision.
Calls to close the border to Indonesia have been rejected by federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt, as he announces a $14 million funding package as part of a desperate bid to stop the devastating foot and mouth livestock disease entering Australia.

Watt has just returned from Indonesia, where he met with officials to offer Australias help in curtailing the spread of the virus, which infects cloven-hoofed animals including sheep and cattle. The disease does not make people unwell but travellers could potentially carry it back to Australia on their shoes, clothes or in their noses  where it can survive for up to 24 hours.

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt with his Indonesian counterpart Syahrul Yasin Limpo. Credit:AP

Foot and mouth has entered the holiday island of Bali, visited by about 1.5 million Australian travellers a year, and flights from Denpasar to Darwin are only 2.5 hours long.

Watt announced on Friday that biosecurity would be ramped up at airports.
A functioning Pacific Islands Forum is itself a vital diplomatic asset for Canberra  while Australia and New Zealand are members, China is not. Likewise, a passionate interest in rugby league, or union, depending on the nation, is an Australian connection unavailable to Beijing. Albanese is capitalising on it. He revealed on Thursday that hed already spoken with the NRL administrators about holding some State of Origin matches in Pacific nations: It would also be a good thing if we gave consideration about how you get a Pacifica team, a team with connections to PNG, Tonga, Samoa. He pointed out that Pacific players already are thriving in the NRL. Another authentic Australian connection to the Pacific that Beijing cant seek to match is its churches. Albaneses Minister for the Pacific, Pat Conroy, next week will meet a group of influential church leaders brought to Canberra by the Pacific Church Partnership Advisory Network, supported by federal funding set aside by the Morrison government. So camaraderie among the PIFs members is about much more than a footy match. Its a geopolitical advantage for Australia. This weeks PIF summit was not a paragon of unity. Kiribati pointedly pulled out and some bitterness remains over the secretary-generals post. But Fijis Prime Minister Frank Bainimarana has brokered a peace settlement on the matter, the so-called Suva Declaration, and its already paying dividends. Until this week, the angry rift had prevented the group meeting at all.

Beijings ambitions to dominate the Pacific loom large. But its brazen efforts to roil the forum this week by calling a parallel meeting of its own in Fiji failed. Beijings plan? Its Foreign Affairs Minister, Wang Yi, had proposed hosting a meeting of 10 of his counterparts from across the Pacific. He called for a meeting in the same city, Suva, on the same day that the PIF leaders met, Thursday. It didnt happen. Wang was snubbed. He busied himself in Cambodia instead. Loading This was a second setback for Beijing in as many months. In May, Wang conducted a cyclonic sweep through Pacific capitals and asked 10 governments to sign a comprehensive security agreement with China at a climactic virtual meeting. He had overplayed his hand. They declined. Fijis Bainimarama remarked at the time: Geopolitical point-scoring means less than little to anyone whose community is slipping beneath the rising seas.

Albanese had something to say about climate change too, of course. Pacific nations despaired over the Coalitions emissions targets. They welcomed the Albanese governments upgraded targets. Do the Pacific governments want Australia to do more? Of course, and some said so. But China is no competition on carbon emissions; it has reserved the right to continue increasing emissions till 2030. Even the Morrison targets were much better than Chinas. But Australias position as a climate pariah among rich nations gave everyone from Shanghai to Samoa licence to attack it. It was not a reason to prefer China over Australia, but it was used as an excuse by politicians who chose to for other reasons. Another winning offering from the Albanese government is its new immigration quota of 3000 places a year reserved specifically for Pacific peoples. Its also announced improved working visa access. These are real relationship builders over generations, a former Pacific leader commented. This weeks communique from the 18-member PIF welcomes the new Australian position on emisisons. It also endorses Australias pitch to host a COP climate summit.

In the same week, Telstra finalised its $2.4 billion deal to buy the dominant Pacific mobile phone company, Digicell. This was a shotgun marriage arranged by the Morrison government to keep Pacific communications out of Chinas hands. And instead of China crashing the summit, the US, which isnt a member either, managed to make a splash. Vice-President Kamala Harris was allowed a video appearance: We recognise that, in recent years, the Pacific islands may not have received the diplomatic attention and support that you deserve. She promised a couple of new US embassies and $US600 million in extra aid over the next 10 years. Loading To top off Albaneses triumphal Pacific debut, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare repeated his promise that he wouldnt allow a Chinese military base in his nation, adding that if he allowed a foreign base it would put our country and our people as targets for potential military strikes. This persuaded some excitable Australian commentators and reporters that Australia successfully had frustrated Chinas plans. Albanese couldnt help but sound just a little smug at the end of his visit to Suva: Australian influence, which historically has been a country of great significance for the region, has been enhanced by this meeting.

But then there was the other city. If Suva was friendship and footy, Washington DC was strategy and schemes. Albaneses deputy, Defence Minister Richard Marles, was asked during a visit this week what kept him awake at night? I slept better seeing the canvas largely blank, when he was in opposition and ignorant of the classified material he now receives as minister. Now, he says, being on the other side of the veil and having the canvas filled in and seeing the facts, circumstances that we do face. This is probably the most dangerous period that I have lived through. The idea that right now were witnessing the biggest military build-up since the end of the Second World War is a big thing to observe and a big thing to be happening. What is the conclusion of that? Other conclusions to military build-up of that kind in the past? Have they had happy endings? That is what keeps me awake at night. And the famously hawkish former US official John Bolton gave the world a reminder that the competition for global power is not a morality play: As somebody who has helped plan coups detat  not here but, you know, other places  it takes a lot of work. Much as our leaders like to speak of a rules-based order, the world ultimately is a jungle and Chinas Xi Jinping is determined to rule it. The US promises another $600 million for the Pacific; China has invested 10 times that over the past five years in the Pacific. Sogavare promises no Chinese military base in his country; China operates a civil-military fusion policy where civil infrastructure is built so it can also be used by the military. This allows a measure of deniability of any military intention as ports are built. Until its fleets arrive. And the chances of Sogavare knowing Beijings full plans are negligible.
Thousands of people were evacuated from their homes as fires blistered parts of France, Spain and Portugal on Friday, while health warnings were issued across the continent as temperatures soared.

More than 1000 firefighters, supported by water-bombing aircraft, were battling two massive blazes in south-western France that have been fanned by scorching heat, tinder-box conditions and strong winds.

Fires burn out of control near Landiras, south of Bordeaux. Credit:AP

Temperatures in Portugal were still expected to top 40 degrees in some places as authorities put five districts on red alert for extreme weather. Some 13 wildfires were also burning out of control across the country.

In Spain, the Environment Ministry said firefighters were tackling 17 wildfires. Officials were worried about the effects on peoples health and on healthcare systems already challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hidden under layers of glue and cardboard was another painting on its reverse  a portrait of a man in a hat with a scarf tied around his neck.

Stevenson, a conservator at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, found the painting when she X-rayed another piece by van Gogh, Head of a Peasant Woman, ahead of an exhibition  a routine step that normally does not reveal such a major find.

London: Frances Fowle, the senior curator at the National Galleries of Scotland, got what was likely to be the most exciting text message of her career while waiting in line at a fish and chip shop on a Friday afternoon. It was an image from an X-ray. Not of broken bones  but of a previously unknown self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh.

I saw it then and there: it was a self-portrait by van Gogh on the back of our painting, Fowle said.

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has examined the X-ray, which is almost certainly a van Gogh self-portrait, the National Galleries of Scotland said. Still, experts are searching for ways to uncover it without damaging the painting under whose canvas it sits so they can confirm its authenticity.

Van Gogh was known to reuse canvasses to save money, and Scottish conservators believe that was the case here. Several other self-portraits from the Nuenen period  between 1883 and 1885, when van Gogh lived in the southern Dutch town  have been discovered on the backs of his paintings and now hang in museums in the Netherlands and the United States.

Conservators suspect that, at some point, the self-portrait was covered up to make room for Head of a Peasant Woman, an 1885 study for a larger painting, The Potato Eaters  widely considered one of van Goghs masterpieces. It had been hiding in plain sight, inside a painting that had belonged to the National Galleries of Scotland for over 60 years.

Conservators who were preparing for the exhibition on impressionist art at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh said they hadnt expected much from the X-ray.
READING, Pa. - The Berks County district attorney is investigating an officer-involved shooting in north Reading. It started with an early-morning call Thursday about a car robbery in the 200 block of South Fifth Street.

"When the officers responded, they observed three individuals, one of those individuals had what appeared to be like a car jack or a saw," said Berks County District Attorney John Adams.

Adams says the three men were trying to cut a catalytic converter off of a car. When Reading police officers arrived, the suspects jumped in a Honda Accord and sped off.

"The Reading police tried to stop this vehicle, they activated their sirens and lights, the vehicle would not stop and a pursuit took place," said Adams.

The chase ended on a dead-end road not far from the River Road exit off of Route 12.

"The car attempts to, in essence, almost run over the police," said Adams.

That's when an officer opened fire, hitting the driver, 25-year-old Tyvan Barnett from Allentown, in the leg. He was taken to Reading Hospital. One of the passengers, 18-year-old Ejau Collazo, who's also from Allentown, was arrested, but the third person got away.

"His identity at this point is unknown so we are asking anyone with information in regard to this incident to contact the Berks County Detective Unit," said Adams.

Adams is also urging people to check their cars. He says detectives found multiple catalytic converters in the trunk of the Honda.

"It is troubling, they are going underneath a car with a saw, cutting off that catalytic converter, they're pulling out the precious metals that are in that catalytic converter and taking those metals somewhere."

No officers were injured in the incident.

Anyone with more information about this incident is asked to contact Berks County detectives at 610-478-7171 or Crime Alert Berks County by either calling (877) 373-9913, downloading the ALERTBERKS app on your mobile device, or via text message using your mobile phone and typing ALERTBERKS along with your tip to 847411.
BETHLEHEM, Pa.  The Bethlehem Planning Commission approved two land development plans Thursday, with no substantial revisions.

Andrew Bohl, project engineer with Hanover Engineering Associates, Inc. in Bethlehem, represented both of the applicants.

One project involves the construction of a 53,700 square-foot warehouse and distribution facility on a 5.73-acre lot located at 1010 Harvard Avenue. The building will have eight loading docks and 63 parking spaces. There will be two driveway entrances, one on Harvard Avenue and one on Route 412.

Planning Commission Director Darlene Heller said that a retention wall and additional landscaping was requested by the city and a commissioner asked that traffic signs indicating No Thru Traffic be posted at each entrance.

The second approved plan is for the construction of a 136,000 square-foot manufacturing facility on a 7.50-acre lot located at 2680 Commerce Center Boulevard. It will be used by Axiom Group, a plastic packaging company headquartered in Canada. The building will have eight loading docks and 98 parking spaces. It will also have two entrances and a rail spur.

Also, the planning commission agreed to recommend to city council that they approve vacating 89 feet of Second Avenue located adjacent to the property of George and Charlene Mowers at 312 Spring Street. The street is a remnant from the Peron Armory project and vacating it will save the city the expense of cutting the grass and shoveling snow.

In addition, Heller announced that zoning officer Craig Peiffer would be joining her staff as assistant planning director.
UPPER MACUNGIE TWP., Pa. - A woman was fatally shot in a Lehigh County parking lot early Friday morning.

The woman, an employee of Lineage Logistics, was heading in to work to begin her 4 a.m. shift when she was shot outside the warehouse in Upper Macungie Township, an official tells 69 News.

She was found near a vehicle parked by the entrance to the cold storage facility in the industrial park near Route 222 and Route 100.

The vehicle, a Jeep, had several bullet holes in the driver's side window and door.

Investigators blocked off the parking lot with crime scene tape.

Social media reports indicate the company told employees that the shooting was an isolated incident and there is no danger to the community, though police have not commented on that.

Lineage Logistics released a statement to media later Friday morning:

"The safety and wellbeing of our team members and customers is our number one priority, and our prayers are with the victims family and loved ones. We are continuing to monitor the situation and fully cooperating with local authorities as they investigate this horrific act of violence."

Police have not commented on a motive for the shooting or if anyone is in custody. The victim's name has not yet been released.
Health reporter

Seth Klamann is the health reporter for the Gazette, focused on COVID-19, public health and substance use. He's a Kansas City native and a University of Missouri alum, with stops in Wyoming, Omaha and Milwaukee before moving to Denver.
BLAIRSTOWN TWP., N.J. - Authorities in New Jersey announced charges Friday in a decades-old homicide case, 40 years to the day after a previously-unidentified teenage girl's body was found.

Arthur Kinlaw, already a convicted murderer, is accused of killing 17-year-old Dawn Olanick, of Long Island, in 1982, investigators announced Friday in a news conference streamed live on WFMZ.com.

50:25 WATCH: News conference on 1982 'Princess Doe' homicide case The Warren County prosecutor and other officials hold a news conference to announce charges in a 1982 homicide case, as well as an identity fo

Kinlaw is currently serving a life sentence in New York for killing a different unidentified woman, found in the East River in 1984. He and his wife ran a prostitution ring in the Bronx.

Investigators believe Kinlaw may have killed Olanick after she refused to participate in prostitution.

Olanick, who had only been identified as "Princess Doe" up until Friday, was found beaten beyond recognition on July 15, 1982 next to Cedar Ridge Cemetery in Blairstown Township.

The clothes and necklace she was wearing that day were the only visible clues left behind, and she was believed to be between 15-20 years old.

County Prosecutor James Pfeiffer said they got a break in the case in February 2022, thanks to new DNA technology, which eventually led to her identification and the charges against Kinlaw.

"Science and technology made the impossible possible in this case," Pfeiffer said.

Investigators then spoke to Olanick's brother, who confirmed Dawn had been asked to leave their mother's house in 1982.

Pfeiffer said Kinlaw wrote multiple letters to the prosecutor's office, starting in 2005, and admitted in person, that he killed Olanick. The prosecutor said they didn't have enough information and evidence to charge Kinlaw until now.

A cousin of Olanick spoke at Friday's news conference, thanking investigators and the community for not giving up in the case. He said the identification and charges have opened a lot of wounds, and the family wishes to remain private.

"We miss her dearly," the family member said.

Pfeiffer said the Blairstown community accepted Princess Doe as one of their own, and took care to bury her in the cemetery.

"She was not abandoned, she was never forgotten, and she will forever be a part of this community," he said.

The prosecutor said they believe Blairstown was the random location where Kinlaw and Olanick ended up, and neither had a connection to the small town.

The victim was the first entered into the National Crime Information Center missing persons database.

Kinlaw has been charged with first-degree murder in Warren County.

Investigators said the case remains open, and is asking anyone with information to contact them.
WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J. - A Hunterdon County, New Jersey man has learned his sentence after admitting to sexually assaulting a child.

Jose E. Vasquez, 26, of Whitehouse Station, was sentenced Friday to 10 years in state prison, according to a news release from the Hunterdon County Prosecutor's Office.

He pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree sexual assault on January 5, the prosecutor's office said.

Due to the No Early Release Act, Vasquez will be required to serve 8.5 years before being eligible for parole. Upon his release, Vasquez will be required to register as a sex offender and be subject to parole supervision for life.

The guilty plea is a result of a joint investigation conducted by the Hunterdon County Prosecutors Offices Special Victims Unit and the Readington Township Police Department.

Vasquez openly admitted in court to sexual contact with a child under the age of 13, according to the prosecutor's office.
A California appeals court has ordered the unsealing of some documents in the criminal case against renowned director Roman Polanski, who's been a fugitive since pleading guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl decades ago. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office says the court on Wednesday ordered the unsealing of a 2010 deposition given by the original prosecutor. Polanski has argued there was judicial misconduct and the victim has also sought to have the material disclosed and the case to end. But the DA's office opposed the release until earlier this week. Polanski pleaded guilty in 1977 to unlawful sex with a minor but fled to France before sentencing. His attorney says Polanski is ecstatic" at the order.
Peter Duncan and Daniel Rainford will star in ghost story When Darkness Falls when it tours the UK later this year.

The play is written by James Milton and Paul Morrissey, who also directs. The action is set during a stormy night on the island of Guernsey, where a young paranormal expert joins a sceptical history teacher to record the first in a series of podcasts based on the island's folklore and paranormal history.

According to press material: "Inspired by true events, this powerful new production by James Milton and Paul Morrissey draws us into dark pasts, reveals disturbing truths and explores the power of stories. Perhaps most importantly, the ones we tell ourselves."

When Darkness Falls premiered at the Park Theatre last summer before embarking on a short tour. The new tour will open on 15 September at the Grand Theatre, Blackpool and currently runs through to 29 October, with more dates to be announced for 2023.

Former Blue Peter presenter Peter Duncan has a theatre, TV and film career that spans five decades, beginning at Laurence Olivier's National Theatre. After TV presenting, he began to appear in musical theatre roles such as Barnum, Bill Snibson in Me And My Girl, Charlie Chaplin in The Little Tramp and Denry Machin in The Card. More recently, he appeared as Wilbur Turnblad in the UK tour of Hairspray.

Daniel Rainford recently completed a UK tour of Michael Morpurgo's Private Peaceful, in which he played the lead role, Tommo - a role he also played in its original run at the Nottingham Playhouse. His other stage credits include Once Upon a Time in Nazi Occupied Tunisia at London's Almeida Theatre.

Rhys Jennings will be the understudy for both roles.

The production is designed by Justin Williams, with lighting by Bethany Gupwell and sound by Daniel Higgott. The show's illusions are by John Bulleid, an associate of the Inner Magic Circle with Silver Star.

The UK Tour of When Darkness Falls is produced by Paul Morrissey Ltd, Christopher Wheeler and Molly Morris in association with The Bard, Jason Haigh-Ellery and Glynis Henderson Productions.
MTN Group has opened acquisition talks with Telkom South Africa in a move that would bolster its ability to compete with market leader Vodacom.

Discussions are reportedly in the provisional stages, and the companies have stated that there is no guarantee of a deal. MTN did clarify that if a takeover is agreed, it would pay with either shares or a combination of stock and cash, given that the South African government holds a stake in Telkom SA.

This is not the first time that a deal between the operators has been mooted; we reported in November 2021 that MTN had expressed an interest in acquiring Telkom, and such a move would be in line with its wider strategy of divesting assets outside of its core markets in order to reduce its debt burden and refocus on its African operations.

MTN and Telkom are respectively the second and third largest operators in South Africa, so any merger of the two would face substantial regulatory hurdles since the resulting entity would take a clear lead in the market.
Winnipeggers returning to the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival circuit can enjoy two distinctly Japanese shows that masterfully combine seriousness and silliness.

Kazu Kusanos Pretty Beast and Theatre Group GUMBOs critically-acclaimed comedy satire, Are You Lovin It?, promise to lure the audience into a social commentary while laughing.

Kusano, the mastermind of the one-woman show, has always been the funny girl  a role that has empowered and disempowered her growing up.

SUPPLIEDWith comedy, you can talk about really serious stuff, but also, you can make it funny, and that creates a connection between me and my audience, Kusano said.

As a survival tool, I got this comedic skill. I became a funny girl, Kusano said.

My country is very sexist, like everywhere else in the world, so (being the) funny girl back then was difficult, Kusano joked.

Kusano was born and raised in Japan. In her 30s, Kusano packed her bags and immigrated to the U.S. to pursue comedy. After working gigs in the restaurant, acting and modelling industry, she made a name for herself in the stand-up comedy scene.

With dozens of awards up her sleeves and a compliment from the late Robin Williams, its safe to say that being funny has paid off for Kusano.

Pretty Beast is both a tribute to the funny girls of the world and a dialogue on sexism and mental health. The one-woman show chronicles a rough sketch of Kusanos experiences growing up in Japan, with her character influenced by an alcoholic father, a schizophrenic mother and and also this girl I mean me, Kusano explained.

The show is semi-autobiographical and, according to reviews, hilarious and devastating. Kusano is able to explore otherwise difficult conversation topics through what she does best: making people laugh.

All those negative experiences actually made me a happy person because Im doing what I want to do, Kusano said.

Hailing from Osaka, Japan, Theatre Group GUMBOs Are You Lovin It? promises 60 minutes of colour, chaos and whimsy.

In what Orlando Weekly described as a savagely surreal satire of fast-food capitalism, Kayo Tamura, Ryo Nishihara, Nono Miyasaka of Theatre Group GUMBO entice the audience into a kooky Japanese satire.

The familiar branding of McDonalds is transformed into a psycho-surrealist fast-food chain called WacDonalds. From there, viewers are invited into a world of dark humour and neon chaos that is sure to incite uncontrollable laughter.

Cast member Nishihara described the play as a dark comedy, satirizing the American influence on Japanese culture.

SUPPLIED

After working gigs in the restaurant, acting and modelling industry, Kazu Kusano made a name for herself in the stand-up comedy scene.

Its like a hallucinogenic, anime dreamscape, Adam Prokop, the troupes Canadian stage manager said. Its kind of melodramatic. Its kind of over the top.

Some people lost their words, Miyasaka, a cast member and assistant director said.

The comedic, distinctly Japanese satire has been a hit across the U.S. and Canada, with a previous showing at the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival in 2019. The troupe, who are visiting Winnipeg for the first time this week, said they are excited to see how the local audience engages with the show.

Our show needs audience reaction. We made a show with (the) audience, Miyasaka said.

When we were in Edmonton and I was their tech, it was always fun to watch the audience go from resisting the laughter to giving in, becoming part of the show, Prokop said.

FACEBOOKHailing from Osaka, Japan, Theatre Group GUMBOs Are You Lovin It? promises 60 minutes of colour, chaos and whimsy.

Similar to the neon absurdism of Are You Lovin It?, Kusanos Pretty Beast tests the line between delusion and reality. Kusano encourages the audience to ponder the meaning of normality and notions of common sense.

What connects both shows is not only their references to Japanese culture. Kusano and Theatre Group GUMBO know the power of comedy as a vehicle to critique otherwise serious topics like mental health, overconsumption and sexism.

With comedy, you can talk about really serious stuff, but also, you can make it funny, and that creates a connection between me and my audience, Kusano said. At the miserable moment, we still have a sense of humour, and that kind of releases our stress.

With humour, we are more encouraged to talk about it.

cierra.bettens@freepress.mb.ca
WASHINGTON (AP)  The House has voted to restore abortion rights nationwide in Democrats first legislative response to the Supreme Courts landmark decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

The bill has little chance of becoming law, with the necessary support lacking in the 50-50 Senate. Yet voting marks the beginning of a new era in the debate as lawmakers, governors and legislatures grapple with the impact of the courts decision.

The legislation passed 219-210. The House also passed a second bill to prohibit punishment for a woman or child who decides to travel to another state to get an abortion, 223-205. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., speaks at her weekly news conference, Thursday, July 14, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington.The House is expected to vote on two bills that would restore and guarantee abortion access nationwide. Its the Democrats first attempt at responding legislatively to the Supreme Courts seismic decision overturning Roe v. Wade. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Just three weeks ago the Supreme Court took a wrecking ball to the fundamental rights by overturning Roe v. Wade, said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ahead of the votes, gathering with other Democratic women on the steps of the Capitol. It is outrageous that 50 years later, women must again fight for our most basic rights against an extremist court.

Republicans spoke forcefully against the two bills, praising the Supreme Courts decision and warning that the legislation would go further than Roe ever did when it comes to legalizing abortion.

Urging her colleagues to vote no, Washington GOP Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers called abortion the greatest human rights issue of our generation. House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., leads a hearing on the future of abortion rights following the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, July 14, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

She said the Democratic legislation has nothing to do with protecting the health of women. It has everything to do with forcing an extreme agenda on the American people.

The White House hailed Fridays votes as an important step.

These bills would ensure womens access to essential health care services, regardless of where they live, and protect the bedrock right to cross state lines for medical care, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. A majority of Americans across the country support them. She called the GOPs refusal to support the bills extreme and out of touch. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks as an aide puts up a poster depicting a quote from then Vice President Joe Biden during a Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing to examine a post-Roe America, focusing on the legal consequences of the Dobbs decision, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

By overturning Roe, the court has allowed states to enact strict abortion limits, including many that had previously been deemed unconstitutional. The ruling is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

Already, a number of GOP-controlled states have moved quickly to curtail or outlaw abortion, while states controlled by Democrats have sought to champion access. Voters now rank abortion as among the most pressing issues facing the country, a shift in priorities that Democrats hope will reshape the political landscape in their favor for the midterm elections.

This is the second time the House has passed the bill, which would expand on the protections Roe had previously provided by banning what supporters say are medically unnecessary restrictions that block access to safe and accessible abortions. It would prevent abortion bans earlier than 24 weeks, which is when fetal viability, the ability of a human fetus to survive outside the uterus, is generally thought to begin. It allows exceptions for abortions after fetal viability when a provider determines the life or health of the mother is at risk. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., accompanied by female House Democrats, speaks at an event ahead of a House vote on the Women's Health Protection Act and the Ensuring Women's Right to Reproductive Freedom Act at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, July 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

The Democrats proposal would also prevent states from requiring providers to share medically inaccurate information, or from requiring additional tests or waiting periods, often aimed at dissuading a patient from having an abortion.

The bill that would prohibit punishment for traveling out of state would specify that doctors cant be punished for providing reproductive care outside their home state. Democratic Rep. Lizzie Fletcher of Texas, one of the bills authors, said the threats to travel fail to reflect the fundamental rights that are granted in our Constitution.

Democrats have highlighted the case of a 10-year-old girl who had to cross state lines into Indiana to get an abortion after being raped, calling it an example of how the courts decision is already having severe consequences. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., right, accompanied by female House Democrats, holds an event ahead of a House vote on the Women's Health Protection Act and the Ensuring Women's Right to Reproductive Freedom Act at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, July 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

We dont have to imagine why this might matter. We dont need to conjure up hypotheticals. We already know whats happened, Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Thursday on the Senate floor.

Should the next little 10-year-olds right or 12-year-olds right or 14-year-olds right to get the care that she desperately needs be put in jeopardy?

The Constitution doesnt explicitly say travel between states is a right, though the Supreme Court has said it is a right that has been firmly established and repeatedly recognized. Yet the court has never said exactly where the right to travel comes from and that could leave it open to challenge or elimination, as the right to an abortion was.

Lawmakers in Missouri earlier this year, for example, considered making it illegal to aid or abet abortions that violate Missouri law, even if they occur out of state. The proposal was ultimately shelved.

Democrats have teed up more bills for passage in the coming weeks. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Friday that the House will vote next week on legislation guaranteeing a right to contraception.

GOP Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, who supports instituting a nationwide ban on abortion, accused his colleagues across the aisle Thursday of seeking to inflame the issue of abortion. He said proponents of the travel bill should ask themselves, Does the child in the womb have the right to travel in their future?

Only two Senate Republicans, Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, have been supportive of abortion rights, but they do not support the Democrats proposal, calling it too far-reaching. They have introduced alternative legislation that would bar states from placing an undue burden on a womans ability to obtain an abortion before fetal viability, among other provisions.

When pressed Thursday on whether Democrats should work with the two senators, Pelosi pushed back, Were not going to negotiate a womans right to choose.

Since the courts ruling last month, some activists have accused President Joe Biden and other top Democrats of failing to respond forcefully enough to the decision. Biden, who denounced the courts ruling as extreme, last week issued an executive order intended to head off some potential penalties that women seeking abortion may face. His administration has also warned medical providers that they must offer abortion if the life of the mother is at risk.

Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee has already launched a digital ad campaign to energize voters on the issue, warning that Republicans ultimate goal is to outlaw abortion nationwide.

We have to elect a couple more Democratic senators so that we can get around the filibuster so that we can pass legislation that truly impacts a womans right to choose, she said. Theres no halfway measure.

___

Associated Press writer Jessica Gresko contributed to this report.
JERUSALEM (RNS)  Shmuli looks outside the windows of his cellular phone store fearfully. He pulls at his long beard and swaying sidelocks. Please dont take my picture, he begs. Dont talk loud.

His tone becomes menacing. Go away. Just leave. Now.

Shmuli (not his real name) has reason to be fearful. Several stores that sell smartphones and other digital technology near Mea Shearim, Jerusalems largest ultra-Orthodox neighborhood, have been trashed. Customers have been assaulted and riots have broken out in nearby streets. FILE - Ultra-Orthodox Jews of the Sadigura Hasidic dynasty celebrate the Jewish feast of 'Tu Bishvat' or "New Year of the Trees." as they sit with their rabbis around a long table filled with all kinds of fruits, in the ultra-Orthodox town of Bnei Brak, Israel, Sunday, Jan. 16, 2022. In April 2022, the country's communications minister made it easier for the Haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, community, to use the devices without the knowledge of their rabbis, raising tensions within the Haredi community and between them and the rest of Israeli society. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)

___

This content is written and produced by Religion News Service and distributed by The Associated Press. RNS and AP partner on some religion news content. RNS is solely responsible for this story.

___

Smartphones have become a volatile issue in the Haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, community since April, when Israels communications minister made it easier for Haredi to use smartphones without the knowledge of their rabbis, raising tensions within the Haredi community and between them and the rest of Israeli society.

Haredi Jews make up 12.6% of Israels population, or 16% of Israeli Jews, and are one of the countrys fastest-growing communities. And though the term actually refers to several diverse sects and denominations, all Haredim are united in their adherence to Jewish law in all aspects of their lives and their utter rejection of Western sensibilities. Rabbis learned in the law provide rulings on everything from modesty requirements for women to personal health to marital relations.

The Haredim regard themselves as upholding authentic Judaism, and most live in tightly knit communities  a lifestyle some refer to as a ghetto by choice. Surrounded by walls of holiness, they avoid the contaminating modern influences. Haredi schools focus on religious studies, and most skip core subjects such as English, science or math, leaving their graduates with few options in the job market. Encouraged to continue their religious studies, few Haredi men are wage-earners; those that are tend to work within the community.

Having created Haredi newspapers and magazines, their rabbis forbid neighborhood stores from selling secular newspapers. When television was introduced into Israel in 1965, the rabbis banned the evil box from adherents homes. Today, data shows, fewer than half of Haredi households own a television.

But digital communications, a greater threat to the cultural walls, are of more concern to the rabbis. Not only do digital tools offer access to inappropriate content, they open the way to chat groups and apps such as WhatsApp where Haredi can criticize the rabbis and even turn to lay sources of authority.

Rabbinical bans on the computer and the internet have been less successful than the ban against television or secular press. Initially the rabbis completely banned the internet, but as the need for it in daily living and livelihoods increased, they allowed for filtered internet for home computers.

But the rabbis drew the line at smartphones. They organized the Rabbinical Committee for Communications, which, together with Israels three major cellular providers, created the kosher telephone  a stripped-down phone that blocks messaging, video, radio and internet.

The committee and the cellphone providers also created a dedicated set of numbers with their own area code, making it immediately obvious if a call is coming from an unsupervised device.

The committee blocked phone sex services  but also government welfare agencies, support centers for sexual and domestic violence (which the rabbis prefer to handle within the community) and secular organizations that assist people trying to leave the community.

When a change to telecommunications law in 2007 required Israeli cellphone providers to allow their customers to move between the companies while retaining the same personal phone number, further agreements exempted the kosher phone numbers.

The rabbis found other ways to support their bans. Posters on the walls of Haredi neighborhoods warn about the heavy spiritual price that comes with a nonkosher phone. Haredi media are not permitted to advertise products or services that direct consumers to secular phone numbers, and parents without an approved phone number cannot enroll their children in school. A man using an outside phone cant be counted for a minyan  one of the 10 men needed for public worship. The children of families using smartphones are shunned for a shidduch (arranged marriage).

Officially, the campaign worked, and most Haredim use kosher phones, although specific data is not available. But others avoided the social pressure by simply holding two phones  one for use within the community, one for everything else.

Dovid, 58, a Haredi man standing near Shmulis store who refused to give his full name, said: Im a real estate agent in the Haredi community. Of course I observe and revere my rabbis, but I cant function in my work without a smartphone. Thats just the way it is in the modern world, unfortunately.

Women have complained about being deprived of hotlines for domestic and sexual abuse. I am a Haredi woman, said Shlomit, 38, the mother of eight children. Shopping for groceries near Shmulis store, she, too, refused to give her full name, for fear of shaming. I know the rabbis dont want to admit that there are problems like violence in our community, but there are. I accept the rabbis decisions in most cases, but I know that many women are holding on to two phones.

Esty Shushan, a Haredi social activist and entrepreneur, and the founder and CEO of Nivcharot, a feminist-Haredi organization, agrees that emergency numbers should not be blocked but argues against widespread smartphone use. I use a smartphone, she said. I wish I didnt have to. It is one more way that technology is taking over our lives and stealing time and attention, not just for Haredim, but of everyone. There is something very beautiful and meaningful that our community seeks to live a simpler, more meaningful life, dedicated to values and belief.

Israels most recent government coalition, which will remain in power, likely, until fall elections, did not include Haredi parties and it ended the Orthodox monopoly over several religious matters. In April, the current communications minister, Yoaz Hendel, adopted regulations allowing transfers from the distinct kosher phone numbers to nonrestricted providers. The reform will take effect July 31.

Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel is trying to harm the lifestyle of the ultra-Orthodox public, charged the head of the Haredi United Torah Judaism party.

Others went further. Shmad, wailed one rabbi, using an emotion-laden word that refers to decrees by foreign rulers to force Jews to abandon their religion.

This is worse than the Holocaust, cried another.

The rabbis alleged that children would be corrupted by pornography and other unholy content.

In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, Hendel declared that his decision is about the character of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. We have to agree there are no autonomies. The kosher phones are a kind of monopoly, outside of law and order. I cannot accept  that there is a monopoly of Judaism that only belongs to the haredi community.

Shlomo Fischer, who teaches sociology at Hebrew and Ben Gurion universities and is founding executive director of Yesodot, a think tank that advances education for democracy, claimed the Haredi outcry has nothing to do with content. Chat rooms and control of information is power. The rabbis are afraid of losing their authority, he said.

With increased communication with the outside world and better digital skills, Haredim will also be able to work at better jobs and be less dependent on the community, Fisher added.

The rabbis authority has been slipping since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Fisher said, when they opposed social distancing and insisted on keeping schools open. The Haredi community suffered some of the highest rates in Israel due to COVID-19 mortality.

In response to the growing disobedience, self-appointed vigilantes have taken to enforcing the smartphone ban through violence. Moishe, who appears to be in his late 20s, was lurking near Shmulis store. Get out of our neighborhood, he screamed at a journalist. You can report on us. The police can arrest us. But we wont allow these impure abominations to destroy our holy lives.

Yedidia Stern, president of the Jewish People Policy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank, the cellphone controversy is a battle in Israels culture war. The Haredim would like to see Israel become a religious state, but this conflicts with the visions of seculars, religious and Arabs, said Stern. This is the background to the campaign against the mobile phones. This will not be resolved in the near future.
LONDON (AP)  British authorities issued their first ever red warning for extreme heat early next week, declaring a national emergency as forecasters predict record temperatures that will put even healthy people at risk of serious illness and death.

The warning covers Monday and Tuesday, when temperatures in England may reach 40 C (104 F) for the first time, the U.K Met Office said. The British record is 38.7C (101.7F), set in 2019.

The alert comes as scientists say climate change is increasing the likelihood of exceptional heat waves in Britain, a country better known for gray skies and rain. The chances of temperatures like those forecast for next week are already 10 times higher than they would be without the influence of human activity, said Nikos Christidis, a Met Office climate scientist. A woman uses an umbrella to shelter from the sun near Hammersmith in London, Friday, July 15, 2022. British weather forecaster the Met Office has said temperatures are like to peak at the beginning of next week and has extended its Amber weather warning from Sunday to Tuesday.(AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

We hoped we wouldnt get to this situation, but for the first time ever we are forecasting greater than 40C in the U.K., Christidis said in a prepared statement. In a recent study we found that the likelihood of extremely hot days in the U.K. has been increasing and will continue to do so during the course of the century.

The U.K. Health Security Agency increased its own hot weather alert to the highest level, putting it to national emergency. The warning system was created in 2004, when concerns about climate change spurred authorities to develop their first plan to protect the public from severed heat.

At this level, illness and death may occur among the fit and healthy, and not just in high-risk groups, UKHSA said.

The weather alert, which covers a big chunk of England from London north to Manchester, also warns of potential disruption to air and rail travel and potential localized loss of power and other essential services, such as water or mobile phone services.

The two agencies issued lower level warnings earlier this week as large parts of the U.K. experienced higher than normal temperatures, although cooler weather prevailed Thursday and Friday. Temperatures are expected to rise in the coming days as the system that brought record highs to parts of Europe this week moves north over Britain.

Even as a climate scientist who studies this stuff, this is scary, said Professor Hannah Cloke, a natural hazards researcher at the University of Reading. This feels real. At the start of the week I was worried about my goldfish getting too hot. Now Im worried about the survival of my family and my neighbors.

Nigel Arnell, a professor of climate system science at the University of Reading, said Britain needs to prepare for more hot weather in the future, retrofitting buildings to cope with extreme weather and planting more greenery in cities.

Adaptation and resilience need to become a political priority, he said.

We cant keep on dealing with extremes in crisis mode, Arnell said.

___

Read more stories on climate issues by The Associated Press at https://www.apnews.com/Climate
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP)  Officials in a West Virginia county plan to appeal a federal judges ruling in favor of three major U.S. drug distributors in a landmark lawsuit that accused them of causing a health crisis by distributing 81 million pills over eight years.

The Cabell County Commission voted unanimously Thursday to appeal the July 4 verdict and Huntington Mayor Steve Williams, who attended the meeting, said the city also plans to appeal, The Herald-Dispatch reported.

The verdict came nearly a year after closing arguments in a bench trial in the lawsuit filed by Cabell County and the city of Huntington against AmerisourceBergen Drug Co., Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp.

Cabell County attorney Paul Farrell had argued the distributors should be held responsible for sending a tsunami of prescription pain pills into the community and that the defendants conduct was unreasonable, reckless and disregarded the publics health and safety in an area ravaged by opioid addiction.

The companies blamed an increase in prescriptions written by doctors along with poor communication and pill quotas set by federal agents.

While the lawsuit alleged the distributors created a public nuisance, the judge ruled West Virginias Supreme Court has only applied public nuisance law in the context of conduct that interferes with public property or resources. He said to extend the law to cover the marketing and sale of opioids is inconsistent with the history and traditional notions of nuisance.

Commissioner Kelli Sobonya said the county has an obligation to voters.

We were left holding the bag with this opioid epidemic, and I feel like we need to proceed and work with the city in a joint effort to appeal this decision, she said.

Williams applauded the vote and said the city would not give up either.

The fact of the matter is in Cabell County over the last five years, over 800 people have died due to overdose, he said. We as elected officials need to hold responsible those who targeted our community. Im highly disappointed by the result of the trial, but Im even more determined than ever.
OTTAWA  Canadians who pay the federal carbon price got a midsummer money drop today with the first half of their annual climate action incentive payment deposited into their bank accounts.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is promoting the payments in various whistle stops in the Ottawa area today, calling them a way to bring Canadians along in the fight against climate change without causing them financial hardship.

People who filed their 2021 tax returns in Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan received the deposits Friday, to cover half the amount they can expect to receive for the 2022-23 fiscal year. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Liberal MP Jenna Sudds speak with Reza Matin, left, and Shirin Mohseni, second from left, about the Climate Action Incentive Payment at their backyard in Ottawa, on Friday, July 15, 2022. Canadians who pay the federal carbon price got a midsummer money drop today with the first half of their annual "climate action incentive" payment deposited into their bank accounts.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

The rest will come in quarterly payments in mid-September and mid-January.

All other provinces have their own carbon pricing systems and are not involved in the federal version.

It is the first time the carbon price cash is being sent quarterly instead of in a single lump sum hidden in tax rebates as the federal government seeks to make the payments more visible.

The success of that effort may be limited however since many Canadians saw the deposit unclearly labelled in their online accounts including as federal payment, Canada Fed and EFT Credit Canada. Some on social media queried what the payments were for as others shared the various ways they were labelled depending on which financial institution you bank with.

Mine showed up as Direct Deposit Federal Payment CANADA,' tweeted Lori Hausauer of Alberta. I like that Canada was all caps. Just in case I forget where I live, I guess.

That confusion was even evident as Trudeau visited a family in a planned photo op in an Ottawa suburb Friday afternoon.

Reza Matin, a father of two and software test developer, welcomed Trudeau to his home, and when asked by the prime minister if they received their payment, Matin said he got notice of a deposit for $372.50 but stumbled over who the payment came from.

It said it was from he said, pausing.

Trudeau filled in the answer, saying it said it was from the federal government, and then Matin agreed.

The rebates are designed to prevent families from being worse off overall due to the carbon price while still having an incentive to cut their carbon price costs by driving less, installing better furnaces or solar panels, or upgrading windows, doors and insulation.

The amounts vary by province based on the estimated carbon levy consumers will pay this year, with the annual payments for a family of four hitting $745 in Ontario, $832 in Manitoba, $1,079 in Alberta and $1,101 in Saskatchewan.

The payments in Saskatchewan and Alberta are higher mainly because they rely mostly on natural gas and coal for electricity while Ontario draws most of its power from nuclear and hydro, and Manitoba almost entirely from hydro.

The carbon levy applies to fossil fuels but not energy sources that are low or non-emitting.

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says the rebates cover more than the added cost of the levy for about eight in 10 Canadian families.

The carbon price is now $50 per tonne of emissions produced, which adds 11 cents to a litre of gasoline, 13 cents to a litre of diesel and 10 cents to a cubic metre of natural gas.

The federal government expects to return more than $7 billion to Canadians from the carbon levy this year.

The levy will increase by $15 a tonne each year through to 2030, adding another 3.3 cents to a litre of gas annually.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 15, 2022.



This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
HALIFAX  The common-law wife of the man responsible for the Nova Scotia mass shooting told an inquiry Friday that she lied to police about his illegal weapons and failed to report earlier violent behaviour because she was deeply afraid of him.

Lisa Banfield struggled to maintain her composure as she described how her partner beat her in 2003 as witnesses looked on, and she offered new details about what happened when her spouse threatened to kill his parents in 2010.

It was the first time she has spoken publicly about her life with the killer, and the inquirys decision to spare her from facing cross-examination proved contentious. Lawyers from a firm representing families of 14 of the victims, as well as about 20 of those family members, walked out of the hearing in protest before it ended. Lisa Banfield, second from left, spouse of Gabriel Wortman, is escorted by friends along with lawyer James Lockyer, right, as they leave Nova Scotia provincial court in Dartmouth, N.S., on Wednesday, March 9, 2022. The lawyer for the wife of the man responsible for the worst mass shooting in modern Canadian history says she is apprehensive about her appearance Friday before a public inquiry. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

The inquiry has heard Banfield was beaten and badly injured by Gabriel Wortman on the night of April 18, 2020, immediately before he began a shooting rampage that would claim 22 lives. She told investigators that she escaped into the woods and emerged the next morning to tell police that her partner was still at large and driving a vehicle that looked exactly like an RCMP cruiser.

Banfield said she will remain forever haunted by her decision to flee, as she wonders if her spouse might have harmed her and then left others alone.

I often think would any of those people have died? So that is something that haunts me all the time, because I feel that they werent targeted. He was looking for me in the beginning, she said. Lisa Banfield, the common-law wife of Gabriel Wortman, is flanked by her sisters Janice Banfield (left), and Maureen Banfield (right) as she testifies at the Mass Casualty Commission inquiry into the mass murders in rural Nova Scotia on April 18/19, 2020, in Halifax on Friday, July 15, 2022. Wortman, dressed as an RCMP officer and driving a replica police cruiser, murdered 22 people. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

Banfields testimony was at times painful and dramatic as she described what happened in June 2010 when Wortmans uncle alerted Halifax police that his nephew had threatened to kill his parents over a property dispute.

Banfield recalled how the killer had been drinking heavily and fired a bullet into the wall of their home in Dartmouth, N.S., terrifying her. When a Halifax police officer arrived at their door, Banfield admitted she lied when asked about the death threats and whether her spouse owned any weapons.

When commission lawyer Gillian Hnatiw asked why she lied, Banfield sobbed as she explained. Lisa Banfield, the common-law wife of Gabriel Wortman, testifies at the Mass Casualty Commission inquiry into the mass murders in rural Nova Scotia on April 18/19, 2020, in Halifax on Friday, July 15, 2022. Wortman, dressed as an RCMP officer and driving a replica police cruiser, murdered 22 people. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

He had the handgun by the nightstand, and he said. If any police come, Im shooting,' she said. So, when they asked me that, I didnt want them to go in, because I didnt want them (police) to get hurt.

When an RCMP officer showed up at the couples summer home in Portapique, N.S., after the death threat was reported, Wortman insisted he didnt own any firearms, aside from an old musket and another antique weapon suspended near the fireplace and filled with wax, Banfield testified.

She confirmed that the officer in question was Const. Greg Wiley, who had known Wortman for years and later told investigators that he had visited his Portapique home 16 times.

Hnatiw also asked Banfield about a violent assault at a gathering in Sutherland Lake, north of Portapique. In earlier interviews with the inquiry, she indicated the attack took place in 2001 or 2002, but she confirmed Friday the actual date was 2003.

She testified that when she tried to leave the bush party, Wortman became irate. As the pair drove away in his Jeep, he started punching her, she said.

And as I was driving back on the back road, hes yelling at me, she said as the hearing room fell silent. He started smacking me in my face. Im thinking, Ive never had anybody hit me before  and Im trying to drive. He just kept whacking me in the head.

She said she jumped out of the vehicle and ran into the woods. He ran after her and caught her.

He grabbed by the hair and was punching me, and Im trying to protect myself, she said. Im screaming. He pulled me out by the road  and then I could see these two (all-terrain vehicles) and their lights were on me. He looked up and he dropped me.

Banfield said Wortman was later placed in the back of a police cruiser and taken back to their home in Portapique.

Asked why she declined to report the assault to police, Banfield replied: Thats the first time anybody hit me, and I didnt want to get anybody in trouble. I just thought, Im walking away.'

Hnatiw also asked Banfield about the early stages of the couples relationship, which started in 2001 after they met at a bar in downtown Halifax. Banfield said that on their first date, he showed up with two dozen long-stemmed roses. I thought that was over the top, she said.

But later that night, she was impressed by his reaction when his car was rear-ended by a vehicle driven by a young woman. He approached the two young girls in the vehicle. He was smiling, she said. He said, Its OK. He was very calm. I thought, Hes a good guy.'

Earlier this week, the commission released a document based on evidence provided by Banfield during interviews with the RCMP and the inquiry detailing the killers long history of violence toward her. It said she would not face cross-examination, mainly because she could be traumatized by having to relive the violence she endured.

Still, lawyer Michael Scott, whose firm represents families of 14 of the victims, says the decision to limit questioning will leave lingering doubts about Banfields testimony.

Scott, several other lawyers in his firm and about 20 family members the firm represents walked out of the hearing in the afternoon. Weve decided with our clients weve heard enough and well be leaving for the rest of the day, he said.

I dont know if Ms. Banfield is lying, I dont know if shes telling the truth, I dont know if Ms. Banfield is mistaken, because we dont have an opportunity to ask her any questions.

In the afternoon testimony, Hnatiw asked Banfield whether she ever suspected her spouse might harm others, given she knew he owned a mock RCMP cruiser, illegal guns and a stockpile of gas and money.

She replied she regarded it as related to his paranoia about the pandemic. He was talking crazy, and I would pass it off because I didnt want to listen to what he was saying, she said.

During the 13 hours he was at large, the killer fatally shot 22 people, including a pregnant woman and a Mountie. He was shot dead by two Mounties on the morning of April 19, 2020.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 15, 2022.
Rural Municipality of Piney residents are upset the province has dragged its feet on reopening the only southeastern highway rest stop between Steinbach and Buffalo Point.

The Menisino Tower site has been a fixture for relief on Highway 12 for almost a half-century before being temporarily closed at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The fire tower, which resulted in its name, is long gone, but the access road and spots to put portable toilets for passing travellers remain.

SUPPLIED

Area resident Lyle Anderson points to the backwards Menisino Tower rest stop sign on Highway 12.

Area residents became worried this spring, and began making calls to government bureaucrats and MLAs, when the province didnt put out the two seasonal toilets, cut the grass or reverse the highway signs to show the rest stop some 70 kilometres southeast of Steinbach was open.

Lyle Anderson, who has lived in the area his whole life, said travellers passing through drive for many kilometres, seeing mostly pine trees and rocks and no public washrooms, before they finally get to the rest stop.

It has been a long-standing wayside stop for people to get a break to rest and go to the bathroom, Anderson said Thursday.

I dont know why they do this. There is always people at that rest stop whenever you go by it.

 Piney Reeve Wayne Anderson

Theres no place from Steinbach to Buffalo Point (connected to Hwy. 12 by Buffalo Point Road) to stop. Kids need to go to the bathroom. Seniors as well.

Weve gone to MLA (Dennis) Smook and others, but all they give you are zero answers, he added. It is going on deaf ears.

Piney Reeve Wayne Anderson said residents became even more worried after one talked to a highways worker.

They were told highways (department) had been scheduled to take the approach to the rest stop out, Anderson said. Theyve done this before. A bureaucrat somewhere wants to close it, then people complain, and then they reverse the decision.

I dont know why they do this. There is always people at that rest stop whenever you go by it.

The reeve may be right. A few hours after the Free Press contacted the province for comment Thursday, it announced the rest stop would not be closing.

The province temporarily closed the wayside park at this location in response to COVID-19 and will be reopening the site this summer, a spokesman said.

Anderson was skeptical at the news: There was absolutely no response until we sent this to the (media). Summer is half over  what was their comments regarding that?

Terry Bjornson of Winnipeg, who has a cottage in the Piney area, said the rest stop is used for more than just a bathroom break.

We have derbies, both ATV and snowmobiles, and we use it as a site for serving food to people. Well get 200 to 300 people out there, Bjornson said.

For the people here in Piney, we dont use it as a rest stop  we use it as a facility for fundraising. But then there are people coming up from the U.S. and there is an expectation they can stop there to use the washroom. Its a pretty place in the pines.

NDP municipalities critic Matt Wiebe said in a statement Thursday (before the province made its announcement): Frequent rest stops with clean, safe amenities are an important part of safe highway travel. The province should do its part to keep these sites open and available.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
Beneath the spectre of rising violent crime, Winnipeg police say investigative efforts to prevent gun violence are working.

The head of the organized crime unit said Thursday investigators under his command, and elsewhere in the Winnipeg Police Service, have taken a slew of measures to combat guns in the past year-and-a-half.

Insp. Elton Hall also pointed to data that show gun incidents are largely decreasing. MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Insp. Elton Hall also pointed to data that show gun incidents are largely decreasing. In the first six months of 2022, there have been 65 non-fatal shootings, compared to a total of 177 last year  which Hall said indicates the citys on track to have about 50 fewer by years end.

In the first six months of 2022, there have been 65 non-fatal shootings, compared to a total of 177 last year  which Hall said indicates the citys on track to have about 50 fewer by years end.

In the first six months of this year, there have been 101 fewer firearm discharge calls compared to the same time in 2021.

However, there have been 11 gun homicides so far this year, compared to 11 in each 2021 and 2020, and 17 in 2019.

(That) number for me is a little high, Hall said, adding police have determined a good portion of recent gun crimes were due to a conflict between two local gangs.

Both these gangs were having issues with one another, so our guns and gangs unit proactively enforced but also intervened to prevent any further conflict over the last three weeks, and Im hoping that will continue over the summer.

If trends continue, police may see five to 10 per cent fewer overall firearms offences by the end of this year, compared to 2021, Hall suggested, which would be a really good statistic.

It shows that what were doing is working, he said.

The moves to decrease gun violence include a board made up of law enforcement across the province, spearheaded by the Manitoba Association of Chiefs of Police, meant to prevent youth from getting involved with gangs, drugs and guns.

Hall said city police, Canada Border Services, the national firearms enforcement unit and federal firearms officers have also established a working group with provincial and federal Crown attorneys to address guns in the city.

Im very impressed with what each agency brings to the table, and the questions that are asked (of) the Crown attorney, who gives us instantaneous answers Agencies go back onto the street to combat firearms on the streets of Winnipeg, Hall said.

He also pointed to a focus on gang intervention for youth, working with community groups, as a successful move, and to efforts by the new firearms analysis unit to provide forensic intelligence on seized guns.

In January, a nine-month gun trafficking investigation led by the WPS organized crime unit spanning at least three provinces netted 12 arrests and the seizure of numerous guns, drugs and vehicles.

That led to a shortage of guns and an increase in prices in the past six months, police said.

A stolen or trafficked Glock pistol cost about $6,000-7,000 on the street, while a more generic nine-millimetre cost between $4,000-$5,000, in the six months following the big bust.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca
The provincial government has pitched in to give newly arrived Ukrainian children and youth a safe, fun environment to develop friendships and settle into life in Manitoba.

Premier Heather Stefanson said the province will provide $106,000 to fund a nine-week summer day camp for school-aged Ukrainian newcomers through the local Ukrainian Canadian Congress.

Kids need to be kids, Stefanson said during the announcement at Chornick Park, where U-Win day camp participants were playing games in the field. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Kids make marbled paper at a summer camp for school-aged Ukrainian refugee children at St. Annes Ukrainian Catholic Church in Winnipeg.

This camp will allow Ukrainian newcomers to start regaining a sense of normalcy after the absolutely unimaginable loss and suffering that they and their families have endured during this horrific time.

An estimated 120 children and youth will participate in the program offered by the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Winnipeg, Newcomer Employment and Education Development Services and the Seven Oaks Settlement Workers in Schools.

On top of field trips, crafts and recreation activities, participants receive English language instruction and mental health supports.

The Ukrainian Catholic parishes of St. Anne, St. Michael, St. Basil and Sts. Vladimir and Olga in Winnipeg and St. Marys in Rossdale, are providing in-kind support for the camp through facilities, program funding, educational programming and supplies, snacks, and volunteer development.

UCC-Manitoba president Joanne Lewandosky said while the $106,000 sounds modest, it will have a profound result.

I am convinced that this initiative will have a broader impact in helping all these children all around us and their families overcome the trauma and upheaval that many have experienced and aid them in integrating into friendly Manitobas society, Lewandosky said.

Camp counsellor Lesia Yaroshenko said children have a chance to be carefree, play and learn, and parents know their children are safe while they search for jobs.

What (kids) love about our camp, that were not stuck to some strict program, Yaroshenko said. We let them be the part of the team and contribute to this program every day.

Camper Bogdan Kuchmenko thanked his counsellors for the experiences hes had so far.

In this camp, I found new friends and my teacher teach me something new about Canada, Kuchmenko said.

The Archeparchy said volunteers with child care experience and some Ukrainian language ability are needed. People who are interested can email uwin2022camp@gmail.com and donations can be made to the Archeparchy of Winnipeg.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca
The Southern Chiefs Organization is demanding transparency in the investigation of a mans death at the Long Plain Manitoba First Nations Police Service detachment.

The July 9 incident involving 42-year-old Jeremy Peters is being probed by the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba, which looks into police incidents.

He had been detained under the Intoxicated Persons Act and was taken to the detachment at about 2:17 p.m. He was found unresponsive in the cell just over an hour later. MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES SCO Grand Chief Jerry Daniels said there must be accountability and transparency in the investigation.

He was taken to hospital in Portage la Prairie, and was pronounced dead.

The Independent Investigation Unit said it was notified of the mans death on the same day. Since the case involves a fatality, it has asked the Manitoba Police Commission for a civilian monitor.

On Friday, the day Peters was buried, SCO Grand Chief Jerry Daniels said there must be accountability and transparency in the investigation.

He threw his support behind Long Plain Chief Kyra Wilson, who has called for a community liaison to monitor the watchdog.

First Nations citizens are at greater risk of experiencing racism and death in the criminal justice system, SCO said.

Police services have a responsibility to serve the citizens in the community and ensure those who have been arrested are provided adequate care and attention while in custody, said Daniels.

First Nation people should not fear for their lives when they are arrested and taken into custody.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca
OTTAWA  An Ontario senator claims hundreds of women in northern Manitoba have been forcibly sterilized.

Sen. Yvonne Boyer made that statement Thursday, as her colleagues on the Senate human rights committee called for forced and coerced sterilization to be made a criminal offence. The senator said roughly 12,000 women, who are mostly Indigenous, have reported being made infertile without their consent.

I was in northern Manitoba, speaking about my experience in doing the external review, she said on Parliament Hill. ADRIAN WYLD / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Senator Yvonne Boyer would not name the community involved, but said likely more than 100 women in that community had said they were sterilized against their will.

Afterwards, there were people lined up all the way out the door to come and talk to me. Over half of those women had been sterilized against their will, she said.

Boyer would not name the community involved, but said likely more than 100 women in that community had said they were sterilized against their will.

This happens all over when I go speak, because people will come forward and say, Well it happened to me, and I havent told anybody since it happened 20 years ago.  MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES I send condolences to all those who have been subjected to such a devastating practice, wrote Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Garrison Settee.

The Senate committee concluded that forced and coerced sterilizations persist in Canada, and those subjected to it deserve an apology and compensation.

The senators say the horrific practice disproportionately affects vulnerable and marginalized groups, including Black and racialized women and people with disabilities.

In 2019, two Indigenous women filed a lawsuit as part of a proposed class action, claiming they were sterilized against their will at Manitoba hospitals.

No statement of defence has been filed.

One woman said she was sterilized in a Brandon hospital in 1985, following the birth of her fourth child. Another said she was sterilized in a Winnipeg hospital in 2018, after her second child was born.

Both alleged the procedures were done without free, proper and informed consent.

On Thursday, lawyer Alisa Lombard said the issue is under-reported, but there are many more Manitoba victims.

I have directly spoken with dozens of women in Manitoba who report having been forcibly sterilized, she wrote in an email. I am confident that there are hundreds, if not thousands.

On Thursday, Manitoba Health declined to comment, as the issue is before the court, as did the Winnipeg and northern health authorities.

Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, which represents most northern First Nations, said it would reach out to Boyer for more information about her claims.

I send condolences to all those who have been subjected to such a devastating practice, wrote Grand Chief Garrison Settee.

He said women have raised the practice in the past during healing circles, which are confidential. Settee added that MKO has not been approached by women or communities in recent years to advocate on the issue.

Women from MKO First Nations have had extensive involvement with the child welfare system, the justice system, tuberculosis sanatoriums, health care systems, residential schools, and other provincially/federally regulated systems, he wrote.

It is a sad reality that when they are involved within these colonial systems, our women and girls may have faced coercion to be sterilized.

The Senate report is a followup to its 2019 study, which chalked up the practice to racism.

On top of the trauma of undergoing the procedure itself, witnesses describe long-term health and psychological effects, including depression, anxiety and loss of trust in the medical system, Boyer said.

Thursdays report notes that Canada has a history of forced and coerced sterilization through laws and government policies that sought to reduce births in Indigenous and Black communities, as well as people living in poverty or with disabilities.

Boyer said the finding that struck her the most was the effect of sterilization on entire communities and future generations.

Forced sterilization disrupts and breaks the natural laws that Indigenous Peoples have followed since time immemorial, she said.

Boyer introduced a bill in the Senate last month that would make it a criminal offence to sterilize someone without their consent.

Boyer said that despite provinces stating that the practice has stopped, forced sterilizations persist, and a bill would make sure that medical workers stop and think before acting.

 With files from The Canadian Press

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
A new provincial party is promising to put grassroots Manitobans at the centre of government and bring disengaged voters back into the political fold.

Keystone Party of Manitoba leader Kevin Friesen officially launched the right-wing, populist party Friday morning at Vimy Ridge Memorial Park in Winnipeg, with 30-40 supporters in attendance.

We used to be called friendly Manitoba. But our government has literally turned some of us on each other, Friesen said during a keynote address under the mid-morning sun.

So you ask how we bring Manitobans back together? Well, we start by letting families make decisions at the family level. We start by giving communities back their right to govern. We start by respecting our forefathers and what they fought for and what they established in the Canadian Bill of Rights (and) the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

MIKAELA MCKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESSParty leader Kevin Friesen announced the launch of the Keystone Party Friday.

The Manitou-area grain farmer said Keystone differs from establishment political organizations, as constituency associations will have full authority to select candidates to represent them in the upcoming general election next year.

It will be you, the grassroots of Manitoba, that will find them. They will be your local business owners, your local farmers, your local school teachers or perhaps a local police officer, he said. Its up to you thats something you probably havent heard from a government official in a long, long time.

Party policy on immigration, climate change reconciliation and a range of other issues have yet to be decided as constituency associations will determine where they stand before bringing positions forward to voters for consideration, Friesen said.

Some of us were willing to be flexible when it came to lockdowns and mandates but some werent, some thought it was OK to force a medical decision on them for very personal choices, but let me be clear: the Keystone party is not OK with dictating those choices for Manitobans.  Kevin Friesen

However, the fledgling political party has published its principles, which include the freedom and rights of people as the keystone of democratic society; protection of Manitobas sovereignty and resistance against federal intrusion; conformity between policies and the charter and other guiding documents; the authority of parents over their childrens education; and a small government with balanced budgets.

Friesens speech leaned heavily on the division and anger sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic response, including business shutdowns, masks and vaccination requirements. He said supporters will have to release their inner genius to free residents from the monstrous societal divide, with the party providing the right environment to remove barriers that have suppressed their freedoms.

Some of us were willing to be flexible when it came to lockdowns and mandates but some werent, some thought it was OK to force a medical decision on them for very personal choices, but let me be clear: the Keystone party is not OK with dictating those choices for Manitobans, Friesen said.

We do not want to grow this with a grassroot that is only a quack grass or only a brome grass. We need all of different people from Manitoba.  Kevin Friesen

Later, he insisted the party is not singularly focused on pandemic-related grievances.

People are going to say this party started because of COVID restrictions, Friesen said. It just isnt what happened. The movement started before.

Asked whether he is concerned about extremist elements latching on and turning potential voters off, Friesen said he expects to receive support from a wide cross-section of Manitobans  and people with fringe beliefs will not see themselves reflected in party principles.

People who have never voted and disaffected New Democratic, Liberal and Progressive Conservative supporters would all be comfortable in the Keystone party, he argued.

We do not want to grow this with a grassroot that is only a quack grass or only a brome grass. We need all of different people from Manitoba.

Lockport resident Patricia Paradoski said she has voted for the PCs in the past but will be putting her support behind Keystone.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Supporter Patricia Paradoski said she has voted for the PCs in the past but will be putting her support behind Keystone.

Theyre not representative of the average Canadian, she said of the Tories and other establishment parties. Especially with these COVID vaccinations: totally against human rights, totally against the constitution and they just dont seem to care.

Premier Heather Stefanson expressed no concern over the possible threat to her vote share Friday.

I have no control over what they do as individuals, the Tory leader told reporters. They have every right to do what they want to do, and thats whats so great about our country, is that people have the right to set up those parties.

She said her focus remains on tackling the surgical and diagnostic procedure backlog and growing the economy.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Premier Heather Stefanson: They have every right to do what they want to do.

Friesen wants to see a full slate of candidates run in the next election, which must be held on or before Oct. 3, 2023, and hopes to gain official party status (four seats) in the legislative assembly. The party started accepting memberships Friday morning.

The Turtle Mountain resident said he will run in that electoral division, if the local association determines hes the right person for the job.

If they can find someone better than me, Im more than willing to step down and let that man or woman take over that constituency, he said.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca
A Winnipeg police officer has defended his aggressive interrogation of a sex-crime suspect after Manitobas high court ruled he had denigrated the mans sexual orientation and violated his rights.

Insp. Elton Hall said Thursday he was trying to get a confession.

Its an interviewing technique  its not pretty. I know people dont like looking at it or seeing it this isnt a tea party, these offences are very serious, he said. MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Winnipeg Police Inspector Elton Hall said police had consulted with a constitutional lawyer about using the confrontational, grey area approach, and his sergeant and partner had agreed to it.

He said police had consulted with a constitutional lawyer about using the confrontational, grey area approach, and his sergeant and partner had agreed to it.

A 60-year-old man was sentenced last year to 10 years in prison after being convicted of three counts of sexual interference and two counts of invitation to sexual touching. He appealed his conviction, and asked for a stay on all charges, but the Manitoba Court of Appeal recently upheld his sentence.

His lawyer had argued Hall, who was a detective sergeant at the time, was abusive and insulting during an interrogation that denigrated his sexual orientation and called into question his relationship with his husband.

Halls conduct was a serious departure from the expected standard and undermined the integrity of the justice system, constituting a (charter breach), Manitoba Court of Appeal Justice Karen Simonsen said in a recent written ruling.

While the exceptional remedy of a stay of proceedings is not warranted, this strong rebuke dissociates the justice system from the officers actions and, importantly, makes clear that the police cannot conduct an interview in the manner that was undertaken here.

The offences occurred between 1994 and 2007, when the victims  the offenders nephews  were between the ages of four and 14. The abuse, which included masturbation, oral sex and fondling, occurred during visits to the mans home in Winnipeg.

Police interviewed the man twice, first on June 15, 2016, after two victims filed criminal complaints against him, and a second time three weeks later after a third victim came forward. The man gave a statement during the first interview, but remained silent during the second.

It was the second interview that was the subject of the charter challenge. In a video recording of the interview provided to court at trial, Hall told the man he would do everything he could to have his children seized by Child and Family Services, called the mans partner a f-ing sociopath, called the man a f-ing coward and a professional victim, and suggested the man will enjoy jail.

At trial, Hall testified his aggressive approach was geared to getting the man to talk, and meant to mirror the communication style of the mans husband, who had been aggressive with police.

The appeal court ruled the interview was rife with sexual innuendo and disparagement based on sexual orientation.

On Thursday, Hall said he respects the court ruling.

Theyre looking at a two- or three-hour process involving a four-month investigation, so theres a lot more going on in this as well, he said.

They still have the right to appeal. I dont want to give the offender and his partner any platform here  Im more concerned about the survivors of this.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera
Premier Heather Stefanson insisted she didnt intend to butt in to Winnipeg police operations when she publicly expressed her disappointment with Chief Danny Smyths take on the recent spate of violence against innocent bystanders.

Im not interfering in the deliberations or the operations of the police service at all, Stefanson said on Thursday, during her first public appearance since returning from this weeks premiers conference in Victoria.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Premier Heather Stefanson was concerned about comments made by police Chief Danny Smyth.

On Tuesday, the premier posted to social media that she was very concerned with comments made by Smyth, who on Friday said a recent streak of violent crime was concerning but not unusual for the city.

Stefanson later told the Free Press she was really disappointed with the chiefs remarks and spoke with Winnipeg Police Association president Moe Sabourin to hear whats really happening within the service and offer her unwavering support to officers.

The police union has said its members have increasing concern with Smyths ability to lead the service and has called for more general foot patrols and action to boost morale amid a five per cent increase in violent crime last year.

What Im doing is sending a very strong message to those front-line officers there, who day in and day out, are going out into our community and are facing tragic situations that are happening.

 Premier Heather Stefanson

What Im doing is sending a very strong message to those front-line officers there, who day in and day out, are going out into our community and are facing tragic situations that are happening, Stefanson said during an unrelated media event in northeast Winnipeg on Thursday morning.

However, the premiers criticism of the chief is in sharp contrast to her governments support for the WPS and its handling of the three-week freedom convoy occupation of downtown Winnipeg in February.

At the time, the service came under fire for its response to the prolonged demonstration, both with respect to communications and enforcement. Mayor Brian Bowman called for police to apply the law and end the rowdy demonstration against public health orders. Under provincial law, elected officials cannot direct the actions of police.

But Stefanson took a softer stance, saying it would be inappropriate to interfere with police decisions and its important to let the professionals do their jobs  thats the Winnipeg police  and I think we need to have respect for what theyre doing.

Kevin Walby, an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Winnipeg, said by publicizing her concern with Smyths stance on crime trends, the premier is likely raising political capital with the police union, which wants to see the chief turfed.

Stefanson is in a really bad spot in terms of popularity, Walby said. So (the Tories) are desperate for something, and if they can jump onto this law-and-order ideology that the police union has, and try to spin that into some votes, conservative politicians always like to capitalize on these kinds of crises.

The police union is looking for external validation of its concerns with Smyths leadership, Walby said.

So (the Tories) are desperate for something, and if they can jump onto this law-and-order ideology that the police union has, and try to spin that into some votes, conservative politicians always like to capitalize on these kinds of crises.

 Kevin Walby, associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Winnipeg

In an interview with the Free Press earlier this week, Sabourin said he hoped the premiers support would make clear union comments were not self-serving, but made out of concern for the public.

Stefanson is looking for some kind of traction, and the traction is crisis, Walby said. And the union is looking for some kind of leverage to pop (Smyth) out of there and put in some kind of more hard-line superintendent as the chief.

Stefanson said Thursday she does not share the police unions concern over Smyths ability to lead the force. Rather, she is concerned the chiefs message normalized violence in Winnipeg, which is not right.

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Police Chief Danny Smyth

The premier said her office has reached out to Smyth for a conversation. Asked to respond to criticism her remarks have undermined the chief, Stefanson said people can think what they want.

My point is that I want to ensure that all Manitobans can feel safe wherever they are in our province, she said.

Walby, who directs the Centre for Access to Information and Justice, said the premiers comments could be a sign the Progressive Conservative government wants to further reform to the Police Services Act.

Two pieces of legislation amending the Police Services Act  based on recommendations from an independent review completed in September 2020  became law in June. They establish a provincial code of conduct and make changes to the Independent Investigations Unit.

The review recommended the province replace municipal appointees to police boards with provincial appointees and that police boards become the employer of the chief and sworn and civilian members.

What this could be is laying the groundwork for the province to inject themselves into that context and retract or claw back some autonomy of the city in policing, Walby said.

Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen was unavailable to comment, a spokesman said.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca
A wildfire that is raging two kilometres east of Pukatawagan has forced members of the northern Cree nation to flee from their homes.

Of the 39 fires burning in the province Friday, the one at the community in the far north near the Saskatchewan border ,was the largest, at more than 24,000 acres, the Manitoba government reported.

Three fires had started in the past 24 hours, it said in a release. The sky over Pukatawagan is orange on Thursday. (Thompson Firefighters Professional Association photo)

The Manitoba Wildfire Service advises that due to increased lightning and minimal precipitation, wildfire danger levels are high throughout Manitoba and high to extreme in northwestern Manitoba.

Air-quality statements had been issued for parts of the region.

As the flames got closer, the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation activated its emergency plan; crews were remaining behind to help protect homes and critical buildings. The First Nation is accessible by air and rail, but has no road access. Residents of Pukatawagan prepare for evacuation on Thursday as a wildfire bears down on the northern First Nation. (Thompson Professional Firefighters Association photo)

David Coholan, the director of flight operations at Missinippi Airways, said the company received a call about the fire Thursday afternoon. The airline only had two aircraft available to begin ferrying out people to safety.

We had our pilots here and we proceeded to start the evacuation process when we were airborne, Coholan said. We have been doing flights throughout (Thursday) evening to pick up passengers in Pukatawagan and take them to Thompson to drop them off where theyre under the Red Cross care.

Missinippi cancelled all commercial flights Friday and announced it wouldnt accept reservations or freight until the fire was under control.

Coholan said the airline is dedicating its efforts to getting community members in the region to safety.

The severity is bad. I flew in there last night. The town is filled with smoke, flames could be seen at dusk, very close to the community, Coholan said. Its hard to breathe there.

The Canadian Red Cross is working with the community to arrange lodging, meals and other basic necessities. Residents were flown to a hotel in Thompson and some will be flown to Winnipeg.

We are working today with Indigenous Services Canada and the First Nation to fly out as many people as possible, said Jason Small, the Manitoba communications manager for the Red Cross.

Cailin Hodder, the fire operations manager at Manitoba Wildfire Service said the fire had escalated Friday but crews are working to prevent it from spreading.

With the wind conditions, the heat (and) further lightning concerns in the area (Thursday), it grew quite quickly and quite large, Hodder said.

She said the service is prepared to send water bombers when it is determined to be effective. Officials are in frequent contact with Chief Lorna Bighetty to receive updates from the community.

The smoke has been quite thick in particular today and winds are blowing into the community, so that does hinder some of the efforts to protect structures and move equipment around, Hodder said. Currently, because its towards the west, its moving towards the community.

The Keewatin Railway Company was to sending a train to Pukatawagan Friday evening to transport more community members to safety in Sherridon, said CEO Anthony Mayham.

Were going to load up as many passengers as were able to, Mayham said.

Other groups and organizations that received word about the fire have jumped in to help. The Manitoba Animal Alliance is organizing efforts to rescue pets from affected regions. Melanie Chucyk said they are in contact with a company that helped transport animals during fires last summer.

We will head up to the fire zone and try to bring as many animals as we can so that they can survive, Chucyk said. (For) animals that are left behind, we make sure we leave food and we set out food and water for them until a rescue can get out there.

Small said that the Red Cross is always looking for more boots on the ground during the wildfire season. Volunteers can sign up by visiting www.redcross.ca he said.

The Red Cross always needs more people to volunteer to help us so that we can provide the support that people need, Small said.

cierra.bettens@freepress.mb.ca
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (AP)  A Florida woman interrupted an uninvited guest in her bathroom on Saturday night.

Michelle Reynolds told WSVN that she went downstairs to make herself a snack. After putting her popcorn in the microwave she went to use the bathroom and opened the door and did a quick turnaround because I saw this thing in there and quickly shut the door! she said.

The thing? An iguana.

The reptile was unable to find its way out the commode so Reynolds had to enlist Harold Rondon of Iguana Lifestyles, a wildlife removal service, to rescue the little fella.

Rondon said he has removed several iguanas from South Florida properties this year already.

This is the second one this week already, he said.

Rondon said he removed a Mexican spiny tail iguana from Reynolds toilet.

Males can get up to 18 inches long, with tails that can also get up to 18 inches long, he said.

He took up most of the toilet bowl, Reynolds said.

Although they are not native, iguanas have become common in South Florida, WSVN reports.

It is believed that they were brought to the area as pets in the 1960s, and some may have escaped or been released.

While they are not dangerous to people, some iguanas can transmit salmonella.
Opinion

It is often said, in the heat of political battle, combatants have the right to their own opinions but they do not have the right to their own version of the facts.

When it comes to the debate over the future of Manitoba Hydro, that essential principal seems to have eluded the Progressive Conservative government.

For several years, the Tories have attempted to severely limit Public Utilities Board authority over Hydro rate applications. Former premier Brian Pallister and current Premier Heather Stefanson both introduced legislation that would essentially gut any hope of an independent review and give cabinet new authority to control rates.

When asked why, both Pallister and Stefanson and their ministers have repeatedly claimed the cost to Hydro for a PUB rate application hearing is $10 million annually, an expense that was, in and of itself, driving up electricity rates.

That information shows categorically while annual costs have fluctuated  from a low of $561,000 to a high of $14 million  the average annual cost of a PUB rate application is less than $2.7 million.

Where do those costs come from? As is the case in any regulatory proceeding, the applicant (Hydro) has to pay all expenses for the PUB, any experts it retains, and the intervenors for legal representation and technical advice.

The $10-million figure was repeated as recently as March, when Finance Minister Cameron Friesen introduced a new bill to limit PUB oversight. Its not in our interest, on an annual basis, (to have) a hearing that costs $10 million, Friesen said. Thats a significant cost that could go to keeping rates lower.

Many of those intervenors, including the Consumers Coalition, have accused the Tory government of inflating the annual costs by as much as 300 per cent. No matter, the Tories have forged ahead with plans, repeating their $10 million figure as justification.

Fortunately, there is new information on this issue from a most unusual source: Manitoba Hydro.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS FILES

The Tories have repeatedly claimed the cost to Hydro for a PUB rate application hearing is $10 million annually, an expense that was, in and of itself, driving up electricity rates.

Hydros most recent filings with the PUB include a detailed breakdown of regulatory costs over the last 10 years. That information shows categorically while annual costs have fluctuated  from a low of $561,000 to a high of $14 million  the average annual cost of a PUB rate application is less than $2.7 million.

Even if you add in the cost of gas rate applications (which average $800,000 per year) it is an average of $3.5 million.

Why would this government deliberately use an erroneous figure?

In an emailed statement, Friesens office would only double down on the assertion the true cost is $10 million, completely ignoring the information Hydro just filed with the PUB.

As long as the Manitoba government continues to misrepresent the true costs of rate applications, we may never know exactly why Bill 36 is necessary. In the absence of a salient explanation, opposition parties and intervenors believe the Tories want legislated authority to sidestep the PUB.

CP

The report says the Progressive Conservative government, led by premier Brian Pallister until September; has not developed a strategy for reconciliation. (David Lipnowski / The Canadian Press files)

The PC government has shown a determined inclination to attack budget deficits and debt at the expense of core services.

Pallister, in particular, embodied this strategy. Throughout his five years in office, Pallister froze funding to key services so he could pull off a rare fiscal daily double: cutting the deficit and taxes at the same time.

The strategy worked as the deficit went down and a whole host of taxes went out. But it came with a cost: education, health care and other core government programs were severely damaged.

If youre wondering why wait times for elective surgeries are so high or why youre paying more for school supplies each fall, you can largely blame Pallister era austerity.

In that context, perhaps its not surprising the Tories are obsessed with Hydros debt. The problem is this obsession is going to have severe consequences for energy customers.

The Tory government is fully aware without the legislative authority, the PUB wouldnt allow Hydro to raise rates just to meet these targets.

As it stands, Bill 36 requires the Crown corporation to drastically reduce its debt, a liability that grew significantly in recent years because of NDP mismanagement of the Keeyask generating station and Bipole III transmission line.

Currently, Hydro has a debt-to-equity ratio of 88 per cent to 14 per cent. Bill 36 would require Hydro to achieve a 80-20 ratio by 2035, and a 70-30 ratio by 2040.

Intervenors who oppose Bill 36 estimate Hydro will need $5 billion in additional revenues, through a combination of export sales and rate hikes, to meet those targets. They believe these legislated targets will require Hydro to seek rate hikes much higher than if it were allowed to operate under the current ratio.

The Tory government is fully aware that, without the legislative authority, the PUB wouldnt allow Hydro to raise rates just to meet these targets.

In past rate hearings, the PUB heard from market experts who concluded, as a Crown monopoly, Hydros current debt load is not a concern for lenders or credit rating agencies.

Notwithstanding the information Hydro recently provided to the PUB, the Tories will continue to use wrong numbers to justify Bill 36  an unprecedented political attack on the independent system for regulating Hydro rates.

While that may only be an opinion, there is a mounting body of facts to support it.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca
Winnipeg police have arrested a 24-year-old man accused of assembling and trafficking 3D-printed handguns, after a lengthy investigation involving multiple law enforcement agencies.

Plastic-body guns are an increasing problem on city streets, Winnipeg Police Service organized crime unit Insp. Elton Hall told reporters at a news conference Thursday.

Last year, local police seized seven or eight 3D-printed guns; this year, that numbers been surpassed, he said. ERIK PINDERA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Winnipeg Police Service Insp. Elton Hall, Canadian Border Services Agency intelligence and enforcement division prairie region director Jeryn Peters, and WPS spokesman Const. Claude Chancy following a press conference Thursday about 3D-printed guns.

Of the 11 homicides committed with a firearm thus far in 2022, two or three involved a 3D-printed gun, Hall added.

The file was opened in November, when Canada Border Services Agency called Winnipeg Police Service firearms investigators to let them know it had seized gun parts at an international mail facility in Mississauga, Ont., destined for Manitobas capital.

Investigators believed those parts were to be built into 3D-printed guns.

In April, the accused tried to purchase firearms parts in Calgary using a disguised identity, spokesman Const. Claude Chancy said. Later that month, the accused successfully bought parts in Montreal, also while using a disguised identity, Chancy said.

Hall said it meant using someone elses identity, possibly with their knowledge, to purchase the parts.

Between April and May, police allege, the accused took those parts and assembled a gun, then sold it to another person. Police executed a warrant on a home in Winnipeg and seized the gun.

On June 25, city police and CBSA executed a warrant on a home on the 100 block of Prevette Avenue, seizing various 3D-printed gun parts and ammunition.

It included three 3D-printed handgun receivers (which are prohibited), nine-millimetre ammunition, handgun slide parts, a rear frame rail kit, trigger assembly, an automatic sear (prohibited) and electronic equipment seized by border services.

Blake Ellison-Crate, 24, of Winnipeg, has been charged with five counts of weapons manufacturing and trafficking, two counts each of identity theft, identity fraud and possession contrary to an order, as well as possession of a prohibited device knowing it is unauthorized.

He was also charged under the Customs Act with participating in or consenting to making false statements.

Hall said the accused is part of a larger firearm trafficking network, but would not reveal further details.

Calgary, Vancouver and Moose Jaw police assisted in the probe, as did national weapons enforcement support team members from the Manitoba RCMP and in Montreal.

Investigators did not find evidence to prove Ellison-Crate was printing guns himself  rather, they allege he was assembling them from parts.

Apart from receivers, those parts arent prohibited to purchase, Hall said, and arent addressed in proposed federal legislation to further limit the purchase, sale, importation and transfer of handguns.

Without any sort of legal oversight related to the buying, selling and movement of these gun parts, it will be very difficult for police agencies to prevent the manufacturing of 3D-printed guns, and thus, difficult to combat gun violence in Canadian cities, he said.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera
Opinion

For more than a year, the plinth that once supported a statue of Queen Victoria on the grounds of the Manitoba Legislature has sat vacant.

On Canada Day 2021, the statue was hauled to the ground by protesters in response to the discovery of what is presumed to be unmarked graves of Indigenous children at residential-school sites. The bronze figure was covered in red paint, and the head was removed and found later in the Assiniboine River.

It was a polarizing act, seen by some as an act of activism to be applauded, and by others as an act of vandalism to be chastised. Plenty of charged language was used, and the fate of the statue was the subject of heated debate for months.

Now, the question remains: what to do with the base?

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Manitoba Legislative Building with empty plinth that once house Queen Victoria Statue which was destroyed on Canada Day.

In June, Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen told The Canadian Press the toppled statue of Queen Victoria would not be repaired or replaced. While he cited cost  $500,000, at least  as a primary factor, whats also clear is that simply replacing a rendering of a colonial figurehead would be a failure of imagination. The vacant plinth represents an opportunity.

One option is to leave it as it is: the empty base itself became a piece of public art in the truest sense, in that it was the public that reconfigured it. Indeed, a dethroned plinth, stained with indelible handprints in vivid hues of orange and red, cuts a striking image  one that communicates much more than a plaque with sanitized wording ever could.

Another option is to use the base as a platform for a changing display of public art, which urban planner Lawrence Bird, in an interview with the Free Press, suggested could bemodeled after the Fourth Plinth in Londons Trafalgar Square. The Fourth Plinth is among the highest-profile spaces for public art in the world, with new commissions installed every two years.

Indeed, a dethroned plinth, stained with indelible handprints in vivid hues of orange and red, cuts a striking image  one that communicates much more than a plaque with sanitized wording ever could.

A Legislative Plinth of this sort could offer a similar opportunity for visual artists here  in particular, Indigenous visual artists. It could be a chance to tell other stories about Treaty 1 territory and the homeland of the Metis, on which both the legislature  itself a colonial building  and the plinth reside.

Winnipeg has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to Indigenous public art and artists. So much of the public art that has made our cityscape more vibrant in the past few years  from Kenneth Lavallees star blanket murals and Goota Ashoonas Sedna figure outside of the Winnipeg Art Gallery to Ian Augusts giant Rooster Town kettle on the Southwest Transitway and the many sculptures throughout The Forks  has been created by Indigenous artists.

And those pieces do more than liven up austere spaces; they educate, provoke and inspire. They can tell us something about the histories  and futures  of the people who make up this city and province. A fixed statue of one British monarch only tells one version of one story; public art has the power to do much more.

Winnipeg has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to Indigenous public art and artists. So much of the public art that has made our cityscape more vibrant in the past few years.

Public art is not meant to be ensconced in a gallery or a museum or a private collection; it belongs to everyone. What an incredible opportunity, should the Manitoba government recognize and seize it, to do something meaningful, to build something relevant that belongs to us all.

As for the toppled statue, it could also exist as is, perhaps at the Manitoba Museum or the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, as a colonial monument turned symbol of protest, an artifact from the summer when the truth part of truth and reconciliation was confronted in a way that, quite literally, changed the landscape.
OTTAWA  Manitoba parents might soon be able to get younger children vaccinated against COVID-19, though the province is warning that limited supplies mean those at highest risk people will get priority access.

Its relieving to hear, said Winnipeg mother Nicole Couch, who was elated Thursday after learning Health Canada has approved Moderna shots for children between the ages of six months and five years old.

I shared it with a few of my friends who have kids under five who have also been anxious.

The past two years have had many parents of infants and preschoolers trying to avoid the highly contagious coronavirus. Some unvaccinated children have developed inflammatory diseases.

Rebecca Foat was changing a diaper on her 20-month-old son Edward when her husband told her about the news. She looked at a headline on her Apple Watch and immediately started bawling.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Rebecca and Aarron Foat walk with their children Emilia and Edward in Winnipeg. I feel like Ive been holding my breath since vaccines started to be under development, said Foat.

I feel like Ive been holding my breath since vaccines started to be under development, said Foat, who got pregnant just before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic.

Its the first time I felt, like, maybe well be able to get back to some form of normal for our family.

Foat said she respects everyones personal choices during the pandemic, but has found it alienating to hear people say the pandemic is over, especially when politicians and doctors rarely mention parents of unvaccinated toddlers.

We feel like weve been forgotten about, as parents of young children, she said.

Its a big sigh of relief to know were going to have that added level of protection. Its part of keeping our entire community safe.

We feel like weve been forgotten about, as parents of young children.  Rebecca Foat

Similarly, Couch can barely wait to get her four-year-old son Cameron immunized.

It has been challenging, and we really limited what we did with him, especially in the first year-and-a-half of the pandemic, she said.

With older relatives and a husband with asthma, Couch tried to limit playdates to outdoor activities at playgrounds and pools. They originally kept Cameron out of supermarkets, and now have him wearing a mask at the grocery store, even though many other people dont.

Her son was sick three different times in June, a common occurrence among children attending daycares and preschool.

Whatever protection we can do to prevent spread at daycares is great, she said.

ETHAN CAIRNS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Nicole Couch can barely wait to get her four-year-old son Cameron immunized.

The Manitoba government says its waiting for Ottawa to detail when the province will get shots in the right formula; the new age group requires a dose that is one-quarter the size of the one adults get.

We anticipate the vaccine will be available to this age group at locations/clinics that currently provide COVID-19 vaccines, a spokeswoman wrote.

A significant amount of work is already underway to plan for vaccine distribution, to train immunizers to provide the vaccine, to update information online and to make adjustments to the appointment booking centre.

That will also involve updates to the online vaccine finder, though Manitoba Health warns that initial supplies might be needed just for priority groups, and will follow federal advisories.

The provincial recommendations will set out who should get access to the vaccine first, given there are limited supplies expected in the next few weeks, the department wrote.

The provincial recommendations will set out who should get access to the vaccine first, given there are limited supplies expected in the next few weeks.  Manitoba Health

Ironically, the Couch family caught COVID-19 just two weeks ago, right after a trip they took to Nova Scotia as case rates seemed to be on a steady decline.

Because of advice to wait until three months after an infection, the family will likely hold off until late September for the boys shot, but that doesnt mean theyre less enthusiastic.

Im still counting down the days until I can get him vaccinated, Couch said.

She hopes other Manitoba families share the same enthusiasm.

Youre getting kid vaccinated for every other disease out there; I dont know why you would hesitate to get the COVID vaccines, especially after weve seen so many adults and older children get it with minor or no issues, she said.

Its kind of a no-brainer for me.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
The proposed Rolling Prairie subdivision got a boost this week with a move from the city council that will help pay for roads, sewer and water in the subdivision.

On Thursday night the Portage Common Council voted to expand the citys tax incremental district on the north side of Portage. The TID will be used for tax incremental financing (TIF) to help pay to develop the proposed subdivision.

A TIF is an economic development technique to expand the property tax base. Property value increases fund site improvements that would not otherwise occur, according to the Wisconsin Department of Revenue.

City Administrator Shawn Murphy said expanding TID #9 will help grow Rolling Prairie subdivision. Also, by expanding the district, the city will not take on any new debt when building the subdivision.

Jon Cameron of Ehlers Public Finance Advisors explained to the council on Thursday night that TID #9 was created as a mixed-use district in September 2017. It comprises 33 acres near Gunderson Drive. Murphy has said the subdivision is important because of the housing opportunity as well as the chance to connect Gunderson with Hamilton Street.

Cameron said Portage anticipates a total cost of around $4.7 million to develop the area for the proposed subdivision. He added that estimates show an approximate value of about $97.6 million.

The City has 20 years to pay the project costs but Cameron has estimated it will only take 13 years.

Before TID #9 was expanded it consisted of a number of parcels east of County Highway CX and Gunderson Road. The expansion includes the property for Rolling Prairie owned by Gumz Farms and other land linked to the former Gunderson Industrial Park and a single city-owned parcel.

The Rolling Prairie subdivision is a proposed 60-acre, 91-lot development that is still in the preliminary phases; however, plans for the subdivision are moving forward. There are a number of different housing options, including single-family lots and the potential for a number of multi-family units.

City officials have said they plan on adding a park to the subdivision with more details being released in the future. The motion carried with no opposing votes.
A state appeals court has upheld the 2020 conviction of a Dothan woman charged in the 2017 murder of her fiance.

Cedricka Jacole Thornton, 27, was convicted of the murder of Devontay Vashon Davis, who was stabbed to death with a pair of scissors in a Mona Drive apartment on Feb. 9, 2017. Thornton and Davis had been engaged to be married, according to investigators.

The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the verdict delivered in Houston County Circuit Court on Feb. 13, 2020, resulting in a 50-year prison sentence.

Evidence at trial showed that during the early morning hours of Feb. 9, 2017, police and emergency personnel were called to Thorntons residence where they found Davis suffering from a stab wound to the chest. Davis was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced dead a short time later.

Thornton told conflicting stories to the police about what happened that night, according to the state attorney generals office. Eventually, when confronted with certain facts, Thornton changed her story and contended that she acted in self-defense and that Davis had assaulted her and threatened her life. After hearing evidence that included testimony from a medical expert that the victims death could not have occurred the way Thornton said it did, the jury found Thornton guilty of murder and she was sentenced to 50 years imprisonment by the trial court.

Thornton sought to have her conviction reversed on appeal.
New 450k project to map potential of heat stored in abandoned coal mines in Wales

Welsh Government are funding a project in Wales to explore if water from disused mines has the potential to play a role in generating energy.

Wrexham.com readers will recall reporting from earlier this year detailing Coal Authority work on the matter  from which the above image is from. As we detailed at the time water in old mines are warmed by natural geothermal processes and these are now being developed as a source of low carbon energy to heat homes and businesses.

The method is theoretically straightforward, a borehole pumps the naturally heated water to the surface and then a heat pump or exchanger creates useful heat from it, and the water is then returned back down to the mine workings.

Now Welsh Government has announced a 450,000 project will allow the Coal Authority to investigate whether such mine water, could be used to heat homes, businesses and industry across Wales.

Sites will be mapped to give a high-level assessment of where the best potential lies, with more detailed feasibility studies carried out on those considered to have the most realistic likelihood to connect to existing buildings and new developments.

Approximately 40% of the energy used in Wales provides heat to homes, businesses and our industry.

Most of this heat comes from gas, but by 2025, there will be no gas connections in new build homes in Wales to support decarbonisation efforts.

Mine water is a low carbon, sustainable heat source, which could compete with public supply gas prices and deliver carbon savings of up to 75% compared to gas heating.

Climate Change Minister Julie James said: Improving the energy efficiency of homes is essential as we front up to the climate emergency and build a stronger, greener and fairer Wales.

To get there, we need to think innovatively and ensure we meet out renewable energy needs of the future, so Im looking forward to hearing what the Coal Authority discover as part of their work.

Its very exciting that communities could be metres from a technology-ready alternative to traditional heating methods that could help us towards our journey to a Net Zero Wales by 2050.

Any identified opportunities for mine water heating also have the potential to breathe life back into communities, as well as create a wealth of benefits for the economy  including jobs and manufacturing.

Gareth Farr, Head of Heat and By-Product Innovation at the Coal Authority added: Mine water from disused coal mines can be used to support heat networks, providing secure, low carbon heat to buildings.

We look forward to working with the Welsh Government on this first of a kind project to highlight the opportunity for such technology, creating a green future for Wales former coalmining areas.

(The top image is via a mapping tool  use the drop down menu at the top right hand side of the screen to select Temperature Maps. The tool is aimed at developers, planners and researchers to identify opportunities to investigate the use of mine water as a sustainable heat source. )
Four people have been arrested and charged with capital murder in the killing of 34-year-old Gabriel Johnson, whose body was found at a Dothan intersection Thursday morning.

We asked for community help in this investigation, and we received that and it was instrumental, Dothan Police Chief Will Benny said during a Friday news conference.

Police arrested Dialan Zhontavis Beard, 18, of Dothan; Rodgrick Jermaine Holmes, 18, of Dothan; Davaciera Booth, 18, of Panama City, Florida; and a 17-year-old juvenile, also of Panama City.

Beard and Holmes are currently in the Houston County Jail with no bond. Booth and the 17-year-old juvenile were arrested in Panama City and are awaiting extradition back to Dothan. Neither will have bond.

The motive of this senseless act appears to be robbery, and we have the information that we need to make that case, which turns this case into a capital case, Benny said. This was a tragedy. Four people decided to plan to kill somebody to rob them for money. I guess its a sign of the times we live in.

Gabriel Raynaldo Johnson of Ashford was found dead in a grassy area at the intersection of Morgan and Westmead streets in Dothan on Thursday around 6:30 a.m. by a passerby. He had been shot once in the upper torso with no other visible injuries. Johnsons body was sent to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences for autopsy, but its still unclear how long Johnson had been dead before he was found.

According to information released Thursday, police believed Johnson had been killed where he was found and had likely been there several hours before he was discovered. The intersection is in a residential area a few blocks off West Main Street near downtown Dothan.

The chief said investigators believe everyone responsible for Johnsons murder is in custody.

Benny said the arrests were a team effort of investigators, police officers on the scene, and dispatchers taking information. The chief expressed appreciation for the assistance of the Bay County, Florida, Sheriffs Department and Bay County Sheriff Tommy Ford.

According to the Dothan Police Departments website, officers and investigators worked into the night Thursday to locate persons of interest based on information the department received from the public. Officers and investigators collected surveillance videos, conducted interviews, and executed numerous search warrants as the investigation unfolded on Thursday.

Benny did not take questions during Fridays news conference due to the infancy of the investigation, but he said he wanted residents to know that police had found those they believe responsible.

I thought it was important to share the information that we do have just so the community can be assured that we have who we believe responsible for the planning and the execution of the murder, Benny said.
Hillsdale College, a private Christian liberal arts school in southern Michigan, has emerged as an ideological think tank for the far right, playing an outsized role in national government policy. The tiny, rural-based school enrolls only about 1,400 students a year.

Behind the schools small numbers lie powerful ultra-right-wing interests and politicians. January 6 coup plotter Ginni Thomas was the associate director of Hillsdales Washington D.C. Operations between 2008 and 2009. Her husband, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, was a featured graduation speaker, as were a litany of ruling class figures and right-wing ideologues, including former CIA director and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, and far-right Canadian academic Jordan Peterson.

Hillsdale boasts an unheard-of endowment of over $700 million for a school of its size and is lavishly funded by well-heeled donors across the US. It is now looking to expand its national footprint more deeply into K-12 education, promoting its right-wing patriotic and pro-war curriculum to young people through publicly funded charter schools.

Under an umbrella of classical education and patriotism, Hillsdale serves as a laboratory and political advocate for fascistic ideas. These include: herd immunity in the COVID pandemic, massive US military rearmament and preparations for war with China, anti-immigrant xenophobia, abolition of the separation of church and state, the claim that diversity is unpatriotic and threatens national unity, opposition to radical gender ideology, claims that global warming is a hoax, and the abolition of public education through charter schools and vouchers.

It was largely considered a feeder school for the Trump administration and its supporters during his four years in office. Hillsdale president, Larry P. Arnn, for example, led former President Trumps 1776 Report, a fascistic document promoting cultural and linguistic homogeneity and advocating for the further obliteration of the separation of church and state.

Since 1972, the school has published a theoretical journal, Imprimis, which claims a readership of over 6 million and provides analysis on topics such as National Defense, Economics, Culture, Education and more.

In 2013, Hillsdale was accused of discriminatory admissions practices. At the time, President Arnn gave unforgettable testimony to the Michigan legislature, summing up the proceedings in his own words: We didnt have enough dark ones, I guess, is what they meant.

Despite its combination of deep political connections and dangerous ideas, Hillsdale College has flown largely under the radar until recently.

Since 2010, the school has been quietly expanding its operations into K-12 charter schools under its Barney Charter School Initiative (BCSI). BCSI now has a network of 24 classical education member charter schools in 13 different states. They claim to have trained thousands of teachers and reached tens of thousands of K-12 students, according to their website.

[Photo by Hillsdale College/Google Maps]

During the initial phase of the pandemic in 2020 (which Hillsdale refers to as national unrest), BCSI opened three new schools and one affiliated one: Ascent Classical Academy Northern Colorado in Fort Collins, Colorado, Jacksonville Classical Academy in Jacksonville, Florida, Tallahassee Classical School in Tallahassee, Florida, and the Barney Charter-Affiliated Orange County Classical Academy in Orange, California.

Unlike the private college in Michigan, many of these K-12 projects are publicly funded. The college has rejected federal funding for decades in order to avoid compliance with Department of Education anti-discrimination rules, but their K-12 operations are cashing in on public tax dollars. The following examples gives a sense of how much federal funding BCSI is beginning to receive:

Ascent Classical Academy of Northern Colorado: $671,000

Treasure Valley Classical Academy Idaho: $1.25 million

Ivywood Classical Academy Michigan: $ 1 million and managed by a for-profit

and managed by a for-profit Seven Oaks Classical School, Indiana: $899,962

It is in this context that last February, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced plans to partner with Hillsdale to launch as many as 50 such schools throughout the state. Hillsdale envisions this publicly-funded initiative as a prototype for further national expansion.

The political agenda of the Hillsdale curriculum

On COVID-19: In October 2020, the Trump White House officially embraced a policy of herd immunity as COVID-19 ravaged the country. This strategy, spelled out in the Great Barrington Declaration, effectively declared that the mass infection of the population was a positive good; it facilitated the deaths of millions of people. It was authored by, among others, Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford University and Martin Kulldorff of Harvard University and embraced by Trump adviser Scott Atlas. These men constitute Hillsdales only three fellows for the Academy of Science and Freedom.

On preparations for war with China: An Imprimis article, Facing Up to the China Threat asserts that Communist China appears to be at war with us. It decries what it deems US military unpreparedness and alleges that COVID-19 may have been part of a Peoples War aiming to plunge America into a mighty sea of coronavirus.

The rhetoric, highly inflammatory if not hysterical, claims the US is the target of massive industrial espionage, including every single one of the Chinese citizens on US soil including hundreds of thousands of students and many academics. Moreover, they allege that China stands behind Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and various other left-sounding groups. Among the laundry list of nefarious activities they attribute to China is undermining Christianity by lying about Jesus, corrupting the US business elites, and subverting the American way of life.

On the January 6 insurrection: The college hosted a lecture by Roger Kimball, editor of The New Criterion, claiming January 6, 2021 was an insurrection hoax. Kimball, who has also authored numerous pieces in the schools online publication Imprimis, described the attempted overthrow of the 2020 election results aiming to install Donald Trump as dictator merely as a political protest that got out of hand, emphasizing that Trump urged his followers to peacefully and patriotically descend on the Capitol.

On policing and Border Patrol: Imprimis regularly spouts support for the militarization of the US-Mexican border. One article features a lecture given at the school by Mark Morgan, a former FBI agent, chief of the US Border Patrol during the Obama administration, and Trumps acting Commissioner for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Morgan argues for a wall on the US-Mexico border and ramped up funding for Border Patrol. A country that cannot control its borders is not a country, and Im sad to say that we are facing that eventuality, he concludes.

On patriotism, moral virtue and religious indoctrination: The college mission is to provide God-honoring leadership in our county, according to Justice Thomas, who dedicated the newly rebuilt Christ Chapel on campus in 2019. Quoting the architect of a vast social counterrevolution, former US President Ronald Reagan, Thomas warned, freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. He urged that The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and so on. The type of moral virtue inculcated by the school is indicated by its prominent bronze statues of Reagan and his British counterpart Margaret Thatcher, who jointly plunged millions into poverty and destroyed the post-war social safety nets.

Charter schools, the Supreme Court and the fate of public education

The geyser of right-wing filth spewed from the pages of Imprimis could fill volumes of textbooksand that is precisely what the founders of Hillsdale College have been working on. The schools foray into K-12 charter schools aims to widely promote right-wing, anti-democratic ideology, paid for by public funding.

The curriculum taught at the Hillsdale Charter Schools in the BCSI is called the 1776 Curriculum, no doubt modeled after Trumps 1776 Report. Their website proclaims that the curriculum is designed to educate students to know what it means to be an American.

Conservatives have long fought for the proliferation of charter schools to both cash in on the vast education market and to bypass federal regulations on curricula. Figures like Betsy DeVos and Ginni Thomas have used the Hillsdale College Charter initiative as a spearhead in this well-funded and many-sided battle to erode and destroy public education and democratic rights.

Last month, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas joined the majority in a landmark decision in Carson v. Makin. The ruling expands voucher policies to religious schools, violating Thomas Jeffersons famous wall of separation of church and state. The courts ruling will aid charter schools like Hillsdale to expand operations and further destroy public education. It is no surprise that Hillsdale College filed an amicus curiae brief on behalf of Carson.

The fight to defend public education

The defense of public education is at the center of the fight for social equality. The American ruling class, Democrat and Republican alike, has repudiated the democratic principle that all children, regardless of their socio-economic background, have the right to a high-quality education. The success of the Hillsdale Charter School initiative reveals just how advanced the plans are for the destruction of public education altogether. The situation is urgent.

It is necessary for educators, students, parents and all workers to take matters into our own hands in the fight to defend the basic democratic right to a free and high quality education. The World Socialist Web Site is fighting to organize educators, parents and students in rank-and-file committees to prepare for the struggle ahead.

Rank-and-file committees are of, by and for the rank-and-file workers, who have a different set of interests in preserving their lives than management, the bosses, the corporate politicians, and the trade union apparatus, who exploit the working class while defending the profits of the ruling elite. The starting point of our fight is not what the ruling elite says is possible or affordable, but what is socially necessary to ensure free, high-quality education for all.

The struggle to defend public education poses the question of who controls societys wealth and decides how it is distributed. That is why the fight for education, along with every other social right, requires the development of a mass political movement of the working class to put an end to capitalism and institute common ownership of the productive forces and social equality under socialism.

If you agree with this, we urge you to join an Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee near you today.
The WSWS is continuing to receive statements in support of Dr. David Berger, an Australian physician and dedicated Zero-COVID advocate, who is facing disciplinary action from the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency (AHPRA) because of his opposition to the official let it rip pandemic policies of mass infection and death.

Dr. David Berger (Photo: Supplied)

Since the publication of our first article, which calls on scientists, health workers and other sections of workers to speak out in defence of Dr. Berger, the WSWS has published five articles compiling these statements. These articles have been read by tens of thousands of people throughout the world.

We urge readers to speak out in Dr. Bergers defence by emailing your statements here. Please indicate in the email how you would like to be identified in our next article, and if you want to include a photo, please attach one to the email.

Dr Mary Tapsall, a retired general practitioner from northern Victoria, Australia, contacted AHPRA last week protesting its treatment of Dr. Berger. She called on it to review its disciplinary action, with close attention to any motivations from those who made any complaints. We include below Tapsalls email to the WSWS, her submission to AHPRA, and its response.

Email to WSWS:

Hello,

Please feel free to use my complaint to AHPRA regarding their restrictions on Dr David Berger. I received the beige reply from AHPRA as below. I am contemplating whether to progress my complaint to the Ombudsman but am watching to see if there are any further developments.

I am not surprised but am very impressed by the outpouring of support for Dr Berger from outstanding experts across the world, as well as more ordinary people like myself.

Best wishes,

Dr Mary TAPSALL

Submission to AHPRA:

I am a retired General Practitioner with a keen interest in the Covid epidemic. I have followed Dr David Berger on Twitter for over two years now and have also read his excellent articles in The Age, Guardian, BMJ and Medical Journal of Australia.

I have found Dr Berger to be a completely truthful, expert and compassionate writer whose only concern is for the optimal health of all people. He is always quick to note and credit to the authors, important research regarding Covid published worldwide as well as the anecdotes of people, especially health workers, trying to manage these enormous challenges. When he has made comment on other health professionals it has always been factually based.

Some people have been wrong, often over and over, about key understandings about the pandemic. To call this out, when those same people wont acknowledge their misunderstandings, is entirely reasonable. The pandemic, like climate change and many other huge issues, is an information battle.

We are all being urged to take personal responsibility for managing our individual risks but are not often given the tools and information to do so. Dr David Berger has been one of the most informative and reliable sources I have for understanding these risks.

The disciplinary action taken by AHPRA is bewildering and suggests some people or persons have a personal vendetta against Dr Berger for perhaps highlighting their significant misunderstandings of the pandemic. These misunderstandings are not trivial and have real life consequences for people trying to manage their risks.

I urge the board to review the process by which they chose to take disciplinary action and to ascertain whether complaint/s made are genuinely made or might reflect vindictiveness. It is more important than ever that we can all have access to writers like Dr David Berger and they are not being silenced due to some individuals shooting the messenger.

Response from AHPRA National Complaints Manager Amanda Watson

Dear Dr Tapsall,

I refer to your complaint received on 9 July 2022 in which you express disappointment about the decision made by the Medical Board of Australia (the Board) recently to take regulatory action against Dr David Berger.

Unfortunately, the confidentiality provisions in the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law Act under which we operate restrict me from commenting on any individual regulatory matter except to the extent that information is available on the online public register of practitioners. However, I acknowledge your support of this practitioner and the time taken to provide your comments about this matter.

Im sorry that I have not been able to speak in any substantive way to the concerns that you raised in your correspondence.

Having received this response to your complaint, you are able to raise your concerns to the National Health Practitioner Ombudsman should you continue to remain concerned about this matter. You can find out more about the Ombudsmans service at www.nhpo.gov.au and contact the Ombudsman by email at complaints@nhpo.gov.au.

***

Stefan, a high school teacher from regional New South Wales, submitted the following statement of support for Dr. Berger:

I was shocked to hear of Dr Bergers sanctioning by AHPRA, and absolutely flabbergasted that he is being ordered to attend some sort of education program if he is to maintain his medical licence. Is this a political decision designed to appease a government that doesnt want any alternative put forward to the way they are managing the pandemic?

Dr Berger tells the truth about the consequences of letting the pandemic rage, and what can be done to stop it. AHPRAs action against him is baseless and should be withdrawn. There are still huge amounts of absences in schools because of COVID, we arent able to run normal classes and might have one teacher to supervise at least two or three classes. You cant give students the attention they need.

At some schools, Ive heard of kids classes being put in the playground, there might be two or three classes out there, in the middle of winter, barely supervised, because theres nowhere else to put them. Every day there might be at least seven or eight students absent. One of my students now suffers from long COVID. He is an excellent student but has had about two months off school and his symptoms have continued for four months.

When the climate change debate was raging, I didnt see any climate change sceptics being sanctioned for spouting absolute rubbish, yet Dr Berger, a doctor is being sanctioned for voicing his expert opinion based on sound research and scientific facts. It draws parallels to the Julian Assange case where unearthing unpleasant truths is a crime. What next?

Andiope Hatzis, an Occupational & Public Health Advocate in Australia, sent this Personal Message of Appreciation from a Health & Safety Advocate:

As a public health advocate, Dr Berger succeeds at both the art and science and is a real treasure and a godsend for the greater public good, beyond Australian shores.

Dr Berger distills and amplifies key Covid-19 messages through the skillful use of digital media, reaching a wide audience; efficiently and effectively highlighting the vital importance of precautionary approaches and safety measures, for the protection of the community.

As a health and safety advocate with lived experience of growing up in a family with an injured worker, I have a heightened understanding of the impacts of illness and injury, on peoples lives and their communities.

Dr Berger is a stalwart of public health and a shining light in the darkness of the pandemic. Dr Berger, thank-you for your service.

Send us your statements of support for Dr. Berger and we will publish them in the coming days.
There may not be a photograph today of US President Joe Biden shaking hands with Saudi despot Mohammed bin Salman. The press has been largely excluded from the Saudi leg of Bidens four-day trip to the Middle East, and Bidens aides have announced a new protocol limiting Biden to exchanging fist bumps, not handshakes or hugs, supposedly due to the greatly accelerated spread of the Omicron BA.5 subvariant of the coronavirus.

There is good reason to believe that this policy has nothing to do with any new health concerns for the 79-year-old president. The White House desires to reduce the amount of attention given to Bidens embrace of a notoriously bloodstained murderer. He is courting bin Salman in an effort to obtain a sizeable increase in Saudi oil production, both to ease the pressure on NATO countries from the cutoff of Russian supplies as a byproduct of the war in Ukraine and to defuse social discontent in the US itself, where gas prices have soared to nearly $5 a gallon.

It is his first trip as president to the region where American imperialism has carried out its bloodiest crimes over the last three decades, waging wars in Iraq, Syria and Libya, supporting countless military coups and brutal repression by kings and dictators alike. Millions have died and tens of millions have been driven into exile. Biden is not seeking to alleviate the plight of those who have survived imperialist aggression, but rather to add to the number of victims. He is devoting four days to intensive talks with the two most important US allies and client states in the Middle East. He has spent two days in Israel and will spend two more in Saudi Arabia, with the strategic aim of lining up the two countries behind the US-NATO war against Russia in Ukraine, while promising US support for their preparations for war against Iran.

There is also a brief side trip to Ramallah, which has more the character of a slap in the face to the people of occupied Palestine than an acknowledgement of their rights. In relation to the Palestinians, Biden has continued all the measures adopted by the Trump administration: the US embassy, moved from Tel Aviv by Trump, remains in Jerusalem; the US consulate in East Jerusalem, the main point of contact for Palestinians, remains closed; the Palestinian mission in Washington D.C. remains closed; the US continues to demand that the Palestinian Authority cut off all support payments to the families of those murdered by Israeli troops and settlers, which Israel calls financing terrorism; and the US has not changed the Trump policy of recognizing the legitimacy of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, in violation of international law.

There is an overpowering element of imperialist hypocrisy in the Biden trip. The US government has been engaged for nearly five months in a war against Russia in Ukraine. It has poured in tens of billions of dollars in weaponry and deployed covert military forces. The claimed justification for this confrontationwhich risks direct military conflict between countries possessing the worlds two largest nuclear arsenalsis that the United States is defending freedom, democracy and the right of self-determination of the Ukrainian people, as well as warding off a future Russian threat to Americas NATO allies. Yet this policy now leads the president of the United States to embrace two regimes that personify the very crimes that have supposedly justified the US intervention in Ukraine.

The state of Israel was founded on the denial of self-determination for the Palestinian people, indeed, of their very existence. Israel has occupied conquered territory in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights for more than half a century, and it is steadily remaking the character of these areas through the building of settlements and the seizure of Palestinian and Syrian land, in what can only be called ethnic cleansing. Gaza has been aptly described as the largest open-air prison in the world, with the caveat that in most prisons the guards do not regularly fire missiles and rockets and drop bombs on the inmates.

The suppression of the Palestinians right of self-determination remains Israels key principle. This was codified during the Trump administration with the passage of a law declaring Israel to be the state of the Jewish people, thus relegating non-JewsChristians, Muslims, atheists, immigrants of all kinds, as well as the Palestiniansto the status of permanent second-class citizens. Zionists may not like the term, but this is apartheid.

Writing in the Washington Post this weekend, Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, bemoaned the fact that in the region extending from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River (essentially Israel, Gaza and the West Bank), the Palestinian population now outnumbers the Jewish population. No external threat is as dangerous to the Zionist enterprise as this internal one, he writes.

Fascist elements, particularly among the Israeli settlers, have drawn the conclusion from this demographic fact that the Palestinian population must be drastically reduced in order to reestablish and maintain a Jewish majority, either through mass expulsions, like those carried out in 1947-48, or through mass killings of the type that befell the Jewish population of Nazi-occupied Europe during the Holocaust.

There was no mention of these inconvenient facts in the course of Bidens visit, full of saccharine pledges of unending US support for Israeli democracy.

As for Saudi Arabia, it lacks the parliamentary facade of Israel and is ruled by a tyrant monarch who has become a byword for murder, savage internal repression and genocidal warfare against a small neighboring country.

Bin Salmans most publicized killing is the assassination of Saudi critic and journalist Jamaal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. Khashoggi, by then a US resident and columnist for the Washington Post, was lured to the consulate, then murdered by a death squad dispatched by bin Salman. His body was dismembered and disposed of so thoroughly that no trace has been found since.

Inside Saudi Arabia, bin Salman is the latest in a long line of absolute rulers going back to the founder of the Saudi dynasty nearly a century ago. While his aged and invalid father reigns as king, bin Salman as crown prince actually rules, directing the unyielding suppression of democratic rights for all Saudi citizens, enforced with special brutality against women, immigrant workers and members of the oppressed Shiite minority.

Earlier this year, 81 men, mostly Shiites found guilty of advocating for the rights of their religious sect, were beheaded in a mass execution. While the despotism may be medieval, the regime enforces it with the most advanced technology, buying weapons of war from the United States, Britain and other imperialist powers, and surveillance technology developed by Silicon Valley and Israel.

As for trampling on self-determination and the rights of small countries to be free of cross-border aggression by their more powerful neighbors, bin Salman puts Vladimir Putin in the shade. Since 2015, Saudi military forces have been engaged in brazen aggression against Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab world. In response to an internal revolt that overthrew Saudi puppet ruler Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, troops, warplanes and warships from Saudi Arabia, with US and British technical assistance and armaments, have waged a war of unexampled brutality, creating what UN officials have called the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.

Putins reactionary invasion of Ukraine, triggered by NATOs encirclement of Russia over the previous two decades, has killed thousands of Ukrainians and made millions of them refugees. Bin Salmans invasion of Yemen has been far bloodier. A UN report issued in November 2021 estimated that 377,000 people had been killed, nearly two-thirds of them children under the age of five who died from starvation and disease brought on by the Saudi blockade of food supplies.

Twenty million Yemenistwo-thirds of the entire populationare dependent on humanitarian assistance to survive. Four million are internally displaced. Millions more would have fled the country but for their escape being blocked by Saudi forces, which control Yemens land borders and maintain a US-backed patrol of the countrys sea lanes. The UN report projects that over the next eight years, the death toll will rise to 1.3 million people, while 22 million, the vast majority, will be living in extreme poverty.

Candidate Joe Biden declared that the murder of Khashoggi made Saudi Arabia a pariah state. He vowed to isolate bin Salman as punishment for this crime. Now he travels to Jeddah to kiss the bloody monarchs ring.

There has been some tut-tutting in the American media about the contortions employed by the White House and State Department to justify the reversal of policy towards bin Salman. This is particularly so in the case of the Washington Post, where the murdered Khashoggi was a columnist.

A commentary by Post publisher Fred Ryan, published Saturday as an op-ed column, not an official editorial, complained, Bidens meeting also sends a dangerous message about the value the United States attaches to a free press. A grip-and-grin photograph with [bin Salman] signals to autocrats everywhere that you can quite literally get away with murdering a journalist as long as you possess a natural resource the United States wants badly enough.

The column did not dispute the foreign policy necessity for a rapprochement with bin Salman, only urging Biden to hand over a list of political prisoners to be released and stage a face-to-face meeting with Saudi dissidents. It is a way to show that Bidens self-abasement is meant to secure greater human rights, not just cheaper gas at American pumps, Ryan concludes.

The talk of self-abasement is entirely beside the point, however. Biden is not lowering himself to bin Salmans level by making his oil-for-blood deal. He is demonstrating the true barbarism and depravity of American imperialism and of himself as its current political leader.

In the meeting of Biden and bin Salman, it is Biden who has the far longer list of crimes against humanity, including mass killings that dwarf the Saudi despots. Biden has been a leading figure in the US national security establishment for a half century. He helped formulate policy for US wars of aggression as far back as the first Gulf War of 1990-91, which he fully supported in the Senate.

Biden voted for resolutions that authorized the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and supported massive funding for the Pentagon war machine in every one of the 36 years he served in the Senate. Once he became Obamas vice president, he took direct executive responsibility for the US wars or interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Somalia, and for drone missile assassinations over a vast region. Obama made him the administrations point man on Ukraine during the period when the US spent $5 billion to overthrow the elected pro-Russian president and install a fascist-backed regime in Kiev.

In the meeting between Biden and bin Salman, it is Biden who is the Godfather, guilty of so many crimes that he can barely remember them all. And he heads a military-intelligence apparatus that was carrying out murders just as bestial as those of bin Salman before the cutthroat crown prince was even born.
The World Socialist Web Site interviewed well-known Australian journalist Andrew Fowler this week on the continuing persecution of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange, who faces extradition to the US and life imprisonment there for exposing American war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Andrew Fowler

Fowler is one of the few prominent media figures who has consistently voiced support for Assange, throughout the decade of his pursuit by US and allied governments. Fowlers strong statements are given greater weight by his own substantial record as an investigative journalist.

He has been chief of staff and acting foreign editor for the Australian newspaper, the national flagship of Rupert Murdochs Australian operations. Fowler was also a senior reporter and investigative television journalist for the Special Broadcasting Services Dateline program, as well as the state-funded Australian Broadcasting Corporations Four Corners and Foreign Correspondent.

He has produced important works on Assange, including a thorough investigative documentary that aired in 2012 and a book account of Assanges journalistic work and the evolution of WikiLeaks, which has been published in two editions.

The WSWS asked Fowler to comment on the implications of last months decision by British Home Secretary Priti Patel to approve Assanges extradition from London, where he is incarcerated in the maximum-security Belmarsh Prison, to the United States.

Fowler explained that There is certainly an urgency for Assange. Patels decision to go ahead with the extradition means that the avenues for Assange to avoid extradition are closing fast.

Assange had applied to appeal the ruling, in his last possible appeal within the British legal system. The British judiciary is still to announce whether it will hear the case, something that is far from guaranteed.

The continuing pseudo-legal extradition process is proceeding at full-steam, despite the fact that the US campaign against Assange has been exposed as a dirty-tricks operation. Fowler is an authority on some of the more egregious aspects of the assault on Assanges rights, having dwelt at length on them in the second edition of his book, The Most Dangerous Man In The World: Julian Assange and WikiLeaks Fight for Freedom.

The Most Dangerous Man in the World

Asked to enumerate some of those abuses, Fowler replied: There is now overwhelming evidence that the United States government has acted unlawfully in the pursuit of Assange.

Evidence that the CIA was involved in and directed spying on Assange and his legal representatives while he was inside the Ecuador Embassy is now being prosecuted through the Spanish courts. Information gathered during this spying operation was relayed directly to the US administration, including to a close confidant of the then president Donald Trump.

As important, Yahoos investigation, all but confirmed by former CIA director Mike Pompeo, that the CIA planned to kidnap and even kill Assange in London, adds weight to the very strong argument that Assange cannot get a fair hearing in the US (a country whose war crimes he exposed) and the case should be dropped.

That Yahoo! News story, published last September, was based on the statements of 30 anonymous former US officials. It confirmed that the filling of an indictment against Assange, and the ensuing extradition request, were secondary prongs in the US offensive against WikiLeaks, the first weapons of choice being illegal surveillance and plans for Assanges rendition or murder.

The extraordinary measures against Assange did not begin in 2017, when the assassination plot was discussed.

In 2012, Fowlers Sex, Lies and Julian Assange documentary was aired on the ABCs prestigious Four Corners program. It was a meticulous dissection of the Swedish sexual misconduct allegations of 2010, which had been used to blacken Assanges name and justify the effective deprivation of his liberty in Sweden.

Fowlers piece pointed to the many contradictions in the Swedish investigation, as well as the involvement of the US and other powers, inexplicable except from the standpoint of the targeting of Assange for his journalistic work.

Now, even more is known about the case, branding it irrefutably as a frame-up. In the course of nine years, the Swedish investigation never passed the preliminary phase and Assange was not charged with a single offense. In the light of subsequent developments, the WSWS asked Fowler to give his thoughts on the Swedish affair now.

He answered: While US intelligence may not have been directly involved at the start of the investigation into the Swedish allegations against Assange, there is ample evidence that later, they, and their British subordinates, began actively working to get Assange onto US soil. By December 2010, the US Justice Department had empanelled a Grand Jury to examine evidence against Assange.

An email trail revealed by Italian journalist Stefania Maurizia revealed that the Swedish investigators of Assange were being urged on by the UKs Crown Prosecution Service not to let the case drop. The email from the CPS warned the Swedish prosecutors not to get cold feet as they considered ending the investigation. With the US Vice President at the time, Joe Biden calling Assange a high-tech terrorist, it is reasonable to suspect that the British were acting on behalf of the US to continue the case.

Fowler commented on the relentless demonisation of Assange, including by sections of the press, stating: It is important to remember that in 2010 when WikiLeaks first revealed evidence of US war crimes in Iraq, Assange was lauded as a journalistic hero and showered with awards. But repeated lies and falsehoods about Assange, often repeated by mainstream media journalists, undermined his position, both in the journalistic world and among the public at large.

These attacks on Assange and WikiLeaks should not have come as a surprise to any reasonable journalist, since the plan of attack was clearly outlined in a secret document drawn up by the US military and released by WikiLeaks. Only recently has the pendulum swung back towards understanding how important Assanges case is for all journalists. If the judicial reach of the US in the Assange case is successful, no journalist who publishes or broadcasts information that the US deems to be against its national security interest will be safe.

Was this bound up with a broader assault on democratic rights? Fowler answered in part: Since the attack on the Twin Towers, at the urging of the US, the other members of the Five-Eyes military and intelligence sharing group have mirrored the US crackdown on open and democratic discussion.

The media is partly responsible for the emergence of this authoritarianism. It became too close to executive power, particularly during the Bush and Obama administrations and, compromised by this relationship, became unable to do its job properly of holding power to account.

And what of the relationship between escalating war and this turn to authoritarianism? Fowler commented: Russia and China are clearly a threat to the interests of the West, as is the West a threat to the interests of Russia and China. What is important to remember is that these are not the high moral questions in which the threat of war is usually wrapped, but a strategic realignment in the world.

How the declining power of the US in relation to China is handled, both by the US and its Western allies, will determine our future. I am afraid that the signs are not good that mistakes of the past which led to two world wars wont be repeated. The bullying legal overreach of Assange by the US is a symptom not of strength, but the weakness of a declining empire, given to hubris and monumental errors of judgment.

As the WSWS has previously analysed, the US is an imperialist power, while Russia and China are not. The threat of war arises out of the breakdown of the capitalist system, and the drive of all the imperialist powers, led by the US, to offset their own crisis at the expense of their rivals.

The US has stoked conflicts, including the war in Ukraine, as part of an overarching plan to confront Russia and China, aimed at reducing them to a semi-colonial status, securing their substantial natural resources and dominating the geo-strategically decisive Eurasian landmass.

Fowlers point, that these are not the high moral questions in which the threat of war is usually wrapped, is well made. As it claims to be fighting for democracy in Ukraine, Russia, China, etc. the Biden administration is trying to convict Assange of charges that would be a death blow to press freedom.

Finally, the WSWS asked why workers and young people should concern themselves with Assanges plight and take up the fight for his freedom.

Fowler said: The plight of Assange should concern people of all ages, but perhaps the young have most to lose as executive government seeks to crush dissenting voices. If Assange is extradited to the US the future will be bleak indeed for anyone who wants to stand up against the military and industrial interests that have led us to climate catastrophe and, once again, talk of war.
Slavoj Zizek, a celebrity in certain academic and pseudo-left circles, has now twice come out on the pages of the Guardian in support of NATOs proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.

Slavoj Zizek in 2015 [Photo by Amrei-Marie / CC BY 4.0

The central point of these articles is made in their titles and leaves little to the political imagination of the reader. The most recent one, published on June 21, opens with, Pacifism is the wrong response to the war in Ukraine the least we owe Ukraine is full support, and to do this we need a stronger NATO. The prior article, published on May 23, begins with a point of similarly unmistakable ideological provenance: A question like Did US intelligence-sharing with Ukraine cross a line? forgets the fact that it was Russia that crossed the lineby invading Ukraine.

These sorts of positions could have been advanced by any number of pro-war and pro-imperialist authors or outfits. In this sense, Zizeks interventions are just a drop in the miserable bucket of war propaganda inflicted on the population by the bourgeois media on a daily basis.

In fact, they place the author on the most intransigent and Strangelovian wing of NATO supporters. In the latest article, for example, Zizek calls for the unconditional rejection of any negotiated settlements involving territorial concession to Russia, including in the majority Russian-speaking Donbas region. In the other, he dismisses an obsession with the red linethat is, giving any consideration to how Russia might respond to further escalation of the conflict on NATOs part, such as providing intelligence for the sinking of the warship Moskva or the killing of several Russian generals.

Like many other more conventional bourgeois intellectuals, Zizek fulminates against those who dare contest the official narrative about the war in Ukraine, provides political cover for present and future machinations of actual imperialism, and, inciting the further escalation of the war, moves the needle closer to a global conflict of unfathomable consequences.

Zizek brings to this sordid business not only his distinctive brand of spittling buffoonery, but also the influence he still retains among sections of the pseudo-left, particularly in academia. As sober and dull as the reactionary initial theses of his articles may be, what follows them is extraordinarily fanciful: pseudo-philosophical ramblings involving everyone from John Locke to John Lennon, contorted historical analogies according to which, for example, leftists who show understanding for Russia are like those who advocated neutrality between Nazi Germany and the Allies prior to 1941, and more.

Here is Zizeks analysis of Russias geopolitical calculations leading to and after the war in Ukraine.

First, Putin once stated something to the effect that being without sovereignty effectively reduces a country to the status of a colony. From this, Zizek promptly deduces that Putin seeks to colonize Ukraine. Naturally, Putins imperial view then also threatens with colonial bondage not only the Baltic states and Finland, but also, in a remarkable geographical leap, Bosnia, Kosovo and ultimately, Europe in its entirety.

If that was not enough, according to Zizek an even more sinister Russian plot is afoot.

Russia is not simply indifferent to environmental concerns but seeks in fact to profit from global warming. Thus, it actively facilitates it in conjunction with its other nefarious plots to secure control of the Arctic passage transportation routes as the icecaps melt away. Thisnot the extension of NATO borders and military assets amassed directly next to Russian territoryis the real reason why, according to Zizek, Russia is so mad at the Scandinavian countries when they expressed their intention to join [NATO].

But there is more. Having seized the whole of Ukraine and developed a newly verdant Siberia, Russia will dominate so much food production that it will be able to blackmail the whole world. Presumably, as an old Mike Myers character might say, to extort from the helpless global community ... one million dollars.

We do not have any political sympathy for Putin and his regime. But we trust readers will recognize the cartoonish character of Zizeks account, as well as the totally one-sided application of his fantastical geopolitical sensibilities.

After four months of war, Russia has already proven incapable of projecting its military force to decisively defeat a country resting on its immediate border. Its economy is in some respects a third world one, insofar as it is dependent on the primary resources it exports, such as gas and oil. As to the fact that, since the collapse of the USSR, NATO leapt 800 miles eastward by various means, that American imperialism has a finger and a military base in every pot, that it spends more on what it euphemistically calls its defense than the next 10 powers combined and significantly more than 10 times as Russia does ... there is not a word from Zizek about that.

Zizeks stab at geopolitical analysis may be unlikely to win anyone else over to the NATO cause, but the real money lies elsewhere. Zizek tries to provide a left-wing gloss to his war-cry by advancing the idea that a kinder, gentler NATO, and thus kinder and gentler NATO wars, could be possible if Europe were to play a more independent role in the alliance.

American imperialism is left largely untouched by Zizeks fanciful critical scrutiny, certainly in its longstanding machinations in Ukraine and Eastern Europe more generally. His articles include two throwaway lines on Trump and an admission that George W. Bush committed crimes in Iraq as Putin is doing in Ukraine. Zizek, who supported Obama in 2008 and 2012, has unsurprisingly nothing to say about the provocations carried out by the Biden administration against Russia. However, American imperialism still serves as a generically bad counterpoint to good Europe.

According to Zizek, Europe has been ignoring the brutal reality outside its borders, and now its the time to awaken, lest the European legacy will be lost.

It is not the first time Zizek invokes Europe in this manner, to peddle the illusion that it does now or at least it could in the future represent both a less barbaric capitalism and a more humane foreign policy.

Even Zizeks vicious attacks against immigrant workers in Germany on the heels of the incidents in Cologne on New Years Eve of 2015, punctuated as they were with denunciations of the lower classes, demands for border controls, and the employment of military forces, still included the idea that, unlike the American model, Europes capitalism ... has something to offer to the world.

Zizeks invocation of a progressive Europe is false. What is left of the old European social democracies after decades of austerity policies, often carried out by the old social democratic parties? Far from a continent slumbering in passive innocence and only about to be rudely awakened by Putins behavior, Europe is already a violent place, both domestically as well as standing guard at its borders. The recent massacre of dozens of refugees in the Spanish enclave of Melilla is one of myriad examples of this.

But what is even more false is Zizeks notion that, whatever leftist political merits Europe might presently have, they can be preserved and enhanced by means of a renewed military commitment against Russia in Ukraine and through the institutional framework of NATO.

Prompted by the conflict in Ukraine, Germany has already tripled its military spending and sent signals it intends to put those assets to use against Russia. What possible progressive outcome could this have? How could it not play into the hand of the most fascistic and aggressive layers of the bourgeoisie, not only in foreign policy, but domestically as well?

There is one last feature of Zizeks argument that is worth examining: his statement of support for Julian Assange, and indeed a demand for his immediate release. This is found in Zizeks more recent article, written on the day Assanges extradition to the US was approved by the British government.

Zizek makes this point while discussing George W. Bushs recent slip of the tongue with respect to the Iraq War, and once more in the service of his attempt to rally support behind NATO. He claims that Bushs crimes are fully comparable with what Putin is doing in Ukraine. In point of fact, they are not (See:George W. Bush inadvertently tells the truth about the Iraq War). He then notes that, since Assange exposed the same magnitude of war crimes, those who oppose the Russian invasion should also demand his release.

Zizeks defense of Assange is empty and cynical posturing, inserted in a political argument calculated to strengthen the very forces that have been responsible for the hounding, jailing and torture of Assange. These include not just the United States, but also European powers like England and Sweden that Zizek demagogically extols to sow illusions that a better NATO is possible.

The war in Ukraine has brought to the surface the fundamentally reactionary character of the theory and politics of the pseudo-left. This tendency palmed off a virulently irrationalist subjectivism as a variety of left thought. Indeed, they claimed to be great champions and innovators of Marxist thought. This intellectual charlatanry has been exposed most clearly in the person of Slavoj Zizek.
The family of Brett Rosenau, the 15-year-old resident of Albuquerque, New Mexico who died earlier this month of smoke inhalation from a fire that broke out during a SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) team siege, has joined the call for an investigation of the events leading to the tragedy.

Brett Rosenau and his mother Amanda Lopez [Photo by Rosenau family]

The incident sparked protests and demands by civil liberties and police accountability organizations that the state Attorney Generals Office investigate the actions of the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) and Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office (BCSO).

On the night of July 6, APD and BCSO SWAT team officers approached a house in the citys southeast quadrant where 27-year-old Qiaunt Kelley was hanging out with Rosenau. Kelley ran into the house, followed by the teen. A standoff ensued during which police used flash-bang grenades, tear gas and pepper spray to try to force Kelley from the house.

At around 3 a.m., smoke was seen coming out of windows and the front of the house became engulfed in flames. As firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze, Kelley exited, was taken into custody and transported to a local hospital. The firefighters discovered Rosenaus body inside. It was determined later that the teen had died of smoke inhalation.

The police waited for 40 minutes as smoke filled the home before Kelley came out. Neighbors pleaded with them to do something. Shela Rosenau, Bretts aunt, told the Daily Beast, Forty minutes of smoke inhalation will kill anybody. Thats common sense.  So, for them to wait 40 minutes, thats just not right. Thats horrible. I believe in that situation you save a life and they needed to go in there.  I mean, thats their job. They should not have sat back and waited for them to come out.

Initial police statements asserted that there were state and federal warrants out for the violent criminal Kelley and that a young person tragically lost his life, standard fare faithfully repeated by the media. I know many people in our community are hurting right now and appreciate everyones patience while the incident is thoroughly investigated, said APD Chief Harold Medina. In a July 10 statement, Democratic Mayor Tim Keller intoned, Every single life is valuable and the loss of any one is devastating to the family and the community. We share our condolences to all who know him and loved him.

The APD and a multi-agency task force are assigned to investigate the incident and hand over their findings to the District Attorneys Office. According to a 2014 Settlement Agreement, the APD also has to report details of its investigation to a federal Department of Justice (DOJ) monitor.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico issued a statement July 11 calling on New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas to conduct a thorough, independent and transparent investigation into the incident. ACLU senior policy strategist Barron Jones noted, This latest incident is another tragic example of an extremely deadly year for the Albuquerque Police Department. New Mexico regularly ranks first or second nationwide in the rate of people killed by police. This is a systemic statewide problem mostly affecting people of color who are disproportionately victims of police violence.

While the shootings are disproportionate, the killings of Iraq war vet Kenneth Ellis in 2010which resulted in a $10 million judgment against the cityof James Boyd in 2015 and of Mary Hawkes in 2018, for example, make it clear that APDas is the case with police across the UStargets the working class and poor of all skin colors and ethnicities.

The first story spun by the APD about the circumstances which led to Rosenaus death is getting shakier every day. After maintaining that there have never been fire problems with its various munitions, the APD has admitted that one or more of them, possibly the flash-bang grenades or Flameless Tri-Chamber tear gas canisters might have caused the blaze, requiring an investigation.

As for the federal and state warrants, a July 13 Source New Mexico report revealed that a search of federal court records over the past month by Source New Mexico shows no federal warrant issued against Kelley or any property associated with him. There were no federal warrants for Kelley in New Mexico when SWAT was called out to the house Kelley was visiting on July 6, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorneys Office said Tuesday.

Reached for comment on Tuesday, Albuquerque Police Department spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos said the references to a federal warrant were mistaken, and that detectives told him on Tuesday there is no federal warrant.

The report further stated, Albuquerque police have also noted in news conferences and releases that Kelley is a person of interest in other crimes, but so far he has not been named as a suspect in any of them. His involvement in them, and whether he was involved at all, remains to be shown.

The 3.9-square-mile neighborhood where the tragedy occurred is known as the International District. It contains a high diversity of working class residents, including Native, white and African American, as well as migrants from Mexico, Central America, Vietnam, Cuba and the Middle East. It is also situated close to Kirkland Air Base, where most military families live on-base.

The name International District was advocated in 2009 by residents who took umbrage at the more vernacular moniker War Zone, which many residents still use. It is the most densely populated area in the state, with high rates of poverty and nonviolent and violent crime, including many police shootings in a city known for its killer cops.

In a July 14 article, Source New Mexico reported that completion and submission by the APD to the federal monitor of use of force reports, required by the 2014 settlement agreement between the city and the DOJ, are lagging way behind: Dating back to early 2020, hundreds of cases where APD rolled out SWAT or used physical force havent yet been reviewed, the monitors May report states.

These numbers indicate the next great crisis confronting APD: Use-of-force rates by APD personnel are so high that existing oversight systems will be unable to keep up with required oversight, the report states.

As a result, the federally mandated Use of Force Report from 2020 is still not finalized, still in the preliminary stage and remains in question by the US Department of Justice.

Despite the logjam and the delays, one statistic stands out: According to the data in the preliminary 2020 report, the southeast part of the city that includes the International District has the most cases, including 141 instances where police officers used what they call level 2 force. This means injuries caused by officers shooting beanbag shotguns or pepper spray. Direct physical contact like leg sweeps and kicks as people are arrested are rolled into this category, too.

The International District accounts for up to half of police use-of-force incidents in the city, and if/when more reports are completed, that percentage may rise. Although some may find it offensive, the areas unofficial name cannot be criticized for being untruthful. Considering the true function of police in capitalist society, the Class War Zone would be even more accurate.

In a press statement, Taylor Smith, an attorney representing Brett Rosenaus family, described the police actions as tragic and completely avoidable. He added, The police had every opportunity to save Bretts life but instead chose inaction. Smith said that the family was trying to avoid the spotlight other than making sure that Bretts story is told so that it doesnt happen to others.  Bretts family and community are forever left without their son, brother, and friend. There will be an unfillable void by the loss of his life.

Bretts family described him as full of life and having a pioneering attitude. A statement by his mother said, Whether he was trying to sport a new style that he came up with or taking apart a bicycle to rebuild it, he was always interested in creating something new. His teachers often believed that he would pursue engineering given his ingenuity and talents.

The family has set up a crowd-funding page to pay for Brett Rosenaus funeral, and a candlelight vigil is to be held tonight in Albuquerque Civic Plaza.
This article was originally posted on Twitter.

The anti-Russia diatribes of Yale University History Professor Timothy Snyder are acquiring a pathological character. He is moving ever more closely toward open advocacy of the physical obliteration of Russia and the extermination of its population. One detects in his writings the stench of genocidal racism.

Snyder promotes this debased interview with Volodymyr Rafeyenko, who calls Russia an anthropological catastrophe. This recalls the Nazi description of Russians as Untermenschen (subhumans), which served as the ideological justification for Hitlers war of extermination.

Rafeyenko is, as is clear from this interview, an out-and-out irrationalist, who gives this wildly subjective definition of truth:

Truth is not a what. Truth is a who. It is born each time at the moment of our endeavor, consummating itself on the border of our subjectivity and the thing-in-itself. It is never yesterday, never tomorrow. It is always now, at this moment. And each time it must be re-created by us anew. And each time, we, together with it, create ourselves anew.

On the basis of these irrationalist musings, which dissolve objective truth into each individuals immediate experience, Rafeyenko makes the horrifying statement:

The West needs to understand that in the war, it is not Putin who is guilty. He did not create the Russians. The Russians created Putin. He is their instrument, their alter ego. He is the flesh of Russian culture as it is, without illusions or sentimentality. And this beast must be stopped.

This dissolution of the vast complexity of Russian society into an empty abstractionRussia is Putin, Putin is Russiais typical of the most vulgar thought. Putin is just one manifestation of the contradictory development of Russia following the dissolution of the USSR.

Russia created Putin. It can said just as simplistically that the US created Trump, Britain created Johnson, and Ukraine created the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion.

Putin is not the only creation of Russia. It also created a heroic revolutionary intelligentsia; it created the Bolshevik Party, the greatest social revolution in history, and the Red Army which, despite staggering losses, smashed the Third Reich.

Russia islike all other countriesa land of intense social contradictions. Its policies at the present time, like those of Ukraine, express and reflect the class interests of the reactionary strata that came to power through the destruction of the USSR.

Rafeyenkos declaration that he will no longer write in Russian reflects his national chauvinism, historical ignorance and, one must suspect, career-oriented opportunism.
Hong Kong: HK logs over 3.3k virus cases

The Centre for Health Protection today said it is investigating 3,358 additional locally acquired COVID-19 cases, of which 1,393 were directly identified through nucleic acid tests and 1,965 via rapid antigen tests that were verified.

Separately, 216 imported cases were reported.

The centre added that six care homes have identified positive cases involving residents and workers.

It also received notifications of 323 positive cases from 258 schools.

Meanwhile, the Government made a restriction-testing declaration to cover Chung Chun House of Chung Nga Court in Tai Po, requiring people in the restricted area to undergo compulsory testing before the specified deadline.

As there were positive sewage test results with relatively high viral loads in several residential buildings in Southern District, Tai Po and Kowloon City, the Housing Department and respective district offices will distribute COVID-19 rapid test kits to relevant residents as well as cleaning workers and property management staff working there.

For information and health advice on COVID-19, visit the Governments dedicated webpage.

This story has been published on: 2022-07-15. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
The Hawk-Houston Youth Enrichment Center has named a Dothan native and mayor of Lynn Haven, Florida, as this year's recipient of the organization's 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Jesse Nelson will receive the award this Sunday at the Hawk-Houston Youth Enrichment Center in Dothan at 2 p.m.

Nelson, who grew up in Dothan, started preaching at St. Peter Missionary Baptist Church in Abbeville at 14 years old, it was one of four churches where he preached at a young age. Nelson said he first heard the voice of God calling him to preach while shopping in Wiregrass Commons Mall with his mother when he was 12.

I was looking around in one of the stores in the mall with my mother when suddenly I heard a faint voice calling my name three times. I looked around and everyone near me was unfamiliar to me, Nelson said. So I went and asked my mom if she was calling me and she said she wasnt, so I just kept the interaction to myself for a little while until I could understand it.

Shortly after the calling at the mall, Nelson watched multiple Christian programs with his grandmother, and in those programs the pastors gave testimonies of how God called them to serve. They all mentioned they heard a voice calling them three times, almost exactly how it is stated in the Bible and how it happened to Nelson.

Once Nelson understood the calling, he spoke with members at the church his family attended and the clergy about what it took to become a pastor. Then on Aug. 16, 1998, while a Northview High School freshman, he began preaching.

When he was young, Nelson had been involved with the Hawk-Houston Youth Enrichment Center and was named the club's Youth of the Year in 1998 and in 2002.

Today, Nelson has preached at seven different churches in his 24 years in the pulpit, working with churches from Eufaula to Lynn Haven, where he has served as the city's mayor for a little more than a year.

Nelson said he ran for mayor not just have a leader who was Christian, but more so to have Christian leaders. While being mayor is a full-time job, Nelson continues to pastor a local church.

I believe that if youre a Christian in leadership then you should allow your Christianity to be demonstrated through your leadership, Nelson said, I think often times our leaders that claim to be Christian are not being full Christian leaders at all.

Nelson believes that Christians can allow Christ in them to drive opinions, perspectives, as well as the politics and policies that are around them. I saw how I could bring some of the good things I was doing as a pastor and allow those things to come over into the mayoral side of things as well, Nelson said.

Nelson recently returned from a research sabbatical in South Africa where he spent time working on his dissertation for a Ph.D. During this time, Nelson wrote more than 50 pages of his findings that contributed to his research, as well as learning more about the climate, culture, and resources in South Africa.

After returning from South Africa, Nelson got the news of becoming the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement award from the Hawk Houston Youth Enrichment Center.

Candidates for the Lifetime Achievement Award are chosen based on their involvement with the organization, and when they are no longer eligible to be in the center's program, they continue to support the organization and the kids, said Altha Newman, executive director of the Hawk-Houston Youth Enrichment Center.

Jesse Nelson has been an exemplary role model to these kids at the center. He worked closely with the kids as a volunteer mentor, as well as working closely with the kids in other ways before he moved to Florida, Newman said. Hes done quite a bit in such a short time in his life which is why we have bestowed the honor of the Lifetime Achievement award to him.

Nelson said the news of being the award's recipient left him speechless, since there have been many great people involved with Hawk-Houston. For him to be considered one of those individuals was humbling and an honor, he said.

When I look at other awards I have achieved in my life and all the things I have been able to do, such as an archaeological dig in Jerusalem, Israel, I really do believe that despite everything else this is the greatest achievement I have ever received, Nelson said. Hawk Houston not only sees me for who I am now but they recognize me for who I was and how I came to be who I am.

Nelson sees this award as a culmination of all the things he has been able to do in his lifetime and is thankful that Hawk-Houston in Dothan recognizes him for it.

It makes me excited, humbled, and Im just so thankful that I have been able to honor the legacy of Hawk-Houston, Nelson said

The event will also recognize the 2021 donors, volunteers and grantors. The 2021 honorees are: Youth of the Year, Adrianna Koonce; board volunteer of the year, Alexis J. Smith; board leadership, Sean J. Davis; staff of the year, Anastasia L. Cole; Alveta Houston Hawk Family of the Year, Sue and Shelia LaRue; Alveta Houston Hawk Friend of Youth and Volunteer of the Year, Tajah Stringer and Jeannette Ellis; Alveta Houston Hawk Legacy of Community Service, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Kappa Beta Beta Chapter; Alveta Houston Hawk Community Partnership, John H. Watson Charitable Trust Foundation; Alveta Houston Hawk Legacy of Service and Lifetime Achievement Award, Jesse Nelson. Also Dr. W. Charles Lewis will be signing copies of his book 28 Black History Makers, Dothan, AL.
Gotabhaya Rajapakses official resignation as Sri Lankan president has been sent to Colombo, and its formal acceptance was announced this morning in the capital. Rajapakse was elected president three years ago with a large majority. He fled to Maldives early Tuesday, following more than three months of massive nationwide protests and three general strikes demanding that he quit as president and that his government resign.

Gotabhaya Rajapakse (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

Rajapakse flew into Singapore yesterday afternoon. He emailed his resignation letter last night to Parliamentary Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena. Singapore announced that Rajapakse was on a private visit, indicating that asylum was neither granted nor requested.

The widely despised Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was previously appointed acting president by Rajapakse, immediately instructed the military and police to do what is necessary to restore order. He has appointed a committee, including Chief of Defence Staff General Shavendra Siva and the heads of military tri-forces and the police, to prevent the destruction of property and life.

Wickremesinghe imposed a curfew in the Colombo administrative district from noon yesterday until today 5 a.m. This followed his declaration of an island-wide state of emergency and a 24-hour curfew the previous day for the Western Province. These curfews were largely ignored, with thousands of people last night celebrating Rajapakses resignation.

While Wickremesinghe has wide-ranging powers under the executive presidency to unleash the military against opposition, there are nervous concerns within the ruling class that full-scale violent state repression at this moment will backfire, leading to a further intensification of the anti-government rebellion.

As the Hindustan Times reported, Ranil wants the military to use force, Sri Lankan army says no to firing on protesters.

US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung warned in a tweet yesterday, We condemn all violence and call for the rule of law to be upheld. She urged all parties to work together to implement solutions that will bring long-term economic & political stability.

In other words, the military and police should not be unleashed at this juncture, and opposition parties must intensify their efforts to contain and dissipate the mass movement while preparing an interim regime to implement brutal International Monetary Fund austerity measures.

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, General Shavendra Siva appealed to the public, and especially youth, to help the tri-forces and the police to maintain law and order until a new president is elected. Notwithstanding these appeals, the military and police attacks on protesters continue, with at least 84 protesters hospitalised and one youth killed from injuries sustained in clashes with security forces over the past week.

The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), Rajapakses ruling party, issued a statement on Wednesday calling on Acting President Wickremesinghe and law enforcement authorities to restore law and order immediately. The statement referred to agitators as law breakers who had murdered several individuals, including a parliamentarian as well as destroyed public and private properties.

In the meantime, SLPP sources told Reuters that Wickremesinghe was the partys first choice for the presidency. These moves underscore the ongoing collaboration between Rajapakses party and Wickremesinghe for a future military-police crackdown on protesters and far-reaching state repression.

Army spokesman Brigadier Nilantha Premaratna told a media conference yesterday afternoon that 16 soldiers have been injured in clashes with protesters. He also alleged that two army soldiers had been brutally assaulted and their weapons and ammunition were stolen by protesters. These weapons, he said, could be used by protesters to spread violence, a clear indicator that future state provocations against demonstrators are being prepared.

In a televised address on Wednesday, Wickremesinghe denounced the occupiers and said he had instructed security forces to remove them. The protesters should not be allowed to occupy Temple Trees (the prime ministers residence), the Presidents Secretariat and the Presidents House, he said, because they would take or destroy documents. Anti-government protesters announced yesterday that they were ending their occupations of these buildings.

Yesterday, Parliamentary Speaker Abeywardane, a close confidante of Rajapakse and an SLPP veteran, canceled the parliamentary session scheduled for today. He said it will resume within three days after receiving the presidents resignation letter. Nominations for the presidency were to be submitted on July 19 and a new president elected by the parliament on July 20.

None of these parties of the political establishment, including opposition parties, has condemned Wickremesinghes dictatorial moves. At most, they have issued feeble appeals to the military and the acting president.

Sajith Premadasa, leader of the main parliamentary opposition, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya, appealed to the military, declaring, I am asking our dear security forces not to be pawns of an oppressive regime.

Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) leader and former president Maithripala Sirisena appealed to Wickremesinghe, I am pleading in the name of God for Ranil Wickremesinghe to resign fast. Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), issued similar appeals.

By contrast, the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) has exposed the reactionary nature of Sri Lankas constitution and the dictatorial powers it gives the president.

Rejecting the trap of an interim all-party government, behind which preparations for dictatorial rule are being made, the SEP insists that the working class must take matters into its own hands.

What is required is for the working class to break free from the stranglehold of the unions and establish independent action committees. These must demand the abolition of the executive presidency, now headed by Wickremesinghe, and fight for socialist policies and for the provision of urgently needed essentialsfood, cooking gas, petrol, healthcare and other pressing social requirementsto the masses.

This independent unified movement of the working class must rally the rural poor and youth to establish a government of workers and peasants, committed to socialist policies, as a part of broader struggle for socialism in South Asia and internationally.
On July 13, 2022 the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General (IG) sent a letter to the Senate and House Committee on Homeland Security revealing that after requesting text messages sent by U.S. Secret Service agents between January 5 and 6, 2021 many ... were erased as part of a device-replacement program.



In his letter, Inspector General Joseph Cuffari noted that the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) deliberately erased those text messages after OIG (Office of Inspector General) requested records of electronic communication from the USSS, as part of our evaluation of events at the Capitol on January 6.

A US Secret Service officer takes a position in the street as President Donald Trumps motorcade arrives at the White House after golfing at his Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia on November 8, 2020. This was one day after he was defeated by President-elect Joe Biden. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Cuffari added that DHS personnel have repeatedly told OIG inspectors that they were not permitted to provide records directly to OIG and that such records had to first undergo review by DHS attorneys. This review led to weeks-long delays in OIG obtaining records and created confusion over whether all records had been produced.



In a statement Thursday evening, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and the January 6 House Select Committee Bennie Thompson (Democratic-Mississippi) said that the Homeland Security Committee will be briefed about this extraordinarily troubling destruction of records and respond accordingly.



The stunning revelation that the USSS deleted, no doubt incriminating, text messages after they were requested by the OIG, once again refutes lies proffered by ex-President Donald Trump, his Republican co-conspirators and complacent elements in the upper middle class and pseudo-left that the January 6 coup was simply a spontaneous riot or First Amendment demonstration that spiraled out of control.



The fact that the Secret Service is deleting records which show their involvement in the coup further demolishes claims that Trumps attempts to stay in power were the result of him and a few crazies in the Republican Party, such as lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. Both capitalist parties and the entire state were complicit in the coup, either through deliberate actions taken in furtherance of its success, or through their silence in the days and hours leading to the attack.



That Trump and his Republican co-conspirators were planning a coup was not only well known by the World Socialist Web Site prior to January 6 but the entire capitalist state, which is why it nearly succeeded. The coup had the support of the majority of the Republican Party and significant elements in the police, intelligence and military apparatus, including the Secret Service, an agency that not only knows where many of the bodies are buried but put them there in the first place.



In the 18 months since the attack on the Capitol, there has been a slow drip of information regarding the activities of the Secret Service before, during and after the coup. What is known is that Vice President Mike Pence was a prime target for the fascistic mob on January 6, after he refused Trumps request to unilaterally reject electors from states Trump lost.



That Pence and the Secret Service knew he was in physical danger for refusing Trumps unconstitutional request was revealed last month in a report by the New York Times. The Times, citing statements from Pences Chief of Staff Marc Short, revealed that on January 5, one of the days the Secret Service deleted its texts, Short contacted the Secret Service agent in charge of Pences security and warned him that Trump was going to turn publicly against Pence which would result in a security risk to the Vice President.



This security risk became a reality the next day after Trump tweeted at 2:24 p.m. that: Mike Pence didnt have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!



In the book I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trumps Catastrophic Final Year, reporters for the Washington Post Philip Rucker and Carol D. Leonnig wrote that 11 minutes prior to Trumps tweet, Pence was evacuated by Secret Service agents and the certification was suspendedfor the first time in US history.



Rucker and Leonnig reported that the Secret Service agents first took Pence to his second-floor ceremonial office, at which point Pences lead agent, Tim Giebels, twice asked Pence to leave the Capitol.



Pence allegedly told Giebels, Im not leaving the Capitol, explaining to him that the last thing he wanted the cameras to see was his 20-car motorcade fleeing the Capitol.



Rucker and Leonnig wrote that the third time Giebels requested Pence to leave, it was more of an order that a request. Theyre in the building, Giebels said. The room youre in is not secure. There are glass windows. I need to move you. Were going.



The Select Committee has revealed that as Pence was being evacuated to the basement of the Capitol, Trumps fascistic mob came within 40 feet of the Vice President. Once Pence was evacuated to the basement of the Capitol, an armored limousine was waiting to take him away.



Im not getting in the car, Tim, Pence told the Secret Service agent, possibly suspecting that Trump-aligned elements within the Secret Service had planned to kidnap him so he would not be able to return to the Capitol to complete the Electoral College certification.



Without Pence at the Capitol to oversee the counting of the votes as prescribed by the Electoral Count Act, Republicans would have had the pretext needed to delay the certification, in the process creating a constitutional crisis that would allow Trumps allies on the Supreme Court, such as Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, to provide Trump with a pseudo-legal justification to overturn the election.



The existence of the inspector generals letter was first made public by Intercept reporter Ken Klippenstein. In his report on the letter, Klippenstein cited a congressional official not authorized to speak publicly on the pivotal role the Secret Service played on January 6 and how close Trump came to succeeding.



People need to understand that if Pence had listened to the Secret Service and fled the Capitol, this could have turned out a whole lot worse, the anonymous official told Klippenstein. It couldve been a successful coup, not just an attempted one, the official added.



There is no question that high-level elements in the Secret Service, including Anthony Ornato, a former Secret Service agent who became deputy White House chief of staff for operations in 2019, were deeply involved in Trumps efforts to stay in power. As chief of staff for operations, Ornato was charged with ensuring the continuity of government and coordinating Trumps movements and security outside the White House.



As of this writing, Ornato is still the assistant director of the United States Secret Service Office of Training.



In damning testimony provided to the committee last month, Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, recalled that on January 6, the Secret Service was well aware prior to Trumps speech at the Ellipse that several in the crowd were armed with rifles and pistols. Hutchinson recalled that Trump was enraged that the Secret Service had set up magnetometers to screen for weapons, preventing his armed supporters from entering the restricted zone.



Hutchinson recalled hearing Trump say: I dont f...ing care that they have weapons. Theyre not here to hurt me. Take the f...ing mags away.



She also revealed that Trump planned to march on the Capitol with his mob after his speech. However, the Secret Service could not guarantee his safety and refused to drive Trump to the Capitol, sending the would-be dictator into a rage. Hutchinson recalled hearing from a Secret Service agent inside Trumps vehicle that he tried to grab the steering wheel of the vehicle and drive it to the Capitol. Hutchinson said the agent recalled Trump reaching for his throat after he tried to prevent Trump from grabbing the wheel.



Hutchinson said she heard this recounting from the agent himself in the presence of Ornato, who has disputed this testimony but not on the record.



Joining Ornato in attacking Hutchinsons credibility was Trump. In an interview Wednesday on Real America News, Trump called Hutchinson a psycho girl.

Insinuating that it was preposterous that he would ever lose his temper at a Secret Service agent for not going along with his putsch, Trump said: I get along with these guys so well. And they were great to say it never happened. And it never happened.




Former CIA software engineer Joshua Schulte, 33, was convicted by a jury in a Manhattan federal court on Wednesday of hacking top-secret US intelligence malware tools known as Vault 7 and leaking them to WikiLeaks in 2017.

Joshua Schulte

The jury found Schulte, who defended himself in court, guilty on eight espionage charges and one obstruction charge after deliberating for three days. He faces a possible sentence of 80 years in prison.

Schulte has been the target of a malicious campaign by the US intelligence community, which initially could find no evidence against him directly related to the Vault 7 leak and instead brought possession of child pornography charges against him and locked him up. Meanwhile, a first trial in against Schulte ended in 2020 with a hung jury on the espionage charges and only found him guilty of contempt of court and lying to the FBI.

Schulte argued that he was being made a scapegoat for the CIAs staggering inability to protect its Vault 7 arsenal and wildly insecure intelligence servers that hosted it. Meanwhile, Schulte has been held in jail since 2018 without bail. He has complained that he was the victim of cruel and unusual punishment, awaiting the two trials in solitary confinement inside a vermin-infested cell of a jail unit where inmates are treated like caged animals.

The vicious pursuit of Schulte by the CIA, FBI and US Justice Department is part of the ongoing campaign to extradite WikiLeaks publisher and founder Julian Assange from the UK to the US to face numerous charges of violating the Espionage Act of 1917.

The effort to silence and prosecute Assange has been a bipartisan affair overseen by three successive Presidentsinitiated under Obama, continued by Trump and now being waged by Biden. The aim of the US political and intelligence establishment is to make an example of anyone who dares to tell the truth about the US imperialism, especially the war crimes committed over the past 30 years.

The Vault 7 breach of 9,000 documents, the largest theft of classified US intelligence information in history, exposed the CIAs criminal violation of basic democratic rights by hacking Apple and Android smartphones and turning internet-connected televisions into listening devices, along with many other cyberespionage and malware tools.

At the time of the leak in 2017, Assange noted that the Vault 7 breach marked a massive security blunder by the CIA, which lost control of its hacking arsenal including malware, viruses, trojans, weaponized zero day exploits, malware remote control systems and associated documentation.

A statement about the Vault 7 leak published by WikiLeaks says, This extraordinary collection, which amounts to more than several hundred million lines of code, gives its possessor the entire hacking capacity of the CIA. The archive appears to have been circulated among former US government hackers and contractors in an unauthorized manner, one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive.

In exposing Vault 7, WikiLeaks brought to the attention of the entire world the fact that the US government had developed and deployed electronic malicious surveillance tools that violate both the US Constitution and international law. At the same time, WikiLeaks chose to publish only the CIA documentation that proves the existence of such tools and not the code of the tools themselves.

As Assange explained, Comparisons can be drawn between the uncontrolled proliferation of such weapons, which results from the inability to contain them combined with their high market value, and the global arms trade. WikiLeaks then collaborated with technology firms such as Microsoft, Apple and Google to assist them in plugging the vulnerabilities in their systems that were being exploited by the CIA.

The WikiLeaks statement also explains that the source who shared the Vault 7 material did so because they wished to initiate a public debate about the security, creation, use, proliferation and democratic control of cyberweapons. Once a single cyber weapon is loose it can spread around the world in seconds, to be used by rival states, cyber mafia and teenage hackers alike.

What this means is this: whoever it was that leaked the Vault 7 CIA trove to WikiLeakswhether it was Schulte or notshould be recognized as a whistleblower on a par with Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning for their courage and willingness to tell the truth about the criminal policies of US imperialism, instead of being prosecuted and sent to jail.

In his closing argument to the jury, Schulte said that he was singled out by the US government even though hundreds of people had access to (the information)  Hundreds of people could have stolen it. He added, The governments case is riddled with reasonable doubt. Theres simply no motive here.

The Associated Press reported that Attorney Sabrina Shroff, who was Schultes adviser during the trial, told his mother that the verdict was a kick to the gut, the brain and heart.

The prosecution argued that Schulte, who was a developer of the cyberwarfare tools, was motivated to leak the documents to WikiLeaks because he believed the CIA had disrespected him by dismissing his workplace concerns. They said he tried to burn to the ground the very work he had helped the agency to create.

Assistant US Attorney David Denton claimed that Schulte attempted to cover up his crime because he had a list of chores that included an entry that said, Delete suspicious emails. US Attorney Damian Williams issued a press release which said, Schulte has been convicted for one of the most brazen and damaging acts of espionage in American history.

As in the case of Assange and the outrageous violation of his rights by the US and UK governments, the mistreatment of Schulte and the dubious character of his conviction has been justified and greeted with enthusiasm by the corporate media. One can search through pages and pages of news reports about Wednesdays jury verdict and not find a single word of criticism, much less a political analysis, of the purpose and implications of the Vault 7 cyberwarfare tools developed by the CIA.

In typical fashion, the New York Times report said that Schulte was arrested after WikiLeaks disclosed the trove of confidential documents detailing the agencys secret methods for penetrating the computer networks of foreign governments and terrorists. As everyone knows by now, especially since the 2013 revelations by former intelligence analyst Edward Snowden, the spying techniques developed by the CIA and NSA are being used against everyone, US citizens and non-citizens alike.
On Thursday, New Zealands COVID-19 response minister Ayesha Verrall and director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield held a press conference in a desperate attempt to appear to be doing something to address the surging toll of hospitalisations and deaths from the coronavirus.

Medical staff test shoppers who volunteered at a pop-up community COVID-19 testing station at a supermarket carpark in Christchurch, New Zealand. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

According to the New York Times, of countries with more than a million people, New Zealands seven-day average COVID death rate is now second highest, following Taiwan. On July 13, there were 29 deaths reported, the highest daily total since May 18; the following day another 23 people died with the virus including a child under 10 years old.

Hospitals across the country are overwhelmed, as the highly infectious Omicron BA.5 variant takes off, alongside a flu epidemic. In the past three weeks, the number of people hospitalised with COVID has more than doubled from 300 on June 24 to 765 on July 14.

New Zealands total number of deaths from the pandemic is now 1,760, about 96 percent of which occurred this year, after all schools and businesses were allowed to reopen and the virus was allowed to spread largely unimpeded.

Verrall declared yesterday: To get through this stage of the pandemic were going to have to use the most effective measures we have to reduce the spread of both COVID-19 and influenza.

This is simply a lie. The Labour Party-led government refuses to reintroduce public health measures that would immediately save livesnamely, a return to the Zero-COVID policy, including the immediate closure of schools and nonessential businesses. This elimination policy kept New Zealand largely free from the deadly virus during the first two years of the pandemic, until it was scrapped last October on the instructions of big business, which views lockdowns as an intolerable obstacle to profit-making.

The main thrust of Verrall and Bloomfields presentation was to urge ordinary people to follow the minimal rules and recommendations that exist around masking. Bloomfield outlined the surge of the pandemic internationally, driven by the new BA.4 and BA.5 variants. In New Zealand there have been nearly 10,000 new COVID cases per day reported over the last seven days, and an increasing proportion of those are reinfections.

Bloomfield said that according to the governments modelling, if we do nothing, then COVID hospitalisations will soon reach a peak of more than 1,200, and daily reported cases will double to around 21,000.

In response to these stark predictions, the government is not taking any measures to seriously reduce the rate of infection. Bloomfield merely stated that if we all take steps to limit our exposure to the virus and to protect ourselves, then the peak for hospitalisations could be lowered by 20 percent to 950 people.

In other words, the Ministry of Healths best case scenario is for thousands more hospitalisations and hundreds more deaths over the winter. Beyond that, ongoing infections and reinfections will certainly kill thousands more people by the end of the year and leave tens of thousands with debilitating Long COVID.

The only concrete changes announced yesterday were to make ineffectual medical masks and rapid antigen tests (RATs) freely available, and to widen the criteria for antiviral drugs. N95 and P2 masks, which are much more effective against COVID, will only be distributed for free to medically vulnerable people. The Green Party, which is part of the government, applauded these measures and took credit on social media for pressuring the government to provide free maskseven though, by the governments own admission, this wont prevent thousands more deaths.

Asked by Radio NZ (RNZ) why the government does not make it mandatory to wear a mask in all indoor settings outside of your home, instead of just some, Verrall replied that this cannot be done because it impacts the running of many businesses.

The government also refuses to reintroduce mask mandates in schools, despite pleas from public health experts to do so, or to take any other steps such as limiting gathering sizes. Epidemiologist Michael Baker told the New Zealand Herald: Its almost like were denying transmission happens at schools which is bizarre. I think people will look back in horror at our laissez-faire approach to this.

On Saturday, the All Blacks national rugby team is scheduled to play Ireland at Sky Stadium in Wellington in front of a sold out crowd of 37,500 peoplethe biggest event in the city since the pandemic began. Inevitably, many of these people will get COVID and become severely ill. This sort of super-spreading event is becoming common, as the government seeks to normalise mass infection.

Meanwhile, a survey of 923 doctors by the New Zealand Women in Medicine trust, released this week, found that 93.5 percent said there was definitely a crisis in the public health workforce, and 6.3 percent said there was probably a crisis. The trust penned an open letter to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, saying the system was at risk of a catastrophic collapse.

According to Stuff, one emergency doctor wrote in the survey that so many nurses were getting sick or burnt out that we have to close areas of the department or work there on our own with no nursing support Our triage nurses are so afraid that someone will die in the waiting roomso they are all resigning as well.

Hospitals are so overrun that tens of thousands of operations are being repeatedly postponed. On July 11, RNZ reported that across much of the countryin Northland, South Auckland, Auckland Central, Waikato, Wellington and Canterburysurgery was being performed only on cases considered life-threatening or unable to be delayed.

Newshub reported that at Christchurch Hospital, 1,200 elective surgeries have been postponed over the past two years, including 450 cancer operations. Such delays can have life-threatening consequences.

This morning, Association of General Surgeons president Rowan French told RNZ the governments new measures would not be enough to alleviate the enormous pressure on hospitals. He warned that if hospitalisations hit 1,200, not everyone who needs urgent care will be able to get it.

The opposition National Party, meanwhile, is calling on the government to remove vaccine mandates for healthcare workers, in order to bring a small number of unvaccinated workers back into hospitals. National leader Christopher Luxon, who recently visited Singapore, Ireland and the UK, has declared in a number of media interviews that the rest of the worlds moving on from COVID.

In fact, while corporations and governments increasingly act as though the pandemic is over, the BA.5 variant is fuelling a resurgence worldwide. The UK has just passed 200,000 deaths from COVID, with 294 deaths in the week to July 13. Across the European Union, daily deaths have risen by 60 percent in the past three weeks.

Workers in New Zealand must oppose the policy of mass infection backed by every party in parliament, and take up a fight for a fully-funded elimination strategy, starting with the immediate closure of nonessential businesses and schools. The main obstacle, in NZ and internationally, is the trade unions, which have accepted and continue to enforce the reopening policies, which are sacrificing workers lives for the sake of profit.

The Socialist Equality Group calls on workers and young people to contact us to discuss what must be done to end the pandemic, including the urgent need for new organisations: rank-and-file safety committees independent of the pro-capitalist unions, so that workers can take matters into their own hands.
The number of confirmed and suspected cases of monkeypox infections globally has passed the 10,000 mark, according to official figures. As of July 14, there have been 11,042 total cases, of which 11,006 have been confirmed.

The daily figure has risen to over 500 cases on a seven-day rolling average. Europe continues to remain the epicenter of the global outbreak. Seventy-four non-endemic countries and territories (outside the central African region where monkeypox has existed for decades) have reported such cases, including eight on the African continent.

Spain has the highest case count, with 2,447 monkeypox infections. Germany and the UK are neck and neck with 1,790 and 1,789 cases, respectively. Case counts in France and Italy continue to climb, and Russia was the latest country across the Eurasian landmass that reported its first confirmed case.

North America, followed by Latin America, are other regions where monkeypox cases are soaring. The United States has reported 1,049 monkeypox infections, with approximately 76 cases per day on a moving average. Compared to last week, cases are up nearly 40 percent.

California, New York, Illinois and the District of Columbia have the highest infection rates. In New York City and San Francisco, the public health departments have said that their stock of monkeypox vaccines, made from the attenuated strain of the vaccinia virus, is exhausted.

The daily rise in monkeypox cases in the United States

With 484 monkeypox infections, Canada has seen a 60 percent jump in cases since July 4. Quebec has seen the lions share of cases, with 284. Ontario and British Columbia are also seeing a growing number of infections.

Brazil reported its first case back on June 8. Low single-digit daily infection numbers were being confirmed until the end of June when a sudden spike in cases was observed. The highest single-day count was on July 6, with 36 confirmed cases. In all, the country now has tallied 227 cases. Additionally, almost every country neighboring Brazil has also seen such cases reported to their respective public health departments. Mexico has also seen a sudden surge in cases recently.

The Director-General for the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, affirmed at last Tuesdays press briefing that the emergency committee for monkeypox would reconvene to examine the recent trends in infections and response by countries in deploying countermeasures against the virus.

On June 24, the emergency committee, in what amounted to be a split decision, favored not declaring the outbreak a pandemic and allowing more time to accrue while the WHO gathered further evidence on trends in cases and newly affected geographic regions. They noted that reconvening the committee would depend on several criteria, including case and death rates, spread outside affected LGBT communities, changes in the virulence of the virus and the establishment of the virus in animal populations.

They insisted that the WHO and national public health institutions work with the high-risk communities where cases remain predominately among men who have sex with men and workers at clubs and spas where such sexual activities occur. The emergency committee also recommended that health institutes work with vaccine developers and consult experts in the field to raise awareness about the disease and initiate the infrastructure for tracing, testing and treating infected and close contacts.

This 2003 electron microscope image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows mature, oval-shaped monkeypox virions, left, and spherical immature virions, right, obtained from a sample of human skin associated with the 2003 prairie dog outbreak. [AP Photo/Cynthia S. Goldsmith, Russell Regner/CDC]

Professor Yaneer Bar-Yam, president of the New England Complex Systems Institute and co-founder of the World Health Network (WHN), has been rightly critical of the WHO for its delay in declaring the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. The WHN had preemptively declared monkeypox a pandemic on June 22, ahead of the initial emergency committee meeting, to bring pressure on the global health organization.

Bar-Yam, who had in late January 2020 raised concerns about the WHOs slowness in alerting the world of the threat posed by the rapidly growing global transmission of COVID-19, said recently, during an online webinar to discuss the monkeypox pandemic, The reason to declare monkeypox a pandemic is to alert everyone to take action to prevent more cases from happening. That is the essential motivation. If you [WHO] tell everyone everything is ok, then everyone will go about their usual business.

He added, The countries where cases are occurring are limiting the testing and interventions with a focus on men who have sex with men and that community and known exposures. As we know from other pandemics, there is an undercounting and lack of clarity of what transmission is taking place, and we have a challenge of knowing the true magnitude.

Guest speaker Dr. Kavita Patel, a family medicine physician in Washington D.C. and former Obama administration director of policy for the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement, spoke about the lack of familiarity among physicians and health institutes about monkeypox infections.

Unless a patient raises concerns directly about a rash and monkeypox, most wont entertain the diagnosis, she said. There are so many gaps in education now, both in health care and at the community level. She added there was a significant need to implement testing and vaccine clinics immediately.

Dr. Patel also told listeners that with LabCorp signing on, there are now five US commercial laboratories, Aegis Science, LabCorp, Mayo Clinic Laboratories, Quest Diagnostic and Sonic Healthcare, that can run PCR tests for monkeypox. Yet, she noted, US capacity is about 60,000 tests per week which are not enough. Also, the testing and turnaround on these specimens can be laborious, and may take up to three days, further delaying the diagnosis and enabling the continued spread of the virus.

Dr. Patel added, This has been what we have needed quickly to keep it contained and use a ring vaccination strategya post-prophylaxis strategy [where the vaccines are given after exposure to the pathogen to decrease the severity of the disease]. If we had better, more widely available testing, we would have had a better ability. Now, in New York City, D.C. and San Francisco, we have run out of Jynneos [monkeypox vaccine manufactured by Bavarian Nordic]. We are turning to the smallpox vaccine, but it is very difficult to use because of its terrible side effects.

The manufacturer of the monkeypox vaccine is presently undergoing system modifications at its plants, and production of the vaccines will be limited for the next several quarters. Modeling the monkeypox virus cases leads to estimates that the UK could expect 60,000 cases per day by the end of 2022 and, conceivably, a half-million cases or more by the end of September.

Epidemiologist Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, a co-founder of the WHN, warned that though the number of cases remains small, it is growing at about 40 to 50 percent per week, or 10-fold growth over six weeks. He said, Case counts are increasing from 300 to 400 daily cases a week on seven-day averages. The US broke the 1,000 barrier and cases are accelerating.

He criticized the CDCs arbitrary and mechanical risk categorization that labeled intermediate risk as anyone in close contact with an infected person for more than six hours without a mask. The panel urged listeners to understand that all transmission routes were viable and to be aware that smallpox, which is in the same family of viruses as monkeypox, can be passed on through airborne transmission.

Bar-Yam added, Masking is a good idea, but there is no guidance for it. Masks are important, and these need to be acknowledged. There seem to be competing factions at the CDC on what they recommend. The confusion is dangerous, and clear guidance is required. The WHN-sponsored panel strongly urged everyone to mask and noted that the CDC had previously endorsed their use for monkeypox.

In concluding his initial remarks, Feigl-Ding warned that as cases of monkeypox in communities accelerated, with schools set to open this fall, the likelihood of these infections spreading among children was a major problem as the virus is most dangerous to the youngest. They also have never previously received the smallpox vaccine, meaning they are immunologically naive to the virus and lack any previous protection.

Bar-Yam explained the evidence for disease severity in children comes from clinical experience in Africa, where the virus is endemic. In population-based studies on monkeypox, pediatric patients made the bulk of those admitted to hospitals and ICUs. He also warned that the consequences of monkeypox infection in immunocompromised patients and pregnant women could be catastrophic.

The panelists also raised the following caveats about the Jynneos vaccine. Though it is safe in the immunocompromised, it hasnt been evaluated in pregnant or breastfeeding women and is also not authorized in those under 18, the most vulnerable population.

On a question from the audience about health systems becoming vectors of transmission for the monkeypox virus, Dr. Patel said she was very concerned about this issue. Considering the lack of awareness at most health institutions on the signs and symptoms of monkeypox and the slow turnaround in test results, she said this was a genuine possibility. Hospitals should take precautions against airborne transmission of monkeypox. Dr. Patel said, If patients test negative for COVID, health care providers will let routine procedures slide. She urged that those on the frontline of health care settings should receive the monkeypox vaccines to protect them and their patients.

Bar-Yam summarized, A WHO declaration of a pandemic would be significant. But there remains a vacuum of leadership. He reflected, I sat at a recent WHO meeting. They didnt go into using masks or travel testing. Though they did say it isnt just sexual transmission and anyone can get infected, they did not convey the message of urgency. The need to identify cases quickly was not well communicated. There is a desire to maintain calm. However, this is interpreted as the sense that there is no urgency. To solve this problem, we must first communicate the urgency [to act].
Ambassador Mina of Australia, who chaired the meeting, highlighted the statement issued at the 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) by ministers of Australia, Japan and Singapore. This statement included a commitment to revise the working modalities of the initiative to ensure that it achieves progress in the next few months and to issue a new consolidated negotiating text by the end of 2022.

Ambassador Mina said: We are marking this new phase with a step-up of our convergence efforts that's going to require a couple of different ways of working. He said that participants will need to accelerate their work in the small group setting.

Over the three days of meetings, the participants held two new small group meetings on privacy and on updating the telecommunications reference paper in addition to small group meetings on electronic transactions frameworks, e-invoicing, customs duties on electronic transmission, and cyber security. The facilitators of those small groups reported at the closing plenary on progress made in their deliberations to narrow gaps and bridge differences. Participants also heard an update from the group on open internet access and a proposal on how to enable developing countries to harness and implement the initiative's outcomes on e-commerce.

Ambassador Mina said: The second big strand in our effort is to extend our convergence building process. He said the group will be creating a stocktake small group, which will look at proposals that had not attracted enough support from the rest of the participants in the negotiations to assess whether proponents of these proposals should step up their engagement or withdraw these proposals. We're going to look for some leadership from those delegations that are backing proposals that received limited or no support to reconsider their position, he added.

The stocktaking session discussed single windows, data exchange and systems interoperability.

Ambassador Mina encouraged members to submit bridging and convergence-building ideas rather than new proposals under the negotiations.

Speaking on behalf of Ambassador Hung Seng Tan of Singapore, co-convenor of the initiative, First Secretary Mr Wei Guo Tang said: We need to work harder and smarter. Working harder means members need to spend more time making creative attempts to resolve impasse and bridge differences.

He added: And working smarter requires us to change the way we work and instead of rehashing old positions, we should think out of the box and look ahead rather than constantly looking into the rear mirror.

Ambassador Mina updated members on the E-Commerce Capacity Building Framework, which was launched at MC12 to offer a wide range of capacity building in support of the participation of developing and least developed countries in the e-commerce negotiations and to facilitate their engagement in the digital economy.

On behalf of Ambassador Kazuyuki Yamazaki (Japan), co-convenor of the initiative, the Deputy Permanent Representative of Japan, Mr Naoki Hikota, noted that members had a good discussion in the stocktaking small group on single windows, data exchange and system interoperability and the unique consignment reference numbers. He invited the proponent of these proposals to make further efforts to gather support from other participants.
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director General Qu Dongyu, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, World Bank Group (WBG) President David Malpass, World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley and World Trade Organization (WTO) Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala issued the following joint statement calling for urgent action to address the global food security crisis.

The COVID-19 pandemic, interruption in international supply chains, and the war in Ukraine have severely disrupted food, fuel, and fertilizer markets, which are interlinked. By June 2022 the number of acute food insecure people  whose access to food in the short term has been restricted to the point that their lives and livelihoods are at risk  increased to 345 million in 82 countries according to WFP. Making matters worse, around 25 countries have reacted to higher food prices by adopting export restrictions affecting over 8 percent of global food trade.(1) In addition, complicating the food supply response is the doubling of fertilizer prices over the last twelve months, reflecting record-high costs of inputs such as natural gas. Global stocks, which steadily increased over the last decade, need to be released to bring prices down. All this is happening at a time when fiscal space for government action is already severely constrained following the COVID-19 pandemic. Beyond the short term, climate change is structurally affecting agriculture productivity in many countries.

Avoiding further setbacks to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals requires short and long-term actions in four key areas: (i) providing immediate support to the vulnerable, (ii) facilitating trade and international supply of food, (iii) boosting production and (iv) investing in climate-resilient agriculture.

Providing immediate support to the vulnerable: Rapidly strengthening safety nets for vulnerable households at the national level and ensuring that WFP has sufficient resources to serve the neediest is a priority. WFP operations should be facilitated through actions such as the recent agreement by WTO members not to impose export restrictions on its purchases of food for humanitarian purposes. Unless they are well targeted, energy and food subsidies are expensive and inefficient. They should be replaced with cash transfers that reach only the most vulnerable. Over time, effective social protection systems may be expanded to cover more people. The best systems include strong targeting and efficient enrollment, delivery, and payment systems, often leveraging technology.

Rapidly strengthening safety nets for vulnerable households at the national level and ensuring that WFP has sufficient resources to serve the neediest is a priority. WFP operations should be facilitated through actions such as the recent agreement by WTO members not to impose export restrictions on its purchases of food for humanitarian purposes. Unless they are well targeted, energy and food subsidies are expensive and inefficient. They should be replaced with cash transfers that reach only the most vulnerable. Over time, effective social protection systems may be expanded to cover more people. The best systems include strong targeting and efficient enrollment, delivery, and payment systems, often leveraging technology. Facilitating trade and the international supply of food: In the short term, releasing stocks, as appropriate and consistent with WTO rules, and finding a diplomatic solution to evacuate the grains and fertilizers currently blocked in Ukraine, will help address availability and affordability of food supplies. Facilitating trade and improving the functioning and resilience of global markets for food and agriculture, including cereals, fertilizers, and other agriculture production inputs are key, as outlined in the WTO Ministerial Declaration on the Emergency Response to Food Security. The 2008 crisis taught us that imposing global trade restrictions leads directly to increases in food prices. Removing export restrictions and adopting inspections and licensing processes that are more flexible help minimize supply disruptions and lower prices. Increasing transparency through notifications to the WTO and improving the monitoring of trade measures will be critical.

In the short term, releasing stocks, as appropriate and consistent with WTO rules, and finding a diplomatic solution to evacuate the grains and fertilizers currently blocked in Ukraine, will help address availability and affordability of food supplies. Facilitating trade and improving the functioning and resilience of global markets for food and agriculture, including cereals, fertilizers, and other agriculture production inputs are key, as outlined in the WTO Ministerial Declaration on the Emergency Response to Food Security. The 2008 crisis taught us that imposing global trade restrictions leads directly to increases in food prices. Removing export restrictions and adopting inspections and licensing processes that are more flexible help minimize supply disruptions and lower prices. Increasing transparency through notifications to the WTO and improving the monitoring of trade measures will be critical. Boosting production: Taking action to encourage farmers and fishers to boost sustainable food production  in both developing and developed countries  and improve the supply chains that connect them to the worlds eight billion consumers is needed. This requires affordable fertilizers, seeds, and other inputs through the private sector as the primary actor in these markets. Providing working capital for competitive producers is also a key priority. Looking forward, disseminating best practice knowledge by FAO, WBG, and others will be key to increasing efficient fertilizer use through the rapid deployment of soil maps, extension services and precision agriculture technology. This will provide producers with the necessary know-how crucial for maintaining production levels and promoting sustainable use of natural resources.

Taking action to encourage farmers and fishers to boost sustainable food production  in both developing and developed countries  and improve the supply chains that connect them to the worlds eight billion consumers is needed. This requires affordable fertilizers, seeds, and other inputs through the private sector as the primary actor in these markets. Providing working capital for competitive producers is also a key priority. Looking forward, disseminating best practice knowledge by FAO, WBG, and others will be key to increasing efficient fertilizer use through the rapid deployment of soil maps, extension services and precision agriculture technology. This will provide producers with the necessary know-how crucial for maintaining production levels and promoting sustainable use of natural resources. Investing in climate-resilient agriculture: Supporting resilient investments in agricultural capacity and providing support to adaptation, smallholder farms, food systems and climate-smart technologies are essential to develop a resilient climate-smart agriculture that will ensure steady production in the years to come. Work on norms and standard-setting for food safety and on value chain infrastructure (storage facilities, cooling facilities, banking infrastructure and insurance infrastructure) is also important to increase access and reduce inequality.

Previous experience demonstrates that it is important to support developing countries hurt by price increases and shortages to meet their urgent needs without derailing longer-term development goals. Assuring that the most vulnerable countries facing significant balance of payments problems can cover the cost of the increase in their food import bill to minimize any risk of social unrest is essential. Development financing should provide clients with viable alternatives to inward-looking policies such as export bans or blanket subsidies of fertilizer imports. Investments in scalable safety nets and climate resilient agriculture and sustainable fisheries and aquaculture are good win-win examples.

We call for countries to strengthen safety nets, facilitate trade, boost production, and invest in resilient agriculture. Country specific needs should be identified and defined through a country-based process that mobilizes investments from multilateral development banks to connect short-, medium- and long-term opportunities. And we commit to working together to support this process through the Global Alliance for Food Security, jointly convened by the G7 Presidency and the WBG, to monitor the drivers and the impact of higher prices and help ensure that investment, financing, data, and best-practice knowledge are available to countries in need.
Life is pretty rough for the shirtless brooding teenager wandering outside a dilapidated single-wide in the video of Stephen Wilson Jr.s Holler from the Holler. The scenes are dark, the environs grim.

In the trailer, a man and woman argue to the point of violence; once inside, the teen retreats into his headphones, and then escapes the tension on his bicycle, eventually working out his frustration by bashing a large rock against a log.

Its quite a contrast to the engaging young actor who walked into Dothans Mural City Coffee Company to speak with a reporter one Friday afternoon. The only kid on his block with his own IMDb page, John McDonald arrived with a quick smile, a firm handshake, and his mom, Adair, because at 15, hes not old enough to drive.

Holler from the Holler isnt McDonalds first rodeo, and while there are dark themes in Wilsons glimpse at the concentric waves of misery spawned by domestic abuse, McDonald is unscarred by the story but impressed by the creative background of Wilson, who he considers brilliant.

Over the din of coffee-shop hub-bub, McDonald dismissed the notion that such a performance might leave a scar.

Its just a role, he said of the anguished character. If a director asks me to put on a princess dress and dance around, or be a holly jolly elf or a serial killer, thats what Im going to do.

Since grade 4, the eldest of Adair and Brian McDonalds three sons tried out for plays at school, but a part he landed as a sixth-grader in a Houston Academy staging of Shrek: The Musical set his sights on the footlights.

I played Lord Farquaad, that funny little guy, and it was amazing, McDonald said. After that, I was like, Mom, I want to be an actor Mom, I need to get an agent.

So McDonalds mom took him to a seminar and he wound up signed by an agent. Soon, he was in Atlanta on the set of a Ron Howard film as an extra.

Id seen some of his films, but of course, I didnt know what he looked like, McDonald said. So I was walking around, sometimes right in front of the camera and crew. I was just being me. Im guessing he must have seen me because I got a callback to that same set.

The call came after the family had left Atlanta bound for home. As the car pulled into the driveway, Adairs cell rang. It was a casting director. Im sorry, she said. We dont normally do this, but Mr. Howard wanted to see if we could have John on the set again tomorrow.

We just turned around and drove back to Atlanta, Adair said.

What else could they have done? I got a callback, as an extra, John said. For Ron Howard!

One asset that comes in handy in the hurry-up-and-wait culture of a movie set is McDonalds serene patience, something his mother attributes to his background in martial arts. He can sit quietly and entertain himself for hours, she said. And she and her husband, Brian, magazine publishers in Dothan, understand the mysteries of right-brained creativity, being in the story-telling business themselves.

That was fortunate for John, whose imagination emerged early. He recalls turning his favorite films into interactive endeavors, studying facial expressions and memorizing lines from movies like Jaws and the animated film Rango, and then practicing the process.

It would naturally involve play; after all, John points out, This is childhood.

Star Wars was one of his favorite movies when he was younger, and he had a toy light saber with a telescoping blade.

Id torture my dad constantly, he said, flicking his wrist as if hed drawn the movie weapon, adding the appropriate sound effect. Id grab a light saber and wed fight with them for hours and hours.

I still have it. Its broken now, but I still have it.

The more movies he watched, the more hed deconstruct the films he saw.

If I were watching Keanu Reeves playing John Wick, Id be like, What if I were in there? What would my facial expressions be? I would appreciate the movie, of course, but Id pay attention to other things besides the story line.

Currently, McDonald has been doing some advertising work, and recently signed contracts and non-disclosure agreements on a new film project. This fall will bring the expected release of another film, No Tears in Hell, in which he plays the young version of the central character, Alex.

He wants to continue acting, and has some projects ahead that hes contractually obligated to stay mum about. Like many teenagers, hes begun the process of investigating colleges, where he may well study something outside of theatrics.

People dont really go to college to learn to be an actor, Adair said. Youre born an actor. Longevity-wise, were hoping he studies something engineering-related.
A lawsuit against Regions Financial Corp. alleges that while the bank administered a charitable trust named for a former Alabama secretary of state, it charged exorbitant fees and steered scholarship money to children of the trust board members.

The suit, filed July 7 in Montgomery County Circuit Court, names Regions Financial Corp and Chief Trust Officer John Bell.

It was filed by Megan Carmack and Leigh Gulley Manning on behalf of their children.

The plaintiffs are family members of Mabel Amos, who served as Alabama Secretary of State from 1967 to 1975.

The lawsuit contends that the board trustees benefited personally using the funds in the Trust to educate their children at out-of-state expensive colleges and were not in financial need, while members of Amos immediate family were in financial need.

The suit seeks to remove Regions as the trustee bank and require it to pay back all distributions to the trustee children, as well as compensatory and punitive damages.

Amos filed her will in February 1993, establishing a memorial trust in her name with Union Bank, which eventually merged with Regions.

According to the lawsuit, Regions began charging outrageous fees when oil was discovered on Amos property, in contrast to reasonable fees when there were only natural gas wells there. For example, the suit claims that Regions was paid about $7,000 for spending five hours a week administering the trust in 2010.

Within a year, that same five hours a week cost $92,736.

From 2002 to 2018, the suit claims, the trust paid more than $1 million in administration fees to Regions.

At the same time, the wells have produced between $70 million to $80 million worth of oil and gas, or roughly 100 barrels of oil a day, along with millions of cubic feet in natural gas.

At the same time, the number and dollar amount of scholarships also increased, from $21,794 through five scholarships in 2011, to $214,000 among 17 scholarships two years later.

Among those were thousands of dollars in scholarships for the children of two attorney trustees, the suit claims, who did not attend colleges in Alabama, which was not Amos intent in setting up the trust.

Further, the suit claims that Mannings daughter received about $72,000 in scholarship money over an 11-year period from elementary school through college from the trust, while it paid three times that amount in just one year to the children of trustees.

Lagniappe Mobile reported the son and daughter of Alabama Ethics Commission Executive Director Tom Albritton received $120,000 from the trust to attend the University of Texas.

The plaintiffs also say the Regions trust officer hid Regions fees from them, as well as the self-dealing.

Jennifer Elmore, vice president of corporate media and public relations for Regions, would not comment directly on the suit.

Regions fee is less than one percent of the market value of the assets under management, and that is consistent with our standard rates and competitive with industry rates, Elmore stated.

This covers an extensive amount of administrative and fiduciary work provided by our team year-round. Regarding public information related to the fund, documents are made available through the IRS and the Alabama Attorney Generals Office.
123456 was among the most leaked passwords in Vietnam, with over 3.4 million uses last year, posing a cybersecurity risk that hackers can exploit, the information ministry said.

At a conference on password-less authentication Wednesday, Nguyen Thanh Phuc, head of the organized by the Authority of Information Security (AIS) under the Ministry of Information and Communications , said 42.1 million passwords by Vietnamese were leaked in 2021.

The most common password among these was "123456", which was used over 3.4 million times, he said, citing a report by NordPass.

Phuc said it was a worrying scenario, considering how many human activities happen online nowadays. Around 80 percent of data leakage incidents have to do with weak passwords, he said, citing a 2021 report by Verizon.

Vietnam is among the top target countries for cybercriminals, Phuc said. Within the first half of this year, the AIS had dealt with 506 websites masquerading as finance and banking organizations, helping prevent 1.5 million Internet accesses to such fraudulent websites, he added.

"When everything can happen online, the risk of registration info being stolen is always present through security vulnerabilities, password usage patterns and scams," Phuc said.

With current advancements in computational capacity, algorithms used to protect passwords could be breached very quickly.

Passwords also require users to actually remember them across multiple devices, and password management also imposes costs on organizations and businesses. A large organization would need to spend around a million U.S. dollars a year on average for password management personnel and infrastructure, Phuc cited a report by Forrester as saying.

Therefore, Vietnam needs to develop password-less authentication methods as a solution to the problem, he said. Different methods of password-less authentication include biometric authentication (fingerprints, for instance) and the use of physical keys.

"Authentication methods using usernames and passwords are gradually being replaced by password-less authentication," said deputy information minister Nguyen Huy Dung, adding that this was becoming a global trend.
More and more stroke patients in Vietnam have benefited from the increasing number of stroke centers and their innovative advances in treatment, according to experts.

As of now, the whole country hosts around 110 stroke centers, up from only one at 115 Peoples Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City in 2006, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Huy Thang, Chair of Cerebrovascular Disease Department at 115 Peoples Hospital and President of HCMC Stroke Association, told VnExpress on the sidelines of "Angels Academy: Stroke Multi-disciplinary" meeting held on June 25 in the city.

"That is the great effort of individuals, Vietnam and HCMC stroke associations," Thang said.

Training conference on stroke treatment co-held by VMA and Angles was live streamed online to stroke doctors in ASEAN, South Korea and Australia. Photo by Huy Hoang

Moreover, the associations have worked with Angels Initiative, launched by Boehringer Ingelheim and endorsed by the European Stroke Organization and the World Stroke Organization to improve care for people who have just suffered a stroke, to organize training courses for Vietnamese doctors, nurses and paramedic focused on treatment and care of stroke patients.

The initiative works toward developing more and better stroke ready centers, and to build and develop efficient regional referral networks where primary, comprehensive centers and EMS work together to provide patients the best care.

As a result, stroke center doctors and nurses have applied more advances in stroke treatment that meet international standards to save more patients and minimize long-term disabilities caused by stroke, Thang said.

These advances include the use of recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA) which has been the standard of care for treatment of acute ischemic stroke and mechanical thrombectomy - the type of minimally-invasive procedure in which an interventional radiologist uses specialized equipment to remove a clot from a patients artery.

A/Prof. Nguyen Huy Thang (2nd L) and experts discussed advances in stroke treatment at the conference. Photo by Huy Hoang

Moreover, several hospitals including 115 Peoples Hospital and Gia An 115 Hospital in HCMC, Phu Tho Province General Hospital ... and Quang Ninh Province General Hospital have used the RAPID Artificial Intelligence framework combining deep learning, machine learning and expert feature extraction. The RAPID artificial intelligence framework helps to quantify brain lesions and extend the window of potential stroke intervention from six hours after onset to up to 24 hours, for patients with salvageable brain tissue. RAPID provides physicians with fast, fully automated, and easy-to-interpret imaging that facilitates clinical decision-making around strokes.

In the 2007-2010 period, nearly 100-200 acute stroke patients got treatment, Thang said, adding that the figure has now increased to around 10,000. "This proves the great efforts of doctors and nurses in helping stroke patients access the best treatment that increases chances for them to not suffer from long-term disabilities and return to normal life."

"We know that 70 percent of stroke patients cannot function as before," he added.

To improve quality and effectiveness in treatment and care of stroke patients at stroke centers, nurses also play a vital role. Speaking at "Angels Academy: Stroke Multi-disciplinary" meeting, Do Thi Hai Van, head nurse of Bach Mai Stroke Center, said that they assist doctors in taking care of stroke patients to prevent complications including paralysis, difficulty swallowing or talking, balance problems, dizziness, memory loss, difficulty controlling emotions, depression, pain, and changes in behavior.

They are trained to early recognize signs of complication like dangerous and life-threatening pulmonary embolism that arises from venous thromboembolism, also known as blood clots, developing in a paralyzed lower extremity after a stroke. They then report to doctors to treat and save these patients in time, Van said.

During the treatment process and before being discharged from hospital, they spend time on educating patients and their relatives on rapid recovery, she said, adding that moreover, nurses also talk to patients.

According to the World Stroke Organization, stroke remains the second-leading cause of death and the third-leading cause of death and disability combined in the world.

In Vietnam alone, 200,000 new stroke cases are recorded each year, the Ministry of Health said, adding that strokes kill 11,000 people.

Telemedicine in stroke treatment

"Angels Academy: Stroke Multi-disciplinary" meeting also highlighted the role of telemedicine that can help stroke patients especially in remote areas without stroke centers to access treatment more quickly and reduce the number of fake strokes. Early triage by a stroke consultant can potentially speed up door-to-needle times once patients are at hospital by enabling better preparation.

At the meeting, Dr. David Hargroves, consultant stroke physician at East Kent Hospital University Foundation Trust in England, shared experiences and results in setting up a telemedicine pilot between South East Coast Ambulance Foundation Trust and East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust in November 2018 to test the feasibility of pre-hospital direct calls between ambulance clinicians and hospital doctors in order to triage patients who are FAST+ (facial drooping, arm weakness, speech difficulties and time to call emergency services).

"Telephone triage assessment between stroke specialist and ambulance crew improve sensitivity and specificity of triage to support time critical access to thrombolysis and thrombectomy," he said.

Prof. Ken Butcher, director of Clinical Neurosciences at the Prince of Wales Clinical School at the University of New South Wales, introduced tele-stroke services that bring sub-specialist stroke care to rural and remote hospital settings using tele-health technology.

Prof. Kenneth Butcher shared the role of telemedicine in stroke consultancy and treatment. Photo by Huy Hoang

The service offers people living in regional and rural areas increased access to life-saving stroke diagnosis and treatment. This is done by connecting local doctors to stroke specialists, via video consultation in the emergency department.

"This service is not costly and could be suitable in Asia," he said.

The meeting focused on improving from better to best: how we can work together to optimize stroke systems and networks, to develop effective stroke networks and telestroke programs; and to reinforce the importance of post-acute care in improving patient outcomes. It was held as a hybrid meeting in HCMCs Sheraton Saigon Hotel and live streamed online to stroke teams across the ASEAN region, South Korea, and Australia.
Dao Hong Lan, Party chief of the northern Bac Ninh Province, has been appointed acting minister of health over a month after the former one was arrested.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh announced the appointment Friday at the ministry's office in Hanoi.

Lan, 51, is a native of the northern Hai Duong Province. She holds an economic master's degree and is a member of the 13th Party Central Committee for the 2021-2026 term.

Dao Hong Lan has been appointed acting minister of health, July 15, 2022. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh

She used to work as a specialist of Social Insurance Department under the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs and then became the department's deputy head.

Later, she worked as deputy chief of office and then office chief and deputy minister of labor.

In March 2018, she was appointed deputy secretary of the Bac Ninh Provincial Party Committee.

In Sep. 2020, she became the secretary, making her the first-ever female Party chief of Bac Ninh.

On Jun. 7, Nguyen Thanh Long was arrested after being dismissed as health minister for his involvement in a Covid-19 test kit fraud in 2020.

Long, 56, is under investigation for "abuse of power or position in performance of official duties."

The Communist Party's agencies concluded that he had violated the Party and the State's regulations, "causing severe consequences, losses to the money and assets of the State, undermining the Covid-19 fight, causing social unrest and affecting the reputation of the Party, the health ministry and science ministry."

According to inspectors, Long had "intervened and supported" Viet A Technologies JSC in the process of granting temporary and official circulation registration books, negotiating prices, and checking negotiated prices for test kits provided by the company.
It was a delight to visit the Partido Popular Monarquico (PPM) deputies during the Regional Legislative Assembly plenary session in Faial, The Azores.

We learned about the special status of the Azores islands and the working relationship with the national government, as well as the pressing topics for the citizens of the archipelago.

The cluster of islands is the most Western point of Europe and has a strategic geography and location when it comes to defense, the environment and trade.

The areas our member party- PPM- focuses on the most are the environment, sustainability, farming and fishing. Paulo Estevao, representative from Corvo island and Gustavo Alves (Flores island) are working tirelessly on policies which would improve the lives of their voters and would preserve the beauty and richness of their islands. Their proposals include expanding a dam which would produce more hydro-energy for the inhabitants, improving the radar system and alerts for natural disasters and potentially using an invasive plant's fiber to replace plastic. They're also fighting for the fishers and farmers, for their products to be treated equally in the marketplace and paid fairly. Here is a short interview with them.

During this visit we also had the honor to meet the President of the Regional Legislative Assembly of Azores, Luis Garcia, as well as the head of the regional government: Jose Manuel Cabral Dias Bolieiro. We had a lovely conversation with each and was able to ask them a few questions.

Separately, we met the Regional Secretary for Sea and Fishery- Manuel Humberto Lopes Sao Joao, from whom we learned more about the territorial waters of the islands, the exploration of the sea and challenges for the fishers and their products on the European market.

The newly elected President of the Committee of Regions- Vasco Alves Cordeiro- is a native of Azores and member of the Azores Legislative Assembly. He was elected to head the Committee of Regions with a unanimity of votes, an impressive feat! It was a pleasure and honor to be able to meet him and learn more about his plans of leveraging the power and importance of EU regions in Brussels.

From the Azores we headed to Lisbon where we had a couple of fruitful meetings with the President of PPM- Goncalo da Camara Pereira, and with the chairman of the PPM National Council- Joao de Travassos. We heard their plans for strengthening the party and increasing its visibility in Portugal and we look forward to partnering with them on projects which would highlight our common values and interest in European themes.

See here the photo album.
Frazer Harrison/Getty

Despite swirling rumors on social media that Drake was arrested for marijuana possession in Stockholm, Sweden, The Daily Beast has learned the rapper is not even in custody.

Swedish police said that while they would not say whether the rapper had been arrested, they could confirm he was not in police custody.

I cannot tell you any thing about that but I can confirm he is not in custody, a spokesperson said.

The statement comes as The Hollywood Reporter confirmed from Drake's team that the rapper had not been arrested, despite initial speculation that he had been taken away by police at a Stockholm nightclub.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, his team said that the Grammy winner was in his hotel in the Swedish capital and had not been arrested.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.

Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now.
It used to be that saying something extreme about abortion would be considered toxic, even in the Republican Party.

Remember Todd Akin? In 2012, Akin, then a Republican congressman, looked like he was all set to defeat incumbent Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill. But then he started talking about something he knew nothing about  how women get pregnant. Specifically, he talked about pregnancy caused by rape.

From what I understand from doctors, thats really rare, he said. If its a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But lets assume maybe that didnt work or something. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist.

Akins comments were widely denounced as ignorant and offensive  including by members of his own party. National Republicans unsuccessfully pushed for him to drop out of the race. He then lost to McCaskill.

There was also Richard Mourdock, another 2012 GOP Senate candidate who justified opposing abortion in cases of rape, saying that if a woman becomes pregnant under those circumstances, its something God intended.

In this case, national Republicans distanced themselves from Mourdocks comments even while many of them stood by him. He lost the Senate race.

In 2010, Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle was asked what she would say to a young girl who was raped by her father, became pregnant and was considering an abortion.

I think that two wrongs dont make a right, Angle replied. And I have been in the situation of counseling young girls, not 13 but 15, who have had very at-risk, difficult pregnancies. And my counsel was to look for some alternatives, which they did. And they found that they had made what was really a lemon situation into lemonade.

Angle also lost her race.

But these sorts of positions are no longer outliers in the GOP. The rhetoric is not only widely embraced, but this stance of forced birth has become law in many states thanks to the Supreme Courts conservative majority overturning Roe v. Wade.

Story continues

Its true that abortions resulting from rape and incest are a small percentage of overall abortions. And to be clear, there are no good or bad reasons for having an abortion.

But those cases often receive the most attention because they are so shocking and horrifying, especially when the victims are children themselves.

Nothing could provide a clearer example of where the Republican Party is now than the case of the 10-year-old girl in Ohio who was impregnated by her rapist and then barred from having an abortion in her own state. The girl ended up traveling to Indiana for the procedure.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita (R) wants to investigate the doctor who performed the abortion on the 10-year-old rape victim. (Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images)

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita (R) wants to investigate the doctor who performed the abortion on the 10-year-old rape victim. (Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images)

First, conservatives tried to pretend that this girl didnt exist, despite an Indiana obstetrician-gynecologist saying she had treated the girl. The Wall Street Journal even published an editorial calling it an abortion story too good to confirm. Fox News, of course, readily ran with the smear campaign. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) initially tweeted  and then deleted  that the whole thing was a lie.

This girl does exist, and sadly, she did go through this horrible experience. This week, a 27-year-old man was charged with raping her.

This news did not provoke much soul-searching. Republicans instead doubled-down on their position that people should be forced to give birth.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita (R) said he plans to investigate the doctor who provided the abortion to the 10-year-old girl, even though abortion is still legal in the state.

James Bopp, a conservative lawyer who has written model legislation encouraging states to ban abortion in all cases except to save the life of the pregnant person, said he believes the girl should have been forced to have the baby.

She would have had the baby, and as many women who have had babies as a result of rape, we would hope that she would understand the reason and ultimately the benefit of having the child, Bopp told Politico Tuesday.

And on Thursday, Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) blocked Democratic legislation that would protect the right to travel across state lines to seek abortion services. During a civil trial deposition in 2010, Lankford reportedly took the position that 13-year-olds can consent to having sex, according to a transcript provided to the Associated Press.

Other Republican politicians, such as South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, have defended their state laws that provide no abortion exceptions in cases of rape or incest.

Large majorities of Americans support abortion access in those instances, even in red states.

Other Republicans have tried to downplay the possibility of pregnancy from rape and incest, but that task was made harder after the nationally publicized case of the 10-year-old girl in Ohio. Some Republicans were actually shocked that a girl that age could get pregnant, underscoring that they shouldnt be writing laws that dictate these medical choices.

Perhaps the most absurd attempt to move away from this case came Thursday from Catherine Glenn Foster, the president and CEO of Americans United for Life.

Asked about the possibility of 10-year-old girls getting raped, impregnated and then being forced to give birth, Foster eventually seemed to suggest that the girl would be able to terminate the pregnancy  but that it wouldnt be an abortion.

If a 10-year-old became pregnant as a result of rape and it was threatening her life, then thats not an abortion, Foster said. So it would not fall under any abortion restriction in our nation.

It would be an abortion.

Even if some Republicans are still squeamish about saying outright that rape victims who are 10, 12, 14, 18 or whatever should be forced to give birth, that is the result of these policies that ban abortion.

Even when these exceptions for rape or incest exist, it is often incredibly difficult for pregnant people to meet the standards  such as reporting the assault to police  required to qualify. The Guttmacher Institute notes that they are designed to be insurmountable and are often retraumatizing if not dangerous for the patient.

As Guttmacher added, the best way to support rape and incest survivors is removing abortion bans and restrictions entirely.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
Ivanka Trump is honoring the memory of her late mom Ivana Trump.

On July 14, Ivanathe ex-wife of former President Donald Trumppassed away at the age of 73. Amid news of her passing, a "heartbroken" Ivanka took to Twitter to share a tribute to her mother. "Mom was brilliant, charming, passionate and wickedly funny," she wrote alongside a sweet throwback photo of the mother-daughter duo from when Ivanka was a child. "She lived life to the fullestnever forgoing an opportunity to laugh and dance."

She added, "I will miss her forever and will keep her memory alive in our hearts always."

Ivanka's post follows an earlier statement made with her brothers Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump announcing the Ivana's death. "It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved mother, Ivana Trump," the statement read. "Our mother was an incredible womana force in business, a world-class athlete, a radiant beauty, and caring mother and friend."

Celebrity Deaths: 2022's Fallen Stars

Ivana's children went on to credit her as a "survivor," saying that she had "fled from communism and embraced this country."

Throughout her marriage with Donald, Ivana worked alongside her former husband in the Trump Organization and oversaw multiple projects, including the construction of Trump Tower in New York City.

"She taught her children about grit and toughness, compassion and determination," it continued. "She will be dearly missed by her mother, her three children and ten grandchildren."

A New York City official told E! News that Ivana was found dead inside her Manhattan home with no indication of foul play.

The former president, who was married to Ivana from 1977 to 1992, also shared a statement of his own in which he called Ivanka, Eric and Donald Jr. her "pride and joy."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Heartbroken by the passing of my mother. Mom was brilliant, charming, passionate and wickedly funny. She lived life to the fullest  never forgoing an opportunity to laugh and dance.<br><br>I will miss her forever and will keep her memory alive in our hearts always.  <a href="https://t.co/EyhrLNLUJw">pic.twitter.com/EyhrLNLUJw</a></p> Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/IvankaTrump/status/1547706200942264331?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 14, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

"She was so proud of them, as we were all so proud of her," Donald wrote. "Rest In Peace, Ivana!"

In addition to Ivana, Donald was married to Maria Maples from 1993-1999, whom he shares daughter Tiffany Trump with. He tied the knot with his current wife Melania Trump in 2005, and welcomed their son Barron Trump the following year.
FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP - The Monmouth County Prosecutors Office is on the scene of what a spokesman for the agency described as a serious motor vehicle collision in the area of Siloam and Old Turkey Swamp roads on Thursday evening.

The crash took place shortly after 5 p.m. and motorists were still being directed away from the scene several hours later, said Mark Spivey, a spokesman for the Prosecutors Office.

We are asking the public to please stay clear of the area, and more information will be released as it becomes available, Spivey said.

In addition to investigators from the Prosecutors Office, the Monmouth County Serious Collision Analysis Response Team (SCART) has also been summoned to the site, he said.

This is a breaking news story. Stay with app.com for updates.

Contact Asbury Park Press reporter Erik Larsen at elarsen@gannettnj.com

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Freehold NJ: Monmouth County detectives at serious crash
ALBANY, N.Y.  State regulators approved rules Thursday governing New Yorks soon-to-begin retail cannabis sales, ensuring the first batch of licenses will go to business owners with past pot convictions.

New Yorks Cannabis Control Board gave the green light to a licensing program proposed earlier this year that prioritizes justice-involved individuals as well as an online application portal that will go live likely next month.

This is a tremendous stride in the right direction, board chairwoman Tremaine Wright said. Were leading with equity in this state.

Under the new rules, applicants for the first set of the Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary, or CAURD, licenses must prove they or a family member have been convicted of a marijuana-related crime prior to New Yorks legalization of pot in 2021 and have at least two years experience owning a profitable business.

The Office of Cannabis Management will post the opening date for the portal on its website at least 14 days before the application period opens. The online application is meant to be user-friendly and the average New Yorker can complete it independently, Wright said.

While its unclear how large a pool of applicants will be eligible under the rules, OCM executive director Chris Alexander said its an equity-focused example that he hopes to see other states embrace as cannabis legalization continues across the U.S.

This is how we build a model for establishing a truly equitable and inclusive cannabis industry that other states can follow, he said.

Under the states Seeding Opportunity Initiative, between 100 and 200 dispensary licenses could be issued by this fall, with sales allowed before the end of the year.

More than 200 New York farms have been granted licenses to grow cannabis plants that will be used to stock up adult-use dispensaries as part of the same New York-centric program meant to ensure larger, multi-state operators dont flood the market.

Story continues

Officials are planning on visiting a handful of hemp farms that are already growing cannabis intended for the recreational market on Friday. Members of the Cannabis Control Board will check out growing operations at farms located in Erie, Schoharie, and Ulster Counties.

The board on Thursday also approved some changes to the states medical marijuana program streamlining the patient registration process and revised packaging, labeling, marketing and advertising regulations to align with proposed regulations for the retail industry.

In New York, adults 21 and older can possess and publicly consume pot even though sales have yet to begin. The law also allows for the gifting of marijuana as long as no money is exchanged.

Last week, OCM released a trove of cease and desist letters sent to businesses around the state the agency says have been skirting the rules.

Dozens of legit-looking dispensaries have popped up in the city and elsewhere offering pot as a free gift or part of a subscription program.

Regulators say business owners who continue to flout the law could become ineligible for retail licenses once the program gets up and running.

Meanwhile, mixed messages about whether random drug tests would still be used to detect marijuana use sparked confusion among members of the New York Police Department.

Despite a leaked city Law Department memo stating that marijuana testing of cops is no longer legal, police brass on Wednesday said that the department will maintain current policies prohibiting officers from lighting up.

Union sources told The New York Daily News that the FDNY is likely to o along with the new guidance, meaning firefighters and EMTs will be permitted to smoke pot when not on duty.
errr, a strange few years  being an American. Like many, I've been doing a lot of thinking since the recent fall of It's been a strange month , a strange few years  being an American. Like many, I've been doing a lot of thinking since the recent fall of Roe v. Wade , especially when it comes to the issues of reproductive rights , health care, and paid family leave.

Personally, I can't stop thinking about the fact that people are being forced to give birth in a country where there is no universal healthcare and not even sufficient government-mandated family leave. It makes me furious and also terribly sad for the United States. Getty Images

I know I'm not the only one thinking about it. Recently, a Redditor posted a New York Times map of paid leave for new mothers by country. And then the discussion started flowing as people shared their experiences with parental leave all around the world. Along with those, I also gathered some responses from the BuzzFeed Community. Here's what paid family leave looks and feels like around the world, according to people who have experienced it firsthand.

Fg Trade / Getty Images

1. "I'm originally from the US but now I live in Germany. I honestly can't fathom having a baby in my home country. In Germany, I took off roughly 19 months of maternity leave with each child: six weeks leading up to my due date and eight weeks after were fully paid. I then received a reduced salary for the other months but I continued to be insured and under a pension plan. You can theoretically take three years of parental leave here, but the third year is unpaid. The benefit it that your employer legally has to take you back after and you continue to be insured/pensioned."

u/WerewolfBarMitzvah09 Sally Anscombe / Getty Images

2. "In the UK, we have maternity and paternity leave, but we also have a separate statutory minimum of two weeks leave for anyone giving birth. This makes it illegal to go back to work for two weeks even if you wanted to. This prevents women from being coerced into going back too soon."

u/extrobe

3. "In Romania, paid maternity leave is up to two years , and fathers can also request paternal leave."

u/enerchia Ariel Skelley / Getty Images

4. "In France, you get six weeks off before labor and 10 weeks after. You may shift this split to four weeks and then 12 weeks with a doctor's note. This time off is mandatory and your pay is about 90%. For a country that's sometimes touted as 'socialistic,' this paid time off doesn't seem that much. I'm grateful but I would gladly take more!"

u/WhistlingDead

Story continues

5. "In Austria, we have 16 weeks mandatory leave , eight before birth and eight after (or 12 if we have a C-section). Theres actually a lot of debate around this because the state literally doesn't allow women to work for the designated time away. This is seen by some feminist circles as harmful to womens standing in the labor market. Personally, I was so glad I didnt have to work past 32 weeks because I couldnt sit or focus. I would have suffered through the last weeks if it weren't for the mandatory eight weeks before birth."

u/WurmiMama Purple Collar Pet Photography / Getty Images

6. "My husband and I work for the same company in the United States. We recently found out that we must SHARE our 12 weeks of unpaid leave. We originally thought we would get 12 weeks per person. America really needs to start caring about parents and families. It's especially grating because I live in a religious red state where having families is a top priority, but the government isn't actually helping people to realize that goal."

u/kaysuepacabra19

7. "In Japan, maternity leave refers to the medical leave that mothers are entitled to take on either side of their due date. It is approximately six weeks prior to her due date and eight weeks post ). There is no equivalent leave for fathers, but some employers offer leave in addition to the mandatory entitlements (such as a week or two of 'paid paternity leave') to fathers around the time of the birth."

u/starkimpossibility Skaman306 / Getty Images

8. "I gave birth on a Friday. By Monday morning, my husbands boss wanted him back in the office. That was the end of his paternity leave in the US."

melanieg429f11f61

9. "New York State offers paternity leave for 12 weeks where fathers make 67% of their pay, capped at $1,068.37 per week."

u/macaulaymcculkin1 Sally Anscombe / Getty Images

10. "I'm from Kuwait and any woman giving birth gets a minimum of 70 days paid maternity leave by law. And if you work in the public sector, you can get paid leave for up to six months (or up to one year making 50% of your salary). When you are ready to go back to work the employer is not allowed to fire you either."

mafs

11. "In Canada, we have 12 or 18 months of maternity leave. You get paid 80% of your normal salary, but you get the same amount stretched out over either the course of a year or the 18 months."

dee Lwa / Getty Images

12. "Norwegian men are required to take two weeks off when the baby is born. Paternal leave in total is a minimum of 15 paid weeks and two weeks right after birth."

u/ChristofferOslo

13. "I live in the US. I had to go without a vacation or any time off for more than two years in order to accrue the measly seven weeks of parental leave I finally took. I couldn't afford to be without a paycheck, so I went back the day after my PTO (paid time off) ran out. It was awful. My milk supply was still regulating, no one was sleeping through the night, and within a couple weeks, I was hit with serious postpartum depression. This country can afford paid leave. We are literally the worst for not providing it."

nleninsky918 Disobeyart / Getty Images/iStockphoto

14. "The best thing about Australia's parental leave is that your job is safe for a year. I took the whole year off (with my savings) and just started back at work this month. I'm in a slightly different role which suits me better now as a mum, and it was so lovely having the year off with baby knowing I had employment when I was ready to go back."

u/sophieslaw

15. "I'm in Korea. I got five days of paternity leave. I guess I could have legally taken more time but it was actively discouraged by my work."

u/pablo_the_bear Toshiro Shimada / Getty Images

16. Slovakia here. My wife and I just had a baby boy. She will get three years of maternity leave and I will get six months of paternity leave while making 75% of my income. We also get all sorts of one-time bonuses, tax deductions, etc. I almost feel guilty for being financially secure despite not having to work for so much time."

u/drnhfer Oscar Wong / Getty Images

17. "I am in no way trying to minimize the fact that I have paid leave in the UK while some countries offer none or little, but it's important to put our policy into context. We get 39 weeks of paid leave...but without an employer enhancement package (which many people don't get), people are making less than the legal minimum wage during parental leave. IMO, having some degree or paid leave shouldn't be the goal. Rather, maternity pay should be linked to minimum wage and cost of living everywhere."

u/moneyheist21 Mongkolchon Akesin / Getty Images/iStockphoto

18. "California teacher here. People assume that teachers get paid maternity leave (this is possibly because there are a lot of young professionals and mothers in the field), but the truth is we do NOT. We get zero days of paid leave. We get the federally mandated 12 weeks unpaid leave , but if we need financial support during that time we have to use our sick leave. This means that most of us cant take the full 12 weeks off."

"I think a lot of us go into teaching with the hope that it will fit well into a parenting schedule (kids at school while youre at work, summer and winter breaks) without realizing that we have very few options when it comes to maternity leave. Furthermore, if you get pregnant before getting tenured, there is a very real chance that you could lose your position. Teachers who are not tenured are on temporary contracts. When the school year ends, so does your job, unless the school 'invites' you back. Being pregnant does not improve your odds."

emily463e6ddb9

19. "In Germany, each parent can take up to three years of parental leave per child. In the case of the mother, this three years includes a legally prescribed six weeks after birth, during which the mother must stay home. Fathers can start parental leave at childbirth. Both parents have to take at least a part of parental leave before the child turns three and parental leave must conclude before the child's eighth birthday. Aside from these rules, parents are free to choose the beginning and end of their parental leave."

u/themoleofdoom Thanasis Zovoilis / Getty Images

20. "In Portugal, we have four months paid at 100% of our salary or five months paid at 87%. You can extend maternity leave to sixth months and Social Security will still pay around 40%. The father has to take a mandatory 10 to 15 days after the birth and can take a full month after the mother's leave  all 100% paid. Even if they are unemployed, parents get paid to stay home with the baby. Children have free medical care until their 18th birthday too, in the public healthcare system."

estrelices

21. "I live in Israel where there is a mandatory 15 weeks of paid parental leave. The first six weeks must be taken by the one who gave birth, but I decided to go back to work part-time (just five hours a week) and transfer the rest of my mandated leave to my husband, who got to take the rest of the time paid. Payment for parental leave is calculated by your last three pay stubs. You are paid the total amount you earned over the last three pay stubs per month. I couldn't be fired within six months of returning...and I could quit within the first year to take care of my kid and would get the same benefits as if I was fired."

gracieappelt Nataliaderiabina / Getty Images/iStockphoto

22. "Costa Rica is a third-world country, but we still have four months of paid maternity leave . In government jobs, even men have one month to help. All mothers have daily paid time to breastfeed and it is mandatory to supply a healthy environment for them to do so."

mariela_alv

23. "In New Zealand, you can have up to 36 weeks of paid leave . The government pays either parent about $450 a week after tax regardless of what your salary is. Your employer also has to keep your job for you and follow a full integration process. We also have mandatory four weeks of paid leave each year and ten paid sick days. Its absolutely scary to think about jobs with no paid leave."

erinmurphy3 Nataliaderiabina / Getty Images/iStockphoto

24. "In Belgium, I have to take a mandatory week of leave before my due date (but I can take up to six weeks before my due date). Then there is a mandatory nine weeks postpartum , but it can be extended by the five optional weeks before delivery. This amounts to 14 weeks in total. I get paid 90% of my salary the first month and then about 80% for the following months. My husband gets 20 work days off. I also get protection against termination from the moment I notify my job."

u/Dionesphere

25. "Brazilian here. In Brazil, mothers have four months off while they make 100% of their salary. The other parent gets five days. The biggest companies are typically part of a government program called Citizen Company, which offers fully paid maternity leave for six months and paternity leave of 20 days. Also, mothers can't be fired for five months after returning to work. It's not enough, but it's something."

MarinaDS Tuan Tran / Getty Images

26. "I was a resident doctor during my pregnancy. I worked until the day I was scheduled to be induced. I then had six weeks off, and I also used my four vacation weeks for the year. I had 'saved' two weeks from my previous years in residency. My husband got three days off after our baby was born. He took two weeks of 'vacation' after and I went back to work. Our baby was in daycare by nine weeks old. The US is abysmal for parental leave."

u/amackinawpeach

27. Australian here. We get 18 weeks of maternity leave at minimum wage (which I believe is about $750 per week). Many employers will 'top up' that amount to your normal salary. My employer pays 16 weeks at full pay on top of the 18 weeks. I also have nine weeks of annual leave available, so I'm taking those weeks at half pay simultaneously. It's also worth noting that in Australia the average sick leave is 10 days per year but it accumulates. For example, I currently have 120 sick days available to me. If I switch employers though, it resets to zero."

u/Molly_Doodles Tuan Tran / Getty Images

28. "I'm in Canada and I took my leave starting at 33 weeks. I make 100% of my salary for 15 weeks . The government covers 55% and my job tops up the payments. After 15 weeks, I'm taking up tp 37 weeks at 55% pay, which is $595 a week. My significant other is taking 10 weeks at the same."

u/camburd

29. "In Sweden we have three months of paid leave for each parent. Then a couple gets 300 days that they can divide between parents as they see fit."

u/xXxMemeLord69xXx Lauren Bates / Getty Images

30. "Here in Uruguay we're about to have our first baby. My wife gets three months off and I get 13 consecutive days, all paid for by the government. After that, one of us can take three more months fully paid by the government too."

germanbrea

31. "I come from Moldova, which is one of the poorest countries in Europe. Here, you get three years paid plus three years unpaid maternity leave. You don't get paid very much... I believe you make 70% of your salary for the first year and 30% after that, but at least your employer has to keep your job. Coming to work after one year of maternity leave is considered careerist here."

u/thatcheekychick Cavan Images / Getty Images/Cavan Images RF
INDIANAPOLISRepublicans knew the minute Roe v. Wade was overturned that they had a political problem, particularly with moderates in the suburbs who they need to vote for GOP candidates in the midterms.

The unfolding story of a 10-year-old rape victim who crossed state lines from Ohio for an abortion in Indiana is confirming just how damaging the issue may be.

Oh, God no, one prominent Republican strategist said, after members of his party suggested the victim should have carried the pregnancy to term. Very bad, said another. Or as one anti-abortion rights Indiana Republican strategist put it, Im not touching this story with a 10-foot-pole wrapped in a blanket wrapped in a whatever.

In the three weeks since the Supreme Courts ruling on Roe, Republicans poised for a winning midterm election have strained to keep public attention squarely on President Joe Bidens weak job approval ratings and on inflation, fearful that abortion  a deeply felt issue that polls poorly for conservatives  could lift Democratic turnout and push moderates away from the GOP.

The case has become an instant flashpoint in the nations abortion wars, alarming Republicans as they try to use abortion to rally base voters without alienating the majority of Americans who say abortion should remain legal in at least some circumstances.

But the case of the pregnant 10-year-old has laid bare how uncontrollable GOP messaging around abortion may be. Not only were right-wing media outlets and Republican politicians who cast doubt on the story forced to backtrack once the facts of the case were confirmed, but the hits to Republicans appear likely to keep coming.

On Thursday, Jim Bopp, the National Right to Life Committees general counsel, inflamed the issue when he told POLITICO that the 10-year-old girl should have carried her pregnancy to term  a statement he later said resulted in him receiving death threats.



Despite what GOP leaders and strategists would prefer, the story is unlikely to fade quickly. Later this month, Indianas state legislature plans to convene a special session explicitly to pass new curbs on abortion, likely becoming the first state to do so in the wake of the Dobbs decision that reversed the national right to abortion enshrined by Roe in 1973.

Story continues

These are the kind of things that are going to breathe life into the Democrats hopes of maintaining some sort of coalition, said John Thomas, a Republican strategist who works on House campaigns across the country. I dont think this is the dominant issue as were going into November, but these kinds of unforced errors are lifelines for the Democrats.

Thomas said the Indiana case has already come up in at least one race he is working on and that he has advised candidates that, You try to avoid the topic. You try to pivot to another issue.

Every day that were talking about anything but Bidens cost of living is a wasted day politically, said Scott Reed, a veteran Republican strategist. You know, weve got a historic opportunity here this November, and lets not blow it.

Another national GOP strategist who works on several high-profile campaigns said Bopps comments could highlight exactly the parts of anti-abortion legislation that make moderate voters squeamish.

The overall goal of the pro-life cause is to save lives and while I think his comments are well-intended, they dont reflect the realities of this case or the electorate, the strategist said. His comments open the door for swing district Republicans to be labeled as extremists, eroding the gains we have made with suburban women that will be crucial to winning in 2022 and 2024.

For weeks, the widely held expectation among both Democratic and Republican political professionals had been that Roe would almost certainly not be enough to stop Republicans from gaining a majority in the House in November, but that it could limit their gains, scaring off moderates and suburban women.



Abortion still ranks below other issues  most of all, the economy  as a top priority of voters, and the electoral landscape is so bleak for Democrats this year that they are likely to sustain widespread losses regardless of fallout from Roe. By November, said Dave Carney, a national Republican strategist based in New Hampshire, its not going to matter what Bopp or whatever  his name is says. Its not going to trump 9.1 percent inflation.

But abortion has been ticking up as a priority since the courts ruling on Roe. And in close House races and statewide contests in swing states, even a shift at the margins may be consequential.

Sean Walsh, a Republican strategist who worked in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush White Houses, said the Indiana case will not only turn off moderate Republicans but will serve as a motivator to get younger voters to vote  who usually are spotty in casting ballots.

It hurts because it sets the frames [of] the GOP position as extreme, said Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist who was a co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. This particular case may not be remembered in a few weeks but the steady drip of stories coming will have a definite cumulative impact.

For Republicans in Washington, focus on the most conservative elements of the partys positioning on abortion may be unavoidable. Of the 13 states with trigger bans that have kicked in or are soon to in the wake of the Supreme Courts decision, only five contain exceptions for rape or incest.

Mike OBrien, an Indiana Republican operative and former legislative director for former Gov. Mitch Daniels, said the 10-year-olds case is likely to focus the legislative debate on such exceptions.

I suspect that those who were already hoping for a bill with exceptions will point to this as an example of a horrific situation where options are necessary, he told POLITICO. But legislators arent going to get off that easy with the Indiana pro-life lobby who already doubled down on a bill with no exceptions.

In South Carolina, where lawmakers passed legislation in 2021 banning abortions after the detection of fetal cardiac activity, usually around six weeks of pregnancy, the legislature is considering going further. State Sen. Sandy Senn, the only Republican senator to vote against the measure, said she suspects many Republican women, like her, may be pro-life but against forced birth  she believes abortion should be legal through the first trimester. She says that harsher bans may spur voters to take it out on Republicans in November.

Their voices might be heard at the ballot box when many women vote single issue on the abortion issue regardless of party affiliation, Senn said. It is nonsense to demand rape and incest victims, many of whom are children themselves, to carry children through birth just because a heartbeat is capable of detection.



Even Republicans who oppose such exceptions are doubtful of the politics of it. South Carolina state Rep. John McCravy, who is chairing a special ad hoc committee on abortion, personally opposes exceptions in the case of rape or incest. But he isnt sure whether his Republican colleagues feel the same way.

He said if legislation passes out of committee without rape and incest exceptions, he anticipates the vote could be much tighter than proponents may expect.

If we get this bill through the Judiciary [Committee] and its got no exceptions in it, and it gets to the floor, I think itll be a close vote, McCravy said.

Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life, said he will press lawmakers in his state  who banned abortions after the detection of fetal cardiac activity in 2019 with no exceptions for rape and incest  to not change their minds on exceptions when they meet later this year.

Endorsed candidates, he said, signed surveys saying they wouldnt support such exceptions. Gonidakis added that he believes the 10-year-old should have been able to legally receive an abortion under Ohio law because of the health risks of carrying a pregnancy to term at that age. But whether the law needs to be clarified to make that more explicit for doctors fearing prosecution is a question for state lawmakers, he said.

Thats a policy decision we should discuss at the statehouse, both pro-choicers and pro-lifers. Thats why we have a legislature. Lets go have that conversation and sit down and talk about it, Gonidakis said.



In Indiana, Destiny Wells, a former deputy state attorney general who is also the Democratic nominee for secretary of state, said in an interview that she hoped the case would make anti-abortion lawmakers think twice about the impact of their legislation.

I would hope that the state of Ohio expecting a 10-year-old to carry her rapists child being brought to national light would slow down anti-abortion legislation, she said.

Its unclear if it will. Spokespersons for both of Indianas state legislative chambers did not make any caucus members available for interviews to discuss whether the specific case would shape their legislative approach.

Asked whether the high-profile nature of the 10-year-olds case complicated the path toward further abortion restrictions in the special session scheduled to begin July 25, a former longtime veteran Indiana GOP lawmaker told POLITICO: I think everyone is aware of the case, but I dont think it will be a driving factor. He added that he expects exceptions ultimately to include rape, incest, and life of the mother.

More important is how they seek to address pressure from interest groups on both sides of the issue, he said, whose viewpoints may not align with the majority sentiment of the general public.
Starbucks is sharing the decision-making process behind its recent announcement that it would be closing 16 of its nearly 16,000 locations in five major U.S. cities by the end of the month.

The company announced on Monday that it would be shuttering six locations in Seattle and six in Los Angeles, as well as two stores in Portland, Oregon, citing safety concerns. One store in Washington, D.C., and another in Philadelphia are also impacted by the closures.

A spokesperson for the Seattle-based coffee chain confirmed to ABC News on Friday that the decision to close the stores was "a product of conversations over the last 10 months."

Earlier this week, Debbie Stroud and Denise Nelson, senior vice presidents of Starbucks' U.S. operations, sent an open letter to Starbucks employees stating, "We read every incident report you file -- it's a lot. We want you to know that creating a safe, welcoming, and kind third place is our top priority. Because simply put, we cannot serve as partners if we don't first feel safe at work."

The term third space -- a location that serves communities outside of work or home where people can gather -- has been used to describe Starbucks coffee shops by both the company and its customers.

Speaking to ABC News on Friday, the company spokesperson declined to detail specific incidents or a specific number of incidents that acted as catalysts for the decision, but said that "what it comes down to, these are things that [businesses] across the country are dealing with."

"It's issues related to chronic homelessness, through substance abuse, to [the] mental health crisis to social and economic upheaval following the the start of the COVID-19 pandemic -- it's all of these things," they said.

They added that, as a nationwide chain, "we have a unique window into neighborhoods in particular."

According to Stroud and Nelson's letter -- which asked, "How do we continue to show up for our communities while protecting our partners?" -- Starbucks plans to evaluate its Third Place Policy to help train partners on addressing disruptive behaviors and engaging local community resources.

Story continues

One way the company has already started to address issues brought on by the pandemic, according to the spokesperson, has been to "increase ... minimum staffing levels to ensure that they have the ability to serve customers, to de-escalate and provide first aid or all these other things that Starbucks is beefing its training up on."

The total number of hours of training required for new partners has doubled from 20 to 40 hours, covering everything from actual coffee training to de-escalation. Starbucks plans to revisit the frequency of these trainings for existing partners next month as well.

In Monday's letter, Starbucks said it would continue to evaluate modifying operations to align with its new safety goals, including closing bathrooms or closing stores altogether if it could not promise a safe environment for customers and employees.

Starbucks also recently announced its outreach worker program which seeks to embed social workers in stores with high level challenges. The program is in the process of being stood up in eight cities, including some of the locations affected by the new closures.

The company spokesperson on Friday also responded to recent backlash over the fact that two of the 16 stores impacted by closures are unionized.

"Any claims of union busting are false. We regularly open and close stores as a standard part of our business operations," the spokesperson told ABC News. "We apply the same focus on safety at unionized and non-union stores and are closing non-union stores where we are similarly challenged in providing a safe environment for our customer and partner experience."

Additionally, they said leaders have worked "with humility, deep care and urgency to create the kind of store environment that partners and customers expect of Starbucks, and to maintain standards of partner care in this transition."

The company "will communicate with Workers United to discuss the impact of this decision on partners, including the opportunities for transfers to other stores," they said.

Below is the full list, which Starbucks confirmed to ABC News, of the local stores that will be closed by the end of July:

California: Los Angeles and 1st Street (Doubletree); 2nd and San Pedro Street; Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Avenue; Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue; Moss Avenue and Ocean Front Walk; Santa Monica Boulevard and Westmount Drive.

Oregon: Gateway Shopping Center; 4th and Morrison Street.

Pennsylvania: 10th and Chestnut Street.

Washington 23rd and Jackson Street; 505 Union Station; East Olive Way; Highway 99 and Airport Road - Everett; Roosevelt Square; Westlake Center.

District of Columbia: Union Station Train Concourse.

Starbucks explains decision-making process behind recent store closures announcement originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com
The code has been copied to your clipboard.

width px height px
Crews searched for survivors Friday in the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia after Ukraine authorities said a Russian missile strike killed at least 23 people and wounded about 100 more a day earlier.

Eighty people remained hospitalized, Ukraine's emergency service said. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address that four people were still missing after the strike.

Police identified 19 of the people killed, Ihor Klymenko, head of the National Police, said in a Facebook post. Among the victims were a 4-year-old girl and two boys at ages 7 and 8, he said.

The missiles damaged more than 50 buildings, including a hospital, Klymenko previously said, calling the strike "a cynical, cruel and insidious crime that has no excuse" in another Facebook post.

Teams, including sniffer dogs, scoured the debris of destroyed residential and commercial buildings Friday, focusing their attention on two sites  an office building with a medical center inside, and a concert hall near an outdoor recreation area and park.

Other developments

Russia remains barred from some of Europe's best-known soccer competitions, including the Champions League, after the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Friday rejected appeals by the country's national soccer federation and four clubs, upholding decisions to exclude Russia by the Union of European Football Associations and FIFA.

Bulgaria will continue to repair Ukrainian military equipment even after Moscow's decision to suspend Russian helicopter repair certificates to Bulgarian companies, the country's defense minister, Dragomir Zakov, said Friday. Bulgaria has previously refused to send weapons directly to Ukraine but agreed to repair Ukrainian military equipment at its factories.

4-year-old girl killed in Russian missile strike was 'always cheerful'

One of the children killed in the Russian strike in Vinnytsia was 4-year-old Liza, who was en route to an appointment with her mother on Thursday. Her mother, Iryna Dmytrieva, was among the injured.

Story continues

She remembered that she was reaching for her daughter, and Liza was already dead, Irynas aunt, Tetiana Dmytrysyna, told The Associated Press on Friday. The mother was robbed of the most precious thing she had.

Photos of Liza's body on the ground next to her blood-stained stroller were widely shared on social media after the missile strike.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyys wife Olena Zelenska posted that she had met the wonderful girl," who had Down syndrome, while filming a Christmas video with a group of children.

Liza was a sunny baby, her great-aunt recalled. She was a very bright child. She knew how to draw, spoke, always helped adults and always smiled. Always cheerful.

HARDWARE AND HARDSHIPS: U.S. doctors help Ukraine medical teams via telehealth, but needs are staggering

British aid worker dies in custody of pro-Russian separatists

Paul Urey, a 45-year-old British aid worker who was detained by Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine has died, authorities said.

Daria Morozova, the human rights ombudswoman for the Moscow-backed separatist leadership in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, accused Urey of being a British "mercenary." She said he died of chronic illness and stress on Sunday.

The co-founder of the Presidium Network aid charity said Urey had diabetes and required regular insulin.

"Its obvious that his welfare was not looked after," Byrne said, adding that British officials had notified Ureys family of his death and calling for his body to be released and returned to his family.

Urey was detained in April along with Dylan Healy, another British man, while the two were working on their own to help evacuate civilians.

GRAPHICS: Mapping and tracking Russia's invasion of Ukraine

Brittney Griner's lawyer presents doctor's letter for cannabis

A lawyer for basketball star Brittney Griner presented a Russian court on Friday with a doctor's letter recommending cannabis to treat pain, days after Griner pleaded guilty to drug possession charges.

Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist who plays basketball for a Russian team during the WNBA's off-season, was arrested at a Moscow airport in February after Russian authorities said they found vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage. She faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of drug-related charges.

The U.S. government is facing mounting pressure to secure Griner's release, an effort likely made difficult amid tensions fueled by Russia's invasion of and ongoing war with Ukraine.

The next hearing for the case was scheduled for July 26. Lawyers say sentencing in the case may happen in the next few weeks.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ukraine live updates: Crews search for survivors after missile strike
Delia Owens

Image Source: Getty

Delia Owens has seen mainstream success as the author of "Where the Crawdads Sing," the hit book that's now a movie starring Daisy Edgar-Jones. However, all the new attention on the film has brought a complex and shocking story from Delia's past back into the spotlight. Years ago, Delia left Zambia, Africa, after being tied to a murder investigation. She is still currently wanted for questioning by the Zambian government.

Before she was a bestselling author, Delia and her husband, Mark Owens, were zoologists and conservationists based in Africa, originally in Botswana before moving to Zambia. While there, the couple became involved in an effort to stop elephant poachers. Mark, according to a piece published in The Atlantic in July, had "gradually come to command a corps of game scouts in North Luangwa, outside of Zambian-government oversight, by buying their loyalty through the provision of weapons, boots, and money." The couple, Jeffrey Goldberg writes, had essentially "militarized the 2,400-square-mile park." They were eventually joined in the country by Mark's son from his first marriage, Christopher Owens, who became a part of their battle against poachers.

Related: Here's What Happens in the "Where the Crawdads Sing" Book

The end of their time in Africa began when the Owenses wrote about their conservation work in their 1992 memoir, "The Eye of the Elephant," leading to a feature in a 1996 episode of the ABC News documentary "Turning Point." The episode ends with a clip of a man, said to be a poacher but also referred to in the episode script as a trespasser, being executed on camera via gunshot by an unknown assailant.

Shortly after the episode was filmed, the Owenses left Zambia. The documentary triggered the ongoing police investigation of the family's activities, and the victim's body has never been found. In 2010, Goldberg published an investigative piece in The New Yorker called "The Hunted" about the murder.

Story continues

Goldberg's investigation found that the Owens family's actions toward poachers had frequently been aggressive and even violent, which the Owenses have denied.

Today, Mark, Delia, and Christopher are all still wanted for questioning in Zambia. "There is no statute of limitations on murder in Zambia," Lillian Shawa-Siyuni, Zambia's director of public prosecutions, told Goldberg, per The Atlantic. For his 2010 article, Goldberg said Delia told him the family didn't "know anything about" the murder. "The only thing Mark ever did was throw firecrackers out of his plane, but just to scare poachers, not to hurt anyone." Additionally, Delia said, "Chris wasn't there. We don't even know where that event took place. It was horrible, a person being shot like that." Again in 2019, she denied any involvement to the New York Times. According to The Atlantic, Mark and Christopher's lawyers have previously denied their involvement. POPSUGAR did not independently reach out to Mark and Christopher for comment.

Readers of "Where the Crawdads Sing" have called out some similarities between the book and the details of the murder case. "Where the Crawdads Sing" follows Kya Clark, a girl who grows up alone on the wild North Carolina coast. She is eventually implicated in a murder investigation when one of her lovers is found dead. Ultimately (spoiler alert!), the truth is revealed: Kya committed the murder. Her actions are painted in the novel as merited by the circumstances, and she escapes punishment for the crime.

Related: Taylor John Smith's Sisters "Freaked Out" When He Was Cast in "Where the Crawdads Sing"

There are other echoes of Delia's past in "Where the Crawdads Sing." One character in the story, named Sunday Justice, has the same name as a man who worked for the Owenses as a cook in Africa. The real Justice is also mentioned in the Owenses' memoir "The Eye of the Elephant." However, in the memoir, Justice's speech is likened to a child's, and he seems wowed by the Owenses' travel on an airplane. The real-life Justice countered his depiction and told Goldberg he had flown on planes as a child and had been in the Zambian Air Force.

WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING, Daisy Edgar-Jones, 2022. ph: Michele K. Short / Sony Pictures Entertainment /Courtesy Everett Collection

Image Source: Everett Collection

All this forms a contradictory web of details that connect Delia's real life and her writing, adding complexity to the story of "Where the Crawdads Sing." These details could be interpreted in many different ways, but one thing is clear: there's more to this story than meets the eye.

Delia, who has not yet publicly addressed the similarities between the murder controversy and the book, has herself acknowledged her work's greater context. "Almost every part of the book has some deeper meaning," the author said in a 2019 interview with Amazon. "There's a lot of symbolism in this book."
The president of an anti-abortion legal advocacy group told a House committee this week that abortion care for a 10-year-old girl would not be considered an abortion.

During an exchange with Democratic US Rep Eric Swalwell about restrictions on abortion care, Americans United for Life president Catherine Glenn Foster told the House Judiciary Committee on 14 July that treating a 10-year-old girl for an abortion after she was raped would impact her life and so therefore it would fall under any exception, it would not be an abortion.

Wait, said Congressman Swalwell. It would not be an abortion if a 10-year-old, with her parents, made a decision not to have a baby as the result of a rape?

If a 10 year old became pregnant as a result of rape, and it was threatening her life, then thats not an abortion, so it would not fall under any abortion restriction in our nation, said Ms Foster

The question followed the arrest of a 27-year-old suspect in Ohio charged with raping a 10-year-old girl, who was referred for abortion care in Indiana after Ohio officials enacted a state law that outlaws abortions at roughly six weeks of pregnancy with no exceptions for rape or incest.

Ohios law went into effect mere hours after the US Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to abortion care last month. The courts ruling now allows states to enact restrictive anti-abortion laws previously considered unconstitutional under the half-century precedent established in Roe v Wade.

Acccording to police testimony, police were alerted to the case via a referral from Franklin County Children Services made by the girls mother on 22 June. Two days later, the states anti-abortion law went into effect, and she reportedly received care in Indiana on 30 June.

Congressional committees are holding a series of hearings on the state of abortion access and the far-reaching impacts of the Supreme Courts decision on 24 June in the case of Dobbs v Jackson Womens Health Organization.

Story continues

Congressman Swalwell called on committee witness panelist Sarah Warbelow, legal director for the Human Rights Campaign, to respond to Ms Fosters remarks.

I heard some very significant disinformation, she said, before adding: An abortion is a procedure. Its a medical procedure that individuals undergo for a wide range of circumstances, including because if they have been sexually assaulted, or raped in the case of the 10 year old.

It doesnt matter whether or not there is a statutory exemption, it is still a medical procedure that is understood to be an abortion.

Democratic US Rep Madeleine Dean also condemned Republican committee members anti-abortion rhetoric as well as the witness, our expert here, fabricating that if a girl had a procedure to save her life, that its no longer an abortion.

Of course it is, its a medical procedure, she said. Republicans think women are too stupid to make decisions for ourselves.

Ohios Attorney General Dave Yost claimed that the rape victim did not have to leave Ohio to find treatment; that is not the case according to states law and analysis from the nonpartisan government agency Ohio Legislative Services Commission.

Ohio is among 10 states  including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas  that do not provide any exceptions for abortions from pregnancies resulting from rape or incest under their state laws governing abortion care. Some of those measures are currently blocked by legal challenges.

Following the Supreme Courts decision, nearly all abortions at any point in a pregnancy are outlawed in at least nine states  Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin  and other states are implementing other restrictions to accessing legal care.
Map of Latin America. Vector illustration in shades of orange.

It's time to acknowledge that we Americans know very little about Latin American history. Even what we learn at the university level tends to center on Europe's invasion of the Americas as the beginning of history and teaches us that anything beyond that time was strictly England, Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome. We continue to learn about the British and Spanish empires and we continue to retell the stories and perceptions they recorded about a land and people they knew nothing about.

To understand Asian erasure in Latin America, look no further than the first contact Christopher Columbus had with the Taino people of Puerto Rico in 1492. He called them "Indios," which as we know was a name meant for Indians from India; it's an erroneous term that persists to this day. If Columbus legitimately believed he was in Asia, how is it that Asians have been so auspiciously left out of Latin American history when India was the intended destination of Columbus's journey? The Philippines were also in constant contact with both Spain and Nueva Espana (modern-day Mexico). Looking at the facts, it's pretty clear that the omission of Asians from Latin American history is deliberate and strategic. So the question becomes: why are Asian Latines removed from history and gate-kept from an identity that is very much theirs?

European History Is Only a Partial History

We must go back further than the "conquest" of the Americas to understand why Asians have been omitted from history. "The history of the orient is a long part of European identity. In the 15th century and the middle ages, Europe was not the power that it was in the 19th century, says Dr. Junyoung Veronica Kim, assistant professor of Latin American culture and literature at the University of Pittsburgh.

Columbus invaded the Caribbean during the height of the Ming Dynasty, which lasted from 1396-1644. Similarly, India's Mughal Empire was a global leader in 15th-century trade and manufacturing, controlling 24.4 percent of the world economy. This all happened while Europe was still emerging from centuries of occupation, wars, famine, and disease. In 1492 after 10 years of war, Spain reconquered the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada ending almost 800 years of Muslim Empire rule in the region. Small provincial countries like Spain and England had no real resources to trade, which helps us understand why they chose to violently colonize territories with resources in order to build wealth for themselves.

Story continues

Mexican-Argentine philosopher Enrique Dussel wrote in "The Invention of the Americas" that Europe's "discovery" narrative served as a covering up and a rewriting that puts Europe at the center of history, when in reality that was not the case. In short, recognizing Asia's economic superiority - and Asians' by proxy - disrupts the identity of superiority that Europe was trying to create for itself.

"Latin America always thought of itself as an extension of Europe. The project of Latin America was always based on the identification with Europe and European culture."

"Latin America always thought of itself as an extension of Europe. The project of Latin America was always based on the identification with Europe and European culture," says Dr. Kim. This is plainly evident in the creation of the casta system in both Latin America and the Chino casta system in the Philippines. Europeans classified people they knew nothing about and it stuck even centuries later.

"Chinos Indios" and Chinese Slavery in the Colonies?

Most people don't realize or recognize that Spain colonized the Philippines and the Americas at the same time. During the 16th century, many Filipinos who were classified as "Indios" traveled freely to the Americas as traders, soldiers, and sailors, but "Chinos" specifically from China were brought as slaves. The Manila Galleons carried mostly Chinese goods to New Spain for two and a half centuries, but also carried countless Chinese and Asian slaves to Mexico. "How do you group the Philippines? Are they Indians or are they "Chinos"?" Dr. Kim asks. "There were cases where some people couldn't tell the Asian slaves apart from the 'regular people' in the Americas so they actually branded Chinos on the forehead so they could be seen as slaves. [Eventually] a lot of these 'Chinos' were grouped under 'Indios' so that only people of African descent were going to be slaves."

As the colonies began to gain independence, intermixing and incentivizing European immigration (regarding blanqueamiento: The social, political, and economic ideology to "improve the race," otherwise known as mejorar la raza used in post-colonial countries throughout Latin America) became the way to homogenize a very diverse population. Although the slave trade came to an end, it didn't stop the arrival of immigrant workers from Asia or the sweep of anti-Chinese (antichinismo) laws in both the US and Latin America. Even when Chinos were now defined as "Indios, the movement and opportunity for Asians in Latin America were under constant scrutiny. Asian women were for the most part not allowed to immigrate because the Spanish didn't want Asian families, Asian women were considered breeders. The colonies only allowed men, for the most part, and intermixing was punishable by law.

"Mexican women who married Asian men were deported, they were not considered Mexican anymore. There were entire campaigns during the Mexican Revolution where they not only killed a lot of the Chinese workers, but they would kill Mexican women and their offspring or put them on a boat and deport them."

"Mexican women who married Asian men were deported, they were not considered Mexican anymore. There were entire campaigns during the Mexican Revolution where they not only killed a lot of the Chinese workers, but they would kill Mexican women and their offspring or put them on a boat and deport them," Dr. Kim says. "They were used and they were disposed of. They would die off naturally or just be deported. The idea was that Asians were not supposed to stay."

As much as we see race as a solidified thing in the 21st century, it was and continues to be an imposition of identity determined by the ruling class. There are countless recorded massacres of Asian towns and Chinese workers all over Latin America, the most infamous being the Torreon massacre in Mexico where three hundred Chinese men, women, and children were brutally killed. In Peru, there were several whole massacres of Chinese workers. To this day, hostility and open racism toward Asian Latinxs is still socially acceptable despite the fact that these are our neighbors, countrymen, and a lot of times our own ancestors whose legacy many of us unknowingly carry by blood.

In April of this year, the Royal Society published a study, "The Genetic Legacy of the Manila Galleon Trade in Mexico," which shows Mexicans predominantly in the state of Guerrero, Colima, Guadalajara, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi, Veracruz, Puebla, Toluca, and Mexico City, are found to have East Asian and Melanesian genetics. And it would be safe to say the same would be true for other port cities on the Spanish shipping route. "A lot of people of Asian descent in Latin America don't know they are of Asian descent . . . People have these histories and they don't know. No matter what they look like, people will say, 'Yes, my family comes from Spain,'" says Dr. Kim.

There is a long and sordid history of Asians in Latin America that most Latin Americans continue to deny to this day. And it's clear that the only way towards any actionable change is going to be through education and investigation of the myths and lies that were used to indoctrinate us - essentially what we must do is decentralize European history and begin moving forward. There is no quick fix when it comes to racism and centuries of abuse. As Dr. Kim put it, "I don't know how we can 'make it better.' I think that's putting things idealistically. I think we can make a dent and try to make dents, but we need to start asking questions."
A total of 18 sailing yachts raced around the waters of Italys Costa Smeralda this May while taking part in the Giorgio Armani Superyacht Regatta, yet none could compete for attention with the 108-foot Shenandoah of Sark. Sailing between Capo Ferro and the Monaci islet before continuing past the Isola delle Bisce, the topsail schooner put in a friendly appearance showing exactly why she remains so admired 120 years since her delivery.

The only yacht to be designed by naval architect Theodore Ferris is adept at drawing crowds. Wherever we go we are the most photographed boat, Captain Russell Potter told Robb Report. Shenandoah has a romanticism about her that brings an extra level to a holiday at sea.

More from Robb Report

Sporting teak decks, a steel hull, and a teak and steel superstructure, maintaining the boats wood varnish is an annual affair. Its something that her current owner, who adores all things classical, including motorcycles and music, is happy to do. Both himself and his girlfriend are professional musicians. It explains the Steinway that sits in the main salon, dappled in light from a large skylight above.

Cockpit dining area. - Credit: Stuart Pearce

Stuart Pearce

Shenandoahnamed after the 55-mile Shenandoah River in the Blue Ridge Mountains of northern Virginiawas built in 1902 at New York shipyard Townsend and Downey. The three-masted adventurer was conceived as a fast family yacht for an American investment banker who planned to tour Europe in his retirement. He required performance and long-distance ocean sailing, something that Shenandoah delivered. Since then, the boat has passed through many owners and sailed under many names.

In 1929, Dutch sculptor Viggo Jarl embarked on a global adventure that took the boat across the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, to the West Indies and Colombia, through the Panama Canal to Hawaii and then further down into South America. She even sailed 500 miles up the Amazon. On the outbreak of World War II, he removed the engines and masts to render the boat useless to the Nazis.

Story continues

In later years, she was spotted in Monte Carlo on the night Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier of Monaco. In 1952, she was seized at Cannes by the French authorities and lay abandoned for 10 years. Ballpoint pen magnate, baron Marcel Bich, rescued her, oversaw the boats first major restoration and then used her as a mothership to his 1974 and 1977 Americas Cup challenges.

Two significant refits have happened since, one two-year restoration carried out at New Zealand shipyard McMullen & Wing in 1996. The second and most recent in 2019, which included an engine overhaul and a new interior designed by Terence Disdale, though it remained sympathetic to Gae Aulentis original. The masts were also changed back to wood from aluminum.

The helm station.

Other celebrity encounters have included a Mediterranean sail with Caroline Kennedy, daughter of JFK, and in Cannes, Rod Stewart filmed the music video for his 1983 hit What Am I Gonna Do while on board. But its the boats ability to excel in stiff winds and whitecaps that stands out. In 2001, she competed in the Americas Cup Jubilee Regatta, and has competitively raced in Turkey, Israel, Greece and Croatia. She sleeps eight guests in four staterooms and typically carries 12 crew. When competing, that increases to 20.

Ive been sailing on this boat for 14 years and I still like picking up the anchor and setting sail, says Potter, who first joined Shenandoah as a deckhand straight out of school in 2002. Like a vintage leather jacket or a good pair of jeans, the appeal will never die.

Potter worked his way up to mate before leaving the boat in 2006 to spend six years aboard motor yachts. In 2012, he was asked back as captain, and has been skippering Shenandoah ever since.

Main lounge. - Credit: Burgess

Burgess

The schooner no longer races competitively though she is more than capable of picking up the pace when desired. An LY3 certificate restricts sailing in winds that exceed 27 knots when on charter, but guests are invited to help pull the lines and the crows nest is a big hit with kids who love to climb up the ropes Pirates of the Caribbean-style.

Gastronomy is also a forte, with the yachts chef, Shay van der Kraan, scooping the Heart and Sole award at this years MYBA Chefs Competition in May (sponsored by Robb Report). That said, the formal dining area is rarely used. Instead, the owners spend time eating and relaxing on deck in the shade of the cockpit. Much like everything else on board, the cockpit has evolved over time. Today, it enjoys a hardtop roof and windows that wind down in the style of a classic car.

When Covid hit in 2019, the owners spent three months aboard with their dogs, comprising six weeks in Croatia and six weeks in Greece. The owners love cruising Greece for its winds and opportunity to day sail between the islands, says Potter. When weve got flat sea and strong wind, this boat really lifts her skirts and she puts smiles on peoples faces.

Now for sale and charter through Burgess, Shenandoahs next big adventure awaits.

Click here to see all the photos of Shenandoah Sark.

Shenandoah of Sark

Best of Robb Report

Sign up for Robb Report's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.
DEVILS LAKE - Gov. Doug Burgum, cabinet leaders and representatives from the Governors Office met with Spirit Lake Nation Chairman Doug Yankton, Devils Lake Mayor Dick Johnson and U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer to discuss health care access, the rising elevation of Devils Lake and other issues important to the tribe and community.

During the meeting at Spirit Lake Casino, Burgum spoke about the need to address food deserts on reservations to expand access to healthy foods, and to pilot new approaches to community-based health care instead of trying to navigate the cumbersome federal health care system.

Gov. Doug Burgum, cabinet leaders and representatives from the Governors Office met with Spirit Lake Nation Chairman Doug Yankton, Devils Lake Mayor Dick Johnson and U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer to discuss health care access, the rising elevation of Devils Lake and other issues important to the tribe and community.

Gov. Doug Burgum, cabinet leaders and representatives from the Governors Office met with Spirit Lake Nation Chairman Doug Yankton, Devils Lake Mayor Dick Johnson and U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer to discuss health care access, the rising elevation of Devils Lake and other issues important to the tribe and community.

We think we have an opportunity in North Dakota, working with the tribes and with the health care sector, the nonprofit side, to actually create a national model, he said, advocating for greater collaboration to support tribal economies, health care and agriculture. Whatever the conversation is, the State of North Dakota would like to be a part of it going forward, and we appreciate the invitation.

Officials also discussed the elevation of Devils Lake, which has risen by 3.5 feet so far this year due to heavy precipitation and runoff over the winter and spring. North Dakota Department of Water Resources began annual discharge operations of the two Devils Lake outlets to slow the lakes rise and reduce flooding.

The meeting also touched on tourism, which is a critical component of the economy in the Devils Lake area, as well as U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service land management. Also attending from the state were Governors Office Chief Operating Officer Tammy Miller and General Counsel Ryan Norrell, North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission Executive Director Nathan Davis, Department of Human Services Executive Director Chris Jones, Department of Water Resources Director Andrea Travnicek, Game and Fish Director Jeb Williams, and Maria Effertz Hanson, director of the Division of Community Services in the Department of Commerce.

This article originally appeared on Devils Lake Journal: Burgum meets with Spirit Lake chairman on rising lake, health care
A federal judge on Wednesday denied Joe Nathan James Jr.s requests for a stay of execution. Barring possible last-minute court intervention, James will die by lethal injection on July 28.

James, 49, was sentenced to death for capital murder in the 1994 killing of his former girlfriend, Faith Hall.

James, 49, was sentenced to death for capital murder in the 1994 killing of his former girlfriend, Faith Hall.

In June and early July, James filed several lawsuits in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama against the state attorney general and numerous justice system officials. U.S. District Judge Terry F. Moorer considered issuing motions for a preliminary injunction in three of James lawsuits.

A substantial likelihood of the suits success must exist for a judge to issue a preliminary injunction, according to legal precedents cited in Moorers rulings. A preliminary injunction would have stayed James execution until the pending case or cases had been fully heard.

James still has two pending requests for an injunction from a pair lawsuits he filed in the court on July 5. As of Wednesday afternoon, Moorer had not indicated whether he would consider those requests, according to court records.

Joe Nathan James: Federal judge considering injunction for July 28 execution of Joe Nathan James Jr.

Kit Ekman, chief deputy clerk for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama, said it is still theoretically possible that Moorer would issue a stay in those two lawsuits.

James can also appeal Moorers rulings in a higher court, but time is running out, Ekman said.

Certainly hes got appellate rights, and hes got the right to take the issues up with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in the two-plus weeks hes got left to do it, Ekman said. The execution date is set for July 28th; todays the 13th. Not much time.

James claimed he was not given the opportunity to elect execution by nitrogen hypoxia, an untested method of execution, in his lawsuit against Attorney General Steve Marshall. While Moorer denied James request for an injunction in the lawsuit against Marshall, he had not dismissed the case itself as of Wednesday afternoon, according to court records.

Story continues

James request for a permanent injunction could still come if a final ruling is made before his execution date, but there is not sufficient evidence to warrant court intervention prior to a final ruling, Ekman said.

James claims that Marshall entered into an agreement with the Federal Defenders of the Middle District of Alabama, allowing only their clients to elect nitrogen hypoxia. James says the federal defenders told their clients that those who didnt elect nitrogen hypoxia would have their executions date set before those who did as the state developed protocol for performing executions with the untried method.

James, allegedly unaware that he could delay his execution by electing nitrogen hypoxia, said the treatment violated his right to equal protection under the 14th Amendment.

Moorer cited an earlier ruling from a similar case in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Ironically, if the State did allow [plaintiff] to make the belated election he seeks, it would be treating him differently than other death-row inmates who were not afforded the same benefit, the appeals court ruled in Price v. Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections.

Moorer dismissed James two other lawsuits in which he was considering a preliminary injunction on Monday and Wednesday.

James made similar claims in both lawsuits, alleging that the Alabama Supreme Court order for his execution did not constitute an execution warrant. James listed a host of officials in his complaints, including Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm and Holman Correctional Facility Warden Terry Raybon.

Moorer said that James claims were simply incorrect, according to court records.

According to reporting by the Associated Press, James forced his way into Hall's Birmingham home on Aug. 15, 1994, accused her of infidelity and shot her. Hall died of multiple gunshot wounds.

A Jefferson County jury convicted James in 1996 and recommended the death penalty, which a judge imposed. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the conviction, ruling a judge wrongly admitted police reports into evidence. James was retried and sentenced to death in 1999.

Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for the Montgomery Advertiser. Contact him at emealins@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanMealins.

Your subscription makes our journalism possible. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Joe Nathan James Jr.s requests for a stay of execution was denied
Photo credit: Michael Kovac - Getty Images

Jamie Lee Curtis opens up about her first assumptions about former costar Ana de Armas.

I made an assumption that she was an inexperienced, unsophisticated young woman.

Curtis now discounts her initial impression of de Armas and gives her glowing remarks for her major acting chops, and admitting to her initial prejudices.

Jamie Lee Curtis just got very candid about assumptions she made about former costar Ana de Armas prior to working together on Knives Out.

Curtis recalls her accounts of false first impressions when she first started working with de Armas in a new ELLE cover story. In the feature, Curtis remembers how she thought her Cuban-born co-star was an unsophisticated young woman before getting to know her.

I assumedand I say this with real embarrassmentbecause she had come from Cuba, that she had just arrived. I made an assumption that she was an inexperienced, unsophisticated young woman, Curtis told ELLE. That first day, I was like, Oh, what are your dreams?

Although Curtis had made these initial assumptions, de Armas quickly made quite the impression on the veteran actress. Curtis told ELLE that she was so impressed with de Armas that she wanted to introduce her to Steven Spielberg to play Maria in West Side Story or to [her] godchildren Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal.

Embarrassed that she once held such inaccurate thoughts, Curtis now speaks very highly of her now-friend, de Armas. Delving into what de Armas is really like off-camera, Curtis tells ELLE that her friend in real life has a down-to-earth personality, but shes not a complete Hollywood outsider either.

She is not as fancy as maybe the advertisements would have you believe. She leans in, interested; talking to her is kind of give-and-take. Shes curious and asks a lot of questions, Curtis says.

This isnt the first time Curtis has given a glowing remark about de Armas since working together on their 2019 film. Back in February 2021, de Armas was named Times Time100 Next list and Curtis gave de Armas top marks for her major acting chops. She even recounted the moment that she knew that the actress had unmistakable talent.

Story continues

Curtis has never shied away from growing as a person, having opened up in the past about overcoming her hidden battle with addiction. Shes also been vocal about how shes overcoming her Hollywood sell-by date, and doubled down on pro-aging rhetoric to ensure women know just how important it is to lean into each passing year. In fact, shes publicly slammed fillers, procedures saying they conceal the reality of who we are.

Curtis latest comments reveal that celebrities, like us, make mistakes in judging others by where they come from. Now, the 63-year-old is admitting to and apparently learning from, that erroran admirable thing to do.

We love Curtis and de Armas friendship and we cant wait to see what the creative pair do next in their Hollywood journey!

You Might Also Like
The Seven Seas Explorer at sea

Graham Copeland/Courtesy of Regent Seven Seas Cruises

Seafarers can soon sail in luxury aboard one of Regent Seven Seas Cruises' new Legendary Journeys as the cruise line just announced its Grand Voyages lineup for the 2024 to 2025 season, all focused on longer itineraries of 63 to 83 nights.

Reservations open next week, on July 20, 2022, for four trips that include itineraries through Northern Europe, the Mediterranean, Asia, and Africa.

Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat, Oman

Courtesy of Regent Seven Seas Cruises

"Our guests are eager to travel around the world and create memories all while enjoying the exquisite luxuries that are the hallmark of the Regent experience," Regent Seven Seas Cruises' president and CEO Jason Montague said in a statement sent to Travel + Leisure. "We are confident that these four inspiring Grand Voyages will be incredibly popular."

The longest of the trips is the 83-night Grand Arctic Adventure, leaving from New York City on June 2, 2024, and visiting Greenland, Iceland, Denmark, the British Isles, Norway, Netherlands, France, Portugal, and Spain, concluding in Barcelona. Sailing on the Seven Seas Mariner, the itinerary includes overnights in Antwerp, Berlin, Oslo, and Stockholm for an all-inclusive fare of $62,499 per person.

Gufufoss waterfall in Isafjordur, 3Iceland

Courtesy of Regent Seven Seas Cruises

The 79-night Grand European Sojourn is a round-trip route from Lisbon, departing June 28, 2024, that goes through the British Isles and Mediterranean with nine overnight visits in major destinations, including France, Belgium, Spain, Turkey, and Israel. The Seven Seas Voyager trip also starts at $62,499 per person.

The Grand Spice Route Quest aboard the Seven Seas Voyager follows old trade routes, starting in Auckland on March 25, 2025, and following the Australian coast up across the Timor Sea to Indonesia and all the way over to Athens. On the 70-night trip, there are overnights in Bali, Ho Chi Minh, Singapore, and Bangkok, with fares from $46,999 per traveler.

A Master Suite living area onboard the Seven Seas Mariner

Courtesy of Regent Seven Seas Cruises

Story continues

The shortest journey, at 63 nights, is the Grand Asian Exploration from Tokyo to Sydney, leaving on Oct. 18. 2024, which includes 11 ports in Japan, as well as stops in Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia for $45,999 per person.

The pool deck onboard the Seven Seas Voyager

Michel Verdure/Courtesy of Regent Seven Seas Cruises

The added length was a response to the demand for longer journeys, like the 2025 World Cruise, a 150-night trip sailing three oceans and stopping in 97 ports of call in 25 nations on five continents. "The recent launch of our 2025 World Cruise was met with unprecedented demand, so we know that there is huge appetite for our longer voyages," Montague added.

All RSSC sailings are on all-suite ships and every unit has a balcony. The bookings also include unlimited shore excursions at every port, round-trip business-class airfare on intercontinental flights from the U.S. and Canada, unlimited Wi-Fi, pre-paid gratuities, and ground transfers between the airport and ship. In addition, Grand Voyage guests also get a bonus one-night pre-cruise hotel package and dinner, door-to-door luggage service, unlimited valet laundry (including dry cleaning and pressing), and a commemorative gift.

Penthouse Suite onboard the Seven Seas Voyager

Graham Copeland/Courtesy of Regent Seven Seas Cruises

For details and to book, visit RSSC.com or call 1-844-873-2381.
Bobbye L. Carlson, 26, of Elko was arrested July 10, 2022, in the 300 block of Commercial Street for felony possession of a controlled substance; intent to utter a fictitious bill, note or check; and violation of probation.

Luis A. Gaxiola-Aguirre, 21, of Elko was arrested July 9, 2022, at 11th and Idaho streets for driver failure to obey traffic control device, and violation of probation.

Grant A. Chase, 39, of Holladay, Utah was arrested July 9, 2022, at 101 W. Wendover Blvd. for two counts of felony possession of a controlled substance. Bail: $10,000

Samantha R. Howard, 34, of Elko was arrested July 9, 2022, off Metzler Road for failure to appear after bail on a felony crime and failure to appear after bail on a misdemeanor crime. Bail: $5,780

Erica M. Lourenco, 33, of Elko was arrested July 9, 2022, at Clarkson Drive and Village Parkway for fugitive felon from another state.

Michael A. May, 33, of Spring Creek was arrested July 8, 2022, at Spring Valley Parkway and Buffside Drive for battery with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, and conspiracy to commit robbery with a deadly weapon. Bail: $500,000

David E. Owens, 36, of Elko was arrested July 8, 2022, at Third and Idaho streets for felony possession of a controlled substance and violation of probation.

Alex Page, 29, of Salt Lake City was arrested July 10, 2022, at Utah County Jail for felony possession of a controlled substance and failure to appear after bail on a misdemeanor crime. Bail: $5,605

Joredan R. Quigley, 32, of Spring Creek was arrested July 8, 2022 at Sinclair gas station for felony possession of a controlled substance and for drug paraphernalia. Bail: $5,640

Garrett G. Stigen, 32, of Spring Creek was arrested July 9, 2022, at Third and Silver streets on a warrant for grand larceny of a motor vehicle, taking or possessing a vehicle without the owners consent, driving with a suspended drivers license, child restraint violation and failure to wear safety belt. Bail: $10,625

Robin N. Jensen, 27, of Elko was arrested July 11, 2022, at 1050 Connolly Drive on a gross misdemeanor charge of conspiracy to commit a non-felony crime. Bail: $2,500

Erina M. Jimenez-Partida, 34, of Elko was arrested July 11, 2022, at Monroe Way and Clarkson Drive for felony possession of a controlled substance. Bail: $5,000

Shirleen Mancha, 56, of Elko was arrested July 12, 2022, at Idaho Street and East Jennings Way for felony possession of a controlled substance.

William T. Patterson, 40, of Wells was arrested July 11, 2022, at the Hampton Inn parking lot for failure to appear after bail on a felony crime. Bail: $5,000

Nicolas A. Serrano, 26, of Elko was arrested July 11, 2022, at Elko County Jail on a gross misdemeanor charge of conspiracy to commit a non-felony crime. Bail: $2,500

Daniel A. Souliere, 41, of Elko was arrested July 11, 2022, at Elko Inn and Suites for failure to appear after bail on a felony crime. Bail: $10,000

Thomas E. Wilson Jr., 26, of Elko was arrested July 12, 2022, at 284 Juniper St. on a felony warrant for grand larceny and felony possession of a controlled substance. Bail: $15,000

Blake E. Evans, 36, of Elko was arrested July 14, 2022, at Last Chance Road and Industrial Way for possessing, receiving or transferring a stolen vehicle. Bail: $10,000

Trinity A. Thomas, 20, of Elko was arrested July 13, 2022, at Idaho Street and East Jennings Way for failure to obey traffic control device, felony possession of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance by a prisoner, and violation of probation.

Amanda M. Crawford, 43, of Taylorsville, Utah was arrested July 14, 2022, at the Ely parole and probation office for violation of probation.

Brandon S. Fierro, 43, of Elko was arrested July 15, 2022, at 12th and Court streets for felony child abuse or neglect. Bail: $100,000

Cierra S. Jones, 22, of Elko was arrested July 14, 2022, at Seventh and Commercial streets for failure to appear after bail on a gross misdemeanor crime and violation of probation.

Dominick J. Palmer, 34, of Spring Creek was arrested July 14, 2022, at 775 W. Silver St. for possessing, receiving or transferring a stolen vehicle. Bail: $20,000
All people have now been accounted for and more than 100 homes have been damaged after flooding caused by torrential rains swept through a rural county in Virginia.

The disaster occurred overnight Tuesday into Wednesday morning in Buchanan County.

More than a dozen search-and-rescue teams have been dispatched in and around the small community of Whitewood, Buchanan county chief deputy sheriff Eric Breeding said at a briefing.

On Wednesday, over 40 people had initially been reported missing in the rural area, with little cell service and power outages that could make contact difficult. No deaths have been reported and only flood-related injury  a snakebite  was noted.

Key Points

Heavy flooding in rural Virginia county

Why US floods are getting flashier'

All people have now been accounted for

Only one injury has been reported

17:21 , Ethan Freedman

There has only been one flood-related injury, Buchanan County Chief Deputy Eric Breeding said at a press conference, a snake bite. No deaths have been reported, and all people have now been accounted for.

Damage assesment to come, official says

17:17 , Ethan Freedman

Most people who were unaccounted for didnt have a way to contact the outside world, an official from the Department of Emergency Management said a press conference on Thursday. He added that a full damage assessment of properties is still yet to come.

No one left unaccounted for, no deaths, sheriff said

17:08 , Ethan Freedman

During a press conference on Thursday at noon, Buchanan County Chief Deputy Eric Breeding said that no one was left unaccounted for, and no fatalities have been reported.

16:59 , Ethan Freedman

Destroyed cars are covered in debris from flooding and rain (AP)

Across the ocean, a community remembers another devastating flood

16:45 , Ethan Freedman

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeiner are visiting the Ahr valley on Thursday to mark the one year anniversary of flooding that devastated that area, the Associated Press reports.

Flooding also hit parts of nearby Belgium, and that countrys King Phillippe and Queen Mathilde visited with survivors and relatives of victims on Thursday.

Story continues

A home with damage from last years flooding still visible near Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Germany this week (EPA)

Over 230 people had died after intense rain caused heavy flooding to sweep though.

Three people still unaccounted for

16:15 , Ethan Freedman

Another update on Thursday morning has dropped the number of people still missing after flooding in rural Virginia to three people, state police say. Over 40 people had been reported missing by Wednesday night.

#Buchanan County, #Virginia Sheriff John C. McClanahan update: As of 10 a.m. Thursday (7/14/22), the "unaccounted for" number has decreased to 3 people. Local, @VDEM & #VSP crews are out right now working to locate those remaining 3 individuals. pic.twitter.com/nLpE5VmMJr  VA State Police (@VSPPIO) July 14, 2022

Senator offers sympathies

16:01 , Ethan Freedman

Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat, offered his sympathies for communities affected by flooding and gratitude to first responders via a tweet on Thursday.

My heart goes out to every Virginian affected by this catastrophic flooding. Im going to do everything I can to support the Buchanan County community. I offer my sincere gratitude to the first responders helping victims.https://t.co/X1sp7dGiCs  Tim Kaine (@timkaine) July 14, 2022

Rescue team describes immense devastation

15:44 , Ethan Freedman

Reporting from the Bristol Herald Courier describes some of the terrifying scenes rescue workers encountered while repsonding to floods.

Houses were completely gone, with cars in rivers and bridges torn apart, Biston Fire Department captain Gary Russell told paper.

People were often left without power, telephone, cell service, water or a way to leave, he added.

The location is also very rural, and in the dense Appalachian Mountains, making communication harder.

Why US floods overall are getting flashier

15:32 , Ethan Freedman

Virginia flooding: Why US floods overall are getting flashier

Department of Transportation says some roads are still impassable

15:29 , Ethan Freedman

At least three state roads in Buchanan County, Virginia remained undriveable as of Thursday morning

Buchanan Co update: Currently, 3 @VaDOTBristol routes remain impassable, Route 715 (span of bridge washed out), Rtes 635 and 628. More teams on site today for damage assessments. More crews/equipment reporting to flooded areas today to address impassable roads/begin repairs.  VDOT Bristol (@VaDOTBristol) July 14, 2022

Flooding hits rural, mountainous area

15:24 , Ethan Freedman

A photo shows the inside of a church upended after flooding in Whitewood, Virginia. This area of the state, in the far southwest, borders Kentucky and West Virginia, in a rural section of the Appalachian Mountains.

A church on Thursday, shown with water damage and seats strewn over the floor after flooding in Buchanan County (AP)

Homes reported to have ripped out of their foundations

15:08 , Ethan Freedman

A displaced home sits over mud and a car in Whitewood, Virginia on Thursday, the result of dangerous flooding (AP)

Photos show heavy flooding in southwest Virginia

14:51 , Ethan Freedman

Images show overflowing of the Dismal Creek running through the small community of Pilgrims Knob in Buchanan County, Virginia after intense rainfall

.@VDEM teams are in #BuchananCounty assisting local crews after heavy rains Tuesday caused flooding and power outages. We will continue to provide support as needed. pic.twitter.com/XUfVlYSD0l  Virginia Department of Emergency Management (@VDEM) July 13, 2022

14:41 , Ethan Freedman

Why US floods are getting flashier

Flash flooding could get worse with the climate crisis

14:40 , Ethan Freedman

The flooding in southwest Virginia came on within hours, as heavy rainfall doused the region.

These kinds of events could get more common as the planet heats up from greenhouse gas emissions  a recent study has found that warmer temperatures could lead to storms that dump more and more water all at once, increasing the risk of flash flooding across many parts of the US.

14:22 , Ethan Freedman

The Virginia State police have reported via a tweet that 25 people had been located overnight, 17 still to be found with no reports of injuries or deaths.

Per #Buchanan Co Sheriff: 25 located overnight; this AM, Sheriff's Office, #VSP @VDEM & search/rescue working to locate & reunite remaining 17 local residents in the flooded communities of #Buchanan County. Still no reported deaths or injuries related to flooding.  VA State Police (@VSPPIO) July 14, 2022

Infrastructure buckles, homes badly damaged after flash flooding

14:06 , Louise Boyle

Search-and-rescue teams were being hampered by roadways blocked by landslides and approaches to bridges that are washed out, according to the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.

Video footage from the scene showed small homes that had been lifted off their foundations, and others choked with mud and debris.

Hundreds of homes had lost power in the area. Some 2,773 customers were without power in Virginia on Wednesday morning, according to PowerOutage.US, which tracks outages in real-time.

Just terrible.



More than 100 homes have been flooded in Buchanan County, Virginia causing major damage in rural communities. #VAwx #VAflooding pic.twitter.com/ki9NMSJPDj  FOX Weather (@foxweather) July 13, 2022

Images emerge after catastrophic flooding overnight in rural area of state

13:46 , Louise Boyle

Damage from flooding is shown in the Whitewood community of Buchanan County, Virginia early on Wednesday (AP)

Flash flooding wreaks havoc

13:36 , Louise Boyle

Buchanan County and nearby Tazewell County in Virginia received 3-7 inches of rain in a 24 hour period, the National Weather Service reported on Tuesday night.

Heavy thunderstorms also led to flash flooding late on Tuesday along the Little Pigeon River in eastern Tennessee, AP reported.

That flooding prompted the evacuation of more than 400 people from a campground.

No injuries were reported in the Tennessee flooding, but vehicles and debris from the Greenbrier Campground were washed downstream by floodwaters, Sevier County Assistant Mayor Perrin Anderson told news outlets.

Virginia Governor declares a state of emergency

13:29 , Louise Boyle

Virginia Governor Glenn Younkin declared a state of emergency on Wednesday in response to the severe flooding in the area.

As we continue to assess the situation, I want to thank our first responders and the personnel on the ground for providing assistance with our ongoing operations in Buchanan County. While rescue and recovery continues, please join me in prayer as we lift up our fellow Virginians impacted by this tragedy, Youngkin said in a statement.
www.RoyRochlin.Com

Ivana Trump, Donald Trumps first wife, died from blunt impact injuries of torso, the New York City medical examiner announced Friday.

The 73-year-old was found dead Thursday afternoon at the bottom of the staircase of her Manhattan home. Her death has been ruled an accident, the NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner said in a statement.

A spokesperson for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner confirmed to The Daily Beast that she died as the result of a fall.

The revelation comes after a close friend said the Trump matriarch couldnt walk and struggled to leave her house in the weeks that preceded her death.

Zach Erdem, who declined an interview but confirmed previous comments to the New York Post, said Trump had a hip issue that limited her ability to walk. He added that the former model was feeling bad the last time he spoke to her two weeks ago.

She said she was having pain in her leg, he told the paper. She couldnt get out of her house.

A Survivor: Trump Family in Mourning After Ivana Found Dead at Home

Erdem owns and operates a popular Southampton restaurant, 75 Main, that Trump and other big namessuch as Joe and Jill Bidenfrequented on trips to the Hamptons.

When Erdem insisted Trump visit a doctor, he says the former model responded: No, I hate going to doctors. I get more sick going to doctors.

The 42-year-old restaurateur said Trump had planned a trip to his restaurant two weeks ago but couldnt make it out of her home. She then told Erdem, whom she first met nearly 15 years ago when he was still a busboy at a restaurant in Manhattan, that shed visit him after her trip to St. Tropez in France, which was slated to begin Friday.

She called last week and said, I cant wait to see you, he told the paper.

Trump was spotted out and about the night before she was found dead. The Daily Mail reported she dined at her favorite Italian restaurant, Altesi'slocated just a few blocks from her homeand was in good spirits, the eaterys owner said.

Story continues

While her attitude was bright, Aletesi's owner Paola Alavian said the Czech-American looked maybe a little bit tired and ordered a very, very small amount of food.

Alavian couldnt be reached for comment on Friday, but a separate family source told the Daily Mail that Trumps health had been declining for some time.

Cops say Trump went into cardiac arrest before falling down a flight of stairs in her four-story townhouse on the Upper East Side. A staff member discovered her body when she arrived for work and called 911.

Trump leaves behind three childrenDonald Jr., Ivanka, and Ericall of which she had with Donald while married to the former president between 1977 and 1992. She also had 10 grandkids.

In a statement to The Daily Beast on Thursday, the Trump family called Ivana an incredible womana force in business, a world-class athlete, a radiant beauty, and caring mother and friend.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here

Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.

Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now.
No announcements on increasing oil production by the Saudis are expected to emerge from President Biden's trip to Saudi Arabia this week, says national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

Mr. Biden "will certainly" be discussing energy security when he meets with the leaders of nine countries in Saudi Arabia Friday and Saturday for the Gulf Cooperation Council plus Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, known as the GCC+3, Sullivan told reporters on Air Force One Friday. But any decisions to further boost oil production will come from OPEC+, which Saudi Arabia co-chairs. OPEC member countries produce roughly 40% of the globe's crude oil, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

"We will discuss energy security at this meeting," Sullivan said on Air Force One Friday. "The president discusses it in Europe, when he's in Asia, and he certainly will be discussing it here in the Middle East and here in Saudi Arabia. Just to take a step back before we announced the trip, you saw an announcement from OPEC+ on accelerating and increasing production. We will discuss the issue here and we are hopeful that we will see additional actions by OPEC+ in the coming weeks."

OPEC announced after its meetings in June that it would increase its crude oil production by 648,000 barrels per day. The COVID-19 pandemic and Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine have increased volatility in the oil markets, and for the past two years, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, global oil consumption has exceeded the pace of production.

Progress on energy, Sullivan said, will be measured "over the course of weeks."

"That has been our plan going in, that is our plan on this plane, that will be our plan coming out," he said. "So, I don't think you should expect a particular announcement here bilaterally because we believe any further action taken to ensure that there is sufficient energy to protect the health of the global economy will be done in the context of OPEC+."

Story continues

U.S. producers reluctant to drill more oil, despite sky-high gas prices

A U.S. official also confirmed to CBS News that the president is anticipated to end his visit to Saudi Arabia without a public announcement on Saudi plans to boost oil production. OPEC+ meets next in early August and could boost production at that time.

Saudi Arabia is the third stop for Mr. Biden, who visited Israel and the West Bank this week. It's his first trip to the Middle East as president, although he previously visited as a senator and vice president.

U.S. gas prices have fallen from their peak last month, but they remain high and are still hurting consumers in the U.S. and around the globe.

CBS News' Margaret Brennan contributed to this report.

Remote work leads to slower wage growth for workers, study finds

"CBS Evening News" viewers help raise $45,000 for family struggling to afford gas

Neighbors "adopt" elderly woman after she lost husband, home
Corrections & clarifications: This story has been updated to correct a misspelling of Gerson Fuentes name.

COLUMBUS, Ohio  A man was charged with impregnating a 10-year-old Ohio girl whose travel to Indiana to seek an abortion led to international attention and became a flashpoint in the national furor over the U.S. Supreme Courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Nearly all abortions after the detection of fetal cardiac activity became illegal in Ohio last month after the high court's ruling. The story of a young girl traveling across state lines to receive an abortion  first reported by the Indianapolis Star, part of the USA TODAY Network  quickly went viral.

The account became a talking point for abortion rights supporters, including President Joe Biden, and some opponents and news outlets criticized the story as unproven. The criminal charges and testimony Wednesday confirm the disturbing story.

Gerson Fuentes, 27, whose last known address was an apartment in Columbus, was arrested Tuesday after police said he confessed to raping the child on at least two occasions. He's charged with rape  a felony of the first degree in Ohio  and is held in the Franklin County jail on a $2 million bond.

The child's mother reported the girl's pregnancy to Franklin County Children Services on June 22, which informed Columbus police, Detective Jeffrey Huhn said Wednesday at Fuentes' arraignment. The girl underwent a medical abortion in Indianapolis on June 30, Huhn said.

LATEST UPDATES: Indiana doctor who shared 10-year-old's abortion story did not violate HIPAA, officials say

BACKGROUND: An Ohio 10-year-old crossed state lines for abortion care in Indiana. She isn't alone.

The girl told police Fuentes was responsible for her pregnancy, Huhn testified. Assistant Franklin County Prosecutor Daniel Meyer said she had recently turned 10, meaning she was probably impregnated at 9 years old.

Huhn testified that DNA from the clinic in Indianapolis is being tested against samples from Fuentes. Before being arrested, Huhn and Columbus police Detective David Phillips collected a saliva sample from Fuentes, according to a probable cause statement.

Story continues

Last month, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the decision in 1973 that established a constitutional right to abortion. The ruling triggered a cascade of state-level prohibitions, including in Ohio, where a "heartbeat" bill became law hours after the opinion was released.

The law prohibits abortions after fetal cardiac activity can be detected, including in cases of rape or incest. Fetal cardiac activity is typically detected around six weeks of gestation, when most people usually do not know they are pregnant. The only exception to Ohio's law is if the life of the mother is in jeopardy.

Charges confirm story that has been questioned by officials, media

The Indianapolis Star reported the story this month, attributing the account to Caitlin Bernard, an Indianapolis physician who provides abortion services.

"Imagine being that little girl," Biden said Friday as he decried the high courts decision. "Im serious. Just imagine being that little girl."

'THIS IS A MOMENT  THE MOMENT': Biden announces steps to protect abortion access, but advocates urge him to do more

Multiple news outlets and officials questioned the account. The Wall Street Journal ran an editorial Tuesday with the headline "An Abortion Story Too Good to Confirm," stating "there's no evidence the girl exists."

"What we seem to have here is a presidential seal of approval on an unlikely story from a biased source that neatly fits the progressive narrative but cant be confirmed," the editorial read.

A Washington Post fact check published Saturday referred to the account as a "one-source story that quickly went viral around the world  and into the talking points of the president."

Jonathan Turley, a professor at George Washington University Law School, penned an op-ed in the New York Post calling for more information about the account. "We have little proof that the story is true despite some significant legal and factual questions," Turley wrote Tuesday.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost questioned the validity of the account during an appearance on Fox News this week. Yost, a Republican, told host Jesse Watters that his office had not heard "a whisper" of a report being filed for the 10-year-old victim.

"We have regular contact with prosecutors and local police and sheriffs  not a whisper anywhere," Yost said.

Yost said Tuesday in an interview with the USA TODAY Network Ohio bureau that the more time passed without confirmation, the more likely "that this is a fabrication."

"I know the cops and prosecutors in this state," Yost said Tuesday. "There's not one of them that wouldn't be turning over every rock, looking for this guy, and they would have charged him. They wouldn't leave him loose on the streets. ... I'm not saying it could not have happened. What I'm saying to you is there is not a damn scintilla of evidence."

Wednesday, once news of the arraignment came, Yost issued a single-sentence statement: "We rejoice anytime a child rapist is taken off the streets." He later added that he's "absolutely delighted that this monster has been taken off the street. If convicted, he should spend the rest of his life in prison."

MORE ON OHIO'S DAVE YOST: He cast doubt on 10-year-old rape victim case, now 'rejoices' at arrest

Turley said Wednesday that his column noted that the case "could be real but that there were glaring legal and factual questions raised."

The Wall Street Journal ran an editorial Thursday with the headline "Correcting the Record on a Rape Case." The editorial stated: "It appears President Biden was accurate when he related a story about a 10-year-old Ohio girl who was raped and traveled to Indiana for an abortion."

Data shows frequency of reports of sexual abuse of children

Since May 9, there have been at least 50 police reports of rape or sexual abuse involving a girl 15 years or younger in Columbus, according to an IndyStar analysis.

The number is probably an underestimate due to restrictions on public records related to allegations initiated by mandated reporters. The report involving the 10-year-old girl falls into that category.

Dr. Erika Werner, chair of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, said there are children who start their first menstrual cycle as early as 8 years old and could get pregnant.

In 2020, there were 52 abortions among children 15 or younger in Ohio, accounting for .3% of the 20,605 abortions performed that year, according to the Ohio Department of Health. In Indiana, 67 of the 8,414 people who obtained abortions in 2021 were 16 or younger, according to the state Department of Health's annual report.

OPINION: A 10-year-old rape victim had to travel out of state for an abortion. Why is this is our country?

Meanwhile, Ohio's GOP-controlled General Assembly is likely to make its abortion ban even earlier than six weeks, with no exceptions for victims of rape or incest. Lawmakers are crafting language on when abortions would be banned, but past proposals barred the procedure after fertilization, which could prohibit some birth control.

The ability of Ohio residents to seek abortion services in Indiana could soon be curtailed. Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, a Republican, called a special legislative session scheduled to convene July 25. Republicans, who hold supermajorities in both chambers of the state General Assembly, pledged to enact new abortion restrictions.

Legislative leaders haven't said whether their abortion proposal would allow exemptions for rape, incest or the life of the pregnant person, or at what point in a pregnancy they would ban abortion.

Tuesday, Holcomb called the case of the 10-year-old rape survivor a "horrific example" but declined to say whether he was comfortable banning abortions in cases involving young rape victims.

"I am reserving comment until we see a bill," he said.

Contributing: Grace Hauck and Adrianna Rodriguez, USA TODAY; Laura Bischoff and Eric Lagatta, The Columbus Dispatch; Dayeon Eom, The Indianapolis Star.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Gerson Fuentes arrested in case of pregnant 10-year-old Ohio girl
Petroleos Internacionales del Caribe (PIC)

HOUSTON, July 14, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- EXCEL (EXCEL) Petroleos Internacionales del Caribe (PIC) and its operating division in Mexico, Petroleos Internacionales del Caribe Inc., Sucursal Mexico (PICMEX) jointly announced today the signing of a Strategic Engineering, Procurement and Construction Partnership, Exclusive Agreement with PIC for the engineering, procurement and construction of PICs key Export Facilities in Houston, TX together with GLM compressed storage systems for various fuels and key gas pipelines forward positions for the required fueling elements for its Maritime and Terrestrial Operations. The operations will be vital to the US, the Americas and the United Mexican States with PIC one of kind solutions with its other key partnerships.



The Strategic EPC Partnership between PIC and EXCEL represents a significant investment milestone in the commercialization of the export facilities and receiving terminals, as it signals the commencement of project specific pre-FEED (Front End Engineering Design) studies by PIC for the delivery of its maritime and terrestrial operations that will ensure uninterrupted shipments by PIC and its other global partnerships for decades to come.

These studies will cover the design of the production and export terminals, receiving terminals and plants, along with the Fleet that will be built to transport and deliver fuel to PICs markets in Mexico and throughout the Americas. Following completion of the pre-FEED studies and Final Investment Decision (FID) by PIC and EXCEL, PIC and its consortium partners will undertake the FEED for final design and construction for the projects in Mexico that PIC has positioned thus far with its consortium partners.

EXCEL is very proud to be partners with such a great organization like PIC and being the chosen EPC for PICs state of the art facilities and pipelines, said Jason Hardwick, President of EXCEL Midstream Solutions.

Story continues

EXCEL is pleased to enter this partnership and will provide the very best Engineering, Procurement and Construction services, said Dave Roberts, Chairman and CEO of EXCEL USA.

These projects will provide Mexico, and other countries in Central and South America, and the Americas with affordable fuels and power, as well as significant carbon emissions reductions, a key component in achieving sustainability and balanced for PIC and its Partner. We are excited to take this significant step with EXCEL, said Michael Hood, CEO of PIC. Through this exclusive operational partnership, PIC and EXCEL will accelerate commercialization of the Export Facilities to help meet the fuel supply and electricity needs of PICs customers in Mexico and throughout the Americas and abroad, while substituting higher-emission fuels to continue driving down emissions towards a greener brighter future. In addition to the thousands of new employment opportunities, this export operation will bring forth to the Great State of Texas over the next decade."

About Petroleos Internacionales del Caribe and Petroleos Internacionales del Caribe Inc., Sucursal Mexico

Petroleos Internacionales del Caribe (PIC) is a global company based in the USA. The company develops and operates a variety strategic related operations with its key partnerships. Petroleos Internacionales del Caribe Inc., Sucursal Mexico (PICMEX) is an affiliate of PIC and is headquartered in Mexico. For more information, please visit www.pic-sas.com .

About EXCEL

EXCEL is a premier provider of full service civil, structural, mechanical, fabrication, electrical and instrumentation engineering, construction, and maintenance services, as well as disaster recovery services. EXCEL has a long successful history of managing and meeting the challenging schedules and budgets of projects of all sizes, and we are consistently recognized for our exemplary safety record and work quality. Our experience, breadth of projects, dedication to safety, and excellent corporate culture help us attract and retain the most highly skilled team of craft and supervisors available to serve our clients needs. For more information, please visit www.excelusa.com and www.excelmidstream.com .

CONTACT: Contact Jay Shahidi, Financial Controller +1 714-553-7482 shahidi.jay@pic-sas.com




Democratic Senate candidates Mandela Barnes (top left), Alex Lasry (top right), Sarah Godlewski (bottom left) and Tom Nelson (bottom right).

Five Democrats running for U.S. Senate will be on the stage Sunday night at Marquette University's Varsity Theatre for the first televised debate of Wisconsin's campaign season.

With a little more than three weeks to go before the Aug. 9 primary, the hour-long event offers the candidates their first opportunity to speak to a wider audience.

Here's what to look for.

Who is participating?

Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, state Treasurer Sarah Godlewski, Milwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry, Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson and nonprofit executive Steven Olikara.

What time does it start?

6 p.m.

How can I watch?

WTMJ-TV (Channel 4) in Milwaukee, WGBA-TV in Green Bay and participating Gray television stations in Wisconsin are broadcasting the event. It's also available on TMJ4.com and the station's Facebook page. The station will rebroadcast the debate at 6 p.m. Monday, preempting its 6 p.m. newscast.

Who are the moderators?

TMJ4 anchors Charles Benson and Shannon Sims. Chuck Todd of NBC's "Meet the Press" is no longer available to co-moderate due to a network scheduling issue.

What do the polls say?

Last month's Marquette University Law School Poll showed Barnes with a 4-point lead over Lasry in the primary, with Godlewski and Nelson further behind.

Whose name is likely to come up a lot?

He won't be in the building, but the candidate all the Democrats want to beat in the fall, Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, will certainly be a big topic of conversation.

What subjects could produce some contrasts?

Health care and environmental policy.

The candidates offer praise for Barack Obama's signature Affordable Care Act. But Democrats differ on where to go next. Barnes and Nelson have backed Medicare for All, a single-payer healthcare system. Lasry and Godlewski support a so-called public option to buy into Medicare.

Nelson is a staunch proponent of the Green New Deal, the public policy proposal to address climate change. Barnes says he supports a Green New Deal that "works for Wisconsin." Godlewski and Lasry have their own ideas on how to combat climate change but do not back the Green New Deal.

Story continues

I haven't heard of Steven Olikara. Why is he on the stage?

Steven Olikara officially announces his candidacy Tuesday, August 17, 2021 in Milwaukee,Wis. The self-described "political entrepreneur" who founded a nonprofit devoted to "post-partisan political cooperation" is seeking the Democratic nomination for U.S Senate.

Olikara, founder and former chief executive of Millennial Action Project, hardly shows up in the polls. But he cleared another metric to grab a debate spot  claiming at least 5,000 individual donors. He is running an aggressive campaign with an emphasis on political reform and trying to reach voters who he says are part of a "exhausted majority."

What do the main runners have to do?

Everyone wants to avoid making a gaffe. So expect a lot of answers that lean heavily on talking points.

Barnes, the front-runner, will seek to win over the audience with his personal story, upbeat personality and emphasis on middle-class issues. At the same time he has to be prepared to respond to criticism as the other candidates try to knock him off the top of the heap.

Lasry doesn't want his millions to go down the drain just to be the runner-up. He needs to score some points, especially on the economy, to show primary voters that his center-left candidacy will work in the general election.

Godlewski has been leaning hard into the U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and will likely aim to use the subject to win over undecided voters. In past appearances, Godlewski has been the candidate who most effectively pivots on an answer and takes the fight to Johnson.

Nelson is aiming to show primary voters that he's the most progressive candidate in the field. With little money to spend, he needs to score some big points. Don't be surprised if he fires in all directions.

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What to know about Sunday night's Democratic U.S. Senate debate
(Reuters) - The Iranian military warned the United States and Israel on Friday against threatening Iran with force, Iranian media reported, after U.S. President Joe Biden said he would use force as a last resort to prevent Tehran getting a nuclear weapon.

The Americans and Zionists (Israel) know very well the price for using the word 'force against Iran,'" Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi, spokesman for the Iranian armed forces, was quoted as saying by state media.

"Biden must have been drowsy when he threatened Iran," he said, adding, "Watch your soldiers pants - they might get wet in the Persian Gulf!

Asked by Israeli television this week whether his past statements that he would prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon meant he would use force against Iran, Biden replied: "If that was the last resort, yes."

On Thursday, Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid signed a joint pledge to deny Iran nuclear arms, an apparent move toward accommodating Israel's calls for a "credible military threat" by world powers.

Iran denies seeking seeks nuclear weapons, saying that its nuclear program is for solely peaceful purposes.

Tehran struck a deal with six major powers in 2015 under which it limited its uranium enrichment program to make it harder to develop a nuclear weapon in return for relief from international sanctions.

U.S. President Donald Trump reneged on the deal in 2018 and reimposed harsh sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to start violating the agreement's nuclear limits about a year later.

Diplomatic efforts to resurrect the deal have so far failed.

(Editing by Mark Heinrich)
125 YEARS AGO

July 10, 1897: Married  At the residence of the brides parents in Lamoille Valley, July 1, 1897, Mr. D.W. Peters, Altman, Colorado, to Miss Matilda Voight.

The State has discontinued the hatcheries and F. Boyce has purchased the fittings and will hereafter conduct the institution himself and for his own benefit.

Tuscarora  Steve Ferguson has returned from his trip to Bull Run district and is quite enthusiastic over the outlook for the future of that locality. Steve is an old, experienced miner, and his judgment can be relied upon.

100 YEARS AGO

July 11, 1922: George N. Sutherland of the Sewell company, motored to Lamoille yesterday, accompanied by his wife and five children. Mr. Sutherland returned this morning, leaving his family to enjoy a months vacation at the unique pleasure spot.

July 15, 1922: Realizing the importance of producing clean and sanitary milk and the proper handling of the dairy product after it is produced, Glaser Brothers of Halleck are at present erecting one of the most modern and sanitary dairy barns in the state of Nevada. The building will be approximately 100 by forty feet in size and when completed will be a worthy addition to the already far advanced dairy business now being carried out by these progressive ranchers. The walls are of concrete hollow block of the Vangilder type, and the floors are all of concrete. A separate sealed, sanitary milking compartment is one of the distinctive features. At milking time, the cattle are led into this room, which is free from dust of every description, not even a wisp of hay being present. A shower and wash room will be installed for the milkers, together with a boiler and steam room for the proper sterilization of the milk and containers. The milking compartment is large enough to care for eighteen cows at one milking and there will be space in the building itself for forty-five head. A special separator room is another of the features, and according to experts, the Glaser barn will be second to none in Nevada.

75 YEARS AGO

July 11, 1947: Elko Countys worst range fire in history continued unabated this morning, burning furiously on two fronts, to the east and west of this city. One spearhead of the disastrous range fire near Elko was tearing across Kittridge Canyon today, the only source of surface water for this city. Trees were burning in Kittridge Canyon, and the city has gone to great expense there in closing off tunnels from which spring water flows. The loss to the watershed alone will exceed $40,000 it was estimated. The men are paid 90 cents an hour to fight the blaze in addition to their meals, which will average at least $1.25 per man. The cost is approximately $1690 per day, to say nothing of the expensive equipment which has been brought into the picture. Three caterpillars and two pumper trucks were on the job this morning. At least four agencies were fighting the fire today. The grazing service, Elko County, the State Highway Department, and the city were all cooperating in the battle to bring the fire under control. City workers were standing guard today in the vicinity of the fairgrounds, although the danger in that area appeared to have been dissipated. Fire swept over the Elko-Mountain City highway as if it wasnt even there and repeated the performance on the old Tuscarora highway, an extension of Fifth Street. Fires dotted the surrounding country-side last night, presenting a weird picture. In some places, only the smoldering embers could be seen, while in other sections, flames mounted 10 to 15 feet in height. The fire was originally started by lightning Tuesday afternoon. Fire fighting crews were rounded up from the streets of Elko yesterday afternoon by members of the city police force. Irvin Ambler, acting chief of police, directed the crews to the points where they were needed most.

50 YEARS AGO

July 13, 1972: The Animal Farm at Spring Creek which contains a collection of rare live animals from all over the world, will be open to public tours every Sunday from 2 until 6 p.m. beginning July 16. According to Keenie Pratt, owner of the farm, the tours will be conducted by knowledgeable teen-agers from the Elko area who have had experience working with and caring for the animals. Among the exotic animals being exhibited are miniature horses, Sika deer from Japan, llamas from South America, Axis deer from Hawaii, Zebu from Africa and African pygmy goats.

July 14, 1972: Tom Clark and Bud Danner, co-owners of Fox Foto, at 443 Idaho St., this week announced the installation of a Kodak color print processing system that will enable them to provide 24-hour service in Elko on color print film. The new installation marks the first time a commercial color processing laboratory has been opened in Elko; and Clark commented officials of Eastman Kodak Co. had told him the facility makes Elko the smallest community in the nation, in terms of population, with a commercial color finishing lab. Danner and Clark purchased Fox Foto in December of 1968 from Mr. and Mrs. Bert Fox.

July 15, 1972: A total of 163 family members and friends were in attendance at the Joseph Warr-Valentine Walther family reunion held last Saturday at the Jack Walther Ranch at Fort Halleck. Family members travelled from as far away as New York State and Alaska to attend the festivities, which were highlighted by a picnic in the front yard of the ranch. Of the 13 children born to Joseph and Julia Walther, 12 are still alive and 10 were in attendance at the reunion. They are Bill Walther, Villa Goldstrom, Gerald Walther, Arthur Walther, Florence Meier, Clara Larson, Paul Walther, Beulah Dalley, June Reilly and Jack Walther.

25 YEARS AGO

July 10, 1997: The Steensen brothers found the winning formula Saturday at the annual Firecracker Special stock car races at Summit Raceways in Elko. Corey Steensen and Dave Steensen both won main event races plus heat races, and Scott Steensen finished second in the 25-lap pro stock feature. Corey Steensen won the mini stock 20-lap feature. Dave Steensen crossed the line first in the 25-lap pro stock feature with brother Scott in second place.

July 11, 1997: George Smiraldo, a former rancher and rodeo cowboy, was modest about being chosen grand marshal of this years Silver State Stampede Rodeo Parade. But Smiraldo is certainly deserving of the honor  after all, he rode in the first Silver State Stampede back in 1948 and took second place in the saddle bronc event. The Elko native was born in 1925 to Elburz ranchers Giconie and Carrie Smiradlo. His grandfather was Mathias Glaser, who first came to Elko County in the mid-1800s.

July 12, 1997: The Elko chapter of Bereaved Parents of the USA, a support group for parents whove lost children, recently donated $600 to the Angel State Fund. The $17,000 statue will be located at Northside Park and will serve as a memorial to children whove passed away. The statue is now being made in Salt Lake City and should arrive in time for an August dedication, said Gary DOrazio, who heads the Angel Statue Fund Committee.
MILWAUKEE  Republicans appear bound for Milwaukee in 2024.

A GOP site selection panel on Friday picked Milwaukee as the host city for the 2024 Republican National Convention.

The full Republican National Committee must approve the choice during its summer meeting in Chicago, Aug. 2-5.

In a statement, RNC Senior Advisor Richard Walters said: "Today, the Site Selection Committee voted to recommend Milwaukee to host the 2024 Republican National Convention and it is a testament to the forthright and professional behavior embraced by Milwaukees city leaders throughout the process. A final decision will be made by Chairwoman McDaniel and the full RNC in the coming weeks, he said.

The Milwaukee downtown skyline along Lake Michigan is seen with the Milwaukee Art Museum, the US Bank building, and the Northwest Mutual tower in Milwaukee on Sunday, May 29, 2022.

Nashville was the other finalist, and could still be selected by the full RNC. But its bid stalled earlier this month when a framework agreement to host the event was pulled before a vote in the City Council.

Politics: Biden promises 'strong executive action' on climate change after Sen. Manchin dooms domestic agenda

Party lines: House Democrats pass abortion bill codifying Roe v Wade without Republican support

There are three potential blocks of dates for the event in July and August of 2024. A final decision on the convention dates is expected to be made by the end of this year.

Republicans saw it was clear Milwaukee officials wanted the convention.

For Milwaukee and swing-state Wisconsin, hosting Republicans will provide a second chance to make a big political impression.

Democrats chose Milwaukee for their convention in 2020, but it was pared back and turned into a mostly virtual event because of the coronavirus pandemic.

As Milwaukee advanced in the process, the city emphasized that it was a "turnkey" operation because of all the advance planning for the 2020 Democratic convention.

There were obvious political considerations as well. Wisconsin is a vital presidential battleground that Trump won in 2016 and President Joe Biden claimed in 2020. Coming to Milwaukee to nominate the ticket could give Republicans a boost in the state in 2024.

Story continues

Reince Priebus, Gerard Randall and Peggy Williams-Smith have played lead roles in Milwaukee's bid to host the 2024 Republican National Convention. Priebus is the former chairman of the RNC, Randall is vice charman of the state Republican Party, and Williams-Smith is chief executive of VISIT Milwaukee.

Milwaukee's bid has been spearheaded by VISIT Milwaukee president and chief executive Peggy Williams-Smith and Gerard Randall, first vice chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

The local committee is headed by Reince Priebus, a White House chief of staff under President Donald Trump and the former head of the state Republican Party.

The host committee plans on raising $65 million for the event, which is expected to lure up to 50,000 visitors and provide a $200 million economic boost.

POTUS meets with Saudi prince: Biden says he blamed Saudi crime prince for Jamal Khashoggi's murder in controversial meeting

Main venues for a Milwaukee convention would include Fiserv Forum and the Wisconsin Center, which is undergoing an expansion that is expected to be finished in time for the event.

Yet bringing the Republicans to Milwaukee, a Democratic city, calls for a deft political touch.

Convention supporters got buy-in from Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley. Both were heavily involved in wooing Republican officials during a site visit and later follow-up meeting in Washington, D.C.

There were also delicate negotiations with the Milwaukee Common Council. After an initial setback, the council signed off by a unanimous 13-0 vote on a framework agreement.

The agreement detailed the size and scope of the event, including the city's responsibility to apply for a $50 million security grant from the federal government. The city would also have to deploy security at key sites, including hotels, close streets and provide parking for about 2,500 cars and 350 buses.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: RNC: Milwaukee chosen as likely site for 2024 Republican convention
Jul. 15In a summer of rising tensions among U.S. states deeply divided over the rights of women, voters and gun owners, 19 of the nation's governors have gathered in Maine to find common ground on less divisive issues, such as advancing computer science education in public schools and assisting the post-pandemic recovery of the tourism industry.

Gov. Janet Mills welcomed her counterparts to Portland for the semi-annual meeting of the National Governors Association, a nonpartisan entity representing the chief executives of the fifty-five states, territories, and commonwealths, with a pitch to bridge partisan divisions.

"(Mainers) are people of all political parties, bound by the shared belief that their government should work for them," Mills said. "That belief is in our blood, bred by generations of Maine leaders like Margret Chase Smith, Edmund S. Muskie, Bill Cohen, George Mitchell, and Olympia Snowe, people who believed in putting their country before their political party."

"I continue to strongly believe that while we will disagree on many issues, we have more in common than what sets us apart; that there are opportunities for us to find common ground and consensus despite our disagreements," Mills, a Democrat, added. "That's what governors have to do every day to improve the lives of our citizens. May we find that common ground this week in Portland, Maine."

Speaking to reporters after the first plenary, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum said the bipartisan forum was valuable. "We're a group that has the shared experience in terms leading and there are opportunities for bipartisan cooperation," Burgum, a Republican, said. "Some of the national issues affect us differently but all of us have similar challenges even if we have different dynamics in terms of our legislatures and local politics. But it's great comparing notes."

Outgoing NGA chair Asa Hutchinson, Republican governor of Arkansas, announced that fifty of the 55 state, territorial and commonwealth governors had signed a compact he has been promoting committing to expand computer science education in public schools. The pledge, endorsed by Mills, commits the governors to implement at least one of thirteen policy initiatives meant to increase the number and demographic diversity of students studying computer science.

Story continues

"Governors must lead on this  there is no alternative," Hutchinson told his colleagues at the opening plenary session in the Holiday Inn by the Bay ballroom, asserting that more than 650,000 computer science jobs remained unfilled across the country. "This is about our future."

New Hampshire-based inventor Dean Kamen, whose engineering powerhouse DEKA is pioneering the rapid production of human organs grown from a patient's own cells, urged governors to boost the supply of young people interested in science and technical fields by contributing to his ongoing effort to make robotics competitions into a sport as popular as scholastic football, basketball or baseball.

Kamen's observation, back in the late 1980s, was that the emerging shortage of science, technology, and engineering experts was a a cultural problem: schools and their students didn't celebrate STEM, they celebrated sports. "We know a model that works  sports. Let's create a sport around science and engineering," he recalled to the governors.

The result was FIRST, a robotics competition for K-12 students that's grown from 23 teams in 1989 to some 50,000 teams fielding more than 700,000 student competitors in 113 countries. Maine alone has 633 teams. Backed by donations from tech giants, the non-profit has dozens of employees and $70 million in assets.

He wants the governors' help  including Mills  to further expand the model and increase its profile in an effort to give the sport soccer-like visibility. Students who become passionate about STEM, he reasons, will transform their own prospects and that of the country.

"I'd say, Gov. Mills, you're a tiny state and I bet you don't have 100 high schools and if you put a line in your budget that said we're going to have a FIRST team in every high school," Kamen told the Press Herald. "And I want every other governor to say: no, I want to be the first one to claim that victory."

The CEO of computer chip giant Intel, Pat Gelsinger, repeatedly urged the assembled governors to press their states' congressional delegation to pass the core provisions of the CHIPS Act: $52 billion in incentives for firms like Intel to shift semiconductor manufacturing back to the United States. Gelsinger, who has been lobbying for action on the long-stalled bill for months, implied chipmakers would invest in overseas manufacturing instead if Congress didn't act before the August recess.

"Call your senators  we need this done before the August recess," Gelsinger said. "I and others will make decisions...to decide if meaningful portions (of future manufacturing) will be on American soil or not."

Thursday afternoon the governors heard city, regional, and national tourism marketing officials discuss the sector's progress in recovering from the pandemic. In summary: leisure travel has already recovered to pre-pandemic levels but business travel and foreign tourism to the U.S. haven't fully rebounded.

While the tourism sector officials  including a representative of the US Travel Association  encouraged governors to help fund marketing efforts, Mills and two other New England governors  Chris Sununu (R-New Hampshire) and Charlie Baker (R-Massachusetts) noted the enormous problem of tourism workforce housing, which has been exacerbated by the spread of short-term rentals via outlets like VRBO and Air BnB.

"This seems to be a major impediment to securing the workforce for the industry," Mills said.

Baker said his government had started building worker housing on Cape Cod because short-term rentals had "sucked up all the housing" there. Sununu related how, as a resort operator in the Waterville Valley of New Hampshire in 2016, he had been forced to buy another hotel just to house his workers. This prompted Utah governor Spencer Cox (R) to observe that the country was absurdly "turning houses into hotels and hotels into housing."

Earlier Thursday the governors held a closed door session with officials from the Defense Department and Federal Emergency Management Agency to foster more federal-state cooperation in dealing with wildfires and droughts, according to a tweet by Gov. Cox.

At lunch  also closed to the press  L.L.Bean CEO Steve Smith  spoke to the governors "about the health benefits of outdoor recreation," according to a tweet by the NGA.

The governors convene again Friday to appoint new officers and to discuss boosting early childhood literacy (virtually) with Dolly Parton, who created a non-profit around this issue.
The United Kingdom on Friday issued its first-ever red warning about exceptional heat as the typically mild country braces for triple-digit temperatures.

Officials announced the red warning, which constitutes a national emergency and means even healthy people are at risk of death, in anticipation of severely high temperatures Monday and Tuesday across central, northern, eastern and southeastern England, though weather will also be very hot in other regions of the U.K.

Here in the U.K., were used to treating hot spells as a chance to go and play in the sun, Penny Endersby, the chief executive of the U.K. Met Office, the countrys weather service, said in a video message. This is not that sort of weather. Our lifestyles and our infrastructure are not adapted to what is coming.

People walk through London with sun protection in mid-June, when temperatures soared past 90 degrees. (Photo: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

People walk through London with sun protection in mid-June, when temperatures soared past 90 degrees. (Photo: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

The weather will be exceptional, perhaps record-breaking, warned Paul Gundersen, the Met Offices chief meteorologist.

There is a 50% chance of temperatures topping 40 degrees Celsius, the equivalent of 104 degrees Fahrenheit. The highest temperature ever recorded in the U.K. was 38.7 degrees Celsius in 2019, or nearly 102 degrees Fahrenheit.

Citing climate change and rising global temperatures, Endersby pled with people to take the weather event seriously by staying out of the sun and keeping cool.

Weve seen when climate change has driven such unprecedented severe weather events all around the world, it can be difficult for people to make the best decisions in these situations, because nothing in their life experience has led them to know what to expect, she said.

In 2019, officials tallied nearly 900 extra deaths in England due to heat waves.

Though La Nina conditions have slightly tempered hot weather in 2022, its still on track to be somewhere between the fourth and eighth hottest year since record-keeping began in the 1850s.

Story continues

An April United Nations report on the state of the climate warned that the path to avert complete climate catastrophe is narrowing and that the global community is falling short of reaching the emissions goals outlined in the Paris climate accord of 2016.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related...
CARACAS (Reuters) - A Venezuelan government official on Thursday called former White House national security adviser John Bolton "crazy" after his admission this week that he had tried to plot foreign coups, including backing an unsuccessful bid to oust socialist President Nicolas Maduro.

Earlier this week, Bolton said in the interview with CNN that he had helped plan coups d'etat. He did not go into detail but mentioned Venezuela, where the United States supported opposition leader Juan Guaido's failed bid to oust President Nicolas Maduro in 2019.

Jorge Rodriguez, head of Venezuela's government-controlled congress, responded to Bolton's comments during a congressional session, saying that the United States had been stirring unrest.

"What was in the mind of this crazy John Bolton was that the violence would accelerate so that they could have an excuse for the invasion... a military invasion in Venezuela," he said.

Venezuela's Communication and Information Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Deisy Buitrago; Writing by Carolina Pulice; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
A woman takes matters into her own hands after McDonalds employees tell her they cannot take her order after running out of gloves in a TikTok video that is now going viral.

The clip was originally posted last month by the user @greergreer and has since garnered over 720,000 views and 127,000 likes.

As described by the text in the video, Lady climbs through McDonalds window because were not taking orders anymore because we have no gloves.

More from NextShark: Ruff day no more: Stray dogs in Thailand get pawsitively delicious feast in viral video

A woman in a pink dress and heels pulls herself through the drive-thru window, stunning the entire staff who can be heard roaring with laughter throughout the video.

What are you doing? the employees ask, unable to contain their guffawing.

Shes not playing she wants to make her own food, reads the following text, along with the face with tears of joy emoji.

More from NextShark: Filipino family who went viral for their kindness seek support for their daughter's rare condition

The woman appears to be intoxicated from a late night of drinking, considering the outside of the restaurant is dark and the McDonalds kitchen is mostly devoid of food.

Are you the manager? she asks, pointing to someone before proceeding to ask whether she has permission to work with him.

Its a training thing, she insists with air quotes. Its my first day training and I came inaptly dressed so you are not responsible.

More from NextShark: Could I decide I was an Asian man?: Sen. Ted Cruzs question during SCOTUS nominee hearing goes viral

She reaches over to the manager, offering her pinky up for what appears to be a pinky promise.

The video ends with a shot of the employee recording, still stunned and overwhelmed with laughter. The woman remains unidentified.

More from NextShark: Elderly Chinese Woman Forced to Ride Toy Scooter Home When Son is Too Busy To Pick Her Up

Feature Image via @greergreer
You are the owner of this article.
SPRING CREEK  Concerned parents at a Spring Creek school are seeking donations to renovate a playground surface before school starts in the hope of reducing childrens injuries.

Spring Creek Elementary schools PTA is seeking $26,000 before Aug. 8 to replace pea gravel with rubber mulch on the playground.

Parents described how multiple children have suffered small injuries and some more serious ones, including broken bones and concussions.

The Spring Creek Elementary PTA, represented by Neena Moore, explained that the playgrounds pea gravel has reduced so much over the years that bare ground patches are now visible.

She cited requirements from the Handbook for Public Playground Safety that state pea gravel should be at least nine inches deep to protect children who may fall from heights of at least five feet.

It needs a safety face-lift, Moore said.

PTA member Angelica Loup agreed. Our main drive is that it isnt cosmetic. Its about safety.

The group researched various replacements for the pea gravel, including wood chips. They decided on rubber mulch used at multiple schools and public playgrounds such as the Spring Creek Marina. The parents said they watched their children playing at the Marinas playground and saw them enjoy their play without injury.

The parents added that they preferred the rubber mulch over the wood chips due to the likelihood of splinters. Also, wood chips must be replaced every 5 to 10 years, which would become another cost down the road.

Its nicer, Moore said of the rubber mulch. If we could raise the money, wood chips would be better than the pea gravel, for sure. But if we could raise the money for rubber mulch, it would be nicer.

Moore said she spoke to the school nurse, who told her about 813 students were treated in her office last school year. You cant guarantee that all of them are from the playground or the pea gravel, but its a pretty large number for 400 kids.

The group also pointed to the age of the school as another reason for the replacement. Spring Creek Elementary was constructed in 1990, to alleviate overcrowding in Elko elementary schools.

To me, it is a safety issue, Moore said. Who wants to fall on gravel versus rubber mulch? The rubber mulch wasnt around 32 years ago. Wed like to stay with the times and have a safer playground.

Although most injuries wont be prevented if a child falls on the rubber mulch, you might not have as much of an injury as falling on gravel.

Loup recalled how her daughter was sent home with a concussion protocol after falling on the playground and wondered if a softer surface would have resulted in a different outcome.

Nobody has a crystal ball, but would it have been a concussion if she fell on wood chips or rubber mulch? Loup asked.

Mandi Lake remembered receiving a call from the school nurse during the first week of school about her daughter, who fell and was bleeding from cuts and scrapes.

The group said it would also save money on clothing that becomes damaged from children who play on the pea gravel. It would also reduce messes from children dumping pea gravel out of their shoes in the car and at home.

Mandi Lake said she recalled a day after school watching her child coming off the slide, slipping, falling and ripping her jeans. She began packing a small first aid kit just in case of an injury.

Moore said the Spring Creek PTA began fundraising after the last school capital improvements bond measure failed at the special election in December.

Plans had been in the works to renovate the playground for years and then the bond failed. So the funding got cut. All capital improvements got cut down to zero, she said.

Right after it failed, we started working on alternative ways of funding it, Moore said. We didnt get a lot of traction until these last couple of months.

So far, the PTA has raised $11,200 through fundraising.

The groups goal is to raise enough to cover the mulch and freight charges which total $37,699. However, if the goal isnt met, the group will purchase the wood chips if we cant raise the rest, Moore said.

The Elko County School District is supporting the costs for construction to prepare for the new materials, and the PTA has received support from the Spring Creek Association, among other organizations and individuals.

The group plans to organize a work party with members of the PTA and community volunteers to spread the materials on the playground and complete the project before the first day of school on Aug. 29.

New Spring Creek Elementary Principal Carrie Gregory praised the PTAs and school districts efforts to get the playground resurfaced.

I think its awesome that they come together to do whats good for kids, she said. I think safety should be our main concern. Im excited that the school district can work with the parents and do good things for kids so that they can be safe.

Moore explained that a safe playground means happy students outside and inside the classroom.

Physical activity and outside activity is directly correlated with mental health and better test scores and better moods of kids, Moore said. So I think its important for them to have outside play, but I think its important that they have the best outside play they can.

To donate, visit MemberHub by clicking the link for more information, or visit the Spring Creek Elementary Facebook page for more details.
If there is one sure thing in human affairs, it is the rule of reciprocity. It has been stated in numerous ways. What you freely give away will come back to you. You reap what you sow. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

It is a rule that egotists, bullies, and tyrants never seem to grasp. When they have power, they seem oblivious that someday someone else will have power over them.

If Hitler had sued for peace in October of 1941, most of Europe would still be part of Germany, and as one British historian put it, American professors, instead of being communist leaning socialists, would be Nazi leaning socialists.

We see the same mistake being made almost daily in the United States. Leaders in America have declared everything is political. That goal is so important that apparently reciprocity can be ignored.

This has created a dangerous precedent. If everything is political, then even the government must be restructured for political ends. If the Electoral College does not give them the candidate they want, then the College should be eliminated. If the Supreme Court rules against their agenda, the Court should be eliminated, or packed with those who share the proper political goals. The Department of Justice must operate in harmony with those in power, even if it means redefining justice.

The arrogant denial of history manifested in these demands is appalling. If the government is realigned to meet immediate political goals, what happens when those goals are blocked? If the Left can pack the Court, so can the Right. If justice can be redefined to punish your political foes, then it can, if you lose power, be redefined to punish you.

If the FBI can break into a home in the middle of the night and lead away a person in chains because the current president doesnt like what he or she said or did, then the other side could do the same thing when they are in power.

When Obama stated that he could skirt around the legislative branch because he had a pen and a phone, he arrogantly acted as if someone like Trump would never be in the White House.

Modern politicians seem oblivious to this reality and never seem to learn its lesson. Instead, they attempt to circumvent the rule of reciprocity by taking control of the government in such a way that their control cant be seriously challenged. In other words, to create a one-party state.

But this is only a temporary solution. As was Mussolini, sooner or later, tyrants end up hanging from light poles.

The brilliance of the founders of America was in their recognition of the power balance required to ensure that a person would reap what he sowed.

This means that governmental power must be applied to everyone equally. That is why your race, your religion, and what you say is none of the governments business, and the  right of the people to keep and bear Arms, had little to do with hunting.

Those who govern must treat people the way they would wish to be treated.

This is the law of reciprocity.
Today

Sunny to partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 106F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low near 85F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph.

Tomorrow

Generally sunny despite a few afternoon clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 106F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph.
- This year's report comes in an unusual geopolitical context. Putin did not like the fact that Ukraine is on the path of a democratic state. By helping to uphold the rule of law in Ukraine, we can only remain credible if our own house is put in order. And that means addressing our own challenges and preventing problems from escalating- argued Vera Jourova, Vice President of the European Commission.

The Presidents bill is a good start, but...

Jourova said at the end of June that the judicial reform bill proposed by President Duda, which comes into force this week, is insufficient to unblock the NRP money. And while the Commission emphasizes that a detailed evaluation of the new Polish law, which, among other things, abolishes the Disciplinary Chamber, is still underway, its shortcomings were recently also pointed out by Ursula von der Leyen. - The new law does not provide judges with the ability to question the status of another judge without risking committing a disciplinary offense. These are the issues that need to be resolved in order to fulfill [Poland's] obligations, and to unblock the first payment- the European Commission President said. The issue is thorny, as it involves checking the independence of neo-judges appointed with the participation of the politicized National Council of the Judiciary.

Speaking to a group of reporters in Brussels, Jourova rejected President Andrzej Duda's accusations that her criticism was an ideologically motivated attack. - "It was not ideological, but made from a legal point of view"- Jourova said, pointing out that for the time being this was her own assessment, as the European Commission - due to its ongoing evaluation of the "Duda bill" - has not yet formulated an official position. - The law proposed by President Duda is a first step in the right direction made in the past seven years. It is a reaction to the unbearable issue of the Disciplinary Chamber. But at the same time, no one can be surprised that I demand all the required guarantees for Polish judges not to face disciplinary proceedings for the content of their decisions- Jourova explained.

She stressed that NRP funds should go to Poland, not least because the country made a great effort to help Ukraine. - But if there are already clear conditions [specified in the NRP], they should be met in full. I think this is logical- Jourova stressed.

REKLAMA

The disputed provisions on verification of the status of judges, as pointed out by the Vice President and von der Leyen, are one of the CJEU's interim measures, for the violation of which Poland faces a penalty that increases by another million euros every single day (it currently amounts to over EUR 250 million) and is successively deducted from EU budget transfers. To stop the penalty clock, a suspension of the disputed provisions of the so-called "muzzle law" would suffice, but it is unclear whether, for example, a suspension would suffice for the purposes of the NRP.

Rule of Law Report: Roles of the Justice Minister and Prosecutor-General should be kept separate

Other than the need to comply with CJEU rulings, in this years rule of law report, the Commission recommends Poland to separate the functions of the minister of justice and the prosecutor general (currently exercised by Zbigniew Ziobro), i.e. to ensure the independence of the prosecution's actions from the government. "Concerns remain about institutionalized corruption and the risk of impunity caused by unequal treatment of corruption cases for political reasons. These concerns stem from the increased influence of the executive branch of government on the judiciary, prosecution and police" - Commission experts write. The European Prosecutor's Office is currently conducting 23 investigations into Poland, but the Polish prosecutor's office refuses to cooperate in this regard.

Additionally, the European Commission is calling for a solution to the problem of "the broad scope of immunities of senior executives", as well as a halt to "provisions granting impunity for public officials who commit the crime of abuse of office" (it started by exempting officials from criminal and disciplinary liability in public procurement during the pandemic). Poland should also clean up lobbying laws, introduce a standardized online system of asset declarations for public officials and members of parliament, and undertake "more systematic follow-ups" to Supreme Audit Office inspections.

REKLAMA

The European Commission recommends that Poland adhere to European standards as to public media, and, recalling the issue of the American-owned TVN 24, stick to transparent and non-discriminatory rules regarding broadcasting concessions. - Our reports included a description of the issues surrounding Pegasus, mentioning Poland, Hungary, Spain, and France. The rule of law requires that the use of such tools by the services of EU countries be subject to scrutiny that fully complies with EU law, including such fundamental rights as the protection of personal data, the safety of journalists, and freedom of expression- Jourova said.

***

Every day, 400 journalists at Gazeta Wyborcza write verified, fact-checked stories about Polish politics and society, keeping a critical eye on the ruling camps persistent assault on democratic values and the rule of law; the growing cultural tension between religious fundamentalism and human rights; and the ongoing Russian invasion in Ukraine. Our journalists are on the front lines in 32 Polish cities, reporting from the streets, hospitals, and courtrooms about issues that move public opinion.

REKLAMA

We decided to make our service available to everyone free of charge in order to provide access to high quality journalism for expats and English speakers interested in Polish affairs.

The access to information should be equal for all.
Regarding the itemised tax for small businesses (kata), changes to which have triggered protests in Budapest this week, Orban said the tax was originally created to offer a simple and easy-to-handle tax for small businesses providing for private customers.

However, companies have been using the tax to force their employees to work as sole proprietors through kata, he said.



Of some 450,000 kata taxpayers, some 300,000 now invoice companies, mostly just one company, which is basically a hidden contract, he said. Now that there is a war and we need to employ wartime logic, this cannot go on, he said.



On another topic, Orban said the correct response to a war situation was cooperation rather than political profiteering, asking people affected by changes to kata and households paying capped utility fees to understand recent government decisions affecting them.



The leftist opposition have proven during the election campaign that they could not be trusted with leading the country, much less in warlike conditions, Orban said.



They have been sitting idly by since suffering that defeat, then tried to ride the waves as soon as the first unpopular measures were introduced, he said.



Orban said the leftist opposition was likely to continue with those tactics, using future measures that can be questioned or debated to whip up a negative atmosphere for political gain.



He added that this was a very bad policy because in a war situation, the only solution is to join forces. He asked kata taxpayers and households to understand whats happening and help the government to maintain an operational country, peoples living standards, jobs and to protect pensions.



He also said that military developments must be accelerated by two or three times. He added that he will sign decrees in the next few days that give extra resources to the army.



We have a problem at the southern border, he said, adding that the situation is getting increasingly hard. Under the current circumstances, it would be a luxury to use soldiers for border protection and police are unable to cope on their own, with many police already transferred to the borders from other parts of the country, Orban said.



A decree on setting up border hunter units could be signed as soon as this afternoon, he added.



KATA Protesters Block Erzsebet Bridge in Budapest



Several hundred protesters against a new law on the kata small business tax blocked Erzsebet bridge on the Pest side of the capital early in the evening on Thursday.



The protest had been organised by the satirical non-parliamentary Two Tailed Dog Party (MKKP). A trailer has been placed on the inner lanes of the bridge and tables and benches have been set up next to it.



Speakers addressed the protesters, talking about the negative consequences they felt as a result of changes approved by parliament on Tuesday to the kata small business tax.



Peter Marki-Zay, the former prime ministerial candidate of the united opposition, told the protesters that the government had needed 100 days to prove that all of their campaign promises were lies.



The protest which started at 5.30pm was peaceful at 9pm, with police checking the IDs of some people who had sprayed graffiti on the pavement.



Police said on their website that the protesters had occupied all lanes of the bridge and traffic would be diverted on both sides of the bridge, including several bus services.





MTI / PM's Press office Photo: Vivien Benko Cher
Sanctions against Russia are having no effect on the war in Ukraine but are harming the countries which have imposed them, as shown in growing energy prices, the state secretary for international communication and relations told Austrian daily Kurier.

This war should not have started in the first place, and should be ended as soon as possible. The way there is through a ceasefire and peace talks, Zoltan Kovacs told the paper. Currently, we arent gaining anything, we are just losing. Sanctions are harming the economy, and energy security must be a priority, he said.



Put to him that Prime Minister Viktor Orban had visited Moscow regularly, seeking cheaper oil and gas deals, and that Hungary depends on Russia for the upgrade of its nuclear plant, Kovacs said: The close political ties you attribute to the prime minister and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin do not exist. The relations are not closer than those between Russia and Germany.



Dependency on Russian oil, gas and nuclear technology has historical rather than political roots, he said. Russia is the cheapest and most attractive energy source on the market, Kovacs said.



The war will end but Russia will remain a potential energy source, with or without Putin, his ideological dreams notwithstanding, he said. Deciding to fully wean our energy policy from Russia now is not necessarily a good idea, he said.



Regarding the European Unions criticism over the state of the rule of law in Hungary, Kovacs said Hungary had complied with all of the EUs conditions, but this had not been reciprocated. This is a witch hunt, he said.



Referring to EU funding for the next financial cycle and post pandemic recovery, Kovacs said: The money is ours  not a present, not subsidies; its ours. It is being distributed for economic reasons. Withholding it is a subjective political decision.





MTI Photo: Noemi Bruzak
Over 21,000 valid signatures have been collected in Hungary in support of the European Citizens Initiative entitled Stop Finning  Stop the Trade against the killing of sharks for their fins, the National Election Committee (NVB) said on Thursday.

The committee established that out of the 23,986 signatures collected online by the organisers of the campaign, altogether 21,715 were valid.



The NVB will send its documents verifying the authenticity of the signatures to the initiatives contact staff to be forwarded to the European Commission, it said in a statement.



The citizens initiative needs one million signatures from across at least seven member states to be valid. The minimum number in Hungary is 15,750 valid signatures.



Stop Finning aims to end the trade of fins in Europe.



The European Union is one of the worlds leading exporters of fins and a major transit hub of global fin shipments, the statement said.
YORK  A man known as Bhan J. Kuany, Kuany Riek and Riek Riek was sentenced this week in York County District Court in a case involving felonies associated with criminal impersonation, counterfeit money and theft of a vehicle.

Initially, he was charged with eight counts: theft by receiving stolen property with a value of more than $5,000; first degree forgery, two counts of criminal impersonation, identification fraud, false reporting, misdemeanor forgery and driving under revocation. Earlier, Kuany pleaded no contest to the theft charge, which is a Class 2A felony, and criminal impersonation, a Class 4 felony. The other counts were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

This case began when a deputy with the York County Sheriffs Department saw a vehicle without license plates on Interstate 80. The deputy put on his lights to initiate a traffic stop, but the vehicle continued on for two miles before stopping.

The driver gave the deputy a Nebraska identification card which said his name was Kuany Riek, which the deputy later learned was the mans cousins name.

It was also discovered the vehicle had been stolen out of Kansas.

Later, the man said his name is Riek Riek.

It was also discovered that one of the $100 bills in his wallet was counterfeit.

He was also in the possession of a Social Security card for a person named Ariath Mareng.

He was facing a possible maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for the theft conviction and up to two years in prison for the conviction of criminal impersonation.

This week, York County District Judge James Stecker sentenced him to a term of 2-4 years in prison. For each count, he was sentenced to 1-2 years  they will be served consecutively. He was also given credit for 237 days already served in the York County Jail.
The 78-year-old Lincoln man found dead in his home Monday morning died of blunt force trauma, Lancaster County Sheriff Terry Wagner said Wednesday.

Following initial autopsy results, Wagner said Gene Oltman's death is being investigated as a homicide.

Oltman lived at the home in the 1600 block of Southwest 40th Street where sheriff's deputies were called shortly after 8 a.m. on a medical emergency.

Deputies arrived to find Oltman dead inside, with evidence of physical trauma to his body.

On Tuesday, Wagner said Oltman's 68-year-old wife, the only other person at the home at the time, was hospitalized with an unrelated medical condition. He didn't elaborate.

No arrests had been made as of Wednesday evening. Deputies, however, have said there's no threat to the public in connection to Oltman's death.
YORK  Two York men, Yates Oneil and Randall Phillips, are accused of manufacturing a chemically-based drug in their apartment, which is located near a daycare, in York.

According to court documents, the York Police Department served a search warrant at their apartment as part of an ongoing investigation.

While in the apartment, Oneil allegedly told them they created a black liquid, found in the search, by blending together plants they found in the woods and different chemicals and they were processing marijuana in an effort to cultivate a concentrated THC that could be ingested into the human body.

The police found a bucket of marijuana stalks, stems and buds. They also found a nearly-full five-gallon bucket containing the aforementioned black liquid. They also found several other glass vessels, appearing to contain the same black liquid, in the kitchens freezer, cupboard and in a freezer in the closet of Phillips bedroom.

The police department asked to assistance from the Nebraska State Patrols Clandestine Lab Team, which came to the scene to assist in processing. Those team members determined that the black liquid appeared to be an intermediate step in the production of producing the hallucinogenic, N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a schedule I controlled substance.

They also allegedly found, in the bedroom freezer, four glass dishes containing yellow and yellow-green liquid that showed signs of crystal growth, which the NSP team determined was a subsequent step in the production of DMT.

They also allegedly found in the close three vials containing different shades of a yellow powdery substance that field-tested positive for DMT.

In another bedroom, they allegedly found debris that visually appeared to match debris found in one of the vials from the west bedroom, which field tested positive for DMT.

And they also found: glass dishes throughout the apartment containing residue that was determined by the team to be indicative of the final manufacturing steps in producing DMT, a baggie with residue that tested positive as methamphetamine, a blender containing plant material, two chemicals used to make DMT (sodium hydroxide and acetone) and more than one pound of marijuana.

This week, Phillips appeared for arraignment during which he pleaded not guilty to two counts of delivery of a controlled substance near a school or daycare, possession of more than one pound of marijuana, two counts of having no drug tax stamp and possession of a controlled substance.

A jury trial has been scheduled for late fall.
Following a directive from Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena, all traffic crossings in Delhi will soon feature electronic signage indicating speed restrictions as well as timing displays for efficient and seamless traffic management. In the nation's capital, he also urged Delhi Police staff to minimise manual enforcement and challans interventions. In addition to directing officials to strictly enforce lane discipline by large motor vehicles, Saxena reportedly gave these instructions during a meeting to review traffic management in the city (HMVs).

The meeting was attended by Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana along with other senior police officers. "The L-G asked for all traffic signals in the city to have timer displays and instructed that the number of electronic signages indicating speed limits be increased and installed across the city. He also stressed strict enforcement of lane discipline, especially by HMVs which should, in all circumstances, stick to the outermost left lane," a statement from the Raj Niwas L-G's secretariat said on Thursday.

It said lane enforcement exercise was all the more relevant and important on the highways where trucks were allowed during late nights and early mornings ."In relation to this, the police was also asked to address the issue of crowding by auto and e-rickshaws at bus stops," the statement said.

Also read: BMW G 310 RR to launch tomorrow - Heres all you need to know: Design, specs, price

Taking stock of the Intelligent Traffic Management Systems (ITMS) being rolled out by the Delhi Police, Saxena asked for the same to be completed in time for the G-20 summit scheduled next year in the city.

Regarding the issues of road engineering proposals pending with various road owning agencies in the city, including PWD, MCD and NDMC, among others, the L-G assured of intervention to resolve the issues at the earliest. In the meeting, he also underlined the importance of seamless traffic flow in the city with the least manual interventions for enforcement and challans.

He stressed that minimal manual interventions for enforcement will not only ensure less hassles to commuters and prevent corruption but also mitigate the problem of traffic pile-ups at sites where commuters are "stopped indiscriminately" for inspection and issuing challans.

The statement said the L-G also directed that the deployment of personnel at traffic points should be made available in the public domain for commuters and citizens to know as to which particular traffic personnel is deployed at a particular point on a day.

"It was suggested that the information in this regard, listing the names and contact numbers of traffic personnel deployed, could be posted on the traffic portal of Delhi Police. The L-G also underlined the importance of similarly posting such details of the beat staff on duty for easy access of the people of the city," the statement added.

With inputs from PTI
With President Bidens approval rating now sinking to one of the worst ever recorded (37.7% in the RCP average) and with an unprecedented percentage of Americans polled indicating a wrong track direction for the country, Democrats are engaged in a brazen bit of political jiu jitsu.

Rather than defend Bidens seemingly out of control presidency and the growing perception that hes not in command, Democrats are spending tens of millions of dollars on ads by meddling in Republican primaries.

Fa-right GOP candidates are getting advertising boosts from Democrats. By running ads that help fringe Republicans, Democrats hope to face weaker candidates in November.

The ads depict the more radical contenders as too conservative  which might be an effective attack in a general election but appeals to Republican voters in primaries. Democrats hope that leads GOP voters to nominate candidates who are less attractive to swing voters in November.

A harbinger for this strategy was Nevada s Harry Reid in 2010. An underdog, Reid faced a hostile Nevada electorate in a difficult election year for Democrats.

Reid meddled in the Republican primary and successfully manipulated the outcome to get the opponent he was most likely to defeat  far-right Republican Sharron Angle. Reid won narrowly in November.

Credited as the inventor of this strategy is former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D.Mo.) who effectively deployed it in 2012. The odds on her winning re-election that year were against her.

During the primaries, she spent $1.7 million attacking her weakest Republican opponent, Rep. Todd Akin, as too conservative. That endeared him to the Republican base but he was wiped out in November.

Democrats have already meddled this year in Pennsylvania, Illinois and Colorado Republican primaries. Billionaire Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D. Ill.) spent $32 million labeling his chosen Republican opponent as too conservative for Illinois. The ploy worked  Republican voters took the bait.

In Nevada, Democrats used this deceptive tactic in an effort to defeat Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo in the June 14 GOP primary. Lombardo was viewed by Democrats as the strongest general election candidate against vulnerable first-term Democrat Gov. Steve Sisolak.

The Democratic Governors Association spent $2.1 million portraying Lombardo as soft on crime. Their ad campaign (slick Joe Lombardo) misrepresented his record as Clark County Sheriff.

In a time of increasing violent crime, Republicans nominating a candidate for governor with a 34-year career in law enforcement made sense. First elected in 2014, Lombardo has a solid conservative record as sheriff. He was overwhelmingly re-elected in 2018 with 73% of the vote in Democrat-dominated Clark County.

Whats less understandable is the support given former boxer and criminal defense/personal injury lawyer Joey Gilbert in the GOP gubernatorial primary. Democratic political organizations spent millions of dollars propping candidates like Gilbert up.

Gilbert believes the establishment is conspiring to deny him his place on the general election ballot and consequently refuses to concede his race to Lombardo despite losing the primary by over 26,000 votes. His demanded recount left the outcome unchanged.

A marijuana dispensary owner and reality TV participant, Gilbert claims without evidence that Trump carried Nevada by 44,000 votes in 2020 and that COVID-19 wasnt real (and if it was, it was a plandemic).

Far-right fringe candidate Gilbert won a plurality of GOP votes in 12 small Nevada counties  including Carson City.

Far-right candidates prevailed in the GOP primary in other statewide races  Jim Marchant (Secretary of State), Michele Fiore (State Treasurer) and Sigal Chattah (Attorney General). They were aided by Democrat-funded ads proclaiming too conservative for Nevada to gin up Republican support.

Both Republican strategist Karl Rove and Democratic strategist David Axelrod are critics of the cross-party manipulation tactic. Its a cynical ploy meant to deceive voters and undermines the legitimacy of elections at a time when we need both parties to produce responsible choices.
Ripudaman Singh Malik, suspect in a terrorist 1985 Air India bombing that killed 329 people aboard an Air India flight was shot dead in Canada today (July 15). Malik along with co-defendant Ajaib Singh Bagri was found not guilty in March 2005 of murder and conspiracy in a pair of Air India bombings that killed 331 people on June 23, 1985. The attack on Air India Flight 182, which exploded over the Atlantic Ocean in 1985, is one of historys deadliest bombings of a commercial airliner. Police have alleged it was plotted by Sikh extremists living in Canada as revenge on India for its storming of Sikhisms Golden Temple in Amritsar in 1984.

Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, a sawmill worker in Kamloops, British Columbia, were charged in 2000 with bombing Flight 182. They were also charged with killing two baggage handlers who died when a suitcase bomb, alleged by police as designed to destroy another Air India jet over the Pacific Ocean, exploded in Japans Narita airport.

Who was #RipudamanSinghMalik? How was he related to 1985 Air India bombing? https://t.co/6G5Id8glpM  Zee News English (@ZeeNewsEnglish) July 15, 2022

In Malik's trial, British Columbia Supreme Court heard that a suitcase bomb was loaded onto a plane at Vancouver's airport and then transferred in Toronto to Air India Flight 182. The aircraft crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ireland, killing 329 passengers and crew.

About an hour later, a bomb destined for another Air India plane exploded prematurely at Tokyo's Narita Airport, where two baggage handlers died.

Meet 'Safest Plane in the World' keeping United States President safe in the sky: IN PICS

Deepak Khandelwal of Oakville, Ontario, said the shooting "just brings back all the horrible memories we'd had to go through for the last 37 years. He was 17 when his sisters, 21-year-old Chandra and 19-year-old Manju, were killed on Flight 182.

With agencies inputs

Live TV
Emirates airline has criticised one of the busiest airports in the world for its "incompetence" in failing to handle a rise in travellers. According to CNN, the Dubai-based airline criticised requests made earlier this week by London's Heathrow airport that airlines halt selling any more tickets for this summer. Like other airports, Heathrow has had a difficult time adjusting to an increase of travellers following two years of pandemic restrictions and staff reductions. The airport said on Tuesday that it will set a daily cap of 100,000 passengers until September 11.

The airline, which operates six daily flights from Heathrow, has rejected the new limits and called them "entirely unreasonable and unacceptable", CNN reported.

"(London Heathrow) chose not to act, not to plan, not to invest. Now faced with an `airmageddon` situation due to their incompetence and non-action, they are pushing the entire burden, of costs and the scramble to sort the mess, to airlines and travellers," the airline said in a statement, CNN reported.

Also read: London Heathrow Airport apologises to travellers for flight cancellations

The company said that Heathrow had given it only 36 hours to comply with the new cap, and had threatened legal action against airlines that refuse to comply. It added that it had enough ground handling and catering staff to handle its flights at the airport.

Emirates said that Heathrow`s management team were "cavalier about travellers and their airline customers," and had failed to rehire and train enough staff in advance of the predictable surge in summer travel, CNN reported.

On average, Heathrow handled nearly 220,000 passengers each day, split between arrivals and departure, in 2018. Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said in an open letter to passengers on Tuesday that airlines had sold too many seats for the coming months.

With inputs from IANS
New Delhi: Bill Gates is moving $20 billion of his wealth into the endowment of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is ramping up its spending in the face of global challenges, including the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, media reports said. The foundation, one of the world's largest philanthropies, plans to increase its payouts by 50 percent over pre-pandemic levels, from nearly $6 billion to $9 billion each year by 2026. The foundation is primarily focused on charitable giving that's aimed at improving global health, gender equality, and education, among other issues, CNN reported.

The Microsoft co-founder and his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, have both pledged to donate the vast majority of their wealth to the foundation they established together 20 years ago, as well as to other philanthropic endeavors. The couple announced their divorce in May 2021, saying they would work together as co-chairs under a two-year trial period. At the end of that trial, French Gates has the option to resign and receive a payout from her former husband, who would remain in charge of the foundation. (Also Read: China's economic growth falls to 0.4% amid virus shutdowns)

With an estimated net worth of around $ 114 billion, Bill Gates is currently the world's fourth-richest person, according to Bloomberg's Billionaire Index, with most of his wealth tied to Microsoft shares. But he doesn't intend to rank that high forever. (Also Read: Elon Musk's dad Errol Musk confirms he had secret second child with his 35-year-old stepdaughter)

"I will move down and eventually off of the list of the world's richest people," Gates wrote in a blog. I have an obligation to return my resources to society in ways that have the greatest impact on improving lives. I hope others in positions of great wealth and privilege will step up at this moment too," he said, CNN reported.
New Delhi: Amid the heightened uncertainties around cryptocurrencies, the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) on Thursday announced the dissolution of the Blockchain and Crypto Assets Council (BACC). The association created and nurtured BACC for four years. The IAMAI said that it was forced to take the decision in light of the fact that a resolution of the regulatory environment for the industry is still very uncertain.

Several crypto lending and trading platforms have filed for bankruptcy, laid off employees, frozen withdrawals, deposits, and other transactions on their platforms, and cryptocurrencies crashed in the global economic meltdown. The association said in a statement that it would like to utilise its limited resources for other emerging digital sectors, which make a more immediate and direct contribution to digital India, notably, deepening financial inclusion and promoting Central Bank-issued Digital Currency (CBDC). (Also Read: Post Office Scheme: Invest Rs 50 daily to get Rs 35 lakh at maturity, heres how)

"As an industry, we will continue to positively engage with all stakeholders and continue to build emerging tech including Web 3.0," said Ashish Singhal (CEO of CoinSwitch) and Sumit Gupta (Co-founder and CEO of CoinDCX), Chair and Cochair of the BACC. (Also Read: SBI home, car loan borrowers alert! EMIs to go up as bank hikes lending rates from today, July 15)

The BACC members were advised that IAMAI will continue to support activities of the BACC till the end of the month to ensure the smooth and proper transition of the sector as well as the closure of the ongoing projects. Popular crypto tokens such as Bitcoin and Ethereum nosedived by nearly 70 percent from their record highs amid the economic meltdown.




New Delhi: Leading non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea's co-founder and CEO Devin Finzer announced that the platform is laying off about 20 percent of its total employees. On the microblogging site Twitter, the CEO shared a note that said "today is a hard day for OpenSea, as we are letting go of 20 percent of our team". "We made an incredibly sad and difficult decision to reduce the size of our team by -- 20 percent, and today we're saying goodbye to many of our friends and team members across OpenSea," the note, shared with employees before being revealed on the microblogging site, reads.

"Each of the people leaving has played a critical role in OpenSea's journey. They have supported our users, championed our mission, and worked intensely to build the foundations of the NFT space," it added. He also mentioned that these employees are talented and committed and they will be missed and "we plan to treat them with great care".

Finzer said he expects that the company will see an explosion in innovation and utility across NFTs during the winter.

"With the hard (but important) changes we made today, we're in an even better position to capture what will soon become the largest market on the planet. When the global economy is uncertain, our mission to build the foundation for new, peer-to-peer economies feels more urgent and important than ever. Winter is our time to build," he said.




New Delhi: In a shocking incident, a 24-year-old chef working for Dominos was allegedly beaten up by three individuals in Mumbai. The incident took place on Wednesday (July 13) outside a Dominos outlet located at Colaba market, Mumbai. According to reports, the three accused were identified as Sunil Chauhan, 24, Ganesh Chauhan, 22, and Rup Singh Rathod, 29. Police have arrested the three accused who are all residents of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Nagar, Cuffe Parade.

Also, reports noted that the victim, identified as Akash Rathod, worked only in the evenings at the popular pizza chain. During the day, he works as a storekeeper with a private company at Naval Dockyard. (ALSO READ: Stocks bounce back after 4-day decline; FMCG, auto shares shine)

The three hit Rathod for not serving Golden Corn Pizza. According to reports, the chef suffered head injuries as a result of the physical assault. The incident reportedly took place at around 9:30 pm when two people entered the Colaba Market located at Dominos outlet and asked for a Golden Corn Pizza. (ALSO READ: Employment rate increasing in July after fall in June: CMIE)

Akash, as per reports, told them that the Golden Corn pizza was not available at that time, as the corn was not in stock at the outlet. However, one of the accused then started arguing that Golden Corn pizza was available online. Which eventually led to a heated argument that further led to a brawl.

In another incident, last month, a group of four women beat up a young female Domino's employee on the streets. The incident took place in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. However, nobody assisted the girl, who can be seen sobbing in anguish.

One of the women challenged the pizza chain employee when she declares that she will contact the police by stating, "Go make a report." Four ladies were charged by the police for assaulting the employee Nandini. The latter's complaint served as the basis for the litigation.
Honble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Hospital on 12th July 2022 at Deoghar, Jharkhand. Executed under Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) by the Ministry of Health and family welfare, this is the first AIIMS in the state of Jharkhand.

The campus is being constructed with state-of-the-art multi-specialty 750 bed hospital, 100-seater Academic college, 1000-seater auditorium, hostel and residential facilities for the staff and night shelter facilities. The architecture of the buildings is inspired from the nearby Baidyanath Temple.

The campus also has the tallest residential towers of 23 floors in Jharkhand. Built in a sprawling campus of over 230 acres, this hospital is the largest in Jharkhand. NBCC Limited awarded the contract for the construction of AIIMS complex to NKG Infrastructure Limited in 2019.

Despite the challenges during the pandemic, there werent any compromises made in timelines to construct Ayush  the building, night shelter facility and a part campus, which started in Aug 2021. This Hospital is expected to bring relief to Citizens of Jharkhand who had to travel to nearby states for Quality Medical treatment.

Content produced by Ace Advertising

(Above mentioned article is Sponsored Feature, This article is a sponsored publication and does not have journalistic/editorial involvement of IDPL)
New Delhi: The Rajasthan Police has reportedly made several revelations in connection with the arrest of Ajmer dargah cleric Gauhar Chishti who was apprehended on Thursday (July 14) for allegedly delivering a provocative speech at the main gate of the shrine last month. Gauhar Chishti, who was on the run after raising objectionable slogans against former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma over her remarks on Prophet Mohammad, was arrested in Telangana's Hyderabad on Thursday, as per ANI.

Ajmer Additional Superintendent of Police Vikas Sangwan said an FIR was filed against Chishti, a "khadim" of the dargah, on June 25 over the controversial speech he delivered on June 17. He left Rajasthan on June 29 and had been absconding since then, Sangwan added.

Gauhar Chishti and his associate were brought from Hyderabad to Jaipur airport, then taken to Kishanganj Police station in Ajmer on Thursday.

ALSO READ: Ajmer Dargah Khadim who threatened Nupur Sharma with 'beheading' ARRESTED

Rajasthan police reveals Gauhar Chishtis whereabouts while he was on the run

As per India TV report, Gauhar Chishti had been trying to surrender for the past week, however, he did not succeed. Citing Ajmer Police, the report mentioned that Chishti also lived in Bihars Purnia when he was on the run. Besides Purnia and Hyderabad, he also stayed in Rajasthans capital Jaipur.

He flew to Hyderabad from Jaipur, however, the police is yet to ascertain where did he stay in the 'Pink City' and with whom did he meet there. As per police sources, Gauhar Chishti used to frequent Pahadi Shareef Dargah during his visits to Hyderabad from 2014-18. Chishti was trying to surrender for the past week, India TV reported.

After Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal was brutally killed on June 28, the Ajmer police had swung into action and arrested four people who were present with Gauhar Chishti for allegedly raising controversial slogans. The videos and audios of the hate speech were also shared on social media.

According to the FIR filed by a constable of the Dargah police station, Gauhar Chishti provoked people and called for the beheading of those who insult the Prophet. The case was registered under IPC Sections 117 (abetting commission of offence by the public or by more than 10 persons), 143 and 149 (unlawful assembly), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation), PTI reported.

(With agency inputs)
New Delhi: A Delhi court on Friday granted bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair in a case related to an "objectionable" tweet he had posted in 2018 against a Hindu deity. Additional Sessions Judge Devender Kumar Jangala granted the relief to Zubair on a bail bond of Rs 50,000 and one surety of the like amount and directed him not to leave the country without its prior permission.

Sessions Court of Patiala House Court grants bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair in the alleged tweet case. pic.twitter.com/vTjVDqwK6m  ANI (@ANI) July 15, 2022

However, he will stay in jail for two cases filed in Uttar Pradesh.

A magisterial court had on July 2 dismissed his bail plea and sent him to 14-day judicial custody (JC) in the case, citing the nature and gravity of the offences against the accused and observing that the matter was at an initial stage of the investigation.

The co-founder of fact-checking website Alt News has requested the Supreme Court to cancel six cases filed against him by the Uttar Pradesh Police. Mohammed Zubair was arrested on June 27 by the Delhi Police over his four-year-old tweet sharing a screenshot from a popular Hindi movie.

He was charged and arrested just days after he flagged a video of suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma's provocative comments on Prophet Mohammed during a TV debate.
ICSE Result 2022, ISC Result 2022: Lakhs of students are waiting for the CISCE Results 2022 and their waiting is increased as the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) Board will not be declaring the Class 10th, 12th ISE and ICSE Results any time soon as the results are not ready.

As per the latest media reports, CISCE Cheif executive and secretary Gerry Arathoon has informed the ISE, ICSE results are not ready yet and the board will make an official announcement for the release date and time of the results. Once announced, students will be able to check their scorecards on the websites  cisce.org or results.cisce.org.

ISC, ICSE Board Result 2022: How to Download Class 10 & 12 results

Once announced, students can check their ISC, ICSE Results 2022 following the steps given below

Visit the official website of the CISCE at www.cisce.org

On the homepage, click on the link - ISC Class 12 Result or ICSE Class 10 Result 2022

Enter the login credentials such as Unique identification number, date of birth

Click on submit, your ICSE Class 10 and ISC Class 12 Marksheet will be displayed on the screen

Download the result and take a printout of it for future reference.

CISCE Board has conducted the ICSE semester 2 exams from April 25 to May 23, 2022. The ISC Semester 2 exams were held from April 26 till June 13, 2022. It is to be noted that the Board has conducted the exams in two semesters. Note, the final board exam result will be released after compiling the results of both semesters.

Live TV
The China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has been playing a crucial role in supporting the economic development in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region, experts said on Wednesday.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Hoe Ee Khor, chief economist of the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO), said ASEAN countries including Cambodia are a big part of the BRI.

"Furthermore, much of the foundation for the progress of, as well as the benefit to ASEAN, lies in the prospect of a deeper ASEAN-China integration," he wrote to Xinhua in an e-mail.

"Certainly, the BRI plays an important role in supporting the economic development in ASEAN, particularly in the area of improved trade connectedness and market access, and facilitating further regional integration," he said.

"Through helping to fill the infrastructure investment gap in the region, the BRI is also expected to have second-order positive impact through crowding in private investment, such as in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines and Indonesia," Khor added.

Vasim Sorya, undersecretary of state and spokesperson for Cambodia's Ministry of Public Works and Transport, said mega-BRI projects in Cambodia including the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone, hydropower plants, Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway, new Siem Reap International Airport, Morodok Techo National Stadium, roads and bridges, are very beneficial to the country's socio-economic development.

"These projects have provided and will continue to provide a lot of tangible benefits to the economy and people of Cambodia," he told Xinhua. "The BRI projects here are sincere without any strings attached, and their aim is to help boost our socio-economic development and improve our people's livelihoods."

Despite the impact of COVID-19, all BRI projects in the kingdom have made headway steadily, Sorya said.

Neak Chandarith, director of the Cambodia 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Research Center, said the BRI projects will be a contributor to the economic growth in Cambodia and in the region during the post-pandemic era.

"I believe that the BRI projects here will help Cambodia achieve its ambitious goal of becoming an upper-middle-income country by 2030 and a high-income country in 2050," he told Xinhua.

Joseph Matthews, a senior professor at the BELTEI International University in Phnom Penh, said the BRI has provided a lot of tangible benefits to Cambodia, ASEAN and the world during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The BRI has played a very important role in helping countries cushion the economic fallout of the pandemic," he said. "It remains as a driving force to continue expanding cooperation among countries in the region and the world at large for the cause of peace, security, prosperity and sustainable development."

Other Southeast Asian nations such as Laos, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia, have also greatly benefited from the BRI, Matthews said.

He added that the China-Laos Railway project, which connects Kunming in China's southwestern Yunnan Province to Lao capital Vientiane, is a boon not only for both countries, but also for other Southeast Asian nations.
Covid-19 booster vaccination: As the threat of a fourth Covid-19 wave continue to rise with constantly rising daily infections, the Centre has announced the administration of free booster doses for all eligible adults in India. The booster Covid doses will be available to all adults from Friday (July 15). The doses will be available free of cost to all adults for only 75 days from today. Under the Amrit Mahotsav of Azadi, a 75-day free vaccination campaign will be conducted from 15 July, in which all citizens above the age of 18 years will be given free vaccination doses at government centres. Hearty thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji for this decision," announced health minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya.

As the free Covid booster vaccination is set to begin today, heres all you need to know about the inoculation process.

Covid booster vaccination: Eligibility

According to the official announcement by the Union Health Ministry, all the beneficiaries aged 18 or above will be eligible for booster doses. People in the 18-59 age group will get free precaution doses of the Covid vaccine at government vaccination centres under a 75-day special drive.

Also Read: Covid-19 fourth wave threat! Yes, BA.2.75 Omicron sub-variant found in India, says WHO

Covid booster vaccination: How to register for precaution dose on the Cowin portal or using the Aarogya Setu
CUET 2022: The National Testing Agency (NTA) is conducting the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) 2022 for admission to various undergraduate and post-graduate courses in universities across India. The CUET UG is set to be commenced today, July 15 while the exam dates for CUET PG are yet to be announced.

CUET UG 2022: Admission in Delhi University

The Delhi University is among many varsities that will be using CUET 2022 score cards for admission in various UG and PG courses. Delhi university is be offering 70,000 seats in undergraduate programmes across several colleges through the new Common University Entrance Test (CUET). Till last year, the university would release cut-offs based on the class 12 scores of students.

In the case of two students with the same CUET score choosing the same college and course as first preference, their class 12 board marks will act as a tiebreaker for allotment of preferred seat, informed Vice Chancellor Yogesh Singh.

Talking to PTI Singh said, "In case of a tie between two students, the scores of best of three subjects will be compared. If the best three are also the same, then the best four will be compared and then the best five."

"If by chance marks for the best five subjects are also same, in that case, age will act as a tie breaker. The older applicant will get the seat," he added.

Meanwhile, the NTA has extended the application deadline for CUET PG 2022 once again. Candidates can now apply for CUET PG till July 18, 2022. The correction window will open on July 20 and will close on July 22. ALSO READ- CISCE Result 2022 BIG UPDATE: Result NOT ready yet, dates to be announced soon

Live TV
New Delhi: A shocking case of gang-rape of a 16-year-old girl in Delhi has come to light as the Delhi Police arrested all the three men accused in the case. The men drove the car from Vasant Vihar in south Delhi to Mahipalpur, as per news reports. The incident took place on July 6 and police received the complaint on July 8. Based on the complainant's statement, a case against all the three accused - aged 23, 25, and 35 years - has been registered under relevant sections of Rape in the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

Police said that the victim had gone for a ride with all the three accused persons in their car at around 8.30 pm on July 6. "A PCR call from S.J. Hospital was received around 4 am on July 8 where the caller informed about the incident of harassment with the minor," Delhi Police was quoted by news agency ANI. "On examination with the counsellor, the girl disclosed that two known men met her near Vasant Vihar market on July 6 and offered for a joy ride, where all the four went to Mahipalpur and consumed liquor. Thereafter, they went to a lonely place where the men raped her inside the car," police said.

However, no external injuries to the victim have been reported, as per ANI report. Further investigation into the matter is underway.



(With ANI inputs)
New Delhi: A fire broke out at a restaurant in central Delhis Connaught Place area on Friday (July 15, 2022) morning, officials said. The Delhi Fire Service informed that a call was received earlier this morning, regarding a fire at a restaurant in central Delhi.

Delhi Fire Service officials informed that the information regarding the blaze at the 'Cafe High 5' Restaurant in the outer circle of Connaught Place was received at 5.32 am. The restaurant is located opposite Alka Hotel in CP.

#WATCH | It is reported that the fire occurred in a piece of furniture in the restaurant 'Cafe High5' on the first floor. No casualty reported. pic.twitter.com/rMV3NyTuqW  ANI (@ANI) July 15, 2022

"A fire call was received at 5.32 am from a restaurant in the Outer Circle Connaught Place, opposite Alka Hotel. A total of six fire tenders rushed to the site. Fire is brought under control and so far no one is injured," the Delhi Fire Service informed.

The officials added that six fire tenders were rushed to the spot, and the fire was brought under control around 6.35 am. No casualty has been reported so far.
Nilesh Mali is one of the most shining names among Indian businessmen, not just because of his success but because of the way he has achieved everything. Despite coming from a humble background, he managed to make his name among the topmost personalities of the nation.

When a huge chunk of the nation's population is struggling for jobs, Nilesh didn't just create a great opportunity for himself but also for others. Everything purely on the basis of his efforts, persistence, and dedication toward his goals. Moreover, the self-made entrepreneur has proved to be one of the biggest contributors to the nation's Make In India program with his mobile accessories brand KDM. Something for which he has been recently honoured with the prestigious Bharat Gaurav Award.

Struggle plays a great role in the life of everyone. While it works positively for strong people, others end up being broken. But Nilesh Mali is certainly among the former ones. In the initial days of his career, he had to struggle for work. Mali literally did several odd jobs at various retail shops and managed to carve the path of his success step by step. This hard work built a strong foundation for his future success. Now as he is super successful, the value of hard work and consistency is there in his subconscious which boosts him even in challenging times.

During the initial part of the pandemic, KDM took a huge hit. Nobody knew what was going to happen and the world was surrounded by great uncertainty. But the core values of business and life helped Nilesh stay stable and eventually the business shot up again. "With the pandemic hitting businesses hard, KDMs sales in the initial months went down but later saw a phenomenal increase in demand as people started using headphones to study, watch videos and exercise, enjoy home cinema, and work with video calls," he says.

Talking about what keeps him motivated even in tough times, Nilesh says, "Constant Growth & Learning motivates me the most. I always believe in being a student first and learning things, which indeed makes me empowered."

(Above mentioned article is Sponsored Feature, This article is a sponsored publication and does not have journalistic/editorial involvement of IDPL)
New Delhi: If children can go to school at seven in the morning, why cannot judges and lawyers start their day at 9 am, Supreme Court judge Justice UU Lalit remarked on Friday. A bench of Justices Lalit, S Ravindra Bhat and Sudhanshu Dhulia on Friday started Friday's work at 9.30 am, an hour earlier than the usual working hour of the apex court. Justice Lalit, who is next in line to become the Chief Justice of India, said, "In my view, ideally we should sit at 9 in the morning. I have always said that if our children can go to school at 7 in the morning, then why can't we come at 9 am?" The remark came after senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing in one of the bail matters, lauded the bench at the end of the hearing of the case for sitting earlier than the usual time.

He said, "I must say that this time of 9.30 am is a more proper time to start the courts." Justice Lalit said if the courts can start early, it can finish the day's work early and judges would get more time in the evening to read the case files for the next day. "The courts can start their work at 9 am and rise at 11.30 am for a half an hour break and then finish the day's work by 2 pm. By doing this, judges will get more time to do more things in the evening," Justice Lalit said, adding this arrangement could work when there are only fresh matters and cases that don't require lengthy hearings.

Rohatgi said hopefully these arrangements could be seen more by the end of August. To this, Justice Lalit said, "This is just a capsule."

The judges of the Supreme Court hear cases from 10:30 am to 4 pm on weekdays. Chief Justice of India NV Ramana is set to retire on August 26 and Justice Lalit will take over charge from him and remain in office till November 8, this year.



Also Read: Common dress code - Supreme Court refuses to list PIL for urgent hearing, says 'how many matters have you....?'
Lucknow: For Uttar Pradesh, Independence Day is not going to be a holiday. The UP Government has announced that schools, colleges, universities, and markets along with government and non-government offices across the state will not remain shut on August 15 this year. This is the first time in 75 years that this is happening.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said that this Independence Day will be celebrated as a special event this year in each district as it is the 75th year of Independence. Chief Secretary D.S. Mishra said that a special sanitation drive would be carried out, as is done during the festival of Diwali, and this should be made into a national public movement.

"Programmes should be held at places linked with freedom fighters. Each day of the Independence Day week should have a different programme. Independence Day celebrations should not be reduced to just an official programme. People should participate in it. People from all walks of life like social organisations, public representatives, NCC and NSO cadets, trade organisations should be linked with it," he said.

(With IANS inputs)
New Delhi: In a case of fratricide, a soldier shot dead a fellow jawan and later took his own life in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district on Friday (July 15). As per PTI, Naik Imtiyaz Ahmed had a fight with Sepoy Ibrar during a road opening party (RoP) exercise in the Surankote area around 5.30 am, following which Ahmed shot and killed Ibrar on the spot and injured two other soldiers.

Later, Ahmed shot himself in the stomach with his service weapon and succumbed to his injuries at a hospital.

The injured soldiers have been admitted to a hospital. A court of inquiry (CoI) has been ordered into the incident, sources told PTI. The Jammu and Kashmir police has registered a case and launched an investigation into the matter.

(With agency inputs)
The priest of the temple built in the MSJ College campus of Bharatpur district of Rajasthan has received threats. In the threatening letter found in the temple, it is written that if he does not leave the temple, his head will be beheaded in 10 days. The priest of the temple has been threatened with death. It has been made clear in this letter that if his words are not obeyed, then the priest will have to face the consequences. After this, there is a huge resentment in the Hinduist organizations of the district. After the disclosure of the matter, people say that if the culprits are not caught soon, then an atmosphere of fear can arise in Bharatpur too.

After it was revealed that the priest of the temple built in the college is being publicly threatened in this way, the student organization Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) has expressed anger by shouting slogans after locking the college gate regarding this matter. Student leaders affiliated to ABVP said, "Police should disclose the matter at the earliest by reaching out to those pasting this letter." In this letter, when threats were made citing the Udaipur incident, then this matter also became viral in the entire city.

After receiving the complaint, now the team of the local police station has started the investigation of the matter by removing this letter pasted on the temple. During this, the footage of CCTV cameras installed nearby is also being scrutinised. Police say that it will be right to say something in this matter only after investigation.
New Delhi: Amid the Oppositions claim that he holds the reins of the state government, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday (July 15) asserted that there was no "super CM" in the Eknath Shinde-led government."There is no concept of super CM in the present government. We have only one chief minister and that is Eknath Shinde. We are working under his leadership. But some people can't digest this. They should get used to be in the opposition now," PTI quoted Fadnavis as saying. His remarks come in the wake of some Opposition leaders claiming that even though Shinde is the Maharashtra chief minister, it is his deputy Fadnavis who is calling the shots.

Notably, Devendra Fadnavis served as the Maharashtra chief minister for a full five years term from 2014 to 2019 and was also sworn in for the top post after the 2019 Assembly elections, however, he had to resign within three days due to lack of majority, making his government the shortest in Maharashtra's history. Fadnavis' announcement that Shiv Sena MLA Eknath Shinde will be the new Maharashtra CM following the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led government came as a surprise for most as the BJP leader was thought as the obvious candidate for the top post.

Meanwhile, Deputy CM Fadnavis who met Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) president Raj Thackeray today said it was only a "courtesy visit". Fadnavis met Thackeray at the MNS chiefs residence in Dadar, creating buzz as it came in the wake of civic elections in Mumbai and pending cabinet expansion of the Eknath Shinde-led government.

Speaking to reporters later, Fadnavis said, "In Maharashtra, we have a culture of following political etiquette. He was unwell and I paid him a visit. What is so political about it?" The MNS chief had hip replacement surgery in June.

On being asked if his party will join the Shinde government, MNS leader Bala Nandgaonkar said, There is no question of MNS being part of the government, (but) I don't have any idea of what transpired in the meeting between the two (Fadnavis and Raj).

(With agency inputs)
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will meet Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray today (Friday). This meeting of both the leaders will take place at 12.00 PM. Fadnavis will go to Raj Thackeray's house to meet him. This will be the first meeting of the two leaders after the formation of the Eknath Shinde government in the state. Let us tell you that Devendra Fadnavis had praised Raj Thackeray in the past. In such a situation, many meanings can be drawn from this meeting. There is a discussion that Devendra Fadnavis can offer his son Amit Thackeray to join the Shinde government in front of Raj Thackeray in the meeting.

Let us inform that Raj Thackeray has given his support to the Eknath Shinde government in Maharashtra. Earlier, Raj Thackeray had wished Devendra Fadnavis on taking oath as the Deputy Chief Minister of the state. There has been no division of the ministry in the Shinde government so far. There is a discussion that whenever the ministry is formed in the coming time, Amit Thackeray can get a place in it. However, while giving information about this, Raj Thackeray has said that there is nothing like this.

If Amit Thackeray accepts the post of minister, then he will have to become a member of the Legislative Assembly or Legislative Council. BJP's move to make Amit Thackeray a minister may be to hurt Shiv Sena, as Aaditya Thackeray, son of Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, is set to take over the reins of Shiv Sena and Fadnavis's move to bring Amit into the cabinet is likely to hurt Shiv Sena. Both Amit and Aditya are being projected as youth leaders so that they can bring youth into their camp.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has met Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray. Devendra Fadnavis went to Raj Thackeray's house and met him. The talks between the two leaders took place at 1.30. In the talks, there was a discussion on giving place to MNS in the Shinde cabinet. According to the information, MNS can be given a place in the Shinde cabinet. Any MLA of MNS can be made a minister. If this happens then it will be a new equation in Maharashtra politics.

There is such a discussion in the political corridor that Amit Thackeray, son of Raj Thackeray, can be made a minister. If Amit Thackeray accepts the post of minister, then he will have to become a member of the Legislative Assembly or Legislative Council. However, earlier Raj Thackeray has rejected these reports. Giving information about this, Raj Thackeray has said that there is nothing like this.

Also Read: Maharashtra Politics: Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis to meet Raj Thackeray today, may give THIS offer amid Shiv Sena crisis

Devendra Fadnavis has praised Raj Thackeray earlier. Raj Thackeray also congratulated Devendra Fadnavis for taking oath as the Deputy Chief Minister of the state. Let us tell you that Raj Thackeray has given his support to the Eknath Shinde government in Maharashtra.
Mumbai: The newly instated Eknath Shinde Maharashtra government has given all the clearances for expediting the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Thursday. The development comes barely a fortnight after the change in government in the western state. The previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government headed by Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray had not taken any step to put the project on the fast track. Many stakeholders including Japans tech company had raised complaints about the laggard working of the previous government

Addressing a press conference in Mumbai after the state cabinet meeting, Fadnavis said Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has given all the clearances for the project.

The pending issues were related to forest clearances and land acquisition, among others, he said.

Sources in Delhi said that over the past few days, the Shinde government cleared long pending issues related to the project.

Also Read: Shiv Sena to support NDA presidential nominee Draupadi Murmu for THIS reason

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has issued directives to shift a petrol pump of BPCL located on a plot at BKC earmarked for the terminus of the high-speed train to be constructed as a three-storey underground structure and will have six platforms on the lowest level, the sources said.

About 1.2 hectares of land in Palghar, Maharashtra, has been handed over to the project last week which was earlier stuck up for months, they said. With this, 90.56 per cent land (98.8 per cent in Gujarat and 100 per cent in Dadra Nagar Haveli and 72.25 per cent in Maharashtra) has been acquired for the entire project.

In a review meeting on July 12, the government has committed that issues involving transfer of land for BKC underground station (4.84 hectare) and 3.92 hectare at Vikroli for tunnel shaft will be resolved by September.

For bullet train project alignment passing through the forest area, stage I clearance has been granted by the Maharashtra government and stage II approval is also expected by September, the sources said.

"So far, foundation and pier works have been completed in 75 km stretch of the 352-km-long Gujarat portion of the project. The works on bridges on rivers and the launching of girders for viaduct in 180 km length of alignment are going on in full swing. The works on all eight stations between Vapi and Sabarmati are also under various stages of construction.

Also Read: Some people think they are born to rule but: Shinde's veiled barb at Uddhav

"The Sabarmati passenger hub is nearing completion, which will provide seamless multi-modal connectivity to various inter and intra-city transport. Contracts for all civil and track packages have already been awarded in the Gujarat portion of the bullet train project alignment. It is expected that trial run between Vapi-Sabarmati may be conducted in 2026 and the section in Gujarat portion i.E. Sabarmati-Vapi is likely to be fully operational in 2027," a source privy to the development said.

The project had been put on the back burner by the MVA government. Thackeray had instead asked the railway ministry to build a high-speed train corridor between Pune and Nagpur cities.

The estimated cost of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project is Rs 1,10,000 crore, out of which Rs 88,000 crore are being funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Over 70 per cent of land required in Maharashtra for the project has been acquired in Thane and Palghar districts.

In the 14th Joint Committee meeting held between India and Japan on June 30, 2022, and headed by the Minister of Railways from the Indian side, both sides agreed on the modalities for procurement of the E5 series Shinkansen Rolling Stock, and now all the pending issues of Rolling Stock procurement such as interfacing, integration, testing and trial of Rolling Stock are going to be resolved soon, the sources said.

E5 series Shinkansen bullet trains, which can travel up to a speed of 360 kmph, are part of a new generation of Japanese high-speed trains (also called Hayabusa) introduced into commercial operation in March 2011 in Japan designed to be more comfortable and faster than ever before.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his then-Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe laid the foundation of the bullet train project in Ahmedabad in September 2017. The train is expected to cover a distance of over 500 km in around two hours.
The expansion of the cabinet in Maharashtra will happen after the presidential election. This information has been given by Deepak Kesarkar, spokesperson of CM Eknath Shinde faction. Eknath Shinde took oath as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra and Devendra Fadnavis as the Deputy Chief Minister on June 30 and they are the only cabinet members at present.

Earlier too, Kesarkar was asked whether the cabinet expansion was being delayed due to the ongoing legal battle between the Shinde camp and the Shiv Sena faction led by former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. Kesarkar had said, "the MLAs would be busy with the Presidential elections... so who would have the time to take oath? We are not in hurry. Now it has been decided that the cabinet will be expanded only after the presidential election." Let us tell you that the presidential election is to be held on July 18.

Also Read: Shiv Sena crisis: 'How did Aurangzeb become your relative?', Sanjay Raut taunts Eknath Shinde for THIS

Meanwhile, the decision of the previous Uddhav Thackeray government to change the names of two places in Maharashtra, Aurangabad and Osmanabad, has been put on hold by the Shinde-Fadnavis government for the time being. The Shinde Fadnavis government will put this proposal in front of the cabinet afresh. At the time, the Uddhav Thackeray government took the decision, when the governor had written a letter to the government to prove the majority. Questions were being raised on this decision.
With India reporting its first monkeypox case in Kerala. the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has released guidelines for the management of Monkeypox disease. The Union health ministry on Thursday rushed a high-level multidisciplinary team to Kerala which reported the country's first case of monkeypox, a statement said, adding the team will assist the state authorities in instituting adequate public health measures to deal with the situation. Kerala Health Minister Veena George earlier said a 35-year-old man who returned to the southern state from abroad and was hospitalised after showing signs of monkeypox tested positive for the disease.

As per the ministry's guidelines, international passengers should avoid close contact with sick people, contact with dead or live wild animals and others.

Monkeypox: Guidelines issued for international travellers in India

One should avoid:

- Close contact with sick people, including those with skin lesions or genital lesions

- Contact with dead or live wild animals such as small mammals including rodents (rats, squirrels) and non-human primates (monkey, apes)

- Eating or preparing meat from wild game (bushmeat) or using products derived from wild animals from Africa (creams, lotions, powders)

- Contact with contaminated materials used by sick people (such as clothing, bedding or material used in healthcare settings) or that came into contact with infected animals.

Consult the nearest health facility if you develop symptoms suggestive of monkeypox like fever with rash and:



- You were in an area where monkeypox has been reported

- You were in contact with a person who might have had monkeypox

The central team to Kerala comprises experts drawn from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr RML Hospital, New Delhi and senior officials from the health ministry along with experts from Regional Office of Health and Family Welfare, Kerala. "In view of the report of confirmation of a case of monkeypox disease from Kollam district in Kerala, the health ministry has decided to depute a multi-disciplinary central team to support the Kerala government in investigating the outbreak and institute requisite public health measures," an office memorandum by the health ministry said.

The team shall work closely with the state health departments and take stock of the on-ground situation, and recommend necessary public health interventions, officials said. "The Government of India is taking proactive steps by monitoring the situation carefully and coordinating with states in case of any such possibility of outbreak occurs," the health ministry said.

What is monkeypox?

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), monkeypox is a viral zoonosis (a virus transmitted to humans from animals) with symptoms similar to those seen in the past in smallpox patients, although it is clinically less severe. With the eradication of smallpox in 1980 and the subsequent cessation of smallpox vaccination, monkeypox has emerged as the most important orthopoxvirus for public health.

(With Agency inputs)
New Delhi: Demonstrations, dharnas or religious ceremonies cannot be held in the precincts of Parliament House, a circular by the Rajya Sabha secretariat has said, drawing ire from the Opposition on Friday even as the authorities termed the issuance of such notices as "routine" affair ahead of the sessions. The Rajya Sabha secretariat has said that such a circular is issued normally ahead of every session of Parliament. The Secretariat also provided copies of the similar circular issued during the Congress-led UPA regime in 2013 and said such circulars are being issued for many years now.

The new bulletin, which has been issued by Rajya Sabha Secretary General P C Mody ahead of the Monsoon session of Parliament beginning July 18, said the kind cooperation of members is solicited.

"Members cannot use the precincts of the Parliament House for any demonstration, dharna, strike, fast, or for the purpose of performing any religious ceremony," the bulletin said.

Congress general secretary and chief whip of the party in Rajya Sabha Jairam Ramesh took to Twitter to attack the government. "Vishguru's latest salvo - D(h)arna Mana Hai!," he tweeted, sharing a copy of the circular issued on July 14.

CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury also took to Twitter to criticise the government and alleged that these are attempts to muzzle the voice of democracy.

"What a farce. The attempts to muzzle the soul of India, its democracy and its very voice will fall flat," he said.

"The more useless the government, the more cowardly it is. Democracy is being mocked, by issuing such dictatorial orders. Protesting in the Parliament House Complex is a political right of the MPs which is being violated," Yechury said in another tweet in Hindi.

Another opposition leader Manoj Jha of RJD shared the circular and sought the immediate intervention of the Rajya Sabha Chairman and the Lok Sabha Speaker.

"Bringing a Parliamentary Bulletin to say that we cannot hold a dharna inside the Parliament. It is an attempt to take parliamentary democracy to the grave. We demand that the Lok Sabha Speaker and Rajya Sabha Chairman should intervene immediately," he said in a tweet in Hindi.

Shiv Sena's Priyanka Chaturvedi while sharing the circular on Twitter asked, "Will they come for Parliamentary Questions next? PS: Hope this isn't an unparliamentary question to ask."

Opposition members have in the past demonstrated inside the Parliament complex and have also staged protests near the Mahatma Gandhi's statue there.

The circular on dharnas comes amid opposition outrage over another bulletin listing out certain words as "unparliamentary" which was issued by the Lok Sabha secretariat.

The circular on the usage of some terms in Parliament has also drawn flak from the Opposition which claimed that every expression used by them to describe how the BJP was destroying India has now been declared unparliamentary.

However, the Lok Sabha Speaker on Thursday said that no word has been banned for use in Parliament but will be expunged on a contextual basis. Members are free to express their views while maintaining the decorum of the House, he said.

He also said that every year words are added to the list of unparliamentary words and these are such words and expressions that have been declared unparliamentary in Parliament, state legislatures and in some commonwealth countries in the past. He, however, said that the Chair's decision on whether to expunge the words or expressions is final.

A new booklet by the Lok Sabha Secretariat said on Wednesday that the use of terms like 'jumlajeevi', 'baal buddhi', 'Covid spreader', 'Snoopgate' and even commonly used words like 'ashamed', 'abused, 'betrayed', 'corrupt', 'drama', 'hypocrisy' and 'incompetent' will henceforth be considered unparliamentary in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi dialed Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, who is in hospital after he tested positive for Covid-19, and enquired about his well-being, PTI reported. The hospital where the Tamil Nadu chief is being treated said on Friday (July 15) that he is recovering well and has been advised to rest for a few more days. As per the state government release, PM Modi had a telephonic interaction with the Tamil Nadu CM. The chief minister told the Prime Minister he was recovering well," the statement added.

Stalin had informed on Tuesday that he has tested positive for coronavirus. The Tamil Nadu CM wrote on Twitter that he was feeling tired and after testing he was found out to be positive for Covid-19. "Today, I experienced mild fatigue. When tested, the result was positive for COVID-19. I have hence isolated myself," the DMK chief had tweeted. On Thursday, he was admitted to Kauvery Hospital in Chennai for investigations and observation.

The hospital said in its bulletin, "The investigations have been completed and medications have been provided as per covid treatment protocol. The chief minister is recovering well and is in good health. He has been advised rest for a few more days."

Meanwhile, DMK workers offered special prayers at an ancient Lord Shiva temple in Kerala for the speedy recovery of M K Stalin. Led by its district leader Gopakumar, the party workers visited the temple in Ettumanoor near Kottayam and offered special prayers for the Tamil Nadu CM.

A "Ksheera Dhara", a ritual in which milk is poured on the shivling, and "Mritunjaya Homam"-- which is performed to please Lord Shiva to relieve one from illness-- were performed for Stalin, Gopakumar told PTI on Friday.

(With agency inputs)
Surrey: Ripudaman Singh Malik, the man acquitted in a terrorist bombing that killed 329 people aboard an Air India flight in 1985 was slain on Thursday in a possible targeted shooting, Canadian authorities said. Officials said the victim was Ripudaman Singh Malik, who with co-defendant Ajaib Singh Bagri was found not guilty in March 2005 of murder and conspiracy in a pair of Air India bombings that killed 331 people on June 23, 1985. Police had not initially released the dead man's identity, but confirmed it after Malik's son, Jaspreet Malik, reported his father's slaying in a statement on social media.

"The media will always refer to him as someone charged with the Air India bombing," the son wrote on Facebook. "The media and RCMP never seemed to accept the court's decision and I pray today's tragedy is not related."

A witness who works a car wash in Surrey said he heard shots Thursday morning and ran outside to find Malik unconscious in his car.

In a statement, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said: "We are aware of Mr. Malik's background, though at this time we are still working to determine the motive. We can confirm that the shooting appears to be targeted and there is not believed to be any further risk to the public."

Sgt. Timothy Pierotti said that because the shooting took place in a residential area, police were confident witnesses would be able to help solve the crime.

Police said shortly after the attack that a vehicle believed to be used in the shooting was found engulfed in fire a few blocks away.

In Malik's trial, British Columbia Supreme Court heard that a suitcase bomb was loaded onto a plane at Vancouver's airport and then transferred in Toronto to Air India Flight 182. The aircraft crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ireland, killing 329 passengers and crew.

About an hour later, a bomb destined for another Air India plane exploded prematurely at Tokyo's Narita Airport, where two baggage handlers died.

Inderjit Singh Reyat, the only man convicted in the bombings, testified for the prosecution at Malik and Bagri's trial and was later convicted of perjury.

Deepak Khandelwal of Oakville, Ontario, said the shooting "just brings back all the horrible memories we'd had to go through for the last 37 years.'

He was 17 when his sisters, 21-year-old Chandra and 19-year-old Manju, were killed on Flight 182.
Ripudaman Singh Malik, who was shot dead in Canada on Friday, was the acquitted suspect in the 1985 Air India bombings. He was shot dead in an apparent target killing while on his way to the office. In 2005, Malik was acquitted in the Air India mass murder case because of the lack of evidence against him. In a statement, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said: "We are aware of Mr Malik's background, though at this time we are still working to determine the motive. We can confirm that the shooting appears to be targeted and there is not believed to be any further risk to the public."

Who was Ripudaman Singh Malik?

Ripudaman Singh Malik was a 75-year-old prominent Sikh businessman based out of Canada. He was acquitted in the Air India mass murder case, which was Canadas worst terrorist attack, because of the lack of evidence against him. Malik spent four years in prison before his acquittal. He then sought 9.2 million dollars as legal fees but a British Columbia judge rejected his claims to collect legal fees.

Malik was also the founder of Khalsa Credit Union in Vancouver. He was also reportedly a one-time supporter of the Sikh separatist Khalistan movement.

He came to Canada in 1972 and started off as a cab driver. Later, as a successful businessman, he went on to become the president of a 16,000-member Vancouver-based Khalsa Credit Union (KCU) with assets worth over 110 million dollars.

Malik last visited India in 2019 after 25 years following the Narendra Modi governments decision to remove his name from the blacklist. He later thanked PM Modi for clearing his name.

How was Ripudaman Singh Malik related to the 1985 Air India bombings?

The 1985 Air India bombing is among the worst terrorist attacks in Canadian history and in the history of the airline.

In Malik's trial, British Columbia Supreme Court heard that a suitcase bomb was loaded onto a plane at Vancouver's airport and then transferred in Toronto to Air India Flight 182. The aircraft crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ireland, killing 329 passengers and crew.

On June 23, 1985, Air India flight 182, carrying 329 people, including 268 Canadian citizens and 24 Indian citizens, flew from Toronto and had stopped in Montreal from where it was en route to London and then onwards to its final destination Bombay.

The plane was flying 31,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean when a suitcase bomb exploded in the front cargo, killing all on board.

Another bomb was meant to be planted in an Air India flight scheduled to take off from Japan but it exploded at Tokyo's Narita airport killing two baggage handlers.

(With inputs from agencies)
The Eknath Shinde government of Maharashtra has reversed the decision of its predecessor Uddhav Thackeray government to convert Aurangabad to Sambhaji Nagar. Apart from this, the decision to change the name of Osmanabad has also been reversed. The government says that the process was not followed for it and once again it will have to be passed by the cabinet. Now the Uddhav Thackeray group has attacked the Eknath Shinde government for postponing the decision to change the names. Sanjay Raut said in a questioning manner, "how did Aurangzeb become your relative?"

Speaking to the media in Nagpur, Sanjay Raut, who is on a two-day visit to Vidarbha, said that the people who formed the government on the issue of Hindutva have taken such a decision. He said that this government is anti-Maharashtra. That is why the decision to change the names of Aurangabad and Osmanabad was reversed. The proposal to rename Navi Mumbai airport, which was named after Hindu leader DB Patil, has also been put on hold. Sanjay Raut said that there is nothing in the hands of Eknath Shinde. Devendra Fadnavis is running the government. Sanjay Raut said that decisions like bullet train can be understood, but it is wrong.

Also Read: 'Woh hi Guru..., GURUR Bhi wo hi!' Sanjay Raut tweets CRYPTIC post on Guru Purnima

Not only this, Sanjay Raut said that the sword of the Supreme Court is hanging on this government. He also responded to the attack on himself by the Eknath Shinde faction. Raut said, 'Am I the owner of Shiv Sena? Shiv Sena belongs to Balasaheb Thackeray. Lakhs of Shiv Sainiks are ready to lay down their lives for Balasaheb Thackeray's Shiv Sena." He said that Shiv Sena will once again come to power in the state. He said those who wanted to eliminate Shiv Sena have gone with the BJP.
The Canadian Foreign Ministry has announced additional restrictions on Russia in connection with its special military operation in Ukraine.

"On July 14, 2022, Canada further amended the Special Economic Measures (Russia) Regulations to prohibit the provision of two manufacturing services to the Russian oil, gas, chemical and manufacturing industries," a document published on the ministry website said.

According to the document, Canada targeted the manufacturing sector by adding eight new industries to Schedule 8.

The ministry noted that any party in Canada and any Canadian citizen outside of Canada is prohibited from providing a number of services to Russia or any party in Russia, including services incidental to manufacturing of metal products; computer, electronic and optical products; electrical equipment; motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers; transport equipment, ground transport and pipelines.
Muzaffarnagar: In a shocking incident, a lizard was reportedly found in Uttar Pradeshs Muzzaffarnagar schools mid-day meal. Some students were taken ill after having the contaminated food and have been admitted to hospital, ANI reported. Meanwhile, the principal of the concerned school has been suspended and two cooks, who were responsible for the meal that day, were also removed, ANI quoted Shubham Shukla, BSA as saying. According to him, all 30 school children, who were admitted to the hospital, are released from the hospital. The food sampling report will be released in 2-3 days, however, food samples could not be collected.

Meanwhile, to investigate the case, which is not the first of its kind, an enquiry committee comprising 3 officials was formed which will submit a report within 2 days. We could not get a sample of food as it had been thrown away. As to who threw it away is also being enquired, said Shukla.

Principal of the school has been suspended & two cooks have also been removed. All 30 admitted children are released from the hospital. The food sampling report will be released in 2-3 days. Further investigation will be done on basis of the report: Shubham Shukla, BSA (14.07) pic.twitter.com/8TCM56Q696  ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) July 15, 2022

Such cases are not limited to Uttar Pradesh but have been reported from other states as well. Not so while ago, a lizard was found in a mid-day meal in a government school in Karanataka led to the hospitalisation of 80 students. A dead lizard was reportedly found in the mid-day meal served at a government school in Venkatapura Tanda village. All 80 children were rushed to a government hospital in Ranibennur town.

Earlier, rotten eggs with worms were found in a government school in Tamil Nadu. The eggs were distributed as part of the mid-day meal scheme for kindergarten students.
Surat: A Surat-based businessman received death threats from some unknown persons on Friday for uploading suspended BJP leader Nupur Sharma's photo on Instagram. The Surat Police later arrested three persons for allegedly threatening the businessman. The complainant, who runs an amusement park, allegedly received death threats from seven persons after Sharma's photo was uploaded on the park's Instagram page, said a Surat police official confirmed to news agency PTI.

A search was on for four other accused, said inspector J R Chaudhary of Umra police station where the case was registered. The three persons arrested by the Surat police were identified as Mohammad Ayan Atashbajiwala, Rashid Bhura and a woman named Aliya Mohammad - all Surat residents.

All three were booked under Indian Penal Code sections 504 (insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 506, 507 (criminal intimidation). Nupur Sharma, then spokesperson of the BJP, kicked up a huge row last month by making a controversial comment about Prophet Mohammad during a TV debate.

As per the complainant, Sharma's picture was uploaded on the amusement park's Instagram account by the persons who handled its social media marketing. He deleted the photo immediately and apologised, but the arrested trio and a few others issued him death threats on Instagram and asked whether he 'wanted to live in Surat or not,' as per the First Information Report.

Earlier this month, an Ahmedabad-based lawyer had approached police after allegedly receiving a death threat over a WhatsApp status message supporting Nupur Sharma.

It may be recalled that Nupur Sharma, a former national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was suspended from the party in June 2022 over her objectionable remarks on the Prophet Mohammad during a debate on a TV news channel.

Her allegedly insulting remarks drew ire from several Gulf nations including Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, who sought an apology from India. Sharma later withdrew her comments and, in a statement posted on Twitter, said that her ''intention was not to hurt anyone.''


New Delhi: Parliament Secretariat has passed an order banning protests and demonstrations inside the parliament premises, claimed media reports. The order has caused quite a stir among members of houses who are calling the ruling NDA government dictatorial and accusing them of killing the spirit of democracy. Veteran Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, who is clearly upset with the new order, shared a copy of the circular on his Twitter account. Taking an apparent dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who the opposition often addresses as dictator or tanashaha, Ramesh tweeted Vishguru's latest salvo  D(h)arna Mana Hai! This comes just a day after the Secretariat released a list of words that will be considered unparliamentary.

Vishguru's latest salvo  D(h)arna Mana Hai! pic.twitter.com/4tofIxXg7l  Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) July 15, 2022

Meanwhile, Sharad Pawar said that the opposition received a statement from the House speaker and he said that there are no restrictions on holding demonstrations or protests inside the parliament premises.

Word ban in parliament infuriates the opposition

The Congress and Trinamool Congress on Thursday slammed the "gag order" on the usage of certain words in Parliament, saying all terms used by the Opposition to describe the Modi dispensation will now be considered "unparliamentary".

According to a new booklet by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, use of terms like 'jumlajeevi', 'baal buddhi', 'Covid spreader' and 'Snoopgate' and even commonly used words like 'ashamed', 'abused, 'betrayed', 'corrupt', 'drama', 'hypocrisy' and 'incompetent' will henceforth be considered unparliamentary in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

Slamming the move, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, "All words used by the Opposition to describe the reality of Modi Sarkar now to be considered 'unparliamentary'. What next Vishguru".

Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala also said, "Saheb knows his qualities very well". He also shared a copy of the news report.

The Congress said in a tweet in Hindi, "Who will be afraid of 'Jumlajeevi' - who has given jumlas. Who will be afraid of the word 'Jaichand' - who has betrayed the country. These words are not being banned in Parliament, the fear of PM Modi is coming out."

Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien said, "Session begins in a few days. GAG ORDER ISSUED ON MPs."

(With PTI inputs)
Abhishek Banerjee expressed his displeasure over the Centre's list of 'unparliamentary words'. On Wednesday, the Lok Sabha Secretariat imposed a ban on several words in Parliament. The list of 'parliamentary words' is published. In the context of that list, this time the all-India general secretary of the Trinamool made a clear statement. He said, "Will they fix what we say? The people of India were not so subjugated to British rule as they are today. The government is running in an absolutely autocratic manner."

Standing on the grounds of Central Park in Salt Lake on Thursday, the Diamond Harbor MP said in a tone of anger, "Out of the state of emergency, the situation in the country is worse. Whoever opposes, the investigating agency is chasing him. BJP is withholding the money of Bengal. The (state) panchayat minister (Pulak Roy) keeps saying, there is no corruption. They themselves are sitting confused and depriving the people of Bengal from their dues. We will protest by going to Delhi and taking it to the Parliament session."

Along with the parliamentary word list, Abhishek attacked the Modi government at the Center over the national symbol placed on the roof of the New Parliament building. He said, "They are changing all the symbols and names. The way everything is revealed, it's not a method. The symbol was inaugurated, but the President was not invited there. They also did not give him the respect he deserves.'' In view of the Trinamool general secretary's statement, the BJP camp said that if the Trinamool has any objections to the list of 'unparliamentary' words in the Parliament, then there is a certain platform to express it.

Incidentally, the Lok Sabha Secretariat on Wednesday banned the use of several words during the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha sessions. The list of published 'member words' includes several words like 'shameful', 'abuse', 'betrayal', 'drama', 'corrupt', 'incompetent' and 'hypocrisy'. 'Anarchist', 'Vulture', 'Autocratic', 'Khalistani', 'Destroyer' in the session of Parliament. Some phrases like 'Joomlabaji', 'Covid Spreader', 'Khun Se Kheti' (Cultivation with Blood), 'Snoopgate' have been banned in the pamphlets published for MPs. Coincidentally, opponents have used multiple words and phrases in the past to target the prime minister. A section of the opposition has claimed that the government has taken this decision to silence the voice of the opposition in the parliament.
New Delhi: Shah Rukh Khan is always in the headlines, be it for his films, looks, or fan greetings. On Thursday night, the actor was snapped at the airport in style and fans are going gaga all over social media.

Finally, SRK is allowing the paps to click him while he enters the Mumbai airport and fans are glad to have a look at their favourite actor's airport look! Also, King Khan's sweet interaction with the CISF officer was caught on camera and it has taken over the internet.

In a video shared by Viral Bhayani on Instagram, Shah Rukh can be seen wearing his popular scissor-printed denim pants with a black tee and jacket. With his mask, he also wore dapper sunglasses completing the look. He carried a bag on his shoulder on his way to the departure terminal.

Like everyone else, SRK took stood for his security process. But unlike most, the actor shook hands with the officer performing his duty before he walked into the airport, it was indeed an 'Awww' moment.

Shah Rukh has many films lined up and fans are excited to see him back on the big screens after years. He will be soon seen in 'Pathaan' co-starring Deepika Padukone and John Abraham. Also, he has 'Jawan' with Nayanthara and Raj Kumar Hirani's 'Dunki' in his pipeline.

He will likely make a cameo in Ranbir Kapoor's 'Brahmastra' and Salman Khan's 'Kabhie Eid Kabhie Diwali.'

Live TV
New Delhi: The mysterious death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput (SSR) is yet to find its closure. The actor was found dead at his Bandra pad on June 14, 2020, leaving behind his family, friends and an ocean of fan following who are still seeking justice for his untimely death. Many conjectures and conspiracy theories floated on the internet regarding his tragic end.

In a fresh interview with India News, SSR's sister Priyanka Singh accused Rhea Chakraborty. She said, "From 2019, his life started ruining as Rhea Chakraborty entered his life. For the first time, there were issues between me and my brother. Within six days all this happened." When asked if she is suspecting that Rhea was planted in her brother's life, she quipped, "Ji, of course."

Priyanka also alleged in the same interview that ever since Rhea came into SSR's life in 2019, trouble began. She said issues between her (Priyanka) and Sushant started, which wasnt the case before.

She also said that Rhea might be sent purposely into Sushants life and that Bollywood might have some role in his death, questioning people from the industry who defended the actress's media trial.

SUSHANT SINGH RAJPUT DATED RHEA CHAKRABORTY

Sushant was dating Rhea at the time of his death. The NCB began probing the alleged use of drugs in some quarters in Bollywood after the late actor's sudden demise. In 2020, the NCB had arrested Rhea and her brother Showik Chakraborty in a drugs case related to late actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death. The actress was lodged in Mumbai's Byculla Jail for more than a month.

The NCB had in August last year registered two cases related to drugs in connection with the death of Sushant. The NCB arrested Sushant's live-in partner and girlfriend Rhea and his brother Showik in connection with the case, along with several other people in September last year.

They are currently out on bail.

NCB CHARGES RHEA FOR PROCURING GANJA

The NCB in its draft charges filed in the drug case linked to actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death has claimed actor Rhea Chakraborty received multiple deliveries of ganja from the co-accused, including her brother Showik, and these were handed over to Rajput.

The Central anti-drug agency had filed the draft charges last month in the Special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) Court against 35 accused, the details of which were made available on Tuesday.
New Delhi: Former Miss Universe and actress Sushmita Sen is making headlines ever since ex-IPL Chairman Lalit K Modi announced his love for her. He literally broke the internet with cosy holiday pictures of the two from Maldives and Sardinia, Italy. Netizens are reacting, celebrities are pleasantly surprised and well, we wanna know what Miss Sen has to say to this.

Meanwhile, Sushmita Sen's cryptic post on Guru Purnima has gone viral. It reads: Sometimes when you are in a dark place, you tend to think you have been buried; what if you have been planted? To her quotation post, she wrote in the caption: powerful indeed what if? #mindset #positivity #growth #itsallhappening Not a life by chanceits by design!!! A blessed #gurupurnima to all of you Jaan meri!!! I love you guys beyond!!! #duggadugga

Businessman and former IPL Chairman Lalit Modi took to his social media handles to make the announcement about their dating and called the actor as his 'better half'.

However, Sushmita Sen's brother Rajeev Sen, reacted to her sister's relationship with the London-based businessman. In an interaction with India Today, Rajeev Sen said, "I am pleasantly surprised too. I will speak to my sister about this."

Sushmita, 46, has not yet confirmed her relationship with Lalit Modi. She had announced her split from model-actor Rohman Shawl in December last year with an Instagram post.

For the unversed Lalit Modi relocated to London in 2010, after the IPL controversy broke. In March, the High Court of London cleared him of 'actionable misrepresentation' as alleged by former Indian model-turned-investor Gurpreet Gill Maag in a legal challenge.
New Delhi: The India Post is an important means for residents in rural India to save money, as the government-backed entity offers many initiatives to these citizens. To satisfy the requirements of the people in the country's undeveloped areas, the India Post has put in place many risk-free savings plans that offer good returns, thereby safeguarding their future. The post office has launched several plans under the Rural Postal Life Insurance Schemes Program, the most popular of which is the Gram Suraksha Yojna.

The Post Office Gram Suraksha Yojana is a full life assurance policy with the opportunity to convert to an endowment assurance policy after five years of coverage. This allows a policyholder to maximise benefits by paying reduced premiums until the age of 55, 58, or 60. Read More: SBI home, car loan borrowers alert! EMIs to go up as bank hikes lending rates from today, July 15

Let's have a look at the essential features, advantages, and eligibility of India Post's Post Office Gram Suraksha Yojana: Read More: Gold price today, July 15: Check rates of yellow metal in Delhi, Patna, Lucknow, Kolkata, Kanpur, Kerala and other cities

The minimum and maximum entrance ages are set at 19 and 55 years old, respectively.

Minimum sum assured is Rs 10,000; maximum sum assured is Rs 10 lakh.

After four years, the loan facility is available.

If the scheme is abandoned before 5 years, it is not eligible for a bonus.

Can be changed into an Endowment Assurance Policy up to the age of 59, provided the date of conversion does not come within one year after the date of premium cessation or maturity.

The premium paying age can be 55, 58, or 60 years old.

If the policy is surrendered, a proportionate bonus on the lower sum assured is provided.

The most recently disclosed bonus is Rs 60 per Rs 1000 cash assured per year.

A policyholder can earn up to Rs 35 lakh in returns by contributing just Rs 50 each month under the Gram Suraksha Yojana. If the person invests Rs 1,515 in the policy each month, which is around Rs 50 per day, the person will receive a return of Rs 34.60 lakh after the policy matures. An investor will receive a maturity benefit of Rs 31,60,000 for a 55-year term, Rs 33,40,000 for a 58-year term, and Rs 34.60 lakh for a 60-year term.

Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI) was created in 1995 for rural Indians. According to the India Post website, "the primary goal of the scheme is to give insurance cover to the rural public in general, to help poorer sections and women workers in rural regions in particular, and to increase insurance knowledge among the rural people."
Indian Railways leave no stone unturned when it comes to giving passengers the most comfortable train journey possible. From commencing special trains to introducing trains and flight tour packages, Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) gives the best possible offers. After receiving a very good response from the public on various tour packages, IRCTC has now introduced an air tour package Naturally Nepal to the neighbouring country Nepal. Witness the natural scenic beauty & magnificence of religion in Nepal with the IRCTC Air tour package starts at 38,400/- pp* onwards for 6D/5N, read the tweet of IRCTC.

Witness the natural scenic beauty & magnificence of religion in Nepal with the IRCTC Air tour package starts at 38,400/- pp* onwards for 6D/5N. For bookings, visit https://t.co/b8KOa97ufy @AmritMahotsav #AzadiKiRail  IRCTC (@IRCTCofficial) July 13, 2022

Heres all about IRCTC 'Naturally Nepal' tour:

Duration of the tour:

The tour will be 4-nights/5-days long where tourists will get to visit religious and culturally rich places like Kathmandu and Pokhara. The package will be available from August 8-September 30.

Cost of the tour:

For a group of 10, the cost per person would be Rs 39,400

For six people, the cost per person would be Rs 41,285

For four people, the cost per person would be Rs 42,130

For three people, the cost per person would be Rs 38,815

For two people, the cost per person would be Rs Rs 43,170

For between 5-11 years of age, a separate bed will be available for Rs 30,365, while the fare of a child without extra bedding will be Rs 26,015.

Also read: Go First in discussion with employees on mass sick leave, salary issues

Facilities available:

The air tour package will include air travel along with local transportation facilities. Breakfast and dinner will be served.

How to book this package?

Interested passengers can book the Naturally Nepal package by visiting IRCTCs website. For more details click HERE.

Live TV
New Delhi: Garena Free Fire releases redeem codes on everyday basis. The 12-digit redeem code consists of alphabets and numbers. Players can get rewards such as skins for in-game weapons and characters to improve their gaming experience.

Garena Free fire is banned in India. However, if you are located outside India, you can access the reward codes and redeem them. For that you will be required to visit official Garena Free Fire reward site and log in to your Facebook, Google, Twitter IDs to access the Free Fire redemption page. (Also read: Google Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro features listed on ecommerce website: Details here)

Check out the Garena Free Fire Redeem Codes for July 15, 2022

8F3QZKNTLWBZ

FF11WFNPP956

B61YCTNH4PV3

FF11DAKX4WHV

YXY3EGTLHGJX

WLSGJXS5KFYR

SARG886AV5GR

FF1164XNJZ2V

WOJJAFV3TU5E

MCPTFNXZF4TA

FF119MB3PFA5

FF10617KGUF9

ZRJAPH294KV5

FF10GCGXRNHY

X99TK56XDJ4X

FF11NJN5YS3E

Y6ACLK7KUD1N

FF11HHGCGK3B

(Also read: Shocking! Ex-Amazon Web Services engineer hacked data of 10 crore customers)

How to Redeem Garena Free Fire codes for today, July 15 2022

Step 1: Go to the official Garena Free Fire redemption portal



Step 2: Log in on the portal with either your Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Google, VK, or Huawei ID.



Step 3: Enter a redeem code in the designated text box.



Step 4: Click on the Ok button to get free rewards in your game account.

(Disclaimer: Garena Free fire is banned in India. Hence we advise people to adhere to government rules)
At an expanded meeting of the Presidium of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities under the President, a fast recovery plan was presented  a plan for restoring Ukraine from the consequences of Russia's full-scale war against our state, the press service of the President's Office reported on Thursday.

As Head of the Office Andriy Yermak emphasized at the meeting, the most important thing today is to determine how to effectively take care of Ukrainian citizens who suffer from Russian aggression.

"Russia is deliberately shelling peaceful cities, destroying locations where there are no military facilities. Therefore, we need to achieve the 'Phoenix effect'  to restore and improve what was destroyed and burned, quickly and without delay," he said.

The Head of the President's Office is convinced that the case of the reconstruction of Ukraine should become a success story for entire Europe. "Ukraine should become a benchmark for recovery and an example for future generations. Ukraine will be a huge construction and investment platform that can give a boost to the development of European economies," Yermak said.

The head of the President's Office noted that most of the Fast Recovery plan can be implemented after the war, but there is a necessary minimum that must be implemented now.

As Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal noted, the recovery plan for Ukraine has two key dimensions. According to the first dimension, the reconstruction of the country and the reforms should take place in accordance with the best rules and practices of the EU, because the goal of our state is membership in the European Union. The second dimension involves the regional principle, when foreign partners take patronage over different regions of the country, finance and directly participate in the preparation and implementation of reconstruction projects.

According to Deputy Head of the President's Office Kyrylo Tymoshenko, today the total amount for the implementation of the Fast Recovery plan is $17 billion. It involves the restoration of 100% of the housing stock in the de-occupied territories, as well as parts of schools, kindergartens, hospitals and housing and utility services (more than 38,000 objects in total).

"It is this number that regional administrations and local councils have identified as critically necessary for reconstruction, so that Ukrainians can return home to the de-occupied territories," he said.

Deputy Head of the President's Office Andriy Sybiha emphasized that an active discussion on the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine began at the international level, in particular during the recent conference in Lugano.

According to him, the patronage of foreign states over certain regions and cities should become an important tool for recovery.

For example, Bulgaria expressed willingness to help in the recovery of one of the southern regions of Ukraine, the United Kingdom is ready to join the reconstruction of Kyiv and the region, Greece - the reconstruction of Odesa, Spain - certain areas of the capital, Italy and Albania - the reconstruction of Irpin, the Netherlands - Kherson region, Poland - Kharkiv region, the Czech Republic - Dnipropetrovsk region, France - Chernihiv region and some cities of Kyiv region.

In addition, Azerbaijan and Morocco are considering the possibility of participating in the restoration of certain facilities in Irpin and Odesa, Turkey - in the reconstruction of Kharkiv.
New Delhi: LinkedIn cofounder and executive chairman Reid Hoffman has supported tech billionaire Elon Musk over his war of words against former US President Donald Trump. Hoffman shared his thoughts about the Musk versus Trump issue in a Twitter thread and said he wasn't surprised that Musk was being attacked by the former President and compared the two men`s reputations, reports Teslarati.

He added that he supports people working to build a better future for the US and the world. (ALSO READ: Stocks bounce back after 4-day decline; FMCG, auto shares shine)

"Not surprised to see Trump`s attacks on Elon Musk. Elon`s a classic immigrant story - an entrepreneur with a real record of success. Started EV revolution Tesla, resurrected US rocket industry SpaceX, fighting climate change while promoting American innovation," Hoffman said. (ALSO READ: Shocking! Dominos chef beaten in Mumbai for not serving Golden Corn Pizza)

Not surprised to see Trump's attacks on @elonmusk. Elon's a classic immigrant story - an entrepreneur with a real record of success. Started EV revolution Tesla, resurrected US rocket industry SpaceX, fighting climate change while promoting American innovation.  Reid Hoffman (@reidhoffman) July 13, 2022

It all started when, recently, the former US President claimed at a rally in Alaska that Musk had told him that he voted for him. Musk responded to the claim on Twitter saying, "not true".

The Tesla CEO pointed out that he did not hate the former President, but also called him out for his drama.

"Yeah, but too much drama. Do we really want a bull in a china shop situation every single day!? Also, I think the legal maximum age for the start of the Presidential term should be 69," Musk said recently.

In response to Musk`s comments, Trump shared a bit of a ranting post on his social network, Truth Social. He said that Musk came to him for help with subsidies and that he could have told Elon to drop to his knees and beg and that Elon would have done it.
New Delhi: WhatsApp CEO Will Catchcart has issued a warning for users. The WhatsApp chief has warned users about using a fake and modified version of WhatsApp available via third-party links. WhatsApp is the most used instant messaging app in the world, with more than two billion users. With its rising popularity, fraudsters are also trying to cash in with duplicate copies of the app. In recent days, many fake apps like WhatsApp are available on the internet. However, users need to make sure that they don't install such apps that could steal data from users. Such apps are also used in scamming users.

WhatsApp CEO Will Catchcart has warned users on Twitter, saying that recently our security researcher has identified many suspicious apps that claim to provide the same service as WhatsApp. A similar app has been identified which has been developed by a developer named HeyMods. The name of this WhatsApp copy is 'Hey WhatsApp' as well as it is also available on Google Play Store. (Also Read: Employment rate increasing in July after fall in June: CMIE)

Catchcart said that they are talking to Google regarding this Although, now this app has been removed from the Google Play Store, users are still downloading it from third-party stores. These fake apps are claiming better and new features from WhatsApp. While in fact, it is just a new scam. Such apps steal peoples personal information. And therefore, users should always stay careful while using third-party apps. (Also Read: Stocks bounce back after 4-day decline; FMCG, auto shares shine)
Beijing: Chinese leader Xi Jinping visited Xinjiang in the country's northwest this week amid concerns over China's detention of a million or more members of primarily Muslim ethnic minorities in the remote border region. Xi stressed the full and faithful implementation of his ruling Communist Party's policies in the region and highlighted social stability and lasting security as the overarching goals, the official Xinhua News Agency said Friday.

He showed no signs of backing off an approach that has come under harsh criticism from the U.S. And many European governments and prompted bans on the export of cotton and other products from the region over reports of forced labor.

Under Xi, authorities have carried out a sweeping crackdown on Xinjiang's Uyghur and Kazakh communities following an outburst of deadly separatist violence.

Critics have described the crackdown that placed thousands in prison-like indoctrination camps as cultural genocide. The US and others have placed officials responsible under visa bans for their part in extralegal detentions, separation of families and incarcerating people for studying abroad or having foreign contacts.

Xi, on what was described as an 'inspection tour' from Tuesday to Friday, called for developing Xinjiang into a region that is united, harmonious, prosperous, and culturally advanced, Xinhua said.

He called Xinjiang a 'core area and a hub' in China's program of building ports, railways and power stations connecting it to economies reaching from Central Asia to Eastern Europe.

Xi met with leaders of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a supra-governmental body that operates its own courts, schools and health system under a military system imposed on the region after the Communist Party took power in China in 1949.

Xi "learned about the history of the XPCC in cultivating and guarding the frontier areas," Xinhua reported. Xinjiang borders Russia, Afghanistan and volatile Central Asia, which China has sought to draw within its orbit through economic incentives and security alliances.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Zee News staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi: Tesla and SpaceX owner, Elon Musk`s 76-year-old father Errol Musk has revealed he had a secret second child, with his 35-year stepdaughter Jana Bezuidenhout three years ago. According to New York Post, Errol Musk in an interview to a British tabloid admitted that he welcomed a baby girl with Elon`s stepsister, Jana in 2019. The 76-year-old South African engineer stated, "The only thing we are on Earth for is to reproduce."

The couple welcomed their first child, a boy, Elliot Rush in the year 2017.

Jana Bezuidenhout is the daughter of Errol`s second wife Heide Bezuidenhout, whom he married after splitting with Elon`s mother Maye Haldeman Musk in 1979. (ALSO READ: Stocks bounce back after 4-day decline; FMCG, auto shares shine)

Errol and Heide have two biological children together, but he also helped raise Jana, who was just 4 years old when he became her stepfather. Errol and Heide eventually divorced after 18 years, as per New York Post. (ALSO READ: Shocking! Dominos chef beaten in Mumbai for not serving Golden Corn Pizza)

"It`s not practical. She`s 35, eventually, if I`m still around, she might wind up back with me." Errol added to his statement.

Jana`s first pregnancy with Errol`s child in 2017 shocked the Musks and led to a harsh falling out between Elon and his father. "They still don`t like it ..they still feel a bit creepy about it, because she`s their sister. Their half-sister." Errol said when asked about how his family reacted to the shocking pregnancy news.

Recently it was revealed Elon fathered two children with an executive at his artificial intelligence company Neuralink, weeks before his second child with Grimes was born, the New York Post reported. The SpaceX owner`s statement to the shocking news is still awaited.
Kyiv: Russian missiles struck a city in central Ukraine on Thursday, killing at least 23 people and wounding more than 100 others, Ukrainian authorities said. Ukraine's president alleged the attack deliberately targeted civilians in locations without military value. Officials said Kalibr cruise missiles fired from a Russian submarine in the Black Sea struck civilian buildings in Vinnytsia, a city 268 kilometers southwest of the capital, Kyiv.

Vinnytsia region Gov. Serhiy Borzov said Ukrainian air defenses downed two of the four Russian missiles that were launched.

National Police Chief Ihor Klymenko said only six bodies have been identified so far, while 39 people are still missing. Three children where among the dead.

Of the 65 people hospitalised, five remain in critical condition while 34 sustained severe injuries, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said.

There was a building of a medical organisation. When the first rocket hit it, glass fell from my windows," said Vinnytsia resident Svitlana Kubas, 74. And when the second wave came, it was so deafening that my head is still buzzing. It tore out the very outermost door, tore it right through the holes.

Along with hitting buildings, the missiles ignited a fire that spread to 50 cars in a parking lot, officials said.

These are quite high-precision missiles ... They knew where they were hitting, Borzov told the AP.

Russia hasn't officially confirmed the strike. But Margarita Simonyan, head of the state-controlled Russian television network RT, said on her messaging app channel that military officials told her a building in Vinnytsia was targeted because it housed Ukrainian Nazis.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of intentionally aiming missiles at civilians. The strike happened as government officials from about 40 countries met in The Hague, Netherlands, to discuss coordinating investigations and prosecutions of potential war crimes committed in Ukraine.

Every day Russia is destroying the civilian population, killing Ukrainian children, directing missiles at civilian objects. Where there is no military (targets). What is it if not an open act of terrorism? Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky echoed Zelenskyy, calling the missile attack a war crime" intended to intimidate Ukrainians while the country's forces hold out in the east.

The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv issued a security alert late Thursday urging all U.S. Citizens remaining in Ukraine to leave immediately.

The alert, which appeared to be in response to the Vinnytsia attack, asserted that large gatherings and organised events may serve as Russian military targets anywhere in Ukraine, including its western regions.

Vinnytsia is one of Ukraine's largest cities, with a prewar population of 370,000. Thousands of people from eastern Ukraine, where Russia has concentrated its offensive, have fled there since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Kateryna Popova said she saw many injured people lying on the street after the missiles struck. Popova had fled from Kharkiv in March in search of safety in quiet Vinnytsia. But the missile attack changed all that.

We did not expect this. Now we feel like we don't have a home again, she said.

Borzov said 36 houses were damaged and residents have been evacuated while a 24-hour hotline has been set up for information on those injured or missing. July 14 will be declared as a day of mourning, he said.

Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said the attack mirrors previous ones on residential areas that Moscow has launched to try to pressure Kyiv to make some concessions.

"Russia has used the same tactics when it hit the Odesa region, Kremenchuk, Chasiv Yar and other areas," Zhdanov said.

The Kremlin wants to show that it will keep using unconventional methods of war and kill civilians in defiance of Kyiv and the entire international community.

Before the missiles hit Vinnytsia, the president's office reported the deaths of five civilians and the wounding of another eight in Russian attacks over the past day.

One person was wounded when a missile damaged several buildings in the southern city of Mykolaiv early Thursday. A missile attack on Wednesday killed at least five people in the city.

Russian forces also continued artillery and missile attacks in eastern Ukraine, primarily in Donetsk province after overtaking the adjacent Luhansk region.

The city of Lysychansk, the last major stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in Luhansk, fell to Russian forces earlier this month.

Luhansk and Donetsk together make up the Donbas, a mostly Russian-speaking region of steel factories, mines and other industries that powered Ukraine's economy.

Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko, meanwhile, urged residents to evacuate as quickly as possible.

We are urging civilians to leave the region, where electricity, water and gas are in short supply after the Russian shelling, Kyrylenko said in televised remarks. The fighting is intensifying, and people should stop risking their lives and leave the region.

On the battlefront, Russian and Ukrainian militaries are seeking to replenish their depleted stocks of unmanned aerial vehicles to pinpoint enemy positions and guide artillery strikes.

Both sides are looking to procure jamming-resistant, advanced drones that could offer a decisive edge in battle. Ukrainian officials say the demand for such technology is immense with crowdfunding efforts underway to raise the necessary cash.

In other developments:

- Russian-installed officials in southeastern Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region announced that they planned to hold an early September referendum on incorporating the region into Russia. Large parts of Zaporizhzhia are under Russian control now, as is most of neighbouring Kherson. Kremlin-backed administrations in both areas have declared their intentions to become part of Russia. Separatist leaders in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics have also announced similar plans.

- Russia's parliamentary speaker visited separatist-held areas in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, hours after Kremlin-installed officials in the country's south announced they would hold a referendum on joining Russia. According to Russian news agencies, Vyacheslav Volodin spoke of the need to harmonize legislation between Russia and the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic in his address to the territory's self-proclaimed legislative assembly. He said Moscow and the separatists need to create a single legal field in the areas of health care, education, public utilities and social protections.

- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed into law a bill banning the dissemination of information on Russian companies and individuals who could face international sanctions. The law explicitly bans from internet or media publication without written permission any information about transactions made or planned by Russian individuals or legal entities participating in foreign economic activity. It also suspends for three years the obligatory publication of key financial and governance information by major Russian state corporations.
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka`s top court on Friday barred former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa from leaving the country without permission until July 28, anti-corruption group Transparency International Sri Lanka said.

Sri Lanka's Supreme Court today issued an interim order preventing former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and former Minister Basil Rajapaksa from leaving the country without the court's permission until July 28th: Sri Lanka's DailyMirror



(File photos) pic.twitter.com/xg290lfmLX  ANI (@ANI) July 15, 2022

Three other former officials, including two former central bank governors, also cannot travel outside the country without the court`s permission till July 28, the group said in a tweet. The ruling comes days after former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa's brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled from the country amid the deepening economic and political crisis.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa has already left the country, first for the Maldives and onwards to Singapore. His departure came after months of protests against the mismanagement of the island nation's economy, leading to severe hardships for its 2.2 crore people.

Meanwhile, the parliament is set to elect a new President on Wednesday, July 20, an official said. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has been sworn in as acting president. "Gotabaya has legally resigned" with effect from yesterday, Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana told reporters.

Sri Lankan protesters today handed back the Presidential Palace, which they'd seized last Saturday, to the government. A forensic team was immediately called in to collect fingerprints, besides assessing the degree of the damage.
As of mid-July, Ukraine has accumulated 11.3 billion cubic meters of natural gas in its underground gas storage (UGS) facilities, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has said during a government meeting on Friday.

The prime minister recalled that NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy was tasked with accumulating 19 billion cubic meters in Ukraine's UGS facilities by the start of the 2022/2023 heating season.

According to him, coal reserves in the warehouses of Ukrainian power plants as of mid-July amount to 1.5 million tonnes, "we continue to increase our own production. We are forming agreements with partner countries so that our reserves will be more than 2 million tonnes by the beginning of the heating season," Shmyhal said.

The head of government recalled the allocated UAH 300 million for the repairs of combined heat and power plants damaged by the invaders in Chernihiv, Kremenchuk and Okhtyrka. In addition, at present, on average, one third of the work has been completed to prepare heat supply facilities, housing stock and social facilities for the heating season. Repairs of boiler houses and power lines continue.
Head of Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration Vitaliy Kim reported on the attack of the Russian military on the two largest universities in Mykolaiv.

"Today, terrorist Russia attacked two largest universities in Mykolaiv. At least ten missiles. Now they are attacking our education. I ask the universities of all democratic countries to declare that Russia is what it really is, that is the terrorist," he said in a Telegram channel on Friday morning.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said a special tribunal to investigate Russian crimes in Ukraine should be established as soon as possible.

"This day once again proved that Russia should be officially recognized as a terrorist state. No state in the world poses such a terrorist threat as Russia," he said in a traditional video statement on Thursday evening.

Zelensky said "due to only one missile attack on Vinnytsia, some 23 people were killed, three children under ten years old, and this, unfortunately, is not the final number. One of the missiles destroyed the Neuromed medical center."

"If someone were to strike at a medical center in Dallas or Dresden, what would it be called? Is not it terrorism? Russia cut short the life of a girl at a time when a conference was held in the Netherlands, in The Hague, about Russian war crimes. A conference at which they decided what needs to be done so that every Russian serviceman is punished," he said.

The president also said "no one can have any doubt that a special tribunal is needed as soon as possible in relation to Russian aggression against Ukraine."

He also noted the need to "impose such restrictions on Russian energy exports that would not allow terrorists to cover their costs at the expense of the international community."

In the end, he turned to the crew of the submarine, from which missiles were fired at Vinnytsia. "I want the crew of this vessel, from where the Calibers flew across Vinnytsia, to know for sure that the prison is the best thing that awaits them," he said.
The House of Representatives' 2023 Defense Budget Bill provides for $1 billion under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, aid has been increased by $700 million, Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova has said.

"According to the bill, the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative will allocate $1 billion. (Increased by $700 million!)" Markarova said on Facebook on Friday.

She said the bill requires the Inspector General to oversee the use of aid to Ukraine, and also requires reporting to Congress every six months.

The Ambassador said the bill provides for the fight against dependence on Russian energy, requiring all major operating bases in the U.S. European Command Area to adopt plans to reduce dependence on Russian energy, and challenges the U.S. Department of Defense to stop the use of Russian energy carriers in full. The document also calls for quarterly briefings on efforts to replenish and restock tactical missiles provided to Ukraine by the United States, allies and partners; demands reporting on Russian atrocities in Ukraine, operations linked to Russian "filtration camps" and threats posed by the global food security crisis. According to Markarova, the bill requires accountability for Russia's efforts to expand its presence and harmful influence in Latin America and the Caribbean and requires an account of the deployment of the Wagner Group in Africa and the resulting destabilization of "fragile" states, attacks on civilians and other crimes. as well as ties with the Russian state.

The Ambassador said the bill provides for a total funding of $839 billion. In order to become effective, the law must be passed by the Senate and signed by the President of the United States. Markarova said the Senate will be able to agree on it in the near future.

As reported, the lower house of Congress passed the budget with 329 votes in favor and 101 against. "Against" voted 39 Democrats and 62 Republicans. A separate version of the defense budget must be considered in the Senate, and then both houses of Congress must come to an agreed version, which will be sent to U.S. President Joe Biden for signature.
It is known about two wounded in shelling of educational institutions in Mykolaiv, rescuers working on scene

Two people were wounded after a missile attack by Russian invaders on educational institutions in Mykolaiv, Mayor Oleksandr Sinkevych has said.

"Again, the Russian invaders fired at educational institutions in Mykolaiv! Rescuers and emergency teams are already working on the ground. So far, two wounded are known," he said on his Telegram channel on Friday.

"This time, the rashists hit Mykolaiv around 07:50, knowing full well that at that time there were already a lot of people on the streets. Real terrorists!" he said.

Earlier it was reported that more than ten explosions sounded in the city on Friday morning.
Police identify 19 out of 23 killed in missile attacks on Vinnytsia, eight more people considered missing  National Police chief

Law enforcers have identified 19 of the 23 killed as a result of hostile missile attacks on Vinnytsia on July 14, Chief of the National Police of Ukraine Ihor Klymenko has said.

"Police have identified 19 out of 23 killed in missile attacks on Vinnytsia. Three children are among Russia's victims: a four-year-old girl and two boys, aged seven and eight," Klymenko said on his Facebook page on Friday.

The National Police chief said that one of the boys was being examined at the medical center at the time of the attack. "He died together with his mother," Klymenko said.

According to him, another boy was waiting for his uncle in a parked car and got into a fire trap.

"A relative of this boy was thrown away by an explosive wave, now he is hospitalized," the chief of the National Police said.

He also said the mother of the killed four-year-old girl is also in a severe condition in hospital.

"Some 14 relatives of the missing have handed in their biological samples. Our specialists have already made more than 200 comparisons of the isolated DNA profiles. Some 12 out of 19 identified individuals were identified precisely with the help of high-speed DNA installation technology," Klymenko said.

The chief of the National Police said that 183 victims applied for medical assistance after the missile attacks, 82 of them were hospitalized. "There are four children among the wounded. Eight people are still considered missing," Klymenko said.
MP Maryana Bezuhla calls on the leaders of the party and the Servant of the People faction to exclude Mykola Tyschenko from their membership.

"My statement on the termination of membership in the party and the exclusion of Mykola Tyschenko from the parliamentary faction. Then it's up to Olena Shuliak [chairperson of the Servant of the People party], David Arakhmia [head of the Servant of the People faction], and then for colleagues," she said on her Facebook page.

In his statement, Bezuhla said that Tyschenko has repeatedly committed actions to discredit the party.

"Confirmation of this is contained in public media investigations due to corruption risks, scandals and statements by Mykola himself (all this is recorded on numerous YouTube channels, online news sites, and other open sources of information), which cause reputational damage not only to the party, but also to the top leadership of our state and the country as a whole," the parliamentarian said.

In addition, she drew attention to the fact that on April 23, 2022, it became known from open sources of information that Tyschenko was awarded a military weapon the 'commander' Stechkin automatic pistol. "The well-known swindler Maiman Mykhailo Veniaminovych took part in this award on behalf of the volunteer formation No. 14 of the territorial community of the city of Kyiv 'Michael the Archangels," Bezuhla said.

This case, according to her, discredits the Servant of the People party, as well as the Armed Forces of Ukraine, law enforcement agencies, and other components of the national security and defense sector, which have already publicly objected to their involvement in the awarding of military weapons to Tyschenko, and the illegal possession of unregistered firearms weapon, is a criminal offense, Bezuhla said.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov has quelled Western fears that Ukraine could become a source of arms smuggling, but acknowledged the need to expand weapons tracking systems, the Financial Times publication said.

"We need to survive. We have no reason to smuggle arms out of Ukraine," Reznikov said in an interview with the Financial Times.

The minister said that some of Ukraine's allies had sent military representatives to the country to observe the flow of their donated weapons, and he invited others to follow suit. He said the Ukrainians had every interest in retaining all of the $10 billion worth of kit provided by the Western allies.

Reznikov said Ukraine was using NATO software, acquired in 2019, to monitor the destination and use of Western-provided weapons which NATO allies could access. But it had a limited number of licenses and trained users, which Kyiv was now trying to increase. "We need to move forward quickly. We understand this," the minister said.

According to Reznikov, the system, currently only administrated centrally, would be extended to brigade level and possibly to battalions. Kyiv would consult with its partners on how far down to deploy it. Ukraine is also developing two other tracking systems to work in parallel with the NATO software.

Reznikov said there was no chance of heavy weapons systems, such as 155 mm howitzers or U.S.-supplied rocket systems, being stolen. They all had GPS trackers, he said, and Western military satellites could also keep tabs on large equipment.

The publication said that Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and lightweight "kamikaze" drones are of particular concern to Western officials, given their portability. Reznikov said that while these were not GPS tracked, they were limited to Ukraine's special forces and therefore under strict controls.

"I discuss this with partners, I discuss this with other defense ministers  do you have any concerns? They say 'no'," Reznikov said.

The minister said that Western-supplied arms, which have a longer range and are more accurate than Ukraine's old Soviet-era artillery, with reducing the death toll among Ukrainian troops in the eastern Donbas region, which reached an average of 100 a day in May.

More rockets and artillery would be essential for any Ukrainian attempt to push back Russian forces in a counter-offensive, he said.

"By the end of this year there will be a serious change in the battlefield in Ukraine's favour. I hope we will see the counter-offensive campaign this year and [that] it will be successful," Reznikov said.
The UK is seeking urgent clarification from Ukraine and the Russian government on reports of death of Paul Urey, a British aid worker.

"We are urgently raising this with our Ukrainian allies and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We continue to be in close contact with the family," BBC reported, quoting the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

The International Legion of Defense of Ukraine said it could not provide additional information about Urey since he was not a member of the International Legion.

"We have been deeply saddened to learn about death of Mr. Urey. We would like to clarify that he was not a member of the International Legion. He did not fight for Ukraine. He was an employee of a non-profit Presidium Network," the press service of the International Legion told Interfax-Ukraine on Friday.
The police are examining the spots in Kharkiv that have undergone enemy missile attacks last night, Deputy Chief of the Main Department of the National Police in Kharkiv region Serhiy Bolvinov has said.

"Fortunately, no one was injured. The territories of two educational facilities in Industrialny and Kholodnohirsky districts came under fire. Tram tracks were damaged in Kholodnohirsky district. I want to stress that the 5V55 marking again was found on the missiles, which may indicate that S-300 missiles were used," he said on Facebook.

As reported earlier, the police have discovered the pieces of shot down Russian missiles which could be indicative of the fact that the enemy used S-300 missiles to attack Kharkiv.
Units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will receive 350 Autel drones purchased by the Poroshenko Foundation and volunteers of the NGO Sprava Hromad (Community Issue). In total, 50 Autel EVO II 640T Dual UAVs with thermal imagers and additional batteries and 300 Autel EVO Lite+ UAVs were purchased, the European Solidarity party's press service said.

"Today, these drones, which our military needs so much, are sent to Ukraine. These drones are equipped with a thermal camera, they can work day and night. In each company of the Armed Forces of Ukraine that receives this drone, it will correct artillery fire. Artillery shells will destroy this evil spirits, who came to our land," fifth president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko said.

He also thanked the Estonian government for its assistance in preparing this contract.

Together with the drone, the fighters are given amulets. Angel dolls were created by the hands of Ukrainian women, who were sheltered from the war by friendly Estonia.

"On behalf of all the women who are now forced to stay here, I want to give our military such angels  these are motanky that they made with their own hands. So that our military would be guarded by a talisman. 'With love and gratitude' was written by hand. It warmed their souls. And we all believe in victory together," an activist of the Association of Ukrainian Organizations in Estonia Kateryna Kyrychenko said.
The Russian occupiers launched another air strike on Kramatorsk on Friday, mayor of the town Oleksandr Honcharenko said.

"Another air strike on Kramatorsk. Previously, without victims," he wrote on Facebook on Friday.

Honcharenko added that specialists of explosive services and rescuers are already working on the site.
The United States may begin training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-15 and F-16 fighter jets.

"Ukrainian pilots are going to be taught to fly F-15 and F-16 fighters in the USA. This amendment to the bill on the U.S. defense budget for fiscal year 2023 was supported by the House of Representatives. It is planned to allocate $100 million for this," head of the Pesidents Office of Ukraine Andriy Yermak wrote on the Telegram channel on Friday.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 15. An important document will be signed between the EU and Azerbaijan in the coming days, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said at a meeting on the results of the first half of 2022, Trend reports.

The head of state said: "This year, active cooperation was maintained with the European Union. As you know, we are working on a new agreement. A greater part of the text has been agreed and the issues that have not been agreed on are being discussed. I do hope that all issues will be agreed on in the near future."

Recalling his several meetings and phone conversations with the President of the Council of the European Union, President Ilham Aliyev said: "Of course, the main topic has been the normalization of Azerbaijan-Armenia relations. However, at the same time, extensive discussions are being held regarding the future development of European Union-Azerbaijan relations. In the near future, an important document will be signed between the European Union and Azerbaijan  a document on energy security, which will raise our cooperation to a higher level."
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 15. Although good results have been achieved in the fight against the shadow economy, there is still a shadow economy and some issues of concern, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said addressing the meeting dedicated to the results of six months of this year, Trend reports.

"Unfortunately, some of the personnel I trusted did not live up to my confidence. Of course, the shadow economy exists in every country, and what matters is the volume of it and the attitude of the state and government to it. The attitude of the state and the government is that this should not exist in Azerbaijan, and it is in our hands to prevent it from happening. After all, technology is developing and new possibilities of oversight are emerging. There should not be a negative factor called shadow economy here, or it should at least be minimized. Therefore, the most advanced technologies should be applied  accounting, control and, of course, personnel. If a person leading an institution works for his own pocket, no electronic control tools will produce the desired result. Therefore, there must be a combination of these factors here  institutional measures, of course, state control, public control and proper selection of personnel. This is why I think that even though our budget has increased, including a large increase as a result of transparency, there are still reserves. The shadow economy actually withdraws these reserves from the state and channels them into someone's pocket. This must be stopped and we must take advantage of every opportunity to do that," the head of state said.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 15. We will increase military spending as much as necessary, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said addressing the meeting dedicated to the results of six months of this year, Trend reports.

"Additions have been made to the state budget, adjustments have been made and military spending has been significantly increased. Why? There are reasons for this. We identified military spending last year, when the budget for this year was being approved, and we thought that this was sufficient. However, because of the issues I have mentioned and other issues I have not mentioned here, we then felt that military spending should be increased. This increase will be channeled specifically into the acquisition of weapons with high-tech capabilities. I want to talk about this too, because we see that there is a need for the signing of new contracts. This year, during the adjustment, our military spending was increased in order to acquire the most modern military equipment and weapons. We will increase it as much as necessary, because we know well what war is, we know what occupation is, and we also know what a threat is. We must be ready to secure our right at any moment," the head of state said.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16. A large package of reforms has been implemented, covering 3 million 400 thousand citizens, Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of Azerbaijan Sahil Babayev said at a meeting on the results of the first half of 2022 chaired by President Ilham Aliyev, Trend reports.

Will be update
Subscription to paid content

Gain access to all that Trend has to offer, as well as to premium, licensed content via subscription or direct purchase through a credit card.
Israeli occupation forces said they had killed a Palestinian man who allegedly tried to stab their officers during a raid on his home in east Jerusalem early Monday.
With thousands of sanctions already imposed on Russia to flatten its economy, the U.S. and its allies are working on new measures to starve the Russian war machine while also stopping the price of oil and gasoline from soaring to levels that could crush the global economy.

The Kremlin's main pillar of financial revenue, oil, has kept the Russian economy afloat despite export bans, sanctions and the freezing of central bank assets. European allies of the U.S. plan to follow the Biden administration and take steps to stop their use of Russian oil by the end of this year, a move that some economists say could cause the supply of oil worldwide to drop and push prices as high as $200 a barrel.

That risk has the U.S. and its allies seeking to establish a buyer's cartel to control the price of Russian oil. Group of Seven leaders have tentatively agreed to back a cap on the price of Russian oil. Simply speaking, participating countries would agree to purchase the oil at lower-than-market price.

High energy costs are already straining economies and threatening fissures among the countries opposing Russian President Vladimir Putin for the invasion of Ukraine in February. President Joe Biden has seen his public approval slip to levels that hurt Democrats' chances in the midterm elections, while leaders in the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy are coping with the economic devastation caused by trying to move away from Russian natural gas and petroleum.

The idea behind the cap is to lower gas prices for consumers and help bring the war in Ukraine to a halt. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is currently touring Indo-Pacific countries to lobby for the proposal. In Japan on Tuesday, Yellen and Japanese Finance Minister Suzuki Shunichi said in a joint statement that the countries have agreed to explore ``the feasibility of price caps where appropriate.''

However, China and India, two countries that have maintained business relationships with Russia during the war, will need to get on board. The administration is confident China and India, already buying from Russia at discounted prices, can be enticed to embrace the plan for price caps.

``We think that ultimately countries around the world that are currently purchasing Russian oil will be very interested in paying as little as possible for that Russian oil,'' Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo told The Associated Press.

The Russian price cap plan has support among some leading economic thinkers. Harvard economist Jason Furman tweeted that if the plan works, it would be a ``win-win: maximizing damage to the Russian war machine while minimizing damage to the rest of the world.'' And David Wessel at the Brookings Institution said an `` unpleasant alternative '' is not attempting the price cap plan.

If a price cap is not implemented, oil prices will almost certainly spike due to a European Union decision to ban nearly all oil from Russia. The EU also plans to ban insuring and financing the maritime transport of Russian oil to third parties by the end of the year.

Without a price cap mechanism to reduce some Russian revenues, ``there would be a greater risk that some Russian supply comes off the market. That could lead to higher prices, which would increase prices for Americans,`` Adeyemo said.

A June Barclay's report warns that with the EU oil embargo and other restrictions in place, Russian oil could rise to $150 per barrel or even $200 per barrel if most of its sea-borne exports are disrupted.

Brent crude on Tuesday was trading just under $100 per barrel.

James Hamilton, an economist at the University of California, San Diego, said garnering the participation of China and India will be important to enforcing any price cap plan.

``It's an international diplomatic challenge on how you get people to agree. It's one thing if you get the U.S. to stop buying oil, but if India and China continue to buy`` at elevated prices, ``there's no impact on Russian revenues,`` Hamilton told the AP.

``The less revenue Russia gets from selling oil, the less money they have to send these bombs on Ukraine,`` he said.

Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security adviser, said during a Monday news briefing that ``if it turns out that countries are imposing their own price cap and it is a substantial denial of revenue to Russia in terms of their ability to sell oil, that is not the failure of sanctions. That's actually the success of economic pressure because it is driving down revenues for Moscow.''

One possibility is that Russia could retaliate and take its oil off the market completely.

In that case, ``the main question is will countries have enough time to find alternatives`` to prevent massive price increases, said Christiane Baumeister, an economist at the University of Notre Dame who studies the dynamics of energy markets.

With five months until the end of the year, when EU bans begin to take effect, a Russian price cap plan would likely need to be in place and operating effectively to avoid further spikes in gas prices that have frustrated U.S. drivers. Biden has warned that high gas prices this summer were the cost of stopping Putin, but prices could climb to new records and lead to economic and political pain for the president.

Without the price cap, ``if the EU import ban goes into effect together with the insurance ban,'' Baumeister said, the impacts ``will be passed onto consumers through gasoline prices.``

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Russian missiles struck the city of Vinnytsia in central Ukraine on Thursday, killing at least 12 people in what President Volodymyr Zelensky called "an open act of terrorism".

Ukraine's emergency services said there were "12 dead, including one baby, and 25 wounded" and dozens of rescue workers were fighting to put out a large blaze sparked by the strikes.

The news came as EU foreign and justice ministers prepared to meet in The Hague for a conference on alleged Russian war crimes.

Zelensky said he would be addressing the meeting via video call and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is set to attend.

"Every day, Russia kills civilians, kills Ukrainian children, carries out missile attacks on the civilian facilities where there is no military target. What is this, if not an open act of terrorism?" the Ukraine leader said in a statement on social media.

War crimes tribunal?

Zelensky has vowed to hold Moscow to account and has called for a special war crimes tribunal to be set up in the Netherlands.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague opened an investigation into possible war crimes in Ukraine just days after Moscow's forces invaded and it dispatched dozens of investigators to the country to gather evidence.

Its prosecutor Karim Khan also later visited Bucha, a town outside Kyiv where AFP journalists discovered 20 bodies in civilian clothing lying in a street, and where officials later said hundreds of other people had been killed.

Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and the conflict has raged since then, killing thousands of people, destroying cities and forcing millions to flee their homes.

In recent weeks, Russian strikes in central Ukraine away from frontlines in the east and the south have become relatively rare.

But the war has raged around cities like Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine near the Black Sea which the presidency said was hit by a "massive missile strike" earlier on Thursday.

"Two schools, transport infrastructure and a hotel were damaged," the presidency said in its morning military update.

The skeletal insides of one building gutted by the strikes was visible in images distributed by local officials, with municipal workers clearing bricks and rubble-strewn after the attack.

Fighting in Ukraine has focused on the industrial Donbas region in the east, but Kyiv's troops have been pressing a grinding counter-offensive in the south to retake Kherson.

The presidency added -- without elaborating -- that residents along the southern front in the Kherson region were reporting an "increase in equipment and the number of Russian troops."

'Total victory'

In east Ukraine, Moscow-backed troops said they were closing in on their next target.

"Siversk is under our operational control, which means that the enemy can be hit by our aimed fire all over the area," a pro-Moscow rebel official, Daniil Bezsonov, was cited as saying by Russian state-run news agency TASS.

At a Ukrainian trench position along the eastern frontline, a 25-year-old soldier who goes by the nom de guerre Moryak was working to fortify defences.

"We hide when they shell, we dig when it's calm," he told AFP journalists.

A fellow combatant in their trench dismissed the idea Ukraine and Russian forces could reach an agreement to halt fighting, explaining their goal was: "Total victory".

High-stakes grain talks

Several rounds of negotiations to end the fighting at the beginning of the conflict fell through, but delegations from Kyiv and Moscow met in Istanbul this week to discuss unblocking Ukraine's grain exports.

The high-stakes meeting involving UN and Turkish officials in Istanbul broke up after slightly more than three hours with an agreement to meet again in Turkey next week.

"The success of this story is needed not only for our state, but also -- without exaggeration -- for the entire world," Zelensky said in his evening address Wednesday after the talks.

The conflict in Ukraine has pushed up grain prices and Europe is suffering from sky-rocketing energy bills stemming from sanctions on Russia and Moscow's move to limit gas flows to Europe.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Thursday that Russia's war in Ukraine posed the "greatest challenge" to the global economy, as G20 ministers prepare to start talks in Indonesia.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


US President Joe Biden is set to hold a summit with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi on Saturday on the sidelines of the Arab-US summit in the Saudi city of Jeddah, sources from the White House told Extra News TV channel.

Biden, who is scheduled to land in the Saudi Arabia on Friday in his first Middle East tour as president, is set to participate in a summit to be held in Jeddah that will bring together the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, in addition to Egypt, Iraq and Jordan.

The Arab-US summit is expected to tackle regional issues of concern and mechanisms of enhancing joint work to achieve stability in the region.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has underscored in a meeting with Egypts Ambassador to Pakistan Tarek Dahroug on Friday his governments resolve to strengthen cooperation with Egypt in trade, investment, energy, education and climate change.

PM Sharif lauded the efforts of Dahroug to promote cooperation between the two countries in diverse fields, reported Associated Press of Pakistan (APP).

The Pakistani prime minister also congratulated Egypt on the assumption of the presidency of the UN Climate Change Conference 2022 (COP27), which will be held in the Red Sea city of Sharm El-Sheikh in November.

For his part, the Egyptian ambassador conveyed cordial greetings from the leadership and people of Egypt, saying that the country is looking forward to the prime ministers participation in COP27.

The prime minister extended warm wishes and an invitation to President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to visit Pakistan at an early date.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Arab leaders and visiting US President Joe Biden are set to discuss the future of Arab-US relations this weekend in Saudi Arabia.

President Biden is set to deliver a speech on Saturday at the summit in Jeddah  which is bringing together the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, in addition to Egypt, Iraq and Jordan  where he will define the new US approaches to the region following recent regional and global developments.

Biden's meeting with the leaders of all six GCC countries comes after the end of the diplomatic and economic boycott that three of the GCC members  Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE  and Egypt had placed on Qatar during former president Trumps time in office.

Shortly after landing in Jeddah on Friday evening, Biden participated in a working session with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and top Saudi officials in the first meeting between the crown prince and the US president since Biden took office in early 2021.

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is also set to meet with President Biden in an Egypt-US summit on Saturday in Jeddah.

This will be the first meeting of the two leaders since Biden was inaugurated into the White House in January 2021.

The meeting comes on the sidelines of a US-Arab summit level meeting that Saudi Arabia is hosting upon Bidens first visit to the region. Previously, in the spring of 2021, the two leaders held telephone consultations to work on ending an Israeli war on Gaza.

Egyptian and Cairo-based foreign diplomats agree that two years down the road from Biden's presidential campaign against then-president Trump, now-president Biden is in the mood to make things work with the quintessential Arab allies.

Bidens trip to the Middle East, they say, is specifically designed to relaunch the parameters of the US engagement in the region, following years of relative withdrawal that started during the last years of Barack Obamas second term in office, the four years of Trump in office, and the first two years of the Biden administration.

In statements he made in Israel, where he started his Middle East visit, Biden said that the US made a mistake when it allowed for a vacuum in the region that other forces have tried to fill.

According to diplomats who spoke to Ahram Online, it is clear to all concerned that Bidens visit to the region is not strictly an attempt to encourage the oil-rich Arab Gulf countries to further increase their oil production, beyond a rise they allowed a month ago, to make up for the drop in oil supplies in the international market with the sanctions the West imposed on Russias oil production.

The visit is also an attempt to reassure Israel, the UAE and Saudi Arabia that any possible deal between the West and Iran on Tehrans nuclear programme would take into consideration their security concerns  despite the Jerusalem Declaration that Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid signed on Thursday that clearly stipulated that Iran would be denied all chances to acquire nuclear weapons.

Today, diplomatic sources say, realism prevails on the future of relations with the US. Washington, they explained, is aware that there have been significant changes in the region.

Meanwhile, they added, Arab allies are aware that at the end of the day they cannot just turn their back on the US  due to reasons of military, economic and even education cooperation. The issue now, they argued, is about reworking the parameters of relations, where neither side is expecting to turn back the clock.

In other words, they explained, the US will remain a strategic ally and possibly the top strategic ally, but not the exclusive strategic ally of the past. Meanwhile, Arab capitals, influential as they may be, will need to work to secure the consequential military cooperation with the US.

According to an Egyptian official, it is hard to ignore the many visits that US military and other officials have been making to the region, Egypt included, since Biden was inaugurated. Things are taking a lot more transactional shape now than before, and this, he said, applies not only to Egypt, but also to Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

He added that it has to be taken into consideration that the region that Biden arrived to on 13 July is not exactly the region that his predecessor visited in May 2017, when he too visited Saudi Arabia.

Suffice to say that Biden boarded Air Force 1 for a first-ever direct flight from Israel to Saudi Arabia, who decided upon the visit of the US president to end an embargo on flights from Israel to the Arab country. Saudi Arabia is also contemplating ending a ban it has always imposed on allowing Arab-Israeli Muslims to perform pilgrimage with an Israeli passport.

Things are different for sure  Biden is certainly not Trump, but neither is he Barack Obama or George W. Bush, who were, each in his way, dead set on prioritising matters of governance, according to an Abu Dhabi-based political source.

Bidens visit started on 13 July in Israel, where the US president met with Israeli Prime Minister Lapid and other top Israeli political figures prior to moving to Bethlehem where he met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

While in Israel, Biden took part in a virtual four-way summit that brought him together with Lapid, and UAEs ruler Mohamed Bin Zayed and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the context of the recently established I2U2 alliance for cooperation and investment, especially in water, energy, transportation, health, food security, space and technology.

According to the Abu Dhabi-based source, nothing speaks more for the changing priorities of the region than this virtual summit of four like-minded states.

Another sign of change that the Biden visit is revealing is the position of the US president on the Palestinian-Israeli struggle. Biden neither shrugged the Palestinian Authority as Trump did nor did he act firmly to re-engage Washington in launching negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis as successive US presidents, both Democrats and Republicans, have been doing since Democrat Jimmy Carter helped Egypt and Israel reach the first ever Arab-Israeli peace agreement that was signed in Washington in March 1979.

Biden confined himself to promising economic support to the Palestinians. Instead of seeking a move on the Palestinian-Israeli front, the US president was more focused on giving a push to the voluntary Arab normalisation with Israel that has been gaining ground since the signing of the Abraham Accords in August 2020, allowing for normal diplomatic relations, and now flourishing cooperation between Israel, on the one hand, and the UAE and Bahrain on the other.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


A total of 44 West African migrants seeking to reach Libya have been rescued in the desert in northern Niger, the United Nations said Thursday.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said 44 migrants were rescued two days after their vehicle broke down and their driver abandoned them.

The group, comprising 29 men, 12 women and three young girls were found some 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the town of Dirkou in northeastern Niger, the IOM said.

They were taken to a nearby transit centre for first aid, the IOM added.

The July 6 rescue came just days after 10 migrants were found dead in the region, which led Niamey to launch an investigation into the cause of their death.

Many West African migrants try to reach Libya in the hope of making it across the Mediterranean to a better life in Europe.

Dirkou is a crossroads for the smuggling of migrants, weapons and drugs northwards into Libya and then on to Europe.

It is also home to gold mining sites that attract Nigeriens and others from neighbouring countries.

They typically flock to the Nigerien city of Agadez, where smugglers offer to take them onwards to the Libyan border.

The authorities in Agadez say it is common for vehicles transporting migrants to break down in the desert, or even for smugglers to lose their way or abandon passengers for fear of being caught.

Abandoned, some migrants die of dehydration, they say.

Niamey adopted a law in 2015 to make migrant smuggling a crime, with sentences of up to 30 years in prison.

But a Nigerien security source said the measure had only pushed smugglers to use "new, more dangerous routes".

Search Keywords:

Short link:


US President Joe Biden emerged from Air Force One on Friday, minutes after landing in Saudi Arabia and walked along a lavender carpet past a sword-bearing honor cordon.

The subdued arrival ceremony in the Red Sea city of Jeddah featured no formal program.

The president was greeted upon arrival by Mecca's governor, Prince Khalid bin Faisal, and Saudi Arabia's Ambassador to the US, Princess Reema bint Bandar.

Biden is the first US president to fly directly from Israel to Saudi Arabia, on the last leg of his tour of the Middle East.

US President Joe Biden waves before his departure to Saudi Arabia from Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel Friday, July 15, 2022. AP

Biden is set to participate in a summit to be held in Jeddah and bring together the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, in addition to Egypt, Iraq and Jordan.

The Arab-US summit is expected to tackle regional issues of concern and mechanisms of enhancing joint work to achieve stability in the region.

Saudi Arabia announced earlier Friday it was lifting restrictions on "all carriers" using its airspace, an apparent gesture of openness towards Israel hours before Biden's arrival.

The Saudi civil aviation authority "announces the decision to open the Kingdom's airspace for all air carriers that meet the requirements of the authority for overflying", it said in a statement.

The decision was made "to complement the Kingdom's efforts aimed at consolidating the Kingdom's position as a global hub connecting three continents".

Biden said in a statement later Friday that Riyadh's move came "thanks to months of steady diplomacy between my administration and Saudi Arabia."

"As we mark this important moment, Saudi Arabia's decision can help build momentum toward Israel's further integration into the region, including with Saudi Arabia," Biden said.

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid thanked Biden on Friday for "long, intense and secret diplomatic negotiations between Saudi Arabia and the United States" to reach a deal on overflights.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


US President Joe Biden participated in a working session with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and top Saudi officials on Friday evening at Salam Palace in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah.

Earlier in the evening, the crown prince welcomed the US president as he arrived at the royal palace to start a visit to the Gulf kingdom that is intended to reset their countries' longstanding partnership.

This was the first meeting between the crown prince and the US president since Biden took office in early 2021.

President Biden held a meeting with Saudi King Salman bin Abdel-Aziz at the palace before the start of the working session with the crown prince.

Earlier on Friday, Biden emerged from Air Force One on Friday, minutes after landing in Saudi Arabia and walked along a lavender carpet past a sword-bearing honor cordon.

The subdued arrival ceremony in Jeddah featured no formal program.

The president was greeted upon arrival by Mecca's governor, Prince Khalid bin Faisal, and Saudi Arabia's Ambassador to the US, Princess Reema bint Bandar.

Biden is the first US president to fly directly from Israel to Saudi Arabia, on the last leg of his tour of the Middle East.

The US president is set to participate in a summit to be held in Jeddah and bring together the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, in addition to Egypt, Iraq and Jordan.

The Arab-US summit is expected to tackle regional issues of concern and mechanisms of enhancing joint work to achieve stability in the region.

Saudi Arabia announced earlier Friday it was lifting restrictions on "all carriers" using its airspace, an apparent gesture of openness towards Israel hours before Biden's arrival.

The Saudi civil aviation authority "announces the decision to open the Kingdom's airspace for all air carriers that meet the requirements of the authority for overflying", it said in a statement.

The decision was made "to complement the Kingdom's efforts aimed at consolidating the Kingdom's position as a global hub connecting three continents".

Biden said in a statement later Friday that Riyadh's move came "thanks to months of steady diplomacy between my administration and Saudi Arabia."

"As we mark this important moment, Saudi Arabia's decision can help build momentum toward Israel's further integration into the region, including with Saudi Arabia," Biden said.

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid thanked Biden on Friday for "long, intense and secret diplomatic negotiations between Saudi Arabia and the United States" to reach a deal on overflights.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


A 25-year-old Black man shot and killed by police in Akron, Ohio, while fleeing a traffic stop had 46 gunshot wounds, the medical examiner's office said Friday.

A summary of the autopsy findings on Jayland Walker was released by Summit County medical examiner Lisa Kohler, the Akron Beacon Journal newspaper reported.

The release of body camera footage of Walker's June 27 shooting sparked several days of angry protests in Akron, a city of 190,000 people in northern Ohio.

Walker had 46 gunshot wounds including graze injuries and 15 exit wounds, the medical examiner said. Twenty-six bullets were recovered from his body.

"We are not able to say which bullet killed him," the Beacon Journal quoted Kohler as saying. "He had several devastating injuries."

She said a toxicology report on Walker for drugs or alcohol came back negative.

According to police, they attempted to stop Walker for a minor traffic violation and he fled on foot after firing a shot from his car.

A handgun and ammunition clip was recovered from his vehicle, police said.

Eight police officers opened fire on Walker. They have been placed on leave pending an investigation.

Walker's shooting was the latest in a grim litany of Black people dying at the hands of police in the United States that has ignited widespread protests against racism and demands for police reform.

The push for change gained momentum after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on the neck of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, until he died in May 2020.

Floyd's death, which was filmed by a bystander in a video that went viral, sparked months of protests against racial injustice and police brutality in the United States and around the world.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


A Russian court has sentenced a top opposition figure to four years in prison, the latest move in the Kremlin's crackdown on opposition activists, independent media and rights groups.

A Russian court on Friday sentenced a top opposition figure to a years-long prison term, the latest move in the Kremlin's multipronged crackdown on opposition activists, independent media and rights groups.

Andrei Pivovarov, former head of the Open Russia group, was sentenced to four years in prison by a court in the southern city of Krasnodar. Pivovarov was charged with ``directing an undesirable organization,'' a criminal offense under a 2015 law. He has maintained his innocence and has insisted that the charges against him were brought because of his plans to run for parliament in September 2021.

Pivovarov's jailing and prosecution came as part of a sweeping effort by President Vladimir Putin's government to stifle any and all dissent in Russia. It kicked off with the arrest and jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in January 2021. Since then, dozens of opposition activists have faced prosecution and pressure from the authorities. Many have left Russia, while others have been imprisoned.

The clampdown intensified after Putin sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, with the remaining Kremlin critics facing charges for publicly denouncing the war. Earlier this week, a court in Moscow remanded another top opposition figure, Ilya Yashin, in custody pending investigation and trial on the charges of spreading false information about the Russian military. Yashin was one of the few prominent opposition politicians who haven't left Russia.

Pivovarov was pulled off a Warsaw-bound plane at St. Petersburg's airport just before takeoff in May 2021. He was taken to the southern city of Krasnodar, where he was accused of supporting a local candidate on behalf of an ``undesirable'' organization. The charges were based on his social media posts supporting independent candidates in Krasnodar's municipal election.

Pivovarov rejected the charges and noted that the criminal case against him was opened two days after Open Russia shut down. The group disbanded to shield members from prosecution after it was designated an ``undesirable'' organization.

Commenting Friday on his sentence, Pivovarov's close ally Tatyana Usmanova vowed in a Facebook post that the fight for his freedom will continue. ``An appeal, cassation and the Supreme Court are ahead, we will fight on,'' Usmanova wrote.

Also Friday, Russian authorities declared two investigative news outlets ``undesirable,'' outlawing their operation in Russia.

The Prosecutor General's office told Russia's state news agency Tass that the investigative group Bellingcat and the Russian online outlet The Insider, as well as the Czech nonprofit CEELI Institute, ``pose a threat to the foundations of the (country's) constitutional order and security.''

The Insider, a news outlet registered in Latvia, has worked with Bellingcat on high-profile cases such as the nerve agent poisonings of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and Russian opposition leader Navalny. The websites of both have been blocked in Russia since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Russian authorities have blocked dozens of news sites and taken renowned critical radio station off the airwaves. The websites of several foreign news outlets have also been blocked in Russia, as Moscow sought to control the narrative of what it calls a ``special military operation'' in Ukraine.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


The European Commission is expected next week to ask EU countries to reduce the heating and cooling of public buildings and offices to cut demand for gas, according to a document seen by AFP.

In order to better withstand the drastic fall in Russian gas supplies, which could be cut off altogether, the commission is expected to urge governments across the 27-nation bloc to set limits on the amount of energy used by public buildings, offices, commercial properties and outdoor terraces.

For optimal energy use, it will recommend the rules require that public buildings be heated to no more than 19 degrees Celsius (66 degrees Fahrenheit) and cooled by air conditioning units set no lower than 25C (77F).

"Energy saved during the summer is energy that can be used in winter," the commission points out in the document.

Energy experts say lowering the thermostat by one degree could cut a building's heating bill by about 10 percent. Air conditioning units generally struggle and fail to cool a room below 20C so they waste energy trying.

The recommendation is part of a series of measures Brussels is investigating to cut the European Union's gas consumption by 25 to 60 billion cubic metres (880 to 2,120 billion cubic feet) per year.

The EU imported around 140 bcm of gas by pipeline from Russia last year, according to the International Energy Agency.

"Acting now could reduce the impact of a sudden supply disruption by one-third," says the document, which is due to be published on July 20 and could be modified in the interim.

It calculates that 11 billion cubic metres of gas could be directly saved by reducing excessive heating and cooling, and between four and 40 bcm via reduced electricity demand. Another 10-11 bcm could be saved from the use by industries, which have already slowed production due to soaring prices.

The document urges EU governments, where this is "technically feasible and enforceable" to introduce binding limits on heating and cooling in "public buildings, offices, commercial buildings (in particular large buildings) ... and open spaces like outdoor terraces".

"The role of public authorities in leading by example and as an important gas consumer -- 30 percent of the energy consumption -- is key in this regard," the document states.

The commission says that during the "gas winter" -- October to March -- "large savings can be achieved by deploying alternative heat sources for district heating, heat pumps in households" and energy saving campaigns urging the public to turn their thermostats down by one degree Celsius this winter.

Such "protected" energy customers -- under EU legislation that means households, district heating that cannot switch to other fuels and certain essential social services -- represent 37 percent of total EU gas consumption.

Simulations show these customers would be the last to be seriously affected by large-scale Russian gas disruptions, the commission says.

It is therefore concentrating most of its efforts on power stations and industry, which use huge amounts of gas.

"Abrupt cuts could damage specific branches of those industries which have little room to switch to other fuels -- because gas is being used as feedstock for industrial processes -- or to reduce production without heavy damage," the commission warns.

"It would be significantly less costly to moderately reduce natural gas demand for a longer period of time, starting earlier, than having to drastically curtail demand suddenly and without proper preparation," it explains.

By way of encouragement, Brussels urges EU governments to set up "auction systems", perhaps involving several countries, to compensate industrial consumers who agree to reduce their gas consumption.

If there is a total cut in Russian gas supply from July onwards, EU states might only be able to replenish 65-71 percent of their gas reserves before winter, the commission said, quoting forecasts by European gas transmission system operators (ENTSOG).

The commission's energy-saving proposals are due to be discussed by EU energy ministers at a meeting in Brussels on July 26.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


The shaft tomb of the ancient Egyptian dignitary Wahibre-mery-Neith - who commanded foreign soldiers in Egypt - that was uncovered by a Czech archaeological mission from Charles University in Abusir near Saqqara has shed light on "globalisation" in the ancient world.

The tomb, which was uncovered during the spring excavation season that ended in June, dates to between the late 26th and early 27th Dynasties, around 500 BC.

Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said that the main shaft tomb of Wahibre-mery-Neith is six metres deep and it measures approximately 14 by 14 metres and is divided into several parts, separated by bridges made of the original bedrock.

Another smaller but deeper shaft that was used for the burial was dug into the bedrock in the centre of the main shaft. It is orientated east-west and measures approximately 6.5 by 3.3 metres.

The layout of this shaft tomb has no exact parallel in ancient Egypt, although it partly resembles the structure of the nearby tomb of Udjahorresnet and the so-called Campbells tomb in Giza, he added.

Mirosalv Barta, head of the Czech mission, explained that at the bottom of this central burial shaft, at a depth of about 16 metres, a double sarcophagus was found, partly damaged, on a filling of sand.

The outer sarcophagus of Wahibre-mery-Neith was made of two massive blocks of white limestone with an inner anthropoid sarcophagus embedded within.

It is made of basalt and inscribed with verses from chapter 72 of the Book of the Dead depicting the resurrection of the deceased and his departure to the afterlife.

The anthropoid sarcophagus measures 2.30 metres in length and 1.98 metres in width.

Barta said that the space inside the inner basalt sarcophagus was found almost completely empty, only containing an uninscribed and finely carved heart scarab and a headrest shaped amulet.

Sparse burial equipment had been placed at the western and eastern sides of the sarcophagus.

To the east, several objects were excavated intact and in situ, including 402 faience ushabti figurines (servant figures who were to undertake labour instead of the owner in the afterlife), two alabaster canopic jars, a faience model of an offering table, ten model cups, and a limestone ostracon inscribed with religious texts written in black ink and hieratic script.

Due to the limited space, the author of the text decided to cover the ostracon with brief excerpts from the Book of the Dead spells that also formed parts of the ritual of transfiguration and thus guarantying an undisturbed afterlife existence of the owner, Barta pointed out.

He added that early studies on the shaft tomb reveal that it has been robbed in late antiquity, most probably around the fourth or fifth century AD, as witnessed by two early Coptic vessels found forgotten in the main shaft.

The looters made an opening in the western part of the outer sarcophagus and smashed the facial (western) part of the lid of the inner sarcophagus into pieces, which were found around the sarcophagus by excavators.

Although the archaeological excavation of the burial of Wahibre-mery-Neith did not offer many excavated objects or an elaborate funerary equipment, it is unique and important, asserted Mohamed Megahed, deputy director of the Czech mission.

Megahed explained that the discovery offers new insights into the troubled period of the beginning of Persian dominion in Egypt.

In combination with outcomes of the ongoing research on the owners embalming deposit, a picture of Wahibre-mery-Neiths life, family background and professional career starts to emerge indicating that he most probably died unexpectedly when his tomb and burial equipment were still unfinished.

Thus, both the layout of his tomb and its contents provide very valuable information on the importance and meaning of individual parts of the burial equipment and tomb decoration.





















Search Keywords:

Short link:


As a result of ongoing challenges, particularly the war in Ukraine as well as rising food and energy prices, CBEs NIRs in March dropped for the first time since May 2020 by about $4 billion, down from $40.9 billion recorded in February  prior to the war breaking out.

In April, Fitch Ratings affirmed Egypts long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating (IDR) at B+ with a stable outlook, which reflects the countrys liability to fulfill its international financial obligations.

Fitch attributed such a drop to portfolio outflows and CBE interventions to smooth exchange-rate volatility through devaluing the Egyptian pound by 14 percent on the heel of the Russian war in Ukraine.

Moreover, foreign holdings of local-currency government debt fell to $17.5 billion by mid March, a decline of $11 billion from the end of 2021 and $16 million from their all-time high recorded in September 2021, according to Fitch.

In addition, Standard and Poors (S&P) maintained Egypts long and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings at B/B.

However, S&P warned that it could downgrade Egypts credit ratings over the next 12 months in case the rising commodity prices has negative prolonged effects on the countrys external position, which could cause a decline in foreign exchange reserves and a reduction in its ability to service debt and interest payments.

During February and March, Egypt received around $20 billion in deposits from UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Moreover, the Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company (ADQ), known as the Abu Dhabi wealth fund, completed in April acquisition deals for five companies in Egypt, including private sector and state-owned firms, with a total value of $1.8 billion.
Mohammad Barkindo, 63, died late Tuesday, a spokesperson for Nigeria's petroleum ministry told The Associated Press. The reason for his death was not immediately known.

Mele Kyari, Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, tweeted the news of Barkindo's death which he described as ``a great loss to his immediate family, the NNPC, our country Nigeria, the OPEC and the global energy community.''

Barkindo, a Nigerian, led the crude oil bloc since August 2016, seeing it through some of its most turbulent times including during the pandemic when the oil price was hit with declining demand.

He was wrapping up his tenure at OPEC when he died. Before leading the oil bloc, Barkindo served led the Nigerian petroleum corporation and as the Deputy Managing Director of Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, a joint venture between NNPC and multinational oil giants Shell, Total and Eni.
The 358 Tory lawmakers had crammed into a humid corridor at Parliament on Wednesday afternoon to line up and cast their ballots in a grand room hung with oil paintings. Security staff made them hand over their phones to ensure secrecy.

The vote confirmed the front-runner status of ex-Treasury chief Rishi Sunak, who came first with 88 votes. And it gave a big boost to Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt, who secured 67 votes to come in second place.

The remaining contenders will now scramble to scoop up the two men's supporters in a contest that will replace the flamboyant, scandal-ridden Johnson -- a figure famous in Britain and around the world -- with a new and much lesser-known prime minister.

Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Treasury chief Nadhim Zahawi failed to reach the threshold of 30 votes in a secret ballot by Conservative lawmakers needed to stay in the contest.

Two candidates were knocked out of the race to replace U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday, leaving six lawmakers battling to lead a Conservative Party -- and a country -- hoping to move on from months of scandal and division.

Further rounds of voting will take place Thursday and, if needed, next week, until just two candidates remain. The final two contenders will face a runoff vote by about 180,000 Conservative Party members across the country. The winner is scheduled to be announced Sept. 5 and will automatically become prime minister, without the need for a national election.

The candidates are jostling to replace Johnson, who quit as Conservative leader last week amid a party revolt triggered by months of ethics scandals. He will remain in office as a caretaker prime minister until his replacement as party chief is chosen.

Unlike Sunak and Truss, Mordaunt didn't hold a senior post in Johnson's government, though she was a junior minister. An affable politician from a military family, she is widely seen as a breath of fresh air and has been scoring highly in polls of party members.

At her official campaign launch on Wednesday, Mordaunt said the party had "standards and trust to restore" after the scandal-tarnished Johnson years. She said voters "are fed up with us not delivering, they are fed up with unfulfilled promises and they are fed up with divisive politics."

Supporters of Truss, meanwhile, are urging lawmakers on the party's libertarian right wing -- including backers of Zahawi, Badenoch and Braverman -- to unite around the foreign secretary. Lawmaker Simon Clarke said that would "ensure there is a clear free market vision in the final two." Neither Hunt nor Zahawi endorsed a candidate after they left the race. Zahawi said "I don't intend to make any further intervention."

The slate of candidates is strikingly diverse, with four contenders from ethnic minorities and four women. But all are offering similar tax-slashing pledges, with only Sunak offering a note of caution. He has cast himself as the candidate of fiscal probity, saying said the country needs "honesty and responsibility, not fairytales" to get through economic shockwaves from the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

Supporters of the other candidates have improbably depicted Sunak -- whose heroine is former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher -- as a left-winger. Johnson's office has denied running a campaign to bad-mouth Sunak, whose resignation last week helped end the prime minister's reign.

A spokeswoman insisted Johnson was remaining neutral in the campaign to choose his replacement. Johnson struck a valedictory note at his weekly Prime Minister's Questions session in the House of Commons. He hinted it could be his last appearance there, though he is scheduled take questions again next week, before Parliament's summer break, and to leave office on Sept. 6.

"The next leader of my party may be elected by acclamation," he told Labour leader Keir Starmer -- though that would only happen if one of the final two candidates dropped out. "So it's possible this will be our last confrontation."

Johnson said it was "true that I leave not at a time of my choosing," but insisted: "I will be leaving soon with my head held high."
Nursing homes and staffing businesses that supply them are faced with customers complaining about long waiting periods because they lack the personnel.

One staffer at a caregiving services said, "Over the lunar New Year holiday we couldn't find any workers even though we doubled the salary, and it looks like we will face the same situation this Chuseok."

Foreign laborers are essential to caregiving services because they are cheaper than Korean workers. Caregivers are paid less than W12,000 an hour for their often grueling work (US$1=W1,312). Although that is higher than the minimum wage, it is still less than what Koreans would ask.

As a result, the government is facing mounting calls to revamp visa regulations to make it easier to hire more foreign workers. At present, around half of the foreign workers in Korea are on H2 visas, which require employers to hire them directly from home. That makes difficult for small staffing companies find foreign workers because they cannot afford to advertise abroad.
A prominent U.S. lawmaker on Tuesday condemned South Korea's forcible repatriation of two North Korean fishermen in November 2019 who were later reportedly executed by the regime.

Representative Christopher Smith, who co-chairs the House's Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, made the statement after South Korea's Unification Ministry released a dozen photos of the two men desperately resisting being handed over to North Korean border guards.

"Photos of fishermen who were seeking asylum being physically forced to return to communist North Korea against their will and without due process of law are painful to view," Smith said. "I was shocked and dismayed by what happened, and I believe a thorough investigation is still needed to determine who issued the order and why."

In a hearing of the commission late last month, Smith already raised the issue of the North Korean fishermen. "I don't think this should have happened, certainly not in a country that has aspirations to leadership in the field of human rights, which is one of the reasons I was so critical of former President Moon [Jae-in], because he was previously a human rights activist and lawyer," he said.

In his statement Tuesday, he added, "These pictures clearly show the two fishermen being forced to cross the Military Demarcation Line at the truce village of Panmunjom and their resistance to being handed over to a brutal regime."

He said the justification the Moon government gave at the time -- that the fishermen were murderers -- "sounded very pretextual, and insufficient time was given to investigate the allegations. Regardless of wrongdoing, these escapees should not have been refouled to North Korea against their will, and the government should have respected due process."

Smith said the "tragic episode also underscores the barbarity of North Korea's communist regime, and the callous complicity of the previous Moon administration."

"North Korea should disclose what happened to these two fishermen, and whether they are still alive," he added. "I fear the worst, however."


So far some 119 Centaurus cases have been reported in 10 countries including Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S. BA.2.75 seems to be three times as contagious as the BA.5 subvariant, which is quickly becoming the dominant strain in Korea.

BA.2.75 is an offshoot of the BA.2 stealth Omicron variant. It was first detected in India on May 26 and spread so rapidly that it already took up a whopping 51.35 percent of all variants in India a month later.

It is unclear yet how and where he was infected, but authorities believe that the subvariant must already be active in Korea since he has not traveled overseas during the period when he might have been infected.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Thursday said a man in his 60s who is self-isolating at home in Incheon was found to have been infected with Centaurus.

The new subvariant was dubbed Centaurus for no very good reason by a Twitter user after a faraway galaxy and the Greek mythological creature who is half man and half horse.

In the COVID virus, the spike protein touches the surface of human cells first, and if mutation occurs in this part, it is easier for the virus to enter cells, which makes the strain more contagious.

BA.2.75 has 36 spike gene mutants, compared to 28 in the BA.2 stealth Omicron variant that is thought to be 30 to 50 percent more contagious than the original BA.1 Omicron variant. This suggests that the virus can unite with cells more easily and avoid antibodies formed by a vaccine or natural infection.

But many patients in India infected with the new strain show no or mild symptoms, according to local media.

The new strain could exacerbate the current surge in infections as the daily tally of new COVID cases has recently doubled to around 40,000. On Friday morning, it stood at 38,882, remaining at around 40,000 for the fourth day in a row.

Prof. Lee Jae-gap of Hallym University Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital said Thursday, "Endemic COVID will arrive next spring" if the current trend continues. "The current resurgence won't bring daily new infections to 600,000 as the previous surge did in February and March. They could peak at 200,000 to 300,000 at worst if the pandemic surges again next spring and then it would abate gradually and become endemic."

But Kim Woo-joo of Korea University Guro Hospital said, "A virus mutates every six months to survive and people make vaccines and treatments to fight it. But we're still on the way from pandemic to endemic, and I'm not sure when the endemic stage will arrive."
Under the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, Arab nations led by Saudi Arabia conditioned normalization of relations with Israel upon "the acceptance of the establishment of a sovereign independent Palestinian state on the Palestinian territories occupied since June 4, 1967, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital."

The 2020 Abraham Accords normalized relations between Israel and Gulf state neighbors United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, as well as Sudan and Morocco. Palestinians say their statehood cause is sidelined by the deal, as Arab nations no longer withheld diplomatic relations seeking to pressure Israel to negotiate a two-state solution and improve its treatment of Palestinians in the territories it occupies.

At the same time, his administration sought to repair ties with the Palestinians, offering economic and technical assistance as he met with President Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority, in Bethlehem on Friday.

Biden said the Saudi decision can "help build momentum toward Israel's further integration into the region," including with the kingdom itself -- hinting at a potential diplomatic normalization that would be the most significant expansion of the Trump era Abraham Accords.

"While this opening has long been discussed, now, thanks to months of steady diplomacy between my Administration and Saudi Arabia, it is finally a reality. Today, I will be the first president of the United States to fly from Israel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia," Biden said in a statement.

The decision is a gesture from Riyadh as part of a broader warming of relations between Israel and the Arab world as they align against the threat from Iran. Biden is claiming it to be the result of his administration's push toward a more integrated and stable Middle East region.

U.S. President Joe Biden is in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the last leg of his trip to the Middle East, flying directly from Tel Aviv on Friday just hours after the Saudi Kingdom announced the opening of its airspace to "all carriers," ending the country's ban on flights to and from Israel.

 Two-State Solution

Receiving Biden at his presidential compound in Bethlehem, Abbas urged Biden to support the two-state solution to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on the "1967 borders" -- a common reference to the 1949 Armistice Agreements that set demarcation lines after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. "Mr. President, after 74 years of the Nakba displacement and occupation, isn't it time for this occupation to end?" the Palestinian leader said in his joint appearance with Biden.

Biden reiterated his support for Palestinian statehood, acknowledging what he called the "indignities" that Palestinians must endure, including travel restrictions enforced by Israeli authorities and the "daily worry of your children's safety." "The Palestinian people are hurting now," Biden said. "You can feel -- you can just feel it, your grief and frustration. In the United States, we can feel it."

He did not, however, offer a peace plan. "Even if the ground is not ripe at this moment to restart negotiations, the United States and my administration will not give up on trying to bring the Palestinians and Israelis and both sides closer together," he said. Biden did not criticize Israeli settlement expansion, nor did he announce the reopening of the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem that served as the American mission to the Palestinians, reopening of the Palestine Liberation Organization office in Washington, and removing the PLO from the U.S. State Department's Foreign Terrorist Organizations list -- demands that Abbas repeated in his remarks.

As his administration pushes for deeper security and economic ties between Israel and its Arab neighbors, Biden suggested harnessing "that same momentum to reinvigorate the peace process between the Palestinian people and the Israelis." The Biden administration's main goal is "keeping open the possibility in future of a two-state solution and managing the conflict so that it doesn't explode," said Jonathan Rynhold, head of the Political Studies Department at Bar Ilan University, to VOA.

In a statement, Biden reiterated the U.S. position that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, and boundaries of sovereignty in Jerusalem must be resolved through final status negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. Rynhold said the Biden administration and Israeli government are on the same page -- neither believes there is a serious opportunity for a diplomatic breakthrough on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

 Renewing U.S.Palestinian Ties

Biden unveiled a fresh package of economic and technical assistance for the Palestinian people, including funding to support hospitals in East Jerusalem as part of a multiyear commitment aimed at helping Palestinian health services. "Today I'm pleased to announce the United States is committing an additional $100 million to support these hospitals, your staffs that work for the Palestinian people," Biden said during remarks from the Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem.

Last year his administration resumed $235 million in U.S. assistance to the Palestinians, including to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), nearly all of which had been eliminated by former president Donald Trump. On Friday, Biden announced an additional $201 million for the agency to continue delivering services to Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.

Other announcements include initiatives focusing on Palestinian economic development, such as developing 4G wireless networks in Gaza and the West Bank, and working with Israelis to loosen travel restrictions from the West Bank to Jordan.

But "other than his rhetoric," in the eyes of the Palestinian public, Biden is no different than his predecessor, Donald Trump, according to Ghassan Khatib, lecturer at Birzeit University and former Palestinian Authority official. "Biden is trying to make it up by replacing political obligations with financial, which is disappointing to Palestinians," Khatib told VOA.

 Shireen Abu Akleh

Abbas also demanded accountability for the death of Palestinian American journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot in May as she covered an arrest operation by Israeli Security Forces and clashes at the Jenin refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank.

The Biden administration is accused of trying to shield Israel from taking full responsibility for Akleh's death. An investigation overseen by American and international experts concluded that gunfire from the Israeli Defense Force positions "was likely responsible" but they "found no reason to believe that this was intentional."

Akleh, a U.S. citizen, was performing "vital work of democracy" and her death is "an enormous loss to the essential work of sharing with the world the story of the Palestinian people," Biden said, mispronouncing the journalist's name as "Alkehli." "The United States will continue to insist on a full and transparent accounting of her death, and we will continue to stand up for media freedom everywhere in the world," Biden said.

At the joint Abbas-Biden press conference, reporters left an empty chair with a poster of the slain journalist in her honor. Her family has demanded to meet with Biden while he is in the region, but no meeting has been scheduled so far. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has spoken with her family and invited them to Washington, according to U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
KYODO NEWS - Jul 15, 2022 - 14:57 | World, All

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa stepped down after fleeing to Singapore in the face of mass protests, the country's parliament speaker said Friday.

The speaker, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana, said he accepted the resignation of Rajapaksa, amid the country's worst economic crisis since independence. Local media reported Thursday that Rajapaksa had tendered his resignation letter to the speaker through the Sri Lankan Embassy in Singapore.

The embattled leader arrived in Singapore on Thursday, a day after he left Sri Lanka for the Maldives aboard a military plane following protests at his official residence in Colombo. The protesters retreated Friday.

Rajapaksa's resignation makes way for a new president to be elected. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasing, an ally of Rajapaksa, is currently serving as acting president of the island nation of 22 million people.

Related coverage:

Sri Lanka's embattled president arrives in Singapore

Sri Lankan president flees country amid economic crisis, protests
KYODO NEWS - Jul 15, 2022 - 19:26 | All, Japan

Toyota Motor Corp. on Friday unveiled a new line of its long-running Crown series of luxury vehicles, revealing four new models, including crossover and sport utility variations.

In a shift from the traditionally sedan-only offering since 1955 focused on the Japanese market, the new lineup, which also includes a sedan and a hatchback, will be sold in more than 40 different countries and regions from the fall with an annual target of 200,000 units, Toyota said.

The crossover type will be the first model to become available this fall, with prices starting from 4.35 million yen ($31,000) and coming with a choice of two hybrid powertrains.

Amid declining sales, partly due to diversifying consumer needs with SUVs and minivans gaining popularity in Japan, Toyota said it is trying to expand its customer base.

In 2021, Toyota sold about 21,400 Crowns in Japan, down 3.4 percent from the previous year, according to the Japan Automobile Dealers Association.

Toyota first launched the Crown in 1955, and the series became emblematic of luxury sedan cars in Japan, with over 200,000 units sold in 1990 alone. The Crown model was last renewed four years ago, and the latest version will be the 16th generation in the series.

Related coverage:

Toyota domestic output drops on parts crunch due to Shanghai lockdown
KYODO NEWS - Jul 15, 2022 - 22:00 | All, Japan

South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin will make a three-day visit to Japan from Monday and hold talks with his Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa Hayashi, the government said Friday, as their countries seek to improve ties frayed by history-related disputes.

Park would be visiting Japan for the first time since he took up his post in May under the new administration of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol. During his trip, he plans to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, according to sources familiar with the countries' bilateral relations.

Park and Hayashi are scheduled to hold talks in Tokyo on Monday afternoon, with Japan's Foreign Ministry saying it hopes the South Korean foreign minister's visit would help restore the countries' relations to a "healthy" state.

Their meeting would be the two nations' first foreign ministerial talks in Japan since November 2019.

Bilateral ties sunk to their lowest level in decades under former South Korean President Moon Jae In due to issues linked to Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, including Koreans forced to work as "comfort women" in Japan's military brothels.

Japan maintains that issues raised by South Korea, such as compensation demands from South Koreans over wartime labor, have already been resolved, urging the neighboring country to abide by their past agreements.

Japan and South Korea are working toward a thaw in bilateral relations under Yoon, who has vowed to take a "future-oriented" approach to the bilateral relationship.

The sources have said Park is also expected to directly convey his condolences to Kishida and Hayashi over the death of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, fatally shot during an election stump speech last Friday in western Japan.

During his visit to Seoul to attend Yoon's inauguration ceremony in early May, Hayashi met Park, who was then a candidate for South Korean foreign minister, and requested he visit Japan at an early date.

Park is also expected to explain the progress in the envisaged public-private body for officials and experts to discuss ways to address the wartime labor issue, following South Korean Supreme Court rulings in 2018, according to the sources.

The rulings ordered Japanese companies to pay damages to Korean plaintiffs for their forced labor, but the firms have not complied with that.

The two neighbors continued to be at odds over Seoul-controlled, Tokyo-claimed islets in the Sea of Japan, called Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea.

How to tackle North Korea's missile and nuclear threats is also expected on the agenda, as Pyongyang has repeatedly test-fired ballistic missiles since the start of the year, and concerns are growing that the North may carry out what would be its first nuclear test since 2017.
KYODO NEWS - Jul 15, 2022 - 16:00 | World, All

North Korea on Friday rapped Ukraine for severing diplomatic ties with Pyongyang over its decision to recognize Russia-backed separatist regions in the war-torn nation's east, according to state-run media.

A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said Ukraine "committed acts quite contrary to impartiality and justice in the state-to-state relations" and "has no right and qualification to take issue" with Pyongyang over its "legitimate exercise of sovereignty."

North Korea is the third nation to recognize the self-proclaimed independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in Ukraine, following Russia and Syria, which has close relations with Moscow.

The spokesman said Kyiv aligned itself with the United States' "unreasonable and illegal hostile policy" toward North Korea, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

Ukraine, which was invaded by Moscow in February, has been highly critical of Pyongyang's decision to recognize the contested regions.

North Korea, which was founded in 1948 with the backing of the Soviet Union, has been trying to deepen ties with Russia and China, as the nation's negotiations with the United States over denuclearization and sanctions relief have been in a stalemate for more than two years.
TOKYO, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Thursday that "maximum caution" is necessary amid a resurgence of COVID-19 cases in Japan.

The prime minister's remarks were made as the government confirmed 97,788 new infections nationwide on Thursday.

The government's COVID-19 panel of experts warned Thursday that the nation's capital may see an explosive increase in infections that has never been experienced before.

They said if the pace of transmission continues at the current rate, the daily tally will exceed 23,000 after a week, surpassing the peak of the sixth wave. The number could top the 53,000-mark after two weeks, they said.

Tokyo reported 16,662 new cases on Thursday.

They raised Tokyo's COVID-19 alert level to the highest on the four-tier system. It's the first time since April that the alert level has been raised to the highest level.

Kishida said the government will accelerate the vaccination drive, with about 8 million health care and nursing care workers targeted for fourth shots.

The experts, meanwhile, said that it is vitally important for younger people to receive a third dose of vaccine.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said Thursday that the occupancy rate of hospital beds has been rising.

A total of more than 10 million people have been confirmed infected with COVID-19 in Japan since the outbreak of the pandemic and a total of 31,547 people have died from the virus, according to official figures Thursday. 
BEIRUT, July 14 (Xinhua) -- The employees from Lebanon's two state-run media outlets on Thursday launched a two-day strike in protest against the deteriorating working and living conditions.

The employees of the National News Agency (NNA) and Radio Lebanon, both affiliated to the Ministry of Information, were joined by some staff members of the ministry in the strike.

They declared in a statement that the strike would continue and the rest of the ministry's employees would also join them on July 22, if those concerned failed to take positive steps to solve their problems.

A general assembly was called on Thursday to discuss the worsening living conditions and find solutions that would allow state media employees to fulfill their duties in light of their straitened economic conditions, the NNA reported.

The assembly was held in the presence of caretaker Minister of Information Ziad Al-Makary, and heads of the ministry's units, departments and directorates.

Al-Makary advised that a committee be established to represent all of the employees and meet with the concerned officials to find solutions.

Since 2019, Lebanon has been suffering from an unprecedented financial crisis that resulted in the collapse of the local currency. Hit by intertwined political, economic and health crises, Lebanon's poverty rate now has risen to over 74 percent, according to the World Bank.

Earlier this month, United Nations Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon Najat Rochdi said in Beirut that Lebanon's crisis was affecting everyone, everywhere across the country.

She said that almost one-third of Lebanon's labor force is unemployed, and that the minimum monthly wage in the country has currently become less than 25 U.S. dollars, resulting in a significant decline in income and purchasing power. 
ROME, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Italian President Sergio Mattarella rejected a resignation offer of Prime Minister Mario Draghi, after meeting him late on Thursday night.

Draghi decided to formally resign after the second largest force in his coalition -- the Five Star Movement (M5S) -- boycotted a confidence vote on the government's relief bill to combat soaring prices in the Senate earlier in the day.

In an official statement after their meeting at the Quirinale Palace, Mattarella's office said that "the president has not accepted the resignation."

Mattarella has invited Draghi "to appear before Parliament for communications, in order to have an assessment of the situation ... in its proper forum," the statement specified.

Draghi is now expected to address the lower house and the Senate next Wednesday, according to local media.

The crisis broke out after weeks of tensions mounting within the broad coalition supporting Draghi's national unity government, which was formed in February 2021.

Draghi, former chief of the European Central Bank, has been enjoying a large political consensus up to the latest months, when infighting focused on what the cabinet's priorities in the short and mid-term should be.

After the M5S refused to take part in the confidence vote on Thursday, Draghi gathered the cabinet and formally announced to his ministers that he would resign, saying the majority that had supported the government from its creation does not exist anymore.

"Since my inauguration address before the Parliament, I always said the cabinet would go on only if there was a clear prospect of implementing the government's program ... Such cohesiveness has been crucial to meet the challenges of these months," Draghi said. "These conditions no longer exist." 
UNITED NATIONS, July 14 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations on Thursday called for an urgent settlement after the military government in Mali ordered a suspension of rotation of peacekeepers.

"The UN Mission in Mali, MINUSMA, was informed this morning by the Malian authorities of a coordination meeting to be held between the relevant Malian structures and MINUSMA prior to the planned rotation of contingents," said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

"The mission takes note of this communication and stands ready to participate in the discussions without delay," he said.

Haq said the rotation of contingents is crucially important for the mission's operational effectiveness and the safety and security of personnel. "All efforts must be made for an urgent settlement, especially since some of the staff concerned should have been relieved several months ago."

Regular rotation of peacekeeping forces serving in one of the most dangerous peacekeeping missions was interrupted by the government apparently in retribution for sanctions imposed on it following the August 2020 military coup by which it came to power, according to published reports.

The action blocks fresh troops from replacing peacekeeping contingents, some of whom suffered high casualties from extremist forces staging deadly attacks, mainly in the Sahel region of Mali. 
by Keren Setton

JERUSALEM, July 14 (Xinhua) -- The differences on the Iranian nuclear issue between the United States and Israel remained despite U.S. President Joe Biden's current visit, analysts said.

Biden and Israeli caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Thursday signed the Jerusalem Declaration, a joint document on building a strategic partnership, under which the two close allies affirm their commitment to preventing the nuclear armament of Iran.

But Israeli analysts said that such declaration usually lacks substance and does not reflect any important development in the bilateral relations.

Moreover, they predicted that Biden's whirlwind four-day tour to the Middle East, which will end with a stay in Saudi Arabia this weekend, would not live up to the expectation of him to expediate the normalization of the ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

NUKE TALKS AT FOCUS

"The real issue is what the U.S. is going to do about Iran, which is what Israel is very much concerned about, and we know that there are differences of opinion between Israel and the U.S. on this issue," said Efraim Inbar, president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, an Israeli think tank.

Israel considers Iran as its arch foe and has continuously voiced concern over its nuclear aspirations, though Iran insists its nuclear program is not for military purposes.

The U.S., together with other world powers, has been engaged in negotiations with Iran on reviving the 2015 Iranian nuclear pact since last year. The U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018, but the Biden administration hopes to restore the deal through indirect talks with Iran.

However, during the Thursday meeting between Lapid and Biden, the two sides made a great effort to show there was little disagreement between the two close allies.

"Today, you and I also discussed America's commitment to ensure Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon," Biden said at a joint press conference. "I continue to believe that diplomacy is the best way to achieve this outcome."

But Lapid insisted that "Words will not stop them (Iranians). Diplomacy will not stop them."

"The only thing that will stop Iran is knowing that if they continue to develop their nuclear program the free world will use force. The only way to stop them is to put a credible military threat on the table," he said.

Emmanuel Navon, an expert on international relations at Tel Aviv University, said that as the stalemate in the Iranian nuclear deal talks continues, the Americans want to send a message to their allies that they are not the ones who closed the door on the possibility of reviving the pact, but rather the Iranians.

REVIVING U.S. INFLUENCE

An additional issue on the agenda, was the normalization of the ties between Israel and Arab countries. The process began in 2020 with the signing of the Abraham Accords, under which Israel normalized relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Later Morocco and Sudan followed suit to normalize their ties with Israel.

Biden is scheduled to travel to Saudi Arabia on Friday. Analysts expected symbolic gestures toward the normalization of the ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which reportedly will allow for commercial Israeli flights to fly over its airspace.

"The expectations I think are dramatic ... Having said that, we can clearly see warming up in the relations between the two countries. We see Israeli businessmen going there, we know that there are also Israeli officials visiting Riyadh," said Inbar.

The importance of Israel's normalization with the Gulf States is also part of both American and Israeli efforts to shore up their abilities and options to counter Iran, in case the nuclear deal talks fail.

"There is a new regional architecture that the Americans are trying to construct toward Iran," said Navon, "It is part of the American alternative plan to an agreement with Iran."

"There is an extensive security cooperation between Israel with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain. There is already intelligence cooperation with Saudi Arabia and this is an attempt to make it more official," Navon noted.

Biden wants these relations to be upgraded gradually in order to send a message to Iran that the U.S. is a superpower that has other options other than diplomacy, he added.

PALESTINIAN QUESTION MARGINALIZED

During Bident's visit in Israel, the Israeli-Palestinian was not high on the agenda during the meetings.

At the joint press conference with Lapid, Biden voiced his continued support for the two-state solution to the decades-long conflict, although he acknowledged the solution is currently unattainable.

"They (the U.S.) do understand that a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not possible at this time ... but there is a need for ameliorating the conditions of living of the Palestinians and of course Israel doesn't object to that," said Inbar.

Ahead of the visit, Israel approved a series of economic measures aimed at improving the situation in the Palestinian territories in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The number of work permits for Palestinians to enter Israel is expected to increase and zoning plans in the West Bank are to be approved.

Biden recognizes the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has no illusions about a quick solution, said Navon. "The problems do not disappear just because there isn't an agreement on the solution."

On Friday, the U.S. president is slated to meet Palestinian officials, including President Mahmoud Abbas. He will also visit a Palestinian hospital in East Jerusalem. 
Photo taken on March 31, 2021 shows the welding workshop of Jiangling Group Electric Vehicle under Jiangling Motors Group Co., Ltd., in east China's Jiangxi Province. (Jiangling Motors Group/Handout via Xinhua)

NANCHANG, July 15 (Xinhua) -- As of June, Jiangling Group Electric Vehicle (JMEV), an electric vehicle manufacturer in east China's Jiangxi Province, had exported nearly 100 Mobilize Limo models to the European market, including France and Spain.

The Mobilize Limo model is an all-electric saloon car designed for the European ride-hailing market. The first batch of the models were introduced in the European market in February and the company is preparing to export more vehicles to Europe and Latin America in the second half of this year.

"Green transportation is getting increasingly popular with the development of economy and society, and new energy vehicle (NEV) is favored by the ride-hailing platforms because it's cost-effective," said Nie Xiaoyong from JMEV's engineering research institute.

As a subsidiary of Jiangling Motors Group Co., Ltd., JMEV was founded in 2015, specializing in NEV research, production and sales. In 2019, French automaker Renault took a 50 percent stake in JMEV, with an investment of 1 billion yuan (about 149 million U.S. dollars), to expand its strategic layout in China's NEV market.

The collaboration will fasten JMEV's pace of entering the European ride-hailing market by taking advantage of Renault's market base in Europe and Jiangling Motors's strength in the NEV sector.

At the end of 2020, a new JMEV factory with advanced equipment and a high automation rate was officially put into operation. The company strives to build it into a green, intelligent and digital benchmark factory in the industry.

"The automation rate of our welding workshop has reached 85 percent, and 66 workers can complete the entire bodywork welding process," said Hu Jie, who is in charge of the welding workshop.

Even amid the pandemic, which at one point interrupted production and delivery, the company managed to tide over its difficulties with the support of relevant government departments.

According to Nie, NEVs are gaining rising popularity among consumers amid China's efforts to reach its "dual carbon" goals.

"Although the production and operations of automobile enterprises are affected by multiple short-term factors such as interrupted supply chains and the rising costs of raw materials, the rapid growth of the industry will not change in the long run," Nie said.

Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the China Passenger Car Association, noted that China's automobile industry is expected to accelerate its pace of integration into the global market.

"For Chinese auto companies, tailoring brands for overseas markets is becoming increasingly important," Cui said.

China has formed a relatively complete NEV industrial chain, manufacturing quality vehicles that can compete with their European counterparts.

Chinese brands accounted for six of the top 10 bestselling NEV models globally in 2021, and six of the top 10 companies in terms of power battery shipments were Chinese enterprises.

China's production and sales of NEVs have topped global rankings for seven consecutive years since 2015. The country's accumulated sales of NEVs amounted to 11.08 million units by the end of May, compared to 20,000 at the end of 2012.

"China's NEV exports have strong growth momentum, and we are confident about the future development of the industry," Nie said. 
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets with Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad via video link, July 15, 2022. (China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Handout via Xinhua)

NANNING, July 15 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday urged the United States and the West to stop interfering in Middle East affairs and trying to transform the region according to their own standards.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the remarks when holding talks with his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad via video link.

Calling for more cooperation, multilateralism and lasting peace, Wang said China firmly supports the people of the Middle East in independently exploring the development path, and supports the countries in resolving regional security issues through unity and self-improvement.

The Palestine issue is at the core of the Middle East issue and should not be forgotten by the international community, let alone marginalized, Wang said, adding that China is willing to push the Palestine issue back to the top of the international agenda.

"We believe that our brothers and sisters in the Middle East have the ability and wisdom to maintain the overall situation of peace and stability and solve the problems left over from history," Wang said, urging the United States and the West to correct their old problems, truly respect the sovereignty of countries in the region, and do things that are conducive to the peaceful development of the region, based on the needs of the people in the region.

Wang said the Chinese side is willing to work with the Syrian side to implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, and promote the sustained, stable and healthy development of China-Syria ties, and will continue to speak up for Syria to safeguard its sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and national dignity, support Syria in improving relations with its neighbors, and wish Syria an early restoration of peace and stability.

Noting that it is up to the Syrian people to decide the future of the country, Wang called on the international community to provide Syria with humanitarian assistance to help it recover without political strings attached.

Mekdad said China has always adhered to a rational and fair position, has helped small and medium-sized countries develop together, and has played an active role in promoting world multi-polarization and human development and progress.

The Syrian side firmly supports China in safeguarding its sovereignty and territorial integrity, and firmly opposes the interference of external forces in China's internal affairs, Mekdad said, adding that the rumors about Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Tibet spread by the United States and the West will be self-defeating.

Mekdad also said that the Syrian side firmly supports and is willing to actively participate in the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative, which will open up broad prospects for world peace and development cooperation. 
Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits Xinjiang University in the city of Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 12, 2022. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

URUMQI, July 15 (Xinhua) -- President Xi Jinping has stressed efforts to fully and faithfully implement the policies of the Communist Party of China (CPC) for the governance of Xinjiang in the new era, highlighting social stability and lasting security as the overarching goal.

Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks during his inspection tour in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region from Tuesday to Friday.

Xi called for developing Xinjiang into a region that is united, harmonious, prosperous and culturally advanced, with healthy ecosystems and people living and working in contentment.

During the inspection tour, Xi went to Urumqi, capital city of the region, and the cities of Shihezi and Turpan, visiting a university, an international land port area, a residential community, museums, a village, and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), among other sites.

While visiting Xinjiang University on Tuesday afternoon, Xi learned about its history and development, and its efforts in nurturing talent and promoting exchanges among different ethnic groups. Xi also listened to a briefing by students who had conducted a field study.

Xi said that, as a unified multi-ethnic country, China boasts harmonious relationships between its diverse, interwoven ethnic groups. He said that all ethnic groups enjoy equality, unity and progress under the socialist system, stressing that the Party's theories and policies concerning ethnic groups are sound and have produced the desired effect. He called for promoting research on the basic issues of the community for the Chinese nation.

Xi said that, in nurturing talent, it is essential to foster virtue. He asked the university to highlight its advantages and unique features, foster a high-caliber team of teachers, and improve its research and innovation capabilities.

While visiting the Urumqi International Land Port Area, Xi noted that Xinjiang has morphed from a relatively enclosed hinterland into the forefront of opening up, as the country is promoting the expansion of opening up, the development of the western regions, and the joint building of the Belt and Road.

Xi stressed advancing the building of the core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt and incorporating Xinjiang's regional opening-up strategy into the country's overall plan of westward opening up.

Xi highlighted the importance of innovating the system for an open economy, boosting the building of large opening-up corridors, better utilizing both domestic and international markets and resources, and actively serving and integrating into the new pattern of development.

He also called for upholding the dynamic zero-COVID policy, asking for targeted COVID-19 response that is convenient to the people.

On Wednesday morning, Xi visited the residential community of Guyuanxiang in the Tianshan District in Urumqi, in which people from ethnic-minority groups account for more than 95 percent of the total residents.

The education of fine traditional Chinese culture for young people at an early age will help lay a solid foundation for carrying on the fine traditional Chinese culture, Xi said after watching a performance by children.

Ethnic unity is the lifeline of all ethnic groups in the country, and all ethnic groups in Xinjiang are inseparable members of the big family of the Chinese nation, Xi said while visiting the home of a local resident, calling for cherishing the stability and unity that have already been achieved.

Xi urged efforts to make full use of the primary role of community-level Party organizations to ensure that all ethnic groups are like brothers and sisters who help each other.

Xi visited the Museum of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and watched a show of the Kirgiz ethnic minority epic Manas at the museum. Chinese civilization is extensive and profound, and has a long history stretching back to antiquity, Xi said, demanding efforts to better preserve and pass on the intangible cultural heritage, and to carry forward the fine traditional cultures of all ethnic groups.

Visiting the city of Shihezi on Wednesday afternoon, Xi hailed the XPCC's indelible contributions to promoting Xinjiang's development, ethnic unity, social stability and border security.

The XPCC enjoys a high degree of agricultural mechanization and good conditions for large-scale agricultural production and industrialized operation, said Xi, urging the XPCC to play a greater role in ensuring the country's food security and the supply of important agricultural products.

Xi demanded strengthening agricultural science and technology and equipment support to develop competitive agricultural products and industries in light of local conditions, and promoting the green and efficient development of agriculture and animal husbandry.

Calling the XPCC's strategic status "irreplaceable," Xi expressed his hope that the XPCC will give full play to its role as a stabilizer for securing border areas, a melting pot for bringing people of all ethnic groups together, and a demonstration area for advanced productive forces and culture.

Touring the city of Turpan on Thursday, Xi visited Grape Valley, a local village, and the Jiaohe Ruins.

He stressed efforts to strike a proper balance between economic and social development and eco-environmental protection, consolidate and build on the achievements in poverty elimination, make solid progress on rural revitalization, and strengthen the preservation and use of cultural heritage.

On Friday morning, Xi heard work reports from the regional Party committee, the regional government, and the XPCC, and acknowledged the progress in Xinjiang.

The people's support is the most important factor in maintaining long-term stability in Xinjiang, Xi said, urging measures to ensure that stability is maintained in accordance with the law and on a regular basis.

Xi stressed fostering a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation, promoting exchanges, interactions and integration among different ethnic groups, and helping them remain closely united like the seeds of a pomegranate that stick together.

Xi pointed out the need to improve governance capacity of religious affairs and realize the healthy development of religions.

Enhanced efforts should be made to uphold the principle that Islam in China must be Chinese in orientation, and to adapt religions to socialist society, he said.

The normal religious needs of religious believers should be ensured and they should be united closely around the Party and the government, Xi added.

Stressing the importance of cultural identity, Xi called for educating and guiding people of all ethnic groups to strengthen their identification with the motherland, the Chinese nation, Chinese culture, the CPC and socialism with Chinese characteristics.

The achievements of development should better benefit people's well-being and rally people's support, Xi said, calling for efforts to speed up high-quality development of the region's economy, further create employment opportunities and improve the long-term mechanism for sustainable development in the rural areas.

He urged Xinjiang to step up anti-pollution efforts and hold firm to the redlines for ecological conservation.

He also called on Xinjiang to further open up and advance the development of the core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt.

Party authorities must exercise full and rigorous self-governance, Xi said, adding that the region should optimize the structures of leadership bodies and give full play to the roles of ethnic cadres.

Xi urged the XPCC to play a bigger role in realizing the overarching goals of Xinjiang, and advance its integrated development with the civil sectors.

He also called for more efforts in pairing-up aid to Xinjiang.

Before the Friday meeting, Xi met with representatives of current and retired officials at different levels in the region, leading officials of the XPCC and officials of relevant departments, and representatives of different ethnic groups and sectors, cadres working on aiding programs, law-enforcement officers, and patriots of religious circles.

On Friday morning, Xi also met with military officers and troops stationed in the region. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits Xinjiang University in the city of Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 12, 2022. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits Xinjiang University in the city of Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 12, 2022. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, speaks with teachers and students while visiting Xinjiang University in the city of Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 12, 2022. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits the Urumqi International Land Port Area in the city of Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 12, 2022. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, speaks with staff members and others while visiting the Urumqi International Land Port Area in the city of Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 12, 2022. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits the community of Guyuanxiang in the Tianshan District in the city of Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 13, 2022. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits the community of Guyuanxiang in the Tianshan District in the city of Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 13, 2022. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits the community of Guyuanxiang in the Tianshan District in the city of Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 13, 2022. (Xinhua/Yan Yan)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, speaks with people of various ethnic groups while visiting the community of Guyuanxiang in the Tianshan District in the city of Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 13, 2022. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits the community of Guyuanxiang in the Tianshan District in the city of Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 13, 2022. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, waves to people of various ethnic groups while visiting the community of Guyuanxiang in the Tianshan District in the city of Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 13, 2022. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, waves to people of various ethnic groups while visiting the community of Guyuanxiang in the Tianshan District in the city of Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 13, 2022. (Xinhua/Yan Yan)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, waves to people of various ethnic groups while visiting the community of Guyuanxiang in the Tianshan District in the city of Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 13, 2022. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, speaks with the performers of the Manas, which has been inscribed as an intangible cultural heritage, while visiting the Museum of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the city of Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 13, 2022. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits the Museum of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the city of Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 13, 2022. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, poses for photos with the performers of the Manas, which has been inscribed as an intangible cultural heritage, while visiting the Museum of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the city of Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 13, 2022. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits a resident's home at the community of Guyuanxiang in the Tianshan District in the city of Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 13, 2022. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits an agricultural products processing company in a local village of Turpan, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 14, 2022. Xi made an inspection tour in Xinjiang from Tuesday to Friday. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, talks to tourists while visiting the Jiaohe Ruins in Turpan, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 14, 2022. Xi made an inspection tour in Xinjiang from Tuesday to Friday. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, talks to villagers in a local village of Turpan, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 14, 2022. Xi made an inspection tour in Xinjiang from Tuesday to Friday. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits a police office in a local village of Turpan, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 14, 2022. Xi made an inspection tour in Xinjiang from Tuesday to Friday. (Xinhua/Yan Yan)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, inspects a local village in Turpan, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 14, 2022. Xi made an inspection tour in Xinjiang from Tuesday to Friday. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits an infirmary in a local village of Turpan, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 14, 2022. Xi made an inspection tour in Xinjiang from Tuesday to Friday. (Xinhua/Yan Yan)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, talks with tourists while visiting Grape Valley in Turpan, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 14, 2022. Xi made an inspection tour in Xinjiang from Tuesday to Friday. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits Grape Valley in Turpan, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 14, 2022. Xi made an inspection tour in Xinjiang from Tuesday to Friday. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, talks with tourists while visiting Grape Valley in Turpan, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 14, 2022. Xi made an inspection tour in Xinjiang from Tuesday to Friday. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, meets with military officers and troops stationed in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 15, 2022. Xi made an inspection tour in Xinjiang from Tuesday to Friday. (Xinhua/Li Gang)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, talks to the officials and people of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 13, 2022. Xi made an inspection tour in Xinjiang from Tuesday to Friday. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, inspects a flat peach plantation of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 13, 2022. Xi made an inspection tour in Xinjiang from Tuesday to Friday. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, inspects a cotton planting base of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 13, 2022. Xi made an inspection tour in Xinjiang from Tuesday to Friday. (Xinhua/Shen Hong)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, inspects a cotton planting base of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 13, 2022. Xi made an inspection tour in Xinjiang from Tuesday to Friday. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, meets with representatives of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) while visiting the reclamation museum of the XPCC in Shihezi, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 13, 2022. Xi made an inspection tour in Xinjiang from Tuesday to Friday. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)
Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) John Lee addresses the launch ceremony of the Hong Kong Alliance of Technology and Innovation in Hong Kong, south China, July 15, 2022. (Xinhua/Lui Siu Wai)

Chief Executive of the HKSAR John Lee highlights building a more flourishing innovation and technology ecosystem, accelerating the development of smart cities, and giving full play to Hong Kong's unique advantage of being backed by the motherland and connected to the world, so as to establish Hong Kong as an international innovation and technology hub.

HONG KONG, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) John Lee said on Friday that he will lead the HKSAR government to promote the development of innovation and technology in Hong Kong at full steam.

More efforts will be made to promote the integration and complementarity of industrial chains between Hong Kong and other cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Lee said at an event launching the Hong Kong Alliance of Technology and Innovation.

Lee highlighted building a more flourishing innovation and technology ecosystem, accelerating the development of smart cities, and giving full play to Hong Kong's unique advantage of being backed by the motherland and connected to the world, so as to establish Hong Kong as an international innovation and technology hub.

Minister of Science and Technology Wang Zhigang attended the event via video link, announcing that the national sci-tech programs will be further opened up to the Hong Kong and Macao SARs with greater intensity and scope.

China's National Key R&D Program and Sci-Tech Innovation 2030--Major Project will add 15 special projects for Hong Kong and Macao in the areas of life and health, AI, communication, new materials, and electronic information this year, Wang said.

The minister noted that support will be given to more patriotic researchers from Hong Kong and Macao to participate in major national scientific research. 
TRIPOLI, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Libya's Government of National Unity on Thursday appointed a new chairman for the state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC) despite the opposition of the former head.

"I thank the Government of National Unity for appointing a new board of directors," Farhat Gdora, the new NOC chairman, told a press conference in the capital Tripoli.

"I would also like to stress that the board includes an elite group of diverse national experts in terms of competence, who will provide an integrated environment to lead this sector toward success," he said.

Gdora stressed the need to support the Libyan oil sector, the country's main source of income, and keep it away from political rivalry.

However, former NOC Chairman Mustafa Sanalla dismissed the Tripoli government's decision as illegal and void because its mandate has "expired."

Libya has been suffering escalating violence and unrest ever since the fall of the late leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime in 2011. The country is currently divided between a government that was appointed by the House of Representatives in March, and the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity that refuses to hand over power until a new government is elected. 
MAPUTO, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The Mozambican defense and security forces have captured the Catupa base, one of the main bases used by the Islamist terrorists in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, state news agency AIM reported on Friday.

The announcement was made by President Filipe Nyusi while speaking to reporters after chairing an extraordinary meeting of the Provincial Executive Council on Thursday night in Pemba, Cabo Delgado's capital city.

The AIM report said Catupa was regarded as the most important strategic stronghold of the terrorists, and it was the Mozambican forces that took Catupa, while their allies from Rwanda and the SADC Mission in Mozambique held the outskirts of the base.

According to another report by the official Radio Mozambique, Nyusi said his government is committed to creating security conditions and basic services to ensure a safe return of the displaced people. 
LUSAKA, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) have signed a letter of agreement in Lusaka aimed at supporting the undertaking of a feasibility study for setting up an Africa Cloud Ecosystem project.

The 550,000 U.S. dollars grant will support the undertaking of feasibility study for establishing the Africa Cloud Ecosystem, a project meant to contribute to the implementation of a state-of-the-art facility that will offer essential and sustainable Information Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure services to COMESA member states and the African continent.

The agreement was signed by AfDB Country Manager, Raubil Durowojul and COMESA Assistant Secretary-General Kipyego Cheluget on Thursday, July 14, 2022, according to a release.

The release said the grant will support the first phase which will assess the market for the Africa Cloud Ecosystem project and examine the bankability of the project, including testing the concept within the COMESA region.

The study will take 12 months and will be originated as a continental program focusing on COMESA member states as a pilot.

The AfDB representative said the project was a pioneer of big data in Africa and a marketplace for management, retail, transaction data, among others.

"The Africa Cloud Ecosystem project will be a first of its kind, laying the foundation to facilitate the African continent to undertake this shift in the key sectors of economy, education, government, agriculture and health through the provision of reliable ecosystem datacenters," he said.

Mulenga Kapwepwe, the COMESA Secretary-General said in the release that the project was a priority for the organization due to its potential to reduce the cost of doing business and enhance competitiveness by fostering regional connectivity and deepening continental integration.

"Most African countries are still constrained for lack of critical ICT infrastructure including low broadband penetration of about 10 percent and small leveraged power capacity along with high cost of hosting services," she said.

According to her, the project will lay the foundation in the provision of a premium facility mainly powered with efficient and clean energy that was affordable, secured, reliable, and fast cloud hosting system for Africa.

According to the release, the project was also expected to facilitate regional integration by taking full advantage of technologies and setting up the foundations of a duty-free, quota-free area that goes beyond the data-only aspects.

It will also increase the sustainability and viability of information and provide a pivotal way of transitioning Africa's community into a digital economic community. 
WINDHOEK, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Namibia's quest to maximize value addition in its mining sector continued Friday as it inaugurated its Finestar's diamond cutting and polishing factory.

Finestar becomes Namibia's 12th factory in a country where diamond mining represents 25 percent of mining exports.

During the inauguration in the capital Windhoek, The Minister of Mines and Energy, Tom Alweendo said the factory was a welcome step forward as the country looks to build on the industry that accounted for almost 20 percent of corporate tax in the 2020/21 financial year.

"There is, therefore, no doubt that the diamond sector is one of the most important sectors in our economy. That then requires that we, as stewards of this precious resource, need to manage it with due care, on behalf of the owners, the Namibian people," he said.

Since 1994, Namibia took a decision to capture as much value as possible from the diamond mining sector by emphasizing a certain percentage to be cut and polished locally said Alweendo.

"Currently we have 11 active cutting and polishing companies, and over 900 people are employed in the cutting and polishing sector. I believe that we are at a stage where we need more of our diamonds being cut and polished in the country, thereby creating more needed employment," he added.

Diamonds were discovered in Namibia 114 years ago, in 1908. Since then, diamond mining represents 25 percent of exports from the mining sector. 
ADDIS ABABA, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Experts have called on African countries to expedite the local manufacturing of pharmaceutical products amid the continent's dependence on externally manufactured medicines.

The experts made the call during a virtual meeting hosted by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)'s AfCFTA(African Continental Free Trade Area)-anchored Pharmaceutical Initiative.

The meeting was an opportunity to showcase the AfCFTA-anchored Pharmaceutical Initiative and its journey, progress and experiences in the promotion of the manufacturing and pooled procurement of essential medications focused on reproductive, maternal and child health in and for the African continent, the UNECA said in a statement Friday.

Michel Sidibe, African Union (AU) Special Envoy for the African Medicines Agency (AMA), told the virtual event that Africa's "dependence on externally manufactured goods was problematic as access to COVID-19 vaccines starkly reminded Africans."

He said that local manufacturing of pharmaceuticals on the continent is no longer an option.

"The continent only produces 3 percent of the medicines consumed by its people. Pharmaceutical supply chains have multiple intermediaries," a UNECA statement quoted Sidibe as saying.

He said that the intermediaries contributed to drugs being sold in Africa being the most expensive in the world while Africa has the highest prevalence of sub-standard and counterfeit medicines, with some countries are reaching as much as 30 percent.

"These challenges have been largely attributed to weak or absent drug regulatory systems, unclear policies and incomplete or inconsistent legal and regulatory frameworks in many cases. So, acting at this level is therefore critically important," he said.

Sidibe stressed that the African pharmaceutical sector was expected to grow from 19 billion U.S. dollars in 2012 to 66 billion U.S. dollars in 2022. He said that the health and wellness sector in Africa would be worth 259 billion U.S. dollars by 2030 and this could potentially create up to 16 million jobs.

Sidibe said regulation would be essential to protect African citizens from sub-standard and falsified medicines. He emphasized that leveraging the AfCFTA would help build Africa's research and development capacity.

According to figures from the UNECA, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement would integrate about 1.3 billion people, and potentially 2.2 billion people by 2050.

Jane Karonga, the AfCFTA-anchored Pharma Initiative's Team Leader, stressed that stating that the rationale for the UNECA's AfCFTA-anchored Pharmaceutical Initiative is to address the mismatch between supply and demand in Africa.

Karonga stated that medicines consume 45 to 60 percent of national healthcare budgets on the continent, largely made up of imported products.

According to the AU, the major challenges Africa's pharmaceuticals industry often confronted with access to affordable financing; access to technology and technical know-how; inadequate human resource capacity; small fragmented markets and poor market intelligence; as well as fragmented and weak regulatory systems.

Chimwemwe Chamdimba, principal policy specialist at the AU Development Agency, on her part stressed that building national capacity is key to successful collaboration across regions and the continent.

She emphasized that all stakeholders would need to be invested in networking, information sharing and leveraging on available capacities. 
SYDNEY, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The government of the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) announced it would provide free rapid antigen tests (RATs) for vulnerable residents, responding to the ending of a federal government scheme.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said on Friday the state government would ensure that no one would be left behind and support would continue throughout the winter.

"We are making sure those people who need it most get the help they need to help keep themselves and the community safe through winter by stepping in and providing free RATs," said Perrottet.

Under the program, concession card holders, including pensioners, disabled persons, and culturally diverse groups would have access to 10 rapid tests until the end of October.

"The NSW government has already been distributing free RATs to vulnerable communities, and we have the capacity to extend this to those still needing them through the federal government's program," said NSW Minister for Multiculturalism and Seniors Mark Coure.

In January of this year the Australian government launched a program that gave access to 10 free rapid tests for concession card holders.

The scheme would not be extended beyond its July end date. Federal Health Minister Mark Butler defended the decision as "about the right time" for the program to end.

Australia is currently experiencing a national surge of COVID-19, in part due to the highly transmissible Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants. In NSW there are currently 2,027 people in hospital with the disease and 93 people have died with the disease in the state since Monday. 
KUALA LUMPUR, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's natural rubber production declined by 6.3 percent to 21,073 tonnes in May from 22,498 tonnes in April, official data showed Friday.

On a year-on-year comparison, the production of natural rubber also tumbled 25.2 percent, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia.

Meanwhile, exports of Malaysia's natural rubber amounted to 43,197 tonnes in May, down 26.3 percent from 58,596 tonnes in April.

China remained the main destination for Malaysia's natural rubber exports, accounting for 44.6 percent of its total exports in May followed by the United States, Turkey, Brazil and Finland.

Total stocks of natural rubber in May dropped by 2.8 percent to 289,430 tonnes compared to 297,654 tonnes in April. 
NEW DELHI, July 15 (Xinhua) -- An Air Arabia flight from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) suffered hydraulic failure Friday evening while landing at an airport in the southern Indian state of Kerala, officials said.

A full emergency was declared at the Cochin International Airport in Kochi city during the landing of the flight.

"All 222 passengers and seven crew members on board are safe," said a statement from the airport. 
COLOMBO, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's Supreme Court issued an order on Friday barring former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa from leaving the country without approval of the court until July 28.

A motion was filed on July 13, seeking an order prohibiting the two former senior officials, former Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal and several other people from leaving the country, local media reported.

The motion also requested that an investigation be launched against the individuals responsible for the current economic situation in the South Asian country.

Sri Lanka has been facing a severe economic crisis which has sparked protests.

On Friday Sri Lankan Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena announced the official resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, before Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as an interim president. 
PARIS, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Wildfires raging in southwestern France since Tuesday have evacuated 10,000 people and burned 7,300 hectares of land, French news channel BFMTV reported Friday.

The flames have burned 4,200 hectares of land in Landiras, a city 40 kilometers south of Bordeaux, and 3,100 hectares in the city of La Teste-de-Buch, 70 kilometers from Landiras, BFMTV cited the prefect of Nouvelle-Aquitaine region as saying.

In La Teste-de-Buch, the fire has destroyed seven houses and some boats.

About 100 firefighters are still at work at the fire site Friday, but high wind and persisting high temperatures are unfavorable to the firefighting operation, the news channel reported.

In another development, it said some 1,100 firefighters have been fighting against fires in the south of Avignon in southern France since Thursday.

The fire broke out on a railway line and spread into a forest of pine trees towards the city of Tarascon. About 1,000 hectares of land have been burned. 
Estonian Reform Party Chairwoman Kaja Kallas addresses the parliament in Tallinn, Estonia, July 15, 2022. The Estonian Parliament (Riigikogu) on Friday granted a mandate to the new government coalition of the Reform Party, Isamaa Party and the Social Democratic Party (SDE). (Erik Peinar/Parliament of Estonia/Handout via Xinhua)

TALLINN, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The Estonian Parliament (Riigikogu) on Friday granted a mandate to the new government coalition of the Reform Party, Isamaa Party and the Social Democratic Party (SDE).

At an extraordinary parliamentary session, Reform Party Chairwoman Kaja Kallas made a political statement introducing the new coalition agreement jointly signed by the leaders of all three parties earlier on Friday: Kallas, Isamaa party's Helir-Valdor Seeder and SDE's Lauri Laanemets.

The vote was 52 in favor and 26 against in the 101-seat parliament to grant Prime ministerial candidate Kaja Kallas a mandate to form the next government, said the press release.

On Thursday, Kallas submitted her resignation as prime minister and that of the entire government to Estonian President Alar Karis, who then asked her to form a new government.

The three coalition partners also announced candidates for ministers of the next government, five ministerial portfolios to each party including the post of prime minister.

The Reform Party, 34 seats in the Riigikogu, has been ruling as a minority government since Kallas dismissed all seven ministers from the junior coalition partner Center Party due to a dispute over welfare policy on June 3.

At present, Isamaa and SDE have 12 and 9 seats respectively in the Estonian Parliament.

In accordance with the Constitution, the Estonian head of state nominates the candidate for prime minister, who is granted the authority to form a government by the parliament. The head of state then appoints the members of the government, after which they swear the oath of office before the Parliament.

Kallas, 45, has led her party since 2018 and became prime minister in 2021. The country is scheduled to hold the next parliamentary election in March 2023. 
MADRID, July 14 (Xinhua) -- A forum aiming to promote EU-China cooperation on climate change was held in the representative office of the European Commission in Madrid on Thursday.

The event, titled "Promoting EU-China cooperation in the field of Climate Action, Sustainable Finance as a driver for change," aimed to open a discussion about the opportunities for cooperation between the EU and China to combat climate change.

European and Chinese representatives of the public and private sectors reviewed progress in green finance, and discussed ways for further progress.

"This is a new platform, but one that is going to bring a lot of investment between China and Europe," Margaret Chen, President of the China Club in Spain, told Xinhua, adding that the world was in a "complicated moment, but we think we all have to help so the world functions well."

Meanwhile, Augusto Soto, President of the EU-China Trust, highlighted the need for trust in EU-Chinese relations, saying the forum was about "sustainable finances with great world experts."

"There are many ways we can look at our relation, but mutual confidence is the most important," he said, stressing the need for green investment as "the environment is our future as a species."

The city councils of the Chinese city of Hefei, the capital of east China's Anhui Province, and the Spanish city of Salamanca were among the key organizers of the forum, at which representatives of both cities signed a formal declaration of cooperation.

The event was backed by the Spanish Embassy in China and the Chinese Embassy in Spain and was attended by both ambassadors. 
WARSAW, July 15 (Xinhua) -- A new law that entered into force in Poland on Friday abolished the controversial Disciplinary Chamber of the country's Supreme Court -- a move that is expected to pave the way for Warsaw to receive billions of euros in European Union (EU) funds.

The Disciplinary Chamber was established in 2017 as part of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party's judicial reforms.

The European Commission has repeatedly called on Poland to eliminate the chamber, which has been accused of jeopardizing the country's judicial independence, and has ordered Poland to pay a fine of one million euros (1 million U.S. dollars) per day as long as it operates.

Due to the dispute over the chamber, the Commission also withheld billions of euros in post-pandemic financial support earmarked for the country.

The new legislation was proposed by Polish President Andrzej Duda in February.

According to the local commercial news channel TVN24, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Thursday that he was confident that the elimination of the chamber would meet the terms of his country's agreement with the EU and that the funds would be released by the end of this year.

However, the EU has raised doubts over whether the changes will meet its demands. Earlier this month, European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova said the new legislation did not "fulfil recovery plan milestones."

In June, the EU approved Poland's 35-billion-euro recovery plan, but said that the country would still need to demonstrate that it meets the "milestones" related to the independence of its judiciary. 
BERLIN, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Germany's Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach on Friday recommended a fourth COVID-19 vaccine dose for people under the age of 60, contradicting the advice from a relevant national commission.

Germany's Standing Committee on Vaccination (STIKO) recommends a second COVID-19 booster shot with a mRNA vaccine, such as the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna, only to people aged over 70, residents in care facilities, people with immunodeficiency and medical staff.

"If someone wants to enjoy the summer and not run the risk of getting ill, then I would recommend vaccination even to younger people in consultation with their family doctor," Lauterbach told the Spiegel magazine.

A vaccine adapted to Omicron is expected to come out in late August or early September, but Lauterbach said people who are aged 60 and over "should definitely not wait for the new vaccine," as the protection they need against serious illness or death is already provided by the current vaccines.

Of the 69.4 million adults in Germany aged 18 and older, around 85 percent are vaccinated against COVID-19. About 72 percent have received one booster vaccination, while almost 9 percent have received two booster doses, according to official figures.

Although Germany is hit by a COVID-19 summer wave, its vaccination campaign remains slow. "It must not be forgotten that the most important and effective measure is and remains vaccination," said the chairman of the German association of general practitioners, Ulrich Weigeldt, who called for a renewed vaccination campaign last week.

The country's seven-day COVID-19 incidence rate on Friday stood at around 720 infections per 100,000 inhabitants, after around 700 last week, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases.

Since the beginning of June, the number of cases has been rising steadily. "We will have a very difficult fall," Lauterbach warned. 
A school bus convoy, carrying personal memories of the children who have lost their lives to shootings since 2020, heads to pro-gun right U.S. Senator Ted Cruz's home and office in Houston, the United States, on July 14, 2022. A mile-long yellow school bus convoy on Thursday headed to pro-gun right U.S. Senator Ted Cruz's home and office in Houston, the largest city of gun-friendly state Texas, to honor thousands of young victims of gun violence across the country and demand gun control reform. (Change the Ref/Handout via Xinhua)

HOUSTON, July 14 (Xinhua) -- A mile-long yellow school bus convoy on Thursday headed to pro-gun right U.S. Senator Ted Cruz's home and office in Houston, the largest city of gun-friendly state Texas, to honor thousands of young victims of gun violence across the country and demand gun control reform.

The convoy is consisted of 52 school buses, whose empty seats represent the 4,368 children killed by guns since 2020, according to the event's organizers. The National Rifle Association (NRA) is the most influential gun lobby group in the country.

Inside the lead bus, titled the NRA Children's Museum, there are photos, videos, audio recordings, and numerous personal memories of the children who have lost their lives to shootings since 2020.

The leading organizer, a gun control and anti-gun violence advocacy group called Change the Ref, said in a press release that the Thursday fleet is the official launch of The Yellow Bus Project and Houston is its first stop.

The mission of the campaign is for U.S. politicians to renounce political funding from the NRA and move to enact legislation for universal background checks on gun sales, said the press release.

"Because of politicians like Sen. Ted Cruz and the NRA, who enable assault rifles to be the best-selling gun on America's streets, the child death toll this year has hit an all-time high," the organizer said.

According to the press release, senators and house representatives representing Texas have received more than 14 million U.S. dollars in contributions from gun rights interests over their careers. Among them, Cruz is the leading recipient of gun lobbyist funding in Texas with nearly 750,000 dollars in total.

"To commemorate this horrific historic moment, we are showing American voters the toll these politicians have taken on our children's lives with this all-too-real archive," said Manuel Oliver, who co-founded Change the Ref with his wife Patricia after their son Joaquin was killed with another 16 victims in the 2018 Parkland, Florida high school shooting.

The buses on Thursday made a stop at the senator's home before heading to his office, delivering a letter written five years ago by Joaquin in which the teenager asked for background checks on gun sales.

"And this is only the beginning... We urge everyone to join us in our mission to fight for every innocent soul lost to gun violence and to demand universal background checks on gun sales," said Oliver.

"We want to display, for the voters who keep these politicians in office, the consequences of those choices. We want voters to remember which politicians are in the pocket of the NRA when they visit the polls in November," added Patricia.

Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that since 2020, firearms have overtaken car accidents to become the leading cause of death in children in the United States. 

A school bus convoy, carrying personal memories of the children who have lost their lives to shootings since 2020, heads to pro-gun right U.S. Senator Ted Cruz's home and office in Houston, the United States, on July 14, 2022. A mile-long yellow school bus convoy on Thursday headed to pro-gun right U.S. Senator Ted Cruz's home and office in Houston, the largest city of gun-friendly state Texas, to honor thousands of young victims of gun violence across the country and demand gun control reform. (Change the Ref/Handout via Xinhua)

Aerial photo shows a gun-shape formation made up of school buses in Houston, the United States, on July 13, 2022. A mile-long yellow school bus convoy on Thursday headed to pro-gun right U.S. Senator Ted Cruz's home and office in Houston, the largest city of gun-friendly state Texas, to honor thousands of young victims of gun violence across the country and demand gun control reform. (Change the Ref/Handout via Xinhua)

A school bus convoy, carrying personal memories of the children who have lost their lives to shootings since 2020, heads to pro-gun right U.S. Senator Ted Cruz's home and office in Houston, the United States, on July 14, 2022. A mile-long yellow school bus convoy on Thursday headed to pro-gun right U.S. Senator Ted Cruz's home and office in Houston, the largest city of gun-friendly state Texas, to honor thousands of young victims of gun violence across the country and demand gun control reform. (Change the Ref/Handout via Xinhua)
KIEV, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The United States may train Ukrainian pilots on F-15 and F-16 fighter jets, Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, said on Friday.

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved an amendment to the U.S. defense budget for the 2023 fiscal year that will enable the beginning of the training of Ukrainian pilots on F-15 and F-16 jets, Yermak wrote on Telegram.

The training program for the Ukrainian pilots will cost 100 million U.S. dollars, Yermak said.

Earlier in the day, Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova said that the U.S. defense budget bill for 2023 envisages allocating Ukraine 1 billion dollars in security aid in the 2023 fiscal year, which runs between Oct. 1, 2022, and Sept. 30, 2023.

To take effect, the draft law must be passed by the U.S. Senate and signed by U.S. President Joe Biden. 
NEW YORK, July 15 (Xinhua) -- A housing shortage is seen in all corners of the United States, with 3.8 million homes short of the needs for both rental and ownership, according to a study released by Up for Growth on Thursday.

Home prices are up more than 30 percent over the past couple of years, making homeownership unaffordable for millions of Americans, and rents are rising sharply too, said the nonprofit research group made up of affordable housing and industry groups.

"It's very difficult to know precisely what the shortage is," Mark Zandi, the chief economist of Moody's Analytics, was quoted by National Public Radio as saying. "But the bottom line is, no matter what the estimate is, it's a lot of homes that we're undersupplied."

"The biggest culprit is this historic housing shortage. Strong demand and low supply mean higher prices," said National Public Radio in its report of the study.

Part of the problem goes back to the last housing crash, which happened around 2008. After that, many homebuilders went out of business, and economists say we didn't build enough for a decade, it added. 
Islamabad: The same terrorists who were sheltered and nurtured by the neighbouring country Pakistan have now given a painful death to an Army officer of Pakistan. The body of Colonel Laik Baig Mirza, a military officer who was abducted a week ago in Pakistan, was found lying on a highway in Balochistan province on Thursday. The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) has claimed responsibility for the killing. Let us know that it was declared a terrorist organization by the US in 2019.

Col. Laik Baig Mirza along with his family had set out on a visit to Ziyarat, the capital of Balochistan. After this, the terrorists kidnapped them. However, during this time, the terrorists did not cause any harm to the family of Colonel Baig. Mirza had left Karachi for Ziyarat with his family on the Eid holiday. Balochistan Chief Minister Quddus Bijenjo said the culprits will be severely punished and Mirza's family will get justice. Not only this, he said that the security forces have also launched an operation in search of those involved in the killing of Colonel Mirza. According to the Pakistan Army, a group of 10-12 terrorists were involved in Mirza's kidnapping. Soon after, the army activated the Quick Reaction Force. Not only this but helicopters have also been deployed in search of the terrorists.



Let us know that the security forces had seen 6-8 terrorists near the mountains on Wednesday night. It is believed that these terrorists, sensing the possible danger, killed Lt Col. Laik Baig Mirza and tried to escape. After this, the security forces opened fire, in which two terrorists were killed. While the rest of the terrorists along with colonel Mirza's cousin managed to escape.

What is The Baluchistan Liberation Army:-

Let us tell you that, by size, Balochistan is the largest province of Pakistan, but being a barren mountainous area, it is the smallest state in the country in terms of population. Even when India was divided into two pieces, the Baloch people had demanded a separate country for themselves, but they were not listened to then. Balochistan is believed to have been struggling for its independence for more than 70 years. Many separatist groups of Balochistan are fighting for this freedom, but the largest and most influential organization is the Balochistan Liberation Army. It was formed in the 70s. It was first led by Balach Marri, who was killed in Afghanistan in 2007, after which the BLA intensified its activities. Now the command of this organization is in the hands of Bashir Jeb Baloch.

Australia calls for national cabinet meeting amid Covid battle

Death toll in Russian strikes on Ukrainian city crosses 23

Ivana Trump,Donald Trump's first wife passes away at 73
KATHMANDU::Nepal and China have agreed to use bilateral channels to settle the border dispute and sign a new boundary mechanisms.

Both parties decided to activate the boundary mechanism first agreed upon in 1963 while signing the first boundary protocol during a virtual consultation meeting on border affairs conducted on Thursday, Nepal Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

The two sides decided to start the process of activating the current bilateral mechanism through mutual consultation, the ministry said in a statement, underscoring the significance of joint inspection of the Nepal-China boundary.

\The 1963 Joint Boundary Protocol set up the Joint Inspection Team, Joint Expert Group, and Joint Inspection Committee as three distinct ways to address boundary disputes.

The Nepal-China Boundary Protocol, which the two nations signed on January 20, 1963, included the measures. Between Nepal and China, three border conventions have already been signed: in 1963, 1979, and 1988. After considerable delay in 2011, some disagreement caused both sides to postpone the plan to sign the fourth protocol.

Although the Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu and the Nepali government vehemently deny that there is a border dispute, the Nepali media occasionally reports border tension between China and Nepal in Humla, Gorkha, and other areas.

The precise position of Pillar No. 57 is the main point of debate. The signature of the fourth protocol has been postponed since 2011 because of disagreements between the two parties over the height of Mount Everest and the precise location of Pillar No. 57.

Chinas Jiangsu to expand renewable energy capacity

China economy secures positive growth in Q2 despite downward pressure

China has a reason to want Sri Lanka's debt restructured.
RTHK: Biden reiterates two state solution

US President Joe Biden promised on Friday not to give up efforts to end the decades-long Israeli Palestinian conflict, though he offered no new proposals to restart the stalled political dialogue between the two sides.

As he wrapped up the first leg of a Middle Eastern trip before departing for Saudi Arabia, Biden visited a hospital in East Jerusalem and pledged a multi-year $100 million package of financial and technical help.

But after a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, he acknowledged that the creation of an independent Palestinian state remained a distant prospect with no immediate prospect of new talks with Israel.

"Even if the ground is not ripe at this moment to restart negotiations, the United States and my administration will not give up on trying to bring ...both sides closer together," he said.

Abbas said prospects for a two-state solution to the conflict, the model favoured by the United States and world bodies including the United Nations, were receding and the opportunity "may not remain for a long time".

"Is it not time for this occupation to end?" Abbas said.

He reiterated demands that the United States open a consulate in East Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as the capital of a future independent state, remove the Palestine Liberation Organization from a list of terrorist groups and allow it to re-open an office in Washington.

He also asked for US support to bring to justice the killers of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American citizen who was killed during an Israeli raid on the West Bank city of Jenin.

Before his visit, Palestinian leaders had accused Biden of prioritizing Israel's integration into a regional security arrangement with Arab countries above their concerns, including self-determination and continued Israeli settlement building in the West Bank, occupied after a war in 1967.

Biden acknowledged that after years of failed attempts to resolve the conflict, Palestinians living under onerous restrictions in the occupied West Bank and Gaza were suffering. "You can feel ... the grief and frustration," he said.

As well as the money for East Jerusalem hospitals, he will announce measures to upgrade telecoms networks in the West Bank and Gaza to 4G standards by the end of 2023, and other measures to ease travel between the West Bank and neighbouring Jordan.

There will be a separate $201 million funding package provided through UN relief agency UNRWA to help Palestinian refugees.

But the atmosphere that greeted Biden in the occupied West Bank was very different from the warm reception he received in Israel, where he was greeted as an old friend and awarded the Presidential Medal of Honour.

As he was driven to the presidential palace in Bethlehem, signs saying "Mr President, this is apartheid" could be seen along the route, a reference to the accusation by local and international rights groups that Israel's West Bank occupation has created an apartheid system.

In Bethlehem, a large banner reading "Justice for Shireen" was spread out, and a seat symbolically left empty for the Al Jazaeera journalist by former colleagues covering the meeting with Abbas.

Biden said the United States would continue to seek accountability for her death. US authorities have concluded that she was probably killed by an Israeli soldier though they say they have no reason to believe the killing was intentional.

Many Palestinians accuse Israel of assassinating Abu Akleh, a charge Israel rejects. Israel says it is still investigating her killing. (Reuters)

This story has been published on: 2022-07-15. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
New Delhi: Former Nepal PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also known as 'Prachanda', will visit the BJP headquarters on Sunday (July 17). Here, he will meet Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Chief JP Nadda and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. The meeting is part of the BJP's 'Know BJP' programme.

In fact, on April 6, the BJP launched this campaign, under which it introduces foreign diplomats to the party leaders and makes them aware of the BJP's ideology and history. According to BJP Foreign Cell President Vijay Chauthaiwala, Communist Party of Nepal chief Prachanda has been invited by JP Nadda. This is the Nepali leader's second visit to the BJP headquarters. Earlier, PM Sher Bahadur Deuba along with his ministers had met JP Nadda and other party leaders. Chauthutiwala said that ''earlier we used to invite diplomats to the group. We want discussion with the leaders of all political parties of Nepal.''

Let me tell you that Prachanda is the only communist leader who has been the Prime Minister of Nepal twice. In his first term, he was closer to China. In such a situation, he did not have good relations with India, but when he became the PM for the second time, he gave preference to India over China. The relations between India and Nepal improved during his tenure.

BJP MLA charged with rape, FIR lodged

Mourning spread in Bihar, this veteran leader passed away

'I'll never obey the law of two children..,' Owaisi's contentious words on population explosion
KATHMANDU: India sent Nepal with disaster relief supplies on Friday to assist the Himalayan nation in coping with the situation brought on by floods and landslides.

Bal Krishna Khad, the home minister, received the supplies from Naveen Srivastava, the Indian ambassador to Nepal. Ten motorised inflatable boats and 3,000 large/family tents are included in the relief supplies.

The Indian Embassy in Kathmandu released a statement saying, "As part of our continuous commitment to support Nepal's disaster relief operations, the Indian Ambassador to Nepal handed over consignments of flood and disaster-relief goods to the Home Minister of Nepal."

In his remarks during the ceremony, Srivastava recommended that the involved agencies make the most use of this timely supply of relief items to achieve their maximum benefit through prompt distribution and efficient utilisation.

Khand hailed the Indian government for providing relief supplies on schedule and praised India and Nepal's collaboration in disaster relief. According to the Embassy, India and Nepal cooperate extensively and across several sectors.

China, Nepal activate existing boundary mechanisms

Former Nepal PM 'Prachanda' to visit BJP headquarters, what's the political agenda behind it?

NEC proposes general elections in Nepal on Nov 18
ITALY: Italian President Sergio Mattarella rejected a resignation offer of Prime Minister Mario Draghi, after meeting him. After their meeting at the Quirinale Palace, Mattarella's office released a statement in which they stated that "the President has not accepted the resignation."

Draghi made the decision to formally quit late Thursday night after the Five Star Movement (M5S), the second-largest party in his coalition, abstained from a Senate vote on the government's package to curb rising prices earlier in the day.

The statement said that the Prime Minister has been invited by the President "to appear before Parliament for communication, in order to have an evaluation of the situation... in its correct venue."

Draghi will now likely address both the Senate and the lower house on next Wednesday. The crisis erupted after weeks of escalating tensions inside the large coalition behind the Prime Minister's national unity administration, which was established in February 2021.

Up until recent months, when squabbling over the priorities for the cabinet's short- and medium-term agenda took centre stage, Draghi, the former head of the European Central Bank, had enjoyed a strong political consensus.

The Prime Minister called a meeting of the Cabinet and publicly informed his ministers that he would be resigning after the M5S declined to participate in the confidence vote on Thursday. He claimed that the majority that had supported the government from its inception no longer exists.

Italian Govt to announce more economic incentives

Italy unveils new package to reduce impact of surging energy prices

Turkmenistan,Uzbekistan intensifying their energy cooperation
Patna: After busting the terrorist module in the Phulwari Sharif area of Patna, the capital of Bihar, the police are continuously making new revelations. So far the police have arrested many people in this case. Police have arrested one more person from Phulwari Sharif. Police say that the accused Ilyas Tahir was connecting the people of Pakistan by creating a Ghazwa-e-Hind group on WhatsApp. Police are interrogating him.

Let us inform you that ASP Manish Kumar of Phulwari Sharif had informed that in Patna, we were getting information regarding some illegal activities in the area for the last 15 days. After which the raid was conducted. In this, it was revealed that under the guise of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and Popular Front of India (PFI), training in weapon handling was being done under the pretext of teaching martial arts.

Two people involved in anti-national activities were arrested, after which three more people were arrested. For the last two months, people from other states were coming to the accused. The visitors used to change their booking names for tickets and hotels. Let us tell you that the same accused are conspiring to make India an Islamic nation by 2047, how many more people are involved in this conspiracy, it is not yet known.

Woman can't file rape case after living together with her will: SC

Delhi: Dead bodies with bullet marks of 4 family members found in the house

Good news for travellers, IRCTC re-launches this fantastic tour package of Thailand
NEW DELHI: Former Nepal Prime Minister and Chairman of CPN Maoist Centre Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda will meet BJP chief JP Nadda on Sunday, July 17. The meeting is part of saffron party's 'Know BJP' initiative launched on its foundation day on April 6.

Prachanda is visiting India at the invitation of the BJP chief Nadda. He is expected to reach New Delhi today. In-charge of party foreign affairs department, Dr. Vijay Chauthaiwale said that Prachanda wil be visiting India on invitation of BJP chief Nadda. Prachanda will meet Nadda ji on Sunday as part of our intiative 'Know BJP'," he said.

After Nadda, Prachanda is expected to meet a number of others, including National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar. Prachanda is likely to be given a tour of the BJP headquarters and the final list of people participating the meeting will be finalised soon.

The purpose of this meeting is to continue the BJP chief's interactions with international leaders as part of the outreach initiative "Know BJP." As part of this effort, Nadda has already spoken with the foreign ministers of Singapore and 47 other nations as well as the prime minister of Nepal, Sher Bahadur Deuba.

Nadda unveiled a new programme called "Know BJP" on the party's founding day that is targeted at foreign audiences. Nadda is explaining the history, challenges, victories, ideology, and contributions of the BJP and its governments to national development during interactions as part of this campaign. He is also responding to the renowned guests' questions.

Big reshuffle in BJP, UP will get a new president

Eknath Shinde's statement came to light after meeting Shah-Nadda

Eknath Shinde to form 'team' after becoming CM, will meet Modi-Nadda today
TASHKENT: Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and visiting Turkmenistan President Serdar Berdimuhamedov discussed enhancing bilateral cooperation, particularly in the energy sector, the Uzbek President's press service said.

According to a statement released on Thursday, the Uzbek side indicated interest in "increasing cooperation in the energy sector, including the supply of power, gas, and oil products from Turkmenistan." The Turkmen side also suggested expanding industrial cooperation, diversifying and stepping up trade connections, according to the statement, the Xinhua news agency said.

"We single out the agro-industrial complex, energy, chemical and petrochemical sectors, engineering, textiles and pharmaceuticals as the specific industries where our countries have significant potential," Berdimuhamedov was quoted as saying.

In the statement, the leaders also said that the decisions made regarding the establishment of the Uzbek-Turkmen border trade zone and the opening of trading houses in both capital cities will help to sustain favourable dynamics and double the amount of commerce in the upcoming years.

The Uzbek-Turkmen interregional business event took place in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, on Wednesday, and saw the signing of investment and trade agreements worth $451 million, according to the Uzbek Ministry of Investments and Foreign Trade.

Uzbekistan, which is land-locked and Turkmenistan, has port access to the Caspian sea, share a 1,793-km border. It has significant trade agreements with the European Union (EU) and United Kingdom (UK) and needs assistance with getting products to markets in Europe.

Ukraine's first lady urges unceasing global unity against Russia

Ukraine cuts diplomatic ties with North Korea

US inflation reaches a 40-year high in June, 9.1 pc in June
Sushmita Sen, the former Miss Universe who is often seen spending time with family, has unfollowed her brother, Rajeev Sen on Instagram.She, however, follows Rajeev's wife Charu Asopa. The Mere Angne Mein actress recently opened up on social media about issues in her married life with Rajeev and expressed her desire of heading for a divorce. Rajeev also has unfollowed sister Sushmita and Charu on Instagram but somehow, follows Lalit Modi.

On Thursday evening, July 14, businessman Lalit Modi announced that he is in love with Sushmita Sen by sharing some mushy pictures from their vacation in the Maldives. Reacting to this news, Rajeev confirmed that he wasn't aware of his sister's relationship with the businessman. Rajeev said, "I am pleasantly surprised. I will speak to my sister before I say anything. I wasnt aware of it at all. My sister is yet to confirm this from her end, so, I cant comment as of now."

Lalit Modi, founder of Indian Premier League took to his social media accounts to share happy photos of him with his "better half" Sushmita Sen. He wrote that they are dating and will tie the knot soon too. Lalit's post read: "Just back in london after a whirling global tour #maldives # sardinia with the families - not to mention my # better-looking partner @sushmitasen47 - a new beginning a new life finally. Over the moon. (a slew of emojis). In love does not mean marriage YET. BUT ONE THAT BY GODS GRACE WILL HAPPEN. I JUST ANNOUNCED THAT WE ARE TOGETHER (sic)"

Mohammad Faiz leaves Arjun Kapoor speechless: Superstar Singer 2

Now Mohammed Zubair sent to 14-day judicial custody by Hathras court

Mahatma Gandhi's statue smashed and written down 'rapist'.
North Korea sharply responds to Ukraine's move to severe diplomatic relations 15 July, 01:50 PM Earlier, North Korea's formally recognized two Russian-backed breakaway self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine as independent states (Photo:KCNA/REUTERS)

North Korea's foreign ministry said on July 15 that Ukraine has no right to raise sovereignty issues after siding with the United States' "unjust, illegal" actions that breached Pyongyang's sovereignty, Reuters news agency reported.

Read also: Only two countries might be still willing to supply Russia with weapons

Earlier North Korea's state media released a statement from the ministry after formally recognizing two Russian-backed breakaway self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine as independent states.

Read also: Putin weaponizes Russian passports in his genocidal war against Ukraine

Ukraine severed relations with North Korea after the move, calling it an attempt to undermine its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

 

According to Reuters, the isolated country's foreign ministry defended the decision, saying Ukraine had already aided U.S.-led actions including sanctions over the North's weapons programs.

Read also: Russia uses job search websites to recruit soldiers for war in Ukraine

North Korea has said its nuclear and missile programs are a self-defensive deterrence, and accused the United States of maintaining "hostile policy" by imposing international sanctions and holding military drills with South Korea.

"Ukraine has no the right to raise issue or dispute our legitimate exercise of sovereignty after committing an act that severely lacks fairness and justice between nations by actively joining the U.S. unjust and illegal hostile policy in the past," the ministry said.

"We will continue to strengthen and develop friendship and cooperation with all countries that respect our sovereignty and treat us favorably based on the principles of sovereign equality, non-interference in internal affairs and mutual respect."

Help NV continue reporting on the Russian invasion

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google News
Kathmandu, July 15

Global IME Bank Limited has received Euromoney Award For Excellence  Nepal Best Bank 2022.

It is a coveted award in the global banking industry.

The award was handed over to Global IME Bank amidst a gala event organised in London on Wednesday evening. Global IME Bank Chairman Chandra Prasad Dhakal received the award in presence of the banks CEO Ratna Raj Bajracharya.

This year, Euromoney received a record number of submissions from banks in regional and country awards programme that covers more than 50 regional awards and best bank awards in 100 countries, the bank informs.

Global IME Bank is the largest commercial bank in Nepal in terms of capital, network and earnings. It is the first private bank to provide banking services in all 77 districts of the country.

The bank also maintains its representative offices in India, the United Kingdom and Australia, and extension offices in the Middle East and South Korea to assist in the remittance of funds from overseas Nepali workers.
Home  Business  Nepali rupee continues to get weaker against USD as the fiscal year is closing

Kathmandu, July 15

In the international valuation, the Nepali rupee, the currency of Nepal, has hit a record low yet again on the last working day of the current fiscal year.

For the past few months, the value of the Nepali currency is steadily on the decline.

According to the central banks foreign exchange rate fixed for today, a US dollar is equivalent to NPR 127.51 for buying and NPR 128.11 for selling.

In the international market, the Nepali rupee is calculated as per the rate of the Indian rupee as Nepal and India have pegged their currencies with the 1:1.6 exchange rate. Therefore, whenever the Indian currency gets weaker, the Nepali currency follows suit.

A weak Nepali currency means Nepalis are required to pay higher for anything that comes from other countries. Therefore, it has an impact on all sectors of the economy.

However, it will benefit the countrys tourism industry as most tourists visiting Nepal pay in dollars. Likewise, Nepalis working for foreign companies also receive higher pay.
South Asia Monitor

The crisis in Sri Lanka has shaken not only the citizens of Sri Lanka but also the neighbors and the World as a whole. At one level there is a humanitarian crisis at another we can see the impact of autocratic discriminatory policies on the citizens, particularly workers, Tamil and Muslim minority and average people. The sight of thousands of people surrounding and occupying the house of President and putting private house of Prime Minister Ranilsinghe on fire is very frightening. The shortage of food, petrol, medicines is leading to immense miseries among the population of the island nation.

The political tendency in Srilanka has been to bestow more powers to the President; autocracy has been the overall direction of the regime. Its autocratic nature has been complete from last few decades. The dictatorial autocrats have taken economic steps which have ruined the foundations of economy. Liberal imports particularly of luxury items and reckless privatization have been two major factors apart from whimsical mega projects like Mattala Rajpaksa Airport, which is hardly useful has emptied the treasury to a large extent.

The food crisis, apart from other things, has gone for a free fall due to a senseless ban on import of fertilizers and total emphasis on organic agriculture which has brought down the food production in a drastic way. Such economic misadventures have a lot to do with the dictatorial nature of regime, where one person (or family combo) takes the decision as per their whims and fancies. The rise of such an autocracy has a lot to do with the parallel policies which have oppressed and marginalized the minorities, Tamil (Hindu), Muslims and Christians.

This nation had close links with India and it was here where Emperor Ashoka sent his son Mahinda and daughter Sanghmitra to propagate the values put forward by Tathagat Gautam Buddha. It was here that large number of Tamils (mostly Hindus) migrated either as plantation labors or for trade relations. While the native Sinhala are mostly Buddhists, Tamil Hindus (12.9%) are in substantial number and are followed by Muslims (9.7%) and Christians (1.3%) in population.

Being a post-colonial state, it also had ethnic identity highlighted due to the British policy, which divides the population on the ground of religion in particular. The Sinhala Buddhists claimed to be the first comers and so having primacy in rights. Hindus (Tamils) were presented outsiders, non natives and so deserving no rights.

Rohini Hensman, a scholar activist of Sri Lankan origin gives a very comprehensive account of the roots of ethnic religious divides on which major political parties harped and in due course this gave rise to the anti-people; autocratic regime of Mahinda Rapaksa and Gotabaya in particular. (Rohini Hensman, Nightmares End, 13th June 2022, New Left Review).

With Independence in 1948, the two major parties already came to an agreement to deprive a million Tamils of more recent Indian origin of their franchise and citizenship. She points out The exercise was carried out in a patently discriminatory manner by demanding that these poverty-stricken and super-exploited workers provide documentary proof of Sri Lankan ancestry which the vast majority of Sinhalese citizens would not have been able to provide. She recalls a childhood experience of her own. In 1958, she had to leave her place, near Colombo, as anti Tamil squads were out to target Tamils. Her father was a Tamil.

In 1956, S W R D Bandarnaike came to power by promising to have Sinhala as the only National language. Tamils felt discriminated against and launched an agitation against it. An extremist Buddhist monk from right wing Sinhala organization murdered him, for not going far enough in suppressing Tamils. Bandarnaikes widow Srimao Bandrakanke succeeded her husband and she negotiated a pact with Indias Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri to repatriate 5 Lakh Tamils to India.

In 1972, a new Constitution was enacted. This brought in Sinhala as the only official language. This Constitution also gave special status to Buddhism. Protection of rights of minorities was done away with.

Later in 1972 and 1975, in the name of nationalization of plantations, the Tamils were deprived of their livelihood and left to starve. Administration gradually turned more rightwing, freedom of expression and democratic rights were crushed by and by. With Mahinda Rajpaksa coming to power in 2005 the attacks against Tamils increased and death squads targeted the critics of the Government.

In response, the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) called for the creation of an independent Tamil Eelam. Militant groups, most notably the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), was formed to fight for this goal. As Tamils dissatisfaction peaked; LTTE resorted to acts of terror. This worsened the situation. A sort of war was launched against Tamils, in which as per UN estimates 40000 civilians lost their lives. There were two reasons for this, one LTTE used civilians as life shields and Gotabaya Rakpaksa, the then Defense Secretary, asked for bombing of civilian targets, including Hospitals and safe zones. Hensman writes the Rajapaksas also funded Islamist militants to fight against the LTTE  who remained on the government payroll as informants despite credible intelligence that they had been radicalized The final blow to its credibility was the Easter Sunday terrorist attack in 2019, which killed 269 people in locations across the country. As it turned out, the bombings were perpetrated by the very same Islamists that the Rajapaksas had been bankrolling.

Right wing Buddhist groups like Budu Bala Sena were the foot soldiers and Sinhala masses were strongly behind Rakpaksas. With the elimination of LTTE, the new enemy was found in the Muslims. State sponsored Buddhist monk groups came up targeting the Muslim minority. With the economic downslide of the regime, without and democratic safeguards, it became totally unresponsive to the economic suffering of the masses. The high handed policy making proved to be the undoing of this nation. The rising dissatisfaction of most sections of society led to the present horrific incidents.

What can we learn from this totally disastrous style of ruling, the intensification of sectarian divides, propagation of majority religion in danger (in this case Buddhism) the marginalization of minorities and power being concentrated in couple of autocrats is there for all to see. Autocrats (individual or a coterie) think they know all and take decisions which in due course ruin the nation and intensify the ethnic divides.
UPDATE: Late Thursday afternoon, IndyStar received a copy of the 10-year-old's terminated pregnancy report from the Indiana Department of Health. It shows that Bernard reported the abortion before the state's reporting deadline, and that Bernard indicated the 10-year-old had suffered abuse.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita went on Fox News Wednesday night to say he is looking into the Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Caitlin Bernard, who provided a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio with an abortion.

We're gathering the evidence as we speak, and we're going to fight this to the end, including looking at her licensure, Rokita said. If she failed to report it in Indiana, it's a crime for  to not report, to intentionally not report.

Previously:Ohio man charged in rape of 10-year-old that led to Indiana abortion

The attorney general also claimed that Bernard has a history of failing to report, as a part of his roughly 2-minute appearance on the Fox News show Jesse Watters Primetime.

Rokita did not provide any evidence to back up his claims.

He later released a statement reiterating his speculation about whether reporting requirements had been followed, and said he was "investigating this situation." He also said there may be further action if a HIPAA violation occurred, meaning patient information was improperly shared. He did not offer evidence.

"I will not relent in the pursuit of the truth," he said in his statement.

Late Thursday afternoon, the Indiana Department of Health provided IndyStar a copy of the 10-year-old's terminated pregnancy report, which was filled out by Bernard.

In the report, Bernard indicated that the girl was seeking an abortion as a result of being abused.

The abortion was reported to the health department and the Indiana Department of Child Services July 2  two days after the abortion was performed. Indiana law says medical providers have to report abortions within three days if the patient is under 16 years of age.

Bernard's attorney Kathleen DeLaney said Thursday her client "took every appropriate and proper action in accordance with the law."

"She has not violated any law, including patient privacy laws, and she has not been disciplined by her employer," DeLaney said in a statement.

"We are considering legal action against those who have smeared my client, including Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, and know that the facts will all come out in due time," she added.

IndyStar has requested a response from Rokita's office.

FOR SUBSCRIBERS: 35 years later, Indiana congressional candidate shares the story of her abortion

Health care providers have to report abortions they perform to the Indiana Department of Health, including whether the patient indicated they were seeking an abortion as a result of being abused, coerced, harassed or trafficked.

Rokita can ask the state's medical licensing board to discipline a doctor if a consumer has made a substantiated complaint against the doctor. Bernard doesn't have any record of disciplinary actions, according to her medical license records.

Hundreds of people gather for the Reproductive Justice Rally, Wednesday, June 29, 2022 on the IUPUI campus.

State court data shows no criminal charges have been filed against Bernard. The Marion County Prosecutor's Office said it had not received any allegations that she failed to report the case of the 10-year-old.

Prosecutors in Ohio have charged Gerson Fuentes, 27, with rape after he allegedly told police he raped the 10-year-old girl on two occasions. He was arrested Tuesday.

Columbus police said they were made aware of the girl's pregnancy June 22 after her mother reported it to Franklin County Children Services. She received the abortion in Indianapolis June 30.

HIPAA violations are reported to the Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights and can result in fines in cases where a provider gave out unique identifying information such as name, date of birth or address.

OB-GYN's response:Indianapolis physician responds on Twitter following viral abortion story

My heart breaks for all survivors of sexual assault and abuse. I am so sad that our country is failing them when they need us most. Doctors must be able to give people the medical care they need, when and where they need it.  Caitlin Bernard (@drcaitbernard) July 14, 2022

Experts respond to Rokita's statements

Marjorie Hershey, a professor emeritus of political science at Indiana University, said that Rokita used his appearance on Fox News as a political move. Rokita is known as a socially conservative firebrand, unafraid to clash with those who are more moderate within his own party, including Gov. Eric Holcomb. Republicans believe he could eventually seek a higher office, such as the governor's office or the Senate.

This sounds like a part of Mr. Rokitas next campaign for whatever higher office he has in mind, Hershey said. It is a series of talking points from the far-right wing of the Republican party in the guise of comments on a very sad situation.

During Rokitas Fox News appearance Thursday, he also railed against what he called fake news and called the situation an "illegal immigration" issue because the man who was charged with raping the 10-year-old was not believed to be in the country legally. According to the Columbus Dispatch, a sister paper of IndyStar, the man had lived in Columbus for the past seven years and had a steady job at a cafe.

Chad Kinsella, a Ball State University political science professor, shared similar sentiments to Hershey in that Rokita used his Fox News appearance to stand out in a potentially crowded Republican primary.

Indiana has become a fairly red state, Kinsella said. It could be argued that winning the Republican primary is now the key hurdle to winning a senate or gubernatorial seat.  This is a way to be seen by the social conservatives and pro-life conservatives as a champion.

Kinsella added that the attorney general position has become a major way for people to move forward politically, giving Texas Gov. Greg Abbott as an example.

Andy Downs, a political science professor at Purdue University Fort Wayne, said Rokitas Fox News appearance may be "on brand" and help him with conservative voters, but could be a liability long term. A 2019 Old National Bank and Ball State University Hoosier Survey found that only 17% of Hoosiers think abortion should be illegal in all cases. Rokita could be appealing to that small group of Hoosiers, but losing support from those who have more nuanced views on abortion, Downs said.

"He may have come out as more violently opposed to the doctor and immigration than he should have been then some would say a prosecuting attorney," Downs said. "Gather the evidence first before you speak too authoritatively. So it may not help him in terms of long-term support."

Short term though, Downs said Rokita's comments could impact the debate at the Statehouse as Indiana lawmakers prepare to restrict abortion access when they convene for a special session on July 25. Legislative leaders have not said how far they'll restrict abortion, but a large point of contention is centered around if there should be exceptions for rape in any sort of abortion ban.

Contact IndyStar reporter Lizzie Kane at ekane@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @lizzie_kane17.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita says he is looking into OBGYN
(Adds comment by Russian Union of Grain Exporters)

By Daphne Psaledakis and Michelle Nichols

WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) - The United States on Thursday sought to facilitate Russian food and fertilizer exports by reassuring banks, shipping and insurance companies that such transactions would not breach Washington's sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

Enabling those Russian exports is a key part of attempts by the United Nations and Turkish officials to broker a package deal with Moscow that would also allow for shipments of Ukraine grain from the Black Sea port of Odesa, which have been blockaded by the war.

The written U.S. clarification came a day after Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and U.N. officials met in Istanbul for talks aimed at resuming Ukraine's grain exports. Turkey announced that the parties would return next week to sign a deal.

"The United States strongly supports efforts by the United Nations to bring both Ukrainian and Russian grain to world markets and to reduce the impact of Russia's unprovoked war on Ukraine on global food supplies and prices," said the U.S. Treasury Department in the factsheet.

The war in Ukraine has sent prices soaring for grains, cooking oils, fuel and fertilizer, stoking a global food crisis.

Eduard Zernin, head of the Russian Union of Grain Exporters, described the U.S. move as "an act of goodwill" and a "real step in the fight against world hunger."

"We sincerely hope that other countries involved will follow this example and issue the necessary clarifications and licenses in order to remove hidden sanctions that hinder the supply of grain to countries in need," he told Reuters.

RUSSIA, UKRAINE KEY SUPPLIERS

Russia's Feb. 24 invasion and blockade of Ukraine's ports has stalled exports, leaving dozens of ships stranded and some 20 million tonnes of grain stuck in silos at Odesa.

Moscow has denied responsibility for worsening the food crisis, blaming instead a chilling effect from Western sanctions for slowing its own food and fertilizer exports and Ukraine for mining its Black Sea ports.

Story continues

Ukraine and Russia are major global wheat suppliers, and Russia is also a large fertilizer exporter, while Ukraine is a significant producer of corn and sunflower oil.

The U.S. Treasury made clear that the sale and transport of agricultural commodities, as well as medicine and medical devices, was allowed and would not be breaching a raft of sanctions that Washington has imposed on Russia.

Washington also stressed that there were no sanctions on Russia's production, manufacturing, sale, or transport of agricultural commodities, including fertilizer, and that providing insurance or reinsurance for the transportation or shipping of those products was not prohibited.

Imports of Russian fish and seafood to the United States are banned under Washington's sanctions.

As the U.N.-led talks got underway in May to revive Ukraine and Russian food exports, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield had said Washington was prepared to give written assurances -- known as "comfort letters" -- to shipping and insurance companies in relation to Russian exports. (Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Michelle Nichols; Editing by Aurora Ellis and Jonathan Oatis)
Company Logo

Global Pharmerging Market

Global Pharmerging Market

Dublin, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Pharmerging Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2022-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The global pharmerging market reached a value of US$ 1.0 Billion in 2021. Looking forward, the publisher expects the market to reach US$ 2.0 Billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 12.25% during 2021-2027. Keeping in mind the uncertainties of COVID-19, we are continuously tracking and evaluating the direct as well as the indirect influence of the pandemic. These insights are included in the report as a major market contributor.



Pharmerging refers to a group of countries that hold low positioning in the pharmaceutical market but have a speedy growth. Some of the key pharmerging markets include China, India, Brazil, Russia, South Africa, Mexico, Indonesia, Turkey, etc.



The increasing healthcare expenditures along with the rising number of private hospitals are currently propelling the global pharmerging market growth. Additionally, the high prevalence of numerous chronic diseases and growing consumer awareness towards early disease detection and treatment procedures are further augmenting the market growth.

Moreover, the increasing geriatric population, who are more prone to serious medical conditions, such as dementia, hypertension, cardiac failure, etc., is also bolstering the demand for pharmaceuticals. Additionally, the introduction of government policies and reimbursement schemes across various countries for reducing the cost of treatment for chronic diseases is also propelling the market growth.

Moreover, the growing number of insurance companies in the pharmerging countries offering numerous insurance policies to decrease the out-of-the-pocket expenditures is further augmenting the demand of pharmaceuticals in these countries. Apart from this, the rising investments in extensive R&D activities in the fields of biotechnology, immunology, oncology, etc., for the introduction of advanced treatments are also catalyzing the market growth.

Story continues

Competitive Landscape:

The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined with some of the key players being Sanofi S.A., Pfizer Inc., AstraZeneca Plc, GlaxoSmithKline Plc, F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG (Roche AG), Eli Lilly and Company, Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Novartis AG and Teva Pharmaceutical Limited.



Key Questions Answered in This Report:

How has the global pharmerging market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years?

What are the key regional markets?

What is the impact of COVID-19 on the global pharmerging market?

What is the breakup of the market based on the product?

What is the breakup of the market based on the indication?

What is the breakup of the market based on the distribution channel?

What are the various stages in the value chain of the industry?

What are the key driving factors and challenges in the market?

What is the structure of the global pharmerging market and who are the key players?

What is the degree of competition in the market?

Key Topics Covered:



1 Preface



2 Scope and Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Introduction

4.1 Overview

4.2 Key Industry Trends



5 Global Pharmerging Market

5.1 Market Overview

5.2 Market Performance

5.3 Impact of COVID-19

5.4 Market Forecast



6 Market Breakup by Product

6.1 Pharmaceutical

6.1.1 Market Trends

6.1.2 Major Types

6.1.2.1 Patented Prescription Drugs

6.1.2.2 Generic Prescription Drugs

6.1.2.3 OTC Drugs

6.1.3 Market Forecast

6.2 Healthcare

6.2.1 Market Trends

6.2.2 Major Types

6.2.2.1 Medical Devices

6.2.2.2 Clinical Diagnosis

6.2.2.3 Others

6.2.3 Market Forecast



7 Market Breakup by Indication

7.1 Lifestyle Diseases

7.1.1 Market Trends

7.1.2 Market Forecast

7.2 Cancer and Autoimmune Diseases

7.2.1 Market Trends

7.2.2 Market Forecast

7.3 Infectious Diseases

7.3.1 Market Trends

7.3.2 Market Forecast

7.4 Others

7.4.1 Market Trends

7.4.2 Market Forecast



8 Market Breakup by Distribution Channel

8.1 Hospitals

8.1.1 Market Trends

8.1.2 Market Forecast

8.2 Retail Pharmacies

8.2.1 Market Trends

8.2.2 Market Forecast

8.3 Online Stores

8.3.1 Market Trends

8.3.2 Market Forecast

8.4 Others

8.4.1 Market Trends

8.4.2 Market Forecast



9 Market Breakup by Country



10 SWOT Analysis



11 Value Chain Analysis



12 Porters Five Forces Analysis



13 Competitive Landscape

13.1 Market Structure

13.2 Key Players

13.3 Profiles of Key Players

13.3.1 Sanofi S.A.

13.3.1.1 Company Overview

13.3.1.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.1.3 Financials

13.3.1.4 SWOT Analysis

13.3.2 Pfizer Inc.

13.3.2.1 Company Overview

13.3.2.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.2.3 Financials

13.3.2.4 SWOT Analysis

13.3.3 AstraZeneca Plc.

13.3.3.1 Company Overview

13.3.3.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.3.3 Financials

13.3.3.4 SWOT Analysis

13.3.4 GlaxoSmithKline Plc.

13.3.4.1 Company Overview

13.3.4.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.4.3 Financials

13.3.4.3 SWOT Analysis

13.3.5 F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG (Roche AG)

13.3.5.1 Company Overview

13.3.5.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.5.3 Financials

13.3.5.4 SWOT Analysis

13.3.6 Eli Lilly and Company

13.3.6.1 Company Overview

13.3.6.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.6.3 Financials

13.3.6.4 SWOT Analysis

13.3.7 Johnson & Johnson

13.3.7.1 Company Overview

13.3.7.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.7.3 Financials

13.3.7.4 SWOT Analysis

13.3.8 Abbott Laboratories

13.3.8.1 Company Overview

13.3.8.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.8.3 Financials

13.3.8.4 SWOT Analysis

13.3.9 Novartis AG

13.3.9.1 Company Overview

13.3.9.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.9.3 Financials

13.3.9.4 SWOT Analysis

13.3.10 Teva Pharmaceutical Limited

13.3.10.1 Company Overview

13.3.10.2 Product Portfolio

13.3.10.3 Financial

13.3.10.4 SWOT Analysis

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/6tg3a5

Attachment

CONTACT: CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900




pixdeluxe / Getty Images

Researchers are calling 2022 the year of the travel rebound, and for good reason. A new TripAdvisor study shows that for people in the U.S., leisure travel abroad intent is up 6 percentage points compared to 2019.

Also: 9 Bills You Should Never Put on Autopay

Learn: 15 Cheap, Beautiful Places To Retire

But thanks to this increased travel demand  as well as rising fuel costs  the price of plane tickets is quickly escalating, too. The average domestic flight in May 2022 cost $403, up from $272 in May 2021, according to Hopper Price Tracker.

With these price hikes, is it still possible to fulfill your travel dreams and book a last-minute flight without breaking the bank? Travel experts say yes  if you know how to find discounts.

Be as Flexible as Possible on Flight Dates, Times and Locations

When asked for their top advice for booking last-minute flights on a budget, several experts told GOBankingRates that being flexible is the best way to save money.

Most of the time, there is a reason that the flights are heavily discounted, said Caleb Pasiuk, founder and editor of The Pazook Travel Journal. Maybe this flight includes an extra-long layover. Perhaps the flight leaves really early or arrives very late at night. Sometimes, flights arrive at a nearby airport, such as Burbank, California, instead of LAX. Be flexible, and you will save a lot of money!

Take Our Poll: Do You Think You Will Be Able To Retire at Age 65?

Find Flight Deals on Travel Search Engines

Another great way to snag the best deals for plane tickets is to regularly browse travel search engines. For example, if you can be flexible on your destination, you can find steep discounts on airfare through Scotts Cheap Flights.

Scotts Cheap Flights tracks down secret deals and significantly discounted flights all around the world, Pasiuk said. Users choose their home airport and receive daily emails with newly discounted domestic and international flights. Usually, these flights are 50-70% off the standard rate.

Story continues

Guadalupe Sanchez, founder of the money management blog Budgeting in Blue, has used Scotts Cheap Flights to travel overseas at a bargain twice. She flew to Madrid, Spain, for under $400, and her flight to Lima, Peru, came to under $500.

The price is specific to the airport you fly out of, so the estimated price is very close to what you end up paying, she said. The only caveat is that you have to book your travel within 24-48 hours, and the locations are specific to the deal.

For those who prefer to browse flight options on their smartphone, the Hopper app is another helpful option.

You can input your desired route, and Hopper will continuously track that flight, notifying you when there is a price hike or price drop and predict whether the price will go up or down in the future with 85% accuracy, Pasiuk said.

Other popular travel search engines that experts recommend include Google Flights, Skyscanner, Expedia, Kayak and Momondo.

Generally, Google Flights will offer the best deals, but remember that baggage fees are almost always excluded when looking at the price overview, said Giacomo Piva, industry analyst and co-founder of global luggage network Radical Storage.

Become an Airline Rewards Member or Book a Last-Minute Charter Flight

Big airlines often reduce ticket prices at the last minute, especially for rewards members.

We have yet to find an airline that offers last-minute deals with any consistency, Pasiuk said. However, if you are a rewards member, Delta Airlines and Alaskan Airlines seem to keep their prices reasonable up until the departure date when you pay with miles instead of cash!

If you can book a flight just a few days before departure, then charter carriers may be your most affordable option, Piva said.

They typically reduce ticket prices as time runs down to the departure date, aiming for 100% occupancy, he said. Its worth bookmarking the websites of carriers such as Elite Airways and Skymax to take a look into these.

The downside is that charter flights departures and destinations can be fairly limited.

Use Credit Cards With Great Travel Rewards

Does your credit card offer travel points or discounted flights? If not, you might be missing out on some great airfare deals.

You might be able to secure discounted flight deals with credit cards, such as the American Express Platinum or Business Platinum, Piva said. Such cards are offered with the incentive of exclusive access to reduced airfares on premium-class tickets.

Other cards that offer great airline rewards include the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, the Citi Premier Card, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Card, the United Club Infinite Card and the Delta SkyMiles Reserve American Express Card.

If youre loyal to a particular airline, Piva recommends getting an airline credit card to store up points for free or discounted flight tickets.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: How To Book a Last-Minute Flight Without Breaking the Bank
BEIJING (Reuters) - Didi's digital payments unit was fined 4.27 million yuan ($632,170) on Friday by China's central bank for a dozen rule violations, amid an effort by the ride-hailing company to appease regulators.

The unit was fined for violations that included transactions not meeting the requirements for traceability and authenticity, opening payment accounts for enterprises involved in the financial industry, and failure to report significant risk events in a timely manner, the People's Bank of China said in a notice published on its website.

Didi has struggled to bring its business back to normal after angering Chinese regulators by pushing ahead with its $4.4 billion New York listing in June last year despite being asked to put it on hold.

Didi could not immediately be reached for comment outside business hours.

($1 = 6.7545 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Eduardo Baptista, Editing by Louise Heavens)
BEIJING, July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- 2022 Chinese manufacturers MMO games are developing rapidly overseas, and the explosive MMORPG "The Legand of Neverland" by Ark Games, a subsidiary of Kunlun Tech, continues to expand to the European and American markets after achieving excellent results in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

It is reported that "The Legand of Neverland" officially opened pre-registration in more than 160 countries in Europe and the United States at the end of April, and the dual-platform reservation volume reached 1 million on June 20. The product got the recommended position in the whole region of Google Play platform, and as of now, the reservation volume has exceeded 2 million, and is moving towards the goal of 3 million reservations. The game is expected to be officially launched at the end of August.

"The Legand of Neverland" is Ark Games' new self-published MMORPG with a high-freedom Mori light adventure style, which not only satisfies players' spiritual needs for casual healing, but also bridges the gap with traditional high-intensity MMO games.

In the game, players can walk around every corner of the map as much as possible in the vast world, and also leisurely fish, swim, catch insects, plant flowers, play the piano and dance, whether through life skills to spend a leisurely day, or use the skill of flexible switching weapons to deal with the boss, you can get unexpected fun in this game.

The big world, light adventure style of "The Legand of Neverland" was well received upon its release. The game combines the world background of the Tree of Life and the positioning of the "Mori" style, and incorporates the "flower spirit" into the game, bringing a lot of freshness to the players.

In addition to the worldview background with Japanese fantasy style, "The Legand of Neverland" is also very bright in terms of graphics performance. The game simplifies the details of the screen on the basis of retaining the information conveyed, and adds fantasy colors in addition to easing the visual fatigue caused by the complexity of the screen.

Story continues

Through the gorgeous visual presentation, vivid character portrayal, smooth and harsh battle scenes and a grand and complete worldview structure. "The Legand of Neverland" creates an immersive gaming experience with cinematic graphics, which has received unanimous praise from gamers around the world.

After its official launch in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan in February 2022, "The Legand of Neverland" achieved the 9th, 8th and 4th best-selling IOS game charts in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau respectively, and its single-day revenue exceeded RMB 2.5 million.

Ark Games is an important global mobile game platform of Kunlun Tech, whose business scope covers the development, distribution and operation of mobile games, as well as the agency distribution of high-quality game products at home and abroad. The game categories include MMORPG, RPG, SLG, casual, etc., mainly for Europe, America, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, South Asia, mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan markets.

According to the introduction, "The Legand of Neverland" will be launched in more regions, the Chinese market will also be introduced, the Chinese distribution agent by the Ocean Engine, the excellent performance of the game, is expected to form a strong support for the company's performance.

Cision

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/explosive-game-the-legand-of-neverland-lands-in-europe-and-the-united-states-with-over-2-million-reservations-301587336.html

SOURCE Ark Games
President Joe Biden on Friday laughed off the backlash he received for fist-bumping Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman  an exchange thats sparked outrage given the reports that the kingdoms de facto ruler approved the 2018 assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Biden chuckled when a reporter mentioned that his interaction earlier Friday with the crown prince had come under fire. Asked by the same reporter whether he can be sure a murder like Khashoggis wont happen again, Biden responded: God love you. What a silly question. How can I possibly be sure of any of that?

If anything occurs like that again, they'll get that response and much more, Biden continued, referring to his 2020 campaign trail pledge to turn Saudi Arabia into a pariah. Biden had said earlier in his remarks that he didn't regret using the term "pariah" to describe the country.

At a news conference following a meeting with bin Salman, Biden said the prince claimed that he was not personally responsible for the death of Khashoggi. I indicated I thought he was, the president said he replied.

Biden's meeting with bin Salman on Friday marked perhaps the most closely watched moment yet of the American presidents trip to the Middle East this week.

Neither Saudi Arabias King Salman nor the crown prince were in attendance at King Abdulaziz International Airport to meet Biden when Air Force One landed in the port city of Jeddah. Instead, Biden was received by various other Saudi officials including the governor of the countrys Mecca Province and the Saudi ambassador to the United States.

But upon Bidens arrival at Al Salam Royal Palace, where he was scheduled to participate in a meeting with the king, the crown prince was on hand to greet the president as he stepped out of his vehicle. Biden and bin Salman then fist-bumped one another before walking inside.

The exchange prompted immediate backlash from human rights activists who criticized Biden for offering what they called too-friendly of a greeting to the crown prince. The president also received criticism from Washington Post publisher Fred Ryan, who called the fist bump shameful.

Story continues

The fist bump between President Biden and Mohammed bin Salman was worse than a handshake  it was shameful, Ryan said in a statement. It projected a level of intimacy and comfort that delivers to MBS the unwarranted redemption he has been desperately seeking.

That brief public interaction between the two leaders had been highly anticipated ahead of the Saudi leg of Bidens Middle East trip. It was all the more notable after White House officials told reporters on Wednesday that Biden would seek to limit his handshaking while abroad as a precautionary measure amid an increase in cases of Covid-19 variants.

Still, Biden shook hands with and embraced several Israeli and Palestinian officials prior to arriving in Saudi Arabia, prompting speculation over how the president planned to address the crown prince  whom Biden pledged to make an international pariah during the 2020 presidential campaign.

Biden has received significant scrutiny for his decision to visit Saudi Arabia despite his past criticisms of the kingdom and the 2018 assassination Khashoggi. Last February, the Biden administration made public a U.S. intelligence report which found that bin Salman approved the operation that led to Khashoggis killing in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where Saudi operatives brutally murdered the U.S. resident and dismembered his body.



Biden in his remarks on Friday responded to criticism from Khashoggis fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, who said the blood of the crown princes next victim was on Bidens hands after his visit to Saudi Arabia. The president told reporters that hes sorry she feels that way.

I was straightforward back then. I was straightforward today. This is a meeting, I didn't come here to meet with the crown prince, Biden said. I came here to meet with the GCC and nine nations, to deal with the security and the needs of the free world, and particularly the United States.

After entering the palace on Friday, the crown prince led the president and the U.S. delegation to an ornate, parlor-style reception area where Biden took his seat beside the king. On Bidens side of the room, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan sat listening along the wall, while bin Salman flanked his father opposite them.

Biden and bin Salman then left the king and moved to a more formal, bilateral meeting conducted across a long, rectangular table crowded with U.S. and Saudi officials. The president and the crown prince did not respond to the assembled press corps, but bin Salman could be seen smirking when one journalist shouted a question about Khashoggi, according to a pool report.

Although Biden vowed to take a tougher line toward Saudi Arabia than former President Donald Trump, his visit to the oil-rich country comes as Russias invasion of Ukraine has resulted in a global energy crisis and a spike in gas prices in the United States. Biden also is seeking to reassert the United States presence in the Middle East as China and Russia move to exert greater influence in the region.

On Saturday, the president will attend a summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council plus Egypt, Iraq and Jordan  known as the GCC+3  where Biden is expected to discuss ramping up oil production with the member states. Biden told reporters last month that he would not directly ask Saudi Arabia to boost its production during the visit, but he acknowledged that he had indicated to the GCC+3 nations that I thought they should be increasing oil production generically.

Its in Saudi Arabia. Its not about Saudi Arabia. Its in Saudi Arabia, Biden added of the summit at the time. Theres a whole range of things that go well beyond anything having to do with Saudi Arabia.

At a news conference in Jerusalem on Thursday, Biden defended his travel to Saudi Arabia and did not explicitly commit to raising Khashoggis assassination in conversations with bin Salman. I always bring up human rights, Biden told reporters, but my position on Khashoggi has been so clear. If anyone doesnt understand it in Saudi Arabia or anywhere else, then they havent been around for a while.
The district attorney for Fulton County, Georgia has sent so-called target letters to prominent Georgia Republicans and allies of former president Donald Trump for her investigation into attempts to send a false slate of electors, Yahoo! News reported.

Fani Willis, the Democratic district attorney, has sent letters to state Senator Burt Jones, who is running for lieutenant governor, Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer and state Senator Brandon Beach.

Mr Jones and Mr Beach were part of a meeting on 14 December 2020 wherein 16 Republicans selected themselves as electors even though they had no legal basis for doing so. Mr Shafer reportedly presided over the meeting and signed the names of the false slate of electors in a declaration to the National Archives.

While Ms Willis did not comment directly on the letters, she did say she is considering having Mr Trump testify to a grand jury investigating his conduct.

I think it's something that were still weighing and evaluating, she said. Ms Willis said that she had spoken to defence lawyer Dwight Thomas, who was retained to represent Mr Trump. But Ms Willis brushed off potential criticism that it could lead to opposition from Republicans.

I dont make decisions based on what people say about me, she said.

Randy Evans, Mr Trumps former ambassador to Luxembourg, said that Republicans will attack the credibility of the investigation.

It drops it right into a characterization of this as a political, partisan witch hunt, as opposed to a legitimate inquiry, he said.
Company Logo

Global Network Devices Market

Global Network Devices Market

Dublin, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Network Devices Market by Connectivity (WiFi, Cellular, LoRa, ZigBee, Bluetooth), Device Type (Router, Gateway, Access Point), Application (Residential, Commercial, Enterprise, Industrial, Transportation) and Geography - Global Forecast to 2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The network devices market is expected to grow from USD 26.4 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 36.4 billion by 2027; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.6% during the forecast period.

The market for WiFI access points to have the highest CAGR during the forecast period.



The network devices market for WiFi access points is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The growing inclination towards smartphones, laptops, and tablets is creating a surge in demand for Internet service providers and access point (AP) providers.

This is expected to result in a conducive environment for the access points market. Increasing demand for access points to improve the digital infrastructure across commercial and enterprise sectors in India, China, and Japan is expected to boost the AP market. Favorable government initiatives to promote the digitalization and industrialization of developing economies will also positively influence the market. AP devices have become necessary for many businesses, institutions, and home users. The use of APs can help eliminate the problems of poor WiFi coverage, slow connectivity, dead zones, and weak signals.



The outdoor network devices segment to have higher growth throughout the forecast period.



The vast majority of routers deployed are not rugged and weatherproof and are deployed in indoor settings such as homes, retail stores, manufacturing facilities, and offices. In fact, almost all network devices (especially gateways) are deployed indoors. WiFi is not suitable for long-range outdoor use, and outdoor routers use cellular connectivity.

Story continues

Outdoor 4G/LTE routers are ideal for delivering optimal network connectivity to outdoor environments such as oil and mining sites, and to serve as reliable communication backbones for critical communication applications.4G LTE routers can also provide an excellent 4G LTE connection enabling instant POS setup for credit card access in remote areas where there is no fixed-line Internet connection. Since cellular and outdoor routers and APs are comparatively more expensive than indoor WiFi routers, the indoor routers segment held the larger share of the market.



The market for industrial applications to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period.



The market for industrial networking is expected to record the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Industrial applications mainly include utilities (energy and water) and automated manufacturing. Industrial networks deal with the transfer of data on a large scale.

Since the inception of Industry 4.0, the penetration of AI and IIoT technologies in the manufacturing sector has been increasing rapidly. AI-and IIoT-Integrated systems allow optimization of manufacturing processes, send early alerts, contribute to quality control, and forecast equipment failure in machinery. By gathering precise data, manufacturers can develop innovative AI applications to differentiate themselves from their competitors.



Market in APAC to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period.



The network devices market in APAC is expected to see the fastest growth during the forecast period. The APAC region is a leading industrial hub and an emerging and important market for several other sectors as well. The growing penetration of the Internet across the commercial and industrial spaces, as well as the increasing reach of wireless connectivity and improving IT infrastructure, are among the key determinants of growth for the network devices market in APAC.

In February 2021, China's Ministry of Industry announced plans for a hi-tech transformation of manufacturing to offset rising production costs and consolidate its position in the global supply chain. Beijing will help modernize the sector with advancements in 5G, cloud computing and IoT. China aims to build 30 fully connected 5G factories in 10 key industries by 2023; the country has fast-tracked industrial Internet development through integration with 5G technologies. These initiatives are expected to fuel the growth of industrial Internet in the APAC region.



Key Topics Covered:



1 Introduction



2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Premium Insights

4.1 Attractive Opportunities in Network Devices Market

4.2 Network Devices Market, by Device Type

4.3 Network Devices Market, by Connectivity

4.4 Network Devices Market, by Application

4.5 Network Devices Market, by Country

5 Market Overview

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Market Dynamics

5.2.1 Drivers

5.2.1.1 Increased Focus on Digital Transformation Across Various Sectors

5.2.1.2 Worldwide Growth in Number of Internet Users

5.2.1.3 Rising Adoption of Cyod Trend due to COVID-19 Pandemic

5.2.1.4 Continuous Development of Wifi Standards

5.2.2 Restraints

5.2.2.1 Contention Loss and Co-Channel Interference in Wifi Access Points

5.2.2.2 Disruption in Network Devices Hardware Supply Chain due To COVID-19

5.2.3 Opportunities

5.2.3.1 Increasing Demand for Carrier Wifi

5.2.3.2 Growing Wireless Networking with Advent of Industry 4.0 and Iiot

5.2.3.3 Increasing Emergence of Connectivity for Smart Homes

5.2.3.4 Rising Adoption of Connected Devices in Hospitality and Education Sectors

5.2.4 Challenges

5.2.4.1 Poor User Experience in High-Density Environments

5.2.4.2 Data Security and Privacy Concerns in Open Networks

5.3 Tariffs and Regulations

5.3.1 Tariffs Related to Network Devices

5.3.2 Regulations

5.3.3 North America

5.3.3.1 Federal Communications Commission (Fcc)

5.3.4 Europe

5.3.4.1 Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (Berec)

5.3.4.2 Ce

5.3.4.3 Restriction of Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Rohs)

5.3.4.4 International Special Committee on Radio Interference (Cispr)

5.3.5 APAC

5.3.5.1 Voluntary Control Council for Interference (Vcci)

5.3.5.2 Infocomm Media Development Authority (Imda)

5.4 Standards

5.5 Case Studies

5.5.1 Nttpc Communications Deploys Cisco Integrated Service Routers with Ios Embedded Event Manager to Reduce Overall Operations Cost

5.5.2 D-Link Helps Food Processing Company in Washington Eliminate Network Downtime and Enable Round-The-Clock Efficiency

5.5.3 Tp-Link Assists Chase Grammar School with Wireless Optimization for Internet Connectivity

5.5.4 Cisco Helps Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance to Revolutionize Working Style

5.5.5 Southstar Drug Deploys Huawei Wifi 6 Solution for Smooth Wireless Network Experience

5.6 Pricing Analysis

5.7 Value Chain Analysis

5.8 Ecosystem/Market Map

5.9 Technology Analysis

5.9.1 Key Emerging Technologies

5.9.1.1 Wifi 6

5.9.2 Adjacent Technologies

5.9.2.1 Software-Based Routing

5.10 Wifi and Cellular Technology Trends

5.10.1 Wimax

5.10.2 Long-Term Evolution (Lte)

5.10.3 5G

5.11 Patent Analysis

5.12 Trade Data

5.12.1 Import Scenario

5.12.2 Export Scenario

5.13 Porter's Five Forces Analysis

5.13.1 Threat of New Entrants

5.13.2 Threat of Substitutes

5.13.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers

5.13.4 Bargaining Power of Buyers

5.13.5 Intensity of Competitive Rivalry

5.14 Key Stakeholders & Buying Criteria

5.14.1 Key Stakeholders in Buying Process

5.14.2 Buying Criteria

5.15 Trends and Disruptions Impacting Customers

5.16 Key Conferences & Events in 2022-2023

6 Network Devices Market, by Device Type

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Routers

6.2.1 Widespread Use of Industrial Routers for Manufacturing and Utilities Applications in Indoor and Outdoor Environments

6.3 Gateways

6.3.1 Ruggedized Industrial Gateways Suited to Severe and Remote Environments

6.4 Access Points

6.4.1 Designed to Connect Wireless Devices in Various Environments

7 Network Devices Market, by Type

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Indoor

7.2.1 Suited to Several Applications Despite Limited Wifi Range

7.2.2 Indoor: Market Drivers

7.2.3 Indoor: COVID-19 Impact

7.3 Outdoor

7.3.1 Outdoor Devices Help Extend Internal Wireless Networks

7.3.2 Outdoor: Market Drivers

7.3.3 Outdoor: COVID-19 Impact

8 Network Devices Market, by Connectivity

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Wifi

8.2.1 Operates in Frequency Band of Around 2.4 Ghz and 5.0 Ghz

8.3 Cellular

8.3.1 Wide Use of Evolving Cellular-Based Technologies in Network Devices

8.4 Wifi+Others

8.4.1 Wifi+Others Encompasses Wifi Along with Bluetooth, Zigbee, And/Or Lora

8.5 Lora

8.5.1 Explicitly Designed for Long-Range, Low-Power Communications

8.6 Others

8.6.1 Bluetooth and Zigbee Connectivity

9 Network Devices Market, by Application

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Residential Networking

9.2.1 Increasing Demand for Wireless Networking to Control Domestic Devices

9.3 Commercial Networking

9.3.1 Wide Use of Commercial Networks to Improve Retail Operations

9.4 Enterprise Networking

9.4.1 Significant Increase in Demand due to COVID-10 Pandemic

9.5 Industrial Networking

9.5.1 Growing Need for Advanced Wide-Area Networking Solutions

9.6 Transportation Networking

9.6.1 Rising Deployment in Public Road Transportation Systems and Railways

10 Geographic Analysis

11 Competitive Landscape

11.1 Overview

11.2 Strategies of Key Players / Market Evaluation Framework

11.2.1 Product Portfolio

11.2.2 Regional Focus

11.2.3 Manufacturing Footprint

11.2.4 Organic/Inorganic Growth Strategies

11.3 Market Share Analysis: Network Devices Market, 2021

11.4 Historical Revenue Analysis

11.5 Company Evaluation Quadrant

11.5.1 Star

11.5.2 Emerging Leader

11.5.3 Pervasive

11.5.4 Participant

11.6 Competitive Benchmarking

11.7 Start-Up/Sme Evaluation Matrix

11.7.1 Progressive Companies

11.7.2 Responsive Companies

11.7.3 Dynamic Companies

11.7.4 Starting Blocks

11.8 Competitive Benchmarking

11.9 Competitive Situations and Trends

11.9.1 Product Launches

11.9.2 Deals

11.9.3 Others

12 Company Profiles

12.1 Key Players

12.1.1 Cisco Systems

12.1.2 Huawei

12.1.3 Hp Enterprise

12.1.4 Juniper Networks

12.1.5 Sierra Wireless

12.1.6 Cradlepoint

12.1.7 Digi International

12.1.8 Teltonika

12.1.9 Multitech

12.1.10 Inseego

12.1.11 Schneider Electric

12.1.12 General Electric

12.1.13 Extreme Networks

12.2 Other Key Players

12.2.1 Siemens

12.2.2 Moxa

12.2.3 Robustel

12.2.4 Advantech

12.2.5 Lynx Technologies

12.2.6 Lantronix

12.2.7 D-Link

12.2.8 Tp-Link Technologies

12.2.9 Belkin International

12.2.10 Adtran

12.2.11 Asustek Computer

12.2.12 Hms Networks

12.2.13 Casa Systems

12.2.14 Nokia

13 Appendix

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/dnt666

Attachment

CONTACT: CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900




CED grants over $2.3M to five organizations for projects to build and improve community spaces in the Nord-du-Quebec region.

VAL-D'OR, QC, July 15, 2022 /CNW Telbec/ - Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions (CED)

Shared public spaces are at the heart of communities across Canada. They draw in residents and visitors alike, supporting local businesses and jobs. In so many places across the country, these spaces have seen a significant fluctuation in use due to the impacts of COVID-19.

Today, the Honourable Pascale St-Onge, Minister of Sport and Minister responsible for CED, announced non-repayable contributions totalling $2,365,465 for three Cree communities (Cree Nation of Chisasibi, Cree Nation of Wemindji and The Crees of the Waskaganish First Nation), as well as two NPOs (the Centre de developpement communautaire de Matagami and the Societe pour promouvoir la securite alimentaire a Salluit).

All of these projects to build and enhance the Nord-du-Quebec region's community spaces have been funded by CED under the Canada Community Revitalization Fund (CCRF). Further information on the five projects is available in the related backgrounder.

The Government of Canada recognizes that community spaces promote social interaction and physical activity. By providing better access to recreational programs and facilities, we are contributing to the well-being of communities, families, and individuals across the country. Our economic recovery is closely linked to the vitality of our local communities and their shared spaces.

Quote

"Our assistance for these promising projects in the Nord-du-Quebec region demonstrates our government's commitment to support economic development in communities of every size right across Quebec. I am delighted to know that the region's citizens and many visitors will be able to make full use of these quality meeting spaces to come together more easily after the pandemic. Bravo on these exciting projects supporting the entire region's growth!"

Story continues

The Honourable Pascale StOnge, Member of Parliament for BromeMissisquoi, Minister of Sport and Minister responsible for CED

Quick facts

The CCRF was launched in June 2021. A total of $500 million has been granted over two years to Canada's regional development agencies (RDAs), including $107 million for CED to invest in shared and inclusive public spaces in Quebec. As public health restrictions ease, the Government of Canada remains committed to investing in shared spaces to make them safer, greener, and more accessible. This in turn will stimulate local economies, create jobs, and improve quality of life for Canadians. This funding helps communities:



The CCRF is being deployed under CED's Quebec Economic Development Program (QEDP).

CED is a key federal partner in Quebec's regional economic development. With its 12 business offices, CED is present to accompany Quebec businesses, supporting organizations and regions into tomorrow's economy.

Associated links

Stay Connected

Follow CED on social media

Consult CED's news

SOURCE Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions

Cision

View original content: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2022/15/c2928.html
CCTV: On July 14, visiting US President Biden said while meeting the press with Israeli Prime Minister Lapid that the US can continue to lead in the region and not create a vacuum, a vacuum that is filled by China and/or Russia, against the interests of both Israel and the United States. Whats Chinas comment?

Wang Wenbin: The Middle East is a land of its people, not anyones backyard. There is no so-called vacuum there.

The Middle East is not yet tranquil, with COVID-19 posing a protracted challenge to regional development and the spillover of the Ukraine crisis affecting regional security. The people in the Middle East want development and security more than anything else. The international community, major countries in particular, should make it a priority and work constructively to help the countries and people in this region realize development and security, not otherwise.

China has long supported the people of the Middle East in independently exploring their own development path and supported Middle East countries in resolving regional security issues through solidarity and cooperation. We have made relentless efforts and played our due role in safeguarding peace, promoting development and facilitating the just and reasonable resolution of hotspot issues in the region. We are ready to work together with the international community to contribute positively to peace and development in the Middle East.

Prasar Bharati: I would like to ask you as to when China is going to start issuing visas to Indian students as the Indian side has handed over to China the list of students willing to return. Students from many countries including South Asian countries have returned to China despite the COVID situation. Also, do you have any updates on the resumption of direct flights between India and China?

Wang Wenbin: As far as I know, positive progress has been made on facilitating the return of Indian students to China. The departments in charge of this matter from both sides will continue to work closely with each other for the early return of the first batch of Indian students who wish to resume their studies in China.

On your second question, resuming direct flights is conducive to travel and exchanges and cooperation in various sectors. It is in the interest of both sides. We hope the Indian side will work with China in the same direction for the early resumption of direct flights and ensure the safe and orderly flow of personnel between the two countries.

Shenzhen TV: During State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yis visit to Indonesia, the two sides held the second meeting of the China-Indonesia High-level Dialogue Cooperation Mechanism. Can you brief us on the outcomes of the meeting?

Wang Wenbin: The China-Indonesia High-level Dialogue Cooperation Mechanism is an important platform for China and Indonesia to coordinate and plan for practical cooperation in various fields. Since its inception in June 2021, the mechanism has focused on COVID-19 response and development cooperation. A lot of good work has been done through the mechanism for the all-round growth of China-Indonesia relations. The latest meeting, which is the second one under the mechanism, was attended by Indonesias Coordinator for Cooperation with China and Coordinating Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan and Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi as the co-chair and vice chair of the dialogue mechanism, an indication of the amount of importance attached to the mechanism.

The meeting was a great success. It was conducted in a warm and friendly atmosphere and produced a lot of common understandings. Both sides are of the view that President Xi Jinping and President Joko Widodo have maintained close communication, providing strategic guidance to the excellent performance of bilateral ties and injecting strong impetus into the two countries solidarity in fighting the coronavirus, recovery and development.

The two sides agreed that China-Indonesia relations have strategic significance and global influence. They agreed to work together to build a China-Indonesia community with a shared future and be an example of mutual benefit, a model of common development and pacesetters in South-South cooperation among major developing countries. Indonesia is ready to support and join the Global Development Initiative (GDI) put forth by President Xi. Indonesia values and welcomes the Global Security Initiative.

The two sides agreed to speed up cooperation regarding the four pillars of political, economic, cultural and maritime fields, focus on landmark projects such as the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Corridor and the Two Countries, Twin Parks, and foster new flagship projects of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation. They agreed to fully elevate cooperation in development financing, agriculture, poverty alleviation and food security, and build highlight projects in implementing the GDI at the bilateral level.

The two sides agreed to firmly support ASEAN centrality, uphold the ASEAN-led regional cooperation architecture, reject the Cold War mentality and bloc politics, and safeguard regional peace, stability and development prospects.

All in all, this has been a timely meeting. It speaks to the common position and sense of responsibility of China and Indonesia as major developing countries under the current circumstances. The meeting will go a long way in deepening bilateral strategic cooperation, upholding regional peace and stability, and safeguarding global fairness and justice.

AFP: I have two questions. Firstly, it is reported that a US military aircraft had an unsafe and unprofessional interaction recently with a Chinese military aircraft in the air space over the South China Sea. Do you have any response? Secondly, China has reportedly announced that it will formally start negotiations on a free trade agreement with Uruguay. Can you offer more details on that?

Wang Wenbin: Id like to refer you to the Ministry of National Defense for the first question.

As for your question about the progress on a China-Uruguay free trade agreement, I would like to refer you to Chinas competent authorities. To give you our principled position, we are ready to deepen trade cooperation with Uruguay on the basis of equality and mutual benefit.

Bloomberg: A Pacific Islands Forum official said China attempted to strike a wide-ranging economic and security pact in the region. Does the foreign ministry have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: When developing relations with Pacific Island countries (PICs), China is always committed to treating each other as equals and with mutual respect, and to win-win cooperation, openness and inclusiveness. Forcing its will on others is not how China conducts itself. PICs are Chinas good friends, partners and brothers, and we always fully respect and listen to their opinions.

With regard to the meeting document that you mentioned, I can tell you that China had widely solicited the opinions of PICs and that most of them welcomed the document. We will continue our communication with PICs on this.

CCTV: During State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yis recent visit to the Philippines, the Philippine Foreign Secretary said that Wang was the first foreign minister the new Philippine government received after assuming office. Whats Chinas consideration behind the timing of the visit? Whats Chinas expectation for China-Philippines relations going forward?

Wang Wenbin: China and the Philippines are close neighbors facing each other across the sea and enjoy a millennia-old friendship. The Philippines has always been a priority in Chinas neighborhood diplomacy. President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcoss election turned a new page in China-Philippines relations. President Xi Jinping extended his congratulations and held a telephone conversation with President Marcos soon after the election, providing strategic guidance for the development of bilateral relations in the new era. State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yis visit is aimed at having in-depth communication with the new government, conveying the important message face-to-face that China values its relations with the Philippines and supports the new Philippine government, and working out ways with the Philippine side to renew friendship, consolidate trust and continue cooperation.

During the visit, State Councilor Wang Yi called on President Marcos and Vice President Sara Zimmerman Duterte-Carpio and met with the Foreign Secretary and the National Security Adviser of the Philippines for in-depth and candid exchanges. The two sides agreed that the sound and steady development of bilateral relations serves the fundamental and long-term interests of both peoples. The friendship between the two countries can only and must be further strengthened. Our two countries should become good neighbors that help each other, good relatives that share mutual understanding and enjoy close bonds, and good partners that pursue cooperation and win-win results, so as to further boost bilateral relations and upgrade cooperation to usher in a new golden era in bilateral ties.

The two sides agreed to conduct cooperation in the four key areas of large-scale agriculture, infrastructure, energy, and cultural and people-to-people exchanges to enhance friendship and cooperation. The Chinese side will support the Philippines in its efforts to achieve food self-sufficiency and agricultural modernization, strengthen conventional and hi-tech infrastructure, and improve its energy structure, so as to generate more tangible benefits to the Philippine people and also the Chinese people.

Both sides stressed that the South China Sea issue is not the sum total of bilateral relations. We cannot afford to allow specific differences to define our relationship or allow individual disputes to interfere with overall cooperation. The Chinese side underlined the importance to view things from a strategic and overall perspective, set aside disputes and use political wisdom to advance joint development and make the pie of cooperation bigger. The Philippine side responded positively and expressed readiness to carry out candid exchanges with the Chinese side to find a friendly solution to the issue and jointly safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea.

We have great expectations for the future of China-Philippines relations and stand ready to work together with the Philippine side to deepen friendship and cooperation and provide more positive energy to the steady development of our two countries and the wider region.

Bloomberg: Sri Lankas ambassador to China said his nation is continuing negotiations with China for aid. As part of that financing, he said Colombo is asking for a loan to repay Chinese debt. How does China respond to the diplomats remarks?

Wang Wenbin: As a friend and neighbor, China has been closely following the current difficulties and challenges faced by Sri Lanka and providing assistance for its socioeconomic development to the best of our capacity. Over the past months, the Chinese government announced a total of RMB500 million worth of emergency humanitarian assistance to Sri Lanka. Yesterday, the second batch of emergency humanitarian food assistance provided by China was delivered to Sri Lanka. Besides, through government-to-government and subnational channels and through friendly organizations, China has provided multiple batches of various types of assistance to people across the sectors of Sri Lanka to improve their livelihood.

As to China-Sri Lanka financial cooperation, shortly after the Sri Lankan government announced to suspend international debt payments, Chinese financial institutions reached out to the Sri Lankan side and expressed their readiness to find a proper way to handle the matured debts related to China and help Sri Lanka to overcome the current difficulties. China is ready to work with relevant countries and international financial institutions to continue to play a positive role in supporting Sri Lankas response to current difficulties and efforts to ease debt burden and realize sustainable development.
Five years ago, Jordan Peele released Get Out, his feature directorial debut, and promptly changed not just his own career, but the entire landscape of horror cinema. The film was a runaway hit, a "social horror" phenomenon that earned Peele an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and influenced countless horror films and novels that have come since.

Now, as he prepares to release his third film as director, Nope, Peele has realized that the movie he just made may have been impossible back in the days of Get Out. At least, it felt that way at the time.

"I think this idea of letting a Black director put his vision into a film and commit to it... let's put it this way, five years ago, I didn't think they'd ever let me do that," Peele told TODAY in a new interview. "So much of my career before I became a director was marred with this internalized sense that I could never be allowed to do that, that no one would ever trust me with money  enough money to do my vision the way they'd trust other people. I felt that that was true."

Peele, a comedy star who won international acclaim for the Comedy Central series Key & Peele before he moved over to feature films, always considered horror his favorite genre, and Get Out served as his calling card to prove that he could translate that fandom into a creative output of his own. He followed that film up with Us, another horror hit driven by Peele's keen stylistic eye, which blends scares and laughs with a knack for social commentary. While Us was definitely larger in scope than Get Out, Nope feels like an even bigger creative vision, so big that Peele has acknowledged he wrote the film without thinking of what it might cost for a studio to mount the eventual production.

"The first notion that I latched onto when I was writing this movie was the idea of making a spectacle," he said. "I wanted to make a flying saucer movie because I just felt like if we can feel like we're in the presence of something 'other,' if we feel like that's real, then that's an immersive experience worthy of going to the movies."

Story continues

With the backing of Universal Pictures, Peele has been given license to dream that big with Nope, the story of a brother and sister (Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer) who try to capture video evidence of a UFO after witnessing strange shapes in the sky at their family horse ranch. It's a film the studio has branded as a "horror epic" in an effort to play up the summer blockbuster appeal of the release, but according to Peele, you'll also find the attention to thematic detail that ran through Get Out and Us is still a part of Nope. For him, viewing genre films through a social lens is not just interesting, but essential.

"I think it's impossible to make any movie without it being about race, because race is all around us," Peele said. "You can't have Black people in a flying saucer film and just have it be the same experience. It's not. There's a different relationship.

"My race, I think, has informed my entire artistic journey, and part of it has been trying to reconcile the box, and the boxes that this country puts people of color in, and trying to break out of that box."

Nope is in theaters July 22.
Homebuilders latest community offers rare opportunity to own a new home in a prime Los Angelesarea location, priced from the mid $800,000s.

ARCADIA, Calif., July 15, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--KB Home (NYSE: KBH) today announced the grand opening of Lotus, a new townhome community in popular Arcadia, California. Lotus is located on Live Oak Avenue, which is convenient to the Metro Gold Line and Interstates 10, 210 and 605, providing easy access to the greater Los Angeles area and its major employment centers. Lotus is also close to shopping, dining and entertainment at Westfield Santa Anita and just a short drive to outdoor recreation at Angeles National Forest and Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area. The new community is near several other family friendly activities at the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden, Mount Wilson Observatory, Peck Road Water Conservation Park, Irwindale Speedway, Norton Simon Museum and The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220715005096/en/

KB Home announces the grand opening of Lotus, a new townhome community in highly desirable Arcadia, California. (Graphic: Business Wire)

Lotus showcases a wide selection of two- and three-story townhomes that blend attractive design features like beautiful kitchens overlooking large great rooms, expansive bedroom suites with walk-in closets, and ample storage space. The communitys floor plans feature up to four bedrooms and three-and-a-half baths, and range in size from approximately 1,100 to 1,900 square feet. Future amenities will include multiple common areas with barbeques, lounge seating and picnic tables. Homeowners will also appreciate that the new community is zoned for the Monrovia Unified School District.

"Our new homes at Lotus are situated in highly desirable Arcadia, California and convenient to the Metro Gold Line and Interstates 10, 210 and 605, providing easy access to Los Angeles major employment centers. The new community is also close to outdoor recreation and several family friendly activities," said Keltie Cole, President of KB Homes Los Angeles and Ventura County division. "Homeowners will enjoy the future neighborhood amenities, including multiple common areas with barbeques, lounge seating and picnic tables."

Story continues

KB Home stands out from other homebuilders as the company gives homebuyers exceptional choice and control. KB Home starts by offering a wide variety of homes at an affordable price. From there, the builder gives buyers the opportunity to select from a range of design choices. The KB Home team works hand in hand with homeowners every step of the way, so they have a real partner in the process.

Every KB home is designed to be ENERGY STAR certified thanks to the quality construction techniques and materials utilized that ultimately deliver significant savings on utility bills compared to used homes. Additionally, all new KB homes are designed to deliver an enhanced indoor environment and include high performance ventilation systems, low- or zero-VOC products and other features guided by the Environmental Protection Agencys (EPA) Indoor airPLUS standards.

The Lotus sales office and model homes are open for walk-in visits and private in-person tours by appointment. Homebuyers also have the flexibility to arrange a live video tour with a sales counselor. Pricing begins from the mid $800,000s.

For more information on KB Home, call 888-KB-HOMES or visit kbhome.com.

About KB Home

KB Home is one of the largest and most recognized homebuilders in the United States and has built over 655,000 quality homes in our more than 65-year history. Today, KB Home operates in 47 markets from coast to coast. What sets KB Home apart is the exceptional personalization we offer our homebuyers  from those buying their first home to experienced buyers  allowing them to make their home uniquely their own, at a price that fits their budget. As the leader in energy-efficient homebuilding, KB Home was the first builder to make every home it builds ENERGY STAR certified, a standard of energy performance achieved by fewer than 10% of new homes in America and has built more ENERGY STAR certified homes than any other builder. An energy-efficient KB home helps lower the cost of ownership and is designed to be healthier, more comfortable and better for the environment than new homes without certification. We build strong, personal relationships with our customers, so they have a real partner in the homebuying process. As a result, we have the distinction of being the #1 customer-ranked national homebuilder in third-party buyer satisfaction surveys. Learn more about how we build homes built on relationships by visiting kbhome.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220715005096/en/

Contacts

For Further Information:

Craig LeMessurier, KB Home

925-580-1583

clemessurier@kbhome.com
ListenFirst Media

The social media analytics company now provides brands with full organic, boosted and paid analysis of Reels data

Announcing Analytics For Instagram Reels

Announcing Analytics For Instagram Reels

NEW YORK, July 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ListenFirst , the premier enterprise social analytics solution today announced the addition of Instagram Reels to the ListenFirst Analytics platform. With Instagram only launching the Reels API for Developers on June 27th, 2022, building a Reels analytics solution that was both comprehensive and flexible instantly became priority number one ListenFirst.

The result is ListenFirst Analytics for Instagram Reels provides marketers with complete channel-specific and cross-channel level transparency into performance like no other platform. For brands struggling to understand how Reels fits within their greater social video strategy, this is the missing puzzle piece. Marketers can filter for Reels only results, or measure within the context of all their social media content.

ListenFirst Analytics for Instagram Reels gives brands access to every possible trackable metric for Reels. This includes tracking for a brands own organic, boosted, and paid Reels. Additionally, Reels data is fully included in competitive rankings, giving brands insight into the performance of other brands and influencers.

ListenFirst has already captured millions of Instagram Reels from the world's leading brands collectively receiving over 50+ billion engagements. ListenFirst is tracking data for Reels posted as far back as June 2020, helping brands with benchmarking today.

Reels analytics had become the number one request from ListenFirst clients, and we've been preparing for a long time for the moment Meta was ready to share this data stream, explained Jonathan Farb, Chief Product Officer at ListenFirst. With Instagram Reels now fully integrated into the Listenfirst platform, our clients have unprecedented insight into how their video content is performing across all major social media channels. For brands heavily invested in video, this added layer of analytics is critical for optimizing and improving social ROI.

Story continues

About ListenFirst

ListenFirst is the premier social analytics solution used by the worlds leading brands. With a breadth of data and award-winning expertise unmatched in the market, we offer an easy, one-stop solution to optimize social media marketing and maximize ROI. ListenFirst has been honored with multiple accolades including a 2020 SIIA CODiE Award for Best Emerging Technology, 2020 Cynopsis AdTech Award for Outstanding Data Solution, 2022 High Performer recognition from G2 Crowd, MarTech Breakthrough Award for Best Social Media Monitoring Software, and named one of Inc. 500s fastest growing companies. Founded in 2012, ListenFirst is trusted by leading global brands including AT&T, Amazon, NBCUniversal, and Peloton. For more information, visit www.listenfirstmedia.com .

Contact: Jonathan Cohen, 929 246 7447, jonathan.cohen@listenfirstmedia.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/cf032a32-d0f9-4a6a-aaf7-4dc65597035c




2023 Toyota Crown

Toyotas longest running model name will return to the United States this fall on a 2023 vehicle.

A tall sedan with a standard all-wheel-drive hybrid drivetrain and vaguely SUV-ish looks, the 2023 Crown is expected to be the Toyota brands top car, filling the niche abandoned by the Avalon.

The Crown is a revered name within Toyota. As the Toyopet Crown, it was the companys first mass-produced automobile in 1955, and the first Japanese car sold in the U.S. beginning in 1958. Toyota last sold a car called the Crown here in 1972, but the nameplate has remained on the lineup in Japan and elsewhere.

Toyota will build the Crown un Japan. It produced the Avalon in Georgetown, Kentucky.

Smaller, but taller than the Avalon

The new vehicle is the 15th-generation Crown.

Toyota appears to be trying to meld that heritage with the contemporary taste for SUVs by giving the new Crown big wheels and wheel wells and a tall profile.

Crown prices will be announced closer to when they go on sale.

The five-passenger sedan measures 194 inches long  1.9 inches shorter than the Avalon, which just went out of production. It's fractionally narrower than the Avalon, but its 60.6-inch-high roof makes the Crown a whopping 4.1 inches taller than the Avalon. The Crowns 112.2-inch wheelbase, a key dimension that affects passenger space and handling, is 0.8-inch shorter than the Avalon.

2023 Toyota Crown

Toyota's betting the prestige of its longest-running model name on the theory that buyers' preference for SUVs can be sated by a puffed-up sedan that offers up to 21-inch wheels and tires.

More from Mark Phelan:

$267,000 Bentley Bentayga SUV is the shape of luxurys future

Auto show, Concours dElegance team up for September weekend showcasing Detroit

Two hybrid systems

Lower trim levels  XLE and Limited  will have a 2.5L engine and hybrid system with a continuously variable automatic transmission. Toyotas not revealing that drivetrains power, but predicts it will get a 38 mpg rating in combined city and highway driving.

Story continues

The top Platinum trim gets a more powerful system that Toyota calls Hybrid Max. It generates 340 horsepower and has a 2.4L engine, six-speed automatic transmission and electrically powered rear axle. Toyota predicts it will get 38 mpg in combined city and highway driving.

2023 Toyota Crown

Interior features include Toyotas cloud-based infotainment system; heated and ventilated front seats; heated rear seats; 12.3-inch landscape oriented touch screen and 11-speaker JBL audio.

Safety and driver assistance features include:

Hands-free parking

Pedestrian and motorcycle detection

Intersection assist

Adaptive cruise control

Automatic high beams

Lane departure alert and assist

Lane centering

Road sign recognition

Rear-seat reminder

Blind spot and cross traffic alerts

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Toyota revives Crown name in US with SUV-ish sedan
Interested students can now earn both an associates degree and a bachelors degree in business in just 2 1/2 years, thanks to a new partnership between Germanna Community College and the University of Mary Washington.

UMW president Troy Paino and Germanna president Janet Gullickson signed the agreement creating a fast track to a business degree on Monday.

The accelerated program starts with Germannas College Everywhere program, which allows students to complete the requirements for an associates degree online in one year instead of two.

Students can then transfer to UMW and earn a bachelors degree in business administration online in 18 months.

This is all about the students, said Paino, in a press release about the agreement. This is about removing obstacles, creating access and opportunities, lowering costs, accelerating time to degrees. All of those things are really going to make a difference, not only in the students lives but in our community.

The new partnership is one of several that already exist between UMW and Germanna, such as a guaranteed transfer partnership and a co-enrollment agreement that allows students to take up to five courses at UMW while completing an associates degree.

Weve grown together, and together weve helped our communities grow and thrive, said Gullickson. Were proud to be Mary Washingtons partner and thrilled theyre joining us to make it easy for Germanna College Everywhere graduates to get where they want to go in life more quickly and affordably.

The business administration pathway was created for College Everywhere students, but is open to anyone who wants to major in business at UMW. Transfer students must have completed at least 15 credits and hold a minimum cumulative grade point average of 2.75.Adele UphausConner: 540/735-1973
The Rappahannock Area Health District this week notified 71 contractors, hired in 2020 to take on various duties related to COVID-19, that their services are no longer neededand their employment will end in two weeks.

Many of them had contracts that were supposed to last through next spring or summer. However, contractors realize those arrangements can be broken at any time by employee or employer, said Kara Martin, a Fredericksburg resident and one of those affected.

It was just kind of blindsiding that we got two weeks notice, she said.

The contractors whose jobs are ending due to a lack of funding have worked in nursing, logistics, communications, outreach and outbreak, said Mary Chamberlin, the health districts public information officer whos also losing her job. She responded to The Free LanceStars request for information.

Martin has worked on the outbreak team for Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County schools, notifying nurses and other school workers about ever-changing guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

When parents questioned guidelines or demanded their children return to school before their quarantine ended, Martin offered school workers guidance on how to deal with the situationsand medical reasons why that wasnt a good idea.

Others on outbreak teams have worked with long-term care facilities and businesses when they had clusters of illness. Members of outreach teams worked to share information about the virus, and later, the vaccine, in minority communities or areas where people had difficulty accessing resources. Other contractors worked to notify those whod been exposed to someone who tested positive, early on when contact tracing was being done, or to provide vaccines at community settings.

Emotions always run high when workers get what feels like short shrift from employers. Social media lit up with comments questioning the sudden end of the federal funding and the way the situation was handled.

Martin seemed more than understanding about the possibility that funding had run out, given reports that Congress no longer is replenishing some COVID-19-related monies and that cases had been tapering offuntil new subvariants of omicron started making headlines recently.

But Martin also said it would have been nice if she and other team members could have prepared their contacts for what was coming. She was putting together some back-to-school information when her notice cameand she had to tell her school contacts her position was disappearing.

I almost understand if they staggered us, but to let go of the entire COVID team seems outrageous to me, Martin said.

Its not clear who will pick up the work of those whose jobs ended, Chamberlin said.

The notices went out on Monday. The previous Friday, Dr. Olugbenga Obasanjo, the health district director, left for two-week training as part of his National Guard duty. He notified Dr. Trice Gravatte, health director at the adjacent RappahannockRapidan Health District, that hed be out so Gravatte could cover for him in his absence.

When Chamberlin alerted him that the newspaper was looking for information about the contractors terminationand if the same cuts were being made across the stateGravatte reached out to the Virginia Department of Health in Richmond.

While the decision to terminate the 71 contractors was made specifically by the RAHD leadership, Gravatte said he learned that seven other health districtsof 35 statewideare experiencing similar issues.

When Gravatte pleaded the case for the RAHD to Richmond officials, he said the state realized this is a big hit to try to manage and agreed to allocate funding from a different pot to the Fredericksburg-area health district.

With the additional funding, the RAHD will be able to hire back 19 contractors, Gravatte said. Those who worked with schools, occupational health, long-term care facilities and other aspects of community health will be funded through next year, he said.

Gravatte said the 19 workers who will be offered their old jobs back will be notified on Friday or Monday by the five outside agencies who employ the contractors used by the RAHD.

He also said it certainly is a jerk to tell people theyve lost their jobs because of a lack of money then come back a few days later and say extra money has been discovered, will you come back to the table? He said this might be a good time for those involved to determine if they want to proceed in the contracting worldwhich has its risksor take advantage of the job market and find something else.

Gravatte couldnt answer why RAHD officials hadnt been able to find a partial solution as hed done in less than two days.

I do know they have been working hard to maintain services and in the last month, it came crashing down on them that as the invoices were coming in, there was a financial challenge that didnt seem to have a solution, Gravatte said. I understood they labored over it greatly for at least a month and saw no other pathway but to cut positions.

Gravatte said the RappahannockRapidan Health District, which includes Culpeper, Fauquier, Orange and several other counties, has not had to reduce its contractor workforce.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Rappahannock Area Health District has brought on 89 contractors to help with the workload, Gravatte said. The health district covers Fredericksburg and the counties of Caroline, King George, Spotsylvania and Stafford and has 77 full-time employees.

While virus numbers have waxed and waned, Chamberlin said the contractors impacted by the announcement have worked hard and are continuing to work, theyre never without tasks.

She said she also believes there always will be a need for teams to work with underserved demographics such as Latinos, the homeless and refugees and to partner with faith-based representatives to share public health messages.
Culpeper County High Schools choir teacher was arrested Tuesday by sheriffs deputies and charged with using a communication system to facilitate offenses involving children, the Sheriffs Office said Wednesday.

Culpeper resident Craig Alexander Smith, 47, was placed in the Culpeper County Jail on a $2,000 secured bond, the agency said on its Facebook page.

Smith, who was director of the regional Blue Ridge Chorale for five years and a worship leader at Culpeper Baptist Church, was appointed as Culpeper Highs choir teacher this year. This summer, he was working in the summer school program.

The mother of a 16-year-old male reported that a Culpeper County High School teacher was possibly grooming her son for sexual activity and had provided him a cell phone along with providing her son rides home from work, the Sheriffs Office said.

Smith discussed the allegations with sheriffs deputies and admitted to providing the cellular phone and requesting nude photos of the minor, the agency said.

Lt. Marshall Keene and School Resource Officer Vernon Carter conducted the investigation. They ask anyone with information about other victims or incidents to contact the Sheriffs Office at 540-727-7520 or MKeene@CulpeperCounty.gov.

Culpeper County Public Schools is aware of the arrest of Mr. Smith, Sheriff Scott Jenkins wrote in his agencys Facebook post. As always, Dr. Brads and CCPS are completely cooperative in this investigation.

Due to the nature of the charges, Mr. Smith is no longer employed by Culpeper County Public Schools, spokeswoman Laura Hoover told the Culpeper Star-Exponent late Tuesday.

Smiths portrait has been removed from Culpeper Baptist Churchs website.

The church said in a statement Wednesday, "We stand ready to fully cooperate with the Sherriffs office and to assist any persons with concerns or who are victims of improper or illegal conduct with respect to children."

Last December, Smith conducted the chorales Christmas Concert at Culpeper Baptist Church.

In December 2020, he was musical director of Yes, Virginia: The Musical! The production was staged outside Culpepers railroad depot, sponsored by Stageworks and the Windmore Foundation for the Arts.

In 2019, Smith starred in The Color Purple at The Riverside Center for the Performing Arts in Stafford County, playing Grady.

He also has performed with Virginia Commonwealth Universitys Opera Theater Co.
AFTER the recent wave of

conservative judgments

from the Supreme Court, many Americans are looking for alternatives to the courts for ways to enact democratic change. Yet, in the past several years, many state lawmakersoften Republicanshave systematically attempted to restrict other traditional paths for political participation.

Some of these shifts have received widespread attention, such as limiting opportunities to vote and setting the stage for potential partisan interference in elections.

As concerning as these laws are, they are only part of a much larger set of constraints facing citizens wanting to engage in our democracy. As the country has become increasingly polarized, politicians have targeted the ability of opponents to push dissenting views.

Consider those who wish to go into the streets to protest the Supreme Courts decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, which allows states to restrict access to abortion, including making the procedure illegal. Since 2017, 45 states have considered over 200 antiprotest bills, so far enacting 38 of them, mostly in reaction to Black Lives Matter and environmental protesters.

These laws significantly increase liability for common forms of peaceful protest. For example, after the protests in response to the murder of George Floyd by Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin in 2020, Arkansas, Iowa, and Tennessee increased the penalty for blocking a sidewalk during a demonstration. Now in all three states a protester can be sentenced to up to a year in jail for this offense.

These laws can also appear to encourage violence. Iowa, for instance, enacted a statute last year that eliminated civil liability for certain drivers who hit those participating in an unauthorized demonstration in the street. While the regulation does not protect drivers who recklessly or willfully strike protesters, laws like these still send a chilling message. Perhaps not surprisingly, a truck in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, drove through a group of proabortion demonstrators last month, injuring several. No arrests have been made.

Another cherished U.S. tradition, the right to boycott, is also being targeted. Since our colonial boycott of British goods, Americans have long used their consumer power to make their voices heard. However, led by states such as Texas and West Virginia, policymakers have enacted laws that ban those doing business with the state government from engaging in boycotts of the fossil fuel industry, gun manufacturers, or Israel. Legislation like this is often brought to lawmakers by lobbyists for these industries or supporters of Israel.

In June, the full 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against an Arkansas newspaper that refused to sign onto a state-mandated pledge that it would not boycott Israel, and the paper lost an advertising contract with a state college as a result. Remarkably, the judges found that economic boycotts are not protected under the 1st Amendment because they claimed they are neither speech nor expressive conduct. The ACLU has pledged to appeal the ruling.

Employee activism has long pushed companies to take stands against injustice, but even those actions are facing pushback. In May, under pressure from employees, the Walt Disney Co. spoke out against the so-called Dont Say Gay bill recently enacted in Florida, which restricts discussion of sexual orientation in schools. Gov. Ron DeSantis then led the successful charge to remove Disney Worlds special tax status in the state. The move was seemingly sparked not because the tax status was bad policy, but because the governor did not appreciate Disneys criticism.

Taken together, these moves represent a form of hardball by state officials that creates a climate of fear for those wishing to engage in traditional forms of political mobilization. Several states are moving to follow Texas lead and enact laws that allow private citizens to sue those who assist women in having an abortion. While the Texas laws reach is unclear, it could put activists who help pregnant people get out-of-state abortions in legal jeopardy. That could include something as simple as supplying them with information about abortion providers. States that ban abortion will likely continue to ratchet up their efforts to target proabortion groups.

These attacks on the ability of Americans to engage in their democracy are not isolated or ad hocthey are a larger compression of civic space. Any response will need to be holistic and should include educating fellow citizens about the importance of different types of protest throughout U.S. history. But first, Americans must be made to recognize the scope of the danger.
The Rev. Tom Shaw was still in Bible college when he and his wife, Becky, sensed Gods call.

It was a call about the need for a Church of the Nazarene in Fremont. That was in March 1981.

In May, after two months of prayer and searching Gods will, we contacted the Nebraska District Superintendent Rev. Jim Diehl, and told him wed open this new work in Fremont, Shaw wrote in a church history.

The endeavor was approved that August.

Four very busy decades  including ministry in Fremont and globally  would pass.

Now, the Fremont Church of the Nazarene is celebrating its 40th anniversary on Sunday, July 17.

The public is invited to the event which begins at 10:30 a.m., with the morning worship service followed by a lunch in the Shaw Ministry Center at the church, 960 Johnson Road.

Other activities involve a slide show and a time capsule, said the Rev. Dan Cole, current pastor.

We will have people write how the church has influenced them over the years and what brought them to Fremont Nazarene and well put those responses in the time capsule and that will be opened at our 50th anniversary celebration in 2032, Cole said.

The Shaws will be here as will Diehl, general superintendent emeritus, who worked closely with them to start the church.

We are having this celebration to be reminded of Gods faithfulness and his response to our faithfulness in the past 40 years of ministry, but also to trust his guidance in the next 40 years, Cole said. It will be a reunion, but a celebration of past and future blessings.

The church has had a long and eventful past. The Shaws had their first church service in Fremont on July 4, 1982, in the former Holiday Lodge motel.

A congregation of about 40 met for 16 months in the motel before the church relocated to a building at Eighth and C streets.

The church bought a building on U.S. Highway 77 in 1985.

In 1997, they broke ground for what is now their current building.

Throughout the years, the church has been involved in a wide variety of ministry projects. It has hosted car shows, Easter egg hunts and leadership seminars.

The church provides the Growing Hearts Academy, a daycare ministry, with almost 100 children enrolled.

It has small group ministries and active children and youth ministries.

The church offers restoration ministries such as Celebrate Recovery, Divorce Care and GriefShare.

We believe in the transforming grace of Jesus Christ, Cole said.

Ministry teams from the church have gone to different locations for projects. Church members have taken mission trips to a Navaho reservation and Ecuador. Some helped clean up homes after Hurricane Katrina.

In 2018, church members took an 8,000-mile-long step of faith when they went on a missions trip to Papua, New Guinea.

There, they built a cabin for the groundskeeper of the Kudjip Nazarene Hospital.

We have always been a very mission-minded church, not only locally, but globally as well through the mission efforts of the international Church of the Nazarene, Cole said.

Cole expresses gratitude for former pastors of the church.

I believe that as the new, current pastor that I stand on the shoulders of the men and women who have led before me  men like Pastor Tom Shaw, Pastor Aaron Horton and Pastor Jeremy Henderson, Cole said. I stand on their shoulders and do so with appreciation for their commitment to God and the Fremont Church of the Nazarene ministry.

Besides serving the church as pastor, Cole also serves as the district superintendent for the Nebraska District Church of the Nazarene.

Hes proud of the Fremont church.

For me, Im proud of the way our congregation welcomes people and loves people where they are and tries to help them get to where Jesus wants them to be in their lives, he said. Im proud of the faithful service of our congregation for all these years.
Thursday, July 14, 2022 at 11:30PM

by Claudio Alves

On this day, 233 years ago, revolutionaries stormed the Bastille, seizing control of the medieval fortress turned political prison, a symbol of royal authority over the people. The event is often thought of as the inciting incident of the French Revolution. This time of radical societal change, which lasted until 1799, represents one of the most critical points in human history, the endpoint to the early modern period. To mark the occasion, since 1790, France has celebrated the Fete de la Federation, a national holiday commonly known as Bastille Day. As a self-described French Revolution nerd who's been obsessing over the subject since middle school, it's a pleasure to combine that passion with another immortal love of mine - cinema. What better way for a cinephile to celebrate the date?

So, without further ado, let's explore how filmmakers have looked at this chapter in history. There are countless approaches, of course, but I shall focus on ten examples, including THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AS...



SILENT MELODRAMA

D.W. Griffith was no progressive, so his views of the French Revolution were informed by conservative values. In his Orphans of the Storm (1921), every shade of grey turns into black-and-white morality, and the picture's general message is a bullish demand for cooperation, the status quo forever deified. Thus, it's easy to discern an implicit commentary on the then-new Russian Revolution, adding to anxiety over the new changes of a post-World War I society. Of course, it's all very reductive, showing an infantile understanding of complicated history, but that's D.W. Griffith for you.

To make up for it, Orphans of the Storm is a lavish spectacle, its production values as heightened as the narrative's sentimentality. Moreover, Dorothy Gish is a lovely screen presence in her last film for the director, while Joseph Schildkraut is blindingly charismatic in the romantic hero role.

OLD HOLLYWOOD STAR VEHICLE

Before his tragic death at 37, Irving Thalberg was MGM's wunderkind, a boy wonder who made the studio into the Old Hollywood jewel we know it as today. At the time of his demise, the producer was in the development stages of a new star vehicle for his wife, Norma Shearer. It was an opulent historical drama about Marie Antoinette, following her from her arrival in France to death by guillotine. Even as her enthusiasm for movie stardom waned, Shearer took her late husband's last project to completion. The result is a resplendent epic heavily informed by Stefan Zweig's biography of the French queen.

Begowned in some of Adrian's most extravagant creations, Norma Shearer delivers the performance of a lifetime in Marie Antoinette (1938), going from girlish innocence to a broken woman facing her end with stalwart grace. Though unsympathetic to the revolutionary cause, the movie's best scenes are found in its later passages, when grand spectacle fades to harrowing human drama.



FILM NOIR

Like nearly all of the entries in this list, especially the early ones, Anthony Mann's Reign of Terror (1949) is pretty ridiculous as a dramatization of historical events. Nevertheless, the film's a showcase for the director's genius, not to mention the miraculous skills of cinematographer John Alton. The intersection of costume drama and film noir uses the historical setting to stage a tapestry of mounting paranoia, every frame another sublime nightmare of sharp light and inky shadows. Though the leads aren't outstanding, the supporting cast makes up for their lack.

Richard Baseheart is a monstrous Robespierre, Arnold Moss underplays Fouche's machinations to great effect, and Jess Barker is chillingly cruel as Saint-Just. Still, Beulah Bond, of all people, deserves to be called Reign of Terror's MVP. She only appears in a few scenes, but the actress makes a strong impression as a grandma facing off against the questioning of a ruthless officer.



THEATER OF MADNESS

In 1964, Peter Brook directed a Royal Shakespeare Company staging of Peter Weiss's German play Marat/Sade. It's all set inside an asylum in 1808, as the Marquis de Sade stages a performance about Charlotte Corday's murder of Marat. Combining elements of Brechtian expression and Artaud's theories about the Theater of Cruelty, the show proved to be a sensation. Even nowadays, it's taught as a prime example of the 20th-century theatrical vanguard. The piece's transgressive nature reflects its themes, its historical purview of political upheaval, abject suffering, and class struggle, questioning the matter of revolution as change that's both collective and individual.

Three years after that original English-language production, after it had transferred to Broadway and swept the Tonys, Brook took the show from stage to screen. Marat/Sade (1967) is his greatest cinematic masterpiece, the kind of film that belongs in every list of best pictures ever made, not to mention a precious historical document for those who study Theater. Most of the original RSC cast returned, including Patrick Magee as the Marquis and Glenda Jackson as the madwoman who plays Corday.

NEW HOLLYWOOD COMEDY

No list of French Revolution-related media could be complete without mentioning A Tale of Two Cities. However, one need not be limited to straightforward adaptations. Bud Yorkin's Start the Revolution Without Me (1970) takes loose inspiration from that Dickens classic, mixing it up with elements from Dumas' The Corsican Brothers. From this weird combination, a wild comedy emerges, one that's equal parts historical farce and a parody of the swashbucklers of Hollywood's Golden Age. Gene Wilder and Donald Sutherland star in double roles, playing two sets of identical twins separated at birth by an unfortunate mishap.

Two brothers went on to live as Corsican noblemen. The other pair, au contraire, grew up in squalor, becoming France's most dimwitted revolutionaries. When their paths cross in overlapped conspiracies, hilarity ensues. If anything, the story's mounting contrivance serves as fuel for the comedic fires, blazing in a crescendo until it ends in a meta-cinematic shoot-out. Not all the jokes have aged well, but it's difficult to resist the charms of Donald Sutherland at his most foppish or Hugh Griffith's tasseled take on Louis XVI.

ROMANTIC FANTASIA

It's time for a confession. I'd like to say my fascination with the French Revolution started as a byproduct of an interest in history or my parent's influence (they both have degrees in history, my mother being a teacher). However, the seed from which this passion spouted was less highbrow. It was an anime called Lady Oscar or The Rose of Versailles (1979-1980), an adaptation of Riyoko Ikeda's seminal manga about the French Revolution, which combines real-life characters with fictional melodrama. The TV series' protagonist is an aristocratic woman raised as a man to be an officer, eventually becoming part of Marie Antoinette's royal guard.

Though it could be called a kid's show, it's probably one of the most politically complex works in this tenner, acknowledging the need for radical violence while contemplating the human cost of such violence. Jacques Demy's live-action feature adaptation of the same manga maintains these same themes and general plot while losing much of the narrative complexity. What can you expect when the anime is around 980 minutes and the film a mere two hours? In any case, they're both good examples of queering history, using fantasy to explore complicated truths.

SOCIOPOLITICAL HISTORY

If you're searching for the best dramatization of the French Revolution as it happened, then look no further than Robert Enrico and Richard T. Heffron's two-part epic. The French Revolution (1989) is a gargantuan thing, running over five hours in its complete version, with great attention paid to historical accuracy and a multifaceted portrayal of events. It neither shies away from the revolutionaries' cruelty nor villainizes their efforts, extending a humanistic empathy towards every person involved. Mayhap it's not very exciting as dramaturgy, but it's catnip for history nerds such as myself.

Moreover, fashion-wise, this is one of the best depictions of the period from 1789 to 1794 in France, paying particular attention to how style reflects politics and class, personal values, and cultural beliefs in constant flux. The cast is an international marvel, though none of its stars can justly call themselves the protagonist. The French Revolution is far too collective in spirit for that. Regardless, some performers deserve special praise like Klaus Maria Brandauer, Andrzej Seweryn, and Jane Seymour as Danton, Robespierre, and Marie Antoinette, respectively.



COSTUME DRAMA TRASH

I may think of myself as a discerning moviegoer, but sometimes bad films emerge as guilty pleasures. Such is the case of The Affair of the Necklace (2001). This deeply mishandled costume drama tells a fictionalized account of the scandal involving Marie Antoinette, Jeanne de Valois, the Cardinal de Rohan, and an exorbitant diamond necklace originally commissioned for Madame DuBarry, Louis XV's mistress. The script is a hodge-podge of skewed fact and wild fiction, the casting a clash of great inspiration and incompetence beyond belief. Who thought Hilary Swank was the right choice to play an 18th-century schemer refashioned as a romantic heroine with a traumatic past?

Thankfully, a handful of strengths mitigate the guilt of those with a soft spot for such sudsy trash. First, Joely Richardson is a beguiling queen, playing the character with alienating aloofness and a tragic sense of social myopia. Second, Milena Canonero's Oscar-nominated costumes are a dream of 1780s glamour, while the hair and makeup turn often modernized trends into accurate stylings that still look beautiful. Finally, the film features one of David Newman's best original scores, full of bizarre references that somehow coalesce into a coherent soundscape.



A MOVING PAINTING

When it premiered in France, Eric Rohmer's The Lady and the Duke (2001) caused a stir. Telling the story of Scottish royalist Grace Elliott during the time she lived in revolutionary France, the film is a harsh depiction of the Terror as seen through the eyes of an aristocrat in peril. Some saw it as a reactionary picture verging on royalist propaganda. Yet, a dryness to Rohmer's presentation circumvents dogmatic advocacy, concentrating on intellectual conflicts and the dramatization of historical facts as derived from Elliott's memoirs. There's no hiding the selfish subjectivity of the protagonist nor how brutal the revolutionary effort could be.

In the end, it's one of the most political depictions of these events on-screen, inviting reflection rather than promoting a closed conclusion. Beyond that, Rohmer's approach is further defined by risky aesthetic gambits, like the use of painted backgrounds into which the actors were digitally superimposed. The effect is startling, further illustrating the action as something distant, as removed from our present as oil paintings hanging on museum walls. I also have to mention the incredible costumes, which reconstruct the 1790s with a historian's eye for detail.

PSYCHOLOGICAL PORTRAITURE

Benoit Jacquot's Farewell, My Queen (2012) concerns the last days of Marie Antoinette in Versailles. The limited time frame conveys a sense of urgency, rattling unrest that touches on everything, infecting fear as far as the eye can see. The lensing adapts the precepts of 21st-century European realism to a period setting, tarnishing the Versailles splendor with hand-held chaos, crash zooms, and deliberate roughness. This is not a film besotted with the tragedy of fallen royalty. Instead, it's told from the perspective of the queen's reader, a beautiful young woman intertwined in an erotic liaison between Marie Antoinette and her favorite, Gabrielle de Polignac.

Above all else, the drama revolves around unspoken yearnings and power dynamics, asphyxiating circumstances, and psychological acuity. While the taste for realism feels at odds with some design choices, the cast is excellent enough to sand down the film's more overt imbalances. Lea Seydoux is brilliant as the protagonist servant, while Diane Kruger is a thorny miasma of self-centered contradictions in the queenly role. This might be the German actress' best performance, maybe even the most fascinating portrayal of Marie Antoinette on the big screen.

There are many other French Revolution-themed movies and series worth remembering. Consider Wajda's Danton, Renoir's La Marseillaise, or my beloved Marie Antoinette by Coppola. Perhaps next year, I can return with another list to celebrate Bastille Day. Meanwhile, please share your favorite films depicting The French Revolution in the comments.
A former Fremont man, living in Las Vegas, was shot to death on Tuesday night after an argument with neighbors in that city.

The Clark County Coroners office confirmed Thursday that Rodney Saltzman, 48, died of multiple gunshot wounds.

In a prepared statement, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said it received a call at about 9:07 p.m. Tuesday saying a person had been shot at a residence near the 4700 block of Monterrey Avenue.

Medical personnel pronounced Saltzman dead at the scene.

Las Vegas police also confirmed that a child was hurt and taken to Sunrise Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The LVMPD Homicide Section led an investigation which indicated Saltzman was involved in an argument with his neighbors entering his property without permission.

During the argument, a juvenile took out a firearm and fired at Saltzman, striking him multiple times.

The suspect fled from the area, but was apprehended by responding patrol units without incident.

Police said the suspect was transported to the Juvenile Detention Center in Las Vegas for open murder.

Several individuals expressed shock and condolences on Facebook.
Rusted chemical barrels and other debris still litter the shell of the burned-out Nox-Crete warehouse in central Omaha, weeks after a three-alarm fire.

Cleanup of the site has been delayed by an insurance-related investigation of the fire, according to documents filed with state environmental regulators.

The fiery blaze sent black smoke and noxious fumes roiling across central Omaha on May 30, prompting a voluntary evacuation of some of the nearby neighborhoods. After the fire, milky white and bluish runoff could be seen flowing from the site, those documents indicate.

State documents indicate that a July 26 meeting on the private investigation could clear the way for cleanup  assuming Nox-Crete has a plan ready to go.

As of Tuesday midafternoon, the company had not filed a cleanup plan with the state.

Owen Lasswell, spokesman for the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy, said state environmental regulations require that Nox-Crete clean up the site, and the state has been in communication with the company toward that end.

The department advised Nox-Crete in a July 7 phone call that cleanup should occur as soon as possible, according to documents on the agencys website.

Additionally, on June 23, the state advised the company to figure out what remained on-site so that it would have a cleanup plan ready for when the insurance review is complete.

Nox-Crete did not respond to a World-Herald request for information, so neither the status of the insurance investigation nor the cleanup plan was available.

The Omaha Fire Department completed its physical investigation of the fire on June 2 and turned the property over to Nox-Crete at that time, said Battalion Chief Scott Fitzpatrick. A cause of the fire could not be determined, he said.

Fitzpatrick said it is standard practice for an insurance company to hire a private company to investigate the fire.

On the civil side, there may be several entities that need to be put on notice and given access to examine the site, he said. There is always potential for large, complicated civil litigation in these types of cases.

The importance of an expeditious cleanup was made clear on June 14, when nearly 2 inches of rain fell in Omaha. Runoff overwhelmed the berm that Nox-Crete had installed, allowing contaminated water to escape the premises, according to documents on file with the state. The warehouse is located near 20th Street and Woolworth Avenue.

Samples of the runoff, which was described as foul-smelling and a translucent milky color, were tested by Nox-Crete and Midwest Laboratories on behalf of the company. While its not clear how expansive the testing was, Midwest Laboratories found that the runoff contained petroleum products.

Nox-Crete has since shored up the berm with landscape fabric and rock, according to state documents.

Jim Theiler, assistant director of Omaha Public Works, said the city is satisfied with Nox-Cretes updated storm runoff plan.

In addition to the berm, he said Nox-Crete has laid an absorbent sock on the ground (a long roll of absorbent) to filter oils and other petroleum-based products from runoff.

The runoff ... has passed through a containment system that helps trap and remove the pollutants before it leaves the site, he said.

The city has concluded that Omahas sewer treatment plant can process runoff that is entering Omahas sewers, Theiler said.

That conclusion, he said, is based on the fact that the city has a better understanding of what was stored in the warehouse, the city was able to provide input into Nox-Cretes storm runoff plan and Nox-Crete has washed down the site, collecting water from cleanup in containers.

Washing down the site helped remove some of the contaminants from what was running off into the system, he said.

According to documents on file with the state, Nox-Crete has said the bluish and whitish tint to past runoff is from the pigment and resin used to seal the edges of plywood.

The Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy is in charge of monitoring the Nox-Crete site for problems; the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said it has no role, unless its help is requested by the state.

According to state documents, Nox-Crete has hired the Paul Davis company to oversee the cleanup, and it, in turn, has subcontracted with Peitzmeier Demolition to clean up the burned-out warehouse and B2Environmental to do environmental work. B2Environmental has begun sampling waste inside the warehouse to inform the disposal plan, according to state documents.

Its not clear whether Nox-Crete has submitted its cleanup plan to the state; a plan is not included among the documents publicly available.

Once cleanup of the warehouse is complete, Nox-Crete will test surrounding property for contamination to determine if further cleanup is needed. That said, testing conducted June 1-3 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found no actionable amounts of contaminants on property near the site, with one exception. A yard tested high for lead and that contamination is believed to be due to historical industrial processes in the area.

Characterizing the nature of the materials contained within the burn scar is important because Nox-Crete will have to take it to the proper type of landfill. Uncontaminated building materials can be taken to a construction landfill while contaminated materials may have to be taken to a hazardous waste landfill.
Cash-strapped and cut off from international aid, the Taliban-led government is tapping into Afghanistan's natural resources to boost revenue.

Since the Taliban toppled the Western-backed government in Kabul and seized power in August 2021, the export of and custom duties from coal have become a key source of revenue for the militant group.

Afghanistan has significant deposits of coal. Out of the country's 80 coal mines, 17 are operational, with most located in central and northern Afghanistan. Much of the coal is being trucked to neighboring Pakistan, which is facing a severe energy crisis.

But exports have hit snags recently after the Taliban hiked prices, in a move that has put off importers. Competing claims over coal mines has also triggered Taliban infighting.

Desperate Need To Raise Funds'

Foreign trade has fallen off dramatically since the Taliban seized power, and the international assistance that once propped up the Afghan economy has evaporated, leaving the Taliban to fund its government on its own. No country has recognized the Taliban-led government, which has been hit by international sanctions.

The Taliban has relied heavily on tax collection and the increased export of valuable natural resources like coal to generate revenue.

In May, the militants increased coal exports to Pakistan, aiming to generate more revenue from Afghanistan's mining sector and capitalize on record prices for coal. Global supplies have fallen due to Russia's war against Ukraine and top exporter Indonesia's ban on exports.

The Taliban reportedly collected around $40 in million in customs duties from coal exported to Pakistan in the first six months of this year. The hard-line Islamists have also boosted coal exports to 1.8 million tons in the past year, a rise of 16 percent. The Taliban has been exporting an estimated 12,000 to 14,000 tons of coal, mostly to Pakistan, each day.

But the Taliban's plan to use Afghanistan's easy-to-extract coal deposits to generate much-needed revenue has hit roadblocks in recent weeks.

Last month, the Taliban increased its taxes on coal exports from 20 percent to 30 percent. In early July, the Taliban's Finance Ministry said it also lifted prices for coal from $90 per ton to $200. On July 15, coal was trading at over $300 per ton on international markets.

The price hike came soon after Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced plans to import heavily discounted coal from Afghanistan using Pakistani rupees to save dwindling foreign reserves.

The revelation sparked a public outcry in Afghanistan, where many have long viewed the Taliban as a Pakistani proxy. Islamabad has been the militants' key foreign sponsor for decades and sheltered the Islamist group during its nearly 20-year insurgency against Afghan and international forces.

"The Taliban are sensitive to how Afghans domestically perceive them," said Hameed Hakimi, an Afghanistan expert at the Washington-based Atlantic Council. "Therefore, selling coal cheaply to Pakistan would inevitably paint them as Pakistani puppets."

Ultimately, Hakimi said, the price hike has "a lot to do with the Taliban's desperate need to raise funds and maximize revenues."

Pakistan is reportedly reevaluating its purchase of Afghan coal following the Taliban's decision to more than double prices for the commodity. Chinese energy companies in Pakistan have threatened to stop importing Afghan coal.

Exploited Mining'

In forecasting a $2.6 billion budget that has impressed experts despite a projected $500 million deficit, the Taliban claimed to have cleaned up corruption in the collection of taxes and from the illegal mining and export of natural resources.

But experts said that significant amounts of coal were still being smuggled to Pakistan, an issue also faced by the previous government. Observers said some Taliban leaders and commanders were benefiting from illegal exports that skirted their own government's revenue collection systems.

"Right now, there is no legal and administrative framework for mining," said an Afghan mining expert who did not want to reveal his identity for security reasons. "The most powerful figures in successive Afghan governments have exploited mining to line their pockets and this has continued."

Control over natural resources has led to Taliban infighting. Last month, the Taliban launched a major offensive against Mehdi Mujahid, formerly the most senior ethnic Hazara security official in the Taliban government. Observers said the violence was at least partly over the control of coal mines in Mujahid's native northern province of Sar-e Pul.

"Competition over mineral resources will be a key driver of Taliban infighting," the Afghan mining expert said.

During its insurgency, the Taliban partly funded its insurgency by operating mines and imposing illegal taxes on the trade.

"Now, they have to behave like a government to ensure that the mining sector provides desperately needed revenue," said Hakimi. "This is a major dilemma the Islamist group faces in exploiting Afghanistan's mineral wealth."
Dear Reader,

Welcome to Gandhara's weekly newsletter. This briefing brings you the best of our reporting from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

If youre new to the newsletter or haven't subscribed yet, you can do so here.

Ex-Afghan Soldiers Live In Hiding

Thousands of former members of the Afghan security forces and their families remain stranded in Afghanistan, where many live in hiding.

Despite the Taliban announcing a blanket amnesty when it seized power, the militant group has been accused by rights groups of killing or forcibly disappearing hundreds of former soldiers, police officers, and members of pro-government militias.

"We are still facing many threats," Suleiman, who did not reveal his real name for security reasons, told Radio Azadi. His 35-year-old brother, a former intelligence officer, was slain in eastern Afghanistan in October.



"People [in the Taliban-led government] describe officials and soldiers of the former Afghan government as supporters of a corrupt system," he added. "Sometimes, they call us infidels."

A seven-month investigation by The New York Times found that nearly 500 former government workers and members of Afghanistans security forces were killed or forcibly disappeared during the Talibans first six months in power.

Afghan Women Deprived Of Studying Abroad

Radio Azadi reports on how the Taliban is preventing many Afghan women from being able to study at universities abroad, only allowing such students to travel outside the country with a male chaperone. Hundreds of Afghan women have been affected.



The restriction follows a Taliban ban on education for teenage girls, which has kept millions of secondary-school students from the classroom since the Taliban takeover.

"I had a hellish experience because of this restriction," said Hadia Tuba, who recently went to Pakistan to begin her university education on a scholarship from Islamabad.

Sonia Ahmadi was forced to bring her parents and siblings with her when she went to the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad to attend Ferdowsi University.



"It is a major problem that no woman is allowed to travel alone, whether by road or by air," she told Radio Azadi. "The gender discrimination against women is pushing Afghanistan backward."

Tajik Taliban Builds Observation Post

RFE/RL's Tajik Service reports on the Taliban building an observation post along the Afghan-Tajik border. The move is seen as an act of intimidation from Kabul and has irritated Tajikistan.

The Taliban, along with Tajik militants who have joined forces, is building the post directly across the river from Tajikistan's Darvaz district.

"They come with their cars almost every day to this new observation tower and yell loudly and ostentatiously with a loudspeaker in a Tajik dialect, insulting Tajik authorities," said a Tajik official.

Tajikistan does not recognize the Taliban-led government and, like other Central Asian countries, has not announced that it would cooperate with the militant group since it came to power.

Afghanistan's Booming Drug Industry

Radio Azadi reports on the booming trade in illicit drugs in parts of Afghanistan, despite a Taliban ban.

Narcotics were previously not grown in Ghor. But now, opium and marijuana are popping up in the province. In southern Afghanistan, which used to account for the bulk of Afghanistans opium production, new crops have not been cultivated. But the opium markets in the region are flourishing.

"We are concerned that people from other provinces have come here to cultivate poppy and marijuana crops," said Zabihullah, a local activist in Ghor.

I hope you found this weeks newsletter useful, and I encourage you to forward it to your colleagues.

Please note that there will no Gandhara Briefing until August.



If you haven't subscribed yet, you can do so here. I encourage you to visit our website and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.



Yours,

Abubakar Siddique

Twitter: @sid_abu
Two religious scholars have been killed in Pakistan's troubled North Waziristan in the latest in a wave of seemingly targeted attacks.

Religious scholars Qari Samiuddin and Qari Nauman were shot after armed motorcyclists approached their vehicle in the Mir Ali region of the tribal district, bordering Afghanistan, district police chief Farhan Khan told Radio Mashaal.

Samiuddin was an administrator at a religious seminary in the area and a local leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazal (JUI-F) religious party. He finished second as a JUI-F candidate for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly in 2018 parliamentary elections.

He was regarded as a strong voice against lawlessness and targeted killings in the area.

Nauman was a local councilor who also belonged to JUI-F.

Farhad Haidari, a local JUI-F leader, demanded an investigation and the immediate arrest of the killers.

North Waziristan has witnessed a spate of killings over the past six months despite an indefinite cease-fire between the banned Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan group and the government.

Locals say unidentified armed men target people who raise their voice for peace or who challenge the presence of armed groups in the area.

On July 14, Pakistani security forces said they had killed 10 suspected militants in North Waziristan who belonged to the Hafiz Gul Bahadar group of the Taliban.
Jimmy Sengenberger is host of The Jimmy Sengenberger Show Saturdays from 6-9 a.m. on News/Talk 710 KNUS. He also hosts Jimmy at the Crossroads, a webshow and podcast in partnership with The Washington Examiner.
A regional council tasked with setting policy for the distribution of more than $28 million in opioid settlement funds will begin outlining a two-year plan detailing how the money will be used to combat and treat opioid use in El Paso and Teller counties.

Perhaps the most critical piece of that effort, Colorado Springs resident Truett Scofield told the Region 16 Opioid Policy Council at its first meeting Thursday, is focusing heavily on combatting stigma.

"This is not a moral failing," said Scofield, whose 18-year-old son Truett "TJ" Scofield Jr. died of a heroin overdose about 18 months ago. "This is not a socioeconomic issue from poverty. It covers all aspects of our society, from the richest and the most privileged to the least and most disadvantaged and marginalized people in our communities."

Public perception of the opioid crisis will "affect every other aspect" of local efforts to abate it, he said.

The region's two-year plan is tentatively due Sept. 15, but that date can be modified to allow the council more time to design it, Colorado's Director of Opioid Response Heidi Williams said.

The Pikes Peak region is set to receive more than $28.4 million over the next 18 years, a portion of nearly $400 million the state expects to receive in the same timeframe. The funds are part of a $26 billion national settlement involving Johnson & Johnson and three large drug distributors over claims their business practices helped feed the opioid crisis.

Most of the money  60%  was distributed across 19 regions in the state, with another 20% designated to local governments based on a set formula. Ten percent will go directly to the state, and another 10% will be distributed statewide for specific abatement infrastructure projects in Colorado regions hit particularly hard by the epidemic, Williams said.

The Region 16 Opioid Policy Council includes representatives from El Paso and Teller counties as well as Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs, Fountain, Monument, Woodland Park, Cripple Creek, Victor and the 4th Judicial District Attorney's Office. El Paso County is the fiscal agent responsible for receiving the funds from the state and reporting the region's annual expenditures.

El Paso and Teller counties, as well as Colorado Springs, have opted out of receiving their 20% direct shares. Instead, the governments elected to add that money to the pool of regional funds, officials said. That effort fosters collaboration within the greater community and saves the county money, El Paso County commissioners Longinos Gonzalez and Carrie Geitner, both representatives on the regional opioid council, said this week.

Any local government entitled to a 20% share of the funds may choose in the future to opt in or out of receiving that money directly, El Paso County Assistant County Administrator Kenny Hodges said this week.

In its first year the Pikes Peak region expects to receive $3.95 million in settlement funds and $1.67 million in the second year, Hodges said Thursday. The funds are "front-loaded," he said, with larger amounts distributed early on and waning over the final 10 years "to establish infrastructure and set up programs initially, and then to fund those over the years."

The council can use the funds in varied and broad ways, so long as they legitimately help abate the opioid crisis, Williams said. They include prevention and education, treatment, recovery, criminal justice, harm reduction and rural abatement for opioids and other illicit substances, she said.

El Paso County Coroner and Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Leon Kelly highlighted the fentanyl crisis in his office's 2021 annual investigative deaths report, released last month. More adolescents and adults are unintentionally dying from the synthetic opioid, the report said.

Kelly previously told The Gazette that use of fentanyl is a "gross deviation" from anticipated increases because it's creeped into several illicit street pills and is often taken unknowingly. The number of fentanyl-related deaths in El Paso County has doubled for each of the past five years, he previously said.

His annual report shows local accidental drug-related deaths increased by 22% in 2021, largely because the number of fentanyl deaths  99  more than doubled over 2020's 37 fentanyl-related deaths. There were also 107 methamphetamine-related deaths in 2021, an 18% increase over 2020 totals, "occurring 25% of the time in combination with fentanyl," the report states.

Heroin caused 36 deaths in El Paso County in 2021 and in 2020; the second-most number of opioid-related deaths both years. Oxycodone caused the third-most number of of opioid-related deaths in 2021, with 19. In 2020, oxycodone killed 10 people.

The state has asked each of its 19 regional councils to coordinate with local and regional providers, use existing resources and identify other complementary funding streams  such as American Rescue Plan Act funds for behavioral health  to make best use of the settlement funds.

Several council members on Thursday generally expressed interest in prevention efforts, but said first they wanted to hear from nonprofit organizations, hospitals, law enforcement agencies, school districts and other entities about their needs to inform the council's next steps.

They also want to bring on a diverse group of non-voting members into the council who can provide insight into the challenges and needs they face, such as treatment and recovery experts, harm reductionists and members of the community who have been personally affected by the crisis.

Council Vice Chairman Erik Stone, a Teller County commissioner, directed staff to solicit letters of interest from the community to become non-voting members on the council. Scofield said he was interested in joining that group.

"I want to see less people dying," Scofield said in an interview after the meeting. "Regardless of how you feel about how the drugs get here, regardless of how you feel about the people using the drugs, I just want to see fewer people in my son's position."
By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan's Vegetable Institute and the Latvian Life Sciences University have signed a memorandum of cooperation, Azernews reports.

The document was signed during the meeting between Latvian and Azerbaijani Agriculture Ministers.

"Visit to Azerbaijan by the Latvian Minister of Agriculture Mr. Kaspars Gerhards started. Today MoU between the Latvian Life Sciences University and the Azerbaijani Vegetable Institute was signed during the meeting with Latvian and Azerbaijani Ministers of Agriculture," the Latvian embassy in Azerbaijan wrote on its official Facebook page.

Diplomatic relations between the two countries were established on January 11, 1994. The Azerbaijani embassy in Latvia was opened in 2005, and the Latvian embassy in Azerbaijan in 2006.

Relations between Azerbaijan and Latvia have developed at a high level in all areas. The political dialogue between the two countries continues through regular reciprocal visits at the highest possible levels.

The trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $27.1 million in 2021 and $19 million in the first five months of 2022.
The dentist accused of murdering his wife during an African safari and then covering up her death in order to be with his mistress and collect millions of insurance dollars will take the stand in his federal trial.

Attorney David Marcus said in opening statements Wednesday that Larry Rudolph will testify during the three-week trial with no conditions because he knows the truth is on his side.

Rudolph, 67, is being tried for murder and mail fraud.

Marcus insisted that Bianca Rudolphs death was an accident, and that her husband was in the bathroom with issues when he heard the gunshot. He told the jury that she was packing the gun as the couple was readying to catch a flight home from Zambia. He said the gun went off when it fell. The shot, he said, penetrated a soft gun case.

Rudolph had his wife cremated in Africa, which prosecutors say was suspicious because it was against her wishes as a Catholic. Rudolph's attorneys said she asked to be cremated in her will.

"Bianca was not some long-suffering wife," said Marcus, arguing she was the one who first took on extra-marital lovers early in the marriage.

Federal prosecutors hinged their investigation on ballistics from the 25-year old shotgun, which had never been used until the fatal shot, blood spatter evidence, and witness statements which indicate that Rudolph and a former dental hygienist-office manager from his lucrative Pittsburgh dental practice were having a long-time affair.

They believe Rudolph wanted to finally be free of his wife and schemed to use $4.8 million in insurance money from her death to finally live with the love of his life.

Lori Milliron, a 64-year-old grandmother, is also on trial for lying to the grand jury about their relationship, charged with obstruction of justice, perjury and accessory after the fact. Milliron met Rudolph in 2003 when she first started working for Three Rivers Dental in Pittsburgh.

The two of them began traveling the world together, according to their attorneys, at least 65 days a year between 2004 and 2009. She told a grand jury, which convened this past January and February, that they had sex occasionally.

But prosecutors told a different story. They said the two began living together not long after Biancas death. Their narrative describes Rudolph as a money-grubbing, philandering dentist whose dream was to bag an animal on each continent. Milliron received tens of thousands of dollars cash payments from him in 2014 and 2015, and then was given a credit card after Biancas death.

Milliron is not in custody and the alleged lovers are both in the courtroom surrounded by each others attorneys. They rarely made eye contact and neither showed emotion during Wednesdays opening statements.

Also in the courtroom were Rudolphs two grown children, AnaBianca, a dentist, and Julian, an attorney. They stood up arm-in-arm when they were introduced to the jury by their father's attorney. The two arrived and left the courthouse together and sat directly behind the defense tables in support of their dad.

A key witness in the prosecutions case will be a bartender at a posh Phoenix steakhouse where Rudolph and Milliron were regulars. In 2020, Brian Lovelace told law enforcement that he overheard a stunning conversation between the couple where he was serving them just as an overhead music loop was shifting songs.

In that moment, Assistant U.S. Attorney Bishop Grewell told the jury, Larry Rudolph growled, I killed my f... wife for you!'" To which Milliron stormed out of the restaurant, Grewell said.

Rudolphs attorney took issue with Bishops account of the conversation, saying the two were actually arguing about Rudolphs son being on the dental office payroll. What the dentist actually yelled, Marcus told the jury, was I have bigger issues! Theyre saying I f... killed my wife for you!

Each person on the 12-person, two-alternate jury has an IPad on which to view exhibits, and a pad and pencil. Six are men and eight are women. Before the trial started Wednesday morning, Ruldolph's attorneys took issue with the fact that the single Black juror in the original pool was struck, but U.S. District Court Judge William Martinez resolved the complaint.

Though Bianca Rudolph's death occurred in remote southern-central Africa and the parties lived in Pittsburgh at the time, the trial is being held in Denver only because one of the insurance companies is based in Colorado. It is expected to last three weeks.
The 4th Judicial District Attorney's Office announced on Thursday that all pawned or layaway guns have been returned to three of the four Top Dollar Pawn locations under investigation in Colorado Springs and Pueblo.

The Top Dollar Pawn at North Academy Boulevard in Colorado Springs and both of the Top Dollar Pawn locations in Pueblo had all of their guns returned, according to the district attorney's office.

The pawned and layaway guns at the South Academy Boulevard location in Colorado Springs will be returned July 24, according to a tweet.

The owners of Top Dollar Pawn were investigated as part of what is being described as a "multimillion-dollar criminal organization" by Colorado Springs police.

Four individuals associated with Top Dollar Pawn are accused of 29 charges, including a pattern of racketeering and 27 separate charges of money laundering.
District attorneys in Denver, Boulder, Adams, Broomfield and Jefferson counties are loaning their prosecutors to the San Luis Valley to help shoulder the caseload after Wednesdays sudden resignation of District Attorney Alonzo Payne.

Payne left office with just one full-time and a part-time attorney swimming in cases. The 12th Judicial District normally operates with as many as half a dozen lawyers handling cases from the six-county area, but several had resigned while Payne was in office.

Two district attorneys who worked for the former DA, Bob Willett, stayed on when Payne took over but walked out without giving notice.

Prosecutors from other parts of the state will work one- to two-week rotations to help the shorthanded district attorney's office in the San Luis Valley.

Everything is being considered to fill these positions, said Tom Raynes, executive director of the Colorado District Attorneys Council.

This action makes sense to me because the office has been in complete disarray for months, and after the resignation they must be desperately shorthanded, Alamosa City Attorney Erich Schwiesow said.

When Payne resigned, the attorney generals office had just concluded an investigation into nine complaints from victims who said Paynes office treated them with disrespect, alleging that at times he raised his voice at them. If Payne had not quit, the AGs office had plans to monitor the district through an independent committee. In addition to the state investigation, a grassroots effort to recall Payne was gaining steam.

Gov. Jared Polis mistakenly issued an executive order on Wednesday appointing Attorney General Phil Weiser to serve as the district attorney for the 12th Judicial District. But after the governor's legal staff reviewed state statutes, the governor issued a second, superseding executive order instead designating Weiser as the "state's prosecutor on criminal matters" for the judicial district.
Residents are questioning a plan to spend more than $100 million to reconstruct North Nevada Avenue as part of a potential extension of a transportation sales tax that could head to the voters in November.

Old North End Neighborhood President Dutch Schulz asked the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority board Wednesday why such a large percentage of the city's expected $592 million in projected future tax collections is planned to go into reconstructing a 2-mile stretch of road north of Fillmore Street that he said is not particularly unsafe or congested.

The $592 million could be raised over 10 years for city projects if voters approve a portion of a 1% sales tax that funds major road projects in the city of Colorado Springs, El Paso County, Manitou Springs, Green Mountain Falls, Ramah and Calhan. The city and the county receive the bulk of the funds.

Some of the other high-dollar projects include the expansion of Marksheffel Road estimated to cost $47 million and the city's portion of the extension of Powers Boulevard from Colorado 83 to Voyager Parkway estimated to cost $72 million. El Paso County also expects to contribute to the Powers extension but did not present cost estimates to the board Wednesday.

The Nevada reconstruction project is split into four segments on the list voters will review, and all four are described as projects that will improve signalized intersections and provide better transit, bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure to support the north Nevada redevelopment vision.

Schulz noted that redevelopment is not the purpose of the authority supported by sales taxes and the proper way to fund redevelopment is through a metro district, typically funded by property taxes.

He noted the money to support redevelopment along north Nevada Avenue could be better used to address wildfire evacuation choke points in the community.

"Where are we going to get the money to solve the problem with evacuation? Its there, it is right on the table," said Schulz, who spoke another with another board member from the association.

Colorado Springs City Councilman and Authority board member Wayne Williams said the project is needed to add sidewalks and vibrancy to a former stretch of highway that is now a gateway to the urban center.

Public Works Director Travis Easton said the city needs to ensure infrastructure is in place for development.

"We know that this development is happening. It would be irresponsible of us not to have public improvements that are there to accommodate this development to make sure people can walk from point A to point B," he said.

He was not aware of development projects that have been announced for the corridor.

Resident Walter Lawson asked the board why the road projects on the list were not evaluated to consider wildfire evacuation out of high-risk areas, such as southwest Colorado Springs.

"We are desperately lacking in east-west roads," Lawson said.

Williams said the city list of potential projects includes east-west corridors such as Woodmen Road, Dublin Boulevard and Colorado Avenue.

Colorado Springs abandoned two controversial east-west road projects in town ahead of a vote on the ballot question. Residents raised concerns about a study of the extension of Constitution Boulevard where it dead-ends near Paseo Road to the Fontanero/Interstate 25 interchange. Neighbors felt a high-speed road through a historic neighborhood would bring unwanted noise, traffic and pollution.

Neighbors also opposed changing Platte Avenue and Boulder Street into one-way roads, and so major changes to those corridors are no longer planned as part of the ballot question.
By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan have discussed the organization of mutual business missions and round-tables, Azernews reports.

The discussion took place during a meeting between Azerbaijan's Small and Medium-Sized Business Development Agency with Kyrgyzstan's Ambassador Kairat Osmonaliev.

During the meeting, the parties also discussed joint activities with the participation of SMBs, information about various projects, and exchange of experience in providing services to entrepreneurs.

Diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan were established on January 19, 1993. The embassy of Azerbaijan in Kyrgyzstan was established in October 2007, while the embassy of Kyrgyzstan in Azerbaijan was opened in October 2014.

The trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $9 million in 2021.
By Trend

The number of trips of Turkish citizens to Azerbaijan for the purpose of employment increased significantly in the first half of 2022, the General Directorate of Turkish Employment Agency (ISKUR) told TurkicWorld, Trend reports.

According to ISKUR, the number of Turkish citizens who visited Azerbaijan through the agency increased by 18.6 times during the reporting period compared to the first half of 2021.

ISKUR noted that 275 Turkish citizens visited Azerbaijan for the purpose of employment through an agency during this period.

Generally, 8,393 Turkish citizens went abroad through ISKUR during the reporting period, which is 36 percent more than from January through June 2021.

"A total of 154,037 Turkish citizens were provided with jobs through ISKUR in June 2022, of which 60.1 percent were men, 39.9 percent were women, the agency said.

The number of unemployed in Turkiye amounted to 3.5 million people in June 2020, which is 0.9 percent more than in June last year," ISKUR added.
Corn, LP in Goldfield marked its recent partnership with Summit Carbon Solutions on Tuesday.

"The ethanol industry grinds about 40% of all the corn used in the US, supports 44,000 jobs and adds about $52 billion to the US GDP every year. So this is a very important industry to continue to support to help decarbonize in the future" said Summit Carbon Chief Commercial Officer Jim Pirolli.

Corn, LP is one of 11 partners Summit Carbon Solutions has taken on in Iowa, including Golden Grain Energy in Mason City. Cerro Gordo County is expected to have one of the largest total operation property tax impacts, which is an estimated $1.9 million.

"With this project, it can really put us on a path to being a carbon negative plant in the future." said Corn, LP General Manager Chris Boshart. Corn, LP is pursuing other technology, as well, to reduce carbon emissions and hopefully become carbon neutral or negative in the next 10 years.

Corn kernels and carbon are left behind in the ethanol-making process. Corn, LP said that its 80-million-gallon plant has found a solution for the kernel byproduct in creating high-protein feed for animals, but they hadn't found a solution for carbon emissions until the Summit partnership.

This partnership is part of a five-state project leading up to North Dakota. The planned project would include 683 miles of pipeline throughout Iowa, 35% of the total project. So far, 244 miles of easements have been signed for the project in Iowa, about 35% of the project map. Radio Iowa reported 20% of easements had been signed in the beginning of May, showing progress throughout the last two months.

However the project is not without pushback from Iowans.

"I am adamantly opposed to the proposed CO2 pipelines. As a directly-affected landowner, I resent the fact that [Governor Reynolds) is being heavily influenced by the promoters of the pipelines: Summit Carbon Solutions, Navigator, and ADM/Wolf. I resent the fact that in spite of upwards of 70% of affected landowners being against the pipelines, she has refused repeated requests to meet with these landowner constituents" Kathy Carter of Rockford stated in a Globe Gazette Letter to the Editor.

LETTER: Taking issue with Reynolds' pipeline support On June 28, I received a text message, followed a few hours later by a phone call, from some

One concern many have for the pipeline is the safety of the pipeline, along with the potential for eminent domain takeovers and contract violations on easements. Pirolli asserted the pipeline is safe for landowners, and that safety remains a top priority for Summit Carbon Solutions.

"Locally, here, some of the issues are hard to understand. But at a national or global level, there's no doubt about it  our country is pursuing a low-carbon future" stated Boshart.

Pushing the corn byproduct underground through the Summit Carbon pipeline has been considered a permanent solution to carbon emissions in the Midwest.

The carbon pipeline plans to store carbon in rock layers about a mile deep in North Dakota. There have been more than 40 years of field operations associated with CO2 storage in geologic layers in Texas.

One largely unanswered question remains among other concerns: what are the long-term effects of underground CO2 storage?

Those effects vary greatly depending on the minerals within sandstone, which affect the porosity of the rock and how the sandstone may change over time.

In a study conducted by the Earth Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a conceptual model was developed of CO2 injection in bedded sandstone and shale. These "numerical experiments" give insight as to the evolution of the sandstone geochemical system.

This study found that when both water and CO2 gas pressure were equally saturated, with pressure similar to being pumped two kilometers underground, it would take 100,000 years for the sandstone to reach its absorption capacity. During that time, the makeup of the sandstone changes, as well as leeches some carbon into the shale around it.

With 12 million tons of CO2 being pumped underground each year in North Dakota, it is unknown how much quicker the sandstone will reach capacity, how the sandstone minerals will change, how carbon will react with other sediments, how the sandstone aquifers used will act as an open system of water and what happens when the sandstone can no longer absorb the carbon dioxide.
A former sales associate for Virginia ABC and another man have been indicted in what authorities described as a conspiracy to obtain internal ABC inventory data on high-demand and limited-availability bourbons, and provide that insider information to interested parties for a price.

Former ABC employee Edgar Smith Garcia, 28, of Manassas, and Robert William Adams, 45, of Chesapeake, were indicted last month by a Richmond Metropolitan Multi-Jurisdiction Grand Jury on charges of using a computer to illegally obtain an unauthorized copy of ABC data and embezzling the agency's inventory product sales list. They also are charged with two counts of conspiring to commit those offenses.

The cases are being tried in Hanover County because that's where Virginia ABC recently moved its new administration headquarters and distribution center from Hermitage Road in Richmond.

The charges are based on allegations that Garcia, as an ABC employee, had access to an internal list of the agency's allocated liquor products that was not available to the public. Garcia then provided the information to Adams, who had a private Facebook page, and Adams would release the information to his subscribers who would pay him $300 each for access, said Henrico Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney David Stock, who is prosecuting the case and is special counsel to the multijurisdictional grand jury.

"They would know where bottles of bourbons highly sought by collectors would be placed in stores for sale before the general public was aware," Stock said of the two defendants.

Stock said the investigation focused on various labels of high-demand, limited-availability bourbons allocated by the government-run liquor monopoly. The agency has compiled a list of more than 100 products that are not readily available to meet public demand, but occasionally offered for sale at randomly selected ABC stores at one bottle per customer per day. Some of the sought-after bourbons include Buffalo Trace, Booker's Bourbon and Blanton's Single Barrel.

The goal was to make the products as accessible as possible and correct a system where bourbon hunters or whiskey enthusiasts were camping outside Virginia ABC stores when they thought or caught wind that a shipment of allocated whiskey was coming in.

Now, Virginia ABC will announce on its Spirited Virginia Facebook or Instagram page that certain stores will have the allocated bourbon for purchase.

Because both cases are pending adjudication, Stock declined to say how Garcia and Adams were connected or what brought them together. Garcia was employed as a lead sales associate from Feb. 14, 2020, to March 25 and earned $16.53 hour, ABC officials said.

Reached Friday, attorney Vaughan Jones, who is representing Adams, said he couldn't comment on his client's on-going legal matter. But Vaughan said based on his initial review of the evidence, he found that the acquisition of hard-to-find alcoholic beverages became a hobby among enthusiasts that gained traction during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"There are many people  and I can't comment on whether my client is one of them  who were pursuing all avenues possible to acquire, through legal means, hard-to-find alcohol," Jones said.

Attorney Tony Paracha in Centreville, who is representing Smith, could not be reached for comment.

Virginia ABC and other law enforcement agencies conducted an investigation based on complaints the agency received, along with "our own observations," said ABC spokeswoman Dawn Eischen in a statement Friday. "Since this is an ongoing criminal investigation, we cannot comment on how ABC investigated this case or provide details about products associated with the charges. We can confirm, however, that they were limited availability products."

Added Eischen: "As the sole provider of spirits in Virginia, we want to ensure that every customer has a fair chance at acquiring highly sought-after products. We are committed to this standard and are confident that our current random process to distribute limited availability products addresses the issues identified in our investigation that led to the arrest of these two individuals."

Both Garcia and Adams were released on bond after their arrests.

Garcia is scheduled to enter a plea to the charges on Sept. 19, court records show. On Friday, a judge set a jury trial date of Dec. 12-13 for Adams in Hanover Circuit Court.
GREENSBORO  Members of the Greensboro Fire Department are supporting another of their families touched by tragedy in recent days.

A spokesman for the State Highway Patrol said the agency was notified Wednesday that the 6-year-old daughter of Greensboro firefighter Sherone Lee Shoffner had died from injuries received during a crash early Sunday in Trinity.

Sundays accident happened less than 24 hours after longtime Greensboro firefighter Rick Murrell died in a crash Saturday afternoon in Browns Summit that also critically injured his wife; a 16-year-old boy faces charges in that accident.

Troopers said Shoffner, 43, and his family were taken to Moses Cone Hospital after the crash, which happened at 5:50 a.m. Sunday on southbound Interstate 85 near Finch Farm Road in Randolph County.

Natisha Lafaye Poindexter, 41, of Burlington was traveling south on Interstate-85 in a 2021 Chevrolet Traverse when troopers said she failed to slow down and struck the rear of Shoffners 2015 Chevrolet Tahoe.

Both vehicles traveled off the road to the right and struck a series of trees, the Highway Patrol said in a news release.

Shoffner, and three passengers in his vehicle, Latasha Boykins Shoffner, 36, and two children, ages 14 and 6, received serious, life-threatening injuries, according to the news release.

Poindexter and two passengers in her vehicle, Sharon Tennille Brower, 45, of Raleigh, and a 9-year-old child, suffered serious injuries and were taken to Moses Cone Hospital, troopers said in the news release.

Charges are pending against Poindexter. Speed is believed to be a contributing factor in the crash, troopers said, noting that this is an ongoing investigation.

More details emerge

After Saturdays fatal crash in Browns Summit, the community is learning more about the 15-year-old passenger whose identity was not released by the Highway Patrol because of her age.

Sarah Elizabeth Martin of Kernersville was a passenger in the Dodge Charger driven by her friend Alexio Lattero, a junior volunteer with Fire District 28 in Gibsonville. Martin and Latteros sister, 26-year-old Anna Shyann Lattero of Reidsville, both died at the scene.

An obituary notice for Martin said she was a rising junior at Glenn High School and a straight A student. She was active in the technology department of theater, competed in the Academic Club and was a member of the Creative Writing Club, among other interests.

Murrells wife, Tonya R. Murrell, 50, of Reidsville, a former Reidsville High School teacher, survived the accident but remained in critical but stable condition Thursday at Moses Cone Hospital.

Alexio Lattero is recovering and was expected to be released soon from Moses Cone Hospital, a Highway Patrol spokesman said Monday.

Lattero was charged with three counts of misdemeanor death by motor vehicle, exceeding a safe speed and driving left of center. A spokesperson for the Highway Patrol said Lattero is scheduled to appear in court at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 12 in Greensboro.

Another tragic accident over the weekend claimed the life of a 17-year-old junior firefighter from Walnut Cove.

Landon Munn was a typical 17-year-old, someone who always wanted to make everyone around him smile and laugh, his father Randy Munn said.

He had dreams of becoming a firefighter, his father said.

On Sunday night, the teenager was critically injured in a wreck in Rockingham County that injured two other teenagers. Landon Munn died Monday.

Munn was a rising senior at Walkertown High School.

The fire department put a sign and his uniform outside the station and is working with the family to honor his memory, Walker said.

According to a news release from the State Highway Patrol, at 7:26 p.m. on Sunday, Munn and two passengers were seriously injured in a car accident on Sardis Church Road near Lindsey Bridge Road in Rockingham County.

Troopers said Munn drove off the road and overcorrected, sending the vehicle across the road where it struck a ditch and overturned. Everyone was thrown from the vehicle, the patrol said; no one was wearing a seat belt.

Trooper Brian Martin said the other two passengers, Kendall Flinchum and Billy Dunlap Jr., both 17, have been released from the hospital.

Randy Munn expressed the need for people to wear their seat belts.

He said his son intended to become a firefighter after he finished his role as a junior firefighter because it was a way to give back to his community.

Randy Munn described times when Munn would leave the house late at night to help a friend whose car broke down or a neighbor in need.

He was always there for everybody, he said.
By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

A great film has the ability to transport you from your seat into the scene.

A good movie set plays a key role in the filmmaking process. Having beautiful filming locations is crucial to the success of a film.

Countries like Croatia, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom are among the filming locations for blockbuster movies.

Over recent years, Azerbaijan remains the focus of attention for international filmmakers. The country offers a perfect blend of oriental and modern European architecture in a single spot.

Breathtaking natural backdrops, ancient castles in combination with beautiful skyscrapers, and other masterpieces of the world's best architects make Azerbaijan so attractive for filmmakers.

Azernews invites you on a fascinating journey through movie sets across Azerbaijan.

The Gray Man (2022)

On July 22, the Netflix streaming platform will premiere the film "The Gray Man", part of which was filmed in the capital of Azerbaijan.

The film shootings in Baku were carried out as part of the Culture Ministry's cooperation with Netflix.

The Gray Man is a 2022 American action thriller directed by Anthony and Joe Russo.

The film is intended to start a franchise based upon Greaney's "Gray Man" novels. The film stars include Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas.

As 1 news.az reports, one of the film`s characters is expected to be an Azerbaijani.

Layla Majnun (2021)

In 2021, Netflix Asia premiered a new film "Layla Majnun". It is the first Netflix project filmed in Azerbaijan. The film is inspired by the legendary poem of Azerbaijan's great poet and thinker Nizami Ganjavi.

While in Azerbaijan, Layla, an Indonesian scholar, falls for Samir, an admirer of her work, but her arranged marriage stands in the way.

"Layla Majnun" was filmed by Monty Tiwa. The cast includes Acha Septriasa and Reza Rahadian.

Ali and Nino (2016)

Ali and Nino is a 2016 British Drama Romance War film based on Kurban Said's novel of the same name. The film is written by Christopher Hampton and directed by Asif Kapadia. The head of the project and executive producer of the film is Leyla Aliyeva.

Most of the film was shot in Turkey and Azerbaijan. The shootings started in February 2015 and continued until June in Baku, the historic part of the Icherisheher (Old City), and other parts of the capital, also as Gobustan, Khinalig, and other regions.

Drongo (2002)

Drongo was filmed in 2002 by the Russian director Zinovy??Roizman. Drongo is the name of the secret agent, the main character of the books of Chingiz Abdullayev.

A screen image of a lonely hero with extraordinary detective abilities was created by Ivar Kalnins.

The shootings took place in various cities, including Baku, Moscow, Batumi, Tbilisi, New York, Paris, and London.

World Is Not Enough (1999)

The World Is Not Enough(1999) is the nineteenth spy film in the James Bond series. This time a spy is lurking around in Baku. Britain's famous Agent 007, James Bond paid a visit to the Land of Fire.

The scene where James Bond first appears in Azerbaijan (riding his BMW Z8 in the area of oil rigs), was shot in the village of Bibi-Heybat.

Tehran 43 (1981)

Tehran 43 is a 1981 USSR-France-Switzerland drama film made by Mosfilm. It is based on events around Operation Long Jump, the 1943 attempt by Nazi Germany to assassinate Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the Tehran Conference.

A detective with Natalia Belokhvostikova and Alen Delon appeared on screens in 1980 and made a sensation. Some parts of the film were shot in Baku, which ancient buildings are externally similar to the houses in Tehran.
GREENSBORO  Former County Commissioner Alan Branson has filed an appeal to Wake County Superior Court that could continue to delay the certification of Mays Guilford County Schools bond referendum.

In May, voters approved $1.7 billion in school construction bonds, but election officials have not yet certified those results because of a pending election protest from Branson, who also is a candidate for an at-large seat on the Guilford County Board of Commissioners. Branson is arguing that public funds were illegally used by the county to campaign for the bond and he wants the referendum put before voters a second time.

He filed the protest with the support of the newly formed Taxpayers for Honest Elections, which this week launched a Facebook page and GoFundMe to seek support in the court fight.

Theres plenty of information there for wrongdoing both on behalf of Guilford County Schools and the way it was promoted, and Guilford County, Branson said Friday when asked his reason for continuing the protest.

According to Bob Joyce, a professor of public law and government at the UNC School of Government, a government entity can use public funds to provide information on a referendum to the public. That could include the question to be decided, the arguments pro and con and the likely consequences of either outcome.

... a jurisdiction may use public funds to educate citizens, but it may not use public funds to try to persuade them to vote one way or another, he wrote in response to emailed questions from the News & Record. How do you tell education from attempted persuasion? In the right case it can be difficult, but the court noted that factors to be considered include the style, tenor, and timing of what the jurisdiction publishes.

Branson first took his case to the Guilford County Board of Elections, then appealed to the N.C. State Board of Elections, both of which found no probable cause to hold a hearing on the evidence Branson and his lawyers collected. Branson is now appealing the state boards decision.

His legal team has asked the Superior Court for a temporary stay of the certification of the election. They expect a judge to rule on whether or not to grant the stay on Monday, based on whether or not the judge sees a likelihood of success for the appeal. If the judge stays the ruling, the certification of the election will continue to be paused.

Guilford Countys Board of Elections is set to certify the referendum result on Aug. 20, unless the judge halts it, according to Charlie Collicutt, Guilford Countys elections director.

Kevin Cline, one of Bransons attorneys, said if the judge doesnt grant the stay then thats pretty much it, because the election will be certified.

County and school leaders have said Bransons protest is holding up some early steps toward a massive overhaul of school buildings they say will improve learning conditions for students. The appeal affects the 2022 bond projects but not the 2020 bond projects, which are already in motion.

North Carolina law prohibits counties, school districts and cities from using public funds to endorse or oppose a referendum, election or candidate. Both the county and the school district have defended their messaging and materials published in the lead-up to the 2022 bond referendum as educational, and therefore permissible under state law.

In a statement to the News & Record this spring, Guilford County Schools Chief of Staff Rebecca Kaye said the district has a responsibility to share relevant information with parents, staff and the community on issues that affect the students and staff.

Nonetheless, in 2020, when another bond referendum was on the ballot, the schools and county did more to share information with voters they expected to be supportive, targeting likely yes voters with messages and voting reminders, according to a document the district produced as a submission for a national communications award.

The submission does not fully spell out how the county and schools identified likely yes voters but pointed to where a person lived and how they voted in the 2016 presidential election as correlating to the likelihood of voting for local bond initiatives.

A voter analysis the district attached to its submission called for targeting of voters in precincts that favored Clinton over Trump in the 2016 election and also heavily supported the bond referendum for Greensboro parks that was also on the ballot in Greensboro in 2016.

Branson included the districts contest submission for the Fix Our Schools, Fund Our Future bond/finance campaign in 2020 in the evidence he submitted for his protest of the 2022 bond referendum. The same document is on the districts website and on the National School Public Relations Association communication awards website, as one of its winners for 2021.

The campaign sought to increase awareness among targeted internal and external publics about the districts school facilities needs and two referenda that year: a $300 million school bond referendum and a 1/4 cent sales tax, to be used to help the county fund the school bond debt.

It also sought to increase awareness among these groups, that there is unified bi-partisan community support for both ballot initiatives. And it aimed to, encourage GCS employees, parents, eligible students, volunteers and partners to vote and remind them of the importance of making their opinions known by voting.

According to the document, county staff worked with Strategic Link Partners to create and mail information about the school bonds and 1/4-cent sales tax to likely yes voters in targeted precincts, and, text messages and voting reminders were sent to likely yes voters in targeted precincts.

Those were among a wide variety of efforts detailed in the document, which also included outreach to parents and school staff. Social studies curriculum specialists and social studies teachers partnered with two nonpartisan, nonprofit organizations to encourage staff and eligible students to register to vote, according to the document.

The document showed that a $40,000 budget was established to provide technical assistance support for the Guilford County and school district teams, including in areas such as targeted text, email and social media outreach to key constituents.

The News & Record emailed the county and school district last week to ask how they targeted likely yes voters in 2020 and whether that targeting also took place in 2022.

Both wrote back, but their responses left both those points unclear.

GCS shared information with all parents and staff on the school bond referendums without consideration of party affiliation and voting records, district spokeswoman Gabrielle Brown shared. We have followed the appropriate, legal guidelines for sharing school bond information. GCS used already existing communication platforms for texting, calls, and social media to share school bond information.

The countys communications director, Julie Smith, wrote: Guilford County voters were asked in 2022 to approve a significant investment in public school facilities, and the county has an obligation to ensure voters are educated about the bond and sales tax referenda.

Our goal was to educate voters, regardless of affiliation or location in the county, and our effort was focused on informing voters representative of all county districts about the measure in accordance with all of the applicable legal standards.

The News & Record also reached out to the city of Greensboro, which has $135 million in bond issues on the July 26 municipal elections ballot.

The only thing we have done is post the bond information on our website and on some of our social media feeds, city spokesman Jake Keys said. These posts include what the bond is, that residents may vote yes or no on each bond, and when the election is. None of it is targeted.
The Helena City Commission has established a city commission and city manager relations subcommittee with the intent of recruiting and retaining a city manager.

Helena Mayor Wilmot Collins and City Commissioner Sean Logan were appointed to the subcommittee during the city commission's June 27 meeting.

"The rationale or thought process for this particular subcommittee is to deal with things like matters, for example, the city manager recruitment process or periodic evaluations or any issues that arise with the commission and manager that may need some legwork, let's say, or some research to be done prior to a matter being brought to the full commission and public for discussion," Logan said ahead of his appointment.

In a phone interview this week, Collins said the subcommittee will hopefully expedite the process of not only hiring a city manager, but also the process of appointing a replacement for the late City Commissioner Eric Feaver, who died June 22.

"It's just a way to run things more smoothly," Collins said.

He added that the subcommittee's meetings will all be open to the public.

"The last thing we want to do is violate open meeting laws," he said.

He also said interim City Manager Tim Burton is working with a local human resources company and Great Falls-based attorney Jordan Crosby, as well as "stakeholders" in the near future, to ensure a smooth transition.

City Commissioner Emily Dean said during the June 27 meeting she believes this "will be a productive way to move forward, and I'm grateful to both the mayor and Commissioner Logan for being willing to serve on this subcommittee with clearly a very important purpose."

The city has lost two city managers in the past three years, not counting those who held the position in an interim role. Ana Cortez was city manager from January 2019 until the city terminated her contract in February 2020 after multiple discrimination complaints were filed against her by city staff, and Rachel Harlow-Schalk resigned with no advance notice Feb. 18 after only 16 months on the job.
Beginning this afternoon, members of the public can start claiming their spots on Carroll College's Guadalupe Hill for Saturday's free Symphony Under the Stars concert celebrating the music of Billy Joel and Elton John.

Early placement of blankets and lawn chairs will be allowed 3-5 p.m. Friday for anyone who makes a $5 donation to the Boy Scouts, who will be on site providing security. Everyone else can claim their spots beginning at 5 p.m. Pets, plastic tarps, paint, rocks and stakes are strictly prohibited on the lawn at all times.

Concert-goers are encouraged to hold down their blankets with non-perishable or canned food items that will be donated to Helena Food Share. The event is the local food bank's biggest food drive of the year and usually brings in more than 18,000 pounds of food per year, but event organizers hope to up that number to 22,000 pounds this year.

"The food collected at this event is even more critical now as we continue to see significant increases in food costs. As a result, there is an increase in the need for food support in our community," Helena Food Share Executive Director Bruce Day said. "Please bring what you can to the concert. We will have a team of volunteers collecting food at various stations throughout the hillside. Thanks to the Helena Symphony, Carroll College, and Intrepid Credit Union for making food collection a part of this exciting annual community event."

The Intrepid Credit Union Symphony Under the Stars begins at 8 p.m. Saturday and will finish with a fireworks finale. It attracts over 18,000 people from all over Montana and beyond, according to event organizers.

At Intrepid Credit Union, we are dedicated to amplifying community engagement and fostering new opportunities for our neighbors, said Greg Strizich, CEO of Intrepid Credit Union. Each year, the Intrepid Credit Union Symphony Under the Stars showcases the incredible talent we have in Helena and provides access to symphonic art to thousands within our community. We are thrilled to be a principal sponsor for this exceptional Helena tradition.

Concert-goers can look forward to the Helena's Symphony's renditions of the music of Billy Joel and Elton John, including performances of the iconic "Piano Man," "Saturday Nights Alright (For Fighting)," "Your Song," and "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant."

Carroll College is pleased to once again serve as the venue for this highly anticipated summer concert," Carroll College President John Cech said. "We look forward to partnering with the Helena Symphony and Intrepid Credit Union in welcoming our friends and neighbors from near and far for an evening celebrating community and good music."

For more information, contact the Helena Symphony office at 406-442-1860.

Specific details regarding seating, parking and other production information can be found at the Symphony Under the Stars Facebook page and website at www.facebook.com/SymphonyUnderTheStars, or www.symphonyunderthestars.com.

If you go What: Symphony Under the Stars When: Blanket placement starts at 3 p.m. Friday with a $5 donation to the Boy Scouts and 5 p.m. Friday for the general public. The concert starts at 8 p.m. Saturday. Where: Guadalupe Hill on the Carroll College campus. Theme: The music of Billy Joel and Elton John Cost: Free
Montana Passenger Rail is focus of LWV meeting

An update on Montana Passenger Rail will be part of the next League of Women Voters of the Helena Area meeting at noon, Tuesday, July 19.

Due to an uptick in COVID-19, the meeting will be by Zoom.

For an agenda and a link to join the meeting via Zoom, email LWV.Helena@gmail.com.

Program to reduce falls in older adults

One in four older adults has a fall each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The good news, according to Agencies on Aging, is that falls are not a normal part of aging and can be prevented.

The Stepping On program, offered in Helena by Rockys Agency on Aging, has been researched and proven to reduce falls by 31%. Stepping On will be held Mondays from 2:30-4:30 p.m. from Aug. 15 through Oct. 3 at the Helena Senior Center, 200 S. Cruse Ave. Registration is required.

Over this seven week workshop, Stepping On gives participants strategies for avoiding falls including balance and strength exercises, home safety check suggestions, medication review and more. Guest experts including a physical therapist and pharmacist and others visit over the course of the seven sessions providing falls prevention information and strategies for avoiding a fall. The workshop is designed specifically for people who are age 60 or older and have fallen, or have a fear of falling. Participants can expect to leave with more strength, better balance and a feeling of confidence and independence.

To register for Stepping On, contact Michele at 406-441-3985 or mmathot@rmdc.net.

Rockys Agency on Aging, a program of Rocky Mountain Development Council, Inc., is a non-profit that assists seniors and adults with disabilities to make choices to preserve their independence and dignity.

Carroll College graduate awarded Fulbright Scholarship

Carroll College alumna Rachel Bechtel, class of 2020, has been awarded a Fulbright U.S. Student Program Award. As a Fulbright Study/Research Award recipient, Bechtel will begin her masters degree in intellectual and developmental disabilities at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, this fall.

The U.S. Fulbright Program is a competitive, prestigious fellowship designed to facilitate cultural exchange and foster mutual understanding between Americans and their host countries. It is the world's largest and most diverse international educational exchange program. Bechtels Fulbright award provides a full tuition waiver for a year of study plus a living and travel stipend.

The University of Kents specialized masters degree is uniquely aligned with Bechtels academic interests. For her masters research, Bechtel has designed a study with the support of faculty from the Tizard Centre, a research center that pioneers care alternatives for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs), to analyze how increased contact with people with IDDs, facilitated through community care, may affect community perceptions of people with IDDs. She will conduct this research in partnership with LArche Kent, a cooperative living community for people with and without IDDs.

The mentorship, research, and personal connections formed through this masters program will directly inform my future policy work and provide me with the relationships necessary to serve as a cultural ambassador to both the University and the greater community, said Bechtel.

Lewis and Clark County board openings

Lewis and Clark County has the following board openings:

Board of Adjustment

Forestvale Cemetery Board

Forestvale Historic Preservation Committee

Human Services Task Force

Investment Committee

Lewis and Clark County DUI Task Force

Lincoln Parks Board

Lincoln Solid Waste District Board

Open Lands Citizens Advisory Committee

Planning & Zoning Commission

Tax Appeal Board

Water Quality Protection District

Weed Board

Applications are available at http://www.lccountymt.gov/bocc/boards.html or by calling 447-8378 and can be submitted to the Lewis and Clark County Commissioners Office, 316 N. Park Avenue, Room 345, Helena, MT 59623.
By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

Molla Panah Vagif has gone down in the history of Azerbaijan as a prominent statesman and talented poet, like a saying, "not every literate person can be Vagif".

As a vizier, he did much for the prosperity and political growth of the Karabakh khanate. He played an important role in the defense of Shusha during the incursions of Aga Muhammad Shah Qajar of Persia in 1795 and 1797.

Being the founder of the realism genre in Azerbaijani literature, he wrote a myriad of poems. His verses were collected for the first time in 1856 and published by Mirza Yusif Nersesov.

Soon afterward, his verses were published by Adolf Berge in Leipzig in 1867 with the assistance of the Azerbaijani playwright Mirza Fatali Akhundov.

The mausoleum on the grave of the Azerbaijani poet and statesman was built through instructions of the national leader Heydar Aliyev in 1982.

It was built by sculptor A. Mustafayev based on the design by a member of the National Academy of Sciences, Abdul Vahab Salamzade, and well-known architect E. I. Kanukov. The design of the mausoleum followed the pattern of Azerbaijani mausoleum architectural compositions such as the Nizami Mausoleum in Ganja. It rises to 18 meters in height.

The bottom part of the monument was built with reddish Karabakh marble plates, white and grey marble.

Aluminum was used for the decoration pattern in the entire length of the mausoleum. The poet's name was engraved above the entrance door.

The monument used to be heavily damaged as a result of the Armenian occupation. Molla Panah Vagif Mausoleum in Shusha was restored last year upon the president's instruction.

In 2021, Vagif Poetry Days were held for the first time in Shusha since the city's liberation.

Like last year, Vagif Poetry Days was remembered by spectacular concerts, book exhibitions, and of course beautiful poetry that touches every string of soul. Here are some of the best highlights of the Vagif Poetry Days.

Shusha, the cradle of Azerbaijani culture, has once again welcomed the guests of the Vagif Poetry Days.

The most anticipated cultural event was held for the second time in Azerbaijan's cultural capital since Shusha was liberated from Armenian occupation.

Vagif Poetry Days was a co-organized joint project of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, the Azerbaijani Culture Ministry, and the Union of Azerbaijan Writers to pay tribute both to prominent statesman and poet.

Azernews is pleased to present some of the best highlights of Vagif Poetry Days 2022.

Book exhibition

Vagif Poetry Days started with a book exhibition. The list of books showcased as part of the event included "Karabakh Saga, Thirty Years of Longing - Victory of 44 Days" prepared by the Azerbaijan Writers' Union, "All Roads Lead to Shusha..." as well as publications dedicated to Azerbaijan's Victory in the Patriotic War.

The book "The Saga of Karabakh, Thirty Years of Longing - Victory of 44 Days" contains memories of writers from liberated Karabakh about their region. For example, Elchin Afandiyev wrote about Shusha, Ramiz Rovshan shared his thoughts about Gubadli.

The project brought together famous writers like Seyran Sakhavat (Fuzuli), Elchin Huseynbayli (Jabrayil), and Agil Abbas (Aghdam) who also shared their memories and thoughts about the country's regions.

The book includes beautiful poems inspired by Karabakh and publicist articles about the Kharibulbul Festival. The author and editor of the book's foreword is Rashad Majid.

Heart-touching mugham music

The Vagif Poetry Days continued outside the poet`s museum-mausoleum in Shusha,

Speaking at the event, the chairperson of Azerbaijan's Writers' Union, People's Writer Anar underscored the events held in liberated Shusha and talked about the stages of the creative path of genius poet Molla Panah Vagif, as well as read his poems.

People's Writer Chingiz Abdullayev recalled his childhood memories associated with Shusha.

"The Azerbaijani people have been looking forward to this day for many years. Many of our servicemen gave their lives for Karabakh's liberation with belief in the country and its president. It is thanks to them that we have gathered here today," he added.

During the "Igidlarin sozu" (Promise of the braves) composition, poets-participants of the second Karabakh war gave speeches under mugham music.

Spectacular musical play

A spectacular musical play was shown at Jidir Plain within the Vagif Poetry Days in Shusha.

The images of Azerbaijan's prominent writers such as Fuzuli, Khagani, Khurshidbanu Natavan, Imadedin Nasimi, Mahsati Ganjavi, Mir Mohsun Navvab, Molla Panah Vagif, Molla Vali Vidadi, Nizami Ganjavi, Shah Ismail Khatai were embodied in the concert-play "Echo of the Ages".

People's artists Gulyanag Mammadova, Gyulyaz Mammadova, Samir Jafarov, Honored Artists Fargana Gasimova, Gochag Askerov, Nuria Huseynova, and other artists performed in the musical play.
Allejandra Parra, a 17-year-old student, just finished the Career Training Institutes Youthbuild program in May.

It was the best program ever, Parra said. Its the teachers and the case managers  theyre super cool. And I reconnected with friends from middle school, and it gave us the construction experience most individuals dont have in their high school years.

Her favorite memory of her seven-month stint with Youthbuild was participating in Habitat for Humanitys Blitz Build, where students helped to build four houses in 10 days.

But it wasnt long ago, according to Parra, that she was struggling with online school during COVID-19. Now, shes working at the snack bar in a Helena bowling alley and gearing up to finish her general education requirements for college. Shes not sure whether she wants to do those at Helena College or at Great Falls College, but she knows she wants to become a radiologist.

For students like Parra, the Youthbuild program is a game-changer, said Lisa Newman, the program director.

Started in 1983, Youthbuild is an alternate schooling option for students aged 16-24. Newman said Helenas Youthbuild program is the only one of its kind in Montana, funded by a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Labor since 2011.

We have to compete nationwide, Newman said. And there are very few rural programs, so were very fortunate to have it.

And right now, Helenas Youthbuild is recruiting for its next session, which starts on Aug. 17. It hosts up to 24 students, like Parra, for seven months at a time.

According to Newman, Youthbuild offers an experiential learning opportunity to students, who spend half their days learning about construction and half their days in the classroom. It partners with Habitat for Humanity to give students real-world construction experience.

The goal is for students to leave Youthbuild with their high school equivalency, along with skills to practice in real-world careers.

It isnt the end of the road, Newman said. Its just one thing on their career paths.

The recruitment process consists of three meetings and going through mental toughness, which Newman said is a try-out session to see if Youthbuild is a good fit. After mental toughness, students take reading and math assessments and go through another interview before acceptance into the program.

Once theyre in the program, students choose one of five pathways to focus on: retail, automotive, hospitality, health care or construction. In addition to classes and construction work, they also shadow people working in their future field, have chances to complete apprenticeship programs and complete service projects.

Students receive a weekly stipend of $100, funded by the grant. That stipend is based on attendance, participation and leadership. Students can earn bonuses for perfect attendance and excellent leadership too.

And Newman said there are new opportunities upcoming. Starting in the next session, some contractors are partnering with CTI to offer 40 hours worth of paid labor and experience to construction-focused students who finish the Youthbuild program. She added Youthbuild is always looking for new employers willing to join with them in each of the five fields.

And Newman said the support doesnt end when students finish their seven-month program.

We continue to be available to help them for 12 months after that, Newman said. So right now, we have several students from the last session who are still in the process of taking their high school equivalency test, but were here to help with job search.

She added they also have services for students who come back for help with resumes or college applications.

For Parra, this continued support has been something special.

Having the program here check on you and everybody here check on you  it felt really nice, Parra said, adding that shes come back to visit and talk with teachers a few times after finishing up in May. And its really refreshing to have someone check on you that is not in your family and is an older person.

Application information for the next Youthbuild session can be found on its website: https://ctihelena.org/.
If an online course is mandatory for all Montana hunters, should the state use a carrot or a stick to encourage participation?

The issue was recently debated by the Private Land/Public Wildlife Council as it considers updating the current Hunter-Landowner Stewardship Project. Created in 2010, the voluntary program is seen as a way to encourage hunters to be ethical when afield and to respect private property rights.

Over the past five years, almost 2,000 people started the 42-page online course, but less than half completed the program to earn a certificate, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. Thats a small percentage of new hunters considering that last year alone 10,900 people took a hunter education or bowhunter education class either online or in a classroom.

PL/PW member Drew Steinberger said the course ought to be mandatory with different hot topics every year to continually educate people, rather than one and done.

If you want to hunt, thats a pretty big incentive for most folks, he said.

The idea of making the course mandatory didnt sit well with FWP Director Hank Worsech. The same idea was pitched by a different PL/PW group in 2014 and never went anywhere.

I think any time you try to force the public to do something, youre going to run into issues with it, he said, including people finding test work-arounds.

PL/PW member Donna McDonald said adding an additional condition to purchasing a hunting license would generate a public outcry and harm FWPs reputation.

You think my 88-year-old father would take that test? she said. Hell just go poach a frickin elk before taking that test.

Worsech said the logistics of mandatory participation would kill the department and create another hurdle for licensing at a time when the agency has suffered through several licensing errors. He also suggested that if the hassle is too great for nonresidents, they would find someplace else to hunt. Nonresident license dollars supply 73% of FWPs funding, he noted.

Instead, Worsech advocated incentivizing the program. Ideas tossed out as incentives were a free entry into a Super Tag drawing, which allows a hunter to go anywhere in the state for a certain species. Another possibility was a free bonus point that hunters could use when applying to get a permit in a hard to draw hunting district.

The largest demographic for hunter education  87%  is youngsters age 10 to 15 years old. Incorporated in hunter education is some of the same topics that the stewardship program addresses, but in a smaller dose.

I suspect that most of our problems are with our adults, not our kids, said

Wayde Cooperider, who supervises the hunter ed program for FWP. How do we get those parents involved and get them educated? I think thats the big nut that were all here to try and crack.

Worsech also noted, The people that really need it the most are the ones who are not going to take it, no matter how we incentivize it.

PL/PW member Everett Headley suggested that completion of the stewardship program be a requirement for someone to access Block Management Areas. BMAs are private and public lands where hunters have to sign in or request permission to hunt. FWP pays landowners for providing the access.

Unless there is some sort of carrot there to bring people to the table, its not going to have a wide audience, and a wide audience is what we need for people to find some kind of accomplishment in having a statewide hunter behavior change, Headley said.

Worsech said such a change would likely require legislation, but he added increased penalties for misbehavior on Block Management Areas could be considered. He also said hunters need to police their own ranks by reporting violations.

FWP should not have to carry the water for everyone, Worsech added, saying that sporting groups like the Montana Chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers and the Montana Wildlife Federation should be involved. Other PL/PW members disagreed.

Probably Fish, Wildlife & Parks needs to have leadership, but I would also say its everybodys responsibility to push this message, said PL/PW member Dale Tribby.

The state agency has already launched an advertising campaign promoting hunter ethics. So far, $48,000 has been spent on radio, online, social, email and print ads, according to Greg Lemon, FWP administrator. Three billboards have also been erected with the slogan: Respect: Land, Landowners, Wildlife. Pass it on.

The PL/PW Council will take up the issue of the stewardship program at its next meeting in August. Lemon said the current course is heavy on text, with more than 20,000 words. His department is looking to make the new course almost completely video followed by an exam. The acronym for the new course is TREC: Think, Respect, Expectations and Communication.

PL/PW chairman Ed Beall said the program is all about building better relationships between landowners, hunters and promoting respect for the land.

Weve talked about this for a long time, Beall said. The relational aspect is kind of to me the stem on the umbrella.
A climate and culture survey of employees at state-run health care facilities found management to be the top reason employees would exit from their jobs in the next 12 months.

The 28-page report was published by the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services while the survey was conducted by third-party contractor Alvarez & Marsal. Across seven facilities, 33% of the 1,100 employees responded to the survey, which asked about satisfaction with salaries, workload and opportunities for professional development.

On a scale of 1-to-5, employees gave a 3.1 response to their overall satisfaction with their job. Still, nearly one-fifth of employees who responded said they are considering leaving their jobs in the next 12 months.

A spokesperson for DPHHS said Friday the survey results provide specific objectives to address moving forward.

"DPHHS is aware that there are challenges at the state-run health care facilities, and this is why we hired A&M to conduct an independent assessment and develop long-range strategic plans. As part of their work, A&M conducted a climate and culture survey," spokesperson Jon Ebelt said in an emailed statement. "The results of the survey give us specific insights to begin the process of working on these identified concerns. We want our employees to feel valued where they work and we are taking the feedback received seriously."

Alvarez & Marsal were contracted earlier this year as a part of a reorganization process within the state health department. The company arrived as one facility in particular  the Montana State Hospital  had reached a full-blown crisis. For months, staff had called on the state health department to address management at the facility, which they said was driving a staff exodus. In April, after Alvarez & Marsal hit the ground in Warm Springs, state hospital administrator Kyle Fouts was moved to a different facility.

But the climate and culture survey shows management is the top reason for employees at all facilities considering a departure from their jobs in the next 12 months, with 17% of respondents. Ebelt did not respond to a question Friday of whether the department intends to shake up management at other facilities as it did with Fouts as a result of the survey.

Eighteen percent of all respondents said they "intend" to leave their job within the next 12 months. The group with the highest percentage of people intending to leave their jobs, at 71%, are advanced practice registered nurses.

In the next highest category, as many people are planning to leave for retirement as there are employees planning to leave due low morale and a toxic environment (14%). Lack of accountability and ethics among staff is the third-most reported reason employees are thinking of looking for different jobs, according to the report.

And while Montana State Hospital has seen the most public fallout from internal issues, the Montana Mental Health Nursing Care Center in Lewistown reported the highest percentage of employees "plan on leaving" the facility at 35% of the respondents.

Conversely, training and increased wages were the top results when employees were asked for ideas to better recruit and retain employees.

Across all facilities, "accomplishment" ranked the highest among employees' satisfaction at their respective facilities.

The facilities included the Montana State Hospital, Montana Mental Health Nursing Care Center, Intensive Behavioral Center, Montana Chemical Dependency Center, Columbia Falls Montana Veterans' Home, Southwest Montana Veterans' Home and Eastern Montana Veterans' Home.
DECATUR  The Rev. Doug Lowery encourages his congregation at Maranatha Assembly of God to pray daily for first responders.

And he was grateful his church was on the route the Illinois Concerns of Police Survivors bicyclists took through Decatur on Friday, so the church could provide them a place to rest and eat.

We've always supported the police department, and this was an opportunity since we happened to be in the right place on their schedule, and we were glad to do it, Lowery said.

The church previously hosted the funeral for Officer Chris Oberheim, one of the officers the ride honors this year. Oberheim died May 19, 2021, in a shooting while responding to a domestic disturbance in Champaign, where he had served on the police force for 13 years. He was a native of Decatur.

Our mission here is when a line-of-duty death occurs, we arrive on scene and we never go away, said Illinois C.O.P.S. co-chair Mike McTighe. We're always with our families, whether it's the one-year anniversary or 15- or 20-year anniversaries, we're always with our families.

The

The organization provides support after officers are killed in the line of duty, helping the families they left behind to adjust.

There is no membership fee to join C.O.P.S., for the price paid is already too high, the website reads.

Every July, volunteers that include officers, survivors and supporters take a bicycle ride of hundreds of miles to visit the hometowns of the officers to be honored that year. The group also made a stop in Long Creek on behalf of Trooper Todd Hanneken, who was killed in a single-vehicle crash in Bondville on March 25, 2021.

I am riding for everybody, said Officer Chad Bock of the Normal Police Department, who is participating in his eighth ride this year and has been part of the organization for 12 years. I don't fit the definition of a 'survivor' because I haven't lost a co-worker or family member.

He (Bock) is our family, said Amber Oberheim. That's the way that works.

Bock is a member of the Critical Incident Memorial Team, which responds anywhere in the state to assist families when there's a line-of-duty death.

The Illinois Concerns of Police Survivors stepped up for us when we lost our dad, and did things that we weren't expecting, and they were great, said Avery Oberheim. We want to give back to them and also show other families that we love them.

This year's four-day ride started Thursday in Alton and will end Sunday in Bridgeview. Riders take brief breaks every 20 miles or so, and spend each night in a hotel. At every stop, they're greeted, as they were in Decatur, with supporters lining the route waving flags and posters and cheering.

Each rider must raise at least $800 and each support team member, $500.

Riding all those miles on a bicycle is tough, said Joe Oberheim, an officer with the Decatur Police Department and brother of Chris Oberheim.

I'm doing it to support the C.O.P.S. organization, he said. They were there for our family when Chris was killed. And to help raise money for them, so they can continue to support families when an officer dies in the line of duty. Chris is obviously a huge motivation for me. Thinking about him and the other officers is what keeps me going.

And though the ride is to honor officers lost in the past year, one name on their list this year is Patrolman Roy Liesveld, who died during the 1918 flu epidemic. Police officers pitched in to help the sick and dying during that time, and Liesveld drove an ambulance, transporting flu patients to hospitals, even after falling ill himself.
On June 25, 15th Congressional District candidate Mary Miller held a rally in Mendon, Illinois. She mounted the stage to address the large crowd of supporters who had come to see the headliner of the rally, former-President Trump. As he stood by with his trademark cat who ate the canary grin, Miller proudly looked in Trumps direction and stated, President Trump, on behalf of all the MAGA patriots in America, I want to thank you for the historic victory for white life in the Supreme Court yesterday.

One of her spokesmen later rushed in to state that she simply misspoke, and had actually meant to say right to life instead of white life. It was an innocent mistake anyone could have made, right? The spokesman stated as much when he claimed that her unfortunate turn of phrase was merely a mix-up of words, rendered accidentally while looking at her speech on the podium.

Now, I dont know about you, but I have been known to misspeak from time to time. However, when I do, I never say anything very far afield from my general nature or belief system. For instance, it would be impossible to imagine me placing my order at the Burrito Truck, saying, May I please have my usual tongue tacos? when I obviously meant to say chicken tacos. That simply could not happen, unless of course tongue tacos were on my list of tasty possibilitieswhich theyre not.

The interesting and rather frightening thing about Millers gaffe is that it really didnt matter if she said white life purposefully or not. For while its true that the media made a big thing out of her verbal mishap, Millers campaign suffered no damage whatsoever.

In fact, the crowd that heard her controversial statement that day erupted into applause and cheers as she uttered it. No gasps of horror, no silent rebukes. Instead, she received thunderous applause, and four days later, she decisively beat Rodney Davis in the contested Republican primary.

Racist rhetoric seems to be a badge of courage these days. We can blame Trump for that. The decline of political correctness, directly connected to his disdain for oratorical boundaries ostensibly in the name of free speech, led directly to the rise of hate speech nationwide. His efforts successfully pulled back the curtain to not only reveal the racism weve tried so hard to mask for so many years, but to make it trendy again.

I was never a fan of Rodney Davis, but Mary Millers success represents a low point in Illinois politics, and her victory proves that candidates can now win elections on a platform of explicit racism. No one can contest the fact that the Republican Party is solely to blame for this. They will deny it, of course, just as they deny guns are the problem, but the arbiter of history will be their judge and it wont be kind to them.

In the meantime, it seems that we are destined to suffer for years under their freedom-stripping policies. Nevertheless, I am hopeful there will be a day when freedom, equality, and civility will once again mean something.

We, the majority, will have to fight for it, but I have to believe that well prevail. For the sake of our daughters, grand-daughters, our gay friends, and all Americans of color, we simply must win this fight, because the alternative (namely homophobic, racist, religious fundamentalist control) is as unthinkable as it is un-American.
To the teachers, staff and principal at America Dreamers Academy, your story broke my heart last night (July 12). Thank you to the teacher and staff who spoke out. Please know that this community heard you at the mic last night.

Last night it was stated your renovations were cancelled for being over budget. Board members Oakes said that the project was bided at $2 million and came in around $10 million. While we dont believe his figures were accurate, based on these numbers there was more than enough money to provide you with the facility upgrades needed for a K-8 that were supposed to start this month.

How it can this district be OK and so nonchalant about the conditions at America Dreamers? I hope that those board members reading this will do the right and honorable thing and make good on their promises.

CARES Funding was designed for schools like America Dreamers. It is imperative that CARES money be use equitably and ethically. All DPS 61 children matter. There was over $80 million slated for this district. DPS must do the right thing. I am asking the members of this group to stand with America Dreamers Academy.

There are three pots of money, please see below:

* Cares 1 $4,987,875

*Cares 2 $21,981,794

*Cares 3. $51,734,250

I ask this community take immediate action. Call and email Oakes, Taylor, Dion, Brown, Banks, Lewis and demand that America Dreamers Academy be reinstated.

This is not the time to sit back and think our board members will do the right and just thing. We must as a community with a uniform voice and tell Dennis-only board that all students matter.

Jacob Jenkins, Decatur
By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

A delegation of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET) will visit Azerbaijan, Azernews reports, citing the committee's press service.

According to the press service, the group is going to visit three South Caucasus nations from July 17 to July 22.

The visit's program is still being prepared and the exact schedule of the delegation's travel to Azerbaijan is still uncertain, it added.

The Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) is a European Parliament committee in charge of the European Union's common foreign, security, and defense policy, as well as relations with other European and international institutions, strengthening relations with third countries, new member states' accession, and human rights.

The committee has 79 members and is led by David McAllister of Germany during the Ninth European Parliament (2019-2024).
The Sullivan County Board of Education passed a resolution Thursday expressing support for public school teachers following public criticism by a college president with hopes of opening as many as 50 charter schools in Tennessee.

The comments made by Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn were made during a reception in Williamson County attended by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee. Arnn reportedly said, Teachers are trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges in the country, and you dont have to be an expert to educate a child because basically anybody can do it.

Arnn also said the public education system was like the plague.

Dr. Mary Rause, a member of the Sullivan County Tennessee Board of Education who has worked in public education for 32 years, presented the resolution and called out Lee for not standing up for Tennessee Public Schools during the event.

I am saddened by the comments made last week by Larry Arnn, president of Hillsdale College, Rause said. Im even more sad and disappointed in our governor who sat there and did not defend our teachers. Shame on you, Governor Lee, Shame on you.

Hillsdale College has campuses in Washington, D.C. and Hillsdale, Michigan.

In his State of the State speech in January of 2022, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced a partnership with Hillsdale College to set up at least 50 charter schools across Tennessee.

Matthew Spivey, a member of the Sullivan County Tennessee Board of education, emphasized that treating public education with disregard is a mistake while highlighted the lasting impact of teachers on their students.

Treating public education like fast food franchises, bringing in out-of-state people to fry all these districts, public education is not McDonalds hamburgers, Spivey said. Im pretty sure that everybody can remember their teachers names. Not many people will remember Bill Lees.
A partial assessment reveals more than 100 Buchanan County homes and businesses were damaged by flooding with more reviews to follow, according to the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.

Teams from the department visited areas impacted by flash flooding Tuesday and Wednesday and reported 25 structures  including 22 homes  were destroyed while another 32 homes and seven businesses received major damage.

A total of 99 homes and 15 commercial structures were affected by floodwaters which caused downed trees, flooded roads and flooded residences across various regions of the county. The most impacted communities were Whitewood and Pilgrims Knob, due to the Dismal Creek overflowing its banks.

No cost estimate was included in the report.

Crews have completed about 75% of the assessment and are scheduled to continue their work this weekend.

Much of the damage is due to debris, especially tree limbs

Residents that were impacted by the flooding and have debris on their property can have it removed by the county. Push all debris to the edge of your property by the road and the county will dispose of it, a VDEM statement read.

Residents are urged to be patient, given the extensive area affected by the flooding.

The assistance center at Twin Valley Elementary and Middle School will provide water, snacks, tetanus shots and access to showers. It is also a place to cool off in an air conditioned facility and charge any electronic devices such as cell phones or tablets. It is being staffed 24 hours and can be reached by calling 276-498-4537.

The American Red Cross will begin serving hot meals Saturday, July 16, at the assistance center. Lunch will begin at 11:30 a.m. and dinner at 5:00 p.m., according to the statement.
Virginias public school system was born 152 years ago this month.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly that there shall be established and maintained in this state a uniform system of public schools, reads the act approved July 11, 1870. The public free school system shall be administered by the following authorities, to wit: a Board of Education, a Superintendent of Public Instruction, county superintendents of schools, and district school trustees.

The occasion provides an opportunity to revisit the story of Virginias first superintendent of public instruction, William Henry Ruffner, who was also the architect of the public school system. The act passed by the General Assembly in 1870 was based upon his proposals.

Ruffner (18241908) has been called the Horace Mann of the South, a reference to the Massachusetts lawyer and legislator who was our young nations first major advocate for public education. (It should be noted that he is not the only historical figure from the American South to bear that label. The Horace Mann of Virginia is perhaps more appropriate, and just about impossible to dispute.)

A Lexington native, pastor and educator whose life story intersects with Washington and Lee University, Virginia Tech, Longwood University in Farmville and Roanoke College in Salem, Ruffner campaigned fiercely for the maintenance and survival of free public school against critics who saw free schools as an unnecessary burden on the states finances.

A supporter of the Union who nonetheless served in the home guard when Virginia seceded to become part of the Confederacy, Ruffner wasnt an example of enlightened thinking on the defining issue of his age, the ownership of enslaved persons. A slave owner himself, Ruffner contended that the institution of slavery needed to come to an end, but for economic reasons, not moral reasons. He was unfortunately a believer in the innate superiority of the white race and a proponent of colonization  a school of thought pushing the notion that free African Americans should emigrate to Africa rather than remain in the country.

Flawed champion of equal education

But unlike many of his white contemporaries, he believed free and enslaved Black Americans should be educated. He ran Sunday schools for African Americans in pre-Civil War Virginia, a practice at odds with the establishment, though he stated he was only providing oral instruction, as state law forbade that reading be taught to enslaved people.

His views might have been influenced by his father Henry Ruffner, who was once president of Washington College  now Washington and Lee  but resigned after stirring controversy by authoring a paper advocating for the gradual emancipation of slaves in western Virginia.

The public school system William Ruffner designed was segregated by race, which caused African American members of the General Assembly to vote against it in protest. Ruffner argued tensions would run too high if schools were integrated, though he articulated a belief that someday there would be no prejudice between the races.

Though separate but equal ultimately proved a failure in practice, Ruffner at least had a goal of equal education for white and Black students, and he founded separate summer institutes for training white and Black teachers.

Ruffner was a tireless advocate for free public school, defending it constantly against critics who considered it a waste of state money and who disapproved of educating Black students. Though the General Assembly replaced Ruffner in 1882, the institution he created endured and evolved.

After a brief stint teaching at Roanoke College, Ruffner would end his career as principal of the State Female Normal School in Farmville, a teacher training school for white women created in 1884. Ruffner had long called for the establishment of such a school, though the General Assembly at first thwarted these ambitions. This Farmville school eventually became Longwood University.

Here is a historical figure with personal flaws and wrongheaded views whose legacy nonetheless persists with every Virginia school bus ride and with every raised hand in a Virginia grade school classroom, the fruits of his vision continuing to benefit the people of the commonwealth long after his death.

Is Ruffners story divisive?

In 2022, Virginias superintendent of public instruction post is occupied by Jillian Balow, imported from Wyoming by Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Her main qualification appears to be a worldview compatible with Youngkins pledge to end the teaching of divisive concepts  which in practice appears aimed to muzzle any discussion of race and discrimination past and present in Virginia classrooms.

The Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative nonprofit dedicated to promoting educational excellence  that takes positions that align with Youngkins, such as advocacy for charter schools  published a report in 2021, The State of State Standards for Civics and U.S. History.

The reports introduction begins, Is America a racist country? Or the greatest nation on earth? Or both or neither or some of each? For the sake of our childrens education ... we need a more thoughtful and balanced starting point for the whole conversation  one that leaves space for nuance, mutual understanding, and hope for the future.

Nothing to argue with there. The nonpartisan report goes on to evaluate how K-12 standards for history and civics stack up in every state. Virginia received a B+ rating, which essentially amounts to good but needs improvement in a few specific areas.

Wyoming, where Balow had served as Superintendent of Public Instruction since 2014, received an F in civics and history from this conservative think tank. Wyomings civics and U.S. History standards are inadequate, failing to offer even a basic outline of essential content, the report reads.

We hope this is not an omen. It would be a travesty to see Virginias standards of education downgraded to appease ideological dogma, whether those dogmatic views come from right or left.

One cant help but wonder: what would this administration find acceptable should a teacher choose to share the multifaceted history of William Henry Ruffner in the classroom? Would students be allowed to consider the whole man?
Dairy has a bright future over the next decade.

Thats the short story from a report produced by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Strong growth in per capita consumption of proteins is expected in upper and middle-income countries, by 6% and 8%, respectively; with about 60% of additional proteins being provide by animal products, wrote the authors of OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2022-2031. This will bring average per capita consumption of proteins in the upper-middle income countries close to the levels of high-income countries by 2031.

While animal proteins may not grow as fast in other lower income countries, dairy will still play a leading role. Despite significant growth in per capita consumption of animal protein . . . mainly dairy . . . in the lower middle-income countries, their consumption levels will remain well below those of upper middle and high-income countries given their low base level.

The fastest growing livestock sector

Dairy is expected to be the fastest expanding livestock sector over the next decade, with global milk supply projected to increase by 23%, continued the authors. While the futurists went on to project India and Pakistan as the largest growth markets mainly due to fresh milk sale, projections were also made about the well-established markets.

Growth in the European Union, the second largest milk producer globally, is expected to remain limited, constrained by policies on sustainable production and the lower yielding expansion of organic and pasture-based production systems, the authors projected of the next decade. Growth in the United States, the third largest milk producer, is expected to be stronger than the European Union, as a result of yield increases. Milk production growth rates in New Zealand, a key dairy exporter, are expected to be similar to the European Union, with herds expected to decline by around 5%.

The big three will get bigger

New Zealand, the European Union, and the United States rank first, second, and third, respectively, in dairy exports. That is expected to continue.

Dairy exports are also expected to become more concentrated, with growing dominance from key suppliers in high-income countries, wrote the authors in the 363-page document that looked at all foods. For cheese and butter, the export share of the top-five exporters is projected to rise from 74% to 79% and from 85% to 87%, respectively, mainly driven by strong export growth in the European Union.

The five-country export concentration of skim milk powder (SMP) is also projected to increase, mainly due to strong growth in exports from the United States. The latter is projected to account for 35% of global SMP exports in 2031, up from 32% in 2019 to 2021, they detailed. The five-country export concentration ratio of whole milk powder (WMP) is projected to stabilize at 86%.

Only about 7% of world milk production is traded internationally, primarily due to its perishability and high water content (85%). Despite that projection, growth will still take place.

World dairy trade is projected to expand over the next decade to reach 14.2 metric tons in 2031, 15% higher than during the based period, they said of 2021 sales totals. Most of the growth will be met by increased exports from the United States, the European Union, and New Zealand. These countries are projected to jointly account for around 65% of cheese, 71% of WMP, 74% of butter, and 80%of SMP exports in 2031.

Click here to review the entire 363-page report, OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2022-2023

To comment, email your remarks to intel@hoards.com.

(c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2022

July 14, 2022
RTHK: Biden says he raised Khashoggi killing with MBS

US President Joe Biden said he raised the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in a meeting with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is sometimes known colloquially as MBS.

He said he a "good series of meetings" with Saudi leadership, making significant progress on security and economic issues, but that human rights was also a major topic.

"I made clear that the topic was vitally important to me and the United States," Biden told reporters at a news conference. (Reuters)

This story has been published on: 2022-07-15. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

European Union (EU) Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the Crisis in Georgia Toivo Klaar has arrived in Baku for important meetings, Azernews reports.

A beautiful morning in Baku. Looking forward to important meetings, Klaar wrote on his Twitter account.

Klaar has been received by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev as a part of his visit to Azerbaijan. The meeting is taking place ahead of a possible fresh round of negotiations between Baku and Yerevan, mediated by the EU.

Following negotiations in Brussels on May 22 between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, European Council President Charles Michel said that the next meeting in this format would take place in July-August.

Prior to the Baku visit, the EU representative met with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan in Yerevan on July 13-14, Azernews reports, citing the Armenian media.

Very productive meeting with PM Nikol Pashinyan yesterday. Assessed developments since the Brussels meeting on 22 May and discussed next steps. With DPM Grigoryan discussed this morning progress related to the unblocking of communications and the work of the border commissions, Klaar tweeted.

During the meeting, Pashinyan welcomed European Council President Charles Michels efforts to improve mutual understanding and stability in the region. The parties discussed the processes taking place in the South Caucasus, as well as the situation around Karabakh, and the efforts being taken to ensure peace and stability in the region.

The parties specifically reviewed the outcomes of the trilateral meetings held in Sochi with the mediation of the Russian president, the Brussels meetings held under the auspices of the European Council President, as well as the implementation of the trilateral agreements achieved between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

During the meeting with Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan, regional trends were reviewed, and thoughts about current difficulties and the ways of addressing them were exchanged.
PEMBROKE  The University of North Carolina at Pembroke expects to see an uptick in applications as free tuition payments  up to $1,000  are offered to all new incoming freshmen.

Financial Aid and Undergraduate Admissions offices offer free payments  $500 per term for fall 2022 and spring 2023  for incoming undergraduate freshmen. Admission applications must be received by Aug. 5, and students must be enrolled for fall to qualify.

One of the major concerns for potential students is cost and how they are going to pay for college, said Tim Sampson, director of Financial Aid. As a university, we want to make college affordable. In addition to being an NC Promise campus, which reduces in-state undergraduate tuition to $500 per semester, we offer these free payments to ensure everyone who wants to attend college has that opportunity.

The payments are made possible from the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF), which the university received as part of the CARES Act.

At this time, we are targeting incoming freshmen out of high school or who are coming to college for the first time, Sampson said. At UNCP, most of our students are first-generation college students, so this is another opportunity to assist those who may be less knowledgeable about navigating the resources available to them.

The tuition payments will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. For information, call 910-521-6255 or email fa@uncp.edu.
When the new school year starts this fall, whether Illinois college students and faculty will be surrounded by vaccinated classmates and colleagues will largely depend on where they are enrolled.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday announced an end to a statewide COVID-19 vaccine mandate for college students and faculty, essentially leaving the policy up to individual schools. Some local colleges and universities were still grappling with the decision later in the week, while others came down on opposite sides.

Pritzker announced the move  along with other policy changes meant to carefully unwind COVID-19 policies and mandates that have been in place throughout the pandemic  despite growing concerns about new coronavirus variants that appear more able to evade immunity.

Eastern Illinois University is no longer requiring proof of vaccination for students or staff. The university is also no longer requiring testing, with the exception of unvaccinated individuals who work in the on-campus medical facility.

Symptomatic students can still be tested at Easterns medical clinic if they wish. The university is also no longer utilizing the SHEILD system for COVID-19 surveillance testing.

Illinois State University also changed its policies in light of the new executive order. Most students and employees who are not vaccinated no longer need to submit weekly tests.

Northwestern University plans to push forward with its already announced vaccine mandate for the upcoming academic year, but will continue to adapt (their) own policies and protocols following the advice of public health and (their) own medical experts, according to a university spokesperson.

This was a relief to Zoe Lewis, a rising sophomore at the university.

People dont mask on campus, like they should  especially in classes, Lewis said. People are in econ classes with 300-person lectures. And to have the possibility of not only people in there not being masked, but people in there not having vaccines on top of it, is going to cause widespread havoc in communities with these colleges.

Lewis has asthma and stressed how critical vaccine mandates can be for the health of immunocompromised students on college campuses. Despite Northwesterns decision to continue with its vaccine mandate, Lewis noted a sense of anxiety over returning to Northwesterns campus without a mask mandate.

Northwestern continues to strongly recommend that its affiliates wear masks in spaces where distancing is not possible when transmission levels are elevated.

Not having mask mandates or vaccine mandates typically ... would be fine for college students because typically they are the ones least affected by it, but its extremely isolating to any immunocompromised students who have no other choice but to protect themselves and it makes students not able to join social activities, class activities, be ready to go to in person things, she said.

Meanwhile, Northern Illinois University will not be requiring the vaccine for the upcoming school year, but strongly encourages students and faculty and staff members to be vaccinated, a university spokesperson said.

The University of Illinois system hadnt made a decision yet on Thursday regarding the vaccine policy on its three campuses, saying in a statement that it is still evaluating how the updated COVID-19-mitigation requirements will impact our three universities.

The health and well being of the people on our campuses will drive our decisions, the statement read.

Among schools that have not yet announced a policy were the University of Chicago and DePaul University, which said it was still considering its plans for the upcoming school year.

Columbia College in Chicago plans to continue to require students and faculty members to be vaccinated, said Lambrini Lukidis, a spokesperson for the college.

I think weve been a little bit stricter with some of our COVID mitigations, Lukidis said.

Part of what drives the decision, she said, is the type of instruction at Columbia College, which is primarily theater, music and dance and other arts.

We feel that having the vaccine is an added precaution for our campus community, she said.

Loyola University and Roosevelt University also said officials plan to require vaccines for students, faculty and staff during the upcoming year.

Pritzkers tweaks to pandemic rules come in the wake of complaints and lawsuits by conservatives claiming the governor overstepped his authority. Many of the legal challenges to the rules were filed by attorney Thomas DeVore, who is now the Republican nominee for attorney general, though all of those lawsuits have ultimately been unsuccessful.

Corryn Brock and Connor Wood contributed to this story.
A Winston-Salem man facing a possible life sentence if convicted of first-degree murder wont have a court-appointed attorney representing him when his case comes up for trial, a Forsyth County judge ruled Thursday.

Judge Stanley L. Allen of Forsyth Superior Court held a hearing and said that Harry Lee Hunter, 32, has forfeited his right to court-appointed counsel. The decision came two days after Allen declared a mistrial in Hunters case. Hunter had interrupted court proceedings, argued with his attorney, Dan Anthony, and alleged that Anthony was ineffective. Anthony asked that he be allowed to withdraw from the case. Allen granted Anthonys request, resulting in a mistrial before a jury could even be seated.

Hunter is accused of shooting Joshua Bernard Brown, 27, to death just after 8 a.m. on April 30, 2016. Hunter is charged with first-degree murder in Browns death as well as possession of a firearm by a felon. If he is convicted of first-degree murder, he will be given a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Prosecutors said that Hunter fired a gun a total of five times outside of a house where both men had attended a party. Two bullets struck Brown, who jumped into a minivan through a window shattered by bullets, prosecutors said.

In declaring a mistrial, Allen said in court that Hunter has had a total of five court-appointed attorneys, including Anthony. Hunter refused to cooperate with most of his attorneys and those attorneys asked to be removed from Hunters case. Hunter sought to remove his fourth attorney, David Freedman, but Freedman died in September. Anthony, his fifth court-appointed attorney, was appointed to represent Hunter after Freedmans death.

On Monday, Allen presided over pre-trial motions. As Anthony argued his motions, Hunter kept interrupting and made objections. Before the court could proceed to trial, there had to be a hearing to confirm that Hunter was competent to stand trial. While Allen was considering a report by a forensic psychiatrist that concluded he was competent, Hunter objected and insisted that the psychiatrist should be ordered to testify.

Anthony quietly and urgently told Hunter several times to stop talking and that his interruptions were preventing Anthony from effectively arguing on his behalf. Allen also told Hunter to stop talking several times.

At one point, Allen considered banning Hunter from the courtroom but Anthony argued that such a move would be prejudicial to Hunter at trial. By Tuesday morning, Forsyth County prosecutors Jessica Spencer and Elisabeth Dresel had agreed on 12 potential jurors. Anthony had not had a chance to question those jurors before Allen declared a mistrial.

On Tuesday, Allen ordered that the Capital Defender Office or the Indigent Defense Services appoint a new attorney for Hunter, but at a last-minute hearing Thursday morning, Allen changed his mind.

Now, Hunter will represent himself, with Anthony serving as what is known as stand-by counsel. Anthony is no longer Hunters attorney but can help Hunter present information to the court that might be favorable. He can also provide Hunter legal guidance.

But it is Hunters responsibility to file motions, call witnesses and question them and make opening statements and closing arguments during the trial.

Brittany Bromell, assistant professor of criminal law at UNC School of Government, said she could not comment on Hunters case. But in general, it doesnt happen very often that criminal defendants forfeit court-appointed counsel in felony cases.

A judge can rule that a criminal defendant has forfeited their right to court-appointed counsel if the judge finds that the defendant has engaged in flagrant misconduct, used delaying tactics, refused to participate in their defense or was abusive in court. For example, Bromell said, there has been a case where a defendant used profanity in court, threw a water bottle at his attorney and was found to be in contempt of court.

A new trial date has not been set for Hunter, who is in the Forsyth County Jail on a $1 million bond on the murder charge.
A Mount Airy man has been charged with murder  twice  in connection with overdose deaths last year, the Surry County Sheriff's Office said.

Chris Wayne Mosley, 50, of William Penn Street in Mount Airy, was charged most recently with second-degree murder in the death of Melissa "Shannon" Renee Dublin.

Deputies with the Surry County Sheriff's Office were called to 137 Greenhouse Trail in Lowgap on May 28, 2021. They found Dublin dead from an apparent drug overdose. Detectives then began a 13-month investigation to find where Dublin got the drug and who supplied it, according to a news release.

The sheriff's office did not say what kind of drug was involved.

The investigation led to the arrest of Mosley.

Mosley also has been charged with second-degree murder in another case  the death of Jeremy Franklin Collins III. Deputies found Collins dead from a drug overdose on Oct. 31, 2021 in the 100 block of Bobs Way in Ararat. The sheriff's office said it spent nine months investigating into Collins' death. Mosley and a woman named Laken Nichole Mabe, 34, were both charged with second-degree murder.

In Dublin's case, Mosley was given a $300,000 secured bond. He is being held in the N.C. Department of Adult Corrections on an unrelated matter, the sheriff's office said.
Forsyth County remained in the high community level for COVID-19, according to Thursdays update from the federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC recommends that people who live in counties in the high category wear masks in indoor public spaces, as well as on public transportation regardless of vaccination status.

Also in the high-level category in the Triad and Northwest North Carolina are Alamance, Davie, Stokes, Surry and Yadkin counties. There are 42 high-level counties in the state, most of them east of Raleigh and south of the Triad.

Over the past seven weekly CDC reports, Forsyth has been listed in the high-level category five times. The county was shifted to medium three weeks ago and to low two weeks ago before reversing back to high.

The CDCs COVID-19 community level is determined by looking at hospital beds being used, hospital admissions and the total number of new COVID-19 cases in an area.

The CDC listed Forsyth with 236 new cases per 100,000 population, down from 238 for the week ending July 2, but up from 158 for the week ending June 25.

The rate of new COVID-related hospital admissions per 100,000 was at 12.8, compared with 11.5 and 9.8 in the two previous reports.

There was a 3.7% rate of staffed inpatient beds being used by COVID-19 patients, compared with 2.7% and 2.% the previous two reports.

Both Forsyth health director Swift and Dr. Christopher Ohl, an infectious diseases expert with Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, have said Forsyths current status in the high community level category may be influenced by outside  rather than inside  county factors since it is a health-care system hub for northwest North Carolina.

One has to take our color code for Forsyth County a little bit in stride because we have a lot of acute-care hospitals beds compared with the level of our population, Ohl said on July 1.

The CDC takes the number of hospitalizations and dividing that up by the number of people in the county.

Ohl said the number of hospital beds in Forsyth is comparable with that in Charlotte, but Charlottes population is higher, thus why they are in yellow and were in red.

Masking status

On June 6, Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines said in response to the city being listed in the high community level that city residents are advised  but not mandated  to resume wearing masks indoors.

Joines cited at that time the uptick in new daily and weekly COVID-19 case counts.

On July 8, Joines said there are no plans to put in place a requirement. Still asking folks to consider wearing a mask voluntarily indoors.

When asked about going beyond CDC recommendations of wearing a mask indoors, Swift said that we would really lean on the state (DHHS) to determine the next step.

Right now, were still not seeing the omicron or delta levels. Who knows, by the fall or winter, it may be necessary to wear masks again because there are other viruses and its easier to spread.

There is no major number or rate because were looking at so many other factors and variables.

Swift continues to encourage parents to get their children vaccinated or boosted before the beginning of the 2022-23 school year.

If youve been waiting, the vaccines have been around about 1 years, so you see its safe and effective, Swift said.

Its a good opportunity to get that protection, and I would say the same for teachers and staff.

Forsyth COVID-19 update

Eight more COVID-19 related deaths have been reported in Forsyth, while the new case count dipped slightly last week, according to the latest update from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday.

Forsyth was reported with 879 cases for the week that ended July 9, down 3.7% from a revised 913 in the previous report. DHHS said 122, or 13.9% of the new cases represented people who have been re-infected with COVID-19.

By comparison, in April the number of weekly cases had fallen below 200.

Forsyth has had 102,808 cases for the pandemic since the onset in mid-March 2020.

Forsyth has had 850 COVID-19 related deaths for the pandemic since mid-March 2020.

Forsyth health director Joshua Swift said Thursday that COVID-19 hospitalizations involving county residents have climbed from 22 to 30 in the past week.

Meanwhile, the positive test rate was at 25% last week  the highest level since exceeding 30% in mid-January during the height of the omicron community spread.

When you take out the omicron surge, and even with delta, were at a pretty good amount, Swift said. Its still out there, no doubt.

We really havent had the spike, a definitive peak in cases, hospitalizations and deaths, like we did with omicron and delta.

Swift has stressed that the DHHS weekly case totals include only laboratory-confirmed cases, and dont include most people who determine they are positive with an at-home test. People are not required to report their positive tests to county health departments.

However, Swift said the department has seen an increase of people who test positive from an at-home kit that choose to verify the result through a test administered by the department

Swift said it may take another week to determine if a wave in new Forsyth cases would come from Independence Day holiday gatherings.
OMAHA -- When a teenager says his business inspiration is McDonalds founder Ray Kroc, adults tend to pay attention.

After all, how many kids (let alone their elders) even know who that is?

Entrepreneur aRon Burns, for one.

Burns, a 17-year-old Omaha Central High School senior, already has his own ice cream store. And its not even his first business venture (that had something to do with e-commerce.).

Roll-N-Sweetz has been open for about a month in a strip mall near 59th Street and Ames Avenue. It sells rolled ice cream, created when a cup of aRons secret mix (refrigerated milk and sugar are two ingredients) meets a surface thats cooled to 21 below zero.

Employees smooth it to a thin layer, mix in things like candy and cookies, then create rolls that are served in cups with a variety of toppings.

So far, Burns says, hes pleased with the communitys response.

It has been crazy ever since we opened, he said last week.

That success doesnt surprise Willie Barney, who founded the Carver Legacy Center with his wife, Yolanda, and another couple, Martin and Lynnell Williams. The center, a joint venture with American National Bank, helps Black entrepreneurs realize their dreams.

Barney said aRon and his mother, Alexis, came to Carver for help earlier this year when they were running into snags as they renovated the space they leased for the store.

He was immediately inspired by Burns, who calls himself a serial entrepreneur.

We were really blown away by their business plan and their strategy, he said. His brilliance really impresses everybody he speaks with  the homework hes done, the research hes done and his experience in entrepreneurship.

The Carver people were so amazed following their initial talk with the Burnses that they took immediate action.

After that meeting, we got in our cars and actually walked through the building with him, Barney said.

The result was a $95,000 investment in the project from the Carver Center for the renovation and equipment Burns needed to open the store.

Burns said hes been interested in business since he was a young kid. He read everything he could about entrepreneurship, including material about Kroc, who made millions in the fast-food business.

Hes an influential person, Burns said. I watch a movie about his life every night.

He got the idea for Roll-N-Sweetz from working at a similar store downtown. He targeted North Omaha for his first store because he wanted to support his community, not only with a business unique to the area, but also with the jobs it would create.

He canvassed neighborhood shop proprietors and conducted additional research to gather statistics for his business plan. He learned that 24,000 cars pass by the area every two days and that residents and business owners missed the Dairy Queen that used to be nearby.

And he did it all while faithfully attending classes at Central.

I had to mature quicker than some of my peers, he said.

Hes taking summer school classes at Omaha Burke so he can go to school half-days in the fall and graduate in December, because he has big plans for the business. It already has more than 15 employees, including some adults, though his store manager, Ciara Mercer, is a senior at Omaha North.

She worked with him at the ice cream store downtown, where the owners gave him a lot of responsibility and offered him a chance for promotion before he decided to open his own place.

If they took such a chance on him, he said, it would be a contradiction not to trust her.

Besides, he said, At first I hired a 26-year-old (as manager), but they didnt show up.

In mid-afternoon on a recent weekday, Burns (wearing a nametag that said COO, as in chief operating officer) and Mercer cheerfully greeted all their guests, even the woman who just wanted to use the restroom. They get a fair amount of foot traffic, even though there isnt yet a sign outside.

The city is so backed up with sign permits, Burns explained.

A couple of girls, both 15, came in because one of them learned about the store on social media.

I saw it on Instagram, said JayCionna Fisher, who lives in Mesa, Arizona, and is in Omaha visiting her cousin.

She ordered the No. 12, Candy Land: made with rolled-in unicorn snack cake, drizzled with strawberry syrup and served with whipped cream and cotton candy.

Burns said that his mom devised the menu, and that his favorite is the No. 2, Annies Brick, made with butter brickle candy, Pepperidge Farm Chessman cookies, caramel topping, whipped cream and chocolate Pocky sticks. She also came up with the name.

Alexis Burns said her son wanted to keep the menu simple, but she prevailed.

I was like, oh, no. Ice cream is my favorite dessert, and I knew if there were multiple versions (at a shop), I would keep coming back, she said.

The store is open from noon to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and noon to 2 a.m. on weekends. Burns said late-night traffic is one thing thats made the opening days so busy.

Alexis quit her job with the Omaha Housing Authority and cashed out money from her 401(k) to help her son achieve his goals when she realized he was serious about the venture. She has an online boutique for women and helps out at Roll-N-Sweetz.

Im loving it, she said. It doesnt feel like a job.

Burns has plans for additional Omaha stores, one near the refurbished Gene Leahy Mall and one near the new Crossroads development at 72nd and Dodge streets.

He also wants to branch out to Lincoln and eventually have franchises elsewhere  in fact, a few days after being interviewed for this story, he was off to Miami for business meetings and to scout out possible locations.

Barney, of the Carver Center, said he thinks the plans for expansion are sound, even though Burns is Carvers youngest client so far.

He has a lot of attention from around the country, Barney said. People are contacting him already. He has knowledge of profit margins and the number of customers he has to have each day. Hes making it happen.

Burns is not sure about college  hes been courted by the entrepreneurship program at Creighton University but hasnt decided on anything because he has been so laser-focused on his business.

And, he points out, Kroc only went to college for a year.
Editors note: Ground Zero annually visits restaurants outside of Lincoln during July.

GARLAND -- As my wife and I dined recently at the Outlaw Steakhouse in Garland, a young woman stopped at our table as she was being led to her seat.

What did you order? she asked, looking at the steak and hash browns that filled my plate.

The ribeye, I answered.

Im going to have that, too, she said.

And for good reason. The Delmonico (boneless) ribeye, available in 12- ($23.99) or 16-ounce ($27.99) cuts, is one of five steaks available daily at the Outlaw. I ordered a 12-ounce medium rare ribeye that came out of the kitchen perfectly prepared. It was thick, juicy and something to behold on the plate.

It also was delicious.

Side items include crinkle-cut, beer-battered, curly or waffle fries; onion rings; baked potato; cottage cheese; side salad; potato salad; or, the custome- favorite hash browns, available plain, with cheese (70 cents extra) or outlaw style with sauteed onions, mushrooms, cheese and sour cream ($2.25 extra).

I was feeling naughty, so I outlawed my hash browns. My meal also came with an iceberg lettuce salad and Texas toast.

This was my first visit to the Outlaw since I last reviewed the small-town steakhouse in 2005. Garland is located between Lincoln and Seward, about 4 miles north of U.S. 34 on Spur 80D.

The biggest change is in ownership: Mark and Lisa Lintt of Seward took over the Outlaw in 2008 and successfully steered it through the pandemic.

The restaurant sits on Fourth Street (Garlands main drag) in a building constructed in 1889. Inside is a dark and spacious two-tiered dining room filled with tables and chairs. Along the wall is a bar with stools, with the entrance to the kitchen at the end of the bar.

On a Thursday night, the dining room was a third full, but its not unusual for the restaurant to fill up on Friday and Saturday nights. Thats when the Outlaw features its weekend specials:

* Fish Fry Fridays of fried cod (after 5 p.m.) with crinkle fries and a roll for $10.99.

* On Friday and Saturdays, prime rib is available in 12- ($23.99) and 16-ounce ($27.99) cuts, as is 14-ounce farm-raised catfish (dressed with bones, $13.49).

* Saturday is the Outlaw Specialty of smoked prime rib for $24.99 (12-ounce) or $28.99 (16-ounce)

The rest of the menu  available the four days of the week when the Outlaw is open (11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday)  features steaks (ribeye, New York strip, sirloin, T-bone and filet mignon), burgers, baskets (shrimp, chicken, etc.), sandwiches (11 choices), salads and appetizers.

The burgers are as impressive as the steaks. My wife selected a BBQ bacon burger, one of four half-pound gourmet burgers ($10.99/each). The large patty was smothered in barbecue sauce and came with several meaty bacon strips hanging over the sides. She ordered the waffle fries as her side. They were piping hot and crispy right out of the fryer. She loved it and said she wouldnt hesitate to order it again.

Other gourmet burger choices are swiss mushroom, patty melt and bleu cheese bacon. The menu also has single- or double-patty plain burgers and cheeseburgers, ranging from $7.49 to $10.29. Sandwich options include prime rib ($10.79), French dip ($9.79), chicken (grilled, crispy or buffalo; $8.99) and pork tenderloin ($8.49).

With two adult beverages ($3.55/each) added on, our bill came to $48.10  very reasonable for our summer excursion. We enjoyed our trip so much we promised ourselves to return soon. The Outlaw is a little gem.
President Ilham Aliyev has sent a letter to the President of Turkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Azernews reports.

Dear Mr. President,

Dear Brother,

This year marks the sixth anniversary of the 15 July coup attempt in Turkiye. It is with deep respect and reverence that we commemorate the dear memory of our martyrs who sacrificed their lives to prevent the coup attempt.

Six years ago, the brotherly people of Turkiye defended the independence and sovereignty of their Motherland, took ownership of statehood and democracy, and set a true example of bravery and heroism, once again proving their power and greatness to the world. The Democracy and National Unity Day established in connection with the events of 15 July is the embodiment of the loyalty of your heroic people to their Motherland and state, to statehood and democratic traditions.

The boundless trust and confidence in you as a true leader of the brotherly people and your popular support played a decisive role in preventing the betrayal directed against the Turkish state and helping your country to overcome this difficult ordeal. This great victory, which is a celebration of national unity and solidarity, indomitable resolve and strong leadership, is forever engraved in the history of Turkish statehood.

The people and the state of Azerbaijan, standing by brotherly Turkiye and showing solidarity with it, strongly condemned this treacherous coup attempt from the first minutes. Based on the principle of One nation, two states, our peoples support each other in both happy and sad days and prove their brotherhood by supporting each other in difficult times. We will continue to stand by Turkiye in all issues from now on.

Azerbaijan-Turkiye relations, based on the will of our peoples connected to each other by unbreakable bonds and resting on a foundation of friendship and brotherhood, have no parallels in the present-day world. I am sure that we will continue to move confidently towards the goals of the alliance that we defined in the Shusha Declaration, the first anniversary of which was marked a month ago.

Dear Mr. President, I wish you the best of health and continued success in your endeavors, and the brotherly people of Turkiye lasting peace and prosperity.

Sincerely,

Ilham Aliyev

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Baku, 13 July 2022
Lincoln police say they are investigating a reported burglary at the Nebraska Republican Party office at 1610 N St.

Police Sgt. Chris Vollmer said they were called there at 12:34 p.m. Monday after a volunteer said she arrived to meet a locksmith there to get inside and found the place in disarray, an office computer missing and the security cameras removed.

The loss was estimated at $1,000.

Vollmer said the investigation is ongoing as they complete interviews to determine if anything else was taken. There was no sign of forced entry, he said.

It's unclear if it had anything to do with the change in leadership at the state convention in Kearney last weekend, where Eric Underwood was elected as the party's new chairman after members of the party ousted Dan Welch of Omaha, the longtime chairman, from the position.
SUTHERLAND  Tom Kent was asked on Wednesday how the future of energy production might look  not just years down the road, but decades.

Thats a really good question," said the president and CEO of the Nebraska Public Power District while standing outside the Gerald Geltleman Station in Sutherland. "Im not sure my crystal ball is that good."

The future of energy depends greatly on technology, he said. Advancements in the field, which are likely, would change the way energy is created, stored and used.

Forty years from now, will it be burning Powder River Basin coal like we are today, or Powder River Basin coal with carbon-capture technology? Or will it be using some other technology? (That's) yet et to be determined."

Kent was at Gentleman, the largest electric-generating facility in the state, as part of a daylong celebration to mark the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the second of the two coal-fired generating units at the site.

Lincoln Electric System participates under a life-of-plant contract by purchasing 8% of the plant's output.

He addressed about 200 plant employees at a luncheon. Earlier, a handful of visitors, broken down into small groups, were given a guided tour of the inner workings of the multiple-floored plant that was built with 212,000 cubic feet of concrete and is marked by a pair of 550-foot chimneys.

It happens because of what you do, taking care of the equipment every day, Kent told the workers. The plant "doesnt work without the people. You are the ones that make it run reliable.

The plant celebration coincides with the NPPD board holding its regular meeting in North Platte this week. The board travels outside Columbus to another Nebraska community once a year.

The second unit was constructed at Gentleman in 1982, three years after the initial structure, and can produce 700,000 kilowatts of energy. Unit 1 at the site produces 665,000 kilowatts.

On a hot summer day like today, these units are helping to keep the lights on, Kent said. And on a cold day like in February 2021, these units are helping keep the lights on. (The units) are able to do that because of the care and dedication of the staff that works here.

The foundation of public power is serving the people of Nebraska, Kent said. The dedication that we have in the staff to deliver on that mission of low-cost reliable electricity is really incredible. Its not something that you necessarily see in other parts of the county."
RACINE  Erik Rojas figured high school would pass by without much excitement, but the summer after his freshman year changed everything.

At his mothers behest, Rojas went to the Dr. John Bryant Community Center for several hours each day. He took part in local activities and developed an appreciation for community service.

I thought (high school) was going to be another four years of my life down the drain, Rojas said. I hate to put it that way, but thats how I thought freshman year  Eventually, I was like, I think its more than that.

Indeed, that summer greatly impacted who he became.

I owe it all to my mom, Rojas said. Im glad my mom forced me to go to that community center and get all that experience.

Rojas graduated from Park High School earlier this year and was one of five recipients of the Spread the Love Forward scholarship, which was started three years ago by a Horlick High School alum-turned-California peanut butter businessman.

Rojas plans to study accounting at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. He said earning the scholarship gave him the confidence to apply for, and eventually receive, several more scholarships.

This scholarship was a booster for me, Rojas said. It made me feel really great about myself.

The same is true for Daniel Venegas, who said he was so ecstatic to be awarded a Spread the Love Forward scholarship.

I really cannot express how I was feeling that day, Venegas said. I felt a little bit more sure about myself.

Venegas graduated from Horlick and will attend the Milwaukee School of Engineering. Venegas enjoyed helping his father fix cars as a kid, and he became more interested in engineering the summer after his sophomore year while taking part in a six-week camp through the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The name of the Spread the Love Forward scholarship stood out to Venegas, and he appreciated its focus on community.

When I read the description, I was like, OK, I have to apply, Venegas said. Racine is the definition of roots.

Racine literally means root in French. Venegas added that there is a lot of culture here as well as a lot of communities helping each other out, and I just thought the message behind this scholarship was really special.

Zach and Val Fishbain co-founded Spread the Love and this year sponsored five $1,000 scholarships for students from Racine Unifieds three largest high schools with a focus on community stewardship. The Fishbains started the company in 2013 after they made homemade peanut butter for their wedding. It has grown from there to include many types of butter, jam and granola.

Zach lives and works in Los Angeles but is a product of Racines public schools and wanted to show his appreciation for the community.

I wanted to make sure that Racine was getting the benefit from my education that it had invested in for so long, Fishbain said. I wanted to make sure that we were spreading the love forward with this scholarship, and we were doing it in my hometown so that other people that are graduating from Racines public high schools are going to have some help.

Zach Fishbain was born and raised in Racine. He recalled greatly enjoying his time in public schools, graduating from Horlick in 2001.

I loved most the cultural, eclectic, linguistic diversity of what Racine has to offer, and I think you really see that on full display in Racine schools, Fishbain said. Racine can be a very segregated city, but I think the schools really bring everything together. Thats something beautiful.

The scholarships began in 2020 and are for students from a racial minority who showed improvement in high school. Supporting historically disadvantaged communities is one of the ways that we can help, in our small way, level the playing field, Zach said.

The Fishbains did not select the scholarship winners, but wanted to celebrate them and their support systems. That occurred with a dinner event Wednesday evening at Mike & Angelos, 6214 Washington Ave. Four of the five recipients attended. Case High School graduate Philip Allen Jr. was unable to be there. He will attend Purdue and plans to study motorsport engineering.

We are so proud of you, Val told those gathered. We are your community now.

The scholarships will financially assist the students, and the couple hopes they serve as a reminder about the importance of service. The applications included an essay portion where students wrote about their future goals and what spreading the love forward meant to them.

For Christajah Mullins, it meant giving back thanks and helping out the people who need it.

Mullins graduated from Horlick and plans to study early childhood development at Gateway Technical College. From a young age, she liked working with children, often taking care of family members. She has worked at a daycare for the past two years, a rewarding experience.

Im very patient with kids, and kids really love me, Mullins said. Kids need love. Its always good to have a kid be close to you and just loving them unconditionally and showing them that someone is there.

Mullins found out about the scholarship through her high school advisor and was thrilled to receive it.

I was like, Oh my god, Mullins said. I went crazy. I could not stop thinking about it. It was really a blessing  If it wasnt for my counselor telling me to apply for this, I wouldnt be nowhere right now.

Earning the scholarship was part of a culmination of successes after a difficult start to high school. As a freshman, Mullins saw an aunt die of cardiac arrest.

I was just so heartbroken, Mullins said. I didnt know what to do. My mind was all over the place. This flashback kept replaying in my head. I didnt have the time, the energy or anything to pick myself back up.

Eventually, and with teachers encouragement, Mullins decided to honor her aunt by pushing herself academically.

Ive just been telling myself, You got to stand on all 10 of your toes and just keep yourself motivated and do what you need to do, Mullins said. It was a hard battle to fight, really hard, but I definitely made it.

Julitza Ramirez made it, too. She plans to study nursing at Gateway and wants to aid the area that has helped her.

Spreading the love is giving back to the community, Ramirez said. Ive received a whole bunch of help throughout my life  and I feel like I can give back.

At Horlick, Ramirez became more confident after her freshman year and often asked educators for advice, eventually working as a teachers assistant.

Ramirez is a first-generation college student and feels nervous yet ready for her next step.

I really want to grow and give an example to my little sisters and make my parents proud, Ramirez said.

Rojas does as well. He is a first-generation college student and plans to embrace some of that accompanying pressure.

It is kind of scary, because everybodys looking up to me, Rojas said. I want to graduate. I want to be that milestone in our family.

His high school career included challenges, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. To stay motivated, Rojas reminded himself that actions have ripple effects.

What you do now will come back to you later in life, Rojas said. Thats what kept me going.

The Fishbains know that, and so do the scholarship recipients, who will work to spread the love forward.
RAYMOND  Consolidation of firefighter services in Racine County is under consideration again, as another community grapples with the cost of increasing service to keep pace with residential growth.

Raymond village officials are debating a fire department proposal to boost spending by up to $736,000 a year, which would increase the average homeowners property tax bill by $454.

The Raymond Village Board held a special meeting Wednesday night to consider putting a proposal before voters in a referendum, knowing that taxpayer backlash probably would be swift and fierce.

A lot of people wont like us, Village Trustee Doug Schwartz said.

The board agreed informally to start making plans for a possible referendum next April.

A consultant has advised officials that consolidation of services with neighboring fire departments could represent an alternative to increased staffing and spending, spreading out costs across multiple municipalities whose first responders often respond to major incidents across borders already.

Consultant Kevin Bierce told Village Board members Wednesday that consolidation, a.k.a. shared services, is an option that has worked elsewhere and has been discussed before in Racine County.

Some communities have even gone beyond fire protection and achieved efficiencies by consolidating other government services, too, such as parks and public works, Bierce said. In eastern Racine County, Sturtevant and Mount Pleasant share a fire department via South Shore; and the Racine Water Utility provides water not only to the city but also to Caledonia, Mount Pleasant, Wind Point and Sturtevant.

Youve got all kinds of stuff you could share, he told Raymond trustees. You cant tell me there isnt something out there you could share.

The Raymond Fire & Rescue Department was one of three departments urged to consider consolidation last year in a study that also covered the Union Grove-Yorkville and Kansasville fire departments. The Wisconsin Policy Forum research group found that combining the three neighboring departments could address staffing and operational challenges for fire and ambulance service in western Racine County.

No movement toward further consolidation, however, has taken place. Officials in Union Grove and Yorkville recently discussed seeking voter support to spend $9 million building a new firehouse for the department serving those two communities.

Raymond village officials now are concerned that expanding staffing for Raymond Fire & Rescue could eventually lead to more spending increases later for improved equipment and facilities.

Village Trustee Keith Kastenson said increasing property taxes as proposed in the community of 4,000 will leave some people feeling betrayed by Raymonds promise of a rural lifestyle with low government spending.

Theyre going to think its a full-blown city, Kastenson said.

Raymond fire officials, who operate with a part-time staff and volunteers, are cautioning village leaders that fire protection and ambulance service are suffering as residential growth increases the population. Calls for service last year totaled 505, which was an increase of more than 30% from the previous year.

Combined with difficulty in both recruiting new firefighters and finding staff available at all times, the growing demand is slowing response times and increasing the risks of public safety being compromised, officials said.

Fire Chief Adam Smith and his assistants, Kevan Leedle and Jacob Dinauer, told the Village Board that taxpayers would support increased spending if they believed public safety was at stake.

The department has presented options ranging from $382,500 a year for hiring four full-time employees, to $736,440 a year for hiring six full-time employees. The yearly property tax impact for the owner of a typical $350,000 home would range from $337 to $454.

Smith said any option would be better than the status quo.

Weve got to start somewhere, he told trustees.

Trustees briefly discussed the consolidation alternative, but no further action was taken on that option.

The fire department currently operates on a budget of $364,634, out of a total village budget of about $1.9 million. The village collects $1 million a year in property taxes at a rate of $1.88 per $1,000 of property value.

Under Wisconsins state-imposed caps on property taxes, municipalities must seek voter approval for tax increases above a certain limit.

The five-member Village Board initially was considering holding a referendum in November. But after Bierce advised that a successful referendum campaign takes at least three months, trustees agreed to consider a ballot initiative next April.

Village President Kari Morgan said she wants to allow enough time for a public education effort before voters cast their ballots.

I feel like you only get one really good shot, she said.

Noting that economic uncertainty has put taxpayers and consumers on edge, officials left open the question of how much new spending they would propose in a referendum.

Schwartz said community support for the fire department has been strong in the past. He also said he hopes people will respond to a referendum that is aimed at protecting life and property in the village.

How do you put a price on someones life? he said. This will be the real test.
CANNON FALLS, Minn.  Two months after giving birth, Jennifer Magee noticed a change in her babys feeding routine that scared her: She was starting to drink more formula, almost every hour.

Increased appetite is normal for growing infants, including Magees daughter, Aubrey. But amid the national formula shortage, Magee, 25, had only one container left, barely enough to last three days.

Were flying through formula, Magee said as the shortage worsened in May. Im afraid that pretty soon, if we dont stock up, were not going to have it for her.

Finding more wouldnt be a straightforward task.

Magee faced the same strain many parents experienced during the past few months as they scrambled to find formula. But she felt an added strain because she relies on the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC  a federally funded initiative meant to help low-income women buy food, including baby formula.

Her daughter was born in March, long after pandemic-related supply chain issues began to affect formula availability, and just weeks after the baby food manufacturer Abbott Nutrition shut down production at its Michigan factory and recalled its Similac, Similac Alimentum, and EleCare powdered formulas, further disrupting supply. In May, Dr. Robert Califf, head of the FDA, told senators he expected the shortage to resolve in late July. As of June, the agency was still importing formulas to increase supply.

For Magee and other parents who live near state borders, especially those in rural communities with limited and distant shopping options, WICs limitations further exacerbate the ongoing formula shortage.

A resident of Bay City, Wisconsin, Magee must shop at a store that is authorized by her state to accept WIC benefits. Unlike people who receive money from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, another support for low-income families, WIC recipients cant use their benefits across state lines, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Bay City is a village of about 400 on the western edge of Wisconsin, across the Mississippi River from Red Wing, Minnesota, which has a population of about 16,500. Bay City has no WIC-approved grocery stores. Red Wing  less than 10 miles west  has three WIC-approved stores, but Magee cant use her Wisconsin benefits at any of them.

Instead, she drives nearly 50 miles to a WIC-approved Walmart Supercenter in Menomonie, Wisconsin, in search of the hypoallergenic formula her daughter needs.

While the formula shortage is not just affecting WIC families, it is magnifying disparities that low-income families have faced for years, said Brian Dittmeier, senior director of public policy at the National WIC Association, the nonprofit advocacy organization that represents WIC programs.

Those disparities include low-income families being more likely to live in food deserts, or areas with little to no access to affordable healthy food, which limits their options for WIC-approved stores, he said.

Typically, WIC recipients have a designated formula they can purchase with their benefits as part of what the program calls a food package. After the Abbott Nutrition recall, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services issued a list of substitutions for families whose designated formula was among those recalled.

Nutramigen, the formula Magee used to soothe her daughters milk sensitivity, was not recalled, but that hasnt made it any easier to find since the shortage led to a nationwide scramble for other brands. Each time Magee drove to Menomonie for Nutramigen, she was making a wild guess she might find some.

She didnt.

In May, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services released tips for families navigating the shortage. Department officials told them to check smaller grocery stores and drugstores rather than big ones, and to search store websites before going in person. Yet some smaller stores dont accept WIC, and for women who must travel an hour or more to check a shelf, whats online may not reflect reality once they arrive. Like most states, Wisconsin does not allow WIC families to shop online with their benefits.

Sometimes thats a barrier because of the cost of transportation, said Brittany Mora, the WIC director for Pierce County, where Magee lives, as she reflected on the amount of travel families have taken on in search of formula  especially as gas prices have soared to a national average near $5 per gallon.

If Magee were to drive through her county to check each of the four WIC-approved stores for her daughters formula, she would travel about 65 miles round trip and risk coming home empty-handed anyway. Pierce County has no public transportation.

Moras staff encourages parents to call stores before making long trips, in case the retailers can tell them whats in stock. Staffers can also give families tips theyve heard on where formula might be available and change families food packages to include formula available in-store.

Since the Abbott recall and plant shutdown, Mora has allowed families to call her personal cellphone for emergencies when her office is closed.

My biggest fear is that, over the weekend, a family wouldnt be able to get a formula that was available at the store, she said.

Similar challenges have emerged for women receiving WIC in Minnesota. The states WIC director, Kate Franken, said the families that come to her program for support sometimes dont have a car, so they just dont have as many options for driving around and checking different stores.

Though Minnesota, like Wisconsin, now offers WIC recipients imported formulas to increase their options, the additions dont help all families equally, Franken said.

The Kendamil formulas coming in from the United Kingdom and Aussie Bubs from Australia fall under the category of standard milk-based formulas, she said. Thats good, and thats what most babies use, but thats also the category that were seeing the best recovery in supply in general.

She said the standard milk-based formula import strategy doesnt address the lack of supply of formula for babies with milk intolerance or other digestive problems.

Those are babies like Magees daughter.

When Magee realized she couldnt depend on her WIC benefits to immediately access hypoallergenic formula, she turned to family for help.

On May 23, Magees soon-to-be mother-in-law, Geralyn Laurie, posted to Facebook: Friends everywhere, my granddaughter, Aubrey Elizabeth, is in need of her specific formula. She needs Enfamils Nutramigen for infants. It can also be house brands of this formula, which [are Tippy Toes and Well Beginnings]. If you find this, please buy it and I will happily Venmo you for this product and shipping.

Within weeks, 26 cans of hypoallergenic formula had made their way to the end of the farmland-bordered gravel road leading to Lauries home in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, about 30 miles west of Bay City. Some arrived by mail, others by way of visitors coming by plane and train.

Laurie hadnt expected such a response.

Everyone, I think, wants to help, and several people were just like, Im on it, she said.

By the time her granddaughter was 3 months old, Laurie had spent more than $455 on formula.

Magee has yet to be able to use her WIC benefits to feed her daughter.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation. This article first appeared on WisconsinWatch.org and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Those looking to mail their absentee ballots in upcoming Wisconsin elections should do so themselves, rather than have someone assist them in that process, the nonpartisan administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission said Thursday.

Speaking with reporters, Meagan Wolfe was asked how voters should proceed following the Wisconsin Supreme Courts 4-3 ruling last week barring the use of absentee ballot drop boxes in the state. Wolfe pointed to Wisconsin statute that states an absentee ballot envelope shall be mailed by the elector, or delivered in person, to the municipal clerk. Federal laws allow disabled voters to get assistance delivering their ballots.

The Supreme Court also ruled that absentee ballots must be delivered by mail or in person to a local clerks office or designated alternate site, but did not rule on whether voters can have others take their ballots to the mailbox, such as an assistant for someone with disabilities.

As of right now, the voter is the one who is required to mail their ballot, Wolfe said. I would check with your local election official as they are the ones in their communities who are responsible for administering that process and providing their voters with information about how ballots can be returned.

Barbara Beckert, director of External Advocacy with Disability Rights Wisconsin, a plaintiff in the drop box case, said in a statement Thursday that federal law protects the right of people with disabilities to seek assistance with mailing an absentee ballot or have a person of their choice deliver the ballot to a clerk or polling place. The Supreme Courts ruling does not change that, she said.

Beckert said voters with questions or concerns may contact the groups voter hotline at 844-347-8683 or info@disabilityvote.org.

No guidance

The states bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission on Tuesday split along party lines when deciding whether to issue any guidance to the states more than 1,800 election clerks on absentee ballot drop boxes following the ruling from the states high court. The commissions three Republican and three Democratic members deadlocked on a handful of votes related to drop box guidance. Republican members proposed guidance solidifying the courts decision, while Democratic members said that would only confuse clerks leading up to the Aug. 9 primary.

There certainly always is confusion whenever there is a change that happens right before an election or in this instance in the middle of an active election cycle, Wolfe said. I also dont think it would be appropriate for me to opine beyond anything that is in the courts ruling.

Proponents of the free-standing, mailbox-like structures have said they are a secure and safe voting option, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, some Republicans argue that adding any unauthorized method for returning ballots opens the door to fraudulent activity, despite multiple reviews of the 2020 election finding no evidence of widespread fraud.

Election fodder

The Supreme Courts ruling has since been used as fuel by former President Donald Trump and gubernatorial candidate Timothy Ramthun to once again call on state Republicans to decertify the results of the 2020 presidential election, something experts and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have described as a legal and constitutional impossibility.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, has opposed efforts to decertify the election, prompting criticism from Trump on the social media platform Truth Social. In a Wednesday post, Trump regarded Vos as a long time professional RINO always looking to guard his flank.

RINO  or Republican in name only  is a derogatory term Republicans attach to members of the party they dont feel are loyal enough.

The Democrats would like to sincerely thank Robin, and all of his fellow RINOs, for letting them get away with murder, Trump said. A Rigged & Stolen Election!

In response to Trumps comments, Vos said he agrees with Trump that the state Supreme Court made a courageous decision by barring drop boxes, but repeated that there is no way to reclaim electors or overturn an election, as Trump has demanded.

My plan is to focus on electing a Republican Governor so Governor (Tony) Evers cannot again veto the 22 election reform bills weve passed, Vos said. The Assembly will take these bills up again first thing next legislative session.

Recounts and court decisions have affirmed that President Joe Biden defeated Trump in the battleground state by almost 21,000 votes.

Conservative report

On Friday, a new report compiled by eight conservatives, including four judges and both a current and former Republican U.S. senator, further refutes claims by Trump and others that the 2020 election was stolen.

The reports authors wrote that they have become deeply troubled by efforts to overturn or discredit the results of the 2020 Presidential Election.

Claims that an election was stolen, or that the outcome resulted from fraud, are deadly serious and should be made only on the basis of real and powerful evidence, according to the report. If the American people lose trust that our elections are free and fair, we will lose our democracy.

The report, titled Lost, Not Stolen: The Conservative Case that Trump Lost and Biden Won the 2020 Presidential Election, delves into Trumps specific claims of widespread fraud in several states, including Wisconsin.

The report largely affirms findings laid out in court rulings and previous reports, including those conducted by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau and conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, that found no evidence of widespread fraud in the states presidential election.

There was no widespread voter fraud in Wisconsin, according to the 72-page report. Trump-requested recounts only increased Bidens margin of victory. Legal claims targeted not fraud but ordinary election-administration challenges related to absentee and mail-in ballots. All were rejected.

The report also references lawsuits filed by Trump challenging absentee voting guidance issued in early 2020 by the state Elections Commission. Those lawsuits were filed in November of that year, eight months after the guidance was issued. All were ultimately rejected.

It is entirely proper for campaigns to challenge new rules for election administration, but this must be done sufficiently before the election to enable corrections to be made, the report states. It would be an affront to democracy to disqualify votes that were cast in compliance with unchallenged procedures on account of lawsuits filed after the election has taken place and the other candidate has won.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigned as Conservative Party leader on July 7, but is not out of power. Characteristically, he seems to be maneuvering to cling to office as head of the British government as long as he can.

Johnson acknowledged the need to step down, without actually using those words, and said nothing about growing ethics scandals swirling around him. Instead, he boasted of great accomplishment in government, and indicated this requires him to remain during the transition.

Through July 6, Johnson had insisted there was no way he would step down. He felt himself indispensable, government success undeniable. This separation from reality, self-praise in the face of general outrage, is remarkably similar to the behavior of Donald Trump.

In fact, the Special Relationship between the United Kingdom (Britain plus Northern Ireland) and the United States involves important, often fascinating, at times vital interplay between the leaders of the two nations.

The final straw that broke the back of Conservative support for their colorful leader was clear evidence of breaking pandemic rules. Photos showed he and others in the government participated in parties prohibited by their own Covid-19 restrictions.

On this matter and others, Johnson has been rather casual in handling the truth. In other words, he is a liar. To the British, lying in Parliament is intolerable, no exceptions.

Nearly sixty members of Johnsons government, almost half, have resigned in protest of this behavior. Last month, Johnson survived a vote of no confidence in the House of Commons, but nearly 40% of his own party voted against him. Only the massive parliamentary majority secured by Conservatives in the December 2019 general election saved him.

The Conservatives have also done badly in recent by-elections, for individual vacant seats in the House of Commons, and local elections in May. The Liberal Democrats made major gains, and the Labour Party remains strong.

Professor Sir John Curtice of Strathclyde University in Scotland is insightful and influential. His analysis for the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) emphasized the Liberal Democrats success.

Northern Ireland also has witnessed significant shifts. Sinn Fein, the nationalist party that seeks a break from Britain and unification with Ireland, in May elections led voting for the first time. This means further separatist pressure on the British government.

Low-key, conscientious Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May succeeded David Cameron in 2016, after surprise defeat of his referendum aimed at remaining in the European Union (EU). She negotiated complex withdrawal accords with the Eurocrats in Brussels, only to face rejection three times in Parliament, including in her own party.

Finally, Good Citizen May was replaced by Bombastic Boris Johnson, who rushed through general leave-Europe legislation, postponing details The eventual cost included renewed conflict in Northern Ireland, but Britain left the EU. Now, the brazen irresponsible Johnson approach of leaving Europe without addressing essential details is causing growing trade and investment problems, especially for Northern Ireland.

Increasing numbers of people back the Liberal Democrats precisely because they generally remain separate from the established Conservative and Labour parties that dominated politics through most of the twentieth century. The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government from 2010 to 2015 ultimately hurt the latter.

In Britain, Johnson will soon be gone, even if kicking and screaming while being hauled away. Throughout, the nation remains a leader in combining representative government with essentially stable institutions.
By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov discussed regional issues and peace-building efforts with the outgoing Swedish and Turkmen ambassadors to Azerbaijan on July 15, Azernews reports.

Bayramov thanked the outgoing Swedish ambassador, Christian Kamill, for his efforts to develop relations between the two nations during his time in Azerbaijan and wished him success in his future endeavors.

The minister recalled that the ambassador's diplomatic tenure in the country coincided with Azerbaijans historic victory over Armenia in the 44-day war, and emphasized Sweden's efforts in this respect in both bilateral and regional contexts.

Underlining the importance of further expansion of Azerbaijani-Swedish political dialogue, Bayramov stressed that high-level visits and meetings between the two countries contributed to the strengthening of bilateral ties.

Expressing satisfaction about his diplomatic mission in Azerbaijan, Kamill stated that the activities organized in Sweden and Azerbaijan to commemorate the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations helped to the growth of relations between the two countries.

The present regional situation, peace-building initiatives, and restoration activities in Azerbaijans liberated lands were also covered at the meeting. Ambassador Christian Kamill received well wishes from Bayramov.

Similarly, during his meeting with Turkmenistan's outgoing ambassador, Mekan Ishangulyyev, Bayramov stressed the historical importance of strengthening cooperation and dialogue between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan in various formats. The minister highlighted the regular high-level visits, meetings, and agreements reached on the Caspian Sea, which is considered a sea of friendship.

In turn, Ishangulyyev underlined the relations between two peoples and states that are based on historical, cultural, and ethnic unity. He emphasized the possibilities for future expansion of collaboration in the political, economic, trade, transportation, and transit sectors.

The agenda for bilateral cooperation, regional peacebuilding initiatives, and other subjects of mutual concern were covered at the meetings. Bayramov complimented Ishangulyyev for his successful diplomatic mission and wished him well in his future endeavors.
1. Yes. The new high school has made it a must. Thousands of people are impacted..

2. Yes. Even if it means revising some budgets, these entities must move on the project.

3. No. Its been known for years that the road was a problem.. Why the urgency now?

4. No. If prioritizing the road means more taxes, forget it. The project will just have to wait.

5. Unsure. Its hard to say until school has been in session for a few months.

Vote

View Results
The La Crosse Common Council approved a number of items at its meeting Thursday night, including its next spending federal COVID relief dollars.

The city approved spending $350,000 of its nearly $22 million from the American Rescue Plan Act to bolster child care with the Parenting Place.

The grant will specifically help child care providers to increase wages, as well as assist with start-up costs for new facilities or expansion for existing businesses. It will also pay for a new coordinator at the Parenting Place to help facilitate the funds and the program.

The Parenting Place will oversee the process of now using the funds, though the city will remained involved.

Additionally, the city approved an additional one-year lease for property located in the mobile home park, Rivercrest Village.

The lease was seen as a compromise after the city first proposed nearly tripling the rent for the property, something Rivercrest said they wouldnt agree to.

The city owns a small section of the mobile home park and has been leasing it to Rivercrest for 25 years. That lease has expired, but officials wanted an additional year to explore the possibility of selling the property.

The original rent rate that was proposed of $9,600 was due to a revaluation of the property, city officials said. But last week, a lower rate of an annual $5,000 was proposed and agreed upon.

That lease will expire next summer, when its expected to be known whether its possible to sell the property or not.

Here are other need-to-know actions taken by the city council on Thursday:

Rezoning was approved

to turn a retail unit into a two-bedroom apartment at 1033 Caledonia St.

The Copper Rocks redevelopment of the former Kmart site continues to move along, after additional rezoning was

approved

. The new zoning will allow for flexibility while designing the multi-purpose space.

The city will officially advocate for updated state energy efficiency regulations under a new resolution that was

approved

, specifically calling for energy conversation to play a bigger role in buildings and development.

Another major development in the city is making progress. A contract and preliminary plat was approved for River Point District were both

approved

, which will allow for the city to begin its next phase of installing utilities and other infrastructure within the development.
By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

France continues to provide technical assistance to Azerbaijans demining efforts in the liberated lands, Azernews reports, citing French ambassador Zacharie Gross.

Gross made the remarks at the event dedicated to the anniversary of the national French holiday - Bastille Day.

"French is extremely optimistic about the development of bilateral cooperation and continues to provide technical support to Azerbaijan in the landmine clearance. France keeps transferring mine detection equipment to the Azerbaijani National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA)," Gross stressed.

The ambassador emphasized the importance of demining activities for the return of former internally displaced persons to their homelands.

Reminding the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan and France, Gross stressed that active political dialogue and partnership had been achieved during this period.

"Azerbaijan-France relations are based on friendship and trust, and the countries are looking forward to the further improvement of these relations," he added.

Earlier, the ambassador noted that France is keen to donate 400,000 (AZN 803,272 or $472,752) to support mine clearance operations in liberated lands.

In the near future, a document is envisaged to be signed covering areas such as support for demining operations, assistance to persons who suffered from mines, and the implementation of projects to raise awareness of the dangers of explosives.

It is worth noting that during the Second Karabakh War, French President Emmanuel Macron and some French circles failed to demonstrate a neutral position, despite the fact that France is a co-chair in the OSCE Minsk Group mediating talks between Baku and Yerevan.

In contradiction to the mandate of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair, only the interests of Armenia were protected and an inadequate position, which did not meet the requirements of a balanced and fair co-chairmanship, was displayed. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and other top authorities have repeatedly denounced this approach.

All cities, including hundreds of towns, settlements, public and private property, and countless infrastructural facilities, were entirely destroyed as a result of the Armenian invasion and occupation of Azerbaijani territory for about three decades.

Everything on these lands was destroyed not only during the war, but also during the occupation period. Simultaneously, Armenia deliberately and persistently laid mines on Azerbaijani territory, in violation of the 1949 Geneva Convention, posing a significant danger to regional peace, security, and cooperation.

Currently, the demining activities, as well as large-scale reconstruction work are underway in Azerbaijans liberated territories.
The town of Campbell is collaborating with La Crosse County to help safely dispose of filters used to treat water contaminated with PFAS.

The six-month pilot program, announced on Friday, will be the first in Wisconsin, and will both educate residents on the hazards with disposing of PFAS filters and collect and store the filters.

PFAS are a group of toxic "forever chemicals" that don't break down over time. Widespread pollution of PFAS has been found on French Island, which is under the jurisdiction of the town of Campbell, and more than 500 private wells have been found to have PFAS in them.

As leaders and communities continue to find solutions to the PFAS crisis, finding ways to dispose of filters has been an additional hurdle. Currently, there are no elevated standards for disposing of filters that contain PFAS in the state.

"With the current rate of filters being used all across Wisconsin it is an environmental and ethical commitment to reduce the rearrangement of PFAS from one media or community to another," said Lee Donahue, Campbell supervisor.

Currently, filters are thrown in the trash, which then gets sent to Xcel for incineration, which has been shown to have adverse health effects for communities.

The Campbell Town Board approved the pilot program unanimously earlier this week after meeting with county officials.

Residents can dispose of point-of-use filters at the Campbell Town Hall. There, they can find a labeled container that will look similar to a sealed, five-gallon pail. Residents are encouraged to bring their used filters in a plastic bag to then be placed in the container.

"It will be similar to those bringing expired medications to be deposited into a self-serve receptacle for proper disposal," Donahue said.

From there, the county will use a dry storage method to store the filters.

Anyone with a whole house filter that needs to be disposed but won't fit in the collection receptacles should bring them directly to the La Crosse County Household Hazardous Materials Facility at 3202 Berlin Drive.

Any businesses with filters to dispose of should call 608-785-9999.
The 2024 Republican National Convention is likely headed to Milwaukee after a GOP site selection panel chose the city unanimously on Friday.

Before the 2024 plans are cemented, Milwaukee still needs final approval by the Republican National Committee, which will convene in Chicago during the first week of August.

Today, the Site Selection Committee voted to recommend Milwaukee to host the 2024 Republican National Convention and it is a testament to the forthright and professional behavior embraced by Milwaukees city leaders throughout the process, RNC senior adviser Richard Walters said in a statement. A final decision will be made by Chairwoman (Ronna) McDaniel and the full RNC in the coming weeks.

Milwaukee along with Nashville had been chosen as finalists for the 2024 convention site, but the Tennessee citys prospects grew dimmer after a Nashville legislative body withdrew legislation on a framework agreement for the convention.

The full Republican National Committee can still select Nashville to host the convention, but Milwaukee  with business and city leaders on board despite the citys majority-liberal makeup  appears far likelier to be selected.

Milwaukee was chosen by Democrats to host their 2020 national convention, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced that meeting to take place nearly entirely online. President Joe Biden accepted the nomination in Delaware, not Milwaukee.

But city leaders argued that their preparations for hosting that convention put them in the best position to welcome Republicans to town in 2024. They have called the city turnkey ready for the event.

The 2020 and preliminary 2024 Wisconsin selection highlights the swing states value to both parties.

We are thrilled that the site selection committee has recommended Milwaukee to host the 2024 National Convention, Republican Party of Wisconsin chair Paul Farrow said in a statement. The farmers, manufacturers, and families of the Badger State truly represent the heart of America, and were now a big step closer to showcasing all that Wisconsin has to offer.

Leaders in the Democratic stronghold of Milwaukee joined together with Republican power brokers, including former RNC chair Reince Priebus, to make the pitch for hosting the 2024 convention. Priebus, a former White House chief of staff under former President Donald Trump and Wisconsin state GOP chair, leads the local committee for the convention.

Trump narrowly won Wisconsin in 2016, but lost to Biden by a similar margin in 2020.

Wisconsin could determine who wins in 2024, while Tennessee has not backed a Democrat for president since 1996. In the convention contest, history would seem to favor Milwaukee. For two decades, Republicans have placed their nominating convention in swing states  North Carolina, Ohio and Florida  though the 2004 convention was in New York City.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
By Trend





The State Employment Agency under the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population of Azerbaijan continues providing appropriate support for martyr families and second Karabakh war veterans as part of the self-employment program, the ministry told Trend.

Within the framework of the relevant program, a group of veterans received all the necessary help for running their own businesses.

"They've managed to set up their own small farms and enterprises through the mentioned program. Thus, the agency has provided 170 citizens from the relevant category with the necessary assets over the past week," the statement said.

In total, since the beginning of 2022, the State Employment Agency has ensured the self-employment of 915 families of martyrs and veterans.
Researchers have begun a new search in the United States for the mysterious material known as dark matter.

Scientists believe dark matter makes up most of the mass of the universe. But they have not yet directly observed the material. Astronomers have theorized that dark matter exists because of gravitys observed effects on galaxies and groups of galaxies.

The search is happening in a former gold mine in the midwestern state of South Dakota. The experiment aims to isolate dark matter inside a tank that is about one-and-one-half kilometers underground.

Scientists have designed the experiment to block out nearly all cosmic rays and particles believed to move through our world every day. The hope is that by blocking these materials, dark matter particles will show up in the isolation tank.

The experiment, called LUX-ZEPLIN, is being carried out in the Sanford Underground Research Facility. If it succeeds, the team said, dark matter will produce a reaction involving the element xenon. The researchers said dark matter would produce a flash of light and be seen by a device called a time projection chamber.

Scientists recently announced that the five-year, $60 million search effort finally got started after delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Members of the search team said the device has not yet identified dark matter. But the equipment does appear to be keeping out most of the background radiation the researchers had hoped to block.

To search for this very rare type of interaction, job number one is to first get rid of all the ordinary sources of radiation, which would overwhelm the experiment, said project member Carter Hall. He is a physicist at the University of Maryland.

The researchers said they expect only a few signs of dark matter to appear a year. The team of 250 scientists estimates the operation will produce 20 times more data in the future.

During the experiment, the chance of finding dark matter with the device is probably less than 50 percent, but more than 10 percent, said Hugh Lippincott. He is a physicist and spokesman for the project.

Kevin Lesko is a physicist at the U.S. Department of Energys Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California. He told The Associated Press that finding dark matter is far from a sure thing. But Lesko said the scientists need a little enthusiasm" to keep going. You dont go into rare search physics without some hope of finding something.

Another team member, physicist Aaron Manalaysay, explained the importance of xenon to the experiment. He said the element will permit researchers to see whether particle collisions that happen in the tank hit a xenon electron or its nucleus. If something hits the nucleus, it is more likely to be the dark matter that everyone is looking for, Manalaysay said.

The scientists tried a similar, smaller experiment at the same place years ago. After that experiment produced no dark matter, the scientists decided to go much bigger. Another large experiment is currently being carried out in Italy. The scientists running that project have not yet announced any results.

Manalaysay explained that even with a small chance of success, it is important for scientists to keep searching. He said this is because it will be nearly impossible to fully understand the history and development of the universe without identifying dark matter.

Im Bryan Lynn.

The Associated Press reported this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the report for VOA Learning English.

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

isolate  v. to put or keep (someone or something) in a place or situation that is separate from others

cosmic ray  n. high-energy particles that move through space at nearly the speed of light

chamber  n. a contained room or closed space used for a particular purpose

ordinary  adj. not special, different or unusual in any way

overwhelm  v. to give too much of a thing to someone

enthusiasm  n. the feeling of being very interested in something and wanting very much to be involved in it

______________________________________________________________

What do you think of this story? We want to hear from you. We have a new comment system. Here is how it works:

1. Write your comment in the box. 2. Under the box, you can see four images for social media accounts. They are for Disqus, Facebook, Twitter and Google. 3. Click on one image and a box appears. Enter the login for your social media account. Or you may create one on the Disqus system. It is the blue circle with D on it. It is free.

Each time you return to comment on the Learning English site, you can use your account and see your comments and replies to them. Our comment policy is here.
Suspects, inmates housed in Lebanon jail to get the weekends off
Newly elected Republican State Chairman Eric Underwood said Thursday the party's new leadership will focus on "getting conservative Republicans elected statewide" during a rollout event attended by former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry and Lt. Gov. Mike Foley.

Underwood, of Lincoln, said he is centered on "moving this party forward" with an opportunity for "the people (to) have a voice when they didn't before."

Now, he said, "the people will be in charge of the Republican Party."

Underwood was elected chairman at a party convention in Kearney on Saturday that removed Dan Welch of Omaha as party chairman and, in the process, wrested the party away from the control of Gov. Pete Ricketts.

Responding to a question as to whether he is concerned that the governor may now remove his substantial funding support for the state party, Underwood said he "hopes that (Ricketts) chooses to continue to finance the same goals" of electing Republicans.

Underwood said the party under its new leadership will support gubernatorial nominee Jim Pillen and the other Republican nominees chosen at the May 10 primary election.

And, he said, it will prepare a legislative plan that focuses on fiscal responsibility, agriculture, limited government, education and "election accountability and voter verification."

Current party rules provide for creation of a plan to elect legislators by September.

"Stay engaged, stay empowered," he urged a crowd of supporters who attended the event at GOP state headquarters in Lincoln.

Underwood, who was previously elected as Lancaster County GOP chairman, is general manager of Rodizio Grill, a restaurant in Lincoln's Historic Haymarket.

The tone of Underwood's remarks at the event was conciliatory as he attempts to build a unified Republican campaign effort this year.

However, in an earlier interview published online by the Nebraska Examiner, Underwood signaled what "could mean more Republican challengers in GOP primary races with incumbent Republicans" in the future, Aaron Sanderford wrote.

The appearance of Fortenberry and Foley at Thursday's event was significant.

Fortenberry, who resigned from his House seat following his conviction on changes of lying to federal officials about an illegal foreign contribution to his 2016 reelection campaign, was abandoned by Ricketts prior to his conviction and while he was an announced candidate for reelection.

Ricketts endorsed Sen. Mike Flood of Norfolk, who was subsequently elected to the 1st District House seat.

Foley endorsed Charles Herbster of Falls City in the gubernatorial primary campaign while Ricketts supported Pillen, prompting the governor to say the lieutenant governor showed poor judgment.

In brief remarks, Foley said the mission now is to elect Republicans.

Fortenberry, who attended the event with his wife, Celeste, did not speak.

Underwood said he is all about "moving this party forward, protecting our future and moving this state forward."

That, he said, is "100% my goal."

The change engineered in Kearney represented "democracy at work," he said. resulting in "a new value structure, a new culture."

Now should come "a healing process," he said.
Theres an elephant baby boom at the Omaha zoo.

Jayei, the matriarch of the elephant herd, is the latest pregnant elephant at Omahas Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium.

If all goes well, her calf will be the fourth elephant born at the zoo in a span of two years.

Officials say that Jayeis pregnancy further highlights the critical role the Omaha zoo has in maintaining a sustainable elephant population.

That role began on Jan. 7 with the birth of a female calf named Eugenia, the first elephant born at the zoo. A few weeks later, Sonny, a male calf, was born.

Sonny and Eugenia were oblivious to the zoo officials gathered Wednesday to discuss the significance of their birth. The two were preoccupied with each other, playing, climbing and exploring while their herd meandered nearby.

Soon, the herd will have two more little ones to keep an eye on.

Jayei is estimated to be about 30 years old and has had at least one other calf before. Her daughter Omma is a member of the zoos herd.

The zoos veterinary staff predict her due date to be in about 13 months.

Lolly, who is about 11 years old, is also pregnant and likely to give birth to her first calf in the spring of 2023.

Both expectant mothers have hormone levels consistent with healthy pregnancies, said Jessye Wojtusik, the zoos lead scientist.

And Eugenia and Sonny continue to grow at a healthy rate, said Sarah Armstrong, elephant manager.

They are doing everything little calves should do, Armstrong said. We couldnt be happier with the progress.

The calves and upcoming births are exciting to see in Omaha, but nationally the elephant birth rate should be much higher, said Dennis Pate, the zoos president.

Eugenia and Sonny account for the only two elephant births in the United States this year.

The good news is that theyre projecting six to be born next year, Pate said. This means that in the course of two years, Omaha will be the birthplace of half of the elephants born in the United States.

Its the kind of baby boom zoo officials were hoping for when they welcomed Callee, a bull African elephant, to the herd in 2019 from the Birmingham Zoo in Alabama.

The zoos five females, plus one male, arrived in Omaha in 2016 from Swaziland.

The 36-hour journey from Swaziland to Omaha included stops in Senegal, Texas and Kansas, depositing some of the herds elephants at two other American zoos. Veterinarians accompanied the elephants along the way, and zoo staff met the elephants at Eppley Airfield.

Since their arrival, the elephants have been housed in the zoos $73 million African Grasslands exhibit.

In September 2017, Warren, a bull elephant in the original herd, died during a procedure. He had been the herds lone male until the arrival of a male named Louie that summer.

Louie was never able to reproduce with the herds females and last year was transferred to the North Carolina Zoo based on a recommendation by the African Elephant Species Survival Plan through the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Unlike Louie, Callee was an instant hit with the herds females, Pate said.

We got a little lucky there in finding the right bull, Pate said. To have four calves in two years is pretty unusual and pretty special. Theres maybe one or two other places that have done that nationally.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has promoted Ilgar Abbasov, newly-appointed head of the State Agency for the Protection of Strategic Facilities, to the military rank of a major general, Azernews reports.
A man was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison and his sister to five years for methamphetamine trafficking from Arizona to southern Wisconsin, authorities reported.

Douglas Mack, 45, of Phoenix, and Emily Mack, 36, of Madison, were sentenced this week by Judge William M. Conley.

Douglas Mack pleaded guilty to his leadership role in the conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine on March 30, and Emily Mack pleaded guilty to possessing more than 50 grams of methamphetamine for distribution on April 5, U.S. Attorney Timothy OShea said in a statement.

The Macks were charged in January 2021 in a multiple-count indictment with conspiring with each other and with Tonia Greenwood and DAngelo Lashore to distribute and possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine. Douglas Mack mailed from Arizona to Emily Mack and Lashore in Madison and Greenwood in Sauk County more than 4 kilograms of meth between November 2018 and January 2021, OShea said.

Greenwood earlier pleaded guilty to the conspiracy and was sentenced to 30 months in prison, while Lashore pleaded guilty to attempting to possess methamphetamine for distribution and was sentenced to 18 months in prison, OShea said.

The case stemmed from an investigation conducted by the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Madison Police Department, DeForest Police Department, Sauk County Sheriffs Office, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, State Line Area Narcotics Team and Wisconsin State Patrol. Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Przybylinski Finn prosecuted the case.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has again been ordered by a Dane County judge to produce requested public records related to a taxpayer-funded partisan probe of the 2020 election by former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman.

Circuit Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn on Friday issued the decision, which also orders Vos, R-Rochester, to pay statutory fees and attorney fees to liberal watchdog group American Oversight, which filed the lawsuit following multiple open records requests related to the election probe being conducted by Gableman.

In the order, Bailey-Rihn wrote that Vos provided no evidence to explain why it took six months for him to respond to some of American Oversights records requests, despite state law requiring an authority to respond as soon as practicable and without delay. In addition, when Vos did respond, he produced 1,400 pages of records from an unwanted time period, Bailey-Rihn noted.

Based on the undisputed evidence of Vos ineffectual records practices, I can draw no reasonable inference except that Vos did not search for records in the first instance, Bailey-Rihn wrote.

Vos has 20 days to search for and produce records related to American Oversights requests, per the judges order. Bailey-Rihn also denied American Oversights motion for punitive damages against Vos.

In sum, that (Vos) was wrong does not justify punitive damages, Bailey-Rihn wrote. Here, the records could still exist and be produced if they were properly searched for by the Respondent.

Vos office had not responded to a request for comment Friday.

Bailey-Rihn ruled last month that Vos would not be penalized for a previous contempt order related to the case, but said she would decide later if Vos should face penalties related to how his office handled requests for records related to Gablemans review.

A status conference has been scheduled on the matter for July 21.

American Oversight has filed four lawsuits against Gableman, Vos and the state Assembly related to the GOP-ordered review of the 2020 election.

Its ironic that Vos claimed an investigation was necessary to instill confidence in the election outcome, but then has done everything in his power to prevent Wisconsinites from learning the whole truth, American Oversight senior adviser Melanie Sloan said in a statement Friday. Vos is not above the law and American Oversight is gratified to see him held accountable for violating Wisconsins public records law.

Dane County Circuit Judge Frank Remington last month held Gablemans office in contempt, offering a scathing rebuke of the former justices behavior in court a week earlier, when Gableman accused the judge of being a partisan advocate.

Remington ultimately held Gablemans office in contempt for failing to adequately respond to the requests and ordered Gableman be fined $2,000 a day until he complies. He also directed Gablemans sneering conduct in Remingtons courtroom to the office that regulates attorneys and judges in Wisconsin to take possible action against his license to practice law.

Gableman has appealed the ruling and is seeking a review by a three-judge panel in Wisconsins District 2 Court of Appeals in Waukesha.

Gableman was hired by Vos under pressure from Donald Trump to review the election the former president lost to President Joe Biden by about 21,000 votes in Wisconsin. While the probe was originally allocated $676,000 in taxpayer funds, invoices have shown that ongoing court battles surrounding the review have pushed the cost to more than $900,000.

Vos earlier this year paused Gablemans probe to allow time for pending lawsuits related to the review to play out in court and halved Gablemans monthly salary from $11,000 to $5,500.

A recount, court decisions and multiple reviews have affirmed that Biden defeated Trump in Wisconsin. Only 24 people out of nearly 3.3 million who cast ballots have been charged with election fraud in Wisconsin.
By Trend

Chairman of the Standing Commission on International Affairs of the House of Representatives Andrei Savinykh stated that Iran is one of the important partners of Belarus in the region, Trend reports citing Mehr.

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Diplomacy Mahdi Safari held a meeting with Andrei Savinykh and the Belarusian Chairman of the Iran-Belarus parliamentary friendship group in Tehran.

In this meeting, the latest status of bilateral and multilateral relations between Iran and Belarus, especially the trend of growing economic cooperation between the two countries and ways to expand and deepen it, were discussed.

"Having a very important geopolitical position, Iran is one of the important partners of Belarus in the region," Savinykh noted.

Referring to the economic cooperation under development, especially the strengthening of bilateral transit relations and making the economic north and south corridor through Iran's soil more active, Savinykh called on the parliaments of Iran and Belarus to support the economic plans of the government and the private sector of the two countries.

Referring to the relations between the two countries in the field of agriculture, transit, exchange of new technologies and joint production of products, Safari emphasized the necessity of adapting practical measures for the development of economic cooperation between the two sides.

Recalling the imminent holding of the 15th meeting of the joint economic commission of Iran and Belarus, Safari described this event as a turning point in the cooperation between the two countries, especially in the new conditions of the region, and a very important factor in increasing the level of economic relations between Iran and Belarus.

Safari also reminded that the 15th Commission has operational and executive aspects in removing the existing obstacles in the way of the economic relations between the two countries.
Long-acting reversible contraception such as intrauterine devices (IUDs) will become available at the citys sexual and reproductive health clinic later this year, Public Health Madison and Dane County announced Thursday.

With an additional $360,000 that County Executive Joe Parisi will ask the County Board to allocate from the general reserve fund, Public Health will fund an expansion of staff and hours at the departments sexual and reproductive health clinic at 2705 E. Washington Ave., the department said in a statement.

The clinic currently operates part-time, 16 hours a week, offering sexually transmitted infection testing, birth control and emergency contraception at low or no cost. The increased funding will expand staffing to allow the clinic to operate 24 hours a week, Public Health director Janel Heinrich said.

This expanded capacity will help us reach hundreds more people each year, she said. Currently, the clinic serves roughly 1,300 people a year, with men disproportionately represented.

Based on conversations with stakeholders in the Madison and Dane County community, the clinic will also begin offering IUDs for long-term pregnancy prevention, Heinrich said. She added those conversations took place both before and after the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, which overturned the half-century constitutional right to an abortion set by Roe v. Wade.

The decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has created a health care emergency for every woman and person who gives birth in Dane County and beyond, Parisi said. While Public Health already provides many reproductive health care services ... the need to expand those services has never been more urgent.

We cant undo what the Supreme Court did, and we cant make the state Legislature do what they should do, Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said at a news conference Thursday.

Still, she said that improved access to both the clinic and IUDs would lead to decreased teen pregnancies and high-risk births, especially among low-income and Black and indigenous people of color, citing a study from Colorado following the states expansion of access to IUDs.

If we can achieve similar outcomes here in Madison and Dane County, it will disproportionately support the health of Black women in our community, Rhodes-Conway said.

The expanded hours and IUD appointments are expected to begin this fall. A specific date has not yet been set.

Women seeking IUDs will be able to receive them in a single appointment, said Public Health director Janel Heinrich. The additional staff will also allow Public Health to conduct more outreach and education efforts surrounding reproductive health, Heinrich said in the statement.

The $360,000 will jump-start the expansion of the clinic, Parisi said.

Drawing from the general reserve fund is a rare event, but the urgency of the moment calls for swift and decisive action, he said.

Afterwards, Madison and Dane County will partner through the normal budget process to allocate just over $1 million for the expansion, Parisi said.
The town of Bristol has renewed the liquor license for a strip club where people have repeatedly engaged in gunfire in the parking lot or nearby.

The license for Club Bristol was issued June 16 and covers the period from July 1 to June 30, 2023. The club is currently subject to an agreement with neighbors that gives it until next spring to find a new location in town, which is about 5 miles north of Sun Prairie, or face the possibility of not having its liquor license renewed.

Gunfire erupted at the club four times last year, most recently in November between rival gang members, according to a criminal complaint against three men charged in the incident. Blood was found on the scene but it wasnt clear if anyone was hurt. At least a dozen bullet casings were recovered.

Several rounds were also fired outside the club in the early morning hours of March 7, 2021, according to the Dane County Sheriffs Office, and four days before that, a highly intoxicated man fired several shotgun rounds into the side of the club. On Feb. 27, 2021, someone in or near the parking lot seemingly fired shots in the air as they drove away from the area.

Zachary M. Leonard, 30, of Brandon, Mississippi, pleaded guilty in January to discharging a firearm toward a building and misdemeanor criminal damage to property for the March 3 incident, which happened after he was kicked out of the club following a dispute with another patron. He is supposed to be sentenced in September. Charges have not been filed in the other two cases, according to town chairman Gerald Derr.

Under the terms of the agreement between the neighbors and the club, club representatives need to be readily available to respond to disturbances at the club, which is subject to monthly reviews by town officials and law enforcement.

Rich Bickle, who owns the club with Jerry Wood, was not available for comment this week but said in November that the club had done everything we were supposed to do under the agreement, including installing an ID-card reader and adding more lighting in the parking lot and security staff at the door. Derr confirmed the club has been following the terms of the agreement and hasnt seen further problems since November.

Wood said the club has continued to close earlier, at midnight, although it is allowed to stay open until bar time, or 2 a.m. on weekdays and 2:30 a.m. on weekends. It opens at noon.

The chances of the club finding another site appear dim, according to Wood and Derr.

Nobody wants to sell us any land in the town of Bristol, Wood said, and their liquor license cant be transferred to a spot outside the town.

Its not clear what the next steps would be if the club doesnt find a new spot; an attorney who was working with the neighbors was not available for comment.

What happens at the end of the agreement? Derr said. Do the complainants have to refile? ... Were going to need to find an answer to that fairly soon.

Club Bristol is one of two strip clubs in Dane County. The other is Silk Exotic in rural Middleton. Madisons only strip club, Visions, closed in 2020 after a series of violent incidents there.

Bickle also owns The Boxx Office strip club outside Portage.
The most predictable story in the world gets recycled whenever a first-term president becomes unpopular and his jittery party starts wondering whether other options are better than nominating him for re-election.

So is the case with President Joe Bidens approval ratings sagging below 40%. Ed Kilgore at New York magazine just asked if Democrats are stuck with Biden in 2024.

Set aside (legitimate) questions about whether Biden, now 79, is too old for a second term. Tune out consideration of whether Democrats believe he would be a good second-term president. Turn to the way electoral politics actually unfolds.

Unpopular presidents have lost reelection bids  Donald Trump, George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford. The last two times an unpopular president who was eligible dropped out of a re-nomination fight, in 1952 and 1968, his party lost anyway. This is hardly surprising. If a president is unpopular, then his party will be unpopular. George W. Bush couldnt run for a third term in 2008, but given his low approval ratings, Republicans never had a chance that year.

All of this suggests that if Biden remains unpopular, the Democrats are probably doomed whether they nominate him or not. Indeed, given partisan polarization, its unlikely that candidates matter much in most presidential elections. But we dont and cant have side-by-side comparisons, and its not surprising that party actors would be wary of re-nominating an unpopular president, regardless of what the evidence suggests.

Which gets back to the question of whether the 2024 Democratic nomination is Bidens if he wants it. Party actors have no formal veto over any candidate. But they do control many of the resources  money, expertise, party-aligned media  that are critical to winning primary elections. If a united party wanted to dump an incumbent president, it surely could at least severely injure him.

After all, most White House staffers, and almost all presidential appointees in the executive branch, have backgrounds as loyal Democrats, not mainly as Biden supporters. Imagine if Bidens Cabinet threatened to walk out unless he agreed to end his campaign for reelection. He could go on anyway. But its hard to imagine him doing so.

Similarly, Biden would be hard-pressed to continue if enough major Democratic donors refused to support him, or if he had difficulty staffing his campaign with experienced party operatives. Of course, if things came to that point, it might not matter anyway, since a president that unpopular among party actors would probably be trounced in primaries.

But realistically, even the least popular presidents keep the support of half or so of their partys voters, and its likely that many party actors would stick with Biden if he tried to run. His Cabinet and White House staff would probably do so because they like holding their jobs. In the era of campaign finance abundance, its hard to believe that even an unpopular president would fail to raise plenty of cash. And some organized groups within the party would want to reward even unpopular presidents for their support.

That was even true for Jimmy Carter, the president with the fewest ties to his party after four years in the White House. One reason he was able to defeat Senator Ted Kennedy and win re-nomination in 1980 was that some unions and other organized groups choose to back him.

The real question, then, isnt whether Democrats are stuck with Biden. Its about a scenario in which enough party actors want a second term for him that he has a solid chance for re-nomination, but enough others want a new candidate that its also possible that he could lose. If thats the situation, it really comes down to whats in one politicians head, and thats always difficult for outsiders to predict.

But remember this about Biden: His talent has always been to adjust his positions to remain right in the center of the Democratic Party. If the center of that party wants him gone, hell probably go.

No politician drops out of a winnable presidential election casually, and theres nothing easier for a politician and those around him or her than to convince themselves that they are indispensable. Biden surely could make that case to himself. But he also has a built-in excuse for bailing out  age  that few presidents have had. And he really is a party man.

So my best guess is that if enough party actors push, he would back away. Its also possible that he intends to retire anyway, and just isnt ready to say so.
Life for big technology companies looks increasingly different to how it did five years ago.

Back then, Uber Technologies Inc. used a secret kill switch to thwart police from probing its data systems in more than a dozen countries. It forged into cities where its gig-economy model broke local rules, going above the heads of mayors and courting heads of state with aggressive charm offensives that saw the likes of then-French economy minister Emmanuel Macron make personal calls on Ubers behalf to solve its regulatory problems.

These details and more are laid bare in text messages and emails, part of more than 124,000 confidential documents leaked to the Guardian, which show how Uber executives were fully aware they were acting above the law, jokingly referring to themselves as pirates. Uber says it has transformed itself since 2017 under the leadership of Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi, and it is indeed a different company today. In fact, the documents underscore how much the landscape for tech founders has changed.

For years it was almost cliche for Silicon Valley founders to believe they could move fast and break things (including laws) because they believed they were making the world a better place in the long run. Mark Zuckerberg justified playing fast and loose with regulators and our data in large part because he was fulfilling a global mission of connecting people. Elon Musk appeared to treat regulatory fines as a cost of doing business while pioneering an electric vehicle revolution that could help combat climate change.

Then the wool was pulled back from our eyes. It turned out Facebook may have done more to polarize people than connect them. Musks Tesla Inc. had been evasive about its environmental footprint, and critics have raised questions about its safety standards. And while Uber has made transportation easier for many city dwellers, that dream is starting to erode amid steep fare increases.

Ubers unscrupulous ways helped build an empire, but it also led to political and regulatory blowback, which became all the more humbling amid its struggles to reach profitability. Antitrust officials have been getting tougher on tech deals  reversing a Facebook acquisition for instance  after admitting they allowed giants such as Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc. to scoop up far too many competitors. US lawmakers on the left and right are raring to tame tech firms aggressive growth tactics with tougher laws, spurred by revelations from Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen.

Big Tech could get away for years with disrupting the rules because so few restrictions were on digital marketplaces. Thats why it made sense for Uber and Facebook lawyers to argue they were technology companies and not subject to the laws governing media or taxi firms.

But that is changing. Antitrust officials have updated their guidelines to better deal with the complexities of software, and Europe is set to roll out strict laws about online content, echoing similar tightening in Japan and India.

It will be telling to see how a Delaware judge eventually rules on Musks desertion of his Twitter deal. A harsh judgment against Musk could further underscore that the days of acting above the law for techs elite are over.

Ubers own reckoning has been mixed. Court challenges have forced it to pay drivers a minimum wage in the UK, but the company hasnt been punished for creating a ghost app to thwart city officials scrutiny of the company. Thats arguably frustrating.

Ubers aggressive marketing and lobbying strategy didnt pave the way for a sustainable business model and has yet to help the company turn an annual profit. Its share price has fallen nearly 50% since the start of the year.

Younger ride-hailing firms such as Estonias Bolt Technology OU meanwhile have taken advantage of all the lobbying work Uber did to roll out its own business, but with less investment in public policy so that it could offer cheaper fares. In a roundabout way, Uber's grubby courting of politicians may have helped its competitors  at least temporarily. (Bolt has recently had to raise its fares too, making London Black Cabs or San Franciscos taxis more attractive when surge pricing is in effect.)

Ubers strategy, albeit an extreme one, has been par for the course for Silicon Valley empire builders, who ask for forgiveness instead of permission. The difference now is that authorities are starting to hold tech platforms to account.
By Trend

The first rail transit cargo from Russia to India entered Iran on Tuesday through the Sarakhs border crossing, to officially launch the eastern section of the North-South railway corridor, Trend reports citing Tehran Times.

The Russian train was allowed into the Iranian border in a ceremony attended by First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber along with transport, oil, industry, and agriculture ministers as well as the vice president for science and technology.

Speaking at this ceremony, Mokhber stressed the Iranian governments determination for expanding trade with neighboring countries, especially in the transit sector, saying: The transit capacity of the country has increased to 20 million tons and by planning and taking appropriate measures, transiting 300 million tons of commodities per year can be reached.

Carrying 39 containers, the Russian transit train left Chekhov station on July 6, traveling 3,800 kilometers through Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to enter Iran. The cargo will be transported to Bandar Abbas port in southern Iran through a 1600 km rail route to finally be sent to Indias Nhava Sheva Port via sea.

The North-South Corridor consists of three route sections, namely East, West, and Middle.

Iran and Russia are also cooperating in the maritime sector to use the Caspian Sea to shorten the transit route from Russia to India.

Earlier this week, the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) announced that it has assigned 300 containers to transport goods between Russia and India.

The mentioned containers have been allocated to execute the first phase of a program for transiting Russian commodities to India via the North-South Corridor using the Caspian Sea.

According to the plans made by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, in the first phase, 300 containers have been considered for transporting cargos to Russia, and if the demand increases, the number of these containers will increase continuously, an IRISL statement said.
TWIN FALLS  Three days of committee meetings, workshops and party business kicked off Thursday at the 2022 Idaho Republican Party Convention at the College of Southern Idaho.

Statewide nominees include U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, former U.S. Rep. Raul Labrador, Gov. Brad Little, House Speaker Scott Bedke, Controller Brandon Woolf, Treasurer Julie Ellsworth, and education superintendent candidate Debbie Critchfield.

Over the next two days, the party will adopt a platform and decide whether to retain Idaho Republican Party Chairman Tom Luna or replace him with challenger Dorothy Moon, a state representative from Stanley.

Luna has faced challenges from some in the party who have objected to a lawsuit Luna filed against the Bonneville Republican Party, including unpaid volunteers.

Idaho state GOP sues county GOP, claiming its illegal conduct will harm Republicans The Idaho Republican Party and its chairman, Tom Luna, have filed suit against one of its county central committees, alleging the committees 

There will also be special events such as a Keep Idaho Red Rally on Friday night at the County Fairgrounds in Filer. Ari Fleischer, press secretary for President George W. Bush, will be the guest speaker at the 7.p.m. rally.

The welcome reception on Thursday night was an opportunity for Twin Falls Republicans to showcase the regions attractions and economic assets.

Idaho Republican Party Chairman Tom Luna was master of ceremonies for the welcome banquet, and talked about the days ahead.

Youre going to have the opportunity for a lot of in-depth training on things that are very critical to us to continue to grow the party and elect more Republicans, Luna said.

Luna talked about Idahos growth and how the Republican Party is growing with it.

I have met so many people that are here for the first time, Luna said. I think this is evidence of our efforts to involve more and more people and to grow this party and to unite this party.

Luna thanked Chenele Dixon, candidate for Idaho House of Representatives, and who served as the chairman of convention.

The program for the evening began with an opening prayer from Twin Falls County GOP Chair Suzanne Hawkins, and the Pledge of Allegiance led by Rep. Laurie Lickley, who is running for state senate in November.

County Commissioner Jack Johnson showcased some of the many attractions, including Shoshone Falls, the Evil Knievel Jump Site, and Cauldron Linn. He also described a few of the major industrial contributors, from users of Barley like Coors, Lamb-Weston, and Chobani.

Most speakers took the opportunity to showcase the assets of the Magic Valley. Johnson was one of the few to state a position on any issue.

Nationally, were on a ship with no one steering it, we all know that. Were heading toward the brink of disaster, Johnson said. Looking around this room, some of the familiar faces I see here, I also know we are up to the challenge and have the leadership to turn that ship around.

Twin Falls Mayor Ruth Pierce described the business that Twin Falls has successfully encouraged. Highlighting some of the largest employers, Pierce told the crowd that after securing the Chobani plant, the city wasted no time in facilitating their facility.

(The) million-square-foot facility was built in 326 days, so we mean business, Pierce said.

The Keynote Speaker Melissa Barry of Visit Southern Idaho gave attendees a top-five list of must-see sights to visit while in the area.

Committee meetings, workshops and trainings run from 8 to 11:45 a.m. Friday and the General Session runs from 2 to 4 p.m.

Idaho Rep. Dorothy Moon announces candidacy for state GOP chairwoman Rep. Dorothy Moon, R-Stanley, announced in a press release Thursday that she will run for chairperson of the Idaho Republican Party.

Critchfield wins GOP primary in race for Idahos top education official Former State Board of Education president Debbie Critchfield topped her two competitors in the Republican primary to be Idahos next superinte

Scott Bedke wins Idaho Republican primary for lieutenant governor House Speaker Scott Bedke won the 2022 Republican primary election for lieutenant governor Tuesday, according to unofficial election results r

Idaho state GOP sues county GOP, claiming its illegal conduct will harm Republicans The Idaho Republican Party and its chairman, Tom Luna, have filed suit against one of its county central committees, alleging the committees 
Register for more free articles. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading.

Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! Already a Subscriber? Already a Subscriber? Sign in Terms of Service Privacy Policy
As Colorado rolled out the welcome mat for fentanyl dealers in 2019, the federal government continued allowing the substance to cross the southern border. The combination is disastrous.

Democratic Gov. Jared Polis and other state leaders must put a stop to this deadly poison making its way into our country, long before it gets to Colorado.

Our governor does not have direct control over the border, but the border is killing his people. As the executive of a union state, he has the authority and responsibility to demand action at the border. Colorado pays for federal border enforcement and has every right to receive it.

Polis knows about our article that cited top law enforcement officials calling Colorado a critical transportation hub for fentanyl from Mexico.

He knows about a recent traffic stop that found enough fentanyl to kill 25 million people  more than four times the population of his state. A drug bust confiscated 170,000 fentanyl pills outside an Aurora apartment.

An 18th Judicial District grand jury indicted eight people on charges of smuggling and distributing meth, heroin and fentanyl pills, all of which came from Mexico. Etc., etc., etc.

Last week, the governor and everyone else who pays attention learned of another innocent baby who died by accidentally contracting a few granules of fentanyl in his parents home.

Polis awoke Tuesday to another alarming Gazette article about his states deadly fentanyl crisis. Thats right, we wont let this go until it is resolved.

Tuesdays bombshell investigative report exposes in shocking detail a family organization of deadly fentanyl dealers who began their business by simply driving in and out of Mexico with baggies of blue fentanyl pills. The ensuing small-town deaths, including close friends and colleagues, make this crisis look like a deadly viral epidemic the public knows too little about.

The Gazettes editorial board contacted Polis on Tuesday and asked what he plans to do, given all the horrible news. Would he call upon President Joe Biden and Congress to do their work and stop fentanyl from crossing the border? After a polite exchange, Polis posted just such a demand on Facebook.

Great journalism by the Colorado Springs (and Denver) Gazette, telling the story behind some of the first tragic fentanyl deaths in western Colorado. Fentanyl is brought in from Mexico and is cheap and deadly. I renew my call on Congress and the President to get serious about border security, including high-tech security measures and drug detection technology to halt the flow of this poison, Polis posted.

Keep it up. Go from Facebook to news conferences. Pound a fist on the lectern, with the passion that worked in Congress.

Read the governors post, Washington, and take it to heart. A high-ranking Democrat says to get serious about keeping fentanyl out. That means he knows the president and Congress are not serious. That is part of the reason Colorado has become a hellhole of drug abuse that keeps knowledgeable parents awake at night.

Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper need to hear Polis and act immediately before this invasion of poison kills more adults, teenagers, children and babies. If they dont get results, drug deaths will insidiously define their legacies.

Biden needs to take the governors advice and get serious. Bidens ambassador to Mexico, former Colorado Attorney General and U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, needs to get serious about helping Mexico curtail foreign fentanyl trafficking.

We asked Democratic Colorado Attorney Gen. Phil Weiser about demanding better border control, given the governors Facebook post.

A lengthy and nuanced statement included Weiser saying he urges Congress and the Biden administration to step up and provide significantly more resources for law enforcement, as well as enhanced tools to keep this poison from coming across the border.

This is not political. It is not Democrat versus Republican or liberal versus conservative. It is a matter of life and death that kills people of all races, religions, genders, sexual identities and political affiliations. Get serious at the border and stop this deadly crisis.
Thanks to a direct mediation by the Kingdom of Morocco, under the leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, the Israeli authorities have decided to open, without interruption, the Allenby/King Hussein border crossing, linking the West Bank and Jordan.

This mediation, led by the Kingdom of Morocco and the United States of America, led to an agreement for the permanent 24/7 opening of this crossing, which is the only opening of the Palestinians to the world.

The opening of this border crossing, located about 50 km from the capital Amman, will be effective soon, from the moment the logistical conditions are met, especially in terms of human resources.

The opening of this crossing, which is very popular with Palestinians, will have a beneficial impact on the daily lives of Palestinians and will facilitate the movement of people and goods.

This mediation is, once again, an eloquent testimony of the interest of His Majesty the King, Chairman of the Al-Quds Committee, in the Palestinian cause and the well-being of the Palestinians.

The Israeli Minister of Transportation, Merav Michaeli, took the opportunity of the announcement of the opening of the border crossing to thank HM King Mohammed VI, Chairman of the Al-Quds Committee, and the American President, Joe Biden, for their commitment and their continuous efforts for peace and prosperity in the Middle East.
The explosion that claimed the lives of 7 children on the night of 9-10 July in the village of Margba, Togo, was the work of the Togolese military.

According to a statement read out on national television by Lieutenant-Colonel Sama Soussou, spokesperson for the armed forces, the tragedy occurred against a backdrop of intelligence reports of threats of infiltration by armed gangs who wanted to carry out terrorist attacks against certain localities.

Faced with the imminent danger, the command of Operation Koundjoare reinforced the surveillance and the ground and air control of the area.

It was during these operations that an aircraft on night patrol mistakenly targeted a group of people it mistook for a group of moving jihadist columns, the spokesman acknowledged.

The Togolese armed forces express their deep regret at this tragedy and renew their sincere condolences to the grieving families, he added.

A delegation led by the government spokesman, Christian Trimoua, visited the families of the missing in the village of Margba on Thursday.

We must continue to collaborate with the security and defence forces, report to them any unusual and suspicious fact in the area because it is Togo as a whole that is under attack, Mr Trimoua implored.

The Savanes region, bordering Burkina Faso, has been under a state of security emergency since 13 June. A terrorist attack on an outpost of the Togolese armed forces killed 13 soldiers on the night of 10 to 11 May 2022.
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud has announced that soldiers sent to train in Eritrea will return home, after more than a year of controversy over their possible deployment in secret to the war-torn Ethiopian region of Tigray.

The announcement was made by the new head of state, elected on 15 May, during a meeting with relatives of soldiers on Wednesday evening, the day after he returned from an official visit to Eritrea. During this visit, he went to training camps hosting Somali troops.

I went there (to Eritrea) and as you can see from the pictures, I saw the boys. I am a parent, a father with children and a grandfather, so I know the pain of parents when they dont hear from their child, Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud said.

He said his government was working on the safe return of these soldiers, but did not give details on the number or the timetable. He also did not mention their possible involvement in the war in Ethiopia

The issue of Somali soldiers in Eritrea was a source of controversy and tension during the term of his predecessor, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, known as Farmajo.

On several occasions in 2021, families of soldiers demonstrated to demand information on the fate of their military sons of whom they had no news.

There were rumors that hundreds of them had died in the Tigray region, where they had been secretly deployed alongside Eritrean forces supporting the Ethiopian federal army in its fight against the Tigrayan rebels since November 2020.
Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara received on Thursday his two predecessors Laurent Gbagbo and Henri Konan Bedie, a reunion meeting between the three men who had not been reunited since the serious post-election crisis of 2010-2011, a sign of the appeasement of the political climate.

In a warm atmosphere, President Ouattara welcomed Mr Gbagbo and Mr Bedie with whom he spoke for just over an hour.

The meeting today was a reunion to renew contact and exchange in truth on the major issues of the nation, according to a brief joint statement read by Laurent Gbagbo at the end of the meeting. The latter was chosen to read the text in his capacity as the youngest, since at 77, he is younger than Alassane Ouattara (80) and Henri Konan Bedie (88).

The three men also expressed the hope that this meeting would be a catalyst for the decongestion of the national socio-political climate in Cote dIvoire. They did not communicate further on the holding of their exchanges.

The idea of a meeting between the three men was one of the recommendations of the political dialogue between the government and the opposition held earlier this year to calm the political climate in Cote dIvoire. However, Alassane Ouattara hoped that this meeting would become regular.

Each time my predecessors have time to resume these exchanges, I will call on them to collect their opinions and recommendations. It will be a very good thing for the nation to hear, to listen to my predecessors, their knowledge of the country, their experience and obviously also the political weight they represent, he added.

The country has experienced several political crises in recent years involving these three men who have been in the limelight for decades. This was the first time that all three were together since the 2010-2011 crisis.
The Malian authorities have suspended from Thursday all rotations of military and police contingents of the United Nations Mission in Mali (UNMISMA), including those already scheduled or announced, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

This decision applies until the organization of a meeting by the Malian side, the date of which was not communicated, to facilitate the coordination and regulation of the rotation of these contingents, the statement added. The Malian authorities justify their decision by invoking the national security context.

This measure comes four days after the arrest of 49 Ivorian soldiers, mercenaries according to Bamako, which accuses them of having the evil purpose of breaking the dynamics of rebuilding the Malian state.

According to Abidjan, they were deployed in Mali as National Support Elements (NSE), a UN procedure that allows peacekeeping contingents to call on external contractors for logistical support. Bamako assures the UN Mission in Mali that it will work diligently to create the conditions for the lifting of this suspension measure, the statement said.

The mandate of UNMISMA, which has been present in Mali since 2013 with some 13,000 troops, was renewed for a year on 29 June, but with Mali firmly opposing the freedom of movement of peacekeepers for human rights investigations. Mali has seen two military coups in August 2020 and May 2021. The political crisis is coupled with a serious security crisis that has been ongoing since 2012 and the outbreak of independence and jihadist insurgencies in the north.
Following direct mediation by the Kingdom of Morocco, under the leadership of King Mohammed VI, the Israeli authorities have decided to open, without interruption, the Allenby/King Hussein border crossing, linking the West Bank and Jordan.

This mediation, led by the Kingdom of Morocco and the United States of America, led to an agreement for the permanent 24/7 opening of this crossing, which is the only opening for the Palestinians to the world.

The opening of this border crossing, located about 50 km from the capital Amman, will be effective soon, from the moment the logistical conditions are met, especially in terms of human resources.

The opening of this crossing, which is very popular with Palestinians, will have a beneficial impact on the daily lives of Palestinians and will facilitate the movement of people and goods.

This mediation is, once again, an eloquent testimony of the interest of the King, Chairman of the Al-Quds Committee, in the Palestinian cause and the well-being of the Palestinians.

The Israeli Minister of Transportation, Merav Michaeli, took the opportunity of the announcement of the opening of the border crossing to thank King Mohammed VI, Chairman of the Al-Quds Committee, and the American President, Joe Biden, for their commitment and their continuous efforts for peace and prosperity in the Middle East.
Starting Saturday, if you or someone you know is contemplating suicide or having a mental health crisis, you can dial just three numbers988to get help.

Callers will be connected to a trained counselor at a local call center and ultimately routed to potentially lifesaving support services. The three-digit code for the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline replaces the 10-digit number for what was formerly known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

The new three-digit number is easy to remember, free, available 24/7 and confidential, said Thea Gallagher, a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at NYU Langone Health in New York City.

"If 988 becomes just as ubiquitous as 911, we are saying that mental health and physical health are on the same level, and that breaks stigma," she said.

The need for such access and services has never been greater, Gallagher said.

"With the ongoing pandemic, we have seen an increase in depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts and behavior, so we know mental health has never been more negatively impacted," she said.

In 2020, more than 47,000 Americans died by suicide, a 33% increase from 2000, according to The Pew Charitable Trusts.

The new number will also accept texts, and live chat is available, said Dr. May Lau. She is a pediatrician at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the medical director of the Adolescent and Young Adult Clinic at Children's Medical Center Dallas.

Crisis counselors speak multiple languages and are culturally competent at counseling members of the LGBTQ community. There are also resources available for people who are deaf or hearing-impaired, Lau said.

"The text function is only in English for now, but most of the people who feel comfortable texting are younger, and many of them are bilingual," Lau noted.

The new line is not just for people who are contemplating suicide. Counselors are also skilled in discussing self-harm, addiction, domestic violence and other mental health issues. If a caller needs immediate medical attention, 988 will collaborate with local police or hospitals to dispatch services.

"We are trying to help people deal with crises before they become life-threatening," said Anthony Wood, interim CEO and COO of the American Association for Suicidology. The group has been calling for a three-digit suicide hotline for years.

And while a three-digit number is a big step forward, there are still some kinks to work out, Wood said.

For starters, local crisis centers will need more counselors to handle the expected surge in calls, he said.

"Member centers are gearing up for more volume and accountability to their communities, and while funding has been expanded, we are still in a situation where there are not enough dollars to cover the cost for every part of the country," Wood said. "Every state is struggling with how to fund the program."

The existing number, 1-800-273-8255, will still be available after July 16.

Explore further Phone companies must allow texting new '988' suicide line

More information: Learn more about the Learn more about the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline

Copyright  2022 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
By Trend

United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan will fly to France on July 18 for his first official visit outside the region since taking office in May, Trend reports citing Reuters.

Sheikh Mohammed will meet French President Emmanuel Macron and discuss joint action in the fields of "future energy, climate change and advanced technology" and efforts to bolster regional security and stability, the state news agency WAM said.

Paris has close economic and political ties with Abu Dhabi and Macron has forged a good relationship with Sheikh Mohammed, who had already been leading the UAE for years as de facto ruler. France has a permanent military base in the UAE.

The two countries signed a series of major deals last year, including an arms contract worth $19 billion, during a visit by Macron to the Gulf state. French energy giants TotalEnergies and Engie also won billion-euro deals.
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Can a simple phone call reduce the likelihood that a patient will have to return to the emergency room in the days just after being discharged?

That's what Corey Bills, MD, MPH, associate professor of emergency medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, wanted to find out.

Bills, an emergency-room doctor at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital, was starting to see a large number of patients returning to the ERoften due to a hectic discharge processputting unnecessary strain on an already overburdened system.

"In the emergency department, a lot happens in a small amount of time," Bills says. "In general, it's three hours from the time you step foot in the door to when you get discharged or you get admitted to the hospital. We know that there's a lot of uncertainty among patients when they get discharged, because we're trying to discharge them in a quick amount of time after they've been in the ER for three hours."

Add to that the stress, pain, and confusion patients often experience during an ER visit, and it's no wonder they don't always clearly understand their discharge instructionshow to fill and take their prescriptions, which specialist to follow up with, where to schedule their next appointment.

How the callback program helps

In research published in May in JAMA Network Open, Bills and Scott Fruhan, MD, of the University of California San Francisco, tested the effectiveness of a callback program on preventing return visits to the emergency room. In the nonrandomized clinical trial, nearly 4,000 patients were given an automated telephone call two days after being discharged from the ER, with the option of requesting a second call from a clinician to answer questions about their care plan.

"We are essentially shift workers in the emergency department," Bills says. "My name is on the discharge paperwork, but a patient really can't message me. Whatever happens in that short amount of time is isolated as it relates to my interaction with that patient. The automated call was a way to continue the patient relationship after they get discharged from the ER, making sure the transition to the next stage of care is better, and hopefully improving the rates of patients coming back to the ER."

To Bills' surprise, 43% of the people who received the automated call requested another call back, indicating that the discharge process was not always giving patients everything they needed.

"We expected most people to say, 'Yeah, I got it. I went to the ER, you guys treated me, I got my discharge paperwork,'" Bills says. "But 43% wanted a call back, and of that 43%, about half of them actually needed a specific intervention, whether that was making an appointment, confirming an appointment, or rewriting a prescription for a medication that someone neglected or overlooked on their discharge paperwork."

Positive results lead to next steps

The study found that patients who received an automated call two days after being discharged from the ER were significantly less likely to return to the ER than those who did not receive a call. The program was especially effective among populations that are typically higher users of the ER, including homeless and low-income populations, people with substance abuse issues, and people with psychiatric illness.

The next step in the research, Bills says, is figuring out how to pay for an effective callback system that currently has no cost to the patient and enhancing the discharge process especially for patients at high risk of ER return.

"The next step is to try to understand how can we intervene on the patients that really need additional assistance in terms of transitioning their care outside of the ER," he says. "As opposed to getting a call two days later, maybe we take 10 more minutes before they actually get discharged from the ER to totally reaffirm what those next steps should be. I think that's the next intervention."

More information: Scott Fruhan et al, Association of a Callback Program With Emergency Department Revisit Rates Among Patients Seeking Emergency Care, JAMA Network Open (2022). Journal information: JAMA Network Open Scott Fruhan et al, Association of a Callback Program With Emergency Department Revisit Rates Among Patients Seeking Emergency Care,(2022). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.13154
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Most children in the United States diagnosed with obesity do not receive recommended laboratory tests for co-occurring conditions such as diabetes and liver disease, a new Yale study finds. Many also receive potentially unnecessary tests, and both can be harmful to patients, the researchers say.

The study was published July 14 in JAMA Network Open.

In 2007, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a set of recommendations for how to assess the health of older children with obesity. Those guidelines urge clinicians to screen these children for diabetes, liver disease, and lipid disorders every two years; routine insulin testing and screening for thyroid dysfunction are not recommended.

For the new study, researchers analyzed two databases of insurance claims submitted between 2018 and 2019, finding that just over a quarter of children received the recommended tests while a similar proportion received unnecessary tests.

"This signals to us that while screening recommendations are out there, they're not really being implemented into practice," said Dr. Mona Sharifi, an associate professor of pediatrics and public health and lead author of the study. Her co-author Kao-Ping Chua, an assistant professor of pediatrics at University of Michigan Medical School, notes, "This is a major problem because near 1 in 5 U.S. children have obesity and early detection of obesity-related conditions can make a huge difference for children during the course of their lives."

When children are undertested, co-occurring conditions can be missed, delaying interventions that may improve outcomes, the researchers say.

Overtesting can also subject patients to unnecessary harm, Sharifi said. These tests can cause patients and their families to worry about a condition that they do not actually have. And false positives can lead to additional visits, testing, and concerns that aren't warranted.

"The other downsidethe added costaffects the population and health system level," she added.

Sharifi and her colleagues also found that the patients who received the recommended tests were often subjected to overly broad panels that included multiple unnecessary tests. This, they say, can also lead to false positives.

"With these really broad panels, there's a higher probability that a false result will scare a family or lead you down a pathway of additional testing," said Sharifi.

She and her co-authors offer suggestions for mitigating the problem. Adding alerts into electronic health records (EHRs), for instance, could prompt clinicians to order tests for patients who need them. And having an order set in EHRs that defaults to the correct types of tests could decrease use of overly broad screening panels.

In addition, testing guidelines need to be clear in both language and reasoning to encourage adoption.

"Guideline writers need to be very clear in offering specific, actionable, and directive guidelines that can be implemented into routine practice," said Sharifi. "You can't just throw guidelines out into the world, either. You also need to supplement them with other tools and strategies to support implementation."

Sharifi is part of the American Academy of Pediatrics subcommittee working on updating the organization's guidelines around recommended screening for children diagnosed with obesity. The revised recommendations are expected to publish later in 2022.

Explore further New guidelines for pancreatic cancer screening

More information: Mona Sharifi et al, Assessment of Underuse and Overuse of Screening Tests for Co-occurring Conditions Among Children With Obesity, JAMA Network Open (2022). Journal information: JAMA Network Open Mona Sharifi et al, Assessment of Underuse and Overuse of Screening Tests for Co-occurring Conditions Among Children With Obesity,(2022). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.22101
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Back in mid 2020, it was suggested mask use was similar to seat belt wearing in cars. Not everyone wore a seat belt start straight away, but now it's unheard of to get into a car and not put it on.

In reality, it took seven years for seat belt compliance to reach 90%.

Now we are about 900 days into the pandemic, we are certainly not seeing 90% of people wearing masks. In my local area, it is probably more like one in ten people wearing a mask in the local shops. And others on social media report low compliance on public transport.

So is the answer to reintroduce rules for mask use in certain settings or a more general mandate around their use?

Listening to advice

Already Victoria's Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas has dismissed recommendations from the state's chief health officer to mandate mask wearing in retail and early education settings in response to rising case numbers. (People are still required to wear masks in some Victorian settings including public transport, aircraft, courts, prison, if they have COVID or are a close contact.)

Mandates were not the most effective way of getting the message out about the importance of mask wearing, the minister said. The government instead wants to focus on empowering Victorians to make their own choice.

Doctors are not happy. Australian Medical Association of Victoria president, Roderick McRae said it was "very disappointing" the health minister had ignored recommendations to mandate masks in schools, child care, retail and hospitality.

Visiting Melbourne last weekI est. about 30% of us wearing a mask on city trams I traveledgreat article from @samanthamaiden which states:

"In Victoria, masks are still mandated on public transport and Ubers, hospitals and aged care facilities." https://t.co/ofOw4uAIEU  Wayne Neilson (@WayneNeilson2) July 12, 2022

How does mask compliance track with and without a mandate?

One study tracked mask use based on newspaper photos published in Victoria during one month in mid-2020. It found prior to the mandatory mask policy announcement, 43% of the people in the photos were wearing masks.

During the period when the mask policy had been announced but not formally enacted, 74% were wearing masks. Lastly, during the period when mask wearing was mandatory, 98% were wearing masks.

Obviously, there are limitations to this work. Only a small number of photos were reviewed and the photographers may have been purposely taking photos of people who were not complying (prior to policy introduction) or were following the rules (once the policy was in place).

However, the study authors also surveyed the community and found a rapid change in self-reported mask wearing, from just over 40% of participants reporting always or often wearing a mask on July 20, to 100% reporting always wearing a mask on 26 July.

Based on case numbers, the authors concluded masks were effective at reducing transmission and though they were "somewhat inconvenient" for the individual, they were "less likely to have unintended negative impacts on the broader community than policies restricting movement, social engagement and the operations of business, schools and childcare."

Will empowerment promote mask use?

Probably not. Community empowerment refers to the process of enabling communities to increase control over their lives. But that doesn't mean everyone will feel empowered to do the safest thing.

"Empowerment" refers to the process by which people gain control over the factors and decisions that shape their lives. It can prompt innovation in health messaging and engagement.

In times of uncertainty, such as a pandemic which doesn't yet appear to be nearing its end and new subvariants emerging, the simple act of not wearing a mask may give people a feeling of control over an unfamiliar situation.

What about a nudge in the right direction?

Early in the pandemic, it was suggested that promoting social norms (the values within the community) such as the widespread use of masks (through strategic communication and community engagement) could be just as effective as enforcement.

Some suggested strategies included sharing evidence of widespread adherence and encouraging news stories about positive trends in mask-wearing. Research from Sao Paulo showed individuals who received a text message referring to COVID restrictions as a "civic duty" were over 12% more likely to report keeping an appropriate distance from others and 3% more likely always to wear masks.

Successful use of messages to increase mask-wearing intentions were also reported in another study, when individuals were encouraged to "rely on their reasoning" instead of "relying on their emotions" to make the decision.

A United States study from 2021 showed exposure to a message about mask use from the president or the Centers for Disease Control increased the stated likelihood of wearing a mask, particularly among then President Trump's supporters.

Lastly, they found if a person tested negative, they were more likely to support mask use. Testing positive to COVID had no affect on mask support and in some cases reduced support.

This far into the pandemic though, role modeling by leaders, highlighting the benefits masks can have on reducing risk and the possible knock-on financial gains might not have the same nudging effects.

Misunderstandings around masks and vaccines

Waning immunity from vaccines and the emergence of new variants, only increases the value of wearing face masks. However, the current low levels of mask use suggest many members of the public still believe using masks in certain situations is unnecessary.

A study of people surveyed in mid 2021 showed many thought widespread COVID vaccination would ease the burden of wearing masks. But the risk of reinfection means that's not necessarily the case.

Health experts and government officials need to continuously communicate with people to explain how effective face masks are at preventing infection, even after getting vaccinated. Decreasing individuals' uncertainty about the role of masks and vaccines could improve their judgment.

It is important we continue to draw on the learnings so far and the behavioral nudges that have been shown to have an impact on mask use. However we also need to be realistic given the point we are in the pandemic. These nudges may not be enough and if there are any other shifts in severe COVID cases due to new variants, it is important to prime the community that mandates may be needed again.

In the words of Batman, a caped and masked crusader since 1939: "I wear a mask. And that mask, it's not to hide who I am, but to create what I am."

Explore further Is there still a benefit to masking?

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Memory loss is a common symptom after a stroke, but there's hope for some that those memories could return.

A new study from Norway examined 86 patients with relatively mild strokes and found many had improved mental functioning after 12 weeks.

"Our study shows that around half of patients suffering a stroke had various forms of memory impairment one week after the stroke. But by three months after the stroke, about one-third of those with memory impairment had improved memory function," said Dr. Ramune Grambaite. She is a psychologist and head of the Neuropsychological Outpatient Clinic at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

Nearly 800,000 Americans suffer a stroke each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While more stroke patients survive now than they did in the past, stroke remains a serious and potentially deadly condition. Survivors may experience anxiety, depression and fatigue afterwards, in addition to memory loss and a reduced ability to learn.

Dr. Bente Thommessen, chief physician at Akershus University Hospital, said the proportion of patients seen with mild strokes has increased in recent years. "But the consequences in terms of concentration problems, reduced stamina and changes in memory function are common even in patients with mild strokes," Thommessen said in an NTNU news release.

The study was published July 12 in the journal Nevropsykologi (Neuropsychology).

"Memory improvement is common after a stroke, but there are large individual differences," Grambaite said. "Some stroke survivors continue to experience memory impairment and need to learn to live with it."

The researchers noted that good follow-up and support from friends and family is important in the recovery process.

Explore further Memory often returns following a stroke

More information: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlines the The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlines the key signs of stroke

Copyright  2022 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Budtenders do more than just stand behind a counter and ring up cannabis sales.

The great ones are well-educated on the cannabis culture and understand the hottest strains, cross breeding, genetics and other characteristics that set each one apart from the other, says Chris Fanuzzi, owner of Lionheart Cannabis, Montanas leading medical and recreational cannabis provider.

He adds that budtenders are extremely knowledgeable about all the different ways to ingest cannabis, as well as the various delivery methods, including the assorted tools and accessories that can be used. This can include everything from electronic smoking devices and oil infusers to traditional water pipes and rolling papers.

Fanuzzi explains that good budtenders can help define what a customer might be looking for just by being a great listener.

A good budtender must be really honest with customers about not just what they think is the best strain, options and value for them, but also be someone who is a good listener, Fanuzzi says. Its probably one of their greatest attributes.

Allowing customers to sort through, see, and smell different varieties is an important part of the shopping and purchasing experience, he says. And having a knowledgeable budtender guide a customer through this part of the process is critical.

Lionheart offers customers multiple purchasing experiences: deli-style, pre-packs, express pick-up, curbside and online  all coordinated by the budtender.

Deli-style allows the customer to peruse the various products, open a jar, and smell the contents. Budtenders can direct customers to strains that work best for them.

For deli-style products, budtenders must be astute in checking the jars of buds to ensure there is no shake, as in smaller pieces of buds breaking off and littering the bottom of the jar. In those instances where this has occurred, the budtender will remove the smaller pieces, repackage and sell for a lower price.

Prepackaged cannabis is just that: clean product that is sealed and ready to buy.

Founded in 2007, Lionheart is renowned for its focus on quality, top-of-the-line products, service consistency, compassionate patient care and educational awareness among clients.

The companys budtenders undergo rigorous internal training that emphasizes product education, pricing, specific cannabis batch characteristics, proper dosage and quality control, as well as best practices in customer service.

Budtenders are monitored daily to ensure theyre providing the best customer service using advanced software that includes text messages sent to customers, where they can rate their favorite budtenders.

Fanuzzi says Lionheart budtenders must stay up-to-date on the legal intricacies associated with state and federal cannabis requirements. This includes verifying IDs, complying with the different rules on sales to recreational users versus medical patients, and ensuring that every sale rung up matches the state tracking regulations for each product, among many other things. In addition, all budtenders must have a Montana state employee badge, which must be worn at all times while working.

A lot more goes into budtending than meets the eye, Fanuzzi says. Additional training focuses on how the cannabis products are packaged, presented and even displayed on the shelves. Product placement, as well as the quality of the product on the shelves, is paramount to good customer service.

Thirty of Lionhearts more than 75 employees are budtenders and, once in the system, Fanuzzi says many of them move into management at the local and regional levels. Even though hes at the head of the company, Fanuzzi himself still enjoys serving as a budtender during visits to each of the companys dispensaries located throughout the state.

To learn more about Lionheart Cannabis, visit lionheartcannabis.com.

Information provided is for educational and informational purposes only and does not supersede any medical advice given by a physician. Cannabis is still considered a schedule 1 controlled substance and is illegal under federal law. Adults who consume cannabis must keep cannabis products away from animals and out of reach of children. Note that the intoxicating effects of cannabis can sometimes be delayed, so do not operate a vehicle or machinery after consumption. Use of cannabis during pregnancy or while breastfeeding may be harmful. By purchasing cannabis from a dispensary, you are assuming the risk of any damage or loss that occurs during its use.

This content was produced by Brand Ave. Studios. The news and editorial departments had no role in its creation or display. Brand Ave. Studios connects advertisers with a targeted audience through compelling content programs, from concept to production and distribution. For more information contact sales@brandavestudios.com.
Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes has long understood that some degree of influence in music should be encouraged; thats how art evolves. But the concept of genre still baffles the lead vocalist and lyricist of the passionate indie rockers. Indeed, the group has made an art form of eluding labels while bringing their own distinct brand of baroque harmonic pop, as it has been commonly referred, all the time conveying homage to nostalgic acts such as The Beach Boys.

Usually, I say that we play folk-rock and thats close enough, said Pecknold. There is so much amazing music in every genre and it could be pointless to even think in genre terms sometimes. Someone once said that our music was very complicated folk-rock  and I like that.

Since 2005, Pecknold has been pushing the character arc of individuality, with the choral-like vocals, reflective lyrics, and deep-in-thought arrangements borrowed heavily from the past. It is easy to perceive these influences in Fleet Foxes' down-to-earth tendencies, plucking, acoustic guitars and green, idyllic imagery. From the start, Pecknold has tried to stick with a certain respect for the fact that the music he was making would reflect his inexplicable self-motivations and occasional self-deprecations.

I have a complicated relationship with confidence, Pecknold said. I have been deeply insecure at times with certain material and then made stuff that people ended up really loving. There was an energy and fuel in that insecurity to make something great, and making it was such a tenuous feeling. Thinking it is the worst, and its well-received. We made a record Crack-Up, the least successful of the four and I was fully confident in it, and I knew exactly what it was and why it was the way it was.

Hailing from Kirkland, Washington, Fleet Foxes formed when Pecknold met Skyler Skjelset in Lake Washington High School, and within a year they released their first EP, an eponymously titled six-track number which captured the attention of local music fans and critics. After that, they began work on their first album (Daytrotter Session) which was recorded in a funky assortment of basements, apartments, and addresses throughout the Seattle area and released in the summer of 2008.

It was a great time to be growing up in Kirkland, said Pecknold. It was close to Bellevue, sleepy, pre-Google, pre-Seattle tech boom. There was an outdoor mall with a teen center and coffee shop, with open mics. At 15, I was writing songs during the day in the summertime and singing songs at the outdoor mall. At the Redmond Old Fire House Teen Center, I played one or two songs as a teenager. I tried to go back to the outdoor mall and now its a Google campus.

Pecknold said that he grew up listening to the music of his parents, who repeatedly played just about every lasting 60s band you would expect to find in the record anthologies of baby boomers: The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, The Band, The Zombies, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Crosby, Stills and Nash. The type of material that is now commonly referred to as roots music, tightly crafted, radio-friendly tunes with brilliant attention given to melody and harmony. Pecknold was especially touched by the power of people singing harmony and singing with indulgence.

Nevertheless, despite being indulged in '70s rock, Pecknolds strongest initial impression of the power and sway of song, and the very first time he was held captive to such forces, happened when he was exposed to the thematically transformative Kurt Cobain.

Nirvanas Unplugged performance came out when I was about 6 or 7 years old, said Pecknold. Growing up in Seattle, I was surrounded by music at an early age. My dad was a musician and there were instruments lying around the house. But Nirvana showed the power of the song underneath the arrangement. How well the songs could withstand an acoustic treatment, the same way they could the big, boisterous rock treatment, and that was a revelation. The songs still retain all of their power, and his (Cobains) vocal power. At the time, it was a much different kind of beauty. Nirvana was my earliest fixation.

In this, Pecknold set out to forge a life in art and consequently Seattles musical legacy has gotten another healthy dose of sunshine. Writing and publishing and sharing music takes more than desire, though, it takes true grit. False starts and dead ends are routine. Robin learned that early, too.

Making something and then judging it in the process of making it, those are two different things. You get it wrong sometimes. A lot of times, there is something lying around, you think it has no potential, and you turn it into something that a lot of people like. The song 'Mykonos' is that way. Few rounds of revision and its turned into something special. Im a slow writer. The special thing is when I have a sense that something I am working on has a life of its own, and Im a spectator. When I get the idea that I need to do it, like I need to get a new pair of shoes, or an oil change, its one of those things looming in the background in the future. When its sticking or occupying a background need or curiosity. Thats the stuff I have the most energy to keep working on.

At 36, Pecknold is a generational product of the humongous influence of social media on music, art, marketing and consumption.

There is an aspect of exhaustion and of the constant promotion of projects, but social media is a great way to connect with people who you admire, or who you havent met, or meet those who want to work with you. For the album 'Shore,' we started working with Tim Bernardes (a Brazilian musician, composer, music producer and multi-instrumentalist) and (a Nigerian-born Oxford student) Uwade Akhere, both connections made on Instagram first. So, its Instagram first, then musical collaboration, and now they are both on tour with us. It could go from seeing the people who you admire and then taking it into reality.

When examining the trajectory of the Grammy-nominated band, it is simple to see which parts of the bands formula are the most successful: full, roomy organs, laid-back acoustic guitars, tidy guitar picking, and the supportive backbone of drumming. It is the perfection of a sound thats at once both original and resumption, dissimilar and familiar. Robin attributes much of the credit to his older brother Sean Pecknold, an animator and music video director, who he refers to as his idol when he was growing up.

Everything he did, I did, too, said Pecknold. I was five years younger than him, so he was definitely my hero and I was always doing what he did. I was a teenager and he went off to college. I needed to figure out my own thing in his absence, and thats when I got into making music. I was in Seattle in my early 20s and we lived in the same neighborhood, and we bonded over music. He has been generously devoted to our weird music video projects, stage projections, always been helpful and supportive and I try to reciprocate that as well.

On Sept. 22, 2020, Fleet Foxes released studio album number four titled Shore, an airy, age- and time-defying mix of folk, choral and rock, and since then Pecknold said that he is still trying to fully comprehend the material and also determine just where the next project will lead him.

Honestly, Ive been stuck creatively since 'Shore' came out, said Pecknold. We didnt tour in 2021 and I think that I havent done much writing since, because we havent played many shows, and I havent been able to feel how people are responding to what we are putting out there. Even after two weeks of touring, Im getting a different context of what to put out next.

As far as the live outing, Pecknold said that some shows are respectable, and some are superior, but that a few of them go far and above the range of normal or merely dutiful transaction. When this happens most of the contributing variables are outside of the acts control.

We try to put on the same show, with the same level of skill, energy, and the same fealties of the recording. But then there is a gradation of other variables there. Sometimes it is the location. Or its a crowd that is having a lot of fun, thats vocal, thats interactive, or where there is a back and forth and camaraderie with the audience.

Thinking ahead to such a moment that could surpass the ordinary, Pecknold said that he is especially charged by the prospect of singing the geography-specific Going-to-the-Sun Road in front of a merry Montana crowd.

Im excited to play that song close enough to the real place.
THURSDAY, July, 14, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- As monkeypox cases continue to climb worldwide, demands for vaccines to combat the virus are crashing the vaccine appointment system in New York City.

The city of more than 8 million people has been running out of supplies almost as soon as they arrive, the Associated Press reported. City health officials acknowledged the frustration over the limited vaccine supply and said they would create a more "stable appointment infrastructure" as vaccine supply increases.

Shortages and snags in vaccine availability are not just a problem in the nation's largest city. In Baltimore, Jeff Waters asked his doctor to be vaccinated before he left for a trip to Europe, where cases have been rising. "They said 'Sorry, we just don't have them here,'" Waters told the AP. Weeks later Waters developed what he described as a "mild case" of the disease, which nonetheless involved intense headaches, chills, and a high fever.

Infections from monkeypox have now passed 1,000 cases in the United States. Symptoms typically include fever, body aches, chills, and fatigue. People who suffer from a more severe case may also develop a rash and lesions on the face and hands that may spread to other parts of the body, including the genitals.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said commercial laboratories are developing tests for the virus, including the Mayo Clinic in Minneapolis, which will be accepting samples from around the country for testing purposes as early as this week. "This will not only increase testing capacity, but also make it more convenient for providers and patients to access tests by using existing provider-to-laboratory networks," Rochelle Walensky, M.D., director of the CDC, said in a statement released earlier this week.

To date, New York City has administered nearly 7,000 vaccinations, with thousands more waiting in the wings to get their inoculation, the AP said. By Wednesday, 336 people in the city had tested positive for orthopoxvirus, a category that also includes smallpox. That is a fourth more than the day before, per city data. Officials noted they believe all these new cases of orthopoxvirus to be monkeypox and said there are likely many more undiagnosed cases.
THURSDAY, July 14, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Big Olaf Creamery said Wednesday that it is recalling all flavors and all lots of Big Olaf brand ice cream products because they have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

While healthy individuals may only suffer short-term symptoms after infection -- including high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain, and diarrhea -- Listeria can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women, the company said in a statement posted on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration website.

The products were sold at Big Olaf retailers in Florida as well as to consumers in restaurants and senior homes and one location in Fredericksburg, Ohio, the company said. All flavors, lots, codes, and expiration dates through June 30 are included in the recall.

"Based on epidemiological information shared by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state officials, Big Olaf may be a potential source of illness in an ongoing Listeria monocytogenes outbreak," the company stated.

One person has died in the outbreak involving 10 states, while 22 have been hospitalized. Eighteen people reported eating ice cream, with 10 of those reporting eating Big Olaf Creamery brand ice cream or eating at locations that might have been supplied by the Florida company.

"This is an ongoing investigation and other ice cream brands not related to Big Olaf were mentioned as a possible source as well," the company noted. The statement added that the company has been cooperating with state and federal health officials since it was informed about the situation.
FRIDAY, July 15, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Despite now having more choices for lifesaving emergency allergy injectors like EpiPens, the cost is still proving prohibitively expensive for some, new research shows.

Even though most people are saving money with lower-priced alternatives after the cost of EpiPens shot up a few years ago, a significant minority of users -- people with high deductibles on their health insurance -- are still paying too much.

"Our findings suggest that the availability of lower-priced competitors did not solve the affordability problem for all patients who use epinephrine auto-injectors, particularly those covered by plans that require deductible and co-insurance payments for drugs," said lead study author Dr. Kao-Ping Chua. He's a pediatrician and health policy researcher at Michigan Medicine/University of Michigan.

The study examined 2015-2019 data from more than 657,000 children and adults through the IBM MarketScan Commercial Database, which houses claims data from 28 million Americans with employer-sponsored insurance.

The researchers' previous work on this topic, published in 2017, analyzed the amount that privately insured Americans paid every year for the EpiPen between 2007 and 2014. During this period, EpiPens were the only major epinephrine auto-injector available on the market. Not surprisingly, the study authors found out-of-pocket spending for the EpiPen doubled during that period, largely because the product's list price tripled.

But the new study focused on data from when new competitors to EpiPens were being introduced. Between 2015 and 2019, lower-priced generics such as Adrenaclick and Teva came to the market.

The authors found that the mean annual out-of-pocket spending for the auto-injectors peaked in 2016 at $116, but began to decrease when patients shifted to the less-expensive competitors. By 2019, annual out-of-pocket spending fell to $76, and 60% of patients paid $20 or less for the auto-injectors.

But even at the tail end of those years, 1 in 13 patients still paid more than $200 for the medicine. Among those patients, 62.5% were enrolled in high-deductible health care plans. These popular plans cover roughly 30% of privately insured Americans.

More than 63% of the patients paying over $200 each year were children, which researchers believe might be due to the fact that children typically need double the amount of medication than adults, as they need them both at home and at school.

Our study shows patients can still pay a lot even if they use lower-priced epinephrine auto-injectors. To improve affordability for these patients, insurers could consider capping the out-of-pocket cost of non-branded auto-injectors," Chua said in a university news release. "Alternatively, the federal government could consider a federal cap similar to the one currently being discussed for insulin."

The findings were published July 11 in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

More information

Visit the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for more on allergy relief for children.

SOURCE: University of Michigan, news release, July 12, 2022

Was this page helpful?
About 20 children sat scattered along tree limbs and picnic tables in the shade at the Moon-Randolph Homestead considering what it might have been like to live on the property years ago or way in the future.

Earlier in the afternoon they explored the original homestead and all of its original buildings and even got to meet some pigs and goats while looking for details to incorporate into their writing exercise.

I think Im going to write about the past, said Will Grob, who will be a fifth grader this coming school year. Im really interested in history, so that should be fun to write about.

Grob has enjoyed his time so far with the Missoula Writing Collaboratives Words with Wings summer program that allows children to write poetry and explore unique areas of the community.

As a young writer, Grob enjoys the creativity of poetry and creating his own world.

Ive never done this camp before, Grob said. "But I think its really fun and definitely worth it.

The students also have opportunities to read their poetry aloud publicly. On Thursday morning, many students took turns at the microphone to recite their work for Montana Public Radios childrens show Pea Green Boat, which is expected to air in August. They will also do public readings on July 15 and July 22 at noon at the University of Montanas Prescott Pavilion.

Students entering grades 3-8 are eligible to participate in the Words with Wings camp. The Missoula Writing Collaborative hosts two weeklong sessions of the camp and offers morning-only sessions as well.

In the mornings, the campers spend a majority of their time writing poetry. Students that participate in the camp all day spend their afternoons doing different field trips around town, including to the insectarium, the Montana Museum of Art and Culture and Animal Wonders.

This is the 16th year of the Words with Wings camp and it is among the collaboratives largest cohort of students yet, according to executive director Caroline Patterson.

Its really fun to be with kids who are excited about language and reading, said April Cypher, with the Missoula Writing Collaborative, who has been leading the students this week. Its just a fun time to get together and have the chance to write with other writers who are really excited about it.

The Missoula Writing Collaborative also has a camp dedicated to high school students. The Rattlesnake Writing Workshop is an afternoon camp held July 18-22. Students write and revise their works of poetry and fiction with writer Nicole Gomez.
By Trend

The U.S. believes that I2U2, a group comprising India, Israel, the U.S., and the UAE, can become a feature of the West Asian region, just like the Quad is for the Indo-Pacific.

This idea was articulated by U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on board Air Force One, en route to Israel with U.S. President Joe Biden.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to meet virtually with Mr. Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Thursday.

And we think I2U2 can become a feature of the broader region, just as the Quad has become a central pillar of the Indo-Pacific strategy of the United States, Mr. Sullivan told the travelling press as per a transcript released by the White House, Trend reports citing The Hindu.

His remarks were made in response to a question on what the objective was in bringing India into so many issues such as the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, the Quad and I2U2.

I2U2, which was launched last autumn, has been called the West Asian Quad by some commentators.

Mr. Sullivan said India was one of the most strategically consequential countries in the Indo-Pacific and therefore should play a central role in U.S. strategy. India also had a long-standing relationship with the Gulf countries and Israel, he said, adding that the U.S. was looking forward to Mr. Modis participation in the I2U2 summit.

India and the West Asian countries in I2U2 could come together and work on agricultural technology, an example of Mr. Bidens vision for West Asia, according to Mr. Sullivan.

He said Mr. Biden had a vision for a globally integrated West Asian region, one that is not just focused on issues that have been top of mind for American foreign policymakers over the last 20 years - terrorism and wars.

Mr. Sullivan said there would be a significant announcement around food security and agricultural technology from the I2U2 meeting, as this was an area where there was a current crisis that the four countries could come together to address.

With regard to price caps for Russian oil, the U.S. is engaging not just with the EU and the U.K. but also key consuming countries and others, including India and China, Mr. Sullivan said.

The U.S. was being transparent, direct, and straightforward with the major consuming countries about reducing Russian revenues while minimising economic disruptions globally, in the countries concerned, and the U.S., Mr. Sullivan said.
While no cases of monkeypox have been reported in Montana amid a recent outbreak, county health officials are urging people to recognize the signs of the virus as community spread has been confirmed across multiple states.

The virus began spreading in parts of the world where it is not normally reported with cases initially popping up in parts of Europe in May 2022. There have been 11,466 cases of monkeypox globally in locations where the virus is not common, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from June 21.

In the United States, nearly 1,470 cases of monkeypox have been reported across 42 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, the CDC reported on Thursday. Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming, Alaska, Mississippi, Alabama, Maine and Vermont have not reported any cases.

Unfortunately, it is likely only a matter of time before monkeypox makes its way to Montana, said Cindy Farr, the health promotion director for the Missoula City-County Health Department. Thankfully, the strain of monkeypox currently circulating in the United States appears to be mild and there have been no deaths reported nationwide.

Monkeypox is a rare disease caused by infection of the virus, which is the same family of viruses as smallpox. While the symptoms of monkeypox are similar to smallpox, it is rarely fatal and most infections are considered minor.

Early signs of the illness include fever, malaise, headache, swollen lymph nodes and occasionally a cough or sore throat. A pimple-like rash can also form on a person's face, inside their mouth, or on other parts of their body such as hands, feet, chest or genitals, which eventually form scabs.

The rash goes through various stages before healing completely and illness associated with monkeypox usually lasts from two to four weeks.

Monkeypox spreads by close contact with an infected person by touching monkeypox lesions, encountering respiratory droplets, or by touching bedding, towels or other materials contaminated by the virus.

To prevent the spread of monkeypox, the county health department recommends that those infected or exposed to the virus avoid skin-to-skin contact and avoid touching shared fabrics.

Recognizing the signs of this virus remains important as it could easily be confused for other diseases, Farr said. Properly identifying and isolating anyone with monkeypox quickly will help us stop community spread.

People who test positive for monkeypox are encouraged to isolate at home until all of their rash lesions have resolved, the scabs have fallen off and a new layer of skin has formed. Close contacts should monitor their health for 21 days after their exposure by taking their temperature and looking for other possible symptoms.

Nationally, monkeypox infections are most commonly reported in men who have sex with other men. Monkeypox is not a sexually transmitted disease.

Anyone can get monkeypox. There should be no stigma attached to the LGBTQ community because of this. If anyone has any symptoms of monkeypox they should not hesitate to reach out to their provider immediately, Farr said. Having said that, we will work with community partners to educate and support vulnerable populations.

There are no specific treatments available for infection at this time, however vaccines exist  but theyre difficult to come by.

The two vaccines currently available are only available in limited supply and the federal government is making efforts to procure more for wider distribution. In larger U.S. cities with high numbers of cases, the vaccines are limited to close contacts in most cases.

Because of the limited supply of monkeypox vaccines, it is unlikely a community the size of Missoula would be given any vaccine doses for several months, even if cases were reported in the area, the county health department said.
The Junior Police Leadership Academy is not your average summer camp.

The annual JPLA is taking place at the Montana Law Enforcement Academy in Helena from July 10-16. Around 20 candidates were selected for this year's program.

On Sunday, they show up and theyve never met each other before. Theyre timid and closed off. About halfway through Monday and Tuesday, it is like watching a caterpillar turn into a butterfly, said Detective Noal Petty with the Helena Police Department, who has been a part of JPLA for 13 years.

The number of cadets has seen a drop after taking a year off due to COVID-19.

We had slots for about 40 this year and only got about half that, so wed like to try and get our numbers back up after COVID, said Sean Schoenfelder, a detective with the Helena Police Department who attended JPLA in 2012.

The cadets are separated into three squads early on in the program. Each squad sergeant is elected by their squad.

Together, the class elects a class chief. This year, Justice Brooks of Billings, a second-year cadet, was elected.

I kind of come from a crappy background.  My biological parents were involved in things that werent the best. I see that and thats not the road I want to go down. That is not the future I want because it always ends up bad, said Brooks.

Brooks noted her focus on the collective unit, growth and her experience as a second-year cadet as reasons fellow JPLA cadets selected her as chief.

I try not to say I a lot. We had to make a speech to be elected, and I talked about how I want to grow with everyone else, together. I dont want to be that one person who has all of the spotlight," she said.

Although much of JPLA is done on the law enforcement campus, the program also integrates into the Helena community.

On Monday, JPLA spent time doing physical activities at Stonetree Climbing Center and taking in nature hiking on Mount Helena.

Tuesday was a highlight day for many cadets and instructors with a career fair and three driving courses out at Rocky Mountain Emergency Services Training Center. Every orange traffic cone on a course represents a person, and if a cadet hits one, its five push-ups.

One of the courses was a pursuit driving course, where the instructors took cadets for a simulated high-speed chase.

So far (Tuesday) has been my favorite. My grandpa has told me stories about when he was a highway patrolman and high speed chases, said Mattiah Murillo, a recent high school graduate from Great Falls who will be attending MSU-Northern in the fall to study criminal justice. I went (on the pursuit driving course) 11 times. I feel a bit sick to my stomach.

Wednesday, JPLA went back to nature, rappelling at Sheep Mountain by Clancy. To wrap up the day, Leo McCarthy of Butte and Mariahs Challenge came to speak to JPLA about underage drinking and drinking and driving.

McCarthy lost his 14-year-old daughter, Mariah, in 2008 when she was walking home with some friends. They were hit by a drunken driver who fled the scene. Since then, it has been McCarthys mission to spread awareness through talks, scholarships, and challenging people to take Mariahs Challenge by not drinking until they are of legal age and never drinking and driving.

Thursday looked a bit different this year for JPLA. In the past, the cadets did crime scene investigation. This year, they underwent active shooter training and learned about internet safety.

Friday, JPLA cadets are going through tactical operations, various law enforcement scenarios, and the Montana Physical Abilities Test (MPAT). The MPAT is a hybrid physical ability assessment obstacle course that must be completed within a time frame of 6 minutes and 30 seconds. It includes tasks like climbing, carrying, running, vaulting, and lifting, etc.

When Friday's events are successfully completed, the cadets are set to graduate from JPLA on Saturday.

I found out about the program from three different people, said Justiz Daricek, a 16-year-old first-year cadet from Corvallis. I found out from my uncle whos a Missoula County Sheriffs Deputy, my school resource officer, and the sheriff of my county.

This weeklong program sponsored by the Montana Association of Chiefs of Police is free. Candidates must be high school students or recent graduates interested in a career in law enforcement or simply see themselves as a leader of their community.

Cara Guderian, a detective with the special victims unit for the Great Falls Police Department, attended JPLA as a cadet for two years and as an intern and instructor for seven years.

By the end of this program, (the cadets) are family. Theyre laughing, sometimes crying together. Theyre building relationships and growing, Guderian said.

Candidates submit a completed application and an essay expressing why you are interested in the criminal justice profession and why you should be selected, according to the Montana Association of Chiefs of Police website. A possible cadet also needs the supporting signature of their local chief of police or sheriff. To enter for next years JPLA, go to https://macop.com/jpla.

I love (JPLA). Like I tell parents when they drop their kids off, being out here this week reminds me why I do my job, said Petty. You get to see the good and see the kids grow. Its a remarkable week.
The event, co-hosted by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, will also celebrate Reclamations 120th Anniversary.

Reclamations Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton, USACEs Northwestern Division Commander, Colonel Geoff Van Epps, and the USACE Omaha District Commander, Colonel Mark Himes, will attend the ceremony to commemorate Reclamations 120 years of history and the success of the three-year, $44 million construction project. The intergovernmental work will help improve passage for the endangered pallid sturgeon and continuing irrigation diversions to the Lower Yellowstone Project.

Construction on the channel started in April 2019 and was recently completed with the removal of the cofferdams on April 9. The 2.1-mile-long channel was constructed as part of the Lower Yellowstone Intake Diversion Dam Fish Passage Project that was designed to address fish passage concerns associated with the Intake Diversion Dam.

We are excited to celebrate the success of this interagency project and recognize Reclamations major contributions to reclaiming Americas 17 western states over the last 120 years, Brent Esplin, Missouri Basin and Arkansas-Rio Grande-Texas Regional Director said in a statement. In addition to bolstering conservation efforts of the prehistoric pallid sturgeon, Reclamation is committed to continuing the effective operation of the Lower Yellowstone Project for local irrigators who help feed the nation.

In 1990, pallid sturgeons were listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the Endangered Species Act. USACE, the Wildlife Service and Reclamation have been working in partnership to determine the effects of the Lower Yellowstone Project on the species. Two primary issues were identified, entrainment into the Lower Yellowstone main canal and lack of fish passage success over Intake Diversion Dam.

A new screened headworks structure was completed in 2012 and addressed the canal entrainment issue. The new weir in conjunction with the bypass channel will provide fish passage and open approximately 165 river miles of potential spawning and larval drift habitat in the Yellowstone River.

This is a momentous occasion more than 10 years in the making, said Col. Geoff Van Epps, commander of the USACE Northwestern Division. The collaboration on this project presented unique challenges and opportunities to meet conservation and recovery responsibilities under the Endangered Species Act while continuing to serve the needs of stakeholders that use the river.

The Lower Yellowstone Project is a 58,000-acre irrigation project located in Eastern Montana and western North Dakota. The project is operated and maintained by the Lower Yellowstone Irrigation District Board of Control under contract with Reclamation. The project includes the Intake Diversion Dam, a screened headworks structure, 71 miles of main canal, 225 miles of laterals and 118 miles of drains, three pumping plants on the main canal, four supplemental pumps on the Yellowstone River and one supplemental pump on the Missouri River.
Law enforcement vehicles on the scene of a shooting Monday morning at the SK Food Group facility on Toy Road in the Groveport area.

Groveport police have released the names of the victim and the suspect in the Monday homicide-suicide at a SK Food Group facility stemming from a domestic dispute.

Police said they were previously unable to identify the woman fatally shot at the facility located at 3301 Toy Road in Groveport and the alleged gunman who died by suicide electrocution because they were not in the U.S. legally and did not give their employer, a temp agency, their real names when they were hired.

The Groveport Division of Police released the names Thursday, saying both were born in Haiti.

Police identified the victim as Mislande Azar, 32, a mother of three children who reside in the Dominican Republic with family.

Delinx Agenord, 27, was identified as the shooting suspect. Police did not know if he is the father of the children.

Groveport police, the Franklin County Sheriff's office and other law enforcement agencies responded around 5:20 a.m. Monday on a report of an active shooter at SK Food.

Agenord approached Azar in a locker room at the warehouse and shot her multiple times, according to Groveport police.

He fled the building after unsuccessfully trying to shoot himself, ran a short distance and climbed a utility pole. Once high on the pole, Agenord apparently intentionally contacted live high power lines, leading to his electrocution, according to Groveport police Lt. Josh Short.

Azar was taken to OhioHealth Grant Medical Center, where she died from her wounds.

Police believe the murder-suicide is the result of a domestic dispute.

No other employees were injured Monday, and there were no shots fired by law enforcement, according to police. The firearm involved in the incident has not been recovered.

According to the company's website, SK Food Group provides "handcrafted sandwiches, wraps, snacks, flatbreads, burgers, protein snacks" and other food items to other food service brands.

Dispatch reporter Bethany Bruner contributed to this report.

Jordan Laird is a criminal justice reporter at the Columbus Dispatch. You can reach her at jlaird@dispatch.com. You can follow her on Twitter at @LairdWrites.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Victim, suspect identified in murder-suicide at Groveport warehouse
A man who went on the lam for eight years after he was accused of raping a 17-year-old girl in Butte in 2012 has been sentenced to 10 years in the Montana State Prison.

Prosecutors initially charged 49-year-old Patrick Dean Kakouris with sexual intercourse without consent, which carries a possible term of life in prison, but he skipped a court hearing in January 2013 and left town.

In November 2020, U.S. Customs officials picked him up in Houston, Texas, after he was extradited from Mexico. He was returned to Butte and in January 2021  eight years to the day that he skipped the court hearing  he was arraigned and pleaded not guilty to the rape charge.

Samm Cox, the chief prosecutor in the case, ultimately amended the charge to felony criminal endangerment and on June 30, District Judge Kurt Krueger sentenced Kakouris to 10 years in prison for that and bail jumping.

Cox told The Montana Standard on Friday that he reduced the charge after talking with the victim. She is 28 or 29 now, he said, and did not want to endure more proceedings and a possible trial.

In a plea deal, Kakouris pleaded guilty to criminal endangerment for creating a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury to the victim. He was sentenced to 10 years for that and 10 years for bail jumping but they run concurrently.

The victim said she was walking toward her mothers house near the intersection of Mercury and Washington streets on April 19, 2012, when a man in a white car pulled up and said, Get in slow poke, according to initial charging documents.

She thought the man was her uncle so she got in but then realized it wasnt him. The man drove her around and then stopped in an alley near West Elementary School, where he forced her to perform a sexual act, prosecutors say. She was able to get into the back seat, open the door and run.

She went to the police, described several unique characteristics about the car and described the suspect. Police suspected Kakouris based on the descriptions and he was later arrested and charged.

He pleaded not guilty and in a July 9, 2012, letter to the judge, while he was awaiting a new attorney, he asked for the charge to be dismissed.

He said he was innocent and it is creating a huge upset in my household and defaming my name in the community for no other reason than mistaken identity or false allegation, he wrote.

Kakouris was out on bond when he failed to show for a pre-trial conference before Krueger on Jan. 14, 2013, and a bench warrant was issued. After the no-show, a police detective contacted Kakouriss wife at the time and she said he intended to flee Montana.
Award-winning author Lynn Downey discusses her latest book, "American Dude Ranch," at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West July 23 from noon  1 p.m. in the Coe Auditorium.

Downeys history considers dude ranching across the years, tracing its influence on everything from clothing to cooking and showing how ranchers adapted to changing times and vacation trends. The work demonstrates how the tradition of the dude ranch, Americas original western vacation, is deeply connected with the culture and history of the American West.

These vacation resorts hosted and inspired famed Hollywood stars such as Gary Cooper and Elvis, as well as renowned author Ernest Hemingway, who recreated at various Wyoming dude ranches, and the screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz who wrote portions of Citizen Kane at a California dude ranch.

Downeys book also offers a rare look at womens place in this story, as they found personal and professional satisfaction in running their own dude ranches. Downey also examines resorts that catered to African American and Jewish clients, as well as famed stripper Sally Rands dude ranch for nudists.

Downey received a research fellowship from the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in 2019 allowing her to study the vast dude ranching collections held by the McCracken Research Library, as well as many Wyoming dude ranches.

Downey is an independent author, historian and archivist from northern California wine country. She is the author of "Arequipa Sanatorium: Life in Californias Lung Resort for Women" and the award-winning debut novel, "Dudes Rush In." She was the company Historian for Levi Strauss & Co. in San Francisco and wrote the first biography of its founder, "Levi Strauss: The Man Who Gave Blue Jeans to the World."

The talk is followed by a book signing at the Centers Points West Market. This program is hosted by The Papers of William F. Cody in recognition of the National Day of the Cowboy.
By Trend

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved legislation that would create a new hurdle for President Joe Biden's plan to sell F-16 fighter jets to Turkiye, Trend reports citing Reuters.

The House approved the measure, offered by Democratic Representatives Frank Pallone and Chris Pappas, as an amendment to the annual National Defense Authorization Act, by 244 to 179.

The amendment would bar the United States to sell or transfer the jets to Turkey unless the administration certifies that doing so is essential to U.S. national security and included a description of concrete steps taken to ensure they are not used for repeated unauthorized overflights of Greece.
Montanas elk population has tripled over the last 40 years. For decades we have exceeded the sustainable objective levels in most hunting districts. FWPs goal is 92,000 elk in Montana, but today there are an estimated 175,000. That excess elk population causes immense damage to family ranch operations in overpopulated areas, and its a problem that grows worse every year.

Whats frustrating is we saw this problem coming years ago and set policy to address it. In 2003 I sponsored House Bill 42, which mandated that the Montana Fish & Game Commission use all management tools available in order to keep big game populations at objective levels. That legislation specified that the Commission should use liberalized harvests, game damage hunts, landowner permits, (and) animal relocation to reach objective.

That hasnt happened. In fact, the Commission has repeatedly rejected appeals to liberalize harvests in the most over-objective hunting districts in the state. Earlier this year, the Commission voted down a proposal to increase archery and rifle permits in several districts that are more than double their population objectives. Their decision came in response to intense lobbying to keep these hunting districts as exclusive trophy hunting areas.

Nowhere in Montana law is the Commission given the authority to prioritize areas for trophy hunting. The legislature would never grant that authority because to do so would require ranchers in those areas be singled out for disparate treatment. Trophy areas can only be created by limiting hunting opportunity, limited hunting opportunity leads to excessive elk populations, and excessive elk populations lead to extreme damage to crops, forage, and feed.

In other words, to create a trophy hunting area requires imposing undue expenses on a few unlucky ranchers singled out by the Commission.

Wildlife management shouldnt be a popularity contest or decided by who yells the loudest. But thats what its become. Instead of careful, science-based consideration of how best to utilize our resources, the Commission is now only responsive to lobbying by sportsmen who want more elk and with bigger racks.

HB 42 was intended to protect the rights of ranchers (who bear the costs of elk) against the wants of sportsmen (who are the beneficiaries of elk). The former are vastly outnumbered by the latter. Whats worse is the misalignment of incentives between those who benefit from huge elk herds and those who pay the cost.

The policy set forth by the legislature is clear. Wildlife managers have a statutory obligation to protect the rights of the minority by minimizing the damages they incur. Thats supposed to be accomplished by setting a target population objective developed through a calculation of what the habitat can sustain and what landowners can tolerate. After the objective is set, management policy is supposed to use all tools available to bring the population level in line with the objective.

None of this is happening. The Commission has failed to follow the law and as a result theyve created immense damage to individual ranchers. This problem has been building for decades, and it has finally come to a head with a lawsuit filed by ranchers seeking to compel the Commission to change their management practices.

The legislature can write laws, but its up to the executive branch to implement them. In this case, the Fish & Game Commission has failed in their duty to implement the law, resulting in excessive damages. To alleviate those damages, the only recourse is for those ranchers to seek relief from the judiciary. For the sake of Montanas elk herd and habitat, lets hope they prevail.
If theres one thing that Montanans can agree on, its our fondness for wildlife. From eagles and ospreys to bull elk and bighorn sheep, we still have plenty of what so much of the country has lost. These natural riches are partly why were known as the Last Best Place. But it wasnt always this way.

By the early decades of the 20th century, market hunting, poaching and habitat loss had driven many species to the brink of extinction. Then, in 1937, hunters asked the federal government to tax the sales of guns and ammunition and dedicate the money to improving conditions for wildlife and for hunters. Its called the Pittman Robertson Act. Anglers later stepped up with similar taxes on fishing and boating equipment under the Dingell Johnson Act

Now, Representative Matt Rosendale is cosponsoring a bill that would eliminate the Pittman Robertson taxes and slash the Dingell Johnson taxes. If HR 8187 passes, Montanas wildlife, fish, hunters, anglers and outdoor businesses will suffer. And Rosendale has signed off on that.

The bills main sponsor, another freshman representative who owns a gun store in Georgia, calls the bill the RETURN our Constitutional Rights Act. He argues that since the Second Amendment protects access to guns and ammunition, people shouldnt be taxed for constitutionally protected activities.

Think about that for a minute. The First Amendment protects freedom of expression, but if you buy a book or a magazine in most states, you pay sales taxes. If you get your internet or TV news via cable, you pay a fee to the Federal Communications Commission. Your cell phone bill includes taxes.

Rosendale said Tuesday during a telephone town hall meeting that likes the bill because it will make guns and ammo cheaper. But the taxes certainly havent hampered sales.

Between 2010 and 2020, domestic sales by American gunmakers doubled, from 2.25 million guns to 5.5 million, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. And for the last couple of years, ammunition was scarce all over the state. Lots of stores limit how much you can buy.

And these two taxes pay big returns for Montana: $24.4 million in 2021. That money pays game wardens and biologists, protects habitat, restores streams and pays for shooting ranges and hunter safety courses.

Not only hunters and anglers benefit. When you improve duck habitat, you make things better for cranes and warblers and red-winged blackbirds. When you protect winter range for elk, you protect open space. When you build or improve a boat ramp, you make it more enticing for visitors to stay an extra couple of days.

Rosendale also said the bill would divert $800 million a year from another habitat and recreation fund, the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Thats 20 percent less than the hunting and angling taxes distributed nationwide in 2020. Plus, it shrivels by $800 million the amount of LWCF money available for things like parks and land access agreements and walking paths all over the country. Its like taking a dollar out of one pocket and putting eight dimes in another pocket.

Montanas wildlife and the thousands of smalltown businesses that depend on that wildlife will lose big if Rosendale succeeds. Well see fewer access programs, less maintenance of public lands, fewer biologists on the ground. Our economy will take a hard ding. Our natural world will take a bigger one.

At the town hall, Rosendale called it a win-win situation.
After being voted off his position by the Louisa County Board of Supervisors on June 21, a Louisa County Conservation Board member told other LCCB members during their regular meeting on Monday that he felt he still retained his seat.

Sam Willson, who was serving as the LCCB chair until the vote by the supervisors, indicated he and a local attorney he had consulted felt Willsons removal was pending any court action.

According to previous discussions, the supervisors held a 90-minute closed session on June 21 with County Attorney Adam Parsons and Louisa County human resources consultant Paul Greufe.

Following the closed session, the supervisors voted to remove Willson, citing false allegations that constitute malfeasance. Malfeasance is one of several reasons listed in the Iowa Code the supervisors can cite to remove a conservation board member.

Parsons said after the removal vote that the specific false allegations would be spelled out in the formal removal letter that would be presented to Willson.

He also suggested Willsons removal was immediate, although he cautioned the board against taking any action to replace Willson until Willson had an opportunity to contest his removal.

The removal letter apparently has not yet been delivered to Willson, who will have 30 days after receiving the letter to decide if he will request a public hearing before the board of supervisors.

If the supervisors uphold the dismissal, Willson can then appeal to district court.

Although the false allegations have not been formally identified, during the supervisors June 14 meeting, county supervisor Randy Griffin repeatedly cited a Facebook posting by Willson as the reason for the dismissal.

In the posting, Willson responded to comments posted by other Facebook users who were apparently questioning if recently appointed LCCB members had been appointed for their conservation beliefs and background.

They are supposed to, but when the board is corrupted, it runs astray, Willson had replied.

Griffin said he was offended by that response, especially the use of corrupted.

Although Willson told the LCCB on Monday that he felt he was still a member and could legally take his seat, he decided not to until any legal action had been completed.

To prevent any major disturbance, I will not take that seat, he told the rest of the LCCB.

In other action, the board:

 Discussed the Eden Park playground and possible need for preliminary dirt work before moving forward with other work.

 Agreed to hold a special June 25 work session to discuss the possible sale of portions of the boards Hoover Nature Trail holdings.

 Reviewed survey bids for the Indian Slough Wildlife Area.
An Illinois man charged with sexual abuse of a 15-year-old Johnson County girl in 2015 is asking a judge to dismiss his charges because he says the parents gave him consent to have sex with their teen.

Yaniv Azriel, 27, of Chicago, was arrested in March in Chicago by U.S. Marshals on a warrant for sexual abuse charges in Johnson County District Court and in Mitchell County District Court.

He is accused of sexually abusing the same 15-year-old girl who lived in Johnson County in 2015 and in Mitchell County in 2014 and 2015.

He was extradited to Iowa and charged in both counties with three counts each of third-degree sexual abuse. If convicted he faces up to 10 years on each charge.

Azriel filed a motion to dismiss the charges in Johnson and Mitchell counties because he accuses her parents of violating the law by giving him consent, according to the prosecution's resistance. His motion has been sealed by the court and not accessible in public records.

Sixth Judicial District Judge Andrew Chappell had a hearing Thursday to hear arguments in the Johnson County case, but both the defense and prosecution only submitted their written arguments for consideration without further argument.

Chappell said he would submit a written ruling later.

Floyd County Attorney Rachel Ginbey, appointed as special prosecutor for the Johnson and Mitchell cases, in her written resistance said Azriel argues he "should escape responsibility for his actions" because the teen's parents have possibly violated the law.

Ginbey, in her argument, said the prosecution doesn't concede that the teen's parents consented to any sexual contact between the teen and Azriel. Even if true, it's a "flawed logic" because no individual can waive or agree to criminal acts on the part of another to allow them to escape punishment.

"This would be akin to saying that if a parent prostituted their child out, the person who paid to have sex with the child or had sex with the child would be free from punishment," Ginbey stated.

This would be "illogical and undermine" Iowa's sexual abuse laws, Ginbey argued. Iowa law doesn't provide authority or ability for a parent to consent for their child, 15 years or younger, to have sex with a person four or more years older than the child.

Azriel also wants the prosecution to file a bill of particulars  detailed written statement of charges  because the trial information, which is similar to an indictment and provides details of the charges, isn't specific enough regarding the alleged criminal acts, according to the prosecution's resistance. The trial information doesn't explain what he is accused of, Azriel argues, so he can't prepare his defense without more details, according to the document.

The prosecution filed the trial information April 28, along with minutes of testimony  details of the incidents, police reports, text messages, photos and an interview summary with the victim  all totaling 16 pages, Ginbey said in her written argument.

"The trial information in conjunction with the minutes of testimony is sufficient to apprise the defendant of the charges against him and to allow the defendant to prepare a defense," Ginbey stated in the document.

Azriel also filed on Thursday a motion to suppress a recorded phone call made to him from the teen because she made the call under the direction of the police without a warrant, according to the motion.

The call was made by the teen while Azriel was living in Illinois and Azriel wasn't told the call was being recorded, which under Illinois law violates the "eavesdropping" law, according to the defense's motion. It prohibits recording a conversation without consent of all parties, unless there is previous judicial approval.

The Illinois law prohibits using evidence obtained in violation of the law, according to the motion.

Azriel's lawyers asks the court to set a hearing regarding this motion.

The prosecution hasn't responded to this new motion.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has said that one of the governments solutions to South Africas load-shedding problem is introducing another state-owned power utility to compete with Eskom.

He also emphasised that rumours that the government was planning to sell the utility to a private company are false, adding that it has embarked on a complete overhaul of South Africas SOEs.

We are not trying to privatise these State Owned Enterprises. We are trying to modernise them to be competitive, Ramaphosa said during a South African Communist Party Conference.

Eskom has not only been in a state of distress for the past 15 years. It is no longer suited for the current technology and economy.

Using the example of China  which has several state-owned power utilities  he added that competition between the companies could also help to lower electricity prices.

If we look at other countries like China, for instance, it has a number of state-owned electricity generating companies that even compete amongst themselves to bring prices down, Ramaphosa stated.

That is a future that I think we should begin to imagine.

The fact that South Africa only has one power utility poses a massive risk to the country, said Ramaphosa. If it were to fail, there would be no alternative.

For much of its history, this model that we have pursued has worked, but we are today witnessing the great risks associated with placing sole responsibility for electricity generation in one company, said Ramaphosa.

He added that he agreed with energy minister Gwede Mantashes idea that a second state-owned power utility could solve the issue.

That is why when comrade Gwede [Mantashe] flighted the idea of why not a second one which can be owned by the government?, I said thats not a bad idea.

The president said he would announce further interventions to bring new generating capacity to the grid in the coming days.

Ramaphosa, on Monday, 11 July 2022, promised he would reveal a comprehensive set of actions to address the issue of South Africas rotational power cuts.

He said he had been working with ministers and senior officials to develop ways to accelerate efforts to improve South Africas power supply.

The news came after South Africa was plunged into all-day load-shedding for several weeks, including Stage 6 power cuts during evening peaks.

Eskom blamed the deterioration of its systems stability on an unprotected strike and intimidation campaign some unionised workers embarked on after it declared a deadlock in wage negotiations.

The message is clear: this is no time for business as usual. We need to act boldly to make load-shedding a thing of the past, Ramaphosa said.

What the past two weeks have demonstrated is that we need to do more and do so with the utmost urgency.

There is no reason why a country like ours  with the skills, capabilities and resources we have at our disposal  should have to endure a shortage of electricity, Ramaphosa added.

Earlier this year, public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan proposed a plan for South Africas SOEs  including Eskom, Transnet, Denel, and Prasa  to be housed under a single holding company.

He explained that he agreed with Ramaphosas sentiment that SOEs play a vital role in South Africas economy, adding that the presidential SOE council had recommended that government adopts a centralised shareholder model for its commercial state-owned companies.

This would separate the states ownership functions from its policy-making and regulatory functions, minimise the scope for political interference, introduce greater professionalism, and manage the states assets in a way that protects shareholder value, Gordhan said.

He added that the plan was for the changes to take place before the end of Ramaphosas current presidential term.

Now read: Eskom might need to borrow R45 billion in 2022
The Competition Commissions Online Platforms Market Inquiry has published a provisional report with recommendations that could have severe ramifications for various online platforms in South Africa  including Takealot, Google Search, Airbnb, and Uber Eats.

The inquiry has been gathering evidence and holding public and in-camera hearings over the past 14 months focused on online intermediation platforms in the ecommerce, app stores, travel and accommodation, food delivery platforms, and online classifieds business.

The aim was to identify market features that adversely affect competition amongst these platforms and businesses using them.

It also considered the participation of small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) and historically disadvantaged persons (HDPs).

The leading platforms identified by the inquiry were as follows:

Apple App Store

Google Play Store

Takealot

Booking.com

Airbnb

Mr Delivery

Uber Eats

Property24

Private Property

AutoTrader

Cars.co.za

Google Search  including its specialist search units such as Google Shopping and Google Travel

The inquiry has provisionally found that Google Search plays an important role in directing consumers to the different platforms, meaning it shapes platform competition.

It provisionally ruled the prevalence of paid ads at the top of Googles search results had inadequate identifiers to confirm that they were advertising.

This, the inquiry has argued, raised platform customer acquisition costs and favoured large, often global, platforms.

Furthermore, the preferential placement of Googles own specialist search units also distorted competition in the search giants favour.

The Inquiry provisionally recommends that paid results are prominently labelled as advertising with borders and shading to be clearer to consumers and that the top of the page is reserved for organic, or natural, search results based on relevance only, uninfluenced by payments, it said.

It also recommended that Google allow market participants to compete for prominence in its search results by having their own specialist search units, with no guaranteed positions for Googles search units.

In addition, it was exploring whether Google Search must stop being the default search engine on mobile devices in South Africa.

Google was also a target for its role in the app store business.

The inquiry provisionally found there was no effective competition for the fees charged to app developers with in-app payments, resulting in high costs and app prices.

The inquirys provisional recommendation is that apps should be able to steer consumers to external web-based payment options, or alternatively, a maximum cap is placed on application store commission fees, it stated.

Another significant finding was that price parity clauses in travel & accommodation, ecommerce, and food delivery must be removed.

These hinder competition and create dependency, the Commission stated.

Wide price parity clauses prevent businesses from offering lower prices on other platforms and narrow parity prevents businesses from offering lower prices on their own direct online channel, the inquiry said.

In property classifieds and food delivery, new entrants and local delivery platforms face challenges signing up large national businesses, undermining their ability to compete.

The inquiry recommended that large estate agencies divest their stake in Private Property and that there must be interoperability of listings on the leading platforms to support entrants.

The inquiry also said food delivery apps used a business model with substantial eater promotions alongside high restaurant commission fees, resulting in large surcharges on menu items.

These are not transparent to consumers and distorted competition with local delivery options, the inquiry found.

The inquiry provisionally recommends greater transparency on either the menu surcharge or the share taken by the delivery platforms, it said.

It also called for national restaurant chains to stop preventing their franchisees from listing on local delivery platforms.

National delivery platforms must also end any incentives to steer volumes their way.

The inquiry further found there was a tendency among all platforms to sell top-ranking search positions to businesses which were not the most relevant to the consumer, constituting a form of advertising that was not transparent.

This impacts on consumer choice and competition, especially for SMEs that cannot spend as much as large businesses, the inquiry said.

The inquiry recommends that advertising is clearly displayed as such and the top results are reserved for organic (or natural) search results.

It said there were extreme levels of fee discrimination against SMEs in online classifieds, food delivery and, to a lesser extent, travel and accommodation.

This hinders their participation with no coherent justification, the inquiry found.

The inquiry provisionally recommends that a maximum cap is placed on the fee differentials between large and small businesses, potentially at 10-15%.

In food delivery, it is recommended that more equitable treatment also occurs in terms of marketing commitments made in exchange for lower commission fees.

One particular recommendation could have a major impact on Takealots business model.

The inquiry found a conflict of interest in operating a marketplace for third-party sellers and selling your own retail products.

It argued this could result in certain self-preferencing conduct such as product gating, retail buyers being given access to third-party data about successful products, and preferential display ads and promotions.

The lack of a speedy resolution process also adds to the costs of sellers, the inquiry said.

It recommended an internal structural separation of retail from the marketplace to implement equitable and competitively neutral processes.

The inquiry also found that South African apps faced discoverability challenges when competing against larger global app development companies.

In light of this, it provisionally recommended that app stores provide country-specific curation of app recommendations.

They should also provide free promotional credits to local app developers.

On the participation of historically disadvantaged people, the inquiry found that the digital economy is much less transformed than many traditional industries.

It said there are considerably more challenges resulting from historical disadvantages, especially for funding and support.

The inquiry recommends specific commitments on HDP mandates from private investors and for government to channel funds for HDP digital entrepreneurs through mandates to the venture capital sector along with requirements for transformation of the sector, it said.

As businesses on platforms, the same lack of assets and funding hinder HDP businesses onboarding and exploiting the opportunities provided by platforms.

The inquirys provisional recommendation is that all leading platforms provide HDP businesses personalised onboarding, a waiver on onboarding costs and fees, free promotional credits, fees that are no higher than the best placed, and the opportunity for consumers to discover HDP businesses on the platform.

Finally, the inquiry provisionally recommended that either guidelines or regulations be considered to address new leading platforms in established or new categories in future.

Public comment period

The inquiry will release another version of the Main Report in the next few weeks once over-broad claims for confidentiality have been resolved.

Members of the public and impacted stakeholders have been given six weeks to make submissions to the inquiry on the provisional findings and recommendations.

All submissions should be sent to [email protected] by close of business on 24 August 2022 and should be substantiated with evidence, where relevant.

The Commission will consider these submissions and may change its views on its current findings before publishing its final report by November 2022.
The public art proposal Circulation, an abstract representation of the prickly pear cactus that would consist of interconnected polished silver aluminum circles lined with neon green, has emerged as a favorite in a city of Napa effort to place a major public art piece near the citys Highway 29-adjacent triad of roundabouts.

The citys Public Art Steering Committee voted 4-1 on Tuesday to recommend the Napa City Council give final approval to the concept. That aligned the committee with a prior recommendation for the piece from the roundabout art selection panel, which includes four art professionals and a representative from the committee.

The Circulation proposal is from Ana Teresa Fernandez, a Mexican artist currently based in San Francisco. According to the project description, the design for the 24-foot tall structure is inspired by Napas landscape, and the neon-green lines evoke rows of grapevines. Furthermore, that green is the same color vineyard workers wear while working in the fields.

Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help. Subscribe today! Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Napa Valley Register.

Fernandez chose the prickly pear cactus because it migrated naturally from Baja California to Napa, according to the project description.

The symbolic nature of this color which references hazard, unsafe, proceed with caution, and ironically is often not paid attention to, will now pulse with radiance at the heart of this intersection. Fernandez wrote in her proposal. Circulation represents the interconnection we need to give life and our ability to grow. The circles are interconnected and support one another. Napa exists and thrives because of those who work the land.

The project is set to be the citys largest public art project to date. Its budget, which comes out of the citys dedicated Public Art Fund, is $375,000. Of that, $300,000 is reserved for the artists stipend and $75,000 is for additional administrative fees. The artist is only allowed to use 20% of the stipend for their artist fee, and the rest is restricted for the cost of creating the artwork, according to city recreation manager Katrina Gregory.

The art selection committee scored the Circulation proposal, along with two other finalists, to consider aesthetics, siting, budget and durability, longevity and maintenance. The panel found the artwork concept deeply moving, and felt it would be appreciated by a wide audience, according to a staff report.

A majority of the panel felt the proposed sculpture aligns perfectly with the City of Napas vision for the project  a joyful, aesthetically pleasing landmark that celebrates an under-represented part of the population made by a Mexican woman in partnership with a women-owned fabrication company with 27 years of experience, says the staff report.

The staff report also responded to community concerns and public feedback on the artwork, received in part from a call for feedback on the three art proposals last month. It notes, for instance, that the funds for the project come from the citys public art ordinance, which requires a commitment from commercial developers to either build public art on their developments or pay into the Public Art Fund. It also notes that the artwork wont present a public safety hazard because its adequately set back from the roadway and sidewalk.

Though most of the public art committee supported that choice at the meeting Tuesday, Committee member Lissa Gibbs said she didnt want to vote to forward the piece to the Napa City Council because she felt it wasnt entirely ready.

I want to make sure that what we are forwarding to the city council is in fact in its highest form of readiness, Gibbs said. And I do not think this piece is.

Gibbs said her opinion was based on conversations she had with Napa residents. She added that the city could potentially negotiate with Fernandez to work out the proposal further and figure out if she needs additional funding for that.

But the other committee members said they thought the piece was fully realized and they wanted to move forward with it.

Committee member Julie Eppich said she really feels the sculpture would be well received by the public and she didnt think adding to the budget would have much effect on the design.

Committee chair John Hannaford said theres never been a piece of public art thats gotten universal approval, but people tend to like public art once its in place.
By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

The Azerbaijani army units have organized high-standard service and combat activities on the liberated territories, Azernews reports, citing the Defense Ministry.

According to the ministry, the duties of comprehensive provision and further enhancement of the units' social and living conditions are carried out in a planned manner.

The construction of new military infrastructure facilities and other relevant steps are being carried out to boost combat readiness of military personnel, who are involved in service in harsh climatic conditions and tough terrain, the ministry said.

There are warehouses for storing food and property, barracks, medical points, canteens fully provided with the necessary kitchen equipment, day rooms, office premises, and other facilities to ensure appropriate military service of personnel that is on combat duty, the ministry underlined.

Military camps have been supplied with centralized heating, electricity, water, sustainable communications, and generators to ensure an uninterrupted power supply.

The logistics service is responsible for the continuous provision of seasonal apparel, fresh and high-calorie hot meals, as well as the high-level coordination of social and living circumstances of troops.

The combat duties of the servicemen are carried out in accordance with the daily schedule. To maintain their high level of combat readiness, servicemen attend daily combat training sessions as well as public-political and legal training seminars.

The Azerbaijan Army's military personnel is constantly ready to fulfill any order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief to defend our lands, the ministry stressed.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan's defense and national security budget amounted to 4.5 billion manats ($2.6 billion) in 2021, in line with the Law "On Azerbaijan's state budget execution for 2021", approved by President Ilham Aliyev.

Thus, Azerbaijan spent 1.8 billion manats ($1.08 billion) on defense, 253.8 million manats ($149.39 million) on national security, and 341.5 million manats ($201.01 million) on border protection. The remaining amount was used for other defense and national security-related operations.




Three people who stole sunglasses worth tens of thousands of dollars from a Napa store Wednesday evening led police on a vehicle pursuit into San Francisco before they were arrested, according to Napa Police.

Shortly before 6:45 p.m. the suspects, all San Francisco residents, entered the Sunglass Hut at Napa Premium Outlets on Freeway Drive, where they stuffed more than 200 pairs of glasses into pillowcases, Lt. Chase Haag said in an email. Afterward, the thieves got into a Nissan Altima sedan and fled south on Freeway Drive, according to Haag.

Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help. Subscribe today! Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Napa Valley Register.

American Canyon Police officers spotted the car and began pursuing it at Highway 29 and Rio del Mar, Haag said. The chase ended in San Francisco, where the Nissan crashed on Interstate 80 near Sixth Street.

Two adult men and a 16-year-old boy were detained at the crash scene, according to Haag. The teenager and the adults  24-year-old Maurice Davis and 19-year-old Jason Nicholas Wiliam Standard  were initially taken to Providence Queen of the Valley Medical Center, before Davis and Standard were booked into the Napa County jail and the teen into the Napa County juvenile hall.

Store staff originally estimated the value of the stolen sunglasses at $100,000, but Napa Police revised the figure to $65,000 after the merchandise was recovered and inventoried, according to Sgt. Keri Sedgley.

The suspects were booked on suspicion of felony evasion of police officers, grand theft and criminal conspiracy. Standard, who was booked under the name of Wiliam Angelo Standard, and Davis were released shortly after 5 a.m. Thursday, according to jail records.
ST. HELENA  Possessing style for days, the 1911 Pope-Hartford once chauffeured visitors and locals around the upper Napa Valley.

A century later  and still looking as dandy as ever  the luxurious seven-passenger touring car once again rolled through downtown St. Helena earlier this week, catching admiring eyes and telling a story of local history in the early days of horseless carriages.

The car once belonged to Philo Grant, whose St. Helena-based Grants Auto Stage Line once boasted a fleet of 27 vehicles, including school buses and an ambulance.

Equipped with brass fittings, the 1911 Pope-Hartford was one of only 693 manufactured by the Pope Motor Car Co., which left the automotive business a few years later.

Its a fantastic car  even back then it would have been a thrill to drive, said its current owner Ted Bowers.

Companies like Grants thrived in the days when most people didnt have their own car or a drivers license, which California started requiring in 1913.

Even back then, the Pope-Hartford stood out for its luxury and refinement. It sold for $3,250 new, equivalent to about $100,000 today and almost five times the price of a Ford Model T.

With a maximum speed of 80 mph, the Pope-Hartfords 50-horsepower engine was strong enough to climb Howell Mountain with ease at a time when visitors flocked to Aetna Springs Resort for rest and recreation.

Bowers said the Prest-O-Lite acetylene gas headlamps had to be manually lit with a match, although they've been modified to run on electricity.

When you turn them on, you light straight down the road, but you also light the tops of the trees, he said.

After Grant sold the car in the mid-1940s, it passed through a series of owners, including the casino magnate Bill Harrah, who restored it twice and took it on various tours. After Harrah died, it changed hands a few more times and was restored at least once before its current owners, Ted and Celeste Bowers of Huntington Beach, bought it in 2020.

As part of its latest tour, the car arrived Monday afternoon at the St. Helena Historical Societys Heritage Center. Among those on hand to greet it were the Sharpsteen family, who once owned a nearly identical Pope-Hartford that had also belonged to Grant.
Andrew Brooks recently stood near a corner of Skyline Wilderness Park where he fears apartments might someday be built and made it clear he disagrees with the state designation of "surplus" land.

"Does it look like surplus land? It sure doesn't to me," Brooks said.

Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help. Subscribe today! Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Napa Valley Register.

To be sure, the corner isnt one of Skyline Parks hiking areas. It is some distance from Lake Marie and from the 20 miles-plus of trails that wind through oak-covered hills with views of the Napa Valley and Bay Area.

This is a mostly flat area of the park close to the traffic of Imola Avenue, just southeast of the city of Napa. The county Office of Education is nearby. Hundreds of gopher holes dot the ground. Theres no wilderness here.

So would it really be a big deal if Skyline Wilderness Park lost 20 acres of its 850 acres to housing, particularly when this corner is near to civilization?

Brooks pointed to camping and RV areas, equestrian facilities and a maintenance barn. What might look like a deserted location at times, such as on this Thursday morning, hums with activity at other times.

Then there's the open space.

That area is a unique space within the county, certainly, as a large gathering space where hundreds of and even thousands of community members can gather, Brooks said.

Gatherings range from Scouts events to search-and-rescue training to movie nights to horse shows to mountain bike races. Without that space, the community loses the ability to host those types of events, he said.

Brooks is president of the Skyline Park Citizens Association. The nonprofit volunteer group runs the park that is on 850 acres leased by the county from the owner, the state of California.

California wants to see more affordable housing built amid a state housing crunch. In 2019, it released a list of surplus lands statewide that are possible sites and a 20-acre corner of Skyline made the cut.

More recently, the state Department of General Services told county officials that housing will "likely" be built on 5 of these acres within eight years, a county report said. The county is trying to buy all of Skyline Park from the state, but the state could carve out land for housing.

Park officials estimated losing the 20 acres could cost the park perhaps half of its income from losing events and camping. Losing the 5 acres only might cost it about a quarter.

Brooks works in the wine business and became president of the Skyline Park Citizens Association about five years ago. He's been visiting the park since age 10.

"It's a unique resource. A park this size with access to trails  over 20 miles of single-track trails  and facilities for a really wide groups of users is something I need in my life everyday, to be honest," he said.

But the state is a law unto itself with the land that it owns. It doesnt have to comply with county zoning, though presumably it would need local help with such things as water and sewer connections.

Napa County officials have said they want the state instead to look for affordable housing sites on adjacent Napa State Hospital lands that could be surplus.

There is precedent. The county and state in 2003 teamed to build the Skyline apartments on hospital land less than a half-mile from the possible Skyline Park site.

Still, the county has a state housing mandate to make room for 106 homes in the unincorporated county outside of cities over the next eight years. If the state builds homes at Skyline Park against county wishes, the county wants credit toward its housing mandate.

For that reason, the county proposes to place Skyline Park on its list of possible rural housing sites, calling this the Imola site. That's prompted a number of public comments.

We really dont have a choice here, Napa resident Patrick Band said at the July 6 county Planning Commission meeting. The state is going to develop this site whether we want to or not.

Apart from the Skyline issue, Band sees pluses to the site. Its near schools and shopping and there are plans to build a bike path along Imola Avenue, said the former executive director of the Napa County Bicycle Coalition.

On a lot of different levels, this checks the boxes, Band said.

Others still didnt like seeing the possibility of Skyline Park housing on the countys own list of potential housing sites.

Roland Dumas of the Sierra Club Napa Group wrote a recent letter to the county and state opposing Skyline Park housing. The group didnt buy the countys logic that it merely wants to receive housing mandate credit for a state decision.

Having Skyline Park on the countys own housing list is an implicit preference for sacrificing Skyline to save other locations, Dumas wrote.

Napa County has struggled to come up with possible apartment sites in rural areas. Such sites must be near water and sewer services and outside of high wildfire danger areas. Possible sites near Silverado are controversial.

The Napa Valley Register asked county Board of Supervisors Chairperson Ryan Gregory if the county secretly wants the state to create Skyline housing as a no-sweat way to solve the county's housing mandate challenge.

The county wants to buy all of Skyline Park from the state to remain as a park, including the potential housing site, Gregory said. But its a delicate situation, given the state is the owner and the county the prospective purchaser.

He believes if the county can meet its state housing mandate elsewhere, it should keep Skyline off its potential housing site list, Gregory said.

The county continues to negotiate with the state over purchasing Skyline. A next step is the completion of an appraisal.

All of this is only the latest chapter for a park that opened 39 years ago, but has much deeper roots.

The history of Skyline Park is bound up in the history of Napa State Hospital. The hospitals hand holdings in the late 19th century stretched up into the hills, where Lake Marie reservoir provided water for the hospitals farms and other operations.

By the late 1960s, locals were talking about using some of the state hospitals vast land holdings for a park. Even then, the idea was it would be a skyline park.

State Assemblyperson John Dunlap, D-Napa, in the early 1970s had a big vision for what he called Skyline Park. The park would go beyond some 900 acres of state hospital land and include Lake Madigan, Lake Frey and Green Valley Falls in Solano County, some 3,300 acres overall.

The Skyline vision soon grew less grandiose.

In spring, 1977, the idea was the county could operate a Skyline Park of about 850 acres using only the state hospital land. Dunlap introduced legislation that would make Napa County the owner, but the state preferred to lease out the land.

By 1979, a citizens group had stepped forward to operate the park-to-be under an agreement with the county. The Skyline Park Citizens Association said it would not use tax dollars.

After several false starts and delays, Skyline Park opened in April 1983. The county lease for the land from the state is $100 annually and the lease lasts until February 2030.
A website to let people in the state compare rates from electric providers is now live, the California Public Utilities Commission announced this week.

The California Electric Rate Comparison website, accessible at www.cpuc.ca.gov/RatesComparison, offers consumers a side-by-side comparison of current electric rates from investor-owned utilities and community choice aggregators.

Investor-owned utilities are large electric distributors that issue stock owned by shareholders, like PG&E and Southern California Edison.

Community choice aggregation, on the other hand, allows local governments to procure power on behalf of residents, businesses, and others from an alternative supplier of energy. Aggregation allows communities to negotiate better rates with competitive suppliers and choose greener power sources.

The Electric Rate Comparison website is currently in phase one, an interim step that will lead to the complete website launch in early 2023, according to the CPUC.

Residential consumers can enter their ZIP code or their county/city to access a "Joint Rate Mailer" that the utility and community choice aggregators have prepared with rates and other information.
According to information published by the West Australian on July 15, 2022, the type of nuclear submarines Australia will acquire will be unveiled early next year said the Australian Minister of Defense, Richard Marles. The Royal Australian Navy could be interested in the British Astute-class submarines or the US' Virginia-class submarines.

Follow Navy Recognition on Google News at this link

AUKUS announcement between Joe Biden, Scott Morrison, and Boris Johnson. (Picture source: blitznews)

In September 2021 Australia scraped its French contract of Barracuda-class submarines to sign a trilateral security pact called AUKUS with the United Kingdom and the United States.

AUKUS, also styled as Aukus, is a trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, announced on 15 September 2021 for the Indo-Pacific region. Under the pact, the US and the UK will help Australia to acquire nuclear-powered submarines.

The pact also includes cooperation on advanced cyber, artificial intelligence and autonomy, quantum technologies, undersea capabilities, hypersonic and counter-hypersonic, electronic warfare, innovation and information sharing.

US Virginia-class submarines

The Virginia class, also known as the SSN-774 class, is a class of nuclear-powered cruise missile fast-attack submarines, in service in the United States Navy. Designed by General Dynamics's Electric Boat (EB) and Huntington Ingalls Industries, the Virginia-class is the United States Navy's latest submarine model, which incorporates the latest in stealth, intelligence gathering, and weapons systems technology.

They are designed to excel in anti-submarine warfare, anti-ship warfare, strike warfare, special operations, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, irregular warfare, and mine warfare. Fast-attack submarines project power ashore with special operations forces and Tomahawk cruise missiles in the prevention or preparation of regional crises.

The Virginia-class submarine has a length of 114.8 m, and a beam of 10.36 m. The submarine can reach a top speed of 28 miles per hour (45 km/h). She has a crew of 132 people including 15 officers and 117 enlisted.

British Astute-class submarines

The Astute class is the latest class of nuclear-powered fleet submarines (SSNs) in service with the Royal Navy. The boats are being constructed by BAE Systems Submarines at Barrow-in-Furness. Seven boats will be constructed: the first of class, Astute, was launched by Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, in 2007, commissioned in 2010, and declared fully operational in May 2014.

Audacious has provision for up to 38 weapons in six 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes. The submarine is capable of firing Tomahawk Block IV land-attack missiles with a range of 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) and Spearfish heavyweight torpedoes.
A Gambian court has sentenced a former spy chief and four others to death after finding them guilty of the 2016 murder of a political activist, AP reported.

Former director general of the defunct National Intelligence Agency, Yankuba Badjie, was convicted along with the other ex-intelligence officials for the murder of Ebrima Solo Sandeng.

Sandengs death contributed to the downfall of ex-dictator Yahya Jammeh, who had ruled this tiny West African nation for 22 years.

Sandeng, a leader of the opposition United Democratic Party, spearheaded a protest march in April 2016. The Jammeh regime arrested him and he was killed at the intelligence agencys headquarters in Banjul, the capital. His death led to a groundswell of opposition that helped to bring about Jammehs ouster in presidential elections later that year.

The intelligence agencys former operations chief, Sheikh Omar Jeng, along with officials Baboucarr Sallah, Masireh Tamba, and Lamin Darboe were also convicted and sentenced to death. The death sentences will be converted to life in prison, as Gambia has observed a moratorium on the death penalty since 2018.
YEREVAN.  Hraparak daily of Armenia writes: Yesterday it became known that Edvard Asryan was appointed the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, who before that held the position of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff, and earlier he was the Head of the Operational Department of the General Operational Department of the General Staff.

Asryan is one of the generals who, after the 44-day [Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh)] war [in the fall of 2020], in February 2021, demanded the resignation of [PM] Nikol Pashinyan (...). But after a few months, he became so "smart" that he attempted to justify the deployment of the enemy [i.e., Azerbaijan] in the area of Sev Lake.

And by the decree of September 27, 2021, Edvard Asryan was relieved from the position of the Head of the General Operational Department of the General Staff, the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces because he was seen talking for 10 minutes near the former minister of defense, the leader of the [opposition] Armenia Faction [in the National Assembly (NA)], Seyran Ohanyan, during which he had addressed Ohanyan as "Mr. General," which was not liked, in particular, by the chairman of the NA [Standing] Committee on Defense and Security, Andranik Kocharyan.
The US House of Representatives on Thursday approved legislation that would create a new hurdle for President Joe Biden's plan to sell F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, Reuters reported.

The House approved the measure, offered by Democratic Representatives Frank Pallone and Chris Pappas, as an amendment to the annual National Defense Authorization Act, by a vote of 244 for to 179 against.

It is the latest effort by members of Congress to exert control over the sale of the Lockheed Martin aircraft to NATO ally Turkey.

The amendment would bar the United States to sell or transfer the jets to Turkey unless the administration certifies that doing so is essential to US national security and included a description of concrete steps taken to ensure they are not used for repeated unauthorized overflights of Greece.

Senator Bob Menendez, chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who reviews major international weapons deal, has said previously he opposed the sale.
US lifts F-35 flight ban

Armenian Red Cross Society: 140 people asked for psychological service, 110 othersfor first aid, in 3 days

14 of Yerevan market blast casualties are identified

Trump says after leaving Afghanistan, US left Taliban weapons worth $ 85 billion

India blocks Azerbaijan's participation in upcoming BRICS summit as a guest

Baku is concerned about safety of its diplomatic mission in London

Yerevan explosion: 13 of 16 dead are identified, emergency ministry spokesperson says

Iran responds to EU nuclear deal proposals

Yerevan market explosion: 17 people considered missing, Armenia official says

Yerevan explosion: 7 injured continue to receive hospital treatment

Day of mourning to be declared in Armenia

Newspaper: Unpunished crime gives birth to new, more catastrophic crime in Yerevan

Bomb threat made at Yerevan subway

Newspaper: Who is No. 1 accountable for Yerevan market tragedy?

Yerevan market explosion: Fire extinguishing no longer being carried out, emergency minister says

Yerevan market explosion death toll reaches 16

Armenia emergency minister: Rescuers removed young child, pregnant womans bodies from under rubble

Yerevan explosion death toll climbs to 15

Yerevan market explosion death toll reaches 10

Yerevan explosion: 5 of 6 assumed missing Iranians are in Georgia, Armenia emergency ministry spokesman says

Musk plans to build at least 1,000 starships to send groups of pioneers to Mars

Russian DM: Ukraine is preparing large-scale provocations near Zaporizhzhia NPP

Rescuers find another body from rubble of Surmalu shopping center

Deputy Minister: Tomorrow it will be known when we can finish rescue work near Surmalu shopping center

FBI and DHS say threat grows after search of Donald Trump's residence

Armenian Emergency Ministry updates list of citizens missing in Surmalu explosion: Six Iranian and one Russian citizen

Modi says they must transform India into developed country in next 25 years

Ministry of Emergency Situations denies information about pregnant woman and her son found

Myanmar Military Court hands down second sentence to Aung San Suu Kyi

Head of Emergency Ministry unable to confirm another survivor has been pulled out of rubble

German Chancellor: Visa ban for Russians must be discussed

Rescuers hear sounds under rubble of Surmalu shopping center

Emergencies Ministry: 22 people missing in Surmalu shopping center

Bloomberg: Recession risk in eurozone has reached highest level since November 2020

Investigation into explosion in Surmalu shopping center continues

Georgia's tourism revenues have exceeded pre-pandemic levels

French Embassy expresses condolences to families of Surmalu explosion victims

CSTO Secretary General sends condolences to Armenian Prime Minister over Surmalu trade center explosion

Hungary and Turkey plan to launch joint drone production

Russian-Armenian Humanitarian Response Center joins work to eliminate consequences of explosion in Surmalu

Tesla has produced more than 3 million cars since company was founded

Rescuers find another body under rubble of Surmalu shopping center

Ministry of Emergencies presents new list: 21 people are missing from Surmalu shopping center

Electricity bills in Germany will rise by another 480 euros year because of gas surcharge

12 injured in Surmalu shopping mall explosion remain in hospitals

Media: Russia signs contract with Iran to buy 1,000 drones

Armenian DM attends opening of Army 2022 exhibition at Patriot center near Moscow (PHOTOS)

Former Armenian Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepyan released from jail

China sends 30 aircraft and five warships to Taiwan

Russian and Iranian citizens among those missing in Surmalu shopping center

Lawlessness continues: Shots fired again in Yerevan

India's prime minister promises that in 25 years India will be developed country

Artsakh Internal Affairs Minister expresses readiness to assist colleagues from Armenia

Court in Netherlands to rule on MH-17 case on November 17

Putin invites allies and partners to participate in military exercises

Karabakh President: Protection of new corridor will be carried out by Russian peacekeepers

Dollar rises, euro falls in Armenia

Specialists say those injured in Yerevan market explosion are in satisfactory condition, health minister says

Yerevan explosion: We have report about 19 confirmed missing, emergency ministry spokesperson says

Yerevan explosion: One of the missing is Iran citizen

Yerevan market explosion: 56 injured, 18 others considered missing

Armenia Armed Forces General Staff chief on new weapons: We choose what our army needs

Yerevan explosion: Search-and-rescue dogs found certain track, emergency ministry spokesman says

Iran MFA: International borders need to be preserved

Armenian member of Turkey parliament expresses condolences to people of Armenia

Putin condoles with Pashinyan regarding Yerevan market explosion

Yerevan explosion: Turkish special representative extends condolences to Armenia

Yerevan market explosion: Emergency minister dismisses terrorism claims

US embassy charge d'affaires expresses condolences regarding Yerevan explosion

Georgia MFA extends condolences to Yerevan explosion casualties families

1,713 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia past one week

Yerevan explosion: There is real danger building collapsing, says emergency minister

Yerevan explosion: Firefighting continues since Sunday (PHOTOS)

Artsakh president on Yerevan market explosion: Armenian people must arm themselves with fortitude

Yerevan explosion: All 6 casualties identified

Yerevan explosion: We are dealing with highly flammable materials, Armenia official says

Yerevan explosion: 21 injured continue to be treated at hospitals

Yerevan explosion: 2 of 6 casualties not identified yet

Yerevan explosion: 15 people found as result of search

Yerevan explosion: Death toll climbs to 6 (PHOTOS)

Yerevan explosion: PM Pashinyan arrives at scene

Yerevan explosion: Ensuing fire not put out yet

Yerevan explosion: 4 of 5 causalities identities are known

Yerevan explosion: Emergency ministry reports about 5th casualty

Yerevan explosion: Death toll reaches 4

Garden of Eden in Iraq now looks like a desert

Yerevan explosion: Identity of 3rd casualty is announced

Armenia emergency ministry: Information about explosive devices was false

Yerevan explosion: Six considered missing are found

Catholicos of All Armenians on Yerevan explosion. We pray for the peace, tranquility of the casualties souls

Switzerland may join EU energy saving initiative

Germany asks Brussels to exempt from paying VAT on gas

Explosion in Yerevan: Rescue work will continue all night

Yerevan blast: Rescuers found another body

Germany must cut its gas consumption by a fifth to avoid a serious gas shortage

Newsweek: Volodymyr Zelensky increasingly reveals his true nature

Brazilian central bank chief says credit cards will soon cease to exist

Armenian soldier dies

Saudi Arabia's state oil producer Aramco reports 90% profit growth

Yerevan blast: 20 citizens reported missing
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called for the commissioning of nine nuclear reactors to help with anticipated power shortages.

Kishida said that there are concerns about power shortages this winter.

He said the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will do all it can to get nine reactors running during the winter, which could provide about 10 percent of Japan's energy needs.

Japan is struggling with power outages due to extreme weather, the decommissioning of old power plants and delays in restarting nuclear reactors that were shut down after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. Japan is also reducing its use of energy sources from Russia.

While Japan is already facing power outages for the rest of the summer, the coming winter is expected to be very difficult.

Kishida has stepped up the rhetoric around nuclear power, demanding a faster restart of facilities that have passed safety tests. However, Japan's central government has little ability to actually order the plant to restart, as there is a strict regulatory process in place.

Ten of Japan's 33 operating nuclear reactors have been restarted in accordance with safety regulations since Fukushima, although some have been shut down due to maintenance. Another seven units have been approved by the national nuclear regulator to restart, but have yet to start up due to the need for upgrades or lack of local support.
Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev has confirmed the course of Azerbaijan's rapprochement with Turkey.

There is no equivalent to Azerbaijani-Turkish relations in the world, based on the will of our peoples, which are connected with each other by unbreakable threads, and built on friendship and brotherhood, are the most important in the world today, reads the letter by Aliyev addressed to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, APA reports.

I am sure that we will continue to step confidently towards the goals of the alliance that we defined in the Shusha [(Shushi)] Declaration, which we celebrated the first anniversary of its signing a month ago, stressed the Azerbaijani president.

The aforementioned letter is dedicated to the anniversary of the July 15, 2016 coup d'etat attempt in Turkey.
The European Commission is set to adopt on Friday its seventh package of sanctions against Russia, which will add a ban to the import of Russian gold and tweak existing restrictive measures to avoid hampering food exports, two officials told Reuters, the latter reported.

The new measures are considered "a maintenance and alignment package," one of the officials said, referring to it as a "sixth-and-a-half" set of sanctions for its limited scope compared with previous rounds that hit Russian oil or coal.

However, some measures could have a serious impact on the affected sectors.

The draft package includes a ban on imports of Russian gold into the EU, a proposal first reported by Reuters in June and which would come into force with the adoption of the new sanctions.

One source said imports of Russian gold through third countries would also be affected, but did not elaborate on how it would work.

Brussels will also tighten existing measures, with new curbs on the imports of goods that could be used for military purposes, including chemicals and machinery, the source said.

The Commission will also amend existing sanctions to make sure they do not hit Russia's food and grain exports, the three officials said.

African countries have said EU sanctions contributed to the ongoing food crisis.

The EU has long denied that its sanctions affected food trade. Proposed tweaks are meant to make sure that rules are not misinterpreted by traders, including a ban on access of Russian ships to EU ports, one official said.

Under that measure, Russian ships are already allowed to enter EU ports if they carry food or medicines.

But some traders have avoided food exported from Russian ports that are indirectly owned by Russian state-owned companies that have been sanctioned by Brussels. The new package will clarify that these ports are exempted from sanctions, the source said.

The EU Commission is expected to adopt the new measures later on Friday, said the two people who declined to be named. EU envoys are set to discuss the new package next week for final approval before the summer break.
The UAE is working to appoint an ambassador to Tehran as it seeks to rebuild bridges with Iran, the president's diplomatic adviser said on Friday, adding that the idea of a confrontational approach to Iran was not something Abu Dhabi supported, Reuters reported.

"Our conversation is ongoing ... we are in the process of sending an ambassador to Tehran. All these areas of rebuilding bridges are ongoing," Anwar Gargash told reporters ahead of a visit to Paris by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.

He said Abu Dhabi still shares concerns about Iran's regional activities, but wants to work hard to find diplomatic solutions.

Asked about talk of an anti-Iranian alliance to counter its regional activities, Gargash said a "Middle East NATO" was "theoretical."

"We are open to cooperation, but not cooperation targeting any other country in the region and I specifically mention Iran," he said. "The UAE is not going to be a party to any group of countries that sees confrontation as a direction, but we do have serious issues with Iran with its regional politics.

"We have an open eye. We are very clear if something is defending the UAE and its civilians, of course we are open to these ideas, but not to the idea of creating any axes against this or that country," he said.
The Islamic Republic of Iran does not have any restrictions regarding the promotion of comprehensive relations and cooperation with the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Secretary of Irans Supreme National Security Council said, Mehr reported.

Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani made the remarks in a meeting Friday in Baku with President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan.

"In the past 30 years, we have had very good cooperation with the Republic of Azerbaijan," he told the Azerbaijani president. "Your late father Heydar Aliyev always emphasized the development of these relations and cooperation."

Shamkhani said that the two countries should work in an atmosphere of mutual trust to introduce their shared heritage to the world.

He emphasized the firm determination of Iran to deal with the actors who are trying to destroy the relations between the two countries.

"With each other's help, we should not allow any elements to divide two nations," the Iranian top security official added.
European Union welcomes the recent phone conversation between the Armenian Prime Minister and Turkish President, considers it a very important step in the process of normalization of relations between the two countries and will follow its course, the head of the EU delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Andrea Wiktorin, said this in an interview with Radio Liberty.

She said that the EU, especially President of the European Council Charles Michel, welcomed the efforts to promote the process of normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey.

The ambassador noted that they are waiting for more concrete steps to normalize Armenian-Turkish relations. She said that there was a proposal on the table to open the Armenian-Turkish border to citizens of third countries.

Contacts between Yerevan and Ankara have markedly intensified in the previous two weeks. On 1 July, after the fourth meeting between Armenian and Turkish representatives in Vienna - Armenian Parliament Vice Speaker Ruben Rubinyan and Ambassador Serdar Kilic - the sides said they had agreed to allow citizens of third countries to cross the Armenian-Turkish land border as soon as possible and to start direct air cargo transportation.

Almost a week later, at the government session, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan tasked the Armenian agencies to work with the Turkish state structures to implement the agreement as soon as possible.

Pashinyan and Erdogan had their first telephone conversation on Monday, during which the two leaders expressed hope that the agreements reached in Vienna will be realized soon.

However, the official bodies of Armenia and Turkey keep silent about what kind of works will be carried out towards the implementation of the mentioned agreements, what timeframe is in question or in which direction the border will be opened - Gyumri, Margara or both? The Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure is dealing with transportation issues in Armenia, and as it did last week, so it did today, promising to provide details later.

Pashinyan and Erdogan's phone conversation was positively received in Washington and Moscow. U.S. State Department said the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations will positively affect the entire region. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Moscow consistently supports Yerevan-Turkish normalization of ties and is ready to further accompany the Armenian-Turkish dialogue.

Turkish newspaper GazeteKars recently wrote that according to its information, representatives of an Israeli company are carrying out demining works on the Armenian-Turkish border in Kars. The Armenian Defense Ministry told Radio Liberty that such works are not carried out on the Armenian side.
Azerbaijan and the EU will sign a document on energy security in the coming days, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said, Interfax reported.

He made the statement at the meeting on the results of the first half of the year, noting that the new agreement will raise the level of cooperation between the parties to a higher level.

Aliyev also recalled that he had repeatedly met and talked on the phone with President of the European Council Charles Michel, and noted that the main topic of these conversations was the normalization of Azerbaijani-Armenian relations.

"However, at the same time there have been extensive discussions about the future development of relations between the European Union and Azerbaijan. This year there has been active cooperation with the EU. As you know, we are working on a new agreement (on strategic partnership, -ed.). Most part of the agreement has been agreed, and the issues that were not agreed upon are being discussed. I hope that in the near future all issues will be coordinated," he said.

The European Commission announced on Friday that EC director Ursula von der Leyen and EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson will visit Azerbaijan on 18 July and hold meetings with the country's leadership. Simson, in particular, will meet with Azerbaijani Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attended the solemn event dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the formation of the Border Guard Troops of the National Security Service, the press service of Armenian government informed NEWS.am.

Minister of Defense Suren Papikyan, Director of National Security Service Armen Abazyan, Chief of Police Vahe Ghazaryan were also present at the event.

Prime Minister Pashinyan congratulated all the servicemen on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the formation of the Border Guard Troops and noted, In general, as in any country, the border guard troops in the Republic of Armenia are considered part of the Armed Forces. During the entire history of the Third Republic, the border guard troops contributed to the protection of the territorial integrity and security of the Republic of Armenia and together with the army fulfilled the tasks that were set before the army. But I want to emphasize that purely in terms of the idea, the concept, the border guard troops are generally the symbol of peace, because the borders, the protection of which is entrusted to the border guard troops, are usually considered peaceful borders. Because it is assumed that a friendship or peace treaty has been concluded with the states located in the direction of those borders, and this is a very important circumstance to record.

The border guard troops, in fact, since their formation, have not always and not everywhere acted according to the logic of this function. We bow our heads and pay our respects to the border guards who died protecting the Motherland. But I want to emphasize again that the logic of our policy is that we want all the borders of the Republic of Armenia, without exception, to be handed over to the control of the border guard troops, and the army units to return to their permanent locations. And this is exactly what we mean in the logic of the Armed Forces when we say peace agenda, this is exactly what we mean when we announce that the Armenian Government has adopted a peace agenda.

Of course, we understand the complications facing this process. There are a lot of discussions that yes, we need peace, but not at any cost. In general, one does not need anything at any cost, because everything has a price, and peace can be achieved not at the cost of everything, not at any cost, but at the cost of peace itself.

The Prime Minister presented state awards for the bravery and dedication shown in defending the borders of the Motherland. Captain Hrant Arzumanyan was posthumously awarded the Medal of Valor, Sergeant Karen Sargsyan was posthumously awarded the Medal for Combat Service. The Prime Minister handed over the awards to their relatives.

Nikol Pashinyan presented Medals for Combat Service to lieutenant colonel Vahan Hambardzumyan and captain Vladimir Tumasyan.

Prime Minister Pashinyan also laid flowers at the khachkar dedicated to the memory of border guards who fell for the Motherland, paying tribute to their memory, the statement reads.
Armenia to Provide Aid to Yazidis, Assyrians in North Iraq

The Government of Armenia will provide assistance to Yazidi refugees, internally displaced Kurds and Assyrians in camps in Iraqi Kurdistan, member of the Armenian National Assembly Rustam Bakoyan informs on Facebook.

The Government decided today to allocate 80,000 USD to the Consulate General of Armenia in Erbil for the purpose of purchasing necessary goods and distributing aid in the amount of $100 per person.

The remaining 30,000 USD of the total amount will be allocated for the purchase of heaters (fujika) and blankets for Yazidi and other minority refugees living in various camps.

"We all know the difficult conditions in which the national minorities live and survive in the entire Kurdistan region," Bakoyan said, adding that "the need for humanitarian assistance is always there as long as a number of problems remain unresolved."
The issue of Artsakh was on the agenda of my meetings in Strasbourg, we also talked about the issue of prisoners of war, Ishkhan Saghatelyan, the coordinator of the Resistance movement said.

His remarks came during a rally in France square, listing several minutes he made from his European visit.

Saghatelyan said that Nikol Pashinyan's claim that there is a demand formed by the international community to lower the bar in the status of Artsakh is a lie. "There was a demand for a common peace agenda and to achieve peace, but when I explained to international partners that this peace cannot be at the cost of repatriation of the Armenian people, depopulation of Artsakh and ethnic cleansing, those justifications and arguments had no objection, which is very understandable, he said.

The second record, according to him, is that the Armenian authorities, like in all other areas, have completely failed here. The defense of Armenia and Artsakh on the international platforms is in an absolute state of disrepair, our interests are not protected.

Saghatelyan said that Turkish-Azerbaijani delegations on international platforms present the Resistance movement as revanchists who want to destabilize the situation in the region. "Our struggle is not only against Nikol's government, but also against its owners. In fact, we must realize that today we are fighting not only against the government of the day, but also against Turkey, Azerbaijan and their money-financed agencies, "fakers" and agents," he said.

The coordinator of the Resistance movement also informed that now they are preparing a declaration of denunciation, cancellation, the content of which is as follows, which the next authorities should consider null and void any agreement reached by Nikol Pashinyan, whether written or verbal.

"Given that Pashinyan has nothing to do with the interests and will of our people, he promised the people one thing with his government program during the pre-election period, and now he is doing something completely different, he is serving the interests of Azerbaijan and Turkey, putting aside the vital interests of the Armenian people. We will take the initiative that the next government should as a matter of urgency declare null and void any verbal and written agreement reached by Nikol.

And after the final development of this document, we will propose that all political forces and figures of Armenia sign it and the whole world, including Aliyev and Erdogan, and all understand that any agreement reached with Nikol is null and has no legal significance for the Armenian people, he said.
YREVAN.  Hraparak daily of Armenia writes: Yesterday, as required by the law, a special session of the NA [(National Assembly)] Council was convened, on the agenda of which was put the matter of stripping 33 opposition MPs of their [parliamentary] mandate. The CC [i.e., the Civil Contract ruling] majority [faction] had to decide whether or not to petition to the Constitutional Court on the matter of stripping the oppositionists of their [parliamentary] mandate.

The law requires that the MPs whose matter is to be examined come to the session, if they do not come, the session is postponed for a week, then it is discussed a second time in their absence. The oppositionists had not come to the session yesterday, so this matter will be discussed after 1 week. However, our sources in the authorities say that in all probability, the CC will not make a decision on the matter of the opposition, although there is a radical wing in the faction, which demands that at least 10-15 [opposition] MPs be stripped of their [parliamentary] mandate.

The thing is that recently the NA CC faction discussed the matters of depriving from [parliamentary] positions and stripping of [parliamentary] mandate of the oppositionists. They were united in the matter of depriving [them of] the [parliamentary] positions, but no decision was taken in the matter of mandates. Most of the [CC] faction was against the process of stripping [them] of the [parliamentary] mandate, believing that, firstly, this step by the [incumbent Armenian] authorities which declared themselves a people's bastion would not be well understood by international organizations, secondly, they have had doubts that the Constitutional Court would consider that the oppositionists were engaged in political activities outside the parliament, so they will consider it a political boycott and deny their [i.e., the CC factions aforesaid] petition.

Basically, today it is being discussed whether the NA is an establishment or a political body. If it is an establishment, then absent workers can be fired. If it is a political body, boycott is one of the most accepted forms of political fight.
Amanda Johnson-Scott started her job as an administrative assistant in the Department of Biomedical Engineering on March 9, 2020. She had no idea that by the end of the week she would be working remotely for more than a year, having only met four colleagues. She felt isolated as one of the few Black people in her department, an experience familiar to many African Americans in the workplace.

About 30% of Black people feel lonely at work according to Cignas Loneliness at Work Study, conducted in partnership with the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

Further, research from Coqual found that more than 35% of African Americans and Latinos said they believe they have to compromise their authenticity at work.

At Emory, efforts are underway to address these issues, including the formation of employee resource groups: Emory Black Employee Network (EBEN) and Emory Pride Employee Network. These two were the first to be piloted based on the results of an employee survey conducted by Emorys Human Resources division last summer. Through these two groups, Emory is striving to provide opportunities for networking and social connection, enhance community and give voice to marginalized or underrepresented communities.

We want people to feel a stronger sense of connection to Emory and help people find mentors and professional development, says Melissa Morgan, manager of recognition and engagement in Human Resources. A lot of people have difficulty figuring out what their career path can be at Emory. We want people to come here, stay here and love Emory as a place to work.

Finding a place

For Johnson-Scott, getting connected has been essential to helping her find a place at Emory. In April 2020, she joined the Emory Employee Council and now shes one of the EBEN co-chairs.

When we got started, my co-chair [Brandon Gardner] and I talked to people who have been here longer than us and asked them how do they feel? They mentioned silos, experiencing microaggressions and feeling as if they couldnt get promoted within, says Johnson-Scott. Were not here to solve all your problems. But its nice to be around other people who can understand what Im going through at work.

During the past 18 years, Rita Frazier has built her own community at Emory, finding mentors in people such as University Ombuds Lynell Cadray. Frazier, who is one of the membership-recruitment chairs for EBEN, believes this new resource group gives Black employees a chance to network, share information about professional development opportunities, as well as find mentors and mentees.

I see so many people who are really good at their jobs just languishing in a position when they have the opportunity to do more, says Frazier, who is the manager for financial planning and analysis in the Department of Pathology. Ill speak up and advocate for myself, but everyone is not like that, and it doesnt take away from their awesomeness. A lot of times, people just need someone who can believe in them and that can open them up.

Creating connections

Since starting this spring, EBEN has 300 members. Last month, they hosted an after-work Juneteenth mixer at The Hatchery.

On July 19, EBEN is having a virtual event called Tired of Fakin It Til You Make It? for BIPOC Mental Health Awareness Month. During the event, attendees will discuss the unique mental health challenges and needs of historically disenfranchised or oppressed racial and ethnic groups in the United States. This meeting is in partnership with the Emory Faculty Staff Assistance Program (FSAP) and moderated by Mellonie Hayes Mullins, an employee assistance clinician in FSAP.

EBEN co-chair Brandon Gardner, who is associate director of community engagement in the Office of Government and Community Affairs, says he wants people to feel free to be their authentic selves no matter where they are at Emory.

There have been times when I felt as if I had to wear a mask and speak a certain way to make sure my colleagues feel comfortable, says Gardner. Its draining to be put in that situation, and its a topic that we as people of color can all relate to.

EBEN also has more social events coming. On August 6, they will host a family-friendly cookout at Westside Reservoir Park in the Great Lawn Pavilion. Gardner says attendees can expect plenty of food, games and dancing. Registraion is open now through August 1.

Theres a need to bring people together and create a safe space where we can be ourselves, says Gardner. Its important for me to be a part of building a legacy at Emory and to know that I helped lay a more equitable foundation for future employees.

EBEN Working Group

Cedric Blatch, complex director, student staff training coordinator, Office of Residence Life

Jessica Browning, human resource specialist, Emory National Primate Research Center

Rita Frazier, manager for financial planning & analysis, Department of Pathology, School of Medicine

Brandon Gardner, associate director of community engagement, Office of Government and Community Affairs

Morieka Johnson, director of communications, Emory Police Department

Amanda Johnson-Scott, administrative assistant, School of Medicine, Biomedical Engineering

Nora Lewis, academic department administrator, Emory College of Arts and Sciences

Shervon Lewis, learning designer, Campus Services Learning & Development

Maurice Middleton, EBEN faculty scholar and associate vice provost of institutional equity and compliance, Equal Opportunity Programs

Veronica Phillips, senior administrative assistant, Emory National Primate Research Institute

J.L. Reed, program coordinator, Department of Orthopedics, School of Medicine

For more information, email eben@emory.edu.
The inspiration for one of marine ecologist Neil Hammerschlags most intriguing studies on sharks came not during a research cruise to Tiger Beach in Grand Bahama nor in his laboratory at the University of Miamis Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science, but while sitting in a commercial airliner thousands of feet in the air.

Hammerschlag was returning from a scientific symposium. And as the jet made its descent for a nighttime landing at Miami International Airport, he looked out his window to see a coastline illuminated by lights.

He knew that some animals like pigeons and racoons thrive in cities, while others such as wolves tend to be urban avoiders, staying away from big metropolitan areas. But what about sharks? Hammerschlag asked himself.

Research investigating the movements of ocean predators in relation to urbanization is rare, he knew. So, along with a team of colleagues, Hammerschlag tracked bull, nurse, and great hammerhead sharks in coastal waters near the city of Miami, finding, to his surprise, that the three species spent an abundance of time near the lights and sounds of the big city, often close to shore, no matter the time of day.

The study, Urban sharks: residency patterns of marine top predators in relation to a coastal metropolis, is just one example of the plethora of research that makes Hammerschlag one of the preeminent shark researchers in the world.

So, it is no surprise that National Geographic tabbed the researcher to provide expert commentary for the eight-episode show Shark Attack Files, which premieres July 18 as part of the networks SharkFest series.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the series dedicated to the science of one of the oceans top apex predators. As such, SharkFestwhich would normally be limited to the networks Nat Geo, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Mundo, Disney+, and Disney XDhas been expanded to ABC, ESPN, and Hulu to help air its largest programming slate ever.

Neil Hammerschlag

While SharkFest appeals to the mass audience with sensational show titles such as Sharks that Eat Everything, Jaws vs. Boats, and Shark Kill Zone: The Hunt, the series, and others like it such as Discoverys Shark Week, do offer an invaluable educational component, according to Hammerschlag.

Its an opportunity to get people fascinated about sharks, but its also an opportunity to educate them, he said. I compare it to getting my dog to take a pill. I hide it in peanut butter so that hell swallow it. And thats what I do in my contribution to these shows. I sneak in a little bit of fiber along with the sugar.

Hammerschlag will also have a short appearance on Shark Weeks Tracy Morgan Presents: Sharks! with Tracy Morgan, which is set for its world premiere July 28 at 8 p.m. on Discovery and its streaming service, Discovery+.

And this years Shark Week will be packed with muscle, as University of Miami alumnus, actor, and philanthropist Dwayne The Rock Johnson will serve as master of ceremonies for the 34th installment of the series, which begins July 24.

While SharkFest is, indeed, entertaining, the real meat and potatoes of Hammerschlags work is his groundbreaking research conducted in the field. Like his study on sharks being affected by urbanization.

Its not at all what we expected, he said of the urban study. The sharks we tracked were spending lots of time near downtown Miami in the most polluted waters.

Perhaps attracted to shore from land-based activities such as the discarding of fish carcasses, the sharks exhibited behavior that closely resembled that of urban adapters, Hammerschlag and his team noted. But the concern is that those sharks are at risk from polluted waters and from all of the chemical, light, and noise contamination in the area, he said.

Hammerschlag pointed out that it is crucial people be aware that sharks, like many other species, are being impacted by climate change. He led a study, for example, that reveals that the locations and timing of tiger shark movement in the western North Atlantic Ocean have changed because of rising ocean temperaturesclimate-driven changes that have subsequently shifted tiger shark movements outside of protected areas, leaving them more vulnerable to commercial fishing.

Through his Shark Research and Conservation Program, he not only conducts cutting-edge shark research but also mentors children, taking hundreds of students on expeditions to survey, tag, and study sharks.

We started with 20 kids participating in 2006, and now its nearly a thousand a year, said Hammerschlag, adding that the trips provide an invaluable resource. They promote an environmental ethic, and they inspire kids to not only appreciate science but also to potentially want to pursue careers in the STEM fields. They show that science can be cool and very engaging.
According to DSP Sohrab Goth Sohail Faiz, armed groups set fire to a vehicle near Al Asif Square after which the police arrested 15 people, The News reported.

Speaking of riots a day earlier, the officer said that 150 people have been arrested.

It may be recalled that hotels were closed in different parts of Hyderabad on Tuesday after the murder of Bilal Kaka following a quarrel at a hotel.

The situation worsened on Thursday as ethnic tension flared up in different parts of Sindh, forcing political leaders to urge their followers to show restraint and stay calm, The News reported.

Urging the citizens to not adhere to rumours, Sindh IG Ghulam Nabi Memon said today that law and order are under control in the province and it is their priority to ensure peace.

Over 100 people are under custody in relation to the Sohrab Goth incident and cases have been registered against the suspects, Memon said.

The top cop added that the situation is normal in Sindh.

Memon said that nine people have been nominated in the Hyderabad incident and two of them have been arrested. Raids are being conducted to nab the other accused as well, the police official added.

Later, speaking at a press conference, Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said that 28 people were taken into custody for forcing hotels shut across the province.

--IANS san/arm

( 276 Words)

2022-07-15-20:26:03 (IANS)
The group is found to have claimed artificially inflated deduction under special provisions in respect of certain incomes, by resorting to suppression of expenses and over-appropriation of revenue to the unit eligible for such deduction, sources said.

Income Tax Department sources told ANI that during the course of the search operations, substantial incriminating evidence, in the form of documents and digital data, has been found and seized.

The raided locations are spread across Telangana and Uttar Pradesh. The company's headquarters at Hyderabad, the residential premises of Chairman and Managing Director Sajja Kishore Babu, and other top management were covered in the search action that was initiated on Wednesday morning.

The engineering and construction company's subsidiary Power Mech Infra is also being raided by the tax enforcement agency. Searches at two of their premises at Noida are underway.

Established in 1999, it provides services in the power and infrastructure sectors. It has a presence in more than ten countries.

Last month, PMPL announced that it had received a 'Letter of Award (LoA)' for five separate work orders worth Rs 521.95 crore. (ANI)
New Delhi [India] July 15 (ANI/PR Newswire): With Digital Transformation quickly changing the world around us, there is always a need to upskill/ reskill ourselves. Continuous learning helps individuals change roles and grow up the career ladder while having an edge over other professionals. ExcelR is a leading training provider that facilitates state-of-the-art upskilling/reskilling programs in trending technologies for students, freshers, and professionals. It has bagged an array of awards for excellence in the sector, of which the Silicon India Magazine's "10 Most Promising Data Science Training Institutes" and the Deloitte Fast 50 India Award are a few worth mentioning. Added to the list is this exceptional feat of collaboration wherein ExcelR has signed a memorandum of understanding with FutureSkills Prime building a digital skilling ecosystem and making India a global digital talent hub. FutureSkills Prime - A MeitY-NASSCOM initiative gives an opportunity to every citizen of India above the age of 16 to upskill/ reskill themselves and stay relevant in the industry. It collaborates with content partners offering world-class content in 10 Emerging Technologies and 10 professional skills. ExcelR, allied with the public-private initiative, will facilitate continuous learning and knowledge enhancement of graduates and working professionals about their aspiration and aptitude, thereby promoting their employability quotient. Joining hands with the only skilling ecosystem that is backed by the IT industry, NASSCOM, and GoI, ExcelR has got its flagship Data Science Course Accredited by NASSCOM, and approved by the Government of India. Learners will get access to multiple resources like NASSCOM Career Fair, NASSCOM industry events, Bootcamps, Career guidance sessions, etc. Speaking about the partnership, Ram Tavva, the CEO of ExcelR Solutions said, "We are proud to be one among the FutureSkills Prime's accredited network of training partners. Professional skills at an affordable cost have been our motto since inception and this collaboration with a MeitY-NASSCOM Digital Skilling Initiative has sped up our mission and widened our vision. We're glad that our share and contribution towards the national intent of making India a global digital hub has successfully begun and we will continue to play a significant role in the digital upskilling revolution in the years to come." Kirti Seth - CEO, SSC NASSCOM said, "As digital technologies disrupt existing business models, the type of skills that are required in the workforce are transforming. With such rapid acceleration in technology, learning agility will be the key for today's talent to remain future-ready. Although at its lowest compared to global economies, India's demand-supply gap is at 21 per cent as of FY22. Bridging the gap would require collaboration between the government, industries, and academia to ensure India remains the preferred destination for world-class digital talent. Accelerating the efforts, we are delighted to partner with ExcelR who will bring its flagship data science course, aligned to Competency Standards developed by SSC NASSCOM to the platform." Learners who access this course through FutureSkills Prime will benefit by earning a part of their fee back when they get their skills certification, making excellent quality digital skilling courses affordable and accessible. ExcelR is a global leader delivering a wide gamut of management and technical training to over 40 countries. Partnering with 350+ corporate clients and universities around the globe, its time-tested training methodologies have transformed the careers of over 140,000+ graduates and working professionals so far. It boasts a striking 4.8/5 ratings on Google for the world-class training and post-training support it offers. ExcelR's courses prepare learners for the various advancements in technology, strategic thinking, and planning, ensuring their skill set matches the contemporary needs of the industry alongside they are future-ready. FutureSkills Prime is one of its kind public-private partnership between the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and NASSCOM to build a digital skilling ecosystem for the citizens of India. Its mission is to reskill/ upskill graduates and professionals in emerging technologies and professional skills, to make India a global digital talent nation in the next few years. FutureSkills Prime is committed to guiding and empowering Indian Professionals towards playing exciting, valued, and purposeful roles in a future that has significant possibilities, enabled by new-age digital technologies. The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) is the premier trade body and chamber of commerce of the Tech industry in India and comprises over 3000-member companies. Our membership spans across the entire spectrum of the industry from startups to multinationals and from products to services, Global Capability Centers to Engineering firms. Guided by India's vision to become a leading digital economy globally, NASSCOM focuses on accelerating the pace of transformation of the industry to emerge as the preferred enablers for global digital transformation. Our strategic imperatives are to reskill and upskill India's IT workforce to ensure that talent is future-ready in terms of new-age skills, strengthen the innovation quotient across industry verticals, create new market opportunities - both international and domestic, drive policy advocacy to advance innovation and ease of doing business, and build the industry narrative with focus on Talent, Trust and Innovation. And, in everything we do, we will continue to champion the need for diversity and equal opportunity. Visit Us: Business Name: ExcelR - Data Science, Data Analytics Course Training in HyderabadAddress: Cyber Towers, PHASE-2, 5th Floor, Quadrant-2, HITEC City, Hyderabad, Telangana 500081 This story is provided by PR Newswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PR Newswire)
AG Dynamic Funds Limited bought 1.02 lakh shares of Shubham Polyspin at Rs 215 per share, BSE bulk deal data showed. The fund house picked up equity shares from the open market on July 14.

Shubham Polyspin Ltd has become a much sought-after brand in the polypropylene yarn sector across the globe. The global polypropylene industry is witnessing tremendous progress due to the emergence of new applications, technological advancements and increasing demand for accessible and affordable packaging solutions.

Shares of Shubham Polyspin closed at Rs 215.50, up 0.87 per cent from the previous close on the BSE.

This story is provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PNN)
July 2015 ushered in a fresh revolution in the Indian growth story when the government of India unveiled what later turned out to be the country's most fruitful campaign, `Digital India'. With three primary objectives that comprised the creation of a robust digital infrastructure, streamlining of governance and the citizens' digital empowerment, the programme initially focused at enhancing the speed of communication between the service providers and the consumers. And with quantum leaps in the last seven years, India's digital achievements have played a pivotal role in strengthening 'Brand India'. With a 33 per cent year-on-year growth, the Indian market clocked over 74 billion digital payments during the financial year 2021-22, as per the Ministry of Electronics and IT data. India has become a global leader in terms of digital payments. Since 2019, it has registered phenomenal growth. According to a March 2021 report by ACI Worldwide, India with over 25 billion online payments topped the charts with its closest competitor China way behind with 15.7 billion payments. The Digital India campaign has been a major hit in India's governance model too. While the government has shifted nearly all its schemes and operations online, it also added nearly 63 million Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) into the formal economy through GST, which compelled them to embrace technology for tax filing and other purposes. This has proven to be a highly effective approach towards rooting out any systemic flaws and corruption. Today, India is home to over 100 unicorns with a total valuation of over $335 billion. And, since India has grown a tech-heavy ecosystem, maximum unicorns are targeting India's mobile-first economy. The key drivers in this rapid rise include - Growing Internet Penetration, Demographic Dividend, Increasing Smartphone Penetration and India's Robust IT sector. From premier tech companies to small banks, every single entity in the country is encouraging its consumers to switch to a more convenient digital method. Chandrasekhar Singhal, Assistant General Manager at the State Bank of India said, "The digital technology is being used aggressively for payments. Whether it is the customer or bank, everybody is focused on digital (technology). The cash transactions have reduced, which has made us cash-free. Fraudulent activities have reduced and it is very convenient for the people". When the COVID-19 pandemic took a massive toll on people across the world, the Digital India campaign, which had established itself by the time of the outbreak, proved to be a vital cog in fighting it. The government not just launched applications to keep pandemics at bay but also provided real-time information in order to avoid chaos and panic. India's sophisticated Co-win platform which prepares a database of the vaccinated people has been applauded by people around the world and over a dozen countries have reached out to the government to use it. India's digital story has set an example for the world. This revolution will cause a paradigm shift for the country and its economy, and it is expected to touch the mark of $1 trillion by 2025. (ANI)
On World Youth Skills Day, Vedanta Aluminium, India's largest producer of aluminium, reaffirmed its commitment to scaling up skill development programmes for rural youth, helping them learn employable skills and find livelihood opportunities. Through various skill development initiatives, the company has, till date, helped more than 12,000 youth get trained in solar energy technology, housekeeping, industrial sewing, machine operations, tailoring, food and beverage, electricals, fitting and welding, advanced agriculture etc., and find lucrative employment in various industries. Speaking about the company's approach, Rahul Sharma, CEO, Vedanta Aluminium, said, "Creating sustainable livelihoods through skill development is fundamental to our vision for sustainable development in the regions where we operate. "India's future aspirations hinge on its young, talented workforce having the right skills as the future of work evolves rapidly. By creating avenues for the local youth to get trained in such skills, Vedanta Aluminium is helping them seek gainful employment both within their communities and beyond, thereby transforming the socio-economic fabric at grassroots." Earlier this year, Vedanta Aluminium launched a skill development programme for the communities in the vicinity of its alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in Odisha's Kalahandi district. The first batch of 29 students who underwent this programme are now employed with some of India's top hospitality sector players. This is significant since Lanjigarh is located in one of the remotest regions of India, with not many education and livelihood opportunities for the youth to chase their aspirations. The success of Vedanta Aluminium's skill development programme is encouraging many other youngsters to come forward and enrol for subsequent phases of the programme. Niharika Durga, who was one of the trainees in the programme, said, "I would like to thank Vedanta for providing placement-linked skill training which has opened up a world of opportunities for me. I am very happy to share that I have successfully completed the three-month training programme and got employment with Ramoji film city, Hyderabad, which has consequently brought happiness to my family. I am the first girl in my family to have secured such a good job. My parents are very proud of me." Vedanta Aluminium has established Subhalaxmi Co-operative, one of India's largest rural women's co-ops, at Jharsuguda in Odisha, where the company operates one of the world's largest aluminium smelters. With a presence across 72 villages in Odisha and over 4100 women members, the co-op enables aspiring women entrepreneurs with micro-finance, skill development, financial literacy and market linkage. More than 1,800 women have already benefited from its skill development programmes in financial literacy, enterprise development, business management, and trades like sewing, animal husbandry, farming, mushroom cultivation, etc. Similarly, through Jeevika Samridhhi, a land and water management programme being run in Jharsuguda, Vedanta Aluminium has helped more than 300 farmers get trained in advanced agricultural practices such as crop plan, harvest and management, package of practices (PoP), organic farming, natural pest management, etc. Jeevika Samridhhi aims at increasing farmers' income by encouraging adoption of, and training them in, advanced agriculture practices through agri-scientists from Krishi Vigyan Kendra and other agricultural research institutes. In Chhattisgarh, Vedanta Aluminium has established three Skill Schools in Korba, Kawardha and Mainpat through which more than 10,000 youth have been trained in various trades. The Vedanta Skill School provides robust technical education designed as per the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC). Graduates from these schools have found employment with some of India's leading companies in power, steel, automotive, solar and hospitality industries. Vedanta Skill School has been imparting these trainings in convergence with government schemes like Mukhya Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (MMKVY), NABARD, Skill India Impact Bond (SIIB) and National institute of Solar Energy (NISE). --IANS san/arm ( 623 Words) 2022-07-15-19:12:02 (IANS)
Several pictures have surfaced online in which Aamir is seen watching the film with Rajamouli, Nagarjuna and Chiranjeevi. Chiranjeevi's son Naga Chaitanya, who plays a special role in the film, also attended the screening.

Helmed by Advait Chandan, 'Laal Singh Chaddha' is an official Hindi adaptation of the Academy Award-winning 1994 film Forrest Gump, which had Tom Hanks in the lead role. It is scheduled to release on August 11 this year.

Kareena Kapoor Khan and Mona Singh are also a part of the film. A few weeks ago, Aamir unveiled the film's trailer which took viewers on a joyride of emotions. The almost 3-minute-long trailer gave a glimpse into the fascinating and innocent world of Laal Singh Chaddha, the film's protagonist.

His slow-witted approach and childlike optimism are the driving force of the movie. In the trailer, Aamir's calming voiceover and his eyes-wide-open look gave flashbacks to his mannerisms from Rajkumar Hirani's 'PK'.

It showed multiple picturesque locations, exhibiting the Indian heritage in its tranquil form. Aamir's cute chemistry with Kareena is great and Mona Singh also looked seamless in the role of the protagonist's mother. (ANI)
Sushmita Sen has finally put to rest all rumours surrounding her wedding with former IPL chairman Lalit Modi. She, however, did say that she is "unconditionally surrounded by love". A day after Lalit Modi announced he was dating her on social media, the 'Aarya' actor took to Instagram to dismiss the wedding rumours. She posted a picture with her daughters on Instagram and wrote, "I am in a happy place!! NOT MARRIED...NO RINGS...Unconditionally surrounded by love." She continued, "Enough clarifications given...now back to life & work!! Thank you for sharing in my happiness always...and for those who don't...its #NYOB Anyway!!! I love you Guys #duggadugga #yourstruly". Lalit Modi made their relationship Instagram and Twitter official on Thursday night. After the announcement, social media was flooded with reactions and trolls. People were waiting for Sushmita to give a confirmation. Lalit Modi first uploaded a bunch of pictures with her on Twitter and wrote, "Just back in London after a whirling global tour #maldives # sardinia with the families - not to mention my #betterhalf @sushmitasen47 - a new beginning a new life finally. Over the moon," he wrote on Twitter and accompanied it with a bunch of lovestruck and heart emoticons. After Lalit tweeted pictures with Sushmita, people started speculating if the couple is now married. However, Lalit cleared the air by putting another tweet clarifying that they are just dating. He wrote, "Just for clarity. Not married - just dating each other. That too will happen one day." Lalit then changed his Instagram display picture to a cosy picture with Sushmita. He even changed his Instagram bio and wrote, "Finally starting a new life with my partner in crime. My love @sushmitasen47". Lalit was previously married to Minal Sagrani, whom he married in October of 1991. They had two children together - son Ruchir and daughter Aliya. He is also a stepfather to Karima Sagrani, from Minal's first marriage. Unfortunately, Minal died of cancer in 2018. On the other hand, Sushmita was in a relationship with model Rohman Shawl, whom she met through Instagram in 2018, but broke up with him last year. She is a mother of two adopted daughters Renee and Alisah. (ANI)
'Gremlins,' director Joe Dante believes that Baby Yoda character from the TV series 'The Mandalorian' is completely stolen and copied from his movie. Recently in an interview director Joe Dante said, "I think the longevity of [the films] is really key to this one character Gizmo, who is essentially like a baby," director Joe Dante recently told the San Francisco Chronicle of the star of his classic Gremlins films. "Which brings me, of course, to the subject of Baby Yoda, who is completely stolen and is just out-and-out copied. Shamelessly, I would think," as per Deadline. Both the creatures look a lot alike when seen side by side with extraordinary powers, big eyes and expressive ears. However, the initial inspiration for Grugu, referred to as Baby Yoda, a character from 'The Mandalorian' Star Wars Disney original television series undoubtedly predates the first Gremlins, which came out in 1984. Yoda made his debut four years prior, as a seemingly impish little swamp creature who bugged Luke Skywalker while he was bogged down on Degobah, according to Deadline. Mandalorian showrunner Jon Favreau explained last year that he was thinking more about E.T. than Gizmo when conceiving the character. "Dave [Filoni] had done a sketch of kind of a Michelangelo/E.T. moment, and that was a source of inspiration," Favreau shared about the Child's first scene. The sketch shows Grugu's cradle afloat with his little hand reaching up out of it and Mando reaching back down to touch fingers. You can see that actual drawing in this Disney Gallery episode on 'The Mandalorian'. The drawing combines Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam" and echoes Steven Spielberg's famous alien, said Jon Favreau. "Doug Chiang and the whole art department started generating drawings of it, and the Legacy [Effects] people built it, "added Favreau "We got lots and lots of drawings," explained Favreau in the Disney Gallery episode. "Some of them were too cute, some of them were too ugly, some of them were the wrong proportions." You can see some early sketches here. Favreau shared, "Finally there was one image that Chris Alzmann did that had him wrapped up in what looked like a piece of a flight jacket." "His eyes were a little weird, and he looked a little out of it, there was something a little off with it. But we found it charming, and that became the rallying image that we said, 'This is good.' And it developed from there." Star Wars creator George Lucas had an entirely different concern about the character at its inception, as per Deadline. He revealed that Lucas, who once was pictured on the set of The Mandalorian cradling Baby Yoda, worried about the character's development. Filoni revealed in the book that, "I had a talk with George at one point about the Child, and his main concern was that the kid has to have a proper amount of training." Lucas got his wish. An entire episode of The Book of Boba Fett is devoted to the Jedi training of young Grogu. (ANI)
On Thursday night, actor Ranbir Kapoor had a pleasant meeting with his close friend Aditya Roy Kapur at a star-studded event in Mumbai.

In a video captured by ANI, Ranbir is seen beaming with joy after seeing Aditya. He went towards Aditya and happily hugged him. The two even posed for the shutterbugs. The highlight of the duo's meeting was when Ranbir gave a kiss on Aditya's cheek.

"Oh f**k," excited Ranbir said on seeing Aditya.

Both marked their presence in stylish outfits. Ranbir donned a checkered tuxedo while Aditya opted for a tan suit that he paired with a white t-shirt.

Ranbir and Aditya have worked together in 'Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani', which was released in 2013.

Speaking of the duo's upcoming projects, Ranbir is busy promoting his film 'Shamshera' with Vaani Kapoor. On the other hand, Aditya was recently seen in an action-packed avatar in 'Om: The Battle Within', which was helmed by Kapil Verma.

Ranbir's Shamshera is scheduled to release on July 22. He is also set to come up with 'Brahmastra', in which he is paired opposite his wife Alia Bhatt. (ANI)
A 75-day-long 'Covid Vaccination Amrit Mahotsava' will commence from Friday to provide free precaution dose to all eligible adults at government Covid Vaccination Centres (CVCs). This special Covid vaccination drive is a part of the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations, and is aimed to increase uptake for the precaution dose. In a virtual meet with State and UT Health Secretaries and NHM MDs held on Thursday, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan urged states to give an intensive and ambitious push towards full Covud vaccination coverage by vaccinating all eligible beneficiaries and covering them with precaution dose. Expressing concern over less percentage of precaution doses uptake among population groups aged 18 years and above which is only 8 per cent and persons aged 60 years and above at only 27 per cent, he asked states to implement the event as a public drive with massive mass mobilisation, through a camp approach. They were advised to organise special vaccination camps in the routes of Char Dham Yatra, Amarnath Yatra, Kanwar Yatra (all states/UTs of north India) as well as major Melas and congregations. Union Health Secretary advised to operationalise special workplace vaccination camps at big office complexes (public & private), industrial establishments, railway stations, inter-state bus stations, in schools and colleges, etc. In all such special vaccination camps, vaccination to be done mandatorily through CoWIN and vaccination certificate to be provided, he said. States were advised to ensure that the available Covid vaccine doses are consumed in a timely manner and no dose expires in both government and private facilities. The Centre has also said to assess the requirement for the 75-day special drive as per the eligible population groups and inform to the Centre to provide adequate doses. The special drive will continue for 75 days from July 15 to September 30. Those eligible for the precaution dose include all persons of above 18 years who have completed 6 months (or 26 weeks) from the date of administration of the second dose. --IANS avr/vd ( 348 Words) 2022-07-14-22:52:02 (IANS)
Students complained of vomiting and loose motions after lunch at PUC-1 and PUC-2 hostels. Some of them fell unconscious.

Authorities at RGUKT, popularly known as IIIT Basara, provided first aid to affected students in the premises by calling doctors from Nirmal and Bhainsa towns.

Those who fell unconscious were shifted to hospitals in Nizamabad.

The students were served egg fried rice for lunch at the two hostels. The food was prepared at the same place.

On learning about the incident, Forest Minister A. Indrakaran Reddy, who comes from the same district, spoke to IIIT Director Satish Kumar

The incident came less than a month after students staged a week-long protest, demanding better quality food, drinking water and other amenities.

The students had complained that the food being served in the hostel mess is of poor quality. They alleged that on several occasions, small insects and frogs were found in the hostel food.

They had called off their week-long protest on June 21 after Education Minister P. Sabitha Indra Reddy visited the institute and gave an assurance that their problems will be solved in a phased manner.

The students were demanding appointment of a regular Vice Chancellor and improvement in quality of food and other basic amenities.

--IANS ms/vd

( 254 Words)

2022-07-15-19:16:03 (IANS)
In a fresh twist to the controversy over the BJP asking former Vice President Hamid Ansari to come clean on claims of a Pakistan journalist which were rubbished by him and the Congress, Dr Adish Aggarwala, Chairman, All India Bar Association, has said that they "chose not to disclose" about an international conference on terrorism and the government should initiate a probe into the matter as it "relates to national security and espionage". In a press statement, Aggarwala, a senior advocate, said that the former Vice President and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had referred to the International Conference of Jurists on International Terrorism and Human Rights held on December 11 and 12, 2010 in Vigyan Bhavan and not to the International Conference against Terrorism organised by Jama Masjid United Forum held at Oberoi Hotel, New Delhi on October 27, 2009. He said the 2009 conference was attended by Hamid Ansari, Shahi Imam of Delhi Jama Masjid National Conference leader Dr Farooq Abdullah and other Muslim leaders. Aggarwala alleged that Hamid Ansari and his friends "were fraternizing with Nusrat Mirza at the ma Masjid United Forum's Conference". "It appears that Mr Hamid Ansari and Mr Jairam Ramesh chose not to disclose about the Jama Masjid United Forum's Conference in order to mislead government agencies and the public. Possibly, they felt it appropriate to take shelter behind the Jurists' Conference so that Mr Ansari receives a clean chit on scrutiny of records of the said Conference," he said. "The statements made by Mr Hamid Ansari and Mr Jairam Ramesh and other Congress office bearers are manifestly distorted, wholly untrue, and deplorably dishonest. It is rather astonishing that a former Vice-President of the country would indulge in underhanded activity and then try to duck behind another unconnected event to lead the public astray. In order to unravel the truth, I reiterate that Mr Hamid Ansari and his friends were fraternizing with Nusrat Mirza at the Zama Masjid United Forum's Conference," he added. The BJP had on Wednesday asked Ansari and the Congress to come clean on media reports about claims of Pakistani journalist Nusrat Mirza that Ansari had invited him to India. Mirza claimed that he had shared the information collected during the visit with Pakistan's ISI Ansari had said that a litany of falsehood had been unleashed on him personally in sections of media and by the official spokesperson of Bharatiya Janata Party. Aggarwala said statements were made to take cover behind the Conference of Jurists in order to evade questions and escape inquiries. He said Ansari had attended the International Conference of Jurists on International Terrorism and Human Rights in 2010 but Nusrat Mirza was neither an invitee, nor had he attended it. "Even Nusrat Mirza has not referred to this Conference in his interview," he said. "It is recalled that when the aforesaid Conference was being organized, an invitation to attend the Conference had been sent to Mr Hamid Ansari in his capacity as Vice-President of India. Mr Ashok Dewan who at that time was working as Director, Vice-President Secretariat had informed me that the Vice-President has desired that Pakistani journalist Nusrat Mirza be invited to the Conference. However, we could not accede to the request since Mr Mirza was from Pakistan media and we had not invited judges or lawyers from Pakistan," Aggarwala said. "When Mr Dewan came to know that we have not invited Mr Mirza despite insistence of the Vice-President, Mr Dewan called me up the day before the conference and expressed displeasure of the Vice-President. He also informed me that Mr Hamid Ansari has felt offended and will now attend the inaugural ceremony for only twenty minutes although he had initially agreed to participate in the event for an hour. On the next day, Mr Ansari left the ceremony after twenty minutes itself as had been informed by Mr. Dewan," he added. Aggarwala said some Congress leaders are trying to mask the alleged meeting of Mr Hamid Ansari with Nusrat Mirza "by making insinuations and veiled statements on social media that Nusrat Mirza had attended the Conference organized by me". "Mr. Ansari may have been advised to shield himself behind the Jurists' Conference as it is attended by Presidents, Prime Ministers, Chief Justices, Law Ministers including Presidents, Vice-Presidents and Judges of International Court of Justice, and follows all norms of the respective countries that host the conferences. The actual event where Mr Ansari and Mr Mirza participated together is not the Conference of Jurists as attempted to be portrayed by Mr Ansari and his supporters. The said event, which for obvious reasons Mr Hamid Ansari and Mr Jairam Ramesh withheld in their public statements, is the 'International Conference against Terrorism' organized by Jama Masjid United Forum" "It appears that Mr Hamid Ansari and Mr Jairam Ramesh chose not to disclose about the Jama Masjid United Forum's Conference in order to mislead government agencies and the public. Possibly, they felt it appropriate to take shelter behind the Jurists' Conference so that Mr Ansari receives a clean chit on scrutiny of records of the said conference," he said. "They deceitfully and designedly named the Jurists' Conference as the only one which was attended by Mr. Hamid Ansari on the assumption that none will reach the truth. Mr Hamid Ansari had shared the dais with Mr Nusrat Mirza at the said event. Whenever an event is attended by the President of India, Vice-President of India or the Prime Minister of India who are adorning the dais, the names of all persons who share the dais are to be first cleared by the said leaders. It is, therefore, obvious that the names of persons who were on the dais that day had been approved of by Mr Ansari. This implies that Mr Mirza was present in the said event either on the invite of or at least with prior knowledge and consent of Mr Hamid Ansari. It is regrettable that Mr Hamid Ansari is now trying to wash his hands off the matter and to distance himself from the said person after their close association has been disclosed by Nusrat Mirza himself." Aggarwala also enclosed a photograph "showing Mr Hamid Ansari sharing the dais at the said event". "We request the Government of India to initiate an inquiry into the matter since the matter relates to national security and espionage. The records of the Jama Masjid United Forum Conference, which apparently are not in public domain, need to be retrieved and analyzed," he said. Aggarwala, who is President International Council of Jurists, said each such international conference can be organised only after obtaining clearance of Union Home Ministry and External Affairs Ministry. He said the former Vice-President must "be made to account for acts that endangered the lives of its citizens". Nusrat Mirza claimed that Ansari invited him to India five times between 2005-2011 and added that he shared the information he collected during his visits with ISI BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia had taken a dig at Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and alleged that the opposition party has a history that it "stands for the family, not for the nation". He also asked Ansari if ha has taken instructions from the Gandhis to invite Mirza. Jairam Ramesh had said that "insinuations and innuendos by BJP spokesperson are to be condemned in "strongest possible language". (ANI)
Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel has been constantly monitoring the situation of the flood-affected areas of the rain-battered state. Heavy rains in several areas of Gujarat since the last few days brought life to a standstill. While residents of low-lying areas have been shifted to safer places, those stranded at home due to waterlogging have been provided with relief material. The Chief Minister visited the state control room on Thursday night to take stock of the situation, especially in the Navsari district. He later spoke with the Collectors of Navsari and Valsad via video conferencing and sought details of the relief work and rescue operation. He took detailed information on moving people to safer places, opening up of roads and highways, and regarding the work being done by the NDRF, stated the state government. Locals of Golvad and Fadvel village near Kaveri river in Navsari District were trapped due to flash floods on banks of river Kaveri. Several parts of Ahmedabad face waterlogging as rainfall continues to lash the city. There was waterlogging in Vejalpur and Shrinand Nagar in Ahemdabad. Two Air Force Choppers and NDRF team will start rescue operations from Friday morning in the state, informed Gujarat state BJP President CR Paatil. Paatil in a series of tweets said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah are constantly monitoring the condition in Gujarat. And added that on the request Amit Shah has arranged for two Air Force Shoppers and NDRF team which will start the rescue operations in the state from tomorrow morning." Paatil also added that Union Minister Amit Shah has also told him to contact him even in during mid-night in case of any emergency. PM Narendra Modi is constantly keeping an eye on the situation in Gujarat after excessive rainfall and has also given telephonic instructions for tackling the situation, Paatil added. Amid the prevailing flood-like situations in the Valsad district of Gujarat, the police and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have relocated at least 350 people to safer places from the low-lying areas of the district, Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Nilesh Kukadia said on Wednesday. "Since the water level is rising here, we have appealed to the people to move on to safer places...We have also availed the people with the shelter homes facility," SDM Kukadia told ANI. Massive amount of water released from Madhuban dam on Daman Ganga river in Valsad district as the region continues to remain battered by heavy rainfall. The Coast Guard on Thursday rescued two women and a child trapped in the Toran village of Navsari after heavy rainfall. Many parts of Gujarat have been facing incessant rainfall which has caused a flood-like situation in the area. According to ICG, the women and the child were immediately taken into the aircraft and evacuated to a safe location. Earlier on Tuesday, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel visited the flood-affected areas of Navsari and met the victims. On the other hand, Union Home Minister Amit Shah also assured all possible help to Gujarat Chief Minister Patel as heavy rains caused flood-like situations in the state's various areas. Gujarat administration, State Disaster Response Force and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) are engaged in providing quick help to the affected people, the Home Minister further said. The Meteorological department said that Gujarat's situation is due to flash floods. The state received 18 inches of rainfall in just four hours. People are now struggling to procure even essential items. (ANI)
The five persons arrested in Patna for indulging in anti-national activities following raids in the Phulwari Sharif area, which also led to the recovery of several incriminating documents, including PFI's 'Mission 2047', allegedly had Prime Minister Narendra Modi on their radar, the ongoing probe by Bihar police indicated. Patna Police have arrested Athar Parvez and Mohammed Jalaluddin -- a retired sub-inspector from Jharkhand -- from the Phulwari Sharif area. Later, three more individuals -- Margoob Danish, Arman Malik and Shabbir -- were arrested. They were allegedly running a terror module and were engaged in brainwashing the Muslim youth, the police said. Parvez is said to be a member of the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), who was providing training to the youth. Manzar, Athar's brother, had been arrested earlier in connection with the 2013 Gandhi Maidan bomb blast during then Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's 'Hunkar' rally. Mohammed Jalaluddin is also said to be a member of SIMI. The police have claimed that the accused tried to execute a terror strike during Modi's rally. The police have recovered sensational documents from Jalaluddin and Parvez in which it has been written that they will make India an Islamic state by 2047. On the pretext of providing physical training to the youth, the accused were brainwashing them in Patna. They were allegedly provoking Muslim youth against the Hindus. Meanwhile, sources in the know of things said the NIA is also closely monitoring the matter, and has launched a parallel probe. Though the NIA has not made any comment, there are possibilities that the case might be transferred to the probe agency in the coming days. The PFI, however, said that it never published any objectionable documents and said that things were being planted. --IANS atk/pgh ( 304 Words) 2022-07-14-23:18:04 (IANS)
A court in Assam's Golaghat district on Thursday permitted Barshashree Buragohain, who has been in jail for around two months for reportedly writing poem on the banned ULFA-I, to appear for exams. Buragohain has been allowed to appear in the BSc second semester examination which is commencing from July 18 with police escort. The girl student was picked up by the police on May 17 for posting "anti-national" poems on social media, forcing her family members to appeal to the Assam government to let her appear for the undergraduate exam. However, state Director General of Police Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta had earlier said that she "was not arrested for writing a poem. She was arrested for encouraging others to join the outfit (ULFA-I)". Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had also echoed this. "If her family members say that she will not go and join the outfit, we may consider her release. Her counselling is going on. If she goes to ULFA-I and comes back as human bomb and triggers blast in Ganeshguri in Guwahati or she comes back with AK-47?," he told the media after her arrest. A student of Mathematics, she had filed a petition before the Golaghat district and sessions judge through the jail authorities to allow her to appear for her semester exams.The district court in its order has directed the jail authorities to make necessary arrangements for her to appear in the examination. The jail authorities have also been directed to provide sufficient police escort from the jail to her exam centre. Two local parties, the Raijor Dal and Assam Jatiya Parishad, have asked the district authorities to release the young girl who would be unable to appear for her second semester examination. --IANS sc/vd ( 300 Words) 2022-07-14-23:18:05 (IANS)
The Chief Minister formally launched the scheme by distributing the subsidy cheques for the beneficiary pilgrims at a programme in the Banquet Hall of Vidhana Soudha.

Speaking at the function organised by the Muzrai department, Bommai said this is a new scheme.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has renovated Kashi by building the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor.

"Kashi is a major pilgrimage centre evoking the spiritual faith of the people. The facilities and amenities for pilgrims were very poor earlier. Now, it has been totally transformed. Varanasi has direct air, rail and bus connectivity," he said.

"As a result there is a huge rise in the number of pilgrims visiting Kashi. Today we are distributing subsidy cheques for 10 pilgrims. In the coming days it would be transferred directly through the DBT system for pilgrims," Bommai said.

"The banks of river Ganga have been cleaned. About 23 Ghats have been renovated. The Kashi Vishwanath Corridor has been developed in such a way that the pilgrims could walk directly from the Ganga Ghats to Vishwantha temple. I congratulate Prime Minister Modi for this good work," the Karnataka Chief Minister said.

Apart from providing a Rs 5,000 subsidy, the state government has made arrangements for safe and comfortable journey by a separate train, accommodation facilities at Kashi to make the pilgrimage a safe and pleasant experience, Bommai added.

--IANS mka/pgh

( 253 Words)

2022-07-14-23:24:03 (IANS)
Lok Sabha MP and West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury urged Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and sought withdrawal of the new booklet listing out unparliamentary words and expressions. A major row erupted over a 50-page compilation of words deemed unfit for use in Parliament, ahead of the Monsoon session beginning July 18. The Congress leader also pointed out that this 'sensitive matter' should have been discussed in the Rules Committee, where all the political parties are represented. "I wish to bring to your kind attention a matter of serious Parliamentary concern. The Lok Sabha Secretariat has come out with a new booklet regarding a list of wards deemed unparliamentary. The list includes words like 'ashamed', 'abused', 'betrayed', 'corrupt', 'drama', 'hypocrisy', 'incompetent'," wrote Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. "I would like to point out that there are so many common words used in our day-to-day conversation which have been included in the fresh list. If these words are taken out of the general vocabulary, the very essence and the impact of expression would be minimised. Further, the Lok Sabha Secretariat should have mentioned the substitutes for these banned words so that it would have been easier for all of us to use the substitutes," he added. "I may also like to point out that sensitive matter should have been discussed in the Rules Committee where all the political parties are represented. None of the political parties have been consulted on this sensitive matter," he said. He further requested the Lok Sabha Speaker to put this latest list of unparliamentary words in abeyance and asked the final list to be prepared in consultation with all political parties. Following the opposition's criticism of the 50-page compilation of words deemed unfit for use in Parliament released by the Lok Sabha secretariat, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday said that "no words have been banned." Earlier on Thursday, amid the row over the questioning of the Lok Sabha secretariat by the Opposition over words listed as "unparliamentary", top sources in the Lower House said that such removal of words has been taking place since 1954 under various political dispensations. Taking a dig at the Centre, Aam Admi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha on Thursday said it is good to know that the Government of India knows "adjectives that accurately describe its performance".He said that the Government of India is fearful of the truth and that words like 'jumlajeevi' became unparliamentary while 'andolanjeevi' remains there. Amid the row over the questioning of the Lok Sabha secretariat by the Opposition over words listed as "unparliamentary", top sources in the Lower House on Thursday said that such removal of words has been taking place since 1954 under various political dispensations. Earlier, several senior members of Parliament had criticized the report of the Lok Sabha Secretariat which had released a list of words that have been designated as "unparliamentary". "Any word spoken which is against the ethos of Parliament or disrespectful in nature and can compromise the dignity of the house. The discretion lies with the chair to expunge them," sources had said. "Such compilation has been made since 1954 under various political dispensations. From time to time this has been brought out under various political dispensations," sources had added. The Lok Sabha Secretariat gave some examples of certain words that had been expunged earlier. "The word 'dishonest' was first expunged in a Rajya Sabha debate on August 17, 2011. Similarly, the word 'dishonesty' was first expunged in the Lok Sabha debate on March 3, 2011," sources had said. As part of a Parliament record, the word 'Shame' was expunged on March 21, 2012. The word 'cheating' was taken off the Parliament records as unparliamentary in the Rajya Sabha debate on March 20, 2012."The chair had expunged the words 'Chori' and 'loot' first time in the Lok Sabha debate on March 13, 2012 and 'jhooth' on April 27, 2012," sources had said. The words 'corrupt' and 'corrupt man' were expunged from the Parliament records on November 17, 1966, in a Lok Sabha debate."Ayogya - incompetent- first expunged on November 17, 1966, from Parliament records of a Lok Sabha debate," sources had said. Similarly, plenty of such removals have taken place over the years. Referring to the reaction of the Opposition, the government sources had said this is a result of their "bankrupt politics" as the list is not a new suggestion, but merely a compilation of words already expunged in Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, or state legislatures. It also contains a list of words considered unparliamentary in parliaments of Commonwealth countries. "It is abused was considered unparliamentary in Australia's House of Representatives. Childishness was considered unparliamentary in Quebec's National Assembly. Lollipops in the budget were expunged from Punjab Assembly. You have reached where telling a lie was expunged from Punjab Assembly," said the sources. The list comes just ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament that begins on July 18. Usage of many words - such as 'corruption', 'corrupt', 'Jumlajeevi', 'tanashah', 'Dictator', 'black', and 'Khalistani' are among those that have been banned. Senior members of Parliament including Jairam Ramesh Derek O'Brien and Randeep Surjewala Priyanka Chaturvedi had questioned the intent behind such a notification. Derek O'Brien in a tweet had said: "Session begins in a few days. Gag order issued on MPs. Now, we will not be allowed to use these basic words while delivering a speech in Parliament: Ashamed. Abused. Betrayed. Corrupt. Hypocrisy. Incompetent. I will use all these words. Suspend me. Fighting for democracy." (ANI)
Amid the flood situation in Gujarat following heavy rainfall, state BJP President CR Paatil on Thursday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah are constantly monitoring the situation in the rain-battered state. Two Air Force Choppers and NDRF team will start rescue operations on Friday morning in the state, informed Gujarat state BJP President CR Paatil. Paatil tweeted, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah are constantly monitoring the condition in Gujarat. And added that on the request Amit Shah has arranged for two Air Force Shoppers and NDRF team which will start the rescue operations in the state from tomorrow morning." PM Modi is constantly keeping an eye on the situation in Gujarat after excessive rainfall and has also given telephonic instructions for tackling the situation, Paatil added. Paatil also added that Union Minister Amit Shah has also told him to contact him even during mid-night in case of any emergency. Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel has been constantly monitoring the situation of the flood-affected areas of the rain-battered state. Heavy rains in several areas of Gujarat since the last few days brought life to a standstill. While residents of low-lying areas have been shifted to safer places, those stranded at home due to waterlogging have been provided with relief material. The Chief Minister visited the state control room on Thursday night to take stock of the situation, especially in the Navsari district. He later spoke with the Collectors of Navsari and Valsad via video conferencing and sought details of the relief work and rescue operation. He took detailed information on moving people to safer places, opening up of roads and highways, and regarding the work being done by the NDRF, stated the state government. Locals of Golvad and Fadvel village near Kaveri river in Navsari District were trapped due to flash floods on banks of river Kaveri. Several parts of Ahmedabad face waterlogging as rainfall continues to lash the city. There was waterlogging in Vejalpur and Shrinand Nagar in Ahemdabad. Amid the prevailing flood-like situations in the Valsad district of Gujarat, the police and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have relocated at least 350 people to safer places from the low-lying areas of the district, Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Nilesh Kukadia said on Wednesday. "Since the water level is rising here, we have appealed to the people to move on to safer places...We have also availed the people with the shelter homes facility," SDM Kukadia told ANI. A massive amount of water was released from the Madhuban dam on Daman Ganga river in Valsad district as the region continues to remain battered by heavy rainfall. The Coast Guard on Thursday rescued two women and a child trapped in the Toran village of Navsari after heavy rainfall. Many parts of Gujarat have been facing incessant rainfall which has caused a flood-like situation in the area. According to ICG, the woman and the child were immediately taken into the aircraft and evacuated to a safe location. Earlier on Tuesday, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel visited the flood-affected areas of Navsari and met the victims. On the other hand, Union Home Minister Amit Shah also assured all possible help to Gujarat Chief Minister Patel as heavy rains caused flood-like situations in the state's various areas. Gujarat administration, State Disaster Response Force and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) are engaged in providing quick help to the affected people, the Home Minister further said. The Meteorological department said that Gujarat's situation is due to flash floods. The state received 18 inches of rainfall in just four hours. People are now struggling to procure even essential items. (ANI)
Taking a dig at the Centre over the new booklet listing out unparliamentary words and expressions, Rajya Sabha MP and Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh on Thursday said 'all words used by the Opposition to describe the reality of Modi Sarkar now to be considered 'unparliamentary'. Taking to Twitter, he wrote, "All words used by the Opposition to describe the reality of Modi Sarkar now to be considered 'unparliamentary'. What next Vishguru?" In another tweet, he wrote, "Clarification from @ombirlakota about 'unparliamentary' words doesn't mean much. In all discussions, the media seems to have overlooked that they can't report on these comments in their dispatches. Also, print media will have to think twice before using these words in their articles." Following the opposition's criticism of the 50-page compilation of words deemed unfit for use in Parliament released by the Lok Sabha secretariat, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday said that "no words have been banned." Earlier on Thursday, a major row erupted over a 50-page compilation of words deemed unfit for use in Parliament, ahead of the Monsoon session beginning July 18. Earlier on Thursday, amid the row over the questioning of the Lok Sabha secretariat by the Opposition over words listed as "unparliamentary", top sources in the Lower House said that such removal of words has been taking place since 1954 under various political dispensations. Amid the row over the questioning of the Lok Sabha secretariat by the Opposition over words listed as "unparliamentary", top sources in the Lower House on Thursday said that such removal of words has been taking place since 1954 under various political dispensations. Earlier, several senior members of Parliament had criticized the report of the Lok Sabha Secretariat which had released a list of words that have been designated as "unparliamentary". Lok Sabha MP and West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury urged Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and sought withdrawal of the new booklet listing out unparliamentary words and expressions. The Congress leader also pointed out that this 'sensitive matter' should have been discussed in the Rules Committee, where all the political parties are represented. "I wish to bring to your kind attention a matter of serious Parliamentary concern. The Lok Sabha Secretariat has come out with a new booklet regarding a list of wards deemed unparliamentary. The list includes words like 'ashamed', 'abused', 'betrayed', 'corrupt', 'drama', 'hypocrisy', 'incompetent'," wrote Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. "I would like to point out that there are so many common words used in our day-to-day conversation which have been included in the fresh list. If these words are taken out of the general vocabulary, the very essence and the impact of expression would be minimised. Further, the Lok Sabha Secretariat should have mentioned the substitutes for these banned words so that it would have been easier for all of us to use the substitutes," he added. "I may also like to point out that sensitive matter should have been discussed in the Rules Committee where all the political parties are represented. None of the political parties have been consulted on this sensitive matter," he said. He further requested the Lok Sabha Speaker to put this latest list of unparliamentary words in abeyance and asked the final list to be prepared in consultation with all political parties. Following the opposition's criticism of the 50-page compilation of words deemed unfit for use in Parliament released by the Lok Sabha secretariat, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday said that "no words have been banned." Earlier on Thursday, amid the row over the questioning of the Lok Sabha secretariat by the Opposition over words listed as "unparliamentary", top sources in the Lower House said that such removal of words has been taking place since 1954 under various political dispensations. Taking a dig at the Centre, Aam Admi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha on Thursday said it is good to know that the Government of India knows "adjectives that accurately describe its performance". He said that the Government of India is fearful of the truth and that words like 'jumlajeevi' became unparliamentary while 'andolanjeevi' remains there.Amid the row over the questioning of the Lok Sabha secretariat by the Opposition over words listed as "unparliamentary", top sources in the Lower House on Thursday said that such removal of words has been taking place since 1954 under various political dispensations.(ANI)
Chhattisgarh government's policy of trust, development and security under the leadership of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has decreased Naxal activities in the Bastar region of the state to a great extent. The number of Naxalite incidents in the state has come down significantly in the last three and a half years. The atmosphere of fear ended with the establishment of 43 new security camps and police stations. If we look at the figures from the year 2008 to 2018, during this period 500 to 600 violent incidents were carried out by the Naxalites in the state every year, which has come down to an average of 250 in the last three and a half years. In the year 2022, only 134 Naxal incidents have taken place so far, which is almost four times less than what happened before 2018.Before 2018, the cases of Naxal encounters in the state used to be around 200 per year, which have now come down to double figures. In the year 2021, there have been only 81 encounter cases in the state and in the year 2022 so far 41 cases have been reported, said the state government. The number of Naxalites giving up their arms and surrendering has also increased. In the last three and a half years, 1589 Naxalites have surrendered. It is the result of the public-friendly policies and development works of the Chhattisgarh government that nearly six lakh people of 589 villages of Bastar division have been completely freed from the influence of Naxalites, out of which 121 villages are in Sukma district. Total of 118 villages in Dantewada district, 115 villages in Bijapur district, 63 villages of Bastar, 92 villages of Kanker, 48 villages of Narayanpur, 32 villages of Kondagaon have been freed from Naxal influence. It is worth noting that in the year 2018, the Naxal problem spread to two-thirds of the state. In the plains like Dhamtari, Gariaband, Mahasamund, Rajnandgaon, Kabirdham, Raigarh, including Bastar region, an atmosphere of fear had been created in the entire state due to the violent activities and terror of Naxalites. In major Naxal incidents like Tadmetla, Jharaghati, Errabor, Madanwada and Jiram Ghati, besides security forces personnel, a large number of top leaders of political parties and civilians were killed. Many schools and ashrams were closed due to Naxal violence. During this, the road, bridges and culverts were also damaged by the Naxalites. The government formed under the leadership of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel started a serious effort to create a safe environment to speed up the development works by gaining the trust of the people of the Naxal-affected area, which has yielded very positive results. Under the Bastar division, 43 new security camps and police stations were established in three-and-a-half years to give impetus to the anti-Naxal campaign as well as the development works as per the wishes of the people of the area. Due to the rapid availability of health, education, public distribution system, electricity facility, banks, Anganwadi centres and other facilities, people's confidence in the administration has increased. Out of 363 schools closed in Bastar division due to Naxal terror, 257 schools have started again for the education of children due to the efforts of the Chhattisgarh government, out of which 158 schools in Bijapur district, 57 schools in Sukma and two in Kanker Naxal affected areas of the district. In the last three-and-a-half years, the Chhattisgarh government has also achieved great success in providing transportation and electricity facilities to the Naxal-affected villages of remote Vananchal of Bastar division. Electricity has been provided to 196 villages. The recruitment of Maoist organizations has come down due to effective steps to connect local youth with employment in the Bastar region, as well as getting more opportunities for recruitment in Chhattisgarh Armed Forces, Bastar Fighters and District Police Force. As a result of the concrete decision of the government towards the solution of the Naxal problem, the activities of the Maoist organization in Bastar division have been confined to South Bijapur, South Sukma, Indravati National Park area, Abujhmad and Koylibeda area only. (ANI)
Followers and supporters of former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, are planning to throw a huge party on his 75th birthday. Siddaramaiah on Thursday claimed that his birthday celebration plan created a stir in the BJP. "Fans are organizing Amrita Mahotsav on my birthday which has created a stir among the BJP. Thus, speaking out of desperation. Siddaramaiah clarified that no one in our party has raised any objection to this," said Siddaramaiah. "Millions of people will join the program. So they are afraid of defeat in the next election. Earlier, Yediyurappa had celebrated his birthday. I attended it. Why are they afraid if it is my birthday? Why are they scared of it," asked Siddaramaiah. "This government is a government of corruption. The price board has fixed the price for the transfer of officers just like the price of breakfast in a hotel," he added. He said that the Bommai government is a 40 per cent commission government. Meanwhile, the birthday party plan has resulted in a massive clash within the state Congress as Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar's camp is now demanding a similar kind of bash for their leader too. However, Shivkumar has denied any claims related to his birthday celebration demands and said that he will be attending Siddaramaiah's birthday bash. Former Member of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly HC Mahadevappa further said that Siddaramaiah's birthday will not be celebrated using the party's logo. "Siddaramaiah's birthday is not celebrated using the party symbol. It is not our intention to embarrass the party and give a wrong message to the public," said Mahadevappa on the matter. In the preliminary meeting of the 'Siddaramaiah-75' Amrit Mahotsav Committee held at the Palace grounds on Wednesday, there was displeasure that Siddaramaiah's birthday was being celebrated as 'God's worship'. Talking to ANI, Mahadevappa said, "This program is not for the glorification of Siddaramaiah. Also, there is no permission in the Constitution to worship a person." "This program is being held to showcase Siddaramaiah's struggle for the development of the nation. His struggles will be remembered in history. We recognize that. We have observed the work done by him as the President of Kannada Kavalu Samithi," he said to ANI. "Siddaramaiah's previous government and the current government are being compared. He was good in administrative work. He is an honest politician. Siddaramaiah, who has fulfilled a meaningful public life, needs to be told about it. We are holding this program for that purpose," he justified. "Siddaramaiah's birthday program is not a party event. He said "we are holding this convention through a committee made up of people and friends from within the party," said Mahadevappa. In response to a question regarding a letter stating holding Shivakumar's "Shivakumarothsava", he said, "I have no information about the letter reached the committee. Everyone has freedom of expression. What authority do we have to question it? Anyone can do whatever they want freely," he said. Ahead of elections, a fight appears to have begun between the supporters of former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah and party president DK Shivakumar. Both the camps are eying to project their leaders as chief ministerial candidates for the polls due next year. And this started with Siddaramaiah's supporters planning a grand birthday celebration for their leader who served as chief minister from 2013 to 2018. However, Shivakumar's camp too has now demanded a similar function for the party chief. (ANI)
As many as 33 government schools in Jharkhand's Dumka district have Friday as their weekly off instead of Sunday, apparently without any permission from authorities. District Education authorities have sought a report into the matter, after which officials said an investigation will be initiated. Incidentally, Dumka is the hometown of chief minister Hemant Soren. Ten government schools of Dumka's Shikaripara Block, eight of Ranishwar Block, seven of Saraiyahat Block, two of Jama Block and Jarmundi Block, Kathikund Block and Dumka Block have holidays on Fridays. Most of these institutions sport name boards suffixing "Urdu school" along with the names of the schools. "We have written a letter to the Block education officers of the 33 schools advising them to enquire into the matter. All the schools have Urdu in their names," said Sanjay Kumar Das, District Superintendent of Education, Dumka on Thursday. The official said that no instruction to keep schools closed on Friday has been issued by the department. "It is being investigated how Urdu is tied to these institutions and under what conditions a weekly holiday on Friday is being offered in government schools. There's no instruction from the department to keep schools closed on Friday. After receiving the report, we'll start an investigation," said Das. Earlier this week, state Education Minister Jagarnath Mahto had said that he has sought a report after it came to light that schools in some Muslim-dominated areas in Jharkhand were giving leave on Friday instead of Sunday. Mahto said that as soon as news came to light of the holidays being given in schools, in violation of the government order he called for a meeting with DEOs (District Education Officers) and DSEs (District Teacher Superintendents) of the Jamtara district. The minister said that he has asked for a report within a week after investigating into the matter. "We are expecting a report regarding this matter within a week. Then we will deliberate over it. The instructions of the government will be followed," Mahto said. Das further informed that a few schools in the Dumka district had been observing the weekly holiday on Friday and he has sought a report from the schools of every block of the district. After the report comes, then it will be known how many schools have a holiday on Friday and classes on Sunday. It is also being inquired how many schools are being notified as Urdu schools in the Dumka district. Moreover, the principals of some government schools confirmed that the schools were giving weekly holiday every Friday instead of Sunday. Shalini Gudiya Marandi, principal of Urdu Middle School, Kumharpada, Dumka, said that ever since she was posted in this school in 2015, she has been observing that Friday was a weekly holiday. According to the teacher, the majority of students studying in the school belong to the minority community. However, the medium of instruction of the schools, which have suffixed 'Urdu schools to their names is in Hindi and all subjects are taught in the same language similar to other government schools. Due to Friday being a weekly holiday, the week starts on Saturday in the Urdu Namdhari Government Primary and Middle Schools of the district. The menu, for the mid-day meals, which has been put up on the walls of the schools listing the various food to be provided on different days says the week begins on Sunday and Friday is marked as a holiday. An investigation into the matter is underway. (ANI)
India reported over 20,000 new COVID cases for the second day in a row on Friday as it logged 20,038 infections in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The country had breached the 20,000 mark after 145 days logging 20,139 cases yesterday. The active cases in the country have gone up to 1,39,073 . As many as 16,994 COVID patients recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours taking the total number of recoveries since the beginning of the pandemic in the country to 4,30,45,350. The recovery rate currently stands at 98.48 per cent. According to the Ministry, 47 patients succumbed to the virus during this period. The death toll in the country rose to 5,25,604. The country tested 4,50,820 samples in the last 24 hours and the daily positivity rate came out to be 4.44 per cent (5.10 per cent yesterday) while the weekly positivity rate was 4.30 per cent (4.37 per cent yesterday). Under the nationwide vaccination drive, 18,92,969 COVID vaccine doses were administered in the last 24 hours. The total number of vaccines jabbed till date reached 1,99,47,34,994. In the new phase of the universalization of the COVID vaccination drive, the Union Government will procure and supply (free of cost) 75 per cent of the vaccines being produced by the vaccine manufacturers in the country to States and UTs. Meanwhile, with an aim to increase the uptake of the precautionary dose of COVID vaccine among the eligible adult population, 75 days - 'COVID Vaccination Amrit Mahotsava' will commence on Friday, informed the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. This special vaccination drive is a part of the celebration for Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav and aims to provide free precaution dose for all adults (18 years and above) eligible population at Government COVID Vaccination Centres (CVCs). "It will start from today and continue for the next 75 days. We will try to vaccinate all the citizens between 18-59 years of age," Dr Bijay Panigrahi, Director, Family Welfare and Nodal Officer Vaccination told ANI. In a virtual meeting with State/UT Health Secretaries and NHM MDs chaired by Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Thursday, States and UTs have been urged to give an intensive and ambitious push toward full COVID-19 vaccination coverage by vaccinating all eligible beneficiaries and covering them with precaution dose. (ANI)
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president JP Nadda will hold a meeting with former Nepali Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' in the national capital on Sunday under the 'Know BJP' campaign. The meeting will take place at the party headquarters in the national capital on Saturday in which many senior leaders of the party will also be present. Notably, the former Nepali PM is on a three-day visit to India. BJP's foreign affairs department in charge Vijay Chauthaiwale said it is an "important" meeting. "This meeting is important and will be under the 'Know BJP' campaign. This is for the first time that the BJP has given an invitation to Nepali Communist Party." According to the sources, Prachanda will also meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. The "Know BJP" campaign was started on the party's 42nd Foundation Day on April 6, 2022. Its second phase was held on 16 May 2022 while the third meeting was held on June 4 2022. "Know BJP" campaign is the BJP's initiative to introduce the party's vision, mission and work culture to different countries of the world. Under this program, Nadda has so far interacted with Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, Minister for Foreign Relations of Singapore Vivian Balakrishnan and also envoys of 47 countries. Nadda has so far held talks with diplomats/heads of missions of 47 countries including the European Union. Earlier last month, Nadda had met the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Van Nen at the BJP Head Office in the national capital. On June 11, Nadda met the envoys of 13 foreign countries and said that is a need for better communication between the political systems and political parties of different countries to understand the vision of each other. Earlier, Nadda interacted with "Head of Missions" from 13 countries at the party's central office in the fourth phase of the "Know BJP" campaign. Addressing the visiting diplomats, Nadda said, "It is our belief that there should be better communication between the political system and political parties of different countries so that we can understand the vision of each other." The BJP firmly believes in a healthy democracy and shared cultural ties, he said. (ANI)
The crime branch arrested one person for negligence in connection with the Vasai landslide incident in which two people were reported dead while two others were severely injured. The team of Vasai Unit 02 (Crime Branch) under (Mira Bhayandar Vasai Virar) MBVV Police Commissionerate arrested Ajit Singh, an owner of a realty company, last night from the Kandivali area of Mumbai. Singh, who had constructed the Mitwa chawl, has been booked under IPC section 304 and also Sections 52,53 and 54 of the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act (MRTP) Act, 1966 Kandivali area of Mumbai late last night. The Vasai Virar Municipal Corporation (VVMC) had registered two FIRs at the Valiv police station against a total of 5 persons. In the second FIR, a case has been registered against Shailendra Nishad, Ratnesh Pandey, Anil Kumar Dubey and an unidentified real estate agent under the MRTP Act. A landslide incident was reported in the Vasai area of Palghar district on Wednesday following heavy rainfall which has been pounding several parts of the state. Earlier, Maharashtra Chief Minister expressed his grief over the incident and took note of the situation. "The relatives of the deceased will be provided Rs 4 lakh each from Palghar District Collector's Natural Disaster Fund and Rs 2 lakh each from Vasai Virar Corporation. Besides, he instructed the concerned administration to pay Rs 50,000 each to the injured for treatment," tweeted Eknath Shinde. A red alert issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday is said to continue for several districts of Maharashtra, including Raigad, Palghar, Nashik, Pune, Satara, and Kolhapur. There is an Orange alert for rainfall today in Mumbai, Thane, Gadchiroli, Chandrapur, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg and Nandurbar. According to IMD fairly widespread/widespread light/moderate rainfall and thunderstorm/lightning with isolated heavy rainfall are expected over Maharashtra and several other states during the next four to five days. On Monday, various temples submerged under the Godavari river in Nashik, due to incessant rain over the past three days. (ANI)
The police official, however, denied any contact with the NIA in the matter so far. Notably, NIA is probing the brutal killing of tailor Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur and chemist Umesh Kolhe in Amravati for supporting Nupur Sharma.

Chishti was absconding and was held in Telangana's Hyderabad on Thursday. The police have detained the person who aided him in his stay in Hyderabad.

"Gauhar Chishti arrested, he was brought to Ajmer last night in connection with a provocative speech case. His aide who had given him refuge in Hyderabad for about 10 days has been detained. Chishti will be produced before the court, we will seek his police custody," said Ajmer Superintendent of police Chuna Ram Jat on Friday while addressing a press conference.

"No contact with NIA in this matter yet. Probe is on," he added.

Earlier last night, Gauhar Chishti and his associate Munavvar were taken to Kishanganj Police Station in Ajmer.

The cleric in a video was seen allegedly raising slogans at the Ajmer Sharif Dargah premises. Three Khadim (cleric) of the Dargah--Gauhar Chisthi, Aadil Chisthi and Sarwar Chisthi-- have given provocative statements against Nupur Sharma.

His statement comes against the backdrop of now-suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma's remarks on Prophet Mohammad that had led to widespread violent protests across the country and also drew condemnation from some Gulf countries.(ANI)
In another setback to the Opposition ahead of Presidential polls, Samajwadi Party ally Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar on Friday confirmed his support for the NDA presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu. Rajbhar who announced his decision this morning however denied any cracks within his party's alliance with the Samajwadi Party, which has pledged to support joint Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha. The SBSP has 6 MLAs in the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly. Rajbhar said that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Union Home Minister Amit Shah asked him to support the NDA candidate in the presidential elections slated to be held on July 18. "Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had invited us for dinner to discuss extending support to Murmu. He said that since I was vocal on issues of relating to the backward classes, Dalits and minorities, I should support Murmu's candidature. Union Home Minister Amit Shah spoke to me after July 12 and said the same things," Rajbar said addressing a press conference here today. "Shah urged me to support Murmu in the elections and I decided that my party will support her," the SBSP chief added. Rajbhar had joined hands with the BJP prior to the 2017 Assembly elections before parting ways with it. He joined the Akhilesh Yadav-led alliance before the 2022 Assembly elections in the state. Rajbhar had said recently that he would decide on whether to support Murmu or the Opposition-backed presidential candidate Yashwant Singh in a few days time while also suggesting "all is well" in the Samajwadi Party-led alliance. However, the SBSP chief had expressed discontentment over not being called by Akhilesh Yadav for a meeting held on July 7. "Akhilesh Yadav held a meeting on July 7 but did not call me. Other allies including Jayant Chaudhary were called to the meeting except us. We are still with the alliance. Rest will be decided in the future," he said. Recently, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav's uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav extended support to the NDA-backed presidential candidate Murmu. Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohiya) chief Shivpal Singh Yadav, who had patched up with his nephew ahead of the Assembly polls alleged that the SP was weakening and several of its leaders were quitting due to the "political immaturity" of Akhilesh Yadav. Shivpal's remarks came a day after, he attended a dinner party hosted by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for Murmu at his official residence in Lucknow. The dinner was attended by opposition party leaders Jansatta Dal leader Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias 'Raja Bhaiya', BSP leader Uma Shankar Singh and the SBSP chief among others. (ANI)
Delhi's Patiala House Court on Friday granted bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair in a case related to an alleged objectionable tweet case in which he was arrested by Delhi Police last month. Additional Sessions Judge Devender Kumar Jangla on Friday granted bail to Zubair and directed him to deposit a personal bail bond of Rs 50,000 and one like amount surety. He cannot leave the country without prior permission of the court, ASJ Devender Kumar Jangla added. On Thursday, the court had kept the order reserved after the conclusion of the argument of both sides. Delhi Police special public prosecutor Atul Srivastava, while opposing the bail plea of Mohd Zubair, submitted that the bail should not be granted at this stage as there is a violation of Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act. Investigation in the matter is at a good pace without any bias, he said. Delhi Police said, "Rs 56 lakh were received by the organisation where he (Mohd Zubair) is a director violating FCRA. We gave notice to the Razor pay. There is also a certain forgery in this case which may be done, we are looking at that. The bank's notice has already been issued." The police alleged that it was done in a planned and clever way. "It is not as simple as Zubair's lawyer has projected," Delhi Police's lawyer submitted. Atul Srivastava submitted before the sessions court that Zubair through tweets hurt the sentiments of a community. "Hanuman ji is Brahmchari and he through his tweets compared Hanuman ji with Honeymoon," he said. Advocate Vrinda Grover appearing for Zubair denied Delhi Police allegations of foreign funding. She submitted, "No foreign contribution has been received by me, neither in my personal nor in the organisation's account. We have invited people to donate to our organisation but it is boldly written that we don't accept foreign funding...as we're not registered under FCRA. Therefore we don't take foreign remittances. Our receiving of the donations and funding are very transparent." Zubair's lawyer, however, showed a screenshot of the Alt News portal which is clearly written that 'donate now' and was in the public domain. "It is a Non-Profit Organization (NPO) under Pravada Media. He has not received any foreign contribution neither in the form of Indian currency nor in foreign currency," the lawyer submitted. Advocate Vrinda Grover further submitted, "The picture in question used in the said tweet...is from Kissi Se Na Kehna released in 1983. Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) gave the certificate. I haven't edited the picture." Zubair's lawyer Vrinda Grover showed the movie clip to the Judge and added that the people of the country were enjoying many freedoms including the freedom to crack a joke. "Actor of the said movie Hrishikesh Mukherjee also did the same," she said. Zubair was booked by the Delhi Police under sections 153A (promotion of enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language) and 295A (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Delhi Police said. Earlier on Monday, Zubair had moved a bail petition in Sessions Court seeking bail in the Delhi FIR registered against him in a case pertaining to an alleged objectionable tweet. On July 2, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) refused to grant bail while sending him to 14-days of judicial custody. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Snigdha Sarvaria dismissed the bail petition after hearing the submission of the defence counsel and special public prosecutor (SPP) Atul Srivastava for Delhi. In the order, the court observed that "since the investigation is at the initial stage and in view of the circumstances and gravity of the offence, no ground is made out for bail. Application dismissed and the accused is remanded to judicial custody till July 16, 2022." Delhi Police had also added three new Sections-- 201 (for the destruction of evidence - formatted phone and deleted tweets), 120-(B) (for criminal conspiracy) of IPC and 35 of Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010, in the matter. The FIR against Zubair was lodged on June 20 based on a complaint filed by the Duty Officer of the IFSO unit of the Delhi Police Special Cell which tackles cyber crimes. Zubair was arrested and sent to one day of police custody after a First Information Report (FIR) was registered against him based on a Twitter posting, which another Twitter handle alleged "hurt Hindu sentiments." (ANI)
The 14th Dalai Lama who arrived in Leh on Friday was warmly welcomed by the people of Ladakh. A large number of civilians and monks gathered to accord a warm welcome to the Tibetian spiritual leader. The Dalai Lama arrived at Leh airport in the afternoon as he commenced his Ladakh trip. He left for Ladakh after a stopover in Jammu where he had arrived on Thursday from his base in Dharamshala. "India and China are both competitive nations and neighbours, sooner or later you have to solve this problem through talks and peaceful means. The use of military force is outdated," the Dalai Lama told ANI. The Tibetan spiritual leader is on a two-day official visit to Jammu and Kashmir and the Union Territory of Ladakh. This is the first official tour of the Dalai Lama outside his base in Dharamshala since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The visit also marks his first visit to the region since the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. This visit is also taking place just three days before the 16th round of Corps Commander-level meetings between India and China, which according to sources is expected to start on July 17. Earlier talking to reporters in Jammu on Thursday, the 87-year-old spiritual leader said that the majority of people in China realise that he is not seeking independence within China but meaningful autonomy and preservation of Tibetan Buddhist culture. "Not Chinese people, but some Chinese hardliners consider me a separatist. Now, more and more Chinese are realising that Dalai Lama not seeking independence but within China meaningful autonomy and to preserve Tibetan Buddhist culture," the Dalai Lama said. The Tibetan spiritual leader was responding to a question about China objecting to his visit to Ladakh. The Dalai Lama also said that more and more Chinese are showing interest in Tibetan Buddhism. "Some of the Chinese scholars have realised that Tibetan Buddhism is truly knowledge and tradition and a very scientific religion." The spiritual leader's trip is likely to irk China as Beijing had recently criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for extending wishes to the Dalai Lama on his 87th birthday, stating that India should stop using Tibet-related issues to interfere in China's internal affairs. The External Affairs Ministry slammed China's criticism and said that it has been a consistent policy of the government to treat the Dalai Lama as a guest in India. Beijing has always had an issue with the Dalai Lama since he took shelter in India. In the 1950s, when China illegally occupied Tibet, the Tibetan spiritual leader had to take shelter in India. The Dalai Lama has tried to advocate for a mid-way negotiation with China to peacefully resolve the issue of Tibet. India and China have been engaged in a standoff since April-May 2020 over the transgressions by the Chinese PLA in multiple areas including the Finger area, Galwan Valley, Hot Springs, and Kongrung Nala. The situation worsened after violent clashes with Chinese troops in Galwan Valley in June 2020. (ANI)
After the Opposition's criticism over the guidelines to the MPs to refrain from the activities like dharna-demonstration, strikes, and fasting inside the Parliament premises, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla clarified that it is a "routine procedure". "Such guidelines and appeals are issued before every session. Therefore, it should be seen as a normal and routine procedure," Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said in a press conference. This clarification of the Lok Sabha Secretariat has come after several opposition leaders, including Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, raised questions regarding the guidelines. Birla also said that such guidelines have been issued even during the middle session. "This is a routine process (issuing of guidelines) that has been going on since 2009. There should be no politics in this. I urge all political parties not to accuse democratic institutions without facts," he said. It is noteworthy that before the Monsoon session, MPs have been instructed not to hold dharnas, demonstrations, strikes, fasts or any religious events inside the Parliament premises. Along with this, the distribution of any kind of literature, questionnaire, pamphlet, press note, leaflet or any kind of printed matter and bringing any kind of placard into the premises without prior permission of the Speaker of Lok Sabha has also been prohibited. Following the opposition's criticism of the 50-page compilation of words deemed unfit for use in Parliament released by the Lok Sabha secretariat, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday said that "no words have been banned." Earlier on Thursday, amid the row over the questioning of the Lok Sabha secretariat by the Opposition over words listed as "unparliamentary", top sources in the Lower House said that such removal of words has been taking place since 1954 under various political dispensations. Amid the row over the questioning of the Lok Sabha secretariat by the Opposition over words listed as "unparliamentary", top sources in the Lower House on Thursday said that such removal of words has been taking place since 1954 under various political dispensations. Earlier, several senior members of Parliament had criticized the report of the Lok Sabha Secretariat which had released a list of words that have been designated as "unparliamentary". "Any word spoken which is against the ethos of Parliament or disrespectful in nature and can compromise the dignity of the house. The discretion lies with the chair to expunge them," sources had said. "Such compilation has been made since 1954 under various political dispensations. From time to time this has been brought out under various political dispensations," sources had added. The Lok Sabha Secretariat gave some examples of certain words that had been expunged earlier. "The word 'dishonest' was first expunged in a Rajya Sabha debate on August 17, 2011. Similarly, the word 'dishonesty' was first expunged in the Lok Sabha debate on March 3, 2011," sources had said.As part of a Parliament record, the word 'Shame' was expunged on March 21, 2012. The word 'cheating' was taken off the Parliament records as unparliamentary in the Rajya Sabha debate on March 20, 2012. "The chair had expunged the words 'Chori' and 'loot' first time in the Lok Sabha debate on March 13, 2012 and 'jhooth' on April 27, 2012," sources had said. The words 'corrupt' and 'corrupt man' were expunged from the Parliament records on November 17, 1966, in a Lok Sabha debate. "Ayogya - incompetent- first expunged on November 17, 1966, from Parliament records of a Lok Sabha debate," sources had said.Similarly, plenty of such removals have taken place over the years. Referring to the reaction of the Opposition, the government sources had said this is a result of their "bankrupt politics" as the list is not a new suggestion, but merely a compilation of words already expunged in Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, or state legislatures. It also contains a list of words considered unparliamentary in parliaments of Commonwealth countries. "It is abused was considered unparliamentary in Australia's House of Representatives. Childishness was considered unparliamentary in Quebec's National Assembly. Lollipops in the budget were expunged from Punjab Assembly. You have reached where telling a lie was expunged from Punjab Assembly," said the sources. The list comes just ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament that begins on July 18.Usage of many words - such as 'corruption', 'corrupt', 'Jumlajeevi', 'tanashah', 'Dictator', 'black', and 'Khalistani' are among those that have been banned. Senior members of Parliament including Jairam Ramesh Derek O'Brien and Randeep Surjewala Priyanka Chaturvedi had questioned the intent behind such a notification. Derek O'Brien in a tweet had said: "Session begins in a few days. Gag order issued on MPs. Now, we will not be allowed to use these basic words while delivering a speech in Parliament: Ashamed. Abused. Betrayed. Corrupt. Hypocrisy. Incompetent. I will use all these words. Suspend me. Fighting for democracy." (ANI)
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Friday releases guidelines for the management of Monkeypox disease. The ministry listed out points for the general masses to avoid the contradiction of the disease which included avoiding contact with sick people and avoiding contact with dead or wild animals(rodents, monkeys). The general public has also been advised to visit the nearest health facility if one comes in close contact with monkeypox-affected person or an area with the affected persons or animals. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Friday informed about 15 Virus Research & Diagnostic Laboratories across the country on a micro-blogging website. "To help country's preparedness for Monkey Pox detection, 15 Virus Research & Diagnostic Laboratories across the country, which are geographically well distributed & strategically located, have already been trained in the diagnostic test by ICMR -NIV, Pune," tweeted the ICMR. India reported its first monkeypox case with a traveller from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) who arrived in Kerala three days ago testing positive for the viral disease, on Thursday. Union Health Ministry rushed a high-level multi-disciplinary team to Kerala to collaborate with the state health authorities in instituting public health measures in view of the confirmed case of monkeypox in Kollam district of Kerala. The Central team to Kerala comprised experts drawn from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr RML Hospital, New Delhi and senior officials from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare along with experts from the Regional Office of Health and Family Welfare, Kerala. The team shall work closely with the State Health Departments and take stock of the on-ground situation and recommend necessary public health interventions. The Centre is taking proactive steps by monitoring the situation carefully and coordinating with states in case of any such possibility of an outbreak occurs, said the Ministry of Health. "No need to panic as the centre has given fresh directions to all the states and Union Territories regarding monkeypox. It spreads through close contact with lesions, body fluids, prolonged contact with Respiratory Droplets and contaminated materials such as bedding," official sources told ANI. Kerala Health Minister Veena George said, "A Monkeypox positive case has been reported. He is a traveller from UAE. He reached the state on July 12. He reached Trivandrum airport and all the steps are being taken as per the guidelines issued by WHO and ICMR." Meanwhile, the Centre on Thursday wrote a letter to all the states and union territories, reiterating some of the key actions that are required to contain the spread of the disease. Health secretary Rajesh Bhushan cited the letter sent by the ministry on May 31 in which it had issued a comprehensive 'Guidelines for Management of Monkeypox Disease' The health secretary asked all the states and union territories to take key actions like orientation and regular re-orientation of all key stakeholders including health screening teams at points of entries (PoEs), disease surveillance teams, doctors working in hospitals about common signs and symptoms, differential diagnosis, case definitions for s for suspect/probable/confirmed cases and contacts, contact tracing and other surveillance activities that need to be undertaken following the detection of a case, testing, IPC protocols, clinical management etc. He further asked to screen and test all suspect cases at points of entries and in the community."Patient isolation (until all lesions have resolved and scabs have completely fallen off), protection of ulcers, symptomatic and supportive therapies, continued monitoring and timely treatment of complications remain the key measures to prevent mortality," he said. Bhushan said that the intensive risk communication directed at healthcare workers, identified sites in health facilities (such as skin, paediatric OPDs, immunization clinics, intervention sites identified by NACO etc.) as well as the general public about simple preventive strategies and the need for prompt reporting of cases needs to be undertaken. The hospitals must be identified and adequate human resource and logistic support should be ensured at identified hospitals equipped to manage suspect/confirmed cases of Monkeypox. According to World Health Organization (WHO), monkeypox is a viral zoonosis (a virus transmitted to humans from animals) with symptoms similar to those seen in the past in smallpox patients, although it is clinically less severe. Monkeypox is transmitted to humans through close contact with an infected person or animal, or with material contaminated with the virus. It is usually a self-limited disease with symptoms lasting from two to four weeks, WHO said. Monkeypox virus is transmitted from one person to another by close contact with lesions, body fluids, respiratory droplets and contaminated materials such as bedding. As reported by WHO, since January 1, 2022 and as of June 22, 2022, a total of 3,413 laboratory-confirmed cases of Monkeypox and one death have been reported to WHO from 50 countries/territories. The majority of these cases have been reported from the European Region (86 per cent) and the Americas (11 per cent). This points to a slow but sustained increase in the spread of cases globally. Considering this is the first time that cases and clusters are being reported concurrently in five WHO Regions, WHO has assessed the overall risk of spread of cases as "Moderate" at the global level. (ANI)
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday disbursed Rs 261 crore under the 'YSR Vahana Mitra' scheme providing financial assistance of Rs 10,000 to drivers-cum-owners of auto-rickshaws, taxis, and maxi-cabs. It is the fourth consecutive year of uninterrupted support to the transport sector, and the scheme will benefit 2.61 lakh self-employed beneficiaries. Speaking to the beneficiaries, Reddy said that the government had started the Vahana Mitra scheme within four months of coming to power. "During my 3,648 km long padayatra (political journey), innumerable auto and taxi drivers raised concerns about them facing difficulties in getting fitness certificates and insurance done for their respective vehicles citing financial issues. To ensure that no auto, taxi, or maxi-cab driver suffers or is forced to take loans at exorbitant rates of interest from private money lenders, we have come up with this scheme," the Chief Minister said. He further added, "Every family with an auto or taxi chooses a self-employment life, without being dependent on anyone. These families stand up on their own feet, providing transportation services to thousands of people daily. The government will always support them through the financial assistance provided through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT). To date, the government had spent Rs 1,025 crore on YSR Vahana Mitra Scheme, wherein each beneficiary received Rs 40,000 in the last four years." Vahana Mitra is a welfare scheme for auto, taxi, and maxi-cab owners-cum-drivers under which the beneficiary will be given financial assistance of Rs 10,000 per annum for annual maintenance of their vehicle. The scheme was launched in September 2019. Earlier, the state government had relaxed some guidelines so that more auto and car owners-cum-drivers can avail the benefit. (ANI)
In view of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari on Friday emphasised the importance of man-portable air defence systems, especially in urban and semi-urban areas. Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari delivered the inaugural address during the 8th edition of the Air and Missile Defence Seminar and Exhibition organised by the Centre for Joint Warfare Studies (CENJOWS) in New Delhi on Friday. Speaking at the occasion, Chaudhari said "In view of prevailing threat scenario in the country, utilization of aerial platforms by anti-national elements, against our vital strategic and military installations cannot be ruled out. The ongoing conflict in Ukraine has once again brought into focus the effectiveness of man-portable air defence systems especially in urban and semi-urban areas. Calling for close coordination between the forces on the ground for enhanced aerospace safety, IAF chief said the creation of an air defence command may prove to be counterproductive. Air Defence command is proposed to be created by the Department of Military Affairs as part of the process to create theatre commands in the country to bring in more jointness among the three services for warfighting and operations. "While there is a need for close coordination between all elements within the same airspace to ensure aerospace safety as well as effective Air Defence, creation of an air defence Command may prove counter-productive because, Air Defence operations are inextricably linked to counter air operations and all offensive ops, as the success or failure of one, will dictate the demands on the other," Chaudhari said. The IAF has been in opposition of the division of its combat assets into different theatres as it feels that its fighter aircraft can switch with ease from one front to the other. The IAF chief further stated that air defence and offensive missions are interdependent and "if executed in isolation, these would not only be disjointed but also ineffective in design or execution of the joint strategy." Chaudhari said that modern 4.5 and 5th generation aircraft have the omni-role capability and to restrict those aircraft to any one role would lead to their underutilisation. "Flexibility, one of the characteristics of air power, gives a planner the freedom to swing roles depending on the air situation and this must be capitalised on," he added. The IAF chief said that crystal gazing into the future, penetration by stealth platforms and low-cost drones, rockets and hypersonic projectiles will challenge our detection and interception capability. "Thus, there is further research required in the field of persistent, multi-spectral, all-weather surveillance from space-based assets. We need to also look at the capabilities of high altitude long endurance and medium altitude long endurance remotely piloted aircraft to fill the surveillancevoids. "For destruction, we need to invest in technology such as Directed Energy Weapons, Laser dazzlers and multiple weapon systems to take on Multiple Independent Reentry Vehicles and hypersonic missiles," he said. Notably, the central government is now considering the acquisition of an indigenous long-range unmanned aerial vehicle with strike capabilities being developed by a private Indian firm in partnership with an Israeli defence manufacturer. The Indian firm's contribution to the project is as per the Make in India norms prescribed by the government for the products to qualify for being considered by the defence forces, they said. India is operating two predator drones which were hired on lease from an American firm and they have been helping the Navy to keep track of activities in the Indian Ocean Region. India has acquired 12 American P-8I anti-submarine warfare and surveillance planes for keeping an eye on the IOR and was working on getting six more of these planes. However, after the government's instructions on import programmes, the government would soon decide on the project too shortly. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday expressed anguish over the loss of lives in a mishap in Delhi's Alipur in which at least five people died and nine others were injured after a wall collapsed at a godown. "Anguished by the mishap in Alipur, Delhi. My thoughts are with those who have lost their loved ones. I pray that those who are injured recover at the earliest," the Prime Minister's Office tweeted. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that the district administration is engaged in relief and rescue work. "Tragic accident happened in Alipur. The district administration is engaged in relief and rescue work. I am personally monitoring the relief work. I pray to God for the peace of the departed souls," he tweeted. Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that a rescue operation is going on and Chief Minister Kejriwal is keeping an eye on the entire rescue work. "Alipur accident is very painful. Rescue operation is going on by the administration. The Delhi government is with the victims in this hour of grief. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal ji is keeping an eye on the entire rescue work. I pray to God for the peace of the departed souls and the injured to be safe," Sisodia tweeted. Soon after the incident, police and the fire brigade were rushed to the spot. "We got initial info that a wall of an under-construction building has collapsed and 6-12 people are feared trapped. Based on the initial info, we conducted technical, manual and canine-based searches at the wall collapse site," said Aditya P Singh, Deputy Commandant of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF). The injured have been sent to the hospital. The rescue operation is underway as some more people are feared trapped. (ANI)
Rubaiya Sayeed, the sister of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Muft and daughter of former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, on Friday appeared before a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court here to record her statement in the 1989 kidnapping case. Rubaiya Sayeed appeared before the court for the first time in the case. The next date of hearing for the case has been given on August 23 and Rubaiya has been told to appear on that date also. Notably, Rubaiya Sayeed was abducted by Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) militants on December 8, 1989. Yasin Malik, who is serving life imprisonment in Tihar Jail in a terror funding case, is an accused in this case along with others. "The statement of witness Rubaiya Sayeed was recorded in court today. She has identified Yasin Malik. The next date of the hearing is on August 23. She has identified four accused in total," CBI lawyer Monica Kohli told ANI. According to senior advocate and PDP spokesperson Anil Sethi, Yasin Malik also appeared in the case today through video conferencing. He has also requested to physically appear in Jammu in this case. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in May this year awarded life imprisonment to separatist leader Yasin Malik in a terror funding case. The NIA court while sentencing Malik to life imprisonment also imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh.He was sentenced to life imprisonment twice. NIA had sought the death penalty for the separatist leader who was convicted on May 19. Malik had told the court that he was not contesting the charges levelled against him. (ANI)
Taking to Twitter, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma expressed happiness about the first consignment of the export plan.

"Happy to share that the first consignment of Assam lemon for export to UK has been dispatched from Baksa. About 600 kg of lemons have been sent as part of an export commitment by the producer at the rate of Rs 30 per kg for about 80 tonnes over the next 2 months from Gati, Salbari", Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted".

Earlier in July 2021, a consignment of "Kazi Nemu" (Assam lemon) was exported from Guwahati to London.

In June last year, a consignment of 'Leteku' (Burmese grapes), grow in Assam's Darrang district was exported to Dubai. (ANI)
After the name of Popular Front of India (PFI) surfaced in the suspected terror module busted in Patna, the organisation denied its involvement in the case and said Bihar Police fabricated a fictional story of a terror conspiracy by including forged documents to defame PFI. In a statement, PFI said, Bihar Police arrested two people in Patna calling them terrorists and linked the Popular Front of India with these arrests. Bihar Police has made many allegations against the organization. "There is no basis for all these allegations. The police have tried to fabricate a fictional story of a terror conspiracy by including forged documents," PFI said. The organisation said the eight-page document allegedly found from the arrested people is completely fabricated. The statement said PFI never published or distributed such documents. "This document had first surfaced when the UP Police included it in the charge sheet of a case in Basti, UP. Anyone reading the document will come to the conclusion that it is completely fabricated and fake. The manner in which this document has been presented by the Patna Police in a press conference reveals a larger conspiracy to prepare fake cases against the Popular Front in the state," said PFI. It said there has been a combined trend of targeting the Popular Front in different states in the same manner, indicating that it is part of a "single table political verdict" against the organisation. The statement said PFI is a legal and democratic organisation that has always promoted a culture of respect for the law. Its activities have been transparent and are rapidly gaining popularity. Such false cases have become a weapon for the police and agencies of the country which seemed to be waging war against every democratic voice of protest, said PFI. "Popular Front wants to make it clear that these nefarious designs of creating fear in the minds of the people by defaming and spreading suspicion about the Popular Front will have no impact on the organisation's democratic struggle for constitutional rights and social justice," it added. Bihar Police on Wednesday busted a potential terror module with some links to extremist outfit PFI and arrested two accused. The two include a retired police officer of Jharkhand, Mohammad Jallauddin and a former member of Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) who is also a current member of PFI and Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), Athar Parvez. ASP Phulwarisharif, Manish Kumar had said on Wednesday that Parvez's younger brother went to jail in 2001-02 bomb blasts in the state after SIMI was banned. The complaint by police on the basis of which FIR has been filed in the case refers to Parvez telling police that he worked on instructions of PFI. "As per instructions from PFI, I used to induct former members of SIMI to create an underground organization. The main objective of this organization would be to avenge the atrocities against Muslims in the country and would target and attack those who make abusive comments on the religion," it quotes Parvez. The complaint refers to Parvez speaking about "campaign being run to take revenge" on "objectionable remarks" of Nupur Sharma and to the killings in Udaipur and Amravati. Kumar told ANI that an FIR has been lodged against a total of 26 people of which three people have been arrested. Bihar Additional Director General (Headquarters) JS Gangwar said that special teams have been constituted to probe the potential terror module busted by Bihar Police,. "A case was registered in Patna. Two people have been arrested and their interrogation is underway. Various teams of police is interrogating with them. Various items were recovered from their possession like poster banners, PFI documents, mobile phones etc. which are being looked into. Since the case has been registered, the arrest has been made, things will come to the fore during the interrogation. The arrest of other people may also be possible," Gangwar told ANI. Bihar Police on Wednesday busted a potential terror module with some links to extremist outfit PFI and arrested two accused. The two include a retired police officer of Jharkhand, Mohammad Jallauddin and a former member of Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) who is also a current member of PFI and Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), Athar Parvez. ASP Phulwarisharif, Manish Kumar had said on Wednesday that Parvez's younger brother went to jail in 2001-02 bomb blasts in the state after SIMI was banned. The complaint by police on the basis of which FIR has been filed in the case refers to Parvez telling police that he worked on instructions of PFI. "As per instructions from PFI, I used to induct former members of SIMI to create an underground organization. The main objective of this organization would be to avenge the atrocities against Muslims in the country and would target and attack those who make abusive comments on the religion," it quotes Parvez. The complaint refers to Parvez speaking about "campaign being run to take revenge" on "objectionable remarks" of Nupur Sharma and to the killings in Udaipur and Amravati. Kumar told ANI that an FIR has been lodged against a total of 26 people of which three people have been arrested. Bihar Additional Director General (Headquarters) JS Gangwar said that special teams have been constituted to probe the potential terror module busted by Bihar Police,."A case was registered in Patna. Two people have been arrested and their interrogation is underway. Various teams of police is interrogating with them. Various items were recovered from their possession like poster banners, PFI documents, mobile phones etc. which are being looked into. Since the case has been registered, the arrest has been made, things will come to the fore during the interrogation. The arrest of other people may also be possible," Gangwar told ANI. Gangwar said that items including Popular Front of India documents were recovered from the arrested persons. Kumar had said on Wednesday that an excerpt from an eight-page-long document recovered from the accused titled 'India vision 2047' talks about "subjugating coward majority community and bringing back the glory". (ANI) Gangwar said that items including PFI documents were recovered from the arrested persons. Kumar had said on Wednesday that an excerpt from an eight-page-long document recovered from the accused titled 'India vision 2047' talks about "subjugating coward majority community and bringing back the glory". (ANI)
The central government will seek to push several legislations during the monsoon session of parliament beginning July 18 and its legislative agenda includes 24 bills for passage, sources said. The first day of the monsoon session will see voting for the presidential election. Some of the bills that are in the pending list include The Indian Antarctica Bill, 2022. The bill is pending in the Lok Sabha. The Inter-State River Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill, 2019, was passed by Lok Sabha and in the upcoming session, it is likely to be taken up in the Rajya Sabha. The Weapons of Mass Destruction and their Delivery Systems (Prohibition of Unlawful Activities) Amendment Bill, 2022 was passed by Lok Sabha and is yet to be passed by Rajya Sabha. The Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2021 is pending in Lok Sabha, The Anti-Maritime Piracy Bill, 2019 and The National Anti-Doping Bill, 2021 are also pending in Lok Sabha. The Constitution (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Orders (Second Amendment) Bill, 2022 (in respect of State of UP - amendment regarding change of district name to be approved by Cabinet) was introduced in Lok Sabha in March 2022. The new bills to be newly introduced in the Parliament during the Monsoon session include The Central Universities Amendment Bill, 2022. The Family Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2022 is also a new bill and was sent for printing on Thursday. The other bills on the government agenda include Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2019, (in respect of State of Assam), The Mediation Bill, 2021 (with Standing Committee chaired by Shri Sushil Kumar Modi); The Cinematograph (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (report of Standing Committee under examination) and the Registration of Marriage of Non-Resident Indian Bill, 2019 (report of Standing Committee under examination). The other bills are Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Fifth Amendment) Bill, 2019 (report of Standing Committee under examination), the Pesticide Management Bill, 2020 (report of Standing Committee under examination). The first Batch of Supplementary Demand for Grants (General) and connected Appropriation Bill will also be presented in the upcoming session. The panel which scrutinised the biodiversity Bill is in the process of submitting its report in the upcoming session. This committee was chaired by BJP member Dr Sanjay Jaiswal. The upcoming monsoon session of Parliament will have a total of 17 working days and will conclude on August 12. (ANI)
The Government of India is all set to bring in legislation to regulate the Registration of Press and Periodicals Bill, 2019, which will include the Digital News Media industry for the first time. Through this, the Cabinet proposes to bring digital news portals at par with newspapers. Lok Sabha Secretariat, on Friday, released a list of Bills deemed to be introduced and passed in the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament. Among them, the most crucial is The Press Registration Periodicals Bill, 2022. The Bill seeks to replace the Press and Registration of Books (PRB) Act, 1867 which covers the ambit of newspapers and printing presses in India. According to government sources, the Cabinet led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to approve this Bill soon. The idea, when first mooted, drew a lot of criticism with assumptions that this Bill would try to curtail the Freedom of Speech and Expression on digital media. Detail consultations have already been held with various stakeholders regarding the Bill. As of now, there is no such process to register digital news portals like newspapers but this Bill proposes to register them with the Press Registrar General, the equivalent of the prevalent Registrar of Newspapers in India. Digital news publishers have to apply for registration within 90 days of the law coming into effect, which is being proposed. This is the first time that digital media in India will have regulations. If the Bill is cleared, digital media will be regulated by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. (ANI)
Senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi strongly supported the BJP's campaign to connect with the Muslims, especially the Pasmanda Muslims, saying that when the BJP government did not discriminate in the matter of development during the last eight years, then why should there be discrimination against his party over votes? In a conversation with IANS, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi spoke on several issues like overpopulation, on the questions raised by the TMC on giving the minority ministry to Smriti Irani, on the allegations of changing the national emblem lion. Q: The BJP is paying special attention to connecting backward (Pasmanda) Muslims with the party. Was this topic also discussed during the talks on the BJP's victory in Rampur and Azamgarh by-elections at the recent National Executive meeting of the party held in Hyderabad? A: The BJP is a national and nationalist party which believes in taking all sections of the society along and if you look at the tenure of our government for the last eight years, you will clearly see that we have no discrimination in the matter of development. Then why discriminate against us (BJP) in terms of votes? Therefore, we should go among the people and tell them about the work we have done for inclusive development. We are a political party and of course we would like people from all communities to join us. Q: But how will you convince the Pasmanda Muslims to join the BJP? A: I told you, when we did not discriminate in development, then why discrimination against us (BJP) in terms of votes? We will try to explain this to the people. Understanding this, some people have come to us, some are coming and we are confident that more people will come in the future. Q: After you, Union Minister Smriti Irani has been given the charge of the minority ministry but TMC MP Jawahar Sarkar has objected to giving this ministry to her. What would you say to this? A: Look, I do see one thing that sometimes the unavailability of reasoning makes some people utterly illogical. When any minister takes the oath of the constitution, he/she does not take it for any religion, caste or community, but for the country, for the countrymen and as far as Smriti Irani is concerned, she is committed to the progress of all sections of the society. She is honest and also works in that direction with full strength, so she does not need anyone's certificate. Q: Recently, there was a political controversy on the ever-increasing population in the country. Various statements have been made. A: No country can ignore or tolerate the population explosion. In our country, many efforts were made for this in the past and due to those efforts, a large section of the society understood its responsibility and also cooperated in population control, but unfortunately some people are looking for places to foment unlimited trouble in the name of Allah's grace. So that the population of the country keeps on increasing and they keep getting votes. These political parties have nothing to do with the development and progress of this community. Those who are giving this logic are not right. Q: But there have been several statements from your leaders too about a particular community, while from the other side Akhilesh Yadav, his MPs and AIMIM National President Asaduddin Owaisi also made statements against your party and government, many things were said. What would you say to this? A: See, all the countries of the world, whether they are developed countries or developing countries, have all found ways to control the population and the people of their country have contributed in this. In our country, the problem is that politics starts here immediately. Protests are started on the pretext of religion and secularism. There is a need to understand that due to excessive population increase, problems arise for the family, society and country. It is not a matter of being rigid but a matter of understanding for the country. Q: But the statement of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also came on this, due to which there was a lot of uproar and your tweet was also very much discussed. A: The first thing is that this issue is not of any religion or caste but the issue of the country. This is a big challenge for the country, not for any religion or caste. It is the responsibility of all the people living in this country to help control the wildly increasing population. As far as Yogi Adityanath ji's statement is concerned, his statement was distorted. He didn't speak anything like what has been said. Q: You are saying that population explosion is a big challenge, so how should it be stopped? It is being speculated that your party and government may bring a law on this. A: There is a need to prepare the society to bring the wildly increasing population under control. There should be a national debate across the country regarding this. Efforts should be made to motivate the society. To create awareness, campaigns should be conducted across the country by going among the people. Q: The opposition is also accusing your government that you have changed even the national symbol of lion. A: They (opposition parties) are very afraid of lions. Firstly they are afraid of Modi ji and then they fear a lion in the form of Modi ji, so what to do. Q: What is your view regarding the implementation of Uniform Civil Code in the country? A: Uniform Civil Code is the constitutional duty of the government and whichever government is in power, it should work in this direction. Q: There is speculation about your political future. A: (laughs) Now you guys decide our future. Q: What are the expectations from the party? A: All is well, all is well. --IANS stp/uk/bg ( 1008 Words) 2022-07-15-19:02:03 (IANS)
In continuation of its efforts at bringing "ease of doing business", the Centre on Friday brought changes to the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification that provides for exemption of environmental clearance to several projects, including defence related/border areas projects, those up to 25 MW thermal plants based on biomass, or expansion of terminal building of airports. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change published the final set of amendments to the EIA notification of 2006 that were first proposed on April 11 and had sought feedback, comments and objections from the public and experts. Since the last two years, the Environment Ministry has proposed a volley of amendments that have been deemed as "dilution" of the EIA process and criticised heavily by environmental activists. The current set of exemptions come with the condition that standard environmental safeguards for such projects would be followed by the agency executing such projects or the incremental environmental impacts can be catered by providing for environmental safeguards which can be built into the Environmental Management Plan (EMP) at the time of grant of such clearances. Currently, thermal power plants up to 15 MW based on biomass or non-hazardous Municipal Solid Waste using auxiliary fuel such as coal, lignite/petroleum products up to 15 per cent are exempted from the requirement of EC. Now, no EC would be required for such thermal plants up to 25 MW. Taking into account the issues of livelihood security of fishermen involved at fish handling ports/harbours and less pollution potential of these ports/harbours compared to others, and that such exclusive ports cater to the small fishermen whose boats have lesser pollution potential, the Ministry has now increased the exemption threshold in terms of fish handling capacity for ports/harbours which exclusively handle fish from 10,000 Tonnes Per Annum to 30,000 TPA. The Ministry has also exempted from the requirement of EC for highway projects related to defence and strategic importance in border states within 100 kms of the border that are sensitive in nature and in many cases need to be executed on priority keeping in view strategic, defence and security considerations. "However, these would be subject to prescribing Standard Operating Procedure along with standard environmental safeguards for such projects for self-compliance by the Agency executing such projects," it said. The new amendment also exempts expansion of airports up to 20,000 sq metres but only when it involves expansion of terminal building areas. "Most of the expansion activities with regard to existing Airports are related to Terminal Building expansion without increase in existing area of the Airport, rather than expansion of runway, hanger etc., and therefore involves only incremental environmental impacts which can be catered by providing for environmental safeguards which can be built into the Environmental Management Plan at the time of grant of such clearances at the local level," ministry officials said. Further, the Ministry has also exempted the additional width at toll plaza and junction improvement at intersections from being included in Right of Way for National Highways more than 100 kms. When the draft amendments were published in April, Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav had then told IANS: "The Ministry is alive to the concerns about proper EMP implementation. We are working out the modalities to address all such issues and will soon come out with a policy regarding the same." --IANS niv/vd ( 573 Words) 2022-07-15-19:56:02 (IANS)
Parliament's Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology, headed by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, on July 19 (Tuesday) will examine the working of the Information Technology Act 2020. The officials from the Ministry of Information and Technology are likely to appear before this Committee. The notice that has been sent out to the members of the committee reads, "Briefing by the representatives of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on the subject 'Review of functioning of Information Technology Act, 2000." Officials from the Ministry who are likely to appear before the committee include the MEITY Secretary among other senior officials. The committee will be discussing this crucial issue at a time when Twitter has moved court against the government, and it is once again reiterated demands to remove insufficient IT laws and clearance of new IT Rules. There has been increasing demand for bringing stringent rules to ensure net neutrality, data privacy, and algorithmic accountability of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. As per sources Twitter went to court questioning the arbitrary request by the Ministry for information and technology to remove certain posts from the microblogging site. "Twitter Inc., being an 'Intermediary' as defined under section 2(1)(w) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 is expected to follow the laws of India while operating in India and the repeated violations, and non-compliance of Directions issued by the designated officer appointed under section 69A of the IT Act has necessitated initiating appropriate proceedings under the IT Act, 2000," the Ministry had said in its notice to the social media giant. The Indian government in the notice further reiterated that it was essential for Twitter to comply with the intermediary rules. "MeitY grants Twitter Inc. one last opportunity to comply with all directions issued under section 69A of the IT Act, by 4th July, 2022. If Twitter Inc. continues to be in violation of these Directions and therefore the IT Act, significant consequences under the IT Act shall prevail, including loss of immunity as available to you being an intermediary under sub-section (1) of section 79 of the IT Act AND liable to punishment to offences as prescribed in the IT Act 2000," Indian government's notice to Twitter Further stated. "All government policies, laws and rules are focussed on ensuring that every Indian Digital Nagrik always has an open, safe and trusted, accountable internet. These policy objectives and obligation to comply always with Indian law form the boundary conditions for all intermediaries operating in India," according to government sources. "Indian Internet and the Digital Nagrik welcome every Global and Indian intermediary/platform to offer their service/product in India but with clear expectations of their conduct to be in compliance with the aforementioned boundary conditions," the sources further added. Twitter, an intermediary under the IT act has been repeatedly in violation of directions issued under the IT act and today they were issued a notice after several efforts of seeking compliance. (ANI)
The move comes in response to a plea by the Karnataka State Government Employees Association. The employees allege that people are shooting videos inside government offices with an ulterior motive of harassing and maligning them.

The government order on Friday refers to the employees association petition which claims that certain persons enter government offices during working hours to capture photographs and visuals which are later shared on social media.

"The videos are hurting the dignity of different departments and the government apart from affecting women workers in these offices," the petition contended.

The department of personnel and administrative reforms, in its order dated July 15 noted that "After carefully studying the petition, the government is of the view that prohibiting photography/ videography in all government offices during work hours is essential."

However, the order is facing flak from anti-graft activists who claim that the move encourages corruption in government offices.

--IANS pvn/pgh

( 188 Words)

2022-07-15-21:54:03 (IANS)
Court Grants Air Force Service Members Relief from Shot Mandate NEWS PROVIDED BY Liberty Counsel July 14, 2022



In his order for Hunter Doster, et al. v. Hon Frank Kendall, et al., Judge Matthew McFarland stated that, "All active-duty and active reserve members of the United States Air Force and Space Force, including but not limited to Air Force Academy Cadets, Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFROTC) Cadets, Members of the Air Force Reserve Command, and any Airman who has sworn or affirmed the United States Uniformed Services Oath of Office and is currently under command and could be deployed, who: (i) submitted a religious accommodation request to the Air Force from the Air Force's COVID-19 vaccination requirement, where the request was submitted or was pending, from September 1, 2021 to the present; (ii) were confirmed as having had a sincerely held religious belief by or through Air Force Chaplains; and (iii) either had their requested accommodation denied or have not had action on that request" are covered in the temporary restraining order.



Judge McFarland also wrote, "The proposed class satisfies the (b)(2) requirement. Defendants' attempt to characterize the relief sought as hinging on individualized determinations concerning their religious accommodation requests and sincerely held religious beliefs. But the relief the proposed class seeks is the same: a religious accommodation relating to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. And they have been harmed in 'essentially the same way.'"







"They face separation from the Air Force and other disciplinary measures. A single injunction would provide relief to the entire class. Indeed, the main purpose of a (b)(2) class is to provide relief through a single injunction or declaratory judgment. Because Defendants have uniformly maintained a policy of overriding Airmen's religious objections to the COVID-19 vaccine, they have acted 'on grounds that apply generally to the class.' Moreover, the class definition requires that a Chaplain certify that the airman's religious beliefs are sincerely held. Finally, a single injunction would provide the proposed class with the relief they seek from the harm they stand to suffer," the court wrote.



The Department of Defense has until July 21 to file a brief arguing why the temporary restraining order should not be extended into a preliminary injunction.



Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, "This is a great decision that grants protection for the religious freedom for all Air Force personnel from Joe Biden's unlawful COVID shot mandate. No service member should be required to choose between service to the country and service to God. Liberty Counsel will be pursuing class-wide protection for the remaining branches of the military."



Liberty Counsel provides broadcast quality TV interviews via Hi-Def Skype and LTN at no cost.



SOURCE Liberty Counsel



CONTACT: Mat Staver, 407-875-1776,



Related Links



lc.org/

CINCINNATI, Ohio, July 14, 2022 / Christian Newswire / -- A federal district court in Ohio has granted a temporary restraining order for the entire class of the U.S. Air Force against the unlawful Department of Defense COVID shot mandate. Thousands of these service members who oppose receiving the shot due to their sincerely held religious beliefs have been denied their religious exemptions.In his order for Hunter Doster, et al. v. Hon Frank Kendall, et al., Judge Matthew McFarland stated that, "All active-duty and active reserve members of the United States Air Force and Space Force, including but not limited to Air Force Academy Cadets, Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFROTC) Cadets, Members of the Air Force Reserve Command, and any Airman who has sworn or affirmed the United States Uniformed Services Oath of Office and is currently under command and could be deployed, who: (i) submitted a religious accommodation request to the Air Force from the Air Force's COVID-19 vaccination requirement, where the request was submitted or was pending, from September 1, 2021 to the present; (ii) were confirmed as having had a sincerely held religious belief by or through Air Force Chaplains; and (iii) either had their requested accommodation denied or have not had action on that request" are covered in the temporary restraining order.Judge McFarland also wrote, "The proposed class satisfies the (b)(2) requirement. Defendants' attempt to characterize the relief sought as hinging on individualized determinations concerning their religious accommodation requests and sincerely held religious beliefs. But the relief the proposed class seeks is the same: a religious accommodation relating to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. And they have been harmed in 'essentially the same way.'""They face separation from the Air Force and other disciplinary measures. A single injunction would provide relief to the entire class. Indeed, the main purpose of a (b)(2) class is to provide relief through a single injunction or declaratory judgment. Because Defendants have uniformly maintained a policy of overriding Airmen's religious objections to the COVID-19 vaccine, they have acted 'on grounds that apply generally to the class.' Moreover, the class definition requires that a Chaplain certify that the airman's religious beliefs are sincerely held. Finally, a single injunction would provide the proposed class with the relief they seek from the harm they stand to suffer," the court wrote.The Department of Defense has until July 21 to file a brief arguing why the temporary restraining order should not be extended into a preliminary injunction.Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, "This is a great decision that grants protection for the religious freedom for all Air Force personnel from Joe Biden's unlawful COVID shot mandate. No service member should be required to choose between service to the country and service to God. Liberty Counsel will be pursuing class-wide protection for the remaining branches of the military."Liberty Counsel provides broadcast quality TV interviews via Hi-Def Skype and LTN at no cost.SOURCE Liberty CounselCONTACT: Mat Staver, 407-875-1776, Liberty@LC.org Related Links

Share Tweet
Crime Branch of Kerala Police sought time from the Kerala High Court to interrogate former DGP, Prisons of Kerala R Sreelekha IPS regarding her remarks in the 2017 Actress Assault Case. Recently, Sreelekha uploaded a video of her on YouTube stating that evidences submitted against actor Dileep, who is the eighth accused in this case are fake and he was dragged into this case because his enemies are powerful. Crime Branch who is probing the case asked this while requesting another three weeks time to conclude the further investigation in this case. After hearing the arguments today, the single bench of Justice Kauser Edappagath directed the Crime Branch to collect the required evidence from the forensic laboratory and submit it in a sealed cover to the trial court by Monday. As per the court, an investigating officer shall be deputed today itself to collect this cloned or mirror image of the memory card which is the evidence of the case. Court also criticised the probe agency for seeking time again and again. The case pertains that an actress, who worked in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu films, was allegedly abducted and molested inside her car by a group of men who had forced their way into the vehicle on the night of 17 February 2017. Former DGP R Sreelekha IPS claimed that actor Dileep is innocent in the actor assault case. "I'm 100 per cent certain that Dileep is not involved in this case. I don't believe that knowingly or unknowingly he has any role in it," Sreelekha said at the end of her 40-minute video. She also alleged that the photo of Dileep with Pulsar Suni is 'photoshopped'. Another evidence of tower location, she said that day there was a programme in that hall. There were many actors and their drivers. There is no evidence to prove that Dileep and Pulsar Suni are together. T Sreelekha added that she knew all this because she worked 12 years in Ernakulam as a DIG and IG. A few female actors close to her had told her that this person (Pulsar Suni) had befriended them, became their driver, abducted them, shot their videos and blackmailed them. They had settled the issue by paying money. Dileep is the Malayalam actor who has been the eighth accused in the case apart from Sunil Kumar, Martin Antony, Manikantan, VP Vijeesh, Salim, Pradeep, and Charley Thomas.(ANI)
A Delhi Court on Friday observed, that in Indian democracy, the political parties are open to their criticism, saying the political parties are not shying away from the public to face criticism of its policies. The court's observation came while granting bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair in connection with a 2018 contentious tweet case, which allegedly promoted enmity between religious groups, according to the FIR. As per the FIR, in his tweet, Zubair had written: "BEFORE 2014: Honeymoon Hotel. After 2014: Hanuman Hotel.""The applicant/accused stated to have used the words "BEFORE 2014: and After 2014' to point out towards a political party. In Indian democracy the political parties are open for their criticism. The political parties are not shying away from public to face the criticism of its policies. The voice of dissent is necessary for healthy democracy. Therefore, merely for the criticism of any political parties it is not justified to invoke section 153 A and 295 A IPC," Additional Sessions Judge Devender Kumar Jangala of Patiala House Courts stated in the order. The applicant has posted the image of the scene of a movie "Kisi se na Kehna" released in the year 1983. This movies was certified by the Central Board of Film Certification, which is a statutory body of the Government of India and is available for public view since then. No complaint is stated to have been filed till today that the said scene of movie has hurt the feelings of particular community of society, the court noted. It was also noted that democracy can neither work nor prosper unless people go out to share their views. "Democracy is a government by the people via open discussion. The Democracy can neither work nor prosper unless people go out to share their views. Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution of India gives freedom of speech and expression to its citizen. Undoubtedly free speech is the proper foundation of a democratic society. A free exchange of ideas, dissemination of information without restrains, dissemination of knowledge, airing of differing viewpoints, debating and forming one's own views and expressing them, are the basic indicator of a free society," the order said. It further said: "This freedom alone makes it possible for people to formulate their own views and opinions on a proper basis and to exercise their social, economic and political rights in a free society in an informed manner. The liberty of speech and expression guaranteed by article 19 (1) (a) brings within its ambit, the corresponding duty and responsibility and puts limitations on the exercise of that liberty." --IANS jw/pgh ( 448 Words) 2022-07-15-22:08:02 (IANS)
The US House of Representatives on Thursday approved legislation that recommend an India-specific waiver under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), thus deepening defence ties between both the democracies and help deter aggressors like China. The House approved the measure, offered by Democratic Representative Congressman Ro Khanna, an Indian-American Congressman and a member of the House Armed Services Act, as an amendment to the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) by 330 to 99 However, this amendment is several steps from becoming law. After the House passage of the NDAA - the Senate must approve its version. Then lawmakers must reach a compromise version of the legislation, which authorizes more than $800 billion in defense spending, before voting again later this year. This monumental amendment marks the most significant piece of legislation for US and India relations out of Congress since the US and India nuclear deal, according to a statement released by Khanna. "The United States must stand with India in the face of escalating aggression from China. As Vice Chair of the India Caucus, I have been working to strengthen the partnership between our countries and ensure that India can defend itself along the Indian Chinese border," said Rep. Khanna. "This amendment is of the utmost importance, and I am proud to see it pass the House on a bipartisan basis." He said that the India-US partnership, rooted in shared democratic values, is critical in order to advance United States interests in the Indo-Pacific region; and this partnership between the world's oldest and largest democracies is critical and must continue to be strengthened in response to increasing threats in the Indo-Pacific regions, sending an unequivocal signal that sovereignty and international law must be respected. "The amendment is a good signal to the Biden administration on what the house thinks of CAATSA and India", an analyst told ANI This amendment is the latest effort by members of Congress to underscore a strong defence partnership between India and the United States, highlighting China's threat to India's security. Furthermore, in Khanna's amendment, there is a section titled "Border Threats from China and reliance on Russian weapons", which proposes that the Congress recognise that India faces "immediate and serious regional border threats from China, with incessant military aggression by the Government of China along the India-China border". It emphasized that the United States should take additional steps to encourage India to accelerate its transition off Russian-built weapons and defense systems while strongly supporting India's immediate defense needs. While addressing the House of Representatives, Khanna lauded the US-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (ICET) which was announced during the Tokyo summit between President Joe Biden and President Narendra Modi as an essential step" to formulate closer ties between the two nations in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, biotechnology, aerospace and semiconductor manufacturing. While India faces an immediate need to maintain its heavily Russian-built weapons systems, a waiver to sanctions under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act during this transition period is in the best interests of the United States and the United States-India defense partnership to deter aggressors in light of Russia and China's close partnership. Under the CAATSA, the US imposes sanctions on those countries that have "significant transactions with Iran, North Korea or Russia". India had inked the USD 5.43 billion deal with Russia for five squadrons of S-400s in October 2018. Although as per a top official under President Joe Biden's administration earlier, the United States has not made a final decision on sanctions on India for its acquisition of the S-400 missile system from Russia under the CAATSA. The American politician with Indian heritage pointed out that a strong United States-India defence partnership is rooted in shared democratic values and is critical in order to advance United States interests in the Indo-Pacific region. (ANI)
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warned on Thursday that any "mistakes" committed by the United States and its allies to stoke a regional crisis will receive a "decisive" response from Iran. "Unfortunately, some countries in the region are transiting insecurity and terrorism from the West and the United States to the region," Raisi said during a visit to Iran's western city of Kermanshah as reported by the president's website. "Iran does not accept any insecurity and crisis in the region, and committing any mistake in this region will be responded to with a decisive and regrettable response," Xinhua quoted Raisi as saying. His remarks came straight after President Joe Biden's current visit to regional countries, including Israel and Saudi Arabia, both Iran's foes. Biden's visit is largely considered to be aimed at countering Iran's influence in the region. Iran's military power and capabilities are a guarantee of security for the region, Raisi said, adding that the intervention of foreigners including the US in the region will only lead to crisis and insecurity. Iran signed the JCPOA with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to curb its nuclear program in return for the removal of sanctions on the country. However, former US President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement in May 2018 and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Iran, prompting the latter to drop some of its commitments under the pact. The talks on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal began in April 2021 in Vienna but were suspended in March this year because of political differences between Tehran and Washington. After a three-month pause, the talks resumed recently in the Qatari capital Doha but failed to result in any agreement to settle the remaining differences. "Indirect" talks between Iran and the United States aim at removing US sanctions are over the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal. The nuclear deal is formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). (ANI)
India on Thursday reaffirmed its unwavering support to Colombia and also urged the international community to continue to support the government and people of Colombia in their journey to sustain peace at the UNSC Arria-formula meeting on Colombia. "The peace process in Columbia continues to be a source of inspiration to the world, the international community needs to continue to support the government and people of Columbia in their journey to consolidate & sustain peace," India's Permanent Mission to UN, Pratik Mathur said. The recent release of the final report of the truth commission highlighted a major watershed in the modern history of Columbia, he said stressing that the peace process in Columbia continues to be a source of inspiration to the world. Calling out the international community to continue to support the government and people of Columbia in their journey to sustain peace, Pratik Mathur said that the final report of the truth commission will contribute to building a more peaceful, secure & prosperous future for all Colombians. India also reiterated the call for enhanced and effective humanitarian assistance to all Syrians throughout the country without discrimination, politicization and preconditions on Tuesday. "While cross-border operations are predictable and important, they cannot continue to exist in perpetuity. Concrete steps need to be taken to address the hurdles that are obstructing the functioning of cross-line operations," India's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador R. Ravindra said. Moreover, India also expressed deep concern over the situation in Ukraine on Monday and called for a cessation of all hostilities while backing efforts to alleviate the sufferings of the people of Ukraine especially encouraging talks between Kyiv and Moscow.(ANI)
US Buffalo shooter, Payton Gendron has been indicted by the federal Grand Jury on Thursday on 27 counts of federal hate crimes and firearms charges in the mass shooting at the Tops grocery store on Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo, US state of New York two months ago.The announcement was made by US Attorney General Merrick Garland and other Department of Justice officials. The indictment charges Gendron, 19, of Conklin, New York, with 14 violations of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (Shepard-Byrd Act) and 13 firearms offences in connection with the carnage, Xinhua reported. The indictment alleges that on or about May 14, Gendron opened fire with a Bushmaster XM rifle and shot multiple individuals in and around a Tops grocery store, which resulted in the deaths of 10 African Americans, as well as injury to three others. According to the local media, the indictment charges that Gendron violated the Shepard-Byrd Act by willfully causing the death of the victims because of their actual and perceived race and colour. It also charges Gendron with 13 counts of using, carrying, or discharging a firearm in relation to the hate crimes, and seeks forfeiture of items, including the weapon used in the shooting. The indictment further includes special findings alleging, among other things, that Gendron committed the offence after substantial planning and premeditation to commit an act of terrorism. Upon conviction, the charges in the indictment carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment or the death penalty. Gendron is currently in state custody pending state criminal charges. Ten people were brutally killed and three others were injured in a racially motivated hate crime in Buffalo city in New York. With increasing incidents of gun violence in the United States, President Joe Biden had said that the US needs to ban assault weapons for the sake of protecting children and families or raise the age to purchase them from 18 to 21. Furthermore, on June 22, a group of US lawmakers reached a much-awaited deal on a bipartisan gun safety bill after recent mass shooting incidents in Uvalde, Buffalo and Texas, that struck a nerve in the country. The new bill aims to take firearms away from dangerous people and provide billions of dollars in new mental health funding. The bill does not ban assault-style rifles or significantly expand background-check requirements for gun purchases, but it gives states more resources to take guns away from dangerous individuals. (ANI)
A number of Baloch activists gathered at the event, hosted by Baroness Natalie Bennett, Member of House of Lords at British Parliament on Tuesday to carry out the campaign to make Pakistan accountable for human rights violations in Balochistan. Hosting a meeting titled "Baloch Lives Matter" in Cabinet Room, Bennett opined that human rights violations in Balochistan could not be ignored under any pretext, and Pakistan must answer what is going on over there. The event was attended by Dr Naseer Dashti, Executive President of Baloch Human Rights Council; Dr Burzine Waghnar, Researcher at School of Oriental and African Studies; Dr Lakhumal Luhana, General Secretary World Sindhi Congress and Peter Tatchell from the Peter Tatchell Foundation. A documentary produced by Baloch Human Rights Council was displayed and gave a brief background of the Baloch conflict with Pakistan. While briefing the meeting on the human rights violations and atrocities perpetrated in Balochistan, Dashti observed that the international community's intervention is imperative. He further said that the international community should not do discrimination in dealing with crimes against humanity committed in Europe, Africa, and Balochistan, Baloch Human Rights Council said in a statement. Meanwhile, another speaker, Waghmar noted that China played an important role in destroying the environment of Balochistan. He said that China entered Balochistan in disguise of development with its multi-billion CPEC projects but it has only contributed to destroying the environment and the socioeconomic marginalization of the people. Explaining the reasons behind Balochistan and Sindh being under the occupation of Pakistan, Luhana said that both the provinces have 80 per cent of the wealth of the country, which is geo-strategically important. He said that all human rights conditions listed under the UN charter have been violated by Pakistan. Luhana observed that the atrocities on the Baloch and Sindhis have reached unprecedented levels. He further urged the civilized world to act before it is very late for the Baloch and Sindhis. Meanwhile, another speaker, Tatchell observed that human rights violations in Balochistan are a direct result of Pakistan's forcible annexation of Balochistan into Pakistan and the subsequent struggle of the Baloch people for their right to self-determination, according to the Baloch Human Rights Council. In this regard, Tatchell proposed a stepwise plan to peacefully resolve the Baloch conflict with Pakistan. The steps included an UN-supervised ceasefire, release of all disappeared prisoners, opening Balochistan to international media, rehabilitation of internally or externally displaced persons, and an UN-supervised referendum to find out the will of the Baloch people. (ANI)
As massive protests across Sri Lanka continue, the country's Parliament Speaker, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena on Friday said that the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa as President has been accepted. "Yes, the resignation (of President) has been accepted, the legal process will follow... Members will be invited tomorrow (to elect a President)," Abeywarden told ANI. Addressing the presser, Abeywardena said that from July 14, the President has legally resigned from his legal duties and responsibilities. He further said that Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will be sworn in as an interim President till the conclusion of electing a new President by Parliament. Abeywardena said that the President will be selected according to the provisions of the Special Provisions Act No. 2 of 1981 and Article 40 of the Constitution. "It is my intention to complete this procedure successfully and speedily. As the oldest democracy in the South Asian region holding Democratic traditions sacred, completing this process in a transparent and Democratic manner would be a milestone not only in the history of Sri Lanka but also in the Democratic history of the world," the Speaker added. He requested cooperation from the party leaders, state officials, and security forces for this democratic process. "My special appeal to our respected and dear citizens of Sri Lanka is to create a peaceful environment that will allow all members of Parliament to attend Parliament freely and act according to their conscience," Abeywardena said. The Parliament Speaker said that he intended to conclude the presidential election process within a short period of seven days. He also said that he had invited the members of Parliament to come tomorrow and will cast their votes for the next President. Meanwhile, Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Rajapaksa has been allowed entry into Singapore on a private visit and he has not asked for asylum nor has he been granted asylum. Rajapaksa who flew from the Maldives arrived in Singapore on board a Saudia Airlines flight on Thursday evening, media reports said.According to earlier reports, Rajapaksa and his wife were expected to stay in Singapore and not travel further to the Middle East. As per various media reports, the Sri Lankan President and his wife, who took Saudia Airlines flight SV788 to Singapore, were expected to travel to Jeddah. Rajapaksa, 73, had gone into hiding after crowds of protesters stormed his residence on July 9 and he had announced that he will hand over his resignation letter on Wednesday. Earlier, Rajapaksa along with his wife escaped to the Maldives. Subsequently, the speaker appointed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as the interim President of Sri Lanka. Rajapaksa's resignation comes after thousands of people stormed into the President's House in Fort on Saturday. Even Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has also announced to step down from their posts amid the ongoing protests. (ANI)
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Friday said that India and China must solve the border dispute through talks and peaceful means. The remarks by the Dalai Lama come ahead of 16th round of Corps Commander-level meetings between India and China, expected to start on July 17, in the backdrop of a stand-off between the two countries along the Line of Actual Control in the eastern Ladakh sector and the Galwan clashes of 2020. The 14th Dalai Lama today left for Ladakh after a stopover in Jammu where he had arrived on Thursday from his base in Dharamshala. "India and China are both competitive nations and neighbours, sooner or later you have to solve this problem through talks and peaceful means. The use of military force is outdated," the Dalai Lama told ANI. Earlier talking to reporters in Jammu yesterday, the 87-year-old spiritual leader said that the majority of people in China realize that he is not seeking independence within China but meaningful autonomy and preservation of Tibetan Buddhist culture. "Not Chinese people, but some Chinese hardliners consider me a separatist. Now, more and more Chinese are realising that Dalai Lama not seeking independence but within China meaningful autonomy and to preserve Tibetan Buddhist culture," the Dalai Lama said. The Tibetan spiritual leader was responding to a question on China objecting to his visit to Ladakh. The Dalai Lama also said that more and more Chinese are showing interest in Tibetan Buddhism. "Some of the Chinese scholars have realized that Tibetan Buddhism is truly knowledge and tradition and a very scientific religion." The Tibetan spiritual leader is on a two-day official visit to Jammu and Kashmir and the Union Territory Ladakh. This is the first official tour of the Dalai Lama outside his base in Dharamshala since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The visit also marks his first visit to the region since the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. The spiritual leader's trip is likely to irk China as Beijing had recently criticized Prime Minister Modi, for extending wishes to the Dalai Lama on his 87th birthday, stating that India should stop using Tibet-related issues to interfere in China's internal affairs. The External Affairs Ministry had slammed China's criticism and said that it has been a consistent policy of the government to treat the Dalai Lama as a guest in India. Meanwhile, India and China have been engaged in a standoff since April-May 2020 over the transgressions by the Chinese Army in multiple areas including the Finger area, Galwan Valley, Hot springs, and Kongrung Nala. The situation worsened after violent clashes with Chinese troops in Galwan Valley in June 2020. (ANI)
India on Friday handed over food and disaster relief material to the Nepal government at a ceremony held at the Nepalese Home Affairs Ministry in Kathmandu. The Indian Ambassador to Nepal Naveen Srivastava handed over the consignments to Bal Krishna Khand, Home Minister of Nepal. They include 3,000 tents (Big/Family) and ten motor inflatable boats. Speaking on the occasion the Indian Ambassador said, "We all know that natural disasters such as floods and landslides strike India and Nepal annually resulting in damages which endanger many lives and properties. In order to face it and minimize the effects, India and Nepal have been coordinating and adopting measures to minimize the impacts of floods. Sometimes, the floods result in damages, in order to mitigate the effects we have been working on it for years," The Indian envoy further added that he held talks with Nepali President Bidhya Devi Bhandari about issues of floods and further measures to be adopted in wake of the monsoon. In Nepal, the monsoon season starts in June and lasts for four months. Ambassador Srivastava also said that this timely supply of relief material is optimally utilized by concerned agencies to ensure its maximum benefit by timely distribution and efficient utilization. "Our friendship between Nepal and India is unique in itself. The humanitarian assistance and disaster preparedness and response support have always been instrumental in saving lives and providing needful relief support to disaster-affected people in Nepal," Bal Krishna Khand said. The Home Minister praised the Indian government for its support and said that this demonstrates the good relationship between the two nations and fostering of people-to-people relations. He also thanked the Indian Embassy for coordinating and facilitating the humanitarian assistance cooperation and everlasting friendship between the two countries. (ANI)
According to the protesters, the girl was kidnapped in Unnar Muhalla, Qazi Ahmed Town on July 6 by family members of Khalil Rehman Jono.

The protesters chanted slogans against the police and asked the former President to intervene in the matter to help them to find the girl.

However, local police said that Kareena had not been abducted she had eloped with Khalil Rehman Jono of Meer Mohammad Jono village and had married him in a court in Karachi.

According to police, Asghar Jono, father of Khalil, had been arrested after the registration of FIR under Section 365-B on a complaint lodged by Sundurmal.

The SSP shared a marriage registration certificate purportedly of Kareena and Khalil Rehman Jono and said the girl would be produced in Sindh High Court. The girl would decide to go wherever she wanted, he added.

Hindu Panchayat vice president Lajpat Rai rejected the SSP's claim and said a delegation of the Hindu community met the SSP but he had not helped them, reported Dawn.

Earlier this year, a Hindu girl Pooja Kumari was killed by a man at her home in Pakistan's Sindh province. Pooja Kumari was shot in Sukkur after she put up resistance to attackers.

This incident drew a sharp reaction from various human rights organizations in the country.

Activists say human rights in Pakistan records have touched a new low with several media reports and global bodies reflecting the dire situation for women, minorities, children, and media persons in the country. (ANI)
The recent move of China to block the joint proposal by India and the US to list Pakistan-based terrorist Abdul Rehman Makki as a global terrorist under the Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the Security Council could jeopardise Pakistan's efforts to come out of the grey list. Makki, the deputy chief and head of political affairs of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa or the LeT, is the brother-in-law of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief and 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed. He has occupied various leadership roles within LeT, a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and has also played a role in raising funds for LeT operations. He has been alleged to be involved in several major attacks against India including the 2008 Mumbai attacks. He has also been a part of the proselytising, fundraising and recruiting youth from Jammu and Kashmir. Makki is also a member of organisations like Dawat Irshad Trust, Moaz Bin Jabal Trust, Al-Anfal Trust, Al-Madina Foundation Trust and Al Hamd Trust and Difa-e-Pakistan Council, the motley coalition of 40 right-wing political and religious parties of Pakistan which had once rallied against India and the United States. In 2020, a Pakistani anti-terrorism court convicted Makki for financing terrorism and sentenced him to prison, according to the US State Department. The United States continues to seek information on Makki because the Pakistani judicial system has released convicted LeT leaders and operatives in the past. The proposal to list Makki under the UN Security Council sanctions regime was circulated to all members of the 1267 Committee under a no-objection procedure till June 16, HK Post reported. Yet, China placed a 'technical hold' on the proposal to designate Makki. Notably, China's double standards in counter-terrorism are not new. It has repeatedly blocked proposals to designate Maulana Masood Azhar, chief of Pakistan-based and UN-proscribed terrorist entity, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and has in the last few years shielded Pakistan from its misdeeds. Pakistan is a valuable ally for China as it serves as the anchor of Chinese presence in the Indian subcontinent. At the FATF, Pakistan is due to be assessed in October 2022 in Paris. And in the run-up to that its all-weather friend China is creating a lobby to support Pakistan so that it can be moved out of the FATF grey list. But when it comes to counter-terrorism, Pakistan made limited progress on the most difficult aspects of its 2015 National Action Plan, specifically in its pledge to dismantle all terrorist organizations without delay or discrimination, said the US State Department in its 2020 Country Reports on Terrorism. The country has failed to take adequate steps to counter-terrorism and prosecute terrorists including masterminds of the 2008 Mumbai attacks such as Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) founder Masood Azhar and LeT's Sajid Mir, the US-based report said. Although China claims to officially advocate 'non-interference' in the 'internal matters of another country, it has been engaging with various Pakistani players (political parties, military, religious groups) at local and national levels. It can be said that China's technical hold over the LeT terrorist mastermind, Makki is to actually protect its China-Pakistan Economic Corridor interests in Punjab where the LeT also happens to have a stronghold, HK Post reported. This duplicity in China's attitude towards combating terrorism speaks volumes about the false commitments at multilateral forums like the BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Shielding a global terrorist state undermines Beijing's credibility and exposes it to the growing threat of terrorism. Meanwhile, Pakistan has been on the Paris-based global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog's grey list for deficiencies in its counter-terror financing and anti-money laundering regimes since June 2018. This greylisting has adversely impacted its imports, exports, remittances, and limited access to international lending. In June 2021, the country was given three months to fulfil the remaining conditions by October. However, Pakistan was retained on the FATF 'grey list' for failing to effectively implement the global FATF standards and for its lack of progress in the investigation and prosecution of senior leaders and commanders of UN-designated terror groups. (ANI)
Families of five students and teachers killed in the December 2014 attack on the Peshawar Army School have moved the Peshawar High Court against the ongoing negotiations between the Pakistan government and proscribed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). A joint petition was filed by the mothers of four students and a woman teacher seeking a directive for the government against 'taking any step of reconciliation with the outfit without taking them into confidence', Dawn reported. The petitioners included Falak Naz, mother of students Noorullah and Saifullah, Shahana, mother of Asfand Khan, Seema, mother of Aimal Khan, and Zulaikha, mother of teacher Sadia Gul. A bench consisting of Justice Lal Jan Khattak and Justice Abdul Shakoor issued a notice to the interior secretary asking him to respond to the petition, on the next date of hearing to be fixed later. The respondents in the petition are the defence ministry through its secretary, the interior ministry through its secretary, the federal government through its law secretary, and the focal person of the National Action Plan (NAP), Dawn reported. Advocate Ajoon Khan, father of student Asfand Khan, who was killed in the attack appeared for the petitioners. He noted that they were direct victims of the brutal act of killing innocent students and some of their teachers at the APS by the TTP militants, so negotiating with the outfit by the government without redressing their grievances would be a destruction of the justice system in the country. Ajoon Khan requested the court to issue directives to the government not to take any step of reconciliation with the TTP without taking his clients on board. He said, "The petitioners are the victim of one of the most brutal incidents that occurred in this country as a consequence of which minor students in large numbers were martyred. The families of the APS martyrs had time to time protested and raised their voice against the campus carnage not only in Peshawar but in other cities, including Islamabad, as well." "The petitioners had also appeared and put forward their grievances before a one-member Judicial Commission consisting of Justice Mohammad Ibrahim Khan, which was probing the matter on the order of the Supreme Court," he added. Khan further said that the judicial commission had completed its probe and submitted its report to the apex court including its findings and recommendations. "Some of the reservations of the petitioners had now been pending before the Supreme Court and they had regularly been appearing before it," he said. Speaking of the ongoing negotiations between the Pakistan government and TTP, the counsel said that his clients learned through print, electronic and social media that the federal government had a started dialogue with the TTP and that only the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, which was heading the coalition government, had exclusively started it without taking into confidence other stakeholders, the Dawn reported. Khan claimed that the Pakistan Peoples Party had objected to the negotiations and had demanded a joint sitting of parliament for discussing the matter, but instead of a joint sitting the government had only convened a meeting of a National Assembly standing committee to satisfy its coalition partner, whereas the victims of the APS carnage were completely ignored. "If any compromise took place between the government and the TTP without taking the stakeholders, especially the aggrieved parents of the slain students, into confidence, it would tarnish the country's image across the world," he asserted. On December 16, 2014, six terrorists affiliated with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) attacked the Army Public School in the northwestern city of Peshawar. 147 people, including 132 children, were killed in the attack. The TTP had created havoc in Pakistan with several attacks between 2007-2014. The TTP members had fled to Afghanistan after Islamabad launched widescale operations against the group following the Peshawar attack. But the Taliban's emergence to power in Afghanistan has inspired the TTP and they have scaled up attacks in Pakistan targetting their forces and posing a major challenge to Islamabad despite their calls for negotiations. (ANI)
Shehbaz Sharif-led Pakistan cabinet on Friday approved the formation of a committee which will deliberate whether treason proceedings under Article 6 should be initiated against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's top leadership, including chairman Imran Khan. During a press conference after a post-cabinet meeting, the country's Minister for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb said that the cabinet approved the formation of a committee under Minister for Law Azam Nazeer Tarar, Geo tv reported. She said that the cabinet welcomed the Supreme Court's detailed judgment in a suo motu case related to the ruling by former National Assembly deputy speaker Qasim Suri on the no-confidence motion against then-Prime Minister. According to the top court, Imran Khan had violated the constitution. Earlier also, the federal minister has hinted that Imran Khan can face treason charges for abrogating the constitution of the country. Additionally, Justice Mazahar Alam Khan Miankhel observed that President Arif Alvi, then Prime Minister Khan, then Nation Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser, ex-deputy speaker Suri, and former law minister Fawad Chaudhry had violated their authority, and left it up to the parliamentarians to decide whether their acts could be prosecuted under Article 6, as per Geo tv. "A special committee has been formed under the chairmanship of law minister Azam Nazeer Tarar... which will present its suggestions in the next meeting of the federal cabinet," said Aurangzeb during the briefing. The relevant provisions of the constitution based on which Khan can face treason charges include Article 5(1) under which "loyalty to the state and obedience to the constitution and law" is an inviolable obligation of every citizen. Another article included in the petitions -- Article 6 -- states that any person who abrogates or attempts to abrogate the constitution by use of force shall be guilty of high treason, adding that an act of treason cannot be validated by any court including the Supreme Court. (ANI)
Critics say that the Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi's attendance at a regional meet in Myanmar lent credibility to the military regime. Sanjay Pulipaka, an independent researcher on international politics and security issues, writing in Asia Times said that Wang Yi's visit was his first to Myanmar since the military coup on February 1, 2021. In the first week of July, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Myanmar to attend the seventh Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) Foreign Ministers' Meeting. The meeting was focused on promoting the "Solidarity of Peace and Prosperity" among the member countries, which are Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. Wang Yi's visit came at a time when the Tatmadaw's legitimacy was being increasingly contested in domestic politics and on international platforms, reported Pulipaka. Wang attended the LMC meet, perceived by opposition groups in Myanmar as an attempt to bolster the legitimacy of the Tatmadaw. Moreover, a Tatmadaw spokesman reportedly noted that the "gathering was a recognition of Myanmar's sovereignty and its government." It is well known that since the coup, the Tatmadaw has not been welcome at ASEAN leaders' meetings. However, the LMC Foreign Ministers' Meeting, by engaging the Tatmadaw leadership, demonstrated a continental-maritime divide among Southeast Asian countries in their responses to developments in Myanmar. Given the growing dependence of the Tatmadaw on China for support on international platforms, Beijing is working to deepen its economic presence in Myanmar. At this month's LMC meeting, Wang Yi called for promoting the construction of railways connecting China to Laos and Thailand, reported Asia Times. It is possible that in the coming months, Chinese leaders will intensify their efforts to persuade Tatmadaw to facilitate the construction of the railway line from Kunming, China, to Kyaukpyu, Myanmar. Such a railway would dramatically enhance China's access to the Indian Ocean, said Pulipaka. To start with, the Tatmadaw and the Chinese authorities are reportedly negotiating the modalities for constructing the Muse-Mandalay Railway project. Railway connectivity to Mandalay also implies that Chinese goods will be able to reach Yangon Port much faster. For China, Myanmar is also an important platform for the internationalization of its currency, the renminbi among member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Last December, Myanmar and China agreed to settle their border trade in the renminbi. On the sidelines of the LMC meeting, Myanmar Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin and Wang Yi agreed to "explore the 'CMEC plus' cooperation at a proper time." Neither the timeline nor the components of expanding the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor have been articulated in full detail, reported Asia Times. Interestingly, the discussions between the two ministers also dealt with the need to "guarantee the operation of China-Myanmar oil and gas pipelines." There are concerns in Beijing about sporadic attacks on Chinese business interests in Myanmar. China is an economic power with significant military prowess and a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council. It also has a robust presence in Myanmar's immediate neighborhood and in Southeast Asia's economic landscape. There is a perception that Beijing has also been able to prevail on countries such as Cambodia to modulate the ASEAN response to developments in Myanmar. A few days before Wang Yi's visit, Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn, ASEAN's special envoy to Myanmar, visited Naypyidaw and interacted with the Tatmadaw leadership and a few ethnic armed groups, reported Asia Times. (ANI)
China and Pakistan have always bragged that they are fighting terrorism on multiple fronts, however, Beijing's recent move to protect terrorist Abdul Makki at the UN contradicts the rhetoric of fighting international terrorism. Valerio Fabbri, writing in Geopolitica.info said that as a member of the Security Council with veto power, China in a sense acted as a proxy for Pakistan. This move sends a signal that China is prepared to contradict its rhetoric of fighting international terrorism and may in fact protect it. Both China and Pakistan are in fact obstructing the cause of the international fight against terrorism, reported Fabbri. Moreover, the latest manifestation of the axis seems to be coming from the handling of one most-wanted terrorist, Sajid Mir, who was reported to be dead until he was arrested at the end of June. US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had put a USD 5 million reward for information leading to Sajid Mir's arrest and conviction, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) operative who masterminded the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. By Pakistan's own admission, Mir died in 2016, yet as recently as the end of June, Nikkei Asia reported that Pakistan had arrested Mir to get off the "grey list" of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the international anti-terror finance watchdog. However, Pakistan's double standards on terrorism in the case of Sajid Mir were overshadowed by China through blocking of the designation of Abdul Rehman Makki, LeT and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) leader, as a global terrorist at the UNSC's Al Qaeda and ISIL Sanctions Committee, also known as the 1267 Committee, reported Geopolitica.info. Abdul Rehman Makki is a LeT Deputy Commander and brother-in-law of Hafiz Saeed, founder of the LeT. The UN Committee has also declared JuD, the political branch of the LeT, a terrorist front group. Hafiz Saeed was sentenced on 8 April 2022 by a special anti-terrorism court in Lahore, to a jail term of 33 years for "financing terrorism." Resolution 1267 provides for sanctions against individuals and entities that support or finance the acts or activities of ISIL, Al-Qaida, associated individuals, groups, undertakings and entities. LeT, JuD, Hafiz Saeed, Jaish-e-Mohammed and its head Masood Azhar, are listed under 1267. The US has been looking for Sajid Mir since the 2008 Mumbai attacks. They did not believe in 2016 that Mir was dead. In fact, at that time, David Coleman Headley, a LeT terrorist who later turned approver, told a special TADA court from a US jail, via video conferencing that Sajid Mir had been his main contact in the LeT. Mir's recent arrest in Pakistan confirms the suspicion that he was kept from public view to get Pakistan off the hook with the Financial Action Task Force, which recently retained (17 June 2022) Islamabad on its Grey List, subject to conduct of an on-site visit. Evidence of Sajid Mir being alive comes from Hammad Azhar, Pakistan's former finance minister, who reportedly said that Pakistan took measures against Sajid Mir and other designated terrorists that were "satisfactory" to the FATF. Moreover, Pakistan's response to the Mumbai attacks has been a series of about-turns and pointed efforts to block international pressure to bring the perpetrators to justice. It has failed to take adequate steps to prosecute terrorists including masterminds of the 2008 Mumbai attacks such as Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) founder Masood Azhar and LeT's Sajid Mir, according to the 2020 US Country Report on Terrorism. "Pakistan did not, however, take steps under its domestic authorities to prosecute other terrorist leaders residing in Pakistan, such as JeM founder Masood Azhar and LeT's Sajid Mir, mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks," it had said. (ANI)
Several political leaders across Pakistan called for peace and asked protestors not to disturb the social harmony of the Sindh province amid the ongoing protests following the killing of 35-year-old Bilal Kaka at a hotel in Hyderabad a couple of days ago. Bilal Kaka was shot dead by Pathans at a restaurant over a food bill during Eid-ul-Azah. Reports in local media said that the hotel owners allegedly shot dead Bilal Kaka and injured his two friends after a dispute over a food bill at the Super Salateen Hotel near Wadhu Wah near Hyderabad bypass - one of the most popular areas in Hyderabad, Daily Pakistan reported. The leaders of several political parties, including JI, MQM-Pakistan, Awami National Party, and nationalist leaders Jalal Mehmood Shah and Ayaz Latif Palijo issued statements on Thursday and urged both Sindhis and Pashtuns to demonstrate restraint, the Dawn newspaper reported. The political parties asked the government to take action so that the tensions in the province can be defused. Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon said that the accused were arrested in connection with the killing and added that the ones involved in destroying of properties will also be brought to justice, it reported. The Awami Workers Party (AWP) called for action against the police as they "stood idly while the man was brutally murdered". Jalal Mehmood Shah, the Chairman of Sindh United Party, said that the Sindhis consider Pashtuns their brothers and they have no objection to their businesses in Sindh. The Sindh United Party Chairman asked the Pashtuns "to respect Sindhis and avoid amicably resolve the issues". Protest rallies and demonstrations were held in parts of Pakistan's Sindh province over the death of Sindhi youth Balal Kaka. Rallies were held at Qambar, Jacobabad, Nawabashah, Tando Mohammad Khan, Halan, and at Kariyo Ghunoor by different groups including nationalist Jiye Sindh Quami Mahaz and Awami Tehreek, Sindh Tarqui Pasand's Students' Federation and Sindh United Party. Sindh United Party Chairman and Convener of Sindh Action Committee, Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah said that the law-and-order problem in Sindh is increasing because of the Afghans living in Sindh and others coming to Sindh from elsewhere. Jiye Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) has announced demonstrations across Sindh Friday on July 15 demanding the ouster of outsiders in Sindh, reported local media. JSQM chairman said that Afghans staying in Sindh are the major reason for ruining Sindh. Taking a dig at authorities, he said that the Afghans also seem to have got licenses now to kill Sindhi youth in Karachi and Hyderabad. According to the local media, illegal Afghan residents are involved in narcotics and money lending at a heavy rate of interest. It further noted that they were also involved in killing the Sindhi youths. (ANI)
India is determined to boost cooperation with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), said Mahendra Nath Pandey, Union Minister for Heavy Industries while virtually attending the 2nd meeting of Ministers of Industry of the member states of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Uzbekistan. The 2nd meeting of Ministers of Industry of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation was held in Uzbekistan on Friday with Uzbekistan being the host nation. SCO has China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan as full-time member nations, reported the government press release. During the meeting, the minister highlighted that India will continue to play an active, positive and constructive role in the organisation. He also reiterated India's commitment to collaborate with industrialists of SCO member countries to explore mutually beneficial opportunities. He further stated that by walking together and with mutual cooperation, a new direction to socio-economic and industrial development can be given in the region. He said that it is because of this desire for the development of the SCO region, India has prepared the 'Draft Program for Promotion of Industrial Cooperation among Business Worlds of SCO Member States and the Regulations for the Organizations and Organizing of Exhibition Programs' at the Industry Ministers' Session of the SCO Member States. Pandey emphasised upon India's robust industrial environment and reiterated that despite disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, its performance had significantly improved in 2021-22. He said that the share of mining and quarrying, manufacturing and construction in India's GDP is now 28 per cent. The minister said that under the inspirational leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government has drawn up a comprehensive program for industrial rejuvenation to remove longstanding bottlenecks arising due to inadequate infrastructure and sluggish business processes, the release said. He also highlighted that various labour market reforms have also been introduced to improve the industrial environment in the country. (ANI)
The residents of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir have expressed concerns over increasing ailments like hepatitis, typhoid, and other abdominal diseases due to the uneven climate. The Health Department of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir urged people to take precautions while eating outside food and to ensure cleanliness everywhere, local media reported. However, these ailments are a result of several factors including environmental pollution because of forest cutting, polluted rivers, and disregard for other natural resources. Substandard and hazardous edible items like fruits, mutton, and other items are sold in the region without any fear because of the insensitiveness of the people in power. The people in power often relax and relinquish the facilities on the taxes paid by poor locals suffering from such ailments, media reported. The spread of many problems including such diseases would stop if the government would do its duties sincerely, it added. The people of Gilgit-Baltistan have been resisting Pakistan for misuse of powers in the occupied territory for the past 74 years. Earlier, the federal government of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) imposed heavy cuts in the budgetary grants. The human rights activist and chairman of United Kashmir People's National Party (UKPNP) Shaukat Ali Kashmiri highlighted the plight of the people of PoK and termed the budget cut situation 'alarming'. Kashmiri cautioned that the situation is alarming and should be addressed on a "war footing". He said that concern has been expressed over pathetic conditions of primary schools at the union council level in PoK where students are "compelled to sit on the ground below open sky with no washrooms, clean drinking water facilities". Hepatitis C is defined as an infection caused by a virus that attacks the liver and leads to inflammation. The virus is spread by contact with contaminated blood; for example, from sharing needles or from unsterile tattoo equipment. Recent research has identified that patients with hepatitis C, when treated with direct-acting antiviral medicines, were less likely to be hospitalized. According to the Indian Journal of Medical Research, Typhoid or enteric fever is mainly caused by Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi and also to a lesser extent by S Paratyphi A. Humans are the only reservoir for these organisms. The main sources of infection are the stool and urine of infected persons, with the important vehicles being contaminated water, food, and flies. The causative agent is either waterborne or foodborne for this gastrointestinal infection. (ANI)
Sri Lanka's ruling party on Friday said it would nominate interim President Ranil Wickremesinghe for the presidency when Parliament elects a new president on July 20. In a statement, General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Sagara Kariyawasam said that the SLPP would nominate Wickremesinghe and support him in the vote. Earlier Friday, Sri Lanka's Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said that a new president would be elected through the Parliament on July 20 following the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Wickremesinghe was sworn in as interim President till the election on July 20. "Under these circumstances, the constitutional procedure of appointing a new president will now be activated. Until this constitutional procedure is over, according to the constitution the prime minister will function in the capacity of the president overseeing functions, duties, and powers of the office of the president," the speaker said, according to Xinhua News Agency. Rajapaksa who flew from the Maldives arrived in Singapore on board a Saudia Airlines flight on Thursday evening, media reports said.According to earlier reports, Rajapaksa and his wife were expected to stay in Singapore and not travel further to the Middle East. As per various media reports, Rajapaksa and his wife, who took Saudia Airlines flight SV788 to Singapore, are now expected to travel to Jeddah. Rajapaksa, 73, had gone into hiding after crowds of protesters stormed his residence on July 9 and he had announced that he will hand over his resignation letter on Wednesday. Earlier, Rajapaksa along with his wife escaped to the Maldives. Subsequently, the speaker appointed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as the interim President of Sri Lanka. Rajapaksa's resignation comes after thousands of people stormed the President's House in Fort on Saturday. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also announced he would step down amid the ongoing protests. (ANI)
China often violates the territorial waters of countries in the East China and South China Seas and its military expansionism may lead to geopolitical instability in the region. However, China now has mustered the support of Russia to spar a new crisis in the region and the presence of Chinese and Russian frigates in the region raises the suspicion of military activity in the region, reported Asian Lite International. On July 4, Japan protested to Beijing after spotting Chinese and Russian warships just outside its territorial waters around the disputed East China Sea islands. Japan's Defense Ministry asserted that Chinese frigate sailed inside the "contiguous zone", just outside Japanese territorial waters around Senkaku islands, for several minutes. Beijing also claims Senkaku islands as part of its territory and calls it Diaoyu. Japan lodged a protest expressing "grave concern" to Beijing over the incident. It claimed, "The Senkaku Islands are an inherent part of Japan's territory historically and under international law. The government will deal with the matter calmly but firmly to protect the Japanese land, territorial waters and air space." However, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian noted that the" activities of Chinese vessels in waters nearby are lawful and justified," reported Asian Lite International. Japan views China's increasingly assertive military activity in the East and South China Seas as a threat to regional stability. This was the fourth such incursion in Japan's claimed waters and territory, since 2016, precisely in the contiguous zone, which is between the territorial sea and the wider exclusive economic zone, reported Asian Lite International. Two intertwined territorial disputes in the East China Sea currently persist between China and Japan. The first dispute concerns sovereignty issues regarding the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands. The islands are administered by Japan but claimed by China, Japan does not recognize the existence of a territorial dispute. The second dispute concerns maritime delimitation in the East China Sea. The 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zones (EEZ), which are calculated from the baseline of the coast of the two countries overlap over a vast stretch of sea. The problem is eluding resolution due to China's scant respect for international conventions. Countries in the East & South China Seas region are concerned over the unilateralism of China and its scant regard for international laws and conventions. China is also flexing its muscles even with small countries like Philippines and it imposed (April 2022) a three-month ban on fishing in the waters where the Philippines claims to have sovereign rights and jurisdiction since long. As China continued with its unilateralism by banning fishing in Filipino waters, the Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs registered a diplomatic protest (May 2022) against the Chinese ban. China had also attacked Vietnamese fishing and other vessels beginning 2013-14 and more frequently since 2019-20. Vietnam has registered its protest. However, Chinese belligerence continues, reported Asian Lite International. The other regional countries, nevertheless, are aiming at safeguarding their territorial integrity and sovereignty by promoting multilateralism, free mercantile movement, peace, stability and prosperity. Quad, an alliance including the US, Japan, Australia and India agreed in their recent summit in Tokyo in May 2022 to launch a satellite-based maritime security initiative aimed at a free and open Indo-Pacific. The benefit of Quad's agreement on maritime security can help even small countries of the South China Sea region to safeguard their sovereignty and economic interests, reported Asian Lite International. (ANI)
Shops and hotels, owned by Pashtuns, were closed by the Sindhis as the ethnic tensions flared up in several districts in Sindh province following the killing of 35-year-old Bilal Kaka at a hotel in Hyderabad a couple of days ago, media reports said. Bilal Kaka, a Sindhi youth was shot dead by Pathans at a restaurant over a food bill during Eid-ul-Azah. According to the media reports, the hotel owners allegedly shot dead Bilal Kaka and injured his two friends after a dispute over a food bill at the Super Salateen Hotel near Wadhu Wah near Hyderabad bypass - one of the most popular areas in Hyderabad. In the aftermath of the killing, there were massive protests registered across the Sindh province. The leaders from across the political spectrum unanimously called for calm, urging people not to let rogue elements disturb the social harmony of the province, reported Dawn. Several violent incidents were reported in the province on Thursday. Several political parties, including JI, MQM-Pakistan, Awami National Party, and nationalist leaders Jalal Mehmood Shah and Ayaz Latif Palijo issued statements, urging both Sindhis and Pashtuns -- the two groups at the heart of these tensions -- to demonstrate restraint. The political parties also demanded the government to take prompt action to defuse the tensions. According to the local media, illegal Afghan residents are involved in narcotics and money lending at a heavy rate of interest. It further noted that they were also involved in killing the Sindhi youths. Local media further pointed out that police authorities and others in law-enforcement departments do not act against such elements. They said Balal Kaka's case is not just one isolated case but it is the result of an influx of outsiders into Sindh. They said peaceful political movements are the only way out to get rid of outsiders' influx into Sindh. Meanwhile, Sindh United Party Chairman and Convener of Sindh Action Committee, Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah said that the law-and-order problem in Sindh is increasing because of the Afghans living in Sindh and others coming to Sindh from elsewhere. Hundreds of protesters from the Kaka tribe took to the national highway in Sindh province to protest against the killing of Balal Kaka. Rallies were held at Qambar, Jacobabad, Nawabashah, Tando Mohammad Khan, Halan, and at Kariyo Ghunoor by different groups including nationalist Jiye Sindh Quami Mahaz and Awami Tehreek, Sindh Tarqui Pasand's Students' Federation and Sindh United Party. Jiye Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) has announced demonstrations across Sindh Friday on July 15 demanding the ouster of outsiders in Sindh, reported local media.JSQM chairman said that Afghans staying in Sindh are the major reason for ruining Sindh.Taking a dig at authorities, he said that the Afghans also seem to have got licences now to kill Sindhi youth in Karachi and Hyderabad. (ANI)
A terrorist hideout in the mountains of the district was identified and cleared by security forces during an ongoing operation late Thursday night, said the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan Army.

It was a responsive operation in order to trace a group of terrorists who had recently abducted a serving military officer and his relative. The officer was later killed, with his relative taken away by the terrorists on the run.

"The sanitisation operation will continue in the area to apprehend the remaining perpetrators and recover the abductee," the ISPR said in the statement, reported Xinhua.

Pakistan security forces killed four terrorists on June 25 during an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in North Waziristan. All those four terrorists were actively involved in terror activities against security forces, according to The News International citing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

According to the military's media wing, the security forces recovered weapons and ammunition from the terrorists killed during the security operation. (ANI)
The Hologram technology produces 3D visual effect by reflecting light. This holographic image moves three-dimensionally and even shows all the details. Metaverse technology, which uses Virtual Reality space for business, is attracting attention worldwide. "It uses the principle of Pepper's Ghost, which reflects the projection from above against this oblique surface and it is reflected at the backside. That's why it looks like floating. We call it a technical hologram. It enables us to express floating in the air. Now under the COVID-19 pandemic change of concept is important. We can show the product which is not available to exhibit by light touching to change various contents," Kenji Kawada, an official of Nishikawa said. "During the COVID-19 pandemic never touching control is required. We provide a sales promotion solution which combines graphic images and real images," the official said. "It is a motion tracking technology that personifies human movement. The movement of a fictional character called an avatar is the same as the movement of a real human," Nishikawa said. Akira Tsuji from i-forster said: "Now, a technology called meta-human, which moves like a real human, is popular. In Japan, new technology to make anime characters into avatars has been uniquely developed." "Our target is common company. Instead of the high-spec technology used in movie or commercial image, customer can use, express and communicate these technologies by a small cost," Akira Tsuji said. This is a 360-degree projector. Live distribution can be performed by connecting with Smartphone application. Koji Yoshida from Living CG said: "In future, we hope to provide very comfortable technology such as Metaverse, NFT Non-Fungible Token, video content distribution, and hardware to the customer." Metaverse technology uses virtual space businesses and is creating a near-future image that can produce movies and TV program. It is attracting eye-balls worldwide. (ANI)
Acting Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday visited two injured soldiers being treated at the Army Hospital, Prime Minister's media division said. The soldiers got injured in clashes amid protestors' uprising in the island nation. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's ruling party on Friday said it would nominate interim President Ranil Wickremesinghe for the presidency when Parliament elects a new president on July 20. In a statement, General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Sagara Kariyawasam said that the SLPP would nominate Wickremesinghe and support him in the vote. Earlier Friday, Sri Lanka's Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said that a new President would be elected through the Parliament on July 20 following the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Wickremesinghe was sworn in as interim President till the election on July 20. "Under these circumstances, the constitutional procedure of appointing a new president will now be activated. Until this constitutional procedure is over, according to the constitution, the Prime Minister will function in the capacity of the president overseeing functions, duties, and powers of the office of the President," the speaker said, according to Xinhua News Agency. Rajapaksa who flew from the Maldives arrived in Singapore on board a Saudia Airlines flight on Thursday evening, media reports said. According to earlier reports, Rajapaksa and his wife were expected to stay in Singapore and not travel further to the Middle East. As per various media reports, Rajapaksa and his wife, who took Saudia Airlines flight SV788 to Singapore, are now expected to travel to Jeddah. Rajapaksa, 73, had gone into hiding after crowds of protesters stormed his residence on July 9 and he had announced that he will hand over his resignation letter on Wednesday. Earlier, Rajapaksa, along with his wife, escaped to the Maldives. Subsequently, the speaker appointed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as the interim President of Sri Lanka. Rajapaksa's resignation comes after thousands of people stormed the President's House in Fort on Saturday. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also announced he would step down amid the ongoing protests. (ANI)
Chinese state media outlet Global Times urged Australia to drop all criticism of Uyghur genocide in exchange for lifting trade sanctions. However, Drew Pavlou, an Australian political activist and former university senator from the University of Queensland advised against "such a despicable and morally abominable trade-off." Additionally, the Global Times demanded to lift the ban on Huawei. The Chinese government placed trade sanctions on Australia because Canberra refused to be a "vassal state." In April 2020, Australia suggested the start of an inquiry into the origins and the initial handling of the coronavirus. China alleged that Australia was teaming up with the US to spread "anti-China propaganda." China further called for boycotting Australia as a tourist and higher education destination and banning Australian products like wine and beef. In May, Chinese authorities imposed an 80 per cent tariff on barley imports coming from Australia. China is the most important market for Australia barley. China also began a trade probe into Australian wine and suspended import permits for four large beef processing plants. The two countries have also been at loggerheads on other ideological issues previously too. After reports of China keeping Uyghur Muslims in state-run detention camps surfaced, Australia was swift to respond and expressed "deep concern" over the "human rights situation." Talks on lifting the ban on products from Xinjiang is also essential for bilateral trade. It is completely groundless for Australia to attack China over the Xinjiang issue, reported Global Times. Similarly, after China imposed the National Security Law in Hong Kong, Australia suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong and said the law undermines Hong Kong's autonomy and suppresses opposition to Mainland China. Moreover, though China has imposed punitive trade restrictions on Australian coal, barley, meat and wine, it is spending more than ever on Australian imports. Helen Clark, writing in Asia Times said that the trade war rooted in geopolitics hasn't hurt the Australian economy or its crucial commodity exports, she said. Indeed, China is spending more than ever on imports from Australia, given its reliance on iron ore and liquefied natural gas (LNG), two commodities commanding ever-higher prices on global markets and for which Australia is the world's largest exporter. Meanwhile, China, has shown a willingness to improve trade relations with Australia, as evidenced by the recent foreign ministers' meeting. Indeed, there are increasing positive signals foreboding the possibility of easing trade tensions between the two countries, reported Global Times. But Global Times questions - to what extent can the positive signals be translated into actual improvement in bilateral trade relations? For instance, Australia is the first country in the world to ban Huawei and other Chinese suppliers from providing 5G equipment, which is the starting point of this round of trade frictions between China and Australia. (ANI)
As the Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has resigned from office, in accordance with the Constitution, the Parliament will meet next week and take steps to elect a new President, read a special statement by acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe. This comes as Sri Lanka faces its worst economic crisis since independence with food and fuel shortages. Wickremesinghe said that in the short period of time where he is entrusted to act as the acting president, he hopes to take some urgent steps. "The people of the country expect a change in the political system. An important factor for this change is the full implementation of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. Therefore, I have started the program to bring forth the necessary drafts to the Parliament to fully re-implement the 19th Amendment," the statement read. PM stressed that immediate steps will be taken to re-establish law and order in the country. "I fully accept the right to peacefully protest, but others are now trying to sabotage these protests. It has been reported that outside groups are preparing to try and influence the Members of Parliament during the election of the new President in Parliament next week," it added. He said that an environment must be created for MPs so that can express their opinion independently. "They will be provided with full protection. We will not allow any group to destroy the democracy in Parliament," he continued in the statement. The acting PM highlighted that there are groups that are trying to set the country on fire through fascist methods by suppressing democracy. He noted that two weapons belonging to the security forces along with bullets were stolen by such persons near Parliament. "Twenty-four members of the army have been injured, two of them have been seriously injured today. It is my belief that real fighters do not do such acts. There is a big difference between rebels and protesters. Many people who have been involved in the struggle since the beginning have expressed their opposition to these acts of sabotage." "We are bound to ensure they are protected by law and order. We are obliged uphold democracy." Wickremesinghe said that he upholds the constitution and is bound to protect it. "I will never allow anything unconstitutional to take place in our country. I am not working outside the constitution. If law and order break down, it will affect our economy." "Like fuel, our electricity and water supply, as well as our food supply, can be disrupted. We all need to understand this dangerous situation." He said that in order to maintain law and order, he has appointed a special committee consisting of the Chief of the Defense Staff, the Inspector General of Police and the commanders of the three armed forces. "They have been given full freedom to take legal action without any political interference." "We emphasized the government's position on the establishment of an all-party government in the party leaders' meeting held last Monday. I request all parties in the Parliament to reach a common agreement for that immediately. These political parties should put aside their differences and opinions and come together for the sake of the country." The acting PM said that it is crucial to first work out ways to protect the country together and rather than playing out party politics. "Think about protecting the country rather than protecting individuals. We must have a country to live in and do politics. I request all political parties and groups to think about our country, and to think about the people of the country when they act. First, let's save the country and the people from this current crisis. Then we can turn to party politics." Continuing his statement, Wickremesinghe said that as an acting President, he will take two more decisions. "The use of the word "His Excellency" to introduce the President is officially prohibited. As well as the presidential flag will be abolished." "A country should have only one flag. Only the national flag. One should move forward under the shade of one flag," he said. (ANI)
The Sri Lankan Supreme Court has issued an interim order that prevented former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa from leaving the country without the court's permission until July 28. Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday was sworn in as the interim President after Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena accepted the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Wickremesinghe was sworn in as the Acting President before Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya, Daily Mirror reported citing Prime Minister's Media Division. Wickremesinghe was appointed as the acting President by former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on July 13 after the latter fled to the Maldives due to the massive protests demanding his resignation. Gotabaya Rajapaksa submitted his resignation letter Thursday after arriving in Singapore, officially vacating the post of President. Parliament Speaker Abeywardena told ANI, "Yes, the resignation (of President) has been accepted, the legal process will follow... Members will be invited tomorrow (to elect a President)," Addressing the presser, Abeywardena said that from July 14, the President has legally resigned from his legal duties and responsibilities. Abeywardena said that the President will be selected according to the provisions of the Special Provisions Act No. 2 of 1981 and Article 40 of the Constitution. "It is my intention to complete this procedure successfully and speedily. As the oldest democracy in the South Asian region holding democratic traditions sacred, completing this process in a transparent and democratic manner would be a milestone not only in the history of Sri Lanka but also in the democratic history of the world," the Speaker added. Rajapaksa who flew from the Maldives arrived in Singapore on board a Saudia Airlines flight on Thursday evening, media reports said. (ANI)
Former Prime Minister and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan expressed disappointment over the Pakistan Supreme court verdict in the suo motu case against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's top leadership, including chairman Imran Khan. The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a detailed judgement explaining the reasons behind its decision to set aside a controversial ruling by the National Assembly speaker on April 3 that dismissed the no-confidence motion against then prime minister Imran Khan. Referring to the same, Imran Khan said "I feel deeply hurt by the remarks made by the court that there was no investigation regarding the threat letter." "I produced the cypher before the federal cabinet. We have the minutes of the meeting. I took this letter to the meeting of the National Security Committee and even tabled it in parliament," Khan claimed while addressing a rally in Dera Ghazi Khan on Thursday. Imran Khan said the court should have investigated to whom this message for the removal of the PM was addressed. If there was no action regarding the conspiracy then in future no prime minister of Pakistan would take a stand for the country, he claimed. The former PM said the top judge took suo motu notice and opened courts at night but an elected PM was removed through an alleged conspiracy yet nothing was done. Shehbaz Sharif-led Pakistan cabinet on Friday approved the formation of a committee which will deliberate whether treason proceedings under Article 6 should be initiated against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's top leadership, including chairman Imran Khan. During a press conference after a post-cabinet meeting, the country's Minister for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb said that the cabinet approved the formation of a committee under Minister for Law Azam Nazeer Tarar. She said that the cabinet welcomed the Supreme Court's detailed judgment in a suo motu case related to the ruling by former National Assembly deputy speaker Qasim Suri on the no-confidence motion against then-Prime Minister. According to the top court, Imran Khan had violated the constitution. Earlier also, the federal minister hinted that Imran Khan can face treason charges for abrogating the constitution of the country. Additionally, Justice Mazahar Alam Khan Miankhel observed that President Arif Alvi, then Prime Minister Khan, then Nation Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser, ex-deputy speaker Suri, and former law minister Fawad Chaudhry had violated their authority, and left it up to the parliamentarians to decide whether their acts could be prosecuted under Article 6. "A special committee has been formed under the chairmanship of law minister Azam Nazeer Tarar... which will present its suggestions in the next meeting of the federal cabinet," said Aurangzeb during the briefing. The relevant provisions of the constitution based on which Khan can face treason charges include Article 5(1) under which "loyalty to the state and obedience to the constitution and law" is an inviolable obligation of every citizen. Another article included in the petitions -- Article 6 -- states that any person who abrogates or attempts to abrogate the constitution by use of force shall be guilty of high treason, adding that an act of treason cannot be validated by any court including the Supreme Court. (ANI)
The delegation also called on Vice Admiral Sandeep Naithani, Chief of Materiel of the Indian Navy.

The discussions included areas of mutual cooperation, with a special focus on submarine maintenance, as well as general maintenance philosophy, upgradation of weapons and sensors, and Indian Navy's indigenisation efforts for achieving self-reliance.

Taking to Twitter, Indian Navy wrote, "Brazilian Navy delegation led by VAdm Liberal Enio Zanelatto, Director of Industrial Production & Engineering, visited New Delhi on 15 Jul 22. Extensive discussions b/n Brazilian & IndianNavy leadership incl call on VAdm Sandeep Naithani, Chief of Materiel Indian Navy."

Brazilian Navy delegation also called on Vice Admiral Ajendra Bahadur Singh, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Command in Mumbai, on July 11.

The two senior officers discussed various issues of common interest like defence, submarines technology, Make in India initiatives towards professional cooperation between the navies, and the outlook of the Indian Navy towards shared maritime interests with all likeminded navies/ nations.

During the two-day visit to the Western Naval Command, the Brazilian delegation held extensive discussions with the Indian Navy counterparts with focus on maintenance of submarines.

As part of the visit, the delegation also visited Mazagon Docks Shipbuilders Ltd and a Kalvari (Scorpene) class submarine of the Indian Navy. The Brazilian Navy also operates four Scorpene class submarines and is exploring options for collaboration towards maintenance of the diesel-electric attack submarines. (ANI)
Taking to Twitter, Sajith Premadasa wrote, "I am contesting to be the President. The electorate is confined to 225 MPs with the GR (Gotabaya Rajapaksa) coalition dominating the numbers. Even though it is an uphill struggle, I am convinced that truth will prevail."

As the Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has resigned from office, in accordance with the Constitution, the Parliament will meet next week and take steps to elect a new President, read a special statement by acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

This comes as Sri Lanka faces its worst economic crisis since independence with food and fuel shortages.

Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan Supreme Court has issued an interim order that prevented former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa from leaving the country without the court's permission until July 28.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday was sworn in as the interim President after Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena accepted the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa submitted his resignation letter Thursday after arriving in Singapore, officially vacating the post of President. Parliament Speaker Abeywardena told ANI, "Yes, the resignation (of President) has been accepted, the legal process will follow... Members will be invited tomorrow (to elect a President)."

Rajapaksa who flew from the Maldives arrived in Singapore on board a Saudia Airlines flight on Thursday evening, media reports said. (ANI)
Taking a dig at the establishment, the leader, while addressing media in Lahore on Thursday said that Supreme Court's decision was becoming more prone to and regularly taking such political decisions.

"Let political decisions be taken in the political arena," he said.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court of Pakistan issued a detailed judgement explaining the reasons behind its decision to set aside a controversial ruling by the National Assembly Speaker on April 3 that dismissed the no-confidence motion against then Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Cabinet approved the formation of a committee which will deliberate whether treason proceedings under Article 6 should be initiated against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's top leadership, including chairman Imran Khan.

During a press conference after a post-cabinet meeting, Minister for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb said that the cabinet approved the formation of a committee under Minister for Law Azam Nazeer Tarar.

She said that the cabinet welcomed the Supreme Court's detailed judgment in a suo motu case related to the ruling by former National Assembly deputy speaker Qasim Suri on the no-confidence motion against then-Prime Minister.

According to the top court, Imran Khan had violated the constitution. Earlier also, the federal minister hinted that Imran Khan can face treason charges for abrogating the constitution of the country.

Additionally, Justice Mazahar Alam Khan Miankhel observed that President Arif Alvi, then Prime Minister Khan, then Nation Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser, ex-deputy speaker Suri, and former law minister Fawad Chaudhry had violated their authority, and left it up to the parliamentarians to decide whether their acts could be prosecuted under Article 6. (ANI)
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is pushing for failed Tory leadership candidates to back "anyone but Rishi" Sunak, it was claimed on Friday, amid reports that the whole team at 10 Downing Street "hates" the former Chancellor for causing the PM's downfall, media reports said. Johnson, who announced last week that he will step down as party leader when his replacement is decided, has said he will not publicly endorse any candidate or get involved in the increasingly bitter leadership race, the Daily Mail reported. However, Johnson has reportedly made clear in private discussions with failed leadership hopefuls that Sunak should not be his successor, it said. Citing a source close to one such conversation, The Times said Johnson appeared to be most enthusiastic about his Foreign Secretary Liz Truss becoming Prime Minister. Truss has been publicly backed by some of Johnson's closest cabinet allies - including Nadine Dorries, Jabob Rees-Mogg and Attorney General Suella Braverman - but has come third in the two rounds of voting that have been held so far. Sunak - Johnson's former Chancellor - came out on top of Thursday's voting, and in second was Penny Mordaunt, who was also bearing the brunt of the attacks from rival camps as she gained the most momentum. The Times reported that Johnson has indicated he would also be open to Mordaunt succeeding him if it meant that Sunak did not win the leadership election. A source told The Times: "The whole No 10 team hates Rishi. It's personal. It's vitriolic. They don't blame Saj (Sajid Javid) for bringing him down. They blame Rishi. They think he was planning this for months." The former Chancellor resigned last week minutes after Health Secretary Sajid Javid, sparking a slew of further resignations that ultimately led to the PM's downfall. Another Times source claimed that Johnson had voiced concerns that Sunak would go 'soft' on Vladimir Putin and his war in Ukraine, and ease sanctions on Russia. --IANS san/ ( 336 Words) 2022-07-15-19:00:04 (IANS)
Police arrested a man and charged him for allegedly hitting a 62-year-old man with a car before the car slammed into a house in Statesville.

The crash happened on July 15 at a home near the intersection of West Raleigh Avenue and Fifth Street at about 2:30 a.m. When police arrived, they found the victim who had died in the crash underneath the porch, according to a news release.

ALSO READ: Officials: 7-year-old killed in Chester County crash; man charged with felony DUI

The Statesville Police Department identified the victim as Carl Russel Daye of Statesville.

SPD said a 64-year-old in a Nissan Altima was going west on Raleigh Ave. when he left the roadway and struck Daye. Police said Daye was walking near the road, and officers had seen him walking along 5th Street earlier in the night.

Channel 9s Dave Faherty was at the scene and spotted tire tracks and a piece of the cars body in the yard of the house.

Statesville-Robert Lee White has been charged by police with misdemeanor death by motor vehicle and reckless driving. Police say White was driving a car that struck and killed 62-year old Carl Russell Daye on July 15th. Daye was walking along 5th Street at the time. pic.twitter.com/jKjZY4skDv  Dave Faherty (@FahertyWSOC9) July 26, 2022

One neighbor told Channel 9 he witnessed the car go by his home and then pass another vehicle before hitting Daye. Another neighbor said he thinks the car was trying to get away from someone.

He hit the pole and then he skid, and the dude was coming here, and he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, said Justin Gaither.

Breaking Statesville- police on the scene after a deadly accident where a pedestrian was struck and killed. They say the car ran over a 64-year old man before striking a house. Watch channel 9 for updates on this developing story. pic.twitter.com/j6wpN7dVX5  Dave Faherty (@FahertyWSOC9) July 15, 2022

Gaither described Daye as a community man, and other neighbors agreed.

Story continues

He was a nice guy. He always helped people, did yard work. He loved kids, said Linda Kermmoade, a resident in the area.

Statesville police are investigating the crash. The driver of the Altima was taken to the hospital.

On July 21, the Statesville Police Department got a warrant to arrest the Altima driver for misdemeanor death by motor vehicle and reckless driving. The driver, identified as Robert Lee White, was booked into the Iredell County jail and held on a $10,000 bond, according to Statesville police.

(WATCH BELOW: South Tryon Street closed in both directions after crash into power pole)
After a lengthy 16-month investigation, Pittsburgh Police announced the arrests of 20-year-old Kendall McKoy from the Hill District and 23-year-old Darohn Winmon, of Penn HIlls.

Theyre charged with murdering Kristofer Metzger, who was shot and killed along Zephyr Avenue in Sheraden while he was driving for Uber in March of 2021.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Several deadly shootings overnight

The Metzger family told Channel 11 that even following the arrests, many of their questions for police are unanswered.

The family said police still have not shared any information about a potential motive.

But Mayor Ed Gainey said hes proud of the progress Pittsburgh Police made in this case.

These last couple of weeks weve seen that police are catching these violent offenders and thats the main thing, getting them off the streets so that they dont do this again, Gainey said, offering his condolences to the Metzger family Friday.

Number one we want to pray for the family, thats number one, and we always said when we capture someone thats done this terrible, horrific tragedy, that one, thats the healing process for the family, that it begins, said Gainey.

Pittsburgh Police worked with U.S. Marshals throughout this case.

A department spokesperson released a statement saying, An enormous amount of work and diligence went into this investigation and Pittsburgh Police are grateful for the ongoing law enforcement partnerships that helped contribute to these arrests.

In addition to homicide, McKoy and Winmon face a series of other charges including weapons violations.

Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW

TRENDING NOW:

Ivana Trump, Donald Trumps first wife, dies at 73, family says Allegheny County Health Department: Mosquitoes from 3 communities test positive for West Nile virus Arrest warrant issued for man accused of shooting ex-girlfriend a month after breakup VIDEO: PIAA considering policy to allow high school athletes to receive endorsements DOWNLOAD the Channel 11 News app for breaking news alerts
Two men were hospitalized Friday morning after getting crushed by a package of large granite slabs at a Norton worksite.

First responders were called to the site of Old Station Outdoor & Landscaping Supply at 142 East Main Street where both two men were found suffering from traumatic injuries.

A 39-year-old employee from Pawtucket and a 53-year-old delivery driver from Lawrence, were transported to Rhode Island Hospital for chest, abdomen and leg injuries that are serious but not believed to be life-threatening.

Investigators say the business was receiving a delivery of slabs when about 5,000 pounds of material fell on the men.

The incident is under investigation by Norton Police and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
Auston Trusty was loaned to second-tier Birmingham City from Arsenal on Friday for the 2022-23 season before the 23-year-old defender played his first game for the Gunners.

Trusty transferred from Colorado to Arsenal in January, and then was loaned back to the Rapids and played 16 league matches for Colorado this season. Both Arsenal and Colorado are owned by Stan Kroenke.

Trusty played for Philadelphia in 2018-19 before moving to Colorado. A member of the U.S. team at the 2017 Under-20 World Cup, Trusty has been invited twice to senior national team camp but has not yet debuted.

___

More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Spor
MIAMI (AP)  Brian Anderson atoned for a costly error with a two-run triple in the 11th inning and the Miami Marlins beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-2 Thursday.

Anderson originally was ruled to have been hit by a pitch from Wil Crowe (3-6), but the Pirates successfully challenged, saying it hit his bat first. Anderson then sent a drive to deep right center that scored Jesus Aguilar and Avisail Garcia.

At any point, you dont shut it down, Anderson said. When I got hit by the pitch, I was ready to go on base. I just tried to focus on whats in front of me. I was just thankful to have an opportunity to come up there and try to put barrel on the ball.

Joey Wendle doubled, singled and walked for the Marlins, who had their second straight walk-off against Pittsburgh and split the four-game series.

Hanging in there, thats what weve been talking about and keep fighting until the (All-Star) break, Miami manager Don Mattingly said.

Ben Gamels RBI double against Richard Bleier (2-1) in the top of the 11th put the Pirates ahead 2-1.

Pittsburgh tied it at 1 in the eighth on third baseman Andersons fielding error that scored Yoshi Tsutsugo from first. Tsutsugo reached on a two-out single against reliever Steven Okert. Anderson muffed Diego Castillos hard grounder and Tsutsugo raced home as the ball went into foul ground in left field.

I definitely pride myself on my defense, so thats something I have to keep working on and keep getting better at, Anderson said.

Wendle broke a scoreless tie with an RBI double in the fifth. He was not in the original lineup but entered after Jon Berti left with an injury.

Billy Hamilton hit a two-out single and scored from first on Wendles line drive to right. Hamilton originally was called out on second baseman Kevin Newmans relay throw to the plate, but a video review overturned the play.

Marlins starter Braxton Garrett struck out a career-high 11 in six scoreless innings. Garrett allowed two hits, walked two and hit two batters.

Story continues

It feels awesome, Garrett said of his outing. Got ahead often and stayed in the zone like I have been recently. My slider was just a little sharper tonight than it has been the last couple of starts so I threw more punch-outs.

Facing his former team for the first time, Zach Thompson limited the Marlins to one run and four hits in 6 2/3 innings. Thompson, who joined the Pirates in an offseason trade for catcher Jacob Stallings, walked three and struck out two.

I think once I got past the second inning, I started calming down and kind of threw like Im used to, Thompson said.

Berti, the majors' stolen base leader, exited after the first because of a mild left groin strain. He drew a leadoff walk, but felt discomfort after stealing second  his 28th stolen base this season.

Marlins shortstop Miguel Rojas left in the ninth after he was hit in the mouth by the helmet of Oneil Cruz, who was unsuccessful on a steal attempt of second.

NOT THE TYPICAL INFIELD

The injuries to Berti and Rojas resulted in a radically different infield late for Miami. First baseman Aguilar finished at third and Anderson moved from third to second. Wendle replaced Berti at second early before shifting to shortstop. NL All-Star Garrett Cooper, who was expected to rest another day because of knee soreness, replaced Aguilar at first.

Its one of those games where youre glad theres a DH, Mattingly said. Theres a lot of stuff going on, like Aguilar playing third and he did that well and Anderson at second. It was a nice little team effort from them and the bullpen.

CIRCUITOUS PATH

Pirates right fielder Castillo took a different angle as he tracked Nick Fortes drive in the second. Castillo turned right before abruptly turning and diving to his left to catch the shot on the warning track.

TRAINERS ROOM

Pirates: C Henry Davis (left wrist injury), the No. 1 overall selection in last year's draft, will be shut down for the remainder of the month.

Marlins: RHP Cole Sulser (right lat strain) is continuing with his throwing program.

UP NEXT

Pirates: LHP Jose Quintana (2-4, 3.59 will start the opener of a three-game series Friday at Colorado. Quintana will face RHP German Marquez (5-7, 5.66).

Marlins: RHP Sandy Alcantara (9-3, 1.73) starts the opener of a home series against Philadelphia Friday. RHP Kyle Gibson (4-3, 4.53) will start for the Phillies.

___

More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Armadillos are a common sight across the southern United States thanks in part to the warmer weather that attracts these animals to roam the area. But recently, these warm-weather creatures have started making a home for themselves in the Midwest -- and during the colder parts of the year, too.

Historically, Nine-Banded Armadillos have thrived in the Southwest, with Texas hosting the largest population in the country, according to 101 Highland Lakes. But thousands of miles farther north, the armadillo is being spotted more frequently.

Armadillos have been traveling up rivers and streams to the Midwest in recent years, and thousands of them are being spotted year-round as far north as Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois.

"We're puzzled because we were not expecting to find them this far north in the winter," Dr. Agustin Jimenez, an associate professor of biological sciences at Southern Illinois University, told AccuWeather's Emmy Victor.

Armadillo sighting in Carbondale, Illinois. (Karen Schauwecker)

A couple in Illinois sent a video to AccuWeather of an armadillo in their backyard over the winter, and just two weeks later another armadillo was sighted in Illinois. The exact reason these animals are migrating north is unclear, but several studies have pointed to climate change and warming winters.

"Usually, the winters that we would expect for this area, the temperatures, would actually have taken care of them. They wouldn't survive. But they are surviving," said Jimenez.

A study published in the Wiley Journal of Biogeography said armadillos could one day live as far north as Pennsylvania due to warmer winters.

"With warmer temperatures being found further north, armadillos could potentially be found in areas that were totally unexpected 20 years ago," Colleen McDonough, an ecologist and armadillo expert at Georgia's Valdosta State University, told National Geographic.

Armadillo sighting in Carbondale, Illinois. (Southern Illinois Armadillo Project)

Jimenez's students recently put a tracker on armadillos found in the southern parts of Illinois to monitor their movement to try to learn more about why they are migrating north. The results showed the armadillos are staying local, and even more could be spotted in southern Illinois.

Story continues

Due to the southern portion of Illinois experiencing a more mild winter than other parts of the state, Jimenez said he doesn't expect them to inhabit areas much farther north.

GET THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP

"It could make it really hard for them to reach larva, the insects that they feed on. Right now, the winters and the conditions of the ground in southern Illinois make it easier for them to access some of these insects," said Jimenez.

In February 2022, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources asked the public to report any sightings in the state. Within just 24 hours, over 400 reports were given -- mostly from the southern part of the state, according to the Chicago Tribune.

TEXAS, UNITED STATES - A nine-banded Armadillo. (Photo by Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images)

But armadillos have been observed in central and even northern Illinois. In the summer of 2021, an armadillo was found dead behind a Kia dealership in Springfield, located in central Illinois. In the northern part of the state, two reports were received in Cook County, which is where Chicago is located. Two credible reports of armadillos in the past 30 years have come from this county.

Armadillos have also been spotted outside the Midwest, including Virginia and North Carolina, where officials are asking the public to report any sightings they may see in those states. By reporting sightings, it will help officials monitor and understand the animals' new expanded territories.

Over the past century, armadillos have been steadily migrating farther north. These animals originally crossed the Rio Grande River in the 1850s then the Mississippi River in the 1930s. By the 1990s, Armadillos began making appearances in Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia, according to National Geographic.

Reporting by Emmy Victor.

Want next-level safety, ad-free? Unlock advanced, hyperlocal severe weather alerts when you subscribe to Premium+ on the AccuWeather app. AccuWeather Alerts are prompted by our expert meteorologists who monitor and analyze dangerous weather risks 24/7 to keep you and your family safer.
One man has been arrested and another is wanted for the murder of a 17-year-old in Concord early Friday morning, police said.

Officers responded to a shooting call just before 1:15 a.m. in the Southern Chase subdivision off Zion Church Road. Shortly after, police found a vehicle on Old Charlotte Road SW, where a 17-year-old boy was fatally shot.

ALSO READ: Alex Murdaugh charged with murder in death of wife, son in South Carolina

Other people inside the car told Concord police that there was a shootout with another group after an argument on Pullman Street SW. The teen shot and killed during the shooting was confirmed dead at the scene, authorities said.

On Monday, officers said they arrested and charged Paris Johnson, 24, with murder. Authorities are still searching for Witness Haynes, 18, who is also wanted for murder.

Paris Johnson, Witness Haynes

Anyone with information on the investigation, or where Haynes may be, is asked to contact the Concord Police Department at 704-920-5000.

Concord police initially said a Friday morning shooting on Halton Park Drive in the University City area was connected to the shooting near Old Charlotte Road SW. MEDIC said it took one person to the hospital.

One person was hurt in a shooting in the University City area of Charlotte early Friday morning, paramedics confirmed to Channel 9.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said a shooting didnt happen in University City, and that it happened in Concord. Channel 9 is working to learn how the two shootings are connected.

No other details have been released at this point. Return to this story for updates.

(WATCH BELOW: Family wants to honor woman killed during ATM robbery with justice being served)








Outside the home where 61-year-old Dwight Bond lived at the 2100 block of 15th Avenue North in Nashville, Tenn., Monday, March 28, 2022.

A Nashville man who was stabbed to death in March had at least 80 stab wounds, autopsy results released Friday show.

Dwight Bond, 61, was stabbed to death on March 26 in his North Nashville apartment, police said.

His nephew, John Bond Sr., 34, faces a criminal homicide charge in the case.

Police believe John Bond traveled to his parent's Nashville home after stabbing his uncle around 1:30 a.m. He stabbed his mother and father before his father shot him and called police, the Metro Nashville Police Department said.

John Bond was also charged with two counts of attempted criminal homicide, records show. His parents were treated with non-life threatening injuries.

Court documents showed a lengthy history of domestic violence and protective orders against John Bond before the stabbing.

NASHVILLE TRIPLE STABBING: A history of domestic abuse and struggle with mental health

Autopsy shows numerous stab wounds on upper body

The autopsy showed at least 80 stab wounds across Dwight Bond's head, neck, chest, back and shoulders. He was stabbed six times on his head and scalp and 20 times on his neck.

When he died, Dwight Bond was wearing one green sock and one gray sock, the report said. He wore a red shirt.

The medical examiner ruled the cause of death as homicide caused by stab wounds.

John Bond is currently being held without bond. He is due next in court July 28, records show.

Reach reporter Molly Davis at mdavis2@gannett.com or on Twitter @mollym_davis.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville triple stabbing: Autopsy shows new details in March homicide
By Brendan O'Brien

(Reuters) - An autopsy found that eight Akron, Ohio, police officers shot Jayland Walker 46 times, including five times in the back, when they opened fire and killed the unarmed Black man during a traffic stop three weeks ago, a medical examiner said on Friday.

During a news conference, Summit County Medical Examiner Lisa Kohler said her autopsy also determined that Walker, 25, had no drugs or alcohol in his system when he was shot and killed by police on June 27.

The shooting was the latest in a series of killings of Black men by law enforcement in the United States that critics say are unjustified. One of those killings, the 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, ignited global protests against police brutality and racial injustice.

Since the incident in Akron, protesters have held demonstrations in the city of about 200,000 people calling for police to be held accountable for the shooting and for justice for Walker, who was laid to rest on Thursday.

Kohler said Walker was also struck in the torso, pelvis, legs and face by gunfire when officers opened fire on him after they attempted to pull him over for a minor traffic violation and he fled.

After a chase of several minutes, Walker jumped out of the car and ran from the officers, a video released by police showed. Police said it appears he was turning toward officers, who at the time believed he was armed. A gun was later recovered from his car, they said.

Kohler said that her office did not do a gunshot residue test on Walker, saying the testing is not always reliable.

It was previously reported that Walker had more than 60 wounds to his body, but Kohler on Friday said that some of those wounds were not from gunfire.

The eight officers directly involved in the shooting have been placed on paid administrative leave, Akron Police Chief Steve Mylett said.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago)
A Baltimore Police officer was acquitted by a judge of assault and misconduct charges Friday after a viral video captured the officer placing his arm around a mans neck as he called out in pain in late 2019.

Officer Leon Riley was charged with first- and second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct after he and Sgt. Brian Flynn arrested then-23-year-old David Dixon, who was brought to the ground. Video footage shows Rileys arm around Dixons neck.

In footage of the incident, the man can be heard saying, You choking me. You choking me, sir.

During testimony this week, prosecutors played several officers body-worn cameras, and interviewed officers at the scene including Flynn, who helped Riley make the arrest.

Riley approached Dixon and other men in the 1600 block of West Lexington Street, an area identified by police as an open-air drug market, according to testimony.

Prosecutors argued that Riley unlawfully grabbed Dixon, and attempted to search him without cause. When Dixon began to resist, the two men fell to the ground and Riley and a Flynn tried to handcuff Dixon. In cellphone footage taken by a bystander, Riley is seen reaching around Dixons neck with his left arm.

Rileys attorney, Chaz Ball, argued that his client was attempting to quickly secure Dixon, who was actively resisting officers, and officers believed he might have had a gun.

In his ruling from the bench Friday, Circuit Judge Philip S. Jackson said that while the video captured Riley placing one arm tightly around Dixons neck and holding it for about 15 seconds he did not appear to suffer injuries from the chokehold. He noted that none of the medical records presented at trial described any injuries to Dixons neck.

Jackson cited the case of George Floyd, who died after Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin kept his knee on Floyds neck for more than eight minutes, with Floyd saying I cant breathe. Chauvin was later convicted of murder.

Story continues

Obviously, I could conclude that prolonged asphyxiation as was visited on George Floyd could create a substantial risk of death or serious injury, Jackson said. Not so the situation presented in this case where the possible blockage of an airway was measured in seconds.

The judge also found that Riley intended to force Dixon to comply with commands and cease his resistance, and no more than that. If his intention was otherwise, Riley would have continued the chokehold even after Dixon complied.

Dixon was unable to testify in the case; he was killed in a shooting on March 1.

His mother, Marlo Campbell, said she was unaware that the trial was underway until reading a news story, and came to the courtroom Friday to hear the verdict. She was accompanied by the mother of Dixons 4-year-old daughter.

Although he didnt take my sons life, he could have, Campbell said outside the courtroom. She said her son has talked of past negative interactions with Riley, and she believes he should not remain on the force.

My concern is this man hurting somebody else, she said.

Neither Riley, nor Ball, his attorney, commented after the verdict.

Riley was hired by the department in 2012, and has been suspended without pay. He must return to court again on Dec. 1 for charges related to another case where hes charged with assaulting two other men in April 2019 and committing perjury by lying in a statement of probable cause.

Riley was among more than 300 officers identified by States Attorney Marilyn Mosbys office who were deemed by prosecutors to have credibility issues.

Mosby cited police accountability when criminal charges against Riley were filed in August 2020.

If and when you violate that trust, you will be held accountable, she said in a statement at the time.

A states attorneys office spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment on the verdict Friday.

Campbell said she was not surprised by Fridays verdict. She said Dixon is the third son she has lost to gun violence in Baltimore.

Its like we dont matter, she said, adding that the video was especially painful to watch because she said her son was being respectful, calling Riley sir.

They dont know what he felt, she said.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to clarify that President Biden is the first president to fly direct from Tel Aviv to Jeddah. A previous version included incorrect information.

President Biden embarked on a rare direct flight from Israel to Saudi Arabia on Friday, a trip the White House cited as evidence of warming ties between the two countries.

Previous U.S. presidents have flown direct between Israel and Saudi Arabia, but Biden is the first to fly direct from Tel Aviv to Jeddah. Then-President George W. Bush flew from Israel to the Saudi capital of Riyadh, and then-President Trump flew from Saudi Arabia to Israel.

Welcome aboard our historic flight, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Israel Prime Minister Yair Lapid, Israeli President Isaac Herzog and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides sent Biden off at Ben Gurion Airport.

Biden landed about two hours later at King Abdulaziz International Airport.

Fridays flight was preceded by the news that Saudi Arabia would open its airspace to all airlines, including all commercial flights flying to and from Israel. Reports indicate the new policy could pave the way for direct flights from Israel to Saudi Arabia for Muslims to make pilgrimages to Mecca.

The development, while well short of a full normalization of relations between the two countries, represented a step forward and a win for Biden. Jean-Pierre characterized it as a result of Bidens persistent diplomacy with Saudi Arabia.

As we mark this important moment, Saudi Arabias decision can help build momentum toward Israels further integration into the region, including with Saudi Arabia, Biden said in a statement earlier Friday. I will do all that I can, through direct diplomacy and leader-to-leader engagement, to keep advancing this groundbreaking process.

Biden administration officials say they are working to help Israel normalize relations with Arab nations in order to build on the Abraham Accords brokered under the Trump administration that saw Israel normalize relations with Bahrain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.

Story continues

It is on a path that we hope will eventually lead to normalization, but it is the first step, and the first step is a big step, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Friday, referring to the Saudi move to open up its airspace to Israeli flights.

Lapid praised the Saudis for the move in a statement but called it only the first step.

We will continue working with necessary caution, for the sake of Israels economy, security and the good of our citizens, Lapid said in a statement.

Updated at 2:11 p.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Biden on Friday called Saudi Arabias decision to lift a ban on Israeli flights a step toward a more stable Middle East region, just hours ahead of his planned flight from Israel to Jeddah.

Saudi Arabias historic decision to open its airspace for all civilian planes, including those flying to and from Israel, is an important step towards building a more integrated and stable Middle East region, he said.

Biden, who will be the first U.S. leader to fly directly from Israel to the kingdom, touted his administrations work to get to the airspace opening.

While this opening has long been discussed, now, thanks to months of steady diplomacy between my Administration and Saudi Arabia, it is finally a reality, he said.

Saudi Arabias decision signaled an end to its longstanding prohibition on commercial flights to and from Israel flying over the country, which is a step toward normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

As we mark this important moment, Saudi Arabias decision can help build momentum toward Israels further integration into the region, including with Saudi Arabia. I will do all that I can, through direct diplomacy and leader-to-leader engagement, to keep advancing this groundbreaking process, the president said.

On Thursday, Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid discussed the importance of the presidents upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia, which Lapid called extremely important to Israel.

And, the two leaders discussed integrating Israel into the Middle East. Later on Thursday, Biden said he strongly supports the Abraham Accords, promoting the Trump-era declarations as a way to integrate Israel into the Middle East.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan also hailed the opening of Saudi Arabi airspace as a victory from the administrations diplomacy.

This decision is the result of the Presidents persistent and principled diplomacy with Saudi Arabia over many months, culminating in his visit today, Sullivan said in a statement. This decision paves the way for a more integrated, stable, and secure Middle East region, which is vital for the security and prosperity of the United States and the American people, and for the security and prosperity of Israel.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and President Joe Biden meet at Al Salman Palace upon his arrival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, July 15, 2022. Reuters

President Joe Biden sat side-by-side with Saudi Crown Price Mohammed bin Salman at Al Salam Royal Palace.

Last month, he told reporters he wasn't going to meet with the man known as MBS.

MBS, who Biden fist bumped at the start of Friday's meeting, is implicated in journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder.

President Joe Biden sat side-by-side with Saudi Crown Price Mohammed bin Salman less than a month after telling reporters he wasn't going to meet with the man known as MBS, who is implicated in journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder.

Photos of Friday's meeting at Al Salam Royal Palace, which began with the two men sharing a fist bump, are being promoted by the official news agency of Saudi Arabia and show Biden sitting alongside a smiling MBS at the head of the room.

"I'm not going to meet with MBS," Biden told reporters last month. "I'm going to an international meeting, and he's going to be part of it."

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, however, told reporters in June, "Look, the president is going to see over a dozen leaders on this trip ... Yes, we can expect the president to see the crown prince as well."

The meeting during Biden's first trip to the Middle East as president follows the administration's release last year of a declassified intelligence report that directly implicates MBS in the killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and Saudi national who was brutally murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.

The administration sanctioned a number of Saudis in concert with the release of the report, but stopped short of imposing any economic penalties on MBS.

As he met with Biden, MBS smirked when he was asked by an NBC reporter if he would apologize to Khashoggi's family.

Biden pledged during a November 19, 2020, presidential debate to make the kingdom a "pariah" following the Khashoggi assassination.

Story continues

The president is now seeking an increase in oil production from Saudi Arabia as gas prices surge in the US. He is also working to restore the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, criticized frequently by the Saudis.

Critics of his visit to Saudi Arabia say Biden is undermining his vow to have a foreign policy centered on human rights.

"President Biden's decision to meet MBS is horribly upsetting to me and supporters of freedom and justice everywhere," Hatice Cengiz, Khashoggi's fiancee, told CNN last month.

Hatice Cengiz /  (@mercan_resifi) July 15, 2022

Dalia Dassa Kaye, a senior fellow at UCLA Burkle Center on International Relations, in June told Insider that Biden visiting Saudi Arabia is a "serious mistake, and not just because of human rights concerns."

"It's just not clear what the return will be on any conceivable interest, whether oil, normalization with Israel, or great power competition with China and Russia. And what's unfortunate is there are alternatives to advancing these issues and maintaining a working relationship with Saudi Arabia without a presidential visit to Riyadh. This is a bad deal for Biden  he's risking his reputation and compromising on principles for modest returns," Kaye said.

Read the original article on Business Insider
President Biden on Friday drew backlash for his casual greeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman upon arriving in Saudi Arabia.

Biden, upon arriving at the royal palace in Jeddah, offered a fist bump to the crown prince, who U.S. intelligence officials concluded was involved in plotting the killing of Washington Post journalist and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi.

Critics viewed the gesture, which was followed by a face-to-face meeting with the crown prince, as elevating Salman on the world stage despite Bidens campaign pledge to make the kingdom a pariah.

Fred Ryan, the publisher and CEO of The Washington Post, called the interaction between Biden and the crown prince shameful.

The first bump between President Biden and Mohammed bin Salman was worse than a handshake  it was shameful. It projected a level of intimacy and comfort that delivers to MBS the unwarranted redemption he was been desperately seeking, Ryan said in a statement.

If we ever needed a visual reminder of the continuing grip oil-rich autocrats have on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, we got it today, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) tweeted. One fist bump is worth a thousand words.

Hatice Cengiz, the fiancee of Khashoggi, posted a mock tweet of what she thought Khashoggi would have written about the fist bump. It read: Hey @POTUS, is this the accountability you promised for my murder? The blood of MBSs next victim is on your hands.

Biden pledged on the campaign trail to make Saudi Arabia a pariah on the global stage for its human rights record, but political realities such as high gas prices, tensions with Iran and efforts to foster collaboration in the Middle East led to this weeks trip.

He initially insisted the trip to Saudi Arabia would not include a meeting with the crown prince, but that the Saudi leader would merely be a participant in broader meetings.

Pressed on Thursday about whether he would specifically bring up Khashoggis death with the crown prince, Biden was adamant he would discuss human rights.

I always bring up human rights. But my position on Khashoggi has been so clear. If anyone doesnt understand it, in Saudi Arabia or anywhere else, then they havent been around for a while, Biden said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
JERUSALEM  President Joe Biden reaffirmed his support for a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians during a visit to the West Bank on Friday where he sat down with Palestinian leaders frustrated over lingering Trump-era policies.

The Palestinian people, as well as Israeli people, deserve a state of their own that is independent, sovereign, viable and contiguous, he told reporters following a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Two states for two people, both of whom have deep and ancient roots in this land, living side by side in peace and security, both states fully respecting the equal rights of the other citizens.

Biden said he would work to "reinvigorate" the peace process, though earlier in the week he acknowledged that he didnt see a two-state solution as something that would be achieved in the near term.

He announced a number of new initiatives around improving health care, expanding 4G digital access in Gaza and the occupied West Bank by the end of 2023, along with other measures aimed at spurring economic growth, assisting Palestinian refugees and reducing food insecurity.

"The key to peace and security in our region begins with recognizing the state of Palestine and enabling the Palestinian people to obtain their legitimate rights," Abbas said following the meeting.

I take this opportunity, on the occasion of the visit of your excellency to the region, to say that I extend my hand to the leaders of Israel to make peace, he said.

While Biden has improved relations between the United States and Palestinian leaders compared with where they stood under his predecessor, his administration has been slow to reverse several measures that Donald Trump put in place as president that Palestinians say directly affect their goal of becoming an independent state.

The U.S. Embassy in Israel remains in Jerusalem, where Trump relocated it from Tel Aviv, but the U.S. consulate for Palestinians in Jerusalem and offices for Palestinians in Washington remain closed, and Israeli settlements on the West Bank that Trump did not criticize have continued to grow.

Story continues

Administration officials indicated there wouldnt be any change to those policies during this visit. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the U.S. would like to reopen the consulate, and that discussions with the Israelis and the Palestinians around the move were ongoing.

In terms of the actual tangibles in their hands, theyre going to likely be left with some statements, a visit and a handshake, Shira Efron, director of policy research at the Israel Policy Forum, an American-based organization that supports a two-state solution, said of the Palestinians.

Image: PALESTINIAN-ISRAEL-CONFLICT-US (Ahmad Gharabli / AFP - Getty Images)

A senior administration official said that while the White House would like to make more progress toward reaching a peace deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians, they are being very realistic about it and trying to avoid a top-down approach.

Biden administration officials have sought to emphasize the progress they have made in improving U.S.-Palestinian relations by restoring funding to the Palestinians that was cut off by Trump, and re-engaging in talks with Palestinian leaders after the Trump administration broke off nearly all communications.

Given what the situation was when we walked into office  there was really no connection whatsoever, no discussions with the Palestinians, funding had been entirely severed, there was really no prospect of any political discussions of any kind, the official said. So we have worked to re-establish a lot of those connections.

Shortly before Bidens visit, Israel's caretaker prime minister, Yair Lapid, spoke with Abbas by phone, the first publicly acknowledged contact between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in five years, and Israel announced it would be adding 1,500 work permits for Palestinian workers and legalizing the status of 5,500 undocumented Palestinians and others in the occupied West Bank.

Biden began his Friday schedule with a visit to a hospital in east Jerusalem, an area that has been contested by the Israelis and the Palestinians, where he announced a proposed $100 million funding package to the East Jerusalem Hospital Network, which provides specialized care to Palestinian patients. The funding is contingent on congressional approval, the White House said.

The hospital stop has been a source of tension among some Israelis who view the visit by an American president without any Israeli officials accompanying him as adding to Palestinian claims over that section of the city, which Palestinians hope will one day be the capital of an independent Palestinian state. Several Republican members of Congress had urged Biden not to make the visit for that reason.

Following the hospital stop, Biden traveled to the West Bank to meet with Abbas in Bethlehem, where he also visited the Church of the Nativity before flying from Tel Aviv to Saudi Arabia  the first time a president has flown directly from Israel to Saudi Arabia, White House officials said.

Biden administration officials say they have intentionally taken a more hands-off approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than the prior administration. On the eve of Trumps inauguration, he declared that his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, would make peace in the Middle East. Kushner eventually unveiled a Middle East peace plan that came about with no involvement from the Palestinians and was never acted upon.

Image: (Mahmoud Illean / AP)

We have not come in with a top-down plan. But we have always said if parties are ready to talk, which we think they should, we will be there right beside them, and we look forward to that day, and I think thatll be part of the conversation that the president has tomorrow in Bethlehem, the administration official said.

But Biden has embraced one key move by the Trump administration: the Abraham Accords that normalized relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. Biden is looking to replicate the model between Israel and other Arab countries, a goal that is expected to be a central theme of his visit to Saudi Arabia.

Another point of tension during visit will be the death of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, for which human rights and journalist advocacy groups have pushed for Biden to hold Israel accountable. The U.S. concluded this month that the Al Jazeera journalist was most likely killed by gunfire from Israeli military positions, but U.S. investigators have said they couldnt reach a definitive conclusion about the origins of the bullet that killed her, the Department of State said.

During a press event where Biden and Abbas spoke, one of the seats among the Palestinian journalists had a large placard of Abu Akleh that read Shireen Abu Akleh: The Voice of Palestine.

Investigations by the United Nations and independent Western media organizations found that Israeli fire led to her death.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Abu Aklehs family ahead of the trip and invited them to Washington for further discussions.

The United States will continue to insist on the full and transparent accounting of her death," Biden said Friday. "And we will continue to stand up for media freedom everywhere in the world."
LONDON  President Biden reaffirmed the U.S.s support for a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during his visit to the Middle East this week.

Speaking at a conference in Bethlehem alongside Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday, Biden said the U.S. had been one of the early supporters of establishing two states to ensure that Israel and an independent Palestine follow the borders created after the Six-Day War in 1967.

Two states along 1967 lines with mutually agreed land swaps remains the best way to achieve equal measures of security, prosperity, freedom and democracy for the Palestinians as well as Israelis, Biden said.

President Biden with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem on Friday. (Palestinian Presidency/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

The 1967 borders differ from those of today and refer to those that existed before the Six-Day War when Israel occupied the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Bidens announcement echoes the words of President Barack Obama, who in 2011 said the 1967 borders must be the basis for negotiations to set up a future Palestinian state.

While Biden voiced U.S. support for a two-state solution, no diplomatic meetings have been publicly announced to discuss the possible resolution. On Wednesday, he acknowledged that the solution is not in the near term but said he will still air his continued support.

Biden also spoke about the death in May of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and said the U.S. would continue to insist on a full and transparent accounting of her death and will continue to stand up for media freedom everywhere in the world. Investigations by several media organizations including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Bellingcat and the U.N. Commission on Human Rights concluded that Israeli soldiers were responsible for the journalist's death.

Earlier on Friday, Biden said his administration would give $100 million in assistance to six hospitals in East Jerusalem that, he said, serve as the backbone of the Palestinian health care system.

Story continues

Palestinians at a protest in Ramallah, West Bank, on Friday against President Biden's support for Israel. (Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

It is a step forward for Palestinian-U.S. relations after the Trump administration cut aid to hospitals in 2018, Reuters reported.

Bidens trip to the West Bank was part of a four-day tour to the Middle East, which on Friday includes a trip to Saudi Arabia. On Thursday, the president skirted questions about whether he would raise the subject of the murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi with the country's king and crown prince.

At a press conference with Israeli interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid, Biden was asked whether he would mention the 2018 murder during his visit to Saudi Arabia. The president responded by stating that his position on Khashoggi has been so clear. He added: If anyone doesnt understand it, in Saudi Arabia or anywhere else, then they havent been around for a while.

Khashoggi, a journalist for the Washington Post, was a harsh critic of the Saudi regime. He was brutally murdered at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
Contrary to the belief of some, Black people enjoy nerdy things. Video games, anime, comic conventions- yes please, take all our money! The chief appeal of these is escapism, which is useful when we need a distraction from present events.

Video game tourism, which didnt exist years ago, is on the rise. While games are often rooted in pure fantasy, there are references to real-life places.

As noted by India Outbound, some games include a tourist hot spot or a famous monument, which sparks interest for players. For example, in Assassins Creed, the protagonist scales the most famous structure in Rome after the Vatican: the Colosseum. The Spiderman game from 2018 allows you to swing through Manhattan. And in Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, Lara Croft (when she still looked very angular) explores the Louvre.

If you have a Blerd in your life, send them to these nerd-friendly destinations.

Japan

View this post on Instagram A post shared by AKIHABARA JAPAN (@akihabara_japan)

This is an obvious first. The country that gave the world anime, manga and scores of electronics.

The Akihabara area in Tokyo is filled with manga shops, arcades and themed cafes. Here, youll also find the flagship location of Super Potato, which sells retro video games. Its just a 5 minute walk from the Akihabara train station.

Millennials recall playing Street Fighter and Resident Evil back when the graphics were shoddy. These franchises were created by Capcom, a game developer based in Osaka. They also have operations in other cities.

New York

View this post on Instagram A post shared by New York Comic Con (@newyorkcomiccon)

New York Comic Con at the Javits Center is the largest pop culture convention on the East coast. Theres also The Big Apple Con (which is cheaper), Brooklyn Comic Con and Anime Next.

If you want to stock up on manga, art books and Japanese memorabilia, visit Kinokuniya in midtown Manhattan.

Story continues

Knock back a few pints of beer while playing retro games at Barcade. There are locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Also, keep your eyes peeled on Facebook, as there are always cosplay photo shoots being organized.

California

View this post on Instagram A post shared by California (@california)

Comic Con International in San Diego takes place July 21-24. Its the West Coast answer to New York Comic Con and attracts thousands.

Los Angeles Comic Con is also a lot of fun and takes place in December.

If you like Escape Rooms, theres Red Door Escape Room in San Diego and 60 Out in Los Angeles. Here, youll find rooms with all kinds of themes and levels of difficulty.

Be sure to visit Torpedo Comics, Golden Apple Comics and Comics Factory, too.

South Korea

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Stefano Scuccimarra | Korea  (@ssteart)

The New York Times once described the e-sports culture in South Korea as deadly serious. Elite gamers forgo sleep and dedicate hours to refining their craft. Why? For stardom and bragging rights.

The Times notes that, by 2000, South Korean cable channels were the first in the world to broadcast online gaming competitions.

Comic Zone and Dice Latte are great comic and graphic novel shops in Seoul. If youre going there in August, check out Seoul Comic Con.

The United Kingdom

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Love Great Britain  (@lovegreatbritain)

The English capital just wrapped up the London Film and Comic Con earlier this month.

While youre in England, check out the Brighton Palace Pier which is full of arcade games and rides.

Arcade Club near Manchester is the biggest free-play arcade in Europe. According to the site, there are four floors of arcade machines, pinball and other exciting gaming attractions.

In Aberystwyth, Wales, theres the Royal Pier offering arcade games for the whole family.

Scotland offers Game Zone, with 150 games and counting.
Note to readers: Weve made this story free as an important public service. If you are able, help power local journalism. Subscribe to the Redding Record Searchlight.

For Shawn Henry, the Peter Fire, which destroyed numerous buildings and torched some 300 acres Thursday, started right outside the door of his home with a loud "Boom!."

Henry said he was staying in a house at the end of Peter Pan Gulch Road south of Anderson when he heard an explosion shortly before 3 p.m.

He said he saw a shadow come across the window of the house he was in, so he stepped outside to see what it was.

"The whole backside of the garage was on fire. And then when I stepped off the porch, there was an explosion. Boom!, like something exploded," Henry said.

As he pointed to the area where the fire started, a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection law enforcement officer roped off the area with police tape.

Darren Stewart, a fire captain specialist for Cal Fire, said the area he taped off was the "potential" place where the fire started. But he said he couldn't definitely say that was where the blaze ignited because the cause was still under investigation.

After starting on Peter Pan Gulch Road, which is off Olinda Road, the fire raced north over a hill, jumped the Anderson Cottonwood Irrigation District canal and burned toward the area of Third Street and Spring Gulch Road.

At least one shop building and an equipment yard were destroyed off Spring Gulch Road. Numerous residents evacuated the area north of Anderson as the fire marched toward Highway 273.

By 8:30 p.m. Thursday, the fire was 304 acres, destroyed 12 buildings and was 25% contained, officials said.

On Peter Pan Gulch Road, residents rushed about trying to save their animals, vehicles and homes.

The Peter Fire destroys a home in the Anderson area on Thursday, July 14, 2022.

Henry said after he saw the garage area burst into flames he ran to a neighbor's house to warn her to leave.

"And then I went down to Grandma's to help with livestock, take all the livestock out of the road and try to find my dog. I ran back in the house for a second to get my puppy," he said.

Story continues

"The whole backside of the garage was like a wave like this  in flames," Henry said, waving his arm over his head. "It was insane."

Heather Barber, whose home on Peter Pan Gulch Road was destroyed in the fire, said she also heard an explosion.

More: UPDATE: Containment grows on 304-acre Peter Fire; Some evacuations lifted

See also: 'Just walking around here stunned': Peter Fire damages tortoise sanctuary in Anderson

She went outside with her 1-year-old son, Zachary Krieger, to investigate, but didn't see anything. She went back inside, but 30 minutes later she heard another, even louder explosion.

She took the baby and the dog and again went outside.

"I looked to the left and I saw huge black flames or black clouds, because I could see the flames and everything was on fire next door. You could see the field was starting to catch on fire right below the hill and I called 911," Barber said.

Firefighters hose down a shop off Spring Gulch Road north of Anderson that was destroyed in the Peter Pan Fire on Thursday.

She didn't have time to take any belongings with her. She just took the baby and the dog and fled. She said it was especially painful that her boyfriend's father's urn was in the house when it burned.

More: PHOTOS: Peter Fire starts just west of Anderson

They had plans to build an addition to their home, but Thursday's fire "put a wrench in everything," Barber said.

"Everything's gone. Our entire house, our shed, our shop," she said.

As she described the fire, some neighbors pulled into the yard riding ATVs and grabbed a pet carrier. Someone had rescued Barber's pet cat, Cuddles, who was panting and possibly burned from the fire.

They put Cuddles in the pet carrier on the back of the ATV and rode off to get him a cool drink of water.

Barber said she wasn't sure what was in her family's immediate future after Thursday's fire. She and her boyfriend, J.D. Krieger, and their son would probably stay with Barber's sister for the night.

After that, they may stay with Barber's parents, she said.

More: Redding-based Bethel Church co-senior pastor Beni Johnson dies after battle with cancer

Damon Arthur is the Record Searchlights resources and environment reporter. He is part of a team of journalists who investigate wrongdoing and find the unheard voices to tell the stories of the North State. He welcomes story tips at 530-338-8834 by email at damon.arthur@redding.com and on Twitter at @damonarthur_RS. Help local journalism thrive by subscribing today!

This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Peter Fire near Anderson: Residents describe 'boom' as fire erupts
Jefferson County Sheriffs deputies at the scene where an 8-year-old was shot dead by his 5 year old brother (KATU)

An 8-year-old boy was shot and killed by his 5-year-old brother in what authorities in Arkansas say was a tragic accident.

Jefferson County Sheriffs deputies received a 911 call of a toddler involved shooting at a rural address 45 miles (72kms) south of Little Rock just after 2pm on Thursday, according to a statement shared on their website on Thursday.

Deputies arrived soon afterward to find the boy unresponsive inside the home. The Jefferson County Coroner pronounced him dead at the scene.

This is a tragic incident that could have been avoided, Sheriff Lafayette Woods Jr said in a news release.

I cant emphasise strongly enough that guns need to be well secured and kept out of the hands and away from children at all times.

Gun owners that do not properly secure their firearms are just one split second away from one of these tragedies happening in their home, he added.

The name of the victim has not been released.

The Arkansas Department of Human Services has been notified and conducted a welfare assessment of children at the home, authorities said.

Sheriff Woods told the Pine Bluff Commercial that the 5-year-old and four other siblings were being placed in the custody of an aunt pending an investigation.

Authorities were working to determine whether any criminal charges will be filed, he said.

Several weapons had been removed from the home, and officers were working to determine whether the gun had been left within the 5-year-olds reach.

The boys body will be sent to the state medical examiners office for an autopsy.

KATU reported a 10-year-old from Little Rock was shot in the chest by his 13-year-old brother on 7 July.
STORY: "There is still this possibility of reaching up towards 40 degrees (Celsius) and breaking those records that we have here in the UK," climate scientist Hannah Cloke from the University of Reading told Reuters.

"That's very frightening in a way, that even some of the computer models are picking up these extremely high temperatures."

Hot days in the UK usually see Britons fill its beaches, but aside from the dangers of lying in the sun, plunging into cold water could also be a serious risk.

"There is this danger of cold shock, which does kill people every year and people drown in these heat waves," Cloke said. "So be very, very careful. Enter the water very slowly, make sure you're with an experienced swimmer."

Scientists blame human-caused climate change for the increased frequency of extreme weather such as heatwaves, which have also hit parts of China and the United States in recent days.
Eight days after Brittney Griner pleaded guilty to drug charges, the WNBA stars attorneys introduced new evidence they hope will result in a more lenient sentence.

Lawyers on Friday presented a Russian court with an American doctors letter saying that Griner had been prescribed medical marijuana to help her cope with chronic pain from injuries that she sustained during her basketball career.

The attending physician gave Brittney recommendations for the use of medical cannabis. The permission was issued on behalf of the Arizona Department of Health, lawyer Maria Blagovolina told the Associated Press.

Griner entered the courtroom wearing a tie-dye Nirvana T-shirt and watched the fourth day of her trial from the defendants cage directly behind her attorneys. A Reuters photographer captured her holding up a photo of WNBA players all wearing No. 42 jerseys in her honor during the leagues all-star game last weekend.

On Thursday, the Russian court heard testimony from multiple character witnesses from the Russian basketball club that Griner has played for during the WNBA offseason. UMMC Ekaterinburg team captain Evgeniya Belyakova and team director Maksim Ryabkov spoke on Griners behalf.

"Brittney has always been a good teammate, which is why my role here is to support her and be there for her," Belyakova, a member of the Russian National team, told reporters outside the courtroom after Thursdays hearing.

Griner has been behind bars since Feb. 17, when she flew into a Moscow airport and Russian customs officials allegedly found vape cartridges containing less than a gram of cannabis oil in her luggage. Her trial could result in a prison sentence of up to 10 years unless U.S. and Russian officials can negotiate a prisoner exchange that would bring her home sooner.

Yuval Weber, an expert on Russian military and political strategy, told Yahoo Sports that all the doctors notes and character witnesses in the world arent going to have much impact on Griners sentence.

Story continues

It might reduce it from 10 years to 9 years, said Weber, a distinguished fellow at Marine Corps University's Brute Krulak Center for Innovation and Future Warfare.

Weber said he has zero doubt the judge will not be making an independent decision on Griners fate. The way Weber sees it, Russian government officials will dictate the length of Griners sentence  and they lose the upper hand in subsequent negotiations with the U.S. if they show lenience.

The longer her sentence, the more basic leverage Russia has, Weber said.

Brittney Griner sits inside a defendants' cage during a hearing at the Khimki Court in the town of Khimki outside Moscow on July 15, 2022. (Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images)

Last week, on the second day of her trial, Griner pleaded guilty to drug charges, stressing that she did not want to break the law and that she packed the vape cartridges by mistake. Her guilty plea came after Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov hinted that a deal for Griners release was possible but only after the conclusion of her trial.

Griners guilty plea was smart strategy, experts in Russian law told Yahoo Sports last week. Not only could it potentially lead to a lighter sentence, most crucially, it also could speed up the trial and accelerate negotiations for Griners release.

The Russians have said they wouldn't really consider a prisoner swap until she has been found guilty, so this expedites that matter, said William Pomeranz, the acting director of the Wilson Centers Kennan Institute and an expert in Russian law. If she wants to return home and she believes they're working on a prisoner swap, the faster that this proceeding ends, the faster she can get home.

The State Department in May declared Griner to be wrongfully detained in Russia, a classification that allows U.S. officials to begin negotiations for her release. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has described securing the freedom of Griner and other wrongly detained Americans as a top priority.

On July 4, Griner sent President Biden a letter urging him to please dont forget about me and the other American detainees

Im terrified I might be here forever, she wrote.

In response, Biden called Griners wife, Cherelle, to reassure her that he is working to bring Brittney home as soon as possible. Biden also read Cherelle a letter that was delivered to Brittney the following day.

Griners imprisonment comes at a time of renewed hostility and distrust between the U.S. and Russia. Relations between the two nations are at their lowest point since the Cold War as a result of Russias assault on Ukraine and the U.S. joining Western allies in imposing economic sanctions.

Efforts to negotiate Griners release have also been complicated by Russias apparent asking price in a potential prisoner exchange. Russian state media outlets have linked Griners case to the fate of notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who earned the nickname Merchant of Death by allegedly smuggling military-grade weapons to rogue leaders and insurgent groups across Africa and beyond.

In 2008, the DEA successfully baited Bout into flying to Thailand to finalize a deal with federal agents posing as members of a Colombian terrorist group. Bout was extradited to the U.S. in 2010 and is currently serving a 25-year sentence in a federal prison in Illinois for conspiring to sell weapons to people who planned to use them to kill Americans.

The next hearing in Griner's trial is scheduled for July 26. While Griner's detention has been authorized through Dec. 20, her attorneys have previously told reporters they expect her trial to finish by the beginning of August.
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP)  Cariol Horne started her morning outside the Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, placing white roses at a colorful memorial to the 10 Black people slain there two months ago by a white gunman.

Across the fenced-off parking lot, the supermarket chain's president and employees were preparing to lead media on a preview of the refurbished store, a day ahead of its Friday reopening to the public.

Horne, a 54-year-old activist and retired Buffalo police officer, is among those in the neighborhood who say it's too soon.

Were pretty much shopping on peoples blood, she said. I think that this is more about putting people to work rather than letting them heal.  Just two months ago, these people were running for their lives.

Yet even Horne carries the mixed emotions of seemingly everyone in the community, where the store has doubled as a gathering spot for two decades.

Her 97-year-old father, a World War II veteran, lives close enough to the market to shop there on his own. The produce at Tops is fresher than the foods available at smaller convenience stores and bodegas in the neighborhood, she said. She gets it.

How do you decide how, when or even whether to let the site of a mass atrocity return to being what it was before it was a crime scene? How do you help people move forward without erasing the memory of an event that devastated so many?

Its hard enough to answer those questions when its a school, a church, a synagogue. Its a different sort of hard when its a place of business, especially one as central to a community as Tops is to east Buffalo.

It took six months for a movie theater to reopen in Aurora, Colorado, after a mass shooter killed 12 people there in 2012. That was one theater in a 16-screen suburban cineplex.

Tops is the social hub of its neighborhood. That's why frequent shoppers, the stores managers and employees, community leaders and those who lost loved ones in the hail of bullets two months ago tell The Associated Press simply: Its complicated.

Story continues

On the one hand, residents fought for years to win a grocery store on Buffalo's east side, which had long suffered from disinvestment and lackluster economic activity. The arrival of Tops in 2003 was a godsend to an area that had been considered a food desert.

On the other hand, polishing store fixtures and floors is a far cry from addressing the systemic inequality and unhealed trauma in east Buffalo's Black community, several residents said.

Tops President John Persons said Thursday that the company began hearing from customers, community members and civic leaders the day after the May 14 shooting. Almost immediately, the company started running a free shuttle from the neighborhood to other Tops stores.

Ultimately, the management team felt confident that store associates and most area residents needed and wanted the store to reopen.

Ill be honest, those are the people that we really wanted to listen to, the people that were in the neighborhood, the people that were in the Jefferson Avenue neighborhood and the immediate community to find out what their thoughts were, Persons said.

On Friday morning, store associates handed single carnations to customers as they entered the newly reopening store. Some also received Tops gift cards  the store planned to hand out more than 200 of them, a representative confirmed.

The key to life is to get back to living, said shopper Alan Hall, who lives two blocks away from the Jefferson Avenue store. We're happy that it's open. It looks good. It's well stocked. Of course, there's still that undercurrent of grief, which will never leave. But it's good to be back.

The store has a calming palate of muted grays and greens. Over the entrance are Adinkra symbols, one representing peace and harmony, another hospitality and generosity and a third, farewell and goodbye.

Everything you see here was taken down to the bare walls, Persons said. Its all fresh product. This is all new equipment. All throughout, from the ceiling to the floor has been repainted or redone.

It is also made to be safer, with a new emergency evacuation alarm system and additional emergency exits. Outside, the parking lot and perimeter have new LED lighting.

Fragrance Harris Stanfield, a customer relations employee of Tops, returned to the store Thursday for the first time since the shooting. She initially struggled to get past the foyer, just inside the entrance.

I couldnt really pass the threshold. At that point, it just was extremely overwhelming, very emotional, Stanfield said. But everyone was so supportive and they knew I needed a moment.

What calmed her were the water fountains flanking a memorial and poem displayed in tribute to the shooting victims. At the base of the fountain, a sign reads, To respect the requests of some of the victims loved ones names are not included on this memorial.

Tops says it is working with state, city and community leaders to create a permanent public memorial to be installed outside the store.

Stanfield said she understands why some believe its too soon to reopen.

I think theres still a place of mourning and grieving, she said. Were still kind of in a blaming space, where they need somewhere to focus that energy. And so its just being focused here, which is completely understandable.

Near the stores entrance, signs labeled community counseling hung from pitched tents. On Thursday, residents looked on from behind the fence, some of them angrily, as Tops managers hosted the press event.

Part of the anger stems from a sense that not enough effort was made to seek enough voices from the community.

No ones come door to door to ask the people, who live within a mile, or four blocks, or even two blocks of Tops, Are you comfortable with this? What do you want here? said David Louis, another activist who, like Horne, recognizes that others miss not just the goods on Tops' shelves but the good in its aisles.

This is such a family store, its so close to everyones homes, said Louis, who frequently walked the four blocks to the store wearing Crocs and house pants. When Im in Tops, I know that these people arent judging me.

Robert Neimeyer, director of the Portland Institute for Loss and Transition, said reopening a site of a mass atrocity can be like walking a tightrope. The Buffalo market, in particular, isnt just a typical business, he said.

It really is a kind of linchpin of that community, and so it has enormous cultural and practical significance, Neimeyer said. Its just as important a place to live as it is to mourn.

Still, he said, Not every site of mass homicide in the United States can become a 9/11 memorial, whether its in Uvalde or Buffalo.

He said the store managers would send a strong message to the community if Tops funneled a portion of the proceeds from grocery sales to a scholarship fund.

In that way, even shopping in the store becomes a commemorative act, Neimeyer said.

Mark Talley, the son of Buffalo shooting victim Geraldine Talley, said he grew up going to the Tops on Jefferson Avenue with his mom. Now, hes hoping to honor her memory through advocacy, community service projects and a fledgling nonprofit organization.

The 33-year-old also attended the Tops preview event Thursday and said he understands why there are mixed feelings.

When I was first asked this question weeks after it happened, I said, No, I want the Tops closed. I want it to just be dedicated to all the loved ones there, Talley said.

But if you do that, then you just succumb to defeat, he said. I dont want the east side of Buffalo to seem weak. I want us to become stronger than that. Lets just build it back up.

___

Associated Press writer Carolyn Thompson contributed to this report. Morrison is a New York City-based member of the AP's Race and Ethnicity team. Follow him on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/aaronlmorrison.
The death of a homeless man in Central Park last September has been deemed a homicide (AP)

The NYPD says the mysterious death of a man who was found with a rope around in his neck in Central Park last year was a homicide.

The body of Elvis Garcia, 26, was discovered in A Native Meadow near East Drive and East 65th St early on the morning of 22 September 2021.

Upon arrival, responding officers encountered an unconscious and unresponsive 26-year-old male lying face up on the grass... with a rope tied around his neck, the NYPD said at the time.

EMS also responded to the scene and pronounced him deceased.

No further details were released until Friday, when the NYPD released Mr Garcias name and said they had deemed his death a homicide.

No arrests have been made, and the investigation is ongoing.

Sources told the New York Post last year that a black rope found around Mr Garcias neck was from fencing used in Central Park.

According to a 2021 report, the number of homeless people to die by homicide in New York City has increased three-fold since 2018.

Twenty-two were killed in the 2021 fiscal year, compared to seven in 2018.

In February, Mayor Eric Adams announced a plan to remove homeless people from the citys sprawling subway system in response to assaults and other aggressive behaviour.

The next month, he proposed a $171m investment to provide 1,400 beds in temporary shelters. The plan was criticised for being light on detail.

In its most recent estimate in January 2021, the city said about 1,100 people were living in parks and on the streets  a number seen by many advocates as an undercount.

Most of the roughly 50,000 homeless people in the city stay in shelters.

In March, Gerald Brevard III was arrested and charged with stalking and shooting five homeless men  two fatally  as they slept on the streets in Washington DC and New York over a 10-day period.
A Chicago police officer was found dead early Friday inside his home, according to the Police Department.

Detectives are investigating the death of an active police officer who worked in the Calumet District, police said. He was found dead inside his home in the Central District.

Please keep this officers family and friends in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time, the department said.

Michael Carroll, a Chicago police detective, wrote in a tweet that it appeared the officer died by suicide.

(Its) extremely difficult hearing news like this over and over again. The pressure of the job is more than regular people know and cops need to be better at letting others know that they need help, need a hand, they need to talk, he wrote in a tweet.

The officers name has not been released. No other information was immediately released.

The death comes after the loss of 29-year-old Officer Patricia Swank, who died by suicide on July 2, according to the Cook County medical examiners office.

On March 12, Sgt. Edward Dougherty, 52, died by suicide in the Mount Greenwood neighborhood, according to the medical examiners office.

There have been more than a dozen Chicago police officers to take their own lives since 2018.

The Chicago Police Departments problem with officer suicides was highlighted in a 2017 report by the U.S. Justice Department regarding the citys policing practices. At that time, one Chicago police official told the Justice Department that CPDs suicide rate was higher than the national average among police.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a hotline for individuals in crisis or for those looking to help someone else. To speak with a certified listener, call 800-273-8255.

The Veterans Crisis Line and Military Crisis Line connect veterans and service members in crisis and their families and friends with qualified U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs responders through a confidential toll-free hotline, online chat or text. The Veterans Crisis Line is at 800-273-8255.

Crisis Text Line is a texting service for emotional crisis support. To speak with a trained listener, text HELLO to 741741. It is free, available 24/7 and confidential.

pfry@chicagotribune.com
A bill to allow mothers to seek child-support payments while they are still pregnant has been proposed by a group of U.S. senators that includes Mississippi's Cindy Hyde-Smith.

The legislation comes as many conservatives, including Hyde-Smith, have called for more help for mothers and children following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn nationwide access to abortion.

The proposal would amend the federal Social Security Act to add unborn children to the list of those eligible for child support. In the bill, an unborn child is defined as "a member of the species homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb."

The bill is primarily sponsored by Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., and six other Republican senators join Hyde-Smith as cosponsors. In the House, Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., sponsored identical legislation.

U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Mississippi.

"I hope good legislation, like the Unborn Child Support Act, gets more support now that the Dobbs decision encourages us to look more seriously at supporting mothers and their unborn children, Hyde-Smith said. This legislation would help ensure women have opportunities to receive child-support payments from the earlier days of their pregnancy.

Related: Attorney for Mississippi abortion case calls Roe v. Wade reversal 'tremendous victory'

Read this: New billboard targets Jackson and Mississippi as audience for abortion podcast

Longtime Hattiesburg family law attorney S. Christopher Farris also said he saw a link between the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization and the group of Republicans choosing to sponsor this legislation. He called the proposal "politics."

"I think it's a response to Roe v. Wade, as a way to provide support to these mothers, to encourage them to go the adoption route, versus what used to be the abortion route, because what you're fixing to have is just all these pregnant women who can't afford to have a child, who can't afford the health care," Farris said.

Story continues

Farris said he supports the spirit of the legislation. He said his practice sees "just as many paternity cases as divorce cases," which did not used to be the case. That said, he doubts it will become law.

"Anything that requires a father of a child to step up to the plate and support the mother of his child and that child is a good thing. And the intent is good," Farris said. "The problem is not everything that sounds like a good idea can be put into play."

For one, it is impossible to prove paternity through a DNA test while a fetus is still in the womb, Farris said.

"It's gonna be impossible to reach that standard," Farris said. "You're going to have to establish who the responsible party is. Now, if I get somebody who comes in and says, 'Yeah, it's my child.' Yeah, that'll work. But if there's a conflict  I mean, I have cases now where people raise kids for five, six years, go through a divorce and found out the kid isn't theirs."

Additionally, laws already exist in many states, including Mississippi, that allow a judge to retroactively award child support to a mother.

"We already have in play the right of a mother to file a paternity action, to establish the father, his child-support obligation, his health-insurance obligation," Farris said. "And it gives the chancery judge the discretion to award up to 12 months of back support."

With only Republican support so far, and a Democrat-controlled Congress and White House, the path forward for Hyde-Smith's Unborn Child Support Act remains unclear. If the bill were to pass, Farris predicts the lack of ability to identify the father would mean things wouldn't play out much differently than they already do, with judges having to award back support after the child is born.

"Every time I hear somebody say, 'We need to pass this law,' I say, 'Guess what? We've already got three,' " Farris said. "Why don't we go read the ones we've got instead of passing new ones every year?"

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Hattiesburg lawyer doubtful of Cindy Hyde-Smith's child support proposal
By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - China said on Thursday it wants the United Nations Security Council to impose an arms embargo on criminal gangs in Haiti as the 15-member body negotiates a resolution to extend a U.N. political mission in the strife-torn Caribbean country.

The council is due to vote on Friday when the mandate for the U.N. mission expires. But China, backed by Russia, has raised issues with the text drafted by the United States and Mexico.

"The situation in Haiti can't be worse," said a spokesperson for the Chinese mission to the United Nations in New York.

"An embargo of weapons against criminal gangs is the minimum the council should do," said the spokesperson, adding that anything short of that would "not only disappoint the Haitian people, but also means a lost opportunity" for the council.

Gang violence has soared since the assassination last year of President Jovenel Moise, which created a political vacuum that criminal groups have taken advantage of to expand control over territory.

The initial draft text expresses concern about illicit trafficking and diversion of arms and asks the U.N. mission to work with the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime to support Haitian authorities "in combating illicit financial flows as well as trafficking and diversion of arms and related materiel."

Diplomats said the United States and Mexico plan to circulate a revised draft text.

A resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by China, Russia, the United States, France or Britain to be adopted.

TRANSITION

A senior Security Council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said more work was needed before the council could consider imposing any kind of arms embargo.

"If we were to move in that direction, we need to get them right. You need to you need to have a clear understanding of what exactly we want to accomplish," said the diplomat, noting the council would also need to know exactly who to target.

Story continues

The U.N. political mission is in Haiti to work with the government to strengthen political stability and good governance, human rights protection and justice reform and to help with the holding of free and fair elections.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has asked the council to renew the mission for 12 months. The initial draft resolution by Mexico and the United States proposed a 15-month extension. China said it does not support 15 months.

In a report to the Security Council last month, Guterres said the holding of elections in Haiti by the end of this year "seems unlikely." China would also like the council to push Haiti to agree a political transition plan within six months, said the Chinese U.N. mission spokesperson.

U.N. peacekeepers were deployed to Haiti in 2004 after a rebellion led to the ouster and exile of then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Peacekeeping troops left in 2017 and were replacing by U.N. police, who left in 2019.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
Clyde Hamner is seeking reelection to his seat on the Terrebonne Parish School Board in the Nov. 8 election.

Hamner, a Republican, represents District 6, which under new voting-district maps approved last year mainly covers Summerfield and surrounding neighborhoods as well as subdivisions along La. 311 in Houma.

All nine School Board seats are up for election. Candidates will sign up this coming Wednesday through Friday.

Local elections: State Rep. Tanner Magee of Houma to run for Louisiana appeals court seat

"I have spent considerable time reflecting on my first term, our students, educators, families and community," Hamner said in his campaign announcement. "The roller coaster of the pandemic and the devastation of Hurricane Ida has forced our community to struggle with working and living at a heightened level of expectations and safety."

Clyde Hamner

He said he is seeking to devote the next four years to rebuilding schools and ensuring students have the tools to succeed.

Hamner has 33 years of experience as a teacher and administrator in Terrebonne public schools.

"My career in education, coupled with my experience in accounting and finance, gives me the experience needed to guide our school system as we move forward through these challenging times," Hamner said.

Among goals he outlines in his announcement:

Proceed with addressing the need for universal pre-kindergarten classes.

Continue to work on school safety measures, including addressing bullying and the potential for violence.

Speed rebuilding and new construction of schools.

Address the growing shortage of teachers and other school personnel.

"I am proud to have been honored by the Louisiana School Boards Association during my first term with the distinction of Outstanding New School Board Member," Hamner said.

He said many of his original goals have been achieved, including:

Creation of the a long-range master plan for school buildings.

Opening new wing at Mulberry Elementary.

Formation of partnerships with the Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce, Fletcher Technical Community College, Nicholls State University and others in education and business.

"Serving as chair of the Finance Committee during these four years, we have kept a balanced budget, initiated cost efficiencies and maintained a healthy fund balance," he said.

This article originally appeared on The Courier: Clyde Hamner seeks reelection to Terrebonne Parish School Board
The National Lottery-funded charity has identified huge gaps in the reporting and understanding of HBA

By Zoe Crowther

The pandemic has revealed the devastating and real extent of honour-based violence in the UK, according to the founder of a leading charity which supports survivors.

Yasmin Khan, founder of the Middlesbrough-based Halo Project, a charity which supports honour-based abuse (HBA) survivors, believes the Covid-19 pandemic has led to a surge in survivors coming forward after two years of being unable to seek help.

The National Lottery-funded charity has identified huge gaps in the reporting and understanding of HBA, which Khan says is even more prevalent than official figures suggest: the Home Office has only started collecting data from police forces on HBA offences since April 2019.

In the lead up to the National Day of Remembrance for Honour Based Violence (July 14th), the leading National Lottery funded charity, Halo Project, is now calling on victims to spot the signs, report the crime and get the right support they need.

In the lead up to the National Day of Remembrance for Honour Based Violence (July 14th), the leading National Lottery funded charity, Halo Project, is now calling on victims to spot the signs, report the crime and get the right support they need

Khan said: We are seeing a tsunami of victims coming forward who have been extremely traumatised.

This pandemic has exposed such inequalities and gaps in services, and a lot of staff are burnt out.

There is no specific offence of honour-based violence. However, the Crown Prosecution Service describes honour-based violence as an incident or crime which has, or may have, been committed to protect or defend the honour of the family and or the community.

Honour-based abuse, although not defined in law, refers to where the concept of honour has been used to carry out an offence, such as female genital mutilation (FGM), forced marriage, or honour killings.

Honour-based abuse survivor S* sought help from the Halo Project last year. Having been abused and controlled by her husband, the charity put together a safety plan and provided her with a refuge.

They gave me a plan B and they gave someone I can share everything with, she said.

A caseworker used to sit and listen to me for a long time and it really made a difference.

Story continues

People should not be scared to come forward because of their culture. People should know where to ask for help.

Honour Based Abuse is misunderstood and underreported, meaning that hundreds of victims are not being helped and perpetrators are escaping justice.

Based in North East England, the Halo Project has directly offered support to more than 3,000 HBA survivors since 2011, by providing services such as emergency accommodation, language support, legal advocacy, and a national helpline.

Many survivors they work with are aged between 16 and 24.

Organisations like ours are so important as the steppingstone for survivors to get the services that they deserve, Khan said.

Everyone who comes through our doors is uniquely different; we cant give them a one size fits all service.

It's about tailoring our services to meet their needs and we've become real experts in the field, not only for victims, but also for public bodies who need our insight to improve.

The Halo Project has been involved in a systematic review of police forces in England and Wales, which will result in a published report later this year.

Many HBA survivors feel there is no way out and Khan said the charity has worked with individuals who have tried to take their own life as a result: Survivors have told us: You've saved my life. You've turned my life around.

When they come to our service, that might be their only chance. And we've got to get it right the first time.

The Halo Projects long-term aim is to build a zero-tolerance approach to honour-based abuse and eradicate gender-based violence.

Despite lockdown making face-to-face support difficult, the Halo Project maintained services for survivors via video calls throughout.

N*, a survivor of domestic abuse, was supported by the Halo Project last year to find legal representation and secure a divorce with her abusive husband, who is no longer allowed to come into contact with her or her children.

My mental health was not good, so their help was very, very important, she said. It was my start for a new life.

She urges other women to not wait for their abusive partners to change, saying: I waited 13 years and nothing happened. The help I received from Halo was my start, and they will be in my mind all my life.

Now, everything is okay and I have plans for my future and my children.

Khan said that funding from The National Lottery has enabled the Halo Project to develop its services further.

She explained: The National Lottery has been absolutely amazing in understanding our project needs and developing them with us, and really meeting the gaps in services.

This funding has acted like a safe passage for other funders to come on board, because it shows we are credible and have a history of external funding. That has been a real positive for us.

Journalist and broadcaster Samira Ahmed, who has long been a supporter of projects tackling HBA, said: Throughout my career, Ive always had a special interest and concern in violence against women, particularly honour-based violence against women.

Honour-based violence has always been there, but we didnt always call it honour-based violence. The word honour is controversial - some people feel it shouldnt ever be used in the context of violence against women - but it struck me that the problem was never going away, that there were always accusations of racism if people tried to talk about it, and women were being silenced.

Mrs Ahmed acknowledged HBA continues to be underreported and underacknowledged by the wider public, partly due to these difficulties associated with labelling and discussing it.

She added: Ive been really struck when Ive gone into some communities, and spent time talking to people, police, social workers, womens groups, about how much pressure there is to not talk about honour-based violence, because somehow it tars a whole community and that it suits racists to talk about it.

Thats been the real challenge as a journalist: finding that balance between being scrupulously fair and not feeding racism, but also just calling a crime a crime.

To find out more about the Halo Project and the work they do, visit https://www.haloproject.org.uk/

National Lottery players raise more than 30million a week for good causes, making projects such as these possible. Find out how your numbers make amazing happen at: www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk

*Name anonymised to protect the identity of the survivor
To get a roundup of TechCrunchs biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here.

Time to do the Friday dance! Weve mentioned our virtual TC Sessions: Robotics event a few times, but weve got some good news for events fans. Hang on to your blockchains and sharpen those crypto wallets  were doing a TechCrunch Sessions: Crypto in November as well! Happy weekend! See yall on Monday.  Christine and Haje

The TechCrunch Top 3

Words mean everything : Microsoft came under fire recently by developers due to the way it worded a new policy banning profiting off of open source software, and while the company clawed back that policy, Paul provides a look at what all this will mean.

No snakes and frozen statues here : Christine writes about Medusas $8 million seed round to take on Shopify with its open source e-commerce tool for small businesses to grow their business beyond the basic API implementations provided by marketplaces.

B-O-A-R-D: No, its not todays Wordle answer  we checked  but fans of the game will be delighted to know that the popular guess-the-word computer game is being turned into a board game, Ivan writes.

Startups and VC

"We have entered an unprecedented combination of crypto winter and broad macroeconomic instability, and we need to prepare the company for the possibility of a prolonged downturn, OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer said, as Lucas reports.

The question bouncing around Alexs mind this morning is why venture investments are slowing when so much capital has been raised by VCs to invest? (Read about it on TC+, our subscription product.)

NGL and Sendits apps are problematic, Sarah writes, because theyve been using misleading tactics to trick their young users into thinking they were receiving engagement from friends when they were not.

Kick off the weekend by bopping along to this wildly dark and weirdly threatening EDM track from Rufus Du Sol, as you skim the best of the rest:

Story continues

Pivoting your startup in a bear market: Become undeniably fundable

Group of paper airplane in one direction and with one individual pointing in the different way, can be used leadership/individuality concepts.( 3d render )

Image Credits: Eoneren (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

Every founder is searching for ways to conserve cash at the moment, but a laser focus on saving money instead of creating efficiencies will only delay the inevitable.

In July 2022, investors will not back companies that cant demonstrate proficiency in five basic KPIs, according to Kraig Swensrud, founder and CEO of Qualified.

Were not going back to the sugar high of the past decade anytime soon, but with integrity, strong leadership and operational efficiency, we can not only survive, but thrive.

(TechCrunch+ is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.)

Big Tech Inc.

Brian writes that after testing out drone delivery in California, Amazon is heading over to the Lone Star State  thats Texas, yall  to begin delivering in the town of College Station, where Texas A&M University is located. Now when Texans look at the sky, it kind of gives a new meaning to the stars at night are big and bright.

As one of our colleagues noted, TikTok wrote a rather lengthy post basically announcing that its chief security officer stepped down from his position. Aisha reduces the news down to a more manageable length.

All you Apple Music subscribers out there gained another perk with Apple Music Sessions, which provides access to audio recorded at Apple music studios around the world. Country stars Carrie Underwood and Tenille Townes were the first to give it a go, Lauren writes.

Natasha L gave us a good headline today with her story on a proposal by European lawmakers to make it easier to share medical data across borders, but in a way that is also secure.

Oh, and Bungie is now officially part of Sony, Taylor reports.

In case you missed it, our colleagues were working hard yesterday, and here are some late-day stories we dont want you to miss:
Former President Donald Trump. SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

A police officer has backed up testimony that Donald Trump fought with his Secret Service detail.

According to CNN, the officer told the January 6 committee he witnessed a heated exchange.

The testimony supports former the account shared by former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson.

A police officer has backed up the bombshell testimony that former President Donald Trump quarreled with his security team after they refused to drive him to the US Capitol on the day of the January 6 insurrection, CNN reported Thursday.

Citing a "source familiar with the matter," CNN reported that the officer, a member of the Metropolitan Police Department, was part of the presidential motorcade and witnessed a "heated exchange" between Trump and Secret Service agents. He shared his account with the congressional committee investigating January 6, according to the outlet.

A spokesperson for the committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In June, former White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson told the January 6 committee that she had heard about an altercation between Trump and his security entourage after the former president finished speaking at the Ellipse and insisted on following his supporters to the US Capitol.

According to Hutchinson, Tony Ornato, then the White House deputy chief of staff, told her the president had a "very strong, very angry response" to being told that he could not go to the Capitol due to security reasons.

Two Secret Service agents earlier this month told CNN that word of the altercation had circulated widely within the agency.

On Thursday, The Intercept reported that the Secret Service deleted text messages from January 5 and January 6 that could have shed light on the alleged incident.

The messages were erased after the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general had requested electronic communications as part of an oversight investigation. The Secret Service said the messages were lost in a "device-replacement program," according to a letter about the incident obtained by The Intercept.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Grace Anne Sparks

Knox County Criminal Court Judge Steven Sword on Friday sentenced a man to two years in prison after he was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide in a rare case of coerced suicide.

Hayden Jennings Berkebile, 29, and the victim, 19-year-old Grace Anne Sparks, had a years-long relationship in which Berkebile developed sexual control over the victim and encouraged her to engage in dangerous and demeaning acts, prosecutors told the jury.

On Sept. 29, 2019, Berkebile was in Indiana, where he lived, and was communicating over video chat with Sparks in her Knoxville home. Berkebile coerced her into putting a bullet in the cylinder of a .357 revolver and spinning it to play Russian roulette. He then convinced her to put the gun to her head and pull the trigger.

Sentence means Berkebile will be released in about 4 months

Candis Sparks, Grace Anne's mother, spoke at Berkebile's sentencing, describing how she had made a vow to love and protect her daughter from the day she was born.

"My world shattered" when she found out her daughter had died, Candis Sparks said.

"I want to apologize for the part I played, through my negligence," Berkebile said, calling Grace Anne Sparks "one of the brightest lights in this world" and adding, "I never wanted this. ... Her death was never my goal."

Sword warned the family they likely would not be happy with the sentence but explaining he was constrained by the law and the fact that Berkebile had no prior criminal history.

Sword denied Berkebile's request for criminal diversion, saying the defendant was aware Sparks was especially vulnerable due to her suicidal ideation.

The judge sentenced Berkebile to the maximum possible for the crime: two years in prison. He noted, however, that Berkebile would be released after serving 30 percent of that time, minus 91 days credit for time served. That means Berkebile should be released after serving about four months.

Story continues

Disturbing text messages between two read during trial

During Berkebile's four-day trial, prosecutors read out loud more than 1,300 messages between Berkebile and Sparks in order to establish the amount of control he had over her actions.

In some of the messages, Sparks described "normal" nightmares of drowning and dying, and discussed feeling suicidal. In one series of messages, she asked for reassurance Berkebile didn't want to kill her.

"You wouldn't let me die right?" one message read.

"Incited suicide" prosecutions are fairly rare. Only a small number of states have statutes that specifically address encouraging suicide. In California, for example, it is a felony to deliberately aid, advise or encourage another person to commit suicide. But California's courts have held that criminal liability for "encouraging" suicide requires something more direct than just words encouraging the act.

After the sentencing, Sword encouraged Sparks' family to become victim advocates and work to change Tennessee's laws surrounding this type of online abuse.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Hayden Berkebile sentenced to 2 years in prison for coercing suicide
Six years after a man disappeared in a county outside Augusta, deputies have made an arrest in connection with his murder.

Simon Powell vanished in June 1, 2016 in Burke County. The next day, investigators found his white Ford pickup truck destroyed by a fire.

The Burke County Sheriffs Office says it has been following leads since that day. This week, one finally led to an arrest.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Deputies arrested Stacey Welch, 38, on Wednesday. Welch faces murder, armed robbery and kidnapping charges, according to jail records.

Sheriff Williams sends his heartfelt condolences to the Powell family and hopes that todays development will bring the family some level of closure, the sherriffs office said.

TRENDING STORIES:

Investigators are currently searching a local pond for Powells body, according to WJBF NewsChannel 6.

Powells family has been searching for answers for years. NewsChannel 6 reported that the family offered $30,000 reward for information and posted billboards around the county.

WRDW in Augusta spoke with Sheriff Williams on Thursday after deputies arrested Welch. Williams told the TV station that she did not confess to his murder but she did provide details about his disapperance

She has admitted some of her culpability in the crime, and that has led us to additional lead. Here it is six years later, and that finally came into place, Williams said.

The sheriffs office says Powells case is still active and it expects to make other arrests.

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
By Lizbeth Diaz and Drazen Jorgic

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexico's navy on Friday captured drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, convicted of murdering a U.S. anti-narcotics agent in 1985, in a law enforcement coup that came at a heavy cost when a helicopter used in the mission crashed, killing 14 military personnel.

Marines flushed out Caro Quintero with a bloodhound in a far-flung corner of the northwestern state of Sinaloa, one of Mexico's drug-trafficking heartlands, before the Black Hawk chopper came down as it was about to land further south.

Caro Quintero rose to prominence as a co-founder of the Guadalajara Cartel, one of Latin America's most powerful drug trafficking organizations during the 1980s, and had been among the most prized targets for U.S. officials.

The U.S. government hailed the arrest, and said it would waste no time in requesting his extradition.

"This is huge," White House senior Latin America adviser Juan Gonzalez said on Twitter.

Caro Quintero was captured in San Simon in the Sinaloa municipality of Choix after the military-trained female bloodhound named Max found him in shrub land, the navy said.

The arrest comes after pressure from the United States, according to a Mexican official, and the same week that President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador met with U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington.

Lopez Obrador said on Twitter the navy would investigate what caused the crash of the helicopter in the city of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, that killed 14 and left one seriously injured. He said it had been carrying military personnel who were backing up the team that arrested the kingpin.

Caro Quintero spent 28 years in prison for the brutal murder and torture of former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena, one of the most notorious killings in Mexico's bloody narco wars. The events, dramatized in the 2018 Netflix series "Narcos: Mexico," led to a nadir in U.S.-Mexico co-operation in a five-decade "war on drugs."

Story continues

Caro Quintero has previously denied involvement in the killing of Camarena. He was released in 2013 on a technicality by a Mexican judge, embarrassing the previous government.

He quickly went underground and returned to trafficking as part of the Sinaloa Cartel, according to U.S. officials, who put him on the FBI's Top 10 most wanted fugitives list and put a $20 million bounty on his head, a record for a drug trafficker.

Last year, he lost a final appeal against extradition to the United States. He will be extradited as quickly as possible, another Mexican official said.

"It is probably one of the most important captures of the last decade in terms of importance to the DEA," said Mike Vigil, the DEA's former chief of international operations.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said he would seek Caro Quintero's immediate extradition.

"There is no hiding place for anyone who kidnaps, tortures, and murders American law enforcement. We are deeply grateful to Mexican authorities for their capture and arrest of Rafael Caro-Quintero," Garland said in a statement.

Before extradition, Caro Quintero will be held in Altiplano prison in the state of Mexico, Mexican prosecutors said. The penitentiary is notorious as the one from which his old Sinaloa Cartel associate Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman escaped in 2015.

While the 69-year-old Caro Quintero is no longer considered a major player in international drug trafficking, the symbolic impact of his capture is significant.

The arrest points to significant cooperation between the United States and Mexico despite recent clashes over security, said Mexican security expert Alejandro Hope. "This type of capture is unthinkable without the participation of the DEA," he said.

Mexico's unwillingness to extradite Caro Quintero to the United States before his release from prison had been a source of tension between the two countries. A U.S. official said Washington was very eager to have him extradited.

"This will hopefully start to mend the frayed relationship between the United States and Mexico in terms of combating drug trafficking," said former DEA official Vigil.

(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz, Drazen Jorgic, Dave Graham and Jackie Botts; Additional reporting by Diego Ore; Writing by Drazen Jorgic and Brendan O'Boyle; Editing by Stephen Eisenhammer, Rosalba O'Brien and William Mallard)
Donald Trump on Tuesday escalated his feud with Elon Musk in a series of Truth Social posts belittling the billionaire. Evan Vucci/AP Photo

Donald Trump called Elon Musk a "bullshit artist" and said the Tesla CEO lied about voting for him.

Musk, who said he has mostly voted for Democrats, said in a tweet the claim was "not true."

The billionaires have been engaged in an online feud.

Elon Musk dismissed former President Donald Trump's claim that the Tesla CEO once said he voted for him, as the billionaires traded online barbs this week.

Musk said in May he had "overwhelmingly" voted for Democrats throughout his life, going as far as to say he may never have voted for a Republican.

Trump responded to the claim on Saturday during a rally in Anchorage, Alaska, accusing Musk of lying to him about who he voted for: "He told me he voted for me. So he's another bullshit artist."

Days later, Musk disputed the former president. In response to a tweet that said "Donald Trump: Elon Musk Told Me He Voted for Me" along with a video of Trump's comments, Musk wrote: "Not true."

Trump's office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Though Musk has criticized President Joe Biden and said he plans to vote for Republicans in the midterms, he's made clear he is not a big fan of Trump.

The pair have been caught up in an online feud that started with Trump's comments at the Alaska rally.

Musk responded in a tweet, writing: "I don't hate the man, but it's time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset." He also said Trump was "too much drama" and that he thinks the "legal maximum age for start of Presidential term should be 69." Trump is 76.

Trump then posted a photo on Truth Social of him and Musk in the oval office and criticized Musk's "electric cars that don't drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, [and] rocketships to nowhere."

Musk has also said he would support Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president over Trump. DeSantis, though frequently discussed as a potential 2024 candidate, has not said he plans to run.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Casey Flores, president of the Virginia Log Cabin Republicans and Va. Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

A controversial appointee to Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkins LGBTQ+ Advisory Board is out of the position before even beginning. The Republican chosen for the post is leaving the state altogether.

His departure comes weeks after his appointment to the role brought criticism over his aggressive online behavior.

Casey Flores, the president of the Virginia Log Cabin Republicans, was to begin his appointment to the board on July 1. Advisory board members advise the governor on issues related to LGBTQ+ Virginians and policy. Flores was sworn in for the position in late June.

I was told that he was compelled to resign, a Virginia LGBTQ+ Advisory Board member told The Advocate on the condition of anonymity when discussing internal matters, which is great because [the board] agreed that having him there would have a negative impact and wouldnt allow productive work by the board because there would have been a lot of focus on what he would be saying.

However, Flores disputed the claim and told The Advocate the resignation was not forced.

Im moving to Florida, so I dont really think I could be on the Virginia LGBTQ Advisory Board, Flores said in a phone interview Friday morning.

Flores, 31, said he left of his own accord two weeks ago and that his departure has nothing to do with his behavior online.

I would not have resigned for any other reason other than moving, he says.

Casey Flores withdrew and resigned from the Board as he is accepting a professional opportunity outside of the Commonwealth, a spokesperson for Youngkin told The Advocate in a statement.

Flores came under fire and was the subject of media reports about his social media presence several weeks ago. Critics said many of Floress tweets were derogatory, misogynistic, inappropriate, or bigoted. In one tweet, he accused Vice President Kamala Harris of suck[ing] the right dick to reach her position.

At the time, Flores reportedly agreed to tone down his tweets.

Story continues

He said he stands by everything he posted online, including the tweet about Vice President Harris. Why do people get so mad when you speak the truth? he asked. Is it hurtful to criticize a public figure?

Flores said he plans to move by Tuesday or very soon afterward. He spoke to The Advocate while packing up his house.

The gay left is the nastiest of people online, and so when it comes from the gay right, its all of a sudden a problem, he said. At first hesitant to go further into details, Flores added, I am bowing out of Virginia. Im moving to be with David Leatherwood, who I love, and Im very excited.

Earlier this year, Leatherwood, a Florida political operative, praised Christina Pushaw, the press secretary of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, for launching the hateful and false attack on LGBTQ+ people as groomers.

Speaking to The Advocate in her personal capacity, board member Stephanie Merlo said she didnt believe Flores was sincere in apologizing after his tweets were criticized in the media, but I wish him the best in his new adventures.

Youngkin will benefit from Floress departure, Virginia Pride director James Millner said. In the past, Millner has criticized Youngkin for failing to embrace the LGBTQ+ community sincerely. Despite this, he said he understands that the Republican governor cannot be seen as caving to the left or cancel culture from a political perspective.

Even if Gov. Youngkin doesnt want to say so publicly or cant say so publicly, I get that, but if Casey Flores was asked to resign, then I want to say thank you to the governor, Millner said.

In response to a question about why he aligns with the political right, Flores explained that he praises the left for advancing LGBTQ+ equality but said the community has a victim complex.

Weve made it in America  gays have, Flores said. This is the greatest country in the world to be gay in. But maybe there are some things here and there that need to be ironed out.

We owe a debt of gratitude to the gay left for fighting so hard for marriage, adoption rights, and not being able to be fired for being gay, he said. I really wish that they would enjoy the fruits of their labor, but a lot of people on the gay left act like theyre oppressed, and theyre doing it from the nicest condos in the nicest neighborhoods in the nicest cities, and theyre saying its still a terrible place to live. Thats whats confusing to me.

State Del. Paul Krizek celebrated the news of Floress departure.

The fact that this gubernatorial appointment to the LGBTQ+ Advisory Board didnt last very long is a good thing and reinforces the reality that here in Virginia civility and common decency still are the rule and that bad behavior, especially online, is neither rewarded nor ignored," Krizek told The Advocate.

He added, "I am not privy to exactly how this resignation of Mr. Flores came to be, but if the governor had anything to do with it, I appreciate it."

Follow More Advocate News on Pride Today Below
From left, J.W. Milam, his wife, Roy Bryant and Bryant's wife, Carolyn, sit together in a courtroom in Sumner, Miss., in September 1955. (Associated Press)

The white woman who accused Black teenager Emmett Till of making improper advances before he was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 says she neither identified him to the killers nor wanted him killed.

In an unpublished memoir obtained by the Associated Press, Carolyn Bryant Donham says she was unaware of what would happen to the 14-year-old Till, who lived in Chicago and was visiting relatives in Mississippi when he was abducted, killed and tossed in a river. Now 87, Donham was only 21 at the time. Her then-husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother, J.W. Milam, were acquitted of murder charges but later confessed to killing Till in a magazine interview.

The contents of the 99-page manuscript, titled I Am More Than a Wolf Whistle, were first reported by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting. Historian and author Timothy Tyson of Durham, who said he obtained a copy from Donham while interviewing her in 2008, provided a copy to the AP on Thursday.

Tyson had placed the manuscript in an archive at the University of North Carolina with the agreement that it not be made public for decades, though he said he gave it to the FBI during an investigation that the agency concluded last year. He said he decided to make it public now following the recent discovery of an arrest warrant on kidnapping charges that was issued for Donham in 1955 but never served.

The potential for an investigation was more important than the archival agreements, though those are important things, Tyson said. But this is probably the last chance for an indictment in this case.

Deborah Watts, a cousin of Till who leads the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation, said the memoir is new evidence that shows Donham's involvement in the case and is particularly important when combined with the arrest warrant.

I truly believe these developments cannot be ignored by the authorities in Mississippi, she said.

In the memoir, Donham says she attempted to help Till once he'd been located by her husband and brother-in-law and brought to her in the middle of the night for identification.

Story continues

I did not wish Emmett any harm and could not stop harm from coming to him, since I didnt know what was planned for him," Donham says in the manuscript compiled by her daughter-in-law, Marsha Bryant. "I tried to protect him by telling Roy that Hes not the one. Thats not him. Please take him home.' She claims in the manuscript that Till, who had been dragged from a relative's home at gunpoint in the middle of the night, spoke up and identified himself.

Donham adds that she always felt like a victim as well as Emmett and paid dearly with an altered life for what happened to him.

I have always prayed that God would bless Emmetts family. I am truly sorry for the pain his family was caused, she says at the end of the manuscript, which is signed Carolyn but indicates that it was written by Marsha Bryant.

The memoir is remarkable not only because it's the most extensive account of the sensational episode ever recorded by Donham, but also because it contains contradictions that raise questions about her truthfulness through the years, said Dale Killinger, a retired FBI agent who investigated the case more than 15 years ago.

For instance, Donham claims in the memoir to have yelled for help after being confronted by Till inside the family grocery store in Money, Miss., yet no one ever reported hearing her screams, Killinger said. Also, Donham never previously mentioned that she and Roy Bryant chatted about the abduction. In the manuscript, she says they did.

That seems ludicrous," Killinger said. "How would you have a major event in your life and not talk about it?

The Justice Department closed its most recent investigation into the case in December, and Mississippi authorities haven't given any indication that they plan to pursue the kidnapping warrant or other charges against Donham. But the Till family is pushing authorities to act.

Keith Beauchamp, a filmmaker whose documentary preceded the Justice Department probe in which Killinger was involved and that ended without charges in 2007, said the memoir shows that Donham is culpable in the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Louis Till, and to not hold her accountable for her actions is an injustice to us all.

"Our fight will continue until justice is finally served, Beauchamp said.

It was Beauchamp, along with two of Till's relatives, who discovered the arrest warrant with Donham's name on it earlier this month in the basement of a Mississippi courthouse.

Tyson, the historian who provided the roughly 35,000-word manuscript to the AP, helped spur the government's most recent investigation into the killing by publishing a book in 2017 in which he quoted Donham as saying she lied when she claimed Till grabbed her, whistled and made sexual advances. In the memoir, however, she claims Till did do those things. During the most recent investigation, Donham told the FBI she had never recanted, the Justice Department said.

Tyson said Donham's statements in the memoir exonerating herself of wrongdoing need to be taken with a good-sized shovel full of salt, particularly her claim that Till identified himself to the men who took him from the family home and later admitted killing him.

Two big white men with guns came and dragged him out of his aunt and great-uncle's house at 2 o'clock in the morning in the Mississippi Delta in 1955. I do not believe for one minute that he identified himself, Tyson said.

Neither Donham nor any of her relatives have responded to messages and phone calls from the AP seeking comment. It is unclear where Donham currently lives or if she has an attorney. Her last known address was in Raleigh, N.C.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Obsolete coal plants across the country are getting a welcome revival: A second life as solar farms and other renewable energy ventures.

Because these former fossil fuel hubs are wired into the electricity grid, they provide a valuable opportunity for clean energy projects seeking to avoid regulatory hassles, The New York Times reported.

Repurposing these grid connections  which would be both costly and time-consuming to build from scratch  could potentially speed up the countrys transition to renewable energy, according to the Times.

At least nine coal-burning plants in Illinois alone are set to become solar farms and battery storage sites in the next three years, the newspaper reported. Meanwhile, in Massachusetts and New Jersey, two defunct coal plants along the coast are being rewired to connect offshore wind turbines.

Other such projects are on the horizon in Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, North Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota and Maryland, according to the Times.

Its really shifting a very negative resource into one that is more positive for the community, Jeff Bishop, whose company Key Capture Energy is repurposing a Maryland coal plant for battery storage, told the newspaper.



Welcome to Equilibrium, a newsletter that tracks the growing global battle over the future of sustainability. Send tips and feedback: Sharon Udasin. Subscribe here.

Today well examine Sen. Joe Manchins (D-W.Va.) announcement that he wont be backing new climate spending. Then well travel to the South Pacific, where island nations have declared a climate emergency, and look at record-breaking June heat.



Manchin wont back new climate spending

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has announced he will not support climate spending as part of a broader reconciliation package, likely jeopardizing any major climate bill prior to this years midterms, our colleague Zack Budryk reported for The Hill.

What happened? Manchin told Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) unequivocally on Thursday that he would only back a reconciliation package before Labor Day if it does not include climate spending or taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations, our colleague Alexander Bolton reported.

Story continues

The declaration that he will not support a bill with these provisions comes after he had previously indicated his openness to related proposals throughout negotiations with Schumer, Bolton explained.

Why the change? Manchin told West Virginia radio host Hoppy Kercheval on Friday that he didnt want to move forward with such a bill after he saw a Bureau of Labor Statistics report indicating prices had risen 9.1 percent over the previous year.

So what happens now? Senate Democrats seem to have two choices:

They can advance a slimmed-down reconciliation bill  which would lower the costs of up to 20 prescription drugs and prevent a spike in Affordable Care Act-funded health care premiums before the midterms, Bolton reported.



Or they can continue negotiating with Manchin over proposals to combat climate change.

A tough choice: Manchins new opposition leaves Democrats in a difficult political bind: They must decide between pressing him after months of false starts or accepting what would still be significant changes to the law lowering health care costs, The Washington Post reported.



EVENT INVITE

The Hills Future of Health Care 2022, Tuesday, July 19 at 8 a.m. ET  Washington, D.C., or On-Demand



The pandemic has highlighted the pitfalls and potential within our health care system. Join policymakers and health experts for a comprehensive discussion on advancing access, the pursuit of health equity and resetting the care paradigm across the U.S. Featuring: Dr. Anthony Fauci, CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, AMA president Dr. Jack Resneck, Dr. Mark McClellan and more. RSVP today



CLIMATE ON THE BACK BURNER

While Democrats had once assumed they had a historic chance to radically transform the country by reducing pollution and incentivizing cleaner practices, this opportunity seems to be crumbling, according to the Post.

Instead, Manchins decision could lead to a situation that The Guardian described as imperiling national and international climate goals and further escalating deadly wildfires, droughts, floods and heatwaves around the world.

With rare majorities in Congress, Democrats had hoped to secure investments necessary for fulfilling President Bidens goal of decreasing carbon emissions to half of their 2005 levels by 2030, the Post reported.



These goals became increasingly urgent when Russias invasion of Ukraine prompted a spike in gas prices, according to the Post.

Failure even with concessions: Recognizing that Manchin represents coal-heavy West Virginia, Democrats recently indicated that they were prepared to make significant concessions and scaling back their approach, the Post reported.

Shocking Democrats who thought they had neared a resolution, these efforts soon fell apart, according to the Post.

Democratic defeat: Im not going to sugarcoat my disappointment here, especially since nearly all issues in the climate and energy space had been resolved, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) told the Post.

Leadership called into question: Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said hes questioning why Manchin chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, when the latter refused to support the climate spending measures.

We have an opportunity to address the climate crisis right now. Senator Manchins refusal to act is infuriating, Heinrich wrote on Twitter.





Pacific island leaders declare climate emergency

Leaders of Pacific island nations declared a climate emergency on Friday, urging members to turn pledges and commitments into action, The Associated Press reported.

The leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum, who held a summit in Fiji this week, consider climate change their biggest security risk, according to the AP.

Refusing to settle: We simply cannot settle for anything less than the survival of every Pacific Island country, Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said at the summit, as reported by The Guardian.

A call to global emitters: Most urgently, it requires that we end our fossil fuel addiction, including coal, added Bainimarama, who chaired the summit.

That is our ask of Australia, he continued. That is our ask of New Zealand, the USA, India, the European Union, China and every other high-emitting country.

Applauding Australia: The leaders welcomed and fully supported the new Australian leaderships commitment to the forums climate change priorities, according to the AP.

Australia  one of 17 members of the forum  recently committed to decreasing greenhouse gas emissions by 43 percent below 2005 levels by the end of the decade.



The previous government had agreed to reductions of only 26-28 percent.

US not invited to Fiji summit: The forums dialogue partners  the U.S., China, Britain and France  were not invited to the Fiji summit this week, the AP reported.

Nonetheless, Fijis prime minister invited Vice President Harris to deliver a virtual address, during which she proposed boosting U.S. diplomatic engagement and financial aid, the AP reported.

China weighs in: In response to Harriss address, a Chinese official in Beijing  whose influence is growing in the region  welcomed the additional support.



But the official warned that such efforts should not occur to stave off China, according to the AP.





June was among hottest on record: reports

Last month was one of the warmest Junes in history, according to dual reports released by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The NOAA report found that this June was the sixth hottest in 143 years, with the year 2022 as a whole likewise ranking sixth warmest, our colleague Chloe Folmar reported for The Hill.

NASAs findings? Those were slightly different.

NASAs Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) Surface Temperature Analysis concluded that June 2022 and June 2020 tied for the hottest Junes since the late 19th century.

Different numbers, same story: Even though were ranking slightly different, were still saying the same story here, NOAA report lead author Ahira Sanchez-Lugo, a scientist at the administrations National Centers for Environmental Information, told The Washington Post.

A series of hot Junes: While June 2022 may have been among the hottest, the NOAA report said the month marked the 46th consecutive June with temperatures above the 20th-century average, Folmar reported.

Antarctica had its lowest June ice coverage on record in June 2022, per the NOAA report.



Global sea ice coverage neared its record low, second only to that of June 2019.

Some areas hit worse than others: Parts of Europe and Asia experienced particularly dramatic warming last month, Sanchez-Lugo told the Post.

A 24-hour phenomenon: Although summer heat is typically associated with long, sunny daytime hours, Sanchez-Lugo said that nighttime temperatures are also on the rise, according to the Post.

No time to cool down: During nighttime, were supposed to be able to cool off. Not only us, but animals, crops, everything, she told the Post.

When that doesnt happen, then thats when we get heat exhaustion, or heat disease, because the nighttimes are not cooling as they used to, Sanchez-Lugo added.





Follow-up Friday

In which we revisit issues weve explored this week.

Yellen calls upon major economies to address food insecurity crisis

Earlier this week, we looked at how federal food assistance programs could reduce both food insecurity and child abuse. On Friday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urged Group of 20 major economies to take immediate action to address an ongoing global food insecurity crisis made worse by Russias war in Ukraine, Reuters reported.

Oil companies join UN-backed group to curb emissions

We explored a new report deeming ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Hilcorp and Occidental Petroleum the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases in the U.S. oil and gas sector. ConocoPhillips, along with U.S. oil companies Pioneer Natural Resources Co. and Devon Energy Corp., have joined the Oil & Gas Methane Partnership 2.0  a United Nations-backed group working to curb emissions, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Bioluminescence season begins in eastern Florida

On Thirsty Thursday, we covered a variety of water topics  from Kourtney Kardashians overuse, to Gatwicks water outage, to drought in the Northeast. Floridas East Coast also has water news: Bioluminescence season, in which blue-glowing algae light up inland lagoons, has officially begun, the Orlando Sentinel reported.





Please visit The Hills Sustainability section online for the web version of this newsletter and more stories. Well see you next week.





SEE THE FULL EDITION HERE

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
VILNIUS (Reuters) - The new Estonian coalition has voted to reappoint Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, in a move likely to ensure stability in the European Union state until a March 2023 election.

The three-party coalition of Kallas' liberal Reform Party, the conservative Isamaa Party and the centre-left Social Democratic Party combined have 55 members in the 101-seat parliament.

The new government will be sworn in on Monday. Each party will appoint five ministers to the cabinet, with Isamaa's Urmas Reinsalu becoming the Foreign Minister.

Kallas has led a minority government since she removed the junior coalition partner, the Centre Party, on June 3 after it sided with a far-right group in parliament to vote down government reforms of primary education.

The coalition has agreed to seek a vote at a later date on switching to the Estonian language only for pre-school and primary education by 2024.

Almost a quarter of the population of the European Union and NATO member nation of 1.3 million people are ethnically Russian, according to government figures.

(Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Hugh Lawson)
By Francesco Guarascio and John Chalmers

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU and Southeast Asian nations will hold their first full summit in December, a sign that the two blocs are looking for closer ties amid concerns over security threats from China and Russia, officials told Reuters.

The summit, to be held in Brussels on Dec. 14 but yet to be publicly announced, is seen as a sign of "increasingly close relations in the current geopolitical context", one EU official said.

The move follows a U.S. "pivot" to Asia launched by the Obama presidency, amid increased attention on a region which sits on major trade routes and is rich in natural resources.

Previous meetings between the 27-nation EU and the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have usually been attended by leaders holding the temporary presidency of the blocs.

The European Union is seeking to boost its clout in the region amid growing concerns there about China and the impact of Beijing's tensions with Washington, a second EU official said.

"When it comes to hedging against the U.S.-China rivalry, the EU is always the very top answer in the region," said the official, who is directly involved in talks with ASEAN nations.

A third EU official confirmed security issues would be a key part of the discussions as Brussels seeks a clearer stance from Southeast Asian nations on Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

China also claims almost the entire South China Sea, putting it at odds with some Southeast Asian neighbours which have their own claims.

The ASEAN secretariat did not reply to a request for comment. The governments of Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia had no immediate comment. The Philippines' foreign affairs ministry said EU-ASEAN relations have been strong for decades.

Some EU countries, mostly in eastern Europe, want assurances from ASEAN partners that they would not help Moscow bypass Western sanctions and clear references to Russian "aggression" in Ukraine in a summit joint statement, diplomats said.

Story continues

It is unclear whether they will succeed on this. Laos and Vietnam abstained in the U.N. vote on the Ukrainian war.

Myanmar's leaders would not be invited to the summit, reflecting the EU's criticism of the junta which took power by force after elections there in 2020. The country would be represented by an ambassador, multiple sources said, in line with other international gatherings after the military coup.

(Writing by Francesco Guarascio @fraguarascio; additional reporting by Karen Lema in Manila, Kate Lamb in Jakarta, Rozanna Latiff in Kuala Lumpur, Chen Lin in Singapore and Khanh Vu in Hanoi; editing by Nick Macfie)
Former Fox News host Bill OReilly has condemned the far-right troll who sexually harassed Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the steps of the US Capitol, saying it has to stop.

Mr OReilly, who famously left Fox News amid a flurry of sexual harassment allegations, weighed into the issue after AOC shared footage of the man shouting lewd and derogatory comments about her appearance.

Some loon stalked and insulted Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez then posted it, Mr OReilly tweeted on Thursday.

This has to stop. We need new laws to protect public officials and others. And we need them now.

On Wednesday night, AOC shared footage of right-wing provocateur Alex Stein harassing her as she walked up the Capitol steps.

Mr Stein is heard yelling at the Democrat, calling her his favourite big booty Latina and accusing her of wanting to kill babies.

See my favorite big booty Latina AOC! I love you AOC  youre my favorite! he shouts.

She wants to kill babies, but shes still beautiful. You look very beautiful in that dress. You look very sexy. Look at that big booty on AOC  thats my favorite big booty Latina.

AOC begins to walk toward him before throwing the peace sign and continuing up the stairs.

Hot, hot, hot like a tamale! Mr Stein continues to shout.

Bill OReilly on the set of his Fox News show The OReilly Factor in 2015 (REUTERS)

The New York congresswoman slammed the Capitol Police officers who failed to take any action while she was being sexually harassed before their eyes.

Im just going to share his photo here since theres no other protection, she tweeted, saying she was actually walking over to deck him because if no one will protect us then Ill do it myself but I needed to catch a vote more than a case today.

AOC later said that its clearly someone seeking extremist fame.

Speaking to reporters about the incident on Thursday, AOC said that the US Capitol is not a place that is designed to protect women, its not a place designed to protect LGBT people.

Right-wing troll sexually harasses AOC on the steps of the US Capitol (AOC/Twitter)

She said that she fears that the core security breakdowns that unfolded on January 6 during the Capitol riot have never been addressed.

Story continues

Mr OReillys defence of AOC this week marked a departure from other conservative commentators who sided with the right-wing troll over the incident at the Capitol.

Mr OReilly was himself accused of sexually harassing multiple former Fox News employees during his time as a long-running anchor at the network.

Fox News finally parted ways with him in 2017 after it emerged that it had made several multi-million-dollar payouts to multiple women to settle the allegations.

Mr OReilly has always denied any wrongdoing.
Extreme heat once again threatens vast parts of the southern and western United States, with temperatures well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) expected over the weekend and into next week.

This new round of heat, just the latest this summer, comes just days after Texas energy officials issued appeals to residents to conserve electricity as the states grid reached up toward capacity.

The National Weather Service (NWS) encouraged those currently under heat advisories to stay hydrated, look for air conditioning and check up on potentially vulnerable people like the elderly.

The wave is another reminder of the heat that will likely become more common as the climate crisis continues to warm the planet.

On Friday, temperatures are expected to reach around 108F (42C) in parts of Kansas, with additional hot weather stretching down into Oklahoma and northern Texas. In parts of Arizona and California, some of the hottest corners of the country, temperatures will likely reach around 112F (44C).

Hot weather would continue through the weekend in the central and southern Plains, pushing further south into Texas and north into the Dakotas by Monday. Temperatures above 100F (38C) are expected for much of the region, with temperatures around 10-15F above normal in some places, NWS forecasts.

The NWS tweeted that excessive heat would strike at some point in the next few days along a wide corridor stretching from the southern border in Texas up to the northern border in Montana.

Monsoon showers and thunderstorms through Saturday may lead to isolated flash flooding across the Southwest and central/southern Rockies, especially near recent burn scars. Excessive heat is forecast over the entire Plains much of next week. pic.twitter.com/Y9NBFz8hA5  National Weather Service (@NWS) July 15, 2022

In addition to hot temperatures, the head index  indicating a combination of temperatures and humidity  will reach into dangerous territory, per the NWS. In parts of the central plains centred around Oklahoma and Kansas, a heat advisory is in effect for Friday and Saturday, with heat indices will reach well above 100F.

Story continues

Down in Texas, temperatures will reach over 100F in much of the state over the weekend and into next week  including in major urban areas around Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio.

This week, the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which manages most the states energy grid, asked customers to conserve power twice as electricity supply got tight, NBC 5 in Dallas reported.

Those calls were spurred by record high electricity demand, according to ERCOT, along with reduced wind and solar generation and forced thermal outages.

Electricity use can soar during heatwaves as people ramp up their air conditioners to stay cool and out of harms way.

Texas, unlike most other states, essentially has its own power grid. The grid famously came under scrutiny after winter storms in February 2021, where millions of people lost power. A major reason for those blackouts was a failure to winterize some natural gas infrastructure, the Texas Tribune reported.

Elsewhere in the world, many countries are battling extreme heat also, as high temperatures pummel parts of Europe and Asia. The Independent reports that the UK has issued a heatwave emergency as skyrocketing temperatures hit the nation.

As high humidity and high temperatures combine, the human body has a harder time cooling itself, potentially leading to health concerns. These situations can cause heat stress and illness if temperatures are too hot for too long, NWS notes.

And dangerous heat events are likely to become more common as greenhouse gases continue to warm the planet and accelerate the climate crisis.

Extreme heat events that once occurred every ten years will occur about every other year as the world reaches 2 degrees C of warming above 19th century temperatures, according to the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a leading authority on climate science.

If the world warms even further, those heatwaves are likely to become even more common, IPCC adds. Currently, the world is on track for around 2.7C of warming by 2100, according to the Climate Action Tracker, an independent analysis of global climate policies.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday sidestepped a major crackdown on companies that make popular synthetic nicotine products, drawing ire from Democrats and anti-tobacco advocates.

Synthetic nicotine is made in a lab and enabled companies to skirt FDA regulation since the agency previously did not have the ability to regulate it like it does tobacco-derived nicotine. Synthetic nicotine products are often fruity flavored and popular with young people.

But then Congress explicitly gave the agency that authority in March as part of a government spending package.

Under the law, companies had until May 14 to submit a premarket application to keep their products on the market. Any company that didnt would be considered illegal, and would need to remove their products by July 13.

Late Wednesday, the agency said it had issued warning letters to two companies that make synthetic nicotine vaping products. According to the agency, AZ Swagg Sauce LLC and Electric Smoke Vapor House have listed a combined total of approximately 10,000 products with the FDA. Neither company submitted a premarket application for its nontobacco nicotine products.

The FDA also said it is processing applications for approximately 1 million other products submitted by more than 200 manufacturers. The agency did not address the most popular synthetic tobacco product on the market, the disposable vape Puff Bar.

The agency said it also issued 107 warning letters to retailers in the past two weeks for illegally selling nontobacco nicotine products, including certain e-cigarette or e-liquid products, to underage purchasers.

FDA has been fully committed to actively implementing this critical new law regulating non-tobacco nicotine products since its passage, and the warning letters announced today are just the beginning of our compliance and enforcement actions Brian King, director of the FDAs Center for Tobacco Products, said in a statement.

Story continues

But anti-tobacco advocates said the agencys actions fell flat.

All unauthorized synthetic nicotine products are now illegal and by law must be removed from the market now, not at some undetermined date in the future, said Matt Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

It is unacceptable that this deadline came and went on Wednesday with the FDA taking only minimal action to enforce a law the FDA itself sought from Congress  The FDAs failure to fully enforce the law and clear all unauthorized products from the market is unacceptable. It ignores explicit deadlines set by Congress and puts Americas kids at risk, Myers said.

In a letter sent to the FDA ahead of Wednesdays deadline, Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said they were concerned the agency wouldnt meet the deadline, and called on Commissioner Robert Califf to pull from the market all products without an authorization.

Durbin and Collins were two of the key senators who spearheaded the effort to give the FDA the power to regulate synthetic nicotine.

We are concerned that FDA is failing to implement the law, which has grave consequences for the health of children across America, the senators wrote. We fear FDA is stumbling down the same path that ignited the youth vaping epidemic in the first place.

They noted that several e-cigarette manufacturers whose applications were subject to marketing denial orders attempted to circumvent the agencys oversight by switching to synthetic nicotine.

In a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday, Durbin slammed the agencys efforts at regulating tobacco and vaping products.

The FDA is supposed to protect all Americans and particularly our children. Im calling on FDA to finally come to its senses. Err on the side of public safety, on the side of kids, not tobacco companies. This free fall in the legal department at the FDA is unimaginable. Its not safe for America. And its not safe for our future, Durbin said.

The American Vapor Manufacturers group said Congresss deadline was impossible for companies to meet.

It should not be surprising that some companies could not submit the robust data and evidentiary requirements in time, said Amanda Wheeler, the groups president. This latest crackdown shows that the FDA would rather pander to politicians who believe they know better than the millions of Americans who will now be forced back to cigarettes as more and more vaping products are banned.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A new organisation called the NRA Childrens Museum is seeking to raise awareness of the toll that mass shootings are taking on American children  and Texas Senator Ted Cruz is its first target.

On Thursday, a fleet of more than 50 school buses arrayed in the shape of a rifle proceeded to Mr Cruzs home in Houston

To commemorate this horrific historic moment, we are showing American voters the toll these politicians have taken on our childrens lives with this all-too-real archive, NRA Childrens Museum co-founder Manuel Oliver stated in a statement.

And this is only the beginning. We will not stop with Sen. Ted Cruz. To every politician who has stood by, taken NRA money, and refused to listen to the people they represent: the museum is on the way to honor you next.

Mr Oliver co-founded the organisation with his wife Patricia after they lost their son Joaquin in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

The bus fleet that made its way to Mr Cruzs house contained 4,368 empty seats to represent the number of children killed by gun violence since 2020. Gun violence is now the leading cause of injury-related death for US children, having overtaken motor vehicle accidents in recent years.

Mr Cruz, who represents a state that just suffered a gruesome mass shooting at an elementary school in the spring, is a natural target for the movement to enact stricter firearm laws.

Unlike Texas senior Sen. John Cornyn, Mr Cruz opposed a package of gun reform legislation introduced in the Senate in the days following the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde even though it did not include any outright bans on weapons.

Throughout his career, Mr Cruz has been a staunch opponent of gun control measures who has  perhaps most significantly for the activists who visited his home on Thursday  taken more than half a million dollars in his Senate career from pro-gun organisations and groups.

In fact, Mr Cruz has taken more money from the gun lobby than any other person currently serving in Congress.

Story continues

Were going after the money, Mr Oliver said in an interview with BuzzFeed News. These leaders are not loyal to the Second Amendment. Theyre loyal to the gun industry and manufacturers, who protect them. And theres lots of messages that supporting gun control is not patriotic. Its corrupt, and I wanted to find a graphic way of showing them what the impact really is.

Mr Oliver was also in the headlines earlier this week when he called out President Joe Biden at a White House press conference for not doing more to combat gun violence and was escorted away by Secret Service agents.

The bus that led the procession to Mr Cruzs home was filled with mementos and personal effects from children killed in school shootings, including a Miami Heat jersey of Joaquins. There have already been more than 300 mass shootings in the US this year alone.
By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Peter Navarro, a former adviser to then-President Donald Trump, declined an offer by the government to plead guilty to a contempt of Congress charge, the lead federal prosecutor in the case told a judge on Friday.

Last month, Navarro pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanor counts of contempt of Congress, after he refused to provide testimony or documents to the U.S. House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol.

At a status hearing on Friday, federal prosecutor Elizabeth Aloi told U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta about the plea offer that Navarro had rejected.

Aloi said the department offered to let him plead guilty to a single count. The deal also would have required him to "comply with the January 6 committee subpoena to the satisfaction of the Justice Department."

Navarro's attorneys on Friday again reiterated their concerns regarding the circumstances surrounding his arrest last month, in which he was taken into custody at Reagan National Airport and hand-cuffed even though he had been in touch with the FBI previously and lives across the street from the FBI's office in Washington, D.C.

"It is curious to me, at a minimum, why the government treated Mr. Navarro's arrest the way it did," Mehta agreed, noting Navarro is not charged with a violent crime.

"It's surprising that self-surrender was not offered as an opportunity."

(Reporting by Sarah N. LynchEditing by Jonathan Oatis and Frances Kerry)
Four people in a stolen Porsche reportedly robbed three people at gunpoint in separate incidents Wednesday night, the first a man on a scooter and then two males on skateboards, Manchester police said.

At 8:30 p.m., police were called to the area of 145 Lake St. where four males reportedly rammed a man riding a scooter, approached him with handguns and took his cellphone and wallet, police said. Three of the perpetrators reportedly then took off in the white 2021 Porsche Macan while the fourth rode the scooter. The victim was taken to Manchester Memorial Hospital and treated for minor injuries.

Police received another report about 10 minutes later that armed males had robbed two people on skateboards by East Cemetery on East Center Street. The victims were reportedly approached by armed males wearing black clothes and masks who demanded the suspects cellphones and wallets. One victim said he was punched in the face twice, police said.

Following the two Manchester incidents, four people were arrested after reportedly fleeing from the Porsche in Hartford, police said. The vehicle was determined to have been stolen out of East Hartford earlier in the night, police said.

Police did not release the identities of the arrested suspects and did not say if they were charged, but said that they were believed to be connected to the armed robberies.

Police continue to investigate. Anyone with information is asked to call 860-645-5500.

Mike Mavredakis can be reached at mavredakis@courant.com.
One afternoon last spring, a sheriffs deputy was dispatched to an RV campground off Interstate 75 in northern Monroe County where a man was reportedly firing a shotgun.

When the officer arrived, he was informed by a woman there that the guy firing the gun lived in a camper nearby. The woman said shooter was wearing a white T-shirt and that he had been drinking all day.

When another man who lived in the area stepped outside to see who was shooting, he told the armed man to knock it off. The guy with the shotgun, a 20-gauge, reportedly told the inquiring neighbor that he was firing at beer cans. Deputies later found beer cans riddled with bullet holes.

The gunman, however, who was 51, also told the neighbor that hed shoot him, too, according to an incident report of the April 20 episode, which prompted criminal charges.

The gunman, who refused to emerge from his RV, was later flushed out with tear gas and charged with aggravated assault.

Dispatches: A woman in a neighborhood not far from the Monroe County hospital seemed distraught and, according to a sheriffs report, under-dressed to be outside in the wee hours of June 20. The report said the woman, in her early 40s, claimed that a guy she knew had shot her with a BB gun 12 times in the thigh and chest. The report said the woman appeared to be intoxicated. A deputy talked to the guy whod supposedly shot the woman, but he said no BB gun was involved. The deputy remarked that there was nothing further to report. . . . A sheriffs report of an ungovernable child near High Falls on June 20 noted that the child, described only as a boy, was unruly and that he had struck his stepfather in the face with a Nerf gun.
BERLIN (AP)  A German court on Friday convicted a military officer who posed as a Syrian asylum-seeker of plotting to attack prominent politicians, sentencing him to 5 years in prison.

The Frankfurt state court convicted the defendant of preparing a serious crime meant to endanger the state, violations of weapons laws and fraud, German news agency dpa reported. It also found that he has right-wing extremist views. He has been identified only as 1st Lt. Franco A. in line with German privacy rules.

The 33-year-old German came to the attention of authorities after he was arrested in February 2017 while going to retrieve a pistol he had stashed in a Vienna airport bathroom. He was freed, but Austrian authorities informed Germany. When the soldiers fingerprint matched the one he had given to register as an asylum-seeker, it triggered the investigation.

The defendant was accused of plotting to kill prominent politicians and blame the attack on refugees. Prosecutors alleged that the defendants targets included then-Justice Minister Heiko Maas and the Jewish head of an anti-racism organization.

He had stockpiled four firearms including an assault rifle, more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition and more than 50 explosive devices, some stolen from military stores, they said.

The court found that the defendant had decided to carry out the attacks, but was unable to establish whether he planned to do so while posing as a Syrian refugee, dpa reported. It also was unable to clear up where he procured weapons and where they are now.

The soldier denied having planned attacks at his trial, which opened in May last year, but said that he had hoarded weapons and ammunition in case public order collapsed in Germany. He has asserted that, by posing as an asylum-seeker, he wanted to uncover faults in asylum proceedings.

Prosecutors, who labeled him a radical right-wing terrorist, had sought a sentence of six years and three months.

The defense had sought his acquittal on the main charge of preparing a serious crime meant to endanger the state, and fines or suspended sentences on other charges. Defense lawyers say they plan to appeal the verdict.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem was initially eager to jump into lawmaking when the U.S. Supreme Court indicated this year it was poised to allow states to ban abortions. But now that the political realities have arrived, the Republican governor has hesitated. (John Raoux / Associated Press)

Gov. Kristi Noem had pledged to immediately call a special legislative session to guarantee that every unborn child has a right to life in South Dakota if the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade. But nearly three weeks after that ruling, the first-term Republican remains unusually quiet about exactly what she wants lawmakers to pass.

Noem, widely considered a potential 2024 presidential candidate, isn't the only GOP governor with national ambitions who followed up calls for swift action with hesitance when justices ended the constitutional right to abortion that had been in place for nearly 50 years.

In Arkansas, which like South Dakota had an abortion ban immediately triggered by the court's ruling, Gov. Asa Hutchinson has said he does not plan to put abortion on the agenda of next months special session focused on tax cuts. And in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis, a top potential White House contender also running for reelection, has shied away from detailing whether he will push to completely ban abortions despite a pledge to expand pro-life protections.

Noem has given no indication of the date, proposals or whether a special session will even happen to anyone beyond a small group of Statehouse leaders. When asked whether the governor still plans to call lawmakers back to the Capitol, her office this week referred to a June statement that indicated it was being planned for later this year.

It's a change of tack from when the Supreme Court's decision first leaked in May and the governor fired off a tweet saying she would immediately call for a special session to save lives" if Roe was overturned. The enthusiasm placed Noem, the first woman to hold the governor's office in South Dakota, in a prominent spot in the antiabortion movement.

However, as the abortion ban became reality last month, Noem kept her plans a secret besides saying there is more work to do and pledging to help mothers in crisis.

Some conservatives in the South Dakota Legislature wanted to take aggressive action, including trying to stop organizations or companies from paying for women to travel out of state for an abortion, changing the criminal punishment for performing an abortion and possibly clarifying state law to ensure the ban didn't affect other medical procedures.

Story continues

Republican state Sen. Brock Greenfield said many South Dakota lawmakers attending the state party's convention on June 24, the same day as the Supreme Court ruling, expected Noem would call them back to Pierre this week for a special session, but "obviously that hasnt come to fruition."

It might not be a bad idea to just let the dust settle and proceed very carefully, very strategically as we go forward, said Greenfield, a former executive director of the states most influential antiabortion group, South Dakota Right to Life.

The caution reflects the evolving landscape of abortion politics, as Republicans navigate an issue that threatens to divide the party while giving Democrats a potential election-year boost.

Nationwide polling conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research before the Supreme Court ruling to overturn Roe showed it was unpopular, with a majority of Americans wanting to see the court leave the precedent intact. Subsequent polling since the ruling showed that a growing number of Americans, particularly Democrats, cited abortion or women's rights as priorities at the ballot box.

In political battleground states, some other prominent GOP governors  including possible White House contenders  haven't charged to enact abortion bans.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has said he considers the abortion question settled in his state, pointing to a 1991 law that protects abortion rights. However, he has resisted efforts by the Democratic-controlled Legislature to expand abortion access.

Virginia's Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, also considered a potential presidential contender, wants lawmakers in the politically divided General Assembly to take up legislation next year, saying he personally would favor banning most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

During an online forum with abortion opponents, he said he would gleefully sign any bill to protect life but acknowledged that Virginias political reality might require compromise.

My goal is that we ... in fact get a bill to sign, he said. It wont be the bill that we all want.

In the wake of South Dakota banning abortions, Noem took a softer approach on the issue by launching a website for pregnant women. She even seemed warm to the idea of pushing for state-backed paid family leave.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who is in a closely watched gubernatorial race with Democrat Beto ORourke, took a similar approach to the high court ruling that could make it the most populous state to ban abortions. He issued a statement saying Texas prioritized supporting womens healthcare and expectant mothers and pointed to efforts to expand programs for womens health as well as to fund organizations that dissuade women from having an abortion.

States with the nations strictest abortion laws, such as Texas and South Dakota, also have some of the worst rates of first-trimester prenatal care, as well as uninsured children in poverty, according to an AP analysis of federal data.

South Dakota Right to Life's executive director, Dale Bartscher, suggested Noem's action in a special session could be part of a turn in strategy: An entirely new pro-life movement has just begun  we stand ready to serve women, the unborn and families.

He said he had been communicating with the governor's office on her plans but declined to detail them.

But Noem in recent weeks has faced questioning for her stance that the only exception to the state's abortion ban should be to save the life of a mother, even if she has been raped, became pregnant through incest or is a child.

It's also not clear where she stands on some conservative lawmakers' desire to target organizations and companies that are helping women leave the state to access abortion services  a proposition that could undermine Noem's efforts to attract businesses to the state.

Brockfield warned that a special legislative session could result in a whole lot of arguments over whether were going too far, or whether we havent gone far enough.

At the same time, abortion rights protesters have shown up at Noem's campaign office and named her in chants decrying the state's ban. They see momentum growing for an effort to restore some abortion rights in the state through a 2024 ballot measure, pointing out that South Dakota voters in 2006 and 2008 rejected Republican state lawmakers' efforts to ban the procedure.

Ive lived in this state my whole life and Ive never seen people show up to protest for this issue like they have in recent weeks, said Kim Floren, who helps run an abortion access fund called Justice Empowerment Network.

The fund has also been strategizing for a special session, including hiring legal representation and planning protests in Pierre, Floren said.

Their desires may be dismissed in South Dakota's Statehouse, where Republicans hold 90% of seats, but abortion rights advocates say there is a fresh urgency in alerting voters to the potential impact of the state abortion ban.

Were going to see people die, said Callan Baxter, president of the South Dakota chapter of the National Organization for Women. Were going to see some real-life consequences and the exposure is going to have a big impact legislatively going forward.

Associated Press writers Sarah Rankin, Brian Witte and Andrew DeMillo contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A Grafton dentist who intentionally damaged patients' teeth to aid a fraud scheme was sentenced Friday to four-and-a-half years in prison.

Scott Charmoli, 62, told patients they needed crowns, then damaged teeth and took X-rays before the crown procedures, so the work would be covered by insurance. But many patients also paid significant portions of the bills out of pocket as well.

"It was never my intent to harm anyone in any way," Charmoli said in between tears. "I loved my patients."

U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Adelman also ordered Charmoli to serve three years of supervised release after his prison term.

He attached more than 1,600 crowns over a 20-month period. An executive with an insurance company testified that, on average, Wisconsin dentists installed fewer than six crowns per 100 patients, but that in 2019, Charmoli's rate exceeded 32 per 100 patients.

The scheme was revealed after he sold the practice in 2019 and the new owners realized after reviewing files the crown numbers were way out of the ordinary.

Charmoli was indicted in late 2020. After a four-day trial in Milwaukee federal court in March, a jury found him guilty on seven counts  five fraud charges related to four patients and two charges of making false statements related to two of the same patients.

Charmoli "consigned his patients to potentially life-long consequences including sensitivity and pain, the risk of needing future root canals and implants, and the need for multiple crown replacements in the future," prosecutors Julie Stewart and Michael Carter wrote in a sentencing memo.

They noted most of the patients never complained of pain or sought the crowns. Instead, Charmoli used "psychological manipulation," often warning that skipping the recommended crown procedure could result in even greater harm and cost later.

"Defendant did not simply steal over a million dollars, he also abused his patients trust and broke their teeth to satisfy his greed," prosecutors wrote.

Story continues

"Many of Defendants victims have also lost trust in the dental (or medical) profession as a whole," the memo reads. "Indeed, nearly every victim who has submitted a statement has discussed how they find it difficult to trust their doctors."

"Every time I went to get my teeth cleaned about every 6 months I dreaded it because I was nervous and anxious that Dr. Charmoli would say I need another crown procedure. Crown procedures are time consuming, painful and expensive," one former patient wrote.

Elements of violent crime

Charmoli's attorney suggested a sentence below the guideline range of eight to 10 years in prison. The government argued the guidelines failed to account for the violent element of the crime and should actually have been higher.

"The guidelines in this case, which deal with fraud and are based primarily on loss amount, ultimately fail to adequately encompass the scope, breadth, and human devastation wrought by Defendants conduct," prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo.

The government recommended nine and a half years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.

"Until today, (Charmoli has responded with) callous, half-measured platitudes of apology," Stewart said.

"The defendant's lack of remorse is not particularly surprising considering his testimony at trial. That testimony was replete with falsehoods that have earned him a well-deserved obstruction-of-justice enhancement in this case."

In their sentencing memo, Charmoli's lawyers describe him as a native of Cedarburg and a committed Catholic who helped his ailing parents. It includes testimonials about his generosity, compassion, kindness and professional skills from family, friends, patients and other dentists.

He graduated from Marquette dental school in 1986 and met his wife, a dental hygienist, at a practice in the Boston area. They ran Jackson Dental Clinic  where the offense took place  from 1991 to 2019. They opened a new practice in Hartford after selling the Jackson office.

The defense argued that over several recent years, less than 6% of defendants charged with fraud of $1.5 million or more were sentenced to five years or longer in prison. A long sentence would be unnecessary for Charmoli, his lawyers argued, because of his age, lack of record and inability to practice dentistry anymore.

Charmoli has already paid a forfeiture of more than $1 million and surrendered his dental license.

Charmoli also faces medical malpractice lawsuits in Washington County, brought by nearly 100 former patients. Those cases have been stayed pending the outcome of the federal prosecution.

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin dentist who broke patients' teeth sentenced to prison
In 2013, a month after the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, a group of Black pastors and other activists visited the Obama White House to press the administration to do more to prevent gun violence in communities of color.

Obama had just released his post-Newtown gun violence prevention plan, which did not include any funding for community violence prevention efforts, and which made no mention of the disparate impact of gun violence on Black Americans.

When the clergy members expressed their frustration at the White Houses lack of response, an Obama staffer told them that there was no support nationally to address urban gun violence, and that Americans political will was focused on the issue of gun violence that affected suburban areas  schools where white kids were killed.

Some of those same Black pastors who visited the White House in 2013 were invited back for a ceremony on the South Lawn earlier this week.

Related: Senate breakthrough clears way for toughening US gun laws

Congress had finally passed a modest set of gun violence prevention compromises in the wake of yet another school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. This time, community violence prevention efforts were fully on the agenda, with Congress endorsing $250m dedicated to funding violence interrupters and other community-based efforts.

Joe Biden signs the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, a gun safety bill, on 25 June. Photograph: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

This is a full circle moment, said Pastor Michael McBride, the national director of the Live Free Campaign, which works to reduce gun violence and mass incarceration. McBride was one the clergy members who had spoken out publicly about his disappointment with the Obama administration, including then-vice-president Joe Biden, after Newtown.

Both Democrats and some Republicans were now willing to dedicate federal dollars to targeting interventions and resources at those at the highest risk of shooting and being shot, McBride said.

And the $250m in federal funding for community programs was desperately needed, he added: Many violence interrupter programs in cities are usually funded seasonally, or unevenly, and certainly not to the scale of the problem.

Story continues

Bidens speech at the South Lawn ceremony touting the countrys progress in preventing gun violence was interrupted by an objection from Manuel Oliver, who lost his 17-year-old son Joaquin Oliver in the Parkland school shooting in Florida in 2018, and who insisted that more needs to be done.

Partial victories

For many violence prevention activists, the struggles of the continuing gun violence crisis were balanced against the value of marking the fact that they had made progress. Some activists who have worked for decades on the issue said they saw changes worth noting in political rhetoric and action, from the White House.

The Rev Jeff Brown, a Boston-based minister who was one of the collaborators in the Boston miracle, a successful effort to reduce gun homicides in the 1990s, was also at the event on Monday, and said it was good feeling that hope, that you know, were being heard.

It had been an abject disappointment to Brown in 2013 that the countrys first African American president had, in his view, ignored the calls for more action and funding to prevent daily gun violence.

The federal funding for community violence interventions in the post-Uvalde violence prevention compromise bill that Congress passed, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, was just the start, Brown said, and the honest truth is that we really need more.

In his speeches on gun violence, Biden, a longtime booster of police departments, now sometimes highlights the importance of prevention work by violence interrupters, many of whom are formerly incarcerated or have other criminal justice system involvement in their past.

To hear the president of the United States legitimize the contributions of violence interrupters is powerful, said Teny Gross, a longtime violence intervention advocate who runs the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago.

Eddie Bocagnegra, who worked for years as an outreach worker in the streets of Chicago, has become a senior adviser to Bidens justice department, an appointment that recognizes the expertise of on-the-ground violence prevention workers with deep ties in the community.

These are groundswells of change, Gross said.

Trevon Bosley, with March For Our Lives, joins gun violence survivors and advocates, to call on Joe Biden to do more to prevent gun violence. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

Advocates say the shifts they have begun to see in the gun debate are bigger than the Biden administration. In the past decade, McBride said, organizers have pushed well-funded national gun control groups, which have often been led by wealthier white activists, to raise awareness about community intervention programs, not simply fight for new gun laws. They have also tried to win allies in law enforcement, and convince some police officials that civilian intervention programs can benefit public safety.

McBride said there was some progress in reframing the debate, from a crime and punishment framework, to a public health framework, that is no longer as focused on defining violence as an issue of personal moral ineptitude.

At the same time, advocates said, the past months have been heavy for anyone working in gun violence prevention. Gun sales spiked during the pandemic. In between brutal mass shootings, a conservative-dominated supreme court dramatically expanded the scope of gun rights, in a ruling that is expected to eviscerate existing gun control regulations.

Gross, who runs a violence intervention organization in Chicago, says he feels like the sorcerers apprentice in Disneys Fantasia: the small progress they make is overwhelmed by a situation that has spiraled out of control.

Over the Fourth of July weekend in Chicago, the daughter of one of his staff members was shot, multiple staff members were shot on multiple days, and then, on 4 July itself, there was a mass shooting targeting a parade in Highland Park that left seven people dead and 30 others wounded.

We are drowning in guns, Gross said.

Still, Gross said, it was important to take a moment to acknowledge the progress that organizers had made, through years of meetings in church basements, knocking on doors, and flying from city to city across the country.

Organizing  the power of the people  it still works, even if there are partial victories, McBride said.
Election day poll workers count absentee ballots at the central counting board at the TCF Center in Detroit on August 3, 2021.

In Michigan, all registered voters can cast their votes without having to visit the polls on Election Day thanks to absentee ballots.

Voting absentee is straightforward, but there are important guidelines to follow to ensure your vote is counted.

Here's a guide to know how to vote by absentee ballot in the Tuesday, Aug. 2, Michigan statewide primary election (Note: this guide is for absentee ballot voting  voters can still register to vote in person up to and on Election Day):

How to register to vote in Michigan

To successfully vote absentee, Michiganders have to be registered voters. Voter registration status can be checked online at the Michigan Voter Information Center at michigan.gov/vote.

For those currently not registered to vote, voter registration applications can be submitted online with a valid Michigan ID, at a Michigan Secretary of State's Office branch, at your local township or city clerk's office, by mail, at a state agency that provides public services or by mail if the application is postmarked at least 15 days before the election.

For those registering to vote online or through the mail, the deadline is 15 days before Election Day. After that, voter registration must take place in person at a city or township clerk's office.

Individuals can register to vote and request an absentee ballot at the same time at their local clerk's office.

More: Michigan Republicans seeking reelection see wave of primary challengers

How to apply for an absentee ballot in Michigan

Registered voters do not have to provide a reason to apply for an absentee ballot. Voters can get an application online, through the mail, or in person at a local township or city clerk's office.

Applications can be requested online and through the mail up to 5 p.m. the Friday before Election Day at the Michigan Voter Information Center.

Voters can request their application to be mailed to them by their local clerk, but again, it's important to give yourself enough time to receive the application, fill it out and return it to make sure your vote is counted.

Story continues

For voters requesting absentee ballot applications in person at their local clerk's office, they can do so until 4 p.m. the Monday before the election.

People wait in line to fill out an absentee ballot at the Sterling Heights Senior Center in Sterling Heights on November 2, 2020, for in-person absentee voting.

How to fill out an absentee ballot in Michigan

Once your ballot arrives, it can be filled and returned as soon as you feel comfortable voting.

Since the August election is a statewide primary, it's important to remember voters can only vote in a single party's primary. This means if you wanted to cast a vote in the Republican gubernatorial primary, you'd have to cast votes in the other respective Republican primaries on your ballot  otherwise, your ballot would not be counted.

Michigan has open primaries, so voters do not have to be a registered member of a political party to vote in that party's primary. Voters can also vote in a party's primary in the August election, but vote for a different party come November, should they choose to.

More: Early voting amendment could land on Michigan's November ballot, petition organizers say

A woman places her absentee ballot in a drop box at the Sterling Heights Senior Center in Sterling Heights on Monday, November 2, 2020 during in-person absentee voting.

Returning the absentee ballot in Michigan

Once the ballot is filled out, make sure it's sealed properly in the secrecy envelope that comes with the ballot. Then, place the ballot in the return envelope and sign the marked area on the outside of the return envelope. Your vote will not be counted if this box is not signed.

Ballots can be returned to local clerks through the mail, in a secure dropbox location or in person at your local clerk's office.

The Secretary of State's Office recommends mailing completed ballots to your clerk's office at least two weeks before Election Day to avoid any issues with the mail. After that, it's better to return the ballot in person or to a dropbox.

Some cities and townships have multiple dropbox locations to return ballots. To find a dropbox location, visit the Michigan Voter Information Center and enter the address you are registered to vote at.

Ballots must be received by your local clerk by 8 p.m. on Election Day to be counted.

Spoiling an absentee ballot in Michigan

Voters who have submitted their ballots, but want to change their vote for any reason, have the option of spoiling their absentee ballot.

To spoil an already-submitted absentee ballot, voters must:

Sign a written request to their local clerk and indicate if they would like a new absentee ballot mailed to them or if they will pick it up in person at the clerk's office.

Voters have until 5 p.m. on the Friday before Election Day to submit this request through the mail.

A voter may submit a request in person at their local clerk's office to spoil their absentee ballot by 10 a.m. the Monday before Election Day.

Voters who have not returned their absentee ballot and wish to vote in-person on Election Day can surrender their ballot at their polling location. If the ballot has been received by the clerk, it cannot be surrendered or spoiled on Election Day.

Contact Arpan Lobo: alobo@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @arpanlobo. Become a subscriber today.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Absentee voting guide for Michigan primary election 2022
Ohio State Highway Patrol logo

The Ohio State Highway Patrol is investigating a July 2 high-speed pursuit that began in Ravenna Township, ended in a crash in Oakwood Village and included at least one shot reported fired at a trooper.

More: One-year prison sentence, eight-year driver's license suspension, ordered for high-speed pursuit

More: Warren man facing charges after pickup allegedly hits Kent police cruiser following chase

Highway patrol spokesman Sgt. Ray Santiago said Thursday that the pursuit began when the trooper noticed the driver of a 2015 Dodge Charger appeared to be trying to elude a Portage County sheriff's deputy on patrol nearby and pulled into a Get Go service station to turn around at the Routes 59 and 14 intersection in Ravenna Township at about 2:30 a.m. The Dodge was later found to have been reported stolen in Warrensville Heights, said Santiago.

The trooper then noticed that the car did not have any license plates and he attempted to stop it and the pursuit began on Route 14. It went north to Streetsboro, then onto Interstate 480, with speeds "in excess of 100 mph," said Santiago.

The pursuit ended when the Dodge struck another vehicle on the interstate in Oakwood. It was just before the crash that at least one shot was apparently fired from the Dodge.

"The trooper reported seeing flashes of light coming out the passenger side of the vehicle, called out on the radio that he believed he was being shot at and he increased the distance between himself and the fleeing suspects," said Santiago, adding that a 9 mm shell casing was found in the area where the trooper had seen the flashes.

The driver of the other vehicle suffered only minor injuries, said Santiago. The Dodge's driver and passenger fled on foot. Oakwood police caught the passenger, a 17-year-old Cleveland male, but the driver has not been caught or identified, he said.

Santiago said the matter is still under investigation, so there are limits to how much he can say. It is believed the teen fired at the trooper, but a gun has not been found and the boy has not yet been charged.

Story continues

"We do know at least one round was fired from the vehicle," said Santiago.

Reporter Jeff Saunders can be reached at jsaunders@recordpub.com.

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Trooper says he was shot at during chase beginning in Ravenna Township
The inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security has claimed that the Secret Service erased messages on its agents' phones from January 5 and January 6, 2021, after a request was made for the records. Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

A DHS watchdog and the Secret Service are clashing over deleted texts sent on January 5 and 6, 2021.

The DHS inspector general claims agents' messages were erased after their records were requested.

The Secret Service has refuted the claim, calling it a "false" insinuation of malicious conduct.

The Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General Joseph Cuffari and the Secret Service have publicly clashed over the deletion of Secret Service agents' text messages from January 5 and 6, 2021.

The conflict began when Cuffari sent a letter notifying the House Committee on Homeland Security, highlighting an "ongoing records access" issue with the DHS.

Cuffari wrote that "many" Secret Service agents' text messages from the day of and day before the Capitol riot were erased "as part of a device-replacement program." However, he also claimed that the messages were erased after a request was sent for Secret Service agent's electronic communications to be handed over as part of an investigation into the event.

Cuffari added that there were "weeks-long delays" in having his office's request met and that there was much "confusion" over whether all the records had been handed over. He also wrote that his office was repeatedly told that any records had to be vetted by DHS attorneys before they were sent over.

Politico verified that the letter was received by the House and Senate homeland security committees.

Responding to the letter, Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi tweeted that his agency took "strong issue with these categorically false claims."

In a follow-up statement on Thursday night, Guglielmi said that Cuffari's claims had been "debunked." He further insisted that the re-setting of agents' mobile phones was kicked off before the watchdog's inspections began as part of a "pre-planned, three-month system migration."

"The insinuation that the Secret Service maliciously deleted text messages following a request is false," Guglielmi wrote. "In fact, the Secret Service has been fully cooperating with the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (DHS OIG) in every respect  whether it be interviews, documents, emails, or texts."

Story continues

Sen. Gary Peters, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, told CNN in a statement that Cuffari's allegations were "concerning."

"We need to get to the bottom of whether the Secret Service destroyed federal records or the Department of Homeland Security obstructed oversight," Peters told the outlet. "The DHS Inspector General needs these records to do its independent oversight and the public deserves to have a full picture of what occurred on January 6th."

Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the January 6 committee investigating the Capitol riot and the House Committee on Homeland Security, told CNN that the committee would be "briefed about this extraordinarily troubling destruction of records and respond accordingly."

Cuffari did not imply in the letter that the texts had been intentionally wiped.

The House panel investigating the Capitol riot recently spotlighted the Secret Service's actions on January 6 following the testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

Hutchinson testified that she was told that then-President Donald Trump had lunged at Robert Engel  who headed Trump's security detail  and tried to grab at the steering wheel after being told he could not join his supporters at the Capitol. Engel also told Congress that Trump privately pressed his detail to bring him to Capitol Hill, though that did not happen.

Carol Leonnig, the author of a book on the Service, also said Trump's detail was "very, very close" to him and that its members were accused of being his "enablers and yes-men."

Read the original article on Business Insider
A contracted property surveyor was conducting a survey on a tract of land when he stumbled upon what looked to be human remains, according to a Texas sheriffs office.

Bosque County deputies and investigators were called to the area on Wednesday, July 13, according to a news release.

When they arrived, they were led deep into the property to a heavily wooded and overgrown area, authorities said. There, they confirmed the workers discovery was in fact human remains.

The area is now considered an active crime scene, so the Bosque County Sheriffs Office is withholding the exact location to ensure it remains untouched.

The remains and other evidence were collected for forensic analysis, officials said. Authorities did not describe what type of evidence was found.

The persons identity and cause of death are unknown, but the investigation is ongoing.

Bosque County is about 80 miles southwest of Fort Worth.

Construction worker finds decomposing body floating in Texas bayou, sheriff says

Construction worker finds body between concrete barriers on Texas interstate, cops say

Remodeling crew finds skeletal remains under floorboards of Texas home, police say